Dreamtime released a very nice 7″ with two tracks back in 1989. I am late in discovering it.

The tracks are “Cold and Lonely Place” as the A side of the single and “I Know” on the flipside. It was released by the Pure Recording Company (PURE 89/1) which might have been the band’s own label. A self-release probably.

We know the band hailed from the UK. But not much more. Let’s see what we can find.

I am very confident the band hailed from Southall in West London. The area that is often called Little Punjab or Little India. A South Asian hub.

I’ve seen a photo of the band, as they have shared a photo to a Soundcloud account that has the A side uploaded. It looks like it was a four piece. Three guys, and a female vocalist. There is also an interesting bit of info here, it seems the A side, “Cold and Lonely Place”, is actually. a recording that was done during a Janice Long Radio 1 Evening Session in 1987.

Then I find a review of the band on a Record Mirror issue from May 27, 1989. In there it mentions that the band had won the Janice Long session (how did they win it?) and that the band had supported The Darling Buds and The Lilac Time in 1988.

The truth is, the song is really nice. The A side. I haven’t heard yet the B side. So I wonder why they didn’t get more attention.

45CAT lists another 7″ record by Dreamtime. One from 1992 with the tracks “Drive” and In the Dream” on the A side and “Ragamuffin” and “Sand” on the B side. A record released by Refugee Records and produced by Andy Povall. I am not convinced that it is the same band. One thing is that there is no female vocalist listed anymore. Here the address on the back of the sleeve is from Liecester. The design of the sleeve is very very different too. But it may be the same band. The sound of the record is still very indie. The band here is credited as Henry Munroe on bass guitar and vocals, Nick Murphy on drums and vocals, Pete Sargent on guitar and Mark Harriman on vocals, guitar. It also says that the songs on this record are going to be part of the forthcoming album “Woke Up This Morning”. that is going to be released on CD and cassette. I haven’t seen a copy of it.

I keep digging, and then I find a 1991 tape, released on Extremely Nice Records (ENR 004C) from Ireland (is that right?). It dates from 1991 and has the same look as the 1992 single. This is a self-titled tape, with five tracks, “In the Dream”, “Drive”, “Sand”, “Ring the Changes” and “New York”. I am sure it is the same Dreamtime as the “Drive” single, Pete Sargent name appears here.

That’s what I could find. Would be good to find confirmation that it is the same band the one that released the 1989 single and the 1991 tape and 1992 single. If not, there are two indiepop bands with the same name? And where did they hail from? Southall? Leicester? it is a good mystery to me. Anyone has more information about them?

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Dreamtime – Cold and Lonely Place

Mary’s 9th Cut. Do you remember this band? They were a good Japanese indiepop duo from the late 90s/early 2000s. They released two albums and an EP worth searching for.

We heard of the band for the first time in 1998 when their songs started to appear on compilations. That year three tracks were contributed to different CD comps in Japan. “Snowfall” appeared on “Sunshine Pop Show!! Vol. 1” that was released by Sunshine Pop (SP-001), “Good Friend” on “Sunshine’s Girl” by “Sunshine Pop (SP-003) and the song “Gold” on “Sunshine Pop!! Vol. 2” on Sunshine Pop again (SP-008).

Sunshine Pop was a sub-label of Smile Records and then it only made sense for the band to release their first album on this label. The self-titled album “Mary’s 9th Cut” came out on Smile Records in 1999 (SP-009). It included 9 lovely sweet songs, “Cherry Red Coke”, “Good Friend”, “Mon Cher Fairy” “Brand New Day”, “Today is the Day”, “Cheek Fellow”, “Orange”, “Hello Goodbye” and “Snowfall (Theme)”.

In 1999 the band also had some compilation appearances, “Hello Goodbye” was to appear on “Sniegowe Rytmy” a tape compilation released in Poland by Arnold Records (AD01). It is an interesting release for sure as it includes many bands from the Elefant label. The other song released in 1999 was “Mary’s Baby” on the “Smile Demo” comp released by Smile Records (SR-010).

But that wasn’t all, Smile Records releases that year the EP “Marin’s Band Parade 1/2” (SP-011). This EP had 6 songs and these were “Theme 1 – Marin’s Band Parade”, “Mary’s Baby (Is Falling into a Dream)”, “Marin”, “Gold”, “A Girl’s Pray” and “Theme 2 – Summer of ’99”.

Two years later the band releases their 2nd album, “Swan Song”. This time on a different label, Dogprint Records from the US. This New Jersey label was known at the time for releasing great Japanese bands.

The album had just 8 songs, “Mother Likes Pop!”, “Winter Song”, “Sonnets”, “A Piece of Diamonds and Quicksilver Moon”, “Winterslide”, “Treasurely”, “Dream is Over…” and “Swan Song”.

The last time we hear from the band is with the song “Space Boy Wish” that came out on the Bluebadge Label first compilation “Send my Badge! – Bluebadge Compilation Vol. 1” (BBCD-001).

I search for more information. I find that they played a gig called Blue Shirts Afternoon Vol. 1 on April 30th of 2001 with other bands like Slight Return, Snow Sheep and Pastrasche. There is a flyer for this and thanks to it I find out that the band hailed from Kyoto. Another gig I know of is one from April 30, 2002 where they played the Blue Shirts Afternoon Vol. 4 – Send My Badge gig with Shelter, Spaghetti Vabune!, Plus-Tech Squeeze Box and エレキベース. There’s a flyer for this gig too. Also worth mentioning that these gigs were organized by the Bluebadge Label.

I keep looking. I find out the band’s members names. I knew there was a boy and a girl because of the back of one of the CDs. But now I know the band was formed by Tomoko Nagano on vocals and Masahiro Kamiuchi on guitar and other instruments. Then I find some names that have contributed to the band. Megumi (vocals), Masahiro (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals), Naoshi (bass) and Takeshi (drums, keys). Was it in every album? Just on the first one? What are their last names?

I believe after this band Masahiro was in a band called Shiba in a Car. But about Mary’s 9th Cut I can’t seem to find much more information. Hopefully my Japanese friends remember them. I’d love to learn more about them, I love the band’s music!

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Mary’s 9th Cut – Today is the Day

Mid-90s. Darran McCrann on vocals, Liam Firmager on guitar. Did they have no name for this project? On Soundcloud there are three tracks by this duo under the name Firmager/McCrann. Three tracks recorded between 1994 and 1996.

The songs are quite good. “Around Your Elevations (Tonight)”, “Prescriptions” and “Sydney”. We don’t get much information about them other than the first track was recorded in 1995. But we do get lyrics for all three songs. That’s rare.

The Soundcloud account is Darran’s. It seems he recorded as of late under the name Darn Thorn.

Liam Firmager is the name of a director who has directed a handful of movies, including a documentary for Suzi Quattro called “Suzi Q” from 2019.

I keep searching and I find that in the mid-2000s both of them were living in Melbourne, Australia. They recorded an EP titled “Stars of Stage” in 2005 under the name The Kissingers. Darran would later be in a band called Black Seas.

Question is, where were these three songs recorded by Firmager/McCrann? On Soundcloud it says Darran is now based in Cork.

On Last.fm I could find the name of two other songs that are attributed to this duo, “Take This to Your Grave” and “We’re In this Together”. Sadly these songs are not available to listen anywhere.

Not much information about this project. The three songs are great. You wonder why there were no releases. Now I need to have a good listen to The Kissingers. Maybe I like them too.

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Firmager/McCrann – Sydney

There is barely any information about Mood for Tuesday. But it is quite interesting to see that the 80s band has presence on different streaming platforms.

There are 8 songs available by them on an album titled “1986”. I would guess this is not exactly an album but a collection of tracks recorded that year. The tracks are “The Drowning Pool”, “Easter”, “Man for all Seasons”, “News at Ten”, “Time Well Spent”, “Carnival”, “Merry-Go-Round” and “Epilogue”.

The only thing worthy that I found was that one of the tracks, “The Drowning Pool”, is on Soundcloud. Thanks to that I could figure out that one of the band members was Richard James Burley who is now based in Hastings, UK. Is it safe to assume that Mood for Tuesday hailed from the same city?

On Richard’s page there are many other recordings, including a version of “The Drowning Pool” by Solar Flare which seems to be his latest project (around 5 years ago).

Not much more info about them. Check them out, check out “Easter” which for me is their standout track.

Hopefully we’ll find more details about them.

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Mood for Tuesday – The Drowning Pool

As mentioned on my post about Liquid Cats, there is another band related to this project called Shimmer. You may already have checked out the songs on the Soundcloud account that someone under the name Prime Senior has put together. If you haven’t, then I would suggest checking them out.

Shimmer seems to have been the band that came after Liquid Cats. The timeline looks like that. We still don’t know who was behind this band. There’s the one photo of the same guy on all tracks. It is fair to assume that he was behind these projects. But what instrument did he play? Was he the vocalist? Did he write the songs?

In the case of Shimmer there are more songs than for Liquid Cats. There are 5 tracks that date from 1994. All of them are categorized as demos. These are “Falling Down”, “Freedom”, “Leaving the all Behind”, “Like a Soldier” and “Private Lives”.

The songs are great, they have this nice lo-fi feeling to them. They don’t sound exactly like The Javelins from Sweden circa 2004 or so, but for some reason I’m reminded to them.

I was also wondering on my previous post if by any chance they called themselves Shimmer because of The Flatmates classic song of the same name. Maybe. But maybe not, it is not like shimmer is a rare word. But could be, it is clear the band loved indiepop.

There is not much more to say about Shimmer. No information is available. My guess is that they were English but that’s where I stop guessing. Anyone have a clue? Remember them?

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Shimmer – Falling Down

The term “liquid cats” in the context of music likely refers to music designed to be calming and soothing for cats, or to music that evokes a sense of fluidity and relaxation.

There is an account on Soundcloud by someone going under the name Prime Senior. For all the songs there is the same photo, a sideway glance of a guy. Most probably a musician involved in all of the bands and songs that are uploaded. If I was to guess, I would say one hailing from England.

14 years ago three songs were uploaded by a band called Liquid Cats. Those are the ones I am interested in. They sound very 80s and also very fresh to this day. The tracks are “Save the One That Dies”, “Train Away from Heaven”, “Queen of Dreams” and “Shadow”. These are all numbered too. It looks like they came from a four song demo or release.

Other bands uploaded to this account are Freedom, Abby Prime and Shimmer. Shimmer sounds good too. Maybe named after The Flatmates hit?.It is good lo-fi indiepop, maybe good for the next post on the blog? Liquid Cats on the other hand, as you may have noticed, has more influence of post-punk.

Not much more to add to this post sadly. These four great demos and that’s it. Hopefully we’ll find more about them soon!

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Liquid Cats – Train Away from Heaven

Following on the post about the Treasure Berries and going through the songs on the “Humber Beat” compilation. Let me introduce you to the band The First Time.

I have also previously written about That Noble Porpoise. That’s how I know this compilation. A compilation that featured bands from the Northeast of England. and that was released in 1987 by Criminal Records (CRTWR001). Criminal Records was created and run by Tony Roberts who recorded the bands for the compilation. A compilation that had 14 songs by 14 different bands.

About The First Time I know very little. I could say I know nothing about.

They appear on the A side, the second song. It is called “Minerva”.

Minerva refers to the Roman goddess of wisdom, strategy, and the arts, often equated with the Greek goddess Athena.

The song is great. I suggest you checking it out of course. The only other detail I have about the band is a photo of the band that appears on the back cover of the “Humber Beat” compilation. On it we see three friends, three guys. They are holding something which looks like a record. Sadly as far as I know they didn’t release any records. This is a mystery.

I haven’t been able to find any names related to the band. The band’s name, in this age of Googling, is not very friendly to search purposes.

But I hope some of our northeastern English friends know about them, remember them, and can shed some light. Can you?

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The First Time – Minerva

After my post about the band Claudia Miss from a couple of weeks ago, I promised I was going to check the other bands Phil Barnard, keyboardist of said band, had been involved with. Bands he had uploaded to his Soundcloud account.

One of these bands is Wendyhouse. Listening to the few tracks that are online I immediately think that this will be a good recommendation for the blog. Songs sound great. Indiepop!

From my previous post I leaned that Phil was based in Walton-on-Thames, in Surrey. That is part of the Greater London.

From what I understand Wendyhouse came after Claudia Miss. The recordings online date from 1996. That is a year later after the songs by Claudia Miss.

This time around the band was formed by Phil Barnard on keyboards, Wendy Frost on vocals, Steve Nott on lead guitar, Craig Timmings on bass and Chris Ritchie on drums. So, we can see Phil, Craig and Chris continued playing together after the demise of Claudia Miss. Also notice that it may be that the band’s name came after the vocalist Wendy Frost?

The songs online are “The Rest of Me“, “Science Fiction” and “New Day” which were recorded and mixed at Cornerstone Studios in London between the 15th and 19th of December of 1996. These tracks were engineered by Peter Brand and Peter Leverick. Were these part of a demo tape perhaps? A demo possibly called “We’re Wendyhouse” as the image on Soundcloud shows? Were these all the studio recordings by the band?

There are two other recordings. These are from a gig at The Orange in West Kensigton on 6th November of 1996. The first is the song “Brighton” and the second is “Minister Sinister“, both of which are original songs by Claudia Miss.

As mentioned in the previous post Phil has been in another band called Rise. I will check that one out afterwards.

There is no more information about the band or the band members.

Anyone from London remembers this band?

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Wendyhouse – Science Fiction

Many years ago I wrote about a band called That Noble Porpoise. This band from Winterton in Lincolnshire had been in a 12″ compilation called “Humber Beat”. Some days ago a reader, John Robinson, shared with me a link where I could listen the other bands in this record. And there were some surprises!

Actually the first band on the record, Treasure Berries, sounded just up my alley. So I will start there. See what I can find about this band.

About “Humber Beat” we know it was a compilation featuring bands from the Northeast of the U.K. that was released in 1987 by Criminal Records (CRTWR001). This is the only record listed for this label, so it might have been just a one off. In total there were 14 songs by 14 different bands. I’d love to have a copy of it.

As mentioned the Treasure Berries are on the record, on the A side, as the first song. Their track is called “Repetition”. From what I can see, the band was formed by two guys. Their names? It doesn’t say. Just a photo of them is on the back cover.

I dig a little bit and find that Criminal Records was created and run by Tony Roberts. He recorded the bands for the compilation.

I couldn’t find any other details about the band. Hoping someone remembers them. And can shed some light. Would be good to know if they made more recordings for example.

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Treasure Berries – Repetition

Just found a bunch of songs by am English band called Claudia Miss from the mid-90s on Soundcloud. Let me share these with you.

First off let’s go with the band. It was formed by Davy Chapman on guitar, Katie Finlay on vocals, Phil Barnard on keyboards, Craig Timmings on bass and Chris Ritchie on drums. It is Phil Barnard who has uploaded the tracks.

The first song I encounter is “The Diary of Peter Starbuck“. I find an obituary for a Peter Starbuck, a renowned academic from Shropshire and also a top businessman and former government adviser. Is that the same Peter Starbuck the song is dedicated to? In any case this track was recorded at The House in the Woods in Bletchingley on June 28, 1995 and was part of the “Claudia Miss EP”.

Also from this EP, and recorded at the same location there is “World of Blue Sky”, “SuperGee” and “Brighton“.

Then there are some live recordings. There’s a partial recording  at the Rock Garden in 1995 with overdubs added later in Walton on Thames for the songs “Cranium” and “The Further Away The Closer I Get“. These songs were engineered by Andy Chapman. Is he the brother of Davy? Cousins?

Then there is a version of “Cranium” in studio that was recorded at TRACKSAVE in Walton on Thames in 1995. This song was engineered, arranged and produced by Andy Chapman and Davy Chapman (who also wrote the lyrics). This track appeared on the compilation “Now That’s What I Call Walton”. On this same compilation another track of the band appears, that is “Jungle” which was recorded live at Water Rats rehearsal studio in 1995. Produced, engineered and mixed by Andy Chapman.

So Walton on Thames. Never heard of it! I do a quick search… Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about 15 mi (24 km) southwest of central London. Walton forms part of the Greater London Built-up Area, and is served by a wide range of transport links.

And about the compilation “Now That’s What I Call Walton”? I can’t find anything. Was this released in CD? Anyone knows? Other bands that appear on it are Planet Throb, Katie Finlay, Steve Chapman, Peter Hall, Fearsome Geordie, Jon Mackenzie, Rise, Phil Barnard, Trundle, Air France and Frak Cock. If that helps?

There are other songs in the Soundcloud account, by two other bands, Rise and The Wendyhouse. Rise was on the compilation indeed. And Phil too.

Now, that’s all there is about this band. Anyone has any clues to what happened to them?

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Claudia Miss – Brighton