All You Need is Hate

August 4, 2019 3:59 AM

One of John Peel’s indie darlings, The Delgados were a Scottish indie band from Motherwell. Highlights from their five albums include The Light Before We Land (used as the theme for anime Gunslinger Girl), Woke From Dreaming, Child Killers, American Trilogy, and Coming In From The Cold – ranging from achingly beautiful melodies to dramatically dark ballads.

The band broke up in 2005 when bass player Stewart Henderson departed, stating how difficult it was “to pour so much of my energy and time into something that never quite seemed to get the attention or respect I felt it deserved.”

posted by adrianhon (16 comments total)

I discovered them at the time of Peloton, so that album has always been my favorite and most nostalgic. I was blessed to open for them on the Boston stop for The Great Eastern, but that album - largely inspired by the resurgence of heroin and the resultant devastation in their musical community - was just too bleak for me to stomach. I go back to Everything Goes Around the Water on a regular basis, though.
posted by mykescipark at 4:12 AM on August 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

I always knew the Delgados from their cover of Mr Blue Sky. That is not a song which I think anybody would call an easy cover.. I believe the BBC ended a tribute programme to John Peel with this one.
posted by rongorongo at 4:32 AM on August 4, 2019 [5 favorites]

The Delgados are one of my favorite bands. Love this post!
posted by thivaia at 5:25 AM on August 4, 2019

I haven't thought about or listened to The Delgados in a long while, but I remember liking and listenening to them a lot after a couchsurfer introduced me to their work more than a decade ago.
Guess this will be my Sunday listening now. Thanks!
posted by bigendian at 5:48 AM on August 4, 2019

Both albums are a decade old now, but Alun Woodward's solo release as Lord Cut-Glass and Emma Pollock's contributions to The Burns Unit supergroup are fantastic.
posted by scruss at 6:03 AM on August 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh, I remember them. Thanks.
posted by crush at 6:23 AM on August 4, 2019

I would have said I'd never heard of them, but listening to the linked songs made it clear how familiar the music is.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:42 AM on August 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

They did a cover of The Dirge by New Bad Things, too.
posted by snofoam at 8:51 AM on August 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

A great band, and also worth mentioning that they also ran the Chemikal Underground label, which released records by Mogwai and Arab Strap among many others. Doing that while also creating a run of brilliant records is no mean feat.
posted by YoungStencil at 11:41 AM on August 4, 2019 [3 favorites]

I remember a friend in Oxford in 2003-4 telling me that "The Delgados are the new Pixies," and while I don't think that turned out to be true, this was a good post that brought back happy memories.
posted by sy at 3:40 PM on August 4, 2019 [1 favorite]

I saw them on the Peloton tour in a little VFW hall basement or something in Boston. They were terrific. Universal Audio was the soundtrack to my last year of law school and studying for the bar exam. Everybody Come Down is a perfect pop song. And just today I got an email from Emma Pollock about her upcoming tour (not in the US sadly). A great band who really never did get their due.
posted by schoolgirl report at 3:46 PM on August 4, 2019

My favorite was always All You Need Is Hate.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:10 PM on August 4, 2019

As noted in the OP, The Light Before We Land was used as the opening for gunslinger Girl and its moodiness perfectly fitted the tone of the series. It's what led me to discover the Delgados.
posted by MartinWisse at 11:31 PM on August 4, 2019

'Pull The Wires From The Wall' is my favourite favourite. It reminds me of just how fertile that strand of Scottish music was in the late 90s: them, Camera Obscura, Belle & Sebastian, Arab Strap, Mogwai, etc.

(The Boaty Weekender is this week.)
posted by holgate at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

As I paid to join because of the sheer quality of the US politics megathreads, I'd hoped my first post would be there (or, now they're gone, another US politics post) but honestly? Almost every post on there beats me to the punch, is better informed and better written than I could hope to match. So instead, for my first post, I'll just say that seeing The Delgados live alongside Mogwai in Glasgow (as it should be!) remains a live gig highlight for me... Hard to see how it could be beaten, in fact...
posted by deeker at 1:06 PM on August 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

Recordings of several John Peel programmes containing Delgados (or Delgadoes?) sessions can be found on The Perfumed Garden's website. Just check its List of Downloadable Shows. There's lots of other great music there too, as well as the chance to enjoy Peel's wise, witty and sometimes just plain baffled DJ banter. He's always good company.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:20 PM on August 5, 2019