It’s tough to find new music these past weeks. I can’t seem to find much going on in the indiepopworld. I need some recommendations myself!
Waving Blue: a nice discovery here. Hailing from Italy, Waving Blue makes dreamy jangly pop. Earlier this month they released a digital EP titled “Fill the Void” with 4 songs. Weirdly they cover a Blink 182 song, which is interesting. But the best song in the EP is the last one, “Lazy Sunday”.
Cruush: now to Manchester. We check out what is the latest by the shoegazer combo Cruush. Well, they just released a digital single titled “Sombre by the Weekend”. It is not in the dreamy side of shoegaze by the heavy side and sounds good.
Whitelands: more shoegaze (I know, hard to come with indiepop releases as I was saying) this time from London. The band that started as a duo in 2017 and now a four-piece just put out a digital single. This one is in the dreamy side of shoegaze and is titled “Born in Understanding”. Very nice tune.
Kevin Robertson: from Aberdeen, the leader of The Vapour Trails, is releasing a solo 7″. It has two songs, “Why” and “D.C.B.A.-25” and the record is very limited, so act fast. 50 copies only! Both songs are jangly and poppy!
The Science of Words: great news that there are two brand new songs by Pete and Ian’s post-Horowitz project. On this band they also have Corinne of the classic band Jack inn the Green on vocals and Dave on rhythm guitar. The two songs, “Day Crash” and “Weekend Away” are superb, and proper indiepop! And they are now out on 7″ thanks to the Greek label Old Bad Habits!
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Who were Red Banner?
6 years ago a bunch of their recordings popped up on Soundcloud.
The band was based in London and was active in the early 80s. During that time they gigged and recorded widely. But for some reason they never got the attention they deserved.
The band was formed by Steve Connelly on rhythm guitar and vocals, Peter Markham on lead guitar, Trevor Williams on drums and Martin Bostock on bass. Peter wrote most of the songs.
Sometimes Richard Cottan from Tenpole Tudor helped the band adding violins to the songs.
The band went by a number of different names. In the early days they were named The Cubes. Under this name they recorded songs like “Events (Beyond Your Control)”, “Hello Moscow”, “Red Sky at Night” and “Crossing the Rhine”.
As mentioned there are many songs here.
I found the tape “Looking for a Living Room”. This tape was recorded in various London living rooms in the mid-1980s on a Tascam 4-track tape recorder. The songs on this tape were: “Looking for a Living Room”, “Indians”, “Will You Follow Them”, “The Base”, “Remains of the Guardian”, “No Love Lost”, “Simple Days in a White House”, “Harvest Time”, “Play at Home”, “Remain, Remain”, “Gods (Dead Gods)”, “Satellites (ft. Sue)”, “A Bunker of Our Own” and “Satellites (ft. Sue)”.
Another collection of songs is “Songs from the Basement”. This set of songs are recordings from the band’s home studio. These include: “A Girl Like You”, “Not for the First Time”, “Heroes”, “Strange”, “Here and Now””, “The Light in Your Eyes”, “Love is the Answer”, “Something Before”, “Baltimore to Washington, “The Reprieve” and “The More Things Change”
And there are a few more like “The Strangest Thing of All”, “A Time Like This” and “Your Country Needs You”.
Then I find out that the band did release at least one record. In 1982 they put out a 7″ with the songs “Events (Beyond Your Control” on the A side and “One of the Boys” on the B side. This record was released by the band’s own Banner Records (BR001) and was produced by the band and Ian Roche.
I couldn’t find more info about them. But if anyone remembers them please share. It’d be fantastic to know more details about them!
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2 Responses to “:: Red Banner”
Thanks for the kind words about The Science Of Words’ single, Roque!
We used to love this band in the pre-Red Banner days. I remember them being the Cubes. They must have gone through a few name changes as before the Cubes they were The Valentines, and briefly after they were Ton Ton Macoute. I think we stopped following them at that point as we had babies and couldn’t go out as much 🙁 We usually saw them at The Rock Garden. I have some flyers and even a set list in an old album. I’ll see if I can dig it out.
I remember them playing Events Beyond Your Control and Your Country Needs You but my favourite was Bad Cairo News.
My sister worked with Peter Markham at the BBC but they lost touch when she left. I think he’s in Hollywood now, teaching film direction.