A who’s hue of THE PASTELS
Article published in NME, 21st August, 1982
The Pastels | Colour Me Pop | RIGHT NOW, purveyors of the popular product are carrying off booby-prizes right, left and centre. And if there is a contender out there for the big star prize, then I sort of wish they’d start playing the game . . . This party’s getting boring — won’t someone spoil it with a punky sneer?
One thing’s for sure; it won’t be Paul Haig — he’s still just learning to say he admires Dollar. And the only thing distinguishing them from Tight Fit, Bucks Fizz and The Belle Stars is a fleeting shock-value whim.
Terribly smart though — hands up all the suckers stuck with a dreary copy of Videotheque! Sorry for laughing, but there’s not much happening: and what’s that stale old smell — Yazoo, ‘Fame’, ‘Freebird’, ‘The Wall’, Visage, Cliff, Madness, Steve Miller, Blondie, Haysi Fantayzee (Jeremiah Prat should be drowned in hot fat) . . . Dexy’s?
The Pastels | Colour Me Pop
Oh come on! 1982 — the year of DJ as television personality. Record producer as genius. And the golden-age popsters all too eager to water down, tart up and bland out for the chance to become another insignificant guest on Des O’Connor, Summer Time Special or the Radio One Roadshow.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Thompson Twins had a hit. Fashion are bound to. And The Psychedelic Furs desperately deserve to . . . At least most of those half-baked unspirited exercises in ‘that area’ inspired by Vic Godard will run the course and vanish.
It’s high time Davy Henderson livened-up some living-rooms; and someone paid James King and the Lone Wolves to make exciting records. But while the surprising talents of their fellow-Glaswegians Set The Tone and Bourgie Bourgie are still being hidden under wrappings; you could do a lot worse than lend an ear to ‘Heavens Above’ — the deadpan, flat, but wonderfully fresh debut single by The Pastels.
The group is the unique result of a kind of father and son partnership between young newcomer Stephen McRobbie (distinct vocals, lighthearted lyrics and brimming enthusiasm) and Brian Superstar (notorious cynic, solid guitar).
Brian, sporting a Throbbing Gristle armband, and churning out bootlegs from his bedsit, was — Stephen proudly claims —”The first punk in Glasgow”.
The Pastels | Colour Me Pop
A brief spell in the near-legendary Oscar Wilde (“We played once in Troon: it was hugely affected punk —one of our songs was ‘Wow Wow Wow Wow Dustbin’ . . .”) sent him scurrying to work in a local record-store, where during the height of the independents’ glory he stubbornly maintained his opinion that indies were hopeless, generally badly-produced and didn’t stand a snowball in hell’s chance of charting.
The Pastels have just signed to Wham Records—the label started by an ex-member of the Television Personalities: you’d be hard pushed to find a more obscure little ‘indie’ if you tried . . .
Brian, does your total hypocrisy not worry you?
“Of course not! The only reason I’m in The Pastels is because I enjoy it. I still think all those things I said are true; but I’m not going into this as a career. It doesn’t matter if we can’t have hits, we’ll be making records that we like.
There are some disgusting trends just now: particularly the ‘new funk’ — when the rock journalists finally reached the bottom of the barrel that’s what they found. Rock groups do it so abysmally.
“And it’s really bad to be caught up in this whole thing about writing the classic rock/pop song —wanting to be like Bob Dylan or Burt Bacharach, and ending up sounding like British versions of Bruce Springsteen. The great songs were never intentionally contrived in such a calculating manner.”
The Pastels | Colour Me Pop
And The Pastels?
“I’d like us to sound like a ’60s group with an element of bubblegum in it,” says Stephen, “The Pastels are punk, but not like The Exploited or Anti-Pasti —they’re just stupid and silly —more like Swell Maps, TV Personalities; that’s the way punk should have gone . . .”
Really? And what’s so good about them anyway?
“Well I think they’re total fun.”
So are Bad Manners meant to be . . .
“Yeah, but they’re ugly—the Swell Maps are cute, and it was a brilliant idea, the reincarnation of The Beatles . . .”
“Personally, I don’t like the TV Personalities or the Swell Maps,” Brian confesses. “But don’t print that: I suppose they’re OK but it’s certainly not my taste. My favourite groups are The Byrds, Beatles, Buzzcocks and Cramps.”
Are they pleased with their first recording?
Stephen: “I’ve only bought two records this year, and The Pastels is one of them . . .”
Brian: “The last single I liked was Smokey Robinson’s ‘Being With You’ — and all things considered; yes, I do like ours for what it is.”
If you find the party spirit starting to wane, then stick on ‘Heaven’s Above’ — as I said, you could do a lot worse. (Kirsty McNeill)
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