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Exclusive - Associates Rehearsal Session

Gloomy Sunday 

In 1980 The Associates had assembled a band for a series of dates in Scotland. Along with Billy & Alan were Australian drummer John Murphy and bass guitarist Michael Dempsey. E-Zee Hire Rehearsal Studios, in the shadow of Pentonville Prison, was a rather grim, but not untypical facility; dark, cold and smelly. Buoyed by enthusiasm though, The Associates assembled daily to work through their set. Despite the release of The Affectionate Punch being imminent and the purpose of the tour - to promote it; not for the first time the band perversely set about creating a series of new songs. Along with material such as Arrogance Gave Him Up, Nude Spoons and Bap de la Bap - which were to appear on Sulk, it was in this setting that the arrangement for Gloomy Sunday was chanced upon. 

The recordings you are about to hear were made on the most primitive of Philips Cassette recorders. 


Gloomy Sunday Part 1 - Stream Duration 5 Minutes.

In Part 1 you hear Billy dictating the bass line to accompany the guitar pattern "Watch Mike you don't follow Alan's syncopation". When the song settles down, Billy starts improvising a melody over this simple arrangement. Here he's looking for a lyrical idea that works with what he enjoyed as a track with a marked "Teutonic" (one of his favourite words) feel. Perhaps this European sound took him to Hungary. It ends with a familiar injunction to all he worked with - "Once more"!

Gloomy Sunday Part 2 - Stream Duration 6.45 Minutes.

 In Part 2 Billy states - "This is an idea -this is fucking mental really.....but"! and he launches into the lyric of "Gloomy Sunday".

 

 

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