And their commitment to trying different styles of music is probably what I dislike most about them. They remind me of X-Factor, a different theme each week, none of which Gillespie manages to make his own.

Still, a few mates of mine love them and went to the Screamadelica show, shovelled down an appropriate amount of narcotics and had the night of their lives.

as opposed to the Charlatans - Primal Scream are genre-hopping bandwagon jumping rocknroll charlatans BUT have made some superb music along the way. At one point, around the XTRMNTR album say, they were one of the best live bands I've seen. Shame that they could be quite innovative and different but then go and blow it with lame rocknroll cliches and songs with titles like "Suicide Sally & Johnny Guitar" and "Dolls (Sweet Rock&Roll)".

My verdict: Fun to listen to, occaisonal brilliant song or two, good to see live but definitely not to be taken seriously. Bobby Gillespie is a music fan living out his Keith Richards, Johnny Thunders rocknroll dream, so fair play to him.

trying to be hard stuff. It undermines anything good they've done. At the end of the day the songs are so-so, the lyrics banal and the voice slightly below average.

Yes, Boaby is a hopeless namedropping bandwagoneer but no-one will dissuade me in the opinion that "Country Girl" was the best single of the past decade and the best song never recorded by The Faces.

I think 'Vanishing Point' is excellent too, better than 'Screamadelica' for me, which I feel hasn't dated that well, 'Loaded' aside. I like the dubby/psychedelic aspect of it. I'd say their collaborators (Weatherall etc) made them better than they really are - hence the sad state of some other product. 'Give Out..' is all right I reckon, certainly better than recent efforts.

Bobby Gillespie may be a bit of a twat. Many seem to think so. I guess it's partly the whole supposed wannabe, edgy, rock legend pose. I think he seems genuine in his love of music though, even if it appears to be just the cliched cool bands he name checks.

It is enough I'd say, after all some bands reputation is built on one decent album, after which they produced crap. Enough for what though? To be considered as having made some great records? Yes I think so.

I'm interested in getting a copy please.

I went on the saturday night and it was a great show. I've seen them a few times and enjoyed them. My brother saw them a Glastonbury a few years ago and they were terrible apparently. I think they are better behaved when it's their own gig. I agree that they have been a bit hit & miss overal but they have produced some really good tracks. Country girl always seems to get a good response when it comes on at the local to a really mixed bag of people. They are what they are - and at times I think they have only just managed to keep the wheels on the wagon as a band. Long may they continue to do so.

...who has a very large soft spot for Give Up, But Don't Give Out.

Yes, I know all its shortcomings, but I always enjoy it.

First they wanted to be the Byrds,then The Stone Roses,The Stones,Depeche Mode.
I'm expecting a Grime album from them shortly.
Isn't Screamadelica basically an Andy Weatherall album with Bobby G mumbling away ? And to support popular belief, Mr Gillespie is a Total A***. Have had to resort to things unbecoming a gentleman with him on two seperate occasions when he lived in Brighton.

Tell!!!

I think Primal Scream are boring, to be honest.

Fake isn't necessarily a problem, nor even trying-too-hard-to-be-cool. But their music is just uninvolving, dull and impossible to love, to my ears - totally lacking in any of the qualities of their idols.

I've never met Bobby Gillespie, and for all I know, he may well be an annoying, dislikeable **%$@??, but even that wouldn't be a problem if only the talentless junkie waster could actually, yer know, *sing*... even a little. Or move me. Even a little.

His legs are thinner than my arms.
Once he was asked to drink up after time i was told to go away impolitely,he was given one more chance. I was then told that because he's Scottish i should be afraid. He was then escorted from Premises quite roughly.
Second one,he was in a club on the seafront,he walked behind the bar and asked to see his Mate who was DJing,Mr Weatherall (nice chap)while upstairs he broke into a room and was ignoring the advice of Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel,so was a famous Brighton DJ who knows DLT,Simon Bates etc . The same abuse followed,he was again led, with reasonable force your honour, from the club.

BTW-Swastika Eyes sounded like Depeche to these ears.

I love Screamadelica, and I think the clever bit was to essentially incorporate what were basically remixes into the album rather than leave them as extra tracks.

It was quite a brave move for them to put out a track like 'Don't Fight it Feel It' which is essentially a really minimal dance track, doesn't have the singer on it and not much in the way of guitars. They let the producers and mixers run riot with their tracks and I found that approach quite refreshing and they never made any secret of the contribution of Alex Patterson and Andy Weatherall. I heard on a documentary that Weatherall's co-producer Hugo Nicholson deserves a lot of the credit too.

A few other bits are good and I've enjoyed some great, and not-so great live shows of theirs. I had an unpleasant experience in Leeds in an overcrowded venue full of fat sweaty football hooligans reliving their Ecstacy days and shouting for 'Loaded' at the time when the band were deep into their thrashy Krautrock phase. Cans rained down on the stage and Mani tried to calm the situation by singing 'Manchester La La La...'

There is something a bit unloveable about them though, something dead about Bobby G's eyes don't you think? and they have drifted increasingly into pastiche of late, with almost Rutles-esque takes on The Faces or the Rolling Stones.

I heard the 'Screamdelica' show on 6 Music and I thought it sounded fun but they did seem to be jamming each track out to almost breaking point. It sounded really slick, but I preferred the way they did it at the time live, struggling to re-create it with samplers and wheezing bits of technology rather than a stage full of session players. I remember Higher than the Sun came out as a tumbling mess of mis-firing samples, but it didn't matter once the bass kicked in and Bobby G did his 'Mick Jagger flapping about in a gale' dance..

An apprentice printer - what an obnoxious, arrogant little tosspot he was. Bet he speaks highly of me though!!

is their best by miles. Followed by 'Screamedelica'. Everything else they've done is pants.

But, they are the best live band I have ever seen (headlining Reading in 1994) Simply awesome.

Yes, they've had some dodgy moments, but in Screamadelica, Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR they have made ABSOLUTE BRILLIANCE

They are also possibly the best live band I've seen with the eyes in my head too.

Not much beats cranking Rocks or Dolls up to 11 and reminding yourself why you love music in the first place.

I don't care if they are derivative/inconsistent/wankers, those songs and others like them still sound great to me.

and shake my funky stuff, rather than the jumping about in random fashion. Reading 2000 they were in full on XTRMTR mode and were fabulous. One of the best live bands out there.

To quote from David Quantick's Blagger's Guide radio series 'they are so derivative they are listed on the futures market' and they might all be cunts (although Mani is a lovely chap and gave them a much needed shot in the arm) but I really couldnae give a shite. PRML SCRM MTHRFKRS

Always liked Screamadelica but XTRMNTR's the one for me. I'd pay good money to hear that in it's entirety,....even Bobby's 'unique' rapping on Pills, which admittedly took some getting used to at first.

Best gig ever at the Hammy Palais.

That is all.

Double post. Anyone else having problems posting?

And they were one of the best live bands in the world around that time. Saw them in Manchester and had the bizarre site of Peter Hook, Bernard Summner and Mark E Smith all stood behind me watching.

I'd agree with much of the above. They're woefully inconsistent and Bobby Gillespie, a man who seems to take himself far too seriously, can be a bit of a plonker. But to people of a certain age and musical disposition Screamadelica is a classic. And, from where I was standing, November's Screamadelica shows were bloody brilliant. I'd advise anyone who loved the album back then to see the new shows in May.

....is their finest moment and the second best album of 1997 (behind Ok Computer and ahead of Urban Hymns) and any doubters should wave their ears in the direction of Star, Burning Wheel and Get Duffy.

Screamadelica is THE album of the early 90s. At the time it did seem like a bit of a rip off but in hindsight the idea of an album made up largely of 12" mixes of already released singles is surely part of what makes it such an era defining album. Not to mention Inner Flight and Shine Like Stars, neither of which were singles.

XTRMNTR was indeed their other great acheivement, if a little hard going at times. I saw them at Brixton in 2000 and the couple of more uplifting tracks they played from Screamadelica were a welcome relief for the pilled up crowd in a set largely made up of XTRMNTR's politico-noise fest. But when you're in the right mood XTRMNTR is a truly thrilling experience

So as per the original post - three great albums which meant that by 2000 they could potentially have gone down as one of the greats. But boy, did they blow it. Evil Heat was XTRMNTR only less so and without the politics. And thereafter it was almost a case of "..well that didn't work.. so let's try this...". That said, Riot Ciy Blues is partially redeemed by the lovely closing track, Sometimes I Feel So Lonely and Beautiful Future did have the surging disco shimmer of Uptown amid the largely pedestrian stab at making a pop album.

So a top ten then... in no particular order:

Losing More Than I'll Ever Have (from Primal Scream)
Higher Than the Sun (from Screamadelica)
Inner Flight (from Screamadelica)
Shine Like Stars (from Screamadelica)
Carry Me Home (from the Dixie Narco EP)
Burning Wheel (from Vanishing Point)
Star (from Vanishing Point)
Out of the Void (from Vanishing Point)
Shoot Speed Kill Light (from XTRMNTR)
Sometimes I feel So Lonely (from Riot City Blues)

...spotify that doubters...

I loved Nicky Wire of the Manic's answer when asked if he rated Primal Scream. He used the analogy of how Terry Venables as a football manager was criticized as "always talking a good game", in that he'd talk expertly in interviews about tactics and teamwork, but didn't get the great results on the pitch. Nicky Wire then added
" Well we think Bobby Gillespie talks a good song "

Also got an England team to the semi finals of Euro 1996.

I've concluded that the H8terz are just WRONG. Screamdelica, Vanishing Point, XTRMTR and, yes, Uptown are all fantastic life affirming records,

To the bloke who said he'd never heard anything moving from Gillespie and co. - check out Keep Your Dreams or Cry Myself Blind. Generally don't let your dislike of Bobby get in the way of the fantastic music. Who cares if he gets a bit scrappy after a couple of scoops and a bit of gear? He's hardly Gary Glitter.

There are people on another thread who are seriously bemoaning the lack of respect afforded to Cliff Richard for Christ's sake! This has given me a new perspective on peoples' dislike of the Scream, Oasis and any other 90s band you care to mention. They must have gone at it too hard in the 60s....

I'd never knowingly heard anything by them when I saw them at Hop Farm a couple of years back when the were 2nd on the bill to Neil Young.
I'd heard they were a fantastic live act and I was told I was in for a real treat.
I really couldn't see what the fuss was about.

that takes me back, I'm still in the car park.

as mentioned elsewhere here, depend completely on your age/knowledge of British and US rock history. To be grossly generalist: If you were born post 1975 there is a fair chance your first exposure to them is pretty epiphanous (if thats a word...), if your born before then (1960 me.) it's all stuff you've rather heard before in some form or other, together with the rocknroll drinkies, Gack hoovering, sneery badboyism.

It's not bad, in fact it's perhaps even better then the originals in some way, it's just not new to us old blokes. We suspect it's all been a bit of a lark/marketing spin dressed up in bogus significance of something or other. A craving for which - it can't just be entertaining (and we're back at Cliff) - British music has had a curious weakness for since the moptops.

Gillespie especially has always come across as someone who'se spent a long time "familiarising" himself with the life of Bowie/Jagger/Morrison etc etc. THe complaining about the pub noise really just puts the lid back on the biscuit tin of him being an aggravating little twerp who got lucky.

If you like it and feel it's innovative, and it was for you, then treasure it and enjoy. I used to feel the same way about Dexy's Midnight Runners - Kevin Rowland being a similarly single minded musical blotting board, who had a talent for recycling earlier music, allied to an appropiate attitude (for a while anyway.). But genuinely groundbreaking? Nah.

One more thing(s):Is Gillespie 6ft tall? For some reason I always assumed he was rat faced little runt. Also, the bloke from Brighton would have done us all a huge favor by taking him round the back and explaining some "legs do break" realities. God, I hate professional Glaswegians...

...Gillespie to be one of the more detestable public figures I can readily think of, and think that 90% of what I've heard of his music is deeply average. The other 10% is really quite good. I don't know whether that's luck or just indicative of how much of a twat drugs make you.

Mostly, my aversion to Primal Scream is based on him and him alone. I'd forgive him if the music was half as good as he talks it, but to my ears it's too "meh" too much of the time for me to change my opinion.

Still, you've got to hand it to him. If he weren't such a gobby cockspanner, the chances are I'd just file PS away with all the other indie bands who I don't bother getting aerated about. His mouth at least means he's close to top of my (and many others') list of musical irritants, which has got to be better PR than anonymity.

Marvellous. Have an up for that.