DESPITE the fact that we have produced one of the biggest bands in the world and many other international heavyweights across the different genres of popular music, and despite all the back-slapping, 86-page reports on the "buoyant" state of the Irish music industry, there remain many gaps further down the league table. If you compare and contrast with Scotland, a country of similar musical leanings, you'll find these gaps become chasms. From the early days of Postcard records (Orange Juice etc) through to the latest do- it-yourself Chemikal Underground scene (Bis et al) they just seem to have more of an independent infrastructure and a feel for good music. Or consider it another way - while too many Irish bands used to try to clone the U2 sound in Temple Bar rehearsal rooms, you never found too many Scottish bands trying to sound like Simple Minds. The Pastels are a case in point. They're one of those bands who don't sell factory-loads of records, but you'll hear musicians talking about them in semi-hushed tones. As role models for their immediate hinterland they were well-nigh perfect; and over what seems like a very long time now they have been quietly going about their adventurous and independent business, putting out great music and managing to influence just about anybody who comes into contact with them.
In much the same way that the better contemporary Irish bands will talk about great Irish songwriters like Paul Cleary, Stephen Ryan and Cathal Coughlan, you'll hear Scottish bands as diverse as The Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream name-drop The Pastels. Their influence doesn't end there: Teenage Fanclub bang on about them with relish and enthusiasm, as do/did The Vaselines who were, believe it or not, one of the prime influences on Nirvana. (Just on the Fanclub, I wouldn't really get into a sweat about the new Oasis single, it's your standard Hope And Anchor soundtrack, but I would bother myself with The Fanclub's new single, Ain't That Enough off the forthcoming Songs From Northern Britain, the latter of course being the only album you'll need to buy all year).
Back to The Pastels: their influence/ethos runs through all the newer Scottish bands from the synth-punk of Bis through to the wonderfully melodic but very enigmatic Belle and Sebastian (they're enigmatic because no one really knows who they are - frequently name- checked by the Tindersticks as the best new band out of Britain in decades, if ever you come across any of their stuff, and it's very hard to find, buy it up on the spot). The Pastels' new EP is called Unfair Kind Of Fame and you wouldn't need to work in Creation Records to decipher that title. It's fragile pop at its best without descending into shoegazing or overly ethereal 4AD territory.
The EP includes a My Bloody Valentine remix of Cycle, which is nice, and all the tracks are from the forthcoming Illumination album. Although both bands grew up together in Bristol and both are "trip hop" in feel, Massive Attack and Portishead spend most of their time denying all similarities between themselves. But they're sort of asking for it by releasing their come-back singles on the same day this week - a kind of West Country Blur/Oasis hype. Massive Attack's Rising Sun is a Trickyesque affair (they'll really love that comparison) while Portishead's Cowboys is an attempt to get rid of their dinner party/coffee table image.
NOT content with wooing the NME stage at Glasto, Ash were also promoted to the main stage over the weekend when Paul Weller's father, Steve Winwood, pulled his gig at the last moment and now they're following in the footsteps of Slade, Gary Glitter, The Band, The Clash, U2 and The Spice Girls by making their own film. "We've been filming ourselves for the last four years," says Tim Wheeler, "and we had a full camera crew out all last year on the road with us. It's going to be directed by us and a director from Dublin called Darren Tierlan. We're hoping to get Ewan McGregor to narrate it." It's thought the film will be out before Ash's next studio album some time in the middle of next year ... Spooky or what? Just two weeks after writing about the Wu Tang Clan and singling out the solo career of Ghostface Killah, in particular a song called All That I Got Is You off the Ironman album of 1995, comes news that the song is being released as a single and will be in the shops next week. Highly recommended - a more beautiful song you'll be hard pressed to hear all year... Continuing our ground-breaking fusion of rock'n'roll and all things aeronautical (this is part four, I think) comes news from The Prodigy camp that singer and all- round "entertainer" Keith Flint was thrown off an Air UK flight from Munich to London last week for being "in very high spirits and a bit hyperactive" - has nobody from Air UK never been to a Prodigy show? So annoyed was young Keith by their actions, that he has penned a song about the airline's actions for the next Prodigy album. He also adds that, strangely enough, from the location of his house, "the c**ts in Air UK fly over me house every day. I'm thinking about getting on me roof with a flare". As always, pop kids, please don't try this at home.
