Tuesday, 18 August 2015

Sit-down Currie

When Del Amitri released Twisted in 1995, Justin Currie rode shotgun with me in my Laguna for nigh on 50,000 miles: such was a. the sheer audacity of their (never bettered) album and b. the crazy mileage I covered in the year following its conversion to C90 and admittance to the Renault's tape deck. (Where it lived 'till I got beam ended one Friday night on the M1 at Leicester Forest East.)

Following the accident I never really played the album again. New set of wheels, new set of tunes - Dodgy had just released Free Peace Sweet, and I parted company with the Del boys.

And then, last weekend, I found this on Youtube: Justin Currie on his own - the other fella (the one who looked a bit like Lemmy) had gone, leaving our man alone on a stool singing such a beautiful song that it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up now - twenty years ago I'd be pulling the car over to have a little weep. In fact, thinking about it, that's exactly what I did do the first time I heard Driving With The Brakes On.

on

4 comments:

  1. Mondo19 August 2015 at 13:29

    I picked up on the Amitri boys in the late 80s, and saw them play a set (at The Pink Toothbrush) where the audience headcount only just outweighed the band members. They finished with a fizzing version of Maggie Mae...

    A year(ish) later they were all over the airwaves with Kiss This Thing Goodbye.. Pal Currie hasn't changed much since then and still spinning up some winners

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    1. John Medd20 August 2015 at 19:09

      There are too many to mention, but Move Away Jimmy Blue and Nothing Ever Happens were the tunes that let me in on the ground floor. I never saw them in a live situation but am hopeful of flagging JC down for a solo gig in the not too distant.

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  2. The Swede19 August 2015 at 13:43

    There are so many naff, overblown ballads on the radio these days, but none can hold a candle to the quality of the songwriting shown in 'Can't Let Go of Her Now'. I wasn't a Del Amitri fan first time around. More fool me, this really is very good indeed.

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    1. John Medd20 August 2015 at 19:11

      I was asked only yesterday which song I'd wished I'd written and, quick as a flash, I said Driving With The Brakes On. It's perfect..

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