I was reminded of Bang Bang Machine when I was doing the Catherine Wheel post down there, so had to rush off to ebay and spend some hard earned (well, adsense-earned) cash on this particular 12". Partially because it turns out it was one of the last records the band released, partially because it was released in 1995 and that's the first missing year from the 90s in this blog so far, but mostly because it's an absolute cracker of a record.
So who were Bang Bang Machine? Well, they were only Worcestershire's finest purveyors of the indie-pop, jingly-jangly, shoe-gazing type of music that we all know and love. Actually, that's a bit unfair; the band experimented with various musical styles from proper indie pop to grunge to, well, goth really and towards the end of their existence firmly fell into the Brit Pop category.
The band's indie pop pedigree can't be denied of course, a Peel session and number 1 in the 1992 Festive 50 above such lumiaries as Pavement, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Wedding Present, Sonic Youth and The Fall attest to that, and if you've got a copy of Geek Love (said number 1) on CD, then that's worth about £20 on ebay to you guv!
There's a nice unoffical site here and for your listening pleasure, here is Bang Bang Machine - Breathless.
I think this post is going to be one of those where everyone remebers far more about the band than I do. This is probably due to an excess of snakebite in the early 1990s than anything, so please fill in the gaps!
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Bang Bang Machine
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Ah, I was hoping it'd be Geek Love. I don't remember any of their other singles. I'll give it a listen though.
ReplyDeleteI do remember visiting London and passing a venue around the time of Bang Bang Machine with a chalkboard outside advertising that night's show by BBM (i think they were sometimes abbreviated to this for ease of writing it down) only to discover, on closer inspection, that it was in fact a performance by Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Gary Moore. I hurried away from that disappointed, I can tell you.
Lamp from Bang Bang Machine was DJ in an Evesham pub I worked in 1997-99 and is now running a night in Brighton. What a legend he is.
ReplyDeleteHow much is Geek Love worth on vinyl? I've got that. It's a fucking astonishing record but nothing else they did came close to it. Should be able to hear it blip.fm if you want to.
ReplyDeleteSaw them supporting The Telescopes back in the day. The singer tried to smash up the mic stand but didn't succeed. It was either a pose because the band couldn't afford to actually smash it or she wasn't strong enough. Was hard to tell at the time.
I have got Geek love on promo 12" with hand pasted photo copy freek/geek cover as well as the proper 12 in white sleeve,do you think I might squeeze £25 on the bay?
ReplyDeleteI have just started blogging and think your blog sucks you have about as much adventure and taste as 90's scooby doo.
Sorry Jason
Apologies for my comments last night I had been out to a friends birthday and was worse for wear when I got in,
ReplyDeleteJ
The pub Lamp used to DJ at was the green dragon in Evesham (the pub changed its name to the Blue Maze circa 2003 then closed this year (sad times)
ReplyDeletelamp's night wa called the rebellious juke box (or summut similar) and it was bloody great!!!
Liz freeth (singer worked as a journo for the Evesham Journal for a while.. last i heard, she got married to the guy I think played bass with BBM..
Steve Eagles had a band after that called Bluemouth, I saw them in London playing (Steve drove us down there!!) in about 98 i think.. dunno what he's upto these days...
geek love was great
ReplyDeletestill have it on 12' since hearing Peel play it back in the day
Got most of the early singles too
He plays in Blurt, dunc... some twenty-five years already!
ReplyDeleteAfter 17 years BANG BANG MACHINE re-release their back catalogue on I-TUNES!
ReplyDeletehttps://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/bang-bang-machine/id718343751?ign-mpt=uo%3D4