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Vim: There aren't any sheep in Mongolia!
Den: That's a good name for a band...
Bad News by Bad News © 2004 Parlophone Records Ltd.
Naked But For Glasses By Andrew Burns Origin: I am a wearer of spectacles and there is no denying that occasionally on getting undressed my glasses have been the last item of attire left. Not to put too fine a point on it (or scare anyone away) this has been commented on, and such comment, to my ear, resulted in a good name for a band. Chris Appleton in the mid to late 80’s had been the creative force behind psychedelic dance act Nipple Tickle. As the 80’s turned to the 90’s he was looking to add more of a pop sensibility to his post- Acid House electronica. Appleton found this sensibility in songwriter Luke Maguire. Maguire’s 60’s inspired, metropolitan infused brand of pop hooks laid over Appleton’s club friendly dance beats were infectious and had the crossover appeal Appleton had been searching for. When they added Maguire’s then girlfriend, the impossibly beautiful Freja Pedersen to the collective, the Danish singer’s breathy, lightly accented vocals completed the picture. Their first single as Naked But For Glasses was “Induced Sun” in 1991 and was picked up eagerly by club DJs across the UK, leading to it reaching No. 38 on the UK pop chart. They returned 6 months later with “Goodbye Privacy”, the first single from their self-titled first album. This absurdly infectious track was their real breakthrough, just missing out on the UK Top Ten as well as being a hit across Europe. The album was top 3 in the UK and really cemented their position in that first vanguard of what we would later call Britpop. While the rest of their Britpop contemporaries eschewed the Acid House dance aesthetic in favour of a rockier outlook, Naked But For Glasses ploughed their own furrow. They returned in 1994 with their second album “Cloud Cover”. Cloud Cover had been recorded during the breakdown of Pedersen and Maguire’s relationship and while this made promoting the album quite tense (colossal understatement!) it was a massive hit across Asia and Europe and even made some impact in the US. When Pedersen left it looked like time had been called on Naked But For Glasses, but Appleton and Maguire returned with a third album, 1997’s “Flatpack Love” that featured a series of guest female vocalists, most notably perhaps Fiona McPherson of Glaswegian all-girl punk band 9th Earl of Scandal. Her track, “Crazy Confectious” was the most successful release from the album, though, although it still stands up as a good listen even today, Flatpack Love is by some distance Naked But For Glasses’ weakest selling album. Nearly 5 years passed before they came back again in 2002 with the album “Bubble Wrap”. On vocal duties, this time for the whole album, was Donna Burton of Kiwi girl group Might as Maze.This decision lent a much more cohesive feel to this album. The lead single from Bubble Wrap, the achingly sad “Bound By Pain” is their biggest hit to date (though say that quietly in the presence of Freja Pedersen). With Pedersen persuaded back into the studio for the fifth album, “Waterloo Sunscreen” was a triumphant return for the original lineup and garnered two of their biggest hits (after Bound By Pain- sorry Freja!) in “Framed Summer” and “Mug Of Love”. Naked But For Glasses are rumoured to be back in the studio now working on their 6th album.
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Dead Orchid
By Andrew Burns Origin: Neither my partner nor I are what you might call "gardeners". Even house plants are, frankly, in mortal peril in our care. We have an orchid. It's dead. Nuff said. Dead Orchid formed in the summer of 1987 when David Fowler, Norman Shaker and Pete Davis (then playing together as Spoof Elephant) met vocalist Lisa Denton. Her ethereal, other worldly, haunting voice was the perfect match for Fowler’s enigmatic lyrical poetry and when this was layered over Davis’ shimmering, unpredictable, heavily distorted guitars, magic happened. The studio was Fowler’s real instrument and on “British Values”, their first album, he gave full reign to his perfectionism to produce an era-defining sonic revelation. The reliance on what could be achieved in the studio meant they were never more than a competent live act. Visually always something less than dynamic, the need for immense concentration to reproduce their complex signature sound on stage led to them being dubbed shoegazers along with the likes of My Bloody Valentine, in whose wake Dead Orchid definitely sailed. Work began on the second album towards the end of 1989 and, despite the rumours (in the NMM in particular) that Fowler’s iron grip on the day to day was crippling the production as well as relationships in the band, “Middling Medicine” arrived in October 1990, riding the wave of shoegazing’s peak. Middling Medicine comfortably outsold it’s predecessor at the time but it has been viewed unkindly in hindsight. The previously described enigmatic lyrics had drifted dangerously close to nonsense, making Van Dyke Parks sound like Richard Dawkins by comparison. The signature heavy distortion was beginning to sound like white noise. The third album that was going to reestablish Dead Orchid’s reputation has never materialised, though it was rumoured to be in the can in 1996. Davis and Shaker have both moved onto other projects (Death Pete Davis and Noble Cabbage respectively) while Fowler and Denton remain singularly associated with Dead Orchid. Dead Orchid’s loyalists are still hopeful that the unheard album will appear ahead of a triumphant return. Might As Maze
By Andrew Burns Origin: Another donation from my daughters, my eldest this time. This is something she used to say a lot, an amalgamation of "Might as well" and "May as well". Might as mays has turned into a family saying. Should I turn it into an imaginary band? Might as mays... Might As Maze are an all girl pop group who formed in Christchurch in New Zealand in 1998. Inspired by the global success of the Spice Girls undoubtedly they also cite influences as diverse as Nirvana, Bananarama, Siouxsi Sioux, Bowie (of course) and Chrissie Hind. These influences give their brand of pop a harder edge than that of many girl groups of a similar vintage. Karen Harper, Tania Showell and Donna Burton were all unknowns when record producer Jon Ropata brought them together and introduced Ella Sparks into the mix. Sparks had been a child actor on daytime TV in New Zealand and Ropata saw star potential in her. He was right, but his master stroke was in not promoting her alone, instead enveloping her in a girl band. Their debut single, the absurdly catchy "Back Pocket" was a hit in New Zealand and Australia, but it was the second single "Cat House" that was the breakout hit that would make them stars internationally. Their first album "This Is Us" was a colossal hit in Japan and across Europe, fans in the UK in particular embracing this edgier style of pop. "This Is Us" focussed on Sparks as the lead vocalist, but by the time 2001's follow up "Dark Sunshine" appeared a more egalitarian order had been established with all four members sharing lead vocal responsibilities, Donna Burton in particular revelatory on the title track. The single "Dark Sunshine" remains their biggest hit globally. A gruelling world tour was undertaken to promote Dark Sunshine and the toll this took on all of them meant that by the time "Wonder Women" their third album was released in 2004 the group was already on hiatus. Wonder Women's sales can be directly correlated with the amount of promotion it received- there was very little of either. While Might As Maze have never officially disbanded they remain on that hiatus to this day. Time for a reunion tour...? Horny Viper
By Andrew Buns Origins: Complete geek-fest this one! We were watching the quiz show "Only Connect" and teams choose categories defined by Egyptian hieroglyphs, one of which is the horned viper. To up the geek score (because it isn't already stratospheric) some participants refer to it as the "Horn-ed Viper". Deliberate mishearing of this gave us Horny Viper- a good name for a band... As the magnesium-bright-burning anger of punk dissipated it was largely replaced with sadness, melancholia and introspection and no one epitomised this musical flavour more than Horny Viper. Formed by schoolmates Max Dwyer and Martin Oxford almost the second they left the Sex Pistols gig at Manchester's Lesser Free Trade Hall (what aspiring 80s rockstar was not present that night?), it was Dwyer with the vision, drive and, arguably most important as far as Horny Viper are concerned, the personal style to really make things happen. With Dwyer the principle songwriter, vocalist and lead guitarist and Ox on synth duties they advertised in the NMM for a bassist and drummer and were joined in short order by Rob Glover and Sid Andres who had both been drifting around local bands looking for somewhere to stick. With Horny Viper stick they did. Very quickly the signature look was established- Dwyer's melancholia given visceral embodiment in ghoulish makeup, back combed hair and dark clothes to match, the rest of the band dutifully following suit. The signature sound was not too far behind, chiming guitars layered with twisted, snarling synths delivering deceptively catchy pop songs that spoke of aching emptiness and self-perpetuating loneliness, teenaged familiars that few others have captured before or since. Their debut single, "Love Darkly" made it into the top 10 in the UK. In 1983 the follow up, "That Which I Want" went top 5 in the UK but topped the charts stateside and cemented Horny Viper's position as superstars of the world after punk. Their first two albums drip with ache and vulnerability. This was Post Punk for a generation less driven by political outrage, more by the pain of rejection, unrequited love and the sense of displacement in the world that is part of the teenage condition. As they grew older their music changed and mellowed and while this changing musical direction over time produced some truly brilliant pop songs they will be forever associated, fairly or not, with those early albums and their many imitators. Perhaps Dwyer's refusal to change his look even as the band and their fan base have aged is part of the reason, but also the strength of that early work refuses to be eclipsed. Cape and Hogan
Origin: This one was offered up by my (then) 8 year old while she was telling me about a family member's trip to the capital of Denmark... Thomas Cape and Graham Hogan came together having both enjoyed significant success in other bands, but it is arguably the work they did and the plaudits they garnered together through the 70's and 80's for which they will be best remembered. On the face of it they had little in common- Thomas Cape, the divisive prima donna blamed by his erstwhile band mates for tearing apart Humble Pumpkin, the pre-eminent exponents of pop psychedelia in mid-60's California; and Graham Hogan, the working-class boy from Sheffield, UK, who, as the bassist in Random Cat alongside his 3 school friends rode the wave of the British Invasion all the way to the top of the US pop charts. But together their lush, soaring harmonies achieved legendary greatness and assured their position in the annals of rock history. As the 60's were coming to their end Tom Cape had lost his way. Ostracised by his former band mates and experimenting heavily with drugs he was seeking peace and support to get his life back on track. Unfortunately he sought these with charismatic cult leader D. Beau Harrison and his mysterious "Collective". By the time Hogan also encountered (albeit briefly) Harrison, Cape's position within The Collective was breaking down (having allegedly slept with at least 3 of Harrison's "designated concubines"). Hogan, then as always the straight talking Northerner, left The Collective almost as soon as he arrived having decided in short order that their particular brand of dysfunctionality was not for him. Cape, seeing an opportunity to escape, went with him. The rest as they say is history. They wrote the first album (the classic "Live in Cape 'n' Hogan") over the next couple of months and recorded it in the dying days of the 60's. It was, to indulge in understatement, a huge hit. Despite the Folk/Rock flavour being stylistically a departure for both of them they built a huge following both for their recorded work and as a live act. They toured the world prodigiously throughout the 70's. By the turn of the decade this was taking it's toll and the recording of 1983's "Hogan's Cape" was fraught (more understatement) and even before it's release the partnership had broken down. The two remained estranged for most of the next 10 years as Cape wrestled his inner demons and Hogan produced two hugely commercially successful solo albums. Despite the sales they generated both of these works were critically savaged, dismissed as "Dinner Party Pop". The music world's collective eyebrows were raised when Tom Cape was announced as a headline act for the 1991 Glastonbury Festival in the UK. Rumours circulated almost immediately that it was both Cape and Hogan who had been booked, but it was not until Cape appeared on the hallowed Pyramid stage, guitar in hand and played the first few bars of the great "Dying Days of Summer Light" that Graham Hogan's presence was confirmed and he joined his musical brother on stage for the first time in 12 years. That performance is now legendary, with it seeming that everyone claims to have been in the 60000 strong crowd. This reunion sparked a resurgence in interest in the duo, both in their back catalogue and in the new work they continue to produce. They are rightly considered as one of the most important acts in popular music of the last 40 years. |
AuthorAndrew Burns really should know better and has so many more important things to be doing than writing this drivel. Please offer him no encouragement either via social media or through the contact page Archives
September 2017
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