Absolutely love these sort of posts 
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Their greatest hits album is one of the best around. I’m a sucker for a good compilation.
I’d definitely investigate Dizzy Heights, it sounds like a greatest hits compilation in itself
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Ian’s autobiography out next month. That’s one of my Christmas presents sorted.
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should be very good
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I really like the Lightning Seeds but this made me laugh still!
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This thread was making me think i should go back and have a listen for nostalgia’s sake, and that video has reminded perfectly why i probably shouldn’t
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I had a lovely time at their Latitude set. It’s also very sweet that the actual Riley is now in the band.
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Had a lovely time yesterday afternoon seeing Ian Broudie in conversation with John Robb. Will Sergeant from Echo & The Bunnymen & Riley (who comes across as a really nice guy) were both in the room too.
Loads of great insight into the Liverpool punk/post-punk scene and producing big personalities like Mark E Smith & Ian McCulloch which John understandably focused a lot of the conversation on given his own interests.
Loved the story of how Pure came to be. He recorded his first few songs with a friend in a studio and Pure was a demo that he didn’t think worked. His friend kept it on the DAT tape anyway so he could go back to it later and he’d forgotten it was on there when the tape started getting circulated. Someone from a record company called saying they loved Pure, and Ian told them to ignore it was it was only an embarrassing demo on there by mistake but they kept pushing and it got released. So for example that opening keyboard part was just there as a count in and the first bit of guitar was just him checking it was in tune. It was never meant to stay in, but as Ian said that’s one of the most recognisable parts now.
It became a big radio hit in the US and someone called him from the record company asking him to tour the States. He told them there was no band, he wasn’t a singer and he’d never played a single gig as the Lightning Seeds…and in response they promptly dropped him. So after that Terry Hall invited him to play a few gigs with his band where he’d sing the first few songs and then Ian could sing a few to get used to being in front of an audience in a less intimidating way. The Lightning Seeds as a band rather than a solo studio vehicle emerged from that.
Don’t know if this is of interest at all to anyone else, but listening to my childhood hero talking about all the things I could only ever find out snippets of pre-internet made me very happy.
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This is an under-rated gem of theirs. Love the juxtaposition of EMG-era depressive manics with their sound.
(313) The Lightning Seeds - Waiting for Today to Happen '97 (Audio) - YouTube
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That’s a really cool story. Thanks for sharing
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This is great to read. I loved them originally, then in my head I decided it was a bit MOR for some reason, then I got over myself and came back to realising what a great pop songwriter he is.
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announcing gigs a year in advance seems a bit extra (thought the gigs were at the end of the month and was getting excited)