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THE CHURCH GRIMS

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The Church Grims were formed in late 1986 debuting in their home town Paisley in an embronic form in Dec 1986 and first recording in Feb 1988, with many of the songs from this first 'demo' later appearing on compilation tapes. The Church Grims then appeared on the Egg Records sampler "A Lighthouse in the desert". The original line up was Mick (vocals, guitar), Greg Bolland (Trumpet, Guitar.), McNab (drums), Tony (Guitar) and Bob Gregory(bass). Michael later replaced Bob on bass. By 1991 John Eslick of Remember Fun had joined for the final recordings.

Discography

Tapeography

"Yet another fine band rescued from the vaults by the fabulous "Egg Records Restoration Programme", the Church Grims from Scotland may not have been a household word, even to enthusiasts of the late 80s guitar-pop scene, but then again they only ever had one song pressed to vinyl ("Mr. Watt Said" from the excellent "Lighthouse In The Desert" comp on Egg), and appeared on just a couple comp tapes. This disc collects the band's two demos from '88 and '89 from which the above songs appear, and though they may only include three songs a piece, they clearly showed a band with a lot of promise. With their trumpet melody lines, a jangly guitar sound that falls somewhere between the Brilliant Corners and "George Best"-era Wedding Present, and songs to match that comparison, these guys really should've been a bit more prolific! 6/6" - Indiepages

"There’s a train of thought that says that between the early post-punk explorations of ’80 to ’82 and the Acid House explosion of ’88 to ’89, the ’80s was a bit of a desolate wasteland where anxious morose kids wielded guitars and winged from behind their fringes. And whilst it’s partly true, it denies the existence of a lot of interesting stuff. I’ve been reminded of this recently with some reissues on the Egg records restoration programme. First on the list is Plaster Saint, a six tracker from The Church Grims. Hauling themselves from the murk of Paisley in the mid ‘’80s, the Church Grims were a gang of street urchins in love with dreams of Rimbaud and James Kirk, and they made a mighty fine sound that left nerves jangling. With a June Brides trumpet and an early James off-kilter skirl, they punched below the belt and kissed above the stars. I loved them dearly, and do so again. " - Tangents

"Plaster Saints" contains a half dozen songs of the sort of quality that was rare even in these halcyon late 80s days, yet alone now. Like the Hellfire Sermons, who got a well-deserved and rather longer retrospective on Bus Stop the other year, they were undersung to the point of anonymity, but effortlessly crafted tunes and lyrics of the sort that would be raking in the plaudits today. You can understand comparisons to the June Brides ("Plaster Saint"), Close Lobsters ("Seen It All"), the Brides and the Lobsters ("Mr Watt Said") or even the Smiths ("Can't Laugh Anymore") or the Wedding Present ("Hardman") plus violins, but the real point, even aside from all those reference points which I certainly mean as a real compliment, is that such a smart retelling of familiar emotions ("boredom / is an anagram of bedroom / doesn't make for contentment, son") and such wonderful arrangements remain rare, if not quite unique. The best of many good reasons to buy this EP, however, is "Think Like A Girl": a beautiful, funny, unbelievably delicate mini-epic which owes much to McCarthy but which still strikes out with a charm all of its own and in doing so very much epitomises the Church Grims." - In Love with these Times