655 Hello Inspiral Carpets - Move

Chart  entered : 18  November  1989

Chart  peak  : 49

Number  of  hits  : 16

These  guys  are  usually  regarded  as  tussling  with  The  Charlatans  for  the  bronze  medal  in  the  Madchester   stakes  but  not  by  me  as  they  became  my  favourite  British  group  of  the  nineties.

The band  was  first  formed  in  1983  by  former  school  friends  in  Oldham, guitarist  Graham  Lambert   and  singer  Stephen  Holt  with  two  other  guys. They  recruited  14  year  old  drummer  Craig  Gill  in  1986.  In  1987,  they  started  rehearsing  at  a  studio  in  Ashton-under-Lyne  owned  by  Clint  Boon , formerly  the  organist   in  a  group  called  The  Mill  with  Mani  from  The  Stone  Roses . When  the  I C's   original  keyboard  player   left  they  invited  Clint  to  join  the  group.

 The band's  sound  was  heavily  influenced  by  psychedelia  and  late  sixties  garage  rock . Their  first  recording  was  "Garage  Full  of  Flowers" given  away  on  a  flexi  by  a  Manchester  fanzine  Debris  in  1987. The  song  is  pretty  basic  and  dominated by  Holt's  tuneless  bawling  but  there's  already  something  there.

During  1988  the  band  worked  to  make  their  gigs  an  event   with  an  impressive  light  show, slides  and  their  cow  mascot. Clint  had  worked  a  clothes  stall  and  produced  the  infamous  "cool  as  fuck"  T-shirts   for  sale  at  their  gigs  as  well  as  cassettes  of  their  demo  recordings. Their  first  release  proper  was  the "Plane  Crash " EP  in  the  summer  of  1988  on  the  Playtime   label. The  lead  track  was  "Keep  The  Circle  Around"  written  by  Graham ,a  gloomy  thrash  of  a  song  about  being  stuck  with  the  wrong  partner   with  a  despairing  refrain "You  can  see  inside  of  me  there's  something  going  down". Clint's  organ  suffuses  the  song  with  dread  establishing  their  signature  sound. a 7  inch  version  was   also  released  with  the  other  track  chosen,  the  near-instrumental  "Theme  From  Cow"  which  sounds  like  Johnny  and  the  Hurricanes  on  acid. John  Peel  liked  it  and  invited  them  in  for  a  session.

The  band  recorded   four  new  tracks  for  their  next  EP  at  Out  of  the  Blue  Studios  in  September  1988  but  its  release  would  not  be  straightforward. First, Playtime's  distributor  went  bust  so  the  band  decided  to  form  a  new  label, Cow.  By  the  time  that  was  set  up  Holt  and  bassist  Dave  Swift  quit  the band  to  form  The  Rainkings  so  the  "Trainsurfing"  EP  came  out  with  the  message  "We  need  a  new  singer"  scratched  in  the  run  out  groove. Despite  these  circumstances.  it's  excellent  with  four  urgent  songs  largely  about  poisoned  relationships  - "Butterfly"  features  a  vocal  duel  between  Holt  and  Clint  pursuing  the  same  girl. The  pick  is  "Greek  Wedding  Song" which  features  a  killer  Farfisa  riff  before  shifting  unexpectedly  into  waltz  time.

A  roadie  by  the  name  of  Noel  Gallagher  auditioned  for  the  singing  vacancy  but  was  passed  over  in  favour  of  Tom  Hingley  whose  voice  had  a  similar  tone  to  Holt's  but  was  better  able  to  carry  a  tune. Tom  was  originally  from  Abingdon  and  had  come  to  Manchester  to  study  English  and  in  1984  formed  a  band  with  other  Oxonian  exiles  called  Too  Much  Texas.  They  supported  New  Order  and  The  Beloved   and  released  one  single  during  Tom's  tenure  "Hurry  On  Down" in  1988  which  is  a  pleasant  semi-acoustic  number  in  a  Teenage  Fanclub  vein   but  lacking  in  punch.  The  bass  vacancy  was  filled  by  Martyn  "Bungle" Walsh, a  shaven-headed  veteran  of  various  local  bands.

The  first  record  to  feature  the  new  boys  was  the  single  "Joe", a  sympathetic  ode  to  an  old    street  vagrant, the  sort  of  subject  matter  that  set  them  apart  from  their  hedonistic  Madchester  peers. It's their  first  record  to  flirt  with  funk  rhythms, no  doubt  encouraged  by  producers  Graham  Massey  and  Martin  Price  ( see  the  previous  post ), and  my  least  favourite  of  their  early  singles; the  two  things  being  probably  connected. I  know  a  lot  of  other  fans  love  it  but  it's  always  sounded  pretty  tuneless  to  me. It  was  re-issued , with  different  songs  on  the  B-side, in  1995  to  advertise  their  first  compilation  LP  and  reached  number  37.

Hot  on  its  heels  came  "Find  Out  Why"   a  bouncy  organ-led  ditty  and  of  all  their  singles the  one  most  obviously  indebted  to  US  garage  pop. It  comes  in  at  just  over  two  minutes; the  band  compensated  for  this  on  the  12  inch  by  having  the  epic  16-minute  "Plane  Crash"  on  the  other  side. "Find  Out  Why"  bubbled  under  the  chart  setting  them  up  for  a  breakthrough  with  the  next  one.

"Move"  is  also  influenced  by  the  Nuggets  era   but  is  smoother  and  more  melodic  than  its  predecessor. Tom  adopts  a  less  strident  tone  on  the  laid back  verses  before  moving  up  a  gear  and  being  joined  by  Clint  for  the  plaintive  chorus. With  the  organ  leading  the  way  for  the  rest  of  the  song, Graham  gets  a  rare chance  for  a  distorted  solo  before  the  final  verse. It's  a  shame  they  couldn't  join  their  peers  in  the  Top  40  until  the  new  decade.