It’s Grim Up North was updated and re-released in 1991 in a slightly more “radio-friendly” version. The new mixes dropped Pete Wylie’s vocals from the 1990 original and replaced them with Bill Drummond’s instead. In addition The JAMs added a new outro in the form of Jerusalem On The Moors, an orchestrated arrangement of Jerusalem by Sir Hubert Parry.
Promotion & Advertising
The first advert for It’s Grim Up North appeared in the NME in late October ’91. The layout is centered around the large JAMs logo and includes the single’s release date as the only other bit of information.
Just one week later The JAMs ran a full-page advert in the NME which shows a graffiti reading “It’s Grim Up North” sprayed onto a bridge spanning the M1 motorway. While the graffiti had been around since the 70’s Labour MP Joe Ashton tabled a motion in the House Of Commons to have it removed (or at least have added additional lines about the South to balance things out) just a few days before the first advert had appeared. The JAMs naturally took the opportunity…
The third and final advert appeared two weeks later in November, displaying a slightly smaller JAMs logo and the tag line “The North Will Rise Again”. The very same phrase first appeared in Prestwich Prophet’s Grin on Who Killed The JAMs? and is also featured during the outro of the music video for It’s Grim Up North.
Reviews
Tracks & Formats
JAMS 28
| 7″ Single / 28 Oct 1991 | ||
| A | It’s Grim Up North (Part 1) [Edit] | |
| B | It’s Grim Up North (Part 2) [Edit] | |
JAMS 28C
| Cassette Single / 28 Oct 1991 | ||
| A1 | It’s Grim Up North (Part 1) [Edit] | |
| A2 | It’s Grim Up North (Part 2) [Edit] | |
JAMS 28R
| 12″ Single / 28 Oct 1991 | ||
| A | It’s Grim Up North (Part 1) | 10:03 |
| B | It’s Grim Up North (Part 2) | 6:13 |
JAMS 28CD
| CD Single / 28 Oct 1991 | ||
| 1 | It’s Grim Up North (Radio Edit) | 4:04 |
| 2 | It’s Grim Up North (Part 1) | 10:03 |
| 3 | It’s Grim Up North (Part 2) | 6:13 |
| 4 | Jerusalem On The Moors | 3:04 |
Does anyone know if there were any attempts to licence this for a US release?
Great track. I worked for KLF Communications from 1991 to 1992. There was a German version in the works … one day Bill brought a long computer printout into the studio (Lillie Yard, co-owned by Hans Zimmer) with a list of German towns and cities centered on the page and said the crew was considering a German version of Grim Up North. Not sure how much further it went than that.
Don’t think that ever went anywhere as this is the first time we ever heard of the idea. Given their history with German distributor Intercord it would make sense to do a “localized” version, though. Not to mention that the north of Germany can be pretty grim as well… 😀
Great blogpost, too – thanks for sharing!