Street 66 - Conman (1983)

b/w All The Small Minds

Great Mod/Powerpop from this Welsh (Caerphilly/Cardiff) band led by Alex Silva (Voc, Guitar)

The band appears to have been short-lived & I'll admit I've been having problems working out the line up as there is not much info available & what there is appears to be conflicting.

The band seems to have been a 4-piece  (see photo)
Steve "Vannie" Van Koningsveld - Guitar (Later playing with Bryn Gregory & the Co-Stars)
? - Bass (From Liverpool apparently)
Clive (Worked in Ivor Barnetts Music Shop in Caerphilly) - Drums

Street 66

Alex was also in another Cardiff Mod band "Living School" (who becmae A Sound Reaction [1983-85])
with
Jamie Sinclair-Thomson (Guitar Voc)
Nick Morgan (Bass)
Kris Ayre (Drums)

Useless Info - Alex Silva is better known for being the Guitarist for Papa's New Faith [1987-89] & Even more renouned as a record producer. Famously the Manic Street Preachers 1995 Holy Bible amongst others.

Sleeve Front

The 45 does come with a Pic sleeve but mine is without.

As always anyone that can add/put straight any info please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans

Rave To The Grave - There's Life In The Old Boy Yet! EP (1983)

A1 - Be Mine Tonight
A2 - Even Old Men In Suits Wear Dr. Martens
B1 - Force Twelve To Zero
B2 - Country Boys


Nice Pop Rock/Powerpop EP from these Avon & Somerset Boys. (Think Brinsley Schwarz Crossed with The Raspberies)


Roger Bastable (Voc)
Michael 'Mutter' Slater (Voc,Rhythm Guitar,Keys,Flute & Harmonica) Ex The Anonymous,The Cellar Rats,Stackridge
Mick Howe (Lead Guiar) Ex The Cellar Rats
Martin Cutler (Bass)
Jimmy Foster (Drums)
Peter Chaundy (Saxophone)
Terry Doble (Accordian)

As well as this 45, RTTG had a track (Saturday Night) On The Various Artists LP "Class Of '83"  
& An LP Slease With Ease [Jolly Roger Records ‎– YOHO X2] 1985
[The End,Let Me Fly/Gimme  Some Lovin'/ Got My Mojo Workin'/ Bye Bye Bird/ Some Kind Of Wonderful// All Or Nothing/ One Step At A Time/ Mustang Sally/ I Just Wanna Make Love To You/ I Can't Turn You Loose]

Useless Info 1 - Between leaving Stackridge, working as a petrol pump attendant & forming RTTG Mutter had a short lived solo career. Signed to Elton John’s Rocket label (1976) He had 2 singles released. The first of these (If You Were The Only Girl in The World/Solitude - ROKN 504) was withdrawn & substituted by Dancing On Air/Solitude - ROKN 510.

Useless Info 2 - Roger Bastable's Rave To The Grave can still be seen playing around The Zomerset area

Sounds & Scans

Dafne And The Tenderspots - Disco Hell (1979)

b/w I'm A Natural

Short lived band (1978-79) that released an Interesting New Wave 7" [Scheduled release Date 18th May] treading the line of "Disco Satire"

Dafne Nancholas (Voc)  
Graham Smith (Guitar)
Jo Burt (Bass) Ex-The Dragons
Nick Monnas (Drums)
Alan Wilder AKA Alan Normal (Keys) Ex-The Dragons

Jo Burt was Replaced by Steve Hughes (Bass) Ex-Burlesque


Useless Info 1 - The “No Soul, No Rhythm” monolougue Was by Graham Smith

German Release

Dutch Release

Useless Info 2 - No Picture Sleeve was issued for the UK release (Although it was released on Blue Wax as well as the usual Black). Look to The German Or Dutch releases for a PS.

Useless Info 3 - After Dafne And The Tenderspots Alan Wilder went onto Real To Real and The Hitmen (Both bands are worth checking out) Oh, and Depeche Mode who became fairly popular.

 Sounds & Scans

David Singleton - If You Can Sing In Tune (1981)

b/w - Lazy Bugger

Nice DIY Tunes all Played/Sung by Mr Singleton (I'll admit I only picked this up as It's Produced By Andy Arthurs)

However a small internet search later and:

Singleton has co-produced and/or engineered almost every Robert Fripp release (including King Crimson albums, EPs and archive releases) since 1992, and has also worked on releases by Bill Nelson, Bill Bruford, Europa String Choir and many others. Singleton is the co-owner/director (with Fripp) of the Discipline Global Mobile record label, half of the Ton Prob production team (again with Fripp) and the developer of the BootlegTV live concert streaming setup.

This 45 was recorded and released whilst he was still an undergraduate reading philosophy at St Johns College, Cambridge

Singleton currently releases his own material under the alias of The Vicar – a multimedia project persona that has produced a story blog and videoblogs, printed fiction, graphic novels, and song albums


Sounds & Scans

Sidewinder - Basil Herd (1983)

b/w - The Game

(Double A-Side)

Sole released, (Self-Financed?) "Basil Herd" (Dated 1982 on the label) is an excellent piece of 60's styled Powerpop.Whereas "The Game" is slightly more intense having some guitar interplay which may appeal to the NWOBHM fans


Again I'm coming up short on Band info.. Possibly from the West Country [Somerset]

Release date is put at Dec 1983

If anyone can add anything, Please Leave A Comment

Sounds & Scans

Fanatics - Total Confusion (1980)

b/w When The Sun Goes Down

2 Great Punk Powerpop tunes with the B-side being the better to these ears.

Well; thanks to the scant info on the labels, you know as much about this band as I do.

Produced by John Mills on the private Grudge Records

Record Company – Watermelon Songs

If you can add something/anything please leave a comment

Scans & Sounds

Field Marshal Slug - Glam Bang (1985)

b/w Spider Screen

Nice Post-Punk/Powerpop from this West Wales (Carmarthan?) band [1982-86]

I can't tell you much about them. I think the line up was:
Jamie Crawford (Voc)
Andy Duff (Bass)
Simon Dale (Guitar)
Dennis D Menace (Drums)

With Dino & Geoff Russell also having a go at the guitars at some point.

There is a pic sleeve to this [but most seem to come without it]

If you want to hear more there have been some Live & Demo tracks uploaded by presumably a band member on Youtube

As always if anyone can add some more info please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans

Josef Garret - Without Sex (1982)

b/w - Pop Star, Pop Star

Two striped back tunes from East London Folk-Punk troubadour Patrik Fitzgerald, his Guitar & a borrowed Revox on this, his 7th 45 release.
The 45, released under a pseudonym was funded by Uber fan Andrew Hoddle who liked the 2 songs, so dug into his own savings & got some copies pressed up with ellie jay records.

NME Press Clipping

The name comes from an almagamation of Patrik's middle name being Joseph & the economist Garret Fitzgerald + poets wrote and lived in garrets.

Patrik F

If you want to know more about Mr Fitzgerald Go here




Useless info - Without Sex had a reworking in 2016 by Russian Dance duo Wolfstream

Sounds & Scans

Eric Blake - Born To be Special EP (1981)

A1 - Born To Be Special
B1 - 80's Girl
B2 - Give Generously   

Julie Harding (Voc)
Mick Fanning (Lead Guitar)
Bob Timms (Rhythm Guitar) Not Credited as he left before the record was released
Ian McKenzie (Drums)
Alan Baker (Bass)

The Band formed as a trio [Alan, Julie & Mick] in Dec 1978. Based in the Basildon/Southend area, they added Bob Timms (Rhythm Guitar) and Julie's older brother Bob Harding on Drums a few months later. By Sept '79 they had won 2 local talent contests & gained Tony Coulton as a manager, this then led to them being signed to Carrere in March 1980 [for a 3 single deal]

Their 1st 45 [Sin City] was unfortunatly banned by the BBC [due to the lyrical content - which not being written by them must have rankled]

By the time of recording their 2nd 45 Ian had replaced Bob H on the drum stool & Bob T was on his way out.

As with the 1st 45 Carrere once again forced them to record someone elses [Jeff Chegwin] words for the A-side.

I'm not sure how the story ended but I guess by the end of 1981 the band was no more.

Alan explained to Malcolm Dome in Record Mirror [01-11-80] how their name came about:

It's a purely fictitious character and came about when I was in London with a few friends. We'd had a bit to drink' someone mentioned that name in conversation and it stuck in my mind.Later on we thought "hey Eric Blake, that sounds good for a rock band". Previously, we'd tried all sorts of weird names, such as Passing Wind and none sounded as instant as Eric Blake."

Discography
7" - Sin City/Zero 6 - Carrere ‎[CAR 141] 13 Jun 1980
7" - Born To Be Special//80's Girl/Give Generously - Carrere [CAR 179] 24 Apr 1981
7'' - Born To Be Special//80's Girl - Carrere [CAR 2070] German Pressing 24 Apr 1981

Useless info 1 - If the band were asked to sign their Sin City 45 they would always sign The Zero 6 side.

Useless Info 2 - Zero 6 was a local nightcub in Southend-on-Sea
     

Sounds, Scans & More

Type - Bright Green Angels (1980)

A  - Bright Green Angels
B1- Won't You Be Mine
B2 - Fast

Great Sole release from this Loughborough Based Female Fronted Post-Punk/New Wave Band [Lene Lovich eat yer heart out]

Chris Cresswell - Drums 

Unfortunately I have no solid info on them, I'm not even completely sure of the release date [See the comments below]


The 45 was engineered by Tom Nordon; Guitar, Voc for The Broughtons [1978-1982] & Doll By Doll [1982]

As always if anyone can "shed any light" please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans