The Wild Swans epic six-minute 10 inch vinyl single - English Electric Lightning/The Coldest Winter For 100 Years comes in a limited-edition of just 900 copies worldwide. With sleeve art by the bands keyboard player and renowned fine artist Ged Quinn, each copy comes hand number-stamped and copies ordered direct from Occultation come signed by Paul. Sleeve features full colour label art and inner sleeve with the lyrics to both songs.
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*English Electric Lightning/The Coldest Winter For a Hundred Years is released to record shops on May 18th and is available now as a download from occultation.co.uk. and on i-tunes and most download sites.
After an absence of 20 years, Liverpool post-punk legends The Wild Swans are back with an epic new single. You can’t fake authenticity and as you might expect from the creators of the astonishing Revolutionary Spirit, English Electric Lightning is an breathtaking tour de-force; 5-minutes 56 seconds of coruscating Blakean incandescence. By their works shall ye know them. The very best of British.
'Worth the wait? Hell yes. Its kinda like meeting an old girlfriend that you've not seen for years and rarely thought about, but now you realise that you've always loved them and always will. English electric Lightning is a worthy successor to Revolutionary Spirit and finds Paul simpson in fine fettle, positive and forceful-not a bit like a man haunted by his past. More like a young turk about to take on the world. But no matter how good that song is its the b-side which will stop you in your tracks. Basically its a seven and a half minute spoken word epic about the winter of 1980/81 when paul shared a flat with Pete De Frietas. He tells a fantastic story, a glowing tribute to the Bunnymen drummer and to a life less ordinary. But I can't really do it justice here. You must hear it. Its a thing of rare beauty'. - Graham Ennis - When Skies Are Grey.com
'The World has moved on since The Wild Swans' last output. But its comforting to know that Paul Simpson's band have hardly changed a bit. The hymn-like melody and gothic vocals evoke fond fond memories of classic single, Revolutionary Spirit, while clever lyrical juxtapositions hammer home this harsh lament for modern Britain. Another classic. Welcome back.' Alan O'Hare - Liverpool.com
‘English Electric Lightning’ has much in common with the Wild Swans of ‘Revolutionary Spirit’, and, with its honeyed, rippling guitars and Quinn’s soaring, majestic keyboards, a similar sense of super melodiousness and timelessness. Simpson’s half jaded, half nostalgic lyrics, an evocation of his 60s/70s childhood and a six minute summary of British social history since the Second World War , however, are a lot less abstract than much of what he has written before, and this and an increased use of backing harmonies take the Wild Swans in a new direction. -John Clarkson - Pennyblackmusic.com
(Rodney Street -£8 per week circa 1981)
ACTUNG! Small piece on The Wild Swans in the current JUNE edition of MOJO. -
Last few THE WILD SWANS 'Hymns To The Cosmos -Electric Songs Of Praise' Incandescent era T-SHIRTS 2005 (L-XL) available from http://www.renascent.co.uk/#
Wild Swans feature and Interview with Paul by John Clarkson -(http://www.pennyblackmusic.com)
NEW WILD SWANS OFFICIAL SITE -http://www.thewildswans.co.uk
(created and maintained by Russ Sanders)
http://www.paul-simpson.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/thewildswans
http://www.skyray.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/skyrayofficial
The long deleted Skyray albums Tranquilliser and Mind Lagoons plus the Ice Rink Music e.p. now available to download from the shop at http://www.paul-simpson.co.uk
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