Category: Allo Darlin’

Allo Darlin’ have only featured once before on the blog, and even then, the post was semi-hidden as it was part of the Festive Season of 2021/22 series, when  look at their single Europe was posted on 24 December 2021.

The band have long been a huge favourite of my dear friend Aldo, and he was particularly excited by the news that, having broke up back in 2016, the band was getting back together to play live shows and record new music.  A live show took place in Glasgow in October 2025, and I very willingly went along with him, and numerous other locally-based indie-pop fans, to pay homage.

It was a hugely enjoyable evening in the confines of Stereo, a basement venue right in the heart of the city centre, maybe 1oo yards or so from the main entrance to the city’s biggest railway station.  It’s one that I really should have written about at the time, but time and events got in the way.

To recpap…..Allo Darlin’ began as a vehicle for the solo songwriting exploits of Elizabeth Morris.

Australian by birth, Morris moved to London in 2005, where she began making recordings under the name The Darlings. Morris would only release one disc under this name, a three-track affair called The Photo EP, which came out on the U.K.-based indie pop label WeePOP! in late 2007. Morris changed the project’s name to Allo Darlin’ the following year, releasing a Christmas-themed EP, Merry Christmas from Allo Darlin’, shortly before 2008 came to a close.

A few months later the lineup of Allo Darlin’ expanded to become a permanent line-up of guitarist Paul Rains, drummer Michael Collins, and bassist Bill Botting and it was this quartet who so wonderfully entertained us in Glasgow last October.  Their first single as a band dates from the summer of  2009, again on WeePOP! Records.

mp3: Allo Darlin’ – Henry Rollins Don’t Dance
mp3: Allo Darlin’ – Dear Stephen Hawking
mp3: Allo Darlin’ – Heartbeat Chilli

This is another reasonably valuable piece of vinyl.  There were just 300 copies pressed up, on orange vinyl, and you’re looking at £100 or thereabouts if you’re lucky enough to find one on the second-hand market…..I don’t own a copy!!!

 

JC

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

E is for Europe, released by Allo Darlin’ as a single in June 2012.

It’s a much delayed first appearance from Allo Darlin’ on this blog.  There’s actually a possibility of an ICA sometime in 2022, but for now here’s the intro for anyone not familiar:-

Allo Darlin’ began as a vehicle for the solo songwriting exploits of Elizabeth Morris.

Australian by birth, Morris moved to London in 2005, where she began making recordings under the name the Darlings. Morris would only release one disc under this name, a three-track affair called The Photo EP, which came out on the U.K.-based indie pop label WeePOP! in late 2007. Morris changed the project’s name to Allo Darlin’ the following year, releasing a  Christmas-themed EP, Merry Christmas from Allo Darlin’, shortly before 2008 came to a close.

A few months later the lineup of Allo Darlin’ expanded to become a permanent line-up of guitarist Paul Rains, drummer Michael Collins, and bassist Bill Botting.

The quartet released its first single, Henry Rollins Don’t Dance  in the summer of 2009.   Fortuna Pop signed the band soon after, and aftertwo more singles, The Polaroid Song and Dreaming, the band’s self-titled debut full-length was released in the summer of 2010. The reception for the album was very favourable, garnering praise from, among others,  Robert Forster.

After a fairly quiet 2011 that saw only the self-release of the Darren/The Wu-Tang Clan single, they returned with a new album, Europe, in the spring of 2012, released by Fortuna Pop in the U.K. and Slumberland in the U.S.

The band spent much of the next year on the road, building up a decent sized following among indie-music fans across the world, before a third album, We Come from the Same Place, was released in October of 2014 again via Fortuna Pop and Slumberland.

Two years later, and after one further new single, Allo’ Darlin’ called it a day, in very amicable circumstances….which I might cover if I do that ICA!

The song which gave its name to the title of the second album was the third and last 45 taken from it.  It was released only as a 7″, with some copies being on blue vinyl.

Like all the singles, it sold in small quantities, but that was never the point.

mp3: Allo Darlin’ – Europe
mp3: Allo Darlin’ – Some People Say (alternate version)

The original version of the b-side can be found on the album, Europe.

JC