Live at the Cross Inn (5/7/1988) 

 

Sleeve by Alasdair (Bod) Mackay

Personnel:

Alasdair (Bod) Mackay:  Guitar; Vocals; Drums;

Roddy (Huggan) Huggan: Vocals, Drums, Guitar

Iain (Deadstone) Livingstone : Bass; Drums; Chanter; Vocals

Roddy (Deid Folkie) Morrison : Guitar, Vocals, Drums

The Guireans’ Niseach concept album, with a recurring Guga motif, achieved rather artificially in several cases just by shouting the word “Guga” in the middle of songs which had no Niseach references whatsoever. 

Sadly not recorded live at the Cross Inn at all, though. That would have meant someone giving the Guireans a gig which has only ever happened once in 22 years.  In fact it was all done in the Livingstones’ garage. The convincingly belligerent Niseach audience were simulated using a BBC sound effects record (#126576 “Belligerent Hebridean Audiences 3 –  Mingulay to North Rona”)

“Cac Mix 88” is an obvious example of the emerging late 80s Rave/House scene with its rehashing of old Disco tracks from the 70s. In this case the Guireans take the bassline from 1982’s “Jazz Mucus for Funk People” (well, if M.A.R.R.S could rip it off why couldn’t they?), stick in some scratchy noises and shout the choruses of a variety of their old disco covers over the top of it. Having discovered the secret of “dance” music, it’s only a matter of time until they hit the singles charts.

Then again, see whenever there’s a crappy dance single on Top of The Pops fronted by a couple of t**ts in dark glasses and anoraks with their hoods up? Who do think that is?

Speaking of which, the 2 Roddies’ clinical Dr Who obsession surfaced big style here with “Crofter Who (Guga Anns an Tigh)”, a take on the KLF’s “Doctorin’ the Tardis” or whatever it was called. KLF supremo and ex Bunnymen producer Bill Drummond was generally reckoned to be a master of the publicity stunt, gaining infamy in later years for allegedly burning a million pounds in cash on the Isle of Jura.

Those in the know speculated that Drummond was merely a frontman, recruited by infamous pop puppetmaster  CJ “(I’ve identified a tax loophole that can turn this to our advantage”) Mitchell (83) who got him hooked on Charlie Barley marags at the Bunnymen's 1983 Caberfeidh Hotel gig. Mitchell's hand could clearly be seen behind this event, the cogniscienti reckoned, suggesting that a bag of highly inflammable fuidheags from Kenny Sticky’s had been substituted for the cash at the last moment…

A sad corollary to the recording of "Live At The Cross Inn" was the subsequent recording of the genuinely not very good  "Utter Cac Demos"  bootleg by the 2 Roddies. This was allegedly ordered by Plook Records mogul Ken "Karpenters" Livingstone, keen to cash in on the emerging Compact Disc boom and the associated fashion for including "bonus" tracks (ie crappy rejects) at the end of  a CD to fill it up. When Ken realised that Plook records didn't exactly possess the technology necessary to move beyond the cassette era he lost interest, and the Demos were consigned to a box under Roddy Huggan's stairs for the next 12 years.

Tracks

1.        (You gotta) Fight for the Right to Ceard-y

2.        Guga

3.        Guga from Sulasgeir

4.        A Pint of Borve Ale (Guga Mix)

5.        Interlude

6.        Crofter Who (Guga Anns An Tigh)

7.        Please Fleece Me

8.        I Still Haven’t Found What A Guga’s For

9.        Oh We Are the Everly Brothers

10.     Murdina

11.     Perfect Fleece

12.     Wishing I Was Bogie

13.     Ceard

14.     Cac Mix 88