Day 579

The Fisherman and his Soul: our friend Sebastian Voss who once was in the wonderful Grindcore Poppies and now is one half of another amazing band, Nah…, has released a new CD under his solo project. The Münster based popkid has just put out “Nothing (Never) Ever Stays the Same”. This album is a follow up to the band’s previous release on Subjangle and Shiny Happy Records. This album is mostly a collection of remixes of the songs that appeared on said album.

Carolina Zac: the new release and new signing on Spain’s Kocliko Records is Argentina’s Carolina Zac. The album “Posible” will be released on October 22 on black vinyl. It is a 9 song album of carefully and beautifully crafted pop songs. I had never heard about her before and I am happily surprised. Limited to 100 copies.

Un Día Soleado: another new song by Argentina’s wunderkid Enzo. His new jingle jangly popsong is called “Skate 3” and it is such a great track. Poppy, catchy, and with great melodies!

Pash: who are Pash?! the one song we can hear, “Raincoat”, out of the 4 from their EP “Somersault” is a nice surprise! Never heard this band! They have a very limited CD, 20 copies only! I just spent so much on the new Optic Nerve releases…. and I need to wait before spending more money, but if you can afford it. This one seems like a must have!

Optic Sevens 4.0: finally we can pre-order the next set of 7″s by Optic Nerve. I just spent as I was saying more than a hundred dollars for the 12 singles that will be in this new series. I think it is totally worth it, I am not complaining as these are deluxe releases with posters and postcards of rare records. The Wild Swans, Josef K, Dolly Mixture, The Wake, The Monochrome Set, The Chefs, Suede Crocodiles, The Times, Black, Article 58, The Avocados and The Bluebells, are part of this new series!

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I was wondering how come there hasn’t been a Corn Dollies compilation yet. Their songs are probably now in control of Cherry Red and it is surprising to me that they haven’t released a CD with all of their songs as they did with The Waltones in the past. True. They also have The Raw Herbs and they haven’t been released yet on a retrospective compilation, and probably never be. But yeah, instead of many compilations and box sets with the same songs time and time again, wouldn’t a retrospective compilation be cool? I think so!

The Corn Dollies hailed from London and were active between 1987 and 1991. They were formed by Steve Musham on vocals and guitar, Tim Sales on guitar, Steve Ridder on bass, Jack Hoser on drums and Jono Podmore on violin. From the Wikipedia page they have we know they hailed from Dalston but met in King’s Cross. We know too that Steve Ridder was actually from California.

The band’s name was inspired on corn dollies or corn mothers which are a form of straw work.

Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the corn (in American English, “corn” would be “grain”) lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless. James Frazer devotes chapters in The Golden Bough to “Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe” (chs. 45–48) and adduces European folkloric examples collected in great abundance by the folklorist Wilhelm Mannhardt. Among the customs attached to the last sheaf of the harvest were hollow shapes fashioned from the last sheaf of wheat or other cereal crops. The corn spirit would then spend the winter in this home until the “corn dolly” was ploughed into the first furrow of the new season.

The band’s first record was “Forever Steven” on their own label called The Farm Label (FARM 001). This record had the songs “Forever Steven” and the B side had “About to Believe”. This is maybe their most known single also because Robert Forster from The Go-Betweens produced it. Steve Ridder is now the bassist replacing Knowler. The photography on this record is credited to Kate Stubbs. This record got single of the week on Sounds and Record Mirror.

Next came the “Be Small Again” single. It was released on 7″ and 12″ formats on Andy Wake’s label Medium Cool Records (MC008) in 1987. The single had “Be Small Again” on the A side and “In Bethpage” on the B side. On the 12″ the B side had two different songs on the B side, “Rubber Fish” and “The Big House”. The songs were recorded at Pyramid Arts Studio and mastered at The Exchange by Jonz (John Dent). The engineer was Andy Parker with David Emmanuel as his assistant. It is worth noting that on this record the bassist was Stuart Knowler. The cover is credited to Piers Wallace. This record was an indie hit reaching number 28 in the UK Independent Chart.

That same year the band re-released “Forever Steven”  Now it came out on Medium Cool on 12″ (MC009). The A side had  The 12″ adds two more songs to the B side. “Big Cane Call” and “Sweetheart Rose Special”. Now this re-release would reach number 16 of the Indie Chart.

The band also appears this year in the legendary compilation “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour”. On this cassette comp put together by the great Dave Driscoll the band contribued the song “Mary Hopkin Song”. I had to look online for who she was. Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti (from her marriage to Tony Visconti), is a Welsh singer songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single “Those Were the Days”. She was one of the first artists to be signed to the Beatles’ Apple label

1988. Time to release more singles. First is “Shake” on Medium Cool (MC015). Released again as a 7″ and a 12″. “Shake” is on the A side and “Climbing Stairs” on the B side. On the 12″ we add one song to the B side, “Gathered Up”. The songs were recorded at ICC Studios in Eastbourne. They were produced by Alun Lane with Jessica Corcoran and Mike Newbon as engineers. They were mixed at Greenhouse Studio in London.

Then comes “Map of the World”. This single was also on Medium Cool (MC017) and released on both formats. The A side has “Map of the World” and the B side has “People Gone”. On the 12″ the song “This is Mine” appears as the second song on the B side. The producer this time was Chris Allison.

In 1988 the band contributes the song “Mouthful of Brains” to a CD compilation called “The Fundamental Hymnal” that was released by Fundamental (GEEZ 1CD) in the US. The compilation “Edge of the Road” released by Medium Cool (MC010) in the UK and Fundamental (CAM001) in the US included the songs “Mouthful of Brains” and “What Do I Ever”.

Lastly in 1988 Midnight Music released a compilation titled “The Corn Dollies”. This one came out on CD and LP (CHIMEE 00.44).  This was a singles collection of sorts. It contained 14 songs and it is the closest we have to a full retrospective. The songs were “Map of the World”, “Moutful of Brains”, “Shake”, “Forever Steven”, “The Big House”, “What do I Ever”, “Gathered Up”, “Be Small Again”, “Big Cane Call”, “Sweetheart Rose Especial”, “About to Believe”, “Climbing Stairs”, “People Gone” and “This is Mine”. I am looking for a CD version of this release. Any help will be appreciated.

1989 continues to be an active year for the band. “Nothing of You” is the single they release this year. Again a 12″ on Medium Cool (MC020) and a 7″ and 12″ on Midnight Music (DING 52). The 12″ includes the songs “Nothing of You” on the A side and “Polly West”, “Wrecked” and “Be Small Again (Mix)” on the B side. The producer was Chris Allison for the A side and the band, Andy Parker and Alan Barclay for the B side. The design is credited to Peter Cooke.  I am not sure why the two different 12″ versions as they have the same songs and the art is the same. We know Medium Cool collapsed and they moved to Midnight Music… but why re-release the record?

A flexi disc that came with the Zine magazine that year included their song “Map of the World”. The other song in the flexi was “Down Here” by The Rain.

The song “Map of the World” and “This is Mine” got included in the Midnight Music LP compilation “Pop Up the Volume. This is a fine compilation with bands like McCarthy, Bradford, The Wedding Present and The Wolfhounds.

Another 1989 appearance for them was on the classic “Bananas!” compilation released by Rodney, Rodney! (RODNEY 1). This album that was put together against the planned introduction of identity cards for football supporters in the UK. The song the band contributed was “This is Mine”.

Lastly this year they release their debut album, “Wrecked”. It was released on CD, LP and cassette by Midnight Music (CHIME 00.59). The songs included were “In Your Hands”, “Submarine”, “Map of the World”, “Seven”, “Wrecked”, “Nothing of You”, “Jingo”, “Everything Box”, “Mary Hopkin Song” and “This is Mine”. The producers were Alan Barclay, Chris Allison and the band. In support of the album the band went on a national tour supporting Ian McCulloch.

It is also wroth nothing that this year the band toured Europe. They built a good fanbase in Spain.

1990. A new single, “Joyrider!”. This one gets released by Midnight Music (DONG65). It comes as a 12″ vinyl and also as a CD single. Both come with four songs, “Joyrider!” and “Slow Death” are on the A side and “Happy” and “Kool-Aid Mix” on the B side. They were recorded and mixed at the Strongroom in London.

This year they appear on another legendary compilation, “Alvin Lives (in Leeds)” that came out on Midnight Music (CLANG 4). This comp came out in vinyl, CD and cassette. This release as many of you know was released in aid of the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign. The song the band covered was Chic’s “Le Freak”.

Then another cover, “I Don’t Live Today”, appears on “If 6 was 9 – A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix” released by Imaginary Records (ILLUSION 008) in the UK as an LP and CD, by Communion Label (COMM 18) in the US on LP, CD and cassette and on Paradoxx Music from Brazil (!) as a CD comp titled “Tributo a Hendrix” (OXX 1062-1). This same song would be included in a triple CD compilation called “The Many Faces of Jimi Hendrix (A Journey Through the Inner World of Jimmi Hendrix)” that Music Brokers released in 2017.

Midnight Music also released that year a cassette sampler titled “The Independent Clarion 1” where they included the songs “Seven” and “Nothing of You”.

There is a 1991 release too that was a promo white label. All songs are untitled. It had 8 songs and it seems like an album titled “Past Caring”. Midnight Music had even given it a catalog number, CHIME 01.19. What songs were these? Why wasn’t this ever released? Anyone has any info about this record?

Then we have to jump to 1997 for them to appear on Cherry Red compilation “Nocturnal – The Best of Midnight Music” (CDMRED 13). The song that they have on this one is “Nothing of You”. Then it would become repetitive, Cherry Red using the Corn Dollies catalog to include them on their many boxsets. In 2013 they include “Be Small Again” on “Scared to Get Happy (A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989)” (CRCDBOX10) boxset, then “Forever Steven” on “C87” boxset (CRCDBOX26) in 2016, and lastly on 2017’s “C88” (CRCDBOX36) they had “Shake”.

Then I have a look at other bands the members had been on. Stephen Colin Musham, who sometimes went by the name Steve Mushroom, was in Lockjaw, Repetition, Rhythm of Space and The Escalators. Tim Sales was also in The Escalators in the early 80s. Jonathan Scott Podmore was in many bands including Cyclopean, Gain Reduction, Leeloo Kobayashi, Metamono, Rhythm of Space and The Jonathan S. Podmore Method.

The band also did a promo video. There’s one for “Joy Rider“. Then there is a video for “Shake” and “Map of the World“. On this last video uploaded by a Spanish fan it says that the band played in Madrid and Valencia and their music was on heavy rotation on the radio programme “La Conjura de las Danzas”.

I look for more info online and I was not surprised to see Darrin had written about them in his excellent Jangle Pop Hub blog. Here I find that the band had played at Wolverhampton Poly in 1989 from the comments. But most importantly it is enjoying the memory of Darrin about this band!

I also find that Steve Ridder ended up returning to the US and this sort of made the band reach a natural conclusion and called it a day. Why did he have to return?! Why not continue? There is an interesting story about Steve Ridder who was involved in the sale of a Hindu goddess Lakshmi doll that was featured on the album cover of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club” of The Beatles. The seller was Bonhams. And this is the story:

In another entertainment collecting field, music, a key name to bring in the bidders is of course The Beatles. At Bonhams, the Hindu goddess doll from the album cover for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) was on offer estimated at £4000-6000.

The classic cover was designed by Jann Haworth and her then-husband, pop art great Peter Blake, and the doll is seen in position under the ‘T’ of Beatles. The catalogue states: “It’s possible it was a suggestion by George Harrison, although Peter Blake is quoted as saying that George only gave him a list of Indian gurus and four were indeed included in the cut-outs gathered behind The Beatles.”

Bonhams says the vendor’s best friend, Steve Ridder, a Californian bass guitarist, had moved to the UK and joined a band called The Corn Dollies in the late 1980s. Ridder later met Haworth’s daughter who gave him the doll. After returning to the US, Baker gave the doll to the vendor’s son as a wedding gift. Some years later, after noticing the condition of the doll had deteriorated somewhat, the vendor and his son agreed to part with it.

The doll sold for £24,000 (£30,000 including buyer’s premium) to an international private buyer bidding online.

And that’s all I was able to find. Quite a lot. But yeah, I wonder what happened to them? Did they do any reunions as many of their peers? Who else remembers them?

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Listen
The Corn Dollies – Forever Steven