BACK TO BASICS (Part 6)

And so the third day in a row where a Scottish act that didn't make the 45 45s at 45 rundown gets an honourable mention.

Josef K were an Edinburgh band, but although I am a rampant weedgie, I won't hold that against them.

Named after a character in a Franz Kafka novel, they were one of the first signed to Postcard Records where they released a handful of singles and recorded a debut LP which was initially shelved as the band were unhappy with the production.

Josef K were very unlike the other bands on Postcard - somehow they managed to be a bit more disco-orientated and still less accessible and easy to listen to! And in Paul Haig, they had a frontman who was strong-willed enough to insist the band break-up on the basis that of having made a debut LP that could never be bettered.

This particular single was originally slated to be released on Postcard, but after Paul Haig and Alan Horne (boss of Postcard Records) had fallen out, it was recorded and put out on the Belgian label Les Disques Du Crepuscule in 1981:-

mp3 : Josef K - Sorry For Laughing
mp3 : Josef K - Revelation

It has probably become the band's best known composition thanks to a couple of cover versions - by Propaganda in 1985 and Nouvelle Vague in 2006, both of which are OK, but not a patch on the original:-

mp3 : Propaganda - Sorry For Laughing
mp3 : Nouvelle Vague - Sorry For Laughing

Paul Haig, has over the past 25+ years continued to write and record with varying degrees of critical success without any real commercial success, although you will find almost of all it lying in either the record cupboard or the CD shelves here in Villain Towers.

If you don't have any Josef K material in your collection, you should do something about it. There's been a couple of retro-compilations put out in recent years, and well worth getting your hands on. Try here.