Fini Tribe was born into the cash-poor but culturally-wealthy environs of post-punk Edinburgh in the very early 80s – 1980 to be precise. A tiny three-piece with no drummer would soon swell into a muscular six-piece with inherited or cheaply-purchased instruments. Band members Chris Connelly, Simon McGlynn, Andy McGregor, Davie Miller, Philip Pinsky, and John Vick haunted the cold, damp warrens of the Niddry Street and Blair Street rehearsal rooms, just off the high street in Old Town Edinburgh.

“Actually We’re Interested was a watershed moment for the Fini Tribe. Starting with John Vick’s plaintive piano melody, it invited each member of the group to bring a melancholy laced with an (almost) pop sensibility to the song… inspired by endless walks, bike rides and other shenanigans on the banks of Edinburgh’s Union Canal, one of the many cryptic landmarks of the city that inspired the band. The song IS Edinburgh, more so than most: it is the green of the Braid Burn Valley, the dank history of the band’s Niddry Street rehearsal room, the secret lanes of the New Town,” says Chris Connelly. 

Drawing on the influences of everything from Throbbing Gristle, Wire, Can, Captain Beefheart, and numerous angular funk bands that were spewing out of the John Peel Show at the time, they also drew from the seemingly bottomless well of modern film, writing, and art that was abundant in the festival city.    

The Sheer Action of Fini Tribe is the band’s first retrospective, curated and designed by the band itself. It includes a wealth of archival photographs, an essay by original member Andy McGregor, who also designed the sleeve, and essays by longtime friend Shirley Manson (Garbage, Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie) and author Alastair McKay, an early champion of the band. This release also includes the first legendary John Peel Session, produced by Dale Griffin and originally broadcast in May 1985.

Rehearsing and writing tirelessly between high school and part-time jobs, Fini Tribe played whenever they got the chance: CND benefits, support band for local mentors Visitors and Explode Your Heart, and endless rehearsals turning them into a well-oiled, if frantic, machine. Gigs farther afield were found in London, Glasgow and Aberdeen, and the sound grew as the band became more unique and distanced from their peers and ploughed their own furrow.

Not to let the grass grow under their feet, the band quickly morphed into a formidable experimental dance unit. The arrival of sampling would cement this and 1986’s Let The Tribe Grow EP, with the anthemic, church-bell driven Detestimony, would become a lasting and iconic statement of intent unbeknownst to the band at that time. Fini Tribe heralded a new sound and new hypervisual approach, more akin to performance art than any straight rock ‘n roll, with a one-off performance at Edinburgh’s prestigious Assembly Rooms: sculpture, film, ritual, new music, and suspended bin bags full of lurid poster paint sprayed a shocked audience. The gauntlet was thrown, covered in paint, and slapped like a wet fish. 

In 1987, the band signed to WaxTrax! Records with a high-octane, percussion-driven cover of Can’s I Want More, introducing the band to the temptations of the American dance floor. One more single for WaxTrax!, a reworking of Detestimony, and a few more events – including a night at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre that ended in flames – that was the end for this incarnation of the Fini Tribe. The band would lose a few members, including Chris, who joined The Revolting Cocks and moved to Chicago.

It may come as no surprise to learn that Chris Connelly has well-considered opinions on any topic you may suggest. So, when in 2022 we were producing a Valentine’s Day Special we invited Mr. Connelly to answer two questions about love. His answers are intriguing and noteworthy. Listen carefully.