18 May 1980, not only saw the awesome and tragic eruption of Mt St Helens, but also the day that the legendary singer from the legendary Mancunian post-punks Joy Division, Ian Curtis, took his life. It is also the day that the man with one of the all-time great rock voices, Chris Cornell, passed in 2017.
But, we found a better and much happier (if somewhat leftfield) choice to lead off this edition of Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields - who also has a link to this day.
Bruce Gilbert, guitarist with post-punk band Wire and abstract painter, was born on 18 May 1946 in Watford. In 1975, he was an Audio-Visual Technician and Slide Photo Librarian at the Watford College of Art & Design. He found time and equipment there to experiment with tape loops and delays - and formed a band, Overboard, with Colin Newman and Angela Conway (both students at the college). By 1976, he and Newman had joined Graham Lewis and Robert Gotobed and formed Wire. After the band's first split in 1980, Gilbert and Lewis formed numerous side projects, including Cupol, Dome and P'o. The pair also produced The The's first single, Black & White / Controversial Subject, for the 4AD label.
Wire: Outdoor Miner - https://youtu.be/jrwNkcVZOs4
The The were formed by Matt Johnson in London in 1979, with Johnson being the only permanent member across their career. Their first gig was as third on the bill at the Africa Centre, in May 1979, behind Prog VEC and Scritti Politti. Johnson played that day with Keith Laws on synth and tape loops. Peter Ashworth and Tom Johnston joined the band in 1980 and were credited on that first single, although they didn't play on it. They left soon after, and were followed by Laws in 1981. Soul Mining was the official debut album in 1983 (The Pornography Of Despair had been recorded but never released) and included guest musicians like Zeke Manyika (Orange Juice) and Jools Holland.
After being mostly a solo project through much of the 1980s, in 1988 Johnson returned to having a proper band. He was joined by Johnny Marr (by now ex-Smiths), James Eller (ex- Nick Lowe band) and David Palmer (ex-ABC). Mind Bomb reached number 4 in the UK and included Sinead O' Connor as a guest singer. It also included The Beat(en) Generation, one of their seven Top40 singles, which made it to number 18. In 1989 they toured using DC Collard on keyboards - Steve Hogarth, who had played on the 1986 album Infected, had been asked to join, but had decided to join Marillion as vocalist instead.
The The: The Beat(en) Generation - https://youtu.be/ustXRPke9lM
Marillion had also been formed in 1979, but in Aylesbury and were first known as Silmarillion (the name switched somewhere around 1980). Singer Fish (born Derek William Dick) joined in 1981. When drummer Mick Pointer was sacked following the debut tour in 1983, you get what was probably the first of their classic line-ups - Fish, Ian Moseley, Mark Kelly, Peter Trewavas and Steve Rothery. Both of their first two albums, Script For A Jester's Tear, which reached number 7 in 1983, and Fugazi, which made it to number 5 the following year, were produced by Nick Tauber.
Marillion: Assassing - https://youtu.be/Hz_dq-j9Luc
Nick Tauber proved to be a popular rock producer through the 1970s and 80s, later becoming a manager and consultant. He produced Shades Of A Blue Orphanage (1972) and Vagabonds Of The Western World (1973) for Thin Lizzy; three albums for Toyah - Toyah! Toyah! Toyah! (1980), Anthem (1981), and Love Is The Law (1983); and also Now Then for Stiff Little Fingers in 1982.
Now Then was Stiff Little Fingers fourth album and made it to number 24. Featuring a line-up of Jake Burns, Henry Clooney, Ali McMordie and Dolphin Taylor, the album included their interpretation of Love Of The Common People (interestingly, this was a full year before the more well known Paul Young version came out).
Stiff Little Fingers: Love Of The Common People - https://youtu.be/7LR86FpGQDA
Love Of The Common People was written by John Hurley and Ronnie Wilkins, and was first sung by the Four Preps in 1967, although that was not a hit. Later that year, there were also versions by The Everly Brothers and Wayne Newton, although neither of those broke the US Top100 either. The Winstons got to 54 in 1969, and Nicky Thomas did a reggae version that reached UK number 9 in 1970. Both the SLF and that most well known cover (Paul Young, of course) followed that reggae vibe in their versions - with Young's getting to number 2 in 1983, and containing a trombone solo by Rico Rodriguez.
Rico Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba, but grew up in Jamaica and was a trombonist on the ska and reggae scene in the early 1960s. He would go on to work with the likes of Prince Buster, The Specials, Jools Holland and The Members. He had also played as one of Georgie Fame's Blue Flames when he first came to the UK in 1961.
One of The Specials tunes that Rodriquez played on was A Message To You Rudy. This was based on a song originally called Rudy, A Message To You, by Dandy Livingstone, from 1967. The Specials album was produced by Elvis Costello and was on the legendary Two Tone label (started by the bands own Jerry Dammers).
The Specials: A Message To You Rudy - https://youtu.be/cntvEDbagAw
Le Volume Courbe is the band of Charlotte Marionneau (sometimes known as Charlotte Courbe), who started playing with Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds in 2017. She enlisted the help of Gallagher and Terry Hall (The Specials) for a cover version of Mind Contorted by Daniel Johnston. The project had originated several years earlier (and this is where we get our final link) - as Marionneau explained to NME in 2020:
"We first recorded it with Terry's son Theodore and Kevin Shields in my flat in London in 2012. Earlier this year I decided to finally mix it and asked Kevin to re-do his guitar parts. He agreed, but Kevin being Kevin, I didn't want to wait a year, so I asked Noel if he didn't mind stepping in!"
Le Volume Coubre - Mind Contorted - https://youtu.be/uKOuo3x_IE4
So, there you have it - Terry Hall (and son) to Le Volume Courbe to Kevin Shields