"thrilled skinny are the best band ever"

that phrase, this man once told us at a sarah gig in oxford, would be a great name for a fanzine. given that t.s were, loosely speaking, where indie-pop met discharge, we would go further and suggest that it would also be a not-too controversial statement of FACT.

when we were first alerted to shambling pop-drama "so happy to be alive" by the john peel show late one midweek evening it was one of those moments - like hearing "sensitive" or even "kik off" - where we just had to jump on the first train to the smoke that weekend and scour every 7" rack until we found it. in fact, "so happy" was one of their poppier numbers: as evidenced by the sadly underproduced blur that was their 22 track lp debut "they said they wouldn't but we did", their real raison d'etre was insanely fast, punky numbers with decidedly non-leafy and usually gloriously disjointed lyrics. they were also very big on household appliances and references to the everyday and the mundane - "another song about carpets and floorboards" was one title, in an indie scene that was indubitably fab but not always renowned for its self-deprecating humour, that epitomised their approach.

there is a good bit on their blog on how they mercilessly stickered parts of london - we can confirm that as wide-eyed teenagers venturing from the home counties to londres in the late 80s, we spotted those same stickers at seemingly every central tube station and genuinely concluded that t.s. were either (1) very popular amongst the capital's cognoscenti or at least (2) had the benefit of an astutely managed proto-guerrilla marketing campaign from some kind of indie street team. on both counts we were, of course, spectacularly incorrect.

some other fond t.s. memories include seeing them support the wedding present ("good evening, we're the stylistics and this is "i can't give you anything but my love"), picking up one of their absurdist lo-fi own-label comps with brilliantly funny sleeve notes (one of the best £1s we've ever spent), and arriving at university and chatting with a fellow fresher to find she had actually played violin on simon goalpost's extraordinarily wonderful solo 7" "off shopping trolley". very rarely have i been so impressed. also, we still proudly possess a postcard on which simon goalpost had scrawled a quick hello after we'd sent off for their later "teenage dream" 7"...

anyway, what brings our usual cock-eyed reverie to mind is that it is now possible to download four tunes from back in the (hey)day via their mysp. listen to the chugga proto-hardcore bassline on "psp" and at the same time marvel at the chaos this sort of thing caused when their tunes were cunningly sandwiched between the driscolls and strawberry story on pretty much any compilation tape you might care to mention. more good stuff here.

in dub with these times in spite of these times all time thrilled skinny top ten: 1. so happy to be alive 2. it's a good doss 3. let there be shelving 4. biscuits in the tin 5. common ground 6. teenage dream 7. love rut 8. media music part two 9. insecurity 10. quicker than the blinking eye

the wedding present. 1996.

this is the only other thing i found in that notepad - having obviously been inspired to prose by possibly the band i've seen the, um fourth most number of times (and who are still slowly accruing). it's not exactly incisive critique, but it's mine. all sorts of other interesting memories are enmeshed around this gig, but all that you are going to know is that i drank at least twice as much alcohol that night as i could even begin to dream of managing at a show nowadays.

wedding present / cable
top of o'reilly's, nottingham 27/2/96.

First off, Cable. They opened with "the colder climate", a brave move given how it descends into several minutes of wilful contemplative quiet strumming, but one of their best songs. The set was full of quiet / loud tricks and forays into appropriately taut, wiry instrumental bits before they go all semi-grunge again. Actually not bad, better than on record & worth keeping an eye on.

Within seconds of the wedding present started, I knew it was up to all expectation & the near 7-year wait. "Sucker" seemed over before it had started, but there were so many songs & all so good. new (female) bass player too providing the odd backing vocal. The whole of "Mini" was rightly aired, even Mercury with its brilliant slow burn lyric & clanging guitars, "Dare" was launched ferociously into, the 2 Island singles were wheeled out just to show how the new stuff's better. Top of it all, "My Favourite Dress", about 13th song in. I mean... fantastic. Finished with "flying saucer" & left me speechless.

notts at night photo by mark thornton

heavenly. 1996.

the text below is verbatim what i wrote in my notepad when i got home from this gig in nottingham in 1996. you can tell it's verbatim not least because the support band, bis, were entirely new to me then (i do remember amelia saying sthg along the lines of "i can't believe we're being supported by our favourite band") and for some reason i thought they were irish not scotch (and yes, they were on top of the pops within the year). you may also detect a downer already on my part re that particular city, which was basically because when i left my house to go to this gig, i had to dive down a side street to avoid a couple of kids that had marched me to a cashpoint and threatened to kill me two weeks earlier. er, anyway, heavenly were always an astonishingly good live band, and with the exception of napalm death and the fall, possibly still the band i've seen the most times. and it's a gig that matters to me because it was a pick-me-up, and in those pre-internet days it was pure fluke i ever knew about it - i'd literally been on a bus on alfreton road when i'd spotted a poster in the window of a shop with what looked like heavenly's logo, and on closer inspection later in the week, it turned out that it was, indeed, a plug for this:

Heavenly / bis / sugar & lust
Narrowboat, Nottingham 19/1/96

The bands appeared in ascending order of merit, but descending order of self-importance.

S&L are local kids, they started well then tailed off into general TFC-pastiche. An ill advised stab at Happy Days was the low spot.

Bis took the stage, 3 young-ish, fashionable looking irishpeople (they are Heavenly's favourite band). They were flawless, but very hard to pin down - imagine a Riot Grrrl band, except who can play their instruments, especially guitars, with a degree of Big Flame-ish panache, who can service shouted slogans with staccato rhythms, who've been listening to Pulp and the undertones. If you remember late 80s Dutch japester rhythmeisters Buy off the Bar (yes I do, just about) you'll like Bis. I certainly wouldn't rule out buying the single.

Now Heavenly never get stale & they're always slightly better than I was expecting. I suppose having released absolutely nil during 1995, what with helping out Nick Heyward etc & trying to find a new record label, it would have been greedy of me to expect just the back catalogue, but having been blitzed by an opening "modestic" several times more vital than the LP version, I was a tad disappointed that the next 7 songs were newies, though the absolutely brilliant one with the tambourine that sounded a bit like Tramway's 1991 Thekla christmas treat is indeed the new single and already the best song of 1996. Also it was good to hear a lyric about Nick Hornby. Anyway, the set rounded off with "Me & my madness" and in the atmospheric, Jericho Tavern-meets-Camden falcon-esque upstairs room, the smile on my face just stubbornly refused to subside.

And then came the encore. "Atta girl", & I dissolved into a dizzy smiling mess as galaxies collided and comets flew into black holes & Nottingham was all lit up & attractive and welcoming just for a few minutes.

the "new single", of course, was "trophy girlfriend". no idea why i thought bis sounded anything like pulp, though.