With this post I’ll end my review of Madrid Popfest. Pending is the Indietracks lineup announcement review and also a tribute to a band I hold dear whose vocalist suddenly passed away a few weeks ago. It is busy times here and I’m trying to organize myself. On top of that our new release, The County Fathers, has now arrived at home, tomorrow is the release date, and all pre-orders have started shipping. Have you ordered your copy yet?

Madrid Popfest. What am I missing? Well, of course, the bands. But also the friends. I must say I met many, if not most, of my good Spanish pop friends. There was of course Carlos and Maria who hosted me for a few days. Alex who drove me and Carlos all the way to the castle of Manzanares el Real and also took us both to see a game at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium where we saw Antoine Griezmann score 4 goals against Leganés. Then at the festival of course I met with the legendary Miguel Stamp who kept offering Cloudberry releases to every single band at the festival. Miguel Stamp’s lovely wife, whose name I must say I have forgotten, she was really nice though! Manolo who was totally thrilled after the BMX Bandits gig. Maria del Mar and Oscar from Zipper who I was happy, very happy, to see after many years. Jorge, Javi and Rafa who were part of the organization. Sergio as always dancing and as always terribly happy. Ana, who last time I saw in New York, and who had the same tote bag as mine. I saw Toni and Chity. And of course the fantastic duo of the two Davids who have the best taste in music in my opinion. Irene all the way from Stockholm now and her husband Jonathan. Rafa Skam and his classic photographs with everyone. Also met Agustín from Contempopranea festival and that was cool. Miguel Pacific too of course! Marco and Dani from Aplasta tus Gafas de Pasta, whose band’s new albums I certainly bought. Then I met new friends too, like Gregorio from Annika who saved me a Semester 7″, Antonio from Kocliko who traded a bunch of records with me, same as Álvaro from Meritorio Records who is now releasing the Stephen’s Shore album. Andrés from Alicante and Santi from somewhere close to Gibraltar too. And there was the international gang, from dear Thomas and Amelie who were exploring gourmet restaurants in Madrid, to Joanny and his cat cafes visits. Stefano from Italy, Heinz from Hamburg. Fabio and Alessandro who came alongside Ragnhild to play with Soda Fountain Rag.  Josh and Fred from The Bv’s and of course Ronny all the way from Augsburg! And the Peruvian committee with Jose, Rafa and Jalito at the helm. I wonder who am I missing? I did meet three of the Melenas band who had saved a copy of their album for me, and kept calling me Rocker or Rocket, but don’t know their names. But they were very kind and was great to meet! Oh dear, it was a whirlwind, but I’m happy to have seen all of you and even if we didn’t chat for long, hope to see you again!

Okay now onto the bands, right? I’ll start in order.

Giorgio Basmatti & Aeromozas. Well, it wasn’t my thing. Didn’t pay much attention to the band I must admit. I arrived just in time when they were starting and my first mission was to get rid of all the records I brought that many Spanish friends have ordered to save shipping costs. So I did that, looking for every single person I owed records. Of course one of them was Miguel Stamp so just caught up talking and talking!

For the Bv’s I stopped talking to everyone and tried to get as much close to the stage as I could. But it was impossible. There were way too many people. So I stayed halfway through. Also I was carrying a backpack as I had been to Aranjuez that day, so it wasn’t comfy. I feel there were more people on Friday. Or am I crazy? Anyhow their gig was among the best, if not the best. Lovely jangle, chiming guitars, great melodies. Everything one looks for a Popfest band was happening on stage. It definitely was the highlight for the day.

Cosmen Adelaida I skipped. I went to have a sandwich around the corner. I met with many Popfest goers at the small restaurant. I think most people skipped this band for food. Then there was St. Christopher who put a good gig. It was a bit rough but at the same time exciting. Glenn’s voice is unique and their songs are classics. People did complain that the band didn’t play classic songs like “All of a Tremble”, and even though I would have loved them to play that song for example, was very happy to hear “Say Yes to Everything”, one of their hymns.

Lastly there was The Tuts who are a fun band but I’m not very familiar with. They put a fun show and ended their set with a cover of The Spice Girls’ “Wannabe”. Some people approved, others were not happy with that. Then the vocalist crowd surfed for a bit. It was fun, nothing more. But at this point something got me thinking, how come The Tuts or Melenas were headlining over classic bands like St Christopher or BMX Bandits? I thought it was odd, though in a way it was cool to see all-girl bands headlining the festival.

The next day was the turn for Terry vs Tori. I admit I had some trouble with the way the vocalist dressed, like a Bushwick hipster. Oh no. I did buy both CDs that had available at  the merch stall as I really enjoyed what I heard on Bandcamp. Sadly live the sound wasn’t that exciting. A bit monotonous. Same was the case with the next band, Fever Dream, who I had seen at Indietracks couple of years ago and really liked them then. This time I wasn’t impressed. I do know they have great songs but somehow it didn’t translate well on stage for me.

Eggstone on the other hand, even though the vocalist seems to have been ill, played a very fine set. When you have timeless songs I guess you can pull it off even when you are sick. No one will complain if you just leave the stage for minutes and then come back and play as if nothing had happened. That means a lot to a band I’m sure. And for the fans, listening to many of their classic songs for the first time live, well, it was very important. I said that one of the main reasons for me to go to Madrid Popfest was Eggstone, that’s what sold me. And I’m very happy to have seen them. They were spot on.

BMX Bandits played next and for many this was the best gig of the festival. It may as well been. For me it is always hard to make up my mind and say who was best and who second best. Or third. But definitely after seeing the BMX Bandits again and again, this must have been one of the best performances I’ve seen of them. They played all the classics, or most of them. They put on a great show. Got the excitement of the crowd to a new high and well, it was what POP is about. Then the band tried to go dancing but before they got to the dancefloor everyone wanted a photo! So I don’t think they ended up dancing!! Oh, the Spanish fans!

Lastly the biggest surprise for many of the festival attendees: Melenas. For me it wasn’t. I was already loving their album on Bandcamp for months now. I thought it was amazing and couldn’t wait to see them live. And they didn’t disappoint. They put a fun show, and I can see them becoming bigger in the short term. I already noticed they are playing SXSW and later Indietracks. How cool! The four girls from Pamplona were fantastic and the crowd let them know by dancing and singing along their songs. At the end I managed to salvage the drummer’s setlist while the rest of the crowd looked me meanly! I think everyone wanted it. The few copies of their record that they brought sold out fast. I remember there were posters but I forgot about them after the gig, so I missed them. Bad luck. Anyhow, I got a setlist and a copy of their LP which I believe is going to be repressed. A brilliant gig and I want to know how come so many great bands hail from Pamplona? It is a mystery to me!

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Before going on vacations I was makings lists of Australian 80s guitar pop bands. I wanted to know how many CD compilations could one do if all of the bands would say YES to being part of them. Hypothetically of course. I don’t have any future plans to put together these compilations, though at some point it would be nice to do them. So I started to write down names of bands. Some I knew, some I had contact with before, and some unknown to me. Unknown in the way that I knew a song or two but never really looking into their story. One of them was the Vicious Kites.

Though strictly speaking the band may not be indiepop, more of a post-punk band, there are some fantastic guitar pop songs in their repertoire starting with the A side of their first single “Speaking Minds”.

I have to admit I don’t own their records yet. I will try in the next few months or years. As you know I’m a bit slow collecting records these days. I need a fair price. And that will be the case with their “Speaking Minds” 7″, I think I want to start my Vicious Kites collection with this record as I really enjoy both songs on it, “Speaking Minds” and “Here With You”.

The record’s sleeve is really cool looking. A brown and yellow jacket with black and white clip outs  of a kid and an angry face, all cut and paste, very DIY!, on the front. While on the back a band photo by Dean Ervik and some info. The design is also credited to him while the layout is credited to Matt Mawson. The labels where designed by Howard Stringer. It was released on Offbeat Records (OB-R001) in 1985. It seems it was a self-release as no other records are listed on this label. In any case, we do know a few details about this record, for example that it was recorded at Downunder Studios in Brisbane and had Anthony Lloyd as engineer and Graham Battis as producer. At this same studio, the Up and Downs recorded their classic “The Perfect Crime” 7″.

We also get to know the band members from the sleeve:
Luke Jacobs on bass and vocals
Nick Patterson on drums and percussion
Gerard Lacheca on vocals and guitar
Nick Volk on guitar

Their next release came out the year after, 1986, on Revolution Records (REV 001). It was another 7″ with two songs, “Taking Care of You” and “Another Man’s Poison”. These were recorded at Trafalgar Studios, in Sydney. At this studio so many classic bands recorded, from The Hoodoo Gurus to INXS. Imagine that. The sound for these songs changed a bit. A saxophone was added thanks to Brendan Smyly, and also backing vocals by John Mitting. The engineer for these recordings was Alan Thorne who also was the producer. The photography for the record was done by Ann Duffield, while the art is credited to Peter & Chris. I was to find a promo video for “Taking Care of You” on Youtube and from a comment there, I start to think the band may be from Sydney.  But that’s not all about this single. There is also a video for the B side, “Another Man’s Poison” available too!

Lastly in 1988 the band was to release “Sold”, a 12″ mini-album. It was released by Faith & Hope records (VK501) and it included 6 songs, 3 on each side. On the A side there was “Diamond”, “Kiss” and “Marcella”. The B side had “Channel Thoughts”, “Big World” and “Infection, Affection”. At this point it seems the drummer, Nick Patterson, left and was replaced by Darren Lallich. Also this time around there’s Ian Davies credited for guitar and backing vocals and Ian Hunt for saxophone on three of the tracks. It seems they always had friends helping them out on their songs.

Oddly enough there are no compilation appearances listed for the band, so I will have to continue my search somewhere else!

What about on Youtube? Aside from the two videos I found there is a lo-fi video of the Vicious Kites playing “Kiss” at the Hopetoun Hotel in 1989. But that’s not all, also from the Hopetoun in Sydney there’s a live performance of the song “Deadwood“. Lastly there’s a video dating from 1984 where the band is practicing “Infection/Affection” in a run down warehouse rehearsal studio in Vulture Street The Gabba.

I look on the web and I find that Gerry Lacheca, Nick Patterson and Luke Jacobs last band was called Ne’erdowells and that they were based in Brisbane. Before that Gerry had been in a band called Disaster Dora. Then I find a bio page for himself, where it tells that he was born in Brisbane and his first band was called La Mode which appeared on a CD compilation titled “FM 104” in 1982. Later, in 1984 he formed the band I’m talking about today, Vicious Kites. Here it says it started in Brisbane and in 1986 moved to Sydney. They were Triple J/Beatbox band of the week. After the release of their mini-album Gerry traveled around Europe busking and playing solo shows. When he returned in 1990 to Australia, he played in a joke band called Horrorfice. In 1993 Disaster Dora was formed. The last we know of him is the band I mentioned, Ne’erdowells and his solo music, for which he even set up a Myspace years ago.

I find another mention of the band on the blog That Striped Sunlight Sound, a blog that shares music from Australia. A post from February 2011 talks about the Vicious Kites first single, “Speaking Minds”. It says that thanks to this release the band got good airplay on 4ZzZ and support slots with the likes of The Hoodoo Gurus. Here I learn that Offbeat wasn’t actually their own label, but a mailorder business run by Lindsay who did the New Zealand show on ZzZ.

I found a clipping from The Sydney Morning Herald dating October 7, 1985 where the Vicious Kites first single is badly reviewed: Vicious Kites Speaking Minds (Offbeat Records OB-R001). WELL, three out of four ain’t bad. The Vicious Kites aren’t quite as contrived as their name, but they come close. Musically, the ringing guitars and jungle drums of Speaking Minds are fine, but the chorus is meaningless and ignorable and most of their rhyme is pretty strained. To be fair, the other bands have all had previous recording experience, whereas this is the Kites debut, so they may improve. The kindest thing would be for everyone to forget this effort. 

Also I must add that “Speaking Mind” is part of a digital compilation available on Bandcamp called “Brisbane Bands of the Early 80s” that was put together by Brisbane Music Graveyard. There is a lot of interesting tracks their to discover for those interested. The same Bandcamp has the “Sold” mini-album in its entirety for streaming too.

There’s not much more about them on the web to be honest. But it is quite a good deal of information what I found. I definitely would like to know how La Mode sounded like for example. Or check out the other bands like Disaster Dora. If they made more recordings, especially in the period of the first 7″ as that’s the sound I like the most from them even though it got bad reviews. And of course, finding a spare copy would be fantastic! Do you happen to remember them?

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Listen
Vicious Kites – Speaking Minds

Thanks so much to Pete for the great interview! I wrote about The Sometimes some years ago on the blog, hoping to find out more about this very little known Melbourne band. At that time I was looking like crazy for their 7″ single, but little did I know that there was another release by the band that doesn’t get listed anywhere on the blog, a CD EP. Happily not too long ago Pete got in touch with me and was keen to answer my questions and tell the story of the band!

++ Hi Pete! Thanks a lot of being up for this interview! How are you? When was the last time you picked up your guitar?

All good thanks.

Pretty strange but really great to revisit an obscure release by an unknown band from 30 years ago. I only came across your blog because I was clearing out a whole lot of junk and came across a bunch of copies of the 7″ single. I did a google search on it out of curiosity and up came the one reference.

Picked up the guitar yesterday when I discovered an artist I really liked in the eighties named Tommy Keene had passed away. Tried to play a riff from one of his songs with moderate success. I have been trying to renovate a house for the last ten years so unfortunately the guitar only gets picked up after I’m done with the power saw, battery drill and spirit level.

++ What are your earliest music memories? What sort of music did you listen at home growing up? What was your first instrument and how did you get it?

Firstly The Beatles. They were like our Wiggles. Next watching a television show called “Uptight / The Happening Seventies” that featured early Australian bands performing in black and white.

My brother Andy, who was also in The Sometimes and I hassled my mother to buy singles like “Turn up your radio” by The Masters Apprentices and “Eagle Rock” by Daddy Cool. We’d dance in the lounge room with our cousin to these records while our extended family watched on. We’d crack them up with our antics. Not sure what they thought of this new culture in which they’d chosen to bring up a family.

First rock band I saw was AC/DC when I was about 8 years old at The Catania Ballroom in Thornbury. That blew my mind and I was hooked on guitar based rock music from then on. A track that made a huge impression and tempered the rock side of things was “Arkansas Grass” by Axiom. Perfect pop song, if you overlook the ironic country feel. From that point I became intrigued by the songwriting side of things. Around the ten year old mark we got into Gary Glitter, Bowie and Slade. Early teens onward was the Led Zeppelin phase and to a lesser degree Black Sabbath.

My brother was more into the guitar side of things and was a huge Jimmy page fan. He bought a Gibson Les Paul copy and I ended up with a Gibson SG bass copy. Can’t remember how I got it. Annoying my parents most likely. We had a good balance between us, he could play the cool riffs and I’d try to get bits and pieces together to resemble a song.

Led Zeppelin led to Jethro Tull and then the punk/new wave movement focused things up a bit. Initially bands like The Stranglers, The Clash and later post punk stuff like The Church, Birthday Party, Killing Joke, Echo and the Bunnymen.

++ I noticed you have Greek background, same as your manager too! I was wondering if anyhow there was a Greek music influence in your music? Or if you were aware or fan of the great guitar pop bands from the 80s in Greece?

I was unaware of Greek guitar pop at the time but anything in the rock field that had a 12 string jangling away or visited an exotic scale would get our immediate attention as we were exposed to Greek music as kids. My brother played a bit of bouzouki and that definitely comes out in his playing. Little tricky fiddly bits. You can kind of hear a hint of it on the lead run on “Let your guard down”.

++ Were you all originally from Melbourne? How was the city back then? What were your favourite places to hang out? What were the good record stores? What about the venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Yes all from Melbourne.

In the early eighties in my band watching days Melbourne, as far as street life went was pretty dead after hours. Very un-European and kind of culture-less but if you were a music fan and you knew where to look it was a dream. Rock music was the culture in a way. There were a heap of venues, mainly pubs with original bands playing seven nights a week. Punters back then were happy to see bands playing their own songs and testing the musical boundaries. There were two inner city areas to see up and coming bands. St Kilda was more of a Punk / New Wave scene. The Crystal Ballroom and The Prince of Wales were the best in St Kilda. You could see Australian bands like The Birthday Party, Go Betweens and many up and coming punk/new wave bands. Carlton had smaller venues like Martinis and Hearts. I remember that scene being a bit straighter with more rock/pop type bands with an alternative tinge such as Paul Kelly and the Dots, The Sports, The Cheks etc. More of a university crowd.

There was also a strong suburban circuit where the rockier, more commercial bands would venture out to. I remember seeing The Church, Sunnyboys, Matt Finish, Midnight Oil, INXS, The Models etc. at these venues. That was when I was into seeing bands but not in a band.

Lots of great record stores. Missing Link and Greville Records were the main two. Au go go started up a little later.

++ Talking about bands, did you feel there was a good scene in Melbourne? What were your favourite bands? And were there any like-minded bands that you were friendly with?

By the time I tried getting a band together the poker/slot machines had arrived and many venues stopped having bands and the scene for smaller indie bands had really quietened down. Carlton died off and St Kilda became more for mainstream bands on tour.

The Fitzroy area became the indie centre. Some new venues popped up such as The Punters Club in Fitzroy and that was a great place to hang out to see up and coming bands. We had a residency there for a while which was great.

Can’t say we were really friendly with any like minded bands. We weren’t really part of the Melbourne indie social scene. We were a couple of guys from a working class area with a really hard hitting drummer playing a cross of indie rock/pop that would at times break out into a Led Zeppelin inspired 70’s rock-out.

We were a bit scattered stylistically, Too heavy for the indie pop scene and too light for the heavier grungy scene. This made it difficult to get gigs. This was compounded by not having that indie social networking thing going. Having said that I remember “The Odolites” being quite generous with some support spots although I never knew what they made of us.

I thought the Melbourne scene while I was only watching bands was more creative. Bands like the early version of The Models around the time of “Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta …..”, early Hunters and Collectors, The Birthday Party, The Chemicals and The Moodists were really cool and inventive. Really loved the way they used the rhythm section as the driving force and layered guitars around it. Later on I think bands got a bit too cliched in the guitar department. Strumming away on C G D and F for a whole gig.

++ Had you been involved in any bands before The Sometimes?

Before The Sometimes pretty much the same garage band with school friends and my brother. We eventually got out of the garage and started playing live under many different names – about six from memory. “96 Tears” was one. We were learning how to play live so we’d go out and learn in public. Every time we burnt too many bridges we’d fall apart. Get pissed off with each other. Go away. Come back, change our name and go round again.

++ How did the band start? Who were The Sometimes and which instruments did each of you play? And how was the recruiting process?

I’d gone to college and started meeting new people. I’d met Phil Lawrence at college. He had played a few times with the last band I had going. I think it was called Ten Thousand Miles. I was playing bass in the previous bands. I got Phil Lawrence to play bass so I could be freed up to try to concentrate on vocals which I was struggling with while playing bass. I needed a guitar player and drummer. I only knew one guitar player and one drummer so my brother ended up playing guitar and Russell played drums. That lineup lasted a while and we put the 7″ single out.

++ Why the name The Sometimes?

A bit of a gag really. Couldn’t get many gigs, we only played Sometimes…

++ What would you say were influences music-wise for The Sometimes?

Myself and my brother Andy pretty much as mentioned above. The drummer Russell didn’t really like any of the more alternative bands. He liked bands with great drummers like Matt Finish from Sydney and kept going on about Billy Cobham ad nauseum. Phil liked 80’s guitar bands such as U2, Echo and the Bunnymen etc. but was also a closet Kiss fan. I suppose we were a combination of a guitar band and a kinda post punk bass/drums driven band.

++ And what would you say are your all-time favourite Australian bands?

Early on Masters Apprentices, Axiom. During the punk/post punk days The Saints, very early Models, The Moodists and The Birthday Party were great. From the more mainstream side of things The Church, Midnight Oil, Matt Finish, very early Go Betweens, The Swingers, very early Hunters and Collectors. The Chemicals were a real quirky unknown techno band that had some great tunes. Later in the 90’s I really liked Died Pretty and Samurai Trash put out a great single called “Come out and play”.

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

Would have been a rehearsal studio although I can’t remember which one.

Creative process varied. Some songs would start with one of Andy’s riffs. I’d then overlay a vocal line and it would grow from there. Russell was a pretty inventive drummer and he’d often bring a song to life. Other songs I’d pretty much work out on a four track and then the band would add their bits and some would come out of jamming as a band.

++ Your first release was the 7″ with “People Go Home” and “Let your Guard Down”. This is a great single! So was wondering if in a couple of sentences tell me the story behind each song?

Let your guard down is pretty self explanatory. It was about a real person. Basically pleading to make the most of opportunities. Throw caution to the wind type stuff.

People Go Home was about the frustration of living in Melbourne at a time where there was little street life and just watching the rush of people scrambling to get back to their homes after a days work. Sort of explains the repetitive riff that goes round and round.

++ I also always wondered about the picture on the sleeve, who is she? And what about the picture on the insert?

The bass player Phil did all of the artwork. They were just images of a couple of friends of his that he had in his photo album. We thought they were better looking than us so we put them on the cover. I always hated doing band photos and that side of things.

++ And this record was a self-release is that right? How come? Was there no interest from any labels?

We hadn’t really developed enough to approach labels. We thought putting a single out could help us get some more live work and maybe some support spots. We didn’t expect it to do too much. We were happy to get some airplay on independent radio such as 3RRR, 3PBS, 2SER, get a couple of reviews and then move on to an E.P and try to grow from there.

++ The two songs were recorded at Platinum Studios by Paul Kosky. How was that experience? How many days did they take to record? What was your diet while making these songs? Pizza and beer?

I think it took two sessions over two days. Platinum was a great studio. We thought it was better to spend less time in a good studio rather than more time in a lesser one.

I remember it going really quickly. Paul was very supportive and very very positive. He got sounds very quickly. We had done some recording in the past but of course we were too green to control the process and kind of got guided through it. In hindsight of course a musician would have done everything differently. We sounded a lot lighter on the recording than we were live at the time.

There was a little beer and most likely a souvlaki or two from up the road.

++ I saw that you appeared too on a compilation tape called “Screaming at the Mirror” that was released by Ticklish Tapes. How did this come to be? And who were Ticklish Tapes? And did you appear in any other compilations?

We played some gigs with a band called Clowns Smiling Backwards who were a really heavy experimental band. Their singer Bo ran a studio and was putting a compilation out. He was kind enough to include a track on it. That was the only compilation tape. I really liked the compilation tape idea as you have a bunch of bands with a common cause and you felt part of something bigger.

++ Only now that I’m in touch with you I got to know there was another release, a CD EP with four songs titled “I Never Had Anything”. Was this self-released as well even though it says RP Records? How many copies did you press? It seems so rare!

That was self released but distributed by Siren Records. RP Records was a joke, as in Rupert Pupkin Records, as in the guy in that Scorsese film The King of Comedy. I was starting to feel like him after pushing music for so long to little avail. 500 were pressed. It did get a bit of airplay on Triple J – a national broadcaster here which was great. It was a bit light for the more independant stations like 3RRR and 3PBS.

++ I notice that for this CD the band is just you and Russell with the help of friends. What happened?

In summary, post single we split up. Reformed with a female singer, then my brother left, I went back to bass, Phil played guitar. Split up again…… Female vocalist left. Then a friend Lucky from the pre- Sometimes bands joined. We did some more recording with Lucky as lead vocalist. The recordings turned out really well. Of course the band split again before we could do anything with them which was a shame. I was left holding the master tapes of seven songs. So I re-recorded my vocals as lead and put out the 4 track EP. I thought just put it out and see what happens. I chose the more acoustic songs as I figured they could be played solo or with a smaller acoustic lineup.

++ These four songs were recorded at Elva Foods by John Archer. That’s an odd name for a studio. Care telling me a bit about it?

John Archer was the bass player of a big band here in Melbourne called Hunters and Collectors. John owned the P.A that H&C used for touring. He housed that in his factory/residence that used to be used for food manufacturing. It was called Elva Foods.

For the E.P John set up a mobile recording in the factory. We tracked the drums at another studio called Big Beat because they were running with a similar tape machine.

++ So after this EP, why no more releases? Why no album?

Well, no more band. I’d had enough by then. Went off to play in cover bands for a a couple of years.

++ Are there any more songs? Any unreleased recordings by the band?

Post cover band I started recording again and started just sending tapes out to the U.S as a solo performer.

Actually had a little interest from some producers and a major label however the stumbling block was always that they were in the U.S and I was on the other side of the world.

So yes, quite a few more songs that have never been released. Although one called “Today is like any other day” I sent out as a CD single type thing and it got played a bit on internet radio and some small college stations in the US. It also received some favourable reviews.

++ And from all your songs, which one would you pick as your favourite, and why?

The song just mentioned, “Today is like any other day”. It was 3 minute 30 seconds had a good verse, a good chorus, a good bridge and told a good story with enough irony. One other track was “Forty Second Move” which was basically a just good pop song.

++ What about gigs? Did you gig lots? What were the best gigs that you remember and why?

By today’s standards we did a lot but at the time we always felt like we were struggling to get them. I really enjoyed doing an early weeknight residency at the Punters Club. It was a new small venue and it was good to be able to turn up each week and begin to hone the act. It lasted around 6 weeks. It Would have been great if that could have lasted longer and we could have built on it before starting to try to get support spots with other bands.

Another gig was a support spot for a band called The Pony at a large venue called The Corner. I remember finally playing through a large P.A, with great fold back, it was an agency gig and the bands’s sound came together. Unfortunately there were 5 people watching but it didn’t matter, I found out what it meant to experience job satisfaction.

++ Were there any bad gigs? Any anecdotes that you could share?

I just remember many gigs being a struggle. I think we were trying to play music that was over complicated through small P.A’s in small rooms that we were too loud for.

No rock’n’roll anecdotes really. Just remember doing a gig at a small pub and my brother had developed arthritis. He often used to wear those beige Scholl sandals with the bubbled souls around the house.I’d used a bath robe to pack a guitar in a case so it would not get damaged while transporting.

We were half way though the set. All dressed in dark jackets, black jeans and looking dour, probably singing about something depressing. I turn around and there’s my brother wearing a light blue terry towelling bathrobe complete with Scholl sandals, white socks and a huge grin.

++ And where was the farthest you played from home?

Not too far. We never ventured more than 10km from home. Most venues we could get booked at were in the inner city.

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

As mentioned before public radio stations 3RRR, 3PBS and 2SER were all very supportive. Commercial radio would not play independent releases.

We did get some good reviews in the music press and an article or two.

++ Today, are you all still in touch? Has there ever been talks of or a reunion gig?

Yes we are all still in touch and still friends. Phil passed away recently which was really sad. A reunion rehearsal would be great but I can’t see us ever playing live again as a band. I don’t think anyone would come anyway. A jam could happen though.

++ In retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The Sometimes?

The bathrobe….

++ And one last question, tell me a bit about Melbourne today. I’ve never been, I hope to one day, so many great bands from your city. But was wondering what would you say one shouldn’t miss when visiting. Like the sights, the traditional food or drinks? What would you recommend?

It’s a more vibrant and varied city than it was in the eighties. Outdoor dining, many bars and cafes now rather than pubs alone. Unfortunately many older pubs are being gutted and turned into apartments which is a bit sad.

The multicultural angle is its biggest asset I think. From food to music to art there’s always lots to experience on that front.

Live music has suffered a little bit but it’s more varied these days. It’s not all rock music. You can see an African band, Greek Rembetika, Latin etc. I’m a bit out of touch with the indie scene but there are always lots of bands playing. If you check out the Beat Magazine Gig Guide or the 3PBS Global Village Gig Guide you’ll see that there is a lot of live entertainment. Lots of good food spots.

Malabar Hut for southern Indian, GRK Kitchen for Greek, Claypots/Barbarossa for seafood, Moroccan Soup Kitchen or Moroccan Delicacy for Moroccan, Thalia Thai for Thai….

Sights? Usual tourist spots are the Great Ocean Road, Penguins at Philip Island, Wilson’s Promontory, The Grampians. Victoria Night Market.

There are usually some good music festivals over summer.

Cool suburbs to check out would be Fitzroy, Carlton, Brunswick, Northcote and St Kilda.

++ Thanks again Pete! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just thanks for showing interest and I’m glad you enjoyed our humble release from 1988….

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Listen
The Sometimes – Let Your Guard Down

Monday! And where do I start? Well I must say that I heard from the pressing plant and The County Fathers CDs have been shipped and they are on my way. So everything looks good and I will just make the release date for March 15th as that day is my birthday and why not, I would love to celebrate with a new Cloudberry release! I’m very very happy about it, and I look forward to receiving them. And after, I need to start planning on a new collection for the Cake Kitchen releases! I’ve spoken in the past to a few bands but things haven’t progressed in the way I’d like, still waiting for songs, memorabilia, etc etc, so they are just more like “projects” than a serious release at the moment. So need to start planning a new one that I can put out in the next few months!

On my last post I talked about Madrid Popfest and how the organization worked. Now I need to talk about other aspects of it. What about the DJs?

On Friday I believe my favourite DJs were Los del Oso DJs. They opened the DJ sets for the whole festival, just after The Tuts finished their show. Los del Oso were a three popfans, all of them who had been part of the previous Madrid Popfest organization: Alex, Carlos and Maria. And they played indiepop hits one after another. My only complain of course, is that of repeating bands, and they did play God Help the Girl many times! Aside from that their choices were spot on, even playing many Cloudberry bands like Hari and Aino, Afternoon Naps, Flowers and Cassolette. Also they played a request of mine, The Modettes’ “White Mice”. Many classic bands were played too, from The Brilliant Corners to The Siddeleys. All in all a strong playlist that made everyone dance and kept the spirits high!

Later on that day there was Pretty Olivia DJ, that is Javi who rans the label of the same name and I believe an organizer of Madrid Popfest too. I must have been a bit drunk as I can’t remember much of his set! I did ask him later why he didn’t play the Go-Betweens, his favourite band, and he told me he did! So I must have been totally out of it. I believe at this point and while the next DJs played music I was mostly socializing, chit-chatting with friends.

Afterwards DJed Lady Dilema and Blanca DB DJed but by this point I can’t remember much! It must have been late and way too many beers! I did dance though! But can’t recall the songs!

On Saturday afternoon I didn’t really noptice DJ Manazas. Did she DJ between bands? Or after? I didn’t stay for the last gig, that of Fakuta, I left after Soda Fountain Rag. So not sure. I did meet DJ Manazas on Friday night though as Miguel Stamp introduced me telling her I was going to release a record by her band Bla and that I had a fantastic label. Of course, Belén, didn’t had a clue what Cloudberry was at all.

At night, after the great gig of Melenas, it was the turn for HDIF. I have always mixed feelings with HDIF, you know I get bored with the 60s stuff. This time around Ian played normally one classic indiepop song to get the excitement up, and then just after a soul/60s song. There was not really a good flow, I always felt a strong contrast between songs, so it kind of got my excitement down. Also the songs picked were way too obvious crowd pleasers, so I wasn’t really into it I must say. I dunno, I have had good times at his club, but when Ian DJs at festivals I haven’t really felt the same vibe.

I was happily surprised with Bombas para Desayunar. I don’t really know who she is but a friend told me she does fanzines. I would like to read them sometime. What surprised me was her choices, playing classic Spanish pop!! Even though I wasn’t dancing at this point, I was mostly talking to Maria del Mar and Oscar from Zipper, I did enjoy dancing and singing along from the bar area to songs from Los Fresones Rebeldes or TCR.

To finish the festival, there were the Madrid Popfest DJs. At this point I was dancing of course. The problem was that I was probably drunk, and having mixed feelings for leaving Madrid Popfest, because it was over and it felt very short. Also having to say goodbyes to many friends I saw and who I probably won’t see in years! But all in all, I danced quite a bit! And that is what matters! It had been a while since I danced to my favourite music!

On my next post, I should be covering the bands that played Madrid Popfest!

Now a quick roundup of indiepop finds (and pending is a review of the Indietracks lineup of course)!

Emotional Response: some exciting news from Jen and Stew’s label. They are releasing a bunch of Sarah related records to fund the Indietracks trip for Even as We Speak. So, right now you can pre-order, aside from t-shirts and badges, the following:
– Action Painting’s “Trial Cuts” LP – a compilation with Sarah material plus a bunch of unreleased material
– Boyracer’s “Fling Yr Bonnet Over Windmill” LP – a compilation of the three Sarah singles by Boyracer
– Even as We Speak’s “Feral Pop Frenzy” LP – a reissue of the classic album
– Sarah Artists Compilation LP – featuring two new and previously unreleased tracks from Even As We Speak, Action Painting!, Boyracer and Secret Shine

Arlie: I’m checking this song out after the great Michael Mybackpages shared it on a Facebook group. He always, since the Soulseek days when I met him, had good taste. The song is titled “Big Fat Mouth” and the band seems to hail from Nashville though it sounds kinda Swedish to my ears! I like it! But to my bad luck I notice they played on March 7th here in NYC. Too late. I missed them. I look if they have any proper releases but it doesn’t seem so. There is also a video for their song “Didya Think” but I must say I don’t like this song too much.

Tracyanne & Danny: Merge Records announced the return of Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell with a 10 song album release. The mystery to me was who was Danny. It turns out his name is Danny Coughlan and from what I found out he released a 2012 album titled “Crybaby”. He is Bristol based. Now this duo is releasing this new album that will be out on May 25th on CD and LP and right now you can stream and check out the song “Home & Dry”.

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I did miss looking for obscure new bands while I was away on holidays in Spain. I was happy to hear from old and new friends that they really enjoy the blog. That meant a lot. Makes me think I should continue sharing my discoveries with everyone. I mean, this year will be 10 years of writing this blog in October. 10 years!! My previous blog that lasted like 3 years is remembered with nostalgia by many. Just last year I was answering questions about the Mira el Péndulo blog to a Mexican fanzine. People haven’t forgotten about it! What will happen with this one? Will it be remembered as well if it is to stop someday? I want to think it will.

A 7″ that has never been listed or sold on Discogs. That is bad news for me because I’m looking for it. I have no idea how much anyone would pay for it. Or how rare it really is. Who knows. It is a mystery that right now I’ll try to solve. I hope I can at least find some details.

So I heard their song “Marie” thanks to the From a Northern Place blog which sadly hasn’t been updated in a while. I wonder why. I never knew who was behind it. That song was the A side. The B side was a song called “Don’t Try”, which I haven’t had the chance yet to listen.

The 7″ was self-released by the band in 1988 and has no label or catalog number on the sleeve. There is just a phone number, actually two numbers, if anyone wants to contact the band. I suppose those numbers don’t work anymore. We do get the first names of the band members on the back of the sleeve:
Rich – vocals
Graham – guitar
Glenn – bass
Paul – drums

Now, the labels say Hole in One! as it was the name of the label. Might it be? It gives that impression to me. But whoever listed the record on Discogs decided there is no label. The only other information on the labels is that both songs play at 45rpm.

Discogs as always wants to be confusing and lists them on compilations that date from 2000 to 2004. The thing is that these are African music compilations. These Villagers are definitely not the indiepop Villagers I’m looking for. That should be fixed on the website, some clueless fan might buy the African Renaissance compilation in hope of hearing a rare The Villagers track.

Now comes the problem. Searching for The Villagers gives me way too many results that it is impossible to find anything related to them. “Marie” or “Don’t Try” are not great search words either. I can’t seem to find anything. If only I had some last names. Or maybe where they were from. My only guess comes from the phone numbers. They start with 0225 and 0793 and I believe these are old codes, so I added a 1 to them, so they would be now 01225 and 01793. In that case the first number would be from the Bath area and the second from Swindon. These two cities are not that far away from each other.

Still having figured out their probable city doesn’t mean a thing. There’s nothing else about them on the web it seems. So I have to ask you indiepop fans from the late 80s. Do you remember them? Did they play any gigs that you remember? If they had any other releases or if they went to play with other bands? Any information will be appreciated!

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Listen
The Villagers – Marie

So where to start now?! My trip to Spain was great, I had such a good time, and I ate a lot, and drank a lot. No wonder I really need get back to exercise soon. Yeah, I think I’ve gained weight. What can one do?! That’s how holidays sometimes end up being!

While I was away I saw some nice reviews of the Salt Lake Alley 7″ on a few blogs, that was really lovely. I hope you all are liking this great record so far, I know it is only one song out of four you can listen so far, but you can tell how good it is! I remind you then that pre-orders are now available on our label website.

But what about Madrid Popfest? I guess that’s the question everyone asks me. What were the best gigs? What were the surprises? Who did I meet? I don’t even know where to start. Maybe by the basics. For example the venue chosen this time was dead on. The Galileo Galilei venue was big and comfy enough for everyone. Everyone had good vision of the stage. And there were different sort of levels, like the bar was higher than the dancefloor and so on. Also there were areas to sit down and relax and within view of the stage. So that was something that was a good thing. Another thing that surprised me throughout the whole festival was that all bathrooms were open for all genres. They were all shared. That was an interesting decision and I didn’t see any problems with it. I think it was a good way to show the politics of the organizers and I salute that. (The organizers have told me that this trend started last year as a recommendation by The Spook School, this idea  also matched the organizers’ politics)

The system for buying beers was quite odd though. You had to buy them “twice”, kind of. So you had to go to this old guy by the entrance door and pay 3.50 euros to get an orange ticket. Then with this ticket you had to go into the venue, to the bar, and exchanged this ticket for a beer or a soda. I don’t understand yet why you couldn’t just buy the beer straight from the bar. That was strange though if that was the reason why the beers were cheaper, then well, that is good. Also the bar had free popcorn and peanuts for those needing a quick snack. (The organizers confirmed me that this system of tickets was indeed for lower beer prices)

The organization was good. Most gigs started on time aside the Saturday afternoon ones at Matadero. Yes, Saturday afternoon was on a different venue and I must say I got lost trying to find it. This Matadero place is huge, enormous. Within this place there are many sort of barns or hangars where different cultural activities take place. The Popfest gig was at Nave de Terneras, but I couldn’t find any obvious signs to point me which one of the many buildings it was. So I had to look and look until I found it.

Merch stalls worked well too. There was a Madrid Popfest merch stall and then we could see several Spanish labels having their own spot. There was Annika, who were announcing a Clay Hips album soon, Meritorio Records and Kocliko Records. There was also a spot for the bands who were playing to sell their stuff. As you can imagine I did some shopping.

The bands? The DJs? Oh let’s leave that for another post! This is getting long already! Though to close this post, I have to say that it looked like the festival was a success and I hope there is Madrid Popfest 2019 next March (or whenever)!.

Now what have I found on the web these past days?

Espanto: I’m very sad I didn’t tell Grego Annika to reserve me a copy of the last Espanto EP. He had copies and I forgot about it until the last day of Popfest. By then all copies were sold out. Damn. And I need a copy!! Why? Just check this video for the song “Esqueletos” which is included in this last record of theirs called “Tres Canciones Nuevas”. Top top stuff by the Logroño based duo!

El Último Vecino: continuing with Spanish bands, one of my favourite of them all, have released a new video for the song “Un Secreto Mal Guardado” and no one should miss it. I was very unlucky in Spain looking for their last album, I couldn’t find a copy anywhere. I’m sad about that. But I’ll keep looking. This song is supposed to be part of their new collection of songs for 2018, whatever that means. If it means a new album, that is great. If not, I’m just happy to hear new music by them any day.

La Plata: I found out about this band as my friend Aitor directed the video “Me Voy”. I don’t know much about them, but Miguel Stamp was raving about them at Popfest. Do they have any records out? I don’t know. I didn’t see any at any Spanish record stores. It is a mystery, and would love to get their songs somehow to be played one after another at home. This Valencia band is formed by Carmona on drums, Salvador on guitars, María on bass, Patricia on synths and Diego on guitar and vocals. Sounds very promising!

Pop City Arizona: remember I interviewed this pre Mary Queen of Scots band some time ago? Now they have uploaded three more songs to their SoundCloud. This early 90s bedroom pop project has now shared “Mercy Seat” (a cover of Ultra Vivid Scene), “You’ve Got It All” and “Love is a Twelve Letter Word”. There is no information of the year these were recorded though.

The Wolfhounds: the classic C86 band announced on their Facebook that they will be releasing late spring/early summer all their Peel Sessions. Wow! That must have cost them a kidney or something! Nonetheless that is great news that these songs will be collected in CD and LP formats! The album will have a European release and perhaps a North American one as well. When there’s more news about it, I’ll let you know!

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Shrinking violet: an exaggeratedly shy person.

When did I hear Shrinking Violet’s “She Said” for the first time? I can’t recall exactly. I know it was many years ago and I have the feeling that it was through some Aussie pop compilations that were put together by John Carbonaro of the indiepop-list. What I can’t recall was if these compilations were shared to me by a member of the list or if they were put together for the whole list. Back in the day, if you remember, there was a cool thing about the mailing list, there were mix tape (or CDs) swap. I swapped mixes with many friends, some who I eventually met. It might be that some of these Australian indiepop compilations were made for these swaps and later shared to me. Either way, I was lucky to discover many bands, among them Shrinking Violets.

Their 7″, “Everything”, might have been one of the first records in my collection. I remember searching for these Australian bands that were unknown to me like The Stolen Picassos or The Palisades, and having no luck on eBay. I was lucky though with the Shrinking Violets, finding their 7″ for probably a good price. At the time I thought it was their only release, their was no Discogs. Today that I look for them once again I notice they actually had also released a mini-album. And I had no idea.

“Everything” was the A side on the 7″, while “She Said” was the B side. The latter was the song that introduced to me to them as I said. The 7″ was released in 1988 on Phantom Records (PH-31). This was the label that was established by Dare Jennings and Jules Normington in Sydney, back in 1980 and that had released The Hummingbirds or Even As We Speak among others! The two songs on the record were recorded at Disappearing Wilderness Studios on January 1988. This studio seems to be closely linked to Even As We Speak as many of their records were recorded here. But that is not the only close link with EAWS. Julian Knowles from EAWS was also part of Shrinking Violets, playing guitar, keyboards and vocals. On top of that, he produced, engineered and mixed the songs. The other band members were Barry “Fuzz” Hayes on bass and vocals, Andrew Clement on drums and vocals and Marcus Clement on vocals and guitar. Were Andrew and Marcus brothers perhaps?

Something curious too on this record is the runout groove on the B side, it says “Shrinking Violence. I had no clue Julian had been involved in this band. I met him only briefly when EAWS played in New York some years ago now. I mostly talked to Mary (whose The Singing Bush band is another EAWS side project I’ve covered on the blog). Maybe if I had known, I could have asked him a question or two about this band.

Now I’m checking their mini album, released as a 12″ on Phantom Records (PHMLP-5) under the title “Mask”. I don’t own this one and so far only heard two songs out of the six included. These songs were “Never Too Late”, “Small Talk” and “Colours of Ecstasy” on the A side and “Roman Hammer”, “Happy?” and “Mask” on the B side. Some of the songs were recorded at the Disappeareing Wilderness Studios and some others at Trackdown Digital Studios. They were mastered at EMI Studios 301. The 7″ was also mastered there, mind you. For this record we notice that a new engineer is credited for most of the tracks but one. A1 to B2 were engineered by Simon Leadley while B3 was engineered by Julian.

Also this record had some backing vocals credited to two girls, Carolyn Polley and Karen Banks. Polley had been part of the band Big Heavy Stuff and had also done  vocals for The Apartments. Banks on the other hand had done some vocals to a band called Crow. The record was individually hand numbered and the first 500 with coloured vinyl came with a poster. I should try to find a good copy of this record. I should travel someday to Australia on a record shopping spree!

There are two compilation appearances by the band. The first is on the 1988 compilation “Assorted Desecrations and Magnificent Mutations” released by Phantom (PHLP-4). On this compilation the contribute two songs, “Take Me Away” and “Love to Rule”. None of these appear on the records. Were these covers by the way? I see that “Love to Rule”‘ is credited to be written by Jeremy Oxley and “Take Me Away” to The Kelpies. My suspicion is true. “Love to Rule” is a Sunnyboys original and “Take Me Away” was a 7″ released by The Kelpies in 1982.

Their other compilation appearance is on the “Young Blood II” compilation that came out on LP, CD and cassette through the RooArt label. On this compilation they contributed just one song, “It’s Never Too Late”. This compilation was intended to be a showcase of the best up and coming bands from Australia.

Time to check out on which other bands the members are listed on Discogs. I see Andrew Clement played drums on Other Voices but not much more. Of course Julian had been involved with EAWS, Ohm and Social Interiors.

According to Wikipedia the band only lasted around 4 years, from 1987 to 1990. There is not much more information on their entry.

Then I find an interview with Julian on the website Cyclic Defrost that dates from 2008 where there are mentions to Shrinking Violets: The first releases with Shrinking Violets started off as demos. We recorded four songs at home on the eight-track. I mixed them and we made some cassettes and we sent them round to the independent record labels. Jules Normington [Phantom Records] contacted us and said, “I want to put it out’. I said, “It’s only a demo’, and he said, “No, no I want to put it out. What is on that tape, we’re going to put it out.’ They put out the demo recordings as a 7-inch record on coloured vinyl, which was very cool. Other bands heard the Shrinking Violets releases, and by the late 1980s were asking Julian to produce their records. This led Julian to working with indie pop band Even As We Speak. Initially, as producer, but in his words, It got so hands on that I just had to join the band.

On Julian’s website there is even a Shrinking Violets section. On there I see a clipping for the Haywire Charts were “Everything” is on the 3rd place, after The Someloves and The Go-Betweens for the Singles on the week of 17/9/1988.

MacQuarie University in Sydney also has a brief mention of the band. That is because this is were Julian Knowles seem to be at the moment, as a Professor in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies.

Sadly I couldn’t find anything else by the band on the web. Nor for the other band members. Like they were only involved with Shrinking Violets and that was it? And what about more recordings? 8 songs and 2 covers seem to be too little for 4 years. I wonder if there were more demos or not. And why did they call it a day? Perhaps EAWS was taking most of Julian’s time in 1990? I need to find out. And in the meantime try to find a copy of “Mask” for myself!

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Listen
Shrinking Violets – She Said

Thanks so much to the 5 Marteen sisters and brothers: Babs Marteen, Lola Marteen, Malcolm Marteen, Hernandez Marteen, and Cholmondeley Marteen for the interview! Their brand new retrospective compilation came out on February 26th on Firestation Records. The first time I heard them was on the Sound of Leamington Spa, with the song “First Kiss”. It was fantastic, and since then I always wanted to hear to more songs by them. This will finally happen, and I’m very excited about that. If you have never heard about the Nottingham band before, or if you are like me, curious about them after hearing a few of their songs, here’s their story!

++ So let’s start from the beginning, like when did you know or what inspired you, to be in a band?

Hernandez: That moment when I saw Johnny Rotten singing Pretty Vacant on Top of the Pops on TV. Snarling, telling the truth.

Lola: Singing along to Blondie on the radio since 1978.

Malcolm: listening to our dad’s Jim Reeves albums – He’ll Have to Go is a cracking song. But what really inspired me to be in a band was the theme song to Fireball XL5, pure indiepop pathos in a perfect pop parcel. Here’s a great enhanced version of the song.

Babs: Always singing as a child with my hairbrush in my hand , loved the sounds of groups like The Supremes,The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, ect . I used to daydream about being in a group.

Cholmondeley: when they showed all The Beatles films on the BBC: Christmas 1978. 

++ And what would be your first music memories? What was your first instrument and how did you get it?

Lola: A plastic recorder which I wasn’t allowed to play at home as my mum hated the sound. Then a beautiful left-handed Tanglewood acoustic guitar bought by an ex-boyfriend which I left in Australia as I couldn’t fit it in my baggage allowance.

Hernandez: Acoustic guitar. I worked as a newspaper delivery boy, and a cream (!?!) delivery boy to save up the money to get it.

Malcolm: a violin. I saved up my pocket money and asked relatives for money instead of Easter eggs. Then it was a choice between a new Action Man or a violin. Babs and Lola used to wet the bow without me knowing so it wouldn’t grip the strings – it sounded terrible.

Babs: A plastic recorder for me too, followed by an electric keyboard . It was massive like a church organ .

Cholmondeley: a kazoo. I had a kazoo band called The Brix. We had a great song called ‘’Dusseldorf Fart’.

Malcolm: what key was that in?

Cholmondeley: Dunno, but it was a real seam splitter

++ Had you all been involved with bands prior to The Marteens?

Lola: No. Although I did have a solo in a sixth form production of “Godspell”.

Malcolm: I played a five string electric guitar in a bedroom band called Citizens Band. It should have had six strings but the top E broke and I didn’t have enough money for a new set.

Babs: No never had the confidence.

Hernandez: A ghost-writer on our facebook page is suggesting that there are facial similarities between some members of Me and Dean Martin and The Marteens. We should have worn moustaches.

Cholmondeley: I’d been a terrible guitarist: so decided to become a terrible bass-player. Fewer strings!

++ When was the band formed? Who were the band members, what did each of you play and how did you all know each other?

Lola: Spring of 1991. I answered an advert for a female singer, left on a table or possibly in the toilets of Jacey’s Bar on Lower Parliament St. I didn’t know anyone else in the band could play! But I remember us all getting on. Much rehearsal fun. ‘Till they told us we had a gig. Then it was “Oh sh*t!”

Malcolm: I played guitar – I had six strings by this stage. I think it was Cholmondeley who left the note in the ladies toilets. We had no idea it would be one of our sisters who answered it. When Lola says she didn’t know anyone in the band could play, I’m sure she really means she didn’t want to know us, you know, big brothers are embarrassing and we used to show her up in front of her mates.

Babs: I was in The old Angel one night ,when one of my friends told me my brother Cholmondeley had just been kicked out by the bouncers . He was in the girls toilets again handing out his phone no . It turned out he wasn’t on the pull but trying to find a female singer for a band the boys were putting together. I was livid that they had not asked me so threatened to tell our parents about his toilet capers and the rest is history.

Cholmondeley: actually I was on the pull: the music was a sinister cover story. I’m not like that now.

Malcolm: so it was more than one female toilet block Cholmondeley was found loitering in.

Hernandez: I remember getting drunk enough to hand out leaflets, but can’t remember anything beyond that.   I do remember that I helped write the songs, and played occasional guitar.

Cholmondeley: I very much looked forward to Babs and Lola’s mates turning up for the auditions. It was very wholesome. I helped out with diaphragm exercises and stuff. We never recruited anyone else in the end, as we realised we’d have to pay ‘em.

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

Malcolm: it’s the family surname.

++ What sort of music were you into at the time? What would you say were your influences?

Lola: Indie. Blondie. Humorous dance, e.g. Dee Lite.

Hernandez: The Paris Sisters, The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Chiffons. These were the pure pop girls groups for me. They were absolutely the template for the songs we were aiming for, added to the indiepop feel. The Paris Sisters’ ‘I Love How You Love Me’ is almost unbearably beautiful. The Marteens’ version of it is on the forthcoming album release. I am so proud of it.

Malcolm: The Love Affair – great arrangements and melodies, The Beach Boys with their fantastic harmonies, Edison Lighthouse and Tony Burrows with their great tunes.

Babs: I was really into the indie scene at the time and The Wonder Stuff were top on my list , but I was a secret Madonna fan behind closed doors . ( would never have admitted to it at the time )

Malcolm: the Madonna thing explains that strange outfit you turned-up to one gig wearing, Babs.

Cholmondeley: ‘I only have eyes for you’ by The Flamingos. It’s from another planet!

Lola: That is truly beautiful, Cholmondeley.

++ How was Nottingham at that time? Were there any like minded bands that you liked?

Malcolm: The Legendary Dolphins, Hurt, Slaughterhouse Five, Hepburn, Idi Eisenstein, Dr Egg, Huge Big Massive, Po!, The Waiting List plus there was a very active thrash metal scene thanks to Ear Ache Records and bands such as Lawnmower Deth.

Cholmondeley: my cousin was in The Legendary Dolphins for two weeks but he got chucked out over a Hobnob incident.

Hernandez: That takes the biscuit.

++ And where would you usually hang out in Nottingham? Like what were the venues to check out bands or the good record stores?

Lola: I loved Nottingham’s social scene at that time. Playing pool at The Newcastle and Navigation. Sat nights at the Garage (indie club night) or upstairs at the Hearty Goodfellow and gigs at Rock City, where I also worked behind the bar.

Malcolm: Aldo’s coffee shop with the fantastic donuts, Jacey’s Bar, The Old Angel, Russell’s, The Hippo, The Garage, Eden and Rock City which is still the best live venue in the country and where Lola wouldn’t sell us drinks if she thought we’d already had too much.

Babs: Rock City and The Garage were my favourite hang outs, and I loved going into Selecter Disc rummaging through all that vinyl.

Malcolm: that was a great record shop. Do you remember Rob’s Record Mart? If you didn’t know the name of a song he’d ask you to sing it. He had everything. I bought an original copy of If Paradise is Half as Nice in there.

++ How was the creative process for the band?

Malcolm: on the earlier songs we wanted to contrast the lovely melodies with the harsh distorted guitars and driving bass – we tried to imagine what the Ronettes singing over the Buzzcocks as a backing band might sound like. On the later songs we tried to take this further by keeping the verses and choruses jangly and light and contrasting this with lots of noise in the instrumental sections.

++ The first song I heard by The Marteens was “A First Kiss” which appeared on the 4th volume of The Leamington Spa series. It is a fantastic song, I love it. You already told the story behind the song on the liner notes, but wondering how come it took so many years for the retrospective to come out?

Malcolm: First Kiss is a great song and it sits very comfortably on the Leamington Spa compilation. We all got jobs and went our own ways and the original tapes were lost. Then one day at a family reunion Babs turned up with a CD of all the songs. Apparently the tapes had been gathering dust in Cholmondeley’s previous flat from 20 years ago, and when he returned to ask if his banjo signed by Marlene Dietrich might be in the basement, he found it, plus the tapes. Babs copied them and kept them as a surprise for the three of us at the reunion.

++ I’ve heard a few other songs on Youtube. I think my favourite would be “Boys Talk“, it is such a great tune! What’s the story behind this song?

Hernandez: Babs and Lola spat that one out, when we three brothers were in the third hour of trying to work out which ice cream we prefer, and what colour of smarties is the best. I still don’t fully get what they are trying to say in the song.

Lola: It unabashedly glorifies a stereotype that I somewhat bought into in my youth. However it does raise a worthy topic for debate.

Hernandez: Again, I’m not really getting this.

++ You’ve uploaded some songs to Youtube like “I Hope It Rains in your Wedding Day” or “What’s a Girl To Do?”. Was wondering then how many more songs were recorded by the band? And will all of them appear on the Firestation retrospective?

Malcolm: The album is called ‘We’re the Marteens’. There are 15 songs on the album including different versions of a few of them plus a tremendous cover version of one of our favourite songs.

++ And how come none of these songs were released back in the day? Was there any interest by labels?

Malcolm: we never did get round to releasing anything although we always felt the songs were strong.

++ There weren’t any compilation appearances either, right?

Malcolm: Leamington Spa was the only one and then Boys Talk showed up on the internet.

++ Do tell me where were these songs recorded? And how was the recording process for the band?

Malcolm: All the songs were recorded in Nottingham. There were two main phases of recording. Some of the tracks were recorded at home on four-track and I’m surprised how much we squeezed onto those four tracks. The second phase was recorded at a small local rehearsal studio with an 8-track machine.

Cholmondeley: engineered by the great Dave Chang – who was named after his favourite guitar sound.

++ For you, what is your favourite Marteens song and why?

Lola: My Hopeless Friend. Classic teenage heartbroken angst. And May All Your Tears Beguile (‘cos I wrote the lyrics).

Hernandez: What’s A Girl To Do? ‘Sunset in a lonely sky, standing on a beach at night, I hear a voice say ‘oh, what a feeling’; Wind sweeping through my hair, walking like I don’t care, but, of course, I do’, and then Lola comes in with ‘La..la…la’. It gets me every time. Massive pop.

Malcolm: First Kiss, it’s got a good beat. I love the melody and the story plus it’s a little strange because it doesn’t really have a chorus.

Cholmondeley: love the ‘’Too much, too young”- esque guitar fills on that one. Sorry, talking with my mouth full of kiwi crumble….

Hernandez: Remember what mum used to say – ‘don’t mumble when you crumble’.

Babs: It has to be What’s A Girl To Do?. Only because I moved away from Nottingham to the seaside some years ago, and when life throws a turd at you I find myself singing that in my head when I’m walking my dog up the beach.

Cholmondeley: Cherry Trees – cos I’m sensitive as shit.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any particular good ones that you remember and why?

Lola: I remember how nervous Babs and I were at our first gig upstairs at the Old Angel and every gig afterwards, come to think of it. Maybe our outfits didn’t help. Hot pants over black tights and a leotard.

Babs: OMG I remember those outfits lol. I think we may have even had our hair in bunches.

Malcolm: we played a great gig at The Navigation with Idi Eisenstein but their guitarist kept eyeing up my semi-acoustic so I had to keep an eye on him all night. I seem to recall we used to play a cover of The Bay City Rollers’ Bye Bye Baby – there were loads of key changes.

Cholmondeley: I don’t remember much about them. This was the early 90s if you get me. This treacle sponge is fantastic, but I fancy something a bit savoury now …

Hernandez: I think Cholmondeley has hit his sweet spot.

++ And where there any bad ones that you remember?

Malcolm: we thought it would be cool to play live with a drum machine instead of live drums once but we couldn’t hear the drum machine in the monitors. It turned out like some kind of a-rhythmic counter-culture fusion with the instruments half a bar ahead of the drums. The style didn’t catch on.

Lola: A stand out moment was when an audience member fell on the floor laughing during my spoken bit of “Boys Talk”. He said he thought I was trying to rap. He was an acquaintance of Cholmondeley’s who I was dating at the time. The relationship didn’t last much longer.

Malcolm: he was never right for you.

++ I saw some photos by the band and I notice you had a very colourful style! Was wondering about those shirts and dresses you wore. Was it your normal outfits or was it just for the band?

Lola: That dress was pretty much standard daywear for me back then. Vintage dresses from Backlash or charity shops. Black DM boots were my most expensive item.

Hernandez: That red paisley shirt I’m wearing is the one Me and Dean Martin sang about on ‘Me and My Paisley Shirt’.

Malcolm: I think I’m wearing a green polo shirt – that was racy enough for me

Babs: I was boring baggy jeans and black tops most of the time.

Cholmondeley: I was reviving the haircuts of Welsh rugby players circa 1973. Known as a short Bach and sides.

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

Cholmondeley: fab local fanzine ‘’Mutate” edited by Idi Blod was very supportive. We later featured in their top strip: ‘Ron Pemberton: Super Predator’

++ And then when and why did you split? What happened after? Did you all continue making music?

Lola: Sadly no. I travelled about a bit. Spent 3 years in Australia. Then a career change to nursing.

Babs: Can’t really remember what happened (it was along time ago).

Malcolm: it wasn’t really a split more a growing apart as careers and families became priorities. There was no big bust up over artistic differences or anything like that although I seem to recall that Hernandez still owes me a fiver.

Hernandez: We may have had a Banana Split, but actually I think I always preferred a Knickerbocker Glory special. It was never easy when mum and dad took us out to the ice cream parlour.

Cholmondeley: … thank heavens we stopped when we did… My gallbladder was the size of Manhattan by the end.

++ What about today? What do you do? Still making music or not? What other hobbies do you have?

Lola: I’m a part-time nurse and part-time post grad student, studying Person-Centred Experiential Psychotherapy. I like to sing in the shower and am trying to learn to play the banjo when I have time. I can make a good sound on my didgeridoo. I also knit scarves.

Hernandez: Banjo it up, Lola! I play acoustic guitar and sing in a music hall and folk band called Bendigo’s Bazaar. We’ve just started gigging and recording. Check out our youtube channel and facebook page!

Malcolm: I’ve got a banjo. Didgeridoo Lola?….please….didgeridon’t.

Babs: Hay i’ve got a banjo too, cant play it though. Still love singing in the shower, but keep me away from the Karaoke when I’m drunk!!!. I also take part in a village Panto once a year. We are known as The Old Farts. They are always really bad but very funny and all the money we raise goes to local charities.

Malcolm: three banjos and an acoustic guitar – I really hope Cholmondeley has a tuba, what a career we could have.

Hernandez: He’s got a tuba-smarties. I like the orange ones. But why do you want to know about our confectionery habits? Sometimes, I find interviews hard to follow.

Cholmondeley: I think it’s obvious what happened to my bloody banjo! This cherry pop’s nice.

Hernandez: Oh, somebody’s tightly strung.

++ Tell me a bit about Nottingham today, I’ve been there just for a couple of hours on the way to Indietracks many times but never had the chance to explore. If one was to go as a tourist, what would you say one shouldn’t miss seeing, and what would be a traditional Nottingham meal?

Lola: The old pubs like the Trip to Jerusalem, the Bell and the Malt Cross.

Hernandez: Lola’s tips are good. Also have a pint of beer in one of the little snugs in The Peacock, also a classic old school pub. The Alley Cafe for good, hearty veggie food. Edin’s for a cake and coffee. Go to a day’s cricket at Trent Bridge. Visit the mystically beautiful Sherwood Forest, especially around The Major Oak.

Malcolm: they’ve got two turntables in the Peacock and a nice open fire. Newstead Abbey is a must, as is a walk around Attenborough Nature Reserve where I’m told they have Sand Martins. Does Lola only ever hang out in pubs these days?

Cholmondeley: Sand Martins is my favourite beer actually.

Lola: I only ever hung around in pubs. But stayed within the government’s recommended weekly maximum alcohol limit (14 units).

Babs: Dont forget The Salutation and The Royle Children. Lola . LOL

Malcolm: why?..what happened in there then, anything we should know about?

Lola: Unfortunately I can’t remember.

Cholmondeley: Nottingham is officially the gaming capital of the UK; which is fat use to me, frankly.

++ One last question. Looking back, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The Marteens?

Lola: Meeting up with everyone again after 25 years over some fine food and drink. They hadn’t changed. And having our songs released in 2018. Stupendous!

Babs: I agree with Lola .

Malcolm: fantastic reunion and working together on the album.

Hernandez: The pure Knickerbocker Glory of it all.

Cholmondeley: something precious plucked out of the aether. We could have let it be, y’know ..?

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

Lola: If we gig again, we’d love fans old and new to join us. And if anyone does collapse to the floor, well I’m a nurse now, so I can help. Take care x

Hernandez: Respect to Lola for that brilliant arc! ‘M. A. R. T. Double E. N. S. What does that mean?… ‘

Malcolm: it’s just great to think that after 25 years there are still people out there, like those at Firestation, who want to keep the music alive and people running blogs and fanzines, like Cloudberry, who want to keep the memories alive through their writing.

Cholmondeley: pass the lime pickle please Malc …

Malcolm: you know I hate being called Malc.

Hernandez: Hey, Malc, why’s Cholmondeley having lime pickle with that Knickerbocker Glory? Sometimes, I find interviews hard to follow. Thank goodness, we have Babs and Lola to keep us right…. Oh, they’ve gone off into a huddle in the corner, and are muttering darkly. I think I heard them say something about ‘Boys Talk part 2’….

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Listen
The Marteens – First Kiss

Back now from Spain!! But to be honest I left this post ready before traveling. So won’t be able to tell my experiences here, that will have to wait until my next post. I just arrived last night, Sunday night, and I’m quite knackered. And I’m posting this Monday morning, right? So, no time to get my ideas and memories in order. But before I left to Spain I found some interesting sounds and news that might be a week old now but still worth mentioning!

Paris Popfest: the Paris, France, festival has announced its dates for their 2018 edition. The Paris Popfest 2018 will be happening during two days in September, the 21st and 22nd of that month. No other details have been announced but this is already great news! I’ll keep informing when the venue and the bands are announced.

Lucky Pigeons: I remember being a fan of this Swedish all-girl band back in 2006 or so. I believe I even exchanged some messages on Myspace, or maybe not. But I was never aware of a video for their classic song “Keep On Kingie” until Dennis from the Candy Twist fanzine/label posted it and I was quite surprised! Brought lots of memories and was singing along one more time since those golden days for indiepop!

Seven Tin Stars: the third release on the Mexican label Emma’s House is available once again. Already a classic when it comes to Mexican indiepop, Seven Tin Stars’ “Return to the White Tide” is a beautiful 4-song EP of dreamy indiepop including the songs “Return to the White Tide”, “Your Cigarette Was Glowing”, “Needless in Tour Shoes” and “Dissolve”. This new edition of the EP comes in a CD digipak and has brand new artwork. It is limited to 100 copies so run for your copy. The band is formed by Pablo García and Fernando de la Flor.

The King of Mirrors: the brilliant Swindon, UK, band will be releasing an album later this year. They have shared the first single for this forthcoming album. The new song is called “Fall into Place” and is really nice! The recording was made by Rich May on vocals, guitar and keyboard, Jase Bush on bass and Jamie Deighton on drums. The band is predicting the album to be finished by April, can’t wait!

Football, etc.: Just found out this Houston band formed by Lindsay Minton on guitar and vocals, Mercy Harper on bass and Daniel Hawkins on drums. They had released an album last May, and it was titled “Corner”. That’s what I’m checking out at the moment. There are 10 songs and it seems it got quite some support as it was released by Community Records in the US, Barely Regal in the UK and Stiff Slack in Japan. That is not common these days, to see releases by different labels in different regions. This is by no means their only release, it seems the band has been going since at least 2008 and there are many releases to stream on their Bandcamp. Direct guitar pop, no frills, some of my favourite songs on their last album are “Foul” and “Advantage”, where they sound the poppiest I think!

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An über obscure band and release today on the blog. I find out about this band on the From a Northern Place blog some years ago but only last week I managed to order a copy of Brown’s Gazette’s only known release, the “Jimmy Kept His Head” 7″.

As you might expect I know absolutely nothing about this band. I hope some of you know something about them, that maybe you can help me finding out even some basic details like who was behind the band. The few things that I do know, I will share with you on the blog as it has become the usual.

We know the band released this 7″ single in 1986 on their own label as a self-release probably as the catalog number is BG1, Fair to think that B means Brown’s and G, Gazette, right? This 7″ had two songs, on the A side was “Jimmy Kept His Head” and on the B side, my favourite, the bouncy “Blow Me Down”.

The art for the record is quite mysterious. It looks like ink drawings of a swan on the front and some tree trunks on the back side. There is no information on the sleeve. Just the BG1 on the upper right corner of the back cover. The labels have a print of a brick wall and in front a sign announcing Brown’s Gazette and the song on each side. There seems to be a signature on the drawings but I can’t figure it out, only the number 86. The year this record was released.

Discogs has an enigmatic note: “Apparently an off-shoot of the Crook Cassette label”. This, I thought, might be a good hint to keep on looking for information. I can’t seem to find much, but then on 45cat I see another comment that mentions that on “Sam Mauger’s website uk45.orgfree has this one listed as being a Crook Cassettes label release. There are no clues on the record or cover though. Anybody know the band who could confirm?”

That comment dates from 2016. I have my hopes up and try to find that website. I do and it looks so old. Like a pre-Geocities website if you can imagine that. Just plain HTML. And while I’m impressed by it, I search and I can’t seem to find the catalogue for Crook label. There are other catalogues listed it seems, but this one I can’t seem to find it. And when finally I find it and click the link for it to open. Guess what, it opens a porn page. Bummer. I guess the website was hacked not too long ago if that comment dated from a year and a half ago.

Now my best hint is useless. I do find that back in the days of George Washington subscribed to Brown’s Gazette among others. Who was this Brown? Or maybe it was a place? I also find that there was a famous horse in the UK that had that name but who died in a race in the 80s. Could this be the origin of the name?

I can’t find anything else. Not for the band nor the Crook Cassette label. Who were they? Where were they based? In which other bands were they involved? I’m hoping someone has some answers!

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Listen
Brown’s Gazette – Blow Me Down

 

I fly tonight to Madrid! Very excited to go back to Spain and being able to attend Madrid Popfest next Friday and Saturday. I think it will be a very good time seeing friends again and checking out bands that are truly brilliant. So no new posts until March 5th I suppose. As I said on previous posts, now is time to catch up with the blog. I know there have been many posts in the last few weeks, but I’ve been more curious than usual about the music I love.

But here is the good news. Last post I announced the Salt Lake Alley 7″ that will be released by Cloudberry this spring. I have shared the SoundCloud for the song “Deals at the Crossroads” that is the opening track. Also the Facebook page for the band. But I must say now that you can pre-order the record on our website, on www.cloudberryrecords.com. So this is the way we are starting this year, with The County Fathers and Salt Lake Alley. Isn’t it a fantastic start? We are very excited. Next month, in March, I hope to announce our next 7″ by a fab new Mexican band. So keep your eyes peeled for that too!

Now a few more cool pop finds for you to enjoy while you wait for the blog’s return!

Birdie: a new Birdie record? Is this for real? Am I dreaming? WIAIWYA is going to be releasing a new 7″ by Debsey Wykes’ band! The songs on the record are “Tomorrow” and “Bowling Green”, and at this time you can stream the latter. I must say I’m not a fan of the artwork, especially compared to the previous art for all Birdie releases, but in this case it doesn’t matter. It is Birdie! And here there will be two new songs for her discography. You can pre-order the record now and it will be released on May 7th.

Famous Problems: thanks to Birdie I am at the WIAIWYA Bandcamp checking the latest of the great label ran by Mr. John Jervis. I don’t know who are Famous Problems I must say. But here there’s a 10″ record that is slated for April 27th. There is barely any information about this band on the Bandcamp, but on Facebook I see it is kind of an all-stars band including Pam Berry and Mark Flunder. We also know there are going to be 7 songs on the record and right now you can stream the song “Every Girl”.

Spearmint: this one is to be released on April 7th. Another 7″ on WIAIWYA that is part of their seven inches club. Two songs, “Senseless (A Stranger)” and “The Music They Love Us to Hate”. Again you can stream the 2nd song, the B side. From what I’m reading I notice that for 2018 all these singles that the label will be releasing, which will be 7 of course, will feature seven artists that have been consistantly wonderful for 20 years or more. And Spearmint definitely fits the bill.

Fantasma: I just found out about this band from Lima, Peru, who only have one song on their Bandcamp. The song is also called “Fantasma” and it is really enjoyable. There is very little information about this band. We know that it was formed by Oswald Zapata and it might just be a one-man band. He mentions that he is influenced by shoegaze and jrock and pop.

Man from Delmonte: this is an oldie, but I’ve only seen this now and thought about sharing it. It is a video of one of my favourite bands ever playing at the TV show Hold Tight ITV in 1987. Filmed at Alton Towers, they do a small interview with Mike West and then the band plays one of their classic songs, “Water in My Eyes”. And I’m like wow! I love this band so much, so I just had to share it!

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innocence: the state, quality, or fact of being innocent of a crime or offense. lack of guile or corruption; purity. used euphemistically to refer to a person’s virginity.

It is a bit of an odd name for a guitar pop band, Innocence. But that is the case of this very obscure band that I’ll be focusing today. A band I discovered through the fine blog From a Northern Place some time ago. Yes, I’ve been looking at some of the bands that are on the blog that I haven’t covered on the blog. There are many that are not of my taste, but most usually they are really great choices of obscure guitar pop bands!!

So the aforementioned blog had uploaded the one song by Innocence, “Where I Stand”, and scans of their 7″. Was it their only record released? It seems so according to Discogs. And it doesn’t even have a catalog number, so it must have been a self-release. No label either. Tough luck. We only know that this record had two songs, “Black & White” on the A side and “Where I Stand” on the B side.

Discogs has no scans of the sleeve, but thanks to this blog we do have access to them. We see on the front of the jacket the name of the band and also a black and white photo of the band. 5 members. We do know the names but we don’t know which name corresponds to each other on the photo:
Rich Briggs: vocals
Mark Oldrey: guitar
John Young: keyboards
Paul Bacon: bass
Kevin Stanfield: drums

The songs are credited to be written and produced by the band. They were recorded at Goldust Studios in Bromley, Kent, on February 1989. They were engineered by Mark Dawson. The photo taken on the front was taken by Mark Ingram.

Some lyrics from “Black & White” are printed too, “I will take you there / rivers will run dry / I will follow you / to the black & white”. And then we find an address to contact the band in Hornchurch, Essex.

Hornchurch is a suburban town in the London Borough of Havering, East London, England, 15.2 miles (24.5 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. Historically an ancient parish in the county of Essex, that became the manor and liberty of Havering, Hornchurch shifted from agriculture to other industries with the growing significance of nearby Romford as a market town and centre of administration. As part of the suburban growth of London in the 20th century, Hornchurch significantly expanded and increased in population, becoming an urban district in 1926, and forming part of Greater London since 1965. It is the location of Queen’s Theatre, Havering Sixth Form College and Havering College of Further and Higher Education.

I’ve actually covered a band from Hornchurch before, right? A quick look on my blog and I found that I wrote about The Irregulars, who also hailed from this place! Maybe they were friends? Maybe they shared gigs?

I try to look for the band members, but it ends up being almost impossible. I do find a Richard Briggs living in New Zealand, a John Young and a Mark Oldrey living in London and all of them seem to be friends on Facebook. Perhaps these are the same ones. Or it may just be a coincidence. I may be in the right track. But they aren’t connected with Paul or Kevin.

A closer look to the Richard Briggs account I notice he has uploaded a photo with the caption “The Innocence Boys”. Bingo! This must be him. He looks like the vocalist indeed. It is combined photo where it shows vocals, roadie, guitar, keys and drums. No bass. Interesting.

But there’s not much more on the web about them. That is quite a shame. Of course I wasn’t expecting a Soundcloud or a Bandcamp, but perhaps a little writeup, some bio information, something else. They must have written and recorded more than 2 songs. In my case, I’ve only heard one of the songs, “Where I Stand”. I don’t own their record yet. I would love a copy of course.

Did they appear on any compilations? Were they involved in any other bands? When and why did they split? Or even when did the band start? Did they play many gigs? How come they self-released their records? Many questions, little answers. This is obscure as it gets.

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Listen
Innocence – Where I Stand

Finally I’m happy to announce our next 7″ that will be available this spring: Salt Lake Alley’s “Deals at the Crossroads”.  Salt Lake Alley consists of Gustav Tranback (Paper Hearts, Dismal Plight) and Mikael Carlsson (The Honeydrips, Dorotea) and they are based in Stockholm, Sweden. They describe their music as Teenage Fanclub and Popsicle swapping Sarah singles. They call their music orthodox indie pop.  The single will have four songs, “Deals at the Crossroads” and “So Differently” on the A side and “When We’ll Meet Again” and “Matter of Fact” on the B side. The art was created exclusively for the single by Mexican illustrator Alejandro Herrerías. You can preview the opening track, “Deals at the Crossroads”, on our SoundCloud and we’ll be adding it on the website pretty soon so you can pre-order this beauty. The single will be limited to 300 copies. Keep your eyes peeled for more news about the single, in the meantime you can like them on their brand new Salt Lake Alley Facebook page!

After that wonderful news, I can share with you some indiepop findings I’ve stumbled upon this week!

Red Go-Cart: oh! I need this record. A new 7″ by one of my favourite Japanese bands since forever. I hope this 200 limited record is still available after I come back from Spain? Or maybe that the band wants to do a trade? I would love it. This is a band I love for many years. And their newest record has two brand new songs, “Something Lasts” and “Sunflower” and it is being released  by the always recommendable Galaxy Train. The 7″ comes with a poster, two seals and a lyric sheet in Japanese and English!

Renge: and that is not all that is new from Galaxy Train Records. There is a 7″ with two songs by a band called Renge that sound very very fragile. Again limited to 200 copies their “Crystal Clear Winter” 7″ comes packaged in a similar fashion, only this time instead of a poster you get a postcard. The songs on this sea blue vinyl are “Sand Castle” and “Underneath the Ice” Sweet and introspective, the band released also another 7″ with the label almost at the same time called “Summer Filled With Blue“, so check that one out too.

Say Sue Me: I recommended this band a couple of months back and I thought I was making a great discovery. Well it seems they are quite popular by now. The Busan, South Korea, band is now promoting their next release which will be an album titled “Where We Were Together” and so far I have been able to listen to two songs that will be included in it on their Bandcamp, “Old Town” and “Old Town (Radio Edit)”, and even though they really are the same, they are fantastic! The CD seems to be reasonably priced at 10 pounds and the vinyl for 12. The question will be, how much for postage to the US? The album is released on April 18th.

Megrim: a new release by Jigsaw Records always catches my attention, and I had never heard about this band before. So decided to have a look. Actually, I find out, that I’m not that in the dark about them, the band is the project of Olivier Doreille who used to be in the classic 90s French band Les Autres. With this new band he just released a new 10 song album titled “Families”.

Anthony Rochester: “Sings for You” is the name of the new album by my favourite Tasmanian indiepopper. Rochester is back after many years, years since the “Anthony Rochesters EP”, years since “Hot Hits ’96” and he does in full form. 9 brand new songs of classy indiepop. Introspective sometimes, a bit like the fab Friends, and sometimes very 90s and disco like on “Parasep Discotheque”, it is quite a lovely album. Check out the video for the song “My Dancing Days are Done” too!

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Continuing with my crusade of documenting indiepop history I check out the catalog of one of the most important Manchester labels, Ugly Man Records. I am missing many of their releases, that’s true. It is hard to own all the records I want because of money and also because of space! But little by little my collection grows and grows. Just last week I finally added the one and only release by Grown Up Strange, a 12″ single that was released by Ugly Man Records (UGLY 1T) in 1986.

When I start my investigation on Discogs, in the hope of finding details about them, I immediately notice that Discogs has a little bio written for the band:  New Romantic band originally form Ulverston. After playing with punk acts the Spurts (1978) and the Hormones (1979), Chris ‘Mokka’ Hutchinson (guitars, vocals) and Mike Gaunt (drums) formed Grown up Strange in 1981 with Toby Wren (guitars), and Norman Scott (keyboards). As to the origin of the band Hutchinson told ‘Blast Off’ Magazine: ‘I started off in a punk band. But that developed into Grown Up Strange. Mike was drumming in it, this was 78/79. Then Mike moved to Manchester, and I was just a bedroom guitarist for a couple of years. I spent a couple of years just growing up, starting to write my own stuff. In this punk band, The Spurts – and then we became The Hormones! – we used to do cover versions of about four Buzzcocks songs, and The Only Ones – and XTC. And then we, as I say, split up and when we came back it was with our own material.” (Blast Off, 1/1986) In 1982, Wren and Scott were replaced respectively by Steve Wildgoose and Greg Shields. In 1985 the new recruits were substituted by Simon ‘Bendy’ Bennet (bass, former Hoi Polloi, Sonny & a Million) and David Williams (keyboards). Finally, in 1986 Bennet quit to be replaced by Roy Corckill (a.k.a. Roy Corckhill) former Here’s Johnny and Black) (ands the group was joined by Colin Vearncombe, from Black, for live work). This line-up recorded the band’s only single, released in August 1986.

That was a good introduction. Now I know the name of the band members. Also that they hailed from Ulverston:
Ulverston is a market town in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria in North West England. Historically in Lancashire, the town is in the Furness area 8 miles (13 kilometres) north-east of Barrow-in-Furness. It is close to the Lake District, and just north of Morecambe Bay, neighboured by Swarthmoor, Pennington and Rosside. Ulverston’s most visible landmark is Hoad Monument, a concrete structure built in 1850 to commemorate statesman and local resident Sir John Barrow. The monument provides views of the surrounding area, including Morecambe Bay and parts of the Lake District.

This might be the first band I know from Ulverston, right? Do you remember any other? I check the back sleeve of their record. There were three songs included. On the A side they have “A Wing & A Prayer” and on the B side “When You Became That Summer” and “Now Winter Lasts Forever”. All songs are credited to Chris Mokka Hutchinson. They were recorded at Amazon Studios and engineered b y Geoff Higgins (A side) and Mark Phythian (B side). For this record the band was Chris Mokka Hutchinson on guitar and vocals, David Williams on keyboards and Mike Gaunt on drums. They also thank the “live” boys, I’m assuming the musicians that played with them when they had gigs, Roy Corkill on the fretless bass and Colin Vearcombe on guitar and vocals. And also Simon Bennett who had been in the band in the past.

Now there’s an address for the band and it is at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool. That’s interesting. Did one of them work there or what? Other credits are for the logo (Marc Woodhouse) and for photography (Gary Lorne).

I leave Discogs and start looking for them on the WWW. My first stop is the Northwest Evening Mail. There is an article that is not dated about the band. There is no author either, but I’m sure it must have been a fan. From it I will learn a few interesting details about the band:
– Legend says that the band took their name from a headline about the Psychedelic Furs in one of the weekly music papers (which? it doesn’t say!)
– They played showcase events at the Civic Hall and a well-remembered outdoor gig in Barrow Park after the general election of 1983
– Because they took inspiration from Liverpool bands, Mokka planned to relocate the band to the area. Only Mokka and Mike Gaunt ended up relocating. That explains now why the lineup change.
–  They looked for other musicians to join them, but instead of a bassist and keyboard player, Mokka recorded bass and keyboards onto a Teac reel-to-reel machine to be played at PA system at gigs.
– They supported A Certain Ratio, Pete Wylie, The Blue Orchids and The Icicle Works
– When they returned to Barrow for a show at the 99 Club with The Active in 1985, they had returned as a full band, now including Colin Verncombe on guitars. Colin would later emerge as front-man with the band Black who I suppose everyone reading the blog knows?
Later I would find that the author for the blog was David Duffin, a freelance writer, as he had posted the same article in his own blog.

I find a PDF for “Camaraderie“, the Official Ian McNabb Magazine (volume 2). In it, on page 10, there is an interview with Mokka. That is because he was a long-time friend of Ian (The Icicle Works) and the introduction says that he had assisted Ian in different ways, from selling t-shirts to his role as a keyboard player in Ian’s band. It also says that Mokka released a single in October 1996 titled “Where the Cold Wind Blows” where Ian participates playing guitar and harmonica, the old friend Roy Corkhill from the live Grown Up Strange band played bass and Daniel Strittmatter played drums. It mentions too that he was part of Black for a number of years. Then the interview starts and Mokka tells that he got this nickname from his dad but he doesn’t really know the reason for it. Then on page 26 there is an interview with Roy Corkhill but he doesn’t really mention Grown Up Strange.

I keep searching but I can’t find any other mentions. I suppose they continued making music, like Mokka did, afterwards. They only released one record, which is strange, as many of their friends released many more and were quite successful. I wonder what happened to them. It is true that they waited many years since the band started to release their only record. What happened? Was there no support from other labels? I would love to know the story behind them, it seems that they have a very interesting one to tell!

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Listen
Grown Up Strange – A Wing and a Prayer

Thanks so much to Niklas Barwe for the interview! Wrote about the Cod Lovers some time ago on the blog and luckily Niklas got in touch and was up for answering all my questions! The Cod Lovers were part of that first wave of Swedish indiepop that released records in the late 80s and early 90s on labels such as Ceilidh Productions or A West Side Fabrication. They were part of legendary festivals as Hultsfred or Emmaboda and left wonderful albums and singles to prove it!

++ Hi Niklas! Thanks so much for the interview! How are you? What have you been up to? Have you been making music as of late?

Hi Roque! Everything is fine here. I still play music, it’s in my veins, I can’t quit you know. Nowadays I play with a group called Northern UpBeat and we play soul songs like ”Higher and Higher” and ”Tainted Love”, but also some tunes from Dexys Midnight Runners.

++ What are those first music memories of yours, what sort of music did you listen at home while growing up? And what do you think inspired you, made you want to be in a band?

For me it all started quite late in life (I was 11-12 years old) with the Beatles. The red album & the blue album and then some Elvis records and ELO. I remember I started to like melodies and songs.

Then the punk-scene came along. Bands like Blondie, Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, The Jam, Stiff Little Fingers and the Swedish punk band Ebba Grön and that sorts of groups, plus the Ska-scene with the Specials, Madness and so on, inspired me to start to play myself and be in a band.

++ What was your first guitar? And how did you get it? Did it take you long to learn how to play it?

The first guitar was an acoustic Spanish guitar that I bought from local music store. I sat in my room and tried to learn how to play, while listening to records. But the first electric instrument I learnt was bass, and I learnt it from a guy who was a musician.

++ Had any of you been involved with any bands before being in Cod Lovers?

I started my first group at the age of 15 with Johan Wallin from Cod Lovers. He was my friend and already a great guitarist and the one who I learnt to play the guitar from. We played all sorts of new wave and punk inspired music in the beginning of the 80´s, and then we evolved to a post punk band called Sista Vintern with lyrics in Swedish. We released a 7” ”Min vän” on Ceilidh Productions in june 1988.

++ Tell me how did the band start? Is it true that it started as a joke, that you were only planning to play the one show on Christmas 1988? Who were the members and how did you all know each other?

It was sort of a musical movement in Norrköping that emerged around -86. A creative environment where musicians got together around the label Ceilidh Productions and the founder Ola Hermanson. Ola is a friend and a very talented songwriter and nowadays he plays with his band Sonic Surf City and travels the world around in his work as associate professor. It was groups like the Persuaders, Sister James, 23 Till, The Great Gypsy Rockers, Sonic Surf City, Saturday Kids – all from Norrköping. And also Sound Affects the music magazine was very important in this movement.

The Cod Lovers formed in 1987, during the time me and Johan Wallin also were playing in Sista Vintern. It´s not true it started as a joke. It was more good songwriting and that we were already friends and common musical influences that got us started. But its true the plan was to play just one show.

The singer Johan Hallgren played in one of the first punk bands in Norrköping called Aggressiva Kostymer (Aggressive Suits) and I remembered I had seen him on stage, and he made a great impact on me back in the beginning of the 80´s. Later on we were in the same crowd around the label Ceilidh and became friends. Johan gave me a casette with a bunch of demo songs, and I was impressed of how awesome songs he´d written. We started to rehearse with various musicians. Then a party was planned in Christmas 87-88 at the local rock club Rockslottet, and we were offered a gig. Now with the gig the band took form with the original members. Me on electric guitar, Johan Hallgren on vocals and acoustic guitar. We also recruited my friend the multi talented Johan Wallin from Sista Vintern on drums, and my high school mate, the jazzy Beatles fan Johan Skaneby on bass.

After the gig we felt like WOW, this was fun! And we all decided to continue to play together.

++ What sort of music were you into at that time?

I remember we all got blown away when we saw the Hoodoo Gurus at the Roskilde festival in Denmark summer -87. We were into the contemporary Australian scene with bands like Hoodoo, The Go-Betweens, The Church (Under the milky way). More influences was Loyd Cole and of course Lou Reed and the V U. Maybe the Velvets was the group that we all were into the most. We also liked The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, The Godfathers and the bands from Manchester; the Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays. We took up the old saying from the city’s industrial days; Norrköping – Sweden’s Manchester

++ And what would you say are your favourite all-time Swedish pop bands?

Well from the Swedish indiepop scene my favorites are

Eggstone, Popsicle, Wannadies, Dolkows

++ Why the name of the band? Big cod lovers I suppose? If that’s the case, what would be your favourite cod dish?

We quickly needed a name of the band when we got the first gig.

Singer Johan liked very much The Modern Lovers. So we made it a bit silly and the word Cod emerged. We meant it like ”Cash On Delivery Lovers”, but among friends and so it became Cod the fish.
The favortite cod dish is of course Fish & Chips with danish Remoulade sauce, made in a proper way by a real chef 🙂

++ Cod Lovers were based in Norrköping is that right? Are you there still today? Has it changed much since those days?

Yeah that’s right we were based in Norrköping. Johan Skaneby and myself did move to Stockholm in the beginning of the 90s, but now since a few years I’m back in Norrköping. The other “Johans” still live in Norrköping too. The town has changed very much since those days. As I said we called the city Norrköping – Sweden’s Manchester. And that was not only because we saw it as a homage to allt the bands from Manchester. It was also because the similarity between the citys as working class citys in change. The factories had shut down and something new had to grow. And Norrköping has changed very much since the end of the -80s. To the better luckily. It was much more unemployment back then. And the bars & clubs and restaurants are nicer now, and there are a lot of them nowadays. 🙂

++ What were the cool places in town? Like what was the record stores you frequented or the venues to check out up and coming bands? Were there any like-minded bands you were friendly with?

Perhaps not so cool but a place called Olympia had live conserts. Another place was Ritzo. But it was more a ”do it yourself” thing back then. A friend of mine started the rock club ”Rockslottet” in -86, where you could check out up & coming bands. The record store was ”Pet Sounds” at Nygatan where you bought the records, also run by a (another) friend of mine, they also did live concerts like Stone Roses at Olympia in Norrköping 1985. And as said Ola Hermanson started Ceilidh Productions so there’s was a record company that released high quality records with The Persuaders, Sister James, Sonic Surf City and Happy Dead Men from Stockholm and of course Cod Lovers. And the bands members were all friends.

++ And being so close to Stockholm, I suppose you used to go there a lot to quench your music thirst as well? Was there a good music scene in either town you’d say back then?

Yes its close to Stockholm and often we travelled there to go to concerts, I remember I saw the Clash and bands like U2 in the beginng of the 80´s. The music scene were alright in both towns, but nothing compare to nowadays when you can go to several concerts a week in Stockholm. In Norrköping its more like several concerts a month.

++ Why did Stefan Hubner join to play drums and Johan Wallin moved to keyboards and guitar instead of drums?

When we put Sista Vintern at halt, Staffan Hubner the drummer came along to do the drumming in Cod Lovers. Then Johan Wallin could focus on song writning and as he were a guitarist from the start, we thought it was better for the band.

++ And what about Stefan Andersson leaving the band? What happened? And how did you recruit Johan Skaneby?

Johan Skaneby is the original member of the band, but we parted ways just before the second album Pretty Things was released. Stefan Andersson from Sonic Surf City came in, but quitted after a year when SSC took all his time.

Johan Skaneby came back to the band the last year we existed.

++ Whereabouts did you use to practice? And how was the creative process for the band?

We use to practice in the industrial area in the town. This area was almost shut down during the -80s but we had a former industry local on the outskirts of that area where we hung

++ I can’t say which release came first, the flexi or the “Best Friend” 7″ in 1989. Maybe you can tell me that. And was wondering how did you end up contributing the song “Autumn” to the Sound Affects flexi?

The release of “Best Friend” 7” in 1989 was first. And then the Sound Affects flexi came out. Well the guys at Sound Affects liked us, and special the great John L Byström insisted we should do the flexi.

++ Sound Affects was a very important magazine at the time for the Swedish scene. How important was it for you? Did you had many appearances on it? Did you buy it regularly perhaps?

Yes Sound Affects was important for Cod Lovers, they liked us and gave the 7” “Best Friend” and ”French Plums” great reviews. We bought the magazine regularly and both John L Byström and Terry Ericsson were our friends. We were so close that when we released our last single on Ceilidh Productions John L Byström gave us a call with a correction about a detail on the single sleeve

++ The “Best Friend” 7″ is such a great record and it was released by the legendary Ceilidh Productions. Was wondering a couple of things, first, how did you end up signing with them and how was your relationship with the label? And second if you could tell me the story behind this classic song?

Ceilidh Productions had already released a vinyl single with Sista Vintern so the the relation with them was good. The boss Ola really liked the 7” “Best Friend” and we sent him a cassette with the the song right away after the mixing session. The relationship with Ceilidh Productions was friendly. I remember we were very pleased with the production and the mix that was made by Micke Herrström, the great indiepop producer att the time. He worked with Happy Dead Men, Sonic Surf City and later on Popsicle and many more. The story behind the song: The idea was to mix acoustic and electric fuzzed guitars to get the sound that we wanted. I think we managed quite good and the lyrics is about friendship – witch I think is a little fun in the context.

++ In 1990 you released your debut album “French Plums” which had 10 songs and was released on both CD and vinyl. I thought the CD is harder now to find than the vinyl? Maybe there was less CDs pressed? Also this album has probably my favourite Cod Lovers song, “French Plums” which also gives title to the album. What’s the story of “French Plums”?

Yes there were less CDs pressed, thats why its harder to find. French Plums is also one of my favorite songs on the album. We were inspired by the Manchester Scene and tried to get a bit a dancebeat into the song. The lyrics is about Johan Hallgrens girlfriend at the time and his longing for her as she was on a trip to New Zealand far away from him

++ The album was recorded by Daniel Gese at KM Studio in Nörrköping. How was that experience?

Actually most of the songs was recorded by Micke Herrström at the Decibel studio in Stockholm. He also did the mixing of the songs at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm. Micke Herrström is as said one of Swedens best producers. I’ve worked with him several times and we´we been in bands together to, one of them was called The Bukks and released an album 2004. Daniel recorded three of the songs at KM studio in Norrköping and he’s also av very good producer and engineer and runs his own studio there.

++ The next 7″, “Kill the Time”, was to be your last work on Ceilidh. Then you would move to A West Side Fabrication. Why did you change labels?

Yes we changed label. I think it depended on that we in the band was so impatience. We wanted everything ”now”. A West Side Fabrication told us if we choose them we could get out a second record quite fast, and for some reason we were in a hurry wich I think is reflected on the album Pretty Things. Though the first 7 songs is in good Cod Lovers level in my opinion

++ There was yet another magazine release, a 7″, were you appeared. There was a 7″ released by New Kind of Kick that had your song “Shatter the Harmony”. I have never heard of this magazine, so maybe you could tell me a bit about it?

It was more like a fanzine magazine. They lasted for about 2 years I think, and were situated in Linköping.

++ Are there still any unreleased songs by the band?

Yes we have a few unreleased songs. They would have been on the planned third album.

++ And from all your repertoire, what would be your favourite song and why?

Nowadays I think Bye Bye Pain from our first single is the song I like most. The song capture much of what The Cod Lvers was about.

++ You played the legendary Hultsfred festival. How was that?

That gig was awesome. And something we in the band appreciated very much

++ I read you also played in Spain and Latvia, is that right? Which cities? Who supported you? Do you remember?

The truth is that we had a planned tour in Spain with about 3-4 dates.

I think it was was the summer of -89´ after the 7” “Best Friend”.
We received great reviews in a Spanish music magazine for the single.

But we didn´t go on tour to Spain cause it was so uncertain with the payment for the gigs.

Instead Johan the singer and I went with train through Europe and played the streets in Portugal and Spain. We ended up in San Sebastian playing our songs there in a local bar. The gig was awesome, one of the best gigs in my life, and the guests at the bar gave us standing ovations, and a huge amount of beer too!

Later on, I think it was in 1993, we went to Riga in Latvia for two gigs. It was a lot of fun and the MTV of Latvia was there, and we drank cheap russian sparkling wine and had a good time.

++ Did you play any other countries?

No, it was plans for Berlin and more gigs in Germany but they never happened

++ And in general, did you gig a lot? Which are the best gigs you remember? And bad ones? Any anecdotes you could share?

We gigged quite much, and as said we did Hultsfred festival and Emmaboda festival, the biggest indiepop-festival at the time. The gig at the festivals was the best ones I think. A gig early 1994 at the University of Linköping was great I remember. But the early gigs at some Speakeasys (Clubs with no permission) in Norrköping I also remembers with a good feeling.

++ Then what happened? When and why did you split? Did you all continue making music afterwards? If so, in which bands?

I think it was April 1994 and the band had existed for about 5 years and we decided to call it a quits. Me and Johan lived in Stockholm and the rest in Norrköping and the members just had to much to do with our everyday jobs, it was no fun anymore. We all continued to do music afterwards, Johan Skaneby in a group called Honeycave.

++ And today, are you all still in touch? Have there ever been talks of or a reunion gig? I read that there was one in 2003 where you even put out a limited edition CD? Is there a way to get hold of it these days?

Today we’re still in touch. Johan Skaneby plays keyboards with me in Northern Upbeat and Johan Hallgren and I also have a little project. No records though. Yeah it was the last reunion in 2003 where we released a limited edition CD and that will be the last gig from The Cod Lovers. I think it will be hard to get hold on the limited CD.

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

Yeah, some attention from the Swedish and Danish national radio.

3 songs from our gig at the Hultsfreds festival was aired by the swedish radio P3. Unfortunatly it sounded crap becasue of my guitar was out of tune 🙂

And an acoustic gig in swedish P3 that I remembered was quite good

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

The gig at the Hultsfred festival and when we released the 1st album French Plums and we had an awesome release party in Norrköping and gig nr two later in the night at a Speakeasy club.

And the audience danced all night

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

I am into film, and then I do a summer music festival in Norrköping called Knickedick

++ And lastly tell me a bit about Norrköping. I’ve never been there, so wondering what are the sights one shouldn’t miss or the traditional food or drinks?

It´s a quite nice city and the old industrial area is very nice with the Museum of Work and a great Italian restaurant called Enoteket.

The best cocktail bar is Pig´n´Hen and nice bar with quite much live music is Munken. And the we have Arbis, an old theatre thats nowadays is a great live venue and bar.

++ Thanks again for the interview, anything else you’d like to add?

Many thanks to you Roque and hope you enjoy!

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Listen
Cod Lovers – French Plums

It is a holiday today in the US, so this will be a very short post. Nonetheless come back tomorrow for an interview and on Wednesday for a proper longer post with Cloudberry news and all!

Alpaca Sports: probably everyone knows by now that Alpaca Sports have released a new video for their new song “Summer Days” that will be included in their new album “From Paris With Love” due to be released later this year. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t miss it! The song is classic Alpaca Sports and the video was shot by the great Calle “Miyagi” Jirestedt and on it we see Andreas and Amanda in Gothenburg and deep underwater!

Soft Regime: checking out the rest of the new releases coming out on Elefant I check out the video for the song “Lockdown” by Soft Regime which will be part of the mini-LP “Hard Feelings” and I thought, this is pretty good! I must say I wasn’t aware of this band previously so this is a good discovery. From what I’ve learned the mini album is set to be released on March 2nd and the band is actually led by Tim from Baxendale and has the vocals of Astrid who might or might not be German.

Nos Miran: another new release by Elefant is this Spanish techno pop band’s new mini-album that will be out on March 16th. It is the first time I’m hearing this band and it is through this video for their song “Humo” which is quite catchy! The band is formed by Sergio Rodríguez from Capitán Sunrise and Marta Quintana from Ventolín.

Karen Meat: the sound of girl groups is present on this band from Des Moines, Iowa. I’m checking out their latest effort, the album “You’re An Ugly Person”, on Bandcamp. I can only stream one of their songs, the opening track “Share a Dinner” of the 10 song record. This album has been released as an LP by the very fine label Emotional Records and is limited to 100 copies. I looked for some info about the band and I can see that this is mostly the project of Arin Eaton and a revolving door of musicians.

Holy Now: this is the best new find for me this week. This song “Feel it All” and its video have been on heavy rotation since last week. I’ve only just discovered them now and I’m really enjoying the female vocals and the jangling chiming guitars. The Gothenburg band is formed by Julia Olander, Ylva Holmdahl, Samuel von Bahr Jemth and Hampus Eiderström Swahn. I start looking for their records on their label, Lazy Octopus, but I only see links to Spotify. So, I wonder if there are actually no real records? This is a very fine song! Why is it not released? Previously they have released on record an EP, a tape and a 7″ single.  But for me, this last song, is their best so far!

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Today, after many posts about records I don’t have, it is time for a record that I do have in my collection. A record I know little of, aside that once I read there was a Thompson Twins connection and that I had seen it in many lists of indiepop collectors: Big View’s “August Grass” 7″.

I actually got this record last week from Discogs for a fair price. And now I’m trying to find out more about Big View. Who were they? If they released any other songs? When did they start as a band? When did they split? Where were they based? Do you think I’ll find these answers on the web? I’ll look, and I’ll try.

Big View’s “August Grass” 7″ was released by Point Records in 1982 (PT01). For me it is safe to assume this was a self-release, there are no other releases listed for Point Records. Perhaps it has something to do with The Point Studios? That’s where the two songs for the 7″ single were recorded. The Point Studios was a rehearsal and 8 track demo studio in Central London that was active in the 70s and the 80s. Maybe.

The songs on the 7″ were on the A side the poppy “August Grass” and on the B side we find “Confess”. The first song is credited to Dodd and Knight while the second to Dodd and Roog. On the back sleeve there are some credits:
T. on vocals
Peter Dodd and John Roog on instruments
Those three as the core of the band, but it continues:
Andrew Edge on drums
Alex Burak and Paul O’Duffy were the engineers for the record
The band produced the record for CDR Productions
The sleeve art and design was done by Jon Phipps

There are no other releases by the band nor compilation appearances. Two songs. That’s it. Really? It can’t be, there must have been more recordings by this proto-indiepop band. Maybe they made some demo tapes? Anyone knows?

So Dodd? Well, that is Peter James Dodd who was part of the early Thompson Twins. I don’t think I need to explain on the blog who the Thompson Twins are. Roog, was John Roog, also from early The Thompson Twins. What about Knight? It seems it was Richard Knight, an audio and sound engineer. But what I’m most curious about is the singer: T. Who was T? It is a female voice so Discogs can’t be right listing T as Tom Bailey. That’s impossible, right? So who was T?!

Andrew Edge who drummed for the single (and for the Thompson Twins) actually has presence on the web. There’s a Wikipedia page and an old blogspot site (last updated in 2011) where it mentions he now lives in Linz, Austria, where he has released many records. In the 80s he was also part of the band Savage Progress.

I find some mention on the web about Big View. I read that Point Records was owned by Merton, the Thompson Twins publisher. That information comes from a Google Book called City of Sheffield Volume 4 of 5 edited by The Wikipedians. That is quite a weird source I must say. But here there is some interesting information about Big View:
– Dodd and Roog formed a band called Big View (with Edge on drums) and recorded a single called, “August Grass”, which was released on Point Records (owned by Merton, The Thompson Twins publisher) in 1982. Dodd is now living back in Chesterfield working as a freelance journalist – and has released his own History of Rock album billed as Peter & The Wolves. Dodd still sees Podgorski on a regular basis.
– Roog lives in London and is in a senior position in Tower Hamlets Adults Services.

Okay, so we know John Roog and Peter Dodd were the original members of the Thompson Twins alongside Thomas Bailey  and Chris Bell, back in 1977 in Sheffield. So according to that can we say that Big View were based in Sheffield as well? Let’s keep in mind that Dodd and Roog left the band in 1982 after releasing the third Thompson Twins album.

I keep diving into the world wide web, trying to find anything that could tell me who was T, that mysterious female vocalist. But I don’t find any answers. No one seems to know, the few posts I find on the web are as hopeless as mine. No one has a clue. And I add another question to this mystery, what happened with Dodd and Roog, why no more Big View releases?! And what about gigs? I couldn’t find any mention of them playing anywhere. Of course being on the shadow of the Thompson Twins must have been hard, but at the same time I would expect that because of the connection there would be more information about Big View. But of course, that’s not the case.

So I ask my Sheffield readers, do you remember them?

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Listen
Big View – August Grass