First things first. We have a new release! It is coming out on February 15 and it is a 10″! It is by the superb band Blind Terry from Sweden. It includes 6 songs that have never been released and finally see the light now! It is limited to 250 copies and it is a beauty if I may say so. You can preorder now on our website, www.cloudberryrecords.com and also on our Bandcamp! Enjoy!

So I return to the Blue House Records Bandcamp. After discovering the Tender Lugers, I know there are more goodies in there.

The goodies have names. And the first one I really like is called As Is. They have a collection of songs called “Heavy Big Pop” which sounds really interesting to me. 17 tracks in total, recorded in the 80s.

I learn that the band was formed by James Partridge on guitar and vocals, Paul Read on drums and vocals, Steve Mears on bass and vocals and Paul Taylor on guitar.

The band had stopped playing in 1989, on Thursday 16th of March of that year in Felixstowe. Where is that?

Felixstowe is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116 km northeast of London.

The songs on this collection are: “Take it From Me”, “Wherever You Go”, “Badlands”, “Hey! Judas!”, “World Full of Eyes”, “I Don’t Want To See You Again”, “Too Tough to Die”, “Say it Again”, “Faith”, “Storm Warning”, “Church of Comedies”, “Under Two Flags”, “Big Love”, “The Big Adventure”, “Black Sun”, “Wade into the Water” and “(If You’ve Seen the Light) Tell Me”.

One nice thing is that there are copies of this release on CD still available.

And then there’s more. There is a collection of demos called “Where Four Seas Meet” that has 21 songs. These are “Love is Here”, “I Feel For You”, “Be My Evangeline”, “(I Want To) Move (In With You)”, “Away From You”, “Time to Cry”, “Love Me”, “Forbidden”, “We Could Be Happy”, “I Can’t Trust Myself”, “Almost Summer”, “Drop It”, “Incredible”, “Boomerang”, “Round & Around”, “Take a Little While”, “If You Gotta Go, Go Tomorrow”, “Better than the Rest”, “Heart is Blue”, “Why Can’t I Touch It?” and “The Prettiest Girl in the World”.

Then something that confuses me. I read the band had their last hurray in 1989. But I see that the first seven songs were recorded in February of 1990. At Hammer Hi Tech Studios and produced by Martin Hawkes and James Harding. So that doesn’t make sense chronologically, right?

The songs “Forbidden” and ” We Could Be Happy” were recorded in 1989 in Westerfield. While the rest of tracks up to “Heart is Blue” were recorded on April 1990 also on Westerfield. “Why Can’t I Touch it?” was recorded in May 1990, live, in Christchurch Park in Ipswich. It is a cover of The Buzzcocks. The last track was never finished but it was rescued and mixed in 2001.

On this recordings the band had changed a bit, James Partridge was still on the band, but the rest had changed, we see Malcolm Hawkes on drums and vocals, Ross Geraghty on bass and vocals and Shane Kirk on guitar and vocals.

Then I find something great, live footage. As Is playing live at the Colchester Arts Centre in May 22nd 1990. The song available is “Away From You“. Then another video, 20+ minutes worth, of them playing at the Ipswich Corn Exchange on May 21, 1988. The songs played in this video are “Cry (Most of)”, “Faith”, “Under Two Flags”, “Wherever You Go”, “I Don’t Want to See You Again” and “Badlands (most of)”. And lastly another full gig, almost an hour worth, of the band playing in Grimsby on September 13, 1988. That time they played “Take it From Me”, “Wherever You Go”, “Your Way”, “Shadows”, “Fire Away”, “Faith”, “Badlands”, “Church of Comedies”, “I Don’t Want to See You Again”, “Real Life”, “I Don’t Mind” and “Wade into the Water”.

Another find is this Soundcloud by James Partridge where he shares more tracks of him. Just not sure to which bands they belong to. I know he also recorded as Partridge-Read with Paul Read.

Steve Mears and Shane Kirk had been in Gods Kitchen

And that’s all there is about them. But hopefully we’ll find more information soon. Songs sound great!

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Listen
As Is – Big Love