The Best new Band in Britain .......................... SULK

It takes a lot nowadays for me to listen to the generic radio friendly so called indie music coming out of England. That's why ive delved into my past to write up on the bands gone by From the Britpop era to The Madchester movement from the early 90s. For a band to make me want to do a write up on them it means they are something special. But there is one new band who is creating something so amazing i have been moved to do this little write up.

And that band is ....... SULK

It seems i have been waiting for many, many years for a group to make music that i would call inspiring but
sulk have done this with only 2 songs. When i first heard "Wishes" it sent all my hopes of a new dawning
of talent that England has been missng for over 15 years and made them come true!

Taking all elements from our music hertiage ( Psych , Madchester, Britpop and so much more) they have
created something that i can once believe in again, and in doing so they can inspire others and to create and
shape new artists (in which they are one!) .Bands like The Charlatans, Ride, Suede, The roses,  The Verve and slowdive all had something that made them heartfelt and unique. And now SULK have created something to rival these and all the other bands that rose before them.

A new dawn is rising for British music and SULK are the leaders of the pack.

Don't let me down boys......... don't let me down!

Wishes

Back in bloom

Sulks facebook Page:  http://www.facebook.com/sulktheband

When I close my eyes, the future begins ....... Northside

Some bands were merged into the scene because of the Place they were born or the record label they were on. To a certain degree Northside was placed in the baggy camp just like the bands "James" and "The high" and with the Madchester explosion Factory records labeled them Baggy and hyped them up to be the next big thing.

After supporting The Happy Mondays in 1989 they signed a recording contract with factory and landed a spot on the documentary "Madchester - The sound of the North".  But it was with their 1st single that the band hit a problem, Factory records may have had the most fantastic bands but when it came down to actually getting the bands noticed to a larger audience they always failed !. Shall we take a trip was released on 2nd June 1990 and was banned outright on all daytime radio and some High street shops, why i hear you ask?.  Well with the letters L-S-D being the 1st speaking lines to open the song it was bound to happen!.

With several singles including the fantastic "Take 5" being released between 1990 and 1991 the toured America then released their one and only album "Chicken Rhythms" on June 17th 1991 to mixed reviews. In the UK it did reach the top 20's and did favour better in the US but what with the Grunge scene hitting at the same time it was destined to get rocky. The band did record some demos for a future single and album, but with the demise of Factory records these never saw the light of day.

In 2006 the band reformed for a reunion tour but with the only original member being present was the singer Dermo but during 2008 2 of the original members "Dermo" and "Walsh" started working on new material.

Fingers crossed that 2nd album see's the light of day and maybe even a return to the music scene. Just one of the bands who could of been so much bigger if they had been given the proper chance. With the Britpop scene just around the corner who knew what could have been achieved!.

So that's that then i guess, another truly fantastic band that never got a chance!.  I see a pattern emerging here !!

No one to sing my summer song ....... Bedazzled

Some bands from the early 90's had the baggy grooves and the haircuts but the tunes were limp, this was not the case for the band Bedazzled!. The four lads form the band in 1990 in "Gloucestershire" which was also the birth place for the mighty EMF. After gaining a decent following in their home town they landed a record deal with Columbia records and embarked on a 23 date tour of Britain.

Their only output was a handfull of singles and 1 album, but what an album it was!. The album "Sugar free" was full to the brim with catch folaty pop tunes that would rival and out play any of the bands of the scene of the time. But as the scene was being shafted by the Ever growing Grunge scene that was being championed by the NME (Sic!) the band was lost like so many of the other bands of the era. Just listen to the tracks "teenage mother superior", Railway children" and "postcards from here" and you will find an album that yes only had 10 songs but would be more heart felt, well written and catchy than anything that emerged from the Grunge scene.

Maybe it was down to the press ditching the scene to favour another to sell more papers or it might be just because they had shit management, we will never know. All i know is that if they were given a chance they would have been still making records today.


Link to the debut album "Sugar free" :

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ce2c9f6/n/Bedazzled_-_Sugar_free.rar

Candy changed her tune ...... 35 Summers

So many bands just seemed to pour out of the Madchester scene once the flood gates were opened. But as usual the Music papers had already forgotten the scene that only a couple of years ago they had championed. Yes thats right GRUNGE was gaining a massive following over in the states and NME thought it was (Like everything they do! ) the new big thing, this of course would be followed by the rise of Britpop which they championed until they got bored !. With Madchester in a state of flux there were lots of bands who became invisible to the music press and to us the readers who only caught small condescending reviews to favour the Shit that was coming over from America!.

35 summers were one of these bands and like a few of that bands that had the "indie dance" label attached to them they released a cover as their 1st single. A baggy reworking of the Beatles "Come together" was the order of the day just like other bands outputs like  Candy flip, The soup dragons and The Farm would all produce a single by someone else. Not to say  its a bad thing because it was for my tastes a fantastic reworking and also their next 2 singles "Really down" and "i wont try". Really down sets the whole tone for the album with the jangly guitar and the Baggy beats and hart felt lyrics that made me smile.

Even though they toured with Northside and EMF in 1991 with the summer of love in full swing it wasn't long before they disbanded and the Debut album "Sketch" was shelved and forgotten apart from a Japanese issue.



Link to the debut album "Sketch":
http://www.filefactory.com/file/ce13bb9/n/35_summers-sketch.rar

I hear your tambourines .......... The Dylans

For me it's always the little bands who influence the most and even though the Dylans only created 2 albums they influnced and shaped the way i created music.

Formed in Sheffield in the late 80s the were signed to Beggars banquet records they released 4 singles from their self titled debut album. With styles ranging from jangle guitars to the sounds that were being used in the Baggy scene of the time. I remember going on a record hunt around Oxford and finding a small record shop that was hidden off the high street. With most baggy album singles and albums of the time the titles somehow always had meanings of Love, floating, and fruit references !!! ........... so this is what i was looking for.
So in section D i stumbled across The Dylans with the single "Lemon afternoon"........ this had to be baggy didn't it?.
well yes actually it was with its big baggy beats and floaty Voices with spangle guitars all swirling above my head, i could just Imagen the lead singer with his bowl haircut. So i picked everything up i could that they had and toodled off home to play my latest purchases. So i found myself with the 1st 4 singles and the debut album and i seem to remember playing them on rotation for hours especially the song love vibration.

After several line up changes they released 2 more singles "Grudge" and "Ill be back to haunt you" and with a big interest in America it looked like they were set. But after the 2nd album "Spirit finger" didn't do so well they split up in 1994.

In my opinion after listening to Spirit finger again (Which is a bloody fantastic album) it seems to me that if they had been marketed right with the upcoming Britpop scene they could have been massive. But alas as with so many indie bands it was never meant to be and they just faded away.

On The Seventh Day God Created Manchester !!!!!

The acid house scene of the late 80's was the start of something big for the indie bands of the late 80's and early 90s. With bands like the Smiths, New order, Soup dragons and Primal scream all making their mark at the same time as the underground house music scene at some point these genres were going to get mixed.

The roots of what we now call Madchester can be traced back to around 1988, it was a name that was created by Phillip shotton who worked for Factory records which would become one of the biggest indie labels in the uk. 

4 years earlier bands like the Stone roses and the Happy Mondays were forming and even though their sound was not dance orintainted the influence or the ever growing Manchester music scene would turn something that started out as indie rock into Indie dance. With artists like A guy called Gerald, Inspiral carpets, James and 808 state, indie bands started to find their groove.

Farfisa and Hammond organs, wah-wah and jangle indie guitars that would not be out of place in any track by the Byrds and double drum beats were making their way into the minds of young bands. With the explosion of the fashion craze created by the likes of Joe bloggs and Naf naf all the kids were wearing Baggy bell bottoms with bright 60s t-shirts.

And so started the Craze of BAGGY!!

Bands like The Charlatans, The Dylans, The mock turtles,Northside, Candy flip and Bedazzled all started to sprout up all over the place. And so the Baggy madness was born and for the next few years it was very, very cool to be a music obsessed teenager in the uk........