A new week. This year is passing very fast. I don’t have much news. I guess the most exciting news last week was that Robert Forster was going to play in New York in September. At 10am, Friday, I was waiting for the tickets to be released. So yes, I am attending that and I look forward to it as I haven’t had the luck yet to see him play. He is touring all over Europe too, so I wonder if you are also planning to see him?

Then of course I’ve looked for new music to share. It has been a bit harder this weekend as I’ve been busy, but 5 finds I can do.

The Five Year Plan: on Bandcamp it says that this album, “Live at the Thekla – 4th October 1985”, a live album, was released in 2015. Maybe it was released digitally then? I can’t recall. The thing is that there is a CD version of the album that I got some weeks ago and I think, as there are still a few copies left of it, that I urge you to get one before there are no more copies. If not, 9 songs from this gig are available to stream on Bandcamp.

Zebra Hunt: the Spanish label Tenorio Cotobade has just released an 8-track album by the Seattle pop group called “Trade Desire”. The jangly guitars are very present, with nods to the Flying Nun stable. If you need to preview this lovely new record you can on Bandcamp, but I think we all would like a copy of this terrific effort.

The Bats: there is a digital EP on the NZ band’s Bandcamp called “Afternoon in Bed”. The title song was actually featured on the “Couchmaster” album but here on this EP there is an edited shorter version of the song alongside 3 outtakes from the recording session of the “Couchmaster” album. So this is very important indeed!

Body Type: this 6 song EP called “Body Type EP” was released last October, so it is not exactly a new find, but it is a new find to me. This four piece from Sydney is an all-girl band. The songs are poppy with cool shimmering guitars. They do have a more recent song available called “Stingray” on what will be their second EP to be released this May, but I think I like these older songs better.

Dreamlake: this Swedish band sounds gorgeous. How come I have never heard about them before? They are formed by Isabella Svärdstam and Niklas Lock. This song, “Someday” is their latest single and it is great! There are a  ton of songs on their Soundcloud so I will spend the rest of the day listening to them.

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Time for letter H. So Hope. Yeah we need hope. Lots of it. But better talk about the band Hope? I think that’s a good idea.

Stuart Troop is listed as a band member on Discogs. Himself a singer-songwriter and musician based in Somerset who had been in bands like the amazing The Visitors (who had a retrospective on Matinée many years ago) and Telstarr (who released a bunch of albums for Dishy). Was Hope just himself?

According to the flexi “Good Old Friends” that came out on Bewildered Records (Wild 1) he was the performer, engineer and even co-producer. On this single sided flexi the band had the title song and also the track “Suffocate”. That flexi came out in 1989.

Three years after, in 1992, the brilliant German label A Turntable Friend put out the band’s last release: a 3-song 7″ (TURN 11). This record, with it’s cool cartoon cover art had “Funny” as the A side and “There’s a Place” and “Singing Vest” on the B side. Again Stuart Troop is the sole performer credited, but a new name appears here, David Arnold as a producer. David Arnold being the guitar player for The Claim, another top band in my book.

During their time the band appeared on two compilations. They contributed the song “There’s A Place (demo version)” to the Anorak Records compilation tape “Teeny Poppers” (Shoubidouwa 01) in 1992 and the song “Feeling Fine” to the tape comp “Charmed by the Sea” that the label Little Charmer put out in 1993. I’m quite familiar with the first tape as it has been mentioned in the blog in the past but not much with the second one. It seems Little Charmer was a fanzine from Greece and this tape that included tracks by The Field Mice, Pale Saints, They Go Boom!! and more, came with the third issue of the zine.

Then two years ago (2017), when A Turntable Friend made a comeback by releasing the compilation “The Test of Time” (TURN50) on double CD and triple LP, Hope was included in it with three songs: “Funny”, “Whining and Whining” and “There’s a Place”.

Looking for more info I stumble upon an article the great Alistair Fitchett wrote for his blog Unpopular back in 2008.  He mentions he noticed Stuart Troop because he produced some Shrag records. And then he talks a bit about Stuart as a vocalist for The Visitors and then that Guy Sirman was the person behind Bewildered and then behind Dishy (that explains one connection).

Sadly that is the only mention for the band I could find. Seems the band got forgotten or something. It is odd of course as all of the songs recorded by Hope are pretty good.

Now, who remembers them? Any other details that I’m missing out? For example, did Hope perform live at all?
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Listen
Hope – Good Old Friends