The Orchids: superb news! Precious Recordings is releasing The Orchids’ Peel Sessions from May 8, 1990, and April 9, 1994 as a 10″ vinyl! Each of them come in a beautiful sleeve and has 4 songs. You can preview a track for each of the Peel Sessions. This is a MUST HAVE. Legendary.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: “Mountain Lake Park” was originally a bonus vinyl-only album that came with the band’s 2022 album “Summer At Land’s End”. Now it us up as a digital release on the band’s Bandcamp. 11 songs.

Neil Brogan: another festive release! “Christmas EP” is a collection of Neil’s past songs plus a brand new track. This is very enjoyable.  Really liking them. I think I have four new songs to add to my Christmas mix CD. I think I will have to make a few volumes for this year. Check it out, really good.

Grazer: back to Melbourne, to a band I always enjoy. Matt and Mollie know how to write good indiepop songs. Their latest, “One Another”, is not an exception. It is dreamy, catchy, mellow… and a nice melody to boot.

Fine.: and finally a new album from Alice Kat and Liam James Marsh band Fine. This is pure quality. Pure class. The 19 songs  of “Love, Death, Dreams, and the Sleep Between” are to be released on January 1st by the Subjangle label. This is the perfect way to start 2023. A winning album.

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A year ago, in August 2021, the English label Spinout Nuggets released a 7″ by a Medway band called The Men from Memphis.

I only found out about this release a few weeks ago.

The interesting bit of it, is that a few copies are still available, and I really recommend getting your hands on them. Why? Well, their sound is ace, you get three songs from this long lost band from the 80s.

The band used to support big names in indiepop like The Dentists or The Claim. For some reason they had remained obscure for so long. Maybe I can help letting people know a little bit more about them.

The 7″ that was released by Spinout Nuggets is titled “Hacksawing the Head Off The Legend EP”. It was originally a four song EP. More on that later. This EP was recorded in March of 1989 at Red Studios in Kent by Graham Semark (who had worked with The Dentists, The Claim, The Sedgwicks). Spinout Nuggets said that the fourth track will be released somewhere else in the future.

This was the only recording session by the band formed by Simon Bunyan on vocals, Martin Brown on rhythm guitar (previously from The Hyacinth Girls), Andy Burton on lead guitar, Mark Aitken (previously from Let’s Go Naked) and Chris Hearsey on drums.

The band started when Simon met Chris at Joanna’s Nightclub in Gillingham. Chris was at college with two other members (it doesn’t say who!).

We know too that the b and played around twenty-odd gigs mostly around Medway but also in London.

After the band split the Men from Memphis dispersed. Simon and Mark continue making music under These Guilty Men. Mark is also in The High Span and Ye Ascoyne d’Ascoynes. And Chris plays in the Sergeants Mess.

The songs for the 7″ release were remastered by Alex Brown on February 2021. 300 copies of the record were made with artwork by Lee Grimshaw and photography by Martin Brown.

Oh right! The songs! Yes, the A side has “Sigh” which also has a video. The B side has “Move Me & Shake” and “Somewhere”.

Then I find the blog Medway Music Museum. There is an interview with Simon! It dates from 2009 and mentions another band Simon was in, Robert Underwater.

Lastly I want to share the Soundcloud of Simon Bunyan. Here you will find recordings of many of his other projects as well as the fourth song from the session of the 7″, “Sunny Day Ray“, which is truly fantastic and you wonder how it wasn’t included in the 7”!!I hope we find out more about this band, and again shame I only heard about them more than a year after they been released (after such a long time!). It is hard to keep up these days.

Who remembers them? Who saw them live? Why didn’t the get to release a record back in the day?

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Listen
The Men from Memphis – Sunny Day Ray