Primal Scream

All Music Guide:

Primal Scream's career could in many ways be read as a microcosm of British indie rock in the '80s and '90s. Bobby Gillespie formed the band in the mid-'80s while drumming for goth-tinged noise rockers the Jesus and Mary Chain, who were the exact opposite of Primal Scream -- the latter specialized in infectious, jangly pop on its early records. After a brief detour to punky hard rock, the group reinvented itself as a dance band in the early '90s, following through on the pop and acid house fusions of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. With the assistance of producers Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicholson, Primal Scream created the ultimate indie pop and dance fusion album, Screamadelica, in 1991. Screamadelica broke down boundaries and changed the face of British pop music in the '90s, helping to make dance and techno acceptable to the rock mainstream. Instead of following through on the promise of the album, Primal Scream retreated to Stonesy boogie for their 1994 follow-up, Give Out but Don't Give Up. When that record was greeted with indifference, they returned to dance-rock fusions with 1997's Vanishing Point, which re-established the group as a major force in British rock.

Bobby Gillespie (vocals) formed Primal Scream in 1984, while still drumming for the Jesus and Mary Chain. On its initial releases, Primal Scream was a group of '60s revivalists, crafting hooky, guitar-driven pop songs. The band signed to Creation Records in 1985, and over the next year, they released a pair of singles. However, Primal Scream didn't really take off until the middle of 1986, when Gillespie left the Mary Chain and guitarists Andrew Innes and Robert Young joined the band. "Velocity Girl," a rush of jangly guitars, was a B-side that wound up on NME's C86 cassette compilation, a collection of underground pop groups that defined the U.K.'s mid-'80s indie pop scene. The band's debut, Sonic Flower Groove, fit into the C86 sound. After the band rejected the initial version recorded with Stephen Street, they re-recorded the album with Mayo Thompson, and the record was finally released in 1987 on the Creation subsidiary Elevation. The album was well received in the British indie community, as was its 1989 follow-up, Primal Scream, which demonstrated hard rock influences from the Rolling Stones and New York Dolls to the Stooges and MC5.

As the '80s drew to a close, Britain's underground music scene became dominated by the burgeoning acid house scene. Primal Scream became fascinated with the new dance music, and they asked a friend, a DJ named Andrew Weatherall, to remix a track from Primal Scream, "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have." Weatherall completely reworked the song, adding a heavy bass groove echoing dub reggae, deleting most of the original instrumentation (even the layers of guitars), and interjecting layers of samples, including lines of Peter Fonda's dialogue from The Wild Angels. The new mix was retitled "Loaded," and it became a sensation, bringing rock & roll to the dancefloor and dance to rock & rollers. "Come Together," the first single from their forthcoming third album, was in much the same vein, and was similarly praised.

For their third album, Screamadelica, Primal Scream not only worked with Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicholson, the pair who essentially designed the sound of the album, but also the Orb and former Stones producer Jimmy Miller. The resulting album was a kaleidoscopic, neo-psychedelic fusion of dance, dub, techno, acid house, pop, and rock, and it was greeted with rapturous reviews in the U.K. Released in the spring of 1991, Screamadelica also marked an important moment in British pop in the '90s, helping to bring techno and house into the mainstream. The album was a massive success, winning the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992.

In the wake of the groundbreaking Screamadelica, most observers wondered what Primal Scream would do next, yet few would have predicted their retreat to '70s hard rock for Give Out But Don't Give Up. Released in 1994, the album was eagerly awaited, but its Stonesy hard rock was not well received, and it was a relative commercial failure. More importantly, it hurt the group's reputation as innovators, a situation they reacted to with the title track to the hit 1996 film Trainspotting. Primal Scream's contribution to the soundtrack was a return to the dance stylings of Screamadelica, only darker. The band continued to work on its next album, entitled Vanishing Point, over the course of 1996, finally releasing it to enthusiastic reviews in the summer of 1997. The ultra-aggressive XTRMNTR followed in the spring of 2000. Two years later Primal Scream released Evil Heat, a guest-laden (even supermodel Kate Moss makes an appearance) album in line and on par with XTRMNTR, and in 2006 Riot City Blues came out. Festival shows and gigs with My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields filled out the following year, capped off with the release of the single "Can't Go Back." That single reappeared on the 2008 Suicide and Alan Vega-informed full-length Beautiful Future. In 2011, the band toured in support of the twentieth anniversary of Screamadelica, which resulted in a live DVD. The following year, Mani left to focus on the reunion of The Stone Roses, who Primal Scream went on to support with Debbie Googe from My Bloody Valentine on bass. 2013 began with news that the band were working on their tenth album.

Wikipedia:

Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (keyboards), Simone Butler (bass) and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Cadogan has toured and recorded with the band since 2006 as a replacement after the departure of guitarist Robert "Throb" Young.

The band performed throughout 1982-1984, but their career did not take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band were a key part of the mid-1980s indie pop scene, but eventually moved away from their more jangly sound, taking on more psychedelic and then garage rock influences, before incorporating a dance music element to their sound. Their 1991 album Screamadelica broke the band into the mainstream. Their upcoming album More Light was announced in January, with a scheduled release date of 6 May 2013.

History [edit]

Formation & early years (1982–1985) [edit]

Bobby Gillespie moved to Mount Florida, the southeastern area of Glasgow. There he attended Kings Park Secondary School, where he first met Robert Young. Another schoolfriend was Alan McGee, who took Gillespie to his first gig, a Thin Lizzy concert. McGee and Gillespie were heavily influenced by punk rock, and they joined a local punk band, The Drains, in 1978. The Drains guitarist was a 15-year old Andrew Innes. The band was short-lived, and Innes and McGee relocated to London while Gillespie chose to remain in Glasgow.

After the punk movement ended, Gillespie became disenchanted with mainstream New Wave music. He met up with another schoolfriend who shared his outlook, Jim Beattie, and recorded "elemental noise tapes", in which Gillespie would bang two dustbin lids together and Beattie played fuzz-guitar. They soon moved on to Velvet Underground and Byrds cover songs before starting to write their own songs, based on Jah Wobble and Peter Hook basslines. Gillespie later said that the band "didn't really exist, but we did it every night for something to do." They named themselves Primal Scream, a term for a type of cry heard in primal therapy. Still essentially a partnership, Primal Scream first played live in 1982.

Their first recording session, for McGee's independent label Essential Records, was a single track entitled "The Orchard". Beattie later claimed that they burned the master tape. After the aborted recording, Gillespie joined The Jesus and Mary Chain as their drummer, and alternated between both bands. While the Mary Chain became notorious for their chaotic gigs, Gillespie and Beattie expanded Primal Scream's lineup to include schoolfriend Young on bass, rhythm guitarist Stuart May, drummer Tom McGurk, and tambourine player Martin St. John. This lineup was signed to Creation Records, an independent record label founded by Alan McGee, and recorded the group's debut single, "All Fall Down", which received positive reviews.

First recordings (1986–1989) [edit]

After the release of the single, Gillespie was told by Mary Chain leaders William and Jim Reid that he was to either dissolve Primal Scream to join the Mary Chain full-time or resign. Gillespie chose to remain with Primal Scream. Stuart May was replaced by Paul Harte, and the group then released a new single, "Crystal Crescent". The b-side, "Velocity Girl", was released on the C86 compilation, which led to their being associated with the scene of the same name. The band strongly disliked this, with Gillespie saying that "they can't play their instruments and they can't write songs."

The band toured throughout 1986, and Gillespie became disenchanted with the quality of their performances. He said that there "was always something missing, musically or in attitude." The band switched to McGee's newly set-up Warner Bros. subsidiary Elevation Records. Before the band entered Rockfield Studios in Wales to record their debut album, McGurk was asked to leave the band. The group subsequently began recording using session players. They spent four weeks recording with producer Stephen Street before deciding to halt the sessions.

May was subsequently dismissed and Gillespie's former bandmate Innes was brought in as his replacement, and the band finally found a new drummer, Gavin Skinner. With their new lineup, the band re-entered the studio, this time in London with producer Mayo Thompson. By the time Sonic Flower Groove was completed, it had cost £100,000. The album reached number 62 on the British charts and received poor reviews, with Allmusic calling it "pristine but dull." The backlash from the album caused internal strife within the band. Beattie and Skinner subsequently resigned.

The band, now consisting of only Gillespie, Innes and Young, relocated to Brighton to regroup. Young switched to guitar, and they recruited bassist Henry Olsen and drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov, who had both been in Nico's backing band, The Faction. They traded in their jangle pop sound for a harder rock edge, or as Gillespie said, "[w]e had found rock 'n' roll." The band re-signed to Creation Records and released their first single in two years, "Ivy, Ivy, Ivy". This was followed by a full album, Primal Scream. The band's new sound was met with poor reviews, NME called it "confused and lacking in cohesion". Fans responded as unfavourably as the critics, with many of the old fans being disappointed or simply confused by the new sound. The album featured Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy guesting.

Breakthrough: Screamadelica and tour (1990–1992) [edit]

The band were first introduced to the acid house scene by McGee in 1988. They were at first sceptical; Gillespie said: "I always remember being quite fascinated by it but not quite getting it." The band did, however, quickly develop a taste for it and began attending raves. The band met up with DJ Andrew Weatherall at a rave, and he was given a copy of "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", a track from Primal Scream, to remix for one of his shows. Weatherall added a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels. The resulting track, "Loaded", became the band's first major hit, reaching number 16 on the UK Singles Chart. This was followed by another single, "Come Together", which reached number 19.

The band entered the studio with Weatherall, Hugo Nicolson, The Orb and Jimmy Miller producing, and Martin Duffy now full-time on keyboards. They released two more singles, "Higher Than The Sun" and "Don't Fight It, Feel It", both of which were successful. The album, Screamadelica, was released in late 1991 to positive reviews. Ink Blot Magazine said that the album was "both of its time and timeless." The album was also a great commercial success, reaching number eight on the British charts. The album won the first Mercury Music Prize, beating Gillespie's former band The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The supporting tour kicked off in Amsterdam, and it included a performance at the Glastonbury festival before coming to an end in Sheffield. Throughout the tour the band and their increasingly large entourage gained notoriety for their large narcotic intake. The band's drug habits have often been discussed in print. Journalist James Brown reported a now infamous story: the bandmates were arguing with one another about whether to get Vietnamese, Chinese or Indian. When one of Brown's colleagues asked them if they'd settle for a burger the band informed him: "It's heroin we're discussing, not food!". Around this time, the band recorded the Dixie Narco EP. Some of the tracks had a more American blues-rock sound than previously, and displayed a novel P-Funk influence.

Continued success: Give Out But Don't Give Up (1992–1995) [edit]

The band began work on their fourth album in Roundhouse Studios in London in September 1992. Most of the band members had developed heroin addictions, Session guitar player Ian Dimond started to play with the band, the influence was a stronger guitar sound with riffs and melodies and layered guitar recordings.

In March 1994, the first single from the new album, "Rocks", was released. It was the band's highest charting single to date, reaching number seven on the UK charts. The single was not received well, with NME calling them "dance traitors". The album, Give Out But Don't Give Up was released in May to mixed reviews. Whereas some praised the band's new Stones-influenced sound, some dismissed the album as tired and drawing too heavily on their influences. Two more singles were released from the album, "Jailbird" and "(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind", both of which charted progressively lower.

While touring in support of the album, relations within the band began to wear down. The band's American tour, when they supported Depeche Mode, was, in the words of manager Alex Nightingale, "the closest we've come to the band splitting up." After the completion of the tour, the band remained quiet for a long period of time. Gillespie later remarked that he was unsure if the band would continue. The only release during this period was a single, "The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown", a collaboration with Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound, which caused controversy due to offensive lyrics about Glasgow Rangers FC and their fan base.

Return and change in sound: Vanishing Point (1996–1998) [edit]

After a short hiatus, the band returned with a new lineup. Gary "Mani" Mounfield, fresh from the well-publicised break-up of his previous band, The Stone Roses, was added as the band's new bassist, and Paul Mulraney was added as their new drummer. The arrival of Mani revitalized the group, who were considering disbanding after the failure of Give Out. The album was recorded in the band's personal studio in two months, and was mixed in another month. Most of the recording was engineered by Innes, and produced by Brendan Lynch and Andrew Weatherall.

The music on the album had a complex shoegazing dance/dub rhythm, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker. Some songs on the album were inspired by cult 1971 film Vanishing Point; Gillespie said that they wanted to create an alternative soundtrack for the film. Other lyrics were inspired by the band's past experiences with drug abuse. Gillespie described the album as "an anarcho-syndicalist speedfreak road movie record!" The first single released from the album, "Kowalski", was released in May 1997, and reached number 8 on the British charts. The album, titled Vanishing Point after the film, was released in July and revitalized the band's commercial viability. It received almost unanimously positive reviews upon release, Entertainment Weekly calling it a "swirling, hypnotic acid-trip", and Musik saying that "this group's place in the history book of late 20th Century music is assured." The inclusion on the album of the title track from the film Trainspotting also helped cement the band's place in alternative modern culture.

The band scheduled a short supporting tour to take place during July. Unfortunately, the band had to postpone the dates. This led to speculation that there were problems within the band, and that one of the members may resign. The band's press agent issued a statement saying "[i]t's not a drugs thing and it's not a nervous breakdown." Before the tour was scheduled to begin, Mulraney left the band and they were forced to use a drum machine. The initial dates were poorly received, but they eventually hired drummer Darrin Mooney and the gigs improved. Throughout the Vanishing Point tour Primal Scream employed the up-and-coming Asian Dub Foundation as a support act, helping them to break into the mainstream.

In February 1998 the band released the "If They Move, Kill 'Em" EP. This notably featured the bands' first collaboration with Kevin Shields, on his remix of the title track. Later that year, Shields joined the band on tour and would have a major influence on their sound in the next few years. After the release of the album, a collection of alternative mixes/remixes from Vanishing Point were released as the album Echo Dek, with the bulk of mixes done by Adrian Sherwood.

Further experimentation and decline in popularity: XTRMNTR and Evil Heat (1999–2005) [edit]

Recording sessions for the band's sixth album went well. The band were for the most part free of drugs, and their lineup had finally stabilised. Despite their new-found peace, the band pursued a harsher and angrier musical direction. Many of the songs they wrote had overtly political lyrics, Gillespie said the band wished to convey "what it's like to be in Britain in this day and age." The album featured mulitiple guest appearances, including the Chemical Brothers, New Order's Bernard Sumner, and former My Bloody Valentine guitarist Kevin Shields, who had become a semi-permanent member.

The first single from XTRMNTR, "Swastika Eyes", was released on November 1999. The song's overtly political content, Gillespie said it was about "American international terrorism", made it controversial. Nevertheless, it was a hit, charting at No. 22 on the British charts. XTRMNTR itself fared well, reaching No. 3. The political content was well received, with Allmusic calling it a "nasty, fierce realization of an entire world that has... lost the plot.". In 2009 NME charted XTRMNTR at No. 3 in The Top 100 Greatest Albums of The Decade

In 2000, the band began recording their seventh album, Evil Heat, released in 2002. Though the political content was not as strong as the previous album, there was a song originally slated for the album entitled "Bomb the Pentagon", which was reworked into the song "Rise" after the 11 September attacks. The album, like many of Primal Scream's previous albums, had multiple producers. Shields produced several tracks, and Andrew Weatherall produced three tracks, his first work with the band since Vanishing Point. Kate Moss sang professionally for the first time with single "Some Velvet Morning", a version of the Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra song. The album also featured another guest appearance, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant. In 2003 the double CD album Dirty Hits was released containing the better known works and some previously unheard versions and remixes of those tunes.

In June 2005, Primal Scream played a controversial set at the Glastonbury Festival, throughout which Gillespie was playfully abusive to the crowd and was alleged to have made Nazi salutes during the song "Swastika Eyes". They were eventually forced off by officials after overrunning their allotted time; the festival organisers were at that point already annoyed at the band when, in response to their invitation to join other recording artists in signing a Make Poverty History poster which would be auctioned off for charity, lead singer Bobby Gillespie instead altered the poster so that it read "Make Israel History". Gillespie later said that this was to show his support for the Palestinian cause.

Return and moderate success: Riot City Blues, Beautiful Future and Screamadelica Revival (2006–2012) [edit]

In an interview with NME, Gillespie said that the band had written "euphoric rock 'n' roll songs" for their next album. They intended to capture the energy of their live performances. The band chose Youth as their producer, which led to speculation that they had fallen out with Shields. Although the band themselves admitted that they were unsure of the situation, Shields subsequently joined them on tour.

The album's first single, "Country Girl", was released on 22 May 2006, and received regular airplay in 2006 resulting in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever. It was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand National 2007 and as the backing track to a video celebrating the successes of the Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti in the 2007 Autosport Awards ceremony in London. The album, Riot City Blues, was released in June and reached number five on the UK Album Charts. However, it received mixed reviews: Pitchfork Media called it "flat and dead", while Allmusic called it "a refreshingly retro rock & roll album"

In support of the album, the band toured the UK, along with selected dates in Europe. The band released their first DVD, Riot City Blues Tour, in August 2007. The DVD featured clips of the band's performance in London, as well as all their music videos and an interview with Gillespie and Mani.

On 26 August 2006, bassist Mani was reportedly arrested at the Leeds music festival, after what was said to be a drunken brawl. However, he was soon released and the band's appearance at the festival went ahead. Also around this time, Young left the band to go on sabbatical, failing to appear on their November 2006 UK tour. It has since been stated by Bobby Gillespie that Young is unlikely to make a return. He has been temporarily replaced by Barrie Cadogan of Little Barrie.

After touring Screamadelica for most of 2011, on 18 October Mani revealed he had left the band to follow his dream due to the reformation of his original band The Stone Roses. Debbie Googe (of My Bloody Valentine) was announced as his replacement.

On 27 March 2012, it was confirmed that Primal Scream would support The Stone Roses at their Heaton Park concert in Manchester on 29 June 2012.

Recent events: More Light (2013–present) [edit]

Their next album will be More Light and will be released in May 2013. It was confirmed by David Holmes on his Facebook page on 11 January 2013. The album will be released on the band's own label, First International. The two singles preceding the album are "2013" and "It's Alright, It's OK".

Primal Scream will be playing at Glastonbury Festival 2013.