A quick note this Friday letting you know that the BV’s 7″s are already at the pressing plant being pressed. We are hoping then that our release date will be sometime in late October/early November. There’s been already a bunch of pre-orders so I’ll keep everyone updated!
Now, here are a few new finds on the web for you all!
Toy Tambourine: this Bandung, Indonesia, band has uploaded three covers of Another Sunny Day which sound really good! They are very faithful though they do add some/more distortion compared to the originals. They have made covers of “Anorak City”, “I’m In Love With a Girl Who Doesn’t Know I Exist” and “I Don’t Suppose I’ll Have a Second Chance”! They also have a new original song called “Candy Kissed (Demo)” worth checking out!
Herlights: one keeps discovering brilliant music coming out from Russia. Herlights is the latest one with their song “SHE”. This is the first time I listen to them and I hope to keep finding out new tracks by them. They have a few more of course, but the previous one dates from 8 months ago, from December. Maybe they do like taking their time.
Ease: another band from Indonesia in this post reviews. This one hails from Jakarta and is a dreampop band, with different influences to Toy Tambourine. They have two songs on their Bandcamp, “Longing” and “III”. Their latest is “Longing” which has very cool wall of guitars over female vocals.
Davey Woodward and the Winter Orphans: the ex-frontman of the Brilliant Corners has a new band, I’m sure you all know that, and it is called like this. They have signed to the German label Tapete Records and they’ve put a video for the song “Dylan’s Poster” to promote their self-titled debut album. And what can I say other than it makes me happy to see my indiepop heroes keeping guitar pop alive!
Sunbather: lastly this Durham, North Carolina, band who has put together a jangly digital album called “Melancholy Daze”. It starts pretty good with the self-titled song “Sunbather” and then it is all very simple, with simple track names, and straight to the point pop songs. Very summery too! Would love to know a bit more about them or him if it is a solo project!
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I’ve been googling for Cross Town Traffic and I keep getting results for Jimmi Hendrix. Dear, dear. That is not what I want, and it is truly disappointing. Hendrix doesn’t have anything to do with the sound of their sole and wonderful single.
The black and white sleeved single, with it’s iconic art, is another record most of us indiepop lovers would love to have. One day perhaps that dream will be true for me. In the meantime, I’m writing this post, hoping to get in touch with the band members as would love to interview them, learn the story behind the band.
There is little I know about them. I do know the band was formed by:
John Ralls on bass
John Wolfendale on drums and percussion
David Adshead on guitar and vocals
Glenn Vinnicombe on keyboards
Nick Clark on lead vocals and guitars
Their double A sided 7″ single was released in 1983 and it was a self-release. I wonder how many copies they pressed. They included two songs, “No For an Answer” and “Hanging On To You”, both written by Nick Clark and both recorded at The Elephant studios.
On Discogs I click on each member of the band hoping to find any project they might have been involved with. But there’s no luck. Only Cross Town Traffic is listed. There are no compilation appearances either. There’s nothing. Hitting a wall so soon doesn’t feel good. I need to find something else about them, this is too little. I love their song “No For An Answer”, I need to find out more.
But I was going to find a blog post on My Life is a Jigsaw dating from July 2016 were Glenn Vinnicombe is listed as a keyboard player during the years 1981 and 1984 in a band called 20th Century (whose “Mad World” song is pretty good! maybe worth a post?). It must be the same Glenn. Following a link to a website where it tells the story of the 20th Century band, I deduce that Cross Town Traffic was based in Cambridge. So with that detail in mind I find a Dr. Glenn Vinnicombe in the department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Could it be him?!
What about the other band members? I believe I also think I got the right John Wolfendale. It seems he now lives in Spain and works in developing eco-friendly villas! But no music associated to neither him or Glenn on the web. Maybe they stopped after Cross Town Traffic?
The other band members prove to be much more difficult. Maybe David Adshead studied architecture at the University of Cambridge. But can’t find much about John Ralls (he now lives in Bristol it seems) or about Nick Clark. I would love to know if they all made music with other bands.
That’s all this investigation could dig. It is better than nothing. I couldn’t find out if the band did any other recordings, nor if they had any other releases or compilation appearances. I couldn’t find much. But I’m hoping I’ll be able to find out more about them in the near future. Do any of my Cambridge readers remember them from the early 80s?
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