2023 Charity Shop Purchases #58 - 18 Wheeler - Formanka
A recent trip to Troon saw the obligatory visit to the Oxfam book and music shop. Happily amongst all the usual suspects I was able to come up with something reasonably interesting.
I must admit I had never heard of the band 18 Wheeler but it was on Creation and had an interesting cover. It turns out that Formanka which is the second of their three albums from 1995 seems pretty good. Shades of Oasis in places but by and large it is more jingly jangly and more reminicent of another Creation band at that time Teenage Fanclub.
Had I known about it at the time it would have got a few points in SWC's Creation Records Countdown.It will be interesting to see whether it makes the top 20 and if so how high.
It turns out that they are a Scottish band and that their main claim to fame appears to be that they were the band that Oasis were supporting at King Tuts when Alan McGhee "discovered" them. More interestingly guitarist and singer David Keenan is now a cult author who wrote This is Memorial Device amongst others.
I can tell you now 18 Wheeler scored Nil points.
ReplyDeleteSwc
They would have got a couple had I found this album a couple of months ago
DeleteBlimey, it's been a long time since I thought about 18 Wheeler. They were one of a number of Creation acts that didn't quite make it in the mid-1990s, in spite of considerable promotion. They don't sound too bad nearly 30 years on.
ReplyDeleteI think 18 Wheeler may have suffered from some bad press. I quite liked and bought a few of their singles They/Creation had impeccable taste in remixers - The Aloof, Ultra Living, Bentley Rhythm Ace, William Orbit - so I tended to go for them over the albums. These selections were pretty good.
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