I was sitting in the music room the other day listening to a record ( Exit Light by Raveloe since you asked) when I caught sight of Rifferama by Thrum in my peripheral vision on the CD shelves.
That was the next thing to listen to sorted. And what a splendid racket it was too. The album was released in 1994 on the Fire label but it was not until 2018 that the band crossed my radar.
I had just seen the Gracious Losers put on a tremendous show at the Glad Cafe when in a conversation with Ian Smith the head honcho of Last Night from Glasgow he mentioned that three of the band members had previously been in Thrum.-singer Monica Queen, guitarist Johnny Smillie and drummer Gary Johnston. The one member who was involved was bassist Dave McGovern.
Given this information I very quickly sourced a copy of Rifferama and was pretty much blown away. I have mentioned this before but there was a cut out album review tucked into the sleevnotes of the CD which states that Thrum's unique selling point is Monica Queen's plaintive, occasionally soaring vocal. The person who had cut it out had written immediately following that just like Maria McKee and you can certainly see the comparison. Monica's recent sole album Stop That Girl on LNFG/Creeping Bent is well worth a listen.
Here are two songs from the album which haven't featured in the two previous posts on this band/album.
Liked both of those tracks. I think I've been confusing Monica Queen with somebody else. In my mind there's a John Peel link but I can't find any trace of a Thrum session with him. Perhaps he just played some of their songs. Maybe I'm mixing up her with someone else possibly Manda Rin of Bis, who knows? I do though have a CD on my shelves by Monica, Ten Sorrowful Mysteries, sadly neglected though it is. I'll fish it out one of these days.
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