TARTANIC

Following the success of 'My Left Floot', the band released their second concept album - 'TARTANIC'. This time the concept principle was taken to the extreme, resulting in nothing less than a full blooded seafaring folk rock opera, with tracks becoming more like chapters in an epic story rather than songs on a record. However the project met with controversy from the outset. The outrage was sparked by the bizarre (and to many, inappropriate) combination of the thinly veiled sources of inspiration - namely James Cameron's epic cinematic masterpiece 'Titanic', and the classic Beatles LP 'Yellow Submarine'. In particular the songs 'Iceberg Blues' and the infamous 'We All Live at the Bottom of the Sea' were seen as trivialising the subject matter. The band claimed they were just misunderstood, and that the deeper underlying meaning in the piece was lost, but there was no stopping the tirade of criticism.

The band also rejected suggestions of the Cameron and Beatles influences, insisting that the similarities were 'mere coincidence'. Shamus Tanner famously claimed not only that he had never seen the movie, or listened to 'Yellow Submarine', but that he had never even heard of the Titanic disaster.

The cover design also came in for criticism, in particular the depiction of Pervis Van Peters as an apparent messiah figure caused consternation in religious communities.

The album was withdrawn from sale shortly after going on general release. Its still unavailable to this day, and surviving copies are now collectors items.