22
Oct

Day 590

Tvärtom: This is the best news this week for me, a 9 song, self-titled debut album by Helsinki’s indiepop combo! One of my favourite jangly guitar pop bands of as of late has put this together and you wish, of course, the record was available in a physical format. The album consists of songs recorded between June 2018 and 2020 and features the band’s original line-up. So so good!

Cuarzo, Mica y Feldespato: this is the name of a very nice compilation put together by the fine Barcelona label Discos de Kirlian. The 24 song compilation is available now on CD and features many bands that have been part of the the label since they started 10 years ago. Very recommendable.

The New Modern Light: now a Singapore band that I had never heard before! The band has just released a new EP titled “The Distance Between Us” and it is a nice pop record. Available only digitally, the 4 songs by this 4-piece, sound great.

Fonosida: now to Santiago, Chile, to discover this project on the label Gemelo Parásito. There is not much info about the band and their 13 song album “Fonomix”, other than it was recorded between 2019 and 2020. Well, we’ve got the music, and that’s good enough.

Jilted Jonas: we’ve been a fan of Jilted Jonas, the Swedish band that is based in Berlin, for a while! So every time there’s a new song we have to recommend it! I don’t know the people behind this, never met them, never emailed with them. That used to be in the past! I just discover the bands, and if I like them, I give them all my love. Jilted Jonas deserves this, and I hope we get to see them release something in the near future. For now we can listen to their latest single, “Stay Away from Stockholm” that has a spiritual B side in “Silent Kisses (Kask Remix)”.

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Jilted John, the band Graham Fellows was in, released the classic song “Jilted John” with its lyrics “Gordon is a Moron”. In 1979 a band called Julie & Gordon made a single replying to Jilted John. It was the “Gordon’s Not a Moron” 7″.

I don’t know who was behind Julie & Gordon. The original song, “Gordon is a Moron” got to the top 5 of Britain’s pop charts in 1978. That song by Jilted John is about John’s pending breakup with Julie. So yeah, if you think about it, the name of the band Julie & Gordon makes sense too!

“Gordon’s Not a Moron” was released by Pogo Records Ltd (POG 003) with the B side “I’m So Happy to Know You”. Funny thing, it says that the producers were Four Belgian Business Men.

Julie & Gordon released a follow-up 7″ in 1979. It was the “J-J-Julie (Yippee Yula)” 7″. The B side had the song “Gettin’ it Together??”. The label is again Pogo Records Ltd. (POG 004) but it seems behind this label was WEA Records. Looking at some info about Pogo, this label was founded by Ron “Groucho” Lee and released also records by Suburban Studs and Duck and Dive.

The art for the two 7″s is simple. The first record had a photo of a guy and a girl. The second an illustration of two angels, which I guess the girl is Julie and the guy is Gordon.

An unofficial compilation called “Nobody Wants Us Volume 6: United Kingdom Punk Rock 1978” released on CDR in Finland, included two of the songs of the band, “Gordon’s Not a Moron” and “I’m So Happy to Know You”. Not sure when this release came out but must have been sometime in the 2000s I would guess.

Looking for more info, on the Graham Fellows wikipedia it says: “No other recordings followed these, making Jilted John a one-hit wonder. However, a cash-in single by Julie and Gordon called “Gordon’s Not A Moron” sold moderately well, as did lapel badges bearing the legends “Gordon is a moron” and “Gordon is not a moron”. “

There’s not much more info about this band. I read that Graham Fellows was not involved in Julie & Gordon according to the Left and to the Back blog. So yeah, who knows. Would be nice to know. Someone on Youtube says that there was a rumour Dave Dee was involved in this band… who would know?

Another person says Alan Blake of The Tremeloes…

We can keep guessing.

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Listen
Julie and Gordon – J J Julie Yippee Yula