Day 88. Days continue to be similar. Though I think we are making progress now with the Macguffins release. You know we found three more songs and we weren’t sure how to release them. I think I have an idea now and we are moving forward. I should be sending the album to press soon. Also at last we are working on a new 7″. And that is very exciting. Will have news soon!

Now, this weekend I did listen to music. Some good finds here:

Airhockey: the best Miami band of these times have released a new song called “Try”. The lyrics are quite simple that is true, but the music and the atmosphere it creates work really well. It is a bittersweet dreampop song, and one can only wonder when are they releasing an album!

The Umbrella Puzzles: More new songs by Ryan Marquez new project. Today he brings us an original song, “Do What You Can”, and a cover version of the wonderful Hopkirk & Lee’s “Summershine”. They are really lovely both. And hey, maybe it is a good idea to follow his advice, use headphones for optimum listening pleasure!

Useless Youth: the Mexico City combo formed by Yak, Pepe, Ian and Emiliano are back with another jangly song called “Witches”. This song was actually written for their 2018 album “Cities” but in the end wasn’t included. Now they have remastered it and released it as a very fine digital single!

Torres Satélite: looks as this is just a digital release on Discos de Kirlian. 7 songs of wonderful Spanish pop recorded between April and May this year. The band is formed by María de la Vega y Santiago Pérez and these are their first songs!

The Death of Pop: and another fine release on Discos de Kirlian is the new track by Angus James and Oliver James, The Death of Pop! The new song is called “The House That We Built” and it will be part of the forthcoming album “Seconds”.

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Remember I wrote some time ago about the Scottish band Kick Reaction? The band had released a 7″ back in 1986. If you don’t I suggest you check that post as I write a bit about them. Among the things I mention is that before they were called Kick Reaction the band was actually known as Moroccan Coco. But was it that way? Did they share the same members? Let’s find out!

Moroccan Coco only released one 7″. It was released in 1983 and if we consider that Kick Reaction was already recording songs in 1985, then the band couldn’t have lasted more than 2 years.

This 7″ was released by Steam Radio (SR 001). It is the only release by the label so it is safe to assume it was a privately pressed record. The songs included were “One Day” on the A side and “Steam Radio” on the B side.

So far I’ve only listened the A side, “One Day”, a fine Postcard-influenced track. It is very good! According to Discogs the songs were written by Peter Lyons. Both tracks ended up being recorded during the autumn of 1983 at Arch Studios in Glasgow (I am now familiar with this Studios as on the Baby Lemonade compilation we included a few demos recorded at this same place.

According to Discogs there is a misspelling on the label, appearing as Morrocan Coco, two Rs and one C, and Coco written with silver pen. They mention too that there are copies where the word Coco doesn’t even appear.

We know too that the sleeve was designed by Kretin and La Rhone.

The other name we know was involved in Moroccan Coco was that of Jim Mitchell, their manager. I wrote this on my previous post:

Lastly another user says that he played with Stuart Macarthur before Peter Lyon joined. I am guessing he means Stuart Thorn? Them two tried to get Peter Lyons to sing in their band but it seems he refused as he was trying to get his band called The Usherettes off the ground. Then nothing happened for a while until this guy left to study in Motherwell and Peter and Stuart joined forces forming Moroccan Coco with Jim Mitchell as their manager. Moroccan Coco would only release the one single, “One Day/Steam Radio”. Then they changed names to Kick Reaction.

On Discogs there is also a mention that the single was reviewed by the Deadbeat Fanzine (issue #24). Here they mention the band hailed from the Hamilton area. I was able to track down that review, which is from a gig they shared with Strawberry Tarts and Entertainment:

Moroccan Coco looked a bit unhappy at the small turn out as they took the climb on stage. Arriving there however they realised the full potential of the evening. With no pressure ‘to impress’ they did! They played like the solid music machine they are. I said in my review of their new single “Steam Radio” that it was good music for the sakes, but and for the good. Mike Read and Steve Wright, imagine a song for both! The Sunday Post should’ve got a metion somewhere along the lines too but, “Steam Radio…. vintage stories are his specialty… he’s a sucker for sentimentality…. a man of emotions… one of those people who care about keeping old traditions everyday and everywhere…” sums the song up I’d say.
Pete Lyons (vocals and guitar) will probably sue if I write anymore but I like this single tons! The backing singer was as good live if not tops compared to the record and along was the flip “One Day” made this journey really necessary! The rest of their set (apparently cut short) was good and it’s a great feeling of relief liking an evening like this when all music is new noise to the ears!

Not much more information about them on the web. Shame indeed. But I am hoping that at some point we’ll be able to find out more about this terrific Scottish band, hopefully find out that they recorded a trove of songs because I’d love to listen to them! And interview them too, that’d be ace!

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Listen
Moroccan Coco – One Day