Flashback: Liverpool, the late seventies. From this energetic city emerge the soon to be huge Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, on Bill Drummond's Zoo Records. Yet Drummond himself claims that the best single Zoo ever released wasn't from these two, but from the largely unknown Wild Swans, 1981's ‘The Revolutionary Spirit'. The remarkable thing is, this mordant/joyous release - easily on a par with The Bunnymen and Joy Division - is the only record they ever released (ignoring the output of the very different mid-eighties line-up). So the attraction here - unfolding through that single, demos, radio sessions and a live recording - is in hearing what was happening beneath the radar, and marvelling at the thin line between success and oblivion. The Wild Swans formed by ex-Teardrop Explodes keyboardist Paul Simpson and future Lotus Eaters Jerry Kelly and Ged Quinn are the missing link between Echo And The Bunnymen's cod-psychedelics and the new wave of scally janglers epitomised by The Coral. Too clever by half they aspired to an epic melodrama and majesty. Simpson's urgent crooning on this 2CD collection of radio sessions, demos and a live set from their 1981 tour is awash with the self-conscious pomp only doomed romantics could muster. Kelly's fidgety guitar work predates Johnny Marr, while lyrically, this is the sound of serious young men in all their sublime, high-fallutin' glory. A magnificent artefact.
Influences / Similar Artists:
The Ocean Blue, Echo & The Bunnymen, Care, Teardrop Explodes, Lotus Eaters
