You're not going out dressed like that
I was going to start off this post by complaining that Scars 1981 album "Author! Author!" had never been reissued and what an injustice it was that this post-punk classic was seemingly lost forever. But the discovery that it actually has now opened up a whole contradictory can of thoughts I didn't expect.
While I suppose it's good thing that such a great record is available again (and I'm sure the band members won't mind the royalty cheques) but seeing it there on that Amazon page made me wistfully sad that yet another artifact from the analogue past had been repackaged, catalogued, digitized and canonized. Does everything have to be reissued and become yet another shiny thing to add to the ever-growing pile of shiny things we already have? Are there any dusty corners of rock history left to be cleaned up, and isn't it more interesting and romantic if some things stay lost and aren't dragged into the digital era with the grubby fingerprints of history wiped off them? This deluge of reissues from the post-punk era (how strange is it to see the unholy racket of The Pop Group getting the deluxe remastered package treatment) makes me think my generation has become like the old geezers buying Eric Clapton box sets in the 90s, except now the "market" is for a part of my own past that managed to remain obscure and underground for so long. I'm probably not making any sense, having a record collection is like being the curator of a museum of your own memories and we all have a complicated and highly personal relationship with our bands and music. But I digress...
...what I really wanted to talk about was the outlandish gear the band wore on the album cover. As you can tell from the photo above Scars never went in for the dour, grey shirt and old overcoat look of most post-punk bands and were a bit more flamboyant. Those outfits made them look more like Duran Duran than the spiky art rockers they were, but from Danny LaRue to David Bowie and Boy George the British have a long tradition of entertainers wearing ridiculous clothes so if they wanted to look like gay Aztec pirates that was fine with us — I saw them live supporting Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls and don't remember anyone laughing. It's easy to mock now but back in 1981 Spandau Ballet were on the telly dressed in kilts and off-the-shoulder cloaks and Adam Ant was poncing around looking like a cross between Dick Turpin and Geronimo so it was perfectly normal for a band to look like that. Apparently the outfits were designed by Glen Matlock's wife and were supposed to reflect the garish graphics of the album's Rocking Russian-designed sleeve.
Scars could have been contenders, they were more tuneful, sexier and less deathly serious than Echo & The Bunnymen or U2 (yes kids, there was a time when U2 were a post-punk band) but fell apart after just the one album when lead singer Robert King went solo. But If your band is going to only make one album it should be a great one that old geezers like me are still talking bollocks about over 25 years later, and "Author! Author!" is one of those. I guess you should all go buy the CD then.
Download: The Lady In The Car With Glasses on and a Gun! - Scars (mp3)
Download: Leave Me In Autumn - Scars (mp3)
8 Comments:
I always liked these guys and enjoyed reading your astute (and amusing) thoughts on them. Thanks for this.
being such a shallow terror i just couldn't get past how silly they looked. actually it was more how phoney they looked, like it wasn't really their idea, and that spoiled the whole thing.
still better this than every bugger looking like oasis
x
Isn't it nice to share our past with today's CD buyers, Lee? wouldn't we be selfish wanting to keep it all to ourselves? Of course, if you object to the phoney marketing ploys and tasteless repackaging, that's another story...
I don't really know this band's stuff and it's a kind of music that wasn't a favourite of mine at the time, but the emergence of a lot of early 80s material on recent blogs (especially the NDW stuff) has given me a way into appreciating it, even this more commercial style of the Scars. The problem with dusting off artifacts is that often they don't look too great back out in the sunlight again, but the two mp3s you've posted don't sound too bad at all. As far as the gear goes ... well I guess that post-punk clothes took on some of the mannered stylings of a lot of post-punk music and some carried it off better than others. I quite like this sort of publicity shot, it's very much of it's time and let's face it, silliness is a pretty persistent and endearing strain through rock'n'roll history and thank goodness for that.
I'm probably being really dense here, but what's "the NDW stuff"?
Hi londonlee ... NDW is short for Neue Deutsche Welle (German New Wave) which generally refers to the large number of German bands in the early 80s who were at first influenced by English punk and post-punk, especially the stuff that tended towards a minimal synth style. There was a lot of variety in there but it was still a very distinctive sound, particularly as the lyrics were most often sung in German. There were a few bands who were successful chartwise in Germany and to a smaller extent overseas, but there were many others more underground or short-lived who were never well known anywhere. A lot of it's re-emerging now through blogs like the terrific Mutant Sounds and the best of it is really worth checking out. Maybe try Grauzone and Palais Schaumburg.
Actually, this CD was a total self-release project by the various ex-members of the Scars. The label this CD is being released under is actually wholly the property of ex-Scars guitarist Paul Research, the remastering process was former drummer (and Grammy winner) Steve McLaughlin's job, the repackaging was wholly the responsibility of the band's ex-bassist John Mackie, with all five former members of the band (including first drummer Calumn Mackay) receiving all the revenue from this CD. Research actually tried for many years to secure the rights to the band's masters, but Virgin, who became the owner of said masters when it bought up Charisma Records (the band's former record co.), were very hesitant to release them until, by some miracle, Research was able to receive ownership of the masters. McLaughlin had to "bake" the tapes in order to get them playable again. As the old saying goes, "and THAT'S the rest of the story".
p.s.: The Scars were similar to Duran Duran in a few minor respects, chief among them the fact that all members of the band were total pinup figures, but really, even when the band dressed up in Aztec god splendor and recorded the super-anthemic "All About You", they were a different kind of animal altogether.
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