Step right up ........... Mainstream

So as we entered the twilight years of Britpop circa 97-98 we got given a handful of bands who had different influences than the rest!. Mainstream were one of the bands who were influenced by prog rock and the Shoegaze movement of the early 90's.

Some would call it "Shoegaze" and others would call it "Groove rock" but no matter what you called it you had to shake your soul when you listened to Mainstreams debut album. Starting out in 1994 but not releasing a demo  till 1996 Mainstream was offered a record deal after only a handful of gigs. Playing like the early Verve songs but with more production and vibe the stage was set for these London boys to make it big.  I've always been a sucker for the sound of a Hammond organ pumping out of a Leslie speaker and Mainstream would please me no ends with their frantic bass lines and the sweet sound of the Hammond swirling in the back ground. These boys had groove and lots of soul which poured out of every track on their debut. With tracks like "Stranded", "Privilege" and of course the excellent "Step right up" they had a sound of their own and to this day they are one of the bands i just wished i had seen live.

But as with most of the bands that emerged at the end of Britpop they only released a handful of singles and 1 album.  I always loved the verve but i thought Mainstream were streets ahead even though they were mearly youngsters.

You make me want to scream ...... The Dandy's

So the 60s had a major sound influence on quite a few of the bands of the Britpop era but just before the Britpop explosion we had another short but excellent music scene that was called MADCHESTER !.

For me The Dandy's fell into this small group of bands that had a the influential sound from this early 90s music scene. Floaty, shoegazey, poppy and baggy are just 4 words to pin the sound of the Dandys whilst conforming to the standard Britpop sound as well.

They only released 1 album and a handful of singles but for a short time they ruled my record collection!. Searching for singles at the music shop Solo records in Exeter (R.I.P) i came across the single "Dirty weekend" by the band and as it was only 99p and i thought it was worth a shot!. And what a fantastic single it was, Dirty weekend is the musical version of one of those naughty postcards that you will find in the shop at the end of any British seaside pier!.  And those Typical English references ran through the lyrics of most of the bands songs on the album "Symphonic screams" including "English country garden, Merry go round and Johnny foxtrot to name but a few.

As usual with the Music press of the era NME ( WANKERS!!) hyped them up to be the next best thing but as soon as the album was released that were thrown aside!. Despite this they got popular on the touring scene and had a very big following including some members from other popular bands of the time.

So in 1999 with a new drummer and a new album being announced they seemed to be getting bigger and gathering a bigger fanbase then ..................................... NOTHING !!!


So go grab the album and treat yourself to one of the best Forgotten band from the era.

Oh What a lovely day ! ........... Thurman

Underrated is a word that is commonly used to described many of the britpop bands that i write about but Thurman stands out as one of the foremost of the bunch and the band NME touted as the New Blur!.

I saw these lads open for menswear in 1994 and they had me and all the other spotty teens hooked. Ok so a few of the songs sound like someone else ( "Loaded" is "children of the revolution" and "cheap holiday" sounds like "chemical world" and i wont even go into  "now i'm a man") but that didn't matter to me because these songs meant more to me than anything written in the 60's and 70's!

Rooting through the 7" bargin bin i found a copy of the single Famous that had been placed in there by mistake but i managed to grab it at 99p anyways. And what a single it was, from the opening piano riff to the lyrics about a certain famous Indie front man of the time!, the single was a classic even if my copy was a little warped and crackled all the way through !!.

So with a handful of singles under their belt they released their only album "Lux". With its plagiarism of more well known songs and styles (Mod, Glam and pop) they only lasted 2 years and then disbanded.
Don't listen to what the press wrote at the time, go and have a listen to Lux, its stuffed full of singalong tunes and every track could of easily been a single.


Thurman weren't just another band they were a band who wore their influences with pride, They WERE one of the Underrated bands of the 90s that never got to shine. But for people like me who actually got to see them play live they meant the whole world for those couple of years and defined our music direction for many years to come.

All Hype ................ The Longpigs

Selling your 1st 7" single on the door at your gig was common at most small venue bands in the 90s and this was where is got my 1st taster of the longpigs!


It was at the Piazza venue in Torquay where over a couple of days before the 1995 Glastonbury festival they put on some cracking bands (Apart from Northern uproar! ). Baby bird, Heavy stereo, Gorkys zygotic mynci, Northern uproar and The longpigs all on one ticket!. Now this was when all bands didnt have a single out and people only knew them was via BBC radio 1's Evening session. Id heard the song "Happy again" and "Jesus Christ" a few days before and if you read my post on Heavy stereo you will find out how i got in for free.

The Longpigs were cool, not just cool but Britpop Cool. They had something else that others didnt have and that was lead singer Crispin Hunt. He along with the other Pigs oozed coolness and style, not just the way they dressed but with the lyrics. The songs were crafted and thought about and  had a power and resonance that was very English to them. Every cover band in the country (Including Mine!) would have the Acoustic song "On and On" somewhere on the set list, it just had that opening Acoustic riff that was too good to pass up.


I remember Them playing the track "Jesus Christ" twice because when they were ordered to play an encore they didn't have any tracks left. But we didn't mind because to this day it was one of the stand out track of the era and their career. After leaving the Piazza gig with my limited edition press of happy again and Sally dances  7" firmly in hand and singing "Jesus Christ" over and over on the way home to catch the bus!.


The 1st official singles "Happy again", "she said" and "Jesus Christ" didn't make any waves in the charts until they released their 4th single"on and on" which got into the top 20. In 1996 they finally released the debut album "The sun is often out" and they re-released "She said" again and it also got placed into the top 20.


3 years later they released the 2nd album "Mobile home" with the excellent single "Blue skies" but after the 2nd single they faded away along with their record label.




Check out "The sun is often out" and the song "Jesus christ"..................... you wont be dissapointed !!!

I'm still haunted by you ................ Gene

Gene........... Now heres a band that was misunderstood !!!

And i don't know why because from what i am listening to right now  they always shined with PoP goodness, swirly hammonds and guitar hooks that can kill. Gene knew how to write a fantastic pop song "Be my light, be my guide, haunted by you, For the dead, Fighting fit"...the list could go on and on...

So The good old NME (Sic) always touted them as Smiths wannabes .But i always found myself listening to Gene more than The smiths. Don't get me wrong, the Smiths are fantastic, but for me Gene had something else to bring to the table. I was a bit late to get in to Gene, well i say late my first encounter with them was when they released "Sleep well tonight" which was only their 3rd single. Then they released "Haunted by you" which is still in my top 10 Britpop singles of all time. They had everything that a band should, a lead singer that all the girls could swoon over, Guitar riff's aplenty for all the blokes and Songs that would switch from Ballads to rock.
Spanning 5 Studio albums and 14 singles, Gene had a great career with a fantastic fan base and some critical success. But in 2004 they split after deciding that that had done all that they could. I always thought it was a shame that they never got the recognition that they deserved, don't get me wrong there was a few years that Gene were on the covers of all the regular music magazines and on TV but nothing as big as i thought they deserved!.
Just go and listen to their Debut album "Olympian", every song is a bonafied classic.

Like i have said in previous posts about albums taking me back to a certain place in time, Olympian also does this. When i have a listen nowadays I'm taken back to that hot summer in 1995, i had just arrived home from the Glastonbury festival and i couldn't sleep for the fact that i had just spent 4 days sleeping on the grass in a tent. For those few nights afterwards the only way i could sleep was to put my pillow on the floor and drift away to Olympian on my headphones.

We'll all go down in history ......... Whiteout

Our price, Coloured 7" vinyl , NME, Select magazine and Melody maker.......... THAT was my 90's

And so were Whiteout, They were one of the only bands that i never got to see and will never get to either. If i was to make a Britpop mix tape Whiteout would be on it around 4 times. With tracks like Jackie's racing, No time, Cousin Jane and Altogether they were one of the bands that defined Britpop for me.

Once again i found myself one rainy Saturday afternoon tuning in to The chart show on Itv because this week was the Indie chart. And along comes Whiteout with their new single Jackie's racing with its country overtones and hugely infectious chorus, and i couldn't resist. It was down to our price straight away for me. I remember the sales person behind the counter  said that i really must have really been into my music if ive heard of Whiteout! So with the thought of being a bit of a muso and having a fresh copy of the Jackie's racing single firmly in hand i headed back home to play it to death. And what a fantastic single was and still is, just check out the song Cousin Jane.

Even though Whiteout were short lived they did produce one of the definitive Britpop albums from my point of view. From the opening track Thirty eight all the way through to Untitled the album Bite It was a breath of fresh air with an album cover that i will never forget ( i always liked munchies!! ). They were the second band to be signed to the Silvertone label after the Stone roses releasing 7 singles and 2 albums. The last album to be released was called "Big wow" when we now find the band as a 3 piece after singer Andrew Caldwell left. The album was 3 years in the making and for me it was well worth it!.

On my 1st listen of "Big wow" i had a feeling that they were ready to split after listening to the closing track Back where i used to be. For some reason it was one of those songs that sounded like a goodbye song!

And in 1998 they split and was the end of the band and for me signalled the end of Britpop.

Oh! and if any of the so called Indie bands of today want to actually write a good song for once just take a listen to the track "Running for cover" on Big Wow to see how it should be done !!.

They sang about going down in history and for many people like my they really have.


Gav

Strap-on Sally chased us down the alley ............. The Seahorses

So its 1996 and ive just listened to The Stone roses Play The Reading festival without John squire. He had quit months earlier along with Reni and what i was listening to was the worst performance i have ever heard from a band let alone the band that basically got me into music!.

So with the roses over i was looking for something new, something with John Squires fingers all over it, and i didn't have to wait too long before Love is the law was released. OK so 1997 was the time that Britpop basically started to die a slow death, but a few bands that rose up in this time were still great even thou they would only release 1 or so albums.The seahorses fell into this category, with that opening riff on Love is the law i knew who was the Musical one of the roses as i tried by best to learn the riff on my new Gibson Les Paul  ( a favourite of John Squire no less!! ).
It was a different sound to the Roses but it was a nice change that had Squires trademark Distorted Chorus lead intertwined with arpeggios.Even at only 10 songs "Do it yourself" is a fantastic album that was released when The British music scene was in a confused state but still producing some fantastic bands.With songs like "Love me and leave me", "You can talk to me" and "Blinded by the sun" all being released as singles and of course the 7 minute version of  "Love is the law" with its blistering solo this was an album to be reckoned with.

But it wasn't to last and after only album and 4 singles it was basically over apart from an unreleased demo album.John went to do some work with his Skunworks and has released 2 solo albums and of 2004 has quit the music business to concentrate on his art. Singer Chris Helme went on to form the band "The yards" with former Shed seven guitarist Paul Banks, then went solo.


Mr Squire..................... Im still waiting !!!!