07
Jun

Day 453

The Umbrellas: the fine San Francisco band will be releasing their self-titled album on August 5! This is great! Their brand of jangly indiepop, classic-sounding, influenced by The Fairways, #Poundsign#, and the UK bands from the 80s, they are one band to follow. Their album will be out on vinyl and CD and you can preview now a cracking track called “She Buys Herself Flowers”.

Watoo Watoo: a new re-release by the French band is available now on Bandcamp. Their classic “Picture of a Lost Friend” EP is reissued now on a 3″ CD. This is a lovely thing if you missed the original release. The EP has 6 songs of elegant and sometimes jazzy feel. Lovely.

Riel: this duo from Argentina formed by Mora and Germán sounds pretty good. Dreamy, punchy, melodic and throw in some sweet vocals. That’s how I would describe their music in a nutshell. Their latest digital single is called “Blanco & Negro” and it is worth checking out.

Pastel Coast: On July 21 Shelflife Records is releasing the album “Sun” by these French popsters! This is the band’s second album and will be available on CD and vinyl. All 10 songs are available to check out and I urge you to do so. Their happy-go-lucky music, infused with surf melodies, works great.

Señor Kino: not too long ago I recommended this wonderful Mexican band when they released their single “Aurora Boreal”. Now the band is releasing an album also titled “Aurora Boreal” that contains 10 songs. This is a really good effort and hopefully they get a bit of a buzz with it. It is really refreshing to see many good Mexican bands appearing in the pop panorama. The album is only available digitally.

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The Irish name Muineachán derives from a diminutive plural form of the Irish word muine meaning “brake” (a thickly overgrown area) or sometimes “hillock”. Patrick Weston Joyce interpreted this as “a place full of little hills or brakes”] Monaghan County Council’s preferred interpretation is “land of the little hills”, a reference to the numerous drumlins in the area.

Yup, today we are heading to Monaghan town in Ireland to find out details about the band The Storm who released a 7″ and appeared on a couple of compilations in the late 80s!

One thing that is worth mentioning since the start of the post is that there was another band called The Storm in Ireland at the same time. They were from Dublin and appeared on a compilation called “Swimming Out of the Pool”. That’s not the same band we’ll be talking about today according to Irishrock.org. Discogs has it as the same band.

Irishrock.org, that great resource for bands from Ireland tells us some more details about the band. To start they give us the year they were formed, 1987. We know the band members too, Anthony “Swifty” Swift (vocals), Marty Smith (drums), Tony Fanthorpe (guitar, backing vocals) and Keith Corbett (bass and keyboards). The band members had previously been in a band called The Vision Fades. Marty Smith was actually the last one to join that band, it happened when the lead singer, Shaun, who was his brother, left for London. When Marty joined the band thought it was good time to change their name to The Storm.

I wonder if in the internet days they would think The Storm is a good name. Quite difficult to google!

Anyhow, as mentioned the band released a 7″. That was in 1989 and on the fine label Danceline Records (DLS 004). This 7″ included just two songs, “Raging Soul” on the A side and “Meltdown” on the B side. I don’t know much about this record but I know that Aidan Foley and the band produced both songs. They were recorded in Dublin at Sun Studios. The art was created by David Pollock.

When it comes to compilations they first were featured on the “Nationwide” (DLP 1002) compilation from 1989 where they appear with the song “Twilight Town”.

One thing that is worth noting is that it seems this song was already released on a self-released tape titled “Thee Sacred Rights of Pride” from 1988 that included the tracks “Twilight Town”, “Mother Box” and “Left Me Up to a Higher Ground”. The only other info about this tape is that it was recorded in Dublin.

Then I stumble upon something unexpected. A Facebook page! What info can we find there? That the drum kit Marty Smith used was a Pearl Export? That the guitar combo used by Tony was a Laney LC-30? That the bass combo by Keith was a Carlsbro Cobra 90?

The band played at the Baggot Inn in Dublin back in the day as well at The Venue in Derry.

One thing I discover is that the 7″ was also released on tape. The cassette version even had two extra songs, “Lost on the Highway” and “God-Zone”. Interesting. I had no clue. This is sort of rare, no? Usually there’s 7″ and 12″, but 7″ and cassette?

And that’s it. No much more info. So, we know then in total the band recorded 7 songs. Is that it? Or are there more recordings by them? How come just one 7″? And what did they do after the band split? Who remembers The Storm from Monaghan town?!

Edit: August 5th, 2021, Keith Corbett was in the K2Project, The Flicker Effect and Empire of Hurt.

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Listen
The Storm – Twilight Town

04
Jun

Day 450.

Kelly Slusher: I remember long long time ago when Kelly Slusher released a beautiful album on Elefant Records. Since then I’ve checked her music on and off. Today I am glad to have stumbled upon “Someday”, her latest song on Bandcamp. It is a pretty pop song. A classic pop song. Perfect for any mix tape you are doing. Bright and happy-go-lucky melodies with smart lyrics.

Pop Crimes: the Paris-based label Howlin’ Banana Records always have some nice music. One of their latest is a two-song 7″ by Pop Crimes. This record is available now for pre-orders and will be out on June 4. The songs included are “Up to the Moon” and “There Were Smiles”. You can preview the first one.

Moon Museum: now we head to San Francisco and we check this project that makes some terrific dreampop. Formed by Ryan Joseph, Olivia Barchard, Ian Zazueta and Aaron Hazen, they have just released a new digital single, “Contraptions”, which I totally recommend.

The Servants: now I want to share a different version of “She’s Always Hiding”. This is cool. The original way the song sounded is this one, recorded in 1985 in Wapping, produced by Adrian Borland. This is amazing really. And it will be included as a B-side on the “She’s Always Hiding” reissue on Optic Nerve Recordings.

Remember Fun: and another oldie but goodie. As you know Firestation released a new retrospective by the Scottish band Remember Fun. What is cool is that just recently the band found old super 8 footage and made a video with it for their classic song “Train Journeys”!

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I stumbled upon the 1983 video for “Wasted on Me” on Youtube and got terribly curious about the band behind it, Stormboy’s.

The video has not many views and no comments. I am not familiar also with the imagery, what town is that? There is an iconic bridge I am sure, but need my UK friends to help with that. Is it Newcastle?

The video does show two guys and the details added to the video confirms that the band was formed by Brereton Preen and David Athey. Now, on Discogs we see a different name, Ian Lightfoot for Brereton. I guess that was the name he used to use for the band?

They appear on Discogs because this song was released as a 7″. It was on the A side and on the B side. The B side was a remix though. There is an address for the band, they were based in Whitley Bay. I believe these days David lives in Orlando, Florida.

The record was released in 1984 by the label Guardian Records N’ Tapes (GRC 360). This label was headquartered in Durham, England. It doesn’t exist anymore.

Other details that are important is that the record was produced by Terry Gavaghan, who was thee owner of Guardian Studios. I guess he also owned the label?

Other musicians were involved in the song. Deborah Home did backing vocals, Gary Tawse played bass and Ian Telford the drums.

There are no compilation appearances listed.

Not much more info on the web…. so yes, any help will be appreciated!

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Listen
Stormboy’s – Wasted on Me

03
Jun

Thanks again to Hiroshi for another interview! Not too long ago Hiroshi and me talked about his previous band, The Korova Milk Bar who has just released a new 10″ which you can order from the Blue-Very Label and Sweet Nuthin’ Records. It is a great record that we should all get!
After The Korova Milk Bar Hiroshi went to be in the fantastic Johnny Dee, who got much more attention and got to release many records in the 90s. They got inspiration by the best indiepop from the UK and it clearly shows in their songs, that have perfect taste and many should be considered indiepop classics! So yeah, so excited to do this interview!

++ Hi Hiroshi! Thanks so much for doing a second interview!  This time let’s talk about your most known project, Johnny Dee! My first question has to do with that, why do you think Johnny Dee got more attention compared to The Korova Milk Bar?

G’day, Roque-san! Nice to see you again.

I think that is because so called “Japanese Neo-Aco” stands for Neo Acoustic has penetrated in Japan 1990 onwards. When we were The Korova Milk Bar in late ‘80s, it had not penetrated and only limited space. Also, in case of Johnny Dee, because was able to release on vinyl.

++ How was your town at the time of Johnny Dee? Where there now more pop bands? Perhaps more places to play?

At that time, I lived in Fukuoka, the city in western Japan, and there were some such guitar bands and club scene. Besides us, Instant Cytron, etc. We also played several times in Fukuoka. Originally, since Fukuoka was popular for rock music and great rock bands, so was called “Liverpool in Japan” Therefore there are some places to play in this city.

Fukuoka’s band called “Mentai Rock”:  e.g., Sonhouse, Sheena & the Rokkets, The Roosters, The Rockers, The Mods

++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Most of us were ex-The Korova Milk Bar. After that, Tsuyoshi and Sho joined the band as new member. We met through music or friends.

++ What about the other members of Johnny Dee, had they been in other bands previously?

They belonged to other bands. I and guitar, Yusuke had been in the same bands.

Actually Asako Koide-san from Eikoku Ongaku(英国音楽) wrote our family tree in a liner notes inserted in the 10” vinyl of The Korova Milk Bar will be released the end of May in 2021. Please kindly refer to it if you possible!! (sorry, in Japanese though …)

++ What instruments did each of you play in your songs?

Members other than me were able to play most of instruments. I was in charge of the vocal melody and lyrics. When recording, the songs wrote themselves were played by themselves. Tsuyoshi and Yusuke were good at so called “Neo-Aco”. Seiji wrote some anorak songs.

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

Before the gig, we were in studio, but sadly we lived in different city, so couldn’t practice much.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? I suppose you liked Johnny Dee’s fanzines and The Chesterf!elds?

Exactly. Named after the writer of Melody Maker magazine. He’s sung by The Chesterfields, right?

++ Did you ever meet them?

Yes we did. We’ve done a gig with The Chesterfields and TV Personalities in Fukuoka in ‘90s. Then we played TVP’s “Part Time Punks”. Although I changed to the title “Part Time Mods”.  The Chesterfields members were so bright people and nice guys.

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

It’s a lot of bands. About Johnny Dee, The Smiths, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, The Go-Betweens, Friends Again, Lotus Eaters, EBTG, Max Eider, Prefab Sprout Andy Pawlak, and The Hit Parade. Of course, we were influenced the other obscure UK bands.

++ And I also was wondering, do you prefer English or Japanese for your songs? What comes easiest?

I believe English is more suitable for such sounds. Because it made from the UK and US.

And either languages are very difficult for us.

++ Your first releases came out on the fine label Vinyl Japan. How did you end up signing with this label? And how was working with them?

I gave them our demo cassette tape. They immediately liked it and released a 7” single.

At an event of Vinyl Japan, we did two gigs those days. One is TVP’s & The Chesterfields, the other one is Saturn V and Carousel. So, two years ago, played with The Monochrome Set and The Catenary Wires. At this time, we had Mayumi Ikemizu, Three Berry Icecream (ex-Bridge) play accordion and chorus. It was very fun. We all were very nervous though. (lol)

++ Your first release was the “Motorbike Loves You… EP” that came out on vinyl and CD. I guess this is a question I ask often, but do you have a preferred format for music?

I absolutely prefer vinyl. Such as old vinyl coating, flip back, and the smell of record jacket particularly. In a nutshell, we were definite a vinyl geek.

++ I enjoy this record a lot. All the songs are wonderful. You produced the record yourselves. How was that experience? And where were these songs recorded?

That’s right. It’s self-produced. Recorded at members home and mixed by the members.

We didn’t have enough time because the release date was approaching.

++ I feel the song “Goodbye My Favourite Girl” is like a 2nd part of The Hit Parade’s “My Favourite Girl”. Is that what you were trying to do?

Bingo! I was listening to The Hit Parade well and was keen on their sound.

++ Oh and who took care of the art for your records on Vinyl Japan? They all look so cool, bold, very pop!

It’s Seiji and I. We had a lot of cool records, so influenced by them.

By the way, regarding “Motorbike loves you”, I was inspired from BAUHAUS “Telegram Sam” and The Flatmates “Happy all the time” with Twiggy.

++ It only made sense that you would release a split CD with The Chesterf!elds in 1994. That must have been exciting. I have two questions about this release which is on my wishlist for years…. one is that you thank Psycha-Go-Go. Who were there? And second there’s a song called “I Wanna Bang on the Drums”. I am right to think you were into The Stone Roses then?

First of all, Psycha-Go-Go are Seiji’s band who were members Johnny Dee and The Korova Milk Bar. My brother also was this band. Secondly, of course I pretty loved The Stone Roses, but probably aimed anorak sound like The Vaselines. In terms of lyric, I quoted from Tot Taylor. I believe you are super maniac because even I forgot about this song.

++ Then you released the wonderful album “Love Compilation”. I love how you keep showing your love for your heroes. Like in this record you have a song “Why I Like Max Eider” for example. I have to ask what other musical heroes you have. If we were to do a top 5?

It’s David Bowie, Paul Weller, Ian McCulloch, Morrissey and Roddy Frame.

++ You covered The Go-Betweens on this record too, “Bachelor Kisses”. Such a beautiful song. I wonder did Johnny Dee also do other covers normally? Maybe when playing live?

We covered in live such as ‘Falling and Laughing” Orange Juice. “Start a War” The Pale Fountains, As mentioned earlier, “Part Time Punks (Mods)” TV’s, and “Big Pink Cake” Razorcuts. Two years ago, when we were at live with The Monochrome Set, played ”Alphaville” intro~”My face on fire” Felt.

++ One thing that always confused me is the title of the album, why “compilation”, is it in any way a compilation?

Good question! Because it’s not total album. Songs with different tunes are mixed in the album. Thus, It’s a compilation. I wish I could release a total album someday.

++ Many years after, in 2001, Sofa Records from Hong Kong, released the “1995 Unreleased EP”. Why did those song remained unreleased until then? And how come a label from Hong Kong picked this release up?

I’m not sure, but Bruno-san, Sofa Records offered us about this. They are so maniac label like you and was very kind. Speaking of which, we provide our unreleased song to Shelflife Records in US.

++ Also one thing I notice is that in this EP Johnny Dee is just you and Tsuyoshi. How come the band were just two people at this point?

I don’t remember well, but because the other member moved the other city.

++ And lastly two songs showed up in 2019, on a new 7″ released by the Blue-Very label. These songs were “Hey, Gentle Girl” and “The Blue Girl from North Town”. These were previously released songs, right? How come it was decided to re-release them and on vinyl?

You are quite observant. As for “Gentle Girl”, I wanted to release as a second single in those days. So, released 7” with “Blue Girl” like the most at Johnny Dee’s numbers.

++ I am familiar with most of the compilations you appeared on but one called “Future Chic” released by Automatic Kiss Records. Do you have any info about this label or this release?

This is our the first recording. Automatic Kiss is an indie label in Fukuoka I live. They were exploring local and international bands. Label owner, Habu was friends of mine. After that, he moved to Germany. They were involved in obscure label, Leamington Spa.

++ Are there more unreleased songs by the band?

Not so much.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Motorbike Loves You’”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

What I remember is that regarding guitar, maybe inspired by Johnny Mar, Rody Frame and Paddy McAloon. Bass sounds like obviously Andy Rourke. Girls chorus melody inspired by Tracy Thorn. About song title probably inspired by “The Girl on a Motorcycle”.

++ If you were to choose your favorite Johnny Dee song, which one would that be and why?

It’s ”Motorbike loves you” or “Hey, Gentle Girl” . We may not be able to make more than these two songs anymore.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

I think we’ve played about 5 times. Two of them, we did support acts for international bands.

e.g., Saturn V & Carousel, TV’s & The Chesterfields

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

Unfortunately, It’s nothing. We don’t have much fun memories because we were always so nervous.

++ When and why did Johnny Dee stop making music? Did you continue making music with other projects?

We were offered from two major labels, but it didn’t work well. After that, I formed The Palm Songwriters with Seiji (ex -Psycha-Go-Go). Tsuyoshi formed 101 Dalmatians.

I and Tsuyoshi also formed Johnny Johnny and released 12” by the Bananafish records.

++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?

Tsuyoshi, Sho and Seiji had been in some other bands.

++ And then there’s been some reunions, right?

In terms of Johnny Dee, had just one gig in Tokyo two years ago by Vinyl Japan.

++ Was there any interest from radio? What about TV appearances?

I’ve appeared on radio, but I was not keen on either.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

There were some interview on magazines.

++ What about from fanzines?

We had some interviews from fanzines. In those days, there were many indie fanzines in Japan. Especially “Eikoku Ongaku” (英国音楽) in ‘80s was the most important fanzine in Japan. I believe, thanks to “Eikoku Ongaku”, Japanese NW indie scene has accelerated and transformed obviously.

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

That is the release of 1st single, “Motorbike Loves You”.

++ You were telling me that aside from music you like fashion. Was wondering if you ever considered or worked in that industry? And if you were, what sort of thing would you like to do?

I’ve never worked in the apparel industry. I’ve been working at international IT company.

I love the new wave fashion anyway, but I’ve never ever thought of working in the at Apparel industry. I think it’s just better as hobbies. Like we used to imitate Punk from Johnny Rotten, Mods from Paul Weller, Ska from Jerry Dammers, Goth from Robert Smith and ‘50s used fashion of Morrissey.

++ And one random question about Japanese culture, here in the West many people are fans of manga and anime. Are you too? Do you have any favourites?

Unfortunately I’m not interested in anime, but I’m keen on “Attack on Titan(Shingeki no Kyojin) and “Kingdom” nowadays. I absolutely recommend this two anime !

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Listen
Johnny Dee – Motorbike Loves You

02
Jun

Day 448. A difficult weekend, my phone died. It feels very strange not to have one. So used to it. Like you lose a limb. Hopefully I should have a replacement phone by the time I am publishing this. Hopefully. Then add all the apps and set up anything that needs setting up. I probably lost a lot of information and files. But well, what can you do. Tough luck.

The Suede Crocodiles: One of the best indiepop songs ever is “Stop the Rain” by The Suede Crocodiles. Who can’t argue that. The Glasgow band that was fronted by Kevin McDermott has now a Bandcamp page. Also on this same page you can find all other projects and recordings by Kevin which is great as I was unaware of them. So there’s lots of listening here. Would be a good idea to do a Suede Crocodiles interview, right? Should try soon!

Robert Scott: The Bats’ Robert Scott also has a Bandcamp now. In there we find both albums by The Magick Heads (which are wonderful!) as well as other recordings. But there’s also a new record called “Level 4” which is a collaboration between him and Dallas Henley. It is a bit different to what one is used but quite enjoyable, especially for a rainy day like today.

Lazy Eye: the Pelambang, Indonesia, band has been making some pretty tunes in the last few years. I can’t remember when was the last time I recommended them. Probably last January? Well, today is also a good time. I found out they have a new song called “Polaris” which is really pretty. Dreamy, poppy, chiming, good all around.

Río Arga: I love this Spanish band from Pamplona. They make terrific songs. And it is great news they are releasing a new album called “Piscina y Lagos”. Sadly it is coming out on a label that has been problematic for me. But you may have had better communication, better experience with Caballito Records. I guess in the end what matters is the music, and that’s why I keep recommending them, because they are favourites for sure. The album is coming out on 12″ vinyl on June 9 and will include 8 songs. You can preview two songs now on Bandcamp.

The Umbrella Puzzles: and we finish today’s review with Ryan Marquez’s lovely project. Here he presents us 4 acoustic recordings, an acoustic session he has called “All Our Friends”. This set was recorded for Alternatrip’s All Our Friends Online Music Festival on May 29. The songs are very nice, as usual, influenced by the BMX Bandits, right? And a cover of The Steinbecks!

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We return to Sweden, to the CDR days of early 2000s. Great times. Great memories. A period I miss a lot. And I am sure many of you do too.

The Winston Solution was a band from Göteborg. There is not much information on the web, but there are a few things we can say about the band. We can say that the band started in 1999 by Erik Jonsson and Jonas Lundvall. They previously had been in a band called Odd Man Out.

Their home studio was called PlayNow. It was there that they recorded their songs. As far as I know there were three demo CDs released. The first one dates from 2001 and was called “Nine Wrong Songs”. The songs on this CDR were “I Know I’m Wrong”, “Read Between the Lines”, “The Magic of a Shy Conversation”, “Empty Streets and City Lights”, “The Look in Your Eyes”, “The Story Ends When the Paper is Full”, “Sister” and “Is this Real?”.

The 2nd CDR was called “Good Things Will Come to Those Who Can’t Wait”. This one was released in 2005. I don’t know the track list for this one. I know the name of some of the songs, “It’s Easier to Say”, “Jenny Fame” and “Left Hand Writing”.

The third one was called “The Diplomat EP”. Again, don’t know the tracklist but songs names were “I Don’t Know What I Would Have Done Without You” or “Make a Plan to Love Me”. I think it was released in 2008 but I could totally be wrong.

On Discogs they only appear listed on a compilation CD called “CD 7 2008” released by Groove (GROOVE0807). On this comp they appear with the song “History Book”.

The only other detail I could find was that the band played at the Malmö festival “We and You” in 2003 that was organized by Revolution 9, a fanzine from that time.

I don’t know if this actually covers well everything they released. There might have been more CDRs. There were definitely more songs, having a look at Last.fm tracks, I see some that I don’t know where they were released like “Your Boyfriend Does Not Understand”, “Photographs from a Broken Planet”, “Consider Me in Love”, “Nothing is Natural Only Impossible”, and many more.

I know that Jonas Lundvall was later in a project of his own called Klifton Filente.

So yeah, who remembers them? Whatever happened to them?

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Listen
The Winston Solution – It’s Easier to Stay

01
Jun

Thanks so much to Nick, Linda and Maria for the interview!! I wrote about the Manchester 80s band Magic Roundabout on the blog a month ago. I was surprised that there was a 7″ out and an album announced for later this year of a rather obscure band! I didn’t know any details about the band and was surprised by the quality of their songs. They were so good! How come they are obscure? I didn’t undertand. Anyhow, I was lucky that Nick got in touch and organized this interview. It feels great to know more about them now and can’t wait for their album!

++ Hi Nick! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Nick- I’m fine thanks. Yes, I’m still involved in music though at the moment interest in Magic Roundabout is taking up most of my time.

Linda- Yes.

++ Let’s go back in time. 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 to at home while growing up?

Nick- Gosh, first musical memories? I guess listening to BBC children’s radio at weekends in the 1970s, songs like Puff the Magic Dragon and My Old Man’s a Dustbin Man by Lonnie Donnigan, similar to most people my age in the UK probably. I consider myself a non-musician but my first instrument was the tuba. I heard a lot of my mum’s 60s pop growing up, Rubber Soul/ Sgt Pepper, Terry by Twinkle, Jenny Artichoke by Kaleidoscope that sort of thing.

Linda- I used to get up at 6am aged 3 and play records. Doris Day children’s album and whatever my family had. The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach. When I was 6 I got into watching a Beatles cartoon. I got a guitar when I was10 years old. When I started big school at 11 I got classical guitar lessons. I joined a choir aged 13 and learned to sing harmonies. I played and sang with my best friend Joanne in her bedroom mainly The Beatles songs and sometimes songs from musicals I was learning at school. 

++ Had you been in other bands before the Magic Roundabout? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?

Nick- no Magic Roundabout was my first band. Me & Paul imagined that we were in a band from probably about 1984/5.

Linda- Yes I was singing in a punk band called Xon Mombasa we did mainly covers of Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and a few original songs. I sang and played regularly at folk clubs from age 15.

++ Where were you from originally?

Nick- I’m from Salford.

Linda- I am originally from Horwich near Bolton.

++ How was Manchester at the time of Magic Roundabout? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Nick- Manchester in 1986 & 1987 was as pretty grim. There were loads of bands that we liked back then like J&MC, Shop Assistants, My Bloody Valentine with Dave Conway singing, The Pastels. We were massive VU fans. It was a bit of an in-between time in Manchester then, Joy Division were from a different generation & rave hadn’t really happened yet.

We loved The Fall. We liked King Of The Slums & Dub Sex both great under rated Manchester bands.

I remember buying singles from Picadilly Records & LPs from Affleck’s Palace. The main venues we saw bands at were the Hacienda, The Boardwalk, The International and the University but there were lots of little gigs in odd places back then as well.

Linda- Manchester was great I bought from Piccadilly Records but also a local record shop in Horwich. I’d buy a 45″ most weeks. Usually goth music, punk stuff. I loved the International and The Boardwalk live bands were high on my agenda.

Maria- The Fall, The Chameleons, Inspiral Carpets. Piccadilly records, Eastern Block records. The Boardwalk was a great place to check out new bands.

++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Nick- I’ve been friends with Paul since school. Paul met Linda on the bus told her he had an imaginary band & that’s how the band started off. I think I first met Nicola & Maria when we all went to see The Shop Assistants supporting J&MC in Blackburn, a year later we played our first gig. Karrie joined the band in summer 87.

Linda-  I was on the bus going to Art College in Bolton and met Paul. Paul said he and Nick wanted to form a band. I offered to be in the band as Paul and Nick were new to playing. It took a while for us to get our sound. But we got recording a few months later.

Maria- For me I think it was something to do with Bolton Art college? all a blur I’m afraid.

++ What instruments did each of you play in your songs?

Nick- We were supposed to be, Linda- vocals & guitar, Paul- bass, Nick- drums, Nicola & Maria- tambourines, when Karrie joined, she played violin & guitar. We swapped instruments around live & in the studio on some stuff, so on side two of the LP it’s actually me & Maria playing guitars and Linda & Paul playing bass & drums.

Linda- I sang, played guitar but we did swap around on live gigs.

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

Nick- It was pretty quick, I’d write the lyric, Linda & Paul would work out some music and we’d play & practice it. We probably had about 20 or so songs but we must have got bored with playing them pretty quick. Up, one of our best songs I think we only played live once or twice because we were busy moving on to something else, which seems a bit daft looking back.

We rehearsed at The Boardwalk from late 86 & because of that we got in there to see loads of great gigs for free. I think we stopped rehearsing by summer of 87 pretty much.

Linda- Nick usually had written lyrics so I would write the chord progressions and melodies. Paul would write the basslines then we’d thrash it out and arrange it a bit more.

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

Linda-  I remember watching the children’s TV show but I don’t remember why we stuck with it?

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

Nick- We were all massive Velvet Underground fans, I still think White Light/ White Heat is maybe the best LP in the world. But Shop Assistants, early J&MC, a lot of C86 as well. We’d been big Bauhaus fan & Cocteau Twins fans.

Linda- I liked a wide variety of bands at the time. The Velvet Underground was high on the list as was Jesus and Mary chain. 

++ I was really surprised to see you being released after all these years, out of the blue. From what I understand Ian Masters from Pale Saints shared your demo to Third Man Records. Were you friends with Ian? Or was it just a surprise all around?

Nick- I think Ian approached us after a gig we played in Leeds supporting Loop, I’m not sure we swapped any tapes then but we’ll have swapped addresses and I’ve been friends with Ian ever since. I suppose Ian has always from time to time suggested we should do something about releasing the recordings. Ian did a great version of Carol in Your Eyes around 2019 which I think maybe got us thinking, but the impetus behind putting the LP together probably came after I retired as a nurse about a year ago and had more time to try and put things together. The LP was originally going to be released on Ian’s Onkonomiyaki label but we were having some problems with the mastering stage. Ian’s friend Warren DeFever is a mastering engineer at Third Man which is how Third Man got involved. Ian very graciously encouraged us to go with Third Man to get a wider exposure for the music. It was Dave Buick at Third Man who had the idea of the single which we wouldn’t have had the money to do ourselves.

Linda- Nick was mainly friends with Ian and had kept in touch. I have worked with Nick so knew about their friendship.

++ You released a 7″ earlier this year with two songs. And the plans now is to release an album worth of songs. I’m wondering if between both releases all your recordings will see the light of day?

Nick- There are some recordings that aren’t on the single or LP. But their quality is too poor to do anything with, stuff recorded onto a 1980s boombox, live gigs & practice recordings, a couple of rubbish demos, some 4 track home recordings from 1988 before we split up.

Linda- We have some poor recordings of other songs which I’m not sure will be put out.

++ A video was released to promote “Sneaky Feelin'”. Where was that footage taken from?

Nick- We made the video in April 1987 in Stockport. The details of how we ended up doing the video are a bit vague but it was essentially a scam. A film crew would film a pretty rubbish video of an aspiring band & would expect that band to pay £800 for a copy of the video & some promotion that wouldn’t happen. £800 was an amazing sum of money then.  A couple of years later I met one of the film crew and he said we were the only band that got out of there with a copy of a video and didn’t pay for it. We were pretty fast talkers then & asking £800 from us was a laugh. We thought we’d lost the video cassette long ago, but Paul found it in his attic about a week before the single was due out.

Linda- Nick mentioned Stockport but I seem to recall we were out towards Glossop way in some out of the way place.

++ Do tell me where did you record the 7″? Who produced the songs? 

Nick- Sneaky Feelin & the tracks on side one of the LP were all recorded at the Kitchen, which was a studio in a converted flat in Charles Bury Cresent in Hulme in Manchester. The guy that ran the Kitchen & engineered was called Jamie, a lovely, friendly guy. I guess we produced it ourselves. The second side of the LP was recorded at the Mill in Aston, Manchester which was Clint Boon’s studio, we’d become friendly with Clint (Inspiral Carpets) & his studio was a bit cheaper & had more amps & organs in it.

Linda- we recorded at The Kitchen in Hulme with Jamie.

++ Was it the same place and producer for the album?

Linda- Yeah apart from Alice’s Paper plane.

++ The 7″ has a fun photo of you all. Wondering where was it taken? Looks like a playground?

Nick- A park in Bolton, I think. We were lucky that Linda & Karrie were into photography.

Linda- Queens Park Bolton. Karrie took the picture. Nick was on some springy seat in a children’s playground.

++ The B side of the 7″ is “Song for Gerard Langley”. I suppose it is Gerard Langley of The Blue Aeroplanes. Why did you dedicate the song ton him?

Nick- We played our first gig supporting the Blue Aeroplanes & they were really nice & encouraging to us, we’d never heard their music before that gig & they were brilliant. Spitting Out Miracles is a great LP. Gerald was one of the characters in Alice’s Paperplane who’s poetry Alice admires, and of course he is also Gerald Langley in real life.

Linda- We did one of first gigs at The Boardwalk supporting The Blue Aeroplanes.

++ So when is the album coming out? Are there any details you can share? Name? How many songs?

Linda-  Summer 2021

++ Where do the songs of the 7″ and album come from? Various demo tapes? Is there a chance that we could do a demography?

Nick- Maybe, at a later date, we’re still having some lost songs reappear.

++ How come there were no releases of yours back then? Were there any interest from labels? Did you consider self-releasing?

Nick- I’m not sure we sent many demos to labels, we used the early demos to get gigs mainly, initially we were recording tracks for flexi-discs that ended up not happening. A think we recorded Carol In Your Eyes for a proposed single. We had no money or know how to self-release then.

Linda- We didn’t seem to chase any record companies. It was a rollercoaster at the time.

++ Back in the day one song did get released, “She’s a Waterfall Part 1” and “She’s a Waterfall Part 2” I’ve never heard these songs. Are they the same? Similar? Why the name with two parts?

Nick- Two different versions of the same song. I’m not sure why they’re called parts 1 & 2 on the tape.

Linda- We had a slow version and a faster one.

++ And how did you end up on this compilation put together by Mark Webber from Pulp?

Nick- We became friendly with Mark Webber, he promoted gigs in Sheffield & possibly ran the Pulp fanclub at that point. He may even still been at school then. He put us on a lot at his Take Two/ Cosmic Joy nights. We were all pretty young then, I’d just turned 19 when the band split up.

++ I believe another song was released too, “Talk About You” on “Piranhas in the Canal”. This was a compilation put together by the St. Helens Musicians Collective. Were you part of that collective? Or how did you end up there?

Nick- Not us.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Sneaky Feelin’”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Nick- Oh, I can’t remember! It had been pointed out to us that all our songs till then were verse/ chorus, verse/chorus, so that was the first song we tried to stretch ourselves a bit.

++ If you were to choose your favourite Magic Roundabout song, which one would that be and why?

Nick- I like them all really. But Carol In My Eyes & Up are the best songs for me. I love Alice’s Paperplane, I don’t think many bands had a song like that up their sleeves back then.

Linda-  Up I suppose. It’s about the death of Andy Warhol I feel the sadness in the recording. I loved Warhol’s art and ideas.

Maria– I like them all really Song for Gerard Langley in particular, love the flow and story to it, takes you somewhere else for sure.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Nick- A handful really, we played mainly Manchester, Birmingham & Bristol. There are flyers I’ve seen for gigs I don’t remember.

Linda-  We played Manchester, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Leeds, Stockport, Bristol and Birmingham. Maybe more?

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

Nick- I think my favourite gig was at the Asylum in Manchester, I’d helped put together the bill with Spacemen 3 headlining & it was the first time we played Alice’s Paperplane. Pete Kember was always nice to us. When we asked him what he thought of our set, he said it was great but that we should change our name. We were “oh no Pete, no!”

Linda- The first gig seemed to stick with me lots of claps and cheers.

Maria- Playing a long side Spacemen 3

++ And were there any bad ones?

Nick- Plenty.

Linda- A few haha.

++ When and why did Magic Roundabout stop making music?

Nick- I guess the old creative differences, it didn’t help that we decided to live in a band house together, we were all still teenagers and not very skilled at living with each other.

Linda- We lived in a band house for a while and that drove us apart really. I played in many bands and am still doing music full time when not in Lockdown. I’ve played most types of music I also play electric bass.

++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

Nick- I’ve spent the last few years in a half imaginary psych-noise band called Te Hee Objects.

Linda- No not really. Nick and I have written and worked together. Paul and Karrie have written and recorded electronically. Nicola and Maria don’t play now.

++ Has there been any Magic Roundabout reunions?

Nick- We recently reconnected with Nicola & Maria.

Linda- Not really but we are all in touch.

++ Was there any interest from radio? TV?

Nick- haha, none.

++ What about from fanzines?

Nick- Just stuff in fanzines. I know of stuff in Candyfloss, So Naive & Step Inside My Pepperpot, but there’s probably more, Nicola & Maria send a lot of tapes & letters to fanzines then as did I.

Linda- We were interviewed by Uncut magazine recently.

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

Nick- I think for me if you’re in a band you have to feel your band is the best in the world. Otherwise, why would you bother? Clearly, we were not the best band in the world, but at the time it felt like it to me.

Linda- Just being in the band was a huge deal.

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

Linda- I like painting, Keeping fit and attending the gym. Learning German. Doing Reiki healing and crystal healing.

++ I have visited Manchester once, but it was too short and didn’t get to see much. I hope to return. Would like to ask a local, what would you suggest them doing here, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Nick- This is such a wonderful question! Coming from Manchester it’s impossible to imagine why anybody would want to visit Manchester if they didn’t have to. Albert Square is nice I suppose. Food would have to be chips or something potato, and beer, just lots of it is the Manchester way:)

Linda-  Afflecks Palace is great, loads of funky retro clothes and other things to look at and buy. Just an interesting place to visit. Mr Thomas’s Chop House authentic British food made without packets or jars. Real food

Maria- Walk up the little hill that leads to the Bell Tower in Heaton Park for it’s far-reaching views. Maybe go to a gig at The Ruby Lounge…great sound there. Cafe Pop is wonderful for it’s thick white buttered toast with marmite or peanut butter, they do the best cup of tea to.

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Listen
Magic Roundabout – Sneaky Feelin’