Day 81. Another week and getting closer to the 3 month mark of staying/working at home. No traveling. I miss going places so much.

Music is indeed one of the few things I enjoy the same way as always. So it is thrilling still to write this blog, to find new music, to share with everyone. So here we are again.

Slow Connection: I was looking for a Bandcamp or a Soundcloud for this Barcelona band but couldn’t find it. I only know of this song, “Mi Primavera”, which is on Youtube. It is not even a proper video but one using old footage and showing the song’s lyrics. The song is very nice though so it is totally worth sharing it!

Night Heron: the Boston band are releasing a CD album on the Subjangle label. It is actually an 18 song compilation of 13 older songs and also 5 new tracks, The album is out now and I highly recommend it. Very nice guitars and melodies.

Cathedral Bells: Cassadaga, Florida. Don’t know where that is. I lived in Miami for many years, so I am bit familiar with Florida. But Cassadaga, never heard of it. It seems it is between Orlando and Daytona Beach. Suburbia? Perhaps. Matthew Messore hails from there and he is the driving force behind this dreampop band that has just released a new excellent digital single called “Undertow”.

Laveda: the Albany, New York, band is back now finally with their album “What Happens After”. I have recommended the band a few times in the past months so it is great to see they are now releasing a 10 song album titled “What Happens After”. It is out now only for US fans in 12″ vinyl.

Night Hikes: I have championed this Seattle band in the past and so I want to do it again. They have a new song called “Raven” which is a bit different to previous favourites of mine like “Belltown” or “Avila”. This one is a bit darker and moodier but nonetheless very good!

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Another request came, this time from a US reader. He was asking about the legendary band James Dean Driving Experience. He told me that there is very little about them on the web. I find that hard to believe. Not that I have looked much about them in the past. I love their songs, but never really investigated their story. So now is a good time, right?

The London based band released four records during their existence in the late 80s. The first one being a single sided flexi, self-released (catalog JDDE-1), with Audrey Hepburn on the sleeve (she is credited as the “first screen goddess”). Two songs were going to be on this 1987 release, “World Weary & Wise” and “Oh, Grateful”. These two songs were recorded in AAA Studios in Islington and had Nick Gibbons on bass and drums, Philip Powell on bass and drums as well as designing the sleeve, and David Hopkins on guitar and Ian Gregg on acoustic guitar and vocals. Eric Pavlyak on piano and as the engineer for the recordings, Another thing we find on the sleeve is an address in Hanworth, Middlesex. Is that were the band was from?

Then in 1988 the band would release “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”. This was a 7″ on the Autumn Glow label (AUT 001). Was it their own label? Or who was behind it? Here there were three songs, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream” on the A side and “Tale of an Old Flame” and “Song to a Stranger” on the B side. The songs were again recorded at AAA Studios with the same lineup. Eric Pavlyak was once again the engineer. Philip did the sleeve and Vicky Richardson played violin. Vicky who would play violin on the McCarthy album “The Enraged Will Inherit the Earth” as well as being vocalist for the band Corduroy. Speaking of the sleeve, now the third screen goddess was Claudia Cardinale. Okay, so who was the 2nd? I need to find out. Was there a release in between?

One thing that I see is that some of the 7″s came with some promo inserts. There is one with some tour dates. Thanks to that we know the band played on August 19, 1988, at the Windsor Arts Centre, on the 20th at the White Horse in Belsize Park with Benny Profane and at the Camden Falcon on the 25th alongside This Poison! These were all London gigs. Then on August the 12 they played in Northfleet, Kent, at the Red Lion with The Corn Dollies, and a day later at the Medway Arts Centre in Chatham, Kent, with McCarthy and Thrilled Skinny.

That same year, 1988, they would contribute the song “Drop Dead Darling” to the classic compilation tape “Something’s Burning in Paradise” released by Subtle (001).

In 1989 they would release their first 12″, “Clearlake Revisited” (PLASS 013). This one came out on Plastic Head Records Limited which was a label based in Oxon. They have an extensive catalog but I must say I don’t think I am familiar with the bands. Are there any other indiepop bands here? Now the sleeve will feature Rita Hayworth as their fourth screen goddess.

The songs on this 12″ were “Clearlake Revisited” and “Oh, Grateful” on the A side and “Drop Dead Darling” and “Ballad of Bedford Town” on the AA side. Now we see that Vicky Richardson has joined the band according to credits. Also now Arthur Watts is the drummer instead of Philip Powell. The songs were recorded at The Glass Trap in Southall in May 1989 and were produced by the band and Graeme Tollitt. Graeme was also the engineer.

The song “Ballad of Bedford Town” would be included in 1989 on the tape “My Favourite Sunday Vol.1” (RODDY 004) released by the great Boshi label run by our friend Akiko.

Lastly in 1990 the band would sign to the famous Él Records and release the legendary “Sean Connery” 12″ (GPO 45T). The A side would feature “Sean Connery” and “Never Means Everything” while the B side had “Hicksville U.S.A.” and “World Weary and Wise”. Now the band would record at the well known Alaska Studios. I believe this is the moment in time that Cherry Red gets their rights (correct me if I am wrong) so seeing a retrospective compilation of their music would only happen if Cherry Red decides too. I really hope it happens someday. We need all of their songs together with nice liner notes. At least that’s a dream I have.

The produced for this album was Johnny Milton and he also did as engineer with assistant engineer Marcelo Zambelli. The sleeve now features their fifth screen goddess, Gina Lollobrigida.

So cool right? That aesthetic of always having one of their cinema heroes on the sleeve. They always kept that style, it was their trademark. That and their jangly and perfect songs. It is no surprise then that this year Optic Nerve Recordings reissued the 12″ as a 7″ (ON211) with the same tracklist.

There are two other compilation appearances. The first dates from 1993, it was on a CD compilation called “Bellissimo! Él Singles Part Two” released by Richmond Records (MONDE 12) where their song “Sean Connery” appears and the second one is the boxset “C90” (CDTRED802) that was released this year, 2020, by Cherry Red. Again they include “Sean Connery”.

Discogs has a few more details worth checking. Arthur Watts was originally from Gloucester and also played drums for The Assassins. Philip Powell on the other hand was part of the fantastic The Ruth Ellis Swing Band (who definitely deserve a post in this blog sometime).

Another thing we can’t miss is that there was a video made for their song “Clearlake Revisited“.

On the web I found that there was a fanzine called “Spasm: No: 1”, the one that came with the Cumbersome and Candie Maids flexi (both bands featured on the blog in the past) which had something written about James Dean Driving Experience. What? an article? an interview? I can’t tell. Maybe someone can help with that!

Another interesting bit of trivia was that Ian was working for Sainsburys around 2008 according to the Anorak Forum.

I also may have found what could have been their 2nd release. A tape called “Lonely Hearts XI versus the Rest of the World”. It appears listed on Twee.net and dates from January 1988. Maybe this is the one that had their second screen goddess? I saw what looks like a James Dean Driving Experience cassette on the web. It had, I think, Brigitte Bardot on the sleeve. Might this be the one that I am missing in this recount? And what songs were on this tape? I believe three, “Dean’s Eleventh Dream”, “Lonely Hearts XI Versus the Rest of the World” and “Drop Dead Darling”.

And honestly that’s really it. There’s nothing else about them on the web, no details, no nothing. The C90 compilation, in the liner notes, adds a few more details. One that Ian Gregg was once a guitarist for the great band Reserve. And that he returned at some point, after the band split, to his hometown of Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire. Yeah. That’s all.

Of course I want to know why weren’t there more releases. An album. Or more songs? Are there more? Demos perhaps? There are a few bands who can say that they released a string of perfect singles. JDDE is one of them. They deserve more love. A compilation is needed.

Who remembers them?

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Listen
James Dean Driving Experience – Sean Connery