Venus Transition Special - The Death of Venus

In honour of the transition of Venus across the Sun, here is "The Death of Venus" by "The Sway".

I managed the band from 1992-1995. They had two singles "Silk" and "Going Blind". The Death of Venus was the B Side to Going Blind. This song was recorded at BBC Pebble Mill Studios when the band were BBC West Midlands band of the week. Of all the recordings by the band, I believe this is the most interesting and best captures the vibe of the band. At the time of the recording, we'd put the boys in the studio with a top notch production team. "Going Blind" features superb backing vocals by Helen Terry (of Culture Club fame).

When we got the Pebble Mill masters, I immediately wanted to make "Death of Venus" the B-Side. It was absolutely captivating. Emil Bryden, the bands road manager recalled how the band wrote the song "When they were on tour of Scotland, they would spend the long journeys putting the song together, all humming their various parts". Emil was highly impressed that when they recorded the song at Pebble Mill, the BBC House engineer did a take and then suggested that it would be better in a different key. The band said "Ok, lets try it, roll the tape". They did it perfectly, first take, no practice. The engineer was astounded.

Over the duration of my period managing The Sway, I spent about £100,000 launching the band. I got £6.37p back -  A PRS check after the band split up. They were a truly awesome band at their peak. I hope one day they get some recognition. Going Blind was a superb single and is well worth a check out.

The video is a montage put together by Sean Kelly, the bands drummer. 

Sadly I didn't see the transition, slept through the alarm clock !