Monday, Monday. Remember my Mexican friends that if you need any Cloudberry Records, please let me know by Wednesday because I’m traveling on Friday to your beautiful country. That means too that I won’t be updating the blog for the time I will be away on holidays. Maybe that would be a good time for everyone that needs to catch up with the crazy amount of indiepop archaeology I’ve been doing this whole 2018.

But it is not just old and obscure pop that I want to feature. As always I try to find 5 good new finds for you all. So here they are:

Loose Tooth: just found out about this Melbourne based band. It seems I’m late at the party as they have some other releases listed on their Bandcamp, the oldest dating from 2015. But it doesn’t matter. The thing is they have a new album called “Keep Up” and they have a video for the opening song of the album called “Keep Up” available now to promote the record! The album is to be released on August 3rd on yellow vinyl on Milk! Records. The trio is formed by Etta Curry, Nellie Jackson and Luc Dawson and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this record, even if I don’t know how the rest of the songs sound like!

The Loneliers: a girl punk/twee band from Brooklyn and Queens, New York. Would that mean that they are on the L train, somewhere in Ridgewood and Bushwick? Would that be a safe assumption? Maybe not! According to their Facebook they are based in East Elmhurst. Anyhow, the band has just uploaded a new song to their Bandcamp called “Sunblock” and it is a rush of pure fun guitar pop. Who are they? It is the first time I listen to them even though I live in the same city, in Queens too. They are a trio formed by Jessie Rodriguez, Debbie Rodriguez and Caitlin McMullen, and they have Go Sailor as one of their influences. That is a good thing in my book!

Dead Little Penny: some fuzzy guitar pop from Auckland, New Zealand? Why not! This band, formed in 2013 by Hayley Smith and Simon Buxton have an EP from 2016 and a new song, from April this year, on their Bandcamp. I stumbled upon them thanks to their latest, that is called “Honeycomb”. It is indeed very fuzzy, the way the band describes themselves and they seem to be signed to a label called Wood Lane.

Our Girl: where from did this very good track called “In My Head” came from? From this Brighton, UK, band that doesn’t play at Indietracks but it is playing the Benicassim festival in Spain. Some things don’t make sense. This is the first time I’m listening to this trio but it does look like they have more than a handful of songs in their Bandcamp. This one is the latest though, dating from June 22nd. It is only available digitally, but I hope it gets released physically as they did back in 2016 with their “Normally EP”.

E’spaniel: one of my favourite jangly pop bands from the UK is back with their debut album called “Entra Solo”. The 10 song CD is now available directly from the band. I need a copy of course. It sounds brilliant to me! They just had a launch party at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle and I hope it was a success. Why are they not playing at Indietracks? Well that is the big mystery to me. So many good UK bands, they should book some of them! I hope this release gets some good attention, because this band formed by Christianne, Leon and Karen, has the right influences, the songs, the lyrics and the melodies. I’m very much enjoying this on Bandcamp right now!

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I own two out of the three singles The Impossibles released in the early 90s. But for some reason I never thought about finding out more information about them. Going through my collection always turns to be a surprise: records I don’t remember having, some rarities, some with set lists I’ve saved within the sleeve, others signed by the bands and so on. This time around The Impossibles caught my attention and when I looked for them on Discogs I was surprised that there was a 3rd single I was not aware of.

That’s why I started looking for any information that is available about them. Discogs describes the band as a mellow electronic/indie dance act from the early 1990s. All of these singles were released on one label, Fontana. Fontana was a label that was founded in 1957 by PPI in the USA as a vehicle to market recordings licensed from Epic outside of the US. It was launched in 1958 in the UK. It was a big label, with Universal Music Group as its parent label. They had money. So it would be interesting to know the relationship of the band and the label. And how come the band only released singles and not an album.

The label lists two band members, two girls, Lucy Dallas and Mags Gundy. It doesn’t look like they were involved in any other bands. Strange.

The band’s first 7″ was released in 1990 and we can clearly see the backing of a biggish label, it came out on 7″, 12″ and CD single. The 7″ included just two songs, “How Do You Do It?” on the A side and “Privilege” on the B side. The A side was produced by Chris Sheldon, a producer who had been in punk bands in the late 70s. The B side, and this might be of interest of many, was produced by My Bloody Valentine’s own Kevin Shields. The sleeve design is credited to Abraham Pants, a UK design studio, while the photography to Paul Cox.

The 12″ on the other hand included two more songs. Now both songs from the 7″ appear on the A side while the B side includes “Expect Poison From Standing Water” and “Tar Pit”. All songs by the way were written by Dallas and Grundy but “Tar Pit” which was written by J. Mascis for Dinousaur Jr. The tracklist repeats itself on the CD single.

All these different formats were going to be used for the next single, 1991’s “Delphis”. The 7″ again included two songs, “Delphis” on the A side and “Be My Baby” on the B side. The songs were both recorded by Matthew Vaughn and the A side was engineered by Mark Stent. The artwork is credited to Gus Campbell for the painting and John Warwicker and Vivid ID for the design.

This time for the 12″ the tracklist changes completely. The original “Delphis” is the opening track, but the rest of them are remixes. On A2 we find “Delphis (Terry Farley & Pete Heller Remix)”. The B side had “Delphis (Fluke Remix)” and “Delphis (Inner Space Mix)”. The CD single version has the same running order.

Their last single, “The Drum”, was also released in 1991 and once again it was released in the three different formats. It looks like the band was getting support by the label. The 7″ had two songs, “The Drum” and “Our Love is God”. The 12″ was to open the A side with “The Drum (12″ Mix)”, which was a remix by Andrew Weatherall assisted by Hugo Nicolson, and have the original version of “The Drum” as A2. The B side had “Our Love is God” and “Therapy?”. The CD included the same songs but in a different order, first was the original “The Drum”, then “Our Love is God”, “Therapy?” and “The Drum (12″ Mix)”.

There are a few interesting bits about “The Drum”. First it was a cover of the Slapp Happy original which was later also covered by Bongwater, changing a bit the lyrics. It is the Bongwater’s version that The Impossibles covered.  And there is a promo video of this song where we meet the two girls in black and white.

It seems there have been other bands with the same name, but from what I gather from some forum post the band was based in Edinburgh, Scotland, despite both Mags and Lucy hailing from the north of England. It seems at some point the band expanded to a 4 piece with Ian Jackson (bass) and Gary Macintosh (drums) joining them. It seems both of them had been previously playing in local bands like the Van Cleefs and the Press Darlings.

There is not much more about them on the web. I don’t understand how Mags and Lucy disappeared. How come they weren’t in any other bands. The songs they wrote and how the were singing them was brilliant! Sure, it must have been difficult with a big label, but maybe there was demos and other recordings by this band? Did they play live much? All around the UK? Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Impossibles – How Do You Do It?

With the announcement that Firestation Records will be doing a compilation of German pop bands from the late 80s and early 90s, similar to those of the series of The Sound of Leamington Spa, I will be featuring today a German band, why not?

Now to end this week I have a few more finds that I’d love to share with you all. That with the reminder that next week, on Friday, I’m off to Mexico!

Daniel Takes a Train: Firestation has rescued this band from obscurity, first by having them on The Leamington Spa series and now releasing a proper retrospective record. The LP and CD for the aptly titled “Style, Charm and Commotion” will be out on August 3rd. In the past I was able to find a CD single by them on eBay which I believe it is all their released output. I wonder how many songs will be included? There is very little information about it. But for sure the song “The Honeymoon is Over”  as well as “I Don’t Want This Love” will be included. You can preview it now on the label’s Soundcloud.

A Strange Desire: I interviewed Yvette from the band not too long ago on the blog, I don’t know if she had plans to release a retrospective at that point, but almost immediately I saw Firestation announcing a record called “Sunny Days at Salem” by the band. It will also be released on August 3rd and will include their classic song “Promise to Lie” but there are no other details at the moment. Just that it will be released on vinyl only.

Rik Rak: and the last from this trio of Firestation releases is the “Illuminated” LP by this band. Yes, another superb compilation! The one song the label has available to stream as a preview is called “It’s Not Easy”. This record will be available on CD and LP. Hope we learn more details about all of these releases soon.

Bodega Sisters: “No Other” is a new video by this terrific and mysterious Stockholm band. I have recommended their music in the past, but I don’t think I know much about them aside that they make great guitar pop. I hope they release a proper record sometime soon!

Jetstream Pony: I believe I recommended the demo for “Self-Destruct Reality” in the past. But who cares. The thing is that the GREAT English band is releasing a new record on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, that magnificent and tasteful label from our friend Ronny in Augsburg. This 12″ will include this song (I suppose not the demo version) and four more songs: “Zipwire”, “Not the One”, “Out of Reach” and “A Tribute to Wanda and Zena”. I very much look forward to have this on my collection!

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For some reason I thought I had featured this superb obscure German band, but a I couldn’t even find a mention about them in the whole blog!

The country bumpkins, or Die Wurzelsepps, who were they? On Youtube my good friend Heinz has uploaded a few of their songs. Upon listening you’ll probably be hooked to their enthusiasm, to their poppy hooks, to those infectious choruses. But did they release anything? I can only think of compilation appearances. I should find out.

To my surprise Discogs does list one release. And guess what, it is a tape. Me and my aversion to tapes. Was it a demo tape? Perhaps. Or maybe not. It does have a label listed, Karotten Records. There is no catalog number, but we do know it was released in 1992. It is called “Das Ich Weiß Nicht – Keine Ahnung” and included 6 songs.

The A side had “Walk Through Your Fantasy”, “Das Wär Ich Gern”, “Sweet Aggression” and “Floor is Cold”. Strangely, the B side only has two songs, “All I Got” and “Interview Im New Melody Maker”.

I do have at home two of their songs, thanks to compilations. I had “Floor is Cold” on the 7″ compilation “Ein Spätsommercocktail” (Stein 2) that was released by Steinpilz Tonträger in 1994. I actually got this record through Peter Hahndorf when I visited him in Bremen about 10 years ago. How time flies! This record has already been mentioned on the blog when I featured Friends Ahoi and Mossblüten. But there are three other bands on it, worth checking out like Despite the Ties, Der Junge Im März or Space Kelly.

The other compilation I own that has a song by them is “Durch’s Schlüsselloch In Des Mondgärtners Sternenhain” that was released not too long ago, 2014, by Frishluft Tonträger (FRL 009). If you are a reader of the blog, you might know that years ago I interviewed Krischan! the man behind this super label. On this double LP the band contributes the song “Ich Wär So Gern”.

They also appeared on the first compilation on Peter Hahndorf’s brother Ulli’s label, Steinpilz Tonträger. It was a tape called “Frischer Morgentau” which actually Peter offered me a copy back in the day in that Bremen visit, and I don’t know why I turned it down. My friend Nana did take a copy with her. Now I’m sad about it, even if it was a tape and I don’t like tapes. On this tape the band appears with the song “Sweet Aggression”. It was released in 1993.

That same year on an unofficial CD released by the Pigs Can’t Fly label called “72 Minutes” the band appears with “Das Wär Ich Gern”. From what I read, this CD was given for free at the Popkomm trade fair in Cologne that year.

Lastly they also show up on a label I’ve mentioned quite a few times the last few weeks, Meller Welle Produkte. This label put out a tape called “Playing Around Sandcastles” (MEL 31), and on it the band appears with the song “Es Mag Sein”.

Now that is all their recorded output it seems. But it is time to squint my eyes and try to read what says on the tape sleeve that Heinz has uploaded on the Youtube videos. While I listen to the terrific “Sweet Aggression” that sounds like the German Chesterf!elds, I figure out that the band was formed by Sebastian Völtz on percussion and backing vocals, Wolfgang Buchholz on vocals and guitars, Matthias Pilz on bass, guitars and backing vocals and Christian Ruppel on guitars and backing vocals. Then there is also an address for Karotten Records, in Norderstedt. That is a city that is actually part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region. Would that mean the band hailed from there?

Norderstedt is a city in Germany and part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (Metropolregion Hamburg), the fifth largest city (with approximately 77,000 inhabitants) in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, belonging to the district (Kreis) Segeberg. Norderstedt was created by the merger of four villages on 1 January 1970: the villages of Friedrichsgabe and Garstedt, both belonging to the district Pinneberg, and the villages of Glashütte and Harksheide, both belonging to the district Stormarn. The newly created city was assigned to the district Segeberg.

I start to wonder as I love these songs so much. Are there more? Wouldn’t a compilation of all their recordings would be fantastic? I need to find out their story and how come they remain so obscure to this day. I do find that Wolfgang had been last involved in a band called Der Schöne Lutz. About the other members I can’t be sure. There is a pianist called Sebastian Völtz, might it be the same? And also a cinematographer called Matthias Pilz. May the be the same as the band members in Die Wurzelsepps? Maybe my German friends could confirm so.

That’s all there is really on the web about them. They do sound fantastic, you’ll see. You definitely start to wonder how come they went unnoticed, how no proper releases, or even how come there hasn’t been done some series of compilations documenting all these fantastic indiepop bands from Germany from that time period, the early 90s.

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Listen
Die Wurzelsepps – Walk Through Your Fantasy

Thanks so much to Barry for the interview! I love the Three Little Piggies and so some time ago I wrote on the blog about them. I was lucky that Barry got in touch with me and gave me the opportunity to listen to most of the songs recorded by the band and also answer all my questions and tell the story of the band! I hope you all enjoy it!

++ Hi Barry! Thanks a lot for getting in touch! I really love the few songs I’ve heard by Three Little Piggies so I’m really thrilled! I have many questions to ask you, but let’s start with today, like what are you up to? Are you still making music? Are you still in touch with the rest of the band members?

Yeah I still play, but mainly covers for fun now. After the Three Little Piggies I switched to Guitar, our Sax player Steve switched to Bass and his brother our Trumpet Player Mark took on vocals for a band that was completely different. We used backing tracks and played an early nineties kind of Manchester scene music. I also joined another band called Stinkfish at the same time playing bass, but that band imploded when we were getting record company interest. After a while in the Carpet Dancers we gave up as it was a slog and we petered out as bands do that don’t split up, and then I played with one of the guys from Stinkfish on and off to support his solo stuff. I still play with that guy, Cole is his name, now with occasional acoustic slots at pubs. For a number of years Mark, Steve and me
along with a different drummer played the function circuit as a band called the Senators, all covers, but that was a real slog and I gave up a couple of years back/ I still speak to most of the old guys from time to time, but lost contact with the Three Little Piggies drummer Paul a few years ago.

++ What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? 

First music memories were rock and roll as my mum and dad used to dance to it all the time. They weren’t into music as much as they were into dance so weren’t a musical influence. First records were 70’s songs by bands like Slade and Mud and then I didn’t really like the mainstream stuff at the time, just didn’t do much for me. Although at school we all listened to Genesis and Pink Floyd plus Led Zeppelin and Status Quo when I heard God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols I was hooked; as much by their attitude as by their music. I had played around with acoustic guitars since I was 11, teaching myself, but I was inspired by the punk and new wave bands to play bass (Jean Jacques Burnel of the Stranglers, Paul Simonon of the Clash and Bruce Foxton of the Jam). I was playing gigs with knock about bands with no practice and barely in tune from about age 16 I know very little about the band, so wanted to know the basics.

Before Punk it was whatever was in the charts really or popular with other kids at school. I could take it or leave it. Punk gave me a focus for a specific genre that I identified with and ignited a proper passion for music in me. My first instrument was an acoustic guitar, but it was a cheap thing that had a really high action that I could barely play. I stuck with it but then bought a bass when punk came along as I hero worshipped Sid Vicious. I loved the bass lines from the Stranglers and the Jam as well.

++ You were from Portsmouth or Fareham, right? What year was it when you formed? And who were the band members and what instruments did each of you play?

We were Portsmouth (my parents lived in Fareham and we used their postal address). The band Was Roy Mills on guitar and vocals,
Me, Barry Edgar on Bass and originally a drum machine (the “three” in Three Little Piggies). When we wrote “What happened to Eric?” which was inspired by on old First World War photo of a soldier we called Eric, I could hear a brass line and I knew a guy at work called Steve that played Sax so I asked him if he could lay a track for us; as it turned out his brother Mark played trumpet (they were in a marching band) so we got them in as a duo and called them Huff and Puff. Originally we synced a tape track to the drum machine but then started getting the two guys to play live. To make it worth their while we added them to other songs and started writing with them in mind

++ Had you been involved in any other bands before? How did you all meet?

My dad was a submariner in the RN and got posted to Canada when I was 11. As my parents wanted me and my brother to go to an English school for our education and the Navy paid for fees and boarding then I got packed off Harry Potter style to a school in Petersfield. Being a boarder there and that separation did a lot to bring out the rebel in me and question authority, hence the connection with punk in my mind. The school also had local boys (it was all boys school, the cane and dodgy teachers, dark corridors etc, but no real bullying) and Roy from the band was there. All throughout school I knew him but not well and we didn’t mix in the same groups, but just after school in 1981 I went along to a Damned gig and Roy was there too. Because we’d both gone on our own we hooked up. We became really good friends as we realised we had the same musical interests and as I had a bass and Roy had a guitar so we started messing about playing songs. Roy was at the Art College in Portsmouth and I was at the Polytechnic. We formed a punk band called the Wounded and played a few college gigs, but when college finished Roy and I went out on our own as a duo called the Bomb Circle with a drum machine.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

One of the songs we played in the college punk band was called the Three Little Piggies, which was a straightforward rock and roll chord progression with lyrics that went something like the kid’s nursery rhyme about “This little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed at home” only we changed the words around to “This little piggy had an arms race, this little piggy had a bomb, this little piggy had a country and this little piggy had none. Fallout. Radiation, now all the piggies have gone”. All the verses were something similar. We carried on playing it with the drum machine as we did lots of gigs in pubs around Portsmouth and a natural humour we had in us started coming out as we grew more accustomed to playing live. Also with a drum machine it was easier to sound better so our confidence led to smiling and laughter as opposed to shoe gazing. Because the song was a recognisable chord structure and the lyrics were easy we got referenced as the little piggies so we went with that name.

++ How was the Portsmouth area back then? Were there any like-minded bands that you liked? Where would you usually hang out?

What were the venues to go check out good music? There was a lot playing around those times, and a lot of the punk scene was centred around the polytechnic students union and the bands (mainstream bands as well) that were put on there. The Mild Mannered Janitors, 70 Policemen In My Kitchen , Ad Nauseum and Empti Fish are the main ones I can remember and Basins Night Club, run by Chris Abbot (Uncle Chris in our song) was also a great place. Not only did Chris book famous bands he always made sure to include local bands for support slots etc. The scene if you could call it that though was fragmented and informal and there was no professional management or promotion just enthusiastic amateurs. The city itself was dominated by the dockyard and the Navy and most of its cultural identity for its young population centred on that heritage and the outlet of Football. As a tough working class city it had a hooligan group known as the 6:57 crew who were the focus for football violence at matches, and this often spilled over into violence at gigs. One of the bands that really could have broken out were called Empti Fish, but their popularity brought in the fights and the fights brought in the police who banned them from playing. Playing gigs was pretty scary sometimes. We also hung out with the art school bands that Roy knew, but they didn’t really like the stuff we played.

++ What bands would you say influenced the sound of Three Little Piggies?

There was a really strong punk influence to Roy and me, but also bands like the Higsons used brass and most definitely the Larks who were a punk band with a 4 piece brass section that I happened across by accident at the Students Union one night. They blew me away and that memory of their brass section lingered. Other than those specific bands it was all the punk and new wave bands that we listened to that influenced us.

++ I remember that the first time I heard your music was on Myspace. There was a video there credited to a Vivian Gregson, you were playing “Clark’s Commandoes” and it looked like it was on TV or something. Do you remember anything about that video?

Yeah that was battle of the bands gig. Viv Gregson was the resident video guy and filmed all the bands and then sold them copies of the videos to earn his money for his time. It wasn’t on TV or anything though.

++ Both of your releases came out on Mrs Slocombe Discs which I assume was your own label? Is that right? Who as Mrs Slocombe by the way?

That was our own label yes and Mrs Slocombe was a character in a British comedy series called “Are you being Served” made by the BBC. Making your own records was the only way to release music back then and the minimum order quantity was 1,000 singles. We had to learn about the whole printing process for the covers and the record making process too, but had some fun. Both singles had their acetate masters cut at Abbey Road studios and we went along to witness both times. Immediately before one of them the engineer was cutting Natalie Cole’s Pink Cadillac so we listened to that before it came out.

++ Your first release was the “Frivolous Frolics” 12″ in 1988. The songs were recorded live at Portsmouth Art College according to Discogs. So was this a live record or that’s a mistake on the website?

The A-side had two songs “What Happened to Eric” and “Press Eject” which were studio recordings made at Dax studios and the B side was 3 songs recorded live at the Art College. The recording and mixing was done by Jim Crane who later went on to quite a bit of success with the Cranes who supported the Cure on a stadium tour of the USA

++ I assume then you played many times at Portsmouth Art College. How was it? What other venues in the area did you play in?

Actually that gig was the one and only time we played the Art College – they didn’t put many bands on but it was a special Christmas party or something. Mostly we played pubs and clubs, particularly Basins, but the highlight was a free festival held at Racton Ruins by the Hells Angels where there were thousands there. These were the days before corporate music turned festivals into what they are today. They were always unofficial, illegal and free back then.

++ This first record had 5 songs, “Press Eject” and “What Happened to Eric” on the A side and “Borgia Gintz”, “The Strangest of Men” and “Ain’t He Happy”on the B side. Which one of these was your favourite and how did the creative process work in the band?

My favourite was Borgia Gintz as I liked the structure to it, but we never really got a good recording of it. Creatively either one of myself or Roy would come up with a riff or part of a tune and we’d work on it together by just jamming it, but The Strangest of Men was written entirely by Roy and What happened to Eric by me. The two guys on brass would listen to the ideas and jam with us too and come up with the brass lines.

++ Your second release was the “Clarks Commandoes” 7″. And what a song that is, it is superb! If you don’t mind, in a few sentences, care telling me the story behind this song? Did you own some Clarks commandoes?

Yes we owned Clarke’s Commandoes when we were kids and the song is about the subliminal messaging of being a soldier inherent in their design and marketing. The shoes really did come with a compass in the heel and they had booklets with them that taught you military formations and hand signals. The treads were the same as British Army treads. I wrote the bass line first, the riff just happened as I was messing about and I liked it, and then Roy and I worked on the lyrics together one night. The reference to Jack falling down on Tumbledown, was tracking our generation from wearing Clarke’s Commandoes at school to fighting and dying in the Falklands in the battle on Tumbledown Mountain. Although it wasn’t a huge conflict in world terms in retrospect it was massively shocking to us, because we thought war was something that happened in history and to be “at war” sent the whole country into a strange mentality. Particularly in Portsmouth where the task force sailed from and the sailors who were dying were known locally. We were particularly pleased with the line “and all that we could find of him we buried in one shoe” because it closed the story of the shoes neatly, was sad but also humorous so fitted our intent and was also meaningful. The German count in for the chorus is also a war reference; our whole country as we grew up was still in some kind of post war trauma. Arguably we still are.

++ The 7″ was recorded at Recluse Studios by Rob Aubrey. How was that experience? Any anecdotes that you still remember?

Yeah, Rob was a great guy and acted as engineer and also producer to a certain extent. We would record 3 songs in one day if we could as it was expensive to use the studio so we’d pretty much work at it all day without much of a break! Rob would always allow extra time and would charge for a day but work right through to finish. That was so important to bands and I am glad that Rob has managed to make a living out of it even to this day.

++ Why were there no more Three Little Piggies releases? Was there any interest by any other labels?

They were expensive to make! We didn’t know how to get a distribution deal and the only way to sell them was to physically go around and talk to record store managers to get them to stock them and display them. We’d also sell them at gigs, but as we were too focused on just Portsmouth and small scale gigs then the fans weren’t going to keep buying the same record! Both records got played on radio, the first being played on national radio on the John Peel show but we didn’t really get any label interested. We should have played London to really get attention but with all of us working that would have been difficult. Looking back now I wish we’d just tried to take a year off work and have given a real proper go.

+= Were there no compilation appearances by Three Little Piggies?

No not that I know of. We did get a letter from some French fans once who saw us supporting the Toy Dolls. They were bootlegging the Toy Dolls and just wanted to tell us that they liked us and were putting us on their record too, LoL

++ And are there any unreleased songs by the band? Any other
recordings?

I sent you all those studio songs that we had digitised, but any other recordings I do have are still on 1⁄4” tape (the rest of the live art college gig) or audio cassette from bedroom demos or live recordings. I don’t have any equipment to play them, but might look to see if I can get some stuff transferred.

++ And just one last question about the records, who are the people on photographs of the front cover of the sleeves?

That is me on the front of both of them and Roy on the back of the 12”. On the back of the 7” it is brothers Steve (back) and Mark (front)

++ I found that in 1989 you participated in the Battle of the Bands in Portsmouth. Sadly you didn’t win the whole competition. What was your final standing? And what do you remember from it? Was it good promotion for the band?

We entered in 1987 and got a stand-in slot in the last heat of the competition as another band dropped out. Up until a few weeks before we had only used the drum machine, but a chance conversation about music with a guy we’d known for a while at our local pub, led him to reveal he could play the drums. We decided there and then to switch to a live drummer and incorporate Steve and Mark as Huff and Puff for everything. What we didn’t know was that Paul the drummer was not only classically trained, he was a damn good drummer – he could do triplets on his bass drum pedal that modern drummers use two pedals for – we just liked him and thought he was a good guy so no matter how he played it would be good for us. As it was he made the band by being a final piece in the jigsaw. We didn’t have an opportunity to really practice as a 5 piece because Paul was already booked on a holiday when we told him the chance had come up to play in the competition. The 64 bands they had were preselected from demos and we were just glad to get a chance to play for the exposure in the local press.

We gave Paul a tape of the songs and he said he’d learn them in his head when on holiday and then the day before we played the battle of the bands we had a practice. It was really good to suddenly have a live drummer instead of a drum machine and we just sparked off each other and went up a gear. We had friends and family and some fans that were used to me and Roy and a drum machine with some brass come along to support us and when they heard our new sound they went mad. We kicked off with Press Eject because of the cowbell intro. It was great night and we enjoyed it and all of a sudden we realised that other people that we didn’t know were cheering us on and liking us too. We won that heat which we weren’t expecting and the next week was the semi-final where our sheer excitement at “not being quite so shit anymore”, as my brother put it, gave us momentum. When it was announced we’d made the final it was really exciting for us; the final was usually a sell-out of over 1200 people and we’d been playing to 20 people in pubs. We came third which we really happy about. The following two years we also entered but didn’t make the grand final but in 1990 we made the final again coming 5th

++ What about other gigs? Where was the farthest you played from the Portsmouth area? Were there any bad gigs? And which were your favourite gigs?

As I mentioned above, we focussed too much on Portsmouth, where familiarity waned the fans enthusiasm. We were an impact band when playing live and always did really well at new places. We did support the Toy Dolls and none other than the Bay City Rollers (on a comeback tour) at Basins and we also played on a Captain Sensible gig in Bristol, but we were not good at self-management or promotion. Probably our favourite gig was Racton Ruin, those first heats in the Battle of Bands when we were a surprise to everyone and at a placed in Basingstoke that we’d heard had a really good loyal set of regulars but they were quite critical. As it was they went mad for it. We were in top form that night and we’d integrated a version of the Hawai 5-0 theme tune into the set; there would be a long drum part where Roy would introduce the band and the sudden stop followed by the opening brass refrain and then the whole band in on the second half of that bar. I thought someone might get injured, the crowd just went bananas and I can still recall the sight of the sweaty bodies going manic.

++ Did you get much attention from the music press or the radio? What about fanzines?

We got some, with play on local radio and write ups in the local press and record reviews in the nationals, but this is where the battle of the bands became a two edged sword. Basically it came to dominate the local scene and you had to enter it to be noticed and we didn’t really want to play it after the first year. It was the only way to get publicity but it tied our image into the competition.

++ Back in the late 80s there were so many great guitar pop bands in the UK. Nowadays they call that scene C86. But I’ve heard many say that there was no sort of scene at all. What’s your take on that?

Think I mentioned earlier that it was fragmented, certainly around Portsmouth with everyone doing things themselves for themselves. Everyone was in a band for that band and we lacked the support environment that you need to make a scene. We needed another 10 or 15 Chris Abbotts. People with some knowledge and able to offer guidance to young bands who knew nothing and deal with the record companies and promotors in London. I think the earlier NME forerunner to C86 which was C81 had more influence on us as a band. Roy was more into the C86 stuff than me and it wasn’t until the Manchester thing happened that it resolved itself into Britpop. Manchester was place where that supportive environment for the bands existed and they helped each other and inspired each otherrather than compete with each  other. We were too far, but not far enough from London.

++ When and why did you split? Did you continue making music?

Paul the drummer and Roy moved to London and Brighton to work and although we tried to keep going the distance was impractical and we faded out rather than split up. As we were still wanting to get out there and play, the three of us left in Portsmouth formed another band called the Carpet Dancers and we went back to drum machines and sequencers, but this time I played guitar, Mark moved from trumpet to front man on vocals and Steve the sax player switched to bass. We could all do this anyway, we didn’t have to learn or anything. Most of the writing for that band was all three of us and it was a musical switch in terms of style. I’ve got a track somewhere. It didn’t take too long for that band to take over though as we added real drums and keyboards.

We did get some record company interest, but nothing came of it and after a few years we drifted out of gigging as we all got married and settled down. I stayed playing in bands as a I had a lot of contacts in the local area who would ask me to step in for things, but then Steve, Mark and I formed a covers band – weddings, functions etc – which was good money but hard work and I jacked it in about 3 years ago.

++ Would there ever be a Three Little Piggies reunion?

Steve and I used to talk about it for years, but I don’t think it can happen. Mark lost all interest in playing the trumpet and a few years ago wouldn’t pick it up for the covers band, and we’ve lost contact with Paul the drummer. Steve now lives in New Zealand as well! Roy I still talk to infrequently via Facebook etc.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy these days?

I still jam with friends and have a dedicated music room and I always have a guitar on a stand in the living room. I bought a big run down house with my wife before the kids were born and that has taken a huge amount of work to refurbish

++ Are you still in the Portsmouth area? Has it changed much? What would you recommend seeing if one was to visit as a tourist? What to eat? What to drink?

I still live there and although I am biased it is a brilliant place. Obviously if you’re into your music then the annual Victorious Festival is a highlight and it is great fun. There is a strong naval heritage presence in the city with Tudor Forts, the Mary Rose, the Warrior and the Victory to visit. Recent developments like the Gunwharf and Spinnaker Tower are good to visit too. There is so much to eat and drink here, you get the best in the world. As there was no English cuisine as such and our traditional foods were so crap, there has been a revolution of sorts on dining out in the UK over the last 40 years. You can get food from anywhere here from Indian, Mexican, Chinese, Thai, French, Turkish plus loads of local variations. And to drink? More pubs than you can possibly visit, but if you like your ships too, then grab some fish and chips in the Still and West. It is built right on the harbour wall and all the boats go right by.

++ What would you say was the biggest highlight about being in Three Little Piggies?

It was good fun. We laughed a lot, we enjoyed ourselves and it all came naturally. When were played on Radio 1, I remember thinking we were going to be famous, LoL.but it wasn’t to be.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

I think I said it all!! Apart from thanks for taking an interest in what we did. I appreciate the appreciation if that makes sense and it has made me collate some memories and photos that I have been meaning to do for ages. so I hope you enjoy the other tracks.

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Listen
Three Little Piggies – Clark’s Commandos

There’s no football today, but it is also a holiday here in the US. The famous 4th of July. So not many news but a few finds from the previous days and of course our obscure band of the day.

The BV’s: two new demos by one of our favourite bands!! That is terrific news, isn’t it? Check out “Mould” and “Reflection” on the band’s Bandcamp. The band is at the moment recording their 2nd album and to show they are not forgetting about their fans they are sharing these two beauties!

Hater: there are two songs available to stream from the new album by Hater. The brilliant Malmö, Sweden, band are releasing “Siesta” on September 15th and you can preview their pretty Scandipop by listening to “It’s So Easy” and “I Wish I Gave You More Time Because I Love You”.  The album will be released on vinyl LP and CD by Fire Records.

Dan Dan Dero: the Lima, Peru, band has been recommended many times on the blog, so they are not new by any means to the readers. They have a new song called “Las Antorchas” that sounds really pretty, so thought pointing it out to you all? Why not?

Marble Gods: this is yet another band that have appeared on the blog time and time again as they are really good! So if the trend continues, if they continue being this good, I will keep recommending any new song I find on the web. The Glasgow based band have a new tape on Marry Me Records. Yes, again a tape. I so wish it was a different format, but at least they are releasing stuff. The bad thing for many of you that do buy tapes is that it is already sold out. But then, do know that this release was actually a compilation of their previous tapes releases. So if you have those already, then you are good. In any case it is always a good reminder to listen to this top jangly fun songs!

Gentle Ivanhoe Death Skulls: what an odd name for this Stockholm band. This is another band that I discover by stalking my friend David on Bandcamp. The band’s releases are not that new. Their latest dates from November 15th last year. They are all digital releases. This last one has two songs, as if it was a digital single, with “Green Hang Ten” and “Beaches”. It is a bit shoegazy, a bit noisy, and dreamy too. Upbeat as well. They are really good songs! How come they fly under everyone’s radar? Perhaps because they haven’t tagged their music and that might prove hard to find them? Who knows, but this is really good and would love to hear more by them!

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The first of the Kittenish CD series was put together by Ceilidh Productions in Sweden. These mid-90s series were sort of a sampler of what the label was into at the time, and not necessarily showcasing only the label’s releases as it was the case of this first CD. These CDs were put together by the labels but they were actually released by a music magazine called Ultra Magazine. That’s what I’ve understood by a quick search on the web.

I don’t own any of these Kittenish CDs but would love to have the first one. I should make an effort and just get it through Discogs.  The next one, the 2nd one, was released by the Beat That! label, while the 3rd one by MNW Dance and the 4th doesn’t seem to have a label as far as I know. Not sure if there were more releases in the series.

Anyhow, was just checking out some of the bands on the first Kittenish CD (CEI 037) released by Ultra Magazine and Ceilidh Productions, checking out a bunch of unknown bands for me  and discovered a few that are worth featuring on the blog. See if we can find more information about them. I decided, for no special reason, other than I liked the song on the compilation, to start with the band Soapflakes. All right, I also thought the band name was kind of cool for a pop band.

On this compilation, that also includes important bands like The Cardigans or the super Stevepops, the Soapflakes appear almost at the end, on the 17th track out of 18th with the song “Impossible”. There is a small credit on the back cover for this song, it is credited to someone named L. Björn. Perhaps this will help me dig info on Google?

Discogs also has another song listed for the band on a 2013 triple CD compilation called “Håll Käft! The Gräjtest Rock’N Roll Swindle Vol. 1, 2 & 3” released by Position Förlag (POS005). It does look like these compilation are a mixed bag of styles, not just guitar pop but also some synth pop, hardcore, goth, and even metal. Everything thrown in together. Must be hard to listen I think!

This compilation wasn’t really sold on its own. But it actually came along a book called “Håll Käft! Den Nakna, Analoga, Uppkäftiga Och Nästan Kompletta Sanningen Om Musiklivet I Västerviks Kommun” that is an anthology of the local scene of Västervik in Sweden, between the years 1974 and 1992.

Västervik is a city and the seat of Västervik Municipality, Kalmar County, Sweden with 21,140 inhabitants in 2010. Västervik is one of three coastal towns with a notable population size in the province of Småland, with Kalmar County being the only coastal county in the province. Every year since 1966 there is a folk music festival in Västervik, at the ruins of the Stegeholm castle. Being a summer town popular with yachtspeople, campers, daytrippers, and returning former residents, Västervik experiences an annual revival in July. Västervik offers an outdoor life of climbing, canoeing and sailing or islands to visit and stay at. Björn Ulvaeus, a band member of international ABBA who grew up in Västervik is building a complex consisting of hotel, restaurant, and apartments in the bay near Stegeholm castle, which will be a tourist attraction for Västervik.

So we can place the band in time, the early to mid 90s. We know they hailed from Västervik, which means west bay, in Sweden. And we know there was someone in the band called L. Björn. We don’t know of any proper releases though. We do know two songs.

Through the Scandinavian Indie email list I could find that the L stands for Lasse. So It was Lasse Björn. With that information in hand I could find that a band called Dung mentions Lasse on a post back in June 2007. So this band Dung was recording their 3rd album and they were to give the recordings for Lasse to mix them. Here they mention a few interesting things, Lasse had also been in a band called Seventh Wave and at the time, 2007, he was in a band called The Anhyzers. The curious thing then, is that there is an old myspace for this band, and it is listed as a band based in Studio City, California. Is that right?

Then I stumble upon the blog Mr. Zaines Kosertarkiv, a gig archive obviously, and here there is one Soapflakes gig listed, with poster and all. This gig happened at the Kalmar Nation, in Uppsala on September 10th of 1993.

What about Seventh Wave? It seems this was the band he was involved afterwards, a surf band, that released a record called “Always Offshore” in an Australian label called Corduroy Records, in 1995. I wonder if any of the bandmates in Seventh Wave were in Soapflakes as well? Later on, in 2009, this band was to release a mini CD too. Another band that is listed under Lasse’s name is Tamburmajoren who put out a few records on the label Drop Out Records. Then it seems he was involved with Sounds of Distortion as a producer and Weaselface as a technician.

Something interesting for sure is that there is a famous retired hockey player with the same name that keeps popping up. But in the end I stumble upon some interesting details, that Lasse works these days for the Sveriges Ljudmigreingscentrum (SLC) in Västervik. I believe that is a Sound Studio of some sort, Sound Migration Center.

Then I make a connection. I’ve seen SLC mentioned alongside the name Drop Out Studios a couple of times. I believe then that Drop Out Records, that released the Tamburmajoren CDs, is actually Lasse’s own label.

That’s quite some info about him. But I can’t find out who the other members were. Or how come there were no releases by Soapflakes. Maybe there were tapes. Or how come he hasn’t re-released with Drop Out some of the Soapflakes material. I’m curious. But it seems this early 90s band is kind of forgotten. At least I’ve heard one of their songs. Maybe with luck I could track the one included in the triple CD compilation. It is interesting though, that this must be the first time I feature a band from Västervik on the blog.

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Listen
Soapflakes – Impossible

Thanks so much to Rob Cross-Menzies for the fantastic interview! I wrote about The Ferocious Apaches some time ago on the blog and was lucky that Robert stumbled upon my post and got in touch! And I was even luckier that he was up for answering many of my questions about the story of the band and finally painting a picture of this obscure Tamworth, UK, band!

++ Hi Rob! Thanks so much for being up for this interview and getting in touch! How are you? Are you still based in Tamworth? Still making music?

I left Tamworth in the late 80s and moved to Liverpool, ostensibly to study but in reality I just wanted to leave Tamworth.  At the time I had a real beef with the place I disliked the small town-ness of it and I thought musically it was squaresville daddy-o.  It took some time but I came to realise it actually had a great music scene for a small town I couldn’t see that as I had no comparison to draw from.  I had a ‘Tamworth’ pin badge which I had scrawled ‘I hate’ above the word Tamworth (based on an original idea from John Lydon’s  Pink Floyd T-shirt, as modelled by Paul Cook) and wore proudly.  Yes I still make music, can’t seem to help myself.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

My first musical memories are getting ready for school and listening to BRMB radio breakfast show (the Birmingham station) playing the hits of the day which would have been ABBA, Leo Sayer and if you were really lucky you might get something like Madness or the Jam.  My parents had mostly  crooner stuff and jazz in their record collection, but amongst that was Alan Freeman’s History of Pop which literally shaped my musical tastes – at least side 4 is pretty much did – even Hermans Hermits, who I give a pass to for launching bubblegum pop. My First instrument was a Kays catalogue guitar which came with the typical instruction book that taught you the wrong way to play, but did have chord diagrams so you could do E, A, D and blow me it’s the Gloria riff.  The first records I owned were the Jam, Who, Beatles – in England around the end of the 70s/start of the 80s there was a MOD revival thing going on which I and my Jnr school friends latched onto and carried into our early teens  (I got a MOD kangaroo trial for buying the Clash’s first album!  You could not be a Mod and a punk that was verboten).  Then came Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, The Cure, Birthday Party, The Smiths, and of course the Jesus and Mary Chain.

++ Were you involved in other bands before The Ferocious Apaches? 

No.  But…..I think Mark & I made our live debut as drummer and guitarist at Emma Gibbs Love Badges debut gig at the Rathole.  We did a few covers, definitely a Velvets tune (as was obligatory at the time), possibly the Stooges. Then Mark & I got unceremoniously booted off stage as we didn’t have the chops for Paint it Black, so we fired off a volley of candles that we had found from fuck knows where at the new line up – the Rathole was that kind of place.

++ You were based in Tamworth, right? Were all of you originally from there?

No, I moved to Tamworth at about age7 as part of the ‘scumbag’ Birmingham overspill.  Mark was certainly in Tamworth before me but not sure if ‘born and bred’, John lived in Hansacre a few miles away and original bassist Bob was from a satellite village.  Has Tamworth become cool – did I miss a meeting?

++ How was around Tamworth back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

As I said above, I thought Tamworth was dire but it was actually pretty good for bands/music scene ,fair enough most of it was terrible metal/’eavy rock but there were actually bands and venues.  There were some pockets – the band Love On Board were great, the Dream Factory took a much wider view of the music world and played all over the place and were all the better for it.  The most likely place to see a band was the arts centre until the Rathole opened, which also seemed to coincide with a number of new bands doing stuff that could be described as fitting in to the indie bracket. There was quite a lot of goth as well!

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

We started around 1986.  Mark & I were school mates and Mark met John at art college, to this day I have no recollection of how we teamed up with Bob or how he became detached from the group.  I met Gavin who drummed in the second line up through him asking me to play guitar in his psychedelic garage band Hamilton Hammond and the Extension (which is a whole other brilliant story), Gavin & I went on to do Liberty Caps with our friends Dan & Mark (another ridiculous story) and then he joined Ferocious Apaches before sodding off to join Primal Scream.  Recruiting was just a case of ‘we like you, you’re in’.

++ Why the name The Ferocious Apaches? 

After Big John of the June Brides’ fanzine.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

The process was whatever we could get away with, initially the songs were short sharp shocks written by Mark after overdosing on the Shop Assistants!  Then as senior musician John came up with some good stuff and I threw in some Jesus & Mary Chain/Sonic Youth things. Our ‘signature’ tune Loop was a bass line by Bob that we played 1 chord over for what seemed like a ludicrous amount of time.  We practiced in garages – as is the correct method.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

The Jesus and Marychain and by extension the Velvet Underground.

++ So as I understand you didn’t have a clue about the existence of the Are You Ready? tape where the song “Golden” was included. How do you think it might have ended up there?

Ha!  I have no idea, it was great to see though as there are some bands I was a fan of on there: Pale Saints, Dandelion Adventure.  Judging from the song attributed to the Liberty Caps that is on there Gavin may have passed the stuff on.  Hell, I may have even sent the stuff to someone in the fanzine network who then spread it around until it ended up on the comp.

++ This is a great song, so I wonder if you can tell me the story behind this song? What inspired it?

John wrote it and it was possibly the first one we played where we were looking at each other going ‘I think we actually sound okay’.  I think it started off as a ‘Then He Kissed Me’ drum beat (by which I really mean Just Like Honey) but got speeded up when we recorded it. Inspiration?  You’d have to ask John.

++ And were you in any other compilations that you remember of?

Nothing I know of.

++ I read that you recorded songs at Expresso Bongo studios. What can you tell me about this place? And how was the experience recording there?

The studio was owned and run by Paul Speare, an ex Attraction (of the Elvis Costello kind) and a Dexys Midnight Runner.  Mark Mortimer of the Dream Factory decided we should go in there and organised it.  It had just been converted to 16 track and we were the first to use the upgraded equipment – we had 2 tracks for drums, 1 for bass, 1 for vocals, 2 for guitars and the rest we filled up with layers of feedback – of course it doesn’t sound like that as Isn’t Anything was still a few years away and we couldn’t rip it off yet.  Paul was very good about the whole thing and engineered it stoically.  I think most of the recordings by 1980s Tamworth bands were done there.

++ How many songs did you record? Do you remember the names? Were they released in any way?

We did Golden, Babies Ivory and Loop.  Also a couple of quick run throughs of the Modern Lovers She Cracked and the Creation’s Making Time.  Well apparently one got realised on a compilation. We later did a few more tracks on a bedroom 4 track.

++ Why weren’t there any proper releases?

No one wanted to release them and we didn’t know how to do it ourselves.

++ Was there any interest about any labels?

No.

++ And what about this patronage you got from Ian Gibbons from The Rathole? What did it consist of?

Ian – what a dude!  First time I saw him he was standing (possibly slumping) in middle entry (rubbish 70s bit of Tamworth town centre) with a bucket raising money for Live Aid, I did a double take thinking it was Geldof himself.  We got to know him through frequenting the Rathole and he liked the idea of our fanzines that were basically a ‘go fuck yourself Tamworth’ statement in cheap photocopy.  That cheap photocopy still wasn’t free so when the Rathole moved to the Arts Centre and Mark & I were somehow incoporated we took full advantage of the grant funded photocopier and our circulation expanded.  But we also ‘advised’ on bands, did posters (mostly Mark who is a visual genius) and played records, handed out fliers, put up posters and generally acted as ambassadors for the indie scene very few people in Tamworth wanted.  We also got some gigs thanks to Ian.  But what we mostly got was some great nights out and lots of anecdotes!  Ian was a bit of a situationist and along with his business partner Chippy (the 4^th furry freak brother) a kind of Lynchian anarchy prevailed – great moments included putting out the slogan ‘Councillor Dicks is NOT gay’ to bend a local councillor’s brain….”Who is saying I’m gay?  And who are these people I don’t know who are defending me?”, and putting out an advert for psycho-billy band the Meteors in the paper as revenge on a local pub for pulling a gig on us.  The last I heard Ian was trying to get into politics – god help us.

++ What do you think of the c86 term? Do you like it? Would you say The Ferocious Apaches was a c86 band?

C86 is kinda odd as it has become a byword for a certain type of indie music which is only partly represented on the NME C86 tape.  Among Primal Scream, Soup Dragons, Pastels there is also Age of Chance, Bogshed, Stump, Big Flame, A Wtness who don’t fit the c86 stereotype. Latterly C86 has become a pejorative term for a kind of wimpy, fey, wilfully childish type of music (Tallulah Gosh spring to mind) and I don’t think Ferocious Apaches really fit that model, but having ‘been there at the time’ I am completely comfortable with the axiom that Ferocious Apaches are a c86 band – I think the term ‘shambling’ is useful here.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Definitely under 20, maybe even under 10!

++ How important was the Tamworth Arts Centre for you and the bands in town?

It went up and down depending on who was in charge at the time.  The author John Garforth took over the running for a while and he was great, he had put on gigs by various punk luminaries – Pistols, Clash, Jam in a previous life.  Other managers were more interested in theatre, poetry, yoga, etc – nothing  wrong with that but they seemed to consider rock music an anathema.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

The worse they were the better they were.  We generally liked the idea of being an affront to the local music community.  We played the local biker bar doing our weirdest set including a version of Paranoid done Velvets 3^rd style and they loved it.  Probably the worst gig was the last one simply because we were all so wasted, but at the same time it was so loud and virtually industrial (for the time) that it was one of the best – we managed to pretty much send everyone running on the obnoxious basis of frequency and volume.

++ When and why did The Ferocious Apaches stop making music? 

1989, we all went off to do other things in other places.

++ Did you continue making music with any other bands afterwards?

Many and varied.

++ You had been in other bands as mentioned like Herb Garden, Big Muff, Liberty Caps, The Hamilton Hammond, Mr Ray’s Wig World and Extension. Wondering if you could tell me a bit about them? Were they also guitar pop bands?

That’s quite a list.  Big Muff were a band that did covers of the covers Spacemen 3 and Loop did and being in Tamworth no one had heard of Spacemen 3 and Loop, so people thought we were innovative, especially the goths for some reason.  The Herb Garden were more a ‘proper’ band and I feel I wrote the songs (this maybe contested!) but after I left they continued with new songs and did quite well.  The Liberty Caps were genuine confrontational noise that became an experiment in mainstream media manipulation.  Thee Hamilton Hammond Extension was a musically brilliant lie.  Mr Ray’s Wig World came when I moved to Liverpool and were actually successful, indie chart top tens and even an NME debut single award type thing that we shared with Radiohead and Suede – wonder whatever happened to those guys – and a few tours with people like (our friends) Boo Radleys, Verve, Cornershop (who started out supporting us until they had hits, then we supported them), Peel sessions and actual proper radio play/interviews.

++ You uploaded two live videos on Youtube, for the songs “Sunrise” and “She Cracked“. Were were these recorded? Do you have more video recordings of the band?

2 gigs were recorded, one at the Tamworth rock festival (She Cracked) and the second was a gig we put on as a kind of protest at the cost of local gigs – we considered £3 for 2 local bands an outrage so we put 6 on for 50 pence.  The second one (Sunrise) was actually the final gig.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

The local paper gave us the usual nice write ups until they got pissed off at our constant attacks at what we considered ‘their scene’, then they gave us bad write ups.  But never anything above local and no radio – there was very little option except John Peel who would play that kind of stuff and we were nowhere near that level.

++ What about from fanzines?

I don’t remember being in any fanzines apart from our own – and we were mercilessly slagged off in that.

++ You still enjoy indiepop, that’s clear, and still follow it. What are the last records you have enjoyed? 

The last thing I brought was the Courtney Barnett album (actually a present for my wife, who is a proper musician who plays flute, piano, guitar, ocarina, reads music and all that stuff you actually have to spend time learning).  Oh Sees, Liminanas, Goat, Klaus Joynson (a Dr Who concept album no less!), the mighty Lovely Eggs.  But I suppose the majority of my record collection is psychedelia – Golden Dawn, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Factory, Kaleidoscope, and later stuff like Dukes of Stratosphear, Rain Parade.  And a ridiculous amount of Velvet Underground stuff for a band who released 4 albums.  I still love stuff like June Brides, Wolfhounds, Felt, TVPs, The Loft, etc, etc.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I still do the odd fanzine when the mood takes, and the occasional trip out on the skateboard (although this gets less and less as time goes on).

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

It was all great – we were snotty little bastards and people got wound up by us when we weren’t even trying.  I remember coming off stage and a chap in a local ‘proper’ band called Spiritlake was fuming at the side of the stage and shouting ‘my son can play better than you lot and he’s 9 fucking years old’.  So when we actively tried to wind people up it tended to get very stupid very quick, I got threatened a few times but it was only ever words.

++ Never visited Tamworth, though I have been many times to the UK. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Hmm, I wouldn’t recommend Tamworth particularly as an interesting tourist destination – nice castle, was once the capital of Mercia (ye olde English province).  The house Julian Cope lived in?  In the Ferocious Apaches days we lived on a steady diet of cheap vermouth and nothing, but again, I wouldn’t recommend it!  Sorry – that’s honest but not very helpful.

++ Thanks again Rob! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks for taking an interest, the nice words and alerting us to the 30 year old compilation we didn’t know we were on!

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Listen
The Ferocious Apaches – Golden

Here are a few discoveries to kick off this week!

The Suncharms: “Red Dust” is the new song and new video for Sheffield’s The Suncharms. The band who were around in the early 90s and who released with us a great retrospective compilation reformed a few years ago. They worked on new material, new songs, and so the band has recorded a few new songs and two of them will be released as a 7″ on Slumberland Records as part of the 7″ singles club that the label is putting together as part of their 30th anniversary. Check it out!

Esperando el Otoño: this Chilean band has a few members from My Light Shines For You so that can only mean that the band should be great, right? The band recorded a few video sessions for the studio Sesiones 8874 and I’m linking here to the song “Abrázame”. There is also a second one for the songs “Eres Para Mi” and “¿Qué va a pasar?”.

Gizpel: two new songs by this Indonesian band, “Your Loss” and “False 9”, are available now on Bandcamp. These two songs should be released by Kolibri Records in some way (?). The band is formed by Fadillah Ananto on vocals and bass, Dika Raka Prayuga on synth, Joshua Emmanuel on guitar and Alit Wedhantara on drums.

Leave the Planet: the project of Nathalie Bruno and Jack Milwaukee from London, UK, released the “Nowhere EP”on March 2016. I missed it as I miss many things.  I’m only discovering it now. There are 6 dreamy shoegazy songs on it, “Forever”, “Sirius B”, “White Astra”, “Surrender”, “Seashore” and “Desert Son”. This was their last release as far as I know. Their first releases date from 2014 on Bandcamp. Maybe they are no more? Who knows, but this is good.

Deafcult: “if Slowdive was Australian” that’s what I read and that’s how I stumbled upon this Brisbane band. Their 2nd vinyl pressing of their album “Auras” is still available on the band’s Bandcamp. It is also available on CD. This is their debut album and it includes  12 songs of sweet dreampop. The band is formed by Kelly, Matt, Allan, Innez, Nate and Stevie. Will keep an eye on this band!

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If someone knows where their name comes from, please let me know. I’ve always been very curious about it.

I must say that I had seen their name, Bibi Hanuk, on many obscure indiepop collectors list for years until somehow, I happily found a copy of their 7″ at a Berlin record store that Uwe Firestation took me for me to check out many years ago. I think if Uwe hadn’t come with me I would probably wouldn’t find this record as the clerks got a box from the back for us. Maybe if I just went by myself they wouldn’t have showed me this treasure box where I found a few good records. Among them of course the “Camping EP” by this Finnish late 80s band.

As it happens with many of these obscure releases we don’t know much about the bands. So after many years I make the decision that I need to do a proper, a serious, investigation. So why don’t you join me, see what we can dig out.

Discogs actually has a small bio that I wonder who wrote it. It says that the band hailed from Helsinki, Finland, and they were influenced by Bowie, The Smiths and The Talking Heads. I start longing for Helsinki, which I visited last year around this time of the year. I loved it there. I had a very good time in Finland in general, wouldn’t mind visiting again or even moving there. Of course, the language is not easy at all! Perhaps that’s why they choose to sing in English.

The band formed in 1984 and it revolved around Marko von Konow (guitars and vocals) and his sister Milla von Konow (bass and vocals) and their architecture student friends Timo Vikkula (lead guitar) and Jarmo “Elukka” Eskelinen (drums and percussion). I believe that “Elukka” means animal in English. The band lasted until 1990.

Before Bibi Hanuk existed they were in a band called The Walking Deads, a project that covered The Talking Heads. But that was not all, they were also involved in Pete & the Shelleyettes, another covers band, this time covering the Buzzcocks.

As mentioned Bibi Hanuk only released one record while they were around, the “Camping EP”,  a 7″ that was released in 1988 by Sonic Records (Sonic 2). This was a Finnish label that released a bunch of 7″s and LPs in the late 80s and early 90s.

The record included 4 songs, 2 on each side. The A side had the superb “Take a Walk” (written by Marko and Timo) and “A Tuesday Evening” (composed by Marko and lyrics by Jarmo). The B side had “Missed the Point (composed by Marko and lyrics again by Jarmo) and “Hamster Waltz” (composed by Milla). So everyone added their talents to the songs, everyone contributed. All songs were recorded at Soundtrack Studios in Helsinki between the 14th and 16th of May, 1988, and they were also mixed there. It seems these studios still exist these days but they were renamed to E-Studio in 2010.

The art for the jacket was a collaboration between the band and Marjut Vikkula (may it be Timo’s sister?), while the photography of the inner sleeve was done by Riitta Sourander. The engineer and producer for the record was Kari Kalén who seems to have been involved in many bands especially during the 80s. None that I know sadly. There is also another producer listed, Gabi Hakanen, who also played some percussion in the record. And aside from their usual instruments Milla played piano on “Hamster Waltz” while Timo Vikkula played piano on “A Tuesday Evening”. It is important to mention that the inner sleeve came with the lyrics printed so anyone could sing along!

There are two compilation appearances for them. The first dating from 1990, a tape released by Twang! Records from Berlin, Germany, called “Under the Midnight Sun – A Compilation of Finnish Rock Vol. 3”. This tape was actually compiled by Mikael Karvajalka and it included “mainly the “hits””. He had compiled a few of these tapes in 1990, I believe there were 4 volumes of this compilation. On this 3rd volume, the band contributes “Take a Walk”. Another great song, a favourite of mine is included here too like Poverty Stinks’ “I Wanna Be With You”.

The other compilation is a most recent one, from 2000. The compilation “Sivulliset – Valikoima Suomalaista Vaihtoehtorockia Vuosilta 1985-2000” released by Poko Records (VALOSA1) was a 4 CD set doing a retrospective of the best of garage, power pop, punk, guitar pop and other “indie” genres. I have mentioned this boxset before, when I wrote about The Kidneys some time ago. Well, Bibi Hanuk is also on it, on the first CD with “Take a Walk”. I would love to explore these compilations, maybe I should try to find a copy for myself. I’m sure there will be many surprises in it.

And that’s about all you can find about the band. But what about the band members? Well in 2017 I see a long review of a record from Von Konow called “Lieder” on a website called Brutal Resonance. Here it mentions that Marko had not just been in Bibi Hanuk but afterwards joined a power pop band called Tweed during the 90s. Van Konow  had released a few digital singles on Youtube, the latest being “On a Hill“, released 4 months ago. The music is pretty good too. A bit more new wavey for sure, but it keeps the pop sensibilities that make us love Bibi Hanuk.

I look for other projects the band members had been involved with and see that Marko had done some backing vocals for Taikatuu, led a band called Moonage Daydream who did a tribute album for Bowie and was involved with a band called J. Huimapää & Tanssiorkesteri who released a few records in the late 80s.

Timo had also been in many bands, especially on one called Shadowplay that also released records on Sonic Records. He also contributed to Taikatuu, Maritta Kuula & Karvanopat, Kauko Röyhkä, Moonage Daydream and Them Bird Things.

The scene seems a bit small as the bands they seem to have been involved with repeat themselves. Jarmo played with J. Huimapää & Tanssiorkesteri and Milla played bass on Taikatuu.

But what about Tweed? I can’t seem to find them on Discogs, but I do find a shop that sells a CD single for the song “Alone” that was recorded in 1988.

Something cool that I found was a Yelp age for Marko. He is an Art Director these days. The cool thing being that his office is on the street Uudenmaankatu. That is the same street where I stayed in Helsinki! And then I spot a Facebook page, and I see that Von Konow is not a solo project but a band where Timo Vikkula still works with him playing guitars and keyboards. And that the band is based both in Helsinki and Lisbon. And there is quite a lot of information about it, but not about Bibi Hanuk.

What about Milla? I believe she is now a photographer based in Lohja, Finland. Timo Vikkula continues his architecture career working at the Museum of Finish Architecture. And Jarmo seems to be now in London, as a director of Future Cities Catapult.

So we do know Marko and Timo continue making music, but what about Jarmo and Milla? And of course my most important question is if there are more Bibi Hanuk songs other than the 4 on the 7″? There must be! I mean they were around since 1984 and lasted till 1990, they can’t just have 4 songs. And how come there are no mentions of gigs on the web? I did find that they were played on Swedish radio. And it is interesting that they had a song on a German label. But how come they didn’t release more records? And especially how complicated was to be a guitar pop bands in Finland when we all know it as a metal music country.

I wonder, if any of my Finnish friends remember them? Would be great to find out more about this terrific Helsinki band!

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Listen
Bibi Hanuk – Take a Walk

No World Cup today. It feels weird. But can’t wait for the matches tomorrow. Aside from that not much more to tell you all. There is my trip to Mexico in two weeks and I already have received a few orders for me to bring and save shipping costs. Oh! And that I have no more copies of the My Favorite LP as the last copies are going to Mexico where the band seem to be popular as most people were requesting this record to me.

By Monday I hope to have some more exciting news! There is one new Cloudberry Cake Kitchen compilation confirmed too which I hope to announce very soon. Now what have I found the last few days?

Fragile Flowers: where from this beautiful music came from? Sure, it does say Japan on their Bandcamp, but how come I’m only coming across it? This is a 4 piece formed back in 2016 with members Tamaki, Riko, Atsumi, Tigo and Blue from our friends Boyish.  I don’t think they have released any physical records yet, but there are a few digital ones to check out. Their latest is a 6 song EP called “Sheltering Sky/4rd Love”. It sounds great, dreamy and upbeat. Definitely a band to keep an eye.

La Naissance: an Italian shoegaze/indiepop band… that is a novelty. There are only a few good Italian indiepop bands that I can think of, very very few. Well, this Roman band does sound good at first listen. Their self-titled EP includes 5 songs, and to be honest I don’t know much about them. I’m checking their Facebook page but it doesn’t mention the names of the band members or if this is their first release. I suppose they are very new and they do like some mystery.

Sightlines: “Love Ethic” EP is the latest from this guitar pop band from Vancouver, Canada. It is available digitally and also on a blue green vinyl 7″. There are 4 songs, “Love Ethic”, “Colours”, “(We Don’t Have to Be) Friends Forever” and “Bedfellows” and it was released last May. This is their newest work since 2016’s album “North”. The band is formed by C.A. Chux, Graeme McDonald and Eric Axen. This choppy guitar pop record is being c0-released by Double Lunch and Alarum Records.

Shrouded Amps: from the last band’s Bandcamp I followed the recommendations and stumbled upon another guitar pop band from Vancouver. Their latest release is not as new, it dates from last November, but as they are new to me, I am having a listen and recommending to you all to have a listen. The band formed by Tracey Vath, Matthew Budden and Eirinn M have 2 other releases on Bandcamp that I will check afterwards, but now I listen one by one these songs. The first song doesn’t gets my whole attention, but things pick up with the 2nd, “She Spun Out”, but perhaps it is “Mannequins”, the 3rd one, with its quirkyness that I decide this is a band I want to follow!

Rush Week: . I’m not sure about this record at first listen. It is released by the most important indiepop label from Spain, Elefant Records, that’s why I want to know what you think. Do you like it? Is it worth ordering? It sounds like it doesn’t fit within the label, right? I mean it is not bad, but it sounds kind of mainstream to my ears. I saw some comparisons to Club 8, but I don’t see it. It sounds It makes me cringe seeing an indiepop label tagging their records with names like Daft Punk or the XX, I don’t know if that is a big disappointment for you too, it just doesn’t feel like this is an indiepop record, not even an indie record. Thoughts please?

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I was thinking about Plutonita the other day. A trip down memory lane. To the early 2000s when I was obsessed with Spanish indiepop. A time where I was looking for more and more songs, especially from very little known bands, bands that had only released demos on CDR. One of the bands I remember the most was Plutonita, from Murcia.

I wonder why. I loved their two releases, “En la Casa de las Locas” and “El Efecto Minipimer”. I had them on MP3. I didn’t get physical copies of the demos from that period. Maybe only a few. So I was trying to find in old hard drives for their songs, thinking that I must have saved them somewhere. But I couldn’t find them.  And that is a shame.

Their two releases don’t appear on Discogs. But I do remember a few details about them.

“En la Casa de las Locas” was released in 2000 and included the songs “Fiesta Despedida Glam”, “Supergirl”, “30º”, “Planeta de Cristal”, “Cybercita”, “Silvia Fantasía”, “Si Algún Día” and “Quiero Sentirme Flotar”.

Their next release happened in 2002, “El Efecto Minipimer”. This demo had four songs, “Claudio”, “Freetanga”, “Top Modern” and “****”.

On the Murcia Rock website, on an article from January 2003, it mentions that the band was formed by Esther Ganga on vocals, Paco Ganga on guitars and vocals, Juan Alfonso Moreno on guitars, Roberto Puffins on keyboards, Nando Robles on bass and Pedro Marco on drums. It also mentions that they won a prize called Villa de San Adrián and came on second on a Lérida based awards Directe 02 where they got 1,800 euros as prize money.

There are also some other interesting details here, first that the band was formed in 1999 around two members, Paco Ganga and José Ángel Frutos. They released a first demo with three songs “Ácido acetilisalicílico”, “Planeta de Cristal” and “Quiero Sentirme Flotar”. I haven’t heard any of these songs sadly, so can’t say how they sound like. After this demo José Ángel left the band to focus on his main project that was called Second.

Afterwards, now with Esther on vocals, there was another demo called “Mi Barrio Pop”. I don’t know what songs were on it. I only know that thanks to this demo they won a local award called Creajoven 2000.

I also noticed that the band represented at the Youth Biennale in Sarajevo in 2001. But I can’t seem to find much more information about it. Did they go and play there?

On the Yellow Melodies fanzine website there is a review of a 2000 demo CDR called “Silvia Fantasía” that had 5 songs: “Silvia Fantasía”, “Supergirl”, “Cibercita”, “Fiesta Despedida al Clan”, “30º” and “Planeta de Cristal”. Another entry that mentions the band in this Murcia fanzine by Rafa Skam from Vacaciones, mentions a gig at the venue called Garage de la Tía María where they shared the bill with Popiflor, Zipi Zape and Vacaciones.

There is also another article on this website dating from March 2001. Here they mention that the band played at the Villa de Bilbao contest where they qualified to the semi finals and playing at a venue called BilboRock. It seems they had beat Gasca, a band that were on the Elefant label. There is also a mention of a gig on April 5th that year at a venue called La Puerta Falsa in their hometown of Murcia.

On another article, one that is an interview to the band Noisebox, I learn that the practice space they used was named “La Casa de las Locas” and it was also the place were Plutonita, Second and another bands practiced.

Another thing I notice, on many articles on the newspaper La Verdad, is that the band gets compared to The Sundays, Ivy and The Cardigans. And I believe they might be right. Also something curious was that I found that the band played together a gig with Galáctica who I had featured not too long ago on the blog.

I believe also that after the release of the “El Efecto Minipimer” EP, Nando Robles and Pedro Marco decided it was time to only focus on the band Second who was gaining success in Spain. Plutonita was left behind.

I start to wonder about the name of the band. I notice there is a chewing gum, a sour one, with that name that is manufactured in Brazil by the brand Arcor.

Then what are the band members doing these days? It seems Esther is still involved with music as a DJ. I notice that just a month ago she was performing with Mamen Garcia as the Women Beat DJs at the La Verdad festival on the Rendibú night in Murcia. Actually most of the hits I get on Google are about Esther as a DJ as she now uses the name Plutonita for all her DJing.

Not much more on the web about this shortly lived Murcia band who surprisingly didn’t end up on a label other than their own. For me it is strange, they had quality songs and they seem confident in their music until of course, their other band started to do much better in terms of exposure. Then Plutonita was no more. But I do wonder what happened in between with Esther for example, between Plutonita and she being a DJ Plutonita. Or with Paco Ganga? I suppose Roberto Puffins was in a band called Puffins, but what about José Ángel Moreno. What did he do afterwards?

I’m sure my Spanish friends remember them as they have with Galáctica when I decided to feature them. Would be great to find out more about Plutonita!

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Listen
Plutonita – Claudio

Wow, Germany is out of the World Cup. It is hard to believe, right? And yesterday my dear Peru, playing their worst game in the tournament, could score and win a game. Pisses me off though, when we played better we couldn’t get a result. We were an exciting team, played well football, and it does annoy me that Denmark with its boring and pragmatic style is in the next round. Nothing against Danes, I love the Danish Dynamite team back in the day. But this team has no flair at all. France has the talent, so they were going to go through, and always thought we’d come in second. Australia didn’t have much quality though so really had no chance. But well, for many that wasn’t an upset as it was for me. And no one really would care about it. But yeah, today’s Germany’s elimination and Sweden topping that group, that is definitely a surprise. I feel sad for my German friends, but very happy for Sweden (even though I don’t like their play style) and Mexico of course.

Speaking of Mexico, in about two weeks I’ll be visiting the country and if anyone would love me to bring records so you can save on shipping costs please let me know.

Some new video finds today!

Catenary Wires: Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey’s band has a new 7″. I had recommended that a few posts ago. But now there is also a new video for the song “Was That Love?” that I can’t not just pass, I need to let you know about it.  The 7″ is available now from WIAWYA, the label of Mr. John Jervis of course. I still haven’t ordered it, which I’m not happy about. I hope it ends up being available on Jigsaw Records.

Cooper: another video, this time by the superb León, Spain, band. This song, “Ya Llegó el Verano”, is included on the “Tiempo, Temperatura, Agitación”, album that Elefant has already released on vinyl LP and CD. Another top song by Alex Diez, the ex-frontman of the legendary band Los Flechazos. And yes, as the song says, summer is here, though the World Cup is not letting me go out as much as other summers!

Wave and So: seems today I’m having a video review on the blog. Now is the turn for the song “Sun” by one of the best Thai bands today, Wave and So. I don’t understand the details on the Youtube link, but I do know that this song will be included in their new album that is to be released this year on the label Parinam Music. Would be great if this band’s releases were easily available, perhaps distributed here in the US, or at least in Europe, like it is happening with for example the Korean band Say Sue Me.

I Saw You Yesterday: and if was just talking about a Thai band, then there is this Japanese band that I’ve featured before that has actually filmed their last video, for the song “City Girl”, in Bangkok. The band had visited the city when they participated in the Pow Fest in that city in January 2018. That’s when all this footage was recorded. So cool. It made me remember my visit to Thailand in 2016. Such a good time. I hope to go back to Asia again soon. The song is available in the band’s latest EP, “Topia”, which is available from the label Space Shower Music.

Watoo Watoo: and the last new video that I want to recommend is the one for “Au Fond Des Allées” by Watoo Watoo. True, I just recommended their album but at that moment I wasn’t aware there was a video for the song included in “Modern Express”, their fifth and last album, that was just released by Jigsaw Records. So I would say the same thing, this is top French indiepop. Elegant and playful at the same time. The classic French band still shows to be in top form.

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So I finally ended up ordering all the Messthetics collection. A bit late indeed. But as the saying goes, better late than never.

I have actually featured a few bands that appear in those compilations on the blog, the ones I consider as proto-indiepop like Cinematics or Scissor Fits. DIY bands but with a pop sensibility. I am by no means an expert in that period, the early 80s, so I’m actually hoping to discover many bands through these CDs. The first band I had never heard before that caught my attention was the Dundee, Scotland, band Scrotum Poles and their infectious song “Pick the Cat’s Eyes Out”.

As I know very little about them, as they are new to me, I’m doing my investigation now. Discogs describes them as an indie/punk band. And it seems that back in the day they only released one proper record, one 7″, on the label One Tone (ERECT 1). It is actually the only record on this label so I believe it is safe to think this was the band’s own label. The 5 song 7″ EP was titled “Revelation” and had the A side stamped the word “SAD” and the B side had “HAPPY” stamped and had a sticker with two “Hazchem” symbols printed in red ink and stamped “ONE TONE”.

The songs on the record were on the A side, “Why Don’t You Come Out Tonight?” and “Night Train”. While on the B side we find “Pick the Cat’s Eyes Out”, “Helicopter Honeymoon” and “Radio Tay”. There are credits too on the back cover of the record:
Sid ‘Bones’ Gripple – vocals and bass
Burt Spurt – drums
Stripey Sleep – guitar
Smeg Pole – vocals
The songs were mastered by Porky, the famous George Peckham, the famous Porky prime cut. And of course we know those are not the real names of the band members. So, Sid was actually Steve Grimmond, Burt was Glenn Connell, Stripey was Colin Smith and Smeg was Craig Methven.

Other interesting info about this first record was that there was backing vocals by the fabulous “Scrotettes” and that it was recorded by Wilfred Smarties. The design of the sleeve was created by Steve Grimmond.

There are two versions of this 7″. There is the one that has a black and white sleeve and there is one with a yellow sleeve that has a different band logo and illustration. This yellow one actually comes with some inserts with lyrics for the songs. According to a comment on a blog called The Street lamp Doesn’t Cast, what happened was that this sleeve was produced by a dealer who bought the remaining 200 or so copies of the single from their bass player in the mid eighties. The real official sleeve is the black and white one (as the band could never have afforded colour).

Later on, this 7″ was to see some reissues. In 2009 the label Rightback Records released a CDR version of the single and included 3 more songs on it as bonus tracks: “Put an End to it All”, “On the Street Where You Live” and “Eye to Eye”. This CDR came with liner notes by Craig Methven and there it tells that the band took their name from the book “The Choirboys” while he and Colin studied at the Dundee College of Education in 1978. Their first songs were “This is Love”, “Pillars” and “Victims of Vietnam”.

They first released a tape that was limited to 100 copies. “Auchmithie Calling” was released in 1979. At this point Craig and Colin had added Steve Grimmond, Matho and Ronnie Lawson to the band. It seems that after they put out this tape Matho and Ronnie left the band. Glen Connell joined soon afterwards.

According to the story on these liner notes, the band opened for The Exploited and the Thompson Twins. And they were able to raise five hundred pounds to do the “Revelation” 7″. It seems Colin drove down to London with Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue to get the songs mixed in London. The final gig by the band happened at the Tayside Bar in Dundee. The last song they played live was “Memories”.

And then two years later, in 2011, the American label Dulc-I-Tone (TT-013) was to re-release the 7″, as a 7″, with the original tracklist.

This same label had released two years before an LP full of rare Scrotum Poles songs. The “Auchmithie Forever” (TT 012) LP included tracks from the “Auchmitie Calling” tape (A1-A2), “The Bedroom Tapes” (A3-A10) and “A Shot in the Dark go Pop” (A11 & B1-B11). All of these songs were mastered by Weasel Walter and were recorded by Alan Officer. The songs were, on the A side, “It Just Ain’t Fucking Funny”, “Just Another Number”, “Be No More”, “Pick the Cats Eyes Out”, “On the Street Where You Live”, “This is Love”, “The Smile”, “Pillars”, “Roadrunner”, “Apocalypse” and “Swing Baby”. On the B side there was “Helicopter Honeymoon”, “Fast Changes”, “You Can’t Say Anything Nowadays”, “Undivided Loyalty”, “Circumstances”, “Pick the Cats Eyes Out”, “Hold Me Tight”, “City Limits”, “Cocaine”, “Birthday Boy” and “Put an End to it All”.

The band have a bunch of compilation appearances but to be honest they are mostly from a later period. Not from the 80s.

On “Back to the Front Vol.2” by Incognito Records the band contributes the song “Radio Tay”. That LP and CD compilation came out in 1993 on this German label.

On the “Thrilled by Dearth” CDR comp released in the US label Pop Con (02), they had the song “Helicopter Honeymoon”. It seems this wasn’t an official release, instead it was just a CDR that was compiled and given away at the 3rd EMP Pop Conference in Seattle. Only 25 copies were made.

Next up is “Pick The Cat’s Eyes Out” on the Messthetics Greatest Hits CD compilation on Hyped to Death (Messthetics #1050) that was released in 2006. This is the CD I was listening and which made me discover them. And they are on another of the Messthetics compilations, on the “Messthetics #105, “DIY 77-81 Scotland” from 2007. On this one they have the song “Helicopter Honeymoon”. I have yet to listen to this one, I’m going in order with the compilations!

Then there is a tape called “Halloween 2012” released by Eat the Life Records from 2012 that incldues the song “Why Don’t you Come Out Tonight?”

And lastly on the partially unofficial compilation “Kilt By Death: The Sound of Old Scotland (1977-1984)” they have two songs, “Helicopter Honeymoon” and “Radio Tay”. These three CDs were compiled by an American DIY and Scottish punk enthusiast named Michael Train.

I look for more info and I find a post on the website Punk77. Here they are compared to the Television Personalities. They say that after they split the band members went to play in Pigs are Cute, Aaga, Synthetic Dreams and the Summerbees (featuring Red Snapper and Beth Orton bassis Ali Friend). Steve Grimmond went to be Director of Music and Art and Cultural Services at Dundee District Council. It also seems at some point there was a proper Scrotum Poles website. The band used to have a Myspace too.

Sadly I stumble upon band news. On the Courier newspaper I find that on May 21st of 2015 the vocalist Craig Methven died aged 54. At that time he was living in Tunbridge Wells and it seems he was a big supporter of Tunbridge Wells FC, whose website he developed too. At this point in time we know too that Steve Grimmond was Fife Council’s chief executive.

Lastly a Facebook page. And it hasn’t been updated since 2015 when they shared these sad news. There is really not many new details about the band here aside that it is clear they were big fans of the TVPs. Some links for songs by Aaga, the band Grimmond formed afterwards, are perhaps the most interesting finds in here.

But perhaps the best anecdotes are shared on the liner notes of the Messthetics compilations:
“Pick the Cats Eyes Out” featured lyrics found on the back of a set list by one of the first Dundee punk bands, Bread Poultice and the Running Sores (a band once fronted by Billy McKenzie of The Associates). “Cats Eyes” are what Brits call those little orange highway reflectors embedded in the pavement: “Cats Eyes Out Ahead” used to be a common roadside warning.”

All very interesting. Now I should try to get a copy of the 7″ reissue. Start there. I couldn’t find much info about gigs. I’m sure they played many. I guess that would be something I would like to ask them. And also why they didn’t get to release more records.

Do you remember them?

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Listen
Scrotum Poles – Pick the Cat’s Eyes Out

Thanks so much to Osamu Shimada for the interview! The Caraway hail from Tokyo and they have been for quite some time now. They have released in the past a bunch of self-released EPs and an album on the brilliant BlueBadge Records. There has been some silence for the last few years but The Caraway is back with new songs and new plans for the near future. So I thought it was a great chance to learn more about them and also introduce this band to those who haven’t heard them yet!

++ Hi Osamu! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? How is life in Tokyo?

Hi, Roque! Thank you too. I’m so fine. I live happily with my family everyday.

++ I was surprised to see that you are still making music these days. You have a new single, isn’t that right? the “Apple of My Eyes” EP? What can one expect from it? Which songs will be included?

Yes. And I am planning to release a new album. Each title song of EP is going to enter a new album. (“Apple of my Eyes” & “Starry Eyes”). I have not decided when to release, but I’d like to release it soon.

++ And also you are planning a summer tour this year. Whereabouts will you be playing? How many gigs? What expectations do you have?

I will play at Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan. 4 gigs. I expecting many people to come to my gigs.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?

I played drums for the first time when I was a high school student. After school, I gathered in a music room with my friend and was doing a band. I learned it by myself. At that time,I was listening to punk rock and heavy metal music. (Ramones, Van Halen, Motley Crue, Metallica…).

++ You were involved in Swinging Popsicle before being in The Caraway, right? Would love to do a Swinging Popsicle interview next time. But do tell me have you been involved in any other bands aside these two?

Yes, that’s right. I have been involved in many bands. I often help my friend’s bands, Snow Ball, My Coffee Moment, Bitter Cherry Jam, Three Berry Icecream.

++ And how would you compare Swinging Popsicle and The Caraway? Are they similar or different between each other?

I think that the musicality is different between the two bands. I think The Caraway is more like indie pop.

++ When did the The Caraway start as a band? Were you based in Tokyo or which city?

The Caraway started in 2003 in Tokyo.

++ How was this city back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

I think that Tokyo is an exciting city. There are lots of shops and it is very convenient. I usually go to see my friend’s band gig.I recommend a band called Re-peat and a band called Linustate. The two bands are very good with a sound like a Teenage Fanclub.
Record shop, especially I love Disk Union and disques blue-very.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

We gathered by recruiting members.I choosed member intuitively.

++ What’s the story behind the name The Caraway?

My friend gave my band name. Caraway is a herb. I heard that the meaning of that herb is meaningful as a popular person.

++ How was the creative process for the band?

I make perfect demo song. And I will let the members listen to the demo songs. So then we jam session in the studio.

++ Where did you usually practice?

Alone in my room. Bands in the studio.

++ And who would you say were influences of the band?

I am influenced by many bands. My favorite band is True Love Always or Johnny Dee.

++ What would be your top five Japanese indiepop bands all-time?

Red Go-Cart, Bitter Cherry Jam, Three Berry Icecream, Flipper’s Guitar, Johnny Dee.

++ Are all your songs in English? Or are there Japanese language songs? And why do you prefer English for indiepop?

Basically The Caraway songs are in English. When I covered Kaji Hideki, I sang in Japanese. But I like singing in English better.

++ Before your album you released 5 EPs, is that right? Were they self-released? And who used to do the very cool illustrations for them?

Oh,Good eye.I distributed it at my gig.It was demo songs in the CD-R. I drew illustrations of each EP. I’m so happy to you said so.

++ In what format where they released? Are they rare? Like how many copies were made of them?

We distributed it at the gig venue about ten years ago. It’s very rare. But I can make that copies very easy.Because they are demo songs on my PC.

++ Where were these EPs recorded? Had there been any other recordings by The Caraway prior to these EPs?

These EPs recorded in my room. This was the first recording for us. Most of these EP songs were recorded in the first album as complete version.

++ Your album came out on the superb BlueBadge label in Japan. I’ve always wondered about this label. Who were behind it? And how did you know them?

The owner of BlueBadge label is Higuma. He was introduced to my common friend and got acquainted. He operated a small indie pop label in Tokyo, but now he is paused.

++ What did you remember about the recording sessions for the album? Who produced it? What studio did you use? What sort of food and drinks did you eat and drink while making these wonderful songs? Did it take many days?

I played all instruments except bass and chorus in the first album. Of course, I produced it. Drum recording was on Studio in Tokyo.Other instruments in my room at home. It took about one year in total. While I was making an album, I usually ate my wife’s cooking.

++ I believe that now there has been CDR self-releases of your first album, is that right? Is it that hard to find a copy of the original release? And where can one find it or buy it? And what about these bonus tracks? What are their names and when were they recorded?

Since it has not been manufactured already,I think it is difficult to find the original album. There is no way but to check the auction frequently. As a bonus track of self-released CDR, I added a song called Lost Girl of BMX Bandits.

++ How was your relationship with them and with other bands in the label? Perhaps you were good friends with a few of them? Or played gigs together?

Label mate Spaghetti Vabune often played gigs together. I think they are the best guitar pop band.

++ Last question about this album, who is laying on the grass on the cover photo? Is that you? And where was this taken? A park?

That’s me. The video was filmed at Yoyogi Park in Japan.

++ There’s also the CD single “Starry Eyes”. Who is Chocolate Fountain Records who are releasing it? And what songs are included in it? Is it much different to the first album?

Chocolate Fountain Records is my private label. First releasing is Starry eyes EP. I feel like Starry Eyes song is follow the first album. I think that the coupling song are different from the songs that have been so far.

++ You appeared, in 2007, on the “Headstart Happiness” compilation released by TKO Records. Who are TKO? Were they an indiepop label?

At that time, TKO was just an event organizer. He invited in a compilation album so many bands.

++ Also you had two songs on two different AIRS compilation, on the “AirsPort Terminal 01/Wanderlust” and “AirsPort Terminal 1.5/Deep Wanderlust”. Who were AIRS? First time I hear this label’s name.

“AIRS” is originally a graphic designer. He likes music very much, and seems to be managing the label sometimes, but I do not know in detail.

++ Then there’s a compilation called “Find the Answer” which was a Perfect Pop compilation. And this is not the Norwegian Perfect Pop label, but a Japanese one. And I think they had something to do with UFO Club, right? What can you tell me about it?

Certainly it is a different label. The name of the club event that was once held in Tokyo was the name Perfect Pop. The Caraway often appeared on the event. It was a compilation album that collected the band that appeared at the event, but it was a free CDR.

++ And the -“Bluebadge Night! Special Sampler” compilation, I suppose it was given away at a special Bluebadge night. How was it? Who played at that gig? Where did it happen?

It was a special exclusive CDR limited for the venue. I don’t have that. I played with many bands at Shibuya nest in Tokyo. Cleandistortion, Spaghetti Vabune!, Earlybird, Margarets Hope*, Quarry (opening act).

++ I know you appeared on the “Guitar Pop Crazy!” and “SweetSplash Blue” compilations that were released by Bluebadge also. Did you appear in any other compilations?

8 years ago We joined the i tunes-only compilation album called “TOKYO Auto-Reverse”, but the distribution has been suspended now.

++ And how come there were no more releases by The Caraway during those early, mid 2000s? Was there any interest from other labels?

There was no release. During that time, The Caraway did not go very well. Or I was busy with the activities of Swinging Popsicle.

++ I read that you were working and recording a second album already in 2007. Whatever happened to that record? Did you ever finish it?

That’s fact.Because the member has left the band, I quit creating the album halfway. But I am going to complete it.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

I have many unreleased song. I want to release it soon.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best gigs that you remember?

63 gigs in 15 years.Every time is the best gig.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

There are a few mistakes every time, but I do not mind. I think that it is important to satisfy the audience rather than that.

++ I found a live gig on your Youtube account, four songs, “Mockingbird Hill”, “Tandem Bicycle”, “Sunday Clothes” and “Snowflakes”. Where was this gig? There’s no info about it!

I think that the video I played at the AMP cafe in Koenji in Japan in 2015.

++ Was there a ever a break, a hiatus? Or did The Caraway have been going steady since day one?

Band activities in the first few years were stable. However, after members left, I took a day off for the band.

++ And what about the other band members? Have they been involved in other bands?

No ,other band members did not involved other bands.

++ There is a top video for the song “The Rainy Day” that I love. Where was the video recorded? And who are all the people in it? Friends? What was the best of recording it and working with director Norihisa Nakama?

That promotion video. It was special gift (exclusive CD) for the first album release. He was a competent video creator that my friends introduced. Anyway, his shooting was so fun.

++ And of course, I really love this song, can I ask what inspired you to write it? What’s the story behind it?

Suddenly I came up with that melody.Prior to that, I was listening to many guitar pop bands. The Smiths, Teenage Fanclub,  Fountains of Wayne, and many many more. I don’t know what it is. however I think that it is a melody given by God.

++ For you what would be your favourite The Caraway song and why?

“Treasure for Me”. Because it’s dreamy.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Unfortunately, little attention was given.

++ What about from fanzines?

There have been articles published in Japanese music magazine “Cookie Scene”.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I like playing with my son.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

This interview 🙂 Cloudberry is my yearning label.

++ Never visited Tokyo. So maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights in your town that I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

I think you should eat sushi. Especially conveyor-belt sushi is recommended. And Harajuku Tokyo is a very fun city.

++ Thanks again Osamu! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I appreciate the fans who listening the Caraway song for a long time. Thank you so much.

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Listen
The Caraway – The Rainy Day

A new week of World Cup, and I just hope tomorrow Peru beats Australia. We are out that is true but would love to say goodbye to this World Cup experience by winning a game and also scoring a goal, or more. It has been quite disappointing not getting the results but it did feel good to see the team in the big stage and playing good football.

I hope your team is doing well and that it goes far. I have friends from many countries that are competing in the World Cup, so it is hard to say I prefer a team over another, but because of very important reasons I’m going to be supporting Mexico from now. 🙂

Also just letting everyone that placed pre-orders of the Salt Lake Alley 7″ just know that they have been shipped. Also Jigsaw Records will have copies shortly and also Rough Trade in the UK. I’ll let you know when other mailorders carry our latest release.

Now a bunch of great finds for this Monday!

Red Sleeping Beauty: “Always on Your Side” EP. Look for it on June 22nd. A 4 song CD EP that Sunday Records (yes! the classic US label is back) are releasing by the legendary Swedish band. Classic, legendary. Both label and band are household names for any indiepop fan. And so this release makes us all happy and we can only look forward to it! The four songs on the record are “Always On Your Side”, “Falling Out of Love”, “Just For Fun” and “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”. You can preorder it for $6 plus shipping and do keep an eye on the new releases Sunday will be announcing shortly!

Ring Snuten: a few posts ago I was sharing a song by Patrik Lindgren’s alter ego, Ring Snuten, and I didn’t have to wait long to find a new song worth recommending, “Solkatter Eldvatten”. I wonder what intentions Patrik has with these songs? Maybe working on an album? Or just releasing them digitally? It is great to see two new songs within a month after a silence of at least a year!

Dylan Mondegreen: the Norwegian has just revealed a video for the first single for his upcoming fifth album. The video directed by Katalina Bakradze features the song “A Place in the Sun” which sounds very much like Dylan Mondegreen. No surprises there. I haven’t followed him for many years I have to admit, it must be since Shelflife released one of their albums. Maybe I should start doing so again?

Helen Love: “Double Denim” is the latest by one of the best bands ever. And it is going to be on a 7″ that will be released on Alcopop Records. And here I’m sharing the video which of course has the Helen Love aesthetics we all love. It is just perfect. What I don’t know is if this is the A side or if there are any other songs included in the record. I went to the label’s website where one can order the record but couldn’t find any information really.

Sharesprings: two new songs by one of our favourite Indonesian bands! “Something Soon” and “So Comely (Live)” make up the new digital single. There are more good news though, they are announcing a full length very soon. This is out for now on Dismantled Records.

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“Aiken Drum” is a popular Scottish folk song and nursery rhyme, which probably has its origins in a Jacobite song about the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715). It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 2571.

This Aiken Drum wasn’t Scottish. It was Irish. And I must admit I discovered their music recently thanks to the Fanning Sessions Blog. And now I’m only going through the few recordings that are available on the band’s SoundCloud page. All the recordings, and the blog post, everything dates from 7 years ago or so. So I am coming late to the party once again. But still, for me this is all new music and I’m enjoying it. That’s what matters in the end, and I hope the same will happen for you.

The band was formed by Martin McCann, Pat Morrissey and Dave Morrissey around 1985. Pat and Dave were brothers.

They didn’t last long, according to Irisrock.org, they split a year later, in 1986. They hailed from Finglas. I must admit it is the first time I hear that name. I have a trip pending to Ireland. I would really love to go soon.

Finglas is a northwestern outer suburb of the city of Dublin, Ireland. The suburb mainly lies in the postal district of Dublin 11. A couple of kilometres from Dublin Airport, it is situated at Junction 5 of the M50 and the N2 national primary road leading to Ashbourne and beyond. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun, while the rural village of St. Margaret’s is around 2 km to the north. The name Finglas (Irish: Fionnghlas), meaning a clear streamlet, is derived from the Finglas River, a stream which flows through the village and joins the Tolka at Finglas Bridge.

The band only had one song properly released and that happened in 1986 when they appeared on the “Street Carnival Rock” 7″ compilation with the song “The Hearing”. On this compilation they appear first, on the A side. Joining them in that side were Flex and the Fastweather and on the flipside the great A House and The Golden Horde. These recordings were actually all taken from various session recordings for the Dave Fanning Show on Radio 2. All of them were produced by Ian Wilson.

The deal with this 7″, that had no label nor catalog number, was that it was released as part of the 1986 Dublin Street Carnival that was going to be held on June 21st and 22nd of that year and was organized by Radio 2 and Hot Press. The four bands on the 7″ were the ones that were scheduled to play on that bill. All royalties were also going to be donated to the festival.

Irishrock mentions other songs by the band like “The Real Me” or a cover of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly”. Also other important details about them was that after the demise of the band, Martin McCann later was in Lord John White and Sack, Pat Morrissey became an audio engineer at a studio located in Christchurch Cathedral and Dave Morrissey later played keyboards in A House.

Thanks to the Soundcloud we know that there were three songs recorded for the Fanning Session: “A Day in the Country” (which is become quickly a favourite), “Penny by Penny” and “The Hearing”. And that there was a two song demo titled “Great Strand Street”. This demo tape had two songs, “Force Fed” and “The Real Me”.

Reading the comments on the Fanning Sessions blog I also learn a bit about the band. For example that they played at “The South Band Show” in Finglas and in Dun Laoghaire. Another person comments that he has a copy of the song “Laura” that was included in a Fanning demo/session. Was this song part of that 3-song session I mentioned early? Or was there a 2nd session by the band?

These days I believe Martin McCann continues making music with the band Elevens.

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Listen
Aiken Drum – A Day in the Country