Day 304.

Basic Flowers: the latest on the Mexican netlabel Stupid Decisions is the “Sentimental EP” by Basic Flowers. It just has three songs, “Confused (I Know… Again)”, “Vainilla” and “Self Portrait”, and it feels too little because they are so pretty, fragile and dreamy. Would be nice to get a full album someday.

Starry Eyed Cadet: our San Francisco friends are back with a new song called “Good Night”. It is as usual fantastic. One does wonder when will there next release be out. Are they working on an album? an EP? It’d be good to know. They never disappoint.

The Fisherman and His Soul: a new song by our friend Sebastian Voss was released on December 28. It is called “Perfect Bathrooms” and came out as a digital single on the always trustworthy Shiny Happy Records from Indonesia. Good stuff.

Torrey: we go back to the Bay Area, to meet this four-piece formed by Ryann, Kelly, Eric and Adam. Their latest song is called “90s Loop” and it is a dreamy one. But that doesn’t mean ethereal or boring, it means poppy, bright and luminous in their case.

Tired Up: lastly why not some shoegaze from Russia, from this band from the city of Ufa. Their latest song is called “Ice Cream Lips” and it is as fuzzy and hazy as they come. Thumbs up.

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While I am out of town it is a bit harder to just check my collection and find out obscure bands I should feature and try to find more info about them. But I did think in advance and took photos of all The Sound of Leamington Spa compilation booklets so that way I never ran out of ideas and at least until my return to New York I keep the blog updated!

Today I return to “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” which was co-released by Firestation Records (FST 060), Bilberry Records (BILB08) and Clarendon Records (W6 6CD) in 2003. Here I find the song “Waiting Here For Me” by Johnny Says Yeah!

Them appearing on this compilation would end up in even better news as two years later, in 2005, Firestation would release a 13 song compilation called “Friends Gone By 1986-1989” that included these songs, “Waiting Here For Me”, “Bittersweet”, “Some Things are More Simple”, “Better Off Dead”, “Suzie”, “Time Comes to a Standstill”, “Promises”, “I Won’t Let You Go”, “But It’s True”, “Everything is Mine”, “In My Heart”, “Happiness is Such a Thing” and “Now I’ll Dream”.

So as you can see in that title, 1986 and 1989, in between those years the band was active. While they were active they released two 7″s, both on their own Day I Ate the World Records.

The first one was the “Bittersweet” EP” (JSY 1/ JSY2) from 1986. First question, why two different catalog numbers for it?

This single had four songs, “Suzie” and “Bittersweet” on the A side and “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “No Problems” on the B side. It is interesting that 3 of these songs weren’t included in the retrospective compilation. Why?

The second 7″ was “I Won’t Let You Go” (JSY 3) on the A side and “Some Things Are More Simple” on the B side. Again now the B side wasn’t included in the compilation. I find this odd!

The booklet of The Leamington Spa sheds some light about the band. It says:

The band began writing/recording songs as Johnny Says Yeah in early 1986 with all the band still in their teens. The songs were written by the partnership of the two brothers, Ja and Jools Wilson, who along with the bass player, Simon Preston, and drummer, Dan Machin, were the nucleus of the band. After playing gigs in their local area of Lincolnshire, Johnny Seays Yeah!, released their first single “Bittersweet” in the summer of 1986, on their own “Day I Ate the World” label. This was followed by a 4 song session on the Janice Long Show on BBC Radio One in the autumn of 1986. With no record deal negotiated, the band released a second single on their own label entitled “Some Things are More Simple”/”I Won’t Let You Go”. Johnny Says Yeah! continued gigging and recording new songs into 1988 but released no more singles.

Wow! There was a Janice Long Session! Which songs were recorded for it? Would be great to know for sure.

The CD retrospective also has a little bit more information about the band. This is what it says:

So here we go…. a little look back in time… and a bunch of songs written by brothers, played by friends.
I guess the story, in as far as it is a story, started a couple of years earlier in the wilds of Eastern England, as a band called Outside Edge. A few recorded songs, and a handful of gigs, and lots of cold nights practising in dusty sheds led finally to a a change of name to Johnny Says Yeah! in early 1986.
Two singles followed on our own Day I Ate the World label, a bit of national radio play, a BBC session, some memorable gigs in less than memorable venues, and then a swift, painless drift into obscurity.
Jools and Simon continued writing and playing as Michael Sometimes. Ja produced a few acoustic numbers under the loose banner of Paintstorm. Dan drummed in a host of trash punk bands, and god only knows what happened to Bruce!
But this is THEN… a couple of years in the mid eighties. The iron fist of Thatcherism may have ruled Britain, but John Peel ruled the nightime radio and guitars still ruled the world!

Some more details mention that the songs were recorded around the Fenlands in England. We also know the full band members:
Jason Wilson sang the songs and wrote the words
Jools Wilson played guitar, piano, and sang backing vocals
Simon Preston played bass guitar
Dan Machin played the drums and told the jokes
Shaun Tranter played the saxophone
Nick Stevens played the trumpet
Simon Machin played piano and keyboards
Bruce Hosie played guitar and harmonica
Mark Harrison played piano

As you can expect there is no information about the band on the web. Of course there are many questions to ask. For example how did the bands Outside Edge and Michael Sometimes sounded like? I’d love to hear them. What about the Janice Long session? Would be great to find those recordings. And again, why weren’t all their songs included in the retrospective album? Maybe one day we’ll find out!

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Listen
Johnny Says Yeah! – Better Off Dead

Day 302.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: I noticed the California band has taken down their Christmas songs. In exchange we see four new songs up on their Bandcamp. It is an EP titled “Pour the Light In” where the title-song opens and then we find three more songs, “Randy if You Were Here”, “Everything You Ever You Loved” and “The Fun We Had”, this last song a Gary Zekley original.

Swansea Sound: “I Sold My Soul on Ebay” is the latest song of this mega-group fromed by Amelia and Rob (Heavenly) and Hue (Pooh Sticks), and what you can expect from it? Pop perfection!! For some reason this will be released on 7″ but only one copy will be for sale!! Why? I don’t understand! It is such a good song, would be great to have more copies, I can offer to release it if needed? In any case the one 7″ will be on auction on eBay. That’s what they say. Maybe it is a joke?

Luisa Mandou um Beijo: remember the Rio de Janeiro indiepop band? I was a big fan back in the day. It is quite amazing to see that they are now on Bandcamp, bringing so many memories. I used to chat a lot with Fernando Paiva, their guitar player, back in 2005 (?). Wow. Time flies. Would be great to get in touch again and maybe do an interview? That’d be something!

Pelopincho: now we head to Buenos Aires! “Kevin McCallister” and “La Casa (Versión Navideña)” are the latest songs by one of our favourite Argentinean bands, Pelopincho!! The opening track is going to be included in their upcoming album.

Free Loan Investments: you know I dream and dream of releasing a compilation of the Free Loan Investments, one of my favourite bands ever. I’ve talked about it many years ago with the members and the idea sounded good to them but there wasn’t any progress. Anyways, again, BIG BIG FAN. So when I saw a video that wasn’t released back in the day I was quite surprised. Yeah, a video was made for “I Don’t Love You” , a song that appeared on the “Ever Been to Mexico?” EP that was released by SHelflife Records. I don’t know why it wasn’t released then, but 19 years later, there it is, in all it’s glory!

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I had to check which record came first, if “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” co-released by all German labels Firestation Records, Billberry Records and Clarendon Records or the “Telegraph Signals: Recorded Artifacts 1986-1989” CDR compilation released by Egg Records. I wanted to give credit to the label and release that introduced me to this terrific Scottish band. It turns out “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 4” came out in 2003 (FST060, BILB08, W6 6CD)! So yeah, again all the credit to Uwe Weigmann for his incombustible effort in unearthing the most amazing gems from the heyday of indiepop!

On this compilation the band contributed the song “I Saw the Children”, an amazing song indeed. And then of course the booklet liner notes gave us a little more details about the band!

The Submarines were formed in Glasgow in 1986, after gigging around town and opening for the likes of Primal Scream and Felt released their debut single on Jeff Barrets (Heavenly Records, Sub Aqua Records) Head Records in 1987.
This “Grey Skies Blue” single reached a highest indie chart position of number 10 and spent 9 weeks on the chart. The flip side was “I Saw the Children”. At some point in 1989 The Submarines changed their name to Compass FLow, recording  a session for the BBC Janice Long Show and an unreleased album for Glass Records.
The Submarines single is now quite hard to come by and regarded as a long lost classic from eighties indie pop.
2004 sees the release of “Telegraph Signals” and 11 track compilation of The Submarines recordings from 1986-1989 on Egg Records.

Band line up is:
Paul McNeil (guitar, vocals)
Craig Keaney (bass)
Scott Blain (drums)
Brian Kane (guitars)

Indeed, the band released the 7″ “Grey Skies Blue” in 1987 on Head Records (HEAD 4). This great record, which should be in everyone’s collection, was produced by Richard Preston (A side) and the band (B Side). It also included Karen Parker on backing vocals. The photographs are credited to Grant MacDougall while the sleeve to MacDougall and MacNeil. Some other interesting tidbits is that the side A runout has an etching that says “A home on the hilltop or a home in the ground”. The B side has etched “While savagely your love you prune?”.

Then after their rediscovery in the early 2000s, they got the release on Egg Records. An 11 song compilation of all their recordings (?). This CDR was titled “Telegraph Signals: Recorded Artifacts 1986-1989” (Eggrest 007). The songs included in this CD were “Take Me Away”, “Life on the Great White Wastes”, “Serious Mistakes”, “Distant Shores”, “Standing in the Rain:”, “Down Through the Room”, “South American Uniform”, “A Pocket of Air”, “Grey Skies Blue”, “I Saw the Children” and “Take Me Away (Alt version)”.

Sadly Egg Records releases don’t include any information on the CD. So can’t say where these recordings come from. Most probably demo tapes?

In 2006 the band would contribute “Take Me Away” and “Down Through the Room” to the CD compilation “Souvenirs from Egg Records (Eggrest 015). And more recently they appeared in 2016’s “C87” triple CD compilation by Cherry Red Records (CRCDBOX26) with “Grey Skies Blue” and later on with “Take Me Away” on 2019’s “Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989” also on Cherry Red (CRCDBOX69). These new compilations don’t have much information about the band on their liner notes either. What a shame.

So what can we find out? One interesting thing I find is that Karen Parker who did backing vocals, also did backing vocals on the classic Jesus and Mary Chain song “Just Like Honey” as well as other JAMC recordings.

Then I find a Reverbnation page for the band. Here there are more songs like “Sparkling Meters”, “Junk Like Heaven”, “Before I Hit the Ground” and “Untitled”. I wonder why these songs weren’t included in the Egg Records release. There are also some songs available here by Paul MacNeil solo.

I’ve tried to find more information about the band that came after, Compass Flow, but there seems to be nothing on the web. Sort of odd as if they

Lastly, I believe Karen Parker (backing vocalist) and Grant McDougall (the producer) were part of the Splash One gang that organized the great club night in Glasgow. We also know that Paul McNeil used to be called Big Paul, and his band was the first ever band to appear onstage at Splash One!

And that’s it for today. Who remembers The Submarines?!

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Listen
The Submarines – Grey Skies Blue

Day 300. Happy new year all! I had a small break which was nice. Now back for this 2021 that I really hope will be better than 2020. Don’t think we are asking for much, right? Here are some nice finds from the last few days:

Cinéma Lumière: the pinoy band was a favourite last year and it is no surprise that they got to release a new record just before the year was ending. The Shenzhen, China, label Boring Productions have put a 10″ lathe cut with four songs, “Love”, “London Tears”, “Will You Catch Me” and “Dreancatcher”. It is a very nice release, hopefully when I return to NYC next week I can order it.

Megumo Acorda: another new release on Boring Productions is 7″ lathe cut by this band who I am not familiar with. The band I believe hails from the Philippines and the 7″ comes with four songs. It says it is a reissue of their debut EP. First time on vinyl. I want to know more. When and where was this debut released previously?

Public Places: Boring Productions was on fire the last week of December, also releasing another 10″ lathe cut! This self-titled EP sound great. Again very little information about the band, but it’s ok. I think we can order it with confidence. The 5 songs included sound very nice.

Dayflower: what a superb release, a collection of 17 demos by our Leicester friends called “On a Different Day: a demo Mixtape”! There are well known songs, like “Popping Candy” or “Daisy Age” and even different versions of them. This is a great journey through the creative process of one of our favourite bands!

The Umbrella Puzzles: wow! and ending this review with the latest 3 songs of our friend Ryan and his project The Umbrella Puzzles! They are part of an EP called “Slip Through the Cracks” and it is really lovely. The ex-Apple Orchard and Golden Teardrops, is preparing an album called “A Slowly Dawning Realization” and will only include the title song, the other two songs are exclusive to this digital release.

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So I am sort of going through bands from The Leamington Spa Series that I haven’t featured on the blog. You could say that I am running out of ideas of obscure bands. But that’s not the case. I am a bit busy and sadly don’t have the time to go through my records. Also I am abroad now, not at home, so that makes things a bit more complicated in my research. Hopefully these bands still are interesting to everyone reading the blog. They are for me, they are the ones that make me crazy for obscure indiepop bands!

When it comes to Metro Trinity, who contributed the song “Spend My Whole Life Loving You” to “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 1” (FST 008) co-released by Firestation. TweeNet and Bilberry Records in the year 2000, we know very little through the booklet included in this release. It just says:
“There was once a girl called Catherine Dooley / I met her as a boy /  I loved her, so much / we both lived in Windsor / she went to university / she went to Liverpool / I went to Manchester / new experiences exposed cracks in our relationship / by that summer there was very little contact between us / I could not eat / I could not think / I could not go out / I never knew a hurt so bad / I wrote these songs – Jonathan Male”

So that’s the inspiration behind the songs from Metro Trinity. This same song that was on this compilation ended up too on the CD boxset “Manchester North of England – A Story of Independent Music Greater Manchester 1977-1993″ released by Cherry Red Records in 2017.

The band did release a record during their heyday, a 12” EP titled “Die Young”. The opening track on the A side was “Spend My Whole Life Loving You”. The accompanying track on this side was “Just Go”. The B side had “Slip Away” and “Michael Furey”. The EP was released by the Caféteria label (CTA 0001). The back sleeve tells us that the label was based in Manchester, and it looks like this was their sole release. There were also find out that Jonathan was on vocals and guitar, Jes on guitars, Tim Whiteley on bass and Colin Rocks on drums. Dave and Siobhan did backing vocals, Justine violin. Mike on keyboards and Chiles on additional keys. Chiles also produced and engineered the songs. There are no last names sadly. And one thing to note is that this release was reissued last year by Optic Nerve as a 7″ (ON208). On the Optic Nerve version the back cover is now typed instead of handwritten as in the original release.

A few more details from the sleeve is that the cover photo is credited to Toby and the design to F-graphics and Fallen Art. The songs were recorded at Remaximum Studios in London, March 1987.

The only other song we know the band put out was also on 1987, a bit earlier. It was on a split flexi with the Inspiral Carpets released by Debris  magazine. Yup, the fanzine came with the issue 14 of this magazine in January of that year. The catalog number for the flexi is DEB 6. The song the band contributed here was “Stupid Friends”.

The band would appear on two compilations more. And it would be with the song “Michael Furey”. First on the classic tape compilation “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour” in 1987 and then in 2017 on the Cherry Red box set “C88”.

Who was Michael Furey? Well, he was a character in The Dead, the last short story in “Dubliners” by James Joyce.

Of course after Metro Trinity the band members went to get much more attention from fans and friends. Johnny Male would end up being in bands like Airstream, Cheap Glue, Republica, Sensation and Soul Family Sensation.  He also at some point co-owned the Riki Tik bar in London. Jez Williams on the other hand was in Black Rivers, Doves, Sub Sub and White Horses.

One thing I found too is that Andy Williams of Doves joined the band after the EP was released and then the band split up shortly after. Another name I saw online as being part of the band is that of Pete Zichovitch, but not sure at what point he joined.

On the Manchester Music Archive website there are scans of the fanzine Get Out and Dance! issue no.2 where there is a feature of the band. This zine dates from 1987 and tells a bit about the band.

Not much more information online about the band. Can’t find any gigs that they might have played or other songs or demos they must have recorded. It seems like a short lived band.  But I am curious if this was their first ever band for example. They were too good to have made this EP as their first ever record. They must have made several demos before.

I am sure Manchester readers must remember them.

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Listen
Metro Trinity – Michael Furey