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.
—————————————————————–
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.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
