Wirral three-piece formed in late 1982 after the split of Dead on Arrival. DoA - formed in the Spring 1980 by Paul Denheyer (guitars), Steve Lynn (vocals), Steve Major (drums), Ian Jackson (bass), soon replaced by Mark Webb (later Crasstalk A/V, Hi-Tech), and Carol Bayne (vocals) – were a hard-gigging band
(regular at Brady’s) mostly appreciated by John Peel (also recording a session for Radio 1 in April 1981, performing Murder School, Rest In Peace, Helpless, Party Games). In 1981 the group split. Denheyer, Lynn, Bayne reunited with Ian Jackson in the first line-up of Politburo, including also John Lever (drums, with the Manchester-based Chameleons) and Andy Warman. By the early 1983 the six-piece was reduced to a quartet, when Bayne, Lynn and Lever quit and Carl Henry (of This Final Frame) joined. Around this time the group released two demotapes: the first in March 1984 (The Return of the Kodak Ghosts, a ten-tracks demo with six studio tracks and four live tracks recorded live at the Venue), the second in August of the same year (Seven Songs - featuring also Dave Dickie (aka Dave Dix, with Black) and Andy Clegg on keyboards, synths and mellotron – which included the most relevant songs of the band’s past and future career, namely the The Return of the Kodak Ghost – heavily influenced by the Comsat Angels - Innocence, Room 205, Euphoria, together with less known numbers like Extraordinary, Now You See Me, Building Cages). In the meantime the line-up got established as a three-piece when Warman left and Henry joined for good.
The breakthrough for Politburo came in October 1984 with the band first vinyl release on the BBC flexi disc Two Minute Heroes - the result of a competition held by Radio Merseyside’s Roger Hill aimed at getting bands to record original songs lasting les then two minutes.
Two Minute Heroes
Politburo - Room 205
also featured:
Klanglos - Werkzeugmachin
Rocky & The D/As - Have A Good Time Tonight
A few months later the band was asked by Ronnie Flood to submit a track (Innocence) for the compilation album Jobs for the Boys (see relevant post). Innocence was the song which was recorded (re-recorded form the tape version) and produced by Dave Dickie.
As to the recording of the song and the compilation itself Denheyer remembers: ‘We were the last band to play and I remember waiting around most of the day watching the other bands (some we were aware of already) and only really enjoyed Broken Promise and The Faction. Probably because they had a similar attitude to ourselves - we prided ourselves on being as unpretentious as possible and disliked any form of ‘rockstar’ behaviour. Other than that I always had a soft spot for Cook Da Book’s Piggy In The Middle 8 track. I don’t think Ronnie missed any good unsigned bands at the time, Black, It’s Immaterial, Echo & The Bunnymen, Icicle Works etc.. were already signed and making their own records by then’.
In late 1985 the band released their first single:
Euphoria (1985)
Euphoria
April Shower
Half a Hairpin
About the single Denheyer recalls: ‘I remember enjoying the sessions for the single. Our producer and good friend Dave Dix (from Black) took us into Pete Fullwell’s Benson Street Studios to lay down the tracks. For a small studio, it was a really good vibe with other local musicians dropping in and hanging out - It’s Immaterial, Black and Wah! were all signed to Pete’s label Inevitable.Dave added some keyboard parts, then we did the vocals and final mixes in New Brighton’s Station House studio. The record was released on Pete Leah’s Skysaw Records and was well received generally - I think we decided between us all that they were our best 3 songs we had at the time.’
In April 1986 a demotape was issued (Tell Tale Heart, Heads, Citizen’s Advice, Dumb Blond) and the band was booked into Cargo Studios in Rochdale to re-record some of the tracks but split up just before the session. As to the end of the band Denheyer remembers: ‘All things come to an end and there were many personal reasons for the end of Politburo in 1986. Ian Jackson had started his own musical project with local poet Jegsy Dodd and it’s success, along with the band’s frustration at not gaining the recognition we thought we deserved, probably didn’t help matters. Sadly, for me, the songs written by both myself and Ian at the end were never recorded and I still feel they were the best songs we ever wrote. They did however give me a focus for the direction of my next project. Ian went off to do his own thing and Carl and I started playing with lots of different musicians in search of the right formula that would eventually gel to become Fishmonkeyman.’
Many of the racks mentioned above can be found here:
http://www.myspace.com/politburo82
(see also:
http://www.cloudberryrecords.com/blog/?p=807 )
the picture) by Vincent Clarke (vocals), Peter Carruthers (bass), Jamie Lambert (guitars), Vincent Kent (drums), and Rick Copeland (keyboards). They first morphed into Two of a Kind, the Two in a Crowd (1984), when only Carruthers and Kent were left of the original line-up. Vickie Peters (later World Apart) would sometimes play sax. They contributed a song (Don’t be Scared) for the cassette compilation Two Points to Tonka, and the number Closing In for the compilation Sons of Jobs for the boys (1985).
