Bill Drummond - The Man (1986)

When Pete De Freitas ‘lost it’ in New Orleans, spending his time not-eating, not-sleeping, speeding with cars and motorcycles high on LSD and alcohol, Bill Drummond – in charge of the Bunnymen as the band’s manager – concerned about De Freitas’ madness, flew over to The Big Easy to check on the drummer. Instead of annoyance or concern, Drummond felt inspiration.
“He was literally king of the world out there, calling himself ‘Mad Louis’, living this extraordinary dissolute lifestyle straight out of a Jack Kerouac novel in which anything was possible. […] The experience changed my life. I thought to myself ‘Is this what rock’n’roll is really all about?’ I started seeing things in a different light and when I came back I chucked my job in the mainstream music business and decided to record my own album, which was something I’d been vaguely thinking about for some time. There was even a track on it called Ballad for a Sex God, which was my ‘thank you’ to Pete. I wanted him to produce it, but he felt that he couldn’t” (1989).

In July 1986, on his 33 and a third birthday, Drummond repented his corporate involvement and resigned his job, stating: "I will be 33.5 (sic) years old in September, a time for a revolution in my life. There is a mountain to climb the hard way, and I want to see the world from the top..."
Later in the year, Drummond issued a solo album, The Man, a country/folk music recording, backed by members of The Triffids and of Voice of the Beehive.

The Man (1986)
a1. True To The Trail
a2. Ballad For A Sex God
a3. Julian Cope Is Dead
a4. I Want That Girl
a5. Going Back
b1. Queen Of The South
b2. I Believe In Rock And Roll
b3. Married Man
b4. I'm The King Of Joy
b5. Son Of A Preacher Man
b6. Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation

(All songs written by Bill Drummond except Going Back (Goffin / King ) and Such A Parcel Of Rogues In A Nation (words by Robert Burns, music traditional)).

The album was perhaps most notable for the sardonic Julian Cope Is Dead, where he fantasizes about shooting the Teardrop Explodes frontman in the head to ensure the band's early demise and subsequent legendary status. The song has commonly been seen as a reply to Cope’s song Bill Drummond Said.
The album represents the symbolic closure of an era: the man who invented the Liverpool post-punk music scene – forming Big in Japan, managing the Bunnymen, the Teardrops and many other acts through Zoo Records – now fixes its natural end by refusing the ‘big drums, major guitar chords’ aesthetics of the time (adopted by The Room, Wild Swans mk II, Cook Da Books, etc.) and going back to traditional standards (country and folk).

The man

(Info from, Chris Adams, Turquoise Days, and at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_(album) )

The Balcony Dogs (Sex Gods) - Trip (1988)

By 1985 the Liverpool scene was quite stale. Music creators and consumers alike felt the need of "something fresh to liven up the Liverpool music scene" (Blast Off, Feb. 1988). The Sex Gods, in the mind of their founder members, were probably meant to fill this creative gap.
The original Sex Gods started off in late 1985 / early 1986 as a vague idea of fun born out of the disillusionment Pete De Freitas resented from the whole Bunnymen’s experience. The nucleus was formed by De Freitas himself, Tim Whittaker (ex Deaf School, Pink Military, Lori & the Chameleons, Gale Force), and Jake Brockman, in the Bunnymen’s rehearsal room. When the tension within the band exploded, De Freitas flew to New Orleand (pictures on the left), taking along the Bunnymen road crew of Tim Whittaker, Andy Eastwood (ex Crash Course, The Eye Of…), Steve ‘Johnno’ Johnson (ex Wah! Heat, a.k.a. Johnny Cult, ex Ellery Bop), plus Tim O’Shea (of Send No Flowers). The whole idea of the trip to New Orleans, in De Freitas’ words (1986) was the need “to get away on holiday and come back with more than just memories having spent a lot of money and very big hangovers [but rather] with something positive”. The idea was to work “totally off chance” and was partly inspired by the film The Dice Man, a culty lunatic semi-religion called Bokanism, and the weird notion of “the duck” – which stood for anything which is ridiculous, insane and irrational.
The band was occasionally joined by the Bunnymen’s on the road guitarist Mike Mooney (later Spiritualized) and sax player Mars Williams (Psychedelic Furs). This flexible line-up hung out, occasionally worked on songs, and allegedly documented the whole experience on super 8 film and in a book called The Godlogs.
In fact, the trip turned out to be less inspiring than planned, and all about not eating, not sleeping, ingesting vast quantities of LSD and alcohol, and crashing cars and motorcycles.
Mars Williams remembers that: “[De Freitas] was singing, and also decided that he wa going to play guitar. We rehearsed a bit in the house, wrote and worked on songs, and then we went into the studio and recorded some of it. The thing that was really bad about the band was that Pete should’ve been playing drums, because he was a great drummer, and the guy that was playing drums [Whittaker] wasn’t. And Pete was not a good guitarist, so who knows what he was trying to do. It was more like Pete’s friends hanging out” (1998).
As De Freitas’ finance dwindle, members of the Sex Gods begun drifting home one-by-one, each expressing concerns about De Freitas’ mental health.
Back in Liverpool, Whittaker left the band and De Freitas moved to the drumming stool, occasionally bringing in his brother Frank (Woodentops) on bass. During the summer the band recorded some songs inRockfield, but this line-up wouldn’t last for long: by the end of 1986 the Sex Gods lost both founder members, as De Freitas rejoined the Bunnymen for good.
New members Eastwood (on vocals) and Johnson (on guitar) were joined by Mooney, first on bass, than on guitar, by Gary Dwyer (ex Teardrop Explodes, at the time occasionally playing with Black) on drus, and by Carl Washington (ex Wah!) on bass. Because of all these names and connections the band gained a cult status even before having released anything.
Only much later the band, signed to Island recorded, and after a couple of singles, the band collected all their material onto an Lp. The record company refused to release an album under the name of Sex Gods and the band opted for Balcony Dogs (taken from one of their songs), while the album was titled Trip (possibly referred to the experience/s in New Orleans that got things going)

Balcony Dogs - The Trip (1988)
1. Fluency 3
2. Wheel of Fortune
3. Good Little, Bad Little
4. Shot to Earth
5. Drug Planet #7
6. Balcony Dog
7. Charlene's Dream
8. Rings of Saturn
9. Underworld

After the split of the Balcony Dogs, many of the members joined the Divine Thunderbolt, formed by Tim Whittaker, featuring Jake Brokman, Andy Eastwood (vocals), Kate Milner (vocals), and at some point Pete and Frank De Freitas and Mike Mooney

Balcony dogs

(All quotations from Chris Adams’ Turquoise Days)

The Teardrop Explodes - Demos 1981-1982

Here’s something for the fans

Teardrop Explodes - Demos 1981-1982

1 Flipped Out On LSD (Instrumental)
2 Serious Danger (Instrumental)
3 Sex (Pussyface) (Instrumental)
4 Count to Ten
5 Not My Only Friend
6 Log Cabin
7 The Challenger
8 Suffocate (Baroque Version)
9 Tiny Children
10 The Butcher's Tale (Instrumental)
11 The Culture Bunker
12 The Great Dominions

demos

Fragments - Some Recordings (1979-1980)

Roddie Gilliard was the guitar player with the pseudo-punk or pub rock band the Mutants (see post below) in 1977-78. After their split, together with Mutant singer Keith Wilson, he formed the more psychedelic act Geiasha Girl. The band released one song (Doctor) first on the EP compilation Blank Tapes Vol. 1 (1979), then re-released in November 1980 on the compilation A Trip to the Dentist (see post below). Apparently the group rehearsed only twice, then gigged throughout the summer of 1979 before splitting up due to musical differences.
At this point Gilliard went solo. Or, more properly, he formed Fragments, where he played guiar, keyboards, percussions and sang, composing songs markedly different from the Mutants’, less guitar-oriented and more experimental.
The first single was released in November 1979, and was a cover of the Ike and Tina Turner’s classic Nutbush City Limits (b/w Fragments).
In 1980 the second single saw the light of the day.


Some Other Guy (1980)
- Some Other Guy
- Intro Mental



Since a one man band, the came natural and untraumatic. Gillard joined Birkenhead punk band Attempted Moustache (also featured on A Trip to the Dentist) for some gigs, then briefly (1979-80) joined Afraid of Mice (see post below) before starting a new solo project (plus session musicians) under the Name of Windows (also on A Trip to the Dentis). After 1985 he joined Munchies and Zappa-oriented act the Muffin Men.

Fragments

Small Hits and Near Misses (compilation, 1984)

Our good friend Endorphin has provided for us the rare compilation Small Hits and Near Misses. Mij has graciously granted space on this site, his ever-astounding blog of Liverpool music. This leave only me to review the proceedings. Tally-ho!

Small Hits and Near Misses is the first and only album on Liverpool standard-bearer Inevitable Music. Released in 1984, it was designed to showcase this label's enterprises to date. As they were to shortly fold, this record acts as an effective summary of their entire output. We can only thank Pete Fulwell of Eric's Club and Jerry Lewis -the well known French-loved comedian - the boss of Amazon Studios for being in the right place at the right time with a good attitude. They birthed Inevitable at Christmas-time 1979 to further support Merseyside independent music.

Many of the tracks are exclusive to this disk, and even those found elsewhere are rare. Unlike, say, the Street To Street compilation, there are no dogs here, though neither (one must grant) are there as many historically significant moments. However, any fan of the period would do well to seek out this vinyl. Given its out-of-print status Endorphin has done us a major favour by way of some audio magic.

The album starts with Wah! in one of their many guises, living up to their staggering guitar-shagging reputation. This overblown take of "Seven Minutes To Midnight" is the so-called "Joy Division version", eventually re-released as a bonus track on the CD of their debut album Nah=Poo The Art of Bluff. It's a great song even in the pantheon of Liverpool rock. This version does not have the energy of other takes, but it does demonstrate the lasting influence of Joy Division on Liverpool. (Liverpudlian bands played with JD at festivals, shared their avoidance of London, etc. etc.)

You may be forgiven for hating Dead or Alive, but unless you realise their main reason for existing was to give Pete Burns a reason for being himself, there's little point in continuing. Regardless of any criticism of their disco output, the first few records they uttered as an independent entity are definitely worth the vinyl they were printed on. Both sides of their May 1980 single are included on this comp, likely because it was rare and fetching big money even in 1984. "I'm Falling" and "Flowers" showcase a darker Goth version of the band, again no small thanks to Mancunian influences. The excellent Black Leather pages (http://www.deadoralive.net/blackleather/ ) are your source for more info on this period.

The next song, "Burning Arrows" by Venus Adore is said to instead be "Back Into Sound" by Faction (http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2008/04/faction-faction-single-1981.html ) from the makings of their unreleased album Crosstalk & Radio Silence. This is a puzzle even by Liverpool standards, since Venus Adore did in fact exist as their own entity, and have been reported (http://www.link2wales.co.uk/lpool/V.htm ) to have a similar line-up to Faction. The track here sounds a lot like a song that could indeed be called "Burning Arrows". So the mystery continues.

Starting with a guitar figure that's totally early Teardrop Explodes (http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2007/11/teardrop-explodes-early-recordings-1978.html ), the singer sounds like he's trying to get his larynx through a sieve. The song is all over the place in the best possible way... at least for the first two minutes. Then it turns into a pop masterpiece, or, hold on, no it doesn't because that manic vocalist is back again. I like! In 1983 Venus Adore released a three-track demo which this correspondent would pay big thanks to receive in a small brown envelope under the front door next Thursday.

In my estimation Faction released the best demo ever in the history of recorded music. (OK, well, there is that Velvets recording. And Television.) Released as the Extended Extended Player (http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2008/03/faction-1980-81-recordings.html ), it's a disjointed affair I cannot stop listening to decades later. But maybe that's an aside, since Faction are not on this compilation. (Or are they?)

Small Hits continues with The Builders "Daytime Assassins", a tune that meanders along in a nice enough fashion common to the day, with impassioned vocals from Ronnie O'Keefe in a style we might recognise but might not be able to put a name to. In other words they sound much like other Liverpool artists without sounding too much like themselves. I know nothing about the group but would not be surprised to learn several of the musicians are in other bands of the period.

Freeze Frame were more productive. In fact Inevitable seemed devoted to their cause in their dying years -- coincidence? (Heh heh heh.) "Culture Won't Wait" has rhythm section and synth patches like a couple of pages out of the China Crisis book, though the Crisis drummer was actually in The Builders -- go figure. This song was not, methinks, on either of their two singles, or was it four singles? The Inevitable catalogue gets mighty vague towards the end of their output. Its seems likely to me releases were planned, and actually got catalogue numbers, but never saw release. Can some rabid Freeze Frame fan out there set me straight?

Though Brian Atherton has obviously got quite a few Bowie albums in his collection, he wouldn't be the only one crooning in post-Thin White Duke mode in 1983. Everyone was doing it. "Precious Is The Pearl" by the horribly named Box of Toys is the best thing I've heard from them, which isn't saying a lot since they only put out two singles. Find those here (http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2008/01/box-of-toys-3d-light-1982-1986.html ), together with material from later bands along the same chronology. There's also a Peel Session (http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2008/04/box-of-toys-1983-peel-session.html ).

What can one say about Margox? Very little since "Jimmy's Grin" is their only known song, the provenance of which is lost in the mists of time. Unless Margi Clarke wants to step forward and own up to this most peculiar accent?

Everything you ever need to know about Dalek I Love You you can find over at my Annotated Discography (http://robinparmar.com/dalek-i-love-you.html ) a site so good it was happily plagiarised for the liner notes to the recent re-issue of the second Dalek I Love You album (well, at least they thanked me). There you can find out that this is the only surviving demo from their debut album, the one which bears the shortened moniker "Dalek i". "Freedom Fighters" is a strangely unsettling combination of punk rebellion and pop insouciance, marking a path not taken by the band/duo/combo/collective at any later point. If you don't yet have a copy of Compass Kum'pes you're missing out on the best album ever created. So what are you waiting for? Oh yeah, it's not available.

Small Hits and Near Misses ends with a track you 'can' actually find elsewhere, the China Crisis debut single "African and White". This went to #45 in the UK charts (when re-issued in 1982) and launched the duo as a mild pop answer to Steely Dan -- like we needed that! The most obnoxious band I've ever chatted with, these dudes did nothing but slag off other Liverpudlians (saving special hate for OMD) when I interviewed them early in their career. Since their ability is not a fraction of that of their betters (say, the aforementioned Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark) I perforce must steer you clear of their musical output. Except, that is, for their first two singles. Since "African and White" was on their debut album it cannot be considered nearly as rare as the rest of this album.

So there we have it, INEVLP 1 in its entirety: five rarities, a few curiosities, a Scouse accent and a handbag. It's missing Nightmares In Wax and Modern Eon, both of which would have helped form a more complete picture of the Inevitable label in the early eighties. Nonetheless, it remains eminently listenable. So go listen.

Small Hits and Near Misses

Side One
1. Wah! "Seven Minutes To Midnight"
2. Dead or Alive "I'm Falling"
3. Venus Adore "Burning Arrows"
4. The Builders "Daytime Assassins"
5. Freeze Frame "Culture Won't Wait"

Side Two
6. Box of Toys "Precious Is The Pearl"
7. Margox "Jimmy's Grin"
8. Dalek I Love You "Freedom Fighters"
9. Dead Or Alive "Flowers"
10. China Crisis "African and White"

-- Robin Parmar

(Of course, thanks to Endorphin for the file, and thanks to Robin for the great present of the article. Mij)


Small Hits and Near Misses‏

Lori & The Chameleons – 1979-80 Recordings

A project lasted a couple of years (1979-80) by Dave Balfe (on keyboards, ex Big in Japan, Dalek I Love You, future Teardrop Explodes) and Bill Drummond (on guitar and vocals, ex Big in Japan, future KLF), both Zoo Records executives, featuring art student Lori Lartey (on vocals, later in Dangerous Years with husband Martin Healy of Dead or Alive). The trio benefited from the collaboration of Tim Whittaker (on drums, ex Deaf School, Sex Gods, and Gale Force), Gary Dwyer (also on drums, of The Teardrop Explodes) and occasionally Ray Martinez (on trumpet). The band released two singles:

Touch (August 1979)
- Touch (Drummond / Balfe)
- Love on the Ganges (Balfe / Drummond / Ward)


The Lonely Spy (April 1980)
- The Lonely Spy (Drummond / Balfe)
- Peru (Drummond / Balfe)

The singles (both produced by Balfe and Drummond, under the name of The Chameleons) were subsequently reissued on different labels, and on different compilation (ultimately on To the Shore of Lake Placid and on Zoo Uncaged)

Lori & the Chameleons 1979-80

(also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5spqUhn6Z3k )

Chain of Command – Some Aspects (1983)

Wirral band formed in 1979 by college mates Neil Whitehead and Dave Taylor
The two friend started working on their own material, the former playing bass and the latter on keyboards. The dynamics in the group changed when one of Taylor’s frinds, Matt Adams (later with A Sleep Secret) joined on bass allowing Whitehead to move back to keyoboards.
“their first public performance was at birkenhead park rugby club. the gig was a hit and saw the introduction of the backing tapes, slide presentations, and pyrotechnics' that were to become chain of command trademarks.” They also played at Brady's (the music club in liverpool which had previously been Eric's), at Birkenhead YMCA (supporting This Final Frame) and at Pickwick’s (supporting China Crisis). The late line-up for live shows included a female singer and dancer, Debbie Currie.
The band privately released a single on cassette featuring the tracks Some Aspects and Honour Amongst Thieves in 1983. The a-side was then released on the compilation –subtle Hints the same year.
Chain of Command folded around November 1984, after which Whitehouse formed Discipline, first as a solo project (until 1986), then with David Morgan and the collaboration of various musicians.
(P.S. Under the name Discipline, the track Borderline was released in 1985 on the compilation Jobs for the Boys, still featuring Dave Taylor, and This Final Frame members Paul Skillen on guitar and Jim Short on trumpet. Yet, the same song has been recently re-released in the posthumous Chain of Command EP titled Some Aspects, in 2007.)

Chain of Command

(see also http://www.chainofcommand.info/index.html
http://www.myspace.com/chainofcommandsynthy )

Godot - Extended Player (1981)

"Dave Hughes is probably best-known in OMD circles as being a keyboard player for the band during the early part of 1980. But prior to this, Hughes had been a founder-member of Liverpool's pioneering synth outfit Dalek I Love You alongside Alan Gill [David Balfe and Chris Teepee, aka Chris Shaw].
Both Alan Gill and Dave Hughes had attempted to reactivate Dalek I Love You following the release of the band's 1980 debut album Compass Kum'pas. But both band members were by then pulling in different musical directions and the idea was shelved.” In fact in January 1980 Hughes left Dalek I Love You and began rehearsals with OMD for their first headline tour of the UK. Hughes remembers: "I hadn't really left Dalek when I joined the Orchs, but I'd known both Paul and Andy since The Id -- I went to watch them a few times, because we were checking out their equipment!".

Hughes (rigth, in th picture) then remained with OMD until November of that year, notably creating the backing tracks for Souvenir from layered tapes of a choir tuning up (this single went to number 3 in the UK charts). In November 1980, Dave Hughes teamed up with ex-Radio Blank and Dalek I band member Keith Hartley (left in the picture) to form Godot which gave Hughes a chance to experiment with new ideas.
In the meantime “Alan Gill had decided to relaunch Dalek I Love You and pulled in Keith Hartley to help him. Left without a band, Dave Hughes recruited some new musicians which included Ronnie Stone, Steve Byrne and Martin Cooper. With the addition of a drummer, this new line-up of Godot toured with Dalek I in the winter of 1981. But when Ronnie Stone decided to join China Crisis, the band split up.” Martin Cooper and Hughes in 1982 worked with Freeze Frame, the Cooper started working with OMD. In 1984 Keith Hartley teamed up with ex-Dalek Kenny Peers in Bamboo (later Sex Tribe).
The first release by the band was Extended Player (1981), recorded at Amazon Studios and self-financed, featured 4 songs written during Keith Hartey's time in the band and features Hartley's vocals on the tracks.

Extended Player (1981)
- Wait For...
- Teeth
- Love?
- Theme For Bureaucrats

(Martin Luther was an historical figure that Dave Hughes admired and the sleeve artwork features Lutherian print designs. )

Godot 1981

(Major thanks to our friend Endorphin)
(see also: http://www.omd.uk.com/discography/godot/html/ep.html
http://robinparmar.com/dalek-i-love-you.html#part5 )