2014 has been the quietest year for Cloudberry. That’s a fact. We’ve put out only a handful of releases this year and I think that by the end of the year there might be one or two more. Long are the days when I could put out 4 little CDs every month.
It has to do of course with a couple of things. Definitely sales have been down in general, for all indiepop labels. Also the bands I have a commitment to put something out have been slower than usual in getting ready all the elements needed. But in any case, in the pipeline, hopefully, we have the Shine! CD, the Pale Spectres 7″, the Don’t Cry Shopgirl 7″, a new fanzine, and the Parcel Post 7″ co-release with Kingfisher Bluez. Aside from that I’m working on another two Cloudberry Cake Kitchen CDs for next year. So please keep supporting the label because these are fantastic releases that need to see the light of day!
On a small note, on my trip to Germany I picked some copies of the new Secret Shine 7″ released on the new label Dreams Never End of my friend Andi. This is a superb release, something you expect from Secret Shine. I’m selling copies only to domestic (US) fans. This brings me so many memories, of the second time I was in Berlin and went to Secret Shine there. Even went backstage and met the band. That was such a good night.
Speaking of my trip, it was a great. I got such a good haul of records this time around mostly thanks to Uwe from Firestation who I visited the same day I arrived. I stopped by his place, as it has been the case in every trip I’ve done to Germany, and he already had a bunch of obscures 7″s that he had selected for me. Of course I had no clue what they sounded like but I trusted his taste. I will go through some of them here on my blog in the weeks to come. In Hamburg I got some records, very classy records that I thought I would never ever have, from my friend Andreas, and also dear Johanna took me to a couple of record stores were I bought some second-hand records for a good price. And again I bought some records I already have. My memory is starting to fail.
Then of course the best “indiepop” moment was the Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan! show. Oh dear, how could I explain it it?! I was there, almost at the front, next to the pogo, singing along and recording many of my favourite songs. They played so so many of them. 20 years after their last gig, one special night, and I went all the way to Germany to hear “Lotsi Go Go” or “Little Red Go-Cart” live. I wish I understood German, I wish I had understood whatever the band was saying in between songs. Everyone was laughing, they must have been great jokes. I will learn German though. I’ve decided it. Though I doubt I’ll get to see them play again, unless they come to NYC, which if a very very difficult thing, even impossible, to happen.
Afterwards there was a bit of dancing too. At night, at some sort of disco that looked illegal, in between abandoned buildings. How cool, Berlin knows how to play it cool. Jule, one of the girls that used to do Pop Kombinat Berlin and was part of Indiepop Days festival, was DJing that night. Many other friends that I haven’t seen for years were in the club as well. It was really lovely to meet them and catch up, even with all the high volume of the music. The club of course doesn’t play indiepop. Sadly for me. But I guess they need to keep it running, and the indiepop scene in Berlin is really tiny. So it was mostly post-punk, some 80s hits, some coldwave. It was fine. They threw some Belle & Sebastian and The Smiths here and there. I danced, the beer was really cheap. Jule was super kind though for playing a request of mine, The Names’ “Calcutta”. I danced this one with Silke, another great friends who was also part of the Pop Kombinat and Indie Pop Days. Damn. Feels like yesterday. Wish NYC had a night like this.
I must got home around 5 or so. I was supposed to wake up at 8 to catch an early train to Stettin, in Poland. But I didn’t wake up till 9:30. At 9:30 the train I was planning to take had left already. I had to take the next one. In the end it all worked fine. But that’s a story for another day.
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Feral: of, relating to, or resembling a wild beast—used to describe an animal (such as a cat or dog) that has escaped and become wild.
What do you know about an early 90s band called Feral from the semi-rural Crawcrook in Tyne and Wear?
I didn’t even know the existence of a place called Crawcrook. A little story from wikipedia:
At the turn of the twentieth century, and in common with the nearby areas of Greenside, Clara Vale and Stargate, Crawcrook was a village with a vibrant coal industry. With major pits such as Emma and Clara, as well as several smaller pits, Crawcrook became a major coal mining centre. However the coal industry collapsed in the village during the 1950s and 1960s. As has happened to a number of other northern English villages employment in tertiary industries has replaced the coal industry. However, Crawcrook’s coal mining heritage is still evident; a number of the old miners’ homes still exist in the surrounding area, including Clifford Terrace and Morgy Hill near to Crawcrook’s main street, and the Simpson Memorial Home in nearby Barmoor. Old wagonways used to transport coal are also still present, although they are now maintained as footpaths. During the 1970s and 1980s, with the creation of the Kepier Chare and Westburn private housing estates, Crawcrook grew significantly in size and became largely suburbanised and is being used increasingly as a commuter village for the conurbation of Tyneside.
Wonder if I’ll ever pass by that area. I kind of doubt it. In that area I’d like to visit Newcastle of course. I would assume the band would play mostly there, and hang around in this much bigger city. It’s no surprise then that they signed to a Newcastle label, Lust Recordings. This was home of other bands we’ve been happy to showcase in the blog like the Lavender Faction or Aspidistra, as well of St. James Infirmary or The Keatons. Their one and only record came out in 1991, and it included three songs, “Change You Leaving”, as the sole A side, and “Bridge” and “Away” on the B side. The record had that shoegazy feeling of the early 90s. The catalog number was Lust 009.
The A side was produced by John Hughes and engineered by Dave Mander. The cover photography was also taken by John Hughes.
There is an insert included in the record that gives us a bit more information about this obscure band:
“Change You Leaving” was recorded at Hi Level, in Newcastle in July 1991. The other two tracks were bedroom recordings done in a portostudio, in their home in Crawcrook, Ryton, in June 1991.
On it we get the band members first names. Sadly no last names making it impossible to track them down on Google. We know that Arlo played guitars and vocals, Stu played guitars, Felix played the bass and Steve the drums.
And here again I hit a wall. There’s no more info whatsoever of this really nice but obscure single. But I’m sure some people out there might know a thing of two about them. Did they have any more recordings? Did they play many gigs? Were they involved with any other bands?
What else do you know about them?
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Listen
Feral – Bridge
