Spacemen 3 - History - Break-up, Final Album, and Formation of Spiritualized (1989-91) - 1991

1991

In January 1991, the Spacemen 3 single "Big City"/"Drive" was released. Both songs from the double A-side single were from the soon-to-released Recurring. Kember and Pierce had been due to be at the studio for the mastering of the single, however Pierce did not attend. At that point the two had hardly spoken face to face in over six months. Kember decided to fade out several minutes of Pierce's song from the single, "Drive".

The last Spacemen 3 album, Recurring, was finally released in February 1991. Although the band had not officially disbanded, for all intents and purposes it was a posthumous release. The two sides of the album - one by Kember (A-side), the other by Pierce (B-side) - reflected the split between the band's two main personnel.

The songs on Recurring had been composed in 1989. It expanded on the sounds of the previous, Playing With Fire album. Musically, it was richer and lusher, but Kember and Pierce's respective halves of Recurring were distinctly different and presaged the solo material which they were already working on by the time of the album's release. Kember's side demonstrated his pop and ambient sensibilities; Pierce's side indicated his sympathy for gospel and blues music and his interest in lush production.

Pierce's sound is more lyrical and dramatic, building songs into climaxes. Sonic Boom's lengthy textured pieces move horizontally - a rhythmic, hypnotic pulse from start to finish. — Steve Malins, Recurring review, Vox. What we have here, then, are two very fine solo mini-LPs bolted together under the same moniker. ....a swirling stasis of sound that overcomes you like fumes.... Jason’s Spaceman sound is more desolate and grandiose than Sonic’s. — Recurring album review - David Stubbs, Melody Maker. Recurring is a fine album. Laid back to the point of bed sores, its hushed vocals, pulsing backbeats and warm walls of sound infuse an introverted beauty with a keen r’n’r understanding. The two sides run on a similar vibe, although Jason’s is a tad more conventional, riding on vocal atmospherics and a dreamtime feel, while Sonic’s is sparser, pulling on a more disparate source of influences as shown on "Big City", the LPs killer cut as well as the current fab single. — Recurring album review - John Robb, Sounds.

In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up. The fall-out was covered in the music press:

One of the main reasons the band split was because I felt Jason was aping everything I was doing. Any direction I made towards something different, he would just follow. The other thing that riled me was when the manager we’d jointly sacked actually got back together with Jason. — Peter Kember - interview - Vox, April 1991. I stopped going round to his house and he never came round to mine either. He was never really bothered with the business side. — Peter Kember - interview, Sounds, 09/02/1991. It’s finished, you know, it’s totally finished. The album was recorded before the band split and we’ve agreed to differ and that’s it really, you know. — Peter Kember - TV interview, c. Spring 1991 I thought in some ways maybe it was better that the band split up, because I’m not sure it was going in any direction at that point — Peter Kember - 2002. Half the reason why Spiritualized started was because Spacemen 3 was becoming a very safe live act – safe for myself, anyway. We were just playing the heavy, hard-core stuff like ‘Revolution’. There was no highest of highs, lowest of lows. I was fighting to get some quiet stuff into the set. — Jason Pierce - Vox, April 1991. Pete always enjoyed doing the press, but I’m doing the interviews now as well because Pete can’t speak for the band anymore. But I don’t want to match him bitch for bitch, like trying to shout louder. — Jason Pierce - Sounds, 09/02/1991. Both Pete and myself don’t take much musical advice. We’re pretty much set on the ideas in our heads. Some people can’t handle that. We used to let each other work on each other’s pieces, but later on we both knew what each other wanted. .. I just wanted to get back on the road again and I also had songs that were not really for the Recurring album. .. I mean, if you don’t get on too well there’s no point in doing the band. It would be like cheating to treat the Spacemen 3 as a marketable commodity. You could get passionate about the music but, if there’s a communication break down between the members, there’s no point in slogging through that. .. I don’t really see any problem anyway, if you buy Pete’s album and you buy my mine you’ve got a Spacemen 3 album anyhow, by combining the two, you know. — Jason Pierce - Sounds, 09/02/1991. Pete’s very single-minded and that can cause problems. But the main problem with the Spacemen was the general lack of communication between all the interested parties. — Dave Bedford (PR Officer, Fire Records) - Sounds, 09/02/1991. I don’t think anyone will be able to explain it properly. They were very close friends – they started the band together, but musically and socially they drifted apart. There was never a specific incident – like in a lot of talented bands – there’s just a lot of friction between them. — Dave Bedford (PR Officer, Fire Records) - Vox, April 1991.