SOME people have a crystal clear memory to call upon. They can pinpoint, to the day, even the hour, when significant milestones in their life took place.
I can’t.
So ask me what the first record I bought was and I don’t know. The first I can remember, actual vinyl, was a 7inch by Pop Will Eat Itself – Karmadrome. Pretty ordinary. Bit weird. Not a classic.
PWEI: Karmadrome
When? Dunno, early 90s. Where from? Think it was the Asda (or was it Dales then…?).
Ask me about the first band I saw live and I can tell you – for definite – it was Ride. March 1992, at the Royal Court. Now we’re talking.
But ask me the first time I fell in love with music and the truth is I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s always been flavoured with Scouse.
It was long before I first stuck to the floor of Roe Street’s finest venue. And years before a narky bint at customer services searched for the vinyl of my choice in a Huyton supermarket.
I’ll take a guess. It was probably sat cross-legged in the back room of my mum’s house in Huyton. Or up the road at my nan’s.
The Beatles: Please Please Me
Both houses had some pretty decent vinyl about, a lot of which is now firmly entrenched among my own collection. The Stones, The Kinks, a bit of Lou Reed and, of course, The Beatles.
I’m not going to claim it was all cool though. For every Beatles For Sale, Please Please Me and Revolver, there was a Shakin’ Stevens, a Showaddywaddy or a Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band.
And back then, while I was busy perfecting my Beatles impression, I was also quite partial to spinning a bit of Quo or Duane Eddy…
Then there were the absolute random ‘gems’. Every heard Moldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon? Hearing is believing. I’ll put that one down to the purple hearts, ma…
But back to the good stuff.
John, Paul, George and Ringo kept me going for years. Throw in the tales of The Cavern – and of running away to go and see The Kinks (go ma!) at a gig down south – and I was bitten by the music gig.
That said, it was secondary school before I really formed my own taste, started buying records (and tapes), got a Walkman – complete with them shitty foam headphones – a ghetto blaster (with double tape deck!) and religiously bought the NME.
I was still prone to errors, though. Big ones. Early Genesis is acceptable and I still dip my toe in now and again, but Phil-Fucking-Collins? For the record, that’s been well and truly binned.
Pink Floyd (of course) remains, alongside The Who, Zeppelin (lots of) and The Stones.
Then there’s the aforementioned Ride, Blur, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, James and The Charlatans, among many, many others.
But from the moment I’d found Probe, The Picket, The Lomax, Mountford Hall, Stanley Theatre and The Royal Court, it was all about Liverpool. I always have loved, still do and always will love, Scouse bands.
The Picket, Hardman Street
So, in no particular order (and with a couple thrown in from the Wirral)…
The La’s, Top, 35 Summers, The Farm, Small(er), The Zutons, Space, Shack, The Real People, The Crescent, The Maybes?, Tramp Attack, The Hokum Clones, The Tambourines, Mike Badger, John Power, The Stairs, The Coral, Mr Ray’s Wig World, Cracatilla, Clinic, Edgar Jones, Mike Badger, Echo & The Bunneymen, Electrafixion, Boo Radleys, Rain, Proper, Pale Fountains, Cast, The Aeroplanes, The Bandits, The Stands, The Dead 60s, The Great Northwestern Hoboes, Pontoon, The Last Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane, The Sums, Michael Head & The Strands, The Big Kids…
Some play on, some have hung up their plectrums, but all live on.
On my record shelf…
So why, why so many Liverpool bands?
Well, I’ve been accused of living in the past, or being part of some insular Liverpool clique (that from a Widnesian Manchester United fan, by the way).
Neither is true to my mind. To go all Calvin Harris on you for a second – I like them Manchester bands, I like them London bands, I like them American bands…
And if it’s about genre, well OK, (almost) guilty as charged. But I love The Prodigy. Orbital at Glastonbury is one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen and in my uni days I was fond of a bit of Aphex Twin.
So I’m not averse to the bleepy shit. I haven’t closed my mind.
No, for me, it’s simple. The bands listed above are GOOD. Brilliant in many cases. And the fact they are from Liverpool is just a huge added bonus.
You can keep your U2 in stadiums (and yes, I’ve tried it), give me The Stairs and Space in The Irish Centre any day of the week.
Just the ticket…
Stuck in the past? Too ’60s? Retro? Arsed…
I’ve never understood the sneering that goes on in music. Statements like, “they sound like any other Liverpool band”.
So? If it’s good, it’s good. That’s all it’s about for me.
And if sounding like a Liverpool band is a crime, can someone tell Oasis?
Then there’s the image thing. I remember once reading a review of The Real People in the NME.
Now if it’s not a band you’re familiar with, The Realies had a few hits in the 90s and continued to plug away for many many years, producing, to these ears, some brilliant songs.
The Real People: www.officialrealpeople.com
They gave Oasis a big leg up in the early days (even singing – and writing – parts of their songs). The Griffiths brothers could (can) sing, play, write. Even Cher recognised their talent, covering One by One. Don’t believe me? Google it – it’s there. In black white. Writer: Anthony Griffiths. Good ‘ey?
All that considered, you’d think the least the NME could do is listen to them. But instead, some snotty prick decided to throw digs about how they looked, penning some shite about them looking like “nightclub bouncers”.
Relevant? Ian Brown looks a monkey, didn’t do the Roses any harm, did it?
Down the years, I’ve felt some of the bands from the city haven’t been given a fair crack of the whip, too quickly pigeon-holed as ‘just another Liverpool band’.
Like so much in life, it seems when it comes to music, people are scared to have their own opinion.
Why stick your neck out and say you like something when it’s easier to say it’s “backwards looking”, “scally” or, wait for it, “wannabe Beatles”?
It’s just great music from a great city for music.
And that’s why I’ll unashamedly continue to buy it, watch it and waffle about it.
NOW GET THESE ON A C90…
The Tambourines – She Blows My Mind
Cracatilla – What Do I Know?
Great Northwestern Hoboes – Reveille
Smaller – Stray Dogs and Bin Bags
Nice read thanks, love it when someone chucks some tunes my way that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise heard. And I’ve gone all misty eyed about cassettes, fondly remembering self made compilations on C90.
Great shout outs Gareth. When it comes to Liverpool bands, I am quite partial to Echo and the Bunnymen myself, after the Beatles of course.
I have “been accused of living in the past, or being part of some insular Liverpool clique” too. But when you hear the likes of The Realies, The Sums et al then you surely have to realise that its not only because they are from Liverpool that we follow such bands, rather the talent (that goes mainly un-noticed) of these musicans.
When I was about 15 I was a regular at The Lomax. I was there most weekends. I saw some amazing acts (also some poor ones). I remember bands such as Manmade Superbugs (Kassius), Pure 9, The What, JubJub and so one. They could have come from anywhere. It just so happened they come from here
Thanks Gary made my day I was the guitar player in Kassius.Happy daze indeed.
Little Amphetamine Girl often creeps into my head (although only from memory as I no longer have any demos)
Exactly, Gary. And good shout on JubJub – remember them well. The Lomax was a great venue.
Oasis and U2 aren’t the only alternatives.
And non-guitar music can’t really be summed up in three bleepy acts from your “uni days”.
When people say “too retro”, perhaps they mean the 90’s, not the 60’s? 1992 was quite a long time ago now.
The La’s, The Real People, The Stairs. Yeah, all well and good. But we know. We know. Is that all the music is going to be on this site? Countless articles pretending that Lee Mavers is an unrecognised genius? As if the NME don’t stick him on the cover every five years, when he pretends he might do something.
Surely accepting mediocrity because it’s familiar is the ultimate futile parochiality? A stale, circular culture, producing tedium like the Miles Kane album.
And by the way, Space were always an embarrassment.
Great to see we’ve got a 70s footballer reading, nice one, Nico.
Thanks for pointing out the obvious – must remember to list 200 acts next time.
The rest is your opinion, as the piece was mine. And, no, there’ll be stuff about plenty of other types of music – give it time.
Or if you don’t like it…
Add Anathema, The Cult and The Wombats to this list of great/good Liverpool bands (OK, I won’t be mentioning Carcass this time). Very underrated and not so popular with football fans but they are Liverpool’s modern history’s finest for me.
Brilliant read, by the way, though I’ll just have to copy and paste this into every comment box on this site. Keep up the fantastic work!
Like it does for football, the Liverpool area provides a seemingly never ending crop of talent when it comes to music. Looking through the annals, it’s like a who’s who of popular music.
From Billy Fury introducing rock and roll to the country in the late 50’s, to The Beatles, who shaped a whole generation in the 60’s. Elvis Costello, who started making music in the 70’s to the legendary Eric’s club which helped develop a whole scene in the 80’s.
In the 90’s, venues like The Lomax not only played host to some of what would be the world’s biggest bands (Radiohead, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Oasis etc) also gave local bands an opportunity to take the same stage that their heroes were treading the night before. The Flying Picket run by Phil Hayes also helped nurture some of the bands that Gareth mentions above – like Cast and Space.
in the noughties, it was the turn of the Zanzibar with the ‘Bandwagon’ night to help develop the music of the city. Bands like The Coral to re-invent the sound with overtones of Captain Beefheart in their chords, rhythms and melodies, whilst sharing the stage at the same time with the likes of The Zutons, The Bandits and The Rascals. Other bands and musicians such as The Libertines and Noel Gallagher also performed there – such was its prominence in the scene, not just in Liverpool, but across the UK.
Scousers have been at the forefront of music throughout the decades and it’s no mistake that the clubs which brought these musicians together played a massive part in galvanising the sound.
The musical history that Liverpool has is something to be celebrated – those that don’t join us in celebrating it only have green eyes for it.
You’d have to be pretty blinkered to think that The Wombats were anything to be proud of.
Are there any cities of similar size don’t have venues that “musicians such as The Libertines and Noel Gallagher… perform” at?
Think you’re missing the point Nico.
It’s not the size of venue that matters, it’s the fact that there was a scene going on that attracted them. If you look through history, I’m sure Liverpool has kicked off many more scenes than ‘cities of similar size’.
I do however agree with you re: wombats though, but that’s just musical taste!
Nice read! Myself, I’m in a local band. There’s some truth to that “just another liverpool band” quote though. The city is genuinely flooded with bands, to the point of saturation. The problem lies in the quality. Most of them consist of a group of young lads – 18 or 19 yrs old – who have no real idea of the dynamics of songwriting. They are, to all intents and purposes, tribute bands, writing in the style of their favourite band, whether it be Biffy Clyro, The Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, Slayer… I could go on. Generally these lads are into the idea of being seen onstage, reasoning that “the birds like it, don’t they?”.
Your real quality liverpool band manages at least one of two things: Maintaining their identity as a scouse band whilst doing something original, and not setting out to sound like this band or that band. My lot – money where your mouth is time; we’re called The Trestles – we couldn’t deliberately sound like another band if we tried. It might come through by accident, but there has never been a point where we’ve set out to do that.
Anyway, it’s great to see a mention for the local band scene on here – most of us band-types are big footy fans, but the two rarely manage to come together.
Cheers!
What about Ladytron? I love them.
Great Article. More recently I have found and fallen in love with Sound of Guns. Not your “typical” scouse band but excellent all the same. Superb site by the way.
as mad as i am, i have to admit i have the whole beatles collection (from the mono boxset)in my mp3 player, but that is not the point.
the point is, i too have cast, space and boo radley in it. not just a few songs here and there, but mostly in complete albums (bless those years of buying cds instead of cassettes. easily ripped). these are some of the band i grew up with, along with tons of other uk acts in the 90’s. and thrown into the mix, you will find the zutons and coral. not too bad, but i guess the older i get, the further into the past my taste have gone. all these happened when i was growing up, 7 hours away, in malaysia. mad, i tell you. heh.
and seriously, what’s better than ‘the ballad of tom jones’ when you really need a laugh? ;)
Great article. I too love almost all those band you mentioned and true there are loads more that could be added but also a lot more best forgotten.
My personal favourites were Dr Phibes and they sounded nothing like your typical Liverpool Band. Brilliant debut album and even better second album but had to be seen live to properly appreciate them.
I found both albums on cd for about three quid each, picked the Top album up for a fiver and the Stairs for something similar, if only all these bands were available on CD.
Liverpool Explodes…..
I remember when the Probe records first started in a place called Silly Billy’s. It was a head shop and was underground in the buildings opposite the Rat and Parrot in town. They sold all kinds of hippy gear and head stuff and probe records sold American imports and other vinyl from a melamine table in one corner. He moved out of there into the shop on the corner of Mathew Street and the rest is history. I remember the days when we used to buy albums on impulse as the only way of getting any idea about the atrists was from the radio show The Great Eastern Express, The Whistle Test or Melody maker. Some where good and some not so good. I bought an album; “Don’t let go” by a guy called Ben Sidran (jazz) in around 1974 and a few years ago, had a chat with him via email wherein he told me that the particular album I have was from a small pressing and not so many distributed so a nice little collectors piece and in mint condition. Great days and delighted that today’s youngsters appreciate the fine musicianship of artists from my youth.
i feel the exact same way as you mate,ive always listened to a very wide variety of music,i grew up with it,but ive always had an ear for our liverpool bands,i live in australia these days,my brother used to say to me…whose that your listenin too,blah blah the stands,shack etc,hed say…just coz their from l,pool doesnt meen theyre good,but after hed lent the cd’s off me for his car,could i get them back!!he’s older than me so grew up with the beatles etc,but i took him to see the stands in some dingey sydney boozer,when they came out here after makin friends with jet on the festivle circuit in uk,they were just like i remember boss tight liverpool bands bein,blew me away,my brother said f..k this lets go home to liverpool with these..brilliant live band ,shook the rafters in the place.when i was in liverpool livin in the 80’s we used to go and see blue vein?? do u remember them?wot a band,thet used to do a few covers,amazing,but done lots of origional stuff,been tryin to find their music forever on this bleedin pc,anyway all good love liverpool music its got that somethin about it,cant explain,maybe throw it on in yer car,loud,you’l be surprised,he was….
I’m a bit late lookin at the dates but I also live in Australia now and miss the lpool music scene like you wouldn’t believe. I was sittin at home watching Later with jools and Noel Gallagher came on and that gets me goin on the whole ‘real people’ thing. I love the real people, they are brilliant, then I think of when I first seen them when I lived in ‘that
‘ London in the early 90s and a great band called the ‘Tambourines’ were support, then I remembered a band called ‘Top’ ! How good were they ! But this is the reason I’m writing this. Can I find anything on you tube about ‘Top’ ? No chance, please someone help !
.
Don’t know about YouTube, Chris. But Top are on Spotify!
Ha ha 6 years after the mention, I was the drummer in Jub Jub back in those 90’s Lomax gigs…it is really lovely to hear that the odd person remembers the band we all worked hard for. We were quite unique at the time with lots of harmony and two sax players, indeed Elvis Costello said it was what made us unique. The wisdom in the desicion to move away from this to sound more every other band still is lost on me and led to me leaving the band, however I do have a lot of fond memories of these days.
I remember recording you guys back in the 90s for the Killer single. It didn’t really get finished, mainly due to Joel having his leg smashed up by getting hit by a car that time.
Haha Blue Vein blasting Theres Gonna Be A Jail Break just around the corner from Walton nick in the Prince Alfred I swear the cons must have been able to hear it superb
Up the reds
Ha yes Martin, Could have been a great band but too much in the way of it…I joined Jubjub because of the two saxes and the Juno synth and the quirky nature of the music. They then tried to be a Space/Oasis thing and ditched the saxes. I said I disagreed with the way they wanted to go and left because 12.5% was not a fair share in the upcoming record deal. Looking back I really enjoyed being in JubJub, the lads were fun to be around and I’m really grateful for my time in the band. Unique music I’d love to play again.
Ha I’m late posting this, me and my mate got kicked out of the Lomax for smoking pot. Loved getting stoned to the bands. The weekend was Xtra special for me.
I liked the real people after a bird Julie Timpson or Timson can’t remember. She gave me a c90 of the album, it had more songs on it than what they released. I was in old swam about in about 97/98/99 when two scallies offered us a 4 track recording device by tascam I think.
They said they are selling it due to a debt, I thought they were full of shite. 2 days later a local band recording under Lewis’s aka John Lewis partnership, opposite the Adelphi hotel. I found out someone had nicked there recording stuff. I kept stum . They were really expensive at the time, yet it sold for 75£.
I remember when Oasis were practicing in Liverpool at the same place as the real people, down one of the back streets of the city.
Oasis sounded like a Liverpool band and they rehearsed their because there influences were from the city. They also picked up alot from people like the real people.