Day 200.

The Very Most: it has been a while since we heard from Jeremy Jensen’s band but the wait is over. The Very Most will be releasing “Needs Help” on October 9th. This album is quite interesting as it has many indiepop names, like Mel from Hermit Crabs, Cristina Quesada or Kristine from Tiny Fireflies, collaborate in different songs. Also it is worth noting that the CD release is on Kocliko Records, a label we are big fans of.

Topographies: now a shoegaze album that will be released on December 4th. The album is called “Ideal Form” and it is by the San Francisco band Topographies. At this moment we can only preview one of the tracks, “Rose of Sharon”, out of 8 songs that will be on the vinyl LP.

Tapeworms: on the French label Howlin Banana Records they have some news, they are releasing Tapeworms album “Funtastic”! Well, it is actually out since Sept. 25, and the 10 songs are out now on vinyl.

Grazer: “How Many Times” is the latest song by the Melbourne four-piece formed by Matt, Mollie, Nic and Adie and it is a great song. Don’t know much about this, but one important fact is that the song will be included in the upcoming album bu the band.

Pop at Summer: I had recommend not too long ago the song “Summer is Coming!” by the Indonesian combo! It is a great song, and well, now there is a video the band has made for it! And it is great as well! It feels very summery indeed! For us in the northern hemisphere, summer is over, but for those in the south it is indeed coming. So yeah, share this lovely video/song away!

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My friend Jessel asked me to try to find any information about the Leicester band Why Dad, Why? I guess he asked me because I had released a 3″CD back in 2007 by the band Scottish Polis Inspectors. It turns out both bands shared a member, Richard Shops.

In my defense I didn’t know this. Back in 2007 I wasn’t running the blog and I didn’t have this interest to tell the story of indiepop in a blog or anything. I mean, I was interested and was curious, but many times I forgot to ask the right questions. With Scottish Polis Inspectors something like that happened. They had previously released a wonderful EP titled “Gina McKee” in 2005 that was only available through them.

I had ordered that CD and was a true favourite. So when I started the label I asked to release them. I was so chuffed that they said yes that I didn’t ask much about their background. But I do know that the band was formed by Richard Collier as a vocalist and guitarist, Michael Cook on bass and guitar and Andrew Perks on drums. So ok, does this mean that Richard Shops was actually called Richard Collier?

Now let’s fast-track 13 years. A video of a gig of Why Dad, Why? appears on the Youtube channel of the Abbey Park Festival. It is a 1987 gig where the band plays a few songs. We don’t know the names of the songs, maybe one could be “Charity”? I know the last one they played was called “Money & Suit”.

I do know thanks to a flyer of a gig Why Dad, Why? played together with Po! that there were songs named “I Saw Dennis Norden in a Pub” and “Put the Yuppies on the Dole Popwit”, maybe these were played at the gig? I think so!

I keep looking for the other band members. On the Facebook page of the Abbey Park Festival Archive there are some photos. Someone says that the bassist of the band was called Guy Bates. Sadly it seems he passed away.

One thing that was shared on Youtube is a video of Richard Shops playing solo in Leicester as part of the Claws Out Rally Against Clause 28. There are other bands in the video of course, it lasts about an hour, but the opening act is Richard, so that’s super cool to see.

If you want to know a bit more, a little background about this gig, the person who uploaded the video, Nick Lansley, says:

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 caused the controversial addition of an amendment that stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”. Although I had graduated form Leicester Polytechnic the year before and started work in the south east of England, I often returned to the many friends I had made in Leicester. So I was happy to participate in and film Leicester’s response to the forthcoming Section 28 enactment. This movie documents that rally, which took place in March 1988 in the gardens outside Leicester City Hall.

The only other interesting thing is that between 1983 and 1985 Richard was in a band with indie legend Ruth Miller from Po! This band was called The Soviets. Ruth has actually written about this band on her blog, so read that!

We know from her post that Richard played bass and guitar in the band, and I wish I get a chance to listen to the songs. They are described as fast jangly guitar pop. That sounds like my kind of music! Are there any The Soviets recordings out there? I know there were tape recordings…

Another thing mentioned in the post is that Richard had been previously in bands in the North East. Which bands?

And so tracking and following my detective instincts on Google, I stumble upon 20 recordings by Richard on Bandcamp! These 20 songs make up the album “These Are Our Days”. They are all marked as demos, and they are really lovely. Wow, really.

I notice too that Richard is based in Newcastle, left Leicester long time ago.

This album makes me happy. Of course I’d love to hear songs by Why Dad, Why? on this post, but this is a great discovery. I will send a message now to Richard, maybe we can find out about his many bands starting with Why Dad, Why?!

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Listen
Why Dad, Why? – Money & Suit (live at Abbey Park Festival 1987)