Sound of the past

Pavia, Northern Italy, 1981. — From the ashes of Doctor Mabuse, protagonists of incendiary concerts of which no trace remains, came Dark Tales. Authors of three demotapes, they also appeared on numerous compilations of the period, including the now beyond rare “First Relation.” Distorted vocals, futuristic sounding keyboards and clean sounding guitars. All inserted in a new wave atmosphere made less sinister by a tight rhythm section always at the forefront, but never obsessive. Then in 1985, the end, due to exhaustion, lack of funding, and stupidity of those who were there, but refused to understand.

Listen & enjoy their great mini "Living out" and buy their fantastic reissue cd on Spittle records.

Spanish Johnny & the prunes

“To properly understand the Virgin Prunes you’d have to go and live in Dublin for at least ten years. You’d have to experience the overpowering narrow-mindedness of the place at first hand - the pernicious maintenance of jaded and hypocritical religious morals, the smothering claustrophobia… It’s a society built on mind-bending paradoxes and guilt-ridden inhibitions… it’s crazy to think that, in a town where it’s easier to buy a slice of dope than 20 Rothmans, it’s a criminal offence to obtain contraceptives! The Church still has its stranglehold, and is effectively more powerful than the government… sin is still a far more powerful deterrent than any mere judicial system, and guilt is mightier than the sword. Beginning to get the picture? To understand why the Prunes can’t operate in half-measures - why they have to deal in extremes just to survive.”

Helen Fitzgerald in “Dressed to Kill”, an interview with the Virgin Prunes in Sounds, 11 December 1982.

(Re-post) Future in the past

Back to r'n'r now. Italian mod band Four by art had a solid reputation in the eighties for their memorable live performances but most of their recordings in the studio - the "ST" (1985) mlp & "Everybody's an artist with" (1986) an year later always on Electric Eye Records - like so many 80s bands, didn't compare. Their first ep was memorable to me and it still shines however as a jingle jangle gem of 60s influenced beat pop. "My mind in four sight" has been written in their early days when they wore mod shirts, sported bowl haircuts and were pretty much unknown outside of their home region of Lombardia. Garage mod bands weren't exactly falling over themselves in the mid 80s but they used the Paisley Underground template well adding their own touch of modernisms. They were definetly a psychedelic dance band (Claudio Sorge once called it "sixties garage party") when the forgettable 80s were infested with awful synth bands and perm haired metal puffs from America. They recently reformed and have some more fun travelling Italy with their shows but that's another story and I don't know who's really interested now. This was 1983 and they wished it could be 1969 again!