effeminate. And that was new in Glasgow. I like to think that we had a hand in sparking the acceptance of pop bands from Scotland that weren’t just tough rockers. Ifwe helped shatter the hard-man image, then good for us. It was nice for boys to be able finally to stand on stage and be quite unashamedly romantic. . .’
‘It had to come from Glasgow,’ Collins affirms. ‘It wouldn’t have been the same ifit had started in Edinburgh, or any other city, come to think of it. It had a romantic aura about it, definitely, from the idiosyncratic, makeshift packaging style that. by default, stood out from the slick packaging and production ofwhat they called “New Pop” in 1982, that was happening around us. Everything had to be glossy in those days, but Postcard was different. It was pure, inspired amateurism.’
The Postcard Movement, as it is now wistfully titled, showed that neither technical expertise nor angstful arrogance (compulsory dress requirements for the early and late-70$ pop carnival respectively) were necessary prerequisites so far as 805 musical communication was to be concerned. Songs alone mattered. A self-deprecatory humour combined with a petulant, almost naive optimism characterised OJ ’5 (and still does Collins’) work. Aztec Camera’s gentle romanticism
" 9‘ ‘$ . a 1%, "a
reminded a pub-rock’n’punk-bludgeoned industry of the delicate heights p0p music could scale. Consequently, Collins became known as a cynic and Frame as a hippie at a time when it was fashionable to be neither: the long, prodigious careers that both have gone on to enjoy is testimony to their eloquence and foresight.
‘We just seem still to have a natural musical affinity,’ admits Collins tellingly, looking forward to the Festival shows. It could be argued (and has been argued) that Postcard paved the way for early-80$ jangle-pop (Friends Again, The Bluebells, Haircut 100) and the late-80$ ‘shambling bands’ movement (The Pastels, Talulah Gosh). Many claims could be made. But. whatever monsters it indirectly begat, Alan Horne’s little label made music smile again at the end of a pomp-to-punk-rock decade that barred anyone without a leather jacket and a snarl from its Members’ Enclosure. Postcard Records changed the popular perception of Scottish rock music, and it’s nice, a decade on, to welcome two of its proudest, most gifted children back home.
Roddy Frame and Edwyn Collins (Fringe) Tic Toe at Marco’s, Marco ’5 Leisure Centre (Venue 98) 2298830, 10.15pm, £10. Frame: Tues 13, Thurs 15. Collins: Wed 14, Fri 16. Frame and Collins: Sat 1 7.
label —we're not new wave. Rock’n’roll
9 was ditterent, our music was different,
: an impact beyond mere chart ' positions. It anything, we had too many
decade later is indeed reassuring.
Postcard Records became no more than a memory in July 1981 . Alan Home moved south to London Records, where he ran his own subsidiary label, Swamplands. Now aged 29, he recently returned to Glasgow and is currently managing the career at ex-Bourgie Bourgie singer Paul Oulnn.
ALAN HORNE, POSTCARD SUPREMO, August 1980: 'Postcard Records is the only punk rock
is dying and we’re going to help it die. The whole music business is pathetic
and washed up; we’re just going to do a tow nice things betore it goes under. But we’re going to do it with integrity.’ ALAN HORNE, August 1991:
‘We were part at a generation who went through puberty with Marc Bolan and David Bowie, a generation iorwhom punk was “that new suit to set us in motion".
‘We were young, we were iniormed, and magniiicently arrogant and obnoxious. There was never compromise. Postcard Records at Scotland grew up in late seventies Britain where it rules did not suit you made up your own. it was ART, ART and only ART.
‘Our clothes were different, our hair
our whole make-up was ditterent. Oi course we knew we were going to have
ideas, but to have such resonance a
‘The critics dubbed us ‘the last of the punk independents'. I liked that.
‘Then, Scotland was a ditterent place. Betore Postcard, there was nothing. Since? Ten years at Thatcheresque careering rock acts on lite-support systems lrom corporations based in London. Personliying an 80s Britain, they get duller as the years pass them by. As I speak, we have Ken Barlow trontlng The E Street Band and a Rocking Rector oi jazz-tunk, with
. marketing budgets that could raise the I
Titanic. Is there anybody out there under35?
The List 9— 15 August 199121,