ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THURSDAY 18 APRIL 2008
Quite a few folk told me that I really would like Sons and Daughters long before I ever got round to hearing them. I did know that Adele Bethel was in the band, but having seen her previously perform live on stage with Arab Strap, I wasn’t convinced she was capable of fronting her own act. So despite there being a real buzz about the band in Glasgow, I remained quite blasé about things, and I never got round to finding the time to check them out.
One day, while pottering around the house (quite possibly yet again putting the CD and vinyl collections into the proper alphabetical order) I heard a great noise coming from my TV which was tuned into MTV2. I wandered into the living room and started paying attention to a video for a song that had caught my ear partly because of a great guitar riff and partly because it was being sung in a broad Scottish accent. Then there was a chorus of sorts in which a vaguely familiar looking female came in on joint vocals, and then the video descended into chaos with a bar-room brawl. Fantastic stuff, but who the hell were these fabulous people??
Up came the caption, and at that point dear readers, I hung my head in shame. For it was of course this:-
mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Johnny Cash
So out I traipsed to Avalanche Records to purchase the LP Love The Cup. I felt as if everyone I the shop was laughing at me for being the last person in Glasgow to buy the album which had been on prominent display for ages. I took it home and played it. And then I immediately played it again. And again. And again.
Not long afterwards, the Villains were on one of their regular pilgrimages in search of the sun. We found ourselves one day on the French island of Martinique on a day-trip from our main base on St Lucia. Mrs V was trying on some clothes in a boutique, and there was a French-language radio station on in the background. Without warning, Johnny Cash came on – and it wasn’t the Man In Black.
I grooved….well, I was on holiday and unlikely ever to set foot in the shop again and didn’t care how ridiculous I looked. I may have been the last Glaswegian to pick up on the song, but I bet I was the first to hear it on a radio station in the middle of the french-speaking part of the West Indies.
The b-side of this single, as you’ll see from the sleeve is called Hunt. A version of this song was put on the follow-up LP, The Repulsion Box:-
mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Hunt
Now if this version is different from that on the b-side of Johnny Cash, I apologise. I have found a copy on e-bay and ordered it, but it never arrived in time to make this particular post…if it is different, I’ll try to add it in later on…
I thank you.
(2016 update). It was different. Here is the b-side
mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Hunt (single version)
Enjoy.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 