If the 1980s left a cult group, Felt was that group. Lawrence set out to make ten records in ten years, then dissolve the band, and he pulled it off. The architect of the project has endured by keeping projects like Go-Kart Mozart and Mozart Estate alive, sometimes teetering on the edge of poverty, as documented in a recent biography.
But this time, it was other members who revived the group. Almost forty years after their last show in Birmingham in December 1989, the band’s drummer Gary Ainge (who played on the ten albums between 1981 and 1989), guitarist Marco Thomas (a member from 1985 to 1987), and bassist Philip King (1986–87) have reunited to perform as Feel. “Felt” in the present.
Phil even granted an interview to a French blog in which he explains that they haven’t heard anything from Lawrence in quite some time, although the idea of reuniting Felt “didn’t displease him ten years ago” when it was proposed. Yet, four years ago Lawrence told The Guardian that he preferred to beg rather than play in any of his old bands.
Feel chose Instagram to announce the show, saying they would perform instrumental versions of the songs. However, at the concert held on Saturday, August 15 as part of Glasgow’s indie festival “Glas-Goes Pop,” there was a surprise. Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian and singer Rhadika — performing as Liz Fraser — stepped onstage to sing.
For Stuart, a significant circle closes. His well-documented obsession with Felt is so extensive that, between 1991 and 1993, in his adolescence, he began to worry seriously about his mental health. He shared this recounting recently in The Quietus, a point he has reiterated in many other venues, so it will undoubtedly be a night he will not forget. What Lawrence will think, at least for now, remains unknown.
