Following the trail of stoneeyedkiller, I discover the Salford/Manchester band The Latest. He had shared the track “I Close My Eyes” on his Youtube channel and I was blown away!

I easily find the Soundcloud of Brian Larkin who now lives in Fahan, County Donegal, in Ireland. There I learn that he was behind this project. He was the bassist. That he was born in Salford in 1965 but grew up in Manchester. In the early 80s he had a band with his friends John McCann (vocals), Wayne Price (drums) and Chris Britton (guitar). That was The Latest. Then in 1989 he would leave England for Ireland.

On his Soundloud you will notice that he has done new recordings of the tracks of The Latest. The latest (pardon the pun) is actually a 2024 version of “I Close My Eyes“. It is nice, but I have to say that the version from Pluto Studios from 1986 is my favourite! From that same session there is another track called “Burned Out” which is as excellent.

I also read that “I Close My Eyes” was written by Brian and John McCann on lead vocals. This track helped the band win the battle of the band hosted by Piccadilly Radio. Winning that prize gave the band the opportunity to record the song in a 24 track studio with a guy that had worked on The Smiths first album.

There are a few other demos from the band. There is “The Sound of Corporation” and “Sale” dating from 1986. Songs are not separate, they are part of the same audio file, so just sharing one link. There is also another track called “I Confess” and maybe one track called “Damaged” (?) but it may just be that the file is damaged. I don’t have it clear. The sounds for these group of tracks is a bit different to the one of the first two songs.

Then there is a full gig of the band playing at Cloud 9 in Manchester on November 7th 1985. Sadly there is no tracklist to know the names of the songs being played but it is definitely worth the listen. Would have loved to be at that gig!

But that’s not the only gig shared, there is also one from June 22 of 1986 at the legendary Manchester venue The Boardwalk. Again no tracklist, but this is top music! So have a listen. At this gig the band was on the same bill as All Fall Down and The Danny Boys.

One thing I learn too is that Chris and Brian were Manchester United fans while John and Wayne were City fans. You can read a little bit more about how important was football for the band on Brian’s substack,

And that’s it. That’s what I could find about the band. Seems that Brian has updated his Soundcloud not too long ago, so hopefully we’ll learn more about the band soon. I read that the band had been reviewed by the NME, I wonder if it was a demo or a gig… I wonder too why they didn’t get to release any records… I wonder if we’ll find out!

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Listen
The Latest – I Close My Eyes