Day 207.

Dayflower: our good friends from Leicester, the fantastic Dayflower, are back with a terrific new song called “Stuck To You”. It has quickly became a favourite of mine of their whole repertoire. I just wonder if I’ll ever get to catch them live, playing this song, playing the songs of the 7″ we released. Things are so unclear these days. But I do think this song can make you happy, give you a smile. at least during the 3:55 minutes it lasts. Really lovely.

The Haywains: more news from friends of us! Here is “The Haywains Have Left The Building!” a 30 song album that includes a full gig from 1993 in Nottingham plus a few more live versions from different gigs. I really hope this gets released in physical format. So so good!

The Chickpea Darlings: Huw from The Spanish Amanda and Jo Darling, with Ivan on the beats, have a new album called “Bitter Lemon”. Three or four years in the making, the album includes some great pop songs like “Ugly Pop Stars” or “1988”. Do give it a listen!

Vacance: now we head to Bordeaux to discover this new band that will be releasing an album on the very good Melotron Recordings from Thessaloniki in Greece. The album will be released on CD, 11 songs, out on October 23/ We can preview just one song at the moment, “Bord de Mer”, which is very nice!

Dreams of Empire: this great shoegaze duo have been on the blog many times, and I don’t mind recommending them again, their song “Space Invader” is ace. This song is the opening track of the upcoming “Encapsulation” album that will be released on CD on November 6!

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Now that the challenge is over I want to get some bands that for some reason or another haven’t been featured on the blog. Bands who have songs and records that are favourite of mine and that I actually know very little about them. That is the case of Hearts on Fire who released an album and two 12″ maxis on Midnight Music. And they left a song that is a true favourite of mine, “(You Promised Me a) Camera”.

When it comes to their discography they started releasing music in 1985. That year an EP and an album was released. I am guessing the EP came first, so I’ll start there. Before that I want to say that I only own the album, and maybe this is good time for me to get copies of their EPs.

Their first EP was titled “You May Now Know” (DONG 15). It was produced by David Ros and included four songs. On the A side we find “You May Not Know” and “Four Corners (Of My Soul)” while on the B side “Persuade You Again” and “Love on Trial (Acoustic Version)”.

The band’s album as released that same year and was called “Dreams of Leaving”. It has a very cool artwork, of a caravel (?) or a galleon (?) over colorful waves. Yeah, I don’t know much about ships. Maybe someone can help me and tell me what kind of vessel it is. In any case it was also released by Midnight Music (CHIME 00.12S), the label Nick Ralph used to run back in the 80s and early 90s. Now Cherry Red owns their catalogue of course.

The album had 11 songs. The A side had “(You Promised Me a) Camera”, “Flamingo Affair”, “Hidden Heart”, “Love on Trial” and “This Sultry Day”. The B side had “Zero Ours”, “You May Not Know”, “Fire One”, “Everything to Me”, “Shall We Be Dancing?” and “Seasons”. Again the album was produced and engineered by David Ros and was recorded at the well-known Alaska Studios in London.

On this record jacket we also find the band members:
Mitch Beam – guitars
Billy Finn – guitars
Mike Edmonds – bass
A. F. Tolson – percussion
Syn D’Cody – vocals

The Midnight Rambler (from The Essence) played organ, Jeremy Hirsch the trumpet and Louis Vause (Hackney Five-O) the piano. The photos for the sleeve were taken by Andrew Springham. The sleeve is credited to Johnny Jeane for Blue in the Afternoon.

Lastly in 1986 the band would release their EP “You Promised Me a Camera” (DONG 25). Four songs again, “(You Promised Me A) Camera” and “Starting Line” on the A side and “Heaven” and “Because You Care” on the flipside.  It was a 12″ on Midnight Music of course.

That same year their song “Everything to Me” would be included in the “Between Today and Tomorrow” (CHIME 00.17L) compilation released by Midnight Music.

What else we know about them? Mike Edmonds seems to have continued playing bass oon his own band, Mike Edmonds Bass-ic Requirement. And I know that Syn O’Cody did backing vocals on another Midnight Music release, on Sudden Afternoon’s “Acid Rain” EP from 1986.

Some copies of the album came with an insert. That insert reads: “Mitch and Mike were school chums…Mitch didn’t know whether to play with his dinky or his fire engine. Mike asked Billy if he played guitar — after all, it was the hope & anchor…and he wore Roger McGuinn sunglasses. They were introduced to Syn at a Brixton rodeo. Even cowgirls sing the blues…They wrote songs in a house full of aardvarks. Mitch didn’t know whether to play with the band. They twisted his arm, but he could still play guitar. They needed a drummer — luckily there was a fresh delivery from Canada — A. F. Tolson was on it. An aardvark introduced them to the midnight rumbler. They made a record in Alaska with Dave. Here it is…”

I google them a lot with no results. It feels like they just disappeared from the face of the Earth. I would think they would be involved in other bands. I do feel that the band was ahead of the curve. Their music if released a year or two after would have gotten more attention. C86 tape hadn’t been released when they put out their jangly album.

The last piece of news I found, thanks to a comment on Youtube is that Syn was living (at least 6 years ago) in France in a town called Nontron.

Who remembers this terrific band?! I would love to know more, and I think they duly deserve a reissue!

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Listen
Hearts on Fire – (You Promised Me A) Camera