There can't be many useful things to know about Welwyn Garden City can there? Nick Faldo started his golf career there, we know that. The city was built by Quakers, erstwhile England flapper David "Calamity" James was born there, I used to go out with a girl who lived there, isn't the bus station famous for some reason? That's all we know about Welwyn Garden City. Oh, and it's the home town of indie pop punk trio S*M*A*S*H. Officially the hardest band to Google in the world.
S*M*A*S*H were moderately famous in the early-to-mid 90s, supporting such indie luminaries as Pop Will Eat Itself and playing on the NME's "On Into 94" tour, but they never really made it big. According to Wikipedia
"The trio made a memorable appearance on Top of the Pops, singing "Shame" live to a backing track which had been recorded at a studio especially for the programme. They became the first to appear on the BBC's flagship chart show without officially releasing a single - their debut EP reaching number 26 in the album charts."Oddly, once you get past the impossible to Google band name... and who'd have thought back in 1992 there's be idiots like me on the internet at half 10 of a Thursday night - incidentally I'm doing this now because the wife has gone to see Take That - desperate to search for information about long-forgotten indie bands; you wouldn't have called your band "Ride", the internet gurus would have told you to choose something easy to find.., but I digress, once you find the stuff, there's a few really good websites ou there devoted to the band, S*M*A*S*H.net and Self Abused to name but two.
The band made an attempted comeback early in 2006 and acording to the internet they were very good. But you have to wonder whether that's the same internet that remembers Moose as the founding fathers of shoegazing...
Well, here you go, what you're here for. After much deliberation you can have a bit of a listen and a mosh to S*M*A*S*H - Petal Buzz; my personal favourite off the Another Love EP and also the name of their fanzine. Enjoy.
how amazing. i was listening to s*m*a*s*h TODAY and you blogged about them TODAY. usually when i google something it's an old post. anyway i've got two cd's by them -- one is i want to kill somebody with remixes, and the other has real surreal, lady love your cunt, and three other songs on it. i can send them your way if you'd like but you seem like you'd already have them.
ReplyDeletesurely "the the" are the most difficult band to google?
ReplyDeletes*m*a*s*h were pretty good, although by the time they'd recorded their alBUM they'd gone pretty rocky/almost metally to my mind. still though, there is always a certain joy in mentioning Virginia Bottomley in company of people of a certain age, just to see how many of them say "ESPECIALLY" back to you...
Hate to be pedantic, but 'The The' are the hardest band to Google, as Google doesn't recognise the word 'the'.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a very short step from S*M*A*S*H* to Blessed Ethel and then where will we be...
ReplyDeleteI hear S*M*A*S*H have been attempting a comeback of late. Dunno how well that went.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Real Surreal was their finest moment, even if it did sound very American.
Re: The bit about WGC's bus station. I worked in WGC in 1997 for the local paper, but I don't recall a bus station. However, I did get to interview Nick Faldo's parents on the phone. Isn't life incredible?
ReplyDeleteIncidentally the band 'A' are bloody hard to google too.
ReplyDeleteSmash were part of NME's 'new wave of new wave' with the likes of These Animal Men (rubbish) and Compulsion (great). The Melody Maker retaliated with 'RoMo' or 'romantic modernism'. Neither invented genre covered the magazines in glory, but at least new wave of new wave had some good tunes.
ReplyDeleteThese Animal Men rubbish??? Pah! I should prod you with my eyeliner pencil. Their second album, Accident & Emergency is a blinder, as is Taxi For These Animal Men. Check YouTube for videos to "You're Always Right" and "Life Support Machine", you'll see what I mean. Boag and Hooligan still playing together as The Orphans.
ReplyDeleteS*M*A*S*H's eponymous EP is well worth checking out. Real Surreal AND Lady Love Your C*** would both feature on the soundtrack if somebody decided to make a film about my youth.
They used to work in a second hand clothes/record shop in Hitchin and had massive big heads when they got in the Nme. The singer had a drug problem the drummer told me.
ReplyDeleteI think they owned that shop. It was called Our Favourite Shop and I still wear a vintage leather jacket I bought in there. It was on Bucklersbury opposite The Red Hart. It's now a hairdressers. They sold Vietnam style military tees with the band name on, a sign of cool at our school!
ReplyDeleteSMASH are playing in Hitchin this Saturday (May 4th 2013) free entry gig at Molly Malones ...just near the station
ReplyDelete