The Boo Radleys, Classic or Dud?

Delighted to see these albums are getting a reissue, disappointed 'Kingsize' won't be gathering everything together from that era. If not now, then surely never.

'Everything Falls Away' is great though.

I think I need to reacquaint myself with C'mon Kids.

Yeah, I think they are missing "XFM is ace" and "There she goes"

The C'Mon Kids one looks absolutely essential. Kingsize has been shortchanged and Bee OK is OTM about Put Your Arms Around Me.

The only thing the C'mon Kids reissue is missing is the bonus 7" that came with some versions of the album on vinyl. I've never actually heard Skywalker or French Canadian Bean Soup, can anyone tell me if those songs are worth hunting down?

Skywalker was released for the Euro 96 cup IIRC. It's kind of dancey - sort of like Sunfly II from their early days. French Canadian Bean Soup features someone reciting a passage from the Illuminatus! trilogy with a kind of lolloping backing chorus. In typical Boo Radleys b-side fashion, they're rather charming and experimental although "essential" isn't necessarily the word.

I think I can probably live without those then, thanks for the heads up.

I'm definitely going to be hunting down Put Your Arms Around Me, the thought of hearing a new Boo Radleys song after all this time is really exciting.

Kingsize and C’Mon Kids have come out today.

So, "Kingsize" definitely doesn't have the extra tracks from the unreleased single?

I!L!M! (calling all)

please to post boo radleys videos so i may see the light. i mean i want to believe....

Good man.

Alas, there's no video online for Blues For George Michael.

Thing is, while the Boos did release excellent singles, their choices of A-sides always tended towards the straight-up pop side of their work. It was the b-sides where they got truly weird.

I would say get hold of Giant Steps (the album). There's a track on there called 'Lazarus' which is one of my all time favourite singles by any band. There are two versions of that song - one which has an extended ambient-dub intro, and one without. I'm at work so I can't vouch for which one is posted here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1IRy5AfPmQ

But if you want a top ten, here's mine:

Blues For George Michael
Lazarus
Butterfly McQueen
Joel
Four Saints
Fosters Van
Spaniard
Lazy Day
Annie & Marnie
Friendship Song

Really, there's a lot of different sides to their work throughout the 90s - from their early incarnation as a shoegaze band, through dubbed out psychedelia, classic horn-driven Britpop, folky Dylanesque stuff, bizarre studio experiments with tape loops, and even a few forays into dance and electronica.

There's an excellent compilation from a few years back that collects a nice sampling of all these styles - a's, b's and album tracks.

sound quality in that tube is horrid, unfortunately (and it's the version w/out the dub intro), but i'll check giant steps, which i tried in the mid 90s and didn't quite get, and the 2CD comp

Cool. TBH I'm a bit wary of trying to convert people to the cause so log after the fact. To a British teenager growing up in the '90s, they were revelatory pop experimenters, dabbling with a range of styles and emotions, singing about their lives - subjects ranging from love, depression, heartbreak, isolation, drink and drug culture, politics, nostalgia etc... But I don't know how that would hold up to a newcomer in 2011. I can actually imagine something like the earlier shoegaze material working better on today's ears than the eclectic/Britpop stuff which I fear might have aged badly.

A couple of tracks I forgot to mention:

From The Bench At Belvedere - Maybe the best pure-Britpop song of all time? A non-album single that's just a sweet Merseybeat song about growing up in Merseyside and feeling a little misty-eyed.

"Rodney King (Song For Lenny Bruce)" - a Cocteau Twins/MBV-esque dance-pop number that segues straight in after the equally brilliant Butterfly McQueen

"The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square" - a later track that should have been a single. Similar lyrical theme to Belvedere, but with a slinky spy-theme soundtrack.

"Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK" - a bit of an obscure one, as it came out on the back of one of their final singles (possibly an unreleased single, can't remember). A sweet Dylanesque mid-tempo ballad that felt like a fond farewell from the band. It sounds to me like a proper goodbye and should've been included on their last album really.

Find The Way Out is the name of the compilation you need.

Some really great choices there Dog Latin.

I always thought From the Bench at Belvedere was their most underrated song, such a beautiful and simple melody. I probably like it more than anything on the Wake Up album.

The Old Newsstand At Hamilton Square is another good call. I was just listening to that album the other day thinking they could have picked so many other songs as the lead single instead of Free Huey. Eurostar, Comb Your Hair or kingsize would have all been better choices. I always hated Free Huey and blamed it for the failure of that album.

I never knew Put Your Arms Around Me And Tell Me Everything's Going To Be OK existed until last year. I found a cheap American version of Kingsize that has it placed after Eurostar. Another song that could have been a great single.

A few other tracks I would add as hidden classics.

Boo Forever - This was a song on the Boo Forever ep which had Does This Hurt as the lead track. I much prefer this to anything on Everything's Alright Forever. It has such a sad feel to it, Sice's vocals sound like he's just crushed.

Swansong - This is my favourite song on the Learning to Walk compilation. Like Boo Forever it's a really sad song with amazing guitars all over it. I really like that the verse rips off Fade to Grey by Visage.

http://youtu.be/aJ0q7R_ZXPs

Eurostar - I still think this could have been a bigger hit than Wake Up Boo.

http://youtu.be/bA-ZkrGsxq8

Twinside - Obviously they put out the more commercial songs as the singles but the songs that make Wake up a really good album are ones like this, Stuck On Amber and Reaching Out From Here. I never get tired of the way he sings "I can't make up my mind" where he sounds like he's really trying hard to reach those high notes. Even if you hate Wake Up Boo I'd say there's plenty to love on this album.

Wow there really aren't enough Boo Radleys songs on Youtube.

"I want a Rainbow Nation" is also an obscure one, it came out as a creation promo (mail order)

Eurostar - I still think this could have been a bigger hit than Wake Up Boo.

Totally agreed. It's like a dance-y Oasis.

Uh.

http://gawker.com/5810107/

Aye he's gone a wee bit Twitter crazy, has Martin Carr.

Anyone care to recommend some Bravecaptain?

nah.

I liked "Raining Stones", um..

I've never enjoyed anything I've ever heard by Brave Captain. Carr's been working on some sort of other project called Black Serpent Choir, which I've yet to check out.

Brave Captain :: Little Sailor = I get it now!

His work as Brave Captain was very patchy but there are some gems on some of the albums.

The Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 1 - Six track mini album which starts with the lovely Raining Stones but is then followed by him just messing around in the studio producing nothing of interest for five tracks.

Go With Yourself (Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol 2) - See above except this time there are nine songs and the good one is the last track.

Corporation Man- Great one off single that is still a good song despite containing the lyrics "I don't wanna lecture, but don't let him get ya" Like the good songs on the first two albums this is just like the Boo Radleys in their simple pop mode.

Advertisments For Myself - Actually a great album that features some pure Boo pop, some Super Furry Animals style songs and lots of Aphex Twin like interludes, it's a lot better than that sounds.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - Can't actually remember anything about this, sad to say I gave up on him after this.

I feel a bit guilts for not checking these out, but somehow I really think I'd be wasting my time. I get the odd mailout from Carr telling people about his new projects and how to get hold of them and it's a real insight into the life of a "starving artist". I'm sure he gets a few royalties here and there, but his current work can't be bringing in too much.

I'm sure "Wake Up", alone, pays the mortgage and more on a yearly basis.

Recent tweet referencing Carr's recent exposure thanks to live tweeting his wife's homebirth:

"Sonny is trying to cram his pyjama top into his foreskin. Your move, media."

His work as Brave Captain was very patchy but there are some gems on some of the albums.

The Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol. 1 - Six track mini album which starts with the lovely Raining Stones but is then followed by him just messing around in the studio producing nothing of interest for five tracks.

Go With Yourself (Fingertip Saint Sessions Vol 2) - See above except this time there are nine songs and the good one is the last track.

Corporation Man- Great one off single that is still a good song despite containing the lyrics "I don't wanna lecture, but don't let him get ya" Like the good songs on the first two albums this is just like the Boo Radleys in their simple pop mode.

Advertisments For Myself - Actually a great album that features some pure Boo pop, some Super Furry Animals style songs and lots of Aphex Twin like interludes, it's a lot better than that sounds.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace - Can't actually remember anything about this, sad to say I gave up on him after this.
--Kitchen Person

I think I agree w all of this. Wrote a positive review of AfM for Stylus. BC isn't lifechanging or anything but it is a little underrated.

Rock critics habitually throw around references to 70s dub, Brian Wilson and Scott Walker like bullets at a high-school massacre. It's OK, they don't really mean it. These are just the kind of artists they would prefer to be writing about, as opposed to the ones that they have to write about. Enter the Boo Radleys. 'Sharing the bill' means we take it in turns to headline. Tonight, the Boos go on last.

Martin Carr is the Boo Radleys' resident 'genius'. He is the lucky recipient of the kind of hyperbolic prose I was getting nine months earlier. His band are currently touring an abomination of an album called Giant Steps. It features all the predictable TSB Rock School dub and inept approximations of Miles Davis. In two years' time the Boo Radleys will do the unthinkable and make a record that is actually worse than Giant Steps. A record that even King Dunce Alan McGee (their label boss) will disown. The record is called Wake Up Boo: three words guaranteed to induce nausea and a cold sweat, followed by the kind of killing spree that will forever be preceed by the phrase 'tragic events'.

http://i.imgur.com/tNesyca.jpg

who the fuck listens to the auteurs anyway? their best release was completely remixed by µ-ziq

After Murder Park any day over Giant Steps.

Both are good albums. It amazes me what an enormous bore Haines has become. Tragic really.

I was actually surprised he picked on Boo Radleys of all things in Bad Vibes. He gets into it even worse a couple paragraphs later, detailing their wrestling matches before shows. It's not a boring book by any means. I loved it.

I like the Boo Radleys. Just read his book recently and it popped up in my head.

Bear in mind that his introduction to the book, he sort-of apologises in advance for what was 'to come', being what he felt at the time.

He hints that the Boos got the praise that he himself was used to receiving.

I dunno, I don't doubt he doesn't like them, but I also doubt he hates them...

detailing their wrestling matches before shows

Wait, luchador-style or what?

El Siceto

being what he felt at the time

So when he was on tour with the Boo Radleys in 1993 he was feeling that two decades later he would hate their 1996 record and to prove it, here's what Alan McGee said in 2001.

I take the stairs to our shared dressing room to find three bodies writhing in the doorway. I accidentally tread on some hair and a Scouser squeals. The hair and squeal belong to a Boo Radley, engaging in their customary roughhousing. This lot seems to be pathologically incapable of setting foot outside their windowless tour bus without breaking into a bout of rough and tumble with one another. The bodies pick themselves up from the deck.

'Awlright', mate? an exaggerated Mersey accent enquires, leering toward me. The implication seems to be of the Do you want some? variety? Hmmmm, the backstage drinks rider is already seriously depleted. Are you really trying to menace me? I wonder. I hold out my hand and offer my finest limp-wristed handshake and my most sickly simpering smile. The north. The South. And never the twain shall meet. All friends then.

xpost -- Luke Haines, timelord.

They're from WALLASEY, not Cantril Farm or Croxteth. My God, we're weak sauce as far as Scousers go.

xxp - wkiw Boos!

Funny that should be posted because it had just crossed my mind that class was behind it. I've noticed that English people often have an almost comical disregard towards people from Merseyside.

ALAN McGEE has launched a stinging attack on ex-CREATION RECORDS band THE BOO RADLEYS, declaring their most commercially successful single 'WAKE UP BOO!' an "atrocity exhibition".

McGee has written a review of David Cavanagh's book on the history of Creation Records, 'My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize' on the Poptones website www.poptones.co.uk.
In it McGee declares Cavanagh's work "unquestionably the dullest book I have ever read", "tedious" and "humourless", before claiming it captures "none of the spirit" of Creation Records.

However, his most venomous attack is saved for ex-Boo Radleys guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr. Apparently unhappy at their musical output following the most successful album of their career, 'Wake Up!', he writes: "For the record, Martin, I would have dropped you in 1995 after the atrocity exhibition that was 'Wake Up Boo!' but for (Creation co-founder) Dick Green's infatuation with you. Creation was never about touring the US in Bon Jovi's tour bus... for me Creation was touring Germany and Holland with the Mary Chain in a transit van."

Elsewhere in the review McGee accuses the Boo Radleys of costing Creation "about a million pounds", before saying "you were never a part of it. For me you never proved it. Sorry, mate."

NME.COM contacted a representative for Martin Carr for comment, but none was immediately forthcoming.
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/brave-captain/6277#exRiUHyIT9fBrKWm.99

What a jerk.

Carr calls him on it here in 2009.

Carr: "You once described ‘Wake Up Boo’ as an ‘Atrocity Exhibition’ which, as I’m sure readers will know, was the title of a J.G Ballard novel.He’s dead now and, let’s be honest, you have to shoulder some of the blame for that. What other records (records, not bands) that came out on Creation would you rather have come out on another label, if at all?"

McGee: "Loveless Isn’t Anything and Soon I hate mbv I wish I had never signed them tuneless garbage."

In other words...don't take it too seriously folks (and Luke Haines).

McGee is a dick, but Wake Up is shit.

lol @ "do you think alan gives a shit what you think you dickhead, crawl back up your dog’s arsehole, what the fuck are you doing with your life apart from boring every cunt"

It's funny that McGee disses the Boos for not being "transit van" enough for Creation, while Haines highlights their "windowless tour bus". I'm thinking "what's the big deal with their transportation?" Is it a van or a bus? So I googled it on the off chance their was an actual photo of the Boo Radleys tour bus somewhere. Up pops Ned's report from a '93 Boo Radleys gig "outside the Roxy in their rear parking lot near their tour bus or van."

The mystery deepens.

McGee is a dick, but Wake Up is shit.

― emil.y, Thursday, February 7, 2013 4:08 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's my least favourite Boos album, but I still think it's got a couple of good tracks on it: 'Joel', 'Martin, Doom! It's 7 O'Clock'... and I like 'Reaching Out From Here', too.

It's funny that McGee disses the Boos for not being "transit van" enough for Creation, while Haines highlights their "windowless tour bus"...

― everything, Thursday, February 7, 2013 4:46 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's funny that McGee is laying into the Boo Radleys for this. I wonder if he'd say that Oasis, the act that made him the most money, weren't "transit van" enough for Creation either.

Yeah, it doesn't make that much sense.