A guest posting by Leon MacDuff
As much as I love doing the monthly mixes (and there were actually a couple lined up for today that will be held over), I really enjoy when another member of the TVV community comes up with something. A huge thanks, therefore, to our good friend Leon MacDuff who continues his stellar guest contributions with a mix featuring songs that were released on In Tape Records.
Here’s Leon to explain a bit more:-
“I can’t claim any great purpose with this one, I just fancied doing a mix and decided to focus on a particular label, so here it is. The label I alighted on was In Tape, the Manchester-based indie originally created by Marc Riley and his manager as an outlet for his work with The Creepers, which went on to clock up around 70 releases between 1983 and 1990.
It’s odd how little attention this label gets – we have all heard of it, but it doesn’t feel like it has the cult following you might expect. There’s no fan site, no Facebook group, not even a Wikipedia article. But since it had a roster of acts I already know and like, such as Yeah Yeah Noh, Rote Kapelle, Asphalt Ribbons and Frank Sidebottom (though I’m well aware that Frank is one of those acts you either “get” or you don’t), I made it my mission to listen to every scrap of In Tape material I could find, and while some of it truly is quite scrappy, overall it’s a decently solid catalogue – so here’s an hour of it, with dodgy transitions courtesy of yours truly (though from Life With Patrick into Eva is a pretty good one, even if I say so myself).”
mp3: Various – One Hour of ‘In Tape’
Robert Lloyd & The New Four Seasons – Something Nice
Whipcrackaway – The Horse’s Tale
The Membranes – Everything’s Brilliant
Terry & Gerry – Pizza Pie & Junk
The Weeds – China Doll
Heart Throbs – Toy
Zor Gabor – Vigilante
Yeah Yeah Noh – Starling Pillowcase, And Why
Stitched-Back Foot Airman – Invented By Robots
Marc Riley & The Creepers – Polystiffs (live in Amsterdam)
Asphalt Ribbons – Over Again
Rote Kapelle – San Francisco Again
Life With Patrick – Something From Nothing
Eva – Unquenchable (the untouchable mix)
June Brides – Just The Same
The Waterfoot Dandy – 14 Days
Frank Sidebottom – I Am The Champion
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Gawd, I didn’t half crash some of those transitions… sorry! A few notes anyway:
For anyone who isn’t already aware, several line-up changes later, Asphalt Ribbons morphed into Tindersticks. Singer Stuart Staples and keyboard player Dave Boulter are already in place on “Over Again”, the lead track on their debut EP.
Info on Whipcrackaway, Life With Patrick and Eva is thin on the ground. Whipcrackaway had a line-up printed on the back of the single but it was all silly stage names. Eva at least cleared up the “solo artist or group” condundrum by providing an actual band line-up but nobody involved seems to have had any other footprint in the music biz.
Zor Gabor was the solo project of original Siouxsie & The Banshees guitarist John McKay, and more from that era can be found on the album “Sixes And Sevens”, released under his own name just this year.
The Weeds fell apart after one single when drummer Simon Wolstencroft left to join The Fall.
The Waterfoot Dandy was Gary Lomax, who was otherwise known in the biz as a photographer – a posthumous collection of very rough home recordings is available on a pay-what-thou-wilt basis on Bandcamp, with a tease of more to come (but it’s been eight years now…)
Yeah Yeah Noh really ought to have a post to themselves at some point. Leicester’s finest musical export of the era (well OK, maybe tied with The Deep Freeze Mice), their time as an active group was brief but mighty: In Tape issued a string of EPs and a full album of their witty, lyrical lo-fi “unpop”, and their self-deprecating “Bias Binding” (“Yeah Yeah Noh, so full of ourselves / Not a real band, done no video elpee”) made JP’s Festive Fifty. They were ace.
Robert Lloyd, ex- and now again frontman of The Nightingales, dropped the silly “and the New Four Seasons” tag shortly thereafter, and when In Tape went out of business his album “Me And My Mouth” came out on Virgin. It was thanks to putting this mix together that I was able to finally solve a long-standing mystery: I distinctly remembered, in my youth, my mum watching a pop video on TV with me and saying “he’s very good, isn’t he?” – which isn’t like my mum at all. I never knew what it was though, but now I do: Robert Lloyd performing the album’s closing track and acknowledged highlight “Part Of The Anchor” on SnubTV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffNy5ohgjnE
I’ve listened to just half of this mix so far and well, wow! It is 100% in my wheelhouse. I particularly liked the track by Stitched-Back Foot Airman.
Thank you for the additional notes Leon, all of those little snippets of info mean that I can join the relevant dots together in my cluttered little mind!!
Darren 157
Nice one, Léon. Yeah Yeah Noh ftw.
Many thanks for putting this together, Leon!
Well done Leon, I always loved the opening track Something Nice – Robert Lloyd & TNFS, still sounds brilliant
Many new names and a whole host of John Peel’s favourites, if my research is correct. My favourites tonight are the Weeds (That’s not Kate Pierson in the background, is it?) and Yeah Yeah Noh. Thank you for the great mix, which introduces a label that may not have a Wikipedia entry yet, but definitely deserves one.
I’ve forwarded the link to Marc’s sister she says she’ll pass it on.
Re [sk] “My favourites tonight are the Weeds (That’s not Kate Pierson in the background, is it?)”
I believe the lady in the background is Carrie Lawson, who plays bass. I’ve met her a few times and she was in the band Cold Water Swimmers until they finished 2 years ago. She has an adult son by her long estranged partner Karl Burns.
Cold Water Swimmers was a project steered by Chris Bridgett (ex-Dub Sex) and a good mate of mine!
Darren 157