“The blueprint was simple: Hot Chocolate rhythms, George Murray bass lines, classical music instruments with pop sensibilities. We, the architects, however, were complicated.” Paul Simpson, 2025.
Needle Mythology, the label founded by music writer, author and broadcaster Pete Paphides, is thrilled to announce the release of the much-mythologised ‘lost’ album by CARE – the group made up of IAN BROUDIE and PAUL SIMPSON Prior to forming Care, Ian and Paul had been very active in the Liverpool post-punk scene. Ian played alongside Holly Johnson, Jayne Casey, Budgie and Bill Drummond in Big In Japan, before joining the Original Mirrors. He also produced several early records by Echo and the Bunnymen, most notably the albums 'Crocodiles' and 'Porcupine'. Paul had played with school friend and future Bunnyman Will Sergeant in Industrial Domestic and the founding line-up of The Teardrop Explodes, before going on to form The Wild Swans.
CARE were brought together late in 1982 by mutual friend Will Sergeant, when Paul was looking for someone to play a guitar part for a new song he had written. Ian obliged and asked him to return the favour by singing on one of his songs 'Tall Ships'. When Bunnymen manager Bill Drummond heard the result, now retitled 'My Boyish Days (Drink To Me)', he secured the pair a deal with Arista on the back of it. Care would go on to release three acclaimed singles over the course of a twelve-month period between 1983 and 1984 – 'My Boyish Days (Drink To Me)', 'Flaming Sword' and 'Whatever Possessed You' – before Simpson, still struggling to come to terms with the break up of his previous band decided not to continue. Although top 40 success eluded Care in the UK, the group quickly found an adoring fanbase in the Philippines, where all three singles became huge hits.
'Love Crowns and Crucifies' marks the first vinyl release of the previously unheard songs gathered together on 1997’s 'Diamonds and Emeralds' CD. Working closely with Paul Simpson and with the approval of Ian Broudie, Needle Mythology has been given access to the original quarter-inch tapes which housed everything that Broudie and Simpson recorded together. The process of digitising the contents of all the original tapes unearthed a number of exciting finds, among them the yearning 'Colour and Sound'; an instrumental alternate arrangement of 'On The White Cloud' and the thrilling original demos of 'Drink To Me (My Boyish Days)' and 'Flaming Sword', featuring the late Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas.
