Friday, September 29, 2017

ABCs of My Vinyl Collection (Letter F, Part 3)

Alan Horne wanted them, but Bob Last was the one that snagged Fire Engines. Their first shows outside of Edinburgh were with Orange Juice and Josef K in Glasgow, playing for the likes of Bobby Gillespie, Alan McGee and the brothers Reid. Can you imagine? Actually, if you think about who was there, it all starts to make sense. In their short time together, the impact of Fire Engines would be dramatic and far reaching.

If you weigh both sides, I think the "Candyskin" 7" is the band's best single, and that's where we start today. Davy Henderson trades in the yelps for more conventional vocals and produces an indie smash, but it's the instrumental B-side akin to the earlier recordings that gets more plays in this house. What a racket! Follow-up single "Big Gold Dream" is as commercial as Fire Engines ever got, and it would prove to be the end of the road for the band. Henderson said shortly after, "Around the time of the second John Peel Session, we were shit -- our compass was a fake -- we should have trusted our magnets -- we should've trusted our inability." A great song, nonetheless.

I really enjoyed pulling out these two seven-inch singles last night. In 2007, Acute released the band compilation 'Hungry Beat' on an inferior format, and I was first in line. Ever since, whenever I have needed a fix of Fire Engines, I have played this CD, leaving these perfect pieces of vinyl to collect dust. I pledge to right that wrong starting right now.

"Candyskin"
"Meat Whiplash"

Big Gold Dream"
"Sympathetic Anaesthetic"

7 comments:

drew said...

Did you manage to bag a copy of the sexual Objects album earlier in the year Brian? I missed out, a day to late in going into Monorail but I have heard that it is very good.

Brian said...

Hey, Drew. I haven't heard a note of Marshmallow. Forgot all about it until your comment. Thanks for the reminder. Gotta get on that. There's no excuse.

The Swede said...

Former Fall member Marc Riley has his own radio show on 6Music Mon-Thurs every week and as well as featuring new music, he keeps his listeners up to date with the latest projects of many of his old mates, Davy Henderson among them. The Fire Engines, Nectarine No.9 and Sexual Objects regularly get a spin on the show. Great to hear these four tunes back to back this morning.

Charity Chic said...

What a brilliant song Candyskin is

Brian said...

Swede, Davy continues to keep 'em guessing. Cool that you have a program like that to keep you up on things. Needless to say, I don't have anything like that in these parts.

CC, You said it!

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JC said...

The exact point where the strings kick in on 'Candyskin' is one of the greatest moments in musical history.

One my most joyous moments over the years was the first time I featured this on the old blog - it got a barrowload of responses, including from some of those who played on the record.