The debut single

It's March 31st 1990 and anti-poll tax demonstrations in London descend into violence around Trafalgar Square. The following day prisoners riot in Strangeways Prison in Manchester, taking to the roofs for a sustained protest against overcrowding. Thatcher would be removed as Prime Minister before the year was out. 

In the same week Rig guitarist Darren Jones visited the HMV store on Market Street in Manchester and found his band's debut single stocked in the vast record racks under it's own label 'Rig', next to 'Ride'. He fulfilled a lifetime's ambition (ok, he was only just 20) and bought his own record from a record shop. 

Rig 12 "greenside 

The tracks that appeared on the band's debut single had been recorded almost a year earlier at Strawberry Studios in Stockport. Photos from these sessions can be found here.

Dig was a giant bulldozer of a song that was a live favourite and one of the band's earliest songs they had written. Hum was rambling infectious shuffle which owned a lot to it's Manchester roots. The flip side of the 12" record was an ambitious remix of the two lead tracks, Rig-a-dig-dub (Dig remix) and Fan of Canta (Hum remix). Label mate DJ Blue, engineer John Pennington (credited as jellyhead) and Rig themselves constructed the unrelenting dance mixes and they were popular dancefloor fillers.

Rig 12" remix blueside 

There had been a lengthy delay in the single coming out and the band were receiving a lot of press attention in the interim. John Peel referenced this when he aired the single for the first time on his Radio One show on 19th March 1990. "You've read about them, now you've heard them"

He also added a great sample clip to lead into the lead song 'Dig'. Check it out...

Rig · Rig John Peel show 19th March 1990

 

The debut single received generous amounts of Radio One airplay, predominantly from John Peel who was the main  champion of independent music for such a long time. The Perfumed Garden is great audio tribute blog to Peel and his shows and it's a fantastic resource containing song listings and audio of compete shows. It's great to listen back to snippets of the great man himself especially when he's talking about your band. So here's another from April 1990 describing 'Hum' as "Heavy!"

Rig · Rig John Peel show 2nd April 1990

Whilst there was a euphoria associated with the debut single finally landing in the record store racks, the overwhelming feeling was one of relief. As is often the case the band were now more interested in the current crop of songs they were working on. The band had been very busy in the intervening 12 months between recording 'Dig' and it's subsequent release and had spent the first three months of 1990 recording a mini album with Manchester legend Stuart James at Suite 16 Studios in Rochdale. These songs would eventually see the light of day on the band's first album released thirty years later. The story behind that release can be found here.

Rig 12" single sleeve design by Paul Khera

The iconic sleeve in it's distinctive pink and yellow bold colours was designed by Paul Khera who designed the artwork for the majority of the Cut Deep record label releases including Biting Tongues and Dub Sex. Paul would go on to produce artwork for Erasure, the Wedding Present and Suede amongst others. The Rig single and logo surf dub dumb sticker was inspired by surfer clothing as preferred and championed at the time by lead singer Adam.
Thirty years later Darren Jones tracked down Paul Khera and he was kind enough to recreate the original artwork for the re-release of the 'Dig' single which is what you see here.

Rig / funk surf dub dum sticker design by Paul Khera

In 1991 the single and associated artwork were included in an exhibition of Paul Khera's work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The single was already a museum piece.

The sticker now resides as part of the museums' collection described as 'Rig / funk surf dum dum'. Round adhesive sticker promoting the recording 'Dig' made by the group 'Rig'.

It has it's own museum number E.3289-1991 and should you wish to locate the artifact it's gallery location is in the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MB4G, shelf SH7, box TS55.

The band commented at the time....

Cut Deep were a Stockport based record label with an office conveniently located above Strawberry Studios and run by Paul Humphreys. Despite it's short-lived existence, between 1989 and 1990 they managed to put out a credible raft of seminal releases from Rig, Dub Sex, P.Love and Blue, What?Noise, Biting Tongues and Sons of Arqua. 

Rig Dig T-shirt design by Paul Khera

As John Peel had alluded to, Rig had enjoyed a lot of press attention ahead of having any product in the shops. The Manchester press had been very supportive of the band and this continued when the single was released on 26th March 1990.  Terry Christian, in his regular and popular Friday music round-up 'The Word' said this was the 'Year to dig Rig'. And the band weren't going to argue with that. The column would lend it's name to the music program that would debut on Channel 4 in the August of that year.

Manchester Evening News 23rd March 1990

The reaction to the single was pretty immediate. DJ's loved the remixes and here are two great hand written examples of typical club chart feedback at the time and an enthusing letter from a DJ, from Hull and Glasgow respectively.

DJ Feedback April 1990

DJ Feedback April 1990

The single was picked up in most of the major music weeklies.

Sounds continued their support for the group as one of their hot tips for the 90s with a nice review from Cathi Unsworth.

Single review, Sounds 14th April 1990

Jon Robb took a look at the trio of Cut Deep singles released that week from Rig, P.Love and Blue and Sons of Arqua. This is the Rig review that appeared in the Manchester City Life magazine.

Single review, City Life April 1990

It was great to hear Manchester DJ Dave Haslam (writing for the music trade magazine Catalogue) enthusing about the record and advising record shops to 'Stock it!'

Single Review, The Catalogue April 1990

But not everyone got it......or liked it. Johnny Dee writing in the Record Mirror was not a fan.

Single review, Record Mirror 7th April 1990

And it wasn't Bob Stanley's cup of tea, later of Saint Etienne fame, writing in the Melody Maker.

Single review, Melody Maker 7th April 1990

But the single was in the shops and selling even if the pink bar code on the rear of  the sleeve didn't scan and hence register a sale. A minor hiccup which Darren discovered on his visit to HMV to fulfill his dream, prompting a dash to a phone box to ring the Cut Deep Office at Strawberry Studios "Stockport....we have a problem!" The dent on the independent charts may have been slightly curtailed but the band found themselves in good company in the Manchester Evening News weekly singles chart.

It was April 1990. The debut single was out. The band were in the studio putting the finishing touches to a brand new mini-album. They also had tracks on two compilation albums coming out imminently. 

The hard work was starting to pay off.....and the story continues next time.

Rig promo photo early 1990 Photo: Peter J Walsh

As a coda to the story of the band's debut single, in early 2020 Rig guitarist Darren Jones kicked off a project to digitise the Rig archives and make them available online for the first time. 
At the same time Dead Dead Good Records set about re-releasing their back catalogue online and with nice synergy the the discussions began around getting the DDG Rig singles and other material out there once again after thirty years. 

Darren set about locating the original master reel tapes, tracking down dusty boxes of reels, DATs and cassettes hidden in lofts for 30 years and there was some some major detective work in deciphering old notes and scribblings to find the best versions of tracks.

The rear of the original 12" single released in March 1990

The original reel to reel tapes were sent away to be transferred, but given the age of the tapes they first had to be baked in an oven to remove moisture and make the tape playable for the contents to be transferred.

Thankfully all the reels survived the process and the band were able to make digital copies of the band’s early analogue music (before CD releases) for the first time. Given that some of the reels had been mastered for radio or vinyl delivery three decades ago, the band took the decision to remaster all the tracks that would be made available for release. That task was given to an Italian Producer and Sound Engineer Matteo Cifelli, who mastered all the band's 2020 releases.

The 2020 remastered Dig E.P. is available on all the major streaming services here.

 

Radio copy quarter inch tape from 1990, used to remaster the single in 2020

And finally to complete the debut single story....a cake made by his auntie to celebrate guitarist Darren's 21st birthday in January 1991 with the obligatory jar of pickled onions in the background.

Rig guitarist Darren's 21st birthday cake. January 1991