BEATFOR93 - July Singles Weekender III

James King (Jim McColl), the Glasgow’s Jhonny Thunders, recorded two singles appeared on Fast Product in the early 80s, fierce rock with attitude and guitars at full blast, but were not successful.
King’s moment though seemed to have arrived when he released the ‘Texas Lullaby’ five track EP in 1983, as James King and The Lonewolves. With an increased focus in the press on new American bands such as REM, Dream Syndicate and Husker Du, his timing seemed impeccable. Reviewing the EP for Melody Maker, recall Billy Bragg saying that if the record had been issued by a band from the Southern States of America it would have been hailed as the future of rock’n'roll.
The Lone Wolves then signed to Allan Horne’s Swamplands label as their profile continued to increase and a single, ‘The Angels Know’, appeared on that label. All the signs seemed to be encouraging that, at long last, there would be album that never arrived.

James King - Back From The Dead [7" Cuba Libre Records 1981]


Montreal native Stanley Frank began writing songs soon after joining his first band at the age of fourteen. In 1977 his pop-rock flavored classic S'cool Days earned him success in England and Europe. Recorded in 1975 and released in England to rave reviews, ‘S’cool Days’ still sounds vital to this day. A tribute to such 60s bands as the Who, Easybeats, and Kinks, the song is a teen anthem, a testimonial to unbridled youth. This B side is poppier than S’cool Days but you will be captivated with the acoustic guitar intro and the irresistible chorus.



Stanley Frank - S'cool Days / On A Line [7" Attic Records 1976]






After left Television, Richard Lloyd recorded for Elektra his first album called Alchemy, a record of very melodic pop, retrospective, sentimental and verging on pretty. One of ten desert island discs.

“...But I really liked the Rolling Stones. So there were two camps: The Beatles camp and The Rolling Stones camp. So I was definitely in the Stones camp. Much darker…” Richard Lloyd

So , a little bit disappointed with the Alchemy record production, recorded two Jagger-Richards tunes to comeback to his rock basis.

Richard Lloyd - Get Out Of My Cloud [7" Ice Water Music 1981]

BEATFOR90 - June Singles Weekender V

The band had its origins in west London, Barbara Gogan and Richard Williams had previously been in The Derelicts, a “Trotksyist R&B band”, well known on the London pub rock/squat rock circuit. The Passions appeared to be part of the post-punk movement, best known for their 1981 hit 'I'm in Love with a German Film Star', a tongue-in-cheek tune with sharp lyrics and scheming echo-delay guitars.
Between the albums ‘Thirty Thousand Feet’ and ‘Sanctuary’, the Passions released the single, "Africa Mine”, arguably their best song, with Pete Wilson producing. A pretty, haunting, bitter and impassioned condemnation of colonialist exploitation, it could really be applied to greed by any name.
Four tracks were recorded culminating a UK tour, in a London date at The Venue and eventually released as a freebie with the ‘Africa Mine’ single.

The Passions - Africa Mine [7" Polydor 1982 ]
The Passions - (I'm In Love With A) Film German Star (Live) [7" Polydor 1982 ]


Formed in late 1976 in New Southgate, London N1, The Bazoomis (Russian for "Madness") certainly lived up to their name. Along with "Blitz" they were the hottest act on the punk club circuit during the latter months of 1977. After the demise of 'The Bazoomis', Johnny Christo & Mick Toldi formed the powerpop combo 'The Expressos' along with 'Rozzi' on vocals, Nicholas Pyall on guitar & Milan Lekavica on drums. They signed to the WEA' label and went on to release four singles. This “Hey Girl/Baby Be Bad To Me” was the second one, released in the UK in 1980. A combination of 70's new wave and 60's girl-group beat music.

The Expressos - Baby Be Bad To Me [7" WEA 1980]

The Mundanes were an early 80s Rhode Island-based New Wave band featuring future They Might Be Giants member John Linnell. They released only this single called Make it the Same.
Another Blondie straight copy tune, catchy.

The Mundanes - Make It The Same [7" Portable Records 1980]



Born Kathy Dorritie, and also performing as Party Favor, Vanilla was a complete unknown when she was recruited to the cast of Pork, where she played a necrophiliac nurse. Bowie was Ziggy Stardust, and the Pork crew were working behind him; Vanilla was employed as his publicist, a role in which her own personal taste for outrage and controversy found acres of room for manouever.

As a lasciviously uninhibited rocker in 1975 at Max's Kansas City, her performances with her own group The State Island Band had an unquestionable impact upon waitress Debbie Harry. And as author of the libidinous artbook Pop Tarts, she published the blueprint for Madonna's later Sex. Left Staten Island to pursue a recording career in Britain, Vanilla had relocated to London and an immediate fixture at the famed Roxy club, Vanilla's regular live band featured bassist Gordon "Sting" Sumner, drummer Stewart Copeland, and guitarist Henry Padovani, a trio whose own career under the name the Police was then going nowhere extraordinarily quickly. In mid-1977 she signed with RCA making two inconsistent but surprisingly good albums. Moonlight is a pop rock tune with the underground sounds of New York's 70's glammy-art rock scene, you know: Debbie again. Wait for the long piano introduction...

Cherry Vanilla - Moonlight [7" RCA 1979]

BEATFOR87 - June Singles Weekender II

Edward ('Ed') Ball is a songwriter, singer, guitarist and keyboard player from north London. In 1977, Ball and fellow London Oratory schoolfriends Dan Treacy and Joe Foster formed a band, which toured and released under a number of names (Teenage Filmstars, The Missing Scientists, O' Level) before settling on the name Television Personalities. Following a brief parting with Rough Trade, they launched their own label Whaam! Records, later renamed Dreamworld following a legal dispute with George Michael.
On leaving the Television Personalities, Ball concentrated on The Times , a band with an ever-changing lineup in which he remained the only constant member, released seven albums. Three more albums as the dance machine Love Corporation, one by the Conspiracy of Noise, and miscellaneous side projects like L'Orange Mechanik, and for a time made his living playing in the Boo Radleys in the mid-90s, and working as a Creation Records staffer, running a short-lived Creation sublabel, named Ball Product. Uff!
Eclectically clever musicman with no agenda, only the recreation of his favs musical eras.
... the highlights of my album collection were pretty lean - David Bowie 'Images 66-67', Kraftwerk 'Autobahn', Wizzard 'Wizzards Brew', Mothers of Invention 'We're only in it for the money', Pink Floyd 'Piper at the gates of Dawn', Alan Price 'Lucky man' and Bob Dylan 'Blood on the tracks'. That pretty much defined me for the next twenty-odd years. But I didn't just want to listen to this stuff, I wanted to play it. Ed Ball http://www.creation-records.com/

The TV Personalities Smashing Times describes a weekend in London with true banality, weak chorus but neat guitar splashes, played with a minimum of elaboration but a maximum of enthusiasm and earnestness and the later lo-fi aesthetic. These mark the beginning of the D.I.Y. pop underground that led to the Pastels, the Marine Girls, the C-86 movement, Sarah Records, and other institutions of British indie pop, and it sounds as fresh now as it did when was recorded.

We started the Television Personalities because WE'D KILLED Elvis . . . He'd become fat, redundant and useless. We were young, spunky, good-looking and very, very talented and launched a musical revolution from the common room of the ultra-strict London Oratory school.. Ed Ball www.creation-records.com

Teenage Filmstars I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape is a loving pastiche of sunny Carnaby Street-era pop song, a mod killer number that later was re-recorded by The Times.

...We applied the ideology of our favourite 60s groups to the chassis of our primitive punk beat. We’d never heard the sound outside our own heads and were keen to live it as O Levels, Personalities or Filmstars. Ed Ball www.poptones.co.uk

The Times Manchester came out in E-1989, the acid house summer in Great Britain, a shameless record that recalls his various abilities to humourise fads and trends.

E for Edward, Energy, Easygoing, Excitment: Everything you want for a friend.
B for Big Smile, Beautiful Manners, Boo, Baby.
Wrote songs about Mersey, my kid.
B is for Ball and Balls=Spunk=LIFE!
Pete Wylie.

In 1995 Creation Records issued a two-disc compilation of Ball's material, and two albums of solo material were released to coincide with it. Following the collapse of Creation in 1999 Ball was not signed to any other label and disappeared from the public gaze, to concentrate on experimental film documentaries. In 2004 Ball rejoined the Television Personalities, and continues to play occasional shows under the name of The Times.

Television Personalities - Smashing Times [7" Rough Trade 1980]

Teenage Filmstars - I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape [7" Fab Listening Records 1980]

The Times - Manchester [7" Creation Records 1990]

Ed Ball - Another Member Of The Mill Hill Self Hate Club [Cds Creation Records 1995]

This a sample of the Wonderful World of Ed Ball, now discover it.