The Super Furry Animals Are Magic

A couple of years ago, my mate Quinny casually mentioned that he had once been inside a giant squid costume on stage at a Super Furry Animals Barrowlands show. He used to give out fliers and stuff outside gigs and happened to be in the right place at the right time when the band’s management came along looking for 5 willing participants to wear the suits. They were instructed to walk on at the start of the gig and hold their fist aloft in front of the crowd who would be going bonkers at the sight of what they thought were the band in funny costumes. Quinny said he had to do all he could to stop himself from stage diving. As I said, he mentioned all this to me quite casually one day a couple of years ago, when we were talking about music and he said that he didn’t even like the band! A Jim’ll Fix It moment wasted on a non-believer. I told him they were magic and played him these 2 tracks to try and convert him.

Tradewinds and The Roman Road were both released as b-sides on the singles around the release of the ‘Rings Around The World’ album and were then included as the Tradewinds ep as part of ltd edition versions of the album. They are folky, electronic, a wee bit country, a wee bit sweary (Roman Road is anyway) a wee bit prog and a whole big bit magic. In short, a potted version of what’s great about the Super Furry’s. You’ll like them. Even if Quinny still thinks they’re rubbish.