John Squire was the genius guitarist and Jackson Pollock-pastiching cover artist of the Very Important And Popular Stone Roses and in 1997 The Seahorses were his new band. We had great hopes of them at the time as I recall; The Roses Second Coming had been an eternity in the making and (bar about two songs) a hugely disappointing collection of flabby, sub-Led Zep indulgences, but with Squire promising punchier pop-rock with this lot, the future seemed a tad brighter.
In the end the band released just one album (the really-quite-good Do It Yourself from which this was the third single release) before splitting in 1999 whilst in the middle of sessions for the follow up. Squire went on to solo projects, none of which seemed to register on the end-of-Millennium radar. Maybe after all that Oasis mallarkey the record-buying public had had its fill of Mancs with guitars.
I still like 'Love Me And Leave Me' (it has a certain brio to it, don't you think?) and the two other tracks are, well - pleasing enough (especially 'Falling..') and not available elsewhere.
My favourite song of theirs though, and I'm sure you'll see why, is 'The Boy In The Picture'. It wasn't a single, but I've included it as a little bonus here because, hey, I loves ya and it's Monday.
The Seahorses - 'Love Me And Leave Me' (1997)
The Seahorses - 'Shine' (1997)
The Seahorses - 'Falling Is Easy' (1997)
Davy H's bonus blinder:
The Seahorses - 'The Boy In The Picture' (1997)
I was never very fond of this stuff; The Stone Roses had a chemistry that only the best bands have, that feels like everything is going to go tits up any second; a nice amount of tension. I thought this lot were a bit...ordinary.
ReplyDeleteDid like The Shirehorses though...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirehorses
:)
Ah, Mark and Lard...
ReplyDeleteSaw the Seahorses when they came to DC. Utterly forgetable...however cool it was to see John Squire...
ReplyDeleteMind you "The Boy In The Picture" is good stuff. Although ironically it reminds me of The Bluetones.
ReplyDelete(I nearly typed 'The Bluebells'. Now there's a band that need some blog space. I'm going to dig out 'Cath' now and do some singing along....)
I'm going to have to stop being so quick off the blocks JC; that's the second time I've done that!
ReplyDelete'The Boy In The Picture' is good stuff and I heartily commend it to all readers. And chaps, be thankful I'm sparing you my Menswear single in all this (but oops, maybe I shouldn't have said that - some Charlie'll want it now...)
ReplyDeleteis it just me or were the stone roses shit.
ReplyDeletealthough i do quite like that boy in the picture one.
oh god i'm for it now aren't i
x
My honest opinion all these years later?
ReplyDeleteFirst album - brilliant (apart from that silly backwards track) and very necessary at the time.
'Fools Gold'? A bit dull.
The second album? - see the post.
Ian Brown? - Couldn't really sing, but seems a nice guy and against all odds has done some interesting things since.
Splashing paint everywhere? - What's not to like?
I loved the Roses, loved Happy Mondays more. But that first Roses' album was more than necessary. It's easy to forget what a wasteland the mainstream was for guitar music in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteI did love the early 80s pop stuff - your ABCs, Durans, and stuff. But after Weller dissolved The Jam what was there in the mainstream in the way of guitar bands? The Smiths and U2. Everything changed after The Stone Roses. And not only guitar music breaking through, but dance music as well. The 90s would have been something completely different.
The episode of Top Of The Pops in 1989 with both The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays was almost like it must have been watching Bowie doing Starman on TOTP back in the early 70s or The Pistols a few years later. Far more than necessary. Life changing! ;)