-XXX- (USA) re-issue-1997

I was then and still am the singer in a band called The Saints.
Eternally Yours the bands second album was recorded in 1978.

We`d gotten good press reaction for our debut recording and subsequently had all sorts of goodies thrown our way.Amongst these was a recording deal with the lovely EMI corporation and "real" management in comfy sweaters and real Italian shoes.We also got several Sydney\London economy airline tickets.

Hence us being in London.

On arrival we were crammed into rental cars and proceeded to drive up and down the delightful motorways of the UK.In the midst of this activity we also recorded an EP and a twelve inch single(these being all the rage at the time)and shortly thereafter began work on album # two.

By this time Kym Bradshaw had been replaced on bass by Alisdair Ward.The album which I thought a perfectly natural progression from Stranded was received somewhat less than enthusiastically by the record company and the Brit music press,both of whom we had rapidly fallen out of favour with.

I suspect EMI was expecting some kind of "punk"opus and whilst Eternally Yours is not a million miles away from the"noisy angst"of the first album,I guess they found the inclusion of a horn section andlack of obvious "punkoid sentiment"a bit daunting as a marketing exercise.I can still recall the disappointed grimaces in the A & R department when the album was delivered.
It was also around this time that the band had it`s first encounter with the showbiz phenomenon known as the "makeover".
Suffice to say it wasn`t a terribly happy meeting for either side,fortunately though for the world of fashion the dreaded "saints suit" never made it off the drawing board....
So poor sales and lack of communication between all concerned parties led to the disillusionment and subsequent disintegration of the early band.

In retrospect it`s clear to me that the mood of the record was a cynical response to the hype\hypocracy of the pre fab anarchy of the english punky rock marketing machine.I think the band was still pretty naive at this stage and the stubborn resistance to the repeated attempts to make us over as some kind of antipodean Sex Pistols(ie;turn us into a pop product)didn`t endear the group to either management or the record company.It was the height of punky hysteria and I guess we showed extremely bad taste by not wishing to be swept up in it.Anyway apparently the record didn`t sell well and even before the next album was considered it was pretty obvious that our patrons were rapidly losing interest.

After Eternally Yours this same line up recorded one more album for EMI,Prehistoric Sounds,after which Ed and Ivor went back to Sydney to start new bands and Alisdair formed a heavy metal band in south London.I stayed in London and put together the first of the many "moveable feasts"that the Saints have become and recorded an Ep Paralytic tonight Dublin tomorrow.This was followed soon after by the fourth Saints LP,The Monkey Puzzle.....

Many more followed and many more are still to come.....

Chris Bailey 1997