Happy to new to all the indiepop fans out there.
I would love to do a recap for this year but it hasn’t been the most exciting to be honest.
It started quite great with the release of the Blind Terry 10″. But this also meant that Cloudberry was stopping. This was to be the last record by the label.
A bittersweet farewell, one I didn’t dwell much and didn’t make it a big deal. It was just an announcement for the few fans left out there.
I have continued the blog but with a slower rate of posts. Once a week, on Mondays, unless there was an interview.
How will 2025 go? I don’t know. I will try to continue the blog. Energy and time are two things I am lacking these days. But I try to continue being in the loop with the indiepop scene. I am not too knowledgeable of the new things happening. My main event this year seems to be seeing The Man from Delmonte reform in Manchester in February. Other than that I have no plans at all. If any cool new band will come to NYC, I have no clue. Would be good to know though.
Yeah, that’s mainly it. I have lost touch with many people. I do think it has to do with indiepop interest waning around the world, the price of records and shipping, streaming platforms taking over physical records, and so on. Things are tough. And it is understandable.
But anyways, here is the last post of the year, see you in 2025!
When in 2018 Cherry Red released the 5 CD boxset compilation “Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound of Liverpool 1978-1988” (CRCDBOX 39) I discovered quite a few bands. One of them was The Press Club. They had contributed a superb track titled “James Where are You Now?” and of course caught my attention.
The band formed by the brothers Paul (vocals) and Alan Cunningham (guitar) plus Martin Wallace (bass) and Alan Murphy (drums) had released that track as a maxi single in 1985. It came out on The Admiralty Label (ADM 212) which I think may have been their own label, the releases are all The Press Gang’s.
With “James Where Are You Now?” on the A side and two tracks, “No Place Like Home” and “A Town by the Sea” on the B side, the band hoped to make a good impact. All three tracks had been recorded at Pink Studios in Liverpool on July 1985 with Gary Wilkinson as engineer and Eric Shark as producer.
It is also worth mentioning that on the record Dave Clark played fiddle and Bubble Hennigen guitar.
The art of the record has a photo of someone. Black and white. Is it James? I wonder if it is not a more important figure, it looks like it. But who could it be? Maybe British?
(EDIT Dec. 30, 11:29 a.m.) Just learned from our friend Cathal Peppard that “The James pictured on the artwork is James Connolly. He was a Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist from the early 20th century who moved to Dublin and was one of the leaders of the 1916 Rising and a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. There is a statue of him outside Custom House and opposite Liberty Hall in Dublin.“
There are also interesting details on the runout grooves, we find there two messages etched, ‘Leave It! Theres Youngies Int.’ and ‘Give Em Plenty, One Each’.
But that was actually the band’s second release. The band had previously released another 12″ single that same year. This was the “You Know Falwell” single that had the title song on the A side and “51st State” and “Who Are You Trying to Kid?” on the B side (which here is the double A side). Engineered by Gary and produced by Eric, again recorded at Pink Studios but this time on January of 85.
This record was again put out by The Admiralty Label (PG001/12) and on the sleeve we find American motives, like a US flag covering the eyes of a man on the cover and stripes and starts on the back cover.
That was all the released output by this combo. Some of the band members were in other bands though, both Cunningham brothers were in the Glass Torpedoes in the late 70s while Alan Murphy was on The Last Poet and The Great Western Squares.
Anyone has any other details about them? Maybe there were more songs recorded? Would be great to know where are they now!
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