Chart entered : 23 November 1991
Chart peak : 68
Number of hits : 10
This lot take over from The Cocteau Twins as the most cult act to qualify, having never breached the Top 30 and amassing a cumulative total of 12 weeks on the chart. I vaguely recall the name but don't know their music at all.
Catherine Wheel were formed in Great Yarmouth in 1990. Singer and guitarist Rob Dickinson was a cousin of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson. Bassist Dave Hawes had been in a sort of Joy Division tribute band called Eternal. Guitarist Brian Futter and drummer Neil Sims completed the line up.
At the beginning of 1991 they released their first 12 inch EP, "She's My Friend" on the Norwich-based Wilde Club Records. Rob sounds very like Damon Albarn making the whole record sound like Blur during their shoegaze period. I'd pick "Wish" as the best of the four lysergic tracks as it has a bit more energy than the others but it's all a bit unfocused.
The next one, "Painful Thing" was also released on CD. The title track and "Spin" are in the same vein as before but "Shallow" is a sprightlier song that sounds a bit like The Stone Roses and "I Want To Touch You " shows a progression towards writing structured songs. A re-recorded version because their third and biggest hit, peaking at 35 in 1992. I'm wondering if a certain Mancunian was listening because there's more than a passing resemblance to Supersonic.
By this point, the band had done a Peel session and were being courted by bigger labels including Creation. They settled for Fontana instead and "Black Metallic" was their first release for them, produced by Talk Talk asoociate Tim Friese-Greene . It was only an EP on CD; the vinyl single had just two tracks. The lead track is a decent song, perhaps a little too repetitive, at the poppier end of shoegaze. Rob is a noted car buff so it's not surprising he would use a motoring metaphor to describe a girlfriend who's growing cold and distant. Of the other tracks "\Let Me Down Again" is nice and breezy, the other two "Crawling Over Me" and the interminable drone of "Saccharine" are for shoegaze fans only.
I'm incredibly surprised these lot are on, as they are perhaps in my top five favourite acts ever and I had no idea they'd clocked up ten "hits"! I'd certainly say they should have had more commercial success, especially as the likes of Ride cracked the top 20 a couple of times, but they always seemed to be trying to crack the States instead.
ReplyDeleteI think Black Metallic is actually simply about a car, rather than a girl, amusingly enough. A few years ago, I used to pine over an 80s Audi Quattro across the street, with this song coming to mind everytime.
And I did read an interview with Rob Dickinson once, in which he said cousin Bruce did attend an early concert, standing square at the front in some outrageous "rock" outfit, and his only words of advice were "turn the vocals up".