So, who the hell were Blab Happy?
I really don't remember buying this EP - Mad Surge, from 1991 - and only stumbled across it while looking for something else. But it's a lovely, sign of the times piece of early 90s indie twiddlery, and that's what I'm here for.
According to the sleeve of this EP, quoted from no less an organ that Time Out:
"Leicester's Blab Happy are a raw, rockin' cross between the Beatles harmonies of, say, The La's (only a little less retro) and the fuzzy guitars of That Petrol Emotion."This of course means what we expect by now, they sound a bit like Teenage Fanclub.
Googling around I find two useful pieces of information about the band. Firstly, this bit of vinyl is worth 9 US Dollars to the good burghers of ebay and secondly, according to this 2003 article in the Guardian, the band had supported such noteables as Radiohead and Kingmaker. Yes, Kingmaker.
So, long-forgotten, but briefly famous Blab Happy, we salute you; and here is Blab Happy - Never No More in all its crackly vinyl glory.
As I've now been pointed to a video on youtube, by the band's singer/guitarist of all people, it's probably best to embed it here as well; by crikey those are proper indie haircuts...
I was the singer/guitarist in Blab Happy (and I wrote that Guardian article you linked to). Great to be appreciated after all this time!
ReplyDeleteSee our home-made, self-financed video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IIfDPaFZcs
This record was given away free in record shops, I used to have it.
ReplyDeleteWe had the good fortune to support Blab Happy at the Princess Charlotte and I have to say they were a great bunch of blokes with some top pop tunes. I think they were a bit before their time as everyone was doing either grunge or shoegazing at the time. A couple of them (I think) went on to be in Radio 1 favourites (and equally as excellent) Perfume...
ReplyDeleteI discovered a pop fact today about the Blab Happy/Perfume connection - I never even realized. The band I was in years ago (Wonderboy, unsigned, Aberdeen) supported Perfume at the Lemon Tree. I realize this is the wrong thread to say how good Perfume were, but there you go, and this is how I discovered the BH/Perfume connection...
ReplyDeleteI can't for the life of me remember what the name of the record was, but there was a B-side (heck, might have even been the title track) called "Tenderhooks". I was trying to track it down for nostalgia's sake because at the time it came out (1992?) I thought it was amaaaaaazing. That's how I stumbled onto this blog. Admittedly I've not tried that hard to track the song down, but if Jon (50pBloke) is willing to fill in the gaps, then that'd be great!
Hi Wayland - Glad you like Tender Hooks! A favourite of mine, and at the time, John Peel's and Thom Yorke's too. It's available on an EP called Blinding, and on our second album, Smothered.
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