Part 2 for Indietracks announcements. Let’s see, these are all the bands we have on the list still: Happy Accidents, Let’s Whisper, Wolf Girl, Just Blankets, Dream Nails, Mikey Collins, Sink Ya Teeth, Tugboat Captain, The Baby Seals, Life Model, Cat Apostrophe, Strange New Places, Melenas, Panic Pocket, French Boutik, Ghum, Rebecka Reinhard, Tekla, Whitelands and The Sunset Beach Hut. I’ll skip the repeats, Let’s Whisper and Wolf Girl. Will also skip the bands that I’ve recommended on the blog, Just Blankets, Melenas and Life Model. That’s 15 bands I need to discover! Maybe I can split them in three posts this week? That is quite a lot, especially as I have posts ready with new discoveries, that when posted will probably be “old” discoveries! But what’s promised has to be done. And also I’m very curious what I will be missing this year.
Dream Nails: self-proclaimed DIY punk witches. Interesting. The last effort from this London trio was a 2-song 7″ released last February. The A side is “Vagina Police” and the B side is “Fascism is Coming (Get Out of Bed)”. If you like shouty punk, well this is for you. I don’t think I could listen a whole gig of shouting. So this is definitely not for me. I do salute though their efforts of giving all proceeds of their last record to the Abortion Support Network. That I respect very much. Just wish their music was much more punk pop than punk I suppose.
Mikey Collins: I can’t find any music by them. If anyone can point me out where to listen I’d be thankful. My only knowledge comes from the bio at Indietracks website where it mentions the band is formed by Mike Collins, Paul Rains, Laura Kovic, Tom Parkinson and Ian Button. I suppose the band has the advantage that Mike played in Allo Darlin’ as their drummer and that opens doors even with no records or anything under their belt. But I give them the benefit of the doubt until I hear something.
Sink Ya Teeth: their Bandcamp has no songs, it seems the band uses it mostly for selling their records and merch. But I did find this video for their song “If You See Me” where the band is described as a post-punk synth pop duo. That was their first single, later they released another 7″ for the song “Glass”. So I listen, and I must say I don’t get hooked to their electronic beats or the vocals. I need hooks I suppose and this sounds kind of flat to me. I miss my indiepop so far, 3 bands and not a good song yet.
Tugboat Captain: London band. Released two songs last month, February. The songs names are “The Distance” and “1003”. Okay, this is guitar pop at last! But while I check a song after another I see the quality vary, and that most of their stuff is quite folky. But I keep listening, and find a very good song, “Little Life”, where there are female vocals. Much better! That track appears on an album called “Everybody Seems to Think That I’m a Raincloud” and I believe there are some very fine songs (“Don’t Want to Wake Up On My Own” for example), but ends up being way too long, 21 songs, and being inconsistent.
The Baby Seals: I start playing the debut CD EP by this Peterborough based band. The first song is “My Labia is Lopsided But I Don’t Mind”. Punk pop is my first thought. Not bad, not amazing either. So onto the next song, “Nipple Hair”. Much better I think, I like the guitars, the melodies, though the chorus is not that inspired. I think they are interesting though, I see talent and wouldn’t mind checking out their gig. “Guuurrrl”, the third song, is catchy too, so far my favourite. You know this review of bands is like all first impressions. I’m not overanalyzing any of the bands. I want love at first sight with the music. I feel that is a very honest approach. There are 3 more songs to go. “Yawn Porn” suffers the same from “Nipple Hair”, good song but the chorus doesn’t hook me. The rest of the song does. And then suddenly, “Period Drama”, which is really good too! This one has a good chorus! Their last song, “It’s Not About The Money Honey”, is not upbeat and has some odd moans and well, probably my least favourite one. But in general, I’d say I would love to see how the band evolves.
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Met with Ed Shelflife last Thursday for lunch and after trading some records we talked extensively about bands that could work well on a retrospective compilation and also about some obscure discoveries he has made lately. One of the bands he mentioned to me and had no clue whatsoever were The Mistakes. So I decided to investigate.
The song he showed me was called “Jukebox”, it was on Youtube. He described it as a kind-of Dolly Mixture sounding band. I thought so as well. It was a very nice female fronted pop song. The description on the video just said that they were British and obscure. So who were they? Thankfully Discogs had some answers, the band did release some records in the 80s, but not in the mid or late 80s as many of the bands we like did, but in the very early 80s.
The song “Jukebox” and the rest of their output, all of it, came out in 1981. It seems that was their year. There is nothing listed for 1980 or 1982. Maybe they were just around for a year? “Jukebox” appeared on a compilation LP called “Club Sandwich” that was released by Polydor. I must say I don’t know any of the other bands on this LP. Maybe there are some good songs in there? The Mistakes track, produced by Michael Klein and written by Penny Wood, appears as the 4th song on the B side.
There is another compilation appearance listed for the band and this one looks pretty interesting. It is called “Making Waves – A Collection of 12 Womens Bands from the UK”. I do see one band that I know here, the Gymslips, who I like very much. The Mistakes contribute the second song of the LP, it is called “Romance”. This LP was released by Girlfriend Records (Girlfriend LP 001). This song is a bit different to “Jukebox”, it seems much more lo-fi, less produced, but it has a naivety that I love and which I think is hard to come by!
Aside from these two appearances on compilations the band had two releases under their belt. There was a 7″ single for the song “Radiation” with the B side “16 Pins”. From the sleeve we learn the full lineup of the band:
Georgina Clarke – bass guitar
Judy Parsons – drums, backing vocals
Mavis Bayton – vocals, guitar
Penny Wood – guitar, organ, backing vocals
Alison West – keyboards, backing vocals
I don’t own yet any records by the band, but happily Discogs has scans for the back cover of the 7″. Here I see that there is a little description of what the songs are about and I can tell the band was political. For example for “Radiation” it says that “Today in the UK there is more nuclear weaponry per head of population than any other country in the world”. And for “16 Pins” it says “Since the 1970 Equal Pay Act the gap between men’s and women’s wages has increased!”.
The two songs were recorded at Blackwing Studios in South London under the engineer Eric. It seems after this release Judy left the band to play with the Bellestars and Penny went onto the Dots. So the band ended up being Alison, Georgina, Mavis and Linda on drums. Jill joined as an administrator, I suppose that means manager (?). Then there’s an address for the band in Oxford. So they weren’t from London then as I initially thought. Other credits are for Janey for designed the record sleeve. Lastly the record was put out by the Twist N’ Shout Label (TNS 2) who had released before a 7″ by Andrew Hayward & The Panic Buttons. This label was actually part of a second hand record shop that was based in South London, on Battersea High Street.
Their other record was an LP that looks as if it was self-released as the label was Mistakes Music (MS1). This LP was titled “Live at The Caribbean” and it was recorded at the Caribbean Sunshine Club in Paradise Street, Oxford on September 26, 1981. It was then mixed at Pathway Studios in London and produced by Jim Parsons.
The album had 15 songs in total. On the A side there’s “I Don’t Know”, “Do It Now”, “Cookie”, “Rose Tinted Spectacles”, “Us Or Them”, “Give Me More Love” and “File It Away”. The B side had “Romance”, “Single”, “Man Or Woman”, “16 Pins”, “Hiroshima” and “Radiation”. The back sleeve has a photo for each member of the band though they also thanks a Tinkerbell for percussion and drums. I wonder in which tracks did Tinkerbell played.
I find a mention of the band on the website Women’s Liberation Music Archive. There’s some interesting info here. Firstly I learn that the band formed after George put an advert in the local newspaper, The Backstreet Bugle, looking for women that were tired of dancing to sexist male music at the monthly lesbian disco. Just 6 weeks after the advert the band was playing their first gig. At first they played covers such as “My Girl”, “In the Midnight Hour” and “Green Onions” and later they penned their own songs and they mention here a song called “Crystal Clear” which I don’t see in any of their records. Then it mentions that Jim Parsons who produced the live album was Judy’s husband. They together also ran a rock PA hire company. The band used to practice at a print room of an alternative press called Pauper’s Press Cooperative Ltd.
There is even more information about the band, a true treasure trove. There’s two audios (1, 2) of bassist George Clarke talking about recording with the band. A flyer where we see that the band played Action Space in London and another at Dingwalls on June 21st of 1981 alongside Jam Today in support of the London Rape Crisis Centre. Other places we know they played were at a CND gig at Greenham Common, Undercurrents, Anti-Nazi gigs, Rock Against Racism and also at 101, Rock Garden, or the ICA. During 1980 they also played Oxford Poly, U.C.H. in London, Henderson Hospital Benefit in London, Brighton Resources Centre, Norwich U.E.A., East Oxford Community Centre, Newcastle, Swan in Oxford, Reading, U.L.U. in London, Brighton Ritzi, RAS in York, Nottingham and South Bank Poly in London. They also played many gigs at the Spare Rib parties, Bisexual conferences and the Women in Manual Trade Conference in Nottingham. Bands they shared gigs included Delta 5, Poison Girls, Alix Dobkin, Girlschool and Aswad.
They seem to have also appeared on a TV documentary about young lesbians called “Veronica 4 Rose” where they appear performing “My Girl” and “That’s The Way The Cookie Crumbles” that were filmed live at the Spare Rib Tenth Anniversary. I wish there was a video of this on Youtube.
Remember I was thinking that 1981 was their year? Well according to this already in 1979 the band had signed to Oval Records that was run by Charlie Gilett. It seems he dropped the band as it was taking long to release anything by them and instead decided to fund the Thompson Twins! In 1980 the band was to sign to Deviant Records who via Twist n’ Shout released the 7″.
The story of Judy leaving the band is also explained. She was offered a temporary drumming job with The Bodysnatchers who were to tour along The Specials, Madness, the Selector and UB40. So she took it. But then the band split and her and Penny Leyton formed the Belle Stars. Then Penny decided to go solo with a band called The Dots.
During this time, and for a year, the band performed as a 4 piece. Then Penny rejoined and they did a mini tour in Italy. Which cities? Doesn’t say. Afterwards George left the band. It is at this time that the band calls it a day and does a farewell gig at the Caribbean Sunshine Club. That was all recorded and released as an LP.
Many, many, years later, Mavis published a book about why so few women were playing in bands. The book is called “Frock Rock” and came out in 1998. Would be interesting to find a copy of it. Ali on the other hand left Oxford and got into choral music.
Well, and that’s quite the story of The Mistakes. Not too little as I expected. It is kind of an obscure band but it seems that while they were around they made an impact and they are well-remembered. There are still many questions to be answered I think. For example why didn’t they record anything for Oval? Are there any unreleased songs? Why no more records, really just one 7″? Where in Italy did they play? Did they play any other countries? If they continue making music after they split? It would be interesting to know more about this pop band from the early 80s!
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Listen
The Mistakes – Jukebox
