Inform me about Talking Drums

[Sebastian Cobb]

The other day I was listening to Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy on WorldwideFM (I've evangelised about her show before), and she played a track that caught my ears, turned out it was Pretend A Stranger 12" mix by Talking Drums. I thought it was great and googled them, turns out they were a Glasgow band with an LP and an EP in the 80's according to discogs, but there's not much info. I pulled the trigger on their LP - Reassembly, it's on streaming (or Tidal at least and individual tracks as Youtube videos) but doesn't look like it had many releases, no CD or tape.

Aside from that I don't know much, other than they're quite new-wavey and sound a bit like Simple Minds with women singing.

[cosmic-hearse]

I first heard them on this comp. Their Courage 12" is magnificent - a post punk / indie attempt at disco. Loads of bands were trying this sort of thing at the time but you could actually imagine this being played in a club. A glorious tune (the riff slightly reminiscent of 'The Family' by Mr. Brooks). It was really hard to find but got reissued by Dark Entries a couple of years ago.

They didn't release anything for a couple of years - the LP is a lot slicker & doesn't reach the sublime heights of the 12". However, this track is a killer pop song & was a hit single in an alternative universe: