This is a lovely record. When Chuck toured over here a few years ago he had these guys supporting, none of whom I heard of before the show. They played the Windmill the day after my birthday and I'd missed out on getting tickets. Luckily a friend bought two and gave me the spare and it ended up being one of the best gigs of the year. Chuck's solo stuff had been some of my favourite music for years (more on this another time) so I knew it would be good.
We turned up early and watched all the bands and enjoyed them all. I especially enjoyed Sam Russo's set and sung pretty much every word to Chuck's (much to the annoyance of people around me I'm sure). It went on late and I missed the last train home so had to get a taxi from Staines. It was worth it. It was nice to see Chuck get Helen and Jimmy up on stage for a couple of songs too.
Anyway, some time later Specialist Subject announced they were putting out a split record from the four artists playing on that tour and I immediately preordered it. I also bought a whole bunch of other records from them at the same time. It was a pretty nice day when that bundle of vinyl arrived! The artwork is lovely (very distinctively Jamie from The Arteries) and the first run were on a nice white vinyl.
We get three covers from Chuck: Helen Chambers, Darren Gibson and Leatherface. Helen's and Darren's songs both work well. Darren is an Australian musician who I know nothing about, but that he has written at least one song that I quite like a cover of. Maybe I'll do some more research. I once saw the singer from Leatherface punch a fan in the face at a gig, and that put me off them a little. Chuck's cover is nice. I know HWM were fans of Leatherface so the cover doesn't surprise me, nor does Chris Wollard's appearance on the song. I wonder if it was intentional for Chuck to only put covers on.
I went into this most looking forward to Sam's songs. After the gig I downloaded his EPs on bandcamp and loved them. He does beery-sing-a-long-punk-rock so well. These songs are great and I'm glad they were finally pressed into vinyl somewhere. He's writing an album at the moment (or so I hear) so I look forward to that greatly.
After getting the record it turned out that Jimmy's song were actually my favourites on the record. 1990 is instantly catchy and the other two are great too. I'm not sure why that surprised me. He was good live, but I think I just spent so long afterwards listening to Sam Russo that I kind of forgot. I've been to see him play a couple of times since and its always been great.
Helen's songs close the record nicely. After nine songs of gruff male vocals her voice sounds even better. The final acappella song Speak Your Name always sends a chill down my spine.
Almost exactly a year later I went to The Revival Tour in Shepherd's Bush and it was really awesome to see everyone back on stage together, only this time playing to a crowd so much bigger I can't even think of a way to describe it.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9.50 new
Bought: Specialist Subject records
When: 31/08/11
Colour: white
Etching: none
mp3s: download
