JC who writes the Vinyl Villain is not so much a blog-pal – someone who writes a blog that covers similar territory to mine – as an actual pal.  A truer gent and a more generous soul you will never meet, which makes his latest plan no less than completely characteristic.

There’s been a fair bit of talk about Orange Juice recently, the legendary Scottish indie pioneers led by the peerless Edwyn Collins.  Well, for a neophyte like myself tracking down their music is bloody difficult as, amazingly enough for such an iconic band, it’s nearly all out of print. So, after Ed posted their first album in its entirety a couple of weeks ago (since taken down for reasons that will become obvious) JC, who takes the term avid collector to an extreme, has dreamed up the following offer:

He will make you a customised Orange Juice compilation CD from his extensive (in fact, one very expensive collectors’ single away from being exhaustive) archive of Orange Juice material in return for six of your English (well, Scottish preferably, I assume) pounds.  One to cover the CD and postage, and five to be donated to Quarrier’s, who I believe care for JC’s godson Kevin.

Not only is this in a good cause, and not only should you be supportive of someone donating his time and energy to things like this, but it will also give you a chance to get a pretty comprehensive insight into one of the groups who gave rise to the indie movement, before it just meant music with guitars that gets played on Radio 2.  The indie spirit is alive and well nowadays though, despite its demise as a ‘sound’.  Every band out there making up their own CD-Rs and selling them through their MySpace pages should have a look at the original indie movement because that, my friends, is where it all began.

A couple of bands covering Orange Juice songs:
The Wedding Present – Felicity (Live 1987 – Munich Alabama Halle)
The Divine Comedy – Untitled Melody Back from before they were shit.

And some more from the original indie era.
The Desperate Bicycles – The Medium Was Tedium
The Field Mice – Emma’s House
The Loft – Up The Hill And Down The Slope