North Of Cornwallis

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (7)

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North Of Cornwallis. The one song I have is a nice bit of indie-pop as included on the NME C86 box set, consisting of 72 tracks across 3xCDs, as issued on Cherry Red Records back in 2014:-

mp3: North of Cornwallis – Billy Liar

Info is hard to come by.   The song was written by Lester Noel and Robert Adamson.   The former was previously part of Grab Grab The Haddock, a band that had been formed by Jane and Alice Fox following the disbanding of Marine Girls (the first band in which Tracey Thorn was ever involved).

I’ve also found that Lester Noel later joined Beats International, the dance group formed by Norman Cook and who enjoyed a #1 hit with Dub Be Good To Me in 1990.

North of Cornwallis don’t appear to ever have released any singles, EPs or albums, with just a couple of tracks making it into compilations back in the day or retrospectively.

And that’s about it………………….

JC

5 thoughts on “ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (7)”

  1. I hadn’t realised they were so whatever-the-opposite-of-prolific-is. I have a compilation of mostly unreleased tracks from a rather hissy tape, downloaded from the There And Back Again Lane blog (has that disappered? I can’t find it now.). Nothing special but nice enough.

    Léon Macduff

  2. This is possibly the first band I ever saw live. I think North of Cornwallis supported The Housemartins in September 1987, along with The Farm.

    That song’s a wee bit derivative of Hull’s fourth-best band too – quite nice.

    Strangeways

  4. As Strangeways has commented, I also saw North of Cornwallis supporting the Housemartins back in 1987, in Brum. I was quite taken with their jangly indie sound and thought the lead singer would take them places. Interesting to read here that soon after lead singer Lester Noel did indeed join Norman Cook in Beats International.

    My mate had a compilation at the time, “On the Dotted Line”, which I recall being a comp. of unsigned bands. North of Cornwallis contributed “Falling Over December” to it, which is on YouTube.

    A good Housemartins gig with The Farm supporting. This was a few years prior to their baggy chart successes. Listening to their early singles on YouTube they sound very Ska influenced which is presumably why Suggs picked them up and gave them their break.

    Sidders

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