Early promo-only version of their later commercial version which featured Pete Wylie on vocals instead of Bill Drummond.
We went to this rave and the sound system was broken. All you could hear was this kind of screeching top-end and a really low bass drum and we thought, ‘Wow, this is what the kids are into’.Jimmy Cauty, Record Mirror
According to the same article the track took only 45 minutes to record.
While we were doing the [White Room] album, we went into another part of the studio for light relief. We started recording some stuff in a different style. There is no structure to it, just noise – it’s horrible! It’s definitely not a chartbound sound!The JAMs (Rage, 8 Jan 1991)
While the latter statement might definitely be true for the original version the re-recorded 1991 version would net the duo another Top Ten entry in the UK only ten months later.
Reviews
The JAMS’ new track is one mind-blowing mental onslaught of what they call “Turbo reality for the bleep generation” [but] could be a bit too manic for the disco dollies to handle.
Richie Blackmore, Record Mirror, 1990
Tracks & Formats
JAMS 28T
| 12″ Single / 17 Dec 1990 | ||
| A | It’s Grim Up North | 8:38 |
According to the KLF Info Sheets only 350 copies of the single have been pressed.
I think this is possibly my favourite item in my KLF collection, the slab of grey vinyl looks and sounds like nothing else, I wish I could recall where I got it from back in the day, sometime in ’91 I suspect, but from where I know not. Saw one sell on ebay recently for a ludicrous sum of money, was half tempted to get mine on there (complete with comms sheet), but decided against it, some things are best held on to 🙂
Don’t – you would just fume at yourself and try to find another copy on eBay for ages. 😉
Don’t worry, my other half talked me out of it ‘memories are more important than money’ was her thinking, think I’ve only ever seen that one on ebay, straight bid of £250 for it, bonkers!
If anyone is interested, another one popped up on ebay, an absolute steal at buy it now price of £500, or if you wanna start bidding at £299, crazy days…. not mine by the way!
Anyone else notice the similarities between this & Blue Pearls ‘Dancing in the Rain’? It’s far more apparent in Jimmy’s remixes of said track but there are similarities in the track itself. The pounding drum beat & bassline synth pattern are very similar to begin with and Jimmy’s mixes have the passing traffic elements & car horn like synth stabs. I also thought the Blue Pearl track had thunderstorm intro/outro but it doesn’t? I guess it is implied in the title somewhat and my memory added it for some reason.
Theory: ‘Turn up Strobe’ became ‘Grim up North’ & working with Youth on the Blue Pearl track was the turning point.
Pointers: The unreleased Turn up the Strobe was never fully finished but the main elements were there and the expectation to produce and release it are apparent. Like the early white room album everything was paused & up for re-working in late 89 early 90.
As far as I am aware the Stadium House reworks were released in the same sequence as the PT originals and where TUTS would have been in that reworking sequence coincides with the IGUN release. The supposed IGUN demo we hear at the end of the Stadium House trilogy is in my opinion actually a portion of TUTS. Just like Go To Sleep became Last Train to Trancentral I think that Turn up the Strobe became It’s Grim up North.
The Blue pearl mixes either gave Jimmy ideas that he added to the TUTS rework or he was adding ideas to the Blue Pearl mixes that he had already been working on to produce IGUN. If it was Trancentral backroom jamming that produced the gritty industrial IGUN then there’s a fair chance Youth was present and maybe had some input? Also, the overall sound could fit the boys feeling that TUTS needed an Acid House revival to have relevance.
Also worth noting that their final rework (as KLF/JAMs) reached right back to the very start to revive Justified & Ancient from All You Need is Love to wrap it all in a loop, bookending the beginning and end of the crazy ride that the Jams took us on.
Feel free to ignore all of the above as the ramblings of a madman. Any discussion or counterpoints are welcomed.
Rex.
Defo does sound insane to be honest. I get the theory though.
The Stadium House and the Pure Trance singles were released in the same order if we don’t include those that are unreleased.
(That being PT3/4). I recall PT3 was recycled into It’s Grim and PT4 recycled into J&A.
The beat of Love Trance is similar to that of It’s Grim anyway.
PT3 was scrapped because Jimmy just didn’t like it. Alex Patterson had a copy where Jimmy scratched the entire A Side to prevent Love Trance being played.
* Oops. I meant Hey Hey We’re not the Monkees & not All You Need is Love but there’s no edit button. Doh!