On Tuesday I rode the train from Troon to Glasgow. Via Kilmarnock. Anyone who knows the west of Scotland rail network will know that this is an unusual route and indeed this was the first time I had ever travelled it in that particular direction. Nevertheless it brought back memories since I used to travel the route in the opposite direction every Monday evening in 1984 when I studied Architecture at the Macintosh School. As I recall those evenings were filled with lectures on history, engineering and things like lighting and other building systems. All very vague. It’s a long time ago after all... What I do remember with much more clarity are those late evening train rides through the dark in ageing diesel trains full of fumes with smoke stained woodwork and grimy windows. I would always try to sit at the front of the first carriage where I could watch the driver at work. Not that I ever wanted to be a train driver, just that it eased the boredom a little bit.
Of course most train journeys were on the coastal line, through Kilwinning, Dalry and Paisley. And Johnstone of course, from where if you are unlucky you might have to catch a replacement bus service. If you’re really unlucky the girl of your dreams will ride off on it... Or they might if you were The Bachelor Pad, for I can never think of buses and Johnstone without thinking of that group.
Like lots of people I first heard The Bachelor Pad on that flexi they shared with Baby Lemonade. Was it the best of the Sha-La-La releases? Some days I think so, yes. It was certainly the noisiest; the one where the trademark snap, crackle and pop of flexis was perhaps most fitting.
If ‘Girl of Your Dreams’ sounded like the most perfect Punk Rock Psychedelia imaginable at the time then their debut on solid vinyl was every bit as good. I can still remember excitedly picking it up from A1 on Renfield Street. The label was called Warholasound and the cover was pure Pop Art. With Highland cattle. Of course.
Now Tommy Cherry from the group mentioned in a 2008 interview that he saw The Bachelor Pad as being kindred spirits of Bob Stanley’s CAFF fanzine and that’s good to read because I felt the same at the time. In my head they aligned perfectly, with their toughly camp Joe Orton flamboyant cut and paste punk style. I picked up a second hand copy of The Times’ ‘Up Against It’ the same day I bought ‘Albums Of Jack’. Later that day I recorded tracks to a tape for C with a photocopied picture of Andy and Edie on the cover. It all made such perfect sense.
The Bachelor Pad’s sound was a mad melange of melodic noise and nowhere was it better illustrated than on the insanely great ‘Do It For Fun’ 12”. At the time there was a lot of froth and nonsense about the evils of the record industry and many indiekids saw the 12” single as the devil incarnate. Me included. But the ‘Do It For Fun’ 12” was a different beast, particularly as it allowed The Bachelor Pad to extend their title jam into an eight minute plus epic full of guitars throttled to within an inch of their lives. Grant Morrison wove it into his story arc for the Hellblazer comic; a recording so noisy it could (and did!) block an atomic bomb. Spectacular.
The Pop purists would prefer the three minute twenty second 7” edit of course, but then my favourite Velvet Underground song was always ‘Sister Ray’, so go figure. Those Pop puritans would probably have been shaking their heads at the nod to the MC5 too, but me, man I was lapping it up. That’s the pleasure of learning.
The sleeve of ‘Do It For Fun’ was a delight equal to the record; a curious collage of ephemera including plastic roses, a spearmint robot sweetie wrapper, swiss army knife and a neat old Restricted Code badge. It was a perfect visual foil to the songs within; a strange punk DIY psychedelia. Cheap, plastic, disposable. And all the more cherish-able for that. Christine, who made the sleeve and later became a member of the group, was at the Art School at the same time I was, but naturally a fine artist and therefore immeasurably cooler than me. Not that such a thing was difficult.
Now I will admit that I lost track of The Bachelor Pad somewhat after this, although I do recall picking up the raucous and racy ‘Frying Tonight’ four track live 7” that Jim Kavanagh put out as the first release on his Egg label. Indeed, wasn’t it given away with the first issue of his ‘Do It For Fun’ fanzine; the successor to his ‘Simply Thrilled’ ‘zine that was such an invaluable part of the Sha-La-La network? Whatever, there is a case to make for it as the most delicious Bachelor Pad platter capturing as it does a group that sounds at once both exhilaratingly unhinged and magically together. The four cuts sound like The Monkees shagging The Fabulous Stains whilst The Ramones eat The Cake backstage. That mental. That great.
There is an argument that says the great underground protest records of the Thatcher era were made by groups like McCarthy and Wolfhounds; fiercely Political and personal assaults on the signs of the times. And whilst that argument would be right, there is another line that says the sound of protest was also to be found in groups like The Bachelor Pad; escapes from the harsh realities to the delights of the inner spheres, a new and desperate psychedelic revolution. Not that The Bachelor Pad could ever sink to the hippie depths of, say, Spacemen 3. They were too full of Punk Rock intensity.
Don’t believe me? Tune in to the ‘Tales Of Hoffman’ set that snuck out on the Imaginary label in 1990. Here the old and the new of The Bachelor Pad met across sixteen cuts of magnificent dreams; an insanely great rewiring of Dan Treacy’s innate genius living in a Dada daydream. Hannah Hoch go-go dancing to The Shaggs. What more do you need to know?
Perhaps the ‘Tales Of Hoffman’ would have been a good place to stop. Indeed, Cherry suggests as much in that 2008 interview. However The Bachelor Pad, without original member Martin Cotter, returned to Egg for two final releases. ‘Smoothie’ was a typically manic, rumbustious outing, not unlike Inspiral Carpets on acid and speed whilst ‘Meet The Lovely Jenny Brown’ maintained the psych influences but dropped the noisy mayhem and revealed The Bachelor Pad as a rather lush Power Pop outfit that could have challenged Teenage Fanclub. Some call it their finest moment. a charming moment on which to bow out.
I understand why they would say this, yet for me it’s the magnificent, mesmerising untamed chaos of ‘Do It For Fun’ and ‘Frying Tonight’ that remain their lasting legacy. A point where Punk and Psychedelia collided and made something unique.
And yes, they really did come from Strathbungo.
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