Category: Adult Net

April 1985.  It’s two years since Brix Salenger had met Mark E Smith in Chicago, following which she’d move to the UK, marry him and join his band, The Fall.  She had played on, and written songs for, two albums Perverted By Language and The Weird and Frightening World Of.  But she had an itch that she wanted to scratch, and that was to make music that was more in keeping with the power-pop sensibilities that she had loved growing up in the States.

Beggars Banquet was a label which enjoyed having The Fall as part of its roster, feeling it brought a degree of kudos with the UK music press.  The idea of Brix Smith having some sort of spin-off project was one which they were happy to support.

The debut single from The Adult Net was a cover of a song by American psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock, one that had reached #1 in the US back in 1967, but had flopped here in the UK.

mp3: The Adult Net – Incense and Peppermints

It’s a more than decent enough offering, one which may, in a parallel universe, have picked up some radio play, but maybe the connections with The Fall, who at this time had yet to enjoy a hit single, was enough to prevent it being listed in any meaningful way on Radio 1.

It’s a single on which The Fall, with the exception, all played under pseudonyms.  Ottersley Kipling was bassist Simon Rogers, Silki Guth was Craig Scanlon on guitar, and Karl Burns on drums took the name of ‘Mask’ Aiechmann.  One of the guest musicians was Marcia Schoefield, who would later join The Fall.  Oh, and the producer, Swami Anand Nagara was actually John Leckie, another who had been and would continue to be involved with The Fall.

The b-side was also a cover

mp3: The Adult Now – Searching For The Now

Yup.  A power-pop take on Rebellious Jukebox, one of the tracks on The Fall’s debut album, Live At The Witch Trials, that had been released back in 1979.

It’s all great fun and not to be taken too seriously.  The Adult Net would, with a cast of revolving musicians, release one album, The Honey Tangle in 1989, while there would be six further singles between 1985 and 1989.

JC

The great thing about the period in time when vinyl was on the cusp of becoming fashionable again was that second-hand records could be picked up cheaply, as I mentioned previously, with Fight The Power being one of three 12″ singles bundled up for £5.

With those sorts of prices, I was happy to take the occasional risk on something I wasn’t familiar with and, as a consequence, the cupboard has quite a few pieces of vinyl that were bought on a whim, played once and then quietly forgotten about.  Such as this:-

mp3: The Adult Net – Waking Up In The Sun

The credits on the sleeve on this 1986 release offer some hope.  It’s Brix Smith, erstwhile member of The Fall, branching out on her own, (but supported by other members of the band), while the masterful Ian Broudie is on production.

Sadly, it’s really dull and forgettable.

Having said that, it’s at least listenable in comparison to the b-side:-

mp3: The Adult Net – (Remember) Walking In The Sand

An utterly pointless cover of the 1964 hit single by The Shangri-Las.

But, as I said, with it costing 12″ single costing the equivalent of £1.66, I didn’t get too upset about it.

JC