Back in February 2008 I spend two weeks under the warmth of the Peruvian summer. The humidity and the lack of a/c, that I’m so used by now, was painful to the point of having sleeping problems. It was a good time nonetheless. Those were the days when Plastilina Records was becoming a party of two, instead of four. It wasn’t a harsh break-up, I think our friends Jose and Sete had their own good reasons to leave and Jalito and me thought it made more sense to run the label just the two of us. We could be more productive that way. This brought a breeze of fresh air to both of us to keep the label afloat first, and make it a well known indiepop label. A respected label. We had (and still have) a big debt with our home country though. Our main mission since the start was to be able to create and support an indiepop scene in Lima. We figured out that by having some bands under umbrella we could be able to do this, by organizing gigs, releasing their records, doing merch, and well, the list can go forever. You get the point. We wanted followers in Lima, not just in UK or Japan.

During these early days of 2008 there was a buzz in town about a band of 4 girls called Las Doñas. I remember being at Jose’s house while some football game was on with the volume turned off. The boombox was playing. “I’m going to show you something you are going to like” he said. He grabbed a CD called “No Hit Wonder”, a compilation of Peruvian bands that came along with a magazine called Freak Out!, and swapped it in the boombox player for the Stone Roses CD that was playing. He skipped all songs, all the way to number 08. Suddenly a band that sounded like a very rough version of Los Fresones Rebeldes was playing. La-la-las, wo-oh-ohs, and poppy guitars. This was a true discovery.

I should attribute the discovery to Iván, the guy that was behind Internerds Records who released this CD compilation. He loved Spanish indiepop lots, especially Family and early Mirafiori, but also late 90s American bands like Holiday, which was his favourite. He even made some nice instrumental songs himself, in the vein of Daily Planet, under the name Callahan. But Las Doñas had already made an splash before this underground discovery, they played at a rock contest in 2007. This contest is called Rock in Bembos and happens every year as far as I know. Bembos is a Peruvian hamburger chain that is quite popular, more than McDonalds or Burger King even, that because they have tastier hamburgers, they serve Inca Kola and have yellow hot pepper sauce! And I believe they have stores in many countries, even in India. Anyhow, they organize these rock contests were bands from different high schools are allowed to participate. I remember when I was growing up in Lima and enjoying the juicy hamburgers, that the paper tray liners in Bembos, around November or so, would have photographs and names of the bands that were going to the finals of the contest. I always thought it was a great initiative.

Las Doñas didn’t win this contest sadly. But it was the start of a very short run playing in many bars around the bohemian district of Barranco in the coming year. It was actually in one of these bars, the Bernabé, that I catch them live once, just a couple of days after Jose showed me their song. I was convinced that they could be the force that would inspire more kids to start indiepop bands and finally have some sort of scene in Lima. The song had great lyrics and an unusual charm. And you could tell they had great influences. Of course, the production wasn’t the best, but I was already thinking ahead, and thinking this would sound glorious with proper production. So I told my partner Jalito, let’s go to the gig, and sign them. Just like that. We come in, we see them, if they are any good, we sign them to Plastilina. He grinned and agreed.

Upon arriving to this small bar/venue, we found out that the summer heat was going to kill us. There were a couple of fans, but the body-heat of the packed venue was going to be way more powerful than them. We ordered some Pilsen Callao beers. The tall ones. And sat down for a bit until the gig started. We didn’t have a clue on how the girls looked, so we had to wait after the gig to talk to them. The gig was heroically shambling, everything was like falling apart, but they managed to charm everyone with a great attitude. I wasn’t wrong about their love for Los Fresones Rebeldes as they dared to cover, and with success, their indiepop anthem “Al Amanecer”. It was shocking to say the least. And the crowd, they knew the songs, they sang along!

After the gig was over, we approached them, all the way to the room that was acting as a backstage, where guitars and cases were scattered all around and you had to be careful not to step on them. I stopped the lead singer Susana on her way out, “hey, I’m from Plastilina Records, do you have a minute?”. It was the first time I’ve done that. It kind of felt good, like, you know, a proper label. That you go to gigs and sign bands instead of finding them online. Suddenly the rest of the girls swarmed around and we had a chat. I remember we offered them to release an EP, 5 songs. We would pay for the recordings even. We really believed them. We trusted that they could spearhead a new scene. They said “yes!”. That they would record some demos for new songs in the upcoming months, and then we would choose the best and try to find some time for recording the EP. We had time and patience, so why not.

Sadly time passed and things never came around. We had too big expectations perhaps, and didn’t consider that the band would surrender to the lack of support to an indiepop band in Lima. They did record some songs before breaking up like “La Vaca” or “Penelope Cruz”, but still without the production we hoped for. Nowadays the girls have a rock and roll band that I can’t recommend listening to. Whatever happened to their joy, to the innocence of their songs? It all went down the drain somehow. I always longed to see an indiepop band tagged Peru in Twee.net. I thought this one would be it, that we would make it happen with Plastilina. It didn’t happen. We had some shots before, but never as close as this one. We even introduced ourselves as serious indiepop entrepreneurs at their gig, right? I thought this was our chance to fulfill our Peruvian mission. But they lost hope in guitar pop somehow and by consequence  I lost hope in Peruvian indiepop.

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Listen
Las Doñas – Aeorosol (demo)

10 days and it’s Christmas. I haven’t done any plans. I stayed in Miami in the end and didn’t get to do any Christmas cards this year. Not even bought any gifts. It’s going to be a quiet one. A cold one too it seems. We were almost down to 3 degrees Celsius yesterday in Miami. Bear in mind that we don’t usually have any heating, and most apartment’s insulation is taken care by newspaper inside the walls. It’s odd to see Miami brown. The greenness of the town is slowly disappearing.

My table is full these days, competing with my sheets that don’t let me escape from bed earlier than 11 am. It’s tough to be productive like this. But we I have a Gold-Bears 7″ coming in January. The record is at the pressing plant at the moment and I eagerly await for the test pressings. We are working on a video for the track “So Natural” that was also included on the Happy Prince/Cloudberry compilation released in October called “To Call Up the Shades”. The name from that compilation comes from a poem by Cavafy, and the anecdote behind it, well, there’s not much to it. I miss hanging out with my friend Christos, he is Greek, and Cavafy is Greek. So that’s all. And the title seemed fitting. Anyways, this same song will appear later in 2011 on their full-length on Slumberland Records. It’s really a pleasure to release these 4 songs by Gold-Bears, perhaps Georgia’s best indiepop band ever?

Then the month keeps busy too. The Sound of Young Java is back with it’s third volume. 4 new songs to sample the great indiepop that is made far away in the South East. Then there is a new compilation coming out tentatively called “You Should Always Keep in Touch With Your Friends”. 5 songs, all in different languages, from 5 different bands, from 5 different countries. This is a little tribute to the worldwide indiepop community, were language or nationality or whatever don’t matter. It’s going to be a cracker. And last but not least, the latest on the Cloudberry Classics series will come from Australia, 7 songs by Bart and Friends. That’s for Cloudberry. On Plastilina we have The Sunny Street album going to press any moment now! And if I look a bit forward, it feels like 2011 will be very busy in general. Lots of things to do, touch wood and cross fingers!

Touch Wood: As this expression has superstitious or pre-Christian origins it is usual physically to touch something wooden whilst exclaiming “touch wood”, or shortly afterwards, in order to benefit from the resulting good luck. If the object touched transpires actually to be laminate or some other such non-wooden material then this may result in a scramble to find some real wood, which may be perceived as ominous.

Right, I’ve been listening a lot today to this song called “Touch Wood” by a very obscure band called Nervous Curve. And mainly this post is about asking if anyone has any information on them? As far as I know there were only two songs released. Both of them on tape compilations. “Touch Wood” appears on You Can’t Be Loved Forever vol.3, the last of the series of tape compilations that Philip Ball from The Rileys used to put out. And the other song was “Your Idea of Heaven” that appeared on the Kite compilation in 1989. Both songs are great! Jangly pop at it’s best. You know the formula, catchy melodies, heartfelt vocals and lyrics, chiming guitars, and melancholic choruses. That’s how it goes. In days when a demo tape usually had 4 songs, and these being only 2, I’m assuming that there must be more recordings from this band. Anyone happen to have any more songs by them? Or any information about the whereabouts of the band? Or perhaps the names of the members? Hey! Perhaps they are on facebook! Would be great to know more from them, and dedicate them more lines than this little paragraph. But as I said, the whole world wide web is clueless about Nervous Curve. We need to make it up for it!

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Listen
Nervous Curve – Touch Wood

Thanks so much to Fabien Garcia for this interview about the beloved French band Caramel who released on Marsh-Marigold, Harriet and Aquavinyle! Here we talk about Caramel, the Limoges Popfest that he organizes and sheep testicles with garlic and parsley. Great interview! Hope you enjoy 🙂 You can check more songs of them on their myspace here.

++ Hi Fabien! How are you doing? I hear you are already planning the next Limoges Popfest for 2011! Anything you can reveal about it yet?

Hi Roque ! Yes, we (the « Anorak Team ») are already thinking and working on our next Limoges Popfest. The second one, in last month of July was so cool, welcoming and enjoying bands like Northern Portrait or The Electric Pop Group, that we want the next one to be great too ! It should happen the second weekend of July 2011. What can we reveal about it ? At the moment, we’re thinking about which bands we would like to welcome. Some of them could possibly come, others not… Anyway, one band is sure for the moment to come and play here : Peru, from Bristol. We met Brian at the last Big Pink Cake Weekender in Bristol. He’s a very kind guy and he automatically answered « Yes! » when we asked him if he would like to come and play here in France for our Popfest.

++ You know the other day I was looking at the photos of the 2010 edition of the festival, and saw that grill with lots of meat, looked so tasty!! I thought: “that is a proper indiepop festival! Not just silly tofu but proper food for the crowd. How can people expect to party with a weak stomach? We need some proper food! French people do know how to eat.” What other highlights did you have from this year’s edition?

« How can people expect to party with a weak stomach? We need some proper food! ». That’s what we believe. And we don’t want people to starve if we want them to party during all the night. Well, we always wanted to organize the popfest in a very friendly way. People pay 15 euros and that’s all. Then, everything is free during all the weekend : the food, the drinks, the concerts, the fun. Cos’ yes, fun, fun, fun, that’s what we want. We want people to feel good. So there’s good food, as specialties from our region that people can discover, good drinks, as some beers from our region (yes, here we have great beers ! Hé hé), and good concerts. What can people expect more from a Popfest ?

The highlights from the 2010 edition of the festival ? First of all the Northern Portrait concert which was absolutely fantastic. One of the best concert I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many. Then, The Electric Pop Group gig which was also excellent. Then, all the people dancing behind the two bands. I also remember how much the guys from Northern Portrait and The Electric Pop Group are really kind people. It was great to meet them. The French Defence concert, which came from England and is an Anorak Records’ band, was also a great moment. And finally, I must note the concert from my own band, Pale Blue Eyes which was a good moment. So my girlfriend, who doesn’t like indiepop, came to me and said : « I thought your music will be boring but your concert was great. And your songs are really jangly ! ». These were some of the highlights of last Popfest. But there were many others.

++ So yes, as you said, we’ve done an interview before, one about Anorak Records, that sadly disappeared when my old blog was hacked. Ah! Shame! But now let’s talk about Caramel, one of the greatest indiepop bands ever born in France. How did it come to be? How did you all get to know each other?

Caramel… Hey, very old memories… This was so long ago. Well, the band started in 1992. First of all, the band consisted of Denis (bass and vocals), Isabelle (vocals and tambourine) and me (guitar). I met Isabelle because at the time she was… my girlfriend. I met Denis one day in a record shop here in Limoges. I was buying a Saint Christopher 7 inch and he was buying a Field Mice 7 inch. Both were Sarah Records ! I told him : « This is a great record and I love the Field Mice ». He replied to me : « I love the Field Mice too and I love Sarah Records ». A friendship was born. We met again and he told me he would like to start a band. We did that. During a few rehearsals, a friend of Denis played drums with us. Then, the guy had to left the town for his studies. So we decided to ask a good friend of mine who knew how to play drums, Stéphane, that I knew when we were in high school, to come and play with us. He said yes. We played in this four people line-up during a few months, and starting to record a demo on a 4-tracks tape. Olivier Roussilhe, from the band Lol (later Verdurin) recorded it for us. We decided to send the demo to some labels we liked, only a few ones first : Sarah Records, Siesta Records and Marsh-Marigold Records. Three days after we sent the tapes, Oliver Goetzl, from Marsh-Marigold Records, phoned to me and asked : « Do you want to release a record through my label ? » We automatically said « Yes! ». He asked then another question : « Do you want to come and play for the Marsh- Marigold Christmas party ? » We replied « Yes ! » too. We were in November and the concert was one month after. We had never played live… And we needed another guitar player… Well, during these days, I’ve met Guillaume. I was in the street, wearing a Fat Tulips tee-shirt and this guy came and talked to me : « I love the Fat Tulips ! And Brighter is my favourite band ! » Then he told me he was playing guitar and had a demo tape. He asked me if Anorak Records would be interested in releasing some songs from his band (who will become Doggy). After listening to his songs, Denis, Isabelle, Stéphane and me thought it would be great if he could join Caramel. He said « Ok ! ». He did one practice with us and then directly came and played with us in Hamburg for the Marsh-Marigold popfest. A great one, including also Acid House Kings, Red Letter Day, Poprace, Die Fünf Freunde and Red Sleeping Beauty. A few months later, Olivier came with us to play keyboards. He played on our first mini LP. Then, for our second LP, Mike, from They Go Boom !!, came to play keyboards with us instead of Olivier. This is the short story of the beginnings of Caramel.

++ Was Caramel your first band by the way? How did you learn to play bass? Do you play any other instruments?

No, Caramel wasn’t my first band. Before that, I’ve been playing with some friends in bands called My Crystal Chamber and Poppin’ Candy. But nothing remains from them… Hopefully. I’ve never learned to play bass because I play guitar. Anyway, I’ve never learned to play guitar too. I don’t know the music. No one ever teached it to me. I’ve been starting playing all by myself. Trying to find cool tunes. Other instruments ? I know how to play the kazoo. But they never want me to play it… I don’t know why… hé hé… It seems I like the buzzing sound of this instrument and many people don’t. Which is a shame, I believe.

++ So okay, why did you choose the name Caramel? Do you like caramel flavoured stuff by any chance? haha

Well, we decided to choose this name as it was sweet and as we needed to find one quickly because of the deal with Marsh-Marigold. We wanted a name that was both French and international, that anyone could understand. And Caramel is the same in French and in English. And yes, we liked caramel, candies, lollipops and things like that.

++ I’m curious, was there any other indiepop band in Limoges then aside from you? Where were most of the popkids  based in France back in the early nineties?

When we started Caramel, we were the only indiepop band in Limoges. Here, at the time, everyone was listening and playing in punk or hardcore bands… That was quite difficult to find some gigs and venues in our town. Anyway, we didn’t care. But at the time, we also had a radio show, on a local radio, here in Limoges. It was called first « Drinking gazoline » and then « Pop corn ». By the way, we manage to get in touch with some popkids here. And some of them started bands. A few years after Caramel started to play, there were some other bands in Limoges : Dale, Shag, Blooming Park, etc.

In the early nineties, there were popkids everywhere in France : Rennes, Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montauban, Strasbourg, Paris, Lille, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand… and many many more. Most of them great people and, unfortunately, some really bad ones… Anyway, it was really exciting. Cos’ there were a lot of fanzines, labels, bands.

++ So how did you end up releasing in a German label, Marsh-Marigold, and not in a French label, considering during those years there were plenty of cool French indiepop labels?!

As I told before, Marsh-Marigold was the first label to ask us to release something. We immediately accepted because it was, after Sarah Records, our favourite label. After that, we didn’t had to search for another label. At the time, Marsh-Marigold Records was already some kind of « cult » label. Really adored by the popkids… Which made some bands and people in France jealous from the fact we were on this great label.

++ Did you get to play shows in Germany because of this relationship? Did you play in any other countries?

Yes, we went to Germany to play shows because of the relationship with Marsh-Marigold Records. Oliver offered us the opportunity to play there and it was always great concerts, and now great memories. Yes, at the time, we also played in Belgium and of course in France.

++ What was the best show that Caramel played ever? What anecdotes do you remember about it?

Our best show… I think in fact of two particuliar shows : one was in Bordeaux and it was very powerful. There were not a lot of people in the audience but they really seemed to enjoy it and danced a lot. The second one was our last show ever, in Hamburg, Germany, for the Marsh-Marigold Christmas party of 1996. We played fast and it was really jangly and fun. The sound was fuzzy and we enjoyed it a lot.

++ What were you listening during those days? Did you consider yourselves Poppunkgaragemods? That’s quite a term!

We were listening to all the great bands there were at the time. Our main influences were the bands from the C-86 so called scene, mostly The Pastels and The Housemartins, and some early punk bands like The Undertones or The Buzzcocks… There were also bands like Talulah Gosh, The Fat Tulips, Strawberry Story or Heavenly that influenced us a lot. And we also loved bands from Sarah Records, Bus Stop Label, Heaven Records, A Turntable Friend Records, Summershine Records, K Records, etc. No, we didn’t consider ourselves as « poppunkgaragemods ». It was a kind of private joke. We were indiepop kids !!!

++ What about ¡Olé Zamora!, why that name? What’s the story behind that? Anything to do with Zamora Football Club?

The name of the CD « ¡Olé Zamora! » was just another joke for us. Zamora is the name of Olivier, our first keyboards’ player. As I do, he’s got Spanish origins. When we were recording the first mini LP, we thought it was fun to use his name. So no, nothing to do with Zamora FC.

++ Eventually you did release on a French label, on Aquavinyle. Did you ever get to meet them? How did you end up signing with them and not continuing with Marsh-Marigold? Tell me a bit about this label as I don’t know much.

Yes we released a 7 inch on Aquavinyle. It was a label ruled by Thomas, a friend of us who was living in Bordeaux. So yes, we often met him. He also used to organize some concerts for us in Bordeaux. Through Aquavinyle, he also released 7 inches from Blueboy, Bouquet and a few other records. Well, we didn’t properly « sign » something with Aquavinyle. Oliver, from Marsh-Marigold Records, always let us do what we wanted and release records with labels who wanted to. But most of our songs were recorded for Marsh-Marigold, of course. Oh, and at the time, we also contributed to many many compilations tapes for labels and fanzines around the world : England, USA, France, Japan…

++ So this 7″ was the great Johanna. Let me guess, one of you guys had a crush on a Johanna?

No, no one of us knew a girl called Johanna. It was just another joke about a character from a french TV soap called « Hélène et les garçons » who was very popular at the time in France. This girl, named Johanna, was absolutely stupid…

++ And the last release was a 7″ in the great Harriet Records. You did release only on cool labels! How did you end up signing to a label across the Atlantic? And why didn’t you get to play here in the US?

About the record with Harriet, it’s Tim Alborn who used to get in touch with Denis. He just asked to him if he wanted to release a 7 inch through his label and, of course, we accepted his offer. For us, it was an honour to release a record with such a great label. It was one of our favourite at the time and we were pleased to release that last record with him. Why didn’t we get to play to the USA ? No one ever asked us too. And just after the 7″ with Harriet, we decided to stop the band. Anyway, I must say that at the time, things were not so easy as they are nowadays. So, going to play in the US was just a dream.

++ Looking back, which of your releases was your favourite? Do you have any favourite song?

I think my favourite release was the « Triangle » 7″ released through Marsh-Marigold. Picking up just one song from us would be difficult… Maybe « Pas tous les jours dimanche ».

++ What about telling us something about Caramel that no one knows about?

We recorded our songs in a wine cellar. And this is absolutely true. Isabelle’s grandfather used to be a wine merchant. He lived in a small village in the countryside near Limoges. When we wanted to do some recordings, we all went to her grandparents’ house and stayed there during the days we needed to do the recordings. And the first time we did that, he told us it would be great to record the songs in the wine cellar. We thought it was a good idea. So we did most of our recordings there. Maybe the wine barrels who were there also had a great influence on us…

++ You also recorded a video for “L’ete ‘en Ville”, one of my fave of yours! Any anecdotes you could share about the video? Seems like it was fun to record!

Yes, it was real good fun to record it too. The father from of a friend of us was the director from a psychiatric hospital in Limoges. We needed a big room all painted in white. He told us : « There’s one in the hospital, I’ll ask to my father ». And his father agreed. So we all went there, with one camera and many many friends. Xavier and Sylvain, two friend of us who were students, told us they could record it. Xavier was studying cinema in a school in Angoulême. The recordings were done in two hours. Then, he went to do an internship for the Scottish TV. The guys there helped him to do all the film editing. Now, Xavier is working for the local TV here in Limoges. Sylvain is working in a TV in Paris. It was their first filming experience.

++ After listening one more time to your songs, I wonder, are there still any other songs that never got properly released?

I think all our songs were released. I can’t remember one that was not. But it’s so long ago that I’m not sure about it.

++ So when and why did you call it a day? What did you all do after? Still in touch with everyone?

The band stopped just after our last concert in Hamburg. It was in the beginning of 1997. We had to stop because Denis went to study and live in Wales, Isabelle went to live in Paris and Stéphane went to live in Toulouse. After that, Guillaume and me started another band called Corner Kick. We did some great concerts here in France but we never released any record. Guillaume also kept on doing his songs with Doggy, his solo project. Now, Stéphane also plays with him and he also plays with my new band, Pale Blue Eyes. Denis played in several bands in Cardiff and then in England where he’s living now. We’re still all in touch except Isabelle who’s now in Paris which is not so far away… So maybe, Caramel will play again one day… Why not for a future popfest in Limoges ? Who knows ? 😉

++ Ah! I could continue with more questions, there’s lots to ask. But let’s wrap it here. Again with a food question, what’s Limoges specialty? Can you cook it? 😉

Limoges food specialties ? There are so many ! My favourite one is the limousine hotpot. It’s not made with a big car. This name is because « Limousin » is the name of the region where we live. It’s made with salted pork (legs and flat ribs) and a big chitterlings sausage, cabbages, leeks, carrots, turnips, potatoes, two cloves of garlic, an onion studded with cloves, a “bouquet garni”, pepper. I know how to cook it and I like it a lot. One other very typical is the sheep testicles with garlic and parsley. But I don’t know how to cook it and I don’t like it a lot.

++ Thanks Fabien! Anything else you’d like to add? See you in London Popfest?

Thanks Roque for the interest in Caramel !!! Will I go to London Popfest ? I really hope so but I don’t know it yet as I’ll maybe working when it’ll happen. Anyway, I look forward to go and see you there !

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Listen
Caramel – L’été En Ville

It’s already December. That means that the Twee.net poll is open. Remember to vote. Let’s not leave it to Series Two to boycott it again and again. By the way, do they still exist? Our scandalous friend Chris seems to be quiet. Maybe he found inner peace in a retreat. Also December means that everyone starts posting their top 10, top 20, even top 100 records of the year. As if I care. As if anyone cares anymore. Everyone nowadays believe they are tastemakers because they have a blog or even a facebook profile, when in fact I feel they are embarrassing themselves with their choices. Did they even buy those records? Right, those are their top picks, the records they loved so much this year, but they couldn’t spend 10 dollars on them. There’s something wrong with the picture. Don’t you see? It’s also very funny that everyone that do these lists always add the disclaimer: “This is by no means a definite list”. What does that mean? Why do people like doing incomplete stuff? If it’s not definite, why not wait, make up your mind, have a definite list and then publish it? Why the urge of publishing something you are not sure of? On top of that it’s 2010. Decade-worth lists also coming up.

I’m not sure which records came out in 2010 but one of my favourite was “Dansette, Dansette” by Tender Trap. It wasn’t really a comeback, but it felt like one. It was the most powerful version of Tender Trap ever heard. Strong lyrics, great songs, and lots of pop hooks. For some reason, I know this record will be forgotten by many year end lists. They always forget the good records. They only remember the hyped ones. Anyways, it felt natural for me to be happy when I learned that Tender Trap were replacing Love is All at Indietracks. So after having my life defined by The Orchids and their mighty set, with a knot on my throat, I walked (or floated?) all the way from the Indietracks main stage to the shed. Second time seeing Tender Trap in three days. Third time in the year. I knew by hear that they always start with “Suddenly” and end with a cover of Talulah Gosh’s “Best Friend”. A raucous cover that the three times transported me back to 86 even though I didn’t live it!

It’s funny to remember Amelia asking me where I got their CD from, that she hasn’t seen it yet. It was just a promo one, on cardboard sleeve, but still. It was May in New York City and the record wasn’t out yet. Tender Trap were headlining the Friday gig at Mondo at “Don Hill’s”. A painful lineup for me to get through that day. Happily Allan kept the night a happy one, giving funny names to anyone he pleased. So I got through it. I really wanted to see Tender Trap for the first time. And even though everyone was leaving early because Peggy from the Pains was having a 90s disco party somewhere else, I stuck around. Tender Trap came last that night. I knew a couple of songs from the new album, Girls with Guns and Fireworks. Both had already been given a video treatment for their youtube fans. Also I hoped them to play Oh! Katrina, which they did. But I wasn’t ready for their new arsenal, for their new songs, especially for that popstatic bomb that is “Do You Want a Boyfriend?”

After the gig Sean Fortuna Pop set up his merch table. “Sean, what’s going on? You don’t have anything by Tender Trap?” I asked. Sean, grinned. From a secret stash below the table he got some promo CDs in cardboard sleeves. One was The Pains’ “Say No to Love” single, and the other was Tender Trap’s album. He had brought these promos to give away at radio stations in NYC. Dedicated record label boss! Of course, I borrowed a pen and went outside the venue. Amelia signed it: “Hi Roque. This is the 1st I’ve seen”. Geeky moment. Happy moment. It was nice to chat with Amelia then. They were leaving the next day though! What a trip, just for one gig! Also got to meet Rob for a bit, asked him about the Five Year Plan. He pointed me out to the myspace of his old band, and that’s how that interview I published on the blog in August, came through.

Thursday in London. The day before Indietracks. I arrived to London at 11am and had been hanging around with Jennifer around Greenwich. Had my first mutton hamburger. Was good. Then we met with Christin and Emelie just outside the Windmill at Brixton were the HDIF gig was happening. Pocketbooks, Betty and the Werewolves and Tender Trap were playing. A fantastic lineup. Jennifer and Me were djing between bands. We had some terrible hamburgers from a shop across the street. We were early, so we sat just outside the tables at the Windmill. We saw the bands start coming for soundcheck. First were Betty and the Werewolves, then Pocketbooks. Suddenly Peter Twee.net arrived on his bicycle. We had trouble finding a suitable place for him to lock it. Then Amelia and Rob came on a blue station wagon. It was nice to see them again. She was surprised to see me again after just two months! And on different sides of the Atlantic! Anyhow, the gig was great. Now Sean did have some Tender Trap records. I got “Dansette, Dansette” on LP. I didn’t get it signed this time. Actually it is still sealed in plastic wrap. The CD is the one getting the heavy rotation. I don’t trust my turntable needle you see!

The Indietracks gig was as good as the other two. The same songs, but I don’t complain. Sometimes you don’t need surprises. Their selection works and in what a way!  Jennifer tells me that she hopes that tonight Amelia does shout when she sings “does he have to tease you gynecologically?”. Well, she doesn’t.. I tell Jennifer that they never do. She insists, she says they always do. Then the band throw some t-shirts to the crowd! My meter and ninety come in handy and I jump higher than little Eric in front of me. I get the t-shirt. It’s a navy blue one, it says Tender Trap – Fireworks. And it has a nice design with fireworks exploding. I always play the lottery and I never win. That Saturday, I got two t-shirts by mere luck, The Orchids earlier and now the Tender Trap one. But there is one detail. One issue. It’s a female medium size!!

But somehow, when I’m at Indietracks, when there’s indiepop around, luck is on my side. While making the line to eat for the second time the tofu curry, I meet a girl that has a Tender Trap t-shirt too. Hers is a male large size. It seems reasonable to swap right? For once things seem to go my way. If I was going to make a list, it wouldn’t be the top ten albums that every square person does. But what about a top ten list of t-shirts I got this year? Feels more interesting. To start, the Tender Trap one will definitely be there.

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Listen
Tender Trap – Do You Want a Boyfriend?

Yesterday I got some new records on my snail mail. Those who are friends with me on facebook know that I try to listen and rip one 7″ a day. I scan the cover artwork as well and post it on a photo album there. It’s quite a fun exercise. I think if I wouldn’t do that I would just pile records and records and not ever listen to them. I chose to rip one of those records that just yesterday: The Capitols’ “Who Can Tel”. Don’t confuse them with the Michigan band from the 60s that penned “Cool Jerk”, this band is from 1987! Upon opening the cardboard mailer, I was really disappointed by the awful album cover, with some sort black and white photo of curly-haired lady with a half-way smile and wearing hipster glasses.  To be honest I was expecting some terrible songs too. I was giving myself reasons not to feel that bad. “You only paid 2 pounds for it, don’t dwell on it”. But turns out, this is a GREAT record.

I can’t recall how did I know the existence of this record. Could be from Twee.net as it is listed there. I don’t think the ebay lister knew much about it. He had written on the description:

THIS IS A  UK RELEASED  7″ SINGLE  FEATURING THE CAPITOLS
THE  TRACKS ARE   ENTITLED  ” WHO CAN TELL B/W EVERY TIME
“VERY OBSCURE POST-PUNK  BAND HAILING FROM BIRMINGHAM, UK
THE SINGLE WAS RELEASED ON THE UK CAKE  LABEL IN 1987

Why do sellers on ebay love writing with caps lock on? First lesson at typography class was never write too much with upper case type. It’s hard to read. And I’m guessing sellers want people to read their descriptions right? I don’t get it.

Anyways, it is indeed very obscure post punk, though it would fall much better in the C86 category. It’s very much on the vein of The Shop Assistants, Chin Chin, The Wilderness Children and that sort. It’s GREAT. Sadly the record only includes two songs, none of them longer than 2 minutes. Come on! They could have included two more, especially if this was there only release. Think of the fans! And talking about fans, they had a fan club! It seems it was run by a girl called Becky who was based in Moseley, Birmingham. So, it is fair to assume the band was based there as well.

he record was released by Cake Records, a label that mostly supported not so poppy acts like Pigbros or The Davidsons. This was the only 7” released on the label. All other releases were 12″s. Ah! And it’s catalog number Slice 2.  Published by Cubic Music, Distributed by Nine Mile/Cartel. Also from the back cover we learn that the odd lady on the front cover is called Joan. Also lists the band members: Jimbo on bass, Maria on violin, Phil on drums, Sue on vocals and guitar, and Tank on guitar. All lyrics by S. Emilon. I’m guessing that was Sue. No other member’s name start with an S. What a great detective I am.

They had more songs. Checking the John Peel Sessions book I could find that they recorded a session on 6/4/87. The songs recorded were “I Want to Be Alone”, “Who Can Tell?”, “Born Yesterday” and “Failing Again”. The session being produced and recorded by Dale Griffin, Mark Robinson and Mike Shilling at an unknown studio. So, someone out there must have a recording of this! I don’t! Hope some nice person wants to share.

But let’s go back to our detective, researcher, homework. What else have we found about them? It seems The Capitols formed after the split of Cherry Red Records darlings The Nightingales. The story goes more or less like this according to Wikipedia:

The Nightingales original members were Robert Lloyd (vocals), Joe Crow on guitar, Eamonn Duffy on bass and Paul Apperley on drums, all formerly of The Prefects.  The debut single, “Idiot Strength” was released in 1981 on Rough Trade Records, following which Crow and Duffy were replaced by Andy Lloyd and Nick Beales on guitars and Steve Hawkins on bass. The band signed to Cherry Red Records and released three more singles before debut album “Pigs On Purpose” (Produced by Richard Strange) was issued in late 1982.[2] John Nester replaced Hawkins on bass before next release, the “Urban Ospreys” single. Pete Byrchmore replaced Beales (who went on to form Pig Bros) in time for second album, “Hysterics” (1983), Nester then departed to be replaced by Howard Jenner. The new line-up issued two singles in 1985. Further changes then ensued with Andy Lloyd and Paul Apperley leaving, to be replaced by Maria Smith and Ron Collins. After the split, Maria and Pete formed The Capitols, later known as The Rotten Swines (Maria was also a member of Rumblefish).

So, alright, we find here already the connection to Pigbros, and how Pete and Maria met. But who is Pete in the band? Is it Jimbo? Is it Tank? By the way, really cool that Maria also played in Rumblefish! One of my fave bands of the era! I do wonder, with that name, The Rotten Swines, did they sound like The Capitols?

This is all I’ve got so far. I want to hear more songs from them! Even from The Rotten Swines if possible. The Peel Session shouldn’t be that terrible to track, right? Anyways, have a listen yourself. This is pretty good stuff! Much better than the hit or miss indie with girl vocals that swarm these days.

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Listen
The Capitols – Who Can Tell?

It’s only obvious that at 19:40 I was going to be on the front row at the main stage of Indietracks. Me, the fence, the stage, in that order. On top of the stage five great gentlemen: Ronnie, Chris, James, John and Keith. The atmosphere was perfect. The day was dawning, there was a cool bliss blowing, and our normal nap time was over, we were quite awake. This was the first time I got this close to the main stage, this was the first time a band really deserved to be there. As soon as the first chords of Apologies chimed, it all was like a kind of eden.

The first time I saw The Orchids was back in 2008, at the NYC Popfest. It was a rainy Saturday in Brooklyn and took us hours to get to the Music Hall of Williamsburg. I wasn’t that impressed by The Orchids that time. I wonder why. I do have a couple of theories. The first being that I wasn’t as wise as I am today, meaning my taste wasn’t that good and I couldn’t acknowledge their brilliance. I did have their reissues on LTM and thought they were good. Nowadays I think they are among the finest songs ever written. It could be that, that The Orchids grew on me after the years. My second theory involves the amount of beer I was having with Joe Pinefox. Plastic cup after plastic cup, beer dripping to the floor, and talking loudly. Paying attention to anything aside from any cute girls walking around the venue was impossible. My third, and last theory, was that I was kept afar from the stage because some bands playing that night, especially Mahogany and Ladybug Transistor, had been so bad and I was afraid to be close and be disappointed by these Glasgow legends. Perhaps it was a combination of the three theories. Thing is that I didn’t really appreciate the gig. I can’t remember which songs they played at all and I have a very good memory. Marianthi, who was in NYC making everyone happy, was so thrilled after it and told me it was one of the best gigs ever. She might have been right. Actually, she must have been right. I missed it.

NYC Popfest 2010. The Wake just played at The Bellhouse. Ronnie and Chris have joined Caesar and Carolyn to support them live. It’s only been months since I’ve seen The Wake at the London Popfest. That evening at the Lexington, The Wake were astounding, and I was hypnotized by Ronnie’s pounding bass. One of the best gigs ever even though I wished The Wake played some songs were Carolyn sings. It was again a Saturday, not a rainy one though. It was again in May and NYC was warm. It was again in Brooklyn and again the bands playing that evening weren’t that good. But The Wake were great again. After the gig, Victoria who used to lead The Concretes was up for DJing, and well, she emptied the whole room playing moody music. Then the dance party was moved to the front room were the new DJ wasn’t any better. It really gets on my nerves when at a Popfest I get to listen any other sort of music other than pop. For god’s sake, it’s a Popfest, not an Indiefest. Sean convinced me to stay longer when I wanted to leave.

Anyways, before The Wake gig I went in to the backstage room were lots of canned beer sat on a metal bucket full of ice. I saw Chris and Ronnie there.  I also saw Drew getting his Factory era Wake records signed. I grabbed a beer, even though I shouldn’t have, and asked Chris and Ronnie to save me a setlist of the gig. You know me, I like saving these little things. It’s important memorabilia. After the gig I approached them again, for the setlist. They had given the setlist to that second DJ who barely knows who The Wake are. But that’s how life works, nothing is fair. Chris and Ronnie promised me that next time I was going to get my setlist, two setlists. Next time was coming up soon, at Indietracks, when The Orchids were playing. Sounded fair, so I totally agreed. After that it was a succession of  jokes in thick Scottish accent and thick Peruvian accent. It was lots of fun to properly talk to two of the nicest and humblest people in indiepop. And also talented!! It was dark already and we were there, against the brick wall of the Bell House, surrounded by yellow cabs. Sean joining us and throwing some more jokes. How I like these guys!

July 2010. It’s only obvious that Chris and Ronnie gave me two setlists after the Indietracks gig. They played in this order: “Apologies”, “It’s Only Obvious”, “Me & the Black & White Dream”, “Sadness of Sex”, “A Kind of Eden”, “Bemused, Confused & Bedraggled”, “She’s My Girl”, “Beautiful Liar”, “Something for the Longing”, “Another Saturday Night”, “Caveman” and “Frank de Salvo”. Okay, now that you’ve read this, won’t you agree that it is a dream set? They couldn’t have chosen a better list of songs, maybe “Tiny Words” or “I’ve Got a Habit” is missing, but, hey, this is fabulous enough!! What can I tell you, The Orchids delivered. I can’t get out of my head the picture of Marianthi and Pete Green dancing to every single song, even not all of the songs are danceable! Or Pierre climbed on the fence awe-struck with his mouth wide open. Jennifer next to me taking photos, liking James’s classy jacket. Or my Spanish friends behind me, all of us singing like a choir “who needs tomorrow…”.  Something happened that evening that made the world a better place. For 45 minutes, or whatever it lasted, we were transported and nothing mattered anymore. The Orchids bewitched us.

I do wonder what was Chris doing with a handy-cam recording the whole crowd. Did any notice that? He just stopped playing drums. sat down next to the drum-set and started filming from back there. I wonder if we’ll ever get to see that. Must be a great document. I’m sure the whole crowd was spellbind. Oh! and that moment when Ronnie made the whole Indietracks trip worth for me? Ah! He reached for an Orchids t-shirt he had up there behind his bass case, and threw it to me, from the stage to the crowd! I’ve never seen anything like that. Is it not true that usually brassieres are the ones that fly from the crowd towards the stage? Anyhow, this made my day, my week, my month. It was such a nice gesture, I’m eternally grateful. Funny enough, I turned around, with my new white and light blue logo t-shirt, and I see two girls wearing the same exact The Orchids t-shirts! They were his daughters! Of course, they must be so proud! Only one thing I’m curious of, how did Ronnie know what size of t-shirt I wear? It fits perfect!

What else can I say, it was life affirming. That show in NYC 2008 is a blur now. My biggest Orchids treasure is already the Indietracks experience. I love their records, but this gig I was lucky to attend is bigger than that. It made me believe in friendship, in love for pop music, in talent, in creativity, in so many things. Seeing the whole Orchids gang hanging around the whole Indietracks weekend, all of them camping together having fun, after so many years together was inspiring. On top of that. they put on the best gig of the whole festival. They are immense. And still, they are humble. If I was there I would only headline festivals. They have the songs to do that. And they have the musicianship to do that. And the passion. Yes, that’s what it is all about, the passion. If any of the bands that are so hyped today had a third of the passion of The Orchids… if only…a fifth…

Today I’m listening to their new album “The Lost Star” for the eight time in a row. You should all order it from Pebble Records or your favourite mailorder. The passion is still here, on their fifth album on the span of more than 2o years. Sounds as fresh and smart as Lyceum. It is classy and elegant as Striving for the Lazy Perfection. It’s a little piece of art, that perhaps will not get the recognition it deserves, because most bloggers and critics are really ungrateful. We should not throw pearls before swine. But if you want to grab one of the album’s that matters, one of the best this year, grab this one. It won’t disappoint. The Orchids always deliver.

“Who needs tomorrow/ when all I need/ all I need was you”. The memory of all the train passengers chanting these lines upon arriving to Butterley station later that night just proves how impacting this gig was for all of us. Those who missed it should be dead jealous. It wasn’t just Another Saturday Night!

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Listen
The Orchids – It’s Only Obvious

To finish our Tamworth trilogy in this blog, our Mark Mortimer on bass trilogy, let’s have a look to Bash Out the Odd. As mentioned on the last post, after some changes in the lineup of Space Seeds the band changed their name to Bash Out the Odd. Their sound also changed, especially with a heavy section of brass, even with trombones and cornets! The sound was more sixties inspired, very mod-ish. Much more upbeat too. According to the Tamworth Bands page there were three phases of this band, three versions, the first from 1988-89, the second from 89-90 and the last 90-90. So let’s go one by one to understand it better. And if anyone has any more of their recordings, please share!

First version (1988-1989)

The band during this period is Mark Brindley on lead vocals/guitar, Julian Amos on lead guitar and backing vocals, Mark Mortimer on bass, Stuart Pickett on bass, Alan Hodgetts on keyboards, Martin Cooper on trumpet, Mark Allison on trumpet and cornet and Bryan Hurdly on bass trombone and euphonium. During this time the Tamworth Herald publishes the news about a video being recorded for three of Bash Out the Odd songs, in a full scale video session. Wonder if these were recorded at all, if so, will they ever pop up on Youtube? That would be ace. Anyways, a month later the band starts to stumble for the first time as Julian Amos leaves the band. It is also during this time that there is talk that Lazy Recordings were going to sign the band to their roster. Mark remembers: “The company that managed chart-hitting indie stars The Primitives and Kingsbury’s indie/punk/garage band Birdland were really into Bash Out The Odd and on several occasions came to see us live in London (and in Tamworth would you believe!?) and were interested in signing us but it never quite happened. We had several labels courting us for a while too and things seemed to be “happening” for the band but for one reason or another it never QUITE got there which is a great shame as there was great potential and as the band developed Mark Brindley started writing songs to go with the ones I wrote and we had some good tunes under our belts.”

They had one demo recorded during this time including the songs “Love Walks Away”. “Heavenly Angel”, “Mother Sea” and “Bug”. You can listen to the first one on the Tamworth Bands jukebox. Also here you can read more about the recordings of this demo as well as many memories and anecdotes about how the band started or even about the songs.

Second version (1989-1990)

Now the band has Pete Woodward on lead guitar and backing vocals, and John Bates on keyboards. Mark Mortimer remembers: “The second version of Bash Out The Odd took on a more powerful, harder sound. The classical horns remained and continued to sound brilliant but Julian Amos simply vanished one day without warning (he moved to live in Oswestry to work as a private investigator without telling ANYONE!!). He was replaced by a loud-mouthed and opinionated guitarist from Solihull called Pete Woodward whose presence in the band often led to a lot of friction which sometimes even boiled over into violent confrontation!! Nevertheless, he was a strong, powerful, rockin’ guitarist and this led the group into a much tougher-sound. Alan Hodgetts quit the group and moved to Coventry where he worked on BBC Radio and Mark (Brindley) roped in his old mucker John Bates on keyboards. We were keen for him to use his sampler and this meant, from my own point of view, we could bring in more exotic and 60s-influenced ideas like sitars and Middle Eastern string sounds etc!! Fun! During one period of time Stuart Pickett sadly quit the group and we struggled on without him with Mark Brindley’s uncle (whose name I have forgotten now!) stepping in to help out – he hadn’t played drums since his youth in the swinging 60s and this made it a challenging time really. During this period we recorded another demo – “Laughing House” and we used programmed drums to get the effect we wanted. We also had a bearded, older drummer from Birmingham for a couple of months whose name I have now forgotten who reminded me of Jet Black of The Stranglers!! Thankfully, Stuart returned to the band after a while and we continued to play quite a large number of gigs, travelling down to London on a couple of occasions to play infamous indie rock venue The Bull & Gate in Kentish Town and also the Greyhound in Fulham which – of course – was an important venue in the pub rock-dominated mid 70s and was also one of the early venues a lot of the punk bands played.“

They recorded one demo tape including the songs “Laughing House” and “September Honey”. According to the version 2 page of Tamworth Bands there was also a tape including live recordings of a gig at the Fulham Greyhound. Wonder which songs were included there! I’ve included here on the blog for download the great “Laughing House”, which Mark says it “was a frantic but catchy powerhouse of a tune driven by this pounding heavy drum track and the thrashy guitars. The horns were pristine and powerful. Mark (Brindley) wrote the odd lyrics that included references to “eskimo rolls” over the music that I had written.”

Third version (1990)

The third, and final version of the band. Alan Hodgetts had came back to pick up the keyboards as in version 1 but there was a new guitarist in the band: Paul Whitehead. He is not very well remembered according to this page: “Pete Woodward was either sacked or left the band (I can’t quite remember which) due to the clash of personalities and he was replaced by a guy from Coventry called Paul (none of us can remember his surname) who played guitar and also a guitar synth (something I wasn’t very fond of!!). He was a very insular chap, kept himself to himself and the contrast with Pete Woodward could not have been more vivid!!”

There was only one song recorded during this period: “Rainy Day Sunshine”. It was recorded not at Expresso Bongo like all the other prior recordings, but at The Reptile House in Lichfield. This song was supposed to come out on an album of original material from bands that used that rehearsal space. It seems this album release never happened. Seems luck was never on the side of them. By the end of 1990 the band decided to call it a day. They would later resurface as The Strangeloves…

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Listen
Bash Out the Odd – Laughing House

The Tamworth Bands page keeps surprising me. If months ago I got to discover Emma Gibbs Loves Badges there, and this past week Great Express, today I found out about Space Seeds. Seems that the indiepop, guitar pop, in the 80s, is still much of an uncharted scene. There’s still lots to cover, lots to discover, lots to listen. And then we have the 90s and the 00s, and well, it seems quite impossible to ever think of a comprehensible guide to the music we like. Sometimes I like to think of this blog as the one that will be a guide to those deep corners of our scene, to the long lost bands, to the obscure songs, that deserve to be heard. Perhaps, my real ambition is to one day be able to put together this guide in a proper book format. But who’ll read it, who’ll publish it? Maybe it would be a digital book? Does anyone use the kindle or the ipad? I don’t. There’s something wrong about them. I feel like I would lose my vision by staring and reading from those devices. Mind you I am staring and working on the computer at least 8 hours straight at work everyday. I know. It’s nonsense. Anyways, I raise the question, would the effort of making something like that work?

My first guess was that the Space Seeds peeps were fans of Star Trek. There was an episode called “Space Seed” in the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, that was first broadcast on February 16, 1967. During this episode the crew of the Enterprise awakens a powerful dictator from Earth’s war-torn past: Khan. My second guess was that they were some sort of nerdy band, a scientist band, were they looked way ahead in the future and saw that NASA was going to harvest plants in space, with the so called space seeds. The plan NASA had was to be able to grow plants in space, for the astronauts to eat the crops. The surprising part was that when these crops were brought back to Earth, they were super-sized. They hope that these enormous pumpkins, as well as two-foot long (06.m) cucumbers, 14lb (6.3kg) aubergines, and chilli plants which resemble small trees, could provide an answer to the world’s food crisis  some day. They also found out that near zero gravity conditions in space result in super-sized fruit and vegetables with a higher vitamin content and the plants are said to produce harvests which are ten to 20 per cent higher than normal!

In any case, Space Seeds as a band didn’t yield many songs or lasted for a long time. They were only around for 1 year, from 1988 to 1989. And even though on the photo you can see seven people, there were originally only three people in the band: Mark Brindley, Stu Blain and Mark Mortimer. Yes, the same Mark from Great Express that I wrote about before. Later, they grew up to be a seven piece when Martin Kelly, Stu Pickett, Alan Hodgetts. Mark Allison and Martin Cooper joined. They seem to have had only seven songs recorded that were released on a tape called “Seven Track Collection”. I haven’t yet found out what were the names of all the songs but four: “Autumn Girl”, “Feel Your Touch”, “Switchblade Love”, “Saturn in Her Eyes”. The last two available to stream from the Tamworth Bands jukebox. You’ll notice that “Saturn in Her Eyes” is not really poppy, but according to press from the time, this song was their exception of the rule in their repertoire. It was their Teardrop Explosion moment. They say that the rest of the tape, the other six songs were great pop songs, as you can tell after listening to “Switchblade Love”. And gig wise, they played only 8 times live, mostly in Tamworth but also outing as far as Derby, Oadby and Burntwood. They played once a gig with a band I’ve always been curious about to listen to, but no luck yet, The Macoys. Any audio from them will be greatly appreciated!

In 1989 there were changes in the band. Lead singer Martin Kelly quit the band due to “musical differences”. Julian Amos, from The Macoys and Great Express would fill in. Also these were the last days of the band. On October the 2nd of that year, they decided it was time to call it quits and start a new band called Bash out the Odd. More on them later this week on the blog. But if you can’t wait, you can check some of their tunes on the jukebox at the Tamworth Bands page too. Pretty good stuff!

So, any chance anyone has the other songs recorded by Space Seeds?

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Listen
Space Seeds – Switchblade Love

The first time I took a proper train was not really a Great Express. It was between Essen and Hamburg, in Germany. Last year. We don’t use trains here in Florida. They are non-existent, unless they are cargo trains. Actually, I used to live for around a year on a building next to some rail tracks for this cargo train who’s last stop is the port of Miami. One of the biggest this side of the Atlantic. Those were quiet days in North Miami Beach, up on Biscayne avenue, only to be noisy every midnight when the train came by. Today, another noisy train has come my way and this time it is a Great Express!

Great Express was a short lived band from Tamworth, UK. They were only around for less than two years, from 86 to 88, mostly as a side project of Mark Mortimer who was involved with many bands at the time. The band was formed by Julian Amos on lead vocals and guitar, Ted Wilson on lead guitar and backing vocals, the aforementioned Mark Mortimer on bass, Chantal Weston on keyboards and Dave Burgess on drums. Later in 1988 Dave Burgess would leave the band to be replaced by Simon Harvey.

During this time they gigged a lot, even playing next to favourites of mine, Mighty Mighty. Mark remembers about their gigs:
The gigs were always real fun and quite intense in some ways. Remember we did a gig on The Isle of Wight, having played in Salisbury the night before and we also played in mid-Wales to abject ignorance from the audience. We did a number of university gigs including Leicester University and lots of local venues including the ubiquitous Tavern In The Town, the Rathole etc.

Of course, a big shame that I couldn’t attend to any of the gigs. But my biggest disappointment is that there was no proper release that I could get my hands on, or be on the lookout on ebay. They did have enough songs for a proper release, mind you. In total they had 10 songs, all put out in 4 different demo tapes. They recorded the following songs: “Graveyard Faces”, “Witch-Well”, “Pieces”, “Heavenly, Heavenly”, “Black Flower”, “Silent Head”, “Miles High”, “(You Could) Change My World)”, “Firework”, “Total Excess at 200 Yards”. 3 of them available to stream from the Tamworth Bands jukebox. As you’ll find out, they are really good!

Mark Mortimer also gives some insight about these recordings:

Silent Head was a second Great Express line-up recording done at the Expresso Bongo in 1988. It’s a song I wrote and features, heavily, Chantal’s keyboardy sitar sounds together with Ted Wilson’s excellent 12-string guitar (what a great musician he was/is). Lead vocals were from Julian Amos. Chantal sang the backing vocals too – and it was my gibberish backwards vocals at the end of the track. The bass of course was also played by yours truly and the drums were by Simon Harvey. Mark Mortimer

All the demos were recorded at The Expresso Bongo Studios, Tamworth and engineered by Paul Speare. “(You Could) Change My World” was produced by the then Julian Cope guitarist Donald Ross Skinner (he also played keyboards on it). Paul Stansfield (ex-Dream Factory and Expresso Bongo Orchestra) played tenor trombone on the “Witch-Well” demo. Ex-Dream Factory and Terroah drummer Andy “Batman” Holt played drums on “Total Excess At 200 Yards”, Brian Lacey was lead vocals and guitar on “Graveyard Faces.”
Memories

The great Tamworth Bands page also has many snippets from the Tamworth Herald Musicbox column. Among them there are some very interesting ones, telling some cool anecdotes from this long lost band. I really enjoy this one, written just before the Mighty Mighty gig:

The powerful double-header is certain to see one of the Arts Centres biggest attendances so far and spectators are promised an exciting, contrasting show. Mighty Mighty…
…The Great Express. This will be the bands first major Tamworth town centre show and according to bassist Mark Mortimer it should be an interesting night for band and spectators alike.
“People who come along expecting a cross between Orange and The Dream Factory are in for a massive shock,” said Mark. “We are very powerful and there is no other band I know what sounds like us.” For those who don’t know, The Great Express began as a vision in the mind of former Dream Factory bassist Mark Mortimer. When the Factory split, he attempted to get that vision into clearer focus by recruiting drummer Dave Burgess and keyboard player Chantal Weston. Next, Mark teamed up with his ex-colleague singer/ guitarist Brian Lacey, but when the Mortimer/Lacey marriage ended in divorce, Julian Amos and Ted Wilson stepped in and the Express are now complete. Anyway that’s the history, let’s talk about the future.
“I feel like an alcoholic about this band – I just can’t get enough of it and I just crave to do gigs,” said Mark. “I feel very excited about the band, because it is close to my own true musical aims and those of everyone else in the band.”Influences such as Julian Cope and The Mighty Lemon Drops are obvious enough, but at the band’s first concert at Nuneaton they were also compared to Crazyhead, The Jam and wait for it – AC/DC.
“AC/DC, can you believe it?” said Mark. “That made me laugh at the time because I think it shows that we’re totally different and people will have to just come along and make their own minds up.
”As well as Sunday’s show at the Arts Centre, the Express will also be in action at the Tavern on Thursday night giving people a chance to make their mind up twice. I for one feel we are all in for a treat – and an unusual one at that.

And also they received so many great reviews for their gigs, and praise for their quality songs:

– To me the group came over as an aggressive version of the criminally under-rated Church wit touches of The Go-Betweens, The Jam and The Mighty Lemon Drops thrown in. For the most part it was hard-hitting and hard-sounding with the dual use of Julian and Ted’s guitars creating a colourful, meandering wall of sound. Songs like ‘Laughing House’, ‘Witch Well’ and ‘Pieces’ fitted into this strong sphere, but just to confuse matters they added surprising pop touches like the elegant ‘Heavenly, Heavenly’ which sounded like a slice from the Jam’s hallmark album ‘The Gift’.

– But the best was undoubtedly saved until last. The band finished their set with a riveting, brilliant number called ‘Over and Out’ which started like an early Pink Floyd number, and grew and grew into something large, colossal and quite mesmerising. The last minute or so as the whole band speeded the melody-up bar by bar was quite riveting and done with the sort of exact and exacting professionalism that is the outstanding feature of Mark Mortimer’s work. The whole effect was almost numbing and I am convinced that in ‘Over and Out’, The Great Express have created a classic set-ender.

– And how they justified that ‘Great’ tag tonight. Even compared to their first uplifting ‘Rathole’ show this was a revelation and proved that the Great Express are an almighty force for Tamworth to be proud of. Gone are any tracks that were less than 100 per cent dynamite and in comes powerhouse full of unrestrained anger and menacing guitars. One of two of the tunes are priceless and the band’s stage show is now dramatic and immensely watchable. Great performers, great show, great songs. Great Express. Brilliant.

Everyone seems to have been right about them. But, what happened to the record labels? Why didn’t they pick them? Or why didn’t the band self finance their own record? The songs were really strong, and I’m sure they knew that. The Great Express deserved to end it’s journey in a better way.

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Listen
Great Express – Silent Head

Today, a Sunday at work replacing a sick colleague, has been quite painful. The air conditioning’s temperature has been terribly low. Winter came too early in the newsroom and my fingers are chilling while I type and keep them in shape. Who takes care of the air conditioning central system? No one knows. It’s one of the biggest mysteries in this building. It’s winter and a boy. But it is also a boy that has rediscovered that music can keep him warm. A boy that has rediscovered the tales of a fine lyricist. A boy that wants to hear Imogen Velouria’s Lean Tales.

February 2010: Lean Tales split up. The Glasgow band is no more. Some lucky people have seen them live, not me. My chances are reduced to 0% unless 20 years from now, in true c86 fashion, they regroup for Indietracks 2031. But they were not even as big as Mighty Mighty, so perhaps I shouldn’t even hold my breathe. Whatever reason they had to split up, is not reason enough for me. This is a late tribute to a band that tasted of superglue.

Superglue should have been what kept them together. Lean Tales formed during the winter of 2007, with Imogen Velouria on vocals, Chris Harvie on guitar, Erika Sella on bass and Craig Patrick on drums. Most probably a colder winter that the one I’m experiencing in my office. A snowy Glasgow, dufflecoats and wet sidewalks. They took their name from an anthology of short stories written by Scottish authors Alasdair Gray, Agnes Owens and James Kelman, with author illustrations by Alasdair Gray. They never changed their lineup. They got praises and good reviews on their EP. They deserved more, they deserved people going head over heels.

They have no Myspace these days and that’s understandable. Myspace is crap nowadays. But I’m sure that’s not their reason. Must be one tied to the demise of the band. Anyways, I’ve had their EP on massive rotation this weekend, and I’ve understood a couple of things, firstly, the lyrics are genius, secondly, they are troubled, and thirdly, something as immediate as this music, is hard to keep it up for years. It makes sense they broke up for whatever reason it was. That ramshackle spirit of theirs, that immediacy, is the same of all of those bands in the indiepop pantheon that recorded one single and broke up. The “Flesh and Paper” CD-EP, beautifully presented in red and black digipack, released on Bubblegum Records, was one of the finest releases of 2009. It included 4 songs, “The Taste of Superglue”, “Penny on the Floor”. “Money Smile”, and “Days are Quick”. All recorded at the Green Door Studios in Glasgow. How I wish I had an autographed copy. Their songs sound very different to anything that was currently being done in indiepop mostly due to Imogen’s particular vocals. A fair dissection of their music would make the Golden Pathway label proud. Lean Tales sound uncannily close to Number 4 Joystreet in many of their songs. And throw in some Chesterf¡elds-like guitars in their most poppy songs like Money Smile for example. Haunting, beautiful, smart.

A year before they had put together some songs and included them in what they called the “Displaced Persons” demos. On here they had two unreleased, but downloadable from last.fm, songs: “Winter and a Boy” and “Running Birthday Cake”. The latter included in the “Pic’n’Mix” compilation released on Bubblegum Records. Must have been more around this time that I heard from them for the first time. We emailed for a couple of times. They had nice words for the Cloudberry too. They wanted to send me a CD with demos of their new songs. Upon receiving the marker written jewel case, I played it, to be blown away by “Money Smile”, a song so in your face that, I believe, should have been a single by itself. I like it so much that I’ve given myself the treat of DJing it twice, once in London and once in Malmö. Can I say I’m very jealous Gary Bubblegum that you were the one to release it?

Today came to my surprise that they had two songs slated for a 7″ release: “Come Take Me” and “Laundry Pills”. Who was going to release this and bailed out? I’d love to know, so I could cut their head off. Both songs are downloadable at the Lean Tales’ bandcamp. A bit less shivering than their previous efforts, and even “Come Take Me” having a quite summery feel! Ah! could it be the warmth of that violin?! Lean Tales was getting better and better as it also shows on the videos from the Bubblegum Records gig of last December (where they sang two unreleased songs, “All on You” and “Maybe”). Wonder when this ‘single’ were recorded. Should have been a bona fide contender for single of the year. The bandcamp also has the “Flesh and Paper” EP to download entirely, which makes me think of the band losing all interest in their songs. Because they are worth more than just a simple click. I highly suggest buying the copy from Bubblegum Records. I believe they are limited to 500 copies.

I never heard back from them. We’ll never hear from Lean Tales again probably. Though I could always try the Erika’s phone number on the sleeve of the demo CD when I’m in Glasgow next February. I hope in a way or another, they make music again. There is some genius in these songs. Genius enough to keep us warm in the coldest winter. Thank you.

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Listen
Lean Tales – Money Smile