Scars (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Scars lineup ca. 1981 |
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| Origin | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Years active | 1977 - 1982 |
| Genres | punk post-punk New Wave |
| Labels | Fast Product Charisma Records |
| Members | Robert King Paul Research John Mackie Calumn Mackay Steve McLaughlin |
| Website(s) | The Scars' website |
Scars (originally known as The Scars) were a post-punk/New Wave band that hailed from Edinburgh, Scotland, and were a part of that city's bustling music scene of the late 70s - early 80s.
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[edit] History
Fronted by Robert King and featuring Paul Research on lead guitar, John Mackie on bass, and Calumn Mackay on drums, the band's original sound was a gritty, punky one, as evidenced by their 1979 singles for "Horrorshow"/"Adult/ery" and "Your Attention Please". That last song would later be included in the band's 1981 (and sole) album Author! Author!, but in the meantime the group maintained an ever-mounting momentum and attention via singles releases, and soon they were noticed by John Peel. Peel invited the band to record two of his legendary Sessions, once in February 1980 and another in May 1981.
By the time the band started recording the aforementioned album (Author! Author!), their sound had matured from being rough and punky to something more classically post-punk and melodic. From that album sprang perhaps the most recognizable Scars song out there, "All About You", which was the only single launched directly from that album. Calumn Mackay left Scars the year prior to the album's release, so Steve McLaughlin took over drumming duties for the band at around this time. The band continued to receive positive attention and increase their fan base as they were first able to co-headline gigs with the Comsat Angels, then headline gigs with Josef K as their supporting act. Scars even managed to land a full-page spread in Smash Hits. By that time, the band was headquartered in London
In the summer of 1982, Scars landed a supporting slot with Australia's The Church as the headliners. This was to be the beginning of the end for the band. Having been together -- and constantly playing live gigs -- since they were all teenagers in 1977, the glue that held the band together started to weaken. Robert King left the band and the rest of the band members, in turn, tried to keep the band going as a cohesive unit with Paul Research taking over lead vocal duties. The band recorded a song called "Bone Orchard" for a planned second album that never materialized; at year's end, the Scars were no more. King would soon go on to modest but temporary success as a solo artist (the synthpop-ish "Paper Heart" being the most notable of his recordings), but by the mid '80s the various Scars bandmates have been content to continue being musicians and pursuing other interests beyond the glare of the limelight.
[edit] Post break-up
There has been a recent resurgence of interest and attention on the Scars ever since electronica artists Lemon Jelly elected to use samples of "Horrorshow" at the urging of band member Fred Deakin, who was a huge Scars fan in his youth. [1] The samples were utilized in their song "79 - The Shouty Track", for inclusion in the album '64 - '95. The song was also the second single released from that album. When it came time for Lemon Jelly to tour in support of '64 - '95, they invited a partially reformed version of Scars (that included original drummer Calumn Mackay) along to play live the sampled parts of "79 - The Shouty Track" (or "The Shouty Track" for short) in selected dates, including in the Scars' former home base of Edinburgh.
Guitarist Paul Research is the most visible former member of Scars and maintains a de facto official Scars site.
[edit] Author! Author! on CD
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This article or section contains information about a scheduled or expected future album. It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the album release approaches and more information becomes available. |
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The Author! Author! LP is one of the minority of albums that has yet to be released on CD. Due to a history of stalled negotiations with reissue companies[2] and the difficulties involved in "disentangl[ing] The Scars copyright spaghetti",[3] the complications involved in releasing an official CD version of that album have historically been far too much for even the former band members to overcome.
In October 2006, small events that had been put into motion thanks to the Lemon Jelly-driven Scars renaissance began to coalesce. It was announced at that time that Author! Author! would be remastered and finally released on CD format with additional tracks added in. At the present moment, the tapes are being restored to playable mode at Abbey Road Studios by EMI, the record company that currently has ownership of the album masters. After this, the tapes will be remastered by Steve McLaughlin and transferred to CD format, to be offered exclusively on the semi-official site (linked to below and on the sidebar) and with a tentative release date of December 11.
[edit] Discography
- "Horrorshow"/"Adult/ery" (7", Fast 1979)
- "They Came and Took Her"/"Romance By Mail" (7", Charisma 1980)
- "Love Song"/"Psychomodo" (7", Charisma 1980)
- "All About You"/"Author! Author!" (7", Charisma 1981)
- Author! Author! (LP, Charisma 1981)
[edit] Trivia
- Steve McLaughlin, the band's second drummer, was previously in Edinburgh punk band, The Cubs, where he was known as Chic. He is currently working as a wildly successful producer and film scorer. He won a Grammy for engineering a Tom Petty album (1994's Wildflowers) and has worked with such artists and Sting and Badly Drawn Boy, the latter as a co-producer for the About A Boy soundtrack.
- John Mackie is the younger brother of Paul Research (né Paul Mackie). John's stage name was originally John Doctor, because his and Paul's mother was a GP.
- Robert King gained notoriety post-solo career as the owner and operator of Pleasantly Surprised, a cassette-only label that focused on compilations of British indie bands, from the Cocteau Twins to Primal Scream. [4] After going back to school, he is now a professor of ancient languages who is often called to archaeological sites for his expert knowledge in languages.
- Calumn Mackay, the band's original drummer, presently lives in Grenoble, France and works in various blues groups.
- Mark E. Smith, leader of The Fall, once stated that the Scars were his favorite group as they were "the complete opposite of The Fall". [5]
- According to a comment Paul Haig of Josef K left on Paul Research's MySpace profile (link below) on March 10, 2006, TV Art, the group that became Josef K, "were inspired by Scars". The two groups coexisted as part of the same literary art-punk scene that centered around a location called the "Tap o' Lauriston Pub", along with The Fire Engines and The Cubs. [6]
[edit] External links
- Paul Research's Scars site
- The Scars on the BBC's official John Peel Sessions site
- The scarsauthor Yahoo Group (run and frequented by ex-band members Robert King, Paul Research, and Calumn Mackay)
- The Scars' MySpace profile
- Paul Research's MySpace profile
- Calumn Mackay's MySpace profile
- Steve McLaughlin's music production company
- The band's televised performance of "All About You", via YouTube
[edit] References
- ^ Barr, Tim. "Jelly break the mould!", News Of The World. January 16, 2005. Scan of article accessed via the scarsresearch.com site.
- ^ Research, Paul. November 2003. News section. scarsresearch.com
- ^ Research, Paul. Retrieved October 20, 2006. "Do You Remember The Scars?", scarsresearch.com.
- ^ Reed, J. May 1994. Article about Primal Scream. Record Collector. Accessed via the Primal Scream website Screamadelica.
- ^ Pearce, K. January 2002. Music that time forgot 1: The Scars. Careless Talk Costs Lives. No. 12. Accessed via online message board.
- ^ Smith, A. "With Franz like these...". Scotland On Sunday. October 15, 2006. Accessed via the newspaper's website.
