Scars – they’re Scottish, from 1981, and that’s all I need to know…
Scars were a band I remembered reading reviews of in Trouser Press, back in 1981, but I never saw the album. I saw an ad showing that Stiff-America had released a 4 track EP in America from the album, but I never saw that either. <fast forward 31 years…> It was in the last decade that I finally saw a copy of the Scars “Author! Author!” import album on the short-lived Charisma subsidiary PRE Records, in a possibly local store. However, by then, I was aware that there was a 2007 CD release of the album and that I should put my money in that direction. After all, it had all of the bands single sides appended for an 18 track disc! But I didn’t immediately react fast enough! That CD has been scraping three figures for a while now, affording me only observation of its existence. <fast forward another 8 years…> And now comes the news that Cherry Red are doing it again. Releasing a definitive 57 track collection with the album, all single tracks, a disc of demos, and a live CD compiled from various gigs, coming on October 30th, 2020. Not too shabby. What do we get for our £17.99 [$23.61]? Tracks in red not part of the album.
Cherry Red | UK | 3xCD | 2020 | CDTRED803
Scars: Author! Author! – UK – 3xCD [2020]
Disc 1 – Album/single tracks
- Leave Me In Autumn
- Fear Of The Dark
- Aquarama
- David
- Obsessions
- Everywhere I Go
- Lady In The Car With Glasses On And A Gun
- Je T’aime C’est La Mort
- Your Attention Please
- All About You
- She’s Alive
- They Came And Took Her
- Romance By Mail
- Love Song
- Psychomodo
- All About You (Single Version)
- Author! Author!
- Silver Dream Machine
Disc 2 – Demos
- The Victim
- Horrorshow
- Anti-feelings
- Obsessions
- Romance By Mail
- Slime
- Leave Me In Autumn
- Aquarama
- Everywhere I Go
- Next
- Illustrated Man
- Author! Author!
- Je ’taime C’est La Mort
- Fear Of The Dark
- Billy Porter
- Your Attention Please
- Psychomodo
Disc 3 – Live
- Anti-feelings (White Hart Inn, Edinburgh 1978)
- Bravado (White Hart Inn, Edinburgh 1978)
- Sweet Dreams / Psychomodo (Craigmillar Castle, Anti-nazi League Rally 1978)
- Horrorshow (George Square Theatre, Edinburgh 1979)
- So Strong (George Square Theatre, Edinburgh 1979)
- She’s Alive (George Square Theatre, Edinburgh 1979)
- Adult/ery (George Square Theatre, Edinburgh 1979)
- Fear Of The Dark (Plaza Ballroom, Glasgow 1981)
- Love Song (Plaza Ballroom, Glasgow 1981)
- They Came And Took Her (Plaza Ballroom, Glasgow 1981)
- Obsessions (Valentino’s, Edinburgh 1981)
- All About You (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Aquarama (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- David (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Je T’aime C’est La Mort (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- L’afrique (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Vanishing (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Remember Me (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Leave Me In Autumn (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Author! Author! (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
- Your Attention Please (Groningen, Netherlands 1981)
It’s an embarrassment of riches, but I am seeing a lack of BBC sessions, which might be the only other things potentially missing. Alas, there seem to be no Scars appearances on Strange Fruit issues, so that part of the band is still in a black hole. Actually, my entire impression of the band is in a black hole as I have never heard them and I can’t find them to preview on iTunes. I don’t stream and would be shocked if they are on any services. I noticed that even Cherry Red boxed sets that they appeared on like “Big Gold Dreams” were edited for American sales on iTunes, with many tracks [including Scars] missing in action.
But, material like this that has swirled on my periphery for 40 years, in my awareness but not my environment, is like catnip to me and I don’t anticipate being disappointed once I actually hear them! The indigenous styled cover art by Rocking Russian has always stuck in my mind as being weirdly compelling. I probably correlate it to the weird vogue that Spandau Ballet had for First Nations derived artwork in their “Diamond” album period. If Scars are like catnip to you as well, then hit that button and pre-order.
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Post-Punk Monk 
“All About You” is wonderful!
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schwenko – At least somebody has had the pleasure. I can’t know everything, but if its from Scotland in 1981, I’ll gamble [and probably win]!
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I can’t recall if I first read about this album in Trouser Press or maybe the ‘Rock Yearbook’ series (Anglo-centric and a great place to learn about acts like Scars, Way of the West, and many others rarely covered state-side).
I was lucky to find a $3.99 used copy of this lp back in the early 90’s….the term ‘lunging’ comes to mind. At any rate, a wonderful album teeming with the sounds of that era. Oh, and they had THE look… the look you WANTED a band to have back then. Perfectly foppish!
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bpsp3 – Yeah, Not seeing a copy until about a decade or so ago, just seemed to be so wrong, considering how I had awareness of the album from day one. Ironically, I have many Way Of the West 12″ers. They were not hard to source.
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Regrettably — and rather surprisingly — this doesn’t seem to be complete. There is a wealth of Scars to be found on YouTube: in addition to the full (original) album, there are two 1981 Old Grey Whistle Test appearances, a fan video of the non-LP song “Love Song” (1980), a promo video for “All About You” (under the name “The Scar”), an audio-only play of the “Horrorshow/Adult/ery” single, an audio-only “The Lady in the Car with Glasses On and a Gun” (not live), the unreleased “You Turn Me On” (from a John Peel session), “Psychomodo,” a video of Scars with Lemon Jelly for the “Shouty Song” performance, a 2011 performance with Marc Riley on BBC 6 doing “Horrorshow,” and a few other bits and bobs.
For those interested, the YouTube contributor name you’re looking for is “scoorieboy.”
And finally, there is a half-hour DOCUMENTARY on the band that can be found on his channel as well.
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chasinvictoria – I am quite intrigued by the band covering Cockney Rebel’s “Psychomodo;” another British band very well established in the UK in that Glam-New Wave netherzone [where you would also find Doctors Of Madness] but almost completely unknown in America. Of course, Duran Duran covered “Come Up And See Me [Make Me Smile]” more famously by Cockney Rebel. Thanks to my better half listening to Cleveland radio, we’ve had a copy of “The Psychomodo” in house on LP and [quickly] CD from day one.
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For your information, the YouTuber with the username of “scoorieboy” is actually Scars bassist John Mackie, who uploaded a bunch of stuff from the Scars to help capitalize on the renewed interest the band received back in 2007 when the British dance-rock group Lemon Jelly sampled from their 1979 track “Horrorshow” for their song “’79 aka The Shouty Track”. BTW, I started the Scars’ Wikipedia article but others have improved it drastically along the way.
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ladyi7609 – Welcome to the comments! Thanks for that salient information. It seems like every band has the one member who is the “archivist” of the group who collects all the loose bits and ephemera. At least with the web, there’s a great place for it in these times.
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PS. And for those of you who might hold out till your Cherry Red CD set comes in (looking at you O Monk) — yeah, you’ll like it.
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At last! Now i can get my hands on the CD version. The previous release is hard to find and expensive. I loved this album when it came out , so i have it as an LP and the 7″ “All about you”.
I always thought that the track “may I have your attention please” spoilt the flow on side Two, it sounds more like some sort of student art project to me. The 7″ B side track “Author Author” would have been better served swapping places with it. Putting the album title as a B side but not on said album, well its not big and its not clever. Scars also appear on an LP I have , FastProduct Mutant pop 78/79 , they sound a bit rougher here. All in all, I think you will like this. Oh and the naff new romantic cast off shirts and trousers did them no favours. Enjoy.
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Ade.W – Yeah, I used to see that “FastProduct Mutant Pop” LP in the import cutout bins that I thought would always be there for me in the early 80s. Never got a copy! Crazy that I didn’t, considering the early Human League tracks within.
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I chanced across this blog a few days ago, and it’s already come good by pointing this reissue out to me. I discovered Scars the easy way, by being Scottish and going to lots of gigs when Scars were around. They’re still a big favourite of mine (leapt on the earlier CD when it came out).
I’m especially looking forward to the live material and to the demo of Illustrated Man, a tune still lodged in my head from seeing Scars live more than forty years ago.
It’s a shame about the missing stuff, but it would need to be licensed from a variety of sources, and I can understand the situation.
Finally, Monk, based on what I’ve read here, you’ll love Scars.
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David Simpson – Welcome to the comments! So you were there 40 years ago? I can imagine the pent up desire in the case of hearing “illustrated Man!” I once heard an early Berlin single in 1981 and looked for it for 30 years only to find it in the Discogs era, and see that it was a three figure record! And it’s been on my big want list that long. At least this new Cherry Red issue is priced modestly. Glad I was able to help a fan out by mentioning this. You’ve probably not delved deep into the roots of this blog this early, but I’ve a deep love for Scot Rock! It’s just measurably superior to any other kind!
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I was there at many a late seventies/early eighties Scot Rock gig including an earlyish Rezillos gig and lots of early Simple Minds shows, including one when they were still Johnny And The Self Abusers although, sadly, I can’t remember much more than that I saw them, and where I saw them (University Of Aberdeen Central Refectory, now the Student Union building, just two streets over from where I work.)
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Davis Simpson – I hear you on the 40+ year gulf between gigs and now. There are gigs I can barely remember myself and I have no chemical excuses as a lifetime teatotaler and proto-straightedge geek. At least I saw The Rezillos in 2002 on their 1st US tour, apart from a one-off ’79 NYC gig. Yow!
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Love this – I’ve never heard of this band! Certainly we never had it at the import record shop I worked at in the 80s. What’s the Berlin single you were after? The original ‘Matter of Time’ with Nunn on vocals?
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Christopher Merritt – Oh that one’s easy! In fact, I once found a stack of the Nunn “Matter of Time” at a record show for $3.00 each and bought [and redistributed] them all! No, what I’m still withering inside for is the “Tell Me Why/The Metro” 7″ with the early version of “Tell Me Why.” The version on “Pleasure Victim” never sounds right to me after hearing that one first.
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$82 – $500 on Discogs! That’s insane…
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Christopher Merritt – I’ve paid more than $20 for a 7″ single about twice. And one of those was an Ultravox! record of much higher caliber than anything Berlin could do. After all of these years, I might want to drop as much as $30 for this. $40 for an ultra clean copy. I don’t want to pay $30+ for something that sounds like garbage.
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Scars were from the wonderfully theatrical corridor of Post Punk. All About You from Author! Author! still sounds so fresh to me 39 years after it’s release.
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Echorich – Ah. Then you would put this on the Doctors Of Madness shelf, then? Interesting. Makes all the sense in the world if they’d cover “The Psychomodo.”
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The original cd is brickwalled sadly, fingers crossed this one won’t be…
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SimonH – Hard to tell with Cherry Red as they’re all over that map.
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https://youtu.be/F_1qIrVS71o Got “Author! Author!” back when it came out. In fact bought it (promo copy) from Bongo John who ran a wee rehearsal studio down at Tam’s Brig in Ayr in 1980-81. Saw them at Valentino’s in Edinburgh 1981.
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Dalveen – Welcome to the comments! How exciting it must have been to have bands like this local for you. Where I grew up [Orlando, Florida], I didn’t have local acts worth paying attention to until I was 30!
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Dalveen
If that Valentino’s gig in 1981 was on June 21st then there was a recording of it released. The whole thing is available on Soundcloud, and individual songs are on YouTube.
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I discovered this album only about 5 years ago, but it’s been played many times since then. This album, played all the way through in its entirety, already reminds me of several road trips and destinations. I bought it on vinyl and ripped it to digital to listen in the car. Was looking to see if maybe I could get a CD and found this post. Thank you for the heads up; I just ordered from Cherry Red’s website.
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nohyphens – Welcome to the comments! Glad to be a help to your search! Your timing is great. The last decade has seen the cost of the 1st CD go through the roof.
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