After a busy week searching the darkest regions of record collections far and wide, Dick has this week unearthed a real gem that few people have ever heard of. Going back to 1983, it is the one and only single from Glasgow-based indie band, The Wee Cherubs.
So what’s the story with this band then, Dick?
Recorded in 1983, this single would be the only output by the band. The Wee Cherubs included Martin Cotter among their ranks, who would later gain slight degree of popularity with The Bachelor Pad a few years later. The jangly a-side of the release is the title track, Dreaming, and on the b-side the band puts their own reverb-drenched take on The Velvet Underground’s 1967 track, Waiting For My Man.
Only 1000 copies of the 7” were pressed by short-lived Scottish label, Bogaten, and it is housed in thick card wraparound sleeve with black and white picture labels. Everything about the release screams D.I.Y and it has a lovingly homemade feel.
But Dick, you just said “reverb-drenched.” I thought My Bloody Valentine invented shoegaze?
No one has ever claimed that The Wee Cherubs were a shoegaze band, but the early seeds were clearly being sown in their sound. Dreaming actually has a similar sound to some of MBV’s earlier, pre-Creation work, but it is on The Velvet Underground cover where they sound ahead of their time. Walls of reverb wash over the dissonant guitars and the clatter of raw drums, but radiating a dreamy feel not too dissimilar to Cocteau Twins. It’s a far cry from the cascading guitars of Loveless, but it was an early sign of a new scene being born.
Sadly for The Wee Cherubs, their creativity would go largely unnoticed, and allegedly didn’t even sell half of the amount of units of this 7”. Even Martin Cotter claims to have thrown a box full in a skip some year ago when he was moving house. Of course now, like so many before it, it is one of those mythical records that is usually confined to legend.
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Lou would be pleased…