Virgin Prunes - A New Form Of Beauty 1 - 4

Virgin Prunes - A New Form Of Beauty 1 - 4

As requested by Eden 263, New Form of Beauty stands as one of most audacious projects in pop history, even if the mainstream of popular culture has no idea who the Virgin Prunes are, or that it existed in the first place. New Form of Beauty, Pts. 1-4 represents early, pre-debut-LP offerings from Ireland's Virgin Prunes, a band that grew up alongside U2 -- in fact, vocalist Gavin Friday would often finish sets for Bono when he couldn't go the distance. The project was conceived in seven original parts, only four were ever released. New Form of Beauty captures very closely the controlled and often anarchic art damage that the band was doing in a live setting early on. Industrial sounds wrapped around more conventional guitar, bass, drum, and keyboard trappings, singers Gavin Friday and Guggi were both outrageously androgynous, utterly captivating front men. The band's influences range wide and far from folk songs to Throbbing Gristle to the dynamics of bands like Joy Division, PIL, and even Germany's Can, though the Prunes' sonic approach was utterly unique. It is nocturnal always, often nightmarish, like the nether soundtrack to a carnival sideshow, it is, to borrow from Jean Dubuffett, art brut , outsider art of high poetic and aesthetic quality even when it is falling apart. Highly recommended for its excess as well as its achievement.




A New Form Of Beauty 1
( Rough Trade "RT 089" 1981 as a 7")

Tracks :

1. Sandpaper Lullaby
2. Sleep / Fantasy Dreams




A New Form Of Beauty 2
(Rough Trade "RT 090" 1981 as a 10")

Tracks :

1. Come To Daddy
2. Sweet Home Under White Clouds
3. Sad World




A New Form Of Beauty 3
(Rough Trade "RT 099" 1981 as a 12")

Tracks :

Beast

1. Seven Bastard Suck

The Slow Children

2. Abbágall
3. Brain Damage
4. No Birds To Fly




A New Form Of Beauty 4
(Rough Trade "COPY 007" 1982 as a cassette)

Extracts from a performance at their “A New Form of Beauty 5” exhibition
at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, on 8 November 1981.


Tracks :

1.Din Glorious
2.Din Glorious

( I recorded the cassette as one track.)



A New Form Of Beauty 1 - 3

A New Form Of Beauty 4

Virgin Prunes - Heresie

Formed in mid-1977 in Dublin, for a time the Virgin Prunes were "the most overtly subversive rock group ever to come out of the genre" (Mark Prendergast, "Irish Rock"). Their reputation was built on their outrageous stage performances and supported by a wayward and individual collection of record releases. Singers Gavin Friday and Guggi, along with third vocalist Dave-iDBusaras, guitarist Dik Evans, bassist Strongman and drummer Pod, released their first single in 1980. Pod soon left to be replaced by Haa-Lacka Binttii, who left around a year later, to be replaced in turn by Mary D'Nellon. In 1984, both Guggi and Dik left the band and the music business. Mary D'Nellon took over guitar duties and Pod returned as the band's drummer. The Virgin Prunes started to record the album Sons Find Devils, which has never been released. 1985 saw the release of a retrospective video (confusingly titled Sons Find Devils, despite having no connection with the still unreleased album) and a compilation album of rarities (Over the Rainbow). The band toured as a four-piece and finally released a new album, The Moon Looked Down and Laughed, in the summer of 1986. Gavin Friday left the group in November 1986 to pursue a solo career, effectively ending the group. This was formally confirmed by a short comment at the bottom of the sleeve of a live album, The Hidden Lie, released in 1987. D'Nellon, Strongman and Busaras went on to record as The Prunes. Heresie was released as a double 10" box set in 1982 by L'Invitation Au Suicide (INV 0500). This edition was released as a double 10" on Baby Records (BABY 011) in 1988. In 1993 released on cd by New Rose Records ( 422475) and in 2004 also on cd by The Grey Area ( YEO 3 CD).


Tracks :


1. We Love Deirdre
2. Rhetoric
3. Down The Memory Lane
4. Man On The Corner
5. Nisam Lo
6. Loved One
7. Go 'T' Away Deirdre
8. Caucasian Walk
9. Walls Of Jericho
10. Pagan Lovesong
11. Theme For Thought
12. Come To Daddy

( Note : tracks 1 to 7 recorded at Windmill Lane studio, Dublin, June 1982. tracks 8 to 12 recorded live at the Rex club, Paris, April 1982.)


Heresie