It seems that supergroups just aren’t what they used to be. These days the term can apparently be used, albeit prefaced by the ‘indie’ clarification, for a band featuring two members of The Electric Soft Parade, someone from The Tenderfoot and Eamon Hamilton, the Canadian percussionist with British Sea Power and head honcho for the project. Blind Faith it ain’t.
Thank goodness actually, since Eric Clapton and co would never have made a record quite so dizzyingly unhinged as Give Blood. Given that BSP are not the most mainstream of bands in the first place, it’s not hard to imagine how out there one of their offshoots might be.
Take that idea, double it and you’ll start to get a handle on just how odd Give Blood really is. Featuring 16 tracks and lasting the length of two Live 8 performances, the record tears along from the off, pausing only to mess with your mind with its songs of monkeys, gypsies and coke-addled asshole musicians.
There’s probably a theme here somewhere, but you’d be hard pushed to find it. The music, too, darts from place to place, ramshackle in the extreme but equally enjoyable. Give Blood is a record that comes from another place, a world that cares little for airplay, charts and Mercury Music Prizes. Approximately 376 people will buy it and John Peel, God rest his soul, would have adored it. A classic.