The Soup Dragons: reissues – evaluate

Uncooked TV Merchandise – Singles & Rarities 1985-88

(Previous Evening From Glasgow)

Due twenty fifth November on streaming.

Preorder vinyl right here

John Peel / Janice Lengthy Classes

(Treasured Recordings of London)

Out Now

Order right here 

The Soup Dragons earliest recordings and BBC periods remastered by frontman Sean Dickson get a welcome launch

Oh what a time to be alive. As a teen through the mid-80’s the Soup Dragons had been my favorite band. I believe they had been the second ‘indie’ band I noticed dwell after The Primitives; they had been the primary band I met, bumping into them on the file stall on Church Avenue in Manchester the day afterwards. Their music had a rush and power to it and so they appeared to be consistently within the NME’s Indie Charts and without end on The Chart Present.

Sadly immediately, in the event you point out the bands title, in the event that they recognise it, 8/10 folks will in all probability say ‘I’m Free’ referring to the bands largest hit (and never a canopy model), unaware of these first 4 years which noticed the band go from aping the Buzzcocks to leather-based clad rockers by way of (dare I say it?) embracing that jangly C86 sound.

Because the band got here to an finish in 1994, aside from compulsory file firm compilation, 20 Golden Greats, which solely included tracks from 1989’s Lovegod onwards, there hasn’t been any reappraisal of their early years, which borders on felony. These information launched on Previous Evening From Glasgow and Treasured Recordings of London have fun these years when the band from the Glasgow suburbs of Bellshill and Bearsden had been an integral a part of the town’s celebrated Splash One scene and favourites of the UK music press through the C86 period.

All of the tracks on these releases have been remastered by frontman Sean Dickson (aka HiFi Sean) himself. “It kinda simply felt proper at the present time, you recognize, it’s a factor for bands to do these heritage exhibits. I’ve by no means finished that, there’s really a Soup Dragons sleeve that claims Backwards by no means, forwards ever however I realised there’s plenty of youthful folks on the market that would love it and I’ve seen circumstances of information going for foolish cash”.

Sean continues, “Clearly I’m lot extra educated now on the subject of sound and I took a problem to attempt to remaster the lot. I began doing the primary few, I realised I used to be really and it was actually cathartic second to be trustworthy as a result of I’ve wrote so many songs at very quick house, a really quick tempo from the age of 14 or 15. There’s lots on the releases that by no means, ever made information. There’s plenty of these John Peel and Janice Lengthy Classes that we by no means recorded mainly as a result of I used to be writing sooner than we might make information”

Because the frontman says the 4 10” releases from the aptly named Treasured Recordings of London embrace some gems recorded between February 1986 and June 1987. The primary contains an early model of blistering single Entire Extensive World, alongside the beforehand unreleased early-setlist staples reminiscent of Too Shy To Say and Studying To Fall (with The Store Assistants on backing vocals). “Studying To Fall was a dwell favorite, it was our favorite,” says Sean, “however we by no means, ever recorded it whilst a B-side, none of us might bear in mind why. As quickly as we wrote one thing else, for instance possibly Dangle-Ten that one obtained pushed apart.”

It’s price noting that that is isn’t an arrogance venture only for Sean. Though he’s finished the remastering the venture has been a collaboration of the unique 4 members, Sean, Jim McCulloch, Sushil Okay Dade and Ross Sinclair. All of whom have additionally contributed to the sleeve notes. The second BBC session (this time for the band’s longstanding good friend Janice Lengthy) is one other treasure trove, with three of the tracks by no means seeing the sunshine of day. This was the bands least favorite session, as a result of lack of curiosity and normal apathy of the BBC engineer. “The man didn’t like us. You might simply actually inform he didn’t like us. It was totally different for the opposite three periods, they had been actually all fairly fingers on; however I bear in mind we didn’t even actually converse to the man that day”.

Alongside the earlier unreleased Lindy’s Realised, named in tribute to the Go-Betweens’ drummer Lindy Morrison and The Identical Outdated Story it contains Make My Day, a prototype of the one Head Gone Astray which might be launched a number of months later. “It’s fairly humorous as a result of the lyrics are so dramatically totally different to Head Gone Astray which I really assume a few of the greatest lyrics I’ve ever written, even to today, they’re fairly profound. Make My Day is sort of easy. Perhaps as soon as I had the session I simply thought, that’s not that good. I bear in mind Head Gone Astray was simply an album monitor at first once we began recording and This Is Our Artwork after which it ended up being a single.

The bands third session is a curio with every member of the band selecting a canopy model. Our Lips Are Sealed and Purple Haze have seen the sunshine of day on B-sides however the true deal with right here is the duvet of The Who’s The Children Are Alright. This session closes with a six-second arthouse prank that reportedly didn’t solely amuse John Peel! By the point the time the group recorded their remaining BBC Session for Janice Lengthy they had been sporting their leathers. It contains the beforehand unreleased, jaunty, primarily instrumental Cow Nest and Can’t Take No Extra, a monitor which reached No.1 on the Indie Charts and simply missed the Prime 50 within the UK. It additionally options future single, Kingdom Chairs and Turning Stone, each of which might finally be featured 12 months afterward the aforementioned debut album.

These 4 periods praise completely the Final Evening From Glasgow launch which celebrates the bands releases, nearly all on their very own label Uncooked TV, between 1985-1988, together with early singles and rarities. The ‘a facet’ of the album opens with Fairly Content material, one of many tracks from the unreleased Solar In The Sky Ep, earlier than transferring on to Entire Extensive World. This and the next 5 tracks are presumably the best run of seven” of any band, and needs to be held in excessive esteem. Truthfully, it fizzes alongside like the primary facet of an Indie Singles Going Regular. Everybody of them is a basic, Dangle-Ten; Head Gone Astray; Can’t Take No Extra; Comfortable As Your Face and The Majestic Head.

After Can’t Take No Extra’s brush with the Prime 50, Comfortable As Your Face ought to have been the bands ‘large break’ stepping from Indie Charts to Nationwide Charts with Prime Of The Pops appearances assured alongside the likes of Jesus And Mary Chain who had been on an identical trajectory. Sadly after a flippant remark made by a visitor on Radio 1’s roundtable, the monitor being in comparison with Springtime For Hitler from Mel Brooks ‘The Producers’ it was to not be. One thing that Sean has actually managed to carry out within the remastering is the power of the tracks. Should you put them on and switch them up you’ll be able to think about the depth of a Soup Dragons gig, Sean confirming that most of the tracks had been certainly recorded dwell in two or three tracks.

For the ‘b-side of the album’ there’s a little cross over with the Classes discs, and rightly in order they provide Studying To Fall; Too Shy To Say and Cows Nest a ‘wider’ launch. These are complimented early b-sides, Sluggish Issues Down, I Know The whole lot and Pleasantly Shocked together with Festivals Honest from the ‘unreleased EP’ The album closes with a celebratory take of Dangle-Ten recorded dwell in 1987 and their earliest launched monitor, the flexi disc model of If You Had been The Solely Woman In The World.

Listening to all these releases has taken me again 30 plus years and celebrates these early years which till now have maybe not obtained the love they deserve. I can’t consider a greater time to revisit this chapter of The Soup Dragons historical past as they reclaim their legacy.

The band are on Fb, HiFi Sean might be discovered on Twitter and Instagram

Take heed to Iain Key’s Interview Particular with Sean Dickson right here

 All phrases by Iain Key. See his creator profile right here or see him on Twitter as @iainkey