Billy Sloan tells us the story of meeting Lloyd Cole while DJing on Sauchiehall Street.
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00:00 We shall go on to Lloyd Cullinan Comotions, Rattlesnakes
00:02 Wait a minute, I'll get my note
00:04 No worries at all
00:05 See this, there you are
00:07 It's not just any chancer you're dealing with, it's taken my homework
00:11 So, 1984, another band appears on the scene, another debut album
00:18 We've picked Rattlesnakes by Lloyd Cullinan Comotions
00:21 Not farmed too far away from where we are just now up at Glasgow University
00:26 Why this album?
00:27 I've got a bit of a kind of long history with Lloyd Cullinan
00:30 Way back in 1983, I think it would be
00:34 I was on my show on Radio Clyde on a Thursday night from midnight until two
00:39 And as a kind of offshoot from that, I did a bit of DJing
00:41 in a club called Nightmoves on Suckey Hall Street
00:44 Right next door to where Lauder's Pub is
00:46 There was a fire in the building a few years ago
00:48 and the whole place got demolished so it doesn't exist any longer
00:51 But it was right next door to where Lauder's Pub is
00:55 You went in, there was Lumley's Sports Shop
00:58 If you wanted to go and buy a pair of football boots or a football shirt
01:00 Next to that there was a door
01:03 You went in and went up to the, I think it was the Lucky Star Chinese Restaurant
01:07 And then if you went up to the next floor, there was a place called Nightmoves
01:11 And I used to DJ in there
01:12 I did a Thursday night in there before I went to Radio Clyde
01:14 But significantly, I did the Friday night
01:17 And they did a kind of alternative music night in Nightmoves
01:21 So I was the DJ in Nightmoves
01:24 It was great, it was a great place
01:25 And all the musicians used to go to it and hang out
01:27 So you would look down and there would be
01:29 Strawberry Switchblade or
01:31 James King and the Lone Wolves or
01:33 You know, the guys from The Orange Juice or things like that
01:35 So that's where everybody went
01:36 And we did gigs there as well
01:38 We did Alex Harvey
01:39 We did Nico from The Velvet Underground
01:41 We did a very early gig by Big Country
01:44 Before they kind of settled into the line-up with Tony Butler and Mark Razzicchi
01:48 We did, who else did we do there?
01:50 We did Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame
01:52 We did a Postcard Night
01:53 So it was a great place to be
01:55 And I was in the club one night
01:56 And because I was on Radio Clyde, everywhere I went
01:59 Whether it was record shops or gigs or
02:03 You know, just even if I was walking down the street
02:06 Guys would come up and go "I'm in a band"
02:07 You know, "Here's my demo tape"
02:09 You know, "We're the best new band in Scotland"
02:12 Everybody always said that
02:13 Nobody ever said "We're the worst new band in Scotland"
02:15 They always said "We're the best new band in Scotland"
02:17 So I would come back with pockets full of
02:20 Cassette tapes and I would go home and listen to them
02:22 And if any of them were any good, I would play them in the show
02:26 And one night this guy came up to me and he had a sort of
02:28 Leather briefcase under his arm
02:30 And he had a helmet that you would have if you were riding a scooter
02:35 Or a little moped motorbike
02:37 And the other thing that made him stand out was that
02:40 He wasn't Scottish, he had an English accent
02:42 He came from a place called Buxton in Derbyshire
02:44 And he said, he was quite shy and he went
02:46 "Ah, my name's Lloyd and I've got this group"
02:49 "And we're the best new group in Scotland"
02:51 And I went "Right, okay"
02:52 And he went "We're called The Casuals"
02:55 "Can I give you my tape?"
02:56 I said "Sure, absolutely, thanks very much"
02:58 So he took the tape and I went back and put it on
03:02 And it blew me off the sofa
03:04 I was like "This is fantastic"
03:06 The band were called The Casuals
03:08 And the song was called "The Power of Love"
03:11 And it was this kind of thrashy, almost early
03:14 Primitively talking headsy quite thing
03:17 With him singing over the top of it
03:19 So there was this kind of unwritten rule in Radio Clyde
03:22 That you weren't supposed to play anything that was on a cassette
03:25 Because they didn't think the quality was good enough
03:28 But I just kind of took the attitude that
03:30 If you could hear the singer and hear the music
03:32 What else did you need to hear?
03:34 So what I used to do was I used to get in every Thursday night
03:37 And I would transfer the song from the cassette
03:40 Onto a cartridge so that when I was in the studio
03:42 I could go "Here's the brand new track from so-and-so"
03:45 And press a button
03:47 Because cassettes were too fiddly
03:49 And you couldn't queue them up
03:51 And I never heard a single complaint
03:53 "Oh, the band's loved hearing their..."
03:56 And I was the first guy that played
03:59 The Big Dish or the Trashcanston Absence
04:01 You start hearing cry
04:03 I was the first person that played their cassette
04:05 Ricky Ross or Deaton Glover
04:07 All that kind of stuff
04:08 And I started playing their cassette
04:12 "The Power of Love" by The Casuals
04:14 And at that time a lot of the A&R men in London
04:17 The artists and repertoire guys who signed the bands to labels
04:20 They were monitoring my playlists
04:23 Because it was the only show in Scotland that was playing new music
04:27 You had John Peel in London
04:28 David Jensen, Kid Jensen and all that
04:30 But in Scotland mine was the only programme
04:33 That played that kind of alternative music
04:35 From midnight to two on a Thursday night
04:37 And the record companies heard me playing The Casuals
04:43 And I got a hold of a number for Lloyd Cole
04:45 And started calling him up
04:47 "We want to come and see the band"
04:48 "When are you playing next?"
04:50 "Are there any more demos?"
04:51 And he got totally freaked out
04:53 Completely freaked out
04:55 And...
04:57 What do you call it?
04:58 He called a guy that was a friend of his at university
05:01 A guy called Derek MacKillop
05:02 Who'd gone on a gap year hitchhiking route in Europe
05:07 And he sent him a telex or something
05:09 And said "Look, all these record companies are phoning me up"
05:12 "I don't know what to do"
05:14 "I'm totally freaked out"
05:16 "I need a manager, you need to come back"
05:18 So he cut his gap year short and came back
05:20 And started representing them
05:22 So what they then did was
05:24 They brought out a single
05:28 They raised money for a single on their own
05:30 Called Down At The Mission
05:32 They changed their name to Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
05:34 They played a gig at the Mayfair on 1983 on the 10th of July
05:38 They opened for the Sweat Crocodiles
05:40 With Kevin McDermott as the singer of the band
05:42 And also a very early line up of Dell Ametri
05:45 And they were a seven piece band
05:47 And they had two female backing singers
05:49 A bit like the Staple Singers
05:51 And Lloyd was out front
05:53 But that was the first gig by the Commotions
05:55 At that time, Neil Clarke played guitar
05:57 And Blair Cowen played keyboards
05:59 So they brought out this self-financed single
06:01 Called Down At The Mission
06:03 Which was actually written by Lloyd and Neil Clarke
06:05 And they did it on their own label
06:07 Called Welcome To Las Vegas Records
06:10 I don't know where that comes from
06:12 And I think they only pressed up about 500 or something like that
06:15 And this was one of them
06:17 As you can see being an Ayrite, how good condition it is
06:19 And I started playing that on the radio as well
06:23 So things really started hotting up
06:25 And Polydor Records, there was a guy called Malcolm Dunbar
06:27 At Polydor Records who loved their single
06:29 And loved what he'd heard
06:31 And he made them an offer and wanted to sign them
06:33 But with one stipulation
06:35 And the stipulation was that
06:37 They withdraw Down At The Mission
06:40 Because he wanted a clean slate
06:42 He didn't want anything muddying the waters
06:45 He says, "Withdraw this single"
06:47 So I think there was only about 500 to start with
06:49 And then when they withdrew them
06:51 They became even more sought after
06:53 So if you're going to buy one on Discogs now
06:55 I think you're talking about a couple of hundred quid or so
06:57 If you can find one that is
06:59 So things happened very quickly
07:01 They went into a recording studio
07:03 One of the first songs they recorded was Perfect Skin
07:06 And literally within a matter of months
07:08 He switched on Top Reports
07:10 And there were Lloyd Cole and The Commotions
07:12 With their first single, Perfect Skin
07:16 And it was a big hit
07:18 And they never looked back after that
07:20 They released the album
07:22 Things on it like Forest Fire
07:25 Down At Mission Street
07:29 Which was a new version of Down At The Mission
07:32 Forest Fire
07:34 Four Flights Up Patience
07:36 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken
07:38 Which of course was famously covered by Sandy Shaw
07:41 And then of course Camera Obscure
07:44 Wrote a song, I reply to it called Yes Lloyd
07:47 I Am Ready To Be Heartbroken
07:49 Or something like that
07:51 And again, Highland Hard Rain
07:54 One of the greatest debut albums from a Scottish band of all time
07:58 And the thing that made it great was
08:00 Lloyd, he was a bit of a, and he still is, a bit of a bookworm
08:04 He's a good reader
08:07 And his lyrics were of a kind of real high calibre
08:11 It wasn't a, I'm going to see my baby
08:13 And all that kind of stuff
08:15 It was the easy route to go
08:17 He was very kind of literate
08:20 And wordy for want of a better term
08:23 And from time to time he did things where he
08:28 On his website he sends handwritten lyrics
08:32 So you can phone him up and say
08:34 My favourite Lloyd Coleman commotion song is Lost Weekend
08:37 And he'll write the handwritten lyrics and send them to you
08:40 And you can get them framed
08:42 So a few Christmases ago he sent me
08:44 My favourite song from that is Rattlesnakes Itself
08:47 And it's got the fantastic line
08:49 She looks like Yves Marie song
08:51 And on the waterfront she reads Simone de Beauvoir
08:54 And her American Circumstances