Kevin Pearce "Something Beginning with O" (Book) from Magic Mushroom 1993

Creation Disco (from Magic Mushroom 1993)

Lawrence (Felt) pic from Magic Mushroom

East Village "Les mystéres del´ Est" (Magic Mushroom 1993)

Creation Press Poster (Magic Mushroom magazine 1993) )

The Orchids "Lyceum" review by Bob Stanley (Melody Maker 1989)

"Dive For Your Memory" by Kevin Pearce (from tangents.co.uk)

Pic from The Go Betweens - "The Able Label Singles"

I used to listen to the Go-Betweens a lot. I listen to the Go-Betweens a lot now. I used to pay some Go-Betweens songs all the time, now I play other Go-Betweens songs all the time.
I´ve deeply personal memories of many groups, but I never listen to those groups and I dont want to remember many things. I do have vivid memories of the Go-Betweens, and I´dd like to share a few, if you will excuse me.
1. The 1982 World Cup: was that the one where the sheikh in the crowd stood up and his national team trooped off in protest at something or nothing? I should have been putting final touches to my revision, but all I can remember is watching football and listening to the Go-Betweens Send Me A Lullaby and The Blue Orchids Greatest Hit.
2. That was a small thing, I know, but it stayed with me, as did many a Go-Betweens line. "His father´s watch, he left it in the shower." And, of course. "Thats her handwriting, thats the way she writes."
3. 1983, at the Venue, Victoria, squeezed in between Felt and the Smiths and certainly stealing the show. The debut of Robert Vickers, adding an angelic mod presence to a set of songs that would become Spring Hill Fair. Do I still have a tape of that night? Probably not, and I dont need it. Its not easy to forget just how substantial their sound was then, and how barbed the guitars were on that occasion.
4. You´ve got to agree that its hard to separate the Go-Betweens from the romantic glamour of Postcard legend. There was a time when I knew Alan Horne´s text in the Postcard brochure off by heart, particularly the story of how he hooked the Go-Betweens, later verified by Grant and Robert on a tape zine. How Horne was in London to drop off copies of the Orange Juice debut at the Rough Trade shop, and saw a copy of the Go-Betweens Lee Remick on the wall, next to Ambition by Subway Sect (or was it above it?), remembered hearing Peel play it (so do I), asked for a copy and was informed that they were in town, arranged to meet up at the legendary Northern Soul Subway Sect shows supporting Siouxsie, missed one another and eventually linked up in Glasgow in time for the Funky Glasgow Now! shows. One thing can hold us, one thing can break us.
5. Some stories about their time in London. Poverty and drugs in Kings Cross, a bad time for lots of people, as told in the Jasmine Minks Somers Town and Ghost of a Young Man, when there were lots of exiled kings in mirrors. Robert and Lindy, upstairs and downstairs, huge arguments and madly making up.
6. Another triumphant London Show at the Clarendon, and someone gave a copy of my fanzine to one of the group. I was too starstruck to say anything, but I always wonder if they read it.
7. A final triumphant London show at New Merlins Cave, Kings Cross, a fond farewell arranged by Adam from the Jasmine Minks with all the proceeds paying for their air fares. The power being turned off past closing time but an acoustic Cattle and Cane carried on, carried along on a wave of emotion.
8. Robert´s hair care tips, as featured in Dave Haslam´s Debris. It´s important to care, Robert wrote. Enough to change your life, or at least your shampoo and comb. Like on of Richard Brautigan´s books where a character always puts pepper on his tomatoes, and I have done so since reading that.
9. At an AIDS benefit at the Town and Country Club, with some dear friends from Birmingham, just after seeing The Claim for the first time, and I cant remember anything about the Go-Betweens set except the violin and Robert´s dancing. I wasn´t loyal to the Go-Betweens around that time, but Im sure I had some reason for it: some deep, dark suspicion of polished surfaces and other things on my mind. I do remember Hurrah! playing If Love Could Kill with vivid poignancy and I remember what I wore.
10. Their tension and their tenderness. Yesterday, as all week, listening to 16 Lovers Lane on my walkman, on a busy (but not too!) commuter train wondering what my fellow travellers are listening to, reading, passing Blackheath where still the graffiti says "I feel like Alan Minter", though I never have nudged my neighbour and said "Go on then, what Fall song does that come from?" However, I sit at my desk and sing: "I tried to tell you, I can only say it when we´re apart. About this storm inside of me and how I miss your quiet, quiet heart."

Kevin Pearce. July 1997 (tangents.co.uk)

The Smiths - "Rarities 1983-1987" Bootleg (from those-charming-men.blogspot.com)

Disco 1:
01. Miserable Lie (John Peel session, broadcast 1st June 1983, a superior recording to that issued officially)
02. Hand In Glove (Live on The Tube, 16th March 1984)
03. Still Ill (Live on The Tube, 16th March 1984)
04. Barbarism Begins At Home (Live on The Tube, 16th March 1984)
05. Jeanne (Acoustic-Johnny and Sandie live on Splat!, April 1984)
06. Bigmouth Strikes Again (Performed live on The Old Grey Whistle Test, 20th May 1986)
07. Vicar In A Tutu (Performed live on The Old Grey Whistle Test, 20th May 1986)
08. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out (Live session from The Eurotube, 5th July 1986)
09. Panic (Live session from The Eurotube, 5th July 1986)
10. Sheila Take A Bow (Last ever live performance on The Tube, 10th April, 1987)
11. Shoplifters Of The World Unite (Last ever live performance on The Tube, 10th April, 1987)
12. Unloveable #1 (Rare soundcheck recordings from Inverness Eden Court, 1st October 1985)
13. Unloveable #2 (Rare soundcheck recordings from Inverness Eden Court, 1st October 1985)
14. Wonderful Woman (Unreleased Kid Jensen session version recorded 26th June 1983)
15. Girl Afraid (Live in Glasgow, 2nd March 1984 from NME Department Of Enjoyment cassette)
16. Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now (Different studio mix from Earsay, broadcast 31st March 1984)
17. How Soon Is Now (Ultra-rare otherwise unreleased version from withdrawn Italian 12" pressing of William It Was Really Nothing)
18. William It Was Really Nothing (John Peel session version broadcast 9th October 1984)
19. Jeanne (Rare soundcheck recordings from Dundee Caird Hall, 26th September 1985)
20. What’s The World (Rare soundcheck recordings from Dundee Caird Hall, 26th September 1985)
21. Asleep (Very rare Morrissey performance - Rare soundcheck recordings from Inverness Eden Court, 1st October 1985)

Disco 2:
01. How Soon Is Now (Unreleased John Peel session, broadcast 9th August 1984)
02. What Do You See In Him (Early version of Wonderful Woman from the Manchester Hacienda, 4th February 1983)
03. Reel Around The Fountain (Alternative Troy Tate mix from 1983 - newly discovered and different from all the others offered before!)
04. Miserable Lie (Alternative Troy Tate mix from 1983 - newly discovered and different from all the others offered before!)
05. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle (Alternative Troy Tate mix from 1983 - newly discovered and different from all the others offered before!)
06. I Don’t Owe You Anything (Sandy Shaw sings in session with The Smiths on Radio One’s Saturday Live, 14th April 1984)
07. Jeanne (Sandy Shaw sings in session with The Smiths on Radio One’s Saturday Live, 14th April 1984)
08. Half A Person (John Peel session versions, broadcast 17th December 1986)
09. Sweet & Tender Hooligan (John Peel session versions, broadcast 17th December 1986)
10. Is It Really So Strange? (John Peel session version, broadcast 17th December 1986)
11. London (John Peel session versions, broadcast 17th December 1986)
12. What Difference Does It Make (Alternative mix from the aborted 1983 Troy Tate sessions - different from all the others previously discovered!)
13. Accept Yourself (Alternative mix from the aborted 1983 Troy Tate sessions - different from all the others previously discovered!)
14. Wonderful Woman (Alternative mix from the aborted 1983 Troy Tate sessions - different from all the others previously discovered!)
15. You’ve Got Everything Now (Unreleased cut from the radio broadcast at Amsterdam De Meervaart Hall, 21st April 1984)
16. I Keep Mine Hidden (From their last studio session, 1987)
17. Work Is A Four Letter Word (From their last studio sessions, 1987)
18. What’s The World (Live from Glasgow, Barrowlands 25th September 1985)
19. Money Changes Everything (Rare instrumental, recorded 1987)
20. Hand In Glove (Featuring Sandie Shaw on lead vocals)
21. Jeanne (Featuring Sandie Shaw on lead vocals)

The Chesterfields "Completely & utterly" single Insert

...1986 and all that! (Uncut Feb2006)

Sarah Records Interview (Blaster zine 1)

So Farewell then, Felt (NME November 1989)

The Orchids: Precious Flowers? - by Dave Simpson (Melody Maker 1992)

Cath Carroll & Julian Henry (The Hit Parade)

From cathcarroll.com

I met Julian in 1985 when when our day jobs caused us to collide. I was freelancing at the NME and he was doing press at Magnet Records- we drove to Colchester to see one of his bands. Along the way we discovered we felt the same way about a lot of music. And the bits we didn't agree on, that was OK, cos he was so serious about liking The Jam. We had a friend in common, the much-missed Philip Hall who left this earth in 1993. It was Philip who brought Julian to Stiff Records to release the Hit Parade single 'See You In Havana', written by Julian and sung by me, which was my first contribution to a Hit Parade song. It was not the Hit Parade's first single, so more about that at some later time. His first singles came out on his own label, JSH Records and he later went on to release songs through Heavenly Records.

Vic Godard - "Cool Hand Vic", interview by Steve Sutherland (Melody Maker, May 8, 1982)

Meat Whiplash - "Don´t Slip Up" (Creation Records 1985 single) from Blogonzeureux!

Meat Whiplash est le groupe d'un seul et unique disque, celui-ci, ce qui en fait un candidat parfait pour les compilations style Nuggets couvrant les années 80. Ils figurent d'ailleurs en bonne place sur CD86, le double CD compilé par Bob Stanley il y a deux ans.
Meat Whiplash, c'est surtout un groupe dont la très courte carrière, l'année 1985 globalement, s'est déroulée entièrement dans l'ombre de The Jesus and Mary Chain. Pas seulement parce que les deux groupes étaient amis et venaient tous les deux d'East Kilbride, la ville nouvelle au sud-ouest de Glasgow qui est désormais la commune la plus peuplée d'Ecosse. Pas parce que la première apparition notable de Meat Whiplash eut lieu le 15 mars 1985, en première partie des Jasmine Minks et de Jesus and Mary Chain à la North London Polytechnic, où ils ont joué un rôle non négligeable dans l'émeute qui a suivi. Mais surtout parce que, moins d'un an après Upside down, les deux faces de ce 45 tours reprennent toutes les facettes de l'identité sonore de Mary Chain : feedback, chant désabusé, ligne de basse primitive, les petits "Ah ah ah" après "You souldn't slip up" qui font très Jim Reid, etc.
Le mimétisme est tel que certains ont cru pouvoir affirmer que Meat Whiplash était un groupe fantôme derrière lequel se cachaient les frères Reid. Ça semble peu probable. Plus souvent, et dès les chroniques du disque à sa sortie, les Mary Chain ont été présentés comme producteurs du disque. Ce que semble confirmer le batteur Michael Kerr interrogé par John Robertson pour sa biographie de Jesus and Mary Chain (Omnibus Press, 1988). En tout cas, il n'y a aucune mention de producteur sur le 45 tours, dont la pochette avec une photo de Robert Vaughn dans Agents très spéciaux (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) a, à juste titre, été très remarquée à l'époque (A propos de cette pochette, toutes les bios qu'on trouve en ligne mentionnent qu'elle a été imprimée par Bobby Gillespie et pliée à la main par Alan McGee, comme si c'était un traitement spécial qu'avait reçu cette pochette. En fait, les vingt premiers singles édités par Creation ont tous bénéficié, pour des questions d'économie, de ces fameuses pochettes pliées en deux glissées dans un sac en plastique. Elles étaient bien imprimées à Glasgow dans une imprimerie où Bobby Gillespie travaillait ou avait travaillé, et les pochettes étaient pliés à Londres, principalement par Alan, mais aussi par Joe Foster ou tous ceux qui traînaient par là. Votre serviteur a lui-même eu l'honneur de passer une paire d'heures pendant une après-midi de début 1985 à plier des pochettes d'Upside down de Jesus and Mary Chain dans l'entrepôt de Rough Trade pour éviter que les disquaires ne se retrouvent en rupture de stock de ce disque, resté pendant des semaines n°1 des charts indépendants).
Ce que peu de gens savent, c'est qu'avant de se décider pour cette pochette efficace avec Robert Vaughn, Meat Whiplash et Creation avaient fait imprimer une première pochette, bien moins réussie. Ils ont dû se raviser au dernier moment et cette pochette n'a jamais été distribuée. Ça a dû être un sacrifice tellement les budgets de Creation étaient riquiquis à l'époque. J'ai récupéré un exemplaire de cette pochette, soit chez Luke de Chromatone Design, qui s'occupait alors des pochettes Creation, soit chez Alan, et au verso de cette pochette originale et inédite, il est précisé, contrairement à la pochette définitive, que le disque est "arrangé" (ah! ah!) et "produit" par Meat Whiplash, ce qui peut laisser un doute sur l'implication des frères Reid.
Quoi qu'il en soit, Don't slip up est un témoignage excellent de la première période noisy de Creation, moins bien que Upside down mais mieux que le I'll follow you down de Slaughter Joe alias Joe Foster, pourtant l'homme qui a le premier noyé Mary Chain dans le feedback. Here it comes est sans aucun intérêt.

J'ai fait la connaissance des membres de Meat Whiplash en novembre 1985 au cours d'un séjour d'une vingtaine de jours bien occupés en Angleterre, qui m'ont vu participer à des séances d'enregistrement pour le deuxième album de Biff, Bang, Pow!, qui devait s'appeler Submarines ! (Cet album n'est jamais paru, mais plusieurs titres se sont retrouvés un peu plus tard sur The girl who runs the beat hotel) et partir en tournée pour deux dates avec The Jesus and Mary Chain, Felt et les Shop Assistants !
Entre ces deux événements, j'ai accompagné Dick Green, le bras droit d'Alan, chargé de convoyer une camionnette de location de Londres à Glasgow, puis d'accompagner ("tour manager" serait un bien grand mot pour l'organisation de l'époque) Primal Scream et Meat Whiplash pour deux concerts, à Aberdeen le 14 novembre 1985 et à Croydon, dans la banlieue de Londres, le 20 novembre 1985, en première partie des Weather Prophets.
Nous avons fait l'aller le 13 et nous avons été hébergés à l'arrivée chez Paul et Joogs de Primal Scream à Glasgow. Le lendemain a été une longue journée. A partir de la fin de matinée, nous avons collecté les membres des deux groupes à différents points de Glasgow et d'East Kilbride, ce qui m'a permis de vérifier depuis la fenêtre de la camionnette que ce n'est effectivement pas le genre d'endroit où on rêve de vivre. Après un trajet quand même assez long, nous sommes arrivés à Aberdeen, dans ce club, le Flesh Exchange à l'Hôtel Metro, situé dans une avenue qui montait depuis le bord de la mer (du Nord). Le concert s'est bien passé. Il me semble que nous y avons retrouvé des membres des Jasmine Minks, qui sont originaires d'Aberdeen, mais mes souvenirs sont peut-être flous car la semaine suivante Jim était à Croydon, son domicile londonien, où il m'a hébergé après le concert.
Au retour d'Aberdeen, en pleine nuit, il a fallu faire le périple inverse pour redéposer tout le monde chez soi.
Quelques jours plus tard, le voyage retour Londres-Glasgow, avec dans la camionnette une bonne dizaine de membres agités des deux groupes, a été beaucoup moins calme qu'à l'aller, avec les bêtises habituelles, comme le raid dans cette boutique de station-service qui s'est fait dépouiller de quelques confiseries et de rouleaux de papier WC, vite transformés en longs serpentins sur l'autoroute à l'arrière du véhicule. Il y avait de la musique dans la camionnette, et je me souviens que ça chambrait sec à propos d'un groupe de Glasgow dont je me suis fait préciser le nom : il s'agissait des Soup Dragons alors débutants. On a également écouté ce que j'avais pris pour des démos ou l'enregistrement du prochain maxi de Meat Whiplash. Je pense qu'il s'agissait en fait des quatre titres de la Peel session enregistrée le 15 octobre et diffusée le 28 octobre 1985. A l'écoute de ces quatre titres, on comprend qu'ils n'aient finalement jamais donné lieu à un second single. Seule l'intro de Loss me fait dresser l'oreille : elle semble pompée sur Gut feeling de Devo, avec un bassiste incapable de reproduire toutes les notes.
Quelques jours plus tard, tout ce petit monde s'est retrouvé au Croydon Underground, avec aussi bien sûr toute la bande londonienne de Creation, pour un concert avec en tête d'affiche les Weather Prophets, qui faisaient leur toute première tournée, Oisin Little et Greenwood Goulding ayant été recrutés tout récemment, après l'enregistrement de Worm in my brain sorti pendant l'été 1985 sur la compilation It's different for domeheads.
Il y avait du monde partout dans les loges (voir la photo de pochette de ma compilation I believe in rock'n'roll), mais à un moment de calme entre les balances et le concert, j'ai été tout surpris d'y trouver Paul, le chanteur de Meat Whiplash, en train de remballer dans son sac le sèche-cheveux avec lequel il venait de retoucher son "brushing". Je crois que c'est la seule fois que j'ai vu un rocker s'apprêter de cette façon avant un concert !

Meat Whiplash n'a donc sorti qu'un seul et unique disque, mais les membres du groupe ont continué par la suite sous le nom de The Motorcycle Boy, après avoir recruté Alex Taylor, l'ex-chanteuse des Shop Assistants. Trois singles sont sortis sous ce nom.

from http://vivonzeureux.blogspot.com/2008/04/meat-whiplash-dont-slip-up.html

Wee Cherubs - "Dreaming" 1984 (Bog A Ten Records) (From fireescapetalking.blogspot.com)

The Wee Cherubs' Dreaming is one of the holy grails for indiepop collectors, gaining mythical status in its scarcity (consensus suggests 400 copies were pressed) and not having been reissued

Recorded in October 1983 by Martin Cotter (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Graham Adam (drums), Christine Gibson (bass, backing vocals) and Gail Cherry (backing vocals) and released the following year on the Bogaten label, the song was written by Cotter, who later formed the Bachelor Pad, who also included Christine Gibson and Tommy Cherry who I'm presuming to be a relative of Gail, or quite possibly the same person given the enlightened sexual peccadilloes of rock musicians.

As you can see from the photo, the Wee Cherubs hail from a time when wearing shorts was de rigueur for any band to whom guitars shared equal importance with keyboards and/or horns and strings (see also: Orange Juice, The Pale Fountains).

"Young and Foolish" by Alistair Fitchett book

http://unpopular.typepad.com/unpopular/2008/04/happy-birthday.html

A few people have been asking about how they can get hold of a copy of Young and Foolish. The book is ten years old this year, and I have to admit that my original stock of copies was used up a long time ago. In the past year or two I have been picking up second hand copies as a little stockpile for friends, but this has dried up somewhat recently. With a copy going for twenty quid recently on Amazon marketplace, I figured it was about time people were able to get hold of it without being ripped off, so I’ve just put together a PDF version, which you can download here. Thanks to Rupert and Stride Books for first of all publishing the thing at the time, and also for allowing me to make it available in this way now.

The Wedding Present "Modesty Blaze" (by Ian Gittins - Melody Maker May 1986)

Television Personalities - The good anarchist 7" (Elefant Records - January 2008)

Television Personalities

The good anarchist

ER-256 Single 7"

We all miss Dan Treacy and TV PERSONALITIES. After all the years of amazing songs and magnificent albums, we have waited almost a decade to hear the unmistakable voice of Dan again. Luckily they have put out two new albums: “My Dark Places” (2006) and “Are we Nearly There Yet?” (2007) which were supposedly the beginning of a new era, after the experience Dan had crossing the desert.On behalf of Elefant Records, we are proud and excited to put out the world exclusive new single of TV PERSONALITIES “The Good Anarchist.” One truly cries out in jubilation when listening to this song! Only true alchemists of pop can achieve to produce sounds of such sensibility in just a little over two minutes. Echoes of bands such as VELVET UNDERGROUND, SHOP ASSISTANTS and CAROUSEL ring about on this single, as well as the voice of Swede Johanna Lundström for the first time and Dan playing the guitar. The B-Side sparkles with the fabulous “She’s Always Been There for Me” with the classic TV PERSONALITIES (basically Dan and Ed Ball) although it includes an irresistible touch of Northern Soul and a catchy rhythm that makes you put on your dancing shoes and leave your Ben Sherman shirt soaking in sweat! It’s all a big surprise wrapped up in a 7” single and a definite

Sarah Advert (NME December 1992)

Girls at Our Best ! - Smash Hits 1981

GIRLS WILL BE BOYS
GIRLS AT OUR BEST!
PRESENTED BY MICK STAND!
PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL SLATTERY!
IT'S FOUR feet across, bright red and yellow and looks like a bizarre altar. Plumb in the middle, just where you'd expect The Bible to be, there lies the sleeve of the Girls At Our Best! debut album.
Actually, it's a shop window display unit and, at £165, the most expensive bit of cardboard I've ever laid eyes on. In the basement of Happy Birthday Records it was serving as a doorstop, but in the chain stores it will be competing with similarly extravagant promotional paraphernalia featuring more familiar faces such as The police and Meat Loaf.
Amazing. for a moment we all gaze at it in awe as if it really was a holy shrine - then we laugh.
BUT JUDY EVANS, GAOB! singer proclaims: "I'm fascinated with the idea of selling yourself. Everything is consumerism." On "pleasure", the said LP, the Girls take a poke at the record industry in "£600,000" and "Too big For Your Boots". this from a band with no experience at all of the big time.
They all come from the Leeds Area and the first glimmer was SOS, formed in '77 with guitarist James Alan and bassist Gerard Swift. then taking refuge reality in art school, Alan met Judy. Or, as she tells it: "I went to college to work hard and become a serious artist - until I met this punk rocker with a nervous rash."

Well, convent schoolgirl from posh Wetherby that she was, she joined the group regardless (what's known as a rash decision) and SOS turned into the Butterflies.
James comes over all queasy at the memory: "We were notorious. Very erratic. You know all the arguments that you have in a group when you're rehearsing or in the dressing rooms - we had them on stage."
Judy: "Me and James would be fighting in one corner, and then we'd turn around and find the other two had walked off and left us."

THE BUTTERFLIES were grounded at the end of '79 and the three of them began what amounted to a rest cure.
Seemingly the convalescent home was James's house, a riotous assembly of brothers and sisters and friends presided over by his mother, a remarkable lady who made her impression on the neighbourhood by painting "muriels" of her heartthrob Rod Stewart on the outside walls.
This was when the fates came up with a nonsensical gesture of support. Several months after the Butterflies had ceased to exist Rough Trade heard a tape of a song called "Warm Girls", loved it and offered to back its release on the band's (would be) own label, Record Records.
Renaming themselves after a line of their lucky song, they became Girls At Our Best!, sold 7,000 and hit the independent charts, then did again with "Politics".
Finally they acquired a drummer (absent from the interview) and a deal with Happy Birthday, who are small enough for "Pleasure" to be their first album and big enough to pay £165 for a bit of cardboard - you work it out.
Anyway Judy and James gave up their jobs at Leeds Warehouse (where Marc Almond of Soft Cell used to work) and Gerard quit plumbing, taking a 60 per cent pay cut to go professional with the Girls. After a 16 month break they were back on stage earlier this year, although they'd still only done 20 dates in total before their current tour.
IT'S QUITE clear that the most instantly distinctive Girl is the girl, Judy. Her voice soaring above what James describes as the band "oi-ing away" is high, pure - and jolly. Like a Girl Guide singing pop. Or a choirboy soprano on the edge of breaking - out of innocence perhaps. Strange. Even to Judy.

She'd had a fairly standard rock shout until they recorded "Politics" and the melody led her into new territory. "I thought it was really weird when I first heard the tape," she says. It's an expensive voice to run: they have to capture extra sound equipment to capture it live.
Then there's her face. When I say something hesitant about Judy being "good looking", the blokes chorus "us too!" So all right, she's beautiful. Knows it too.
"People have always told me I was sexy. At least since I was 12. It was frightening at first though."

But thankfully, later in her teens she learned to be comfortable with her looks. That's why she can write as good a joke as "Fast Boyfriends", the next single, where the boys are likened to burgers in a fast food joint, heat 'em up and eat 'em up. It's equally why she can come out with the sensual tenderness of "I'm Beautiful Now" or the Edward Lear-influenced "Water Bed Babies" with its whimsical and suggestive words: "Water babies in the sea/Water melons are for tea/Water bed are made for me/they make my mouth water", The flavour is playful sexy, innocent.GIRLS AT Our Best! are neat, light and bright. James may not be too far of target when he says "Pleasure' is a collection of greatest hits which aren't greatest hits yet."

(from girlsatourbest.com)

Microdisney: Daun Square to Elsewhere: Anthology 1982-1988 (2007)

Microdisney formed in Cork in 1980 by Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan. There was some kind of post punk agit pop agenda mixing poetry with the abrasive sound scapes that had been created by The Pop Group and Scritti Politti and others. The band became a high energy 5 piece but when the energy ran out Cathal and Sean took the 2 piece to London trading a music that crossed understated melody with odd imagery and story telling. The instrumentation was now organ/string ensemble and light electric guitar backed with faithful cheap drum machines. Microdisney recorded 2 singles for Kabuki records, won favour with John Peel and left Cork for London.
Jon Fell and Tom Fenner were recruited on Bass and drums and the band toured in a Transit playing to bemused English kids. Microdisney signed a small deal with Rough Trade Records and released a trio of LP's exploring and mixing highly unfashionable influences and genres.The early compilation 'We Hate You South African Bastards!' (later renamed 'Love Your Enemies'), 'Everybody Is Fantastic' and 'The Clock Comes Down The Stairs'. After signing to Virgin they released two albums 'Crooked Mile' and '39 Minutes'. The band gathered a loyal following but ultimately had done what they set out to do by 1988 when they called it a day.
Disc 1Hello Rascals / Pink Skinned Man / Dolly/ A Few Kisses / Dreaming Drains / I'll Be A Gentleman / Sun / Liberal Love / Everybody Is Dead / Patrick Moore Says You Can't Sleep Here / Michael Murphy / Love Your Enemies / 464 Loftholdingswood
Disc 2Past / Birthday Girl / Horse Overboard / Begging Bowl / And / Are You Happy / Town To Town / Big Sleeping House / Rack / Mrs Simpson / Give Me All Of Your Clothes / Singer's Hampstead Home / United Colours / Gale Force Wind

(from highllamas.com)

Caff fanzines covers (from saintetiennedisco.com)

Pics from saintetiennedisco.com

The Laughing Apple/Alan McGee & Bobby Gillespie 1982 ("The Creation Records Story" book by David Cavanagh

Heavenly "My Dream Gig!" (from Chickfactor 5 - Winter 1994)

Weekend - Live At Ronnie Scotts (Cherry Red Reissue 2008)

Weekend
Live At Ronnie Scotts

The first titled reissue of this seminal mini album, originally released on Rough Trade in 1983 by pop fusion innovators, Weekend. The CD features 10 bonus tracks including 3 previously unreleased versions of tracks that weren't included on the original album.

These were sourced from a pirate recording of the original gig in March 1983. Other bonus tracks include 3 tracks from a David Jensen BBC session and a recording from the legendary TV music programme, Old Grey Whistle Test. The CD artwork has been expanded by Spike Williams, original band member and he has contributed some of his recollections of the night in question.

Weekend were formed after the demise of the respected band, Young Marble Giants who featured Alison Statton as vocalist. Weekend went on to release 3 singles and two albums before calling it a day.

Late Night - Where Flamingos Fly / Winter Moon / Nostalgia Disco -Weekend Off / A Day In The Life...

Bonus Tracks - Past Meets Present (Taken From Live Pirate Recording) (Previously Unreleased) / Woman's Eyes (Taken From Live Pirate Recording) (Previously Unreleased) / A View From Her Room (Taken From Live Pirate Recording) (Previously Unreleased) / A Day In The Life Of (Taken From Nme Cassette 'Mighty Reel' Nme 004) / The End Of The Affair (Recorded Live / For David Jensen "The Evening Show") / Woman's Eyes (Recorded Live For David Jensen "The Evening Show") / Weekend Off (Recorded Live For David Jensen "The Evening Show") / Summerdays (Recorded Live For Bbc Television's Old Grey Whistle Test) / Drumbeat For Baby (12" Version) / A View From Her Room (12" Version

Felt - "Why The World Won´t Listen The Wayward Genius from Felt and Denim" by Simon Goddard (Uncut May 2006)

Dawn of Creation by Danny Kelly (Vox Magazine) January 1991

The Bodines (Flyer)

Radical Records Advert (Spanish record shop) 1989

Virna Lindt article by Juan Vitoria (From Editorial del Futuro Método fanzine) 1984

Microdisney (from Are You Scared to get Happy Fanzine) March 1985

'Hello, we're God...'- live on a wet March night? In Woolwich Poly bar? Well, there's these two Irishmen up on stage, and their band; they're doing a song now, all sweet-coated driving keyboards, rocky guitars ... the singer's sweating buckets, screaming tunefully - 'Stood in the Sunday rain was a still escalator...'. They've stopped: 'No, actually, we're not God- and this isn't a microphone stand either, it's a pile of shit!' O.K., who exactly are you? Let's take a stroll through Fiction-Land and try to find out... ...(First stop- John Peel Show, Summer '83: A Night Out With Microdisney?) ... So, it's evening, and you're walking down a semi-lit alley in some less-salubrious area of town; as you're passing this bar, you hear music ... well ... lurching out onto the pavement - guitars slipping and tripping over swaying, sliding keyboards - somewhere a wheezing drum-machine is calling 'Time'. You go in, and the noise fills the room - the sound of late nights and solitude and grown men crying into their beer. Up the far end, a hunched figure is half-way through some heart-rending confession ... 'Guess where I slept last night?' ... the rest of the bar is empty. You move closer, catch odd words - 'BEFORE FAMINE, I can't want you...' - revelations of betrayal pile on self-pity in disconnecting phrases - '...gone where I'm hated...': is this guy dangerous? A shock of curly black hair, wild bloodshot eyes, a huge frame of muscle and moroseness - very probably, yes. 'Let's just get drunk,' the ox moans: 'no faith, no love, nothing!'The view of the world through the bottom of a half-filled glass - you're about to leave but he's noticed you for the first time. Suddenly his mood changes - like some bloated, beer-blown Ancient Mariner, you can bet he's got a story to tell. 'I drink gin like a 1960's wino,' he roars in best Irish brogue. 'I can't go for it!' (you're not very surprised). He insists on buying you a drink, and embarrasses you in front of the bar-maid (where the hell did she come from?) - dancing round the room in a disconcerting show of exuberance, all verging on exhaustion and hysteria. Strange obsessions, too - 'I hate the heat, the heat hates me... there is a SUN!' You've been here before, you know what happens next: when he collapses in the corner with a slurred, defiant 'I'm just drunk!', you're the one who's got to take him home.Of course, on the way back, you get his life history. Nothing much makes any sense- lots of stuff about someone with blood 'where he once had eyes' who ends up in a sorry state - 'the cathedral was big and black, 'twas the doctor who brought him here' - he doesn't seem to care much for religion, or the medical profession for that matter - 'They have built a race who can't read, and are' - What? Oh- 'SLEEPLESS, like the sun'. This is worrying - you almost understand what he's on about.But then you've arrived back at his mothers house, and he's sobered up a bit, lost all the over-bearing vitality - in it's place rueful sentimentality. You accept the offer of a cup of coffee, then begin to regret it when he starts talking to a photograph of an old man - the bloke in the story? - here we go with more pity and pathos. 'Oh my God, I thought you were great, and I swam in your every whim ... fat little man in the MOON'. You don't know why, but tears are rolling down your cheeks - as you make your excuses and leave hastily, you sense somehow things will never be the same again ...... There are some fascinating little by-ways to be taken round here - like 'Love Your Enemies', a survivor from April '82 - that same old tipsy guitars, and a drum-machine sounding remarkably cheerful given the circumstances ... but then you can tell Sean and Cathal are happiest when they're getting it off their chests, as here ... a vocal performance which ranges from sulky-sullen to marvelously sarcastic-angry - some of the lyrics demand to be quoted ... 'Why don't you get down on your knees, adore your enemies?' is grumbled disbelievingly ... 'We lay in our bed in the hot afternoon, and we argued about only the money we had ... Life in the dark, life in the cold, this is the reason why we were born?' ... well, would you trust someone who talked of 'our freedom and our right to do just as we please with the likes of YOU!' ... Cathal, of course, has a ready reply - 'See what your love can do - say 'Oh, look what my love did!' - brilliant....... A few local landmarks ... 'Hello Rascals'/'Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost' - an A-side smeared with despair, 'darkly drenched in silence': this is a world where people 'watch the dawn in sick amazement' and find comfort only in old dreams. On the B-side, not even that luxury is allowed as Microdisney take a panoramic stare at Ireland's squalor - 'We have nothing decent we can dream about ...' - know the feeling? They don't pull punches: this song contains the following lines 'Where's the hope or beauty, truth or dignity? Put that suitcase down before you answer me!' - I'd like to explain why it's worth buying this record for the words alone, but I suspect you either see or you don't ... coming up on your left, 'Pink Skinned Man'/'Fiction Land' - more wit and wisdom ('Dear lover, you're no good; dear lover, you've no right- yours sincerely someone else.'), a more aggressive and optimistic (?) sound- in case anyone still cares, Microdisney USE keyboards, not vice versa, and create an accessible pop music which perfectly counterpoints the off-beat humour of the lyrics - there's even a mournful violin in the tail-end of this track, and it works! ... all the above-mentioned delights can be found on the 1984 collection 'We Hate You South African Bastards'........ A slight detour now, to the forgotten idiosyncracies of the 2nd Peel session, and 'Everybody Is Dead' ... starts innocuously enough, a bit like the testcard backing music in fact ... little guitar flourishes; is that Sean on background vocals, lending that extra something to lines like 'Spent my money, spent my energy, spent my purpose, will that improve me?'? So far so fair, but when the tune starts running on the spot and Cathal delivers a spoken vocal you might suspect the fun is only just beginning - 'there was only one thing I could say: 'I love you, I love you, I love you ...'' he shouts louder and louder - then screaming faster and more furious as the music trundles cheerfully onwards into the abyss of sound created by Sean hauling out strings of feedback - an attempt to drown out Cathal, who's now resorted to incoherent grunts and roars - the whole builds to some sort of crescendo, then abruptly stops ... sheer manic brilliance, closer to the true nature of punk rock than a 1000 singles by the Membranes or Nick Cave ... the ruins of this and many other former glories may be glimpsed on the Ruff Trade L.P. 'Everybody Is Fantastic', if you're that way inclined - well, the sleeve-notes are good ........ and now, the highspot of this or any other tour round the ravaged land of post-punk pop, Microdisney's 3rd Peel session. Some random thoughts ... the ideal soundtrack for a spring and summer of love? ... playing a tape of these songs to death last May/June, windows open wide ... what's happening - 'Friend With A Big Mouth', relaxed and tanned, comes trotting out of the speakers ... nursery-rhyme lyrics, then 'warm sun and breeze in the grass and in her hair' ... this is just right - but who the fuck is Howard? ... 'There is no hope for some of us yet' - not while people can ignore this gorgeous noise ... I always laugh at the fade-out, all those Goon-show voices screeching 'Hello eveybody' ... this is the sound of happiness; this is Microdisney's first serious move ... this is 'Dreaming Drains' - 'What is the meanest thing they can do?' Take away my tape, of course ... this music melts me. People will tell you Microdisney are gloomy: don't be taken in - they just know all about sadness ... Sean's awkward choirboy vocals are the (dream-)topping, a yearning sound, probably meant to be played in the dark (lying alone) ... 'Just savour this moment when your heart is broken; how long since I told you how much I hate you?' - that stings ... 'Teddy Dogs', and ringing guitars stutter, announce a sing-along tour-de-force ... 'Love and money, banks and beds, this is all there is ...'- Microdisney are learning about London ... keyboards which sound like a brass band- perfect pop music which belongs in the hearts and charts of the whole world, the real voice, the eye for important detail - 'Several shelves are standing next to where you stood' ... 'They don't want reason- they want obedience': is this man bitter? Check the run-off, single or session, to find out Sean and Cathal know all about hollow words and empty ceremony - 'Only a puritan hides his fear of Springtime by pretending to celebrate it. To each puritan his daffodil, his hydrangea ...' - Stephen Morrisey, are you listening? ... so let's look into 'Loftholdingswood' ... this will always be some sort of peak, right from the opening bars, the spacious piano which sets you at ease before the needle slides in - 'I died on a cross, and now I'm the boss' ... sad summer evenings, tired questions - 'Aren't you glad you were born in England, aren't you glad you were born an angel?' - are you? ... Microdisney use words for effect, with due respect, economy, precision - every phrase tells its own tale ... 'You turn away, I hear you say 'Loftholdingswood...' - there's an effortless grace about this chiming, seductive music, about Cathal's voice, just before the beat ... my heart always bleeds a little as this song ebbs away ... you can't take these songs individually, only as a whole ... as an E.P., this would be the best single ever, a sound to reclaim that sullied word 'pop' from the harlot-shops of radio and music-press ... so many moods - aggression or reflection, jaunty cheeriness or stately grandeur. This is pop? This is progress, a genuine new wave, stamping in the ashes of indie synth-crap, not bowing before Born-Again guitarism ... it betters any previous best ... Beg, steal or borrow a tape of this session from someone who knows, but the 'In The World' 12", see for yourself ... right now, it's back to Woolwich - the 3 Johns are on, playing 'A.W.O.L0, once, twice ... the third time it starts, we leave. (from bubbyworld.com/microdisney)