Day 29. How is this working out for everyone? The only good news is that I have the fanzine and next week I’ll start mailing them to all of you who have supported this new release! It is very exciting!

For this weekend I will share some new music of course. That’s what we have to do to keep us entertained!

City Rockdown EP: Week III: the third installment of these EPs that Kolibri Rekords from Jakarta is putting together during the pandemic is another top release. The four songs this time are Circarama’s “No Tomorrow”, Low Pink’s “Alien”, Jogn’s “Social Club” and Liminal’s “Muted Chaos”.

Blessed Isles: Nolan Thies from Brookly and Aaron Closson from Dallas contribute together to make some very pretty music. Their first ever song, at least on Bandcamp, is called “Gone” and sounds amazing. It is catchy, dreamy, and heartfelt. This song should be part of their “The Havoc” EP that will be released this spring.

Control Room: first time I feature a band from the state of Mississippi. Pretty sure of that. This post-punk/shoegaze combo hails from the city of Hattiesburg and their latest release is a CD album called “Scenery” that will be released on April 30th. You can preview 3 of the tracks on Bandcamp now, “I Woke Up and Everything Was Moving”, “Crushed” and “Back to Zero”

The Hidden Shelf: the Philadelphia band is back with a low-key, lo-fi, mini-album called “RE:”. It is bedroom pop at its finest. There are 7 songs on this lovely effort, were my favourite song might be “So Much Better”

Rilev: and lastly a new track from this Mexico City project. The new song is called “Mar” and it is a good, very good, shoegaze song. The lyrics are simple but work in the wall of sound made by Manuel Grados, the person behind this one-man project!

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It’s kind of funny to write about Company of Cowards when I am trying to cover “Saturday” on my challenge. You see the retrospective compilation they released back in 2007 on Firestation Records was called “A Mouthful of Tuesdays” (FST 074). So yeah, I guess Tuesday would have made more sense. But then they didn’t record any songs with Tuesday in their name. But they did write a song called “Saturday Night”. So it is all fair, right?

Interestingly enough this retrospective has very little info about them. There is no proper booklet. But I have to give credit to the Firestation guys that they did include a bio in the compilation “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 6” (FST 075). It was actually through this compilation that I discovered them as they had contributed the song “Summer Story” in it. So yeah what does it say?

The beginning of the end for Company of Cowards arrived when singer Nick Ager announced to a packed Astoria in London’s Charing Cross Road that the next song would be the Cowards’ last of the evening. The unanimous cheer that greeted this news was the first cheer of the evening and was very loud.
The Cowards were the opening act for a Blues Brothers tribute act and it was obvious that the porkpie hatted, sunglassed wearing audience had not been seduced by the Cowards’ gentle musings. After a desultory final song, the Cowards trudged off the stage with their oxblood Dr. Marten shoes feeling heavier than ever. After the gig, the band’s dynamic young management duo were noticeably distant… eye contact was being avoided and backs remained unslapped. This had been a chance for the Cowards to impress on a large stage and to win over a big crowd with their witty couplets and fetching facial hair. The chance was blown, the Cowards never really regained their composure and the management’s post-gig shiftiness soon turned into full scale phone call avoidance. Up to that defining moment, things had gone pretty well for the Cowards.
They formed in 1987 without  too much difficulty – a marriage of convenience between the songwriting duo of Nick Ager (vocals and guitar) and Ian Montague (guitar), and a between-bands rhythm section of Glen Street (bass) and Lisa Newsome (drums). Gigs were aplenty at polythecnic Student Union bar within driving distance from London, an agent and management team were secured, A&R men started appearing at gigs, their “18 Again” EP was receiving airplay, favourable reviews in the music press appeared, their demos were being produced by name-record producers… surely stardom was just a formality, Then the Astoria ‘incident’ happened. Shortly after, the Cowards were playing at the Bull and Gate in London’s glittering Kentish Town. The gig promoter was a large man with a shoulder bag full of cheese filled bread rolls that he steadily worked his way through the course of the evening. Whenever he saw a loitering Coward, he sidled up to them – surprisingly nimbly for a man of his size – and whispered ‘Company of Cowards… great band’. What he meant, it was clear, was ‘Company of Cowards’ are vile and are only playing in my venue because I owe someone a favour. It was another disheartening piece of unpleasantness, this time flecked with stray particles of Red Leicested cheese.
Company of Cowards played their final gig at a little known college in Acton in late 1988., As a farewell it had moments of poignancy although the quiet passages were rendered inaudible by the college rugby team who were having a pre-match bonding session at the bar. Company of Cowards left only their “18 Again” EP for posterity.

That EP, was self-released by the band in 1987. It had four songs. “18 Again” and “Party Talk” on the A side and “What About Me?” and “Thoughts to Flowing Ink” on the B side. The front cover has a photo of a record collection. The back cover has a photo of each one of the members and some details about the record. We know that they had Jeff Easton playing banjo, Downs Thompson on violin and Laurence Diana on keyabords. Laurence Diana would also produce the record. The songs had been recorded at Raven Studios in London.

After that release I find on Discogs a demo tape from 1989 that came with two songs, “Waste of a Skin” and “Stay Where You Are”. There must have been more demo tapes like this. These two songs were produced by Bernie Clark at Ezee Studios in London. I say that because the compilation they would release later on, “A Mouthful of Tuesdays”, had 15 songs!

These 15 songs were “18 Again”, “Party Talk”, “Waste of a Skin”, “Summer Story”, “Crushing Wit”, “From Thoughts to Flowing Ink (acoustic version)”, “What About Me?”, “Undeniably Blue”, “Mouthful of Foot”, “Buzzard Creek”, “Cool to be Miniscule”, “Saturday Night”, “Stay Where You Are”, “From Thoughts to Flowing Ink (elektric version)” and “Let Her Dream”.

The very first recorded songs by the band were “Mouthful of Foot” and “From Thoughts to Flowing Ink (elektric version)”. The band doesnt’ recall where they were recorded.

“Summer Story” and “Saturday Night” were recorded by a guy called Nick at a school in Tottenham in 1988. Gavin Mackillop produced the songs “Crushing Wit”, “Undeniably Blue”, “Buzzard Creek” and “Cool to be Miniscule” at Cold Storage Studios in London in 1988,

Then “Let Her Dream” was recorded by someone called Rob. The interesting bit is that it was recorded by Nick and Ian after the band had already disbanded.

As usual I don’t stop there and look for more info. First thing I find was that Nicky Ager had been in a band in 1980 called Twig and the Kicks. They released a single with the songs “I Won’t Apologize” and “The Boy Who Sold His Dreams”. He would later be in a band called The Whole Wide World and this band would eventually become Company of Cowards. Ian Montague in the other hand had been in the band Thin Yoghurts according to this blog post. I can’t seem to confirm or deny this.

What I did find what that Nicky and his wife had written the original songs and score for the Christmas films “Nativity!”, “Nativity 2 ‘Danger in the Manger'” and “Nativity 3 ‘Dude, Where’s My Donkey?'”. He has worked on many other television shows and commercials.

Sadly no more info about them or the band on the web. I would love to find out more about The Whole Wide World for example. Did they record anything? Released anything? And what happened after Company of Cowards. No more music? No more bands? Any info would be appreciated!

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Listen
Company of Cowards – Party Talk

Day 27. Getting closer to a month. The fanzine is now already available to be ordered on the website. Isn’t that some good news? We need news like this in these times for sure!

And I’ll share new music too of course.

Suffer Fools: this Vancouver project is new to me. It seems it is the work of Debbie Debased. Not that I know her. But her latest two songs, L’Maclicheblues” and “When I was a Monster” sound great. They have some great vocals, they are catchy, lo-fi, fuzzy and dreamy. It also looks like their debute album is coming out this year.

Shimmerance: now is the turn for this shoegaze band from Moscow. The band has been going since 2016 and they have just released their self-titled album. It has 9 songs of bright shimmering guitar based popsongs with boy/girl vocals. The band is formed by Maria Kondakova, Nikolay Babukhin, Yuri Yakovlev, Mikhail Churikov and Konstantin Grayznov.

Stay Inside – Songs from the Great Indoors: this 4 song compilation from Sydney, Australia, introduced me to four terrific songs and bands. We have Diana’s “Million Dollar Baby” (terrific track), Emma Shields’ “Lucy”, Popfilter covering Stolen Violins’ “Romance at the Petrol Station” and Blessé’s “Sudoki”. These are songs that have been recorded during this period of isolation. It seems there will be more of these compilations so I’ll keep an eye!

Gum Country: even though on Bandcamp it says the band hails from LA, then the bio says they are from Canada. So yeah, they are Canadians from Vancouver that moved to the California city. The thing is that the band is releasing their album “Somewhere” on June 19 on vinyl. But these songs are not brand new. From what I gather they were previously released on Lollipop Records in 2017 as a self-titled cassette. Well, I wasn’t aware of them then! So the one song I can preview now, “Somewhere”, is totally new to me! And it sounds good!

Centrefold: and lastly more from Canada, this time from St. John’s. Not a fan of the opening track of their new EP “Not Enough”, but then things get much much better. “Desintegrate” is a rush of a song. Then comes “Late” another strong track and finishes with the swirling “Not Enough to Fall in Love (Too Much to Forget)”. The EP seems to be available digitally only for now.

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Let’s continue with this challenge. As you know I’m featuring bands that wrote a song with a weekday name on them. And they have to be bands I haven’t featured before on the blog. So that makes it harder of course. For Friday I thought the Belfast band Four Idle Hands would be great, the B side of their first 7″ was called “Friday Man”, so they fit in this challenge of course.

My favourite songs of them is the A side of that 7″, the song called “99 Streets”. This 7″ (GOT 21) was released by the Belfast label Good Vibrations Records that was founded by Terri Hooley. This label supported many Irish punk bands in their time. Of course Four Idle Hands was a poppier band. The 7″ was released in 1990 and both songs are credited to D. Mc Mahon.

The year after the band released their second record, a 12″ on Good Vibrations Records (GOT 24). It included four songs, two on each side. The A side had “Blind” and “Put a Light in Your Window” while the B side had “In Years of Black and White” and “Terry and Julia”. I found a TV live performance of “Put a Light in Your Window” tough I can’t say which TV show this was on. All songs again are credited to D. McMahon and the production is credited to the band and Alan Galbraith who also engineered the record.

I couldn’t find any compilation appearances on Discogs. Was this the case really? They didn’t appear on any? I do find though that they were on “Breaking Sound Barriers Vol.2” a compilation released by PPI Records (BSBCD2) with the song “Rainy April Day”. This song was recorded at Homestead Studios in their hometown.

On Youtube I could find many more songs by the band, some of which I believe are unreleased like “Corner of My World” and “Brilliant World“. Then a super cool promo video for the song “People Shouldn’t Have to Live This Way“, which I wonder if it was released in any way? And a live performance at the BBC playing the song “One Summer” which sounds GREAT!

But that’s not all! There’s a Soundcloud with even more songs! There’s “Funeral of the Sun”, “Boat (That’s Going Nowhere)”, “Treehouse”, “That Might Be Wonderful”, “Killer (in the Ice-Cream World)”, “When the Ship Was Sinking”, “That Might be Wonderful”, “Mr. Moon (Solo Guide)” and “The Trampoline King”. A whole bounty of great tracks! You start to wonder why there hasn’t been a retrospective compilation yet, right?

And finally a Facebook page. Here I find that the band was formed by Davy McMahon, Tommy McMahon, Stephen (Boon) Rooney and Paul Burke. Gerry Carson and Gary English were original members of the band, not sure who they were replaced by and when. On the Facebook page there are photos and other memorabilia. Among them I see that for their “Leading the Blind” tour they played all over the UK, from Belfast to London, playing Larne, Armagh, Enniskillen, Bangor, Coleraine, Lame, Derry, Antrim, Hull, Newport, Warrington, Liverpool, Edinburgh, York, Beverley, Driffield, Manchester and Bridlington. They also played at the legendary Mean Fiddler in London alongside Ashanti, Tiberius Minnows and Answer from Limbo. They also played at the Cork Rocks showcase of 1990..

I keep looking and I find a website about notable people from Rathcoole.

Rathcoole (from Irish Ráth Cúile, meaning ‘corner/nook of the ringfort) is a housing estate in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was built in the 1950s to house many of those displaced by the demolition of inner city housing in Belfast city. Rathcoole is within the wider Newtownabbey Borough. Its approximate borders are provided by the O’Neill Road on the north, Doagh Road on the east, Shore Road on the south and the Church Road and Merville Garden Village on the west.

Turns out that the McMahon brothers were originally from Gortmore Terrace at the north-western edge of the estate.

I believe they took their name from the 1976 BBC programme 4 Idle hands that featured Ray Burdis and Phil Daniels.

I keep searching. I find that the brothers had been involved before being in Four Idle Hands in two punk bands, Pure Mania and Tarot XIII.

Sadly I can’t find much more. The thing is, I wonder how many songs they recorded, I feel there might even be more than the ones on Soundcloud and Youtube. Why was there no release for the song that got a promo video? Did they go to make music with other bands afterwards? What are they up to these days? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
Four Idle Hills – 99 Streets

Day 25. Close to a month now. How much longer now? Another month? Two more? Let’s go day by day.

How are you all? Any good new music you’ve found out? About Mcguffins there might be a slight delay in the release. It seems the first demo tape has been found and definitely would be good to include it in the album. We shall see if it still works and all! But that was exciting news.

Now new music. Of course.

Ferri-Chrome: out now on CD on the Japanese label Testcard Records is Ferri-Chrome’s “From a Window” EP. This wonderful new release has 5 songs of dreamy and luminous guitars with girl/boy vocals. One of my favourite new releases for sure, I should order it soon as well!

Red Red Eyes/Hacia Dos Veranos: two new songs on this split release that I believe is only available digitally on WIAIWYA. Red Red Eyes contribute the song “Where Has Everybody Gone?” while Hacia Dos Veranos has “We Have all the Time in the World”. Two classy and elegant covers of James Bond songs. The first one originally recorded by The Pretenders while the second one by Louis Armostrong.

Constant Smiles: 43 copies are remaining for the latest release on Box Bedroom Rebels out of Manchester. It is a 7 track 7″ EP by the band Constant Smiles from Massachusetts. The album is a mix of dreampop, shoegaze and other styles. The official release date is June 14 but it seems you need to hurry up if you need a copy!

Country Club: our friends that one contributed a song to a fanzine CD are back with a new EP called “Le Passage Secret”. Now the band is singing in French even though these Frenchmen are now based in Virginia in the US! Definitely a lovely EP, with 6 tracks from the ex-Les Freluquets! Not to be missed!

Die Zärtlichkeit: some very good jangle pop coming from Cologne in Germany. Their latest release is a 5 song EP that is also available on cassette.  I must say this is the first time I hear them and I am happily surprised. The band seems to be a duo formed by Andreas Fischer and Tobias Emmerich. We should keep an eye on them!

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The fourth day of my challenge this time is the day Thursday. A band that wrote a song about Thursday. That was easy. The Parachute Men wrote “Every Other Thursday” and even made a video for it. This song was part of their second album “Earth, Dogs and Eggshells” (FIRE LP24) released by Fire Records in 1990.

I really like The Parachute Men. For years now they’ve been a favourite band of mine. To play again and again their records. One thing though, I’ve been trying to find a copy of their first album “The Innocents” on CD. And for that I have had no luck. This first album was released also by Fire Records (FIRE LP14) in 1988. But I’m going in no order here. Let’s start from the beginning, see if we can find all the important details about this terrific Leeds band!

The band started in 1985 with Fiona Gregg on vocals, Stephen H. Gregg on guitar, Andrew Howes on bass and keyboards and Mark Boyce on drums and keyboards. Based on the bio that’s available on Discogs we know that in 1987 the band signed to Fire Records. And then good things started to happen, meaning releases! Though I wonder between 85 and 87 they must have recorded songs, right? Are there demos? Would really like to listen to that if they exist.

The first release was an EP called “Sometimes in Vain”. This was released in 1988 by Fire (BLAZE 27T) on 12″ vinyl. It included three songs, “Sometimes in Vain”, “Leeds Station” and “Heading the Wrong Way”. The latter two were on the B side.  Interestingly the band would get some love in Spain. The A side, “Sometimes in Vain”, would be re-released as a single sided 7″ by Producciones Twins (T-1874) in 1988. And this won’t be the last time they would get love from Spain.

Then came the album “The Innocents” also on Fire Records (FIRE LP14). This album would be released in France under Vogue and in Spain by Producciones Twins. All of this in 1988. The songs on the album were “Sometimes in Vain”, “The Innocents”, “No Wonder” and “Tell Everyone” on the A side while the B side had “Are You Glad You Came? (Live)”, “Goodbye”, “Past Not Forgotten”, “Maybe If I’d Said” and “Quiet Day”. Something interesting is that the CD version had two more songs, “Burgess Meredith (Live)” and “That’s Too Bad (Live)”. The songs were produced by the great John A Rivers and they were engineered by Colin Richardson and Francisco Cabeza. They were mastered by John Dent. This album would make it on the NME top 50 albums of that year.

All their releases would be on Fire. Their next one would be a classic one. The 7″ and 12″ for “If I Could Wear Your Jacket…?” (BLAZE 30). This song it is known to be author Mike Gayle’s favourite. I remember reading about it a long time ago and looking for a book where he mentions the song. The book is called “Dinner for Two” and it’s alright. The A side had the title song while the B side had “Burgess Meredith” and on the 12″ it also included “That’s Too Bad”. It is said that some pressings of the record came with a free postcard. Would love to see any of them. I didn’t know of their existence.

In 1989 they would release “Bed and Breakfast” (BLAZE 35) again as a 7″ and 12″. One thing that is important to mention is that the 7″ for this one and their previous single came in Fire Records standard sleeves, so they are not that pretty. Better to get the 12″s.  The A side had “Bed and Breakfast” while the B side had “Mr. Gas”. The 12″ also had on B side the song “Bad Rain”.

Then came one of their best songs, “Leeds Station” (BLAZE 33), as a single. Again, produced by John Rivers, the 12″ had “Leeds Station” on the A side and “Maybe If I’d Said” and “So Mistaken” on the B side. The 7″ didn’t have the last track. The title track had a video too that was featured on the NME’s “Carry on Disarming” compilation VHS and also on the “Indie Top Video (Take Two)” VHS released by Picture Music International. The video was produced and directed by Doug Ray.

Then another single, “Every Other Thursday” (BLAZE 40). This one also released on both 12″ and 7″. The 7″ would include “Every Other Thursday”, a reference to signing on to the dole, and “Quiet Life”. The 12″ would add “Being of Unsound Mind” to the B side. This was in 1990.

In 1990 too the band would release their second album, “Earth, Dogs and Seashells” (FIRE LP24). This one would get released on CD, cassette, and vinyl. It would get releases in the US and Germany too. The engineers for the record were Colin Richardson, Nick Robbins and Steve Harris, with Hugh Jones producing. The songs were recorded at Slaughterhouse in Driffield and mixed at Elephant Studios in Waping. The songs on the record were “Mad Sadie Can’t Levitate”, “Mr Gas”, “Never Alone”, “Don’t Cry July” and “Miles Away” on the A side, “Elizabeth”, “Earth, Dogs and Seashells”, “Every Other Thursday”, “…Yeah”, “Sleepless, Sleepless, Sleepless”, “Dream of Kings” and “Fear of Falling” on the B side.

It seems this album was actually recorded in 1989 but for some reason it came out a year after. Also around this time Matthew Parkin (Jesus and Mary Chain, Starlings) on bass and Paul Walker on drums joined. Then Perkin would leave and the Canadian Colleen Brown would join. You might remember her as she was later in the fantastic Pale Saints as well as in The Heart Throbs, Warm Jets and White Hotel.

The band would split in 1990 after playing just one gig with their latest lineup at the Liverpool University. After that Mark Boyce would be involved in The Dubervilles, This, Kath Reade, Sabrina Pigott and Camera · Obscura. Stephen Gregg would leave music and gain a PhD in English literature at the University of Leeds and today he is a lecturer at Bath Spa University where he specializes in 18th century literature.

Aside from these releases the band would appear on about 9 compilations. First one was on “The Great Fire of London” in 1987. This one was released by different labels like Fire Records (FIRE LP8), Producciones Twins in Spain, Emergo also in the UK, and Restless in the US. They contributed the song “My Flamingo”.

Then in 1989 they would appear on 4 different compilations. On “15 Flaming Groovies” (FIRE CD19) released on CD and tape by Fire Records they had two songs, “Bed and Breakfast” and “Leeds Station”. “Sometimes in Vain” would appear on “Indie Top 20 Vol. VI – Pride of Independents” released by Beechwood Music (TT06CD). “Maybe If I’d Said” appears on the great compilation “Lie to Me: A Compilation of Guitar Use and Abuse” released by Umbrella (ULP 1) on tape, CD and LP. Then “Leeds Station” would appear on the Rough Trade CD comp “Rough Trade – Music for the 90’s” (RT CD120).

They would appear on the next volume of Rough Trade, “Rough Trade – Music for the 90’s Volume 2” (RT CD170) with the song “Every Other Thursday” in 1990.  That same year they would include “Somehow Today” on the legendary compilation “Borobudur” that was released by La-Di-Da Productions on LP and re-released later in 1992 by King Records on CD.

Lastly “Mr. Gas” would appear on a compilation called “I Wouldn’t Piss On it If it was On Fire” (FIRECD 63) in 1997. This was a Fire Records double CD compilation.

Lots of story so far. But there’s more. I found a Facebook page for the band.

Firstly we know now that Fiona was playing music in the early 80s! There is a song she recorded with Nigel Holleran called “LowenbrauPils“. It is not jangly but it is a cool pop song anyways! It dates from 1980 and I wonder if there are more songs. Also are there more songs by the band members from other projects previous to The Parachute Men? It would be great to find out!

Then we know the band reformed in 2015. They played in Leeds at venues like The Library or the Packhorse Pub. I so wish I had seen them! Would have been great!

Then a cool find, a video of the band being interviewed in 1989 after the first lineup changes.

There are few press clippings and some cool photos too. Also they have written about a few of their songs, which is nice, see what inspired them, what is the story behind them.

But no mention of unreleased tracks. Why did they split? Did Fiona and Stephen made more music afterwards? What about before? Clearly Fiona did… Did they record demos? Maybe that song “My Flamingo” was one of them? And how come if a lot of their peers have gotten reissues and so on, why hasn’t Fire Records put something out yet? I’d buy it in a whim!

Many questions, which I hope to get answers. The Parachute Men are a terrific band who deserve to be rediscovered!

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Listen
The Parachute Men – Every Other Thursday

Day 22.

I’ve been out of touch when it comes to DIY. I ordered by mistake the regular CDs instead of mini CDs. Now they don’t want to accept my return. A newbie, silly, mistake. Money lost.

I don’t burn CDs much anymore, so it doesn’t make much sense to have them. So I’ve thought of an idea.

I am thinking maybe doing a sort of mix CD with some favourite songs from the Cloudberry blog or maybe from the label. Maybe I can do that. Give them away with the fanzine. What do you think? Do you like this idea? If I have time I would even personalize the mix. Now with the quarantine maybe it is possible?

Well, now for what you came for, new music.

Jetstream Pony: are releasing their self-titled album on May 22nd! It will be released on both CD and vinyl and will be a co-release between Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten and Shelflife. This is great news as I love this band. They are putting 11 songs on the record and we can preview the opening track of the album, “It’s Fine”.

Motorama: the Russians are back with a new single! Wow! Great news too. The song is called “The New Era” and so far it seems like a digital only release. The song was recorded this year in their native Rostov-on-Don and I really hope this means they will put out a record this year!

The Black Watch: another band that is back is this California combo that has been going on for quite some time! They will be releasing a new jangly record on April 3rd called “Brilliant Failures”. The album consists of 13 songs and will be released on the great German label A Turntable Friend Records. All songs are available to preview on Bandcamp.

Thud: it is been a while since I had a Hong Kong band on the blog! This is cool! This band makes dreamy pop and it sounds great. Their latest is a song called “North Acton” which was also released as a USB drive with the mp3, wav file and a bonus video!

The Stroppies: I like many songs by them, and there are others that I am not sure. The one they’ve made a new video for, “Burning Bright”, is one of the ones I really like. So that’s great! The Australian band will be releasing their new album “Look Alive” on June 5th and this is a very good single to promote it!

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So now a band that wrote a song with the word “Wednesday” in it. This one is quite easy I think! The Candidates wrote a fantastic tune called “Wednesday’s Child”. So yeah, it is the time of The Candidates on the blog!

When opening Discogs my surprise is huge. The one CD the band put out in 1994, a compilation called “Came to Cry” is at an exorbitant price. I remember ordering this CD directly from the band many years ago. How many I can’t remember. But I didn’t know it was that rare now. Maybe it is time for a reissue? I wonder. But it wasn’t through this CD that I discover them. As many of the obscure bands I love I discovered this band through the wonderful work of Uwe at Firestation Records. You see, this classic Manchester band was included in “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 3” (FST 050). This was released in 2003 and the song that was included was “Sound of Summer”. What a song!

Thankfully the booklet included some information about the band:
The greatest songwriters and composers in the world are people who spend hours, days, weeks, months and years dedicating themselves to perfecting their art. Andy Goddard is one such great composer, a songwriter of great stature who has been creating dynamic tunes and melodies since the early 1980s.
Resident in Manchester, England, The Candidates’ principal singer and songwriter Andy Goddard has survived the Madchester and Dancechester years to shout out loud the message that great songs are timeless. Indeed, whilst Andy’s newest projects appear to be of a more solo nature, the great songs that he and his band have in their pop catalogue require no fashion statements, no fickle imagery, no date stamp. These are powerful, well produced anthems and ballads that have both an edge and a great beauty.
Those who wish to find comparisons can find influences here courtesy of artistes such as Deacon Blue, Squeeze and Crowded House, whilst Andy’s mastering of the piano draws added comparisons with the classic works of Del Amitri, Elton John, and Paul McCartney. In addition to “The Sound of Summer”, the album “Came to Cry”, produced one of the classic pop songs of it’s time in “Wednesday’s Child”, a classic tale of youthful exuberance, the desire to drive at speed, spend money just as quickly and live fast for the weekend.

Then there was a link to Andy Goddard’s website. The website doesn’t exist anymore. And also there was a Candidates website. That’s where I bought the CD. It used to be 7 pounds plus postage and shipping. Via Paypal. That is no more.

What else do we know? Well the band, according to Discogs, was formed by:
Matt Brookes – drums
Andy Goddard – vocals
Paul Green – keyboards
Andy Lane – bass
Jayne Moores – vocals
Andy Whyatt – guitar

And it is also very important to mention that they appeared on a legendary compilation, “This is Manchester (14 Songs from the North West)” (ESS CD 133). On this Essential and Castle Communications co-release from 1990 they contributed the song “Wednesday’s Child”. I have written about this comp in the past as I have featured bands from it like Capital Hill, Sandalwoods or The Paperboys.

The “Came to Cry” CD was released in 1994 on AB-FAB Records (CTOCD 001). This most probably was a self-release. It included 11 songs, “Came to Cry”, “Looking for You”, “Jody”, “Wednesday’s Child”, “Closer”, “Torn Apart”, “Storming the City”, “Let it all Go”, “The Sound of Summer”, “You Won’t Let Summer Go” and “Saddest Season”.

In the booklet I would see other people credited for music I must say. For example Shane Bramley played bass on “Torn Apart” or Stuart Howell played guitar on “The Sound of Summer”, “Let it All Go”, “Storming the City”, “Wednesday’s Child”, “Closer” and “Torn Apart”. The art for the CD is credited to Wayne Brierley from The Infinite Design Company.

At some point in the mid or late 2000s I know that Andy Goddard joined the band roomthirteen. With them they released the album “Easterlinparadox”.

But what about the rest of the band members? Did they join any other bands? There is really no information on the web. It is a shame that there is no website for Andy Goddard anymore. Can’t find any info anymore. But I really hope some of you remember them and will tell me why they didn’t release any singles? Or what other bands was Andy in the 80s? Are there more recordings? Would be great to find out!

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Listen
The Candidates – The Sound of Summer

Day 20. Are we all climbing walls?

Not much news. I am supposed to get the fanzines today. Added an entry on Cloudberry Bandcamp for the fanzine and CD. I am only letting people listen “Mould” by The BV’s. In the past I’ve shared all songs but I keep seeing more labels and artists just sharing one or two songs per release. Maybe it is a new norm. I don’t know. I will just try it. Needless to say, all songs on the CD are great!

New music. Sure.

City Rockdown EP: Week II: this new release by Kolibri Rekords from Indonesia is part of a series of weekly self/home recordings by different bands. On this 2nd week EP they include Grrrl Gang, Bedchamber, Tiny Studio, Joshua Damanik and Raoul Dikka.

City Rockdown EP: Week I: I first listened to the 2nd volume and then thought I had to be fair as these are two different ones. 5 different bands, 5 different songs. And there are some very nice ones on this one as well. On this volum Kolibri Rekords has picked Flowr Pit, ATSEA, Kiting, Peter Rumondor and Jangfut.

Mirrorlakes: and continuing in Indonesia the very fine Dismantled Records bring two new songs to us from Mirrorlakes. The band formed by Peter A. Walandouw and Novianto Ari Prabawo have written two nice songs worth checking out, “Faded Town” and “Cope”.

The Sensitive: the other new release by Dismantled is the album “World is Evil” by this jangly combo from Indonesia. There are 9 songs of superb indiepop, including a song called “Forever Twee” and covers of The Wake’s “On Our Honeymoon” and “We’re Selfish and Lazy and Greedy” from Go-Kart Mozard. My favourite release this week.

Mumrunner: out now on 12″ vinyl the album “Valeriana” by this terrific shoegaze/dreampop band. It is out through the German label Through Love Records and it has 8 tracks. There is also a CD version of the album but on Bandcamp I only see them selling the vinyl. So who knows. The songs are luminous and with some great chiming guitars. So yeah, worth the 30 or so minutes the album lasts!

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A duffel coat (also duffle coat, for example in Canada) is a coat made from duffel, a coarse, thick, woolen material. The name derives from Duffel, a town in the province of Antwerp in Belgium where the fabric originated. Duffel bags were originally made from the same material. The hood and toggle fastenings proved popular, and the coat spread across Europe by the 1850s. By 1890 it was being supplied to the British Royal Navy. After World War II, the coats became available as government surplus stock and became popular, especially with students.

Now is the turn for Tuesday! Which band that you love wrote a song about Tuesday? I immediately thought of the Dufflecoats who had a song called “Sunny Tuesday Afternoon”.

That song was included in the wonderful CD compilation “The Waaaaah! CD” that was released by Bring On Bull Records (BULL 3-0) in 1991. I believe some copies of this CD included a fanzine called “Meet My Kittens”. My copy, which I bought a few years ago didn’t include any fanzines though. This was not the only song the Dufflecoats contributed to Richard’s label, they also had the song “Uncertain” which is also ace.

Yeah, the music of the Dufflecoats was as indiepop as it gets. Some may call it twee. Others may associate them to the cutie scene that. As I wasn’t around at that time, I can’t say. And that wasn’t the only time they were part of a Bring On Bull release. The next year, 1992, they contributed the song “Motorbikesong” to a compilation 7″ (BULL 2710-32) that they shared with Kind and The Cudgels. Kind actually had two songs on it and some time ago I interviewed this great band. The Dufflecoats appear as B2 on the record, the last song. This 7″ came along the 3rd issue of the Waaaaah! fanzine.

Silver Girl, the San Diego indiepop label would become their home afterwards. Well, kind of. They would appear in two compilations released by them. The first was a compilation 7″ called “Winter’s Mist 2” (SG 018) and the Dufflecoats once again appear with the B2 track. It was called “Don’t See Me Soon”. This compilation also included the bands Love Bandits, Allen Clapp, Meek and the McTells.

That same year, on the date of my birthday, March 15th, Silver Girl released a tape called “Mon Ami, A Silver Girl Collection” (SG 022). This tape was divided in two sides, the Noise Side and the Pop Side. Guess on which side the Dufflecoats appear? Yup, the Pop Side. They contributed the song “Never Meant”.

Now the question is, they had 5 songs, but why no proper releases? And who were the Dufflecoats?! According to Waaaaah! the Dufflecoats were actually the band Applicants with some personnel changes. I wonder if that’s the case. Maybe the Applicants deserve a post and that way there will be a way to solve this mystery?

Silver Girl give a little more details. The band was formed early in the 90s in the town of Alsager. I’ve never heard of this town before I must say!

Alsager is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, to the north-west of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and east of the railway town of Crewe. The town has a population of 11,775. In the centre of Alsager is a lake, Alsager Mere. This isolated pool, once the focal point of the town, is only accessible by two fenced public viewing areas and by local residents who have gardens adjoining the waters.

The band was formed around the duo of Marion and George who shared vocal duties. According to Silver Girl the band appeared on a compilation released by Glut Records. What compilation is that? Then it also mentions that Marion was the vocalist and guitarist in The Applicants and the lineup of the Dufflecoats also included members and ex-members of the band Adorable. Really?! I look into my Applicants 7″ to see if there is a last name for Marion, but no luck there either.

All dead ends. I wonder though whatever happened to them. I really like their music. Were they involved with other bands? Why no releases? Are there any more recordings? Who remembers them?

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Listen
The Dufflecoats – Sunny Tuesday Afternoon