SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 46)

Sometimes I will spot something in a charity shop that catches my eye.  Such was the case with the sleeve of the single pictured above.  The name Endgames meant something to be but I couldn't be sure what.  I knew they had been a band kicking around Glasgow when I was a callow youth but other than that I couldn't be sure if I'd even heard them before.  Maybe they had been one of many support bands I'd caught in my time but forgotten all about it.  What the heck....the single is only £1 and it is for charity.

The single is from 1982.  It's produced by John Leckie who, over the years, has worked with a lot of bands that I've liked.  I notice the label is Mercury which is the same label as Friends Again eventually signed to....maybe it was with them that I caught Endgames....maybe even Friends Again opened for them at some point.  I really can't remember.  Better give the single a whirl:-

mp3 : Endgames - We Feel Good (Future's Looking Fine)
mp3 : Endgames - Darkness

Still doesn't ring any bells. It's certainly VERY 1980s.....it's not bad, but it's not great. It's almost as if it has taken snippets of loads of other records of that era and mashed them up.  I can hear a fair bit of Haircut 100 in there but without the clear vocal that Nick Heyward brought to that combo.

Now to the b-side.  Bloody hell.....this is awful.  Soft-rock shite.

Anyway the wiki search leads to:-

Endgames are a Scottish New Wave band, who had some success in the 1980s with singles such as "Waiting For Another Chance" and "Love Cares".

Iin 1980, the singer and bassist David Rudden left his synthpop band, Berlin Blondes, to form Endgames in Glasgow. The line-up for the band's first released single, 1982's "We Feel Good (Our Future's Looking Fine)", consisted of Rudden, Paul Wishart, David Murdoch and Douglas Muirden. Wishart had played with Simple Minds as saxophonist on their 'Empires and Dance' tour in 1980. At various points, other band members included Alex Harvey's cousin Willie Gardner, formerly from The Zones, and drummer Brian McGee, formerly of the Simple Minds. The band recorded two Peel sessions. 

"We Feel Good" and the band's follow-up single released in the same year, "First, Last, For Everything," found success in clubs in Europe and North America. This led to the release of their 1983 album. Building Beauty, which was produced by Colin Campsie and George McFarlane of The Quick. This album spawned worldwide hit singles in "Waiting for Another Chance" and "Love Cares". "Waiting For Another Chance" was especially well received in Germany (No. 21 in September 1983) and the band toured in Europe with Howard Jones, Eurythmics and Depeche Mode. The single "Miracle in My Heart" included a B-side mix of the song "Ecstasy", that was later sampled by Heavy D (Nuttin' But Love). 

Endgames released a second album, Natural, in 1985, which included the single "Shouting Out For Love". Another band member, David Wilde, played drums and saxophone with Altered Images. The band variously had recording/publishing contracts with EMI, MCA, Virgin and Mercury.

So there you have it.  A bit of vinyl long lost and most probably long forgotten about.  But I'm sure somebody out there will appreciate it.