Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

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Lloyd Cole and the Commotions

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (October 2004)
Background information
Origin Glasgow, Scotland
Genres Indie pop
Years active 1982-1989 & 2004
Labels Polydor
Members
Lloyd Cole
Blair Cowan
Lawrence Donegan
Neil Clark
Stephen Irvine

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions were a popular British indie pop band of the mid-1980s, based in Glasgow, Scotland.

Contents

[edit] Band history

Formed in 1982 and signed to Polydor in 1984, the band was known for combining Neil Clark's encyclopedic, yet often twangy, guitar savvy with Lloyd Cole's low-key singing style. Their auspicious debut effort, Rattlesnakes (1984), was initially dismissed as a "student bedsit classic", but now is regularly cited[citation needed]as an important work in rock music. NME included in its top 100 album of all-times list, and the title track was also covered by Tori Amos. Welsh band Manic Street Preachers included the album amongst their top ten list.

Paul Hardiman gave Rattlesnakes a clean and elegant production, and Anne Dudley (who had scored The Lexicon of Love for ABC) was brought in to provide the album's much-noted orchestrations. The album was scored with a keen desire to keep it elegant and avoid "schmaltz", and string arrangements began coming back into rock music in the years following its release. Due to insistence by their label, the follow-up, Easy Pieces, was produced by the Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley production team (who had shaped efforts by Madness and Teardrop Explodes and were hot off working with Elvis Costello and the Attractions on Punch the Clock) "Clanger" as they would become known, applied their established '80s britpop sound to the Easy Pieces recordings, making for a dramatic contrast between the two works. It contained their biggest commercial success, the single "Lost Weekend", which made #17 in the UK charts. The swansong of the Commotions, somewhat provocatively titled Mainstream was produced by the group and Ian Stanley, keyboard-player of Tears for Fears.

Particularly notable were Cole's knowingly pretentious lyrics (he was studying Philosophy at the University of Glasgow when the band started) and namedropping the likes of Norman Mailer, Leonard Cohen, Arthur Lee, Grace Kelly, Truman Capote, Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Sinatra, and Eva Marie Saint as well as referring to Sean Penn (somewhat sympathetically) as "Mr. Madonna".

For a period in the mid-1980s, The Commotions were one of the most successful indie acts in Britain (despite being on a major label, Polydor), vying with The Smiths. The band broke up in 1989 amid reports of personality clashes between members, reforming in 2004 to perform a 20th anniversary mini-tour of the UK and Ireland.

[edit] Band members

(note: Derek MacKillop, manager, was listed an official group member on the group's three LPs. However, he did not feature in any group photographs, nor did he play on any albums)

[edit] Post-breakup careers

  • Cole moved to New York City and later to New England to pursue a solo career with Polydor/Capitol Records and later appeared on Rykodisc, before establishing self-published entities in the United States. His solo career has found him collaborating with the late Robert Quine, Fred Maher, David Derby and Jill Sobule. He can often be found touring solo with acoustic guitar and commenting wryly as he performs with characteristic sardonicism.
  • Clark continued working with Cole on almost all of his solo releases and full band tours. He was also member of the short-lived group Bloomsday, with Irvine (of the Commotions) and Chris Thomson of The Bathers.
  • Cowan collaborated with Cole and his new backing band in New York on Cole's first two solo albums. He played with Del Amitri, Paul Quinn and the Independent Group, the Kevin McDermott Orchestra and Texas but is today an IT-specialist at British Telecom.
  • Donegan is a journalist and an author - he is a golf journalist and Scotland correspondent for The Guardian and published several non-fiction titles, including No News at Throat Lake and Four Iron in the Soul.
  • Irvine joined former bandmate Clark in Bloomsday and, as a session musician, worked with Del Amitri, Etienne Daho and Sarah Cracknell. He is also managing artists and bands.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Compilations

  • 1984-1989 (1989, #14 UK), first official compilation
  • Lloyd Cole. The Commotions. The Singles (2004), second official compilation

[edit] Live Albums

  • Live at the Apollo, London (2004), official concert registration by InstantLive records

[edit] Re-Issues

  • Rattlesnakes (2004), a Universal Records "Deluxe" re-issue with extra tracks and bonus CD

[edit] Singles

Year Title Charts Album
US Modern Rock UK Singles Chart Ireland Australia
1984 "Perfect Skin" - 26 - 54 Rattlesnakes
"Forest Fire" - 41 - 87
"Rattlesnakes" - 65 - 59
1985 "Brand New Friend" - 19 11 73 Easy Pieces
"Lost Weekend" - 17 10 -
1986 "Cut Me Down" - 38 12 -
1988 "My Bag" 13 46 20 - Mainstream
"Jennifer She Said" - 31 27 -
"From the Hip" - 59 - -
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