Rosemary's Children
were an English psyche-folk influenced indie pop-rock group. Members included Robert Dimery (vocals, 12-string guitar), Toby Chislett (drums), Jake (bass), Karel (lead guitar). Some of the band Ha Ha Ha members went to form Rosemary’s Children, included Robert Dimery as well as Toby Chislett. The band released one 7″ and an album at the tail-end of the 80s. The first was a 7″ in 1986 with two songs, “Southern Fields” on the A side and “(Whatever Happened to) Alice” on the B side. It was released by the legendary Él Records and was produced by Richard Preston. “Kings and Princes” was released in vinyl LP by Cherry Red in 1987. It hasn’t been reissued in CD or any other format. [SOURCE: CLOUDBERRY CAKE PROSELYTISM]
Specimen are a British band founded in 1981 in Bristol, England by vocalist Olli Wisdom with
guitarists Jon Klein (from Europeans) and Kevin Mills (from The
X-Certs). Their music has been described as spanning many different genres of music, including glam, goth, punk and post-punk, and the band is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the goth subculture, both musically and stylistically. Their first show was at a street party celebrating the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. In 1982, the band relocated to Soho, London, where Wisdom founded the infamous Batcave weekly club-night. When approached by Wisdom and asked to join Specimen, original keyboardist Jonny Slut initially declined because he could not play any instruments. Wisdom insisted and Slut eventually learned to play the keyboard by utilizing guiding stickers. Sporting what would become known as deathhawk hair, Jonny Slut proved no less photogenic than frontman Olli himself in mascara and black lace.
While the band were together, they never released a full album, only singles and a mini album. However, in 1997, two full-length compilations were released featuring various Specimen songs. In 1985, the original Specimen lineup broke up after the release of the 'Sharp Teeth Pretty Teeth' single. Olli Wisdom moved to San Francisco, California, USA and formed a short-lived American version of Specimen.
After the band went its separate ways, guitarist Jon Klein worked with Siouxsie and the Banshees for seven years, before working with Sinéad O'Connor. He was also in the British 1998 film "Married 2 Malcolm" in a non-speaking role.
Jonny Slut formed Diskord Datkord with Mark Tinley and Adam Tinley before going on to work with The KLF, Adamski and is now a member of Atomizer. He also founded the Nag Nag Nag club-night in London, where he was one of the house DJs. Tim Huthert went on to join Until December, and more recently played with the re-formed Jetboy as well as recording the 'Electric Ballroom' album with Jon Klein. He currently resides in New York.
Olli Wisdom went on to produce psychedelic trance music under the name Space Tribe.
Kevin Mills joined Flesh for Lulu.
In July 2008, the original 1983 line up got together to perform at the Batcave's 25th anniversary event in London, resulting in the release of the live album 'Specimen Alive at the Batcave' on Metropolis. The reunion grew directly out of friendships rekindled during the making of 2007's 'Electric Ballroom' album, which featured T.bias, Kimba, Stephan Byron-Salit, and Tim Huthert, as well as Jon Klein collaborations with Olli Wisdom and Jonny Slut.
In February 2009, Jonny Slut and Jon Klein appeared at the Fashion Institute of Technology (New York) for the symposium "Subculture and Style" during the exhibition for the book "Gothic Dark Glamour" by Valery Steele and Jennifer Parks. The exhibition featured one of Jon Klein's 25-year-old stage outfits, alongside Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Rick Owens.
In May 2011, the band confirmed via Facebook that Jonny Slut had officially retired from Specimen. In December of the same year, they announced the addition of Johann Bley, ex-Juno Reactor, was to replace Slut on keyboard. In December 2011, the band announced that they were working with producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth on a new album. The following month, they revealed its name -'Wake the Dead'- and launched a Pledgemusic campaign to help fund the album for release in 2013. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
The first incarnation of the goth punks and later metal heroes known as The Cult, Southern Death Cult formed in late 1982 near Leeds. Led by Ian Lindsay (later Astbury), and including guitarist David Burrows, bassist Barry Jepson, and drummer Haq Quereshi, the group became a big name in goth rock early in their existence, and released their first single 'Moya/Fatman' in December 1982. Early the following year, Southern Death Cult toured with Bauhaus -on what turned out to be the goth kings' farewell tour- but then abruptly disbanded. Astbury moved on to Death Cult (and later, The Cult) while Burrows, Jepson, and Quereshi became Getting the Fear (later Into a Circle). Beggars Banquet compiled several sessions and outtakes onto a self-titled album, which was released in 1983 and finally issued in the U.S. almost 15 years later. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Baby Lemonade were a Scottish indie pop band that started out in Glasgow in 1985 and disbanded in 1988. Soon they approached the studios in Charing Cross Glasgow city centre. In 1986 they made some copies of their music and sent some samples to radio stations and from there they were slowly getting recognised, such as John Peel whom loved it.
'Secret Goldfish' were their second release in June 1987 with a double A side. The band broke away later in the summer of 1987 but reformed a few months later, and a LP was released in 1988. [SOURCE: TWEENET]
North Carolina's Southern Culture on the Skids offer an affectionate parody of downscale trailer-park culture, matching their skewed outlook with a wild, careening brand of rock & roll. SCOTS' music is a quintessentially Southern-fried amalgam of rockabilly, boogie, country, blues, swamp pop, and vintage R&B, plus a liberal dose of California surf guitar, a hint of punk attitude, and the occasional mariachi horns. Following an early incarnation as a relatively straightforward roots rock outfit, they morphed into a raucous, tongue-in-cheek party band obsessed with sex and fried chicken in the early '90s. 1991's 'Too Much Pork for Just One Fork' made the group cult favorites, 1996's 'Dirt Track Date' was a well-crafted and high-spirited major-label debut, 2010's 'The Kudzu Ranch' saw them launching their own label, and 2021's 'At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids' was recorded in the comfy confines of their guitarist's living room.
Southern Culture on the Skids was founded by guitarist/singer Rick Miller in the college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1985. Growing up, Miller had split time between Henderson, North Carolina, where his father ran a mobile-home factory, and Southern California, where his mother lived, and where he first discovered surf and rockabilly. After earning a degree in art from the University of North Carolina, Miller started the first incarnation of Southern Culture on the Skids with original lead vocalist Stan Lewis, bassist Leslie Land, and drummer Chip Shelby. Lewis brought a distinct Cramps influence to the band, although their style was still much more subdued than it would later become. This quartet lineup released an EP called 'Voodoo Beach Party' on the local indie label Lloyd Street, followed later in 1985 by an eponymous full-length debut.
As the band drifted more and more into country territory, co-founder Lewis split; two more members were added on accordion and pedal steel, but the band's new direction alienated much of its local following, and the first version of Southern Culture split not long after. In 1987, Miller regrouped with a new, smaller lineup featuring bassist and sometime vocalist Mary Huff and drummer Dave Hartman, both of whom had grown up together in Roanoke, Virginia. (Lewis, Land, and Shelby would later reunite as Stan Lewis & the Rockin' Revellers, and performed on a mostly local basis.) The new Southern Culture spent a few years honing their sound and releasing the very occasional single. Finally, in 1991, they returned to the LP format with 'Too Much Pork for Just One Fork', which was issued on the ill-fated Moist label. 'Too Much Pork' established the group's lyrical obsessions, and featured the first recording of their fried-chicken anthem "Eight Piece Box," a concert favorite.
Southern Culture's next album, the rawer-sounding 1992's 'For Lovers Only', began to win them a wider following thanks to better distribution from the band's new label, Safe House. Among other fan favorites, it featured Huff's first major vocal showcase, a cover of the Jo Anna Neel country obscurity "Daddy Was a Preacher But Mama Was a Go-Go Girl." The half-live, half-studio EP 'Peckin' Party' followed on Feedbag in 1993, as did the 10" 'Girlfight EP' on Sympathy for the Record Industry. The more laid-back, country-flavored full-length 'Ditch Diggin' appeared on Safe House in 1994, featuring covers of the Louvin Brothers and Link Wray. In 1995, Geffen subsidiary DGC signed Southern Culture to a major-label contract, which was consummated the following year with 'Dirt Track Date'. Although 'Dirt Track Date' included re-recordings of several of the band's most popular past songs, it received generally enthusiastic reviews and sold over a quarter of a million copies.
After releasing the Lucha Libre-themed EP 'Santo Swings!' for Estrus Records (which included Spanish-language covers of "Scratch My Back" and "Double Shot of My Baby's Love"), SCOTS cut their second album for DGC, 1997's 'Plastic Seat Sweat', which featured the band's new keyboard player, Chris "Cousin Crispy" Bess. While 'Plastic Seat Sweat' was a solid effort, its commercial reception disappointed both the band and their label, and it was to be the group's final major-label release. After a few years of steady touring, 2000's 'Liquored Up and Lacquered Down' was released by TVT Records; the deal proved to be a one-off, and it would be four years before the band found a new recording home, with the North Carolina-based indie Yep Roc Records. SCOTS' Yep Roc debut, 2004's 'Mojo Box', was completed after the departure of Chris Bess, with the band back to the trio of Miller, Huff, and Hartman. 'Mojo Box' was produced by Rick Miller in his new studio, Kudzu Ranch, where he also produced albums by The Fleshtones, Dexter Romweber, and The Woggles.
Southern Culture on the Skids released two more albums for Yep Roc, 2006's live set 'Doublewide and Live' and the 2007 covers collection 'Countrypolitan Favorites', but split with the company to go fully independent and start their own label, Kudzu Records. SCOTS launched their new venture with the 2010 album 'The Kudzu Ranch', named for Miller's studio, and followed with reissues of the 'Too Much Pork' album and the 1998 EP 'Zombified'. In 2013, SCOTS released 'Dig This', a set offering new recordings of the songs from 'Ditch Diggin', minus the Link Wray and Louvin Brothers covers from the original release. The band also briefly reunited with Yep Roc for the multi-artist concept LP 'Mondo Zombie Boogaloo', which also featured new material from The Fleshtones and Los Straitjackets; the three bands set out on a joint tour in the fall of 2013 to promote the set. In 2016, SCOTS delivered a creative change of pace with 'The Electric Pinecones', an album steeped in '60s pop and psychedelic influences as well as their trademark Dixie-fried rock.
With SCOTS's DGC recordings out of print, the band bowed to demand for material from that era with the 2018 release 'Bootlegger's Choice'. The album featured brand-new recordings of 16 songs that appeared on 'Dirt Track Date' and 'Plastic Seat Sweat', cut with the same producer, Mark Williams, as well as a remastered version of the 1991 recording of "Camel Walk." In 2020, SCOTS issued 'Kudzu Records Presents', a 12-song collection dominated by covers that initially came out as a boxed set of 7" singles before they were compiled on a single disc for CD release. The group's usually busy touring schedule was put on hold by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and 2021, so with time on their hands, they began recording fresh material on a makeshift recording rig in Rick Miller's living room. The sessions at Miller's place became the basis of 'At Home with Southern Culture on the Skids', released in September 2021. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Gol Gappas were quite possibly the best jangle that Él ever had going for it, and as such, it’s quite a terrible shame that all they left was one EP ('Dinner with Nougat’, 1986) and one single ('West 14 / Roman’, 1986) -a grand total of only six songs. Each of these songs are pretty much perfect slices of classic mid-eighties pop, and “West 14”, as well as another, “St. Lucy”, appeared on volume one of Él’s singles compilation 'Bellissimmo!’ in 1993. They sound like a cleaner Bodines. Really great jangle sounds to cherish. [SOURCE: LA VARIETE]
The Waltones (later known as Candlestick Park) were a British indie band from Manchester, England, who re-formed in September 2017.
The band consists of Alex Fyans (drums), Mark Collins (guitar), James Knox (vocals, harmonica) and Manny Lee (bass, backing vocals). Their debut release was the 'Downhill' single, released by Medium Cool Records in April 1987, which, like the follow-up, 'She Looks Right Through Me', placed on the UK Independent Chart. Third single 'Spell It Out' gave them their biggest success, peaking at number 20 on the Indie Singles Chart. Debut album 'Deepest' eventually saw a release in 1989, by which time they had lost momentum. The band also recorded a session for BBC Radio 1's John Peel Show in August 1988.
In 1990, the band moved to the Midnight Music label, and recorded a second album 'Re-invent the Wheel' co-produced by Kevin Harris. After recording was completed, Fyans left the group to be replaced by Adrian Donohue. The band relaunched themselves as Candlestick Park. One single, 'All the Time in the World', was issued from the album sessions, and a collaboration with Manchester-based House producers K-Klass was mooted. However the album was never issued and the band split, as Collins went on to greater success with The Charlatans. A CD retrospective of The Waltones' Medium Cool output was issued by Cherry Red in 2007.
The Waltones re-formed in 2017 to play a gig at the Deaf Institute, playing the Kendal Calling Festival in 2018 and The 100 Club in September 2019 alongside The Chesterfields. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters were an English psychedelic garage rock band formed in in late 1985 in London. The band comprised primarily of vocalist Emilee Brown, rhythm guitarist Sandy Fleming, 12-string guitarist Gordon Dawson, bassist Phil King and drummer Ray Philpott. The band dissolved in 1989.
The genesis of Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters goes back to the late 1970s, when a young Sandy Fleming met a young Dan Treacy (of Television Personalities fame) in London’s Kings Road. There, they would watch band’s like Reacta, The Piranhas and The VIPs at a local pub, hang out at the Tate Gallery and obsess about everything to do with the 60s. Dan suggested she form a band and came up with a name (The Psycho Daises). It went no further than that, but was promoted anyway.
Eventually she met Emilee Brown and they decided to put the plan of forming a band into action.
The new band, named after an album by The Incredible String Band, was initially centred around The Ambulance Station, a squatted music venue in South London, which witnessed the first London gig by The Jesus and Mary Chain. There they met Gordon Dawson, who joined first on drums before moving onto guitar, Alvin Carter who took up bass duties and a guitarist called Carole. Carter left to form The Looking Glass, while Carole also departed. Bass duties were picked up by Phil King, who had previously been in The Servants and Felt and later joined Lush and The Jesus and Mary Chain. A succession of drummers also followed: Danny Weinstein, John Wills (of The Servants) and a Mo Tucker-esque thumper whose name is lost to posterity. Eventually a full-time member arrived in the shape of Ray Philpott, who later went on to play with UK Decay (and even appeared with The Television Personalities for one gig).
The band’s first release was the 'Love is Blue' EP, recorded for Dreamworld Records. It quickly garnered radio play and positive reviews in the NME, Sounds and The Melody Maker, with the band gigging regularly around the London club scene to promote it. At this time, Emillee Brown was also promoting gigs at The Room at the Top in Camden, where the band appeared with many of the era’s leading indie lights.
Further Dreamworld releases followed: the 7 inch single 'They Fell for Word Like Love' and the mini album 'Trash Mantra' for both UK and German markets and 'Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters' for Germany.
Positive reviews and airplay followed, and the band began to play across the UK, plus Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Scandinavia. They toured extensively with The Television Personalities and appeared with acts including My Bloody Valentine, The House of Love and others. They also recorded a flexi single as a free giveaway for the music press, which included their version of "Darkside" -originally recorded by The Shadows of Night.
A further Dreamworld four-track EP release was written and recorded at Brixton’s Barrington Studios.
Phil King departed and a series of stand-in bass players (including Terry Bickers from The House of Love and Dan Treacy from The Television Personalities) helped the band fulfil gigs in the UK and mainland Europe. Eventually a regular replacement was found in Jon Rickards (who appears on the final Barrington sessions).
However, budgetary issues between the label and the studio meant the master tapes were not released for pressing and the EP never saw the light of day.
Other projects began to take up the band’s time, and just before they slipped away into the night, a compilation album, 'Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters', featuring all of their previous output material was released in the US by Voxx Records.
The release was instigated by Voxx owner Greg Shaw, a legend from the LA music scene. As a writer, his first fanzine inspired the creation of Rolling Stone, and as a record label owner, he had released material by Iggy Pop, Devo, Brian Jonestown Massacre and many others. He arrived in London with a list of band’s he wanted to work with, especially Spacemen 3 and Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters.
Alas, the partnership only stretched to the release. A planned tour of the US to promote the album was discussed, but never took place.
In 2019 Gordon Dawson -who since 2000 has been part of Viralux, a music and art collaboration with Trish Lyons- was approached by Ian Allcock of Optic Nerve Recordings with the idea of releasing a compilation of everything the band had recorded, including the lost Barrington sessions. These unfinished 24 track tapes were lost to posterity, but the band reconnected and discovered that some of them possessed rough mixes of them on cassette tape, which Dawson cleaned up, overdubbed and mastered.
This release, 'Smashed Full of Wonder', was out on Optic Nerve Recordings in March 2019. [SOURCE: EVERYBODYWIKI]
The Submarines were formed in Glasgow in 1986. After gigging around town and opening for the likes of Primal Scream and Felt they released their debut single on Jeff Barrett's (Heavenly records, Sub Aqua records) Head Records in 1987.
This “Grey Skies Blue” single reached a highest indie chart position of number 10 and spent 9 weeks on the chart. The flip side was “I Saw The Children”. At some point in 1989 The Submarines changed their name to The Compass Flow, recording a session for the BBC Janice Long Show and an unreleased album ('Bush Telegraph') for Glass Records.
Members were Scott Blain (Drums), Brian Kane (Guitar),
Craig Keaney (Bass), and
Paul MacNeil (Guitar, vocal).
The Raw Herbs were a band formed in Leytonstone in the East of London during 1986. They signed to Manchester based Medium Cool Records. In their too brief life as a band they released just four singles (including a number 19 hit on the UK Indie Chart in 1987 with "Don't Bury Me Yet") as well as appearing on a few Compilation albums and cassettes. The band were played regularly on the Radio and recorded a session for Janice Long’s Radio One show. Their music epitomised the jangly 80s “indie pop” of the time.
The band comprised Derek Parker (vocals, guitar), Kevin Bache (guitar), Steven Archibald (bass), and Brian Alexis (drums). The band split up in 1988 and lead singer Derek went onto front a new band called Horse Latitudes who released the album 'September Songs'. Sadly drummer Brian Alexis passed away in 2011.
The inclusion of “She’s a Nurse” on the compilation Box Set 'Scared to Get Happy' can only cement the bands rightful place at the the high table of great pop that was produced at a dire time for music in the mainstream. [SOURCE: THE RAW HERBS FANSITE]
Founded in 1987 by English musician Tony Wakeford, Sol Invictus is one of the most prolific and influential bands associated with neo-folk or apocalyptic folk, along with Current 93 and Death in June. Wakeford uses the term "folk noir" to describe his work. The group combines acoustic guitars and neo-classical instrumentation with elements of industrial electronics, and lyrics reflecting a pessimistic view of modern society, with later releases containing more personal lyrical themes. Wakeford has been the only constant member of the group, but other contributors have included Ian Read, Karl Blake, and Gareth Smith.
Wakeford had been in '70s punk group Crisis before co-founding Death in June with Douglas P. (also formerly of Crisis) and Patrick Leagas during the early '80s. Wakeford was dismissed from the band in 1984 and started the post-punk group Above the Ruins, which proved to be controversial due to their association with right-wing politics. Wakeford disbanded the group and distanced himself from those views, forming Sol Invictus in 1987. Debut album 'Against the Modern World' appeared on L.A.Y.L.A.H. (also home to releases by Coil, Nurse with Wound, and The Hafler Trio) in 1988. The album had a dark post-punk sound with elements of what would would later be termed "martial industrial." The live album 'In the Jaws of the Serpent' (which featured Rose McDowall on drums) appeared on S.V.L. Records in 1989.
In 1990 Wakeford founded the Tursa label, which gained distribution by World Serpent. Sol Invictus' 'Trees in Winter' was the label's first release, and numerous albums by the group followed well into the next decade. They gradually shifted into more of a neo-classical style, with the side project L'Orchestre Noir further exploring this direction. Wakeford also released collaborative albums with Steven Stapleton (Nurse with Wound), American painter/musician Tor Lundvall (whose artwork often graces the covers of Sol Invictus releases), and Matt Howden. Eventually, Cold Spring began to distribute the group's music after World Serpent folded sometime during the 2000s. Tursa was relaunched in 2007, and two years later, Sol Invictus signed to Auerbach Tonträger, a neo-folk sublabel of Prophecy Productions, subsequently severing ties with Cold Spring. Auerbach released deluxe versions of the group's catalog, as well as the comprehensive box set 'The Collected Works' in 2011. The 2013 single 'Mr. Cruel' preceded the studio album 'Once Upon a Time', which appeared in 2014. Another single, 'The Last Man', was issued in 2016, in anticipation of the full-length 'Necropolis'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Blow Up were a British indie pop/indie rock band active between 1986 and 1991.
The band was formed in Brighton, England in 1986 by former 14 Iced Bears member Nick Roughley (vocals), along with Alan Stirner (guitar), Whirl frontman Trevor Elliott on bass, and The Milk Sisters drummer Chris Window. Signing to Creation Records at their first gig by an awe-struck Alan McGee they gained exposure with two singles on the label, 1987's 1966-Nuggets-style 'Good For Me' and the epic 'Pool Valley' (the latter taking its name from Brighton's bus station and featuring new bassist Aziz Hashmi). A BBC Janice Long live session at the legendary BBC Abbey Road studios in 1987 brought the outfit well needed publicity with the help of Dave Nimmo on percussion. A tour of the Netherlands and Belgium was followed by their early recordings being collected on the 'Rollercoaster' compilation issued on Megadisc in 1988. After two further EP's, the Pixies-influenced first album proper, 'In Watermelon Sugar', was issued in 1990. This line-up featured Justin Spear, son of Roger Ruskin Spear of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and 'Paul' Reeves, who as Billy Reeves formed theaudience with Sophie Ellis-Bextor in 1997. An ambitious further album, 'Amazon Eyegasm' (featuring the former 14 Iced BearsWill Taylor on guitar and 'Red Ed' on drums) followed in 1991.
Blow-Up were described as 'the best band I ever signed, and the worst band I ever signed' by Alan McGee. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
