Walking Seeds - Peel Session (1987)

During the course of the year 1986, things slightly changed for the Walking Seeds: Neesham left the band and his place was taken by former Marshmallow Overcoat Tony Mogan. The close collaboration between the soon-to-disappear Marshmallow Overcoat and the Seeds can be found in the line-up performing the first Walking Seeds Peel Session, which, besides Sutton, Parker, Martin and Mogan, also featured MO’s Lol Geoghegan on percussion.

Peel Session (26 January 1987)
- Huge Living Creature
- Junior Acid Bate
- Mark Chapman
- Blathering Out

Huge Living Creature was taken from the band’s first vinyl release (Known Too Much, see relevant post below), Junior Acid Bate was to remain a genuine unreleased track, whereas Mark Chapman (aka Marque Chapman) and Blathering Out would end up on the either side of the Walking Seeds second single. (The latter, later to be included in the band’s first Lp.)

walking seeds - peel 1987

Walking Seeds - Known Too Much (1986)

When Martin Dempsey left the Mel-O-Tones in 1986, keeping the original name for his possible future projects (never to be, btw), the remaining members – Frank Martin (vocals), Bob Parker (bass) and John Neesham (drums) – stuck together, and with the collaboration of Barry Sutton, form the Marshmallow Overcoat, formed the Walking Seeds in 1986. This line-up recorded the band’s firs single:

Known Too Much (1986)
a1 Tantric Wipeout
a2 Eyes Too Big For Your Balls
b1 Huge Living Creature
b2 Milk

walking seeds - known too much

Martin Dempsey (Martin-A-Mel-O-Tone)

Martin Dempsey started his music career in the mid-Seventies with Albert Dock & The Codfish Warriors, then re-named Yachts, where he played bass guitar as a full member until the turn of the decade. In 1980 he left the Yachts to briefly join one on the many line-ups of Jayne Casey’s Pink Military before becoming a member of It’s Immaterial (after the release of the band’s first single in 1980). In 1984 he put together the Mel-O-Tones, with whom he released the Hello My Name is Tumor (1985) and Mellonheaded (1985) (see relevant post below).
After the split of the Mel-O-Tones in 1986 Dempsey left the music business for a while, but kept the band’s name for possible future projects.

One of the traces of this undefined and in-between status is the track that Demspey recorded for the compilation Raging Sun (1985), under the meaningful pseudonym of Martin-A-Mel-O-Tones:

Toxteth Ablaze

Marshmallow Overcoat - What's Going On (1985)

Marshmallow Overcoat formed in 1983. The original line-up included Barry Sutton on guitars and vocals (former roadie with the Fall, later Walking Seeds, La’s, and lately collaborating with Peter Coyle), Lol Geoghegan (a.k.a. Geoghan) on guitars and tapes helped out by a number of other musicians among whom Mark Pythian (keyboards), Peter Hurst (also Whiskey Priests, a Birthday-Party-type punk act who never recorded, but apparently produced some classic anthems, namely Forget It All and Mary Jane), Paul Scott (bass, also later Whiskey Prists), Judith Laity (cello, also working with the Royal Family and the Poor) and Liz Kay (viola) - both girls later to join the Goat People (whose main aim was to play tapes of top 20 hits and to make as much noise as possible, and whom Sutton would provide with some drum work). The line-up established around 1985 – after a short break during which Sutton joined the new-born Walking Seeds – with the inclusion of ex Riley Men members Peter Cammell (vocals, guitars) and Tony Mogan (drums), and the additional help of Mark Pythian on keyboards during live performances.
The band released an Ep in 1985.

What’s Going On (1985)
a1. What’s Going On
a2. Traffic Hug
a3. Hell
b1. Jelly Shed

According to sources, the Ep, covering the band’s old/established repertoire, was not representative of the group’s new musical direction, exemplified by numbers like Tune into Hospital Radio and When Submarines Were which were only played live.
The Marshmallow Overcoat ceased to exist in 1986, when Sutton and Mogan started their major collaboration with the Walking Seeds and founding member Georghegan quit. (The same year in Tucson, Ariziona, another band with the same name started their musical career.) Towasrd the very end of their career together the band also performed under the name of Corduroy Cog, performing an acoustic set for Rogher Hill.

marshmallow overcoat

Ellery Bop - Fire in Reflection (12", 1983)

… and to start the new year here’s a bit about our friend Jamie Farrell and his band, The Ellery Bop, originally form an article appeared in The End (10 February 1983).

“The Ellery Bop were recently described as ‘the sort of group you’d expect Liverpool to produce’ (crashing guitars, anger and emotion) by Paul Du Noyer on the NME. Also in that article [he] described the duo Jamie Farrell and Kevin Connolly as the ‘thug and the drunk’ primarily because of things which had gone on in their dark and dismal past. The group claims they are one of these groups who aren’t a group, because they can’t afford other members, they just get mates in to record, or if they ever want to play live, which they haven’t done for over 2 years. Recently though they have been featured on John Peel’s, Kid Jensen’s and Richard Skinners radio shows and have been very well received.

The main reasons why they haven’t played live, as Kev pointed out (he deals with the management and finance side of the group) is because it’s a very expensive business. ‘you’ve got to pay for rehearsals to get the band tight enough to be able to play live and then pay for all the equipment, instead we have saved our cash and been able to bring out a single, which is better really’. More important to Jamie is the fact that he gets too nervous playing live: ‘I really shit myself. I just don’t like playing live and also there’s another thing, we always kept on getting loads of trouble when we were playing’. They said they will play live in the future when they know they can get a decent crowd down to see them, who don’t want to start fighting. The trouble they used to get was mainly due to Jamie reputation which stuck with him after being a bit of a bouncer in Eric’s. What about this ‘thug’ tag then. Well, Jamie says he doesn’t really take that seriously (re: NME) and it was Paul Du Noyer highlighting something which had happened a few years ago, but as Jamie puts it ‘he’s in the business of selling newspapers so it’s up to him, he’s got to sell his paper so I don’t blame him for putting the title to his article ‘the thug and the drunk’, it was just good that he did a feature on us’. […]

Jamie believes that Peel and Du Noyer probably like them because ‘they’re probably as fed up as we are with all those faggy bands that Liverpool produces, all those wimpy synthesizer bands. I think Liverpool hads got the crappiest image in music going, it’s just last. Half the people who are in bands aren’t even from here and they have got nothing to do with this place, if it’s about anything. […] Music now is last, most of the groups from 76/77 have died except for the Clash who I’m dead jealous of, but now, because music is in such a bad state you’ve got a better chance of doing something that’ll last a bit longer, instead of something that’ll die out in about two months or something. There are too many groups who appear on Top of the Pops, have a hit single, then disappear, they are labelled ‘has-beens’, which must be terrible’

There is no doubt that Ellery Bop are proud of what they are doing, and they are definitely a breath of fresh air in this city after the numerous weirdo type bands who have dominated music for a while. When talking to them you definitely get the impression that they are genuine and they do mean what they say. They are the type of band that Liverpool should produce and should promote, and maybe ’83 will give people the chance to get behind them.”


In October 1983 the Ellery Bop issued their fourth single, Fire in Reflection. The 12” version contains four numbers.

Fire in Reflection (1983)


a1. Fire in reflection
a2. Blind
b1. The Calling
b2. Jihad



ellery bop – fire in reflection