Orange Juice was a Scottish post-punk band founded in the middle class Glasgow suburb of Bearsden as the Nu-Sonics in 1976. Edwyn Collins formed the Nu-Sonics (named after a cheap brand of guitar) with his school-mate Alan Duncan and was subsequently joined by James Kirk and Steven Daly, who left a band called The Machetes.[3] The band became Orange Juice in 1979. They are best known for the hit "Rip It Up", which reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1983, the band's only UK Top 40 hit.[4]
The band released their first singles during 1981 on the independent Postcard Records label founded by Alan Horne, along with fellow Scottish bands Josef K and Aztec Camera. Shortly afterwards this line-up signed to Polydor Records and recorded their first album, You Can't Hide Your Love Forever. However, internal tensions led to Kirk and Daly leaving in early 1982 (they would go on to form a short-lived band called Memphis), and for the next two album releases the core line-up was: Collins and McClymont with Malcolm Ross on guitar, vocals and keyboards, and Zeke Manyika on drums. By early 1984, Ross and McClymont had left the band leaving a core line-up of Collins and Manyika who recorded Orange Juice's final album, The Orange Juice, with Clare Kenny and Johnny Britten, produced by Dennis Bovell.
The band's only Top 40 hit, "Rip It Up" was achieved with the aid of the synthesizer – it was the first hit to use the Roland TB-303.
Discography[]
Studio albums[]
- You Can't Hide Your Love Forever (UK No.21) – March 1982
- Rip It Up (UK No.39) – November 1982
- Texas Fever (UK No.34) – March 1984
- The Orange Juice – November 1984
Singles[]
- 1980 – "Falling and Laughing" (UK Indie Chart No.48)
- 1980 – "Blue Boy" (UK Indie Chart No.15)
- 1980 – "Simply Thrilled Honey" (UK Indie Chart No.5)
- 1981 – "Poor Old Soul" (UK Indie Chart No.5)
- 1981 – "Wan Light" (scheduled on Postcard Records but never released)
- 1981 – "L.O.V.E. Love" (UK No.65)
- 1982 – "Felicity" (UK No.63)
- 1982 – "Two Hearts Together" (UK No.60)
- 1982 – "I Can't Help Myself" (UK No.42)
- 1983 – "Rip It Up" (UK No.8)
- 1983 – "Flesh of My Flesh" (UK No.41)
- 1984 – "Bridge" (UK No.67)
- 1984 – "What Presence" (UK No.47)
- 1984 – "Lean Period" (UK No.74)
Compilations[]
- 1984 – In a Nutshell
- 1992 – The Esteemed – The Very Best of Orange Juice (featuring Edwyn Collins)
- 1992 – Ostrich Churchyard – the CD release of the previously unreleased debut Orange Juice album for Postcard Records ('The Sound of Young Scotland'), along with a John Peel Session, and, on the Japanese issue, a bonus BBC Radio 1 session track, "Wan Light".
- 1993 – The Heather's on Fire – the other CD release by Orange Juice on Postcard Records, this collection brings the first four singles together with some more radio sessions and, on the Scottish version, a NuSonics (pre-Orange Juice) cover of the New York Dolls song "Who Are The Mystery Girls?".
- 2005 – The Glasgow School – a compilation of Postcard-era tracks – named "Reissue of the Year" for 2005 by Uncut magazine in the UK.[6]
- 2010 – Coals To Newcastle – an almost exhaustive[7] box-set anthology of all Orange Juice's previously released and unreleased output, released through Domino Records.