31
Aug

The Death of Pop: a new cassette is coming out by the very good south of England band The Death of Pop! “For a Minute” EP will be released on September 23 by Discos de Kirlian and also by Hidden Bay Records. The EP is quite long for an EP, 8 songs. Wee can preview one of the tracks now, the opening track. It is called “For a Minute” and sounds great. Few copies of the tape remain.

Antilopedevega: as I am already looking at Discos de Kirlian, I check some releases I have missed. Antilopedevega is a project I have recommended in the past and now I see they have a new song, “Del Revés” worth checking out!

Orlando Mon Amour: a new band from Mexico City that loves twee and indiepop. They have just released a single with Discos de Kirlian, in digital format, called “Canta Otra Canción”. The band is influenced by female-fronted pop bands like Dolly Mixture, Aventuras de Kirlian or Serpentina.

Tip Top Nap: now we head to Kyoto, Japan, to discover this lovely project by Natsumi Yamamoto, Yuta Ikeda, Yuma Murakami and Mizuki Ueyama. The band’s latest release is actually their 3rd single which is titled ” 街の灯り ” and it is a very nice surprise to me.

Dollgirl: and another dreamy pop project. This one hails from Sacramento and the latest single is aptly titled “Heavenly”. Not much more information about the band, it looks like it’s a solo girl behind it. The only piece of info we get is that she “makes music sometimes”.

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I believe Grey by the Gun were from Scotland, from Aberdeen. But I have found a trove of their songs on Soundcloud where they say that the band was based in Brighton in the late 80s. What’s true? Were they from the north of Britain or from the south?

These songs had been uploaded 2 years ago. They are from a demo tape called “Cuttin the Rug” from 1988. The songs were “Cut the Rug”, “The Calling”, “Present Souls and Future Dice” and “Last Black Treasure”.

The band was formed by Greg Yule on vocals and guitar, Gordon Eady on guitar, Alan Wiseman on bass and vocals and Gordon McKay on drums.

Thanks to this I find a Soundclick page by Greg Yule. It seems he makes solo music now and is based in Galway, Ireland.

Another name that I find related to the band is that of Larry Shaw, a bassist and celloist. It seems that at some point in the eighties he played with the band.

Then another superb find. The band had played at a venue called thee Kinema Ballroom in Dunfermline. On a page where they collect the story of this legendary venue, there is a small bio about the band:

Aberdeen band ‘Grey by the Gun’ was formed in the mid 1980s and joined by Greg Yule in 1986 when he soon discovered the vocalist was leaving so he took up that role too. Their first record was ‘The Black Heart’ EP, the second, also an EP was ‘Cutting The Rug’, both of which also sold in excess of 10,000 copies.

They soon landed supports for ‘Runrig’, ‘Deacon Blue’ and ‘Wet Wet Wet’ though they seemed to suffer from sharing management who were preoccupied with one of their stable mates, ‘Runrig’ so they parted company and moved to Brighton where new management hooked them up with RCA.

They recorded some material for an album and showcased their talents in New York, however the album never saw the light of day as it became victim of a ‘new broom’ Managing Director. Their manager changed their name to ‘The Promise’ but they never used it to record or perform. Gordon Eady left in February 1990 and declined to return that Summer.

Gordon Eady tells me: “Greg now lives with his new wife and two children in northern France, Gordon MacKay returned to Aberdeen with his wife and child, Allan lives with his wife Fiona in Newhaven in Sussex and I live in Brighton with my partner Sue. To my knowledge non of the ex-members of GBTG still work in the music industry although Allan turned his hand to classical composing.””Greg now lives with his new wife and two children in northern France, Gordon MacKay returned to Aberdeen with his wife and child, Allan lives with his wife Fiona in Newhaven in Sussex and I live in Brighton with my partner Sue. To my knowledge non of the ex-members of GBTG still work in the music industry although Allan turned his hand to classical composing.”

In another update Greg Yule has been in touch to say: “Hi, I’m still recording, finished 2 albums and am currently working on the 3rd. Now tour and play in Europe, just opened new recording studio in France.  As far as I know, I’m the only one still playing.

On Sunday March 20, 1988, the band played in Edinburgh with Transaction at the Soundcheck Rock Club. And they went all the way to Lonndon to play at the Rock Garden on Wednesday December 9, 1987.

The band also played in Dundee. I know that on March 4, 1988,  they supported The Sting Rytes. Longhorns were also part of the bill.

Rateyourmusic has listed a 1986 tape with 5 other songs than the 1988 demo. These are “Don’t Look Back”, “People”, “I Would Die for You”, “Heartbeat” and “She Spirit”. I wonder how these songs sounded like…

The band would later rename themselves to be called The Promise. As The Promise they would record a demo with Richard Head.

And that’s what I found about them! Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Grey by the Gun – The Calling

One Response to “:: Grey by the Gun”

I was working at the St.Andrews Union in the 80s and they were playing support. Two things o remember, the guitarist had a new toy . His guitar had a radio attachment for his guitar that enabled him to play his instrument in the main bar while the rest of the band played in the main hall quite a feet. Second was the graffiti they left in the changing room under the stage . They wrote Grey by the gun in large letters across a virgin wall . It was there for years . Good days.

Phil Gauld
February 27th, 2024