Back from 9 days in Peru. Not re-energized to be honest, quite tired!  But that doesn’t mean I won’t be updating the blog… you know I just did yesterday with an interview! And today I have a new post and tomorrow a new interview as well. There were no indiepop news in Peru, but I did have the time yesterday to find some good new music!

Chestnut Bakery: one of my favourite Chinese indiepop bands is back with a wonderful 7″ on the superb Boring Productions label. Well, it was also available on tape, but it seems the tape is already sold out. The band formed by Rye, Leo and Sango presents us two new fine songs here, “Dust” and “To Sylvie”. Check it out!

Dayflower: one of the best guitar pop bands for some time have put up a new album on their Bandcamp. Titled “Honeyspun”, the 9 song album, is a treat to all indiepop fans. I only wonder why it is not released on a physical format. From jangly guitars to dreamy wall of guitars, there’s a little surprise here for everyone.

The Reds, Pinks and Purples: again and again this lovely band fronted by Glenn Donaldson gives us jangly demos that I can’t stop wondering when will the album be released. Or something else. Anything at all. Why not put 4 of them on a 7″ EP for example? I think it would be fantastic. “Dead End Days (demo)” is his latest song. And once more I’m liking it a lot!

Dreams of Empire: this duo formed by Andrea and Jane, who met in the 90s indie band Luminous, are based in Brighton. They plan to release a series of singles and an album in 2019. So far two songs are on their Bandcamp, “Skinny Dipping” and “Drive On”. Let’s keep an eye on them.

Kings and Queens of the Do It Now!: this is the name of a wonderful compilation the Arizona based label Emotional Response has put out as a sampler of releases that are due in 2019! There are tracks by favourites Mick Trouble, Boyracer, The Ocean Party and more!

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While writing the Ronnie Can You Hear Me? post I was wondering about many of the related bands I mentioned. I had no clue about them. And because they were all, most probably, in the same scene as the Farmers Boys, I thought that they must be good. Poppy at least. So I decided to investigate.

I started with Terminal Fun. Why? Because I knew it had Carole Bush, the vocalist of Ronnie Can You Hear Me? That was important of course because I like female vocals a lot. Why not, right? So, I found out that they did have one release, a 7″ released in 1982. I tracked it down and just ordered it from Discogs. Not too cheap, but it has been a while since I bought myself an obscure record like this.

The 7″ that included “Great Moments” on the A side and “Twist and Survive” on the B side, was released by two labels, Projected Image (PRIM 4) and Backs Records (same catalogue number). I suppose Projected Image was just created for this record as it is the only record listed on this label. Or maybe not? About Backs Records we know much more. We know they were from the same area of the band, Norwich, and was actually a shop too (which closed in the early 90s).

The 7″ was engineered and recorded at Spaceward Sudios in July 1982. These studios were not in Norwich, but actually in Cambridge. The songs were produced by Joe Bull who also produced “Whatever is He Like?” by the Farmers Boys.

The back sleeve gave us that information and more. We know the band members too:
Paul Rayner – bass
Pete Sparrow – drums, synthesizer, vocals
Paul Day – guitar, vocals
Carole Bush – vocals

Something interesting about the back sleeve is that it has ads. Yes. Like stores where Terminal Fun shop at. For example Quality Shoe Repair, Cookes band instruments, Audiotime (Anglia) and Urry Video from Norwich, and Benkson personal stereo radio and cassette players from London. They thank these sponsors for helping get the record funded. Each of these stores have some illustrations which are credited to Pete Siree.

Looking at the same website that gave me lots of information the other day, the Music from the Eastzone, East Anglian Music Archive, I notice they list other band members that doesn’t appear on the record, Jacqui Brown and Steve Smith. Who were they? At what time were they in the band? Also now we know that the band was active between 1981 and 1982.

Let’s check what other bands were they involved with:
Carole Bush: we already knew she had been in Ronnie Can You Hear Me?
Paul Day: he was also in Cultural Collapse
Peter Sparrow: was in Running Dogs
Steve Smith: he was a drummer and he had been in The Funk Police, Giant II, The Fire Thieves, Cultural Collapse, La Host and Pendragon
Jacqui Brown: was a vocalist and only seems to have been involved in Terminal Fun

I look for more information about them on the web and I stumble upon a website called Futures and Past which is run by Erika Elizabeth. On a post dating from January 23rd, 2018, she posts a column she wrote for a the Maximum Rock’n Roll magazine in their December 2017 issue where she reviews the 7″ by Terminal Fun. Thanks to it I find out that there are another 3 songs the band recorded in 1983 for a scrapped EP! I need to find them!

So I end up on Paul Day’s website Luv Music. I start reading his biography. On the biography I learn that Jacqui and Steve were actually part of an earlier incarnation of the band, from a time they were not yet named Terminal Fun. I also confirm that Paul Day was the main songwriter. They got a manager called Steve Jackson who had been a radio DJ in London. Then something odd. He mentions that the songs were recorded at Spacewood Studios in Suffolk. But the sleeve has Spaceward. Maybe there was a typo? Which one was it?

Other interesting details was that the Projected Image name of the label was actually called like that because of a Paul Day song of the same name. It got a bad review in the NME by Danny Baker. And John Peel played it several times. The band played gigs throughout East Anglia supporting Screen 3, The Farmers Boys and more. The 3 songs that were supposed to be released in the scrapped EP were called “Lucifer”, “Something Must Break” and “The Sun is Cold”. You can listen to this song plus many more recordings by Terminal Fun on his website. The other songs the band recorded were: “Growing Inside”, “Shine”, “Demise”, “Hello”, “Shout!”, “I’m Different to You”, “Tear Down the Barricades”, “The Things We Said”, “Running From the Dogs” and “Who are You?”.

And that’s all I could find about the band on the web. Not little for sure. Especially as I could find audio bits on Paul Day’s site. It’d be great if we could get in touch and do an interview and fill in the blanks the story of Terminal Fun. But maybe you can help too, any of my Norwich area readers remember them?

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Listen
Terminal Fun – Great Moments