I'm typing this in near-darkness, although it's the day after the summer solstice and not yet six in the evening. It's veered between monsoon and dark clouds all day, so while watching Pointless on BBC1 I've been looking at some more sunny songs to help me get into the seasonal spirit.
This tune, featuring my absolute favourite Laetitia Sadier will be released next Monday 25th June, and has had a fair bit of play on BBC6 Music. Belgian artist Benjamin Schoos has released an album featuring vocal contributions from Leatitia and also Chrissie Hynde plus Mark Gardner from Shoegaze outfit Ride. You can read all about it here.
Wednesday 20 June 2012
Faces at the seaside
Stop-you're squashing me!
Sunday 17 June 2012
Summer - by Cherry Red
OK, it doesn't feel that bright or even warm right now, but in the middle of June it's officially Summer. I was reminded of this when looking at the excellent Toys and Techniques blog this weekend and saw some great pics of The Marine Girls, an act on Cherry Red Records. I hadn't given them a thought since I was a teenager in the 80s, but the clip of A Place in the Sun brought back the music, clothes and haircuts of that time.
I had revisited Tracey Thorn in her Everything But The Girl guise, and still play their first album Eden. This early track On My Mind, which was a re-recording of a Marine Girls song, also took me back to summer; such a cute promo film (though not too sure about the film clip at the end-does anyone know where it's from?).
This of course led to an afternoon where one link led to another; before I knew it several hours had passed and I was looking at another favourite on Cherry Red:
I came across Felt just before they split in 1989, and managed to catch their last three shows (Supported in London by Lush, which I will hopefully cover in a future post). Anyhow, Bob Stanley recently posted this story about Felt and main man Lawrence, which sums them up far better than I could attempt here.
This track, Stained Glass Windows in the Sky, was on the album Poem of the River and released in 1987. Having left Cherry Red for Creation the year before, this was already their third long player for the label and had a more pastoral feel than their previous work:
This is Evergreen Dazed, from their first album Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty in 1981 and featured founding member Maurice Deebank.
Summer's a bit behind schedule in the North West of England this year-at least we can imagine what could be in store.
