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Archive 10
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226 - 250
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Here
you will gain exclusive access to my own personal record collection! I
try to bring you mp3s of rare tracks, deleted material, long forgotten
artists, total flops and down right obscure shit. Often, my choices were
only available on vinyl or were just plain unreleased, the aim being to
indulge an old fan or inspire a new one. I try not to post up
forthcoming releases or anything that's too readily available. Honest,
Gov!
There's a tenuous thread running through the tracks but
your requests are always welcome and I'll try and squeeze them in amongst my
own fancies... eventually.
Do read all the blurb, as there's often links to extra tracks lurking in
there... ; )
Tracks are only available for a 'limited
time' folks (sometimes months!), so get them while you can!
Now for the science bit! To access the music, please click on 'Download' and
you'll be whisked off to those nice people over at Sharebee.
Tracks are ripped at 192 kbps and wherever possible taken from the
highest quality source available. All of the music offered here has been
purchased by myself and is part of my own collection. Tracks are for
evaluation purposes only and wherever possible, purchasing is always
encouraged. If you own any of the material posted here or anywhere else
on this site and are very cross with me, please
email me with threats and such like...
The Go-Go's
were (and sometimes still are) Charlotte Caffey
(lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Belinda
Carlisle (lead vocals), Gina Schock
(drums, percussion, backing vocals - replacing Elissa
Bello), Kathy Valentine (bass
guitar, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals) and
Jane Wiedlin (rhythm guitar, vocals & backing
vocals). Formed in 1978, they made rock history as the first all-woman band in
pop music that actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs
to have a number 1 album on the USA Billboard charts. Spanning everything from
punk-pop, surf, new wave and rock, The Go-Go's
carried on as solo artists after their break up in 1985.
Belinda and
Jane achieved the
most solo successes, but Charlotte
went on
to form late 80's girl trio The Graces
(with
that 'Bitch' Meredith Brooks),
Kathy formed The
Delphines and Gina
emerged with
the short lived House Of Schock. The girls
continue to write and collaborate with one another, often regrouping en masse
for Go-Go's reunion albums and tours. 2006
marked the 25th anniversary of their debut album and cornerstone of American new
wave, 'Beauty And The Beat'. We've slapped 'Girl Of 100
Lists' on here for you, from their second album 'Vacation',
because we've been writing lots of lists recently. It's true! Check out their
official site
Pint-sized popstrel
Jane Wieldin is first and foremost a
Go-Go. Jane
was the founder member of the popular all-girl pop-punk band and she was the
first Go-Go out of the stable with a solo
effort (leaving in the middle of the 'PrimeTime' tour in 1984).
Her self titled IRS Records debut album came out in 1985 and is a decent
enough affair, despite it being ignored by critics upon it's release. 'Blue Kiss', the small hit single of the piece, and poppier tracks like
'Somebody's Going To Get Into This House' and 'Where We Can Go',
show promise but failed to spark much interest at the time. It would be another
3 years before she released a follow-up album, with the wonderful 'Fur'.
Her best know work in the UK, chiefly due to 1987's world wide hit 'Rush
Hour', it's pop genius (see 'Song Of The Factory') should
have been enough for her to maintain a high enough profile outside of her cult
fan base in the states but sadly not. By the time 1990s' equally charming
'Tangled' arrived (title track appearing on the hugely popular 'Pretty Woman'
soundtrack), the UK record company had even dispensed
with the risk of promoting it with a single release! At this point, 'World
On Fire', her wackiest, poppiest recording, should have provided her with
another chart hit, but it only got released in the USA. It's a great, fun track,
recalling the colourful pop sound of bands like The
B-52's and Voice Of The Beehive.
Listen out for our favourite bit of the song around 2.45-ish minutes in! Oh, and
check out the steamy, cartoon-ish video
It's interesting to see the very
different career paths of one-time pop rivals Cyndi
Lauper and Madonna. They both
arrived on the music scene as colourful young pop stars both with very strong
sense of style, attracting loyal wannabe's who mimicked their every hairstyle
and outfit. Both were ripe for the new visually unquenchable MTV generation and
both explored the creative potential of the new video promo format. Initially,
it seemed Cyndi
might be the victor, her
debut album 'She's So Unusual' selling stupid amounts and she was
nominated for 3 Grammys, winning Best New Artist in 1985.
Madonna's frothy dance pop, on the other hand,
was commercially successful, if considered a fad and disposable by critics and
she wasn't afforded any kind of artistic recognition passed her sexually charged
appearance and early news worthy antics. However, Madonna
quickly established herself as the safer bet, making inroads
into everything from music, film, fashion, religion, politics, celebrity,
scandal and controversy as her plan for world domination began to gather apace.
Unlike Lauper, Madonna was perhaps not the most creative of the pair but she did
quickly develop a knack for utilising the talents of others for her own benefit
in the form of the producers and collaborators she surrounded herself with.
Cyndi, meanwhile, proved to be less of a
chameleon and stuck largely to the sound and image of her debut album well into
the 90s. This early track is the forgotten B-side to her debut single proper,
'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun', and packs a lot of energy and kookiness
into it's 4 minutes. It hasn't been widely available on anything since 1983.
Health warning! This is pop in it's
purest form! Lolly
will make your eyes bleed
and can cause abject nausea in anyone over the age of 6! Etc.
Anna Kumble appeared in 1999, gave us 5
singles and 2 albums targeting the pre-teens pocket money and was all done and
dusted by 2000. She actually gave up the music career by choice, quitting her
label and moving into TV presenting. These days she works for kids TV channel Nickleodeon. Her last album, 2000's now deleted 'Pick'n'Mix',
is currently exchanging hands for about £20 so we thought we'd re-visit it and
see what people could possibly be wanting it for. It's very
S Club 7/Steps
in places, 'It Never Rains But It Pours' bearing more than a
passing resemblance to the latter's 'One For Sorrow'. Don't you
agree? Anyway, I like to think Lolly
had
some kind of nervous breakdown after 2 years of dressing in nothing but primary
colours, eating only sweets and singing inane karaoke pop songs (covering both
Cyndi Lauper
and Toni Basil)
with that unrelenting helium voice... I know I would have.
Toni Basil's
'Mickey' was the first 7" record I ever had. It was one of a few singles
my babysitter let me have (along with Dollar
and Tight Fit) and I remember writing my
name on the paper Radialchoice label in blue biro (and then later
regretting it). I guess you could say Toni
is to blame for the 2 bedrooms and garage full of records and CDs that I have
some 25 years later... but I digress. 'Word Of Mouth', her debut
album from 1982, would yield no more hit singles after 'Mickey' and even a better, self-titled follow up album in 1983 wasn't to change her one
hit wonder status. However, pick up any Toni Basil
'best of' budget CD in your local service station/bargain bin and you might just
enjoy some perfectly respectable 80s trash pop. In particular, 'Over My
Head', sticks out like a sore thumb as some great, lost 'Flashdance'-esque
soundtrack hit single. It was released in the USA and made the lower reaches of
the chart, but to understand it's full genius, one must view the
'Air' is taken from
Talking Heads third album, 'Fear Of
Music' (the second of three albums co-produced by
Brian Eno), which was released in 1979. This is
a personal favourite of mine, Tina Weymouth's
angelic vocals hovering in the foreground and courting David Byrne's typically paranoid and cryptic rantings... Oooh, we got
all Rolling Stone on your ass there for a moment! Sorry about that.
Anyway, Talking Heads were consistently
great and recently had their back catalogue albums tinkered with and re-released
with extra this and that (including the essential 'Remain In Light'
from 1980).
Emmie
(Emma Morton-Smith) recorded this dance cover version of
Roxy Music's 'More Than This' in
1998 and it was a big hit 'in the clubs' but took a while to get it's foot in
the charts. It was re-issued in 1999 and finally clawed it's way up to the top
ten. I've heard of a couple of 12" promos she's put out since then but
otherwise, she seems to have done a Jan Johnston
(ie. suffered the fate of anonymous, generic 'So-and-so featuring' dance/trance/house singles) and worked with
W.I.P.
(who did a lot of Steps remixes),
Flip & Fill and
LMC.
She was also in some sort've band called Indien
(not a spelling mistake - for once!). She's indeed a small fish in a very big
pond. However, I like this track, it's a simple
dance-pop-cover-version-of-old-song-which-still-sounds-good single of the tried
and tested variety. Hurrah.
Does anyone remember the
'Spitting Image' puppet of Bryan Ferry?
He cropped up on the show once or twice, an aging lounge lizard with exaggerated
lank, greasy hair, which dripped with every flick of his head. That's how I
remember him when I listen to Roxy Music as
I sadly wasn't really old enough to be a fan at the time and it was all over and
done with when I was about 5 or 6 ('cept for his solo career of course). I can't
really recall how I 'got into' Roxy Music,
but I did go straight for the big treasure and started off with 'The
Thrill Of It All', a 4CD box set from around 1995. It was a wonderful
introduction! One of their hit singles, 1979's 'Angel Eyes',
is featured twice on the set, first in it's rare, rockier original LP version
(replaced with a single mix shortly after the first pressing) and then also in
it's disco-synthetic extended mix, which is divine. I thought you might like
this one most of all. It's only ever appeared on this box set so far, which also
exclusively has a few more mixes, B-sides and a some other odds
and sods. If you're new to them, it's a great place to start and it packs 80% of
all their album tracks into it, too. It's also beautifully done with many great
photos and outtakes from their iconic sleeve art. Buy it
Ladytron
(named after a track on Roxy Music's
debut album) are Mira Aroyo,
Helena Marnie, Reuben Wu and
Daniel Hunt. They
were originally signed to Sheffield indie label Invicta
Hi-Fi, along with Baxendale,
Hayley's Cake and
Pop Levi (all of these bands are very good also!). Their debut
release, 'He Took Her To A Movie', was recorded with their
original vocalist Lisa Eriksson who left to
form a band called Techno Squirrels. In the
U.S., they're quite popular and are signed to Emperor
Norton/Rykodisc. 'Paco!' appeared on their 'Mu-Tron'
EP in 2000 and is essentially
a rip-off of the 'Are You Being Served?' T.V. show theme! But that's
a really good thing... Trivia! Ladytron
contributed a great cover version of 'Open Your Heart'
to the U.S.
tribute album, 'Reproductions: The Songs Of The Human League' in
2000.
Russell Senior
put together art pop 5 piece Venini
in 1998, after he jumped ship from Pulp
when
the overwhelming success of their 'Different Class' album and
subsequent commitments became too much for him. Venini
allowed the guitarist and violinist to return to the familiar safety
of a small obscure indie band and escape the mammoth promotional obligations and
pressures being a Brit Pop chart topping act demanded. Debbie Lime
(vocals) had sent demo tapes to Senior
previously and Venini were quickly born.
They released their debut single, 'Mon Camion', in 1999 on their
own Bikini Records label and if you sent back your freepost mailing list
card, you should have received a handmade red and green leather pen holder
thingy (I did). Er, lovely. A second single swiftly followed, 'Carnival
Star', which boasted a Ladytron
Remix on the B-side and Russell stepped back
to become the manager rather than play in the band. Despite the initial flurry
of press attention due to Russell's
Pulp past, mediocre reviews meant that
Venini would go on to release just one more
single, a very limited affair on CD only, called 'Unshaker' EP,
which was only available via the bands website. I do not have this CD.
Sheffield's finest,
Pulp, reached what I feel is their creative
peak during 1992-94, despite huge critical and commercial success not being
bestowed upon them until after this period courtesy of Brit pop (shudder). I'm not
particularly anti-Brit pop but I think that any musical movement or scene can
often turn stale very quickly and simply breed diluted imitations of both sound
and image. Pulp undeniably deserved their
successes but it broke the band in the end and almost anything beyond 'Common
People' makes me cringe as I remember the mainstream gangs of towny lads
and lasses aping about to it in the 'indie' nights down the local nightclub (in
Sunderland, any road). See 'Misshapes' from 1995's 'A
Different Class' for the irony. I guess I wanted them to remain a grubby
little secret. Anyway, the singles they released on Gift Records were all
master strokes of cult indie perfection, best summed up on
How do you follow up a massively
successful album like Human League's 1981
masterpiece , 'Dare'? How indeed. The pressure must've been on and
then some as a follow up was laboured over. Martin Rushent
and Chris Thomas
both came and went as producers and it was to be a lengthy three years before a
new album arrived. Phil Oakey and co. filled
the gap with two new singles, '(Keep Feeling) Fascination' and
'Mirrorman' (the latter finding a home on the new album), but 'Hysteria' was to be regarded as a bit of a clanger when it landed in
1984. It's certainly not as strong as it's predecessor but nevertheless features
some great tracks - 'I Love You Too Much' and 'The
Sign' would have been admiral single choices. The lead single, 'The Lebanon',
was to throw a few people upon release but it's an
amazing single - have a listen! A thundering baseline, a steely riff and a
serious political message in the lyric. Not quite what people were expecting
from the band who sang throw-away synthpop number one, 'Don't You Want Me'.
But it was brave and bold of them to try a new direction and drift away from the
commercial blueprint and the single made number 11 in the UK singles chart. This
extended version is a treat and was added as a bonus track, a long with B-sides
and other 12" mixes, to the US re-issue of 'Hysteria' at the end
of last year. Buy that and listen to samples
Sheffield's
Younger Younger 28's have appeared here before
and they may do again in the future. This is their marvellous cover of
The Cure's 'In Between Days',
which is pretty straight forward indie-pop but it could've saved them from
oblivion had it escaped into the shops. Instead, the single was pulled last
minute, though it did appear on the tail-end of their 2000 bargain bin-tastic
album, 'Soap' (Unless you bought the Japanese import which
technically has 2 additional tracks at the end - including an exclusive cover of
M's 'Pop Muzik'). Finished promo CD singles, with the excellent
'Two Timer (Crap In Bed)' (posted here ages ago) on the b-side, exist
but they don't show up very often. I myself have a copy of what was to be CD 1 but there
was a CD 2 planned also, featuring two further unreleased tracks 'Psychoworld'
and 'We Want A Man'. I have these tracks if
anyone would like them? They're actually very good! Bizarrely,
The Cure's
'Let's Go To Bed' was released in 1982 and was an unexpected side step into the mainstream pop
market. I'm surprised to learn it only made number 44 in the charts at the time!
It's such a classic pop single but was obviously the victim of some form of
backlash and fan snubbing at the time. Nevertheless, it sparked a very creative
period in the band's history and highlighted them as a marketable pop commodity
as well as a critically lauded and much loved alternative rock attraction. From
here on in, The Cure
were rarely out of the
singles chart, with their next two single releases achieving two of their
highest ever placings - electro workout, 'The Walk' (12) and
playful 80's radio staple, 'The Lovecats' (7). All three singles
were without a parent album to house them so the record company collected them,
along with their B-sides, on the mini album, 'Japanese Whispers',
originally intended for export only to foreign shores but quickly becoming a UK
title in it's own right. This new found commercial pop sound didn't suit all the
diehard fans, many of them deserting the band at this point, clinging on to
their copy of 'Pornography' and weeping inconsolably. Probably.
But there was plenty of obscure, challenging and experimental stuff to come by
way of 1984's 'The Top' album and side-project
The Glove's album 'Blue Sunshine'
(with Banshee Steve Serverin). Presently,
The Cure are mid-way in their 'deluxe reissue'
series, a very expensive and indulgent exercise which see's all their original
albums stuffed to breaking point with endless demos and outtakes, often swelling
the content to thrice it's original length, creating a bit of indigestion
in the process. Anyway, this is the 12" version of 'Let's Go To Bed'
which hasn't appeared on CD yet. Trivia! Robert Smith is rumoured to have developed his
penchant for badly applied red lipstick after playing with
Siouxsie's makeup whilst fulfilling the role of
Banshee around 1983 (his second stint after
originally lending a hand back in 1979).
Siouxsie
And The Banshees are my all time favourite band. It's taken me a
while to get around to featuring them here but finally, here they are. Sparing
you all the lengthy biography, this track is taken from 1984's 'The Thorn'
EP, which saw the band revisit four earlier recordings, bolstered by a string
section courtesy of The Chandos Players. The
idea behind the release was to both induct the then-new guitarist
John Valentine Caruthers into
The Banshees and also to capture the
evolving sound of each track after some 5 years as permanent fixtures in their
live set. The EP has long been a fan favourite, mine included, and does a
wonderful job at fleshing out early classics, like the previously icy and
insular 'Overground' (originally on debut album 'The Scream'
from 1978), which becomes a confident and fierce vocal assault here.
Also, this track, 'Voices (On The Air)' (their first B-side),
which gains new impetuous with additional thundering drum rolls and
Bernhard Hermann-esque string mayhem. For many
years this EP was restricted to vinyl only and had been long out of print until
2003's 'Downside Up' 4 disc box set, which gathered
The Banshees impeccable B-sides and rarities
together for the first time, including 'The Thorn', which was
rightly given it's own disc. Buy it
Altered Images
were formed in Glasgow and got their break when they sent a demo tape to their
idols Siouxsie And The Banshees. The result
being a support slot on their 'Kaleidoscope' tour in 1980. Often
considered to be 'baby banshees' themselves at the time, the connection with the
group continued when Steve Severin
offered
to produce their debut single for Epic Records, 'Dead Pop Stars'.
The single was to be the victim of unfortunate timing as
Beatle John Lennon was shot dead just weeks before it's release.
Quick to avoid controversy (the track was deliberately left off the debut album
by the record company), the group released follow up single, 'A Day's
Wait', which just missed the top 40 and then a third single, 1981's
'Happy Birthday', would become their break though hit and signature
tune. The album of the same name again featured production from
Severin and was a commercial and critical success,
confirmed when the group won 'Best New Group' in the NME polls that year.
They updated their sound with next LP, 'Pinky Blue' (1982), which
saw the band move from new wave Banshee wanna-bes to bona fide pop stars
courtesy of Martin Rushent's tight
production prowess. The hits continued ('See Those Eyes', 'I
Could Be Happy') and long time fan of the band, DJ
John Peel, even turned up singing backing vocals on LP cut
'Song Sung Blue'. For their final album, 1983's 'Bite',
one last metamorphosis took place and a more mature, polished sound was unveiled
as production duties were handed over to Tony Visconti
(Bowie) and
Mike
Chapman (Blondie). It's here we
find the pop perfection that is 'Another Lost Look', one of my
favourite tracks by Altered Images. After
the band's demise, we had a solo effort from Clare
Grogan ('Love Bomb', posted here about 18 months
ago) and an unreleased album called 'Big Trash' remains in the
vaults. She faired better when turning her attentions to acting and TV work ('Eastenders',
'Red Dwarf', 'Father Ted', 'VH-1').
Bassist Johnny McElone formed
Hipsway and later the hugely successful
Texas, whilst
Steve
Lironi married Clare and they
played live together for a time under the name Universal Love School. Their three amazing albums were re-issued and
re-upholstered with additional material back in 2004 and are available
Pop trio
The Lanterns
hailed from Edinburgh and much like The Futureheads
have their Geordie accents, the Scots accent is prominent in the vocals
on this track. 'HighRise Town' was their debut single, an urban
dance-pop mini-epic, lifted from the1999 debut album, 'Luminate Yer Heid'
(translation - 'Illuminate Your Head'). The band were on the
December 1998 cover of 'Dazed & Confused' magazine and the initial
buzz was fairly healthy. I recall the video for 'HighRise Town' was on a constant rotation on music channel
The Box and Todd Terry
was providing remixes but all this
failed to translate into sales and the single just scraped into the top 40.
Follow up single 'Winter In My Heart' faired worse still, despite
the mixes doing well in the dance charts and the album slipped into the bargain
bins. A third single, 'It's Not Thursday Every Day', was readied
but pulled and the group disbanded. I really
liked their artwork. Jim Sutherland, founder
member and chief songwriter, went on to work with many bands (Plant
& Page, Emmylou Harris,
Billy Bragg) and recently produced
'Forever Young', the debut album from indie band
Aberfeldy. He was also recently awarded a
Scottish Arts Award to fund a European music project. Whatever that means. The
two girls Gina Rae and
Sophie Bancroft
have both bizarrely carved out
solo careers singing and recording jazz stuff. No one requires links, I'm sure.
Wee Scottish scamp and multi talented musician
Cicero
kept the singles coming even after everyone stopped buying them. His glory
period under the guidance of Pet Shop Boys
was relatively short lived and after he soundtracked 'The Crying Game'
movie in 1992, his releases became more techo-based and amateur-ish than
previous efforts. His last single was this, a cover version of
Soft Cell's classic electro-ballad 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye'. It's karaoke by numbers really, and the
female who is on the cover and singing the girls bits in the background is
called Marianne Murphy. It is not
Sylvia Mason-James, who was the female
singer two Cicero singles prior to this, on
'Live For Today'. Her name crops up a lot,
you'll find, if you check through the credits of some of your CD collection.
She's was what they call a 'much in demand session artist' and has belted her
lungs out in the background for Robbie Williams,
Pet Shop Boys, Cher
and Jimmy Nail, to name a few.
Anyway, Cicero. He's still a bit collectable
to fans of the Pet Shop Boys... Sell your
old CD singles on
Deuce
get an encore on the site with their
final single, 'No Surrender', a new track that would have been on
their 2nd album. Manager Tom Watkins
co-wrote this one (it takes a while to 'get going'). By now, as in 1996, the
band had moved from London Records to
Mike Stock
(Aitken & Waterman)'s label, Love This
Records and replaced singer Kelly with
some other clone bird (she's the little blond one). The single was unsuccessful
and the band limped on for a few years doing PAs in gay clubs. Gawd luv 'em.
Blog royalty
Electribe 101 is where a young
Billie Ray Martin cut her soul diva teeth. They
brought some much needed texture and style to the burgeoning late 80s dance
scene and had sleeve photography to die for. They were brought together by an
advert which Hamburg-born Billie placed in
Melody Maker and within a year they were being remixed by New York House
God Frankie Knuckles, recording sessions for
John Peel and having top 40 hits. They
released 5 singles (well, 4 and a re-release of debut 'Talking With
Myself') and one album, 'Electribal Memories', on Mercury Records
before going their separate ways. The story goes that the
band's manager, Tom Watkins (Pet
Shop Boys, East 17,
Bros), grew to hate
Billie because she refused to take orders and the feeling was
certainly mutual. He was always trying to kick her out of the band and replace
her but as it turns out, they didn't last very long anyway. A support slot with
Depeche Mode was afforded them and sessions
for a second album were begun, one track from which escaped, called 'A
Sigh Wont Do'. Billie went on to
solo successes and many credible collaborations with the likes
S'Express, Slam,
Spooky and The Grid.
She is currently writing and recording material for her next album and has
recently signed a deal with Rebirth Records to release shimmering new
electro soul anthem, 'Undisco Me'. The rest of the band formed
Groove Corporation and continue to work as
producers. 'Inside Out' was Electribe 101's
final single and appears here in it's remixed single version, the 'Pop
Mix'. It's by no means the definitive mix of the song or the best
Electribe 101 track around but it's an
interesting diversion from the minimalist lush downtempo album version. This mix
has been unavailable for years though, partly because the single was so
unsuccessful, with the promo video for it practically mythical. We strongly
suggest picking up
Mark Moore is a God-like genius.
S'Express' triptych of perfect pop singles in
between 1988-89 was like the second coming in my bedroom. The sampling mind-fuck
that was 'Theme From S'Express'; Those hil-flippin-larious sleeve
notes on the front of my 'Superfly Guy' 7" vinyl ("Once the
pressures of working with a band like S'Express
have eased down, singer Michelle
looks forward to a well earned rest and has already booked a reservation at the
Betty Ford clinic for later this year"); and that wacky
video for 'Hey Music Lover' (which would spark a long term love affair between
myself and Billie Ray Martin)... bands these
days just don't make 3 good singles
in a row anymore, do they? Anyway, multi-formatting was never more rife than the
late 80s and I recall the trend for releasing 2 or 3 12" single variants to
boost your total gross - much like the CD 1 & CD 2 or Maxi and Mini farce we
have in place today. S'Express
were guilty of this but let's not complain
because they brought us some wonderful remixes on those many, many additional
formats. And here we have one for you to enjoy! The 'Spatial Expansion Mix'
of
'Hey Music Lover' (on the A-side of the 2nd 12" of a 3 12" set!) manages to keep the main song in tact, but slips a little more aceeeeeeed in to the mix and it literally never stops! It's mad as fuck but we
hope you'll enjoy it. It's actually an early William Orbit
production (my hasn't
his style changed?). In the USA, this mix was included on a 9 mix (!!) CD
single, also known as an endurance test, some of the mixes on which feature an
additional verse not available on any UK mixes/pressings. This is where our mp3 comes from so it's
high quality, not a vinyl rip. Trivia! There's a spelling mistake on the sleeve
of this single - 'S'Xpress'... guess they accidentally dropped an 'E'. Arf.
There's a trainspotter's discography guide to Mark
Moore
Martine McCutcheon's old girl band
Milan return to The
International House Of Pussy to right a grievous wrong. We posted up
'Affectionetly Mine' over a year ago saying it was the 'best of
the bunch' from their 4 single output. It was a lie. Or, we've just changed our
minds. 'Is It Love You're After' is of course a cover of the old
Rose Royce hit from the 1970s. Y'know the
one?, S'Express
based 'Theme From
S'Express' on it. So while rumours abound about
Martine returning to recording pop music, let's ponder her past.
And, if you should ever be in a position to compare the sleeve of this record
with her debut solo single, 'My Perfect Moment' ...is it just me
or is she wearing exactly the same outfit?
All girl pop bands grew from this seed, I'm convinced. The mighty
Toto Coelo were an explosion of legs and
multi-coloured bin bags who briefly 'stormed' the charts in the early 1980s with
campy 80s compilation standard 'I Eat Cannibals'. There were five
members; Lacy, Sheena,
Ros, Anita,
Linsey,
Dopey, Sneezy and Doc. 70's pop star Barry Blue
was the mastermind behind them and it came as quite a shock to find their brand
of novelty themed pop romps not a regular feature of popular music
forever and ever amen. Instead, second single, 'Dracula's Tango' ("Dracu-la-la-la!")
stiffed outside the top 40. A third single. 'Milk From The Coconut',
saw them hone their campness in a bit and comes across all
Grace Jones-y but it was all going tits up by this time... In 1983 an
album appeared in France (?!) called 'Man O' War' but here in the
UK, nothing. The tracks from it are now readily available on a myriad of budget
CD re-issues however. Two of the members called it quits at this juncture, an ugly
one (Sheena) and a pretty one (Anita
- who joined rock band The Cherry Bombz with
her husband). The other three gave us two more singles in 1985, this one here,
'Girls Night Out' and then finally 'Gimme Some Lovin'. We thought
we'd bring you the 12" version of 'Girls Night Out' because it's
the least embarrassing of the two later singles and it's never been included on
a CD. Trivia! Ros
is the daughter of wrinkly
old quiz master Bob Holness! "What 'T'
was a rather fabulous 1980's girl band?".... "Toto Coelo,
Bob?!".
Falling midway, I guess, somewhere
in between
The Corrs and
All
Saints, Thunderbugs were a very
mediocre softcore adult pop girl band, who played their own instruments (apparently) and
were sniffing round the charts in 1999. They had that God awful 'Friends
Forever' single in the top 3 (the musical equivalent of a lame
chick-flick/Forever Friends greetings card) and then the follow up, which
was much, much better, slinky number 'It's About Time You Were Mine',
which oddly didn't get any higher than number 55! The album, 'Delicious',
got shelved and they were henceforth shunned. But wait! Here's a track off the
unreleased album (which sometimes tips up on eBay)... it's nothing special but then neither were that
Hepburn band. The album includes
contributions from Simon Climie
(Climie
Fisher) and there's a cover of an old song by
The Divinyls on it, too ('Jealous' - it's shit).
Thunderbugs
- possibly the only girl band
ever to have a lead singer (Jane Vaughan)
who wears glasses. Are they others? I don't think so.