Giant Killers Releases “One for Georgie / I Can't Live With You”
After what is now a well-documented and momentous three decades long journey to get their rights back from a music industry giant, Giant Killers continue into 2025 from where they left off in 2024. This double A sider features One For Georgie, the fourth single taken from the critically acclaimed album, Songs for the Small Places and adds a previously unreleased track in the form of I Can’t Live With You.
One For Georgie deals with the fleeting and ephemeral nature of greatness and does so in the persona of George Best – the Manchester Utd poster boy of the mid 60s and 70s who passed away 20 years ago this year. The song is a tribute to the aspirational qualities needed to achieve excellence in any endeavor but also warns against the worship of greatness for its own sake – your heroes will always let you down!
When this song was earmarked as a potential single by MCA, who Giant Killers were signed to in the 90s, the band got to meet George Best, and his then young son Callum after George agreed to appear in the video for the song. That meeting culminated in an infamous night out in Fulham in which principal songwriters Michael and Jamie and the footballing legend bumped intoSlade’s Noddy Holder – who, in what might have been a drunken conversation, agreed to sing on the record. Such a pity then, that MCA and Giant Killers parted ways very shortly afterwards. Music history might have been changed forever.
Meanwhile, I Can’t Live With You is a rocking (Neil Conti of David Bowie, Prefab Sprout and Robert Plant fame hits the drums hard on this track) and angular power pop paean to a period when Michael and Jamie lived in each other’s pockets as poverty-stricken wannabee popstars struggling to earn a crust in a North London hovel. Things could have been so much different!
The indie-pop band are song writing duo Jamie Wortley (guitar, keys, lead vocals) and Michael Brown (bass, keys, brass, vocals). They were signed to MCA Records in 1995 where they released two singles, however the album never saw the light of day. After a 3 decades long struggle the band got their rights back and their songs have finally been getting a chance to shine.
Separately and together, Giant Killers have remained gigging musicians and in other musical projects. Over a wide history they’ve played Glastonbury, at Proms in the Park in Hyde Park opening for Lionel Richie, toured with Squeeze, Nick Heyward and in support of Motown legend Edwin Starr and Britpop’s finest, Blur. They were even once given away as a sticker in Smash Hits. Giant Killers released their debut album on 26th January 2024 nearly three decades on from when they recorded it. Giant Killers returned to large stages in November 2024 when they opened the main stage at Shiiine On with 90s legends Echo and the Bunnymen, Lightning Seeds and many others.
