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61-740: Orange Juice were a Scottish jangle pop band founded in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden as the Nu-Sonics in 1976. They became Orange Juice in 1979, and took inspiration by contemporary punk bands including Subway Sect , Television , and Buzzcocks but also 1960s acts, most notably the Byrds and the Velvet Underground . Musically, the band brought together styles and genres that often appeared incongruous, for example, country , disco and punk . The band released their first singles during 1980 and 1981 on

122-495: A 6 sound discs (12-sides) bound alternating with pages giving the titles and birds on the recordings. The work was done by Arthur A. Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology . The August 1965 issue of National Geographic Magazine included a soundsheet of the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill narrated by David Brinkley . The recording has the sounds of the funeral procession to St. Paul's,

183-578: A Byrds/Big Star vein, spiced with a dash of psychedelia on their debut." Jangle pop influenced college rock during the early 1980s. In Austin, Texas , the term New Sincerity was loosely used for a similar group of bands, led by the Reivers , Wild Seeds and True Believers. Flexi-disc Flexible records were commercially introduced as the Eva-tone Soundsheet in 1962. They were very popular among children and teenagers and mass-produced by

244-576: A four-piece, including one supporting Steel Pulse at Satellite City in January 1978, alongside Johnny and the Self-Abusers, later to be known as Simple Minds . Duncan left the band after a gig at Hardgate Town Hall, leaving the remaining members to search for a new bass player. Shortly after Duncan's departure, one of Collins' colleagues in the Glasgow Parks Department, David McClymont, joined

305-464: A hymn sung by the leaders of the world, and an excerpt of the funeral sermon. Excerpts from various recordings of Churchill's speeches are included. The recording ends with bagpipes accompanying Churchill's coffin to the funeral barge on the Thames, as the public phase of the funeral ends. During the 1970s, MAD magazine included Soundsheets in several special editions. One was a dramatization of Gall in

366-556: A label for an American post-punk movement that recalled the sounds of "jangly" acts from the 1960s. Between 1983 and 1987, the description "jangle pop" was used to describe bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active as well as the Paisley Underground subgenre, which incorporated psychedelic influences. In 1979, the Athens, Georgia , group Pylon debuted with an "angular, propulsive jangle pop sound" that would influence fellow members of

427-595: A label to watch, and subsequent releases by Josef K and Aztec Camera consolidated its reputation as being at the cutting-edge of a new wave of Scottish pop. But it was Orange Juice that came to embody the "Sound of Young Scotland", with Collins' on-stage behaviour, charity-shop chic and occasional self-parody combining camp aesthetics with a subversive rejection of macho rock and roll cliché. Live, performances could be shambolic, with guitars often out of tune, and songs often aborted as drums, bass and guitar raced away from each other. Occasionally, crowds were hostile towards

488-448: A major career-spanning box set Coals to Newcastle released in 2010. Edwyn Collins pursued a successful solo career following the band's split, whilst other members James Kirk, David McClymont, Malcolm Ross and Zeke Manyika have had lower-profile solo releases. The original line-up of the band reunited once in 2008 to be honoured for their influence on Scottish music, but the band has never reformed. Orange Juice had their origin in

549-407: A modest crossover hit. Afterwards, Orange Juice took the tapes from these sessions and signed to Polydor, hastening the demise of Postcard (with a scheduled fifth Orange Juice single on Postcard, "Wan Light", failing to ever see the light of day). The Postcard Records-era history of Orange Juice is featured in the 2015 documentary film Big Gold Dream . Debut album You Can't Hide Your Love Forever

610-522: A number of other later 1980s bands were to cite Orange Juice and other Postcard Records acts as an influence, with the C86 scene featuring numerous acts who either covered Orange Juice songs (such as " The Wedding Present ") or who borrowed elements of their sound (such as Mighty Mighty, The Chesterf!elds, The June Brides, The Bodines). Internationally, Orange Juice also inspired the neo-acoustic movement in Japan, with

671-610: A one-sided Libertines flexi of What Katie Did . American manufacturer Eva-Tone, believed to be one of the last manufacturers of flexi discs, stopped production of the product in August 2000. As of December 2010, Pirates Press , an independent record manufacturing company based in San Francisco , California , US, has started production of flexi discs of various sizes and color. In November 2010 extreme metal magazine Decibel began releasing flexi discs with each issue, starting with

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732-503: A planned fanzine to be called ' Strawberry Switchblade ', a name that later inspired and was adopted for a band formed by friends of the group and notably Alan Horne, the manager of Postcard Records . Horne planned the fanzine with Collins in 1979 primarily as a conduit to release Orange Juice's music. The fanzine never appeared, though some copies of the flexi were given away in the Ten Commandments fanzine run by Robert Hodgens (of

793-493: A printed program code listing. They were intended to be dubbed by the user into cassette tape recorder, which can be played by the computer's tape drive to load the program. While flexi-discs were usually just used as occasional giveaways, from 1980 to 1982, Flexipop made a speciality of giving away such a disc with each edition. Compact discs and the internet have rendered flexi discs largely obsolete, but gimmick discs are still produced occasionally: Amelia's Magazine included

854-575: A reaction to much of the seriousness and angst of post-punk . Released in February 1980, " Falling and Laughing " was Postcard's signature tune: lyrically and musically, it celebrated the innocence of youth and was very much at odds with much contemporary independent music, combining a disco bass-line purloined from an ELO song with jangly guitars reminiscent of the Velvet Underground . " Falling and Laughing " immediately marked out Postcard Records as

915-537: A song co-written by Zeke Manyika and featuring lyrics in Shona , showing the band moving away from its original guitar-based sound and towards a more varied and eclectic musical palette. Despite increasing exposure on TV and media, both of Orange Juice's 1982 singles failed to deliver the anticipated hit. However. the album Rip It Up issued in November 1982 was to spawn the single of the same name , which reached number 8 on

976-574: A song whose lyrics were belches. There was also a "Mad Disco" special issue containing a Soundsheet. ABBA/Live 77 was a special single-sided promo gold flexi disc given as a bonus to children who sold magazines and books at Christmas for Jultidningsförlaget, a publishing company using door sales as their main distribution channel. The disc contained excerpts from the Swedish group's recent concert appearance in Australia . A two-sided flexible sheet record of

1037-460: A three-piece, with stand-in drummers, on a couple of Autumn 1981 gigs before Zeke Manyika made his live debut in January 1982 at the London Venue. As such, the line-up that promoted You Can't Hide Your Love Forever on tour in early 1982 was not the line-up that recorded it: ignoring older material penned by James Kirk (e.g. "Felicity", "Wan Light", "You Old Eccentric", "Three Cheers for Our Side")

1098-423: A valuable collector's item for many years. On April 20, 2012, Domino Recording Company released a zine exclusively for Record Store Day that included five individual, multi-colored flexi-discs, each containing a song by Dirty Projectors , Real Estate , Cass McCombs , John Maus , and Villagers . The Dirty Projectors disc was previewed on April 19 by frontman Dave Longstreth via a YouTube video of him playing

1159-496: Is usually applied to late 1970s/early 1980s bands emerging from the post-punk scene, that seemed indebted to 1960s groups such as the Byrds . Notable acts include R.E.M. and the Smiths . In the late 1970s and 1980s, prominent early jangle pop groups included Big Star , R.E.M. , the dB's , 10,000 Maniacs , and the Smiths . In the early to mid 1980s, the term "jangle pop" emerged as

1220-581: The UK Singles Chart in February 1983. Referencing both Chic and the Buzzcocks , the single cemented Orange Juice as one of the brightest bands in the ' new pop ' scene. The single was promoted through two memorable Top of the Pops performances, including one where bass player David McClymont appeared to fall into the crowd, apparently inebriated, gaining them a ban from the programme. DJ Janice Long championed

1281-558: The 200 odd subscribers of the fanzine. This flexi featured 2 tracks, "Riots" and "We're All Slaves". This was pressed by Pirates Press out of the US. Shortly before the release of the 2014 Foo Fighters album Sonic Highways , some of the pre-orders came with a cover of Two Headed Dog on flexi disc. In the summer 2015, PizzaDischi, an independent record manufacturing company based in Italy, has started production of flexi discs too, in collaboration with

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1342-549: The 2000s, guitar bands including Franz Ferdinand , Hatcham Social , The Drums , and The Cribs proclaimed Orange Juice as an influence, triggering renewed interest in the band. Franz Ferdinand's label, the Domino Recording Company , responded by issuing re-releases of all four Polydor albums on vinyl and CD, with a major 6 CD/DVD collection Coals to Newcastle released in 2010. Edwyn Collins continues to perform Orange Juice songs at his live shows. Though Malcolm Ross

1403-523: The A-side and the playful and instrumental B-side "Moscow", the latter recorded as a tentative 'theme tune' for the coming 1980 Moscow Olympics . Fewer than 1,000 copies of " Falling and Laughing " were pressed, and most included copies of the "Felicity" flexi: 200 also included a postcard of the band. The wrap-round cover and amateur packaging established Postcard's home-spun aesthetic, with the label's "Sound of Young Scotland" tagline marking it out as something of

1464-530: The Athens, Georgia music scene. An AllMusic summary of modern jangle pop describes it as a "pop-based format", but not mainstream, as the lyrics could often be "deliberately cryptic", and the sound "raw and amateurish" with DIY production. Subsequent jangle-pop bands that arose in the 80s were hugely influenced by the 60's folk rock bands such as the Byrds , Richie Unterberger writes "The whole school of 1980s alternative jangle-pop bands, led by R.E.M., owed much to

1525-694: The Bluebells ). Daly left shortly after the Teviot Row gig, joining local punk act Fun 4. Daly was replaced in Orange Juice by Chris Gordon on drums, but was persuaded back to record the band's debut single " Falling and Laughing " for Postcard after Gordon suffered from stage fright at a number of gigs. The debut single was recorded in December 1979 in Strathaven , with Malcolm Ross co-producing and adding guitar to both

1586-643: The Byrds in their ringing guitars. Around 1987 it seemed that every other week saw another album by R.E.M. imitators who might have been imitating the Byrds' 12-string guitars without ever having even heard the Byrds." New Zealand's Dunedin sound was a key scene of jangle pop. Bands such as the Chills , the Clean , the Verlaines , the Bats and Straitjacket Fits synthesised 1970s alternative rock and post-punk with jangle, and

1647-574: The European Slimer Records independent label run by Panda Kid members, dedicated to limited and rare edition of worldwide artists. In 2021, Lizzo started selling flexi discs of her song "Rumours" as part of her merchandising. Flexi discs were mass-produced from 1964 to 1991 by the Soviet government as inserts in the popular Krugozor magazine for teens. The appearance of the Soviet flexi disc

1708-505: The Family Fare , its parody of All in the Family , packaged with MAD Super Special #11 (1973). The Summer 1980 edition of MAD Super Special (published in 1979) featured "It's a Super-Spectacular Day", a song with eight different versions pressed into eight concentric grooves; which version was played depended on where the needle was dropped onto the disc. Another issue included "It's a Gas",

1769-503: The January 2011 issue. The content on the disc features "100 percent exclusive songs" from artists that have been previously featured in the publication. In October 2011, the Los Angeles -based record company, Side One Dummy Records , teamed up with Alternative Press to offer a Title Fight flexi disc (containing 2 previously unreleased B-Sides) along with a year of AP subscription as a limited edition offer. Due to manufacturing delays

1830-689: The Nu Sonics, formed by Edwyn Collins with college friend Alan Duncan (on bass) in 1976: the band was named after the affordable Burns nu-sonic guitar used by Collins. Two students in the year below them – Steven Daly and James Kirk, previously in punk band, The Machetes – were drafted into the band in 1977, with a fifth member, Geoff Taylor, playing drums. A first gig was held in the Silver Thread in Paisley in November 1977, with Daly on lead vocals. Daly subsequently shifted to drums, and further local gigs followed as

1891-517: The Soviet era, bootleg recordings known as Ribs , Bones or roentgenizdat were produced on discarded medical X-ray prints. The musician Stephen Coates of UK band The Real Tuesday Weld has created the X-Ray Audio Project devoted to these. "Flexi Disc" is also the title of a spoken-word track recorded by electronic band The Human League on a flexi disc which accompanied their 12" single " The Dignity of Labour " in 1978. Re-released as

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1952-480: The band Flipper's Guitar naming their 1989 debut album after one of James Kirk's compositions, "Three Cheers for Our Side". In the 1990s, the rejuvenated Postcard Records issued a collection of the band's early singles and in 1993 finally released the demos for the first album Ostrich Churchyard alongside a reissue of "Blue Boy", while Polydor collected the best of their major releases on a new 'best of' compilation, The Esteemed – The Very Best of Orange Juice . In

2013-408: The band often used dates to debut new songs that overtly more pop in style, including a cover of The Staple Singers ' " I'll Take You There ", future single "I Can't Help Myself" (with its telling reference to The Four Tops ), and "In Spite of It All", later renamed and issued as the single "Two Hearts Together" in the summer of 1982. The latter single was released as a double A-side with "Hokoyo",

2074-565: The band on bass, and the band was rechristened as Orange Juice. Collins, Kirk, McClymont and Daly's first gig as Orange Juice occurred in April 1979 in the Glasgow School of Art refectory. At another early gig at Teviot Row House at the University of Edinburgh was recorded by Malcolm Ross of Josef K , and one track from this (Kirk's "Felicity") was pressed as a flexi-disc to be distributed with

2135-542: The band, commissioning two further Radio One Sessions in March 1983 (neither commercially released, and assumed missing from the BBC archive), while magazines including Smash Hits continued to showcase the band (its editor Ian Cranna becoming the band's manager). However, the follow-up single to "Rip It Up", "Flesh of My Flesh", failed to build on its success, peaking at number 41 in the spring of 1983. New single "Place in my Heart"

2196-577: The band, making it a five-piece. This caused some ructions, with Daly and Kirk reportedly feeling the band was losing its original sound (Daly in particularly having publicly objected to the first Polydor single " L.O.V.E... Love ", a cover of the Al Green classic, released in October 1981). Collins was reported in the press as siding with Kirk and Daly before deciding to leave with Malcolm Ross and bass player David McClymont. Collins, Ross and McClymont performed as

2257-549: The band, seeing them as effeminate and anti-rock. Nonetheless, gigs in Glasgow and then Edinburgh began to attract a sizable fan-base: notable gigs with Josef K were sold as 'Postcard' nights, including the infamous 'Funky Glasgow Now' show at Glasgow Technical College in April 1980. The band's debut single was followed by a series of well-received Postcard 7" releases: "Blue Boy", "Simply Thrilled Honey" and "Poor Old" Soul in 1980 and 1981. Selling sufficiently to appear prominently in

2318-475: The discs arrived packaged with the November issue of AP magazine in mid December. On April 2, 2012, Third Man Records released 1000 flexi discs tied to blue helium balloons into the air in Nashville , Tennessee . The discs contained the first release of "Freedom At 21", a track on Jack White 's debut solo album, Blunderbuss . It is estimated that fewer than 100 of the discs will ever be found and they will be

2379-561: The earlier discs largely contained 'thank you' messages to their fans, the later Christmas flexis were used as an outlet for the Beatles to explore more experimental areas; the 1967 disc, for example, became a pastiche of a BBC Radio show and even included a specially recorded song entitled " Christmas Time (Is Here Again) ." In 1964, the National Geographic Society released Song and Garden Birds of North America , which included

2440-576: The first act (before Aztec Camera and Everything but the Girl ), announcing it was their last gig to a half-empty venue. Their final song was " Rock and Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life) ", a cover of a Kevin Johnson song. Following the split, Manyika recorded a solo album for Polydor, who also released an Orange Juice 'greatest hits' album In a Nutshell in 1985, while Collins signed for Creation Records

2501-464: The first band to play this now-legendary venue (on 11 Dec 1980). Demos for an album on Postcard were completed in a single day at Hellfire Studios in Glasgow in 1981, with the working title Ostrich Churchyard . Seeking better distribution to get the debut album to a larger audience, Postcard approached Rough Trade Records with these demos, with Rough Trade agreeing to fund recording sessions in London in

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2562-424: The independent Postcard Records label founded by Alan Horne , along with fellow Scottish bands Josef K and Aztec Camera . Orange Juice's 'neo acoustic', jangly guitar sound – as evident in singles including "Blue Boy" and "Simply Thrilled Honey" – came to define 'The Postcard Sound' that directly influenced acts as diverse as the Bluebells , Haircut One Hundred and the Smiths . Despite their association with

2623-574: The independent charts, these garnered considerable interest from the London-based music press, much of which appeared charmed by the band's on-stage antics. Invitations to record two sessions for Radio One DJ's John Peel followed, and, in the autumn of 1980, the band was invited on a national tour by Peel-favourites The Undertones , gaining further exposure. One of these gigs was at Rock City in Nottingham : coming on as support band, Orange Juice became

2684-416: The independent scene, the band signed to the major label Polydor Records in 1981 and recorded their first album, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever for them. However, internal tensions led to splits in the band in late 1981, with their second album, released in late 1982, showing more pop sensibilities and combining their guitar-based sound with disco influences. The band's only top 40 hit, " Rip It Up "

2745-473: The record on a turntable. In 2012, Rookie online magazine released its first hardcopy edition, Rookie Yearbook One, which contained a red flexi disc with two songs written specifically for the site: "I Don't Care" by Dum Dum Girls and "Rookie" by Supercute! . In the summer 2013 issue of German fanzine PUNKROCK! , the punk rock band Riots, based in Oslo, Norway, gave away a free 2-track exclusive flexi disc to

2806-457: The release of a third single from the album vetoed as the record label focused on other acts, to Collins' vocal disapproval. At the same time, Collins' decision to release material with former schoolfriend Paul Quinn on Alan Horne's new Swampland Records label further soured the relationship with Polydor. The band's final show was in January 1985 at a gig for the UK miners' strike , where they came on as

2867-522: The same year, with his solo debut single "Don't Shilly Shally" released on the Creation-offshoot Elevation Records in 1986. While never enjoying prolonged commercial success, Orange Juice were to exercise considerable influence over the indie pop and indie rock scenes that followed in the UK. Most notably, commentators often noted the debt that The Smiths owed to Collins' lyrics, while

2928-703: The scene soon spread to Auckland and other New Zealand cities. Between 1983 and 1987, "Southern-pop bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active " and a California-originated subgenre named Paisley Underground incorporated psychedelic influences. An article in Blogcritics magazine claims that, besides R.E.M., the "only other jangle-pop band to enjoy large sales in America were the Bangles , from Los Angeles. While better known for their glossy hits like 'Manic Monday', their first album and EP were organic, real jangle-pop efforts in

2989-415: The songs of humpback whales (produced by Roger Payne ) was included with the January 1979 issue of National Geographic Magazine . With a production order of 10,500,000 copies, it became the largest single press run of any record at the time. Computer magazines began to provide software in audio form " Vinyl Data " on flexi discs from June 1979 until 1986, as an alternative to a reader manually typing in

3050-414: The state publisher in the Soviet government. Before the advent of the compact disc , flexi discs were sometimes used as a means to include sound with printed material such as magazines and music instruction books. A flexi disc could be moulded with speech or music and bound into the text with a perforated seam, at very little cost and without any requirement for a hard binding. One problem with using

3111-460: The summer of 1981, promising to distribute the debut album whilst allowing Postcard to retain artistic freedom. The album was recorded in Regent's Park Studios in London in August 1981, under the auspices of Scritti Politti producer Adam Kidron, who sought to augment the band's guitar-based sound with backing singers, horns and keyboards, emulating the sound that had made Scritti's " The "Sweetest Girl" "

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3172-403: The thinner vinyl was that the stylus's weight, combined with the flexi disc's low mass, would sometimes cause the disc to stop spinning on the turntable and become held in place by the stylus. For this reason, most flexi discs had a spot on the face of the disc for a coin, or other small, flat, weighted object to increase the friction with the turntable surface and enforce consistent rotation. If

3233-420: The third album by The Velvet Underground . Again critically acclaimed, the album's blue-eyed soul influences presaged other 1980s Scottish acts taking inspiration from this genre, including Wet Wet Wet and Hue and Cry . The album's lead single "What Presence?!" was notable for a video by Derek Jarman but also failed to break into the top 40, peaking at 47, while prophetic single "Lean Period" just crept into

3294-471: The top 75. The album was promoted via 'The Artisans' tour in the Autumn of 1984, with Steve Skinner replacing Britten on guitar, but by this stage venues and crowds were becoming smaller (and a final London Lyceum date in December 1984 was cancelled because of poor sales). Relations with Polydor became strained by the fact Orange Juice could not tour internationally because of Zeke Manyika 's immigration status, with

3355-456: The turntable's surface is not completely flat, it is recommended that the flexi disc be placed on top of a full sized record. In Japan , starting in the early 1960s, Asahi Sonorama published the monthly Asahi Sonorama magazine which included an inserted flexi disc ("Sonosheet"). Every year between 1963 and 1969, the Beatles made a special Christmas recording which was made into a flexi disc and sent to members of their fan club . While

3416-494: Was achieved with the aid of the synthesizer – it was the first hit to use the Roland TB-303 . " Rip It Up " reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1983. Subsequent singles failed to chart as highly, but the band continued to be critically acclaimed, finally splitting up in January 1985 after a gig for the UK miners' strike . Their three albums have been subsequently reissued and remastered on several occasions, with

3477-479: Was always the same, vivid blue, and the discs are familiar to virtually anyone who grew up in the Soviet Union and even the post-Soviet era. In 1969 in addition to the successful audio-magazine Krugozor , the government also launched the audio-magazine for children Kolobok , which also consisted of flexi disks. Because of a shortage of vinyl recording material (and official censorship of some Western music) during

3538-401: Was critically feted, but failed to spawn a hit with its only single, "Bridge". From this point Orange Juice had a core line-up of Collins and Manyika, who proceeded to record Orange Juice's final album, The Orange Juice , with Clare Kenny on bass, and with Johnny Britten on guitar and Paul Herd on bass joining the live set-up. Produced by Dennis Bovell , the album was named with reference to

3599-552: Was initially part of Collins' live band, and Kirk, Manyika, and McClymont continue to record and perform intermittently, the band has never reformed. To date, the original line-up of the band has reunited publicly just once, in 2008, when they were honoured for their influence on Scottish music by the Nordoff Robbins musical trust. Jangle pop Jangle pop is a subgenre of pop rock and college rock that emphasizes jangly guitars and 1960s-style pop melodies. The term

3660-458: Was not released until February 1982, and received mixed reviews, with the use of backing singers and synthesizers anathema to some of the band's long-term fans. Retrospectively, however, the album is often cited as a classic of the era and a key influence on the C86 generation and beyond. By the stage the album was released, the band in any case had a new line-up: in August 1981, Josef K split up, with Collins asking guitarist Malcolm Ross to join

3721-426: Was scheduled for October 1983 as a teaser for an album that would come out the following month. However, both were pulled following Ross and McClymont leaving the group, citing 'musical differences': the last appearance of the four-piece Orange Juice was their open-air festival appearance at Victoria Park, Hackney 6 Aug 1984. Salvaged from the album sessions, the six-track mini-album Texas Fever , issued in March 1984,

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