C86 Show - Indie Pop

Alexander Larman in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Lazarus-The-Second-Coming-of-David-Bowie/Alexander-Larman/9781917923446

Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie is the first biography of Bowie that tells the full and candid story of what happened in between those two apparently unbridgeable points. With new and exclusive interviews with the musicians, filmmakers and cultural figures who worked with and befriended Bowie throughout this period, Lazarus is the definitive account of the previously overlooked and fascinating latter half of a great and distinguished career. A career that climaxed with his final masterpiece, Blackstar, and the unprecedented theatrical flourish of his departure from the stage as he passed into legend.

Roger Fisher in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.rogerfisher.com/

The band Heart started out as Army in 1967 in Seattle, Washington, formed by bassist Steve Fossen and brothers Roger and Michael Fisher. The group went by the names Army, Hocus Pocus, and White Heart before settling on just Heart in the mid-1970s. Ann Wilson joined the band in 1970 and Nancy in 1974; romances sprang up between the Fisher brothers and Wilson sisters, with Mike dating Ann and Roger dating Nancy.

Heart rose to fame following the release of their debut album, Dreamboat Annie, in 1976. Follow-up albums Little Queen, Magazine, and Dog and Butterfly also sold well. Following the release of the Dog and Butterfly album, the Roger Fisher / Nancy Wilson romance came to an end. In October 1979, Fisher quit the band.

Heitham in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.senser.co.uk/

https://senser.bandcamp.com/album/sonic-dissidence-2

In 1993, Senser released two indie singles on Ultimate – "Eject" and "The Key". The latter would appear on NME Singles of the Week 1993 album.

In March 1994, Senser released their third single, "Switch", which entered the UK Singles Chart at number 39. Senser's first album, Stacked Up, was released in May 1994, and entered the UK Albums Chart at number 4.

Ray Russell in conversation with David Eastaugh 

http://tartaruspress.com/ray/fifty-forgotten-records.html

Ray Russell was not at the crossroads when Robert Johnson met the devil, and he didn’t see Elvis Presley perform live. He wasn’t at Woodstock, or Altamont, or on the roof of the Apple Building. To his enduring frustration, he didn’t get to see The Sex Pistols in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, because he was only ten years old.

There will be many others who are just as passionate about music as Russell, who also failed to be in the audience at seminal moments in music history. But, like him, they own records that mean the world to them, and have seen bands play who blew them away. The point is, we all treasure our own personal musical histories because they enrich our lives. This book is a celebration of being a committed music fan.

He formed a band at seventeen and discovered he couldn’t sing. Close friends released a record which used his lyrics, but John Peel played another of their songs. He ran a record label for a month, worked in a record shop and has released a few records of his own music.

Peter Ormerod in conversation with David Eastaugh 

In this wide-ranging biography, Peter Ormerod explores the quest for spirituality that powered David Bowie's creativity from his earliest recordings to his death-defying final album. Bowie's genre-expanding, era-crossing genius had an extraordinary impact on popular culture but his life-long search for spiritual truth and enlightenment has been overlooked.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/david-bowie-and-the-search-for-life-death-and-god-9781399422826/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/David-Bowie-Search-Life-Death

From Bowie's first musical encounters as a choirboy, this book traces his spiritual obsessions over the years. As a young musician at the start of his career, he was enraptured by Tibetan Buddhism. It was the first step in a spiritual journey that would generate his most profound lyrics and music. From the Kabbalah-influenced tracks of Station to Station to Ziggy Stardust's messiah complex and the profound affinity between Heroes and Christian thought, Ormerod sheds new light on the spiritual traditions behind Bowie's genius. 

Oliver Jackson in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://oliverjackson1.bandcamp.com/album/south-foreland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdhv-rEDOEQ&t=4s

Biography

 by Alistair Fitchett, excerpt from "Young and Foolish" (Stride Books)

Take Emily. Purveyors of sometimes ethereal genius with moments that can grow wings and fly, or grow horns and charge, depending on their mood / mode. A percussive assault that often puts me in mind of Big Star's magisterial 'You Can't Have Me' with its runaway optimistic negativity, can switch abruptly into cathedral reverberation, as Emily become immersed in their effervescing style, an iridescent arc of sparkler fiery kisses on the heavens. T

he former mood / mode often makes me think of Ollie Jackson as some sort of Soul brother to Tony France, and I see / hear Emily metamorphose their brass backed masterworks into Stockholm Monstrous swirls of breathtaking intensity. The latter mode / mood puts me in mind of some Scott Walker figure, with Emily swelling with strings and orchestral woodwind into epic proportions, again snatching my breath away, just so.     

Julie & Paul in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://thewouldbes.bandcamp.com/album/hindzeitgeist

Indie pop band from Ireland formed in 1988 by the three Finnegan brothers, evolving from their earlier band The Nobody's. Another brother James Finnegan managed the band, and footed the bill for the recording and for the first pressing of 250 copies of their debut single, released by Danceline Records.

This single was famously championed by John Peel (it reached number 12 in that year's Festive 50).
17 year old singer Julie McDonnell left the band shortly afterwards, replaced by Eileen Gogan before breaking up in 1991. 

Vix & Martin Tracey in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1917504489/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialFuzzbox

Signed on only their second gig much of the story of the all-girl band We’ve got a …FUZZBOX… and we're gonna use it!! is what dreams are made of… but was it all Pink Sunshine?
With exclusive access to original band members this authorised biography by fellow-Brummie Martin Tracey not only covers the breadth of the band’s most successful and colourful years, it also reveals a powerful insight into the pressures of a very young girl band pluckily navigating their way through a male-dominated industry in a different time.
And, of course, they did it the ‘FUZZBOX’ way – armed with wit, fun and a unique unity, these four girls with unstoppable energy smashed through any barrier that dared to stand in their way!
This authentic and untold story candidly reveals the rollercoaster ride of three schoolgirls and a big sister who rocketed to worldwide success and the trailblazing aspects of their whole outlook which paved a way for others to follow.

Jim Morris in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://balaamandtheangel.co.uk/

Balaam and the Angel are a rock band founded by Mark, James (Jim), and Desmond (Des) Morris  in 1984.

Initially the band self-released a series of EPs and an album entitled Sun Family via their own Chapter 22 and played some tour dates opening for The Cult. This caught the attention of Virgin Records, who signed them and released their debut album, The Greatest Story Ever Told. They toured in the USA with Kiss and label mate Iggy Pop.

Tony Jenkins in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.facebook.com/kbsbookstore

https://theportlandarms.co.uk/wp/product/the-loft-the-kobayashi-bookstore-29th-may-26/

Greg LoPiccolo in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73usDk7AK1w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7rwGjK38Ro

Tribe was an American alternative rock band from Boston, which was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They released three albums including two on Slash Records. 

However, their popularity in Boston did not translate their local appeal into national fame and they disbanded in 1994.

Greg LoPiccolo later stated that "When Warner Bros didn’t pick up our option for the third album; that was kind of a momentum-killer."

Terri Barous, now Brosius, and Eric Brosius and Greg LoPiccolo later joined video game developer Looking Glass Studios and did sound/voice/music work on various games. They would later become critical members of Guitar Hero developer Harmonix.

John Kosh in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://koshdesign.com/

Kosh is a Multi-Grammy award winning art director and former creative director for Apple Records. In the mid-sixties, he was designer for The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera House, where he produced a gold foil covered program for the anniversary Royal Gala attended by her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

At the age of 22, Kosh was responsible for designing the innovative entry portal to the “Young & Fantastic” avant garde art and sculpture exhibition on The Mall in London’s West End. Following his work for The Opera House, he met John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1968 as they had admired his work as art director of Art & Artists magazine. They invited him to meet them one evening at Hammersmith Hospital, where Yoko was recuperating. Shortly thereafter they offered him a desk at Apple Records at 3 Saville Row. His first project was the “War Is Over (if you want it)” Christmas card, which led to the worldwide WAR IS OVER billboard campaign that continues to this day.

He designed The Beatles’ Get Back picture book with the Let It Be album package, the Abbey Road album cover, John & Yoko’s elaborate Wedding Album box set, and Hey Jude. Kosh was one of the few attendees at the Beatles’ farewell rooftop concert. While working for Apple Records, he designed Mary Hopkin’s Postcard, Billy Preston’s That’s The Way God Planned It, George Harrison’s Radha Krisna Temple and The Plastic Ono Band’s, Life With The Lions, plus singles, “Give Peace a Chance”, “Instant Karma”, “Cold Turkey” and “Power To The People.”

Mark Brydon in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.mark-e-brydon.com/

Brydon established himself in the Sheffield music scene, most notably with the funk band Chakk whose advance from MCA Records financed the building of FON Studios.

His biggest contribution to British art pop to date would come as a result of meeting Róisín Murphy, with whom he formed Moloko, at a party.

Ian Trowell in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://www.intellectbooks.com/an-endless-discontent

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Throbbing-Gristle-Endless-Discontent-Global

In 1976 the British band Throbbing Gristle emerged from the radical arts collective COUM Transmissions through core members Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, joined by Hipgnosis photographer Peter Christopherson and electronics specialist Chris Carter.

Though having performed previously in more low-key arts environments, their major launch coincided with the COUM retrospective exhibition Prostitution at London’s ICA gallery, showcasing and contextualising an array of challenging objects from COUM’s various actions in performance art and pornography. In a deliberately curated strategy inviting press, civic and arts dignitaries, extravagant followers of the nascent punk scene and music journalists, the band created an instant controversy and media panic that tapped into the restrictive climate and encroaching conservatism of late 1970s Britain.

Any opportunities that were being explored by a formative punk ethos and movement around sex, censorship and transgression were amplified and exposed by Throbbing Gristle and Prostitution. An outraged Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn took the bait and called the ensemble the ‘wreckers of civilisation’, providing the suitable newspaper headline that would be followed a month later by ‘the filth and the fury’ as the Sex Pistols uttered strong profanities on live television.

The Jack Rubies with Ian Wright in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Jack Rubies - Witty and slightly sinister guitar combo with furious bongos to the fore - the black cutting edge of 'Blue Velvet' and the tinsel town sex appeal of '61 Elvis.

Ian Wright: lead vocals, guitar/ SD Ineson: guitar, vocals/ Steve Brockway: bass/ Lawrence Giltnane: percussion/ Max: drums.

Chris Riou in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.facebook.com/claytowntroupe/?locale=en_GB

The Claytown Troupe were formed in 1984 in Bristol by lead singer Christian Riou, who claimed in an NME interview that a local clairvoyant advised him to form a band called "the Clayton Troop" who would have success internationally and spend time in America.

Between 1985 and 1987 the band were active on the Bristol live circuit supporting acts that included Fields of the Nephilim, Alien Sex Fiend and Chiefs of Relief. The line up changed in late 1987, and a new set of songs was written which became the album 'Through The Veil' After recruiting guitarist Adrian Bennett & bassist Paul Waterson they played as supporting act such as Salvation, Lightning Strikes.

John Abulafia in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/incubus/john-abulafia-on-incubus/

https://unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/incubus/

Incubus Theatre has its origins in a 1968 production of Kafka’s Metamorphosis that John Abulafia wrote and directed while he was at Sussex University. The part of Josef  K was created by Paddy Fletcher, then studying at Brighton Art College. John says of Paddy, ‘He was the most extraordinary, inventive performer, and a wonderful creative collaborator. I had a clear vision of the kind of theatre I wanted to create but everyone else told me that it was impossible to stage a play where a human turns into an insect. Paddy’s response was that if I didn’t give him the part he would never speak to me again. He tried any and every distortion of his body to create Josef K: he brought to life Kafka’s vision of a tormented creature paying the price for the sins of his family. This Metamorphosis was before Berkoff and before anyone used the term Physical Theatre.‘

Metamorphosis took the 1968 NUS/ Sunday Times drama festival by storm, was invited to the Oxford Playhouse, and then to a series of other London venues.

Ian A Anderson in conversation with David Eastaugh

https://frootsmag.com/

https://www.ianaanderson.com/

https://ghostsfromthebasement.bandcamp.com/

Anderson first performed in his home town of Weston-super-Mare as a member of the Backwater Jook Band and came to prominence as a member of the Bristol based country blues scene of the mid to late 1960s, performing live and on record, both solo, with Al Jones and Elliott Jackson as the trio "Anderson Jones Jackson", and as a duo with Mike Cooper. 

After two EPs, he recorded his first album, Stereo Death Breakdown, as Ian Anderson’s Country Blues Band, which was released by Liberty/United Artists in 1969.

In December 1969, with John Turner, he conceived the record label The Village Thing, for which he was also a producer.

Edward Barton in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vgcYBwyw28

English poet, artist and musician from Manchester, known for his eccentric stage performances and use of home-made instruments. He has had top 30 success as a songwriter with hits including "It's a Fine Day" (Opus III) - the tune of which was then used in Kylie Minogue's hit "Confide in Me" - "Halcyon" (Orbital) and "Happiness" (Pizzaman). He also wrote a trio of hits for Lost Witness - "Happiness Happening", "Red Sun Rising" and "7 Colours".

Graham Cunnington & Paul Jamrozy in conversation with David Eastaugh 

https://testdept.bandcamp.com/album/industrial-overture

Formed in London in the early 1980s, Test Dept are regarded as one of the pioneering forces of ‘industrial music’, recognised for their groundbreaking sound and powerful performances that pushed the boundaries of music, art and protest while exploring political and social issues.

Centred around the founding duo of Paul Jamrozy and Gray Cunnington since resurfacing in the mid-2010s, the group recently signed to the Artoffact label and have just issued the first in a series of carefully curated box sets that will chronicle their career.

‘Industrial Overture. Studio & Live Recordings 1982-1985’ consists of 42 tracks across 4 CDs and also available digitally. It includes a first ever reissue of the group’s 1983 cassette-only debut album ‘Strength Of Metal In Motion’, the classic ‘Ecstasy Under Duress’ and ‘Atonal & Hamburg’ albums (both unavailable for over three decades), plus a disc of hitherto unreleased studio recordings that incorporate two sessions recorded for the John Peel show on BBC Radio 1.