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
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_bluesiege.mp3]

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)
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_thecherryboys.mp3]

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)

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
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_witchhazel2.mp3]

“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
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_witchhazel1.mp3]

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?
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_typhoonsaturday.mp3]

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
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_supereight.mp3]

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
[dewplayer:http://www.shelflife.com/mp3-bin/b_twopeople.mp3]

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)