PRIMAL SCREAM

Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie formed the band in the 1984, while Gillespie was drumming for the Jesus and Mary Chain. They then went on to recruit Robert Young on bass guitar, and the band signed to Creation Records in 1985. Initially a group of '60s revivalists with a jangly psychedelic sound, influenced by the Byrds, the band released a few singles, but Primal Scream didn't really take off until 1986, when Gillespie left the Mary Chain and guitarist Andrew Innes joined the band.

Their debut album, 'Sonic Flower Groove' was recorded with Mayo Thompson, and released in 1987 on the Creation subsidiary Elevation. Following this founder member Jim Beattie left to form 'Spirea X', continuing the early psychedelic sound, while the central trio of Gillespie, Innes and Young (augmented by drummer Phillip "Toby" Tomanov and bassist Henry Olsen of Nico's band The Faction, as well as eventually keyboardist Martin Duffy of Felt) ditched their trademark "jangly" sound for a much heavier edge. Their follow-up album, 1989's 'Primal Scream', demonstrated their new sound, taking it's hard rock influences from the likes of the Rolling Stones and New York Dolls, right through to the Stooges, MC5, and the 1960s Detroit garage scene.

As the '80s drew to a close, Britain's underground music scene became dominated by the burgeoning acid house scene. So after this brief detour into hard rock, Primal Scream reinvented itself once again as a dance band, following through on the pop and acid house fusions of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.

Asking DJ Andrew Weatherall, to remix a track from 'Primal Scream', "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have", Weatherall completely reworked the song adding a heavy bass groove echoing dub reggae, and interjecting layers of samples, including one of Gillespie singing a line from Robert Johnson's "Terraplane Blues", as well as the central introductory sample from the Peter Fonda movie 'The Wild Angels'. The new mix was retitled "Loaded," and it became a sensation, as well as a huge critical success, bringing rock & roll to the dancefloor.

With their next album, 'Screamadelica', the band really started to make an impact. They not only worked with Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicholson, (who essentially designed the sound of the album), but also the Orb and former Stones producer Jimmy Miller. The result was a kaleidoscopic fusion of dance, dub, techno, acid house, pop, and rock, and it was greeted with rapturous reviews in the U.K. Released in 1991, 'Screamadelica' also marked an important moment in British pop, helping to bring house music into the mainstream, and uniting England's baggy-trousered clubbers with their six-string-worshiping counterparts. The album was a massive success, winning the first Mercury Music Prize in 1992.

Instead of following on in this direction Primal Scream then moved on to early 70's Stones inspired boogie for their 1994 follow-up,' Give Out but Don't Give Up'. When that record was greeted with indifference, it hurt the group's reputation, and they retaliated by coming back with the title track to the hit 1996 film 'Trainspotting'. The track saw a return to the dance stylings of 'Screamadelica', only darker, and harking back to that crossover success with their next album, 1997's 'Vanishing Point', Primal Scream returned to dance-rock fusion.

More line up changes saw the addition of ex-Stone Roses bassist Gery 'Mani' Mounfield, and Kevin Shields (formerly of My Bloody Valentine) as a third guitarist to the live band, and in 2000 they returned with yet another distinct change in direction. From acid-high psychedelic dreamers on 'Screamadelica' to dirty, boozy retroists on 1994's 'Give Out But Don't Give Up', Primal Scream moved on to post-millennium sonic terror, on 2000's ultra-aggressive, bowel-shaking 'XTRMNTR'. Offering up a maddening scope of aggressive beats and screaming politics that the group had not previously tackled, 'XTRMNTR' was then followed two years later by 'Evil Heat', a guest-laden (even supermodel Kate Moss makes an appearance) album in line and on par with it predecessor.

Now back with 'Riot City Blues' guitarist Robert Young, a mainstay since 1983, has vanished from the line-up, as has Kevin Shields, and the album see's something of a return to the Scream Team's 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' sound. There's none of the tripped out bliss that made Screamadelica so great, or of the industrial influence that was all over Vanishing Point and XTRMNTR, just some swaggering, arse kicking rock n' roll, and we think it's great.

HH