June Brides – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Cabaret Voltaire, Creepers, Daintees, Go-Betweens, Grab Grab The Haddock, Higsons, June Brides, Loft, Mighty Wah, Paul Haig, Red Guitars, Shreikback, Violent Femmes

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (September Pt 2)

In which I hope to have kept to my promise that this one will feature all sorts of great ‘non-hit’ singles. The well-thumbed big red book is again being flicked through.

mp3: Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria

Anyone reading this post and hearing Sensoria for the very first time in their life might have a hard time in believing it’s a song that’s 41 years old. One that takes me back to the Strathclyde Uni Students Union downstairs disco on Friday and Saturday nights, held in the space that was normally where we devoured our daily helpings of pie, beans and chips. As I’ve said before, this is one for flailing around the dance floor with your raincoat flapping behind you like Batman’s cape as he chases the bad guys.

mp3: The Daintees – Trouble Town

The second single from a newish-band based in the north-east of England who had been snapped up by Newcastle-based label Kitchenware Records, largely on the basis of the talents of their singer/songwriter frontman. It would take until mid-86 before the band, now called Martin Stephenson and The Daintees, to enjoy a small amount of commercial success via their albums and dynamic live shows.

mp3: Go-Betweens – Bachelor Kisses

The second and final single to be lifted from the album, Spring Hill Fair. After Part Company had failed to wow the record-buying public, Sire Records went for a Grant McLennan composed number this time around. The record label actually went a bit further. Believing that they had a radio-friendly number on their hands, they gave the album version to producers Colin Fairley and Robert Andrews, who earlier in the year had worked with The Bluebells, and asked them to make it just that little bit more commercial. Robert Forster would later comment “we got new producers, more days on the bass drum, and a version of the song of no great variance to the original take.”

Money was also spent on a promo video:-

The female backing vocal is courtesy of Ana da Silva, the lead singer of post-punkers The Raincoats, and a band much loved by Kurt Cobain. The failure of the single led to Sire Records dropping the band a few weeks later.

mp3: Grab Grab The Haddock – I’m Used Now

The Marine Girls, a trio from the south of England featuring Tracey Thorn, Alice Fox and Jane Fox, had made a small splash in the indie-pop world in the early 80s, eventually signing to Cherry Red Records and releasing the well-received album Lazy Ways in early 1983. By this time, Tracey had relocated to Hull University where she would meet Ben Watt and form Everything But The Girl; meanwhile, Jane had recorded material with her boyfriend, the Manchester-born poet Edward Barton, with one of the songs, It’s A Fine Day later being re-recorded as an electronic dance track by Opus III in 1992 and proving to be a massive hit. After the Jane and Barton mini-album in late 1983 had sunk without trace, the Fox sisters formed what proved to be a short-lived band called Grab Grab The Haddock who would release a 12″ single and an EP on Cherry Red in 1984/85. I’m Used Now was the debut single.

mp3: Paul Haig – The Only Truth

The production is credited to B-Music/Dojo, otherwise better known as Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson. How many of you wanted to shout out ‘Confusion’ just before Paul’s vocals kicked in?

One word to describe this one? Tune.

mp3: The Higsons – Music To Watch Girls By

A band formed by students at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, The Higsons had been around since 1981, and in due course would sign for 2 Tone and release a couple of non-hit singles for the label in 1982/83. By 1984, they were on the London-based indie-label Upright Records, who would release the band’s sole LP from which this cover version of the easy-listening 1967 hit single by The Bob Crewe Generation was the lead single. The band broke up the following year, and lead singer Charlie Higson would find fame and fortune as a comedy actor/writer in The Fast Show, while trumpeter/saxophonist/guitarist Terry Edwards would forge a very successful musical career which continues to this day.

mp3: The June Brides – Every Conversation

The band’s second single on the newly established Pink Records somehow managed to surpass the magnificence of debut In The Rain from a couple of months earlier. A band that would get lumped in with the C87 ‘movement’ despite all their music, in their first incarnation, all being from June 84-May 86.

mp3: The Loft – Why Does The Rain

The Loft, as with The June Brides, get lumped in with the C87 ‘movement’ when in fact they had already broken up in late 1985. This was the debut single, and it’s an absolute belter. The next 45, Up The Hill And Down The Slope, was even better, but singer/songwriter Pete Astor then called it a day and went on to form The Weather Prophets, a band who would release their own take on Why Does The Rain on their debut album, Mayflower, in April 1987.

mp3: Red Guitars – Marimba Jive

The third and final single of the year from Red Guitars, whose profile was fairly high after a load of well-received live shows opening for The Smiths UK tour in early 1984. Sadly, and undeservedly, the singles failed to connect with the record-buying public, and likewise with debut album Slow To Fade which was released just before the end of the year.

mp3: Marc Riley & The Creepers – Shadow Figure

The fifth single to be recorded by the band set up by Marc Riley after he ‘took his leave’ of The Fall in January 1983, but their first following the release of debut album Gross Out back in June 1984. An unusual number in which the kitchen sink seems to have been thrown at the tune during the production process….almost chamber pop in execution.

mp3: Shriekback – Mercy Dash

The second flop single in a three months. This one is dedicated to Post Punk Monk, one of the finest on-line writers out there, and a huge fan of Shriekback.

mp3: Violent Femmes – It’s Gonna Rain

The second and final single to be lifted from the album Hallowed Ground. I remember at the time being a bit underwhelmed by the album, but then again, it had been an impossible task to follow the eponymous debut that had landed in the UK in late 1983. I’ve grown to appreciate things just a little bit more as the years have passed, but it remains hard to fully embrace an album of folk/country tunes with more than a hint of Christianity sprinkled in. It’s Gonna Rain is actually an interpretation of the Noah’s Ark story, and in places it’s not too far removed from the sort of music Jonathan Richman does so very very well.

mp3: The Mighty Wah! – Weekends

The second and final single to be lifted from the album, A Word To The Wise Guy. And while Come Back had gone Top 20 earlier in the year, the radio stations ignored the follow-up!

Told you this month was a good ‘un.

late addendum/correction : huge thanks to those who corrected me on Jane and Barton (see the comments section). Much appreciated.

JC

Biff Bang Pow!, Brilliant Corners, East Bay Ray, Fall, Hit Parade, June Brides, Microdisney, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, R.E.M., Red Guitars, Section 25, Stockholm Monsters, Violent Femmes

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (June Pt 2)

The post featuring the new chart hits from June 1984 was a bit of a mixed bag. Thankfully, top of the flops proved to be a bit better.

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – In The Ghetto

Yup….it’s now 41 years since the debut single of the band that had emerged from the implosion of The Birthday Party. This 45 had in fact been preceded by an album, From Her To Eternity, that can best be described as post-punk goth. It was less abrasive than the Birthday Party material, but it was still a long way from being what could be called commercially accessible. None of the seven songs on the album were thought of as being suitable for a single release, and so the band’s take on the Elvis Presley #1 hit from 1969 was put on sale in the shops, with a video made to help boost sales:-

It’s a mighty long way from the Nick Cave of 2025 who is such a darling of the chattering classes.

mp3: East Bay Ray – Trouble In Town

This is one I heard for the first time maybe seven or eight years ago, and it was via a blog or music aggregator site. East Bay Ray‘s guitar work was very much at the heart of what, musically, defined Dead Kennedys. This solo single from 1984, is a long way removed from that sound, It’s akin to the soundtrack of a cowboy movie and great fun to listen to. The lead vocal is courtesy of the frontman of Steve One & The Shades, a San Francisco-based power pop band back in the 80s.

mp3: The Fall – Oh! Brother

The band’s 13th single, but the first for new label Beggars Banquet and the first of what we can now define as the Brix-era. As I wrote when looking at this single in detail back in September 2021, it was The Fall, but not as we, or indeed anyone, knew them. It was a pop song, one which would have sat easily alongside those that were being released on a regular basis by Rough Trade. I’m sure that Geoff Travis would have been scratching his head and wondering just what he had ever done to upset MES to the extent that the thrawn bastard continuously refused to contemplate anything akin to radio friendly songs, while he was on his label, only for him to come up with this absolute monster once he’d moved to a major label.

mp3: The Brilliant Corners – Big Hip

The second 45 from Davey Woodward & co. Still leaning a bit on the rockabilly sound that had been at the heart of January 1984 debut She’s Got Fever rather than the indie-pop C86 sounds that they would swerve into a few years later, but more than listenable across its two minutes duration.

mp3: Microdisney – Dolly

The band’s move from Cork to London eventually led to a deal with Rough Trade, with the album Everybody Is Fantastic being released in May 1984 to not a lot of fanfare beyond those who had long been championing the band in Ireland. The following month saw the release of Dolly, a lovely acoustic-led track from the album, became their debut 45 on the label.

mp3: The Hit Parade – Forever

This features on the 5xCD box set, Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie-Pop 1980-1989. Here’s the blurb from the booklet:-

In 2011, The Guardian’s Alex Petridis interviewed Julian Henry about his dual life as a successful PR executive by day and his twilight world as guitarist and singer in an indie band. Back in the 80s, Henry had created The Hit Parade with Matthew Moffat and Raymond Watts, issuing beautifully crafted and overtly 60s-styled singles on their own JSH Records. It began with ‘Forever’, a Bacharach & David homage sans guitars in 1984…..

mp3: The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3: The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday

Another debut single, this time on the newly established Pink Records, from a band who would eventually be lumped in with the C86 movement but whose best songs long pre-dated that genre. Indeed, by 1986, The June Brides had more or less imploded. They are a band I knew nothing of back in 1984, but when, a few years later, I finally came across them, it was instant love, primarily as they had an unusual and distinctive sound, making use of viola and trumpet as well as the standard guitars, bass and drums, and in Phil Wilson they had a very talented songwriter albeit his vocal delivery was a bit of an acquired taste. It was a real thrill to finally see them play live at the Glas-Goes-Pop festival of 2022.

mp3: Biff Bang Pow! – There Must Be A Better Life

Back in February, I mentioned this lot’s debut single, 50 Years Of Fun, the third 45 to be issued by Creation Records, which was part-owned and run by the group’s vocalist and guitarist, Alan McGee. This was their second offering, and there’s more than a nod to the 60s mod-era.

mp3: Red Guitars – Steeltown

So much was expected of Red Guitars in 1984. Debut single, Good Technology (one of Dirk’s 111 selections) was, and remains, a bona-fide classic. A tour a support to The Smiths had raised their profile, and the press coverage in the UK music papers was almost universally positive. But they never clicked with the record-buying public, and this, their second single, was a flop.

mp3: R.E.M – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

The fourth single from the beat-combo out of Athens, Georgia. They didn’t, over their extensive career, really make too many songs that sounded as ‘countrified’ as this. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it’s long been one of my favourites of theirs, and it inspired a train ride out to the town when I was over in Washington D.C. attending a conference back in the early 00s.

mp3: Section 25 – Looking From A Hilltop (restructure)

One of the lesser acclaimed acts on Factory Records, the band had been formed by brothers Vincent and Larry Cassidy. Their debut single for the label had been back in July 1980, and while there was a degree of critical acclaim for their post-punk sound, there was rarely much in the way of sales. By 1984, they had been through a few changes in personnel, and by now the brothers had been joined by two female vocalists and keyboardists, Jenny Ross and Angela Flowers, (Jenny was Larry’s wife, while Angela was their sister). The band’s third album, From The Hip, saw a shift in direction, being very much aimed at the dance floor. Produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order, it was released in March 1984, and the best received of its tracks, was remixed and issued as a 12″ single (FAC 108) a few months later.

mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – All At Once
mp3: The Stockholm Monsters – National Pastime (link fixed)

My big book of indie music tells a different story from wikipedia. The latter states that Stockholm Monsters formed in 1981 in Burnage, a suburb of Manchester. My big book suggests (and I have no every reason to doubt it thanks to a clarification from Swiss Adam) that the four-piece of Tony France, Karl France, John Rhodes and Shan Hira were from New York and only moved to Manchester after being ‘discovered’ by Factory Records supremo, Tony Wilson. A debut single for the label emerged in 1981 and there were further singles in each of 1982 and 1983, prior to debut album Alma Mater, produced by Peter Hook of New Order, was released in March 1984. The album, like all the three previous singles, was ignored by the record-buying public. Undeterred, and still championed by Wilson, two more tracks were issued as a single in Jun 1984 (FAC 107) and which was the subject of this post on the blog back in March 2023.

mp3: Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone

A re-release of the band’s debut single came out on 12″ in June 1984, accompanied by Add It Up, another of the tracks to be found on the rather wonderful eponymous debut album, along with Jesus Walking On The Water, a track that would be found on the forthcoming second album, Hallowed Ground. It kind of says a lot that instead of issuing the new song as the lead track on a single, it was relegated to a b-side, with the record labels in the USA and UK trying hard to get the world to take notice of the brilliance of Gone Daddy Gone.

So there you have it. June 1984’s flop singles, many of which were far better than the ones which charted.

JC

June Brides

THE TUESDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Parts 67-70: THE JUNE BRIDES

R-1063286-1443182029-3774

A couple of weeks back I found myself, very willingly, at the very first Glas-Goes Pop Festival. It took place on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 August within the Glasgow University Union in the leafy west end of the city. (Regular readers will hopefully recall that, thanks to flimflamfan, I was able to offer one lucky reader the opportunity of a free ticket….the winner was Sarah and I was able to introduce myself to her during the course of the event).

As it turned out, I only managed to get along on the Friday. I always had plans for the Saturday involving the match day announcing duties at the football on the Saturday, but had hoped to make it along for much of the evening, but alas the fates conspired against me thanks to a combination of Rachel feeling very poorly (food poisoning) and public transport woes between the east coast of Scotland and my home city.

The Friday was worth the ticket price on its own given that four absolutely wonderful acts took to the stage – Davey Woodward and The Winter Orphans, The Catenary Wires, The Orchids, and The June Brides. I also saw Close Lobsters, but they proved to be a major disappointment, primarily because lead singer Andrew was as drunk as I’ve ever seen anyone on a stage.

The thing was, Close Lobsters, as headliners, were always going to struggle to top the performance that had been delivered by The June Brides, a band I hadn’t ever managed to catch before and who were the one I was most looking forward to in advance of the festival.

They played for maybe 50 minutes or so, rattling through many memorable tunes from their back catalogue, with an energy and vigour that belied the fact that all six musicians are well into their 60s (not that any of them looked anything like their ages). They were a ridiculously tight outfit, making it nigh-on impossible to believe it had been six years since they had last played live, with the really sad thing being when Phil Wilson said that there was a real possibility that this could be their final gig.

I know that The June Brides never achieved any sort of commercial success when they were active back in the early 80s, and maybe the reformation back in 2012, with two new singles released subsequently on Slumberland Records, didn’t quite reach the expectations that those involved had hoped for, but on the basis of the Glas-Goes Pop performance, they certainly are more than capable of bringing down the ceiling at an indie music venue in towns and cities across the UK, and further afield.

It’s got to be hoped that the ‘last gig’ comment was simply a throwaway remark, and that perhaps reflecting afterwards on the huge reception they received from the appreciative audience, there’s a view that playing together again would be well worth it. I know it’s nigh on impossible to put together any sort of tour, but the promoters behind the various established festivals akin to what was on in Glasgow the other week could do an awful lot worse than getting in touch with The June Brides.

I’ve dug out a 12″ single from the cupboard, issued on The Pink Label in 1986., which brought together all the tracks that could be found on the band’s first two singles, also on The Pink Label, from 84/85.

mp3: The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3: The June Brides – Sunday to Saturday
mp3: The June Brides – Every Conversation
mp3: The June Brides – Disneyland

There was a rather brilliant 41-track 2 x CD compilation issued by Cherry Red Records back in 2005, but it has long been hard to come by. The time for reissuing it, or some variant on it, is very long overdue.

JC

June Brides

A C86 BAND WHO BROKE UP BEFORE THE GENRE WAS INVENTED

The June Brides were featured as part of the 2015 series that looked back at all the songs on the compilation CD86 : 48 Songs From The Birth of Indiepop. At the time I wrote:-

“There’s a case to be made that this lot had no right to be part of CD86. They had formed in London back in 1983 and the following year saw two cracking singles released on Pink Records. Twelve months later the debut LP (albeit it only had 8 tracks including the two old songs and a cover version) came out, again on Pink Records, and went to the top of the indie charts and was one of the best-selling and most popular of the genre in 1985.

Come 1986, the year that saw the birth of indie-pop according to one OTT statement on the sleeve of CD 86, The June Brides had moved to a new label called In-Tape on which there were two further singles as well as the honour of opening for The Smiths on their tour of Ireland. However, before the year was out the band had decided to call it a day with lead singer and songwriter Phil Wilson shortly afterwards embarking on a solo career.”

My big book of indie music reveals that absolutely everything The June Brides wrote and recorded, with the exception of their final single, pre-dated 1986. They were a band who never hid the fact of who their biggest influences were, and in the same way as Jonathan Richman had paid tribute to his beloved Velvet Underground by writing a song about them, so too did Phil Wilson pen a tribute to Josef K, and in particular what he felt was the tragedy of them breaking up:-

mp3 : The June Brides – Josef’s Gone

The song was stuck away as one of the two additional tracks made available on the 12″ release of their third single and their first release for new label In Tape.

mp3 : The June Brides – No Place Called Home

It’s a fine little tune that sold in decent enough numbers to hit #3 on the Indie Charts in December 1985 but by this time the main singer and songwriter was getting disillusioned with things and the band called it a day some six months later.

Here’s the b-side of the single and the other extra track on the 12″:-

mp3 : The June Brides – We Belong
mp3 : The June Brides – On The Rocks

The use of the trumpet and viola gave the band a unique sound. They really deserved to have enjoyed far more success than they experienced. Maybe just a wee bit too ahead of their time as their sort of sound became more fashionable in the early 90s by which time Phil Wilson was working as a tax inspector.

As I’ve said before, there really is no justice in the world of pop music.

JC

June Brides, One Thousand Violins, Wolfhounds

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Postscript 1)

There’s a cracking 10-track compilation LP sitting in the cupboard; actually there’s a few but for today there’s just the one under the microscope.

It’s called A Different Kind of Tension – and it’s not to be confused with the LP of the same name by Buzzcocks – that was released in 1986 on the Pressure Of The Real World label. It has the prefix PRLP1. I have no idea at all whether there was ever a PRLP2 or any other release at all on the label. Google search came up with nowt.

It was an album I picked up back in 2008 while temporarily living in Toronto and it cost me the equivalent of £3. As it turns out, two of the tracks on the album were also included on the CD86 compilation and were part of that recent 48-part series. The idea of today and next Sunday is to offer up the other eight songs as a postscript or perhaps more appropriately, an encore to the series.

Here’s side A of the album:-

1. The Mighty Lemon Drops – Like An Angel
2. Soup Dragons – Whole Wide World
3. One Thousand Violins – Like One Thousand Violins
4. The Wolfhounds – Cut The Cake
5. The June Brides – Every Conversation

Songs 1 and 2 were on CD 86 as too were different songs by the bands performing songs 4 and 5.

Here’s some relevant info on the three ‘new’ songs:-

One Thousand Violins formed in Sheffield, and the featured track is a b-side from their debut single Halcyon Days on Dreamworld Records which was released in 1985. However, it proved more popular and so enduring that it ended up gathering enough votes to make John Peel’s Festive 50 the same year. Further singles and an album soon followed, but before long musical and artistic differences led to them breaking up.

mp3 : One Thousand Violins – Like One Thousand Violins

The Wolfhounds rather splendid ditty Anti-Midas Touch was on CD86. This however, is their 1986 debut single on Pink Records.

mp3 : The Wolfhounds – Cut The Cake

I’ve already said everything before about The June Brides and have recommended that you pick up this compilation album. Their debut single was on CD 86. This was the wonderful follow-up:-

mp3 : The June Brides – Every Conversation

Enjoy

Quick reminder that I’m looking for readers to e-mail me lists of their Top 10 LPs for 2015 so that I can submit a collective entry for the BAMS 2015. Click on this post for more background.

June Brides

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 47 of 48)

So here are about to finish off a series that I think has been well received.

CD86 has given us an excuse to look back at all sorts of bands, some far better-known than others, some who had no right to be lumped into a so-called movement and some who probably hadn’t been thought of by any of you in decades until prompted by a particular posting. What is for sure is that with the 30th Anniversary now just a few weeks away, you can count on many of the bands that have been in this series, along with many other contemporaries, getting more airings than normal.

I’ve left two of the best and most enduring till the last, starting off with The June Brides.

Again, there’s a case to be made that this lot had no right to be part of CD86. They had formed in London back in 1983 and the following year saw two cracking singles released on Pink Records. Twelve months later the debut LP (albeit it only had 8 tracks including the two old songs and a cover version) came out, again on Pink Records, and went to the top of the indie charts and was one of the best-selling and most popular of the genre in 1985.

The June Brides had an unusual and distinctive sound, making use of viola and trumpet as well as the usual guitars, bass and drums, and in Wilson they had a very talented songwriter albeit his vocal delivery was a bit of an acquired taste.

There’s this readily available compilation double CD out there, released in 2006 on Cherry Red Records which not only brings together all the June Brides tracks ever recorded, including the Peel Sessions and other material recorded for the BBC plus the solo work from Phil Wilson which followed the break up of the band, together with detailed sleeve-notes, rare pictures and a complete discography. No serious record collection is complete without it.

The song on CD 86 was one half of the double-A debut single:-

mp3 : The June Brides – Sunday to Saturday

While this equally unique number was on the other side:-

mp3 : The June Brides – In The Rain

Oh and for those of you with good memories…..you’re right to say that I did write about the band and this single back in February 2014. Click here if you dare.

June Brides

CULT CLASSICS : IN THE RAIN and EVERY CONVERSATION by THE JUNE BRIDES

This is a last-minute change of cult classic. I had something else lined-up but it’s now going to have to wait a few weeks. Blame it on the demands of the customer base…and specifically that of Jacke from Stockholm who just 48 hours ago asked for some June Brides in the next post.

I’ll confess that I initially missed out on The June Brides. They formed in 1983 and by the following year had released two singles on The Pink Label. This was an era when I was listening to a lot of music and I can only guess that the reason that TJB passed me by was that I was too busy getting lost in the music of The Smiths, New Order, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Friends Again, Orange Juice, Go-Betweens, etc to pick up on everything. It wasn’t till the early 90s, some five years after TJB had broken-up, that I became aware of some of the songs they had recorded and released in their all too brief a career.

More fool me.

I think it’s best therefore, to allow someone who did fall in love with them right away to express what it is that makes this band so special. I’m pinching the following words from a great piece put together by Andy Wood in a piece he posted on the great blog Manic Pop Thrills:-

I was still at school, struggling along and trying to find some kind of identity for myself. A friend gave me a cassette of sessions that he’d taped recently from the John Peel show and there was a session by The June Brides which really struck a chord with me and that was it, I was hooked. The four songs on that session really stuck out for me, there was a sense of beauty and lovely melodies, there was the mix between that loveliness and a sense of regret, even worldly-weariness but also a sense of the possibility of change and a defiance that things could be better, no matter how small the change. The words and music became very special to me. I began to get quite interested in the sounds being produced by independent bands and labels and discovered a whole world which influenced me and this got me into playing, putting on live gigs and producing fanzines as part of a D.I.Y. culture that seemed so vibrant and interesting and diametrically opposed to the world of the polished, dull mainstream.

I tracked down everything I could find by the band and looked forward to new records and the possibility of seeing them live. Alas, although they played Dundee once I had no chance of being admitted to a strictly over 18’s only show in Fat Sams. I hated being young, I couldn’t wait to grow up, I was impatient to taste this world of gigs and music, to be free from the strictures of school and my parents but I was stuck, as The June Brides suggested, simply waiting for a change.

Fate is a cruel thing. Despite having seemed to have been on an unstoppable rise, releasing an album and several great singles and touring incessantly – including with The Smiths (on an Irish tour) – the band called it a day. Those who added the lush viola and trumpet to the June Brides sound would go on to play sessions with a number of bands including while frontman Phil Wilson signed to Creation as a solo artist.

The influence of the band remained though, at times noticeable and at other points less so. I think it can be heard in the music of a number of bands, not necessarily in an obvious way but it’s there. Belle and Sebastian would be one band I’d say shared my love for The June Brides. Their Peel session was issued in 1987 which finally allowed me to replace my hissy second generation cassette. A best of followed a few years later then there was an album of covers put out. Cherry Red issued the double CD “Every Conversation. The Story of The June Brides and Phil Wilson” which collected everything the band and Wilson had ever recorded. It’s an essential album for anyone I think…..

And it’s thanks to that Cherry Red compilation that I really discovered just how good the June Brides had been and indeed how equally rich the Phil Wilson solo material was in quality. It is, without question, as Andy says, an essential compilation. It also led me to get a hold of a vinyl copy of their one proper studio LP, There Are Eight Million Stories…. which was scheduled for a posting on this blog in a couple of weeks time, but Jacke’s prompting has brought things forward.

With this being the cult singles series, I’m going back to 1984 to the earliest material. I really couldn’t make my mind up which of the two singles from that year to select, so I’m cheating and featuring both.

mp3 : The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3 : The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday

(catalogue # Pinky1, released March 1984)

mp3 : The June Brides – Every Conversation
mp3 : The June Brides – Disneyland

(catalogue # Pinky 2, released September 1984)

The b-sides are also from the top drawer.

30 years on and the band have reformed and are playing live. They came to Glasgow in late November 2013, but alas I was out of the country on holiday. I hope they come back again soon….

Everything you want to know can be found at www.junebridesmusic.com

Enjoy!!!!