Lovejoy: Let There Be Love
(Spinout Nuggets/Creation Youth)
Lovejoy return with a new single, available digitally and as a limited edition 7″ ‘team up’ between Spinout Nuggets and Alan McGee’s new label Creation Youth
Lovejoy have a reputation for creating sophisticated indie music. In the late nineties and early noughties, they released a string of well received and now sought-after singles, EPs and albums. They played shows in the UK, across Europe and Scandinavia, until taking an extended break in 2008.
In 2024, from seemingly out of nowhere, they made a surprise, warmly received return with their acclaimed album …And It’s Love!, a joint release from Spinout Nuggets and Shelflife Records. The record received glowing reviews and 2024 saw Lovejoy’s Dick Preece’s live return too, performing songs acoustically in support of the album.
A long-term confidant, music legend Alan McGee has been a firm supporter of Lovejoy, also provided not just sleeve notes for the album, but also a track too. After the album’s release, he and Dick Preece collaborated on the recording of lost Biff Bang Pow! song, Let There Be Love.
The single, double ‘A’ side includes two versions of the track and acoustic and electirc version, so fittingly the band have made videos for each. Speaking to Dick Preece, he says, ‘We’re so pleased that there’s quite a bit of interest in the new single- it’s a beautiful song- I hope we’ve done it justice. it was great working with Alan on it, and as a longtime Biff Bang Pow! fan, it’s brilliant to have had the chance to play a very small part in the footnote of their story!’ With Spinout Nuggets and Creation Youth releasing the 7”, it feels like a very cool collaboration’.
The story goes that, while reviewing material for Cherry Red’s 2022 BBP! retrospective, A Better Life, McGee came across a live recording of the long-forgotten song: “It’s one of the 3 or 4 best songs I ever wrote for Biff Bang Pow! We played it a few times live, and I can’t believe we never recorded it at the time. But things were chaotic and so were we. In all the madness, we just forgot,” said McGee.
The live recording was too rough to be released, but McGee suggested to Preece that Lovejoy should record it. “Talk about pressure to get it right” says Preece, “…what a responsibility. But we played the song through together, talked about what it needed, swapped ideas and gradually both versions came together.” When Spinout Nuggets and Creation Youth (McGee’s new record label) agreed to co-release the songs as a 7” single, I was just so thrilled”.
Let There Be Love’ is an epic, defiant song of love and longing, beautifully meshing McGee’s melodic dexterity with Lovejoy’s measured elegance. A tender acoustic takes shimmers with beauty and Felt like ethereal guitar, while the electric version recalls the darker, intense Biff Bang Pow! sound circa Love is Forever. A must for fans of Lovejoy, Biff Bang Pow! and all related records.
The single gets a limited vinyl release with 500 copies available worldwide.
You can find more Lovejoy via their LinkTree
All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him on Bluesky
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exeter.one newsbite last confirmed 6 days ago by Iain Key
