Day 25. Close to a month now. How much longer now? Another month? Two more? Let’s go day by day.

How are you all? Any good new music you’ve found out? About Mcguffins there might be a slight delay in the release. It seems the first demo tape has been found and definitely would be good to include it in the album. We shall see if it still works and all! But that was exciting news.

Now new music. Of course.

Ferri-Chrome: out now on CD on the Japanese label Testcard Records is Ferri-Chrome’s “From a Window” EP. This wonderful new release has 5 songs of dreamy and luminous guitars with girl/boy vocals. One of my favourite new releases for sure, I should order it soon as well!

Red Red Eyes/Hacia Dos Veranos: two new songs on this split release that I believe is only available digitally on WIAIWYA. Red Red Eyes contribute the song “Where Has Everybody Gone?” while Hacia Dos Veranos has “We Have all the Time in the World”. Two classy and elegant covers of James Bond songs. The first one originally recorded by The Pretenders while the second one by Louis Armostrong.

Constant Smiles: 43 copies are remaining for the latest release on Box Bedroom Rebels out of Manchester. It is a 7 track 7″ EP by the band Constant Smiles from Massachusetts. The album is a mix of dreampop, shoegaze and other styles. The official release date is June 14 but it seems you need to hurry up if you need a copy!

Country Club: our friends that one contributed a song to a fanzine CD are back with a new EP called “Le Passage Secret”. Now the band is singing in French even though these Frenchmen are now based in Virginia in the US! Definitely a lovely EP, with 6 tracks from the ex-Les Freluquets! Not to be missed!

Die Zärtlichkeit: some very good jangle pop coming from Cologne in Germany. Their latest release is a 5 song EP that is also available on cassette.  I must say this is the first time I hear them and I am happily surprised. The band seems to be a duo formed by Andreas Fischer and Tobias Emmerich. We should keep an eye on them!

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The fourth day of my challenge this time is the day Thursday. A band that wrote a song about Thursday. That was easy. The Parachute Men wrote “Every Other Thursday” and even made a video for it. This song was part of their second album “Earth, Dogs and Eggshells” (FIRE LP24) released by Fire Records in 1990.

I really like The Parachute Men. For years now they’ve been a favourite band of mine. To play again and again their records. One thing though, I’ve been trying to find a copy of their first album “The Innocents” on CD. And for that I have had no luck. This first album was released also by Fire Records (FIRE LP14) in 1988. But I’m going in no order here. Let’s start from the beginning, see if we can find all the important details about this terrific Leeds band!

The band started in 1985 with Fiona Gregg on vocals, Stephen H. Gregg on guitar, Andrew Howes on bass and keyboards and Mark Boyce on drums and keyboards. Based on the bio that’s available on Discogs we know that in 1987 the band signed to Fire Records. And then good things started to happen, meaning releases! Though I wonder between 85 and 87 they must have recorded songs, right? Are there demos? Would really like to listen to that if they exist.

The first release was an EP called “Sometimes in Vain”. This was released in 1988 by Fire (BLAZE 27T) on 12″ vinyl. It included three songs, “Sometimes in Vain”, “Leeds Station” and “Heading the Wrong Way”. The latter two were on the B side.  Interestingly the band would get some love in Spain. The A side, “Sometimes in Vain”, would be re-released as a single sided 7″ by Producciones Twins (T-1874) in 1988. And this won’t be the last time they would get love from Spain.

Then came the album “The Innocents” also on Fire Records (FIRE LP14). This album would be released in France under Vogue and in Spain by Producciones Twins. All of this in 1988. The songs on the album were “Sometimes in Vain”, “The Innocents”, “No Wonder” and “Tell Everyone” on the A side while the B side had “Are You Glad You Came? (Live)”, “Goodbye”, “Past Not Forgotten”, “Maybe If I’d Said” and “Quiet Day”. Something interesting is that the CD version had two more songs, “Burgess Meredith (Live)” and “That’s Too Bad (Live)”. The songs were produced by the great John A Rivers and they were engineered by Colin Richardson and Francisco Cabeza. They were mastered by John Dent. This album would make it on the NME top 50 albums of that year.

All their releases would be on Fire. Their next one would be a classic one. The 7″ and 12″ for “If I Could Wear Your Jacket…?” (BLAZE 30). This song it is known to be author Mike Gayle’s favourite. I remember reading about it a long time ago and looking for a book where he mentions the song. The book is called “Dinner for Two” and it’s alright. The A side had the title song while the B side had “Burgess Meredith” and on the 12″ it also included “That’s Too Bad”. It is said that some pressings of the record came with a free postcard. Would love to see any of them. I didn’t know of their existence.

In 1989 they would release “Bed and Breakfast” (BLAZE 35) again as a 7″ and 12″. One thing that is important to mention is that the 7″ for this one and their previous single came in Fire Records standard sleeves, so they are not that pretty. Better to get the 12″s.  The A side had “Bed and Breakfast” while the B side had “Mr. Gas”. The 12″ also had on B side the song “Bad Rain”.

Then came one of their best songs, “Leeds Station” (BLAZE 33), as a single. Again, produced by John Rivers, the 12″ had “Leeds Station” on the A side and “Maybe If I’d Said” and “So Mistaken” on the B side. The 7″ didn’t have the last track. The title track had a video too that was featured on the NME’s “Carry on Disarming” compilation VHS and also on the “Indie Top Video (Take Two)” VHS released by Picture Music International. The video was produced and directed by Doug Ray.

Then another single, “Every Other Thursday” (BLAZE 40). This one also released on both 12″ and 7″. The 7″ would include “Every Other Thursday”, a reference to signing on to the dole, and “Quiet Life”. The 12″ would add “Being of Unsound Mind” to the B side. This was in 1990.

In 1990 too the band would release their second album, “Earth, Dogs and Seashells” (FIRE LP24). This one would get released on CD, cassette, and vinyl. It would get releases in the US and Germany too. The engineers for the record were Colin Richardson, Nick Robbins and Steve Harris, with Hugh Jones producing. The songs were recorded at Slaughterhouse in Driffield and mixed at Elephant Studios in Waping. The songs on the record were “Mad Sadie Can’t Levitate”, “Mr Gas”, “Never Alone”, “Don’t Cry July” and “Miles Away” on the A side, “Elizabeth”, “Earth, Dogs and Seashells”, “Every Other Thursday”, “…Yeah”, “Sleepless, Sleepless, Sleepless”, “Dream of Kings” and “Fear of Falling” on the B side.

It seems this album was actually recorded in 1989 but for some reason it came out a year after. Also around this time Matthew Parkin (Jesus and Mary Chain, Starlings) on bass and Paul Walker on drums joined. Then Perkin would leave and the Canadian Colleen Brown would join. You might remember her as she was later in the fantastic Pale Saints as well as in The Heart Throbs, Warm Jets and White Hotel.

The band would split in 1990 after playing just one gig with their latest lineup at the Liverpool University. After that Mark Boyce would be involved in The Dubervilles, This, Kath Reade, Sabrina Pigott and Camera · Obscura. Stephen Gregg would leave music and gain a PhD in English literature at the University of Leeds and today he is a lecturer at Bath Spa University where he specializes in 18th century literature.

Aside from these releases the band would appear on about 9 compilations. First one was on “The Great Fire of London” in 1987. This one was released by different labels like Fire Records (FIRE LP8), Producciones Twins in Spain, Emergo also in the UK, and Restless in the US. They contributed the song “My Flamingo”.

Then in 1989 they would appear on 4 different compilations. On “15 Flaming Groovies” (FIRE CD19) released on CD and tape by Fire Records they had two songs, “Bed and Breakfast” and “Leeds Station”. “Sometimes in Vain” would appear on “Indie Top 20 Vol. VI – Pride of Independents” released by Beechwood Music (TT06CD). “Maybe If I’d Said” appears on the great compilation “Lie to Me: A Compilation of Guitar Use and Abuse” released by Umbrella (ULP 1) on tape, CD and LP. Then “Leeds Station” would appear on the Rough Trade CD comp “Rough Trade – Music for the 90’s” (RT CD120).

They would appear on the next volume of Rough Trade, “Rough Trade – Music for the 90’s Volume 2” (RT CD170) with the song “Every Other Thursday” in 1990.  That same year they would include “Somehow Today” on the legendary compilation “Borobudur” that was released by La-Di-Da Productions on LP and re-released later in 1992 by King Records on CD.

Lastly “Mr. Gas” would appear on a compilation called “I Wouldn’t Piss On it If it was On Fire” (FIRECD 63) in 1997. This was a Fire Records double CD compilation.

Lots of story so far. But there’s more. I found a Facebook page for the band.

Firstly we know now that Fiona was playing music in the early 80s! There is a song she recorded with Nigel Holleran called “LowenbrauPils“. It is not jangly but it is a cool pop song anyways! It dates from 1980 and I wonder if there are more songs. Also are there more songs by the band members from other projects previous to The Parachute Men? It would be great to find out!

Then we know the band reformed in 2015. They played in Leeds at venues like The Library or the Packhorse Pub. I so wish I had seen them! Would have been great!

Then a cool find, a video of the band being interviewed in 1989 after the first lineup changes.

There are few press clippings and some cool photos too. Also they have written about a few of their songs, which is nice, see what inspired them, what is the story behind them.

But no mention of unreleased tracks. Why did they split? Did Fiona and Stephen made more music afterwards? What about before? Clearly Fiona did… Did they record demos? Maybe that song “My Flamingo” was one of them? And how come if a lot of their peers have gotten reissues and so on, why hasn’t Fire Records put something out yet? I’d buy it in a whim!

Many questions, which I hope to get answers. The Parachute Men are a terrific band who deserve to be rediscovered!

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Listen
The Parachute Men – Every Other Thursday