Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The Big Gun: "Heard About Love"

"My band was called the Big Gun, and all the members were about 17. We saved up and recorded a single and sent it to John Peel, who played it four times on his night-time show, after which we were described in the NME as "the sort of band that made England great". We then played a few gigs in the South and promptly split up.

But the thing I'll never forget is the night Peel played the song: all of us huddled round a stereo in Andy Crone's bedroom, each with the same haircut and the same shoes, biting our nails and passing a cigarette as we waited for Peel to come on. We had been told he was planning to play the song that night. Heard About Love it was called. We waited. And then, it came: 'Here we have it,' said Peel, 'from Ayrshire, melody coming all unheralded into the programme.'

We had made it. We were good. There was nothing else to be achieved with the Big Gun, which was just as well, seeing as Keith and Andy and the rest of us only really had one song. It reappeared the other month on a German compilation album called (bizarrely, for us) The Sound of Leamington Spa."


This might just be the best pop song you might have never heard before, and I'd like to share it with you. The single was originally released on Hi-Fibre in 1987, and seriously, this song is every single part of the bee, and it makes me smile everytime I listen to it. The excerpt above comes from an article on John Peel from the Telegraph, and it pretty much tells you everything you need to know about The Big Gun, and their song, "Heard About Love."

[MP3]: The Big Gun :: Heard About Love

P.S. If you're not singing "Let's hear it, love, let's hear it for love!" over and over for the rest of the week then you are just dead inside, or something... something real bad!

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9 Comments:

Blogger Dave Rawkblog said...

Matt, you remind me of the character Philippe from the webcomic Achewood. Which you should read if you're not already.

6:05 AM  
Blogger shhhh said...

this song is AMAZING! thank you so much!!!!! let's hear it for the big gun!!!!!!!!!! (and excessive exclamation points)

11:35 AM  
Blogger Matt said...

woooo! so glad you like it!!!!!!!!!!

12:08 PM  
Blogger Marc Hogan said...

(not dead inside, yay)

2:33 PM  
Blogger Jess said...

adorable, thanks!!

3:27 PM  
Blogger Elizabeth said...

The Sound of Leamington Spa is a great compilation series. Woo hoo! Let's hear it for matching haircuts!

3:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i heard this song a long while back on some blog or another and i didn't get it then and i don't get now. i dont see the lyrics as absurdly simple, and therefore charming. i just see them as simple. that little guitar lick that is repeated 8 times, it sucks. was that supposed to be a solo or something? this song sounds like plenty of 80's radio tunes, but this is obscure. sounds to me like this is getting listens for hipster sake and not because its good.

11:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey, anonymous

maybe you should just take a minute, go to the bathroom and wash off your grumpyface. don't worry, we'll all still be shaking our buts to this jam when you get back.

-isaac

3:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I find the fact that "anonymous (No. 1)" thinks the song gets listens for "hipsters sake" flamin hilarious.

I'm also astonished how this very Andrew O'Hagan quotation is picked up in May 2007.

Loving your work though...

2:40 PM  

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