Haven't seen you in a long time........ Perfume

When you stick a Britpop bands name in Wiki it always starts with this line :
"Name of your britpop band"  WERE a British indie group from ....... blah blah blah !!!!!


Thats right here we have another band that for such small amount of time shined so brightly in my eyes but faded away with the scene that they were the forerunners of!. Yes people i bring to you the fantastic PERFUME. 


Now to me the band reminds me of Fantastic drunken times spent with 3 of my best friends of the time Angela, Kelly and Geoff and the summer we spent at the glorious Glastonbury in 1995. I remember buying a 12" of the single lover from a record seller at the back of select magazine for £3.99, this was after seeing the band perform  if my memory serves me well alongside the bands "Thurman" and "Menswe@r" at the cavern club Exeter in late 1994. I cant really remember the gig as i was steaming drunk from the cheap white lighting they were selling at the bar.  This was the way it stayed at every gig i saw perfume play until the Phoenix festival in 1996 where on one occasion i didn't drink so i could actually watch the band play!.  And from what i can remember it was a brilliant gig that spanned all the singles and tracks form the Debut album "One".  All the singles i had from the band was on the Aromasound label which was their own label to get their songs out there until they teamed up with Big star To release the album "One".  They toured with some of the best small bands of the time like Thurman, Powder and Menswe@r and on to support Gene and they even managed to get on to Paul Wellers "Nottinghill" publishers.  In 1997 along with the release of the album "One" they re issued a re recorded version of "Lover" and their last single "You and i". In the latter of 1997 they split along with releasing a Best of album "Yesterday rising"


So once again we have another band that should have been bigger than they should have been, but for me they influenced my music and music tastes forever and helps me remember some of the best friends and time i will ever have.

You must be ginger ....... David Devant and his spirit wife

In another life maybe ............... We'll all be ginger and free !

Those immortal lines will stay with me until the day i die!. Also the 1st David Devant gig that i went to will stick in my memory for one of the most bizarre gig's that i have ever been to.

To start with it was a blazing hot summer in 1996 and the Glastonbury festival had been cancelled and we ended up with buying a 4 day ticked to the now defunct Phoenix festival.  Which was a great idea because it was a fantastic festival and i managed to see most of the best of the Britpop collective at the time.  So we was waiting to see the band Marion to come on stage and we had a wander around to see who was playing.  We came across a tent that was rammed to the brim with sweaty people, that we thought were trying to escape from the sun.  We was wrong, they had all come to see "David Devant and his spirit wife" and they were just about to come on stage.  The first few songs were played with the band playing with their backs to the audience whilst facing a mirror because they wanted to see the gig from a different perspective and see what the audience was seeing!.  After playing through a couple of numbers they started to play the single that they are famous for "Ginger", this was of course done whilst someone grated raw carrot over the drummers head!!.  From that i was in love with the band and everything they released, and no matter what the NME (Sic!) wrote about them they stood for everything Britpop meant to ME!.

In the mid 2000's i remember catching a documentary on late night Channel 4, filmed in the mid to late 90's it focused on the band touring behind their 2nd album "Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous. For me Britpop never had an ending and left so many things unanswered and when i watched this documentary i remember shedding a tear at the close of the program.  It finished with the lead singer burning his synonymous wig which was one of the striking characteristics of all the Indie bands that i loved and even though it was very sad i also thought of it as a final goodbye to the scene. You must understand that i saw this many years after Britpop had faded away and lost contact with most of the friends that i knew back then.

All this from a band who named them selves after a Victorian magician i hear you ask.  Well yes actually, they released one of the all time greatest Britpop albums "Work, Lovelife, Miscellaneous" with 4 of the best singles ever to be taken of an album!.


And to end this little rant of mine there is only 1 way i can think of to remember the band and its ..........



It was Miss Scarlet
In the ballroom
And she was using
(what was she using?)
She was using


The La la la la la
La la la la
Lead piping
It was the
la la la la la la
La la la la la
Lead piping