It’s just some other day, some other Sunday here. It’s a quiet one. For once the temperature has dropped under 15 degrees and, without the hellish warmth of this town, the days seem longer. My worries revolve around having printing sleeves for a new release and noticing there is a mistake on the track list, thus they have to be trashed. Very annoying, will have to print a new set. Also cut them and glue them together. Lost of hours lost. It’s really just some other day.

Among the exciting things, this upcoming week will be like Christmas on my snail mail. First I’m receiving the inserts for the Oh! Custer 7″, then the 7″s themselves and later the sleeves. Ready to ship to the  ones who have pre-ordered it. Think I’ll need to change the blade on my cutter too, lots of inserts to cut! The other news is that I already received a proof of the new album I’m releasing on the new label I’m putting together with my friend Victor Raul, it looks good, but we need to make a few changes as it didn’t print as we wanted. So now we are looking forward to a new proof copy. We are hoping for a December 1st release, and we should unveil the website any day now. It’s looking very nice. But then, most weeks are like Christmas on my mailbox, so just some other week.

Anyhow, that album we are releasing has been on heavy rotation on my CD player. It’s called “Australia” and it’s by Gothenburg band “Tellus about the Moon“. It’s really nice, it’s haunting! There’s some bright guitars, a lot of elegance, and trumpets! The boy/girl vocals are delicious on it. It has taken us ages to be able to put it together and at last it seems we have it, the ball is rolling on this new project. And yes, I said haunting before, and you know what haunts me when I listen to this album? I hear the ghosts of a long lost 80s band: Some Other Day. Their spirit is very much alive on this record. I feel and sense so many similarities, that gives me the chills. And not like it is a copycat or anything, but it feels both bands were in the same brainwave 20 years apart!

Some Other Day had those bright guitars, that elegance, that melancholy in the vocals, and these dreamy boy/girl vocals that are my weakness. They didn’t get to release an album sadly. They didn’t get to release anything proper. Just two songs on compilations. The first one was “Sad But True” on the “Uncle Arthur’s Pop Parlour” tape that our friend David Driscoll released. The other was “Bury Your Sins” on the “Not Just Mandela” LP, a tribute album for South Africa’s then president that included bands like The Housemartins, The Sullivans or even Billy Bragg.  This one I haven’t had yet the chance to listen sadly. They did release at least one demo tape that included 4 fab songs: “Head Still Full of You”, “All Water Under the Bridge”, “It Stays With Me Always” and “Midnight”. This little collection of songs are wonderful! You can stream them from here, the Harlow Bands Jukebox.

After listening to these songs I immediately went to google and tried to find any information about them, hopefully a contact, as I would love to interview them. I did find Mark Walshe, the vocalist and leader of the band, on myspace, but still he hasn’t signed on it. Seems he is living in San Francisco. There is a very interesting blurb there:

Mark is from England. He has been living in San Francisco for the last 14 years but only came for a two month visit. His big brother once took him up to Twin Peaks at the very top of the city and said “all this could be yours”. It wasn’t his to give, but the point was well made. Through his teens and into his twenties Mark played in bands back in England. Lots of good rock and roll groups. He’s from Harlow Town which is just a hop and a skip from North London. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, at first glance, Harlow appeared to be nothing more than a large training camp for Tottenham and West Ham football holligans. Thanks to the one and only decent local venue called ‘The Square’ Mark met many fine musicians and got involved in some good old rock and roll. He played in Dark Horse, The Clinic, Some Other Day and The Tender Trap. Harlow, as it turned out was also a breeding ground for some damn good art. Moving to London in the late ’80s The Tender Trap became his main concern and he spent much of his time in a transit van traveling all over Britain. A favourite memory was a tour with ex-‘Men They Couldn’t Hang’ lads ‘The Liberty Cage’. They meandered all the way up to Edinburgh and lived there for a week whilst performing shows at the festival. One day he hopes to write a book about those times but fears that only his mother and the other people in those bands would read it. Perhaps the driver too.

On another page I could find a little more info on the band:

Some Other Day were formed after Mark Walsh left The Clinic. Originally a two piece with Mark on guitar and Suzy Allen on vocals they soon expanded and added Billy Dawkins on drums. Soon after this they added Richard Martin on bass. Some Other Day entered the 1985 Rock Contest but failed to reach the finals.

Also I found a rambling by BBC Radio’s Steve Lamacq saying:

A couple of us also managed to stage an editorial coup, seizing control of the Gazette’s music page and writing endlessly about the Newtown Neurotics and various other lesser-known local hopefuls (one of which, a band called Some Other Day, I also ended up managing unsuccessfully for about two months).

Maybe he is the one to blame for the band not having a proper release? “Managing unsuccessfully”? The songs are so good that I don’t see why not even a self-released 7″, or even a flexi, couldn’t have happened. Their music was not just music for some other day. I wonder if there were more songs, why did they break up? if they play lots of gigs? Maybe those living in San Francisco can tell Mark to get in touch! Maybe this helps for you to track him down?

Rarely is there a night that Mark Walshe is not in a bar (pitching trivia questions). Originally from Harlow, Essex, Mark lived in North East London in his early twenties. His interest in broadcasting originated in his rock and roll bands ‘Some Other Day’ and ‘The Tender Trap.’ Mark has worked as a DJ and booker for Nickie’s nightclub in SF’s Lower Haight St. and as full time DJ/emcee at SF’s Virgin Megastore, where he turned the downtown shoppers onto music and interviewed Nelly Furtado, Blondie, De La Soul and David Byrne. He much prefers people mistaking him for Jimmy Page than Simon Cowell, which is the main reason that he hasn’t had a haircut in some time! Mark writes and performs his own songs, which he dearly hopes won’t remind you of Donovan! Stop by and play Wednesdays at O’Neill’s Irish Pub (San Mateo), and Thursdays at Elephant & Castle in San Francisco.

Ah! and now back to my some other Sunday.

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

Listen
Some Other Day – Head Still Full of You