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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