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Monday 30 October 2023

The Soup Dragons

 


Last week I visited Big Blue the HQ of Last Night From Glasgow to renew my annual subscription for 2024. While there I collected some albums that were due in 2023. I had one slot to fill so I opted for Raw TV Products -Singles & Rarities 1985-'88 by The Soup Dragons.

The Soup Dragons were one of the myriad of bands who emerged from the Lanarkshire town of Bellshill in the early 80s - think Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits, the Vaselines etc,etc

The band consisted of Sean Dickson on vocals/guitar ( you may now know him better as HiFi Sean), Jim McCulloch on guitar, Ross Sinclair on drums and Sushil K Dade (aka Future Pilot AKA) on bass.

Championed by John Peel they grew a cult following with many of their songs featuring in the independent charts  and in the Festive 50. In 1990 they achieved a massive hit with I'm Free peaking at number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.

The songs that feature on this album are  maybe not as polished as I'm Free but they ooze raw energy. As Pete Paphides writes in his sleeve notes on the back cover -it's the velocity I love. The fearless velocity. The conviction that it will be forever like this.

Tremendous stuff.

The Soup Dragons - Pleasantly Surprised

The Soup Dragons - Slow Things Down

6 comments:

  1. SD were one of my favorite bands in the mid 80s. Seems like I have to check this release. Thanks for introducing me to this CC

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  2. The original line-up is back together and has a new double A-side 7" out on LNFG. Not a patch on that early stuff though.

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  3. Feels like I should have made more effort to see them in Manc the other night

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  4. This was the only period in their history that I liked, but it was a great little run.

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