Blue: The word itself was loaned into Middle English from the Old French word bleu, blo ” “pale, pallid, discoloured; blue, blue-gray”, itself from an Old Frankish blao.

Siege: is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for “to sit”. Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static defensive position. Consequently, an opportunity for negotiation between combatants is not uncommon, as proximity and fluctuating advantage can encourage diplomacy.

It kind of feels as if I’m under siege here. So much work to do. I have managed to get into three freelance deals this past week and I have worked non-stop at home after the daily 8 hours at the office. One of them is the usual freelance I do for an art dealer: add, delete, change, some art pieces in his web catalog. Then I’m doing a sexual health poster for a London organization and last, I’m working on a site for some physician here that works with penile implants for erectile dysfunction. I know, very very odd. But it pays the bills. Anyhow, I still haven’t finished all of it, I’m almost there though. I should be done in a couple of hours, but I needed a break. Introspect a bit, write, blog. I have finished sending orders of the newly released Youngfuck 7″ though. That’s quite an achievement as there were plenty of pre-orders and orders. There are some things still due at Cloudberry HQ like finishing the Feverfew artwork (which is at a 99% stage), and then setting up the website with information for this new release. I will work hastily today to try to get that done. If not, there will be news during the week definitely.

You’ll forgive my short post today, I hope. I also have my mum visiting so you can imagine time is really something luxurious at the moment. I do have some interviews coming up for this week, so worry not, the blog won’t be left on a side.

The CDs that have been on rotation this week were:
1. The Jordans – Hallelujah Mine! (Constant)
2. The Jordans – Early & Not So (self-released CDR)
3. The Sundays – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (Geffen)
4. The Rileys – The World And His Wife (A Turntable Friend)
5. Skansros – Vårsol (Luxury)

The obscure band for this week is Blue Siege. Blue being my favorite color.

Ed at Shelflife had already recommended them some time ago, but I didn’t pay them any attention then. The track he posted, “Into the Swing”, which according to him is better than the A side of their first 7″ (which I have never heard, so I trust him). The title track is called “Waiting River” and this 7″ was released by Pride Communications. Catalog number was 001. The cool part about this record is that it was produced by Chris Layhe from The Icicle Works at The Park in Liverpool. The photography of the sleeve was taken by Nick Kemp. Also four last names are credited on this record: Cumming, Gibbons, Rylance, Hall. Because of a comment on Youtube, we know the bass player was a girl. Which of the last names belonged to her? Not sure. And do you think it would be a safe guess to think they were all from Liverpool?

It was 1986 when that first 7″ was released. It was the same year when their second release came to life, a 12″ record. And this is the one I enjoy, especially because of the first track: “Ruins No Longer Remain”. I don’t have the record yet, but I have managed to secure a copy earlier today, hopefully arriving in a week or two from the UK. It doesn’t look difficult to track down as I found many offers in different pages. The cheapest, the one I got, was from a seller on Musicstack. So if interested, have a look there. You can find copies of this great record for 5 dollars or so plus postage.

Anyways, a nice tint of purple for the sleeve. Shouldn’t it be blue? That’s what I wonder. It was released again by Pride Communications, with catalog number LP001. Sounds as if the label was their own, right? Why Pride though? anything to do with gay pride? Who knows. Perhaps in 1986 it wasn’t like that, but these days, when I think of the word pride, I think of gay pride. Moving on. This is not an album, but a mini-album. It includes 6 songs, being the first 2 the best of the bunch. The tracklist is:
A1 Ruins No Longer Remain
A2 Stolen Daylight
A3 Like Red Rags To The Bull (Soweto)
B1 Hollow Man
B2 River Has Gone
B3 Drifting Apart

The sound of the 12″ is in between post-punk and indiepop. A bit like This Final Frame I’d say. Keyboards, great melodic jangle, but a bit darker and less luminous than your standard Bodines-like C86 indiepop. In any case it’s great, it’s not dreary and depressive post-punk, but catchy. Just give a try to the song. I’ve been enjoying it a lot today, a rainy autumn Sunday.

And after putting Google under a siege, that’s all the information I’ve been able to gather online. If you know anything else about this band, please share. Would be great to know a bit more about them!

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Listen
Blue Siege – Ruins No Longer Remain

Thanks so much to Guy Cresswell for the interview! Playing for Time just released a retrospective CD on Firestation Records and you can order it from the label page. Back in the 80s they only released one 7″ that is sought after by indiepop fans, especially our Japanese brothers. It goes for crazy prices on eBay! Now sit back and enjoy the interview with this obscure, but great, London band.

++ Hi Guy! Thanks so much for being up for the interview. I’ve been enjoying the new CD “The Unreleased Sessions 1984-1989” on Firestation Records. How come this record came about, 20 years later? How was the process?

Thank you so much for asking us – deep breath here goes

We started to receive emails from Japan asking about the single ‘With my Heart’ which we had released on our own record label “Thumbs Up” in the 80’s.
Obviously we were really pleased to hear there was still interest in the band and suitably shocked to hear how much the singles were being sold for, bearing in mind we only pressed 1000 copies and never distributed them outside of the UK!
The break through came when we connected with Takashi Yonezawa, a great fan of the band and a huge figure in the world of vinyl collecting, and he put us
in touch with Uwe and Olaf at Firestation Records, both passionate music lovers with a great record company and we went from there to discuss the ossibility of a retrospective album.

++ And what can people, that listen to you for the first time. expect from this record?

A slice of pure 80’s pop music from a young, quality band on the London scene having a great time playing music, we view it as time capsule of the period, we now play the CD and it takes us back to a London that was vibrant, colourful and fun.

++ Though, the name is not completely right, is it? I mean, “With My Heart” did get released, and now is highly collectable. How do you feel when it goes for very high sums of money on eBay? It seems it’s the Japanese your biggest fans, and you can’t compete with them on eBay!

No one was more surprised than us, as I said we only pressed 1000 singles, we got the money to do this by playing some bigger gigs and then we sold the
singles at the time for £3 each to friends and fans, the singles were never heavily distributed but we did get quite a lot of airplay when we promoted the single to the London Radio stations.

++ And I don’t blame them for paying that, this song is great! So I’m wondering what inspired you to write it? And what’s it about?

Thanks, we were pleased with the song but also recognize it’s the single’s rarity that makes it so prized for our Japanese friends, we do know there is a box of 25 brand new, unplayed, singles stored somewhere and you can bet we are trying to find it, but like lost gold it keeps alluding us

‘With my heart’ was an unusual song for us as Steve had written the verses and I had independently written a chorus and both of us were trying to finish different songs without realising what the other had written, Robin heard both parts and realised we were could put them together, what’s the song about?

Rule 3 of song writing, never explain your lyrics, let the listener decide what it means to them…..

++ So, 15 songs on the new CD. Are these all your recordings? Or were there some stuff left behind?I ask because I was looking at a playlist of yours on your page and I read some song names like Loveblind, Merry Go Round, Sloan Sq to Menorca, and more…

We had quite a few other songs but we decided that we would stick to this selection of 15 tunes as a good representation of the band, however just the
mention of Loveblind, Merry Go Round, Sloane Sq to Menorca, takes me right back to playing those songs live; we never recorded them in the studio though,
and the live recordings we do have, whilst being a great memento for us, are not good enough quality to release.

++ What would you say was your favourite Playing for Time song?

For me personally it was ‘Six weeks in July’ which was the b side of ‘With my Heart’, why, well because I wrote it and because it always reminded me of growing up on the South Coast of England but Steve Noyce, my writing partner in the band, wrote some absolutely amazing songs and like me is still writing, and so if I had to choose one of Steve’s songs it would be ‘Blues’ it has a brilliant chord sequence and was always a great crowd pleaser, it was also the song that most interested the bigger record companies.

The other stand out song was ‘Don’t Criticise’ as this featured Jack Cryer on lead vocals, Jack sings even better now than she did then, and her voice has matured to velvet, an incredible performer and talent.

++ Let’s go back in time, to the 80s. What were you doing just before starting the band? Have you been involved in other bands prior to Playing For Time?

Personally I was playing in bands and working as a freelance guitar demonstrator for Roland UK and writing songs, playing in such great unknown 80’s bands such as ‘The Missing Links’ and ‘Innocent Party’ and ‘In at the Deep End’

++ And how did the band come about? How did you all knew each other?

Robin did a brilliant band history on the CD cover notes and so if you would like to know the full story then grab a copy of the CD from Fire Station records before they sell out!

++ What about the name of the band? What does the phrase mean?

We liked the name as it had various meanings, depending on the context you use it, but like most band names as soon as it is associated with music then it
just becomes the words to describe the sound, say ‘Playing for Time’ to me and I hear a melody.

++ You gigged quite a bit, are there any particular gigs that you are fond of? Any anecdotes you could share?

Scott’s famous club in Denmark Street and sold it out twice. That was an incredible experience to play and we felt very privileged to have played in the
place where so many great legends and our musical heroes had played, it was exhilarating and humbling at the same time.

How about a gig at the Savoy for The Vegetarian Society, we started to play and instead of dancing, they formed couples and ballroom danced to our music, at that point ‘Captain Sensible’ from the Damned arrived, rushed the stage and sang Blue Suede shoes with us before ripping the stage apart.

‘Right Said Fred’ used to open for us before they had their string of hits, they were an acoustic duo then and sounded a bit like The Everly Brothers, they were brilliant and we were surprised and pleased when they broke through with a new sound!

Driving down to Portsmouth in a convoy of terrible cars and having a food fight on the way, I remember lots of sandwiches on the windscreen and when we
used the windscreen wipers bits of sandwich and cake were smeared across the screen.

My future wife Kate collecting me from a gig in VW golf convertible and giving the 3 piece brass section a lift home, they would not all fit in the car and so we
took the roof down and the three of them sat on the back of the car as we drove across Tower Bridge playing their instruments.

Lots of memories, most of all I remember the laughter, even to this day if you put the old band members in a room together within 5 minutes there is laughter.

++ And on the liner notes you mention the coach convoys organised by the McArthur clan. Care to expand on that? 🙂

PD (surname McArthur), our bass player, had a great idea that when we played Ronnie Scotts we should bring up lots of people from the South of England and so he hired two coaches, filled it with people and beer, charged them a couple of pounds for the trip and we sold out the venues……I always remember turning the corner to Ronnie Scott’s and seeing a massive line of people and wondering who they were going to see………..It was us!

++ You only released one 7″ record, on your own label. Why the decision to release it yourselves? How did you enjoy doing “label” stuff?

We had got frustrated waiting on the major labels and so just decided to do it ourselves and we were very pleased with the result.

++ And how come you didn’t get to release more records back then? You had plenty of songs clearly!

It was a classic case of getting tied up in record company land, we had plenty of offers for singles deal but with so many songs we really wanted an album deal or nothing, in those days if you signed a singles deal the record company could issue the single, not promote it and then keep you on contract for years and we wanted real commitment, we also found that when we did get a champion in a record company by the time we got to the signing stage they had moved on or music had moved on, we were very disappointed and frustrated at the time but interestingly when we look back on it we are very glad we were never signed to a major. It meant that we kept our friendship intact and that, over the years, we have valued far more than the success we craved back then.

++ Let’s go back to that 7″, I don’t have it, but I’ve seen the sleeve cover online. The photo on the cover conveys a lot of mystery to me. Where did you take it? And what did you want it to say?

Robin organised the photo shoot in his then girlfriend’s bedroom if I recall and did a really good job, if it conveys mystery to you then that is perfect as that was the intention, I am still trying to figure it out myself and I love that J

++ And how do you remember the recording of the songs for this record? I read on the liner notes that you were really proud of the producers you worked with.

We recorded ‘With my Heart’ with an up and coming producer, Ray Hedges’ who was also a part time fireman (Firestation records would approve!), I remember
recording one day and a huge fire engine pulled up outside of the studio and all his friends came into see how we were doing in full fireman’s outfits, that’s the sort of thing that happened to this band on a regular basis.

We recorded the track on an old 8 track tape machine that used 2” tape and so the analogue quality mixed with the digital synch track really beefed up the sound, it was done quite quickly and the mixed down, Rob and I were the last to leave and in the car we talked about what we were going to put on the b side, we called a friend of ours who ran Midge Ure’s studio, Midge had been very kind and done some production for us and helped promote us, the studio was free and so Robin and I popped in there on the way home and recorded ‘6 weeks in July’ in about 2 hours from start to final mix and we were done.

++ I live far away from the UK, so I don’t know much about the GLR chart where you reached the number one. Care to tell me a bit about the GLR? And how did you end up so high there!?

GLR was the old ‘Greater London Radio’ station and a new DJ called Chris Evans, who Robin had met whilst working at the BBC loved our single and
played it a lot, that’s how we got to the top of the chart, Chris went on to become a broadcasting legend in the UK and he is still a fan of the band, he currently has the breakfast show on BBC’s radio 2.

++ So what happened, when and why did you split?

We realised that the band was not going to get signed and that music was changing, so it was time to do something else. We played our last show at
Ronnie Scott’s, payed off all our debts, and then we walked away with our friendships and memories intact. Undeniably we were sad at the time but had
given our hearts and souls over, and after 20 years we look back with great fondness at those times.

++ And what did you all did after? Were you still involved with music?

Hell yes, we view ‘Playing for Time’ as our apprenticeship, Robin moved to Switzerland to continue his work in TV and film, PD moved to Ireland, still plays
and has a studio and loves his music, Jack and Steve recorded a demo CD at my studio and then got a deal with Longman records and released a stunning
album called ‘The way I feel’ If you have not come across this album and you like PFT then you have to check this out.

Here is the website for the album
http://www.richard-durrant.com/pages/jack-cryer/7031?products_id=58

and here is a link to Jack’s site
http://www.jackcryer.com

Steve went back to study music and is now a guitar teacher, he is still writing and performing and his songwriting just keeps getting better. He and I are back in the studio at the end of this month to record one of his new tunes, it’s definitely one of his best yet!

For me, my fascination with music has never ceased, I am still writing and have just finished a 3 year degree course at Berklee College of Music in Boston which I really enjoyed doing. I even become composer in residence for the LSO (Late Starter’s Orchestra) for a while whilst playing Double Bass in the orchestra!

Steve and I are looking to release some new songs in the New Year with Jack’s help on vocals and we’re, really looking forward to that.

++ Nowadays, after putting out this great compilation CD, looking back to those 80s, what would you say were the best moments, the highlights, of Playing for Time?

Easy, it was the friendship and laughter we shared in the band, there were really hard times when we had no money, we had problems and frustrations but I don’t remember us ever having a row, or even a raised voice. The success would have been short lived but our friendship and mutual respect for each others talents and opinions lives on

I can’t say better than that……….

++ Alright, let’s wrap it here, thanks so much for the interview. Anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you for still being interested in the band and what we do, we do appreciate it

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Listen
Playing With Time – With My Heart

A short but sweet interview with Kenji who many of you may know from the great The Fairways. Before being in The Fairways he used to be in a band called Skypark that released an EP on Shelflife, which I still haven’t managed to find a copy! These days Kenji is in a band called Clay Hips and it is sounding great! I look forward to any releases they put out, hopefull the near future!

++ Hi Kenji! How are you doing? You just played Berlin’s Indie Pop Days! That must have been exciting! How was the first ever Clay Hips gig?

Hello! The Berlin Popfest was an amazing experience for us. Andrew and I hadn’t been on stage together for almost 10 years. It was exciting to play with a full band again and to have the opportunity to rehearse in Germany. Our friend Suresh flew all the way out from San Francisco to play bass. Yoshi from Eux Autres and Aislers Set recently moved to Berlin and was so generous to lend us his amazing drumming talent. Although we only had 3 days to arrange and rehearse 12 songs, we made it through the set!
We handmade a 4-song EP for the gig and we’re hoping to get together again soon to record another EP or maybe even a full-length record.

++ Most of us know you from The Fairways and Skypark and those bands were based in California, how come you are in Germany these days? Was it difficult to adjust? I can imagine the language wasn’t easy!

Like many expats I know in Germany, I also moved here for love. I’ve been here for almost seven years now. I was living in Berlin for the first two years, so it was relatively easy to adjust. Everyone speaks English there. I was putting together a record with a friend in Sweden at the time, so that kept me fairly busy for the first few months. German is undoubtedly a difficult language but it was really fun to learn.

++ Alright, let’s go back in time, to Skypark days. I know the EP was released after the band had already split, in 1998. So, during what years was the band active, and why didn’t you get to release anything during that time?

I started Skypark with a couple friends from high school but we didn’t really get it going until we were in college. Ariadni had already been active in the SoCal indie scene with the band Poastal and I was just learning to play guitar. We were all really big fans of Sarah Records and Slumberland and we’d sit around in Jen’s dorm room at Berkeley listening to Ropers records and figuring out Field Mice songs on guitar. So, I guess that was around 1995-ish. Originally, we had a 7″ planned for release on the Belmondo label run by Naomi from Mod Lang record shop. We had a test pressing made and the artwork was done but it somehow fell through.
Shelflife got in touch with us after we released a song on a cassette compilation that they put out and they were keen on releasing more stuff. We eventually went back into the studio a year later to record more songs. Not all the recordings made it on the release though.

++ Was Skypark your first band? How did the recruiting process work?

Actually, no. Skypark was not my first band. I had a very brief punk project with my friend Toni who went on to form the CeBe Barnes Band. I only knew how to play a couple chords at the time, so she played guitar and we both sang. We were supposed to release a 3-song 7″ on Chou-Chou but the label folded before we could release it. I think I have the only test pressing of that single, which is good because it’s unlistenable.

++ And why did you name the band Skypark?

Skypark Drive is the name of a really ugly street near an airport close to our hometown. The name sounded Sarah-esque. That was all that mattered to us, so it stuck.

++ I came a bit too late, and the EP has been sold out for so long. You should re-release it some day! Anyhow, looking back to it, how do you like it? I’ve read around on the web that many consider it Shelflife Records best release ever!

Thanks! I didn’t even know that it’s sold out. I haven’t listened to the CD in ages but I remember it as fun times with my best friends.

++ So yeah, how did you end up releasing on Shelflife? I think back then Ed was living in NYC, right? But did you get to meet personally?

We played a mini Popfest-type thing in southern California hosted by Shelflife. I think that was the first “real” show we ever played at a proper venue. That was probably right before Shelflife relocated to New York.

++ The EP was recorded at your uncle’s studio. Care to explain that?

Half of the Skypark EP was recorded at my uncle’s studio in LA and the other half was recorded at Black Eyed Pig in SF.
My uncle has recorded a lot of different bands over the years and is a musician himself. When I was a teenager, he recorded my favorite band at the time, Red Temple Spirits. It was pretty crazy being fourteen years old and going into his studio to watch them record Black Sabbath covers. I was at the height of my “goth” phase at fourteen, so there wasn’t anything cooler.

++ My favourite song may be Morse Code, it’s just so catchy and dreamy at the same time. And the guitars on the song are just wonderful… anyways, will you tell me the story behind it? 😀

I haven’t used a distortion pedal since.

++ What is your favourite song on it? Were there any more recordings or this is it?

I guess I would have to say that Bicycle Boy is my favorite. We wrote it after seeing this beautiful guy riding his bike home after a gig we played with Holiday.

++ I always wondered about the strong connection between Skypark and Aerospace (“Hey Boy! (Song for Kenji)” and “Summer Days Are Forever” on their album, you know?). How did that nice friendship came about? Was there ever a nod from any of your bands towards Aeorospace?

Mark from Paris Caramel was friends with Toby from Aerospace. Toby came to visit SF one summer and was super enthusiastic about Skypark which made our hearts melt. It was so exciting to meet someone from Sweden that had even heard our CD. A couple years later, we toured the Pacific Coast with them. Fun times and friends for life.

++ How do you remember the scene in San Fran back then? It seems that it was a happening place then; what other bands did you like?

The SF indiepop scene was really happening when we started out and it’s still going strong. It was awesome because every band had their own sound. Bands like Poundsign,Track Star, Henry’s Dress, Aislers Set… all very different styles of music. They’ve also all made names for themselves. I still love all those bands and we’re still in touch after all these years!

++ What about gigs? Did you play lots? What gigs do you remember the most?

Skypark didn’t play very many shows. We had a few memorable ones though. Opening for the Softies at a thirft store/record store… Another show with the Softies and Elliot Smith with Alicia from Poundsign playing drums for us… And of course our very first show with Track Star and Henry’s Dress at SF Art Institute.

++ So then what happened? Why did you call it a day?

We never really disbanded. Ariadni was really busy doing other stuff, so we found more members and became The Fairways.

++ Are you still in touch with your fellow band members? What are you all doing these days? Still involved in music I hope!

Yes! I’m still in touch with everyone. Skype is a wonderful thing but I try to get out to California once a year.
Jen is a doctor specializing in acupuncture and oriental medicine. After leaving the Aislers Set, she put out a few records with her husband as Mystic Chords of Memory. Really amazing stuff.
Ariadni is a visual artist living in Los Angeles. We talk about making music again all the time.

Andrew lives in Ireland with his husband and is involved in writing grants. I’m in Munich with my husband and I recently left my job at a publishing company to start my own business. Hopefully, you’ll soon be hearing more from us as Clay Hips!

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Listen
Skypark – Bicycle Boy

A very busy week at Cloudberry HQ. To start, today, October 10th, we have a new 7″ out. A lush two-track vinyl record by Sweden’s Youngfuck. All pre-orders will be sent first thing in the morning. Also in a week or two, you should be able to find the record in your favourite online mailorder. Also this week we have unveiled the fanstastic artwork that Ray Kimura has done for the next 7″ in our catalog. This one is by Sarasota, Florida, darlings’ Cassolette. This slab of plastic has “Stay Heavy” on the A side and “Two Candles” on the B side. You can preview the first track in the Cloudberry page of course. And last but not least, the four songs that will be included in the Nixon 7″ have been also unveiled. See? Plenty of things happening here.

Also, on the new Cloudberry Cake series, the Feverfew artwork is almost done and I know the master CD is already crossing the Atlantic. What does this mean? This means that the album will be pressed very soon! I’m very excited to start this series after the really disappointing times I had releasing albums with my ex-partner Jalito in Plastilina. I do much better alone I’ve learned. Please stay tuned for more news on this series of retrospecive albums, you won’t be disappointed.

Life has got in the way too as my mum is visiting here for two weeks. She is funny, she thinks indie music means music from India. I can’t really explain to her what Cloudberry is. She just says every record sleeve is so pretty. She is the kind that needs attention and wants to go to the supermarket every single day. As you can imagine, she keeps me quite busy. There has been some great news on some legal matters for me, and also there might be even better news job-wise. I might relocate and leave this tropical city, but well, that’s yet to be seen.

It feels a bit like crunch time these days. A bit stressed as things are moving fast and not so much time to sit down, brainstorm, think, ponder. But at the same time, very hopeful as these are all opportunity windows that might open to me. It may take a bit to adapt and set up Cloudberry in another place indeed, but I won’t stop. This is what I enjoy the most.

This week I’ve listened not that many CDs:
1. Sambassadeur – Between the Lines (Labrador)
2. Various Artists – Dream Topping (Richmond)
3. The Jordans – Katydid (Sonorama)
4. Various Artists – A Young Person’s Guide to Felicité Singles Club (Vollwert)
5. Sad Day for Puppets – Shift to Another Color (Fastcut)

It must have been a year ago that two of my best friends stopped having a fish tank at home. They lived together, they were roomates, and in each room, they had their own fish tank, with their own fish, and their own shellfish. Also they had different decorations, from a scuba diver to a sunken castle. The pebbles in the tank were very colorful and matched the palette of the fish that swam in circles around the coral. Even though I don’t like taking care of fish (they all died very fast in my childhood experience and my grandma says they bring bad luck) I understood the passion they had in collecting different and rarer fish. It is the same for me with records.

Eventually to their two freshwater tanks they added a sea water tank where they started collecting much more exciting fish, but also more expensive. My knowledge of fish encompasses mostly the one that becomes seafood of course. Seafood is a staple of my city’s, Lima, cuisine. From flounder to sea bass, or the skipjack tuna or the grouper, all familiar faces in the traditional ceviche. But the fish they had, I had never seen.

Most of the fish that aquariums have, here in Miami, are caught in freshwater areas in South and Central America. You can find zebras, clowns, tiger barbs, cherry barbs, tetras, gouramis and swordtails, among others. The ones that come from saltwater come from down south, from the keys, were you can see these fish roam free while snorkeling or scuba diving, two very popular attractions in the area. Just drive a couple of hours south from here, to Key Largo or Islamorada. Or to Marathon, were I was last time with Tom from The Happy Couple as he wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico.

I’ve read that because of global warming and also when El Niño occurs, a tropical fish invasion happens in many cold water areas. Makes sense. No so long ago, in March, this happened in Northland in New Zealand.  “Eyestripe surgeon fish, yellow boxfish, black-spot goatfish, two-tone wrasse and an unknown species of damselfish have been found by divers off the east coast of Northland this month. Marine expert Wade Doak says they’re an indicator of climate change. “They come down in larval form from places like Lord Howe Island and the Kermadecs and spend the long voyage in a suspended state.” Doak said the fish travelled as far as islands in the Bay of Plenty but didn’t survive long enough to breed. As waters became warmer though, “sooner or later they’ll find it acceptable”.”

My friends eventually gave up their fish tank. One found a girlfriend and moved with her. The other gave Halo Reach on Xbox, all of his time.

So who were the Tropical Fish Invasion? Who knows. But maybe the mystery can be solved knowing that they were from Derby.

There was a healthy scene back in the early 90s there and they seem to have been part of it. You had the wonderful Peru, The Millers, The Almanacs, White Town and I believe Evergreen and The Fantastics were from there too. Perhaps there was some sort of connection with these other bands. The strange part is that Derbyshire doesn’t really have any coast, and even with global warming, there won’t be a tropical fish invasion. Which makes me wonder, perhaps some of the band members had fish tanks and that crazy passion my old friends had? Or was it just a random name?

There was at least one release and it was a flexi. The flexi included just ONE song. And well, it’s a great song that I didn’t mind paying 3.99 pounds plus postage for it.  The song is called “La Di Da” and it’s no tribute to the label of the same name that Grant Lyons used to run from Brighton. It’s such a catchy tune and has that great keyboard sound that I have only heard in bands like The Apple Moths or Windy Miller. This flexi was probably self-released. The catalog number is OCTY 6-5000, and there’s a big octupus printed on the flexi. Maybe the label was Octopus Records? Don’t know. The flexi is sleeve-less, it just came on a generic white paper jacket.

The other song I know by them is “Ring a Ding” that appeared on the “Seahorses” tape that was released by the Red Roses for Me fanzine. On this tape the likes of Whirlpool Heart, Girl of the World, and The Jordans, three bands that I’ve covered on the blog already, appear. Again, this is a super catchy song and I can only keep asking for more. Looking at some old eBay auctions, it seems in August a tape by Tropical Fish Invasion was put up for auction and no one bid for it. It was just 0.99 pounds. Shame on all of us. Wonder what tracks did this demo included. But I think this confirms that there were more than just two tracks recorded by the band.

The only other information I could gather comes from Youtube were someone has uploaded the “La Di Da” track. A comment there says two interesting facts. First, that the drummer was called Andy. And second that he was roomate with Andy at Ilkeston 8 Wilmot St. That’s just half a block away from Long Eaton Pet Sitters.

Ilkeston is a town within the Borough of Erewash, in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the River Erewash, from which the local borough takes its name. Its population at the 2001 census was 37,550. Its major industries were traditionally coal mining, iron working and lace making / textiles, but these have all but disappeared in the last few decades. The town is close to both Derby and Nottingham and is near to the M1 motorway. Although Ilkeston lies within Derbyshire, it is closer to Nottingham. The eastern boundary of Ilkeston is only two miles from Nottingham’s western edge. Ilkeston is considered by the Office for National Statistics to be part of Nottingham metropolitan area. Ilkeston was probably founded in the 6th century AD, and gets its name from its supposed founder, Elch or Elcha, who was an Anglian chieftain (“Elka’s Tun” = Elka’s Town). The town appears as Tilchestune in the Domesday Book when it was owned principally by Gilbert de Ghent. Gilbert also controlled nearby Shipley, West Hallam and Stanton by Dale. Ilkeston was created a borough by Queen Victoria in 1887. Ilkeston is one of the few places where the distinctive dialect of East Midlands English is extensively spoken. Ilkeston is referred to as ‘Ilson’ in this dialect. One might greet a friend with “Eh up, me duck!” or “Ah do?”. Did the guys in the band speak like that?

And that’s all I could find.  Maybe you all can help me fill in the blanks? Who were the Tropical Fish Invasion? Which years were they active? Did they collect fish? Did they love seafood? Did they have more songs?

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Listen
Tropical Fish Invasion – La Di Da

Thanks so much to Akiko for this interview. Sugarfrost Records is one of those labels that truly inspired me to start Cloudberry. The aesthetics, the great taste for picking their releases, and their just phenomenal packaging, was something I have wanted to emulate. Sugarfrost released records by many great bands, from Graeme Elston’s Pure and Eva Luna to Japan’s Nelories and b-flower among others. These days Akiko is a bit disconnected from indiepop but she still has stock of Sugarfrost Records and I totally recommend you ordering some of this stuff from her, it’s just fantastic indiepop!
Now Sugarfrost have a facebook page!

++ Hi Akiko! First of all I want to tell you that your label is a big inspiration to me and my own label. Thanks for what you’ve done. You also started small with The Boshi label releasing zines and flexis before moving to CDs and 7″s. What made possible this change?

My first UK trip was in, inevitably, 1986. After a month of absorbing all indie stuff, back home to Japan and I started writing fanzines, organising indie clubs and gigs. It was primarily just myself at Boshi Label. But with Sugarfrost, it is me and John. You can do more when there’s two of you. The move to 7″s was natural course of evolution. 7″s was the indie medium and it was also “real”, I suppose. That is when compared with cassettes and flexis. Such was the days then.

++ I’d love to do an interview about what you did with The Boshi Label later, as there’s so much to cover about Sugarfrost, hope that’s ok! So it was 1991 when you started Sugarfrost. How was the infrastructure then for the label?

What do you mean by ‘infrastructure’? Such a long word feels too much for us! We were just one of those ‘bedroom’ indie labels. No office, daytime job and stuff, not very much money, just the two of us.

++ Why did you name the label Sugarfrost?

Certain cereal company sold nice sugary stuff (those days in Japan they were marketed as kids snack, not breakfast) called Sugar Frost in Japan. After we nicked the name, somehow they changed the name to… Frosties.

++ I always wondered how you ended up in UK being from Japan, and how did you get into indiepop?

My keen interest in UK indie music has really started when I made good friends at Aztec Camera fan club in Japan when I was at high school. I was already deeply into ‘neo-aco’ by that time, which was an on-going movement. I quickly dug into the indie scene and within a few years I was writing to all sorts of fanzine writers and indiepop bands. After a couple of UK trips while at uni, I was determined to move and to study at Glasgow School of Art.

++ What about the aesthetics and artwork of the label, who took care of that? Something that always strike me is the “extra” that you put on each record, like those booklets included in many of the 7″s for example. How did that came about?

I did first few very home-made ones, design and photos. Stay Still cover boy is my brother so really should’ve given my mum a credit! Then, apart from Razorblade Smile and Evelyn Tremble, all others by Paradiso – our friend Jon Parker, who was co-writing Paradiso fanzine with Eddie (of our own Evelyn Tremble). Somehow Mike from They Go Boom! was doing the typeset for our booklet releases (and messed up a bit!). As most of our bunch were fanzine writers, there was no shortage of volunteers for stories. I think it was because we loved what we did and it was the whole package not just the record that mattered to us. There was no pushing schedule or anything, we only produced what we loved and cared.

++ Also something that impresses me is that you released many Japanese bands for the English market like Nelories, B-Flower or White Kam Kam. How were these received by the brits? Must have been something totally new!

Some people had already heard about Shonen Knife by then. Can’t remember who else, but we weren’t the first anyway. Still unusual it was, though. We got some good reviews and Nelories even had a John Peel session. Music papers praised B-Flower most because of singing straight in Japanese.

++ First release was the fantastic Pure 7″. You already had worked with Graeme on a flexi and would later keep releasing his music. It feels you were his biggest fan! I just met him some weeks ago in London, great guy. How was your relationship with him? Did you ever meet? Any anecdotes you could share?

Did we ever meet? He almost lived with us! ^_^  We met that often, almost like a family. Graeme moved to Liverpool for uni, where we were. Then we just got on so well. But we didn’t release so many of his stuff just because we were mates. From beginning to the end, we liked his music, we had respect for his musical talent. Ah, we had some good laugh – us, Graeme and the Paradiso boys!

++ The second release of Sugarfrost is monumental I think. The compilation “The Birth of the True” should be considered a classic and also an introduction to indiepop. What’s the story behind this compilation? How did you choose the bands and what does the name “The Birth of the True” means?

Again, I can’t recall who came up with the title. There is an Aztec Camera song of the same title actually (as referred in Hachino B-Flower’s interview), but can’t remember if we had that in mind or not. The compilation idea came from Japan side, the label which had all the Japanese bands. It was to be something half the scale but ended up a full LP. We chose UK half of the tracks. One of the things that was special about the compilation was, it was a Japan-UK compilation without any bands from Tokyo and London. You don’t have to be from the big city to be a great artist.

++ You then released White Come Come (or White Kam Kam? it seems they wrote their name in different ways), Nelories, and B-Flower. These Japanese bands are fantastic. How did you discover them? Did you go to Japan often during those years? Did you ever catch them playing live?

I knew Jun from Nelories while she was still at high school, I at uni. Eventually they signed to a label in Tokyo, who had other bands. After the release of the LP, we took Eva Luna to Japan for the Birth of the True showcase tour organised by the label. It was a grand tour of 7 cities from north to south. A great experience, including one-day recording! Tired-looking photo of Eva Luna on the stairs outside the studio can be seen on the back of their Kick Out single on Turntable Friend. Who played where are all blurred now, but it was great to be able to play with the Japanese bands.

As for the spelling of WCC, for the LP we insisted WCC to use Ks instead of Cs for obvious reason. However they then insisted to spell it with Cs for the 12″. I think if they had a better name, would have sold more – we had to throw boxes of them away when we moved, which was painful – but who knows?

++ Even though you mostly released pure pop you also released the very noisy Razorblade Smile. I guess your taste was quite varied! I wonder then which other bands from the period would you have wanted to release? And also, if maybe there were any releases on the pipeline that for one or another reason didn’t get released?

To answer this question, I must explain that we are JAMC (Jesus And Mary Chain, early Creation band from Glasgow) generation. Pop doesn’t have to take just one form. I don’t see Razorblade Smile as a different kind of music, we still hear pure pop in them, in essence. And they were cool!

Other bands that we would have liked to release – is a difficult question. Is even more difficult now that I don’t listen to those music from the era any more. Oh, just remembered there was a talk about releasing the unreleased (then) second album by Fantastic Something! We knew someone in Greece who knew them. But they needed some money for some studio work and we couldn’t afford it. Not much money now but was for us then.

As for our unreleased, there were actually a couple that didn’t happen: one more single by Eva Luna, also an LP by B-Flower.

++ I still haven’t been able to find or listen the Evelyn Tremble 7″. So I’m very curious about this one. Care to tell me a bit about it? Like who were they and how did they sound like?

They are from Hull, England. As I mentioned before, we knew Eddie as a fanzine writer before this band came up. They are like a bunch of boys grew up together, and very funny bunch as well! Musically, kind of like Pale Fountains with a dark side? The booklet sleeve was designed and printed in LA, and just at the time of the big earthquake, too! So it was delayed by some 8 months or so, I seem to remember.

++ You also released Fugu, whose records have become quite difficult to track down. How did you find him? Did you usually get lots of demos from bands by the way? Or what was the usual way for you to find bands for the label?

Fugu has sent us a demo. Ours was his first release, he came over to Liverpool for the recording. And yes, we used to receive lots of demo tapes. Fugu is the only one that we did purely because of the demo, he was virtually unknown to us (ie wasn’t a fanzine writer, and was French).

++ And last but not least, Eva Luna. They released many records with you. I’m wondering, if you were to pick a song penned by Graeme Elston, which one would be your favourite? And what about your favourite song from the whole Sugarfrost discography?

Hmmm, a difficult question! Again, it’s not all about the song, the whole situation adds to the feel of each releases. The first Pure single was the first recording I had ever attended. I also did the photograph of Graeme (in the cathedral yard in Liverpool) and the Pure handwriting on sleeve. Still remember the wow it was when we finally got distribution for the single, thanks to Martin Whitehead (of Subway Organisation and The Flatmates) at Revolver whom I knew then. So all that makes the first single sound special to me.

++ So when and why did you decide to stop releasing records? And what did you do after? Where you still involved with music?

We just drifted off. No definite end. There had never been any money in it. John got busier at work, Graeme moved to London. Times have changed. Also the whole ‘indie’ situation changed about the time of our last releases.

So I was a secondhand vinyl buyer for Japanese shops for a while, then dealing them myself running a regular catalogue for Japanese customers. Which was a lot more profitable than doing Sugarfrost! But after a while, the Japanese ‘guitar pop’ scene also died out and no one was buying those records. So that also drifted off.

++ Nowadays you live in New Zealand, how much different is live over there? How do you like it and what do you do in your spare time? I see you have a page where you sell posters?

Life in New Zealand is 100 times better than the UK. We actually have LIFE here!  I can go on and on about life here. It’s that good. For us, anyway. We are not materialistic. We live close to nature. Back to basics, kind of thing. Which is good when you are not so young but not so old.

After the vinyl sale died out, I moved on to selling Japanese “chirashi” movie promo posters. It is so small, hardly takes any space unlike 1000 vinyl records!  That was the  initial thought, but I got quite into collecting them myself now. It really is a joy. I have an eBay shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/puppetonachain-chirashi-shop) and also own website (puppetonachain.com), dealing mainly arthouse, world cinema, cult, independent and anime film posters.

++ Do you miss anything from the UK?

Only miss those lovely hand-pulled pints of real ale from north of England.

++ One last question, my Japanese friends keep telling me I have to try Okonomiyaki. Would you recommend me the same? Or which dishes from Japan are your favourites?

You are talking to a girl from Hiroshima! (Well, I lived mostly in Nara but Hiroshima is my birthtown.) There are 2 sorts of Okonomiyaki: Hiroshima or not Hiroshima. Non-Hiroshima sorts are still yummy but you can make it at home. What you get in Japanese restaurants abroad are non-Hiroshima variation. (You have to be careful not to go to somewhere that serves one from freezer! ) For Hiroshima ‘Okonomi’, you need to go there. There is a real Okonomi culture in Hiroshima. It’s casual, not gourmet. And it’s everywhere.

So Okonomi is one thing I won’t miss if I visit Hiroshima. Food in Japan is so good, I always put on weight when I go back! As I eat almost anything, list of favourite would be so long – too long probably for an interview on music 😛

++ Thanks again a lot Akiko! Hopefully talk soon! Anything else you’d like to add?

It is amazing how we can’t remember some details of what we did. Since junior high school, music had been my whole life and Sugarfrost was, kind of, the baby of my obsession. However, or rather because of it, I now seem to have cut myself from it all mentally. It takes something to bring myself to listen or think about those things. It mattered so much to me… when I see any records I so loved from the era, what I see isn’t just a recorded medium. I see myself there, as I was 15, 18, 21, you know, ‘when I was young’? Somehow it’s hard. Strange it is, isn’t it?

Limited number of back catalogue still available – please refer to:
http://www.puppetonachain.com/sugarfrost/About_Sugarfrost.html

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Listen
Pure – Aspidistra (FROSTY 01)

Thanks again to Richard Farnell for another interview. After being part of The Suncharms in Sheffield, Richard moved to Manchester and eventually joined a band that will become the great Screen Prints. If you’ve never head about them, try to grab the “Perfect City” compilation as it will be a great introduction! While they were around they released on great labels like Earworm or Motorway and left behind a legacy of 20+ songs that I still listen often at home. You can listen to more stuff on their myspace too! Great stuff!

++ I’ve just put on the “Perfect City” compilation. 20 songs on it. But I know from your Myspace that there were more songs. Why weren’t they included here?

The fact was that those tracks were recorded afterwards…the Perfect City compilation was more of a summing up of where we were up to at the time and compiled various singles into one convenient package. The intention was then to keep recording songs for further releases.

++ So you were only around for only 3 years according to this CD? From 98 to 2000?

The use of ‘1998-2000’ in the title of the compilation was in some ways misleading because it implies that the band only existed for that time but in truth we never really broke up – in fact Justin and Declan were recording some basic tracks last weekend!. Sadly fewer songs after 2000 were actually released so 98-2000 was the most prolific period for actual physical releases.

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

Declan and Justin were school friends in Derby who then moved up to Manchester to study psychiatric nursing.  I recall them saying they played  together in bands in Derby for a while but I can’t recall any names – I think they just played a handful of gigs and then moved on.

At work I noticed an advert asking for band members to join an as yet un-named group influenced by The Pastels, Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens , Teenage Fanclub etc. Given that my last band had split up I decided to give music another go and called the phone number.  We then met up at the trainee nurses accommodation which was part of Trafford General Hospital and it was quite surreal walking around hospital grounds with a bass guitar!. They had recorded quite a lot of tracks over a couple of years that formed the bulk of a demo tape, which was given to me at our first rehearsal together.  I was really impressed with the quality of the songs and the production was great considering it was all done on a four-track.

Declan and Justin are natural songwriters and they both have the knack of coming up with an idea for a song from a simple idea or hummed melody and then working out guitar parts, vocal harmonies or even orchestral parts.

Screen Prints has never been a ‘band’ in the normal sense – rehearsals, gigs etc but was always more of a D.I.Y studio project focusing on writing and recording songs and using a wide variety of instruments with an ever changing line up of guest musicians or enthusiastic friends.

++ By now you were not in Sheffield anymore but in Manchester. How do you like it there? Better than Sheffield? Were there any other exciting bands in Manchester at the time?

Manchester has been good to me but Sheffield will always feel like home – Manchester has a ‘harder’ feel than Sheffield which is a much more friendly city.  Manchester sometimes has that cocky arrogance you might associate with London or New York…however that’s obviously not true of everyone – there’s good and bad in every town. There weren’t many exciting bands in Manchester back then – the big news at the time I suppose was the enormous success of Oasis but that didn’t really excite me much.

++ Oh! And are you a United or a City fan?

I completely and utterly hate football but if I was forced at gunpoint to support a team it would be Sheffield UTD.

++ Let me get back on track! Why the name Screen Prints? Do any of you do screen printing actually?

I did some screen-printing back in art college but that’s just coincidence. We decided upon the name after going through long lists of suggestions and it was one we all liked the sound of.

++ And what about influences? I know you loved C86 kind of stuff, but what about the rest of the band? Was it easy to agree with them?

We generally liked the same sort of stuff – indie mostly – but Declan was also keen on Northern Soul, Psych-folk and 60’s harmony pop and some electronica.  Justin liked this stuff too but was equally enthusiastic about food as you can hear in many of his lyrics!

++ How did the creative process work for you all? I see on the liner notes that there was a core band, but there also a lot of other musicians collaborating.

After a while we felt we needed another guitarist so brought in Al who was already a good friend and had been coming to rehearsals and going to the pub with us. In fact pretty much all the later band meetings/rehearsals would end up in the pub and it’s noticeable that the amount of actual finished product began to decline around this time!  We would use friends and girlfriends to contribute in doing handclaps, percussion, backing vocals etc and when the CD was pressed they all got a credit.

++ I find very funny that comment on your Myspace were they say that you butchered Donovan’s “Celeste”. How do you feel about that? And how come did you end up on that tribute album?

Well we though it was funny which is why we posted it on the Myspace page.

He does have a point though! – it’s not our best effort but as big Donovan fans we wanted to contribute to the compilation.  I just loved his phrase – ‘’my shit list of bands to avoid’’- genius! Darla records had simply emailed and asked if we wanted to be involved so we went for it.

++ Prior to the compilation CD all of your releases were on vinyl. Of course I have to ask, which format do you prefer? And why?

I prefer vinyl on the whole but to be honest I probably play more on CD

++ Most of your releases were on Earworm Records, a label that was eclectic and all but deserves more recognition I’d say, how did you end up signing with them?

Someone Al knew called Dave Skinner was a friend of Dominic at Earworm and he played him an early demo. It seems he was suitably impressed so he got in touch to arrange releasing some singles.

++ One of your 7″s, “Her Name I Don’t Remember”, is one of my favourite songs of yours. Care to tell me the story behind it?

This is a Justin scenario! – Him and Declan many years before had been out in Derby and met a red headed Irish girl whom Justin took a shine to.  In the taxi back home Justin swapped details with the girl and some time later sent her a mix tape – the classic courtship ritual of the lovesick indie kid!.

Unfortunately Justin then heard she had a fiance who had promptly glassed some poor bloke-also called Justin-in a local nightclub!

At the time I’m sure he was upset but as the song suggests – he couldn’t even remember her name!.  Lucky escape if you ask me.

++  Another 7″ came out but this time on Track & Field Records: “Same Time Next Year”. I really love the B side on this one, “Missed”. How did you end up releasing with them? How was your relationship with them? They become quite big after, right?

Once again Track and Field had heard a demo and got in touch and we were always happy to say yes if it meant releasing another 7” single.  I too am a fan of ‘’Missed’’ and it possibly has the most painfully loud cymbal crash of any record I can think of! – listen with caution if on headphones!

++ Then there was the 7″ on one of my favourite labels, Motorway Records from Japan. How did you end up releasing a record so far away?

The Motorway Records connection came through Dominic Earworm so I guess it was mostly arranged by him.

++ Also who is Tony Race from the song “Ballad of Tony Race”? Is it based on a real person?

Tony Race was Felt’s first drummer and was sacked by Lawrence for ‘having curly hair’.  Many years later I had the good fortune to meet my musical hero Lawrence and I told him about our track and asked him if this story was true – he said he only hired him in the first place because he looked like Billy Ficca of Television but on second thoughts decided he looked more like Kevin Keegan!..his days were numbered.

We felt that the song had a similar feel to some of the Felt instrumentals so we called the song after this obscure tale as a nod to one of our favourite bands.

++ Then a 10″! How cool is that. You were only missing a 12″ release, huh? But maybe you didn’t consider yourselves an album band? Do you think there are any advantages in releasing in “smaller” formats?

It would have been great to release a 12” or an album but we slowed down in productivity so much over the last few years that it might be a long time coming! I wouldn’t say there’s an advantage to releasing in smaller formats but when in a band you tend to want to release as many things as possible whenever the opportunity arises.

++ And then back to the compilation CD. Why do it that soon? Most bands wait like 10, 20 years to put all their stuff together? Nothing wrong with it, just curious 🙂

We thought it would be good to look back at the stuff we’d recorded and put it all together before moving on to other things. Maybe we had in mind that it was easier for fans to get hold of older stuff on a CD compilation instead of tracking down individual singles. Something like The Smiths ‘Hatful Of Hollow’ or The Wedding Present’s ‘Tommy’ compilations.

++ So, 2 London labels, and 1 Chiba (Japan) label, no Manchester labels interested in releasing your stuff?

I don’t recall any Manchester labels sniffing around but there was not really a healthy indie scene here at the time.

++ What about gigs? Did you play a lot live? How were your gigs by the way, you don’t seem to be too loud…

Our big regret is that we never played one gig…not even a one-off.

We were once offered a chance to play in Denmark at an indie festival but just didn’t get organised in time and the opportunity passed us by. It’s a shame but the fact is that in many ways we were never a proper ‘band’ in that we were more of a recording project – using various additional musicians to record parts as needed. To play live we’d have had a logistical nightmare to recreate the sound.  However what we should have done is a short stripped down set of the songs that we could have played as a four-piece.

++ So what happened? When did you split and why?

We’ve all been busy with other things –having babies, buying and running a record shop and working in psychiatric hospitals..which as I’m sure you can imagine is all either quite stressful or time consuming!

However we’ve never actually split up just been semi-active…well if it’s good enough for Kevin Shields!

++ Having a glance to the past, what would you say were the best moments of being in Screen Prints?

There were many good times – some things that spring to mind are being played by John Peel – twice! , renting a cottage in North Yorkshire to record tracks –( though actually more time was spent watching Declan set up microphones and plug in cables!), Justin getting up at 4am to drive across fields in search of a Viking burial site – only Justin would do this.

We were all at a gig at The Roadhouse and the DJ played ‘’Missed’’ which was nice to hear over the club sound system.

A lot of time spent drinking in ‘The Bar’ or ‘The Trevor’ pub in Chorlton Manchester…actually much more time doing this than making music if truth be told!

++ I was in Manchester just a couple of months ago, had a really nice good time there but didn’t get to see much aside from the Northern Quarter and some good record shops. What would you recommend me to see there next time?

I would recommend that you come and buy lots of records from Vinyl Exchange!

++ And is there any sort of Manchester dish? I was wondering about that and a friend told me about some deep fried egg?

Deep fried egg? ?– that’s news to me. Maybe they meant fried egg as found in a good old English breakfast?. Either way I’m not sure about a Manchester dish – probably best to stick with the Yorkshire puddings and stay loyal to the right side of the Pennines!

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

If I think of something I’ll let you know and if you do come to Manchester again do get in touch.

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Listen
Screen Prints – Missed

Thanks again to Bart for another fantastic interview! Please do order his latest record, I recommend it highly. You can do so from the Lost & Lonesome page. If you want to check prior interviews with him, just click: The Cat’s Miaow, Girl of the World, The Shapiros and Pencil Tin. Now sit back, and enjoy!

++ Hello Bart! How are you doing? Summer coming soon in Australia, any special plans?

Doing well. No special plans, not unless you call sitting in the shade with a long cool drink special.

++ So you just released a new album called “Stories with the Endings Changed”. Why the name of the album? And what can we expect on this album different from previous Bart Cummings offerings? 🙂

The title is a line from one of the songs “Cast of Half Forgotten Names”. It could apply to a band of has-beens who take small parts of peoples’ lives, and then change them around a bit to make songs. But it doesn’t. The main difference on the new CD is we’ve bought Scott and Irene in from the Summer Cats to play on half the songs.

++ How did the collaborations on this album came about?

Scott came in because there was a song that didn’t suit my voice that i thought would work well with his. After he finished recording his part, he goes “I can hear organ riffs and backing vocals, is it ok if i ask Irene along”. So it just sort of goes viral until i step in and say “no cowbell!!”. Pretty much every musician in Melbourne is one degree of separation from Mark, we’ve got a fairly large pool to draw on.

++ I see that two tracks on the album weren’t written exclusively by you. So that makes me wonder how does the process for Bart & Friends work out with so many people collaborating?

The 2 that I co-wrote with Scott follow a pretty straight forward process. the music is written first and Scott gets a copy of the guitar track to write the words to, he emails me a rough copy of him singing over the top when he’s done (just to make sure I’m happy with it, I always am) then we record it with everyone. Mark and Louis come up with their own parts and have quite a large input into the recording rather than the writing. It’s Mark that always says, lets do another take, we can do it better.

++ What would you say are the main differences between The Cat’s Miaow and Bart & Friends?

The Cat’s Miaow was my main priority above all else in my life at that point in time. For the bulk of the band’s existence, I shared a flat with Andrew and we recorded at home, so in some regards you could say the we operated the band 24/7.

This incarnation of Bart & friends is an excuse to go to Melbourne and hang with friends every few months, something to talk about with people online. Some men my age play golf, I write pop songs. It’s still very important to me and everyone else involved, we’re in no way half-arsed about it, but it’s not the main thing in our lives.

++Let’s go back in time, it was 1998 when Bart & Friends started more or less, right? What was the main reason to work this way, collaborating with other talented musicians and not having a regular lineup, and how hard was it to come up with the name for the “band”?

The main reason for the collaborations on the first album was that i had songs with no lyrics, so writing with other people was part fun/part necessity. I think doing just one song in an afternoon kept it fresh and exciting, it prevented it getting boring. And I seriously doubt that any of the people I collaborated with on “Car & Girls” would have been interested in forming a band with me, but were fine to do one song. I think the first one we did was “Are You Guys into Wings” with the meadows brothers.

The purpose of the name is to indicate that it’s me and some other people. It’s a pretty crap name, but I think people more readily accept the floating lineup concept with a name like that. The band name is a bit of a joke as well, I’m hardly a social butterfly.

The songs were recorded over quite a long period, quite possibly 18 months if not longer. “10 Songs About Cars & Girls” was released in 1998 but we may have started work on it as early as 1996. I know the B&F versions of “Crying” and “Don’t Worry, This Isn’t About You” were recorded before The Cat’s Miaow versions, but were released later.

++ Amazingly, with this “band” you’ve managed to play gigs! Is it easy to rehearse with everyone? How does that work?

There was the 3-piece line up of the band in 2000, with Andrew, Mark and myself that played a handful of shows and even did a couple in Sydney. “I was lonely ’til i found you” is sort of a document of that lineup

The 2011 incarnation has only managed to play live once and had one full band rehearsal the afternoon of the show. Getting us all together at the same time is quite a challenge. Luckily we’re a bunch of old pro’s and i think we sounded pretty confident on the night. Scott and Louis in particular are keen to play again, it’s just a matter of finding time when everyone is free.

++ And I know you don’t like playing live that much, so from the few Bart & Friends gigs, which have been your favourite and why?

One of the good things about interviews is that it makes you re-examine things about yourself.
I actually quite like playing live but i really hate
1 Organising shows
2 Singing, especially live

Whenever I play solo I’ve generally got a little loop going in my head “Bart, you sound like SHIT and you have all the stage presence of a wet dishcloth. Who do you think you’re kidding” and that generally continues until I finish. So the performance is generally a bit tense and I don’t exactly sit back and revel in the moment, but afterwords I get to have a few drinks, usually see a band I like and chat to nice people, so it evens out.

If I’m playing and Pam or Scott (or Kerrie back in the day) are singing the loop is generally “this sounds so cool, we’re fucking untouchable” and its all quite enjoyable. On re-reading this it sounds like I’m either suffering from bi-polar or schizophrenia and I’ll just stress I don’t hear voices in my head at any other time.

I think the last 3 shows I’ve played have been some of my favourites of all time:
London, not me solo, I was dreadful, but with Pam was great. We hadn’t played together in 15 years and it was just too easy
Berlin, solo, not the greatest performance, but I got swept along by the loveliest of audiences.
Melbourne, with Bart & Friends, first public outing with this line-up and it was just the best fun. We’d all been wanting to do this a while.

++ How did your relationship with Lost & Lonesome start? I thought no one in Australia knew about Bart Cummings 😉

Well prior to being on Lost & Lonesome no-one did, now I’m even getting played in the cafe around the corner from where we record. Out of everything I’ve ever done, the releases on Lost & Lonesome have probably been the ones that have reached the highest public profile for me in Australia. The benchmark wasn’t that high.

We’d pretty much finished mixing “Make you Blush” before I came around to the idea of releasing the songs on CD at all. My original intention was to have them as free downloads on last fm. Mark had been offering to release them on Lost & Lonesome almost from the get go but I didn’t think it would sell more than 20 copies and I had visions of it getting awkward between us when the CD flopped so I had been reluctant to agree. Uts working out ok so far tho.

In some ways it was inevitable that the CD would come out on Lost & Lonesome, pretty much everyone that plays on “Make you Blush” are in other bands that are also on Lost & Lonesome.

++ But first release was “10 Songs About Cars And Girls”on Drive-In who you had collaborated earlier with The Cat’s Miaow. Funny thing is that there are 12 songs, and then lots of “hidden” songs in this CD. Why is this? The title is really deceiving!

One of the few regrets I have is that we didn’t do a full color sleeve for “Cars n Girls”, the car was a lovely shade of red, matched the model’s lipstick…. yes, the title, I can be quite a smart arse at times, I think it was as simple as “10 songs” sounded better to me than “12 songs”. I definitely didn’t want the 20 bonus Cat’s Miaow songs listed on the back , as I did want them to be a surprise and not a reason to buy the CD. I rationalised that it was only Cat’s Miaow fans that would buy it so it would almost be like getting a free CD worth of songs

++ Second release was “I Was Lonely ‘Til I Found You” with a Penguin Books kind of cover. I read that after this release you had a lack of creative momentum. Why was that?

Probably down to a lot of things. From memory I was working in a job that was quite time consuming and generally left me feeling fairly tired and stressed. My dad had died. I’d bought a house. On the plus side I was in a relationship and that was taking up a lot of time but in a good way.

There was probably a bit of self imposed early retirement going on there as well “you’re 35, stop embarrassing yourself”. But having said that, the songs I was writing then were crap and the break has done me the world of good.

++ Then, 9 years after, you released “Make Me Blush” were you collaborated again with Pam Berry. How did the recording process work for this record? Was it any different from the previous ones?

In some ways its still the same, I write a song and we record it in someone’s house. The difference now is the standard home recording equipment these days is pro-tools and not a 4 track portastudio so it sounds pretty swish. The internet has made working with Pam overseas a lot easier. Not as easy as if we were in the same city but definitely made it a viable option.

The sessions for “Make you Blush” were quite odd for me as I hadn’t played music with anyone for nearly 10 years. The others hadn’t heard the songs before we started recording them (which is something that still happens now) but we’ve got into a routine of me bringing the chords, a vocal melody if I’ve written the words, an arrangement and tempo and the others fill in the gaps arrange the core structure. It seems to work ok. there’s probably thousands of bands that operate in an identical way except most don’t record the song 15 minutes later.

++ And we end up again on your last release, “Stories with The Endings Changed”. Something I find interesting is that for this release and the previous you had two indiepop fans, who are bloggers, and graphic designers as well, to work on the artwork. How did that happen? And how do you see this new up and coming generation of indiepop fans?

I had been reading their blogs for the musical content and admiring the look of the blogs as well. Krister and probably Matt had also been customers of Library mail order, tho I don’t think I initially joined all the dots until much later. I think with both of them doing blogs, I had a fair idea of what they were capable of and I also felt confident that they would know what I’d like as well.

Regarding the new generation? same as the old but younger??? what I do find interesting about it all is that it is much more international and interconnected and multifaceted. It is rare to find someone who is “just” a fan. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but it seems everyone does something whether it’s play in a band, organise shows, do a club night, a blog, design sleeves, run a label, take photos and usually a combination of several.

++ And what about the newer bands? Like any?

Yes, Sunny Street, Motifs, Days, Middle Ones, Fireflies/Very Truly Yours have all produced gobsmackingly beautiful music. I don’t spend a lot of time searching out new music, apart from reading a few blogs . You could drive trucks through the gaps in my musical knowledge regarding new bands.

++ On the Lost & Lonesome site it says “A new Bart & Friends EP is planned for release in early-2012”. Have you already recorded these songs? Care to tell me more about this upcoming EP? What else is in store for the band?

We started recording last weekend and I must say I think its sounding really good so far. Its got a kinda late 50s/early 60s sort of feel. The usual star studded line-up with Pam and Scott handling all the lead vocals. There’s a couple of covers and Scott wrote the lyrics to one which is shaping up to be the pick of the bunch. Oh and a couple of them are over 3 minutes which is unheard of for us.

There’s no real long term plan or goal for B&F. We’re trying not to over-think things and are basically just a bunch of grumpy old men doing the things that we enjoy for no other reason than the enjoyment that doing them brings.

That said, we’ve started talking about the next session being a bit more keyboard orientated and there’s a couple of songs written for that already and I’ve started writing another one tonight

++ I also want to thank you for the mini CD we put together, I was wondering if you could do some shameless promotion for it here. Maybe explain why the tracks run in increasing order if you check the minutes?

I think the EP really sums up a lot of what I’ve tried to do musically. It’s not exactly a best of but it does have a lot of my personal favourites on it to answer your next question.

The songs are arranged in reverse chronological order, ie: from newest to oldest. And it was only after I did this that I noticed that with the exception of the first song, there was a pattern of the songs getting shorter as they got newer. As to the why I’m not really sure but I kinda get the mental image of a spinning top going in ever smaller circles as it slows down.

++ So which would you say are your favourite Bart & Friends songs? And why?

“CBGBs” is possibly my favourite song I’ve written in any band, not just B&F. Both the music and the lyrics are concise, simple, melodic. Its got a dreamy quality to it that works in with the lyrics. Its just a little snapshot of a moment and is probably the best example of the type of song I always try to write.

“How Can You Tell Me You Love Me” is another personal favorite. Anytime I record a song that has what I tend to think of as a “50’s feel”, traditional arrangement, minor chords with a lot of spring reverb, i’m happy

++ Alright, so I was thinking, you as a librarian you must have some favourite books to recommend, right? What have you been reading and enjoying lately?

What I mostly read these days are picture books to my kids. A couple of my favourites have been Oliver Jeffers “The great paper caper” and “It’s a book” by Lane Smith. Even for people who don’t have kids I’d still recommend both these books

++ When I was in the UK they were closing lots of libraries and lots were complaining about it. With the imminent grow of the e-books and digital files in general, how do you think libraries will survive?

That’s a good question. From the articles I was reading online in the UK newspapers you did get a recurring train of thought that was loosely “libraries = books. Books are on the way out, so libraries are redundant”. Whereas I tend to advocate “libraries = access to information, irrespective of the format it’s stored in”. I think the key to libraries surviving is staying relevant/essential to your community, and being able to demonstrate this to your funding bodies. It’s not an easy call by any means especially when your funding body has its own agenda which I think was the case in the UK.

++ One last question, see you at Indietracks next year? Hopefully performing?

Yes, I’ll be the one yelling at his kids to get off the llamas. There’s a good chance I’ll be over that way mid year, but my attending will mainly depend on when it’s on, But i’d love to go. Performing? I’d say it would be near impossible to get all B&F there, (or anywhere really on the same day) but maybe me & Pam. If team Indietracks would have us we’d love to!!!

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

Thanks again for showing an interest

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Listen
Bart & Friends – These Words Are Too Small

October. Now this blog has 4 years! I didn’t expect to write or interview bands this long to be honest. It’s funny, Emma, who pushed me to blog again, and helped me back in the day coming up with questions for the interviews, has been back in my life this week after a whole year of silence. Don’t know if that means anything, but it’s something really nice. She is one of my dearest friends and I had missed her during all this time. It’s true that she is out of the loop now when it comes to indiepop (she is into Beyoncé and that kind of things), and long are the days when we would talk about friends like The Pinefox, love_tropicana or the “sad girl”. Those were the early days of this blog. I remember many of the great questions she came up with for my interviews, some that I wouldn’t have even thought about asking! Like, when she asked if the Pink Noise’s vocalist hair was real blonde or not (!).

Also since August I have a new great friend, Yuiko, who has been pushing me even further, in making more and more interviews. Sometimes I feel I just blog for her. And I enjoy that idea. She was the one who has made the b-flower interview possible, first by translating my questions to Japanese, and then translating Hideshi’s answers to English. Lots of work, and just for the love of indiepop. Also she was the one who asked me to do interviews with The Thieves, Episode Four and East Village. On the pipeline there are other interviews she has requested like the one with Newsflash or Sugarfrost Records’ Akiko. Hopefully those will be up soon. And you know what’s funny, I’ve never met Yuiko, but before emailing, in July, we both attended the same Jasmine Minks gig in London. Who would have known. Small world.

So yes, I’m thanking those who have kept me blogging as you can already tell. I do blog for my own entertainment to be honest, as I’m a terribly curious person, and need to know the story behind the records and songs I have. It’s all like a big jigsaw for me, trying always to put the pieces together. But, there are people that share that same passion and that have given me feedback and inspiration for keeping this blog alive, even when there were catastrophic moments here earlier this year, and made me wonder if indiepop was dead or not. I figured out this month that indiepop has a chronic disease too, sometimes it feels great, vibrant, but sometimes it gets really ill.

Another person I want to thank is Bart Cummings for talking about every single band he has been in and always having the most interesting answers, he knows what I want to read! And yes, there’s a Bart & Friends interview coming up too these days. What is left? Hydroplane?

Helping me get in touch with bands both Uwe and Jessel have been fantastic through the years.

Also I want to thank Phil Ball for his support and all the great chats about lost bands. Someday I know he’ll digitise his tapes and lots of great obscure bands will be re-discovered. Same goes to my dear friend Andreas that really needs to fix his tape player! One of the few that I know that has the blog on an RSS reader 🙂

Thanks to William Jones from Friends & Summerhouse Records for being an inspiration. Always spaghetti carbonara with him.

Last but not least, to Jennifer for being such a big supporter through all these years. I know she prefers my blog posts to be shorter, but well, I can’t help it. One day I promise that I will retake the book idea for compiling interviews from the blog, so you can all read them just before going to sleep just like I do with my Tintins, comfortably in bed.

I know this blog won’t be as popular as those who offer the whole record for download. People enjoy the easiest route always, one click. Aside from those blogs making music throwaway, making these great songs have no value whatsoever, I believe in the challenge of finding out for yourself, going through the depths of ebay, musicstack, record stores, gemm, discogs, and the entire whole wide web trying to find a record. That’s way more rewarding than one click. So to all the readers who have stuck around, a big THANK YOU. And especially, those that leave comments, you make my day.

And to those that think that I steal their “finds”. Just a couple of words, grow up.

Moving on…

The CDs that have been played at home this week were:
1. The Haywains – A37 Revisited (Cider City)
2. Various Artists – The Legendary B Sides (Richmond)
3. The Ethnobabes – Thoughts on Barbecuing (Perfect Pop)
4. Blackberry Wine – Modern Living in a Survival Handbook (Pony Proof)
5. Sambassadeur – Coastal Affairs (Labrador)
6. Paisley & Charlie – Songs in Black and White (Pebble)

And listening to the Legendary B Sides of what was  él Records, I was struck on track number 14 of the second CD, repeating it over and over. I’d say it’s a very Cloudberry song, if that’s a thing you could say. The track was “Valediction” by a band called Ambassador 277. Immediately I started to google about them, to find out who made such a catchy and nostalgic song at the same time. Sad and upbeat. I wanted to know who was singing with breezy vocals, who was the girl that was doing such delicious backing vocals, and who came up with all these great different instrument arrangements all over the song. It’s just a perfect song!

First things first. What’s a valediction? A valediction (derivation from Latin vale dicere, ‘to say farewell’), or complimentary close in American English, is an expression used to say farewell, especially a word or phrase used to end a letter or message, or the act of saying parting words- whether brief, or extensive.

And to make things even more clear, an ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization. But what about the number 277? Is it a secret code?

I wasn’t surprised to find absolutely nothing about them. That’s the story of my life, haha. According to Twee.net and the liner notes of the B sides compilation CD, there was just one release. A 10″ that had on the A side the song “Pop Up Man” and on the B side this new favourite of mine, “Valediction”. I wonder why the 10″ format for just two songs. Could be one of Mike Alway eccentricities? From what I’ve read on many liner notes, él always was usually short on money, so they could have saved some pounds if this was released on 7″, right? But I’m sure there was a reason to do it on a 10″. If there was a label that had reasons to do something for aesthetic purposes and leave the economic reasons behind, that was él.

So now I’m listening to the “Pop Up Man” and it sounds very familiar to me. A little research and I figure out why. This song was covered by the great Minneapolis band Ninian Hawick on the “All Done with Mirrors” compilation released on Le Grand Magistery. It’s a very strange version of the song though, very eclectic. For starters it’s all electronic and has a dancey feel. Not really my thing. And it’s sung in French. I usually skipped this song when playing that compilation.

On the other hand, the original “Pop Up Man” is great, it has a sixties feel with it’s guitar riffs and soft trumpets in the chorus. Just so you know, don’t be deceived by the Minnesota version!  In any case,  for me, the winner on the record, is “Valediction”. That’s my song. I still don’t have this record, and I haven’t had the chance to see the sleeve. It’s not even listed on Discogs. I wonder if on the sleeve there are more details about this band. Probably. At least some last names.

The band did appear on many compilations usually with “Pop Up Man”. You can check many of these compilation albums here.

And that’s about all I could gather about them. I guess they were long forgotten, hard to compete in a label catalog that included the likes of The Monochrome Set, Momus, The Would Be Goods or Louis Philippe. If you happen to know anything else about them, or if you know what the 277 number means, please leave a nice comment down below. You’ll make my day!

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Listen
Ambassador 277 – Valediction

Thanks so much to Daniel Wylie for the interview. The Thieves were a Scottish band that released 4 singles during the late 80s before splitting. After his adventure with The Thieves, Daniel made it much bigger with the Cosmic Rough Riders. Please also check his latest solo stuff on his myspace. And now sit down and enjoy!

++ Thanks so much for being up for the interview Daniel. So The Thieves were based in Castlemilk. First time I hear about that place. How was growing up there? Was there any sort of scene? Where would you hang out and go see bands?

The Thieves were from Cumbernauld, 16 miles outside Glasgow. I was the only member of the band that lived in Castlemilk. Castlemilk is a council housing estate and had no music scene. There were band members that came from Castlemilk, for example; James Grant (Love and Money/Friends Again) and I’m sure one of Simple Mins was originally from Castlemilk and one of the guys from 80’s electro duo Bronski Beat. Oh yeah and the girl singer from a short lived duo called Banderas.

++ And of course, being close to Glasgow was an advantage as during those late 80s there were so many great bands there. Did you have any favourites?

Glasgow has always had lots of great music venues so yes, it’s a great city to live in. I loved Orange Juice, especially their second album, Rip It Up. Also Aztec Camera. I always had time to listen to Scottish bands. I bought a lot of their records as I wanted to support them and help them make it. It’s always great for a city/country when it has successful bands.

++ So let’s talk about the band. how did it start? How was the recruiting process? There’s that story of the music advert at a Glasgow music store, which store was that?

Yeah, I answered an advert in McCormack’s music store in Glasgow. They were looking for a singer and I’d just left a band called Pioneers West. I arranged to meet the band at a rehearsal space in Cumbernauld. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) and I went along and I didn’t like their music. They played me some really bad instrumentals. One was a ska tune and was terrible. But they were good players. I borrowed a guitar from them and offered to play them some of my own songs and they liked them. So I was in.

++ Were you involved in bands before The Thieves? Or was this your first experience?

Yeah, I was in a few little bands. Cubic Zirconia were a covers band. We played two gigs then the keyboard player and myself formed Transaction. After that it was Pioneers West and then for about two weeks I was in a band called India. Then I joined The Thieves.

++ Why the name The Thieves?

We were called The Bicycle Thieves but then found out someone else had that name so shortened it to The Thieves.

++ How does the creative process work for you? What comes first, music or lyrics? Do you usually get inspired by anything in particular?

Vocal melodies come first 90% of the time. Other times I might just be strumming the guitar and a tune will pop into my head. Lyrics are much more difficult. I wrote some of The Thieves songs on a Casio keyboard.

++ How many guitars do you have? And do you have a favourite?

A. I have two cheap acoustics. One I wrote all the Cosmic Rough Riders songs on which I no longer use. I keep it as a relic from my past in remembrance of a really creative period in my life. My son plays guitar (and he’s great) and he has another three guitars. We only have one electric in the house. A Fender Telecaster. A white one that I bought my son for Christmas a few years ago.

++ How about gigging? Did you gig a lot? What are your favourite Thieves’ gigs? And why?

The Thieves played a lot of gigs and recorded a lot of songs. Mostly demos but there’s an unreleased album we recorded at a studio called Shabby Road, which was owned at the time by The Trash Can Sinatras. One gig I enjoyed was at Kelvingrove Bandstand. My friends, The River Detectives were also playing that day and it was broadcast on Radio Clyde. I also loved supporting The La’s in Edinburgh.

++ Your first release “Talk Your Head Off” was recorded at Park Lane Studios in Glasgow. How do you remember those recording sessions? I read that Trevor was only 15 back then!

Yeah, Trevor was still at School. The sessions were pretty terrible. The engineer totally messed it up and the mix was shocking. The mastering at Abbey Road was even worse. We still had a lot to learn 🙂

++ You formed a label to release this single, Planetarium Records. How did you like doing label stuff? Did you find it easy to do promo and distro back then?

A. We had no distribution for the first single and ended up giving most of them away to people attending a gig we did at Barrowlands supporting Simple Minds. We got it sorted after that. We did almost all of our promo ourselves, learning from our mistakes as we went along.

++ What about your appearance on Famous For 15 Minutes. How did that happen? How was the experience of being on TV?

We had recorded some 4 track demos with Jim Brady (who helped us out on keyboards). We heard about the TV people looking for demos and sent off three songs. I had just written Star Spangled Banner the week before we did the demo. My Girlfriend (now wife) had just gone to work in America for three months and it was a funny look at me missing her. There were 12,000 entrants and the guys chose us because they loved Star Spangled Banner the first time they heard it. The other songs on the demo were Stranger Today and Silver Rain. Being on TV was strange and we became instantly recognised around town. It’s a bit creepy when people you don’t know think they know you. 🙂

++ And how was the experience working with Harry Enfield?

I didn’t even know who he was at the time but the other guys in the band knew his TV comedy. He was lovely. Genuinely a nice person. He would sit with us for lunch and ask us all about our music and what life was like living and working in Glasgow. He kept re-writing his script and would learn his lines in minutes. He’s a bit of a genius to be honest and a very nice man. Geoff Wonfor, who directed Famous For 15 Minutes, went on to direct The Beatles Anthology documentaries. He also worked on music show The Tube.

++ This appearance makes me wonder. It feels you were on the verge of something bigger, was there no interest from bigger labels? Why do you think it didn’t happen?

Labels would come up and see us but would never commit. We were doing well on our own so didn’t really care. We were selling 4,000 copies of our singles (ep’s) and selling out The Mayfair (now The Garage). We were getting good support shows at the Barrowlands and around the country and we’d been on TV and built up our own following. We were our own little gang with our own record label.

++ You released, after the 7″, a string of three 12″ singles. Which song of your repertoire would you say is your favourite? And why?

From The Thieves repertoir? I like a couple of the B Sides. Calling All Stations and And Then He Died. I preferred the direction we were taking by the third ep and I like the song Paper from the Rain ep.

++ For me it is, “And Then He Died” is such a fantastic song, it stands up clearly on the Leamington Spa Vol.5 compilation. I was wondering what’s the story behind the song?

I wrote the lyrics and the melody to a chord structure Tom McGarrigle was playing one day. It’s about suicide. A friend of mine commited suicide by hanging himself but I didn’t want the song to be graphically about his suicide. So I generalised it by turning it into a story of a body being found and a suspected suicide. I also wanted to keep the song upbeat and angry, not melancholic and depressing. You get angry when someone that matters to you like a good friend ends it all.

++ I still haven’t been able to get around to have your releases, and online there is no tracklist for the 12″s, would you mind writing that down for me?

The first three are on Planetarium Discs and the fourth is on Limo Records.

Theft 1. Talk Your Head Off/The Party
Theft 2. Soul Thief/And Then He Died/Souvenir Of 1969
Theft 3. September Rain/Anxious Moments/Calling All Stations/The Splendid Gift
Limo 1. Rain (Beatles cover)/Paper/Can’t Hold Back/Sound Of Music

++ And what about compiling all your releases on some sort of retrospective album, have you ever thought about doing that? Is there more unreleased material?

I haven’t thought about it. There’s a lot of material. Lots of demos and unreleased songs. It would be difficult to source the masters and a lot of stuff is on cassette and DAT. There’s about two or three albums worth of songs.

++ When and why did you split? What did you all do after?

Trevor the Drummer was first to leave. We replaced him with Stevie Boyd and I thought we improved but then Trevor’s brother Mark (guitarist) left. He wanted to go explore the world and wasn’t getting to see much of it being in our band. The Thieves morphed into a band called Rise and we almost got signed by EMI but it didn’t work out and people were getting into different kinds of music. At the time I thought it was a mistake to break up but of course, I went on to make solo records under the name Cosmic Rough Riders and managed some success. I got signed by Alan McGee had a couple of top 40 singles and sold over 100,000 albums. 🙂 Tom McGarrigle from The Thieves still plays on some of my records.

++ And what are you up these days? Still making music?

Yes. I’ve released over 100 songs over the last 11 years. Nine albums counting Cosmic Rough Riders and solo releases. I have a new album finished but haven’t found a label yet. Check out some tunes from it at; www.myspace.com/danielwylie
The Thieves was my apprenticeship before I got much better.

++ I’ve been a couple of times to Glasgow now, and I’ve learned to enjoy the city and the haggis and the Irn Bru. I was wondering if you’d recommend me your favourite sights in town, restaurants, and perhaps any particular Scottish dish that you like?

I never eat out. I’m a choosy eater. I don’t like haggis and I don’t drink Irn Bru. I love the Transport Museum. In fact, I love all our museums and there are plenty of venues to watch bands. My current favourite is the 02ABC. Did you know it’s free to get into any museum in Glasgow?

++ One last question, I interviewed Neil Sturgeon not so long ago and I’ve seen you have played together with him live. How did this collaboration happen? And what does Neil bring to the table? I can see that you have similar musical taste, no?

Neil is a great friend. He plays guitar on my last two albums, Car Guitar Star and the (as yet) unreleased new album, Fake Your Own Death. I’ve known him for years. Since I was in The Thieves. I’ve demoed my last two albums at Neil’s house. I just turn up with my acoustic, he sticks a mic in front of me and I play him 16 or 17 new songs I’ve written. Once I decide which ones are being recorded, Neil will learn them too. He’s a great songwriter himself and I would say we’re big fans of each other’s music. He also toured Spain with me as part of my band and also played some solo sets on the tour. He’s one of life’s good guys and is massively talented. I would urge everyone reading to check out his music.

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

The Thieves interest from around the world astounds me in a nice way. When I look back, we weren’t as good as I thought we were at the time but it’s still nice to have some starting point to remind me of where I began to get my act together as a songwriter. Needless to say, in my opinion, I got so much better and looking back reminds me of just how much. 🙂

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Listen
The Thieves – And Then He Died

Thanks so much to Hideshi Hachino for this fantastic interview. b-flower was part of that amazing generation of pop bands that appeared in Japan during the late 80s and early 90s, releasing a couple of singles on Sugarfrost, gaining recognition by the likes of the NME, signing for a big label like Toshiba in Japan, releasing many albums and gone on hiatus in the late 90s. Fantastic pop that transcended the barrier of language. Please enjoy, and if you understand Japanese (or want to use Google translate) please visit his blog too!

++ Hello Hachino-san! Thanks so much for being up for an interview.  It’s hard to cover your huge discography, but let’s take it as an introduction to your music. Alright! I hear you have a new band called Livingston Daisy. Are there any releases coming out? Care to tell me a bit about this new project of yours?

Nice meeting you, Roque-san.  So flattered that you’re interested in a band which has barely been active.  Thanks for asking me for an interview – Yoroshiku.
Yes, I’ve just resumed releasing songs with a band called Livingstone Daisy – for the first time in just about a decade.
It’s a three-piece band.  I’m with Sakana Hosomi, who co-produced b-flower albums and did gigs together from 1995 or so and has been active on his own as keyboardist, arranger, producer and ambient musician under such monikers as ‘hosomi’ and ‘maju.’   The other member is Okabe from b-flower.
We’ve digitally released “Tokyo Snowscape” in October 2010, “This World of Sorrow” in February 2011 and “June Song” in September, and are currently planning to put out an album as CD before too long.

++ So let’s talk b-flower. First thing I want to know, as I’ve been curious about it for years. What does the name mean?

My favourite American poet Richard Brautigan once wrote a beautiful poem in which he likened roadside drunks to flowers of foreign origins, which inspired “Brautigan-Flower” developing into “b-flower.”

++ Back in time. When did the band start? And how did you all knew each other and decided to start a band?
In 1984 or 85, I believe.
We started in strong sympathy with the sound of bands which belonged to such UK independent labels as Rough Trade and Cherry Red.  The other members were my uni friends, save guitarist Suzuki who came to an audition we held at a studio where we practised.

++ Was b-flower your first band?

From 1980 or so I went through a real trial-and-error period in search for the best style of vocals to express myself, by following various vocalists in various copy bands, ranging from one copying The Crash and The Jam, another The Rolling Stones to one doing Roxy Music and Duran Duran.

++ On myspace I see some demos from way back, from 1986. What’s the story behind them? These are fantastic gems that I guess never saw the light. Are there more of these? Have you ever thought releasing them at some point?

It was around the time when cassette 4-track MTRs became abound and we recorded those demos just eager to see how they would shape up.  None of them are of quality decent enough to be heard, but I decided to upload them on my Myspace in line with what I’ve been putting out in my blog, which I call my music chronicle.
There’s loads of unreleased songs in which I sang nonsense as they were yet to have proper lyrics in Japanese… yes, it might be fun to release them one day.

++ Your first release was “Nichiyo-bi no Mitsubachi” and it was self-released. How was that experience? And how different was it compared to working with Toshiba EMI for example later?

The first release was all handmade and loads of fun.  But we were way too inexperienced in playing, singing, sound making, recording and mixing down to achieve the sound that we were aiming for.  Based on that experience we decided to hire a producer at Toshiba EMI, by which we gained some and lost some, but the very experience is now a truly great asset.

++ Did you ever consider singing in English as many other Japanese bands did?
I would have tried writing lyric if I had had a command of English good enough to express my emotions and landscapes on my mind exactly as I wished.  Having said that, as I believe the Japanese language is very fit for expressions of nuance and subtlety, I might as well use it as a main vehicle even if I could speak English well.

++ I know your band from the Sugarfrost singles, one of my favourite labels ever. I have both your singles with them of course. I wanted to ask how did you end up in that label and if you ever got to meet Akiko-san? And if you did, how was that?

So glad to hear that you have those singles, thanks!  At the start of 1990’s we self-released an EP “日曜日のミツバチ (Nichiyo-bi no mitsubachi or, Nothing On Sunday)” and I took its copies to Django in Osaka (now in Nara), a record shop dedicated to UK/US indiepop – such a rarity those days – and asked them to sell on our behalf (I discovered later that Nelories too had their cassettes on sale there).  The staff of Django and Akiko-san knew each other and that’s how she came to know and took to b-flower, as I understand.  She later asked us in for a compilation album she was making at Sugarfrost.

Akiko-san is an amazing woman, equipped with tremendous power and will to get things done, whilst blessed with a great deal of good common touch.  I went to Liverpool to see Akiko-san and John when they lived there.  This year too I met her once in Kyoto when she came to Japan.

++ The NME praised your single “Stay Still” in 1993 comparing you to REM and Nico. That must have been on of b-flower’s biggest highlights? A Japanese band, singing in Japanese transcending frontiers. How did that feel like? I do think though thhttp://www.cloudberryrecords.com/blog/wp-admin/post-new.phpat your influences were much broader than REM or Nico, right? More neo-aco stuff?

If honest, I was taken aback by the reactions in the UK.  Upon the UK release Akiko-san and John maintained, “Language makes no barrier,” whilst in Japan what we were often hearing was, “This kind of music should sound better when performed in English.”  It was more so than not that our standing was that of an outsider from the small circle of Japanese indiepop.  That’s why it meant loads to us when the Brits appreciated our sound, the music per se, all the more they spoke a different language.  Truly grateful to Akiko-san and John for backing us up on the release.
My main influences are the UK/US rock, pop and folk in general from the 60’s to 90’s.  I was also inspired by the pop and rock in Japan, including Kayou-kyoku (standard or Showa-era Japanese pop), which themselves have taken inspirations from their western counterparts.

++ And how did you get into the indiepop/neo-aco stuff? Did you ever go to the UK to see bands?