Soundcloud has become the place to go to discover obscure bands from the 80s. The latest find hails from Denver, Colorado, and were called The Presley Underground. A pun? I’m sure they liked the bands associated to the Paisley Underground scene.

What information will I be able to find? Probably little. I don’t have high hopes. But let’s have a look…

The first song the band recorded was titled “Trains“. It was recorded at Budget Studios in Denver over 3 days in October of 1988. The recording was done live on a 16 track Fostex deck with overdubs on guitar and vocals, some drums and bass. The music was written by Alan Stiles with lyrics by Rick Hyde. This song would be part of the band’s first demo.

The second song we find is the superb “Fall of Promises“. This song has a different story. It seems Rick Hyde was jamming with someone called Aaron at Fort Lewis College in the fall of 1986 and he would remember a bass line from that session. Years later when Rick showed this bassline to the guys in Presley Underground they all liked it and started playing it in 1988. Brian Sneider is on drums, Otto Wrecker is on bass and Rick on guitar. What about Alan Stiles? Did he leave the band? Was he not part of the band originally? The recording details about this song are the same as “Trains”.

From that same recording session of October 1988 we find a third song, “Set it Aside“.

There are other 3 songs on Rick Hyde’s Soundcloud, “Deep River”, “Killing Floor” and “Metal”. But it doesn’t say if they were by The Presley Underground. Someone has commented that they aren’t. Who would know? Maybe these were from the band Rick was after?

The only other mention of the band comes from a blog called King Concert. This is a page dedicated to live music by Colorado writer-photographer Tim Van Schmidt.

On his post he mentions a concert were The Presley Underground supported the Meat Puppets on December 2nd 1988 at the CSU Student Center North Ballroom. He describes the sound of the band as fuzzy, loud dissonant rock.

And that’s what I could find by them. A few songs and little more. Would be great if someone could give us some more details about them!

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Listen
The Presley Underground – Fall of Promises

Just found out about this British band from the Youtube channel by stoneeyedkiller. What’s surprising is that this band actually put a record out. And I was never aware of its existence.

Yeah, The Outsiders released a 7″ in 1989 according to Discogs. It came out on Redd Records which may have been the band’s own label, a self-release. The 7″ had two songs, “Handfuls of Nothing (Give me Lots & Lots of Money)” on the A side and “Love You to Death” on the B side.

The artwork on the sleeve shows photos of each of the four members of the band but sadly we don’t get the names of them.

45cat lists another record by The Outsiders. Is it the same band? Timewise it could be. This second 7″ would be actually the first, released in 1988 on Mundane Music (MM 0004). Two songs are included in it, “The Northern Queen” on the A side and “The Great Depression” on the B side. On this record the songs are credited to Tom Martin who also produced both tracks.

If it is the same band, they would have hailed from Birmingham and we know they at least played gigst at The New Breedon Bar (July 31 1988) and also at the Junction Harbourne (Oct. 27 1988).

But these are not all the songs the band recorded. On Youtube there’s a bunch of them. Sadly there is no information about them. Also none of the 1988 songs are uploaded here so you see why I have my doubts.

The songs uploaded are “Boxing Clever”, “Rain”, “That Girl”, “Pocketful of Sorrow”, “Scarlet”, “Tinsel Town”, “Handfuls of Nothing”, “Bordello”, “Stephen”, “Satellite Evangelist”, “Burning Sun”, “Stone on Stone” and “Particularly”

Sadly that seems to be all the info I could find about them. They’ve put their music on many digital platforms but they haven’t added any details. Would be good to know at least who were the members, right?

So yeah, I hope you can give me a hand finding more info about The Outsiders!

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Listen
The Outsiders – Pocketful of Sorrow

First of all I want to say that I am going to London in May!! Will be a few days there and I will attend what will probably be my only gig this year, Heavenly at Sheperd’s Bush Hall on May 20th! So just heads up if you want to save on postage and want any of the releases on Cloudberry. Just send me a message and we’ll take it from there! So excited to see the legendary Sarah band as well as seeing many friends. And of course, visiting London after 10 long years, has me beyond excited…

Anyways…

West Runton is a village in North Norfolk, England, on the North Sea coast.

That’s where we are headed today.

Malcolm Birtwell on guitar and vocals, Dave Lewis on bass and Bill Allard were Green Beach, a jangle pop band from the mid-80s clearly influenced by The Smiths.

The band was formed in 1985. Not all of them hailed from West Runton. Only Malcolm did. Dave was from Sheringham and Bill from Southrepps and the band was part of a scene that was called the Cromerzone.

Malcolm has an account on Soundcloud where he has uploaded a bunch of his recordings from different projects. Included there is the debut 1986 cassette EP by Green Beach. This four-song EP was called “Annoying the Neighbours”. He says the EP’s songs were about his increasing frustration with the girlfriend he had at the time.

The songs on the tape were “Caution to the Wind”, “Green Beach (Le Linge)”, “Living Your Life as a Lie” and “Still Waiting”. The art for this tape shows a soldier in green ink.

There is a page with some more stuff about them on N1M. There a song called “Dry Your Tears” is mentioned. This song was written back in 1985 for Green Beach but was later recorded by another band Mal was in, U-Watt.

There is also a mention that in 2015 the band, Green Beach had reunited and was recording new material. Not sure what happened. They did put together a Facebook page.

Then I stumble a page on ReverbNation. There Malcolm tells us about his influences and that he is able to play bass and drums as well. There is another song I hadn’t heard before, “The Eyes Have It”. It sounds very different to Green Beach’s 1986 songs. Maybe this was a new one?

There are a few more to check, “Nightmare”, “I Ain’t Listening”, “Promises” and “Reflections”. Maybe these are from another cassette EP? Doesn’t say.

These days we know that Malcolm plays on a band called Halo’s Edge. Not sure what are the other members up to now.

And that’s all I could gather about this obscure band. Who remembers them? Anyone has any intel on this Cromerzone scene? Were there any other jangle pop bands involved?

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Green Beach – Living Your Life as a Lie

As mentioned on my previous post on Killing Time, members of this band went to be later in another one called The Real McCoy.

On the Soundcloud account by Westy50 there are actually two songs by The Real McCoy: “Hometown” and “Working Girl”. And they sound quite fine to me.

I assume The Real McCoy was also based in Muirhose, Motherwell, Scotland. About the members I know at least one of them was in both bands, Westy (who I don’t know his real name sadly). He was the bassist in The Killing Time so I am also guessing he was the bassist in The Real McCoy.

Their name clearly comes from the idiom and metaphor used in much of the English-speaking world to mean “the real thing” or “the genuine article”, e.g. “he’s the real McCoy”. The phrase has been the subject of numerous false etymologies. 

On the song “Hometown” we get some details. It mentions that this track was recorded in a basement in Penicuik many years ago. They also say that their claim to fame was that they watched the World Cup final with Ricky Ross and supported Oasis before they were Oasis.

I wonder which World Cup would that be? 1990?

Someone called Stephen McGuire comments too. He says that he loves the song and he had made a version of the song with Kev on a casio drum machine. I want to guess Kev was part of the band, but don’t think Stephen was.

The second song, “Working Girl”, was recorded in 1991 at Coatbridge and was engineered by Ted Blakeway.

I will say again that I believe Westy was in the punk band External Menace later on as there are recordings of this band on his account. Other than that I don’t have any other info about them.

So again, any help will be appreciated!

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The Real McCoy – Hometown

Not to be confused with Killing Time who were English and I wrote about them in the blog. Today’s band, The Killing Time, hailed from Muirhouse, Motherwell, Scotland.

There’s a Soundcloud account by Westy50 that had uploaded one track by The Killing Time. That was 5 years ago and the song is really brilliant. The song is titled “Chance” and was recorded back in 1985 in Loanhead, Edinburgh.

We also got the names of the band members, which is great, Neil McPhail on guitar, Stephen Cogan on lead guitar and backing vocals, Johnny Mulhaul on drums, Westy on bass and Grant who I am not sure what he played (not clear for me, it says he played mouthy and general Bez things).

There’s a photo of the band there, where we see the 5 members. Well, 4, one of the members seems to have been cut off. It is the same photo I am using here in the blog.

I see then that Westy was also on another band called Real McCoy that sounds good. I should write about them next I think. In the meantime I need more info about The Killing Time. Another band uploaded to his account is External Menace. Was he involved in that band as well?

About their name, it is clear that they took it from the particular period of Scottish history with that same name…

The Killing Time was a period of conflict in Scottish history between the Presbyterian Covenanter movement, based largely in the south west of the country, and the government forces of Kings Charles II and James VII. The period, roughly from 1679 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was subsequently called The Killing Time by Robert Wodrow in his The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, published in 1721–22. It is an important episode in the martyrology of the Church of Scotland.

But other than that I don’t seem to find any other info about them. I wonder if anyone remembers them and can share some info. I don’t think I have previously written about a Motherwell band, so hopefully I will also learn about their scene!

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The Killing Time – Chance

On my post about the band Eddie’s Brother I mentioned that Simon Kelly, member of said band, had uploaded the songs to Soundcloud was also in a band called The Owl Service.

The songs by The Owl Service have been uploaded much more recently, just a year ago. I searched high and low for info on Eddie’s Brother and couldn’t find anything. Will my luck be different now that I am searching for The Owl Service?

My first encounter is through the song “Real“. It sounds very much influenced by “George Best” era The Wedding Present. I love this sound. This is something I enjoy a lot. I learn that this demo was recorded in 1991 on a Tascam 244 portastudio.

The second song is “Heptonstall“. Recorded at the same time period and with the same equipment. Here it is mentioned that this song was a favourite of the “Echoplex years”. What does that mean? As far as I know it is a guitar delay pedal, right? The band was using this pedal a lot?

Heptonstall is of course a town in the UK.

Heptonstall is a small village and civil parish within the Calderdale borough of West Yorkshire, England, historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The population of Heptonstall, including the hamlets of Colden and Slack Top, is 1,448, increasing to 1,470 at the 2011 Census. The town of Hebden Bridge lies directly to the south-east. Although Heptonstall is part of Hebden Bridge as a post town, it is not within the Hebden Royd town boundaries.

Did the band hail from a place close by?

Third song is “I-Spy with the Angels“. Here Simon mentions that he hears shades of The Wedding Present in his song.

There’s more. “No Sunday Afternoon Joy” had the sound of his Rickenbacker 330. Sadly he mentions that 6 months later after recording the song it was stolen. The last song available is titled “And“.

Worth mentioning again that Simon was also in the band The Gunsmiths in the late 80s.

Now the name. Where does The Owl Service name comes from?

The Owl Service is a low fantasy novel for young adults by Alan Garner, published by Collins in 1967. Set in modern Wales, it is an adaptation of the story of the mythical Welsh woman Blodeuwedd, an “expression of the myth” in the author’s words.

Good to know. What else can we find?

Not much more to be honest. So again, will need your help with any more details so we can understand a bit better this cool sounding band!

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Listen
The Owl Service – Real

I don’t know much about ska bands. But it seems the band Spider Nick & the Maddogs were important in the 90s New York City scene.

I am not going to write about them. This is an indiepop blog afterall. But I found out that one of their members, Derek Cornish, was previously in a band called Dreamworld. And there is at least one recording on Soundcloud that I thought I had to share with you all.

He describes the song “Everybody Looks Like You” by Dreamworld as a cross between The Ocean Blue and The Cure. He also tells us that originally the song was an instrumental that the rest of the band members were working on and that he later ended up adding lyrics and melody.

The song was part of a 1989 (or 1990) demo. He doesn’t mention if other songs were recorded in the same session. Would be nice to know. We know that the demo was recorded in Northport, NY.

Another interesting bit of info was that this was his first band and it was actually the band’s second name. Firstly they were called In the Dark.

On his account we see recordings by other bands he was involved with, always playing different music styles. DC/DC and Cinebytes are among his other projects.

I also find out that he was a radio and club DJ. Nowadays he is an audio and visual technician based in Hauppague, NY.

Then I find something curious. On the Copyright Encyclopedia, there is a mention of a “No Regrets” demo tape from 1988. It doesn’t mention what songs were on said tape but mentions some band members, Derek Cornish, Pete Propp, Dan Dembling, Mark Lipynsky and Will Timmons. Then another tape titled “Dreamworld” from 1990 with the same band members.

Thats all the info I could stumble upon. I’d be curious about more recordings about this band. Did they play live in NYC? Or somewhere in the NY state? Were there part of a scene?

Anyone remembers them?

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Dreamworld – Everybody Looks Like You

Bradford. Not the band. The city.

Eddie’s Brother. Who are they? 10 years ago one of the band members uploaded a bunch of their recordings (as well as songs by other bands he had been involved with). From what I see all of these come from demo tapes, no proper releases. This is the sort of thing I was looking for.

The first demo tape by Eddie’s Brother was recorded in 1986 on a portastudio on thee parent’s house of this said member. What’s his name? Simon Kelly. The demo was titled “True Lust” and included four poppy songs, “Entice to Distraction”, “Nothing so Sweet”, “Small Pegs” and “This Diffident Charm”.

The second cassette was self-titled and included many songs. 7 in total: “Chocolate Poems”, “Exalted”, “Fly-By Days”, “Music for Cynics (part 1)”, “Music for Cynics (part 2)”, “Red Farmhouse” and “World-Out”. Again recorded in the parents house on a portastudio. The year was 1987.

The 3rd cassette was unreleased it says. So I guess the first two perhaps were sold at gigs and probably more than 10 copies were made? The 3rd tape was called “Weary of Heaven” and was recorded but was never completed. It was 1988 when it was recorded (it says remixed in 1992) and the songs included were “A State of Grace”, “Fickle the Riches”, “Like You Always Knew” and “Pitch of Roofs”. On Soundcloud they have included the song “Proper Seating” by The Table Legs, the band he was in after, as it includes alternative recordings of “This Diffident Charm” and “Red Farmhouse” as hidden tracks.

There is also another song, that is not listed on any of the tapes, “TW is for Me“. No info on this track though. Maybe is by another band?

As mentioned the owner of this Soundcloud account was later in The Table Legs but also in The Gunsmiths (circa 1988) and The Owl Service (1991).

Sadly I couldn’t find more info on Simon Kelly or his bands. But maybe someone remembers him or the bands? I’d love to learn more. Why they didn’t release anything? Did they play many gigs? Any info will be appreciated.

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Eddie’s Brother – Fly-by Days

Another trove of jangle! Another treasure found.

9 years ago the obscure English indiepop band Lobster Squad added a bunch of their recordings to Soundcloud. Included are studio recordings, rehearsals and live sounds.

The first song I found is called “Drowning in the Milk of Human Kindness”. The second is called “Couldn’t You Hear Me Falling”. And then there’s more. “Pimlico” and “Summer Will Soon Be Fading”. These tracks are actually rehearsals in Westbourne and date from 1994.

In 1993 the band recorded more songs. This time in a Croydon studio. The songs for this demo tape were “Drowning in the Milk of Human Kindness”, “Out of Your Life”, “Seaside Girl” and “Tinderbox”.

Then there are more songs. I see two names tagged for them, Nigel Packer and Neil Packer. Were they band members? “Out of Your Life”, “One Day I Will”, “Drowning in the Milk of Human Kindness” and “Seaside Girl”.  These date from 1992 and they were probably recorded in Camden.

In 1991 the band went to Wesbtourne Rehearsal Studios to record another demo. 4 songs were recorded. “Summer Will Soon Be Fading”, “Seaside Girl”, “Pimlico” and “The Jazz Song”.

1989. The 1989 demo recorded at Kilburn Airwave. 5 songs this time, “Lobster Theme”, “Up to You”, “One Day I Will”, “Simple” and “What’s Your Name?”.

We keep going backwards. Now 1988. Canvey Island. Probably that’s where the recording studio was. The songs from this time period are “Out of My Life” and “Pimlico”.

On the photos usually appear two guys. Probably Neil and Nigel. But there’s also another photo of the band playing at the Powerhaus. There we see a girl vocalist. So definitely there were some changes in the band. Would be good to find out. Some songs are sung by a female vocalist, others by a male vocalist.

Based in London. I am sure of that now.

I find a bio for Nigel Packer. He is actually an author! He is a writer and journalist and has worked for BBC News Online. He loves archaeology and has been in digs in Syria and Britain. Wow. He published a book titled ‘The Restoration of Otto Laird’ in 2014.

And that’s that. Got to find some interesting bits about them. Why didn’t they release any records? Did they play many gigs? Maybe had supported some cool bands? Would be nice to know the story behind the Lobster Squad!

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Lobster Squad – Up to You

This post is a bit of an archaeological dig.

There used to be a Soundcloud account for the band Blue Eyed English. That account doesn’t exist anymore.

Other than that Soundcloud account there is not a thing on the web. Blue Eyed English doesn’t exist.

So how can I find any info about them? The first thing to know is that one of their songs, “The Riddling Knight”, is on Youtube. Our friend stoneeyedkiller had shared it in his channel about a year ago. He adds one little detail about this track, it dates from 1989.

Someone comments this video and he is dead on. He/she describes the song as The Darling Buds meets Voice of the Beehive with the Heart Throbs paying a quick visit. I think that explains the band’s sound perfectly.

So what can one find about this band online? There are some little bits and pieces that one can gather…

The band recorded many songs in the studio. At least we know a few of them like “The Gardiner” from 1986, “Locks’n’Bolts” also from 1986, “Glen Logie” and “Blue-Eyed Lullabye” from 1987 and the previously mentioned “The Riddling Knight”. From what I understand the band’s recordings in studio dated from 1986 to 1991.

Then I find a name and a place connected to Blue Eyed English. The name is Shelley Patt. The place is Enfield, England. Shelley Patt was also the singer that was in a rock band called Solstice.

I found a small Shelley bio on a Czech language site. It mentions that she left Solstice in 1989 and only then she joined the band. But it tells us something more. It tells us that Shelley replaced Vikki Clayton (who has a Facebook page). It mentions too that Blue Eyed English released an album! I didn’t know this. And that the band was recording a second album even. Who knows about this? Also that the band called it a day in 1993.

So now we know a little bit more. Still don’t know the name of the rest of the members of the band. I think there was a member called Maria. And I may be wrong about Enfield. Now I start to think the band actually hailed from somewhere in Lincolnshire.

Anyone remembers them? are there more recordings? does an album really exist?

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Listen
Blue Eyed English – The Riddling Knight