Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls: Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls 1980

 

The Invisible Girls were a British rock band formed in Salford, Greater Manchester in 1978 to provide a musical backdrop to the recorded output of Salford punk poet John Cooper Clarke. The

band's nucleus was Joy Division and New Order producer Martin Hannett and keyboardist Steve Hopkins, with contributions from Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks and Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe, amongst others. The band played on the first solo album by Pauline Murray (lead singer of Penetration), the eponymous Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls and some singles, and later with Nico for her 1982 single "Procession".
                         

The Invisible Girls was a band formed in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 1978, to provide backing music

for punk poet John Cooper Clarke. It initially featured Factory Records producer Martin Hannett on bass guitar, Steve Hopkins on keyboards, 10cc drummer Paul Burgess, and guitarist Lyn Oakey. This line-up played on Cooper Clarke's debut album Où est la maison de fromage?, before they named themselves the Invisible Girls.  

PAULINE MURRAY AND THE INVISIBLE GIRLS 1980

Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls is the debut album by post/punk icon Pauline Murray, co-produced by revered sonic architect Martin 'Zero' Hannett in 1980. Recorded at the famous

Strawberry Studios, the album offered 11 slices of modern electronic pop written by Pauline and partner Robert Blamire and marked a radical departure from their shared past in pioneering punk band Penetration. As well producer/arrangers Martin Hannett and Steve Hopkins (aka the Invisible Girls), the album features a stellar cast of guest musicians including John Maher (Buzzcocks) and Vini Reilly (Durutti Column). Indeed Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls presents almost as a Factory record, exquisitely sleeved by Peter Saville and Trevor Key.
                           

Stand-out tracks include singles Dream Sequence and Mr X, with the newly remastered album now

augmented by bonus material including non-album singles and a John Peel session from March 1980.
"It's a bit of a missing link album," says Pauline today. "Written and recorded after punk, but before Martin Rushent and the Human League made airy pop respectable again. We chose the other Martin in 1980 because we wanted the incredible sounds he achieved for Joy Division and Magazine. Thundertunes, basically."
                               

"Accustomed as we've become to instant availability, the notion of the 'lost classic' has long since tipped over the precipice. Odd then that this recording - bar a limited 90s re-press - has remained

doggedly unavailable. Taking stock of punk's dissipation and their own band's unravelling as the 1980s dawned, Penetration's Pauline Murray and Robert Blamire embarked on a musical tangent, with Martin Hannett and a distinguished cast on board to craft a one-off album of darkly sophisticated pop tunes. Transplanting Penetration's twin guitar assault with Vini Reilly's dextrous fretwork, the cascading keyboards of Steve Hopkins, and, no least, Hannett's textural flourishes, Murray and Blamire were uniquely enabled to make an astonishing quantum leap from their past. 
                             

Songs of emotional unease unfurl, striated with glimmers of fragile optimism, through the eerie opening

notes of Screaming in the Darkness, the otherworldly pop of Dream Sequence and Thundertunes, and the claustrophobic soundscape of closer Judgement Day. Slipping through the cracks, both in terms of commercial success and Sister Lovers-level retrospective cult adulation, I'd argue this album is richly deserving of both. A luminous wonder which, as Pauline herself points out in the liner notes, can never be repeated. 10 out of 10" (Vive le Rock, 2014)  
                          

Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls – Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls
Label: Les Disques Du Crépuscule – TWI 016 CD
Format: 2 x CD, Album, Compilation, Reissue, Remastered Sep 2014
Country: UK
Released: 1980    
Genre: Rock
Style: New Wave, Post-Punk, Pop
                                  

CD1. PAULINE MURRAY AND THE INVISIBLE GIRLS (September 1980)

                         

   
01. Screaming In The Darkness    3:36
02. Dream Sequence I   3:18
Drums – Trevor Spencer
Guitar – Alan Rawlings    
03. European Eyes    3:22
04. Shoot You Down    2:08
05. Sympathy    2:50
06. Time Slipping   4:03
Bass – Martin Hannett    
07. Drummer Boy    3:04
08. Thundertunes    3:22
09. When Will We Learn    3:39
10. Mr X   4:27
Guitar – Robert Blamire    
11. Judgement Day    4:26
12. Searching For Heaven   2:59
Guitar – Bernard Sumner    
13. The Visitor    3:44
14. Animal Crazy    3:17
15. Dream Sequence II    4:02
16. Two Shots    4:05
17. Shoot You Down    2:05
18. Sympathy     2:44
19. When Will We Learn    3:30
20. Dream Sequence    3:37

Flac Size: 455 MB

CD2. PAULINE MURRAY AND THE INVISIBLE GIRLS - LIVE

                     

    
01. Screaming In The Darkness    3:28
02. Searching For Heaven    2:51
03. Time Slipping    3:35
04. Dream Sequence    3:09
05. Two Shots    3:21
06. When Will We Learn    3:26
07. Mr X     3:52
08. Animal Crazy    2:52
09. European Eyes    2:57
10. Thundertunes    3:04
11. Animal Crazy    3:01
12. Time Slipping    3:32
13. Dream Sequence    3:31
14. Two Shots    3:44
15. Sympathy    2:44
16. Dream Sequence    3:18
17. Time Slipping    3:27
18. Drummer Boy    3:30
19. European Eyes    3:02
20. Thundertunes    3:15
21. Shoot You Down    2:04
22. Judgement Day    4:13
23. When Will We Learn    3:16 

Flac Size: 480 MB

LINE - UP

                      

Vocals, Instruments – Pauline Murray
Guitar – Alan Rawlings (tracks: 1-17 to 1-20), Dave Rowbotham (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11), Vini Reilly (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 2-15 to 2-23), Wayne Hussey (tracks: 1-12 to 1-14, 2-1 to 2-14)
Keyboards – Peter Barratt (tracks: 2-15 to 2-23), Steve Hopkins (tracks: 1-1 to 1-14, 2-15 to 2-23)
Drums – John Maher (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 2-1 to 2-14), Paul Burgess (tracks: 2-15 to 2-23), Peter Howells (tracks: 1-17 to 1-20)
Bass – Robert Blamire
Written-By – Martin Hannett (tracks: 1-6), Pauline Murray (tracks: 1-1 to 1-20, 2-1 to 2-23), Robert Blamire (tracks: 1-1, 1-3 to 1-4, 1-6, 1-8 to 1-13, 1-15 to 1-20, 2-1 to 2-23), Steve Hopkins (tracks: 1-6), Wayne Hussey (tracks: 1-12)

NOTES

                            

Disc 1:
Tracks 1 to 11 originally released in October 1980 as the album Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls (Illusive 2394 277).
Recorded in July 1980 at Strawberry Studios, Stockport.
Tracks 12 to 14 originally released in April 1981 as a single (7" and 10" on Illusive).
Track 15 originally released in July 1980 as the b-side to Dream Sequence I (7" and 10" on Illusive).
Track 16 originally released in October 1980 as the b-side to Mr X (7" on Illusive).
Tracks 17 to 20 are a John Peel radio session recorded 19 March 1980. Recorded at Maida Vale 4. First transmitted on 31 March 1980.

Disc 2:
Tracks 1 to 8 recorded live at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, on 5 March[sic] 1981.
Tracks 9 to 14 recorded live at the Paard van Troje, Den Haag, 3 April 1981.
Tracks 15 to 23 recorded live on tour in 1980 at various UK venues.