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Sunday 13 July 2008

World of Leather

The only thing the internet knows about the best band ever named after a sofa shop, World of Leather seems to be on the once more invaluable Trouserpress site; which says:

"British power pop auteur Tot Taylor is the man behind the throne in the World of Leather, a merry band floating around Liverpool singer/guitarist Mark Chase...[the band] were a bizarre glam-pop extravaganza that credits a couple of drummers and as many as eight (!) guitarists on a single track."
And it's true I've got their first two singles here, and World of Leather (below) has six guitarists, five vocals and three violins credited; the second Future Ex-Pop Star has eight guitarists and, wonderfully, two drummers; a quick Google brings up a couple of ex-members around: Ray Weston, drums and Paul Cuddeford, guitar.

They came to my notice care of a drunken weekend in that indiest of cities, Oxford, via my friend Paul who was at one point either their manager or PR man or similar. He also had something to do with The Gigolo Aunts back in the day. He told me a story about how he'd got them a gig somewhere in Kilburn and the band had paid a couple of my other chums £5 each and all they could drink in exchange for working the smoke machine.

Of course, they took "all you can drink" as a challenge, so when it came to doing the smoke they just left it blowing full blast and filled the whole place with a thick smog. People walking through kilburn that night tell of vast clouds drifting down the road, obscuring the pavements, causing busses to crash and bringing back memories of the famous London pea-soupers.

Anyway, this offering World of Leather - World of Leather is a bloody marvellous bit of indie/power/glam/rock pop and more than deserves a mention here.

I'll admit that I'm breaking my own rules a bit and it's from a CD, not a bit of vinyl so I hope you'll forgive me. But as a) it's so good it needs remembering, b) WoL don't seem to have released anything on vinyl and c) they're my rules to break so nuts, I'm going to put it on.

Do bands still use smoke machines? They were very indie...

PS, I forgot to say, the song is off a limited 500 run of the CD and there's still loads of WoL stuff on Amazon, much for as little as 1 pence.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 July, 2008

    Hi, I am from the UK and I was doing a search on the Edsel Auctioneer and noticed that you had the 12" that I bought when it came out. I have been doing a search every now and again to see if anything else pops up by them as I have been unable to get hold of there stuff. Anyway, found this today in case you have not already got them. I haven't so I am well pleased. http://dirkwearswhitesox.blogspot.com/search/label/edsel%20auctioneer

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  2. Thanks for this, haven't heard this song in a while, i've some of their later stuff, which didn't quite live up earlier adventures.

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  3. Anonymous04 July, 2009

    i 1st heard W.o.L after a mate saw them at his uni he was at & brought a copy of the e.p (w.o.l, silver, & lose myself)
    since then ive managed to find nothing!

    any info, tracks etc id love to hear from you!

    alanc100@yahoo.com

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  4. I played in a band that supported WoL in Birmingham, and I seem to remember they were heavy in the guitarist dept that night. Wasn't the singer briefly known for fronting a sex show on TV around the same time (the thought of sex + TV then still being quite shocking.)

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  5. I just dug out their CD "St Mark's Place" in a tidy up and I love the opening track "Kensington" on the St Mark's Place album and it is a gem, I remember I once sold a load of CD's and I had to rebuy this with the help of the net.

    Don't know why Oasis were so big and WOL are so unknown.

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  6. Anonymous08 July, 2015

    For a short period, I taught composition to WOL band member Liz Sears when she was a student at Goldsmiths College. She was was a lovely person and very talented.

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