Lovejoy

Lovejoy have a reputation for creating sophisticated indie music. In the late nineties and early noughties, they released a string of well received and now sought-after 7"singles, EPs and albums, also playing shows in the UK, across Europe and Scandinavia, until taking an extended break in 2008. In 2024, from seemingly out of nowhere, they made a surprise, warmly received return with their acclaimed album '...And It's Love!,' released jointly by Spinout Nuggets and Shelflife Records. '...And It's Love!' received glowing reviews and 2024 saw Lovejoy's Dick Preece's live return too, performing songs acoustically in support of the album. Music legend Alan McGee has been a firm supporter of Lovejoy, also providing sleeve notes for '...And It's Love!' (Ed Ball too). After the album's release, he and Dick Preece collaborated on the recording of lost Biff Bang Pow! song, 'Let There Be Love.' The story goes that, while reviewing material for Cherry Red's 2022 BBP! retrospective, 'A Better Life,' McGee came across a live recording of the long-forgotten song: "It's one of the 3 or 4 best songs I ever wrote for Biff Bang Pow! We played it a few times live and I can't believe we never recorded it at the time. But things were chaotic and so were we. In all the madness, we just forgot...", said McGee. The live recording was too rough to be released, but McGee suggested to Preece that Lovejoy should record it. "Talk about pressure to get it right" says Preece, "...what a responsibility. But we played the song through together, talked about what it needed, swapped ideas and gradually both versions came together. When Spinout Nuggets and Creation Youth (McGee's new record label) agreed to co-release the songs as a 7" single, I was just so thrilled".'Let There Be Love' is an epic, defiant song of love and longing, beautifully meshing McGee's melodic dexterity with Lovejoy's measured elegance. A tender acoustic take shimmers with beauty and Felt like ethereal guitar, while the electric version recalls the darker, intense Biff...