Pigbag was started by Chris Hamlyn in Cheltenham in late 1980. He recruited multi-instrumentalist Roger Freeman, (an old friend from his hometown Birmingham) along with Chris Lee (trumpet) & James Johnstone (guitar / alto sax). Later Drew "Chip" Carpenter (drums) & Mark Smith (bass), both old school mates of James & former members of his previous band Hardware, were recruited for informal rehearsals. It was at these jam sessions that their first hit was developed, from an idea Hamlyn had before the band was formed.
Simon Underwood, previously of The Pop Group was invited to join, along with his old friend & tenor sax player Ollie Moore. Simon's connections with manager Dick O'Dell landed Pigbag their first gig, supporting The Slits at Bristol's Romeo & Juliets. Based on the crowd's enthusiastic response to a 20 minute performance of their first song, O'Dell invited them to record the track for his label Y Records the very next day.
Their first single, "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag", was released in 1981, taking inspiration for the title (if not the music) from James Brown's "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag". The instrumental release quickly became an underground dance hit, selling many thousands of copies & appearing high in the independent charts.
Year - - - - - - - - Title - - - - - - - - - - - - UK Indie Chart Position
May 1981 - "Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag" - - - - - - #2
Nov. 1981 - - - "Sunny Day" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - #2
This was released as a US 12" -
Feeling that he had created & lost control of a 'monster' with too many egos to contend with, Hamlyn abandoned the band.
Although never hugely commercially successful, Pigbag left a trail of innovation behind them. Members of the band went on to record with many other bands, with some still active today. The band are now considered an early part of the pop world's rediscovery of jazz. By the end of the decade it had given birth to a new genre: Acid jazz, however, Pigbag remained individual even within the jazz & funk scenes, due to their rough tough mix of jazz, funk & tribal music.
UPDATE: I have re-upped the link to Sunny Day as requested & have added two more releases, 1982s Dr. Heckle & Mr. Jive & 1983s Pigbag (live).
Side A:
Getting Up
Big Bag
Dozo Don
Brian the Snail
Side B :
Wiggling
Brazil Nuts
Orangutango
As it Will Be
BMG Records 74321 789532, re-release CD, 2000.
Plus 4 bonus tracks:Whoops Goes my Body
Sunny Day (12″ version)
Another Orangutango (remix)
Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag (7″ version)
Ram’s Horn Records RHR 3419, Netherlands, 12“ vinyl, 1985.Side A - Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag (Paul Hardcastle’s Electrofunk version)
Side B - Yet another Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag 12“ single
Side A:
Shack Of Scraps (Berlin Latin Quarter – 5th April 1983)
Smiling Faces (Berlin Latin Quarter – 5th April 1983)
Sunny Day (Birmingham Locarno – 17th March 1982)
Papa’s Got A Brand New Pigbag (Hammersmith Palais – 16th March 1982)
Side B:
Jump The Line (remix ) (Jacobs Studio – December 1982)
Global Terrain (Berlin Latin Quarter – 5th April 1983)
End Of Ubud (Munich Alabama Hall – 6th April 1983)
Can’t See For Looking (Tokyo Sun Plaza – July 1982)
Enjoy,
NØ
It was a really interesting time in British independent music when the Pop Group splintered into Pigbag and Rip Rig & Panic. At the same time, the Glaxo Babies (who later became Maximum Joy) were doing similar music : funky and horn-driven, experimental but not out of place on the dancefloor.
ReplyDeleteMark Stewart (from the Pop Group), Keith Levene (from PiL) and Ari Up (from the Slits) had begun collaborating with Adrian Sherwood. And across the pond, 99 Records was releasing great stuff from ESG, Liquid Liquid, and Y Pants. Interesting times, for sure!
"Sunny Day" is present 2 times here.
ReplyDeletecan you repost "Whoops (Goes My Body!!)" please?
thanx
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know the problem with the link.
It should be working fine now.
All I can say is Whoops!
NØ
ok link please
ReplyDeleteTo bunchterror,
ReplyDeletethe link is fixed & I added a couple more Pigbag releases.
Thanks.
Great stuff, thanks! I seem to have trouble with track #4 of the Dr Heckle and Mr Jive post. I get "error reading the file" when extracting...all others okay though.
ReplyDeleteTo bozo skeleton,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great comment & for letting me know of the problem. I downloaded the file & track #4 seemed to open just fine, but in case, I re-upped the entire album, plus if you don't want to download & unpack the whole thing, I uploaded just Brian the Snail for you. Thanks again & visit often.