The Apostles - Rising From The Ashes

THE APOSTLES -

RISING FROM THE ASHES

Inspirational in their own way were The Apostles, who with their second EP - going by the title Rising From The Ashes - helped to further demystify the whole process of making a record. In amongst the various essays on the multiple fold-out covers that the record came in was a description of how they came to finance their first EP (which basically involved the selling of Andy Martin's record collection, along with working at various jobs and going without tobacco and new clothes for a year) plus a complete breakdown of studio costs. It was neither easy or cheap as the Desperate Bicycles had once exclaimed but it was possible, with a need for any musical talent not entering into it at all.

There were six tracks in total on Rising From The Ashes dealing with subjects such as racism, disability, the Stoke Newington Eight (otherwise known as the Angry Brigade) and class war.

'We support lock glueing, bricking, arson and rioting and yes, we do practice what we preach,' said the sleeve-notes but for all that, arguably the best song on the EP was actually a sort of love song. Swimming In The Sea Of Life, sung by Apostles guitarist Dave Fanning was a naggingly memorable, roughly-hewn gem with more than a nod to the Velvet Underground at their despondent best.

Did it matter that the whole record was badly played and badly produced? Up to a point, yes, because if the songs had been better played and better produced then the whole record would have been far more satisfying. But then if The Apostles had actually waited until they were accomplished musicians or until they had more money to spend on studio time then they may never have released anything ever? On top of this, in all likelihood The Apostles would also have been far less creative, far less productive and probably far less interesting...