Background information
Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Indie pop House Techno Acid House
Years active	1982–Present
Label(s)	Creation (1985-1987, 1987-2000) Elevation (1987) Sony (2000-2007) B-Unique Records (2007 - Present)
Website	www.primalscream.net
Members
Bobby Gillespie Andrew Innes Robert 'Throb' Young Gary 'Mani' Mounfield Kevin Shields Martin Duffy Darrin Mooney
Former members
Jim Beattie Paul Harte Jim Hunt Denise Johnson Duncan Mackay Tom McGurk Stuart May Henry Olsen Steve Sidelnyk Gavin Skinner Martin St. John Toby Tomanov

Primal Scream are a British rock group formed as a duo in 1982 in Glasgow, Scotland, by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie, evolving into a band in 1984 at which time Gillespie was also the drummer in The Jesus and Mary Chain. Besides lead singer Gillespie, the current lineup also includes guitarists Andrew Innes and Robert 'Throb' Young, former Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy, former Stone Roses bassist Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, and drummer Darrin Mooney, who is currently working with ex-Thin Lizzy guitarist Gary Moore. Former members include touring guitarist and producer Kevin Shields, formerly of My Bloody Valentine. The band was signed to Alan McGee's Creation label until its closure in 2000; they are now signed to Sony/Columbia.

History

Primal Scream have been through several lineups and musical styles, with Gillespie being the only constant element.

Early years

Bobby Gillespie and school-friend Jim Beattie teamed up to record "elemental noise tapes" in a local scout hall, Bobby banging two dustbin lids and Jim playing fuzz-guitar. They soon moved on to covers of Velvet Underground and Byrds songs before starting to write their own songs, based around Jah Wobble and Peter Hook basslines.

They named themselves Primal Scream, a term used to describe a cry heard in Janovian psychotherapy treatment. Still essentially a partnership, Primal Scream first played live in 1982.

Gillespie and Beattie eventually recruited other members, including Robert Young (bass guitar), Stuart May (guitar), Tom McGurk (drums), and Martin (the Joogs) St. John (tambourine), and after the planned first single The Orchard was abandoned, with this line-up released debut single All Fall Down (after which Gillespie left The Jesus & Mary Chain to concentrate full-time on Primal Scream) and Crystal Crescent (the latter also featuring Paul Harte on rhythm guitar). At this time the band had a very jangly sound, influenced by The Byrds and Love and they were a leading part of the C86 scene (BMX Bandits, The Mighty Lemon Drops, The Soup Dragons, The Wedding Present etc.).

Late 1986 saw significant line-up changes, with Harte and McGurk departing and the band recruiting Andrew Innes (formerly of Revolving Paint Dream) and Phil King and Dave Morgan taking on drum duties in the studio and on tour respectively. The early jangly sound - a key influence on many of the indie pop bands to follow - was filled out into a more psychedelic sound, and the band's debut album Sonic Flower Groove (1987) encapsulated this sound with songs like "Imperial" and "Gentle Tuesday", but the highlight of their early work is undoubtedly the "Crystal Crescent" B-side "Velocity Girl" (also their contribution to the NME C86 Compilation), a 90 second pop classic which was the No.4 in the John Peel Festive 50 for 1986 and had quite an influence on "Made Of Stone" by The Stone Roses.

Founder member Jim Beattie left to form Spirea X, continuing the early psychedelic sound, while the central trio of Gillespie, Innes and Young (augmented by drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov and bassist Henry Olsen of Nico's band The Faction (Toby had also played in The Nosebleeds, The Durutti Column and Blue Orchids) and, eventually, keyboardist Martin Duffy of Felt) relocated to Brighton and ditched their trademark "jangly" sound for a much heavier edge, influenced by MC5, Iggy Pop and The Stooges and the 1960s Detroit garage scene. The album Primal Scream (1989) also saw the beginning of the band being heavily influenced by The Rolling Stones. The band's dramatic change in sound risked alienating their initial fanbase, and the album was received negatively by the music press. Several critics today, however, have opined that a critical reassessment is overdue, particularly given its relatively contemporary style.

Screamadelica

With their next album, Screamadelica, the band began to garner a larger share of mainstream attention. The first hint at their new direction came when the a track from the previous album, "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", was remixed by Dance DJ Andrew Weatherall (Sabres of Paradise/Two Lone Swordsmen), employing methods of deconstructing and layering grooves normally found in the Jamaican dub music of King Tubby and Scientist among others. The resulting track, "Loaded" disassembled "I'm Losing More...", added a drum loop from an Italian bootleg mix of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", a sample of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues" and the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda B-movie The Wild Angels. The track was a critical success, played everywhere from Ibiza to Glasgow and, along with The Stone Roses' "Fool's Gold" and The Happy Mondays' "Step On", marks the point where white indie music "got funky".

"Loaded" was followed by "Come Together", a psychedelic gospel track. The lead track was a Terry Farley-produced remix sampling Andie MacDowell from Steven Soderberg' sex, lies, and videotape and the guitar riff from Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds". This was backed by an instrumental mix by Weatherall containing a sample of the Reverend Jesse Jackson ("You will hear gospel and rhythm and blues and jazz, all those are just labels, we know that music is music"). This became another dance classic and highpoint of the Ibiza scene. The Weatherall mix has since become the most well-known version of the track, obscuring the Farley mix. However, the Farley mix and other rarities such as the highly influential "Velocity Girl" are now available on the Japanese compilation "Shoot Speed (More Dirty Hits)" released in 2004. Nonetheless, Screamadelica was a critical success, an album fused with elements of gospel ("Movin' on Up"), jazz ("I'm Comin' Down"), dance ("Come Together", "Don't Fight It, Feel It") and rock and roll ("Damaged", "Loaded"). The album is often said to resemble the effect of a mind-altering drug trip, with the earlier tracks particularly euphoric and the latter few portraying the coming down side.

In 1992 the band won the inaugural Mercury Music Prize on the strength of the album, beating off Gillespie's former band The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band then began celebrating their success in typical excess to the point at which they eventually lost the award. The bands drug habits have often been publicised, journalist James Brown reported the band arguing with one another saying "Let's get Vietnamese." "No, Chinese." "What about Indian?" When one of his colleagues asked them if they'd settle for a burger the band informed him "It's heroin we're discussing, not food!" [1]

Give Out But Don't Give Up and Vanishing Point

Give Out But Don't Give Up, recorded in Nashville, was another radical departure from the early Scream sound. While Screamadelica blended dance with rock music, this album was closer to a pure rock and roll record; critics compared it in style and sound to the early Rolling Stones. The album also included a heavy funk influence, and George Clinton featured as a collaborator/producer. When released, the album was widely panned by critics as a "tired," self-indulgent effort, especially as a follow up to the innovative Screamadelica. It did, however, yield a #11 UK single with "Rocks".

More line up changes added Mani, who was a key addition to the group. Starting with the Vanishing Point album (influenced by the film of the same name), a complex dance/dub rhythm was present in most of the tracks, harking back to the crossover success of Screamadelica, yet sounding significantly darker and more sinister. Some see this as Primal Scream's reaction to the money-driven perversion and eventual death of the Madchester scene: though Primal Scream were not from Manchester, they were seen as part of a stylistic brethren with bands who were.

XTRMNTR and beyond

Gillespie on the cover of NME

Vanishing Point revitalised the band and introduced a far more complex musical dynamic, and saw the addition of Kevin Shields as a third guitarist to the live band. They have since produced increasingly complex yet accessible albums in the form of XTRMNTR and Evil Heat, both within a surprisingly short period of time and with Shields providing a great deal of influence and production talent. The band's newly consistent line-up has also allowed it to coalesce as a live act, reproducing songs from their recent studio albums on stage, but also recreating the band's entire back catalogue. Shields has never been an official member of the band but toured and recorded with them consistently from the late 90's until 2005.

In June 2005, Primal Scream played a controversial set at the Glastonbury Festival, throughout which Gillespie was playfully abusive to the crowd and was alleged to have made Nazi salutes (during the song 'Swastika Eyes'). They were eventually forced off by officials after overrunning their allotted time; the festival organizers were at that point already annoyed at the band when, in response to their invitation to join other recording artists in signing a Make Poverty History poster which would be auctioned of for charity, lead singer Bobby Gillespie instead altered the poster so that it would read Make Israel History.

In 2006, the band played a January 30 comeback show at Glasgow's King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. The show featured six new songs that ditched the electronic elements from the last three Scream albums, leading many fans to view the performance as hinting at a return to a rockier sound. The political lyrics remained, however, for instance in a new song called "Bomb Drops" which referred to Molotov cocktails, and in a change to "Swastika Eyes"'s chorus which had him singing it as "American Eyes".

The group's single "Country Girl" received regular airplay in 2006 resulting in a chart entry of number 5, their highest ever, it was also used by the BBC in the closing credits of the Grand National 2007. The band were slated to appear at several major venues, headlining the Radio 1/ NME stage at the Reading/Leeds festival.

Primal Scream recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios in September 2006 for Live From Abbey Road.

Primal Scream's latest album is Riot City Blues, a return to the blues rock sound of their work from the mid nineteen nineties. Riot City Blues received mixed critical responses, with many fans and reviewers disappointed over losing the distorted electronica sounds of the previous two albums.

On the 26th of August 2006, bassist Mani was reportedly arrested at the Leeds music festival, after what was said to be a drunken brawl. However, he was soon released and the band's appearance at the festival went ahead, leading some fans to suspect it was a ruse altogether.

Several of their songs have appeared on movie soundtracks including "Trainspotting" in the film Trainspotting, "Miss Lucifer" and "Swastika Eyes" in The Football Factory, "Star" in The Jackal, "Movin' On Up" in Grand Theft Parsons and the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (on fictional Alternative station Radio X), and "Come Together" in Human Traffic.#

Primal Scream have a growing legacy, their sound spawning bands such as Kasabian, The Beta Band and Birthday Letters.

On April 26, 2007 they said on their official MySpace blog that they were working on a new album in their studio and also were expecting a live DVD to be released soon. They also mixed Queens of the Stone Age's track "I'm Designer" (from the "Era Vulgaris (album)") along with their long-time collaborator Adrian Sherwood, known for his dub remixes.

In mid 2007, Kevin Shields returned to the line up.

Discography

All the chart positions are for the UK.

Albums