Bogshed, from Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, were active between 1984 and 1988, during which they released four singles/EPs and two albums. There were also five John Peel sessions, such was the late DJs fondness for their idiosyncratic musical style. The band’s lead singer, Phil Bryson, once explained their approach to songwriting – “We start out being totally out of order and out of key, and we turn things like that into a pop song. Most people try to do it the other way round.”
The first EP, Let Them Eat Bogshed, was issued on John Robb‘s Vinyl Drip Records in 1985 and reached #8 on the Indie Chart. They then established their own label, Shelfish Records, and all five of their later recordings would come out via that imprint.
mp3: Run To The Temple – Bogshed
Track 8, Side 1 of the C86 cassette and Track 8, Disc one of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
Yup. Bogshed were part of the original cassette, while being as far removed from the jangly sounds of pop as can be imagined. Run To The Temple was later released on Bogshed’s debut album, a record that got to #4 on the Indie Chart in late 1986.
Razorcuts, as mentioned before, formed in London in 1984. They would break up in 1990, leaving a legacy of two flexidiscs, four singles and two albums. The third single, I Heard You First Time, released on the short-lived London label Flying Nun UK in 1987, is the one that I have more time for than most of the other songs of theirs that I know of. Sadly, it wasn’t included on either the CD86 release in 2006 or the 3CD extended take on C86 that came out in 2014. This, however, was:-
mp3: Sad Kaleidoscope – Razorcuts
Track 4, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
This was actually the band’s first ever release, courtesy of being on one half of a flexidisc given away with Issue 5 of The Legend! fanzine in 1986.
The story of Shop Assistants was told last time out within Part 54 of this series.
Their third single, in 1986, was the first ever release on what was a newly-established Edinburgh label, 53rd & 3rd. It had the catalogue number of AGARR 1. AGARR was short for ‘As Good As Ramones Records’
mp3: Safety Net – Shop Assistants
Track 10, Disc 2 of CD86
It sounds just as marvellous today as it did all those years ago. It proved to be their only recording for 53rd & 3rd as Shop Assistants were grabbed by Geoff Travis and signed to the Blue Guitar/Chrysalis two-headed monster. 53rd & 3rd Records would continue through to 1992, with BMX Bandits, The Vaselines, Talulah Gosh, Beat Happening, The Pooh Sticks and The Boy Hairdressers being among the bands involved.
Track 22, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition
There’s actually a bit of a feelgood story to this one.
The Auctioneers, from Southend, were active from 1985-88, but never managed to have anything released in that period. Demo tapes were worked on, live gigs, particularly across the smaller venues in London, were frequent, some of which attracted decent reviews in the music papers. There was one ‘close, but no cigar’ involvement with the record industry in 1988, but when it finally did amount to nothing, the band called it a day.
Their manager, Darrall Knight, kept copies of all the various recordings, and in 2011 he put a few up on YouTube and wrote a few blog posts about the band. In 2013, having heard that Cherry Red were looking for extra songs for what would become C86 The Deluxe Edition, and he sent some over to the label, of which Scoop was chosen to be slotted in.
On the back of this, Darrall contacted Firestation Records in Berlin and was delighted to hear back from the label that The Auctioneers had been on their list of bands they had been looking for more info on, having heard and liked a demo tape a few years previously.
In January 2015, Firestation Records proudly released a new CD, Before Lost and Found a 22-song collection of studio recordings, home demos, and live tracks recorded 1985–1988, with one new and final recording from 2014. At long last, The Auctioneers had made it.
JC