Day 551

The Catherines: we start this week with the wonder duo of Heiko and Sandra from Hamburg. They have a new album titled “Sink into Oblivion” which is out now on CD and cassette directly from them. The album is out now and available on Bandcamp. It has 13 songs and as usual they are lovely. They have their trademark cool song titles too. Good stuff!

Optloquat: what a strange name for a band. Optloquat hails from Japan and have released a mini-album called “From the Shallow” on Jigsaw Records. It is a 7 song CD that echoes bands like Flyying Colours or Pinkshinyultrablast. It is a nice record especially on tracks like the poppier “Lapes”!

Peter & the Lions: how cool! Blue-Very Label will be releasing a vinyl compilation of the Belgian band Peter & the Lions! The solo project of Pierre Leonard is an obscure band that I wrote about but had no luck in getting in touch. It seems Kei had better luck! He is releasing on vinyl “The Select Peter & the Lions” on November 27. It will include 11 songs and it is really good! Essential. I hope I can get a copy… Japanese shipping prices are crazy tho…

The Churchhill Garden: wow! a new song by the Lucerne, Switzerland, project. And as usual it is superb. Andy Jossi and Krissy Vanderewoude know how to make a pop song. “Grounded” is the name of this latest single and it is terrific!

Honeybourne: nice find! This could be an obscure band I could write about. From the 80s and 90s comes all these recordings from Rob Morgan from Newport, UK. There is a trove of perfect indiepop here, bedroom pop, lo-fi pop, all sorts of pop! His latest collection of songs is the “Honest and Worthless Volume 3”, 20 pop songs! No physical release though. Hopefully we can interview Rob and find out more about this project.

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As I go through some old drafts on the blog, bands I was to write about but for some reason or another I never did, I stumble upon a draft of the Falkirk, Scotland, band Two Helens.

I have saved some links as part of my research. One of them is actually a website for the band. An about page. But guess what, 8, or 10 years, after I collected these links, they don’t work anymore. That’s not convenient. The band’s website doesn’t exist anymore.

Another website called Falkirk Music Scene doesn’t exist either. I start to worry. All of my research back then is useless now. I even saved a Myspace account. Back then they still worked, you could probably listen a few songs. Well, now it doesn’t work either. This is quite terrible!

Discogs still exists of course. And that’s good help. The band’s releases are there. First is the 8-song album “Reflections in Red” that came out in 1986 on the label Sharko 2 (Tuft 4). This record that was actually recorded in the famed Cava Sttudios with the band producing with Kevin Key (Subs, The Jolt, The Primevals), had the following songs: “Heaven and Hell”, “Top of a Tall Tree”, “Reflections in Red” and “Cold and Blind” on the A side, while we find “The Curve”, “All the Money”, “Spiritual Thing” and “Write This Letter” on the B side.

Their music is proto-shoegaze, pop music with walls of guitar. It is quite cool as they were doing this music much earlier than their peers. The band was formed by Ian on guitar and lead vocals, Robert on guitar and vocals, Mark on drums and Alan on bass. No last names are listed.

The next year, 1987, the band released a 7″ single titled “Silver & Gold”. This one also was released by Sharko 2 (Tuft 57) and included “Silver & Gold” on the A side and “Xv Rhythm” and “Gun” on the B side.

I check the label, Sharko 2, and they only have releases by Two Helens and Dead Neighbours. Never heard of them to be honest.

The only other release they were on was a compilation cassette called “Plinky Plonky There’s a Donkey…” that Suicidal Flour (PLINK 001) released. I don’t know what year it was when this one came out but this tape includes a bunch of great bands including The McTells, St. Christopher, Emily, Mousefolk, This Poison! and more. Two Helens contributed the song “The Curve”.

Then I start googling and find that the Falkirk Music Scene website has changed address. Great! There’s some info here that is good to share:
Local new wave/indie act, formed initially in 1981 by frontman and songwriter Ian Murray (vocals/guitar) along with Eddie Menczyskwoski (drums) & Alan Shields (bass). That line-up was very short-lived, with Menczyskwoski later joining Spank! and Shields joining Dirty Duck. Murray then recruited Mark Dickson (drums), Robert Greenaway (guitar/vocals) & Alan Whyte (bass) in 1985, and set about becoming the biggest unsigned band in Falkirk at the time, and one of the few bands able to pull a crowd. Extensive gigging throughout Scotland led to B.B.C. Radio Scotland play, which in turn led to a deal with local label, Sharko 2. Their debut album, “Reflections In Red” was released in 1986, followed by a single “Silver & Gold” in 1987. The band’s final act was a great gig at Edinburgh’s venue in front of almost no people, before Murray pulled the plug on the band, choosing instead to start up The Alabama Trio, a rockabilly act. The others recruited Jim Laird, formely of Exposure, however no gigs were played and the band were unfortunatly forgotten about. In 2008 Murray, Dickson & Whyte rehearsed “old 60’s garage stuff” just for fun.

We got last names now! And thanks to that I find that Eddie was later in a band called Spank!

Then I find an even better find. A Soundcloud with Two Helens demos from 1985! The person who has uploaded them is Gordon Baker who says he was mates of the band at the time. He has uploaded 9 tracks that sound amazing! Give them a listen and wonder why these are not part of a proper release, “Write this Letter”, “Crying to You”, “Going all the Way”, “Love Sex Desire”, “I Won’t Make You Mine”, “Action Woman”, “In the Night”, “Night and Day” and “Spiritual Thing”. He added these songs a year ago, so in a way it is good that I wrote about Two Helens now and not when I collected links for a possible post!

Another interesting info about them comes from when I interviewed another Falkirk band, This Scarlet Train. When I asked about Night Shift Records, the local label run by Brian Guthrie, they told me that We knew the Two Helens,who had released their album on Sharko 2 records, a subsidiary company, however I didn’t make any connection.

Robert Polson also told me this about them, The Two Helens were quite big in the area, played Nuggets/garage rock, originals and a few covers,… Action women, Going All The Way, Silver Machine among others…. We also gigged with them in Falkirk and Edinburgh..They had released an album the year previous to us, which didn’t really capture the band at its best. There was also a 7″ single and then they split.Their singer/guitarist went on form a rockabilly band, who, IIRC supported us at least once. The Two Helen’s had released a follow up 7* and had split quite soon afterwards, leaving it un-promoted. I don’t know if or how they resolved the financial debts with Night Shift.

Another blog that wrote about the band is the fine Wilfully Obscure. In an October 2011 post they mention that the band was offered a Scandinavian Tour! But it seems that never happened. Another interesting details is that the band reformed in 2003 with Ian, Mark and Alan but as far as I know the band didn’t release anything then. Maybe they recorded some songs?

This is all the info I could find searching on the web. But this is something. Sadly there’s no more website by the band. But hey, I found a Soundcloud with lots of songs. Would love to hear more of course. Who remembers them?

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Listen
Two Helens – The Curve