The next batch of Indietracks bands are to be reviewed today! I kind of feel bad though that by doing this I have missed the lineup of Wales Go Pop, which is happening this weekend. In any case, I won’t be able to go anyways, but I’ll try to discover the new bands that played there on the coming weeks. But now let’s do some homework!
Cat Apostrophe: “radically soft pop” from Leeds. I will have a listen of their latest digital release, “The World is Fucked”. There are 3 songs, “I Left My Room” “Roast Dinner/Comfort Eater” and “Small Things”. These are by no means all their songs, they have been around since 2016 with two previous releases. The band is formed by Alex Shaw, Jack William, Julia Downes, Kate Stonestreet and Kirsty Fife. Musically it sounds ok but I’m not enjoying the girl vocals. Oh well… probably she sings better than me, but it is a bit too much for me.
Strange New Places: a band from Belfast. A nice change. One song pops up when I open their Bandcamp and it is called “Trombone”. And it starts good. Promising! Guitars, melodies. Now I wait for the vocals to kick in. Oh, this is pretty good. Definitely Belle and Sebastian influenced, but in a good way, reminding me a bit of my all-time favourite Tales of Jenny. This band I would definitely check out at Indietracks on the strength of this song. The two previous demos they have on Youtube are not that interesting though.
Panic Pocket: a London duo formed by Sophie and Nat. They write about trash men, bad bosses, being creepy on the internet. Two songs are available to stream on their Bandcamp. Maybe there’s more, or maybe two songs were enough to get them to the festival. So let’s check them out. The first song “Don’t Get Me Started” is alright. Bedroom pop casio-pop, mid-tempo. Maybe they if they sped it up, it would be more fun. “Front Teeth” does that, it is more upbeat, and even though it has a demo feel to it because of its lo-finess, it is a better pop song, it is much catchier and fun.
French Boutik: well, well, a French band. Pop Moderniste from Paris. That sounds already promising. There is a playlist on their SoundCloud called Front Pop! and that’s what I’m listening now. It sounds good and I start to wonder why my Parisien friends haven’t told me about them, or they haven’t played any of the pop gigs. Who knows really. But their first song, “Le Mac”, is definitely above the Indietracks average. I click on their Facebook page but takes me to the personal page of Olivia, the vocalist. Ok, won’t find more information there, but that’s ok. I just wanted to know if they have any proper releases. Definitely one of the bands to check out at the festival.
Ghum: atmospheric dark pop from London. I’m loving how the bands are describing themselves on Bandcamp. This all-girl combo formed by Laura, Marina, Vicki and Jojo, have four songs to stream as part of their self-titled EP: “Shallow”, “The Window”, “TV” and “Witches”. It does sound a bit dark and because of that perhaps lacks hooks and melodies? I don’t know. I didn’t get into their music at all.
And that’s it for today. 4 more bands left for next post: Rebecka Reinhard, Tekla, Whitelands and The Sunset Beach Hut. See you then.
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In 2011, after 35 years, the Panda Pop fizzy drinks were scrapped. According to news of the time, health-conscious mums were blamed for the demise of the children fizzy drink. The soft drink firm Nichols ditched the lunchbox range to concentrate on healthier juice drinks and flavoured water and that was it. I never tried it. But I do suppose, the English band Panda Pops did, and maybe they were fans of it.
The Panda Pops are not that obscure. If you consider that the members of the band went to form Tramway who released on Sarah and also on Siesta. Well, that’s sort of everything I know about the band. I know that connection. But in due honesty I really don’t know much about the band called Panda Pops. I only know they had a 7″ released, posthumously on Elefant Records, which I still don’t have on my collection!
There were three songs on the “Bristol Fashion” 7″ that was released by Elefant Records (ER-103) in 1992. They were “Pillar Box” on the A side, and “Tramway” and “Star” on the B side. Was it because of that second song that the band was to change their name to Tramway later on? That is very probable.
The three songs were recorded in 1989. The A side at P.I.J. Studios and the B side at La Cav. Both sides were later remixed in 1992 for this release. Three names appear on the credits, C. Young, M. Evans and N. Evans. Chris Young, Matthew Evans and Nancy Evans. And yes, as the title of their 7″ says, the band hailed from Bristol, and of course they were later be, as Tramway, one of the two bands from that city that released a record on the Bristol based label Sarah.
Of course, this post is about Panda Pops and not Tramway, but there are always these interesting connections worth mentioning. And all in all, it was kind of the same band as they were exactly the same members in both. Anyhow, the Panda Pops have two compilation appearances listed on Discogs. The first dates from 1990 on the classic tape compilation “Positively Teenage” released by Dolphin 7. On this record the band appears with the song “Submarine”. This is a fantastic compilation that has been mentioned on the blog before as it has many fab bands like Love Parade, Remember Fun, The Penny Candles and more.
The other tape compilation that the Panda Pops graced was the “It’s All About Love” tape that was released by the pre-Firestation Records label Smuf (SMUF 003). Just a week or so ago I was talking about this tape because of the Moosblüten, amazing. The Panda Pops in this compilation appeared with the song “Still”. What’s funny though is that on this same compilation Tramway also appears playing “Pillar Box”. Is this the same version of “Pillar Box” from the 7″?
I look as it is normal for me to check out the band members. See what other bands aside from Tramway they were involved with. I notice Matthew was also in a band called Murry The Hump who released an album and many singles in the late 90s, early 00s.
Another mention of the Panda Pops was on the Popkiss: The Life and Afterlife of Sarah Records book by Michael White. This is what it says: “This was actually the case for Tramway. The first Bristol band to record for Sarah, their original intention had been to join forces with Cosmic English Music, a label co-founded by former Razorcuts singer-guitarist Gregory Webster (who also happened to be their producer). Webster extended the courtesy of convincing the trio to make history of their original name, the Panda Pops (‘He thought that, ironic or not, it was not cool,’ says singer Matthew Evans), but ultimately decided not to release their music…”
So Gregory Webster was the reason the band changed names. I read, afterwards, on the Elefant site, that the three songs on the 7″ were two demos and a live version. That’s interesting. That raises a question though, if these songs were demos, then there was probably a demo tape with more songs on them. Or maybe more than one demo tape. I’d be curious to hear that.
Do you, my Bristol friends, remember them?
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Listen
Panda Pops – Pillar Box
3 Responses to “:: Panda Pops”
That is nice, merci beaucoup ! We actually have a band Facebook page here : https://www.facebook.com/frenchboutik/ and a new real site : http://frenchboutik.com/
See you there !
Hi. I can give you a bit more info about Panda Pops. My first memory is seeing them in September 1988 at the venue Le Cav in St. Nicholas Market, Bristol. They were on the same bill as The Candy Darlings (can’t remember which order!). A lot of posters went up for that gig. Probably around 50-60 people in the audience. Then there were possibly five in the line-up. Seem to remember singer Matthew sported the classic bowl cut-chelsea boots look at that gig, though don’t think the others did. They had a stand-up and stand-in drummer and I think one of Secret Shine was in them on second guitar or bass – Scott Parnell. I can remember that gig because there was psychedelic lighting and obscure 60s pop on a tape. Very cool and the venue was quite ‘sixties’ with arches and cavernous dark corners. Some people thought they were a bit like the softer songs of the Sea Urchins. There was a review of them in NME I think in late 1989 or early 90 – a gig they did in Oxford at the Jericho Tavern possibly with Heavenly. That was just before the name change. I met Chris Young in Bristol that summer of 1990 and ended up organizing a gig that Christmas at Le Cav when they were now called Tramway. This was with a band from Leeds called Eye Pilgrims (formerly Pilgrims). They were a band who knew Gentle Despite and another Leeds band called Mr. Peculiar. That gig was the last ever at Le Cav for over a decade I think. I only met Matthew once or twice (by late 90 he was sporting a Small Faces haircut that then got changed again quite quickly by the time of the 1991 Sarah Christmas Party). Chris if I recall was a musical technician and very kindly taped me onto cassette every demo they’d done. Much to the disappointment I guess of indie pop fans the world over, I’ve lost this historical document though it may surface or maybe there are other similar compilations. It had Submarine and Pillar Pox on it and quite a lot of others dating back to 1987 I think. Also, I’m pretty sure there was another compilation tape called ‘Something’s Burning in Paradise’ which had both Pilgrims and Panda Pops on it. I’ve lost that one too. I’m not really into indie pop now though I do have some good memories of Bristol circa 1988-91, which was the tail end of it all. I wasn’t old enough to see it in the heyday of 85/86. Hope this fills in the picture just a little. All the best.
Thanks so much for this James! Super interesting! 🙂