It was twenty years ago this month

Here's an Edwyn Collins' promotional postcard I just found which I had mailed to my father in the States while I was in London working for Setanta Records. Twenty years ago this month! Hard to believe.

Falling and Laughing

Orange Juice poster in the Rough Trade shop, London. Via here & here.

New Books Alert: Simply Thrilled - The Preposterous Story of Postcard Records, and Barbed Wire Kisses - The Jesus And Mary Chain

Available here

Simon Goddard on Tumblr

Available here

Zoe Howe's website

New film alert: The Possibilities Are Endless (Edwyn Collins)

The Possibilities Are Endless is the title of a new documentary about Edwyn Collins, and the illness (to put it mildly) which befell him about nine years ago. Although well documented in the press, as well as in Grace Maxwell's excellent & highly recommended book, Falling & Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins, the story is very powerful and obviously makes for a great film subject. Directed by Ed Lovelace and James Hall, with music by Edwyn, The Possibilities Are Endless debuted this week at South By Southwest in Austin, TX, and so far the reports have been great. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see this movie!

Be sure to visit their website to sign up for the mailing list. Hopefully this will get some US screenings further afield than Texas. 

Official film website 

Official film Facebook page

Billboard Magazine interview with Edwyn, and the film's directors

Edwyn Collins: New single & video from Understated

Edwyn Collins' latest single, "Too Bad (That's Sad)," from his recent album, Understated, gets the video treatment...northern soul groove ahoy! It features his son, Will, on bass, and Paul Cook on drums. Visit his label website here.

Domino to reissue Orange Juice LP's on vinyl

Orange Juice, original line up, by David Corio

 As reported this morning by Slicing Up Eyeballs, Domino Records will be reissuing all four studio albums by Orange Juice on vinyl for Record Store Day on April 20! This is some of my all time favorite music and has made me happy for years...ask anyone who knows me. Now is your chance to pick up brand new, (hopefully) reasonably priced, copies of these classics...especially their debut, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever. All four will include digital download codes.

You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever (1982)

Rip It Up (1982)

Texas Fever (1984)

The Orange Juice (1984)

Edwyn Collins Spring 2013 UK tour dates

Visit www.edwyncollins.com for further details. Image courtesy of Jocknroll Ain't Noise Pollution.

Edwyn Collins: New album & film news

As the BBC's 6 Music recently reported, Edwyn Collins has started discussing his next album which will be called Understated, and will feature guest Richard Hawley. The current release date is sometime in January 2013 which is probably just for the UK. I'll be surprised if it sees a US release before the end of the calendar winter season.

Collins is also involved in the making of a promising looking film called In Your Voice, In Your Heart, and it's the story of Edwyn’s journey back from his life threatening illness seven years ago. As the filmmakers say on their site, "Blurring the line between fiction and documentary we explore the world of Edwyn’s subconscious – a place inhabited by fragmented ideas and forgotten memories. Each story Edwyn tells is another piece of a shattered identity we gradually see re-emerging in front of us." Watch the trailer, and listen for the acapella verse from Orange Juice's "Dying Day" sung by Edwyn near the beginning - it's simply spine tingling!

Edwyn Collins - official site
Edwyn Collins - on twitter

Edwyn Collins on Daytrotter

Our man Edwyn Collins has a recent session with the folks at Daytrotter available for listening & downloading. The five tracks include Falling & Laughing, A Girl  Like You, Losing Sleep, What Is My Role?, and What Presence!? Check it out here.

Edwyn Collins to play US in March

I had heard about this just a few days ago, but today Brooklyn Vegan announced that Edwyn Collins will be making some rare US appearances in March. His latest album, Losing Sleep, will also finally see a Stateside release on March 22 - about fucking time!

Shows announced so far - tickets available Friday (1/28) at noon:
3/13 The Rock Shop
3/14 Bowery Ballroom
He'll then head to Austin TX for SxSW

Before and After: Pale Blue Eyes

Before - the Velvet Underground:

Velvet Undergound on Amazon

After - Edwyn Collins & Paul Quinn:

Edwyn Collins on Amazon
Paul Quinn on Amazon

Stupefaction Top 12 for 2010

This is never easy for me, but at least I got this together ahead of time year. And in case you're thinking "who gives a crap?", don't worry...I'm under no delusions about anyone wondering what I loved this year (and if you visit regularly you'll know), but I like running it here as a matter of record. In no particular order, and with no further ado:


01. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way (Daptone) (CD, MP3, vinyl)


02. Vic Godard & Subway Sect - We Come As Aliens (Overground) (CD & MP3. Limited edition vinyl available directly from the band)


03. Vic Godard & Irvine Welsh - Blackpool EP (Gnu) (CD-only available directly from the band)


04. Orange Juice - Coals To Newcastle (Domino) (CD & MP3)


05. Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep (Heavenly) (CD, MP3, vinyl)


06. Paolo Conte - Nelson (Universal) (CD, MP3)


07. Patti Smith - Just Kids (Ecco Publishing) (Book)


08. Sexual Objects - Cucumber (Creeping Bent) (MP3. Limited edition vinyl available here.)


09. Harvest Ministers - Strange Love Letter (Crayon Records) (MP3, CD. CD available to order here)


10. Spoon - Transference (Merge) (CD, MP3, vinyl)


11. The Preservation Hall Jazz Band feat. Tom Waits - Tootie Ma Was A Big Fine Thing b/w Corrine Died On The Battlefield - very limited edition 78 RPM record (Preservation Hall) (also available on Preservation: An Album To Benefit Preservation Hall (CD, MP3)


12. Christian Scott - Yesterday You Said Tomorrow (Concord) (CD, MP3)

From my Last.FM stats - Top 15 listened-to artists, 2010:
01. Tom Waits
02. Willie Mitchell
03. Paolo Conte
04. The Harvest Ministers
05. Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
06. Sufjan Stevens
07. Borscht
08. Sidney Bechet
09. Echo & The Bunnymen
10. Big Star
11. Spoon
12. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings
13. John Lurie
14. Vic Godard & The Subway Sect
15. Roddy Frame

Book review - Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins

Falling and Laughing: The Restoration of Edwyn Collins by Grace Maxwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First time author Grace Maxwell - as well as co-star, manager, and wife of musician Edwyn Collins, the book's main subject (not to mention mother to their son, William) - has written an entirely compelling book about Edwyn's 2005 stroke, and the journey their family was forced to take as a result. Her description of the initial part of the ordeal reads like a fast suspense movie. I couldn't put it down even though I knew the ending. Following that, her story of how they came to grips with what had happened, and what they had to do to reclaim any sort of normal life is inspirational without being maudlin. Now I'm more than an Edwyn Collins fan...I'm a Collins family fan. Great book!

View all my reviews

Before and After: L.O.V.E. Love

Before - Al Green:


After - Orange Juice:

Edwyn Collins Losing Sleep video

The new album is out in the UK in a couple of weeks. Keep up with all Edwyn-related news at EdwynCollins.com.

Dada With Juice - Orange Juice to release box set

Isn't that a beautiful record cover? It's the artwork for Orange Juice's third (and last) full length release, The Orange Juice, from 1984. Today, Domino Records announced the upcoming release of Coals To Newcastle, a six disc + one DVD boxed set of everything OJ ever released plus! This may be the first time the band's entire discography has been available at once since the mid 80's.

From the label: Domino are very honoured to announce the upcoming release of Coals To Newcastle, a comprehensive seven-disc anthology of one of the finest groups of all-time, Orange Juice. Coals To Newcastle will be released on November 8th.

The release will be comprised of six audio compact discs and one DVD that will contain the band’s complete discography and other studio recordings as well as a collection of their BBC sessions. The DVD will contain the band’s two promotional clips for “Rip It Up” and “What Presence?!” (the latter directed by Derek Jarman), their four performances on The Old Grey Whistle Test and the rare posthumous concert video Dada With (The) Juice. In total, Coals To Newcastle includes 16 previously unreleased tracks with another 23 tracks previously unavailable digitally on earlier re-issues.

As a taster, I present for a your enjoyment below a youtube playlist comprised of all the videos that made up the Dada With Juice VHS collection. You can never have enough Juice.

Edwyn Collins - Home Again documentary

According to wikipedia, this was originally broadcast in May 2008, and is narrated by Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos. It follows Edwyn's progress in recovering from his illness, and his first return to live performance at the BBC Electric Proms on October 31, 2007. I was lucky enough to see him a few weeks later at the Theatre Arts Club in London, on Nov. 19.

Edwyn Collins is Losing Sleep

But don't feel sorry for him - he's done something productive with his time. Download the title track from his next album here. Special guests on the new album include Johnny Marr, Roddy Frame, and the Cribs.

New Edwyn Collins

The Quietus also brings us news of the next album from Edwyn Collins. Thank god! If you follow Edwyn on twitter you'll already know about this.

Over the past couple of years it's been great to see Edwyn Colins making progress after the stroke he suffered in 2005. Now, the release date for his next solo album has been confirmed. Losing Sleep is the first record released by Collins since his illness, and features contributions from artists including Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand, The Cribs' Ryan Jarman, Johnny Marr and Roddy Frame, and will be released via Heavenly Recordings on September 13th, 2010. A statement reads: "In the middle of a November night 2008, the urge to write songs, which had deserted Edwyn since his illness, made an abrupt return. It happened that suddenly, to his great joy. Nowadays, he thinks about songs all the time, just like he used to before 2005." Edwyn Collins plays the London Queen Elizabeth's Hall on September 23rd

And the Vinyl Villian reminds us why we loved Edwyn's first solo records back in 1987 on Alan McGee's ill-fated & long forgotten Elevation label.

Edwyn Collins before:


Edwyn Collins after: