My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine

My Bloody Valentine, the seminal shoegaze band, was formed in Dublin in 1984. Colm O'Ciosoig and Kevin Shields moved from Ireland to Berlin in 1984 where they recorded their first mini-album, This Is Your Bloody Valentine, with vocalists Tina and Dave Conway. On their way back to London, in 1985, they encountered Debbie Googe, who became their permanent bass player.

My Bloody Valentine's early output also includes The New Record by My Bloody Valentine and the Geek! EP; however, Kevin Shields would later warn MBV fans not to buy any of these, because they were 'quite horrible', according to him.

1987's Sunny Sundae Smile EP, stands as the first 'real' My Bloody Valentine record.

1988 saw My Bloody Valentine team up with Creation Records for a full-length album, Isn't Anything, and a host of accompanying EP material. Their distinctive musical style, airy yet heavily distorted, was imitated by quite a few English bands in the years to come, and was called 'shoegaze' by the British press, because such bands' guitarists would be gazing at their effect pedals for entire shows.

With all these similar groups and fans forming something of a scene, hopes for My Bloody Valentine's next album were extremely high. Creation couldn't afford to wait for their new album, and released the four-track Glider EP in 1989, allegedly shelving quite a few songs in the process. As Shields, Butcher and O'Ciosoig continued recording, O'Ciosoig fell ill. Whether this is the reason that much of the drumming was sampled and sequenced on the album, or whether this was always the sound they were aiming for is unclear.

A second taster for the upcoming full-length, Tremolo was released in 1990. This four-track EP sounded more complex, and was a good forebear to 1991's Loveless LP. Loveless was hyped as the group's masterpiece, and as an incredibly complex album, way ahead of its time. Unfortunately, it had also been incredibly expensive to record - Loveless almost bankrupted Creation Records, according to some sources. My Bloody Valentine went on an extensive tour, nicknamed 'Rollercoaster', in late 1991. The concerts were extremely loud and chaotic experiences, with long passages of noise, blending into the songs.

My Bloody Valentine promised the new album wouldn't take as long to record as Loveless, and signed a record deal with major label Island. They spent huge amounts of money on building a studio, that subsequently broke down, losing a lot of momentum in the process. Shields and O'Ciosoig became increasingly interested in contemporary electronic music, and this supposedly had its influence on their never-released material too. Kevin Shields had always been a perfectionist, and this may have led to an alleged breakdown somewhere in late 1993, causing him to become increasingly erratic and withdrawn.

Debbie Googe, broke and tired of waiting, left the band in 1995 to form Snowpony with her girlfriend (ex-Stereolab keyboardist Katharine Gifford), and recording on the Loveless follow-up supposedly ceased around 1997. There are believed to be up to two unreleased post-Loveless albums, and the group have never officially announced they have split.

The classic four piece line-up resurfaced in 2007, with the following year's sold-out tour demonstrating that the group hadn't mellowed over the years, re-introducing volume levels unheard in the rock world since the Rollercoaster tour.

A new album is once again promised, but nobody is holding their breath.

My Bloody Valentine - Strawberry Wine

Year : 1987

Tracks


A Strawberry Wine 2:33
B1 Never Say Goodbye 2:32
B2 Can I Touch You 3:1

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