Day 509
Lauds: discovering this Wilmington, North Carolina, label called Fort Lowell Records. Their self-titled release by Lauds caught my attention immediately. The “Lauds EP” sounds amazing. Jangly. Chiming. Four songs of pure pop. Great stuff. Digital only it seems?
Archie Sagers: another new label for me, Crafting Room Recordings from Brighton. They have released “Glitter” by Archie Sagers which is the second and final single from the upcoming EP “New Colours in the Sky”. The song is great, with a superb melody and dreamy sparkling guitars. Let’s keep an eye on Archie, right?
Parasouls: now we head to Manila, Philippines. It is another digital single I want to present you today, “Sunny Beach” by Parasouls. Sounds perfect for this summer, right? Also Philippines have great beaches, many that I’d love to visit some day. Anyhow, it is great to discover this pop trio from Lilystars Records.
Seoul Magic Club: the wizards from Seoul. That’s how they define themselves. Interesting. I have just discovered them through the song “Que Sera Que Sera”. And I like it! It is a sweet dreamy song, moody and mellow. The band is formed by SIAN on vocals. Shin on synth and Na on drums.
300 D: Jen Weisberg and Bean Pearce are 300 D from Oakland, California. They just have two songs on Bandcamp, their latest that was released last week is called “Grocery Vaping” which is a fine slice of bedroom pop!
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And yet one more post discovering Hull bands thanks to Chris Warkup’s Soundcloud page!
Today is the turn of The Brontes, which I guess their name is pretty obvious where it comes from. Right?
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily’s Wuthering Heights, Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.
The song Chris shared on his Soundcloud is called “Precious” and it was included in the compilation tape “Hull North of Manchester” that came out in 1990. This tape included a band I love, The Penny Candles, who I interviewed ages ago. The Brontes’ song was the first song on the A side, pretty sure whoever put this tape together had great consideration for this track and I think it is not a surprise, the song is good!
I could find out that the band appeared on another compilation that same year. It was called “There’s Something Stirring in King Billy’s Bogs”. This tape was released by the label Hull, Hell and Happiness and the song that was included by The Brontes was called “Crime”. I notice too that I could find credits for who wrote the song, Graham Smith and Jasper Bolton. Good! Two names. This tape also included The Penny Candles and yet another band I’ve interviewed in the past, Pink Noise!
And then I find some more stuff! One thing that I find out is that the band wasn’t technically from Hull but from a place called Driffield. Never heard of it…
Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is 53 miles (85 km) north-east of Leeds, 70 miles (110 km) north-east of Sheffield, 29 miles (47 km) east of York, 23 miles (37 km) north of Hull, 72 miles (116 km) south-east of Middlesbrough, and 218 miles (351 km) north of London. Driffield is named The Capital of the Wolds, due to its location sitting centrally within the Yorkshire Wolds.
And then a true surprise. A video! A promo video for the song “Crime“. I wasn’t expecting that!
There is a bit of info here. It mentions that the video was recorded in 1989 on Beverly Westwood, Hen Cooper’s mum’s shed and garden in Nafferton and many roads around England, and that it was aired in MTV, NHK Japan, Eurochannel, ITV UK and more. Wow. Who remembers watching it?
Also the lineup of the band is listed here. Claire Binnington on vocals, Hen Cooper on backing vocals, Smirt on guitar, Jasper Bolton on guitar, Andy Bingham on bass and Neil Drury on drums. Sadly it seems Neil has passed away. His last gig was at Liverpool University on January 22, 1991.
Back to the names, I believe Smirt is Graham Smith. Can someone confirm that?
And then a Facebook and an Instagram! Seems the band are still going!
On the Facebook page I read that the band recorded an album called “House of Dreams”. But I haven’t been able to find a tracklist for it. The Facebook page has a lot of stuff about the band. On an newspaper clipping it mentions that the band usually packed the Camden Falcon and that they were signed to a German label D.S.B. that was to release an EP. Did that happen? Other places the band played included The Adelphi, Border Lines, Solem Bar in Manchester Uni, or Blue Lamp. Other gigs happened at The White Horse in London on October 11, 1990, at the Redcar Folk Festival on July 14, 1995, supporting The Buzzcocks at Leeds Uni on October 1990, at the Royal Standard in Bradford, Gullivers in Grimsby, The Alex Goole in Goole, The Norseman in Driffield, Old Angel in Nottingham, Leisure World in Bridlington, Spotted Cow in York, Polytechnic in Leeds, LA’S in Kings Lynn, Leicester uni, The Alex in Goole, Lower School in Driffield, GOing Underground in Berkhamsted, Saxon Suite in Driffield, Steamers in Bridlington, The George in Bridlington, Room 1795 in Hull, Sewerby Park in Bridlington, Bell Hotel in Driffield.
Bands they supported included Eat, The Heart Throbs, Cast, Katrina and The Waves, Full Cry, Hunnys Birthday and Matthew Hogg.
Also we find more names for songs like “Basement Love”, “Catch Me”, “Mr. Sometimes”, “County Line”, “Into the Night”, “Forever”, “What a Fool Believes”, “The Only One”, “She Got”, “Catch Me”, Fat” and “If”. Some of these songs are found on the band’s Soundcloud. I believe most if not all of these songs were recorded at Fairview Studio in Kings Lynn.
Another thing that caught my attention is that they were to be featured on a CD called “A Perfect Combination – Fairview Studios 1973-1990”. That indeed happened in 2016. The song they contributed was “Crime”. Other indiepop bands in this comp include International Rescue, The Gargoyles, THe Beautiful South, Pink Noise and 3-Action! among others. There was even a gig for the release of this CD and the band played that gig on December 9, 2016 at the Kingmaker.
After this reunion the band played on May 6, 2017 at the Maple Room in Driffield and on June 9, 2017 at Tidal Waves Festival in Bridlington. On May 28, 2017 the band played The Priory Bar and on July 15 of that same year at the Newtobury Music & Beer Festival. On September 21 2017 the band played at Hull Fruit. On February 2, 2019, the band played at Kardomah94 for the Perfect Combination 3 Stephen Hughes gig.
The German label was to release an album. On Facebook the band has notes of what the album would be. The tracks for it were in this order, “Only One, “Catch Me”, “Basement Love”, “She Got”, “If”, “Forever”, “Into the Night”, “The House of Dreams”, “Fat” and “Rebound”. On the drums now we find Joel Cash. Graeme Smith is credited for guitar on the song “House of Dreams” and Fraz Ward for keyboards on “She Got”, “House of Dreams” and “Only One”. The album was produced by the band and John Spence and was engineered and mixed by John Spence.
A 14 track CD was put together by the band in 2017 for their gigs. Wonder if copies of it are still available. The band went to record once again, in 2018. It was to be an EP and three songs of this session are available on Soundcloud, “What a Fool Believes”, “County Line” and “Heat of the Day”.
Another compilation that seems obscure is the one called “Sight & Sound”. This compilation featured the band and was put together to support SightSupport Hull & East Yorkshire. Wonder which song the band contributed to it.
Oh well, that was quite a lot of info in one day! I wasn’t expecting this much! Hopefully we’ll learn more details soon. Do you Hull indiepop fans remember The Brontes? Did you see them at their reunion gigs?
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Listen
The Brontes – Precious
