Welcome to the official Distractions website. We will be aiming to record the history of one of the greatest, but least heralded, of all Manchester beat groups.
Continuing our round-up of all the reviews we've seen for the Nobody's Perfect reissue, this one from A. S. Van Dorston was an early review over on the Fast n'n Bulbous website.
The Distractions – Nobody’s Perfect (Island/Occultation, 1980)
Talk about a long road to recognition. I first learned about The Distractions when they released their reunion album The End Of The Pier in 2012, which I mentioned in my The Greatest Post-Punk Bands You Never Heard piece the next year. Their 1980 debut Nobody’s Perfect, despite being released on Island alongside the debut from U2, Grace Jones’ Warm Leatherette and The Buggles, was a lost classic because the band broke up by 1981 after lack of success, and the album was deleted and all but erased from history aside from a tantalizing entry in the Trouser Press Record Guide, which said the band had an “abnormally broad palette,” their eclecticism drawing on “everything from Chuck Berry to Phil Spector to psychedelia — often within the same song — and the vocals tend to be more somber than carefree.”
Formed in Manchester in 1975 with '60s mod, soul and garage influences, they were later inspired by the Buzzcocks to evolve toward a unique hybrid sound of Motown, garage psych, power pop and post-punk. After recording the Ramones-ish You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP in 1978 , they released the “Times Go By So Slow” single on Factory records, arguably one of the best the label ever released. They had already signed to Island before the single was released, and put out two more singles, “It Doesn’t Bother Me” and “Boys Cry” before releasing Nobody’s Perfect. Island seemed to have dropped the ball so they released three final tracks on the And Then There’s EP on Rough Trade in April 1981, and broke up. While fellow Mancunians Buzzcocks, Joy Division and The Fall would become legends, The Distractions were simply lost.
In 2016, it was announced that HiddenMasters would reissue the album, singles and demos as a box set called Parabolically Yours by the next year, but it didn’t happen. Fortunately it was announced last year a crowd funded joint effort between Occultation Recordings and Man In The Moon Records would finally make it happen. The CD and LP will be available March 20, but early funders are already receiving it, and it’s in my sweaty eager hands right now. It appears you can stream or buy the original 14 track album (remastered) on Bandcamp now, but need to order the CD or record to get the bonus demos, EPs, singles and bonus remixed version.
After years listening to a shitty vinyl MP3 rip, it’s a glorious experience hearing the remaster. While the original recording was flawed (so much so that fan and eventual member Nick Halliwell vowed to remix it if given the chance, which he did, on disc 2, tracks 13-26), I’m not one for revisionist history, however, and while the remix is meatier and brings other elements more up front, I prefer the more spindly, ethereal feel of the original. A great example is the opening track “Waiting For Lorraine,” which starts with a guitar riff similar to Blue Oyster Cult’s Byrdsian “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” before launching in a more up-tempo pace that’s poppy yet haunting. Elsewhere, staccato keyboards recall 1977-79 era Elvis Costello & The Attractions, new wave synths on “Sick And Tired,” and the post-Motown pop soul cover of Eden Kane’s 1964 “Boys Cry” is given some grit with Mike Finney’s textured, soulful vocals. The stop and stop riffs at the beginning of “Leave You To Dream” could easily be a Vampire Weekend song before sailing into a melodic organ-driven gem combining mod pop and Felt. “Looking For A Ghost” is truly spectral, featuring an eerie orchestral choir that Brian Wilson would have been have proud to have arranged. The lovely, languid piano intro makes you think “Valerie” will end the album slipping gently into the night. No chance of that, as within 20 seconds, it explodes into a frenetic, riotous pop punk tune.
I can understand why the album fell between the cracks. Some moments it would appeal to fans of The Jam or The Last, but others would confound them. Ideally the band would have been nurtured by their label for three or four releases to gain converts to their unique style. The band did eventually record more, with two EPs in 2010, then The End Of The Pier (2012) and Kindly Leave The Stage (2017), which sound completely different. But now we finally have the definitive, exhaustive version (if you order the CD or LP — the download is only the original 14 tracks) of the debut that’s of its time, out of time, and nearly perfect
This is the second half of Ian Canty's review of the Nobody's Perfect 2CD reissue at Louder Than War, which covers the all the bonus tracks.
The Distractions – Nobody’s Perfect
By Ian Canty
The rest of the selections here are made up of their Island singles, the 'And Then There’s…' EP issued on That Records in 1981 after they left Chris Blackwell’s empire and a compilation cut Leave Me (produced by the great Richard Strange). Kingpin Steve Perrin had left the band after the exit from Island and was replaced by Arthur Kadmon (ex-Ludus). The EP in particular offers a tantalising glimpse into how The Distractions could have thrived as the 1980s went on. The horns added to Ghost Of A Chance work well, as Mike Finney was always a soul singer in truth, the R&B flavour suits the band ideally. Love Is Not For Me has some great funk jabs and Leave Me shows the subtle craft of The Distractions was still in full effect.
Disc two here goes under the title of 'Ride Your Ideas Ragged', which seeks to gather up all demos, the early singles from the band 1978-80, plus a new remix of the album by Nick Halliwell. By sidestepping any unwise modernisation, he has done wonders. Instead he subtly brings up different elements up in the sound and gently adds small but necessary fills. What he presents here a new and thrilling alternative to the 1980 mix, exposing hidden layers. This spotlights Mike’s excellent voice, but also gives a different perspective too – you can finally see the sense of Nick Stewart’s pursuit of Gary Usher (producer of The Beach Boys) to helm 'Nobody’s Perfect' hearing the harmony vocals on Leave You To Dream, or properly hear some neat bass runs on (Stuck In A) Fantasy. Mike Finney’s voice is given pride of place and this mix also offers clear perspective of the instrumental prowess at work. It all gels together wonderfully well.
Apart from the remix, there’s a lot of fun to be had on their early punky demos, with the ratty sound of the first version of Pillow Fight a real winner. The Time Goes By So Slow single, as noted above, never ages and the TJM EP finds the band limbering up the gifts at their disposal nicely. No wonder Tony Wilson jumped in.
'Nobody’s Perfect' didn’t make the kind of mark it should have and as a consequence has remained sadly unavailable until now. This reissue is sorely needed and the booklet meets the standard set by the musical contents. Ex-NME writer, novelist and long-term advocate of the band David Quantick provides an excellent sleeve-note to set the scene and Nick Stewart explains his crucial relationship with the band. Nick Halliwell also tells us about the remix, which rounds off a fine collection.
Happily The Distractions sprang back into life in the 21st century and have since supplied us with two great belated follow-up LPs in 'The End Of The Pier' and 'Kindly Leave The Stage', from 2012 and 2017 respectively. I caught them live a year or two back and they were just brilliant, with Finney’s voice still a thing of beauty and the new version of the band spot on (see here for more). I would urge you to check them out live as you really wouldn’t want to miss the chance of seeing the songs featured here done justice, would you? Nobody’s Perfect maybe, but this reissue is.
Here's the first half of an insightful review of the Nobody's Perfect 2CD reissue by Ian Canty at the essential Louder Than War website. The second half, which looks at all the additional tracks, will follow soon.
The Distractions – Nobody’s Perfect
By Ian Canty
Man In The Moon/Occultation Recordings
2CD/Vinyl
Reissue of the long out of print debut album by Manchester’s The Distractions, Nobody’s Perfect, with a host of extra material including the Time Goes By So Slow and You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That? 7 inchers… LTW’s Ian Canty hears one of the great “lost” albums by a truly great band…
The Distractions, formed in Manchester way back in 1975 by kingpins Mike Finney and Steve Perrin, were a treasure of a band. Gathering pace with in the punk/new wave boom of 1977, they married their own take on classic pop with the rough and tumble of the new breed and few (if any) did it better. The promise that they displayed meant the local independent labels swiftly became interested in the band. They subsequently debuted with the You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That EP on the TJM imprint early in ’79. Lead track Doesn’t Bother Me was an early indication of their admirable abilities, taking their time unwinding the song towards a top quality chorus, with power and finesse plus Mike Finney’s excellent voice. This gave both a feeling of immediacy and craftsmanship and was totally endearing too.
After the success of the TJM EP Tony Wilson, who had been keeping a keen eye on the band, offered them a chance to cut their next disc for his fledgling Factory label. The resulting 45 was pure brilliance: Time Goes By So Slow is one of those few songs that will never date, a classic single that retains the freshness and mystique that it established on the very first plays every single time.
Despite their abundant talents, The Distractions weren’t overly cursed with luck. Though in A&R man Nick Stewart they no doubt found a kindred spirit (and he is responsible for this reissue on his own Man In The Moon label) the rest of Island Records, who signed them, didn’t really seem to know what to do with them. As a label they generally struggled with the new wave, which on the whole they steered clear of. Having got The Distractions to sign on the dotted line they tended to view their anti-image with the same sense of puzzlement that they approached The Slits with. The more traditional Eddie And The Hot Rods were luckier, but overall the label were at a loss on how to put over these bright young things and this would have an impact of our heroes and heroine.
By the time of the recorded material presented on this first disc, Perrin and Finney had been joined by Adrian Wright on guitar and a rhythm section of Pip Nicholls and veteran drummer Alec Sidebottom, the latter of whom had previous which included a stint behind the traps for '60s psychedelic act The Purple Gang. These three came with musical talent to burn and it is fair to say were a little overlooked back then. But Wright was a handy songwriter himself and with the rhythm section’s fire, this all added a further layer of depth to The Distractions’ brew.
So this new collection begins with Nobody’s Perfect, the original version of the LP released in 1980. Over the fourteen tracks of the record The Distractions show a rare imagination and ability. It’s very tempting to see them as Buzzcocks’ slightly older brothers and sister, with a worldly and enhanced insight into the workings of the emotional world, but still somehow retaining hope for the fantastic to happen. Opening salvo Waiting For Lorraine gives a decent pointer of their unique skills. A busy, driving rhythm sets the band off to a flying start and the song, as usual excellently interpreted by Finney, runs expertly through the gamut of doubts that go through an anxious lover’s mind when the object of their affection is away from them. It rings true, which is where The Distractions always score highly. Of course the refrain quickly embeds itself too, the tunes are always of a very high quality.
A very pretty version of Eden Kane’s hit Boys Cry was a decent fit for the band and it was released as a single with the hope that a cover might give them a foothold in the charts. This was a reasonable strategy, but it unfortunately failed and really The Distractions’ own songs were so much better. They were a flexible and imaginative outfit too and offered a variety that few others could match, whilst always keeping their own individual identity throughout. Something For The Weekend is catchy and cheeky and the neat little touches, like the rock & roll piano riff that underpins the music on this track, all go to show why they stood out from the pack.
Nobody’s Perfect is such a strong album that it feels wrong to pick out highlights – everything here has something about it that may speak to you and call your heart. Paracetamol Paralysis shows the band weren’t po-faced either, very witty words attached to a riffy piece of punk rock and Nothing is touching and soulful, with a purposeful drive. It’s hard not to imagine that the writers lived these songs and that I suppose is key to why The Distractions sound so great even today. They wore their hearts on their sleeves and they were big hearts indeed.
At the other end of the scale Wonder Girl is Merseybeat repositioned adeptly for the 1980’s and the choral arrangement of Looking For A Ghost is incredible. I can’t think of any other band at the time that would even have tried it, let alone pull it off with such aplomb. Valerie brings Nobody’s Perfect to an all-action rousing end, gentle piano giving way to a rollicking punk pop masterclass. I found this LP beguiling from the get-go, there’s a warmth to it that remained in my mind long after I had finished listening to it, as well as corking tunes all the way through brilliantly played and sung. A true gem.
Like so many gifted bands who suffered similar fates, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why The Distractions fell through the cracks. Cited – along with their regular gigging partners Joy Division – by the NME’s Paul Morley as one of Manchester’s brightest hopes (“Joy Division are the perfect rock band for the 80s… and The Distractions are the perfect pop band”), they seemed poised for greatness when they signed to Island, only for their debut album, Nobody’s Perfect, to sink without trace.
In retrospect, the record’s abject failure still seems hard to credit, as The Distractions seemingly held all the aces when it was first released in February 1980. They could easily pull a thousand punters to their hometown gigs and their lone Factory single, Time Goes By So Slow, was as revered locally as Buzzcocks’ What Do I Get?, Magazine’s Shot By Both Sides or Joy Division’s Transmission.
Whatever the vagaries, though, it’s criminal that Nobody’s Perfect has languished in obscurity for this long. It never previously made it to CD or even caught a whiff of a vinyl reissue, so this bells and whistles 40th anniversary edition – which also includes all the band’s early demos, non-LP singles’n’flips and a 2020 remix of the whole shebang by uber fan/Occultation label boss Nick Halliwell – will be a welcome surprise for long-term fans. It’s as close to a definitive Distractions package as you could wish for.
The Distractions (with Mike Finney, far-right): “diverse and dashing”
Approaching the two discs chronologically reveals just how quickly the band evolved en route to making Nobody’s Perfect. The second disc’s slew of demos from September 1978 and the four tracks from the debut EP, You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That, have retained their original vim and vigour, but while their garage-y energy captures the spirit of the times, the superior song-craft inherent in Maybe It’s Love and the melancholic Nothing demonstrate that this talented quintet had already outstripped the limitations of punk.
Armed with a major label budget for Nobody’s Perfect, The Distractions pulled out all the stops to create a classic pop debut and came heroically close. Seemingly always the bridesmaid, Mike Fnney reveals why he remains the most underappreciated vocalist of his generation on the sumptuous ballads (Still It Doesn’t Ring; a glorious, Spectorian remake of Eden Kane’s 1964 hit, Boys Cry), while tunes as diverse and dashing as the edgy power-pop of Waiting For Lorraine and the swooning Leave You To Dream should have seen chief songwriter Steve Perrin ranked among Mancunian giants such as Graham Gouldman and Pete Shelley many moons ago.
Tying up loose ends, there’s also the three tracks of And Then There’s..., the band’s lone post-Island EP from 1981, which are quirkier and clearly recorded on a shoestring, but produced with little discernible drop-off in quality. To complete the picture, meanwhile, ardent fans and newcomers alike will have a blast comparing and contrasting the original Nobody’s Perfect with Nick Halliwell’s angular modern-day remix, which kicks the record’s outdated keyboard textures into touch and recasts the album in a notably sleeker, radio-friendly light that sounds thrillingly contemporary.
The biggest mainstream music magazine coverage of the reissue of Nobody's Perfect came in the wonderful Record Collector. Tim Peacock's generous review was accompanied by a Q&A with Man In The Moon's Nick Stewart, one of the main movers behind the long-awaited 2CD and LP reissue. So before the review, here's the Q&A with the former Island Records A&R man.
Q&A
Man In The Moon Records’ Nick Stewart on signing The Distractions to Island and
the making of Nobody’s
Perfect
You’re famous for your A&R work, signing U2 among others. Is
it true you were trying to sign Joy Division to Island when you first heard The
Distractions?
Yes. I heard Unknown
Pleasures and A Certain Ratio’s 'All Night Party' shortly after I joined Island’s A&R department in August
1979 and thought they were both fantastic, so I met with Tony Wilson, Alan
Erasmus and Rob Gretton at Factory’s HQ in Palatine Road, Manchester, in
September ’79. I already rated Tony because of his work with Granada TV and I
soon found out how single-minded Rob was. When I attempted to sign Joy Division
to Island, he made it abundantly clear they weren’t for sale. However, Tony
asked if I’d heard The Distractions’ recent Factory single, Time Goes By So
Slow. I was a sucker for jangly '60s pop and The Distractions reminded me of The
Byrds, so I was smitten as soon as he played me the record. By the time I
returned to London, I was determined to sign them.
You originally wanted Gary Usher to helm the Nobody’s Perfect sessions?
I thought Gary Usher was a genius, because he’d done those classic
Byrds albums, Younger Than
Yesterday and The Notorious Byrd Brothers. To their credit, Island were up for
it, but Usher hadn’t made a record for a decade – he’d retired and bought a
sweet shop in Seattle! He wanted to produce The Distractions, but he also
wanted Island to fly his entire family to London and put them up for a month, which
was impossible financially. Eventually Phil Chapman and Jon Astley, who later
worked with The Who and Eric Clapton, produced it. I gave them a copy of The Notorious Byrd Brothers and told them I wanted Nobody’s Perfect to sound like it. It didn’t, but they
did a great job regardless.
The Distractions came out of Manchester’s punk scene, but they
obviously stood apart from the era’s three-chord chancers…
That’s right. I was a big fan of Brinsley Schwartz and Nick Lowe’s
music in general and I felt The Distractions had more in common with them and
that late ‘70s power pop thing. I didn’t see them as punk at all. Their
antecedents were definitely The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers and some of
the Nuggets acts like The Standells. They harked
back to the melodic pop/rock from the mid-to-late ‘60s with West Coast Californian
inflections.
The band had a wealth of infectious pop songs and a terrific
vocalist in Mike Finney, so why did Nobody’s
Perfect fail commercially?
In a sense, The Distractions were like The Only Ones, who also
signed to a major label [CBS] and had quite a lot of money thrown at them. They
obviously weren’t a “punk” band, either, so like The Distractions, they didn’t
fit in with the times – and remember there was also a huge turnover of musical
styles back then. For example, 2Tone was big news in 1980 and the new romantics
were about to break through. Even so, I was convinced 'It Doesn’t Bother Me' and 'Boys Cry' would both be hits, but Radio 1 just weren’t interested. The album came out
and the band toured, but it just never caught fire.
How do you feel Nick Halliwell’s new mix of Nobody’s Perfect compares with the original?
It’s a whole lot brighter and punchier and it’s certainly very
2020. I think he’s done a fantastic job with it and it has a good chance of
picking up some of that elusive airplay this time around. Nobody’s Perfect is returning 40 years to the month of
its original release in 1980 and it’s never been out on CD before, so the
timing’s right and it will be very interesting to see how well it does. It’s
been away for a long time, but I think it’s going to get a lot of love at last.
On to the larger reviews from the music monthlies. This Uncut magazine review from Daniel Dylan Wray in the April 2020 issue scores our reissue at 8/10 and 9/10! Stocks are starting to run low so if you're yet to pick your 2CD and/or LP up head, head to Occultation or Bandcamp.
REDISCOVERED
Uncovering the underrated and overlooked
THE DISTRACTIONS
Nobody's Perfect
MAN IN THE MOON
8/10
Unknown pleasures from forgotten Manc band
1979 was a musically fertile time for Manchester, and Factory Records were at the centre of it all. That year they put out records by the likes of Joy Division, OMD and A Certain Ratio, and also a 7" by a significantly less feted group, The Distractions. If "Time Goes By So Slow" today sounds like a connecting bridge between post-punk and the jangly indie that followed, in 1979 the group's focus was somewhat antithetical to the post-punk rhythm of the times. Swiftly signing to Island, the group, led by vocalist Mike Finney and guitarist Steve Perrin, released their debut album the following year. Despite some critical warmth, however, Nobody's Perfect sold poorly and just a year later The Distractions disbanded.
Forty years on, though, this curious and charming record, now being reissued, remains unshakably infectious, from the buoyant, almost Blue Oyster Cult-esque skip of opener "Waiting For Lorraine" to their soul-drenched cover of Eden Kane's 1964 hit "Boys Cry". Defying easy labelling, the group wriggle around between new wave, punk, post-punk and soul, and there's an inescapable "wrong place, wrong time" feeling that emanates from these 14 tracks. For a start, there's something inherently and inescapably Liverpudlian about this Mancunian group, with Finney's vocals possessing a touch of Ian McCulloch and their jangle-heavy sound almost like a long-lost blueprint for The La's or The Coral.
Just a few years after Nobody's Perfect's release, the unwinding guitar solos, creamy vocal deliveries and melody-drenched hooks that fill the album would come fully into fashion via the likes of Orange Juice and C86. Perrin would later comment that the band were, "Out of time rather than ahead of it - The Distractions have never seem to fit in with a particular period." As a result, they have fallen into place along with the likes of The Freshies and The Chameleons as somewhat forgotten Manchester bands from the era. Although, as this reissue proves, there's plenty of reasons why that should be remedied.
Extras: 9/10. Original and remixed version of the album, along with 20 bonus tracks featuring rarities, demos and alternate versions.
