It is a new week, but need to keep these reviews coming. So continuing with the Indietracks latest batch of announcements….
Mighty Kids: I read on the Indietracks page that this was a band that played electro-pop. I couldn’t find much about this band though it seems it is led by a girl named Shelley Jane. Indietracks says there’s a Bandcamp with the EP “Won’t You Reconsider”, but couldn’t find it. I did find this Soundcloud by the Derby band and found a mix of ukulele songs, which weren’t really exciting, and some electropop like “Dust”, which are much more enjoyable. Not sure what they do more, the ukulele or the bedroom electropop. I do hope it is the latter.
Happy Spendy: a Glasgow band. That sounds promising already. Also there is a very good photo of the band on their SoundCloud page. Let’s see, let’s try the first song “I Was Just Trying To Have a Good Time”. A bit too slow for me. But not bad. Next seems to be a 3 song EP titled “You Look Lovely” that was released in 2017. “Candy” is the first song. It is nice lo-fi casiotone pop with female vocals. Yeah, the photo looked like they were going to be a very jangly band, especially as one had a very cool bowl haircut. But no, a good electropop lo-fi band.
Worst Place: yeah lots of electropop it seems, not what I love the most, but much better than all the folksy and screamy stuff Indietracks was getting us used to. But now a true discovery by team Indietracks, a very very good one I think. Because I listen to the song “The Sun Changed Everything” and it is a jangly explosion! Just what I needed!! And great female vocals, and good melodies. Nothing I can complain! I really like this! A quartet from London, who doesn’t seem to have any releases so far, just a few songs online. And the last one, the one I mentioned, is the best. One of the bands one shouldn’t miss at Indietracks I believe.
Marlaena Moore: it doesn’t start good when I read her bio on Bandcamp. It tells me she is a rare talent. Don’t know how to take that. Well, I’ll let the music speak I suppose. The Edmonton, Canada, artist’s last album “Gaze” is what I start playing. Hmm. Just not for me I suppose, middle of the road indie. Doesn’t tell me much. I wonder, where’s the p!o!p!?
Tim the Mute: this is Tim Clapp’s alter ego. Tim runs the label Kingfisher Bluez who collaborated with Cloudberry once releasing the Parcel Post 7″ (I still have a few copies if anyone is interested). I figured I have never reviewed his music on the blog. So what’s fair is fair. His latest was the album “Take My Life Please!” which you can still find on Bandcamp. It is hard to pinpoint, say what what sort of music this is. There’s a bit of everything, though I’m sure calling it pop is fine. In debt of 80s pop too is a good description as well. But there are all kinds, for example “Draining”, is a terrific song. That could have been recorded by many of our favourite bands. Then there are others not as accessible like “A Girl You Don’t Like”. It is a bit of a rare bird, but when at its best, it is really interesting.
———————————————————-
When did I first listen to The Originals? Was it through Soulseek, downloading MP3s for their “Chocolate Box” 7″ or was it through Javi’s old blog where I remember him writing about them. I can’t seem to remember exactly. I do remember the 3 songs on it, and today I thought looking for a copy of the record on the web. Well, no luck.
At some point I’m sure I’ll find a copy, in the meantime, I want to know more about this band. Who were they? What did they release? What happened to them? They seem to be pretty obscure but it is also true that most obscure indiepop fans know them. So in a way they are among the least obscure of the obscure bands. That does make sense? It does to me.
The first ever release by the band was a shared flexi with Po! that was released on Ruth Po!’s label Rutland Records (RUT 01). It was the first release on the label and it was released on 1988. The Originals opened the single sided flexi with the song “Japan” while Po! appears with “Glass King”. I don’t own this record, so perhaps someone can help, it is said that there is an insert with information about both tracks by Larry Rutland.
The “Chocolate Box” 7″ came out next, again on Rutland Records (RUT 03). This time there were three songs. On the A side there was “Chocolate Box” and “Clarence” and on the B side we find “Steven On the Radio”. This record came out in 1989 and all songs were recorded on 4 track at Solitude Studios in Leicester during the spring of 1989. I am guessing here that the band hailed from that city. Studio and label were based there. On this record we find out also the names for the band members in the band.
Terri Lowe on bass
Yvonne Blair on drums
Kevin Young on guitar
Gary Blair on vocals
The artwork was done by Yvonne and Kevin. I notice that there are two Blairs in the band. Were they siblings? Probably, right?
In 1989 Rutland Records was going to put out a tape with the titled “They Were The Originals 1984-1989” (RUTT 13). This tape seems to be a retrospective, a compilation, of all recordings, releases and demos, by the band. I would so love to hear this tape in its entirety. There are in total a whopping 19 songs! On the A side we find “Chocolate Box”, “Clarence”, “Steven on the Radio”, “Japan”, “Cuckoo”, “Only 25”, “My Friend”, “On a Western Shore”, “Wish” and “Teddy Bears”. The B side had “Chimera”, “Flame”, “Larry”, “Mr. Jones”, “Little Tears”, “Kevin’s in Green”, “Norman”, “Blue Grass” and “My Friend”.
It does seem that a year later the band recorded a 2 song demo with new songs. This is listed on Dicogs as “2 Track Demo-Tape”. It had the songs “Number Nine” and “Listen to the Cat”. Never heard these two songs either.
There are 3 compilation appearances listed. In 1989 the band appeared with the song “Steven on the Radio” on the tape comp “My Favourite Sunday Vol. 1” released by the Japanese label Boshi (Roddy 004). This is a very cool compilation with great bands that have been featured on the blog like The Ammonites, The Candy Darlins or The Aurbisons among others.
In 1990 the band contributes the song “Mr. Jones” to the tape compilation “And They Call It Pop” that was put out by Fragrant Records. I must say I’m not familiar with this compilation that was put together by Fragrant who seems to have been based in Newton Abbot in Devon. There are many amazing bands here too like They Go Boom!, Feverfew or Strawberry Story among others.
Lastly, on the German tape compilation “Nachtsonne – The Noise and The Melodies” the band appears with the song “My Friend”. I’m curious about this tape as there are some bands I’ve never heard before like Desert Rain, Monday Post or Ostzonensuppenwürfelmachenkrebs.
I decide to check out if the band members are listed in any other bands. Well, Terri Lowe had been involved in Ruth’s Po! other band, Ruth’s Refrigerator. He played bass mostly but sometimes rhythm guitar. Also he worked with Po! playing guitar and producing! The other members don’t appear on Discogs under other bands.
I notice my friend Alex wrote a post about them back in 2007 on his Siete Pulgadas blog. There is sadly no other details aside the ones I’ve found so far. But still it is great to see friends love their music too.
Twee.net has some more tapes listed for the band. There is a “Live” and “Out-Takes” tapes on Rutland Records (RUTT02 & RUTT06). Also there’s also another tape listed that was to be released after the “They Were the Originals”.
Then I find a blog post by Ruth Po! where she mentions The Originals! First she says:
At that time, there were government grants available for people setting up their own small businesses – the Enterprise Allowance scheme. You had to prove you had £1000 in the bank and some kind of plan, and then you qualified for a weekly allowance. I didn’t have £1000, but I did know someone who agreed to transfer the money into my new Rutland Records bank account and then have it paid back again a week later. The name Rutland Records came from ‘Rutland Avenue’ in Leicester, where my friends in The Originals lived, but it also refers to England’s smallest county, which is next to Leicestershire, measuring about 20 miles across and is a symbol of English eccentricity and doing things small-style.
Then she talks about The Originals themselves!
The Originals: Rags, Yvonne, Kevin and Gary were a really well-rehearsed zany band who shared rehearsal premises with PO! This was a basement on the corner of Chatham Street and Stamford Street, underneath a clothing factory. Now, there are student flats there, but you can still see the load out bay we used when doing gigs. The Originals rehearsed every night; their sound was like a more rock version of The Smiths or Talking Heads, with childlike talk-singing from Gary. I admired their work ethic and made Julian and Jan rehearse more than they liked to. At about 10.15pm each night, we would all go into the nearby pub ‘The Black Boy’ for a drink.
The first Rutland Records release was a 1988 shared flexi-disc between PO! and The Originals. The PO! song was ‘Glass King’, recorded at Dave Davis’ home studio (credited as Wolfman De Moog III). Dave was the partner of Teri Wyncoll, from the community arts organisation Multiplex. By the time of recording, Julian and Jan had left PO! and so the musicians from The Originals acted as my backing band.
With home computers and dot matrix printers in an early stage, artwork had to be produced by hand. This involved using Letraset rub down lettering. You bought a sheet of the font that you wanted and rubbed over each letter to transfer it onto the paper. The sheets were quite expensive, and after a couple of years, the plastic letters dried up and cracked, but there was something artisan and time-consuming about Letraset that pleased me.
A recently acquired teddy bear ‘Larry Rutland’ belonging to Rags from the Originals became the boss of Rutland Records; he is pictured on the Originals’ side of the flexi and also wrote the sleeve notes. Most of the Rutland newsletters and information were printed on red paper; even then I had some idea of ‘branding’ within a supposedly amateurish tiny business.
Really interesting indeed! She also shares that inner insert from the flexi, mentioning that the song by The Originals, “Japan”, was recorded at the Bankby Road Studios in Leicester by Wayne George and engineered by Ricky Wilson in 1988.
There is yet another Ruth Miller interview on the web that dates from Fall 1995 on the Monk Mink Pink Punk fanzine. On this one Ruth says:
Terri Lowe — plays lots of guitars all the time, when he’s not doing that he’s out looking for guitars to buy. He used to play the bass with a fab band called The Originals who recorded one single for Rutland. He’s a student studying English and he’s just won a prize for poetry. He was also the bass player in Ruth’s Refrigerator and he wrote some good songs for their albums. He is a hard shell with a soft centre, and his favorite word is “no.”
And as you can imagine that’s all I could find about them. No more information. I find it strange that the band members weren’t involved with other projects. It seems at that time everyone in the Leicester scene was in every band or kind of. Just Terri Lowe. Also would love to know the tracklist for those tapes that I found on Twee.net. There are many questions left to answer when it comes to The Originals.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
