Day 288. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!! And a Happy New Year!! This is the last post of the year. I will be on a short holiday break (much much needed) and will get back to the blog on January 4th. So expect a little bit of quiet here. Maybe it is a good time to read all the posts you might have missed? 😀

Sunny Summer Day: the new song by Sunny Summer Day is amazing!! It is called “夕暮れと月 (Dusk and Moon)” and features Japanese singer Nana Furuya from Charlotte is Mine. It is a superb song indeed, and we keep missing our friend Dicki of course. It is a complex thing for me to listen to this song. There’s a nostalgia for Dicki’s vocals, but at the same time I am sure Dicki would have loved his band to continue making music.

A Polaroid for Christmas 2020: the Polaroid radio show and blog from Bologna, Italy, have put together a nice 15-song compilation of Christmas songs, and there are many great ones, including Stars on Fire, All Ashore! o Garage Katamaran. Very nice.

Kinoue64: this Japanese band have been featured many times on the blog. Why? Because they make swirly fuzzy shoegaze/indiepop. Their latest is a 4 song EP titled “亡霊 ” that is really good. We don’t know much about the band, they are not featured much on English speaking blogs I think, but it doesn’t matter, when something is good, it’s good.

Films on Song: there’s a new self-titled EP by this Charlottesville, Virginia, project, that I am enjoying a lot. It has 4 songs, “Blissed”, “Sushi”, “I’m Starting to See You in a New Light” and “Gomenghast”. It is jangly, it is catchy and fun.

Crystal Canyon: and last we head to Portland, Maine, to listen “Yours With Affection and Sorrow”, the album this combo is releasing on January 29. Ok! We can’t listen to the whole album on Bandcamp, but at least two songs are available and they are terrific. Check out “Every Little Star” and “Turn Blue”, ace guitars, superb female vocals, yeah, this is very promising. The album will be released on vinyl (black and light blue) and I feel one should try to get a copy for sure!

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35 Summers, yet another band I discovered back in the day thanks to The Sound of Leamington Spa compilation series. Yes, I say it often, the best compilation series ever. And always looking forward to the next volume!

35 Summers appeared on the 2003 “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” released by Firestation Records, Billberry Records and Clarendon Records. All German labels of course. The catalog number was FST060, BILB08, W66CD. On this compilation the band contributed a classic, “Really Down”.

As usual the booklet that came with the compilation came with information about the bands on it. About 35 Summers we learn quite a bit. This is what it says:
35 Summers were conceived in 1990 when songwriters Duncan Lomax and David Pichilingi left their current band Wake Up Africa. Although WUA had been well received, they had failed to get a record deal and Duncan and David were determined to be pop stars! They set about writing a new set of songs, honing and recording them without the influence of anyone else, then recruited band members around them, hand-picked to produce the sound that the lads had already recorded as demos. Right from the start, 35 Summers did it right – organising secret gigs where tickets were like gold dust, and signing to indie label Planet Records who released the band’s version of ‘Come Together’. 35 Summers were also busy producing a range of t-shirts that were to become more famous than the band. One, featuring Bill Shankly, legendary manager of Liverpool FC sold thousands and was soon being sported by fans of the band, LFC fans and celebrity admirers – Peter Hooton of The Farm wore one on the Farm’s “Groovy Train” video, and John Peel proudly wore his to the Reading Festival. John also booked the band for two BBC Radio 1 sessions, and these, along with TV appearances on regional and satellite TV helped to secure the band a major record deal with RCA. 35 Summers embarked on a series of UK tours, initially supporting EMF and Northside, but also as a headline act in their own right promoting their first RCA single “I Didn’t Try”. The single got into the lower reaches of UK charts and was soon followed by “Really Down” a piece of pure pop accompanied by a video shot in Spain which showed the band doing their best to drink the record company advance. Before the band’s album “Sketch” could be released, however, RCA had a change of management and decided that the future of the music was not in their impressive stable of indie bands, but newly-formed boy band “Take That”, and 35 Summers along with The Wedding Present and Pop Will Eat Itself headed for the door. 35 Summer’s album was never released by RCA but a version is now available from Japan’s Excellent Records. “Really Down” is taken from the album “Sketch” available from Excellent Records.

Quite interesting, right? One thing that does miss to point out is that in the year 2000, they were featured on a compilation called “Guitar Pop Jamboree – When it Started to Being” released by BMG (BVCM-31040) in Japan. Could it be that this compilation brought back the interest in the band? It was only after that they appeared on The Leamington Spa and on Excellent Record?

But let’s go back in time, we know they were in Wake Up Africa. I wrote about them some time ago. And when they became 35 Summers, as it was said the band signed to Planet Records to release their first single. It was The Beatles’ cover of  “Come Together” 12″ that included the “Come Together (Summer Mix)” on the A side and “Come Together 7″ Version (Shankly Mix)” and “Discotheque on the B side. On the cover of the sleeve we do see Bill Shankly. Was this the design that was used in their t-shirts? There was a video for this song of course. The video was recorded in Green Park, London, and on board of HMS President. The band also performed live “Come Together” on Granada Reports on November 3rd 1990. This version was recorded at Amazon Studios in Liverpool, while the single had been recorded in The Pink Museum also in Liverpool.

Then they signed to RCA. The “Really Down” single was released in a few different formats! The 7″ had “Really Down” on the A side and “To  Be the One” on the flipside. The catalog was RCA PB 44871. The CD single included three different versions of “Really Down”, the 7″ version, the club version and the extended version. The catalog number for the CD single was PD 44872. And lastly the 12″ included the same three different versions of the song, but in a different order, the extended version was first and then the club and 7″ versions. The catalog number for the maxi single was PT 44872. The producers for the songs were Duncan Lomax of the band and Keith Andrews. Andrews was the house engineer at Par Street Studios. The promo video of the song is on Youtube, recorded in Southern Spain and fueled by sangria. On Youtube too there is some footage of the band playing “Really Down” at the Granada TV’s “Celebration” arts programme at the Albert Dock in Liverpool.

The last single they put out while on RCA was “I Didn’t Try”. Again three different versions for the single. The 7″ had “I Didn’t Try” on the A side and “Jimmy Fear” on the B side. The CD single included four tracks, “I Didn’t Try (7″)”, “Jimmy Fear”, “I Didn’t Try (Extended)” and “I Didn’t Try (Club)”. The 12″ single had the same tracks but in a different order. The extended version was first while the 7″ version was last. Catalog number for both CD and maxi single was PT 44700. The 7″ had the catalog number PB 44699. The producers were again the same as in the previous single. The sleeve was created by Stew Leather. There was a promo video for this song as well. It was filmed in a studio in Manchester as well as various locations in Liverpool by Roger Appleton. There is also live footage of the band playing this song at the “Celebration” programme.

There is another video worth sharing. The band appeared on the TV show “The Power Station”. There they played the song “Discotheque“.

As mentioned they band released their unreleased album “Sketch” in 2003 on Excellent. Records from Japan (EXCD 008). This album, which I am looking for a copy these days, included 12 songs, “Really Down”, “I Didn’t Try”, “Candy”, “Let the Truth Be Known”, “Good Morning & Goodbye”, “Come Together”, “Victoria”, “Crocodile Tears”, “To Be the One”, “Jimmy Fear”, “Sheep” and “Discotheque”.

When it comes to compilations we know they had the song “Let the Truth Be Known” on the “Radio Cookie Scene 0011 April/May 2003” CD compilation that came together with the 30th number of the magazine Cookie Scene. Then the year after, in 2004, the song “Let the Truth Be Known (BBC Radio 5 Session Version)” was included in the Excellent. Records CD compilation “Pop Renaissance” (EXCD 014).

We haven’t mentioned the other band members. Of course there was Duncan Lomax (guitar) and David Pichilingi (vocals), but also there were Alan Currie (drums), Ian Greenwood (guitar) and Robbie Fay (bass). Lomax as mentioned in previous posts was on Wake Up Africa, Perfect and Hal. Pichilingi was on Wake Up Africa and Fiasco. Alan Currie had been on Fishmonkeyman, Kill Laura and playing with Paul Den Heyer. Ian Greenwood also played in Fishmonkeyman. Robbie Fay played in Fiasco.

Okay what about the Peel Sessions?

The first one dates from December 20, 1990, with Dale Griffin as producer. The songs that were recorded in this session were “Come Together”, “Good Morning and Goodbye” and “Discotheque”. We notice other band members here, Andy Hignett on drums and Jamie Southern on keyboards.

The 2nd Peel Session happened the next year. On August 22nd 1991 the band recorded again with Dale Griffing, “Loyalty”, “Really Down”, “Candy” and “Sheep”. This session is on Youtube thanks to the great Dave Driscoll.

When it comes go gigs, I found that they played with Dust and Jennifer Fever at the Hardman House on Friday 20th, September 1991. 3 pounds to get in.

I start to wonder how these sessions, and all their songs, haven’t been put together as a retrospective compilation?

These days we know Duncan Lomax is a successful photographer while David Pichilingi had been doing the festival Liverpool Sound City and previously ran the label Robot Records. In 2014 the band 35 Summers actually reformed to play at the Sound City festival and the Anfield Wrap’s Christmas Party.

And that’s it for today. Interestingly you can still buy their famous t-shirts at many different online stores! Who remembers 35 Summers?

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Listen
35 Summers – Really Down