sabato 22 settembre 2007

Street to Street (1981) – A Liverpool Album. Vol. 2

Street to Street (1981) – A Liverpool Album. Vol. 2
01 Egypt For Now - Days On Edge
02 Cooling Towers - The Thesis
03 Systems - Total Recall
04 Chinese Religion - Eden
05 Games - Unrest in the Real World
06 Games - The Song
07 Systems - Glare of Lights
08 Cooling Towers - Make This Day End Soon
09 Egypt For Now - Soldiers
10 Chinese Religon - Chambers

The second volume of the compilation offers interesting insights of the musical experimentation of an already ‘second’ generation of Liverpool bands. Possibly less inventive and original than the bands featured on Volume 1 (but that’s purely personal), surely fewer (only five bands here) and more obscure, here are some pieces of information about them:

Egypt For Now: The band was formed in 1980 by former Dance Part members Yorkie (aka David Tracey Palmer, ex Teardrop Explodes’ roadie and friend, later Balcony, Space), and Mike Head (later Pale Fountains, Shack). Also member of the band was Paul Codman on drums. The music is deeply influenced by US psychedelia, and infatuation that Yorkie shared with friends Julian Cope (Teardrop Explodes) and Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen). The only band releases are the two songs on this compilation. Yorkie features in the Teardrop Explodes’ video Reward together with other friends of Cope’s (left in the colour picture, with Paul Simpson and Ged Quinn of the Wild Swans). Among other curiosities, another temporary member of the pre-Egypt act, the Dance Party, was Jeremy Kelly, after his experiences in a post-punk industrial outfit called Psychamesh (aka Psycamesh), which folded in 1979. Kelly then joined the Systems (also featured on this album, before forming the Wild Swans).

Systems – The band formed in 1980 after the split of Activity Minimal (see Street to Street, Vol. 1) and comprised John 'Strange' Hawkins (voc, bass) (ex Activity Minimal later This Island Earth), Kevin Chapman (gtr), Tony Elson (drms) (later Visual Aids, Precautions, Young Lions, Islands of Dance). This line-up soon changed when Chapman was replaced by Andy Warren (gtr) (ex Change of Image, later Islands of Dance) and Mike Reed joined on keyboards. In August 1980, the group released the single ‘Scenery’ w/b ‘Privates Lives’ (credited to Hawkins, Elson, Chapman AND Tim Lever - former Hawkins’ bandmate in Activity Minimal and possibly a temporary member of Systems). By the year 1981, the line-up changed again, and the remaining original members Hawkins and Elson were joined by Mike Nelson on sax, Kevin Brown on keyboards, and Jeremy Kelly (ex Psycamesh, later of Wild Swans, Lotus Eaters) on guitar. In October 1981 this line-up released the single Total Recall (also featured in this compilation) b/w Still Outside and – with the addition of Bazz Hughes on bass – recorded a session with John Peel. Even though this was probably the first vinyl-oriented musical experience for Jem Kelly, his role in the band was not that active then: “I was playing the guitar, but still developing my own style. I only added to one record Systems did on which I turned a filter on an early synth.”
(http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Article.aspx?id=2781 )

Very little information can be provided about the other acts:

Cooling Towers: The band features John Raftrey (guitar), Ged Gorman (on Ian Curtis + Jim Morrison sound-alike vocals, and clarinet), Rili Demo (drums), apparently – besides a few John Peel shows – only released the two tracks on this compilation.

Games: Besides the song on this compilation, the band also released the singles First Law of Games (1980), and Dance This Way b/w Love Canal in 1981.
Chinese Religion: Besides the songs featured here the band also released the single My Motive b/w Music Box in 1981.

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