Before photography, I was an indie-label underachiever. From 2002 until 2019, I owned and managed the Glasgow and Warsaw indie record label, Too Many Fireworks. On January 21st 2027, Too Many Fireworks will turn 25 years old. To celebrate, I am writing about each catalogue number, the club nights, and the other bits and pieces. Speaking to bands, DJs and fans, I am building a small oral history of the label.
It’s fair to say I’d been a fan of Adam Smith’s shambling indie pop band, the Hector Collectors, for some time. A perfect example of a live band that skirts the line between brilliance and it all falling apart. Oddly enough, the first mention of Adam in my diary of the time is that he and Lisa of Glasgow band My Legendary Girlfriend got a bunch of us invited to the Yummy Fur’s John McKeown’s wedding party after a Macrocosmica gig. I mean, if you had told me right now that this had happened, I’d have laughed you out of the room. Am I glad that I saved my LiveJournal before deleting my account, or what?! Anyway, Adam’s brilliant – as is his band.
Like Mateusz Franczak in Poland, there are artists in Scotland who were pivotal to the direction that Too Many Fireworks was to take over the 20-odd years we were releasing records. One of those was Graham Fucking Peel of Flying Matchstick Men. Andy Bonar introduced me to Peel as a possible keyboard player for our band, Troika – though that seems bananas in retrospect. I didn’t know Graham’s band at the time, but after our meeting in a busy Nice N Sleazy, I was excited to hear them. Peel talks a good game.
Dialogues
In September 2002, I had been sitting in a hotel garden in Manchester and decided that Too Many Fireworks would start a split 7″ singles club called Dialogues — more of that madness when I write about the first one. The second, however, Dialogue Two, was a serendipitous encounter of Flying Matchstick Men and the Hector Collectors; two chaotic bands meeting at the perfect time and place.
The Hector Collectors
The Hector Collectors, named after Glasgow slang for someone who gathers glass bottles for the deposit, opened the single on the A side with the fabulous Celebrity World War. Gavin Dunbar of Camera Obscura produced the track and also provided keyboards for the record. Speaking to Adam, it’s safe to say he feels Gav was the unsung hero of the record both for his expertise and his support. After we finished recording, echoing The Beatles’ producer George Martin, Gav quipped, Congratulations, gentlemen, you’ve just made your first No. 1 record.
When I started Too Many Fireworks, I think it would have been a stretch to imagine one of our first records opening with a wonderfully witty, Half Man Half Biscuit-esque depiction of an international conflict carried out by many, very turn-of-the-millennium celebrities. I mean… Danny from Hearsay, for goodness sake. When I asked what he was listening to around the recording of the single, his list was very suitably Adam, containing as it does The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles Giles and Fripp, Neutral Milk Hotel, and The United States of America, though as he says, not that they had much of any influence on this record whatsoever!
Flying Matchstick Men
Flying Matchstick Men took the flipside of the record with their song, Kids! Revolution! A raucous, sorta-anticapitalist, sorta-teenageriot blast with an almost soviet refrain and a lot of Heys! The song was produced by the Neqtunes – Joe Howe (Germlin) and Gavin Thomson (GRNR), the latter of whom would join the band on bass and production not long after collaborating with the band on their first album, also released on Too Many Fireworks. I remember the overwhelming excitement I felt the first time I listened to these songs back-to-back. My diary describes it best. Jesus. Christ! On release, we packaged the 7″ vinyl with a download code where listeners could find some exclusive remixes of Kids! Revolution! made by Gav and Joe.
Writing with Adam about that time, the time of release, something he said chimed with me more than I imagined it would. I asked what he misses most from that time, and he replied that he misses the open frontier/finiteness (paradox but it’s true) of Web 1.0 and that nascent excitement of the 02- 06-ish Glasgow music scene when everything seemed more exciting. It was truly a great time, particularly when Flying Matchstick Men appeared.
I was in awe of their rizz and their fearless stripe of eccentricity, says Adam. I don’t think either of these songs is our best, but theirs has much more presence and excitement, and the pairing made sense. One of Adam’s best gig memories of this time is seeing the Matchsticks, for the second time, at the 13th Note in January 2003. They opened with this loose, crazy version of The B-52s’ Love Shack. It was the definition of lightning in a bottle, youthful FUN.
Careless Talk
One thing Adam reminded me of, which I’m astonished I’d forgotten, was that Everett True reviewed the single in one of the only 12 issues of Careless Talk Costs Lives he ever published. Slampt kids at the indie disco was the line remembered, much praise in True’s book, I think. My diary, I’m glad to say, also reminds me that Everett True featured both the Hector Collectors and Flying Matchstick Men (and my own band, Troika from Dialogue One) on his Careless Talks radio show on the TotallyRadio website.
The artwork for the record was a crude photo of the inside of a rehearsal room, from yours-truly long before I had any idea of what I was doing. I believe I made it on a disposable camera, too. Much more impressive was the lyrics sheet for Celebrity World War that Adam drew and asked us to include with the record. I’d forgotten it was in there. I love it!
Peel never did join Troika on keyboards, but in a strange quirk of fate, Gav Thomson joined us a couple of years later when Iain, our bass player, left the band. Funny how things like that happen.
Dialogue Two was released on 7″ vinyl and digital download on March 19th, 2003, and we gave it the catalogue number 2mf003. You can listen to the single here
