I’m exploring a Soundcloud account. One belonging to the username Muggerbass. A bassist obviously and from what I understand from Manchester, my next trip.

I believe the name of the person behind this account is Pete McGrath, currently bass player for WinterGreen. I also believe Michael Knowles, the guitarist of Wintergreen was in a band I had written before, The Catchmen. I had been in touch with Michael and interviewed him about that band.

He mentioned a little bit about Grifter when I asked him about Wintergreen: “An old friend of mine (Pete McGrath) with whom I played in a band post Catchmen (Grifter) saw I will still involved broadly in the Arts and got in touch and asked if I wanted to be in a band again. He is great in that he does the hard part of bands- organising etc so I can concentrate on the fun bit (though it is a very collaborative band). It’s a 3 piece band (the first time my guitar has been so prominent) largely because as you get older it’s a logistical nightmare to do anything larger. It was great that Ian from the Catchmen (who I have played off and off with over the year) added some keyboard to Whole (sent over the internet – wonders of technology)”

At that time I wasn’t aware of songs being online for Grifter. That’s the reason it has taken me so many years to find about Grifter.

There is a photo of a Raleigh Grifter bicycle. Perhaps that’s where they took their name from? I wasn’t familiar with these bikes, they seem to be British according to Wikipedia: “The Raleigh Grifter is a children’s bicycle manufactured and marketed between 1976 and early 1983 by the Raleigh Bicycle Company of Nottingham, England. It was the “must have” bicycle of its time and bridged a gap between the Raleigh Chopper and the Raleigh Burner models. Its frame was very similar to the Raleigh Twenty Shopper bicycle, but with a front triangle which resembled an upside down Chopper frame. It was part of a range of age-specific bicycles and was positioned at the top of that range. The smallest in the range was the Raleigh Boxer with the Raleigh Strika in the middle.”

We also know two of the band members of the band. I suppose there was a drummer at least. What was his name? Was it a trio? or a four-piece?

A trio it seems. Kev Burke was the drummer.

We know the band was active between 1995 and 1997. Afterwards we know that at least Pete went to be in bands like Stretch Armstrong, 1000 Cuts and The Fraudsters.

On the Soundcloud account there are a few recordings: “To Kill a Sweet Song”, “Mexican Moon” and “That Perfect Reason”. All of these, possibly from a demo tape, were recorded in 1996 at Noisebox in Prestwich by Steve Lloyd.

And that’s it really. I should drop Michael a note. Would be great to find out more about this band. They seem to have some really nice tunes. Wonder if there are more!

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Grifter – That Perfect Reason

A Soundcloud account by someone called David Ian. About 12 years ago he started uploading tracks, and the ones I am interested in are a set titled “PretendFriends“. I am guessing that was the name of the band?

This set has 8 tracks, the wonderful “Juliet Smiles” opens it and many great tracks follow, “Under the Union Jack”, “Bob”, “Six of One”, “Alice and Me (horribly hissy mix)”, “Forget to Breathe”, “Not a Girl” and “AGAOG Guide Track V5”. Clearly the last song’s name is not its name, right? I believe the name of this track is actually “As Good as Ordinary Gets”. There is another version of that song here.

There is not much info about the tracks. We know they were recorded between 1994 and 1995. There is also a little note saying that David apologises for the guitar solos in the tracks “Why is it Always Me?” and “Under the Union Jack”. He says that those solos are due to him listening to a lot of Dire Straits while at school.

I do notice that “Why is it Always Me?” is not one of the tracks in this set. Maybe it was at some point? In any case would be good to find this track.

There is also a demo version of “Forget to Breathe” that is not part of the set. There is another track that may be from the same band but I can’t be sure, but the sound is very similar. This track is “King of Saturday Night“. Let me know what you think.

Not much more info about this band. Safe to think they hailed from the UK as they had a song about the Union Jack.

Wonder whereabouts they were from. Doesn’t say. Did they play live at all? No releases I suppose.

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Pretend Friends – Juliet Smiles

Some jangly perfection from the early 90s. That is what the British band The Rainhorns were. Do you remember them?

“Facefull of Tears” was their only release. And it was a rare tape. Who knows how many copies were made. Maybe not too many. Was it perhaps a demo tape with 12 songs? Or was it really sold as an album?

It was 1991 when Farm Records (FARM 4) released this tape. The label appears on Discogs but has nothing else listed other than this tape. Was it the band’s own label? Did the label put out FARM 1, 2 or 3? Maybe they were other demo tapes from The Rainhorns? Many questions, no answers.

The album with “facefull” misspelled had a black and white photocopy style sleeve. Who is the person on the sleeve? An actor/actress maybe?

What we do know is the tracklist though, “Fifteen”, “Fairground”, “Keep Me in Mind”, “Miderable Town”, “How Can I”, “Hillside Heroin”, “Swirl”, “Waiting for the Sun”, “Shine Right Through Me” on the A side and “The Summer’s Come”, “Kitchen” and “Marrygoaround” on the B side.

I hope to find who were behind this band. If they were in any other bands. Where were they from. Anyone could help me with details?

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The Rainhorns – How Can I

Japan and all their bands that still remain obscure to me.

Clare being one of them. I have just discovered some of their songs on Youtube, mainly from their second album, the cassette tape “Womb Fantasy” released by the Italian label Best Kept Secret (LIE 046) in 2003.

Prior to that release they had put out a CD album titled “One Night 2001” (CAR 002) on the label Chocolat Art Returns which I have never heard before even though they had released an Orange Cake Mix album. This first album had 16 tracks, “Angel-Something Will Start-“, “Shining Star, Shining Sun”, “Stargazing”, “My Being”, “Yesterday and Today”, “One Night 2000”, “L/M/M”, “Kitten K”, “Nothing Makes Me Afraid”, “Not Here but Somewhere”, “A Boy Inside You”, “What Heaven Gives”, “Hand in Hand”, “Leave You To Me”, “SA-YO-NA-RA” and “Vaguness in Love”.

The album comes with some details about the band. Here we know that Kazu Ohno was on guitar, keyboards and programming, Yoko Takashima on vocals and keyboards and Isao Watanabe on guitar. The album art was created by Shigeki Komori and the album was recorded and produced by Room 203.

If you read the blog you’ll notice that the name Kazu Ohno is not unfamiliar. I have written about another of his projects, Tip Top Planets, before. He has also been on Room203, The Fruits Basket, Jenka and The Sun Never Sets.

After this album came “Womb Fantasy in 2003”. This time the album was recorded in 1999 at Studio K which seems to be Kazu’s own home-recording studio. The engineer for this record was Touru Isii and again the producer is Room 203 which clearly was Kazu. I suppose because of the time it took for this to release, these songs may have been demos or outtakes from the first album.

The album includes a guest guitarist, Yasuyuki Hatake.

And the tracklist was as follow, “Daze”, “Distorted Moon”, “Winged Angel” and “As You Think” on the A side and “Edge of the Top”, “Take Your Time”, “Here I Am” and “Fill My Room With Flowers” on the B side.

Two years later, in 2005, another album was released. Again on Best Kept Secret. The cassette album was titled “Easy” (LIE 098) and was recorded in 2004 again by Room 203. The songs were “Words Foil”, “Wanna Be Alone”, “Tears” and “This Life” on the A side and “Does That Answer Your Question?”, “Far Away”, “Itchy and Fidgety” and “If” on the B side.

The band would also contribute to a few compilations.

On the 2000 CD comp “Captain Circus! Chocolat Art Returns Compilation” released by the label Chocolat Art Returns (CAR 001) the band had the song “Friendship Makes the World Go Round”. A year later, 2001, the band would have songs on two compilations. First on “Prspctv” a CD comp released by the classic magazine Beikoku-Ongaku (BDBO-E0019) with the song “Something Will Start Part 2” and then on the “Bubblegum Factory” CD that Chocolat Art Returns (CAR-004) released with the track “Tears (Short version)”.

And that’s what I have. Not much background info, mostly the releases.

Where from Japan where they? Did they play many gigs? Were the other members involved in other bands? Who would know?

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Clare – As You Think

Anyone knows who were behind June Evenings? There is the one song I am aware of, just one… called “I Wasted All My Wishes On You” and as you might notice it is really great.

Problem is that even though it rings a bell to me, I can’t remember anything about them. My thinking is that it is not an old song. Not older than 15 years at least. Has to be from the 2000s. Maybe it was from one of those MP3 compilations that sometimes blogs would put together. Maybe?

The boy/girl vocals, the clear Sarah influences (think Field Mice, Brighter), and lo-fi recording make this a delicious slice of indiepop. But did they record anything else? Did they go to be in other bands?

Were they named after Air France’s song “June Evenings” perhaps? Where were they from?

The questions are many. I am just hoping someone remembers them and can give me a few details about this band.

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June Evenings – I Wasted All My Wishes On You

Dum spiro spero, which translates to “While I breathe, I hope”, is a Latin phrase of indeterminate origin. It is the motto of various places and organisations, including the U.S. state of South Carolina.

Next year I am going back to Manchester, I am very excited. I am going to see The Man from Delmonte at Band on the Wall on February 25. Will just be for a short time but I am hoping this time to see some of the sights. Last time I barely saw anything, it was too quick. Hope to see some friends too.

So far I am traveling solo, it seems not many indiepop kids from my generation are going to this gig. It seems the big crowd will be fans from the band’s heyday.

But today I want to talk about another band I’ve just discovered that hailed from the Manchester area.

Probably from Stockport, there was an 80s band with the name Dum Spiro Spero. They were formed by Simon Wroe on vocals and guitar, Isabel Keyes on vocals, James Michael on bass and Nick Berry on drums. To my surprise they released a 7″ in 1985 which makes them not as obscure as I thought they would be!

The “England Does Not Exist” 7″ came out on a label called Lizard Literature Records (LL 1). Probably it was their own, right? No other releases are listed for this label. Aside from the title song on the A side the record came with another track, the B side “The Hunter & The Hunted”.

The black and white sleeve shows headshots of all four members on the front, and on the back we find lyrics for the two tracks. We also find some credits, the band members names which I’ve shared and also that the record was engineered by Paul Machiavelli at Drone Studios in Manchester. The record is dedicated to Stephen Berry, and all songs are credited to Simon Wroe.

But then there’s the find… the tracks are online. They are on Isabel Keyes Soundcloud account. You can find both tracks from the 7″, “England Does Not Exist” and “The Hunter & the Hunted” as well as two other songs, “Tell Me” and “Looking for the First Time“.

One immediately wonders if these two extra tracks were a possible second single? Or maybe they were recorded as demos? Or even recorded at the same recording session of the 7” tracks?

There are no details.

What there is though are some other tracks from bands Isabel had been involved like two 80s bands The Blue Dolphins (the track “Secret” is very good) and Tortoise.

And that’s what I could find about them.

Maybe some of you have more details about this band who are categorized as a goth rock band on Discogs, but I didn’t think that was the case. But you tell me.

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Dum Spero Spiro – England Does Not Exist

Happy to new to all the indiepop fans out there.

I would love to do a recap for this year but it hasn’t been the most exciting to be honest.

It started quite great with the release of the Blind Terry 10″. But this also meant that Cloudberry was stopping. This was to be the last record by the label.

A bittersweet farewell, one I didn’t dwell much and didn’t make it a big deal. It was just an announcement for the few fans left out there.

I have continued the blog but with a slower rate of posts. Once a week, on Mondays, unless there was an interview.

How will 2025 go? I don’t know. I will try to continue the blog. Energy and time are two things I am lacking these days. But I try to continue being  in the loop with the indiepop scene. I am not too knowledgeable of the new things happening. My main event this year seems to be seeing The Man from Delmonte reform in Manchester in February. Other than that I have no plans at all. If any cool new band will come to NYC, I have no clue. Would be good to know though.

Yeah, that’s mainly it. I have lost touch with many people. I do think it has to do with indiepop interest waning around the world, the price of records and shipping, streaming platforms taking over physical records, and so on. Things are tough. And it is understandable.

But anyways, here is the last post of the year, see you in 2025!

When in 2018 Cherry Red released the 5 CD boxset compilation “Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound of Liverpool 1978-1988” (CRCDBOX 39) I discovered quite a few bands. One of them was The Press Club. They had contributed a superb track titled “James Where are You Now?” and of course caught my attention.

The band formed by the brothers Paul (vocals) and Alan Cunningham (guitar) plus Martin Wallace (bass) and Alan Murphy (drums) had released that track as a maxi single in 1985. It came out on The Admiralty Label (ADM 212) which I think may have been their own label, the releases are all The Press Gang’s.

With “James Where Are You Now?” on the A side and two tracks, “No Place Like Home” and “A Town by the Sea” on the B side, the band hoped to make a good impact. All three tracks had been recorded at Pink Studios in Liverpool on July 1985 with Gary Wilkinson as engineer and Eric Shark as producer.

It is also worth mentioning that on the record Dave Clark played fiddle and Bubble Hennigen guitar.

The art of the record has a photo of someone. Black and white. Is it James? I wonder if it is not a more important figure, it looks like it. But who could it be? Maybe British?

(EDIT Dec. 30, 11:29 a.m.) Just learned from our friend Cathal Peppard that “The James pictured on the artwork is James Connolly. He was a Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist from the early 20th century who moved to Dublin and was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. There is a statue of him outside Custom House and opposite Liberty Hall in Dublin.“

There are also interesting details on the runout grooves, we find there two messages etched, ‘Leave It! Theres Youngies Int.’ and ‘Give Em Plenty, One Each’.

But that was actually the band’s second release. The band had previously released another 12″ single that same year. This was the “You Know Falwell” single that had the title song on the A side and “51st State” and “Who Are You Trying to Kid?” on the B side (which here is the double A side). Engineered by Gary and produced by Eric, again recorded at Pink Studios but this time on January of 85.

This record was again put out by The Admiralty Label (PG001/12) and on the sleeve we find American motives, like a US flag covering the eyes of a man on the cover and stripes and starts on the back cover.

That was all the released output by this combo. Some of the band members were in other bands though, both Cunningham brothers were in the Glass Torpedoes in the late 70s while Alan Murphy was on The Last Poet and The Great Western Squares.

Anyone has any other details about them? Maybe there were more songs recorded? Would be great to know where are they now!

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The Press Gang – James Where Are You Now?

“Quinton are a band that came into being after The Sex Chimps… the lead singer is Andrew Woodward, brother of David” were the words from my good friend Matthew Rimell. He had shared with me a video of the band performing the Ashton Court Festival in 1991 which immediately caught my attention.

How come I have never heard the band?

I would notice that there are actually three videos of that gig. Here is part 1, 2 and 3. The uploader shares with us some details which are greatly appreciated. We learn the band hailed from Bristol, that they were formed in the early 90s, and that this gig was happening at the Richer Sounds stage on a Sunday morning in 1991.

We also get to know the band lineup, quite a start lineup… Andy Woodward on vocals, Tom Adams from Beatnik Filmstars on drums, Hugo Morgan from the Heads and Steve Yabsley from Rorschach and nowadays a BBC presenter.

The songs that are played at this gig include “Hanging On”, “Love Shine Down on Me”, “Are You Awake?”, “Butterfly Storm”, “Personality Zero”, “Instrumental”, “Surrealing” and an unknown track.

The band did release an album. It was titled “Propeller” and came out in 1990 on Pop God Records (PGLP 001). This label would release another Bristol band, The Family, that same year as well as releases by Rorschach, The Moonflowers and more.

“Propeller” had 10 tracks, “The Rake”, “Rediscover Me”, “Operation Rise”, “Weird Emotional Scar”, “She”, “Surrealing”, “The End of a Good Idea”, “Flying Very Fast”, “Love Shine on Me” and “Propeller”. All of the songs were written by Steve Yabsley with the exception of “She” that was written by Andrew Woodward and “Propeller” which was written by Cris Warren (Rorschach) and Steve.

500 copies of the album were pressed. It was recorded at P.IJ. Studios in Bristol in September 1990. The producer was John Parrish. The photography for the sleeve was done by Laura Dalgleish.

In what other bands were the band members involved? Steve was in Rorschach, The Harpoons and Nearly. Tom was in Beatnik Filmstars, Forest Giants, Kyoko, Secret Shine, The Fauns and The Total Rejection. Hugo Morgan was in Gonga, Karen, Loop and The Heads.

And that’s it. I haven’t heard the record yet. I should try to find myself a copy. Issue is of course the crazy shipping prices I want to avoid. Maybe when I travel to the UK in February I can find a copy. That’d be nice.

In any case I am curious about the band. If they recorded more songs. Also about the band they were in before, The Sex Chimps, my friend Matthew has spoken highly of them. Wonder if there are any recordings.

Maybe someone remembers them and have more details… let me know!

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Quinton – Are You Awake? (live at Ashton Court Festival 1991)

A Soundcloud account from the UK by someone under the nickname Lunar Jukebox has quite a few treasures.

Listening to the songs I find some quite interesting. The one band that catches my attention immediately is one that seems to be called Evry 5 Minits. That’s how it shows up. Or E5M. Is that their name really? Misspelled like that? I wonder…

I suppose that’s the one name we got, so we’ll use it. There doesn’t seem to be any other information about the band. We can hear the superb guitars and female vocals, a bit like The Primitives? Darling Buds? That style. Yes!

There are 5 tracks uploaded by this band. Possibly all hailing from the same demo tape. The songs are “Seal of Approval”, “Lucky Day”, “Get it Right”, “I’m Into You” and “Unobtainable”.

It is safe to assume though that there is a connection with the other bands in the Soundcloud account. These are Arch, Some Assault, Lunar Vibe, Moon Struck Too and The Attic.

I look for info about these other bands. Maybe I can find a connection.

I find a name that I think could be behind the Soundcloud account, Chris Finch.

And that’s where I hit a wall. I guess it may be a matter of talking to Chris and finding out more details about this band. If this was the right way to spell their name or maybe it was Every 5 Minutes or Every Five Minutes. Who knows.

In the meantime enjoy the songs, they are really nice!

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Every 5 Minits – Seal of Approval

I believe Öderland would translate as barren land. Is that right?

I continue exploring some compilation tapes of obscure bands and I’ve been mostly focused on the “Frischer Morgentau” tape that Ulli Hahndorf put together in 1993 under his Steinpilz Tonträger (Stein 1) label.

I have written, at least, about a half of the bands in this cassette. But there are still a handful of bands I don’t know nothing about. I wonder if it will be possible to find details about them online. Maybe?

Öderland appears on the A side of the tape with the song “Was Du Mich Kannst”. It is a nice lo-fi pop song with clear British indiepop influences. According to the insert that came with the compilation the band was based in Hamburg and featured Christian Neumann as its sole member.

The insert also mentions the existence of a few more songs, “Du Hast Die Welt in Deinen Bett” and “Was Soll Ich Hier”, and also one about Blumfeld’s Jochen Distelmeyer but no song title is given for this one.

The two other songs we know about would eventually find a release. Under a reworked title “Welt = Bett” it appears on “Ha, Ha, Funny Feeling!” the compilation tape that Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 15) released in 1994. And then “Was Soll Ich in Dieaser Stadt”, again a reworked title, appears on “Caught By the Warmth” a compilation tape released by Meller Welle Produkte (MEL 17) in 1997.

But here comes the surprise. It is in this “Caught by the Warmth” tape that the song about Blumfeld’s leader also gets released. It is titled “Ich Weiß, Wo Jochen Distelmeyer Icht” and I would really love to listen to it. Anyone could help me with that? I’m very curious about it!

So now we know, 4 songs in total. Probably from a single demo tape? And you wonder what happened to Christian Neumann? Did he continue making music in any other way? There are few Christian Neumann’s in Germany related to the music industry… so seems a bit hard for me to figure out what happened to him.

In any case this is more than I expected. I know there were more songs than the one I knew. Now, I need to track them down.

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Öderland – Was Du Mich Kannst