Grumpuss 20Th Anniversary Plat

and the joys and woes surrounding the Post- card scene. Ultimately, this details the most successful of all Big Gold Dream’s studies, Or- ange Juice. Ironically, wider success only came after the Edwyn Collins-led group signed with Polydor; turning away from trebly Byrds / Vel- vets fixated awkward pop vignettes towards a horrible funky-pop style hybrid in the pro- DVD cess. (Lenny Helsing) REVIEWS TRAVIS PIKE – Grumpuss 20th Anniversary Plat- inum Edition DVD BIG GOLD DREAM – The Sound Of Young Scot- Last year, Ugly Things introduced sixties land (Tartan Features / Year Zero Pictures) DVD rocker, Travis Edward Pike to its readership. Documentary film-maker Grant McPhee en- “Watch Out Woman” and “The Way That I Need ables the telling of this fascinating story of Scot- You,” songs Pike performed in the 1966 mov- Travis Pike, 1965. land’s record label scene of the late 1970s/ early ie Feelin’ Good, have since been released by ‘80s. Focusing on two significant players, firstly State Records, and the original 1967 recording scouted it. That rascal’s joke led me to the per- Edinburgh’s Fast Product, run by Bob Last and of Travis Pike’s Tea fect location for my world premiere. With Anna Hilary Morrison, and Party’s “If I Didn’t Scott in the role of the Queen of the Sidh, and Glasgow’s compact Love You Girl” and three of British Gymnastic young ladies to play and bijou Postcard “The Likes of You” is the waifs the queen holds in thrall, all that re- Records affair run by due for release on a mained was for my English friend, David Carr, Alan Horne. Last’s vinyl 45 in early 2018. formerly of the Fortunes, to arrange and con- Fast also cast its net Now Pike is re- duct my music at the event.” wider issuing debut’s leasing the 20th Around my own magazine and book writ- from Sheffield’s the Anniversary Platinum ing work, which included this assignment, I Human League, Leeds Edition of his 1997 watched Pike’s remastered DVD, in every way combos the Mekons videotaped world more revealing and potent than the reviews and and Gang Of Four, and premiere performance testimonials for the 1998 VHS release claimed. were first in the UK to of his original epic To learn more about this award-winning, crit- unleash a Dead Ken- rhyme, Grumpuss, ically-acclaimed, family-friendly entertain- nedys record. Both cit- staged for Britain’s Save the Children Fund ment, now on DVD, visit the fascinating Legacy ies spawned groups already making waves on at Blenheim Palace, home of the Dukes of Section at Grumpuss.com. (Harvey Kubernik) the gig circuit, but since the growing indepen- Marlborough and birthplace of Sir Winston dent label trend—largely idealized by the 1977 Churchill. punk rock explosion—a shift took place that al- During 2017, I asked Travis how a Yankee lowed a support structure for unknown groups rocker from Boston, Massachusetts, composed and new, small label operations to strike out on a medieval fantasy entirely in rhyme, and man- their own, without the stifling majors deciding aged to stage it in a world heritage site in the what could and couldn’t be done. heart of England. Pike answered, “My stories in Big Gold Dream debunks some of the myths rhyme were as much a part of my shows as my whilst getting inside the machinations of the songs in coffeehouse performances, and later, industry, letting the creators have their say in rock concerts, when we experienced techni- as the trials and tribulations surrounding the cal difficulties, I sometimes entertained audi- groups and recordings begin to unfurl. Every- ences with my rhymes until the show could thing is told through a series of interview seg- go on. In March 1997, an English professor ments with group personnel, managers, label at Bridgewater State College, who had used workers, radio presenters, record shop staff and my 1991 demo recording of Grumpuss in her promoters. Chief among the participants are seminar on Homer and Greek Tragedy, sent me Edinburgh group Scars, one of the finest from an effusive thank you note, closing with the that time who, especially during the 1978-80 hope that I could ‘arrange for the general public period, deserved more success than what even- to meet him soon.’ So I did. tually came their way in the wake of Author! “The rhyme is in English and set in Britain’s Author!, their lone, charting LP issued in 1981 medieval past, when the oral tradition pre- by major label Charisma’s Pre subsidiary. The vailed, supported primarily by kings, nobles, Fire Engines too—“Big Gold Dream” was the ti- and some colorful outlaws. Today, that bardic tle of their final Bob Last-helmed Pop Aural la- tradition is still celebrated in Britain, particu- bel single—were similarly keen envelope push- larly in Wales. Unknown in the UK, I wondered ers but ceased to exist before proper success how I would attract an audience for Grumpuss, could be bestowed on them. Partly rebuilt, they until a friend suggested I make it a charity gala, tried again as the more commercially-appealing and since the rhyme was suitable entertain- Win. As an Edinburgh group that were signed ment for children and adults alike, stage it for to the Postcard stable, the role of Josef K plays the Save the Children Fund. out across the whole narrative; guitarist Mal- “The charity agreed, so I scouted more than com Ross later hooked up with Postcard’s flag- a dozen celebrity venues large enough for the ship group Orange Juice once Paul Haig pulled equipment and crews I required to videotape the plug on the ‘K soon after their The Only Fun the event, but none sufficed. At a meeting with In Town LP hit the stands in the summer of ‘81. my British crew, one wag suggested ‘nothing Concentration then shifts across to Glasgow, less than Blenheim Palace would suit me,’ so I Ugly Things 105.

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