Day 418

Lost Ships: Portsmouth, UK. A fine EP from the band that back in the 90s were The Kites. Remember I interviewed them? Anyhow, give yourself 15 minutes and check their new EP “Nostalgia” which is out now on Subjangle Records. 5 songs of jangly pop music. Nice!

Fresh: the London punk pop band is back with a new 12″ EP titled “The Summer I Got Good at Guitar”! There are few copies now of the record, so hurry. The EP has 5 songs of fun and catchy punky indiepop that definitely makes you miss going to gigs.

Cozy Slippers: two new songs by this great Seattle combo, “When Will When Come?” and “Be Alone With Me”. This is their latest digital release and doesn’t look like there’s a physical release. But don’t despair. The songs are available to listen on repeat of course. Poppy and fun. As always.

Pier Lights: the 3rd single from the UK band Pier Lights is out now. It is called “The Dunes” and is available on Soundcloud. It is a very nice piece of guitar pop with electronic sounds. The band is the side project of Rich May from The King of Mirrors and Jonathan Troy of The Hi-Life Companion. So you know, good stuff.

Tynall Tywyll: this is not new, but it is new for me. First time I’m seeing a live performance of one of the most wonderful bands, Tynall Tywyll! I wrote about them many years ago and until today I haven’t been able to get in touch with them. But this video of the band playing “Jack Kerouac” at the Heno Nol Yn TV programme, in 1991, makes you shiver of how good they were.

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A few weeks ago I interviewed Henry Does a Runner. When I asked which band they would recommend me they said Jo Jo Namoza. Also when I interviewed Resque they mentioned Jo Jo Namoza.  So here I am looking for info for this 80s Reading band.

I actually own a record that has a song of theirs, “Kissing the Babies”. It is the classic LP compilation “The Final Teaze” released in 1987 by Final Records (FINAL LP42). The funny thing is that they appear as Namoza. Maybe that’s why I didn’t make the connection. Also with thee name Namoza they appeared in a compilation tape called “The Fence” in 1989. This tape was put out by Tracksuit Tapes and it seems featured many great bands from the area, including The Rain and Feverfew (!).

On Discogs there are a few releases listed. There is a tape that has no date, probably a demo tape. It has two songs, “Kissing the Babies” and “Back at the Farm”.

“Live at the University of Surrey” is a live tape the band self-released in 1988. This tape had 10 songs, “Arabian Dance”, “Assault and Battery”, “Heartland”, “Monkey on the Floor”, “Casbah Accomadation”, “Elevator”, “Back at the Farm”, “African Heart”, “Kissing the Babies” and “Bamboo Houses”. This live gig happened in Guilford, on June 30, 1988.

In 1989 the band released their sole proper record, a 7″ with two songs, “Kissing the Babies” and “Flipside” on the flipside. This one came out on Acorn Records (ACOR 7), a label from Bramley that was foundeed by Mark Olrog and Bob Kiddle. Also worth noting is that “Kissing the Babies” is credited to N. Hawkins” while “Elevator” to Jo Jo Namoza.

Then I sort of hit the jackpot. There is a Facebook page for the band as well as a proper website. On the website, I find that prior to Jo Jo Namoza, in 1980, Mark Hawkins (keyboards), Steve Norris (bass/guitar), Kenny Stone (drums) and Neil Hawkins (vocals/rhythm guitar) started a band called Marble Arch. This band recorded a 3 song demo in 1981 and then another in 1982.

In 1983 the band went to the recording studio once again. To Matinee Studios in Reading. At this point the band changes their name to Namoza. They record a 3 song demo tape with the tracks “Wild Life”, “Taking Punches” and “Empty Hands”.

It is in 1985 that the band becomes Jo Jo Namoza when Francis Magee joins them thanks to an advert in the Melody Maker. The first gig with this new lineup happens at Winchester College. Francis had been previously in a band called Jo Public. Because of this the band added Jo Jo to the Namoza name. It is with this new lineup, in 1986 that they record the demo tape I mentioned first, the one with “Back at the Farm”.

One interesting thing about Jo Jo Namoza is that they went on a mini tour of Norway in 1987. They played in Stavanger and also in Bergen at The Hulen. In 1988 they would play again in Bergen at The Fish Factory. During this time Emma Banks and Neil Richards became managers of the band.

They would also play at The Ceanarvon Castle and Dingwalls in Camden in London as well as becoming regulars on the British university circuit.  In Reading they used to play in The Majestic it seems.

In 1988 the band recorded an EP in Matinee Studios. The songs included were “Arabian Dance”, “Elevator”, “Heartland”, “Assault and Battery”, “Monkey on the Floor” and “African Heart”. Not sure if these were released on tape or any other format.

Other recordings of the band include a live gig at Reading University in 1989 where the songs “Cannibals”, “African Heart”, “Casbah” and “To the Bone” were recorded live.

There was also another demo that was recorded in 1989 at a studio ran by Martin Rushent in Streatley Hill. Sadly these recordings seem to be lost.

In 1989 the band recorded two more songs. This time at The Whitehouse Studio in Kewstoke. The sound of the band was evolving at this time.

The band was gaining some momentum. In 1990 the band had already agreed to release “Elevator” and “Assault and Battery” as a 7″ with Sonet Records from Acton in London. Sadly two weeks after the agreement the distribution company of the label went bust.

In the end, a re-recorded version of “Kissing the Babies”  (recorded at Eedgar Broughton’s studio in Barnet, London) and “Elevator” (previously recorded at Matinee Studio in Reading) were released by Acorn Records. The band wasn’t pleased with the sound of the record…

Two more important details to mention is that the band would grow in number, adding Andy Marshall as backing vocals and percussion and James Carter on guitar.

One last thing from their website, there is a live video of the band playing at The Hulen in Bergen, Norway, in 1987. The two songs on the video are “Casbah Accomodation” and “Back at the Farm”.

But there’s more, it turns out Francis Magee, who actually hailed from Dublin, Ireland, (and was raised in the Isle of Man) was on the British soap opera EastEnders from 1993 to 1995. He then appeared on movies like Layer Cake and The Calling. And even cooler, he was on Game of Thrones (!). He played Yoren, a member of the Night Watch on the first and second season of the show.

How cool. I’ve listened many of their songs now. The sound of the band could change a bit, but they were pop at heart. And some songs are really great indiepop tunes.

I hope to learn more about them soon. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
Jo Jo Namoza – Kissin’ the Babies