As we approach the first anniversary of this website, I thought I would take a look at one of the acts that ties in with one of the main features of the site.
One of the things I have enjoyed the most, this last year or so, is doing the research that goes into Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields - a device (excuse) I use to discover lots of random facts around a wide range of musical genres and musicians.
I needed to borrow a musical Kevin, so that I could adapt the old Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon idea - and I settled on Kevin Shields. It was a name I knew, from a band I knew of, but neither particularly well. So here, for this In Depth, it seems a good time to take a brief look back at the career of My Bloody Valentine (MBV).
Life in the beginning
In 1978, Kevin Shields met Colm Ó Ciosóig at a karate tournament in South Dublin, with the pair becoming good friends. They formed a band, The Compex, with another friend, Liam Ó Maonlaí, performing mostly Sex Pistols and Ramones covers. When Ó Maonlaí left to form the Hothouse Flowers, Shields and Ó Ciosóig formed a new post-punk band, A Life In The Day.
1983 saw the beginning of My Bloody Valentine, when Shields and Ó Ciosóig teamed up with singer David Conway (who sang under the pseudonym David Stelfox). Shields later claimed that he was unaware that the band name was shared with a 1981 Canadian horror movie. April saw Stephen Ivers come in on guitar, and Mark Ross join on bass, and the new band rehearsed in a space near the Temple Bar district of the city, which was owned by local booker, Aidan Walsh.
By December, Ross had been replaced by Paul Murtagh, who himself didn't hang around long, departing in early 84. In March, the trio of Shields, Conway and Ó Ciosóig, recorded a demo at Shields' parents house in Killiney. Shields and Ó Ciosóig added some overdubs, and it was good enough for the band to secure a contract with Tycoon Records.
Get out!
The revolving door of band members continued, with Ivers moving on this time. Tina Durkin, the girlfriend of Conway, was persuaded to join as a keyboard player. Around this time, Shields approached local Dublin music legend Gavin Friday (leader of Irish indie faves, the Virgin Prunes and good mate of Bono Vox), asking for advice. What he was told was fairly simple and to the point - "get out of Dublin." Friday secured them a show in the Netherlands, where they ended up staying for nine months, before moving on to Berlin, where they recorded a mini album, This Is Your Bloody Valentine. The album didn't garner much attention and the band ended up in London, via another brief stint in the Netherlands.
Durkin, lacking any confidence in her musical ability, left the band at this point, meaning more recruitment was needed. Shields was given a phone number for Debbie Googe, and they auditioned her as a bassist. This new line up rehearsed at Salem Studios in London and connected with Fever Records, who were impressed by them, agreeing to release a record, if the band funded its recording.
Geek! and another New Record
A new EP, Geek! was released in December 1985, but again failed to make many ripples, and the band were left gigging the London circuit. As Shields contemplated packing it in and moving to New York to stay with some of his family there, a new avenue opened up. Joe Foster was a co-founder of Creation Records, and had just set up a new label, Kaleidoscope Sound, and he persuaded MBV to come and do another EP for him.
No Place To Go (from the Geek! EP): https://youtu.be/jPU6evxk7X4
The New Record By My Bloody Valentine EP finally got them some attention, making it to number 22 on the Indie Chart, in October 1986.
The bands early influences had included the Birthday Party, the Cramps and Joy Division, as well as dark gothic acts like the Cure and Siouxsie And The Banshees. As they progressed, the music evolved and started to include references from hip hop and even some slightly poppier moments. The band developed something of a reputation for their sound, with a New York Times article in 2021 reflecting;
The group became notorious for the volume of its physically overwhelming live performances, and learned how to harness that noise across a series of increasingly acclaimed releases exploring the ambient and textural potential of the guitar.
1987 saw another single and another record label. This time, Sunny Sundae Smile was released on Lazy Records, which had been founded by group, The Primitives. This time they were into the Indie top ten, reaching the dizzy heights of number 6, and gaining a support slot with the Soup Dragons. During this tour, the next personnel bombshell was dropped, with Conway announcing his departure.
Sunny Sundae Smile: https://youtu.be/BMBjKDSznuM
A dreadful set of auditions followed Conway's exit, and as things looked like they might fall apart again, Bilinda Butcher was sent their way. She had played a little classical guitar and sang for fun, as a child, and for her audition, sang The Bargain Store by Dolly Parton. She was in. It was decided that Butcher and Shields would take up co-lead singing duties. Lazy were putting them under pressure to produce an album, but the band didn't want to, citing the need to get this new line up settled in. A compromise was reached, and the three track single Strawberry Wine came out in November 87, followed the next month by another single, Ecstasy. Both received reasonable feedback and again made an impression in the Indie top twenty.
Creation of Loveless
MBV got to support Biff Bang Pow! in Canterbury, in January 1988, a collective that included a certain Alan McGee, with McGee calling MBV "the Irish equivalent of Husker Dü." They recorded five songs in a week for Creation (something that would later prove to be anomalous), and You Made Me Realise EP followed in August. Their debut album was finally recorded in Wales and in November, Isn't Anything made it out into the world. It made number one on the Indie chart.
You Made Me Realise: https://youtu.be/L3hYEwCmMhY
February 1989 saw the band already starting work on album number two, spending time at Blackwing Studio in Southwark. Given how quickly they worked the previous year, Creation got the impression that this next album could be knocked out sharply. They couldn't have been more wrong....
Feed Me With Your Kiss: https://youtu.be/9rxE0Mr_U8U
In fact, work on the album would happen in a further nineteen studios, with a wide range of engineers! Progress, it's fair to say, was slow....
The process was so long in fact, that the band had to release other work in the meantime, to keep people happy. First, the Glider EP came out in April 1990, and incredibly the following February, with the band still ensconced in various studios, the single Tremelo was launched to the top of the Indie chart. It was well received, with the illustrious Brian Eno saying that "it set a new standard for pop."
It would be November 1991 before second album Loveless finally dropped. So, was it worth the wait?
Only Shallow: https://youtu.be/FyYMzEplnfU
When You Sleep: https://youtu.be/hcOhXThqh_0
Well, it is said to have been a huge inspiration on the likes of Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Mogwai and Nine Inch Nails. Head Pumpkin, Billy Corgan, admitted that Daydream, the closer on their debut Gish, was "a complete rip off of the MBV sound." Dele Fadele, writing in NME, said, "Loveless fires a silver-coated bullet into the future, daring all-comers to try and recreate its mixture of moods, feelings, emotions, style, and yes, innovation." Andrew Perry, in Sounds, was more to the point, saying that it was "an album without parallel."
Quiet times and reunions
Loveless was said to have cost Creation £250,000 to record, a figure disputed by some, but either way it was enough to get the band dropped. In October 1992, with an advance from Island Records, they built a home studio in Streatham, London. If anyone thought that album three might prove to be a little smoother, they would be sadly mistaken. Tech problems were causing the band to get into a 'semi-meltdown'. Between 1993 and 96, only two bits of music saw the light of day - both covers. A version of We Have All The Time In The World (Louis Armstrong) was contributed to the Peace Together album (put together to promote peace in Northern Ireland); and then a cover of Map Ref 41°N 93°W was done for the Whore:Tribute To Wire album.
It didn't get any better in 1995; a year which saw both Googe and Ó Ciosóig leave the band. Googe had a brief stint as a taxi driver, before forming Snowpony. Ó Ciosóig moved to the US, hooking up with Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, to become Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions.
Shields and Butcher persevered on the third album, hoping to get it out in 1998, but by the end of 97, Butcher had also left. Shields was in danger of losing his way a bit, and going a bit like a Brian Wilson, but ended up joining Primal Scream as a touring member.
MBV were quiet for the best part of the decade, save for the odd reunion rumour. But the rumour in 2007, that the band would be performing at 2008s Coachella festival, ended up being true. In fact, on 13 June 2008, the band made the first live appearance in sixteen years, in a warm up gig at the Institute Of Contemporary Arts in London. This was followed by Coachella, some other festivals and a full summer and autumn tour.
Third album, m b v, finally came out in early 2013. It seems to have been worth the wait, with a slew of four star reviews. Jason Heller, for the A.V. Club, said it "stands as something potentially timeless - and immediately breathtaking."
Things continue to move very slowly on the MBV front. Shields was supposedly working on the fourth album in autumn 2017, with a 2018 release date rumoured, but that never materialised. In 2021, when their back catalogue was released on streaming services, Shields again noted that a new album was in the works.
If I Am: https://youtu.be/VJ0axgeNbWU
There are many still waiting with bated breath for this to happen.
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