From a band with one ex member of Altered Images yesterday to another today.
Hipsway were formed by ex Altered Images guitarist Johnny McElhone in 1984 with Harry Travers and and Graham Skinner both from the band White Savages who had supported Altered Images on tour. During the formative days of the band James Grant who had left Friends Again and had yet to form Love And Money helped out on guitar and this may explain the slight similarity between a couple of Hipsway numbers and the songs of Grant's previous band.
Hipsway's eponymous album was released in 1986 and did fairly well in the UK. Their biggest chart success was the Honeythief which reached #17 in the UK charts. However in Scotland they are probably better know for the track Tinder which was used in the ad campaign for a certain Scottish Lager which doesn't start with a T.
McElhone frustrated by the lack of success and a split which had appeared in the band left in 1986 to form the rock then blue eyed soul band Texas. The band continued and released a 2nd album in 1989 called Scratch The Surface which I have no knowledge of as by this time I had found house music and had little time for anything else.
The track posted, is in my opinion the best thing that Hipsway ever did and was also the final single from the first album and reached the giddy heights of # 55.
Hipsway - Long White Car
4 comments:
I love the first Hipsway album, I think it stands up as a great white funk pop album.
Simon. how are the good lady and Alfie?
Keeping me too busy to blog!!! All is going well, the little man is a joy: he's smiling constantly and is starting to find his laugh.
Huge connection between Graeme Skinner and Paul Quinn, in that the former replaced the latter with The Jazzateers. There's a lot of similarities in their voval styles, and for that reason alone, I'm a fan of Hipsway.
Oh and let;s be honest, it may have been pish lager it was advertising, but the imagery that went with 'Tinder' was pretty special and near-groundbreaking at the time.
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