Thanks so much to Mark Radcliffe for answering a bunch of my questions and telling the story of The County Fathers! Just a week or so ago I wrote a post on my blog about the band looking for more information and Mark was kind enough to get in touch. The County Fathers were based in Manchester and released just one record, a 3 song 12″ with “Lightheaded” as the opening track on the Ugly Man label. It is a fantastic record but for some reason it didn’t make the splash it deserved. Today Mark continues at BBC 6music and making music.

++ Hi Mark! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! There’s little written on the internet about the County Fathers so this is a great chance for me, and many, to learn a bit more about it. But let’s start with the present, what are you up to these days? Still involved with the BBC, right? But are you still making music? Perhaps writing a new book?

I currently co-present the afternoon show (1-4pm) on BBC 6music with Stuart Maconie and also the Radio 2 Folk Show on Wednesday evenings at 7. I play drums and sing for a seven piece folk-rock band called Galleon Blast (pirate themed!) and I also do a one man show of songs and stories where I play guitar.
I’ve always loved playing guitar and drums equally.

++ You were born in Bolton, right? So how did you end up in Manchester? And what sort of music did you listen while growing up?

I grew up in Bolton playing drums in local rock covers bands and listening to a lot of glam rock like Bowie, Roxy Music and T.Rex. I also loved Floyd and Genesis.
In 1976 I went to Manchester University just as punk rock exploded and so my life and my listening totally changed. I started writing songs of my own around this time and met my lifelong friend Phil Walsmley (guitarist) in my first week at uni.

++ How was Manchester then? From what I see from a distance is that there was such a fantastic scene, with so many great bands and venues. Now even there’s a new box set celebrating the 80s in Manchester. Who did you feel were like-minded bands? And what about your usual hangouts or favourite venues?

Manchester was a really exciting place for gigs at that time and we went to lots of punk and new wave shows at places like Rafters, The Squat, The Factory and The Electric Circus.
Phil and I were in a new wave art rock band called She Cracked who are included on the latest Manchester box set.
Really Joy Division set the standard we all tried, and failed, to live up to. Their records still sound like important historical documents to me.

++ Before The County Fathers you were involved in Skewdriver. How was that experience?

As regards Skrewdriver – this is quite a difficult subject which I have written about before. Before any racist and white supremacist nonsense started Skrewdriver were Phil’s band from his schooldays in Poulton-le-Fylde.
They were just a guitar punk band and later on their singer Ian Donaldson kept the name and recruited a whole new line-up for his racist rantings.
I just helped them out before any of the unpleasantness surfaced as they needed a drummer for a couple of tours.

++ How did The County Fathers start as a band? How did you three know each other? And are you still in touch?

The County Fathers started really as a vehicle for the songs I was writing. John Clayton was a producer at Piccadilly Radio and a good guitarist and I wanted the song ‘Lightheaded’ to have two dueeling lead guitarists and so I pitched Phil and John against each other. It worked really well and Phil would usually chip in with some nifty bass too. We’re still in touch. John works for the BBC and Phil and I had a later band called The Big Figures a few years ago.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

The name the County Fathers – I had been reading about some American elders setting the rules for their locality and they were referred to as county fathers. I liked the name and also we had all three of us just become fathers so it seemed to fit. Many times it was mis-printed as The Country Fathers. I don’t remember us rehearsing much really. It was always intended initially as a recording project rather than a live band although we did later play live a couple of times with Richard Jones and Craig Wolf of The Desert Wolves, who I’d produced for Guy Lovelady/Uglyman – which was how that association came about.

++ Something that I was curious about were the photos on the sleeve. It is like you did the ice bucket challenge before anyone else. What’s going on on those photos? And who is the baby on the front sleeve photo?

About the photos on the sleeve – I found the front cover of the baby on a postcard in a shop and loved it. Again, it seemed to fit with the fathers theme.
then I asked the famous rock photographer Kevin Cummins, who was a friend, to shoot the three of us on waste ground outside his studio near the train station. It was very cold that day!

++ There were three songs on the record, “Lightheaded”, “You Think It’s So Funny” and “Deep South (long version”. If you can, in a couple of sentences, tell me what inspired these songs?

Of those initial songs ‘You Think It’s So Funny’ was the poppiest and was inspired by The Smiths a bit I think. It was about my ex-wife in a very oblique way.
‘Lightheaded’ was really just an exercise is seeing how many guitars we could get on one track. There are dozens on there. A wall of sound. Love it. The words are just nonsense really.
‘Deep South’ was inspired by a film about the KKK. There were a couple of other songs we worked on – the only one I can find is ‘Plain Sailing’ which is about being lost at sea.

++ On this record you worked with Nick Garside. In which studio were the songs recorded? And how was the experience of working with Nick?

So when we got to the studio I would lay down most of the basic tracks on my own with Nick Garside engineering and then we would build up Phil and John’s parts on my basic track.
Nick had a little, dark, quite scruffy studio called Out of the Blue in the backstreets of downtown Manchester, quite a dodgy area, but he was an absolutely brilliant engineer and producer.
Lots of bands used him because he did an amazing job on minimal budgets. He was a real enabler for a lot of musicians in those days.

++ Guy Lovelady mentions in his blog that you were afterwards in a pop band called St Cloud. Was this a similar sounding band? Who were in the band?

So John, Phil and I sort of drifted apart but I stayed in touch with Richard the bass player and we spent a lot of time backing the Manchester pop comedian Frank Sidebottom.
in that band was a really lovely guy called Michael Taylor who is not only a wonderfully atmospheric guitarist but also a great artist and designer.
The three of us then started to write more songs which I considered to be the next stage of The County Fathers although we were thinking of the names St.Cloud and Deep Blue Day too.
I think the only gigs we did might have been under the name St.Cloud but with my voice and words to the fore it was very much County Fathers part two for me.

++ There were many songs recorded by the band that didn’t get to be released as Guy mentions on his blog. He says there is a CD with a bunch of recordings. How many unreleased songs are there?

We recorded at the famous Strawberry Studios in Stockport where 10cc did all their stuff and also where Joy Division did ‘Unknown Pleasures’.
The engineer was another brilliant guy called Steve Robertshaw who I knew from the BBC. Sadly he died in a glider accident a few years later. A tragedy.
We also recorded at a studio in central Manchester called Startrack with another gifted, if bonkers, engineer called Royston Hollyer.
I always had the sound in my head but needed great technicians to help me to get there – however it all got a lot easy with Mike on guitar as he just created this shimmering cloud of noise.
I still totally love his sound and it began to shape everything we did. Initially I played the drums but when we moved towards gigging we recruited a really good drummer called David Dunne.
So, of the thirteen songs you can hear on the cd four will be County Fathers Mk1 (me, Phil, John) eight are Mk.2 (me, Mike, Richard, David) and one song called ‘New Secrets Sealed’ was written by me and Mike but recorded by me on my own.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The County Fathers?

I look back on it all with pride and sadness really. I thought we did some wonderful stuff which I still think sounds great and so that’s what matters I suppose. But of course I feel sad that no-one ever really got to hear it. I still hope that could change. Maybe you will make all the difference by getting it out there.

++ Thanks again Mark! Anything else you’d like to add?

A couple of years ago I recorded again with Mike Taylor and the old magic was still there but again, nothing came of it.
If there was interest and demand I know that Mike and I would come back together and start writing again.
I think the two of us compliment each other perfectly and so there’s lots we could do – especially with another collaborator called Gareth Blazey who helped us out with programming, sampling and all things technical.
There are lots of possibilities there so who knows.

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Listen
The County Fathers – You Think It’s So Funny

Where to start this post? Well by what’s most important, the new Firestation releases. At last you are able to hear some of the songs that will be released August 18th on the Berlin-based label. On Souncloud you can now find The Siddeleys’ “Every Day of Every Week” and “Things Will Be Different“, Elephant Noise’s “This Song is Our Friend” and “Remember the Big Time”, and The English McCoy’s “I Connected” and “Give Me Something To Believe In“. Keep in mind that these releases are available as both vinyl and CD but Elephant Noise which will only be available on CD. You can order directly from the label.

My favourite band from Estonia, Pia Fraus, is back with a new album titled “Field Ceremony”. Some of the songs are available now to stream on the label Seksound’s Bandcamp. You can check out 3 songs out of 10, them being “Autumn Winds”, “Mountain Trip Guide” and “That’s Not All.” The album is being released on both vinyl and CD formats by Seksound, limited to 222 copies each format. One important thing to mention is that if you are in North America Shelflife Records will be handling your order.

Speaking of Shelflife, because I’ve noticed I need a bunch of their new releases, there was an album silently released on July 21st. She Sir, the dreamy band from Austin who I knew through Happy Prince Records, have released their sophomore album titled “Rival Island” on Ed’s label. On Soundcloud you can actually stream the whole thing but only through Shelflife’s site, and it is really pretty! I need to catch up!! I also need the Star Tropics album which came not so long ago. Remember I was complaining there was no place to listen to the new songs by the Chicago band? Well there are plenty on Soundcloud now.

This week I saw some friends recommending the Glasgow band Marble Gods. Me, as a curious person, went to their Bandcamp and checked them out. And I really really liked them. Even though to me their sound sounds more like American indiepop of the 90s than Glaswegian indiepop, this is thoroughly enjoyable! There are four new songs on this digital EP titled “Songs”. I wouldn’t be surprised if a label picks them up and offers a proper release for them. The songs are “Different State”, “Going Nowhere and Thrilled to Death About It”, “Washing Machine” and “Actors”. “Washing Machine” even has a promo video.

Something that caught my attention, was a photo posted on Fire Records instagram. It was a photo of a new LP by the Television Personalities, a 1990 unreleased album titled “Beautiful Despair”. There is no other information anywhere else. I read on JC Brouchard facebook page that there is a song on the album about Felt. But aside from that…. nothing. In any case this is good news, right?

Now I want to recommend the new podcast by Bruce from Australia. Yes, he has been doing podcasts for a while now, but this time he actually talks on it. He recommends bands, he gives a bit of a background of the songs he will play, and that makes this a much better experience. I had a very good time listening to it and I also discovered a bunch of new bands, some of which I’ll start recommending on the blog in this and next posts.

So just one band this week from the podcast, Toy Tambourine. Bruce recommends the song “Another Rainy Day” from the Sommertraum EP that was released last year by Shiny Happy Records. I don’t know much about the band, though I did recommend them last year on my Sunshower post. Then it only had two songs online. It seems to be a one-man band based in Jatinangor in Indonesia. There are 6 songs on this jangly and upbeat cassette EP, “I’m a Sucker for a Hello”, “Sommertraum”, “Movie Shop”, “Blueboy” and “Another Rainy Day” conform this cassette. This is very very good, and very hard to pick a favourite song out of the 6, maybe “Sommertraum”?

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Last time I decided that it was time to feature a Swedish band, it had been a while since I looked in depth the story of a guitar pop band from that country. Most of the times I end up featuring British bands on the blog. And that is no surprise, it is a fact that most indiepop bands hailed from there, but I’m also very aware that indiepop is international, that there have been fantastic bands from all over the world but Africa and the Middle East. Even Central America that used to not have any, these days have a healthy scene in Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe in the years to come we’ll hear some great South African or Lebanese indiepop. You never know.

This time I want to explore a band from another country with a long tradition in indiepop, Japan. I’ve featured a few Japanese bands on the blog, not too many like Pastelshot, Sunshower, Pitwork, The Groovy Metal Babies, Hartfield, Livingstone Daisy, Civic, B-Flower, The Time Capsules, Thee Windless Gates, The Philips, Sloppy Joe and a few more. But it has been many months since my last post, so I started thinking which Japanese band has always been elusive to me. My answer was Tricycle Popstar. Why? Because I still don’t have any of their releases and I’ve only really heard 4 songs total by them. Those are enough reasons, at least for me, to want to know more about them.

As it is becoming a routine by now when I write these sort of posts, the first place I look for information is Discogs. It is really interesting how in the last 5 years Discogs has become much more important for us record collectors than eBay. I don’t think I miss much bidding on eBay and losing at the final second. I haven’t bid on there for a very long time. Maybe there are good records there now at good prices. Maybe I should check out. Maybe less people look for rare records there and I could have a better chance at winning. Maybe. On Discogs I don’t have to try my luck, if I feel the price is right I just get the record then. There was something similar too, Musicstack, but then it didn’t have the possibility to see a band’s all discography in one place and even read a little bio about bands sometimes. I think Discogs did it well. It could be better of course. But for now I think it is the place where all of us are shopping.

What do I find on Discogs about Tricycle Popstar. First a name, Masahiro Kodama. Was it a one-man band? I’ll try to find out. I see at least 5 singles or EPs and one mini album. I’ll try to start chronologically, though there may be some gaps. The best place to get it in order is a Japanese Geocities page (Geocities still exists there it seems) with the catalog of the label Behavior Saviour who released a bunch of Tricycle Popstar releases.

The first ever Behavior Saviour release (catalog BS001) came out in 1993 and was a 2 song cassette by Tricycle Popstar. One song on each side, on the A side there was “Take Off Your Afro (Probably Happy)” and on the B side “Look For Something Better”. These songs I haven’t heard sadly.

Their second release was also a tape, it was also the second release on the label (catalog BS002) and had a title: “Japanese Boys Singing… Hmm Ha Ha”. It was also released in 1993 and had the same format, one song on each side. On the A side was “Frank Rain” and on the B side “Crystal Rain”. Again no luck finding these songs.

Third release was again a tape. No surprise tapes are back in vogue these days. I was never a fan of tapes even though the first ever music artifact I bought was a tape. This was also the third release on Behavior Saviour (catalog BS003) and I start to think that maybe the band was running this label? Could that be the case? This release was shared with another band though, The Love Mushrooms has the whole A side for them while Tricycle Popstar the B side. Some other time I will write about The Love Mushrooms because they are excellent, I promise. But today I’ll focus on Tricycle Popstar, and so they had 9 songs on the “The Best Of” tape: “Meet Again”, “Take Off Your Afro”, “Mr Manderine Man”, “Look for Something Better”, “Music, Food & You”, “The One I Don’t Like”, “Your Perogative”, “Passion & Kind” and “I’ll Sail This Ship Alone”.

This wasn’t going to be their last work alongside The Love Mushrooms. On that same 1993 that seems to have been very productive for the band they released another split tape titled “Dynamic Pops for the 90’s Vol.1”. It seems this tape didn’t have a label. Was it a self-release? Tricycle Popstar contributed the songs “Meet Again”, “Slump”, “Passion & Kind”, “You make Me Feel (Early Version)”. What is interesting is that The Love Mushrooms seem to have recorded “You Make Me Feel (In My Room)” which might be just a different version.

And if that was the first volume, that same year both bands decided that it was time to release the second. “Dynamic Pops for the 90’s Vol.2” was again released by no label, on an edition of just 50 copies. Tricycle Popstar was to include the songs “Yaggy Blues”, “The One I Don’t Like”, “Your Perogative”, “Music, Food & You”, “(Still Thinking) The One I Don’t Like”, “Music, Food & You (early version)”, “Mr. Mandarin Man”, “Death of a Frank Man” and “Your Progative (new version)”.

I wonder about these two last tapes, where were they sold? Why so little copies? Was it just for friends? And how come the band was this prolific? Because there’s yet another release by Tricycle Popstar in 1993, a two song flexi! This is actually the first Tricycle Popstar record I was hunting down. That’s because I’m no fan of tapes, this was their first “proper” in my book. The single sided flexi “I Like Curry Rice” came out on Behavior Saviour in 93, catalog BS 005, and had on the B side the beautiful “The Rocking Chair’s Still Rocking”. From what I ‘ve seen the flexi even came with a lyric sheet in both English and Japanese. From it we also learn that the label was based in Tokyo. Possibly then the band was based there too. On the back cover there are credits, all instruments were played by Masahiro Kodama. The lyrics were written by Masahiro and a Mark Davis. The art was also credited to Mark Davis.

The 6th Behaviour Savior release was the Tricycle Popstar mini album. It was titled “Saviour Once More” and had the catalog number BS006. There were just 7 songs in it, “Saviour Once More”, “Take Off Your Afro”, “Moaner is My Cat”, “Misfortune”, “Tricycle No. 9 (live)”, “No Skin Off My Ass” and “Fairy Tales”. I couldn’t find which year this was released. Again the lyrics and design are credited to the same people as in the flexi. There are two guests though on this record, Wendy Brown and Roberto Massaglia on the song “Moaner is My Cat”. This mini album came out in a slim jewel case and as a 3″ CD.

Now the band was to work with other labels, but I wanted to say that Behavior Saviour had been already been mentioned on the blog. This is what I wrote about it when I posted about the Australian band Dreaming Genies who released on the label:
“Going back to the “Joan” CD. It was released in Japan by a label called Behavior Saviour, and it was catalog BS009. This label seems to have been closely linked with a band called Tricycle Popstar, which I barely know and I guess could be reviewed on the blog sometime soon. “

I actually was in touch with the band and they sent me some Dreaming Genies CDs, sadly they never sent me the answers to the questions I wrote for their interview. I wonder how they ended up in the Japanese label. And yeah, since then I was already thinking about covering Tricycle Popstar.

The last release of the band on Behavior Saviour seems to date of 1995. The CD “Apostasy” (BS 012) was released that year but I haven’t found much information about it on the web. Just a SoundCloud page by the user Hacchuum which might or might not be our Masahiro. There are songs which I assume were on the album as they have the artwork for it, “Are You Alright? (Drumless version)”, “The Rocking Chair is Still Rocking”, “Are You Alright?”, “Why Do Rock Stars Break their Guitars”, “Fancy”, “Last Time I Say Good Bye” and “Boyfriend”.This user seems to be based in Australia.

In 1996 a split 7″, shared with Orange Cake Mix, was released by the Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club (catalog BBPTC 25). On this hand-glued sleeve record, the band contributed two songs, “Peach Boys Bed Sounds” and “Clover”. I believe this was the last release by the band.

The band appeared on a bunch of compilations as well. In 1993, which was for sure THEIR year, they contributed “Take Off Your Afro” and “You Make Me Feel” to the French tape compilation “Gloomy Biscuit I”. This tape came along the fanzine Gloomy Biscuit who in this number covered Anorak Records, Reading, Tricycle Popstar, The Sedgwicks, Bulldozer Crash, Budgie Jacket and more.  Another tape compilation on which they appeared that year was the Japanese tape compilation “Let’s Muc Out On Sound” released by Loose Sound (LSCT 001). The band contributed “No Skin Off My Ass”.

Beheavior Saviour was to release in 1993 the compilation “Behave Yourself!” where Tricycle Popstar had two songs: “”Last Time I Say Good-bye” and “Freak Rain”.

In 1994 something curious appears. The compilation “Come All Ye Faithful”, the compilation CD released by Behavior Saviour (catalog 011) is listed as an Australian compilation. Did they move there? That could explain the Dreaming Genies question and the Soundcloud one as well. Anyways, Tricycle Popstar appears here with “Should I Become Brain-Dead” and “Are You Alright”. All the other bands on the compilation are unknown to me but the most-amazing They Go Boom!!

“Going Against Maz’s Advice” was a compilation released by the US label Four Letter Words (FLW 014) in 1994. I don’t think the title is about the Maz we all know from NYC Popfest, so I wonder who this Maz was? I thought our Maz was the first Maz in indiepop! On this compilation CD plagued by classic bands from The Cat’s Miaow to Boyracer, Tricycle Popstar contributes “No Skin Off My Ass” and “Take Off Your Afro”.

Their song “Pom Pom G.I.R.L.” was going to appear on a compilation 1996, Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club’s “Lily’s S’ghetti Factory” (BBPTC 018).

Aside from the band’s discography there is very little on the web. Possibly there might be more written in Japanese. But as I don’t know absolutely nothing when it comes to Japanese it ends up being hard. I could manage with German, Swedish, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and English when i have to find information, but with Japanese well it is almost impossible! So maybe some of you could help me find more information about Masahiro and Tricycle Popstar? About Behavior Saviour? Was he involved in The Love Mushrooms too for example? Was he running the label? Everything indicates that he was. Would love to know what he is up these days.

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Listen
Tricycle Popstar – Passion & Kind

It is almost August now and I have a few things to share with you as I mentioned on my last post. I said I had 4 more items to share with you, but actually there might be more. Every day there’s a new thing of course. So let’s get straight to it.

Last week I was recommending the new songs by Stars in Coma. Songs that will appear in the band’s forthcoming album. I shared a Soundcloud link for the second single for the “Escapist Partisans” album, “Ten Years”. Well, almost immediately André Brorsson, the man behind Stars in Coma, got in touch and told me “Ten Years” has a video now. The video is really pretty, it was shot in Portugal, and that makes me excited as Portugal will be the destination of my next vacation.

Dylan Thomas is a band from San José, Costa Rica. Last week I was introduced to their latest EP, “Suceso en la Plaza” through the Latin American Twee Facebook page. The EP is available to stream on Bandcamp, I’m not sure if it is available in any physical format. The EP has 4 songs, “Fuegos Artificiales a la Distancia”, “Últimos Días”, “Suceso en la Plaza” and “Atacama.” The band, who took the name of the Welsh poet, is formed by Jan, Diego, Sebas and Esteba, and aside from a couple of songs they uploaded before, this seems to be their first “proper” release. The four songs are fine jangly guitar pop songs clearly influenced by dreampop and shoegaze. It seems that there is a very interesting scene happening now in Costa Rica, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for any new discoveries coming from the “pura vida” country.

Shelflife Records will be releasing a limited CD of Russia’s Life on Venus’ album “Encounters“. I was not familiar with this Russian shoegaze band, so after listening the 10 songs on their SoundCloud I can say that this is pretty good, that Ed Shelflife has done it again, finding obscure gems from who knows where! It seems what caught Ed’s attention was their 2016 EP “Distant Lights”, but then I wonder where he found that too. Or maybe I’m just not on top of what’s happening, I’m the last to know about the cool stuff?  The band is formed by Dima on guitars and vocals, Aline on vocals, Sergey on guitars, Marat on bass and Guly on drums. They are based in Moscow and I definitely look forward to have the CD and play it at home.

I saw Even as We Speak last year at NYC Popfest. It was a gig one can’t never forget. It was wonderful. And I’m glad too that the band is back. Yes! They are releasing a new 10″ EP very soon on the Emotional Response label. The EP is titled “The Black Forest”, and it even has a German (Bavarian) flavour on the cover photography just to keep with the EP name vibe. The EP will also be released on CD and digital which is for sure good news. I know, I know, this is just talk. Where’s the music? Well, out of the 5 tracks that will appear on the EP, one can be streamed at the moment on the label’s Bandcamp. You can listen to the lovely “Such a Good Feeling“, and fall in love once again with Mary Wyer’s vocals, and the band too of course. Great great comeback!

Vasas Flora och Fauna is the band Mattias from Cats on Fire has been involved with for the past few years. The band is a trio actually and even though they have very little information in English, I’ve been following them for some time now. And now at last they are releasing their second album which I already pre-ordered (alongside the Bedroom Eyes one, though it seems I missed their first album, I will need to order that sometime soon!) from Startracks.se. The album is titled “Veneziansk Afton” and it has 11 tracks. I couldn’t really find any place to check out the songs, but because of previous releases I’ve heard on the web I think it should be good.

And my last recommendation for this week comes from England. I received a message on the Cloudberry Facebook page this week with a link to the Gold Needles’ song “Not Tonight Josephine” on SoundCloud. This song is actually the A side of a 50 copies limited edition 7″ released by Exquisite Noise Records. It is a clear lathe cut record with 2 songs, on the B side there is “Eventide”. The band is formed by Mark, Dave and Simon with recent additions of Carl on bass and Justin on drums. They are based in Kingston upon Hull.

And that’s that for this post. Is there any other news I might have missed please let me know on the comment box!

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Cod is the common name for the genus Gadus of demersal fishes, belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and some species suggested to belong to genus Gadus are not called cod (the Alaska pollock). The two most common species of cod are the Atlantic cod, which lives in the colder waters and deeper sea regions throughout the North Atlantic, and the Pacific cod, found in both eastern and western regions of the northern Pacific. Cod is popular as a food with a mild flavour and a dense, flaky, white flesh. Cod livers are processed to make cod liver oil, an important source of vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, and omega-3 fatty acids. Young Atlantic cod or haddock prepared in strips for cooking is called scrod. In the United Kingdom, Atlantic cod is one of the most common ingredients in fish and chips, along with haddock and plaice.

Here’s another band I want their records. They are not expensive, that’s true. The shipping costs might be annoying, but it is what it is. The problem is mostly that I want the CD version of their first album “French Plums” and not the vinyl version. I know, I’m uncool. For some reason for a lot of records from the early 90s it is easier to find the vinyls than the CDs. Why is that? I thought no one wanted CDs these days?

The Cod Lovers. I think the first time I noticed them was thanks to the Neo-Acoustic Guide. Their 7″ single “Best Friend” was among the records that appear as must-haves for any indiepop collector. I haven’t heard about them before. So I decided to do some research. I found out they were from Sweden and that they released on two of the most important labels from Sweden at that time, Ceilidh and A West Side Fabrication. But I didn’t do much more digging. Only today I decided it was time to do some proper archaeology work on them, especially as I’ve rediscovered how good their first album is.

What more can I ask when the Ceilidh website has a good amount of information and it is easy to find. The band had during its time 3 lineups, the first, from 1987 to 1990, being:
Niklas Barwe on guitars and vocals
Johan Hallgren on vocals and guitar
Johan Skaneby on bass
Johan Wallin on drums

From 1990 to 1991 a new member would join the band, Stefan Hubner was to play drums while Johan Wallin would now play keyboards and guitar. Then in 1991 and forward Johan Skaneby was to leave the band and Stefan Andersson was to play bass. I wonder, what did they call each other, there being three Johans in the band?

I don’t know which came first, if the flexi or the 7″. Both date of 1989. I’ll guess the flexi and start from there. It was actually a shared flexi with 4 bands: William, Cod Lovers, Traste Lindéns Kvintett and J Hex and the Scarecrow. It came out accompanying the fifth Sound Affects magazine. The catalog number was SAE 007. Cod Lovers contributed the song “Autumn“. As you can see at this time the band was a bit darker.

Their first proper release was the aforementioned “Best Friend” 7″. It came out on Ceilidh Productions (catalog CEI 013) in 1989. Aside from the band members there are a few of other credits, the cover art was designed by Klas Ahlström and the photography was done by Mauri Joutsenvirta. The B side on the single was the brilliant “Bye Bye Pain.” The songs were recorded at Mistlur Studios in Stockholm by Micke Herrström. The single got rave reviews by Sound Affects and also by Nörrköpings Tidningar. Yes, the band hailed from the city of Nörrköping.

Norrköping is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm. The city has a population of 87,247 inhabitants in 2010, out of a municipal total of 130,050, making it Sweden’s tenth largest city and eighth largest municipality. The city is situated by the mouth of the river Motala ström, at Bråviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Water power from the Motala ström and the good harbour were factors that facilitated the rapid growth of this once industrial city, known for its textile industry. It has several nicknames such as: “Sweden’s Manchester”, “Peking” and “Surbullestan” (Surbulle [sour bun] was a local nickname for the textile workers, and stan is short for Staden, which means The City or The Town in Swedish).

“French Plums”, their debut album, came out in 1990. It had 10 songs, “Mary Gogo Round”, “Pretty Things:”, “She’s So Sad”, “Close 2 You”, “Bye Bye Pain”, “Best Friend”, “French Plums”, “Kill the Time”, “Yellow Pills” and “Love Across the Ocean”. It was recorded at Decibel Studio in Stockholm by Mickael Herrström except “She’s So Sad”, “Close 2 You” and “Kill the Time” which were recorded by Daniel Gese at KM Studio in Nörrköping. The art was done once again by Klas Ahlström. As I said the record was released on both CD and vinyl formats. The catalog was CEI 016.

“Kill the Time” 7″ was to be their last work on Ceilidh. This 7″ included also the song “Waiting for Love” on the B side. It was recorded by Daniel Gese and mixed by Mikael Herrström. It came out in 1991 and had the catalog number CEI 023.

This same year, 1991, the band was to contribute the song “Shatter the Harmony” on the free 7″ EP that came with the New Kind of Kick magazine (catalog KEX 002). Other bands to appear on this rare 7″ were my beloved Stormclouds, the great Send No Flowers and 23 Till.

In 1992 they were to sign with A West Side Fabrication and release their second and last album, “Pretty Things”. I haven’t heard much from this record, just the song “Lysergide” which is on Youtube. I feel at this point the band had changed a bit their sound and style, and even though it is fine, I prefer their jangly approach of their first album. Anyhow, I will also try to track this one. The album was released both as CD and vinyl LP and had the catalog number WE 032. It was recorded at KM Studios in Nörrköping. For this record they had the help of Sven Andersson on bongos, Calle Matsson on congas and Thomas Högfeldt on guitar. Some other credits include Sven-Eric Nilsson on the design of the sleeve, Robert Svensson and Johan Mentzer on photography and Stefan Pettersson as the engineer. The songs on the record were “Out For a Ride”, “Dreams are Dreams”, “Hey Little Sister”, “In Limbo”, “Electra Glide”, “Heart of Steel”, “Don’t Believe”, “Dead Horse”, “Lysergide”, “Glass Baby”, “Angel” and “Reminder”.

During their time the band participated in various compilations. “Bye Bye Pain” was to appear in 1990’s “The Swedish Stand 1990” on Sinderella (SIN 002) and 1997’s “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” (catalog CEI 039) compilation LPs. “In Limbo” appeared also on two compilations, “This is a West Side Fabrication” (catalog WeCD 030) in 1992 and “The 23 Enigma” released by Pioneer.

Another song that was to appear on two compilations was “Crossway” that appeared on “Högtalarterror -94″ on Backstage (BACK004) in 1994 and Series Two Compilation Vol 17” in 2009. Also we find the song “High” on the “We;re All Part of a Family” compilation CD on A West Side Fabrication that came out in 1994 (catalog WeCD 073), and “No Hesitation” and “Angel” on the compilation CD “Sista Slaget I Peking” that was released in 1992 by Studiefämjandet (catalog 1001).

Time to keep looking. I find a Myspace, and it doesn’t really work, it doesn’t stream the songs. It doesn’t matter. Then I find an entry for the album “French Plums” on the very good Wilfully Obscure blog. The post dates from 2010 and it seems he had access then to a working Myspace. That way he could salvage a small bio that used to be there: “The band formed in late –88 in Norrköping, a seaport city of Sweden, following a Christmas party gig at the Rockslottet, the leading local rock club at that time. The response was so overwhelming that the lads decided to go on with it. After a few more explosive gigs they soon gained the interest of their friend Ola Hermanson and his record label Ceilidh Productions. The single Best Friend was released, media coverage was soaring and the band played the Hultsfred festival in 1990. In the winter of that year, the album French Plums came out.”

I look into the band members in the website Popfakta. I see that Johan Hallgren was involved with other bands afterwards like Dogstew, Pain of Salvation and Arcana; Niklas Barwe with The Bukks, Plura Jonsson, Tenderbeat, Bloom, and Eve and the Last Waltz;, Johan Skaneby in Honeycave and Interstellar; and Johan Wallin in The Standards, Liverpool, Antique, EKO, 23 Till, The Boppers, The Confusions and more.

My next step is a Facebook page for the band Northern UpBeat. This band was founded in 2012 and it includes two ex-members of Cod Lovers:  Niklas Barwe and Johan Skaneby.

My last stop is the newspaper Folkbladet.se. The article dating from December 24 of 2003 tells me that there was a reunion gig by the Cod Lovers then. It also seems that for this occasion they put out a 100 copies of a limited EP that included the song “World Inside”. This article also mentions a couple of interesting tidbits like that the band played at Hultsfred festival, Latvia and even Spain. Also it tells a bit about their early years, that the band was formed as a joke, a hobby band, that they were just going to play one show in Christmas 1988 and suddenly they became a proper band.

I wonder where in Latvia and Spain they played. If they played other festivals. If there are unreleased songs. Why the change of styles? Did the band members continue making pop songs afterwards? It seems many went into darker sounds. It would be interesting to find out more about them. How was the scene of Nörrköping back then? Maybe some of you remember them? And if anyone have spare copies of the records that’d be nice too. If not, I’ll keep looking for that elusive “French Plums” CD. I’m sure I’ll find it.

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Listen
Cod Lovers – French Plums

Sometimes there are news that just get you off guard, they are so unexpected. And that’s what happened when I was to learn that a new Popfest is being organized these days, hoping to make its debut in April 2018. I am already very excited about it even though I don’t know who will play. The fact that the festival is going to happen in Germany is already a big bonus. Yes, I’m talking about Cologne Popfest who the last week unveiled their Facebook page. So far what’s been announced are the dates, the 20th and the 21st of April. It should be ok weather then in Cologne I suppose. I was once in Cologne, many many years ago. I visited the Cathedral of course and went to the Roman museum. I didn’t do much more. I liked what I saw though. It would be great to return. I love pop events in Germany, there’s always such a good energy, and a good vibe too, one of camaraderie. The festival at the moment is doing some promotion at Indietracks it seems, where they have some very nice designed flyers and posters. Hopefully I can get one somehow!

Continuing with unexpected news, there is a new The Siddeleys compilation coming up. Titled “Songs from the Sidings” this is a collection of demos by one of the best bands EVER that date from the period of 1985-1987. The record will be out on August 18th and will be released on vinyl and also on CD. Check out the very cool looking cover where Johnny Johnson just looks like the best indiepopstar EVER at the Firestation Facebook page.

Our friends from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have a new record out on September 1st. It will be titled “The Echo of Pleasure” and because of that they have just debuted a video for the song “When I Dance With You“. The video was shot in London after a breakfast in a Wetherspoons. What can be better than that? Well, the band is touring the US West Coast to keep promoting this new album. For me it has been a while since I saw them live. Next time they play NYC I will make my best to be there.

Also our friends from Murcia, The Yellow Melodies, have a new video out, this time for the song “Life“. The cool thing about this video is that it was all shot at Indietracks. If there was a way to make me feel nostalgic and all melancholic about not going to the festival, even if there were just a handful of good bands, was watching the video. Also don’t forget that the band released a USB digipack (not sure what this is!) titled “In Compilations 1997-2016” not so long ago. This is a compilation of 30 songs that appeared on various compilations, on various labels, between those years.

It seems there are mostly news of friends, Cloudberry-related bands this week, right? Well, here’s one more, this time from Japan.  Our very good friends from Caucus are going to release a new album this autumn. As we have seen in my previous paragraphs, what’s the best way to promote it? A video of course! So yes, Caucus have a new video for the song “Hello“. It is all DIY, we see the band in the recording process and having fun. It feels so long now since we hanged out in NYC when they played Popfest! I hope they come back soon (or I go visit Japan!). At the moment there are no other details about the album, but as soon as I know, I’ll share them with you all.

On the Bandcamp side of things I have noticed that classic band The Groove Farm has uploaded a whole lot of releases there and many of them are rare ones! First off there’s a live tape from “The Western Star Domino Club. February 1987” which was their 6th ever gig. Then we find another live gig, “April 12th 1989, The Garden Of Eden. Windsor“, and another, “Mobstar Pop Frenzy Weekend / Reunion 2001” when they reunited for one rehearsal and one gig. Then three live gigs recorded from the audience with a cassette walkman, “8th August 1987, The Tropic Club, Bristol“, “16th April 1987. Tropic Club, Bristol” and “26th October 1988, The Moon Club, Bristol“. But that’s not all, there is an expanded “Baby Blue Marine” flexi release. Remember that this favourite song appeared on a flexi that came with the Kvatch fanzine? Well, here there are 10 versions of the song, from rare recordings to live versions. And to close with all these rare Groove Farm songs their classic EP, “Sore Heads And Happy Hearts EP” is also streaming with four extra songs from rehearsal tapes and also live from Montpellier Hotel in December 1986. This is really a treasure trove and one can only thank the band for uploading all of this! I feel Bandcamp is the perfect place for these sort of ‘releases’, live and rare, while the proper ones should always be on physical formats.

And that’s it for this post. And you can’t complain, that’s 3 posts this week! I have at least 4 more indiepop news to share as I’m writing these lines, but definitely I’ll cover them on my next post! It is good to have news!! There’s been weeks when it was hard to find stuff to share with you all!

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Here’s a record I don’t own, one that is sadly missing from my collection. I hope to buy it soon, when it is on Discogs or on Ebay at a reasonable price. I’m talking about the sole release by The County Fathers, the 12″ maxi single “Lightheaded”.

From Discogs I learn some facts about this record. I must say I don’t know it that well. I’ve only heard one song, “You Think It’s So Funny”, and I think it is brilliant, it is catchy and the guitars chime and chime. What is there not to like? Even the vocals are great. I wonder if “Lightheaded” and “Deep South” are similar. I hope they are.

“Lightheaded” and “You Think It’s So Funny” appear on the A side, while “Deep South (long version)” is on the B side. The record came out in 1988 on the veritable Ugly Man Records (catalog UGLY 8T). The front sleeve is printed in black and white, the front cover has a photo of a baby who is being poured water on top. The back cover has three photos, small ones, for each member who are also being poured water. We get the band members names from there, Phil Walmsley on bass guitar, Mark Radcliffe on electric guitar, keyboards and drums and John Clayton on electric guitar.

The songs are credited to Mark Radcliffe and they were recorded by Nick Garside (who as of late played on the band The Distractions and who produced a bunch of classic records by The Waltones, The Man From Delmonte, The Singing Ringing Tree and more!) and produced by the band. The photography on the sleeve is credited to J.D. and Kevin Cummins. The design for the sleeve to The Great Big Co.

Of course it is easy to figure out things about Mark Radcliffe. Discogs has a small bio: “BBC Radio presenter. Radio 2 with Stuart Maconie as of 2009. As a musician, he is commonly credited as a drummer or percussionist. He was a member of Skrewdriver briefly before their transformation into a neo-Nazi band. As of 2007 plays in The Family Mahone, the Four Counts and The Big Figures a Doctor Feelgood tribute band.” If you want to read a longer bio, there’s of course Wikipedia. Plenty to know about him, but The County Fathers is not really mentioned. It is always about Skrewdriver (probably because of their later white-power affiliation), and the band Shirehorses, which was a parody band. Other band Mark has been involved is the Dr. Feelgood tribute band Mark Radcliffe & The Big Figures. To be honest, I haven’t heard any of the bands mentioned, but I doubt they are indiepop-sounding as The County Fathers.

From other articles, I found an interview with Phil Walmsley about his time at Skrewdriver. Was it in this band that Mark and Phil met? Not really. I actually find an article from The Lancashire Post where it says that “the pair met at Manchester University in the 1970s. Radcliffe says: “I was from Bolton and he was from Blackpool and we were both very into punk rock.”

Mark also wrote the autobiographical book, “Showbusiness: The Diary of a Rock N’ Roll Nobody”, where he retells his attempts at a career as a musician. I haven’t read the book, but I do wonder if The County Fathers are mentioned in it? He also published two other memoirs, “Thank You For the Days” in 2009 and “Reelin’ in the Years” in 2011. Were The County Fathers mentioned in them?

When it comes to indiepop it is important to mention that he contributed keyboards and produced some tracks for beloved The Desert Wolves.

Luckily to tell some of The County Fathers story there’s the blog “The Chronicle of An Ugly Man“. This blog, whose last update was in 2012, was run by Ugly Man’s founder Guy Lovelady. On it there are many stories involving the bands that were once part of his label. Happily there’s a post about The County Fathers and we get to learn a thing or two:

• John Clayton worked at the time in Manchester’s legendary Piccadilly Radio. He was originally from Lancaster.
• Phil “Whammo” Walmsley was a top architect.
• According to this blog post, Mark Radcliffe’s story and the context of The County Fathers is written in the “Showbusiness: The Diary of a Rock N’ Roll Nobody” book. I will have to get this book then.
• Mark Radcliffe at the time was working also at Piccadilly Radio and even gave The Man from Delmonte a Piccadilly session and booked Black for a pan European Broadcast from The Liverpool Playhouse.

Then Guy mentions that he has a copy of a CD that contains the anthology of The County Fathers recordings plus other quality outtakes from a subsequent pop combo St Cloud that Mark captained. I wonder about these songs. I would really, really, love to hear them. Also, why is this not anthology being released?? Someone know the answer? Anyone heard it?

Guy also shares his personal highlight with The County Fathers he says it “was the Ugly Man Christmas Party in 1988. The joint celebration was held with some local Manchester based fine artists, which sounds quite refined and exclusive but it wasn’t. The evening was opened by Inspiral Carpets, a then up and coming Oldham band, The County Fathers did a set and finally The Man from Delmonte wowed a packed green room. I remember the delight on Mark’s face that night getting to play a full set to a packed and excited audience. It was the stuff of legends.”

A lot of questions about this band definitely. To start why didn’t they release any other record? Why did they call it a day? How many unreleased songs did they record? What songs were on that anthology CD that Guy Lovelady mentions? Were the three of them on St Cloud? I could find some bands Mark and Phil were involved, but what about John Clayton?

Anyone out there remembers them? Maybe you saw them at a gig? Would love to know more. In the meantime, I will try to get myself a copy of the record and the book. I’ll do my homework.

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Listen
The County Fathers – You Think It’s So Funny

Remember I told you there were a lot of news as of late that I needed to share with you all? I think I have found some time to prepare yet another post, with obscure band research and all.

But first I wanted to tell you something that kept annoying me with my last post. Well, not with it exactly, but with the way I share it. I used to post the link on the Cloudberry Facebook page and from there I could edit the accompanying image as well as the headline and the description. That made it cleaner. For example I could just write “Esta Noche Tampoco” and not Cloudberry Cake Proselytism Archive – Esta Noche Tampoco. Longer and not convenient. Well, I can’t do that anymore. I first thought it was a bug but then I found out that Facebook has removed these options. They say it is because they want to stop people editing the news, this way they hope to stop “fake news”. I was shocked when I saw this. Seriously? This is the way to stop them? Anyhow… now I’ll be posting a photo post and will share it with the link to the post. Sadly there won’t be a small description available, so you’ll have to just click and read the whole post.

Now onto the news:

38 songs by The Orchids will appear on a 2CD compilation titled “Who Needs Tomorrow” this August. It will be released by Cherry Red (a label I don’t agree with, but I LOVE The Orchids), and will include liner notes by Orchids’ producer Ian Carmichael. Something that is very exciting about it is that one of the CDs is dedicated to rare and unreleased tracks. The whole thing includes demos, alternative acoustic versions, radio performances, flexi disc singles, a cover version, and an old EP favourite – Underneath The Window, Underneath The Sink – specially re-recorded just for this release. It does sound like something I want!

It seems there are news about Alvvays every week. Maybe that’s true. Maybe that’s their master plan to promote their new album that’s coming out soon. This week they uploaded to Youtube not a video, but the audio for the song “Dreams Tonite” and it sounds great! I hope/wish that in this new record they include the cover they do of “Alimony” by The Hummingbirds when they play live. Last week we saw the sad news that Simon Holmes of The Hummingbirds passed away, and I think, this would be a very nice gesture. I’m forever sad about this news of course, I hoped so much to see The Hummingbirds live, especially as I saw they were playing some gigs the past few years. That won’t happen of course. I love The Hummingbirds, their records, their music, their videos. What a band.

Our friend André Brorsson from Stars in Coma will be releasing a new album on August 25th and it will be titled “Escapist Partisans”. At the moment you can stream the first  and second singles of the album. “Chalet Saudade” is the first single and  André tells a bit of the story of the song, “The track starts out as a modern DIY disco song, with resentful lyrical lines about Trump, endless news flow and modern life. By the time we get to the chorus, the song transforms into a schlager-like anthem with chants about simpler times. As we all know, pure nostalgia offers no solution, prompting the character of the song to ‘drink myself to sleep’. However, by the end of the song, he decides it’s better to stay alive and ‘take it all in,’ even if the time he lives in only provide terror and gloominess.” If you have a listen, you’ll notice that is a very fine song! The second single is titled “Ten Years” and is also very nice, and André tells us about it as well,“A song in the genre I dubbed ’80’s sitcom pop’, mainly due to the heavy use of very direct and uplifting saxophone melodies. Also a homage to Bowie and his weird chord progressions. A song about looking forward and looking back but mostly staying the same personally.” Now, looking forward to listening to the rest of the songs on the album.

I have to say I was doubtful of Patience, the new project by Roxanne from Veronica Falls. It seems the same thing that happened to me with Veronica Falls has happened with Patience, meaning that at first I’m not convinced and then I start liking it very much. This means I already missed her first two singles because of that, and even though I don’t think they are as good as her last, “White of an Eye”, the completist in me will try to track them down. And that is going to be hard. Everything, even the new single which is slated to be released in September is already sold out! Tough luck! Hopefully I will be able to get a copy of “White of an Eye”, I think a store in the UK will be able to help me. The 7″ single is being released by Night School records and has on the B side the song “Blue Sparks” which isn’t available to listen. Right now I think the best place to preview this gem of a single is on Youtube as there’s a very cool video to promoting this brilliant 3rd single.

Some time ago I sent interview questions to Raintree County. They said they wanted to wait until some news were announced before sending me the answers. I don’t think it has been announced widely, but I saw on their Facebook page that a 3CD box set will be released soon by their old label, Native Records!

Lastly I want to recommend the new 4-song EP by Lima, Peru, band Submarino. “Transatlántico” is their newest release and I feel it is their best to date. The four songs, “Bicentenario”, “Política de Tierra Quemada”, “¿Qué Voy a Hacer Si Todo Arde?” and “Dominique Crenn”, are proper guitar pop songs, clearly influenced by Spanish pop bands like Los Planetas or even Los Punsetes. The band, which I think I haven’t recommended before, is Esteban Bertarelli’s vehicle to create popsongs with the help of many friends. I remember meeting Esteban more than a decade ago on Soulseek, when he was very young and making music in the vein of La Casa Azul in his native Piura, in the north of Peru. It is very interesting for me to see how his music and skills have evolved in this time, and I feel this is a very worthy release!

It seems more news were left out again! Well, well, they will need to wait until next week!

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Gijón, Asturias. Probably the first time I will dig deep into the history of a band from that city in the north of Spain. I have mentioned Los Bonsáis in the blog many times, but even they are from Asturias, they are from Llanes, a smaller town. Gijón is the big city in Asturias, the main cultural hub of the region. But it is not a contemporary story this one, it is one that has to go back to the 80s.

I discovered Esta Noche Tampoco not so long ago. I thought I knew all the worthy guitar pop bands from Spain by now. Seems I don’t. I actually discovered another one this week thanks to my friend Joel. This is exciting for sure, there is more and more music to discover. I feel that I saw someone post the song “Ingemar” on Facebook. I can’t recall who. Might have been Joel as well? Maybe. But it could have been any of my Spanish friends. I would love to give credit, but there’s a blank in my memory.

Esta Noche Tampoco, which roughly translates to Neither this Night, formed in 1985. The band lineup then was Eduardo Lamela on vocals and guitars, Ana Lamela, his sister, on vocals and keyboards, Quique on bass and Antonio “Toño” Peña on drums. Other musicians that were part of the band in these early years were the bassists Tino Acebal, José Andreu and Ruben Figaredo, the guitarists Jon Egurrola and Paco Martínez and the keyboardist Mento Hevia.

Much of the biographical information I’m going to share with you come from two sources. The first is the blog “80 Nuevaola” and the second is Wikipedia. On the blog it says that the band was born from the ashes of the band Kurins, a hard-rock band, that saw the light in 1985 when they discovered The Smiths. Because of this new style, Quique was to leave the band.

In May 1988 two songs (which songs??) were included in a tape compilation titled “¿Qué Hago Yo Aquí?” that was released by Fusión de Producciones. That same year the band release the tape “Saben como a Sal” also on the same label. This tape had Mento Hevia as the producer and José Andreu, who was now playing with the band Amateurs, as bassist. I couldn’t find a tracklist for this tape on the web.

The next year, 1989, the band was to release their first vinyl record, “Las Manos en el Agua” with Fusión de Producciones. I do wonder though about this, as on Discogs another label is listed, Mocambo (catalog 4M-009). Actually for all their releases appearing on Discogs it is Mocambo. On these biographical sites it is Fusión de Producciones. Was it a co-release? Was it the same label? I don’t know. I actually just ordered this 12″ and hopefully when the record arrives I could solve a mystery or two. Always tough to order records from Spain, shipping costs are very unfriendly, same as the ones we have here in the US I guess.

On the record three songs appear on the A side, “Ingemar”, “Nosotros y los Charcos” and “Ese Extraño Pez”. On the B side just two, “La Piel Igual de Canela” and “Un Gélido Juego”. To promote this 12″ the band released a 7″ (which is not listed on Discogs) that had “Ingemar” and on the flipside a cover of the House of Love’s “Hope”. That same year the band played in Niort, France, at the “L’Europe d’Art” festival, they were representing Gijón.

In 1990 the band released their first LP, “Bésame Mucho” (Mocambo 2M-015). The album has a bunch of very “indiepop-looking” photos that were taken by Ruben Figaredo (previously bassist of Raíl Real). The tracks on the album were, on the A side, “Baltasar”, “Deshazme”, “Algodones”, “Dos Secretos” and “Flores Rojas”, whereas on the B side we have “Carmen Esmeralda”, “Ese Extraño Pez”, “La Mentira y su Eco”, “You Were My Skin” and “Johny, Mi Rey”.

To promote the album the band releases “Johny, Mi Rey” as a single (Mocambo 3M-014). On the B side we find a cover of “Leaves Me Cold” by Lush.

The next year, 1991, they were to perform at the legendary TV show “El Salero”. There is actually footage of them playing the song “Algodones” on the TV show on Youtube. The Youtube user victorblancoarcas mentions that in 1988 he played a show with his band, opening for Esta Noche Tampoco, at the venue “Casa de los Patos” in Oviedo.

Thanks to all this the band wins the best demo category prize on the El Kastillo de las Lágrimas radio show from Madrid in 1992.

On Rateyourmusic I find a self-titled demo tape from 1992. There were 6 songs included, “Esos Ojos”, “Labios Son Labios”, “Como Decir Que No”, “Escuchandote”, “Enseñame un Juego” and “Clarisse”.

Their last release was to appear in 1993, “Ya No Eres Mágica” EP. This time the record came out on Noche Records (also unlisted on Discogs). It seems it didn’t do well and the band decided to split because of that.

In 2003 a double CD-R compilation was released by Sausalito. It was an anthology of the band’s music and it was titled “Nosotros y los Charcos 1989-1992”. I haven’t seen this record ever. I wish I could find myself a copy!

On Wikipedia it mentions that after the demise of the band they started a new one called “Corazón Loco” were the band fused latin and British sounds but they didn’t get much of a following.

Ana Lamela these days is actually a well-regarded writer of erotic poetry and young adult fiction.

So time to keep digging. I then find an article dating from not so long ago, May 10th of 2017 on the La Nueva España newspaper. The article is about Eduardo Lamela. He was going to play some shows in the venues Trisquel and Savoy and so there was some promotion here. On the article I learn that his sister and himself weren’t born in Asturias, but in Lugo, in Galicia. Also that he has played in the US, Mexico, Sweden, Canada, Chile and Germany. That he has lived in Cuba and Barcelona.

About Ana I also found that she has a cultural project called Musa Cafeína. It is a multidisciplinary project where they promote music, reading, performance and more.

What else can we find? Well there’s Soundcloud, and Eduardo has an account there. Uploaded are “Esos Ojos” and “Labios son Labios“. Eduardo says these songs are from their last release, I suppose the “Ya No Eres Mágica” EP. An interesting fact is that Eduardo lists this record as grunge, and that it was recorded at Paco Loco’s studios. There are also a bunch of songs by a band called Versus, I suppose another project of his.

There are also 7 songs to stream from their sole album. But more surprisingly I find on another Souncloud account a song from their 1992 demo that won them the prize at El Kastillo de las Lágrimas, “Más Que el Futuro“. It sounds great!!

I’m sure my Spanish friends might remember them, or might know what happened to the members afterwards. It seems Ana is the one that you might know best, but I wonder what happened to Antonio Peña? I couldn’t find any information about him. And what about that double CDR? I would love to find a copy as it includes a bunch of then-unreleased tracks. Whereabouts in Spain did they gig? Why aren’t they as famous as say Aventuras de Kirlian or other bands from the time? Why didn’t they release records in bigger labels? So many questions. The fact is that they left some fantastic songs, you might just fall in love immediately with the brilliant “Ingemar” now, just as I did some months ago. And yeah? Who is this “Ingemar”? Maybe Ingemar Johansson the Swedish boxer?

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Listen
Esta Noche Tampoco – Ingemar

There was a truckload of indiepop news the last week. Or maybe I was paying more attention to updates on Facebook? It is the only way to be on top of everything happening in indiepop world. Writing down every single piece of news because then I forget. In the past there was never anything centralized for getting our news, but at least there were a few blogs.  Today I feel we are really lost at sea.

I have enough for two blog posts. If I can’t do another one this week, then I’ll save some news for next week. So let’s start:

Some weeks ago I championed the first two demos that were uploaded to Brighton’s Jetstream Pony Soundcloud page. Last week they uploaded a third one titled “Self-Destruct Reality” and like the previous songs, it is brilliant. This song won’t appear on their forthcoming 7″, so I wonder where will these songs be released? They are wonderful. Perhaps they are preparing an album? Or maybe they need another label to offer another 7″?!

Another band I recommended not so long ago are Finland’s The New Tigers. I’m only discovering their music lately, I need to try to track down their releases. In the meantime though I’m delighted with their new video for the song “Chewing Gum” that was released last week. I’m sure you’ll all like it.

San Francisco band Scrabbel, featuring Dan Lee from The Aislers Set, released a very limited, 100 copies, 7″ on John Jervis label Wiaiwya not too long ago. On the record there are two songs, “All Night” and “Summer’s End”. The first one is much more upbeat, with shimmering guitars, while the latter is more of an introspective, elegant song. You can stream both songs and order the record from the label’s Bandcamp.

Kim Weldin, from South Carolina, has been releasing great records with her band Tape Waves (where she is a duo with Jared Weldin). I even met her briefly at a NYC Popfest, when they played. I wasn’t aware that she had a solo project called Shiny Times. It seems I found about it a bit late as on the Shiny Times Bandcamp there is even a release dating from 2014. The past week she uploaded a bunch of recordings, 11 in total, as a digital and CD release titled “Secret Memos.” From the Bandcamp you can stream these lo-fi bedroom pop recordings and also buy the limited CD.

Baby Arms, who I discovered through the wonderful CD16 on Impermeable Records, have just released a new song titled “Eviscerator” on Bandcamp. To celebrate the occasion J. Doveton (who also is part of Colour Me Wednesday), has put together a digital and CD release including this song plus all other released songs by Baby Arms. And that’s not all, on top of that, 7 more demos have been included. So in total you get 13 songs. Lo-fi pop, reminiscent of Rose Melberg, I may just need to order this CD pretty soon.

And what about the classic Irish band The Would Be’s? They are still going. The band who wrote the brilliant “Funny Ha Ha” or the classic “I’m Hardly Ever Wrong” has a new single out titled “Tempt Fate” and it is available as a video and also as a paid-download from Bandcamp.

Last tip for this week comes all the way from Melbourne, Australia. The fantastic band Milk Teddy, who I was introduced many years ago by Scott B. from the Summer Cats, have a new single and video out. They are at the moment promoting their new album, “Time Catches Up With Milk Teddy”, that is slated for August. So don’t wait longer and check out the fun video for “Sweets Bells Jangled“.

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The Relations – indie band from Perth. Perth in Scotland, not the one in Australia.

Perth is a city in central Scotland, located on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county of Perthshire. According to the preliminary 2011 census results Perth, including its immediate suburbs, has a population of 50,000. Perth has been known as The Fair City since the publication of the story Fair Maid of Perth by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott in 1828. During the later medieval period the city was also called St John’s Toun or Saint Johnstoun by its inhabitants in reference to the main church dedicated to St John the Baptist. This name is preserved by the city’s football team, St Johnstone F.C.

Wait, I had interviewed a Perth band back in the day, didn’t I? Yes, Sandy Fyfe’s band Greenheart. And actually on this interview he mentions The Relations. What did he say?

When I ask him about what other Perth bands of the late 80s did he like he says: “The Relations had gone baggy and were in the lower reaches of the UK singles chart”, and when I ask him about Greenheart’s reputation as enfants terribles he says: “I remember playing a gig supporting The Relations, who had been on television that week playing their baggy stuff. They were in the crowd as we played. I was introducing the fact that they would be playing after us, someone in the audience shouted something not too complimentary about them, and I retorted ‘clearly someone has seen them before’ and we launched into our next song. There was a wee bit of hassle after that between us, and recently I was discussing the Go-Betweens with Gerry, singer of The Relations, and he said to me, ‘it’s a shame we have spent 20 years disliking eachother as we actually love the same music’ We are now good buddies. That’s what is great about music – the friends you make.”

My introduction to the band was through their first single, “Big Mans Shoes”, that was released in 1986. Of course, I didn’t buy it then. I was way too young. I must have got it maybe 5 or 6 years ago. How did I find out about them? That I can’t remember really. The good thing, because I bough the record blindly, was that I really liked it!

The 7″ was released on Hush Records (catalog HUSH001) and I’m guessing it was a self-release, that the band was running Hush. To give support to this theory, the B side was titled “Hush Hush”.  The record was produced at Wilfs Planet, same place that The Wake’s “Harmony” was produced. The producer was C. Medley, the art for the single is credited to Kelly and the photos to L. McNamara.

That same year the band was to release their second single, “Brainwashed and Blowdried” / “Come Home (Tell Us Everything)”. This was HUSH 002. This single is not in my collection yet. On Discogs though there is a small scan of the back cover, and squinting my eyes I can figure out that The Relations were Gerry on vocals, Nelly on drums, Kelly on guitar and Vinnie on bass and that they were managed by Dave Winton.

But that wasn’t the end of the band. They were to release an album, titled “Patrick”, in 1989. This was released on Stairwell Recordings (WELLP 001) and again I would guess this was self-financed, but I don’t know as they already had set up Hush before, why create Stairwall, right? Maybe this time it was different people running the label? Or who knows?

The album included 10 songs, 5 on each side. None of the songs from the singles were to appear. The tracklist is as follows: “Right On Mother”, “If…”, “Who Do You Think You Thought You Were”, “I’m Killing You”, “Some Say Sorry”, “Dark Night Bright”, “Don’t Let Me Break Your Heart Again”, “The Girl Who Cried Forever”, “Holy Water”, “God Loves God”. I’m also still missing this album, but luckily on Discogs there is quite some information on it.

The album was recorded at Pier House Studios, a place The Shop Assistants and The Pastels used. We get the full names of the band members now too, Vincent Stewart on bass, Neil McCormick on drums, Kelly McCormick on guitar and vocals and Gerry Harper on vocals. For this record the design of the jacket is credited to Chromatone Design and the photos to Luke Hayes (from Revolving Pint Dream), people who were involved in some Creation releases like “Ivy Ivy Ivy” by Primal Scream or “She’s So Out of Touch” by Slaughter Joe.

What else do we know about them? Well something very important. The band recorded a Peel Session on April 15th 1986. I could find the four songs of the session on Youtube. Check them out, “Mr. Wonderful“, “Come Home“, “Holy Water” and “You Can Call Me Anything“. I notice a comment where it says that the band played many times in London.

These songs were uploaded to what seems is Vincent Stewart, the bassist, Youtube channel. No surprise then that there are more songs, mostly from the album, but also the singles. Perhaps the best discovery here is the track “You’re The Next Best Thing” which is an early track, dating from 1984, that was included in the compilation “Deadbeat 3”. This compilation doesn’t appear on Discogs.

I wonder then if they were on more compilations? What happened to them afterwards? From the Youtube account I would guess members went to be in bands like The Curtains, Clearwater Rhythm & Blues Band, Turkey Bones & The Wild Dogs or Rabid Punk Guitars.

Were they also involved in other jangly bands? Are there more early recordings? Are there more unreleased stuff? I would like to know more. Maybe some of you remember them? I couldn’t find much about their gigs either! And also, how come after recording a Peel Session they didn’t enjoy any success?!

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Listen
The Relations – Big Mans Shoes

 

Thanks so much to Russ Hunt and Nick Raybould for this brilliant interview! The Libertines were a Birmingham band in the mid/late 80s and released just one record, the “Smith is a Liar 12” and actually you can still get copies of it through Russ’ record store White Rabbit Records. I wrote a blog post about them some months ago trying to find out any information about this obscure band and I was lucky that both Russ and Nick got in touch! Even better they are also still in touch with each other and answered my questions together. Aside from the record they recorded more songs, some which I’ve heard, and I must tell you, it was really a shame they didn’t get to put out another record! Hope you enjoy the interview!

++ Hi Russ and Nick! Thanks a lot for being up for this interview. I hear Russ now runs a record store in Shrewsbury, care telling me a bit more about that? How long have you had the store? What’s the name? And what sort of music do you carry?

Nick: I’ll leave Russ to answer this one – but will add that I am an occasional patron, having bagged a few goodies on CD and vinyl. He’s also carrying the last release I did with my band Glowpeople.

Russ: The shop is called White Rabbit Records (http://whiterabbitrecords.co.uk) and is in the Market Hall in Shrewsbury. We stock mainly 2nd hand/used records and some CD’s with a very few new items, mainly by people I know and who want an outlet for their stuff. To be honest I stock anything that sells…you learn very quickly you’re running a business not building a record collection.

I’ve had the shop just over 18 months now. I was made redundant from a job I’d been in for 17 years and honestly couldn’t see myself going back into the regular world of work, the very thought of being interviewed by some hot shot graduate straight offof the HR course made me feel ill. I’ve spent years of my life in record shops all over the world and when the opportunity came up to buy this one (the owner was retiring) my wonderful wife Deb said “well if you don’t do it now, you never will”.

++ And what about you Nick? What are you up to these days?

Nick: I’m a graphic designer, in real life. In fact, that’s what I was doing back in my Libertines days. Sometimes I’d get in at 3am, from a long distance gig in say Newcastle – only to have to be in work for 9am, at the design studio!! Boy, I really don’t think i could do that kinda thing these days!!

++ When was the last time you picked up your instruments? Do you have any music projects at the moment?

Russ: I still play, very infrequently, in fact I’ve just put my guitar down as I’m trying to figure out some new songs for a gig myself and Sally, a good friend who sings with me, have coming up. We’re an acoustic duo doing other people’s songs for fun, all sorts of stuff from Chuck Berry thru Depeche Mode to The Decemberists.

Nick: Well, as mentioned in my previous answer, I am drumming once again. But, shortly after The Libertines disbanded I moved down to London and gave the drumming a bit of a rest. This haitus in fact lasted FOURTEEN years! It was on moving out to the more rural area of Shropshire that I began drumming once again. Various local bands came and went, until I formed Glowpeople. we were together for something like six years. We soon found ourselves playing the small festival scene in the UK, in which time we also released three albums on CD and, following our final appearance at Kozfest, last Summer released the live recording as a final sign off.

Since then I have been gigging and recording with a variety of UK psychedelic bands. Nothing like the larger capacity venues The Libertines played whilst touring with The Wonder Stuff, but hope springs eternal, eh? Glowpeople were usually somewhere down the bill, but we played with Gong, Jesus Jones, Hawkwind, Big Country, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Here & Now and a bunch of newer bands like Mugstar and Vibravoid.

I’m now playing with bands on the same kinda circuit again. Some of it is recording only – I’ve played with up and coming space rockers vert:x, with whom we appeared on lovely bright splattery orange vinyl for Dronerock Records. I’m also recording improvised music with the old keys player of Glowpeople and a variety of guest collaborators. I even had a jam in NYC with a fellow head, back in the Autumn! There’s talk of a session I recently did with Peyote Guru being released. I’m just not sure who’s actually putting that out, as I type!

My main current band are called Black Light Secret and this Summer we’re playing festivals like Surplus Fest and Green Gathering – and will be doing indoor gigs in Nottingham and Glastonbury among others.

++ Let’s go back in time then, what would you say are your earliest music memories? Like what sort of music did you listen at home while growing up? When and what was your first instrument?

Russ: Earliest musical memories would have been hearing The Move on the radio and then watching stuff on Top Of the Pops (a weekly UK TV pop show) and being captivated by the likes of Slade, T.Rex and eventually Wizzard among whose members was my Uncle Bill (he was the piano player and had been in the The Move during its final days and the early days of ELO).

My parents were big fans of Jazz and Swing music so in the house we heard everything from Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane to the big bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie plus the great singers like Sinatra and Streisand. They, of course, were fans of The Beatles and Dylan and Dad would venture into things such as Steve Wonder and Bob Marley.

I was obsessed with Slade until hearing “God Save The Queen” by the Sex Pistols at which point, much the same as for many others at that time, everything changed. After that it was Punk Rock…the whole Punk Rock and nothing but Punk Rock. My Dad being a musician (he played drums in bands that toured US Army bases in Europe during the 50’s and 60’s) and seeing my brother and I inspired/obsessed by Punk our parents bought me a guitar and a small amplifier at the same Xmas as they bought my brother Miles a snare drum. We would then happily wait until our parents went out before bashing thru raucous versions of TRB’s “Up Against The Wall” and Angelic Upstarts “Police Oppression”…I’m sure the neighbours loved us !

Nick: Well, I was the eldest member of The Libertines, so I’d seen bands like T.REX and Led Zeppelin! My tastes were continually moving, though. And still are! I think when I auditioned for Russ & Co. I was into Magazine, REM, The Damned, PIL, Motorhead, The Cure and such like.

++ Were you involved in any bands before The Libertines? I know Russ was in Pop Da Freak. How were these bands? Any similarities to The Libertines’ sound?

Russ: Following those TRB/Upstarts beginnings we worked our way through loose groupings with mates who had other instruments, memberships constantly changing until we fell into my first band which was called A Moment. Me and Miles found a guy who played bass and saxophone and made our first attempts at writing songs.

The first “real” band I was in was Pop Da Freak. We formed around 1983 and we dressed in leather and frills, wore make up and had vertical haircuts (well most of us did). We made a racket inspired by Joy Division, Magazine, Iggy Pop and the Velvet Underground (or so we thought) and you can hear an example of it here https://soundcloud.com/russh29/pop-da-freak-play-life-for …that’s a song I’m still very proud of having written

Nick: Most of my earliest bands were sort of hard rock things. I then had a flirtation with a Birmingham sub Duran Duran outfit called Camille (1982). There was some decent press in Midlands press and initially some minor record company interest. However, we were a bunch of narcissistic pretty boys who fell out! I wanted to get something together that didn’t slavishly follow trends though – and before long found myself in a kinda alternative postpunk outfit called Anonymous Bosch in 1985.

++ And when and how did The Libertines start as a band? How was the recruiting process? How did you all know each other?

Russ: The initial idea for The Libertines would have been born following the demise of Pop Da Freak around 1986. Details are a little hazy but as I recall I advertised for a guitarist to put something together inspired by Punk and The Clash/Pistols/Jam holy trinity. I hooked up with Mark Bellamy and we started working on some songs. Mark was a HUUUUUUGE Clash fan and also introduced me to the Screaming Blue Messiahs. I in turn would have introduced Mark to early Pop Will Eat Itself and things like The Mighty Lemon Drops and the Wild Flowers so that’s where our heads were at. I’m pretty sure the first song we wrote together was “Train Train”.

I’m guessing we advertised for a drummer and bass player when we had a few songs together and Nick and Paul Clifford were who we found ? (Help me out here Nick)

Nick: I lived in Redditch, a market town in Worcestershire, some twenty miles south of Birmingham, at the time. I was in Birmingham shopping one Saturday afternoon in 1987, where I saw an advert on a noticeboard in Oasis, the big Birmingham alternative fashion market. I was then invited along to audition at the High Society rehearsal studios. And… got the gig!

++ You were based in Birmingham, right? How was it back then? What were the bands in town that you liked? What were your usual hangouts? What were the best venues to check out bands?

Russ: Birmingham and The Midland’s live music scene was thriving in the early 80’s. Venues all over town, The Barrel Organ, The Railway Inn, Peacock’s, The C.O.D Club, The Click Club at Burberries, JB’s in Dudley…lots of places for bands to play.

The bands that I liked back then would be The Great Outdoors, From Eden (members of who went on to The Wonder Stuff and Pop Will Eat Itself), the Mighty Lemon Drops, The Wild Flowers, Korova Milk Bar, April In The Garden…lots of diverse stuff going on.

Nick: There used to be a good alternative club night at The Powerhouse. It was a midweek thing, so I didn’t go very often – but it was full of groovy muzos, all trying to out-pose each other! That venue put on some great bands, too.  Smaller venues about town like The Barrel Organ pub, and Peacocks bar – which was in a city centre hotel (!) and Snobs nightclub were all popular for bands like Russ’s Pop Da Freak and my own Anonymous Bosch.

++ Who would you say influenced your sound?

Nick: We all came to the band with our own set of favourite bands and musicians, but I think, as a band The Wonder Stuff were right up there. As were The Mission, That Petrol Emotion, Balaam & The Angel, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Screaming Blue Messiahs and The Replacements.

Russ: from my point of view undoubtedly The Jam and The Clash would be the main points of influence. But I’d also absorbed all that Glam Rock stuff from the 70’s and I hope there was a Punk Rock edge to it. I’d also been very into the 1979/80 Mod Revival in the UK so wanted to capture some of the energy of bands like Secret Affair and The Chords, great and very underrated bands.

Comtemporary stuff we were listening to and absorbing would have been the Screaming Blue Messiahs, The Rainmakers, Mighty Lemon Drops, That Petrol Emotion, the Icicle Works, REM, early Waterboys (first 3 albums), The Smithereens, Balaam & The Angel…it was a very fertile time for new music.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the band? And what do you feel about the other The Libertines, the ones that became mainstream and all more than a decade ago?

Russ: I recall it was Paul the bass player who came up with the name, that’s about as much as I remember.

As for the other lot…when they first broke I had a lot of people saying you should sue them but obviously we didn’t. I wish I had now as it may have gone toward shutting the annoying twat and his terrible band up ! (never been one to sit on the fence me)

Nick: I think Paul Clifford put the name forward. We all thought it was perfect!

The Carl Barat & Pete Doherty outfit are… hmmm… a bit of an Emperor’s new clothes thing, IMO. I dearly wanted to like them – and loose, lofi music is cool, but these guys are too affected and a bit fake.

++ How did the creative process work for the band?

Nick: Russ and Mark were the main song writers, though I do remember Paul coming along with a few grooves, too. ’Smith Is  A Liar’, as I remember it ,was mostly his.

Russ: Most of the time it was myself and Mark coming up with ideas. We would work on them together at home and usually present the band with pretty much an arranged song which we’d then hone in a rehearsal room.

Paul would contribute too, “Smith Is A Liar” being his big one (BTW Smith was Martyn “Mr” Smith, erstwhile Libertines roadie cos he had a van, which we’ll get to later, and friend of Paul’s. Mr Smith went on to perform the same kind of van driving services for Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and ended up working on the crew with me for The Wonder Stuff and later on Sparklehorse. It’s Mr Smith’s beaming smile on the cover of the record).

We were never really “jammers”.

++ Who were Loose Fish Records? Was it your own label?

Russ: It was us and was, I think, Nick’s idea for a label name.

Nick: One of the many interpretations of the word Libertine is “a loose fish”. We collectively stumped up the cash to get the record made. So sort of named the label after ourselves.

++ You released one record, the “Smith is a Liar” 12″ in 1987. You included 3 songs on it, “Smith is a Liar”, “Christina” and “The Big 1-2”. If you don’t mind, care telling me the story behind these songs?

Russ: “Smith Is A Liar” was inspired by our “roadie” Mr Smith who refused to admit he was in love with a girl but rather was “in like”; “Christina” was one of Mark’s songs and is effectively about his 1st wife who we all knew as Tina; “The Big 1-2” was possibly influenced by The Wonder Stuff’s “No For the 13th Time” I think we liked that drum pattern and wrote a song around it, no idea what the lyric is about; there was a 4th song on the 12” “Boring” which if you listen to the lyric is pretty self explanatory.

Nick: ’Smith Is A Liar’ came out in 1989, didn’t it? Our roadie, a good mate of Paul the bass player denied being in love with some girl he clearly had the hots for by saying he wasn’t in love with her, but “in like” – hence Paul turned up with the title and lyrics for that one – and took Smithy by surprise when he first heard it sung to a capacity audience at London Astoria!

++ You shared with me many more songs, many worth of a single. I wonder then why didn’t you get to release more records? I read that the song “Wolf!” was supposed to be the 2nd single.

Russ: We recorded ‘Wolf’ during the session where we did ’The Big 1 – 2’. It was debated whether we should perhaps include ‘Wolf’ on the Smith EP, but we agreed it would be best to hold something back, for a follow up.

++ You shared with me many more songs, many worth of a single. I wonder then why didn’t you get to release more records? I read that the song “Wolf!” was supposed to be the 2nd single.

Russ: “Wolf!” was due to be on the 12” but we held it back to use as a 2nd release…and then the bloody singer up and left the band to go off on tour with some band signed to a major label, bloody inconsiderate prima donna !!!

++ Where do those other 9 songs come from? Are they from the same recording session for the 12″?

Russ: We did 2 or 3 other sessions and the other songs come from those sessions. I probably have the dates somewhere but they would all have been through 1987/88.

Nick: We did… I think, three recording sessions. The first was just a few weeks after I’d joined. We recorded four songs; ’Train Train’, ‘Catherine Wheel’, ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Tea’ and ‘How Are You?’ That would’ve been late Summer 1987. And, if memory serves the week after the first gig. The next session saw us record ‘Safe As Houses’, ‘Lightening Tree’, ‘Boring’ and Some Kinda Happy. These were all songs from our live set. Nothing was written as we recorded, as we could barely afford to be there, let alone be able to relax and try totally new stuff out. That said, when Miles was with us he got us experimenting with additional guitar parts, backing vocals and overdubbing bits of percussion.

i recently found the reel to reel masters of a couple of sessions in a box in our roofspace!!

++ And what do you remember about the recording session at The Workshop studio for the record? Any anecdotes you could share?

Nick: I seem to remember a replica revolver loaded with a single blank being passed around for a game of Redditch roulette! It didn’t really go down well.

Russ: I have a terrible memory for details like that. The Workshop was quite small, underground (?) or at least it felt like it. Dave Morris the owner (who sadly passed away recently) had a blue Rickenbacker 330 12-string under the sofa in the control room which I was very covetous of, it may have made an appearance on “Smith…”

++ Who made the art for the 12″ by the way?

Russ: Over to Nick…

Nick: That was me. The face is a shot I took of Smithy, our driver and hapless roadie. The title song is based on his phrase.

++ On my previous post about you I was wondering about the runoff etchings, “The Triman Cometh” on the A side, while on the B side it says “If You Can’d Do it Just Triman”. What does Triman means?

Russ: I was struggling to remember this when a friend posted something on Facebook over the weekend that triggered the memory…Mr Smith was our “roadie” because he had access to a van. The van was owned by his employers, Triman Services Ltd, who were in the business of “Design and installation of Mechanical Service systems (Gas, Oil, Water etc.) and F.O.C and F.M approved fire protection systems”. I think Mr Smith’s dad owned the company and the run out messages were our little tribute to Triman Services for use of the van….or something like that…

Nick: Smithy used to borrow a Transit van from a firm his father worked for. the company who specialised in fire assessments of buildings were called Triman and had their logo on the van! That’s it! Just a silly private joke, I’m afraid. Folks soon knew who the Wonder Stuff’s support band would be that night, when they clocked his van parked at the back of the venue!

++ You gigged all over supporting The Wonder Stuff. How was that relationship with them? And what were your favourite moments on those tours and why?

Russ: Whisper it quietly but Wonder Stuff main man Miles Hunt is my younger brother, so the relationship with them was pretty good. They looked after us, as they did all their support acts, and we got to play some big shows thanx to them.

I don’t have many favourite moments as I was so busy on those shows. I was working on the Wonder Stuff’s backline crew so spending all day getting their show ready, then, when I would usually have a few hours of downtime I was into a Libertines set up and soundcheck, doing the gig and then going straight back into Wonder Stuff mode for their show.

Nick: They were all a lovely, generous bunch of guys. Straight up. Their manager Les was a good laugh, too. We travelled separately, turning up after they’d already sound checked, most of the time. Russ, of course was part of their crew for the later gigs, so we often didn’t even see hime tie it was time for us to get our gear onstage.

++ You also played gigs with Jesus Jones in London. What other bands do you remember playing with? And which were your favourite cities to play?

Russ: The Jones’ and us shared the bill a few times on Wonder Stuff shows. I’m still in touch with them all these days and they have just finished a UK tour. I hope I’ll bump into them at the Shiiiine On Festival in November this year. Good bunch of chaps they are.

Other bands we played with included The Parachute Men from Leeds and I remember being utterly blown away when we opened for Mega City 4, they were phenomenal and I’m still friends with their bass player Gerry Bryant.

Favourite cities to play were always up North, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Glasgow. There’s no pretention up there, people just want a good night out and boy do they know how to do that. They also give a lot back to the band and if you’ve ever been up there in front of a “cool” London audience you appreciate that.

Nick: Jesus Jones were a very exciting indie band who, like Pop Will Eat Itself, brought in emerging technology in the form of live samplers. Sampling wasn’t new at that time but had chiefly been used in the studio only, owing to the value of equipment. We only encountered them when we were both on the support bill for The Wonder Stuff’s Newcastle gig on the ‘Disco King’ tour. I have since shared a bill with them and Russ, in his capacity of guitar tech for the Stuffies, has worked on many a show with them.

++ I read that you preferred going by the name Russ Williams instead of Russ Hunt. Why did you make that decision? And why Williams?

Nick: That’s a question for Russ, really. I think it was to try and deflect Miles Hunt associations, if we got any press. Which we didn’t.

Russ: I was quite a prominent member of The Wonder Stuff’s crew at the time and knew many of the journalists that were active at the time. I chose to use WIlliams on the record so as not to be accused of riding on Miles’ coattails….looking back on it, probably a really stupid idea ! We really should have milked that one for all it was worth (see question below).

And why Williams ? It’s my middle name, Russell WIlliam Hunt…

++ Did you get much attention from the press? Or radio?

Russ: Mainly local Birmingham radio and press. I had no idea John Peel had played our record until Nick mentioned it recently !

Nick: I understand BBC Radio legend John Peel played us twice! There were also indie rock programmes on local BBC stations and Birmingham’s own BRMB commercial station. Very little press for us, sadly. I think our name was mentioned occasionally, when NME or Sounds were reviewing a gig we’d supported at.

++ At that time in the 80s there was an explosion of guitar pop bands. Did you feel part of a scene? Do you mind being defined as a C86 band?

Russ: I think we felt more a part of the Midlands scene, that group of bands like TWS, PWEI, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and that spread and encompassed others from around the country like Jesus Jones and Mega City 4.

I think the C86 thing was more of a music press created label that made it easy to hang bands on a certain hook. I certainly never though of us as a C86 band.

Nick: I don’t think we felt a part of anything, really. We all had day jobs or in Paul’s case a university course to head home for. The post-gig parties passed me by, at any rate. A lot of opportunities were being squandered.

++ When and why did the band split?

Nick: Again, this is a Russ question. But we’d paid our money and had submitted master tapes and artwork for that 12 inch, when he phoned Mark Bellamy from a call box on some tour with Wolfsbane. He just become a father and was struggling to knit all the elements of his life together. So, the three remaining Libertines, Paul Clifford, mark Bellamy and myself tried to salvage something, just to try and promote this pile of records we found ourselves stuck with. But it wasn’t to be. Paul had to commit to his degree course, so he disappeared soon after. He never did finish that degree of course – as The Wonder Stuff recruited him shortly after.

Russ: I ran off to join the circus…I mean work full time for the Wonder Stuff…although the circus wouldn’t be a bad analogy ! Deb and I had had our son James and I needed regular money to support a family. The Stuffies were offering me a lot of that and I had to commit or miss out.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The Libertines?

Russ: releasing the record. It’s the one thing I’d always wanted to do, release a record that I was a part of and I did it.

Nick: I was playing in front of big appreciative audiences. that was a very good feeling. I’ve largely blocked out the humping of drums up three flights of stairs to my flat at 3am. My favourite gig was possibly Keele University, in Staffordshire in 1988. Brunel University on the same tour was also a blast – But going onstage at legendary Marquee Club… well, that takes some beating.

++ And if you were to pick a song of yours as your favourite, which one will it be and why?

Nick: There was a lovely downtempo song called ’Some Kinda Happy’. For me, it showed Russ’s voice up for the wonderful range he had. We played it at the Marquee, on Charring Cross Road and the stage was bathed in an eerie blue light… and everything was just perfect.

Russ: Nick will likely slap his forehead and shout “D’OH!” in frustration…but “Wolf!”…it rocks, it rolls, it swings and to this day I’m immensely proud of it.

++ Are you still part of the backline of The Wonder Stuff? How do you enjoy that?

Nick: Russ?

For years after I used to get guest passes to see them at Reading festival or the big London venues, so would catch up with the old times. But that was a previous life.

Russ: I am, in fact we just did 3 shows this past weekend. I do enjoy it but as I get older it gets tougher.

They are a bloody great live band so it’s a pleasure to be around them seeing them do their thing. As an addendum to why the Libertines split I’ve seen at first hand, being around the Wonder Stuff, what it takes to achieve the levels of success they have. It takes a focus and a drive and a sheer bloody minded force of will that I just don’t have, Miles must have inherited that trait in full. I’m not sure I could have done it.

++ And aside from music, do you have any other hobbies?

Russ: most people would say owning a record shop is a glorified hobby and doesn’t count as a job 😉 I also have 2 dogs (Whippets) who keep me pretty busy the rest of the time. And I do like a pint or several of real ale, fortunately the dogs like visiting the pub too 😉

Nick: I paint. Abstract canvases, mainly – but also more representational life drawing. It’s all online, if you know where to look. Oh blow it, here’s a link: Abstracts: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kidcalamity/albums/72157625756609731

Life Drawing: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kidcalamity/albums/72157625734263647

++ Nick, are you still in Birmingham or did you also move? Do you go back often Russ? Has Birmingham changed much since those days?

Nick: I never actually lived in Birmingham. I was in Redditch, a town some twenty miles south. I’ve since lived in Wolverhampton and London, before moving back up to the Midlands.

The Birmingham of the late 80s has all but disappeared. I was standing on the canal bridge we posed for photos on, a few months ago. In those days is was surrounded by deserted and dilapidated warehouses. These days it’s in the heart of Brindley Place, a thriving area of bistro bars, restaurants, the huge Barclaycard Arena, the Symphony Hall and Ikon Gallery. A revived and buzzing area!

My wife and I moved out to Shropshire, near the Welsh border in about 1995, after a long spell in north London. We were both employed by a design agency out here and have since set up our own

Russ: Nick’s out here in Shropshire. My wife and I moved to Telford in Shropshire 12 years ago expressly to get out of Birmingham. It’s 12 miles from Shrewsbury, a “new town” from the 1960’s but 5 minutes drive and you’re in the beautiful Shropshire countryside. I go back to Birmingham as little as possible, very occasionally to see my mother-in-law who still lives there. I was in the city in December with the Wonder Stuff and it’s changed so much it doesn’t feel like my hometown any more. I think I’m done with the big city, my ambitions are focussed on the Shropshire Hills and maybe, eventually the coast.

++ Tell me a bit about Shrewsbury then, never been there, what are the traditional things to see, eat or do?

Nick: Shrewsbury is very nice. It’s relatively unspoilt my modern development and even has cobbled pavements in the more quaint town centre! A couple of really on the ball promoters are currently trying to establish a little alternative scene, attracting psych bands to play a new theatre venue. But, as ever rubbish tribute bands seem to attract the larger audiences so get the gigs over the more creative bands.

Russ is out in Telford a more modern ‘new town’. I rarely venture over that way, except to rehearse and record with my own projects.

Strangely, we’ve not actually been tempted to arrange a reunion. Hmmm…

Russ: Shrewsbury is a beautiful old Medieval market town contained in a loop in the River Severn in Shropshire for which it is the county town. It has a castle, remains of Medieval town walls, fabulous independent retailers, a lively live music scene and a great theatre.

Shropshire is a large county in the west of England that butts up against the Welsh border, a mainly rural county with some of the most beautiful scenery you’ll encounter. But SHHHHHHHH, you can come visit but we don’t want the whole place overrun with tourists :-0

There’s an old saying back in Birmingham that “relocating to Shropshire is the end of all ambition” and I would guess Nick would agree with me when I say I have no real want to leave the ‘shire just yet 😉

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Listen
The Libertines – Wolf!

New week and now my 2nd week at my new job. I keep readjusting, and it is clear I need to learn some new things. To start, I need to learn how to do D3. I’ve never really got into it, I kept creating visuals and interactives without it, but now I see I must learn it. Need to be on the same page with my peers. When I started at my previous job I had to learn some Underscore just when I started and a charting library called Amcharts. I think I was really scared then, my background was never of a programmer, it was of a designer. But I manage to learn enough to get away with it and had a fine time, even winning some awards. Now I feel I’m at a similar crossroads, today confronting a new library and having to deal with that uncomfortable thing that is the Terminal. I hope I manage, I hope I like it. It is going to be interesting the next few months. To start I’ve bought some books, see if I can be disciplined enough again, at 33, to learn new things and not just be comfortable and lazy.

The good thing is that I’m working at my own pace while the department is being built. I’m the first hire. That gives me some time to work on my own stuff, meaning Cloudberry mostly. I’m writing these lines on a Sunday night while I wait for the footie highlights show, but I’m pretty sure much of this post will be written tomorrow, on Monday. This weekend was mostly about house chores, but I put together a new offer on the Cloudberry website that might interesting for many of you. As part of the 10th anniversary I’ve been trying to get some more affordable prices for you all. I do lose a bit of money on it, but I want to find a good home for these records and at the same time make some space at my place (which will start looking like a hoarder’s apartment!) for the new releases. This time around it is a Sweden only pack. That means there are 5 records by 5 bands from Sweden available to you all just for a month, until August 15th. This pack’s price is $25 for US orders and $50 for international orders. Both prices include shipping and handling. The pack includes the Fibi Frap CD, Hari and Aino, Bonne Idée, A Smile and a Ribbon and Youngfuck 7″s. Hope you take advantage of it!

What is new in the indiepop world now? Not sure if I’ve done well my homework this week but I did write down some cool stuff.

Let’s start by what most people are aware now, what most people raved about. That is that Alvvays have released the video for the brilliant “Undertow“, the song that is the first single of their “Antisocialites” album out on September 8th. I’ve already recommended this song when it was just an audio-only video on Youtube. Now there’s a video and it is very cool too. When I think of Alvvays I have to go back many years, when RJ from Lost Tapes came to New York telling me he had a crush, that there was this amazing band he had just seen. There was no online presence of them online. There was just some live video on Youtube. That was it. Months after the band was signing with a sort of big indie label and becoming darlings of the hipster-crowd. They were destined to this probably. I still haven’t seen them live, and I will try to fix that later this year, if their NYC shows don’t sell out.

Another band I’ve recommended on the blog is Houston’s Astragal. I checked them out after they appeared on the CD16 album that Impermeable Records put out. Now I noticed on their Bandcamp that they have 3 songs on a split tape on Miss Champagne Records. The band they share the split is also from Houston and are called Donna Heyward. I listened to them but it wasn’t my stuff. I’ll stick to Astragal’s side, and even though I’m not into tapes I (and you) can stream their 3 songs on Bandcamp. “Brightfellow”, “Miles” and “Crescent” are pretty dreampoppish jangly pieces. I especially like the last song the best, “Crescent”.

Ali, Chris and Brian from Richmond, Virginia, are Big Baby. I notice on their Facebook page that I already have friends following them. Well, I only just discovered them on Bandcamp. They sound classic, like they would fit in the Pop American Style compilation, no problem. They have a new tape coming out soon (oh dear, what’s with this tape fad? bring back CDRs! It is a pain for me to play tapes!), I suppose self-released. At the moment you can stream on Bandcamp all the songs that will be included in this EP titled “Sour Patch” which are 5: “Not That”, “Lemons”, Everybody”, “Rubber Tree” and “Often”. Again for some reason, I like their last song, “Often”, the best.

Months ago, or was it longer than that?, I was championing the return of Galaxy Train Records from Japan. Their latest offering is a 3 song tape (okay, I’m going to go out to protest on the streets!) by Japanese band Smokebees. The “Sunstroke EP” is a sweet lo-fi bedroom recording. The songs are “Begin Again”, “Lights of Home” (this one being my favourite) and a cover of Gavin Bryars’ (I don’t know who he is) “Jesus Blood Has Never Failed Me Yet”. You can stream it at the label’s Bandcamp.

One record that kind of slipped from my was the pretty pretty 5-song EP CD by Cattle on Jigsaw Records. I’m only listening to it now on the Seattle’s label Bandcamp and I’m kind of annoyed with myself for not having heard it before. Cattle is a Tokyo band who released their first EP also with Jigsaw some years ago. That means, I need to catch up, TWICE. On this new offering there’s even a cover of Ride’s “Twisterella”. What else could you ask? You get here honey sweet vocals, poppy melodies and electric guitars. This EP is titled “Slow Sailor” and even has a very cute illustration of a sailor on the artwork. “Sherbet”, “Dear Heart” (my favourite one), “Twisterella”, “Within Your Reach” and “Slow Sailor” are the tracks on this very good second release.

There’s even more new music on Bandcamp worth mentioning. Remember a long time ago I wrote and then interviewed a C86 sounding short-lived band from New Zealand called The Perfect Garden? Now they’ve set up a Bandcamp though at the moment there are only previews, short snippets, of their songs. In any case this is not to be missed by any indiepop lover, especially when the full songs are available as these are quality songs, and you’ll be wondering why the hell they were never properly released.

A few days ago I got a message from Phil Wilson. No, not the June Brides’ Phil Wilson, but Phil from The Raft, a band from Neston in the UK. So I duly checked his Bandcamp where his latest EP is available for streaming. Titled “Coming Up For Air“, the EP has four guitar-driven songs, “Glad I Don’t Know”, “Coming Up for Air”, “Anarchy on Our Guitars” and “Regrets”. It is a dreamy EP, with lovely guitar work, especially on the first song, “Glad I Don’t Know”, which is my favourite. Surprised I never heard about The Raft, they seem to have releases dating all the way back to 2003. I think I will have to explore their digital discography then.

And lastly, come on, this week has had a lot of recommendations, is Peru’s Almirante Ackbar who are releasing their first album on Faro Discos. You can order the CD album (which I already did) and stream it on their Bandcamp. Titled “Sonidos Ultrasónicos y Audibles Para Callar al Perro del Vecino”, which roughly translates as ultrasonic and audible sounds to shut up your neighbor’s dog, has 13 fun songs. A few weeks back I recommended their new videos for the songs “Alquimia Espiritual” and “Fiebre de la Amplitud”. Now they release an album. It seems the Lima guys are working hard, and that can only be a good thing. The album is thoroughly enjoyable!

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Remember last week? I was writing about The Friendly Fires, a Crawley band, and mentioned that I should actually dedicate a post to another Crawley band: Bobby Scarlet. I though why not do it this week? Why wait? I already owned their 7″ and was missing their 12″, so I also ordered it today. Let’s see what there’s to find about them on the web.

As it is becoming usual my first stop is Discogs. There I find just one line on the bio field: “1980s indie rock band from Crawley, West Sussex, England. The core of the band became Spitfire.” It also lists one member, Chris Window.

I actually discovered this band through the 1991 compilation “La-Di-Da… So Far…”  (La-Di-Da 018). On it the band appeared contributing the song “White Pearl” and I was immediately hooked!

I then decided to check out their back catalogue. I think I didn’t buy their 12″ because of expensive postage prices but I did get their first release, their “Mosquito” 7″.

This record was released on the same label, Deadbug Records, I was talking about last week when I wrote about The Friendly Fires. I feel, I’m guessing too, that there was a healthy scene in Crawley, were all the bands helped each other and even shared members. “Mosquito”, with “Peach” on the B side, came out in 1986 and got the Deadbug 003 catalog number. On the cover we see a black and white photo of a kid, probably at the beach, might it be one of the band members? On the back cover there’s a smaller photo of some sand castles. First thing I start wondering is why the name Bobby Scarlet? Was there a real Bobby Scarlet? On the back I notice that the band thanks Brian and The F.Fs. Pretty sure that The F.Fs are The Friendly Fires. Brian? Could it be Brian Hope, the vocalist and keyboardist of The Friendly Fires? The last bit of information comes from the labels. Two last names appear, Pritcher and Smith.

Their next and last release was to be out in 1988. It was the “White Pearl” 12″ on La-Di-Da Records out of Brighton. This is a label I’ve mentioned so many times as they released a bunch of fantastic records. I’ve been in touch with Grant Lyons who ran it, but sadly never got to get his interview answers. In any case many times he has been helpful giving me some information about many bands on the blog. This 12″ had 4 songs, on the A side there was “White Pearl” and “Mosquito” (a new version?) while on the B side there was “Jessica Jayne” and “I’ve Been Insulted By More Texans Than Anyone Else In The World”. This was actually the second release on La-Di-Da getting the catalog number La-Di-Da 002.

As I said I just ordered this record. It says it comes with a photo insert. Sadly I can’t find online any scan or photo of the back cover. Don’t know what sort of information is available there. As soon as I receive my copy I will update this post unless the band gets in touch with me before that. Yes, I’m hoping that.

Bobby Scarlet appeared at least on two other compilations. In 1988 they appeared on the legendary “Hoopla” tape contributing the song “260p”. This is a brilliant compilation that if you haven’t checked out try finding it as you will be on a treat. Interesting enough, the band wasn’t to appear on the Hoopla reissue on Accident Records, I suppose because the masters for this song were lost.

The next year, in 1989, they contributed the song “Steppenwolf” to another classic compilation, “Something’s Burning in Paradise Again”. This compilation was celebrated by the Something’s Burning in Paradise fanzine as the “greatest compilation tape you’re EVER likely to hear”. On the fanzine there was information about each of the bands, and in the case of Bobby Scarlet it says that by that time they had already changed names to Spitfire. There is only one name mentioned, Joseph. Now we need to find his last name.

Last week I linked to the Crawley Observer as there were mentions of The Friendly Fires when they were going to play a reunion to raise money for St. Catherine’s Hospice in 2012. Bobby Scarlet (and Spitfire) also played this gig. On the article there’s more mentions to Spitfire than Bobby Scarlet but as they are both related bands I think it could be interesting to you all:

This was soon followed by another Deadbug double-A side 7-inch release, Mosquito/Peach, by new to the scene, ‘60’s influenced five-piece Bobby Scarlet in early ‘87. Subsequently, both bands released a 12-inch single – The Friendly Fires’ I Said To Him and Bobby Scarlet’s White Pearl. Friendly Fires and Bobby Scarlet found themselves supporting many established independent bands of the day at venues around the south east, but, unfortunately by 1988 both groups had spilt. The Eighties story ends with garage rockers Spitfire, formed from the ashes of Bobby Scarlet in late 1989. Spitfire, all ex-Thomas Bennett pupils, soon found themselves signed to a London-based independent record company. Within six months they had acquired an NME single of the week. A national tour with a fresh from Top of the Pops Blur and John Peel sessions followed. 1992 saw a Reading Festival appearance and a number one independent single with the EP Wild Sunshine, Spitfire can also count Pulp and The Verve amongst an illustrious line-up of bands that supported them. Spitfire called it a day in early 1994 after releasing two albums and seven Eps

I found a website now where I could see the band members in Spitfire. Here I see that it was formed by Jeff Pritcher, his brother Nick, Steve White, Scott Kenny and Matt Wise. Okay, so the Pritcher on the Mosquito labels must have been Jeff or Nick. But that’s not all, luckily there are more mentions about Bobby Scarlet on here:
…Bobby Scarlet, which featured Jeff and Nick, as well as Steve Walker and Darren on guitars, and Chris Window(s) formerly of Creation hopefuls Blow uUp on drums. Bobby Scarlet released 2 singles, first Peaches / Mosquito on the Crawley label Deadbug run by another Crawley band, Friendly Fires and a 4 track 12” released on the Brighton label La-Di-Da Jeff, Nick and Steve Walker were definitely around for the first 2 singles, and Scott Kenny was definitely on the second.

So we got the band members now! Even that Chris Window used to be in Blow Up.

Next and last stop then will be the Bobby Scarlet Youtube account that I explored last week for The Friendly Fires rare tracks.

The first rare recording I find is “Kiss Me” at the 1987 Turn Me Up Christmas Party. At this gig the band played with The Grooveyard and The Wedding Present at The Pavilion in Brighton.

Then there’s the 1988 demos “Feverish” and “Strawhead” where the band sounds a bit rougher. And lastly a “260p” demo from 1988 if you can’t find a Hoopla copy (or Mp3s).

The last thing I could find was a flyer for a gig that was happening on March 3rd 1988 at the LCF Auditorium. Wonder where that is/was?

And that’s about all I could find for Bobby Scarlet. There’s definitely much more about Spitfire, but I wanted to concentrate on Bobby Scarlet, as it was a proper indiepop band during the best years of indiepop. I wonder if they recorded any more songs, if they left many unreleased tracks. Whereabouts did they gig? Anyone out there remembers them?

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Listen
Bobby Scarlet – White Pearl

I have been out of the loop for the past few days. I haven’t had the time to find out new music, and even less time to listen to the records that I’ve bought and keep piling by my computer. Now I go to work earlier, around 3 hours earlier. The mornings are not to my disposal anymore and so I need to readapt, reorganize myself. And I think that takes time. I need to find time a comfortable time to play music at time, I can’t do it too early or too late. I could try to play CDs while I work, that’s an idea. Sadly the computers at work don’t have a CD drive. I may need to bring a USB one and install Last.fm, as I like keeping track of what I’ve listened. Many new things, routines that are no more and routines that will be created in the next few months.

I guess the only piece of news that caught my attention was the announcement the Chickfactor fanzine made on their website and social networks. Chickfactor is celebrating their 25th anniversary with events in Portland (sometime in late October), in New York (sometime in early November) and in London (the only one confirmed, for the 11th and the 12th of November at The Lexington).

The party starts early, there’s an all-ages shindig at 12:30 pm on Saturday 11th at The Lexington. This seems to be co-organized with the always classy Hangover Lounge. There are two bands playing this smaller event: Wait What and The Numberz. On the website it says more young bands will be added and also some special guests. On the WeGotTickets website, where you can buy tickets for the event another band is listed, Ivy & Friends.  I couldn’t find a Bandcamp or Soundcloud for either The Numberz or Ivy & Friends. I remember that The Numberz played Indietracks some years ago when both of the members were 10 years each! So young! For Wait What I couldn’t find any of those music sites but there is a video for their song “Tune Me Up” on Youtube. On that same account they have more lo-fi videos. It is nice acoustic pop and they are really young as well!

Later that day, doors opening at 7:30, there are 4 bands to play the same venue. There’s The Pastels, Lois, Kicking Giant and Kites at Night. I’m not familiar with the last two, so I did a little investigation. So Kicking Giant are Tae Won Yu & Rachel Carns from New York. I’ve never seen them before. I don’t think I was ever aware of this band in NY. Maybe they don’t play live much? This Chickfactor show will be their first in the UK and this year they will get a reissue LP for their early work. This LP is coming out on Drawing Room Records and it is titled “Ballad of Kicking Giant, Halo: NYC/Olympia 1989-1993”. So I check their Bandcamp and I notice they used to be on K Records. The first song that plays is “Alien I.D.” and I’m not a fan because it is noisy and shouty, so I decide to play the next song, and it is in the same vein. OK, perhaps this band is not for me.

Kites at Night are Rose Melberg and Jon Manning. For this show Jen Sbragia (the other half of The Softies) will join them on bass. Rose and Jon had been involved with another band called Imaginary Pants. I actually have their 2013 self-titled 7″ that has a cool bear illustration on the cover. It is a very good record I think. On this same Bandcamp account they have the Kites at Night sole release to date, a cassette with 5 songs. The first edition sold out, nowadays the band is selling a second edition clear red cassette tape with hand stamped labels. This EP was actually released in 2014! Where was I then? Why is it now the first time I hear these beautiful songs. Shame it is only available on tape, I’m not a fan as you know.  But this Lost Sound Tapes release sounds fantastic to my ears.

The next day, November 12th, with the same schedule, doors at 7:30 and show at 8:00pm, 4 more bands will play The Lexington: The Softies, Stevie Jackson, The Would-Be-Goods and The Catenary Wires. Here there are no surprises, I’m familiar with all the acts. In this case I must say I’m jealous of all of you attending and seeing The Would-Be-Goods. They are among my favourite bands. To this day I’ve only seen them once, at the previous Chickfactor show in London. Yeah, I’m not going to be able to attend this. I’ve already asked for vacations for Thanksgiving week, at the end of November, so I can go to Portugal. So no indiepop festivals for me this year. Hopefully the next? I wonder if Chickfactor had announced earlier these shows I could have attended. I plan everything way in advance!

Both nights at The Lexington will feature MC Gaylord Fields (from WFMU). I remember him at the New York shows some years ago introducing the bands with fun anecdotes. I liked that. There will be Hangover Lounge DJs on the first floor of the venue. I wonder though if there will be any afterparties? Any dancing? That’d be nice. At least on Saturday. Hope something like that is announced. The ticket prices seem reasonable, 18 pounds for each night or 32 pounds for the two nights.

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Crawley is a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is 28 miles (45 km) south of Charing Cross (London), 18 miles (29 km) north of Brighton and Hove, and 32 miles (51 km) north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of 17.36 square miles (44.96 km2) and had a population of 106,597 at the time of the 2011 Census. Gatwick Airport, nowadays one of Britain’s busiest international airports, opened on the edge of the town in the 1940s, encouraging commercial and industrial growth.

An all-time favourite 7″ of mine is the “Arkansas” 7″ by The Friendly Fires that was released in 1986. I pulled it out the other day and got me thinking, why weren’t they more famous? Their songs are fantastic. How come a band with the same name became mainstream, famous and all? Were they aware of the “real Friendly Fires? Were they aware that their music wasn’t as good as the Crawley band from the 80s? Probably not. But then I didn’t know much about The Friendly Fires. So it was time to do some research.

Discogs immediately answers a few of my questions. There’s a small bio there that reads:
1980s indie band from Crawley, West Sussex, England. They ran their own label Deadbug Records releasing their own material as well as other local bands including Bobby Scarlet. The band consisted of Kieron Huston (guitar), Brian Hope (keyboards and vocal) and Paul Sloots (bass).

Indeed the two releases The Friendly Fires put together came out on Deabug Records. The first one, which is “Arkansas” for me, but a self-titled 7″ for Discogs, was catalogued as Deadbug Records 002. Discogs doesn’t list the 001 of the label’s catalog. I wonder what it is? The 7″ was recorded in August of 1986 and included three songs. “Arkansas” was the sole one on the A side while the B side had “Everything” and “Looks like Rain”.

Their second release was a 12″. This was Deadbug 005. A curious cat black and white photograph was on the cover. 5 songs came on this record, on the A said there’s “I Said to Him” and “Tide Temper” while on the B side there was “Happier Than Thou”, “All Too Soon” and “Come Alive”.

No other releases nor compilation appearances are listed on Discogs.

My next stop is an article on the Crawley Observer. On it they talk a lot about Robert Smith and The Cure but there are mentions to The Friendly Fires. But my first question comes immediately, is David Hope from the band Ever related to Brian Hope from The Friendly Fires? I feel it might be the same person? Well, on the Crawley article it says: “In 1986, Charles Cold changed their name to The Friendly Fires and released their first three-track 7-inch single, Arkansas, on singer Brian Hope’s Deadbug label. “

But then it is confusing, on another paragraph when they talk about Ever it says: “Ever, led by ex-Thomas Bennett kids David Hope, Peter Whittick and Colin Ray, were for a while THE band to make it, closely followed by The Milk Sisters, Charles Cold, All The Daughters and Swing the Heartache.”

So was there a David and a Brian Hope then?

Okay then, let’s follow the clues we have so far, before The Friendly Fires there was Charles Cold. It seems Charles Cold only put together demos, no proper releases.

Then another Friendly Fires mention on the article: “Friendly Fires and Bobby Scarlet found themselves supporting many established independent bands of the day at venues around the south east, but, unfortunately by 1988 both groups had spilt.” 

It is worth mentioning that this article was written in 2012 and it was for a good cause. Many of the 80s bands that were around in Crawley then were going to make an appearance and there was going to be even an 80s Jiveball disco. The bands that were going to play were Spitfire, All the Daughters, The Milk Sisters, Bobby Scarlet, Orange and of course The Friendly Fires. I wonder how that gig go. It must have been great to attend their reunion.

But there is another good resource for The Friendly Fires, one I have been using a lot every time I wanted to hear their fab songs, and that is Youtube. On the BobbyScarlet account (I know, probably this band also deserves a post on the blog) there is a plethora of songs by Crawley bands, probably all related to The Friendly Fires.

Aside from the recordings from the released records by The Friendly Fires, there are Charles Cold versions, meaning earlier versions, of the songs the band was to release. For example there is a very early “Arkansas” demo tape, dating from 1985. There are also demos of “Looks Like Rain Again“, “All Too Soon“, “Everything” and “I Said To Him” from 1986. But the BIGGEST discovery is another Friendly Fires release, another song. The Friendly Fires released a flexi with just the one song, “Neville“, in 1986. It was Deadbug Records 004. Sadly I couldn’t find any more information about it. But I know I want it, it sounds classic!

I keep investigating but I can’t find much more about The Friendly Fires. Most of the times I get information on the XXL band. I notice that Ed from Shelflife recommended them when he used to write his blog. I do find that Paul Sloots, their bassist, now plays in a band called Strange Tales. But that’s about it. I wonder what Brian Hope and Kieron Huston are up to now.

A bunch of questions remain unanswered. Definitely the flexi release is on top of my list. Was it released properly? Maybe it came along a fanzine? What about unreleased songs? What happened to the members after The Friendly Fires. I notice a lot of indiepop fans love their songs, but there is very little presence of the band on the web. I wonder if any of you remember them? Maybe they played a gig in your town?

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Listen
The Friendly Fires – Arkansas

 

Some months ago I wrote about Black and White Lovers on the blog looking for more information about them. Luckily Kevin Brady, their bassist, got in touch with me and later put me in touch with Martin Tivnan, their guitarist and vocalist. Martin was kind enough to shed some light about Black and White Lovers and that way answer many of the questions I had. He put together a thorough overview of the band, and I’m happy to share it with you all.

NAME

The name should read ‘ Black and White Lovers.’ An early incarnation of the band had a song with this title. The song was a thinly veiled account of how some of the band members and close friends related to each other and projected themselves. The characters in the story the song relates were given names like Harry and Stanley – a la Lou Reed – but it was obvious who they were based on. Someone suggested it as a name for the band and it stuck.

ORIGINS

The first band we got together was The Enigma in summer 1979. This was myself on vocals and guitar, Martin O’Brien on drums and Kev Brady on bass. We were later joined by Lee Wilkinson on guitar. Regarding recruitment it was quite straightforward. I was at school with Martin and Kev and Lee had been at school together and as was the way at the time (see ‘Sniffin Glue’ ‘Here’s 3 chords go and form a band’) we just got on with it. Our biggest influences were The Fall and , particularly, Joy Division. Me and Martin had got to know Joy Division a little before they really broke as we would go to watch them rehearse on Sundays in Manchester and we went to all their gigs in N West England. Indeed, Peter Hook gave me my first guitar strap.

Although I wasn’t a fan of a lot of Punk music, the DIY ethic gave us a gateway into becoming a band. Early on, we joined The Manchester Musician’s Collective and this was vital in getting things going. The MMC existed to support local bands. It was democratic, even socialistic in outlook and had members from a range of musical and cultural areas – hippies / punks / pub rock / blues /funk. The MMC had a regular gig at The Band On The Wall in Manchester and organised occasional other gigs throughout the North West. In it’s early days the MMC had included bands like Joy Division , The Fall and A Certain Ratio. Whilst in the collective we got to know and shared gigs with God’s Gift – who I played bass with for a short while – If Only (Brendan Chesterton’s band) and The Hoax – when as you say Martin once borrowed Mike Joyce’s kit. Via the collective, we played our first gig (at the Band On The Wall alongside Crispy Ambulance and The Liggers) got a support slot with The Fall at Manchester Polytechnic in January 1980 and had a track on a compilation album of MMC bands ‘Unzipping the Abstract.’

The Enigma ran out of steam around 1981. A little while later, myself, Kev and Brendan started rehearsing and exploring different styles of music, until we settled into BAWL around 1983.

BLACK AND WHITE LOVERS

BAWL was myself, Kev , Brendan and Lee, joined by Chris Hyland on drums (later Craig) and Martin Briars on keyboards. We were pretty clear on the sound we were aiming for – something that would be suitable as the soundtrack of a 1960s French Film – in Black and White ie a light romantic vibe with a cinematic feel influenced particularly by John Barry and the European pop / cabaret feel of Charles Aznavour. There was less of a feeling in BAWL of being part of a scene as what we were doing was, we felt, very specific. Although BAWL played most of the available gigs in Manchester at the time (eg The International, The Gallery, Corbieres, Manhattan Sound) we struggled to get any real traction. Although there was, to a small degree, an amatuerish/ shambolic dimension to the C86 bands, things had moved on from the punk values of the late 1970s, and bands were expected to have a more professional approach. We struggled a little with this. As working class lads we were sceptical of careerism and not certain of whether being in a band should be recreational – something you did with your friends for fun – or something you should take seriously and commit yourself to, hence the unfinished videos and lost demos. A journalist named Bob Dickinson interviewed us for City Life, a Manchester magazine and reviewed one of our gigs in NME which did generate some interest and meetings with record companies (A & M I think ?) but we didn’t really pursue this and it never went any further. We released ‘Best Years Of Our Lives’ as a single ourselves and although it got some reasonable feedback, the reaction / sales weren’t positive enough to encourage further releases.

SINGLE

Why Charles Aznavour ? The answer’s simple : I was and remain a fan. In fact myself and Kev went to see the 90 year old Aznavour at The Royal Albert Hall in London in November last year. If you listen to his song ‘Yesterday when I was young’ you will hear the romantic, yearning vibe that Best Years of Our Lives tries to capture and emulate. Boulevard of Broken Dreams aims for a similarly romantic, philosophical reflection on life.

ANECDOTES

I have listed below a few of the things that stick in my mind from my time in these bands and hopefully give you an idea of what it was like and what we were like.

Jan 1980 : The Enigma supporting The Fall. I watched The Fall sound check ‘Rowche Rumble’ with my brother. I was very proud at aged 16 to be part of this and the sound check itself remains one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.

Spring 1984 : We were playing a gig at Cloud 9, a club in Manchester.  Ian Brown and Reni from The Stone Roses (relative unknowns at the time) barged into the dressing room and accused us of  using their gear at Spirit Studios (where we both rehearsed) – we hadn’t done this. Somehow a full scale fight was averted – probably because we’d heard that Reni was a karate black belt. Later at the gig itself, Ian McCulloch of Echo and The Bunnymen turned up, sat at the back, watched the show and left without introducing himself.

1985 : Bob Dickinson’s review of one of our gig’s in NME  suggested that I was ‘reminiscent of the young Orson Welles.’ I got plenty of abuse from the other band members about this.

1985 : Following the interview in City Life Magazine which described us as Manchester’s best cabaret band or something similar, we were offered a Friday night gig at a restaurant in Manchester. We were to play 3 x 20 minute sets for 35 pounds. After this first gig, the Restaurant Owner/Manager was delighted with us and offered us a regular gig every Friday, which we accepted, figuring the money would help us with equipment and the regular gig might be good for our profile.

The following Friday, we showed up and told the Restaurant Manager that we would be playing 2 x 30 minute sets which he grudgingly accepted. in the hour or so between sets, we went to a bar across the road and proceeded to get hammered. We returned on unsteady legs and turned the amps up to full blast for the 2nd set – we even let Kev sing Boulevard of Broken Dreams while I played bass – still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. That was our last gig at the restaurant.

AND FINALLY

I enjoyed my time in these bands and it is really flattering and suprising that people are still interested in what we did all those years ago. A Manchester label ‘Vinyl revival’ has recently released 2 compilation albums (Greater Manchester Punk 1977 – 81 and Greater Manchester Punk 2 1978-82 : Now We are Heroes) and there are Enigma tracks on both albums. On the back of these releases I met up with Martin O’Brien again and we are currently working on some new songs I’ve written with a singer and guitarist he has  worked with before and we should have a demo recorded in the next couple of months. I will send you the demo when it’s completed.

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Listen
Black & White Lovers – Best Years of Our Lives