Aztec Camera : Real Tears
In January of 1980 the newly formed Glasgow band Aztec Camera had three songs featured on a now impossibly rare cassette called Urban Development that was given away with "Fumes", a local fanzine. The songs "Abbatoir", "Stand Still" and "Real Tears" sound a bit like Joy Division though the band claims to be inspired by The Fall and Velevet Underground. The link above goes to a soundcloud page run by Scottish Post-Punk. (Among the other artists featured on the cassette were bands featuring Edwyn Collins (Orange Juice) , Bobby Bluebell (The Bluebells) , Jake Black and The Standards).
Aztec Camera is led by sixteen year old Roddy Frame who would tell Dave McCullough of Sounds "I hate being thought of as a child prodigy. Because I don't feel that young. It's like, when you play places in Glasgow they treat you like a wee boy: "O, he's got a wee guitar for Christmas. Let's see what can do wiv it".
With Frame the only consistent member, Aztec Camera would become a US college radio favorite in the early 80's and score a UK #3 hit in 1988 with "Somewhere In My Heart".
Thanks for putting up that link. Quite an interesting curiosity. Frame came a long way in 1981 with the Mattress Of Wire and Just Like Gold singles for Postcard.
ReplyDeleteMeant to add that this photo taken by the great Harry Papadopoulos is my favorite from his entire body of work.
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