EDWYN COLLINS is seriously ill in hospital after suffering a brain haemorrhage (...back in 2005; he's much better now).

i'm wayyyy late to this thread but I thought this innocent-enough question may have had some implications (as brain hemorrhages go hand-in-hand with some nasty habits).

(potentially) good news, folks. this, from Edwyn's son Will, as posted on dad's MySpace bulletin:

Date: 12 Jun 2007, 18:43
Subject plans for later
Body: hi will here im hardly on my dads myspace but my dad wants to tell everyone that theres alot going on this year for my dad. first thing my dads album home again is planned to come out this year he also is dying to do a gig he has been rehearsing like mad and believe me every day i hear him singing like mad i hear blue boy, girl like you and some of his new songs every day help only joking its great to hear him sing so hopefully he will do a gig this year he has also been in the studio working on his equipment seeing if he can still rock out.He has been at a few gigs in the last few months including the cribs little barrie and my mates licotine what a party animal
he has got the band back together including paul cook and andy hackett.He has been working on his health his strumming hand is still in a bad shape but he is still a blue boy in his heart well thats all for now but if you want to know any more info on his album or his idea on his gig vist HIS NEW INTERNETSITE.Thats right we have finally editing his website after to make it fresh and styllish it will be there in the next 48 hours like the other top british band websites wow bet thats made you gasp anyway thats all for now if you have any questions message me or my dad and hopefully we will get back to you on any questions bye for now kick out the jams

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6925973.stm

Pop singer Edwyn Collins is returning to music as he continues to recover from a life-threatening illness.

The 47-year-old, best known for A Girl Like You, releases a new single, You'll Never Know, on 10 September.

It is followed a week later by Home Again - the album he was working on when he fell ill in February 2005.

The ex-Orange Juice singer suffered two brain haemorrhages and spent six months in hospital after a surgical scar became infected with the MRSA bug.

The illness affected his movement and speech, but Edinburgh-born Collins was determined to return to the studio.

"I'm learning to live again," the singer wrote on his website.

"I'm very pleased with the album and songs. I'm getting there and I feel grateful at last."

The Scottish star says he is currently rehearsing with a band and hopes to return to the stage later this year.

"I sing every day," he wrote. "It's important for me. Music, it's everything to me."

Solo Career

Collins was a leading figure on the alternative Scottish scene in the late 1970s and 1980s, forming his first band, Nu-Sonics, aged 17.

They became Orange Juice, who were independent favourites and briefly broke into the mainstream with Rip It Up in 1983.

He went on to pursue a solo career, making an impact with A Girl Like You, a top 10 hit in seven countries in 1995.

Collins, who is based in London, has also produced records for bands like Sons and Daughters, The Cribs and Little Barrie.

"He was out for the count and when he awoke he was laughing uncontrollably as one might at a joke."

...falling and laughing...

(sorry)

Wow -- this is so great to hear. It sounds like he's still in rough shape, tho...

really good news.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,2150203,00.html

Good 4 him!

I used to serve Edwyn Collins occasionally when I worked in Oxfam in West Hampstead. I was always too shy to actually say anything to him though! He was pleasant. Used to buy secondhand books.

Glad to hear he's doing OK.

I'm still really loving watching him with Orange Juice on the Old Grey Whistle Test doing "Rip It Up.." They got a really interesting synth sound different than the record.

Good for him, indeed.

I have got a spare ticket for tomorrow night's concert in case anyone wants it. It costs fourteen pounds, which is ten pounds ticket plus four pounds booking nonsense. The concert is at DINGWALLS in Camden on London's Trendy Northern Line. If you want it, please email me, or answer here. I will check back later.

It would involve meeting me outside, but as it is standing only, you don't have to sit next to me all night or anything, although as I am going on my own I would be quite glad of some company, if only to make me look less of a SAD OLD GIT.

I think it will be a good concert. I mean, we weren't expecting this upthread.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/05/01/review.edwyn/index.html

This sounds like it was amazing.

You said it. (New hero: Roddy Frame.)

Collins described how hard it was to cope with dysphasia, which means he struggles to find words. "I'm fighting to get language back," he said, adding that, "I used to have all the beautiful words but they've gone now."

Heartwrenching.

A book with a happy ending?

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

Hmm, what happened there?

http://img.tesco.com/pi/Books/L/92/9780091929992.jpg

Not finished reading it yet but it's a lovely book.

Edwyn's own "Some British Birds" even more so - I admit it combines four interests of mine, succinctly.

Terrific feature.

Story in this month's Mojo was really nice, too.

cool! thanks for posting that link. the bbc doc about edwyn totally made me cry, especially the scenes with his wife and him playing guitar. eesh.

What BBC doc? Link, por favor?

http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/1137878973/everythingandnow-a-great-documentary-about

Ah, thank you for linking that. Will watch tonight.

Really really wish I could have found room for post-OJ EC in this, re the box:
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-10-01/music/orange-juice-for-everyone

Damn! Sorry for the typo It came out today, not Oct. 10
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-12-01/music/orange-juice-for-everyone

OK, this might have been put somewhere already 'cos it's old but it's new to me. So great to see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBPwNtIlTRs

I wonder if we should have some amendment to the title of this thread because I know that every time I see it revived I think 'oh no!'...(even tho i have just revived it).

Better?

Much better!

I was at that TFC/Edwyn gig and it was easily one of the best I've ever seen.

Via Klive Humberstone of In the Nursery just now on FB:

Just bumped into Edwyn Collins in Town. How bizarre and how lovely. He's in Sheffield to 'jam' with Richard Hawley (hope that's not supposed to be a secret!). Had a brilliant chat.

Not sure if many people round here still keep up with his solo stuff, his last album was terrific and his new one is out next week. It's streaming right now if anyone wants a listen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/mar/18/edwyn-collins-understated-stream

I just love this man. I saw him in Leeds in 2010 and it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen. He did a few of the old Orange Juice classics and a great selection from his solo years including my personal favourite, Make Me Feel Again from Gorgeous George.

"A Girl Like You" was such a terrible song that it killed my interest in him stone dead and retroactively tainted Orange Juice forever.

oh for the love of

Seriously? You're missing out on so many great songs. The Orange Juice stuff still sounds great today, just forget A Girl Like You exists.

New album is fantastic, up there with his best solo work.

an album of nothing but farts would not diminish one second of the heather's on fire or ostrich churchyard

believe me guys i loved Orange Juice a long way back but all i think of when i hear is name now is that turgid 60s hackjob

anyway just an observation, hope he keeps on keeping on and avoids jamming with people

Britishers, the documentary is on film4 on tuesday night:

http://www.film4.com/reviews/2014/the-possibilities-are-endless

I lieu of a proper Edwyn Collins general discussion topic, I am upping this one to extol the brilliant all-over-the-place-ness of his 1997 weird pop mini-masterpiece I'm Not Following You.

He sandwiches so much into fifty-five minutes, it's great.

Yeah it is his best non-Orange Juice album imo. Quite close to Texas Fever in its execution. Brilliant production - experimental in the best way: guitars going off all over the place, flashes of feedback or weird noises coming in but its all about the great songs (great anti-britpop song in there too). Don't really like Mark E. Smith's song but otherwise it's really, really good.

ah thanks for the bump, will check.

Also, I love that it was basically his follow-up to 'A Girl Like You.' Such open defiance of even remotely caring about continuing with that momentum.

He casually declares his independence or openly dismisses the idea of being marketed alongside the other bands of the time in maybe half the songs here! Very amusingly worded too! haha.

Doing your own thing and not caring about money or success is the theme of the album.

maybe my favorite thing he ever did?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZtVYBCL08

"means to an end" (1990)

from the album hellbent on compromise♥︎

i'm honestly slightly aghast at how much no one seems to care/know about this song. <800 listsners and <2000 scrobbles on last.fm, not on streaming, and <1000 views on youtube. i just happened on a used cd copy years ago by complete chance and that's the first track. the rest of the album is kind of a standard jangly 1990 alterna-thing. none of it retains that same eerie atmosphere as on "means to an end." the song was co-written with paul quinn (who goes way back w/ec). anyway, what a tune.