Young Marble Giants

Young Marble Giants were a post-punk band formed in Cardiff, Wales in 1978. Their music was based around the vocals of Alison Statton along with the minimalist instrumentation of brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham. Their early sound was a sharp contrast with the more aggressive punk rock that dominated the underground at the time. Young Marble Giants released just one full-length studio album, Colossal Youth, in 1980.

Young Marble Giants
Alison Statton, Peter Joyce, Philip Moxham, Stuart Moxham c. 1978/79
Background information
OriginCardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
GenresPost-punk
Years active1978–1980
(Reunions: 2003, 2007–2009, 2012, 2014)
LabelsZ Block Records
Rough Trade
Domino
Past membersPhilip Moxham
Stuart Moxham
Alison Statton
Peter Joyce

History

Young Marble Giants were formed from the ashes of 'True Wheel' which also included friends Matthew Davis and Louise Porter (later signed to EMI) Stuart Moxham wrote the majority of the band's songs. Their sound was characterised by Phil's prominent bass lines, Stuart's rhythm guitar (a Rickenbacker 425) and Galanti electric organ lines and Statton's vocals. Stuart Moxham's girlfriend, Wendy Smith, lent Stuart the money to buy the Rickenbacker. Smith, an art student in Cardiff at the time the YMG's were forming, photographed the band's US tour and also designed cover art for several singles and albums by Weekend.

Very early in their existence, there was a fourth member of the band, Peter Joyce, who was a cousin of the Moxham brothers. Joyce was a telephone engineer and skilled at electronics, who had made his own synthesiser from a kit. It made sounds similar to Eno's synths in the early Roxy Music and Kraftwerk, who employed similar 'low-tech/high-tech' electronics. The YMGs used tape recordings of Joyce's home-made drum machine since they did not wish to have a drummer. They were also interested in effects devices such as ring modulators and reverb units, with the emphasis always on simplicity.

Their first vinyl release was on the compilation LP Is The War Over? on Cardiff DIY label, Z Block Records, in October 1979. While signed to UK independent record label, Rough Trade Records the YMGs released two EPs, Final Day and Testcard, and an album, Colossal Youth (a reference to the Early Greek 'Kouroi' marble statues, from which the YMGs took the inspiration for their name.) The artwork of the album was inspired by the Beatles album With the Beatles.

The band toured Europe and North America and played in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York. Touring companions included the band Cabaret Voltaire.

Musical influences included Eno, Kraftwerk, Neil Young, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Can and others. The band were acquainted with Scritti Politti, the band of Cardiff native Green Gartside, and signed to the same label, Rough Trade Records. It was revealed in the 2003 book Journals that the band were, along with The Vaselines, Kurt Cobain's favourite band. Courtney Love's band Hole covered the Young Marble Giants track "Credit In The Straight World"; a cover version of their song "The Man Amplifier" was included on The Magnetic Fields single "Why I Cry" as a b-side. Stuart Moxham was a fan of Manchester guitarist Vini Reilly's early work, and was also very interested in dub reggae. Their single "Final Day" was covered by both Belle and Sebastian and Galaxie 500, and was included in The Pitchfork 500.[1]

Post-breakup projects

After the band split up in 1980, Stuart Moxham formed The Gist, whose song 'Love at First Sight' became a hit on the continent when covered by French pop singer Étienne Daho under the title 'Paris, Le Flore'. Following a very severe motorbike accident Stuart concentrated on home recording, which resulted in the album Embrace the Herd (1982) again on Rough Trade, and his first CD album Signal Path (1992) on the Chicago-based Feel Good All Over label, before fans persuaded him to enter the studio again. The result was the album Random Rules (1993) and featured Spike (guitar & viola), younger brother Andrew (drums) and London-based French songwriter Louis Philippe (keys & arrangements). A band was formed to perform Stuart's new material, which gigged, albeit briefly, in France and the UK. Another album, Cars in the Grass, followed. Stuart had also been recording in the USA (the album Fine Tuning and six tracks on the album Barbara Manning Sings With The Original Artists (1993)), where he has acquired a small fanbase. Now based in the West Country, Moxham is still writing songs. A new album, The Huddle House, recorded as a duet with Louis Philippe, with whom he's regularly performed, was released on Wonder Records in May 2007.

Alison Statton, Spike and Simon Emmerson (later of Working Week and Afro Celt Sound System) formed Weekend (with Phil Moxham on bass) and several jazz musicians including Larry Stabbins, Harry Beckett and Keith Tippett.

In 1989 – 1990, Alison Statton worked with Ian Devine, the former guitarist of the post-punk group Ludus. They released two records together, The Prince of Wales and Cardiffians. Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon played accordion on the record.

Later, Philip Moxham played bass for The Communards and Everything but the Girl. He features on their fourth album, Idlewild. He also worked with David Thomas and the Pedestrians.

Reformation

In early 2003, Statton and the Moxham brothers reunited for a BBC Radio Wales radio special. They performed one new song, "Alright," on this special.

A reunion show was held in Hay-on-Wye on 27 May 2007, part of the Hay-on-Wye Festival, with Stuart Moxham's website explaining: "Young Marble Giants reform for a one-off celebration of Domino Records' re-release of their album Colossal Youth, combined in a 3 CD package with the Lo-Fi, private reference recordings of the Salad Days album and the otherwise unobtainable Peel Sessions."

The band after the gig at Nivelles, Belgium, November 2008

Hay-on-Wye was not a one-off. Convinced by the booking agency, the band also played a show for the BB-Mix Festival in Boulogne Billancourt, just outside Paris, on 28 October 2007. The drum-machine part was played by younger Moxham brother Andrew who played an electronic-drumkit.

The band continued to perform over this period, including appearances at the Primavera Sound Festival in May 2008 and at the Hebbel Am Ufer (HAU) theatre in Berlin in January 2009. The YMGs played the entirety of Colossal Youth at All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, Somerset, on 9 May 2009 – they were chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel for a return performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead.[2]

The band played gigs at the Dancehouse Theatre in Manchester on 19 October 2014 and Stereo in Glasgow on 20 October.[3]

They also performed at the MIMI Festival, on the Frioul Island in Marseille, on 3 July 2015.[4][5]

On 8 June 2016, Stuart Moxham wrote on the band's Facebook page that the band was no more. Young Marble Giants' last show was in London in August 2015.

Discography

Studio albums
  • Colossal Youth (February 1980)
    • Reached No. 3 on the UK Indie Chart, No. 20 NZ

EPs
  • Final Day (June 1980)
    • Reached No. 6 on the UK Indie Chart
  • Testcard E.P. EP (March 1981)
    • Reached No. 2 on the UK Indie Chart

Lives
  • Peel Sessions (1991)
  • Live at the Hurrah! (2004)

Compilations
  • Salad Days (2000)
    • Compilation of demo versions from Colossal Youth and Testcard
  • Phil and Stuart Moxham
  • Alison Statton, Peter Joyce, Phil and Stuart
  • Stuart on Rickenbacker and Phil on Hayman Bass
  • Alison and Peter with the synth
  • Stuart on Rickenbacker
  • Philip Moxham, 1978/79
  • At the Factory Festival, Nivelles, Belgium, 2008
gollark: And have all words go through neural network driven rewriting to remove all emotional content.
gollark: And yet you didn't want me as owner.
gollark: Perhaps politicians could be required to have all voice be run through speech synthesis which removes all emotion.
gollark: I don't know.
gollark: It's literally selecting for maximum abuse of psychology (well, up to a point).

References
  1. Plagenhoef, Scott; Schreiber, Ryan, eds. (November 2008). The Pitchfork 500. Simon & Schuster. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4165-6202-3.
  2. "ATP curated by Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel)". All Tomorrow's Parties. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  3. Cooper, Neil (17 October 2014). "Why Young Marble Giants' reunion is like a family affair". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  4. "Festival MIMI: 3 Juillet". Aide aux Musiques Innovatrices. 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  5. "Festival MIMI 2015". Aide aux Musiques Innovatrices. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
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