English Opium Eaters

This is one of those mythological beasts, like creatures - flying dragons and fairies - that everybody knows about but no one has ever seen them. And as with all myths, there are different versions of the same story, especially given the status of the band, as post-Big in Japan and Spitfire Boys (the most relevant bands in town) and, basically, pre- …everything. One of these versions tells the story of a meeting of four underground semi-celebrities such as Pete Wylie (guitar, pre-Wah! Heat), Budgie (drums, former Spitfire Boys and Big in Japan, pre-Planets, Secrets, Slits, etc.), Ian Broudie (guitar, bass, post-Big in Japan, pre-Care), and Paul Rutherford (former Spitfire Boys, pre-FGTH). Another version tells a different story, whose main characters are Paul Rutherford (vocals), Holly Johnson (bass, post-Big in Japan, pre-Holly, Hollycaust, Sons of Egypt, FGTH), Gary Dwyer (drums, pre-Teardrop Explodes) and Jamie Farrell (guitar, pre-Ellery Bop).
Even though the band lasted not longer than 4 or 5 months (late 1978, early 1979), and since the line-up seems to have changed on a daily basis, both stories could be true.
Here is evidence of the former.
Here they are in a never-before-seen picture (coming directly from our friend Jamie) of the band onstage at Liverpool Eric’s in 1978.

(Thank you, Jamie)

Ex Post Facto - She'll Rape the World (1984)

Ex Post Facto was born when the electronic duo Foreign Bodies met the Glass Torpedoes. Chris Clarke (vocals, former Foreign Bodies, later Placenta Sisters and Goat People), Frank Sparks (vocals and keyboards, ex Foreign Bodies) teamed up with Mark Coleridge (drums, former Glass Torpedoes, later Glitter Band, Project23, Stiffs) and this act (plus some Kal and J.O.B. helping in the studio) released the single Ex Post Facto (Dec. 1981) which also became the band’s name (see relevant post below). The line-up extended in 1982 including a second Glass Torpedoes former member, Paul Reason (guitar, later US Companion, Keep It Dark), and Peter Chewin on second keyboards (later with Danse Macabre and Innervision), especially for live shows. The unstable status of the members of the band is clear by a look at the cover of EPF’s second single, Oceanic Explorer (Nov. 1982, see relevant post below), where only Clarke and Sparks are featured. In 1983 Chris Clarke reckons “With this new line-up we’re planning to make the music writing a more democratic affair, where everyone will contribute to the material. One song in particular was an idea that Frank and I had ‘Dancing Child’ and we didn’t have to tell the band what to play, they just came up with really brilliant bass lines and brilliant guitar lines and the whole thing has really worked well. It’s the first song we’ve written together as a band” (Breakout, March 1983). Dancing Child was to be the band third single (Sept 1983, see relevant post below), when the line up was modified with the inclusion of Bernie Carroll, another Glass Torpedoes member (bass, later Young Lions).
In October 1984 (after participating with the song Enchanted Ground on the compilation A Secret Liverpool, and after performing a on a Peel Session) Ex Post Facto released their only album, She’ll Rape the World, recorded live at Pickwick’s. On that occasion Judith Laity (cello, Goat People, Royal Family and the Poor) and Andy Warren (guitar and vocals, I-Lands) were added to the original line-up.

She’ll Rape the World (Oct. 1984)

- Prologue
- Dancing Child
- Actor’s Warning
- Innocence
- Daylight Nightmares
- It’s No Show
- Til Victory (Patti Smith)
- Trilogy
- Oceanic Explorers
- Ruth Ellis
- Her Eyes Are Blue A Blue Million Miles (Captain Beefheart)
- Bast.


Not long after the release of the album Coleridge joined Afraid of Mice, Reason joined Keep It Dark, and Carroll the Young Lions, and the band was reduced as a duo (as it was at the beginning, with the Foreign Bodies) untill Clarked joined the all-girl group the Placenta Sisters in 1986, and Ex Post Facto was history.


she’ll rape the world

Peter Coyle - Circle of Lies 12" (1986)

In early 1985, after their No Sense of Sin album, the Lotus Eaters released their last single, It Hurts. Shortly afterwards Jeremy Kelly left the band and started working again with Paul Simpson in the Wild Swans (mk II). Peter Coyle carried on as The Lotus Eaters, first with Gerard Quinn on keyboards and later (and for a short while) with the help of David Hughes who had taken Quinn 's place in 1986.
The new compositions by Coyle (supported by Quinn) were to see the light of day as Peter Coyle’s first solo effort, the 12”EP Selfish (Lambs To The Slaughter) in 1985 (see relevant post below).
Later that year Coyle started working on a solo album with ex Jass Babies’ David Whittaker and Steve Brown, and Steve Cummerson on guitar. With them, he recorded the numbers which were first to appear on the man's second 12” EP Circle of Lies.


Circle of Lies (12”, 1986)
a1. Fascist Scum
a2. Young Conservative
b1. Circle of Lies
b2. Wipe Out


Coyle - Circle of Lies 1986

(The quality is very poor, being from an old vinyl-on-cassette transfer. Apologies)

Peter Coyle - I’d Sacrifice Eight Orgasms With Shirley MacClaine Just To Be There (1986)

One year ago I decided to start this blog when I realized I had the first Peter Coyle’s solo album that no one else seemed to have or was willing to share. So there went the first post. One year from then here’s Peter Coyle’s second solo album, I’d Sacrifice Eight Orgasms With Shirley MacClaine Just To Be There. The quality is poor (cassette rip), but it’s a nice testimony of what the man was up to at the time (… 22 years ago…)

Here are Peter Coyle memories of that period:

“Getting all that black stuff off my soul gave me the chance to have some fun. So we did. We went straight back into the studio (Pink Studios) and recorded what was meant to be a dance album. I was in love with Funkadelic and wanted to get some funk into my soul. We ended up with the Id Sacrifice Eight Orgasms With Shirley MacClaine Just To Be There album. We wore wigs and sunglasses and flares and just let the music play. It was also as the title suggests centred around sex. Most of the time anyway.

As far as my professional peers were concerned I had lost the plot entirely. What on earth was I trying to do. Sell records or have the time of my life? I definitely didnt give a fuck and driven by my depression embarked on a roller coaster ride of fun time. I hid behind the alluring faces of pleasure. It felt like the perfect way to escape. And it seemed a very effective way of achieving that escape. It sounds weird but anyone who has been there will know what Im talking about. I hope so anyway because it is really horrible to feel like you are completely alone with no-one able to understand what the hell you are going on about.

I then started an album with a band called Treatment and released a few tracks on compilation records (Under The Fascist Thumb, Fire On Petrol ). We did a few gigs but yet again couldnt get enough of them. I realised the only way I was going to get gigs is by running my own club. So I threw myself into running clubs. If the world was not coming to me or remotely interested in the things I was doing then I would create my own world. That was the reasoning anyway. A bit scary really!

Anyway, eight orgasms was my way of starting to be a part of the dance culture. Again it was the most rebellious and revolutionary thing I could do at the time. Liverpool was a museum of stale rock values and rock music. People had not moved on and Liverpool was dying on its rock feet. It was definitely a stagnant period. Liverpool musicians seemed to be copying what had been successful before and not thinking too much about what the newer music will be like.

As usual people thought I was mad but this time I was right. With the help of the F-people who worked on the art installations and projections and the Dj-ing talents of John MacCready, the club became a haven for freaks and creatives and most importantly music. Eight orgasms was the platform for the Donny and Marie Handbag Revolution and Suicide Murder and the Sunshine sucks. The Donnies were aggressive, twisted, chaotic and highly sexualised. The Suicides were completely improvised and quite melodic.”


I’d Sacrifice Eight Orgasms With Shirley MacClaine Just To Be There (1986)

1. Hungry
2. Mouth of Need
3. Hey Earthlings
4. O My God
5. Black Angel
6. Eight Orgasms
7. Dawn With No-One
8. Moonshine
9. Suck On The Sugarbone
10. Say Something
11. Whore Me, Whore You
12. Into The Waves

peter coyle: 8 orgasms

(see also: http://www.petercoyle.com/bio.html )

Dead or Alive - Live in the UK (1984)

Two years on DOA had become something totally different, form the line-up (now a four-piece accommodating Tim Lever – former Modern Eon – on guitar, sax and keyboards, and Steve Coy on drums) to the now poppy, dancey, synth-driven numbers, to the gender-bender attitude quite fashionable at the time.
Here’s a live show (also featuring backing vocals!) recorded in 1984, supporting the release of the Sophisticated Boom Boom album.


Live In The UK (1984)
01. Intro
02. What I Want
03. You Make Me Wanna
04. I'd Do Anything
05. Absolutely Nothing
06. Misty Circles
07. Far To Hard
08. Do It
09. Sit On It
10. That's The Way (I Like It)
11. Wish You Were Here
12. What I Want (Reprise)
BONUS
13. What I Want [Radio Spot]
14. Give It To Me [Radio Spot]

doa - UK live (1983)

Dead or Alive - Live at Rotter’s Bar, Manchester (1982)

This is arguably among the early shows featuring the new line-up, featuring bass player Mike Percy, new guitarist Wayne Hussey and keyboard player Monty Healy (cf. the article in the picture, referred to another gig – this time at Pickwick’s – a few weeks before the Manchester show).
Here are Merseysound journalist Linda Walsh's memory of the 1982 Pickwick's show: "What a difference seven months makes [with] the departure of Mitch and Sue and the arrival of their replacements Wayne Hussey and Mike Pursey [sic]. [...] After wading through the thick 'smoke' which now engulfed the stage the band produced a set of over an hour long brimming over with new songs. Altough they were all excellent in quality none of them were, unfortunately the slower numbers I've been waiting for to stop the lengthy set verging dangerously on the edge of monotony. New material such as the now hopefully released 'It's Been Hours Now' was mingled with the old favourites, 'Number Eleven', 'Nowhere to Nowhere' and a superb rendition of 'Flowers' which more than compensated for the somewhat disappointing 'I'm Falling'. Burns' voice continued to soar and plummet to amazing heights and depths backed by a powerful display of drumming courtesy of Joe Musker" (Feb. 1982)

Live at Rotter’s Bar 1982

(The tracks are organized in alphabetical order)
– Guildered Splinters
– It’s been Hours Now (1 and 2)
– Military
– Misty Circles (1 and 2)
– Number 11
– Number 12
– Number 11 / Military
– Selfish Side
– The Stranger
– Whirlpool

DoA – At Rotter’s Bar (1982)

Dead or Alive - Live at Pickwick’s (1981)

Dead Or Alive's beginnings with a live gig from Pickwick’s in Liverpool in 1981.
After the shifting between the old Nightmare in Wax and a new yet fluctuating entity (over thirty changes of line-up, according to interviews at the time), eventually Dead or Alive was born including Pete Burns and Martin Healy (both survivors of NIW), Sue Jones, Adrian Mitchell (former Stopouts and Upsets), and Joe Musker (ex Fourmost).
Merseysound journalist Graham Jonees remembers the Pickwick live show: "Having only seen the band at Pickwick's where, after the initial surge of energy had worn off I became bored with the relentless barrage of noise, I tentatively broached this criticism of their sound... and met with totoal agreement. They all realise the need for variation and are attempting to introduce some slower (although not laid back! songs). 'The trouble is,' complains Pete, 'I feel stupid singing slow on stage'" (August 1981)

Live at Pickwick’s (1981)

1. Name Game

2. I'm Falling

3. Number 11

4. Nowhere To Nowhere

5. Unknown (Buddha In Me)

6. Whirlpool

7. Girls Song

8. Unknown

9. I'm On Fire / Unknown

10. Unknown

11. Candles In The Rain (Flowers Pt 1)

12. Flowers

DoA Pickwicks 1981

(cf. http://us.geocities.com/saramandaia2002/deadoraliveearly.html )