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.
L is for Locked Out of the Love-In released by One Thousand Violins as a single in September 1987.
One Thousand Violins, from Sheffield, formed in 1985. The original members were John Wood (vocals), Colin Gregory (guitar), David Walmsley (keyboards/guitar), Darren Swindells (bass), and Peter Day (drums). They were signed by Dan Treacy of The Television Personalities to his Dreamworld Records, with debut single Halycon Days being the second release on the label in July 1985. Incidentally, the B-side of the 7″ single, Like One Thousand Violins, was voted in at #49 in the John Peel Festive 50 of 1985.
The second single, Please Don’t Sandblast My House followed in October 1986, after which Ian Addey came in as the new drummer. A third and final single on Dreamworld came out in September 1987:-
mp3: One Thousand Violins – Locked Out of the Love-In
It reached #13 in the indie chart, but before too long Dreamworld Records folded.
In due course, lead singer John Wood departed, but with the key songwriting team of Colin Gregory and David Walmsley still involved, they soldiered on, recruiting a new singer and signing to London-based Immaculate Records, a label which normally specialised in synth pop. A few more singles and an album followed, but to little fanfare, and it all came to a halt in 1989.
Like many other bands of the era, there was a renewed interest in their music many years later, and Cherry Red Records, in 2014, released a compilation album covering all the songs recorded between 1985 and 1987.
Here’s the three tracks which were included on the 12″ of Locked Out of the Love-In
mp3: One Thousand Violins – Why Is It Always December?
mp3: One Thousand Violins – I Was Depending On You To Be My Jesus
mp3: One Thousand Violins – No-One Was Saving The World
Cracking names for the songs, but the best song title of the lot can be found as the extra track made available the 12″ version of the debut single:-
mp3: One Thousand Violins – I Remember When Everybody Used To Ride Bikes… Now We All Drive Cars
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 