Sadly The Sorayas news wasn’t the only bad news in recent weeks. We all know that Patrick Doyle from Veronica Falls passed away. I wasn’t too familiar with his other projects I must say, as they were not that close to the indiepop spectrum, but I really loved his work on Veronica Falls and Sexy Kids. I didn’t interact much with him, but I have a good memory of him when he signed me a Veronica Falls poster I took from a wall from the Williamsburg Music Hall back in 2012 I think. It is indeed an odd time for guitar pop fans.
Last week was my birthday and that same day I released The County Fathers album. I was extremely happy to have now 10 releases on the Cake Kitchen. Now is time to start working on the 11th one! Need to find a good band that would fit nicely for a project like this, one that has the songs, the photos and the memorabilia ready to put this together!!
Now, I know you’ve been expecting some contemporary, some new, indiepop recommendations. Let’s see what I can find for you:
Plastic Girl in Closet: I found out about this Japanese band on the Twee Lovers Club facebook page. There are always some good recommendations in there. The song that was shared was their latest, “Junior”, that is a very nice dreamy and noisy song. I don’t know much about this band, it doesn’t seem to be much information about them in English but on their site I found that they have already released a few cassette EPs, a DVD and two CDs, one album even. I want to get them! How to? That’s the question!
Boys: this Swedish band, a favourite of mine, fronted by Nora Karlsson, is now releasing their debut album. I’ve recommended previous smaller releases by this very fine band and now I’m happy to see that finally a full length album will be out. The album, as her previous efforts, is being released by the Swedish label Pnkslm and will include 8 songs. One of the songs, “End of Time”, is now available to stream from the label’s Soundcloud and it is ace!
Red Sleeping Beauty: our friends from Stockholm have put out a new song on Soundcloud and as usual it is a winner. “Top Love” should be included in the band’s fourth album which they are working on at the moment. It seems too that in preparation for this album the legendary Swedish band formed by Niklas Angergård, Kristina Borg and Mikael Matsson, have many surprises in store. I’ll try to keep on top of any news I hear!
Bounce the Mouse: interviewed them not so long ago on the blog as they were reuniting for a very special week. Now the band has just shared with me some videos of that gig I wish I had attended! Please check out part 1, part 2, and part 3!
Desperate Journalist: one of my favourite bands, and you might already know that from the several recommendations on the blog, have a new video out for the song “It Gets Better”. It is great of course and we will have to wait until March 30th for Fierce Panda to release the EP “You Get Used to It” where the song will be included!
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The Midwich Cuckoos is a science fiction novel written by English author John Wyndham, published in 1957. It has been filmed twice as Village of the Damned, with releases during 1960 and 1995.
Another record I don’t own, another band I know little about. How many great guitar pop bands have existed? Thousands for sure. I don’t even have the count of how many have been featured on the blog having a post on its own. I can’t even imagine then how many more have had a mention on the blog. Way more.
At one point Twee.net served me as a good and comprehensive list of “all” guitar pop band. These days I know it doesn’t even cover half of them. This is by no means a criticism, I think Twee.net served me brilliantly in discovering many bands. The truth is, who in their sane mind could compile all the bands? I don’t know, but I do hope it happens in a way or another (though my favourite way would be on an illustrated book, with photos and small bios if possible!).
I think I found The Midwich Cuckoos through Youtube. One of their songs, “Show Me”, has been uploaded and I thought it sounded great. I must admit too that their name really caught my attention and made me very curious. Now, after many months of discovering them and not being able to secure a copy of their one and only release because of steep postage prices from the UK (even though they are way cheaper than the American prices), I decide to investigate.
The song uploaded in 2011 to Youtube has a bunch of comments. One of them mentions that the band hailed from the area of Stockport, in the UK. As you know, Stockport is a town that is part of the Greater Manchester. So they must have been friends with so many great bands, opened or headlined fantastic gigs, visited legendary venues and so on. Well, I suppose.
Another comment mentions that the band played at the Witchwood in Ashton, also another town of the Greater Manchester. Yet other gig mentioned is that one of the band playing at The Green Room along Anne Marie Finnegan. Where was The Green Room? I wonder. Then I learn that the original singer of the band, Craig Wright, lives in Auckland, NZ. And last but not least, there’s a comment by a Steve Toon, The Midwich Cuckoos manager, saying that the band is alive and well, that they have morphed into a new band called Hit the North.
It seems Hit the North comprise the original members of The Midwich Cuckoos, John Mangan on guitar, Mark Woolfenden on bass, Dave Curley on guitar and keyboards, plus the new members Sean Canning on vocals and Martin O’Brien on drums. This band supported Toploader at The Headlander Festival in Stockport in 2014 and at the time of the comment they were going to the studio to record an album and a single. Previously the had released a single “Rollercoaster” that was the them music for the comedian John Bishop’s last arena tour.
But let’s explore what we can find about them on the web. The Midwich Cuckoos 12″ maxi-single came out in 1990 on Big Noise Records (BIG1). It seems there are many labels listed with the same name, so I’m going to assume this was a self-release. The record had three songs, on the A side there was “Show Me”, while on the B side we find two, “Baby You’re A Rich Man” and “Drag (Demo Version)”. There is no scan of the back cover of the record so not sure if there’s any extra information. On the front we see the name of the band in that quirky handwriting and a caricature of a chicken on the lower right corner. A cuckoo.
My first doubt happens when Discogs lists them on a 1983 tape compilation called “The Great British Beat Vol. 1” alongside the Page Boys or The Mixers. But I’m sure that must be another band with the same name. The year difference between this compilation and their sole release, doesn’t make sense.
There used to be a Myspace page for the band and as you can expect none of the songs can be streamed now. But at least we get to know a few more song names: “Princes Road”, “New State”, “Police On My Back” and “Did I Believe”. When were these recorded? And were they part of any release or perhaps a demo tape?
But I was going to struck gold when I found a Facebook page for the band! And it seems there used to be a website but that is no more. It looks like as if the band was still going under the name as there is a new lineup listed and also a list of former Midwich Cuckoos members:
Brent Woodall – Vocals
John Mangan – Guitars
Mark Woolfenden – Bass
Chris Toole – Keyboards, Programming
Steven Spencer – Drums, Percussion
Steve Toon – Percussion, Production
Former Midwich Cuckoos Members
Craig Wright – Vocal
Sean Canning – Vocal
Garry Crane – Guitars
Dave Curley – Guitars, Keyboards
Gary Wyatt – Guitars
Vulture – Guitars
Stuart Burnett – Drums
Mick Brophy – Harmonica,Production
Lucy Wyatt – Backing Vocals
Mike Comer – Percussion
Adam Margetson – Keyboards
Most importantly there’s a bio of the band which is exactly what I was looking for. First of all the band was formed in 1990, now clearing all doubts about that compilation appearance. Originally the band was formed by Craig, Mark, John and Steve Toon, and later Steve Spencer, Garry and Dave joined. The band lasted three more years and during that time the band got some great reviews thanks to their gigs and their single “Show Me”, which here says it was released in 1991.
Here comes the interesting part. There was a second single, “Better and Better”, that never got released due to distribution problems. Though that didn’t impede the band to make a promo video with director Pau Kucharski who had just made videos for The Stone Roses, The Mock Turtles and The Charlatans. I’ve looked for this video but I haven’t been able to find it.
It also mentions that the band was wooed by a number of major record companies in the early nineties but were caught up in the Madchester backlash and the interest dried overnight. Their last gig was on Friday 10th of December 1993 at The Cathedral Arches in Manchester.
Looking at the Facebook page it seems it was set up in 2016 as they played a reunion gig for Steve Toon’s 60th birthday at The Ruby Lounge alongside The Cheaters on November 26th of that year. I keep looking for any interesting content and I find a few flyers from back in the day. On one I see that The Midwich Cuckoos played at the Manchester International 1 with support by Mutley and the great Machine Gun Feedback on July 6th of 1991. On another flyer, The Midwich Cuckoos were the support band for the Milltown Brothers at The Hacienda on February 11th 1991.
That’s more or less the story of the band. Of course there are blanks that need to be filled. Like the video for “Better and Better”. Where is it? I want to see it. And what about the other songs I found on Myspace? Would love to listen to them. The only good news right now is that I found a copy of the record for ten dollars including shipping on eBay. That makes me happy.
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