Orange Juice – Glasgow – 1984

26^th of March 1984

Glasgow Pavilion

March 1984 found Orange Juice out and about promoting the Texas Fever 6-track mini-album, and the A-Listers had turned out in force to witness Edwyn Collins’ return to Glasgow.  In the row behind us the delectable Clare Grogan sat, the prominent scar on her left cheek somehow adding to her allure.  And, one of our party assured me he saw James King (out of The Lone Wolves) just as we arrived.  And erm, that was sort of it really.

The support for the evening were a Humberside-based outfit called International Rescue, who came onstage to a chunky guitar version of the theme from the Thunderbirds TV show.  At least that is what I assumed it was meant to be – it was not instantly recognisable as such.  They were actually quite entertaining, very much of the Postcard-ilk.  I believe their lead guitarist later quit the band to join Edwyn in one of the later Orange Juice line-ups.

This evening’s OJ line-up was, I think, mark III, with only Collins and drummer Zeke Manyika remaining from the musicians who had actually played on the Texas Fever set.  New guys were bassist Paul Heard, and guitarist Johnny Britten.  The latter was introduced by Edwyn as “coming all the way from Brittany, France: Jean Breton”.  The punchline, of course came when Bretton greeted us all in a frightfully posh Home Counties accent.

There was little sign of OJ’s well documented amateurism in performance, this being a delightfully tight line-up.  Edwyn did break a string, inevitably, but his response of “Oh Dear, Here I go breaking strings willy-nilly” seemed almost self-parody.

Salmon Fishing in New York was played very early in the set, and also used as an encore.  Another new song What Presence, was introduced as referring to “The Ghost of Postcard Past”, if memory serves.  Which made me wonder if the song was a barbed dart aimed in the direction of Alan Horne.  Simple Thrilled Honey and Rip It Up (not the anodyne album recording, but the infinitely more spunky Punk Club version) were the other memorable highlights of the evening.