Last week Gil Scott-Heron died in New York aged just 62. It is always a sad loss when someone as talented an artist passes away but even more so I feel as it follows so quickly the release of his 2010 album I’m New Here on XL Recordings and the more recent collaboration with The XX member and producer Jamie XX, to remix the whole album as We’re New Here.
I’m Here Now was Gil Scott-Heron’s fifteenth studio album, and his first for sixteen years.
Gil Scott-Heron is born in Chicago in 1949. He was rightly hailed as the Godfather of Rap but he was so much more.. Since his debut album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970 he has blended jazz, soul and funk with his own unique style of spoken-word poetry with words fuelled by hard-edged socio-political commentary.
Gil Scott-Heron was never afraid to speak out and confront controversy. In 2001 he was spent time in jail for possession of cocaine. This followed his addiction to the drug that started in the 1980’s. He was further sentenced in 2006 for violating the terms of his parole.
The cause of his death has still to be confirmed but he became ill after returning to New York from a European trip. In 2008 Gil Scott-Heron confirmed he had been HIV-positive for several years, and that he had been previously hospitalized for pneumonia.
Bill Nelson is probably best known as a highly praised guitarist who started his career with 1970’s art rock group Be-Bop Deluxe. But at the height of their fame Nelson decided to disband Be-Bop Deluxe and change musical direction by forming Red Noise which erred more towards an electronic-etched rock music with singles such as Revolt into Style and Furniture Music.
In the early 1980’s Bill Nelson made a complete break with his past and by and large replaced is guitar with synthesizers and machines by releasing solo material on his own Cocteau label. But without major label backing Nelson’s intelligent electronic synth pop songs only grazed the top 40 even though he was producing his most commerical sounding music in this period.
Perfect pop singles like Banal, Living In My Limousine and Do You Dream In Colour I believe should have gained Bill Nelson the same level of commerical success as his contemporaries Gary Numan and David Sylvian but for whatever reason it wasn’t to be.
On March 26th 2011 ITV filmed a special concert in London with Bill Nelson. The ITV Legends DVD is now available to buy.
Signed to Kitchenware Records in 1982, Newcastle’s Hurrah!, along with the Paisley Underground movement of California, were a prime influence on the hugely successful Creation Records.
“Hurrah! were like a perfect punk rock fantasy Byrds… what we all wished we were. Great songs, great shows, supreme überpunk attitude… we just loved them.” – Alan McGee, 2011
With an appearance somewhere between early pre-mop top Beatles and part Byrds circa 1965, Hurrah!’s early singles helped pave the way for many 1980’s jangly guitar indie popsters.
Originally released in 1993 on Creation Records, The Sound Of Philadelphia features those first few influential singles and demos leading up to Hurrah!’s mid-1980’s breakthrough and will be re-issued in July 2011.
Comtemporary bands such as Crystal Stilts, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The See See and The Tambourines are all gaining acclaim for a sound that owes so much to Hurrah!
[Sorry for the quality of this promo video for Hurrah!’s debut single, The Sun Shines Here. Can anyone post a better version on YouTube?]
Before EBTG even became Everything But The Girl, Tracey Thorn began her pop music career as a shy young thing singing and playing guitar with the Marine Girls, a group she started with Gina Hartman, a sixth form school friend.
The Marine Girls was formed in 1980 with further members Jane Fox on bass and her sister Alice on joint vocals and percussion. In 1981, Tracey went to Hull University where she met Ben Watt and formed Everything But The Girl.
Their debut single, On My Mind, was covered by Everything But The Girl on the b-side of their first single, Night And Day. While their debut album, Beach Party was listed as one of Kurt Cobain’s 50 favourite albums in his diaries. A second album, Lazy Ways was released in 1983. Both albums were re-issued as a double CD on Cooking Vinyl in 1997.
The Marine Girls also recorded two John Peel Sessions. The first included five songs: Don’t Come Back, Love To Know, He Got The Girl, Fever and A Place In The Sun.
A Place In The Sun was never released as a single.
Poly Styrene, whose real name was Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, has died aged 53 after losing her battle with cancer. She is best known for fronting the original punk band, Xray Specs.
Xray specs – Gerrmfree Adolescence on Top Of The Pops from 1978.
