The Blue Orchids have announced a new album, ‘Speed The Day’, which will come on vinyl, CD and digital platforms via Tiny Global Productions on 25th June, 2021. In support of this, the band have announced an appearance at The Prince Albert here in Brighton on Sunday 8th August 2021 – Purchase your tickets HERE or from Resident music. The support band will be Oldfield Youth Club.
Blue Orchids are an English post-punk band formed in Manchester in 1979, as a post punk psychedelic adjunct to Fall -world are well established in the music enthusiast’s consciousness, and yes, Martin Bramah was a founding father of The Fall, and as expressed recently might have reasonable grounds to even call himself The Fall, well, why not…but then he’s not daft.
Perhaps people could do with reconnecting with Martin’s oeuvre a little more deeply than obsessing over the ex Fall schtick, specially what with the recent albums being a succession of magik pop psych masterpieces choc stock (oh yes) with fabulous gems full of rich, resonant sounds and stinging, esoteric lyrics.
Recently we’ve enjoyed what Martin Bramah calls, ‘the first covers concept album’ the centrepiece of which is, ‘a pivotal anomaly’, an unseen Mark E Smith lyric from 1977, which Bramah has only now set to music. ‘The Magical Record Of Blue Orchids’ on Tiny Global Productions has wonderful interpretations of nuggets from The Penny Saints, The Aardvarks, The Growlers’, Crystal Stilts etc.
And 2018’s ‘Righteous Harmony Fist’ was a total triumph, one of them sticking to the turntable type records you used to know and love in the seventies and eighties. And the accompanying live shows were remarkable. A definite air of the ‘wow man we’re not worthy’ was rife amidst the awestruck punters last time Bramah and Co. hit Brighton, as they shook the embers of harmonic feedback off their clothing and made off into the night. That was a superb Blue Orchids show.
The ‘Speed The Day’ album tracklisting reads:
‘Deeper Than Sin’ / ‘Lucky Speaks’ / ‘Classy Fella’ / ‘25 Or 6 To 4’ / ‘Street Of Flowers’ / ‘What Lies Beneath’ / ‘Like A Clockwork Orange’ / ‘The Pebble’ / ‘Meet The Maker’ / ‘22nd Century’.
The current Blue Orchids lineup features: Martin Bramah – vocals, guitar, John Paul Moran – keyboards, Vince Hunt – bass, Howard Jones – drums and Tansy McNally – electric ukulele.
The support band for The Prince Albert concert will be Oldfield Youth Club who formed in 2018 and are centred around the unparalleled songs of singer and guitarist Simon Rivers (Last Party, Bitter Springs) and his wife Kim on bass and school friend Neil Palmer on drums.
The Oldfield Youth Club create a simple, yet powerfully evocative interpretation of Rivers’ unique pop vision. They have released 4 singles to date (the latest ‘Cutbacks’ receiving airplay on Steve Lamacq’s 6Music show), and plan to release their debut album later this year. Prior to a pandemic-induced hiatus the trio played a string of dates around the UK to enthusiastic acclaim.
