I have written about Stuart Adamson more than once here - he was (and is) my musical hero. I have admired him, his songwriting and musicianship since I was thirteen, and although he has been gone far too long, today gives me a chance to celebrate him once more.
Today would have been his 65th birthday, so to mark that, we start one of our musical journeys on the Six Degrees trail towards Kevin Shields.
William Stuart Adamson was born in Manchester on 12 April 1958 to William and Anne, but they had moved back to Scotland, to the village of Crossgates (just outside Dunfermline), when he was still young. In 1976, Adamson saw the Damned play in Edinburgh and went off to form his own band, Tattoo. From that came the Skids in 1977, with friend William Simpson on bass, Thomas Kellichan on drums and a young Richard Jobson as the singer. Kellichan left just before recording began on their second album, Days In Europa (1979), being replaced on the album and tour by Rusty Egan. Adamson would stay with the band until 1981, before heading in a new direction, forming Big Country and going on to more success.
The Skids: Animation / Working For The Yankee Dollar - https://youtu.be/McEakgwlBgE
Big Country: In A Big Country - https://youtu.be/NMeipHcDmbI (turn it up!!)
Rusty Egan, prior to his stint with the Skids, had been with new wave band the Rich Kids, which included ex-Pistol Glen Matlock, Steve New and future Ultravox crooner, James 'Midge' Ure. That band lasted from March 1977 until December 1978, and after that Egan played with the Skids, Shock, Misfits and Visage. He went on to be a DJ at Blitz, a new nightclub in London, where he worked with Steve Strange (Visage), introducing synth pop sounds from around the world, through the likes of Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra (including Ryuichi Sakamoto, who recently passed) and Brian Eno. He also owned a record shop, The Cage, on the King's Road. In 1982, with Strange and Kevin Millins, he opened the Camden Palace. He has also worked as a record producer, including for Shock, Visage, The Senate and Spear Of Destiny.
Rich Kids: Rich Kids - https://youtu.be/PIfFUDt4Grw
Spear Of Destiny formed in London in 1982, the creation of Kirk Brandon (the only continuous member) and Stan Sammers (bass). They have had one top twenty hit in their career, Never Take Me Alive, in 1987. Their reputation was as a good live band and were one of the five guest bands at the mammoth U2 Milton Keynes Bowl show in June 1985. Among a fairly constant revolving procession of band members, Dolphin Taylor joined them on drums in late 83, staying with them until 1986.
Spear Of Destiny: Never Take Me Alive - https://youtu.be/ohN0KIyP8m0
Brian 'Dolphin' Taylor started out in a band called Dragon's Playground in 1976, a band that also included a young Annie Lennox on vocals. That same year, Taylor was asked to join the recently formed Tom Robinson Band, who he would stay with for two years. His next period of prominence came when he replaced Jim Reilly in Northern Irish punk legends, Stiff Little Fingers. Arriving in 1982, he played on the £1.10 Or Less EP and the Now Then album, which would be the last of the original run before they broke up in 1983. After Spear Of Destiny, Taylor returned to a newly reformed SLF in 1987, staying with them until 1996, playing on two further albums. He now runs a company that composes and sells production music.
Stiff Little Fingers: Fly The Flag - https://youtu.be/qsnX6vSqLV0
The Tom Robinson Band, formed in London in 1976, included Tom Robinson (obviously), Danny Kustow on guitar, Dolphin Taylor and Mark Ambler - who started on bass, before they discovered how good he was on keyboards, which forced Robinson to move to bass. They quickly built a good reputation gigging in London and were soon signed up to EMI. Always known as a political band, they made their own badges and t-shirts and were regulars at the Rock Against Racism concerts that were frequently held by the punk community at that time. 2-4-6-8 Motorway gave them a number 5 hit in late 1977, before the Rising Free EP made 18 (recorded live at the Lyceum, it included another big anthem in Glad To Be Gay). Their debut album, Power In The Darkness also made the top five, and was produced by Chris Thomas.
Tom Robinson Band: 2-4-6-8 Motorway - https://youtu.be/psEuhRPc8rk
Chris Thomas became something of a legendary producer, but it started out in the late 60s when he badgered George Martin into giving him a job. He started working for Martin's company, AIR, and was involved with sessions by the Hollies and the Beatles in the early days. In fact, with Martin on holiday, he ended up producing (uncredited) Happiness Is A Warm Gun and Birthday on the so-called White Album. His first solo production credit was for The Climax Chicago Blues Band album by The Climax Blues Band in 1968, before he went on a producing run including multiple albums by Procul Harum, Roxy Music (For Your Pleasure), Badfinger, INXS (Kick and X), the first three Pretenders records and Pulp (Different Class and This Is Hardcore). He was also called in to help mix the legendary Dark Side Of The Moon for Pink Floyd.
Sex Pistols: Pretty Vacant - https://youtu.be/R6GDdKrQ8EI
At the other end of the spectrum, Thomas also ended up involved with the infamous Sex Pistols recordings. His involvement in the project horrified many of his colleagues in the music business. He was employed by Malcolm McLaren to work on the singles, and Bill Price to work on album tracks. As Price would explain, it was much more complicated than that.
"Chris was hired by Malcolm to do a series of singles for the Sex Pistols. I was hired by Malcolm to do a series of album tracks with Sex Pistols. Life got slightly complicated, because I did a few album tracks that Chris remade as singles. Also, Chris started a couple of tracks which got abandoned as singles, which I remade to be used as album tracks. On quite a large number of songs we had two versions of the song.... It slowly dawned on Chris and myself that Malcolm was trying to slip between two stools and not pay Chris or me."
They ended up dividing the money equally between themselves, but because the album covers had been printed long before they knew whose version of each track they would use, they ended up with the slightly odd credits - "produced by Bill Price or Chris Thomas."
In 1994, he also produced Jewel for Marcella Detroit.
Marcella Detroit (born Levy) was a backing singer for Eric Clapton in the 1970s and in fact, co-wrote his 1977 song Lay Down Sally. She released her debut solo album, Marcella, in 1982 and then joined up with ex-Bananarama singer Siobhan Fahey in 1988, to form Shakespears Sister. She was on their two big albums, Sacred Heart (1989) and Hormonally Yours (1992) and sang lead vocal on their biggest hit, Stay in 1992. She left the band in 1993.
Shakespears Sister: Stay - https://youtu.be/YCYaALgW80c
Hormonally Yours hit number three in 1993, reaching double platinum sales. It was co-produced by the band, Chris Thomas and Alan Moulder. Alan Moulder did engineering duties on the Glider EP (1990) and Loveless album (1991) for My Bloody Valentine - who of course include one KEVIN SHIELDS.
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