Weekend -

Weekend were a London-based art-pop trio that issued the album La Varieté in 1982 on Rough Trade. The band was led by Welsh bassist/vocalist Alison Statton, who earlier fronted the Cardiff combo Young Marble Giants. Guitarist Simon Booth would subsequently form Working Week.

Members: Alison Statton (bass, vocals), Simon Booth (guitar), Spike (guitar, viola)

Weekend came together through two projects that Statton was working on in 1981 after the breakup of the Young Marble Giants. One was a duo in Cardiff with guitarist/violinist Spike, founder of Z Block Records. The other was a partnership formed in London with Booth. The three released the album La Varieté on Rough Trade in 1982. It includes 12 originals, including “A Life in the Day of (Pt. 1),” “Weekend Stroll,” “Carnival Headache,” “Woman’s Eyes,” and “Red Planes.” The album was produced by Robbin Millar (The Pale Fountains, The Bluebells, Sade, Everything But the Girl). The trio were augmented by drummer Roy Dodds (Steps, Fairground Attraction) and saxophonist Larry Stabbins (Centipede, Ark), who co-wrote several songs.

The tracks “Drum Beat for Baby” and “Sleepy Theory” formed two sides of a single off the album. The band also released two non-album singles: “Past Meets Present” (b/w “Midnight Slows”) and “The View From Her Room” (b/w “Leaves of Spring”). In 1983, the five-piece Weekend released the EP Live at Ronnie Scott’s, co-billed with pianist Keith Tippett.

Booth and Stabbins subsequently formed the sophisti-pop combo Working Week, which issued five albums between 1985 and 1991. Statton resurfaced later in the decade in a duo with Ian Devine.

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