Thanks a thousand to Patrick O’Sullivan for the interview! I wrote about the Irish band So She Said knowing very little a few weeks ago. Somehow Patrick got in touch with me through Twitter and the rest is history. Now at last I learn a bit of the story of the Dublin band that even though didn’t release a proper record released a few songs on compilations. And how good those songs are! If you haven’t heard them before, it is now a good time to discover them!

++ Thanks so much Patrick for the interview! How are you doing? How was the summer? When was the last time you picked up your guitar?

Hello Roque

I’m fine, thank you. The summer was a bit weird – personal stuff – but life is good and I’m enjoying it!

I last picked up my guitar yesterday. I’m writing a song at the moment and I love to pick up the guitar and see how the song has progressed since I last played it. It’s coming along grand.

++ Let’s start from the beginning, what are your first musical memories? What sort of music was heard at home while growing up? What was your first instrument?

First memories…my mother had been a professional singer before she got married so there was always music in the house. I was listening to Andy Williams and Johnny Cash as a young child (and I thought it was great that they enjoyed a surge of popularity years later when I was an adult). When I was 8 we lived in Zambia for a while and I had two cassettes with me – Jim Reeves and Johnny Cash. I got to know every moment of those records. Sometimes we would go to a cabaret in the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka and my sisters and I would sing (separately, not together). I remember singing ‘A Boy Named Sue’, ‘Bimbo’ and others. I thought I was very clever for interchanging words from the songs with the local parlance, so “dollars” became “kwacha”, etc.
But my first ‘wow’ moment was probably when I was about 13 and heard The Beatles and it blew my world apart. I knew then I had to be in a band. Shortly afterwards I was playing out on the road and my next-door neighbour was playing The Kinks in his house and I was mesmerised – the guitar sound and beat and voice – it was like stepping into a totally new world where the rules were all different.
My first and only instrument was the guitar. After that Beatles introduction I bought a guitar off some chap from school for something like £4. It was an awful thing. But I started to teach myself and practice with a friend on the road. I got some lessons but I was mainly self-taught.

++ Before So She Said there was The Delegates. Care telling me a bit about this band? Any recordings? What was the lineup? How did you sound?

The Delegates was more an idea than a real band. I had written a couple of songs and was playing guitar with my friend. Then at 17 my father got me a summer job in Vienna and I was away from my friends and my girlfriend. So I wrote lots of letters and set up a fan club for the band that didn’t really exist. We even got written about in some music fanzine! We did have a couple of public performances – at my sister’s wedding and another time in our old school. I got back to Dublin and started writing more and more songs and then I formed So She Said with Anto Healy and Brian King. And now I was in a real band!

++ Aside from So She Said and The Delegates, had you been involved with any other bands?

No. Although I’ve been recording some of my songs in recent times with a variety of musicians and for the moment I am calling that loose collective The Stuts.

++ How was Dublin back then? What were your usual hangouts? Your favourite venues to go see bands? Were there any like-minded bands that you were friends with?

Dublin was home and it was great. But when I look back on it the city was extremely quiet compared to nowadays. I grew up on Cedarwood Road, the same road as Bono, Gavin Friday, and Gugi. Bono obviously was in U2, while Gavin Friday and Guggi were in The Virgin Prunes. Around the corner, Alan Downey was in Aslan. It was amazing really ‘cause this was just one road on Dublin’s northside. There were bands everywhere. There were three or four bands among my friends. I don’t recall too much about Bono but I clearly remember seeing Fionan Hanvey (Gavin Friday) walk up the road in a dress and I was … amazed! And to me Derek Rowan (Guggi) and his brothers were the long-haired lads near the shops with the motorbikes. But they always seemed friendly!
The place I remember most about going to see bands was The Baggot Inn. That was quite a legendary venue on the Dublin circuit. And the band of the moment was The Blades. Watching them live in The Baggot was an experience. But you were brought back to earth by the rush for the last bus from O’Connell Street, which was more than a mile away and left at 11.30pm sharp (the idea of a taxi didn’t even enter our heads).

++ How did the band start? How did you all know each other?

I can’t remember exactly how it started but I know that I was completely intent on starting a band. I met Anto through my girlfriend and we got on well.
About the same time, some mod bloke from the club we used to frequent (Bubbles) decided to try starting a band; the result was a room full of people, mostly standing around looking at us, in a rehearsal studio called Furlongs on Capel Street in Dublin. I can’t remember how I came to be there (‘cause I didn’t know these people) but I was there and so was Anto. He played guitar, but at some point in the session he was messing on the drum kit, playing ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ by The Jam. I was impressed and asked him to join my non-existent band as drummer, despite the fact that he had no kit and could just about play.
I think I then persuaded one of my school friends, Brian King, to play bass. Anto got us cheap rehearsal space above Walton’s, the famous music shop in Dublin, and we were off.

++ Why the name So She Said? What’s the story behind it?

It was the title of one of our songs. I suggested it to the lads one Saturday afternoon after band practice, in a pub on Parnell Street called The Ivy Rooms.

++ And what would you say were the influences in the band?

Initially Anto and I had similar influences I would say – The Jam, The Beatles, Style Council, The Blades, a lot of 60s RnB. Brian’s taste was probably funkier but he also liked heavy rock and metal. I got more into bands like Prefab Sprout, The Smiths and Elvis Costello as I began to write more.

++ How was the creative process for the band?

I wrote the songs. I brought them into the rehearsal room and played them for the other two. I was probably a bit of a control freak about the arrangements as well.

++ Two songs of yours, “So Happy” and “Let Me Out” appeared on the compilation “Swimming Out of the Pool” on the Danceline label. How did you end up there? Were you familiar the rest of the bands on the compilation?

I think that was organised by two music aficionados who were well known on the Dublin music scene – Pete The Roz and Steady Eddie! They just asked me if we’d like to go on the record. We were gigging around town at the time and had probably been in a newspaper or two.
I think I knew a couple of the bands. I think I knew The Outpatients, just from playing the same venues.

++ And what do you remember from the recording session for those songs?

I remember the excitement of going to the studio on a Sunday morning in March. I remember being very impressed with the fact that the sound engineer had worked on U2’s albums. I remember him getting us to play acoustic guitar under the electric guitar and thinking that was very clever.

++ “At Home in June” was a song that won the Hot Press/Murphy’s song of the month in 1989. What did that mean? What was the prize?

I’m not quire sure of the sequencing but I remember Hot Press beginning to take an interest in what we were doing. Hot Press was the only music magazine in Ireland and was read by every musician and fan so it was great to have them on your side. I remember the general manager of Hot Press, Jackie Hayden, coming to the studio to sit in on the session when we were mixing ‘At Home In June’. I know the prize included some art work by the Hot Press graphics designer for our record/cassette. Arthur Matthews was the designer from Hot Press. He later went on to find fame and fortune as the co-writer of the comedy series Father Ted. We may have been interviewed by the magazine. I really can’t remember what else we got apart from the publicity.

++ Those are the 3 recordings of yours I know. Were there any more? Maybe some demo tapes?

Yeah there were a few more demos but I wasn’t very happy with them. In fact one of them – ‘Lost And Found’ – is one of my favourite songs from the era but I really wasn’t happy with what happened to it in the studio. I think I’ll rerecord it some day.

++ I really like those 3 songs, was wondering if perhaps in a sentence or two, you could tell me what they are about?

‘So Happy’ – being a teenager in Dublin at that time.
‘Let Me Out’ – An early foray into writing a love song.
‘At Home In June’ – this song chronicles a sort of mini break down I had. When I listen to it it’s like watching a movie of my falling into a ditch and then scraping and crawling to get back out. Something strange happened in the writing of that song, something I hadn’t felt up until then. I was losing all control and it terrified me. I was being physically sick – and these words just spewed out of me. The music too…it was different to what I had written before. I’m quite proud of that one!

++ And from your whole repertoire, which would be your favourite song and why?

I think most songwriters will give you a different answer depending on what they most recently worked on. I have a soft spot for ‘So Happy’ and I think my writing went up a notch with ‘At Home In June’. The song I’ve just recorded recently with Anto pleases me a lot – ‘Come And Go’. I wrote a song for my little girl – ‘Carry Me’. There’s another one ‘Eternity’…there are a lot of songs in the repertoire at this stage and thankfully I have a small place in my heart for most of them.

++ Was there any interest from Danceline to release you? What about other labels? I find it strange that you didn’t get to release a proper record!

I don’t know if Danceline were into releasing bands on their own. I think they were just there to give bands some exposure. No, there was no activity from other labels. I think there may have been an enquiry from a publishing company at one stage but nothing that ever went anywhere. I suppose the fact that there were so many bands in Dublin at the time meant it was hard to really stand out. I don’t know. But also, we broke up right after we had made a bit of a breakthrough with Hot Press – song of the month – finalists in the national band of the year, etc. In hindsight that wasn’t a clever move!

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were your favourites?

We played a lot of gigs, mostly in Dublin. We seemed to revolve between three venues in particular – The Baggot Inn, The Underground and The Earl Grattan. But we played everywhere we could. I loved the residencies we had in those venues. But there were two gigs that really stand out in my memory – both in Dublin City University (DCU).
The first was RAG week when basically lots of events are planned and all the students party for the week. We were due to play at lunchtime, open air, outside the canteen. We set up and started and all the cool students were standing around and there was a bit of toe tapping going on. And then it started to snow. And my girlfriend and manager (now my wife) and a friend of ours started to dance. And then a few others joined them…and the snow came down heavier. More and more people started dancing and the snow fell down and the buzz grew and eventually they had to stop the gig ’cause it was getting dangerous with the snow and none of the audience, which had grown considerably by now, wanted it to stop.

The second was in a lecture theatre the night DCU was granted university status. We came on and I strummed the first chord and the place erupted. That was a pretty special gig.

++ Were there any bad gigs? Or any fun anecdotes you could share?

Some student threw sandwiches at us in another college one time ‘cause we wouldn’t play Bohemian Rhapsody! Our roadie threw them straight back. It could have got interesting but instead it was very civilised (it was a teacher training college).
There was one 24 hour period that sums up the highs and lows in an interesting way: we played in Sir Henry’s in Cork as part of the Hot Press Band of the Year gig. It was really cool to play in such a well known venue outside of Dublin and we had a ball – partying afterwards, etc. I don’t remember getting to bed or even where we stayed but I do know that very early the next morning I flew back to Dublin and got a taxi directly from the airport to sit my college exams. And when I got there the exam hall was empty – I was in the wrong place! I made it to the exam eventually but don’t think I did terribly well!!

++ Did you get much attention from the music press or the radio?

As I said, Hot Press were on to us and we were interviewed in one of the national Sunday papers and had some other bits and pieces in the press. We were played on national radio a little bit.
Actually, you’ve just reminded me, ‘So Happy’ was played on the radio recently – the national station was having some vinyl slot on one of the talk programmes and my wife was a guest with that Danceline record under her arm! And a local radio station on Dublin’s northside interviewed me a while back – the subject of that conversation was my playwrighting but they also played ‘So Happy’ and two other songs of mine (‘Eternity’ and ‘Kids Can Crawl’).

++ When and why did you split? What did you do afterwards? Did you continue making music?

We split in 1989 I think. I’m not quite sure of the exact date – probably at the end of the summer of 1989. Just after we were beginning to get attention!

I recall this row erupting out of nowhere and suddenly the band was no more. Basically Anto was unhappy. There was a lot going on in his life but at the time I didn’t understand it. To be honest I think I was shocked or traumatised or something. I stopped writing songs for a few years. Well, except for one children’s song I wrote for a pantomime (which starred the girls who went on to form the girl band B*Witched – they were very young at the time but really liked the song and asked me all about it a few times – it was called ‘Two Friends’).

I was having a pint with Anto recently and we got talking about the split and it turns out that there was a lot of stuff going on for him at the time that I wasn’t aware of – personal stuff – and it came to the surface and was the chief cause of the band splitting. But that’s life. Our recent chat was very therapeutic. We’re recording music together again and it’s great.

++ And today, what are you up to? Are you all still in touch? Speaking of which, I found a Soundcloud for Anto Healy’s project Cabin, is that the same Anto?

I am writing songs and am recording with Anto again. He has a recording studio and is an excellent musician. I am also writing plays and had a short play tour nationally last year. I’ve been mentored by Fishamble Theatre Company which is Ireland’s new playwrighting company. Through my playwrighting I have been approached by one or two film directors and am currently writing a feature film with a really talented director/actor TJ O’Grady Peyton. I am also working on a short film adaptation of my play Fairview’s Finest Dancer with director Keith Farrell. Another short screenplay of mine is due to be produced this coming winter in Dublin. So creatively I’m busy and happy.
Yes that Soundcloud Cabin link is indeed by the same Anto Healy!
And yes I still see Brian as well – in fact I was just out with him tonight for a pint. We were trying to get tickets fro the All-Ireland Football Final this Sunday (go on the Dubs!!). Brian got one, I didn’t!

++ Aside from music, any other hobbies you have?

Aside from all the creative stuff I love traveling with my family (back to Vietnam for the sixth or seventh time next summer), I’ve walked across Ireland with my dad and other members of the wider family, and I follow the Dubs (Gaelic football and hurling)!

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the highlight of being in So She Said?

Filling dancefloors.
Sitting back the first time we recorded in a studio (which happened to be ‘So Happy’) and thinking “Wow”.
Sitting back listening to ‘At Home in June’ and thinking “Wow”.

++ Are you still based in Dublin? Has it changed much since then? What would you recommend doing, seeing, eating, drinking, if one was to visit your city?

Yes I’m still in Dublin. I live in Fairview which is only 2km from the city centre. I love living here. It is unrecognisably more cosmopolitan than when I was growing up on Cedarwood Road. One example that comes to mind when speaking about the band is this: we used to rehearse in Temple Bar Studios and one night I remember going to a quiet little pub around the corner with Anto and Brian after rehearsal to watch a football match. Nowadays Temple Bar Studios is like some sort of music Mecca and the little pub around the corner is the Temple Bar and packed every opening hour with tourists.
But despite that anecdote it is a great place to visit. Things to do: walk the hill of Howth, drink Guinness in a real drinker’s pub (not a tourist trap), sit in the back room of The Palace Bar on Fleet Street, go for a hike in the Dublin Mountains, go for drinks, food, music in the Camden Street area, go to a play in the Gate Theatre. And give me a shout and I’ll guide you though any or all of the above!

++ Thanks again, anything else you’d like to add?

Pleasure talking to you Roque. I will send you a link to ‘Come And Go’ very shortly – we’re just mixing it at the moment. More info can be found at www.mentalmagpie.com and on Twitter @OSuilleabhainP

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Listen
So She Said – So Happy

Thanks so much to Lyndon Morgans for the interview and Jon Clay for getting me in touch with him! I wrote about Sad Among Strangers a long time ago on the blog after buying their “Taking Off the Breaks” 7″ which I thought was fantastic. Of course, as it is the case with many bands from the period, there was little information on the web about them and I wanted to know more. So I thank this opportunity to learn their story and their music. Hope you like it too!

++ Hi Lyndon! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? What are you up to these days? Still making music?

Sad Among Strangers spilt up in the fall of 1987 and then I concentrated on the theatre for about eight years, winning the Verity Bargate playwriting award in the early 90s. I formed the Jellymoulds around 1996 (featuring two ex-members of Sad Among Strangers, Karl Woodward and Malcolm Phillips), we made one album “Zen Jukebox”, then we launched Songdog in 2000 (Karl Woodward stayed on, another ex-Sad Among Strangers member, Robert Lesniewski, joined for just the first album. We’ve now made seven albums and Malcolm Phillips came back to play on the latest one but is now gone again. I regard Sad Among Strangers and Jellymoulds as the aperitifs, with Songdog very much the main course. The music we play now is very much how I’d like to have done it then but when Sad Among Strangers formed in the fall of 1978 it was very much ‘play punk or else’ as someone once scrawled across an early gig poster of ours …….

++ I wrote about Sad Among Strangers after I found the “Taking Off the Breaks” 7″ and looked for information on the web. I couldn’t find much. So why don’t we start from there, with that brilliant song. What’s the story behind it? What is it about?

The Sad Among Strangers thing seemed to fall into two distinct periods, firstly the fall of ’78 until spring of 82 and then from the spring of ’82 to the fall of 87. “Taking Off The Brakes” I suppose was the musical highlight of part two. Arista paid for some demos in 1985 and it was recorded as part of those sessions with Steve James producing. After Arista passed on us Freddie Cannon replaced the original drum part with the one that ended up on the record that came out on Broken Hill and claimed the producer’s credit. I guess the song’s about a guy trying to overcome his reserve and telling a girl how he feels about her. I remember still trying to finish the lyrics as we were in the studio and just about to record the vocal.

++ On the B side there was the song “I, Salamander”, which  is a bit darker, less poppy. I wonder what sort of style of music you liked best? And what were your influences at the time?

Freddie booked us into the old Pye Studios at Marble Arch to overdub the drums on “Taking Off The Brakes” but gave us carte blanche to put whatever we liked on the B-side, so we chose “I,
Salamander” and produced it ourselves. I haven’t heard either track in decades so I can’t comment on which I prefer!

++ Let’s go back in time for a bit, was Sad Among Strangers your first band? Had you been involved with other bands too? I know you were on Songdog after being in Sad Among Strangers, how different were these two bands?

When I was a teenager in Wales I’d played in a couple of local bands but we did only covers — wonderful years, though! When we came up to London in the early summer of 1976 I started writing the songs that would become Sad Among Strangers’s early repertoire and I’ve played only my own material ever since, via Jellymoulds and Songdog. There’s a big difference in approach between the Sads and Songdog, the former’s first period was super-fast tempos, angular guitar riffs and lyrics gleaned from my reading bawled out like newspaper headlines. Songdog is acoustic-based with often glacial-paced tempos, a lot rootsier and the lyrics much, much more considered! But to me, I can quite clearly identify a ‘through line’, a thread running right through the songwriter’s persona in both bands. In fact the very first line of the very first track on the very first Songdog album I’d lifted from an old Sads track, I meant it as a kind of statement-of intent and I’ve often re-used bits and pieces from Sads’ stuff over the years — – snatches of lyric, a chord sequence or whatever.

++ What are your first musical memories by the way? What sort of music did you grow up listening to? And what was your first instrument? You were based in Wales, right? Whereabouts? And how was it growing up there? Were there any good bands in town?

I grew up in a place in the South Wales valleys called Blackwood: the Manic Street Preachers came from there too but nothing great or genuinely important so far (but for Songdog!). I was a music fanatic from the age of about ten — – the Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Dylan. The stuff that had the most bearing on what I was to do later was mid-60s folk-rock and the baroque-pop stuff of ‘66-’69 combined with the early 70s singer-songwriter boom, and that’s what I would’ve loved to play from the time I first started writing songs, but in London in 1977 and the years immediately following anything that wasn’t ‘punk’ or new wave was anathema. You just wouldn’t have got any gigs whispering away behind an acoustic guitar! My father bought me a guitar for Christmas when I was twelve and right from the very start I wanted to use it as something to sing to and write my own songs on. After I’d learned the basics I had limited interest in working out other people’s stuff. I wish I’d learned piano too.

++ I couldn’t find the band lineup for Sad Among Strangers on the web. So who were Sad Among Strangers and how did you all meet? What’s the story of the band’s name? Your first release was in 1980 on the Brave Tales label. Who were behind this label? This record has three songs, “Sparks Fly Upwards”, “A Better View of Baxter” and “The Gongs”. I really like the opening track the best, and I was wondering how was your experience working with Ian Dinwoodie as the producer, what did he add to the sound of the band? And how was the creative process for Sad Among Strangers? Where did you usually rehearse?

The first line-up was myself on guitar and vocals, Karl Woodward on guitar, Robert Lesniewski on keyboards, Malcolm Phillips on bass and Steve Prescott on drums. Me, Karl and Sig (Robert Lesniewski) came up from Wales together with the express intention of forming a band and met Mal and Steve after they answered an ad we’d placed in Melody Maker for a rhythm section. Later on Mal left and was replaced by Ruari Macfarlane and we headed in a pretty different direction musically. The name came from James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses” which I was reading at the time — — “Who loved you, Stephen, when you were sad among the strangers?”. We used to rehearse at Woodwharf Studios in Greenwich, Dire Straits would be in one room and Kate Bush and her band in another. Another time we were in a place near London Bridge when Queen’s and Public Image’s roadies ganged up together to see off a bunch of skinheads causing trouble outside! We met Ian Dinwoodie when he caught us at a gig in west London in 1979, he worked in EMI’s post-room at the time and he steered us through to the spring of ’82, producing our first three singles and managing us too. We did that first three-track single in a posh 24-track studio in Wimbledon, south London: Cliff Richard had booked it for daytime use and once he’d left mid- evening we’d creep in and do our stuff through the night — – the house engineer was a friend of Mal’s, had an amazing porn collection. Brave Tales was our own label. Ian gave a sense of purpose and direction to all the chaos, I’d say he was vital to us throughout those early years, he booked all the gigs, designed the sleeves, the lot, we did four shows a week, every week for years and years, in the process conquering all the venues you needed to play in those times, from the Marquee down, we did many shows there.

++ Your next release was the “Here Come the Caesars” 7″. The B side, “I Know Nothing of the Jungle” was covered by the band Jellymoulds in 1997. What do you think of it? “My Kind of Loser” was your next release. I notice here that the record was being published by Cherry Red Music. What was the deal you had with them? Why didn’t they just release the record on their label? Was there any interest from other labels? So there were 4 releases, four singles, but no album. How come? Are there any unreleased Sad Among Strangers songs? And from all those songs from your repertoire which one would you say was your favourite and why?

With Jellymoulds we re-did “I Know Nothing of the Jungle” out of nostalgia for the old days, I suppose. I prefer the later version just because it’s better played — – the Sads had all the passion and energy in the world but we didn’t pay too much attention to the nuts and bolts, the musicality of the thing — – we could do a six-minute track in about 2:45. By the time Jellymoulds happened we were better musicians, that’s all. As regards “Here Come The Caesars” and “My Kind of Loser” I remember Iain McNay of Cherry Red coming backstage at a gig at the Rock Garden and offering us a deal but I honestly don’t remember what happened, I think they ended up with the publishing, that would’ve been Ian’s department. We were so cocky that another time we turned down the chance to do an album on the Virgin barge because we didn’t like the trousers the guy offering us the deal was wearing: we also said no to a tour opening for XTC, I remember. We were doing so well as a live band I think we figured we could just pick and choose when we felt good and ready. Years later a guy from Virgin told us that we eventually had the reputation as the band that didn’t want a deal! Not true! There’s a whole pile of unreleased material. And many of the gigs were taped too, though that’s all very lo-fi stuff, purely of historical interest only. I liked quite a few of the songs but didn’t always like the way we did them: as I say, we didn’t really do musical finesse and as a songwriter it sometimes felt like watching your babies get mangled in a car-wreck. A lot of the ideas from that era I only got to re-do properly with Songdog.

++ Someone commented on my blog saying that by the mid 80s you decided to go commercial. Is that true?

By the time Mal left and Ruari joined in mid-1982 the New Wave thing was over and the fucking synthesiser was mainstream music’s favoured instrument of torture, and in the course of those following years although we had some fantastic times we lost our way musically. Trousers got baggier, hair bigger, it felt like we were just following whatever the latest trend was, a kind of pop-funk thing that certainly wasn’t what we were about in our hearts. Karl wanted to leave years before we called it a day and I was enormously relieved when we finally did. So I can understand why some people preferred the earlier years: so did I. ‘Going commercial’ is a quaint way to put it but I know what the guy means. It was partly just the times, even my greatest heroes did their weakest work in that era. I left music alone until songwriting came back in in the 90s and the rediscovery of the likes of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake made acoustic music viable again for the first time in twenty years. I was just a victim of bad timing, I think!

++ Something that I could find on the web was that you were support of A-Ha on a European tour of theirs in 1981. How was that experience? How was your relationship with them? Which cities did you play? Which were your favourites? Any fun anecdotes you could share?

We did the A-Ha European tour of late 1986, they were huge then and the tour was quite an experience, they were doing massive venues and the audiences loved us — — though I’m betting they’d have loved whoever was up there! We did Lyon, four nights in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Dusseldorf, Munich, Mannheim, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Brussels, Rotterdam and Copenhagen — – I don’t know if I’ve missed any, it lasted about a month? We got on well with them and in fact a few years ago Songdog went back out opening for Morten Harket on one of his tours, our manager rang his people, he remembered the ’86 tour and invited us on. We had many, many memorable times on that tour but I suppose the incident I remember the clearest was after we’d come offstage in Nuremburg (?) I swallowed a few pills some guy’d offered me and then downed a bottle of wine and collapsed, got locked in a toilet somewhere and had to be ambulanced to hospital to have my stomach pumped. Happy days, eh? I remember being chuffed to have done a venue in Munich that the Beatles had played and that Paul Simon was to be the next attraction at our Paris venue. The trouble was that when the tour was over we found it just so demoralising to have to return to the London pub circuit and we limped on through most of 1987 becoming less and less committed to what we were doing. We should’ve packed in about three years before we did, but then, of course, we’d have missed that A-Ha tour! My favourite shows were the Paris ones, once we’d left the venue we’d be up in Montmartre drinking half the night away because we didn’t have to set out for the next city, we had four nights to do at the same place.

++ And in general, which are the gigs you remember most fondly and why? Did you get much attention from the music press and radio?

Gigs-wise I loved the early years best, when we were chalking up venues we’d read of back in Wales and knew you had to do if you were to be counted as any good. In the very earliest days we also had a residency at a place on Clapham High Street — – the Two Brewers — – that lasted over two years and we had some fantastic times there, we built up a hell of a following due to that place. John Peel used to play us but that was really it, radio-wise. The music press mostly slagged the shit out of us! When we began to get good press for Songdog I thought someone had made a mistake somewhere, I was so used to getting hatchet-jobs done on us.

++ When and why did you call it a day? What did you do afterwards? And whereabouts in the UK are you these days? Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have? One last question, what would you say was the biggest highlight of the band? Anything else you’d like to add?

As I said, the end was overdue and merciful. The drummer announced his imminent departure and we used that as an opportunity to not to have to carry on: there was no announcement of our splitting up, we just didn’t bother looking for a replacement, didn’t book any more rehearsals, etc. I then got involved in playwriting for years until the musical tide turned back to songwriting in the mid-90s. Thank God for it, I finally had a chance to make the musical statement I was born to make, but Sad Among Strangers was a hell of an apprenticeship, I have to admit that. I’m still based in London — – though I have a place in Wales too — – and I focus completely on my work with Songdog, I have to keep writing and recording until I can’t any longer, I couldn’t live at all if I had to just give all this up and I’ve had so many great things happen with Songdog, so many experiences I couldn’t have got with the old band, but Christ, still, with Sad Among Strangers, we had some adventures, didn’t we!

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Listen
Sad Among Strangers – Taking Off the Breaks

It is quite stressful not being able to buy new records. As I’m moving at the end of the month I don’t want to order anything that may arrive at the address I’m living now when I’m not there anymore! That would be awful. At the same time, seeing new records coming out and not being able to buy them, scared that they may sell out is not the nicest of feelings. For example the new Even as We Speak record. I want it very much. And I see posts by the band saying that it is selling so good here and there. Will I manage to get a copy? I just need to wait until the beginning of October to get it, that and some other records, sure the Alvvays one too, but that one won’t sell out, surely they’ve printed thousands and thousands of copies.

Speaking of Alvvays, the video for “Dreams Tonite” has been released. There is not much more to say about their “Antisocialites” album, for many it is the best record of the year and that might be true. I’m very bad to make lists and remember what has been released this year, but definitely this is one of the bests if not the best. Anyhow, we’ve played the song many times, now it is quite lovely to put some imagery to it, tricky imagery where the band has been superimposed over old footage.

The Spanish Amanda, the fantastic English bedroom band of Huw Darling that once released an album on Firestation Records titled “Brave New Girl” and who I interviewed on the blog now has BandCamp presence. “The Ballad of the Spanish Amanda” is a collection of favourites and rare recordings by the band and it is thoroughly enjoyable. But that is not all, there are also recordings by Huw Darling before The Spanish Amanda. We find the band London Fields which was a short-lived alias in the mid-90s before developing into The Spanish Amanda, and I can only say wow, wow, wow!! Hope the 6 songs on there get released in a CD or something. But what about The Spanish Amanda, what was Huw doing? It seems he formed a band called The Chickpea Darlings alongside Jo Darling (ex-Abstinence & Sensibility) and Freddy Darling (ex-RSPCA). They have an album streaming on Bandcamp titled “Poet’s Day” with 10 songs. The band is self-described as middle-aged bedroom miserablists with C86 tendencies. What’s not too like?

Lost Film from Easthampton, Massachussetts, is unknown to me. The band formed by Jimmy Hewitt on guitars, vocals and synthetizer and Ben Husk on drums, has been releasing songs since 2014 when they recorded their first demo. As I’m not familiar with their music I start exploring. I see that their only proper physical release was a tape album in 2015 titled “Imago”, then the rest of their output seems to  have been only in digital formats. Their latest is brand new, the “Broken Spectre” album is set to be released in October. At the moment only one song is streamable, “Burn”, and it is quite a beauty.

This past week we’ve also seen Shelflife promoting the new Airiel record and that is definitely a good thing. The label has uploaded two of the album’s song to their SoundCloud and I’ve been playing them time after time. The first one to be uploaded was “Painkillers” and yesterday, “Your Lips, My Mouth“. As usual, top tracks by the shoegaze/dreampop Chicago band.

It is no secret I’m a big fan of Brisbane band Major Leagues, I’ve championed them for years now and how I wish I had worked with any of the many cool bands that appeared in Brisbane 3, 4, years go. For a reason or another that didn’t work out, but I have been a fan of Major Leagues, Go Violets, Babaganouj, Tempura Nights and many more. It was really exciting then when I stumbled this week upon Poolshop, which is the name Jaimee Fryer from Major Leagues is using for her dreampop bedroom project. There are a bunch of songs here, my favourites being “Can You Dream”, “You’re Alright Alone”, and “How Long”.

And it is time to close this week of recommendations with Strawberry Runners, which I’m quite surprised to see they hail from New York according to their Facebook (or Connecticut according to Bandcamp). Of course, I live here and I have never heard about them until now. Well, I do see they play a show in Ridgewood in October, but that’s like the end of the world for me. So far. But maybe I’ll get myself together and make it. I’m very curious. I heard the song “Garden Hose” today and thought it was really good and I see that it is part of the album “In the Garden, In the Night” that will be released on the 20th of October on Salinas Records. It seems though that previously the band had released a tape 3 years ago, one titled “Hatcher Creek EP” that had two songs, “Hatcher Creek” and “When We Were Good”. It seems this one is still available on Bandcamp. Anyhow, their new one that coming out in October will be released on vinyl and it will include 5 songs, “Garden Hose”, “Brother”, “Dog Days”, “Trouble” and “Your Bed Was Tall”. The band is formed by Emi Night on vocals, guitars and mandolin, Davy Timm on trumpet, vocals and keyboards, Sam Kelley on guitars, Tyler Morse on bass and vocals, Max Barcelow on drums, vocals and Rich Goldberg on keyboards. Definitely a band to keep an eye on, especially because they know how to add trumpets to their songs, I’m a sucker for indiepop songs with trumpets, what can I say!

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Time to continue the indiepop world tour and it is time to return to Asia and visit Singapore. There were a few bands I was recommended on Facebook by Wayne Tan like The Oddfellows, Pagans, Padres and more, but there was one, that I was already familiar with, as I own their one and only album, that I figured would be pretty interesting: Serenaide. Interesting because I know their songs, but I really know nothing about them.

In 2005 I was already running Plastilina Records with Jalito, at the time we were reaching out to several smaller labels around the world like Music is My Girlfriend from Sweden or Fruit Records from Singapore. We would exchange our releases, we would send a small stock of ours and we would receive a stock of theirs. That way we could sell small amounts of each other records in our home countries. Of course, I would keep a copy of each of their releases for my collection.

As I said Fruit Records was one of the labels we were in touch and had a good relationship. They appeared in the indiepop stage around the same time as us. Isman and Elisa, Fruit Records label owners, were very passionate about indiepop especially about South East Asian bands. Their label was to release Mocca from Indonesia or Ferns from Malaysia for example. But the first release the label put out was from a Singaporean band, Serenaide. For me it was a total surprise, I had never heard a band from that small country, I wasn’t even aware that there were many indiepop fans there. Now I know Vernon in real life and some others through Facebook and I know how passionate they are about music too!

Anyhow, the first package of Fruit Records we received included the album “The Other End of The Receiver” by Serenaide (catalog FRUIT001) which was released in late 2004 if I remember correctly. Of course at that time we all used Myspace and I friended them there. I also believe that I wrote a post about the band on my old blog, but that memory is hazy, maybe that didn’t happen. I just knew that I liked the record, it was unexpected, and my favourite song in the 10 track album was “The Girl from Katong”. Of course, I’ve never visited Singapore, it is on my list, so I had to find out where or what was Katong.

Katong, also known as Tanjong Katong, is a residential neighbourhood in the Central Region of Singapore, located near the seafront. It used to be located by the sea, but land has been reclaimed all the way to East Coast Park to provide more land for housing and recreational purposes due to the shortage of land in the late 1960s after Singapore gained independence. Katong was the location of many villas and mansions of the wealthy elite in the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries. They made their fortunes in the Far East and built seaside resorts, villas and manors along the beachfront of Katong, beginning from Katong Park to the end of the East Coast. Katong’s rich cultural mix has contributed to its unique cuisine. Katong is well known for its restaurants serving Peranakan cuisine and particularly, a spicy Straits Chinese noodle soup called Katong Laksa.

Okay, I suppose the day I visit Singapore, I’ll visit Katong, at least to try the Katong Laksa. What else is there to see there? I play their album once again and I listen to the songs in order, “The Sweetest”, “The Hands of the Doctor”, “Furry Animal Fury”, “The Girl from Katong”, “Lonely Bedroom Encounters”, “190 – Confession”, “Sofa Series”, “Midnight”, “Would You Like to Hear it Too?” and “Cameo Appearance”.

The band was formed by Pheyroz Yusuf on vocals and guitars, Zuremy Ibrahim (later replaced by Remy) on guitars and vocals, Mimi Yahya on bass guitar, Shakir Samat on drums. On later lineups we’d also find Natalie on violins and Eugene on keyboards. On the credits I notice that all songs were written by Pheyroz except “The Girl From Katong” and “Would You Like to Hear it Too?” which was written and sung by Zuremy. On the album Natalie Soh is credited for violin (I guess she wasn’t still in the band) and Kevin Foo on keyboards.

Kevin Foo also produced the album which was recorded and mixed at The Loft Studios. The record was mastered by Jeffrey Lam.

But this album wasn’t their first appearance on a physical record. They had already appeared with two songs on a 2003 compilation titled “The Show Must Go On…” which was released by Soundschemers as a sort of Singaporean band sampler. The songs Serenaide contributed were “The Sweetest” and “The Girl From Katong”. Were they the same recordings as the ones in the album though? Other bands on this compilation were Seven Sundays, Radium Rags and The Marilyns among others. I don’t know any, but I know The Marilyns played at least one gig together with Serenaide.

In 2004, when Fruit Records was being born, the label released another sampler. This time was a mini-album titled “Fruit Records Pop Cuts” (catalog FRUIT00) and it had three songs by Serenaide, “The Sweetest”, “Sofa Series” and “Hands of the Doctor”. There were also three songs by Mocca and two by Homogenie. Mocca did release on Fruit Records afterwards, but Homegenic didn’t. Who were they?

Lastly the band was to appear one more time on another Fruit Records compilation. The band contributed “The Girl from Katong” on the very recommendable “Peachy Little Secrets…” CD (FRUIT003) that came out in 2006. On this compilation you will find top tracks by La Casa Azul, Little Name, Annemarie and Mocca ft. Karolina Komstedt.

I found their Bandcamp, but there’s no information there. At least you can stream for free the whole album there. But from there I end up in their Facebook. Here I learn a few interesting bits about the band. It is shocking though that the band started in 1999! That really is a surprise. They were already a band 6 years before they released their album. That is not that common these days. Maybe there were no labels in Singapore ready to support local bands until Fruit appeared? It might be the case.

I look in their Facebook, which hasn’t been updated since last year, for more info. I start from the bottom, and see that Indonesian band Brilliant at Breakfast covered this same song I love, “Girl from Katong” on July 29 of 2011. How cool!

Then I see that the band played the Mosaic Music Festival in 2013. Then another interesting detail is that this brilliant song, “Girl from Katong” was on a movie! The song was included as part of the soundtrack of the Singaporean movie Sandcastle that was released in 2010.

I keep googling. I found a lovely and detailed post dating from last year, 2016, on the blog City Youths. On  it I learn that the band split at some point after their album and reformed in 2011. Does this mean they are still active? Another find is that of the blog 360 de Separación from my good friend Manolo. His review of the album is written in both English and Spanish. Oh the nostalgia! These years were so great for blogging, making many friends, such great memories.

On Bandcamp I found another cover of “The Girl From Katong“.  This time by another Singaporean band, Elektone. It is interesting with its electronic beats, it is really lovely but I prefer the original! And yet another one, by Ashruff from Admiralty in Singapore, on SoundCloud.

My next find is even better. It is an interview with the band on BetaMusic. I finally start to get to know the band. From this interview I learn that the band toured Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, that they were big fans of The Smiths, Pulp, Lightning Seeds and more and that in 2005 they were hoping to become known in Japan. Did they get to do that?

Another interview dating from 2013, when they reformed to play the Mosaic festival is up on Music Weekly Asia. There aren’t really many details here, it is quite short, just a couple of questions but I learn that “The Girl from Katong” was actually used in a sex scene on the aforementioned movie Sandcastle.

At this time, after seeing that the band actually received some praise by mainstream media I start wondering if the band was popular among Singaporeans, if they got some recognition at least? Were their songs played on radio perhaps? Or on TV?

What is strange too is that there is very little information about the band members. Did they make music with other bands? What are they doing now? Why are weren’t there more recordings, not even from their second period when they came back? As I said, I don’t know much about Serenaide, and there’s really few information about the band. There is information about the record, but that’s all. Would be interesting to know the story behind them.

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Listen
Serenaide – The Girl From Katong

Another week and the move is happening very soon. A bit stressed about it I must say. Thankfully some of you have helped getting some records from our stock and I hope the trend continues. That helps me, and hopefully helps you with new and exciting records at home. Do check our website for these “moving” deals.

Last week was quite busy, didn’t have much time to gather the same amount of indiepop news I had previously. I’m sure I’m going to be missing a lot of new stuff that you probably are aware of. In that case, please let me know what I’m missing, maybe I can recommend it in the next post.

Remember some weeks ago I raved and raved about Verandan, Ville Hopponen’s new band? At the time there was one song. Then a new one was released. But we didn’t have a clue what was going to happen to these songs. Happily it has been announced that this October the Finnish label Soliti will be releasing an EP for the band that will include six songs, “Short Dream”, “Gold in the Hills”, “Inland Sea”, “Follow the Money”, “A Pleasant View” and “Sands are Shifting”. This one I think, no one should miss.

I think I haven’t been alone when I had doubts about Club 8’s return. Their last single was a bit strange, of course it had the breezy vocals of Karolina but the music was definitely not easy to digest. The band now has released a second song, “Breath“, that will be part of their upcoming tenth album. Again, the music is not as poppy as Club 8 used to be. But I definitely like it better. This album is a true mystery to me, I know that I will buy it, I’ve always been a big fan of the Åhus band, but will I like it through and through?

Another band I love that has filled me with doubts is La Bien Querida. The Spanish songstress released “7 Días Juntos” as a video/single not too long ago. That song was going to be part of her new album “Fuego” that is to be released on October. It feels the band is heading into a more mainstream sound. And then it is no surprise her new song and video, “Recompensarte“, follows that trail. But with an exception. I do find liking this song much easier. This is pop. What is also a nice surprise there is J from Los Planetas joining in vocals. The album will be out on Spain’s most famous indie label, Elefant, who may or may not want to become proper mainstream now (?).

German label A Turntable Friend has had a comeback. One piece of news took my by surprise last week. They are re-releasing Bradford’s “Thirty Years of Shouting Quietly”. When? How? No other details have been announced. Hopefully we learn more about it soon.

Another news that really made me happy was that Firestation Records has announced that they will start working on The Sound of Leamington Spa 8!! Wow, I thought Uwe was tired of doing these compilations, but hey, if he gets his energy back and excitement, this is the best news. Hopefully we’ll discover some new obscure indiepop this time too!

And as I see there’s not much music today, mostly news, I have to introduce you to a band that I fell in love immediately, The Blue Dress. The band is yet another project of Jesús Sandoval from Mexico. Jesús, you might know, runs Emma’s House Records and is involved in several bands, maybe Pure Morning the most known of them all. Anyhow, The Blue Dress is perfect indiepop, heavily influenced by Sarah and the smaller bands of the late 80s. I love it. Check out a cover of Another Sunny Day’s “Anorak City” or their own “All the Rainy Days” for pop perfection. And speaking of Mexico…

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Continuing with the world tour, and missing still many important countries in the indiepop world, it is time to visit Mexico, our second Latin American country in this exercise of showcasing bands from different prominent indiepop countries. In the last few weeks I’ve covered some obscure bands from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, The Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Japan, Philippines, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. What countries am I missing?

Mexico has always been an important pop factory in Latin America. Mostly when it comes to mainstream pop. For some reason their indiepop bands haven’t really got much attention from the rest of the world. I wonder if the only exception was Hello Seahorse that got to release an EP with Magic Marker Records at some point. Lately there has been an interesting revival with Emma’s House Records and their bands. But not too much. Back in the early 2000s though there was a booming scene that was heavily influenced by Elefant Records that flew under the radar of indiepop fans.

Elefant Records was pivotal at that time. They had distribution within Mexico (I don’t think they do now), and also some bands from Spain started to play live gigs in Mexico. Mexico already had a history of great pop, from Los Caifanes and Size in the 80s and to the blissful Volovan in the 90s. These bands weren’t exactly indiepop but had that something, and an independent spirit. It is not surprise then that the indiepop sounds of bands such as La Casa Azul, La Buena Vida, Los Fresones Rebeldes and more found love in many Mexican cities. And so bands started to pop up.

At that time I was running the Mira el Péndulo blog, covering indiepop around the world, and as the blog was written in Spanish I got to know many people and many bands from Latin America and Spain. In 2004 I was to put together a compilation for a Peruvian magazine called Revista 69 and I decided it had to feature up and coming indiepop bands from all over the world, and so I included a few from Mexico: Niña, Piscina, Abeja and Robotril. I feel for a lot people that got the CD compilation, titled “¡Es Pop, Mamá!” (named after an Ella y los Neumáticos song), their favourite song was Robotril’s “Ya No Quiero Volver Contigo”.

According to Discogs the compilation came out in 2005. I’m pretty sure it was released in 2004. But my memory might be a bit blurry, it was a long time ago. And as it is a long time ago I can’t remember much about Robotril. I know I liked the song, the boy/girl vocals, but can’t remember my conversations or emails with the band. Time to find out on the web whatever happened to them.

Robotril hailed from Monterrey, in the Nuevo León state of Mexico.
Monterrey is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, in Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey is located in northeast Mexico, at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental. The uninterrupted settlement of Monterrey began in 1596, with its founding by Diego de Montemayor. In the years after the Mexican War of Independence, Monterrey became an important business center. With the establishment of Fundidora Monterrey, the city has experienced great industrial growth.

I start doing a search on the web. I don’t think they released any records when they were around. The band was formed around 2000-2001 by Adrián on drums, Gilo on guitars, Mario on vocals, Claudio on keyboards, Dámaris on keyboards and Tony on bass.

The hits on Google are few. Some small details I could find where that they played at Cafe Iguana and Tianguis Cultural del Chopo. Claudio Oviedo and Adrián Oviedo, joined the band Animalismo after the band split. The band wasn’t around anymore by 2005.

The better find was the keyboardist Claudio Oviedo’s Soundcloud page. Here he uploaded a bunch of Robotril recordings. There is “Peligro (rehearsal)”, “Super Furry (rehearsal)“,  “Hazme Feliz“, “Increíble“, “La de Mario“, “Renacimiento“, “Ya No Quiero Volver Contigo“, “Último Minuto (live)“, “Salamanca“, “Nebulosa (rehearsal)“, “Luces Perfecta” and “Hago Pop“. There is another song by a band called Super Millonarios Vagabundos, this was another project that had Tony, the bassist and Claudio.

That’s not all. Dámaris Gurrola, the other keyboardist of Robotril, also uploaded 4 years ago some songs to SoundCloud. I could find “Peligrosa” which is the last song the band recorded, “Untile“, and “Super Furry“.

I could find another mention of Robotril on SoundCloud. This time I see that “Ya No Quiero Volver Contigo” was included on a compilation by Molecula Records out of Mexico. The compilation was titled “Ruido Amarillo” and it seems it was the first release on the label (catalog MoleCD001). This CD is not listed on Discogs, but I could find some info about it on the label page. It is of course sold out, but I could see many bands from that period were included like Delicado Sónico, Payola or Jaduken. You can listen to the whole compilation here.

Time to look in Youtube. Well, there’s a house party! Robotril are playing “Increíble“, “Luces Perfectas” and a cover of Daft Punk’s “Fragments of Time” on the porch of some house. Very DIY? Then two more songs “Tutu Tu Tu Tantan Tan Tan” and “Electronics in My Head” at the launch party of the Ruido Amarillo compilation at the Hard Rock.

I could find an old Robotril website on Tripod. Remember Tripod? Wow. That was so long ago. On the website I see more gigs, in Mexico City, Puebla and Cuernavaca. Also in Monterrey at the venues Roche, Congolab and Plaza Jardín.

The band lived in between of straight up indiepop and synth-pop/technopop. I was a sucker for that sort of sound at the time. I loved the playfulness of it. I read comments on the Youtube links and the band had fans all over Mexico, all agree they were among the best bands of that time. No one understands why they didn’t get further. And I don’t think they mean mainstream recognition but releasing a record or something like that. What happened to them? What are the members up to now? Did they continue making music?

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Listen
Robotril – Ya No Quiero Volver Contigo

Seems I’m going to have a very busy week ahead covering Hurricane Irma. When I lived in Florida I was lucky not to have to experience such a dangerous hurricane. I lived through Katrina and Rita, but they were quite “nice” to Florida. This time it seems it is going to be rough. Hope all my Florida friends stay safe.

The Proctors are back with a new song and it is damn glorious. “You and Me and the Sea” is right now streaming on Soundcloud. I believe this will be a new 7″ in the near future on Shelflife. The band has also uploaded another song, I just noticed, titled “Silhouettes” and even though I like the first one best, maybe because of its immediacy, this one is also very good. Wow. They had been quiet for the past year or so, but this is quite a comeback!

It has been a while since I discover a new good Swedish pop band. Well, here is Lilac from Stockholm, with their new digital EP “Sun”. Four dreampop, shoegazy songs, just out of the oven: “Daydreaming”, “Sun”, “07.07.97” and “Toucan”. Which is my favourite? Maybe “07.07.97”, it has some beautiful jangly guitars all over carrying the song. Though be sure to check out “Sun”, that even though it is an instrumental, the guitars chime and chime the way we love.

Also it has been some time since I recommended a Hong Kong band on the blog, maybe since the comeback of Fantastic Day. Today I discovered the band Foster Studio on Bandcamp and even though so far they have only one song on their profile, it is a pretty good one! The song is titled “Houston” and they share the lyrics for it if you want to sing along. Not much information about the band, only that it is a 3 piece and that they try to blend indie dance, guitar and synth pop.

Disney Tabbilos, originally from Baguio City in the Philippines, relocated to Anchorage in Alaska. That must be a first I thought, Alaskan indiepop! Under the name Slow Blink he has recorded 5 lo-fi poppy songs: “Stage 2”, “Cold Hearts of Summer”, “Sense of it All”, “The Wind Never Blows…” and “Take it Slow”. The “Momentary Bliss” EP is a bit of a ramshackling fine mess , and that’s the allure of these songs. Lo-fi in all of its honesty.

And if anyone was feeling some nostalgia for the 90s, Oklahoma City’s The Lamps bring American twee pop from that decade back to live. The band formed by Audrey, Nora and Drake have 5 songs streaming on their Bandcamp and they bring to mind to Pop American Style bands, think of The Receptionists, Sissy Bar or Holiday Flyer. And this is a first one too, first time I hear an Oklahoma indiepop band!

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The world tour continues. Some important countries are still missing in this summer revision of indiepop bands from different countries. The time comes now for the Netherlands and the band Formica or was it Formica 2000 (?!)?

Indiepop bands from The Netherlands are not that common. Maybe even less common is to see an indiepop Dutch band releasing records on English labels. That was the case of Formica in the mid and late 90s.

The mystery about their name has to do with these two releases. On the first one they appear as Formica 2000 (?!). On the second they are just Formica. It made more sense the simpler name. But I’m still curious why the name and why the change?

Both of their releases were 7″ singles. The first one came out in 1996 on the fab label Spirit of ’86. This record had the very good “Johnny & Anita” on the A side and “Wire” on the B side. The catalog number was SOES 7. This label is great by the way if you are not aware of it. Bands like Pastel Collision and Modesty Blaise were part of it!

There are some credits on the back cover. The songs were recorded at Vuurland and Sandwijck. The artwork is credited to Noortje Bergmans who also played guitar and sang. Edske played bass and did backing vocals. Burt played drums. Marjolijn Hoelen played guitar and backing vocals and is also credited for the photography and the art. Tom also is credited for photography. Michel was the producer and the songs were recorded by Guus Van Der Heijden and Hans Blieb. V.D. Woude who is credited for writing the songs alongside Gregory. V.D. must be Van der. That’s a Dutch thing.

I check out Burt, he is one of the few on Discogs that has more information. His real name is Michel Van Der Woude. Strange. He is credited as Burt for drums, Michel for production but his last name for the songs. Why? I notice he has been involved in many bands like International Language (who put out the “Rodney’s English Disco” song that Helen Love would later cover), Avengers, Beatle Hans & The Paisley Perverts, Dangerous Pyjamas, Ron & The Splinters, Sweet Faces, The Daxls, The Kliek and even The Pooh Sticks! Even more amazing I see that he had produced the most brilliant single perhaps to come out from The Netherlands, the “Go Eliza” 7″ by The Nightblooms!!

Then why not check out who Gregory is? Here is a big surprise. It is Steve Gregory, co-founder of the classic label Fierce Recordings. Also he had been involved in The Pooh Sticks, Crash Action Winners and What To Wear as a musician. How did this connection happen, Michel Van Der Woude, Steve Gregory and The Pooh Sticks?

Two years after, in 1998, Formica was to release their second 7″ on Damaged Goods (catalog DAMGOOD 147). This time there were four songs, two on each side. On the A side there was “No Doubt About It” and “Look At Your Game, Boy” while on the B side “Cross My Mind” and “Encore”. I notice now that there are new names on the credits. Hoelen, Van Der Woude and Bergmans are already familiar names but I see that the bassist is new. The first two songs has Hard Cor playing bass, while “Cross My Mind” had Ron and “Encore” had Hanneke. Hard Cor is the alias of Cor Van Ingen, a bassist from Utrecht who had been in bands like Implosions, Speed 78 and more.

The artwork is credited to the band and someone named Yves. The photography on the sleeve was taken by Kathalijne Van Zutphen and the producer was The Inflatable Pill. The songs were recorded by Hans Blieb and Sylvia Vermeulen, who was a producer and engineer at Studio Moskou in Utrecht. Does this confirm my suspicion that Formica hailed from Utrecht?

Utrecht is the capital and most populous city in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation and is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with a population of 330,772 in 2017. Utrecht’s ancient city centre features many buildings and structures several dating as far back as the High Middle Ages. It has been the religious centre of the Netherlands since the 8th century. It lost the status of prince-bishopric but remains the main religious centre in the country. Utrecht was the most important city in the Netherlands until the Dutch Golden Age, when it was surpassed by Amsterdam as the country’s cultural centre and most populous city. Utrecht is host to Utrecht University, the largest university in the Netherlands, as well as several other institutions of higher education. Due to its central position within the country, it is an important transport hub for both rail and road transport. It has the second highest number of cultural events in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam. 

I look for the rest of the members, I know quite a bit about the bands Michel Van Der Woude was involved with, but what about Noortje or Marjolijn? I find a Noortje Bergmans that is involved with Greenpeace who lives now in Switzerland. Is she the same person as the one in Formica? I can’t be sure. I do think I stumble upon the right Marjolijn, a LinkedIn profile comes up, she is a professional photographer. That makes sense, she was took the photographs for the records.  Then I find her website. This must be her! There is no email though, but a contact form. I never liked those. But maybe it is the only way to find out more about Formica. I’ll give it a try.

I couldn’t find much more about Formica. Strange. They didn’t participate on any compilations? That’s odd. In the 90s there were so many indiepop compilations!! No other releases but the 7″s. Why not an album? Why did they call it a day? Did they play live much? And did they make more music under other names? There’s nothing written about them on the web. No blog posts. Not even in The Netherlands are they remembered or what?

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Listen
Formica – Johnny & Anita

I keep writing posts way ahead. I’m a bit surprised of how organized I’ve become when it comes to keeping a tab on any new find that comes my way. I wasn’t that meticulous months before. I wonder what has changed.

Alvvays album is not out yet but they are making a fuzz. We know that. The promotion for their sophomore effort continues and now the whole album is available for streaming on NPR. I didn’t doubt about buying it, I’m sure you had no doubts either, but if you needed a little push, well you can listen to “Antisocialites” completely now. My verdict?  It is really good and they even dedicate a song to Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain. 10 songs that will make any indiepop lover happy (and probably thousands of hipsters too).

Saint Etienne’s “Home Counties” album is already out and on September 26th I will see them in New York. What else is there? A new video of course for the song “Dive“. The song will also be released on a couple of different singles, it is like we are back in the 90s. It will appear on a four track CD EP (with 3 brand new songs), a three track remix CD and a 4 track 12” single. Wow. The video was filmed in Scarborough. One day I’ll visit I hope!

The Stammer is a Philadelphia band I really like. At one point I think they were going to play NYC and I was going to go, but then they cancelled that show. Or am I dreaming this? At least I remember it that way. The band formed by Brian Brotman on guitar and vocals, Gavin Landesberg on bass, Ted Quann on guitar and Zachary Zimmerman on drums have a bunch of very fine songs! Right now I’m listening to “Over and Over” that wasn’t included in their album that was released earlier this month. Why? I don’t know, it is a fantastic song. The album, “Face in Peril”, still has many good songs,  so don’t worry! It is available in CD format.

It has been a while since I hear some jangly pop from Germany. I found The Catherines randomly on Bandcamp. The one-man band from Hamburg makes sweet simple jangly songs.  His latest is “How Could This Get Any More Complicated?” and before he has uploaded a bunch, one even with a very funny title, “Is Your BigMouth Girlfriend Really So Charming?”, if you get the joke.

Did I ever mention Dayflower on the blog? If I hadn’t I’m very sorry. Please do listen to their latest song, “Sweet Georgia Gazes”, it is hit of swirling jangly guitars, upbeat melodies and catchy chorus! The Leicester band has bene a favourite band of mine for some time, and still is a mystery why they have never played Indietracks and why they haven’t released a proper record!

And lastly, as it seems even though I’m very organized and all I still miss the important news, I found out about Novelle. And this is very important. Novelle is the new project by Paul Stewart and Martin Rose from Feverfew and Blueboy. That means, that even without listening the songs, you know they are going to be good. And of course, you listen to “Boy Oh Boy” and you feel the reward of confirmation. The songs are great. The band is completed with Noelle Vaughn who sings beautiful. On the songs the trio get the help of cellist Hilary Insall and pianist/violinist Andrew Lim. Wow. Really. And then you can listen to “Back to Brighton” their only other song so far on the web. I look forward for more by them! And hopefully it is soon!

Hopefully more indiepop news this week!

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On this pilgrimage through the countries that have produced indiepop in the past decades I had to make a stop in Brazil. Most specifically in the city of Blumenau.

Blumenau is a city in Vale do Itajaí, state of Santa Catarina, in the South Region of Brazil. It is 130 km (81 mi) away from the state capital of Florianópolis. The city was founded on September 2, 1850, by Dr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau along with seventeen German immigrants. Later arrivals include biologist and early proponent of Darwinian Evolution, Fritz Müller.

There was a band there that I loved in the early 2000s called Soda Caffé. I wanted to sign them to a label I was running with a friend in Peru, Plastilina Records. I believe I discovered the band through Myspace and was immediately in love with one of their songs, “A Grande Fuga E Os Monstos Em Blumenau”.  I had never heard a Brazilian band playing this sort of pop, playful and honest. Maybe no other band in South America sounded like this at the time. It must have been around 2004 or so.

Eventually I convinced my partner, Jalito, to get in touch with the band and offer them an EP. At that time we wanted to be important within Latin America, support bands that were making indiepop, maybe that way, if people saw the support, that there was a label championing indiepop, more bands were going to appear.

As far as I remember the band agreed to do this EP. We had the band listed as one of our artists on the label website. I don’t know what happened, why this EP was never released. I can’t even remember the tracklist, which songs were going to be included. I suppose the song I loved was to be included, it only made sense. I even believe that the artwork was designed.

In 2006 we decided, in Plastilina, to release a CDR to promote our releases and future releases. It was titled “Nice Try, Sunshine!” (PLAST000), a nod to Second-Hand Furniture who we put out a retrospective album. I love this compilation, I think the artwork is one of my favourite of the Plastilina label. It is true that this CD is very rare, that it was only released in Peru. It was just a sampler and came along a music magazine called Freak Out. Here we did include the Soda Caffé and their song. I notice we wrote the band name altogether, Sodacaffé. What was the correct spelling?

I lost touch with the band. But Jalito continued in contact and in 2009 he included the song again on yet another compilation. “Has My Heart Gone to Sleep?” (PLAST014) was released that year and most of the songs were from records we had already released.There were two exceptions to the rule, Soda Caffé and Kawaii. Jalito compiled the songs through many months and I did the artwork. I remember this compilation was dedicated to Jalito’s aunt, who was a big supporter of the label, even letting Jalito to borrow her offices (a medical export/import business) for Plastilina.

Maybe still in 2009 we were hoping to release Soda Caffé? I would like to think so.

Now I’m trying to back track, trying to remember the band, who were they, what songs did they record. I hope the internet helps me.

The band was born in 2003 and was formed by Marcelo Luz on guitars and vocals, Bruno Beckmann on keyboards, Leandro Pimentel on bass and Diogo Micheluzzi on drums. They listed Yo La Tengo, Club 8 and Harper Lee as their influences.

A good find was that the band put together a Soundcloud page 4 years ago. On it I could find many more songs by the band. Were these the ones that were going to be on the EP? I can’t remember. I listen one by one, “Guerra de Botões”, “O Astronauta Em – O Reencontro”, “Batlha Entre Herois”, “O Robo e a Rainha”, “A Grande Fuga e os Monstros de Blumenau” and “Bomba Colorida”.

I find on the blog Mofo Novo that the band disbanded in 2009. Then I see that the band played a festival called Tschumistock in 2007.

Also on September 8th of 2007 they played a mini-festival at the Curupira Rock Club and a gig at the Old Music Bar in Joinville.

I could see many hits on Fotolog. Remember that? Sadly I can’t open those addresses. Maybe there were some gig photos?

I can’t recall much more. I don’t know what happened to the band members. Did they continue making music under another name? Maybe with other bands? Were the songs on Soundcloud all their recordings? And how come there were no physical releases in the end? They were pretty good, much better than many Brazilian bands at the time who did release some CDs. Maybe our Brazilian readers have a clue? Whatever happened to Soda Caffé?

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Listen
Soda Caffé – A Grande Fuga E Os Monstros Em Blumenau

A long weekend ahead, and that’s going to be great! even though most of it will be dedicated to box my records for the upcoming move. The rest of time, I look forward seeing Thomas from Pale Spectres as he will be in town and discuss music and the state of indiepop, he always has interesting views.  And rest. Relax and rest. That is a good idea too. But before the weekend ends, as there is no stopping on the blog, here are more songs for you to listen.

One of the bands I’ve discovered lately that I have enjoyed quite a lot is No Middle Name. I have recommended them before too. And now they have a new perfect slice of pop, featuring Samatha Whates on vocals, and it is their new digital single, “Saturday Girl Sunday Boy“, will be part of an upcoming release on the label Entes Anomicos from Frankfurt, Germany. This is brilliant! Just the sort of indiepop I’m a sucker for.

“Show Me to the Sun” is the name of the new album by Melbourne’s Tam Vantage, and it will be released on September 8th. On Bandcamp you can check out two songs from it, “Song From a Black Hole” and  “Grey Skies”, and because of them I’m already very curious and eager to hear the remaining 8 songs that make up the record. This is the first time I hear the band but they had already released an album in 2015, “Life in High Definition”, which I’ll have to check out. The record is going to be released in a very limited run of 30 CDs and 200 LPs.

Another Melbourne band worth checking out are The Stroppies. Sadly their only release to date was a tape and I missed it. Why, why, why. I want these good records at least on CD. Not tapes. I’ve missed many fantastic records because they are being released on tape. CDRs are cheaper. Better sound and easier to play. Ah! Anyways. In the meantime, while I make my complains, I find myself enjoying the 7 songs that formed part of this mini-album (?) on Hobbies Galore. The band is formed by Angus Lord, Claudia Serfaty, Rory Heane and Steph Hughes. A superb discovery, I need to keep them in my eyesight, see what they put out next!

Who are The Life Absurd from San Diego, California? Three guys, Raif G on vocals, Gregory Cerwonka on guitars and bass and Alex Alvaron drums, and one song “Dark Fuss”. Only one song on their Bandcamp and they already deserve to be recommended. The lyrics are also there if you want to sing along.

A release that came early this year and I missed was the split tape with the Indonesian band Brilliant at Breakfast and the Japanese band The Natsuyasumi Band. The cassette tape is now in its 2nd pressing and it includes 4 songs by each band. The release has some lovely artwork and has been released by the label Gerpfast Koleftif from Malang in Indonesia. The songs by Brilliant at Breakfast have already appeared in their excellent 2011 album “Being Verbose is Easy, Being Verbose Ain’t Easy” and I believe the songs by The Natsuyasumi Band are all exclusive to this release, though in all honesty I only like their last song “Majic Journey”.

Dan Weltman, Anna Kissell, Holly McIntosh, Steve Dixon and Matt Cheney are Bristol band Snails. This year they released the “Starting with Mine EP” 7″ on Undergrowth Records and they didn’t play Indietracks. I’m not familiar with the band but their first song kind of hooked me, it sounded a bit like The Hermit Crabs. And yes, that is a good thing in my book. This one is by no means their first release, they have many more songs on Bandcamp, including an album titled “Safe in Silence” that has a song called “Winter Hearts” that I’m enjoying while I write these lines. I definitely need to listen their work in its entirety.

And that’s a wrap!

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One more stop in this indiepop world tour. Back to the antipodes after checking out The Honeys from Australia, now onto New Zealand, to Flying Nun, Birkenhead, Auckland for The Exploding Budgies. Brace yourselves, this might be a long post!

Birkenhead is a suburb of Auckland, in northern New Zealand. It is located on the north shore of the Waitemata Harbour, four kilometres northwest of the Auckland city centre. Birkenhead was described as “wild and bleak” by the New Zealand Herald in 1883, as it was isolated from the city of Auckland by the harbour, and was little occupied. However, in 1882 it was chosen as the site of New Zealand’s only sugar refinery, and in 1883 work began on what was later known as the Chelsea Sugar Refinery. The company built houses for its many new workers and thus the suburb of Birkenhead began. The Refinery was the main source of work for the area for many years, and still operates today.

After covering our geography and history lesson, now into what matters, the music of The Exploding Budgies. We know, from the site Audio Culture, that the band formed in 1984, and that it was one of a cluster of bands that shared a practice room in Birkenhead. On this small bio written by Russell Brown, we also get to know that The Exploding Budgies was a three-piece whose leader was David Mitchell. They released just one EP when they were around and later Mitchell was to join the band Goblin Mix. Afterwards Mitchell was to gain international fame with The 3Ds but that’s another story.

The other members of the band were Glenn Eisenhut on bass and James Murray on drums. Needless to say Mitchell was on guitar.

There are some gig flyers here which are really cool. I love the design. On one we see that the band played alongside Marie and the Atom and Children’s Hour at Windsor Castle. On another we see the band supporting The Chills and The Expendables at Mainstreet, Auckland in 1984.

The band’s only EP came out in 1985, it was titled “The Grotesque Singers” and was released by Flying Nun Records (FN033). The songs on it were, on the A side, “Thorn:Field” and “Kenneth Anger” while on the B side there was “Hank Marvin”, “See You Around the Stones” and “Sunflower”.

So you don’t know who Kenneth Anger is, well, let’s do some more Wikipedia digging then,
Kenneth Anger is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost forty works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped together as the “Magick Lantern Cycle”. His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult, and have been described as containing “elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle”. Anger himself has been described as “one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner”, and his “role in rendering gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise, is impossible to overestimate”, with several being released prior to the legalization of homosexuality in the United States. He has also focused upon occult themes in many of his films, being fascinated by the English poet and mystic Aleister Crowley, and is an adherent of Thelema, the religion Crowley founded.

There is even a cool story about the song “Kenneth Anger”.  It goes like this according to Russel Brown: “When he was in New Zealand in 1993 (making a film about the infamous “witch” Rosaleen Norton), writer and director Kenneth Anger became aware of Mitchell’s song ‘Kenneth Anger’. The story goes that Anger stormed up to the Flying Nun office and demanded to hear the song. On having it played to him, Anger declared he loved it and left a message on a copy of the band’s CD: “Love the song. Lots of love, Kenneth Anger.” I then found the whole story in the Second Sight (Film Diary) blog.

What about Hank Marvin? Hank Brian Marvin is an English multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist for the Shadows, a group which primarily performed instrumentals and was the backing band for Cliff Richard and subsequently for Marvin, Welch & Farrar. Many leading British and Canadian rock guitarists cite Marvin as an influence on them.

Most of the record was recorded at Lab Studios with Doug Hood and Bill. “Kenneth Anger” was recorded at Progressive Studios with Terry King. And “Sunflower” was recorded at The Practice Room with Peter Denniston. This song had the vocals of Linda and the word are credited to W. Blake. That means of course that this song is an adaptation of the famous poet William Blake.

This record must have been quite popular at the time. It was re-released in 1988. This time the jacket was glossy and the vinyl labels were standard Flying Nun ones instead of the original ones of the first release.

In 1991 these songs were to be re-released again, this time on CD and tape. A compilation titled “The Complete Goblin Mix & The Exploding Budgies” was released by Flying Nun in these two formats (FN 193). As I mentioned before these were David Mitchell bands. Other bands Mitchell had been involved were Plagal Grind, Chug, The Ghost Club and the Magick Heads.

The band appeared in a few compilations. The first time they appeared on a compilation was on the “The Last Rumba” (RUM 001) released by Flying Nun in 1983. On it they appear with the song “Paul Song”. This is interesting, this song doesn’t appear on the EP or on the re-releases.

Two other songs, “See You Around the Stones” and “Been There Once Before Once”, appear on the tape compilation “A Spanner in the Works” released by Industrial Tapes (IND 012) in 1984. I’m curious about this compilation, I don’t know any of the other bands that appear, were they jangly as well? I do think Papakura Post Office and Sheila and the Bankers are good band names.

I’ve never heard those three songs. Their third compilation appearance was to be in 2006 on the “Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Box Set” (FNCD500). On it they were going to show up with their most known song, their classic “Kenneth Anger”.

Lastly don’t forget to check the Extended Play special from 2012 about Exploding Budgies and Goblin Mix on Radio New Zealand where David Mitchell is interviewed.

A few questions remain. the first is of course if there are any more recordings by the band. The second is why were the songs that appeared on the different compilations weren’t included in the compilation they had with Goblin Mix. Also why did they call it a day?

Maybe some of you remember them? Maybe saw them play live?

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Listen
The Exploding Budgies – Thornfield

Thanks so much again to Andrea Croft for this interview! I wrote about Catherine Wheel many many years ago on the blog, I think it was one of the first bands I featured. Then I got in touch with Andrea and we did an interview about her previous band, The Honeys, which no one should miss. Now it is time to talk about Catherine Wheel, a brilliant Sydney band that released 2 7″s and one CD EP in the 90s. Try to track these releases down, they are fantastic!

++ Thanks again Andrea for being up to answer a bunch of my questions, this time about Catherine Wheel! I must say I know much less about Catherine Wheel than The Honeys even though I do have the three releases. I do know that the band started after The Honeys split. But how did the band start as such? You already knew Grant from The Honeys of course, but what about Brett and Biff? Had they been in other bands?

Grant and Brett were both members of the Honeys and Biff came on board as lead guitarist. Biff had played before yes, not sure which bands though..

++ Was there a different sort of music direction in Catherine Wheel compared to The Honeys? Or would you say it was more of a continuation of the sound of The Honeys?

It was more pop based than the country rock sound of the Honeys. Bruce’s songwriting style gave the Honeys its country flavour.

++ And you were still in Sydney, right? Still living at the house in Chippendale? Where did you rehearse?

We were still in Sydney, yes. We’d moved on to different homes by then and mainly rehearsed in a rehearsal studio. Too loud for lounge rooms!

++ Was the creative process similar to the one in The Honeys or not?

A bit different in as much as Grant and I would present songs that were pretty complete, lyrically and melodically. Of course suggestions and tweaks were made during rehearsals and we’d all flesh out the song until it became something we all liked.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the band? And were you aware of the UK band with the same name?

We just came up with it among other suggestions and only learned of the UK band after our first release from memory. Didn’t really affect us in Australia but would of course have limited UK releases of our songs.

++ Your first release was the “Blue Avenue” 7″ and it was released by Big Wheel Records. Who were Big Wheel Records? Was it your own label perhaps?

Wow, testing my memory now…I think they may have been affiliated with the publishing company Grant was signed to at the time. Don’t quote me on that though and interestingly, there’s a label of the same name these days that seem to specialise in Hip Hop so there you go! Thanks google.

++ Something that surprised me was that “Blue Avenue” had a saxophone in it. How was the recording process for this single? Any anecdotes you could share?

Yep, I dabbled in a bit of saxophone for awhile there. Not the most complex sax line but something different. The only anecdote I can share which is more of a suggestion…Don’t ever try to play the saxophone or harmonica for that matter after it’s been sitting in full sun at a lunch time Uni gig. Unless of course, the sound you’re going for is a strangled goose. In mating season…not a comforting sound.

++ I love the song “Last Explanation” and was wondering if you could tell me the story behind it?

Glad you like it. I wrote that one on a road trip, bumping along on a gravel road in the back of the panel van. I had been listening to Falling Joys on my Sony Walkman (remember those? Back in the Stone Age!) and felt inspired to write it. It may or may not have been about someone I knew, ok it was!

++ And where was the back cover photo of the band taken?

Tony Mott took that pic, again testing my memory but I’m pretty sure that one was taken outside a Church as the door was cool.

++ Speaking of photos, I always wondered who is the kid on the front cover of your second single “Almost Blind”?

Well I had a bit of a thing for op shops, charity stores and I still do. I found a bunch of old photos at one of these shops one day and a few featured on the inside sleeve of the Honeys Goddess album. I thought it a bit sad and unkind that these images of people were discarded like that and I was drawn to buy them as they were so old and black and white. Very stark images therefore.  I wondered who these people were. The cover of Almost Blind may have been one of those photos.

++ On this single you there are thank yous on the back, to Look at Her, Falling Joys, Wedding Parties Anything, Joe Breen at Sound Level Drums and the men from Waterfront. I know you had a good relationship with The Falling Joys, another fantastic band, and I suppose you got some help from the Waterfront label for this release? But who were the other people? bands?

++ Something that struck me as well is that the songs are credited to you and also to Warner Chappell. How did that happen?

Well Grant was signed to that publishing company for a while there so they are credited as such. 

++ “Self-Portraits” was your last release, a 5 song CD EP. From what I gather it was released in 1992. I thought you split in 1991. Am I right with the dates? And it was released by Shock, quite an important label in Australia. How did that happen?

Don’t ask me, time lines aren’t my forte! Sorry, been a long time since. Some of our mates in other bands were affiliated with Shock so we went with them too.

++ On this CD EP there were some changes in the band, Matt Handley replaced Biff Smith. How did you recruit Matt? Had he been in other bands?

Let me begin by saying that both Biff and Matt were and are extraordinary guitarists. Terrific vocalists too. Matt was already very gifted on the guitar so he had had some experience, yes.

++ This EP has a fab song, “Reach”. I wonder what inspired you to write this song?

Well thank you, as a non prolific song writer, this one came to me in a rush. Chords, lyrics, the lot. I never really worked hard at songwriting and good songwriters will tell you it is work. And discipline. Something I lack, but with this song, I got lucky and had that inspiration from nowhere and there it was. To be honest, it was mostly about me and challenging myself to ‘Reach’. I loved singing it live, it’s different when you sing songs you’ve penned yourself. Like you’re sharing something personal. It’s nice.

++ There were only two songs as far as I know where Grant sings, “Blackest World” and “Blue Avenue”. Why did he sing so little?

think Grant would agree when I say he was happy playing and singing harmonies and the odd song…personally though, I loved it when I could take a breather and watch him sing. He’s so energetic onstage and Blackest World was always a big hit live. People would yell it out after our set as a desired encore. It’s such a great song and he writes amazingly well constructed melodies. Gone Away is one such song, it’s just perfect!

++ How come there were no more releases, no album?

We just broke up, it was a great thing for a while, then it wasn’t. That’s bands for you..

++ Are there any unreleased songs? Any other recordings? Perhaps demo tapes?

Not that I’m aware of. Perhaps Grant has some bootlegs hidden away?

++ And how were gigs for Catherine Wheel? Did you play many? Someone commented on my blog about a gig at Lansdowne Hotel. Do you remember it?

The gigs were so much fun. We played quite a lot actually. We were lucky enough to score a few tours including a Hoodoo Gurus one and a Crowded House tour in Queensland. The Hoodoos guys were lovely and the boys from Crowded House? Well, we didn’t get to meet them but still, a great opportunity to play in front of a big crowd. The Landsdowne, ahhh I loved that venue. Both Catherine Wheel and Honeys played there several times. It’s probably a car park now, bring back the smelly, beer soaked carpet pubs!

++ Did Catherine Wheel get more or less attention from the music press and radio compared to The Honeys?

I think a bit more music press and about the same support from radio. Radio supported and played new bands back then, harder now to be selected on a playlist.

++ How come there were no promo videos of Catherine Wheel songs?

It wasn’t something that was a focus for us at the time. Playing was and that’s what we did.

++ When and why did the band split?

++ Have there ever been a reunion gig? Or have you ever considered it?

Never has been, and I never say never! Would be cool.

++ When it comes to Catherine Wheel, what were your highlights being part of the band?

Playing guitar was fun, I could’ve done it in the Honeys more but we had it covered so playing an instrument was fun. Also, the Almost Blind single. I was really proud of that. I thought then and still do that it’s a great pop song. Touring in big vans with boys I loved, that was a highlight. Laughing and listening to dodgy mixed tapes, yes tapes were still a thing wayyyy back then in the Pliocene. Driving to the next gig and singing along to very dodgy music, that stuff is what I think of when I’m asked about highlights. Happy faces in a crowd singing along, that’s a highlight for sure.

++ And if you were to choose your favourite Catherine Wheel song, which one would it be and why?

I’d choose Reach simply because I wrote it and I was going through some growing up stuff at the time. Close second, and I mean super close is Almost Blind because it’s chorus is killer. Try not to sing along! I dare ya!

++ One last question, you told me that Perth has a very limited music scene these days, and that’s a shame. But I would love to visit one day still, wonder what would you suggest one should check out in your city? What are the sights not to be missed? Or any traditional food from town?

There are some good venues still Roque, the Rosemount Hotel hosts many live bands and is really supportive of local music. Little Creatures pub in Fremantle have a few bands on as does several other venues in Fremantle. Northbridge is an inner city suburb in Perth and some live music pops up there too. Food wise? I have several suggestions that I shall PM you when you’re in town. 

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Listen
Catherine Wheel – Last Explanation

I was told not to slow down with the blog posts. Well, it was just one vote against none. I do think that a good thing about posting more often is that more often I’ll get in touch with the bands I want to hear their stories. That is perhaps my main drive for running the blog. Mind you, it’s been almost 9 years!

But at the same time, I think giving new bands the spotlight, featuring the better ones I find on my forays on the world wide web is as important. So here are some of my latest findings:

Following the announcement that The Marteens will be releasing a retrospective with Firestation Records, now Twelve Angry Men, a band that I have interviewed on the blog and who I got in touch with the German label, announce the same thing, this time with a release date, October 21st. It is coming out on CD. And I look forward to it a lot!

The Raft, the band from Neston, UK, that I reviewed some time ago have a new digital EP out on Bandcamp.  The band formed by Phil Wilson and JPedro have three new and sweet dreampop tunes as part of the “A Lullaby EP“. The songs are “I’m So High”, “No She’s Alone” and “A Lullaby/Nobody’s Daughter”. Which is my favourite? Perhaps the jangly “No She’s Alone”.

Last week I was recommending the Norwegian band The Age of Colored Lizards. A week after they release another digital EP. Bands are not slowing down either. The “Summer Rain EP” is available to stream from the band’s Bandcamp and it has four shoegazy songs, “See You”, “Wake Up”, “Hold Your Hand” and “Summer Rain”.

La Otra Cara de la Nada is an Argentinean band from Posada, Misiones Province. That’s an area sandwiched between Paraguay and Brazil, not the usual area to find guitar pop. I have just discovered them through the Facebook page Latin American Twee. I first check the band’s Facebook page and I find out they are formed by 5 guys, Germán, Ignacio, Ariel, Nicolas and Bruno. I find it funny that they name el Coco Basile, an old Argentinean coach, as an artist they like. With the voice of el Coco, I wonder what sort of band that’d be! On Bandcamp the band has a 9 song album titled “Sobre Permios y Tormentas” There are some songs though on the second half of the album that are downbeat which I’m not a fan of, but the first half is pretty good! That half sounds summery even in the instrumentals like “Alegoría”. And you know, I’m not a fan of instrumentals.

Another band Latin American Twee has recommended in the last few days is La Llamada de Héctor. I don’t know much about this band, I know they come from Chile, and their songs are a jangle explosion! When I listen to their latest song, “Mañanitas” I know this is upbeat and fun, think of The Chesterf!elds maybe, in Spanish. The vocals take some time to get used to, but in general, I’d say this sounds very promising! There are more songs in their Youtube channel.

Continuing with the Latin American invasion it is time to check the band Sway from Costa Rica. The band only has one song on Bandcamp and its name is “Medio”. As soon as I hit play I acknowledge the guitars and the effects. I like them. But why just one song? I want more. The band is formed by Allan on bass, Cordero on drums, José on guitars and Kevyn on guitars and vocals. Sure there are no more songs, but one has to cheer that there seems to be a growing guitar pop scene in the Central American country. On the Bandcamp I notice that the band will play Glasgow in September. That is big news too!

And lastly, time to check out the last release by the Lima, Peru, band Suerte Campeón. The band has just released the “Este es el Comienzo de Todo lo que No Quieres EP” on the label La Flor from Peru too. I’m not sure in what format the record is available. I only know you can stream it all on Bandcamp and Youtube. Definitely it isn’t the most convenient way to listen to it. But that’s how it is. The EP has 7 songs, “Andrés”, “Días Más Cortos, Noches Más Largas”, “Asmáticos que Fuman”, “Elena”, “Lluvia de Verano”, “Problemas Emocinales” and “Vacaciones de Verano del 2004”. This jingle jangly band is formed by Santino Amigo on vocals and guitar, Santiago Aragón on bass, Bruno Bardo on vocals and keyboard, Andrés Gutiérrez on drums and Angel Mejía on guitars. I had reviewed one song by the band before on the blog I think, and I don’t think I was that impressed then. Or maybe my mind is playing me tricks In any case I think this EP is much much better. Looking forward to see what they do next, and hopefully the EP gets a physical release.

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One more stop in this indiepop world tour. Now a country whose bands I’ve featured more and more this year, Ireland. And yet again, my main source of information is the most important blog The Fanning Sessions Archive.

On the blog there are a few details about the band, perhaps the only details I am going to find on the web. I’m thankful for that. The band was formed in 1987, in Dublin, by Anto Healy on drums, Brian King on bass and Pat O’Sullivan on vocals and guitar. So She Said were formed from the ashes of The Delegates.

The post on The Fanning Session Archive has 3 songs available for streaming, “So Happy”, “Let Me Out” and “At Home in June”. The first two appeared on the compilation “Swimming Out of the Pool” that was released in 1988 by Danceline Records (DLP 1001). I had mentioned this compilation before, when I wrote about another Irish band, The Outpatients. Then I asked if anyone had a spare copy,  I must say I’m still looking for this record.

The third song, “At Home in June”, won Hot Press/Murphy’s song of the month in 1989. The band split right after. I wonder though if this song was released in any way? Even if it was as a demo tape? And if there were more recordings done when they recorded this song. There must have been more songs by this band. I’m sure of it.

I couldn’t find any other information about the band. Nor I could find anything about The Delegates. I decide to just look for the band members, see if I could find any other music they must have made.

I look first for Anto Healy. I don’t know how common the name might be. I suppose it is the less common of the band members. I first find a Soundcloud for a band called Cabin. Was this the same Anto? The music is quite eclectic and the last song was uploaded four years ago.

Looking for Brian King was quite difficult, there is a famous Irish sculptor by the same name. So that was a dead end.

With Pat O’Sullivan it wasn’t easy either, finding several people with the same name in Limerich, Dublin, Galway and of course, Dublin. Dead ends.

It has been a while since I decide to track down a band and I find so little information. The songs sound great though and that only adds to my interest and curiosity. Whatever happened to them? Why didn’t they get a proper release? I would love to get in touch with them and ask them a few questions!

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Listen
So She Said – So Happy

Saw Ed Shelflife the other day and went to have Indian food, talked about this and that, future projects, indiepop, and footie. It was a good time. It seems he has a busy schedule up ahead, and now I know that he secretly updates his catalogue page without making any announcements. That’s the best way perhaps to know what he is planning to release on his label.

Sadly I’m still stuck with this moving process and I’m not moving until the end of September. This situation has made me postpone the release of the My Light Shines for You 7″ and other projects. This is a complicated situation for the label in a way as I can’t move forward at the moment. Of course, after the move things will run smoother, but right now I feel a bit caged, not being able to work on our next releases. Hope you understand the delay, I’m very sorry about it! I think the release date for the 7″ will be pushed until December.

I have never heard Seal Pillow before, and was quite unsure what to expect. I noticed that their song/video “Fanclub” was posted on the Twee Lovers Club Facebook page and decided to give it a listen. The video is lovely really, made me feel young again, made me nostalgic. The song is very nice too, very 90s indiepop, you know when there was influence of softer styles like bossanova? I know very very little about the band, I know they are from Bangkok (why wasn’t I aware of them when I visited last year?) and that they started as a band in 2012. The band is formed by Aaron on guitar, Pakorn on bass, Chalerm on vocals, Araya on drums and Mumza on guitar. I’m not sure if they have any proper releases, but they do have a Soundcloud page full of good songs!

My friend Jennifer was surprised that I was writing more after changing jobs, the thing is, I don’t have many distractions here. Everytime I have a little break from any project I’m working, I write a paragraph or two. And so these posts are built over days. I find a new band on Bandcamp and I write immediately about them. That way I don’t forget about it. And then it becomes a bit of a cut and paste adventure, some paragraphs I write for a post end up on another post and so on. It is the same case when it comes to the obscure band part of the post, I find a website or any important detail, then I write about it. Then I close the post and get to work. I hope that by doing this I’m not losing the flow of the posts, the thread! You let me know. Also would be good to know if you feel I’m writing too much and I should slow the pace!

Another Bandcamp discovery has been Huntington Beach, California, band Black Sea. The band seems to be a one-man project run by Cole Devine. The past August 1st Cole put out a digital album on Bandcamp titled “Dissapointing Sunset”. There are 11 dreampop songs in the album, and they are really good. The song “Apprehension Review” even has a video. This is not their first release, it seems back in 2014 there was the “Keep Smiling/Optimistic Sigh EP” tape on Burger Records.

Two bands I’ve been praising and following the past few weeks are Stars in Coma and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Both bands that at some point were part of Cloudberry. And that is a good thing of course! The last few weeks they’ve been sharing advances of their new albums and now finally they are available to listen to the in their entirety. “Escapist Partisans” by Stars in Coma is now streaming at their Bandcamp and it is also available as a cassette. On the other hand, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s album “The Echo of Pleasure” is now available to stream exclusively at NPR. Check it out, it is a very fine comeback!

On Thursday September 14th Native Records is throwing a release party for Raintree County‘s 3CD retrospective album “Sweet Everything”. I’m not sure if this is the release date, but I’m assuming copies will be available. The Native Records website has no information about this release, but I hope the important details become available to those not living in the UK. You know I want a copy!

I’ve recommended the Moscow band Verbludes before. They are fantastic, and if only they didn’t release their records on tape I would have made the impossible to get their releases. I do understand though that many of you like tapes, so I will tell you that the band is releasing a limited edition cassette of a live gig on the label Pow! Pop Kids. The gig was played in a venue called Dig in 2016. There are 20 copies available, so act fast! Only one of the songs is available to preview on the Bandcamp.

I remember Loons released an album on Elefant in 1997. That was 20 year ago. In 2001 they released an album on Galaxy Train titled “Dim Movies”. Up until now I hadn’t heard it. The label has this album now streaming on Bandcamp and you can also order a copy of the CD album. It is up my street, I wonder why I missed it. The label likes them to Holiday Flyer, Watoo Watoo and La Buena Vida. I feel Loons is more fragile than them, but having the same sweetness in their sound. Nowadays the band members of the Parisian band are playing music on Flowers from the Man Who Shot Your Cousin and Cowbird.

And that’s it for today. More coming soon!

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Continuing the indiepop world tour, it is time now to head back to Europe, to Denmark in particular. There’s been some good Danish indiepop bands in the last decade like Northern Portrait and Champagne Riot, and aside from the immense Gangway, most indiepop fans are not familiar with Danish indiepop. Time then to rediscover a band that has been forgotten, Embellish.

Embellish: make (something) more attractive by the addition of decorative details or features.

I know very little about Embellish. I do own their one and only album, “Wake Up”, released in 2000 by March Records in the US (catalog MAR057). That CD has 10 songs, “Water Lung”, “Super Cool Girl”, “You”, “Drug Dealer”, “Sunshine”, “Wake Me Up!!!”, “I Don’t Know”, “Ambivalence”, “One” and “Sea Monster”. The first song, “Water Lung”, being my favourite of the album.

The CD includes credits. And that is always a good thing. From it we know that the band was:
Claus Hansen on vocals and guitar
Tora Thisen on backing vocals
Julie Wellejus on backing vocals
Anders Hansen on drums
Martin Sorensen on bass
Jens Pape on guitars

Were Claus and Anders brothers? Other people credited in this release were Thomas Jensen for additional guitars, Mikkel Christiansen for percussion, Fran Ashcroft for producing and mixing the album and Tue Madsen for engineering the album. The album was recorded at Borsing Recording in Århus and mastered at Birdland.

When it comes to compilations the band appeared in a few. In 1995 they contributed the song “Trigger Happy” to the CD compilation “DM I Rock ’95” released by the Start label. This song doesn’t appear on the album, so I’m quite curious about how they sounded at this time. Were they poppier? Punkier? Rockier? Did the band have the same members? I look at the rest of the bands on this CD and I really don’t know any, they must be Danish as well. The label was. The label Start was based in Århus and was founded by A&R producer and manager Poul Martin Bonde. The label was later bought by Sony.

In 1997 the band appears on a promotional CD compilation titled “Starsearch 4”. They have the song “Wake Me Up!!!” in it. The label that put out this CD, Fajabefa, seems to have released a series of compilations under the name Starsearch, at least up to volume 9.

In 1999 they start a relationship with March Records. On the classic compilation “Moshi Moshi: Pop International Style” (MAR 050) they appear with the song “I Don’t Know”. This record was released as 3 LPs or 2 CDs. It is highly recommendable, there are songs by bands from all over the world. You will find songs by The Pearlfishers, B’ehl, The Secret Goldfish, The Leslies and a lot more!

The next year, 2000, the band has the song “You” on the March Records compilation “Little Molly Has a Treat For You” (SLICK 001). This was another fantastic compilation, with songs by Vacaciones, Barcelona, Waltz for Debbie, Club 8, etc.

Now time to leave Discos and dive into the unknown. It wasn’t going to be difficult to start getting hits, finding some pages on the web about Embellish.There are many reviews of the album. This is the case with many bands from that period, from the late 90s, early 2000s. Nowadays that is hard to find, websites or webzines dedicated to reviewing albums, back then it was common. On the other hand getting in touch with bands was a bit more difficult, there was no Facebook, no Bandcamp or Myspace. No way to share your music easily. I guess there are pros and cons then and now. Though of course, back then people were buying more records.

My first stop seems to have been a Geocities page called Pop Palace. There the writer, Mike Bennett, compares the band to The Beautiful South and The Dentists. But not many meaty details. Then I stop at another review dating from 2001 on the website Drawer B. Eric G., the reviewer, really likes the band, he again compares them to The Beautiful South. I try to find any details about the band, like if they had been in any other bands or not, but there’s nothing. Just a lot of adjectives, crystalline, funny, melodramatic and more. I’m trying to find out whatever happened to the band.

On Popmatters there is harsh review by Geoff Stahl. He doesn’t like the band at all. He says it was the least appealing record he heard in 2000. Then, on another review, Ned Raggett on Allmusic.com compares them to The Field Mice or early Cardigans. Lastly I found another review on the web-zine Furia. Here the reviewer is right on saying that the band sounds more Swedish than Danish. That might be true if you think of bands like The Leslies or even Eggstone. Here at last I found some interesting detail.

That detail was important. The album “Wake Up wasn’t actually new in 2000. It had already been released in 1998 in the UK by the label Sunflower. It came out under a different title, “Long Live the Bald People” (BELLYCD 001) and even had different artwork. It has the same tracklisting.

The band played the SPOT 02 festival that was held, I believe, in Århus in January 18 to the 20th of 1996. It seems the people from Fajabefa, that label that had them on a compilation, was one of the organizers. How do I know this? I found an ISSUU document where Embellish is mentioned as part of the lineup. Here there’s an address for the band and it seems they were based in Hobro.

Hobro is an old market and railway town in Region Nordjylland on the Jutland peninsula in northern Denmark. It has a population of 11,736. The town is situated in a hilly terrain at the head of Mariager Fjord, close to the former Viking fortress of Fyrkat. It is the seat of Mariagerfjord municipality.

Looking for the band members I find an article where Anders Hansen is mentioned. It is from the Nordjyske newspaper and it dates from February 24, 2003. It seems the municipality of Hobro had built a rehearsal studio for bands to practice. The municipality was to pay the rent of the house while the group Crescendo, who Anders is part of, will take care of the daily operations. I wonder how this project did, if it still works today. Also according to Discogs Anders had been involved in some more music. He was involved with The Marsmen, Small Talk, The Collins, Bent Fabric, Bonnie, and more.

I couldn’t find any other information about the band members. Nor about Embellish. It is strange, the band only released one album and that was it. No singles. Then they disappeared. It doesn’t seem like most of the band continued making music. I wonder why. Most of the reviews I found were favourable. What happened with them? Anyone out there remember them?

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Listen
Embellish – Water Lung