Liverpool’s Virgin Dance released their debut 7″ “Are You Ready (For That Feeling)?” b/w “Facts” on Probe Plus and Spartan (an Irish subsidiary of Rough Trade) in 1983. This song is a bit of a guilty pleasure, fitting somewhere between my A Flock of Seagulls and Modern English records, and sounding like a song The Ocean Blue could have released a decade later. The band featured the drummer of Modern Eon, Cliff Hewitt with Edwin Hind (vocals), Kenny Duggan (guitar), Dave Knowles (keyboards) and Graham McMaster (bass). Knowles left in ‘84 to join Here’s Johnny and was replaced by Dixie. McMaster was replaced by Bernie Putt in ‘84 and Putt replaced by Barry Cowell in ‘85.

They re-recorded a somewhat insane 12″ mix (released a month later), and then a lifeless, but more commercial version in 1984 (with the re-release of the single). Obviously you can tell which I prefer, but I’ll post all the versions so you can decide for yourself.

“Are You Ready (For That Feeling)?” 7″

“Are You Ready (For That Feeling)?” 12″

“Are You Ready (For That Feeling)?” 12″ 1984 re-release

Discography:
“Are You Ready?” b/w “Facts” 7″, Probe Plus (PP 5), 1983
“Are You Ready?” b/w “Facts” 7″, Spartan (SP 5), 1983
“Are You Ready?” (new) b/w “Are You Ready?” & “Facts” 12″, Spartan (12 SP 5), 1983
“No Disguise” b/w “Against the Tide” 7″ & 12″, Spartan (SP 8 / 12 SP 8), 1983
“Desire” b/w “Make Love” 7″, Spartan (SP 8), 1984
“Desire” b/w “Make Love & Farewell Clare” 12″, Spartan (12 SP 10), 1984
“The Dream is Over” b/w “Rainy Days” 7″, Spartan (SP 14), 1984
“The Dream is Over (ext)” b/w “Rainy Days” 12″, Spartan (12 SP 14), 1984
“Are You Ready? (re-release)” b/w “Night Call” 7″, Spartan (SP 16), 1984
“Are You Ready? (ext)” b/w “Night Call” 12″, Spartan (12 SP 16), 1984
“Against The Tide” LP, Spartan (SPMP 102), 1985 (collected all singles and b-sides except for “Facts”)

More on Virgin Dance from Music-isms

Snow In Mexico is a dream pop/shoegaze group from Rome, Italy featuring Massimiliano Cruciani and Andrea Novelli. Their songs at times remind me of The Radio Dept., Auburn Lull and M83, so this is right up my alley. They released their debut EP on Italy’s Raise Records and it’s currently available as a free digital download on the band’s website, www.snowinmexico.com. I’m definitely a fan!

Listen to Snow In Mexico - Velvet

Download the EP here.

www.myspace.com/snowinmexico
www.myspace.com/raiserecords

Jim’s Twenty-One released one 7″ single in 1987 called “Throwaway Friend” on the Tulip label (tulip 1). The group consisted of Max on guitar & vocals, Andy on guitar & vocals, Sean on bass & vocals, Kevin on drums, and Janey on backing vocals. “Map of the World” is their stand out track in my opinion. You can listen to the other tracks from the single on their MySpace page.

Listen to Jim’s Twenty-One - Map of the World

www.myspace.com/jimstwentyone

The Cat’s Miaow “I Really Don’t Know” was released as part of the Contrast label’s split 7″ single series, vol 1 in 1993. I especially love Cat’s Miaow songs when Bart took on vocal duties. …And that bass line still kills me.

Listen to The Cat’s Miaow - I Really Don’t Know

www.virtual.net.au/~awithy/miaow.htm

This Blue Siege single has been on my want list for a while and I finally won a copy off eBay. I had high hopes based on the band’s time period (1985/86) and some comparisons I read (Lloyd Cole, REM, The Smiths, etc). It’s not quite to my taste. Really “dreary” for lack of a better term. I like the B-side over the A-side as it has a decent strum part in the chorus. Is it me or does it sound older than it should be? More ‘81 than ‘86 I think.

“Waiting River” 7″ was released on Pride Communications (Pride 001), produced by Chris Layhe (The Icicle Works).

Listen to Blue Siege - Into The Swing

Liverpool’s Cherry Boys were a brilliant sixties band stuck in the eighties. They saw little success in the UK, but “Kardomah Café” made the top 50 chart in Spain. The band consisted of John Byrne (aka John Cherry) on vocals & guitar, Keith Gunson on vocals & bass, James Hughes on vocals & keyboards, and Howie Minns on drums. Icicle Works drummer Chris Sharrock was part of the band early on and appeared on their first single “Man to Man.” Hughes and Minns went on to form Exhibit B (most famous for their “It’s Hypothetical” single).

Listen to The Cherry Boys - Kardomah Café (12″ version)

Discography:
“Man To Man” b/w “So Much Confusion” 7″, Open Eye (1981)
“Only Fools Die” b/w “Come That Day” 7″, Cherryoza (1982)
“Kardomah Café” b/w “Airs and Graces” 7″/12″, Crash (1983)
“Shoot The Big Shot” b/w “Falling” 7″, Crash (1983)
“Shoot The Big Shot” b/w “Falling” & “Dont Leave Me That Way” 12″, Crash (1983)
“Kardomah Café” b/w “Airs and Graces” & “Plead Sanity” 12″, Satril, (1984)

We just completed a massive cd organization project at Shelflife, merging together two large indie pop collections. Now we have a lot of doubles (or triples) that are looking for new homes. There’s a bunch of out-of-print Shelflife releases up as well as other rarities.

Check out our eBay auctions

By request for e6gMan, the B-side of the “Just Don’t Try” 7″. Hmm, I couldn’t remember what this song sounded like and now I remember why. Unfortunately it’s not one of the band’s finer moments… and really how can any song compete with “Just Don’t Try”?

Listen to Witch Hazel - Plain

“Just Don’t Try” by Witch Hazel was released in 1993 on their own Bubblegum Smile Records. The band was led by multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Kevin Coral with singer/lyricist Mark F., and bassist/sax player Mike Split. Witch Hazel went on to release one of my all-time favorite albums “Landlocked” in 1995.

The band changed their name to The Witch Hazel Sound with the release of “It’s All True” (1998) followed by the final album “This World, Then the Fireworks” (2001). Kevin later worked on solo projects with an entire crew of guest stars (including Laura Watling), but mysteriously this project hasn’t been released yet.

Listen to Witch Hazel - Just Don’t Try

www.myspace.com/thewitchhazelsound
www.dreamgeo.com/WitchHazelSound.html

I don’t know much about Sheffield’s Typhoon Saturday, but I love this track! They seemed to release just three 7″ singles and then broke up. Members like drummer Anthony “Tich” Critchlow went on to form Living in a Box (remember them?) and guitarist Nick Robinson went on to most notably They Must be Russians, Comsat Angels, and a bunch of solo projects (he’s also a practitioner of origami according to wikipedia).

Of course this story has a Liverpool connection… This single was produced by Steve Lindsay (bassist in Deaf School, Big in Japan (for 4 months), The Planets, etc.). I read that Typhoon Saturday pretty much hated his production of the song, but the label, Polydor, and their manager didn’t give them any other option but to release it as is. Yeah, it is a bit 80s “over produced,” but I still think it’s great.

Listen to Typhoon Saturday - What Do I Do?

Discography:
“What Do I Do” b/w “Fascination” 7″, Polydor - POSP413 (1982)
“Another Flight” b/w “Let’s All Dance” 7″, Polydor - POSP442 (1982)
“I Have Love” b/w “Social Insecurity” 7″, Polydor - POSP501 (1983)

Here’s another excellent and somewhat forgotten single from the Leicester band Super Eight. The band consisted of Adrian on bass and vocals, Jock on guitars and vocals, and Matt on drums. “Letters” was their debut release on Fluff (honey seven) in 1993. The band release two more singles, “Volume 2″ again on Fluff and “From Psychedelia To Psychosis” on Rutland.

Listen to Super Eight - Letters

Here’s the insert:

(click to enlarge)

Here’s another favorite 80s Liverpool single of mine, “Mouth of an Angel” by Two People. The band’s main “two” were Mark Stevenson and Noel Ram, both on guitars and vocals with Steven Creese on drums (ex-Lotus Eaters), Brad Lang on bass, and Ian Penman on keyboards. This single was released on Polydor in 1986.

Listen to Two People - Mouth of an Angel

Discography:
“Rescue Me” 7″ & 12″ (1985)
“This is the Shirt” 7″ & 12″ (1985)
“Mouth of an Angel” 7″ & 12″ (1986)
“Heaven” 7″ & 12″ (1987)
This is the Shirt (re-release) 7″ & 12″ (1987)
(They also had an LP recorded called “Naked” in 1985, but I don’t think it was ever released)

I just heard Edition 59, the pop label of German mail order Vollwert Records, will be releasing the entire Biff Bang Pow! and The Laughing Apple back catalog on cd-rs. The singles are in edition of the usual 59 numbered copies while the albums will have 99 numbered copies. Joe Foster will be writing all new liner notes for each album. Looks like the prices will be 7,95 euro for the 3″ cd-r singles and 9,95 euro for the albums. This is good to hear as I don’t have all the BBP! releases on cd and of course The Laughing Apple singles were only available on 7″.

More info can be found here:
www.myspace.com/edition59
www.vollwert-records.de

Listen to Biff Bang Pow! - There Must Be A Better Life

www.myspace.com/bbp2009
www.myspace.com/thelaughingapple

“Skybloom” goes down on record as the first ever Autocollant’s recording back in 1995. You’ll soon hear why it was never properly re-released. I had a thrift store guitar with just 4 strings and no tuner (obviously). We later invited Tim Morris to join the band as he could actually play chords (and owned a tuner). Enjoy!

Listen to The Autcollants - Skybloom

www.shelflife.com/auto

I must admit I live for stuff like this. It’s like porn for record geeks. This is a family tree of the Liverpool’s music scene from 1974 to 1980 created by Pete Frame. It was originally posted a few years back on the Music-isms Liverpool music blog, but in two parts. I seamed this version back together and cleaned it up the best I could. I’d love to have a Shelflife “tree” created some day, but so far our bands are a lot less incestuous, so it would look pretty thin.

download poster
(2246 x 1598)

original source: music-isms.blogspot.com

Buy Peter Frame’s book, which includes “Liverpool 1980 - Eric’s Progeny.”

“Better Scream” is from the debut Wah! Heat 7″ single released February 1980 on Pete Wylie’s new Inevitable label. The band consisted of Wylie on vocals and guitars, Rob Jones on drums and former Those Naughty Lumps’ bassist Pete Younger on bass. Wylie went on to form numerous “Wah!” incarnations (others being: Wah!, J.F. Wah!, The Mighty Wah!, Shambeko! Say Wah!, etc), but this single in my opinion is his best work.

Listen to Wah! Heat - Better Scream

A WAH! Concept…

(click to enlarge)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Scream

Here’s a Naffi track that has spanned over two releases, two bands and four years. “Every Day Just Another Dream” recorded by Naffi in 1982 from “Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya” (Ark Records) and then again by Brenda and the Beachballs in 1986 from “Volume One” (Probe Plus). Which version do you prefer?

Listen to Naffi - Every Day Just Another Dream.mp3

Listen to Brenda and the Beachballs - Everyday Another Dream.mp3

Naffi (also known as The Naffi’s, Naafi Sandwich, Naffi-Locksman, and later Brenda and the Beachballs) were a Merseyside duo consisting of Brenda and Jerry Kenny. Most of their output consists of strange avant-garde / dub / reggae influenced stuff, but they still managed to write some lovely minimal jazz pop (think Young Marble Giants). “D’ya Hear Me!” is one of those songs. I’ll post my other favorite track from their “Yum Yum Yum Yum Ya” LP and the Beachballs “Volume One” single tomorrow.

Listen to Naffi - D’ya Hear Me!.mp3

For those who want to study up, here’s the Naffi discography page taken from “The Scouse Phenomenon, part 2″. (which by the way are the most awesome books for anyone who cares about the Liverpool music scene in the 80s. Sadly they’re out of print, but turn up on eBay from time to time.)

click to enlarge

Continuing with more Darling Buds rarities, here’s “Spin” from the So Naive fanzine flexi released in 1987. This song later appeared on their debut album “Pop Said” in 1990.

Listen to The Darling Buds - Spin

www.myspace.com/thedarlingbuds
www.thedarlingbuds.com

Simply classic by every sense of the word. Here’s the debut double A-side 7″ from
The Darling Buds. The single was recorded in June 1986 at Loco Studios and the band self-released it in February 1987. “If I Said” was most recently included on the “CD86″ compilation, but I’m liking my gritty overly-compressed vinyl recording a bit better as of late.

Listen to “If I Said”

Listen to “Just To Be Seen”

www.myspace.com/thedarlingbuds
www.thedarlingbuds.com