Finally Something Clicked

Sad Lovers & Giants tune "Things We Never Did" came on my player today & it just sounded perfect. Finally a song that touched me once more. I put on Total Sound & listened to it all the way through without the desire to fast forward, without my attention drifting to darker thoughts. I've shared plenty of SLAG here before but never this one. Hope it works for some of you as well as it did for me.  Think I may be coming around.

This set was recorded live for broadcast on the VPRO program Spleen, May 15, 1983, at the NOS Studios in Hilversum, Holland in a room primarily designed for radio talk shows. Witnessing the set was the presenter, the radio program staff & a few guests, about 10 people in all.  As intimate as it gets. Now you can join those lucky few. 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - Total Sound, Midnight Music CHIME 0022M, 1986.
decryption code in comments

Side One (over) -
Echoplay
Things We Never Did
Sleep (is for Everyone)
Landslide

Side Two -
Cow Boys
Man of Straw
Imagination

 

 

 

Enjoy (I did),
NØ

Existential White Soul or Prog Pop?

 

Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England who formed in 1980. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards, & psychedelia.

Sad Lovers & Giants are the quintessential on-again, off-again band, having earned a strong following despite having broken up & re-formed multiple times since debuting in the early 80s.

They first called it quits after the release of their second album, Feeding the Flame in 1983.

 

Yet the drive to create new music led to their reuniting in 1986 on their old label Midnight Music, who were glad to have them back. The new line-up has remained steady since reforming: driven by Simon (Garce) Allard's sublime vocals; Tony McGuinness' exquisitely anxiously beautiful guitars; Will Hicks' artful keyboard shading; the synergetic drive of the rhythm section of bassist Ian Gibson & drummer Nigel Pollard. They released four more albums: Total Sound (1986); The Mirror Test (1987); Headland (1990); & Treehouse Poetry (1991). Then Midnight Music went belly up & they were off again.

However, that was not to be the end. Cherry Red had purchased Midnight Music's back catalogue & wanted the band to help with the release of E-Mail from Eternity (The Best of...) in 1996 on Cherry Red's subsidiary Anagram.

When the bandmates reunited for the project, they realized that old drive to create new music was still alive & kicking.

Since then they have released three more albums to date: La Dolce Vita (1999); Melting in the Fullness of Time (2002); & Mission Creep (2018).

In the past I have presented In the Breeze; Epic Garden Music (as well as Feeding the Flame,Seven Kinds of Sin, Headland, & their very first 7“ Clé all in the comments section of this post); & E-mail from Eternity  so you can figure I like this band a lot. This time I'll try to fill in the few remaining holes in their story.

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - Treehouse Poetry, Midnight Music CHIME 01 20 CD, 1991.
all decryption codes in comments

Toy Planes in a Southern Sky    
Lizard King    
Still Restless    
Parachute of Love    
Christmas on Easter Island    
Criminally Sane    
Jungle of Lies    
The Sky is a Glove

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - La Dolce Vita (Live in Lausanne), Voight-Kampff Records VKR001CD, 1999.

Close to the Sea    
In Flux    
Alaska    
Cowboys    
Like Thieves    
Sleep    
Echoplay
One Man's Hell    
Imagination    
Colourless Dream    
Return to Clocktower Lodge
Clint

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - Melting in the Fullness of Time, Voight-Kampff Records VKR003CD, 

2002.

A Daughter
German Cars
Submarine Girl
I'm Not in Love
Learn
Melting in the Fullness of Time
Red Sky
Black Crow

Enjoy,
NØ

An Atmospheric Collection of Goodies

Re-uploaded by request 08/03/2025

 

 

A new friend of NSS left a comment on the last Sad Lovers & Giants post, vaguely inquiring about further tuneage. Here is a real gem.

SL&Gs kinda went through a hard time between 1983 – 1987. They were on hiatus/broken up for those years. In 1987 Allard teamed up with Tony McGuinness & began releasing SL&Gs music again. The material on this 1984 release is a collection of previously unreleased material from their formative years.

Tracks A1 & A2 are demos recorded at Pet Sounds in early 1981. They were reworked for this release.

Track A3 was recorded live at The Venue, September 1982.

Tracks A4 & A5 are out-takes from the Colourless Dream sessions at Surrey Sound, Summer 1981. "Landslide" had already been released on the group's first 7” EP, 1981s Clé  & "Echoplay" is from Epic Garden Music which I recently posted. The versions here were remixed at Alaska the summer of 1984.

Tracks A6 to B3 are from a Radio One John Peel Session November 25,1981. "Sex Without Gravity" was never performed anywhere else. "Clint" & "Alice (Isn't Playing)" are also on Epic Garden Music (& another version of "Clint" appeared on The Thing From the Crypt compilation).

Track B4 was recorded live at the Brunel Rooms, Swindon, March, 1983.

Track B5 here is a different version of "Imagination" which originally appeared as the A-side of Clé. After Clé was released, SL&Gs wished to record a better version of the song. The version here is an out-take from the Feeding the Flame sessions recorded at Spaceward during the summer 1983.

On In the Breeze, SL&Gs is: Simon ‘Garce’ Allard – vocals; Simon ‘Tristan Garel-Funk’ Blanchard – guitar; David Wood – keyboards & saxophone; Cliff Silver – bass; & Nigel Pollard – drums & percussion, with Steve Carter – bass on tracks A1 & A2.

Sad Lovers & Giants – In the Breeze, Midnight Music CHIME 00.07M, 1984.
decryption code in comments

Side One –

50:50

The Change

Interlude

Landslide

Echoplay

Sex Without Gravity

Side Two –

There Was no Time

Clint

Alice (isn’t Playing)

3 Lines

Imagination

Don't be sad, enjoy
NØ

Epic (Garden) Music

Re-uploaded by request...12/19/2023

Previously featured Sad Lovers & Giants Email from Eternity (kinda the best of…). Here's their earliest. SL&G are great anytime. I have most everything if anyone has any request(s), let me know.

Sad Lovers & Giants – Epic Garden Music, Midnight Music CHIME00 01, 1982.
decryption code in comments

Seaside –

Echoplay

Clocktower Lodge

Clint

Lope

Countryside –

Cloud 9

ART (by Me)

Alice (Isn't Playing)

Far from the Sea

Here SL&G is: Simon 'Garce' Allard – vocals;  Simon 'Tristan Garel-Funk' Blanchard – guitar; David Wood – keyboards & saxophone; Cliff Silver – bass; & Nigel Pollard – percussion.

Enjoy,

NØ

E-mail for Everyone

This post was re-uploaded
01/01/2014.
Enjoy, NØ.















Dragged this out of the dusty vault after a friend told me about a fantastic show SL&G played March 12 at The Slaughterhouse in Berlin, Germany. Sad Lovers & Giant always had their strongest fan base in Europe, but this was their first ever show in Berlin. I think they are currently working on a new release & are also scheduled to play London later this summer (September 4th at the Purple Turtle).

The set list from their recent show:
Close To The Sea
Alaska
One Man's Hell
Echoplay
Vendetta
Man Of Straw
3 Lines
Happiness Is Fragile
Jungle Of Lies
Your Skin and Mine
Silent Decay
Seven Kinds Of Sin
Things We Never Did
Encore 1 -
In Flux
Imagination
Cowboys
Clint
Encore 2 -
Alice (Isn't Playing)
Sleep (Is For Everyone);

had much material in common with this release. The band had broken up for the second time after their label, Midnight Music, went bust. Then Cherry Red purchased MMs back catalogue & released E-mail from Eternity, a ‘best of’ compilation (on their Anagram label). It’s a great place to start if you don;t know or just want to familiarize yourself with SL&G.

Although the band formed in 1980 & their original sound was new wavish, they developed a more indie folk post-punk sound with new wavish overtones as they progressed. This release is a great place to start if you don’t know or just want to familiarize yourself with SL&G.

S4d L0v3rs & G14n7s - E-m41l fr0m 373rn17y: The Best of...,

Anagram Records CDM GRAM 104, 1996.
decryption code in comments

Tracks -
Things We Never Did
Clint
Alice (Isn't Playing)
Art (by Me)
Imagination
Cowboys
On Another Day
Sleep (is for Everyone)
In Flux
The Best Film He Ever Made
White Russians
Take Seven
Seven Kinds of Sin
Return to Clocktower Lodge
One Man's Hell
Alaska
The Sky is a Glove
Things We Never Did (De Puta Madre live version)

Enjoy,
NØ