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)

Junk Garage Clear Out

Side 1 of a cassette compilation recorded by my friend Stuart in late August 1991.

 

This was the closing paragraph when I posted Side 2 in January 2022:

 

Junk Collage (do you see what I did there?) by me, ripped from various magazines and adverts. I can easily spot Buddy Holly and Christian Slater in there. I think the main picture was a toilet wall backdrop to a photo of a music artist, but I've forgotten who.

Some of the typeface has worn away, but you get a sneak preview of what will eventually pop up when I post Side 1. The reason I didn't go with that one today is that the tape opens with an expletive-ridden intro, but one which segues perfectly into a Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. I'm debating whether it stays, goes or is edited in some way before posting. Watch this space...it might be a while.

 

A glance below and a few seconds into today's selection and you'll see and hear that I decided to keep Dumpy's Rusty Nuts in. It's now so ingrained after three decades of listening to this mixtape that it's almost impossible for me to hear Over & Over by Neil Young & Crazy Horse without it.

Many years later, I repaid the 'favour' by including the Dumpy's Rusty Nuts intro on a birthday CD that I compiled for Stuart. One for a future post.

I'd returned to Bristol after a year travelling, so this cassette served as a kind of 'this is what you missed whilst you were away' round up of music in 1991. In addition to a tremendous comeback albums from Julian Cope and Throwing Muses, Teenage Fanclub released the Star Sign EP, a precursor to the mighty Bandwagonesque album later that year.

 

The Fat Lady Sings made two appearances on this compilation, having blown Stuart away when we saw them supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990. They didn't - and have never - quite had the same impact on me but I like the B-side featured here, a good example of the quality and quantity of their music at the time.

Stuart had also been delving into some rock classics, this tape probably being my first introduction to Horses by Patti Smith and Exile On Main Street by The Rolling Stones. I'd taken the Neil Young & Crazy Horse and Mazzy Star albums with me on my travels, so these were already classics, in my opinion.

 

It's another much-loved and much-played cassette, containing songs that have stayed with me over the last thirty-odd years and sound every bit as good now as they did then. 

 

1) Intro / Over & Over (Album Version): Dumpy's Rusty Nuts vs. Neil Young & Crazy Horse (1990)

2) Fall On Me (Album Version): R.E.M. (1986)

3) Free Money: Patti Smith (1975)

4) To Reach Me: The Go-Betweens (1986)

5) Be My Angel: Mazzy Star (1990)

6) Happy: The Rolling Stones (1972)

7) Safesurfer (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)

8) Momento Mori: The Fat Lady Sings (1991)

9) Counting Backwards: Throwing Muses (1991)

10) Like A Virgin (Cover of Madonna): Teenage Fanclub (1991)

1972: Exile On Main Street: 6

1975: Horses: 3

1986: Liberty Belle And The Black Diamond Express: 4 

1986: Life's Rich Pageant: 2

1990: bootleg live cassette / Ragged Glory: 1

1990: She Hangs Brightly: 5

1991: Arclight EP: 8

1991: Counting Backwards EP: 9

1991: Peggy Suicide: 7

1991: Star Sign EP: 10

 

Side One (45:07) (Box) (Mega)

Side Two here

Junk Garage

Side 2 of a mixtape recorded by my friend Stuart, circa August 1991.

There was an excellent post from JC (could it be anything else?) at The Vinyl Villain on Thursday, titled State Of The Blogging Nation, which provoked a great response from readers and fellow bloggers alike. Whether we read and comment, or write and post, it's the passion for music and the tangible sense of community that keeps bringing us back. I regularly read dozens of music blogs, some of which are updated daily, others weekly, others considerably less so. I try to comment as much as possible, but it's increasingly hard to keep up, especially since committing last year to posting on Dubhed every day for as long as I can keep being inspired.

A guaranteed daily visit is Charity Chic Music as I read with awe about Stevie's latest find for mere pennies in his never' ending search for charity shop gems. Friday's post featured Pere Ubu's 1990 album Worlds In Collision and one of the two songs he showcased was I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue. This was almost certainly the second Pere Ubu song I ever heard (after Waiting For Mary) and came courtesy of another trusty tape from my friend Stuart. We'd been apart for a year whilst I was working and travelling Australia, so this was a kind of "welcome home" mixtape, summing up what he had been listening to recently.

 

Renegade Soundwave are hugely underappreciated, in my opinion. Actually, I've just realised that this is their first appearance on this blog, so clearly by me too! Soundclash and RSW In Dub were incredible sonic slabs that demanded repeat listening and whilst it was a few years before their respective follow ups, they maintained a singular sound before their premature end. Murder Music is a great example and a perfect opener to Side 2.

 

Tracks 2 & 3 were lifted directly as the opening two songs on The Island Tape, a Select magazine freebie cassette, but Julian Cope's magnum opus Peggy Suicide was an immediate purchase on my return whilst - bizarrely, in retropect - it was a couple of years later with Bone Machine that I finally bought a Tom Waits album. I borrowed and taped Stuart's copy of Out Of Time but, of course, R.E.M. achieved global domination with this, so I was already familiar with most of the songs from constant radio and MTV rotation.

 

I was largely ignorant of Bob Dylan at this time (dismissive even, given his association with The Travelling Wilburys), so it was a bold move to an 11-minute epic on, but it paid off. Desolation Row remains one of my favourite Dylan songs. Despite being 3 decades older than most of the other songs, fits perfectly , sandwiched between one of This Mortal Coil's (& Kim Deal's) and R.E.M.'s finest moments.

 

We saw The Fat Lady Sings supporting The Psychedelic Furs in 1990 and in Stuart's opinion, they were the highlight of the night. He's followed them and subsequently singer/songwriter Nick Kelly's solo exploits ever since.

 

I've tweaked the playlist slightly, for practical reasons: I don't have the original album version of Aeroplane Blues, only the "LA Mix" from the Volume CD/magazine series. It sounds like a rougher, earlier mix to these untrained ears, but my box of Volume is buried in the attic somewhere so I can't check the detail.

 

I've also swapped the album version of Hang On St. Christopher from The Island Tape for the USA-only 12" version as (a) you may be less familiar with this one and (b) it bolsters the running time, which was running a bit short on the original tape.

Junk Garage (American pronunciation of the latter) is a phrase taken from R.E.M.'s Country Feedback. 

 

Junk Collage (do you see what I did there?) by me, ripped from various magazines and adverts. I can easily spot Buddy Holly and Christian Slater in there. I think the main picture was a toilet wall backdrop to a photo of a music artist, but I've forgotten who.

Some of the typeface has worn away, but you get a sneak preview of what will eventually pop up when I post Side 1. The reason I didn't go with that one today is that the tape opens with an expletive-ridden intro, but one which segues perfectly into a Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. I'm debating whether it stays, goes or is edited in some way before posting. Watch this space...it might be a while.

 

1) Murder Music (Album Version): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

2) Hang On St. Christopher (Extended Remixed Version By Tchad Blake): Tom Waits (1987)

3) Double Vegetation (Album Version): Julian Cope (1991)

4) You And Your Sister (Cover of Chris Bell): This Mortal Coil ft. Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly (1991)

5) Desolation Row: Bob Dylan (1965)

6) Country Feedback (Album Version): R.E.M. (1991)

7) Aeroplane Blues (LA Mix): The Blue Aeroplanes (1991)

8) Sexy Eiffel Towers: Bow Wow Wow (1980)

9) I Hear They Smoke The Barbecue: Pere Ubu (1990)

10) Twist (Album Version): The Fat Lady Sings (1991)

11) Safesurfer (Reprise): Julian Cope (1991)

 

1965: Highway 61 Revisited: 5 

1980: Your Cassette Pet: 8

1987: Hang On St. Christopher (USA 12"): 2

1989: Soundclash: 1

1990: Worlds In Collision: 9

1991: Blood: 4 

1991: Out Of Time: 6

1991: Peggy Suicide: 3, 11

1991: Twist: 10

1991: Volume Two: 7

 

Side Two (45:59) (Box) (Mega)