A test of a great album is how it lasts the test of time. When this review appeared in is this music?’s top 100 albums of all time (#21) it was no more than a memory to some, perhaps from a scratchy vinyl version from a record fair, or a cassette passed on by a younger sibling. Now, it’s available once again,remastered with bonus tracks from their various singles and even Peel session tunes (including their version of David Essex’s ‘Silver Dream Machine’!) You can revisit it, properly, by visiting www.scarsresearch.com.
And truth be told, Author! Author! musically has out- lived the era from which it came. Certainly the hair and clothes shriek ‘New Roman- mundanity of popular music in England, north of the border its main impetus came from an unlikely source.
Certainly the clothes shriek ‘New Romantic’, but musically The Scars were darker and when the Scottish Rock Family Tree is trawled to trace the line-age of the acts of the early noughties, the Scars can’t be overlooked. Their only album contains some dark areas, particularly with Robert King’s vocal stylings, but also the brightly sparky guitar of Paul Research.
Recently sampled by Lemon Jelly of all people, the debut single ‘Horrorshow’, ‘Love Song’ was almost a hit as they linked up with a major label.
And finally, live favourite ‘Your Attention Please’ where Peter Porter’s pre- holocaust poem set to music sums them up as punk died and the spectre of a world of Reagan and Thatcher loomed. SMcH