11
Aug

Day 518

Television Personalities: First I want to say I don’t support Record Store Day. I honestly don’t know how many of them are a year, and I don’t care. Only big record labels get a benefit out of it. In any case, because at least the double vinyl album “Another Kind of Trip: Live 1985-1993” is available to stream on Bandcamp. Also there is no CD version of this release, previous Fire Records’ TVPs special boxset releases had CD versions and I bought them. But not this time. Anyways. You can purchase the album now and even though it says it was released for Record Store Day it seems available. It includes 21 tracks of unreleased versions and a song that never made it to studio.

Roller Derby: let’s discover this cool Hamburg band! Formed by Philine Meyer, Manuel Romero Soria and Max Nielsen, the band has been putting out some fantastic songs on Bandcamp. Dreamy and poppy, superb indiepop. The latest track is called “Whatever Works” and it is honey to my ears. Brings so many memories of trips to Hamburg, to hang out with indiepop friends and check out gigs at the Astrastube. Maybe one day I can catch them there?

The Fisherman and his Soul: a new single by our friend Sebastian Voss from The Grindcore Poppies and Nah… This one is called “Dimmish Grey Sky” and it is a fine slice of pop. There are also included 4 remixes and this I let you decide what you think. I am not a fan of remixes in general. I don’t remember a remix I’ve liked better than the original!

The Arctic Flow: “Lost You Long Ago” is the name of the album that Sunday Records will be releasing on August 20th on CD and tape. Good news! 11 songs by this wonderful project that knows how to chime and jingle jangle his guitars. We can preview two songs right now, “Rehearsals” and “Alive”, both very very strong!

The Suncharms: Sunday Records is also releasing the debut album by 90s popsters from Sheffield! Yes, The Suncharms we all love and that we got the chance to release a retrospective compilation some years ago. The band got together and have been making some terrific songs. The two songs we can preview from the upcoming album “Distant Lights” are no exception. “Liquid Through My Hands” and “Seas of Titan” sound ace. The album is out on August 20th on CD  and later on, in December, there will be a vinyl version. The CD version seems a better deal, with 12 songs, while the vinyl has just 10 songs. Looking forward to this one!

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We continue digging treasures from Hull, thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!

Now a band with a curious name, Fog. A bad name for the internet days. How can we find more information about a band with a name like that. How can that be googled?! I think we are in a difficult situation here. But let’s try.

I discovered Fog thanks to the tape “Now That’s What We Call Hull” from 1992. I’ve written many posts about bands that appeared on this compilations by now. And probably there will be more! So many good bands that I had no clue about less than a month ago.

Fog appears on this tape with the song “Enough”, which is the 5th song on the A side. Previously, in 1991 they had contributed another song, “The Happy One”, to a compilation tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”. I have just listened to both songs and I am happily impressed.

They made proper indiepop. Catchy and poppy! Did they make other songs?

I have an answer. YES.

Their song “Closed” appears on a compilation tape called “Nice 1” also from 1992. and then in 1993 they had the song “R.I.M.A.” on “2 Nice for Words”, yet another compilation tape.

I am aware too of a self-titled tape called “Who Pilots the Flying Saucers?”. This tape must have been a demo tape. It dates from 1992 and had three songs, “Slack”, “Snap” and “G.T.F.”.

In total then, 7 songs they recorded. Were there more? Who would know?

The Hull Music Archive sheds some light! And adds some more releases. Yes, there was another tape with three songs, “Tabloid Snipers”, “Tactic” and “Closed”. So now we know 10 songs.

We also get to know that the band was around from 1989 to 1993 and were formed by:
Grant Davison on guitar and vocals
Steve Porter on accordion
Kevin Riches on guitar
Kev Coulman on bass and guitar
Chris Hoyle on drums

Other people that were involved in the band included Neil Tallentyre on whistle, Mark Gallon on drums, Karl Isaksen on bass, Sean Pidd on bass and Ali Bee on backing vocals.

It i said that the band was formed after the demise of The Boys from County Hell. Neil was the original drummer but Mark Gallon was the first to replace him. With this lineup the band played the Adelphi and got a  weekly residency at the Alexandra Hotel. Another place the band played at was the Hebden Bridge Trades Club and the Room 1795. They played in London, Birmingham and Scarborough.

Then I find that there exists live footage of the band playing at The Adelphi! Check out the songs “Enough“, “Closed“, “Waterhouse Blues“, “Quite a Year“, “Tabloid Snipers“, “Tactic” and “Happy One“. These date from sometime in 1991.

The recordings for the songs “The Happy One”, “Enough” and “Waterhouse Blues” were made at Animal Tracks but for some reason these songs weren’t released as a proper demo.

Other songs in the band repertoire included “Tomorrow”, “Trolleybound”, “Boxes”, “Sheriff Song”, The Wild Rover” and “The Farmer”.

And that’s what I could find about them. Maybe someone remembers them? Maybe someone has more songs to let us listen? That’d be fantastic!

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Listen
Fog – Enough