The Saturn V featuring Orbit - Behind Closed Doors At A Recording Studio - Big Ben Records EP BB-500.

Hey! Hey! Hey! Blogger chums, here's a single by the Saturn V featuring Orbit. Pretty good stuff if you like your rock to be frat, a la Fortune and Maltese. This was one of four 7" singles they released. I'll hopefully share them all with you over the passage of time. The biggest shame about this combo, which featured Johnny Bartlett from The Phantom Surfers and The King of Power Pop, Chris Von Sneidern, along with our titular hero, Orbit (whose real name is lost to the mists of time), is that they never issued a proper vinyl LP. There were two unique CD-released long players from Big Ben Records, as well as a mini-CDR jobby that compiled the singles and was sold at gigs, but no vinyl.

As with all the truly great records, there's plenty for you to read - the insert and the back sleeve are festooned with some of my very favourite words placed in a mind-bogglingly unique sequence. The back cover also features the band posing on what should, going by the thrust of the sleeve notes and the concept of the release, be a street in Swinging London. Except it's not, it's somewhere much more special.

Enjoy.

The Saturn V featuring Orbit - Behind Closed Doors At A Recording Studio - Big Ben Records EP BB-500.

big ben records frat rock johnny bartlett Manchester The Saturn V featuring Orbit

The Man From Del Monte - My Love Is Like A Gift (You Can't Return) Bop Cassettes 12" BIP 701.

The Man From Del Monte was a Manchester band which featured nobody from Manchester. They played jangly, melodic guitar pop, sometimes employing that constant arbiter of 80s indie melody, the trumpet. This was their final single and was released on Bop Cassettes as both a cassette and 7” and 12” vinyl releases. They never released a ‘proper’ LP; a recording of them playing live at Manchester’s The Boardwalk was issued by Bop as a cassette and a vinyl 12” and a compilation, Catholic Boys on Mobilettes made it only onto a C60 cassette until Vinyl Japan reissued it on the moribund and pointless CD format.

It’s very jolly, the title track was originally going to be released under the name of Deborah Anne Turner, but it is believed she vetoed this before the record reached the shops. Enjoy.

The Man From Del Monte - My Love Is Like A Gift (You Can't Return) Bop Cassettes 12" BIP 701.

bop cassettes Indie Pop Jangly Manchester pop

Grow-Up - The Best Thing. Object Records LP. OBJ 005.

I've had this one a long, long time. Purchased from Virgin Records in Manchester when it was at the bottom of Market Street. There's a flaw in the pressing, which is probably why it was priced at 49p. An LP on the estimable Object Records for only 49p. How could I resist? It's a great pop record. By no means perfect, but when it gets it right it really gets it right. They released a second, self-released LP which I may upload in future, but it's not a patch on this one. Click on the labels to link to a copy of their tremendous final single, Joanne.

Enjoy.

Grow-Up - The Best Thing. Object Records LP. OBJ 005.

Grow-Up Manchester Object Records pop

The Passage - Troops Out. A Disc By Night & Day 7". ampm 22:00.

The Passage were the kind of art-rock politically-motivated band that would get nowhere near a major label these days, but here they are on Virgin Records offshoot Night & Day. Having seen them in London around the time their second LP For All And None came out a friend told me they sounded like Discharge with synths. It was meant to be a put down. In retrospect that would be A Good Sound. The records, of course, aren't anywhere near as rough, particularly given lead fella Dick Witts' classical background, and the major label backing. This release was a true rarity, support for the withdrawal of British troops from the north of Ireland at the height of The Troubles, complete with contextual information and contact details. Enjoy.

The Passage - Troops Out. A Disc By Night & Day 7". ampm 22:00.

Manchester Object Records post-punk The Passage

Grow-Up - Joanne. Object Records 7". OM12.

My introduction to Grow-Up was through their debut LP, 'The Best Thing', which was also released on Object Records a few months before this single. 49p from Virgin Records in Manchester when it was at the bottom of Market Street. Cheers, Richard. A few years later when in Brighton and enthusing about the LP it gets assumed that I already had a copy of this. I didn't, but I heard it and I knew that I had to have it. But this was the olden days and finding a record, particularly a limited release, niche market independent 7" from a few years previous, meant you had to actually get off your arse and trawl through record shops new and second-hand as well as rely on huge amounts of luck. And eventually I did. I wish I could remember where, but I just recall that it was just sitting there and it was cheap. And now you can have it too. Sleeve lists tracks as A. Joanne. B. Two Tunes. Label echoes the sleeve for the A, but B is 1a. Affirmation of Existance. 1b. Reaffirmation of Existance. 1c. Swept Away (0.36) 2. GGGDADGADADAD (1.46). Enjoy.

Grow-Up - Joanne. Object Records 7". OM12.

Grow-Up Manchester Object Records pop

Laugh - Paul McCartney. The Remorse Label 7". Loss 5. Plus debut Peel session.

The great lost Manchester band. Laugh had the misfortune to straddle two scenes. Born out of the guitar band activity stimulated through the success of The Smiths and scuppered during the excesses of Madchester. This is their first 'proper' release. Before this, they had a flexi-disc release available through Dave Haslam's estimable Debris fanzine. They followed it with the already-uploaded Take Your Time, Yeah and another, more dance-music influenced single, Time To Lose It, which was more representative of the sound of their only, disappointing, LP, Sensation Number One. For me, they were always at their best as a tune-focussed big beat band. Such as on this seven. The title track in particular. Thanks to Michael for loaning me this record during a camping trip. It's a tricky thing preserving a twenty-four-year-old vinyl single in the middle of a field. As a bonus, I've included their first Peel Session, which features versions of Paul McCartney and Take Your Time, Yeah. Enjoy.

Laugh - Paul McCartney. The Remorse Label 7". Loss 5.
Laugh - Peel Session - March 17th 1986.

John Peel laugh Manchester

Laugh - Take Your Time, Yeah. The Remorse Label 12". Lost 3.

Laugh were a band who managed to fall spectacularly between scenes; too angry to qualify for the C86 jelly and ice cream party and too established for the Madchester feeding frenzy. They're also the Manchester band who get closest to That Scouse Skiffle Sound that signifies the best and the worst of that bunch from The Wrong End of The M62. Think The Las, Shack and, Lord forgive me, The Coral. Except Laugh angry it up a bit and whack their drums that little bit harder and shout in your face.

They released a handful of singles and an LP which sounded like all the corners had been knocked off their sound. Too mellow, too wah-wah, too nice one mate, are you on one? This 12" is them at their punk rock best. Enjoy.

Laugh - Take Your Time, Yeah. The Remorse Label 12". Lost 3.

Thanks to Martin at Songs From Under The Floorboards for the sleeve pics.

laugh Manchester

The Fall - Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul. Kamera Records 7" ERA 001.

If there were such a thing as Cock of The Walk where bands are concerned (and there isn't, so fuck off U2, Radiohead, White Stripes, Wu Lyf etc.) there have been a few times in their career (and it has been a career) where The Fall have been it. Times when they have been Top Dog. The Best Band In The World. Without parallel. Beyond the pail. This period of two drummers, rockabilly rhythms, intelligent, coherent lyrics and yelping dog-like vocals, for example. Enjoy. It's also got a great Savage Pencil sleeve. So double enjoy.

The Fall - Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul. Kamera Records 7" ERA 001.

Manchester Mark E. Smith post-punk Savage Pencil Seminal The Fall

The Powers That Be - Crude Morning Mother. Amphetamine Reptile Records Scale 48.

Blimey, Charlie, it's an AmRep band from MANCHESTER, ENGLAND??  Bucking the trend for dancey wancey sub-Roses, post-Mondays, under par Madchester drivel, The Powers That Be played buzzy, droney, smokey almost-metal in the early 90s. Sometimes seen at The Boardwalk, one of them worked in a bank and the vocalist affected an American accent when performing. That's about all I can remember about them. apart from the fact that they were all nice fellas and they stood out like a thumb as big as Uma Thurman's in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. Rave on.
The Powers That Be - Crude Morning Mother. Amphetamine Reptile Records Scale 48.

amphetamine reptile records Manchester powers that be

Big Flame - Two Kan Guru 10". Ron Johnson Records Re Ron 8.

In some sense, a respite from the tidal wave of garage punk, budget rock and surf I've been uploading recently, but in other ways an upping of the ante. bIG fLAME were a Manchester three-piece whose output while they existed was restricted to a handful of 7" singles on independent labels. So, no thematic leap from somebody like The Fingers, for example. The band were resolutely political, amateur in the 'Good job done by non-professionals' kind of way, and most of all had a sound as if the history of jazz were written for drums, guitar and bass then pushed down the stairs. They are loud, fast and discordant in a particular early-80s way. Some say Minutemen, and I can see why they do, but bIG fLAME are much less considered, much more organic. Anyhow, if you're only here for The Gories, give it a go. Try starting with Sargasso. A song like a gas explosion.

Big Flame - Two Kan Guru 10". Ron Johnson Records Re Ron 8.

Big Flame Manchester Ron Johnson Records