THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF EDWYN COLLINS (Part 5)

As mentioned last time out, 50 Shades of Blue flopped on release in October 1989. It would be fully five years before Edwyn Collins released his next single.

Between times however, there were 2 LPs unleashed on the world. Hellbent On Compromise appeared in October 1990 to little fanfare and brought an end to his association with Demon Records. It's a fine piece of work if a little patchy in places. It features the last song that he wrote in conjunction with Paul Quinn as well as a couple of covers - one originally by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and the other by Willie Nelson - which sort of encapsulates perfectly the music that has had most influence on Edwyn.

He spent most of the next few years producing a range of acts, some of who were on the then little-known London-based indie label Setanta Records. Edwyn himself inked a deal with the label in the early 90s and it was August 1994 when the LP Gorgeous George was released.

There was a surprising amount of critical acclaim for the LP, albeit it didn't sell all that well - initially that is. It's re-release a year later was totally different.....

One of the real poppy songs began to pick up a bit of airplay on late evening radio. And so two months after the LP was released it was decided to put out the Expressly EP featuring said poppy track, some tracks that hadn't made the final cut of the LP and some remixes across 2 x CD singles:-

CD1

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You (Macrame remix by Youth)

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Out Of This World (I Hear A New World) (remixed by St Etienne)

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Occupy Your Mind

CD2

A Girl Like You, plus:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Don't Shilly Shally (spotter's '86 demo version)

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Something's Brewing

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Bring It On Back

The EP climbed to #42 in the charts. Close but no cigar. That would come, along with a very fine claret, around a year later as will be told in Part 7. There's another flop tale before then next time around.