UNDER THE RADAR

Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention

- Interview: Chris Wheatley

Those of a certain age will remember a mid-80s advert for McEwan's Lager in which ragged, brow-beaten workers pushed weighty boulders up a Sisyphean incline. Visually and aesthetically, it was ahead of its time, but so was its soundtrack — an incongruous yet somehow perfect power pop song with catchy, spiky guitar and heavy synth. This was You've Got The Power by Scottish band, Win. Fronted by Davy Henderson, Win released only two albums during their brief run, but they left behind a collection of remarkably fresh-sounding, forward-thinking tracks.

Davy Henderson grew up in Clermiston, a suburb of Edinburgh, “playing my brother's tennis racket in front of a mirror! I just always wanted to be in bands. When I was a three-year-old, I wanted to be John Lennon. It was thrilling: the glamor and the mystery of music. I still feel like that about it now.”

While still a teenager, Henderson and his friend, Angus Groovy, started their own group, The Talkovers. “We just went up and made a noise,” he recalls. “That was our introduction to performing. And it was incredible.”

In 1979, Henderson joined The Dirty Reds, which soon became The Fire Engines, much beloved in some sectors of the music press for their scratchy rhythms and revolutionary 15-minute live sets. Alongside Rusty [Russell] Burns on drums, Graham Main on bass, and guitarist Murray Slade, with Angus Groovy as manager, The Fire Engines supported the Postcard likes of Orange Juice and Josef K. Their sole album, 1981's Lubricate Your Living Room, was released by Pop Aural, and found its way into the hands of DJ John Peel, who invited the band in for a session.

“It was crazy,” Henderson says. “It was incredible, but it was probably the worst thing that ever happened to us, because you were now under some sort of microscope.”