This past weekend another edition of Indietracks was celebrated in Ripley, Derbyshire. I didn’t attend. I think I’ve missed the last 3 or 4 years. I’m waiting for a lineup I would totally love to spend the amount of money to get me over to England. But it is true that this year lineup was much better than last years. So I wonder, those who went, how was it? What was your favourite gig? Was there any surprises? Any anecdotes? Would love to know your thoughts!

Let’s start the week with a few new finds.

Tape Waves: there’s a new lovely video of the band playing the song “Shimmer” at Ogimachi Park in Japan. I believe it comes from their Japan tour this year. The band has been released in that country by the label 2670 Records and I am guessing they organized this tour. I was lucky to see them once at NYC Popfest many years ago and meeting them briefly. So great that the Charleston, South Carolina, duo formed by Jarod and Kim are becoming “big in Japan”.

Blanco: speaking of Japan, one of the great bands that are part of the Tokyo scene is Blanco. They just shared with me their two latest songs which are available on CD through their Bandcamp. They are “Isolated City” and “Paradise”. My favourite of the two is “Paradise” which is a weird, hard do grasp and classify, jangly upbeat track.

Gold Muse: just found these two songs by this Boston band that says is formed by members of Swirlies, Soccer Mom and Elephants. I get a lot of ads of Soccer Mom on my Facebook and that has made me doubtful, if I want to listen or not. But listening to these two songs have made me curious. Both “Flower” and “Sterling” are two lovely dreamy pop songs, but if I had to choose one, I’d go with “Sterling”, with its fragility and classy instrumentation.

L I P S: not that excited to write a band’s name with spaces. Feels odd to me. I’m old school perhaps. In the end it just ends up being an anecdote. Watching the video for the Falmouth, UK, latest song called “Apartment”. The chiming guitars, and the terrific female vocals make me want to listen to more of their songs. Well, you can on their Bandcamp. I found a much more shoegazer song called “Walls” and”Never Makes Sense”. All from 2018. How come they don’t play Indietracks? A question with no answer.

Dream Suicides: from Riverside, California, a song that sounds very lo-fi but with a charm that brings to mind the tapes from the late 80s. This one-man band formed by Daniel has a bunch of songs on their Bandcamp and this is the first time I’m listening to them. The first one, the heavily Field Mice influenced song “Slowly Dying in Love With You”, caught my attention instantly.

—————————————————————–

There Goes Algy! is a band that is as obscure as it gets. The band is not listed on Discogs. How much information will I be able to find? Let’s see!

I knew about their existence from some Japanese blog. The blog didn’t have any worthy information about them, other than the band had released a song called “Miracle”. It did sound to me as a pre-1986 guitar pop song. But is my hunch right?

Not at all. According to Rateyourmusic, which does list the band and its one and only 7″, the song was released as an A side in 1988. As far as I know it was the only record released by the band, and it had another song on the B side, “Great Life”. Was it a self-release? It may have been. It does have a catalog number, CIRTGA001.

“Miracle” is available on Youtube. That’s how I managed to listen to it. The interesting bit happens in the comment section. The son/daughter of one of the members gets in touch with the uploader and mentions that his dad wrote, sang and played guitar on the song. There are even details of what sort of guitar was played, a 1967 Rickenbacker 450-12 string. This person, under the name Tallulah BB, gives some details about the band. That they formed in the mid 1980s and that they played for around 10 years with various different lineups. 3 years ago, so, 2015 or so, the band reformed. Wow.

After that exchange of messages, the drummer of the band also gets in touch. He is called Kevin Higerty and he gives details about the recording of the single. It was recorded in an 8 track studio in Merton, near London. He also mentions that the band played extensively around South London in 1987 and that there are live recordings of the band.

I’ve been to London many times, but never to Merton, so went to learn a bit about this place:
The London Borough of Merton is a borough in south-west London, England. The main commercial centres in Merton are Mitcham, Morden and Wimbledon, of which Wimbledon is the largest. Other smaller centres include Raynes Park, Colliers Wood, South Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park and Pollards Hill. The borough is the host of the Wimbledon tournament, one of tennis’s Grand Slam competitions. The borough derives its name from the historic parish of Merton which was centred on the area now known as South Wimbledon. Merton was chosen as an acceptable compromise, following a dispute between Wimbledon and Mitcham over the new borough’s name. The local authority is Merton London Borough Council.

Okay, I’ve passed by Wimbledon on the car when we went to Rochester I think. Never walked the streets of Merton, but I’ve seen it, kind of. I really need to go back to the UK. I miss it! It’s been years!

I start to wonder about the band’s name. It turns out Algy is actually a given name. Never heard it before. It also seems to be the nickname for those called Algernon?

I found a blog where Kevin Higerty (drums) seems to have made a comment, assuming it is the same Kevin. He talks about the ULU (University of London Union) gig were Flux played on November 11th, 1986. I believe he was playing drums that night for the band. There were 3 drummers playing, he played the tom toms standing up.

I can’t find the names of the other band members. I can’t find anything else about them. The web is silent about this band. I have no clue how many copies of the record were made. Where exactly in London where they based. How many where they? Why the name? Were they involved in any other bands? Anyone remembers them?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
There Goes Algy! – Miracle

Ending this week with the good news that the Okama Flannel Boy 7″s have arrived home. It will be released on August 10th and as you know you can already pre-order copies. I’m just waiting for the inserts to arrive and as soon as they do I will start shipping to everyone that has placed an order.

Speaking of Okama Flannel Boy I should tell you that I got the chance to see them live in Mexico City at the “Cloudberry Night” that happened just about a week ago. It was really great. I was amazed by how good they were. They played a short set, with three original songs and three covers. Then they played once again “Carolina St.” as an encore. It was their 3rd gig and they were in top form. I really wish everyone can catch them live because they are superb!

That was my indiepop highlight in the trip. But it wasn’t all. The party had a great selection of music played by DJ Salvapop, who brought his records and made us enjoy songs by bands like The Desert Wolves, Bob and more. Classic c86! And meeting so many great people was also fantastic, making new friends, and even getting a CD by an obscure Mexican early 2000s band called Los Padrinos that sounded really good. Oh! Also got the new Auuuu! fanzine. So yeah, quite good for indiepop, it wasn’t just touristy stuff this time.

And here of course are my new discoveries:

Jetstream Pony: what a lovely video for the terrific song “Self-Destruct reality” that is included in the 12″ released (and now sold out I think) by Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. I can’t wait to get my copy on the mail!

Gingerlys: one of the best indiepop bands in New York is releasing a split tape with Nausea from Indonesia. One of the songs that will be included in this tape released by Shiny Happy Records will be “Corduroy Star” which you can listen and fall for it as I just did!

Nausea: and here is a song by the other band on this split tape. Nausea doesn’t have the best of names I must say but their song “Sun For You” is tops. It is a terrific jangly track with female vocals. Don’t know much about the band, but they hail from Indonesia, just like their label Shiny Happy Records.

Gentle Ivanhoe Death Skulls: there is more songs I haven’t heard on the Shiny Happy Records Soundcloud, so I thought it was a good idea to share them with you as maybe you also missed them? This one is called “Break the Spell, Easy as Hell”. It is a song that will be part of the album “Weightless Knight”. I wish there was a bit more of a description on the page, some details about the band perhaps?:

Alpaca Sports: here is another teaser by our Gothenburg friends. This one is called “Feel Like Going Home” and what can I tell you aside that it is lovely as always. The album “From Paris With Love” is going to be released on September 7th. But it feels so far away, especially as we see the artwork and the record itself in the teaser video. Why does Elefant do this? If it is ready, why not just let me get a copy?

—————————————————————–

I am very excited about the German guitar pop compilation Firestation is preparing for next year. When they announced this news on Facebook many fans recommended some bands from the period that should be included like The Sheets, The Jesterbells and more. Familiar names to me. But there were a few that I have never heard before so I decided to do some investigation. The first one was The Hyde Parkas, which was recommended by Ronny from the superb Augsburg label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten.

So I’m checking them out on Discogs. It seems they only released 1 record while they were around. A 7″ with two songs and a few compilation tracks. It is no surprise though that Ronny recommended them, they also hailed from Augsburg and are categorized as a 1960s/Mod revival band. They later became The Parish Garden.

Their 7″ with the songs “I Confess” on the A side and “Going to Sydney” on the B side was released on AuBuMu Records (L 1/85) in 1985. This was a label based in that same city and who were active in the 80s and who have released a few records in the last decade. The record was mixed by Achim Zscheillea nd produced by B.B. Stonestein. The songs are credited to Dieter Geier and Harald Sianos.

The band had appeared the previous year, 1984, on the compilation “2000 Töne” that was also released by AuBuMu (NR 3). That is the first recording we know of the band. The song they contributed was called “Anyway”. I must say I don’t know any of the other bands on the record.

In 1985 the band contributed a couple of songs to the compilation “Two By Art – Special Introductory Issue”. On this tape compilation compiled by Thomas Wieland the band had “Seventeen” and “My Baby is Like Dynamite”. Two years later, and on the same label, the band had two songs, “Sometimes” and “On the Merseyside”, on the tape called “Two By Art 2” which I have actually mentioned on the blog in the past when I wrote about the Austrian band Fallout.

So I count now 7 released tracks. Did they record anything else?

The Augsburg Wiki might help answer that. The first interesting detail it mentions is that the band was formed by Walter Sianos on vocals, Harald “Harry” Sianos on guitar, Dieter “The Beater” Geier on guitar, Martin Stefaniak on bass, Andreas “Fant” Kroul on drums and Oliver Wolf on keyboards. It also mentions Martin “Matti” Glass as an ex-drummer. All of these members but Andreas Kroul were in a band called Kiesgroup and the Coconut Sprinter before being in The Hyde Parkas. I believe that first band was actually based in another town, in Thierhaupten. What an interesting name too, right? Under that name they played between 1982 and 1983.

It says that in 1985 the band was voted as the most popular Augsburg band according to the Neue Szene magazine. They played about 35 gigs and even traveled to Austria and Wales. It seems there were a lot of disputes about the sound and direction of the band and in the end Dieter Geier was to leave the band to start the Beatless. The rest of the band members continued playing together but they were to change their name to The Parish Garden. With the Parish Garden the band was to release a mini-album and an album and also a self-titled tape according to Discogs. I heard some of the songs on Youtube for The Parish Garden and they are not as poppy as The Hyde Parkas, so you know which ones I like the best, the poppy ones of course.

Then I was to stumble upon a Facebook page for the band! They are still going! It seems they continue playing different venues in Augsburg like Soho Stage, Kantine or Ballon Fabrik. I found two videos of them performing at Kantine from May 8th 2016, for the songs “Anyway” and “My Dog“.

It is also obvious, even though I am only mentioning at this point, that they took their name after Hyde Park, in London. That is the largest of four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace. The park is divided by the Serpentine and the Long Water. The park was established by Henry VIII in 1536 when he took the land from Westminster Abbey and used it as a hunting ground. It opened to the public in 1637 and quickly became popular, particularly for May Day parades. Major improvements occurred in the early 18th century under the direction of Queen Caroline. Several duels took place in Hyde Park during this time, often involving members of the nobility. The Great Exhibition of 1851 was held in the park, for which The Crystal Palace, designed by Joseph Paxton, was erected. And they changed of course Park for Parkas, a parka being a type of coat with a hood, often lined with fur or faux fur. The Caribou Inuit invented this kind of garment, originally made from caribou or seal skin, for hunting and kayaking in the frigid Arctic. Some Inuit anoraks require regular coating with fish oil to retain their water resistance. The words anorak and parka have been used interchangeably, but they are somewhat different garments. Strictly speaking, an anorak is a waterproof, hooded, pull-over jacket without a front opening, and sometimes drawstrings at the waist and cuffs, and a parka is a hip-length cold-weather coat, typically stuffed with down or very warm synthetic fiber, and with a fur-lined hood.

I keep Googling, see if there are any other interesting bits about them. Sadly I can’t seem to find much about them, though it seems Hyde Park in Lithuanian is Hyde Parka. So I get a lot of results for Lithuanian travel sites for London.

At least we know they are still going, which means it should be easy for Firestation to get in touch and ask them to be part of their compilation, if they want. I would still love to find out more about the band, how were those gigs in Austria or Wales, if they had more recordings, and why the first drummer left, among other questions. Of course finding a copy of the 7″ would be brilliant too. So yes, my German friends, do you remember them?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Hyde Parkas – I Confess

Back from Mexico! But I have to say that I left this post ready before leaving on holidays. So, these are a bit of older finds, and I won’t tell you much about my trip this time around. Hopefully on the next post I will do!

Emma Russack & Lachlan Denton: I’m checking out the one song available to stream from their new album called “Keep on Trying”. It is called like the album. And I thought it is really nice. It reminded me a lot of Tracyanne & Danny who I saw just a few weeks ago here in New York. Maybe that’s the new way to make guitar pop. The new trend. I don’t mind if it is. I like it. This Melbourne duo’s album was released on CD on July 18th.

Perrogato: a lovely band from Chile and this is my first encounter with their brilliant music. It is a self-titled six-song EP that is just perfect indiepop in my book. That song “Ácido” should be hit anywhere and everywhere. I really don’t know much about them. I know they are formed by María José Calfín and Danko Diaz and they took their name from the animated series Catdog. The Ep was released digitally by Gemelo Parásito Records. I wish it was released in a physical format!

Felyno: guitar pop, very 80s, quite post-punk influenced, from a Peruvian band from the highest city in the world? It can’t be, you’d say. But it does seem like this band hails from the mining town of Cerro de Pasco, 4,380 m over the sea level. I discovered this band through the friends of Latin American Twee Facebook page, where they shared this video for the song “Lourdes”. They do remind me a bit of Motorama, right? Or am I totally out of it? I also believe they have filmed their video in their region, those mountains, that inhospitable landscape!

Beezewax: now a band from Oslo, Norway! Very international findings this week! This comes through the Sellout! Music label Bandcamp, who I suppose are promoting just the one song by this band. The song is called “Rainbows” and it is a rush of guitar pop which I enjoy thoroughly. I read on their Facebook page that they are an indie-rock band, so I’m not sure if I should go and listen to the rest of their songs! Maybe I’d be disappointed? I’m happy with this one!

All Ashore!: I so want this record! It is a split 7″ by All Ashore! and Thee Mightees. I will be honest, I haven’t heard The Mightees. But I love All Ashore!, and I love the song they contribute to the split 7″, “Perfect Popsong”. This record, released by Don’t Miss the Boat Records and Delicious Clam will be released on the 29th. I should place my order now! Definitely one of the bands you have to check out if you go to Indietracks!

—————————————————————–

A couple of weeks ago I think, my friend Phil posted “The Golden Mermaid” video on Facebook. For the first time I was connecting the dots about this band. You see, a long time ago on an interview with Phil Suggars from The Candie Maids he mentioned them as a contemporary band to his. He had mentioned them and the 14 Iced Bears. I knew of the 14 Iced Bears of course, but the first band didn’t ring a bell. I knew the band called The Quentins, which I have featured on the blog. But not the Brighton band Ten Million Quentins. So it was the first time I was listening to their music, and also seeing them, how they looked like, and what was their style!

You can watch the video by clicking here. You’ll notice in the description that the song was actually a tribute to a long gone chip shop and cafe on Western Road in Hove. The band on the video featured Veronica Quentin, Bobby Quentin, Stephen Quentin, Janet Quentin, Rob Quentin and Mike Quentin. The video is the epitome of a C86 band for me. It looks so cool!

So after watching it again and again I thought it was necessary to go through the web, see what else there is, hopefully another song to listen?

Maybe not, but I did find a blog post by Mike, one of the members of the band. It seems he is now based in Prestwich, Manchester, left the south for the north. And back in December 2010 he posted about his old band on his blog “The Mithering Times“. From that post there are a bunch of important details:
– The band only lasted for around a year, between 1985 and 1986
– Mike was part of the people who booked bands at The Royal Escape Club on Brighton under the name The Big Twang
– He was friends with Dennis Wheatley who I have interviewed in the past about his band The Doris Day, a big favourite of mine!
– When there was a need to have a band supporting the many great bands they booked (eg. The Pastels, The Shop Assistants, The Wolfhounds), they had The Ten Million Quentins as the house band.

Then I figure out something else from my blog, from an interview with another Brighton band, Whirl: Rob Colley was in The Ten Million Quentins (named after Quentin “Norman” Cook. Aka Fat Boy Slim).

Great find! Especially knowing now where the band’s name come from. And that Rob had been in Whirl, and also in the 14 Iced Bears at some point according to Discogs. Other bands he had been in were Arthur, Fired Dept. and Zed J.

And then I keep searching on Google, but there is not much more. 3 pages of results for Ten Million Quentins. Can’t say if there were any recordings by the band. But would love very much to listen to more. Maybe there was a demo tape. In the meantime why not head to a mixcloud by Gordon Kaye where he celebrates The Sunshine Playroom, the weekly Wednesday club in Brighton that played some fantastic music. The Ten Million Quentins played at it a few times I believe! Does anyone else remember them?

EDIT: It seems that while I was away on holidays someone added their demo “Fat Funny And Seen it All” to Discogs. Thanks Uwe for pointing me out! It was released in 1986 and included four songs, “Stay As Sick As You Are”, “Other People’s Places”, “A Girl’s Name” and “He’s Not Smiling”.  Will I get a chance to listen to them one day? It seems at least one of their songs will be included in the forthcoming volume of the Sound of Leamington Spa series on Firestation.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Ten Million Quentins – The Golden Mermaid

Last post for this week. And there won’t be any posts next week. Nor the following Monday. So probably until Wednesday May 25th there won’t be updates on the blog. I’m traveling to Mexico in a few hours. Happy holidays to me.

The Fizzybees: who are this sweet sounding band from Upstate New York? I have never heard them before! They have a new album on Bandcamp called “Hello World” and it sounds brilliant to my ears, honey to my ears. Maybe it is not an album, but a mini-album, all right. It only has 7 songs that in the end feel short, you are left hoping for more. The band is just a duo formed by Emily Bernier and Jeff Yaus and I hope this gets released properly somehow!

New Centre of the Universe, Vol. 3: Just found out about this compilation released by Geelong, Australia’s Anti Fade Records. It is now available to pre-order the vinyl LP version and a few of the songs on the record are streamable on Bandcamp. I’m recommending this record on the strength of the opening track, Parsnip’s “It Couldn’t Be True”. It is a terrific pop song.  The other two songs I’ve heard, Alien Nosejob’s “Maggie” and Traffik Island’s “Sky High” are not as good sadly. But there are 14 more songs that I haven’t heard that I hope are at the same level of Parnip’s song!

Blanco: I have recommended this Japanese band in the past because I’m a big fan of their music. I was able to get their latest CD EP a few months ago too, the one called “Wake With Moon Tide”. Well today I found out the band have released on Youtube a new song and a video. It is called “Paradise” and it should be their next single. I hope it is also released on CD!

Flower Box: now a band from Jacksonville, Florida. Six songs on their self-titled digital debut. Yes it is only digital so far, no records, but they do have t-shirts. The band is formed by Molli Shivers on vocals and guitar and Joseph Thigpen on drums. From the little blurb I learn that all of the songs were home recorded and everything was performed by the two members. Lovely sounding dreampop from down south. Let’s keep an eye on their next projects then.

Parque de Cometas: my last recommendation is a Mexican one. Of course, I’m going to Mexico. But sadly not to Tijuana the city this band hails from. There are two superb guitar pop songs on the band’s page, “Gente Violenta” and “Azoteas” which are also available on CD. This band is new to me so it is quite a surprise. They are formed by Andrés Corella on vocals and bass, Mitzi Licona on guitar and vocals, Rodolfo Hernandez on synths and Melissa Lunar on percussion and vocals.

—————————————————————–

I’m focusing on obscure bands that have non-obscure names, right? If I just wrote about Hurt, today I will try to find out any details about the Swedish band Drug. These names wouldn’t cut it in thee times, would be impossible to google them! How have things changed!

I know very little about Drug though they did release two records on Ceilidh Productions in the 90s and appeared on a few compilations. I will try to get some of these records in the near future, so far I’ve only listened to their music on what’s available on the web. Just spent quite a lot of money in new records last week. Need to be careful with my economy!

The first song I heard by them is the jangly “Wintertime”. I thought it was brilliant. It turns out it was an A side for a 7″ that was released in 1991 by the legendary Swedish label Ceilidh Productions. This 7″ had the catalog number CEI 019 and was recorded at The Forest studio in Sturefors. Been to Sweden more than a few times, but don’t think I’ve been to Sturefors. Where is that? Sturefors is a locality situated in Linköping Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden with 2,229 inhabitants in 2010. Ok, close to Linköping. That is good to know.

The B side for the record was “Daybreak” which is also a very nice song, though a bit moodier I’d say. The art for the mysterious sleeve was created by Anders Nylander while the photography on the back cover was taken by Peter Menzel. No mention where they took that enigmatic photograph of the front cover. We do get some credits though and that is great, maybe I’ll be able to track down the members at some point. We know that the band was formed by Claes Westling on vocals, organ and guitar, Anders Nylander on bass and vocals and Jan Elton on drums and vocals. There was some additional guitar on “Wintertime” thanks to Bo Häggqvist. The first song is credited to Westling/Ejeman who I’m not sure who is Ejeman at this point, while the B side is only credited to Clas Westling. This first record was engineered by Lars Jonsson.

It would take 5 years for the next proper release by the band. I’m not sure why it took so long. The album “The Quest of the Source of Sentimentality” was released in 1996 by Ceilidh Productions (CEI 038). It was released on CD and included 10 songs: “Unnerved”, “Tranquilizer”, “Sister”, “From March to May”, “The Birds”, “Shadow in My Heart”, “The Red Wind”, “Write Me a Sign”, “Bloodshed” and “Magic Rain”. Now the band had expanded and lost its first drummer. Claes Westling and Anders Nylander are still in the band but Lars Halvarsson is the new drummer. And they have added Per Ejeman as a guitarist. Okay, now I know who Ejeman, who co-wrote the beautiful “Wintertime” is.

For this record all of the songs were penned by Claes but “From March to May”, “Shadow in My Heart”, “The Red Wind” and “Magic Rain” were co-written with Anders. The artwork for the cover was a bit like the first record though not as enigmatic, now there is a farm photograph, in black and white. This cover is credited to Anders, Claes and M. Larsson. The photography on the booklet was taken by Anette Nantell. The album was recorded and mixed by Magnus Henriksson who had been involved in a band called Funny Gallery in the 90s too.

As I mentioned earlier, the band appeared on a few compilations. And here my whole idea of the band changes. So they weren’t just a 90s band. They had been going already in 1989. There are two compilation appearances dating from that year! Then, when did this band form?! On the compilation “Nordic Sounds Volume 2” that was released by Joker Records (JOKE 917) they had the song “Voice of the Blood” at the very end of this record. It is interesting, on this compilation I see The Wannadies, Happydeadmen and The Persuaders among others. The CD is promoted as having 18 Swedish underground hits. I found something anecdotic about this label. They were the first indie Swedish label to release a CD, and it was actually this one, this compilation. The label was based in Johanneshov and was active between 1984 and 1995.

That same year, on an LP compilation called “Bommen Bandstand Vol.1” that was released by Public Road Records (PR 388), the band contributed the song “Candle”. I notice here on the credits that perhaps during these first years of the band they had a different lineup. Claes and Anders are still, I suppose they were the core of the band, Jan was drumming, just like the first record, but Johan Linde played guitar and there were female vocals thanks to Pia Rahmberg.

Then in 1997 they appear on the compilation “Ceilidh 039 Singles & Vinyls” that was released by Ceilidh on CD. I believe I mentioned this compilation before on the blog when I wrote about Dream. Drug appears with their classic “Wintertime”. This was more of a celebration of previous releases of the label than bands promoting their music. So I wonder if the band was still going in 1997.

Discogs lists two more compilations, but I’m 100% sure they are wrong. They must be a different band with the same name, Drug.

The label Ceilidh has information about many Swedish bands from the period. I’ve consulted it in the past. So why not check out again. I think it is my best bet. There is not much information. No biography. Just the different lineups. We know them, but not the first one. The first lineup from 1989 has Claes, Anders, Jan and Tor Sigvardsson on keyboards.

I couldn’t find any other bands, on Discogs, that Anders might have been involved but I do find that Claes Westling had been in one called The Supreme Court that released a 7″ in 1985. The record is catalogued as a post-punk record. It is interesting that on this same record we see that Per Ejemann played guitar and vocals. And they both co-wrote the songs. So perhaps “Wintertime” was a song from this period?

But there is also another good website: Popfakta. In it I can find other bands the Drug members were involved with. For example I could find that Anders Nylander had been in a band called Baden Baden during the 80s and in Maydream in the late 90s.

Then possibly a very good piece of information. I stumble on Rateyourmusic with the place the band was from, Vadstena. Never heard about this place either. Vadstena (Swedish pronunciation: [²vasːˌteːna]) is a locality and the seat of Vadstena Municipality, Östergötland County, Sweden, with 5,613 inhabitants in 2010.[1] From 1974 to 1979 Vadstena was administered as part of Motala Municipality. Despite its small population, Vadstena is, for historical reasons, still referred to as a city: though it received its city privileges in 1400), Statistics Sweden only counts as cities Swedish urban localities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. It is actually close to Linköping and Sturefors.

That’s quite some information I found. More than I thought I would. But still so many gaps that need to be filled. Hopefully my Swedish friends remember them!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Drug – Wintertime

Enjoying the last few matches of the World Cup. It seems France will win it for the second time, right?

And then also preparing for my Mexico trip. I’ve got so many people asking for records and this is by far the time I will be bringing with me more records than ever than any of my previous trips! Exciting!

Pastel Dream: I love finding gorgeous indiepop, that’s why I keep doing this blog. So when I stumble upon a brilliant album like “Too Much Too Fast” by the Davis, California, band Pastel Dream, I know what I’m doing is the right thing. I believe the album is only available as a digital release so far. It is a shame. It deserves someone to release it properly. The band is formed by Caitlyn Whitfield, Carlos Pineda, Sara Forestieri, Branding Findling and Greta Soos. The album is a bit short, 9 songs, but I have no complains, it is, as I said earlier, gorgeous.

J. Verben: the latest from the Spanish label Fikasound is this compilation of songs by J. Verben called “Recopilación” which is available in limited quantities on CD. There are 20 songs of bedroom pop, of all sort of qualities. There are terrific songs like “Sorda” or “Solo te Acuerdas de Mí en Campaña”, and other ones that are not my cup of tea. Well, there are 20 songs, and there is something for everyone in here.

The Hannah Barberas: more UK bands that don’t get invited to Indietracks. Here is a fun DIY pop band formed by Damien, Lucy, Doug and Matthew that have put up on Bandcamp their first 3 songs. All home recorded. “Our Girl is Gone”, “Now (Is Here At Last)” and “Red Sleeping Beauty”. This last one a fair attempt to McCarthy’s classic.

The Love-Birds: some fine guitar pop from this San Francisco four piece on vinyl LP and CD. Their album “In the Lovers Corner” is still available, though the limited Grass Green vinyl edition is by now sold out. The 11 song album is not available to stream. Just two of their songs are on Bandcamp, “Hit My Head” and “Kiss and Tell”, but I must say they are pretty good ones. Check them out!

Papaya: I think my friend Jalito recommended me this band while I was in Madrid, but only know I’m checking out their album “Corazón Abierto” on Bandcamp. It was released earlier this year, in February, on Jabalina, but I didn’t notice it! I feel I’ve been out of touch when it comes to this label. I used to pay more attention as they do have a pretty good catalog. Anyhow, there are 12 songs here, and it also happens this is the second album by this band. Where is the first one? I need to listen to that too. I need to catch up!

—————————————————————–

Some precious jangle from this awfully obscure band is on today’s menu. This is as unknown as it gets. Which is a shame because the one song we know from them is a brilliant.

“Take My Breath” is the name of the song. Hurt is the name of the band. With that name it becomes almost impossible to google them. To find any information about them will require luck and lots of digging. I’m sure if the band had formed during this decade they’d chosen a different name, one easier to find. But, they formed sometime in the mid late 80s.

I can do an approximate date because of the release of a split 7″ in 1987 on Waterfall Records (WFL 3). That’s where “Take My Breath” appears, where it was released. Waterfall Records is a label I’m not familiar with. I see they released a 7″ by a band called Colour Me Pop in 1984 and later a 12″ by a band called The Insane Picnic in 1986. None of them ring a bell to me.

The split 7″ was shared with a band that I should feature sometime, the Little Red Schoolhouse. They contributed the song “Aged Bee” and were on the B side. Or to be more precise on the LRS side. Hurt appears on the H side. That’s how the label put it. There are some credits which are my first breakthrough. David Flamson played acoustic guitar and vocals, Dave Snell played bass, Ken Snell played electric guitar and Trev played drums. Were Dave and Ken brothers?

According to the sleeve this 7″ was also available as a 12″ but I haven’t seen the 12″ version of the record. The sleeve also mentions Jump Away fanzine. Was it a co-release between the fanzine and the label? Or was it all the same people behind it? I can’t say for sure. There are no compilation appearances listed for the band on Discogs.

So I’m hitting a wall. There’s not much more on the web about them. Where were they from? Most probably from the UK, from England. But what else can we find about them?

I am going to be lucky. There is a Facebook page called Ashington bands, past and present. I’m going to find a mention of Hurt there. Ashington, that is where St. James Infirmary were from too? I featured them on the blog in the past and tried to interview one of the band members, but sadly never got his answers back. Maybe he would have talked about Hurt? Who knows.

The post says that the band hailed from Ashington and Newbiggin. Never heard about Newbiggin, where was it?

Newbiggin-by-the-Sea is a small town in Northumberland, England, lying on the North Sea coast. Once an important port for shipping grain and a coal mining town, it is still a small fishing port making use of traditional coble boats. It is widely although mistakenly noted that the town was originally called ‘South Wallerick’, and renamed Newbiggin after the Danish invasion. However the document on which this is based refers to ‘Sanctum Walericium’, or St. Waleric. This was the name of the church at Alnmouth, which was at one time called Newbiggin. There is no connection with Newbiggin-by-the-Sea. Newbiggin derives from OE nīwe (new) + ME bigging (building, house), and this may refer to an extension of the early settlement and parish of Woodhorn.

The photo I used for the post was taken from that Facebook page, so thanks to them for that! It says that it was taken at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington, North London. I suppose they went south, to London, to play some gigs? Maybe not.

I say that because there is another post about the band members, but about their previous band which was called Tuesday. Tuesday was formed by Ken Snell on guitar, Dave Flamson on vocals and guitar and Ian Clavering on bass. It originally started as a two piece (Flamson and Clavering) in 1984. It mentions that Trevor Cole was the drummer. It must be the same Trev as the one credited on the split 7″. It also says that Trev used to be in a band called Boldon Colliery. It seems that the band moved to London. They had played extensively around the north east until 1986, but afterwards Snell and Clamson continued Tuesday in London. At some point they changed their name to Hurt and went back to a revolving door of drummers and played extensively across London, the south east and the south west until splitting in 1991.

And again I hit a wall. No more information about them. I need to get the split 7″, but that is just the one song. I would love to hear more by them. Does anyone remember them?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Hurt – Take My Breath

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Impossibles – How Do You Do It?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Die Wurzelsepps – Walk Through Your Fantasy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

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

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Three Little Piggies – Clark’s Commandos

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

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

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

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

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

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

—————————————————————–

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
Soapflakes – Impossible

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

++ Why the name The Ferocious Apaches? 

After Big John of the June Brides’ fanzine.

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

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

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

The Jesus and Marychain and by extension the Velvet Underground.

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing I know of.

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

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

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

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

++ Why weren’t there any proper releases?

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

++ Was there any interest about any labels?

No.

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

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

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

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

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Definitely under 20, maybe even under 10!

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

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

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? 

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

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

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

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

Many and varied.

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

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

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

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

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

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

++ What about from fanzines?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Ferocious Apaches – Golden