Marc Riley - 17/09/2009

THE VASELINES - Formed in the mid 1980's in Scotland the band brought Eugene Kelly's edgy, scratchy guitar work together with Frances McKee's poetic melancholia.Though they have only one album to their credit and broke up the week that album was released in 1989, The Vaselines have etched a special place in the hearts of many. Chief amongst them was Kurt Cobain who with Nirvana covered three of their songs on their Incesticide and MTV Unplugged albums While founder members and songwriters, Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly, have collaborated intermittently in the intervening years (they toured jointly and played a few Vaselines' songs together in the wake of their respective solo albums in 2006) ,an unannounced appearance at a fundraiser in Glasgow's Mono for Malawi Orphan Support was the first evidence of new activity. This was the start of a journey that has taken them to New York & Seattle, Sweden, Glasgow's ABC and festival appearances in the Brazilian cities of Sao Paolo and Goiania, appearing with artists as unlikely as Flight of the Conchords and Helmet along the way.The show at Maxwell's in Hoboken on July 9th 2008 was the band's first in America, and one of two over-subscribed shows in the New York area before they played at a festival to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Sub Pop label, which released the definitive collection of Vaselines' work, 'The Way of the Vaselines' in 1992. Both Kelly and McKee remained musically active throughout the intervening years - the former with Captain America, Eugenius and finally as a solo artist; McKee with Suckle and ultimately on her own for 2006's 'Sunny Moon.'.