Day 307.

Fuck You and Your A-Sides: a very nice discovery coming from Brighton, UK. This band have released online an EP titled “B-Side Yourself”. The one thing is that it is not that recent, it dates from October, 2019! But I am only finding about it now. It sounds great. Superb indiepop, lo-fi, charming and all. There are four songs in the EP and that’s it. That’s all they’ve released. I hope they do more. Please!

Prints in the Snow: another band that sounds amazing. Now we go a further north, to York, UK. Here we find this 3 song EP titled “I Hate the Silence…” which is packed with superb melodies and boy/girl vocals. It actually says that the band was formed in Nottingham by singer/songwriter Laurie Armitt and bassist Catherine Preston in 2010. Really lovely.

Llawgne: what a strange name you’d say for a band. Well, the person behind the band is Mathias Engwall from Gothenburg. Engwall spelled backwards… you get the idea. I have just discovered the band thanks to their song “Reverie Neverending” which is a really nice upbeat indiepop guitar-driven song. Looking to discover more of his songs now.

Makeout Point: some time ago I had featured the band Makeout Point from Sweden. Formed by Hugo Ewald, Shiva Kazemi, Simon Hjort and Åsa Horakova they had released a few great demos. Fast forward to 2020, when they release their “Carnival of Love” EP on Topoli Records. Four songs are included here, “Date Night” “Hollywood”, “Princess” and “Don’t Be Sad”.

Project Culture: and lastly two songs from a London combo. The songs are “The Girl with the Sun in her Eyes” and “Me, Myself and I (And the Other Five Guys)” that were released in October. Yeah, I had to dig a bit this week as there were not many brand new songs on the web. But this is pretty good and is worth everyone’s attention!

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As I mentioned on previous posts I took photos of the booklets that came with the great compilation series “The Sound of Leamington Spa”. That’s because I am out of town until mid January and don’t have my record collection at hand. So just in case, to be able to post on the blog, to find more information about obscure indiepop bands, I did that. So thanks to that I can write today about the London-based band Ginger Bottles!

On the blog I had mentioned them quickly, when I wrote about The Honeymooners. Martin Connelly, the guitar player of The Honeymooners, a band from Glasgow, had moved the London. There he would join two other Glaswegians, Martin Muir (who had been in The Original Mixed Up Kid) and Steve (Sam) Davis (from the Playing Soldiers).

Ginger Bottles only released the “Unwind” EP in 1991. It was a 12″ vinyl record and it was released by Sunflower Records (SUN 003). This record label is a little bit familiar with me as they had put out Cut Cut Emma who had been featured on the blog. This record had four songs. The A side had “Unwind”. while the B side had “Haywire”, “Sell Your Soul” and “Moment of Madness”. The sleeve was designed by Pero Trivunovic while the artwork was done by Steve Ellefsen. John Kane did the photography.

The band’s song “Goldfish” was to appear many years late, I was talking before of the early 90s. “Goldfish”, a song not included in their one and only release, appeared on “The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 6” released by Firestation Records (FST 075), Billberry Records (Bild10) and Clarendon Records (W6 8CD) in 2009.

This booklet of this compilation adds more information.

Formed in London in 1989, Ginger Bottles were Stuart Barrett on bass guitar and Glaswegians, Steve Davis (ex Playing Soldiers), on vocals and acoustic guitar, Martin Connelly (ex Honeymooners) on lead guitar and Martin Muir (ex Original Mixed Up Kid) on drums. Guitarist, Brian Carson, played on this track “Goldfish”. When their demo of “Unwind” knocked out the competition 5 weeks in a row on Gary Crowley’s then infamous Demo Clash (GLR Radio), Ginger Bottles were championed by producer Stephen Street and DJ Janice Long and were stirring up much interest amongst the many A&R pundits who trusted the show’s record for spotting promising bands. Indie record label Sunflower Records quickly jumped in and offered the band their first and only release. “Unwind:, backed by “Haywire”, the free and easy mix of “Sell Your Soul” and rare acoustic track, “Moment of Madness”, which featured ex Raymonde guitarist, Phil Huish.
When Connelly relocated to Berlin, Huish joined the boys and brought his harder edge to the band’s sound. And with his Raymonde credentials, Smiths comparisons were inevitable – no bad thing at the time though. More relocation! And with Davis’ return to sunny Glasgow, came the amicable demise of the band. Davis is currently operating as The Tattooed Detective, Barrett joined Trian and recorded with some time Primal Scream producer, Brian O’Shaughnessy and both Muir and Huish formed Fletcher and, more recently, Rocket Sam. Connelly with his itchy feet returned to Glasgow and – small world – is working with Jean Honeymoon. Ginger Bottles are considering – not reforming – but joining the Myspace Bandwagon. Just for the hell of it!

A very cool thing to be aware of is that the band made a promo video for the song “Unwind“. It is up on Youtube. It was directed by Kenny Laurenson.

Another important find is a Soundcloud by Martin Muir, the drummer. In his Souncloud he has a demo version of “Goldfish” which was recorded in London, in 1989, Here he mentions too that sadly that Brian Carson has passed away. This is from the demo tape that was sent to Gary Crowley. But what ended happening was that Crowley would chose the second track, “Unwind” which would end up knocking an early demo from Suede off the top spot after they won 5 weeks running. Ginger Bottles would win the next 5 weeks as well. Aside from this  song, he has “Seven Forty Five” by Ginger Bottles. Here he mentions that this song was a demo recorded at La Rocka Studios in Hornsey, London, and engineered by Simon Daniels.

Looking at his Soundcloud we also know he has been in bands like Manic Noises, Rocket Sam, Napoleon Chrome, Hanging Shed and Fletcher.

Sadly not much more information about the band on the web. Hopefully we’ll find more about them, maybe someone will contact me!

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Listen
Ginger Bottles – Goldfish