Defend the indefensible : any of the bands on this comp!

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a friend of mine made this comp for me as a joke (he called it "now thats what i call rubbish 80s shite vol 1") ands i'm absolutely fascinated by it - i can't find anything good about ANY of the tracks, just one jarring noise after another. is there anyone out there that can defend any of these tracks/bands?

immaculate fools - nothing means nothing
one the juggler - d'jangos coming
the hunters club - give me your soul
lick the tins - bad dreams
jukebox jesus - shake it baby
doll by doll - main travelled roads
europeans - listen
perfect strangers - without you
private lives - because your young
greg vandyke - clone
the lucy show - million things
burke and hodge - indeed (everyone wants to be a wow)
two people - heaven
the truth - weapons of love
mezzoforte - no limit
mightier than kong - hey girl don't bother me
real mayonnaise - framework
7th avenue - loves gone mad
hearts and minds - turning turtle
secession - radioland
the promise - glasshouse
the carringtons - routed to the spot

― zappi (joni), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:12 (twenty years ago)

I had an album by the Europeans when I was a kid. Found it in a sale bin and it looked sort of interesting, but it was like a ploddy version of Heaven 17 or someone, with bucketloads of whizz-bang 80s production to cover up the utter wretchedness of the songs. That said, 'Recognition' was okay, I s'pose.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:22 (twenty years ago)

I love the Hunters Club to death. Saw them lots and lots of times, probably well over 50. Unfortunately, Give Me Your Soul is from near the end and some of their weaker material.

Search: Play The Game, Island Of Lies, Animal Lover, Hit The Street.

Tinny drum machines playing presets have never sounded so good.

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't "Stephen Street" in the Europeans? I had a single "Europeans" by "Europeans" (Chorus.. "Here they come! Europeans... make them go away")

Or was that a different Europeans? Or/and a different Stephen Street?

(I know theres an actual Stephen Street off Tottenham Court Road, fwiw)

Oh and Greg Vandyke sells lots of expensive vinyl.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

doll by doll is jackie leven's band i think. he went on to be a serious songwriter. um, i disliked everything by him i've heard but he has his defenders here.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

I gather he was pretty serious in Doll By Doll too - bit too serious

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Don't think he was, or at least, I never made that connection. Steve Hogarth was in them though, and he was the guy who replaced Fish in Marillion. Ho ho!

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Oh, that was a lightning fast response to Mark BTW.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

i am unfamiliar offhand with all of those... and because of that i didn't know which column was the band names and which the song names! funny

― gem (trisk), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

Weren't Immaculate Fools like a bad Psychedelic Furs?

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

Ha, I was going to mention the guy from the europeans now being in marillion. He's a really good singer, but the europeans were pretty lame, I saw them supporting either Peter Gabriel or Steve Hackett or Ultravox.

One the Juggler were kind of hyped as being medieval-styled punk rock (!!) which sounded pretty intriguing at the time, but they were quite ordinary.

That's all I can remember from the list.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:46 (twenty years ago)

there was a good psy furs?

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:47 (twenty years ago)

Secession were from Glasgow I think?!?! Kind of New Order meets the Simple Minds?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:48 (twenty years ago)

... but then so was every other Glasgow band at the time

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 24 June 2005 08:50 (twenty years ago)

I remember coming to school one morning and the whole of the school was agog with a film clip by The Europeans that everyone but me had seen on Countdown on Sunday night. The clip was, I was told, both gross and really stupid. It has been an eternal regret of mine that I never saw this clip that was the hot topic of the entire day for a whole school.

― moley, Friday, 24 June 2005 09:06 (twenty years ago)

is that the lite-jazz mezzoforte? they had a hit in UK, which was alright. can't remember the title but it wasn't "No limit". i can well believe that everything else they did was THE HORROR.

― zebedee (zebedee), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

The "europeans" I'm thinking of were a new wavey bunch.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:30 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't that the New Europeans, who I remember seeing on the Tube one time?

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:38 (twenty years ago)

I think there were 2 Europeans, if you see what I mean. I have a record by one of them. I will be venturing downstairs in a bit, will check...

The Doll By Doll track is pretty good.

Immaculate Fools were abominable - I remember seeing them on the tube. Sort of Howard Jones with acoustic guitars IIRC. Their singer had big ears.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:41 (twenty years ago)

i had the first two lucy show albums. they had some good songs. their big problem was: they had one singer with an okay kinda twee voice, and the other guy had a really horrible voice. and sometimes the guy with the horrible voice would sing a whole song. i wouldn't mind hearing that first album again.some of their stuff was even kinda proto-shoegaze. or proto-Ride at least.maybe.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

Right, I have found info...
http://www.heartbeat-productions.co.uk/heart/default.htm

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:43 (twenty years ago)

And accoprding to this:

Europeans:
1974 Founded as "Motion Picture"
1981 Name changed in Europeans and added a keyboard player (Steve Hogarth)
Their first record was as backing band for John Otway (All Balls And No Willy)

There was another band with the same name that produced the following items:
- 7" single Europeans/Voices
- 7" single On the Continent (or Avon Calling)
- Demonstration Sampler: with Europeans / It wasn't me

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 24 June 2005 09:51 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I have a track called Europeans by Europeans on the Cherry Red compilation : Seeds 3 Rock. It's the second bunch that you mentioned, not Hogarth's bunch.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Friday, 24 June 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

I loved the first One The Juggler album when I was about 15, but I imagine it would be beyond the pale these days. Still, without them there'd probably have been no Beltane Fire so I'll defend 'em on those grounds at least.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Friday, 24 June 2005 11:21 (twenty years ago)

col you never saw the europeans clip! hahaha - you dag!

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 24 June 2005 11:23 (twenty years ago)

I am such a dag.

― moley, Saturday, 25 June 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, The Lucy Show's the only band I recognise on there. I don't have anything to say about them.

― Ian Riese-Moraine eats nation-states for breakfast! (Eastern Mantra), Saturday, 25 June 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

one the juggler were the first band i ever reviewed for nme (in 1983, neolithic-era fans)

it wz at the marquee and they were k-rub

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 June 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

"medieval punk rock" sounds awesome!!

mezzoforte were icelandic jazzrock i think (i *HOPE*!! cz it sounds also too - but back when i wz a teacher, also 1983!, one of my pupils loved em and i said gimme a listen and they suXoRed)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 25 June 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Mezzoforte's hit was Garden Party (I won a copy of the single in a Radio Scotland phone-in quiz once).

Lick The Tins did a version of "Can't Help Falling In Love With You" on the soundtrack of "Some Kind of Wonderful", which is ace.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 25 June 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

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