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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One Response to “:: The Submarines”
One of my fav Egg CD reissues was that by The Submarines. I am replaying one of their songs “Down Through The Room” now soon after I saw your post. The song was so much like Primal Scream during their second-album phase.