YOU know the way you're talking about them - that great first album, the single that should've been a hit but wasn't, first song on side two of the third album, the way someone else ripped off the intro from one of their songs, blah, blah, blah. Then you wonder "whatever happened to them?" and here in the pursuit of all of that, and a little more, we delve into the X Files of late, great music.
1. BLACK FLAG:
Urban myth has it that a young scrawny kid from near Seattle spent two days hitch hiking to LA to see a gig by this band in the mid 1980s. What he saw changed his life, and ours. His name was Kurt Cobain but their name was Black Flag, the first and the best US hardcore band whose influence can still be heard over every verse/chorus/versus of modern day "alternorock". The classic line up was Henry Rollins (vocals), Greg Gina (guitar), Dez Cadenza (guitar) and Robo (drums). The band's first major label album, Damaged (1979), was rejected by MCA records on the grounds of its "outrageous content" (cool or what?) so the band formed their own label, the semi legendary SST Records and put it out themselves (indie or what?). Great albums like My War followed as did some incendiary live performances - these guys originated the habit of moshing - but they disbanded in 1986. Rollins went on to enjoy a successful solo career and GregGinn concentrated his activities on SST and discovered and first recorded bands such as Husker Du, Sonic Youth, the MeatPuppets, Dinosaur Jr. and Negativland.
2. CAMPER VANE BEETHOVEN:
Formed in California in 1983 by a group of school friends, their ever changing line up only had songwriter/vocalist David Lowery as a constant. Very much the prototypical art/ quirky/rock ensemble, their first album, Telephone Free Landslide Victory, contained their finest ever track, Take The Skinheads Bowling (still a massive cult hit - in the right circles), while on other tracks they sounded like The Pale before The Pale were The Pale.
Like so many bands after them, the leap to the major label - in this case Virgin - vitiated their powers, charm and individuality but interestingly enough, David Lowery has now struck pay dirt (in the US) with big alterno sellers, Cracker.
3. DURUTTI COLUMN:
Named after a German political cartoon strip and based in Manchester, Durutti Column were one of the first signings on Tony Wilson's (Mr In The City to you, bub) Factory label. Mainman Vini Reilly was a tad on the eccentric side - he could never decide if the band were electronic or folk (and there's really no middle ground, pop kids). The debut, The Return Of The Durtti Column (clever title), was a big enough seller but is still more remembered for its sandpaper sleeve, which was inspired by the anarchist movement, Situationist Internatiside. The band were never really a live draw; Reilly had an eating disorder and couldn't tour that much, so multitude of studio instrumental work followed. Now defunct, but two footnotes: the band's guitarist, Dave Rowbotham, was discovered axed to death in Manchester a few years back (the murder inquiry continues) and Vini Reilly is one off Morrissey's best friends and is alleged to have played the part; of go between with Johnny Rogan when the latter was doing his "controversial" Morrissey biography.
4. GO-BETWEENS:
The critics couldn't get enough of this Australian band, but sadly the public could and the time honoured "critically acclaimed, commercially ignored" reason led to their premature demise. Based on the songwriting talents of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster, they first broke through in this part of the world when Postcard (Orange Juice's - as in Edwyn Collins's - label) brought out the I Need Two Heads single in 1980 (or thereabouts). Later picked up by Geoff Travis at Rough Trade, they brought out the still wonderful Before Hollywood album (later echoed by The Stars of Heaven with Before Hollyhead) which contained McLennan's arguably best song, Cattle And Cane - later to be covered by The Wedding Present. Again the move to a major label, in this case Seymour Stein's Sire with Springhill Fair did them no favours and Beggars Banquet rushed in to bring out their best offering, the Liberty Belle album. Chart success was never their forte but in this hack's opinion they were every bit as good as REM were/are. They broke up in 1989 and both McLennan and Forster have brought out worthwhile solo efforts - Edwyn Collins, now with Setanta, is Forster's producer and an occasional member of his touring band. Rumours of a reunion persist.
