Sunday 25 September 2011

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.

Saturday 24 September 2011

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........