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Primal Scream are a British rock group
formed as a duo in 1982 in Glasgow, Scotland, by
Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie, evolving into a band in
1984 at which time Gillespie was also the drummer in The Jesus and Mary Chain.
Besides lead singer Gillespie, the current lineup also includes guitarists Andrew Innes and
Robert 'Throb' Young, former Felt keyboardist
Martin Duffy, former Stone Roses
bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, and drummer Darrin Mooney, who is currently working with ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist
Gary Moore. Kevin Shields, formerly of
My Bloody Valentine, is touring guitarist and sometimes producer for the band. The
band was signed to Alan McGee's Creation label
until its closure in 2000; they are now signed to B-Unique Records.
History
Primal Scream have been through several lineups and musical styles, with Gillespie being the only constant element.
Early years
Bobby Gillespie and school-friend Jim Beattie teamed
up to record "elemental noise tapes" in a local scout hall, Bobby banging two dustbin lids and Jim playing fuzz-guitar. They soon
moved on to covers of Velvet Underground and Byrds songs before starting to write their own songs, based around Jah
Wobble and Peter Hook basslines.
They named themselves Primal Scream, a term used to describe a cry heard in
Janovian psychotherapy treatment. Still essentially a partnership, Primal Scream first
played live in 1982.
Gillespie and Beattie eventually recruited other members, including Robert Young (bass guitar), Stuart May (guitar), Tom
McGurk (drums), and Martin (the Joogs) St. John (tambourine), and after the planned first single The Orchard was
abandoned, with this line-up released debut single All Fall Down (after which Gillespie left The Jesus & Mary Chain to
concentrate full-time on Primal Scream) and Crystal Crescent (the latter also featuring Paul Harte on rhythm guitar). At
this time the band had a very jangly sound, influenced by The Byrds and Love and they were a leading part of the C86 scene (BMX Bandits, The Mighty Lemon Drops, The Soup Dragons, The Wedding Present etc.).
Late 1986 saw significant line-up changes, with Harte and McGurk departing and the band recruiting Andrew Innes (formerly of
Revolving Paint Dream) and Phil King and Dave Morgan taking on drum duties in the studio and on
tour respectively. The early jangly sound - a key influence on many of the indie pop bands to
follow - was filled out into a more psychedelic sound, and the band's debut album Sonic
Flower Groove (1987) encapsulated this sound with songs like "Imperial" and "Gentle Tuesday", but the highlight of
their early work is undoubtedly the "Crystal Crescent" B-side "Velocity Girl" (also
their contribution to the NME C86 Compilation), a 90 second pop classic which was the No.4 in the John Peel Festive 50 for 1986 and had quite an influence on
"Made Of Stone" by The Stone Roses.
Founder member Jim Beattie left to form Spirea X, continuing the early psychedelic sound,
while the central trio of Gillespie, Innes and Young (augmented by drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov
and bassist Henry Olsen of Nico's band The Faction (Toby had also played in The Nosebleeds, The Durutti Column and
Blue Orchids) and, eventually, keyboardist Martin
Duffy of Felt) relocated to Brighton and ditched
their trademark "jangly" sound for a much heavier edge, influenced by MC5, Iggy Pop and The Stooges and the 1960s Detroit garage scene. The album Primal Scream (1989) also saw the beginning of the band being heavily influenced by
The Rolling Stones. The band's dramatic change in sound risked alienating their
initial fanbase, and the album was received negatively by the music press[citation needed]. Several critics today, however, have opined that a critical reassessment
is overdue, particularly given its relatively contemporary style.‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.› [weasel words]
Screamadelica
With their next album, Screamadelica, the band began to garner a larger share of
mainstream attention. The first hint at their new direction came when a track from the previous album, "I'm Losing More Than I'll
Ever Have", was remixed by Dance DJ Andrew Weatherall
(Sabres of Paradise/Two Lone
Swordsmen), employing methods of deconstructing and layering grooves normally found in the Jamaican dub music of King Tubby and Scientist among others. The resulting track, "Loaded"
disassembled "I'm Losing More...", added a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie
Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert
Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda
B-movie The Wild Angels. The track was a
critical success, played everywhere from Ibiza to Glasgow and, along with The Stone Roses' "Fool's Gold" and The Happy Mondays' "Step On", marks the point where white indie music
"got funky"‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.› [weasel words][citation needed].
"Loaded" was followed by "Come Together", a psychedelic gospel track. The lead track was a Terry
Farley-produced remix sampling Andie MacDowell from Steven Soderberg' sex, lies, and videotape and the
guitar riff from Elvis Presley's "Suspicious
Minds". This was backed by an instrumental mix by Weatherall containing a sample of the Reverend Jesse Jackson ("You will hear gospel and rhythm and blues and jazz, all those are just labels, we know
that music is music"). This became another dance classic and highpoint of the Ibiza scene. The
Weatherall mix has since become the most well-known version of the track, obscuring the Farley mix. However, the Farley mix and
other rarities such as the highly influential "Velocity Girl" are now available on the Japanese compilation "Shoot Speed (More
Dirty Hits)" released in 2004. Nonetheless, Screamadelica was a critical success, an album fused with elements of gospel ("Movin'
on Up"), jazz ("I'm Comin' Down"), dance ("Come Together", "Don't Fight It, Feel It") and rock and roll ("Damaged", "Loaded").
The album is often said to resemble the effect of a mind-altering drug trip, with the earlier tracks particularly euphoric and
the latter few portraying the coming down side‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.› [weasel words][citation needed].
In 1992 the band won the inaugural Mercury Music Prize on
the strength of the album, beating off Gillespie's former band The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band then began celebrating their
success in typical excess to the point at which they eventually lost the award. The bands drug habits have often been publicised,
journalist James Brown reported the band arguing with one another saying "Let's get Vietnamese."
"No, Chinese." "What about Indian?" When one of his colleagues asked them if they'd settle for a burger the band informed him
"It's heroin we're discussing, not food!" [1]
Give Out But Don't Give Up and Vanishing Point
Give Out But Don't Give Up, recorded in Nashville, was another radical departure from the early Scream sound. While Screamadelica blended dance with rock music, this album was closer to a pure rock and roll record; critics compared it in style and sound to the early Rolling Stones. The album also included a heavy funk influence, and George Clinton featured as a collaborator/producer. When released, the album was widely
panned by critics as a "tired," self-indulgent effort, especially as a follow up to the innovative Screamadelica. It did,
however, yield a # 7 UK single with "Rocks".
More line up changes added Mani, who was a key addition to the group. Starting with
the Vanishing Point album (influenced by the film of the same name), a complex dance/dub rhythm was present in most of the tracks, harking back to
the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker and more sinister. Some see this as Primal
Scream's reaction to the money-driven perversion and eventual death of the Madchester scene:
though Primal Scream were not from Manchester, they were seen as part of a stylistic brethren
with bands who were.
XTRMNTR to Riot City Blues (2000-2007)
Gillespie on the cover of NME
Vanishing Point revitalised the band and introduced a far more complex musical dynamic, and saw the addition of
Kevin Shields as a third guitarist to the live band. They have since produced increasingly
complex yet accessible albums in the form of XTRMNTR and Evil Heat, both within a surprisingly short period of time and with Shields providing a great deal of
influence and production talent. The band's newly consistent line-up has also allowed it to coalesce as a live act, reproducing
songs from their recent studio albums on stage, but also recreating the band's entire back catalogue. Shields has never been an
official member of the band but toured and recorded with them consistently from the late 90's until 2005.
In June 2005, Primal Scream played a controversial set at the Glastonbury
Festival, throughout which Gillespie was playfully abusive to the crowd and was alleged to have made Nazi salutes (during
the song 'Swastika Eyes'). They were eventually forced off by officials after overrunning their allotted time; the festival
organizers were at that point already annoyed at the band when, in response to their invitation to join other recording artists
in signing a Make Poverty History poster which would be auctioned off for charity, lead singer Bobby Gillespie instead
altered the poster so that it would read Make Israel History.
In 2006, the band played a January 30 comeback show at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. The show featured six new songs that
ditched the electronic elements from the last three Scream albums, leading many fans to view the performance as hinting at a
return to a rockier sound. The political lyrics remained, however, for instance in a new song called "Bomb Drops" which referred
to Molotov cocktails, and in a change to "Swastika Eyes"'s chorus which had him singing it as "American Eyes".
The group's single "Country Girl" received regular airplay in 2006 resulting in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever,
it was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand
National 2007. The band were slated to appear at several major venues, headlining the Radio 1/ NME stage at the
Reading/Leeds festival.
Primal Scream recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios in September 2006 for
Live From Abbey Road.
Primal Scream's latest album is Riot City Blues, a return to the
blues rock sound of their work from the mid nineteen nineties. Riot City Blues received mixed critical responses, with many fans and reviewers disappointed over
losing the distorted electronica sounds of the previous two albums.
On the 26th of August 2006, bassist Mani was reportedly arrested at the Leeds music festival, after what was said to be a
drunken brawl. However, he was soon released and the band's appearance at the festival went ahead, leading some fans to suspect
it was a ruse altogether. Also around this time, long time guitarist Robert 'Throb' Young left the band, failing to appear on
their November 2006 UK tour. It has since been stated by Bobby Gillespie that Young is unlikely to make a return. He has been
temporarily replaced by Little Barry.
Several of their songs have appeared on movie soundtracks including "Trainspotting" in the film Trainspotting, "Miss Lucifer" and "Swastika Eyes" in The Football Factory, "Star" in The
Jackal, "Movin' On Up" in Grand Theft Parsons and the game
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (on fictional Alternative station
Radio X), and "Come Together" in Human Traffic.
Primal Scream also played "Movin' On Up" live for Michael Winterbottom's movie "9 Songs".#
Primal Scream have a growing legacy, their sound spawning bands such as Kasabian and
The Beta Band.
On April 26, 2007 they said on their official MySpace blog that they were working on a new
album in their studio and also were expecting a live DVD to be released soon. They also mixed Queens of the Stone Age's track "I'm Designer" (from Era Vulgaris) along with their long-time collaborator Adrian Sherwood, known for his dub
remixes.
In mid 2007, Kevin Shields returned to the line up playing during their V Festival appearances. It remains to be seen whether
this is a permanent return, due to the rumours surrounding Shields' reformation of My Bloody Valentine.
Primal Scream are headlining the Bestival on the Sunday
night.
In August 2007, Primal Scream released their first DVD, Riot City Blues
Tour.
The Future
Primal Scream have begun working on a new album, due for release in 2008. A new song has been premiered at gigs called "Can't
Get Back", a seeming return to the distorted, punk rock-styled music last seen on songs like "Accelerator".
Discography
All the chart positions are for the UK.
Albums
Remix/Compilations
DVDs
Singles
See also
External links
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