Kingston upon Hull or just Hull. Many bands from this town have been featured on the blog. Today I want to share details about Closer than Comfort who I didn’t know anything about until a few hours ago!
Indiepop fan Joel Dantas has a Soundcloud with lots of great treasures. There he had uploaded a song called “Closer then Comfort” by a band with the same name. Mentions that it comes from a tape. But that’s all the info he has shared.
But there is another Soundcloud account, one by Richard Hood from Hull. He has uploaded 2 other songs by Closer than Comfort, “I Think She Knows It” and “Turn to Me”.
Again there is little info, but at least we know that Richard was part of the band. The photo of the band shows 4 guys and a girl. A five-piece.
We also know that “Turn to Me” was recorded at Fairview Studio in 1988. That “I Think She Knows It” was written by Andy Blair. One thing I suspect is that Richard Hood was the vocalist. He was the vocalist on many of the other projects on his Soundcloud. These projects include Radio, General Wolf and The Sons of Freedom.
Then I found something interesting. I don’t know if it is complete, but it is a gig list by the band. We know that they played at least 4 gigs. On July 31 of 1986 they played quite a gig at The New Adelphi. The lineup included The Gargoyles, Pink Noise, Vicious Circle, The Velvetones and Johnny and the Carbon Chain. Then on January 28 of 1987 at The Wellington in Hull they played with The Last Supper Dance Band.
On February 11, 1987, they played at The Wellington alongside The Last Supper Dance Band. A month after, March 11, at the same venue they played again with The Last Supper Dance Band and The Kicks.
Then I find more stuff from Richard Hood and figure out where the song Joel had found. Richard has a Youtube account. There he has uploaded the song “Closer than Comfort”. The best part of it is that the band lineup is shared!
Andy Blair was on guitar and vocals, Martin Hyde on drums and Darren Gordon on bass. The track was recorded at Angel Studios in 1985. And Richard Hood? Why is he not listed?!
But that’s not all. The songs “Turn to Me” and “I Think She Knows It” were actually released! Wow, didn’t know! They were released on Label Records (LAB001) in 1989 as a 7″ vinyl single. Produced by Steven Larkman and remixed by Fran Ashcroft.
Discogs also lists two demo tapes. Wow. The first one dates from 1985 and had 5 songs “17 Tomorrow”, “Shallow”, “Closer than Comfort”, “If Dreams Come True”, “20 to 5”. These 5 songs are repeated on the B side.
The other demo tape is from 1987 and is titled “8”. It had 4 songs, “Passion is Poison”, “Let You Runaway”, “I Think She Knows It” and “Poor You”. Again the songs are repeated on the B side. This demo was produced by Steve Larkman who had worked with The Bloody Marys and Red Guitars.
How cool! Lots of interesting stuff I ended up finding out.
But of course this is not the full picture. We dont know much about the band still. So here I am hoping for Hull indiepop fans to share anything you remember about them. Would be good what happened to them, and especially I am terribly curious if Richard Hood was or wasn’t part of the band!
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