The Lucys – in session for John Peel – March 3, 1981 – BBC Radio 1 –
The Lucys in session for John Peel to end the week. Not that I’ve been purposely focusing on bands that had a brief flourish and then vanished, but truths to tell, there’s a lot of bands out there that, for one reason or another, got lost in the shuffle. Bad timing, nonexistent or non-compos mentis management or just rotten luck. Whatever the reason, it points up to the fact that having a successful band, like having a successful anything (book, painting, movie – you name it) has as much to do with sheer dumb luck as anything else. Talent, it seems, is not a high priority, but that mysterious conspiracy of circumstances often is.
So here we have The Lucys. A band formed in the Brixton district of London, much around the same time as Scritti Politti, The Clash and The Thompson Twins. Practiced a lot, gigged a certain amount – toured with The Au Pairs and The Thompson Twins and caught the ear of John Peel and his producer John Walters. They were suitably impressed enough with their demo to drag them into the studios at Bush House where they recorded these four tracks on March 3, 1981 and broadcast several days later. Peel even went as far as airing an appeal to any record label worth its salt to sign the band. They did get a bite from Cherry Red Records – and over a period of time recorded a full albums worth of tracks. But the kicker to the deal was one of the above mentioned Management snags and Cherry Red fading into the distance, never making good on their interest. And subsequently the ensuing squabbles and resentments put an end to the legacy that may have been The Lucys.
However – and now we cut to almost 30 years later, word from Lucys guitarist Pete Boyse that, in fact the fabled Lucys album has finally been released, albeit in a limited edition of 200 copies, from Detour Records, an independent label dedicated to saving, preserving and informing.
As a reminder and an introduction if you aren’t familiar, here is that Peel session from March 3, 1981.
