THINGS I WANT: THE RETURN OF RED GUITARS. FACT.
FORTY years to the day since the release of their debut single and number one indie chart hit, Hull’s seminal 80’s post-punk outfit RED GUITARS will release a new 2023 version and an extended 2023 remix of ‘Good Technology,’ which will be available in a limited edition 12″ red vinyl, all signed by the band, accompanied by a new remix of ‘Fact,’ their second single.
To mark the June 24th anniversary the band, who reunited last year in their complete and original line-up, will play a special gig at O’Riley’s in Hull on the same date, followed by the band’s second UK tour in as many years this autumn, along with an album of brand-new material in 2024.
And RGs guitarist John Rowley believes the song is as relevant now, as the day it was released.
“Politically it is still pin sharp but there is no tub thumping here,” he said. “At its core there is a truth. Alternative facts don’t exist despite what the New Right would have you believe.
“Good Technology is a very simple three chord song and for each vocal line telling us of the wonderful new things we’ve got, there is a response from the guitars starting with simple harmonics and building slowly and uneasily to a blistering breathless solo before the pay off. The lyrics remain as barbed and prophetic as ever.
“A dystopian prophesy of things to come. It’s all there. It uncannily predicts the creation of the internet and social media, environmental catastrophe, reality TV, the fast-food industry, and an ever more grotesque arms industry.
“Forty years on and the promise, like the country, is broken. Public services have been hollowed out to the barest shells. Levels of poverty are unprecedented since Victorian times. The new gig economy has left people who are working minimum wage jobs struggling to survive.
“Today there are more food banks in the UK than McDonald’s, and it seems the right time to re-release this song to a new audience. Some very popular songs fade over time as tastes change, but a great song should be able to speak to every new generation that discovers it.”
Purveyors of the most prescient political pop of the period, Red Guitars were arguably one of the more interesting bands of the early eighties. A string of singles that topped the independent charts, appearances on The Tube and Whistle Test, Radio 1 sessions for John Peel and a tour with The Smiths – before self-destructing the very moment they appeared destined for greatness.
“1983 was a different place,” added Rowley.
“The last vestiges of industrial might that had created an Empire were being swept away, scrapped in favour of the deregulated banking and service industries which would make us all wealthy. The burgeoning new technology promised a brighter future for us all.
“But it is hard to name a single technological innovation that’s contributed anything to the overall health and sustainability of our world. The overarching consequence of technological advance has been to alienate us and distance us from a miraculous planet that has sustained us and given us unconditional love.
“The ultimate irony would be that AI led to the extinction of the human race so it could once more return to paradise.”
Released on the band’s own ‘Self Drive Records.’
Catalogue number: SCAR 16T, distributed by Cargo.
Red Guitars online: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram
