Issue #161 – The Sea Urchins
THE SEA URCHINS burst onto the DIY indie-pop scene in 1987, shaping the sound of jangle-pop with chiming debut single ‘Pristine Christine’. Whilst commercial success proved elusive, their influence became far reaching, their reputation notorious.
In our exclusive two-part story, PAUL RITCHIE and ex-band members ponder what went right, what went wrong and what might have been
In August 1987 The Sea Urchins entered Birmingham’s Rich Bitch Studios to lay down three tracks, including the soaring, clarion call of ‘Pristine Christine’, the lovely lullaby melody of ‘Sullen Eyes’ and the dreamy ‘Everglades’. The quality of ‘Pristine Christine’ astounded everyone. Clearly inspired by Primal Scream’s ‘Velocity Girl’, the song channelled classic ’60s pop with an exhilarating sense of charm and confidence. With its dreamy vocals, plaintive melodies and chiming guitars ‘Pristine Christine’ is one of the greatest indie-pop singles of all time. Bob Stanley made it Single Of The Week in the NME, enthusiastically describing it as “musical menthol”, imploring readers to “purchase at once”.
“I remember being in WH Smith at about nine in the morning and reading it,” says James of Stanley’s coverage. “It was played on Peel and Janice too. It was unbelievable. As kids at the time, that was it for us. We’ve done it, finished! We’d been sitting in our bedrooms listening to those radio stations and picking up the NME and reading reviews of The Loft and The Pastels and thinking, ‘Oh, we’re like that now. That’s good!’”
“Getting SOTW in the NME changed everything of course and suddenly we had a lot of fans around the country,” agrees Robert. “The downside was that egos became inflated and an arrogance quickly started to develop within the band. We were quite young after all and now we were very minor pop stars, behaving outrageously seemed to be justified in some of the members’ eyes.”
Things started to get out of hand when the band supported Talulah Gosh at a show at ULU in London in February ’88. Patrick and Darren threw food everywhere in a classroom that was doubling as a dressing room. When somebody from the college entered the room they asked, “Are you animals?!” to which everyone replied with animal noises.
“It seemed funny at the time, but looking back now I think we were starting to gain a reputation that wasn’t exactly favourable,” notes Robert.
For their second single, Joe Foster was drafted in to produce. Joe was a co-founder of Creation Records and their in-house producer. He’d also been a member of Television Personalities, whose pop-art influences impressed everyone. The group released the tougher, mod/garage-flavoured ‘Solace’ as the A-side, adding the introspective folksy ballad ‘Please Rain Fall’ on the flip in ’88. Bob Stanley again made it Single Of The Week.
“We were all pleased with the results and it’s a real shame we didn’t get to make an LP with Joe producing,” says Robert. “I’m pretty sure there was talk of us signing to his label as we shared very similar tastes. The fact that we didn’t get to make an album at all in the five years we were together still mystifies and saddens me greatly.”
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