The O’Neills were joined in the band by guitarist Reamann O’Gormain, who was responsible for introducing the rechristened Sean O’Neill to such leftfield delights as Pere Ubu (this was to have a significant effect on the early Petrols sound), drummer Ciaran McLaughlin and American singer Steve Mack.
The first recorded output of the band was a 7" single ‘Keen’ on the Pink label, later released on 12" and ultimately CD. If there were any doubts, ‘Keen’ had nothing to do with the Undertones, despite Sean being the main songwriter of both bands. Somewhat spoiled by a tentative vocal by Mack, ‘Keen’ came in a monochrome sleeve featuring ‘The Scream’ by Edward Munch, and in contrast to the determinedly non-political stance of the ‘Tones, sleeve notes detailing descriptions of life during the Troubles became standard Petrols’ issue.
After the promise of ‘Keen’ the follow-up single ‘V2’ (on a different label) moved even further away from the mainstream, a dense, car wreck of a single with Mack sounding pleased to be buried under the guitar onslaught. There were few signs at this stage of a band that could achieve very much.
Demon Records however spotted something and signed the band. They were rewarded by the band’s most accessible single to date ‘It’s A Good Thing’. Principal improvement was that Steve had suddenly discovered how to sing and the result was a sort of gorgeous pop song, but with the spiky guitars still adding an edge to the song.
The first album followed, mixing poppier tracks like ‘Good Thing’ and ‘Natural Kind of Joy’ with the now famous duelling guitar attack of the likes of ‘Fleshprint’, ‘Can’t Stop’ and ‘Mouth Crazy’. There was also a more reflective side to the band appearing - check out ‘A Million Miles Away’.
The band were snapped up by Polydor Records and immediately produced their killer single, ‘Big Decision’ which was a very accessible take on their guitar sound mixed with a little bit of rap stylings. Unfortunately what should have been the commercial breakthrough was somewhat bungled by Ploydor and the first I knew of the single was seeing it in the shops. It stalled at #41, thereby making the Petrols another number 41 band, just like the Comsats.
The big problem with the second album ‘Babble’, wasn’t that it wasn’t any good, because it was, but rather that there was nothing else with the same commercial impact as ‘Big Decision’ on it. ‘Swamp’ was chosen as the second single, but it lacked the commercial appeal of ‘BD’, although a new track 'Dance Your Ass Off', a sort of funky cover, was billed as a double A-side in an attempt to keep hold of the BD audience, such as it was!. In fact the intensity of the album was the main reason that there were no obvious singles present, but it made for a great album anyway. The rap of ‘BD’ was only an isolated incident (well, at this stage anyway) and what the Petrols seemed to have done was hone in on the moment - the album contained 11 songs but was only 34 minutes long. Therefore there are some blink-and-you-miss-them songs such as ‘Spin Cycle’ (a classic live track) and ‘Split!’, which was even shorter and more manic. Tunes were still there, albeit dressed up in dirty clothes. ‘Inside’ sounds a bit a down initially, but its defiant but dignified chorus lifts the spirits. The closer ‘Creeping To The Cross’ was a powerful piledriver of a song, with its sampled vocal intro and its ‘And I’d rather be the devil/than go creeping to the cross’ sentiment.
The band were at a crossroads, however, and parted company with Polydor to sign for Virgin. After two excellent and critically acclaimed LPs the lure of commercial success became a significant motivation and directed the band’s artistic efforts. So much so that a new single, not off ‘Babble’ was recorded and released in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of ‘Big Decision’. ‘Genius Move’ sadly proved anything but, as the attempt to soften the sound and sound a bit like Prince failed to chart as there really wasn’t much of a chorus. It was a live stomper admittedly but a bit flat on record.
That difficult third album arrived and rather than continue with a recognisable sound, the band went all eclectic. So there were songs which sounded like TPE, ‘Goggle Box’ (not so successful), and the spiky pop song ‘Candy Love Satellite.’ But there were also songs that attempted to catch a ride on the then Celtic wave of bands like the Pogues (the first flop single ‘Cellophane’), some ludicrous funk ‘Groovecheck (subsequently remixed and released what seemed like countless times) and ‘Tension’ and oh yes, some classics. ‘Sooner or Later’ was a moody opener, whilst ‘Under The Sky’ was a more melodic take on Sonic Youth which worked brilliantly. Best of the lot though was ‘Price of My Soul’ a slowie and a real show-stopper live. Listening to the album recently it’s better than I’m giving the impression here, but it was still a real disappointment compared to the first two.
Then a real shock. Sean O’Neill, writer of most of the band’s accessible tunes, left. The implications of this were not quite so wide-ranging as might first have been thought. Looking more carefully, although Sean had written the songs chosen for most of the singles, he hadn’t written large chunks of even the debut album and O’Gormain and McLaughlin were maturing as songwriters in their own right.
This assertion was proven by the band’s next album. The eclecticism was still there but the album as a whole sounded more cohesive. There were still dance elements to the sound, but these were incorporated into the songs in a less blatant way. First single ‘Abandon’ was a case in point. (Incidentally it was one of the first indie records to get a Boy’s Own remix but, unlike certain other of their contemporaries, you will have already guessed that this didn’t help chart-wise at all.) There’s a real momentum to the song, but no natural hook. As an indie/dance crossover it’s excellent, but it’s not a hit single. That honour was supposed to fall on the follow-up, ‘Sensitize’ a breezy summery single, but again the hook probably wasn’t strong enough. A further two singles followed, the poppy indie-rocker of ‘Hey Venus’, complete with multifarious dance remixes, and the T-Rex’ish ‘Tingle’ but still no hits. Virgin dropped the band despite the album being a reasonable return to form.
Aside from the singles ‘Blue to Black’ took some influences from the then fashionable Young Gods and created a stomping, er … indie-dance track with a guitar line rather than a hook, ‘Scum Surfin’’ headed back to Sonic Youth territory, but was cranked up to a pace the Youth usually avoid, whilst both ‘Mess of Words’ and ‘Sweet Shiver Burn’ illustrated the band’s mellower side merging with decent tunes. There were some so-so tracks - ‘Another Day’ and ‘Head Staggered’ just don’t really do much whilst ‘Gnaw Mark’ was an indifferent attempt to recreate the Mary Chain’s ‘Sidewalking’, but overall 'Chemicrazy' was an improvement on 'Blues'.
Without a record deal and with a proven track record now for being a moderately unsuccessful chart band and with the initial critical kudos having dried up, the only option was an indie label. A single appeared in 1993 ‘Detonate My Dreams’ and this signalled a return to a harder edged sound. A great single, (if not commercial), it also featured an extended Young Gods remix of ‘Blue to Black’ from ‘Chemicrazy’ which was much more what the original track should have sounded like.
Three years after ‘Chemicrazy’ the last Petrols’ album ‘Fireproof’ emerged on their own Koogat label. In general it seemed an album that was intended to play to the band's strengths and not to pursue commercial success. As a result the dance stylings were largely gone - in their place were melodic but amphetamine charged rock leanings which sounded like no-one other than the Petrols. As usual there were some great songs, foremost among them ‘Last of the True Believers’ (placed at track three on the album after ‘Detonate’ and the blistering ‘Catch A Fire’) in which the guitars almost twang as the song is drive at breakneck speed by a great melody. There’s some great poppy tunes too (strangely none released as a single) including ‘Speed of Light’ and ‘Shangri-La’ from the less intense, more poppy second side. This was the best Petrols album since ‘Babble’ but their audience had largely gone and its impact was only as a fitting swan-song.
So where did it all go wrong? Partly the band never reached a level of success that they might have because they were continually pulled in all sorts of directions by their record collections. Despite this eclecticism, or arguably because of it, the band never forged their own separate identity. A tendency if anything to hitch a lift on musical trends before they were popular helped point other bands in the right direction, but was of no benefit to the Petrols themselves. Too often too the supposedly ‘commercial’ singles (like ‘Sensitize’) were just a bit too soggy to succeed.
So in truth the conclusion has to be that TPE were never the band they might have been, artistically at least. (They obviously gave the commercial thing their best shot and couldn’t crack it.) The first two albums compare to the best British (Isles) rock albums of the time and they can reasonably claim to have been innovators in the indie/dance crossover which produced the Stone Roses. But there remains a nagging feeling that this band could have been something more. We therefore have to settle for two classic albums but the other three do contain at least 4 classic tracks. One thing’s for sure - if their many record companies could ever negotiate a consolidation of the rights to the songs then a best of the Petrols compilation would be one hell of a record.