The Secret Goldfish were a band from Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The group was formed by ex-Fizzbombs singer Katy McCullars, guitarist John Morose, and the rhythm section from The Mackenzies

The Mackenzies

The Mackenzies were an indie band from Glasgow active around 1986/87, releasing two singles of jagged indie-funk on Ron Johnson Records and contributing the track Big Jim to the NME's C86 compilation. They also recorded two sessions for John Peel, the first of which was repeated seven times, such...

, Graham Lironi and Paul Turnbull.

History

The band took their name from an imaginary book from the novel The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye

The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes of teenage confusion, angst, alienation, language, and rebellion. It has been translated into almost all of the world's major...

. They released three albums and several singles in the 1990s, on the Glasgow based Creeping Bent record label. Their first album, 1996's Aqua Pet...You Make Me was produced by Stephen Lironi. Their sound has been described as "sounding much like The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain

The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride, Glasgow in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid...

 locked in a public toilet with Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

 and The New York Dolls". Second album Jet Streams was released in 1997, and in 1999 they issued the Somewhere in the World EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

, the lead track of which was co-written by Vic Godard

Vic Godard

Vic Godard is a British singer-songwriter formerly of the punk group Subway Sect. He is now a solo performer.-Biography:Born Vic Knapper in Mortlake c.1959, Godard was raised in Barnes....

 and featured Francis MacDonald

Francis MacDonald

Francis Macdonald is a drummer and sometime member of British alternative rock band Teenage Fanclub and used to play with BMX Bandits and Eugenius...

 and Stevie Jackson

Stevie Jackson

Stevie Jackson is a Scottish musician and songwriter. He plays lead guitar and sings in the Glasgow based indie band Belle & Sebastian. Jackson's guitar playing is distinctively retrogressive and melodic, with a heavy use of reverb and minimal effects...

. A final album, Mink Riots followed in 1999, before the band split up. Lironi and former Mackenzies keyboardist Ian Beveridge formed a new band, Mongoose, the same year.

Final line-up:

• Katy McCullars: vocals
• John Morose: guitar
• Steven McSeveney: bass
• Paul Turnbull: drums

Albums

• Aqua Pet... You Make Me (BENT 012) (1996)
• Jet Streams (MACD 44712) (April 1997)
• Mink Riots (BENT 044) (1999)

E.P.'s and singles

• "Seasick" (BENT004) (1995)
• "Come Undone" (BENT008) (1996)
• Dandelion Milk Summer e.k.o.k. e.p. (BENT016) (1996)
• Venus Bonding E.P. (BENT018) (1996)
• "Tartan Envy" (BENT020) (1997)
• "Give Him a Great Big Kiss" (BENT024) (1997) (split single with Policecat)
• "Punk Drone" (BENT032) (1998) (split single with Scientific Support Dept.)
• "Somewhere In China" (ER-193) (1998)
• Somewhere in the World E.P. (November 1998)
• "You're Funny 'Bout That Aren't You" (BENT042) (1999) (split single with Nectarine No. 9)
• "4 Excited People" (BENT048) (1999) (split single with Vic Godard
  Vic Godard
  Vic Godard is a British singer-songwriter formerly of the punk group Subway Sect. He is now a solo performer.-Biography:Born Vic Knapper in Mortlake c.1959, Godard was raised in Barnes....
  
  )

Aqua Pet... You Make Me

1. "Come Undone" (3:01)
2. "Tartan Envy" (3:09)
3. "The Boy Who Left Home To Learn Fear" (5:52)
4. "Pet Thang" (1:56)
5. "Dandelion Milk Summer" (3:43)
6. "Venus Bonding : Erotic Mars" (2:08)
7. "I Will See You Through" (4:52)
8. "I Left One Out, Where Did It Go" (2:23)
9. "Seasick" (2:51)
10. "Glass Mountain" (2:09)
11. "The Catalyst" (2:20)
12. "Strawberry St." (2:35)
13. "Another Short Song About Love And Loss" (2:35)
14. "Bandovian Curve" (2:43)

• Produced by Stephen Lironi & engineered by Larry Primrose, except "The Catalyst" & "I Left One Out, Where Did It Go", produced by The Secret Goldfish & engineered by Johnny Cameron

• Mastered by John Davis at Whitfield Street Studios, London

• All songs by McCullars / Morose, except "The Catalyst" written by G Lironex

Jet Streams

The album includes covers of The Fire Engines

The Fire Engines

The Fire Engines are a post-punk band from Edinburgh, Scotland. The band was a part of the same literary art-punk scene as the Scars and their most famous contemporaries, Josef K. They grew out of the Dirty Reds which had actor Tam Dean Burn as singer....

, Shangri-Las, Orange Juice

Orange Juice

Orange Juice was a Scottish post-punk band founded in the middle class Glasgow suburb of Bearsden as the Nu-Sonics in 1976. Edwyn Collins formed the Nu-Sonics with his school-mate Alan Duncan and was subsequently joined by James Kirk and Steven Daly, who left a band called The Machetes. The band...

, The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in New York City. First active from 1964 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although experiencing little commercial success while together, the band is often cited...

 and Nirvana

Nirvana (band)

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

 songs.

1. "This Arsehole's Been Burned Too Many Times Before" (2:42)
2. "Casanova Killer" (4:40)
3. "Ambulance" (0:43)
4. "Give Him A Great Big Kiss" (2:45)
5. "Wasted In Carluke" (1:53)
6. "Blue Sky Yesterday" (1:23)
7. "Sunless" (3:36)
8. "Tartan Envy (Luv n Haight Version)" (3:23)
9. "Allegro" (0:42)
10. "Come as You Are" (3:12)
11. "Rude Awakening" (3:51)
12. "Everywhere That You Go" (3:49)
13. "Pink Drone" (5:07)
14. "Afterhours/Intuition Told Me" (3:02)

• Produced by The Secret Goldfish, except 3, 7 & 12 - produced by Stephen Lironi
• Recorded by Johnny Cameron, Paul McGeechan & Larry Primrose

• Design - Stefan Kassel
• Photography - Colin Dunsmuir
• Released on Marina Records

Mink Riots

1. "You're Funny 'Bout That, Aren't You?"
2. "Somewhere in the World"
3. "Laughing Inside"
4. "Scenecruiser"
5. "Honestly, It Was Nothing"
6. "4 Excited People"
7. "Take My Hand"
8. "Hey! Mr. Fox"
9. "Elevate #2"
10. "Pink Drone"

• Douglas MacIntyre — producer
• Katy McCullars — vocals
• John Morose — guitar, vocals (background)
• Steven McSeveney - bass, vocals (background)
• Paul Turnbull - drums
• Stevie Jackson — vocals (background)
• Francis MacDonald — organ (hammond), wurlitzer, vocals (background)
• Gregor Reid — engineer, mixing, producer, vibraphone, tape manipulation
• Paul McGeechan — mastering

External links

• Everything2 bio
• Erasing clouds article on Creeping Bent
• Live performance pictures