Orange Juice -

Orange Juice was a Scottish post-punk band that cut four 1980/81 singles on Postcard Records, the Glasgow indie that launched Josef K and Aztec Camera. They signed with Polydor for their 1982 debut album You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever and scored a UK Top 10 hit with the title-track from their second album, Rip It Up. After their 1984 EP Texas Fever, Orange Juice slimmed to a duo for one final album. Guitarist/songwriter Edwyn Collins launched a prolific solo career.

Members: Edwyn Collins (guitar, vocals), David McClymont (bass, 1978-83), James Kirk (guitar, vocals, 1978-81), Steven Daly (drums, 1978-81), Malcolm Ross (guitar, 1981-83), Zeke Manyika (drums, 1982-85)

Background

Orange Juice evolved from The Nu-Sonics, an unsigned punk band formed in 1976 in Bearsden, Greater Glasgow, by guitarist/singer Edwyn Collins and his college friend, bassist Alan Duncan.

Collins (b. August 23, 1959) grew up in Edinburgh and Dundee, where his father lectured at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. Edwyn attended the alternative Demonstration School in Park Place and pursued his secondary education at Morgan Academy.

Collins named his band after the Nu-Sonic, an affordable orange-body guitar manufactured by Burns UK. They hired a pair of younger students, Steven Daly and guitarist James Kirk, from another local punk band, The Machetes. A townie, drummer Geoff Taylor, completed the initial lineup, which debuted live in November 1977 at the Silver Thread in Paisley, where Daly sang before taking Taylor’s drumseat. Their setlist included the 1974 New York Dolls song “Who Are the Mystery Girls?”

Early Activity

On January 17, 1978, the Nu-Sonics supported Steel Pulse at Glasgow’s Satellite City. Another act on that bill, Simple Minds, premiered their new name after a spell as Johnny & the Self Abusers. After a subsequent show at Hardgate Town Hall, Duncan departed and Edwyn hired bassist David McClymont, a co-worker at the Glasgow Parks Department. Collins renamed the band Orange Juice, inspired by the color of his Burns guitar and the slight menace of the word “orange.”

The lineup of Collins, Kirk, McClymont, and Daly played their first show as Orange Juice on April 21, 1979, at the Glasgow School of Art refectory. Malcolm Ross of the band Josef K recorded a subsequent Orange Juice show at Teviot Row House at the University of Edinburgh. They earmarked one number, “Felicity” (a Kirk original), for a flexi-disc, intended as a giveaway with Strawberry Switchblade, a prospective fanzine that Collins planned with Alan Horne, a Glaswegian music entrepreneur.

Meanwhile, Daly setup Absolute Records for the debut Josef K single, “Chance Meeting.” Daly and Horne then founded Postcard Records, a Glasgow-based indie for Orange Juice and Josek K, collectively touted as the “Sound of Young Scotland.” They pressed the “Felicity” flexi on the label’s subdivision, I Wish I Was a Postcard. However, Collins and Horne cancelled the fanzine. (Its intended name was later revived by local art students Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson, both Nu-Sonics followers who formed Strawberry Switchblade, a mid-Eighties pop duo.) Some copies of the “Felicity” flexi appeared in Ten Commandments, a music fanzine run by Robert Hodgens, the future guitarist/songwriter of The Bluebells.

1980 Singles

In February 1980, Orange Juice released their first single, “Falling and Laughing,” as the inaugural title on Postcard Records. The flipside features an instrumental track, “Moscow,” plus a live version titled “Moscow Olympics,” a reference to the 1980 Summer Olympics (which the US boycotted due to the Soviet/Afghan war).

A1. “Falling and Laughing” (4:00) is a lo-fi garage-funk song (in Fm and E♭) with a clicking beat, bubbling bass, clean guitars (scratchy, oft-muted), and variable percussive accents (hi-hat slide, cymbal spray). Edwyn (who wrote the song at 17) laments the end of his first love. Her attempts to console him (“You say that there’s a thousand like you”) don’t make it easier (“Well, maybe that’s true, I fell for you and nobody else”).

B1. “Moscow Olympics” (2:01)
B2. “Moscow” (2:07) opens with strummed mid-tempo chords (D…E…). Wordless verses with eleven-note picked guitar melody (in G) and “live” drum sound with tambourine.

Orange Juice recorded “Falling and Laughing” in December 1979 in Strathaven, where Malcolm Ross co-produced the single and played added guitar on both sides. Postcard pressed around 2,500 copies; the first 963 included the “Felicity” flexi. The first 200 copies contained a two-fold photo and lyrical insert.

In August 1980, Orange Juice released their second single: “Blue Boy” backed with “Lovesick,” both Collins originals.

A. “Blue Boy” (2:54)
B. “Lovesick” (2:28)

Alternative TV guitarist Alex Fergusson co-produced “Blue Boy” amid 1980 singles by Aussie Postcard signees The Go-Betweens and his own Red Records release “Stay With Me Tonight,” plus the pop/vocal track “I Confess” by Rema-Rema drummer Dorothy Max Prior.

Session occurred at Castlesound Studios, where engineer/keyboardist Calum Malcolm recently made a hit for his own band, The Headboys (“The Shape of Things to Come”), and oversaw singles by Boots for Dancing and Restricted Code.

“Blue Boy” appeared in a white sleeve with copied line-art illustrations of a Fifties comic panel (front) and a traced group pic (back) scribbled over with felt pens. Postcard’s drumming cat mascot appears on the lower right.

On October 21, Orange Juice cut their first session for BBC Radio One DJ John Peel, whose 10/30 broadcast aired in-studio takes of “Falling and Laughing,” “Lovesick,” and a future a-side (“Poor Old Soul”), plus an ongoing rarity (“You Old Eccentric You”).

In November 1980, Orange Juice released their third single: “Simply Thrilled Honey” backed with “Breakfast Time,” both Collins originals co-produced by the band with Malcolm Ross.

A. “Simply Thrilled Honey” (2:44)
B. “Breakfast Time” (1:57)

Calum engineered the single at Castlesound. “Simply Thrilled Honey” first appeared in a color sleeve with a Sixties orange juice ad rendered in blue watercolour (front) and a distressed group collage (back). Subsequent pressings sport the die-cut Postcard Records of Scotland sleeve with tan outback illustrations.

1981 Singles

In March 1981, Orange Juice released their fourth single: “Poor Old Soul,” a Collins whirlwind spread across both sides.

A. “Poor Old Soul” (2:30)
B. “Poor Old Soul Pt. 2” (2:40)

“Poor Old Soul” (cat. #81-2) appeared in Postcard’s spring ’81 series sleeve, which also housed March/April label releases by Aztec Camera (“Just Like Gold,” 81-3) and Josef K (“Chance Meeting,” 81-5). The die-cut sleeve features cutout vintage illustrations of men in kilts. Early copies contained a hand-written lyrical postcard with a doodle of four Siamese cats, plus a label press release (“Agenda for February–March 1981”) with descriptions of the three singles.

On May 17, Orange Juice recorded their set at Glasgow’s Hellfire Club for an intended live album. Soon after, they signed with Polydor and scuttled the live idea. (In 1992, Postcard issued the Hellfire show on CD as Ostrich Churchyard.) With the change in labels, Postcard cancelled their slated June single, “Wan Light” (b/w “You Old Eccentric”)

On August 3, Orange Juice cut their second Peel session for the DJ’s 8/10 broadcast, which aired two upcoming album tracks (“Dying Day,” “Three Cheers for Our Side”) and two exclusives (“Holiday Hymn,” “Blokes On 45”).

Postcard later gathered the early Orange Juice singles on The Heather’s On Fire, a thirteen track comp with the seven 1980 sides (Side One) and the “Poor Old Soul” single, plus the long-lost flexi recording “Felicity” and the Peel cut “Holiday Hymn” as well as early drafts of two album tracks (“Dying Day,” “Upwards and Onwards”).

On October 16, 1981, Orange Juice made their Polydor debut with their fifth-released (sixth-recorded) single: “L.O.V.E… Love,” an Al Green cover backed with Collins’ “Intuition Told Me,” both eventual album tracks.

You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever

Orange Juice released their debut album, You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever, on February 19, 1982, on Polydor. The title came from the penultimate line in “Hi Dear,” a 1976 song by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers.

The album features nine Edwyn Collins originals, including “Satellite City,” “Dying Day,” “Tender Object,” “Upwards and Onwards,” and a re-recorded “Falling and Laughing.”

Guitarist James Kirk submits three songs: “Wan Light,” “Three Cheers for Our Side,” and a studio version of the earlier flexi side “Felicity.” Side A closes with their pre-released Al Green cover.

A1. “Falling and Laughing” (3:51) is a polished rendition of the 1980 song with balanced bass/guitar interplay, minus the original’s Sixties feel.
A2. “Untitled Melody” (2:04)
A3. “Wan Light” (2:23) is medium-uptempo funk-pop with picked-guitar and slippery bass counterpoint (in C) on a sliding 4/4 beat, embellished with horn refrains and Hawaiian-like leads. Edwyn reconciles his own dreams (“An uncharted world which will be unfurled”) with domestic obligations (“I’ll wander until the power of your will sends messages which I must heed”).
A4. “Tender Object” (4:25) opens humble (in B♭), proceeds with martial drums, hyperactive bass, and picked dual-guitar interplay. Intensifies with chiming chords, roaming sequences, and funkier turns (clavinet sounds). Edwyn uses his window as a garbage chute for undesirables (“hurt… pain”) and feigns affection when he sees his reflection in said window.
A5. “Dying Day” (3:00) opens with bare organ, subsumed with an upbeat pattern (in G) with frontal bass on a Motown beat. Trumpet fanfare bridge. Edwyn portrays a pre-deployment serviceman who shares a tender moment on the dance floor.
A6. “L.O.V.E. Love” (3:32) is a song by Al Green, first heard on his 1975 Hi Records release Al Green Is Love; co-written with Hi Rhythm’s Mabon “Teenie” Hodges and Hi co-founder Willie Mitchell.

B1. “Intuition Told Me (Part 1)” (1:09)
B2. “Upwards and Onwards” (2:27)
B3. “Satellite City” (2:43) is a funk-pop song with sliding basslines, horn fills, and clipped guitar chords across the verse (C7–Am–G) and bridge (Dm–G). Edwyn uses heartbreak metaphors (“Your knife edge caress cuts me so deeply”) to describe a professional split from an ex-bandmate. He laments their “Halcyon days” when they “leapt on stage,” even if they “couldn’t play” and “had nothing to say.”
B4. “Three Cheers for Our Side” (2:50)
B5. “Consolation Prize” (2:50)
B6. “Felicity” (2:34)
B7. “In a Nutshell” (4:15)

Weeks before the album, Polydor issued the freshly recorded “Felicity” as a second advance single (b/w “In a Nutshell”).

Orange Juice recorded the album in late 1981 at Regents Park Studios in London’s Primrose Hill district, where Rough Trade soundman Adam ‘Skipper’ Kidron produced You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever in sequence with titles by Delta 5 (See the Whirl…), Scritti Politti (Songs to Remember), and Rip Rig + Panic. Scritti auxiliary singers Lorenza Johnson and Jackie Challenor appear as backing vocalists.

Future Housemartins soundman Phil Bodger engineered You Can’t Hide amid projects by Albania and Classix Nouveaux.

Rock photojournalist Jill Furmanovsky captured the midair dolphin leap on the front cover. The inner-sleeve features a monochrome group shot by Sounds photographer Harry Papadopoulos. Graphic designer Steve Bush (The Cigarettes, The Cubs) created the layout, including the sandwich-layer text squares (back cover) with each song title spelled in a different font.

“Two Hearts Together”

After the first album’s release, James Kirk and Steven Daly left Orange Juice, which hired longtime associate Malcolm Ross of the recently disbanded Josef K. They filled the drumseat with Zeke Manyika, a Zimbabwean musician raised in the UK.

Orange Juice premiered their new lineup with “Two Hearts Together,” a standalone Collins a-side released on August 6, 1982, with “Hokoyo,” a group-written track designated as Side AA.

A. “Two Hearts Together” (3:08)
AA. “Hokoyo” (3:02) means “watch out!” in Shona, the language of the Bantu ethnic group in South Africa.

Polydor issued “Two Hearts Together” in 7″ and 12″ formats with the same sleeve and orange endocarp label images.

Rip It Up

Orange Juice released their second album, Rip It Up, in November 1982 on Polydor.

Rip It Up contains five Edwyn Collins solo compositions: “Louise Louise,” “Breakfast Time,” “Mud In Your Eye,” “Flesh of My Flesh,” and “Tenterhook.” David McClymont co-wrote “I Can’t Help Myself,” the first of three singles.

The album also includes songwriting contributions by Zeke Manyika (“A Million Pleading Faces”) and Malcolm Ross (“Turn Away”). The pre-released “Hokoyo” is one of two group-credited numbers along with the title track.

A1. “Rip It Up” (5:19) features splotchy sounds created on the briefly available Roland TB-303 bass synthesizer.
A2. “A Million Pleading Faces” (3:15)
A3. “Mud in Your Eye” (3:56)
A4. “Turn Away” (3:19)
A5. “Breakfast Time” (5:10)

B1. “I Can’t Help Myself” (5:06)
B2. “Flesh of My Flesh” (3:13)
B3. “Louise Louise” (2:55)
B4. “Hokoyo” (5:07)
B5. “Tenterhook” (5:00)

“I Can’t Help Myself” preceded Rip It Up as an October single, backed with “Tongues Begin to Wag,” a group-written exclusive.

B. “Tongues Begin to Wag” (4:14)

Sessions occurred at Berwick Street Studios, a six-year-old Soho facility used by Gerry Rafferty for his 1978 classic City to City. Rip It Up was produced and engineered by Martin Hayles, a punk and reggae soundman (Eater, The Users, Tribesman) who added synthesizer and piano on select passages.

Additional guests included onetime If saxophonist Dick Morrissey, Penguin Cafe violinist Gavyn Wright, and Central Line percussionist Mel Gaynor, who soon joined Simple Minds. The song “Rip It Up” features vocal backing by Jazzateers singer Paul Quinn, a former classmate of Collins.

Smash Hits! cameraman Eric Watson took the album’s photography, which pictures Orange Juice grouped (front), separate (back), and posed against their shadows (inner, monochrome). Watson later directed videos by the Pet Shop Boys, whose frontman, Neil Tennant (a Smash Hits! staffer in 1982), called Rip It Up “a big step forward” and cited Manyika as “a rhythmic and a vocal asset.”

In February 1983, Orange Juice lifted “Rip It Up” as a second single, backed with the non-album “Snake Charmer,” a Malcolm Ross original.

B. “Snake Charmer”

The “Rip It Up” video opens in a low-budget approximation of a space lab, where the causally attired band mimes the first verse. They beam down to Earth and walk the city streets in Hawaiian shirts and white pants with matching fedoras. Later, they appear in Chinatown in scuba gear.

Orange Juice mimed “Rip It Up” under pink/teal lights amid geometric metal fixtures on the March 10 broadcast of Top of the Pops, which also featured in-studio numbers by Blancmange (“Waves”), Modern Romance (“High Life”), and Spandau Ballet (“Communication”).

They returned for the BBC program’s 3/23 broadcast, which also featured Altered Images (“Don’t Talk to Me About Love”), Big Country (“Fields of Fire (400 Miles)”), Duran Duran (“Is There Something I Should Know?”), JoBoxers (“Boxerbeat”), and former Haircut One Hundred singer Nick Heyward (“Whistle Down the Wind”). Their second TotP segment took place amid flashing white lights and shinier fixtures with a “sax solo” by audience member James Thirwell, who soon emerged as the mastermind of Foetus. “Rip It Up” reached No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart.

In May, Orange Juice issued a second version of “Flesh of My Flesh” as a single, backed with “Lord John White and the Bottleneck Train,” an exclusive co-write between Manyika, McClymont, and Ross. They re-recorded “Flesh” with Dennis Bovell, a British-Barbadian reggae musician (Blackbeard, Matumbi) who produced The Pop Group, The Slits, and Thompson Twins.

B. “Lord John White and the Bottleneck Train” (4:42)

Polydor issued “Flesh of My Flesh” in picture disc and standard 7″ formats, the latter with a fold-out sleeve that shows image stills from the “Rip It Up” video.

Texas Fever

In March 1984, Orange Juice issued Texas Fever, an EP with one Ross contribution (“Punch Drunk”) and five Collins originals, including one co-write (“Craziest Feeling”) with ‘Frank Want’ — aka James Thirwell, who also used the alias on recent guest appearances with The The and Marc & The Mambas.

A1. “Bridge” (3:38)
A2. “Craziest Feeling” (3:02)
A3. “Punch Drunk” (3:34)

B1. “The Day I Went Down to Texas” (2:42)
B2. “A Place in My Heart” (3:01)
B3. “A Sad Lament” (4:43)

Bovell produced Texas Fever apart from “A Sad Lament,” a production of Rip It Up soundman Martin Hayles, who also oversaw Zeke Manyika’s 1984 debut solo single “Heaven Help Us (Try).” Big Country soundman Will Gosling engineered Texas Fever in sequence with titles by The Adventures, Danse Society, Friends Again, and ex-Jam bassist Bruce Foxton.

Polydor lifted “Bridge” as a 12″ single with “Out for the Count,” an exclusive Bovell-produced Collins original. The single came with a bonus live flexi of the Orange Juice chestnut “Poor Old Soul.”

B. “Out for the Count”

Texas Fever sports cover details by Stylorouge, the visual firm behind recent sleeves for Animal Nightlife, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Stranglers, and Wah! The front and back show assorted figurines, including a dolphin-riding Barbie (the dolphin, an Orange Juice mascot, reference the cover to You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever).

Final Lineup

In early 1984, Malcom Ross and David McClymont left Orange Juice. Both backed former Josef K frontman Paul Haig on his solo single “Big Blue World,” produced by ex-Associates musicians Alan Rankine. Ross joined Aztec Camera for their second album, Knife, produced by Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler. He played on subsequent sides by Propaganda. In 1985, Ross and McClymont formed The High Bees with former Ruts drummer David Ruffy.

Edwyn Collins and Zeke Manyika continued Orange Juice as a duo, supplemented by Dennis Bovell and Amazulu bassist Clare Kenny.

The Orange Juice

Orange Juice released their self-titled third album in November 1984 on Polydor. They titled the album as an ode to The Velvet Underground, who also made an eponymous third album (a rare occurrence in discographies).

The Orange Juice contains ten Collins originals, including “Out for the Count,” “Salmon Fishing In New York,” “Scaremonger,” and the singles “Lean Period” and “What Presence?!”

Producer Dennis Bovell supplements Collins and Manyika on guitar and assorted keyboards (organ, piano, synthesizer, Emulator). Clare Kenny plays bass on everything apart from “All That Ever Mattered,” recorded with future Working Week bassist Paul Heard. Ex-Subway Sect guitarist Johnny Britton plays guitar on “Burning Desire,” “Get While the Gettings Good,” and “Salmon Fishing.”

A1. “Lean Period”
A2. “I Guess I’m Just a Little Too Sensitive”
A3. “Burning Desire”
A4. “Scaremonger”
A5. “The Artisans”

B1. “What Presence?!”
B2. “Out for the Count”
B3. “Get While the Gettings Good” features ‘Delispe’ on organ.
B4. “All That Ever Mattered”
B5. “Salmon Fishing in New York” features ‘Frank Want’ (Foetus) on piano.

“What Presence?!” appeared seven months earlier as an April 1984 single backed with a dub version of the Texas Fever track “A Place In My Heart.” Orange Juice recorded “What Presence?!” with vibist Phil Thornalley, a serial soundman (since All Mod Cons) with credits behind Gary Numan, The Psychedelic Furs, Julian Cope, and The Cure, which he joined for The Top and their single “The Caterpillar.”

Bovell produced the balance of The Orange Juice apart from three tracks (“Burning Desire,” “Get While the Gettings Good,” “Salmon Fishing in New York”) produced by Will Gosling.

The Orange Juice appeared in a Stylorouge sleeve with photography by Postcard’s Alan Horne, who also used filmstrip edges on 1984 singles by Collins associate Paul Quinn, including their Swampland Records collaborative single “Pale Blue Eyes,” a cover of the 1969 VU ballad. On the LP labels, the Orange Juice dolphin mascot decapitates the Empire State Building.

In October, Polydor lifted “Lean Period” as a single with the Collins/Manyika exclusive “Bury My Head In My Hands,” issued as a double-7″ with “Rip It Up” and “What Presence?!”

B. “Bury My Head In My Hands”

Post-Orange Juice

In 1985, Zeke Manyika released Call and Response, an outgrowth of the final Orange Juice album with contributions by Collins, Bovell, Thornalley, Clare Kenny, Thomas Leer, Virginia Astley, Mamba Ann Hogan, Soft Cell‘s Dave Ball, and The Woodentops‘ Anne Stephenson.

Edwyn Collins went solo career with two 1987 WEA singles, followed by the 1989 Demon Records release Hope and Despair, his first of ten albums across the next three decades. In 1995, he scored a transatlantic hit with “A Girl Like You,” a fuzz-tinged slice of retro-Merseybeat from his third album, Gorgeous George.

In 1992, Postcard Records issued Ostrich Churchyard, the intended debut Orange Juice album, sourced from their May 17, 1982 show at Glasgow’s Hellfire Club. Ostrich features live renditions of Rip It Up‘s “Louise Louise” and eight You Can’t Hide songs, plus the Peel rarity “Holiday Hymn” and a cut titled “Texas Fever” (two years prior to the namesake EP). The CD version adds three single sides (“Falling and Laughing,” “Lovesick,” “Pool Old Soul”) and the long-elusive “You Old Eccentric.”

Albums: