Maybe so, but that's how I remember it - My dad joined the RAF to eventually move down south, etc. It's a cliché to say that it was the only way that could be done, sure.. (I was born in 1961, family from South Shields, etc)
― Mark G, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 10:59 (five years ago) link
You missed the part where I said Bobby Gillespie was born in 1962 and not 1942?
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:15 (five years ago) link
As the redoubtable everything implied, Bobby's background was absolutely bog standard 70s/80s West of Scotland 'respectable/aspiring' working class, he grew up in a nice area not some hellhole, and went to decent school. I'd say the chances of him having to join the Army were miniscule, bordering on non-existent, he's far more likely to have ended up going to Strathclyde Uni to study Chemical Engineering or whatever.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:24 (five years ago) link
tbf he ended up doing a fair bit of freelance chemical engineering research anyway
― sign up for my waterless urinals webinar (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:27 (five years ago) link
how on earth could such an extraordinary rebel even apply to a technical college? They might have thought he was a revolutionary mixture of Bobby Seale and Trotsky with the moves of Marc Bolan and told him he was too damn sexy for City & Guilds courses!
― calzino, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:42 (five years ago) link
He goes on to say that his working class background made him strive for financial security, which is why he and the other members of PS were always desperate for hit records. "You had a funny way of going about it for ten years" were my thoughts.
― fetter, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:53 (five years ago) link
surely there's a height requirement to join the army?
― mark s, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:58 (five years ago) link
he had hit records as part of the mary chain...
― koogs, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 11:59 (five years ago) link
(xp) Bobby too tall? Trying to imagine a Regimental Sergeant Major trying to whip a platoon with Bobby G, Duglas Stewart and Stephen Pastel into shape - one for Viz maybe?
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 12:13 (five years ago) link
or maybe a Boab from a parallel universe where he went on an NVQ plastering course or got a job on the bins or whatever, but still talked the same kind of self-obsessed, self-mythologizing pretentious rock-star gubbins in the workplace and driving his work colleagues to despair on a daily basis.
― calzino, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 12:23 (five years ago) link
Deafened by the chorus of "Aye, right" and "Heard it" that would meet his every utterance. I sometimes feel Bobby's been away from Glasgow too long - therefore I insist Boaby G needed to be invented as a counterbalance and to help keep him grounded.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 12:41 (five years ago) link
Whenever I think of Bobby G I remember Justine Frischmann's story about how he was the worst housemate she ever had because he was too paranoid to ever answer the door.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 14:24 (five years ago) link
extremely on-brand
― sign up for my waterless urinals webinar (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 14:38 (five years ago) link
In the documentary is it weird that they blipped right over the band's jangly beginnings and went straight to the self-titled record era?
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 14:50 (five years ago) link
Maybe Jim Navajo couldn't be reached at the reservation?
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:33 (five years ago) link
He gets a tiny mention and they show one pic of the C86 era band, I think.
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:36 (five years ago) link
they shd show a picture of the legend! and momus holding hands
― mark s, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:38 (five years ago) link
to be fair they shd show that in all music documentaries, as a terrible warning
― mark s, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:39 (five years ago) link
They should have shown this tuneless, polka dotted fop -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsOKV0GY5B8
― MaresNest, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
tbf part of the narrative was that Gillespie, Innes, Young & McGee (sounds like a Rangers back four from the early 60s) had all been at school together, whereas Big Jim Beattie, being a Native American, was an outsider. Also Jim Beattie was responsible for most of the music in the original band, I think?
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 15:54 (five years ago) link
a more convincing case for the urgent need of an acid house intervention has never been made xp
― sign up for my waterless urinals webinar (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 16:12 (five years ago) link
If you can bear to watch to the end of the song (or just scroll past) there's some classic early Bobtalk. "Being in a car crash can be psychedelic... looking at the sea can be psychedelic... having sex can be like a hallucination..."
― Tim, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 16:19 (five years ago) link
xp lol dying at bobby's monologue at the end of that clip.
― visiting, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 16:24 (five years ago) link
I can't be arsed to watch that vid but I saw them - and played on the Give Us a Break triv machine with them - in late 87 and I think it's probably only the goodness of "Velocity Girl" that gave me the interest to pay any attention until "Loaded" happened
― Danton Lok (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 16:28 (five years ago) link
I can remember a cousin telling me he was off to see [sic] Primeval Scream at Hudds Poly at some point in about '89 or something. Poor bastard was a metal fan!
― calzino, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 16:31 (five years ago) link
I think it's probably only the goodness of "Velocity Girl" that gave me the interest to pay any attention until "Loaded" happened
That's the first 7 years of Primal Scream in a nutshell.
― everything, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 19:56 (five years ago) link
If it wasn't for Gillespie's connection with JAMC and for generally being a guy who'd been around for years and knows people, they'd never been given the chance to make any albums or been on the same live circuit as eg. Felt or the Jazz Butcher or the Pastels etc because Primal Scream were a horrible band with no good songs in those days. Creation was put out their records, and Revolving Paint Dream, Biff Bang Pow, Slaughter Joe and others because they were friends of Alan McGee, not because anyone wanted to hear them.
― everything, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 20:18 (five years ago) link
> In the documentary is it weird that they blipped right over the band's jangly beginnings and went straight to the self-titled record era?
the recent best-of did exactly the same.
i love sonic flower groove and crystal crescent fwiw. and that second revolving paint dream lp is one of my all-time faves.
― koogs, Wednesday, 21 November 2018 22:23 (five years ago) link
tbf the recent* one included songs from the first two albums, it was the one before that** which didn't
* March 2004** November 2003
― Bing The Mighty Seat (sic), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 23:07 (five years ago) link
* March 2004 ***
*** Japan only 8)
Ha, "recent"
― koogs, Thursday, 22 November 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link
yes, further away from the present than the release was from Loaded :D
― Bing The Mighty Seat (sic), Thursday, 22 November 2018 06:45 (five years ago) link
Primal Tap is so OTM. Many Tap-esque moments in this thing..."first thing he ever says to me was what's your favourite Bob Marley b-side", Bobby sniffing the record, McGee undermining the whole concept by saying that with hindsight the released version of the album was the right thing to do, Noel G saying all pre-Screamadelica Creation Records are shit - which would include the first 2 Primal Scream albums, and many, many more. Good laughs in this.
― everything, Thursday, 22 November 2018 07:36 (five years ago) link
i saw them live in the Velocity Girl era and they were great, tbf. '86, probably, supporting Julian Cope. They were a six-piece at the time; one guy just played tambourine, but he wore black leather gloves to do it: as the son of a shop steward Boab was a stickler for the health and safety of his employees.
― fetter, Thursday, 22 November 2018 10:00 (five years ago) link
I also saw Primal Scream live a couple of times around the time of their first single (they were supporting James and the Blue Aeroplanes, respectively) and yeah, they were perfectly fine indie jangle. Very short sets - they plainly didn't have many songs.
I don't recognise everything's claim that nobody wanted to hear records by the Creation also-rans. Like many other rec labels with a brand identity, plenty of people, self included, bought into the whole Creation aesthetic and would buy pretty much anything released on the label. And that Slaughter Joe single is a belter.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 22 November 2018 10:29 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DPe-2HuApE
― mark s, Thursday, 22 November 2018 10:33 (five years ago) link
Slaughter Joe single was popular, relatively, as were Jim Beattie's Primal Scream actually, Biff Bang Pow or Revolving Paint Dream on the other hand - but, hey ho, it was his label after all.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 22 November 2018 10:33 (five years ago) link
Slaughter joe did go on to run a worthwhile record label too.
― Stevolende, Thursday, 22 November 2018 10:59 (five years ago) link
which would include the first 2 Primal Scream albums
fwiw the 1st Primal Scream album wasn't on Creation
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 22 November 2018 13:53 (five years ago) link
So it was on McGee's other label but the point remains that his association with JAMC and Bobby generally being a meme propped them up throughout the early years. Obviously they were liked and had their fans - I was one of them. But even at the time they seemed bad and retrospectively they were so much worse than their peers at the time. And I don't mean bands like the Clouds or the Razorcuts. Got an old flyer for Rooftop Club in Glasgow with the headlining bands for successive Sundays in Sept 1987 - Primal Scream, the Chills, Bambi Slam, Felt/House of Love and The Swans. Primal Scream at the time were not even close to being the equal of most of those bands. Later they were, but not then.
― everything, Thursday, 22 November 2018 19:46 (five years ago) link
oh boy the bambi slam were the fucking worst
― my name is leee john, for we are many (NickB), Thursday, 22 November 2018 20:35 (five years ago) link
I've completely forgotten who they were ybh.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 22 November 2018 21:12 (five years ago) link
.. to be honest, not you be honest.
kind of a tune free version of the mary chain with the added feature of someone sawing away at a cello, all swagger and racket sort of thing. think the main guy was canadian?
― my name is leee john, for we are many (NickB), Thursday, 22 November 2018 21:29 (five years ago) link
They look kinda gothy. But then the Mary Chain look was sort of modified gothy.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 22 November 2018 21:31 (five years ago) link
they were definitely goth adjacent! andrew eldritch was their manager for a short while iirc and got them signed to a major
― my name is leee john, for we are many (NickB), Thursday, 22 November 2018 21:39 (five years ago) link
Primal Scream at the time were not even close to being the equal of most of those bands. Later they were, but not then.yes but this is surely what made McGee worthwhile for several years - that he could see potential and nurture it. this is what A&R and label owners should do! it used to take most ppl an album or two to actually get good.
― Bing The Mighty Seat (sic), Friday, 23 November 2018 09:01 (five years ago) link
Bob's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/primalscreamofficial) is a must, for all your rock 'n' roll iconography / radical politics needs.
Don't ever change, big man.
― fetter, Tuesday, 26 February 2019 16:27 (five years ago) link
Classic Boab.
― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Tuesday, 26 February 2019 18:21 (five years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrZmKBkX4AAnXud.jpg
― calzino, Tuesday, 26 February 2019 18:36 (five years ago) link
Bob's Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/primalscreamofficial🕸) is a must...
― nathom, Tuesday, 26 February 2019 19:15 (five years ago) link