KEEPINGITPEEL.....THE TVV CONTRIBUTION

Ok. I admit it. I'm cheating by doing a re-post of a previous thing seen and heard on TVV. But the fact it appeared at all is one of the things I've ever been most thrilled about in the four and bit tear the blog has been in operation.

Originally from 10 June 2009. It was the 40th and final guest contribution that I featured over the month of May and into early June.

Someone recently asked Universal Music (the largest record company in existence) how much of their back catalogue was in print. The answer? 2%. Obviously that figure relates to physical formats and is mitigated somewhat by the proportion of music now available on iTunes in digital download format, but there still remains an enormous amount of music that is completely unavailable to the man in the street.

One such band whose rather wonderful music has eluded any kind of remaster, reissue, repackage, is Bourgie Bourgie.

Their star shone far too briefly in 1984 when, within the space of a little over 6 months, they were tipped in the Smash Hits Yearbook as "ones to watch", released two superb pop singles (Breaking Point in February and Careless in April) and then by July had split up before the third single and album (both provisionally entitled Dinky Honey and recorded in Bavaria with Mike Hedges producing) could be released as scheduled in the autumn.

Although Edwyn Collins was defending his childhood pal Paul Quinn as early as February 1984 in the NME, claiming that the rest of the band were holding him back, when asked about the split in Record Mirror Quinn responded:

"I was just dissatisfied. There was a lot of internal politics over the musical direction. The rockier guitar style and the stylised soul singing---that dichotomy was just too much for me."

Their record label MCA (now part of Geffen Records, which is, you guessed it - owned by Universal Music) obviously thought better of releasing anything further by a band that was no longer a going concern and thus whatever else they recorded has remained unheard.

NB: The only album track to ever surface was a saxophone-laden re-recording of Breaking Point which featured on the free LP included with Debut Magazine Issue 3 in June 1984. The Vinyl Villain previously posted this track as a "demo" but it's provenance is almost certainly the album sessions.

Quinn went on to release a couple of joint singles with Edwyn (which flopped chart-wise), a single with an ex-Depeche Mode, pre-Erasure Vince Clarke (another chart flop) and then disappeared until a further resurgence as part of a mid-90's reactivation of the Postcard Label brought us two unmissable solo albums of great depth and beauty.

In retrospect Bourgie Bourgie were doomed to failure - a band that wanted to be bright sparkly pop and a singer who just wanted to croon were addressing a market that simply didn't exist. Quinn's solo albums were obviously a lot closer to the sound he was striving for..dark, orchestral & soulful. Alas the lack of acclaim these records received suggested yet again that world wasn't ready for Paul Quinn.

So what we have here is the holy grail for Bourgieophiles - the 4 tracks recorded by the band for the John Peel show on January 18th 1984. Peel obviously heard something within that major label pop band sound that warranted inviting them in for a session. And lucky for us that he did, as we get to hear the band stripped of their 80's production sheen and excessive overdubs, virtually live from BBC Maida Vale Studio 4.

Raw versions of both the Breaking Point & Careless singles are included here, making it easy to compare & contrast. Of the other two tracks, if Here Comes That Feeling sounds familiar that's because it was also recorded by The Jazzateers (Bourgie members Ian Burgoyne & Keith Band's previous band) and released on the I Shot The President retrospective album, whilst the final track -I Gave You Love is otherwise unreleased.

I hope this lives up to expectations, the recording is off-air and not pristine, but as good as it gets for now. That is until someone at Universal sees sense and puts together that all-encompassing retrospective which includes both singles (in their 7" and extended formats), the unreleased album and the Peel Session. How can that NOT be a good idea?

mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Breaking Point
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Careless
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Here Comes That Feeling
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - I Gave You Love

The piece was written by Francis, the talent behind the always entertaining Frankosonic blog. And for doing so, I'll always be in his debt. Four songs I never thought I get to hear far less share with fellow fans of the greatest voice to come out of Scotland.

And thanks also to Webbie from Football And Music for the keepingitpeel idea. I hope the rest of you, if you havent joined in, will at least pop in and say hello to him today. It's the least he deserves.