| When in Rome, Kill Me | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 1989 | |||
| Recorded | March 1989 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 39:51 | |||
| Label | Imaginary Records (United Kingdom) | |||
| Producer | Alaric Neville, Richard Formby | |||
| Cud chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
When in Rome, Kill Me is the debut album[2] by the Leeds-based[3] indie rock band Cud, released through Imaginary Records. The album was recorded during March 1989 at the Woodhouse Studios in Leeds with Alaric Neville and Richard Formby handling production.[4]
Side 1 of the LP (first seven songs on CD) is linked by short narrative segments (narrated by Cud's drummer Steve Goodwin's landlord John Farrell and Elizabeth Cuthbertson as Bibi[4]) such that the first half of the album loosely forms a single story. In this story, it is implied that the protagonist flees Whitby to Rome after committing some undisclosed crime. There he is reunited with Bibi, possibly an accomplice in the crime, with whom he sleeps, but the following morning he wakes to find Bibi has left and grassed him to the police. We leave the protagonist drunk in a bar, as police sirens approach, with him rueing, "I would have got away with it, if it hadn't been for those bastards, bastard meddling kids."
"Only (A Prawn in Whitby)" was supposedly inspired by a chance encounter of Cud's manager with Morrissey. Allegedly, the vegetarian lead singer of the Smiths was seen partaking of a single prawn. The story is now accepted to be apocryphal.
The album reached number three in the UK Indie Chart in 1989.[5]
- ^ Raggett, Ned "When in Rome, Kill Me Review", AllMusic, Macrovision Corporation, retrieved 7 December 2009
- ^ Album details on official website
- ^ BBBC h2g2 band overview
- ^ a b Diary entry from Cud bassist William Potter
- ^ Lazell, Barry (1998) Indie Hits 1980-1989, Cherry Red Books, ISBN 0-9517206-9-4, p. 55