I just realised that this record is almost 20 years old. Staggering. Was it really twenty years ago that the band I was then an enthusiastic part of released this as a single? Most of us had already been playing in bands for more than ten years by the time of its release. We felt like veterans. Seems funny now.
Quite an uncharacteristic song for us – we normally always went for a more ‘classic’ sound, not so poppy. But our manager was ambitious for us, wanted a hit single – so we attempted to oblige. Our overall goal though was to carry on making records that would still sound good 20 years later. We almost got there. Almost.
Great fun it was to make though.
The 'Spill 
20 years ago, as I was preparing for my A Levels, this is just the sort of record I loved – shame I never picked up on it then! Lovely warm sound – I particularly like the slowed-down, Bacharach-referencing coda. Thanks for sharing, notsosour!
Believe it or not bishbosh, you’re are the first person I can remember to ever comment on the Burt reference. ‘The Look of Love’ was one of those records that all of us liked in equal measure (we only had a hard core of a few bands/artists we all of us liked just as much – Marquee Moon, Velvets, Neil Young. Hunky Dory – we were quite an eclectic bunch music lovers, everything from Coleman Hawkins to Mark Eitzel at the time, which we didnt always agree on). I still get a thrill hearing that line myself. Barry Morris (vocals) wrote most of the lyrics for our songs, although we all contributed songs/melodies. We also swapped instruments a lot – I played the bass on this track, for the record. Glad you liked it.
Also sorry I didn’t pick up on this at the time. The guitar just screams 1990-91 (that’s a compliment) and I love the harmonies. The lead vocal didn’t quite fit that sound though – possibly because it was neither Mancunian nor Byrds-y. Good lyrics though, and I liked the coda too (“Songs with Surprising Codas” would be an interesting variation on last week’s RR topic).
Phenomenal bass playing too, obvioiusly. Would be pleased to hear more.
fab tune. feel like i’ve known it for years. thanks sourpus.
and very earwormy too, as I’ve now just found out…
Thanks for all the kind words gents. The video was such a good laugh to make too. We had more than a kilo of confetti (think about it – the stuff weighs nothing) and a bunch of friends up in the balcony of the nightclub we took over (near Victoria station) chucking it down over us as we mimed the track. Each run through was followed by a picking up of every scrap of paper and starting all over again; we must have done at least 20 or more run throughs – took all day from early morning to after midnight. This is why we left in parts of the clean up operation, because it played such a big part in the day.
barbryn, I wish there was more official videos. We did make one more ‘unofficial’ video (under a different name with same band membership – The Moodybirds) I’m working on getting this onto You Tube one day soon.
great stuff Sourpus and the video looks like a it was a laugh to make too.
Enjoyed this enormously; avoided this sort of thing like a plague at the time, but this sounds an awful lot better than most of my memories (or, indeed, than most of the stuff on Blimpy’s regular posting of the Chart Show’s Indie Chart…).
Totally different topic – and if I could find your email, I’d do this privately – but are you based in Budapest, or elsewhere? ‘Cos Mrs Abahachi and I are now booked to come to Budapest in April, as her big *th Birthday treat, and I have permission to take a couple of hours off for a Spill-related mini-social if you’re in the area and not otherwise occupied…
Abahachi, I am indeed in Budapest – 8 years later, I must be liking something about it.. It would be a privilege and a pleasure to meet up with you (and Mrs A if she’s game). I’d be happy to do a mini-social and toast the others from afar. Glad you liked the song – Im particularly proud of the orginal material we managed to produce, since this was out primary aim; to write songs that would hopefully be judged in the distant future as well put together and with longevity. As I mentioned above, this was our out-and-out ‘pop’ song – a break from any concerns with making the music last as such. Anyway, it would be most excellent to see you out here. Let me know when you have the dates and we’ll do the town – as it were.