4 stars
When the decidedly
non-jazz based Jazzateers reformed to play a double bill with Vic
Godard reviving his 1980s swing-based set at Glasgow International
(yes) Jazz Festival earlier this year, it shed some light on one of
the great missing links of the original Sound of Young Scotland based
around Alan Horne's Postcard Records. This re-release of the band's
eponymous 1983 album, which originally appeared on what was becoming
an increasingly pop-based Rough Trade about to unleash the Smiths
into the world, is even more overdue.
The line-up that
appears here features guitarist Ian Burgoyne, bassist Keith Band and
drummer Colin Auld, who founded the band in 1980 with vocalist Alison
Gourley, before future Bourgie Bourgie crooner Paul Quinn took over.
Main singer here, however, in the band's third incarnation, is
Grahame Skinner, who would go on to front glossy white soul combo,
Hipsway at a time when every designer lager TV ad under the sun was
being sound-tracked by Scottish bands.
Contrary to their
jangular roots, then, from the opening sounds of a match striking,
this incarnation of Jazzateers are hanging tough. If Rough Trade boss
Geoff Travis was as miffed as reported by the move away from
indie-pop, one wonders whether his former signings were at the back
of his mind when he signed The Strokes, because this is pretty much
what sneering, snot-nosed opener 'Nothing At All' sounds like a
template of.
The CBGBisms continue
on 'Looking For A Girl,' before a few moments of pure Postcard
archness creep in on 'Show Me The Door' by way of the country twang
of 'Heartbeat' and the the not-quite-Chic of Once More With Feeling.
Not that there's anything that sounds remotely naïve here. There's
rock and roll swagger and sass aplenty on 'Texan' by way of the
Bowieesque 'First Blood' and the rockabilly styled 'Baby That's A No
No.' The only truly contrary moment comes on the closing
slicked-back drawl of
'Something To Prove,' because, as everything before it confirms,
Jazzateers had already done that in spades.
The List, October 2013
ends
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