Last September, with the Boy barely a month old, I popped out for my first gig as a dad. Lots of bands on the bill, but I arrived 15 minutes before The Clientele took the stage, and left immediately after they finished. Surgical. But in those 15 minutes, I went to the 'merch' stall and spotted some Clientele 7" singles. I picked up one, and when the guy behind the table told me they were £1, I said that was ridiculously cheap and I'd have to have two. I think he thought I was joking. So I had to go back at the end of the set to get another. I got #496 and #498 out of the edition of 500. I think the band were having a Clearing Out sale.
Lacewings is the first release on Alistair Fitchett's Unpopular Records. It was recorded when The Clientele supported Damon & Naomi at Bush Hall on 28 May 2003. I would certainly have been there myself, but for the fact that the Future Bible Heroes were playing on the other side of town that night, in Hackney. Cover art is by Gail O'Hara, who curated the Chickfactor Ball at Bush Hall in 2002, where I first saw The Clientele.
It all goes round in fairly small circles. I sent Alistair a recording of another 2003 Clientele show, returning this favour, but it was one of my usual amateur mini-disk jobs, not nearly as good as this single.
Here's a nice sceptical, tongue-in-cheek review. These guitar tabs look almost simple enough for me to get my guitar out of the cupboard and have a go. But the lightness of the song would bring out the worst in my terrible voice. "Lacewings" was also the name adopted for an old Clientele email list (I was never a member) described here.
Discogs entry for this single
Wikipedia entry for this single
Rate Your Music entry for this single
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