Just another site that's giving you hard to find music

A Place To Find Some Rarer Tunes (Mod, PowerPop, Punk, Ska) ripped from my vinyl collection. If it sounds good I'll post it. The idea being that now you know about them, you can seek them out! If anyone is unhappy about any of these posts please contact me & I will take them off.

Wednesday 30 May 2012

London Zoo - Who's Driving This Car (1980)

b/w - You And Your Great Ideas

I've Just ripped this for someone & noticed (strangely) that it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. So enjoy..

Robert Sandall (Voc, Guitar) RIP
Nick Aldridge (Guitar)
Ed Shaw (Bass)
David Sinclair (Drums)

A large peice of below is "borrowed" from here

In April 1980, listeners to seminal British DJ John Peel were treated to the first airing of a new single by a band which had, a year before, been touted among the brightest hopes on the Scottish club scene. "Who's Driving This Car," by London Zoo, was a limited-edition (1,000 copies) 45 issued for sale on the band's forthcoming Scottish tour, a jagged shard of neurotic pop which shattered out of the speakers and impacted firmly wherever there were soft bits to sink into.

Certainly ears pricked up wherever the show was broadcast and, within the month, London Zoo were in London, recording a four-song session for another BBC DJ, Mike Read. Two weeks after that, they broke up, a sordid reward for a group which, over the course of three years, three records, and two different names, had set standards which didn't simply defy the dilettante nature of the post-punk pop scene, they ignored them completely. Maybe, in fact, that was their problem. They were simply too sharp, too edgy, and too creative to hook the big fish. But, at least they tried.

London Zoo formed, under the distinctly punk-era name of Blunt Instrument, in London (Shepards Bush) in May 1977. Drummer David Sinclair had recently moved to London from Giffnock, Scotland, and was the only person who turned up to an audition conducted by guitarist/vocalist Robert Sandall and bassist Ed Shaw. Even the other guitarist, Bill Benfield, was absent.
The unnamed band rehearsed for a week, becoming Blunt Instrument on the eve of their first show, seven days after Sinclair joined. Equally rapid was the recording and release of their debut single, the thunderous "No Excuse," which soared to number two on the new wave chart published weekly in Sounds newspaper. Blunt Instrument had the world at their feet, but tragedy struck at a Kings Cross street party show in July 1978, when Sinclair was hit on the head by a flying cider bottle, fell off his drum stool, and fractured his wrist. Two months worth of shows were cancelled and, as the momentum fell away, Benfield quit the band.
With Sinclair still in plaster, auditions for a replacement brought in Nick Aldridge, with the band taking the opportunity to change their name as well -- they chose London Zoo because everyone had heard of it. (Their 1st gigs under the new name seem to be in October 1978)
Early in 1979, London Zoo signed to the Bruce Findlay owned & Edinburgh-based Zoom Records; their debut single, "Receiving End," followed, while the band itself embarked upon what Sinclair described as "an incredibly fertile period of songwriting." By the spring of 1980, London Zoo had a repertoire of 50-plus new songs. But that did not prevent them from being dropped when Arista swallowed up Zoom in late 1979. The band's next single, "Who's Driving This Car," was self-released on the band's own (deliberately misspelled) Gramaphone label.
Then, with the applause from the two radio sessions still ringing in their ears, the band played its final show at the Swan pub in Hammersmith, then went their separate ways. "It had become increasingly difficult to ignore the sustained lack of reaction from the record companies," Sinclair mourned. "Despite the records, gigs, radio exposure, we were still playing the same sh*t gigs as we had for the past two years." The band simply wasn't making sufficient headway to make it worthwhile continuing.
Rob Sandall went on to join the Epsilons, an Edinburgh-based band formed from the wreckage of another turn-of-the-decade group, the Cheetahs; Sinclair, too, is a solidly established British writer; he also served time in a couple of other bands, though, including TV Smith's Explorers (replacing John Towe) and R&B revival band Laughing Sam's Dice.

Sounds & Scans

Saturday 26 May 2012

Film - Kad Si Mlad (1980)

b/w - Zajedno (Together)


2 Cool New Wave tracks on the 1st 45 release from this Croatian (Zagreb) band.

 Mladen Juricic  (Guitar) (1978-1986)
 Marino Pelajic  (Bass) (1978-1986)
 Branko Hromatko  (Drums) (1978-1981)
 Jurij Novoselic - (Sax, Keyboards) (1978-1986)

Produced by Ivan Piko Stancic

Sleeve Photo by Danilo Ducak

I could write a comprehensive history of the band but I'd only be plagiarising the below 3 Wikipedia sites 

Film (band)   - Pretty good discography here

Jura Stublić

Popular music in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 

There's a myspace if you're interested

Sounds & Scans

Wanna hear more Go Here

Tuesday 15 May 2012

The End - Fade Away (1981)

b/w - The One For Me

Cool Female vocal New wave / powerpop from  this Belgium based 5 peice.(1979-82) released on the Monopole label

I've no idea who all the personel were, or even if the 3 names I have played at the same time. However I do know that there was a 2nd 45 released - No Tenderness/Grey Into Blue - Racoon Records (1982).

The Band Players I do know of were
1982 Band Shot

 Kris Vanstappen (Guitar)
 Gerry Vergult AKA Fred Angst (Bass) (the 2nd 45 is not mentioned in his discography)
 Hans Habils (Guitar) - He penned the 2nd 45

Gerry became very Keyboard obsessed (see below) so I'm guessing that is why, on the back of the sleeve there is a big thanks  to Gust De Meyer (something for all you minimilist synth collectors if you follow the link)

Later
Fred Anst joined Elvis Peeters & others in Aroma di Amore and nowadays is Kolk

Useless info - The matrix on the dead wax infers that The One For Me was to be the A-side - if anyone cares I tend to beleive it should have been.

Sounds & scans

Friday 11 May 2012

The Last Words - Animal World (1977)



b/w - Wondering Why

1st (& most raw sounding) of 3 times the Aussie (Sydney) band (1977-80) would release this (All 3 45's are in the d/load for you)

Andy Groome (Guitar),
Mike Smith [1977] replaced by Leigh Kendall [1978-80] (Bass)
Jeff Wegener [1977] replaced by Ken Doyle [1978] then  John Gunn [1979-80] (Drums).
Later augmented by Steve Beresford (keyboards) & Dick Nightdoctor (sax)

I've read that UK migrants Baxter (Dundee) and Groome (Dublin), grew up in Liverpool (Sydney) and played all of the instruments on this self-funded release (I'm not sure what Smith & Wegener would have to say about that - maybe they were enrolled after the recording to enable the band to perform live)

There's loads of info out there already about the band with most just repeating this

Go here to see the 1978 video promo for Animal World filmed in North Sydney on 16mm film at the cost of (apparently) AU$13,000 (Malcolm in orange, Leigh in stripes, Andy in white & Ken [Or is it Jeff]  sitting down)

As this post is for the Animal World 45 below are some interesting cover versions
 "Tierwelt" released on the album "Himmel & Hölle" by Der Durstige Mann (1987)
Brazilian punk band SCHK played it live (2006) for TV
& "Frag Mich Warum" (Wondering Why)  by Eric Hysteric and the Esoterics (with vocals by Leigh Kendall 1980) [Prior to this collaboration Leigh had also played guitar on An earlier Eric 45]
Discography
7"
Animal World/Wondering Why - Remand RRCS2439 (Aug1977) Oz Only
Animal World/Every Schoolboy's Dream - Wizard ZS196 (Nov 1978) Oz Only
Animal World/No Music In The World Today - Rough Trade RT022 (July 1979) UK
Today's Kidz / There's Something Wrong - Remand REMAND2  (Feb 1980) UK 
 Top Secret/Walk Away (Version) - Armageddon Records AS002 (Aug 1980) UK

LP
The Last Words - Armageddon Records ARM2 (Sept 1980)
The Last Words 1977-1980 - Retro Records (2007)

Sounds & Scans

25/06/2012 - more info about this 45 has been posted here

Friday 4 May 2012

Xena Zerox - Seconds (1981)

b/w This Is Your Life

Cool Female vocal New Wave from this Portsmouth based (I beleive they were at University together) but mainly Welsh (Aberdare) band
[see comments section for more info from Nigel]

Ruby Schlienger (Voc)
Nigel Evans (Guitar voc)
Martin Allerston later replaced by Phil Jones AKA Bill Bones (Bass)
Pete White (Drums)

 ULU 29 Jan 1982
As you can see from the label the band was another Finalist from the 1981 RCA Battle of the Bands more info here & here & Seconds can be found on the Compilation LP

Quote of the week goes to Oliver Gray for the reaction to his 21-04-81 live reveiw of them at Gilbey’s, Southampton.-  "They were furious because I didn’t think they were as good as they thought they were."

Later
After XZ Nigel played in a London based Goth band called Turbo & the Rockets with another native Welsh man Jake Jacobs as well as being in many other bands he was also in  Electric Tomato . Amongst other things he now runs Brecon Guitars organises The Brecon Fringe & finds time to be Scribbleman

Both sides can be heard on you tube here & here

Sounds & Scans