I've been meaning to do Scorpio Rising for ages, but kept forgetting. Then when I remembered I convinced myself I'd already done them. This is one of the perils of ageing. Still, better late than never.
The Liverpudlian baggy/fraggle funsters were formed in 1989 by Mickey Banks, "Sploote", Martin Atherton, Steve Soar (who left in 1993) and Colin Owens. That's a rock and roll name. Colin. There should be more famous rock star Colins. I can only think of Colin out of the Shamen off the top of my head. This is another peril of ageing.
Sorry. formed in 1989, the band toured extensively with such indie luminaries as Ned's Atomic Dustbin, the Senseless Things and PWEI and I'm pretty sure I saw them support Carter USM in the early 90s, although my first port of call for all things Carter doesn't seem to back that up so it's probably my memory again.
There's not that much on the band kicking about on the internet, which is a shame. The myspace and wikipedia page say pretty much the same thing, although the book I have in my hand seems to suggest that the band's first single is called "Stangest Times EP", but both those pages call it "The Strangest Things Turn You On". The actual bit of vinyl is called the "Stangest EP" and the track is indeed "Strangest Things Turn You On"; the normally pretty infallible Discogs doesn't even list it. Come on internet, buck your ideas up!
Listening to it, it's definitely Scorpio Rising - The Strangest Things Turn You On:
Right click etc etc to download
Whatever it's called, it's a cracking bit of indie which possibly sounds a bit more Madchestery than I remember, but certainly has some lovely swooping guitar and that very recognisable indie drum beat that cropped up a lot in 1991.
All I remember about Scorpio Rising is that they introduced me to The Doors. They did an excellent (in my memory) cover of Peace Frog that lead me into checking The Doors out further.
ReplyDeleteColin Newman (Wire) - surely the most famous Colin in rock?
ReplyDeleteI remember planning to go to see them, just never quite making it, but Watermelon was a great single.
ReplyDeleteRoom for Radiohead's Colin Greenwood?
ReplyDeleteThat takes me back. i was on the ents committee at Liverpool Uni 1990-3 and Scorpio were almost our house band. They were a nice bunch of guys. Not only did they have a Colin in the band but a couple of the ents people used to crew for them and were....Colin and Craig. They had their own band called Curveball and supported Scorpio a couple of times, think they went to the states with too.
ReplyDeleteI love this site. Extra trivia- the drummer recorded a few big beat singles under the moniker "surreal Madrid" on the Fused and Bruised label in the late 90s. They weren't too bad.
ReplyDeleteMy husband still wanders around the house in a Scorpio Rising t-shirt, wonder how many of them are left these days...
ReplyDeleteColin Doran - Hundred Reasons
ReplyDeleteheya mickey here -- try this:
ReplyDeletemyspace.com/thedestroyersengland
We did a good job if we made an indie kid discover the Doors.. PS we never played with Carter..
M xxx
the singer formed a romo called plastic fantastic, which sound like adam n the ants/ duran duran
ReplyDeleteThese guys were so good live, they even came to Trowbridge for fecks sake, and their early ep's were full of promise but their Pig Symphony album was a huge disapointment, mainly because the mix was so bad, I still can't listen to it. Tim
ReplyDeleteI saw them a few times in the early 90s and was really impressed. Before they had released any records I bought a couple of demo tapes and a tshirt. I loved that shirt, with the girl with long hair on the front and helicopters on the back from what I remember. I would love to find one of those for sale somewhere.
ReplyDeleteMickey, we did play with Carter - at the Planet X all dayers in Liverpool (or was that the previous incarnation... I can't remember :)).
ReplyDelete