Side A:
Show Me

Side B:
Soon

Seb Shelton: Drums
Steve Wynne: Bass Guitar
Big Jimmy Paterson: Trombone
Mickey Billingham: Organ and Piano
Paul Speare: Tenor Saxophone
Billy Adams: Guitar
Brian Maurice: Alto Sax
Kevin Rowland: Singing
Paul Burton: Manager
Pete Barrett: Crafts and Des.
Suzanne Kenna: Secretary

Show Me
Show me them now those wild little boys,
the ones that spelled trouble and stole all their toys,
young boys with contempt and schemes in their eyes,
strong, rich in spirit with milk stains on their ties.
A little while later the first ones to smoke,
oh, I just stood there in awe laughing loud at their jokes.
Tinny transistors (Honk Kong made) and this weeks "Parade"
Ah, if they'd accept me I'd have given anything.
Stolen watches and big studded rings,
tall talk of girls and all that kind of thing.
Ah, they just had something precious you know what I mean,
such wisdom and style like I'd never seen.
They helped me get older,
pulled me through each bad phase,
show me them now those boys from "those days".
Show me them now
let me look and see how they've grown up now.

Soon
I won't need to think of nice things to say,
won't have to want to want this way anymore,
shhh! Now here comes the solace,
from this comes strength I promise,
this is it now, soon I won't care,
no need for pain, nothing physical, no violence,
just intense thought, some space, some silence,
just something pure and precious worth having,
soon I won't care,
take this ridiculous mood away,
give me something new I can say,
give me, no more time to look like this,
I'll never ask again I promise.

Pure. We like to think our music is pure and hopefully honest.

Soul. It has a soul, soul's not a form, it's not a particular sound, we're not going to try and explain it here, but soul's always pure and can only be honest. We're not talking specifically about 60's, 70's or 80's black American music, we're talking about soul as an emotional force. When you hear the record, does it convince you that everybody involved in the making of that record truly believes what they're saying? For us soul goes much further than just records. We believe there are soul books (Seb lists John Steinbeck's "Of Mice And Men") soul films (Kevin swears by "Mean Streets" and "Midnight Cowboy") and soul life, we take strength from our soul.
Oh and to clear up another point of confusion, we choose the word soul only because we can't think of another description. It may not be the right one, we don't know. We obviously realise people like Donna Summer have already claimed the term for themselves and if soul means the revival of the form then we're not a soul group. But maybe we can redefine the term.

The Shows. We intend our live performances to be an extreme opposite to the usual rock concert pat on the back celebration. We are entertainers but that doesn't mean that we want to bullshit to get applause. We are obsessed with projection, we want to reach everybody in the room. We want to take the audience up, then down, then up, we'd love to move you to tears. If that sounds corny, too bad.

Alcohol. We've been accused of a puritanical stance towards alcohol, again more confusion. We've got absolutely nothing against alcohol, it just happens that we no longer think it necessary to spend half our lives drunk, and anyway most of us prefer tea. Instead we see drinking only as a means of relaxation. We never drink before a rehearsal or going on stage, as we've said we want our performance to be pure, and besides the show is far too important. The same goes for our attitude towards discipline. We all believe in self discipline, as a group we practice hard. We also physically train hard together. Self improvement and self preservation, that's what's important today (Candi Staton knows all about this).

The Group. We are a group, we are spiritually in tune. We're separated from the rest of the music business. We move in our own circle. It is crucial for us to take risks and to be constantly swimming against the tide. For us everything is important, every record / sleeve / advert / photo, everything can be used to project emotion. Anyway that's about it, we're sorry if we've rambled on a bit, we didn't intend to.

GOODNIGHT
- THE MIDNIGHT RUNNERS

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