So Who Are Primal Scream? At Present Primal scream consists of Bobby Gillespie (vocals), Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), Darrin Mooney (drums) and Martin Duffy (keys). Long term guitarist Robert ‘throb’ Young left in 2006 and since they have toured and recorded with Barrie Cadogan instead.

Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Alan Mcgee (founder of Creation Records) met at Kings Park Secondary School in Glasgow. The pair both shared interests in punk rock and before long Alan took Bobbie to his first gig, Thin Lizzy. Both carried on there interests in punk and joined a band in 1978 called The Drains where they met future Primal Scream guitarist Andrew Innes. Though the Drains were short lived and Innes and Mcgee moved to London whilst Gillespie remained in Glasgow at Kings Park secondary school where he met Jim Beattie.

One  of  Gillespie’s  many  NME  Covers

Andrew  Innes

Bobby had become disinterested with punk and more mainstream new wave music as the punk movement died out along with the drains, fortunately Jim Beattie was equally disenchanted with new wave music and the two began making “elemental noise tapes” involving Gillespie banging together two bin lids and Beattie playing Fuzz Guitar. They eventually progressed to covering bands like The Velvet Underground and Byrds. Before long they were writing their own songs based on bass lines by Jah Wobble (original bass player in Public Image Limited) and Peter Hook (Joy Division & New Order co-founder and Bassist). Bobby said the band “didn’t really exist but we did it every night for something to do” but nonetheless Primal Scream were born the name derived from a form of therapy called Primal Therapy within which a Primal Scream is a type of Crying. They first played live in 1982.

From  the  right:  Gillespie,  Jim  Beatie

Gillespie’s first memory of Robert Young was as a little kid and being amazed at the fact that he could play the beginning to some song by the clash and the only other person he knew who could do that when he first met him was Andrew Innes when he was 15, who could also play all of, nevermind the bollocks, the first clash album, and the first three jam albums. Young lived opposite Gillespie and first remembers him playing the new Ramones single out of his bedroom window on to the street when he was around 15. Jim Mcgee, Bobby Gillespie and Robert Young all lived along the same road.

Robert  ‘Throb’  Young  (Guitar)  

Unfortunately Throb passed away last year, he was 49, this is Gillespie and Innes’ Eulogy:

"We have lost our comrade and brother Robert Young. A beautiful and deeply soulful man. He was an irreplaceable talent, much admired amongst his peers. In the words of Johnny Marr, 'Throb with a gold top Les Paul – unbeatable.' He was a true rock and roller. He walked the walk. He had 'Heart & Soul' tattooed on his arm and I'm sure in his heart too. He once said to me, 'When we go onstage, it's a war between us and the audience.' He never let go of that attitude. Our love and thoughts are with his sons Brandon and Miles and their mother Jane, his wife Rachel, and his immediate family.”

Toby  Tomanov  (Drums) Having just stopped 7 years of work as drummer for Nico before she died (singer for the first velvet underground album and one of Andy Warhol’s fashion superstars of the 60’s) saw an advert in the NME ‘looking for a drummer who’s into the heartbreakers The stooges and new york dolls’. applied for it, auditioned and then joined the band.

From  right:  Throb,  Gillespie,  Tomanov  and  Duffy

Martin  Duffy  (Keys) Played in a band called ‘felt’ in Birmingham who were also signed to Jimmy Mcgee’s Creation Records. Gillespie saw felt and remembers thinking, I want him in our band, so when he heard felt were splitting up, he rang him up and said “d’you wanna come play with us?” to which he said yes.

Henry  Olsen  (Bass) Henry lived downstairs from Toby Tomanov, and one day Toby called down to him, offering him some work because The Scream wanted some string arrangements on ‘dead skin’ a track on Primal’s second, self titled album.

The  Second  Album By the end of the second album primal scream were becoming a bit of a joke because of there long hair and speedy attitude’s they were out of step with the times. Jeff Barratt (Creation Records) was doing press for them at the time and couldn’t even get them into guitarist magazines let alone NME. So They toured and toured and toured in what became known as the ‘throw away the atlas’ tour cause they were just playing random location’s in no real order because that’s all they could get. Fortunately Jimmy Mcgee’s confidence in the band spurred them on even though all the media hated them.

Andrew  Weatherall  (DJ) Andrew Weatherall first met primal scream when he was given a copy of ‘I’m losing more than I ever have’ which is a great mournful song about cheating, which Gillespie felt was a real breakthrough for there song writing, but the general consensus was that nobody really liked it, apart from Andrew Weatherall who loved it. Helen Mead, an NME Journalist at the time received a phone call from Jeff Barratt (currently working press for the second album at Creation Records) Saying essentially ‘I’m gonna get fired unless I can get something for primal scream, to which she said, “well if you’re looking for a live review for the gig in Exeter why not use Andrew?” The band and Weatherall hit it off right away as they were into a lot of the same bands. They played a great gig, he wrote a great review and they just clicked.

Screamadelica was Primal Screams 3rd Album, and by far there most important to date. Their approach to making Screamadelica was very different to there previous albums, so many other artists were involved in the making of it as well as DJ Andrew Weatherall. There are many reasons that this record stands out amongst other records of that time, each of the singles were very important.

Loaded After initially meeting Weatherall at the Gig in Exeter they offered him an opportunity to come into the studio and remix ‘I’m losing more than I ever have’ He wasn’t a producer, he wasn’t an engineer. He was just a guy with idea’s, which was exactly what they wanted. He entered the studio with the confidence of ignorance, but the first stab he had at it he had been too careful with it because he didn’t want to ruin the bands version, when the band first heard it they looked at him, visibly unhappy, and Gillespie said “Nah man, fucking destroy it, d’nae give a fuck” 6 or 7 attempts later when he came out of the studio he had loaded.

Loaded  Continued The Majority of the Bass from ‘I’m losing more than ill ever have’ is trashed, however, the end section is looped throughout the end of loaded. Weatherall wanted it to be a big epic piece, and with use of trumpets and gospel choirs he succeeded. Gillespie loved it, it had everything he wanted, Dub, Blues Guitar, Strings and Horns like Curtis Mayfield and unusually also contained an extract of speech from Peter Fonda from the film the wild angels. Quincy Jones always said Music doesn’t change, it’s the beat that changes through time and every generation has its beat, and Weatherall bought the beat that was modern. The Song was revered in clubs everywhere and even got the band there first slot on Top Of The Pops in 1990.

Come  Together Mcgee gave them there wage and said, this is a hit, you need a follow up. The answer was Come Together. The Scream would write there music and give it to Andy, he’d contribute his ideas. Weatherall knew how he wanted the record to sound, but wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it so Hugo Nicolson (Co-producer/Engineer) was brought in, what he said he was trying to do was “make music to shag to”. Come Together did a fantastic job of encapsulating what it was like to be bouncing on the beating heart of the acid house scene. As ecstasy consumption was on the rise people began opening up to each other and just generally coming together and appreciating what they were hearing and who they were with.

Movin’  On  Up Movin’ on up originally began as a piano ballad written and sung by frontman Bobby Gillespie with almost gospel like vocals, then Andrew Innes (who rejoined Bobby Gillespie in 1987 before the band released their first album, sonic flower groove) wrote the body guitar riff which glues the whole song together and gives it a much bouncier groovy feel. Gillespie’s voice isn’t the loudest of voices so a gospel choir was used to give it a much bigger sound. Movin’ on up was mixed by Jimmy Miller, Famous for his work with the rolling stones and also motörhead. He was fast and he knew what he was doing, he taught them that guitar should follow the vocals and not always be soloing, this can be heard in the chorus as the choir and Gillespie sing ‘My light shines on’ and the guitar mimics it back.

Ecstasy It would be pretty hard to do a presentation on Screamadelica without mentioning ecstasy, it was one of, if not, the most transformative element in the 90’s music scene. Weatherall got invited to a club called ‘the Shoom’ being told that it was ‘full of football hooligans, wearing chevingnon and taking ecstasy’ so along the band went wading through the dry ice to the sight of a lot of intimidating men with tattoos on there necks all of which wanted hugs and were genuinely interested in talking to you. Alcohol wasn’t being consumed and ecstasy was, less fights, more dancing, more togetherness. It was a spur for dancing, for artistic output and for conversation. As with acid and the 60’s a vast majority of this was absolute nonsense but essentially ecstasy opened people up to embracing new ideas and people.

The  S1000 The S1000 was one of the first stereo samplers. It was hugely popular with producers at the time as you could crossfade, trim, splice and loop music in 16-bit CD-quality. The S1000 also included a feature called ‘Time-stretch’ which allowed changes in tempo without changes in pitch. It paved the runway for jungle music to take off and eventually evolve into drum and bass. Suddenly you could be handed tablas, a flute or basically anything else on a floppy disk and be playing a melody with it on your keyboard.

Inner  Flight Gillespie felt that just cause he had a drummer and a bassist he didn’t need to utilise them in every song, a song could feature just vocals and sounds. Or even just sounds as shown in ‘inner flight’ which consisted only of samples and sounds which gives the record a much more trippy euphoric feel.

Higher  Than  The  Sun Amazingly Gillespie Kicks off this song with an ambitious major ninth jump. The Song worked with Alex Paterson of The Orb (little fluffy clouds) he really brought in a different element to the song giving a more ambient, dreamy feel to the record. When Deciding the Ordering of the tracks on Screamadelica Gillespie wanted the record to have the full 12 inch version of the song included, but Weatherall said that it would sound better with the 7inch radio edit on it, which is what they went with and now Gillespie 100% agrees that it was the right decision. The track has been referred to as a ‘Hymn to Hedonism’ which is a very astute description of it and in some ways the whole of Screamadelica. Jimmy Mcgee has said he wants to be buried to Higher than The Sun.

Don’t  Fight  It,  Feel  It Denise Johnson was doing a showcase in the aforementioned Shoom in London. Innes, Duffy and Throb came to the gig and within 5 minutes of hearing Denise Sing, Innes was on the phone telling Gillespie to ‘get the fuck down here, I’ve found the singer for don’t fight it, Feel it. They wanted a modern day soul song that fitted in with the Acid House scene at the time. Denise found the session really unusual as they were in the studio an entire day and night, almost like a party. It was spontaneous and experimental. its an unusual song whichever way you look at it, I mean the hook is an out of tune whistle. But nevertheless the song was the summer anthem in clubs and was a real turning point for The Scream as it was when dance kids started recognising Bobby in clubs and saying ‘shit that’s you’re record, its amazing’. Gillespie described it as ‘Andy Weatherall’s Masterpiece, just total drugs, it is the sound of rushing on ecstasy, the sound of that time’.

It was at this point that Mcgee said they needed to stop making singles, go into the studio put together some more songs and release an album. With Screamadelica they stopped writing on guitar, with 3 or 4 guys riffing and soloing trying to write rock songs and started writing on keyboards, or around the sample, the main major melodic parts were all done on keyboard.

Damaged The only song on the album that the whole band were recording for, featuring Throb on acoustic, Innes on Electric, Duffy on Piano, Henry on Double-bass, Bobby on vocals and Toby using just a ride and a snare. Damaged is a really emotive song, this is exceptionally prominent in Duffy’s Piano and Throb’s acoustic guitar. The way had already been paved for Gillespie’s also very emotive singing style, a couple of the members of the band had just left long term relationships and I think a lot of there sadness comes through in damaged. The solo in damaged was originally supposed to have been Throb, but he wasn’t at the studio that night and Henry said it should sound like Ronnie Wood and the Faces, so Innes gave him his guitar and he played an excellent solo.

Slip  Inside  This  House 16 verses, like an epic poem, Slip inside this house is a cover of Texan psychedelic band ‘13th floor elevators’. Bobby was supposed to record the vocals as normal but he was stricken with ‘Acid House Flu’ lying on the floor moaning, so Throb stepped up, to replicate Gillespie’s voice he had to almost whisper and rasp the words. The album didn’t really rely on the band being a band, hence ‘Damaged’ being the only track that features all of them. They were more like a group of creative people getting together and combining ideas which, I feel, is why the album is so unique, and each track is also unique from the others on the album.

Shine  Like  Stars Soothing, makes you glad your alive, like a lullaby, or a comedown, when they first heard jimmy millers mix of movin’ on up they knew it was the perfect opener equally when they first heard Weatherall’s mix of Shine Like Stars they knew they had the perfect closer. It epitomises the feelings towards the end of a night out at the time, coming down, going to bed, and lucidly drifting away

The  Title Innes was adamant that the title contain the word ‘scream’ and one night at Alex Nightingale (Former Manager)’s house, Innes, Gillespie and Gillespie’s girlfriend at the time were sat around brain storming ideas to no avail until the conversation slowly petered out. A few hours later Innes was playing some of his records and Alex says “this is really good what is it?” to which Innes replied “Its Funkadelic” and Alex in his eureka moment burst out “Screamadelic!” this made its way into Screamadelica and suddenly they had an album name.

The  Cover The sun/face is a detail from an enormous painting by Paul Canell, Bobby had gone round to Paul’s House and selected the detail from his work. Innes described it as “The Sun if it had taken a pill, It was Psychedelic as well, everything that the record stood for” Allegedly the picture was a painting of a water spot on the roof of the studio the band were recording in that Canell had painted whilst on LSD, but this is a misconception and never actually happened.

Release The band never expected the album to reach commercial success, they though it might be a kind of underground classic as it was quite experimental and Creation only pressed 60,000 records, not cause they thought they were a bad band but because they thought it was more of a cult record. They were wrong, all 60,000 records sold in the first week, the following week they pressed another 100,000 records and have continued selling since

The  Mercury  Prize The record was nominated for the very first mercury music prize for the best album in the united kingdom and Ireland. The band were shocked to receive a nomination so you can imagine their surprise when the record won the prize beating The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Honey’s Dead’ as well as Simply Red’s ‘Stars’ and even U2’s ‘Achtung Baby’ in the process. On the night of the prize giving the band had concluded that the drinks were too expensive, so someone went to the off license and bought 6 bottles of Jack Daniel's, concealed them beneath the table and ordered 24 cokes, they were pretty hammered by the time it was announced they had won. They couldn’t have given less of a shit about winning, they left the building ignoring most if not all of there media obligations and Martin Duffy managed to lose the £20,000 cheque that accompanies the prize.

•  A Journey, A weekend out, the getting ready to go out, the actual night out, chilling out, floating off into sleep satisfied at the end of it.

•  Perfectly captures the culture around them at the time.

•  Brought DJ’s and Rock Musicians as well as the people who listened to DJ’s and Rock musicians together and created a sense of unity amongst music lovers as opposed to there being a rift between the people who love one genre and the people who love another.