1985 Indie music

My time at Thames mostly involved going to see bands, and trying to get off with girls in the Poly bars. One of these aims was more successful than the other. I didn;t usually take my camera to gigs with me, but here are a couple of occasions when I did. Top - the March Violets at Woolwich Coronet:

March Violets

 And a Buddy Holly inspired skiffle influenced band called Terry & Gerry - Who sang socially aware moderately political and or topical tunes in a southern '50s style, from Birmingham. UK. Still going apparently.

Terry on bass

Terry, left, on the double bass and Gerry is on the right

Doreen Deville (aka Su Richardson, Su Sonic) - washboard and singing, behind Gerry

now

I bought this. Still have it. On vinyl. 

From Lubbock to Clintwood East

After a faultering start in the world of Indie music I fully immersed myself.

Becoming friends with Dave and Harvey meant I had the friend I needed who was into proper music like me. In fact Paul was into good stuff too, but him being quite introverted, it was difficult to squeeze it out of him. Paul leant me a New Order tape – with the early singles on it prior to Blue Monday – Temptation et al. He was also heavily into African stuff.

I’d get the heads up from Dave about there being something especially good on Peel that evening, such as the Half Man Half Biscuit sessions, and would make sure I taped it if I was in that evening.

Started going to gigs with Dave. We saw the Wedding Present and Soup Dragons. There were others too. Went to see The Fall, who I already liked, from the Beggars Banquet sampler tape that came out earlier in the year, and from John Peel. It was in the Coronet. I got roped into giving leaflets out before the gig by the Labour Society. They mainly got used as paper aeroplanes during the gig. I’m pleased that I helped influence a Fall gig in such an important way.

By Christmas I saw Nico and the Faction, got big into Velvet Underground and became a massive Lou Reed fan too. I think it was Harvey who did me the first two VU albums – and tracks like “Sister Ray” were like nothing I’d heard before. It was another piece in the jigsaw for me of where artists like Bowie were coming from, and even Human League to an extent.

I first got into the Fall while still at school - a sampler compilation from Beggars Banquest came out and contained a track from their current album. Through 1985 I taped new and old sessions form the John Peel show and bought a couple of their albums on my meagre grant. Then The Fall came to Woolwich!

This is an excerpt from The Fall gigography website:

Thursday, 6 February 1986 Coronet, Woolwich, London SE18
Mansion (intro tape) / My New House / Bombast / Disney's Dream Debased / Rowche Rumble / Lay of the Land / Hey! Luciani / Gut of the Quantifier / Dktr Faustus (two attempts) / Hot Aftershave Bop / Cruiser's Creek / Lie Dream of a Casino Soul / L.A. / Couldn't Get Ahead / 2 x 4
Supported by Alternative TV. £3.50.
Peter: "Paul Hanley drummed here at short notice in place of Karl and couldn't get Dktr Faustus right as you can tell from the tape and 2 attempts at it. Mansion as per 10.85 tour on tape only. Definitely source for Rowche Rumble on Crash Course promo."

Funnily enough - I can't remember seeing Alternative TV, but I do have one of their records and like it very much - and I'm pretty sure I would have known who they were at the time even - but, alas, memory is a very fragile thing.

POSTED BY THE CAT

Christmas 1985

Back in Plymouth with my Indie and my Lou Reed tapes. I thought I’d grown. Undoubtedly I met with ex Sut friends over the holidays.

Made idiot of myself at party in Plymouth by drinking vodka like water and getting way too pissed.

Pretty much wished I could be back in London right through the holiday. 


Peel 
Kershaw's arrival (October 1985) in the gap left by Vance's departure was shortly followed by the appointment of a new Radio 1 controller to replace the retiring Chinnery, Johnny Beerling. ^[8] He had, as Garner reports, been after removing Peel from his 10-12 slot for a long time, and according to some, wished he could get Peel off the station. Despite this, he never fired John and in fact renegotiated his contract to a bi-annual basis. When he started, JP had six hours a week and this was still the case when he left in 1993 (albeit differently arranged).

Kat's Karavan had existed for years in a kind of hermetically sealed environment on which the outside world did not impinge. The first intimations that this was to be shattered had already come about in 1982, when the nightly news reports of the Falklands War had left Peel dispirited that he had to present a show as normal while suffering in war (a thing he had always despised) carried on across the Atlantic Ocean. In the last week of May 1985, he went with Sheila to the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus: kershaw covered his shows while he was away. The Heysel Stadium disaster was described by Sheila as "one of the most terrifying and disturbing experiences either of us had ever had" ^[9] Those events disturbed the comfy world of his show to the extent that he refused to talk about it on air when he got back, and suffered nightmares for some time afterwards. ^[10]

Moreover, the show had settled into a kind of rut: two sessions per night, JP increasingly running the show and composing his own running orders (on his trusty Olivetti typewriter, as he would continue to do to the very end), with Walters listening to the show at home, the Wednesday show pre-recorded in order to allow John to spend an extra night with the family....Ken Garner adds that "character and surprise, shock even, was what was lacking at the end of 1986."^[11]

1985 was, however, notable for the discovery of two bands who would continue to spend studio time for Peel and even become friends: the Wedding Present and Half Man Half Biscuit. The 1985 Festive Fifty was the first to have one band (Jesus And Mary Chain) taking the two top places, and the only one where John went beserk and extended it to 70 placings (and had even considered going on to 100). On the other hand, the following year's chart did little to allay John's fears that, once more, his listeners were becoming set in their ways....a bit like the show itself. Another sonic revolution was needed.

https://peel.fandom.com/wiki/John_Peel_Show