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Occasional Albums Thing 081 - The Real People “The Real People”

In the summer of 1991 The Wonder Stuff were booked to play at the Hultsfred Festivalen at the People’s Park in the small town of Hultsfred, population just over 5,000, in South Eastern Sweden, not far from the Baltic Sea. The festival ran from 1986 until 2010 with the first festival attracting 7,500 punters which grew eventually to 32,000, far outstripping the population of the town itself.

One day in August 1991 we all trooped off to Stanstead Airport to get on a flight to Hultsfred Airport. On arriving at Stanstead we discovered that every British band playing at the Festival over the weekend was on this same flight. In order to save themselves some money the promoters had chartered a plane and got us all to fly out together for a weekend in Sweden. This is how The Wonder Stuff, James, Transvision Vamp and our subjects here, The Real People, along with a few others that I no longer remember all ended up on the same Boeing 737 bound for Scandinavia. 

Hultsfred Airport was in the middle of a forest of Fir trees. As we came in to land all we could see were trees until, as we got far too close to the tops of some of those trees and began clipping the tips, a runway appeared below us. Around the perimeter fence looked like what might be the entire population of Hultsfred, who had come to greet us, or so we imagined. We were later told that rather than wanting to see the cream of British Indie Pop arrive in their town the people were there to see if a Boeing 737 could actually land at their secluded little airport, as nothing that big had ever landed there before, or would the cream of British Indie Pop disappear in a fireball amongst the trees at the opposite end of the runway…cheers Sweden !

It seems that The Real People, genuine Scouse scallies to a man, had never been out of the country before and had availed themselves of as much free booze as they could on the flight and had been having quite the party behind us. I decided at that point that I had to go and see this band who were having so much fun when they played. Which saw me a couple of days later awaiting their arrival onstage at the Teaterladan stage. I knew nothing about them but I was most impressed by their performance which was far more serious than their antics on the plane. On arriving home I bought this album, on CD which makes me now grateful for this Purple vinyl 35th anniversary re-issue I have, an original will cost you close to 3 figures these days.

It starts really, really well with maybe their best known song, the first single taken from this album, “Window Pane”. A jangly guitar leads us into a vaguely “Baggy” groove and undoubtedly Revolver-ish influenced vocals. They all mesh beautifully to bring us a Psychedelic groover that has filled many a dancefloor for me over the years. It’s an absolute banger. The lyrics are actually quite deep, themes of emotional detachment and altered states of perception, not at all what I expected from the gang of pissed up scallies on the back of a plane but I guess there may have been a substance-ial influence perhaps.

That’s followed by “I Can’t Wait”, the ballad “For You” (not the Bruce Springsteen song) and then the third single taken from this album “The Truth”. Which is just about when it hits you, the Real People really knew how to write a tune. These songs are hook laden beauties, jam packed with great tunes. The other single taken from this album “Open Up Your Mind (Let Me In)” is another Psychy groover which hammers home the question how did these guys never have a hit ? Of the 3 singles on this album the most successful was “The Truth” which reached #41. And they are not all. "She", "Looking At You", "n Your HAnds" and the final "Another Day" are all superb.

Yes the Real People wear their influences on their sleeve, The Beatles, The La’s and you could suggest they aligned with the Baggy thing as much as that was anything at the time, there are hints of the Stone Roses in the grooves here too. But to me this all points in one direction, listening to this album, you cannot tell me Oasis were not paying very close attention to the Real People. It turns out that bassist and songwriter Tony Griffiths helped Oasis record the demo’s that eventually caught the attention of Alan McGee at Creation Records, helping with arrangements and the process of recording. Tony had met Noel Gallagher while he a working with the Inspiral Carpets. This whole album feels like a blueprint for what Oasis served up 3 years later. Except the Real People had better songs (to my ears) and much, much more groove about them.

I’ve played this album regularly over the last 35 (!) years. It points to a route alongside other records from the time by the likes of Orange, where "Brit Pop" developed as a much groovier thing altogether, less rooted in laddish bravado and more concerned with truly great and groove laden songs than it was with attempting to relive some 60’s ideal that never existed and getting it shockingly wrong anyway. I’m so glad to have “The Real People” on vinyl at last, look out for selections from it coming to a dance floor near you real soon.

Window Pane - https://youtu.be/U2OyWJTGXDY?si=mVAhwagGndn-sLuZ