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Music

Sand in the Vaselines

THE VASELINES with RICK OF THE SKINS at Lee’s Palace (529 Bloor West), Friday (May 15), 9 pm. $29.50. 416-870-8000, ticketmaster.ca.


Eugene Kelly is an admitted procrastinator. Whether it’s readying his band’s travel documents on the eve of their departure for America or putting his band, the Vaselines, back together nearly 20 years after its dissolution, the Scot has a way of putting things off.

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“Passport information, the details of where we’re staying – I’m dealing with a lot of it,” says Kelly calmly from Glasgow. “It’s all kind of easy to do, but I tend to leave it to the last moment. Then I’m like, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’ Once we’re on the plane to Los Angeles tomorrow, I can relax.”

The noisy pop duo, known for their Belle and Sebastian-like simple pop melodies and the occasional dirty wall of noise, came to an untimely end in 1990 when Kelly’s relationship with co-conspirator Frances McKee fell apart. There were other factors, of course, including their only studio full-length – Dum-Dum – being caught in limbo when the label went bust.

“When Frances and I broke up, we came to a natural end,” he says. “I thought, ‘Should we keep the band going?’ but I didn’t think it was possible because we wouldn’t be able to write together in the same way. The songs came out of our spending a lot of time together.”

The cruelest irony of the Vaselines’ career is that they disbanded two years before the height of their popularity. After Kurt Cobain became their most famous fan, Nirvana covered two Vaselines songs on Incesticide, exposing the Scots to a new, larger audience and convincing Sup Pop to release The Way Of The Vaselines (now reissued in deluxe form as Enter The Vaselines).

“Most people know us through him. I’ve always said we are super-grateful for what Kurt, Krist and Dave done for us. We’ve been the luckiest band ever, but when we were together we were tortured. The best thing we ever done for our career is break up.”

Hopefully, future Vaselines success won’t require calling it quits again, I tell him, thanking Kelly for his time on a busy day. He sounds appreciative of the distraction.

“I’m thinking about just taking some time off. Maybe I’ll watch TV for a bit. I’ll probably start packing at 6 in the morning.”

Interview Clips

Kelly talking about how the music industry in Scotland has changed since the Vaselines were together.

Download associated audio clip.

Kelly recalls the reasons why the band broke up in the early 90s.

Download associated audio clip.

music@nowtoronto.com

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