We're lumbering towards actually famous today with The Waltones, not least because they may, or may not, have been offered a deal by legendary Manchester DJ and producer Dave Haslam and soon-to-be Happy Mondays Manager Nathan McGough; and of course after the band's eventual split, Mark Collins the guitarist went off to join The Charlatans.
The Waltones were formed in Manchester in 1986, comprised Alex Fyans (Drums), Mark Collins (Guitar), James Knox (Vocals, Harmonica) and Manny Lee (Bass, Backing Vocals), recorded four singles and an album, are alleged on wikipedia to have recorded a Peel Session (although the official Peel pages seem to contradict that and, thanks to the internet we know that:
"...despite gaining much streetcred and selling out their LP, their distributor Red Rhino went bankrupt. The new distributor APT refused to take on Red Rhino's debts and thus no re-press of the album was undertaken. When Medium Cool was taken over by Midnight Music records a fall-out occured between the label and the Waltones ex-manager over ownership of the mastertapes for 'Listen To Your Heart' (the bands 5th unreleased single)."There are a number of good sites about for the band, including their myspace pages which really covers everything, James, the singer's page - which tells it from his point of view and this nice blog post.
The Waltones are great; they played proper pre-Madchester indie that reminds me of one of my favourite bands, Bob, though which came first I'll leave up to you...
So, this is The Waltones - Everything's just Fine, the first song off the album Deepest, boy, does that take me back...
You can buy You've Gotta Hand It To 'Em the re-released Best of... here.
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ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, the Ken Garner book lists a Peel session on 24/8/88.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great band, definitely worth picking up the best of CD which includes pretty much everything they did including She Looks Right Through Me which was a bit of an indie floor filler in clubs I used to frequent.
ReplyDeletePlus Deepest used to be one of my favourite album covers, having at the time never seen Millais's original Ophelia (which they cheekily flipped round).
they really were a top class act and must surely've played with those nice bob boys at our cool trout basement thing at sometime or other seeing as the whole hing was just an excuse to put on all the sombrero and medium cool acts on as often as humanly possible. i'll have a rummage through the fliers.
ReplyDeleteyou can see some too at
www.flickr.com/photos/ohmygoodgawd
x
oh and they did do a peel session cos i've got a copy somewhere - i'll send it you if you like
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James from The Waltones here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this.
Ophelia was Andy Wake's idea - he ran the Medium Cool label. She was flipped so that her body went across the spine of the cover - rather than pulling the record out of her belly. Check out mediumcool.info
I've recently got holsd of a pristine copy of the Peel Session we did, taken directly from the mastertape. Sounds raw and heavy - I like it
ReplyDeleteManny Lee, Bass player with the Waltones
the peel session is the best thing they did. Far superior to the album versions of the same tracks.
ReplyDelete