Thanks so much to Stephen for the interview! I wrote about The Belfast band The Donnelly Brothers some time ago on the blog and was very lucky that Stephen got in touch and was up for answering my questions! The band who released a flexi and recorded a Fanning Session back in the late 80s, was a mystery to me. They had put together a compilation CD that was long sold out on Bandcamp but there story was nowhere to be found on the web. I wanted to know more about them, so here it is, a brilliant interview with this great band! Hope you all enjoy it!

Hi Stephen! Thanks a lot for getting in touch! How are you doing? I notice that you are now based in Dublin and not in Belfast anymore? Is that so? Why the change?

Hi Roque! thank you for your interest in the Donnelly Brothers – and the opportunity for this interview, Martin is based in Dublin for career reasons and I am still in Belfast! – both cities are only 100 miles apart, Ireland is relatively small, so it isn’t really that far!

++ Are you still making music? I noticed that Martin still is under the name Martin Mackie and you even released an album titled “The Popgun Plot” on vinyl some years ago. I liked what I heard. Are the other band members continue making music?

Yes Martin is still making music, and I have recently, earlier in 2018 taken back to the guitar and making music with my old time collaborator Paul Turner from my Non Stop Yellow days

++ Let’s get back in time, when you were growing up. What are your first musical memories? What sort of music did you listen then? What was your first instrument?

Music – and having any interest in it started for me in the late 1970’s with the explosion of great Irish and English music acts of that time, I loved the Punk and Ska scenes of the late 70’s and early 80’s and I am still a fan to this day: The first songs that blew me away were;

Gangsters by The Specials
Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers
But Ultimately – The album The Clash by The Clash a seminal album – then and now!

My first musical instrument was a white copy of a Gibson Semi Acoustic Bass (real 1950’s style!)- it was beautiful but the feedback was horrendous! I bought it of Dee McDowell (singer in Cut the Bag, also on the First Things First album) for £4.00 (about $6.00) and 2 tins of beer!!! those were the days

++ Were you in any bands before being in The Donnelly Brothers? Were you also in Liar as Martin?

Yes I was the bass player and founding member of Liar 1982- 1984, we were a punk band who played covers, we were all very young, I was 15 when we started to practice. The name came from The Sex Pistols song ‘Liar’ and we thought it just looked good how it was written on the back of ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’ album sleeve.

The first song we learnt was Ready Steady Go by Generation X

Liar comprised of:

Myself – Bass
Peter Murchan – Vocals
Patrick O’Neill – Guitar
#1 Stephen Thompson – Drums
#2 Gerard Scott – Drums (Later to join Cut the Bag as a drummer)
#3 Martin Burns – Drums

Liar didn’t break up, we kind of morphed into a different band some members left and some new ones joined, at this time late 70’s style punk rock was emerging into the early 80’s (or second wave as its now lovingly called) as harder edged – heavier – thrashier sound, we were all played faster and louder, The Exploited, GBH and Blitz were leading the way now in the Punk Sounds. At this time we started to write our own songs/material, songs such as ‘There’s a liar on my TV’ (ironically about what we now call fake news!) and the Hilarious pastiche of the then ‘Spandax Rock Bands’ “Blood Guts Anguish Heaven and Hell” at this time Liar changed its name to the Napalm Kids 1984-1985.
The Napalm Kids comprised of:
Myself – Bass
Patrick O’Neill – Guitar
Bap McGreevy – Guitar
Buzz O’Brien – Vocals (Current vocalist and Sax player with Irish Ska Band ‘Boss Sounds Manifesto’)
Barney Carson –
As you can see at this time the nucleolus of what would become the Donnelly Brothers was taking shape

++ How did The Donnelly Brothers start as a band? How did you all know each other?

See above, but we all knew each other from one or more of the following reasons: we met in venues on the local music scene, we were neighbours and we attended the same schools as teenagers. And I’d like to clarify one point…. the Napalm Kids simply changed into The Donnelly Brothers, as Buzz left and Martin joined, at this time we were expanding our musical tastes and this is reflected in the completely different direction our music took – from thrash punk to indie pop!

++ You started as more of a post-punk band and then you’d turn into a different sound. I wonder, are there any recordings from that first period?

There is nothing from Liar, but there is a really rough tape recording of a Napalm Kids practice session from 1985, neither band made any visits to a professional recording studio.

++ There was some lineup changes, eventually you’d have someone with the Donnelly last name like Ali. That must have been a big coincidence, right? But he was just 14 year old! Was that a problem at all?

It was a brilliant coincidence – he was and still is a fantastic musician, as for the age those were different times, no one ever asked what age the band were when playing in bars/clubs/venues, we all played gigs underage! and he was already a live veteran gigging with ‘The Second Mary of Guise’ prior to joining The Donnelly Brothers

++ Why the name The Donnelly Brothers?

The name was taken from a a well known Irish car dealership, the name just looked right!

++What influences would you say you had when you were making music with The Donnelly Brothers?

Our influences were wide ranging and this showed in our songs, in that era our immediate past had been punk rock, but that’s not the whole story, member by member we had different tastes, and those tastes were changing by mid 1985

Myself I was into The new Indie rock/pop scene- Punk, Ska and heavy rock
Patrick O’Neill was into mainly heavy rock, and to a lesser extent punk and ska
Bap McGreevy was into the new Indie Rock/Pop scene – Rockabilly – Phyco Billy – Punk and Heavy Rock
Barney Carson was a Rocker
Martin Burns was into Indie Rock/Pop and new sounds and the old sounds!

Who were the influential bands/sounds, The Cure, The Cult, Bauhaus, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Monochrome Set, The Smiths, The Velvet Underground, Orange Juice and the Blow Monkeys to name but a few. In our early gigs we would play a few cover versions such as ‘The Passenger’ by Iggy Pop – ‘A Forest by The Cure Bella Lugosi is dead’ by Bauhaus and ‘Sweet Jane’ by the Velvet Underground.
Other bands were equally influential as the post punk era opened into a flow of new ‘Indie’ sounds

++ How was Belfast back then? Where there any other like minded bands that you liked? What were the places where you usually hang out? What were the venues to catch the good bands?

Belfast was a troubled city at that time, the ‘Troubles’ were at their height but we had all been born into it so we made the best of it, there was a lot of great like minded bands around Belfast at that time, and we all had a friendly rivalry we would all go to watch each others shows and generally hang out with each other, most of these bands made their way onto the First Things First album.

Some of the main places to play in Belfast were:

The Orpheus – The number one bar/club for original material bands; now the new Art University of Ulster
The Abercorn – now a fashion outlet
Laverys Bar – still Laverys Bar and a live band venue, we were the first band to play there!
The Limelight – still a principle Belfast venue (Martin has played here with the Pop Gun Plot )
Queens University Belfast: Students Union – Getting demolished in a few weeks, and a new building being erected

++ How did the creative process work in the band?

Generally it was a collaborative creative process within the band, someone would have a ‘Beat – or a Riff’ that we’d throw into a practice and work into a tune/song, Generally in between full band practices myself and Bap would have a few smaller practice sessions to ‘tighten’ the songs up, I guess its the same process for most bands the world over, Martin would have written all the lyrics, except for ‘Sleep All Day’ which as far I can remember was written by Bap

++ You released a flexi in 1986 that was sold in shops as well as given away for free with the Helden fanzine. Which songs were on this flexi? And how did it work with the fanzine? Was it self-released?

The Flexi was a popular ‘Give Away’ promotional affair of the era by music papers/magazines, it was a one sided 7″ single and had the song ‘Liberty and Honesty’ on it, we recorded the song as part of a demo recording of the time and Helden paid for the flexi pressing, unfortunately I do not – and im pretty sure none of the band members – have a copy of the single.

++ Your only other appearance on record while you were active was on a compilation titled “First Things First” released by One by One Records. How did you end up on this compilation?

Basically it was an attempt to showcase the best Irish bands of the day, and we were invited to take part and submit a song, we originally wanted ‘Liberty and Honesty’ the flexi single song, but the producer favoured the song ‘The Bread Winner’ so we re-recorded it for the album, its a lot ‘smoother’ on the album than we ever intended it to sound, and on our demos I thought it sounded far better, as a song it was a real crowd pleaser, live very danceable poppy and fun – live we also played what we laughingly referred to as the 12″ version where we played the song for around 5-6 minutes, ironically it was the first song the Donnelly Brothers ever wrote, so for that reason on reflection it was a perfect choice for the recording!

++ The song that you contributed is the brilliant “The Breadwinner”. In a few lines, what is the story behind this song?

The stories behind Martins lyrics would be better explained by him, but looking back now we were probably an escapist band – part fantasy – part fun – part tongue in cheek – not serious, those were dark and dangerous times in Belfast we tried to make a night out fun and let people dance and enjoy themselves.

The lyrics were light observations of everyday life and what young people were doing or could relate to at the time, we had songs about The Mystery Machine Scooby Doo and Shaggy!!!! lol

++ And how come there were no releases by The Donnelly Brothers? Was there any interest from labels?

We were unlucky – opportunities did arise but seemed to falter at the last moment, our biggest chance came around 1987 when Mother Records (owned by U2) took a massive interest in the band, (at the time U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jnr was a fan, and attended several of our gigs) and for a while a single deal , with possible further releases seemed imminent during this time we were managed by Fachtna O’Ceallaigh (Boomtown Rats & Sinead O’Connor) and everything seemed to be going in the right direction, however it came down to a straight simple record exec’s vote to run with either a band from Belfast – The Donnelly Brothers – or a band from Dublin – The Hot House Flowers….. and as they say the rest is history….

++ You did record a whole bunch of songs that later you would put together on a CDr compilation. 14 songs total. Where do these songs come from?

We did, and yes we do have a more extensive back catalogue than the 14 song CD suggests, these songs came from the 4 studio recording sessions we made during our career.

++ Sadly the CDr is sold out! How many copies did you make and how fast did it sell? Is there any plans to make more copies?

Martin completed this project himself, self financing and promoting it, I don’t know how many he made but I think that it was fantastic of him to do it and I am proud to have a copy, its a big part of who we all were and for that im delighted he made and released the CD. The artwork on the CD is brilliant and it is indicative of how our live gig posters looked back in the day, Martin had a great knack of producing great eye catching artwork!

Will there be any further releases? lol who knows….

++ Are there any other recordings that weren’t included in that CDr?

As I have said above yes there are recordings that are not on the CD

++ You recorded a Fanning Session on RTE. How was that experience? Did you meet Dave? What songs did you record?

Yes we met Dave, and the experience was great – and unexpectedly well paid! – the songs on that recording are the real essence of the band, it was a live recording and we nailed it!!!

++ One of them, “Mystery Machine”, is said that became well known, and that it was all about Scooby Doo. Was it played a lot on radio? Were you big cartoons fans?

It got a lot of air play – and was a real crowd pleaser – and popular among the band too! it was fun light and just an all round good song, I know im biased lol! I suppose we were raised as kids on cartoons like Scooby Doo, and our fans were too so it was just the pure fun of it we were putting across.

I heard years later, long after The Donnelly Brothers demise that a band in Belfast were covering the song… that is proof enough to me that the song was good!

++ And how important you’d say was Dave Fanning for Irish music?

Dave Fanning – and the Dave Fanning sessions are massively important and influential to Irish music, and also to the bigger next door neighbour marketplace England.

++ What about gigs? I read you supported The Wedding Present, The Charlatans and The Jazz Butcher. What other gigs do you remember? What were your best ones and why?

lol The best ones are the gigs you remember, you try to airbrush away the poor ones, the best gig I ever played was Belfast Art College 1988, 2500-3000 people – and we were on fire from the first to the last song, and the crowd were on fire too! what a combination.

We also played with the biggest Irish acts and peers of the time such as ‘A House’ ‘The Subterranean’s’ and The 4 of Us’, we played quite a few gigs and all over the country, and we got a lot of University gigs which was great.

++ Where was the farthest from home that you played? And was there any bad gigs?

Furthest Gig was Henrys in Cork – and yes bad gigs…. every band has them lol, and maybe don’t admit it!!

++ Did The Donnelly Brothers get much support from the press or the radio?

Yes we did we frequently had our music played on Radio Ulster (BBC) shows such as ‘Across the Line’ and were interviewed by the NME/Melody Maker and Sounds, all English based music press papers, we appeared in the local community newspapers and the Irish national press. With the release of the First Thing’s First album we were told we were getting frequent air play within the U.S. on the college radio network.

++ When and why did you split? What did you all do after? I know some went to Non-Stop Yellow and Bréag…

What made us split…. its never an easy question to answer…. it wasn’t explosive! and it wasn’t “musical differences” I suppose now looking back it was the passage of time – the lack of success (recording deals) – personnel line up changes – and just a general slow grind to a halt.

Ironically in 1989 when we did split (pretty late November I think) we were earmarked to do the ‘Inspiral Carpets UK Tour of early 1990, and further more we were to be in a tour of Irish bands going to Russia in 1990 as part of their softening to western cultures…Perestroika et al

I think the line up changes really ended the band – there was an erosion of enthusiasm…. and it was a quiet demise.

After that I took time out of music for a while – id been playing in bands for nearly 10 years solid by this time. In mid 1990 I visited Russia as a tourist as I was supposed to go as a musician with The Donnelly Brothers I thought I’ll go anyway.

On my return from Russia I teamed up with Barney Carson and Paul Turner and briefly Bap McGreevy to form ‘Non Stop Yellow’ a melodic rock band, writing all our own material, and gigging all over Ireland, we did get a single record deal with ‘Screw Records’ but we never got to release the material, as the band split just prior to the final release date.

I am back with Paul Turner writing material

Martin went onto do ‘The Pop Gun Plot’ along with Ali Donnelly

Bap McGreevy has had many musical encounters including playing the bagpipes, and an on off band called ‘The Mantelpiece Men’

Patrick O’Neill played for another short period and has joined up with Bap on some musical adventures

Nick Saddler is still playing in ‘Breag’

Martin Lenane is playing in a band called ‘ARSE’

++ Are you still in touch with the rest of The Donnelly Brothers? Are they making music still?

We see each other and our activities through Face Book these days – sharing and exchanging comments/laughs/likes….etc

++ What would you say was the biggest highlight of The Donnelly Brothers?

They were great times…. we had great songs, still to this day people will still say that…. the biggest highlight for any musician or band has to be the fact that absolute strangers enjoy what you have produced.

++ Apart from music, what other hobbies do you enjoy having?

Music is number one… always has been… and will be…… number two is soccer

++ Let’s wrap it here. Just one more question, as I’ve never been to Belfast or Dublin, nor anywhere in Northern Ireland or Ireland, what shouldn’t I miss to see, eat or drink when I visit?

Drink Guinness – Drink Belfast Gin – Eat an Ulster Fry – Visit the Giants Causeway – Visit the Carrick-a-reed Rope Bridge – Visit the Glens of Antrim – go to a gig in either Voodoo or the Limelight and check out the wall Murals in and around Belfast!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Yes id like to finish by saluting all of The Donnelly Brothers, and say thank you for a wonderful time:

Martin Burns Vocals
Ali Donnelly Drums
Patrick O’Neill Guitars
Barney Carson Drums
Nick Saddler Guitars
Bap (John) McGreevy Guitars
Martin Lenane Guitars
Kevin Dodd’s Guitars
Stephen McGreevy Bass

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Listen
The Donnelly Brothers – The Breadwinner

Not much to update on this US holiday for Labor Day. I’m just staying home and relaxing after visiting Yale University and it’s museums this weekend. Here are a few finds from last Friday. See you Wednesday!

Blushing: released back in January, the 5 song EP “Weak”, is a lovely record. It is only available on tape, sadly, and you know I’m no fan of tapes. Those who female fronted jangly bands, this is for you. It is a winner I think. The band formed by Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto, Noe Carmona and Jake Soto (are they two pairs of siblings?) are based in Austin, Texas. And as you know, I also love when I see more latino people in indiepop.

Gauche:  sounding a bit like The Modettes or our contemporaries Shopping, this DC band has a tape mini-album called “Get Away With…” where their fun and catchy post-punk is a very nice discovery for me. Especially as this tape was released back in 2015! As the time I write these lines only 1 copy of the tape is available direct from the band.

Hearts and Tigers: another band from some years ago. I guess I couldn’t find much new stuff this weekend! But at least these are all new for the blog (and for me). Their self-titled album might be my favourite find this weekend, an upbeat and catchy indiepop band, with brilliant songs like “Sunny the Bully”. Don’t know much about them, especially would like to know if they are still going. The band is formed by Anna Wallis, Graye Guidotti, Ian White, Sarah Cameron-Puttonen, Sawyer Simonson and Zachariah Shelley. They are from Portland.

Babyteeth: some noisy guitar pop from this girl band from St. Petersburg, Florida. Formed by Gigi La Roux, Zsa Zsa St. Maire and Bunny Von Doren, they have their debut EP on Bandcamp streaming now. There are 5 songs of punky pop quality. My favourite? “Timothy”.

Strawberry Generation: lastly just one song out of their “Losing Our Way” EP. It is called “Coffee” and sounds pretty good to me. This Providence, Rhode Island, band is formed by Luk Yeah, Valerie Zhu, Max Lowndes, Michelle Bazile and Alejandro Subiotto Marqués and I’m guessing that the record will be available in a physical format as they are only sharing one song instead of all 4 that comprise this EP. It is slated to release on October 12th.

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C-Saim were ‘born’ in Bedford in 1980 when Bryn Daniels, Andy Bennette and Steve Brown were brought together from different bands in the local area. The blend of humor and common goals held the band together for 3 years during which time they built a solid and loyal following across the UK. With influences drawn from many different sources from hard rock to jazz and punk, the songs produced by C-Saim were always very original and in some cases, downright quirky!
Although the band stopped performing in 1983 the three original members still work together occasionally on song writing projects. 

Those lines were my introduction to C-Saim on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 3” compilation. On that classic CD released in 2003 by Firestation Records, the band contributed “Give and Take” one of the the songs that appeared on their one and only 7″.

Many years would pass until I got a copy of the 7″. Maybe a decade or more. It was Ed from Shelflife Records who helped me find their 7″. I believe he was the first to write a proper blog post featuring C-Saim. Definitely a lot of information on this post will come from there.

Two songs were included in the record, “Night Air” and “Give and Take”. It was released in 1983 by Summit Records (SUM 3 T). This label is quite unknown to me, but I notice they released two records before C-Saim by the bands Rizz Wah Wah and Close to Tears. The credits tell us: Andy Bennette (on guitar, vocals, piano, whistle, and whoops), Bryn Daniels (on 8 & 4 string bass, whistle, and whoops), and Steve Brown (on drums, congas, additional perc, whoops, and whistles).

Discogs lists two compilation appearances by the band. The first in 1982 on a Vroom Records compilation called “Lend An Ear 1992?” (TRY 1) where the band contributed the songs “Only Yesterday” and “General Custer”. I don’t know any of the other bands on this vinyl LP. Their other compilation appearance was with the song “Night Air”. This song was included in the “Disco Mix Club – July 1983 – Tape 2”, a cassette that was available exclusively to the Disco Club members for use in their discotheques and bars and to radio programmers for their information and convenience. Not sure how the band ended up here alongside Aretha Franklin!

As Ed wrote on his blog post, there was a website for Night Air Music, Andy Bennette’s publishing company. It doesn’t exist anymore but one can access to its contents through the Web Archive. And that’s what I’m doing now.

The band started in 1980. Andy and Bryn were in a cover band with a drummer and a bassist. When the drummer left, Steve Brown joined them and Bryn went to play bass, with the old bassist quitting. That’s how C-Saim was formed. The band became very busy playing in their hometown of Bedford and also all around the UK. There is a list of all the gigs the bands played.

Bedford. By the way, I feel it is the first time I’m featuring a band from that town. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire, England. The town has a population of around 80,000, whereas the Borough of Bedford had a population of 169,912 in mid 2017 together with Kempston. Bedford was founded at a ford on the River Great Ouse, and is thought to have been the burial place of Offa of Mercia. Bedford Castle was built by Henry I, although it was destroyed in 1224. Bedford was granted borough status in 1165 and has been represented in Parliament since 1265. It is well known for its large population of Italian descent. Bedford is on the Midland Main Line, with stopping services to London and Brighton operated by Thameslink, and express services to London and the East Midlands operated by East Midlands Trains. The name of the town is thought to derive from the name of a Saxon chief called Beda, and a ford crossing the River Great Ouse. Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages

It seems they played quite a lot at The Crown Cellar Bar in Bedford. But they also played at Horse and Groom (Bedford), Blowins (Luton), The White Hart (Bletchley), The White Horse (Husborne Crawley – an open air festival), Blowins (Luton), Fosseway Hotel (Leicester), The Crawford Arms (Wolverton), Bedford Town F.C. (Bedford), The Barron of Beef (Luton), Silsoe College (Luton), Ye Olde White Swan (Milton Keynes), Kempston Rovers F.C. (Kempston), The Swan (Stevenage), Nags Head (Woolston), Gladstone Arms (Peterborough), Kings Head (Bicester), Shuttleworth College (Old Warden), The Griffin (Bury St Edmunds), Mander College (Bedford), The Corn Dolly (Oxford), Motorcycle Festival (Peterborough), The Windsor Castle (London), The Red Lion (Watford), Civic Theatre (Bedford), The Art College Basement (Brighton), The Target Club (Reading), The Nowhere Club (Bicester), The Bull and Dolphin (Peterborough), National Youthrama (Rushdan), The Olde Black Lion (Northampton), The Romany (Northampton), The Youth Club (Olney), Mad Hatter (Luton), Verulum Arms (Watford), Althorpe Community Centre (Bedford), The Crown (Leamington Spa), The Penny Farthing (Oxford), The Chequers (Wellingborough), The Queen Victoria Hotel (Rushden), City Hall (St Albans), The Mail Coach (Northampton), The Starlight Rooms (London), The Gemma (Watford), The Sportsman (Chorley Wood), Polhill College (Bedford), Goodyear (Wolverhampton), Compass Club (Bletchley), Technical College (Luton), The Moonlight Club (London), Xtreems (Brighton), Clapham School (Bedford), Woughton Leisure Centre (Milton Keynes), Drury Lane (London), Boys Club (Bedford) and The Fortune of War (Brighton).

They got support by many bands too, Junction 13, Tobruk, Dave Ellis Band, Trimmer and Jenkins, A Bigger Splash, Jaxs, Sly Device, Primitive Culture, Alan Norman (Magician), Graphyte, Reasonable Man, Zip Code, Psy-Kicks, Ballon Sculpter, Why?, Chinatown, Bone, Faded Secret, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Kulture Kamp, Gone Fission, Dave Pugh, Rubber Chex, Diving Club, PLE, Giraffe, Liquorice Allsorts, Gambit of Shame, Going Straight, Living Daylights, Terminal Spectators and Actors and Famous People. To be honest, I don’t know any of these bands.

This interesting event list also mentions an interview with Soundmaker and a live session recorded at MK Radio in Milton Keynes.

But what is most interesting is that they recorded a 1st demo at the Crypt Studios in Stevenage on September 5th 1980. Which songs were they recorded then? That same year, on December 1st, at the same studio, they recorded their 2nd demo. Would be great to find out what songs appeared on both of these demos.

The band also want to record at Leyland Farm Studios in 1981. In 1982 the band went to record more demos at Rocksnake Studios in Rushden. What was recorded there? And in April and May that year they headed to Vroom Studio and Woppalong Studio to record again. My guess here is that they recorded the 2 songs that appear on the compilation LP released by Vroom.

In 1983 it seems they recorded another demo at Rocksnake Studios and Wilbury Studios. But not sure which songs they were.

The old C-Saim website gives us more. It seems Bryn Daniels went to be in a band called Tough at the Top after the demise of C-Saim. Also we learn two song names from the demos, “Johny’s Stripey Jumper” and “Last Time”. Seems the band lost the original DAT tapes for these recordings sadly.

Then I stumble upon a C-Saim Facebook page. But there is not much info there aside from photos. It was last updated in 2015.

Lastly, my last find on the web, is quite sad news. It seems that in 2013, Steve Brown, the band’s drummer passed away.

That is all I could find on the web. Quite a load of information thanks to that list the band had put together back in the day. But it also made me very very curious. They had made many more recordings other than the 4 songs that were released. There are more. And I really would love to listen to them someday! Does anyone remember them?

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Listen
C-Saim – Give and Take

Just a few days ago I learned that the Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 9 is being pressed as I write these lines. That is quite fast if we think of it. Previously between volumes there were years! Now it is less than a year I think between Vol. 8 and 9.

From what I know the record will be released in double vinyl LP and CD. Again, against my liking, the vinyl version will have a bonus track. I don’t like this because I find it a bit gimmicky and forces me to buy both editions. I’m not a fan of these things. That is my only complain. The rest about these compilations I LOVE. I have always loved.

Some bands that will appear on it have been announced too like The Persuaders, Spish, The Flex, The Fontaines, Public Address, Chinese Gangster Element, Ten Million Quentins or Queue Dance. Some of them have been featured on the blog so maybe they are not that obscure anymore (?). It would be great to read the small bios about each of these bands. And discover new ones as Uwe has always had a talent for finding out superb obscure bands. I can’t wait for it!

Dot Dash: remember the Washington DC band I interviewed a while back? The band that features Terry from Tree Fort Angst? Well they continue making fabulous music. They have a new album out on the great The Beautiful Music from Ottawa, Canada, and it is titled “Proto Retro”. A good name, right? This is the sixth album by the band and it includs 12 new brilliant tracks, full of energy and catchyness. Terrific. It is available digitally and also on CD. I need a copy asap!

Cold Beat: I feel the San Francisco band has changed a bit their style. I remember them at NYC Popfest been much guitar based. Right? That doesn’t mean I’m not liking their new album “A Simple Reflection”, which is a collection of 7 Eurythmics covers. It is perhaps strange, but the story goes like this: Hannah Lew, vocalist of Cold Beat, stumbled across many 12″ of Annie Lenox’s band while buying records for her record shop Contact Records. She loved them and became obsessed. Now she is paying them a tribute of course.

The Hannah Barberas: the UK band is back! After their previous EP where we were introduced to the lovely music Damien, Lucy, Doug and Matthew are doing, they have three new treats for us. This digital EP called “Go Go Hannah Barberas!” includes “Slow Cooked”, “10 Free Tall” and “Go Go Pepper”. Three classic sounding indiepop tracks to enjoy!

Horrible/Adorable: this Oakland, California, girl duo has  anew split tape with the band Bearcats. I’m not much of a fan of the Bearcats shouty side, but the Horrible/Adorable track, “Surf, Rock, Beach, Party, UFO” is great. It is released by the label Yr First Crush which is based in the same city. Also be sure to check the band’s Bandcamp for some great pop tunes like “Merry Christmas, Baby”!

Zooey: it seems the tape for the album “Bottlerocket” is already sold out. At least we can stream the songs on Bandcamp. This shoegazy band, in the vein of The Swirlies, noisy and all, hail from Tallahassee and this is their debut album, released back in April 2017. 50 copies. I arrive late of course. There are 8 songs of fine lo-fi pop noise in here.

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If my memory serves me right I found out about this Finnish band through a great obscure indiepop collector, Joel from Portugal. He shared with me some mp3s of the first single of Bird in Bush, “I Fell Like Rome”. Weeks, or even days, after, I was happy to find a cheap copy of this single on Discogs.

There are a few more records by them, but I don’t own them. Yet. This single, “I Fell Like Rome”, was the first one they released. So let’s start there.

This 7″ was released by ABLoved (A-B-L-003) in 1990 and also included the song “French Resistance” on the B side. The sleeve doesn’t tell much, it doesn’t give us much information, just the lyrics for each song on each side of the jacket. There is also not much information about the label on Discogs. We do know though that another record was released the previous year, one by the Livin’ Drops. Looking on Finnmusic.net I could find out that the songs were produced by Jogi Kosonen who also played trumpet on the A side. The band at this point was formed by Tommi Viitamies on vocals and guitar, Micke Söderström on bass and Taito Palvanen on drums.

In 1992 the band released an LP album called “Swinging on the Edge of the Ridiculous” on Strawberry Records (SBLP-012). This label has been mentioned before on the blog when I wrote about The Kidneys. Again there is no information about this album on Discogs, just the tracklist. The A side had the songs “Something That Hits Me”, “Slur Like a Loose Mouth”, “The Twintown Affair”, “Pillars of the Past”, “Class Hatred” and “Keep it Up, Keep it Up, Keep it Up”. The B side had “A Few Real Slaps”, “Swinging on the Edge of the Ridiculous”, “Dad’s Little Slip”, “Mess With Me”, “The Bookkeeper’s Plight” and “I Fell Like Rome”.  Finnmusic.net gives us more details. The producer for this record was Gabi Hakanen with the exception of “I Fell Like Rome” which of course was Jogi Kosonen. Jogi also appears playing trumpet on this song and “The Bookkeeper’s Plight” and backing vocals on “Class Hatred” and “Pillars of the Past”. Gabi Hakanen did backing vocals on “A Few Real Slaps”.

One year later, in 1993, the band released another 7″ record on Strawberry Records (SBS-014) with the songs “I’ll Keep it Hidden” and “Love Speaks Out”.

In 1994 the band releases a CD album called “Young Immortals”. On this album the band adds Hannu Tornivuori on guitars. It was released on Strawberry Records (SBCD 021) and included 13 songs: “Central”, “Man Overboard”, “Department Store”, “Playing House”, “Groovy Engagement”, “Spokesman”, “Young Immortals”, “Man with a Memory”, “I’ll Keep it Hidden”, “Breaking Banks”, “Second Nature”, “Love Speaks Out” and “Unexpected Burst of Life”.

In 1998, after 5 years, the band releases a CD album called “Anyone for Heartaches?” on Lilith Records (LILCD 02). This label was really a cooperative society founded in 1997 by a group of Finnish artists including Maritta Kuula, A. W. Yrjänä, Kikke Heikkinen, Kauko Röyhkä, Martti Salminen and Mikael Söderström. The 13 songs on the album are “Little Women”, “Wasn’t Born to Swallow (a.k.a. The Rift)”, “Anyone for Heartaches?”, “Stand Up Comedian”, “To Get Things Done”, “Talk to Me”, “Goin’ Straight”, “Trigger Happy Girl”, “Down in the Canteen”, “Any Trouble Will Do”, “Popular Boy”, “Abandon” and “Talks to Me”.

Strangely enough it seems Micke Söderström only appears on this record doing some backing vocals on “Any Trouble Will Do”. It seems Mikko Tornivuori had replaced him by this point. Maybe he was brother with Hannu Tornivuori who was in the band in the previous album? Hannu had left too it seems and was replaced by Kim Mansnerus on guitar.

Other musicians that played in this album were Martti Salminen (from the bands Imatra Big Band and Stressi) on keyboards, Mikko Vilunki on theremin on “Little Women” and “Anyone For Heartaches?”, Mikko Mustonen played trombone on “Wasn’t Born to Swallow” and “Stand up Comedian”, Markus Jaatinen played percussion on “Anyone for Heartaches?”, “Stand up Comedian”, “Down in the Canteen” and “Popular Boy”, Assi Kartunen and Kaarina Kilpiö (from the band Little Mary Mixup) did backing vocals on “Any Trouble Will Do”, Jouni Lappalainen played banjo on “To Get Things Done”, Riitta Talasniemi (from Little Mary Mixup) sang on “To Get Things Done”, Toivo Kokko played saxophone on “Abandon”, Jogi Kosonen and Sussana Karkulehto did backing vocals on “Abandon” and Keijo Puumalainen played percussion on “Talks to Me”.

The album was recorded at Seawolf Studios in Helsinki and mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox. It was mixed by the band, Jogi Kosonen and Petri Majuri. The photography for the album was taken by Mia Söderström and Marjo Tynkkynen.

Lastly it seems a CD single was released that same year to promote the album. It included two songs that appeared on the album, “Anyone for Heartaches?” and “Popular Boy”. This was also released by Lilith Records (LISCD-03).

Something I did notice throughout all of their releses is that they always used the same typography for their band name on the cover of their records but on their first album “Swining on the Edge of the Ridiculous”.

There are a few compilation appearances listed on Discogs. On the “Reindeer Rock ’99” CD released by CD-Linja (Poropromo 99) released in 1999, the band contributed their song “Stand Up Comedian”. Then in 2005 their song “I Fell Like Rome” appears on the Poko Records 4 CD box set “Sivulliset – Valikoima Suomalaista Vaihtoehtorockia Vuosilta 1985-2000” (VALOSA 1). And lastly their song “Little Woman” appears on an undated CD compilation called “Rytmi-CD #1” released by Lilith (LISCD-06).

I look into what the band members are doing these days. I find out that Tommi Viitamies is today in charge of Helsinki City Library’s catalog of music. There is a good interview (in Finnish) about what his job consists of.  He is also today the managing director of the Lilith cooperative.

What about Taito Palvanen? He is still playing drums in a band called Martha ja Vankkurit which has a Bandcamp and a bunch of releases there. The last one being “Heikkaa”.

I must say it turns out to be quite a challenge to find information about the band in the Finnish language. I do get hits on google but not sure what to open. I do see a list someone in Rateyourmusic has put together of bands he has seen live. One of them is Bird in the Bush. So we do know that the band played at Botta, Club Berlin and Uusi Yo-Talo in Helsinki sometime in the 90s.

I think this time around I will need some Finnish friends to give me more details about the band. I also should try to track down their other records, see if in any case I can find sound files for these records. The few tracks I’ve heard, I’ve liked a lot! But there are so many questions to answer. Like if they were based in Helsinki? Did they get to play abroad? Was there ever any interest from big labels? Had they been in any other guitar pop bands?

Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Bird in the Bush – I Fell Like Rome

Not much news today. Kind of quiet for me though I’ve started working on a new compilation for the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen series. I will have some news about that soon. I should also start working on the 10th Cloudberry fanzine. It’s really been a while since I did one. The 10th should be the last so I’ve been putting it off for some time. But I think early next year would be a good time to put it out. Well here are some new finds this week:

Balaclava: the song “Checoslovaquia” and its video is my introduction to this Spanish band formed by Marta Sancho and Servet Domínguez from Madrid. The song, a bit more darker than the video, is a terrific 80s postpunk/guitarpop/new wave track, influenced by legendary Spanish band Décima Víctima. I don’t know much more about this song, their only release on Bandcamp, a self-titled EP dates from 2016 and doesn’t include this song.

Ping Pong Club: the Bandung dreampop band is back with a new digital single called “Skylight”, and what beauty it is! Formed by Muhammad Rizky and Hariz Lasa, the duo have been released in the past another brilliant track called “Venetian Blinds”. It is definitely a band to keep an eye, especially after they have signed to a Japanese label called Aesthetic City Records. Hopefully a proper record is in the way?

Reverse Play: C86 Re(dis)covered: the news of the week was the release of this digital compilation by the Amsterdam based label Fadeawayradiate Records. 15 contemporary bands have covered classic songs from the c86 period and it is really really good. I think most if not all versions are winners. Among the bands included we see our friends of Okama Flannel Boy covering BMX Bandits’ “Groovy Good Luck Friend”. Then there are some brilliant bands like The Catherines, The Death of Pop, Pia Fraus, Dayflower, Softer Still (who I like a lot even though they have a manager), or Distant Creatures. Now, why not release this on CD?

Rainsticks: checking out this Nashville, Tennessee, band that has just released a digital album called “Elkmont” which is a collection of 11 sunny pop tunes. The band is formed by Asher Horton with Ben Parks, Alex Benick and Rodrigo Avendaño and this is their second release after 2015s “Mystery Bones”. A very nice and feel-good effort here!

The Catherines: lastly, as it is becoming usual, I recommend the latest by the Hamburg band. Their newest song is not the one on the C86 compilation but one called “How Come You Think Everybody Likes You?” and it is available to stream at their Bandcamp. Once again music and words by Heiko, while in the recording Sandra joins him for some great vocal harmonies!

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When I wrote years ago, in 2011 I think, about The Jerks on the blog I hoped to get in touch with them. Some people left some comments, maybe they were band members, but they never replied my messages.

One of those comments said that a rumoured Jerks full album was to be released last year. Well, they were included in the “Manchester North of England” compilation that Cherry Red released. It would have been a good time to release this album with a renewed interest in them. But there was an important detail on my blog post that deserved further investigation. That of Rubber Orange, the band that came after The Jerks.

So let’s pick it from where I left it last time:

The Jerks – Oldham band. Line-up: John Reed – Vocals, Guitar, Lee ‘Drany’ Dransfield – Guitar, Warren Wrigley – Bass, David ‘Dids’ Gill – Keyboards, Andy Price – Drums. Before Andy Price joined the ubiquitous Chris Goodwin played drums for them for some time. Several demo tapes recorded at The Mill by Clint Boon. ‘Waterskin’ released on the compilation tape ‘Kite’ and ‘Didn’t Quite Make It’ released on the Bop/Joe Bloggs compilation Hit The North. After John Reed left Lee Severin from Too Much Texas replaced him and they replaced their set, soon afterwards changing their name to Rubber Orange.

A quick search for Rubber Orange and I stumble upon their myspace. A nice discovery! I’m enjoying their songs. 

So the band was mostly the Jerks, meaning Lee ‘Drany’ Dransfield (guitars), Andy Price (drums), Warren Wrigley (bass), David ‘Dids’ Gill (keyboards) with the addition of Lee Severin (vocals) who came from Too Much Texas. That would be then the lineup of Rubber Orange. And speaking of Drany Dransfield, it is important to mention too that in my previous post I shared a myspace too.

Of course none of these Myspaces work. It is awful really what happened with that social network. To think at some point it was so popular and very convenient for all of us music lovers. But at least thanks to the Myspace we know the band recorded many songs: “Shining Path”, “Invisible Friend”, “Magnetized”, “Shut Down the World”, “Manmade” and “Alone Together”. And according to this Myspace the band was based in Rochdale.

Rochdale is a town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines on the River Roch, 8.5 km northwest of Oldham and 15.8 km northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, which had a population of 211,699 in 2011. Historically part of Lancashire, Rochdale’s recorded history begins with an entry in the Domesday Book of 1086 under “Recedham Manor”. The ancient parish of Rochdale was a division of the hundred of Salford and one of the largest ecclesiastical parishes in England, comprising several townships. By 1251, Rochdale had become important enough to have been granted a Royal charter. Rochdale flourished into a centre of northern England’s woollen trade, and by the early 18th century was described as being “remarkable for many wealthy merchants”. Rochdale seems to be named from its position on the River Roch but is recorded as Recedham in the Domesday Book. The name is derived from Old English reced meaning “hall”, and ham, a “homestead”. Over time, the name changed to Rachedale and eventually Rochdale.

But unlike The Jerks, Rubber Orange did release a record, a 12″ EP. It was self-titled, “Rubber Orange EP”, and it came out in 1991 on the Zest Communications label (ZERO 2). Discogs doesn’t list any records under this label, might it be a self-release? What confuses me is that it seems to be the second release in the catalog, what was the first one?

There were four songs on the yellow and blue sleeve record. On the A side there was “Sun Shines Down On You” and “Shining Path” while the B side had “Shut Down the World” and “N.E. Groove”. The producer was Paul Sampson from The Primitives. It was recorded in September 91 at the Cabin studios in Coventry.

The Manchester Digital Music Archive has a bio and a couple of photos of the band. The photos show the band playing at the Hurricane Club. The bio mentions that the band toured extensively in the early 90s. That Lee Severin wasn’t from Manchester but a Londoner. That Zest Communications was their own label and that it didn’t get favorable reviews on the NME until it was reassessed when it was discovered that the critic, Barbara Ellen, had played the record at the wrong speed. It then says that the band split in the mid 90s with Severing going on to form Jubilee who signed to Silvertone Records. The remaining band members continued making music at least until he late 90s.

Until the late 90s? In which bands?

Another detail I could find on the web was that the band supported several big indie names like Inspiral Carpets, The La’s, The Soup Dragons, The Primitives, Northside, The Mock Turtles, Steve Diggle’s FOC and more.

Then I find perhaps more of a curiosity perhaps, I found a video of a band called The McRackins playing the song “This Jokes On You” live at Burnley Mechanics in 1991 with guest bass player Warren Wrigley of Rubber Orange. Check it out, it is rather good!

And that’s about all there is written about them on the web. Not much more. Would be great to get in touch with the band members, I have so many questions about Rubber Orange, and also about The Jerks!!

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Listen
Rubber Orange – Sun Shines Down on You

Thanks so much to Johan once again! A few months ago we did an interview about one his first band, the brilliant Théhuset. Today is time for the band he is more well known for, Able, from the city of Uppsala. Able released albums both in Sweden and in Japan and are back to playing live and recording songs. This is very exciting times for them! So it was of course a good chance to talk about Able on the blog!

++ Hi Johan! Thanks again for being for another interview! You played some gigs with Able for the first time in a while not so long ago. How was that?

Thanks to you, Roque! It’s pretty amazing how you can go more than ten years without it (raising kids, etc.), and when you go back it’s as natural as could be, like no time had passed. Able performed as a duo until 2008, but to all intents and purposes the band was on hiatus from 2004. Playing together again in 2018, so much time later, could have been a total disaster. But thankfully it was quite the opposite. We had our first gig in April, and now in the fall we are playing some more shows around Uppsala and Stockholm.

++ Able is still going on to this day, well after a long hiatus. What made you restart Able? And how easy or hard was to convince the rest to start playing again?

It was part coincidence, and part circumstance. Jonas Olsson, who plays guitars, harmonica and sings harmony in Able, had a party last year, where every band he’d been in was to perform, which meant that Able was to resurrect, if only for one night. But playing those songs again with Jonas made me realize how much I’d missed writing and playing, and with the kids a bit older I actually had time for it, so in the weeks and months after that I started writing songs again, in part from all the “worktapes” I had left from the 90’s. Turned out there was a lot of stuff there that I could draw on, and pretty soon I had 13 songs ready. There was no real plan at that point, but I talked a lot to my old friend Mattias Jonsson (The Seashells) about it, who was very supportive and had some really good ideas. And being a bass player, it made perfect sense that he would be involved. At that point, I was quite convinced that we were recording songs for a new band, but as the songs took shape it became obvious to the three of us that this was Able, after all. We’re a four-piece band now that we are fortunate enough to have Malkolm Bonander on drums and backing vocals.

++ You have a new song “Screaming Heart” which you say is a work in progress. I wonder then, what’s coming up from the band? What are you working on?

Hehe. Quite a lot, to be honest. We had an album ready for release in 2002, which never saw the light of day due to many reasons (that album is the stuff of a movie, or a novel, or at least a Netflix documentary!), and now we’re making it ready for release in the fall. A first song will be released in September. But primarily we’re working on new songs for an album to be released in the spring. “Screaming Heart” is one of them (but the end result will probably differ a bit), and there are a few other snippets on our Youtube channel as well. Apart from Jonas, Mattias and me, there are quite a few guest appearences on the recordings, including ex-member Lotta on some harmonies and my dad on accordion.

++ I know you had been in Théhuset, Barking Up The Wrong Pyramid and Projekt Byrån. But what about the other band members, had any of them been involved with other bands prior to Able?

In the original line-up, Lotta and me came from Théhuset. I knew Dante Algstrand (drums) from Borlänge, where he’d been playing in punk bands (such as Små gröna as). Bo Larses (bass) had also played in bands, but I’m not sure which. Anders Zaine (guitar) had mostly played by himself. Around 1995, Erik Hellström joined on clarinet and lap steel guitar – he’d been playing and singing in bands in Västervik (Poodle, among others).

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

After Théhuset split up towards the end of 1992, Lotta and I put up ads in student houses in Uppsala, looking for a drummer and a bass player. I don’t remember if there were a lot of replies, but when Dante and Bo presented themselves we had a band, and then we found Anders at a concert. By the summer, we had recorded our first demo, in September we had our first gig, and then we kept going.

++ You went to Uppsala university to study Spanish, right? I wonder if you like any Spanish language indiepop perhaps? Were the rest of the band also students in university? What did they study?

Correct! I listen to a lot of Spanish and Latin American music, not only pop, but also a lot of singer-songwriter (Silvio Rodríguez and Caetano Veloso, for instance, or Juan Quintero for a more modern reference). I’m not that good at finding indiepop, though, or perhaps I’ve been looking in the wrong places, but I have a playlist with some tracks by Spanish artists such as The New Raemon, La Bien Querida, El Chico con la Espina en el Costado, that I listen to every now and then… I would love to find more Latin American artists and groups. We’re actually recording a couple of songs in Spanish for the fourth album!

And yeah, most of the other members studied at university. Lotta and I met while studying Spanish, and she went on to study Psychology. Bosse studied to be a landscaper, Erik studied different things, ethnology among them.

++ And what happened to Lotta? I notice on the later promo photos she is not there anymore. Were there many lineup changes?

After “Lost Love Songs”, Lotta moved to Stockholm and quit the band. It was quite logical in a sense – we’d been in a relationship since the Théhuset days, and when that ended I think it made sense for her to leave the band. But I’m really glad she stayed for “Lost Love Songs”. As for lineups, there have been quite a few changes over the years, especially on drums. It seemed to us that we had some sort of curse on us: we couldn’t keep a drummer. A Spinal Tap kinda thing. I think there have been eight or nine different drummers in the band, a few of them for a long time, others quite short. But if we go chronologically, the first lineup with Lotta, Anders, Bosse, Dante and me lasted a couple of years, then Erik came in on clarinet and lap steel, and then Rickard Henley replaced Dante on drums. Anders left the band after the first album, when we were moving more towards singer-songwriter and more “classic” pop. The lineup for the second album included Jakob Frodell on drums, until he moved to Gothenburg to study. With Lotta and Jakob gone, the next lineup is a bit like Able 2.0, and we played together for almost four years until we disbanded in 2004. New members then were Jonas Olsson and Hans Mattsson (drums). And now, Able 3.0 is a four-piece group with Jonas, Mattias, me and Malkolm Bonander. So, summing up, I guess you’d have to come to the conclusion that yes, there have been many lineup changes!

++ What’s the story behind the name Able? Or is it aBle?

I don’t remember all the details, but I remember two reasons for choosing that particular name:

1) Appearing in the beginning of the record bins, probably right after Abba.
2) We wanted to be really good at writing and playing music, and didn’t really agree with the slacker attitude in indie pop and rock at the time.

The writing aBLe was something the first drummer Dante came up with. He was (and is!) very skilled at graphic design.

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

The creative process would usually be me writing songs, or snippets of songs, at home, piecing them together to something that resembled a song, take it to rehearsal. Lotta would chip in at home as well, and also write songs. We had a place just about 100 yards from where I lived in central Uppsala – quite a luxury. I wrote a lot, but just a fraction would get to the band. Thankfully, I recorded everything on a tape deck, the good ideas and the bad. There are about seven hours’ worth of snippets on those cassettes. The arrangement of the songs would be quite democratic, at least until “Lost Love Songs”, Everyone would have their say, and it’s clear from the earlier recordings that it’s a group effort. Which I like, though the end result sometimes would have been better with one firm hand leading the way.

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

Some influences have been constant: Brian Wilson, Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout, Dusty Springfield, the songwriting of Goffin/King… Other things have changed. When we started the band, the Lemonheads were a big thing for us, as were Juliana Hatfield and Liz Phair. A couple of years later, by “Lost Love Songs”, the big things were rather artists like Townes Van Zandt and Joni Mitchell.

++ I interviewed you about your previous band, Théhuset, and was I’m curious to know what would you say were differences and similarities between both bands?

Different language. 😉

It’s a tricky question, actually. My idea for both bands was more or less the same, relative to where I was at the time. I’ve always been trying to do the same thing, really. But I changed over time, obviously. The main difference was probably the different people involved in the different bands; that’s the main thing. It’s always an organic process when you’re a band. The other difference would be that I gradually got better at writing songs, and with the experience we had, we all got better at arranging and performing them.

++ Before releasing some records on label you put out some tapes on your own. I’m checking now to the 1994 tape “Strolling for Olives” that had 6 songs. I’m quite curious to know if these tapes were demos and how did it work for you self-releasing tapes?

I’d say we just simply recorded demo tapes to send to record companies, magazines and clubs, but we had a laugh pretending to be a record company, so we put “Pimiento Rec.” on the tapes. Eventually, we began receiving some demos to the label, and by then the joke was on us. We sold some copies of the tapes to people who had read about them in magazines like Sound Affects, but that’s about it. But we’re sticking to the label name in these times of self-production. The “lost” third album will be PIM10 when it’s released.

++ The second tape I found has the enigmatic name “The Gin, The Tonic and the Damned Malaria”. I’m very curious where does this name come from?!

It’s a perfectly legitimate question. 🙂 To me, those words conjure up an image of an Englishman in India, blaming his sorry condition on the malaria – the G&T just being a means to avoid catching a fever…

++ This tape has two of my favourite songs by Able, “Fa Fa Fa Fa” and “The Boy With the Starry Eyes”, they are so poppy and cheery, was wondering if you could tell me the story behind them?

Well, thank you! This was when we had been invited to contribute two tracks to a compilation album to be put out by H. Lime Records (their very first release). As these songs were going to be on an actual CD, I wanted to do something special. We had the songs (“April Sky” and “Fa, Fa, Fa, Fa”), the question was the arrangements. I didn’t want those songs to sound like the live version of us. Rather, I wanted to somehow bring out what the songs had within them. Sorry if this makes no sense. Anyway, I managed to find people who played the flute, the French horn and the clarinet, arranged scores for them, rehearsed with them. Maria on the flute was the sister of our guitarist Anders, and the guy on the clarinet ended up being a member of the band: Erik Hellström. We recorded three songs – two of them ended up on the compilation, while the third track (“The Boy with the Starry Eyes”) remains unreleased. The two songs you mention are in a way similar, as they are upbeat and cheery, but deep down deal with some very difficult issues: a childhood of alienation (“Fa, Fa…”), and mental illness (“The Boy…”).

++ Your next tape, “Prestigeless Lovesounds”, was recorded at Toodle Recordings Studio by Jörgen Wärnström of Cloudberry Jam fame. How was that? How was working with him and what did he add to the band’s sound?

In the liner notes to “Lost Love Songs” we expressed our gratitude to our “perfect angel friend” Jörgen. I can’t even imagine what that demo and the subsequent albums would be without him. To cut it short: we got along very well, we understood each other, we trusted each other. May not sound like much, but it goes a really long way. And Jörgen was and is obviously really, really good at what he’s doing. I’m thrilled that Jörgen accepted to master the “lost” third album.

++ This tape wasn’t recorded in Uppsala but in Linköping at Toodle Recordings. Why did you went all the way there?

It was because of Jörgen. I honestly can’t remember how and when it was decided that we should go there, but I met Jörgen at Kalmar Nation in Uppsala when he was there with Cloudberry Jam, and I guess it evolved from there.

++ Your first album came out on the Harry Lime label from Sweden a year after. I know very little about them aside that they put out a bunch of fabulous releases. Who were they? Where were they based? How did you sign up with them?

I think we sent them one of our demos, they liked it and asked us to be on the first record the label would release, the “In the Limelight” compilation. After that, we were offered a deal to record two albums for them. I really don’t know that much about the label apart that it was based in Eskilstuna, and was run by pop enthusiasts. After the chaos surrounding “Lost Love Songs”, when the label suddenly more or less disappeared, we were less than happy with them, obviously (but more on that later).

++ And why does the album has the same name as the 1995 tape?

The title is from a line in the song “…And a Way to End This Life”. I think we sort of identified with that at the time. Still do, I must confess. Prestigeless sounds of love, that can’t be a bad thing, right? And as the cassette wasn’t meant for general consumption, we figured we could use it again.

++ There is also a Japanese version for this album released by Columbia Japan! That must have been great. I suppose thanks to this you got many Japanese fans, perhaps got invited to Japan or not? And do tell me, this album version has two extra songs. Where do they come from? From the same recording session?

Yeah, H Lime scored a licensing deal with Denon/Nippon Columbia for parts of their catalogue including our album. The album did pretty well in Asia, though they censored parts of the lyrics in the booklet which referenced sexual activity in a roundabout way. The extra songs were from the H Lime compilation, straight off.

++ It is by this time that you sign with North of No South, no? And then what happened? Why weren’t there any releases with them?

No, there are no discussions with NONS at this point. We were signed to H Lime, and things were going pretty well, both in Sweden and Asia. But around this time we got to know the people running NONS. I clearly remember an after party at my flat in Uppsala after a Puffin gig, when one of the NONS heads insisted on making a leek omelett at 2 in the morning.

++ “Mainstream Daydream” was your second album and was released on tape by Pimiento Recordings. Who were Pimiento Recordings? And why was it released on tape? That was kind of unusual during the late 90s, no?

Well, as I said earlier, Pimiento Recordings really wasn’t anything, it was just our joke of a record label. At that time, we were going through a period of great inspiration, me and Lotta (and Erik) writing songs by the dozen. Before we went into the studio to record “Lost Love Songs”, we had about 80 songs. Part of that process is reflected on “Mainstream Daydream”. You can tell that we’re a pretty tight band, having a lot of fun. A month or so later, I finally bought an electro-acoustic guitar so that we could play the songs the way they were meant to be played. And about the “release”: yeah, we made some copies of it, but didn’t exactly work our butts off promoting them. A few months ago, I dug up the tapes and released “Mainstream Daydream” digitally. There are some good songs on there, and you can tell we were having a lot of fun playing together.

++ This album has a song called “Fuck You, Fuck You, Fuck You”. Would be interesting to know what inspired you to write that song!

I’ve been informed that I’ve been giving misleading information on this song. Apparently, the lyrics are inspired by certain music critics.

++ Afterwards you put out a 7″ EP on the US label Blackbean And Placenta Tape Club titled “The Seasons and the Moods EP”. The first thing that caught my attention is the photo used on the sleeve. It is very evocative. Who took that photo or where did you get it?

The photo is from a family album and dates from the 40’s. The girl in the photo was called Märta. It’s a great photo, especially considering it’s taken from a normal family album. The EP was released in conjunction with the album (Lost Love Songs), and was also a way for us to release some tracks that wouldn’t get on the album. I’m really glad that “Hope in Hell” and “Regressing to Sixteen” could be released that way. That leaves just “She’s All Mine” and “Mary” unreleased from those sessions. In 2017, a remastered (Jörgen Wärnström at the knobs) version of the EP was released digitally.

++ And how did the contact with this US label happen? Did you ever meet with the people running it?

Well, we sent the tape all around, and got all kinds of replies, none of them positive, though, until a fan in the Midwest pointed us towards Blackbean & Placenta, and that was it. The album itself was probably worthy of a slightly larger label, but Mike Landucci at Blackbean was great. I just wish the idea of a split 7″ with My Morning Jacket had happened. And no, we never met in person, unfortunately.

++ Your last released album was “Lost Love Songs” in 1999. I read on Allmusic that there were many delays for you to release this album. What were these delays? What happened?

Well, it’s a long story, but I won’t bore you with the details. We had a deal with H Lime for two albums, and the relative success of the first album (in Sweden and Asia) meant that we had a slightly bigger budget this time around. And we were ready to use it! I arranged for a string quartet to cut parts, for instance, However, by the time we were finished, the people at H Lime were almost impossible to get in touch with. Eventually, they told us they were out of money and couldn’t release the album. We probably could have fought that, but we didn’t, and had to come up with the money for the recordings ourselves, After that, we shopped the tape around, We were more than a little proud of it, and right away NONS said they wanted to release it. And immediately went into bankruptcy, It was like we were cursed. We shopped the album around some more, receiving all kinds of replies (“you need to cut that country crap”, “you should do more of that country stuff”, “you’re too big for us” (yes, really!), until we landed at Blackbean & Placenta.

++ You said that this album and the 7″ EP are the most representative for you of the Able sound. Why is that?

Well, I think that’s when we found our sound – more acoustic and dynamic, less edgy and distorted, the vocals pushed more to the front. In short: more focus on the songs themselves, and less on the band. The recording wasn’t as “democratic” as the first album, it was more me producing together with Jörgen. I really think we were on to something there, but then Lotta and Jakob left and we had to start over again.

++ The album and the EP were actually co-releases by Blackbean and Placenta and Pimiento Recordings. How did that work for you? Did you split costs? Or did the pressing plant send half of the copies to different countries? Was it an easy workflow?

We split the costs in the sense that we paid for the recordings (see above 😉 ) and Mike paid for pressing the CD:s. After that, we split the copies between us. Really simple.

++ You mentioned to me that in 2001 you recorded an album that remains unreleased. Tell me about it! Did it have a name? How many songs were recorded? Was it recorded at the same place with Jörgen? Why wasn’t it released?

We recorded 17 songs there in the summer and fall of 2001 for an album to be titled “Sweetest Wind”, and there were two record companies who wanted to release it (one in Asia, one in the US). There were some really good songs on there, and some great recordings, but it was a bit too varied, and at times didn’t really sound like Able, so the release fell through. At that point, I was just fed up with chasing a record company. And I had just finished my PhD thesis. I simply didn’t have the energy. On top of that, there was some internal personal turmoil in the band, which meant that we stopped rehearsing and playing for a while. So the album went on the shelf. Until now. With Mattias Jonsson’s help, we’ve pulled 10 songs from those sessions that actually make a cohesive album and sound like Able, Jörgen has mastered them, and in October the album will be out, titled simply “Third”. A first track will be out on Spotify etc on September 7.

++ You appeared on many compilations! The one I’m curious about is one tape called “Popangelov #3” that has no label but seems to be a third volume of a series. A bunch of good bands appear here like Cloudberry Jam or Red Sleeping Beauty. What was this tape about, do you remember?

Popangelov was a fanzine in Eskilstuna/Uppsala. I think Mattias Axelsson was involved in it. They interviewed us for one of their issues, and included a song on the cassette that went with the issue.

++ You know I discovered Théhuset thanks to my friend Roger Gunnarsson’s blog and now I see that he released some of your songs on compilations on his label Dorian Records. Do you remember how he got in touch? Did you ever meet in person?

Roger’s done a lot to promote Swedish pop – a great guy! I don’t think we met, but we spoke on the phone. I think he was living in Halmstad at the time. Our friends in Fanscene also had a song on a Dorian compilation.

++ Then there are a couple of compilations from the early 2000s like the one called “Ockra – Ljudbild Uppsala” which I suppose was an Uppsala bands showcase? Was the band still going at that time? Or when did Able stop?

Yeah, the “Ockra” CD is a compilation of bands from Uppsala, or with some connection to Uppsala. Our dear friends in Alma, who are also on that CD, actually lived in Stockholm, but parts of Able were their backing band, so they would come to Uppsala to rehearse, and record. Able was still going at this stage, but not very fast. We had a side project, the Lightning Band, that performed at weddings, parties, and such things. By 2002, I think we were doing that more than having gigs with Able. Towards the end of the year, my first son was born. Life changed, for the better, obviously. We had our last proper Able gig in 2004. Jonas and I had some shows after that, but as a band, Able went into standstill in 2004. Alma was a part in resurrecting Able, as they sang backing vocals on Jonas’ party last year, and did it beautifully. They are a distinctive part of the fourth album.

++ And after the band splitting, what did you all do afterwards? Did you all continue involved with music?

++ And after the band splitting, what did you all do afterwards? Did you all continue involved with music?

Jonas continued playing with Alma, but I’m not sure of the others. I wrote songs on and off (off. mostly), and performed a few times as a solo artist, sometimes with Mattias Jonsson on bass, and sometimes Fredrik Sandgren would join in on euphonium. And Jonas was there at times as well, until he moved to Turkey with his family. I had been following our local soccer team, IK Sirius, and by 2003 I was running their website along with a friend. As time went on, I was communications director for the club, and doing all sorts of other things as well, even including scouting players.

++ And aside from that album, are there more unreleased songs by the band?

Well, let’s see. 10 of the “Third” session songs will be released in the fall, so that leaves seven unreleased from those sessions. And there are 11 or 12 songs that remain unreleased from other sessions, plus about 18-19 tracks from the demo years. And there are a few live recordings as well. So, yeah, there’s quite a lot of unreleased stuff. Some of it should probably remain unreleased…

++ You wrote so many songs with Able, I wonder if you would do a top five of the songs you wrote for the band, what would it be and why?

Oh, wow, that’s probably the toughest questions I’ve ever had! Especially since I’m still writing and recording. It’s almost impossible to judge them equally, but ok, I’ll give it a try. Without ranking them. And if I made this list tomorrow, it’s quite likely it would be different.

– We Might Never Meet Again
From “Lost Love Songs”. This is the only song I’ve written where it all just came to me, without me having to work at it. All the other songs are like drawing water from a stone. I wrote the lyrics first, in a hotel room in Buenos Aires, and the words more or less just poured onto the page. There are no rhymes, and it shouldn’t have been a lyric. But when I got back home to Uppsala, I picked up the guitar and started playing to those words, and the chords and the melody were just there almost from the beginning. I might be romanticising this a bit, but not that much. But this was the only time songwriting has been like that for me.

– Screaming Heart
From the batch of songs we’re recording for our fourth album (which should be out in the spring or summer of next year). When I started writing again last year, I was really nervous about the lyrics. What do you write lyrics about now? Turns out there are a lot of things. For one, there are some of those things you used to write about (love, loneliness, anxiety, etc.), and there’s a whole new package of themes that you had no idea about when you were 20-25. The lyrics to this one is one example.

– Best Regret
From the “Third” album. It’s a pretty complex song, but I somehow managed to get everything in place and run smoothly. And even though it includes a line I inadvertently stole from Ron Sexsmith (I realize this as I was doing a soundcheck in front of – you guessed it – Ron Sexsmith! He was very gracious about it: “Oh, they’re all very common words.”)

– Thrill
From “Lost Love Songs”. When people say that we play some sort of country music, I try like a fool to tell them they’re wrong (no disrespect to country music – there’s a lot of it I love). Ok, the music starts out as some sort of singer-songwriter pop, with influences from indie, twee, folk, soul and country. But country is just one part of it. And “Thrill” is exhibit A. It’s probably one of the songs that go over best when we play gigs, even to this day. And it’s a hell of a lot of fun playing.

– Construction Workers
From the “Third” album. I spend some time in Spain, and quite often you walk over bridges where there’s not a drop of water underneath. There used to be a river there, but there isn’t one anymore, and the bridge still stands there, as if nothing had changed. I thought it was an excellent metaphor for a relationship that’s died.

++ Was there any interest other labels? Perhaps a big one?

There was a bit of a buzz after the first album, that did really well, especially in Asia. I was invited to write some songs for a young Japanese singer, and there was talk of a tour in Japan, etc. Some of that went through H. Lime, and when they fell apart, so did our connections with Denon/Nippon Columbia.

++ What about gigs? Which were the best ones and why?

We played a lot in Uppsala, and some in Stockholm and Linköping. But in all honesty we weren’t that good at getting gigs, and neither were the people who volunteered to help us. One of the more interesting ones was in Luleå. where we played at a festival on the university campus. Luleå is almost 1000 kms from Uppsala, and we travelled by train with our friends in Blake Carringtons. I don’t think we slept very much…

++ I suppose you played all over Sweden? Any other countries?

Not yet, unfortunately, it’s been all Sweden. It would be pretty special to play in a Spanish-speaking country.

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

As far as I can remember, there were no complete disasters. We somehow always managed to work our way through any difficulties. For some reason, our bass player always had trouble when we played in Linköping. On one of the gigs (at Herrgårn) he broke a string, so we improvised acoustic versions of songs while he fixed that, and another time he actually broke the neck of the bass against a pillar. It just went straight off. And without us asking, someone in the audience ran home, fetched his bass and lent it to us.

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

We did interviews with the local press in Uppsala, as well as with papers in Dalarna, Hälsingland and Småland (parts of the band were from those areas). We did interviews with fanzines such as Fozzie and Popangelov. And some radio interviews, and in 2008 we played live on Radio Uppland (the national radio in our region). No TV, though.

++ Were there any promo video clips for the band? I read there might be one for the song “Plain Life”, is that true? Will they ever surface on Youtube?

That’s right! There was a video made for “Plain Life”, and there were at least three copies made. Two of them went to ZTV (an independent music channel at the time), and we got one copy. But where any of those copies are is a complete mystery. I would love to get my hands on one so I could transfer it to Youtube. I think I’ve seen it just once or twice.

++ I noticed on your Facebook that you made Able t-shirts. I guess these were sold at gigs, right? Were there many designs perhaps? What other merch did the band produce back in the day?

Again, we’ve been absolutely horrible at marketing all along. We really need help for that. It’s true we made t-shirts, but we only made five of them, one for each member of the band. When we had them on and lined up next to each other, we would read A B L E ! I believe there are pictures of it, but I don’t have any. And we didn’t produce any other kind of merch back then. It’s way beyond me.

++ Looking back, for Able, what was the biggest highlight for the band?

Part of me is thinking that the best is yet to come. And it’s not just wishful thinking. In many ways, it’s so much easier to make good music now – less anxiety and nervousness, more experience, less ambition (in terms of making a career out of it; in terms of musical quality the ambitions are definitely higher now). For me personally, one of the highs thus far was opening for Ron Sexsmith (despite that incident where I stole his lyrics…). And all the people we’ve come to know through playing with Able can’t really be expressed in words. It’s changed us all. The sessions with Jörgen for “Lost Love Songs” are a memory I treasure dearly – it was a really special time.

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Listen
Able – Fa Fa Fa Fa

So, I have some interesting news. So I’m leaving my current job and joining another graphic department in two weeks time. I don’t know how busy it will be at the new place, if there will be time to update the blog at the pace I’m used to. It will just be a matter to adjust. I like posting the blog in the mornings, as it gets more views if I do it at that time. In the evening, after coming back home from work is never good. Most of the European people who read the blog are already going to bed or sleeping.

In any case these last few weeks at this place I’ve been writing about bands a lot. I have many drafts saved for obscure bands I want to feature. So there will be posts, for sure, even at the busiest times. The only thing that I do more or less at the time of posting are the five new indiepop finds on the web. Those have the be “new” right? And it is not like every day there are 10 or 20 new things to share with everyone! We’ll see how it goes. In the meantime, here are my newest finds over the weekend.

Rådjuret: the latest release by Rasmus’ label Luxury Records sounds ace! The self-titled album by Rådjuret is now available to stream and it is very limited, just 150 copies on vinyl LP. It will be released on September 7th and includes 10 songs of lovely female indiepop. It is the first time I’m listening to this band and I must say I’m impressed. Oh! and they sing in Swedish, and I like that!

Kassia Klein: another find on the Luxury bandcamp is this song called “Du Är Stormen” by Kassia Klein. I suppose a digital single. There is no physical release. This intimate-sounding song is also in Swedish. Even though I thought Kassia Klein was the name of the vocalist, it is not. It turns out they are a duo formed by Kåre Vernby and Maja Gödicke. On their Facebook it says an album is slated for release this September.

De Montevert: my friend Ellinor has been putting out great music under the name De Montevert for many years. But lately she has been kind of quiet. Until a few days ago when she unveiled a new song called “Jag Vet Inte” I hope this means that more new songs are coming up! Perhaps too a new release!

The Goon Sax: the brilliant Brisbane band shared a new song last week called “We Can’t Win”. It is an audio track on Youtube. This song will be included in their upcoming album “We’re Not Talking” that is to be released by Wichita Recordings and Chapter Music. It is great. The band will announce tour dates for the US soon too. I’m excited. I had such a good time at their gig last time in NYC. Even better chatting with them, even though I think I disappointed them as I went home early haha. I’m an old man these days! Maybe if they play on a weekend I can have a couple more beers and chat about obscure Australian bands. Don’t miss this album!

The Daysleepers: one of my favourite bands from Buffalo, NY, are returning after a 10 year break with the album “Creation”. Their dreamy and upbeat shoegaze sounds are back indeed! The band formed by Jeff Kandefer, Mario Gimbrone, Scott Beckstein and Elizabeth Kandefer are returning with a 9 song album and 4 of these songs are available to stream on their Bandcamp! Very exciting! Oddly enough it looks like the album is only available digitally at the moment. That can’t be! I hope there is a physical release. Crossing fingers!

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With the future “Leamington Spa” German compilation Firestation is preparing I’ve been wondering which bands will be featured. And what name will they give their compilation? “The Sound of…” what? Berlin? Probably not. Maybe some other town? Or maybe something totally different?

One of the bands I think would be great to include is Schade Schokolade, mostly because I know nothing much about them and some bio in a booklet would be greatly appreciated. That if I don’t get the chance to interview them before. I hope that happens.

It is true that the band didn’t release any proper records. They only contributed songs to compilations. According to Discogs just 4 compilations. The first one dates from 1992 and was on the “Wegweiser Durch’s Eiswürfelland” tape released by Eiswürfel Tonräger (EIS 2). I’ve mentioned this label in the past, especially when I interviewed the band Die Busfahrer. On this compilation, that has that cool artwork of what looks a superhero with a globe of the Earth as its head, the band contributed “Gute Laune” and “Liebe aus Der Dose”. Both songs are credited to Gelting.

The next year, in 1993, the band appears on yet another fine tape compilation that has been mentioned quite a few times on the blog, the “Frischer Morgentau” tape. This was released by Twee.net Peter Hahndorf’s brother Ulli’s label Steinpilz Tonträger (STEIN 1). On this tape the band appears with one song and was called “Ach Wär’ Doch Sommer”.

The band was to work again with Eiswürfel Tonträger on a CD compilation called “Die Schönste Platte Der Welt” (EIS 7). This compilation was released in 1994 and included many classic German bands. On this CD the band opens the album with “Sommerlied” and also includes a second song, “Tomatensuppe”. I’d love to have a copy of it!

Lastly there is a double CD compilation from 2002 called “Meet Me at Club 2 – A Benefit Farewell”. I suppose the band contributed a song from the early 90s, or did they reform to record a song? The band gave away “Die Szene Wird Dich Leben” for this comp and here we find a few credits. We see that this song was produced by Bernd Hartwich who had been in bands like Bish, Der Englische Garten, Merricks and Silow. Then we see that the track was written by Carl Oesterhelt and Jörg Prigge. Carl was the songwriter and drummer of F.S.K. and keyboardist in Merricks as well as being in bands like 3 Shades of Blues, The Johnsons, Tied & Tickled Trio and Ms. John Soda. I suppose at this point it is safe to assume that the band was based in Munich.

I find on Youtube a video of Schade Schokolade performing “Ach Wär Doch Sommer” or is it Der Ware Grand Prix playing that song? I don’t find it very clear on the Youtube description as it has names on the band lineup that are none of Gelting, Prigge or Oesterhelt.

There also used to be an old Myspace page where there were three songs to stream. Three songs that weren’t part of any compilations as far as I know, “Lang Nicht Gekuesst”, “Ich Will Die Sonne” and “Bleib Locker”.

Sadly there is not much more on the web about them. I wonder if there are more recordings. If there was ever a proper release. Who were the members? Did they play all over Germany? Was there any offers of labels to release their music? Maybe my München friends remember them?

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Listen
Schade Schokolade – Tomatensuppe

A quick note this Friday letting you know that the BV’s 7″s are already at the pressing plant being pressed. We are hoping then that our release date will be sometime in late October/early November. There’s been already a bunch of pre-orders so I’ll keep everyone updated!

Now, here are a few new finds on the web for you all!

Toy Tambourine: this Bandung, Indonesia, band has uploaded three covers of Another Sunny Day which sound really good! They are very faithful though they do add some/more distortion compared to the originals. They have made covers of “Anorak City”, “I’m In Love With a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist” and “I Don’t Suppose I’ll Have a Second Chance”! They also have a new original song called “Candy Kissed (Demo)” worth checking out!

Herlights: one keeps discovering brilliant music coming out from Russia. Herlights is the latest one with their song “SHE”. This is the first time I listen to them and I hope to keep finding out new tracks by them. They have a few more of course, but the previous one dates from 8 months ago, from December. Maybe they do like taking their time.

Ease: another band from Indonesia in this post reviews. This one hails from Jakarta and is a dreampop band, with different influences to Toy Tambourine. They have two songs on their Bandcamp, “Longing” and “III”. Their latest is “Longing” which has very cool wall of guitars over female vocals.

Davey Woodward and the Winter Orphans: the ex-frontman of the Brilliant Corners has a new band, I’m sure you all know that, and it is called like this. They have signed to the German label Tapete Records and they’ve put a video for the song “Dylan’s Poster” to promote their self-titled debut album. And what can I say other than it makes me happy to see my indiepop heroes keeping guitar pop alive!

Sunbather: lastly this Durham, North Carolina, band who has put together a jangly digital album called “Melancholy Daze”. It starts pretty good with the self-titled song “Sunbather” and then it is all very simple, with simple track names, and straight to the point pop songs. Very summery too! Would love to know a bit more about them or him if it is a solo project!

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I’ve been googling for Cross Town Traffic and I keep getting results for Jimmi Hendrix. Dear, dear. That is not what I want, and it is truly disappointing. Hendrix doesn’t have anything to do with the sound of their sole and wonderful single.

The black and white sleeved single, with it’s iconic art, is another record most of us indiepop lovers would love to have. One day perhaps that dream will be true for me. In the meantime, I’m writing this post, hoping to get in touch with the band members as would love to interview them, learn the story behind the band.

There is little I know about them. I do know the band was formed by:
John Ralls on bass
John Wolfendale on drums and percussion
David Adshead on guitar and vocals
Glenn Vinnicombe on keyboards
Nick Clark on lead vocals and guitars

Their double A sided 7″ single was released in 1983 and it was a self-release. I wonder how many copies they pressed. They included two songs, “No For an Answer” and “Hanging On To You”, both written by Nick Clark and both recorded at The Elephant studios.

On Discogs I click on each member of the band hoping to find any project they might have been involved with. But there’s no luck. Only Cross Town Traffic is listed. There are no compilation appearances either. There’s nothing. Hitting a wall so soon doesn’t feel good. I need to find something else about them, this is too little. I love their song “No For An Answer”, I need to find out more.

But I was going to find a blog post on My Life is a Jigsaw dating from July 2016 were Glenn Vinnicombe is listed as a keyboard player during the years 1981 and 1984 in a band called 20th Century (whose “Mad World” song is pretty good! maybe worth a post?). It must be the same Glenn. Following a link to a website where it tells the story of the 20th Century band, I deduce that Cross Town Traffic was based in Cambridge. So with that detail in mind I find a Dr. Glenn Vinnicombe in the department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Could it be him?!

What about the other band members? I believe I also think I got the right John Wolfendale. It seems he now lives in Spain and works in developing eco-friendly villas! But no music associated to neither him or Glenn on the web. Maybe they stopped after Cross Town Traffic?

The other band members prove to be much more difficult. Maybe David Adshead studied architecture at the University of Cambridge. But can’t find much about John Ralls (he now lives in Bristol it seems) or about Nick Clark. I would love to know if they all made music with other bands.

That’s all this investigation could dig. It is better than nothing. I couldn’t find out if the band did any other recordings, nor if they had any other releases or compilation appearances. I couldn’t find much. But I’m hoping I’ll be able to find out more about them in the near future. Do any of my Cambridge readers remember them from the early 80s?

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Listen
Cross Town Traffic – No For an Answer

Thanks so much to Vasilis and George and the rest of the Kissamatic Lovebubbles for the interview! The Kissamatic Lovebubbles was a superb Athens band from the early 90s that only got to release one 7″ on the legendary This Happy Feeling label. One of my favourite Greek bands for sure! These days the band is back playing some gigs in their hometown of Athens and they have a very cool Facebook group if you feel like being a fan! The band is now working on new songs and can’t wait to see what comes out of that!

++ Hi! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? In Athens?

Hi Roque! Thank you for your invitation for this interview. We are fine; all the members of Kissamatic Lovebubbles are based in Athens.

++ I noticed that you have reformed and you are playing live again. What triggered this reunion? Did the Facebook group that asked you to reform had anything to do with it?

Yes, after all we are back again. 4/5 of the original line up with the addition of our good friend Stathis on bass guitar. The rest members are the same: George Otemperis – guitar, Dionisis Drogaris – guitar, Konstantinos Petropoulos – drums and Vasilis Chountalas – vocals. It was something we always had in mind and there were several attempts in the past for this reunion, but it seems that the right time has arrived. This Facebook group was created by a very good friend of ours and now it is our tool to communicate with our friends and fans.

++ I saw and listened to a new song, “Football Fans”, that is a brand new song! Are you working on more new songs? Perhaps a release? And how different is it for you all to create new songs now compared to the 90s?

Yes, it’s true that we had a new song that we played in our latest gig with the Groove Farm. We have in mind to work on more new songs and proceed in some releases. We are thinking of 1-2 seven-inch singles. The problem is that we do not having a lot of free time available, as we are all have regular full-time jobs, families, children and every day life obligations. Another problem is the distance between us as we all live in different Athens suburbs. But, we are trying our best without additional pressure as music is a way of relaxing for us, and for sure it makes us feel better.

++ Are there more gigs in store? I read somewhere too that you are thinking of starting a label?

After KLB reformation, we have played two gigs, the 1st was our reunion gig in December 2017, and the second was in a mini popfest festival with bands from Athens and Bristol (The Groove Farm, KLB, Le Page and The Rev. Jonny Kinkaid), in May 2018. There aren’t any more gigs in store until the end of the summer, so it is probably a good time to concentrate on writing some new songs and make some new recordings. We have in mind that we might have to release our new songs through a new label that we can start, but nothing official until now. It seems that our main concern is to find out if there’s any label in place that can express any kind of interest in releasing a new 7 inch single, initially.
But in our near plans is to record a live session for our friend Rocker, which a lot of great bands have been made sessions in his studio. Rocker will make the final mix and the production of the songs. We really appreciate his support and we send him our regards from Greece!

++ But now 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?

George: Well I remember when I was 12 the song that made me start listening to music was “the wall” by Pink Floyd, I then started listening to various bands from heavy metal to disco 80s! As I was getting deeper into music world, I took to bands like Depeche Mode, Pale Fountains, the Cure, the Smiths, but also the hits of the 80s music as we know it.
My first instrument was an Ibanez bass SG shape which I bought second hand from a friend who had a local record shop. I started playing in a school band cover songs from different kinds of music like Empty Rooms by Gary Moore but also Blue Monday by New Order! In the late 80s I sold the bass and I bought an ARIA PRO-II ES guitar which I still have and play in KLB.
Growing up in the 80s, the main music source was the radio stations and only one tv programme every Wednesday at 19:00! I remember rushing home after school to watch this programme that played the video clips of these days.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands before being in Kissamatic Lovebubbles?

From the existing members, Stahis has been involved in the past with other bands, like Pillow, Mind Over Matter, Seaside and Mavro Kokkino. George has also play with Seaside, Teenage Lust and Starblind. Vasilis and Dionisis were always dedicated to KLB, and at last, Konstantinos has played with other bands like Impossible Tymes, Sound Devise and Dr. Vodkatini.

++ Were all of you originally from Athens?

Yes, we are all grew in different Athens suburbs like Glyfada, Voula, Vyronas and Petroupoli. Vasilis has been born in Cyprus though, but he came to Greece at the age of 4, and George was born in Brazil and he came to Greece at the age of 2!

++ How was around Athens 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?

Early nineties were a golden era for the Greek Indie pop scene. There were bands, labels, fanzines and of course venues where the Indie Pop kids had the chance to express their feelings. No one can forget bands like The Jaywalkers, One Night Suzan, Impossible Tymes, Sound Devise, and others. Next Time Passions and Kissamatic Lovebubbles are the two bands back in life from that period. The main way of being in touch, with what was happening around the world, were the mail-order catalogues of Indie Pop labels, especially for the original small Indie labels. There were also some good record stores in Athens and Thessaloniki, like Pilgrim and Noise. I know several people who have spent small fortunes to buy records from it. At least, no one was ever getting bored at night as there were also a lot of bars playing Indie music, especially around Exarchia square and of course bigger clubs like Mad and Plan B.

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

The band started on a rainy night of Christmas 1992. This is when we meet (Vasilis, Dionisis, Konstantinos) from the current line-up, with Lakis and Chris from Sound Devise. Lakis was one of our two original guitarists and the only one who’s not active nowadays. Chris was playing bass guitar initially before George arrival, as he started with us until finding our own bassist. George was a guitarist though, but the only open position back then was for a bassist. It was just for fun and joy. We didn’t have in mind to release several albums, but making friends and act positively.

++ Why the name Kissamatic Lovebubbles? I suppose because of the Strawberry Story song? I saw on some forum someone saying that you had the tweest name ever, agree or disagree?

I remember that Vasilis had a cassette with Strawberry Story’s demos. One of the songs was called Kissomatic Lovebubble. So, it’s true that our name came from a SS song. It’s also true that our name sounds as Twee as can be. I don’t think that our sound can be called twee, as it is a mix of the Undertones and the Wedding Present, and we use to say that our sound is punk pop. Nothing more and nothing less.

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

It was all a DIY thing for us. We knew that we weren’t good musicians. But we are glad that with our attitude we gain a lot of respect by other bands and all our friends. We weren’t posers of course, we were just the boys next door. We were low profile people and we still are. We were practicing at George’s house and in a studio at Pangrati called Sub. As we were students back then and we wouldn’t be able to spend much money on high tech recordings, we just record some low budget demos, and two of those songs (Endless, Only Lust) were released as a 7 inch single by This Happy feeling records.

++ Did you ever sang or considered singing in Greek?

No. Greek is not fit with this type of music.

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

We can mention our beloved labels and bands : Creation, Sarah, Subway, 53rd and 3rd, Fire of London, Glass, etc.
Favorite bands : The Clash, The Undertones, The Barracudas, Ramones, the Wedding Present, The Pastels, the Fall, The Vaselines, the Shop Assistants, the Primitives, JAMC, Filed Mice, Boyracer, the Groove Farm, Ride, Adorable, Slowdive etc.

++ Your only proper record came out on the legendary This Happy Feeling label. Today it has that status of course, but how was back in the day? Was there a big scene that revolved around the label and its bands? And how did you sign with them?

It was mostly a company of Athenian Indie Pop kids. Same clubs, same gigs, same ideas. There were pop fanzines like “In those days”, “little charmer” and “Make Me Happy”, there were Indie Pop parties and through this procedure some local bands were created. I remember seeing for 1st time in my life “Next Time Passions” and “One Night Suzan” on stage. This is when I realized that we had to contribute to this scene. And as a matter of fact, Kissamatic Lovebubbles were created. So, this happy feeling was an event between friends. We didn’t sign any contracts, it was just an one minute discussion and that’s all. Would you like to release a single for us? Yes, of course.
More bands appeared during the same period, like Sound Devise, Pillow, Seaside, Common Sense, Mute , MCS and others. It was a pure and healthy collaboration.

++ How was your relationship with the label and the rest of the bands? Who were you closer with, who do you play more gigs with? Did you share band members with other bands?

We were all close as I can remember. The band that we were the most close with were the Sound Devise. We never forget Chris assistance, as he was playing bass in the very beginning of KLB and until recruit our own bassist.
We didn’t exchange members with other bands. George joined KLB when he left Seaside. Stathis was also member of Seaside back then and close friend.
On most of the gigs we played we shared stage with the bands mentioned above.

++ The “Only Lust” 7″ came out in 1994 and included two songs, “Only Lust” and “Endless”. Wondering if you could tell me the story behind these two songs, what inspired them?

Well, Endless was written by Dionisis and it’s a song about endless loves and broken hearts.
Only Lust was written by Lakis (the other guitarist) and it’s a very personal song about his family.

++ These songs were recorded at Studio 5 in Athens. How was that? How many days did they took to record? Any anecdotes you could share from the recording sessions?

Well I don’t remember a lot I think it lasted 2 days and It was a pleasant experience for me (George) as it was my first time recording in the studio. I only remember when Lakis wanted to add an acoustic guitar part at the end of “Endless” and he played it several times before he managed to get it right; when he did, we were shouting as if we had scored in a match!

++ Was it the first time you went to a recording studio? Had you have any recorded material before the single? Perhaps some demo tapes? Or earlier versions of these songs?

The recording of the single in This happy feeling was the second one, the first recording was a demo version of “Endless” and the song “Someday you’ll be mine” as you can find it in the new Compilation “Sparkling from the past”. This recording was done also in Studio 5 with Chris as a bass player.

++ And how come there weren’t more proper releases by the band?

Actually after those two recordings we had a 3rd one when we recorded the songs “Me” and “Total Hangover”. Those songs were supposed to be released as a single in THF but unfortunately this single never came out.

++ Was there any interest from other label?

There was an interest by Shelflife records, some years after the end of KLB. The song Total Hangover is included in the picnic basket compilation.

++ You did appear on a handful of compilations back in the day. There is one called “The Only Original” that I’ve never heard but looks like a mixed bag of different music styles. Was that common in Athens? Like you shared gigs with hardcore and punk bands? How did you feel about that?

That was a tape compilation released by Radio utopia, an alternative radio station from Thessaloniki. They promoted Greek bands of all styles. A live recording of the song “Dreamland” is included by us with other songs from punk, garage and other Greek Indie bands. It wasn’t really common, but just imagine about early nineties in a small country like Greece, without today’s social media or other resources that available today. It was the really pure years for music lovers.
It seems that from the so called “Pop” Greek bands, we were the only one making an impact to people involved with harder styles of music, like punk and hardcore. Our sound is “punk pop” and we were fine with the acceptance by a “different” audience.

++ Then there’s also the Plouf tape compilation were you contribute “Someday You’ll Be Mine”. This was a French tape. So I wonder how did your music ended up in other corners of the world? How did you connect in the pre-internet times with them?

Yes, the tape was released by some guys we were in contact back then. Marianthi and Christos, probably the most famous Greek pop kids around the globe, introduced us. I’m sorry that I can recall the names of the guys running the fanzine “Les Tartines” and I’m looking forward to getting in touch again. Plouf tape was given with an issue of the fanzine.
The communication was made through standard mail. We exchange parcels with fanzines, mail-order catalogues and records. DIY at its best.
One of the closest friends we made back then was Jens for the German band “the Legendary Bang”. It was really a pleasure getting in touch again before some months and discuss about our lives, our families, our children, after all those years. The connection between people involved globally in this Indie Pop thing is remarkable and unforgettable. And it seems that most of the people were good people with great hearts!

++ I discovered your music thanks to a compilation, the “Try a Little Sunshine” that was released by Pop Art in 1999. I believe a lot of people did too. I think this is a very special compilation. Would you agree with me? Did you notice in the noughties a new interest in Greek indiepop from all around the world?

The compilation was released by Nektarios, the owner of one of the most influential Greek record stores called “Vinyl Microstore”. In our opinion this compilation is giving the best view of the Greek Indie pop scene. Most of the bands weren’t active when the compilation printed.

++ And it must have been a surprise that a US label like Shelflife was interested in having a song of yours in 2001’s compilation “Picnic Basket”, many years after Kissamatic Lovebubbles had stopped making music. I suppose this time it was thanks to the internet?

Yes it’s true, Ed been in touch by email asking about the songs. He came in contact through THF and finally we sent him a CD with the song Total Hangover slightly shorter as we cut a bit the pause in the beginning of the song. This version in the picnic basket is slightly different than the one in “Try a little sunshine”

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

We have plenty of other songs that can be released, but we must go to a studio first. All our studio recordings have been released by now.

++ You were part of the This Happy Feeling scene of course, which is now getting new love by the people from Make Me Happy by re-releasing the music from that time. Don’t know if there are plans for this, but have you considered to do a retrospective compilation of your music at some point?

Everything is under consideration. We are not in a hurry and we are trying to “steal” some time from our everyday life’s and obligations. As we have already mention in previous questions we are looking forward for some new releases. Do you think that Cloudberry can show interest for a new KLB release?

++ I have good Greek friends in London who always talked about you, and how amazing you were and all. I wish I could have been at your gigs, they must have been special! I wonder how were your gigs? Did you play short sets? Were there a lot of fans at the time? Did you have merch to sell? Are there any funny anecdotes you could share with me?

When it comes to London, we know that you are talking about Marianthi and Christos. They are our biggest fans and very good friends. We lived the early nineties Indie Pop explosion together and there’s a big connection between us. They used to run their own label “Atomic Beat” between 2007-2010. We are always happy thinking of them and the great times we had spent together.
Our gigs were funny and “hangovered” most of the times. A lot of fun and alcohol. I remember that our first gig was for 10 minutes, as we only had 3 songs available.
I remember when we played at the 1st Indie Free Festival back in 1993, a festival that is still alive. We had our fans in the audience and 5 minutes after the beginning of the gig we lost our drummer, as his seat was broken, and he fell behind the scene.
But, the mot funny thing I remember was a mini festival in Chania where we were invited as the main attraction by M.C.S., a local Indie band. When we arrived, we realized that there were around 800 people, and most of them were punks and headbangers. Oh god, I still remember that guy with a “Megadeath” t-shirt and his friends. We ended up drinking beers with our thrash metal friends until early morning hours.

++ Did you play many gigs in total? All over Greece perhaps?

Not that many. They were all in Greece of course and no more than 10 In our first period between 1992-1995, and 2 now.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all?

We cannot remember any bad gigs. But as we are not professionals, we have never paid that much attention in avoiding mistakes and be perfect at all. Support and enjoy. That’s all!

++ When and why did Kissamatic Lovebubbles stop making music? And what happened immediately after?

Unfortunately, one big issue in Greece for young men, is that they must fulfill a military statutory service obligation after the end of their studies. So, the main reason for the termination of the project was the army obligations. We had to spent around 1,5 years in the borders. It’s the price we pay because of the geographical position of our country and the “friendship” with our neighbors.
Then we had to face true life. Find regular jobs, making families, growing our kids. The good thing is that after all those years, full of good and bad times, loses of beloved people, divorces, tears and joy, we are still here, more dedicated and thirsty for music than ever. Pure music lovers.

++ And during the past couple of decades have you been involved in any other music projects? You were in Starblind, right?

George was in Starblind. Konstantinos was playing for Dr. Vodkatini, with members of Sound Devise. A kind of bossanova music. Stahis was also active with Pillow and Mavro Kokkino. Vasilis and Dionisis were waiting for the reform.

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

Only alternative radio shows. It seems much easier now, as during the last 2-3 months we gave more interviews than ever.

++ What about from fanzines?

A lot of fanzines back in early nineties. Now nothing. Just to name few “In those days”, “Little charmer”, “Make me happy”, “ Chrysalifourfouro”, etc.

++ I feel you still enjoy indiepop, and still follow it. What are the last records you have enjoyed?

It’s always a pleasure. Last albums really enjoyed were from The Total Rejection, Arrest! Charlie Tipper and I, Ludicrous and Alvvays.

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

We are collecting stamps and butterflies! No, we are joking. It is our main hobby still and until the end of the world. We also enjoy good food, drinks with friends and movies.

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

Although we had a lot of nice moments in our live appearances the highlight was the release of our single back in ’94. Maybe we didn’t realize when it was released but it’s really amazing to see nowadays on the youtube unknown people from allover the world presenting their favorite singles and our single to be one of them!

++ Never visited Athens, would love to go to Greece some day. It is due. 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? Ones that I can’t find where I live hopefully, I’m in Astoria, the Greek area of New York!

Ok then. So, you should have experience the Greek food we guess like souvlaki and moussaka. Greek food mixed with Mediterranean cousin is more than perfect. For sightseeing, there are plenty of monuments to visit in Athens and much more if you wish to travel round 2-2,5 hours away. But, our suggestion is to spend 2-3 days in Athens and the rest of your time in some Greek islands, and not the crowded ones like Mykonos and Santorini. Try Amorgos, Ikaria and Antiparos, and for fun Ios.
Anyway, just give us a call and we will arrange everything!

++ And I must say I’m a big fan of guitar pop made in Greece, but would love to ask what are your top all-time bands from your country? And if you could recommend me a few obscure bands too?

We admit that the best Greek band ever is “The Last Drive” and especially their two first albums. Their sound was a mix of garage punk rock.
Of course, we love the Jaywalkers, Next Time Passions, One Night Suzan and Sound Devise.
The band we admire, and love nowadays are the Callas. They have release plenty of records, some of them produced by Lee Ranaldo od Sonic Youth and Jim Sklavunos of the Bad Seeds.
And from the new blood of Athens Indie Pop we like Le Page and Postal Lovers, both pure Indie pop sound.

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

We would like to thank you for this interview and we believe that cloudberry is keeping the flag of indie pop high by releasing excellent New music and presenting hidden treasures of the past. Keep on having good taste in music.
Cheers from Greece!

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Listen
Kissamatic Lovebubbles – Total Hangover

I am still very excited about the news that The BV’s are releasing a 7″ with our little label. You must have listened already the A side, “Every Story is a Ghost Story‘, and loved it as I did? I hope so! If that’s the case let me tell you that the pre-order button is now live at our website. So don’t miss out! The record went to press today, so hopefully in around two months time we will have it at home shipping first to everyone who placed a pre-order.

I’m really impressed that in these times we’ve managed to put out 45 7″ singles. And we are getting closer and closer to 50 7″s. It is not an easy task. But can only thank your support. I hope you keep supporting the label as you’ve been doing for the past 10 years!

Now here are some new finds for you to enjoy in the middle of the week (?).

The Science of Words: our friend Pete from Horowitz, The Rosehips and more is now in a band called The Science of Words alongside Corinne Plant and have just released their debut single called “In a Space” on Next Phase:Normal Records as a 7″. They’ve made a video too for it, which I’m linking here. The sound is a bit different, a bit rougher and rockier, but still you can find the pop sensibility in it.  And the video is very cool!

Foundlings: a London band formed by Amber, Bry, Matty and Oly. Another lovely sounding band that didn’t get invited to Indietracks. The list keeps getting longer and longer. Their latest song was just released on their Bandcamp and it is called “Horizon” and it is just sweet sounds for my ears. The band have a few more songs available like “Misery” and “Your Sister”. Looking forward to them releasing them in physical format!

Tight Knit: a bit of shambolic pop from this Melbourne trio. I don’t know much about them, but there are two songs on their Bandcamp, “Too Hot” and “Want You”, and they are not that new, they are from 2017. Crashpop, lo-finess, and female vocals. It is a good combination.

Todavía: this dreampop project by Rhyan Riesgo from Los Angeles have just uploaded a new song called “Visitor” to their Bandcamp. And what can I say other than it is dreamy? That is pretty obvious, right? It is the first time I’m listening to his music, but I see there are many more songs to keep me busy all afternoon. Good stuff!

Grupo de Inventores: the Zaragoza band has a new song called “La Edad de Oro” which will be included in their new EP “Abgrund”. The band formed by G. Inventor, J. Parra, J. Castejón, Thomas Mazel and Enrique Villanueva, are not new in the blog, last year I recommended their song “Sin Ayuda (Joseph K)”, and now, little by little, they unveil new music.

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I’ve been featuring some 90s Swedish bands in the last few months, and I hope to continue doing son in the coming months as well. As I’ve mentioned before I’m much more familiar with Swedish guitar pop from the 2000s, and the 90s are a time when the Scandinavian country released a massive output of quality music.

As I’m trying to familiarize with many of these bands by buying their records I’m also writing these posts about them, hoping to understand and figure out their scene. A few interviews have been posted and some others are underway, maybe we could paint a picture of it in the near future.

Suredo is one of these bands I’m only giving a proper listen these days. I have heard a few songs on compilations in the past, but only know I’m paying attention to their album and EP. But looking at Discogs, that is not exactly where their story starts.

There are two demo tapes listed, from the early 90s. The first one is quite mysterious. It is just called “3 Songs”, those being “Spoiled”, “Stronger” and “Think” and the band appears with the name Suredoh, instead of Suredo. There is no date on it, and it says that all songs were written by Louis Barlow. Is this not Lou Barlow from Sebadoh? These were cover versions then by the band clearly.

The second tape, from 1990, is for sure our Suredo. The tape titled “…Is Manhate” was self-released and included 4 songs: “Down to the Sea”, “See the Sea”, “Still I’m Counting” and “Cracking”. All of them were recorded between April and May at The Forest studio by Lachen Jonsson. The band members were at this time Anders G. Mobjörk on bass, Ulf Stenport on drums, Anders Arfvidsson on guitara and Mikael Mynerts on guitar. It is important to mention that the last song on the tape was a cover of the Suzanne Vega original.

Two years after the band from Linköping was signing to the legendary Ceilidh Productions and releasing their first proper record. The “Swell EP” (CEI 029) included four new songs, “Sonic Atmosphere”, “Levitate”, “Harmonizer” and “Inside Your Eyes”. The band style was already there, that mix of guitar pop with rough edges, sometimes rockier than poppier, but a good mix altogether.

That same year the band contributes the song “Sonic Atmosphere” to the “Stockholm Party” CD compilation released by Stockholm Records (STOPROCD2).

In 1993 the band appears on another compilation CD. This time on Rainbow Music. The comp was called “Life’s A Joke” (RMCD 3020) and interestingly enough it was compiled by Nicke Boström, the same person behind the classic record store Delicious Goldfish Records, right?

That same year the band was going to release their debut album, “Whatahandsomeface?” on Ceilidh (CEI 035). There were eleven songs on it, all recorded, mixed and produced by Micke Herrström at Decibel Studios in Stockholm. The artwork was created by Anders Arfvidsson, H V Platen and Anette Nantell who had done some artwork for other Swedish bands, like Drug who were featured on the blog not so long ago.

The eleven songs on the album were “Byes”, “Swell”, “Here On My Own”, “Turboprop”, “Childlike”, “Pullover”, “Down-Come”, “Average Cell”, “Pituitary Gland”, “Spare Me Logic” and “Ultramarine”. Everyone of them great, except “Turboprop” that is kind of a metal track (!). Yes, odd. But well, it was the 90s.

Something interesting is that the album was re-released in 2003 as a CDR by the label Commercial Suicide (CSR010). It included 4 bonus tracks, the ones that were on the “Swell EP”. I believe this was the band’s own label  which also was to release a compilation of rare tracks by the band that same year called “Wewerenotespeciallyyounganddiditonlyforthemoney”. A difficult name indeed!

This compilation included 10 songs: “Stronger”, “Spoiled”, “Harmonizer”, “Levitate My Heart”, “Follow”, “She’s Thinking”, “What’s Your Profession”, “Down to the Sea”, “Think!” and “Sonic Atmosphere”.

The first two songs on the record were recorded by Jörgen Värnström at Toodle Recordings in 1994. They were meant to be released as a follow up to the album. “Harmonizer” and “Sonic Atmosphere” were recorded by Lachen Jonsson in 1991 at the Forest and these were the edit versions of the songs that appeared on their third demo called “Gibbon”. “Levitate My Heart” on the other hand was also an edited version of the song that appeared on their fourth demo “Burgundi”.

“Follow” was an outtake from the “Gibbon” demo sessions. The next song, “She’s Thinking” was taken from the band’s second demo “SeaweedIknomore” and “What’s Your Profession” is an outtake from the sessions for that demo in 1991.  “Down to the Sea” was included in the first demo which I mentioned earlier “…Is Manhate”. Lastly, “Think!” was recorded on a 4-track in their rehearsal studios in 1994.

As mentioned, all of the songs but the first two and “Think!” at The Forest between 1990 and 1992. Some other musicians appear on these recordings like Markus Lindén playing bass on “Spoiled” or Jan Altsjö playing a guitar solo in the same song. I would love to listen to these rare recordings.

So now we know that there were more demo tapes, at least three more, “Gibbon”, “Burgundi” and “SeaweedIknowmore”. What other songs did these tapes include? There were more recordings then by Suredo clearly?

I could find on Popfakta some information about “SeaweedIknowmore”. It was released in 1991 and included 4 songs, “She’s Thinking”, “See You”, “Man in the Moon” and “Inside Your Eyes”.

Lastly there are a few other compilations where the band appears. In 1997 on the “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” which has been mentioned in the past on the blog several times with the song “Sonic Atmosphere” and lastly their song “Average Cell” appears on the North of No South Records double CD compilation “Svensk Indie 1988-2006 – En Kärleks Historia”.

There is a very good find I did almost immediately I started looking for them. There is a promo video for their song “Byes” on Youtube!

I keep looking for information about them and there is a short bio on the Ceilidh website. There it mentions that the band formed in Linköping in 1990 and they played that same year the annual Ceilidh party on December 28th. Then after the album was released the band split. Mikael Myrnerts went to play in a band called Aloon while the other three members, both Anders (Arfvidsson and Mobjörk) and Ulf were joined by Per Byström of Cloudberry Jam and started the band Auntie Nell which was then renamed to Coach Bob.

I also had a look on Discogs, see what other bands the band members might have been involved with. Anders Mobjörk seems to have been in Galler, Njurmännen and Kvinnan. Not other bands listed for the rest.

On the blog Popvinminns there is a short interview from 2011 where they say that their favourite color was red. Another find on the same blog is a review of their album where they criticise their EP but rave about their album saying the song “Average Cell” could rival Popsicle’s “Hey Princess”.

Then on Last.fm there is a proper biography of the band. Here we learn that originally they wanted a female bassist and proposed Eva from the band Abdullah to join them, but she turned them down. The name came from from the first demo, which was originally called “Sure Do is Manhate”. They decided to combine Sure and Do. They got airplay on the radio show Bommen and the fanzine Sound Affects featured them. In 1994 Anders Arfvidsson left the band as he went to Finland to study architecture and it is at this point that Markus Lindén joins the band. Sadly the year after, 1995, the band split.

At some point the CDR releases were available to order from the Commercial Suicide website, but now it looks that the website is about a totally different thing. So no way to order them. Shame.

What else? Not much more sadly. I lost their trail too soon. Not sure if the band members are still making music or what. Whatever happened to them? Why didn’t they continue with the band? How did their other projects sound like? Did they play all over Sweden? Why so few releases, even though it seems they were very prolific, recording 4 demo tapes? And what songs were included in the demos “Gibbon” and “Burgundi”? Would be great to know. Do you remember them?

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Listen
Suredo – Sonic Atmosphere

Thanks so much to Walter, Harry and Martin from the Augsburg, Germany, band The Hyde Parkas for this superb interview! I wrote about the band a few weeks ago on the blog and they were kind enough to get in touch and even better answer all my questions for this interview! The band, who still gets together once a year to play a gig for their faithful fans, released a 7″ back in the 80s and appeared in a few compilations too. If you haven’t heard about them before, give yourself 10 minutes or so, read the interview, and hear one of their tracks on this interview!

++ Hi Walter, Harry and Martin! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? You are still making music, right? Are there any upcoming releases for the band?

Walter: Hi Roque, we´re fine, thank you! Yeah, The Hyde Parkas are still alive! We played 2015 after a break of 27 years (!) a show in Augsburg just for fun. We sold 300 Tickets in a few days, the show was sold out. So we played 2016 again in a bigger club in our hometown and we sold 440 tickets! That was unbelievable for us. But we don´t want to start career again, only play once a year in Augsburg just for fun and to meet our old friends from the 80s. Releases? Yes, we´re looking to record some songs. 2019 will be our 35th Anniversary. Let´s see what will happen, 7”, 10”, Album….?

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Are you all originally from Augsburg? 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?

Walter: My brother Harry and me are greeks, but born in Augsburg. We moved 1976 with our parents from Augsburg to the Village Thierhaupten. Martin, our Bassman grew up in Thierhaupten. Martin and Harry became close friends and started to play music together when they were 14/15 years old. Walter was a big fan of The Specials, Dieter of The Beatles, Harry of The Who, Martin of The Beatles and Pink Floyd, Martl more The Kinks. Harry started with classical Guitar, Martin with Harp and acoustic guitar, Dieter was the only one who played already the guitar. Martl was a friend of Dieter and played the drums in other bands.

Martin: All of us learned to play our instruments auto-didactically. Also a close friend showed us some songs from The Stones, Kinks, Neil Young … As children we grew up with Beatles songs that were played on the Radio at home. Listening to music was playing a big role in each family of The Hyde Parkas members.

++ I read you were in Kiesgroup and Coconut Sprinter before The Hyde Parkas. How did these bands sound like? Similar to The Hyde Parkas? Are there any releases or recordings by these bands?

Harry: Yes, thats right. Kiesgroup was more punky and rougher than The Hyde Parkas. We were young boys and we made our first steps with Kiesgroup. We didn’t really know how to play our instruments at this time so we were just loud, wild and rattling. At this time, we mixed everything we had in mind, like Wave, Punk, Neue Deutsche Welle, Pop, Beat and Ska. No plan, no boarders … We recorded a demotape with 9 songs at the 8track analog studio of Peter Luebcke in Steinach.

++ Were you involved in any other bands before the The Hyde Parkas?

Walter: Martin and Harry made their first steps in a school band (just one gig) with some own songs and covers from Beatles, Neil Young, Stones, Simon & Garfunkel … Starting with Kiesgroup and continuing with The Hyde Parkas we were almost the same friends/members. This was very important to us, we didn’t ever want to have strangers in the band.

++ How was Augsburg back when you started the band? Were there any likeminded bands that you were friends with? What where the good record stores? Or what about the places or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Walter: That was a great and exciting time. An new, an emerging spirit shook the town. So much new bands and artists. There was a Club called SUBWAY by a guy from Berlin. That was the first Punk- & New-Wave-Club in town and we loved this place, it was like our livingroom. We played a lot of times there, the club was giving us and other bands the possibility to be on stage. Subway was home of Punks, Mods, Poppers, Skins & Teddyboys … We had an old-established recordstore in town called “Music Durner”, where a real cool guy worked named Rudi. He was one of the first confessed gays in town, a glammy guy, DJ and maybe Augsburgs first Popstar. He knew always the hottest new stuff and ordered records for us. He also encouraged us to move on. Later he opened a small club named “Slip”. We loved this place.
Harry: By the way…. Walter was many years later (1993-2000) owner of Subway-Club. It was called “Kerosin” and it was one of the most famous clubs in South Germany. They played a lot of bands there, like The Gun Club, Pennywise, Selecter, Bad Manners, Rancid, SNFU, Man or Astroman and a lot of Crypt-Bands like Oblivians, New Bomb Turks….

++ When and how did the band start? How did you all know each other? How was the recruiting process?

Walter: We we´re friends for many years. Martin and Harry got really hooked on playing the guitar. After they realised, how cool it is, to create own songs, the idea for an own band arised.
Martin: Looking for a singer, we remembered Walter. He was DJ in our Youth Club, always singing and dancing while doing that. So we asked him. We started 1981 with Kiesgroup, right time – right place at our Youthclub, 2nd Show was at Subway! Quadrophenia was coming into the cinema. The Movie started a kind of beat and Modmania. Augsburg became a Mecca for Scooterboys (Vespa, Lambretta) and we got that virus too.

++ What happened to the first drummer Martin Glass?

Harry: He was five or six years older and he started working as a teacher. So Fant, a friend of us joined the band.

++ Why the name the The Hyde Parkas?

Harry: After a while we didn´t like the name Kiesgroup anymore and so we decided to change it (Kiesgrube is a Bavarian kind of lake we spent our summers). After a trip to London we decided to change the name. A perfect mix, sounding British, describing our sound and attitude and including the word Parka!

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

Walter: Most Songs were prepared from Harry and Martin, some from Dieter but all the songs were finished together in the practicing room.

++ There were more than a few good guitar pop bands in Germany during those mid and late 80s. Did you feel part of a scene during that decade? If you were to make a top-five of the best guitar pop bands in Germany, who would you include?

Walter: Spontaneous: Stunde X, The Standards, Dextrin, The Heartbeats, Merricks.

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

Harry: We had a lot of Influences. The Beatles, The Specials, The Jam, The Chords, The Who, The B 52s, XTC, The Pretty Things, Joe Jackson, The Smiths, The Milkshakes and later also Psychedelic Bands like The Byrds or The Church from Down Under.

++ The first song you released, as far as I know, was “Anyway”, on the compilation “2000 Töne” released by AuBuMu Records in 1984. Who were AuBuMu Records? And was this compilation what triggered you to sign with the label for the 7″?

Martin: AuBuMu was one of the few labels in town at that time. For the 2000th anniversary of the city of Augsburg a compilation was published. Then AuBuMu made us an offer to publish a 7 “on them.

++ The 7″, I Confess, was released the year after, in 1985. This is a superb record, both songs are great. So was wondering if you could tell me what inspired both of these songs?

Martin: The first Idea of I confess was generated in Dieters kitchen very spontaneously. The lyrics were actually a confession of Walters life with women/relationships at this time, haha… Of course, we tried to exaggerate the meaning just to make it sound cooler.

++ Where was the photo on the cover taken? Was that your car?

Walter: This was indeed an english cab. It was standing in the backyard in the Altstadt (ancient part of the city) of Augsburg. The owner was a friend of our manager Stone.

++ This record was mixed by Achim Zscheille and produced by B.B. Stonestein, what did they bring to the band’s sound? And where were the songs recorded?

Harry: The Studio was out of Augsburg, a analog 24track Studio in Illertissen. We described how we wanted to sound like, we had no clue about recording. Achim and Stone as originally ex 60s Teenagers did their best to make it sound 60s-like with an mix of 80´s sound.

++ Are there any recordings prior to the AuBuMu releases?

Harry: Only Anyway

++ You were to appear on a couple of tape compilations on the label Two By Art. Who were Two by Art and how did they get in touch with you?

Walter: Tom Wieland, Boss of Two by Art was a beat addict a friend and a fan of us. He was almost always present at our concerts. He has also arranged a concert by us in Linz / Vienna/Austria with the Austrian Beat scene.

++ So in total I counted 7 songs released. Were there any other compilation appearances or other releases? Are there more unreleased recordings?

Harry: Yes, there are actually 7-8 unreleased Demo songs recorded in Horgau at the United Ball’s Studio of Harry Kulzer. (Composer of “Pogo In Togo”, a big hit of the Neue Deutsche Welle-Era).

++ If you were to choose your favourite song from the whole Hyde Parkas’ repertoire, what would that be and why?

Martin: “Sometimes”. We love to play this songs after almost 30 years and we start every rehearsal with this song. It is a great mix of power and melody standing perfectly for our sound.

++ Was there any interest in your music by any other labels that for a reason or another it didn’t work out? Perhaps big labels?

Walter: Honestly, we never looked at things like that back then. We were young, just 19, 20 years old, loud and wild and always wanted to play live and have fun.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What was the farthest you played from your town?

Harry: Yes, we played for two or three years a lot of shows, mainly around our hometown. That time we could say, we belonged to the most popular bands around. But we played also some cool shows in Munich, Mod-Allnighter in South Germany, Austria and also Wales.

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

Harry: In the 80s school proms with live bands became very hip. The Quadrophenia virus had befallen us. A central spot in downtown, The Koenigsplatz, became a meeting point for the Scooterboys (which still exits today!!!. There were always 500-600 people at the shows including some Scooter-parade. The highlights were definitely the foreign shows in Wales and Austria. And we managed to sell out the Subway in 1986 twice in a row.

Martin: An anecdote? Our singer Walter used to improvise English lyrics to our new songs ´till there was a final text version. In Wales we had to play a new song without a final text version in English so he decided to improvise in German, what was quite exotic for the audience and also very funny for us, because not one sentence made sense at all. Do you want another anecdote?

++ Yes, please!

Harry: When our single arrived from manufacturing we met at a Bar close to the Stadtbach (a small creek). We went wild and partying this night, drinking too much. Martin fell into the creek, while he wanted to rest outside, laying on Walters car. When Walter woke him up, boozy and tired as he was, he stumped and rolled down the hill into the cold water. We heard them arguing and laughing and the whole Band run out and jumped into the water. It was October! We all drove home, just with our wet knickers, drunk and freezing, hoping no police will be around this night.

++ And today, are there any gigs coming up? I saw on Facebook your latest live appearances were in 2017?

Walter: As mentioned before, we want to play once a year. The shows should be something exclusive and special. We want people to look forward to our concerts and not say “oh, that again”. After the show in the KANTINE with over 400 people we did not want to go into a gigantomania and decided to play two shows within a week in small clubs. Both were sold out! We did not play at all in 2018, but 2019 will see a show for the 35th anniversary.

++ Did the band ever split of have you been steady all these years? I believe you also changed your name at some point to The Parish Garden but your sound had changed by then.

Harry: We quit The Hyde Parkas in end of 1988. We always were interested in different kinds and styles of music, although the 60s were our favorites. After a Mod-Allnighter, which was a great weekend with 60s spirit on the one hand but otherwise it showed up the intolerance of some ultratraditional mods. This spoiled the good mood of this festival a bit and we realized the mod thing has borders, a handicap for us in long term.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press? I read you were voted as the most popular Augsburg band one year!

Martin: Yes, in the mideighties we were one of the most popular band around. And the Reader of SZENE-City-Magazine voted The Hyde Parkas to best band of Augsburg.

++ What about from fanzines?

Walter: It was en vogue that time. Fanzines were the ultimate voice for the whole scene at this time. Whether punks, mods or skins, everyone has made their own fanzine. We too, our fanzine was called “SHIMMY”.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

Walter: That time? Of course football, scooters, girls and beer!

++ And what do you think of the German team in this year’s World Cup? Do you follow any team in your country?

Harry: The german national team was lacking heart & soul this time, so no big surprise! But we love football and of course we are supporters of FC Augsburg. Walter is also involved in that club, he is since 2003 member of board! I was some years responsible for graphic design and merch.

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

Martin: The trip to England and Wales was really impressing. The trip to Brighton with the Palace Pier and all the original locations of Quadrophenia … we made a lot of great Bandfotos there. And the first release of “Anyway” on Vinyl, the first professional recordings, also with the original engine scootersound Intro (Original stinking Kickstarter Vespa with Max, our local scooter dealer and mechanic)

++ Never been to Augsburg. 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?

Walter: Don’t miss the Augsburger Beer and swabian and bavarian food. Augsburg is the 2nd oldest town in Germany (over 2000 years old). Its not to big and not to small (300.000 citizens). We love to live there. And Augsburg has really a lot good bands.

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

Harry: So great what is going on with you. You made a great job with your report about us. This is like a way back machine for us, some of to the things you wrote in you blog … we had forgotten some of that!

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Listen
The Hyde Parkas – I Confess