Gone But Not Forgotten – ORANGE JUICE (1979-1985)
Top bands from the past
17 April 2023
Band: ORANGE JUICE
Who: Scottish indie pop group
from Bearsden, Glasgow.
Singer-songwriter Edwyn Collins started the band as the Nu-Sonics
(named after an electric guitar, manufactured by Burns London) back
in 1976 and continued as Orange Juice from 1979 on to their split in
1985, with Collins starting his successful solo career as a performer
and producer soon after.
NME wrote back in 1992: “What was the big deal about Orange Juice? Why do
bands as diverse as The Weddoes, Teenage Fanclub and Prince rave on about them
even now? Why did The Guardian call Edwyn Collins ‘The Scottish Cole Porter’? Probably because of the breathtaking tunes, hopeless bus-stops and bars romanticism, the sense
of humour that never got in the way of the songs and flawed, derailed majesty of it all.
They had raccoon hats, they wore their fringe like Roger McGuinns and they broke up live onstage at the Brixton Academy in 1985 as a tearful Edwyn Collins strummed ‘Rock And
Roll (I Gave You All The Best Years Of My Life)’. There were few bands more human than
the OJs.”
Albums: You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever (1982), Rip It Up (1982),
Texas Fever (mini-LP, 1984) and The Orange Juice (1984).
Gone but not forgotten,
3 top moments.
– FALLING AND LAUGHING –
– RIP IT UP –
(Their only top 10 UK hit)
– WHAT PRESENCE? –
ORANGE JUICE: History
