Indie April Skies ๐ง
Ah...April already, the weather has been, dare I say it very typical of what you would usually expect at this time of the year in the UK. Days range from pleasant sunshine (for five minutes or so, to cloud and sudden downpours). Temperature wise again it fluctuates between mild pleasant and sunny to just plain cold dependent on which way the wind hits you from. April is, as usual unpredictable, in a way it's good to see that some things here don't change too much.๐ง
That is the trouble with the UK, there is just too much weather! You go out wrapped up expecting cold and it turns out really warm or vice versa, at this time of year it's definitely four seasons in one day.โ ๐ฆโ๏ธโ Mind you I prefer Spring or Autumn weather over the full heat of Summer to be honest.
Seasons & Memories...Some Of Them Musical
So, for this post I decided to look back at a 7" single I brought way back when it was first released in 1987 (hard to believe it 37 years ago!), how time just flies. The single didn't do bad in the UK Singles charts of the day hitting the highs of #8. Thankfully I still have it in my vinyl collection tucked away. I figured it kind of fitted in with the time of year as we have now hit April what better way to kick off the month than a track by an alt rock/noise pop/shoegaze band called The Jesus & Mary Chain with their single ' April Skies' released on the independent 'Blanco Y Negro Record Label', it was taken from the album from the same year called 'Darklands' which also did well hitting #5 in the UK Album charts of that year too.
That particular year saw some 'events' in the UK that were notable e.g. in January '87 the 'Cold Wave' was the biggest snowfall in parts of eastern England that had been seen since '81/'82, the UK also had a 'Remembrance Day Bombing' and the 'Kings Cross Fire' (at the time I worked there!), added to that thrown in at the latter part of the year was 'The Great Storm'. Oh yeah! and the government of the day announced that the new 'Poll Tax Charge' was to be introduced by April 1990 (if that wasn't something to riot about I don't know what was). A joyful year all round then! Thank god for some music....
'April Skies' is at the link, the track hooked me in when I initially heard it just mostly for it's simplicity, starting with the pumping drums, chugging guitars and bass with of course the 'drawled vocals' with a snarl of aggression, not forgetting the trademark fuzz and general noise pop 'wall of sound' that the band were famed for. All in all a great and infectious track and I am glad I brought it back at the time.
The Darklands Album has some really solid tracks, the listing is below:
- Darklands
- Deep One Perfect Morning
- Happy When It Rains
- Down On Me
- Nine Million Rainy Days
- April Skies
- Fall
- Cherry Came Too
- On The Wall
- About You
Again the track list speaking volumes about the weather!
Band & Formation
They were formed in 1983 and were picked up and signed by the head of Creation Records Alan McGee. At the time I guess a lot of bands had been veering toward playing electronic music, the whole 'House Music Scene' had started to kick off with artists like Steve 'Silk' Hurley and 'Jack Your Body' hitting #1 in the charts and even UK bands getting greater presence such as 'The Pet Shop Boys' and 'Erasure' with their whole synth pop sounds and finally that whole genre all of it's own in 'Stock, Aitken & Waterman' (always sounded like a firm of Solicitors to me!). I guess that back at the time I was more guitar driven, but on a positive note it started to open my ears and eyes up to some new sounds (whether I likedย them or not). So guitar bands perhaps weren't getting much of a look in and were perhaps not as fashionable (at least in the mainstream charts), the landscape for the whole 'indie scene' in terms of independent record labels as well as sounds were beginning to change with many of those smaller labels being sucked up by the major labels hungry for something that 'rocked ' and appeased the kids of the day, but above all else churned out a 'profit'. McGee as an 'indie' label guru had a good eye (and ear) for talent and let's face it I guess if you promote, convince and 'pull the right strings' well enough you can get 'Joe Public' to switch their views, this certainly seemed to be the case as this band started to hit it big.
Early Years & Influences
It appears the band were influenced by quite a cross section of music ranging from The Stooges, The Velvet Underground and also The Shangri-Las. I guess on listening to this and their earlier releases it does seem to have the 'pop' as well as 'rock' influences with loads of feedback and fuzz that made the sound more 'edgy', obviously it helps if the band themselves have a bit of a swagger and a bit of 'edginess' about them too. Their first release 'Upside Down' released in 1984 hit the highs of #1 in the UK Indie Charts and with promotional help from McGee the band performed live in many venues around London, their early performances were often controversially short and sharp often only 20 minutes, they would often play with their backs to the audience and began to earn a reputation as the new 'Sex Pistols' after a gig at the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in London, evidently bottles were thrown on stage and the press over exaggerated a drug fuelled and violent gig, the Pistols reference was a tag I am sure both the band and McGee would love. You can catch a little history of some the gigs they played and in some cases were thrown out of venues for being drunk at the Concerts Fandom Wiki at the link.
Other great tracks I love by them are 'Just Like Honey'ย with it's irresistible 'pop' Shangri-Las sounding wall of sound and sweet backing vocals and of course 'Some Candy Talking' taken from the E.P. of the same name, the full E.P. is at the link. The track to me is completely beautiful, a pop melody with a dark edge, again pumping drums, fuzzy guitars and the drawn out vocals building to a great crescendo, so I completelyย love the track, and still do as one of my all time favourites.
" I love the way she's walking,
I love the way she's talking"
Blanco Y Negro Indie Label
So, the 'indie' record label featured in this post is also a tag on this site to another post featuring a band that were a million miles away (in terms of music style) from TJ&MC. You can catch the post 'Some Things Don't Matter' at the link. The label was a subdivision label of WEA Records and was started by two 'indie' label gurus in Geoff Travis who founded the 'Rough Trade Records' label and Mike Alway who started indie label 'รl Records', they released for Dinosaur Jnr, James, The Monochrome Set just to name a few.ย
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