The Blazing Apostles / Locomotive Latenight
Alan Liddell (guitar) tells up the story of the band, after he and Kenny Hutchison left Nationwide
After Nationwide split up, Kenny Hutchison took up
the guitar and started singing. Kenny linked up with John Anderson on
bass and later asked me to join on lead guitar and that was the start
of The Blazing Apostles.
We did a couple of gigs under the name Funhouse
(after the Stooges album). Graham and John started The Ghost Train
about the same time and recruited Mark Nichol and Chas. We all still
hung about with each other occasionally and I remember I played guitar
on Walk On The Wild side live with the Ghost
Train at an Abbotshall gig one night.
(Gary Bonar on the drum kit, Adam
Smith Centre)
We started off with a drum machine and later Kenny recorded drums which we played through a Revox reel to reel tape machine (like The Cocteau Twins did) Gary Bonar then joined us as our drummer which let us improvise more and extend the songs live when we felt like it.
We did a couple of self financed singles Day Of
Descent / Arrival and It's So Easy / Comfort which got quite a lot of
airplay on John Peel and Janice Long shows on Radio 1. Janice Long got
us a Radio 1 session which we recorded at Queen Margaret Drive in
Glasgow and it got aired then repeated.
We got a nameckeck in the book In Session Tonight (which listed all the
bands who had ever done Radio 1 sessions)
We were playing loads of gigs all over the place at this time and did a couple down in London at the Rock Garden and the Timebox which was a good trip.
We then changed our name to Locomotive Latenight (I
can't remember why) and recorded the mini album you have on your site.
John Anderson left the band and Mark Nicol ex Ghost Train joined us on
bass and then later Danny Holland. (There are pics of us from that line
up at
a gig at the Adam Smith)
Things were looking good for a while but eventually
not getting signed by a major label took its toll a bit and we
eventually just split up.
MP3's of all the bands vinyl releases are below, together with copies of the covers -
(These are enhanced versions uploaded May 24 2008)
The underlined song names above contain downloadable MP3 files, if you click on the record covers with the blue borders, you can see a larger version of the cover.
(Locomotive Latenight Video, Corn Exchange Cupar, 1987)
Many thanks to Gary Bonar from the band for the scans and the music files of Centre Town Sunset (the bands mini album, which was a compilation of their earlier material) and Out of Range. Thanks to Ian Cargill for the music files of Arrival, Day of Descent, It's so Easy and Comfort. Thanks to Mark Nicol for the video. Thanks to Alan Liddell for all the remaining audio on this page.
(Alan Liddell)
The following MP3's come from the
Charities Gig that took place at Balwearie High School on January the
28th 1985, this would have certainly been the first time I saw the
band. In retrospect, this gig was a pretty amazing occasion, as
featured so many bands at once. Nationwide
actually played that night too, although this was essentially the debut
of the line up that would shortly be re-named The Ghost Train. There is
a picture of Nationwide playing there
that night, but sadly both known copies of the audio of their set that
night are missing. Shame, as the quality of this recording of the
Blazing Apostles performance is pretty good here, the recording of Nationwide must have been good too. Alan
Liddell (who provided copies of all the remaking audio on this page)
remembers the organisers of the gig giving copies out of the tapes of
the various bands performances out around a week after the gig. So
maybe whoever organised the gig still has a copy of the whole evening?
See the Treasure Hunt page, I'd love
to recover more audio of this occasion. From what I remember and can
work out, Days of 29, The
Gimix, Scarlet Lies also played that night.
(L-R Kenny Hutchison, Mark Nicol, Alan Liddell)
Alan's tape of the Blazing Apostles performance has survived pretty well these past 23 years. If you listen to these MP3's on headphones, there is some pretty wild stereo panning, but I think this is caused by tape crease, rather than anyone trying to do a psychedelic mix! Despite being recorded from the mixing desk, the tape has some good atmosphere. I think there must have been a dedicated mic off the mixing desk, that was just designed to record the bands. Unfortunately, during one of the songs someone else must have wondered what this spare mic was doing, pics it up and starts talking into it! Disturbingly enough, as the mic is picking up a good deal of audience noise, I think i can hear the 18 year old me talking at the end of one of the songs!
01 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - Comfort
02 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - Arrival
03 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - It's so easy
04 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - Day of descent
05 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - The Secrets
06 Blazing Apostles, Balwearie - Free for all
Download whole gig in one Zip file (40mb)
The MP3's below are a first for this website, the first live recordings to be made outside of Scotland! The pics around the MP3's and the songs are from a gig recorded on the Timebox in London on May 26th 1986. I particularly like the moment at the beginning of the gig where Kenny Hutchison says to the audience "guess where we are from" and someone shouts "Argentina"! I doubt if they know where Kirkcaldy is in London.
(Timebox: L-R - Alan Liddell, Kenny Hutchison, John Anderson)
Download whole gig as a ZIP file 37Mb
(L-R: John Anderson, Alan Liddell, Kenny Hutchison)
(Alan Liddell)
(Timebox: L-R - Alan Liddell, Kenny Hutchison, John Anderson)
This is the band recorded in Edinburgh's Frontline Studios on March 10th 1985.
Download whole Frontline Studios set (40Mb)
The band were also lucky enough to score a session with the BBC for Janice Long, MP3's of that session are below. They are excellent quality, sound as good as the day they aired, or better if you were listening on AM at the time!. Great set too:
Janice Long Session - The secrets
Janice Long Session - Speak out
Janice Long Session - World's apart
Janice Long Session - Threshold
The band also had airplay from the late great John Peel:
Blazing Apostles John Peel Radio Play June 3 1987
Download whole Out of Range 12" (14Mb)
Some notes about the songs, from Gary Bonner (drums):
The first single ARRIVAL/DAY OF DECENT was recorded with a drum machine before I joined the band.
The second single COMFORT/IT'S SO EASY has Kenny on the drums. Before I joined the band.
Pics1. (below) This was taken at the Adam Smith Theatre. We supported Glasgow band THE THIEVES.
Out of Range was a 3 track 12" single, which was in vogue in those days.
The reverse of CENTRE TOWN SUNSET mini l.p. The pic was taken at a gig at the Abbotshall Hotel. Recognise the wallpaper?
There were 2 cover versions on that disc. David Bowie's - Let me sleep beside you & The Beatles - Rain
(Out of Range) This song is the re-recorded album version. It was recorded previously in a different studio for the out of range 12" e.p.
These songs are from a studio session at Edinburgh's Front Line Sudios, from the 26th of May 1988. Alan Liddell is playing marimbas on track 1. This is the line up of the band that featured Mark Nicol (ex Nationwide and Ghost Train) on bass:
1.
Coca Cologne (FLAC - Lossless)
02
High and Dry (FLAC - Losless)
These songs are from the bands last
studio session. Danny Holland (of The Receiving End) is on bass here.
This is also the line up of the band that is pictured at the Adam Smith
Centre.
Download whole Locomotive Latenight last session (22Mb)