Lies Damned Lies / Sticky Music
Paul Bennett
>Does anybody out there know anything about the UK band Lies Damned Lies? I
>picked up their CD, Flying Kites, at Cornerstone a few years ago and loved it.
[...]
>On the strength of this album, I got their new live album, The Human Dress,
>from Rad Rockers when it came out. I like it even more. Very stripped down.
[...]
>They seem to own a label called Sticky Music
[...]
>There seems to be some sort of Christian thing going on here, but it's not obvious.
>
>I love their albums without knowing much about who they are or how solid their
>theology is. But I'd like to know more about them. Anybody out there have
>any insights?
Hmm, Lies Damned Lies and Sticky. Where to start? (If you can get a hold
of the UK's CrossRhythmns magazine, there was a good article on all this a
couple of months back. What I'm saying here is mainly memories of that art.)
Sticky was a label LDL set up in the early 80s so that they could 'legitimise'
their music, and sell something of a (slightly) better quality than the usual
scratchy cassettes at gigs. I think their first offering was a vinyl 7".
Lies Damned Lies released maybe one or two albums on Sticky, happy with their
fairly small outfit. Then in 1984 they realised that Sticky could do for
other Christian acts what it did for them - legitimise bands. The first
LP put out by Sticky was recorded by an teacher called Ricky Ross; the album
_So Long Ago_. This (demo) album was heard by bosses at CBS records, who
then signed Ross, who went on to form mainstream band Deacon Blue. (This is
probably Sticky's greatest achievement, but then I'm biased :-) (_So Long
Ago_ went out of print, but was re-released in Aug 93 on a limited run of CDs.
Get it if you can!)
Meanwhile, LDL got signed up by Siren Records (part of Virgin in the UK), and
released a self-titled album. Not bad, but not great either, the album suffers
from the usual over-polishing that your favourite bands all seem to suffer from
when they record commercially for the first time. Siren put out a couple of
singles from the album, but it flopped and they dropped LDL.
LDL went back to Sticky to record _Flying Kites_ and _The Human Dress_, which
you know about.
I *think* LDL are now concentrating more on Sticky than their own music, and
just putting out albums as they feel like it. As you mentioned, they play
on a number of other albums - mainly all the Sticky ones.
I also have a recollection that the members of LDL were previously in a
fairly popular CCM band, whose name escapes me (Greenbelt OAPs should be
able to tell you).
As for Sticky, they're still producing good stuff. Off the top of my head,
(albums marked * are highly recommended by me ;-)
Dan Donovan - Trashbone Thang
*** Ricky Ross - So Long Ago
* D.B.McGlynn - To Hell with the Hankerchief
Lies Damned Lies - Flying Kites
* Lies Damned Lies - The Human Dress
Calvin's Dream - Fanatical
Iain Archer - Playing Dead
Andy Thornton - ?
Late Late Service - 1/2/3/4...?
(There's more, but I forget). You asked about their theology. Well, I can't
use such long words, but _Late Late Service_ is an alternative service that
they're involved in in Glasgow. By all accounts its pretty solid, and LLS
have led the Sunday Communion service at Greenbelt for the last two years.
The LLS albums are music (dance/rave) used in the services. I think there's
four of them so far, but I could be wrong.
Yes, I'd say they're sound.
Final point: a request. At Greenbelt '95, on the Monday night in the _Very
Stinkin' Late Show_, D.B.McGlynn came on and did a couple of numbers, supported
on backing vocals by Iain Archer and Miriam Kaufmann. For me it was the
highlight of the festival. Now, I know about Iain Archer, but Miriam Kaufmann?
Any ideas? She's Scottish, and apparantly has some connection with Sticky, but
beyond that I'm stuck...
Joe, I hope that's the sort of info you were looking for.
pab.
--
Paul Bennett
BT Churchill Engineering Centre
pben...@lssec.bt.co.uk
Tony Bowden
:Meanwhile, LDL got signed up by Siren Records (part of Virgin in the UK), and
:released a self-titled album. Not bad, but not great either, the album suffers
:from the usual over-polishing that your favourite bands all seem to suffer from
:when they record commercially for the first time. Siren put out a couple of
:singles from the album, but it flopped and they dropped LDL.
Hmmm ... I'm not convinced by the Siren effort at all .... it basically shows
the end of LDL as a dancy/pop act from their Talking Drums days, which they
can't stand now that they're a minimalist act ...
: I *think* LDL are now concentrating more on Sticky than their own music, and
: just putting out albums as they feel like it. As you mentioned, they play
: on a number of other albums - mainly all the Sticky ones.
Yeah ... they basically say that as long as they can get enough people to gigs
and sell enough copies of each album to survive, they're happy ...
: I also have a recollection that the members of LDL were previously in a
: fairly popular CCM band, whose name escapes me (Greenbelt OAPs should be
: able to tell you).
As mentioned about Dot and Charlie were in Talking Drums ... Steve had a
rather dubious solo album as well ...
: As for Sticky, they're still producing good stuff. Off the top of my head,
: (albums marked * are highly recommended by me ;-)
: Dan Donovan - Trashbone Thang
: *** Ricky Ross - So Long Ago
: * D.B.McGlynn - To Hell with the Hankerchief
: Lies Damned Lies - Flying Kites
: * Lies Damned Lies - The Human Dress
: Calvin's Dream - Fanatical
: Iain Archer - Playing Dead
: Andy Thornton - ?
: Late Late Service - 1/2/3/4...?
Andy's album is Victims and Criminals - not actually on Sticky but on JUMP
which is Andy's own label - Sticky distribute it tho ...
: (There's more, but I forget). You asked about their theology. Well, I can't
: use such long words, but _Late Late Service_ is an alternative service that
: they're involved in in Glasgow. By all accounts its pretty solid, and LLS
: have led the Sunday Communion service at Greenbelt for the last two years.
: The LLS albums are music (dance/rave) used in the services. I think there's
: four of them so far, but I could be wrong.
Well ... calling them rave is probably a major overstatement :)
Although he's probably deny it Andy Thornton is probably the major figure in
LLS. The LDL folks actually haven't had very much to do with the service until
a few months ago, although they did help with a lot of the music. LLS have
a "steering committee" which changes annually (I think) who actually look
after the running of it on a practical level, but I think they're pretty keen
to get away from the "someone in charge" type of idea.
To all intents and purposes they're orthodox, but I suspect a lot of people
here would disagree with a lot of their ideas...
:Final point: a request. At Greenbelt '95, on the Monday night in the _Very
:Stinkin' Late Show_, D.B.McGlynn came on and did a couple of numbers, supported
:on backing vocals by Iain Archer and Miriam Kaufmann. For me it was the
:highlight of the festival. Now, I know about Iain Archer, but Miriam Kaufmann?
:Any ideas? She's Scottish, and apparantly has some connection with Sticky, but
:beyond that I'm stuck...
Miriam is Iain's girlfriend! She's English, not Scottish, and has nothing
to do with Sticky that I know of :)
Her dad on the other hand is the owner of ICC, where Miriam was a studio
manager until she went full time with Iain as backing singer, and the other
person in Iain Archer as a company rather than a singer - i.e. looking after
his publishing etc ...
Tony
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Bowden, Belfast, N Ireland \ you never said it was a bed of roses
t.bo...@qub.ac.uk \ but you never said it was a bed of nails
aj...@yfn.ysu.edu \ you never told me 'bout the rubber hoses
http://boris.qub.ac.uk/tony/home.html \ or how unsteady were the justice scales
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
to every solution there is a simple problem..............
.......and it's usually wrong
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Steve Leonard
>: As for Sticky, they're still producing good stuff. Off the top of my head,
>: (albums marked * are highly recommended by me ;-)
>: Dan Donovan - Trashbone Thang
Could someone tell me something about this... I really liked Tribe of Dan's
"Shook Up Shook Up" on BV... and i was thinking about ordering this from
RadRockers, but was hoping someone could post a review before i went
out and spent the $21 they are asking...
thanks
steve
Tony Brown
> 'legitimise'
> their music, and sell something of a (slightly) better quality than the
> usual
> scratchy cassettes at gigs. I think their first offering was a vinyl
> 7".
-Ish. This is all from memory but almost certainly the start of Sticky
pre-dates LDL but is tied into the earlier band Talking Drums. Now I
think that their second album was the first album to be released by that
label but there was a single which existed as a 12" as well as the 7".
They also later released what I think was an earlier demo but AFAIR the
first Talking Drums album was on Chrysalis.
> I *think* LDL are now concentrating more on Sticky than their own
> music, and
> just putting out albums as they feel like it. As you mentioned, they
> play
> on a number of other albums - mainly all the Sticky ones.
You also need to remember that they are all pretty much involved with the
Late Late Service dance worship project in Glasgow and they do the
recording for that and also other bands that they feel like. Tangled up
in this web somewhere are also (although not necessarily recording on
Sticky) Andy Thornton, Auntie Rose, Dan Donovan and, I believe, some of
the Belfast bands such as Hannah's Party and Disraeli Gears are also
using the studios.
> I also have a recollection that the members of LDL were previously in a
> fairly popular CCM band, whose name escapes me (Greenbelt OAPs should be
> able to tell you).
Oi - I'm in my early 30's. Dot from LDL is only a couple of years older
than me so less of this OAP's stuff if you don't want to be banned from
Greenbelt for the rest of your life :-)
The band was Talking Drums and Dot Read and Charlie Irvine were both
involved with that. The other member of LDL is Steve Butler who I think
was around but not directly involved with TD.
As far as LDL is concerned then one of the other distractions that you
haven't mentioned is the joint project by Dot and Charlie last year which
was the birth of their first child (in I believe May 94). At the moment
I'm not aware of any second project of this nature :-)
> Andy Thornton - ?
Victims & Criminals
Those who like Bruce will probably like Andy
> Late Late Service - 1/2/3/4...?
Only as far as 4 at the moment. I'm not aware of any plans for 5. For
those who liked the mainstage service last year then 4 is recommended.
> on backing vocals by Iain Archer and Miriam Kaufmann. For me it was the
> highlight of the festival. Now, I know about Iain Archer, but Miriam
> Kaufmann?
> Any ideas? She's Scottish, and apparantly has some connection with
> Sticky, but
> beyond that I'm stuck...
I think I know who Miriam is in that I know a Miriam who is connected
with LLS/Sticky and was singing on the Mainstage on Sunday Morning. But I
don't actually know who she is in terms of what she does etc. I've got to
talk to Sticky/Dot soon about some other stuff and if I remember then
I'll see if I can find out for you. Failing that I should be meeting up
with some of the LLS people in about 3 weeks time.
I haven't raised the issue with LLS/Sticky yet but I'm hoping to persuade
them to allow us to put some stuff about them on the Web pages we've got
set up for Greenbelt.
Tony
Tony Bowden
> You also need to remember that they are all pretty much involved with the
> Late Late Service dance worship project in Glasgow and they do the
> recording for that and also other bands that they feel like. Tangled up
> in this web somewhere are also (although not necessarily recording on
> Sticky) Andy Thornton, Auntie Rose, Dan Donovan and, I believe, some of
> the Belfast bands such as Hannah's Party and Disraeli Gears are also
> using the studios.
Cool! Auntie Rose on r.m.c.! Jim will certainly be impressed :)
Yeah - Disreali Gears are recording there in a few weeks time, but I've
no knowledge of hannah's Party doing anything like that! In fact they've
just booked studio time in Belfast .... so look out for a new ep before the
summer.
> As far as LDL is concerned then one of the other distractions that you
> haven't mentioned is the joint project by Dot and Charlie last year which
> was the birth of their first child (in I believe May 94). At the moment
> I'm not aware of any second project of this nature :-)
And no-one's mentioned the Kids Album they released yet!!! :)
Featuring one song by none other than Paul Archer of Disreali Gears fame :)
[buy it now so that you can blackmail him with it in a few years time]
> > on backing vocals by Iain Archer and Miriam Kaufmann. For me it was the
> > highlight of the festival. Now, I know about Iain Archer, but Miriam
> > Kaufmann? Any ideas? She's Scottish, and apparantly has some connection
> > with Sticky, but beyond that I'm stuck...
> I think I know who Miriam is in that I know a Miriam who is connected
> with LLS/Sticky and was singing on the Mainstage on Sunday Morning. But I
> don't actually know who she is in terms of what she does etc. I've got to
> talk to Sticky/Dot soon about some other stuff and if I remember then
> I'll see if I can find out for you. Failing that I should be meeting up
> with some of the LLS people in about 3 weeks time.
You obviously missed my follow up to this one, Tony :)
Miriam is neither Scottish nor Sticky, but Iain Archer's girlfriend, whose
dad owns ICC (where she used to be a studio manager before going full time
with Iain)
I hope this other stuff concerns bringing lots of Northern Irish bands to
Greenbelt :)
> I haven't raised the issue with LLS/Sticky yet but I'm hoping to persuade
> them to allow us to put some stuff about them on the Web pages we've got
> set up for Greenbelt.
Cool ... I had a vague notion of suggesting something similar to them on
my pages, but I guess the GB pages would be a much more sensible place to
do it!
Tony