Star Wars by BMX Bandits
The brilliant BMX Bandits were formed in 1985 by singer Duglas T. Stewart of Bellshill, Scotland. Their famous fans and supporters include; Janice Long, Alan McGee, and Kurt Cobain. In 1991 the band released the splendid album STAR WARS which this month is being re-issued and is coming out on six glorious colours of vinyl! The musicians that played on the album with Duglas were; Gordon Keen, Francis Macdonald, Jo McAlinden, Eugene Kelly, and Norman Blake. Harry Pye persuaded Duglas to answer a few questions for Le Document ...
Harry Pye (HP) The line-up of The BMX Bandits has changed a lot over the years. What are your memories of the band who recorded the songs on Star Wars?
Duglas T. Stewart (DS) One of the things I remember most was the amount of laughter during that line up when recording and when touring. Joe and Eugene were hilarious together. I remember Eugene said years after it felt more like being in Monty Python than being in a band and he was a big part of the laughter in those days. I think the fact he was the guitarist, one of the guitarists and not the main guy meant he could just enjoy it, not have to feel any pressure.
On the previous album Francis had contributed to a few songs but on this one he became the other main writer and he was really driven in doing that and doing it well. He had started off as the baby of the band who didn't know, by his own admission, all the cool bands and reference points but in a short time he had become the other major creative force in the group along with me.
HP You re-recorded The Sailor Song on a later album - does that mean you didn't think the version on Star Wars was as good as it should be?
DS It was a strange situation but because I was the least musical technically in the band I would sometimes bow to the musical opinions of Joe and Francis. When I wrote the song I heard something with a fuller arrangement but we did it more stripped down and Joe and Francis seemed to think it sounded good that way and it would stand out being a more stripped down thing. So I went along with that. A wee while later after a BMX Bandits show in Edinburgh a group of girls who had been at the show told me they had done a vocal arrangement of The Sailor's Song and sang me this beautiful a Capella version with great harmonies. I immediately wished we had made it a fuller recording and had taken advantage of people in the group's ability to sing great harmonies. We recorded it again with a fuller arrangement as it felt very relevant to personal stuff happening in my life. This time we did a version that I am much happier with. A number of years ago I asked people who had been in the group over the years to pick their favourite BMX Bandits track for an article. The My Chain version of The Sailor's Song was the track picked by most people.
HP The way Francis sings Smile For Me reminds me so much of Big Star. I always got the feeling Alex Chilton was high up on the list of people who inspired the BMX Bandits. Can you tell me about how you went from being a fan of Chilton's to being a collaborator and what it is about him that inspired you?
DS I think Smile For Me was Francis' first lead vocal and it didn't occur to me that he was trying to sound like anyone but we were certainly influenced by a lot of Big Star and solo Alex stuff at that time. I think Francis has quite a distinctive texture and sound in his voice and I think he maybe had just found a type of music that suited how his voice sounded. We had already played on the same bill as Alex and one show and our friendship grew over the years. I remember Alex being very complimentary about a bunch of our songs including; Disco Girl, Stardate, Your Class and Francis' song Hello Again. We were really thrilled by his praise as he could be brutally honest with people, he wasn't scared to offend. Francis ended up playing a bunch of shows drums with Alex, with David Scott on bass, as a trio and Alex wasn't always the kindest to them in that situation. But that was how Alex could be. Alex really believed in astrology and had decided that Francis' astrological profile didn't really work with his. Francis was a great ally and a good friend to Alex and I didn't like seeing Alex being difficult with him. I was fortunate, Alex believed my astrological profile was the best it could be. One of the best days I ever had with Alex was when David Scott, Francis and I recorded a version of The Beach Boys song I Wanna Pick You Up. We all loved the album The Beach Boys Love You, which that song is from, and Alex knew how to play every song on it. On that day Alex was full of joy and was loving singing harmonies with David and Francis as a vocal group. He was only positive on that session and I think the track turned out beautifully. Carl Wilson taught Alex to play guitar when The Box Tops toured with The Beach Boys in the late 1960s. We all loved Alex and so you make allowances for him sometimes being a bit difficult at times.
HP I adore the cover versions you do as there's always so much love in them. Do you still perform either Green Grow or Do You Really Love Me in live shows?
DS Thank you. It's funny but those are the two tracks that I wasn't satisfied with my performance on. Everyone else was great on them. The concept that Francis and I had for doing Green Grow the Rashes a bit like how The Byrds did Wild Mountain Thyme was really good and it works very well but my lead vocal doesn't sound that good to my ears. For Do You Really Love Me, I don't think it was the best key for my voice and at that time we were less good at spotting stuff like that. We heard that Daniel Johnston liked our version, which was exciting.
Some people are singers and some people are vocalists and a few are both. Norman Blake and Alex Chilton and Paul McCartney are both. I am a vocalist, Eugene Kelly is a vocalist, we have our limitations as singers but we figure out what we do best and do it, working with our limitations. Some of the greatest vocal performances in pop are by people who are vocalists more than they are singers.
We still do Do You Really Love Me fairly regularly. We now do it as a girl/ boy duet, it works well as that and we do it in a different, better key. We did a recording of it with the Korean singer YeonGene which I really like.
HP Do you still relate to the person whose singing Extraordinary or is it more of case of the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there
DS Yes, I still relate to that Duglas. That is one of my favourite tracks on the album. That song and Serious Drugs were both written about my relationship with the same girl. There is a great Rodgers and Hart song called Falling in Love with Love, The Supremes do a real good version of it. The Rodgers and Hart song is about falling in love with the idea of love, the fantasy and I think that is something I have been prone to do over the years. For songwriting that's not a bad thing as it makes the longing, the thrill and the heartbreak all more heightened. Extraordinary is a song that came out of those feelings. I am still a bit like that. There's a big part of me that has always related to classic songs aimed primarily at teenage girls and their dreams of love and romance. My body is gradually falling apart but inside in many ways I am still a foolish teenager dreaming of love.
HP Norman Blake features on the 'Star Wars' album and he was also on stage very recently with The BMX Bandits when you performed on Tim Burgess's Gorilla TV. Tell me about your friendship with him and your views on the latest Teenage Fanclub LP (Endless Arcade) which also features former BMX Bandit member Francis. Do you feel the difference between BMX Bandits music and Teenage Fanclub music is widening?
DS Norman officially left the band in 1991 but he is still part of our musical family. Of the last six shows we did I think Norman played guitar for about half of them. He also plays something on most of the albums.
In many ways Norman feels like my brother. It feels like more than a friendship to me. I am a year older and at first in the relationship I think I had the big brother role but now it is switched around a bit and I feel Norman is now more like the big brother, looking out for me and sometimes worrying about me. BMX Bandits really is an extended musical family more than a conventional group. I often refer to members as being brothers or sisters in pop and I am not joking about it.
I don't think the difference is widening more now. I think it really widened a lot when Francis was not in the band anymore. Francis can write a wide style of songs but I would say his natural writing style is closer to Teenage Fanclub than what I do. I like stuff like Neil Young, Big Star and The Byrds but I would say it is more in Francis' world. I think with My Chain onwards we weren't really doing any more of that type of guitar led pop songs on our records.. Norman and Francis are both better at those types of songs than I am. I think there is other stuff, other styles of music that suit me better.
I think Endless Arcade is a good strong album. Back in The Day and I'm More Inclined are my favourites. Euros' voice sounds great blending with Norman on the harmonies. I am glad it has received so much positive attention.
HP Which members of the band were the most convinced The BMX Bandits singles could get singles in the top 10? Or that big money could be made?
DS I believed we would have major international hits and I thought there was a good chance that I would also have my own BBC TV show, like Cilla or Lulu used to have. I never really cared about the money. When we moved to Creation Records after this album Alan McGee seemed to think the same, that we would have big hits and I would have my own TV show. He really believed in the group and in me. I don't mind that these things never happened for me or the band. We have been very lucky and the way things have turned out are good.
HP Were you always happy when bands linked to The Bandits such as The Soup Dragons had a big hit like I'm Free? Did you ever call rivals nasty names (like in the Star Wars title track)?
DS Yes I have always been happy to see my friends have success. I was delighted and excited when The Soup Dragons, Teenage Fanclub and Belle & Sebastian were on Top of the Pops. It felt like I was watching someone score a goal for our side. I have been delighted by Sean's recent renewed success recently with his Hifi Sean records and I am hoping for a high chart position for Endless Arcade. My friends or other bands having chart success isn't what's stopping me having that type of success. I know other people in bands who get really frustrated, even angry about other bands doing better than they do. I have never been like that. The only exception is Westlife., because I had to work with them on a TV show and they were by far the worst famous people I have ever met. I genuinely think that it must be hard work being that unpleasant.
I know I have just been bad mouthing Westlife but I don't like saying bad things about other musicians, particularly publicly. I prefer to concentrate on talking about the music and musicians that I love than being negative about stuff that's not for me.
HP When will the next BMX Bandits make a new LP? How many new songs do you have planned and are there any songs by other acts you'd like to cover?
DS I am currently working on a soundtrack with Andrew from BMX Bandits for a film called Dreaded Light. We plan to release a record of the soundtrack. One of my major loves in music since childhood and a big influence on recent records we have made is soundtrack music that I love by people like Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann, Michel Legrand and John Barry. So this is very exciting for me and the main writing and recording project for me just now. I also have some ideas for songs that will hopefully be on another album after the soundtrack.
One song we have performed quite a lot over recent years is Lynsey de Paul's Storm in a Teacup. I think it could be fun recording a version now. My favourite album just now is by Sofie and is called Cult Survivor. She has a few songs on there that I enjoy singing and can imagine trying one of them out for a future record. I really like doing cover versions of songs that I love. You can learn a lot from doing other people's songs as well as your own.
For more info on Star Wars and details on all formats etc visit here.
You can buy the album from Last Night From Glasgow here.
We also recommend Monorail Records shop.
And, you can buy the new Teenage Fanclub album from here.
