With few opportunities to play live, the new group financed a single on their own Scan 45 label, which coupled the almost sunny On Our Honeymoon with the darker Give Up, the latter featuring a keyboard line picked out by band friend (and one-time Altered Images roadie) Robert 'Bobby' Gillespie. Although the single sold modestly on release in January 1982, the group received a boost when Bobby Gillespie replaced Donnelly on bass, followed by Steven's sister Carolyn on keyboards. Meanwhile New Order manager Rob Gretton found much to admire in the single, and in October the group went into Strawberry Studio in Stockport to record a seven-track mini album, Harmony, which was released on Factory (FACT 60) in December 1982. The subsequent pressing on Factory Benelux (FBN 29) in 1984 also included a more experimental outtake, Chance.
Harmony earned a five-star review from Dave McCullough in Sounds, who praised:
"...the first genuine record I can think of for months... Favour is, believe it or not, a hit single for Factory if they cared. If I played it to you and told you it was the new New Order 45 you'd almost certainly say at first how much they've improved... They are on that soaring pitch of optimism, somewhere between Transmission and Glittering Prize. When you hear it, you'll recognise it at once and move away from the recent, gorgeously indecent chart rubbish. This is awake."
However the Wake only really began to get noticed outside Glasgow in 1983, after dates supporting New Order in Bristol and Newcastle, followed by a string of shows in Scotland in April. As an awed punter at the date at Edinburgh Assembly Rooms on the 12th, I can vouch for the fact that the Wake were the better band that particular night. The show from Ayr Pavilion on the 15th was later released on the Assembly CD (LTMCD 2334).
May saw the recording of a new single for Factory Benelux (FBN 24), cut at Revolution in Manchester and featuring long versions of Something Outside and the dub-informed Host. In July the band record a three song John Peel session for BBC radio, featuring three new songs: The Drill, Uniform and Here Comes Everybody. Other unheard songs from this period include Country Of The Blind and the excellent Recovery. A live take of Uniform recorded at the Hacienda in July 1983 -supporting Howard Devoto- also appears on A Factory Outing video (FACT 71).
Bobby Gillespie, who had divided his time between The Wake and an embryonic Primal Scream, was asked to leave the band shortly after the Peel recording. Within a year he had undergone a radical transformation, to re-emerge as the drummer in the Jesus and Mary Chain. In August Gillespie was replaced on bass by Alex 'Mac' MacPherson, with the Factory Benelux single appearing in October. At about this time the group also included an unexpected but highly original arrangement of Stevie Wonder's Living For The City in their live sets.
The sprightly Talk About the Past single (FAC 88) followed in January 1984, featuring Vini Reilly on piano, and for an all too brief moment the Wake looked like winning over a largely hostile music press. But it was not to be. Following a Hacienda showcase in January 20th, and the recording of a four track David Jensen BBC radio session in February, short-stay bassist MacPherson departed in April, with the result that the band carried on as a three-piece. Although almost all of the Here Comes Everybody album had already been written, both recording and release were delayed, and the band had to complete another string of Scots dates with New Order in February 1985 with taped bass.
Here Comes Everybody (FACT 130) finally appeared in November 1985. Despite the presence of excellent songs such as O Pamela, Torn Calender and All I Asked You to Do, and a smooth studio production by Oz, its sombre tone earned largely negative reviews from the music press. Two further non-album singles also appeared on Factory: Of the Matter (FAC 113, 7" only) in October 1985, and a 'swansong' 12" ep, Something That No-One Else Could Bring (FAC 178) in November 1987. Featuring yet another short-stay bassist, John Rahim, the latter single was produced by John Leckie and marked a significant shift in sound towards shorter songs, with Plastic Flowers as the standout track.
7By 1988 the group's relationship with Factory had soured, following wrangles over the artwork for FAC 178, and a more general dissatisfaction with the perceived lack of promotion and distribution. After linking up with Bristol-based label Sarah Records for future releases, and with Rahim having drifted away, two members of fellow Glasgow band The Orchids - bassist James
Moody and guitarist Matthew Drummond - came on board as guest musicians. The Wake subsequently opened their account for Sarah with a well-regarded single in 1989, Crush the Flowers (SARAH 21).
During the Sarah years the band toured with The Orchids in Germany and France, and in France with the Field Mice. 1991 saw a new album, Make it Loud (SARAH 602), followed by another single, Major John (SARAH 48), with the latter marking Steven Allen's last recordings with the group. After another silence, Caesar and Carolyn returned with a fourth studio album in 1994, Tidal Wave Of Hype (SARAH 618). Guest musicians again included Moody and Drummond, as well as Duncan Cameron on bass and David McLean on additional keyboards. Around this time Caesar also played some live bass for the remaining Orchids after Moody left the band. But after Sarah closed its doors in 1995 the Wake found they had no suitable outlet for new material, and elected to call it a day. Whether that state of affairs is permanent remains to be seen.
James Nice, January 2002.
THE WAKE DISCOGRAPHY
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