Magpie Eyes

The latest release on Tici Taci is a three track EP by LCBC, the combined talents of Lloyd Jones and Bob Salmond (who record separately as The Long Champs and Mr BC). On Magpie Eyes they purloin their song title (I'm presuming) from The Loft's legendary 1985 single Up The Hill And Down The Slope (and Dave Cavanagh's Creation records biography My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize) and some influence from mid- 80s New Order- chugging rhythm, Hooky bassline and one finger synths playing off against the guitars. 

There are two remixes, one by Black Fades and one from Rude Audio. Black Fades go even further into the heart of the chug, spaced out, dubby cosmische, New Order if they'd been produced not by Stephen Hague but by Justin Robertson. 

Rude Audio take the Magpie Eyes down a South London dub route, stripping the track back to a skeletal electronic rhythm, some isolated topline melodies, whooshes, FX and the ghost of the bass. Addictive stuff. 

While we're here it seems appropriate to head back to 1985 and The Loft. Up The Hill And Down The Slope is definitive early Creation, the group's second single, released on 7" and 12". Pete Astor's lyric pleads for a run in the music industry, 'Once around the fair/ So I know' despite knowing that it'll ruin him and the band, as the guitars jangle and riff. 'Please don't say no...'

Up The Hill And Down The Slope

V. A. Saturday

In 1991 Creation records began issuing a series of five volumes of early and deleted Creation singles dating right back to the label's first release, CRE01 by The Legend. The compilations were called Creation Soup and were also put out as a box set, Creation Soup: Volumes One To Five (The First Fifty Singles). All the 80s Creation names are present and correct- Biff Bang Pow, The Jasmine Minks, The Pastels, The Loft, The Bodines, Primal Scream, Meat Whiplash, Felt, The Weather Prophets, Slaughter Joe, Nikki Sudden, The House Of Love et al. 

On Volume One a message from Alan McGee read, 'This record is part of an overall series of releases documenting the now deleted early Creation singles. The first twenty came in hand folded sleeves which Joe Foster and I used to stay up and fold all night four or five times a week. This series is meant for the obsessive Creationist. Now it's all available again... stop writing us your letters! -The President, January 1991" and another, "Creation Records acknowledges the following: Dan Treacy, Joseph Foster, Edward Ball, Bobby Gillespie, Jeff Barrett, Jerry Thackeray, The Living Room bands and clientele and absolutely no one else.

The desire to give the Creation fans who missed out in the mid- 80s what they wanted was one reason for the albums' existence. In David Cavanagh's account of the label, My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry For The Prize, he says that the five various artist compilations were as much about generating cash flow as anything, money coming in to pay debts at a time when both Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine were in the studio, MBV particularly racking up bills while attempting to realise Kevin Shields' dream. Creation was constantly hard up- Screamadelica, Bandwagon- esque and Loveless would all be out by the end of '91. The cash rich days of Oasis were a few years away. But no matter, the music contained within the five volumes of Creation Soup is reason enough for their existence. These two songs by Pete Astor are shining examples of why Creation had a back catalogue worth re- issuing. 

The Loft's Up The Hill And Down The Slope is a 1985 indie- pop classic, all jangly guitars, trebly and Pete Astor's vocals, pleading for a spin around the fair. It appears on Creation Soup Volume Two. 

Up The Hill And Down The Slope

The Loft split up on stage in 1985. Pete Astor then formed The Weather Prophets whose single Almost Prayed is as good as any anyone on Creation wrote and released, a genuine peak. It was a 1986 single and then on Creation Soup Volume Three.

Almost Prayed

Prophets Creation

Pete Astor's second Creation band following The Loft, The Weather Prophets wrote one stone cold indie classic, Almost Prayed, which has been here before. This is a little gem from the B-side.

Like Frankie Lymon

Loft Creation

A couple more Creation posts to come, kicking off this chilly Monday with Pete Astor's 80s indie band The Loft, described in the Creation documentary Upside Down as 'the first proper band Creation signed'. The Loft didn't last long, splitting up onstage with Pete Astor and drummer Dave Morgan moving on sharpish to The Weather Prophets. The Loft's best song, Up The Hill And Down The Slope, has been featured at Bagging Area before. This is a live version from a Loft compilation cd released by Rev-ola in 2005. I'd like to tell you when and where the performance dates from but at some point the booklet has been victim of a spillage accident. The pages are stuck together and ripping as I open them, destroying the info. Grrrrr!!! Bleeding kids!!! Anyway, seeing as The Loft only really existed between 1982 and 1985 we'll just have to say that this is The Loft live, for over six and a half minutes, sometime in the early-to-mid 1980s.

Up The Hill And Down The Slope (Live sometime in the 80s)

Out Of The Loft

Pete Astor has featured at Bagging Area before as head honcho of 80s indie bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets and 90s/00s ambienty act Ellis Island Sound. As well as becoming a lecturer in Popular Studies he's got a new album out called Songbox- 2 cds, one of new songs and the other cover versions of his songs by others. It comes in a very nice cardboard box. Pete's an underrated songwriter but a good one, as this swinging, bluesy song demonstrates, and the woodwind instruments make this as good a way as any to start the working week.

Dead Trumpets

My Magpie Eyes

The Queen Is Dead is twenty five years old this week, which makes this piece of UK indie twenty six years old. The Loft were signed to Creation in the days when Creation was all about shambolic guitar bands. Up The Hill And Down The Slope rattles along, chasing it's own tail for most of it's four minutes, while singer Pete Astor declares his ambitions ('My magpie eyes are hungry for the prize') and asks to be given a shot at the world ('please don't say no, once around the fair, so I know'). The Loft would implode in 1985, splitting up onstage, which seems like a pretty spectacular way to go out. Pete Astor would go on to form The Weather Prophets (also on Creation), and write several minor classics, Almost Prayed for one. Neither Up The Hill And Down The Slope nor Almost Prayed of these will be remembered like The Queen Is Dead but that doesn't mean they ain't no good.

Up The Hill And Down The Slope