Trashcans recycled

John Williamson In 1996, the Trashcan Sinatras released theirthird album, A Happy Pocket, to the kind of levels of press acclaimthat they had become accustomed to with their previous releases,Cake and I've Seen Everything. Their record company was on a hotstreak, having plotted the careers of Paul Weller, The BeautifulSouth, and Portishead. The label even splashed out on a short film,Spooktime, to accompany the album, and, even in the under-achievingworld of the Trashcan Sinatras, there was cause for optimism.Surely, Britain could no longer remain oblivious to their charms.

Erm, well. It could. Having enjoyed decent sales in Japan andAmerica on the first two albums, A Happy Pocket failed to secure aUS release, and was appearing at severely discounted prices in localrecord emporiums a few months after release. If, from the outside,things did not look good for the band, internally they werestruggling even more, all too familiar casualties of a recordcompany takeover.

While hardly alone in this predicament, the ironies surroundingtheir departure from Go! Discs are not lost on the band. Asked ontheir website as to the highlight of their career, singer FrancisReader and guitarist Paul Livingston choose "bankruptcy." On a mockfootball coupon on the inner sleeve of A Happy Pocket, they set outthe odds on Cardboard City (2/9) and Belgravia (10-1). If theirfinancial problems have not been quite as dramatic as one tabloidmade out, then neither have these been particularly good times forthe band. Unquestionably, since they left Go! Discs and AndyMacDonald of Go! Discs left Polygram, there has been only onewinner.

While the band have spent the last six years in varying degreesof hibernation, MacDonald set up a new label, signed anotherScottish band - Travis - and hit paydirt all over again. In thecircumstances, there is much to admire about the band's attitude(cynical rather than bitter, Reader makes only passing reference tothe "Bread revival") and their resilience. If three albums in 15years is far from prolific, then fans are clearly grateful of anyactivity. Tonight's show at King Tut's - their first in Glasgow forfive years - has sold out.

"Our touring just kind of evaporated as an exercise indiminishing returns," says Reader of their absence from playing(they have done some shows in Japan and America since 1996). "InJapan and America, at least we have always enjoyed a bit ofprestige, which actually makes playing there more realistic andrewarding than in this country. It's a bit of a shame, because Ithink we were just getting to the point of being good when westopped playing regularly. At the beginning, we wrote lots of songsthat we weren't able to play, but eventually we became quiteregimented and reliable."

Survival has been the main object of the exercise in recent years- and Reader seems genuine in his assertion that "even for us to getup to Glasgow (from Ayrshire) to rehearse is something of anachievement." A cover of Randy Newman's Snow, was released as asingle in Japan, an album was recorded in America last year. Variousband members moved temporarily to America and London, but it was acombination of songs, and the support of fans worldwide through theinternet, that kept spirits up.

"Things just seemed to go into slow motion," he recalls, "andthen we lost our studio. We ended up out on our ear, not answeringthe phone, that sort of thing.

"I think without the support of fans on the internet we may havefolded. There were fans in America putting together bootlegs,selling them on the web and then sending us bits of money."

For tonight's show, which sees a return to the five-piece line-up that toured I've Seen Everything and A Happy Pocket, they arepromising a mixture of new and old songs, with an album's worth ofmaterial written and ready to go, if and when they find a labelwilling to back it. For those getting impatient, there is nolikelihood of a release this year.

"I think it has been the songs more than anything else that havekept us together as a group," says Reader. "Our moods and attitudesto each other revolve a lot round the songs, and it has been quitestrange recently since we have started rehearsing again. Going backto some of the older songs has been a bit like reconnecting withdead relatives through a medium or something."

Fans at King Tut's may feel the same way about tonight's show -but the band is most certainly still alive.