Affection... Band's from Scotland, Part 2

Texas -the name of an American state, but better still the name of the currently five piece band from Glasgow, which formed in 1987 and are fortunately still making music now. They had a long road to success at home and in Europe, but they never could quite make it over here despite the fact that three of their tracks got attention in TV and films. Occasionally, I do seem to hear "In Our Lifetime" on the overhead play at grocery stores and even once recently at Lowe's. Anyway, I liked this band quite a bit since their third album, Rick's Road, and in my opinion they only got stronger as a band with the fourth release, White on Blonde. I think this was the point for the band too when the soul rock sound they had was traded in for a bright soul pop sound and it worked for them. Sharleen Spiteri became not just a singer/rhythm guitarist at this point, but a beautiful, soulful Scottish diva. With her musical influences ranging from The Clash (the main reason she plays a black Fender Telecaster) to Blondie to Marvin Gaye and Prince to Diana Ross, this metamorphosis should have seemed inevitable. Despite her reluctance to flaunt any kind of "girlie" image when the band began, Sharleen has graced the covers of many magazines in the UK and Europe, both with the band for music publications and as a model for several fashion magazines. Her only previous experience with fashion would have been working as a hairdresser in Glasgow at the Irvine Rusk salon at the time when she co-formed the band. Not bad for a girl who's nickname in school was "Spit the Dog", after the puppet companion of entertainer Bob Carolgees on the UK kid's show TISWAS.

This is the video for one of their most infectious tracks, "Say What You Want", from the 1997 album, White on Blonde. Cheers!



Better version here...