C86 Show - Indie Pop

Razorcuts with Tim Vass in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Razorcuts were an indie pop band formed in 1984 in London. The group centred on Gregory Webster and Tim Vass (who were previously in The Cinematics), with various musicians including Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, Angus Stevenson (later of the Relationships), and New Zealand drummer David Swift.

Early releases on the Subway Organisation label, including the debut Big Pink Cake led to a deal with Creation Records for whom they released two albums. Razorcuts split up on 21 April 1990, with Vass going on to form Red Chair Fadeaway, and Webster to The Carousel, Saturn V and then in the late 1990s Sportique.The duo were reunited under the name 'Forever People' in 1992 for a one-off single on Sarah Records.

Crass special with Steve Ignorant in conversant with David Eastaugh

Robin Millar in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Robin Millar record producer, musician and businessman, known variously as 'The Original Smooth Operator', 'The man behind Sade', and 'Golden Ears' Boy George - one of the world's most successful ever record producers with over 150 gold, silver and platinum discs and 55 million record sales to his credit. His 1984 production of Diamond Life, the debut album by Sade, was named one of the best ten albums of the last 30 years at the 2011 Brit Awards.

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Bleach special with Salli Carson & Steve Scott talking to David Eastaugh 

Bleach were an indie rock band from Ipswich, England, usually considered part of the shoegazing genre. The band was formed in 1989 by brothers Neil and Nick Singleton (guitar and bass, respectively) together with drummer Steve Scott and vocalist Salli Carson. Their first release was the Eclipse EP in 1990, followed in 1991 by the Snag EP. The tracks from these two EPs were collected on an album in 1991. 1992 saw the release of the full-length album Killing Time, and the single "Shotgun", a surprising mixture of shoegazing and rap. In 1993 the band released two separate mini-albums, Hard and Fast. The group disbanded shortly thereafter.

Chumbawamba special with Dunstan Bruce talking about life in the band and much much more with David Eastaugh 

Soup Dragon & Snowgoose special with Jim Mcculloch - talking about life in music, indie pop, Soup Dragons and the new album from the Snowgoose - "The Making of You" - with David Eastaugh 

Dolly Mixture special with Debsey Wykes talking about life in music with David Eastaugh 

The group was formed in Cambridge, England, by Bor, Smith, and Wykes, three school friends who shared a fondness for The Shangri-Las and The Undertones. Dolly Mixture supported The Undertones on one of their first UK tours. The band also played venues with The Fall and The Transmitters in 1979. They were once supported by U2. In Autumn 1981, they toured as the featured support band for Bad Manners on their Gosh It's tour and were well received by the second wave mod/ska audience that filled various theatres and venues up and down the land.

Relocating to London to gig extensively, national BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel gave them exposure on his radio show and in his weekly column in the UK pop paper, Sounds. Signed to Chrysalis Records, the group released a cover of the Shirelles hit, "Baby It's You" (1980), produced by Eric Faulkner of the Bay City Rollers. However, the cover version was disowned by the group, which protested the label's attempt to sell them as a teen girl group. Their next single, "Been Teen" (1981), was the first single released on Paul Weller's Respond label. It was followed by "Everything And More" (1982), also released on Respond. Both singles were produced by Captain Sensible and Paul Gray of The Damned. They became friends with Sensible and recorded backing vocals on his singles and albums. After Sensible had a hit with "Happy Talk" in 1982 (featuring Dolly Mixture, credited as "Dolly Mixtures" on the single, and also in the song's video) and following various appearances on the television show Top of the Pops, Dolly Mixture – as a separate entity from Captain Sensible – performed extensively.

The Psylons with John Haskett talking about life in music, the band and the Portsmouth music scene - with David Eastaugh 

The Psylons were a UK post-punk band formed in Portsmouth 1984 by Keith Wyatt, Carl Edwards, Jack Packer and Warren Grech. The band produced four singles, an EP and two albums, the second of which, “Gimp” was produced by Jim Shaw of Cranes. The debut single “Run To The Stranger” was a New Musical Express Single of the Week and reached number 13 in the Alternative/Indie chart. Two sessions were recorded for BBC Radio One and broadcast on the John Peel and Andy Kershaw shows.

Over the next few years the band gigged extensively and supported many acts including The Fall, My Bloody Valentine, Cranes, Spiritualized and Moonshake.

After a number of personnel changes the band finally split in 1995.

John Haskett is currently a front of house sound engineer and tour manager and has worked with Killing Joke, Splashh, We Are Scientists & Wolf Alice.

Goober Patrol with Tom Blyth talking about life in music with David Eastaugh

Like their contemporaries Snuff and Leatherface, Goober Patrol formed in the late 1980s, bringing together influences from the British pop punk and American hardcore scenes; reviewers have highlighted the Goobers sound as equal parts Stiff Little Fingers, Circle Jerks and Snuff. In the early 1990s the Goobers received lots of praise from fanzines and mainstream music presses for their live shows plus their two albums and two singles co-released on Boss Tuneage and Lost and Found records.

Whilst drinking lots of booze on tour in the UK and Europe with Green Day, Samiam, R.K.L. and The Mr. T Experience; they released a joint EP with the latter on Punk As Duck Records. After receiving this split EP, much missed renowned BBC1 DJ John Peel got them into the Maida Vale BBC studios to record a session for his radio show which gained the Goobers a more widespread U.K audience.

The Goober’s music and – perhaps more importantly – drinking then brought them to the attention of NOFX’s Fat Mike who signed them to his legendary Fat Wreck Chords label. Their first FAT release Vacation (1996) displayed their mastery at concocting contagious, hook-laden punk tunes, whilst the follow-up The Unbearable Lightness of Being Drunk (1999) mixed offbeat Brit humor and serious personal overtones with raw, hardcore, punk ‘n’ roll. In the late 90s and early 2000s the Goobers toured non-stop around America, Canada and Europe with Tilt, Down By Law, Bouncing Souls, Strung Out and Diesel Boy, and made a couple of really stupid videos for FAT’s Peepshow compilations.

Now, following a break to go back to university, work in the Christmas cracker factory and for bass player Tommy Goober to tour the world in the Toy Dolls, the Goobers are back with a new album, new members and a desire to get drunk in the greatest cities in Europe whilst playing their favorite tunes, from ‘Easy Life’ and ‘The Biggest Joke’ to ‘B.E.E.R’ and ‘Last Train to Shezza’. They hope to see you there and maybe you could buy them a pint or two! Cheers!

Penny Rimbaud in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Penny "Lapsang" Rimbaud, is a writer, poet, philosopher, painter, musician and activist. He was a member of the performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and in 1972 was co-founder of the Stonehenge Free Festival, together with Phil Russell aka Wally Hope. In 1977, alongside Steve Ignorant, he co-founded and played drums in the seminal anarchist punk band Crass, who disbanded in 1984. Up until 2000 he devoted himself almost entirely to writing, returning to the public platform in 2001 as a performance poet working alongside Australian saxophonist Louise Elliott and a wide variety of jazz musicians under the umbrella of Penny Rimbaud's Last Amendment.

The Lime Spiders with Mick Blood with David Eastaugh 

Lime Spiders were an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1979 with Mick Blood on lead vocals. He was later joined by Tony Bambach on bass guitar, Gerard Corben on guitar, Richard Lawson on drums, and David Sparks on guitar. Their debut studio album, The Cave Comes Alive! was released in June 1987 and reached the top 60 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart. Their most successful single, "Weirdo Libido", was released in January that year and reached the top 50 on the related Kent Music Report Singles Chart. In April its music video was the first ever shown on Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV music series rage. The track was used on the 1988 feature film Young Einstein's soundtrack. The group disbanded in 1990 and in 1999 Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted they had provided "raucous sound mixed screaming vocals and wild, fuzz-tone guitar riffs to arrive at a mutant strain of acid punk that bordered on heavy metal". Lead singer Mick Blood still performs Lime Spiders songs with session musicians, these are essentially Mick Blood solo performances.

Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction special with Cobalt Stargazer in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Died Pretty special with Ron Peno in conversation with David Eastaugh 

The Died Pretty, founded by mainstays Ron Peno (lead singer) and Brett Myers (lead guitarist and backing vocalist) in Sydney in 1983. The band was briefly called Final Solution. Their music started from a base of early electric Bob Dylan with psychedelic influences, including The Velvet Underground and Television. They were managed by John Needham, who is the owner of Citadel Records, their main label.

Died Pretty's 1990s albums, Doughboy Hollow, Trace and Sold, appeared on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Albums Charts but they had more success on the alternate scene. According to rock music historian Ian McFarlane they "unashamedly plundered rock's past to arrive at an original sound that was always passionate, atmospheric and uplifting ... produced some of the most inspirational rock music heard in Australia". The group formally disbanded in 2002 but the members have reunited on a number of occasions for short tours in Australia. Most recently they undertook a joint national tour with Radio Birdman in June and July 2017.

The Parachute Men with Fiona Gregg in conversation with David Eastaugh

The Parachute Men formed in 1985, with a line-up of Fiona Gregg (vocals), Stephen H. Gregg (guitar), Andrew Howes (bass and keyboards), and Mark Boyce (drums and keyboards). After two years of gigging, the band were signed by large London indie label Fire Records in 1987. Their first release was a four-track EP with "Sometimes In Vain" as the lead track, in May 1988. This was followed in August of the same year by debut album The Innocents, which made the NME top 50 albums of that year. Two further singles were taken from the album, "If I Could Wear Your Jacket" (which author Mike Gayle has stated is one of his all-time favourite records) and "Bed and Breakfast". A further single, "Leeds Station" was released and also featured on the NME's Carry On Disarming video.

Howes and Boyce departed soon after, with Fiona and Stephen continuing as an acoustic duo until they recruited Matthew Parkin (bass) and Paul Walker (drums). 1990 saw the release of the second album, Earth, Dogs, and Eggshells, preceded by the single "Every Other Thursday" (a reference to signing on to the dole). The album was released over a year after it was recorded, losing much of the momentum the band had built up.^[2] The band line-up changed again, with Canadian Colleen Browne replacing Matthew Parkin. They eventually recruited a further bass player, Tony Hodges, but after playing just one gig, at Liverpool University, split in the early 1990s with no further releases.

Sad Lovers and Giants with Simon Allard in conversation with David Eastaugh 

The original lineup included vocalist Garçe (Simon) Allard, guitarist Tristan Garel-Funk, bassist Cliff Silver, drummer Nigel Pollard and keyboardist/saxophonist David Wood.

Following their debut EP Clé and the "Colourless Dream" single, both issued in 1981, they released their debut studio album, Epic Garden Music in 1982. It reached No. 21 in the UK Independent Albums Chart.

During this initial period they recorded a John Peel Session for the BBC, and a live concert for Radio Netherlands Worldwide in 1983 (later released as the album Total Sound in 1986).Live performances included headline dates at UK colleges and clubs with occasional trips to Europe, although they did support the Sound at a major London venue on the day Epic Garden Music entered the charts. The singles "Lost in a Moment" (1982) and "Man of Straw" (1983) both made the UK Independent Singles Chart, reaching No. 48 and No. 31, respectively.

European interest in the band grew, and with the 1983 release of second album Feeding the Flame , they toured Germany and the Netherlands, gaining a dedicated fanbase. Tensions within the band caused a split, with Garel-Funk and Pollard leaving to form the Snake Corps.

During a hiatus, their label Midnight Music released the In the Breeze collection in 1984, which included one of their previously unreleased signature tunes, "Three Lines".

SLAG returned in 1987 with an updated lineup including original members Allard and Pollard along with newcomers Tony McGuinness (guitar), Juliet Sainsbury (keyboards) and Ian Gibson (bass), releasing a new album that year, The Mirror Test.

As interest abroad grew, the band performed extensively in the Netherlands, Spain and France, and headlined at the Marquee Club in London. Original bassist Silver returned, replacing Gibson, and they released a fourth studio album, Headland, in 1990.

After the 1991 release of Treehouse Poetry, Midnight Music folded and the band split once again, coming together occasionally for gigs supporting And Also the Trees at London's Marquee Club and Electric Ballroom.

E-mail from Eternity, a best-of compilation, was released by the record label Cherry Red in 1996 after the company picked up the Midnight catalogue.

In 2000, McGuinness formed progressive trance trio Above & Beyond with Jono Grant and Paavo Siljamäki, also initiating his electronic dance music labels Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep.

In 2002, Sad Lovers & Giants released their sixth album, Melting in the Fullness of Time on Voight-Kampff Records, recorded predominantly by Allard and McGuinness with studio contributions from Sainsbury, Snake Corps bassist Liam McGuinness, drummer Kevin Mathews, and two members of Lovebabies, vocalist Jenny Clark and guitarist Bob Bradley. They played two dates in Italy a year later.

Another reformed lineup (Allard, McGuinness, Pollard, Gibson) played in Italy and Greece in April 2009, coinciding with Cherry Red's rereleases of Feeding the Flame and Epic Garden Music. Keyboardist Will Hicks joined later in 2009.

During 2010, the band played a handful of live dates in Athens and Barcelona (supported by the Snake Corps and the Essence, both previous Midnight bands), reissued The Mirror Test, and recorded a new 7" double A-side single, "Himalaya". They played at the Purple Turtle in Camden in December 2011, which was their first London gig since the early 1990s. In 2012, they played gigs in Berlin and Salerno and began writing and recording new material for a future album.

An extensive interview feature on SLAG appeared in the autumn 2013 and spring 2014 issues of music magazine The Big Takeover.

In 2014, frontman Allard published an autobiography of the band, Things We Never Did – The Story of Sad Lovers & Giants.

In March 2016, Sad Lovers & Giants embarked on a short tour of North America, performing mainly on the West Coast. They made their U.S. live debut at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

In 2017, Cherry Red issued a five-disc retrospective box set, Where the Light Shines Through 1981-2017.

On 31 October 2018, the band released their seventh studio album and first in 16 years, Mission Creep.

The Adverts with TV Smith in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Geneva with Andrew Montgomery in conversation with David Eastaugh

The band were formed in 1992 by vocalist Andrew Montgomery and guitarist Steven Dora. They recruited second guitarist Stuart Evans, bass player Keith Graham and finally drummer Craig Brown. Craig was later replaced by Douglas Caskie. Originally the band were called Sunfish.

One of their demos found their way to Suede’s record label, Nude, who signed the band in 1996. The band changed their name, originally to Garland, then later to Geneva, and released their debut single "No One Speaks" the same year. The band garnered enough press to headline NME's annual Bratbus tour of up and coming bands in early 1997. The band released second single "Into the Blue" to coincide with the tour.

Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace: The Worldwide Compendium of Postpunk and Goth in the 1980s

It was a scene that had many names: some original members referred to themselves as punks, others new romantics, new wavers, the bats, or the morbids. "Goth" did not gain lexical currency until the late 1980s. But no matter what term was used, "postpunk" encompasses all the incarnations of the 1980s alternative movement. Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace is a visual and oral history of the first decade of the scene. Featuring interviews with both the performers and the audience to capture the community on and off stage, the book places personal snapshots alongside professional photography to reveal a unique range of fashions, bands, and scenes. A book about the music, the individual, and the creativity of a worldwide community rather than theoretical definitions of a subculture, Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace considers a subject not often covered by academic books. Whether you were part of the scene or are just fascinated by different modes of expression, this book will transport you to another time and place.

23 Skidoo with Alex Turnbull in conversation with David Eastaugh 

Formed in 1979 by Fritz Catlin, Johnny Turnbull and Sam Mills, and later augmented by Alex Turnbull and Tom Heslop, 23 Skidoo had interests in martial arts, Burundi and Kodo drumming, Fela Kuti, The Last Poets, William S. Burroughs, as well as the emerging confluence of industrial, post-punk and funk, heard in artists such as A Certain Ratio, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, The Pop Group and This Heat.

Their first 7", "Ethics", was released in 1980, followed by "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea" & "Last Words" 12" single which was co-produced by Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson from Cabaret Voltaire at their studio, The Western Works in Sheffield. A Peel Session was recorded on 16 September 1981. Their début album, Seven Songs, was released in 1982 and is said to evoke the claustrophobic humidity of an African forest. The album went straight to number 1 in the Independent charts. Seven Songs, which was recorded and mixed in three days, was co-produced by Tony, Terry and David, aka Genesis P-Orridge, and Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV and engineer Ken Thomas. A hastily executed EP, Tearing Up The Plans, was produced in the absence of the Turnbull brothers, who were travelling in Indonesia. The personality clashes that arose from this experiment resulted in guitarist Sam Mills and vocalist Tom Heslop leaving the band soon after. The band performed for the first time as a three piece, joined onstage by David Tibet of Current 93, at the first WOMAD festival. This live performance would go on to become the first side of the band's most challenging release, The Culling Is Coming, which also features Skidoo's exploration into gamelan on side two. The album resulted in the band being criticised for being 'too abstract'.

1984 saw the arrival of bassist Peter "Sketch" Martin following the break-up of Linx. Skidoo recruited Aswad's horn section for the "Coup" 12", which featured samples from Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and which was interpolated from their track "Fuck You G.I." from the album Urban Gamelan (1984). Urban Gamelan features Sketch on side one and, on side two, the original three piece line-up experimenting with metal percussion using patterns inspired by gamelan. After having been evicted from their rehearsal space at Genesis P-Orridge's "Death Factory" the band shifted their focus towards hip hop and turned their attention to production and building a studio, Precinct 23. In 1987 they released a compilation album, Just Like Everybody, featuring work from this period.

In 1987 the Turnbull brothers formed the Ronin label and released Jailbreak by Paradox, widely regarded as one of the first breakbeat records, as well as tracks by British photographer Normski and MC FORCE. In its later incarnation, Ronin released material by Deckwrecka, Roots Manuva, Skitz, Mud Family and Rodney P amongst others. They signed to Virgin Records in 1991 and were able to build a new studio with their advance. In 2000 they released a self-titled LP, which featured contributions from Pharoah Sanders and Roots Manuva. This was followed by a compilation of singles, The Gospel Comes To New Guinea in 2002, and for the first time on CD, reissues of Seven Songs and Urban Gamelan. In 2008 the expanded catalogue CD reissues were issued by LTM, who also issued a double-vinyl edition of Seven Songs in 2012. This issue featured the 1981 John Peel session and 12" versions of "Last Words" and "The Gospel Comes To New Guinea". In November 2013, the band played the final holiday camp edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands, England.

In 2012 Alex Turnbull co-directed Beyond Time, a documentary film about his artist father William Turnbull. The film was narrated by Jude Law and scored by 23 Skidoo with both new and old material. The soundtrack album (packaged with a DVD of the film) was released by Les Disques Du Crépuscule in 2014.

The Sound with Michael Dudley in conversation with David Eastaugh