Just a week ago I wrote about the Tokyo one-man project Tricycle Popstar who released a bunch of records and even more songs in the 90s. Thanks to the help of Mike Innes from They Go Boom!! I could find Masahiro Kodama, the man behind this brilliant band, on Facebook. Luckily Masahiro was very kind and when I asked to do an interview he said yes. I’m very happy how this interview turned out thanks to Masahiro’s thoughtful answers where he paints clearly how was the Japanese scene in the 90s. Sounds like it was a fun and interesting time!

Find a compilation of Masa’s recordings here: https://www.youtube.com/@TricyclePopstar

++ Hi Masahiro, thanks a lot for trying to answer my questions, hope your memory is good! I would like to do this interview chronologically, start from the beginning. So yeah, where are you from in Japan? Tokyo? And what sort of music did you listen when growing up?

I grew up in Akita, a rural area in the northern part of mainland Japan. Its a famous place for rice production, there are rice fields everywhere; and It’s very cold in winter.

When I was young, I really like “Kayou kyoku” (which is Japanese mainstream pop music. I always check TV music programs out; it’s like Japanese “Top of the Pops” kind of TV show. Those TV music programs in Showa (昭和)- era were so good. The stage sets changing every different songs / every different artists.

When I was in Jr. high, the Japanese economy was booming, and the Japanese music scene really changed.
New Romantic kind of music, techno pop, Heavy metal (which I never liked) etc. I like Dead or Alive(!), The Housemartins, Nik Kershaw, Hubert Kah, A-HA, Pet Shop Boys etc. And my music tastes also changed around the same time. I found different types of music like – The Flipper’s Guitar!! For the country boy like me they are so bright, vivid & colourful, with a great sense of humour…they were my idols at the time.  And infact I still love them they made a huge influence on me.

++ Something that impressed me from the sleeve of the flexi is that it says you played all instruments. So I’m wondering what instruments do you know how to play? And what was your first instrument and how did you get it?

All instruments skills are self-taught, so I’m not really that good. I can play a little bit of Guitar & Keys, and some programming of Drum machine, that’s all. My first instrument was the Electone, which is modern type of electronic organs.  I never had a music tutor or anything, But we always had an electronic organ at home which I would dabble with. It had so many buttons, you could change the sound, rhythm, and it has auto arpeggiator as well. I was started making songs with it when I was about 13 years old.

I started the Folk Guitar (Takamine) when I was in High school.  I was never interested in Guitar Solos. But I like chord cuttings.

Late years of my high school days, I got a Drum machine (I think YAMAHA RX 5). And after graduate from high school in Akita, I moved to Tokyo where I bought a KORG 01W/FD. It’s a workstation synthesizer, it has synthesizer, sequencer, drum sounds and you can save those song tracks on floppy disks! It was so high-tech at the time!

AND This isn’t music instrument, but very important thing, Multi Track Recorders (We called MTR). When I was in high school I used a 4-tack recorder (I think TASCAM PORTA 05). And later in Tokyo (18 years old ~) I got myself an 8-tack recorder (TASCUM PORTASTUDIO 488).

++ Was Tricycle Popstar your first band or had you been involved in any other bands?

Tricycle Popstar is not my first project. In my high school days, I have a band to play my original songs with my hometown friends. Also doing my solo project as well. And one time did Synth pop duo with my friend to cover 10cc’s “I’m not in love” for music contest. In my Akita days, I really liked to play at music contest. Because I could often do quite well.

++ Was Tricycle Popstar really a solo project? Or did you get help from friends?

Tricycle Popstar is my solo project. Hiroshi Kudo (my band mate from my hometown) helped with bass guitar when we recorded The Love mushrooms’ songs.

++ Why the name Tricycle Popstar?

I forgot how I decided this project name…Maybe I discuss about naming the project with Mark, but I really can’t remember. It’s silly meaningless name isn’t it?!

++ How was Tokyo then? What were your usual hangouts? The venues you used to frequent to check out bands? And were there any like-minded bands that you liked then?

I was in Tokyo 1991~1993. (When was 19~21 years old) For a shy country kid from the north, Tokyo is a big, big city. I didn’t have many connections, just few friends in Tokyo.  What I do? Just go & check somewhere new area in Tokyo is always kind a fun for me at that time. Every local area has unique taste. I often went to, SHIMOKITAZAWA, SHINJYUKU, SHIBUYA back then.

Candy Eyes (another band from A Trumpet Trumpet Records), All Twin’s Birthday were friends of mine, so we would often go & see them playing. [https://www.discogs.com/label/178272-A-Trumpet-Trumpet-Records]

++ And in general, what would you say were the bands that inspired you and influenced Tricycle Popstar?

The Housemartins, The Flipper’s Guitar, Sex Clark Five, Egg Stone, Candy eyes, Nelories, Mama Cass, Many late 60’s psyche pops band like The Beatles, The Cyrkle, The Millennium, The Left Banke, The Hollies, French pops like France Gall, Francoise Hardy.

++ Most of your releases were on the label Behavior Saviour. Was it your own label? Or who were they?

Behavior Saviour is our own label managed by Mark & I. Mainly released my recordings and released some compilation CDs. And also released 7” single for friend band call “All Twin’s Birthday”.

I would like to mention Shintaro Taketani, he is musician, I met him through Mark, where they both worked at a posh arty cafe EAST GALLERY in Ebisu. One day, He give me a demo of his creation, I was amazed by he’s music. His music unit called “Paris Collection” was on one of our compilation CD. He is living in London now. I think he is great artist.

++ At first your releases came out in the cassette format. Do you remember more or less how many copies were made? And if you were to pick, as you released almost in every sort of format, from vinyl to tape to CD, which will be your favourite and why?

My favourite format is CD. CD doesn’t have any interference. Sometimes, I can’t concentrate to listen to music if too much noise in the background.  However I also like Vinyls too. I like the big art space & warmer sound.

Regarding our cassette release from earlier of our catalogue, those cassette selling at Rough Trade Tokyo, I don’t remember how many we sold. But not much, I don’t think. Probably about 30 each release.

++ Also was wondering why you choose to write your songs in English instead of Japanese? What was the reason?

I thought singing in English is cool. If I write serious song in Japanese, that sounds really serious and straight. If I write silly song in Japanese, that sounds really silly and foolish.

++ Did you ever make songs in Japanese?
Yes. Before coming to Tokyo, I write songs in Japanese.

++ I noticed that 1993 was a very prolific year for Tricycle Popstar, releasing a bunch of records and recording so many songs. Why was that? And how come no other year was like it?

Around that year I send lots of demo tape to other labels too and also we made a lots of connections.
Some labels’ project takes very long time and Some are quick (but usually takes long time), I think the releasing those other labels works just over lapped all at the same time around 1993.

++ I also noticed that there were a few shared releases with the band The Love Mushrooms. Who were them?

The Love Mushrooms was my project before Tricycle Popstar. Me & two Tasmanian girls, Wendy & Darelle, whom I also met through Mark. (also from Tasmanian too). And my hometown friend, Hiroshi Kudo was helping to play bass guitar.

++ You wrote the song “I Like Curry Rice” and I suppose you do. What other dishes are favourite of Masahiro Kodama that you would have loved to write them a song?

Kara-age is one of my favourite Japanese dishes. However I’m into making fermented foods at the moment. I make my Koji, Miso and Nukazuke on my own. So I’d make song like “Microorganism’s orgasm”.

++ On the flexi it says that you got help with the lyrics by Mark Davis. He also helped with the art. Who was he?
He is my partner. We are together over 25 years now.

We didn’t come out to our Japanese friends when we living in Tokyo, I said to them “We are friend”. However we were living together in small apartment in Tokyo.

++ “Saviour Once More” was your mini-album and I was wondering about the two guests on it, Roberto Massaglia and Wendy Brown. How did they help you on the record?

Wendy Brown (The Love Mushrooms) & Roberto (her partner back then), They sing,  “Moaner is My Cat”. The song is about their cat.

++ Also because of the song “Moaner is My Cat” and how I see cats are popular in Japanese indiepop, I wondered if you actually really had a cat then?

Moaner was Wendy & Roberto’s cat in Tokyo.  At my hometown, we had cats, and many other animals too.  A big ‘Tosa-ken’ dog, peacocks, chickens, turkeys and even minks, all of those animals were my grand father’s hobby.

++ Then I noticed that Behavior Saviour and you it seems moved to Melbourne, Australia. Is that right? Why did you move? And how was the change? Did you like it at first?

Mark’s working visa was going to expire so I applied a working holiday visa to go to Australia. We moved to Sydney first. We live there 3 years (1994~1997) and then move to Melbourne.  I love Melbourne more.

I fell in love with that laid back Aussie way of living as soon as I moved here.

++ I assume you found a different music scene there. Did you continue making music? Did you find any bands that you really like?

I thought Japanese indie music scene was quite big, however Australian indie music scene was quite small and dotted.
From an indie music label point of view, I thought it’s quite difficult to do within Australia.
++ The last release on Behavior Saviour was your album “Apostasy” in 1995. Were the songs on it reworkings of previous ones or was it more of a compilation album?

“No skin off my ass” & “Rocking chair is still rocking” was reworked. I think other tracks were on “Apostasy” was same materials on other compilation CDs“.

++ I’m also curious about your creative process. How did that work for you? And what about recording? Where did you usually record?

I had an 8-tack multi track recorder (TASCAM PORTASTUDIO 488). I always recorded in my bedroom. Usually I make song with my Guitar first, and then I make a song titles or lyrics next. I made a song title first when I make “Peach boy’s Bed sounds”.

++ Your last release was a split 7″ with Orange Cake Mix on the American label Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club. How come you ended up on an American label? Did you ever get to visit the US?

Regarding Blackbean and Placenta Tape Club release, I can’t remember I sent a demo to them or they contact us… I haven’t been to the US before.  In US, there are/were many great indie record labels. I personally like The Bus Stop Label. I would still love to go to the US one day.

++ There were a bunch of compilation appearances by the band, but I’m curious about one of the first ones, the one on the French fanzine “Gloomy Biscuit”. How did your music got to France in pre-internet times? Do you remember?

Sorry I can’t remember…

++ I mentioned a bunch of compilation appearances, like the “Lily’s S’ghetti Factory”, “Going Against Maz’s Advice”, “Come All Ye Faithful” and “Let’s Muc Out On Sound” on my blog. Was I missing any other compilation that you appeared?

In 1993, Auto Guide Records (Japan) release Auto Guide’s First Triangle (Compilation CD   AGR-1001) The Love Mushrooms was on it.

++ And what about unreleased Tricycle Popstar songs? Are there any more?

I remember there was one song, but with changing technology I think I have lost the data now.

++ So what happened in 1996 after the split 7″ with Orange Cake Mix? Why were the no more releases by Tricycle Popstar?

I think I needed new start or I was just busy living everyday life.

++ What did you do afterwards? Did you continue making music?

I start new project called “HACCHUUM” (haku-chuu-mu 白昼夢) it means “day dream” in Japanese. More psyche pop taste music. https://soundcloud.com/hacchuum

++ What about gigs? Did you play live much as Tricycle Popstar? Any happy anecdotes you could share?

In Tokyo days, I remember I’ve done two live as Tricycle Popstar. Play electric guitar and sing with karaoke backing tracks. As The Love Mushrooms, we did one live event at Meiji University campus festival (I think play with Nerolies & Venus Peter). However, that gig was terrible.

++ And radio? And music press? did they give you much attention? What about fanzines?

The Love Mushrooms were played on College Radio Chart show.Few fanzines were interested in The Love Mushrooms/Tricycle Popstar.

++ What about today? Are you still making music? What other hobbies do you have?

I continue making music pieces. Just playing guitar & sing. Not for recording (I’m not good with Computer based music making). Playing music is more meditative process for me. I love listening music & watch movies. Mark & I are into making fermented food right now. Made Miso, Koji, Natto, Suerkraut, and Kefir etc.

++ You are now based in Melbourne, but do you go back often to Japan? Are there any indiepop bands either in Australia or Japan that you’d recommend?

Yeah we still get back there every year, here are some good ones:

Ben Mason – https://soundcloud.com/benmason

Adrian Whitehead- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlwzSmnuUhA&list=PLn3qOPaLrhTyT495cE37HZwkDU0ihIGo4

Lamp – https://soundcloud.com/lamp-japan

frenesi – https://soundcloud.com/nesi-ko

Shintaro Taketani – https://soundcloud.com/shintaro-taketani

Dai Ogasawara (ex Candy eyes – He’s doing indie music label called Ano(t)raks) – https://soundcloud.com/twangytwangy/tracks

Coffee garden (ex All Twin’s Birthday) – https://soundcloud.com/coffee-garden

Hajimepop – https://soundcloud.com/hajimepop

++ I assume as we were talking about Japanese food earlier that you might have had some interest in Australian food? Have you find anything that you like there?

Meat pies, Chicken parmigiana, Vanilla slice are my favourite Aussie meals.

++ And as a foreigner in Australia, what would you recommend a tourist checking out in Melbourne where is were you live now?

We live in Abbotsford. We really like this area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbotsford,_Victoria

And I recommended going to “Hanging Rock”. http://www.visitmacedonranges.com/see-do/the-great-outdoors/hanging-rock/

++ Let’s start wrapping the interview, what would you say was the biggest highlight of Tricycle Popstar?

This interview 🙂 Knowing somebody listening to my songs.

++ And what would you say indiepop means to you?

For me indiepop means, 青春 (sei-shun) in Chinese character 青 means Blue 春 means Spring. Meaning bloom of youth / the passion of youth. When I was doing music & label, it was pre-internet, so everything took a lot of time.
Write mail to people, making artwork by our hand, making music etc. But I like the way it was. It was warmer, more physical connection to it.

Indiepop is DIY spirit.

You can do it, if you want to.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks Roque for asking to do the interview.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Tricycle Popstar – Passion & Kind

I have to start the post with the two most important discoveries of the month, two McCarthy 1988 videos that were done for the French TV. They haven’t been seen by anyone since those days, they have just been uploaded to Youtube. I want to thank again Rich Farnell from The Suncharms for pointing them in my direction, Please enjoy the best band EVER in “Should The Bible Be Banned” and “This Nelson Rockefeller“.

I think it has been a year since the time I recommended Anton Salmine’s project Glass Arcades on the blog. It was just this week that I noticed he had new songs on Bandcamp, “Linoburns” and “Teletext”, and I thought why has this one-man band hasn’t released anything properly? Is it really that there are no indiepop labels in the world anymore? The first song, “Linoburns”, is really good, people must notice that. At least I see that he has updated his page since last time, and now I know where he is from, Cardiff in Wales. I was there once, and I really liked it. Hope to go back someday.

The Indonesian band Aggi, who I recommended early in 2015, is no more. Their label HeyHo! Records doesn’t exit either. So what’s the point of talking about them again? The Indonesian punk/pop label Rizkan Records from Tangerang in Indonesia has uploaded to Bandcamp a compilation of all Aggi recordings, taken from their split with Saturday Night Karaoke and from singles and EPs on HeyHo! and Dismantled Records. This compilation is titled “Buy This Discography Make Me Rich!!” and the physical copies seem to be very limited, 50 copies and only available in stores in that country. For the rest, we can just stream it.

Exploration Team hail from Madison, Wisconsin. When was the last time you heard an indiepop band from there? I can’t even remember myself. There must have been some, right? I know about nothing about the band. I know the two songs on their Bandcamp are brand new. I especially like the second song, I think it is brilliant. It is titled “Stuck-up Sensitive”. The first song is titled “Ten Things”. This is proper jangly pop and that makes me happy. I need more people making this sort of music! The band is formed by Ross Adam on guitar and backing vocals, Allison Geyer on vocals and bass, Etan Heller on drums and Luis Perez on guitars. Both songs were written by Perez. Yes, that makes me happy, a latino in indiepop. We need more of that too.

Cloudberry friend Lisa Bouvier has a new song too. Lisa, who some years ago was touring with The Flatmates as a vocalist, has just uploaded to her Bandcamp the song “Out of Daydreams”. If you are familiar with her previous releases this won’t be a surprise. You will find her energy intact in this punky pop song. Upbeat and effervescent, this is a good comeback to the solo Lisa. Looking forward to any new recordings she posts.

Lastly, this week the indiepop supergroup Cinema Red and Blue (I’m linking to the blog Austin Town Hall as it seems it is the only place where you can stream this) and their label Fortuna Pop unveiled a new song on Soundcloud, “Come Back to the City, Babyface” and it sounds fantastic. Of course, how else would it sound if it has David Feck from Comet Gain and our NYC pal Phil Sutton in it? This song is going to be released on a 7″ with “The Captain’s Song” on the B side. If you like your songs filled with “pa, pa, pas”, this one you can’t miss!!

———————————————————

I did say I had to do some archaeology on a German band on my last post. I’m trying to spice it up a bit now, challenging somehow my detective work when it comes to long lost indiepop bands. The comfort zone has always been English bands but it is time to vary it a bit more often. Hopefully the next post will be by an Australian band or a Welsh band or… who knows. I’m not saying I won’t look into the story of English bands, I will, but it won’t be English band after English band after English band if you know what I’m saying.

When it comes to Die Blinzelbeeren I must say that this time I do own their two 7″s. How many times I could feel proud of owning the discography? If that counts as a full discography  too. I don’t have all their compilation appearances, to be honest. I do have to say that a long time ago I tried to interview Bernd Kabs, founder of Die Blinzelbeeren and their label, Blam-A-Bit. The interview was going to be about the label, and I was hoping, as it has happened in a few cases, that after he answered my questions I was going to ask about his other indiepop related projects like Die Blinzebeeren or Mondfähre. Sadly I never got his answers.

I’ll start this dig with this blog as there has been a couple of mentions about Die Blinzelbeeren already.

When I interviewed the band The Sheets:

• ++ Your 1991 release, the “Candyman” 7″ came out in Blue Records. I heard Michael’s (Blue Records) story of how he approached you to release the record. Now I’d love to hear your side! How did this record came about? I think I met Michael on all good concerts around Frankfurt. He saw us playing at the “Batschkapp”, so I thought the man has to have an incredible good taste! There were also some friends of him, “Die Blinzelbeeren” recording a single, at my first eighttrack recordingstudio. That was at my grandparents garage in maybe 1989. We had a nice chat here and there, so the idea came up to remaster some Sheets material and cut this record.

And when I interviewed Olaf from the band Milchblumen FC:

• ++ Do you think Milchblumen FC would have fit just fine with the lineup of this festival? Were there any festivals along these lines going on back when you were playing? I think so. We had been pure Indie-Pop. Yes, there have been a couple of small festivals, but for German bands only and mostly just for one or two days. I like to remember the Marsh Marigold Weekender in Dresden, truly funny days with little sleep with the complete Hamburg popgang. Great was also a festival in Darmstadt, where I witnessed the only gig of Wind In Den Weiden and met personally pen pals (for the younger readers: that had been something like Facebook) like Andreas Knauf, Olaf Grossigk or Frischluft-Krischan. We played at the Harmony Beat Festival in the Dresden Starclub together with Fünf Freunde, Blinzelbeeren, Ein Warmer Sommermorgen (both Blam-a-Bit) and the Noise-Poppers Honeyloops from Worms. This festival had been organised by our friends from Dresden Trixi and Susi, real Indie-Pop pioneers in Eastern Germany. Memories come up on Rock `N Roll Lifestyle including stage invasion, bloody hands from excessive tambourine playing and Frank Kabs – singer of Twee-Pop-Punks Ein Warmer Sommermorgen – who had fallen asleep amongst beer, potatoe chips and I-do-not-want-to-know-what-else.

So it is clear that Die Blinzelbeeren were an active part of the German indiepop scene. They were well connected and were friends with many of the bands at the time. So what else can we find out about them? Let’s turn our heads to Discogs and check out their discography.

The first thing that Discogs gives us is the band members, Bernd Kabs, Frank Kabs, Jens Remmer, Jörg Zimmermann and Olaf Heinrichsen. Then their first release, the 1991 7″ “Frische Beeren” on Blam-A-Bit (catalog BLAM 004). This EP had four songs, on the A side there was “Entschuldigung” and “Netter Besuch” while on the B side there was “Das Idol” and “Mein Weg Zu Dir”. “Das Idols” was a cover of the BMX Bandits’ “The Day Before Tomorrow”. All songs were recorded at Tanneburger Schafskeller and it says during the summer of 1986. I don’t know if the date is right, that would place these songs 5 years before than the release date. Maybe they were just playing with the wonderful year that was 1986? The cool artwork on the sleeve was done by Felix Bringmann.

Where were they based? According to Discogs Blam-A-Bit was based in Seeheim in Germany. Never been there. Where is Seeheim?
Seeheim-Jugenheim is a municipality in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district in Hesse, Germany. It has a population of approximately 17,000. Seeheim-Jugenheim consists of seven villages: Balkhausen, Jugenheim, Malchen, Ober-Beerbach, Seeheim, Steigerts and Stettbach. The municipality was formed on January 1, 1977 through the unification of the previously separate municipalities of Seeheim and Jugenheim. Until January 1, 1978 the municipality was known as Seeheim; after that it became known as Seeheim-Jugenheim. It is famous for its mountain bike trails to the nearby mountain Melibokus. Seeheim-Jugenheim has been home to several notable residents throughout history, including Tsar Nicholas II of Russia as well as writers Georg Kaiser and Helene Christaller.

Their second single came just a year after. In 1992 saw the light the “Erinnerungen EP” and it also included 4 songs that were recorded in November 1991. On the A side there is “Erinnerungen” and “1..2..3…”. The B side has “Sturheit” and “Schöner Abend”. There are cool runout etches on this record. On the A side it says “Kick a ball or play a guitar!” and on the B side “I really love cheese and onions for breakfast!”. This was Blam-A-Bit 011.

Aside from these two singles the band was to appear on a number of compilations. I’ll try to do it chronologically.

1990: They contribute the song “Keine Hoffnung Mehr” to the Heol Daou cassette compilation released by Katiho Records (Katiho 002). This compilation was released in France and it includes mostly French bands including big names like Katerine or Dominique A. That same year they also have a song on their own Blam-A-Bit Records compilation “Hat Das Schaf Die Blume Gefressen Oder Nicht?” (BLAM 003). The song to appear on this tape compilation was “Picknick “Frühlingswiesen Version”.

1991: The band has the song “Verlassen & Vergessen” on the cassette compilation “It’s All About Love” (SMUF 003) that was released by the pre-Firestation Records label Smuf. They also include “Frühling” on the brilliant 7″ EP compilation “Pfadfindertreffen Auf Immenhof!” that was co-released by Frischluft Tonträger (FRL 005) and Blam-A-Bit (BLAM 005).

1992: They have three songs on the tape compilation “Tonite Let’s All Make Love in Seeheim …Plus” released by Roman Cabbage (GREY 30/X). The songs were “Muh (Remix by The Notorious Buss Brothers)”, “Muh (Reprise)” and “Picknick”. Also they contribute the song “Sonntag (Live)” on the compilation tape “Wegweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland” released by Eiswürfel Tonträger (EIS-2) and the song “Sturheit (Jezús Mix)” on the compilation CD “He Didn’t Even Draw A Fish on My Shower Curtain” released by Mermaid Records (MIRABELL 001). That same song, “Sturheit (Jezús Mix)”, appears on another Mermaid compilation that same year, “Mermaid Employee of the Month: Gustav Sackmüller” (MIRABELL 665).

1993: “Psych-Out” appears on the compilation LP “Hier Super 12 – Bitte Melden!” that was released by Viel Leicht, Viel Leicht (Propeller 005).

What else can we know through Discogs? We could see other bands the band members were involved with. For example Bernd Kabs was in Mondfähre, The Monochords and The Mazy Fields. Jens Remmer, Olaf Heinrichsen and Jörg Zimmermann were also on Mondfähre. Zimmermann played saxophone in the Gruppe Topos release “Auf, Werde Lebending” while Olaf Heinrichsen was involved in many other bands like Ease Up Ltd, Echonomics and Ska Trek.

I dig for more information on the web. I notice my good friend Alex wrote a piece about their first 7″ on his blog Siete Pulgadas back in 2010. He likes the record all right. He says the name of the band is impossible to translate, that it has to do with berries and he loves the artwork for the single.

I couldn’t find much more on the web about them. I felt that they were a well-regarded band by the German indiepop fans but I might be wrong as I didn’t see much on them written now. Maybe back in the day in fanzines and such. They appeared on many compilations, so they must have been very involved in the scene. They even run Blam-A-Bit. Maybe I get back in touch with Bernd after this post and he answers many of my questions about his label and the band. Do you remember them? Did they play much live? Any anecdotes you could share?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Die Blinzelbeeren – Entschuldigung

Another week, another post. I continue being unoriginal, a bunch of indiepop news of today and a forgotten indiepop band from the past. I wonder if this is the right format but I must admit I’m starting to be comfortable with it.

Who wouldn’t want a 4 CD boxset with 41 Jazz Butcher songs? Last week Fire Records announced just that, to be released this October. The box set includes 4 Jazz Butcher albums, “Bath of Bacon”, “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “Sex and Travel” and “Distressed Gentlefolk”. I don’t know much details about it, I hope it comes with a pretty big booklet, but what you can do right now is actually pre-order it from the band’s Bandcamp.

I guess that Jazz Butcher was the main news for last week! Now it is time to continue exploring the bands I didn’t know from Brucey’s last podcast. Many Indonesian bands were included, another sign that there seems to be a healthy indiepop scene there. I wonder how tight-knit it is. Last week I covered Toy Tambourine, this week I’ll start with Beetleflux. This four-piece from Medan is formed by Taufik Ahmad on drums, Fahrin Hartias on guitar, Aulia Nasution on guitars and vocals and Muhammad Ridho on bass. I don’t think they have released anything proper yet, on physical format I mean. Their first LP seems to be available on streaming on Spotify and iTunes. I believe it is titled “Smaerd”.  The good thing, what I’m really enjoying, is their dreamy jangly guitar pop on SoundCloud. There are a bunch of songs, from Bruce’s favourite “Calme Céleste”, which is their latest, to a bunch of demos, and an earlier EP titled “Trailee EP”. The band seems to have been going for years now, only now I discover them.

Another Indonesian band is Lousy Pop Group. This one-man band from Depok who took their name from a The Wake song is on the Shiny Happy Records label who released a 3″CD  titled “The Guy Who Runs the Government has Small Eyes”. On the band’s SoundCloud there are 5 songs, including a “Pristine Christine” cover. The song Bruce recommended on his podcast was “The Ballad of a Powerful Antagonist”. The band is less upbeat than Beetleflux, but makes up for it with melancholy and class. Very nice classic sounding and Sarah-influenced band.

Supercrush Records is another Indonesian band and their first release will be “When I’m Relax” by YawYaw also from the same country. I couldn’t find much information about the label or the band, but this sounds really good so if Bruce recommends it, I will recommend it.

Youth Portal are from Malaysia and on their Bandcamp there is just one song. Sadly. Because I’d like to hear more. The band sounds like early 2000s Swedish pop, think Labrador Records. The song that is streaming is titled “Butter Breakfast” and the lyrics are on there if you want to sing along. Not much more information about them.

Come on, what’s with bands? Why not add which city are they from? the band members? what’s the mystery?

I’m not a 100% sure if the people behind Sky Faction are the same people behind Starry Eyed Cadet but I want to think this is true. There is just one demo song on their Bandcamp and it is so so pretty. The song is titled “No One Else” and I believe it will be part of a 5 song EP this summer. The band is based in Oakland/San Francisco and what hints me to the Starry Eyed connection is that the song was engineered by Ron Songco, who of course is part of that blissful indiepop band that dazzled us a couple of years ago at NYC Popfest.

The last band I was to discover through the podcast was the Sydney, Australia, band Sachet. They have a new album out, an LP on proper vinyl titled “Portion Control” that was just released. Well, actually they have a digital single, “Grateful Dad” as their newest release, but I’ll think of the album as their latest as it is actually a physical release. The band has been uploading stuff since 2015, so there’s a lot here for me to explore. I start though with the song “Tinnitus” which opens their latest album and it sounds real fine.

—————————————–

I’m trying to democratize the blog, not cover English bands post after post. I can’t be too original, what could I post after a Japanese and Swedish band? An Australian band? Sure, that’s a good idea. A German band? Of course. But maybe those for next time? Now I want to investigate the life and death of The Wild Indians from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Once again, I don’t own any of their three releases. That makes them more mysterious to me. I was at a museum this past weekend and I read something about collectors, about that there is more excitement in the hunt, much more than in the actual object you are looking for. I wonder if it is true. I love the records I track down, I like their songs a lot. But I can’t deny that trying to find information and the record itself is truly exciting.

So yes, why not start with their records? I’ve heard their songs through MP3s and also on Youtube, but I never really looked deeply. I was aware of their two 12″ singles, but I didn’t know that their first release was actually a shared flexi in 1983. This flexi came with the issue 17 of the Scottish fanzine Deadbeat Zine which had it’s own catalog number HAVINGFUN-001. The flexi came on a wraparound black and white picture sleeve designed by Lindsay John and The Wild Indians contributed the song “Stolen Courage”. The other band on the single were Pop Wallpaper who had the song “The Great Adventure”.

There are actually credits on the flexi:
Fiona Carlin – vocals and alto sax
Kay Sheridan – basss
Kevin Low – guitar
Mike Binks – drums

The engineer was Pete Haigh at Pierhouse. The record was produced by John McVay and The Wild Indians.

The next year, 1984, will see the light the 12″ single “Love of My Life”. This song was to be accompanied by two more songs on the B side, “The Biggest Man” and “Maybe”. The record came out on the label Hullabaloo! (catalog HA!001). What is a hullabaloo? It is an uproar or fuss.

I really like the design and art of this record, white and blue, colors I use a lot on my label. On the back cover there are some credits and we see that the drummer might have changed as now it figures as Bo. No last name. Or maybe Mike Binks was called Bo? The record was also produced at The Pierhouse by John McVay and was engineered by Pete Haigh. John McVay also contributed piano on the “Love of My Life”, David Gibson played guitar on “The Biggest Man” and Tony Whelan played drums on “Maybe”. I feel this might have been a self-release as there are no other releases on this label.

Their next 12″ was to be released on another label, Rosebud (catalog SPARK 003). It was 1986, and this label had already released Pop Wallpaper, the band they shared a flexi. Maybe this was this band’s label? Probably. The single “Penniless” came with two more songs on the B side, “We All Take a Tumble in this Wonderful Life” and “Give Up the Ghost”. Now we see that the band is just Kevin Low on guitars and Fiona Carlin on vocals. The rest of the instruments are credited to Myles Raymond on bass, Les Cook on drums., Scott Hamilton on piano & strings, Kay Sheridan on bass*, Bo on drums*, Rhona MacIntyre on backing vocals. Those two with asterisks, who used to be part of the band, worked just on the song “Give up Ghost” which was engineered by Pete Haigh and recorded at The Pierhouse maybe at an earlier time. The two other songs were recorded at Planet in Edinburgh and were engineered by Chic Medley. The whole record was produced by John McVay. Now, who is the girl on the front cover? Is that Fiona?

I find on Discogs two compilation appearances for The Wild Indians. The first one dates from 1983 and it is a live version of “Maybe” that was included in The Deadbeat Tape. This was of course the same fanzine that put out their flexi. Other bands in this compilation were Strawberry Tarts, Twisted Nerve, Burlesque, Sunset Gun, Life Support and Slaughterhouse. The only one I’m familiar with is Sunset Gun. Only 100 copies were pressed for this tape and they were sold for 2 pounds as Vinny Bee, the man behind the zine, points out.

In 1985 they ere to participate on another tape compilation, “Bai-Bang!”. This tape was released in Sweden by the label Res Publika. The Wild Indians were to contribute the song “Bite the Hand”. I have no clue about any of the other bands on this tape which mostly are Swedish like Det Sjätte Sinnet or Njurmännen. Do they ring a bell?

I find a Tumblr post about Pop Wallpaper, the band they shared flexi and whose members Les Cook and Myles Raymond helped them on their last 12″. Sadly I don’t find anything similar about The Wild Indians. Maybe I’d like to listen Pop Wallpaper? I find some songs on Youtube, and they are much artsier than The Wild Indians, less poppier.

Something cool that is related to The Wild Indians is the Deadbeat fanzine. For them I find a website that is updated regularly. Aside from some scan with The Wild Indians being mentioned I couldn’t find any worthy information about the band.

I look for the people involved with the band. I can’t find much. I see that Tony Whelan who played drums on the song “Maybe” had been involved in a band called Trax and later in the fantastic Liverpool band “Care” with Paul Simpson from The Wild Swans and Iain Broudie from The Lightning Seeds.

The curious detail about all of this investigation was to happen now. Do you remember the band Garbage? Yeah, that nineties grunge band? Well, it seems that Shirley Manson, their vocalist, was at some point a backing vocalist for The Wild Indians. I didn’t see her on the credits of any of the sleeves but maybe at some point? Or maybe live?

But there was going to be one final discovery in this whole cat and dog dynamic. I was to find Mike Binks, the band’s first drummer, SoundCloud. And guess what? There’s a trove of Wild Indians recordings. I assume these are early recordings, from the time of Mike Binks in the band, as they sound quite different to the songs on the 12″s. They are a bit darker, closer to post punk than to indiepop. On this SoundCloud you can actually listen to “Stolen Courage”, the song on the flexi. And then you can listen to what I would guess were demos for the songs “Having Fun”, “Dancing as Fast As I Can”, “Call it Jazz”, “Bite the Hand” and “A Problem With Shape”.

I couldn’t find much more about The Wild Indians. I found a Fiona Carlin who is a solicitor in Edinburgh on Twitter. Might that be her? Who knows. What about Kevin Low? There’s a Kevin Low that is an artist who lived in Edinburgh during his youth and now is based in Glasgow. Could that be him? I wonder. But maybe you do know something about them? Maybe you saw them live? I would love to know what happened to them after The Wild Indians, if they continued making music. Would like to know if there are more unreleased tracks, especially from their singles period. Does anyone out there remember them?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Wild Indians – Penniless

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.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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”?

————————————–

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.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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!

———————————————————-

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.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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!

—————————————-

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.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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!

———————————————-

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?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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“.

————————————————————–

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?!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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 😉

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Libertines – Wolf!