Shitbirds - Oh Joy! Sympathy For The Record Industry 10". SFTRI 193.

Now, what can I tell you about The Shitbirds? Pretty much fuck all, to be honest. You can find out more here. They were April March's band before she was April March. And April March covered Moody by E.S.G. alongside The Bassholes. So, that's recommendation enough. It's fast, it's short, it's poppy. Enjoy.

Shitbirds - Oh Joy! Sympathy For The Record Industry 10". SFTRI 193.

april march pop punk shitbirds Sympathy For The Record Industry

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

Fortune & Maltese and the Phabulous Pallbearers. Keystone Records Co. 7" KEY2-EP. (240)

Jukebox labels insert.

This is a nice, solid project. The Keystone Records label only released four singles in total, but if they're as well-presented as this one they're certainly worth seeking out. With Freddie Fortune and Michael Maltese you certainly know what you're going to get, so here's four more slices of Frat Nouveau backed by the ever Phabulous Pallbearers. Fortune and Maltese have a great tumblr here. Enjoy.

Fortune & Maltese and the Phabulous Pallbearers. Keystone Records Co. 7" KEY2-EP.

fortune and maltese frat rock pop

The Bureau - Only For Sheep. WEA Records 7". K18478. (239)

On enquiring who the loon was that had livened up Dexy's recent appearance on Later With Jools Holland I was informed that it was Pete Williams, ex of the band who had left when the original line-up had split in 1981. He'd gone on, with other ex-members, to form The Bureau, whose first single I had bought at the time (25p from the reduced rack in Woolworths) but had subsequently moved on. I was keen to own it again so picked it up at eBay for a relatively small amount (no, not 25p). It's as catchy as I remember it and is definitely cut from the same cloth as Dexy's. Enjoy.

The Bureau - Only For Sheep. WEA Records 7". K18478.

Bureau Dexys pop Soul

Gloo Girls - Yo Blondie - Dionysus Records 7". 74565 (238)

There's not really much out there about the Gloo Girls. For some reason they don't even feature on the Grunnen Rocks database, despite ticking many of the boxes required for inclusion. This single was released on Dionysus in 1992 and appears to be out of print, and there was a ten-track release Attention Shoppers on Celluloid. They appear to be active in some form as they have a Facebook site but, again, there's not really much information about them. They're from New York and there's something about them that reminds me of Girls At Our Best. Especially the flipside, Barbie U.S.A. Enjoy.

Gloo Girls - Yo Blondie - Dionysus Records 7". 74565 (238).

garage girl bands Girls At Our Best Gloo Girls new york pop punk

The Redskins - Keep On Keepin' On! Decca Records 7". F1.

The Redskins were a politically-motivated late 80s pop band. Led by NME journalist Chris Dean (he wrote under the nom-de-plume X. Moore for no apparent reason) and favouring a skinhead look and brass-heavy, Dexys-like, Northern Soulish sound, they had a couple of very minor hits (this included). It's a catchy, pleasant enough compilation-tape filler. It came bundled with a free 12" which I'll eventually add. Enjoy.

The Redskins - Keep On Keepin' On! Decca Records 7". F1

80s Decca Northern Soul pop skinhead The Redskins

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

The Go-Betweens - Hammer The Hammer - Rough Trade Records 7". RT 108.

The sleeve for this one is hardly going to keep the World's greatest graphic designers awake at night. Well done, Rough Trade. Flip side By Chance is from The Go-Betweens second, and greatest, LP, Before Hollywood. This was the A-Side's debut appearance. It has since appeared on a number of compilation releases. The Go-Betweens are a band whose lack of wider success is a mystery for many, but this release is from their earlier, less compromising, post  new wave period. The production budgets were smaller and the sound was more thud and crash than the smoother pop sound which was introduced on their next LP, their major label debut, Spring Hill Fair. All periods of The Go-Betweens, have their merits, though. More from them soon. Enjoy.

The Go-Betweens - Hammer The Hammer - Rough Trade Records 7". RT 108.

Australia pop post-punk postcard Rough Trade The Go-Betweens

Girls At Our Best - Politics. Record Records RR2.

More pure pop from the wrong side of the Pennines. The second single from Girls At Our Best on their own Record Records label. Looking at the line-up on the flipside of the sleeve I was going to suggest that this was proof of the primacy of trios but there's no drummer listed. Both tracks are great but I think that, on this occasion the B-side wins. I'd love to see some footage of this band moving and grooving but, alas, there's nothing out there freely available. Enjoy.

Girls At Our Best - Politics. Record Records RR2.

Girls At Our Best pop post-punk Record Records

Girls At Our Best - Getting Nowhere Fast / Warm Girls. Record Records 7". RR1.

Girls at Our Best were a Leeds-based pop band who should have had the World at their feet in the early 80s. Championed by Peel and the NME, releasing slices of catchy guitar pop and fronted by the lovely Judy Evans, Top of the Pops seemed to beckon. But it was not to be. After five sevens and an LP they called it a day. A posthumous Peel session release reminded everybody what they had been missing a couple of years later. More recently everything was reissued on CD by Vinyl Japan, but that version is inferior as it doesn't have The Crackle. MP3 bit rate has been upped to the top end of the VBR scale, just for Mr. Noon, but I still have about thirty releases ready to go at the lower bit rate so it'll be a while before they're used up. Enjoy.

Girls At Our Best - Getting Nowhere Fast / Warm Girls. Record Records 7". RR1.

Girls At Our Best John Peel Leeds pop Record Records

Bradford - In Liverpool. The Foundation Label 7". TFL1.

Another day, another bunch of pale-faced softies with guitars. Bradford were one of a number of bands who were selected then rejected for the New Smiths title after that band had imploded. Their credentials were boosted when they were chosen as the support act for Morrissey's first post-Smiths live performance in Wolverhampton, but they just never caught on. As you might expect this is melodic pop with strangulated vocals. Never as aggressive as The Smiths at their best, but still an agreeable slice of plastic. Enjoy.

Bradford - In Liverpool. The Foundation Label 7". TFL1.

bradford morrissey new smiths pop the foundation label

White Flag - Don't Give It Away. Sympathy For The Record Industry 7".

This record is aural viagra for me. A throbbing pop music hard-on. White Flag as a mutant monster coming together of the host band and The Muffs. An unrecognised classic for the a-side and a Brill Building classic on the flip. And doesn't Melanie Vammen look just like Derek Smalls with that moustache?


White Flag - Don't Give It Away. Sympathy For The Record Industry 7".

muffs pop Sympathy For The Record Industry white flag

The Fingers - The Rusty Quan E.P. 1992. Rat City Records RC-8.

Four more tracks by The Fingers. This is another post-split up release and features material recorded by Mr. Raul Balcarcel on a boom box. Allegedly. What's In It For Me? was meant to be The Fingers track on the announced but never released Pre-BS Fingers/Supercharger split single. It was also later recorded by The Rip-Offs, but, as Mr. Shane White indicates in his comprehensive and learned sleeve notes, "that version sucks balls compaired (sic) to this one."

The Fingers - The Rusty Quan E.P. 1992. Rat City Records RC-8.

garage pop Rat City Records The Fingers The Rip-Offs The Statics

The Secret Seven - Hold On To Love. Bronze Records. BRO 164. 1983.

Another release that betrays my weakness for guitar-based pop music failures. Formed in the wake of The Distractions - a Manchester band who were touted for bigger things - The Secret Seven featured vocalist Mike Finney exercising his soulful vocal stylings on the over-produced 80s-sounding but still listenable Hold On To Love and the less enjoyable b-side Up In Smoke, which suffers from yucky production and a relentless tune. There will be a chance to hear the early Distractions singles and material recorded in the 1990s when 'Nothing' is released in 2011.

The Secret Seven - Hold On To Love. Bronze Records. BRO 164.

John Peel pop secret seven

Heaven Seventeen - Something's Wrong. Bubastis Records flexi-disc.

No, not that Heaven Seventeen. This one precedes the Human League spin-off, but was, interestingly, also from Yorkshire. Bradford, as opposed to Heaven Seventeen's Sheffield. Adding more White Rosery Hosiery into the mix, I got this from Red Rhino Records in York. It apparently came with issue twelve of Wool City Rocker fanzine, a magazine I don't remember buying, but could well have done so given that I was interested in a lot of bands from that area at the time. I believe I also bought I'm So Hollow's 'Dreams That Fill The Vacuum' single that day having heard it on Peel.

As far as I know nothing else was ever heard from this version of Heaven Seventeen. They got into a spat with the Virgin-backed Heaven 17 and that was that. Gone. This one-track flexi is a real treat and very, very Buzzcocks-influenced, but with that pharp pharp cheap keyboard sound so prevalent in the day.

Heaven Seventeen - Something's Wrong. Bubastis Records flexi-disc.

1980 Flexi-Disc Heaven Seventeen pop

Glass Torpedoes - Someone Different. Teen Beat Records 7". TBR1.

Scouse power pop from Peel favourites Glass Torpedoes this time. This is one of the few singles I still have from my youth. I liked this so much I bought a Glass Torpedoes badge from Better Badges and was thrilled beyond imagination itself when a young woman working in the Post Office in Spring Gardens in Manchester commented on it positively. Validation!

The band did a Peel session in January 1980, but by the time they recorded a second single singer Barbara Donovan was gone and the band were backing up singer John Milton for Unreal the Real, a pretty rotten soft metal single by John Milton and The Glass Torpedoes.

Glass Torpedoes - Teen Beat Records TBR1.

glass torpedoes John Peel Liverpool new wave pop