aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser
#086: The Room – ‘Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl’ (Red Flame Records ’82)
Good morrning friends,
according to various sources on the internet, “The Room are a melodic rock band with prog influences from London and the south of the UK. The band members bring together a rich musical background. Their broad influences and experience shape the bands unique sound, delivered with great musicianship, catchy hooks and intriguing lyrics.”
Well, feel free to become their latest fanboy: me, I’ll stick with The ‘real’ Room, the original one from Liverpool! Founded in 1979, indie favourites, championed by Peel, destined for bright stardom – which, in other words, means that they got nowhere, by and large, until they disbanded in 1985. But before this happened, they recorded quite some masterpieces, in my humble opinion. It’s hard to describe really, but if I had to break early 80s post punk down to just two “sections”, the easiest way to do this would probably be a) rather noisy stuff, b) more quiet and thoughtful tunes.
The Room were always in team b), and – staying with this poor football comparison – although they never made it into the premier league, they did a damn good job within the second division, a division which had numerous contenders back then … not all too present in people’s minds these days, but nevertheless awesome. The Wild Swans come to mind, for example …
If you don’t know The Room, and the below song meets with your approval, I highly recommend to spend half an hour on Spotify. Basically the first three albums are all great throughout, ‘Indoor Fireworks’ (’82), ‘Clear’ (’83) and ‘In Evil Hour’ (’85), the latter probably being the most accessible one … listen to ‘A Shirt On Fire’ and ‘Jackpot Jack’ at the very least: outstanding stuff!
Dave Jackson, the singer, and Becky Stringer, the bassist, formed Benny Profane in 1986 – and again this is a combo you should pay closer attention to, their ‘Trapdoor Swing’ album from 1989 is a gem, believe me!
But today (again, I’m afraid) I have one of the band’s early works from you, the single they released off ‘Indoor Fireworks’ in 1982:
mp3: The Room – Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl
And whilst surfing around, checking some of the release dates for the above records, I learnt that apparently The Room have reformed: an album was issued last year, ‘The Telling’.
Now, there is something for me to listen to this evening, to be sure!
Enjoy,
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Odd? I’d have sworn I’d never have heard of the band, or the song. Yet, as I played the song I recalled it!? I can only think it’d be from that ‘late-night Glasgow DJ’. I can’t think where else? What a treat. Thanks for jogging a memory Dirk.
Flimflamfan
This is a minor masterpiece. I used to tape Peel shows back then, and copy the standout tracks onto compilation tapes (yeah, moderately illegal, so sue me). This was a song that easily made the cut. Peel would play pretty much anything with a greater Merseyside postcode, but a lot of it was generic psychedelic indie. Just the title of this track put it a cut above.
What a pleasure to hear this song again. And it made me want more. I will also be listening to their new album soon. Thank you Dirk
I’m pretty sure that I saw The Room (probably supporting The Fall) back in 1982/3 in London. First time I’ve heard them since back in the day, so thanks for the reminder Dirk.
Darren 157
The reformed Room with Dave and Becky (and original drummer Clive) have actually issued two albums since reforming – prior to The Telling there was Restless Fate. Both are definitely worth having. There are links to what’s gone before but with Dave’s stuff there’s always a degree of forward movement and different avenues explored.
“Things …” is one of the few old tracks that they’ve played live, they generally focus on the new material. Have seen them live three times recently once with Red Guitars and twice in Liverpool . I’ve spoken to Dave twice now for the blog – the first was ahead of the Red Guitars tour and covers the reformation and comeback album whilst the second largely covers The Telling:
Dave’s had an interesting career musically but also as a writer as he wrote teh screenplay for the fantasy movie Violet City
And, yes, the melodic rock band is NOT the Room from Liverpool!
Thanks Mike…….wonderful update!