Entertainment For Lively Minds
Del Amitri - now there was a band!
Posted by Uncle Wheaty on 10 July 2009 - 8:40pm.
I love Del Amitri and the last solo album by Justin Currie was marvellous.
A lot of my mates used to take the piss for me liking them but they are still one of the bands I regularly listen to.
Class music never dies!
A few top,10 albums in the UK suggest I wasn't alone.
Any thoughts?
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Loved
Nothing Ever Happens
Yeah
That was just a fabulous, fabulous song on so many levels.
This was a fave of mine back in the day
slightly downbeat
Don't Come Home To Soon
is the most lovelorn football song ever. Its just sums up the emotion of knowing your not going to win something but still holding a little, stupid hope for success. Very fine indeed.
And...
it could only be about Scotland :-)
As and England and Leeds fan
it works surprisingly well for us as well.
Driving with the brakes on...
Last to know... Both top songs. JC has a great voice... Pop sensibility, well executed. Never hip, but always tuneful. The Scottish Crowded House?
Excellent analogy.
I got into both bands around the same time and the comparison holds up well. Quality songs well played, can't beat it as a formula.
Spot on, Wheatmaster
Kiss This Thing Goodbye is a masterpiece. Nothing Ever Happens; ditto. A great band. I always thought Diesel Park West were a bit like them. Sort of nice but a bit spiky at the same time.
Be My Downfall
was a favourite of mine, and I still play their albums every so often. Takes me back to my student days.
Don't worry about people taking the piss out of your music taste
Wheaty... it happens to us all. Just wallow in the fact that your musical taste is impeccable and everyone else's is seriously flawed. ;)
Just wallow in the fact that your musical taste is impeccable an
And therein lies the rub.
No finer words, etc.
We ALL have to bear this in mind. All the time.
Del Boy Amitri
This is weird, I was just thinking about doing a thread about Del Amitri tonight and you beat me to it! Great minds think alike! I was out a couple of weeks ago and my mates satrting chuckling when I mentioned Del Amitri. Great band and Justin is a wonderful writer. Must buy his solo album soon. Roll To Me is the perfect short and catchy pop song. The radio station Atlantic 252 seemed to play it all the time. Currie is a drunk genius.
I have a bootleg somewhere...
....and they cover Steve Forbert's "Going Down To Laurel". I'm sure Justin Currie was in the audience last time I saw Forbert at The Tron in Glasgow 2 or 3 years ago.
Del-icious (sorry)
I added my tuppence worth to a thread a while back about great lyrics, in which I put the case for Justin Currie. Some replies at that time suggested similar admiration, which this thread has obviously confirmed. Single-malt melancholy of the highest order, as this clip shows:
What a good song that is...
I've never paid much attention to Del Amitri, but that is a proper song, properly sung. The lyrics are very good as you say and he has the voice to put them across. Classy.
Just Like A Man
Hooked me on them. Be my Downfall is plain gorgeous.
Be my undoing
Be my slow road to ruin...
Always loved that line.
Driving With The Brakes On
Came on the iPod tonight and I sang along as ever. A mighty song indeed, Mr Spinoza. Justin Currie really should have been enormous, looks and talent both being present and correct.
Mention of DA reminds me of the cutest thing I've ever witnessed. My wife was strapping my then 2-year old son, Adam into his child seat when The Last To Know came on the car radio. As she sang along to the opening line, 'So you're in love with someone else', Adam piped up, 'No. Only mummy'. Cue one precocious little sod getting smothered in kisses.
QUIZ QUESTION : What do Del Amitri, Level 42 & Julia Fordham have in common?
Lazy Google answer
They all feature on 'Now That's What I Call Music - Millennium Edition'.
I suspect the answer you're looking for may be a bit more specific...
It's good
But it's not right. They all appeared on the first series of The Fast Show.
Blimey
I don't think I've heard any Del Amitri, or anyone talking about Del Amitri for 10 years.
Remember seeing them back in about '93 and everyone went mental for a track called, if memory serves me correctly, Jimmy Blue.
Personally always loved Nothing Ever Happens - reminds me of driving to school in my mate Dave's Fiesta in the late 80s.
They never really achieved the status of 'cool', did they? Always looked on as a bit odd - well they were where I lived anyway.
This Side of the Morning
providing the soundtrack to my hangover as I write. And now Surface of the Moon - perfect mid-paced melancholic rockola.
Lots of very good - not quite great songs - like that. It strikes me they are spiritual heirs to the Rod of Never a Dull Moment period.
What was it about Scotland in 80s/90s that produced so many fine tunesmiths - Roddy Frame, James Grant, Justin Currie?
I know I'm not allowed to mention Hue & Cry - but am I allowed to say that I like Deacon Blue too? Or is that last night's drink talking?
Be gentle with me - this hangover's bad and I've been up since 6
Don't forget
The "Sunshine On Leith" hitmakers.
What a Hue and Cry
None more pretentious lyrics aside, Pat Kane had, not even arguably, the finest voice of that particular Caledonian vintage.
We'll never agree on this
But in my opinion, the ugly one out of Hue & Cry was (like Ringo) not even the best singer in Hue & Cry.
Pompous overblown stylised twaddle. Red-faced soul.
Aztec Camera's "How Men Are" did all that Hue & Cry wanted to to, better, in 3 minutes- sexual politics with a corking tune.
The original doesn't seem to be on youtube : here's Roddy last year solo
Disagree
I always thought Pat Kane sounded very Pebble Mill at One(-ish). Best singer was Gary Clark (Danny Wilson), by a country mile.
Gary Clark
Seconded.
When I was
Gary's prayer?
Mind you
I assume we are ignoring Paul Buchanon from the comparison.
You have to be called Paul
to be a top rank British singer.
Paul Carrack. Paul Rodgers. Paul Buchanan
And, Steve Winwood.
Apauling theory. Still hungover
Lynsey de Paul
;)
Oops
That was in reply to Dougie J. I'm inclined to agree with elhombremalo.
Have to Disagree
if only for 'Labour of Love'
Oh, ok then...
Danny Boys/Del Boys
Danny Wilson's 1st album (apart from "ruby's wedding" which I still can't listen to) and "Tell her this" By Del Amitri are sublime, as is anything by Orange Juice. Hue and Cry can frankly bugger off.
I saw Del Amitri
in 1985 or thereabouts when they were fey sub Orange Juice wannabes as far as I recall. Not much of a fan of their later stuff. Loved Aztec Camera though.
I think that was the first line-up?
I knew a guy at school in the very early 80s who kept mentioning this band he was the drummer in, called Del Amitri - Paul Tyagi (?) - and although I was surprised to see them release an album and a couple of singles I never got into them.
I think Justin sacked the rest (or they just left), and it was only thereafter they became big.
The reason I mention this is that about the same time I had a similar experience with a guy I worked with at Fine Fare (now there's a nostalgia name!). He was called Ross Sinclair and mentioned he was drummer in a band called the Soup Dragons. Again, they had a few minor indie records, he left, and only then did they become (sort of) big - remember their cover of I'm Free?
Moral of the story - if you're the drummer in band who has high hopes, stay away from me.
Born In The Wrong Place
I always thought that if they had been American they wouldn't have had such a kicking from the critics [and public too.]
The Storys
Strike me as making a similar rockist racket to Del Amitri from what I've heard of them.
Quite good in a not bad kind of way
Saw them about 7 times...
...they were uniformly excellent on each occasion. One of the few bands from that era who still get a spin on my jukebox.
Kiss This Thing Goodbye 12"
There's a brilliant version of 'This Side of the Morning' which pays homage to the Stones' 'Country Honk' on the above mentioned 12". I think it is anyway, I have the etched picture disc - I know
Danny Wilson were a great
Danny Wilson were a great live band, and fond of the odd Abba tune if memory serves correctly. Isn't Gary Clark now one of those songwriters for hire that Word likes to go on about?
Gary Clarke,
Is one of the great unsung songwriters.
My first ever gig was Del Amitri at Aston Villa Leisure Centre in 1995 (when i was 13) with Gary Clarke's "King L" in support.
Del Amitri were great, but King L really were fantastic. a lot rockier than Danny Wilson with some nice countryesque tinges. Their album "A Great Day For Gravity" is well worth tracking down. There's a song called "greedy" on there which is my dad's favourite song of all time.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-Day-Gravity-King-L/dp/B0000071CV
Also Gary's later band "Transister" are worth a listen, more electronic with a female vocalist. you can get it for 1p from amazon so it'd be silly not to!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transistor/dp/B000024A43/ref=pd_cp_m_h__2
Best Scottish Singer?
Frankie Miller.
Contest over, I believe?
Pass me that single malt ...
"The disappointment of success
hangs from your shoulders like a hand-me-down dress ..."
Johnny Cash, Elvis and BobMarley
all with Scottish Ancestry.
Whenever...
they played Liverpool they always started with a Beatles' song (I can recall great versions of Come Together and Daytripper) and they would walk on stage, laughing, to Long Haired Lover From Liverpool - the audience loved it. Also remember them doing Neil Young's "Don't Cry No Tears". Totally uncool band (for reasons I don't really know - possibly the muttonchops) but great musicians.
Also consistently great
I can't think of a duff album, and if anything "Can you do me good?" is my favourite. Must listen to that solo album!
Not a mention of Roll To Me either...
There's a Del Amitri tune I really liked
Met Justin Currie once. Told him I spent a lot of time as a teenager trying to grow mutton chops like his. He was very gracious.
Self aware
Think this ace little tune sums up the Dels quite well:
http://www.muzu.tv/delamitri/not-where-its-at-music-video/236699
Great lyric:
"I don't have my finger on
the pulse of my generation
I just got my hand on my heart
I know no better location"
It's all in the phrasing. Quite Macca-ish I feel.
How's this
for a world-weary admission that the band's career is over (last track on last album):
And in that weightlessness that comes with good luck
The one thing you don't expect is feeling the drop
Look at me, I'm the one who got away, and then came crawling back
I try to do my best, but I guess I never had the knack
So if you see me walking, and you're wondering why
It's just the business of life
If you're not getting lucky, you're just getting by.
Jimmy Blue A Musical
I just stumbled across this thread. Like you all I am a huge Del Amitri and Justin Currie fan. I have given up trying to work out how James "Rhyming Slang" Blunt can be played on every radio station and yet Justins astonishing "What Is Love For" was widely ignored. Anyway I decided to write a script for a musical using Del Amitri songs " Jimmy Blue". If you want to listen to 16 Dels classics in a different format (Roll To Me as a lesbian song of love!) please go to http://daveross.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/jimmy-blue-by-david-ross-with-t...
I hope you enjoy it
Dave