From the Top Drawer LXIV - Another Green World

 For this year's Summer Solstice, here is the third cassette release from the organic/electronic ambient duo of Dan Carpenter (sax & clarinet) and Paul Chousmer (all other instruments & noises).

 

 Not much more to say about AGW that I haven't covered on their previous posts HERE and HERE ,

except that if you like their very mellow style (and you like bird noise!), you certainly won't be disappointed by this tape.

 Ripped as two side-long tracks @320kbps.

 Kick off your shoes, feel the grass between your toes, and get out your butterfly net to trap a copy as it floats by...

DOWNLOAD HERE

http://www.discogs.com/Another-Green-World-Adjusting-The-Mirror/release/2481722

From the Top Drawer XLII - Lapwing

A recording from the audience of this short-lived band who played just a few gigs before breaking up and moving on to different projects. Lapwing were curiously named after the bird seen above ;-)

Somewhat of an underground 'supergroup', Lapwing on this occasion featured James Vane (Vane, Ring Of Roses, etc) on vocals, Dan Carpenter (Ring Of Roses, Webcore, Another Green World, Thunderdogs, etc) on saxophone, Gavin Griffiths (Ozric Tentacles, Ullulators, Thunderdogs, etc) on lead guitar, plus other bods whose names escape me - I simply don't remember...doh. A high energy upfront set with a psych/glam/goth tinged edge to the songs as the charismatic style of Jimmy Vane comes through.

Taped at the Sir George Robey pub in Finsbury Park, London, on 6th May 1988 - I'm not sure whether this was a Club Dog night or not but after checking that this was on a Friday night, it's quite likely this was a canine event - woof.

No track titles available for the set, but knowledgeable types will recognise a great version of the psychedelic classic 'Kites', a 1967 hit for Simon Dupree and the Big Sound.

Ripped from a chrome cassette @320kbps and slightly edited to preserve quality.

Grab a copy HERE

From the Top Drawer XXVI - Vane

As promised a while ago on this post, here is a rare live set from the band Vane which takes us back almost 30 years to Bonfire Night 5th November 1981, and to that well-known rock arena, the YMCA in Chelmsford, Essex (!) Please go back to that previous Vane post for a little more info on the band, but here I'm going to borrow from keyboard player Paul Chousmer's 2000 interview with Aural Innovations for his insights.

Vane - formed in Chelmsford, Essex 1981-3. We released two singles on Island. (You can get them HERE - thanks to the uploader)

DS: I've never heard either Vane or Ring of Roses before. What was their music like?
PC: Oh it was such a long time ago... Vane was primarily psychedelic, but remember this was the early eighties so we had just come out of the punk revolution here and were fishing about with Goth and New Romantic styles. We were very much into electric sounds and effects. So imagine if you can: we were fronted by James Vain, 6'4" tall, skinny as a rake, loads of make-up, electric coloured hair (he was influenced a lot by Bowie's transformations - but dissolute as Lou Reed!), low lights, big bass, electronic noises all over the place - can you picture this? Very much a precursor to what Webcore got up to. A little less danceable, but much better looking! The band got fairly well known around the seedier underground scene in London. Great fun and fond memories.

I would add - great live set from a band who really should have been huge if there was any justice, blah blah etc. No doubt of their time (early 1980s) but a-head of it as well.
An intoxicating Bonfire Night brew of edgy psychedelia with gothic overtones, imaginative lyrics/inventive playing, heady progressiveness...

 James Vain (Vane) - Vox / Phil Pickering - Bass / Clive Roberts - Guitar / 

Colin Woolway - Drums / Paul Chousmer - Keyboards 

Ripped @320kbps in two parts from a cassette of xxx origin, sounds like a very good soundboard recording.

Part One: Soldier / Moods, Dreams / Mannequin Party / Glad Again / Wake Me / Reality Of Fiction / One Too
Part Two: (unknown) / God Likes Us / Man, You Know / + Shadow Of Wrythe (Zig Zag Club, London W11, 16th April 1982)

Get it HERE

(Thanks to the Chelmsford Wild Youth Facebook page for borrowed photos)

From the Top Drawer XIX - Thunderdogs

 

Maybe best remembered (or at least reaching their largest audience) as the house band for Circus Archaos during their Metal Clown production era, the Thunderdogs were birthed in the South London squatting scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Members included musicians who had already cut their performing teeth playing in other free festival/underground bands such as Ozric Tentacles, Ullulators, Webcore, Ring Of Roses & Moksha, and were to move on to play in their turn with the Ozrics, Spannerman, Dream Machine and others...

The band played driving melodic rock largely dominated by Tony's strong vocals and Dan Carpenter's sax playing, and would stretch the songs out to improvise instrumental jams according to the situation, occasionally dipping into spacerock territory where Seaweed's synths would come to the foreground. In 1991 they released both a 12" single, 'Just After Sunrise' and a full-length album, 'Thundermental' recorded at Dave Anderson's Foel Studios in Wales, and released on their own Doctor Dog Records.
The name of the band apparently came from the 1981 comic book drawn by Hunt Emerson, who contributed a hilarious cartoon of the band for the album sleeve of 'Thundermental'.

I caught the band playing atop a motorised high-rise platform as part of the Archaos show, when the not just Big, but gigantic, Top was set up next to Battersea Power Station for a month in late 1991, not long after Archaos had run into big financial problems when their main tent was destroyed by high winds in Dublin, leading to the circus' eventual demise, and (I'm guessing) the breakup of the band as well...

Side One : Name Of The Law / Sabotage / Bowler / I Don't Want The World

Side Two : Socket-Oomi / Jeremia / Blowing Away / Just After Sunrise

Ripped @320kbps from an original cassette as two side-long tracks
(slight glitch at start of Side One)
grab a copy HERE

(Some pics nicked from the Archaos Archive)

From the Top Drawer XIV - Ring Of Roses

This is one for those folks who used to go to Alice In Wonderland at Gossips in Dean Street, London and anybody who went on the Magical Mystery Trips that the club organised. Much has been written about the place, with it being the cocoon from which Doctor And The Medics emerged to have a number one hit with their cover of 'Spirit In The Sky' in 1986, although they had been around since 1981. A lot of talent passed through the club, but most individuals never enjoyed the publicity on the level that the good Doctor and his band received.

I'm not going to cover the club in detail (there's a good piece here), but I'll just say that wedged into the tiny corner of the basement in an area set aside for a stage (no raised platforms here) I witnessed quite a few acts, including the Medics, various Damned members, Inner City Unit (a lengthy set which took up most of the evening!), Webcore, and even The Cult just before they had their She Sells Sanctuary megahit. There was a band every week, some forgettable but most worth a look, if your eyes could see past the oilwheel lightshow that bounced off the strips of tissue paper that hung from the ceiling and served as decor. Many creative people passed through its doors during the few years the club was open, and punters could rub shoulders and have a chat with various movers 'n' groovers on the London scene at that time.

Ring Of Roses was another project that featured lead singer James Vane (see older post here) and one of the many bands featuring sax player Dan Carpenter. They pursued a different musical direction (more like the Psychedelic Furs at that time perhaps) with a cleaner, more commercial sound than before - less psychedelic and more straightforward than Vane the band. In fact legend has it that the band signed a lucrative six figure deal with RCA Records, yet never got round to releasing anything. I acquired a tape of their performance at the 6th July 1985 AIW Mystery Trip (at a former Butlins holiday camp in Clacton-On-Sea in Essex - more memories shared here) along with some demos and this is what you get here.

 

The package contains the live set (or as much as I have to share) which for some reason has a demo of 'Spiritual Sky' spliced into it - maybe the live version got minced? - and three demo songs including the studio 'No Soul Without Fire'. The live set starts off in a melodic structured style then gets looser and more trippy as it progresses to its close...a couple of the demos are in a more classic pop vein. The tape's a bit hissy but WTF, some good tunes here. Could have/should have been huge...

- Live at the Alice In Wonderland Mystery Trip, Clacton-On-Sea 6th July 1985 -
I Could Say / Flowers In The Morning / Simon And Cindy / Freaksong / Lorraine /
Dangerous Mission / Spiritual Sky (demo spliced into sequence) / No Soul Without Fire

and the demos
- According To The Weatherman
- No Soul Without Fire
- Silent Angel

Ripped @320kbps from an acquired tape. Get it HERE

From the Top Drawer XI - Webcore

Here we have the second cassette release by Webcore, called 'The Great Unfolding' which came out on the A Real Kavoom label in 1986. Second time around their sound became more accessible and dynamic than on the 'Cinematography' tape and more danceable, although the ambient and poetry interludes remained. Gigs often now featured a drummer as opposed to the drum tapes they had formerly used, sax replaced violin, and backing singers had joined. 'Captain's Table' from the first tape appeared again in an overhauled version, as did the superb full band reworking of 'Nothing Can Stop Us Now' from Eden's 'Flipside' album.

Live at Club Dog, Wood Green 23.01.87 with occasional Suzi Quatro drummer Colin

One of those wonderful flyers of the time

 

Side One - Nothing Can Stop Us Now / A Pocket Full Of Posies / The Great Unfolding / Captain's Table

Side Two - Just Can't Tell Him / Backseat Driver / In The Mood? / 6+7=10

ripped from an original cassette @320kbps as two side long tracks - 

fill yer boots HERE

Live at Club Dog, Wood Green 15.05.87 with Tig (Nick van Gelder) on drums

---
Interview with keyboard player Paul Chousmer in January 2000
http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue9/chousmr1.html