My bus ride from Brixton to Elephant & Castle was entertaining to say the least. It was quite rainy and my super sized chicken sandwich was struggling not to get wet in the brown paper bag. My fries were kind of soaked but still tasted like heaven. Actually everything tasted like heaven and felt like heaven. It was uplifting to see The Andersen Tapes again, this time with an all-star cast. And the pounding dancefloor setting The Windmill on fire to the sounds of Felt and the Sea Urchins. It was heavenly. Even the stupid people left the venue after the bands to go all the way to Stoke Newington. It was so close to perfection. But…

That night I met at last Scared to Dance’s Paul for the first time. Even though we’ve emailed couple of times before and offered me beers everytime I was in London, he managed to ignore my presence. This I find very hard as I don’t look very English and I’m much taller than your average indiepop person. But he did. I started to think his ‘friendship’ was more about spamming me with his endless Scared to Dance promotions and clubnights even though I can’t attend any as I live on the other side of the pond. Maybe I was some sort of important contact. He really insisted in me carrying his fanzines. I am no mailorder I told him and politely declined his request. But he insisted, telling me that I may like the bands on it. But no, I didn’t. I support proper indiepop, not Cindy Laupers with ukuleles.

Anyways, our differences were put on a side that Friday. Well, my differences, I’m not sure if he has any with me. He approached me and said hello. I think what triggered this was a cheeky response of mine on the anorak forum. He was asking for song requests for his DJing set on the Saturday night at Popfest. I asked him to play: “Belle and Sebastian – Century of Fakers”, “Television Personalities – Posing at the Roundhouse”, “Boyracer – Post Modernist Retro Bullshit”. This because I have serious doubts about his indiepop militancy. I didn’t think he is faithful to the cause. I felt he is in the scene for his own selfish goals.

I was already uncomfortable with him taking over Saturday night party at Popfest. The way he was promoting it, as it was his own gig, as if he had organized it all by himself in the 100 Club, was provoking to say the least. His flyers were misleading. It felt like he was the main event, not London Popfest. It felt he was doing a favor to team Popfest to DJ. Nowhere on his flyers or promo sheets -yeah, he has all those because he is very professional about these things- there was some sort of honest gratitude to the Popfest people. On top of that, he had managed a sweet deal: after all the bands have played people could come in for his club for the sum of 3 pounds. It all didn’t feel very indiepop. It was really shady. Why didn’t So Tough So Cute get the same treatment for Friday for example?  Wonder what the politics behind this were.

I was actually asked to DJ between the bands on Saturday. Of course I said no. I didn’t want to be associated to this shady dealings. Imagine if in his next fanzine it says Cloudberry DJed for Scared to Dance. Wouldn’t be nice to be associated that way, would it? I know for a fact that when invited to DJ at different places our friend Paul, not the alien from Simon Pegg’s new flick, takes all the credit, even doing it in far away places like Norway! I don’t know why. Whenever I’ve been invited to DJ, I feel very flattered and honored. All the credit goes to the organizers if the things go right, and if the dancefloor gets empty, well then that’s me to blame. But then, I have no agenda on building a name for a club. Though, if your goal is that, why don’t you do it with your own effort, not from other people? Don’t be a leech.

Anyways, fortune made me take that bus ride from Brixton to Elephant & Castle with dear Paul. After seeing two indiepop kids losing themselves in passionate kisses and leaving hastily on a double decker, and saying by to Joanny and Clemence, our bus arrived towards Thamesmead. He was heading to his girlfriend’s house. A Swedish girlfriend, something I can never have of course. Good for him. Anyways, the conversation was really nice and polite. He gave me some pointers about the area, some directions. I appreciated that. I don’t think he is a bad guy whatsoever, just doing things the wrong way, or perhaps just doing them clueless. I had to challenge him. I asked him what were his expectations with the club, and what was so different about it with How Does it Feel. He said that of course the music is different, that he doesn’t play 60s, and that the crowd is different. The model is very similar though, with the members club. “No bands in Scared to Dance” he said. He was convinced about this. It’s either bands or club, but not both. I thought that was a good point and agreed with him.

I asked him what was he playing tomorrow. He didn’t know yet. I requested to stick to indiepop, as it was Popfest, and people want to listen to it’s pop music. I certainly do. Popfests are the only time I’m treated to dance to the music I love. We don’t have indiepop clubs in Miami. And I think lots of the international crowd attending feel the same way as me. He agreed with this point. He said not to worry, that I was going to like what he was going to DJ. For the next 20 or so hours I hoped and trusted him. Then it was Saturday night. And the Monochrome Set had just put a brilliant show. It was the turn to see if Scared to Dance was going to keep the promises of a proper POP party.

But it didn’t last long until The Stooges started coming out from the speakers continued by all sorts of crap music. It felt Popfest was a joke. It felt there was no respect to the pop attendees. I felt tricked. Maybe this music was intended to those who came after paying their 3 pound?. I don’t know. Only the drunk were dancing and the dancefloor quietly started to empty.

I have a very strong opinion about the hipsters ruining our little scene (see the Oh! Custer and Gold-Bears inserts for my whole rant) and I think it’s time to unmask them. I feel Scared to Dance is fine as a club for hipsters, and it should do it’s own thing apart from indiepop. It’s clear for me that there is no connection between both. I do believe Paul loves the music he plays, but that music is not indiepop. I believe he loves his club, he loves DJing, but I want his club far away from me, it may scare me to dance for life!

We should support DJs and clubs that truly and kindheartedly support our music. So the cycle works and never ends. Don’t give slots to people that are going to laugh on our faces with music that is an insult to taste. Scared to Dance is the McDonald’s of indie clubs. They’ll play you the ABC of what hipsters love. No filters. No pop. No taste.

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Listen
Television Personalities – Posing at the Roundhouse

Thanks so much to Rob, Ben and James for the fantastic interview they self-titled “More Than is Healthy to Know About The Gits”. Also be sure to listen the companion piece “A Gitrodruction” where you can learn to an old radio interview plus bits and pieces of many of their songs. And if you are feeling even more curious, this Youtube channel, has lots of songs and live performances!

More Than Is Healthy To Know About The Gits
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++ How are things?

Rob: As well as could be expected

++ Whereabouts in the UK are you these days?

Ben: In Cairo. I spent yesterday and last night overlooking Tahrir Square when Mubarak resigned. Incredible atmosphere. People just went crazy. (Answered on 11th February)

Rob: I’m still battling the forces of evil in ‘Orsham. I had thought of travelling the world but as they say the best pictures are on the radio.

++ So The Gits, were they your first band? (if no, care to tell me a bit about your older bands?)

Ben: ‘Nigel the Impaler’ also with Rob.

James: No, I was in bands from 1980 – HPR, The Jackalsons and Under The Hanging Tree to name but a few.

Rob: There were many prior to the Gits that were even more unknown. But the first, who I am embarrassed to admit were called Strange Brew, was the most significant as we tagged along on a trip to Horsham’s twin town in Germany, Lage, where we played a couple of gigs and I got to know several of my later co-conspirators including Ben (during the rare moments he didn’t have his tongue down the throat of…)

++ How did the band start? How did you knew each other in the band?

Ben: In the pub. Rob heard (incorrectly) that I had a bass guitar and said if I joined the band he was forming he’d teach me to play bass. And he very nearly did. Deal sealed with a pint of Sussex.

James: The band started with Rob, Matt and Ben who all knew each other from College. I think Jason was asked if he wanted to be the singer first and I was brought in as back up.

Rob: Ben and I, as fans of The Misunderstood, were increasingly bitter about the pseudo psychedelic bands coming up from Brighton to play in Horsham so we thought we’d start our own to show them how it should be done. Of course we couldn’t do anything remotely like we’d set out to do so The Gits were a happy accident from that.

We asked Ben’s neighbour to join but he was rightly unimpressed by the stuff I’d written (he later became The Vessel of David Devant & His Spirit Wife ). I knew Matt and Jim from previous bands and I can’t remember how they got roped in but the latter actually wrote lyrics that made sense and with decent melodies which was a great improvement.

++ What inspired The Gits to make music?

Ben: Beer.

James: Living in Horsham meant living in a cultural and artistic backwater. Music was a release valve.

Rob: I’ve often wondered about that but haven’t the foggiest what the answer is.

++ And What inspired you to name yourselves The Gits?

Ben: After a rehearsal early on I was very unkind to a worm with a tonka toy. Matt rightly called me a git. The name was floated as a temporary name for the band and it stuck.

James: I think the name was a result of one of the band members torturing an insect and being called ‘A Git’

++ How was Horsham, Sussex, back then? Where did you usually hang out? Were there any other pop bands around?

Ben: It was dull but better than it became later. Horsham was voted into the top 10 of ‘Worst Towns To Live In’.

The Bear Public House.

There were few bands of any description. But you could occasionally go to a gig in ‘Champagnes’ a subterranean venue better known for the fights that regularly broke out. Far from glamorous but the only place to go after the pubs closed.

James: See above. Looking back, Horsham was a very safe and secure environment to either a/ bring up young kids or b/ wait to die. Suffocating in its normality and conformity.

The Bear pub was Gits HQ.

There were loads of other bands from Horsham, Crawley and Brighton, the majority of whom all thought they were rock stars with a small r.

Rob: Horsham used to be the major town in the region but lost that position over the last century and by the eighties it didn’t know what it was for anymore and had become a forgotten backwater.

So in The Gits era all there was in the way of entertainment were the large number of pubs left over from it’s days as a market town and a couple of crappy night clubs. It’s saving grace though was that one of the latter would put on local and out of town bands on a Tuesday night and a reasonable music scene developed around it most of whom seemed to meet in The Bear Public House.

Bands locally tended to be split between pub rock covers of the dullest veneer and what could be described as alternative though not necessarily indie pop. The Jackalsons (including Jim), No Geraniums and us were probably the pick of the litter.

* Horsham claims to fame * At one point it had three breweries and the most pubs in a square mile outside of central London!

++ What is the story behind the “Dave Evans” moniker you used in the concerts by the way? Did the rest of the band used fake names as well?

Ben: I’m sure Robs answered this. We once did a ‘Ben E Git Ben E fit’ gig. I was short of funds for Beer.

James: The Edge’s real name. I was Jammie Git

Rob: Stage names for the band was one of many daft ideas formulated over a pint of King & Barnes Brown & Bitter and for mine I thought I’d uphold the honour of a name that The Edge discarded as too boring for someone in a rock band. ‘Fat’ Git would be more apt now.

We also had Blind Lemon Git who later became Mat ‘Guitar’ Git (after the chap from the Blues Brothers Band), Jason Little Git – the token short person, who sang with us for a while and also, spoiling the theme, Chris T.

++ So right, what about gigs? Which other bands shared bill with you?

James: The Brilliant Corners, The Chesterfields, China Crisis!!

Rob: Our first gig in Brighton was with The Chesterfields and we also played with The Man From Del Monte and The Brilliant Corners on the Sussex Riverera. The Grooveyard, who I notice you have also interviewed, were on the bill of the second of those.

In theory our biggest gig was headlining The Powerhaus in Islington, London. That was where Throwing Muses & The Pixes played together! Unfortunately it was New Years Day and it could not be described as busy. I don’t remember the name of the first band but do recall they were fronted by two punkish young ladies wearing tu-tus and that the other support, Barf Roco, had what Mat described as the Grange Hill guitar sound. (For the benefit of overseas readers Grange Hill being a long running childrens program in Britain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SlvZF6k5bE).

++ Any particular gigs you remember and why?

Ben: Champagnes one Christmas. The place was heaving and people were dancing right back to the bar at the opposite end from the stage. Alistair Adams from Test department played bagpipes for us.
As usual the promoter afterwards told us he’d made a loss and we would not be getting paid. He actually had bundles of cash bulging out of his pockets!

James: I remember a gig in London playing at a Nurses College where in the toilet afterwards I was accosted by a 17 stone skinhead who proclaimed we were the best band he had ever seen and why weren’t we signed to a record label?

Rob: The Powerhouse (How was it spelt?). Both the front of house and monitor engineers asked us to do encores and on the second one I decided to jump off the front of the stage. That went reasonable well, as did standing up against the P.A. speakers to create a wall of feedback. But it was at that point I realized how high the stage was and my rock and roll moment was rather ruined by my futile attempts to get back up onto it whilst still playing.

++ With all these guitar bands in the UK, did you feel part of a scene at all back then?

Ben: No, other bands couldn’t figure us out or just didn’t like us. We were like a pub band ‘done good’ and insufficiently miserable to be ‘serious’ band.

Rob: Not really. Our rare forays into enemy territory just showed up how out of place we were. But I got the impression that a lot of folks quite liked that.

++ How would you consider your music, indiepop?

Ben: No I think we were far too flippant to be indie pop. Humour was a big part of the Gits identity, I think – Which was part of our (limited) appeal.

James: No. We started Brit pop.

Rob: To some extent as I was influenced by the ‘Sound Of Young Scotland’: Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera and the like. But I wasn’t playing a black and white Stratocaster by accident and was as much into Clapton, Cream & Hendrix as well as XTC, The Kinks, ELO, The Fall and many many more. Frank Zappa was important for the humour and the way he would combine things, like do-wop and modern classical. And I’ve always been trying to make The Beatles White Album.

++ What about releases, you only released one single right? How did that came about? Who released it?

James: No one would sign us as we ‘did not have a dance element to our music’ so the only way to get national exposure would be to release a single by ourselves.

Rob: Another calamity. I think we were looking for something to give the band some impetus and put it together ourselves but once we had it we didn’t have the faintest idea what to do with it. But that was our problem, and our strength, we never had a plan.

++ What about recording it? Was it any different to all the other stuff that was put on tape?

James: Recording was at a home studio in one day with an in house engineer. It was obviously of better recording quality than the tapes but felt a bit clinical and too polished.

Rob: Martin Stephenson put it best, ‘letting someone else produce your record is like letting someone fondle your girlfriend’s breasts’.

Everything else we did was to four track cassette and either mixed to reel to reel or DAT. It’s by no means wonderful and I had very little idea what I was doing but I think it sounds more like us.

++ What is your favourite Gits song?

James: Mother Knows How.

Rob: There’s bits of quite a lot of them I still like though I find it harder to listen to those with my lyrics. The Greatest Gift is the best of the pre-Jim Gits, perhaps Happy Song of the early ‘pure pop for pop people’ era and either Happily Mad or Bear Up of the mature band. Time To Kill has the most coherent guitar solo I’ve ever played, but ask me tomorrow and I’d choose something else.

++ And how did the creative process work for you?

James: Rob pretty much did it all. I contributed on lyrics, some drum patterns and a very occasional guitar part but virtually all the music ideas were Rob’s. I would get a tape from Rob with whole song structures and add words and melody lines if needed. Firty songs in two years – Rob was a creative genius. Please leave that in, it needs to be said.

Rob: Err… fiddle about on the guitar until I find something I liked. Give it to someone to make up words or if desperate do them myself. Get bored, call it a song and move on to the next thing.

++ You pointed me to these links where there are more than 50 songs of yours recorded! And it makes me wonder how come you didn’t get to properly release them? Some of the songs are single material! Maybe there should be a limited CD with all the songs and some liner notes… just an idea!

Ben: My fault. Promoters and agents / management would approach us after gigs when we were getting very drunk and somehow I would be custodian of the business cards they’d give us. And I would lose them…

Rob: I’m glad you like them. Doing a CD seems a bit optimistic but I’ve thought of sticking them on Bandcamp so people can hear them in decent quality. They’re on LastFM at the moment but they’ve stopped hosting files before and may very well do so again. http://www.last.fm/music/The+Gits+(UK)

++ I have a couple of questions about some songs. First, what feeling is that from “That Dunkirk Feeling”?

James: The feeling? Accentuate the Positive!

++ Second, how serious is the message of “Thank You Fans”?

James: Deadly.

Rob: When we did it we had no fans and no expectation of ever having any so it wasn’t serious. It was a bit of a piss take but mainly just daft which is a theme in a lot of the Gits endeavours. Made up on the spot and done in one take though, I was as much a loss to the world of acting as music!

++ And last one, who was the one that had the “French Girlfriend”?

Ben: Geoff Poynter the cover star of one of the tape cassettes we released misheard a lyric from another Gits song

Rob: The Cover Shepherd from our third tape was convinced that was the name of the song of ours it was based on.

++ I heard you are appearing on the next Leamington Spa compilation CD with the great “JK Rant”. Care to tell me a bit about the song that will appear there?

James: JK Rant was about the scensters who incurred my inner wrath.

Rob: The JK is for Josef K as the guitars on the demo sounded a bit like the Scottish band so it was a way of remembering it before it had words.

The CD version is a combination of the vocals from the ‘Chris Morris’ cassette version, guitar from a late rehearsal recording and I managed to get Glen going so I recorded the drums again.

++ I did notice that you have a song called “Tommy and Brenda”, by your next band Voice of the Rain (who I hope we can do an interview with later), where it mentions a love for Prenzlauer Berg. You do know that the Firestation office is right there, in Prenzlauer Berg, what a coincidence! So just out of curiosity, how do you like Berlin?

James: I like Berlin. Especially Take My Breath Away

Rob: I remember being due to go there to collaborate with a brass ensemble or something but never did as my esteemed colleague became ill for a time. He writes… ‘I lived in Prenzlauer Berg for four years, in Dunckerstr, (with the best indie club in Berlin) and then in Wins str’.

A coincidence indeed. Incidentally Richard from VTOR was the chap I made up Radio Sussex Gits favourite ‘Turn Away’ with.

++ Looking back, what do you think was the biggest highlight of The Gits?

Ben: The beer. And being played on the radio.

James: Strangely, the biggest highlight and lowlight was meeting someone on the board of Skint Records nearly 20 years after we split up who told me he loved The Gits when he was a teenager, really thought we would be famous and why hadn’t I made more of my life.

Rob: Looking back in 20-20 hindsight through rose tinted spectacles – that some folks liked what we did when we were so unfashionable and didn’t fit in with any genre or scene. So they must have liked the music, or the funny clips, or the amusing radio interviews.

++ Alright, so what happened to The Gits? Why did you call it a day? What did you do after?

Ben: Being in the Gits filled the dull void of being in Horsham. But we came to a point where we had to choose between being a ‘serious’ band or getting into University and drugs. Personally I felt being serious was not really the ethos of The Gits.

[After the Gits] Drugs, University and being serious.

James: Ben went to fight in Nicaragua and ended up at Hull University so The Gits from an original line up of five were now two and didn’t feel like The Gits anymore.

Rob: In the end we just ran out of steam but the thing that killed us off was some time before when I got pissed off with Chris and chucked him out of the band for organising a gig but not wanting us to play it. We really needed the ideas and impetus he gave us.

++ Are you still involved with music? What are you all up to nowadays?

Ben: I started listening to music again a while ago…

Film, animation, games graphics, human rights activism… watching old Gits gig videos on youtube. Ah youth!

James: I played in one other band called Kvetch for a couple of years, moved away from Horsham in ’93 and never played another gig. Took up acting as my outlet and currently work for Sussex Police.

Rob: I help out and have done odd bits of recording for a local voluntary group involved in music, the HDLMA. I played my first gig for fourteen years in 2006 and since then I’ve been in a couple of covers bands but left one because I didn’t really add anything and another because I was playing bass, badly. I’ve been trying to get a few other things going but progress is slow so I’ll probably crack on with instrumentals under the ‘Zatapathique’ banner. If The Gits revival doesn’t take off of course.

++ Thanks so much for the interview! Anything else you’d like to add?

Rob: Push wasn’t about sex.

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Listen
The Gits – Two Many People

Thanks so much to Suzanne Muckley for the interview! I knew Blue Summer from the great tape compilation “You Can’t Be Loved Forever vol.3” but they were so obscure and there was no information whatsoever online. So it was great to find a bit more about them at last! Enjoy!!

++ So let’s talk about Blue Summer! I really want more people to hear and know your tunes! When did the band start and who were the members? How did you all meet each other?

I met Tina Lusher at college in 1984 doing a Art Diploma course in Harlow, Tina showed me some of her music and songs she had written but had never performed, from this we did some of her songs for Rag week in the Harlow town centre, I was probably the more confident and did a lot of singing in church but nothing other than that, but I like to think i gave Tina the confidence in her song writing to pursue it.

From Rag week some how we got together with my friend Tony Bennett (drums) and Angela Black (trumpet) also on the same course, and started gigging at college, as people saw us and liked us our venues got better mainly in and around Harlow with the exception of Exeter university which was great fun. We entered the Harlow Rock contest twice and i think we got through to the semi finals both times if i remember rightly.

++ What about the name Blue Summer? Where did it came from?

The name Blue Summer came from me and Tina i remember one night in the pub the Jean Harlow we was thinking of a name and it came from us both loving the summer and the colour blue!

++ On the Harlow Bands page it says that you had some sort of relationship with The Pharaoahs, The Neurotics, The Pillage People and Travis Cut. What was the connection?

The Pharaoahs, The Neurotics, The Pillage People and Travis Cut are all bands that we played with or supported probably mainly at The Square in Harlow, some were also in the rock contest, Tony Bennett (our drummer) went on to play with The Pharaohs and they still play once or twice a year still now so tony tells me mainly abroad they are a rockabilly band, I also used to be friends with some of the players.

++ So what were you listening at the time?

Music wise we was probably mainly into indie music at the time, although Tina loved Haircut 100, we loved Everything but the Girl, The Go-Betweens the list could go on.

++ So who wrote the songs? What was the creative process in the band?

Tina wrote all the guitar music in the band and most of the lyrics I remember I wrote two of the songs lyrics, the trumpet and drums were made up by Tony and Angela.
We didn’t have a bass player for some time, and then we met Paul Howard who was in various bands and very talented and is still a musician today, he became our bass player for quite some time while still doing other stuff of his own, Paul was older than us and more in the know and was a great inspiration for Blue Summer.

++ And why didn’t you get to release a record? Or at least record more songs?

I wish in some ways that our time was now as I think its much more easier to get a demo or some sort of deal than years ago and I think in them days you didn’t have that reality that you could be famous that people do these days, if you get what i mean.

++ The only song I know from you is the fun and poppy “Listen to Me”! What were the other songs on the demo tape? How did they sound like?

The song Listen to Me is one of the songs that was after my time and I wish you could hear some off our old songs as some where great, everyone’s favorite was “Beach boy”, people always remember that one and another one we did at the end of the end of the sets was “Now your going away from me’.

The band carried on and did a demo tape which we had been saving up for with our gig money unfortunately for me i never got to do this which i know regret. They gigged for a while but then Tony left the band to go into the Pharoahs and the new drummer was my sisters husband (at the time) Simon Thomson. I don’t really know why the band split after this but I guess they drifted apart, i will ask Tina.

++ What about gigs? Did you gig a lot? Any in particular that you remember?

We did a lot of gigs and loved it, I think i was the main organizer of the band that’s just the way i am but we all had input and a lot of the times we got asked to gigs either as main or supports, The Gamekeepers was a band we played with a lot as I was going out with Anthony Sullivan at the time so we either supported them or via verso depended who organized the gig.

++ When and why did you call it a day? What did you all do after? Are you all still in touch?

We were together for a long time it must have been about 5 years all in all, of which Paul left the band to pursue hes own stuff and that’s when it all went down hill in my eyes, we got a new bass player who i never got on with personally and the feelings where mutual and at the time as life does my life was changing and getting a career and also I bought a horse which took a lot of my time, I then split from the band which at the time was a bit messy but we stayed friends but had drifted apart and for some time went different ways.

I work in Repro and am a retoucher on magazines, Tina of whom I am really close with works in the shoe fashion industry and still plays her guitar but just for pleasure, we still have a jam now and then, but as we live 100 miles away from each other that’s as far as it goes.
Angela moved to Indonesia and is now married and lives there and is a English teacher, she came over and stayed last summer so still in touch and good friends.
Tony runs hes own business and i speak to him on facebook occasional, and still plays with the Pharoahs.
Paul Howard is still doing hes music and has made records and does gigs, I speak with him also on facebook and hes says we should get together one day for a gig.
The other bass player cant remember his name so don’t know about him and Simon, my sister divorced him some years back but as far as i know hes not doing anything musically.

++ Looking back in time, what was the best, the highlight, of being in Blue Summer?

I think we all loved our Blue Summer days and loved being in the Rock contests and gigging.

++ Thanks again very much! I hope the demo can be found and rescued one day! Anything else you’d like to add?

When I see Tina next I will speak to her about if shes got any music I can forward to you, I know the Rock contest was videod but we never saw it wish we could get hold of it.

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Listen
Blue Summer – Listen to Me

Thanks so much to Bart for the lovely interview! Don’t think Bart needs an introduction as he has been in bands like The Cat’s Miaow, The Shapiros, Pencil Tin or even Girl of the World. Nowadays he has been releasing under Bart & Friends, and later this month, well, in a couple of days, we’ll be releasing a 7-song mini-CD part of the Cloudberry Classics series. It’s hard to cover everything Bart has done, so this time we focused on Pencil Tin, but here’s hoping for more interviews later this year!

++ Hello Bart! How are you doing? How is Melbourne’s summer treating you?

Its been kinda wet. As in floods. But for the most part summer has found me working in the garden. Not very rock n roll but it’s the life I lead these days.

++ For those who don’t know, we are releasing a new little CD this month under the Bart & Friends name. What can people expect from it?

It’s sort of like a concentrated or distilled version Bart & friends. Its 7 songs in a bit over 8 minutes, all from the 90’s, all with me singing lead vocals. All were on the long list of potential inclusions to my live sets last year and some even made it all the way.

++ On one interview you said that The Shapiros, Pencil Tin, and Bart & Friends, are all the same thing. In the end they are you plus some good friends collaborating. And I thought, it would be cool to learn more from some of these “obscure” projects of yours, I say obscure because everyone associates you with The Cat’s Miaow as soon as they read your name. How important and how satisfying are these “side-projects” to you?

I guess more accurately I should have said what I do in each of those bands is the same and its what the other members bring that sets each band apart. The thing with all those bands and also the Cat’s miaow is that they each include another really talented song writer which stops me from getting too complacent and inspires me to try and lift my game. They were all pretty well of equal importance to me. It was never a case of “ooh, this song is pretty good, I better save it for the Cat’s miaow”. There’s this quite manic period from 93 to 95 where I probably wrote 90% of my back catalogue spread across the Cat’s miaow, Pencil tin and the Shapiros.
Pretty much all the bands ran to a natural conclusion with no unfinished business with the exception of the Shapiros. I think if the Shapiros had of continued for more than 6 weeks it possibly would have become the band I’m best known for. There was still a lot of untapped potential in that band, it would have been interesting to see what we could’ve achieved over 2 years.

I don’t mind being “Bart from the Cat’s miaow”. I’m flattered that the band is remembered at all. I’m quite surprised how the band is increasingly being referenced, with lyrics being used as titles of blog posts or even blogs themselves, and used as a point of reference in reviews. It’s quite gratifying to have become a small part of the lexicon of indie pop.

++ So how did Pencil Tin came about? What triggered you three to start recording together?

Rob was playing bass in the Sugargliders and I knew he wrote songs so I nagged him into forming a band with me as outlet primarily for his songs. I think you need to put this in the context that the Cat’s miaow was still only releasing cassettes at this stage and the Sugargliders were on Sarah, so there wasn’t any real advantage for him to play with me.

++ Why the name Pencil Tin?

I liked the way at school everyone customized there pencil tins with stickers and thought it made a good band name… sorry.

++ Your first release was the Poignant 7″ on the Quiddity label. You had already released with them a Cat’s Miaow 7″. And it seems you had a good relationship with them. I believe I bought lots of Library releases through them when they were Drive-In. But how did your relationship with them start? Did you ever meet personally?

This may not be correct as it’s such a long time ago, but I think Mike may have got in touch with us to buy a Sugargliders tribute cassette we had put together for their last show. Or possibly thru Dave Harris, we met a lot of people thru him. We were the first band on the label so he must have contacted us rather than us sending a demo? I may have been in DC at the time so the initial contact could have been with Andrew which is why I’m so vague about it. I never did get to Grand Rapids but I’m sure Andrew did a couple of times. It’s not too big a claim to say without Mike I’m pretty sure no-one would have heard of the Cat’s miaow and definitely Library records would never have happened.

++ So yeah, perhaps Poignant is the most known Pencil Tin song. So, what is the story behind it?

That’s one of Rob’s songs so I can’t say with any certainty but I always thought it was about him and Bianca. I do know that I wanted to give recording in a studio a try after a couple of years of home recording. As it turned out I hated the whole process but I loved the results. I’ve only done home recording ever since.

++ And it also has a video, was that Embassy Cafeteria your favourite place to hang out?

That was the only time I ever went there. It was near where Rob and Bianca lived. I’d forgotten we’d even done it until I stumbled upon it on youtube a couple of months ago. It was fun to make as I just had sit and eat a donut which was about the full range of my acting capabilities. I generally hate posing for photos but I can actually watch this without cringing. I really wish I still had that shirt.

++ How did the creative process work for you three by the way? Who did what?

It was either Rob or myself writing the songs, we’d bring finished songs to the band and whoever wrote it, sang and played guitar and the other played bass. Bianca didn’t get much of look in she was so quiet. Initially it was just me and Rob, it took us ages to find a drummer, by which time we’d already written a dozen songs. Early on Rob and I would rehearse once a week and each practice we’d each bring a new song.

++ That makes me wonder, how did you all get to know each other?

There was a circle of friends centered around Dave Harris (Munch videos, he made that Pencil tin video) which included amongst others, Josh (Sugargliders) Rob (Sugargliders, Earthmen) Andrew (Cat’s miaow) Ian (Super falling star) and myself. There were loads of other people as well, it wasn’t like an exclusive club for members of indie pop bands only. There were probably more dentists than anything.

++ And did you ever play any live shows with Pencil Tin?

No, we were meant to play at a party at Dave’s but the others got cold feet, so the Cat’s maiow stepped in and made a rare live appearance (third and last, there’s a distinct lack of ambition becoming evident here) as a 3 piece. You can hear it as the live songs at the end of Songs for girls to sing.

++ Going back to that 7″, it says on the back cover “all songs by Pencil Tin except the bits we pinched from The Smiths”. What are those bits? Or is it just a joke? 🙂

No, it’s true. The last few lines of In dreams.
“And I want the one I cant have, and it’s driving me mad, it’s written all over my face”
I want the one I can’t have – Meat is murder

++ Next release was the “A Gentle Hand to Guide You Along” album on Bus Stop. How did you end up signing with them? And how do you feel about the album 15 or so years after, do you think it has aged well?

See, I always think of them in the order they were recorded rather than released. This was recorded in June 1994, a year before Poignant was recorded and probably came out 2 years later.
By early 1994 Rob and I had about 12 songs written and as both of us were abut to embark on separate and hopefully lengthy overseas adventures (mine turned into the Shapiros) I thought it best if we recorded them for posterity. At this stage we hadn’t played with Bianca, so she heard the songs for the first time the afternoon we recorded them at a rehearsal studio down at the docks in an old warehouse. They were recorded really quickly with a near enough is good enough approach to the playing. I don’t think we imagined them ever getting beyond a cassette release. We must have sent a copy of to Bus stop along with the Cat’s miaow’s From my window as Brian offered to release both on CD. Unfortunately between then and the CDs being released the label ran out of steam and they sat in limbo for ages before finally coming out a few years later and I don’t think they got much distribution and probably no promotion. Which was frustrating at the time but having run my own label I know what it’s like so I don’t hold a grudge (which is odd, cause I usually do?)
I don’t think many people have heard this CD, Brian gave me big wad of promo copies a few years later which I was giving away to people who bought the Cat’s miaow re-issues just so people would hear it.

How does it hold up 15 years later? I think it’s got some really good songs on it but its let down by the playing and singing which is pretty rough around the edges. There’s only so much you can pass off as “naive charm”.
Even now I still find it hard to believe we were on Bus stop. I feel quite privileged to have been on the same label as 2 of my favouirite bands from that era, Veronica Lake and Rocketship.

++ Favourite song on the album?

The first one, Friday. One of Rob’s, it’s got a good groove to it.

++ You mostly recorded in 4 track right? What do you like about it? What are the advantages you think?

I like the control. You can do it inhouse (ie get Andrew to do it) and not have to try and convince someone else about what you’re trying to achieve. My limited experience with working with engineers in studios is that it’s really hard to translate your ideas thru someone outside of the band who doesn’t know what your frame of reference is.

++ And last release was a split, on your own Library Records along with another project of yours, The Shapiros. I’m kind of curious of those drawings you included in the sleeve and the record labels. Where did you get them? Oh! and why make a split of it, instead of just calling it Bart & Friends?

Good question. The drawings I pinched from a book of fashion illustration, possibly on the history of Vogue or something. I never had a great deal of respect for copyright. Seeing as I only wrote one of the Pencil tin songs and Pam wrote the lyrics to the Shapiros songs, to try and claim them all as mine is a bit of a stretch. I guess the difference between the other bands and Bart & friends is the others have some semblance of democracy while Bart & friends is more of a benevolent dictatorship.

++ And then what happened? Why no more releases? Are there still any unreleased Pencil Tin recordings?

It ended because Rob and Bianca had begun writing songs together and had formed their own band Paparazzi and wanted to focus their energy on that. What they were coming up with was infinitely better than Pencil tin. Sort of a Saint Etienne / Boo Radleys hybrid, Bianca it turned out was an amazing guitarist. You get glimpses of it on Rob’s solo album and they recorded lots of demos but never got it together to have anything released unfortunately.
I rehearsed with them once playing bass with the purpose of putting together a live incarnation but they couldn’t find a suitable drummer so it never really happened.
No unreleased Pencil tin songs I’m afraid, the cupboard is bare.

++ Do you still see Rob and Bianca often?

No, unfortunately. Rob moved to London and then I moved to the country and we’ve lost contact along the way.

++ Last time, and first time, I saw you was in Berlin. How did you like that city? And the crowd? You were monopolized by our dear friend Christos most of the time though!!

I loved Berlin, despite nearly getting run over by bicyclists twice. It’s somewhere I’d definitely like to visit again. The crowd was amazing, there were some down the front singing louder than I was. I’d never experienced anything like that before. It was quite touching, nearly brought a tear to an old man’s eye. Christos probably didn’t talk to me for more than half an hour which was barely any time at all. It’s not everyday I meet a fan as thoroughly charming as he is and it did my ego no end of good. I really should have talked to him more about the Sunny street tho, they’re easily my favourite band of the past 12 months.

++ Thanks Bart, and so looking forward to the release date, anything else you’d like to add? Any future projects coming up? I heard a Bart & Friends album is around the corner?

There is a CD of new songs tentatively scheduled for around April, we just need to do some minor finishing touches and mix it. Scott from the Summer cats sings on quite a few of the songs I’ll possibly also play live with the full line up around that time as well for the first time which I’m really looking forward to. Me playing live solo is a bit of dancing bear act, it has some novelty value but in the end bears can’t dance and I can’t sing and play at the same time.

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Listen
Pencil Tin – Poignant

Thanks so much to David for the interview! Sirens only released one flexi and they remained in obscurity. I found some time ago a video of theirs on youtube that sounded great. I was lucky enough to contact David from the band to learn a bit more about this long lost Exeter band!

++ Hello David! Thanks so much for getting in touch! I was really curious for long time about the video you posted on Youtube from your old band. Care to tell me how did this video came about?

Hi, Johnny (drums), Steve (guitar/vocals) and myself (bass) were studying film at Art College and we shot this video on 16mm Newsfilm and got the local news station to tag it onto their developing reel for free (in those days C86 the news was shot on film). I filmed it in my student bedsit. Simon Pledger was in the band at the time and it’s him in the video.

++ So let’s go back in time, when did Sirens start as a band? And how did you all knew each other?

We met at art college where we were studying fine art. That was 1984-1986. Exeter Art Colege has closed down now – but it was a great time. We were allowed to do anything!

++ Was this your first band?

Yes

++ So how was Exeter as a scene then? Any other good bands that you enjoyed there? Which clubs did you hang out at?

There wasn’t much of a scene in Exeter at the time, although a band called The Visitors had featured on an Are You Scared To Get Happy flexi disc. But the local scene was many pub acts and covers bands… there were no decent venues but we used ton put on a few bands at the local Arts Centre including the likes of The Flatmates. Also bands like The Wedding present and The Wolfhounds were playing at the time. Mainly we used to go and see bands in Bristol which had a great indie scene, I remember a club called the Tropic and something called Big Rock Candy Mountain where we saw bands like The Pastels, The Groove Farm, Mighty Mighty etc.

++ What about gigs? What were your favourites? Any anecdotes you could share?

I remember we played with I Ludicrous – a great band – at the Sir George Robey in London. What was that song – Preposterous Tales In The LIfe Of Ken MacKenzie? There was an exciting scene at the time with bands like The Sea Urchins, The Shop Assistants and many more. We were also really into bands like LOOP and Spacemen 3… although the band Steve and I always followed around when they toured the UK was The Cramps.

++ There was a flexi release, right? I’ve never heard about it. When was it released? Was it only that song from Youtube released on it? Was it self-released?

Yeah we self released that Flexi to be used on a ‘zine. Of which the name I have now forgotten. It was our only release although there are more recording knocking aound somewhere.

++ Why and when did you decide to split?

I think we split up when Steve moved to Bristol. Johnny went on to play on a band called Moose and I joined Mad At The Sun (which later became Annalise)

++ After the break up, you went to form a punk band. Usually it’s the other way around isn’t it? That’s cool! Anyways, what big differences were there between Sirens and Annalise?

Yeah shortly after Sirens split I met a guy called Martin Edmunds in Hendersons record shop on Exeter Fore Street and we had a mutual love of the US hardcore scene of the time (Minor Threat, he Minutemen, Black Flag and Guy Picioto’s band Rites Of Spring. MArtin said they needed a bass player and I went to a practise right away. We then decided to bring a bunch of bands from the DIY scene to Exeter and started putting on bands like Snuff, Senseless Things, Fugazi, Verbal Asault & Victim’s Family.)

++ You also started a club in Exeter, The Cavern. Tell me a bit about the story behind the club, and perhaps which have been the best nights that have been hold there?

After a while putting bands on in local pubs got to difficult. In those days pub landlords saw bands as a guy with a hammond organ playing covers, so when bands from the hardcore scene like Cowboy Killers turned up to take over their skittle alley it wasn’y long before they decided to pull the plug!. We realised we needed our own venue and approached the owner of a closed down bar called The Hop And Grapes to see if we could do shows there. That was the start of The Cavern. Our first ever show there was on St Valentine’s Day 1991 with a US punk band called QUICKSAND. At the time we set up a loose collective known as Hometown Atrocities and released a couple of split EPs. One of them is extremely rare now because it features the first recorded performance of Thom Yorke. He was part of the Hometown Atrocities Collective and was in a band called Headless Chickens with Shack from Lunatic Calm and Flickernoise.
We have done ten of thousands of bands since then including the likes of Sick Of It All, Muse, Coldplay, LaRoux, Samiam etc etc. Its the Cavern’s 20th anniversary this St Valentine’s Day….

++ Let’s wrap it here, thanks again for the interview! Anything else you’d like to add?

The Exeter scene has a few strong bands in it these days. Pippa (who owns the Cavern with me) manages a cool punk & roll band called the Computers who have just signed to One LIttle Indian and there are also OK PIlot, The Cut Ups, Iko, and loads more…who have grown up seeing shows at the Cavern.

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Listen
Sirens – Running Round the Garden

Thanks so much to Mark Hodkinson for the great interview! The Last Peach were a great guitar pop band from the early nineties that sadly didn’t break through. They released two 12″ singles, Jarvis and String-Like and received many positive reviews. Nowadays Mark is a writer and he runs his own publishing company, Pomona Books.

++ Hi Mark! Thanks for being up for the interview. You are a writer now and your latest was “The Last Mad Surge of Youth”, which I just ordered. The promotional blurb is really compelling to any music lover: “a novel about bands, growing up, moving away and getting famous, suicide, staying at home and getting bored, fanzines, the bomb, love, alcoholism, egotism and self-doubt.” Was the nostalgia for those 80s what inspired you to write it? How autobiographical is it?

I wanted to write about what I know about and that period felt particularly intense in terms of emotion and hopes. The book follows the characters into middle age, so it isn’t solely based in that period. There is some element of autobiography in the book, as there is with almost any work purporting to be ‘fiction’ but most of it is from my imagination.

++ How much of The Last Peach is in the book by the way?

Very little. I was 26 when I joined The Last Peach. Before that I was in two other bands – Untermensch and The Monkey Run. I tended to plunder this period for material because that’s when I was first starting out and doing so much, meeting so many people. I think it was a richer pool from which to draw inspiration, anecdote etc. We were more child-like and open with our dreams and one another.

++ So okay, let’s talk about The Last Peach, which I’m very curious about as there is almost nothing online about your old band. You had been in a couple of bands before though, right? How different were they to The Last Peach?

Untermensch were quite punk, really. We couldn’t play particularly well so we made a noise. It was a good noise, though, often built around driving bass lines. Some people have said we sounded a bit like the Dead Kennedys, which is fine. Although we lacked musical acumen we were devoted to at least trying to sound original, having something to say lyrically, and from the age of 16 (when we formed the band) we had a real, almost innate understanding of Art and integrity and how we were delivering the whole thing to the public. I know this sounds pompous but it was essential back then that everyone had a manifesto. I cover this approach in the novel, incidentally, how it was all very politicised and do-or-die.

We evolved into The Monkey Run when we realised we didn’t really fit comfortably in the ‘anarcho-punk’ movement. We wanted to broaden the sound. This was mainly inspired by hearing The Smiths early singles and a wonderful group called The Chameleons. I realised I could pick individual strings rather than whacking them all really hard. We were of the Manchester era that later spawned Happy Mondays, Stones Roses, Inspiral Carpets etc but just missed the boat. We played shows with The Stones Roses, Chameleons, Wedding Present etc, did Radio One sessions etc but we never met that one person (manager, label rep) who believed in us enough to take us on.

++ How did The Last Peach start? Who were the members and how did you know each other?

I packed in The Monkey Run in 1989 when I sensed we just weren’t going to ‘make it’. The music we were playing was still great but we kept getting false hope – labels asking for demos etc and then passing on us. It had become a slog – sending out tapes, hustling constantly and it wasn’t fun any more. About this time I started buying records from a store in Hebden Bridge (West Yorkshire) and the kid working there kept recommending lots of great stuff – I remember he was switched on to Kitchens of Distinction early on and most things he recommended were great. He was called David Cooper and had his own band, The Last Peach. They had already done local gigs and had a review in NME. He had just had some kind of fall-out with the rest of the group and we decided to have a jam. I brought along Pete Betham who had drummed towards the end with The Monkey Run and it worked really well. Darren Sharp, a friend of David’s played bass – he’d been in The Last Peach in a very early incarnation, I think: a lovely warm and funny bloke. I saw in David a real ambition and he had these great songs and catchy guitar riffs. I had a clear thought that being in a group with him would be more fun than The Monkey Run because he was a great organiser and grafter. I resolved that I’d be happy to play rhythm guitar, suggesting the odd minor chord here and there, but basically playing a supporting role to David. I’d been the ‘boss’ (or perhaps just thought I was!) most of the time in previous groups, which I enjoyed most of the time, but it can be a bit much and it means you take all the knocks far more personally than other band members.

++ I guess because of your writer background you were the lyricist?

Nope! I don’t think I contributed a single word or phrase to The Last Peach. Again, David had a clear idea of what he wanted to sing about and I liked his lyrics a lot. They were very conversational, nothing fancy or self-conscious – great little stories about our little lives and the people we knew. I always knew I’d one day be a writer and I much preferred the idea of novel writing to squeezing up thoughts to fit lyric meters etc.

++ Why the name The Last Peach?

David was in the garden (as a kid) mucking about with a peach and his mum shouted: ‘Hey, what you doing? That’s the last peach…and a legend was born.

++ The band hailed from Halifax/Hebden Bridge. How was the scene there back then? Any other good bands in town? What about venues? Which were your favourite spots? I guess you hanged more in Manchester proper?

The only band I really fell for was Wonky Alice, who we also put out on Pomona. They were fantastic – a cross between the Bunnymen, Pink Floyd and The Chameleons, but much more of themselves too – out there, musically and lyrically. We played the local Trades Club a few times in Hebden Bridge which was okay but our best gig ever was at The Return Club in Halifax, which was a sort of nomadic gig. On this particular evening we played in a sports centre and as good as sold it out. The nearest thing I can think of is the Nirvana video for ‘Teen Spirit’. The place went totally, utterly mad. We had kids all over the stage, falling into the amps, the drum kits. After each song I remember this roar went up. Each of us were grinning our heads off and I think we knew that we were in the middle of one of the most memorable nights of our lives. I’d played sell-out shows with The Stone Roses, and The Chameleons before, in Manchester, but it wasn’t like this. The Halifax crowd were there for us, so it was all the more special and it was out-of-control, on the edge. There was no security or anything, just the local lads that put on the gig, and we were all overwhelmed, in a nice way – there was no fighting or recklessness, just droves of kids piling on, like Assault on Precinct 13 or something. I may be exaggerating! A bit.

++ And I wonder, living in Manchester, how important were The Smiths for you all?

Life-changing, that’s all. They absolutely distilled everything about the environment and times we were living through and turned it into perfect art. I feel people like Morrissey have some kind of ‘visitation’ that enables them to say so much so succinctly and imaginatively over a short period of time. Marr, too, but this time on guitar. All those wonderful, wonderful tunes.

++ In 1992, Melody Maker named you “Tip for 1992” along Suede and Pulp. They broke through but sadly you didn’t. Why do you think this happened?

Again, we didn’t meet the right people. That’s all the difference is when you get to a certain point. We had fantastic tunes, a real commitment and understanding but, along the way, no one took a gamble on us. We played with Pulp once. They were always a great band and deserved their success. It’s a fine line, making it and not.

++ Your first release was the 12″ single “Jarvis”. Care to tell me a bit about this record? Was this a nod to Pulp by any chance?

Jarvis was the surname of David’s girlfriend at the time: nothing to do with Pulp. I’m not sure, but I think the song is a paean to her redemptive powers. David was at a low before she came along!

++ Also on this 12″ you included “Miles Over There” which is such a beautiful song. Do you mind telling me the story behind this song?

Sorry, that one was already written before I joined. We re-recorded it later. I always felt it was a bit skeletal sounding and wanted filling out but I might be wrong.

++ Second release was the “String-Like” 12″ which has kind of an odd cover artwork, very different to the bright coloured first single. Was there any reason for this? Did you as a band design them?

I found some postcards in a second hand shop and passed them to David who always did the graphics. I thought the design he did was brilliant. We just liked the image. David did all the artwork on the first single, pretty much independently. We liked it – four feet, four socks, four lads in a band that shook the Calder Valley.

++ Which was your favourite song of yours? And why?

Back of her Sleeve was always good to play live.And so was Jarvis. They were all great!

++ Both singles were released on your own Pomona Records. How did Pomona Records started? Where did the name come from? What was first, Pomona Records or Pomona Books?

I formed the label, purposely to release the band, and later Wonky Alice. I’d done similar with The Monkey Run. We had a manufacturing and distribution deal with APT who covered most of the costs, so we had all the ‘fun’ of recording, designing, promotion etc. The label came a long while before the books.

++ So what happened, why no more releases? Why no album? Were there more songs recorded that still remain unreleased?

I think David sort of grew up and lost a good deal of his ego! He became more tolerant and compliant and kind-hearted – all the things that work against you becoming successful. It’s always a lot easier if you’re a despot. He got heavily into the cooler elements of dance music (trip-hop etc) and tried to move us into that direction. I think this led to some discontent from the rhythm section and I was struggling a bit, too. We should have done an album, that would have been a lovely memento of the times, at least. We didn’t fall out or anything. I’m still best friends with David, Pete and Darren, and that’s a rare thing.

++ What about gigs? Any anecdotes you could share?

I’m not good with anecdotes. I recall the gigs all being rushed and nervy. It’s such a bizarre thing to do, standing in front of people showing off. I never truly got used to it.

++ When and why did you split? Where you involved with bands after?

I can’t remember when we split exactly – 1994? I’ve had an on-off thing with John Matthews (ex-The High) called Black September. We’ve done a couple of albums on Pomona. I was a massive fan of The High and tracked down John and he kindly agreed to ‘join’. It’s not a ‘proper’ band though – we’ve never played live. It’s the very occasional strumming and messing and recording. I’m proud of the records, though. I woudn’t put anything out I wasn’t proud of..

++ Just out of curiosity, what are you more passionate about, writing books or making music?

Books. I feel you can grow old far more graciously writing.

++ Looking back, what was the biggest highlight of being in The Last Peach?

Probably that mad gig in Halifax, or the numerous sessions in David’s cellar where we made some great noise and I always looked forward to seeing these very funny, friendly, happy (most of the time) blokes.

++ Alright, I’ve been listening to The Monkey Run stuff now, it’s really good! I wonder how those songs have flown under my radar. I will probably ask you for an interview about them some time soon. But let’s wrap up this one now. Anything else you’d like to add?

Do stuff. It’s fun.

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Listen
The Last Peach – Miles Over There

Thanks so much to Brian Price for the great and thorough answers! It’s indeed a treat that Peru are back, and hopefully I will catch them live soon. If you have never heard them, definitely be on the lookout for their split 7″ with Mary Queen of Scots on ebay or, just go ahead and buy their new retrospective compilation “Across Blue Skies” from Jigsaw Records. I recommend it dearly.

++ Hi Brian! I heard the Peru show at Big Pink Cake Weekender was a nice surprise for the attendees. How did you enjoy it? Any future shows planned?

It was very enjoyable and we received some really nice, positive feedback about the performance which is very reassuring. I was quite nervous as it was the first time I’d performed as a ‘frontman’ for 18 years but, all in all, I was very happy with how things went and the reaction we’ve received.

As for the future, we’re keen do more shows wherever we’re wanted and there are a couple of shows lined up already – we’re playing in Cambridge on April 2 and we’re very excited to be heading over to Limoges in France to play at the annual Popfest there on July 9. Hopefully, we’ll be adding more dates in the coming months…

++ So what made you have a comeback with your old band? It’s different people in the band now, right?

I hadn’t listened to, or played, any of the songs for a good few years but, inspired by watching lots of live indiepop bands at Bristol’s excellent Big Pink Cake club nights over the past few years, I picked up my guitar again and started playing again with a sort of vague dream that I might perform again in public and maybe even record some new Peru songs.

I didn’t think it would actually happen though and I was certain no one really cared about the songs we had recorded back in the 1990s.Then, in early 2010, a couple of things happened that inspired me to turn the dream into something concrete.

The first was at a Big Pink Cake night where I was introduced to Marianthi who told me that she had loved our song ‘World of Jason’ which appears on the first Shelflife Records release ‘Whirlwheels’ for many years and she knew nothing else about Peru. So she was surprised to meet the person who wrote the song and equally I was amazed someone I had met in Bristol had heard the song, never mind liked it!

The same night, a certain DJ/record label owner from Peru was playing at Big Pink Cake and he told me he had bought our debut 7” purely because the band was named after his home country!

Around the same time as that, I received an email out of the blue from Chris McFarlane of Jigsaw Records saying he’d collected up all the tracks we’d released on various ‘90s cassette compilations, as well as our 7” on Waaaaahhh! and the track which Shelflife used. Chris asked if I would be interested in him releasing them as an album on Jigsaw?

All of this made me think ‘maybe now is the time to get Peru back up and running!’ I then asked Matthew of Big Pink Cake if he would let a reformed Peru play at the forthcoming Big Pink Cake weekender in Bristol. He said yes – so I thought, shit, I’d better contact my old bandmates and see if they’re up for it!! Initially, the plan was to have guitarist Steve Woodward and bass player Chris Smith on board. Both were both keen to do it but a number of events transpired against us and we weren’t able to make it happen, so Thom and Jim – guitarist and bass player from Bristol band The Kick Inside – stepped in late in the day and did a brilliant job. The great news is they’re happy to continue and we now also have The Kick Inside’s drummer, Alex, on board too.

++ Are you planning to record new songs?

Absolutely! I’ve been busy writing some new songs since the Big Pink Cake weekender and once The Kick Inside boys clear a few other commitments they currently have, we’ll be getting together to rehearse and then record those.

In the meantime, there’s talk of a 4 or 5-track EP of 1990s Peru songs which didn’t make it on to the Jigsaw album possibly coming out on Dufflecoat label… If that happens, that will draw a line under the ‘90s stuff I deem suitable enough for release, and I’ll then concentrate on new stuff, with hopefully a 7” or EP of new stuff to follow the Dufflecoat release. If no one else wants to put any new stuff out, then I’ll look at doing it myself.

++ So, Peru started in Derby right? How come you are in Bristol nowadays?

My parents and I moved from Glasgow to Derbyshire in 1985, when I was 13, and I lived there for 10 years before moving to Edinburgh to study Journalism in 1995. After that, I worked on a newspaper in Devon before moving to a paper in Bristol in 2002. I’ve been here ever since.

++ Alright, let’s go back in time? How did Peru start? Who were the original members? How did you know each other?

At the start of the 1990s, I was playing drums in The Millers which was a noisier band with influences such as Fugazi, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du etc. However, I’ve always had a pretty wide taste in music and was quite immersed in the whole C86, Sarah Records, fanzine-type scene, collecting 45s and buying fanzines and tapes.

My friends and I used to go to a brilliant indie night at Rock City in Nottingham and beforehand, we’d generally meet at my place, drink a few beers and listen to records in my bedroom before heading to Rock City. Chris Smith, my best mate from school, and John Coolin, who we met at a party and knew from an indie band he played in called Kim’s Balloon, jokingly said one such drunken night that we should start an indiepop/Sarah Records-style band.

At that stage, I had only ever played drums but wanted to do something different in this new band, so I said I’d play guitar and sing. Chris, who didn’t play any instruments, said he would learn bass and we both hoped John – a real musician – would keep the whole thing together!

So I acquired an acoustic guitar, learned a few basic chords and attempted to write some songs. Chris got a bass and picked it up pretty quickly and off we went! It really was as simple as that. A little while later, in early ’92, Zoe Head joined on keyboards but left in November ’92. Her sister Kay also joined us for one recording session and one gig. John left sometime in 1993 and Steve Woodward – who was in my other band The Millers – teamed up with Chris and I. That final line up of Steve, Chris and I proved to be the most productive and was responsible for some of the better Peru material, in my opinion.

++ You know I’m from Peru, so the first time I read that there was a band called Peru I was thrilled. I wondered  why would anyone name the band with my country’s name. What was the reason?

Chris and I are massive football fans and when we were thinking up ideas for possible band names, we came up with Cubillas and Chumpitaz, the surnames of two Peruvian footballers we remembered from 1970s Panini sticker albums we bought as kids. We almost went for Cubillas but decided it was a bit too obscure, so we somehow settled on Peru instead – plus we also loved the famous 1970s Peru kit with the red diagonal band on the white shirt.

++ And who had the idea to have a Peruvian flag as an insert of the split 7″ with Mary Queen of Scots? That was such a treat for me!

These were, of course, the days before the internet/photoshop etc, and everything we did was very, very DIY, mainly due to lack of resources and money. It was established the sleeve for the 7” would be fairly plain but each band would have an insert to put their contact details etc on. We initially wanted to have a photo of Cubillas photocopied from a Panini album, but we needed to keep some white space free to stick down some contact details/info and it wouldn’t have worked. So we found a photo of a Peru flag instead, photocopied that and put the info onto the white spaces.

++ Alright, talking about that split 7″, that was the only proper release, right? Of course, until now that we have the Jigsaw CD. But why? Why didn’t you get to release more stuff during the nineties?

We had put some stuff out via the usual tried and tested method of the compilation tape and the next obvious step was to do a 7”. Richard at Waaahhh wrote saying he was starting a 7” Singles Club and asked if we wanted to be on the first one. As money was short and we couldn’t really afford to self-finance a release, we said yes and Richard paired us up with Mary Queen of Scots. We already knew Chris Lam from MQOS via correspondence from compilation tapes/fanzines etc, and we both like each other’s songs, so we went ahead with it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t do a great job of recording the two songs which appeared on the record – it sounds really muffled. We had to do it very quickly and only had a borrowed 4-track recorder and I think we just tried to cram too much on to it. Plus, John (who was in his final days with the band) badgered us into putting a brand new song he’d written called ‘Down’ onto the record when he’d originally planned to use ‘Oasis’ and ‘Kim’s Balloon’. It meant we had to learn ‘Down’ immediately and record it there and then, without any rehearsal or work on arranging it etc. Listening to it, you can really tell!!!

After that, we were supposed to release Roundabout as a 7” single on the German label Meller Welle. In true Peru fashion, we somehow didn’t get around to recording it in time or something, and the label ended up getting fed up waiting and released the songs we eventually sent them as a split cassette with a band called Lament.

The only other thing released ‘properly’ was the aforementioned ‘World of Jason’ on Shelflife’s ‘Whirlwheels’ compilation CD in around ‘95/’96.

++ You did appear on many compilations though, do you remember on which and what songs? I don’t mind you sharing the whole discography here!

Er, I don’t remember how many tapes we appeared on, but there were many! I started my own fanzine, Long Live Vinyl, mainly as a vehicle to promote Peru and get the name out in the open – again, for younger readers, this was what you did pre-You Tube/Myspace/Facebook etc etc. I also compiled tapes to release with Long Live Vinyl – the first being a split tape featuring, unsurprisingly, my two bands at the time, Peru and The Millers!

Other ones I remember us appearing on included C92, which featured a song called ‘Wonderful’ and one other, I think? Also – Kim who did the Bliss/Aquamarine fanzine/tape series put quite a few of our songs on those, as did David McLaughlin (aka DMCL) who ran the Fluff label which released early Boyracer/Hood output.

I reckon Chris McFarlane could be your best bet for a definitive cassette compilation discography! He even has versions of Peru songs I don’t even remember recording, never mind sending out to anyone!

++ What about gigs? You played lots? Which ones do you remember the most and why?

No, we only did a handful of gigs – all of them in 1992. The first was with The Marmite Sisters at the Princess Charlotte in Leicester. The rest were either in Derby or Nottingham and included supporting Heavenly at The Dial in Derby.

We also played a few gigs with the great Derby indiepop band The Almanacs which were probably the ones I remember most fondly. To be honest, we weren’t very good as a live unit at that stage. It was only 6 months or so earlier that I had first picked up a guitar and sang in front of anyone else – singing or playing guitar weren’t my natural ‘instruments’ and I found it too difficult/stressful to do.

So Peru became a ‘bedroom only’ band after our final gig in November 1992. (Playing drums was a different matter – I loved every minute of that!)

++ Was Peru your first band by the way? How involved were you in the indie/guitar pop scene of those days? I mean, I assume that being in Waaaaaah! made you a cutie? Or I’m wrong?

No, as I mentioned earlier, I played drums in The Millers, who grew out of an earlier band called Spacerat. Once Peru began, I was fairly involved in the indie/guitar pop scene, I guess, as I was running my fanzine and issuing tapes, as well as playing gigs with Peru and The Millers and going to see lots of bands.

On reflection, it was a great time for music – particularly in Derby which had a great little venue called The Dial where we saw the likes of The Sea Urchins, Brighter, The Orchids, The Field Mice, The Telescopes, Ride, Teenage Fanclub and even Primal Scream (in their leather-clad Ivy Ivy Ivy phase)!!

There was also a Sarah Records package tour with Another Sunny Day/St Christopher/The Field Mice on the same bill – but there were only about 20 people maximum there as it was close to Christmas and most of the students had gone home!

Over in Nottingham, there seemed to be far less going on than in Derby – although we did often see The Fat Tulips play or bump into Mark, Paul or Sheggi and gigs we went to.

We also followed a Brighter/Blueboy joint tour around the country thanks to our friend Lisa having a car and being willing to go to silly locations!

Whether all of that confirms me as a cutie or not, I don’t know. But there was a sort of indie scene, I guess, and you would tend to meet the same faces at the same gigs and club nights.

++ What about fanzines? did you have any favourites back then?

I used to buy any I could get my hands on, or swap for copies of Long Live Vinyl. As for favourites, I can’t really remember, sorry!

++ How did that release happen by the way? Did you know Richard?

The Waaahhh single?? I only knew Richard though writing to each other to swap fanzines/flyers etc. He just asked if we wanted to do the split 45 and we were happy to do it.

++ So who is Jason from “World of Jason” and “Sammy”? And Kim from “Kim’s Balloon”? What are the stories behind these songs?

Jason is an old school friend I haven’t seen or heard from for about 20 years. The song ‘Sammy’ isn’t technically a Peru song. My brother, Mark, and I were recording a batch of his songs (Marcus) which I went on to release as a split cassette with Johnny Domino (another of Steve Woodward’s projects) through Long Live Vinyl, and I was just jamming the two chords which make up the song. Mark began jamming along and we recorded the guitar parts. He didn’t want it to be an instrumental so I quickly scribbled down some words and recorded a vocal part and he then added the harmony vocal.

It needed a title so we went for ‘Sammy’ which was the name of our old red setter dog. The irony is that Chris McFarlane at Jigsaw said it was his favourite ‘Peru’ song and wanted it on the album – so there you go!

‘Kim’s Balloon’ was named after John Coolin’s former band, which he had named after his niece, Kim.

++ Why and when did you split?

As is often the case, we never officially split. The difficulty we had – and I guess the reason why we didn’t release much stuff back then – was that we were rarely in the same place at the same time. John went off to study in Manchester while he was still in the band, then after he left and Steve joined, Steve went off to study in Sheffield. Things slowed right down when I left for Edinburgh. We did record a few songs when I came back during holidays, but it was getting more and more difficult to carry on so it just fizzled out…

Chris and Steve did record a few songs together in my absence – one of which, Horror Story, appears on the Jigsaw album.

++ What happened after? Were you involved in other bands?

While Peru was still stumbling along, my other band The Millers fizzled out, too, and Steve and Giles from the Millers started Johnny Domino – a kind of lo-fi / alt-country combo.

Some time in ’94, I joined a new band called Boy Scout which featured Marc Elston from Bulldozer Crash, Nick Glyn-Davies, who was in the original White Town line-up, and Rob Fleay who played bass in The Almanacs and was involved in loads of other things too. This quickly became quite a serious band and we courted some major label interest for a while. Unfortunately, it coincided with me being accepted for a place on a Journalism degree course in Edinburgh which I started in ’95. We tried to keep it going with rehearsals and shows during holidays but I felt I couldn’t properly commit to a band based in Derby while studying in Scotland so, after summer ’96, I reluctantly left Boy Scout.

While studying in Edinburgh, I played drums in my brother’s Mark’s band – a little ramshackle, country-pop outfit that has had a residency in a Glasgow bar for the last 20 years or so!! It was always great fun and involved lots of drinking as well as playing and singing! That ended when I moved to Devon in 1999 but I’m happy to say the band is still going and I always join in for a few songs every time I visit Glasgow.

++ Fast forward, 2011. I have in my hands the “Across Blue Skies” CD, a compilation of your recorded output on Jigsaw Records. But it was missing the song “Cubillas”, right? But hey, Cubillas star in the cover. What a player he was! What do you remember about him?

As I said earlier, we were huge footy fans and we remembered Cubillas and his teammates from the old Panini sticker books. Also, as a Scotsman, I have always had a bit of love-hate relationship with him as I have nothing but admiration for his play and the two great goals he scored against Scotland in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina – but he also broke our nation’s heart as his goals effectively made it impossible for us to qualify to the next stage of that tournament! After we named the band Peru, I was determined to have a song called Cubillas – so I wrote a little instrumental and named it after him. For some reason, Chris McFarlane didn’t want it on the album, but it will get included in something soon, maybe on the Dufflecoat Records EP?

++ And hey, tell me about this CD, how come Chris find out about you? And what do the people that have never listened to Peru can expect from it?

He somehow got a hold of my email address and just wrote out of the blue in early 2010. He said in the email that he didn’t think I’d be interested in releasing stuff and probably didn’t want to look back or think about the band, but he was wrong and I was delighted to hear from someone in the US who knew as much about the band as I did!! I’m grateful to him for getting the CD together so quickly and for his support. What can people expect? Some honest, from-the-heart melodic and mainly melancholic indiepop songs recorded between 1992 and 1996.

++ Let’s wrap it here, see you in London Popfest? We have to continue the beer drinking but no soul club this time!

Yes, I look forward to catching up for another beer or two at the London Popfest – maybe not as many as last time, though. ☺

++ Alright, thanks again Brian, anything else you’d like to add?

Thank you! And thanks to everyone who has bought the album, downloaded tracks, helped, encouraged and given words of support so far!

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Listen
Peru – World of Jason

Sometimes you get asked those silly questions, what’s your favourite colour? your favourite number? or your favourite animal? For the last one I usually answer the giraffe. No particular reason. Something on the subconscious probably. Also in the early days of the label I loved drawing giraffes on the thank you notes for the customers. So there must be something about them, perhaps those strange geometric brown spots on their body, or their long long neck, or those little antennae they have?

Whatever it was, it made me grin the first time I heard there was a guitar pop called The Giraffes. I found out about them on the Jangle Pop Boutique blog many moons ago. This one was a nice blog, recommending mostly obscure bands. I believe the writer was from Romania but he disappeared also. And he hasn’t updated his blog in ages. I wonder if Blogger will close it someday. Anyways, he did a very small post about The Giraffes saying:

UK band “The Giraffes” released their debut single – “Pass Me By” in 1988 on the “Love Madness” label. There is no additional info about this band on the internet. “Pass Me By” is a lovely jangle anthem.

That and a link to this great track that is “Pass Me By”. That was it. So the indiepop researcher in me decided to dig a bit more today.

The name giraffe has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word الزرافة ziraafa or zurapha, perhaps from an African name. It appears in English from the 16th century on, often in the Italianate form giraffa. The species name camelopardalis (camelopard) is derived from its early Roman name, where it was described as having characteristics of both a camel and a leopard. The English word camelopard first appeared in the 14th century and survived in common usage well into the 19th century. The Afrikaans language retained it.

Now let’s move to the 20th century. To 1988. Let’s go to the West Midlands in the UK. This is when and where The Giraffes emerged. After the experience of being in bands like Ens, Reluctant Stereotypes, Pink Umbrellas and Squad, founding members Steve Edgson and Sam McNulty were joined by Nigel Williams (from Wedge Cafe), Larry Lupin (ex-God Toys), Robin Hill and bassist Richard Priest (who later managed Pulp) to form The Giraffes.

There is not much stuff online about them, it’s true. And their records seem to be over the 15 dollar mark I allow myself to buy these days. One day of course I’ll be rich and my mark will be over 100 quid. So as I write this lines, my only experience with them is that great “Pass Me By” song that I actually played in Malmö some months ago when DJing there. My friend Graham was really surprised by it, he wondered how such a good song was so obscure. I ask myself the same. It could have been a true indiepop classic! So yes, this song was the A side of their debut 7″released on the “Love and Madness” label. The B side was called Rooftops. This single was released on October 1988 and was produced by Paul Sampson.

The second release is probably the most obscure one, I’m not sure if it’s a 7″ or a 12″. It was the “One Step” single, also released in the same label in May 89. This one was produced by Roger Lomas though. Third and last release is perhaps the one that is easier to find by the Coventry band. It is the “Lazy Hazel Heart” 12″ that has that lovely jacket cover of a black and purple giraffe. Again, same label and same producer.  This one was released on January 1990. The other two songs on this record are “Think of You” and “Lose My Soul”. There is also a 7″ version of this single sans “Lose My Soul” and the lovely sleeve. But the story doesn’t end there. It seems they kept going and they finished their album in July 1992. It was called “Giraffitti” and was never released. It was produced by Sampson and Lomas. Quite a clever name for the album, no?

Many years later, the two founding members, Edgson and McNulty would start a project by themselves properly called “Two Giraffes”. There is a website that is not updated since Feb. 2009 and also you can stream many songs from their myspace. They are rather good!! Unfortunately they haven’t signed in since 2007 so getting in touch was impossible. Oh! And there’s a video on Youtube for their song “Silvery Trees”. A bit more ska that we are used to, but enjoyable! And what about the video “Pure Poetry”, the Two Giraffes’ World Cup song? Wonder if as The Giraffes they got to record any videos too!

Sadly surfing through google I found out that Steve Edgson died in July 2009. So perhaps some of the many questions about the band will be unanswered forever. I do hope that the album gets to see the light of day. If the rest of the songs on it are as half as good as “Pass Me By” we’d have a corker of an album. I’m crossing fingers here that we’ll hear from Sam McNulty someday. I just wrote through his Youtube account. We NEED to listen to Giraffitti and the rest of The Giraffes songs. “Pass Me By” is way too good to not to want more!

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Listen
The Giraffes – Pass Me By

(Some beautiful jangly guitars)
“We are going to have a party next Saturday night, if you feel alright, come tonight…”

Can you guess this song is from Germany? I didn’t. I remember the first time I heard it back in October 2009. I had just arrived to Hamburg after some days in Essen visiting my mother. It was quite a special occasion in Hamburg, it was the 30th birthday of one of my dear friends. Also that weekend, as documented in the blog, was one of the best ever, with the legendary Sunny Street gig at the Hasenschaukel. But the first day I arrived, not many were around. I came a bit too early. So that afternoon Andreas and me went over so many records. We started with a collection of all Nine Steps to Ugly recordings. Later on a similar collection by Grab Grab the Haddock. While the music played I went over his boxes of old 80s tapes, filled with demos and rare compilations, among them his own Everlasting Happiness. Then sitting on the comfy couch and flipping through his fanzine collection. Suddenly some jangly guitars coming from the turntable caught my attention. The girl singing could have been the cutest ever, her voice I immediately adored. Who the heck are this? “This is from 1986”, Andreas tells me, “And they are from here, from Germany”. I was thrilled!

I would have loved to be in this small town party the vocalist invites us all listeners. Wonder in which small town of Germany she lived. Then Andreas wisely skipped many songs, and turned around the 12″. On the other side a dreamy “You Didn’t See” makes me melt. “They are the Love Set, but this is seems to be all they recorded” he shrugs with a smile. What a shame I think, they deserved a record deal, an album, some singles, some EPs, some flexis, some maxis, a DVD even! This is jangly guitar pop at it’s finest, innocent, fragile, but with lots of nerve, and feelings, and hope. And this is from 1986!! Love Set were on par with their English counterparts, even ahead I believe. This sound didn’t  happen until 88 or so with The Fat Tulips I think. Anyways, it doesn’t really matter who came in first, does it?

This two songs appear on a compilation called “Beat All the Tambourines” released by the eponymous label and published by Constrictor. As far as I know, this was their only release. It was distributed by another German label, Pastell. Most of the songs, including the two Love Set tracks, were recorded at Fright Train Studio in Duisburg, making me think that it must have been a small town in the Ruhr region. Funny, as that’s the area in Germany I’ve visited most places and small towns. Maybe I’ve passed by their old house or their old hang-out walking one day. Also on this record there are appearances by the well known and great Most Wanted Men and many unknown names for me like Montgomerys or Xavier Says No. This bunch of unknown bands, not really up my street though.

After coming back to the US, some months later, I receive a package from the great Jörg Winzer, great friend and indiepop know-it-all. It was a copy of the 12″. I was the happiest, even took a a photo of me holding it. It was such a surprise. He remembered that during the next days in that holy Hamburg weekend, I often put the record at Andreas turntable. First thing I did upon getting it was ripping the songs out from the vinyl and playing them many many times. Second step was to try to get in touch with the band, you know, detective work. So the research started.

The only names to appear on the record are those of M. Gülicher and T. Shock. It wasn’t that hard to find that it was Mattias Gülicher and even found a website he owned, a distribution company called “Grand Harbour”. Sadly there was no reply after my email asking to do an interview. He also seem to have played on Fenton Weills who will soon have a 3″CD on our dear Werner’s own Edition 59 record label out of Berlin. Also I could find that Mattias is from Cologne, but that’s not a small town. Perhaps, they liked leaving Cologne for some small town parties on the weekend in 86? Could be.

Now it seems that T. Shock was really a Katrin Shock, a K. Shock. She was the girl that sung so beautiful, and what a beautiful name she had, Katrin. Ah! And she also wrote the lyrics. What a talent! Wonder if she ever got to sing again in a band. Wonder if there are more recordings by Love Set. Wonder if I will ever hear from Mattias. Wonder if someone would finally do a compilation of the great guitar pop that happened in Germany during the late 80s and early 90s, some sort of Leamington Spa series, but of Germany. There are so many great songs and bands. It would be so good.

Anyways, enjoy! And let’s hope next Saturday we are invited to a small town party.

Oh! and a “love set” is a set in tennis in which the loser wins no games.

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Listen
Love Set – Small Town Parties

Happy 2011!

I’m very sure that this coming year is going to be a great one for indiepop. To start off we have the London Popfest around the corner! I’ll definitely be there. So I have to start saving for the pints of beers that will have to flow like an ocean. Waves and waves of beer. Also some great lineup announcements have been made already like The Andersen Tapes, Evans the Death, Youngfuck and The Understudies for example. And Ian promised to have some table football. Now I just look forward to probably the most slot of Popfest, the Friday night dance. Who’ll DJ then?!

But how can I save if I keep finding new music? Some months ago I reduced my budget from 40 dollars to 20 dollars for weekly CDs. But I still haven’t managed to reduce the budget of records. Thing is that some weeks I don’t find anything great to buy but some other I could spend 50 or 60 dollars. It’s hard to keep track of ebay. In any case, I try to avoid paying more than 10 dollars for a 7″ or 15 for an LP.

I just saw a record, that I have never heard, for 10.99 + 3.99 postage on eBay. It’s by The Honey Buzzards and it’s their 12″ single “Sympathy’. Actually I don’t own any of their records, yet. I have heard their second single “Star Happy” though as a friend sent me mp3s some months ago. The opening track is a fab slice of guitar pop. A bit heavier than your usual indiepop fare perhaps, but still very good! I wonder if I’m going to like this other single as much. Let’s give it a chance. The eBay listing has the “Make Offer” option, so I submit my option. 6.01 + 3.99 postage. That would be a perfect 10. Crossing fingers they are up for it.

The Honey Buzzards don’t seem to be that unknown. They do have a whole wikipidia entry saying:

The Honey Buzzards were a Norwich, England based band who achieved significant Independent Music success in the early 1990s.

They were formed by Ian Thompson (born 1971, vocals/guitar), Simon Shaw (born 1972, bass) and Matthew Wayne (born 1971,drums) at Norwich School in 1988, and shortly recruited Nathan Moore (born 1970) and John Evans (born 1972) as guitarists. They took their name from a 17th Century British painting and their sound was influenced by an Art School sensibility, The Velvet Underground, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and latterly The Stone Roses.

They released three singles on Manchester Based Sheer Joy Records; Sympathy (for two girls) (1990), Starhappy (1990) and Pale Horse (1991) all of which made the Top 20 of the Indie Chart, and issued a promo single with remixes by The Orb. Their strongest sales however were in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden.

The first single was produced by Michael Johnson, who was responsible for most of New Order’s back catalogue including the “Brotherhood”, “Low-life” and “Technique” albums. In 1991, the band recorded two BBC Sessions, one for the Mark Goodier Evening Session (Radio 1) and one for Hit the North (Radio 5), while John Peel championed the band’s singles extensively.

They also appeared on the soundtrack to the Diane Ladd and Max Parrish film “Hold me, thrill me, kiss me, kill me” (1993). The band split in 1994. They achieved critical acclaim in The NME and Melody Maker, and shared a BBC Session studio with David Bowie. John Evans has gone onto to achieve mainstream national success with the band The Divine Comedy and continues to tour as their guitarist.

They also have a myspace which they haven’t logged in for years. Wish they had, so I could try and contact them for an interview, but well, it’s understandable, Myspace SUCKS. In any case, there are some songs up there for streaming, not as good as Star Happy, but worth a listen of course.

I’ve been googling around trying to figure out which painting they took their name from. I will need to find out before going to sleep later today. If not, I probably will stay up until I figure out. So give me a hand with that. In any case I looked up “honey buzzard” as I didn’t have a clue.

The Honey Buzzard (Pernis apivorus), is a bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, eagles and harriers. It is a summer migrant to most of Europe and western Asia, wintering in tropical Africa. It is a specialist feeder, living mainly on the larvae and nests of wasps and hornets, although it will take small mammals, reptiles and birds. It is the only known predator of the Asian giant hornet. It is thought that Honey Buzzards have a chemical deterrent in their feathers that protects them from wasp attack. The specific name apivorus means “bee-eater”, although bees are much less important than wasps in its diet.

Alright. This gets more confusing. I’ve never heard of the “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” movie, but it seems it’s not very good. I asked my Swedish friends if they’ve heard about them, as it says they had strong sales there, and they have no clue. I wonder if I could get a hold of the Indie Charts of 1990 and 1991. I’d like to double check the facts are right.

Doing some research online I could find some info about their releases on discogs.

“Sympathy (for two girls)” was released in 1991 instead of 1990 as stated by Wikipedia. It is catalog number SHEER 006 and included the songs “Sympathy (for two girls)”, “Always Today” and “Easy”. Then “Star Happy” was catalog number SHEER 012 and was released in 1992 (Wikipedia says 1990). This second single included the tracks “Star Happy”, “Sleepwalker” and “Balancing Act”. No information whatsoever on their third single, “Pale Horse”.

Also they contributed two songs to a 12″ LP compilation called “Presentation” released on their label Sheer Joy. The songs were “Sympathy (for two girls) (5AM Mix)” and “Easy (Electro Premix)”. THis compilation was intended to be a collection of alternate mixes from the forthcoming singles on the label. 4 postcards were included with it. The other bands to participate on this record were Lovekittens and The 3rd Bardo. Never heard of them. Any good?

And that’s it. That’s all information I could gather on the net. If anyone knows anything else please share! Or if there’s a way to contact the ex-members of the band for some sort of interview that will be fantastic. And now, let’s all be Star Happy because tomorrow is New Year’s eve and we are partying hard! Oh! and cross your fingers for me on the eBay offer!

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Listen
The Honey Buzzards – Star Happy