Day 55. Now I have to say that I wasn’t able to post records to Germany and Japan this week. The mail service seem to be suspended to these countries as well as Spain. I still have a few Sweden orders that I am hoping to mail next week. I hope there are no issues there.

Can only say thanks to everyone that keeps supporting the label. I really hope to have new releases soon, but as everything things move slower.

Some new music of course.

Waspjuice: Chris Blunkell who was in the superb 80s band The Black Cillas has been playing in the very fine Waspjuice for many years. The band has just released a new album on the At Swim label and I totally recommend checking it out. There are 10 songs on it of classic guitar pop and it is not just digital, it is also available on vinyl!

Zack Yusof: Our friend that played in the amazing Rebecca Fishpond (who were interviewed on the blog) and The Kildares (who I hope will be interviewed too) has made a new song called “Pandemic Love Song #1” which sounds really nice! Also keep in mind that all proceeds of the song will go toward Care’s COVID-19 emergency appeal.

Raw Honey: from Ypsilanti, Michigan, comes 8 songs from the archive. Recorded between 2012 and 2016, and many of them produced by Saturday Looks Good to Me’s Fred Thomas, this small digital compilation called “From the Archives” sounds ace, dreamy, calm, and sweet.

The Asteroid No. 4: now a California band that will be releasing their album “Northern Songs” later this year. As a preview they have shared the song “Northern Song” which is a lovely jangly track. Looking forward to the other songs!

Todavía: and another California band to end our little review. These Angelinos have just released a dreamy and fragile song called “Paradiso”. Not at all sounding like the band Paradiso if you ask me. And it also doesn’t look as it is a full band, more of a one-man project by Rhyan Riesgo. Good stuff!

—————————————————————–

Strange name of this mod/indiepop band from the UK. I am looking for a copy of their single. And so, I thought finding more info about them as well. That is a good plan. Isn’t it?

The band only released one 7″ back in 1991. It had two songs, “Yellow and Magenta” and “The Reaper”. They were most possibly self-released on the label Sealclub Records (CHOK 1). 500 copies were pressed, and the first 100 copies came with the different labels (black type and on the wrong sides).

We know that both songs are credited to Dave Edley, lead guitar of the band. The other band members were Andy Garngarek on bass, Jez Strrickland on drums and Big Bad Dom on stylophone.

Something interesting about this release is that there was an acetate 10″ release with both songs. I wonder how many copies were made of this rare disc. On this one I notice that the songs are credited to both Edly and Garngarek. And from what I read on Discogs, the labels have a different name for the band, The Three Surgeons. This is very confusing. Do anyone know what was going on?

Something interesting too is that in 2009 the band appeared on a compilation called “Tetters Plays Pop – I Wish You Were Made of Biscuit”. This compilation included their track “Yellow and Magenta” and here I notice that the credits for instruments are different. Was this a re-recording? So we see David Abrahams-Edley on guitar and vocals. He added a last name. That’s ok. Jez Strickland on drums. Ok. Dom Strickland on keyboards. Ok, now we know Dom’s last name. Was he related to Jez? Andy Garncarek on guitar. And Mark Barrett on bass. He wasn’t listed on the 7″ sleeve!

This compilation was released by Trip & Fall Records (TAF003) and included other bands like The Flying Squad, The Threads, Yellowcayke or Tetters Plays Pop. Then I notice that there is something in common for these bands. They all have David Edley in them! That’s good to know. Would be great to find a copy of this compilation! He was also in King Mojo, The Singles, The Avengers, Vals Basement and The Che Men.

What about the other band members? We know that Dom Strickland, also called Big Bad Dom, or Dom “Happy Organ” Strickland, played in Aunt Nelly and The Clique while Mark Barrett played in Afterglow, The Che Men, The Alternative and Thee Strawberry Mynde. Andrew Garncarek was also part of Yellocayke, The Singles, The Avengers and Present Tense.

I check out some of these bands, and I find out that for example Thee Strawberry Mynde, which their song “She Sets the Scene” sounds pretty good by the way, hailed from Hartlepool. Does this mean that The Sealclubbers came from that area as well?

On Youtube I find another track, “Till the Morning Light”, by The Sealclubbers. This song was recorded at Studio 64 in Middlesbrough on June 4th 1991. I guess it comes from the same recording session as the single. This video post also tells that the band was actually only together for 2 days, the 3rd and 4th of June. I guess just to record the single! That’s nuts! Why was that?

And that’s it really. Not much more information about them. And lots of questions left waiting for an answer. Would be great to find out why they only got together to record a single. How did they even promote it? Who remembers them?

EDIT April 23, 2022:

I got in touch with Mark “Bazza” Barrett, the band’s bassist. These are his memories of The Sealclubbers

Back in 1991 I was asked if I wanted to play on a single that Dave Edley (aka Tetley) and Andrew Garngarek (Gwangie) had planned. We all knew each other from the 80s and had met via the Mod scene, Tetley & Gwangie had played in the band The Singles who recorded a few demos and had supported Makin’ Time at Redcar Bowl back on World Cup final day in 1986. I had been playing bass since 1985 and had formed a band called The Alternative which lasted from 1986-87, our first gig taking place on my 16th Birthday 4th October 1986.

At the time I didn’t have a bass or amp so I borrowed an amp off an old school friend and I got my old bass (an Ibenez Rickenabcker copy) off the lad I had sold it to a few months earlier. I had sold the bass for £50 when I needed some money for one of the Mod rallies. We booked 2 days into Studio 64 in Middlesbrough, the studio is long gone now but was just over the road from Dr Browns pub on Corporation Road. The days booked were Monday 3rd & Tuesday 4th June 1991, we spent one day rehearsing the songs & a day recording.

For the session the line up was Dave Edley (vocals/rhythm guitar), Andrew Garngarek (lead guitar), Mark Barrett (bass) and Dom Strickland (organ). We didn’t have a drummer at the time so we borrowed a drum machine from the studio. We recorded 2 original songs for the single – ‘Yellow & Magenta’ and ‘The Reaper’ both written by Dave and also a cover of The Prisoners ‘Till The Morning Light’ which was never released. No one knew how to program the drum machine so all 3 tracks had the same drum pattern! We all chipped in for the recording session, I can’t remember the full cost of the session now but I do remember it was nearly all of my dole money for that week as we also bought the master tape. I also remember we took a break during the session and headed into town where Dom bought the LP ‘Pure’ by The Times at the local Our Price record shop which had just come out on Creation Records.

Later Dom’s brother Jez put drums onto 1 track – ‘The Reaper’. Some 10″ Acetate discs were made for the single (possibly only 1 or 2 copies?) and bare the namd The Tree Surgeons which was what the band were going to go by before going with The Sealclubbers. Due to a cock up my name missed off the credits when the single was released towards the end of 1991. The record labels were also stuck on the wrong sides on all of the records, the original labels were black with silver print, we got some done which were white with black print and stuck them over the top.  I do remember Tetley give me my copy of The Sealclubbers single at a gig by The Clique (who Dom was now playing organ for) at The Adelphi in Hull in January 1992.

The Sealclubbers never did play live, we did get an offer to play at Havana’s nightclub in Middlesbrough which was well known on the rave scene at the time. But that fell through and we went our seperate ways, Dom joining The Clique, I joined the ska band The G-Men and Tetley & Gwangie formed Yellowcayke who put out an EP on Detour Records.

I have since played with Tetley in my studio band The Che Men (for the ‘A Flame That Can’t Be Dimmed’ EP) and also in Thee Strawberry Mynde were Tetley did a few gigs with us and also features on the Get Hip compilation on my record label Red Star Recordings.

King Mojo (whose line up includes Tetley) later recorded ‘The Reaper’ for their debut album ‘Do Not Feed The Dancing Bear’. The album was produced by The Prisoners frontman Graham Day who we had covered one of his songs at that 1991 Sealclubbers session.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Listen
The Sealclubbers – Yellow and Magenta