Day 334
The Catherines: the Hamburg duo is releasing their new album! It is called “Drenched”. It is a short one, maybe we could call it a mini-album. It has 7 songs with great catchy melodies. It is out now on CD and cassette. I’ve featured the band many times, so you know I like them and you know what to expect. It is always a pleasure to read their song titles, always quirky and smart.
The Apartments: a new release by the classic Australian band! “A Life of Farewells” is coming out on April 2nd and will be available on vinyl and CD. The album will include 9 songs and we can preview one now, “The Failure of Love is a Brick Wall (You Prayed for me to Hit it)” and I can say I think it is wonderful. Can’t wait to hear the rest! Pre-orders are available now.
Hadda Be: “Another Life” is the latest single by this Brighton/London combo. This track will be included in their forthcoming album to be released in April of this year. There is no more info other than that. But the song (and the artwork that goes with it) is good, so should definitely look forward to it.
Mocca: the Indonesian band has continued releasing great records since their debut on Fruit Records, more than a decade ago. Their latest release is the album “Day by Day” and I just discovered it through the fine Blue-Very label. They are putting out the Japanese version of the CD that will even include liner notes by our friend Toshiko Matsumoto who ran the fine Apple Crumble Record! The album has 8 songs and right now we can listen to 4 of them on Bandcamp. The album will be released on CD.
Letting Up Despite Great Faults: oh! I always liked this dreamy band. Now the band is releasing “Movement EP 15 Anniversary Edition (Remastered w/B-sides)” on cassette. The record will include the original songs from the original release plus 3 more songs, “Bloom”, “Lux” and “Shine”. And there’s also the song “Halos” which is exclusive for those that order on Bandcamp!
—————————————————————–
When you stumble upon a trove of songs, 21 songs to be precise, of an obscure Sheffield band called Mr. Morality, you have to post about it immediately!!
So here I am, trying to learn a little bit more about them. They never released a record, but got a little bit of attention last year, 2019, when their song “Treehouse” appeared on the “Dreams to Fill the Vacuum – The Sound of Sheffield 1977-1988” boxset released by Cherry Red. I didn’t get this compilation, but I hope to get a copy when I return to NYC in January. Maybe there are some other great bands I might have missed.
Aside from this boxset the band did appear on another compilation, but 34 years earlier, in 1985. A tape called “Outrage Entertainment” had two of their songs, “Terry and Jane” and “Valium Days”. This tape is probably very rare as it includes two Pulp songs. This tape, which was homemade, was sold at Pulp’s “Outrage” concerts in late 1985 and early 1986. Mr. Morality (and Dig Vis Drill) supported Pulp during this tour.
The songs on Soundcloud are many. It seems they are all their recorded output and probably would make a great compilation. These songs are from 6 demo tapes that were recorded between 1985 and 1988. The intention of these tapes was of course to get radio play, attract A&R and press and get gigs. They use to sell these tapes at gigs. But most importantly, we don’t know what songs were in which tape. That is something we’ll need to find out.
The songs are as follow, they may be in chronological order, but can’t say 100% sure: “Terry and Jane”, “Sometimes I Wonder”, “Valium Daze”, “A Less than a Perfect Thing”, “Secret Ships”, “Men and their Gods”, “A Day by the Sea”, “Our Little World”, “Blue”, “Strawberry Mountain”, “Boy Down our Street”, “Autumn Winds”, “The Inevitable End”, “The Invisible Man”, “The King of Nowhere”, “Treehouse”, “This Higher Passion”, “Sand”, “You’ll Never Be”, “Scream For Me” and “Intro Track”.
It is my luck that I find a Facebook page for the band which seems to still be active. Should contact them. Here we learn that the band was formed by Steve Genn (vocals, guitar), Dave Oldale (guitar), John Furniss (bass) and Martin Spivey (drums). Though on Facebook we see other photos with more members like Dean Methley, Steve Naylor or Dave Hinckler.
There are many different mentions of gigs. We know that:
– March 16, 1985 they band played at Rockwells
– March 26, 1985 they played at the Hallamshire Hotel
– May 18, 1985, they play for the 2nd time at The Hallamshire Hotel (this was their 5th ever gig)
– May 31, 1985, we see the band playing at The Library Theatre supporting the band 777
– June 25, 1985 the band plays at Rockwells
– July 16, 1985 they play at The Limit in a battle of the bands competition
– Aug. 1, 1985, at the Sheffield Uni alongside Pulp, Treebound Story, Revelation, Half Past Midnight, Spring Street Band, Massai Warrior, The Cast, Hole in the Wall, Mr President
– Aug. 5, 1985, the band plays at The Underground
– Aug 29, 1985, they play again at The Hallamshire Hotel
– Sept. 1, 1985, the band plays at the Dolebusters Festival
– Sept. 22, 1985, with Pulp and Dig Vs Drill at The Leadmill
– Sept. 24, 1985, the band plays at the Thekla Old Profanity showboat in Bristol.
– Oct. 4, 1985, the band plays the first of the “Outrage” gigs at the Darlington Arts Center
– Oct. 7, 1985, the band plays again with Pulp and Henry Normal at the Adam and Eves in Chesterfield.
– Oct. 17, 1885, alongside Pulp and Dig Vis Drill the band plays Bradford University
– Oct. 25, 1985, the same lineup plus Popular Front play at the Maze Bar at Sheffield Uni
– Nov. 6, 1985, the band plays at The Wellington Club in Hull with Pulp, Dig Vis Drill and Bible Brothers
– Dec. 14, 1985 they played at The Leadmill supporting Microdisney
– July 11, 1987 they played at The Leadmill with support of The Jack Rubies
– Nov. 5, 1987 they played at The Depot Club in the Sheffield University Lower Refectory
Wow! the band really must have kept a diary or something! They even have setlists for many of these gigs in their Facebook page.
Another interesting fact that I find in the Pulp wiki is that there was a Pulp song called “Mr Morality” that remains unreleased. According to the wiki it was first played live at the Possibly Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in Oct. 1982. Did the band name themselves after this song?
The big question is still why they didnt release any records? Was there no interest? There are some great songs here, at least two could have been put on a wonderful 7″. Why didn’t any label see it? It is something I wonder.
I hope to learn more about the band soon. In the meantime, let’s listen to all of these songs!
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
