The Primitves - Everything's Shining Bright - The Interview

 (Photos are from The Primitives.)

It is with great pleasure that I get to post this Interview with Tracy Tracy and Paul Court of The Primitives. A big part of the musical landscape of the 1980's and since 2009, the band are  currently finding a new lease of life with the release of an album in 2012 - the magnificent 'Echoes and Rhymes' and new music and concert dates to come this year and beyond. They kindly took some moments out of their busy lives to answer a few questions.

S4L: You have recently reissued your Lazy Records output via Cherry Red with lots of bonus material and a gig from the ICA, how happy are you with that material all these years on? In my opinion it has stood the test of time. I also noticed that you are reissuing
your debut album 'Lovely' via Cherry Red, are you going to be reissuing all of your albums?

Paul: Yes fairly happy. Quite surprise at how good some of it sounds seeing as we didn’t have much of a clue what we doing. Not sure if the others will get a reissue. It would be nice if the last album Galore got a digital release.

S4L: Prior to your comeback in 2009 the music of The Primitives seems to have been kept alive by various compilations released, did you have any control over those or was it a case of a record company trying to recoup some cash?

Tracy: We have no control of the major label recordings being re-released as we don’t own them. The indie stuff was being released by our ex manager. We’ve put a stop to that and now own the rights to those recordings.

S4L: The indie scene was chock full of great bands back in the eighties when you were getting a lot of attention, there always seemed to be a "rivalry" (created by the media I'm sure) between The Primitives, The Darling Buds and Transvision Vamp, did you rate the Buds or Vamp or see them as the competition? What other bands from around that time did you enjoy?

Tracy: We had no interest in those bands. The blonde thing in the music press was annoying and unhelpful.

S4L: It's been documented that your comeback in 2009 was in part to do with the death of Steve Dullaghan, did you have any ideas when you first got back together that you were going to be putting out new music or was it something that was just like do a few
shows, play some of the oldies and see what happens next?

Paul: We thought we’d just play in the back room of a pub in Coventry. We played the opening night of an exhibition about the Coventry music scene and a small secret gig in London and things escalated from there.

S4L: 'Echoes and Rhymes' really impressed me, especially as I went back and listened to pretty much all of the originals and was stunned by how creative you were with your versions. How did you come to choose the songs to cover for the project, were you listening to a lot of these types of records prior to giving birth to the concept?

Paul: Most are from my record collection and the others we chose as the project developed, so they were new to us all. There were things inherent within a few of the songs that reminded us of The Primitives, so that was a starting point.

S4L: You've been touring since your comeback, did it feel good again to be out on the road sharing your music? Is it any different to back when you first started to tour in the 80's (apart from the fact you are a little bit older and wiser than you were then!)?

Paul: The main difference is that we’re running everything and obviously it’s a lot scaled down from how it was when we were touring at the height of things in the late 80s.

S4L: You released a single in February this year (Lose the Reason/Always Coming Back) does that mean we can expect at some point a brand new album from The Primitives?

Paul: We have a handful of new songs recorded and more are on the way, so there could end up being an album.

S4L: One of the things I like to discover from the folks who get interviewed for
Soundtrack4Life is what is on their Soundtrack4Life? So if you could give 5 albums or songs that have been a huge part of your life and influenced you on your musical or personal journey that would be good.

 Tracy and Paul chose these tracks. 

Click on the links to hear the songs.

Liar Liar - The Castaways.
Lightening’s Girl -Nancy Sinatra.
Upside Down - Jesus and Mary Chain.
Love You More - The Buzzcocks.
Out Of My Mind - The Chantelles.

S4L: Last question: If The Primitives of 2013 could step into a time machine and go back in time to 1985 and meet up with The Primitives of that year what piece of advice or wisdom would you pass on to them?

Paul: Don’t take any of it for granted. Don’t take any bullshit from people who think they have power over you. All that matters is the band and the songs.

Tracy: I would agree with that. We should have objected more to stuff we weren’t happy with.

In September this year there's going to be a show at the 100 Club in London to celebrate the 25th Anniversary release of 'Lovely'.

For more information about The Primitives releases and concert dates checkout: The Prmitives Website or The Primitves Offical on Facebook.