Barbel - One Horse Planet (1989)

Formed in 1984, the band included Greg Milton (guitar, bass, vocals), Roger Synek (drums) – both form A Formal Sigh – Ali Williams (keyboards, formerly with Flo & the Frets), Dave Surtees (guitars), who left some time later. Later they were joined by Dave Morgan (formerly with the Jactars) on bass, so that Milton could switch on second guitar and focus more on vocals.
After some demos the band finally released a much awaited MiniLP in 1989:

One Horse Planet (1989)

1. House By The Airport
2. One Thing
3. See For Herself
4. Cough It Up
5. Hip And Her Cheek
6. Puddingbag Lane
7. No Money

barbel – one horse planet

Shiny Two Shiny - Waitng for Us (1983)

A few weeks after the release of the Mini LP Shiny Two Shiny issued a single:



Waiting for Us (1983)
- Waiting for Us
- Ritual Hate




In 1984 the band contributed a song for the Zulu compilation (Moment to Moment, see post below), and in 1985 the single Waiting for Us was issued on the compilation Goodbye to All That. By this time both members were going their separate way.

sts – waiting for us

Shiny Two Shiny - Halfway Across the Rainbow (1983)

Shiny Two Shiny consisted of Flo Sullivan (a.k.a. Gayna Florence Perry, Gayna Rose Madder, later Flo & the Frets) and Robin Surtees (later Benny Profane). The duo started their musical career in 1980 with This Is This (with Mark Peters) which some time later metamorphosed in A Formal Sigh (with Greg Milton and Roger Synek, both to join Barbel), relseasing a couple of songs on Merseysound cassette compilation. In 1982 Sullivan and Surtrees using electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers, organ, drum machine, tambourine and some percussion released a MiniLP.

Halfway Across The Rainbow (1983)

- Waiting for Us
- Through the Glass
- Razzamatazz
- The Boy from Ipanema
- Wake
- Susquehanna
- Concentration
- Grey

sts - halfway across the rainbow

(see also http://www.bubbyworld.com/Gayna/Gaynafront.htm )

Zulu Compilation (1984)

Zulu Records were formed in 1981, mainly as an outlet for releases by Pink Industry (former Pink Military). The label was run by Jayne Casey and Ambrose Reynolds, and concentrated on the alternative, experimental part of Liverpool’s musical output.

Zulu Compilation (1984)

A1 Urban Jazz Ritual - Car Crazy
A2 Frankie - Love Has Got A Gun
A3 The Project - Leaves In The Wind
A4 Bart - Situation
A5 Levi Tafari - Liverpool Experience
A6 Ambrose Reynolds - Lee Harvey Oswald (Pt. 2)
A7 Shiny Two Shiny - Moment To Moment
B1 Benjamin Zephaniah - The Boat Is Sinking
B2 Pink Industry - Stand Alone
B3 Mark Davies Markham - It All Sounds The Same To Me
B4 Forget The Whimpering Child And Become The Warrior -Left You Lying
B5 Philip Renshaw - Lake Victoria
B6 Wrecked Career - Screaming Drowning
B7 S.T.F.O.T.P.A. - The Kremlin In Flame

Urban Jazz Ritual: Avantgarde percussion-based group formed by Kif Cole (who also played for Royal Family & the Poor and Delado)

Frankie, of course, Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

The Project: The Project was actually the temporary musical project of Mike Keane after Royal Family & the Poor and Legend Agency, to which also contributed Ambrose Reynolds (tapes, bass, percussions). From this moment on the future releases by the Royal Family and the Poor were also known as the Project – Phase 1, 2, 3, etc.

Bart: Psychedelic three-piece band with African and Indian influences.

Levi Tafari: Jamaican born singer and poet, who later set up various projects with Eugene Lange and Jennifer John, such as Oduduwa, Griot Workshop, Black & Blue, and also with Delado, the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Urban Strawberry Lunch. In 1986 he joined the Ministry of Love.

Ambrose Reynolds: At the time of the compilation with Pink Industry.

Shiny Two Shiny: Flo Sullivan and Robin Surtees (ex This is This, A Formal Sigh) (see the relevant post, coming soon).

Benjamin Zephania: Rap and dub poet, not Liverpool resident, though.

Pink Industry: Jayne, Ambrose and Tadzio.

Mark Davies Markham: One of the young Liverpool ‘rock poets’ in the tradition of famous predecessors Liverpool Scene, he was the singer of Orders from Above (with Carl Moogson).

Forget The Whimpering Child and Become The Warrior (a.k.a. Now Is The Time To Forget The Whimpering Child - Become The Warrior): The Liverpool band with the longest name is an electronic pop act consisting of Geoff Kelly (bass, vocals, former Afraid of Mice), occasionally joined by Steve Brown (drums, keyboards, former Jass Babies). The band opened up for Echo & The Bunnymen in the early 80's (1984)

Philip Renshaw: Singer-songwriter in the Peter Hammill tradition.

Wrecked Career: Avantgarde trio fronted by Jeff Turner (sax, percussion, violin, guitar, clarinet), who also played with the Royal Family and the Poor.

S.T.F.O.T.P.A. Local poetry-avantgarde artist


zulu

(Thnak to Klaus Schwartze)

Ambrose Reynolds - Greatest Hits (1983)

.

Ambrose Reynolds, originally with the O’Boogie Brothers (1976-1977) – with Ian Broudie (guitars), Frazer Henry (guitar), Jon Moss (drums), Dadid Knopov (vocals), and Nathan McGough (vocals, later Royal Family and The Poor - started contributing to the Liverpool music scene by shortly playing with one of the earliest line-up of Big in Japan (October 1977) - together with Jayne Casey, Bill Drummond, Kevin Ward, Phil Allen and Ian Broudie - then substituted by Holly Johnson on bass when he joined the Walkie Talkies (ex Ded Byrds) – with Denise D’Arcy (a.k.a. Denyze D’Arcy, vocals, sax, later Zale Out, Fragile Friends, ), Dave Wibley (a.k.a. Dave Wibberley, guitar, later Fire, Evad-Flab)), John Moss (drums), David Knopov (vocals, later Hambi & the Dance, Knopov’s Political Package, also collaborated with ex Teardrop Explodes’ Mick Finkler) and Wayne Hussey (guitar, later Foxglove, Dead or Alive, Sisters of Mercy, Mission) – where he was a full member from June 1978 to November 1979. At this time Reynolds started collaborating with various musicians. In 1979 he played bass with Jaqui & Jeanette for the first Street tot Street compilation. (According to Pete Burns this track was originally meant for him. He remembers: ‘I rehearsed with Big in Japan for a while and we did a great set, and then the producer Noddy Knowler was doing a compilation album for Open Eye Records and he asked me to contribute; he asked Ian Broudie and Clive Langer to do a tack with me but then they gave it to Jeanette Landry and Lori Larty’ Freak Unique, 72). In the same year Reynolds and Burns managed to collaborate: according to sources, in fact, Reynolds played bass on Nightmare in Wax’s song Black Leather (with Mick Reid (guitar), Martin Healey (keyboard) and Phil Hurst (drums) (although Burns does not mention this in his autobiography). In 1980 he played with Michael Keane of Royal Family and the Poor and was featured (although uncredited) on one of the songs that the RF&TP recorded for the Factory compilation A Factory Quartet (the song is Death Factory, where Reynolds played guitar). In 1981 was with Holly Johnson in Hollycaust - Frankie Goes to Hollywood (with Phil Hurst, Steve Lovell), apparently without recording anything.

In this period Reynolds began experimenting with tapes, radio archive material from America, mainly from the ‘60s and connected with well-known assassinations. This resulted in the album Greatest Hits, released in 1983.


Greatest Hits (1983)

A1 Holy Mackerel - Lee Harvey Oswald
A2 Bring Us Together - Richard Milhouse Nixon
A3 Get The Gun - Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy
A4 Kent State - Richard Milhouse Nixon & The High School Bums
B1 He's Dead Alright - John Fitzgerald Kennedy
B2 White America - Martin Luther King
B3 A Violent End - Martin Luther King
B4 Automatic Pop Shot Guns
B5 Assassin's Bullet - Edward Fitzgerald Kennedy

After this solo project, Reynolds joined Jayne Casey in Pink Industry – which continued experimenting with sounds and samples (Tadzio Jodlowsky joined on guitars). In 1988 he formed Urban Strawberry Lunch, with Liz Carlisle (vocals), Karl John (drums), Andy Escott and visual artist Mark Hill.

ambrose reynolds - greatest hits

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Early Demos

Holly Johnson remembers:

‘At this time [1982] Sounds, a pop-music newspaper, printed a family tree of Liverpool bands in which Frankie Goes to H§ollywood somehow appeared. This was the band that had never played live, with the line-up of Steve Lovell, Ambrose Reynolds and Holly Johnson. We decided to take this name, one I had created for my old band, as the name for the new one.’
(A Bone in My Flute, 142)

When the band turned from Sons of Egypt to Frankie goes to Hollywood, they already had some songs in store which would never appear on vinyl nor were they ever performed for radio sessions, but were only part of the band’s earliest live sets (in 1982). Besides the songs already there in the Sons of Egypt’s repertoire (like Bring on the Violins and Is Anybody Out There, see post below) FGTH had also demoed a couple of other songs, among which:

Drum up Some
Living in Limbo

fgth – early demos (II)

(see also: http://www.steveirving.entadsl.com/FGTH/html/fgth_history_1-2.html )

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Kid Jensen Sessions (February 1983)

‘It was Christmas 1982 and Frankie were the most talked about band on Merseyside […]. Things looked bleak. Worse, Frankie were being overtaken by other Liverpool bands such as The Lotus Eaters and The Pale Fountains in the race for contracts.
In Liverpool at this time was a Tube researcher looking to interview Dead Or Alive for a Tube special on Liverpool. But finding Pete Burns inactive, Mick Sawyer sought out Frankie saying that The Tube would make a video for them. “Frankie were just an averagely bright rock band,” muses Sawyer. “They had a lot of unfinished ideas and an image only The Tube would touch.”
The video was shot in the city’s State Ballroom — now a disco — and stands as one of the most eloquent documents of the original, unretouched Frankie, with Holly delivering a near-monosyllabic version of “Relax”. It was a memorable day. “All the Tyne Tees cameramen spent most of the time with their lenses up the Leatherpets’ crutches,” recalls Holly.
Radio interest was beginning to pick up again, with John Peel repeating his session and Kid Jensen commissioning “Welcome To The Pleasure Dome”, “The Only Star In Heaven” and “Relax 2” for his early evening show.
(Kevin Sutcliffe, from The Face, December 1984)

In February 1983 FGTH recorded a session for Kid Jensen ( DJ on Radio One). The track-listing for the session was as follows:

Jensen Session (February 1983)
- The Only Star in Heaven
- Welcome to the Pleasuredome
- Invade My Heart
- Relax 2 (Shoot in the Right Direction)

When it went out on the air, unknown to the band someone - someone with influence - was listening: record producer Trevor Horn. The rest is history.


fgth – jensen session

(see also: http://www.zttaat.com/article.php?title=138
http://www.x1fmradio.com/musc/artists/Frankie%20Goes%20to%20Hollywood/biography )