There are some albums which hold a special meaning for all of us. I’m sure if we asked you could name yours. Here in the office, I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, it would be the classic SCRITTI POLITTI album ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’. We don’t need to share the reasons why, other than it’s just very special, apart from the fact it’s also a mighty fine collection of songs too.

The closest we thought we’d ever get to seeing it played live was watching it revolve around the turntable (yes we have the vinyl). But now, Scritti Politti are performing the entire album, beginning to end, for the very first time ever.

Cupid & Psyche 85 was actually Scritti Politti’s second album, and back in the day it was released on Virgin Records, which was THE label for a band to be signed with. There’s no denying that it is commercial pop, but you need to transport yourself back to 1985 and accept that this was something stylish and incredibly state of the art.

The videos may not be in ultra hi-def, but, as they say, the songs remain the same.

Scritti Politti originally got together in 1977 in Leeds, but the founder member, singer and songwriter Green Gartside, is actually a good old Welsh boy.

Green said they “lived all over Wales, from Bridgend to Newport to Ystrad Mynach”. He attended Croesyceiliog Grammar School in Cwmbran, as it was known then. While he was there he formed a branch of the Young Communist League, which actually became a bit of inspiration to his early music. He did his foundation course in art at Newport Art College (University of South Wales) and formed his first band called Heads of the Valleys.

If you had a band called that now, they’d constantly be having work done to them and would take years to finish. Sorry, bit of a Heads of the Valleys reference.

The early material was all punk-inspired and very much what Rough Trade (their first label) was all about. But by the time the band had found their way into the mid-80s, the sound had changed, their style was very different and out of all this came the album they’ll be playing live.

Back in the day, you knew you’d made it if you found yourself on the cover, or inside Smash Hits Magazine, and Green and the band did, a lot. Back in November 1981 he explained to the magazine his reasons for abandoning the band’s original “do-it-yourself” philosophy.

“In simple terms, we were sick to death of the ghetto of the independent scene. The Garageland sections of the music papers became more and more closeted with more and more people sitting in their bedrooms making cassettes and swapping them with other people making cassettes. There were more and more silly names and it began to smack more and more of ‘hippy-ness’. It had become an ageing alternative that was never going to present a route for people who wanted to make their music on a wide scale. We never particularly wanted to become a cult group, but the music was very marginal and we were, perhaps rightly, stereotyped as intellectuals.”

Green completely embraced the pop sound, and thank good ness he dis. Cupid & Psyche 85 gave the band hits both here and in America. “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)”, “Absolute”, and “The Word Girl”, were all top 20 hits here, and in the US ‘Perfect Way’ made it into the Billboard top 20 and stayed there for 20 weeks.

Of course it would be wrong to say the band was all Green, although he did get most of the attention back then. As well as Green, Scritti Politti were New York keyboardist David Gamson and American drummer Fred Maher.

Cupid & Psyche 85 was pretty much a perfect creation, but one that proved difficult to play live back then. Green recalls…..

“We had a tour lined up and we kinda reluctantly went into a rehearsal place somewhere in Manhattan to figure out how the f*** this album could be played. If I recall correctly, it became apparent immediately that we couldn’t reproduce the sound. The project was abandoned.”

The latest incarnation of Scritti Politti, Green Gartside, Rob Smoughton, Rhodri Marsden and Dicky Moore have managed to pull all the pieces together and are now able to perform the entire album, live. We’ve been told they will also include other songs from the Scritti archives.

The band’s follow up album a few years later, Provision made it into the top ten, and gave us the single “Oh Patti”. Eventually though, Green got a bit hacked off with the music business and retired here in South Wales.

Music is a strange thing however, and it can’t keep a good man down. Green released Anomie & Bonhomie, in 1999. Then in 2005 Rough Trade released a compilation Early, which pulled together the band’s first releases. A year later, Green released the stripped-down White Bread, Black Beer.

There’s a really good short documentary from Rough Trade call ‘A Brief History Of Scritti Politti, you can take a look at that HERE.

He’s also worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, and was on her album Body Language. Of course a Welshman has to do a stint with the Manic Street Preachers, and he has. Green contributed lead vocals to the track “Between the Clock and the Bed” and Scritti Politti was the support act for three of the Manics’ live shows in April 2014.

Scritti songs have also been covered by other artists too, Madness recorded The Sweetest Girl in 1985, and the genius that is Miles Davis recorded Perfect Way on his 1986 album Tutu.

But that brings us back to the iconic album Cupid & Psyche 85, which we get to see live.

Tracklist

Scritti Politti get to The Gate Arts Centre in Cardiff on Friday 24th September 2021 from 7pm. Tickets are £25.42, and pretty sure to go fast. To get yours, go here. SCRITTI