Our friend Tim shared the other day with us, on the comments section, the mysterious Orchard Popfest. What is it? Who is behind it? When will it happen? There is absolutely no info online. There’s just an instagram account and that’s all. According to Tim the location seems to be somewhere in South Somerset… but nothing yet announced. We will have to keep an eye on this!

U.S. Highball: the Glasgow band seems to have been a favourite at Madrid Popfest. They were presenting then their latest, the superb album “A Parkhead Cross of the Mind” that was released by Bingo Records in Europe and by Lame-O in the US. The vinyl album has 12 songs of upbeat pop, with great hooks and solid lyrics!

Keaper: now we head to Melbourne. Been a while since I checked out a band from that city, in the past it seems I would do it in a weekly-basis! “Fade” is the name of the EP this four-piece released last March. 5 songs of dreamy and fuzzy dreampop crafted smartly by Ameya Ajay, Julia Derwas, Austin del Rio and Samuel Wallace.

Royal Arch: I am still going backwards after missing lots of music between November and March. Royal Arch’s 7″ with “La Nuit” and “Road to the Light” seems to be sold out at Make Me Happy Records from Greece. The record was also out on Jigsaw Records in the US so maybe there’s luck there!

Sugar for the Pill: the other record I missed from Make Me Happy Records was “Wanderlust” by Sugar for the Pill. This also seems to be sold out. In the US it was released by Shelflife, maybe there’s luck there. Now that I think of it, next post I’ll go through Shelflife’s catalog and see what I’ve missed. Anyhow, the vinyl album of this great pop band has 10 songs seems one that we all should try to track down.

Happypills: another sold out record. This one is from a favourite band of the blog, the Japanese Happypills. A cassette EP titled “Porthole” was released by Miles Apart Records last February. It sounds fantastic, and it does look like Japanese music mailorders may still have copies.

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Now we head to Dublin, Ireland.

Another Soundcloud account, this one put together by Keith G. Byrne. I suppose part of the band. Must be!

The first song I listen to is called “Sell You My Soul”. I see that this song was recorded in 1989 at Harolds Cross 24 track studio. Then another jangly track comes up, “Smile Again”. This recorded in Sun Studios in Dublin. No year for this track.

I am not sure if this is the best way to go through the songs and the band. “See What We Can Do” and “Day to Day” were also recorded at Sun Studios.

There are also live tracks. There is a whole gig of the band playing at The Ramblers Room in Dublin on December 10, 1988. That day the band played “Be My Friend”, “See What We Can Do”, “Sell You My Soul”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “What is the Message”, “Tears of a Clown”, “The Place Where I Was”, “Two Great Days”, “Desperation”, “Alison”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, “Sell You My Soul” and “Smile Again”. Clearly they liked The Smiths to cover them. And also it seems “Smile Again” was their most well known song if they did it as an encore?

But that’s not all. There is a second gig, also at The Ramblers Room but this one dating from March 4, 1989. That day the band played: “Desperation”, “See What We Can Do”, “Two Great Days”, “Sell You My Soul”, “Alison”, “Loving Only You”, “The Place Where I Was Born”, “Tears of a Clown”, “What is the Message”, “I’m Tearing Me Apart”, “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”, “Day to Day”, “Smile Again”, “Be My Friend”, “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, ” Day to Day” and “See What We Can Do”.

At this last gig we know the band had become a 5 piece. The had just added Mark Wilde as their saxophonist. Previously the 4 piece was formed by Johnny Boulevard on vocals and guitar, Tim Murphy on guitar and vocals, Keith G. Byrne on bass and Jimmy Murphy on drums.

Another track I find on Soundcloud is an instrumental version of the song “It’s So Easy”.

It looks like the band split in 1989. I am guessing here that after they split 3 of their members went to form the band Soul Doubt. Songs by this band are also on the Soundcloud. The recordings are much rougher, maybe recorded at their practice space. I don’t know. You can see the potential. It says the band used to play at the Baggot Inn with the wonderful The Outpatients.

I look for more info about them, I look in Irishrock.org but they are not listed there.

It’s interesting to find some superb songs here but see that they never released a record. Any of my Irish friends remember them? Would be nice to know their story.

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Listen
Mrs. Joyce – Day to Day