Now, I'll be honest, I can't remember when I came across The Keatons, I'm assuming it was during looking up the S*M*A*S*H stuff from before as the band are also from Welwyn Garden City (sort of, two of the band live there) and I remember an email conversation with a chap about them, but I'm buggered if I can find it, sorry if it was you!Anyway, The Keatons. Most of what you need to know, including the recording of the spectacularly names debut LP "Ex Vide Betamaxi In Honda Cotopaxi" in the Czech Republic, the members of the band and all the history is covered in the Myspace page and on Rhodri Marsden's (who got in the band by eating an orange, writes for the Independent and the Radio Times and is in Scritti Politti!) blog.
In short, the band formed in London in 1986, recorded some great singles, got played by John Peel, toured long and hard, released the album (which is great, try and get hold of a copy), and toured even more. Read the myspace page, it's worth it and has a few other tracks on that are just as good as this: The Keatons - Gold Vane; it's track 1 on the album which would be a lazy bit of recording and mp3ing, but it captures the spirit.
I can only apologise for forgetting everything I was going to say, none of my notes to myself make any sense...
Actually, The Beige Album was our first full-length album, recorded in 1990. Didn't come out until 1993 or something.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, your lovingly encoded mp3 is very quiet on one channel, reducing our slightly-shit stereo call-and-answer guitars into one slightly-shit mono calling guitar, with no answer. Kind of a metaphor for the whole band, really.
is this the rhodri of "the free french" and "gag" (sort of) fame?
ReplyDeleteyep it him. i sung on gold vanes
ReplyDeletewAS i THe singer on this? Hur Hurr I is Neil the viking from WGC oh yes
ReplyDelete