This selection brings together various 7" and 12" vinyl, cassette singles and compilation tracks circa 1985 to 1990. I'd see Ian McNabb live on stage for the first (and to date only) time at the inaugural Phoenix Festival in 1993 and he was great. I played the Seven Singles Deep compilation regularly but didn't really dip into any of The Icicle Works' albums until well into the 2000s.
The live versions here all came from a concert recording for BBC Merseyside's Streetlife radio show. Seven Horses and Rapids appeared on the Understanding Jane cassingle, whilst the cover of You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet appeared on the Live At The Albert, Lark Lane single shrink wrapped with copies of the 7" vinyl.
By 1990, Chris Layhe and Chris Sharrock had departed and Roy Corkhill, Dave Baldwin and Paul Burgess had joined. The Icicle Works had also been dropped by Beggars Banquet and picked up by Epic. The songs here are culled from CD singles accompanying the major label debut, Permanent Damage. The album wasn't a commercial success, Epic dropped the band and Ian McNabb had gone solo by 1991.
It's an eclectic selection with a few little gems hidden within. Enjoy!
1) Nature's Way (Cover of Spirit) (1986)
2) Melanie Still Hurts (1990)
3) Book Of Reason (1985)
4) Seven Horses (Live @ The Albert, Lark Lane, Liverpool) (1986)
5) Evangeline (Demo Version) (1987)
6) People Change (1990)
7) You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Live @ The Albert, Lark Lane, Liverpool) (Cover of Bachman Turner Overdrive) (1986)
8) Mickey's Blue (1990)
9) Sea Song (Cover of Robert Wyatt) (1986)
10) Waiting In The Wings (1987)
11) Rapids (Live @ The Albert, Lark Lane, Liverpool) (1986)
12) Victoria's Ghost (1990)
1985: The Small Price Of A Bicycle / Vertigo-Sampler (Canadian compilation): 3
1986: Understanding Jane EP: 4, 7, 11
1986: Up Here In The North Of England EP: 1, 9
1987: Evangeline EP: 5, 10
1990: Melanie Still Hurts EP: 2, 8
1990: Permanent Damage: 2
1990: Motorcycle Rider EP: 6, 12
Still have a great fondness for early Icicle Works. Remember seeing them multiple times in North London - at least twice at the Town and Country Club and with The La's supporting on at least one occasion. There was a certain snobbery towards them in the music press but I still think their first album is one of the best debut albums there has ever been...
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mike, it was a lot of fun listening to this selection, despite it's welding together two different incarnations of The Icicle Works. I like the first two albums, a bit less so with the subsequent two, though Ian McNabb has delivered some cracking tunes over his solo career. Interesting to hear about The La's supporting The Icicle Works - drummer Chris Sharrock was in both, wasn't he?
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