Category: Adventure Babies

Before getting down to the main business of the day….a huge thanks to everyone for your kind words wishing me a speedy return to full health.

I’ll wake up today for a second morning in a hospital bed. It’s the first time in my life, apart from when I was born, that I’ve spent time in a ward. I’m under observation for issues with one of my kidneys. Turned out that the pain I’d been in for the previous five days was me passing a kidney stone, and the wee/big bastard gave the actual organ a few scrapes en route. Until the specialist is happy that it has returned to a good degree of normality, then I’m in here where I’m currently a human version of a pin cushion.

I’m not grumbling. The staff at this NHS hospital are magnificent in every imaginable way, and I’m getting the very best of care. I’ll not update you again till I get discharged, but rest assured, I’m on the mend…just not sure how quickly. Oh, and discussions are already underway to make sure L.A. gets visited sooner rather than later.

So where was I today before this latest edition of Emergency Ward 9?????

The last few years of Factory Records were marked by a number of signings whose music was far from that most typically associated with the label. This may well be the most untypical:-

mp3: The Adventure Babies – Camper Van

It’s the lead track from FAC 319, and was released in September 1991.   The Adventure Babies were a trio of Matt Tedstone, Dave Atherton and Jez Bramwell, and were seemingly the very last band to be ever signed to the label.  In addition to this, their debut EP, which came out on 12″ and CD, there would be one further single, Barking Mad (FAC 347), and an album, Laugh (FACT 335).

None of the releases ever got near the charts, and when the label’s demise through bankruptcy was confirmed in November 1992, a number of commentators pointed the finger at acts such as The Adventure Babies for their role in it.  This seems a bit unfair given how little time they had been on the label and how the records hadn’t been all that expensive to make, certainly in comparison to the ways New Order and Happy Mondays had been bleeding the company dry.  Here’s the three other tracks from the debut EP:-

mp3: The Adventure Babies – Barking Mad
mp3: The Adventure Babies – Lifetime At The Sink
mp3: The Adventure Babies – Long Night Narrow Boat

It’s a long way removed from the Hacienda……..

JC

Another nostalgia-fest making use of the ability to access an archiving service and pick and recall what was written on the old blog.

I was still all over the place in November 2006 and with there being fewer posts that the previous month there might have been a sense that I was giving up a bit.  But it turns out I was away on holiday for much of the month and it was a time before I knew how to pre-date posts which meant they were written there and then as they were posted.

1 November : Marc Almond (3.39pm)

2 November : The Wedding Present (12.28am) and AKA The Fox (8.04pm)

3 November : Jock’n’Roll : Part 1 – The Trash Can Sinatras, Belle & Sebastian, Bronski Beat and Primal Scream (5.16pm)

4 November : Jock’n’Roll : Part 2 – Sons & Daughters, Cocteau Twins, The Skids and Malcolm Middleton (11.11pm)

5 November : Jock’n’Roll : Part 3 – Arab Strap, Associates. Simple Minds, Aztec Camera (4.08pm)

6 November : Jock’n’Roll : Part 4 – Friends Again, Bronski Beat, Associates and Foil (8.10am)

7 November : Jock’n’Roll : Part 5 – Bourgie Bourgie, St Jude’s Infirmary and Orange Juice (6.41pm)

8 November : Nick Cave/Grinderman (7.50am)

9 November : The Young Knives (1.24pm)

10 November : HOLIDAY SONGS feat ; Orange Juice/Albert Hammond Jr/The Pixies (6.15pm)

26 November : HOLIDAY POSTCARD : Belle & Sebastian (10,35pm)

27 November : A LOOK AT OTHER BLOGS feat : Elvis Costello & The Attractions (2.02pm)

28 November : Albert Hammond Jr (gig review) (7.44pm)

29 November : The Adventure Babies (7.27pm)

30 November : Martin Stephenson & The Daintees (12.14pm)

30 November (bonus post) : Neverending White Lights (9.23pm)

Couple of things worth recalling….

The Jock’n’Roll series was notable as it was the first use of a guest contribution in which there was a  rundown of my Top 10 Scottish singles as well as those of my great mate Jacques The Kipper.  Turned out that we both had Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat in our rundown (mine at #9, his at #4) while we both had an Orange Juice song at #1 – mine’s was Felicity while JtK went for Blueboy.

The post looking at other blogs gave namechecks to ten other places of which only one, To Die By Your Side, is still functioning of its own accord although there’s very few postings nowadays.  It shows just how unusual it was for TVV to keep going so long.

Having said that, a couple of the other blogs mentioned have been superseded by fresh works – Mike Melville now files under ‘Manic Pop Thrills’ whereas back in the day it was ‘Magic, Murder, Mania & Manta Rays’ – while Comrade Colin had already killed off ‘Let’s Kiss And Make Up’ by the time I wrote the post and nowadays you’ll find his own style of musings at ‘And Before The First Kiss’.

Here’s the post and tune from 29 November:-

It’s been a while since I went into the cupboard to find something rare to share with you. After all, that was the original intention behind the blog before I got a bit carried away.

I’m feeling a bit low and miserable just now, so it’s a cheery little tune. Hope it finds favour with y’all.

mp3 : The Adventure Babies – Camper Van

Hard to believe that this is on Factory Records. It’s from 1991 – FAC 319.

If anyone can supply any detailed info on the band, please feel free to get in touch.

And from 30 November:-