| Lowlife |
|
| Origin |
Grangemouth, Scotland |
| Years active |
1985 – 1997 |
| Genres |
Rock
Alternative Rock
Dream
Pop |
| Labels |
Nightshift Records
Anoise Annoys
LTM |
| Members |
left to right:
Stuart Everest
Will
Heggie
Craig Lorentson
Grant McDowall |
Lowlife was a Scottish alternative
rock/dream
pop band,
active from 1985
to 1997.
Although the group never obtained mainstream popularity, they developed
a cult
following that continues to this day.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
years: Pre-Lowlife
- 2 Lowlife:
1980s
- 3 Lowlife:
1990s
- 4 Discography
- 4.1 Albums
- 4.2 Compilations
- 4.3 Singles/EPs
- 5 Reference
- 6 External
links
|
Early years: Pre-Lowlife
Dead Neighbours was an early-1980s psychobilly
band from Grangemouth,
Scotland,
originally consisting of Craig Lorentson (vocals), David Steel (bass),
Ronnie Buchanan (guitar)
, and Grant McDowall (drums).
The band was managed by Brian Guthrie, brother of Robin
Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, and had
recorded an album, Harmony in Hell (1982), that
briefly hit the lower regions of the UK
independent record
charts.
In 1983, Steel left the Dead Neighbours in the middle of
recording the band’s second album, Strangedays/Strangeways.
Upon learning that Cocteau Twins founding member and bassist Will
Heggie had recently departed that band (after a lengthy and reportedly
difficult European tour), Guthrie asked Heggie to help Dead Neighbours
out in finishing the album’s recording, and join them on a tour opening
for Johnny Thunders. Heggie agreed and,
after the album was completed and the tour was done, he stayed on and
began rehearsing new material with the band. Guthrie noticed that with
Heggie, the entire chemistry of the group suddenly changed and they
began forging a completely new, atmospheric sound very different from
their original Cramps-influenced beginnings. Apparently
unhappy with the direction they were clearly aiming for, Buchanan
abruptly departed the band. A new guitarist was brought in, Stuart
Everest, who adapted quickly to the band’s updated vision. In 1984, the
group retired the Dead Neighbours moniker for good and rechristened
themselves as Lowlife.
Lowlife: 1980s
In 1985, Lowlife recorded Rain, a 6-song
mini-album. It was released on Nightshift Records, a label formed by
Guthrie specifically to release material by the band. All subsequent
Lowlife LPs,
singles,
and EPs
would appear on Nightshift, with the exception of their final album, Gush,
which was released on the Anoise Annoys Records label. Rain
was modestly successful, receiving generally positive reviews and sold
well enough to appear on several independent charts in the UK, US and
France.
In 1986, the band’s debut album, Permanent
Sleep was released and received critical praise
from several UK and US music publications. Trouser
Press noted that the album “…delves deeper into
instrumental and vocal textures, with layers of strummed and picked
guitar and slippery bass chords (shades of New
Order) dominating the sound. Despite Lowlife's concentration
on ambience, the affecting "Wild Swan" is a lovely song, punctuated by
repeated guitar triplets fluttering overhead.” [1] Melody
Maker said “Lowlife practice a mystical form of
musical alchemy, with crystalline perfection.” Sounds
gave the album four stars and commented “Lowlife construct their deep
atmospheres through hypnotically mysterious songs…”
An EP, Vain Delights, was released in late
1986. The production of the EP was financed by the band’s new
association with Working Week, a recently formed publishing company run
by Jeff Chegwin, twin brother of television
presenter Keith Chegwin. Record
Mirror called the release “Profound,
melancholic, and reaches the parts other ephemeral pieces of plastic
cannot reach.” A song from the EP, “Hollow Gut”, received airplay
on BBC Radio
by both John
Peel and Janice Long, and a music
video for the song made appearances on UK television, including DEF II.
The band took six months to record their second album, Diminuendo.
Released in 1987, the album received extremely positive reviews and is
generally considered to be the band’s finest full-length effort. Q magazine
gave it four stars and observed, “A further phase in Lowlife’s
refinement…Evocative and dramatic. But never overbearing.” Melody
Maker noted, “Lowlife emerge from a distant eerie grace, out
of an echo or pause with unworldly drama. The isolation, resonance of
this music can bring to mind the notion of the Music
of the Spheres.” Music Week said,
“Diminuendo is a landmark album, bustling with feeling, dripping with
emotion and soft to the touch.” Trouser Press
stated, “The aptly titled and excellent Diminuendo reduces Lowlife's
volume by stripping the arrangements of their thickening ingredients,
leaving only the bass, simple drums and frugal bits of guitar and
keyboards to support Lorentson's increasingly ambitious and musical
vocals.”
Subsequent to the release of Diminuendo,
the group underwent a lengthy UK tour as support to headliners The
Go-Betweens. The tour helped bring Lowlife to a wider audience, and
culminated in a critically well-received show at The Town & Country
Club in London, a performance which Guthrie would later describe as
“possibly the best set of their career.”
Also in 1987, a live performance of the band specifically shot
for BBC
Scotland was broadcast on television, and a single (“Eternity Road”)
and an EP (Swirl It Swings) were released.
In 1988, Lowlife rehearsed new material and Guthrie presented demos
of some songs to Working Music, which was associated at the time with
Chappell Music. Stephen Fellows, vocalist and guitarist of the Comsat
Angels, heard the demos and agreed to produce the album, but
this was dependent on whether Working Music and Chappell Music would
commit to finance the recording. However, while discussions were
underway, Warner Bros. Records absorbed
Chappell Music, and the Warner regime passed on the option of signing
Lowlife. Working Music subsequently dropped the band.
The band started undergoing a level of internal strife.
Guitarist Everest was asked by the other band members to leave, for
reasons never made clear. Hamish McIntosh was brought into the group as
Everest’s replacement.
In 1989, the band’s third album, Godhead
was released. Critical response was slightly less effusive this time,
with Music Week noting that the album “…takes us
back to that classic case of a band who never reap enough acclaim
because they won’t play the game. But they deserve serious attention.” Trouser
Press was unimpressed: “The misnamed Godhead lacks the
emotional drive that sparks all of Lowlife's other albums and winds up
labored and dull, a collection of unaffecting songs that plod — even at
brisk tempos.”
Lowlife: 1990s
In early 1990, following a soccer match accident in which he
lost a finger, McDowall decided to retire from the music business and
left the band. McIntosh also left, to pursue a career with his own
band, Fuel. New guitarist Hugh Duggie and drummer Martin Fleming were
brought in as replacements. That same year, while the band adjusted to
these most recent personnel changes, Nightshift issued a compilation
album, From a Scream to a Whisper,
consisting of previously released songs taken from the band’s earlier
singles and albums.
In 1991, Lowlife and Nightshift Records began experiencing a
series of financial problems, brought on by the collapse of Rough Trade
Distribution, which left small independent labels with far less options
to have their various titles distributed to record stores. Guthrie had
to borrow a substantial amount of money to finance the recording of the
band’s fourth album, San Antorium.
The album received positive but unspectacular reviews, and the sales
were no better or worse than their previous offerings. There were no
live shows to support the release. The band’s momentum had clearly
stagnated.
It would be four years later before the group got around to
recording their fifth, and final, album, Gush.
The recording sessions were apparently by a very professional but
unenthusiastic band, and the extremely muted critical reviews reflected
this lack of excitement. As with San Antorium,
Lowlife did not tour to support Gush.
In 1997, after playing fewer and fewer shows to progressively
smaller audiences, and with family commitments an ever growing concern
for all band members, Lowlife effectively called it quits, although
there was never any “official” announcement of a breakup.
In 2006, all of Lowlife’s back catalogue was re-released on
CD, augmented with multiple bonus tracks and featuring extensive
liner notes by Brian Guthrie.
Discography
Albums
- Permanent Sleep
(1986)
- Diminuendo
(1987)
- Black Sessions (1988) (Commercially
unreleased demos)
- Godhead
(1989)
- San Antorium
(1991)
- Gush (1995)
Compilations
- From a Scream to a Whisper
(1990)
- Eternity
Road: Reflections of Lowlife 85-95 (2006)
Singles/EPs
- Rain (1986) EP
- Vain Delights (1986) EP
- Eternity Road (1987) Single
- Swirl It Swings (1987) EP
Reference
Guthrie, Brian, Eternity Road: Reflections of
Lowlife 85-95. (2006) CD Liner notes. LTM Records.
External links
