Category: Shreikback

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

Felt, Go-Betweens, Jazz Butcher, Shreikback, Sunset Gun, Woodentops

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (July Pt 2)

Congratulations to those of you who tolerated the chart offerings from July 1984 via the post from a couple of weeks back.   Surely those 45s issued via the indie labels and who distribution methods/lack of daytime airplay were the biggest factors in them not hitting the Top 75 would prove to be a bit more palatable. Surely……..

In June 1983, Lawrence Hayward (aka Felt) had released Penelope Tree, a gloriously catchy piece of indie-pop which, if the world was a fair and just place, would have been a huge hit. The opening lines of Penelope Tree were:-

I didn’t want the world to know
That sunlight bathed the golden glow

Just over a year later, the new single from Felt opened with these lines:-

You’re trying to fool somebody
But you end up fooling yourself

Methinks Lawrence was, despite his claims of never really wanting to be a pop star, was getting a tad frustrated:-

mp3: Felt – Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow

Moving along quickly to another song which takes me back to that particular summer

mp3: The Go-Betweens – Part Company

Having, the previous year, come to the attention of the UK indie cognoscenti via Rough Trade Records, our wizards from Oz were signed by Sire Records and thanks to the snippets of news via the music papers, we learned they had headed off to France to record what would be their third studio album, Spring Hill Fair, from which Part Company was the lead single.  It’s one on which Robert Forster takes the lead vocal, and musically there is a hint of the slower numbers that Johnny Marr was writing for The Smiths.  Another that should’ve been a hit, but like every other 45 released by the band, it failed to trouble the charts.

mp3: The Jazz Butcher – Roadrunner

I’ll confess not to knowing that this rather frantic and fabulous cover version had been released in July 1984….it was many many many years later (via a blog in the 21st century) did I learn that Pat Fish et al. had taken Jonathan Richman‘s signature tune and made into something that sounded like one of their own.

mp3: Shriekback – Hand On My Heart

The mid 80s was a time when white-boy funk was a bit of a ‘thing’ (and Glasgow had more than its fair share of would-be bands).  Shriekback had formed in 1982, with Barry Andrews (ex XTC) and Dave Allen (ex Gang of Four) being joined on vocals by Carl Marsh.  By 1984, they were signed to a major label – Arista Records – and given a bit of a makeover with the addition of female backing vocals in an attempt to create a really radio-friendly sound.  Debut single for the label, Hand on My Heart flopped. As indeed would the subsequent singles and two albums, Mercy Dash (Sep 84) and Oil and Gold (June 85).

It wasn’t just white-boy funk, mind you:-

mp3: Sunset Gun – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

As mentioned previously on the blog, Sunset Gun were a Glasgow trio, made of up sisters Dee and Louise Rutkowski, and Ross Campbell. The Rutkowski sisters were a huge part of the Glasgow music scene in the early 80s, having been part of Jazzateers, the group that would in due course evolve into Bourgie Bourgie.

The demos recorded by Sunset Gun created a bit of a buzz, with a number of labels looking to sign the group, and in the end it was CBS that won the bidding war. The trio went into a studio with Alan Rankine (ex Associates) in the producer’s chair, and the debut single was a cover of the 1974 hit written and recorded by William DeVaughn, a song later covered by Massive Attack and included on their subsequent debut album in 1991.

Continuing with the theme of debut singles…..

mp3: The Woodentops – Plenty

A band who would influence and delight many in subsequent years without ever getting the sort of commercial success that their fans in the media believed should have been theirs.   I’ve always associated The Woodentops with Rough Trade Records, but this particular 45 was released on the then very new Food Records that had been set up by Dave Balfe, formerly of the Teardrop Explodes.  What a glorious and enduring debut!!!!

 

 

JC

D.A.F., Ladytron, Psychic TV, Shreikback, Strange Idols

FROM THE ARCHIVES (5)

turntable

It’s time to partially close down the blog for the period over Christmas and New Year.  This time around I’m going to put up a re-posting from times gone by, and I’ll try my best to have all of them feature musicians whose appearances have been infrequent.

This dates from 23 March 2016

ODDS & SODS

Most of the time I do try to link things in postings, such as offering a b-side, other songs by the same singer/band, a cover version, or perhaps something vaguely linked to the era or song matter.

But the hard drive contains some songs that just can’t be handled that way, and so I’ve decided to have an occasional feature that allows me to squeeze in songs of distinction and quality which would otherwise not get a chance to be listened to:-

mp3 : D.A.F. – Der Mussolini

D.A.F. is short for Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, a Dusseldorf based band who were originally with us at the tail end of the 70s and into the early 80s. I only have one of their songs, and it was downloaded from elsewhere, but it was one that I danced to a fair bit back in the student days. Don’t worry folks, it’s not a track praising the merit of the old fascist – indeed it is merely encouraging Benny boy to shake his ass with his dancing partners Adolf and Jesus. If it wasn’t for the pounding electro-beat, it’d be as camp as can be.

mp3 : Shriekback – Fish Below The Ice

Shriekback formed in 1981, initially as a trio of Barry Andrews (ex-XTC), Dave Allen (ex-Gang Of Four) and Carl Marsh. They have been an and on off project ever since, with Andrews being the only consistent member of the band. They occasionally threatened to break through in the early 80s, none more so than when the LP Oil and Gold was released in 1985; the main problem though was that the strongest songs, included that featured here, had Marsh on vocals even though he had quit Shriekback midway through the recording of the album, thus making promotional duties a tad difficult.

mp3 : Ladytron – Seventeen

Ladytron, formed in 1999, seem to still to be going strong, although it’s now getting on for five years since they released what was their fifth studio LP. They were the brainchild of two Liverpool producers and DJs – Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu – but were soon joined by two female musicians, the Scottish-born Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo from Bulgaria. They were championed by a fair few in the media, particularly the music correspondents across a number of UK broadsheet newspapers who almost collectively predicted big things, but they never quite got beyond cult status despite making a number of more than decent singles and albums. The song featured here is a single from 2002 for which big things were anticipated, but it stalled at #68.

mp3 : Psychic TV – Godstar

There’s a lot that can be written about Pyschic TV, and no doubt somebody has elsewhere. There’s a very lengthy wiki piece that you can track down. I’m not qualified to offer any opinion at all, as all I have is one mp3 that originally came courtesy of its inclusion on a cassette for me by Jacques the Kipper. It’s a song about the late Brian Jones.

mp3 : Strange Idols – She’s Gonna Let You Down

Named after an album released by Felt back in 1984, this five-piece London band seem to wear their 80s indie-op influences very much on their sleeves if this track from 2007, which I have courtesy of a compilation CD, is anything to go by. It has a wonderfully hypnotic guitar, lots of ba-ba-ba vocals from what sounds like a dreamy female lead vocalist all underpinned by a DIY production that really does hark back to an earlier period. I think my mate Aldo will love this…….

JC

D.A.F., Ladytron, Psychic TV, Shreikback, Strange Idols

ODDS & SODS

turntable

Most of the time I do try to link in a featured song with a b-side, other songs by the same singer/band, a cover version or something vaguely linked to the era or song matter. But then there’s some songs that just can’t be handled that way and so I’ve decided to have an occasional feature that allows me to squeeze in songs of distinction and quality which would otherwise not get a chance to be listened to:-

mp3 : D.A.F. – Der Mussolini

D.A.F. is short for Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, a Dusseldorf based band who were originally with us at the tail end of the 70s and into the early 80s. I only have one of their songs, and it was downloaded from elsewhere, but it was one that I danced to a fair bit back in the student days. Don’t worry folks, it’s not a track praising the merit of the old fascist – indeed it is merely encouraging Benny boy to shake his ass with his dancing partners Adolf and Jesus. If it wasn’t for the pounding electro-beat, it’d be as camp as can be.

mp3 : Shriekback – Fish Below The Ice

Shriekback formed in 1981, initially as a trio of Barry Andrews (ex-XTC), Dave Allen (ex-Gang Of Four) and Carl Marsh. They have been an and on off project ever since, with Andrews being the only consistent member of the band. They occasionally threatened to break through in the early 80s, none more so than when the LP Oil and Gold was released in 1985; the main problem though was that the strongest songs, included that featured here, had Marsh on vocals even though he had quit Shriekback midway through the recording of the album, thus making promotional duties a tad difficult.

mp3 : Ladytron – Seventeen

Ladytron, formed in 1999, seem to still to be going strong although it’s now getting on for five years since they released what was their fifth studio LP. They were the brainchild of two Liverpool producers and DJs – Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu – but were soon joined by two female musicians, the Scottish-born Helen Marnie and Mira Aroyo from Bulgaria. They were championed by a fair few in the media, particularly the music correspondents aross a number of UK broadsheet newspapers who almost collectively predicted big things, but they never quite got beyond cult status despite making a number of more than decent singles and albums. The song featured here is a single from 2002 for which big things were anticipated but it stalled at #68.

mp3 : Psychic TV – Godstar

There’s a lot that can be written about Pyschic TV, and no doubt somebody has elsewhere. There’s a very lengthy wiki piece that I’ll refer you to. I’m not qualified to offer any opinion at all, as all I have is one mp3 that originally came courtesy of its inclusion on a cassette for me by Jacques the Kipper. It’s a song about the late Brian Jones.

mp3 : Strange Idols – She’s Gonna Let You Down

Named after an album released by Felt back in 1984, this five-piece London band seem to wear their 80s indie-op influences very much on their sleeves if this track from 2007, which I have courtesy of a compilation CD, is anything to go by. It has a wonderfully hypnotic guitar, lots of ba-ba-ba vocals from what sounds like a dreamy female lead vocalist all underpinned by a DIY production that really does hark back to an earlier period. I think my mate Aldo will love this…….

As ever, if anyone can fill in the gaps or has anything to say about the songs, then fire in via the comments section.