Birmingham's Greatest - Rumblefish
Rumblefish
The second city is not exactly well known for it's musical excellence, but if you scratch beneath the surface of the shocking Duran Duran and the apalling UB40 and any number of hoary old rock dullards you will find the likes of Felt and the recently reformed Nightingales. Best of all, and ridiculously, most obscure of all were Jeremy Paige's Rumblefish. This band were truly, truly magnificent. Initially signed to the excellent pink label (home of The June Brides, McCarthy and The Wolfhounds) this band released a trio of perfect, trumpet driven jangle pop singles.
I can't remember if it was on the John Peel or the Janice Long show that I first heard the monumentally good 'Tug-Boat Line' but I scooted off to town and purchased it straight away. The b sides ('Dum-Dum' and 'Rave') were almost as good. This band meant business! The next single signifyed a line up change as ex-members of the then defunct Nightingales joined Mr Paige for the 'Medicine' 12". This single was fantastic, very uptempo affair with trumpets and guitars flying around all over the place like a dove tailing Gheorge Hagi and Marius Lacatus.
Next up was another line up change (sounds like a mini version of The Fall doesn't it?) and the jangly, but trumpet-less(!), 'Don't Leave Me.' The a side was as good as ever, however the b sides were a lot longer than before (4-5+ minutes) and gave a good indication as to the direction the band would take for the debut album.
Rumblefish then seemed to disappear from view. In the following years I did hear rumours that they may have made an lp but never took this any further……UNTIL I got hold of a computer and logged on to Ebay. I found a copy of a cd on East West records simply titled ‘Rumblefish.’ Further investigation revealed the track listings to contain both ‘Don’t Leave Me’ and ‘Tug-Boat Line.’ A bid was hastily placed and I managed to get hold of it for the princely sum of £3.99 (plus 1.25p P&P.) Excitement was almost at fever pitch!!
BUT………..(you knew that was coming didn’t you?)…….have you ever picked up the local paper excitedly after hearing a rumour that your football team was going to Paris, only to find out they’ve signed George Parris and are not going to the French capital after all? I remember wanting an Action Man and being given something called ‘Atomic Man.’ I know this sounds ungrateful, but this atomic geezer had a bushy Tom Jones style afro and a black jumpsuit with silver piping. He looked shit. There was no way I could fight the nazi menace with this clown. Well, the lp when it arrived was a similar experience. The first track ‘Everything Electrical’ was originally released (with trumpet) on the ‘Tug-Boat Line’ 12”. Here it was given a rocking, trumpet less makeover and though still half decent was not a patch on the original. Alarm bells started to ring…where’s the trumpet?...why is the production so glossy and shiny as to be almost verging on mainstream AOR rock territory (I exaggerate a little, it’s never THAT bad!.) The next track was the single called ‘Mexico’, this was more like it, an uptempo jangly strummer. In fairness, the new version of ‘Don’t Leave Me’ stands up well in comparison to the original, not deviating from the original blueprint too much. The next track is a bonafide classic called ‘Hammersmith Queen’, fantastic vocals, great lyrics and lovely laid back arrangement. Top marks! Now….oh dear….comes the re-worked ‘Tug-Boat Line.’ For those of you not familiar with this tune, the original is one of THE great lost singles of all time. It is impossibly perfect with the most beautiful trumpet solo in the middle. This new version however caused me great pain. It’s not that it’s bad, it isn’t. If you had never heard the original you would note it down as a decent tune (which it is)….but the trumpet solo has been replaced by an electric guitar solo and I just can’t get on with it. From here, the album never really kicks back in. New versions of ‘So Lightly’ and ‘The Lodge’ pass by without bettering the originals and the ‘new’ (?) tunes whilst never being bad, just seem to meander a little whereas once they used to sparkle. If you see this cd on sale anywhere, buy it. It’s worth the money for ‘Mexico’ and ‘Hammersmith Queen’ alone. However, first you should buy the compilation album ‘1234’ released by Summerhouse Records. This contains all the early singles plus b sides and a couple of tracks that appeared on compilations around that time - the fabulous ‘Solid Wood’ and the nearly as good ‘Theatre King.’ This cd will not leave your listening device, it is fantastic, really really brilliant.
I read an interview with Jeremy Paige saying that he would love to do some Rumblefish gigs again but doesn’t think there would be any call for it. I say let’s start a campaign to bring them back!!
BUT………..(you knew that was coming didn’t you?)…….have you ever picked up the local paper excitedly after hearing a rumour that your football team was going to Paris, only to find out they’ve signed George Parris and are not going to the French capital after all? I remember wanting an Action Man and being given something called ‘Atomic Man.’ I know this sounds ungrateful, but this atomic geezer had a bushy Tom Jones style afro and a black jumpsuit with silver piping. He looked shit. There was no way I could fight the nazi menace with this clown. Well, the lp when it arrived was a similar experience. The first track ‘Everything Electrical’ was originally released (with trumpet) on the ‘Tug-Boat Line’ 12”. Here it was given a rocking, trumpet less makeover and though still half decent was not a patch on the original. Alarm bells started to ring…where’s the trumpet?...why is the production so glossy and shiny as to be almost verging on mainstream AOR rock territory (I exaggerate a little, it’s never THAT bad!.) The next track was the single called ‘Mexico’, this was more like it, an uptempo jangly strummer. In fairness, the new version of ‘Don’t Leave Me’ stands up well in comparison to the original, not deviating from the original blueprint too much. The next track is a bonafide classic called ‘Hammersmith Queen’, fantastic vocals, great lyrics and lovely laid back arrangement. Top marks! Now….oh dear….comes the re-worked ‘Tug-Boat Line.’ For those of you not familiar with this tune, the original is one of THE great lost singles of all time. It is impossibly perfect with the most beautiful trumpet solo in the middle. This new version however caused me great pain. It’s not that it’s bad, it isn’t. If you had never heard the original you would note it down as a decent tune (which it is)….but the trumpet solo has been replaced by an electric guitar solo and I just can’t get on with it. From here, the album never really kicks back in. New versions of ‘So Lightly’ and ‘The Lodge’ pass by without bettering the originals and the ‘new’ (?) tunes whilst never being bad, just seem to meander a little whereas once they used to sparkle. If you see this cd on sale anywhere, buy it. It’s worth the money for ‘Mexico’ and ‘Hammersmith Queen’ alone. However, first you should buy the compilation album ‘1234’ released by Summerhouse Records. This contains all the early singles plus b sides and a couple of tracks that appeared on compilations around that time - the fabulous ‘Solid Wood’ and the nearly as good ‘Theatre King.’ This cd will not leave your listening device, it is fantastic, really really brilliant.
I read an interview with Jeremy Paige saying that he would love to do some Rumblefish gigs again but doesn’t think there would be any call for it. I say let’s start a campaign to bring them back!!
posted by HB @ 8:41 PM
2 Comments:
living in the States i was only familiar with the album which I loved start to finish. Until recently i thought that's all they had ever done barring "theatre king" which I had from the beauty comp. But now there seems to be a bit more activity about the band I found out about the early singles and more shockingly that they became Low Art Thrill!!! which I still haven't heard.. I hope to get all this stuff as you say they were ridiculously obscure and deserved so much more.
in case it's of interest there will be a summerhouse records night at the spitz club in london on may 12. jeremy paige will be playing songs from rumblefish's early singles cd. see www.spitz.co.uk for details soon
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