C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 47, 48, 49, and 50 of 114)

Treebound Story were a four-piece band from Sheffield, active between 1986 and 1989 during which time they would release four singles, the first two in 1986 and 1987 on the locally-based Fon Records (a reminder that Fon was short for Fuck Off Nazis) and the last two for another Sheffield label, Native Records.

mp3: I Remember – Treebound Story

Track 5, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

The a-side of their 1986 debut single. Perhaps the most famous fact of all around Treebound Story was that they were the first band Richard Hawley played in, when he was a teenager. Indeed, he helped write many of the band’s songs, including I Remember.

Talulah Gosh.  Formed in Oxford in early 1986 and then play their first gig in the same city on 7 March.  If they hadn’t been so new, there is no doubt they would have been invited to contribute a song to the C86 cassette, which was released in May 1986.  As it was, they had to make do with being a band whose name and sound seem to be everything the movement/scene/genre became known for.

Before the year was out, they would release two singles on the Edinburgh-based 53rd & 3rd Records, and record a session for the Janice Long Show on BBC Radio 1.  In 1987, there were two more singles on 53rd & 3rd, followed by one more in 1988, as well as a session for John Peel.

And that was it.  It really is quite the thing that the band have become synonymous with C86, when there were just the 14 songs across five singles (some were only available on the 12″ versions).

mp3:  I Told You So – Talulah Gosh

Track 13, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

A song that was never included on any of the singles but had appeared on a flexidisc, given away with two fanzines, Are You Scared To Get Happy? and Trout Fishing In Leytonstone, in early 1987.

That this is the next song in the alphabetical run through is quite fortuitous

mp3: I’ll Still Be There  – Razorcuts

Track 22, Disc 1 of CD86.

Razorcuts were the band on the other side of the 1987 flexidisc on which the Talulah Gosh song featured.

They had formed in London in 1984, but it took two years before a debut single, Big Pink Cake, was recorded, which was released by the Bristol-based The Subway Organisation.  The song which Bob Stanley chose for the CD86 compilation was its b-side.  I’ve already gone on record, back in 2015, as saying I disliked the song on account of a dreadful substandard vocal performance that borders on the unlistenable.

But I did offer up an alternative viewpoint on a later Razorcuts song which I’ll also say a little more about when the band make a second appearance in this series.

The Darling Buds, from Newport in Wales, formed in 1986, split up in 1993, briefly reformed for a first time in 2010, and then for a second time in 2013 and are still very much on the go today.

Their first single was a self-released double-A side, recorded in June 1986 and released in February 1987 with a pressing of 2000 copies:-

mp3: If I Said – The Darling Buds

Track 15, Disc 2 of CD86.

Their next two singles were released by the Sheffield-based indie label, Native Records.  By now, their music was being played a fair deal on radio stations and the band was getting a lot of column inches in the UK music papers.  It was no real surprise that the major labels began to show an interest – the fact the band were fronted by an attractive and young blonde female singer played its part in what has always been an industry riddled with misogyny – and they were signed by Epic Records in 1988. Ten singles followed, the first five of which charted.  There were also three albums, the first of which charted. There were also regular efforts to break into the American market, but to no avail.  It was hardly a huge surprise when The Darling Birds initially called it a day in 1993.

There was a new EP in 2017, but otherwise they have become a hard-working touring band, with enough folk still interested in hearing the early songs, including the minor hits issued on Epic, to make it all worthwhile.

 

 

JC