C86 Show - Indie Pop

Pete Jones special - talking about life with Public Imagine Limited, Department S & Brian Brain with David Eastaugh

Pete Jones played bass in different bands since the punk rock era of the 1970s, but is known for being a member of Public Image Ltd., during 1982–1983. He played bass guitar on PiL's highest charting UK single "This Is Not a Love Song" as well as recording Commercial Zone whilst with the band in New York.

During punk days, in the late 1970s, he played in The Hots with Martin Atkins, formerly Blonde (not Blondie). After The Hots split up, he was asked to join Cowboys International, touring with them across Europe. After that he formed part of Brian Brain with Atkins, then joined Public Image Ltd. while he was in the band.

He left PiL in 1983, and has since produced his own material under his own name and released several CDs. Jones has also done various cross-collaborations with Mikee Plastik over the years. In 2008, he teamed up with Fred Suard to form The Creepy Dolls, and released an EP entitled Grande Finale, and released various tracks with Clem Chambers under the name Pete & Charlie. He has recently returned to the live stage with a guest appearance for Mod Revivalists, Back To Zero and has joined post punk band Department S as permanent bass player and producer. Jones currently lives in Harpenden where he writes and records.

Senser special with Heitham Al-Sayed in conversation with David Eastaugh

In 1993, Senser released two indie singles on Ultimate – "Eject" and "The Key".

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.

At the beginning of 1995, Senser toured the UK supported by Skunk Anansie before setting off to tour the United States with Moby. It was during this tour that the band decided to split over musical differences. Al-Sayed and Morgan left to form a new band with Haggis called Lodestar. The remaining members of Senser found a new drummer, Paul Soden, and set about writing Senser's second album.

During the spring of 1997, they recorded the second album. And in the summer of 1997 De-Senser released "Om".

In the summer of 1998, Haigh was able to tour and the band released the second album, Asylum. Once again musical differences became apparent and in February 1999 the band decided to split.

In 2003, the original lineup reunited originally to perform at one show, but decided to re-form and record again. They released their third studio album SCHEMAtic in 2004. A concert performance was released in 2006 as Live At The Underworld.

In 2009, they released How To Do Battle.

In 2013, they released their fifth album To the Capsules via Pledgemusic and toured with Erika Footman on vocals in place of Kerstin Haigh.

In 2014, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut Stacked Up, the band re-released the album in expanded edition with a remastered version of the original tracks on the first CD, and bonus tracks from the era (remixes and previously unreleased songs) on the second disc.

Thousand Yard Stare special with Stephen Barnes in conversation with David Eastaugh

The band's debut effort, the Weatherwatching EP was released in November 1990 on Stifled Aardvark Records, the band's own record label. Both the Easter 89 and Tumbletown EPs were demo tapes made up by the band and sold at gigs prior to their first official release, the 12" vinyl only Weatherwatching. In a response to this record, NME nominated Thousand Yard Stare as "brightest hope for the future".

That summer the band performed at the Reading Festival, further raising their profile and leading to their stint as support for James in October and November of that year. In the Autumn, the band began the sessions for their first album, Hands On, the first fruit of which was another EP. Seasonstream EP was released on Stifled Aardvark Records in 1991, their last independent release on their own label. The Seasonstream EP began with a track titled "0-0 a.e.t", (which means "No Score After Extra Time"), a football metaphor laden song that featured Martin Bell of The Wonder Stuff on fiddle. 0-0a.e.t appeared as the first track on the Hands On LP. This single again topped the Indie music charts, and reached number 65 in the UK Singles Chart.

With the backing of the major label Polydor, Thousand Yard Stare went on to release a further three EPs, and two studio albums. (Hands On and Mappamundi) were both produced by Stephen Street, who had already produced records for The Smiths and Blur.

Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey in conversation with David Eastaugh

Amelia Fletcher has been the frontwoman of an evolving series of pop groups from the 1980s to the present. Her bands included Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Marine Research, Tender Trap, and, since 2014, The Catenary Wires.

She also sang backing vocals for The Wedding Present early in their career and on the Hefner album We Love the City. She toured with, and was guest vocalist for The Pooh Sticks on their albums Orgasm, Million Seller and The Great White Wonder, and in 1988 released a single under her own name, "Can You Keep a Secret?" She has also appeared as a guest vocalist for The 6ths on the song "Looking For Love (In the Hall Of Mirrors)", on both Bugbear recordings, a single by The Hit Parade, "Why Do You Have to Go Out With Him When You Could Go Out With Me?" single by The Brilliant Corners, and the 2000 album Trend by Oxford band The Relationships. Since 2002 she has been keyboardist for Sportique. Amelia Fletcher was also an early promoter of Scottish act Biswho Heavenly performed alongside and whose lead singer, Manda Rin, repeatedly cited Amelia as one of her inspirations/influences.

Ride special with Mark Gardener in conversation with David Eastaugh

Gardener formed Ride with Andy Bell (guitar), whom he met at Cheney School in Oxford, and Laurence Colbert (drummer) and Steve Queralt (bass guitarist), whom he met doing Foundation Studies in Art and Design at Banbury in 1988. While still at Banbury the band produced a tape demo including the tracks "Chelsea Girl" and "Drive Blind". In February 1989 "Ride" were asked to stand in for a cancelled student union gig at Oxford Polytechnic that brought them to the attention of Alan McGee. After supporting The Soup Dragons in 1989, McGee signed them to Creation Records.

With Ride, Gardener released three EPs between January and September 1990, entitled Ride, Play and Fall. While the EPs had only limited chart success, enough critical praise was received to make Ride the "darlings" of the UK music press. The first two EPs were eventually released together as Smile in the USA in July 1990 (and later released in the UK in 1992), while the Fall EP was incorporated into the CD version of their debut album, Nowhere, released in October 1990. Nowhere was hailed as a critical success and the media dubbed Ride "The brightest hope" for 1991.^{[citation needed]} This was followed in March 1992 by the band's second album Going Blank Again.

Despite having a solid fanbase and some mainstream success, the lack of a breakthrough contributed to inter-band tension, especially between Gardener and Bell. Their third album, Carnival of Light, was released in 1994, after shoegazing had given way to Britpop. Carnival of Light was oriented towards this new sound, but sales were sluggish and the shift in musical tastes devastated much of their original audience and critics alike.

Inca Babies special with Harry Stafford in conversation with David Eastaugh

Still retaining their original Manchester post-punk roots, the Inca Babies have appeared since 2008 at festivals and concerts across Europe, performing at 'Drop Dead' festival in Vilnius, Lithuania and 'Deathcave 2014' festival in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow, as well as playing live in Warsaw, Milan, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, London and many other cities across Europe. They are booked to appear for the first time in India, at the Saarang 2015 festival in Chennai (Madras).

The band was formed in Hulme, Manchester by Bill Bonney (bass guitar), Harry Stafford(guitar) Julian Woropay (vocals) and Alan Brown (drums), taking influences from Link Wray, The Cramps, The Gun Club and The Birthday Party Debut single "The Interior" was released in November 1983 on their own Black Lagoon label. Over the next five years they released a further six singles and four albums with a few changes of line-up, 1988's Evil Hourfeaturing Clint Boon of Inspiral Carpets on keyboards. Alan Brown of bIG fLAME and The Great Leap Forward was also drummer for a time.^[2]

The band recorded four sessions for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 programme between 1984 and 1987.

Mega City Four special with Gerry Bryant in conversation with David Eastaugh 

The group were officially formed in 1987 and the band's career started with performing gigs around their local town of Farnborough before making their vinyl debut in September 1987 with "Miles Apart"/"Running in Darkness". The single led to a round of gigs with fellow punk-influenced bands like Senseless Things and Snuff.

"Miles Apart" and "Running" were reissued (separately) in 1988 on the independent label Decoy, along with the more melodic "Distant Relatives" and "Less Than Senseless". A healthy following latched on to them quickly, and by 1988 the group were performing to packed audiences on a regular basis. Continuing on their local success, the band would eventually release their 1989 debut album, Tranzophobia

The band continued to tour extensively in the UK, Europe and North America, working with bands including Les Thugs, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and Doughboys, amongst many others. The band's second studio album, Who Cares Wins, was released in 1990.^[2] Extensive touring across Europe began again, with the band performing in the Reading Festival that year. Who Cares Wins was followed by a compilation album of their early 7" singles, called Terribly Sorry Bob (1991).

The band subsequently moved to a major record label to record two further studio albums, Sebastopol Rd. (1992) (recorded by Jessica Corcoran at London's Greenhouse Recording Studios) and Magic Bullets (1993). This album produced the singles "Wallflower" and "Iron Sky", which both placed 69 and 48 in the UK Singles Chart respectively. After falling out with their record label, they moved to Fire Records to record their final studio album, Soulscraper (1996). In addition to their studio albums, the band also released a live album, a Peel Sessionsdisc, and a number of singles. The British music journalist, Martin Roach, wrote a biography of the band, Mega City Four: Tall Stories and Creepy Crawlies, published in 1993.