Hell is for Heroes! indeed lets hope it is... HIFH as probably only me call them formed out of the ashes of Symposium in the late 90's / early 00's, is early 00's actually a time? it never looks quite right! anyway onto the band , they were friends,contempories and often touring partners of Biffy Clyro amongst others, bit of a difference now eh lads? This album is kinda sums up the time quite nicely though, post hardcore...indie rock etc etc.The band had a fearsome live reputation which meant gigs were rammed and this album sold well, it was actually voted in the all time top 100 rock albums ever in Kerrang magazine..... good though it is i doubt it would make the top 1000 if the vote ran now!
Munroe Effect - Schizophrenic post hardcore with passages of relentless noise. melded with brooding intimate melody.... sounds f'kin ace to me, fans of Biffy Clyro and Oceansize will not be disappointed... on tour in November as well.... .result !!
I got a comment about previous Ultrasound Album Everything Picture which sent me off in search of the video for the new single.... here it is in all its live glory..... and you know what?..........its fantastic..... but of course you knew it would be........
The Truth: Ultrasound consist of Andrew ‘Tiny’ Wood (vocals / guitars), Richard James Green (guitars / vocals), Vanessa Best (bass / vocals), Bob Birch (keyboards) and Andy Peace (drums). On July 14th and 15th our favourite prog dreamers took over the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town for two special sold-out nights of hectically expansive midsummer rock perambulations. On Monday 29th August they will be releasing their first new material for over ten years in the form of a Label Fandango double AA-side release, which features two songs, ‘Welfare State’ and ‘Sovereign’, which are so enormously ambitious and, well, bloody long that no seven inch single known to mankind can contain them. So it will be coming out on 10” vinyl. Which is brilliantly, typically Ultrasound. Flashback to the end of the previous century: five people are onstage at a filthily sweating Falcon in 1997. They are making an extraordinarily cosmic rock sound where songs seem to last for light years with so many peaks and troughs and pop-battered pockmarks one can barely guess where the next power chord is going to come from. Except that most of the 200 people with the dropped jaws in the Camden back room do know when that next power chord is arriving because Ultrasound have been the worst-kept secret on London’s toilet circuit for months. And, as well as preaching to the converted tonight, they are also reaching out to some of the mightiest Presidential players in the A&R firmament, who are metaphorically waving comedy-sized chequebooks. It’s prog. It’s proper. It’s panic. It’s Punk Floyd. It’s Ultrasound, and it’s about to end in tears. In hindsight it seems pretty darned amazing that Ultrasound’s gargantuan, cloud-clawing rock ever flustered a general public in thrall to Damon Albarn’s barnet and Liam Gallagher’s trousers. But consider that Ultrasounds annus mirablis – as such – was 1999, when the likes of Coldplay, Doves, Elbow and Muse all starting breaking through, and perhaps these outsiders had more in common with the mainstream than we suspected. Crucially, when Ultrasound were good, they were mind blowing. When times were bad, cosmic butterfly-in-Singapore logic dictated that things for the Ultrasound would go insanely awful. Just as their music was larger-than-life so everything else in the world of Ultrasound suddenly, dramatically became hugely magnified. The dog-friendly record deal with Nude was amazing. The acclaim was feverish. The attention was hectic. And the whole lurid circus quickly began to take its toll, particularly with the horribly elongated album recording sessions. It seemed the whole world wanted them, which made them paranoid and suspicious of everyone else, but mainly of each other. As the band were finding it increasingly hard to communicate with each other, behind the scenes the rags-to-riches fairytale was being usurped by something more akin to carrier-bags-to-bitching.
The album ‘Everything Picture’ came out in 1999 and was lauded by the press and public, reaching number 23 in the UK album charts. Too soon after the pressures took their toll and whilst playing festivals and working on their third single release the band finally disintegrated. Their ambition in the early days was to stay together just long enough to release an album. In this they had succeeded. They now wouldn’t play on the same stage again for a decade.
So far, so rock’n’roll. Then, at the end of 2009, out of the proverbial blue bassist Vanessa received an e-mail from Bic Hayes asking if Ultrasound would consider re-forming to play a Tim Smith benefit gig. The Cardiacs were a catalyst for the creation of Ultrasound the first time around and so it was an easy decision for them to make. A tentative rehearsal led to victorious comeback live shows and, slightly amazingly, highly productive recording sessions. Before even they knew it themselves the Ultrasound ball was rolling again, and the widescreen passion of ‘Welfare State’ / ‘Sovereign’ is testament to that epic momentum.
Fast forward to 2010: five people are onstage at a gently perspiring Bull & Gate. They are making an extraordinarily cosmic rock sound where songs seem to last for light years with so many peaks and troughs and pop-battered pockmarks one can barely guess where the next power chord is going to come from. Except that most of the 200 people with the massive grins in the Kentish Town back room do know when that next power chord is arriving because they are hearing ‘Same Band’ and ‘Stay Young’ and ‘Suckle’ for the first time for a decade. No major label presidents, no comedy chequebooks, just a lot of amazement and not a little bit of love. It’s Ultrasound, and this time it’s not going to end in tears.
Early 90's next big things Kingmaker.... this was there first album and probably the best, touted as the band the break America they even had Radiohead support them... nice.. and in two headed yellow bellied hole digger they had one the best titled singles in history....... dont ya think like ??
Zwan were a short lived supergroup centered around lead man Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Released in 2003 this was actually pretty good but never achieved the sales or the indie kudos of their previous bands efforts... a shame really... Billy went on to reform Smashing Pumpkins once the cash had ran out probably and the bands ego's let them....
I dont think this gets the credit it deserved at the time, released in 2006 when the manics were pretty uncool in the eyes of the music press it got largely ignored! ah well have a listen now... Talking of the manics it looks as if they are about to exit stage left pretty soon... they play a massive gig covering all there 40 singles pretty soon... will be a fantastic night!!
South Yorkshire 70's post rock.... f'kin awesome name , f'kin awesome band and a f'kin awesome album..... if you dont mind me saying of course..... have a read through the blurb below or alternatively just crack on with the tunes.... its probably for the best !
Bill Nelson has never been content simply to tread water by repeating a previously successful formula, and the transformation of his band Be Bop Deluxe from straight rock to post-punk minimalism is completed with this, their final album before he split the group and formed the experimental but short-lived Red Noise. After the guitar excesses of Axe Victim and Futurama, Be Bop began to attract attention in the USA, and Nelson, who's no fool, must have realised there was a good chance of his band becoming very big over there had he continued in the same vein. To his credit, he put artistic integrity and his desire to experiment ahead of the lure of the dollar, and Drastic Plastic, released in 1978, is certainly very different from those first two albums four years earlier, although 1976's Modern Music had showed the direction in which the band was heading. Even so, the album must have surprised many fans; the word "drastic" is not misplaced. The tender lyrics directed towards his wife Jan have largely been replaced by descriptions of a confusing and sometimes frightening new world. Musically, it's stark, black and white, with most tracks having a relentless rhythm that's repetitive, but never in a boring way; rather, one feels comforted by the hypnotic feel. Electrical Language welcomes you in, its lyrics consisting of the same four lines repeated, mantra-like. After two more fairly intense songs, there's some light relief given by the delightfully odd Surreal Estate, with its see-sawing, piano-led tune and Whistle While You Work coda. Love in Flames is the hardest, most aggressive and guitar-based track, somehow reminding me of early Stranglers. Panic in the World and Dangerous Stranger, the former borrowing the riff from Bowie's Heroes, continue the "Brave New 1984" theme, then comes the extraordinary Superenigmatix, subtitled Lethal Appliances for the Home with Everything, in which machines have apparently taken us over. Its lilting piano is abruptly hijacked by barked, staccato lyrics. A dramatic change of style arrives with the slow, hesitant instrumental Visions of Endless Hopes, recorded outdoors. Listening to its fragile, fractured beauty, you can almost feel the sun's warmth. The respite is brief, however: Possession returns us to crisp, rapid rhythms and more paranoia about inanimate objects ("I think machines and clocks have secret motives") then comes what was the final track on the original album, Islands of the Dead, written by Nelson as a reaction to the death of his father. It's a slow, gentle song, mixing sadness and hope, and is quite a relief, an easing of all the tension that's preceded it. The three bonus tracks rather spoil the feel of the album (my advice would be to listen to them separately from the rest) although they are all worthwhile, particularly Blimps, a strange, doom-laden instrumental that sounds like an attacked piano crying for help. Even if it were a musical failure (it certainly isn't), Drastic Plastic would still deserve great credit for the sheer bravery of its change of style from previous works. Few other albums have shown a comparable shift: Sergeant Pepper, of course, Talking Heads' Remain in Light, Bowie's Low....Talking of which, the NME once said of Low that however long ago it was made, it would always sound like the future. No less a compliment can be paid to this album.
Back in 1991 - 92 I loved pretty much all of what the so called shoegazer movement had to offer (im a sucker for a genre!) The gorgeous walls of sounds My Bloody Valentine produced without seemingly any effort at all, the soothing harmonies and fragile vocals of Slowdive and the rugged beauty of the Boo Radleys.. yes before you go on they were shoegaze and don't even talk to me about wake up boo!! This album from unknown and unsigned Boston (home of the Pixies) band The Drop Nineteens soon became one my favorites of the era, Its hard to describe exactly so i wont il let you listen to it instead........ and the band were not even from the Thames valley! what would the NME say !!
Alive & Well is the first live album by Mucky Pup.The album was released in 1993, under their own imprint, Mucky Records, through SPV Music exclusively in Europe. While primarily a collection of live tracks recorded during their 1993 tour of Europe., the album also contains a demo version of "The Skinheads Broke My Walkman" from the Act of Faith album, as well as cover versions of Prince's "Darling Nikki" and Sade's "Nothing Can Come Between Us". New additions to the lineup were Eric "EVS" VanSteenbergh and former Ludichrist and Scatterbrain member, Glen Cummings, who became a part time member of the band.
Made From Technetium is the fifth full-length studio album by Man or Astro-man?. In an interview, bassist Coco the Electronic Monkey Wizard joked that the album "was, in fact, made from technetium" and had caused cancer in a number of listeners!! ... Its a magnificent combination of 50s B-Movie Sci-Fi and Instrumental Surf blended with 60s Garage Punk. Perhaps the most original band of the 1990s Surf revival.
Psylons Is Golden is the first album by Portsmouth's Psylons released in 1988. It was released on cassette only by bite back, and features a sample of DJ John Peel before the first track suggesting that if they ever recorded an album they should call it Psylons Is Golden... Which they of course did !
The Psylons were a UK post-punk band formed in Portsmouth 1984 by Keith Wyatt, Carl Edwards, Jack Packer and Warren Grech. The band produced four singles, an EP and two albums, the second of which, “Gimp” was produced by Jim Shaw of Cranes. The debut single “Run To The Stranger” was a New Musical Express Single of the Week and reached number 13 in the Alternative/Indie chart. Two sessions were recorded for BBC Radio One and broadcast on the John Peel and Andy Kershaw shows.Over the next few years the band gigged extensively and supported many acts including The Fall, My Bloody Valentine, Cranes, Spiritualized and Moonshake.
The best 4AD band who never actually signed to 4AD...
Cranes were/are from Portsmouth and there early releases were on local label Bite Back, they eventually signed to dedicated records
“Is that Mister Peel?” His voice was unmistakeable. “That song you just played from Cranes’ Self Non Self EP on Bite Back! Records… Err, it was at the wrong speed, I’ve got a promo copy…” After checking, Peel politely told the caller it was a 45rpm 12”; He'd been playing it at the wrong speed...... excellent !!
Alison Shaw’s voice is strange, though. “Like a baby crying in a toolbox” is one description, but “a helium whisper” is nicer. Back in 1989, Portsmouth scene “rivals” The Mild Mannered Janitors wrote Fuckin’ Ethereal, a song about Cranes and the press attention they received. Their association with The Cure (Robert Smith’s Jewel remix transforms it to a thing of even more beauty) led to a misplaced “gothic” tag. Cranes are beyond categorisation, though. Their strange rhythm-and-drum patterns are like malfunctioning clockwork heartbeats. Just when they settle into a gentle, brooding mood with Satie-like piano motifs, a more percussive disorientating piece will change things. Their 1991 full length debut is the more challenging, and includes selections from the Bite Back! days. 1993’s Forever is more accessible, however, and has the Robert Smith remix. Both are music to sleepwalk and have nightmares to.
The Wolfgang Press was an English post-punk band, active from 1983 until 1995, recording for the 4AD label. The core of the band was Michael Allen (vocals, bass), Mark Cox (keyboards), and Andrew Gray (guitar), with many guest musicians.
Best known for its 1992 international hit single "A Girl Like You (Born To Be Kissed)" The official 4AD band profile describes them as "post-punk", transforming to "avant-dance groovers". The band was frequently labeled "goth", though they denied the charge.
The influence of Metal Box was apparent in their live shows and in their first recording as the Wolfgang Press was the 1983 album The Burden Of Mules. Trouser Press describes it as "dark and cacophonous, an angry, intense slab of post-punk gloom that is best left to its own (de)vices"; the AllMusic Guide to Electronica describes some tracks as "so morose and vehement as to verge on self-parody." ZigZag was more positive, regarding the album as an artistic success and an "emphatic statement." The band's career retrospective compilation, Everything Is Beautiful, contains no tracks from the album... that probably tells a story !!
Inspiral Carpets have returned with their original singer Stephen Holt, we were the first to hear the new line up…
moo! Inspiral Carpets- first interview with new line up
So I’m sat on a settee in a rehearsal room up in some godforsaken hill town north of Manchester and the Inspiral Carpets are running through a selection of tunes with their new/old or should that be old/new singer Stephen Holt. they sound magnificent. There is the adrenalin rush of garage rock and a band with something to prove and singer returned to the fold after 20 years- a snapshot to pre baggy Manchester and a long lost garage rock band.
Going to an Inspiral Carpets rehearsal is part of Mancunian folklore. A young Noel Gallagher made roughly the same trip when Stephen Holt left the first time back in the late eighties. Noel was going to audition for the new singing post but ended up becoming the roadie because his voice was too similar to Clint’s. A couple of years before a pre Stone Roses Ian Brown had been up to jam with a pre Inspirals Clint Boon but left when he heard the industrial music racket Boon was playing at the time.
That’s the cool thing with the Inspirals, they are so much part of the local fabric that they cut the cloth.
Holt was the original singer of the band, forming the Carpets in 1983 with guitarist Graham Lambert and has been given the recall after the band’s two decade mainstay Tom Hingley recently quit.
It’s a smart move, Tom was key to the band’s success but the band have opted to go back to their roots- the garageband shuffle that made them the hippest band in town when they were signed to key local label Playtime Records, before the baggy era. The last time I interviewed this line up was in a city centre pub in 1987- weeks before Stephen left.
They run though some songs and they sound fantastic, for someone like me this raw shock of garage rock is what they do the best. Clint Boon’s wheezing Farfisa is locking with Graham’s shrapnel rhythm guitar and that deceptively tough rhythm section that survives an imploding bass amp to really kick.
It’s great to hear the Inspirals like this, back at their garageband peak, the band sound tough and it really works and Stephen Holt fits in perfectly, but then he would because he formed this band with Graham nearly thirty years ago and his presence was a key part of the band’s original attack. His voice sounds really good and his presence is perfect, the band sound reinvigorated – a mixture of having something to prove and reconnecting with what made them great in the first place.
They play a clutch of songs including a thrilling roughhouse version of ‘Saturn 5’ that really suits the new punky version of the band as well as a new one they have just written that has a killer chorus and a fab guitar hook that is sort of like mid period Fall with an Inspiral’s pop twist. It’s a song that Holt sings like he has sung for years and the band look and feel perfect. Between songs there is plenty of banter and the loose relaxed atmosphere of people who have lived and worked together for years, even if they didn’t really see one of them for two decades!
By the end of the mini set, which is the first time anyone has heard this line up outside the band, one thing is for sure- The Inspirals have turned a potential disaster into a triumph.
It’s an interesting twist in the story of the Inspiral Carpets- the third corner of the classic Manc baggy triangle. With the Roses and the Mondays they were the sound of back end of the eighties.
They may not have had the perpetual cool of their fellow travellers- being the dome haired gonks to Ian Brown’s haughty, cheekbone cool or the Mondays scuzzed up chemical chic but they were oddly loveable and musically brilliant- the quintessential garage band who made good with a run of hit singles that truly stand the test of time. They were Top Of the Pops regulars with those Farfisa driven pop anthems and with a wily knack of writing a great pop tune they managed to survive through baggy and into Britpop.
They remain one of those bands that people forget just how good they were. They had an innate garage band toughness that was the proper backbone to all their pop adventures. Go and listen to them on Spotify or your old CDs and you will be reminded just what a good band this really was.
For older watchers like me, though, there is another story. There was another band that existed before the famous Inspirals. This was the garage band fronted by Stephen Holt. Holt split from the band just before they found fame and looked like he was to become a footnote in their history. His replacement Tom Hingley was key to the band’s success- his polished neo Julian Cope voice was perfect for the pop years of the band but there was always a lingering feeling of ‘what if’.
Pre fame the Inspirals were a cult band in Manchester, gig goers in mid to late eighties the city would talk in awe of this psychedelic garage band with the bubble light show and 24 minute version of the Velvets ‘What Goes On’. The true music heads in town, like a youthfully shy Noel Gallagher, Roses types and other assorted sonic heads would always gather at the Inspiral’s gigs at the Boardwalk or at long lost city centre venues with someone like the Spacemen Three in support, tripping out to this great band.
When they split came it was felt that what they gained with Tom they also lost with Stephen.
The news this week, though, gives us an opportunity to check these back pages. Tom has left the Inspiral Carpets to concentrate on his own solo adventures and the band, always a tightly knit family unit, did the obvious but still beautifully shocking thing and pulled Stephen back into the band.
The ex vocalist had not sing in a band for two decades had rarely been in touch with his former band mates and was just getting ready to slip into middle age when he is suddenly thrust back into the limelight.
After playing me the songs the band are in a perky mood as the ever effervescent Clint Boon explains. ‘We are starting here. We will play the garage stuff and see where it leads us, maybe to a great edgy guitar contemporary band like Interpol or somewhere else.’
So why did Tom leave?
Graham It was the availability of the whole bands for gigs we had been asked to, like festivals last summer. Because we are all involved in other projects we have a situation where three of us could do a festival but two could not and it was not getting anywhere. If you were free for gigs like Tom it was frustrating but equally if you were tied up it was understandable as well. This went on for a bit and it got the better of Tom. We couldn’t be free was frustrating but that’s the way it is. Obviously there is far more to it than that like we always liked to play fast, punky, garagey stuff. The four of us were in shape to do it but Tom didn’t want to play 2 gigs back to back. It was getting the better of Tom, would you agree?’
Clint ‘We were going with it but in February Tom pretty much pulled out. I think he was in a phase of life out, gigging solo and playing with lots of different people and he didn’t think there was anything wrong with using session men. We didn’t want to go into that world though. The core of this band has been together for 25 years- so few bands have got that. I’m not knocking Tom so when he left we decided to carry on. None of us are teenagers, life is short and we got the opportunity to work with Steve and celebrate the garage stuff. It was a result of Tom leaving and not a reaction to it. It was not spiteful, Tom had gone ‘fuck it’ and we said ‘lets get Steve back in!’.
Clint ‘The first 5 years of the band was Steve and Graham, Craig joined in 84 and me soon after. There is a five year part of this band that was never made public. The man in the street is not aware of it. By the time we did ‘Joe’ and ‘Move’ and ‘Find Out Why’ and we became a successful pop group a whole period was lost. Whilst the first album still sounds like a garage band the second album has gone somewhere else with songs about concentration camps and different kind of music. On the third album, Pascal Gabriel came in and we made good garagy stuff again and he was making it sound contemporary- tightening up the beats and made us a garage pop band. By then we were diversifying, the b sides are magnificent at that time, so off the wall like ‘Boomerang.’
Graham ‘The second album rebelled against the first album- Steve had been around for about half the songs on the first album. The second album was a complete contrast to the first album. The third album should have been second and second should have been third…’
Clint ‘The Second album should have been a free giveaway with forth one (everyone laughs).
So was this return to the garage Inspirals forced up you by the line up change?
Clint I’ve had a passionate urge to do garage music for years- to the point that I wanted to do it outside the Inspirals. Tom leaving gave me the opportunity to do that.’
Steve, how did the initial approach to rejoin the band come?
Stephen It was weird. It came out of the blue. There was a text from Graham. I hadn’t seen the band for years, apart from bumping into Clint a year ago. It was mad, totally unexpected. In the text Graham said do you fancy doing some singing for us and I thought it was a side project that Graham was doing. I didn’t think it was Inspiral Carpets- so it was a surprise. I suppose regretted leaving the band for years. I left because of a few things, personal things going on in my life and maybe because of the way the band was moving and pressures of stuff led to it. When you are younger you make snap decisions, decisions I regretted over time but to get this second chance is brilliant.’
Clint When you left the band it was understandable we were jumping off edge of a cliff! I was a self employed company director stepping into a world of paying ourselves ten quid a week to go full time- Steve had a decent job.’
Stephen I had the Rainkings after that and gradually turned into a smoking and drinking club! We would rehearse a couple of times a week and then end up in the Marble Arch pub. Since then with music I was watching and lsitening and working- it was pipe and slippers time for me until that text!’
Graham ‘What was interesting was that we had been around the music industry for years and worked with a manager and agents and had all the trials and tribulations of the music industry whilst Steve had been a music lover for those 20 years and comes in fresh and untarnished and it reminded us of that genuine love of making music. It made us think lets play music, lets get on with it. With this band now who knows what will happen, we could play a small venue like the Roadhouse or a massive one like Gmex or no gigs atall. We actually enjoy making the music. It’s like back into 1987 when Clint wheeled his keyboard uninvited into the rehearsal room and we got together and made music, we would come in from work and rehearse with a genuine love of making music…’
Clint ‘I still do my day job and the do the band…’
It’s a bit of a posher job now!
Clint ‘We are not worried about record sales and downloads. We don’t play that game any more. We are loving nothing more than creating and playing. Although it would nice to have enough success to make this a priority, if we could look on this as the main sort of gig that would be great but if all we do is rehearse and make great tunes then that’s fine.’
Stephen what was the first rehearsal after all these years like?
Stephen ‘I met Graham once before we did a few things in Clint’s cellar but then it was bang and straight in and it gelled pretty quicly.’
Not only are the band revisiting the past but they are moving forward with new songs…
Clint ‘We have some more new ideas to look at and some stuff to revisit from years ago. What’s great about garage music is that we can knock out songs quickly.’
Graham ‘Tom’s input to the band was good. But in the end you get twisted when you start thinking that you’re not Noel Gallagher or not Paul Weller and it can affect your songwriting ability. Now instead of 15 chords we have got back to three, I’m not a muso . I dread anyone coming round with that Guitar Hero game, I’m really stuck. the kids leather me on it. We were sat on deckchairs in the garden recently playing guitars and we couldn’t tune the guitar! that’s brilliant, the two us cant tune a guitar together (laughs).’
Clint ‘We are very punk in that way.’
Graham ‘We started from a time when you didn’t want to be the next Beatles or U2. It was punk rock. It was from the heart. You would find a shape on the guitar and it sounded good then you would do it. Martyn started the basics of the new song, we kicked it around and changed it with Clint’s backing vocals and Farfisa on it and added other bits. If someone comes up with idea and we all work on it.’
Clint ‘Where we are in life with four of us having multiples of kids, all the hang ups when we were younger are not worth it. We are so relaxed about who writes stuff now and that will carry on being the case.’
Graham ‘Here’s an interesting snippet for your piece- this line up played one gig with Stephen at the Cricketers in London in 1988. So his is the definitive Cricketers line up, Martyn had just joined the band and we played one gig with that line up with Stephen. Jesus Jones supported us at the oval cricket ground club. I remember being on the bus before played and New Order doing were ‘True Faith’ on Top Of The Pops.
Everyone laughs, Graham is legendary in the band for his ridiculous memory recall…
I ask if there is plan of action…
Clint ‘There is nothing planned yet. We have one serious gig in Chile and we like the idea of that being the comeback gig. We get gigs offers all the time and can’t always do them. The excitement of the announcement of the reformation means that we have to put the infrastructure together- a manager and an agent and get some British dates sorted.’
Graham ‘Oddly you are the first person to see this line up- that Cricketer’s gig there was no-one was there…’
And what do your old road crew think of this…
Clint ‘Liam Gallagher will be buzzing when he hears of the new line up, Noel as well. It’s weird to think but if Steve hadn’t left in the first place then Oasis might never have happened…’
Clint ‘We did amazing stuff with Tom and that would have carried on but he left so we sat down and told him what was going to happen and that we would carry on with Steve, who knows, we may even work with Tom again in the future…’
Stephen, did you ever meet Tom?
‘No, I have never seen the band after I left! I was listening to different type of stuff and mixing with different people. I was aware of what the band were doing but they did not feature on my radar that much, it was not a case of ‘fuck them, don’t want anything to do with it! just different musical interests…’
Graham ‘Steve retained an individual indie ear!”
Stephen ‘I got two indie ears!
Graham ‘Steve was more into JohnPeel show and bands like McCarthy and the Wolfhounds and we almost left that. We have been away from that and now Steve is talking about bands I haven’t heard of. If John peel was still alive Steve would be listening to him…’
Sweet Odyssey of a Cancer Cell T' Th' Center of Yr Heart
Fritterring
Continuous Trucks and Thunder Under a Mothers Smile
Very Sleepy Rivers
Car Wash Hair
I saw Mercury Rev support Ride in Portsmouth, i was a bit narked off actually as the band were splitting support dates with Verve who i really wanted to see... i shouldn't have been annoyed as Mercury Rev were fantastic , they next played in 1993 at the Wedgewood Rooms, i was going to the loo in the venue before the show, the band were sat in the foyer 2 minutes before they were due onstage, the singer at the time David Baker was saying to the rest of the band....."i wanna play the one that goes dum de dum dah!" as they wrote the set list....proper mental... they blew the place apart playing most of this album including a 20 minute long version of very sleepy rivers.... cool a f*ck
The High llamas....where to start ! Microdisney... Cathal Coughlin ...etc etc.....
The High Llamas were Sean O Hagans baby and what a record this is... its October and its sunny as summer outside... this is just what you need
01.Giddy Strings
02.The Dutchman
03.Gddy and Gay
04.Easy Rod
05.Checking in, checking out
06.The Goat strings
07.Up in the hills
08.The Goat looks on
09.Taog Skool No
10.Little Collie
11.Goes by
12.Lets have another look
13.The Goat
