Crash Landing
Spirit's strong showing in the indie charts finally persuaded Chrysalis Records to offer the band a record deal at the end of the year. At a showcase London date at the Camden Palace arranged by the company's PR staff, trouble erupted between travelling Leeds fans and locals. Members of the band, who had taken full advantage of the free hospitality on offer, left the stage to join in the fight. The band's next gig was at Bradford Queens Hall, also with Chrysalis A&R in attendance. After the first few songs it became apparent that various band members were in different chemically-altered states of mind; the concert soon fell apart as band members left the stage one by one. Chrysalis proceeded to replace the Bridewell Taxis in their plans with their second choice Yorkshire indie band, The Poppy Factory whose leader, Mick Dale would go on to find fame as part of Embrace.
On 14 January 1991, after an all day drinking session in an east Leeds pub, The Station at Cross Gates, singer Mick Roberts was caught up in a bar room brawl which resulted in him being stabbed in the throat and neck. An artery was severed and he narrowly survived massive blood loss, being taken by ambulance to the nearby St James's University Hospital. The story was covered by both the Daily Mirror and Daily Star as well as the national music press. A period of re-constructive surgery followed with all band activity, touring, rehearsing and writing curtailed.
By the end of March the need for a new release was pressing. As no new songs had been written a cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was recorded, the track's title making a reference to Mick's recent brush with death. It came out as their fifth single on 13 May. The band's original pacey and raw style was replaced with a slowed down and polished production by Chris Nagle but the track wasn't well reviewed.
Following a national headline tour in May the band toured with the reformed Buzzcocks in June.
The LP "Invisible To You" was a collection of the Stolen Records releases to date with two new tracks, although these were actually recorded at the Spirit session during Mick's absence. It was launched at a massive home town concert at Leeds Town Hall on 5 July which was also filmed for a video release. This was to prove the last gig with Chris Walton. Carl A. Finlow was subsequently recruited to the line up on keyboards with the intention of adding a more programmed, dance element to the band. Despite its relative lack of new material, "Invisible" sold well and remained in the indie charts for six weeks. As a result Sony CBS offered a provisional record deal, funding the recording of four new tracks on 12 September for a planned single, "Smile". The tracks as delivered were rejected and the release cancelled, the reported reason being that they sounded unlike the existing, successful album.
Despite guitarist Sean McElhone announcing he was leaving, a pre-Christmas concert was booked at the Warehouse, Leeds on 11 December. The concert was poorly attended and beset with technical problems. The band left the stage to boos from their home town audience and split up that night.
Read more about this topic: The Bridewell Taxis
Famous quotes containing the words crash and/or landing:
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)