17
Sep

Day 555

Cour de Récré: this is the latest on Elefant Records. It is a duo formed by Stan and Heloise and they have just released a self-titled 10-song album! The record is now out on vinyl and is part of the New Adventures in Pop series. Something interesting about this band that sounds like a cool mix of La Monja Enana and Freezepop is that one half of the band is in Avignon and the other in Santiago de Chile.

Hatchie: “This Enchanted” is the latest single by the Brisbane based Hatchie! As usual it is really good!! Lovely guitars, terrific melodies, hazy, reverb-infused, it is a great single! I really enjoy this new song by the ex-Go Violets. Maybe my favourite song this week!

Flu Flu: the latest on Shore Dive Records from Brighton is a CD mini-album by Flu Flu. The Seville based project by Fran Lora has released their “Shinefull” mini-album on a very limited edition of 20 CDs! The songs are great, it is quality dreampop. Check it out.

Космос на потолке: now we head to Moscow to discover this four piece, two girls, two boys, that have just released digitally a very nice album titled “Маленькая Луна”. The album has 8 songs of jangly guitars, sometimes poppier, sometimes rockier, but melodic nonetheless. Good stuff!

Varda’s Charm: now some great lo-fi crashpop from San Diego, California. We end this week with the self-titled cassette tape this band released a few days ago. The tape is limited to 50 copies and includes 6 songs of ramshackle goodness.

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In 1989 the band Charmed Life released the “One Million Dreams” 7″. It came out on One Off Records (CHARM1), possibly the band’s own label. So far, that’s all I know. Hopefully by the end of this post my knowledge about this British band will be a little bit bigger.

The 7″ had two songs, “One Million Dreams” on the A side and “I’ll be the One” on the B side. I’ve only heard the A side and it is a bonafide indiepop track. Nice guitars, great melodies. On the back of the sleeve we find the band members names: Stephen Whyte on vocals, James Henderson on guitar and keyboards and Philip McGee on bass. A trio.

Alex Horsburgh is credited for the backing vocals. There are no other credits, not producer, no studio where it was recorded. There are some interesting bits on the sleeve though. One thing is that those who bought the record were helping the Earl of Stockton Children’s Fund. It seems proceeds from the sales of this record were to raise money for children’s organizations in the Cleveland area.

It also looks like the band got help to put together the single from the Create Project, Fundability, DTW Advertising & Marketing, CYBC Middlesbrough, TFM Radio Al Rhodes and more. Indeed we can see an address on the sleeve and know the band hailed from Middlesbrough.

On the sleeve of the record we see the faces of the trio. On the back a drawing of a harlequin.

No compilation appearances or other releases for the band are listed.

I find a Soundcloud for James Henderson. He has uploaded many songs from different projects. It seems his latest project is called Last Anthem Unplugged where he plays alongside Andy Davidson. He has produced songs and worked with different musicians like Nicky Chapman, Paddy Kirk, Neil Reynolds and more.

One thing that caught my attention is that someone remembers a video fro the song “One Million Dreams”. Would be nice to track that down if possible.

Sadly this is all I have been able to find out about them. Maybe someone remembers them? have any more details about the band? Did they have more recordings for example? Would be great to know!

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Listen
Charmed Life – One Million Dreams

One Response to “:: Charmed Life”

I have this single too, and I’m also curious about Charmed Life. In fact, if you took the images above from Discogs, you’re using the images I scanned from my single. You’re welcome!

I wish I knew more about them. I’m over the moon that stuff like this exists. Maybe the band members Google themselves and realise their work back then is appreciated?

No idea, but I’m giving ‘One Million Dreams’ about my 10th play of the night. I also haven’t heard the B side… yet!

December 27th, 2022