Chances are that you won't remember post-punk band Scars. Their moment in the sun was both tragically and gloriously brief. They stormed out of Edinburgh in the early 1980s possessed of equal parts glam audacity, art-rock solemnity and futuristic zeal. They were roundly hailed as the next great white musical hope. Two Peel sessions and a handful of music-paper covers later, they vanished in a fog of egotism and frustrated desires. But not before they delivered their one and only album, 1981's maddeningly beautiful Author! Author!
In the intervening years, Scars have been effectively forgotten. Years ago, Mark E Smith namechecked them as his favourite band ("because they were the complete opposite of the Fall"), and more recently, Lemon Jelly briefly raised Scars' profile by sampling them on their '64-'95 album. But despite guitarist Paul Research's sterling efforts to keep the name alive on his Scars website, the band appeared to be permanently consigned to the dustbin of history. Even in Simon Reynolds' supposedly "encyclopaedic" post-punk history, Rip it Up & Start Again, Scars merit only the most fleeting of mentions. Tosser.
Meanwhile, down the last 25 years, every other once-forgotten band of their era has been either endlessly repackaged and/or critically rehabilitated to enable them to enjoy an extension on their fifteen minutes by virtue of their appearance on a thousand and one dodgy service-station compilations.
As for Scars, their fate has hardly been helped by the convoluted copyright situation that has held up the reissue of Author! Author! for all these years. Now that it's finally out and sounding as edgy and lovely as it always did, maybe the band can finally enjoy some of the critical and commercial acclaim that has long been denied them.
That's right, ONE POUND to see The Cure and Joy Division. *sigh*
I am going through another Scars fixation! Gonnae get your website up & running again?? I need to find out where I can get the non Author Author stuff!!
I supported you at a gig in the Tunnels AGES ago in Aberdeen (Hen was putting the show on). Just to say that I've finally put together a debut release which is coming out soon, and wondered if you fancied giving it a blast.
Hope you're well, and maybe catch you at a gig soon!
Just listening to Scars live at Valentinos!! Sounds great! Takes me back in time.. Saw you guys live at Newpop in Rotterdam (1981/82?) and a year later in LVC Leiden (without Rab). Those were the days!!
Thanks for adding me........ I have fond memories of watching u live wih pauline murray and invisible girls at leicester poly may 81 was a great gig ! album still sounds great today (has to be vinyl for me !)
Hi, Just saw that you were online and wanted to let you know that I think 'Author! Author! is still an important album. Great Album!! Best Wishes Julian
think that missed penalty in the first half and the great save our keeper had in the second were the crucial points, conditions didnt make for silky soccer