I-Lands - Recordings (1984-85)

Andy Warren started his career in music with Change of Image at the end of the 70s. In 1981, still a teenager, he shortly joined the Systems first line-up (John Hawkins – later This Island Earth – Tony Elson, and Mike Reed), replacing Kevin Chapman on guitar and vocals, before Jeremy Kelly (former Psychamesh, later Wild Swans, Lotus Eaters) and Kevin Brown (later This Island Earth) joined.
Before the end of the year, Warren left the Systems and went back to his mates in Change of Image with the intention of turning the band “from neo-punk to near Systems”. The new musical direction also required a new name. From now on it was to be Island of Dance. The line-up included Stuart McBain (a.k.a Stuart Bain, bass), Howard Lacey (drums), Mike Saunders (guitars) and Ruth Evison (keyboards). Although no trace is left of their recording, according to the music press their sound was influenced by Joy Division, at least as far as music texture, featured by a solid rhythmic section, driving basslines, funk guitars and decorating keyboards, on top of which Warren would place his light and breezy melodies, producing a striking contrast which was to be the band’s trademark. The band gigged regularly, often using the equipment of the Kinetics or other benevolent bands.
A major change in the band’s history occurred in 1983, when Lacey, Saunders and Evison dropped out, leaving Warren and McBain to recruit new members: Joanne Griffith (vocals), Darren Bell (guitars), Bernie Mulcahey (keyboards), and Warren’s old band-mate in the Systems Tony Elson (drums), then playing with the Precaution. By May 1984 Elson had joined the Young Lions and his place was taken up by Mark Coleridge (former Ex Post Facto). At this point Islands of Dance became I-Lands.
This line-up recorded their first and only single in October 1984:




In the Rain (1984)
a. In the Rain
b. Velvet Glove



.
In January 1985 I-Lands contributed the song Back Before the Pain to the Liverpool compilation Jobs for the Boys (1985). In the same Coleridge left for Afraid of Mice.

i-lands

Heaven Tonight (a.k.a. Heaven Tonite)

Amanda ‘Mandy’ Todd starter her singing career in 1980 as Mandarine Orange in Zale Out, with Denyze D’Arcy (vocals, sax, ex Walkie Talkies, then Dee and the Dots, Fragile Friends) and John Feeney (bass), with whom later formed Topsey Turvey, debuting with Personal Column at the Warehouse in 1981. In 1984 Todd joined Dave Lloyd (guitar), Ian Carney (bass) and Colin ‘Gas’ Billinge (drums, former Last Chant) in Heaven Tonight. This line-up cut a 4 track demo tape under the production of Phil Jones (Afraid of Mice, to whom Amanda Todd was also engaged) and from these session the song Mystery Play was taken for the Job for the Boys compilation (as Heaven Tonight, 1985).

- Mystery Play

According to Merseysound (1985) the band also recorded the title track for Paul Varrese’s film Distant Fire, and a rumoured about single with the title Forget Me Not. Apparently the two tracks never made it on vinyl.
In 1985 Amanda Todd left, and the band continued for some years with Dave Lloyd as lead singer, and the addition of Billy Frank (former Discipline, Ryan), who remembers:
‘From Ryan I went on to join 'Heaven Tonight' - things were getting serious. We signed to a management company, we got a publishing deal, we played some awesome gigs, and even got Jennifer Warnes to record one of out tracks! Working with Heaven Tonite's lead singer, Dave Lloyd definitely helped me to hone my song writing skills - I really began to learn the art of 'quality control' - i.e. what makes a good song good - what ides to use and what to discard’

(see also http://newfrontier0.tripod.com/billy.htm )

Margie Clarke

Singer/songwriter who became famous for her role in the Letter to Breznhev film, written by her brother and screen writer Frank Clarke.
She started her career in 1978, as a co-presenter on the late-night entertainment magazine show What's On on Granada TV, with Tony Wilson (Factory Records) and Dick Witts (of Mancunians the Passage), where she appeared as Margox (allegedly from ballerina Dame Margeaux Fontaine’s christian name).
Her career as a performer includes a gig at Eric’s with actor Andrew Schofield on guitar (Scully and Mooey, Sid and Nancy, Boys from the Black Stuff). Another of her early gigs took place at Eric’s on Saturday 4 November 1978 on a bill with Ded Birds, Malchix. In the early eighties she was the lead singer of many punk and new wave bands in the then thriving Liverpool music scene, including Margox and the Zinc who played, among others, with Adam and the Ants.

Holly Johnson met the girl in the late Seventies. These are his recollections:

‘Another girl-about-town I remember was Margi Clarke. She had bright red hair and a penchant for green eye shadow. She had been a bit tied down by domestic life and was dying to break out on to the scene. `Breaking in' would be a better description. She made several attempts at forming a band, none of which were particularly fruitful for long. One of her bands later played Eric's - she called herself Margeaux (sic) (pronounced Ma-,gox). What she lacked in singing ability she made up for with a spunky attitude and uninhibited imagination. She wrote a couple of interesting songs, 'Jimmy's Grin' and `Angel Fish Dream', and her answer to the inevitable hecklers was, `Why don't ye go and take yer face fer a shit,' and other choice phrases.

The book England's Dreaming by John Savage touches briefly on the Liverpool scene of this period. lie quotes Margi saying that she wore an apple round her neck on a piece of string and carried a kettle for a handbag. I remember the apple but not the kettle. lie also quotes her as saying that I wore a Tampax for an earring and wore a chocolate box on my head as a hat. It's true I once wore one of my mothers Lillett's hanging from a sleeper in my ear. This was my reaction to the razor-blade earring trend of that time. If women could wear razor-blades in their ears then I could wear a jam rag.

I remember Margi coming round to my parent's house in January 1980 to try and write a song with me. Songwriting had always been a bit of an introspective thing for me. Not being a `Muso' (trained musician) in the typical sense made it difficult for me to respond to her in the way she needed. She came out with a string of weird and wonderful ideas for songs. `Abstract Ice' was one of them. She also told me the basic outline of A Letter To Brezhnev, which I presume Frank had told her, and which she tried to turn into lyrics. Sitting up in my bedroom with my acoustic guitar trying to strum along to Margi, however unfruitful it was as a songwriting exercise, is an amusing memory. She `charmed the boots' off Pat and Eric [Holly Johnson’s parents, ndr], who always liked it when girls came round to see me.’
(Holly Johnson, A Bone in My Flute, 117-118)

As a solo artist Margi Clarke recorded only a couple of numbers:

- Jimmy’s Grin (on Small Hits and Near Misses, 1984, as Margox)

The song, composed during the days of frequentation with Johnson and recorded in 1982, featured Dave Wibberley (ex Walkie Talkies, later Fire, Evad-Flab) on vocals and guitars.

- Lockets & Stars (on Letter to Breznhev OST, 1985, as Margie Clarke)

This song is co-credited to Alan Gill (Dalek I Love You, Teardrop Explodes, who also wrote the OST main theme) and Margi Clarke.

By the end of the Eighties, Margie (then married to Jamie Reid, artist and sleeve designer for the Sex Pistols) became a full-time actress and TV presenter. Only sporadically did she ever recorded anything, like, a cover of the Cole Porter standard Anything Goes with the Welsh punk band Anhrefn in 1987 (with whom she also performed as a second vocalist for a Peel Session in 1993, entering the charts with Clutter from the Gutter), and, in 1991, the single No Regrets with Half Man Hal Biscuit (a cover of the classic song, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, by Edith Piaf).

margi clarke

(see also http://www.myspace.com/margiclarke )

No Exit - Discography (1981-1985)

The band formed around 1978 when Graham Trust (vocals, bass, later with The Vow) joined school mates Martyn Gilbert (guitar), Pete Creswell (vocals) and Nic Corke (drums), but the line-up became stable in 1980 as a trio after Creswell and Corke left, and Perry Leach joined (drums). The band, influenced by acts like the Jams, the Police, Elvis Costello, and Joe Jackson, gigged extensively in the North building up a loyal following. This line-up recorded and released their first single in August 1983, which got a lot of airplay from local radios and from John Peel on Radio 1:

Casablancan Nights (1983)
- Casablancan Nights
- Anything You Say


In the same year Leach left to become a full member of Danse Macabre (see post below) and was replaced by Colin McCormick (later Cracked Actor). A compilation tape collecting all the material recorded by both line-ups was released in 1985. According to the review of the time, the tracklist is as follows:

Songs fro the Wilderness (1985):
- The Real World
- White Man
- The Stories You Tell
- Don’t Call Me Grapevive Face
- Now You’re Talking
- Hero
- Martyn’s Brain
- In the Dark

In the link below the track-list is slightly different, but the ‘missing’ songs can be found in the Oddments and Sodments’ folder.

http://www.noexit-thevow.co.uk/lyrics/songsfromthewilderness/index

For an extensive biography of the band, see the following web page:

http://www.noexit-thevow.co.uk/history/childhood

(Thanks Graham for the site. I wish more bands had webpages like this…)

Danse Macabre - On No! Not I! (1983)

Danse Macabre was formed by Pete Chegwin (keyboards, former Ex Post Facto, then Oceanic Explorers), Karl Anthony (bass, later Cair Paravel), Paul McNeil (guitar), Graham Gallant (drums) then joined by Peter Carroll (vocals, at the same time in Visual Aids and Dark Continent), the most experienced member of the group, having spent two years with Visual Aids. This line-up recorded the band’s only single (“it was really a rush job!” remembers McNeil):


On No! Not I! (1983)
a. On No! Not I!
b. Angel


.
Soon after the single, drummer Gallant was asked to leave (and joined Straight Cuts) and Perry Leach (ex No Exit, later Dream Theatre) joined. In 1984 the band changed band and became Innervision.
PS. Liverpudlian Danse Macabre are not to be confused with the Belgian and Siouxsie and the Banshees’ clone band with the same name.

On No! Not I! (1983)

Holly - Hobo Joe (1980)

In 1980 Holly Johnson released his second solo single:

Hobo Joe (1980)
a. Hobo Joe
b. Stars of the Bars

Here are Johnson’s memories of the time:

“I was still going to Eric's occasionally to see Pete Fullwell. I persuaded him to record another `Holly' single I'd written called `Hobo Joe', which was recorded at the Cargo sixteen-track studios in Rochdale. I remember seeing Mark Smith from The Fall sitting in the small reception area. The lovely Gary Dwyer, the drummer from Teardrop Explodes, kindly played drums for me. Ian Broudie produced and played guitar and I played bass. We thought the result was quite good. Almost commercial.

Meanwhile Steve Lovell, a guitarist then in his mid-twenties who worked at Virgin record shop, rang me at home to ask me if I would sing on a songwriter's demo. He had heard 'Yankee Rose' and liked it. He then asked me if I wanted to form a band with him and Ambrose Reynolds, a bass player who had been in The Walkie Talkies, and had also played on `Black Leather' by Pete Burns's Nightmares in Wax, which had a great disco bassline and fabulous trashy lyrics.

We rehearsed in Hambi's basement with a drummer called Phil. Ambrose had the idea that I should play bass as well to create a rhythmic counterpoint. We booked a `gig' in the Masonic pub in town, but needed a name for the group in order to do this. In our rehearsal room someone had stuck a page from Guy Peelhaerts' book Rock Dreams. It was a painting of a newspaper front-cover, and the headline ran, `Frankie Goes Hollywood'. Underneath was a picture of Frank Sinatra getting off a plane. I added the `To' so that it scanned better, and we had a name.
Ironically this show never actually happened. I didn't really feel happy with the music we were making. Ambrose was a bit upset but accepted it in good grace. I planned to work further with Steve though. He seemed to me to be older and more sensible than most musicians I knew in Liverpool, so over the next few months I kept in touch with him. […]

Shortly after I moved into Grace's flat in Falkner Street, `Hobo Joe' was released, and got a few favourable reviews. It was the week that John Lennon died. I remember not really being affected by his death as I had not been of the generation who had idolised him. Marc Bolan's death had upset me more, even though I realise now that Lennon had a far greater influence on pop culture.” (A Bone in My Flute: 132-133)

“Around the time 'Hobo Joe' was released, someone from Granada Television came to Eric's in Liverpool They were looking for Northern bands to play on an arts programme called `Celebration'. I was chosen on the strength of my two singles on the Eric's label. Pete Burns's band were also chosen, but I can't remember what they were called at the time.
The day of the TV recording was Thursday, 30th of October 1980. I still have the daily call-sheet that Granada printed. It has my name at the top, then below, a cast list for `Coronation Street'. It was such a good experience for me, learning to react to the camera. The director had set up a rocking horse for me to sit on to sing `Yankee Rose'. On a blue screen in the background was projected an old Western. I sang in my quasi-cowboy outfit, playing an acoustic guitar, while the rocking horse wore sunglasses and had an arrow through its head. It was all very tongue-in-cheek. I came home on the train elated by the experience.” (ABIMF, 137)

hobo joe (1980)

Holly Johnson - Yankee Rose (1979)

Long before becoming Fankie Goes to Hollywood and shortly after the end of Big in Japan (and the imaginary The cSausages form Mars, with Jayne Casey), Holly Johnson was simply Holly, trying to work his way as a solo artist.
In November 1979 he released his first single, recorded with Mick Reid (on guitar), Rob Jones (percussions), Pete Wylie (keyboards), and Lori Lartey (of Lori and the Chameleons, on backing vocals):

Yankee Rose (1979):
a. Yankee Rose
b1. Treasure Island
b2. Desperate Dan

Here are Holly Johnson’s memories of those days:
“One night I left Gerald's house and walked home in the dark - about ten miles or more. On the way I wrote a song in my head. It was called 'Treasure island' and summed up my feelings about the situation I had just walked out of.

`Wasn't it enough to hurt me with the fact You wanted me to lie and listen to the act?'

This was the first time an idea for a song had come to me in this way. Usually I would sit with my guitar trying to put a melody to poems that I had already written. Now the lyrics and the melody seemed to come to me all at once. Over the next few weeks I worked out a few simple chords on the guitar to accompany myself.” (A Bone in My Flute: 111)

“I seemed to drift without direction for a while after Big In Japan, though still wanting to be a star, still writing songs on my acoustic guitar in between my social activities. At this point, Jayne kindly persuaded Pete Fullwell to record a Holly single. I creamed my jeans. I was going to make my very own record. This is one of my few memories of feeling truly elated. I was given a whole day in Amazons' eight track studio, which I was determined to make the most of. I recorded three songs: `Treasure Island', `Yankee Rose' and `Desperate Dan'.

`Treasure Island' was meant to be the A side. Ian Broudie was going to produce it, but he had to drop out due to other commitments, though he did give me some good ideas for arrangements, bass lines, backing vocals, etc. I got Lori Larty, a good friend of mine at that time, to do backing vocals. Pete Wiley contributed a bit of guitar on `Treasure Island' but didn't really understand the calypso feel of the song. I also got Wah Heats' keyboard player to add a string synth line.

To create a cinematic sound-scape on `Yankee Rose' I got people in the studio to play Cowboys and Indians. Pete Fullwell got down on his hands and knees and made horse noises with coconut shells. It was a bit unorthodox but a lot of fun. I would point at one set of people like a conductor and they would do their allotted thing. Someone tinkled onn an out-of-tune saloon piano and Wiley played harmonica. I used a tape loop to create the cowboy-on-the-range bass line as it was too difficult for me to play the monotonous line over and over in perfect time. Lori's `Yankee Rose' vocal line was meant to conjure up memories of `Johnny Remember A4e% Her voice really added something special. Pete Fullwell thought 'Yankee Rose' the best of the three songs, and I let him persuade me that it should be the A side, although 'Treasure Island' was a better song in my opinion.”

“I think I got an extra afternoon to mix everything, then there it was. For the sleeve, Bob Wakelin, a cartoonist and illustrator, created a drawing of my head with a glinting tooth smile. Lynched cowboys formed the background. I did some publicity photographs and created a photocopied mail out. The single got a favourable review in either NIVE or Melody Maker, but without a band I had no way of promoting it by playing live dates. This was a problem which I knew had to be solved eventually.
(ABIMF: 126-127)

yankee rose 1979