Primal Scream

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Primal Scream performing in Southampton, England on November 29, 2006.
Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genre(s)	Alternative rock, indie pop, house, techno, acid house
Years active	1982–Present
Label(s)	Creation (1985-1987, 1987-2000) Elevation (1987) Sony (2000-2007) B-Unique Records (2007 - Present)
Website	www.primalscream.net
Members
Bobby Gillespie Andrew Innes Gary "Mani" Mounfield Martin Duffy Darrin Mooney
Former members
Jim Beattie Paul Harte Jim Hunt Denise Johnson Duncan Mackay Tom McGurk Stuart May Henry Olsen Steve Sidelnyk Gavin Skinner Martin St. John Toby Tomanov Robert 'Throb' Young Kevin Shields

Primal Scream are a Scottish rock group. The band currently consist of Bobby Gillespie (vocals) Andrew Innes (guitar), Martin Duffy (keyboards), Gary "Mani" Mounfield (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums). Barrie Coddigan toured with the band in 2006 as a temporary replacement after the departure guitarist Robert "Throb" Young. Young's permanent replacement has not yet been announced.

The band was formed in 1982 in Glasgow, Scotland by Gillespie and Jim Beattie. The band performed throughout 1982-1984, but their career didn't especially take off until Gillespie left his position as drummer of The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band became part of the C86 scene, but eventually moved away from their more jangly sound and developed a more psychedelic sound. Their 1991 album Screamadelica broke the band into the mainstream. Despite multiple lineup changes, the band has remained commercially successful and continues to tour and record to this day.

1 History
2 In Popular Culture
3 Discography
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Bobby Gillespie and school-friend Jim Beattie teamed up to record "elemental noise tapes" in a local scout hall, Bobby banging two dustbin lids and Jim playing fuzz-guitar. They soon moved on to covers of Velvet Underground and Byrds songs before starting to write their own songs, based around Jah Wobble and Peter Hook basslines.

They named themselves Primal Scream, a term used to describe a cry heard in Janovian psychotherapy treatment. Still essentially a partnership, Primal Scream first played live in 1982.

Gillespie and Beattie eventually recruited other members, including Robert Young (bass guitar), Stuart May (guitar), Tom McGurk (drums), and Martin St. John (tambourine). After 2 years of performing, Gillespie joined The Jesus and Mary Chain as their drummer. Gillespie continued performing with Primal Scream, and divided his time between both bands. After Primal Scream's planned first single "The Orchard" was abandoned, their debut single "All Fall Down", was released.

After the release of the single Gillespie left The Jesus and Mary Chain to concentrate full-time on Primal Scream. Another single, "Crystal Crescent" (the latter also featuring Paul Harte on rhythm guitar) followed. At this time the band had a very jangly sound, influenced by The Byrds and Love and they were a leading part of the C86 scene.

Late 1986 saw significant line-up changes, with Harte and McGurk departing and the band recruiting Andrew Innes, Phil King and Dave Morgan taking on drum duties in the studio and on tour. The band's early jangly sound was filled out into a more psychedelic sound, and the band's debut album Sonic Flower Groove (1987) encapsulated this sound with songs like "Imperial", "Gentle Tuesday", and "Velocity Girl", the latter was ranked #4 on the John Peel Festive 50 for 1986.

Founding member Jim Beattie left to form Spirea X, continuing the early psychedelic sound, while the central trio of Gillespie, Innes and Young, along with drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov and bassist Henry Olsen and, eventually, keyboardist Martin Duffy, relocated to Brighton and ditched their trademark "jangly" sound for a much heavier edge, influenced the 1960s Detroit garage scene. The album Primal Scream (1989) also saw the beginning of the band being heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones.

With their next album, Screamadelica, the band began to garner a larger share of mainstream attention. The first hint at their new direction came when a track from the previous album, "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", was remixed by Dance DJ Andrew Weatherall, employing methods of deconstructing and layering grooves normally found in the Jamaican dub music of King Tubby and Scientist among others. The resulting track, "Loaded" disassembled "I'm Losing More...", added a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels.

"Loaded" was followed by "Come Together", a psychedelic gospel track. The lead track was a Terry Farley-produced remix sampling Andie MacDowell from Steven Soderberg' sex, lies, and videotape and the guitar riff from Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds". This was backed by an instrumental mix by Weatherall containing a sample of the Reverend Jesse Jackson ("You will hear gospel and rhythm and blues and jazz, all those are just labels, we know that music is music"). This became another dance classic and highpoint of the Ibiza scene. The Weatherall mix has since become the most well-known version of the track, obscuring the Farley mix. However, the Farley mix and other rarities such as the highly influential "Velocity Girl" are now available on the Japanese compilation "Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)" released in 2004. Nonetheless, Screamadelica was a critical success, an album fused with elements of gospel ("Movin' on Up"), jazz ("I'm Comin' Down"), dance ("Come Together", "Don't Fight It, Feel It") and rock and roll ("Damaged", "Loaded").

In 1992 the band won the inaugural Mercury Music Prize on the strength of the album, beating off Gillespie's former band The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band then began celebrating their success in typical excess. The bands drug habits have often been publicised, journalist James Brown reported a now infamous story: the band were arguing with one another about whether to get Vietnamese, Chinese or Indian, When one of Brown's colleagues asked them if they'd settle for a burger the band informed him: "It's heroin we're discussing, not food!".^[1]

Give Out But Don't Give Up, recorded in Nashville, was another radical departure from the early Scream sound. While Screamadelica blended dance with rock music, this album was closer to a pure rock and roll record; critics compared it in style and sound to the early Rolling Stones. The album also included a heavy funk influence, and George Clinton featured as a collaborator/producer. When released, the album was widely panned by critics as a "tired," self-indulgent effort, especially as a follow up to the innovative Screamadelica. It did, however, yield a # 7 UK single with "Rocks".

More line up changes ensued. The band's new bassist, Mani, was a key addition to the group. Starting with the Vanishing Point album (influenced by the film of the same name), a complex dance/dub rhythm was present in most of the tracks, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker and more sinister. Some see this as Primal Scream's reaction to the money-driven perversion and eventual death of the Madchester scene: though Primal Scream were not from Manchester, they were seen as part of a stylistic brethren with bands who were.

Vanishing Point saw the addition of Kevin Shields of shoegazing group My Bloody Valentine as a third guitarist to the live band. They have since produced XTRMNTR and Evil Heat, within a short period of time with Shields. Shields was never an official member of the band but toured and recorded with them consistently from the late 1990s until 2005.

In June 2005, Primal Scream played a controversial set at the Glastonbury Festival, throughout which Gillespie was playfully abusive to the crowd and was alleged to have made Nazi salutes (during the song 'Swastika Eyes'). They were eventually forced off by officials after overrunning their allotted time; the festival organizers were at that point already annoyed at the band when, in response to their invitation to join other recording artists in signing a Make Poverty History poster which would be auctioned off for charity, lead singer Bobby Gillespie instead altered the poster so that it would read "Make Israel History".^[2] Gillespie later said that this was merely to show his support for Palestine, and in no way anti-Semitic.^[2]

Gillespie on the 15 April 2006 cover of NME

In an interview with NME, Gillespie said that the band had written "euphoric rock n roll songs" for their next album.^[3] They intended to capture the energy of their live performances. The band chose Youth as their producer, which led to specualtion that they had fallen out with Shields. Although the band themselves admitted that they were unsure of the situation,^[3] Shields subsequently joined them on tour.

The album's first single, "Country Girl", was released on May 22, 2006, and received regular airplay in 2006 resulting in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever.^[4] It was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand National 2007. The album, Riot City Blues, was released in June and reached #5 on the UK Album Charts. However, it received mixed reviews: Pitchfork called it "flat and dead",^[5] and All Music Guide called it "a refreshingly retro rock & roll album"^[6]

In support of the album, the band toured exclusively in the UK, with select dates in Europe. The band released their first DVD, Riot City Blues Tour, in August 2007. The DVD featured clips of the band's performance in London, as well as all their music videos and an interview with Gillespie and Mani.

On the 26 August 2006, bassist Mani was reportedly arrested at the Leeds music festival, after what was said to be a drunken brawl. However, he was soon released and the band's appearance at the festival went ahead. Also around this time, long time guitarist Robert "Throb" Young left the band to go on "sabbatical",^[7] failing to appear on their November 2006 UK tour. It has since been stated by Bobby Gillespie that Young is unlikely to make a return. He has been temporarily replaced by Barrie Cadogan of Little Barrie.

On April 26, 2007 they said on their official MySpace blog that they were working on a new album in their studio. The band released another message on their website stating simply that "the band are currently in the studio working on their next album due for release in 2008."^[8] A new song has been premiered at gigs called "Can't Get Back".

They also mixed Queens of the Stone Age's track "I'm Designer" (from Era Vulgaris) along with their long-time collaborator Adrian Sherwood, known for his dub remixes.

In mid 2007, Kevin Shields returned to the line up playing during their V Festival appearances. It is unlikely, however, that Shields will return, as My Bloody Valentine have reunited and are currently recording a new album.^[9]

Several of their songs have appeared on movie soundtracks including "Trainspotting" in the film Trainspotting, "Miss Lucifer" and "Swastika Eyes" in The Football Factory, "Star" in The Jackal, "Movin' On Up" in Grand Theft Parsons and the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (on fictional Alternative station Radio X), and "Come Together" in Human Traffic. Primal Scream also played "Movin' On Up" live for Michael Winterbottom's movie "9 Songs".

All the chart positions are for the UK.

Sonic Flower Groove (1987) - #62
Primal Scream (1989)
Screamadelica (1991) - #8
Give Out But Don't Give Up (1994) - #2
Vanishing Point (1997) - #2
XTRMNTR (2000) - #3
Evil Heat (2002) - #9
Riot City Blues (2006) - #5

Echo Dek (1997) - #43 Remix
Live In Japan (2003) Live (Japan only)
Dirty Hits (2003) - #25 Greatest Hits
Shoot Speed - More Dirty Hits (2004) Rarities (Japan only)

Riot City Blues Tour

Month	Year	Title	UK	Album
June	1985	"All Fall Down"	-	-
May	1986	"Crystal Crescent" / "Velocity Girl"	-	-
June	1987	"Gentle Tuesday"	86	Sonic Flower Groove
September	1987	"Imperial"	86	Sonic Flower Groove
August	1989	"Ivy Ivy Ivy"	97	Primal Scream
March	1990	"Loaded"	16	Screamadelica
August	1990	"Come Together"	26	Screamadelica
June	1991	"Higher Than the Sun"	40	Screamadelica
August	1991	"Don't Fight It, Feel It"	41	Screamadelica
February	1992	"Dixie-Narco EP"	11	Screamadelica
March	1994	"Rocks" / "Funky Jam"	7	Give Out But Don't Give Up
June	1994	"Jailbird"	29	Give Out But Don't Give Up
December	1994	"(I'm Gonna) Cry Myself Blind"	49	Give Out But Don't Give Up
June	1996	"The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown (with Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound)"	17	-
May	1997	"Kowalski"	8	Vanishing Point
June	1997	"Star"	16	Vanishing Point
October	1997	"Burning Wheel"	17	Vanishing Point
February	1998	"If They Move, Kill 'Em" (Limited)	85	Vanishing Point
November	1999	"Swastika Eyes"	22	XTRMNTR
March	2000	"Kill All Hippies"	24	XTRMNTR
September	2000	"Accelerator"	34	XTRMNTR
August	2002	"Miss Lucifer"	22	Evil Heat
November	2002	"Autobahn 66"	44	Evil Heat
November	2003	"Some Velvet Morning (with Kate Moss)"	44	Dirty Hits
May	2006	"Country Girl"	5	Riot City Blues
August	2006	"Dolls (Sweet Rock n Roll)"	40	Riot City Blues
December	2006	"Sometimes I Feel So Lonely" (Limited)	-	Riot City Blues

Year	Title	Chart positions		Album
Year	Title	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	Album
1990	"Loaded"	#19	-	Screamadelica
1990	"Come Together"	#13	-	Screamadelica
1990	"Movin On Up"	#2	#28	Screamadelica
1994	"Rocks"	#16	#29	Give Out But Don't Give Up