Head Gone Astray, Belshill Indie Scene
The Belshill Scene.
Belshill a town associated with some of the UK's top indie acts of the day such as The BMX Bandits, Teenage Fan Club and also this band...
The Soup Dragons
From Hang Ten! 'Slow Things Down' released on single in '86 on the RAW TV Label
The band naming themselves after a 1970's children's T.V. character in 'The Clangers'.
The Soup Dragons were:
- Sean Dickson (vocals, guitar)
- Jim McCulloch (guitar)
- Sushil K. Dade (bass)
- Paul Quinn (drums)
(Prior to This Is Our Art Drums were Ross A Sinclair)
Creating a sound known as 'The Belshill Scene', their early sound is so much like The Buzzcocks and other punk pop bands of the time from almost 10 years earlier, still amazingly good though.
Reaching #2 in the UK Indie chart this track was released in 1986 on the Bristol based Subway Organization Record Label a UK based record label run from the home of Martin Whitehead of Bristol band, The Flatmates.
Their first demo tape was released in 1985 was the E.P. 'You Have Some Too' which was self financed and on cassette, you can catch the track list at discogs.com at the link above. Following that they cut their first official release 'The Sun Is In The Sky E.P.' the track listing is:
- Quite Content
- Swirling Round The Garden With You
- Fair's, Fair
- Not For Humbert
The tracks were evidently originally recorded at the end of 1985 at Pier House Studio based in Edinburgh. For a further look at the Edinburgh Indie Pop Scene take at look at the previous post on the site at the link which includes bands such as Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes.
Hang Ten!
Hang Ten! was released as a compilation on the major label Sire Records in 1987 and as an album was littered with really good punchy sounds as per above but also 'Whole Wide World' and 'Pleasantly Surprised'.
Their track 'Pleasantly Surprised' was featured on the legendary NME C-86 Cassette and also on vinyl on the Rough Trade Label containing other bands such as Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Shop Assistants.
Whilst in The Soup Dragons both Sean Dickson and Jim McCulloch also 'moonlighted' with other Belshill Indie act BMX Bandits
Sound Change
By the latter part of the 80's their sound changed from an indie rock, to the rock-dance crossover. Ross A Sinclair had left to pursue his real love of art, so the band minus drummer equals drum machine and perhaps thus the change in sound direction. Their most successful hit single in the UK, "I'm Free", an up-tempo cover of a Rolling Stones song with an added toasting overdub by reggae star Junior Reid, which reached #5 in the UK Charts.
What Happened To...
They called it a day in 1995. Paul Quinn went on to join Teenage Fanclub, Sushil K Dade eventually became producer at BBC Radio 3, Sean Dickson formed band High Fidelity and since became a DJ, Jim Mculloch joined band Superstar and worked with many other artists, whilst Ross Sinclair followed his true love of art, winning International Awards.
Video Source: [email protected]
Video Source: [email protected]
Video Source I'm Free: HarleyDwane@DailyMotion
Photo by Khashayar Kouchpeydeh on Unsplash
Info Source: Discogs.com