The Furious Colour - "Closer" (BBC session)
(Dave Fanning session, 1986)
I can find absolutely nothing about this band. The violin is just heart-stoppingly, soul-stirringly unforgettable, and the chiming, spidery guitars provide a sleek urgency. Peter Hook would've killed to have written the bassline that unfurls at the 1:20 and 2:05 marks. There are so many little magical moments within this song, such as the very subtle vocal harmonizing. I found this song here, at a post by someone who is an expert on this kind of music from this era and yet still knows nothing about the band. (He mentioned that their name might actually be That Furious Colour.) This is a Dave Fanning session, similar to a Peel session, meaning it was recorded live in a BBC studio and aired a few days later, but recorded by someone not named John Peel, and therefore by someone is probably not an admitted pedophile like John Peel. It was recorded on 6/30/86, in "a far-off place, an everlasting far-off time."
If anyone knows even the slightest bit about this band, please leave a note. The two other songs that TFC recorded for this session were "Torn Apart" and "Carrion," if that helps. Over here, I found that the band featured someone named Gerry O'Connor: "Gerry O'Connor's early musical influences stem from the music of Kerry and Tipperary, through the music of both his parents and grandparents. From an early age he won national awards for his virtuoso playing. In 1981 he joined the highly successful band The Wild Geese and toured Europe extensively, performing at all major international festivals. The years from 1985 to 1989 saw Gerry perform and tour with bands such as The Furious Colour, The Wilf Brothers, Moonshine and The Rocking Chairs. In 1990 Gerry recorded his first solo album entitled Time to Time which shot straight to No.1 in the Irish Roots Music Charts and was voted folk album of the year by BBC Scotland." So I guess it's a safe bet that TFC were from Ireland. I found out G.O. was also in a band called Skylark and another (a duo with his wife) called Lá Lugh. I still don't know if he sang for TFC or not. Maybe he was just a session player hired to play violin...
So I guess O'Connor is pretty well known in some circles, but I don't know why he abandoned this passionate post-punk sound.
It reminds me a lot of "Worlds Apart" by Cactus World News (which is probably in my all-time top 10), which has the refrain "Closer than I've ever been to you." CWN were from Dublin and released that song in 1986. So I don't know if one band influenced the other, or if they ever even heard of each other. So many bands had that urgent U2-ish sound at this time that it's hard to keep track of who influenced whom. This song could thus be lumped into the "Big Music" scene/phenomenon of the mid-'80s, when bands like The Alarm, Big Country, etc. tried to make big, anthemic, inspiring, urgent songs in the vein of early U2. I talked about this a lot a few months ago, but I forgot which post.
My mom hits the big 6-0 tomorrow, so we took her to a restaurant in the Quarter called Bayona tonight. It's run by semi-famous chef Susan Spicer, who, according to some article I read a while back, used to be a punk/indie rocker in the '80s; or maybe that author was just surmising that based on her tattoos and overall non-stuffy attitude. Our reservation was for four instead of five by accident, so they wouldn't seat us even though the place was nearly empty, so we went to the Pelican Club instead. It was my first time going to a restaurant in the Quarter in many years. The painter Michalopoulos' gallery is right next door to it, and one of the rooms of the P.C. is adorned only with his paintings. I got a quail with grits appetizer, duck with asparagus entrée, Newcastle ale, some red & white wine, and crème brûlée. The waiters were amazing, treating us like we were a royal family or something. So that's the first and maybe last fine dining report in Blowtorch Baby.
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| I took this at Delgado Community College on Jan. 27; cropped off the top line which says "Funeral Services." I guess they teach a course on this. |
Darrell Issa makes life difficult for Obama - Somewhat stunning article about this slimeball congressman (former car thief, arsonist, chronic liar, etc.) who will be trying to investigating the Obama administration leading up to the election.
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