You don't get much in the way of rock and roll from Great Yarmouth; it's not your hot bed of music like Manchester or Liverpool. Granted that bloke out of sub-van Halen cover band The Darkness was from that neck of the woods, but apart from him, the only real contributers to music - and certainly the only ones we're interested in, were Catherine Wheel.
Formed in 1990, the band had Bruce (off of Iron Maiden) Dickinson's cousin on guitar; Fortunately for all of us however, he was far more interested in swooping shoegaze feedback and vocals than cod-metal.
In true indie style, the band split in the mid-90s, then reformed to chance their arms in the indie-revival of 2000, before finally calling it a day and going their separate ways.
The official website now redirects to newer bands, but this list of their gigs suggests that they toured extensively. And I've a nasty feeling I saw them at the Boardwalk in Manchester being supported by Bang Bang Machine; but I can't be 100% as they appear to have played the city a lot in the years I was there so it might have been upstairs at the Hop & Grape with someone even less famous...
Check wikipedia for more information and listen to Catherine Wheel - Crank. It's very good and true to form, I've got a "not for resale" 12" version of the single. Of course, "not for resale" these days means "cheap off of ebay".
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Catherine Wheel
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What a wonderful blog - pure blissful nostalgia. I'd forgotten about most of these bands - but it's all come flooding back. Have you done Th'Faith Healers yet? Or Bleach? They were both pretty decent (Gorgeous Blue Flower in my Garden esp.).
ReplyDeleteA friend has persuaded me to go to the Daydream Nation Don't Look Back gig this Friday, but I fear seeing a bunch of ageing 30-somethings who ought to know better...
You might also this: http://globalvariables.net/audio.out/
It's a more dance-y version of what you're doing and equally enjoyable.
thanks!
Tom
www.grlla.com
www.factmagazine.co.uk
Bleach? Wow. I remember buying Nirvana's first album from Avalanche in Edinburgh (white vinyl, natch. Lost it, along with about five boxes of prime indie nonsense when I moved flat 11 years ago) for my then girlfriend who was deeply upset that it wasn't the slightly twee indie pop record she'd wanted.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, how about some uresei yatura, or pooh sticks, or the pastels or jazz butcher, or for really obscure, Gila Monster, King of the Slums or, well there's so, so many.
I'd put a vote in for The Pooh Sticks as well. I've recently listened to their Peel Sessions LP which is fantastic. Always will be a fan of Heartbreak.
ReplyDeleteI had (or still have) this on CD single, one of the few i've owned that slowly went manky and oxodised. It went gold and smelt weird. Nice tune though.
ReplyDeletePooh Sticks are well underrated. Heroes and Villains is a stone cold classic, and great white wonder a remarkably good, if slightly overly polished, album. When Sunny Gets Blue is the kind of song this blog's all about.
ReplyDelete