572 Hello All About Eve - In The Clouds

Chart  entered  : 31  October  1987

Chart  peak  :  47

Number  of  hits :  14

As  the  eighties  waned, some  long-taboo  aspects  of  the  beginning  of  the  previous  decade began  to  re-surface  and  this  band  were  at  the  forefront  of  that.

All  About  Eve  began  to  form  in  Huddersfield  in  the  early  eighties  when  bassist  Andy Cousin  and  guitarist  Tim  Bricheno   were  playing  in  a  local  Goth  band  Aemotti  Crii.  In 1984  they  were  introduced  to  Julieanne  Regan,  formerly  a  music  journalist  with  the  magazine  ZigZag  and  briefly  bass  player  in  Gene  Loves  Jezebel  after  interviewing  the  band. She  invited  Tim  to  join  her  new  band  The  Swarm  with  two  other  friends. They  soon  changed   their  name  to  All  About  Eve  after  seeing  the  film  of  the  same  name  on  TV.

They  got  a  deal  with  indie  label  Eden  and  released  their  first  single  "D  For  Desire"  in  June  1985,  a  dense  Goth  rock  epic  namechecking  the  usual  touchstones  of  blood, sex  and  pain,  which  sounds  like  Siouxsie  Sioux in  particularly  good  form  guesting  with  The  Chameleons . It's  very  derivative  but  there  is  something  there.

The  rhythm  section  then  quit. Andy  was  brought  in  to  replace  the  bass  player  and  they  decided  to  use  a  drum  machine.

However  for  their  next  single in  1986, they  used  a  session  drummer  Matt  Kemp.  I  haven't  heard  this  original  version  of  "In  The  Clouds"  produced  by  ex-Motors  guitarist  Bram  Tchaikovsky.  Shortly  afterwards  Julieanne  was  introduced  to  The  Mission's  Wayne  Hussey   and  invited  to  contribute  some  backing  vocals  on  their  debut  album  God's  Own  Medicine. She's  particularly  prominent  on  Severina  which  was  released  as  a  single  in  March  1987.  Julieanne  appeared  with  The  Mission  on  both  Top  of  the  Pops  and  Whistle  Test   and  All  About  Eve  supported  them  on  their  UK  tour   Husssey  and guitarist  Simon  Hinkler  returned  the  favour  by  producing  the  third  All  About  Eve  single  "Our  Summer"  the  following  month.

"Our  Summer "  sees  Julieanne  shedding  the  skin  of  Siouxsie  and  finding  her  own  soaring  voice  on  a  melodic  song   about  a  hoped-for  rekindling  of  a  romance. It's  only  tethered  by  the  drum  machine's  limitations. It  made  the  "Bubbling  Under"  section  of  the  charts.

They  produced  their final  single  for  Eden  themselves. The  band  firmly  nailed  their  colours  to  the   folk  rock  mast  with  "Flowers  In  Our  Hair", an  undisguised  lament  for  the  loss  of  hippy  values. Unsurprisingly  it  did  generate  some  hostility  from  the  ex-punks  in  the  music  press  but  the  video  , with  its  frolicking  flower  children, got  shown  on  The  Chart  Show  and  again   they  bubbled  under.

The  band  were  then  signed  to  The  Mission's  label  Mercury  and  started  work  on  their  debut  album  with  producer  Paul  Samwell- Smith. The  first  single  for  the  label  was  this  one. I've  covered  it  previously  in  the  Albums  blog :

"In  The  Clouds"  was  the  first  single  for  Mercury  and  fell  just  short  of  the  Top  40. It  was  recorded  before  the  arrival  of  drummer  Mark  Price  and  so  features  The  Mission's  Mick  Brown  instead. The  densely textured  guitars  point  the  way  towards  their  eventual  move  into  the  shoegazing  scene  although  Brown  anchors  the  song  in 1987. Appropriately  enough  the  precise  meaning  of  the  song  is  obscure  but  that  sense  of  vulnerability  and  impermanence   that  pervades  the  whole  album  is  present  again.