The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 08/01/13
Chapterhouse - "Then We'll Rise" (1991)
As in so many cases, I have Peelie to thank for bringing this gem to my attention.
From about 1989 to 1994, I went through a period where I would - by means of two C-90 cassettes - record the whole of each of his Radio 1 wing-dings, and then dub the tracks I wanted to keep onto another tape.
Sometime in 1991, he played this track from Reading's Chapterhouse - a band from whom I knew nothing.
I was immediately enchanted by it; the song itself, the production and simply the way it moves.
Our part of the world not being renowned for the sort of record shops where you could easily pick up stuff like this, I was resigned to only ever being able to listen to it on a home-made tape...
...Until one Saturday in about 1999 or so, when I was browsing through a tatty box of equally down-at-heel-looking 12" singles in a record fair in the Guild Hall, Chester. Flicking along in the time-honoured fashion, I was suddenly confronted by a vividly-coloured sleeve with a painting of a dolphin on it. "Mmm, Chapterhouse!", I thought. "I wonder...?". And lo! Turning to the back of the sleeve and the track listing, I saw "Then We'll Rise" listed as the second track on the B-side.
The price sticker - bearing the logo of a chain of convenience stores - said "£2". Quite honestly, I would have paid five times that amount, even taking into account the somewhat foxed sleeve.
Doing research for the new 12" singles section of 45worlds (an offshoot of the famous 45cat site), I found a video of it. Not an official video; at least, not unless they were running short on both money and imagination at the studio that day. But it gives you the music - and that is all that matters when it's as good as this.
Update: The video I originally posted was pulled a while back, and for ages I couldn't find a replacement. Now I have:
