NEWS: Flowered Up A Life With Brian reissued

Flowered Up’s debut album ‘A Life with Brian’ reissued for the first time since its original release in 1991, newly remastered and available on 2CD, 2LP Vinyl and Limited Coloured 2LP Vinyl.

Including new sleevenotes by Heavenly’s Robin Turner, the reissue adds their seminal 1992 single ‘Weekender’ and it’s Andrew Weatherall remixes to the vinyl album package for the first time.

The following is taken from an article that originally appeared on the Louder Than War website written by Gigslutz writer Matt Mead:

The early formation of Flowered Up was brothers Liam and Joe Maher who were joined by friends Andy ‘Jacko’ Jackson (bass), John O’Brain (drums) and Simon Lovekin (keys) in 1989. After not much time John was replaced by John Tuvey and Simon was replaced by Tim Dorney (the posh one) with the addition of lunatic on stage dancer and off stage carnage creator Barry Mooncult.

Once the classic line up was formed further material was thrashed out in rehearsals. At this moment the band was clicking into gear, a full set of songs was brought together and by all accounts being in FU was like being in a gang.

Following the release of first single It’s On the band released a 2nd single on Heavenly, the epic and haunting Phobia. The band then signed to London records for £1,000,000 6 year deal and were ready to tour the country, in preparation for their debut album to be recorded. me.’

After the band went on some of the THE most legendary tours ever witnessed London Records released 2 further singles. A new song Take It, with lyrics lifted from Joe Strummer’s ‘Joe’s Tune’ from the 1980 film ‘Rudeboy‘ featuring The Clash, Liam being a big huge fan of The Clash and a rerecorded version of It’s On backed with a upbeat belter Egg Rush, with backing vocals by Anna Haigh.

John Tuvey ‘we recorded the album at Eel Pie Island Studios belonging to the one and only Mr Pete Townshend of the The Who. I have to say I was made up! The Who was my first live gig I went to, after the death of Mr Keith Moon. Pete was a truly fantastic bloke, we spent many a time chatting to him and he gave Joe the guitar he used on The Who’s last tour. What a gent! We spent a month or so there in the studio. While we were there Snub TV came down and we did Take It for them with an interview with Liam and Barry dressed as a sailor. It’s on YouTube’.’

After the album was recorded and released the band toured Europe, including Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Holland. After returning from Europe the band had started to dissemble. Amazingly amongst all this the band were about to record their ground breaking song Weekender. Weekender was not your usual upbeat indie, happy go lucky beat tune. This was taking on new ground, the same ground trodden by The Who with A Quick One, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and The Stones You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

Tim Dorney ‘We then went into the studio with Clive Langer to re-record Crackerjack as a single and ended up doing a 20 minute jam of Weekender while setting up, the jam did get recorded but the tape is long gone, would love to hear it again. At that point Clive turned round and said that’s what we should be recording as a single and he and Jeff lobbied London Records to let us do it. I loved working with Clive, we did quite a bit of pre-production on it with him that led to the many different sections and it took a week to record. The list of session musicians on it reads like a who’s who of top flight players from that period. Luis Jardim on percussion, Steve Naive on hammond organ (we paid him in E’s!), Kate St. John from the Dream Academy on oboe, Dom Weller, an old jazzer on sax. Despite having bronchitis for most of it I think it’s my happiest studio experience ever.’

London Records now present the album fully restored from the original tapes coupled with Weekender, making this the most comprehensive and essential release by the band.

RIP Liam, Joe and Lee Whitlock

PRE-ORDER NOW: A LIFE WITH BRIAN