Day 425
Los Lucha: just discovered this Glasgow dreampop one-man project that sounds really good. Samuel Fawkes, the person behind the Los Lucha name, has a self-titled tape out now which features 4 dreamy and nicely crafted pop songs. It is hard to pick a favourite out of the four, but I think I’ll pick the opening track, “On the Ropes”.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples: more and more songs by the San Francisco DIY kitchen pop project of Glenn Donaldson. Here are two wonderful new songs that would make a good 7″. They are “No One Absolves Us in the End” and “The Town that Cursed Your Name”.
The Hermit Crabs: this is quite interesting! “Paraphrase Film Critics” is a 7 song compilation of recordings done through the winter of 2002/2003. Some of these songs indeed ended up in the band’s album (which here they say will be re-released in vinyl later this year). Also there’s a cover of “Wells Street” from Pipas!!
Rum Tum Tiddles: we head to Nantes where the English singer Madeleine Mosse has joined forces with French musicians Thomas Bevand and Fred Lambert. This project has made a lovely album called “It is a Story” which is available now on CD and vinyl. There are 11 tracks in it, it is being released on June 11, and you can preview two songs on the band’s Bandcamp.
The Sainsburys: remember our friends from Stoke-on-Trent that put together a wonderful 3″ CD on Cloudberry many years ago. That we interviewed too? Well they are on Bandcamp now! All of their 7 songs of “My Favourite Colour” are there, including the superb and classic “Ate the Most”. Essential listening for any indiepop fan!
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Back in 2019 I got in touch with The Ice Factory. I had discovered them thanks to the compilation “The Sound of Leamington Spa Vol. 9” (FST 160) that Uwe and his team at Firestation Records put together a year earlier.
My intention of course was to interview them. At that time, March 2019, the band told me it was a good time to do an interview as the band was planning to get together in the summer. I don’t know if that ever happened. I sent them a bunch of questions and sadly never heard back from them.
That’s not rare. A lot of bands don’t answer my questions, which is a shame of course as I only want to know more details about these bands that are not remembered by many (sadly). They are obscure even though they recorded some wonderful songs. My hopes are to introduce their music to more people. That’s my main goal. Sure, sometimes things evolve and I create friendships, and some times I even release their music. That’s nice. But again the main goal is to keep these bands alive.
Maybe with The Ice Factory my help isn’t that important. The band has a Facebook page which continues to be updated.
According to the Leamington Spa comp booklet, when the Ice Factory came to their untimely demise in 1991, they were dubbed by the media as ‘The biggest band that never made it’. Hailing from the northern seaside town of Morecambe and taking their name from an ice cream factory where they used to reheears, the band notched up a number of television appearances, national radio airplay, as well as a support slot for Brit Pop darlings Blur. The band toured the UK, released an EP “Jerusalem” and eventually signed management and publishing deals with Pel Management and Co London and Chelsea Music Publishing. Shortly before the band members went their separate ways, The Ice Factory secured recording time with Chrysalis Records and supported the legendary Youssou N’dour at Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival.
The Ice Factory comprised of lead vocalist Mark McKenna, guitarist and songwriter David Lewis, keyboard player and songwriter Geoff Dixon, bass player Justin Craddock, lead guitarist John Lewis and drummer Neil Thomson.
The band were primarily pop and rock based and had a very distinctive sound for their time, but it was their perfect catchy pop tunes that set them apart from their peers. Sack-fuls of songs in fact that sadly may never come out of the cooler.
Okay, we know now the band members. We know too where they hailed from. What else do we know?
The EP is not listed on Discogs. It came out in 1989. It has no catalog number nor label, so safe to assume it was a self-release. The songs on it were “Jerusalem” and “Marilyn” on the A side and “Under the Storm” and “Treason” on the B side. The songs were engineered and mixed by Mick Armstead.
The Facebook page has a trove of interesting details, videos and songs.
Here is the band performing “Jerusalem” at the WOMAD festival. They also appeared on Granada Tonight where they performed “Jerusalem” as well.
There is a Soundcloud with a bunch of their songs too. You can check there “Badlands“, “Cloud 9“, “Empires of Love“, “Independence Day“, “Marylin“, “One Day“, “One Step Closer to Heaven“, “Something About that Girl“, “Sunday“, “Tears of ’77“, “Way of the Rose“, “Under the Storm“, “Treason“, “This is England“, “Rainbow“, “Jerusalem“, “Behind Closed Doors“, “Winter City“, “Sense of Freedom“, “Revolution“, “Other Side“, “Life” and “Can’t Help This“.
We know that there was another member at some point called Delyth Jones, who played the sax. We know too that they had a manager called Duncan Moore.
When it comes to gigs, the band played at the Rock Garden in London, Bull and Gate in London with Blur, Skaw and Electric Sex Circus on May 23, 1990, The Boardwalk in Manchester, the Sugarhouse in Lancaster,
And finally I found out that the band did play a reunion gig in Morecambe the summer of 2019. They were part of the Morecambe Carnival festival. You can watch the whole gig on Youtube of course.
I don’t have much info about other bands the members had been involved with. The vocalist, Mark McKenna is a DJ and performs often in Lancaster. Geoff Dixon is an actor, musician and songwriter.
Then I find a 1999 article on the Lancashire Telegraph. Justin Craddock, who was living at the time in Stuttgart, Germany, was looking to get in touch with the rest of band members. I suppose in the end he did! What a cool story. He also mentions that David and John Lewis’ family owned the Lewis Ice Cream shop, the one that gave the band their name!
It would have been nice to hear from the band these and other details. But this will do for now, it was great to find all of these songs and info. I didn’t expect to find so much!!
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Listen
The Ice Factory – Jerusalem
