Spring Hill Fair
| Spring Hill Fair | ||||
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| Studio album by The Go-Betweens | ||||
| Released | 27 September 1984 | |||
| Recorded | May 1984 Studio Miraval, Le Val, France |
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| Genre | Rock, alternative rock, indie rock | |||
| Length | 40:24 | |||
| Label | Sire Records | |||
| Producer | John Brand | |||
| The Go-Betweens chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Spring Hill Fair | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
Spring Hill Fair was The Go-Betweens' third album released 27 September 1984 in the UK on Sire Records. The LP was recorded during a "very wet May" at Studio Miraval in Le Val, France. Prior to the recording of the album, bass player Robert Vickers had joined the group, enabling Grant McLennan to move to lead guitar. The original release consisted of ten songs. In 2002, Circus released an expanded CD which included a second disc of ten bonus tracks and a music video for the song, "Bachelor Kisses".
The album was named after an annual fair in Spring Hill, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane Grammar School, Forster's high school. Some of the band had also lived there in the early eighties. McLennan said of the title, "It was generally not that we were home sick, I think we just wanted to have, after Before Hollywood, which was so obviously an American kind of thing, a regional home-town thing." In another interview McLennan stated "we all lived there and the main reason was that in September, October of every year in Brisbane, there is, in Spring Hill, a fair, and as the album came out around then we thought it would be nice to have a parochial mention in a title because we hadn't done that for a long time."
McLennan and Forster later said that they were uninspired and felt the songs on their previous album had been better. They were also unhappy with the production, despite using the same producer as on Before Hollywood. McLennan said, "John Brand, the producer, he did change between the second and third, which we did as well, but he went and made a very produced 1984 English pop record, which in a way... well, that's not what we were." Forster more bluntly claimed, "John Brand was terrible. His whole attitude was, 'Now we're making a real record.'"
Recording in France was much more expensive than their earlier recordings, with the Miraval studio booked for a month. About half the tracks had programmed rhythm tracks, leading to conflict between Brand and drummer Lindy Morrison. Morrison claimed the relationship had also soured after Brand attempted to seduce her and was rebuffed on their first day in the studio. Furthermore, Morrison recalled the relationships within the band were poor. "They were fucked. There were little power struggles going on all over the place. We were a neurotic mess," she said.
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