Primal Scream

Existing for over 30 years with multiple line-up changes and fronted by a maverick non-singer with little or no rhythmic co-ordination, ladies and gentlemen… The Fall, sorry Primal Scream....
Primal Scream : Live

Primal Scream : Live

Existing for over 30 years with multiple line-up changes and fronted by a maverick non-singer with little or no rhythmic co-ordination, ladies and gentlemen… The Fall, sorry Primal Scream.  Early in the bard of Manchester’s career, Mark Edward Smith (of The Fall) sang that he, “Still believed in the R n R dream / R n R as Primal Scream.”  This is perhaps not the source of Primal Scream’s moniker but certainly an analogy worthy of two enduring disciples of the God that is Rock and Roll.  Whereas Mr Smith has assumed the Il Duce persona (QRO photo) in his revolving door policy on band members, Bobby Gillespie has taken a more facilitator-like approach, adding fresh faces to the Scream Team and allowing themselves to be dragged kicking (and screaming?) along a less retrogressive path.  Thus after two relatively unsuccessful initial albums we got the Andrew Weatherhall solo album, Screamadelica.  This was followed by other tangential musical direction changes, catalysed by the introduction of Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield on bass guitar and the innovative guitar genius that is Kevin Shields.  Mark Beaumont writing in the Guardian newspaper criticised various articles on Primal Scream as having “short sighted Stones comparisons.”  Unfortunately The Rolling Stones are the default setting that they revert to when no new style-changing spark is available to ignite the fire in the Primal Scream furnace.

The More Light album that the Sunday night, December 15th at Manchester Academy, was mostly based on is unique in a way that not only is it not a Stones pastiche, which is surprising with the only new blood added being the replacement bassist Simone Butler and guitarist Barrie Cadogan, who are not credited with artistic input.  The album is very good in patches… but seems to lack cohesion with a multi-coloured palette of musical ideas.

Primal Scream have recruited the new psychedelic scene leaders Temples to support them on this pre Christmas mini-tour and based on this performance, the new psychedelics won’t be displacing the headline act from their loftier position.  With a debut album out in the New Year and a headline tour selling well, it appears to be all forward thrust in the Temples trajectory.  The songs swoop and swoon in all the right places, but it’s all a bit formulaic in its dreamy pop feel.  The vocals also seem to sit uneasily with the pop aesthetic, being more a case of H.e (Helium) than L.S.D.

By the time Primal Scream rip into a brutal version of “2013”, the crowd was ready to party and took no winning over at all.  Gillespie appeared doing his one-legged skipping dance, wearing what appeared to be a giant glitter ball for a shirt.  With over half the pre-encore set consisting of tracks from the latest album, it proved not to be a night given over to cash-generating album anniversaries as being trotted out by many of their ‘80s contemporaries.  Finishing the set with a blistering “Swastika Eyes” and a crowd sing along on “Country Girl” and it‘s left to the final song of the night before The Stones influence rears its ugly head as we are encouraged to get our rocks off.  The wait for the encore is kept to a minimum to keep the crowd fervour at its peak, kicking straight in to “I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have” from the second album.  They finished with a triplet from Screamadelica, “Loaded”, “Come Together” and the gospel-influenced “Moving On Up” bringing the curtain down.

Longevity seems to smile on the artists who are prepared to throw caution to the wind and totally immerse themselves into the rock and roll pantheon with all its possible pitfalls.  Are Temples prepared to take that leap of blind faith and join Primal Scream?  Only another 30 years will tell.

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