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]

BEATFOR89 - June Singles Weekender IV

Ready for the summer ! They looked like the Small Faces, sounded more like the Faces meets Big Star, or Primal Screams pre-Loaded. Released four classic singles and a debut album. Follow in the footsteps of the true greats; Beatles, Stones, Big Star, Stone Roses…They were part of the bill for Oasis' first major UK tour sharing equal billing. Sprawling, beautifully messy guitar licks with a country rock swagger woven around big hearty soulful vocals.

Whiteout - Starr Club [cds Silverstone 1994]

January 1989. Yesterday, first Nivens release on Woosh records

reached number 10 in the indie charts.
This five piece from Ashington, England, was one of hundred indie bands in the late eighties, combining angular, chiming guitars and power pop structures, recording for labels that are run partially or wholly by musicians in bands on them. The Nivens supported such stars as The Las, My Bloody Valentine, Cud, Primal Scream, Brilliant Corners, Family Cat, and any indie band who bothered to visit the north of England. Their second release “The Dialect Drug” ep had been withdrawn due to another band called The Nivens from Norwich (Howard Turner’s band). Dropped the “The” but they weren't happy. Band tensions had come to a head and they just couldn't be bothered to argue with them.
In early 1990 appeared on T.V. on a local arts programme called “Out of our heads”. This was their swansong and they were gone.

Firestation Records compile a cd The Nivens 1987-1990, including three releases on the legendary Woosh label, (1 flexi, 2 singles) plus tracks recorded for their only demo tape. http://www.firestation-records.de/

The Nivens - Yesterday [7' Woosh Records 1989]

Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" is a song written by Mickey Newbury. Said to reflect the LSD experience, Newbury wrote it as a warning against the danger of using LSD. First recorded in 1967 by Jerry Lee Lewis, who rejected it, it was a hit for The First Edition (with Kenny Rogers on lead vocals) in 1968 . Here covered on a speedo take by rock band from Oxford, Supergrass.
Supergrass' origins lie in the band The Jennifers, began building a reputation in the Oxford indie music scene including traits of the pop-punk era, characterized by fast, three-chord, guitar-based, catchy tunes, released one single in 1992, "Just Got Back Today", on Nude Records before they disbanded. The double A-sided "Alright"/"Time" was the fourth single of their first album I Should Coco , which stayed in British Top Three for a month (peaking at number 2) and pushed the album to number one.

Supergrass - Condition [cds Parlophone 1995]

Kenny Rogers and The First Edition - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) [1968]

This song had to be a hit, one of this summer songs played insistently in every local FM station.
Contains a clear description of this type of songs : 4/4 beat for dancefloors, irresistible choruses, whoa whoas, and a touch of oriental style with a guitar-sitar. Great. A perfect little song.
Rus Harrison was the founding member of The Cygnet Ring, Rus had previously been in a local indie band called Playing At Trains, who gained a cult following around the late 1980s. He also formed another project called Shaker which played around 1996-ish.
Released two more singles and an album, all of them with no success.

The Cygnet Ring - Love Crime [7' Protocol Records 1991]

BEATFOR88 - June Singles Weekender III

First single (not included in their two albums) from Bath pop band Interview. Birmingham denotes their early days pub-rock influences. Later the songs were sickly-sweet updating with the new wave explosion. Pete Allerhand and Alan Brain composed several great tunes like the timeless ‘To the People’.
Now you can buy their albums in cd.

http://www.interviewtheband.com/interview_buycds.html

Interview - Birmingham [7" Virgin Records 1978]




Two singles released by this english (Londoners?) band. Mary Jane was b side of the Bus Song 7’ single recorded for Nems Records (yes, the Black Sabath label). It’s modern pub rock craftsmen.


T-Boys - Mary Jane [Nems Records 19??]






Brilliant single, never in picture sleeve, great vocals and thick guitars. Disguise were a band from Hartlepool (UK) formed by Peter Scott, Jimmy Mckenna and Alan Geoffrey in late 1976. Signed for Chiswick Records in late ‘77, but the label’s lack of interest after they had taken on the band left them disillusioned. They had to wait over a year for their single to be released, and even when it was, “Hey Baby” didn’t have any effect on the record buying public, which is a shame.


Disguise - Hey Baby [7' Chiswick Records 1978] Cheated from Chiswick Story Comp cd. My 7 inches is too fuzzy




Jim Rader is a writer that grew up in Bridgeport, CT and Fairlawn, NJ, moved to NYC in 1973 gaving poetry readings at the church and also did music gigs, one with his first band the Reasons. Had two more bands, Motion Pictures and Blue Palms, that played gigs in NYC and Boston. Published rock reviews/ features in "Boston Rock," "Cover (NYC)" and "Trouser Press." This is their only release as The Reasons, another good example of pub-rock romp.


The Reasons - Hard Day At The Office [7' Ze Records 1978]

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.

BEATFOR86 - June Singles Weekender I

Typical new wave power pop band with early-'60s girl group influences, sounding like Blondie, and trying ,unsuccessfully, the hit wonder on the other side of the ocean. In a big way Play With Fire is a good tune, raw guitars at the bottom, graceful keyboard and Dee sweet voice.


Dee And The Monitors - Play With Fire [7" Ariola 1980]

Al Hodge was a singer/composer living in his native Cornwall –UK-. Turned professional at just sixteen, joining popular UK west country band `The Onyx` recorded seven singles on the Pye Label. Formed 'Rogue' with Guy Fletcher recorded three albums for CBS. In 1978 formed The Mechanics with Al Eden (Drummer) and Dave Quinn (Bass). The band made several singles and were championed by John Peel. This is one of these 45, a mixture of The Motors and the sharps choruses guitars of Andy Summers. Al Hodge finaly lost his two year battle with cancer on the 6th of July 2006.

The Mechanics - Gettin' Engagged [7" Big Fish 1980]



A little rain, the echo of a siren, a spooky horrorshow organ creeping up your spine, and then the band kicks in...
London's Hitmen — not the Australian group — debuted with a DIY single ("She's All Mine" b/w "Slay Me with Your 45") of razor-sharp rhythm'n'pop topped by Ben Watkins' Graham Parker-cum- croaky David Bowie vocals. This Bates Motel takes repeated listenings to discover that they have fallen victim to colorless, punchless production, but the sound is murky but razor-sharp, syncopated bass line (maybe The Moody Blues of the New Wave), a stunningly sophisticated piece of music.


The Hitmen - Bates Motel [7" CBS 1981]



Mike Read -Manchester, England- is a British disc jockey and former television presenter, who joined BBC Radio in 1978, presenting a Saturday evening show and made his TV presenting debut in the same year when he became one of the hosts of Top Of The Pops. He combined his radio work with a second career as a children's TV presenter. Read is a guitarist and writer in his own right, producing songs and poems. In 1979, recording as The Trainspotters, Read released the good punk pop of the period "High Rise", a single based on his National-Radio-1 radio show jingle.
He had been in bands since the 60s, making records under all sorts of names (Micky Manchester, The Rock-Olas, Grasshoppers, The Ghosts). Their second 7’ "Unfaithful" as The Trainspotters was never officially released. That’s where I live!.

The Trainspotters - High Rise [7" Arista 1979]