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**CLEAR VINYL**
"This is the band that I've called "the greatest live rock'n'roll band in the world ever, full stop". This is the band that made me walk out of a Birthday Party gig, because I knew there wasn't a hope in hell that Nick Cave's group, even at the height of their awesome, spontaneous powers, could follow them.” - Everett True
Following the demise in 1978 of the original line-up of The Saints, guitarist Ed Kuepper returned to Australia and teamed up with his schoolyard chum and former Saints drummer, Jeffrey Wegener, embarking upon his most ambitious project to date, the Laughing Clowns. Taking inspiration from such disparate genres as free-jazz, bluegrass and krautrock the Laughing Clowns would polarise opinion in much the same manner as John Lydon did with his post-Sex Pistols outfit PiL. In reality, though, the Laughing Clowns were the logical extension of The Saints continuing the musical themes already explored on The Saints second and in particular, third album, Prehistoric Sounds.
“People always misinterpreted what we were doing [in Laughing Clowns]. There were too many references to jazz. We weren’t a jazz band. I think people got fixated on some of the dissonant and atonal stuff more then ever was my intention. That stuff was easy. I know how to make something sound atonal really easily. What I want is for something really beautiful to come out of it.” - Ed Kuepper
"This group in my opinion were one of the most important rock groups of the last 30 years” - Julian Cope (2006)
Golden Days… is an entry-level collection of Laughing Clowns material - curated by Kuepper - and spanning the band’s entire time frame of 1979 - 1984 (as long as The Saints themselves). The classic Eternally Yours is included here as are the equally as worthy Everything That Flies, Holy Joe and more.
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