Young Marble Giants

Posted by: Tim Jones on 06 March 2001

According to my Time Out, they reformed specially to play a Rough Trade tribute gig on Saturday night at the Union Chapel (somewhere in London).

Did any lucky, lucky person see them?

Tim J

Posted on: 06 March 2001 by John C

Union Chapel is on Upper Street, Islington. Great place for concerts by the way. I had one of their lps in my youth, sadly lost now, with Searching for Mr Right on it. They were fantastic. Unfortunately didnt see the gig.Who were they anyway and can you remember the name of that first LP?

John

Posted on: 07 March 2001 by Tony L

quote:
Who were they anyway and can you remember the name of that first LP?

The album was called 'Colossal Youth' and was released in 1980 (I think) on Rough Trade Records. The Yong Marble Giants consisted of Allison Statton on vocal plus Stuart and Phil Moxham. This trio were also involved in The Gist, who were quite similar, and had a album called 'Embrace the Herd', and the far more jazzy Weekend who had a fabulous album called 'La Variete', both albums were released on Rough Trade.

I consider both the Young Marble Giants 'Colossal Youth' and Weekends 'La Variete' to be absolute classic albums of their time, both have a unique naivety and lightness of touch that is very seldom heard these days. The YMG album has a superb minimalist DIY approach to its recording, I recall hearing it was done at home with the instruments and microphones just plugged straight into a Teac 3340 open 1/4" 4 track - it is a great sounding recording! The Weekend album is also a fine recording, but is done at a studio and is a full band affair with drums, brass etc.

This stuff is hard to find these days, I am lucky I bought them all when they came out so have mint vinyl copies. The YMG album has been reissued on CD, and includes the earlier Rough Trade EPs, but does not seem to be that easy to find, as for Weekend and The Gist, well they sadly seem to have gone the way of so many of the great early Rough Trade bands…

Tony.

Posted on: 07 March 2001 by Steve Catterall

I think the show was cancelled

see here

Posted on: 07 March 2001 by Tony L

Excellent YMG site here...

appelstein.com/ymg/

Tony.

Posted on: 07 March 2001 by John C

Great site. I think that test card ep amy still be knocking around at my folks house, Ill have to call them tonight. Younger brother sold my album collection from that time which was almost all from Rough trade mail order.

Still haven't forgiven him. This nostalgia trip and the forthcoming Joy Division movie may precipitate a serious mid life crisis.

John

Posted on: 12 March 2001 by Tim Jones

Oooh, let me guess...

Kanu Reeves as Ian Curtis?

Posted on: 18 February 2004 by glenda

I listened to a radio programme on Radio Wales - a 30 minute tribute to YMG and , at the end of it , it was announced that they have reformed and were about to go back into the studio and maybe tour . The show also played a new song by them . It's been 23 years since Colossal Youth but their style has remained the same.
I think that the programme can be streamed from the radio Wales website if anyone is a real hardcore fan.Well worth a listen .
Cheers
Glenda.

Posted on: 19 February 2004 by Tim Jones

glenda -

Were they using the same great/crappy drum machine?

Tim

Posted on: 19 February 2004 by glenda

Tim - there was a big discussion in the programme about that machine which I think was originally purchased in kit form by the band. The unique bass sound was from an amp converted from an old radio.
The new song , I'm somewhat disappointed to report, had a fuller sound but was easily identifiable as the YMG.
Cheers
Glenda

Posted on: 19 February 2004 by seagull

I've had a hunt around the BBC web-site and wasn't able to listen to the program

I suspect that it would be impossible to reproduce the unique sparse feel of the Colossal Youth lp without using the original kit. A bit like trying to reproduce the grainy B&W images of the old silent movies using modern cameras and film or CGI.

I hope they do record something new, their songs were simple but compelling. I seem to remember the NME describing their music as Quiet is the new Loud or something like that long before the recent offerings from Turin Brakes etc.