 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2008) |
Yeah Jazz were an English rock band from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, formed in 1983. [1]
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2008) |
Yeah Jazz were an English rock band from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, formed in 1983. [1]
The band formed in 1983 with a line-up of Kevin Hand (vocals), Mark "Chats" Chatfield (guitar), Stu Ballantyne (bass guitar), and Ian Hitchens (drums). [1] Their debut releases was a cassette EP, Julie and the Sea Lions, in 1984, and over the next two years they developed a more folk-oriented sound, before their next release, "This Is Not Love" in 1986, which featured Frank Sweeney of The June Brides on violin. [1]
After a pair of further singles, Yeah Jazz signed to Cherry Red Records, and added Terry Edwards for their debut single for the label, "Sharon", in 1987. [1] This was followed in April 1988 by the band's debut album, Six Lane Ends. [2] This was published only in LP and tape forms in the UK and on CD in Japan only with the bonus track "This is Not Love - Live". The group split up in 1989, but reformed in 1991. [2]
Their second album, Short Stories, was released initially on cassette only. This was later released under the name Big Red Kite, with a slightly different track listing (towards the end of the life of the band, a deal was struck with the German label Scout to put out the Short Stories CD. However, as some music fans were confused by the "jazz" in title, the band became "Big Red Kite"). A CD single was released from the album entitled "April". [1] The April EP came out on Tubecroft Records in 1992, and also included "Rainbows" and live favourite "Lorraine & Duane". The line-up of the band at this point was Kev Hand (guitar/vocals), Chats (guitar), Stu (bass), Dave Blant (accordion / keyboards/back vocs) and Fred Hopwood (drums/whistle/harmonica). It was recorded at AbbeySound Studios in Rugeley, Staffordshire and produced by Lee Beddow.
A final CD rounding up other tracks, including the song "Rain Of Crystal Spires" for a "Felt" tribute album, was released under the name of Songs From Biscuit Town (a reference to Uttoxeter's own Elkes biscuit factory) and was basically a round up of all their previously unreleased on CD tracks; although a couple were missed of namely "Times Change" and "Brown Eyes Show More Feeling", which were originally featured on the Short Stories cassette. The version of "Thinking About You" is from a BBC radio session recorded at Pebble Mill, instead of the one which appeared on the Short Stories cassette.
Both Short Stories and Songs From Biscuit Town are still available through Smalltown Records, run by Fred Hopwood and Dave Blant. They still perform and record under various monikers based on The Vice Bishops Of Uttoxeter and their last CD included a track written by Kev Hand called "Heaven's Gate".
Hand has recently led the band "Radio Mary". and more recently "Radio Murphy" ( covering classic Irish numbers) but continues to write new songs, performing in small acoustic settings, and has recently brought Yeah Jazz back together to perform at selective venues
*30 Years (2016) Firestation Records Germany
19 track compilation Ltd edition CD and vinyl
*Short Stories (2022) Ltd.Edition CD Smalltown label
Remastered with bonus tracks (see external links below)
Huggy Bear were an English riot grrrl band, formed in 1991 and based in Brighton.
John Baine, better known by his stage name Attila the Stockbroker, is an English punk poet, multi instrumentalist musician and songwriter. He performs solo and as the leader of the band Barnstormer 1649, who combine early music and punk. He has performed over 3,800 concerts, published eight books of poems, an autobiography and in 2021 his Collected Works spanning 40 years. He has released over forty recordings.
Vice Squad are an English punk rock band formed in 1979 in Bristol. The band was formed from two other local punk bands, The Contingent and TV Brakes. The songwriter and vocalist Beki Bondage was a founding member of the band. Although there was a period of time when the band had a different vocalist she reformed the band in 1997. Since 2008, the band have been releasing records on their own label Last Rockers.
Eyeless In Gaza are an English musical duo of Martyn Bates and Peter Becker, based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. They have described their music as "veer[ing] crazily from filmic ambiance to rock and pop, industrial funk to avant-folk styles." Formed in 1980, the group went into hiatus in 1987, re-emerging in 1993.
Dog Faced Hermans were a post-punk band that formed in Scotland in the mid 1980s and remained active through the mid 1990s. They emerged from the UK anarcho-punk scene with a guitar/bass/drums line-up, but also incorporated trumpet and other instruments not commonly found in punk music at that time. Their composition style incorporated many genres of music outside of rock, including folk, jazz, ambient and noise music with often unorthodox instrumentation.
Stump were an Irish-English indie/experimental/rock group consisting of Mick Lynch (vocals), Rob McKahey (drums), Kev Hopper (bass) and Chris Salmon (guitar). Their music has been described as a mixture of Captain Beefheart and The Fall, and they are best known for their influential, critically acclaimed, but poor selling 1988 album, A Fierce Pancake.
Mighty Mighty are a British indie band formed in Birmingham, England, in the mid-1980s.
Close Lobsters are a Scottish indie pop rock band.
Terry and Gerry are a British pop band, originally formed in the early 1980s by Terry Lilley and Gerry Colvin in Birmingham, England. Unusually for the time the band was based on a skiffle sound, making use of a washboard for percussion instead of a drum kit. Terry Lilley plays double bass, and Gerry Colvin sings lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar.
Yeah Yeah Noh are an "unpop" group formed in Leicester, England in 1983. Originally a product of the DIY post-punk era, their sound was labelled 'Calor-gas psychedelia' by Mojo magazine in 2012. They released two albums and five singles while still together in the 1980s, and have had two compilation albums issued since they initially split up in 1986.
Cherry Tree is an EP by the American indie rock band The National, released in July 2004. It was reissued on June 28, 2011, by Brassland Records, the same label on which it was originally published.
The Siddeleys were a London-based indie pop band, active during the late 1980s. Although they were relatively short-lived, they were influential.
The Room were a new wave band from Liverpool formed in late 1979. They released three albums and several singles before breaking up in 1985. Two of the band members went on to form Benny Profane, Dust and Dead Cowboys.
The Ejected were an English punk rock/Oi! band from Dagenham, London, active mainly between 1981 and 1983. But they are now back together and touring the world. The band now sell books at their concerts which talk about their rise to fame.
The Gresham Flyers were a power pop band, formed in 2005 and based in London, England, although none of their members or former members are originally from London.
The Subway Organization was a British independent record label founded in 1985 in Bristol by Martin Whitehead.
In Embrace were an English alternative rock and band formed in Leicestershire in 1981 and later indie pop band based in Coventry, England. They released seven singles, two albums and an EP/mini-album before splitting up in 1987.
Grab Grab the Haddock was an English indie pop group that was formed in 1984.
Political Asylum was a Scottish anarcho-punk band formed in Stirling in 1982 and active until 1993. One of the most popular bands within that scene, they played hundreds of gigs across the U.K., Europe and America and were, according to author Ian Glasper, "an integral part of the fiercely independent underground that existed at the time."
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.