Aztec Camera
Aztec Camera were a Scottish new wave band formed by Roddy Frame, the group's singer, songwriter, and only consistent member. Formed in 1980, Aztec Camera released a total of six albums: High Land, Hard Rain (1983), Knife (1984), Love (1987), Stray (1990), Dreamland (1993) and Frestonia (1995). The band garnered popular success for the songs "Oblivious", "Somewhere in My Heart" and "Good Morning Britain" (a duet with former The Clash guitarist Mick Jones).
History
Early years
Aztec Camera first appeared on a Glasgow cassette-only compilation of local unsigned bands on the Pungent Records label, affiliated with the Fumes Fanzine run by Danny Easson and John Gilhooly. Fumes and Pungent Records championed several Glasgow bands before they achieved popular success.
Postcard Records
The band's first United Kingdom (UK) single release was sold in a 7" format by Postcard Records—a Glasgow-based independent record label cofounded by Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne—in 1981. The single featured the song "Mattress Of Wire" and a B-side entitled "Lost Outside The Tunnel". Frame, aged 16 years, met Collins for the first time during the Postcard period when the latter was 21 years old.
Podcasts:
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by Aztec Camera
Stray
by: Aztec CameraWords and music by Roddy Frame
You don't have to tell me what you're still looking for,
Two arms to hold you and a voice to say,
"That's alright, you can spend the night",
Well, come around.
'Cos I've been there and these are the notes
From the overground,
The World Saxaphone Quartet, the smell of violets,
And a passing friend won't let you down.
Listen to the rhythm of the rain falling,
Say you're gonna change your foolish ways.
Make a promise, break a promise in the same day,
It goes the same way, anyway.
So you pray for silence and its sadness and its violence
To be washed away, One day.
I understand the state you've reach of being unreachable,
Somewhere out there where only the music plays.
Loneliness and being alone don't always mean the same,
Who needs the movie? You can see the music anyway.
A Sketch For Winter, a Burgundy and sanctuary
Can make me stay when I feel that way.
And if my words don't say the things that they were meant to say,
And if confusion comes and carries all my words away,
And if you still don't understand,
I wanna hold your hand, and look at it this way...
Someone singing's better than the war they're winning
Winging its way, your way or my way,