Junk Box Jury

“The First Picture Of You” / “The Lotus Eaters” (Sylvan SYL1) June 1983

The Lotus Eaters | “The First Picture Of You” | Sylvan-Arista | ‘Two good people from Liverpool’ whose first single tugs gently at the heartstrings via an emotional drip-feed production technique. If it gets the airplay it should be a hit. (Sounds, 02/07/83)

The Lotus Eaters. No, not a weird nomadic tribe from Egypt, but two young lads from Liverpool who are making the most exquisite pop music around.

Singer Peter Coyle and guitarist Jeremy Kelly spring from the remnants of two Liverpool groups, The Jazz Babies and The Wild Swans.

Their premier offering, ‘The First Picture Of You’, is a good reflection of their music. It’s got a wide open sound, a cool ambient feel. Hear it a few times and you just know it’s summer.

Their video is the perfect extension of the song. It’s shot in cool pastel colours; easy on the eye and refreshing to the brain.

Peter could just be one of the big stars to emerge this year. He wraps his vocal chords around the wispy lyrics, revealing true power underneath that delicate exterior.

The Lotus Eaters are currently supporting Big Country on their nationwide tour. Pop along to see them. (Record Mirror, 09/07/83)

The Lotus Eaters | “The First Picture Of You” | Sylvan-Arista

THEY CAME IN SEARCH OF POP MUSIC. THEY HAIL FROM LIVERPOOL. THEY WANT THEIR MUSIC TO HAVE A “COMFORTING QUALITY”. THEY LIKE THEIR PHOTOS TO HAVE A “DURAN DURAN-ISH APPEAL”. MARK STEELS MET THEM. THEY ARE . . . THE LOTUS EATERS

You usually get some idea of a band’s personality by the name they work under. Iron Maiden couldn’t have been anything but a hairy, heavy metal band; the Sex Pistols just had to be punks while you’d hardly expect Bucks Fizz to be a weird noise outfit from Poland.

So imagine my surprise on meeting The Lotus Eaters. According to the ancient Greek legend, the lotus eaters (or lotophagi if you really want to brag) were a bunch of wasters who sat around all day gorging on great hunks of lotus fruit.

All this excessive eating had a curious effect— it made them forget about their friends and homes. As a result, lotus eater has become a term used to describe someone used to a life of shocking idleness and luxury. Simon le Bon probably has whole orchards of lotus trees in his back garden.

But this particular brand of Lotus Eater has very little in common with such mythical beings — whether past or present. Yet another band from Liverpool, they’re fronted by two fresh-faced 21-year-olds, Peter Coyle (who sings) and Jerry Kelly who strums things).

Before you yell “not another pop duo”, bear in mind that they are, in fact, a five-piece. There’s Jed Quinn (keyboards), Mike Dempsey (bass) and Steve Creese (drums) who, by mutual agreement, don’t appear in photographs or give interviews. As far as the world is concerned, Peter and Jerry are The Lotus Eaters.

So why the name?

“We had this John Peel session lined up,” explains Jerry, “and we had to find a name pretty quick. So I went to the library and started looking through all these journals for inspiration.

“Eventually I came to the Greek Myths And Legends section in the Pears Encyclopedia and saw ‘The Lotus Eaters’.

Not surprisingly, those who knew Jerry and Peter’s rigorously normal lifestyle gave them a bit of stick about the name.

“Some thought it was really pathetic,” scowls Jerry, “but that just made us like it more. What was really great, though, was that after we’d done the Peel session, we got this letter from an unemployed girl who said our music gave her hope. She then described herself as ‘just one of the three-and-a-half million lotus eaters.

Although it’s a new name to the charts, The Lotus Eaters have been together for some time. The story (which makes Dallas sound simple) begins back in early ’82.

Jerry and Jed Quinn (who is still an undergraduate at Oxford University studying Fine Art) were playing in a band called the Wild Swans at the same time Peter was singing in an outfit called the Jazz Babies.

John Peel heard a Babies tape and, suitably impressed, offered them a session on his late-night show last August. But, before they could fulfil this commitment, the Jazz Babies broke up, leaving Jed and Peter out in the cold.

Undaunted, they contacted Jerry, who was not doing an awful lot with the Wild Swans, and The Lotus Eaters were born.

But there was still that Peel session to consider. With four songs under their belt and only a week to go, they hastily recruited Mike and Steve, and everything went like clockwork. Not since those kaftan-clad days of the late ’60s had Peelie played anything quite so laid-back but he was sufficiently moved to call them “admirable”.

“He probably liked us just because it wasn’t what he was expecting,” laughs Jerry.

Their first single, “The First Picture Of You”, has a similarly haunting effect. Some people even think it might herald a Summer Of Love for 1983.

“It’s just melodic,” claims Jerry. “Most pop songs now tend to be rhythmic— aimed at getting the body moving — whereas we think melodies can move you in a different way.

“I like to think of our music as having a comforting quality,” continues Peter, “to lead people off and get them thinking about the good things in life. It’s soul music – played with feeling and not preconceived in any way.

That’s a long way from their image, though, which suggests not so much passion as fashion. Peter agrees.

“We do want our photos to have a kind of Duran Duran-ish appeal. We are aware that some people are attracted by such superficial things but even if there’s just one or two people who give you a listen because they like the way you look, then you’ve communicated with someone you might not otherwise have done. We want to appeal to as many people as we can —to communicate right across the board.”

They don’t seem to be doing too badly on that score. Their supporting role on the first leg of the Big Country tour has won them many friends— even in Glasgow which is prime Big Country stomping ground.

The group’s poignant melodies had an oddly intoxicating effect in the Glasgow Pavilion— a little like the calm before Big Country’s storn. It’s strange to ponder that or a band overflowing with such superb musical ideas, Peter and Jerry have only recently become involved in music.

“I didn’t even like music until I was 15,” admits Peter. “I’d made up my mind to hate it at a young age and stuck by that decision. But in the end, I just needed a creative outlet and so took up singing.

Now he owns up to listening to music “all the time — especially black American stuff” but until his mid-teens he was obsessed with table tennis. He even played for Merseyside.

Jerry was also (and still is) a bit of a sporty type, playing a variety of ball games as well as donning shorts and legging it round the racetrack.

“I never seriously thought about music as a career at all,” he confesses. “When I came out of school, I got a four-year apprenticeship on the buses, working as an electrician and it was terrible! I was only 16 at the time and there were all these 40-year-olds swearing all the time and being sarcastic. It got very heavy and so music became a form of escapism for me. Just by picking up a guitar I could turn all that depression into something creative.”

“What’s the point of going around wallowing in self-pity and hating the world?” reckons Peter. “When you’re feeling miserable, the last thing you want to hear is some band singing about what a depressing world we live in. Music should lift you out of that.”

“Gloomy faces just make other people feel glossy,” chips in Jerry before taking his beaming face into the streets of Glasgow.

Maybe it will be the Summer Of Love. Smile, please. (Smash Hits, July 1983)

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from: charity shop