Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock group formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (keyboards), Gary "Mani" Mounfield (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Cadogan toured with the band in 2006 as a temporary replacement after the departure of guitarist Robert "Throb" Young. Young's permanent replacement has not yet been announced. They have sold 10 million albums to date.
The band performed throughout 1982-1984, but their career didn't especially take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band were a key part of the mid-1980s indie pop scene, but eventually moved away from their more jangly sound, taking on more psychedelic and then garage rock influences, before incorporating a dance music element to their sound. Their 1991 album Screamadelica broke the band into the mainstream. Despite multiple lineup changes, the band has remained commercially successful and continues to tour and record to this day.
History
Formation (1982 - 1985)
Bobby Gillespie moved to Mount Florida, the southeastern area of Glasgow. There he attended Kings Park Secondary School, where he first met Robert Young.[1] Another school friend was Alan McGee, who took Gillespie to his first gig, a Thin Lizzy concert.[1] McGee and Gillespie were heavily influenced by punk rock, and they joined a local punk band, The Drains, in 1978. The Drains guitarist was a 15-year old Andrew Innes.[1] The band was short-lived, and Innes and McGee relocated to London while Gillespie chose to remain in Glasgow.
After the punk movement ended, Gillespie became disenchanted with mainstream New Wave music.[1] He met up with another school friend who shared his outlook, Jim Beattie, and recorded "elemental noise tapes", in which Gillespie would bang two dustbin lids together and Beattie played fuzz-guitar.[2] They soon moved on to Velvet Underground and Byrds cover songs before starting to write their own songs, based around Jah Wobble and Peter Hook basslines. Gillespie later said that the band "didn't really exist, but we did it every night for something to do."[1] They named themselves Primal Scream, a term used to describe a cry heard in primal therapy. Still essentially a partnership, Primal Scream first played live in 1982.[2]
Their first recording session, for McGee's independent label Essential Records, was a single track entitled "The Orchard". Beattie later claimed that they burned the master tape.[1][2] After the aborted recording, Gillespie joined The Jesus and Mary Chain as their drummer, and alternated between both bands. While the Mary Chain became notorious for their chaotic gigs, Gillespie and Beattie expanded Primal Scream's lineup to include school friend Young on bass, rhythm guitarist Stuart May, drummer Tom McGurk, and tambourine player Martin St. John. This lineup was signed to Creation Records, an independent record label founded by Alan McGee, and recorded the group's debut single, "All Fall Down", which received positive reviews.[1]
First recordings (1986 - 1989)
After the release of the single, Gillespie was told by Mary Chain leaders William and Jim Reid that he was to either dissolve Primal Scream to join the Mary Chain full-time or resign.[1][2] Gillespie chose to remain with Primal Scream. Stuart May was replaced by Paul Harte, and the group then released a new single, "Crystal Crescent". The b-side, "Velocity Girl", was released on the C86 compilation, later associating them with the scene of the same name. The band strongly disliked this, with Gillespie saying that "[t]hey can't play their instruments and they can't write songs."[1]
The band toured throughout 1986, and Gillespie became disenchanted with their performance quality. He said that there "was always something missing, musically or in attitude."[1] The band switched to McGee's newly set-up Warner Bros. subsidiary Elevation Records. Before the band entered Rockfield Studios in Wales to record their debut album, McGurk was asked to leave the band. The group subsequently began recording using session players. They spent four weeks recording with producer Stephen Street before deciding to halt the sessions.[1]
May was subsequently dismissed and Gillespie's former bandmate Innes was brought in as his replacement, and the band finally found a new drummer, Gavin Skinner. With their new lineup, the band re-entered the studio, this time in London with producer Mayo Thompson. By the time Sonic Flower Groove was completed, it had cost £100,000.[1] The album reached number 62 on the British charts[1] and received poor reviews, with Allmusic calling it "pristine but dull."[3] The backlash from the album caused internal strife within the band. Beattie and Skinner subsequently resigned.[2]
The band, now consisting of only Gillespie, Innes and Young, relocated to Brighton to regroup.[1] Young switched to guitar, and they recruited bassist Henry Olsen and drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov, who had both been in Nico's backing band, The Faction. They traded in their jangle pop sound for a harder rock edge, or as Gillespie said, "[w]e had found rock 'n' roll."[1] The band's re-signed to Creation Records and released their first single in two years, "Ivy, Ivy, Ivy". This was followed by a full album, Primal Scream. The band's new sound was met with poor reviews, NME called it "confused and lacking in cohesion".[1] Fan reaction was as poor as the critical, as many of their old fans were disappointed or simply confused by their new sound.[1] The album featured Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy guesting.
Screamadelica (1990 - 1992)
The band were first introduced to the acid house scene by McGee in 1988. They were at first skeptical; Gillespie said: "I always remember being quite fascinated by it but not quite getting it."[1] The band did, however, quickly develop a taste for it and began attending raves and taking ecstasy[citation needed]. The band met up with DJ Andrew Weatherall at a rave, and he was given a copy of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", a track from Primal Scream, to remix for one of his shows.[2] Weatherall 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 resulting track, "Loaded", became the band's first major hit, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.[4] This was followed by another single, "Come Together", which reached number 19.[4]
The band entered the studio with Weatherall, Hugo Nicholson, The Orb, and Jimmy Miller producing, and Martin Duffy now full time on keyboards. They released two more singles, "Higher Than The Sun" and "Don't Fight It, Feel It", both of which were successful. The album, Screamadelica, was released in the autumn to ecstatic reviews.[5] Ink Blot Magazine said that the album was "both of its time and timeless."[6] The album was also a massive commercial success, reaching number eight on the British charts and number 31 on the US Billboard charts.[7] The album won the first Mercury Music Prize, beating Gillespie's former band The Jesus and Mary Chain.
The supporting tour kicked off in Amsterdam, and it included a performance at the Glastonbury festival before coming to an end in Sheffield. Throughout the tour the band and their increasingly large entourage gained notoriety for their large narcotic intake.[1] The band's drug habits have often been publicised, journalist James Brown reported a now infamous story: the band were arguing with one another about whether to get Vietnamese, Chinese or Indian. When one of Brown's colleagues asked them if they'd settle for a burger the band informed him: "It's heroin we're discussing, not food!".[8] Around this time, the band recorded the Dixie Narco EP. Some of the tracks showed a change in the band's sound, featuring a more American blues/rock sound and starting to show a P-Funk influence.[1]
Give Out and decline (1992 - 1995)
The band began work on their fourth album in Roundhouse Studios in London in September 1992. Most of the band members had developed heroin addictions, and as a result the sessions did not produce any new material.[1] The band called in producer Tom Dowd to help. After some short sessions in London's E-Zee Studios, the band, along with Dowd, moved to Alabama. After the completion of the sessions, the band felt that they had "rehearsed the life out of the songs",[1] and they brought in multiple producers to remix some of the tracks. The Black Crowes' producer George Drakoulias did some mixing, as did funk legend George Clinton.[1]
In March, 1994, the first single from the new album, "Rocks", was released to commercial success. It was the band's highest charting single to date, reaching number seven on the UK charts.[9] The single wasn't received well, with NME famously calling them "dance traitors".[1] The album, Give Out But Don't Give Up was released in May to mixed reviews. Whereas some praised the band's new Stones-influenced sound,[10] some dismissed the album as tired and drawing too heavily on their influences.[11] Two more singles were released from the album, "Jailbird" and "(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind", both of which charted progressively lower.
While touring in support of the album, relations within the band began to wear down. The band's American tour, when they supported Depeche Mode, was, in the words of manager Alex Nightingale, "the closest we've come to the band splitting up."[1] After the completion of the tour, the band remained quiet for a long period of time. Gillespie later remarked that he was unsure if the band would continue. The only release during this period was a single, "The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown", a collaboration with Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound, which caused controversy due to offensive lyrics about Glasgow Rangers FC and their bigoted fan base.[1]
Vanishing Point (1996 - 1998)
After a short hiatus, the band returned with a new lineup. Gary "Mani" Mounfield, fresh from the well-publicised break-up of his previous band, The Stone Roses, was added as the band's new bassist, and Paul Mulraney was added as their new drummer. The arrival of Mani revitalized the group, who were considering disbanding after the failure of Give Out.[12] The album was recorded in the band's personal studio in two months, and was mixed in another month.[12] Most of the recording was engineered by Innes, and produced by Brendan Lynch and Andrew Weatherall.
The music on the album had a complex dance/dub rhythm, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker. Some songs on the album were inspired by cult 1971 film Vanishing Point; Gillespie said that they wanted to create an alternative soundtrack for the film.[12] Other lyrics were inspired the band's past experiences with drug abuse. Gillespie described the album as "an anarcho-syndicalist speedfreak road movie record!"[12] The first single released from the album, "Kowalski", was released in May, 1997, and reached number 8 on the British charts.[13] The album, titled Vanishing Point after the film, was released in July and revitalized the band's commercial viability. It received almost unanimously positive reviews upon release, Entertainment Weekly calling it a "swirling, hypnotic acid-trip",[14] and Musik saying that "this group's place in the history book of late 20th Century music is assured."[15]
The band scheduled a short supporting tour to take place during July. Unfortunately, the band had to postpone the dates. This led to speculation that there were problems within the band, and that one of the members may resign.[1] The band's press agent issued a statement saying "[i]t's not a drugs thing and it's not a nervous breakdown."[1] Before the tour was scheduled to begin, Mulraney left the band and they were forced to use a drum machine. The initial dates were poorly received, but they eventually hired drummer Darrin Mooney and the gigs improved.
In February 1998 the band released the "If They Move, Kill 'Em" EP. This notably featured the bands' first collaboration with Kevin Shields, on his remix of the title track. Later that year Shields joined the band on tour, and would have a major influence over their sound in the next few years.
XTRMNTR and Evil Heat (1999 - 2005)
Recording sessions for the band's sixth album went well. The band were for the most part free of drugs, and their lineup had finally stabilised.[16] Despite their new found peace, the band pursued a harsher and angrier musical direction. Many of the songs they wrote had overtly political lyrics, Gillespie said the band wished to convey "what it's like to be in Britain in this day and age."[16] The album featured mulitiple guest appearances, including the Chemical Brothers, New Order's Bernard Sumner, and former My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields, who had become a semi-permanent member.
The first single from XTRMNTR, "Swastika Eyes", was released on November, 1999. The song's overtly political content, Gillespie said it was about "American international terrorism",[17] made it controversial. Nevertheless, it was a hit, charting at #22 on the British charts. XTRMNTR itself fared well, reaching #3. The political content was well received, with Allmusic calling it a "nasty, fierce realization of an entire world that has... lost the plot."[18]
In 2000, the band began recording their seventh album, Evil Heat, released in 2002. Though the political content was not as strong as the previous album, there was a song originally slated for the album entitled "Bomb the Pentagon", which was reworked into the song "Rise" after the September 11 attacks.[19] The album, like many of Primal Scream's previous albums, had multiple producers. Shields produced several tracks, and Andrew Weatherall produced three tracks, his first work with the band since Vanishing Point. Kate Moss sang professionally for the first time with single Some Velvet Morning, a version of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra song. The album also featured another guest appearance, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant
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 read "Make Israel History".[20] Gillespie later said that this was merely to show his support for the Palestinian cause, and in no way anti-Semitic.[20]
Riot City Blues and Beautiful Future (2006 - present)
In an interview with NME, Gillespie said that the band had written "euphoric rock n roll songs" for their next album.[21] They intended to capture the energy of their live performances. The band chose Youth as their producer, which led to speculation that they had fallen out with Shields. Although the band themselves admitted that they were unsure of the situation,[21] Shields subsequently joined them on tour.
The album's first single, "Country Girl", was released on May 22, 2006, and received regular airplay in 2006 resulting in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever.[22] It was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand National 2007 and as the backing track to a video celebrating the successes of the Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti in the 2007 Autosport Awards ceremony in London. The album, Riot City Blues, was released in June and reached number five on the UK Album Charts. However, it received mixed reviews: Pitchfork called it "flat and dead",[23] while Allmusic called it "a refreshingly retro rock & roll album"[24]
In support of the album, the band toured the UK, along with selected dates in Europe. The band released their first DVD, Riot City Blues Tour, in August 2007. The DVD featured clips of the band's performance in London, as well as all their music videos and an interview with Gillespie and Mani.
On the 26 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. Also around this time, Young left the band to go on "sabbatical",[25] 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 Barrie Cadogan of Little Barrie.
The band remixed the Queens of the Stone Age track "I'm Designer" (from Era Vulgaris) along with their long-time collaborator Adrian Sherwood.
In mid 2007, Kevin Shields returned to the line up playing during their V Festival appearances. It is unlikely, however, that Shields will return in the near future, as My Bloody Valentine have reunited and are currently recording a new album.[26]
On July 21 2008, Primal Scream released a new album called Beautiful Future described by new producer Bjorn Yttling as sounding "much more pop and Krautrock than before. It sounds a bit like Alan Vega and Suicide."[27] In July, the first single from the album, entitled "Can't Go Back", was released. The track was produced by Paul Epworth who also produced the album's title track.[citation needed]
In popular culture
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 the in-game alternative radio station Radio X), and "Come Together" in Human Traffic. "Rocks" was featured in the movie Airheads. Primal Scream performed "Movin' On Up" live for Michael Winterbottom's film 9 Songs.
Discography
Studio albums
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Michael Bonner (November, 1999). "True Adventures of Primal Scream". Uncut. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/uncut-nov99.html. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
- ^ a b c d e f John Reed (May, 1994). "JOHN REED LOOKS BACK OVER THE CAREER OF THE OUTSPOKEN BOBBY GILLESPIE AND HIS BAND, WHO ARE BACK WITH A CONTROVERSIAL NEW ALBUM". Record Collector. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/recordcollector-may94.html. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
- ^ allmusic {{{ Sonic Flower Grover > Overview }}}. Retrieved on December 27, 2007.
- ^ a b Top 40 Singles: 1990
- ^ allmusic {{{ Screamadelica > Overview }}}
- ^ Primal Scream: Screamadelica --Ink Blot Magazine. Retrieved on December 29, 2007
- ^ allmusic {{{ Screamadelica > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums }}}
- ^ Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day: The Primal Scream diet
- ^ Top 40 Singles: 1994
- ^ Give Out review. Published in Select. Retrieved December 31, 2007.
- ^ allmusic {{{ Give Out But Don't Give Up > Overview }}}. Retrieved on December 31, 2007.
- ^ a b c d Kevin Westinberg (8 May 1997). "Vortex, Drug & Rock n Roll". NME. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/nme-3may97.html. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- ^ Top 40 Singles: 1997
- ^ <"Vanishing Point Musik review". Entertainment Weekly. 11 July 1997. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/musik-vanishing.html. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- ^ <"Vanishing Point review". Musik. August, 1997. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/ew.html. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
- ^ a b Ferguson, Jason. "Street Regal". Magnet Magazine. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/magnet-aug00.html. Retrieved 01-19 2007.
- ^ King, Simon. ""Everybody's Fucked.."". Jockey Slut. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/jockey-oct99.html. Retrieved 01-19 2007.
- ^ allmusic {{{ XTRMNTR [UK > Overview }}}]. Retrieved on January 19, 2008.
- ^ "Then There Was a Light". Dazed and Confused. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/dazed-june02.html. Retrieved 01-19 2007.
- ^ a b Webadelica - A Fucking Nazi
- ^ a b Primal Scream reveal all about new album | News | NME.com. Interviewed on 11 March 2006.
- ^ Top 40 Singles 2006
- ^ Riot City Blues review
- ^ allmusic {{ Riot City Blues > Review}}
- ^ Primal Scream reveal new album | News | NME.COM
- ^ Kevin Shields: MBV Will "100%" Make Another Album
- ^ Primal Scream Announce New 'Krautrock' LP
External links
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Primal Scream |
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Bobby Gillespie · Andrew Innes · Martin Duffy · Mani · Darrin Mooney · Barrie Cadogan
Jim Beattie · Paul Harte · Martin St. John · Denise Johnson · Stuart May · Tom McGurk · Paul Mulreany · Phillip "Toby" Tomanov · Robert "Throb" Young |
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