Now it is Friday, another week that went fast. What is new in the web when it comes to indiepop?
Cheesemind: the latest by the Chinese indiepop group is an EP called “Bay Park Serenade” which is out now in digital format by Sango Records from Kyoto, Japan. The Amoy based band has created a lovely and warm EP with 5 songs for all of us to enjoy. This is the first release by the band after a six year break!
Sunset Rollercoaster: a classy sounding Taiwanese band, that’s what “Vanilla Villa EP” has presented to me. The sort of sound you wouldn’t be surprised to find in a release by él Records or Siesta. The band is touring Europe next June taking them from Sweden to Portugal and many countries in between!
Permanencia: is the name of a compilation released by Stupid Decisions from Mexico and Discos de Kirlian in Spain. There are 12 songs in it and we can preview half of them! The opening track is wonderful, “Punkipop” by No Fucks. Then we get to listen “Suicidio” by Cosmo K, sort of an acoustic Los Bonsais, sounding ace! And then we find some superb bands like Puzzles y Dragones, Lost Film, or Skittle Alley among others.
Still Dreams: I got this on my email today including a private playlist of tracks… but decided to start checking out the video for their song “Addicted” which has footage of the band’s tour in China and Hong Kong! Still Dreams is Ryuta and Maaya and they really sound great! I think you’ll agree with me after listening this track! Can’t wait to hear more by them soon!
Sousade: checking what’s new on the Depok, Indonesia, based label Don’t Fade Away Records I found this band’s song “Song 1” which sounds quite nice. It is the first time I hear them, and I know very little. I know they are formed by Nabil Hatomi, Nanda Riesta Mandle, Tegar Agusta, Alfian Kusuma and Aldian Ramadhan, and that I am hoping to hear more by them soon.
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Now it is the turn for the letter P and I chose Picnic who had an EP that also started with the letter P, “Plug EP”.
Released by the legendary Bring on Bull Records (BULL 24-0) in 1994 as part of the Waaaaaaaah! Singles Club, this lovely 7″ with an orange jacket and a cartoon penguin on the front cover had four songs. They were “Don’t Turn Around” and “As Diamonds” on the A side and “Seventeen” and “Home” on the B side.
There are no band members listed nor compilation appearances. This might prove a difficult mystery to uncover.
Richard from Waaaaaah!, on his website, mentions that this 7″ was his favourite release on the label for two reasons, because he thought it was one of the best and also because he didn’t steal the band from another label. He also mentions that the band features a Scottish girl singer. Aside from these four songs there were more demos, but I don’t know them. Would be interesting to find out their names and of course listen to them.
We also know that some of the members (but not the Scottish girl singer) formed a band called Bob Cuba afterwards. There used to be a website for this band but there’s none anymore. I did find a Facebook page though where I find three names, Colin ‘Cbob’ Stevenson (drums/backing vocals), Stuart ‘Sbob’ Stevenson (guitar/vocals) and John ‘Jbob’ Watt (bass/samples). Where the three of them in Picnic? From a deleted Wikipedia page for Bob Cuba I figure out that Sbob and Cbob were in Picnic. Both had also been in Canaveral and Frankograph. Cbob was also in The Trees.
Sbob actually even have his own website. Here you can find music from his newer projects and information about himself. Sadly there is barely any mentions to Picnic. I wonder. We do know though that Picnic was based in Ayr, in Scotland. I suppose he moved to Glasgow as that’s where Bob Cuba is based these days.
Cbob on the other hand runs the Bob Cuba Twitter account. Again very little mentions to Picnic, but I did find that they used to cover a song by Prince when they were in Picnic. Which one? I can’t tell. The link doesn’t take me anywhere.
I’m curious about the vocalist, the Scottish girl singer, name. Who was her? I can’t seem to find any information. I am hoping someone might now. Maybe she also went to play in another band. Also what about those demos? I would love to hear the rest of Picnic’s recordings!
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Listen
Picnic – Don’t Turn Around
One Response to “:: Picnic”
I am Cbob from Bob Cuba that you mention! I was also the drummer in Picnic which we formed at Strathclyde Uni in 1994. Band members were:
Original Line Up:
Jane McCance – Vocals
Crawford Gribben – Guitars and backing vocals
Dave McGregor Bass
Cbob(Colin Stevenson) – Drums
When Crawford left the band Sbob(Stuart Stevenson) joined on guitars and Rico Stefani replaced Dave on bass with Doug Harrow eventually replacing Jane on vocals leaving me as the only original member. I still have a few copies of our Plug EP on vinyl which we had great fun recording with Richard Waaah! in Hamilton. Jane was our skinhead singer and our version of Sinead O’Conner! The Prince song we played live was an Indie rock version of The Cross.
Bob Cuba later formed in 2002 with Sbob lead vocals/guitar, Jbob(John Watt) drums and Cbob on drums/backing vocals. Both Bob Cuba albums are on Spotify and we last played live in 2018 at The Buff Club in Prestwick.
In between Picnic and Bob Cuba there was indeed Canaveral/Frankograph which was the same band with a name change. Steven Johnson fronted that band and still release new material under the name Ptarmigan Army. Cbob played drums and Rico played bass with Colm from Nothern Ireland on guitars.
If you want to know anything else regarding Picnic and spin offs leave a comment!
Cbob X