Despite his shyness and unwillingness to tour Gavin Clarke had actually been quite prolific during his 20 year or so career, and his recent passing is made all the more upsetting by the fact that he was finally getting back on track. Recent album ‘Evangelist’ and the odds and sods double LP ‘Beautiful Skeletons’ are both outstanding examples of his brilliant song writing and his amazing voice, which is probably right up there with Mark Lanegan and Ben Ottewell. But before his recent output there was about an albums worth of guest vocals for bands like UNKLE, the exceptional Clayhill, but in the beginning there was Sunhouse. I remember reading a very favourable review of their first album in Uncut magazine and picking up what would become one of my favourite records ever, they only released that album and a hand full of b-sides but everything they recorded is worth checking out including this early single. The Smalltime Sessions were recorded for the very low budget early Shane Meadows film of the same name and on this record you get two of the best songs Sunhouse ever did. Starting with ‘Hurricane’ one of their more upbeat songs it’s the best single you’ve never heard it should be considered a classic. On the flipside you have the come down of ‘Crazy On A Weekend’ which shows off Gavin’s amazing vocals to their best effect, both of the these tracks and pretty much everything he did is worth checking out. RIP Gavin, god bless and thank you for sharing your talent with us while you could.
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