We wake up like every morning to the sound of Sarah Records. Wait no. That’s not right. But we woke up at around 11am and after getting ready and packing we headed to King’s Cross once again. Our train to Derby was leaving at 1:20pm. We were at St. Pancras at around one and after topping up my phone, getting a lot of cash from the atm, and buying a tuna salad and a diet coke, we headed to our train. At the entrance gate for the train we met Dennis from Candy Twist fanzine, he had been waiting for a while there as his train was at 1:45. We suggested for him to ask if he could board our train, but no luck. A shame. I’ve had luck in UK many times asking if I can take earlier trains, I’ve always had positive replies from the train workers.
I was supposed to be on carriage B but as it usually happens in the UK they had trouble with reservations so everyone could sit wherever they wanted. So I joined Jennifer and Miguel at a very packed carriage A and sat next to a lady that had around six or seven bags with her and an iphone with a shattered screen. Messy people abound everywhere.
We arrived to Derby and we see a bunch of the poser-not-so-indiepop sitting on the sidewalk waiting for god knows what or probably just being cool. That’s a crowd I don’t want to be in, the one that celebrate the most boring bands, that brown-nose each other, and that in a way make Indietracks cater some boring music and discos for them. Because they are many, and they grow in numbers. On top of it all they don’t like me. I’m an uncomfortable person for them.
A 30 pound cab ride takes us all the way to our hotel in South Normanton, the Mansfield Premier Inn. A long ride, of about 30 minutes as we get caught in traffic on the motorway. Upon arriving our hotel is terribly quiet. I don’t see any familiar faces. It feels empty. I know Jennifer and Miguel want to nap. So I head to have lunch at the pub. To keep it very British, and to have some protein that I won’t probably have at Indietracks I get sausage and mash. With gravy. And a pint of lager.
After finishing my late lunch I start meeting familiar faces. A big taxi van brings Cris and Madidi from Little Treasure and Elena and Antonio from When Nalda Became Punk. Suddenly more people start appearing at the lobby. Carlos, Maria, Irene and Yago from Madrid Popfest, Olaf from Firestation Records, and Andreas, Amanda and Carl from Alpaca Sports. We ask the front desk clerk to call for us some taxis. And after a bit of figuring out how to fit everyone in three cabs, Irene, Yago, Olaf and me take the first cab to arrive. And all the way to the Golden Valley campsite. We don’t want to wait for any steam trains. We want our Indietracks adventure to start right away!
Who receives us by the entrance?! None other than Mr. Colm. He gives us all our bright red Indietracks bracelets and show us a little box with Helen Love and Trembling Blue Stars EPs that you can take for free. I take both. Of course. And then suddenly we are in wonderland. The grass looks greener than last year. The weather is warmer than last year. And I feel as excited too! And this is when things start getting blurry. Straight to the almost empty indoor stage to get our first warm beers of the festival.
I must have started saying hello to everyone by this point. I spent the whole evening talking and meeting up with friends. With all of them. I did stop at some point to have some curry. I didn’t see any of the bands. I wasn’t in the mood. I was in the mood to chat. To talk with friends. I believe the first friend I saw at Indietracks must have been Kajsa. She was all over the festival this year but I didn’t see her at any gigs (aside from the Helen Love one). Then I met the big German contingent, Pamela and Paloma, and the new friends they introduced me to.
I met with the lovely people of Flowers. More Spanish friends, the biggest Go-Betweens fan Javi and the indiepop know-a-lot Manolo, this year for the first time without any injuries. The party animal Sergio was there too. Who can party like him?! So much fun to hang out. And then the Frenchies came too, everyone from the Pale Spectres gang plus the Another Sunny Night clan. All the familiar faces you want to see in one place. I also meet Astrid and Amanda. And then a bit later John. Them three will be the best companions on the dancefloor at the discos. Did I dance on Friday though? I must have at least for a bit.
Nana and Andreas show up. All tanned! What a surprise. We get some beers. And Andreas has his purple Coke. We catch up. It’s been a year since I saw them. And suddenly Victor and Naemi also arrive! And then more swedes, Rasmus and Arnar. All big Secret History fans. I get to see Vanessa too, classy girl with tall socks. She gets me up to date with Thee Ahs stories. I see Elin again, this time with her friend Lindnsey. Elin tells me the hotel looks like a hospital. That she should have stayed somewhere else. Also, that it is too far. But I tell her that it was the only one with rooms available at that time and it was the cheapest too. You don’t want to camp! Though, I would love to go to the camp discos.
More familiar faces, Toni from Jessica and the Fletchers is around too, making the Spanish Armada bigger and bigger. Because you have Rafa around, and some of the Vacaciones people too! Jennifer and Miguel arrive to Indietracks grounds. Alpaca Sports also. I meet Emma, Andreas’ girlfriend. She speaks perfect Spanish, with a nice Argentinean accent. She tells me about her time visiting Peru. And then I see Neil from The Felt Tips. And Lynsey from Scotland who I have a very nice talk after some events that happened in this blog many years ago. This is why I love coming to Indietracks. Seeing friends, making friends.
Marianthi making me happy with hugs. I see Alex too. Though there’s no Christos this time, there’s the one Greek missing. There is no Remi or Delphine either. People who are missed indeed. Matthew Big Pink Cake is around, but I see him little, unlike last year, when we hanged out at the merch tent. In general, I see people little. I didn’t have very long conversations with anyone this year. I got to see more bands, and I hanged out here and there. I didn’t even step in the stationary train. It was all about catching up after a year that I had kind of lost touch with so many friends. And as Nana said, everyone seemed a bit older this year, more grown up, more centered. I thought that was a good thing.
I lost the last train to the station. I was hanging out with Elin and Lindsay. But they have a friend, Jonathan, who is driving. He is staying with Jerv. The great John Jervis, merch table extraordinaire, record boss, gig organizer, and overall nice guy. All of us in the car, while Elin tells us about her favourite grass or something like that. Grass that grows nicer in Norway.
Already at the hotel we try to find some beer for an afterparty. But everything around is closed. But the girls are way more resourceful than me, and end up finding someone that has a bunch of alcohol… and the night continued for a couple more hours at the big pub table outside the hotel.
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pa·ri·ah
- An outcast.
- A member of an indigenous people of southern India originally functioning as ceremonial drummers but later having a low caste or no caste.
Do you know the Pariahs? Olaf from Firestation Records, based in Berlin, tells me they weren’t great live but their album is perfection. Uwe also from Firestation says it’s his favourite German indiepop album. I don’t know much about them. I left a note on their soundcloud trying to get in touch but no luck. Twee.net though has a small biography for the band:
The Pariahs played britpop long before Oasis did. Raised in 1989 they released their debut-CD TIGHTROPE WALK in 1992 and received quite positive reviews in Newspapers like ‘Tagesspiegel’ and ‘taz’ – the critics compared the songs with the work of Lennon-McCartney, Elvis Costello and other famous british songwriters. Unfortunately they’ve already split when guitar-based popmusic striked back. The tried to save pop for the 90s – but Grunge was stronger…
Thanks to the internet you have the chance to enjoy some of their golden oldies – and some new songs! – just enter here… http://www.reverbnation.com/pariahs
The Pariahs are: Ralph (Git-Vox), Michael (Bas-Vox), Ralf (Dru-Vox), Thomas (Git-Vox), Silke (Flute-Vox)
So let’s head to ReverbNation and see what we can find. There’s not much there. Just a lot of songs that appear also on the CD album. An album I found on eBay more than a year ago for no more than 1 dollar. If you look in the right places you can find it for cheap. And I totally recommend it.
On SoundClick there are more songs. This time there are some demos. This is quite a find I tell myself. I feel at some point, some years ago they must have tried to have a comeback or were feeling nostalgic. There’s even a Myspace, that could prove this point.
From the album we get some little information. We know that the record was produced and engineered by Thommy Hein and was recorded at the Thomas Hein Tonstudio in Berlin during December 1991. We also get to know who were responsible for the photography and artwork in the album. But that’s it. Oh! And the label was Civic Dust. Catalog number 01. It must have been a self-release, right?
But still the information is very little about the band. You don’t get to learn anything else about them. You wonder why there weren’t more releases. Why did they went straight for an album, why didn’t they put out any singles. And what happened to them? It can’t be like they stopped making music. And maybe if they were they involved with bands before the Pariahs. I wouldn’t be surprised.
The Pariahs might be one of Germany best kept secrets, but I feel you all should listen to this one great album they released. Let’s not keep them a secret no more. If you like jangly pop, classic indiepop, this might be up your street.
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