Although the Scottish city of Glasgow was defined in the 1990s by the melodic guitar pop of Teenage Fanclub and its extended circle or the delicate indie charm of Belle & Sebastian and its extended circle, the Nectarine No. 9 existed simultaneously inside and outside those prevailing currents. The band issued recordings on the revived Postcard imprint, yet frontman Davey Henderson showed scant interest in the bright, unaffected style associated with earlier Postcard acts such as Aztec Camera or Orange Juice; instead he pursued a jagged guitar-rock approach laced with Captain Beefheart-style eccentricity.
Formed in Glasgow during 1991, the quartet consisted of Henderson on vocals and guitar, Simon Smeeton on guitar and keyboards, bassist Iain Holford, and drummer John Thompson. Henderson had already established a reputation leading the avant-funk outfit Fire Engines in 1980, while he and Smeeton had previously collaborated in the underappreciated 1980s group Win. The Nectarine No. 9’s first release arrived that same year with A Sea With Three Stars, quickly followed by the Unloaded for You EP. Nine selections drawn from BBC sessions taped in early 1993 appeared on Strange Fruit as the compilation Guitar Thieves. A sixteen-track overview titled Niagara Falls collected material from the debut album and EP for the American and Canadian markets in 1994, adding the previously unavailable track “This Arsehole’s Been Burned Too Many Times Before,” which had surfaced on a limited U.K. 7-inch.
The same song reappeared on the band’s belated second album, Saint Jack, issued in 1995. Even more abrasive than its predecessor, the record also explored electronic textures on several cuts. Following a tour supporting Henderson’s former associate Edwyn Collins, the group remained inactive for two years before resurfacing in 1997 as both backing musicians and co-writers on Scots poet Jock Scot’s My Personal Culloden, an album whose tone recalled the work of Ivor Cutler alongside John Cooper Clarke’s collaborations with the Invisible Girls. The Nectarine No. 9 delivered their third full-length, Fried for Blue Material, in 1998 on the Glasgow independent Creeping Bent; the set incorporated the band’s contribution to a 1997 split single with Suicide singer Alan Vega, titled “Port of Mars.”
