After delivering a couple of singles on Jeff Barrett’s pre-Heavenly label, Sub Aqua, East Village recorded their sole LP, Drop Out, in 1990. Bob Stanley, from Saint Etienne, bankrolled the sessions. The band, however, decided to call it a day before the album was mixed, and it sat, shelved until 1993. It’s now received a deluxe, 30th anniversary reissue. 

Formed in 1987, and with a sound based on jangling, vintage guitars, the group were lazily lumped in with the indie acts collected on the NME’s infamous “C-86” cassette.* While they owned up to being `60s obsessed, big fans of Dylan and The Byrds, Gene Clark and garage nuggets, they also disliked the insular nature, and the self-imposed rules, of the “shambling band” scene. Instead, patrons of acid house clubs like Spectrum and Shoom, they were inspired by the ambition and drive of The Stone Roses. 

Silver Train references The Rolling Stones, but with racing bongos and mod jazz, Hammond B3 grind, is more reminiscent of The Spencer Davis Group. A little of Liam Gallagher in the vocal. Those shimmering psyche keys sometimes recall Martin Duffy’s magical contributions to Felt, and help make tracks like Black Autumn anthems.

Shipwrecked sails on gentle 12-string picking and aligns the quartet with other contemporaries on Creation Records’ roster, like The Bodines, and the early, pretty, incarnation of Primal Scream.** Throughout, lyrics are concerned with love and betrayal. First cuts, big wounds and emotions. The scars that shape us as we grow. What Kind Of Friend Is This?, for example, is a sibling to The Scream’s classic, Damaged. 

Stuff like Circles, with its melodic, countrified licks, adds the folky Heavenly of Beth Orton and The Rockingbirds to the pre-Loaded Creation mix.*** The noisy, ringing riffs on forays such as Freeze Out borrow from Peter Buck, and R.E.M., the same way Oasis later, more blatantly, did. The song’s epic nature foreshadowing the stadium indie of another Heavenly band, Doves. Elsewhere East Village also echo Jez Williams’ pre-Doves outfit, Metro Trinity. 

Cranked up high, on hash, speed, and conviction, the four friends composed, crafted, created with commitment, possession, obsession. Their magpie eyes on the prize. Full of the enthusiasm and un-dashable dreams of youth. Never daring, not for a second, to entertain any idea of failure… and then, with the recording in the can, following a gig, that they deemed lack lustre, East Village simply quit. Having given it their best shot, rather than crash, burn, argue and fall out, when it stopped feeling right, they instead refocused and successfully pursued other endeavours, careers in art, design, film making, photography, and management. For me, personally, this is one of East Village’s greatest gifts, and a valuable, admirable, lesson I wish I’d learn. 

It would be easy for me to call this record “timeless”, `cos I was there first time around. Songs like When I Wake Tomorrow, with its fuzzy feedback edges and guitar hero solo, played to, serenaded, soundtracked, the romantic protagonist, the unrequited underdog, who lived in my head. More, it encapsulates an era, helped to pave the way for all the artists mentioned, and nurture a mid-90s explosion of great, British guitar-based pop.

The new Heavenly vinyl reissue, released tomorrow, features a digital bonus of a further 14 tracks. Another album’s worth of singles, b-sides, and alternate takes, which I’m guessing gathers everything that the band ever did – including Cubans In The Bluefields’ brilliant, sunny, jazzier swing, Strawberry Window, more locked riffing than delicate filigree picking, and the stunning Smiths-like Kathleen.

NOTES

*Back then, every year, the NME compiled a cassette of what they considered to be the UK’s most exciting new acts. C-86 came under considerable critical fire, since the music world was being rocked by US hip hop, the “sonic terrorism” of people like Public Enemy, and The Pastels obviously paled in comparison. The shambling band scene, for me though, was a good craic. Going to gigs and getting pissed was what I did, before E, acid house, and Balearic beats came along. 

**Plus Michael Head, Pale Fountains, Shack, and then The Strands. 

***A pre-dance Beloved even.