2022 was a difficult year in general.

A lot of important people left us. I lost someone very close at the tail-end of the year.

It was difficult to me to pay attention what was going on. I remember seeing news of indiepop legends passing. But it is still a blur. Even now that we have changed our calendars. Now that we are in 2023.

Going backwards I recall writing about some of the legends that passed by. But I missed some others that deserved a tribute from my part. I don’t have an answer why I didn’t write about them at the time of the news, or at least when I learned the news.

I will do it now. Maybe it is a strange way to start the year but at the same time, I feel it is good. It is good in the way that I won’t have to look back and feel I didn’t do something I should have.

Tommy Cherry passing away in the first half of 2022 was a surprise. And I meant to write some lines before 2022 was over. But my life has been a bit upside down, with lots of adjustments since I became a father, that days passed and didn’t manage to do what I wanted to do.

I interviewed Tommy many years ago. I am a big fan of his band The Bachelor Pad. That was back in 2008. The year I started the blog. His interview was fun, and I was happy to meet such a talented person.

I remember asking if his songs would be released at some point in a retrospective CD. He said if I was interested. I was. I remember then dropping him a line again asking if we should do it. But I didn’t happen.

We emailed a bit in early 2009. He sent me some flyer scans that could be part of the release. He liked the overall look of the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen and was keen for The Bachelor Pad to be released in the series.

He mentions to me that he has found the video for “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown” and “Country Pancake“. At that point I hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t on Youtube. Only “Coroner’s Wife” video was on there.

He tells me that he went to see Magazine play the other night. He had seen him previously in 1978. He mentions they were fabulous.

Then he offers to send me loads of fanzines from the time. I say I couldn’t abuse. I say if he has two copies of the same fanzine I’d be happy to take one… he says he has found LOADSA stuff he hasn’t seen for donkey’s years and asks me if they use that expression in America. That he most prized possession among his fanzines is not a ’77 Sniffing Glue zine but The 10 Commandments zine with Orange Juice in the cover.

In 2010 I hear back from Tommy. He tells me he has tracked down the guys from Toadhall Studios and was heading to Manchester to get the master tapes.

And that was the last time I heard from him.

I would have loved to release this record. But this story is nothing special, lots of times you make this progress towards a release and then it never happens. It’s part of doing a label. Life get in between. Sometimes for the artist, and sometimes for the label. This is a hobby in the end and sometimes there are other priorities.

Many years later, in 2014, I hear from someone wanting me to help getting in touch with The Bachelor Pad legend. Lucy from the Sarah Records Doc asked me for his contact info. Not sure if she contacted him, not sure why she wanted his info. Maybe she wanted to interview him? That’d been super cool. I wonder what came out from that.

In 2020 at last there’s sort of a retrospective release. The label Emotional Response releases “All Hash and Cock”. This compilation includes many of The Bachelor Pad’s hits. But not all. On vinyl you can only fit as much. Maybe on CD it would have impossible to fit all the band’s songs on one CD. I don’t know. I never knew if there were unreleased songs. I didn’t ask about that. I don’t know why. It is odd. I usually ask about these things.

A 10″ vinyl titled “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown” was also released by Emotional Response in 2020. It included a rare piano vocal mix of the title song.

We lost touch. We became Facebook friends eventually, but didn’t really retake the project.

On Facebook too The Bachelor Pad appeared with their own page where lots of great memorabilia was shared.

I never met Tommy in person, even though I visited Scotland a few times. Never coincided at a concert. I would have been giddy to meet him.

The last music project he was involved with was with The Whores (of Perception) I believe. That was around the year 2000. The played a few gigs at the 13th Note in Glasgow and released a record. Then they imploded.

For Tommy the highlights of The Bachelor Pad was playing with The Telescopes and also appearing on the plot of a John Constantine Hellblazer comic book that was written by fellow Scottish indiepop-legend Grant Morrison (ex-The Fauves) and published by DC comics.

I wonder if one day there will  be a proper acknowledgement of the quality of The Bachelor Pad and the talent of Tommy Cherry. I would love to have met. It seems he was lots of fun, original, and with a brain packed with a huge amount of cool ideas.

Rest in peace Tommy.

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Listen
The Bachelor Pad – Country Pancake

Happy holidays!

As mentioned I’ll be back next year. On the 2nd week of January. Hopefully we continue discovering obscure bands in 2023. I thanks everyone who commented on the blog this year, who emailed me, and those who keep supporting the label. See you soon!

The Catherines: “I’m Here to Keep You Warm” is the latest single by the Hamburg based duo formed by Heiko and Sandra. From what the band tells us, the song came up with the idea to write a song about Sandra’s hot water bottle. Yeah, so this song is a song from the perspective of said bottle!

Малыш Камю: the Russian band has just released an EP titled “Дом на краю света” and it sounds ace. The duo formed by Ekaterina and Evgeniy Nedliko have four new songs and it is also interesting that they ask that as support for this release for anyone to make a donation to a charitable organization in Ukraine.

Wasting: a nice discovery! Wasting hail from Seattle and are formed by Cole Paramore and Lance Fohrenkam. Their latest release was a digital single called “Tulips” that came out on July 3. Yeah, I am a bit late to the party. But do check it out and also their previous songs, they have a terrific sound.

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas: There’s two volumes for these compilations, Vol 1 is here and Vol 2 here. Included are tons of songs, all Christmas, all festive. And it includes superb bands like Swansea Sound, The Popguns, Sally Shapiro, The Pearlfishers and more. This mega release’s proceeds will go to the UK charity Crisis.

Melted Ice Cream: never heard a band from Chetumal, Mexico. I’ve wanted to visit their city for many years, and now hearing a band that actually makes some nice music makes me more curious. Their latest release is a digital single called “Volar”, but I think I enjoyed a bit more their previous effort “Dime que Me Extrañas”.

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When I interviewed the Douglas, Isle of Man, band Angels Arc they recommended me some bands from their island. Among them was the Klevershirts.

They shared with all of us some news. That the Klevershirts had reformed in 2019 after 35 years! They had a new single out titled “Boulder” and there was even a video made for this track.

The one thing that confuses me is that I have seen their name as Klevershirts but also as Klever Shirts. I believe the band prefers the first way of writing their name, but even them, in their 1987 demo wrote it as Klever Shirts.

That 1987 demo is on the band’s Soundcloud. The demo was recorded in Linden Studio which was located in Cumbria, in Penrith to be exact. It is operated by Guy Forrester and Máire Morgan. They even had a label called Linden House, but not sure why they didn’t release Klevershirts music. Would have been cool.

The songs on these demo were four, “Bright White Light”, “Sucker for a Pretty Face”, “Laughing in my Face” and “Now that I Have”. From what I understand this is the band’s second demo. Where is the first?

I haven’t found audio for it, just for one of the songs. But we know it was recorded in 1986, in November of that year, at Linden Sounds too. Three songs were recorded, “Fingers to the Bone”, “Julie Horse” and “Thousand Tears”.

The band has a website too.

In April 1987 the band wins the Battle of the Bands at the Palace Lido.

The band’s rehearsal space was at the Douglas Head Hotel concert room.  Later on the band rehearsed at the MGM nightclub in Douglas.

Their name comes from a magazine article that had written an article about a scooter mob called The Shirts. The headline was “Clever Shirts Outwit the Police”. The band would change the C for K and they found their name.

The band was originally formed by Robbie Sampson on bass, Lee Harrison on guitar, Mark Green on drums, Paul Sellors on vocals and Selwyn Collister on guitar. Previously Robbie, Mark and Le had been in a band called The Klick.

In 1987 Nigel Quail joining as drummer.

Today the band is formed by Alex Harris on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Jonny Peacock on drums, Lee Harrison on guitar and vocals and Robbie Sampson on bass.

The new lineup has a lot of concerts lined up for this year and also for 2023.  All of them are in the Isle of Man.

And that’s what I found out about them. Very cool that they are back making music. Would be nice to see them live once.

Who remembers them? Anyone has more recordings by the Klevershirts?

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Listen
Klevershirts – Now That I Have

Penultimate post before…. the World Cup final? Yes. But also before I head on holidays. I won’t be posting until the second week of January.

This also means I won’t be able to fulfill orders placed on Cloudberry Records website until then. Though of course you can find copies of the records on Jigsaw Records.

That’s all the announcements so far. Hope to have fantastic news as soon as the new year starts.

Nadie Canta: the latest release by Discos de Kirlian, the fine Barcelona label, is the single “Intención Comercial” by Nadia Canta. Behind this project we find Carlos Alcántara who was in the band Holögrama. Nadie Canta is his solo project. Will there be a proper release coming up soon on the label?

Castlebeat: Josh Hwang from Castlebeat has been making superb pop tunes for some time now. His latest is a digital single titled “Wish”. It doesn’t mention if it will be released in any other format later on, but this is really nice.

David Christian: now and then we get the treat of new songs from Comet Gain’s leader. The latest is a 5 song EP for Christmas! It is titled “A Christmas Gift for Grumps, Drunks and Other Chumps”. All of them are original songs by “Kitten Christmas”. Lovely. I feel this is the year where I have found more new Christmas indiepop songs.

Blue Canopy: this very nice band from Portland, Oregon, just released a new digital single titled “Bright Spot”. There’s not much info about the band, but we know it is formed by Alex Schiff on keyboards, uke, lead vocals and drums, Patrick Smith on guitar, David Baldwin on bass and Erick Lee on backing vocals.

Merry Xmas Darling: a holiday compilation by Emotional Response Records! The label run by Stew from Boyracer released this compilation back in 2017 and is still available on CD. I missed it first time around! It includes bands like Possum Moods, Seafang, Crayola Summer and more. There are a few more Christmas compilations released by Emotional Response in the past like “Hey! It’s Christmas” or “Chrimbo with You”

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We head to Dundee today. It is 1989 and there’s a cool Scottish band called Baby Hurricane. Many of their tunes are up on Soundcloud since 2018.

The band was formed by Paul Smernicki on vocals and guitar, Ricky Goold on guitars, Kenny Penman on bass, Ally Fox on drums and Chris van der Kuyl on keyboards.

The earliest songs we find on Soundcloud date from 1989. They sound rough. Maybe it had to do where they were recording them, their rehearsal room in the basement of the Grey Lodge community centre in S. George St. Recorded there was the song “Take a Fall“.

The year after, 1990, they recorded more songs. For example “Something Special“, “Wishing Cup“, “You’re too Slow“, “Joe’s Garage“, “Lies“, “Take a Fall” and “Standing on My Own Two Feet” that were recorded in March of that year at the Fat Sam’s dancefloor with Nazz of Sons of the Shaking Earth at the controls.

In August of 1990 the band also went to Garage Studios on N. Isla St., Dundee. With Graeme Watt engineering the band recorded more songs including “Bridgebuilding” (where the voice at the start of the song is that of the band’s roadie/van driver Scott Brown reading an article about Sean Connery from The Scotsman), “Excellent Adventure“, “Full On“, “King of Candy“, “I Shall Be Spun” (name after a poem about St. Andrews University), “Spice” and “Sit Down & Listen“.

From the same session there is an alternative mix of “I Shall Be Spun“.

Then there are live tracks, recorded live at Fat Sam’s in Dundee, on July 1990. There are recordings of “Blaze” (the only time this song was played live), “One World” and “You“. Also from the same venue, but recorded live in December, we find “Bridgebuilding“, “King of Candy“, “Hello, I Love You“, “Tallness (Jack Ruby)” and “Wishing Cup“.

A few more live tracks are from a gig on April 18, 1990, at the Bar Chevrolet in Dundee. We find the songs “This is the Way it Was“, “Show You” and “You“.

The band also recorded at a mythical place, CaVa Studios in Glasgow in the spring of 1991. At that time the band recorded three songs, “Nova“, “Greenhouse” and “Lying Hands“.

Then it seems the band got together after 24 years in 2015. A reunion. At this point the band was to feature a new drummer, Rick Smernicki. Maybe Paul’s brother? The band rehearsed together and recorded a version of “King of Candy” and “Bridgebuilding“.

Two other songs were recorded in this period. In 2016 the band recorded “Modern Girls” and “Religion of Peace“.

Among the photos I see one where the drummer, Ally Fox, is wearing a Ride shirt. They were fans of the Oxford band? It wouldn’t surprise me of course. And also a shirt of The Happy Mondays.

Another detail I find is that they played at the legendary King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut on November 17, 1990.

The band also set up a Facebook page around the time of their reunion. There’s tons of details we can get from here.

We learn that the band’s first gig was at the Dundee Technical College (Bell Street Tech) Marketgait Students Union. On the same bill was a band called The Sandflowers (were they any good?). There’s a flyer for this gig. It appears as Baby Hurricanes. With an S. Also in parenthesis (The Daisies). Was that their previous band name? The other bands on the bill were Andi and Vari, Trouble in Doggie Land and Rock Against Loans.

Gigs that I find that the band played include, April 17, 1990 at West Port Bar and on April 4 and 18 and June 7, 1990, at Bar Chevrolet. Both venues were in Dundee. On April 14 of that same year the band played at The University of St. Andrews with The Deputies, Fat Freddy’s Cat, Last of England and The Twist. On December 12, 1990, Baby Hurricane played Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen. On that same month, on the 23 and with The Sandflowers, the band played at Fat Sams in Dundee. The band also played at the Aberdeen University Union in January of 1991.

There is a video too of the band playing live I think. There’s a video cover shared, I guess a VHS, dating from 1990. It was recorded at the Marketgait Union.

A cool thing is that on the movie Ferries Bueller’s Day Off, on a scene, there’s a poster of the band Flesh with support by Baby Hurricane. Didn’t notice that when Ii saw the movie!

Then there’s some videos on Youtube from the time of their reunion, 6 years ago, of the band rehearsing. And a Twitter account too.

On a post on the Retro Dundee blog about the flexi The Sandflowres released, I see that Paul Smernicki commented. He mentions that he used to work at the Bar Chevrolet.

And then some Youtube videos of the band playing live. Here’s “Bridgebuilding“, “King of Candy” and “Wishing Cup” at Fat Sam’s on December 23, 1990. Also from their first ever gig at the Marketgait Student Union there’s “Born to be Wild“.

And that’s it. That’s what I could collect about them. Anyone has any other interesting bits about them? Would love to know for example how many demo tapes they put out, or why they never released anything.

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Listen
Baby Hurricane – Something Special

The Orchids: superb news! Precious Recordings is releasing The Orchids’ Peel Sessions from May 8, 1990, and April 9, 1994 as a 10″ vinyl! Each of them come in a beautiful sleeve and has 4 songs. You can preview a track for each of the Peel Sessions. This is a MUST HAVE. Legendary.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples: “Mountain Lake Park” was originally a bonus vinyl-only album that came with the band’s 2022 album “Summer At Land’s End”. Now it us up as a digital release on the band’s Bandcamp. 11 songs.

Neil Brogan: another festive release! “Christmas EP” is a collection of Neil’s past songs plus a brand new track. This is very enjoyable.  Really liking them. I think I have four new songs to add to my Christmas mix CD. I think I will have to make a few volumes for this year. Check it out, really good.

Grazer: back to Melbourne, to a band I always enjoy. Matt and Mollie know how to write good indiepop songs. Their latest, “One Another”, is not an exception. It is dreamy, catchy, mellow… and a nice melody to boot.

Fine.: and finally a new album from Alice Kat and Liam James Marsh band Fine. This is pure quality. Pure class. The 19 songs  of “Love, Death, Dreams, and the Sleep Between” are to be released on January 1st by the Subjangle label. This is the perfect way to start 2023. A winning album.

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A year ago, in August 2021, the English label Spinout Nuggets released a 7″ by a Medway band called The Men from Memphis.

I only found out about this release a few weeks ago.

The interesting bit of it, is that a few copies are still available, and I really recommend getting your hands on them. Why? Well, their sound is ace, you get three songs from this long lost band from the 80s.

The band used to support big names in indiepop like The Dentists or The Claim. For some reason they had remained obscure for so long. Maybe I can help letting people know a little bit more about them.

The 7″ that was released by Spinout Nuggets is titled “Hacksawing the Head Off The Legend EP”. It was originally a four song EP. More on that later. This EP was recorded in March of 1989 at Red Studios in Kent by Graham Semark (who had worked with The Dentists, The Claim, The Sedgwicks). Spinout Nuggets said that the fourth track will be released somewhere else in the future.

This was the only recording session by the band formed by Simon Bunyan on vocals, Martin Brown on rhythm guitar (previously from The Hyacinth Girls), Andy Burton on lead guitar, Mark Aitken (previously from Let’s Go Naked) and Chris Hearsey on drums.

The band started when Simon met Chris at Joanna’s Nightclub in Gillingham. Chris was at college with two other members (it doesn’t say who!).

We know too that the b and played around twenty-odd gigs mostly around Medway but also in London.

After the band split the Men from Memphis dispersed. Simon and Mark continue making music under These Guilty Men. Mark is also in The High Span and Ye Ascoyne d’Ascoynes. And Chris plays in the Sergeants Mess.

The songs for the 7″ release were remastered by Alex Brown on February 2021. 300 copies of the record were made with artwork by Lee Grimshaw and photography by Martin Brown.

Oh right! The songs! Yes, the A side has “Sigh” which also has a video. The B side has “Move Me & Shake” and “Somewhere”.

Then I find the blog Medway Music Museum. There is an interview with Simon! It dates from 2009 and mentions another band Simon was in, Robert Underwater.

Lastly I want to share the Soundcloud of Simon Bunyan. Here you will find recordings of many of his other projects as well as the fourth song from the session of the 7″, “Sunny Day Ray“, which is truly fantastic and you wonder how it wasn’t included in the 7”!!I hope we find out more about this band, and again shame I only heard about them more than a year after they been released (after such a long time!). It is hard to keep up these days.

Who remembers them? Who saw them live? Why didn’t the get to release a record back in the day?

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Listen
The Men from Memphis – Sunny Day Ray

The Photocopies: and one more by the Michigan band! You wonder where Sean Turner finds time to write and record songs. I am quite jealous as I have very very little time these days. Well, The Photocopies has written three Christmas songs for an EP titled “Cheer Up, It’s Christmas”. Also included is a version of the traditional song “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”.

The Hannah Barberas: more Christmas songs! It is the season for sure. Now a limited 7″ by the British band The Hannah Barberas. This new 7″, limited to 50 copies, will include just 2 songs. A third song is available as a bonus download. The record is coming out on December 16, and I think this is a must for all of us that love some Christmas-tinged indiepop songs!

Boyracer: the legendary band is also back with Christmas songs! Two songs, “Magic to me” and “What Kind of Christmas Do You Want?” are available as a digital single, A side and B side. I think we have enough for a good festive playlist, right?

Les Bicyclettes de Belsize: and here is an album worth of indiepop carols! Charlie Darling shares with us 16 songs, a collection of him revisiting Christmas songs from his back catalogue. All re-recorded, re-mixed, and some re-written. Really lovely effort!

Comet Gain: 4 new songs by Comet Gain plus versions of old songs by David Christian in this collection titled “Heavy Necklace”. This 13 song album is up now on Comet Gain’s Bandcamp and as usual it is a must listen.

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Another find thanks to stoneeyedkiller’s Youtube account. It is a great resource to find obscure bands, I highly recommend checking it out now and then as it is updated much more often than this blog!

I am here just trying to give more context to the bands and songs he posts. See if there are more details to share. I hope that’s the case with this 90s indiepop band from Worcestershire called SWISS.

There is a trove of their songs on Soundcloud. These were uploaded 7 years ago and there’s very little information about them. The songs uploaded are “Symphony”, “Freefall”, “Big Surprise”, “Deeper”, “Marigold Man”, “People and Places”, “Say it Like You Do”, “Freakshow”, “Crease” and “Coming Down”.

Were these demos? There’s enough for an album here…

The band’s name makes it difficult to google them. The one detail that I can add is that there’s a photo on Soundcloud that shows the band was formed by 3 guys. One of them was called Craig I believe, sadly it seems Craig passed away some time ago.

So yeah, I am hoping for some details, hoping for anyone that remembers them to share some more info and hopefully learn the story of the band.

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Listen
SWISS – Big Surprise

April June: a new song by this Spanish project that has captivated me since the first time I heard them. I believe there’s just one person behind this project. At least there’s just one photo of a girl on Bandcamp. But there’s no other information. What I do know is that April June makes wonderful top-notch indiepop. The latest digital single “Making Out at the Cemetery” is a clear example of it. I hope for an album, an EP, something… on vinyl? or CD?

The Vapour Veils: another band that caught my attention is The Vapour Veils from Stockholm. So I am very happy today as I found out that the band has just put out the 5th single from their debut album “The Last Hurrah” on Bandcamp. This single is titled “Modern Love” and is ace. On top of that they share a non-song album titled “Vapour Veils” that is also fantastic. I can’t wait for their album to come out even though now I am buying waaaaaaay less records than before.

The Age of Colored Lizards: a band that have been repeatedly featured in the blog. This Oslo combo knows how to craft good songs and well, they’ve done it again. Their latest release came earlier in November and was a digital single titled “Close My Eyes” which is a goodie.

Helen Love: I missed this on! So BBC Radio 6 Music wanted for people to wear their favourite band t-shirt for November 4th. So Helen Love decided they were going to wear a Sparks one. And on top of it, they made a short but punchy song titled “I’ll Wear the Sparks One”. Bless.

Strawberry Generation: the Providence duo also released a single about a month ago, just in time for Halloween, and guess what, they named the song “Halloween”. They describe the song as a dream pop song about dressing up nice but not being nice!

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Another band from Woking that caught my attention thanks to the WokingSoundscene Soundcloud is The Ha Ha Men.

They had shared one song by them titled “Big” that was released on a cassette titled “Uncle Saps” from 1991 or 1992 (not sure). It sounds cool, very early 90s sounding. From what I gather the band released several cassette EPs during their time (1989 to 1994).

There’s a link to a website called Our Soundscene. Seems the people behind the Soundcloud have a website now. Before they used to link to a Facebook group.

On this website there’s a of more of information.

The band was formed by Jason Applin on vocals, Adrian Barry on guitar, Paul Harle on bass and Ptrick Bingley on drums.

The band’s first London gig was at the Rock Garden and they were actually booked by the great Jo Bartlett of Bluetrain and the Buzz Club! That tnight they played with the Manic Street Preachers. The band would also play other venues like The Cricketers in Westfield and The West End Centre in Aldershot.

One of their cassette EPs was titled “Face”. This one had the following songs, “Like a Train“, “FishyHead”, “Falls Into My Lap” and “Cruisin’ in my Terranova“. Another EP they released was titled “Power Cords” which came on a corduroy wrap cover.

In October 1990 the band supported Blur at the Buzz Club in the West End Centre in Aldershot. They would support them again at the University of London in November of that year.

On Soundscene’s 1990 Top Ten Local Songs their song “I Love My Wife” was number 5 and “You Call Me the Daily Mirror” was number 2.

Eventually in 1991 the band signed a deal with Flat Records to being working on an album titled “Love Burger”. This album was never released. Wonder how far they got in their recordings.

In December 1991 the band released the tape “Jim Bowen is Dead”. This EP had the songs “1000 Tooled Up Children”, “I Want Your Baby”, “Minds that Expand” and “See Her Fly”. On this recordings they had the help of Patrick “Patch” Hannan from The Sundays.

On Soundcloud there is one more song from the “Uncle Saps” tape. You can find “Bagshot, Ho!“, which sounds great.The other songs in this tape were “Let’s Talk ABout Love”, “Big (rerecorded)” and “This is Not Music”.

Some more gig finds. The Ha Ha Men played on November 22, 1989 at the Aldershot West End Centre with the support of the band Frantic. Then at The Cricketers in Westfield on January 3, 1991. Another gig is the one on February 1, 1992, at the same venue with the bands The River Thieves, Pretty Green and Peachrazor. Then in June 8, 1991, at the Pop Club at the Bull & Gate in London with the bands Blag and The Auteurs.

On July 25, 1991, the band played at the Town Square of Woking at the News & Mail’s 1st Annual Busking Festival that featured many bands including Who Moved the Ground, The Big Wednesday, Penfolds, The Sea, Vox Pop, and more. September 25, 1991, at The Cricketers in Westfield. Lastly, again at The Cricketers on January 3, 1994.

Who remembers them? Did they get a big following? What happened with their album? I would love to hear more songs by them!

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Listen
The Ha Ha Men – Big

The Photocopies: I think every week there’s some news by The Photocopies. Sean Turner’s solo project is the most prolific indiepop band this year and he has a new digital EP titled “Make Up Your Mind”. This EP consists of 4 jangly tracks that are very enjoyable.

The Spanish Amanda: finally! After a little wait since the English band announced their “Le Petit Magritte” EP, and then saying that an album titled “Magritte” was on the way, we finally get to listen to this very good album! It is released digitally and includes 10 songs that I think are very good. You know I am a big fan of Huw’s humor and his lyrics, so pay attention on them, and of course, if you need an introduction to the world of The Spanish Amanda, check out an interview on the blog from ages ago!

Scott Robertson: didn’t know that Kevin Robertson’s (The Vapour Trails) son made music. It is quite a surprise. Subjangle must have been happily surprised too and decided to release an album titled “Footprints in the Butter”. The album is out now on CD and few copies remain. The album features 11 songs of jingle jangly loveliness.

Silver Biplanes: “Silver Bells” is a wonderful version of the Christmas classic! I think that this song should be in everyone’s playlist this holiday season. This has been released as a digital single by the fine London label WIAIWYA.

The Happy Somethings: and lastly we should check out another English band, The Happy Somethings. They also have a Christmas song titled “Kind of True”. This one is an original and they share the lyrics. The song is not as upbeat, more of a mellow song. I think this one should be added to that holidays playlist. Do you have any other Christmas indiepop songs recommendations?

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Johnny Moran on guitar and vocals, Paul Gaffney on vocals and guitar, Paul Harper on bass and Anton Moran on drums formed the mid-eighties Irish band The Cracker Factory.

The band was active between 1985 and 1987.  They formed in Dublin and they came from the East Wall area except Paul who was from Finglas.

According to Irishrock.org Johnny and Anton were brothers. It also mentions that the band’s name came from a line in the song “Two Steps Back” from The Fall.

It says that Paul Gaffney left the band before the band recorded their first 2-song demo. This tape from 1985 included the songs “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Plastic Life”. The bio also mentions that the band added Dave O’Reilly to play trumpet. Eventually they had a trombone player and a female backing vocalist that might have been named Kate for a few shows. O’Reilly wouldn’t last long in the band, he would leave and join bands like Crime of Passion and Icon Trial.

In 1986 the band found a new frontman, Martin Lynch. Paul Harper would also be replaced. Declan Mulligan would be now on bass. This lineup recorded a 1986 demo tape at Sun Studios in Dublin. This cassette had the song “This is Where the Fire Starts”.

What is clear is that in 1987 Lynch left the band and was replaced by Dave Radford. Rasford had previously been in Cotton Mill Boys and Roly Daniels. It says that at this point the band’s sound had changed a lot. It wasn’t the jangly pop band from the early days but now a country-sounding band.

So it made sense to change names. They were now called Keeper of the Fire. There was a 1987 demo tape with three songs but not sure which songs were on it. Was it released under their new name? Or before they changed their name?

Other interesting bits I found is that Paul Gaffney was in Tony St. James and Dry Season. Declan Mulligan would later play in Inside Cairo, The Lesser Gods, The Candyshop and Dry Season. Anto Moran would be in The Promise. I think it is quite important to mention that I have written about the Dry Season on the blog! There was very little information about this band…

Then a superb find. Declan Mulligan has a Soundcloud. Still based in Dublin (or actually in a small coastal area south of Dublin City), he has uploaded many songs over his 40 years of making music. Among these recordings we find the 1985 demo with “Dead Man’s Shoes” and “Plastic Life”. He shares a few more details, that the songs were recorded at Temple Lane Studios in Dublin and were produced and engineered by Ian Bryan who would go to work with The Golden Horde, The Hothouse Flowers and U2.

Another great find among his Soundcloud is the song “Thin Disguise“. This demo song was recorded at the same studios in 1986, also by Ian Bryan.

He has also shared the song “This is Where the Fire Starts” from the 1986 demo tape. And “Seán” is another song from that session.

And that’s what I could find about the band. Some good info and some great tunes. Anyone remember them?

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Listen
The Cracker Factory – Thin Disguise

It’s tough to find new music these past weeks. I can’t seem to find much going on in the indiepopworld. I need some recommendations myself!

Waving Blue: a nice discovery here. Hailing from Italy, Waving Blue makes dreamy jangly pop. Earlier this month they released a digital EP titled “Fill the Void” with 4 songs. Weirdly they cover a Blink 182 song, which is interesting. But the best song in the EP is the last one, “Lazy Sunday”.

Cruush: now to Manchester. We check out what is the latest by the shoegazer combo Cruush. Well, they just released a digital single titled “Sombre by the Weekend”. It is not in the dreamy side of shoegaze by the heavy side and sounds good.

Whitelands: more shoegaze (I know, hard to come with indiepop releases as I was saying) this time from London. The band that started as a duo in 2017 and now a four-piece just put out a digital single. This one is in the dreamy side of shoegaze and is titled “Born in Understanding”. Very nice tune.

Kevin Robertson: from Aberdeen, the leader of The Vapour Trails, is releasing a solo 7″. It has two songs, “Why” and “D.C.B.A.-25” and the record is very limited, so act fast. 50 copies only! Both songs are jangly and poppy!

The Science of Words: great news that there are two brand new songs by Pete and Ian’s post-Horowitz project. On this band they also have Corinne of the classic band Jack inn the Green on vocals and Dave on rhythm guitar. The two songs, “Day Crash” and “Weekend Away” are superb, and proper indiepop! And they are now out on 7″ thanks to the Greek label Old Bad Habits!

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Who were Red Banner?

6 years ago a bunch of their recordings popped up on Soundcloud.

The band was based in London and was active in the early 80s. During that time they gigged and recorded widely. But for some reason they never got the attention they deserved.

The band was formed by Steve Connelly on rhythm guitar and vocals, Peter Markham on lead guitar, Trevor Williams on drums and Martin Bostock on bass. Peter wrote most of the songs.

Sometimes Richard Cottan from Tenpole Tudor helped the band adding violins to the songs.

The band went by a number of different names. In the early days they were named The Cubes. Under this name they recorded songs like “Events (Beyond Your Control)”, “Hello Moscow”, “Red Sky at Night” and “Crossing the Rhine”.

As mentioned there are many songs here.

I found the tape “Looking for a Living Room”. This tape was recorded in various London living rooms in the mid-1980s on a Tascam 4-track tape recorder. The songs on this tape were: “Looking for a Living Room”, “Indians”, “Will You Follow Them”, “The Base”, “Remains of the Guardian”, “No Love Lost”, “Simple Days in a White House”, “Harvest Time”, “Play at Home”, “Remain, Remain”, “Gods (Dead Gods)”, “Satellites (ft. Sue)”, “A Bunker of Our Own” and “Satellites (ft. Sue)”.

Another collection of songs is “Songs from the Basement”. This set of songs are recordings from the band’s home studio. These include: “A Girl Like You”, “Not for the First Time”, “Heroes”, “Strange”, “Here and Now””, “The Light in Your Eyes”, “Love is the Answer”, “Something Before”, “Baltimore to Washington, “The Reprieve” and “The More Things Change”

And there are a few more like “The Strangest Thing of All”, “A Time Like This” and “Your Country Needs You”.

Then I find out that the band did release at least one record. In 1982 they put out a 7″ with the songs “Events (Beyond Your Control” on the A side and “One of the Boys” on the B side. This record was released by the band’s own Banner Records (BR001) and was produced by the band and Ian Roche.

I couldn’t find more info about them. But if anyone remembers them please share. It’d be fantastic to know more details about them!

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Listen
Red Banner – Looking for a Living Room

Skytone: the Ottawa band have been recommended here in the past. They have had their music released on the fine The Beautiful Music label. A few days ago they released a new album called “Adrift” that has 11 songs. I am not sure if it is going to be released in physical format but all of the album us up now on Bandcamp and it sounds really nice. Jangly synth pop they call it.

Fuvk: Z Tapes is releasing “Goodnight Moon” by this Austin, Texas, solo project. It is a cassette tape limited to 100 copies and will include 6 songs. The EP will be out on December 31 and comes with a very nice artwork made by Jules Boucher.

Slaney Bay: As the two previous bands, Slaney Bay has also been recommended in the past. The London band is a new favourite of mine. They have a great sound. Proper indiepop with top guitars. Their latest came out a week or so ago, a digital EP titled “A Life Worth Living”. This EP has 5 terrific songs that I highly recommend.

Hadda Be:  another London band, and this time around one I had never heard before! “Mercurial” is the band’s latest single and sounds ace. They previously released an album called “Another Life” which I need to check out. The remind me a bit to Desperate Journalist. And that’s a good thing of course.

The Chrysanthemums: a new album by the classic band formed by Yukio Yung and Alan Jenkins! After two decades the pop duo have released “Decoy for a Dognapper!” How cool! The album is being released as a double CD on Egg Plant Records and includes 23 songs. A must have for every indiepop lover!

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I keep discovering amazing new songs. Maybe they are not that new to you. Stoneeyedkiller had shared it about a year ago on his Youtube channel. But for me it is new. I just discovered and I thought it was wonderful.

“Daylight”, the one song I have heard so far from Cyan, is gorgeous. It is lo-fi and it has that sound of 80s British indiepop I love. The female vocals, the naivet´é, the DIY vibe. Reminds me of my beloved Nine Steps to Ugly. But who were Cyan? Will I be able to find any more information about them?

I google with little hope. The name Cyan is of course taken from the colour of the same name. For those who might not be aware of this colour, it is the colour between green and blue. The name Cyan comes from the Greek word kynos which means dark blue enamel.

I guess I am lucky as I find the track “Daylight” on Soundcloud. Someone called Steve Redford has uploaded this song 9 years ago. I want to think he was in the band. The only detail he has shared about this track is that it was recorded on an old Amstrad 4-track in June of 1991.

Steve has also uploaded other songs by another band. It seems a previous band called The Avenue from 1990. He has uploaded three songs and the sound is quite different to Cyan. There is an image uploaded for The Avenue tracks but it is hard to make out the text. But I am pretty confident that in the address it says that the band hailed from Nottingham. I wouldn’t be surprised that Cyan hailed from Nottingham. So many superb bands came from there in the early 90s.

I try to track down Steve. But I don’t seem to find any great info about him or the band Cyan. I want to think that there were more songs recorded and I’d love to hear them. Anyone remembers them? Maybe saw them live?

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Listen
Cyan – Daylight

Struggling this week to write about new music finds… finding time is complicated…

Swansea Sound: the supergroup formed by Hue, Rob, Amelia and Ian is back with a Christmas release! The “Music Lover EP” is being released on CD on December 1st! This EP will have 3 songs, “Music Lover”, “Happy Christmas To Me” and “Merry Christmas to Me”. The last two songs had been previously released on a limited edition Snowflakes 7″ single from last year.

Spice World: the Australian band is back with a new album, “There’s No I in Spice World”. The four piece is putting this record out on vinyl through Meritorio Records and Tenth Court Records. The album is coming out on January 20 and will include 10 songs. 3 of them are available to preview and they are ace. Definitely check them out.

Love, Burns: when there is a new Love, Burns release one has to be happy. You know it is going to be quality. That the jangle is going to be on point. That there will be good lyrics. Overall, you are going to get top songs. “Fade in the Sun EP” is no exception. Four songs by one of the best indiepop projects of the last few years. Not sure if it is being released physically, but it is on Bandcamp now.

Holy Now: out now on vinyl is the latest album by the Swedish band Holy Now. It was released last month by Lazy Octopus Records and it has 9 pop tunes that deserve every indniepop’s attention! The album is titled “Dream of Me”, and I wonder how Swedish pop continues to create great pop music. I know, it is not in the amounts as a decade ago or so, but still, they know what they are doing.

Fanny & Alexander: From Santiago de Compostela, Spain, comes this project that makes songs in Galician. Named after the well-known Bergman movie, the band’s latest is a 9 song album titled “A Túa Ausencia Neste Ar”. The sound of the band is quite interesting, reminding me of another Spanish band from the past, Portonovo. Electronic arrangements and introspective lyrics, a good combo I think!

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Antic Hay is a comic novel by Aldous Huxley, published in 1923. The story takes place in London, and depicts the aimless or self-absorbed cultural elite in the sad and turbulent times following the end of World War I.

We head to Norfolk, North Carolina. I see them listed in a website called Hardcore Norfolk, but the songs I found on Soundcloud sound jangly to me.

The band was formed by Gary Ziroli on vocals, Vernon Guinn on guitar, Anthony Torres on guitar, Charles Grant on bass and Howard Swartz on drums. Drummers changed though, and we know many drummers were part of the band at some point: Joey Mishkofski, Dave Warshaw , Bill Shearin, Mike Dugan and Joey Rudicil.

The band only released one record, a CD album in 1991 titled “A Few Cuts in Heaven”. This CD was released by Merkin Records (MM 321), a label based in Baltimore. The CD included 11 songs: “Another Song for You”, “And”, “All So Easy”, “Fear Alone”, “Cold Steel”, “Spring”, “One That Go Away”, “Common Ground”, “Kill the Watchdog”, “Everything is Beautiful” and “Where I Am”. The songs were recorded at Earworks in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in 1991. The CD artwork by Sam Sebren and photography by Mark Williamson. The engineer for the recordings was Robert Smith.

The Soundcloud recordings I found date from 5 years earlier, 1986. The songs had been recorded between the 8 and 9 of March of that year. This demo tape had the songs “Drowning Ulysses”, the superb “Here and Now” and “The Hand That Takes”. On these recordings the drummer was Dave Warshaw. The songs were produced by ISIDORE and engineered by Vic Lipscombe. They were recorded at CMC Studios in Zebulon, North Carolina.

This same account, restlessnoise, has more songs by Antic Hay. We find there “The Town You Left Behind“, another jangly track from 1986. This song was originally titled “Space to be Naked” and on this recording Antic Hay had Howard Swartz on drums.

Another track we find is “Flatfall“. This one is also from 1986 and it is said it was a fan-favourite at gigs.

Then I stumble upon a Facebook group for the band. There I find some more info. For example that the band played the Virginia Beach Civic Center on April 26, 1991, alongside The M-8o’s and Ant Man Bee.

Another gig they played, thanks to the Hardcore Norfolk site, dates from October 12, 1990, at The Boathouse in Norfolk. That time they played along Ant Man Bee and Buttsteak. They also share a Youtube link, a snippet from the film “Hardcore Norfolk”, a documentary of the scene of that city. There they interview Vernon Guinn, Anthony Torres and Charles Grant and show a bunch of cool flyers and photos from the band.

The band also played the Kings Head Inn along Worthless Dizzies and the 92 WOFM Block Party. Also at The Boathouse on December 29, 1989, with Waxing Poetics and Dreams So Real.

Another good find is a photography of 3 demo tapes by the band! Wow! So we see the tape I mentioned earlier but two more.

One that was recorded in January 1987 at Hit and Run Studios in Rockville, Maryland. Produced by the band and engineered by Steve Carr. This one had four songs, “Space to be Naked”, “Flatfall”, “Here and Now” and “Cold Steel”.

The other one was recorded in January 1988 on 8-track at Ear Works Studio in Virginia Beach. This tape had four songs, “No One Likes a Fool”, “Like it or Not”, “Spring” and “Before and After the Fact”.

Then this same photo has some more tapes with other songs by the band. We see song titles like “Before & After the Facts”, “Everything is Beautiful”, “Face it”, “Do it Clean”, “Noise”, “Subtle as Fire”, “That’s All”, “Never Going Back”, “Feel Free”, “Lovers Leap” or “Where I Am”.

Another interesting bit. There’s a cover of the song “The Town You Left Behind” and also “Here and Now” by Paul Unger.

Then there are some videos of some of the band members playing “Spring”  in 2012 as well as a performance of both Gary Ziroli and Vernon Guinn playing at the Naro Cinema of Norfolk before the showing of “Spinal Tap”.

Then I find some strange news on The Virginia Pilot. In 2014 Vernon Guinn, the guitarist for Antic Hay, robbed a bank. The police arrested him seven hours later.

On the Daily Press I read that in 1998 the band reformed under another name, God and Famous. They lasted until 1999. Then the members reformed again, minus Gary Ziroli, as Action Habit.

And this is what I found out about this cool sounding band. I wonder why they took so long to release their record. They seem to have had tons of songs. Anyone remembers them?

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Listen
Antic Hay – Here and Now