AAAHHH! (Guest blog number two) - #32 Primal Scream - Screamadelica

Remember back when it was U2's turn in the 60 Day Challenge, and I looked at the Joshua Tree (well, ish)? I said at the time that I didn't think I could do it justice. It went down in history as a hugely important album, but personally, I wasn't such a huge fan. I could appreciate that it was good, just not as good as people were making out.

So I called in a ringer, if you like. Steve Askew, U2 fan extraordinaire took the reigns and posted what was his rather magnificent take on it. Have a look on the right hand side if you haven't seen it. It's called Tear Down the Walls.

Anyway, my point is that the same thing has happened again. I know that Screamadelica is meant to be magnificent, and I know that the band will be playing it in full at the festival, and while I do like it, I know someone who is genuinely passionate about it, and would do a lot better job of it than me.

So I hand you over to the lovely Emma (@pollyatrocity - Twitter) to guide you through an album that has, like the Joshua Tree, been showered in praise since its release. I'll warn you now, this isn't my usual guff, this is fantastic.

P.S I'm sorry if the blog won't let you comment. Dunno why that is. You can always get me on Twitter @daninfrance or leave comments on my Facebook page if you like.

They say that if you remember the sixties, you weren’t really there. Similarly, when Danny asked me (unusually politely) if I’d like to write a piece on Screamadelica, I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I got out the shower and saw this. And it all came flooding back.

Cough.


(Ignore the stitches. I had a mole removed. Don’t worry, it was benign.)

That is obviously an exaggeration. But struggling to write a coherent paragraph or two, I was advised to share experiences of gigs and whatnot. I’d love to. But all I remember from most of them is that I went. Probably.

I don’t know many people who go to the trouble of seeing any band as many times as I’ve seen the Scream over the years. And the bottle of Rolling Rock that Andrew Innes bought me still sits proudly on my windowsill.

The first time I saw them, at Shepherds Bush Empire in summer 2000 was probably the best gig I have ever been to. I remember that one unusually distinctly because I was 15 and unitiated. I’m sure those jealous of my placement that I’d arrived unfashionably early to secure right infront of Mani’s amp took great pleasure in (quite possibly) breaking at least several of my ribs.

On another equally memorable occasion, I woke up in a hospital in Tottenham Court Road on a drip and been called a ‘silly bitch’ by one of the nurses, I slurrily dribbled ‘When at Primals, do as the Primals do’.

In my eyes, they’re a supergroup. Bobby Gillespie was briefly in the Jesus and Mary Chain during the Psychocandy period, on drums. He taught himself to play using dustbins and I’m pretty sure Mani was in some band or other before he joined. Duffy was in Felt, but no one remembers them so we’ll skim over that. I first discovered them several months prior to that first gig, when they had recently released Swastika Eyes, and Xtrmntr was on the cards. I was a late starter. But much as, aged seven I happily wore my brother’s acid house tshirt hand-me-downs, actually getting involved was a bit out of my reach. And until a few years later, the closest I’d come to Screamadelica was seeing it in the Nice Price section of Our Price. I probably looked at the cover with as much confused intrigue as most people, whose general consensus is that it looks like an amoeba covered in vomit. But having purchased Xtrmntr and loved it, it was apparently the next step.

And I’ve probably never loved an album as much since.

Screamadelica does not belong on a cd. It CERTAINLY does not belong on a digital file. It’s an album that was made for vinyl and an album very much of two halves, one half to come up, one half to come down. Very little can come close to witnessing Higher than the Sun onstage in all it’s glory. Perhaps the strangest aspect of my love of Screamadelica is that it’s two stand out tracks, for me at least aren’t actually on the album. The 7″ mix of Come Together, which as opposed to the much more well known Weatherall mix, and the piece itself entitled Screamadelica, the final track on the Dixie Narco ep. I will never know why neither were a part of it, but having only discovered either after I had physically worn out my third copy of the album they made a very, very pleasant dessert.

Screamadelica won the first ever Mercury Prize. Primal Scream lost the cheque at the ceremony. It is the first album I play every year when the sun first comes out and I want to sweep away the winter cobwebs. It’s going out music and it’s getting in music. Whereas many albums from the early 90′s now sound horribly dated, Screamadelica sounds ageless. There isn’t a song on there worthy of being skipped. It has soundtracked seminal days and hundreds more that were in no way important but invoke memories that make me smile. It’s pure sensory overload. As soon as you hear the opening bars of Movin’ on up you can smell the smoke, sun cream and sweat. The band may be old, fat and churning out utter rubbish these days, but Screamadelica will always be a wonky primary coloured ray of sunshine. And the only way I’ll forget it is if I emerge from the wrong side of an MRI machine.