Day 537

The Spanish Amanda: as you know I am a fan of The Spanish Amanda! Huw makes wonderful popsongs since forever now. I interviewed him once when I didn’t think he would make more Spanish Amanda songs. Today i discover four new songs on an EP called “Ça Suffit, Sophie, C’est Mauvais Pour Les Dents EP”. And this is great! According to him this EP will bring down Boris Johnson! Wow! Can he make it?!

The False Dawns: and as if it wasn’t enough, we know “members” of the Spanish Amanda are behind this project that should be filed between C87 and Casio keyboard demo tunes circa 1984! The False Dawns, based in Letchworth Garden City, have an EP called “You’re Drunk!” that has 5 songs that indeed sound like from a long time ago!

The Fisherman and his Soul: I’d love to get the new album “Nothing Ever Stays the Same” by Sebastian Voss’ pop project. The al bum is being released by the fine Subjangle Records on CD and also on cassette by Shiny Happy Records. The new album has 10 songs and as usual we find his smart German-pop tunes. Definitely a record I have to have! Limited to 100 copies.

The Would-Be-Goods: I can only be happy when I hear new songs by Jessica Griffin!! As you know The Would-Be-Goods is one of my favourite bands ever and Jessica’s vocals sound perfect to my ears. Always. Also as I always remember, the only one time I’ve been shy with a band, has been with The Would-Be-Goods. And I regret it! Now, who knows when I’ll see them again! “Saturn’s Child” is the name of the EP that has 5 wonderful songs. With the classic trademark lyrics of the band. I know these songs are not done with a full-band, but I can see them being re-recorded, or released as they are!

Rob Boyd: “Side Ways EP” is the latest by our friend Rob Boyd. Rob used to be in the London-based band The Hillfields who released a classic 3″ on Cloudberry. This EP has 5 songs of elegant and classy indiepop. What I don’t understand 100% is that it says that the songs were recorded by Ian Catt in 2006. Is that so? Then the EP has been waiting forever to see the light of day! In any case, this is very good, so don’t miss it!

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“The Sound of Leamington Spa Volume 8” (FST 155) released by Firestation Records in 2018 introduced me to the south London band The Believers.

The song that was included in this compilation was “Save the Planet”. But I was going to be surprised online as I was to find many more songs by them!

According to the liner notes on this comp:
“London band, The Believers were formed in 1987 when songwriting partnership Dean Whitbread and Kevin Goldsborough was joined by Richard Woods on guitar, who contributed his own songs as well as collaborations, Hollie Gibson on keyboards and Michele Drees on drums. The band played gigs all over the UK, supporting the Stone Roses at Middlesex Poly, playing Glastonbury town, and the Avalon Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

The 7″ vinyl single “Save the Planet” was released June 1989, proceeds donated to Greenpeace and the Women’s Environmental Network.

The Believers underwent several shifts of personnel. After Richard survived a bad road accident, guitarist Peredur Ap Gwynedd joined whilst still studying music at Goldsmiths college. Saxophonist Tree Peacock joined the band. The Believers recorded often at Beethoven Street studios in Kensal Rise, London, where guests included Seal, whose backing vocals can be heard on “How Can You Know” and his writing partner Guy Sigsworth who played on “Paperboy”.

The Believers didn’t ever really split up – the band simply morphed into a funkier ensemble called Fundamental in 1990, before DJ’s from Leeds stole their name but got away with it by adding hyphens. This latter incarnation played UK and Europe, particularly Italy, playing rock-dance material in nightclubs with choreographed acrobatics in the live show.

Kevin and Richard now record as Unio and Petitio.”

And there’s a link there to a Bandcamp. It is in this Bandcamp that we find the band’s eponymous album, “The Believers”, which was recorded between 1987 and 1990 in various London studios. The album is actually a compilation of 14 songs from The Believers’ archives. According to the info here the songs included were recorded in 24 track, 16 track, 8 track, 4 track and even live stereo recordings, all made using analogue (mostly Ampex) tape, and mastered onto DAT. Some of the live recordings have studio overdubs.

This album includes the “Save the Planet” 7″ and its B-side “Sheets”. Discogs doesn’t have this 7″ listed, but I found it on 45cat. So, it was a self-released single with catalogue number SAVE 1. It came out in 1989 and both songs are credited to Dean Whitbread. The sleeve was a poster sleeve, where on one side we see someone kicking a ball (which is the planet) to the goal and the goalkeeper not reaching it! On the other side of the sleeve there’s a photo of just three of The Believers. How come not the other members? The sleeve was designed by Sarah Habershon and illustrated by Simon Thorpe from Viz Comic.

The sleeve tells us that the record was engineered by Mike Campbell, assisted by Janice, at Cold Storage.  Backing vocals are credited to Sophie Moore, Hazel Noel and Cathy Tozer. There are credits for The Greenhorns appear courtesy of Antilles Records. The Greenhorns were John Ecott (trumpet) and Ashley Slater (trombone) who was in bands like Microgroove, Freakpower, Loose Tube and Kitteen and tthe Hip.

On this record the band was Dean Whitbread on vocals and guitar, Kevin Goldborough on bass, Hollie Gibson on keys, Richard Woods on electric guitar and Paul Cavaciuti on drums. There is a project coordinator too, Danny Brittain, through Allied Agency.

Now what are the songs that appear on this 14-song album? They are “You Can Have It”, “Pain and Pleasure”, “Save the Planet”, “Airport”, “All I Ever Wanted”, “Paperboy”, “The Impossible”, “Sheets”, “Top of the City”, “Mystery Man”, “How Can You Know?”, “When I Think About You”, “Truth Will Out” and “Use the Phone”.

According to the Bandcamp many more musicians that I haven’t mentioned so far appear on these recordings including Ray Swingler on saxophone and Dale Davis on bass.

On Discogs there is another bio. Here there are not many more details to add but that the band played with John Otway, The Long Pigs, Microgroove and Silver on the Tree. Other venues they played at include The Jazz Café, Club Orange and London Uni.

But then I find a Soundcloud which I believe belongs to Dean Whitbread. Here there are even more songs by The Believers. And you wonder why they weren’t included in Bandcamp? They are very good!

The songs on this Soundcloud by The Believers are “That Song About the Rain” from 1988 and  “History“.

Now, if you want to be a fan of theirs on Facebook, the band also has a Facebook page. Wow, I’ve been missing a lot of stuff! There is not much info here but it seems at some point there were plans to release the album on CD. Shame it didn’t happen, would have been great!

Dean is online and has his own website. There is info about his other projects as well as music and videos. Sadly my browser gives me a potential security risk warning when I try to open the landing page. Maybe it hasn’t been updated in a while?

And that’s it, quite good info. I now want to track a copy of their 7″. Would be great to have it.

And you Londoners, do you remember The Believers? Where in South London were they based? And yeah, it is clear the band had more songs too, I’d love to listen to them someday.

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Listen
The Believers – Save the Planet