Okay, I should really give you an explanation of that mention of The Commodores.
The December edition of Uncut included one of their monthly An Audience With… features where Lloyd Cole discussed his fondness for a round or two of golf while touring, haircuts, a recent encounter with Morrissey in Dublin and also the early days of The Commotions in Glasgow, which included playing a Tia Maria promotion night where the band was introduced by the MC of the event as Lloyd Cole and The Commodores.
Which made me laugh anyway.
Anyway, below is Bob Stanley’s review of Jennifer She Said for NME from January 1988.
I’m currently reading Stanley’s Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop, where he only gives Lloyd and The Commotions the merest of mentions – observing how, along with other British bands like The Smiths and The La’s, they fitted neatly into the template of America’s college-radio of the time.
His thoughts on The Commodores? Three Times a Lady is described as a ‘grandparent-friendly ballad’ which just about sums it up, although I might have substituted the word sickly for grandparent-friendly.
Getting back to the aforementioned Uncut piece, Lloyd also recalled loving early Orange Juice and going to see them as often as possible.
So it’s highly likely that he was at this very gig, one of my very favourites of the time: Orange Juice supported by Fire Engines at the old Roseland Ballroom on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street – not too far actually from the ABC (which back then was a cinema).
Here’s my rather crumpled and not terribly well scanned poster from the night:
This is Period Piece from Lloyd’s best album in years, Standards, released last summer on Tapete Records. And if the boy in the promo reminds you of anyway, it might just be his father, the one and only Lloyd Cole.
And finally, I couldn’t resist ending with an entirely predictable choice, Camera Obscura’s Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken:
For more on the two acts playing tonight:
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