This Scarlet Train (reprise)

Recently Roque who runs Cloudberry Records wrote a blog posting about the mysterious This Scarlet Train so now seems a good time to post the article I wrote in late 2011 on that group's "Fimbria" for Great Shakes fanzine.  There's a second Not Unloved mention in 2 days for The Field Mice and Ken Sweeney aka Brian not to mention Cloudberry. Exciting.

Have you noticed how certain incredible records from the past seem to just disappear? How they are so seldom discussed and come up so infrequently for sale that they seem almost mythical. Their existence only acknowledged by the odd sparsely furnished webpage (including the obligatory dormant myspace page!) and appearances on collectors’ wants lists. Unfortunately, “Fimbria” by mid-‘80s Falkirk group This Scarlet Train (on Nightshift Records) would appear to be one of them. I stumbled across “Picture Frame” from it on YouTube a couple months ago whilst trying on crack Australian power-pop troupe The Someloves for size. I only clicked on the link because the sleeve image looked a bit mysterious like one of those early Slowdive e.p.s . Then I saw that the word ‘Falkirk’ and my interest was well and truly piqued. I was instantly smitten by its soft, sombre male vocals and the high definition jangling of its guitars. Being 2011, I hurried to each of my trusty online haunts fully expecting to land a copy: ebay, discogs, gemm, musicstack, eil.com etc.. Of these, only discogs had a page for the release but there were no copies for sale. Since then, slightly obsessively, I’ve checked each of these sites in turn at least once a day and…well, nothing. Not even a single absurdly exorbitant ebay listing. In 2011, this is decidedly unusual! For example, in the same period such elusive titles as The Sea Urchins’ “Pristine Christine” (Sarah 1!) and The Wee Cherubs’ “Dreaming” (The Holy Grail of Scottish Jangly Pop ©) have appeared for sale and have found new homes for the kind of sums that make you splutter out your coffee in shock - both in the region of £300.

The non-appearance of even a single battered copy for sale has prompted a bit of Miss Marple-ing on my part. I’ve quizzed a bunch of people who regularly played at and attended small gigs around the Central Belt of Scotland and even more who bought records by small Scottish independent groups in ‘86/’87 but nary a soul remembers them. Nightshift Records, who released “Fimbria” and who are best remembered for a bunch of Lowlife records, was presided over by Brian Guthrie, the brother of Cocteau Twins’ Robin so I asked a friend of Brian’s if he remembered the record but even he couldn’t recall it or them. All of which is a bit sad and undeserved as, from the YouTube clips, “Fimbria” is without doubt a classic record of its type. One that should have been treasured at the time by those who could see the beauty in the moodiness of The Wake when they were still a Factory Records group or those who found solace in the sensitive lyrics and cut crystal guitars of The Field Mice’s “Emma House”. Come to think of it, had “Picture Frame” or “Lilyhaze” seen a release on Sarah Records, I suspect that the story would have been very different. I’m sure they would have been viewed as among the strongest releases of a near flawless catalogue. I wonder if Matt Haynes or Clare Wadd ever heard "Fimbria"? It’s entirely possible that they did and that, as with Brian’s sublime “You Don’t Want A Boyfriend”, they’re kicking themselves to this day that they didn’t get to release it. Right now “Fimbria” is the record I want more than anything. It’s the one record that, should I find a copy in the right condition, could tempt me into financial recklessness (though definitely not of the £300 sort!). Since the internet hasn’t come up trumps, a tour round the charity shops of Falkirk and Stirling is in order. If that, too, draws a blank maybe I’ll pluck up the courage to sidle up to Brian Guthrie and ask him if he has any spares when he takes part in a panel at a Glasgow gallery in January 2012*. We’ll see. Hopefully one day “Fimbria” will get the same deluxe LTM Records re-master/reissue cd treatment as the albums of Lowlife, The Wake and The Field Mice. Mind you, at this point I’d settle for Cloudberry or Vollwert popping its 6 songs onto a stack of those dinky little 3.5” cd-rs as part of one of their respective archive series. Come on, make it happen!

*- Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I didn't make it to the panel discussion so didn't get to speak with Brian Guthrie.  If anyone has a contact email address please contact me on: lebrogues (at) yahoo.co.uk

Fanzines / This Scarlet Train

What were you doing the night Princess Diana died?  Me, I was on a transatlantic phonecall to Andrew Prinz of the ridiculously good Michigan group Mahogany.  We were supposed to be doing a little interview for the Glasgow-based cut'n'paste fanzine Boa but ended up talking for hours about the breaking news.  Those were the days before 24 hour terrestrial TV news in the UK so I was following it on Teletext.  Andrew, of course, could follow proceedings on CNN.  I hadn't thought about that night for years until an excerpt from the (giddy, breathless) interview showed up on a Japanese blog of all places.  If I remember correctly, we didn't get the interview done so I had to phone back the next night which contributed to the single biggest quarterly phone-bill my folks had ever seen.  Ouch!   

Wind on 15 years and there's a far less giddy and breathless (guess I just got old!) Not Unloved piece in the 2nd issue of Great Shakes! zine.  Great Shakes! is the handiwork of Calvin Halliday, drummer from Water Wolves, Glasgow's brilliant response to the whole Captured Tracks/Hozac axis of garage jangle. 

,

Not Unloved's contribution is a paragraph or two on Falkirk, Scotland's almost entirely overlooked/forgotten This Scarlet Train:

The easiest way to get a copy is probably to email Calvin. I've yet to see inside a copy but the cover looks smashing. Big thanks to Calvin for giving me the opportunity to give some belated recognition to a group who made one great record a quarter of a century ago and then disappeared.