Edwyn Collins
Edwyn Stephen Collins (born 23 August 1959) is a Scottish musician, producer and record label owner from Edinburgh. Collins was the lead singer for the 1980s post-punk band Orange Juice, which he co-founded. After the group split in 1985, Collins started a solo career. His 1994 single "A Girl Like You" was a worldwide hit.[1]
Edwyn Collins
Edwyn Stephen Collins
23 August 1959
Edinburgh, Scotland
Singer-songwriter, musician, record label owner
Vocals, guitar, bass, violin, synthesizer, sampling, drums, harmonica
1976–2005, 2007–present
Setanta/Epic Records, Heavenly, AED (Analogue Enhanced Digital) Records
In February 2005, Collins was hospitalised after two cerebral haemorrhages which resulted in aphasia, and he needed months to recover.[2][3] He resumed his musical career in 2007.[4] A documentary film on his recovery, The Possibilities Are Endless, was released in 2014.[2]
Collins was the co-founder of the indie record label Postcard Records and co-founded a second label, Analogue Enhanced Digital, in 2011. Collins has also worked as an illustrator, television actor, television producer and record producer. He won an Ivor Novello Award, the Ivor Inspiration Award, in 2009.[5]
Early life[edit]
Collins was born in Edinburgh. He lived in Dundee from the age of six to 14 after his father got a job as a lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. He attended the now-defunct Demonstration School in Park Place, where new educational ideas were tried out by students and teachers from the adjacent teacher training college, before moving to the secondary school, Morgan Academy.[6]
Collaborations with Roddy Frame[edit]
Collins has been friends with Roddy Frame, the frontman for the new wave group Aztec Camera, since they were both signed to Postcard Records in the 1980s.[30][31] Collins and Frame collaborated on the Aztec Camera album Stray, including a live performance of the song "Consolation Prize".[32]
Frame performed with Collins in November 2007 during Collins's first concert after his recovery from a serious illness,[33] and the pair played again at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, on the Park Stage, and at the Purcell Rooms in London, UK, in September 2008.[34][35]
Frame's fourth solo album, Seven Dials, was released in 2014 on Collins's AED record label. Frame explained, following the album's release, that he had been inspired to make an album with a full band after his positive experience playing with Collins in 2007 and 2008.[31]
Production work[edit]
Collins has also worked extensively as a record producer with other artists, including Terrorvision, Vic Godard,[22] Robert Forster, The Cribs, Little Barrie, and Hooton Tennis Club.
In 1999, Collins was invited by the band Space to produce what would have been their third album Love You More than Football, which ended up being scrapped. However he is credited as a producer on a few B-sides, and he delivers a brief vocal cameo on the song "Thank You", where he makes reference to "Falling and Laughing".
In 2005 Collins produced the Cribs album The New Fellas and co-produced the 2013 album Clarietta, by Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs, with Lewsley.[36][37] He also co-produced The Rails' debut album Fair Warning, released on Island Records in 2014.[38]
Collins also produced The Official Body, the third album by the British post-punk band Shopping, which was released on 19 January 2018.[39]
Collins co-produced a collaborative project between Camera Obscura frontwoman Tracyanne Campbell and guitarist Danny Coughlan that was released in May 2018 by Merge Records with the title Tracyanne & Danny.
Other projects[edit]
In addition to his music career Collins also produced and starred in the Channel 4 television show West Heath Yard.[40] Collins released his first book of illustrations, Some British Birds, with Morel Books in 2009.[41] Liberty of London printed his bird illustrations on fabric as part of a series of fabrics created in collaboration with musicians; his print is named Ornithology.[42]
In May 2009 Collins won the Ivors Inspiration Award in recognition of his struggles following his 2005 brain haemorrhage.[5]
In 2010 he received an honorary master's degree from the Buckinghamshire New University, in recognition of his "strong influences and contribution to the national and international music industry over the last three decades".[43]
On 21 August 2010, Collins attended the Helmsdale Highland Games as the chieftain, an honour also previously bestowed on his grandfather.[44]
On 24 August 2022, Collins appeared on stage with Coldplay at Hampden Park, Glasgow, to perform A Girl Like You