BEATFOR51 - The Waltones

The Waltones began in 1986. They were offered a deal in the same year by Dave Haslam and soon to be Happy Mondays Manager Nathan McGough to record a single which unfortunately never happened.
They finally managed to get a deal with Medium Cool records and recorded 4 singles and one album. Unfortunately, despite gaining much streetcred and selling out their LP, their distributor Red Rhino went bankrupt. The new distributor APT refused to take on Red Rhino's debts and thus no re-press of the album was undertaken.
When Medium Cool was taken over by Midnight Music records a fall-out occured between the label and the Waltones ex-manager over ownership of the mastertapes for 'Listen To Your Heart' (the bands 5th unreleased single). The band decided to take time out and later returned as Candlestick Park (named after the San Fransisco stadium where the Beatles played their last gig in 1966). Unfortunately the band fell apart when Drummer Alex Fyans left. Shortly afterwards Manny the bassist decided to take a years break in the USA. It was about the same time that Mark Collins got his call-up to be guitarist with the Charlatans.When guitarist Jon Baker was fired from the Charlatans a replacement was urgently needed. It was Steve Harrison who found out about his talents. A call was made to Anthony Bogianno (Inspiral Carpets manager) and after a chat he came up with 2 names. One was Mark, whom apart from being a brilliant musician, was also a friend and part-time van driver for the Inspiral Carpets. The other name put forward was roadie called Noel Gallager! (now supremo member of Oasis). Noel declined to form his own band and Mark was given the job almost instantly. Mark remembers going to the audition: 'I just went down there thinkiing the Charlatans wanted a second guitarist. I turned up with my guitar at a rehearsal room in Birmingham, and there was no other guitarist there and they just said "Do you fancy joining the band?" I said "Oh. Go on then, why not?" It all happened really quickly.'
The Waltones made 4 singles "Downhill" & "She Looks Right Through Me" in 1987 "Spell It Out" & "The Deepest" in 1988. All 4 were released on London based indie Medium Cool,
An LP, Deepest, was recorded in Summer 1988 and scheduled for release that Autumn. The collapse of Red Rhino meant that the album did not see the light of day until March the following year.
The group went out on the road, playing gigs all over Britain, and touring both Spain and Switzerland. http://members.aol.com/Walt0nes/tonesdex.htm

Alex Fyans: Drums - Mark Collins: Guitar - James Knox: Vocals, Harmonica - Manny Lee: Bass, Backing Vocals

A CD retrospective of The Waltones' Medium Cool output will be issued by Cherry Red in 2007.

http://members.aol.com/Walt0nes/tonesdex.htm
http://www.mediumcool.info/
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86125576

The Waltones
- Donwhill [7" Medium Cool Records 1987]
- She Looks Right Through Me [12" ep Medeium Cool Records 1987]
- Spell It Out [7" Medium Cool Records 1988]
- Failing In Love [The Deepest 7" Medium Cool records 1988]
- Deepest [lp Medium Cool Records 1989] : Smile - Rainfall - Everything's Just Fine - Don't Understand / When It All Turns Sour .

Clandestick Park
- All The Time In The World [7" Midnight Music 1989]

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