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The Guardian
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Edwyn Collins: ‘Could an Orange Juice reunion ever be on the cards? No!'
In these deeply troubled, fractured, febrile times, why did you call the new record Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation? smileywombatIt was Grace's choice [Grace Maxwell, his wife and musical collaborator]. Up in Helmsdale [in the Scottish Highlands], in my studio, I have an art deco radiogram speaker which has a sort of sunburst thing with that phrase written on it. For £60 on eBay – pristine! It was the BBC World Service motto. When we were casting about for a title for the new record, it seemed like a great expression. Grace said, if you're going to call it that you have to write a song with that title. So I did. I very much enjoyed the new song Knowledge and the video, shot in Helmsdale. Do you like to travel much these days or are you pretty much happy at home? nogs09London is still my town. But I like Helmsdale, and Grace loves it. But when I was seven, eight years old, every holiday I spent in Helmsdale, walking with Stuart, my grandfather. And, one year, Mum and Dad said, I think we'll go to Spain. I said, you can go wherever you like – I'm going to Helmsdale. We've been abroad loads of times since I had the stroke [in 2005] – to Japan once, to Australia. But I love getting home to the studio. That fragrance of the air. The fresh air. It's beautiful. The Possibilities Are Endless [the documentary about Collins's recovery from his stroke] is such a motivational and inspiring watch. How easy was it for you to put it out there for all to see? Aubrey26At the beginning, it was difficult to form my language. But you shouldn't hide any of it away. There's no point. I express myself and sometimes I get it wrong – the words, the meaning of things … So what? I am a private person, but with no shame. Is your favourite song still Boredom [by Buzzcocks, namechecked on Orange Juice's Rip It Up]? James1968In the punk days, I liked the Sex Pistols, but particularly Subway Sect and Buzzcocks. I was obsessed with Pete Shelley. And then, years and years later, after my stroke, we were sitting in Inverness, and this guy came up to me and went: 'I don't know if you remember me. I'm John Maher. I was the drummer in Buzzcocks.' I said: 'I remember you, you were the handsome Buzzcock.' He came over from Harris [in the Outer Hebrides, where Maher now lives] and took all the photographs for the Badbea album. He's a great photographer. Still handsome. Did you plan to break up Orange Juice on the evening of the miners' benefit show at Brixton Academy in January 1985? ChrisBartleyOrange Juice had come to an end. Polydor were dropping me and Zeke [Manyika, drummer] was busy with his solo career. It came to its own conclusion, really. So I said, I might as well say this will be Orange Juice's last gig. It was Grace's idea to play Rock and Roll (I Gave You the Best Years of My Life) by Kevin Johnson. 'And Zeke followed me through London, through a hundred hotel rooms / Through a hundred record companies who didn't like my tunes.' There were people crying in the audience. Would an Orange Juice reunion ever be on the cards? RattonRedNo! I remember that you were quite caustic about other bands in interviews back in the 80s and 90s. Have you mellowed? Most of the bands you slagged off deserved it! 1234 RamonesBack then, every indie band was nasty about everybody. Nowadays, everybody's nice about everybody. Some of the people I've been horrible about are very, very lovely to me now. Then you meet people and they're really nice and you just feel like, what a wanker I am. I remember Pete Wylie from Wah! Heat. I said: 'Aren't you sort of like Abba?' And now we are good buddies. I'm currently rereading Grace's memoir Falling and Laughing. It's even more inspiring second time around. Have you written songs about her? SalfordRed64Yes, I have. There's one called You're Better Than You Know on Hope and Despair. That's a lovely song. A song of encouragement. And then Graciously. That's about it. When you first wrote and recorded A Girl Like You, did you have any inkling that it would be such a huge worldwide hit, or did its success take you by surprise? VerulamiumParkRangerVic Godard from Subway Sect, who sang backing vocals, said: 'Yes, that's the one, that's the No 1 single.' But, no, we didn't. It was obvious it was the single – but it didn't get playlisted. Much later, Mickie Most, the genius producer, said that occasionally there's a record you can bury under the Empire State Building that will still find a way out. High praise from Mickie. There was absolutely nothing you could do to that record to stop it. It was an unstoppable force. Even I couldn't mess that record up. I love the fact that Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols is the drummer on the Gorgeous George LP. But a mate told me there were loads of other first-generation punks on that record. Can that be true? And do you still consider yourself a punk? frenteboqueronWell, Vic was on the record. And we have worked a lot with Dave Ruffy elsewhere, who was a Rut: 'Babylon's burning!' But I'm not a punk any more. I'm too old for that. I love punk records. I also love northern soul, soul, indie music. In my opinion, there are good records and bad records. And good records, I'll always love. Will you be making music with Vic Godard again? GrahamCarrisgodPossibly. He's always running around like a maniac. So we'll pin him down and see if we can get him to come up and do some recording in Helmsdale. He's the best company. Seventies Night, a song that you recorded with the late Mark E Smith, became a staple in my DJ sets. Mark was quite a character. Did you two get along in the studio? CoopertapesNot exactly! RIP, of course. The first time I worked with him he said: 'I'm not worthy, Edwyn.' Then he came back to our studio and terrified Seb, my sidekick. Poor Seb. Grace told him off and he said sorry – he could be very sweet. He also said: 'Right, I'm putting the nails in.' During that session, he sacked his entire group. But he ultimately had a nice person in him, a polite person. I can't tell you how much I admire your strength, determination and fortitude to recover from a stroke. My question is: what inspires you to keep going? EducatedRitaIn hospital, even my pupils didn't react. It looked like curtains for me. But my doctor decided to operate. And I'm grateful. Even when I was unconscious, I felt I was fighting for my life. My dreams didn't die. There was wonderful satisfaction to come. Now, sometimes it's difficult for me to get about. Town is difficult, bumping into people. But I can walk to the tube with my son William; that's joyful. Edwyn Collins answered questions with Grace Maxwell Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation is released via AED Records on 14 March. Edwyn Collins's last-ever tour starts in September – details
BBC News
04-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Singer Edwyn Collins announces final tour
Edwyn Collins will stop performing live after a farewell tour later this 65-year-old singer - best known for 1995 hit single A Girl Like You - said he decided to halt touring due to his age, but would continue to record new 2005 he went into a coma after having a stroke and two haemorrhages, but recovered and was able to resume his music Edinburgh-born singer first gained attention in the 1980s with influential indie-pop band Orange Juice, before embarking on a solo career later in the decade. Collins told BBC Scotland News he had decided the run of dates in September and October would be his last because "I'd be a very old man by the time the next one [tour] rolled around, and that's not for me."The singer added that he would miss "the audience love, my beautiful band and crew".He said he would keep making music as "I can't stop writing and recording. For fun, you know?".Collins was left unable to walk, talk or read after the stroke and haemorrhages in 2005, and spent several months in hospital after a surgical scar became infected with the MRSA he recovered enough to release a further five albums, including the forthcoming Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation - his 10th overall 11-track album was recorded at his Clashnarrow Studio in Helmsdale, the Sutherland village where he has lived for many years with his wife Grace. Collins formed his first band the Nu-Sonics while still a teenager, and they played their first gig at Glasgow's Satellite City nightclub in group later became Orange Juice and enjoyed a Top 10 hit with Rip It Up in 1983. The quartet broke up two years after that, but were cited as an influence by many bands that followed, including Franz 1995 solo track A Girl Like You became a worldwide hit, topping the charts in Belgium and Iceland and cracking the top 40 in America. Collins also worked as a producer and published a book of his illustrations of British farewell tour will begin at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on 29 September, before going to Buxton, Bath, Southampton, Brighton, London, Norwich and Manchester, before ending at the Boiler Shop in Newcastle on 8 October.
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Post your questions for Edwyn Collins
From his days with Orange Juice to his solo gems, Edwyn Collins has long cut a distinctive dash in the worlds of British pop and indie – and he's still at it, putting out his 10th solo album, Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation, on 14 March. As he prepares the release he'll be joining us to answer your questions. Now 65, Collins was born in Edinburgh and raised in Dundee, before he headed to Glasgow where he worked as an illustrator for the city's parks department, drawing 'chaffinches and squirrels and moorhens for park leaflets' he later remembered. But he was also frontman of the burgeoning band Orange Juice, who came to define a moment in Scottish indie-pop with spirited tunes such as Rip It Up, Blue Boy and Falling and Laughing (the latter one of Keir Starmer's Desert Island Discs), topped by Collins's untutored yet romantic croon. After they split in 1986 Collins went solo. He will always be remembered for his Northern soul song of total infatuation, A Girl Like You, which became a global hit in 1995 – but his discography is full of other gems such as the 2002 LP Doctor Syntax. He suffered two strokes in 2005 which left him unable to speak for a time – save a handful of words, including 'the possibilities are endless' – but he has recovered well enough to record another five albums since. Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation is the latest of these, and the first since 2019, drawing its title from an old BBC motto. Collins will answer your questions on it and anything else in his career – post them in the comments below before Wednesday 26 February. His answers will be published on 7 March.
