The James Bond of the Sha La La flexi discs series with a couple of bands that are making their debut on this blog.
The two bands are Remember Fun and Emily. Two fanzines were involved in this giveaway, Are You Scared to Get Happy? and 373 miles is a very long way. Discogs indicates these would have been Issue 6 and Issue 1 respectively, but I’m not sure that’s the case.
mp3: Remember Fun – Hey Hey Hate
Remember Fun have a song within the C88 box set, a 3 x CD compilation issued by Cherry Red Records in 2017. I hadn’t realised they were from Glasgow, otherwise they would have been a previous part of the alphabetic run through singers and bands over at the Saturday’s Scottish Songs series, but I’ll pick them up for that series in due course.
The band members were Andrew Smith, John Eslick, Mark Kane, Raymond MacDonald and Steven Dunbar.
Here’s what the blurb in the box set offers up:-
This Glasgow five-piece could be described as the archetypal mid-80s indie combo, blending pure pop with combustible and wittily-observed lyrics (courtesy Andrew Smith) that drew comparisons with The Close Lobsters, The June Brides (minus the brass), The Smiths and even Billy Bragg. Sadly, they left behind a tiny musical legacy. The cool, irreverent Hey Hey Hate graced a Sha La La flexi in 1987 and various tracks troubled compilations. A four-track EP, Train Journeys, finally surfaced in 2001.
I honestly can’t recall them at all which, given the description applied above, seems a damn shame (on me!!).
mp3: Emily – The Old Stone Bridge
It turns out that Emily were also contributors to the same C88 box set (along with the C87 boxset via Cherry Red) as well as appearing on Creation Records compilations. Here’s the blurb from the same C88 booklet:-
Built around the talents of singer/songwriter Ollie Jackson, Emily released just three singles and one album on four different labels and incorporated flute into their otherwise treble-laden guitar sound. They announce themselves with the shared Sha La La flexi ‘The Old Stone Bridge’, a slow-burning ode delivered on Jackson’s deep vocals, also issued as their own flexi via Mmm….No Idea! fanzine. Emily then joined Creation for 1988’s four-track EP, the indie hit ‘Irony’ which opened with ‘Mad Dogs.’ Following a move to Kevin Pearce’s Esurient label, signature track ‘Stumble’ appeared before 1990’s ‘Rub Al Khali’ album (on Everlasting). A long-overdue 29-track compilation, ‘A Retrospective; appeared on Firestation Records in 2016.
It might have been long overdue to some, but based on The Old Stone Bridge, I’m happy to give it a miss.
Just one more to go in the series……and it’ll be appearing next week.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 