Steppin' Sideways - No One Needs You (1983)

b/w Still The Same

Possibly a London based band on their own private "Crab Records" label (I guess this is a moving sideways joke) with a lyntone cat # LYN 13401*

The A is good mod/pop whereas the flip is psychedelic pop/Mood Six type music; which if they had been earlier would have easily fitted on the various LP A Splash Of Colour

Apart from, the record was mastered at the Utopia studios, the only info I can give is both songs were penned by Cooke & along with the band it was produced by Dave Haydon 

*This leads me to the release date of 1983 

Sounds & Scans

Roxette - UnReleased LP Tracks (1982)

Here's a post that makes doing this blog worthwhile,

On seeing my earlier posts of their 2 45's (see here & here) Paul Waghorn got in touch & offered 5 more tracks that were recorded in the same session as the 2nd 45 & along with them were to make up a planned LP.

Blue Lady
Come Back Anytime
One Lost Love
Only Thirteen
Take My Advce

To Tie Up all the info he has provided here's a potted history

The band were all schoolfriends at Sandown Court, Tunbridge Wells* & took thier name from the Dr Feelgood track

1980 saw the release of their 1st EP The line up on that being

Paul (Wag) Waghorn (Voc Guitar)
Kevin Fowler (Electric Guitar)
Steve Wright (Bass)
Barry Dence (Drums)

Between the recording of these 45's Wag moved from Singer to the Producers chair (seemingly not his choice)
Even though they had been rehearsing the songs together the rest of the band went off & recorded an earlier version Of Another Girl without him. Luckily the tunes didn't cut-it so he was brought back in to produce.

1982 Another Girl 7" was released

Kevin Fowler (Voc [Another Girl & I Keep Knocking] Accoustic Guitar)
Tarquin Chatfield (Lead Guitar)
Steve Wright (Bass)
Nobby Skilton (Drums) who incidently took the photo of the band for the EP sleeve
Paul (Wag) Waghorn (Voc on Man and Boy)

Jeremy Chatfield also gets a writing credit for Another Girl

Wag later went on to play in Chapter One & can now be found in Insane Society

* Useless info - apparently Sid Vicious went to this school (1971) before moving to Hackney

Sounds & Scans

Vain Aims - You (1980)

b/w - Count

2 Great post-punk tracks from this Welsh (Cardiff) based band

Members were

Caroline R Persen
Chris Eccles
Richard Smith
Mark Kiff

If you like bands like The Chefs, Mo-dettes & Dolly Mixture then you'll want to give this a listen!

The only other info I can give is

1. The 45 was self produced on their own We Practice In A Garage Records

2. Brother Paul Persen gets a writing credit along with Chris Eccles on You

3. A Smith (sibling?) also gets a credit along with Richard Smith on Count

Sounds & Scans

Hounds - Under My Thumb (1979)

b/w - The Moth And The Fire

Nice Stones cover from this Chicago Bar band (think a poor man's J.Geils band & you wont be far off)

As you can see from the scan this is the UK demo release of the US band (stating it was released a week ahead of schedule on 22-02-1980)

Both tracks were lifted from their 2nd LP "Puttin' On The Dog" 

The band on this 45 were

John Hunter (Voc, Keys) 
Donald Griffin (Guitar) ex Tyrone Davis band
Glen Richard Rupp (Guitar) ex Paul Bogush Band
Joe Cuttone (Bass) ex Paul Bogush Band
Michael Jay Neff RIP (Drums) ex Beowulf, Off Broadway

If you want a decent Bio of the band here's their Myspace (here you can find many of their line-ups/incarnations from 1975)

Releases
LP's
The Hounds - Unleashed  - Columbia Records (1978)
Putting On The Dog - Columbia Records (1979)
45's
Do wah Diddy Diddy on the Various Artist Now Wave Sampler - Columbia (1979)
Under My Thumb/The Moth and The Fire (1979)

Sounds & Scans

Apostrophe - I'm The Happy One (1978)

b/w - Three Arms To Hold You

Nice Beatle-esque sounds on the debut 45 from this Barkingside band (1976-79)

Graham Dye (voc, guitar har)
Steven Dye (voc, bass, keys)
Terry Warner (guitar) who had replaced David Fundell
Simon Tomkins (drums) who had replaced Steven Bloom

Even though this & their 2nd/final 45 (Sad & Blue / I'm A Clown) were only released in Germany they were actually with the UK based Solid Gold agency team, who also managed The Pleasers 
After a few more line-up changes, Warner & Tomkins giving way to Simon King (Keys) & Sean Heaphy (drums) the band re-emerged as Scarlet Party & had a minor chart hit with 101 Dam-Nations

Tomkins went onto play with Air-Race

If you want to see the Dye brothers "doing what they do best" you should keep an eye out for their Beatles Tribute band "Music and Words By Lennon and McCartney"

Sounds & Scans

Paul Shuttleworth & The Latest Craze - Here She Comes Again (1979)

b/w - Just Another Weekend

When the Kursaal Flyers disbanded in late 1977 (their Farewell gig was on November 6th) vocalist Paul Shuttleworth decided to fly solo, recording 3 45's for Epic (The A side's all being cover versions & the B's self penned)

Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl/Take Away Love (28/04/1978)  Mink De Ville cover
It Hurts To Be In Love/Clown To The World (16/03/1979) Gene Pitney Cover
Here She Comes Again/Just Another Weekend (05/10/1979) Starjets Cover 

The Latest Craze (AKA Black Gold) were

Wendy Roberts (voc) Mike Oldfield Band
Barry Martin (Guitar) Ex Kursaal Flyers now in the Hamsters  
Dave Bronze (Bass) His Session Work is astronomical
Phil Aldridge (Drums) now in the Illegal Eagles
Pete Jacobsen (Keyboard) RIP

Later Paul (amongst other things) recorded with the Reformed Kursaal Flyers & The Ugly Things

There is a CD (Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl) available with these 3 45's & other unreleased tracks available

Sounds & Scans

Sham Rock - First Take EP (1982)

A1 - I'll Love You Forever
A2 - Walking Through The City
B1 - Attack From Outer Space
B2 - Out Of Place

Samantha Pitt (Voc)
Adam Pitt (Voc Guitar Synth)
Sally Pitt (Guitar Voc)
Phil (Mac) McLoughlin (Bass Voc)
Neil Stewart (Drums) replacing Howard Cook
Susan Pitt (Backing Voc / Harmonies)

Nice New wave / Post-Punk / Rock sounds on this 45 from the Pitt Family & co utilising the local Airship recording studios
(Airship was based in Bognor Regis with Littlehampton & Angmering being just up the road)

Sam, Sally, Adam & Phil later played in different incarnations of Littlehampton band Voodoo if you go here you'll also see other bands that Adam has played in.

Sounds & Scans

The Kustom - Let The Girl Dance (1981)

b/w - Arrested

Let The Girl Dance is a likable (if not a little twee) stab at Jazz/swing but it's Arrested that you should "lend an ear to" (Powerpop/pop rock which will also appeal to the Mod Revival fans as it incorporates a few horns as well)

I'm pretty sure the band were London based, with the songs being penned by members R Helman & K Yallop

They had a big hitter behind them as the executive producer was Douglas Kean  which is why (I'm guessing here) it was released twice (the Silhouette pressing in Jan '82 & then on the Red Bus (RBUS71) imprint in July '82 - Let The Girl Dance also made it on to a Red Bus compilation LP [Hearts & Stars])

As always if anyone can add to the (scarce) info please leasve a comment

Sounds & Scans

Shakedown - F.B.I. (1978)

b/w - Wish You Could See Me Now

2 Pop/Rock tunes from this (what I thought was a) short lived Lewes band 

The band started life as Oakenlode & then morphed into Shakedown

Graham Frost (Voc Bass) RIP

Doug Sanders (Guitar Voc)

Bob Palmer (Drums)

Peter Lyon (Keys) 

I'm posting this as 

1 I quite like the B-side although the keyboards ruin it for me &

2 The maybe not so well known link to Mod Revival band The Lambrettas.

Additional Info From Amanda Sanders (Thank You!)

OAKENLODE

Line-up 1974 – April 1975.  

Graham Frost (Voc Bass) RIP

Doug Sanders (Guitar)

Nick Patching (Guitar)

Bob Palmer (Drums)

Ted Jarvis (keys)

Played at Windsor Free Festival in 1974 + Played other gigs around Brighton, etc.

Went on tour around the US army bases in Germany - February 1975 until April 1975.

After returning from Germany they changed line up.

Line-up April 1975 – 1977.  

Graham Frost (Voc Bass) RIP

Doug Sanders (Guitar)

John Whippy (Guitar Voc) RIP

Bob Palmer (Drums)

Robin Steadman (Keys)

Oakenlode morphed into Shakedown in 1977. 

SHAKEDOWN

First Line-up May 1977 until December 1977. 

Dave Purdye (Voc Bass)

Doug Sanders (Guitar)

John Whippy (Guitar Voc)) RIP

Bob Palmer (Drums)

Their first rehearsal was in the Scout Hut in Lewes on 15th May 1977. 

This line up was very short lived – first gig 30th September 1977 and last gig was 25th November 1977.

Second Line-up December 1977 until November 1978

Graham Frost (Voc Bass) RIP

Doug Sanders (Guitar Voc)

Bob Palmer (Drums)

Peter Lyon (Keys)

This line up were the ones who recorded the 7” single on the Kricon label, which belonged to James Chrimes. 

The songs were recorded at the Gooseberry Sound Studios in London in July and August 1978.

FBI was written by Isaac Nossel and the arrangement was by Shakedown. 

Wish You Could See Me Now was written by Roger Lacey and the arrangement was by Doug Sanders and Dave Purdye (before Dave left the band).

After recording the single Bob Palmer and Pete Lyon left.

Third Line-up November 1978 until May 1979

Graham Frost (Voc Bass) RIP

Doug Sanders (Guitar Voc)

Jez Bird (Guitar Voc) RIP

David Driver (Drums)

Doug and Jez did their last gig with Shakedown on 12th May 1979 at The Adur, Brighton. 

They left to form The Lambrettas with their first gig being in June 1979 on Hastings Pier.

Shakedown continued on and off from 1979 up until around 2015. There were various members but constants were Graham Frost (Voc/Bass) and Nick Patching (Guitar)

Sounds & Scans

Gangster - Go (1979)

b/w - Gangster

I've just noticed that GFT has posted the 1st 45 by this Dutch (Amsterdam) band & is after a copy (hope an mp3 will surfice for a while!)

Cool glam/New wave sounds with more than a hint of Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner" [or is that just my ears?]

The songs were penned by Jerry Putter (Voc) & Jhon Weeder.(typo on the label?)
I guess this is the same Jerry Putter who was earlier in The cool glam/powerpop band Melody (to my eyes it looks like the same band*) & later in Blackout

*so again as a guess I would say the Bass Guitarist could have been Ed Evers (ex- Rain)


whatever!!  (as always if anyone can put me straight with some facts - leave a comment)

Sounds & scans