Them Geezers Over There - Panic EP (1987)

 

A1 - Panic
A2 - Pushin' Throu'
B - The Gig

3 better than average Male/Female Voc  80's Powerpop tracks from this short lived [1987-90] Chelmsford 5 piece on the Rambert Records label

All I know is :

The band were led by Jonna Beacon (Guitar Voc) & their drummer was Andy Franklin

There were 500 sleeveless 45's pressed as a prize for winning a 1987 Essex Battle of the Bands contest.

Being Bored By Keith & Co

In 1989 they also competed on Keith Chegwin's SkyTV's Star Search (Performing Pushin' Throu' with a slightly amended line-up)

If you can add any info please leave a comment

Scans & Sounds

Twist 'N' Shout - Bounce Back (1979)

b/w  As It Happens

Cool Powerpop on the Sole 45 from this Worthing 3 piece (1978 - 1981)

John Cohen (Voc Guitar)
Alfred Armstrong (Bass) 
Linda Doe (Drums Voc)

When Worthing band (1975-78) "Better Looking" [Members - Peter Juster, John Cohen, Graham Skinner, Kim O'Mahoney, Brian Morris, Steve Rose & Linda Doe] folded 2 bands were to emerge:

Store Ad

The Same (Steve Rose, Peter Juster, Brian Morris & Tony Denyer) & Twist N Shout

John Cohen (Voc,Guitar) & Alfred Armstrong (Bass) would later re-join Tony Denyer (Drums) & Peter Juster (Alto Sax) along with Greg Davis (Tenor Sax) as The Hot Heads

Useless info 1 Linda Doe later Married Brian Morris

Useless info 2 This release was WEX268 & The Same's sole 7'' release (Movements/Wild About You) was WEX267

Useless info 3 Their Full time jobs at the time were  John Cohen (Assistant Manager of Worthing Record Shop), Linda Doe (Secretary) & Alfred Armstrong (Computer Operator for an Insurance Firm)

This is not the same band even though the labels are from the Portsmouth area.

As always if you can add some info please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans

The Social Lites - Social Lies (1984)

 

A1 I'd Rather Be Lonely     

A2 Cadillac Crazy     

A3 It's Not Enough     

B1 Big Business     

B2 Girls

Cool New Wave from this Seattle WA Band 

Mark Clear (Voc Guitar)      

Laurie Lyons  aka L.A. Lyons (Voc Guitar)

Joan M. (Bass Voc)

Steve Phun Hadley (Drums)

  

I couldn't find any info on the band but both Mark & Laurie have an internet presence. Here's a snippet from Laurie Lyons bio:

..... She got her first guitar at age 13. At 16, Laurie Lyons began her musical career as a backing singer with an Elvis tribute band where she discovered her gift for creating unusual and highly melodic harmony lines. She then joined a new wave punk group called 'The Plague' as a singer/ songwriter and rhythm guitarist.

Developing this direction, Laurie achieved considerable success with her new wave pop/rock band, 'The Social Lites.' Their 1982 EP entitled 'Social Lies' picked up heavy rotation radio airplay in Seattle and on American college radio. Prestigious gigs included the Seattle Music Festival, 'Bumbershoot' and "Give Peace A Dance"....

Mark C, Joan M., LA Lyons, Steve H

Useless Info - You'll notice Laurie puts the release date of the EP at 1982, This may be correct as there is no date on the record just on the inside of the sleeve. 

There are some more unreleased tracks by the band here

As always, if you can add some info please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans

The Dälex - Juvenile EP (1981)

A1 Juvenile    

B1 Action Man    

B2 Touched   

Great Punky Powerpop 45 from this Luton [Letchworth] 4 peice

Steve Mew (Voc)

Phil Woodman (Guitar Voc)

Jon Hall (Bass Voc)

Mick Ashpool (Drums)

Recorded at The Crypt Sudios, Stevenage & 1000 pressed

Useless Info 1 - It was played by John Peel on 04-03-1981

Useless Info 2 -  Juvenile is on Teenage Treats Vol.8

Useless Info 3 - The 45 Gets quite a good reveiw in Tony Page's "Anoraky In The UK" Treat Yourself  

If you can add some info please leave a comment

Sounds & Scans

Elanø B ‎- Diane (1981)

b/w Too Late 

Luton band [1980-83] started as The Allies (according to the local press) became Decoy then changed their Musical Direction*, Bass player & name to Elanø B.

 

 

Terry Jeff Tim Jon Tubbs

Jeff Cockfield (Voc) later in Under The Sun 

Tim Torode (Guitar Voc)
Terry Gittins (Guitar, Keys)
Jon Rolland (Bass Voc)
Tubbs (Drums)

Photography by Michael A. Spiller

 

*From New Wave/Powerpop to a more Post Punk/Funk sound. Listen to their Excellent 1980 Demos recorded at Quest Studios here

Sounds & Scans + Extras

 

Tranzista - Better Beware (1980)

B1 Time Of My Life
B2 (Are You) In The Mood?

Great New Wave / Powerpop from this Cambridge 4 peice [1980-83]

Gary Frederick Butcher (Voc Guitar)  Ex Highway
Jim Simpson (Bass)  
Andy Northfield (Keyboards Voc)  Ex Highway
Jerry Alpress (Drums Voc)  

Discography
1980 7" Better Beware //Time Of My Life /(Are You) In The Mood? - Land Speed Records [SRS 31]
1981 VA - MoonToon One - Nimbus Records [Mac 001] [Caught In the Act] 
1983 7''  Heaven With Her //Dangerous Thoughts - Atlantic ‎[A 9815]
1983 12'' Heaven With Her //Dangerous Thoughts /Roll On Friday - Atlantic ‎[A 9815 T]

Other Tracks Recorded but not released were :

Jim Jerry Gary Andy

Argyle Street /Incognito /Lookaway /Popular /Small Man Big World /Good For Nothing /Auntie Hazel /White Lies /Winter /Yesterday's Gone /Cloud 9 /Scared Of The Dark /So Uncertain /Prisoner /We Are The Shotgun Gang /Spying For The Russians /She Don't Care

Useless Info - I've Read Gary Butcher was later in {Diss Based Goth Band} Dead Pianos [Released - All Hallows / Motionless 7'' DEA1 - 1986] Personally I think someone maybe getting their "Garys from the South-East" mixed up.

Discography +

The Mess - Tried And Tested (1981)

b/w I'm Falling

Nice Punky Powerpop from this Leeds 3 peice (1977-82)

Phil Mayne (Voc Guitar)

Choc (Bass Voc)

Mat Higgins (Drums Voc)

Mat Higgins was replaced by Carl Rosamond sometime between the 45 being Recorded [September 1980] & it's Release [March 1981]

Info is from Issue 14 of Bradford's Wool City Rocker. A Pdf is included in the download if you want to read the full article. There is also a (non)reveiw of the 45 by Tino Palmer.

Useless Info - If you Google Phil Mayne & Carl Rosamond You'll find they are still going strong & supporting the local Leeds area.

Sounds & Scans

Really Useless Info - This blog has been going 10 years today - If anyone's interested!

The Moderates - Yes to the Neutron Bomb (1981)

b/w Bus Girl

Great Merseyside based New Wave band [1978-82]

The Moderates seem to have started as something of an ad hoc, Art School student band [Some of them being Part-time staff at the Everyman Bistro]

Possibly inspired by Deaf School’s theatricality, their gigs would involve poetry readings, the odd novelty song and the lengthy ramblings of one Dame Looney [A mention of the band in Record Mirror {26 May 1979} gives the line-up as John Brady (Voc), Heidi & Sharon (Voc), Basil (Bass), Bernie (Guitar), Satie (Keys), Sigger (Drums)] Soon enough though the line-up settled and the band became a tighter outfit, ditching the peripherals to focus on the songs.

John Brady (Voc Keys),

Heidi Kure (Voc)

Tom Gould (Guitar)

Bobby Carr (Guitar, Violin) ex Those Naughty Lumps, Tontrix, Pre Surreal Estate

Martin Cooper (Bass) ex Those Naughty Lumps  Pre O.M.D & Godot

Phil Allen (Drums) ex Big in Japan, Pre Love Look Away

With Help from Bob Moren (Sax on High Heel Shoes)

Discography

09/1979 VA - Street To Street [A Liverpool Compilation] LP [I Don't Want To Go Bald]

12/1979 12" Fetishes EP [High Heel Shoes / Yes To The Neutron Bomb / Don't Be Silly / Sun Tan] - Open Eye Records [OE EP-1001]'

03/1981 Peel Session [What's That Sound (For What It's Worth)/ Nightlife /Housewife For Life /Emile]

04/1981 7" Yes To The Neutron Bomb / Bus Girl -  Hyped Records [BMRB-51]

02/1982 7" For What It's Worth / Emile - Hyped Records [BMRB-53] (

Line-up change for the Peel Session & 2nd 45

Mike Percy (Bass) pre Dead or Alive

John Potter (Drums)

Useless Info 1 - The Moderates Supported The John Peel Radio Roadshow @ Liverpool University Mountford Hall on 02-09-1978

Useless Info 2 - Phil Allen is the brother of Enrico Cadillac Jr. [AKA Steve Allen] frontman of Deaf School.

Useless Info 3 - Martin “Armadillo” Cooper took over Aunt Twacky’s Tea Shop in the Pun School building re-naming it The Armadillo Tea Rooms. He still enjoys a position of great respect in Liverpool’s culinary arena.

Useless Info 4 - The Moderates played to a crowd of over 200 in the Armadillo Tea Rooms, on the same night as U2 [playing the UK for the first time] struggled to attract 60 people to the club across the road.

Below are Tom Gould’s recollections of reconvening in the studio to re-work on ‘Yes to the Neutron Bomb’ for a single release.

‘We were offered a contract by Greensleeves records (biggest reggae label), as ska had taken most of their customers, so they wanted to sign some ‘white pop bands’. They set up a subsidiary label called ‘Hyped Records’ for ours and a band [Close Rivals] from Birminghams’ releases, booking us into a 24 track recording studio in London. During the session we realised that they didn’t really know what they were doing, as previously they bought finished tracks from studio’s in Jamaica. This is where we recorded the second version of ‘Yes to the Neutron Bomb’ and ‘Bus Girl’ (Bus Girl was about taking late night bus journeys in Liverpool, as there always seemed to be a young girl standing at the front of the bus talking to the driver – bus groupies?).

Our experience in the studio was awful as we also had an engineer who thought he was the greatest producer in the world, but was more of a hindrance than any help, so the recordings were pretty bad. At the end of the original ‘Yes to the Neutron Bomb’ on ‘Fetishes’, the explosion was created by four of us holding the keys down on the keyboard, which was plugged into a guitar amp with the settings for distortion, reverb, presence and volume on full, so most of the noise was feedback. On the second recording, the engineer could not reproduce it, he used a pretty weak explosion from a sound-effects record instead which sounded really crap!’

Full Discography & Extras

Feel free to leave any extra info/comments below

Finally 

09 April 1981 : After playing Yes To The Neutron Bomb on his show John Peel quipped 'We're thinking of getting one for the shrubbery actually.')

Brick Cocktail - Sunday Afternoon (1984)

b/w Borderline

Nice Indie/Folk on the A-side from this (I'm Presuming*) Yorkshire based band

All I can tell you is that they were Recorded in 1983 & Penned by 

S. Clow &  B. Lumley

Sleeve Design By D.C. Jnr

Borderline was Recorded @ Lion Studios* Produced Engineered by Tony Bonner

Sunday Afternoon was Recorded @ Studio 2 Engineered by Richmond / Lee

* "Lion Studios" was an 8-track recording studio in Aire Street, Leeds.

Sounds & Scans

Leave A Comment if you can add some info

The Spoil - Dream On! (1983)

b/w On The Other Side Of A Dream

2 lovely slices of Mod /Psych From these Hull College of Art & Design students that would have easily fit on the Another Spalsh Of Colour Expanded re-release from a few years ago.

Dale Gascoigne (Voc Guitars)

Tony Patrick (Guitars Voc)   aka Hull’s Macaronman

Mike Wilson (Bass Voc)

Karl Lilley (Drums)

On the label Thanks go to

Ken Giles (Label Owner Producer)

Ken Lake

Dave Hemingway (Velvetones / Housemartins - Drummer, The Beautiful South - Voc) 

Saul Davies (James - Guitar/Violinist)

Tim Allison

Dave Iles

Useless Info - Recorded 1982 By Ken Giles @ KSL Studios Bridlington 

Sounds & Scans

As always if you can add any info please leave a comment