Wednesday, September 2, 2009

White Cross - When the Fabrics Torn ep (1986, Crash)

Yet another fairly arcane used bin find. White Cross were an acoustic Australian trio (hailing from Melbourne I believe) fronted by twelve-stringer Peter Mather. They recored a full length in 1987, The Bride, a single a year later, and apparently folded shortly thereafter. This rather crackly ep definitely has my recommendations, though I can't say that White Cross bear any outright influences, though they're in a faintly similar vein to the Verlaines. I'm guessing that bassist Nigel Harford was the fellow of the same name that performed in the Stray Tapes during the early '80s.

01. Missiles
02. On the Longest Day
03. Michael Row the Boat Ashore
04. You're Not Alone
05. I'll Give it to You
06. I Can't Hold You

Hear

8 comments:

dashripdot said...

One of my favorite records, ever. Found this in '87 -'88, around the same time as Stars of Heaven, the truly great band out of Ireland. Sinful that these wonderful things wind up largely ignored while others who shall remain nameless, yet famous, receive all too much attention.

Anonymous said...

This was a great record. There is a film clip as well for "You're not alone" which surely someone has somewhere from a Rage video.

There is quite a good write up for White Cross in Ian McFarlane's Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop.

Moist Paula said...

You're Not Alone was my first ever attempt at studio recording and White Cross was the first band I was a member of ... thanks for the digitalia!

Trout Mask Replicant said...

Any chance of a re-upload for this one?

dashripdot said...

You're not alone - White Cross: https://youtu.be/2zG88i-4Ohw

dashripdot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
spavid said...

The link has been updated.

David Gerard said...

Peter Mather's put this up on Bandcamp officially!

https://whitecross88.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-fabric-s-torn

No "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" for some reason.

The whole catalogue's there. All free too, though I'm sure he wouldn't say no to a few bucks.