Del who? (Del Amitri in general)

Member Name: calypte

Product:	Del Amitri in general
Date:	18/04/02 (925 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great songs, fantastic lyrics, leather trousers (kidding!)

Disadvantages: Del who?, being a fan isn't going to increase your 'street cred'

Sigh… how to write about my favourite band and do them justice? Especially when we’re talking about a band few people have heard of, let alone know anything about. That’s a pretty good reason for writing about them, really – oh, I’m not expecting to convert a horde of Dooyoo’ers into overnight Dels fans, but maybe this way I’ll get a few more reads when I write my review of their new album soon!! ;) (heavy on the joke factor, people – no comments, please!!)


•¤• DEL WHO? •¤•

Let me start by dispelling a few misconceptions. For example, there is no one nor has there ever been anyone in the band named Del. Or Dimitri.

So what does Del Amitri mean? Depends on what day of the week it is, I think: it’s Greek for ‘of the womb’ or a corruption of ‘Dilemma tree’ – a ‘false god built on shifting sand’ – or one of a hundred other things. In fact, there’s a web page where you can go and read for yourself some of the strange interpretations (sorry it’s such a long link!): http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=5740&arti cle=3333&date_query=999946311

Which one is true? None of the above: it doesn’t mean anything. Why so many fake meanings, then? Well, the band has a sense of humour when it comes to answering this same question posed by uncountable journalists through the years. The really funny thing is knowing exactly what it means – or doesn’t, I should say – and reading a serious article with a straight-faced journalist telling you it means ‘men wearing sandals’. Sigh.


•¤• DOES THE MUSIC SOUND LIKE THE NAME? •¤•

My thanks to a-true-ben for pointing out that in previous reviews of Del Amitri albums, I’ve never managed to actually give an overall sense of what kind of music they produce – it’s a pretty
important question: what do they sound like?

Oh dear – I can tell I’m going to make a mess of this! Let’s see, in a music industry keen on labels and pigeonholing, perhaps Del Amitri can be described as, um… an alternate rock guitar band. No, pop-rock. With accordions sometimes. And a little country twang, and just a soupcon of Scottishness. What a mess!! :)

That couldn’t be further from the truth, however. Del Amitri makes quite stunningly beautiful ballads, some very catchy pop tunes, and some fantastic all-out ‘rawk’. Lyrically, there are few songwriters around today who can match Justin Currie – pick a Del Amitri tune at random, and chances are it’s about the perils of love, the twisted love song of things gone wrong, a good sprinkling of irony and all intelligent enough to make you stop and think.


If you cast your mind back, chances are you’re already aware of a Del Amitri song, if not the band itself. Nothing Ever Happens, perhaps, or the more upbeat Kiss This Thing Goodbye (often heard playing in the background on Eastenders!). Or perhaps you remember the perfect pop of Roll To Me?

Well, whether you do or not, I’m here to tell you a little more about Del Amitri. I have a lot of ground to cover, so I supposed I’d better get on with it.



•¤• IN THE VERY BEGINNING… •¤•

Once upon a time, two young lads from up Glasgow way formed a band. One, a certain Justin Currie, was a mere 16 years of age. He wrote poetry (or so they say) in an attempt to impress the girls. It didn’t work, but fortunately it did turn out that he could turn his hand to writing songs instead. Justin also sings, plays the bass (except on the trickier tracks, when it’s much easier to let someone else take over) and sometimes strums away on a guitar.

Of course, one man does not a band make (well, not one you&#
8217;d want to listen to, at any rate!) so he found a slightly older lad by the name of Iain Harvie. Iain took up the guitar, the story goes, because it came naturally. Swine.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and Messrs. Currie and Harvie are still together writing songs and playing in the little band they created together all those years ago. Twenty years that have seen other band members come and go in a suspiciously Spinal-Tap manner, but still getting eight albums out there and growing an awful lot of dodgy facial hair.

Hmm… perhaps the easiest way to cover a career spanning 20 years, 8 albums and several line-up changes is by taking things as they happened.


•¤• DEL AMITRI – A TIMELINE •¤•

•1982 – the song ‘What She Calls It’ becomes the first ever Del Amitri track, issued as a flexi-disc single through a music magazine. The following year, guitarist Bryan Tolland and drummer Paul Tyagi are drafted in and single ‘Sense Sickness’ is released independently. A session for DJ John Peel was followed by tours with the likes of The Smiths and The Fall; soon the band had built up quite a fan base, and that all-important record contract.


•May 1985 – Del Amitri

The self-titled first album is not often talked about amongst Del Amitri fans, or indeed by the band themselves. The sound is very different from anything that followed: my own feelings are that this album is from before the band found their ‘own sound’ – to me, this fits perfectly with that mid-1980s feel. Also, many people are surprised to learn this is the same person singing as on later albums, as Justin has a very definite (if fake) English accent going on here!

Unfortunately for the band, two months before their debut album was released, Melody Maker put Del Amitri on their cover and hailed them as the next big thing. A critical backlas
h ensued against this ‘hype’ and poor distribution stopped people from being able to buy the album.

However, the existing fan base was already strong, and an extremely low-budget American tour was organised – with the fans helping pay travelling expenses and letting the band sleep on floors! Encouraged by the support, Del Amitri refuse to give up.


•July 1989 – Waking Hours

An important introduction to the band prior to this point was keyboardist/accordion player Andy Alston, who has remained part of the line up ever since. Two more newcomers – Dave Cummings on guitar, and Brian McDermott on drums – had to be drafted in when the previous band members (including yet another guitarist, Mike Slaven) left after the recording of the album.

Waking Hours is the start of that ‘Del Amitri sound’ that I struggled so hard to explain: pop/rock with a slight country ‘twang’ as someone else once put it. Four singles, including Kiss This Thing Goodbye and Nothing Ever Happens (which reached number 11 in the UK charts), were released from the album, followed by the EP Spit In The Rain.


•May 1992 – Change Everything

The next album served to strengthen the band’s reputation and popularity – okay, they were never ‘huge’, but by now the fan base was solid and the band well respected.

The sound of Change Everything is very similar to Waking Hours – perhaps a little more mature, a little more polished, but still that ‘classic’ Del Amitri sound. A further four singles were released from this album, charting between numbers 13 and 30.

Perhaps they’d been watching Spinal Tap, but 1994 saw another drummer leaving the band, and Ashley Soan drafted in as replacement.


•February 1995 – Twisted

The fourth album saw a darker, harder and ‘rockier’ t
one creep in, with the electric guitar sound more evident than previously. However, it also featured the band’s most throwaway ‘pop’ moment: Roll To Me became the band’s biggest success, reaching the US top ten.

Several tours across the States followed, during part of which the band was ‘stalked’ by a documentary crew. The video, Let’s Go Home/Legends of the Mall captured a crisis in the ranks: the departure of guitarist David Cummings. Having had a stable line up for the longest time since Del Amitri was created, losing David was a blow to the rest of the band. He has since moved on to write for the Fast Show, while Jon McLoughlin was brought in to replace him.


•June 1997 – Some Other Sucker’s Parade

Often cited as fans’ least favourite Dels’ album, SOSP perhaps suffered from being recorded a little too hastily, and some over-production. The harder edge of Twisted has gone, and this feels like it’s playing a little more to the commercial pop market. Still, there are some good songs on here, although most sound better when played live – but that was another hitch.

The tour for the album was hit by big problems: namely, the departure of yet *another* guitarist and drummer. Newcomers Kris Dollimore and Mark Price found themselves in an awkward position: having to tour with songs they had only just learned. Fortunately, they managed themselves rather well, and both remain with the band today.


•June 1998 – Don’t come home too soon

Not Del Amitri’s finest hour; in fact, one which I’m sure they’d rather forget.

In 1998, Scotland’s football team qualified for the World Cup, which meant only one thing: they needed a song for the occasion. After a typical performance, the squad was indeed ‘on that stupid plane’ after losing in the first round, and the Tartan Army is
said to have ‘blamed’ the mournful DCHTS.


•September 1998 – Hatful of Rain, the Greatest Hits / Lousy with Love, the B-sides

The release of a Greatest Hits package is often a worrying thing for fans, more often than not a final money-spinner from a band breaking up. Not true in this case; in fact, the band was dead set against the release, but the record company overruled them. Perhaps they hoped to find an untapped supply of Dels fans waiting to catapult the band more firmly into the spotlight they had so far skirted.

In fact, that’s not entirely a misconception: at least one person bought Hatful of Rain and went on to… well, to write an opinion on Dooyoo about her favourite band!

The record company had pushed for the release of Hatful, so it was perhaps partly in appeasement that control of the sister album, a compilation of b-sides, was turned over to the band themselves. While every single was included on the Hits package, there was an abundance of material to choose from for the second album. I think perhaps it was Lousy that completely impressed me: these songs are *b-sides*, and yet every one is better than many of the songs ‘out there’.

Unlike many bands, I have never found Del Amitri b-sides to be the substandard not-good-enough-for-the-album tracks that many other groups are happy to release. In fact, Justin Currie has said that the band doesn’t really distinguish between album and non-album tracks: each one is a ‘proper’ song; each one has care taken over it. At the end of the day, though, only twelve or so can be put on the album, and so a choice has to be made.

Among the fans, the b-sides are often held with special affection, often considered to be some of the band’s ‘best work’. Songs like ‘Sleep Instead of Teardrops’ (on Lousy) make it hard to argue with that.

Incidentally, the title Hatfu
l of Rain comes from a Del Amitri track from the Waking Hours album – a track that doesn’t appear on the greatest hits (as it wasn’t a single), but the record company ‘liked the sound of’.


•May 2002 – Can You Do Me Good?

Problems abound: firstly came a huge delay in releasing the new album. Recorded last summer, the new record company – Mercury – decided they didn’t want a release too soon after the Greatest Hits package. Then they didn’t want a release too close to Christmas. After months of frustrating postponements, the first proper album in almost five years finally arrived for the very impatient fans.

But shock horror: this isn’t the ‘classic’ Dels sound. This is… Del Amitri gone ‘techno’! I’ve watched with interest the reaction from other fans to this new direction – it seems to have people split. Some loathe it, saying it’s “not Del Amitri”, while others argue that the Dels sound is still there, but trying something a little bit different rather that rehashing the same sound again. Personally, I really quite like it – I haven’t had the album for very long yet, but a lot of the songs are wedged firmly in my head. I’m not entirely sure I like all the drum loops, samples and other strange effects, but the songs are still good and excellently written.

Whether the ‘new sound’ was an attempt to find new fans (personally I doubt it – I think these are men who make music the way they want to make it, THEN deal with the marketing) or just shaking things up for themselves, a small-ish UK tour next month is already sold out.



•¤• THE FUTURE •¤•

So what now for the boys? In an interview in one newspaper, it was hinted that Mercury will ‘probably’ drop Del Amitri – unless the album achieves 300,000
sales. On the one hand, there are fears that another label will be unlikely to want to sign the band. On the other, there’s the opinion that the boys are most likely better off without Mercury and might set up on an independent label. One thing is for sure: the fans of Del Amitri, with whom I have thrown my lot in over the past while, are a loyal bunch. As long as there are Del Amitri records being released, there will be people buying them.



•¤• IF THEY’RE THAT GOOD, WHY AREN'T THEY HUGE? •¤•

I’m sitting here spouting off about how great this band is, how beautifully crafted the music around such sublime lyrics - um, well if that’s true (it is!!) why aren’t Del Amitri better known, never mind as huge as they should be?

Well, I have two main theories to offer on this one. The first is that Del Amitri have never managed to be utterly of a 'moment'. I think most bands that become huge are fortunate with their timing: Travis, for example (who I've heard Dels fan talk about as 'natural successors' in the Scottish music scene), had a great first album, but it wasn’t until The Man Who - argued by some to be a lesser album - started on about raining at the right moment that the band were catapulted to that pedestal of fame.

Del Amitri will themselves happily admit that they have never been 'cool' or 'trendy', never been that band of the moment. As the song Not Where It’s At so aptly put it, "I don’t have my finger on the pulse of my generation / I’ve just got my hand on my heart - I know no better location". The music the band makes doesn't really fit in with what's going on around it, but the flip side of this is that even Waking Hours (10+ years old) doesn’t sound particularly dated.

The other 'explanation' I have to offer isn’t one I’ll take credit for think
ing of, but it seems very true: the band’s refusal to play into the cult of celebrity - in particular, Justin Currie’s reluctance to become a 'star' in the way that many frontmen are these days (that’s not to suggest he’s all that shy - the leather trousers are proof of that!! ;) ). Would Oasis have been quite so huge without the Gallaghers being quite so publicly obnoxious?

As it stands, Justin is probably most famous for the dodgy sideburns (grown, I’ve heard, to hide a babyface when surrounded by older bandmates!). These days, fame tends to take the form of a very public private life: from sex life to political leanings or whether they wear their spouse’s undies. Justin? Well, he was once strip-searched in a US airport - that’s about as personal as it gets! ;)

Justin and Iain seem to prefer having fun with journalists (as the name 'definitions' show!) than seriously playing the press game. This is something I actually find myself admiring: it seems rare these days for a band to refuse to sell their souls in return for higher album sales. It’s my opinion that Del Amitri could have been huge had they played the game - particularly after Roll To Me hit the US top ten. How easy would it have been to churn out a few more chirpy pop tunes, cash in on the success? It's hard to argue that Del Amitri aren’t focused purely on the music.



A little more info:

•¤• VIDEOS •¤•

•Waking Hours – the videos: the singles from the album

•Change Everything – the videos: ditto

•Let’s Go Home – Legends of the Mall: mainly a documentary, following the band on the US Twisted tour, featuring the videos and interviews

•Greatest Hits: compilation of all the videos for the singles, plus a live show from the SOSP tour


•¤• WEBSITES •¤•
;

There are two official sites, one based here and one in the States. Both are excellent, with information links and extras like streams of the new songs and video.

Perhaps it’s because Del Amitri aren’t ‘huge’ that makes everything seem so well run. Look for a Radiohead site, for example, and you’ll be swamped with results – many of which are extremely poor. Del Amitri fans seem to be a well-organised bunch, though: perhaps you’re interested in guitar tab, well The Fifth Fret has pretty much everything. Or maybe you want to listen to some mp3 of live stuff? No problem.

One site I will recommend (if anyone is even REMOTELY interested after all my waffling!) is the ‘humour’ section of the Backpage, where you can read a list of the daftest things overheard at Del Amitri gigs.

•UK official site: www.delamitri.co.uk
•US official site: www.delamitri.com
•The Fifth Fret (tab): www4.tpgi.com.au/users/aless
•Live mp3s: www.delamitri.de
•The Backpage (humour): http://www.spiritone.com/~darren/humor.htm


Oops - very nearly forgot to thank everyone! Big thanks in particular to Alison, Kevin, Jane and Darren who, not only are they lovely people, but run the various websites excellently and helped fill me in on all this 'History of the Dels' when I first became interested :)


Also, if anyone would like to hear any of the new material, there are some streamed songs on the official website, along with a peek at the very funny video for the new single.



Soo… good grief but that got rather long! Well, I did warn you – 20 years is a long time to cover, and that was me trying to keep it brief, too! I hope I haven’t bored you completely to death ;) I’ve deliberately tried not to repeat any information from my previous review of the Hatful of Rain album, so more information on t
he singles can be found there.

And now… well, I have my tickets for next month, the new album on repeat and some new friends from the motley bunch of Dels fans! Whatever happens in the future, Del Amitri -although never 'where it's at' - has a great collection of albums with plenty of fantastic songs – songs to make you want to dance about, or to break your heart. Long may it continue!


“Til next time, drink well everybody and before you go out, change everything”

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