A brief yet invogorating diversion here from vague recollection to absolute obscurity. Ladies and gentleman, I give you The Sugars Rays. Who the hell they were is something I think i'll never know, but they certainly infringe on 'indie pop' by the sounds of the attached mp3.
All I know about this flexi disk (I certainly have no idea where it came from, I'm not even 100% sure it's from 1992) is what's on the insert, a promotional quote that says:
"The Sugar Rays are Nottingham's finest cartoon guitar band. With a garage load of energy they leap and bound the smallconfines of the stage like they actually enjoy the music. And so you can't help liking them because you know they couldn't give a flying one about the number of record companies present. This attitude shows through the music which hooks and winds its way around the three minute song with nonchalant affection and grinning humanity."
And that's it, the one mention on the internet I can find is here: that seems to suggest this flexi is the only thing they ever created.
It seems like a bit of a shame, I've certainly heard an awful lot worse music scraping into the charts, and I'm pretty sure it holds up against some of the other stuff on here fairly well.
So here it is Sugar Rays - Sugar Rush. Surely this can't be the only living memory of the band? Shame. The Sugar Rays, we salute you (and then leave you in the box marked "HX2").
Hang on, it just occurred to me! ebay! Home of all the world's jumble! And there it is £2.99 ONO to you sir!
Absolute quality that is - thanks!
ReplyDeleteOne of the guys in the Sugar Rays was name of Gaz, and he worked in the singles dept of Nottingham's finest record store, Selectadisc, for many a year around the early 90s. As well as this, the guys did make a four-track tape for sale at gigs, again on their putative Wa-Hey label. If I had a machine that stopped time for a couple of our I'd rip it for you, but time is tight, the kids are calling, I can't be arsed, etc
ReplyDeleteHey, I just happened to do a search for this band and found your post.
ReplyDeleteThey were a great band and they had some wonderful songs. The lead guitarist was particularly talented, as I remember. I think Gaz was the bass player.
I happened to make a multi-track recording of them at one of their rehearsals. I can't read my writing but I think the tracks are called "Bad Habit", "Laughing", "Love Child", "Scratch Back", "Screamer", "What Star", "Cut Me Up", "Love Sick", "Star Shine", "Sugar Rush" and "Wild Imagination".
The recording date was definitely before October 1992 (possibly June) and I think this was after the flexidisc came out (I never had a copy but I saw them around). I think the four track tape was made (probably in a studio) after my recording - again I don't have it.
If Gaz or any other ex-member of the band would authorise it then I could mix and re-master the rehersal recording for upload.
You can contact me as luteman on soundclick - yeh I'm a lute player - I have pretty wide tastes in music !!!
The Sugar Rays covered Nottingham with their ads, especially around Selectadisc, the lampposts and toliets of pubs. Takes me back to my student days...
ReplyDeleteNow I know why the man in Selectadisc was always looking unhappy; the mardy git in the shop wasn't sneering at my music taste, but because I had not bought his record!
These turned into the X-Rays and went more punky and stuff :-D
ReplyDelete