Systems - Scenery (1980)

The band formed in 1980 by John 'Strange' Hawkins (vocals, bass, ex Activity Minimal later This Island Earth), Tony Elson (drums, later Visual Aids, Precautions, Young Lions, Islands of Dance), Andy Warren (guitar, ex Change of Image, later Islands of Dance) – replacing the original guitarist Kevin Chapman – and Mike Reed (on keyboards). In August 1980, the group released the single ‘Scenery’, credited to Hawkins, Elson, Chapman AND Tim Lever -- former Hawkins’ bandmate in Activity Minimal and possibly a temporary member of Systems).

Scenery (1980)
- Scenery
- Privates Lives

(For more info check the ‘Street to Street Vol. 2’ entry above)

Systems (1980)

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Early Recordings (1982-83)

In June 1978 Holly Johnson left Big in Japan to go solo and the group split up two months later. In the meantime Paul Rutherford was singing with the punk act The Spitfire Boys. The band gigged regularly around Liverpool but had a hard time getting a record contract. This pushed Rutherford to quit the group and in September of the same year he joined Peter Wylie and former Big in Japan members Ian Broudie and Budgie in The Opium Eaters. In 1979 the group changed the name to English Opium Eaters and the line-up, and the only original member was now joined by Holly Johnson on bass, Gary Dwyer on drums (future Teardrop Explodes) and Jamie Farrell on guitar (future Ellery Bop). The band split before the end of the year, when Rutherford decided to travel to California, and Johnson – after releasing a couple of solo singles as Holly in 1979 and 1980 (Yankee Rose b/w Treasure Island / Desperate Dan and Hobo Joe b/w Stars of the Bars) – put together another band, Hollycaust with Ambrose Reynolds (ex Big in Japan, Walkie Talkies with Wayne Hussey, Nightmares in Wax with Pete Burns, and future Pink Industry), Phil Hurst (ex Mystery Girls and Nightmares in Wax, both with Pete Burns) and Steve Lovell (ex Tontrix, later Blitz Brothers). The group did not hold together for long and split before changing their name to Frankie Goes to Hollywood (the name was supposedly spotted by Ambrose Reynolds in a headline about Frank Sinatra in a vintage issue of Variety).
During the (English) Opium Eaters and Hollycaust days, Peter Gill (aka Ped, or Pedro, on drums) and Brian Nash (aka Nasher, on guitar) were in a number of local bands, including The Dancing Girls and Sons Of Egypt (but also Tara Box, Motorhead and Saxon, then named Son of a Bitch, for Ped, and Smuzz for Nash), both of which occasionally guested Johnson on vocals. At this time, Mark O’Toole was playing bass in a number of unnamed groups, often with his brother Jed (on guitar). After his days with Sons of Egypt, Ped and the O’Toole brothers teamed up in the yet-nameless early incarnation of FGTH and started to write material that would eventually appear in the first FGTH album (according to Mark O’Toole the fist song the three-piece line-up wrote together was Love Has Got a Gun). In 1982, in Liverpool Holly Johnson was shopping in Virgin Records where he met Gill and the O’Toole brothers and this chance encounter was the start of a new line-up for Frankie Goes to Hollywood, completed for live appearances by Sonya Mazunda (aka Sonia Mazonda) on vocals and dances. This line-up performed the first FGTH gig at the Leeds nightclub The Warehouse, supporting Hambi & The Dance. A few weeks later at Pickwick’s, in Liverpool, Rutherford, at the time filling in on vocals with Hambi & the Dance, was so impressed with FGTH that joined them on stage on vocals and dances for Relax, definitively taking / stealing Mazunda’s place in the group. Ruhterford was also responsible for the fetish aesthetics associated with the band: Liverpool-born photographer John Stoddart recalls that “[for their live appearances] they had these secretary sisters called the Leatherpettes [Julie and Marie Muscatelli] who dressed in stockings. Paul and Holly whipped them with their arses hanging out”.
FGTH were beginning to attract attention and, in mid-1982 Arista Records paid for demos of Relax and Two Tribes to be recorded. Even though Arista didn’t like the result and dropped the group, they managed to shoot a cheap video of both songs, filmed at London’s Hope & Anchor. A few month later the group got money from Phonograms records for demos and the recorded Love Has Got A Gun and Junk Funk. Just before 1983, due to the lack of interest by record companies Ged O’Toole decided to leave the group. He was replaced by his cousin Brian Nash. In November ‘The Tube’, the key music show on fledgling UK TV network Channel 4, had seen the rough and ready video of FGTH, and were sufficiently impressed to commission a rather more impressive re-shoot, at Liverpool’s State ballroom. John Peel’s influential radio one show also offered the boys a recording session, which was broadcast in November 1982, which testifies to the state of the art achievement of the band, with songs like"Krisco Kisses, Two Tribes, Disneyland and The World Is My Oyster.

FGTH early 82-83

The Cherry Boys - Some recordings (1981-83)

Wirral mod band (1979-83) formed by young singer and guitarist John Byrne who, as a recognizable leader of the group, renamed himself John Cherry. The band also featured former City Lights (and future Exhibit B) member James Hughes (on keyboards), Chris Sharrock (on drums, formerly with Young World, later with Icicle Works, La’s, Lightning Seeds) and Keith Gunson (on bass). By 1981 Sharrock quit and was replaced by Howie Minns (a.k.a. Howie De Minzo, also a former member of City Light with Hughes, and later with Exibit B – also with Hughes -- and Bamboo Fringe).

About the early line-up of the band Ian McNabb (Young World, City Lights, Icicle Works) remembers:

‘ Chris Sharrock had left Young World and had joined a group that eschewed the cabaret circuit. Featuring a fine guitarist/writer by the name of John Byrne and singer/bassist Keith Gunson, they called themselves the Cherry Boys. They played original material only, and had recently recorded a demo tape at Open Eye studio in town, produced by a guy called Noddy Knowler. I went to see them play at Lincoln’s Inn, a hip new venue just off Mathew Street, and was transfixed. […] Also, good and fresh as they were, they were definitely retro. Aping the Jam on many levels, who were aping sixties bands themselves.’ (Ian McNabb. Mersey Beast. 57; 60)

Sharrock would later leave the Cherry Boys to join McNabb’s Icicle Works, and was replaced by former McNabb’s bandmate Howie Minns in the City Lights. This caused quite a few awkward moments. McNabb recalls:

‘We [Icicle Works] played at Brady’s again in the summer where local promoter Dave C saw fit to put us on a bill with the Cherry Boys, the band that Chris Sharrock had just left. In a development typical of the Liverpool scene, Howie Minns from City Lights was now the drummer with the Cherries. This of course caused much tension backstage. There was a lot a bad blood between us as I had nicked Chris Sharrock from them, and the Cherries sought to throw us off our guard and ruin our night by stealing my precious Korg synthesizer when we went for something to eat after soundcheck. They protested their innocence but I knew They’d done it. It was my word against theirs so I was fucked. We went next door where Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark had a studio and they took pity on us and lent us a synth to get us through the gig.’ (ibid. 74)

Among the first songs written (in 1979) and demoed (in 1981) was Kardomah Café, in honour of one of Liverpool historical parlours, close to the Cavern Club. But the chronology of the group vinyl releases did not follow that of the songs’ coming into being. The first single of the band, released in January 1981 was:

Man to Man (1981)
a. Man to Man
b. Too Much Confusion
.
In 1982 another single came out (Only Fools Die b/w Come The Day ) and between March and September the Cherry Boys recorded two Peel Sessions mostly playing new material. In June 1983, the band released their third single:


Kardomah Café (1983)
a. Kardomah Cafe
b. Airs & Graces

.
This proved to be a major success, especially in Spain (where it reached number 6 -- a position above Michael Jackson’s major hit Thriller). In August of the fourth single of the Cherry Boys came out, the (sadly Wham-flavoured):


Shoot the Big Shot (1983)
a. Shoot the Big Shot
b. Falling

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Roumors had it that the band demoed and released a tape with 6 tracks titled Give it Rise including Kardoma Cafe, Come The Day, Why Don't You Write, She's So Young, Phone Call, Don't Leave Me That Way, possibly in preparation for an album that was never-to-be. It was during their time with the band that Hughes and Minns began writing songs together which didn’t quite fit into what The Cherry Boys were about and so a decision was made to strike out on their own and form Exhibit B. The Cherry Boys disbanded in 1984.

Cherry Boys (some singles)

(Thanks to our friend Guitarboy for filling in the missing bits of information)

Ex Post Facto – Recordings 1981-83

Not that Liverpool specialized in Goth music, at all, but there were still some bands going down this road. One of them is Ex Post Facto. The group formed in early 1980 and featured Chris Clarke (a.k.a. Chrissie Clarke) on vocals (later Placenta Sisters, Goat People), Frank Sparks on keyboards, joined by Paul Reason on guitar (also US Companion, Keep It Dark), Bernie Carroll on bass (later of Young Lions), and Mark Coleridge on drums (later of Glitter Band, Smokie, The Stiffs, Project 23, Glass Torpedoes, I-lands). The band developed a synth-goth style that, if not totally original, was well representative of that period, combining keyboards with Siouxsie-like vocals. Between the year 1980 and 1983 the group released three singles.

Ex Post Facto (a.k.a Yin Yang, 1981)
a. Ex Post Facto
b. Mony (a.k.a. Money)
.

Oceanic Explorers (1983)
a. Oceanic Explorers
b1. Bast *
b2. Marilyn *
.
Dancing Child (1983)
a. Dancing Child
b1. Sombre Soloist
b2. Trilogy

A testimony of the hectic live activity of the band is their only LP ('She’ll Rape the World’ recorded live at Pickwick’s (Liverpool) on April 25th, 1984. Earlier the same year Ex Post Facto also released a Peel Session. During live appearances guest musicians were Judith Laity (cello, also Goat People, Royal Family & The Poor), Andy Warren (guitar and backing vocals, I-Lands), Karen Halewood (on keyboards, also Rebél Da Fé, Royal Family & The Poor), and Pete Chegwin (also on keyboards, Danse Macabre, Oceanic Explorers, Innervision).

Ex post facto – the singles

(* The quality of the b-sides of Oceanic Explorers is very poor. Apologies)

Games - Singles 1980-81

Possibly the shortest post ever on this blog, about an obsucre Wirral band that released 2 singles of stereotyped but pleasant synth-pop (in the vein of early Dalek I Love You and OMD):

First Law of Games (1980)
- First Law of Games
- Childsplay

Dance This Way (1981)
- Dance This Way
- Love Canal

They were also featured on ‘Street To Street Vol 2’ compilation (1981, see relevant post above) with the songs Unrest in the Real World and The Song.
More info about the band are welcome.

Singles

Ellery Bop - 1982-85

During their second Peel Session (December 1982) Ellery Bop recorded some of the songs that would appear on their forthcoming EP (i.e. Guilt, Jihad), released in 1983:



Fire in Reflection (b/w Blind / Calling / Jihad )



Later the same year Ellery Bop – now a three-piece with Jamie Farrell on guitar and vocals, Steve Johnson on bass and Kevin Connelly on percussion -- recorded their final Peel Session in 1983. None of the songs recorded during the section were to appear on the group next single, out in 1985:



Torn Apart (b/w Dubbing The World)



Eventually Farrell - the ex ‘security’ guy at Eric’s - managed to record with Ian Broudie (ex Big in Japan, Care) and signed to a London record company. “But he made no headway in the capital and his passionate idealism could not carry Ellery Bop to the next stage. Sitting in the Grapes in Mathew Street [in Liverpool], his intensity and optimism ha sounded invincible. But over the next few years […] in London, he would seem like a fly trapped in a web. […] It was a loss to rock’n’roll that Ellery Bop did not become successful.” (Du Noyer 2004). The band left behind some tracks that could possibly have appeared on their never-to-be first album.

1982-85

A Trip to the Dentist (1980)

This compilation was released in 1980 by Skeleton Recs. Several interesting bands (that probably wouldn’t have left signs of their existence on the Liverpool -Wirral - Birkenhead punk and post-punk scene) are collected here. The track-list is as follows:

A Trip to the Dentist (1980)
A)
1. Doctor - Geisha Girls
2. I'm Not A Fighter - Afraid Of Mice
3. No Way Out - Attempted Moustache
4. Don't Hurry, Don't Worry - Walking Boys
5. Myself And My Heroes - Luminous Beings
6.One More Record - Relations
7.Just For You And Me - Stopouts
8.And The Dance Goes On - Wayne Hussey
B)
9. T.V. Can Kill - Luminous Beings
10. Trans-Parents - Afraid Of Mice
11. Leave You Alone - Walking Boys
12. Little Arthur - Zorkie Twins
13. I Don't Know Why - Upsets
14. Shadows Of Giants - Luminous Beings
15. When The Music's Over - Windows


Geisha Girls: the group formed in 1979 by ex Mutants Keith Wilson (previously know as Keith 'Kid' Steele) on guitar, Roddie Gilliard (previously know as Roddie Rodent) also on guitar (both later with After A Fashion, Exploding Hamsters, Spider Monkeys and Jegsy Dodd – Gilliard was also in Attempted Moustache and Windows) and Paul Codman (a.k.a. Paul Pleasant, later Egypt For Now) on drums, plus Steve Cockrill (ex 051 – with Dave Jackson, later of Room, and Paul Hornby, later of Pink Military Stand Alone, Nightmares in Wax, Shatted Dolls, Lies all Lies, Dogs d'Amour, The Quireboys, Gunslingers – and later Windows). The track in this compialation seems to be the only trace of the band’s musical activity.

Another combination of the same ingredients as above resulted in the Windows. Formed in 1980 by Roddie Gilliard (ex Mutants, also Geisha Girls) and Steve Cockrill (ex 051 also Geisha Gilrs) and meant as a one week studio project of industrial noise and guitar nonsense, turned into a gigging unit with the inclusion of Dave Horton (on bass). Despite the weirdness of their music the band went as far as releasing and LP ('Uppers On Downer', in January 81) and a single (Re-Arrange b/w Over Dub, in August 81).

Attempted Moustache: The band formed in 1980 in Birkenhead band and featured future Half Man Half Biscuit members Simon Blackwell on guitar and Paul Wright o drums. Original members were also Roy Wilding (on vocals, and occasionally on flute) and Michael Wilding (on bass). Roddie Gilliard (Mutants, Geisha Girls, Windows, see above) joined the band, replacing Wilding, during gigs. In 1980 the band released the single Superman b/w No Way Out. The track appearing in this compilation is a remix of the original version appearing as the b-side of the single release.

The Stopouts: A short-lived Wirral punk band (May 78 – June 79), featuring Steve Grace (ex Nasty Pop, later Return of The Toreador, on vocals and guitar), Sue James (later Upsets and Dead Or Alive, on bass and backing vocals) and John Jones (later Upsets, on drums). The first act to record for Skeleton Recs, they released the single Strange Thoughts b/w Just For You And Me in December 1978. The b-side appears on this compilation 'Just For You And Me'.

The Upsets: By mid-1979 Sue James and John Jones had left the Stopouts and teamed up with Adrian Mitchell (on guitar), and Marc Vormawah (guitar) (later Personal Column). The band only released the track featured in this compilation. Sue James and Adrian Mitchell went onto an early incarnation of Dead Or Alive. Sue James remembers: "We used to rehearse in the room next to Nightmares and we'd be howling with laughter at all the mistakes they were making. Before we joined we could never remember their name, it was always 'Oh, there's Wax-works again, the Night Horrors" ' The Upsets had broken up by the time Sue and Mitch joined Nightmares; according to Sue, she and Mitch had arrived at their rehearsal studio one day and found the electricity was off. "So we went into their room. Three of them rolled up, the ex-drummer (Phil Hurst), Marty and Pete, so we jammed with them. They didn't have a bass player or a guitarist". It wasn't long before they lost their drummer t oo. Phil Hurst quit to join Ambrose in Hollycaust, the band being put together by Holly Johnson (and which later became Frankie Goes To Hollywood). S o it was indeed fortuitous that Joe Musker, a cabaret drummer with one-time Merseybeat heroes The Fourmost, should one day wander into a Nightmares' rehearsal by mistake and liked what he heard so much that he immediately volunteered to stay. Nightmares In Wax became Dead Or Alive in May 1980, just ten minutes before they were due to record a radio session” (NME, http://www.deadoralive.net/newsite/press/articles/greene.html )

Zorkie Twins: Formed in 1979 and featuring Mike Kendrick (vocals and guitar),Colin Miller (vocals, and guitar), Paul Bedford (on bass) and John Roberts (on drums). They released the single Mr Simpson b/w From Now On in 1979, and had the track Sooner or Later on the compilation EP The Blank Tapes. (More info and tracks here: http://www.myspace.com/zorkietwins )

Wayne Hussey: Previously of Walkie Talkies, Knopov´s, and Hambi and the Dance. In 1980 after leaving ‘the Dance’(and before joining Dead or Alive) he recorded the track featured on this compilation, ironically (or subconsciously) titled ‘Ant the Dance Goes On’, obviously without Hambi. 'And the Dance' appears to also have been the name of the band formed by Hussey after he left Hambi's group, featuring Paul Curran (later Mogadons, Love Look Away) on bass, and Paul Barlow (later of Mogadons, Wah! and It's Immaterial) on drums. 'Ant the Dance Goes On’ seems to be one of Wayne Hussey’s favourite, since he gave the same title to another song to appear on the Mission’s first album.
(See also http://www.link2wales.co.uk/lpool/A.htm )

Walking Boys: Obscure act formed in 1979, the band represented the original nucleus of what would become Walter Mitty's Little White Lies (a relatively less obscure Liverpool band that released the single Brave New England b/w Good Boys From The South in 1981). The line-up included Gary McGuiness (on vocals, guitar, and keyboards), Colin Walker (on guitar), Paul Williams (on bass), and Colin Ventre (on drums). Walking Boys only released the two tracks appearing in this compilation.

Luminous Beings were formed out of the punk band Marital Aids. Vocals and songwriter Geoff Windham, Sax and Synth Phil Johnson, Fretless Bass Steve Greenmantle, Percussion Maurice Cheatham (thanks to Geoffrey for the info).

.

The Relations were a power-pop band from Birkenhead formed in 1980 by John Poole (vocals, guitar, former J-Beats, Kilk, Familiar Compound, Stone Circle, Cuddly Toys and Drugs, later Messing Scratch Band), Vick Headley (guitar), Roy Bowen (bass), Graham Pyke (a.k.a Dyke, keyboards) and Maxwell Hammer (drums).

The trip

Echo and The Bunnymen - 1979 (the 'Echo' days)

Year 1978. After the very short-lived The Crucial Three (with Pete Wylie and Julian Cope), and the equally short-lived A Shallow Madness (with Cope), while the latter group metamorphosed into the Teardrop Explodes, Ian McCulloch quit (or, more appropriately, was fired by) the band and teamed up with Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson. Both Sergeant and Pattinson were in other bands at the time. Sergeant was in Industrial Domestic with Paul Simpson – an guitar noise act, which left very few traces of their production, among which a version of the Stones’ Satisfaction sung by friend Julian Cope (see the Teardrop post above) – and was now alone after Simpson had left to join, yes, the Teardrop Explodes. The anti-Teardrop sentiment was the primary and natural bond between Sergeant and McCulloch. Pattinson, too, had already been in the Jeffs (a.k.a. Geoffs) and the Love Pastels. No trauma for him when it came to disband both groups, since they were purely the product of Pattinson’s fervid imagination. Pattinson’s inclusion to the line-up was due to the urge of having at least another member on stage for the band first gig, supporting the Teardrop at Eric’s. He came-up with the ‘right’ bass-line for one of the songs the duo were rehearsing for the gig, ‘Monkeys’, and got the job as a stable member of the yet nameless band. As to the name, they “had this mate who kept suggesting all these names […] like The Daz Men or Glisserol and the Fun Extractors. Echo and the Bunnymen was one of them […] and was just as stupid as the rest” (Liverpool Explodes 1982) but ‘weird’ enough to stick into people’s mind. “On the fateful night, the three [Bunnymen] walked onstage and switched on the drum machine which came to be known as ‘Echo’. […] Mac stood centre stage, flanked by the other two […] There weren’t many people there, maybe thirty, all the local hip people standing ina line. [They] played the riff of ‘Monkeys’ for fifteen minutes and everyone was transfixed” (ibidem). So much so that the song was properly recorded and would be released on the compilation ‘Street to Street vol. 1’ in September 1979 (see post above). “This version (misspelled ‘Monkies’ on the album’s sleeve) was markedly different from the one that eventually emerged on the Bunnymen’s debut LP. Minimal, tinny, and monotonous, it was virtually identical to the group’s debut performance – albeit about sixteen minutes shorter. And the lyrics would undergo some dramatic rewriting before the definitive versio was heard” (Turquoise Days, 2002).

For the record: Jamie Farrell (later Ellery Bop) was in an early incarnation of the Bunnymen. Here's the Farrell's memories of that experience: "I was a friend of Mac, Will and Les so they asked me to join...I recorded Monkeys with them in Open Eye studios sometime in 1979 then that was it... Probably was a member for 2 months. We used to rehearse in Yorkie's [Balcony, Space] house. I originaly was taught to play guitar by Pete Wylie on a guitar given to him by the Clash's Mick Jones... It was a fun time." (Personal thanks to the man himself: Jamie Farrell)

Apparently Cope recommended the band to Bill Drummond and Dave Balfe, who decided to release the Bunnymen first single on their Zoo label in March 1979.

Pictures on My Wall (1979)
- Pictures on My Wall
- Read it in Book

.

Rumours had it that the B-side was written by McCulloch and Cope during one of the few Crucial Three rehearsals, and would also be recorded (as ‘Books’) a couple of years later by The Teardrop Explodes as the B-side of their single "Reward" (McCulloch denies any contribution by Cope in the writing of the song). After a TV appearance on Tony Wilson’s show ‘What Goes On’ on Granada Tv, in August 1979 Echo and the Bunnymen played their first Peel Session. With Dave Balfe helping on keyboards:

1st Peel Session (August 15, 1979)
- Read in Books
- Ashes to Ashes (early version of Stars are Stars)
- I Bagsy Yours
- Villiers Terrace

The group gigged sporadically, mostly in Liverpool, Manchester, York, Leeds and Middlesborough. Here’s one of the group’s performances at Eric’s (September 15, 1979), and one of the last as a three-piece.

Live at Eric’s (September 15, 1979)
- Going Up
- Read it in Books
- Stars are Stars
- Pride
- I Bagsy Yours
- Villier Terrace
- Pictures on My Wall
- Happy Death Man

Echo 1979