There was a time when we traveled night and day. We stayed at hotels and had breakfasts a la carte. Life felt glamorous. It wasn’t five star hotels or first class. A Travelodge could do; the economic seating on a train, facing an old couple, could do too. And it was perfect. For a week we criss-crossed the close-by towns, like a zig-zag, like a connect-the-dots game.

Like two dots, we got separated again by the ocean. A mass of water, a mass of nothingness. Pure and pristine nothingness.

We had arrived in Wales after Indietracks. On the train, which stopped at Chesterfield and Bristol, we held hands and joked. She taught me the basics of knitting, but of course I wasn’t skilled enough to coordinate my fingers and make tiny knots to eventually build something worthy with the yarn. She leaned on my shoulder. The green scenery flashed through the window. We were supposed to see sheep in Wales we were told. We didn’t see any. We did keep our eyes wide-open.

Upon arriving to Cardiff, Wales capital, we were greeted in English and Welsh by the train announcers at the station. We giggled at the sound of Welsh. We walked two mere blocks to find our hotel. The front desk guy seemed to be new and took forever to register us and get us a keycard for our room. A room on the third floor of a building in one of the main streets of the town. You know, very close to Sainsburys, Weatherspoons, and the like.

We left our things and went for a stroll, on the hunt for a nice place to eat lunch. We ended up in the old library which is now a restaurant. Fish and chips, salad and Brains beer. We sat by the window on a chilly summer afternoon. We ate slowly. I emptied a handful of tartar sauce packets, and she helped me with some of my fries.

Down the main road we ended up by the castle walls. The majestic Cardiff castle. We would visit it a couple of days after. But today the plans were different. We were going to explore the huge Bute Park. Without a map we circled the castle first, and then headed to a stone circle which wasn’t ancient at all, maybe just a century old, a commemorative thing. Some tree trunks carved with celtic motifs, and another tree trunk carved with animals caught our sights. We walked on the grass, fresh and humid. The park, full of open spaces, and greenness, felt endless. I wanted to hold her all the time.  We walked and walked until we decided to return. And through small paths, of muddy ground, we found our way to a cafe in the middle of the park. In the meantime, I had already burned my hand with some plant who I must have touched by mistake. Of course she knew what plants were good or bad, which to touch, which to smell. A native of the forest. A fairy. Me, always a big city guy, never close to nature. So much to learn.

Coffee with soy milk. Five o’clock in the heart of Cardiff. I watched her drink with a grin on her face. I stared at her. Trying to sketch her on my mind for the many months I won’t see her. Making a personal photograph, her with the clouds behind. Then it was time for more walking, more exploring. Next stop, Cardiff Bay.

Our Lonely Planet guide, which we both have brought our own copy, recommended us visiting it. And of course we thought it was very close to the city center. Turns out they are two different towns that today are connected by roads and urban sprawl. So it was quite a walk. We could have easily taken the train, but we didn’t know. At our arrival a common sight for us by now, Japanese tourists. We felt at home. She asked me if I would like to live there. I said, why not. She said she would. She’d like it very much.

She especially loved the Cardiff Library which we visited in our way to Cardiff Bay. A huge modern building. 5-stories if I remember correctly. Books in English and in Welsh. All signage also in both languages. She explored the Welsh books with such interest. The orange signs at the library and the blue carpet made it very cozy to me. Something about those colors appeal me. She looked beautiful there, the librarian in the library. A foreign library but her home still. Like a fish in the water, she swam across every aisle, explained me about microfilm, showed me some books that are among the most read in Stockholm, and told me it wasn’t a good idea to make out in the library. Of course, what I was thinking, it is a sacred place for a librarian.

Opening her big brown bag, pulling out a plastic bag, she fed herself candy from time to time. Perhaps that was the secret she had to not get tired. I don’t want to boast, but I do have a lot of energy when it comes to visiting new cities and places. And she kept up to that. Which until now, in my life, I hadn’t found anyone that could do it every day, for a week. And so, we finally made it to Cardiff Bay to notice that the Roald Dahl area was closed. We headed to the Norwegian church instead, a tiny timber structure. We walked towards a lightship and some statues on the way. Ended up in a playground. It was deserted at almost 7pm. We climbed some rope ladders and took pictures of ourselves together. Me serious, she making faces. Then we childishly played on the see-saw. We held hands, we left the playground.

Then we walked on the promenade while she cursed and hated the seagulls. She finds them annoying, nasty birds. She explained them to me, that in Sweden they have two names, that there are actually two varieties. For me, all of them look like seagulls, or chickens. But she knew what she was talking. The sea was a bit murky and the sand very different to the one I was used in Miami. More like dirt brown and with lots of pebbles. On our right side, modern shopping centers rose one on top of each other. Famous American brands and names all over the place. At the end of the promenade a pier with a Turkish restaurant. Our friend Cristóbal had recommended us eating there. But we were too late. They had very affordable prices until 6pm. So we headed back to Cardiff, the real, the main Cardiff. We thought about taking the train, but we couldn’t find a place where to buy the tickets. While we searched up and down the station, the train left. So we walked back.

Monday was almost over. And it started to dawn on me how little time was left on this trip. My heart accelerated. After a quick dinner we went to the hotel and watched some British TV. It was terrible, but having her by my side, doing something as mundane as watching TV, felt terribly good.

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I’m not sure if our train passed by Swindon. But this week’s obscure band is The Swindonians.

Swindon is a large town within the Borough of Swindon and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, in South West England. It is midway between Bristol, 40 miles (64 km) west and Reading, 40 miles (64 km) east. London is 81 miles (130 km) to the east. In the 2011 census, the population of Swindon was 209,000 people, including the small towns of Highworth and Wroughton, an increase of 16.2% since 2001.

Perhaps not very original in their band name as they were based in Swindon (no joke!), but their elusive record is a gem, a true indiepop gem. Their songs remind me so much to The Wishing Chair, another obscure band that I reviewed in the blog. Fantastic jangle with a dramatic feeling. How much I wish I could find a copy of this record. I’ve been looking for it for two years now since a friend recommended it to me after he had found seven tracks on Youtube.

The five tracks are:
– A Sense of Home
– Give Me Back My Sanity
– In the Rain
– Ring a Ring of Roses
– Song for the Homeless
– Sun is Burning
– Windowshopping

On Youtube there’s a small legend added by the uploader of these tracks. It mentions that these songs are from the self-titled 7″ EP on Hope Records. I really doubt that 7 songs fit on a 7″, but for sure some of them were included in it. I wonder which. Also, who were these Hope Records? Perhaps it was their own label.

The only other information included is that the band was a duo. Mumfie on vocals and Julian Sanger on vocals as well as guitar, bass and drums.  A true multi-instrumentalist! The 7″ EP was recorded at their home using a Marantz SD-285 tape deck and a Sharp RT-3151 tape processor in the Spring / Summer of 1992. Just at the end of the golden years of indiepop. Perhaps that’s why such a lovely record didn’t catch more attention, everyone had moved on to other sort of music. For me, it’s hard to grasp that. When I listen to the bone-chilling “In the Rain”, I can only think of indiepop greatness. A beautiful, heartfelt song, with beautiful guitar playing. It reminds me of other ‘rain songs’, like those by The June Brides or The Cavalcade. Something about it. Something about that rain, that British rain that never stopped raining while I was there in July.

If anyone knows anything else about The Swindonians or have any extra copies of the record please get in touch! Would really love to know more about them!

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Listen
Swindonians – In the Rain

Thanks so much to Darren O’Shanassy for the great interview. The Ampersands was a great Melbourne band from the early 90s that had two 7″s on Harriet Records. Surprisingly enough, I found out, not so long ago, that they had recorded two albums too. And then Darren got in touch, and kindly agreed in answering questions for the blog. So sit down, and enjoy!

++ Hi Darren! Thanks for being up for this interview. The first thing that strikes me is that you have two unreleased albums, not one, but two. How come? Why weren’t these released back in the day?

Hey, Roque.  I guess the two albums reflect the two major recording projects the band undertook… and these simply documented the band’s repertoire at the time.  Having three songwriters in the early stages of their respective musical careers meant that we had lots of material.

We consciously wanted to record an album’s worth of music; I’d say in part, this was to do something a little different than what was considered the usual path of releasing singles.  In hindsight it might not have been the best decision but, oh well, it was a fulfilling experience and most of it was fun.

They were never released in album format basically because no one was interested.  We canvassed a couple of ‘most likely’ labels in our hometown Melbourne but there were no bites.  We didn’t play enough shows to build any real supporter base.

Andrew Withycombe was our bass player and he met up with Tim Alborn on a trip to the US.  Tim offered to release a single on his label Harriet and we had no hesitation in offering songs off the first ‘album’.  When it came to a follow-up single, I pressed for the second ‘album’ to be released as a whole whereas Tim preferred another 7”.  My pig-headedness in not accepting Tim’s generous later offer of an abbreviated album in slimline-CD format is a decision I rue to this day.

++ And why have you decided, in 2012, to put them up online for grabs? Why not release them in physical form?

I honestly cannot envisage anyone wanting to release any of these 20-year-old recordings.  I have neither the funds nor the drive to make this happen.  Some years ago I knocked up a cover for each and distributed a handful of CD-R copies to close friends and family but that’s about it.  If anyone out there is interested in releasing two albums of quirk-pop then speak up!

There are a couple of motivators for uploading the albums onto SoundCloud and making them available to anyone:

Firstly, I’m aware there are two current bands called ‘The Ampersands’, one from New York and the other from Liverpool (this one even uses the same font!).  I was not keen for our legacy to become lost should either of these have wider success or renown (although I wish them both well) so it made sense to document some of our history and music on the web.

Moreover, I find myself with some time available to reconnect with some special people from that manic period of my life, and also to meet new friends who have stumbled upon the small discography of The Ampersands and have shown an interest.  The creative essence of the band and many of our peers was being part of the ‘community’ of do-it-yourself heroes.  Whilst life can take you on a different path for a while, that spirit is never doused.  I would wager that most people who bought a record by The Ampersands – and still have it – were in bands themselves.  I would love to be personally in touch with them and share the music they created too.

So a blatant promotion: anyone should feel free to check out both albums using the links found on The Ampersands’ Facebook page.  I also have my own compilation available as well, although several of the tracks overlap (you’ll find the later Ampersands recordings on the latter).

++ Let’s go back in time. When did The Ampersands form? Who were the members and how did you know each other?

At this point I should make reference to an obscure Australian radio station called 3MFM.  It was a community funded enterprise and a natural magnet for anyone with slightly ‘alternative’ musical tastes who lived in a small rural area approximately 100 miles south-east of Melbourne in 1988.  The station studio was at the base of the transmission tower on a god-forsaken windswept hill known as Mount Misery.  The studio itself was – literally – a converted cow-milking shed.

The 3MFM community included myself, Bart Cummings (an old school friend), Andrew Withycombe and – importantly for me – Stan Emmerson.  Stan introduced me to the delights of Toytown International, the famed cassette label run by the great Wayne Davidson.  Wayne, in turn, introduced all of us to The Cannanes.

There could be no greater inspiration or timelier gathering for creating our own DIY ‘production’ hub.  Together with Stan, Bart and my partner Maria, I ran a fanzine (Zeeeeen!) and released cassettes of our friends’ music under the moniker ‘You’re Standing On My Hula Hoop Productions’.  Along the way the collective grew to include Andrew Withycombe, ‘Dr Jim’ Glaspole and many others.  We generally championed the DIY cause.

A natural progression was to start playing our own music.  Bart and I had unsuccessfully tried to form a band in high school but now several years later sufficiently organised ourselves enough to play complete songs.  Maria was brave enough to sing them.

So that’s how The Ampersands evolved out of a dinky three-piece pop band that Maria Poletti and I were part of.  After working on a set of songs for a few months, we performed as a two-piece using the name for the first time on 10 August 1991 (according to an old gig-flyer I have where we are listed as a support for The Sugargliders and Girl Of The World).  Andrew Withycombe joined us on acoustic guitar for a few songs that night.

A couple of hours later, over a game of pool, Kim Lester agreed to join as our drummer.  Kim was briefly the drummer in the Hanshalf Trio, an earthy yet urbane musical collective and the brainchild of Michael Nichols (who I’d met through the fanzine).

++ What about the name The Ampersands, where did it come from?

Editing a ‘zine introduced us to a whole raft of great new punctuation nomenclature.  ‘Ampersand’ was one that I particularly liked to use, even in the wrong context, just because of the sound of it.  It was also fitting that the first syllable suggests sound.

++ Were The Ampersands your first band? Were you involved with other bands?

Other than the pared-down precursor to The Ampersands – as I described earlier – it really was my first band.  To be honest, besides a handful of months recording with Dean Catoggio (Andrew’s successor as bass player) and Julia Caluzzi under the name of Vivid Ultramarine, it has been my only band.

I should add – only because I still find it amusing – that the original ‘dinky three-piece’ I referred to earlier was known as ‘Brer Rabbit’s A Rascal’ derived from the Enid Blyton children’s book of the same name and selected by Bart and I in a wayward Grade 10 Geography class wherein a hapless substitute teacher by the name of ‘Cuttings’ lost control of twenty-five students.

++ Correct me if I’m wrong but your first release was the rare tape album “Half Folklore, Half Lies”. Who put this out? And why on tape? Also, as I’ve never had a chance to listen to it, how different does it sound to your later recordings and how many copies were made?

Hmm, this has had me stumped for some time.  ‘Half Folklore, Half Lies’ was the first album I referred to earlier.  I vaguely recall dubbing a handful of copies to cassette probably to canvas prospective record labels.  Someone has enigmatically felt a need to append this to our ‘Discogs’ entry.  Coincidentally, this person lists their name as “t_a”.

So it is by no means a ‘release’.

++ Then you had a string of 7″ releases. Three singles to be exact. Let’s start with the one in the German label Meller Welle Produkte. How did this one come about? How did Jörg contact you? And what about the cover drawing?

The Meller Welle single was actually our last release and hastily arranged at a time when the future of the band was unclear.  I believe Andrew was in contact with Jörg and handed over the communication to Maria when he left the band.  The four songs it contained were from the ‘Half Folklore, Half Lies’ sessions – we had newer stuff available at the time but were still hopeful of securing a release as an album so we opted for the older stuff.

The artwork was done by Kim using a ‘life drawing’ style.  Somehow our font got switched so it looks a little different to the earlier releases.

By the time it was released the band had effectively folded.  I don’t own a copy of it to this day and only sighted it for the first time in about 1998 when visiting Stan Emmerson’s house, where one resides near the front of a small box of 7” vinyl.

++ Then you released two 7″s for the great Harriet Records, one of the best indiepop labels. Two questions come to mind. First, how come you never released for an Australian label? And second, how important was Harriet Records for The Ampersands?

Like I said, we were just too small for any Australian label to be interested.  The only option here was to fund a release ourselves – which we could have done – but then we would have had the problem of distribution, airplay and so on.  Having an American label release it was the only sensible option and happily this kind of just fell into place thanks to Andrew’s visit to Boston and a meeting with Tim.

I cannot emphasis how important Tim Alborn was to The Ampersands.  He generously supported an unknown band from the other side of the world and allowed us what I considered to be a reasonable amount of input into the final product.

I confess I was pretty excited when a box of ‘Postcards’ 7” pressings arrived in the mail.  To make that upgrade from cassette to vinyl seemed to make you a ‘proper’ musician.

++ My favourite single of yours must be “Annabel Bleach”. It’s fantastic, even the B-sides are great. But let me ask you, who is Annabel Bleach? And what about the sailor song kind of influence?

I’ve never thought about this song as having a ‘sailor influence’ but now that you mention it I guess there is a sea shanty somewhere in there.

The song just missed out being recorded as part of the ‘Half Folklore, Half Lies’ sessions (it was still a little too raw and we already had plenty of songs).  Eventually we recorded it during the sessions for the next album, specifically for use as a B-side in the event that someone was willing to release another single.  I was stunned when Tim Alborn nominated this for our second Harriet release.

So I have had to live with my most referred-to song being something I wrote as a novelty song.

Annabel Bleach is an old friend of David Nichols and the broader Cannanes community.  She was their first singer.  I met her once briefly a very long time ago – at a time when the song was recorded but not yet released.  The song is therefore about an iconic past member of a revered band rather than Annabel the person who I do not know.

It’s always been inferred to me that Annabel despises the song.  Should this be the case then right here is an appropriate forum to unreservedly apologise for the embarrassment and annoyance I have caused her over the years.

I should have listened to Michael Nichols who at the time strongly suggested that I slightly change the name (his hypothetical alternatives included ‘Annabel Peach’).

++ Talking about influences, what were your favourite bands at this point? Were you fans of other Australian bands by the way?

Bands that we knew – some mentioned here such as The Cannanes, The Sugargliders, Girl Of The World – had a special inspiration to us.  There were also people like Wayne Davidson (Stinky Fire Engine) and Michael Nichols (Crabstick) who admirably waved the DIY flag.

It’s hard for me to speak on behalf of ‘the band’ because we all had very different tastes and influences.  Probably we shared a passion for the stuff coming from New Zealand at this time – the wave of Flying Nun releases and especially much of the Xpressway bands and performers.  Also, K Records were much loved; I recall that Maria and I were both into Mecca Normal in particular.

A popular pastime was scouring the independent record stores for home-label compilation cassettes, the more obscure the better.

++ And this 7″ had a beautiful B-Side “Tell Me What Can I Do” which it was penned by the great Bart Cummings. How did this collaboration come about? Have you collaborated with other Australian musicians in The Ampersands?

‘Tell Me What I Can Do’ was written by Bart in 1990 (or possibly earlier) and performed by Brer Rabbit’s A Rascal.  There is a long lost recording of it with Bart singing, possibly on a cassette tape in an ominous-looking cardboard box in my shed.  No doubt Bart would hope it stays lost indefinitely.

Somewhere along the line I must have decided to sing it at a rehearsal because Maria and I performed it at our first gig as The Ampersands.  I remember Bart being pleasantly surprised.

The cheesy organ on the recorded version was played by Wayne Davidson.  A handful of other ‘special guests’ appear on various tracks; full details will be listed as comments on the SoundCloud page hopefully by the time this interview is made public.

I should particularly mention the contribution Simon Grounds made to the recordings.  Simon has been something of a Melbourne musical icon since the early 1980s, most notably as a music producer and earlier as the founder of Shower Scene From Psycho.  We met him after Girl Of The World had worked with him at his private studio and had sung his praises.  Our bond with Simon was instant and strong.  He soon became our regular sound mixer for live shows (Maria said she would refuse to perform unless Simon was mixing) as well as the producer of both our albums.  It is he playing the madcap organ on ‘Annabel Bleach’.

++ But this record was your last, 1995. Before that you had released on Harriet too another fantastic 7″, “Postcards”. Tell me a bit about this record. What is the song “Postcards” about?

‘Postcards’ was written by Maria using lines from actual postcards people had sent to us.  She dryly observes how they all contained the same corny lines but nonetheless carry “lots of love”.

I wrongfully get co-authorship because of the music; it’s not really honourable to claim for only two chords.

‘Postcards’ was a crowd favourite, more than ‘Annabel Bleach’ was I think, and was the closing selection for almost all of our live performances.

There is an earlier recorded version that is slightly more manic but was properly mixed by Andrew Withycombe at the time.  It will be uploaded to SoundCloud when I get the chance.

I must say that during the lifespan of The Ampersands and for many years after I felt somewhat ambivalent about the song.  Twenty years later, if I truly let my guard down, I know that it holds a special place and I cherish it very much.

++ You made a video for “Cicchitti Pipeline”, how was that experience? Why not make more videos?

The video was hastily put together when David Harris from Season Records asked for a contribution to his forthcoming video compilation (eventually released as ‘Munch’).  This was not a straightforward task in the pre-digital days.

Maria took charge of the production and borrowed a video camera from her work.  The hotch-potch of video snippets was taken over the next couple of weekends.  There was no story-board, no script, no planning to speak of – just click ‘record’ wherever we were going (hence Bart makes a very brief cameo appearance at one point).

Editing all this together was difficult.  For example, we tried to switch scenes on the first beat of various sections of the song but it just simply didn’t work out.  The result makes me cringe.  Some meddling sod has uploaded it to youtube and thus provided my daughter with a forum to post “hey, that’s my Dad” which she thinks is funny.

For me, the song is one of the most enduring of The Ampersands’ repertoire.  Our friend Stuart Mathieson played a neat flute part and the minor chords kind of epitomise the bands’ sound (my whole guitar track is played with the index finger unmoved at B-String, fret 1).

It was intended as the opening track of our first album but, as well-documented here, it was never to be.  It was a relief to have it made public in some format and even better when Jörg included it on the ‘Dart’ EP some time later.  The song title steals the surname of a girl I worked with at ANZ Bank and the ‘Pipeline’ part pays homage to Guthegga Pipeline, an early band of Stephen O’Neil from The Cannanes.

I’ve recently uploaded a slide-show onto youtube featuring my song ‘Ford Cortina’ performed by Vivid Ultramarine, the recording project I worked on with Dean Catoggio and Julia Caluzzi in 2001.  Naturally, your readers should check this out!

++ You always used the same fonts for all your releases’ artwork, also for the video. It was sort of your trademark. Was there somehow a concept behind this?

This is a very astute observation.  There was not the wide variety of fonts that are readily available today.  The font itself is simply called ‘Bookman’ (even pre-dating ‘Bookman Old Style’) and was standard with the original Apple Macintosh (which we used to publish Zeeeeen!).

I liked the way the upper case ‘A’ joined itself to the next capital letter, something that was lost with Bookman Old Style.  The ampersand symbol was also quite strong-looking in Bookman although we rarely used it.

I can’t actually remember the font appearing in the video – and please don’t oblige me to check it! – except that it was brandished across our banner which may have appeared.  By the way, our banner was made by Maria and although simple (black paint on calico with Christmas lights around the perimeter) its size was startlingly effective.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any particular ones that you still remember, favourite of yours?

There is no definitive account of how many times the band played.  I would guess 20 times but certainly not many more.  I know this seems a ridiculously small number but it wasn’t easy to organise.  There were only a handful of venues willing to host a ramshackle band like The Ampersands and all of us worked full-time so it was hard, for example, to be at The Punters Club Hotel at 4:00 p.m. on a Tuesday when the guy who booked bands wanted to meet with anyone looking for gigs.

It’s hard to pick out a ‘favourite’ gig, although I remember packing my guitar away one night after a gig at the Empress Of India and thinking that it was the best we’d ever played.  It was probably in 1993 but it’s likely the gig is not documented.  I do remember supporting The Cannanes at the Richmond Club Hotel three days before we started recording the second album; we played very tight and I remember spying Stephen O’Neil in the crowd and reading a look of wonder and surprise in his expression.  There are a couple of photos of it located on The Ampersands’ Facebook page (with me wearing a somewhat tacky but strikingly vivid waistcoat I’d bought at Camden Lock Market).

There were, of course, other memorable incidents not directly relating to the music.  At our first gig as a four-piece, the boys from Crabstick donned an elephant suit and languidly swayed through the crowd, trunk swinging.  I’m not sure who was the back half of the elephant.

Another time, after Andrew had left the band and Dean Catoggio was playing bass for us, we were first up at the Empress and then relaxed with a beer to watch the next band – who we’d never seen nor met before.  “That guy’s bass looks a bit like yours”, I said to Dean.  He moved closer to the stage for a better look and came back saying something along the lines of “that is my fucking bass”.  The guy had rifled through our stuff mid-set after one of his own strings broke.  We were annoyed because he didn’t have the courtesy to ask and had clearly, unlocked, unbuckled, restrapped and assumed temporary ownership of a valuable piece of equipment.  There was nearly a fist fight as Dean, Kim and I confronted the guy.  Said he, “hey man, show some professionalism, we had to play on for our fans”.  It was laughable.

By the way, all the venues I’ve mentioned are located in our hometown, Melbourne.  Sadly, we didn’t ever play anywhere else.

++ When and why did you decided to split in 1994?

There is a long story or a short answer.  In the interests of discretion I’ll simply say things weren’t working out.

++ And then you came back in 1996 as a recording entity? Right? How did that work?

Tim Alborn contacted me some time after the band parted ways.  He was winding up Harriet and was putting together a final compilation CD featuring many of the bands he’d released.  He had asked to use two songs.

We had plenty of unreleased recorded material but I had written a song I was pretty excited about called ‘Napier Jane’.  At this stage I was catching up with both Dean Catoggio and Kim Lester regularly and suggested we rehearse it to see how it sounded.  It must have seemed quite odd to them because I had a very clear idea of the end product which was to feature dual female backing vocals, violins and a long outro, none of which I could effectively articulate or demonstrate.

Soon after, I caught up with an old acquaintance Roger Russell, a long-time friend of Stan Emmerson and founding member of The Drought (a band whose final incarnation included Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton from Cats’ Miaow and Hydroplane).  Roger had an early digital studio which he was yet to fully master, so I use the phrase “it was fun” with caution.  ‘Napier Jane’ was recorded over several weeks in 1996 in at least three different studios and I was really happy with the result.  Tim generously included it, along with its B-side ‘Affected’ (a song written by Julia Caluzzi), on ‘Friendly Society’.

Buoyed by the ‘bigger’ sound, I eventually cobbled together a band of good people – including original drummer Kim Lester and incumbent bass player Dean Catoggio – to record four more songs in 2000.  As well as myself, Kim and Dean, we were joined by Jessica Fry on violin, Ian Finlay on electric guitar, and my partner Leisal Florien helping with some backing vocals.  All of these people had played on ‘Napier Jane’ four years earlier.  The recordings made at Dean’s private studio turned out to be the final productive venture of The Ampersands.

++ Are you all still in touch with the classic lineup? If so, what do you do these days? Do you have any hobbies other than music?

Sadly, no.  I’m still close friends with Dean and less frequently catch up with Kim.

During my time in The Ampersands I was holding down a full-time job in the finance industry, a career that only wound-up in 2011.  It was fun in the early days, an industry with much camaraderie and loyalty.  More recently… well, let’s just say it no longer aligned to my values.

I am therefore currently the full-time carer of three school-aged offspring variously aged between 17 and 6.  My partner – and their mother – is a full-time student and lives away on campus during the week so it’s an interesting role reversal.  I’ve had lots of time to begin archiving those heady days of the early 1990s.

I cannot say for sure whether my musical career is over.  I’d like to think not but who knows?

++ Thanks a lot Darren. One last question. In retrospective, what would you say were the biggest highlights of The Ampersands? And if you could, would you repeat The Ampersands experience all over again?

It’s easy to say of course I would repeat The Ampersands’ experience, but then just as easy to make sure I’d change bad decisions made along the way!

The overwhelming highlight has been the people associated with the band.  This encompasses close friends, many of whom have since lost contact, those who were critical to the performance, both live and recorded, and those who helped having our music heard.  I know this sounds just as corny as lines from a back of a postcard (refer above) but honestly that’s what drives me.

It was particularly special to be able to work at something creative with my then-partner Maria.  I probably didn’t value that as much as I should’ve at the time.

You didn’t ask me about a ‘lowlight’.  Naturally it would be that it all had to end sometime.  But then again, meeting people like you means that it really doesn’t.

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Listen
The Ampersands – Tell Me What I Can Do

Thanks so much to Simon Howles for the interview! I wrote about The Lowthers not so long ago and Simon was kind enough to get in touch and answer all these questions immediately. Sit down, and read about this obscure Manchester band from the late 80s, a band that included Roger Quigley from The Montgolfier Brothers.

++ Hi Simon! Thanks a lot for the interview. Were The Lowthers based in Manchester? Where are you based now?

The Lowthers were indeed based in the Manchester/Salford area, which is where I still live.

++ Was The Lowthers your first band?

The Lowthers were formed by the merger of two other bands. I was in a band called The Pop Stars with Frank (the guitarist) it was just the two of us and we only did one gig and a couple of demo tapes. The other band was called Of That Ilk from which Roger (drums) and Julian (bass) came. They got as far as supporting the Fall at a couple of shows. I knew Roger from college and when his band lost a couple of key personnel who went away to study at University, he suggested pooling our resources. I seem to remember me and Frank had already discussed amongst ourselves that this might be a good idea anyway, so it all fell together from there I think.

++ Why the name The Lowthers? Were there any other names that you considered?

The Lowthers were minor characters in the soap opera Coronation Street – Dr and Mrs Lowther. I think we were trying to tap into that Northern “kitchen sink” ethic that The Smiths used to great effect. It was difficult not to be influenced by the Smiths in mid/late eighties Manchester. The Lowthers line-up actually did a couple of gigs as Of That Ilk before we came up with a name that we were satisfied with. I think I decided I disliked the name pretty quickly after we changed it…I suspect the rest of the band did too. It’s not a very original name.

++ Who were the members of the band and how did you knew each other?

As mentioned already there was me and Fran, who lived near one another in South Manchester. I knew Roger from art college and we shared a liking for certain bands (mainly the Smiths). Julian was quite young and answered an advert for a bass player for Of That Ilk…I think…I’m not not sure. He left after about 6 months, as I think his parents thought that rock and roll wasn’t a good career move (good advice) and was replaced by Brendan. Brendan knew Frank somehow…I can’t remember where he knew him from.

++ What other bands from your town did you like at the time? How was the scene back then?

Manchester had a very healthy music scene in the eighties. If you liked indie music, it was arguably THE best place to be at the time. Personally I liked The Smiths, New Order, James, Stone Roses, Railway Children, Easterhouse, Laugh, The Fall, Happy Mondays etc. When the Lowthers started things were very much indie, but by the time we finished the beginnings of what would be rather dubiously tagged “Madchester” was starting to take shape.

++ How come you didn’t have a proper release?

No one fancied putting a record out for us, quite simply. We didn’t have a manager to take care of that side of things, and so concentrated on sending out our pretty shoddy demo tapes to various local labels. I remember pestering Playtime records – Paula (who ran it) damned us with faint praise and said we sounded like a poor quality Smiths…which we did much of the time. I think…and this is me reaching into a memory that is pretty vague…we were looking to build a following but we never quite had the momentum behind us.

++ I do know at least a friend of mine that owns a demo tape of yours. How many demo tapes did you made? Do you remember those recording sessions?

I’d be interested to know what is on your friend’s demo. I can’t remember how many demos we did. We went into the studio a couple of times, but we also recorded some demos in Rogers front room. I remember a review in the Manchester Evening News (they did a local demos review section) describing one as sounding like it was “recorded in a lake”. I can remember the two studio sessions – Mark E Smith funded the first one and showed up to offer an opinion. The second one was right at the end of our time as a band, and I remember it was done as a three piece, with me switching to guitar and vocals.

++ I wrote about you not so long ago on my blog, especially championing the song “Sylvia”. What a song! Was it based in a real Sylvia? What’s the story behind this song?

You’d have to ask Fran about that, as he wrote that one on his own. Myself, Fran and Roger all wrote songs…occasionally collaborating, but that one was music and lyrics entirely by Fran. If I may offer any insight into it at all, I would say that it’s in that same tradition of haunting songs as “Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands” or “Yes It Is” inasmuch as it’s a “hymn to an other-worldly woman” – I don’t really want to offer any more than that as I believe it’s probably quite personal to Fran.

++ And how come you appeared on the “The Disparate Cogscienti” compilation that Mark E Smith was putting together?

Roger lived on the next street to Mark Smith in the Sedgley Park district of Manchester. My recollection is that he would pester him. Hence our description as “Fine British Mitherers” – I understand that the word mither isn’t well know outside these parts, but it basically means to pester, annoy, bother etc…

The NME review described us as the “only half decent thing” on the compilation…more faint praise! It also mentioned us being out of tune…which we were. And I think it’s too fast as well…

++ Aside from that you participated in the “Are You Ready” tape compilation with “Whoose Afraid”. How did that came about?

Now that I really don’t remember. Whoose Afraid was one of mine, although I’ve no idea whether the spelling of Whoose was intentional or not. It was recorded in the studio session when we were a three piece, I’m pretty sure of that.

++ You also sent me another song called “Loyalty”. Where did that song appear?

I’m not sure it ever saw the light of day beyond the band’s inner circle – as we collapsed shortly after it was recorded, so I’m not sure how it ended up on the internet. That was one of Roger’s tunes, although the original arrangement was much slower (and better in my opinion) but we disco’d it up a bit after spending a few weeks re-evaluating the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

++ How many more songs did you have? Which one was your favourite?

We had about a dozen songs…maybe more. There’s some I’m sure I’ve forgotten. I always liked playing Sylvia, Whoose Afraid and Loyalty. There was one called Up Out and Away which I liked, What’s Wrong With Jumping? was our usual live opener, and at the last gig we did a tune that I titled Rhombus which I liked because it had a bit of a groove to it and grooves and beats were coming in by that point. Sadly no live tape exists of that final gig…well if it does, I don’t have it.

++ You played some gigs before disbanding. Which gigs were your favourite and why? Any particular anecdotes you could share?

I enjoyed the last gig we did, simply because I remember we played well. We did a gig at York University which was quite funny – doing the whole “band on tour” stuff for the first time, getting a dressing room, and a rider (four cans of bitter) and larking about having photos taken on the campus. The first gig was did as the Lowthers was a real horrorshow as we were out of tune really badly. Guitar not tuned to the bass and me singing somewhere in between. Added to which, the other bands we played with had a loud and rowdy following that heckled us – we shouted back that the bands that they had come to see were shit. One of those bands was The Milltown Brothers, who went on to be quite popular, although I still maintain the opinion that I held about them when I was shouting on stage that night.

++ When and why did you decide to call it quits? Are you all still in touch? What did you all do after?

We fell apart through a whole load of petty shit that involved girlfriends and other teenage jealousies. Fran voiced an opinion that my singing wasn’t as good as it should be, so that may have contributed as well. Fran left the band, I tried to keep us together as a three-piece but it fizzled out. Me and Fran remained aloof for a couple of years, but we became good pals again without really acknowledging what had happened. He still records tunes, and I’m still in touch with him, but don’t see him as much as I should. I’ve kept in contact with Roger and even done a fair bit of music with him. He’s a very talented musician and records as Quigley, At Swim Two Birds and the wonderful Montgolfier Brothers – very popular in Spain and France I believe. He’s on Spotify if you’ve never heard his stuff – I even played trombone on one of his numbers. I’ve been in various bands since those days – a good live band called Lovewood that did a lot of gigs on the local pub and club circuit, and I was most recently showing off my drumming skills in a Joy Division tribute band (Joy Diversion – we’re on youtube somewhere)

As for Julian and Brendan – I have no idea, but I wish them well wherever they are.

++ Are you still involved with music? Do you have any other hobbies?

Yes, a little bit… see above. My other hobbies involve being a dad, reading history books, watching history documentaries and enjoying a good pint of bitter beer.

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

I suppose the highlight was just making music, being on stage, following my dream for a bit. The fact that the fame and fortune that I hoped for back then didn’t come along was definitely a blessing. As I’ve got older and read all the books by and about other bands I’ve come to realise that I would have hated it…loved it at first, but then really really hated it – I would’ve been a casualty that burnt out messily. So I’m glad that I dipped my toe into the water a tiny bit…I’m happy with that.

++ Let’s wrap it here, thanks a lot Simon. Anything else you’d like to add?

It’s been a pleasure remembering. I’m glad that you enjoyed the songs – we could have really used more people like yourself at our gigs.

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Listen
The Lowthers – Sylvia

Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. The internal energy of a substance is increased, typically by the application of heat or pressure, resulting in a rise of its temperature to the melting point, at which the rigid ordering of molecular entities in the solid breaks down to a less-ordered state and the solid liquefies. An object that has melted completely is molten.

It’s been a couple of weeks since last time I opened the dashboard of my blog. After cleaning the spam comments, replying the ‘real people’s’ comments, getting back to legendary bands that got in touch,  I can finally sit and try to write. While in the UK many people, well, more like 5 people, told me they follow the blog. Some of them said that they do it religiously, some said that they only care for the personal parts, and other said that they wish they had more time to read about it. Another friend asked me again about the book that would compile the blog. That idea is still haunting my head of course. It’s just that it requires so much time to put 500 worth of pages together and I can only wonder when I’ll be able to  lay them out and print them. Time. Time is of the essence.

Receiving these kind of compliments is nice. Especially as I always tend to think people won’t like reading long posts on the internet. Modern tests have shown that the attention span of people when reading articles on the internet is very short. I don’t blame them. We just like flipping and then navigating to something else. I don’t think I’m an amazing writer to keep everyone hooked after a couple of sentences either. So these compliments mean a lot. Especially at this time that it feels indiepop is not as exciting and “cool” as it was some years ago. I’m thankful for the interest. And I hope I keep blogging for a couple more years at least. I started blogging in 2004. And this particular blog was started in 2008. It’s amazing how time flies. I feel as young as I was then.

I wish I could do a review of Indietracks, my trip to Wales, and those few days in London. But I still have to digest it all. Organize the thoughts in my head. It feels so fresh that it makes me feel nostalgic about all those days of hugging and kissing in trains and coaches that parted from Cardiff central to castles and petit towns, the mud and the puddles and nasty shoes at Indietracks, and the last hours at a King’s Cross’ Travelodge. Can’t put it in words yet. It’s tough. It’s hard to be back at work after such wonderful days, picking up the routines where I left them, from going to the post office to buying whole wheat bread at the supermarket. Long gone are the traditional British heart attack breakfasts, with their eggs, beans, bacon, sausage and toast (add brown sauce, plenty), now I manage with a glass of OJ and another of pomegranate kefir. Wonder how come British people are not as fat as those people that stroll their shopping carts in Houston’s malls.

After coming back I got back into Cloudberry business. The most important activity of my days in New York, and Miami before. That and talking to a sweet tooth in Stockholm. This week there were two very important announcements, first of all is that the Earth First 7″ has a release date and it’s just around the corner. The fab black round slab with be out on July 30th. If you like Brighter, Harper Lee, Pinkie, Silver Screen, Fireflies (you know the drill), this is the record for you. Precious, elegant, and chiming, this record includes a song on each side of the vinyl and you can already pre-order it. Look for a Cloudberry Bugle on the day of it’s release if you want to read a bit more about it. And then the other great news is that The Spook School’s 7″ has been unveiled. You can head to the label site to check one of their songs and also pre-order it. The artwork for this single is gorgeous and was made by Canadian illustrator extraordinaire Anna Bron. Time to start saving kids. Cloudberry is pushing it this second half of the year!

Yes! Because on this second half the new fanzine and the Strange Idols CD should be out as well. And Nixon 7″.

At Indietracks I received a CD from Rupert from the A Turntable Revolution blog. He didn’t actually hand it to me, but to Michael from Pebble Records. And then Michael to Cris, and then finally to me. Rupert was kind enough to offer me a CD on a blog comment just before I left to the UK. The CD was to contain lots of obscure indiepop goodies. I didn’t see him at all during the festival. I guess we either watch different bands or we just cross paths and didn’t even notice. Indietracks is not THAT big you know. But lucky enough, on the last night, on that last train from Indietracks to Butterly station, when the train officer was cheering us and asking us to come again next year, and in the same carriage I boarded, I saw Rupert. And I was able to thank him personally. On this CD, I would say I knew half of the bands, some of them I knew their music, but some others just by name. I guess the only good thing of coming back to the US, aside from going to see Shonen Knife yesterday, was playing this CD over and over this week. And it was the first sung that struck me immediately.

Sweet tooth: A great liking for sweet-tasting foods.

The song is “32 Sweet Teeth” by The Meltations. And it’s a fact that adults have 32 teeth whereas babies have 20.

At first listen the jangly and chirping guitar gives me goosebumps. And the vocals, I don’t know how to explain, they are just great. And while listening to it only something crosses my mind, the biggest sweet tooth I know. My girl in Stockholm. She who can skip lunch or dinner and just eat chocolate and jelly beans. Sugar and sugar, sticky fingers. Makes my day seeing her having all the sweets I can’t have. And her excitement over the British candy stores, colorful, and packed from the floor to the ceiling with all candies in different shapes and textures. Some wrapped and some not, waiting to be scooped in plastic bags and taken home for snacking the whole day. Makes me wonder how much happiness will bring to Alexandra when she sees the humongous American candy stores. She was overly impressed by the variety of candy at a Sainsbury’s! She tells me that in Sweden there’s not even half of the variety of candy you find in the UK. She takes her time picking which new candy she’ll try this day while we travel and hour on train to see some castles in a close-by town. One day she picks up Skittles, she’s never had them. These are not the traditionally wrapped in red ones. But in orange. I’ve had had them back in the day. She wonders how they taste. It is very strange for me when she tells me that she can’t find them in Sweden. Even in Peru I could find these! I tell her that they are chewable candy with a hard coating, all of different colors. She gets a bit disappointed when she notices that the center part of all of them is white. She thought they were colored even inside, not just the coating. Things a sweet tooth minds. At first she doesn’t like them much. Then they grow as an addiction. And she takes a bag to Sweden. Sadly the other day she tells me she has run out. If it wasn’t for her mean postman that keeps stealing every single package I’ve sent for the last couple of months, a huge overload of Skittles would be waiting at her front door.

The song makes me grin. I think of her. The distance. The fucking distance. And the visas, and the lack of vacations. The lack of sweet.

Who were the Meltations? Of course the internet keeps quiet about it, as if saving all the clues to itself, hoping that no one uncovers this mystery. The best clue is that on Popsike.com there are two eBay listings. One dating of 2007 when this 7″ went for 80 pounds, and then one in 2010 when it sky-rocketed to 225 pounds sterling. Who might have paid those crazy prices? I always assume is the Japanese.

There are a couple of clues if you keep digging. The B-side to this fantastic 7″ is a song called “I’ll Take It As A Compliment “. Does it have the same amazing jangly guitars as their A-side counterpart? One day I hope I’ll have the chance to listen to it. And the clues start getting thinner and thinner. The record was put out in 1987 and it was a self-release, catalog number MEL01. Recorded at Goldsmiths College. Safe bet to say they were Londoners?

The cover photography, of a man holding a heart-shaped box full of chocolates, was taken by Douglas Cape. I think of myself as the cover star for some reason. The record was mastered by David Burnand who is credited for writing and arranging “Points on the Curve” by Wang Chung. Odd.

The most important clue comes from the band members names: Andrew Newcombe, Heilco Van Der Ploeg, John Penfold and Matthew Graham. And it’s about Heilco Van Der Ploeg who I manage to shed some light. He seems to still be in London and ran a club called Club Montepulciano.  It seems that along this club he also had a band that played in it. With it he released a couple of CDs, “The Autumn/Winter Collection Volume 1” and “The Autumn/Winter Collection Volume 2”. He participates in them, on vocals, writing and arranging. Not sure what’s the sound of them, but I believe it’s some sort of cabaret stuff.

This is what I found out about the club on Wikipedia:

Club Montepulciano was a critically acclaimed lounge and cabaret club-night institution that ran themed events across a number of venues in London, with guest appearances in the South of England and across Europe, from 1993 to 2004. Acting as a launch pad for new talent, the club influenced the emerging cabaret and burlesque scenes.As a musical event, Club Montepulciano was founded on swinging cocktail tunes from nightclubs and ballrooms of a bygone era. Its themed nights had different retro vibes, influenced by icons like James Bond and the Playboy clubs of the 1960s, with clubbers dressing in the style of each event.Venues graced by Club Montepulciano included the Hanover Grand, Café de Paris, the Connaught Ballrooms, Turnmills, the Kensington Roofgardens, Brockwell Lido, the Rivoli Ballroom, the Embassy Club, Glastonbury Festival, Glyndeborne, Pacha’s flagship venue in Madrid, Dingwalls, Eastborne Wintergardens, the original Brighton Concord, The Water Rats, Madam Jojo’s, the Scala club at Kings Cross, the Eve Club, the Blackheath Halls, and The Camden Centre.Club Montepulciano’s cabaret and comedy acts included The League of Gentlemen (before they were famous), Mackenzie Crook from The Office as Charlie Cheese, Jackie Clune as Karen Carpenter, Matt Lucas from Little Britain and Shooting Stars, Amy Lamé in collaboration with ‘Duckie’, Ursula Martinez, The Tiger Lillies (Shockheaded Peter), Men in Coats, Mike Flowers Pops, The Lorraine Bowen Experience, Tina C and Dr Stuart (The Fifth Element), and the UK Latin American Ballroom Dance Champions.Complementing these performers were circus acts, magicians, and impersonators. Club Montepulciano also hosted its own in-house casino, talk-a-oke, the Flirtation Tank and Minuscule of Sound, as well as the in-house band Montepulciano.Club Montepulciano was described as one of the “199 things you have to do before you’re a real Londoner” by Time Out magazine in 2004. The demand for its music grew into Club Montepulciano Recordings and subsequently Freshly Squeezed Music. The band Hooverphonic recorded a song called “Club Montepulciano”.

Quite a change from his early days as a jangle master, huh? Still, the club stopped in 2004, and I wonder where did Heilco go? I wonder where all the members went after The Meltations. I wonder if they had any more songs. How many copies of this 7″ were pressed. Why it is so rare? Why people don’t know about it’s existence being SO GOOD? There’s plenty of mystery and questions to solve about them. I hope you all can help me.

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Listen
The Meltations – 32 Sweet Teeth

So when next Sunday comes around I won’t be waking up in Astoria, NYC, but in Mansfield, in the English midlands. Hopefully the weather is beautiful, something around 18 degrees, unlike here where I’ve been toasting myself feeling as if I was in Miami all over again. I’ll be thinking of the previous day, and I’ll be sad that this will be my last day at Indietracks. I’ll make up my mind and convince myself that I have to get the best out of this day, even if the warm beer and the greasy hamburgers try to prove me wrong. I’ll have a good shave, have a nice breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant and wait for people to gather at the front door in hopes of sharing a cab. The ride to Indietracks will be slow, discussing again which bands were our favourites the previous day and which we are looking forward the most for today. Sunday. Po! got it wrong. Sunday always comes around. And too soon.

My early Sunday was perfect until the other day. The good news was The Spook School were added to the lineup. Echo Lake wasn’t going to participate of the festival anymore due to the loss of one of it’s member. It’s sad news, but was happy to get to see The Spook School who will be part of the Cloudberry family very soon with a wonderful 7″. The terrible part was they were scheduled at a very delicate time when my beloved Electrophonvintage are playing. How to split myself in two? Electrophonvintage starts a bit earlier, at 13:20, at the church. That’s 20 minutes earlier than The Spook School. To start, I’ll be there. Sadly won’t be able to sit at the front row as I may need to leave before they are done with their set. And that annoys me for two reasons, one is that I want to see they play their whole set and second I would love to grab their setlist. If anyone can grab it for me? I will probablyy have to stay until 13:45, 13:50 if I can stress the time. And then leave the church stage and hastily head to the outdoor stage. Hopefully The Spook School has been slow at setting their stuff up, taking forever  to start, and I won’t have missed much. Their gig starts at 13:40. Hopefully I won’t have missed the tracks that will appear on the 7″, I would love to record them on video.

With The Spook School finishing by 14:20 it already clashes with another band I wanted to see, The Sunbathers on the train. And as you know, the train leaves and you can’t catch up with the gig if you didn’t board the train at the scheduled time. So no more Sunbathers for me. And I feel really disappointed. Stupid clashes. I do hope that The Sunbathers, as many of the train bands, play an impromptu  gig at the merch tent. That’s what’s been happening the previous years, and I would be very happy if they did. I don’t want to miss them. At least I want to hear a couple of their beautiful songs.

As this is the case, at 14:20 I’ll go to see some French flair, some gorgeous indiepop courtesy of Doggy. A couple of weeks ago I was listening non-stop a burned CD Fabien from Anorak Records handed me in Madrid. It was a demo by Doggy, with songs from his last album. It was a total surprise. The songs are fresh, catchy, and exude indiepoptasticness. If I had the song names, I’d write them here, and I would try to peek on the band’s setlist while they are playing to check if they will perform these songs. I’m curious to see how many English people would come and see something that they don’t understand, how open minded they are, and how much of a good taste they have. Because, if you didn’t hop on the train for The Sunbathers, you MUST be at Doggy at the church stage.

At 15:00 I head for a warm beer, to the indoor stage. From the bar I’ll see Toniee’s long hair on stage. It’s not The Parallelograms, but one of my most beloved bands. One of those little bands I liked so much back in the early 2000s when I had just discovered indiepop, Velodrome 2000. To be honest, I don’t know how popular they are, but I do hope I’m not the only one singing along to “Bobby Gillespie is a Virgin”, “Charity Shopping” or “Sindy Sex Aid”. They must be somewhat known, they, afterall, recorded a Peel Session. But you never know, this is an unfair world. I never thought I was going to see them live. I feel lucky enough to be here, and I feel grateful to whoever asked them to play.

Now there’s a little break. And I notice I haven’t had any lunch. It’s a bit late for lunch. But perhaps this is the best time to grab a bite. Or maybe not. I know there is going to be a huge line to get in to the church. The Hobbes Fanclub are playing and since releasing the split 3″ on Cloudberry, they’ve become way more popular. So probably the church will be packed. So I better be early, on time, and get a good sit. In my book, I still can’t picture The Hobbes Fanclub as a live band, you have to understand that when I worked with them, it was Leon and Fabi, both of them living thousand of miles away and working their songs through the internet. Now Fabi is not part of the band anymore and the band is a three-piece based in Bradford. In any case, in my book they are also one of the bands that I think will be one of the festival surprises.

Big break now. Big, in Indietracks terms, means something around an hour. 18:20 everyone heads to the church, or at least everyone that knows what GREAT indiepop is, and get to see the lush Love Dance. How many years since they released their album? Or how many years since they put out that 7″ that bowled us all over. So many, more than five definitely. And even though we thought they were no more, that they had split, they are playing at Indietracks. And who knows how, why, or any other question you want to ask, but I don’t care. This might be one of the most special gigs at the festival. It does feel by this time that I have spent an awful lot of time at the church. Perhaps it’s my subconscious too, that wants me to sit and not get tired, at least not yet.

When Love Dance are almost done, hastily I have to go see Language of Flowers. I was saying in my previous post that there were two bands that convinced me that I had to go to Indietracks this year. One was Liechtenstein. The second was Language of Flowers. The previous years I’ve seen a couple of times Help Stamp Out Loneliness and been systematically asking Colm about the unreleased Language of Flowers songs (there are 3 as far as I know, and they are GREAT), and when they were reforming. Half-jokingly I would instigate. But never thought this was actually going to happen. Why would it? They released just one album, a perfect album, a cult album if you ask me. It was the best indiepop record in a long time and everyone loved it. I think it’s just the cherry on the top of the cake this gig at Indietracks. They are closing the circle, and this might as well be the best gig at the whole Indietracks, even though Colm probably say they were shit. “Songs About You” or “Botanic Gardens”, I do hope they are allowed to play an encore. And I want that setlist.

Sadly, if you notice I have missed The June Brides. And this hurts a lot. They are a favourite band of mine, a big favourite. But they clash, and they clash with other favourites. And I’m only skipping them because I’ve saw them before. True, sans the trumpets, as Phil pointed me out. But I can’t do much. The trumpets are what make The Junies one of the most amazing bands of indiepop history. They are glorious, they can make Jericho fall. But with regret, I have to skip. I hope Phil forgives me.

After Language of Flowers things should run smoothly for all of us festival goers. You get Monochrome Set and then The Vaselines. Seems very straight-forward from now on. Who would choose any other band playing at that same time?

Then at the marquee, getting our shoes dusty and trying not to trip with the big boulders that pop up from the ground, we will dance to our Spanish friends Jorge and Miguelink. Just one request, not too much 60s Jorge!!

Some guy will shout “last train”. We will be heart-broken. Drunk too. We’ll give hugs to the right, to the left, everywhere. We say goodbye. Until next time, whenever that is. Good friends this is farewell. Maybe some of you I will see next week in London. Most probably I won’t see the rest for a long time. But it was great to see you. It was a fabulous weekend. And with that memory we head back to Mansfield. For the last night in the Midlands. Next day we have to leave early to Cardiff. For our vacations of castles, sheep, and botanic gardens.

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The Golden String is a sequence of 0’s and 1’s that is very closely related to the Fibonacci Numbers. Other names for it are The Fibonacci Rabbit sequence or The infinite Fibonacci word. I’m not sure what the point of it is, but math scholars salivate when seeing it. But this time I’m heading all the way to the Netherlands for our obscure band of the week. To Maastricht to be precise.

Maastrich is located in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital. It is widely known as a city of history, culture, local folklore, education. Furthermore, it has become known, by way of the Maastricht Treaty, as the birthplace of the European Union, European citizenship, and the single European currency, the euro. The name Maastricht is derived from Latin Trajectum ad Mosam (or Mosae Trajectum), meaning ‘crossing at the Meuse’, and referring to the bridge built by the Romans. The Latin name first appears in medieval documents and it is not known whether this was Maastricht’s official name during Roman times.

As far as I know the Golden Strings were active since 1981. Releasing their first record in 1983, a 12″ called “Budweiser Shuffle” on the Deng Deng Deng record label (catalog ES 46.782 M). The songs included were “Make Me Believe”, “Some Kind of Woman”, “Forward”, “She”, “Everybody Else” and “Budweiser Shuffle”. Their sound at this point wasn’t as poppy and fantastic as their later release. But still worth a listen. I think it’s easier to find this record than the other ones and it’s the only one I own. So keep an eye. This 12″ was recorded at Eurosound Studio’s Harveld. On Youtube the drummer Serge Van Dalsen’s sister has uploaded a couple of these if you want to have a listen.

The next release is a fantastic split 7″, shared with Buy Off the Bar (who were dutch as well), that includes two songs by the Golden Strings. The first one is a cracker and i’s called “My Life Is Like A Stanley Knife (Cut, Cut, Cut)”. It’s SO catchy, and it has this fabulous trumpets. I’m thinking of bands like Big Gun or How Many Beans Make Five while listening to them. The other song they contribute to this record is “Walked Out of That Door”. On the other hand, Buy Off the Bar participates with “February 6th” and “Silence”. This record was released on our favourite year, 1986, as a joint release by Deng Deng Deng records (catalog DENG 002) and Bang Bang Bang records (catalog BILLY 1). I’m guessing here that the first label belonged to The Golden Strings whilst the latter to Buy Off the Bar. The songs by The Golden Strings were recorded in Amsterdam at Oktopus Studio and again there are no band credits, so we don’t get to know the band members names.

The only other interesting fact on this record, that included a black and white 35×25 cm poster full of photos, are the running grooves etchings: on the Buy Off the Bar side it says “Bring Back The Buzzcocks” and on The Golden Strings side:  “We’re All Jump Boys”. Clearly big fans of the Undertones too. I’m looking for a copy of this one!

And last, but not least, my favourite song of theirs: “Tongue’s Too Big”. This track is a favourite of mine on Youtube, as I haven’t had the chance to find a copy of this record!, especially because of their trumpets, their glorious trumpets. Trumpets that do remind me of The Junies. Ah! Now I feel more terrible to miss them at Indietracks!! But yes, when you listen to this song you’ll understand. It sounds like a lost gem from C86 days in London, a song that should have been a single, a cult classic, but no, it ended up buried in a compilation record. Can you believe it? A song this good not having it’s own proper release? Life is never fair indeed.

“Tongue’s Too Big” appeared on the “13 Great Bands From The Low Lands “,  the second Noet Lachten records compilation.The album was financed by all the bands together; It included music from all over Holland except The Voners, who are Belgian guests. The catalog was NOET 4. The 12″ artwork is very strange, very artsy collage with two mouths half open, with the teeth showing. It looks a bit like a monster. Among the bands included in the compilation the only ones I’m familiar with are Buy Off the Bar and The Melting Eskimos who had a 7” on Meller Welle Produkte from Germany. This compilation was released in 1987.

And that’s about all I’ve been able to gather about this fantastic band. I believe they started as a new wave / punk pop band and as years went by their sound got more C86-ish. Their songs are fun and catchy, and also have that ramshackle element that I love. If you have any other information about Maastricht’s best, or if you happen to have extra copies of their records. Please get in touch! If you were in the band, please do too, it’d be fun to do an interview and learn more about you. I wonder if they had more songs. I’m sure they did.

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Listen
The Golden Strings – Tongue’s Too Big

Thanks so much to Simon Ashby for this interview. Well, what can I say about The Jeremiahs?! I don’t know of anyone that has listened to them and haven’t thought these songs were really special. Their one and only record is almost impossible to find and it’s a masterpiece of jangle pop. On the web there’s barely anything written about them. And hoping there’s a re-release of all their songs, here is a fantastic interview for you all to enjoy! Also do check his blog EarTwister.

++ How did you know John, Robert and Ben? And what did each of them brought to the creative process of the band?

Before we start, I have to say this was a long time ago and much has happened since those heady days, so if there’s anyone out there who knows any different then please feel free to chip in. There’s every chance I may be talking nonsense.
John Robert and I went to the same school, we started messing around with music then doing covers and rehearsing in the drama room at lunch. Our first band was called Art23, named after the table we sat at in art class funny enough. I think they numbered the tables so they knew who to blame when stuff was pilfered. Ben is John’s cousin and arrived much later when The Jeremiahs formed.
After school John and Rob formed a band without a drummer and a art school type singer who was all haircut and no substance, to some extent we’d stopped hanging out. I was drumming and singing backing vocals in a band at college. We were doing a gig when the singer’s mic packed in and I filled in the lead vocal whilst drumming till the problem was fixed.
Not long after that gig Rob asked me if I wanted to join the band. I remember carting my drums over to Rob’s house in my dad’s car to find out that they wanted me to sing not drum, my dad wasn’t best pleased. We played as a three piece for some time before John got in touch with his cousin about playing kit. The only problem was, Ben lived bloody miles away. We travelled to his home town and spent a few days jamming and writing and pretty much dragged Ben back with us after that. He moved into John’s parents’ house and the rest as they say is……… We made our first recordings in Ben’s home town somewhere near Cheltenham in a garage come studio. We recorded two songs, ‘Never Come Back’ and a really fast number called ‘Bluer Days’. I listened to if for the first time in an age and couldn’t believe how quick it seemed.

++ Where does the name The Jeremiahs come from?

Miserable and moody was fashionable in those days, there was quite a bit of dark indie around at the time, early Cure and Echo and the Bunnymen etc. Jeremiah was the profit of doom and gloom so The Jeremiahs it was. Rob came up the name as far as I can remember. Some would say he was a sensitive introverted type, others would say a miserable sod. I remember him having a go at me once for making him laugh whilst someone was filming a rehearsal. Laughing it seems was not cool.

++ What sparked you to make music? Did you have any music heroes perhaps? And what was the music you were listening at that time? Did you feel part of the so called C86 guitar pop sound from back then?

I knew I wanted to make music from a very early age. The Salvation Army band used to come down my street once a week with a collection bucket. I was a toddler at the time but my mum tells me I’d sit on the garden wall with my tin drum and wait for them to start playing so I could join in beating my drum, it must have really pissed them off the racket that thing made. We moved out of London when I was quite young, not a place to bring up a family apparently. At first my new surroundings were great, plenty of trees to climb and open space, but as you get older it becomes more like a green prison. Music would eventually become my escape route. My mum would play The Carpenters, Mammas & Pappas and Neil Diamond at the weekends whilst cleaning the house. Between them they have written some great songs with some stunning melodies. That was my introduction to music, but around the age of 10 I got probably my best birthday present ever, my first record player. It was white and allowed you to stack 7 singles at a time. I’d never treat vinyl like that now. The first band that spoke to me was The Jam. Weller was simply singing about me. I couldn’t believe it, someone who knew what I was thinking, and the power in the music was incredible, I was gutted when they split. The Clash, Blondie (I learnt to drum to Parallel Lines in a padded cell, well a garage lined with mattresses) 2Tone and various others followed until the arrival of the Bunnymen, REM and The Smiths, my next love affairs. As for the C86 thing, I can’t say we felt part of any scene. By that time being in the band had become all-consuming and the outside world was just that, outside of what we were doing.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any particular ones that remain a favourites ?

We played loads of gigs, way too many to mention. As for favourites, I’m not sure. I enjoyed every time we played the original Marquee on Wardour Street in London. Every band that had played there had signed the dressing room wall and it was mad to see our names next to those of The Who, Bowie, The Small Faces, The Jam and hundreds of others. By the time we got there you had to find a small space in which to write. Not the done thing to scrawl over another band’s signatures. That wall must be worth a fortune now. The Marquee is where the Japanese thing began. We played with a band called GI Orange who none of us had ever heard off before. They were a fucking terrible band, seriously cringe-worthy. They were English, but it seems nobody was interested over here so they’d done a bunk to Japan where it transpires they were pretty popular. It turns out that gigs in Japan at the time started earlier than gigs in England, so when we went on stage the place was packed with Japanese girls. They simply took our music back to Japan with them. The next thing we knew we were being sent copies of magazines that had us top 5 in the Japanese airplay charts. By this time the band were living in the same house (I think). I remember one day when we just found a bunch of Japanese girls outside our house, bloody mad. I think Robert went on to marry one of them…….. I’ve just googled GI Orange and they’ve only gone and reformed, sad f**kers. Give it a rest boys, it was shit first time around.

++ There’s little information about The Jeremiahs’ online. So I wonder, back in the late 80s, were you more known? I mean, was there coverage of The Jeremiahs in fanzines, perhaps radio play? You think it was harder or easier back then to get your name out?

There was plenty of coverage in fanzines, Melody Maker and the like, the trouble is I didn’t keep any press, it just didn’t occur to me at the time. To busy doing it to be reading about it, and certainly no scrap book. Leave that sort of thing to GI Orange. We were pretty well supported by regional radio too.
Was it more difficult back then? To be honest it’s hard to say. The internet has certainly made it easy to access music you like, but as with most swords they’re double edged. The trouble is, you have to wade through so much shit to unearth the gems amongst it. Back then we just had to gig, gig and gig some more to build a fanbase. Our fans were pretty cool though, they’d put on coaches to follow us around.

++ So yes, that one fabulous release of yours. The very rare and sought-after “Driving into The Sun EP”. From the top of my head, how many copies were pressed? And how do you feel when it goes for crazy prices on eBay?

I have no idea how many copies were pressed, I don’t think bands asked in those days, a decent run though. Someone asked me to sign a copy whilst I was in a pub in Manchester not so long ago; they actually went home there and then to get it, crazy. How they recognised me all these years later is beyond me and so far from where the band was based too. As for the prices on ebay , I wished I’d stashed a box of vinyl away in the loft, it could pay for this year’s holiday and then some.

++ The cover art, are you all the guys in the photo? If so, who is which? And what about the back cover?

Yes that’s us. Top left Rob, top right John, Bottom left Ben and bottom right me. The pictures on the reverse were drawn by us in relation to how we perceived the song title. If you placed the drawings image over the photo you’d know who drew which. You see, mines bottom right, happy soul by nature.

++ Abstract Sounds has a very eclectic catalogue, from your fantastic jangle to well, New Model Army. I was wondering, how did you end up signing to them? Was there a contract and all, or just a handshake?

To be honest, you’re better off talking to Tim Paton on this one (I’ll give you his contact details), he was our manager at the time and also a staff photographer for the Melody Maker, so he may have some photos and press. That and I’m sure his memory cells will be less ravaged than mine. As far as I can remember though, we signed with the label. The only other things I can remember was being taken out to watch James play at the London Astoria, sitting in a private booth on the balcony, probably just after we signed. That and the bloke behind the label shared his business address with his wife who represented some of Britain’s best known glamour models, the sort that appear topless on page three of our red-top newspapers. I think she was making loads of cash, some of which was used to fund things at the label. I have a memory of Tim taking me round the label for some kind of meeting, and there were women wondering around the place with their tits out, all very enjoyable for a young man.

++ For me this release is a true indie pop classic. So if it’s not much to ask, would you mind telling me, perhaps just a little description, one or two lines, about each song on it?

The only thing I’ll tell you is that all four songs were recorded at completely different sessions. As for the lyrics, for The Jeremiahs stuff I think its best left to the listener to draw their own conclusions. Either that or you can track down Rob who I’m sure will be more willing than I to divulge what’s behind the tunes.

++ You were telling me there was a promo video for Honeysuckle Love!! I hope it shows up on Youtube someday. But how was it? What does it show? Any anecdotes you could share about it? And where was it shown? Top of the Pops?

I can’t remember where it was shown to tell you the truth. It was half performance video and half of the band wondering through some local woods and messing about. The stuff shot in the woods was black and white 16 mm film, whilst the performance side was shot in a film studio in Paddington London on 32mm. We had to mime at double the track speed as people shook a net above our heads containing what seemed like every autumn leaf that had fallen in London. The idea was that once the track was slowed to normal speed, we’d look as if we were playing as usual while the leaves were falling in slow motion. My two abiding memories are; too much make-up (colour shoot) and the fact that having worked late into the night, one of the camera men feeling somewhat tired managed to crash his new Ferrari into a tree on his way home, ouch!
There’s a kind of documentary of how the video was made that goes with it. But the audio quality has suffered quite a bit on both over the years. It’s something I hope to address when I have the time.

++ One of the songs was recorded in London, and the three other in Oxford. Why was this? Where did you have a better experience?

We’d already recorded ‘The Reason’, ‘Honeysuckle’ and ‘Wipe Away Your Tears’ in various sessions in Oxford and they sounded pretty good to us, so why re-record. We used VM Studios in Oxford quite a bit. Chris Bayliss who engineered and produced was a family friend of Rob’s clan and there never felt like any pressure to rush things. He’d also work with some of the big pop acts of the time so he knew his stuff.
The two studios couldn’t have been anymore different. VM was outside Oxford in what seemed to me to be the middle of nowhere, which by and large kept us out of trouble. Chris used to fill the vocal booth with candles and turn out all the lights when I was laying down vocal tracks, very zen.
‘Driving Into the Sun’ was recorded at Greenhouse Studios in London. I can remember hearing the Kings Cross prostitutes earning their money in the cheap hotel where we stayed, a particular pub open 24/7, having a chef to cook for us in the studio and generally having a great time.
So in answer to your question the two experiences are beyond comparison.

++ Before this release, in 1986, there was a tape that contained three songs, “Over the Stove”, “Wipe Away Your Tears”, and “Never Come Back”. I believe this is the tape I listened at Firestation HQ. It was fabulous! Which makes me wonder, how many other songs were recorded and didn’t get released?

There’s quite a bit of material out there somewhere, unfortunately not much with me. I’m doing my best to track the stuff down and digitise it before it rots. I watched a ruff video of us playing the Marquee not so long ago and there’s songs in the set I didn’t even recognise. My friend Stephen who plays bass for Twisted Wheel has got quite a bit of stuff that we’ve started to digitise, but I won’t catch up with him again until Kendal Calling Festival in late July.

++ The other song I’ve heard by you is “Far From the Maddening” which is a sublime tune. It was included in a compilation called “The Final Teaze”. There seems to be other compilation appearances by The Jeremiahs too. Care filling the blanks?

I’m afraid I can’t help a great deal. I think tracks have made it on to four or five compilations (so people tell me) but to be honest you probably know more than me. The one thing I can tell you is that I’m pretty sure ‘Beyond the Fence Begins the Sky’ was the first. The compilation was put together by a DJ from a radio station. He was probably the first to jump on the band, playing ‘Never Come Back’ whenever possible. With that said you’d think I could remember his name but for the life of me I can’t. Sometime later in Manchester I was approached by an American singer called Dane Chalfin (now a vocal coach) who wanted to cover ‘Never Come Back’. I produced the session and really wanted John to play guitar on the track but we couldn’t make it happen for some reason. It may have been our first song but it still holds a place in my heart. Shame about the drum sound though.

++ So what happened? So many great songs and just one release? Were people deaf then? Weren’t there any labels interested in releasing your records?

It’s strange but it just wasn’t that simple. It seems you hear a body of work when you listen to the music as we did at the time. Sure there were slight differences but it was all Jeremiahs to us. The trouble was that everything back then was so niche and some labels couldn’t see past the simplest movements in style. I remember somebody had sent ‘Over the Stove’ ‘Wipe Away Your Tears’ and ‘One Way to Go’ to a national magazine. They used guest reviewers from time to time and that week it was the head of Cherry Red Records, who back then were a label we really admired. The review was unbelievable and ended with what basically amounted to a deal being offered in print. But when they heard the ‘Far From the Maddening’ sessions we’d just completed they simply didn’t get it. They took it as a massive change in direction rather just a part of a bigger picture. So yes, deaf is probably right.

++ And so then what? When and why did you split? And what did you do after?

I think it’s fair to say that it wasn’t musical differences as some reported, not entirely anyway. The long and short of it is Rob and I could no longer work together, it got as bad as coming to blows. It would be unfair to go into detail as other parties were involved and the whole thing is pretty personal. Only those who appear on or live life through reality TV shows would put such things in the public domain.
I think John probably felt the same way as me and Ben was probably ducking for cover and who could blame him. I can’t be positive when the split happened but I remember playing a few cracking farewell shows, one in particular at Reading Trade Union Club was packed and fairly emotional.
I can’t speak for the others but after the split I drank too much, messed around with girls that I shouldn’t have messed around with, (which resulted in a split of a different kind) and was generally dissolute. On another indulgent night out at the After Dark Club I met a girl who was visiting whilst on a break from University in Manchester, Jo was her name. A few days later I upped sticks and headed north. It was a case of sex for no rent but I think it suited us both. Six months later I’d moved all my equipment up there and formed my next band This Gigantic World. Six months after that I was back touring and making records. The closest thing to the Jeremiahs stuff was our debut single ‘Raft’ which got joint single of the week in the NME along with a track by the Paris Angels. I have to say touring with TGW was an absolute riot from start to finish. Downing instruments mid set to fight an entire Rugby team, nearly losing our drummer Trev overboard, Partying with those kids in Belfast and playing some blinding gigs on the way.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say were The Jeremiahs highlights as a band?

There is nothing bad about being young and in a band; everything is a colourful and exciting new experience. It’s you against the world and fuck the consequences. The girls were good too.

++ Are you still making music these days? What other interests or hobbies do you have?

I’ve never left the world of music, I mean why would you? Since the split of TGW I’ve worked in A&R, managed bands, lectured in music business at Salford University, promoted gigs, regularly DJ a Manchester indie night called Modern Vintage, currently write for UK Music mag the Hit Sheet and the brilliant Eartwister blog and still misbehave whenever possible. I reviewed Elbow’s stunning show at Jodrell Bank Observatory last weekend and will be doing the same for the Stone Roses reunion shows at Manchester’s Heaton Park this. I’m also working with a great young band that I will remain tight-lipped about at present. Other than to say, that if you like The Jeremiahs you’ll love this lot, I’ll keep you posted.
As for writing and playing I’ve not done so in some time. However only today it was muted that something could be in the pipeline, working with Tim Thomas from the brilliant Blueprint Studios (home of Elbow). I’ll let you know if it sounds any good, otherwise it never happened.

++ So, Manchester, I was there this summer, really nice town! I hope I visit again soon, probably next year! So any pointers on what to see, where to eat, where to go record shopping?

That would make for a very long list. Just drop me a line and I’ll show you around and perhaps take in a gig or two.

++ One last question, is there any hope there will be a Jeremiahs reunion one day?

I’d love to have a reunion with John and Ben if just for a drink. I’ve spoken to John’s dad (Ben’s uncle) Clive on a few occasions but getting hold of the boys has proved very difficult. When I think of them it’s with real fondness, it would be good to hook up. As for Rob I have no idea where he is, maybe Japan. If you’re suggesting a musical reunion which I think you are, hold on a minute…………..Sorry about that, several pigs just flew past my window.

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Listen
The Jeremiahs – Far From the Maddening

Is it really two weeks until Indietracks?

This year the festival is happening in early July, trying not to clash with the London Olympics. The torch will still be going from town to town while we party and a parade of grannies and celebrities will be carrying it, crossing steel bridges and posing in front of sky high cathedrals. Who cares about the Olympics, Beckham won’t be playing, right? And anyways, we’ll be in Derby of all places. And this year I’m staying in Mansfield, not Alfreton, which is a big change for me and I don’t know how will that work. And that’s because the Travelodge in Alfreton was my headquarters for the last two years, were the breakfasts at Little Chef were appalling but much needed, and the late night wine drinking with Andreas and Nana at the picnic table on the porch were nothing but memorable. And now, because some geniuses booked every single room of the Travelodge way in advance, I couldn’t find a space. And so, as the Premier Inn in Alfreton was also fully booked, the third closest hotel was my choice: Mansfield. Because I’m not camping. Ever.

Happily some friends will also stay at Mansfield which means that sharing a cab won’t be a problem. But, how well it will work? Probably cabs will be over 10 pounds. And then, I wonder how long does it take from this hotel to Butterley Station. Stuff to figure out. Figuring it out starting Saturday. Because Friday we’ll probably miss it. Our train doesn’t arrive to Alfreton until 9:30pm. And I feel going to the festival for just an hour or two, doesn’t make much sense at that point. Jet-lagged.  Traveling all day. A good sleep and rest might be the best idea at that point. Waking up early would be great, head to Tesco and supply ourselves with Diet Coke and other important nutritious elements. But I won’t count with waking up early. We’ll give it a shot. Most probably waking up around 10am and heading for breakfast around 11am. Cristóbal has been raving about the breakfast at the Mansfield Premier Inn. As much as I love British breakfast, I can only have it once a year. It’s a heart attack. Sausage, bacon, egg, hash browns, toast, brown sauce, etc, etc. Delicious. But only once a year. Indietracks time.

Some days ago I made a list of the gigs I plan to attend. There are a couple of clashes like always. Clashes that make me worry, that wish I had the ability to multiply myself; clashes that annoy me, clashes that shouldn’t happen. Though they will happen, always. It’s impossible, unless everyone shared the same music taste. During the last couple of weeks I did my homework as well. I listened to every single band playing the festival, especially, and in detail, those that I didn’t know, that have been under the radar. And well, they’ve been under my radar for a reason clearly. No surprises there. And I went and listened some of them again and again because my dear friend Jennifer told me that I would like them, that they are great, that some have even political lyrics, but no. They didn’t make me feel an urge to release their music. Yeah, that’s the bar I have now. If I want or not to release their music. It doesn’t mean that I will do that of course. But it’s more like, if I had the money, if I had the time, and if the band was willing, will I release it? And if the answer is yes. Then, I like the band, it’s worth of 40 minutes and warm beer on the front row, holding the metal fence and clapping in between every single song.

So Friday. It makes me very sad to miss The School. Their song “Let it Slip” is a modern indiepop classic and a favourite of mine for a couple of years now. And their song repertoire is not far behind. But well, here I’m crossing fingers that they are booked to NYC Popfest next year. Because that’s the only festival I attend next year.

Moving onto Saturday.

Arriving at the festival grounds around lunch time would be perfect. The first band I want to see is not playing until 2pm, so there will be some time to hang out, say hello to friends, and perhaps grab a bite. Wonder what will be the lunch options this year. Will there be at last a proper sandwich place, with real hamburgers? Or instead of vegetarian indian, maybe I can find some chicken tikka? Or what about a kebab truck? I think that would be a big hit. But then, probably the options will be the same. Though, I keep crossing my fingers.

At 2pm Vacaciones will be playing and it feels a bit like a dream. How many years listening to Vacaciones. How many years since they split. But now suddenly they decide to come back. Perhaps it was because the Japanese release of the double CD including all their Elefant recordings? It wouldn’t be a surprise if that sparked it. The CD is a must have for anyone that loves pop. It’s indispensable. More than a decade since they started playing in their native Murcia, the band of the great Rafa Skam is ready to charm the English crowd. Songs like “Poppy Girl”, “No Me Digas Que Me Quieres”, “Espero una Respuesta”, are already classic songs in my book, and for the first time, I’ll be able to sing-a-long. And LOUD!

As soon as Vacaciones gig is over, it’s time for Evans the Death. Actually I’m listening to their album while I write this post. It’s a great debut album, though I miss a bit the lack of production of their demos. But nothing you can do about this, it’s meant to happen.  Since releasing “Catch Your Cold” on the compilation”Do You Think It Will Snow Tonight?” I became a big fan of the band. Young and talented. With bright songs, catchy, and fun. It didn’t take long for a bigger label, than Cloudberry, to offer a release, and well, nowadays they are releasing their music on Fortuna Pop and Slumberland. I never got around to offer them a 7″, something I would have loved. But that’s ok. Now they have 2 7″s out and an album, all of them really fantastic. I feel they could get even bigger. I have seen them before already, at London Popfest, when they played among the first bands and the 100 Club was nearly empty. I feel at Indietracks they’ll have a much bigger crowd as they are not to be missed. My new favourite song of theirs is “Wet Blanket”.

By 4:40pm half of my wishes come true. Also half the reason that I traveled to Indietracks. Half a reason that made me decide that this will be my last festival. One of my favourite bands of the last 10 years or so. Liechtenstein. Where can I start? I guess back in 2006? That’s when I heard for the first time “Stalking Skills” on myspace. It was AMAZING. When I put together that same year a tape called C-06, I had to include it. Liechtenstein re-recorded the song for me. And the rest is history. Later they will release a couple of 7″s in their own label Fraction Discs, penning more indiepop classics for the ages, like the super fabulous “Passion for Water”. And also two strong and dazzling albums would see the light of day. During all this time, even though I’ve seen the members around, especially dear Renée, who actually I saw play solo once, I’ve never managed to catch Liechtenstein live. And I’ve been close, very close, like that one time that they came to NYC Popfest and I had to cancel at last minute my flight for personal reasons. And it’s been like that, always. But at last, I’m heading over the UK, I got convinced that I had to buy a plane ticket there, when I saw they were going to play. After that, I would have seen all modern bands that I like, and I don’t see the point of traveling to attend any other festivals.  But I still have the wish of releasing Liechtenstein again, a proper release this time. No compilation. I love them. So much.

At 5:20pm, hopefully, I can make it to Bart Cummings and Pam Berry’s gig. They will play at the church and probably it will be packed. Two big names, in a tiny tiny place. So what’s the solution? Probably sit on the grass area next to the church and listen from there. Peek through the windows? We’ll see. This could be a magical moment for many, including me. Bart is releasing a new EP soon on Matinée, and from the promo song that’s been around, I can say it promises a lot. Hopefully it will be sold at Indietracks and I can get Bart to sign it for me. Should be nice to see Bart after that time in Berlin when we barely talked.

If I’m still outside the church by 5:40pm (which is the most certain thing at this year’s Indietracks), I’ll head to Gold-Bears. It’s true, I’ve seen them many times by now, but they are always fun to watch. Jeremy and company know how to put a show full of ramshackle guitars and fast-paced indiepop a la This Poison! If you’ve never seen them before. Don’t miss them. There is no one around playing this kind of frantic indiepop. And, you must know, they released last years’ best album.

At 6:20 I will head to see Joanna Gruesome for 20 minutes. I enjoy them, but I have mixed feelings. I find them charming, but nothing special. Their music sounds like the 90s, but for some reason I’m compelled to watch them. I think it’s because the girl/boy vocals. They are catchy and very poppy. My friends tell me that live they don’t have a girl singing. That is not a good sign. I’ll check them out, and see if they convince me. If not, heading straight to the Jasmine Minks at 6:40. This may be my first clash, only if Joanna Gruesome are good enough. The Jasmine Minks for sure are fantastic, but I could miss a bit of their gig just because I saw them last year already. But if I don’t have to miss any Jasmine Minks that’s fine with me too. To sing “Cut me Deep”, “Cold Heart”, or the INDIEPOP-HIT “Think!”, is life-affirming. Front row at the Jasmine Minks is what I recommend. They sounded glorious last year, no reason for them not to this year.

And now it’s time for the headliners. Both I’ve seen before. Go Sailor, once, at NYC Popfest, whereas Veronica Falls, like six times, all over the world. Both are great bands, and have plenty of hit songs. Songs that should be dancefloor fillers. And most of you will be watching them too. You know how good they are. So I’ll see you there. And we’ll have a beer.Then head to Librarians Wanted disco, to dance a bit. After an hour or so, Indietracks last train to Butterley will be leaving and our festival day will be over. Nostalgia will embrace us all and we won’t want to fall asleep, never wanting this day to be over. Just waiting for one final Indietracks day, Sunday.

But Sunday, let’s leave Sunday for next week.

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Now onto our obscure band of the week: The Harpoons.

HARPOON: 1610s, from Fr. harpon, from O.Fr. harpon “cramp iron, clamp, clasp” (described as a mason’s tool for fastening stones together), from harper “to grapple, grasp,” possibly of Germanic origin, or from L. harpa- “hook” (cf. harpagonem “grappling hook,” from Gk. *harpagon, related to harpe “sickle”). Earlier harping-iron (mid-15c.). Sense and spelling perhaps influenced by Dutch (cf. M.Du. harpoen) or Basque, the language of the first whaling peoples, who often accompanied English sailors on their early expeditions.

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal. A harpoon can also be used as a weapon.

Some of you might remember an interview I did to Bristol’s Rorschach. The latter had formed from the ashes of The Harpoons. I tried interviewing the guys again about The Harpoons but never heard from them again. Anyhow, I think everyone should be aware of their one and only 7″ they released, “Tunnel Child / Cindy Storm”. Why? Because it’s fantastic proto-indie-pop. Yeah, I’m coining a new term here. But you’ll understand me when you listen to it. It was back in 1984 when this was released, and they were ahead of their time. “Tunnel Child” is pure bliss of guitar pop, with trumpets, great lyrics, and trumpets, and choruses. Just how I love my indiepop.

On that interview we talked some bits and pieces about The Harpoons:

Yabbo: From what I remember Jon Brokenbrow (the Harpoon’s drummer) had quit and we decided to start a new band (Rorschach) with the same line up – but with Cris Warren on drums. Geoff and I had become friendly with Cris while out busking in Bristol. Cris would tag along sometimes and play harmonica.

Geoff: the Harpoons had run their natural course. The new line up and material was a lot fresher and more punchy.

Yabbo: Geoff is my oldest friend – we met at primary school when we were little children. I met Pete Stillman when I was about 14 and thethree of us pretty much learnt guitar together – often practising at ourhomes. We had a lot of very poor quality equipment. Because we were all learning at the same time I think it was easier. Geoff and I met Scott in an old nightclub in Bristol called ‘Yesterdays’. We were looking fora new singer for the Harpoons and we went up to various good looking blokes and asked them if they could sing – one of them was Scott. I seemto remember that he never got in touch, but then we met him again at a party and it came together. He was a good front man – handsome and charismatic – and he could sing.

The band was formed by most of the guys that went to form Rorschach indeed. It had Geof on bass, Yabsley (Yabbo) on guitar, Pete on guitar, Dominic on vocals and Jon on drums. On the single they got the help from Tom on Sax and Ian on trumpet. The record was produced by Steve Street (is it Stephen Street?) and the sleeve came courtesy from a guy called Phil. The single was recorded at SAM Studios in Bristol, their hometown.

The record is dedicated to “Andy Jones and those Pineapple days”. A bio on the Bristol Archive Records site clears what this means:

Formed out of the ashes of Fishponds-based goofy garage band ‘Groovy Pineapple’ with the departure of their drummer to art school in 1983, the Harpoons (with Pete Stillman on lead guitar, Steve Yabsley on rhythm guitar, Geoff Gorton on bass, Jon Brokenbrow on drums, and Dominic Fitzpatrick on vocals for the single, later replaced by Scott Jarrold after joining Shrewd) were a regular feature on Bristol’s pub rock and club circuit in the early 1980’s, playing frequently at the Western Star Domino Club, the Granary, the Bristol Bridge Inn and the Thekla as well as at other less typical venues, including a memorable gig at Glenside Psychiatric Hospital!

A session for Janice Long’s Radio 1 show recorded at the Abbey Road studios in 1983 led to a growing fan base, with the band’s double A-side single ‘Cindy Storm / Tunnel Child’ produced by Steve Street receiving extensive air play on late night national radio. A tour was arranged, with the band playing at such far-flung venues (for a Bristol band) as Dingwalls in London, and Southampton University. Their exuberant, guitar-driven sound with psychedelic touches, with many of their lyrics penned by Steve Yabsley, the popular BBC Radio Bristol presenter, continued on after the departure of drummer Jon Brokenbrow when the band reformed as Rorschach (with Michele Schillace on drums, who would later play for Portishead), and later as Santa Cruz, who signed to MCA and produced one album before disbanding in the late 1990s.

And that’s about all the information about the band online. It’d be great to hear more from the Rorschach guys, but if any of you have any more information about The Harpoons, if you ever saw them live, or any other anecdotes please share!

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Listen
The Harpoons – Tunnel Child

This is the last part of my NYC Popfest review. And then onto Indietracks because there’s less than three weeks for the greatest indiepop festival of the year. Time does fly.

Let’s say this is just gossip, but when Pushy Parents got offered a place to practice before their Saturday gig, well, they couldn’t say no. I had vaguely met the band on Thursday, after been baked in the Cakeshop’s basement oven, just outside the front door of the venue just in that moment when people are  about to go home but don’t want to leave. Those extra fifteen, twenty minutes, outside the venue, hoping for something exciting to happen. Something else. Amanda and Helena, who were staying at my place, were figuring out with the rest of the band the plans, and what way were people walking towards their subway train. They spoke in Swedish naturally. And the rest of the band thought I was left behind, ignored. And then is when I briefly met them, as I say, “don’t worry about me, I understand perfectly what you are saying”, in my broken svenska. That’s when I briefly, really briefly, met Petter, Therese and Frida. Isak, the other member of the band, I had met last year in London Popfest as he had also joined that time Amanda to be part of The Andersen Tapes.

Friday I left early to work and the girls headed to Flushing for authentic Chinese fare. Saturday they were the ones who left early. They had the chance to practice just before their gig at some place in Brooklyn. They’ve never been to this rehearsal studio but they had an address and a key. The story goes a bit like this, they find the address but there are like 20 doors. All of them are locked. Now, which door will the key fit. Kafakaesque and post-modern as it seems, the key turns on one of the doors, and they end up in a sleek and fancy Brooklyn bar. There are no instruments around, no microphones, just a drum kit. This can’t be it, but there’s beer. It’s a bar after all.

They end up practicing outside the bar with the few instruments they’ve been carrying.

Meanwhile I’ve been attending the afternoon show at Spike Hill in Wiliamsburg. Chelsea and Bayern are playing the final game of the Champions League. Some people are caring about the game more than the shows. I bring in some tacos I bought from the truck outside and the bar tender is nice enough to not kick me out as this venue also serves food, and bringing your own is not allowed. From far away, biting my tortillas filled with cecina and having a pint of Hoegaarden, I enjoy one of the best NYC bands at the moment, Pale Lights. I talk a bit with Comet Gain’s David Feck and get him to sign me an old 7″ I have. Then with Felipe from Cola Jet Set we head to Academy Records and later for some bulgogi to get ourselves back together. It’s already 8pm so we head to Public Assembly.

What can I say about the Pushy Parents gig. First of all this night had the strongest lineup of the festival, with Electric Pop Group, Comet Gain, Seapony and Pooh Sticks. But it was Pushy Parents the one I enjoyed the most. You may think it’s sacrilege, with some indiepop classics up there on the billboard. It may be that I’ve seen Comet Gain and Pooh Sticks before, so the impact wasn’t much of an impact. Seapony sadly didn’t sound like on record and Electric Pop Group were nice but you couldn’t stop wondering what if they had their full band. Still enjoyable though. But Pushy Parents, they were the openers but they felt as the ones who were closing the gig. There wasn’t anything else after for me. I had my dose of fantastic indiepop and why keep on listening. I was done for the night. Especially after their last song, a rendition of Amanda’s old band Free Loan Investments. The song: “Bomb the Bourgoisie”. I remember asking her on chat to play this one months ago. It made my day, it may as well made my year.

This was the first time Helena played live. The rest of the band were much more experienced. They’ve been in many bands. And you could tell. They were so tight. They were having great fun. From the already classic “Secret Secret” to “Dear John”, they played a flawless set that encompassed their one and only 7″ record on Elefant and some songs of the upcoming 10″ on Elefant. It was glorious. And all of you missed it, well, pray that they will play again. As far as I know, this was a one-off.

On Sunday, things were a bit quieter. The venue this time didn’t have as much people and the lineup wasn’t as strong. I left just as soon White Town finished as the next three bands were a snorefest as my friend Scott put it. In a sense that was good as I was exhausted and had to go work the next day. But Sunday had a couple of highlights that have to be mentioned. First off, Dot Dash. Great, energetic, and punchy, the band that Terry Banks have put together sounded so good that it was a shame they played so early. Hopefully they become a bit bigger and come back. And what about the Holiday Crowd? They were a huge hit for me. I wonder how I didn’t know about their existance before Shelflife put their CD out. Where were they hiding? Fantastic jangle that for some reason goes unappreciated here. I feel it might be much bigger in the UK. They had songs, they had great chorus, and had stage presence. All the members exuded different personalities, and that is always a plus in my book. They seemed interesting. Would  have loved to exchange some words.

And then my good Canadian friends Sleuth. With Jainy pissed because the sound engineer sucked. Understandably so. They were fun to watch and listen. You could tell they have something special, just a bit of tightening here and there and they’ll be one of the most interesting indiepop bands around. This was cleared the next day, on the Popfest hangover show at the Rock Shop, where the sound was much better and songs like “Fishing for Moonlight” or the “Honey is in the Hive” shined brightly as Jainy’s Postcard Records’ cat tattoo. I look forward to their new recordings a lot. And to have Korean food with them again. It was a fun weekend.

It feels like I’m leaving a lot of Popfest stories out of these posts, but it’s time to move to the obscure indiepop band of the week, Macguffins.

Let’s all transport to Melbourne, Australia, in the 80s. There are many great bands at the moment, some more successful than others. Some good labels too. And there’s one band whose one 7″ always escapes from me. Always at last minute on eBay someone bids more than me. And my excitement, my hopes, are all killed, destroyed, buried. This is one of the 7″s I want the most, it’s the Macguffins and the single is “Rich Together”. A song that makes me tremble for the sincerity of it’s lyrics and the romanticism behind it.

The first time I heard this song was on a mere MP3, a rip from a tape compilation Keith D’Arcy had done for the indiepop-list. The compilation was called “A Sandwich and a Sweater” and I feel it has become some sort of lost classic. It has a lot of fabulous and obscure tracks on it, were every song and every band are worth investigating. Years later I would listen this song again and the B side as well, “Dirty Ol Life”, on a compilation Peter Hahndorf made called “The Sound of Glen Waverley”. It was only CDR and handed to a couple of friends. He intended to release it one day, as the sort of “The Sound of Leamington Spa” but with Australian bands. It never happened because Jim from Egg Records wanted to do the same, so not to step on his toes, Peter let the project on a side. Sadly Jim never got around to releasing it anyways.

Since then I’ve been in love with one of the finest songs I know. A song that deserves to be in thousands of mix tapes and burned CDs.

This fab record was released on the DEX label (catalog 218E) in 1988. The sleeve art is a photo, taken by Gary Moore, of the band though I can’t pinpoint who is who. The band was formed by Rowan Smith on vocals and guitar, Michael Paxton on bass, Michael Wilkins on drums and Philippa Nihill on vocals and keyboards. On “Rich Together”, Glenn Bennie added some guitars. The record was produced by Mark Woods. The single was recorded in Sing Sing studios.

Originally popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, the term “MacGuffin” refers to the object in a movie that drives the action. In most cases, what the MacGuffin actually is irrelevant. It exists solely to get the characters moving and drive the plot forward. The only real requirement is that it must be something people are willing to cheat, lie, steal, kill, or be killed for. As long as it sounds plausible, it’ll work. Still, despite the very loose qualifications for a MacGuffin, great films have used some pretty memorable ones.

I don’t know whatever happened to this great band. I assume they didn’t  have much success. I wonder if they had more songs recorded. If they played live often. When and why did they break up. But there is information about what happened to some of the band members after.

Rowan Smith went to join a couple of bands, Barefoot, Antenna, GB3, Coda, Youth Group, as well as helping recording and playing instruments with a couple more bands. Michael Wilkins played in Redfish Bluefish (who I’ve never heard but it’s said they were proper guitar indie pop!). And Philippa would also join GB3 as well as releasing some records as a solo artist, though she had some sort of breakthrough along Glenn Bennie, as the Underground Lovers, a band that is well known in their native Australia.

The Underground Lovers officially assembled in 1990, playing their first gig in May that year at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, supporting The Macguffins. In addition to Bennie and Giarrusso, the original lineup featured Philippa Nihill (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Stephen Downes (bass) and Richard Andrew (drums); Maurice Argiro replaced Downes on bass following the first show.

Interesting fact, the Macguffins were still going two years after the release of their 7″. Perhaps it was the success of Underground Lovers that made the Macguffins split? Who knows. But if you know anything else about this long lost band, if you have spare copies of “Rich Together” and want to help a soul in need, please get in touch. Would love to know more about the Macguffins!

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Listen
Macguffins – Rich Together

Quite an exhaustive week thanks mostly to a freelance job that, like a snowball, became bigger and bigger. Moving domains, websites and databases is never fun. Working with some people who don’t understand anything about it, and expect everything to be functional within hours, is really annoying to say the least. My patience wore thin. If I hadn’t signed a contract until July, I would probably call it quits. The money is never worth if it’s going to affect my sleeping patterns. That’s my rule of thumb. But, in the end, I convince myself of being a professional and found some energy, somewhere deep in my soul I guess, and managed to finish it. But of course, there won’t be time to relax. I can see a pile of work coming up, though it won’t be freelance so I’m hoping that I can work at my pace. A pace I haven’t been able to have probably since last May, when things got terribly busy with NYC Popfest, and there was no time for anything else. But no complains then, it was busy but in a good way.

How can I bring back that weekend of Brooklyn Lagers and L and R trains. A weekend when Amanda and Helena stayed at my place and woke me up singing “Secret Secret”, a weekend of new friends and familiar faces, a weekend where indiepop reigned supreme again. I guess Indietracks will revive some of that excitement in a month, but it is a different experience altogether. It’s in the middle of nowhere and “exploration” means seeing trains and farm animals, unlike here in NYC where it has a wider meaning. Though also, the immersion is much different, Indietracks is like an indiepop holiday; NYC, is a different experience. It can’t be compared.

It’s been a couple of years since Maz took over NYC Popfest, and every year he keeps doing it better. You can only salute his taste, trying to always bring the new bands to the NYC public, something that me, attending many popfests, celebrates. It’s refreshing to see bands that I haven’t seen before. And Maz is good at that. He doesn’t just book his friends. As I told him, he is a ‘visionaire’. He knows what the fans want when it comes to indiepop. And mostly because he is fan himself. And it’s clear he dedicates a lot of his spare time to discover new and exciting music. During this NYC Popfest weekend, in a turn of events, at one point, on Saturday, he went up on stage just before Saturday Looks Good to Me. For the first time he addressed the fans directly,  with no shyness or stage fright. He thanked everyone that attended. He thanked all the bands. And last but not least, he invited everyone to the dance party. It was one of my Popfest highlights. I feel it’s important to make these festivals as personal, as friendly as possible. I think Maz is achieving that.

For me there was one band that was brilliant. And they were Cola Jet Set. Tight, fun, and close to pop perfection, Felipe Fresón’s ensemble was as dreamy and fun as you want a pop band to be. Even though they had lost some members in the last couple of years, the band seems to keep going strong, and everyone that is new, replacing an old member, performs just as good, and maybe, better. Alicia, Daniel, Ruth, Joan and Felipe gave a fabulous performance on Saturday night, even to the point that Maz had to ask twice to the sound engineer to give them more time so they could perform two more songs. One of them, an encore, “Al Amanecer”. And the fans were thankful to it. People danced non-stop to songs that most don’t understand because of the language barrier. And that is enough to point out how good they were. And how about Felipe’s introduction to each one of the songs? Not a story of what the song is about, but a little footprint perhaps, a little note with irony and love about what was going to be the next song. It was endearing. And the band smiling non stop, having the time of their life. And Joan leaving the drums, getting close to the stage, hitting his drumsticks, and asking for the crowd to get wilder, happier. And shouting, “one, two, three”, Ramones-style, because they were in NYC, and “Al Amanecer” is as punky as it gets.

And what can I say about hanging out with Felipe. Record shopping at Academy Records where I found the “Not Just Mandela” compilation for six bucks among other things. Having some bulgogi while we waited Pushy Parents. Getting some Burning Hearts records signed, and me, getting my Fresones Rebeldes’ “Al Amanecer” 7″ signed by the master himself. Endless conversations about Spanish indiepop, the story behind Los Canguros, Pepito Sex, and what not. The Barcelona scene, Brighton 64 and Kamembert. Los Negativos. His Vespa and his trip to see Les Calamites. It was good times. And can’t wait to hang out again. Perhaps when I find the time to visit Barcelona. Wouldn’t that be glorious?

And talking about signed Burning Hearts records. Weren’t they magnificent? I got the chills when they played “Into the Wilderness”. I was hypnotized by their set. The two times I saw them. They were just perfect. They had a SOUND. And I feel terrible now for missing them at NYC Popfest 2009, when they were just a duo. So I can’t compare. But this four-piece they are today, they can be huge if they wanted. They have songs, they have a particular sound that is both dreamy and edgy, and they are great musicians. Jessika is among my favourite vocalists at the moment in the indiepop scene. Well, at the moment is a bit paltry, I’d say since they started, 5 years ago, when I listened “I Lost My Colour Vision”, since then, she is one of my favourite vocalists. White socks up to her knees, holding the microphone and playing at the right time the keyboard, she exudes passion and control, and I find myself  bewitched by their songs. And I say it now, I wanted to release it back in the day. I love that song, and funny enough, they didn’t play it. But they played all my other favourite songs, so why would I complain.

It was sad that last year they had to cancel their Indietracks show. I was so excited to see them. I thought that maybe that was going to be my last chance. But the world is generous, and I was lucky to see them twice in NYC this May. Once at the sauna of The Cakeshop, sweating like if I was running a marathon in the Sahara desert, and then at The Rock Shop, where only a few, those militant indiepop fans, attended that Monday after Popfest. A Popfest hangover show indeed. Seeing Jessika and Henry again, since 2009 when they came to play with Cats on Fire, was great. And they haven’t changed a bit, they are nice, humble and friendly as they were. And they keep doing great music. And you know, I look forward to one day when I can work with them. They are among the best bands around, really creative and talented, that deserve to play more festivals around. It’s a bit confusing to see why they don’t get invited to more shows around the world. They are as good as Cats on Fire. And shouldn’t be seen as a sister band or something like that. They are a band on their own. And they keep better and better. “Into the Wilderness” should have been a HUGE hit last year.

There’s more to what NYC Popfest offered and I will continue to cover it next week. Also hopefully there will be time to do a little preview for Indietracks. I need to do that because I don’t have a clue yet if there are any clashes this year for me. Need to organize myself. Anyhow, moving to the meaty part, the one that is important for all of us, indiepop collectors, the obscure band of the week. This week I’ll introduce you to The Lowthers, from Manchester I believe.

I believe they hail from Mancunian lands, but I can’t assure you 100%. I can only tell you this for sure, they were formed by Simon Howles on vocals, Fran Wright on guitar, Julian Dyson on bass and Roger Quigley on drums. They were called “Fine British Mitherers” and they were around 1987 and 1988. Maybe earlier too. Maybe later too.

They appeared on two compilations. The first one is from 1987 and was a tape compilation called “Are You Ready?”. This was a proper indiepop compilation that included the likes of The Haywains, The Driscolls, The Mayfields and more. The song they contributed was  “Whoose Afraid?”. I remember hearing it. Though I can’t seem to find an MP3 of it. I’m sure many of you have it. And if you have some time, please do send it my way. I feel I have this compilation somewhere on MP3, but I still haven’t had the time to organize some of my hard drives, nor my computers, since I moved to NYC. Somedays I seriously think I need an intern or even better an assistant to organize a bit the mess here. Any takers?

The second compilation appearance, the one I know I love, is on the “The Disparate Cogscienti” compilation, released in 1987. This compilation was on the Cog Sinister label ran by The Fall’s Mark E. Smith. The song was “Sylvia” and what a song it is. It’s pure jangle! But first a little history of the Cog Sinister label thanks to Discogs:

The first appearance of the Cog Sinister label was in 1987 when The Fall used it as the imprint for their self-released anthology album “Palace Of Swords Reversed”. The imprint returned in 1990 when the band signed to Fontana and used Cog Sinister as a vanity label for their releases. When they moved from Fontana to Permanent Records, they continued to use the Cog Sinister brand on their releases .Since leaving Permanent in 1995, The Fall no longer used Cog Sinister on their new material. However, since 1997, the imprint has become part of the Voiceprint label group, and is being used for reissues of the group’s back-catalogue.

“The Disparate Cogscienti” was the second release on the label and it includes another gem, Beatrice’s “A Girl Like Me”. So I do recommend getting it, as I listened Jessel’s recommendation once, that time he took me to a – secret, secret – to find so many great records in what may be the best record shopping experience I’ve ever had. That day I picked up this fabulous black, white and yellow sleeve from one of the racks, after my good friend asked me if I knew about it. Of course I didn’t. He said it was worth it for the Beatrice song. Though he did mention that The Lowther’s song was quite good. And good it is. And the compilation is worth getting for The Lowthers song too I say. On Discogs at the moment there’s a copy for 4.99 euros if you are interested. I say get it.

Sylvia s(y)-lvia, syl-via as a girl’s name is pronounced SIL-vee-ah. It is of Latin origin, and the meaning of Sylvia is “woods, forest”. The Latin form Silvia was more popular for centuries until recently. Rhea Silvia was an ancient nature goddess, mother to the twin founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Shakespeare used the name Silvia for the love interest in his play “Two Gentlemen of Verona”, probably intending to give the impression of a typical Italian girl though the name has come to be regarded as an English name. Through the centuries, Sylvia has many variant forms: Silva, Silvaine, Silvana, Silvania, Silvanna, Silvia, Silviana, Silvianne, Silvie, Sylva, Sylvana, Sylvanna, Sylvee, Sylvette, Sylviana, Sylvianne, Sylvie, Sylvina, Sylvine, Sylvonna, Sylwia, Zilvia and Zylvia.

Who was this enigmatic Sylvia, that the vocalist is saving himself for? Was she real, I wonder. If she was, she did inspire a fantastic indiepop song. Or maybe they were inspired by a historical Sylvia as Shakespeare did? If so, I would rule out the Sylvias with different spelling, so no Queen Silvia from Sweden, and no Silvia Pinal from those Mexican soap operas I saw with my nanny back when I was a five year old. Or Sylvie Vartan, that French chanteuse who was pretty pretty. We rule her out too sadly. So what about Sylvia Syms, the British actress? She is a possibility. It’s not a rare thing 80s band singing about actresses from back in the day. The other known Brithish Sylvia I can think of, and then I can’t think of many as I’m not British, is Sylvia Pankhurst who was a main player in the English suffragist movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. So no, don’t think they sang about her. Most probably, I’m just thinking too much and they just sang about a Sylvia they knew, a Sylvia from their neighborhood who they had a mad crush with. Lucky her. The song is really GOOD.

The only other fact, and perhaps the most interesting fact, is that Roger Quigley, the drummer, went to form The Bitter Springs, The Montgolfier Brothers, and the Verspertine record label. Alright. Most of you may know these names. But why were The Lowthers forgotten? Maybe because these were their only two songs? Hard to believe, but it’s a possibility. Two songs that weren’t released as singles, but on obscure compilations.

But still, I want to ask, because “Sylvia” is a fantastic jangle pop song that could be showcased in the great Sound of Leamington Spa compilations, does anyone know if they recorded more songs? what happened to then? did any of you happen to catch them playing live? if so, do share what you know or your anecdotes.

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Listen
The Lowthers – Sylvia

Back to blogging after two weeks and writing in between South American world cup qualifiers games. That’s how busy it’s been. Busy because two weekends ago we had the city’s premiere indiepop festival, NYC Popfest and the week after, last weekend, Memorial Day weekend, I traveled to Washington DC to do some tourism among Harley Davidson motorcyclists that arrived from every corner of the US. Hope some people missed the blog. I did.

The most important news is that The Deddingtons’ retrospective album is out now on the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen label. This is the second release in the label and I’m very proud of it. It’s been a long way since the day I interviewed Chris Morgan on the blog: meeting him  and Andy in Nottingham, at the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn, where we all had fish & chips and a chilled beer, transferring these 10 songs from tape to digital, working and re-working the artwork, going through different mastered versions of the tracks, and so on. It took quite a while, but now I can say that at last, after more than 20 years these songs can be listened in all their glory!

The release has the same design and aesthetics as our first release on the label. Vertical, book-style, digipack, black-white-blue colors on the front and back, and full color booklet. 8 page booklet. You can expect the same class-design on the rest of the series, and you know the next release we are working on is a full retrospective of long-time favourite of mine, Strange Idols, from London, UK. We cater for you indiepop fans, we know what you want. No plans of broadening our horizons nor branching out,  we keep true to indiepop, even if sales go down and down.

On other Cloudberry news I have started working on the new fanzine. Hopefully it will be out by September or October as the latest. This time the fanzine will be printed in turquoise ink and will feature the lovely Miralda from Youngfuck on the cover. There will be interviews to Youngfuck (of course), Spook School, Nixon, Earth First, and more. Keep an eye on it!

Also, have you picked up your Cloudberry tote bag yet? We have them now on black canvas and they are very limited.

Next week I’ll try to look back and remember NYC Popfest. And also I’d like to have a look at Indietracks. I am going and I haven’t had the time to look at the schedule, not even to see if there are any clashes this year. I hope not! So those posts have to happen soon. But today I want to see if there’s any luck in trying to find more about some obscure band that is as mysterious as it gets. The name: Magdelene Fields.

I absolutely know nothing about the band. Who they were? Where were they from? What years were they active? Who knows. Clearly they are from the UK, but that’s about it.

Some months ago while meeting with Brian from Earth First for some beers, we talked about this band. I had totally forgotten about them. I have heard them on YouTube thanks to a Japanese guy called Takashi who disappeared from the map, not before thinking the world was against him and everyone wanted to “steal” his obscure bands. Childish behaviour, sure, but not surprising in an indiepop fan. Seems we have more neurosis than emo kids. Anyhow, thanks to him I know the existence of many great British bands from the 80s. I’d say a year or two ago he had this YouTube channel where he posted lots of songs from obscure songs, it was really amazing, it was like opening a can of candy, full of new flavours. I’m glad I ripped most of these songs to MP3s as the channel has long been deleted. Probably because he felt zealous about sharing these songs with the rest of us mortals.

Brian had also heard this song on his Youtube. I don’t remember how we ended up talking about them, but we agreed on how great this song was. The song was “Christmas Island” and as Krister says, it sounds like The Rain, it sounds jangly, it sounds as pop perfection. Who wrote this song? And whatever happened to this band?

The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, 360 km (220 mi) south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, 975 km (606 mi) ENE of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and 2,748 km (1,708 mi) west of the Territorian city of Darwin. Christmas Island has a population of 1,403 residents who live in a number of “settlement areas” on the northern tip of the island: Flying Fish Cove (also known as Kampong), Silver City, Poon Saan, and Drumsite.The island’s geographic isolation and history of minimal human disturbance has led to a high level of endemism among its flora and fauna, which is of significant interest to scientists and naturalists. 63% of its 135 square kilometres (52 sq mi) is an Australian national park. There exist large areas of primary monsoonal forest.Phosphate, deposited originally as dead marine organisms (not guano as often thought), has been mined on the island for many years.

Captain William Mynors of the Royal Mary, a British East India Company vessel, named the island when he sailed past it on Christmas Day in 1643. The island was included on British and Dutch navigation charts as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, but it was not until 1666 when a map published by Dutch cartographer Pieter Goos included the island. Goos labelled the island Mony, the meaning of which is unclear. British navigator William Dampier, aboard the British ship Cygnet, made the earliest recorded visit to sea round the island in March 1688. He found it uninhabited. Dampier gave an account of the visit which can be found in his Voyages. Dampier was trying to reach Cocos from New Holland. His ship was pulled off course in an easterly direction, arriving at Christmas Island 28 days later. Dampier landed at the Dales (on the west coast). Two of his crewmen were the first recorded humans to have set foot on Christmas Island.

As far as I know, it’s Mary MagdAlene, not MagdElene. I wonder where the Magdelene names comes from, though I’ve seen some churches with that spelling in several British pages. I don’t seem to locate any fields named Magdelene Fields either. I assume it’s a made up name. But don’t quote me on it.

There’s only one fact, this song was released on a compilation LP called “New Reaction Volume 2” in 1988. It was released on the Reaction Label, catalog number UNREST 9, and included these bands: Mind The Gap, Mr Robinson, The Rain Devils, Magdalene Fields, Dream Studio, Candybox, Barbedwire, Mike Gari, Hands Up, One Touch To Go, The Partners, Touch And Go, Big Orange, Hands In The Heavens and Midnight Media. None of them I know. There was a Volume 1 released before that had a red/orange cover, whereas volume 2 had a turquoise cover. The bands that appear on the first volume are unknown to me too.

An interesting fact is that Reaction Records seems to have spawned from a metal label, Ebony Records. You can see more info about it here. It seems the label moved into more “alternative” stuff and decided to change it’s name. Don’t blame them, come on, it’s metal. Who can listen to that all their lives?

And that’s all the information there is about this mysterious band. If you know anything about them, please share! Would love to know what happened to this band and if they recorded any more songs. Judging by the quality of “Christmas Island” the rest of their songs have to be amazing!

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Listen
Magdelene Fields – Christmas Island