Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (October 2004)

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

Line-up:

• Lloyd Cole, vocal and guitar - (born 31 January 1961)
• Blair Cowan, keyboards
• Lawrence Donegan, bass guitar
• Neil Clark, guitar - (born 3 July 1955)
• Stephen Irvine, drums - (born 16 December 1959, in Scotland)

Formed in 1982 and signed to Polydor in 1984, the band was known for combining Clark's twangy guitar style with 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 as one of the important works in rock music. NME included in its top 100 album of all times list, the title track was also covered by Tori Amos and Manic Street Preachers included it amongst their top ten albums of all times.

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 (behind the production of Madness and Teardrop Explodes) replacing the originality of their debut with the producers' patented 80s britpop sound. 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, Eva Marie Saint, Simone de Beauvoir, and Nancy Sinatra.

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. The band reformed in 2004 to perform a 20th anniversary mini-tour of the UK and Ireland.

Post-breakup careers

• Lloyd Cole moved to New York City and later to New England to pursue a successful solo career collaborating with Robert Quine, Fred Maher, David Derby and Jill Sobule.
• Neil Clark continued working with Lloyd Cole on almost all of his solo releases and tours. He was also member of a short-lived group, Bloomsday with Stephen Irvine of the Commotions.
• Blair Cowan collaborated with Lloyd Cole and his new backing band in New York on first two albums, played with Del Amitri and Texas but is today an IT-specialist at British Telecom.
• Lawrence 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.
• Stephen Irvine joined Neil Clark in the group Bloomsday and as a session musician with Del Amitri, Etienne Daho and Sarah Cracknell. He is also managing artists and bands.

Discography

The band released three studio albums and several best-of compilations:

• Rattlesnakes (1984, #13 UK), includes the hit singles "Perfect Skin" (#26 in UK), "Forest Fire" (#41 in UK) and "Rattlesnakes" (#65 in UK, #31 in the Netherlands)
• Easy Pieces (1985, #5 UK), includes the hit singles "Brand New Friend" (#19 in UK), "Lost Weekend" (#17 in UK) and "Cut Me Down" (#38 in UK)
• Mainstream (1987, #9 UK), includes the hit singles "My Bag" (#46 in UK), "Jennifer She Said" (#31 in UK) and "From The Hip" (#59 in UK)
• 1984-1989 (1989, #14 UK), first official compilation
• Lloyd Cole. The Commotions. The Singles (2004), second official compilation
• Rattlesnakes (2004), re-issue with bonus CD
• Live at the Apollo, London (2004), official concert registration by InstantLive records