Del Amitri Info Newsletter 1991
Hallo, are you there?
It’s been many a long decade since Del Amitri (note that capital D!) communicated to the outside world and we apologise to everyone waiting frustratedly for eons for any kind of response to their requests for information or whatever. From now on you should receive communiques on a regular basis (eg: at least twice a decade so be prompt to inform us of any change of address, incarceration, death etc) and we think you’ll find these newsletters both stimulating and enlightening.
Well, in fact we think you’ll find these newsletters irritating, condescending and wholly pointless but you’re not paying for them and it’s really all part of our campaign to add just that little bit more to the destruction of the rainforests, global warming and the proliferation of junk mail. Now on to more serious matters…
For the ignorant, the misinformed or the simply forgetful we present a short biography and a pre-A&M discography
Here goes…
Del Amitri started in the autumn of 1982 when Iain Harvie and Justin Currie auditioned one another for the same band simultaneously. The resulting confusion created two songs that became the Dels’ first vinyl single (there was a flexi-disc in 1981 but seeing as this only involved Justin and his strange schoolfriends we’ll wipe it from history), “Sense Sickness” b/w “The Difference Is” was relelased on the local Glasgow label No Strings in July 1983. This was a record almost stunning in its ineffectiveness to provoke a single reaction in the world at large and the group, whom at this time consisted of Iain, Justin, Bryan Tolland (gtr) and Paul Tyagi (drms) endeavoured to write many more better tunes, just to be on the safe side, as some other chump might be fool enough to ask them once again to make a record.
So indeed it transpired that following the band’s debut radio session for the (still beautiful) John Peel show some fool from Chrysalis Records asked the Dels to do just that. The product of this rather shaky marriage between major label and wilfully amateurish indie-band was the debut L.P. on the Chrysalis offshoot Big Star “Del Amitri”. This L.P. was to have been called “The Horror of Sexual Intercourse” but everyone involved copped out and some awkward questions in interviews were concequently avoided. This release spawned in earnest the original Del Info Service run by former manager of the band Barbara Shores.
This operation quickly turned into the group’s only successful venture, their album enjoying a shomewhat less hectic run in the shops than its contemporary the Sinclair C5. Although the group bitterly complained throughout 1984-’86 that commercial success was never their intention (believe this if you will) it is generally considered a truth that only the hyper-encouragement of the rather over-zealous Del Amitri correspondents through the info service kept the group together at all.
Even if the goup themselves often suspected pitu as their Fan’s main motivation in writing to them, theirs was the only support they had. The rock papers reveilled them, radio spurned them and by 1986 their record company refused to talk to them. Eventually, at the group’s request Chrysalis released them from their contract, leaving Del Amitri penniless and a little dispirited in March.
The only thing left to do was to accept the persistant offers to play in New York for the price of air fares from an extremely devoted fan called Tim. But when other American Info correspondents were invited to this show in Maxwells, New Jersey, they wrote back desperatley insisting that the group come to THEIR house and generally be fanned upon from Athens, Georgia to Los Angeles, C.A. Americans are like this. It was decided that with air fares covered by the Maxwell’s gig, petrol money covered by the other gigs then van-hire and daily expenses (i.e. food) could be covered by busking. So the band’s old friend Kevin McDermott was invited to support and help with the busking and off they set.
Most of this plan went hideously wrong. The first show in New York raised a quarter of the expected cash and busking helped to the tune of twenty two dollars. But somehow, by begging, borrowing, and not eating for long periods, and with the remarkable generosity only found in the U.S., Del Amitri completed a somewhat traumatic coast to coats tour in seven weeks with no money, no agent, no record company, no equipment and absolutely no common sense. This achievement filled the group with pride and a new sense of purpose. So they all went home and got day jobs.
So it was that as waiters, barmen and van drivers Iain and Justin formulated their new vision for Del Amitri. By the autumn of 1987 new songs had been written, demoed and showcased much to the delight of people in large, rich record corporations.
A & M Records and Del Amitri were married in 1987 and the first release was a Christmas flexi-disc sent to only the long-suffering fans on the Info mailing list. This was “Charlies Bar” and featured guitarist Mick Slaven recruited to play on the new L.P. The next task was to make “Waking Hours” which was started completed and abandoned in the summer of ’88 and completely re-recorded to the group’s satisfaction in ’89. This was the album that was released toward the end of that year and toured around the dives and holes of Great Britian by a group now consisting of Iain, Justin, David Cummings (gtr), Brian McDermott (drms) and the even longer suffering Andy Alston on keyboards. However it was not until the release of the album’s third single in January 1990 that everything turned topsy-turvy for Del Amitri. Well, kind of.
The murky heights of Chartdom brought all the fame, glamour and cheap celebrity the group had always secretly coveted and in a desperate attempt to cashin upon this morself of sucess the band remained on the road until Januray 1991, released a string of dubious follow-up singles here and in Australia and America, and generally made friends, talked incessant nonsense on the radio and got drunk a lot. Highlights of that year were gigs at Barralands, Glasgow, The Metro in Chicago, Selinas in Sydney and The Roxy in L.A. These gigs will always be very special to the band and a return to those venues is hoped for the start of next year when the completion of that hippie cult third album is expected.
So, what’s happened this year?
Well, Del Amitri are, to a man, lazy sods. After all that hard work visiting foreign parts and drinking their free beer it was deemed necessary for their little souls to be rested. This lasted about a month before daily life became too traumatic for the band (now rapidly becoming elevated to the status of minor has-beens) and refuge in the rarified atmospheres of international rock stardom was sought. The recording studio seemed the suitable place. Currently holed up in Kilburn or some such glamorous neighbourhood, beetling away at new Del-type ponderings, I think we can expect a new masterwork soon. Triple concept album anyone?
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