a letter from st paul

The Silencers made their entrance on the music scene with the the personal and political reflections of this hypnotic janglepop epistle.  Jimme O'Neill and Cha Burns had been in the band Fingerprintz together and reunited to form a new band with "one foot in the 60's and one in the 80's".  The two guitarists were joined by bassist Joe Donelly and drummer Martin Hanlin and recorded some demos at Scarf Studios in South London which got them signed to RCA.  O'Neill says:  "We decided we wanted to write only about serious subjects without sounding anxious."  Sessions for  'A Letter From St. Paul' began at Hansa Studios in Berlin with producer Adam Williams in May of 1986.  After two harrowing months, they decided to start over at Castlesound Studios in Edinburgh with  Callum Malcom and Dave Bascombe producing.  The day before they were scheduled to begin, Burns suffered a brain hemorrhage in London.  The rest of the band continued without him; and six months later Burns returned, able to play guitar, but still learning to read again.  The process took months utilizing vocals and guitars from the original demos and adding new tracks.   'A Letter From St. Paul' had a modest success with airplay in the US and the UK; but remains a cult classic. 







http://thesilencers.free.fr/









O'Neill calls 'Painted Moon' "a personal reaction to the Falkland war".  It was one of the three songs on the original demo.  The single peaked at number eighty-two in the US. 

"Walking home in the rain
Blood runs cold in my veins
News from a distant shore
Blues like never before
The moon is new
The moon is full
The moon is blue
The moon is cruel
Painted moon
Coming to the rescue
Angels from another world
Love is here to stay
So the angels say
Running to the rescue
Angels flying up above
Phantoms in the bay
While the natives pray
To the painted moon"

'I Can't Cry' was another demo track.  It's about a girl who decides to get an abortion.  

'Bullet And Blue Eyes'

'A Letter From St. Paul'

full album:

"Painted Moon"

"I Can't Cry"

"Bullet And Blue Eyes"

"God's Gift"

"I See Red"

"I Ought To Know"

"A Letter From St Paul"

"Blue Desire"

"Possessed"