pale saints

[holyzombiejesus]

I was a bit reluctant to start a thread dedicated to an old relatively minor indie band but I've just been listening to the reissued remastered Comforts of Madness and it's fucking brilliant.

I saw these play way before their first EP came out; they played a pub called Leadbellys in Hanley. I bought a flexi from them and thought the singer looked really cool. He had a guitar covered in pictures of pigs.

This guy. 'Cool'. Good grief. He looks like the little kid in Uncle.



Anyway, I played the reissue thinking that it would probably sound a bit lame and dated now but it sounds so great. Much more Lazy-era MBV than I remembered. One of the only remastered things that I can recall that sounds different to my cloth ears.

I went off them after Ian Masters left and that 2nd album wasn't that great anyway. Has anyone heard any of the Spoonfed Hybrid stuff? Keep meaning to check it out.

[wosl]

Absolutely super band, one of my favourites, and definitely one of the unsung bands of that shoegaze into Britpop era.  I've thought of starting a thread, but it's difficult often to know what to say about artists that really mean a lot without gushing everywhere.  I'll have to have a listen to that remaster; a great album, Comforts, hamstrung a bit by tinny production - maybe that's been addressed somewhat with the reissue.  My favourite of theirs is their second, In Ribbons: beefier, and I suppose a bit more mainstream-sounding, but solid goodness right the way through, with Meriel Barham making a super addition to the line-up.  Love her pitch perfect, crystal-clear pipes.  So good when you have two great vocalists sharing the duties (I know some are not keen on Ian Masters' fey vox, but I'm very fond of them).

[holyzombiejesus]

I'll have to have a listen to that remaster; a great album, Comforts, hamstrung a bit by tinny production - maybe that's been addressed somewhat with the reissue.

Definitely, sounds much clearer and beefier. Then again, it occurred to me when I was listening to it that I'd previously only played it on a shitty Aiwa midi system with shoebox speakers connected with doorbell wire, or on some shitty petrol station D90 taped off said crappy hi-fi and listened through cheapo headphones with orange foam ear pads.

That horrible screechy noise at the end still makes me jump.

[phantom_power]

I always get the Pale Saints mixed up with Paris Angels. The end

[wosl]

I went off them after Ian Masters left and that 2nd album wasn't that great anyway.

Comforts of madness indeed (agree to disagree and all that, HZJ).  Here's the opener (great vid, bits of which recall New Order's for Truth Faith) from their second LP, to give an indication of how "[not] that great" it is.  Masters features a fair bit on the album, it should be pointed out, despite any intra-band ructions that were going down during its creation.  Re: Spoonfed - the only one of theirs I've heard is a track included on a Guernica compilation; haven't heard it for ages, but remember it being solidly good.  Meriel Barham put out a nice quirky little set of glitch-inflected electro instrumentals a good while back, under the name Kuchen.

[Dr Syntax Head]

https://youtu.be/MmkFS9sGLlU

Posted above already what a noob

Absolutely bloody love this. Not surprising I love this band (first album is class) being an obsessive fan of first wave shoegaze. Ride did a great cover of sight of you for thier BBC sessions years ago. Good times.

[holyzombiejesus]

Ah, I was listening to that when I made my original post as I realised I didn't have that 12" any more. It's dead good (although a good minute too long) but much of the rest of the album, as I recall, didn't have much of the sparkle of the first records. Felt a bit like they'd ditched the pop sensibilities in favour of a rockier shoegazey sound. Then again, my favourite MBV records are Ecstacy and Strawberry Wine. 

That version of Kinky Love from one of the post CoM EPs is really great. I finally tracked down a copy of the Nancy Sinatra original a few months ago but I still prefer their version. (As an aside, my old flatmate reckons that when Georgi Kinkladze left Manchester City, the whole ground sang that too him. What a fucking liar.)

[Jockice]

anyone heard any of the Spoonfed Hybrid stuff? Keep meaning to check it out.

I have! Quite liked them. The other member, Chris Trout, had been in AC Temple, who I was a fan of. Haven't played their stuff for a while but from what I remember it was quite impressive.

[Bently Sheds]

I loved The Comforts of Madness and the Half Life ep, but was disappointed by In Ribbons for reasons I still can't put my finger on.

Am I right in thinking Comforts was recorded in two different studios with two different producers? If that's true it's a remarkably consistent record.

[NoSleep]

Saw a gig of them on telly years ago and liked what I saw, but never followed up by looking any further into them, so this thread has just awakened my memory of giving them a tick in the box and I can't remember much about how they sounded, apart from maybe there are some similarities with banana period VU.

[eifion]

I went off them after Ian Masters left and that 2nd album wasn't that great anyway. Has anyone heard any of the Spoonfed Hybrid stuff? Keep meaning to check it out.

Comforts of Madness was their highlight. I loved the way they gave some of the songs unusual structures, like the way "Fell From The Sun" seems to start halfway through. The second album has its moments, though, and the free 7" that came with the LP and which has brass band cover versions of two of the tracks was interesting.

The Spoonfed Hybrid album is great and a record I still listen to fairly regularly. I absolutely love this track. It's such a shame that Ian Masters didn't do much after the mid 90's.

[wosl]

They never put out a bad album.  The last, Slow Buildings, despite being the most squarely indie-pop oriented of them, still survives the era it was made in due to Barham's beautiful, timelessly uninflected voice, and the fact that they resisted trying to incorporate any sort of Britpop flavour (unlike Lush, who came a bit unstuck doing that sort of thing on Lovelife).  Under Your Nose has always been a favourite from the last one (the brief passage that starts at about the 1 minute 40 mark at is dreamily lovely).  I always thought Chris Cooper was a very fine drummer, with more chops, I got the impression, than Pale Saints' remit generally required, which gave his work a crisp and confident feel. 

[The Culture Bunker]

I like 'In Ribbons' a lot, more than the debut, but I think that might be in part due to my only copy of the latter being a crappy old tape that I bought in Oxfam for a pound. So if there's a reissue out, I'll have to track it down to have a reappraisal.

Went off them a little when I read in that big 4AD book that Masters once slapped Miki from Lush in the face.

[holyzombiejesus]

Went off them a little when I read in that big 4AD book that Masters once slapped Miki from Lush in the face.

Really? Any more details?

[The Culture Bunker]

Really? Any more details?

All taken from the "Facing the Other Way" book rather than personal evidence: Miki claims the Pale Saints and Lush had some kind of rivalry going back to their very early days, based on the former's resentment that they - the better musicians - didn't get a fraction of the press Lush got.

Miki: "It got narky over who was headlining which cities. It was still good fun, but Ian was sneery and I couldn't bear him. I know I could be annoying when I got drunk but on the last night in Brussels, he kept making nasty comments. Finally, I said "you really don't like me, do you?" and he slapped me around the face. I was so shocked I didn't respond, he just smiled and walked off".

The author later describes Masters' actions as "indefensible".

[wosl]

Just dug the book out (edit: as has Culture; he nipped in as I was typing it out):

Berenyi recalls an unspoken rivalry [between Lush and Pale Saints]. "They [PS] didn't like the fact that we'd got more press, and we were threatened by the fact that they could play their instruments and could show us up, even if they didn't have much charisma.  It got narky over who was headlining which cities.  It was still good fun, but Ian was sneery and I couldn't bear him.  I know I could be annoying when I got drunk, but on the last night in Brussels he kept making nasty comments.  Finally I said, "You really don't like me, do you?" and he slapped me around the face!  I was so shocked I didn't respond, and he just smiled and walked off.  In those times there were so many people you could row and fall out with.

(A couple of pages on there's an account of Kim Deal smacking Kurt Ralske in the face and knocking him off a stool - ah, the 'good old' 4AD package-tour days.)

[holyzombiejesus]

That's from an UVS video, isn't it. The one where they're imitating Sonny and Cher?

That's horrible about Masters. I always thought he seemed like a nice gentle guy. Part of me wants to hear his side but I guess Berenyi has no reason to lie.

[holyzombiejesus]

Shit.

https://twitter.com/StudioSunnyside/status/973166085284552705?s=19

https://twitter.com/StudioSunnyside/status/973233151421054976?s=20

Mmm. I wasn't the only woman he physically attacked. But it was 30 years ago so hopefully he's changed.

[wosl]

That's from an UVS video, isn't it. The one where they're imitating Sonny and Cher?

You're right (I'd got the book half propped open while I was typing and could just see the end bit of that story overleaf). 

When Ralske eventually walked around to sit on Deal's vacated stool, she smacked him across the face - all of this improvised.  "It was either kiss him or hit him, so obviously I was going to slap him!" Deal says. "I'm sure I hit him harder than he was expecting."

I've never seen the vid - off to YouTube again.

[studpuppet]

Deeper Sleep For Steven was better than the album version - turned up on Gigantic 2.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I enjoys several songs off Comforts and In Ribbons.

They couldn't quite nail the songwriting though. Both the experimental stuff or the pop stuff. However there are some fine songs even with about 70% of it I could take or leave.

The drumming is class, as was mentioned above. Masters vocals just audible enough to be worth bothering with. The guitar work varied but was at least adventurous.

[Johnboy]

absolutely loved them, the first two albums and half life and in ribbons EPs, probably my last favourite band

glad to say i saw them supporting Pixies in Dublin Oct 1990, they didn't have a lot of time but they were fucking brilliant