C86 Show - Indie Pop

Jason Collins/Umbrellabird in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5uCjjeIi68

The Roots of the Seers lie in two places; Bristol (obviously) and Billericay (not so obviously). Leigh Wildman grew up in Billericay and it was there he met Jason Collins, a guitarist from nearby Brentwood. They had spent some time in bands around the Essex region and they, along with a few friends, had decided to up sticks and try somewhere else. At the suggestion of one of their number, Bristol was decided upon, and a mini Essex invasion took place in the summer of 1984.

Adrian Blackmore, or Age, as he was known, had been in the second wave of Bristol’s punk scene, too young to be in bands like the Cortinas, but old enough to be won over by punk’s energy. He picked up the drums quickly and formed Lunatic Fringe with fellow Bristol Punk stalwarts Bear Hackenbush and John Finch.

The Bristol punk scene in 1984 was a more cider fuelled version of what Crass was peddling, with a very much Do it yourself vibe. Bands squatted venues like the old Beetle Centre on Stokes Croft and encouraged the squatting of disused houses, which many lived in. It was in one of these squatted houses, Turdy Way, named for the amount of dog shit in the house when it was first squatted, that the Essex invasion landed.

After a single and some tracks on a few compilation albums, Age had left Lunatic Fringe (very amicably) and started jamming with Leigh and another of the Essex invasion, Marc Hymas, in a loose knit band called Death Machine. Influenced by T-Rex and Hawkwind, they played a few gigs at the Demolition Ballroom (the name given to the squatted Beetle Centre). After a while, Marc decided he wanted to do something else and played Saxophone with Pigbag sound-a-likes Animal Magic. Leigh and Age decided they liked playing together and enlisted Jason on bass guitar and vocals. Getting more focused, and deciding to add some shared influences in the form of 60’s Garage bands they enrolled a singer, Dean Strange, with Jason providing backing vocals.

Richard Barbieri in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://richardbarbieri.bandcamp.com/

‘Hauntings’ is Richard Barbieri’s first studio album since 2021’s ‘Under A Spell’ and deepens the pensive, dark instrumental aesthetic of its predecessor. A diverse collection of immersive sound worlds, both dark and uplifting in equal measure, ‘Hauntings’ is influenced by a nostalgia for the past and future, and for things that didn’t happen yet still manage to haunt the mind and soul. What is real and what is simulation?

 

Richard Barbieri remains one of contemporary music’s most distinctive voices. Emerging as a key architect of the late ’70s/’80s synthesiser revolution with David Sylvian’s art-rock ensemble Japan, his visionary synthesiser programming expanded the horizons of electronic music and left a lasting mark on artists from The Human League and Duran Duran to Gary Numan and Talk Talk. His subsequent and ongoing tenure with Steven Wilson’s legendary progressive outfit Porcupine Tree across albums such as In Absentia (2002), Fear Of A Blank Planet (2007) and, most recently, Closure/Continuation (2022) further affirmed his status as one of the most intuitive and unique musicians of his generation.

 

The album finds Barbieri at the height of his powers, his deft keyboard and sonic architecture conjuring a shadowy, creeping Lovecraftian atmosphere. The music wanders through the streets of a gloomy lamp-lit Victorian London and drifts into grain-speckled snapshots of Belle Époque Paris. These journeys into the past are contrasted with nihilistic but euphoric forays into the future, “Traveler” and “A New Simulation” bristling with the itchy modern anxiety that often runs through his best work.

 

Contrasting the sound designs and electronics of Barbieri, the album features performances from renowned musicians Morgan Agren (drums and percussion), Percy Jones (bass guitar) and Luca Calabrese (trumpet).

Momus in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://imomus.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwH79Z9-WQe2jwaHCK_Cgpg

https://momus3.bandcamp.com/

Nicholas John Currie more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a Scottish musician and writer.

For over forty years he has been releasing albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes use of continental philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness".[2]

Roddy Bottum in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Royal-We-Memoir-Roddy-Bottum/dp/1636142699

THE ROYAL WE is a poetic survey of a time set in a magical city that once was and is no more. It is a memoir written by Roddy Bottum, a musician and artist, that documents through prose his coming of age and out of the closet in 1980s San Francisco, a charged era of bicycle messengers, punk rock, street witches, wheatgrass, and rebellion. The book follows his travels from Los Angeles, growing up gay with no role models, to San Francisco, where he formed Faith No More and went on to tour the world relentlessly, surviving heroin addiction and the plight of AIDS, to become a queer icon.

The book is an elevated wallop of tongue and insight, much more than a tell-all. There are personal tales of historical pinnacles like Kurt and Courtney, Guns N' Roses, and recaps of gold records and arena rock - but it's the testimonies of tragedy and addiction and preposterous life-spins that make this work so unique and intriguing.

Bottum writes about his dark and harrowing past in a clear-eyed voice that is utterly devoid of self-pity, and his emboldened and confident pronouncements of achievement and unorthodox heroism flow in an unstoppable train that's both captivating and inspirational. A remarkable portrayal of a creative individual in emergence, a gay man figuring out how to be a gay man, and a detailed look at the nuance of 1980s pre-tech boom San Francisco, The Royal We will be greatly appreciated by people who loved Kathleen Hanna's Rebel Girl, Patti Smith's Just Kids, Hua Hsu's Stay True, and other memoirs about the artist's life.

Rob Tannenbaum in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/various-artists-cbgb-a-new-york-city-soundtrack-1975-1986-4cd?srsltid=AfmBOoohm1glA9ey7r6K1osC9drIJOO4YZT5Q0P6y6vXPapBUTVMN2ig

“CBGB was a place for the dirty people.” - Jimmy Destri of Blondie

“Afterwards, I took off and went crosstown to CBGB’s, the stronghold of the unknown, to be with my own people.” - Patti Smith

In December 1973 Hilly Kristal changed the name of his roots music bar from Hilly’s on the Bowery to CBGB and altered his musical policy to hire mostly rock bands. He was indifferent to many of them (“No one is going to like you guys, but I’ll have you back,” he told Joey Ramone), blissfully unaware of how important his scruffy little club would soon become.

In the span of only 15 months, the five groups that comprise the CBGB’s pantheon all debuted: Television in March 1974, followed by Ramones in August and Blondie in October, then Patti Smith in February 1975 and Talking Heads four months later.

Those five groups all quickly got record deals and became popular enough to outgrow CBGB’s. By the fall of 1977, Smith was the only one who was still playing there. What succeeded the Big Five was an array of new and retro styles, all of which feature here: No Wave (Sonic Youth, Mars, DNA, Bush Tetras), post-punk (Ritual Tension, Unknown Gender, Khmer Rouge), mutant funk and R&B (James Chance & The Contortions, Mink DeVille), art-rock bands (R.L. Crutchfield’s Dark Day, The Revelons, Erasers, Jeff and Jane Hudson) hardcore punk (Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Vatican Commandos, Beastie Boys), and lots of power pop (Sorrows, The dBs, The Rudies, The Miamis, The Paley Brothers) .

The club’s best-known bands are present on this compilation but we’ve also revived interest in dozens of unfairly forgotten acts that, for a moment in time, made an album, EP, 45, or even a demo that crackled with innovation, wit, and joy.

CBGB no longer exists, at least not in the physical plane, but what happened between those soot-filled, beer-stinking walls continues to reverberate around the world.