One Thousand Violins – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Mighty Lemon Drops, One Thousand Violins, Primitives, Weather Prophets

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 59, 60, 61, and 62 of 114)

The Primitives, from Coventry, were first active between 1984 and 1992, before reforming in 2009.

The initial singles/EPs, the first of which, Thru The Flowers, came out in early 1986, were released on their own label, Lazy Records. This would eventually change in late 1987, when they signed the label over to RCA Records, which released the band’s material from then until their split.

mp3: Lazy – The Primitives

Track 3, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

One of four songs that made up the debut EP. The most noticeable thing is that the lead vocal is not taken by Tracy Tracy, but is delivered by guitarist and main songwriter Paul Court. It’s one of those songs that I’m always tempted to play and ask folk to identify the band….I would think only the hardcore fans would get it right.

As the Primitives will return later in the series, I’ll leave the rest of their narrative until then.

Last time The Mighty Lemon Drops featured in this series, the narrative took us up to the point in October 1986 when their debut album, Happy Head was released by Blue Guitar/Chrysalis in the UK while Sire Records were looking after their interests in the USA

1987/88 saw three further singles and the release of a second studio album. 1989 saw two singles and an album, albeit these were solely on Chrysalis as the Blue Guitar imprint had been closed down. Nothing was selling well, and unsurprisingly the band was dropped after the third album. But Sire Records kept faith, and this led to two further albums and various supporting singles via that label being released in 1991 and 1992, with everything being made readily available in their home market; but still there was a severe lack of commercial success. In 1992, the towel was thrown-in, albeit there would be a live album released vis the Newcastle-based Overground Records in 1993, while in 1997 Chrysalis would issue Rollercoaster: The Best Of 1986 – 1989 on CD only, probably in the hope that fans who had all the old vinyl, but possibly nothing to play it on, would shell out.

And with that, we will now go back in time:-

mp3: Like An Angel – The Mighty Lemon Drops

Track 22, Disc 2 of CD86.

The debut single from 1985, released on Dreamworld Records. The one which began all the fuss. A fuss that in the end never delivered much, but I do wonder just how much money was spent on The Mighty Lemon Drops by various labels over the years.

The Weather Prophets, from London, were active between 1985 and 1988. They emerged after the break-up of The Loft (who will, I promise, feature eventually in this series), and were immediately signed by Creation Records. There were two singles for the label in 1986.

mp3: The Weather Prophets – Like Frankie Lymon

Track 15, Disc 1 of CD86.

Bob Stanley, who curated CD86, made something of a strange decision to go with a b-side from the 12″ release of the debut single. It’s probably a lot to do with his personal taste, but Like Frankie Lymon is not at all typical of the music that The Weather Prophets were best known for. It’s not that it’s a bad song, but it is far slower and more gentle than most of the band’s other tunes.

As with The Primitives, I’ll return to the extended story of the band when they make a second appearance later on.

One Thousand Violins, from Sheffield, were active between 1985 and 1989 during which time there were seven singles and three albums released across a number of different indie labels.

They were one of the first bands signed by Dan Treacy of The Television Personalities to his Dreamworld Records, with their debut single, Halcyon Days, on 12″ only, becoming just the second record to be issued by the label back in 1985.

mp3: One Thousand Violins – Like One Thousand Violins

Track 8, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

One of the band’s best known tracks, despite it being a b-side. It was, in fact, so popular that it got voted in at #49 in John Peel‘s Festive 50 at the end of 1985.

One Thousand Violins had some contractual flexibility with Dreamworld and a number of their early releases, including a mini-album in 1986, the splendidly named Please Don’t Sandblast My House! came out on Constrictor Records which was based in Dortmund in Germany. Throughout 1987, singles and albums would be released on both labels, and then in 1988 the band made a move to London-based Immaculate Records, for whom there would be two singles and one album before the band decided to break-up.

JC

One Thousand Violins

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : LOCKED OUT OF THE LOVE-IN

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

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.