Tuesday 25 October 2011

Skeletons: Early Songs 'Rain or Shine'

'Rain or Shine' is another track taken from the early MM years when Steve Smith was the singer
(boy does he croon here) and I was more pre-occupied with my Flange/Chorus/Echo pedals and the jingle jangle of semi-acoustics. Phil Smith is featured quite prominently on this; it may well be the first thing that he played with us. He had just left Haircut 100 and was looking for another vehicle for his considerable talents;  He played sax and keyboards for the live Miracle Mile line up which might explain why he stuck with us for so long; I think that he was a bit fed up with his instrument at the time and was getting into keyboards. His forte was always going to be the the sax though and I have many dodgy recordings embellished by his sublime playing.
You can see Phil fresh faced and fringed, at the top of the young Haircut pile (left) and on the right at a fairly recent reunion gig for the VH1 TV series 'Bands Re-united'. Phil is far left with the 'comb over' and wearing a pair of curtains, Les Nemes (ex MM bass player) is second from right in the beige.
I was at the gig and it was a... fantastic day...

4 comments:

  1. Catchy little ditty! Vocals sound a lot like Thomas Leer... "International" (extended version), a very cool tune from 1985.
    Love the saxamaphone (as Homer Simpson would say...)

    Tim (from across the pond)

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  2. Thanks Tim.
    I know that these are a world away from what I'm doing now but it's interesting (even maybe just to you and I) to hear how things have developed. It was all jaunty optimism back then; melancholy is a creeping disposition...

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  3. No, it's not just you two that find these early tracks really interesting,I do too.
    They sound like Steve Hovingtons old band 'One',who released their only album,'Upstream'back in 89 or 90,He is a little better known as lead singer of B-Movie.
    Keep the tracks coming...
    Phil
    Tel Aviv

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  4. Thanks Phil; I'll keep digging...

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