The Wild Swans
MickHead
06.04.2025 - 12:44
Kein Thread zu dieser genialen Liverpooler Post-Punk und New-Wave Band "The Wild Swans" aus den 80ern.
Paul Simpson der zuvor The Teardrop Explodes verliess, gründete die Band 1980. Nach der erfolgreichen Single "Revolutionary Spirit" (1982), trennte man sich wieder. 1988–1990 raufte man sich wieder zusammen. Das Debütalbum "Bringing Home The Ashes" von 1988 ist wohl das Meisterwerk. Es folgte "Space Flower" 1990. Dann der erneute Split. 2009- 2011 kam es nochmal zu einer Reunion mit einem neuen Album. "The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years" erschien 2011. Seitdem herrschte bis heute Funkstille. Doch nun wird laut Paul Simpson für 2025 ein neues Album angekündigt. Bin gespannt!
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/06/the-wild-swans-paul-simpson-interview-liverpool-music-revolutionary-spirit
"Revolutionary Spirit" (Single 1982)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdrLarbWEMY
"Young Manhood" (Single 1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbzbpJGtVPM
"Bible Dreams" (Single 1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uNkKu7wfUc
"Bringing Home The Ashes" (Album 1988)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kvrV7ti82B-v7fydnZ7RfA4HsTnt7XGdE
The Wild Swans - Indie Fans kennen sie (vielleicht) für ihren Indie Chart Hit "Revolutionary Spirit", Pop-Fans vielleicht als Vorläuferband der Lotus Eaters. Beide Bands verbindet nicht nur in Teilen identisches Personal, sondern auch höchste Melodiosttät.
Warum diese CD, die wirklich keinen Ausfall verzeichnet, kein Hit gewesen ist, mag an der damaligen Popmusik-Welt zusammenhängen. In Zeiten wo Milli Vanilli, Stock Aitken Waterman und Acid House die Charts dominierten, waren die Wild Swans chancenlos mit ihren melancholischen und trotzdem sehr harmonischen Gitarrenpop. Die strahlenden funkelnden Gitarren von "Bringing home the ashes", "Archangels" oder "Young manhood" lassen selbst bei einem nebelverhangenen Tag die Sonne ins Zimmer. Definitiv ist das hier eine meiner definitiven Frühlings CD`s (zusammen mit den ähnlich melodiösen "Pacific Street" der Pale Fountains und "Flaunt the imperfection" von China Crisis..... und wieder fällt mir auf: alle drei Bands kommen aus Liverpool. Bezeichnend)
Absolute und 100 %ige Kaufempfehlung für jeden, der auf schöne Melodien steht. Smiths und R.E.M Fans können hier bdenkenlos zugreifen... wenn die CD nur nicht so rar wäre.
"Space Flower" (Album 1990)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lJ6TQ98dAhNzFiCL6UuY9tdpZqvRu4BRs
One of my favourite albums of all time, but then again so are all the Wild Swans albums. Paul Simpson's voice is something truly amazing to listen to and although there are many critics of it, the production by Ian Broudie and the musicianship of the backing band are second to none. It is true that the lyrics didn't have the same depth or maybe tackle the same themes as on their first and third album but that in no way makes it any less enjoyable. They created some pretty unique sounds on this album that many bands later tried to copy - just listen to Smashing Pumpkins "1979" and you hear what The Wikd Swans were doing with "Chocolate Bubblegum" many years earlier. Songs like "Sea of Tranquility" pictured some of the direction Paul would later take with his Skyray project, which is something also worth searching out. The only sad thing is that they never got the recognition they deserved and this we were robbed of hearing the many more albums that could have been if Paul had stuck with doing more music with the Wild Swans. It's nice to see they returned years later and released an exceptional album, but I still would like to hear more. At least in some parts of the world they treated with more respect and appreciation. Here's to hoping that their flight continues and we get to hear more by this very special band.
"The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years"(Album 2011)
https://occultation.bandcamp.com/album/the-coldest-winter-for-a-hundred-years-expanded
No Ripcord: (Review) 9/10
It's no secret to anyone who's read the articles I've contributed to this here site over the years that I'm a Wild Swans fan. Their debut single The Revolutionary Spirit was quite simply one of the best songs of its time and No Bleeding is one of the best things ever, one of the few songs that gives me goose pimples even on the 200th listen. They made two great albums in 1988 and 1990 before head Swan Paul Simpson put the name to bed in a wave of disappointment and disillusionment.
It's been two years now since he resurrected the Wild Swans. I've watched their gigs and enjoyed them as much as any show I've been too; I've played their 'comeback' singles English Electric Lightning and Liquid Mercury to anyone who would listen. But this is the big moment - whether Simpson can muster the troops to produce the Wild Swans album he always heard in his head, that had remained elusive for the last 30 years. The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years is that shot at the prize.
First things first, the quality of the songs is top rate. Simpson has always shown he has a handle for a brilliant hook going back to his days working with Ian Broudie as Care. The album has more memorable moments than any I've heard in the last decade. Lyrically, it reflects on some of the themes that we got on Bringing Home The Ashes - the title track and Northern England mused on a place shattered by years of Thatcherism. Two decades on, the Liverpool of the past is truly gone and progress isn't always a positive. My Town sees our man musing that "My town used to fill me with wonder/Now it fills me with disgust". The reasons for this are seen in The Bluebell Wood, Simpson lamenting the loss of the woods and fields of his youth to be replaced with "dark satanic shopping centres".
When Time Stood Still covers similar ground, chronicling a drive home bringing memories of "Live At The Witch Trials, Armalite Rifle, Horses, Little Johnny Jewel". It would be easy for all this to eventually ground the listener down, but Simpson has done well to recruit a somewhat exceptional band around his songs. The twin guitar attack of Ricky Maymi and Mike Mooney sounded absolutely thrilling on stage and I'm thankful that their power has been transferred onto tape. They sound at their best on the pop-tinted Underwater and Intravenous, the latter featuring a cameo from Will Sergeant.
It's also good to see that man's old comrade Les Pattinson doing what he does best - whacking a bass - alongside drummer Steve Beswick and honours go to Richard Turvey for his duel role as ivory tinkler and producer. He's helped made a wonderful sounding album - especially on the dreamy Glow In The Dark, which deserves to be used in a soundtrack for a weird David Lynch film. My hat is tipped. Lost At Sea may also be the saddest song you'll hear this year - a lament on the fleeting nature of our existence ("One second of lost concentration, the next I'm engraved on a stone") with haunting backing vocals from Candie Payne.
In both songwriting craft and execution of recording, The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years is exceptional. It's been a constant presence in my home for the last week, and it'll make a welcome addition of yours too.
28 July, 2011 - 08:22 — D.C. Harrison
carpi
06.04.2025 - 17:37
Ja, die Wild Swans sind fantastisch und ein Beispiel für Bands, die eine große Zukunft hätten haben können, aber auf Grund von internen Streitigkeiten und persönlichen Problemen nicht dazu kamen. Die Geschichte ist in Paul Simpsons Autobiografie nachzulesen, wer sich dafür interessiert, kann ja mal den Guardian Artikel "Liverpudlian indie hero Paul Simpson: ‘I could have made a masterpiece but I was too damaged’" lesen.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/dec/06/the-wild-swans-paul-simpson-interview-liverpool-music-revolutionary-spirit
Allein in einem Absatz des Artikels werden Bezüge zu Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch und Courtney Love gezogen, Love teilte übrigens zu Beginn der 80er in Liverpool eine Wohnung mit Simpson und einer weiteren Person.
In der Biografie erfährt man viel über die Musikszene Liverpools zu Beginn der 80er Jahre, aber auch über die familiären Verhältnisse und die psychischen Probleme Simpsons, die er eindrücklich schildert.
Aus dem Guardian-Artikel:
“And my mum was a proto-new age hippie who told me I was a genius and that ghosts were real. It made for a bit of a shaken-up individual. Psychically fragile at the best of times.”
Mir persönlich gefällt die Frühphase der Band am besten mit dem von Mick Head genannten The Revolutionary Spirit aber bitte hört euch auch mal die Tracks Enchanted https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mpNOR2wQ9k
Opium und Infidel an. Postpunk vom Feinsten.
Die Compilation der frühen Tracks (Incandescent), die nie zu einem regulären ersten Album wurden, gibt es nicht auf Spotify, sie lassen sich aber auf Youtube finden, die Doppel-CD habe ich, ich denke aber, dass sie nur schwer oder sehr teuer zu bekommen ist (9 copies from €44.85 bei discogs).
Die oben genannten Alben sind zwar auch durchaus gelungen, für mich aber nicht mehr auf dem Niveau der Frühphase, was auch Simpson so sah. Das Comeback-Album aus dem Jahr 2011 mochte ich, müsste es aber mal wieder hören, um mehr dazu zu sagen.
Schön, dass es nun einen Thread zur Band gibt, bin auf jeden Fall neugierig, was das neue Album angeht. Und die Lotus Eaters (mit anderen Bandmitgliedern der Wild Swans) sind ebenso zu empfehlen.
MickHead
06.04.2025 - 23:26
Danke für das Feedback und deine interessanten Infos! Habe gerade in meinen CD Regalen nachgeschaut. Besitze die Space Flower, die Incandescent mit der Bonus Disc, sowie die Magnitude (The Sire Years) incl. Bringing Home The Ashes und noch einmal Space Flower.
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