Category: The Room

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#086: The Room – ‘Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl’ (Red Flame Records ’82)

Good morrning friends,

according to various sources on the internet, “The Room are a melodic rock band with prog influences from London and the south of the UK. The band members bring together a rich musical background. Their broad influences and experience shape the bands unique sound, delivered with great musicianship, catchy hooks and intriguing lyrics.”

Well, feel free to become their latest fanboy: me, I’ll stick with The ‘real’ Room, the original one from Liverpool! Founded in 1979, indie favourites, championed by Peel, destined for bright stardom – which, in other words, means that they got nowhere, by and large, until they disbanded in 1985. But before this happened, they recorded quite some masterpieces, in my humble opinion. It’s hard to describe really, but if I had to break early 80s post punk down to just two “sections”, the easiest way to do this would probably be a) rather noisy stuff, b) more quiet and thoughtful tunes.

The Room were always in team b), and – staying with this poor football comparison – although they never made it into the premier league, they did a damn good job within the second division, a division which had numerous contenders back then … not all too present in people’s minds these days, but nevertheless awesome. The Wild Swans come to mind, for example …

If you don’t know The Room, and the below song meets with your approval, I highly recommend to spend half an hour on Spotify. Basically the first three albums are all great throughout, ‘Indoor Fireworks’ (’82), ‘Clear’ (’83) and ‘In Evil Hour’ (’85), the latter probably being the most accessible one … listen to ‘A Shirt On Fire’ and ‘Jackpot Jack’ at the very least: outstanding stuff!

Dave Jackson, the singer, and Becky Stringer, the bassist, formed Benny Profane in 1986 – and again this is a combo you should pay closer attention to, their ‘Trapdoor Swing’ album from 1989 is a gem, believe me!

But today (again, I’m afraid) I have one of the band’s early works from you, the single they released off ‘Indoor Fireworks’ in 1982:

mp3: The Room – Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl

And whilst surfing around, checking some of the release dates for the above records, I learnt that apparently The Room have reformed: an album was issued last year, ‘The Telling’.

Now, there is something for me to listen to this evening, to be sure!

Enjoy,

Dirk

From the Scared To Get Happy booklet:-

Despite being extremely prolific, this Liverpool band remained a best-kept secret, overshadowed by the city’s more visible cousins Echo & The Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes. Fronted by Dave Jackson, they made two moody homegrown singles for own label Box in 1980/81, ‘Waiting Room’ and ‘Bated Breath’, plus a cassette album ‘Bitter Reaction’, attracting comparisons with Joy Division.

By 1982 a move to Red Flame coincided with more melodic songs, epitomised by the epic, uplifting tones of ‘Things Have Learned To Walk That Ought To Crawl’ and album ‘Indoor Fireworks’. After mini-LP ‘Clear! (1983), The Room collaborated with Tom Verlaine on final album ‘In Evil Hour’.

Jackson later founded Benny Profane with Room bassist Becky Stringer before playing with Dust and The Dead Cowboys. His 2010 solo album, ‘Cathedral Mountain’ was recorded with John Head (Pale Fountains, Shack) and Tim O’Shea (Send No Flowers).

mp3: The Room – Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl

This is another great find from the boxset.  Dave Jackson has the sort of voice that makes my ears prick up and the song bounces along at a great pace.  It’s not ground-breaking or anything, but it’s a fine example of the stuff I was dancing to in the students union back in 1982 – and what about those wonderful ‘la-la-la-las’ just before the instrumental break which is Bunnyesque in so many ways.

I’ve dug deep to come up with the b-side.

mp3: The Room – Dream Of Flying

I was listening to a great deal of fine music in 1982 and by the sounds of it, The Room should have found their way into the collection.  It just goes to show how much stuff is still out there lying undiscovered.

JC