Time Get Hard, Then Get Harder Still

A 12-song selection of The Fat Lady Sings, dedicated to my lifelong friend Stuart.

We've been to many, many gigs over the decades, a fair few where I've been more interested in the headline artist than Stuart, but the support band has proved to be something special.

And so it was on Saturday 3rd February 1990, when the two of us took our places at the Colston Hall in Bristol to see The Psychedelic Furs. It was my second time with The Furs, this one a bit of a return to their earlier sound with the (in my opinion hugely underrated) album Book Of Days. It was a great gig, but that's a story for another time.

The Fat Lady Sings were the support act that night. From my (ahem) 'research', it appears that the band were still self-financed and self-managed at that point, having independently released a few singles and building a reputation on the live circuit. They signed to a major label (East West) shortly after and the single Man Scared followed in October 1990. Their debut album Twist came out in May 1991.

Whilst the exact set is lost to memory (and no-one has posted any 1990 shows on Setlist), I do recall that The Fat Lady Sings put on a blistering show. In fact, it made quite the impression on Stuart, who thought that they were the best band that night and became a fan from then on.

There's no denying that Nick Kelly is a compelling front person and a consummate storyteller and songwriter. Sadly, The Fat Lady Sings story was relatively short-lived. A second album John Son followed in 1993 but despite a run of great singles throughout and the usual multi-format offers, they didn't achieve the commercial success they deserved.

After a show in New York in December 1993, Nick Kelly quit and, as both singer and sole songwriter, it was effectively over for The Fat Lady Sings. 

 

Stuart kept pace with Nick Kelly's solo career and although I haven't, things have come full circle for me. I'm a continuing subscriber to the wonderful Last Night From Glasgow label, who released the album Joy by Dogs in September. Dogs is a collaboration between Seán Millar and, you guessed it, Nick Kelly. And it's very good.

 

So, given that I can't remember what The Fat Lady Sings played that evening in February 1990 and not wishing to exclude some great songs from the John Son era, I've pulled a dozen songs, (almost) spanning their entire career.

First album Twist gets a third of the selection, including the singles Man Scared and Deborah. Twist managed one week in the UK album chart at #50, record buyers misguidedly favouring Eurythmics' Greatest Hits, Michael Bolton, EMF, Roxette and O.M.D. and forty four others. The singles continued an unfair trend of making no impression on the charts whatsover.

 

Second single Be Still, independently released in 1988, found a second life in 1993 when drummer Robert Hamilton (who had quit The Fat Lady Sings by then) co-founded the charity project Peace Together, with a various artists album of the same name. 

 

Be Still was the lead single with appearances by Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O'Connor, Feargal Sharkey, Nanci Griffith and Jah Wobble. There was also a couple of remixes, one by Robin Guthrie featuring Elizabeth Fraser on sole vocals, the other transformed by The Sabres Of Paradise into a near 12-minute epic. Yet, it was all there in 1988 with Nick's lovely little ditty.

I haven't included any songs from second and final album John Son, not because it's below par, but because the accompanying EPs contained so many worthy contenders. There's a spoken word title track (of sorts) and the frenetic Irish Country of What Are You Like? Best of all though is the original demo of Drunkard Logic, unquestionably my favourite version of the song and probably my favourite song by The Fat Lady Sings, full stop.

One seeming anomaly is Behind Your Back, dated as 2005 because that's the year the posthumous compilation The Fat Lady Singles/Opera Obscura appeared. Setlist also confirms that the song was played at a reunion gig in Dublin that year to promote the album. I suspect the song was written and recorded around the time of the John Son album sessions, though my (second ahem) 'research' has failed to confirm or deny this. Maybe I should ask Stuart...?

Whatever the vintage, the music of The Fat Lady Sings has aged very, very well and, on the strength of the Dogs debut, it's well past time for me to go back and rummage around in Nick Kelly's back catalogue.

 

1) Gravy Train (Album Version) (1991)

2) Border Keep (1993)

3) Man Scared (Album Version) (1990)

4) What Are You Like? (1993)

5) Love Turned Upside Down (Album Version) (1991)

6) Behind Your Back (2005)

7) Deborah (Album Version) (1991)

8) Everywoman (Single Version) (1993)

9) Johnson (1993)

10) Grand Country Wedding (Single Version) (1991)

11) Drunkard Logic (Original Demo Version) (1993)

12) Be Still (Single Version) (1988)

1988: Be Still EP: 12

1990: Man Scared EP: 3

1991: Deborah EP: 7, 10

1991: Twist: 1, 3, 5, 7

1993: Drunkard Logic EP: 4, 11

1993: Show Of Myself EP: 2, 8

1993: World Exploding Touch EP: 9

2005: The Fat Lady Singles/Opera Obscura: 6

Time Get Hard, Then Get Harder Still (47:12) (KF) (Mega)