Starting a new week. Much better weather in NYC. My last two days off were rainy. So it seems this weekend will be much more enjoyable.

Coming Up Roses: the second EP by the Singapore popsters Coming Up Roses is coming out on May 20. It looks like it will be a digital-only release. The EP will have four songs, 3 of them that you can preview now. Hard to pick a favourite track, maybe “Glass Stained Eyes”? Which on do you like?

Atmos Bloom: a new track by this dreamy Manchester duo. The band’s new digital single is titled “When We Met” and it is really really pretty. Tilda Gratton and Curtis Paterson continue making great bedroom pop, with a simple drum-machine and jingle jangly guitars.

The Cat’s Miaow: I honestly don’t know where I am going to get money to buy all the records I want. Now that there’s a baby at home my budget for records has been squeezed. I do feel though that “Songs ’94-’98”, a compilation of tracks of the wonderful The Cat’s Miaow should find a way to my collection. 18 songs on vinyl, a limited edition of 250 copies including a 7″ of “Third Floor Fire Escape View” and a fanzine, all for 35 pounds plus shipping. And then another $25 for shipping. Seems a lot, but a record like this deserves that effort!

Hurrah!: when it comes to Precious Recordings releases I trust my friend Christ at Jigsaw Records will get copies and at least I’ll save on shipping. After a few releases I didn’t care for like the ones of Prolapse and Hefner, the London labeel will be releasing a David Jensen session, from 1982, by Hurrah! 4 songs, and as usual on that lush packaging that has become a fan-favourite.

The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness: and on other great news the Scottish-Spanish band is releasing a new album! It is called “The Third Wave Of…” and it is of course the band’s third album! 10 new songs which you can preview two of them now on the band’s Bandcamp. The album will be released on vinyl on September 9.

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Back in 2017 I was in touch with Matthew Eaton from Pram. Why? Well, I wanted to interview him about the fantastic band the was in the 90s called Friends of the Family… sadly after sending my questions never heard from him. Life probably got in the way. It happens! It is happening a lot to me lately!

Of course it would have been lovely to learn more details about the band. I love the two records they put out on Ediesta Records in the late 80s but I don’t have any good details about them. Don’t know much at all!

The first record they put out is a true classic, “Rotten to the Core”. This is a must have for everyone. It had said song on the A side as well as “September Skies” while on the B side we find the song “Honey”. The engineer for this record was Will Jackson. The songs were recorded at Blue Strike Studios in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The band is credited for the production.

The single was released on 7″ (CALC 17) and 12″ (CALC 17T). The 7″ didn’t have the song “Honey” and “September Skies” appears on the B side.

The second record was released also in 1987. It was a 12″ EP titled “Three Fat Men (On a Bicycle)” (CALC 39). It had 5 songs, “Lucibelle Green” and “Serves You Right” on the A side and “She Makes you Look Sad”, “Leicester Street” and “Katrine” on the B side. The producer this time was Carl Rosamond. All songs were recorded at the Billiard Room in Leeds. Oh! And Alison Cuckston played sax on “Leicester Street”.

There are no compilation appearances listed on Discogs.

My friend Ed from Shelflife was probably one of the firsts to recommend them back in 2009.

Here he mentions that Matthew Eaton was also in Delta, he was the original bass player in the Birmingham based band.

Another blog, Kitten Painting, on a post from 2008 mentions a gig Friends of the Family played supporting The Sea Urchins at the Norwich Arts Centre in January 1988. The other band in the lineup was The Popfish who I have never heard of! The review of the Friends of the Family gig says: “Then Friends Of The Family were on and they were pretty good with a funny girlie singer. The last song was groovy, the girl singing all soft and sweet and just single notes on the organ, then a pause and then the drummer (who had a Big Black t-shirt on – aces!) would bash a cow bell and it would go all thrashy and the girl would sort of talk on and on over the row. They tried to pull off the old walking off leaving the song in mid-air trick like Loop and Primal Scream did but it didn’t come off so well!”

As far as I know the girl vocalist name was Rosie. Don’t know the last name! Maybe also Rosie Cuckston from Pram?

Other interesting bits of info on the comments section of the Shelflife blog mentions that Matthew was doing a fanzine called Cathead. Sadly it never got published.

On the Sarah Records page there is a story from Clare mentioning that she was friends with Matthew Eaton in school. Here she tells how through Matthew she saw The Sea Urchins for the first time. Also an important detail is that the Friends of the Family start in Harrogate but ended up moving to Birmingham.

As I mentioned earlier very little info is available about the band, so any details would help.

I am also looking for a good copy of the second record… I always see them on Discogs from Spanish sellers but with the sleeve in a bad state. Oh well…

I love this band, love their songs, I would also think a compilation of sorts would be fantastic. I’d like to do it. But who knows if I could get them interested in it!

Friends of Birmingham, do you remember them?

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Listen
Friends of the Family – Rotten to the Core