Two of Scotland’s best-loved indie bands are to have some of their rarer material released on vinyl for the first time.

The Jasmine Minks and BMX Bandits will see the sessions they recorded for BBC radio’s John Peel and Janice Long in the mid-1980s issued as double 7″ singles in gatefold sleeves by newly-established imprint Precious Recordings of London.

The label’s founder, Nick Godfrey, is (perhaps surprisingly) a former editor for Racing Post and now has the website horseracingplanet.com, but is also a big indie music fan, leading him to launch his new venture at the end of 2020.

The first four singles from the label will consist of two each from the Minks and Bandits. The vinyl will be “colour-coded” – red for John Peel, yellow for Janice Long – and are all available to pre-order now. To give some more added value, the packages will also include exclusive sleeve notes from the artist, previously unseen photographs and a set of postcards.

Aberdeen-formed Jasmine Minks recorded only two sessions for BBC Radio 1. The first, for John Peel show, features the band’s original line-up with songwriting duo Jim Shepherd and Adam Sanderson. Sanderson had left the band by the time of the second session, for Janice Long, with Wattie Duncan joining and features early versions of some of Shepherd’s best-known songs, including ‘Cut Me Deep’ and the soulful ‘Ballad’ (later released as ‘Soul Station’) – plus a version of old single ‘Where The Traffic Goes’. The Jasmine Minks have continued, on and off, ever since – and are recording new material into 2021.

More at www.facebook.com/thejasmineminks / thejasmineminks.bandcamp.com.

Alongside ever-present founder member, Duglas T. Stewart, Sean Dickson and Jim McCulloch, later of the Soup Dragons, both appear on the BMX Bandits recordings, the Bellshill act’s Janice Long sessions from 1986 and 1987
The first session, recorded before the band had released their debut single ‘E102’, features some their very earliest songs (among them a version of live favourite ‘Strawberry Sunday’).
Jowe Head, of Swell Maps and Television Personalities, is among those to appear on the second session, which includes a version of the jazz standard ‘Take Five’ – with words. The band’s most recent LP, ‘BMX Bandits Forever’, came out on Elefant Records in 2017.

More at www.bmxbandits.net / www.facebook.com/BMXpop and
bmxbandits.bandcamp.com

Full Precious catalogue to February 2021:
PRE 001: The Jasmine Minks John Peel 17.02.86
The Ballad of Johnny Eye, Cry For A Man, You Take My Freedom, I Don’t Know
PRE 002: The Jasmine Minks Janice Long 24.11.86
Follow Me Away, Cut Me Deep, Where The Traffic Goes, Ballad
PRE 003: BMX Bandits Janice Long 23.06.86
Strawberry Sunday, The Day Before Tomorrow, Groovy Good Luck Friend, Girl In The Pink T-Shirt
PRE 004: BMX Bandits Janice Long 09.04.87
Flipper, Rosemary Ledingham, Figure 4, Take Five

Future releases panned include Creation Records act the Weather Prophets, late 1980s Sarah Records act Blueboy, and Heavenly, formed from the ashes of C86 scene act Talulah Gosh.

More at preciousrecordingsoflondon.bandcamp.com and facebook.com/PrecRecs

Jasmine Minks