SHELLEYAN ORPHAN Richard Skinner Session 3rd June 1984

SHELLEYAN ORPHAN or as me & friends referred to them as "That skinny lad who phrases stuff & sounds a bit like Martyn Bates & the lass with the pre-Raphaelite hair... They also reminded me a bit of post RAVISHING BEAUTIES, VIRGINIA ASTLEY.  It wasn't particularly ground breaking but then it certainly wasn't chiming guitars & foolish grins that was coming to the for... This session was the first I had heard of them.. To me it was a sophisticated version of IN EMBRACE's "Passionfruit Pastels" (a personal favourite) with hand claps, strings & flute.. & that skinny lad DID phrase stuff & sound a bit like Martyn Bates!  However, after this session it seem to take an age for anything to be released..  They had signed to ROUGH TRADE but it must have been two or three years before a single appeared, maybe longer for the album.. Nothing wrong with the record but I really can't remember too much about them compared to this session.. I suppose it must have been like starting again for them.... I know by the late eighties they were touring with THE CURE but I never witnessed it.. I thing they still get together now & then

• mp3: "SHELLEYAN ORPHAN Richard Skinner Session 3rd June 1984"

1. Calvary Of Cloud
2. Melody Of Birth
3. Midsummer Plumes & Pearls
4. Tangled Perpetual