Wee Cherubs - The Merry Makers

by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 26 / 11 / 2020

Label: Optic Nerve Recordings
Format: CD

intro

Enjoyable compilation of largely unreleased material from lost 198'0s Glasgow-based indiepop band, the Wee Cherubs

When the Postcard scene exploded in Glasgow in the early '80s, young kids all over Scotland started to form bands influenced by this new poppy side of post punk that groups like Orange Juice and Josef K played. In 1982, three friends, Martin Cotter, Christine Gibson and Graham Adam, decided to do just that, and they settled on the name the Wee Cherubs for their new band. During the band’s three years lifespan, they recorded around ten songs, and the only ones to be released during that period were the single ‘Dreaming’, and its B-side ‘Waiting for My Man’ (a cover of the Velvet Underground song ‘I’m Waiting for the Man’). That single will now cost you a lot of money if you are able to ever find a copy. On this new compilation, released by the always magnificent Optic Nerve label, we are presented with eleven songs, which is allegedly the complete recordings. The single and its B-side are included, of course, and apart from that we get nine more songs, which mostly shows what an influence the Postcard bands had on the Scottish indie scene at this time. The sound also pre-dates the iconic Sarah Records sound, in some ways, with its mix of twee guitars, melodic bass lines and crashing drums (Well, the guitars weren’t always that twee, either…). As if often the case with compilations like this, you can understand why the labels turned the band down (I just suppose that they sent their demo tapes to Creation etc), as the songs aren’t that brilliant really. Sure, there are some highlights, like the single A-side, but most of it is just quite basic indiepop of the time. In 1985, the band split up, and Cotter went on to form the Bachelor Pad, who would take the indiepop sound even further, and ended up sounding quite a lot like their fellow Scotsmen in the Soup Dragons. But that’s a different story. For indiepop historians, this is an interesting release, as it both shows the origins of the Bachelor Pad and what lesser known bands on the Glasgow scene sounded like. It might not be a record I will listen to every day, maybe not even every year, but it will still be a very fitting part of my record collection. And I’m happy with that.

Track Listing:-

1 Dreaming
2 Pastures New
3 Waiting
4 Two Things at the One Time
5 Flame
6 Poor Little Lost Soul
7 Painless
8 Goodbye
9 Theme
10 Waiting for My Man
11 Jelly Bean