The Spitfire Boys

From the outskirts of Liverpool (St. Helens) the Spitfire Boys first got together under that name on 14th May 1977. They formed some 6 weeks earlier, after meeting The Heartbreakers and finding they needed a support band for an upcoming gig.
Originally called The Blackmailers their new name came courtesy of Wayne County. At a Punk night at "Eric's", the guitarist Dave spoke to 'Wayne County' of the 'Electric Chairs and he suggested the name 'The Spitfire Boys'. The original singer, Mike Rigby, was sacked after 2 or 3 gigs, and afetr that the band featured Paul Rutherford aka Maggot on vocals (later Opium Eaters and Frankie Goes to Hollywood), Dave Littler aka Jones on guitar (later Photons), Peter Griffiths aka Zero on bass (later of Nova Mob) & Budgie (Peter Clarke aka Blister) on drums (later Nova Mob, Big in Japan, Opium Eaters, Secrets, Planets, Slits, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Creatures). Their first proper gig was supporting Johnny & The Heartbreakers at "Parr Hall", Palmyra Square, Warrington, WA1 1BL.
The Spitfire Boys were the first Liverpool punk band to release a single. This was 'British Refugee' backed with the controversial 'Mein Kampf' on the 'R.K.O' label, 7th October 1977.
The band were stars in their home town but never really broke into the London scene after playing a few gigs down there (at The Vortex, supporting their friends The Slits). Early December 'Pete Wylie' joined the band for two or three rehearsals, but due to the lack of strong management the band folded. From being one of the first Punk bands to form in Liverpool, they were also one of the first to disband. This happened on Thursday 22nd December 1977.

British Refugee
Mein Kampf

(http://www.detour-records.co.uk/spitfireboys.htm)
(http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/spitfireboys.htm)

Information about Street to Street Vol. 2 bands

This is a page of the ultra-rare book by Klaus Schwartze (1987)

“The Scrapbook of the New Liverpool Rock Scene Part 1, From Deaf School to Frankie goes to Hollywood” (unfortunately not inmy possession).

Enlarge the picture and there you'll find useful information about the groups featured on the "Street to Street. Vol 2" compilation (see below)

Dalek I Love You - Part 2

After more than one year after their last vinyl release Dalek I Love Your reappeared with another single(18 September 1983).

Ambition

b/w (I Am) Hot Person / Would You Still Love Me (on the 12”)

The A-side was to be included (even if in a slightly different version) on the forthcoming self-titled album, released on 4 November 1983.

Dalek I Love You
1. Holiday in Disneyland [album version]

2. Horrorscope [album version]
3. Health and Happiness
4. The Mouse That Roared

5. Dad On Fire

6. Ambition [album version]

7. Lust

8. 12 Hours of Blues

9. Sons of Sahara

10. Africa Express

The Credits read like this: Chuka Russo: backing vocals (6, 8); Chris Hughes: drums (2, 10); Drummie Zeb: drums (8); Gary Barnacle: electric sax (7), sax (8); Randy Taylor: bass (1, 6).
What is most interesting is that for this album Alan Gill (left in the blue picture) decided to share the vocal duties with the other ‘stable’ members of the band: Gordon Hon (on tracks 1, 3 and 5, center in the blue picture), Keith Hartley (on tracks 2 and 6) and Kenny Peers (on tracks 4, 6, right in the blue picture). Gill only sang on three tracks (7, 8 and10)
By the time the lp was released Hartley quit (in the b/w with David Hughes, ex- member of Dalek I, taken from the back sleeve of the Godot single).

Later the same year the band released their final vinyl release, the single

Horrorscope b/w These Walls We Build Pic Sleeve (7” version) – Heap Big Pow Wow / Horrorscope (instrumental) / The Angel and the Clown (on the 12” version)

Talking about the last days with the band, Gill remembers: “It was a more pressured time than the first album, though. To a large extent, the fun had gone out of it. We were a bigger group at that point, there were more people in the band, and it was our attempt to achieve pop success, even if ultimately we never did well financially.”
“Afterwards, I didn't want to be involved in commercial music again. There was a lot of stress and unhappiness with the business side of things. Put it this way: there was more pressure to be successful than to make a good record. Problem was, we were artists whereas it had become about selling records. We were a bunch of recluses who didn't really want to deal with the world.”
In 1985 Gill contributed two tracks to the soundtrack of Letter to Brezhnev (1985, among which the main theme), and in the same year he established his own label, Bopadub, to release cassette compilations.One of these releases (BOP 04) was (or was supposed to be) a new DILY record, but pieces of information about this are scare and fuzzy. Yet, on the official site of the band (http://www.dalekiloveyou.com/ ) you can find a song taken from that album King of Clowns.

See also:
http://robinparmar.com/dalek-i-love-you.html
http://osamdesete.blogspot.com/
http://burningflame.wordpress.com/
http://medlibrary.org/medwiki/Dalek_I_Love_You

Dalek I - Part 1

Dalek I Love You originated from one of the earliest Liverpool act to appear during the punk era, the Radio Blank (November 1976 - October 1977), deeply influence by R&B and by the Liverpudlian band the Deaf School. Radio Blank included Alan Gill on guitar and vocals, Dave Balfe on bass and vocals, Keith Hartley on vocals and Stephen Brick on drums. When the act disbanded, Balfe and Gill continued experimenting as a duo (plus a drum machine, apparently they were the first local group to use drum machine and synthesizers), abandoning the R&B standards for something completely new and original, starting form the name: Dalek I Love You - a combination of The Daleks (suggested by Balfe) and Darling I Love You (by Gill). In December 1977 the lie-up expanded to include Dave Hughes on keyboards and Chris Teepee, operating drum machines and tapes. Then, when in the summer of 1978 Balfe left the band to join Big In Japan, Gill, first tried to enlarge the band with the inclusion of Andy McCluskey on bass (fro The ID, later OMD), Martin Cooper on saxophone (later Moderates), Ken Peers on drums and Gordon Hon, and finally, in early 1979, he decided for a two-member line-up, consisting of himself and Dave Hughes.The first single, Freedom Fighters b/w Two Chameleons (to appear in the first lp), was released in July 1979 under the abbreviated band name of Dalek I (a decision of the record company, Phonogram). With the same name, in October 1979, the second single was released, The World b/w We Are All Actors (both on the next lp, if in slightly different versions), and in May 1980, the third single:

Dalek I Love You (Destiny)
1. Dalek I Love You (Destiny) [single edit]
2. Happy / This Is My Uniform
(the b-side is actually made of two different songs, appearing separated in the folder here)

The same month (May 1980), Dalek I’s first album was released:

Compass Kumpas
1. The World
2. 8 Track
3. Destiny (Dalek I Love You)
4. A Suicide

5. The Kiss

6. Trapped

7. Two Chameleons

8. Freedom Fighters

9. You Really Got Me

10. Mad

11. Good Times

12. We're All Actors

13. Heat

14. Missing 15 Minutes

Among the session player for this album there was Chris Hughes (later with Adam and the Ants), who also produced the record and designed the cover. When Dave Hughes decided to quit, Alan Gill, now the only Dalek I Love You member, joined Julian Cope’s Teardrop Explodes (where he was was reunited with his old band-mate Dave Balfe) and recorded with the band their debut album Kilimanjaro.

In February 1981 Dalek I Love You released another single: it was a solo release, but the full credits include the support of Chuca Russo and Hugh Jones on vocals and of Chris Hughes on drums:

Heartbeat (28 February 1981)
1. Heartbeat

2. Astronauts (Have Landed On The Moon)

In 1982, Dalek I Love You expanded to a full quartet, reuniting former members of the band in its various incarnations, namely Keith Hartley (vocalist for Radio Blank), Kenny Peers and Gordon Hon. This line-up released a couple of singles:

Holiday in Disneyland (15 July 1982)
1. Holiday in Disneyland [single version]

2. Masks & Licenses
3. Heaven Was Bought For Me (in the 12” release)

(see: http://robinparmar.com/dalek-i-love-you.html )

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.

Street to Street (1979) – A Liverpool Album. Vol 1.

The opening lines in OMD’s original website (see http://www.omd.uk.com/html/biography.html ) succinctly but effectively depicts the ferment of the post-punk era in Liverpool like this: “Liverpool's music scene in the late 1970's was an exciting and dynamic place to be. Everyone was either in a band, in-between bands or were forming a band.” The most sadly missed John Peel (RiP) defined such fertile and ever-changing quality characterising all sorts of activities related to music in post-punk Liverpool as “a study […] in impermanence and experimentation”.
The dynamics and the ever-changing … of the scene are
Such mix of naivety and ingenuity, serendipity and dedication, dreams, blisters and sweat, is best captured on anthologies like the Zoo compilations (posted a while ago, see below) and on the ‘Street to Street’ compilations posted here today.
The first Lp (1979) collected pieces released between May 1978 and May 1979. Here’s the track-listing:

Street to Street (1979) – A Liverpool Album. Vol 1.

1. Big In Japan "Match Of The Day"
2. The Id "Julia's Song"
3. Jaqui & Jeanette "194 Radio City"
4. Modern Eon "Benched Down / 70s Sixties"
5. Activity Minimal "Television Game"
6. Dead Trout "The Arab"
7. Tontrix "Clear On Radar"
8. The Accelerators "Radio Blues"
9. Malchix "Crisis"
10. Fun "I Heard You Call My Name"
11. The Moderates "I Don't Want To Go Bald"
12. Echo & The Bunnymen "Monkeys"

Beside Big in Japan, here are featured other interesting bands, namely:

The Id: This act, active between 1977 and the summer 1978, was a seven-piece band - three singers, two guitarists, bassist, drummer, and keyboard player. The line-up consisted of Paul Humphreys and Andy McCluskey, and Malcolm Holmes on drums, all of whom will end up in Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark (OMD). The song featured in the compilation was written by Julia Kneale (McCluskey's girlfriend) – hence the title – who also was a member of the band (on vocals). The Id, which had quite a following on the scene, split in 1978 due to musical differences, after which McCluskey started singing for Dalek I Love You, before joining up again with Humphreys, in a band call VCL-XI. The duo, heavily influenced by the emerging electronic music (Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, Human League, etc.), soon changed the name into Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The rest is history.

Jaqui & Jeanette: The only song by the band ‘194 Radio City’ was composed during a jam session over an original idea by Ian Broudie, who plays guitar (as on Match of the Day, by Big in Japan), together with Budgie (ex Big in Japan and currently with the Slits) on drums, Dave Balfe on keyboards, Ambrose (of Walkie Talkies and later Pink Industry) on bass. Former Deaf School Steve Lindsey sings with Gary Dwyer, (drummer with the Teardrop Explodes) behind the female duo. – (Curiously enough, in the same period – September 1978 – Broudie, Budgie and Lindsey formed the Secrets. Jaqui & Jeanette can thus be regarded as an early version of is this the Secrets.

Modern Eon (formerly Luglo Slugs/ Tank Time/ One Two) are here represented in their three piece formation, with ex Luglo Slugs’s members Alex Plain (aka Alex Johnston, guitar, vocals), Danny Hampson (bass), and Dave Hardbattle (drums). The tracks were rehearsed in a shed in Hasrdbattle's parents home prior to being recorded in the Open Eye Gallery Studios, then located on Whitechapel, Liverpool. Alex Plain/Johnston designed the album sleeve. Hardbattle would later be replaced by Joey McKechnie in the consolidated line-up, plus a yet non-permanent fourth member (probably Ged Allen on guitar). This was the first band release on vinyl (and not very representative of Modern Eon as we know it).

Activity Minimal: In this reggae/punk band (1978-80) met Joey McKechnie and Tim Lever – the former almost at the end of his experience with Modern Eon, the latter briefly before joining the same band. Among the other members of the band there was John 'Strange' Hawkins (later in Systems, featured in Street to Street, Vol. II). Drummer Joey was also instrumental in the establishment of the Merseyside Musicians Co-Op.

Tontrix: This was a very short-lived act (already split by the time the Lp got released) which is worth mention if only for the future career of the members: Hambi Haralambous (later of, Victims of Romance and Hambi and the Dance, with Wayne Hussey), Chris Hughes (later Hambi and the Dance and Adam and the Ants) – Hughes replaced former drummer Ian Johnston - Steve Lovell (later Hollycaust, Hambi and the Dance, and guitarist of Julian Cope), Mike Score (later Flock of Seagulls), Bobby Carr (former Those Naughty Lumps, and also with The Moderates). This is possibly one of the few ‘unknown’ band on the compilation (that is beside Big inJapan, and Echo & the Bunnymen) to have other vinyl releases (the single Shell Shocked, 1979) beside the ones on the compilation itself.

Very little info (and musical future for the other bands): Fun: (formed by future members of Berlin and Victims of Romance - Roy White, Johnny Reynolds, Jim Mealy, Gerry Garland and Brian Rawlins - some of which then became White & Torch and the Roy White Band; allegedly, they got the name from Iggy Pop’s number Fun House: the song featured here sounds like Iggy Pop singing over a Roxy Music tune); Accelerators (comprising members that will end up in the Adams Family and in Lawnmower); Malchix (collected former members of Hugo Dines Band, many of whom went on to form the act Cracked Actor and Poland in the late eighties); The Moderates and the Dead Trout (a mystery to my best knowledge).

The compilation ends with the then three-piece act Echo and the Bunnymen: here is one of the few traces on vinyl featuring the band original drummer: Echo, a drum-machine. According to some Bunnymen's biographers, Julian Cope plays the keyboards on this song .

Finally, the legend goes that The Teardrop Explodes had also recorded a track for this album, but an engineer inadvertently taped over it! (http://www.omd.uk.com/discography/id/html/street.html )

Modern Eon - Part 2

Before the release of their much acclaimed Fiction Tales (June 1981, find the version plus bonus here), in February 1981 Modern Eon released the single:

Child’s Play
- Child’s Play (different mix from the album version)
- Visionary

In August 1981 the band released what would be their last single to date:

Mechanic:
- Mechanic (different from the album version)
- Splash!

In 1981 Modern Eon released a Peel Session, and a BBC FM Broadcast.
The tracklisting for that session is the following:

- Child’s Play
- Choreography
- High Noon
- Playwrite
- Real Hymn
- After the Play