Met Martin from Brideshead last Wednesday, and as you remember he also runs the superb Apricot Records (we should do an interview!). So I got many many records, and enjoyed some beers. Then at some point Elisabeth from the lovely Leaving Mornington Crescent joined us. It was a small little indiepop reunion, talking about all sorts of things. I had a very nice time. I wonder why many friends from abroad are coming during this month to New York! Who will be next? Get in touch as I’d love to grab a beer with you!
Here are some new finds for this coming weekend!
Río Arga: I really like this Pamplona band. They are going to release an album sometime soon on Caballito Records and Mondo Canapé and so they are letting us preview the song “No Quieres Verme”. The song has a promo clip which I urge you all to check out. I missed their 10″ that was released by Caballito (I thought I was going to get it from the label and well, waited a long time and of course now it is sold out), so this time around I’ll just order it, because I don’t want to miss it!
Bedflowers: the Manchester band from the late 80s have put up on Bandcamp what was supposed to be released as a 12″, the “Little Deaths” EP. I wrote about the band many years ago, I think it might even be among my earliest posts. Sadly I still haven’t being able to interview the band. I hope that happens soon. But here you can listen to 4 amazing songs, “Address”, “Making Out in Public Places”, “Pillow Talk” and “Little Death”.
The Catherines: the Hamburg band is back with two wonderful songs, “I Can’t Believe You Leaev Me for That Dumbo” and “Fumbleknob”. The band is calling these songs as the “two sides” of the band, one being a piano ballad and another one being a punkpop track.
The Blue Herons: after two months the Lucerne, Switzerland, project by Andy Jossi is back. This is good news, as before this they made us wait a year! I hope they become more prolific as they really make lovely songs. This time around they are presenting us this new track called “The Way You Look at Me” which features Krissy Vanderwoude on vocals.
Happypills: the lovely indiepop project from Fukuoka is also back with a summer single called “Summersong”. It is very short, clocking under 2 minutes, but it is a sweet lo-fi poppy song worth including in your own summer mix!
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Many many years ago, I interviewed The Grooveyard. That time I asked Perry from The Grooveyard about a flexi they were part of. They had the first song on it, “Summer”, while the second song was by a band called Ever. It is time to go back to that flexi and find out any information about Ever because they contributed to this flexi a most wonderful song, “Sleepyhead”.
The flexi I am talking about was released by Playroom Discs (PLAYFLEX 1) in 1988. This label was started in the late 1980s by Gordon Kaye and Sean Sullivan and they were based in Brighton. They also ran the weekly club night Sunshine Playroom in the Escape Club. A top label. All bands they put out have been already featured here like Whirl, The Morrisons, The Grooveyard, and now Ever.
At the time of the flexi Ever were Lyndon Dempsey on vocals, Colin Ray on bass and Peter Whittick on guitars. There is a photo of the band on the inner sleeve of the flexi but it shows a four-man band and not a three one. I wonder who is the fourth in this photo. The drummer? It says that a drumbox was programmed by Nick Odle for the song.
We also know that “Sleepyhead” was recorded on a 16-track at Cherry Studios in Croydon and was produced by Andy Dalby and the band.
The band was to sign to the Midnight Music label that Nick Ralph used to run back then. With this label they were to release in 1991 an EP on 12″ vinyl and CD called “Virginize” (DONG 72). The 12″ had two songs on each side. The A side had “Virgin Eyes”and “Svg”. The B side had two remixed, “Schizo Virgin Girl” and “Interstate”, both remixed by Kevin Harris. Harris had also been the engineer in these recordings. The producers were Fluffy Bunny for “Svg” and Genesis P-Orridge from Throbbing Gristle for the rest of tracks. The recordings were done by Malcolm Page at The Twilight Zone in Berry Street, London though “Svg” was recorded at 124 Studio. The CDEP had the same running order.
The art for this EP was created by Malcolm. Then other credits include breaks, beats and management by Gordon Kaye. The songs were written by Dempsey, Whittick, Prosser, Steele and Kenny. I notice there is no more Colin Ray mentioned. Maybe the band lineup had changed.
“Sleepyhead”, as it is such a wonderful song, was included in the classic tape “Uncle Arthurs Pop Parlour” that our friend Dave Driscoll released in 1987.
In 1991 they had the song “Really Tired” on the compilation “Forever Changing” that was released on vinyl LP and CD by Beechwood Music (EVER 001). This compilation includes many great bands like The Impossibles, The Clouds and more. It even has a track by Blur.
Then in 1997 the band had their song “Virgin Eyes” on “Nocturnal – The Best of Midnight Music” that was released by Cherry Red (CDMRED). I suppose at this point Cherry Red already owned all recordings that Midnight Music had put out. This means of course that it will prove quite impossible to see a re-release of these tracks as Cherry Red is a complicated label. Unless of course Cherry Red puts a retrospective out themselves.
On Youtube, you can find a 1988 unreleased EP that the band was supposed to release with Playroom Records. It was to be called “Carousel” and it seems it already had artwork. What happened to it? Three songs were included, “Wednesday“, “Quicksand” and “Carousel“. How wonderful they sound! I would totally release them as a retrospective if I could!
On this same channel on Youtube we find a demo version of “Quicksand” from 1988. But that’s not all. This channel which I’ve explored extensively in the past on posts about The Friendly Fires and Bobby Scarlet, has more Ever tracks. For example there is “We Run and Hide“, “France Falls“, “Paper Tiger“, “Colour Scheme” and “Velvet“, all demos from 1984. Then there is a demo from 1987 of the superb “Wednesday“.
There’s a trove of tracks here indeed. There are two more demos from 1985, “The Winter of Love” and “Velvet“.
I found two more videos even for the band. The first is “Really Tired” which sounds BRILLIANT. The second is for “Interstate“.
I can’t find much more information about the band. I do believe Lyndon Dempsey has been involved in a band called Poppy Tea Room after he was in Ever. But there is not much more online about them. A shame as their songs are amazing. I am pretty sure too that they hailed from Crawley, so I am hoping people from the area remember them and can give me some details!
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Listen
Ever – Sleepyhead
