As I wrote on indie mp3 recently Strawberry Story reformed to play a charity gig in July which went so well that they decided to play more! They support Bunnygrunt in London on 21st September 2007 and tickets can be purchased here. If you want to hear what they sounded like in 1992 download this performance:

Strawberry Story - Live at Birmingham University 22/02/1992

The band hailed from the North East of England, forming in 1998 disbanding in the early 1990's and were (and now are!) similar to The Primitives & The Darling Buds with their sound. They released a number of 7" singles as well as the Clamming For It album (1993). They also released tracks for the Waaah! Fanzine/Label which have been available on the Waaah! site for downloading.

Strawberry Story - Close My Eyes
Strawberry Story - Caroline
Strawberry Story - Ashlands Road

[My Space link]

The Shermans, who named themselves after photographer Cindy Sherman, were formed in December 1997 by Mikael Matsson and Torbjorn Thorsen after the break up of Mikael's old band, Red Sleeping Beauty. They recruited bassist Christer Nilsson. Thorsen left the band to form Aerospace and was replaced by a Ingela Karlsson on vocals.

The band had releases on a few labels but Shelflife was the place they spent most of their time releasing two albums on that label - three counting a shared release. The band's discography ends in 2001 but The Shermans still seem to be going in the shape of one form or another. A new track Sweet As Honey appeared on the recent Let It Bee compilation.

The Shermans - Summer In Your Heart

Bonus Track (from the Flirt compilation)

The Shermans - Inpatient Blank

Download more songs from Last FM and My Space.

Both Mikael and Ingela, who are now married, are in The Charade.

The Charade - Monday Morning

The Charade on My Space.

I must admit that Red Sleeping Beauty passed me by at the time. In fact they seemed to have passed most people by and because of the scarcity of their releases they have now developed some sort of "cult status" on the indie pop scene.

A post on the German blog Coast Is Clear prompted me to write my own especially after coming across their retrospective releases recently.

Red Sleeping Beauty were a Swedish band that existed between 1992 and 1997. The description on their My Space page is:

RSB certainly left a big imprint in the international indie scene. They were around for quite some time, and while they may have been unnoticed by some, the true pop fans know exactly how amazing this band was.

Picture a small nightclub in Stockholm, sugar jazzy guitars, gentle waves of bass, a piano, some trumpets and a delicate la-la-la siren singing heartfelt lyrics. Of course the repertoire varies from C-86, 80s Sarah/ El/ Postcard, soft rock, punkie tunes, some tender soul. Don't forget the weather, think of a balmy August evening. The tunes are neatly catchy but sometimes are far from upbeat. The songs are spectacularly beautiful. They smile in tune. Maybe that's the best kept secret.

These tracks were taken from the retrospective single titled simply Single and was released in 2000 on the Spanish label Siesta.

Red Sleeping Beauty - Rocketship
Red Sleeping Beauty - Two Hearts

Download more tracks from Last FM

As for band members today? Niklas Angergård is now in the Acid House Kings whilst Mikael Matsson was in The Shermans and now is in The Charade.

Wikipedia states:

Fat Tulips were an indie pop band from Nottingham, England who released one album, on the Vinyl Japan label, and over 10 singles on the band's own Heaven Records and others.

Formed in the late '80s in Peterborough by one Mark D, the band's first release was a flexi disc called You Opened Up My Eyes and featured Sarah C. on vocals. Sarah quickly left the band, supposedly to pursue a career designing crop circles in Peru. Mark then recruited new members consisting of Katie Keen on vocals, cat lover Paul Huckerby on bass, Scottish siren Sheggi Clarkson on guitar and floppy haired, pig van driver Matthew Johnson on drums.

Soon after the release of their single Where's Clare Grogan Now (played by John Peel), Katie left the band and Sheggi became the new singer. Subsequent releases, including the EP Four Songs for Simon, Ferensway and The Tulip Explodes, led to a multi-pound recording contract with the fab, London based Vinyl Japan label, home and future home of BMX Bandits, the McCluskey Bros, and Thee Headcoats. The first of their Vinyl Japan output was an EP entitled Nostalgia and was recorded by Ken McPherson at his studio in Burton upon Trent. A tour of Germany supporting Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan soon followed.

The band's debut album, Starfish, also recorded by Ken McPherson, came out in 1994 and was followed by two more singles, New Spring Rites for Sarah and Driving Me Wild before the band called it a day.

Fat Tulips - Where's Clare Grogan Now?
Fat Tulips - Nice Try!
Fat Tulips - Mr. So Incredible

Download more tracks from Last FM and My Space.

A more comprehensive history of the band can be found here.
Interview with Katy "Sheggi" Clarkson
Paul Huckerby is now in The Cut Outs.

One good thing about the likes of My Space and Last FM is that pages dedicated to long forgotten bands have appeared. Hopefully this means that their music is being appreciated by a new audience especially with the resurgent indie pop revival in London and the rest of the UK. Whether these pages are official or not remains to be seen but as it saves me a job in converting some old vinyl I guess it's only fair that I refer you to such pages in return.

First up is Nottingham's The Melons. The band consisted of Vanessa on vocals with Katy playing the instruments and writing the songs. Katy was also known as Sheggi and was in the Fat Tulips. More on them another time. Actually rather than me write about The Melons head here to read the bands's brief history.

The Melons - From Hell To Helsinki

Bonus tracks (from Last FM)

The Melons - Fire Engine Girl
The Melons - Strictly Melonhead

More tracks can be downloaded from Last FM and My Space.

The Melons have a webpage which hasn't been updated since 1997. Can you tell?

I have recently come across a copy of the early seminal Primal Scream bootleg Tomorrow Comes Today. The bootleg features live recordings of gigs in 1985 as well as demo recordings and other rare releases. Here are a couple of tracks:

Primal Scream - The Orchard(aborted first single)
Primal Scream - Gentle Tuesday (demo with drum machine)

The live tracks from the long gone Hammersmith Clarendon are of good quality. I will post a couple of them in the future.

Harvey Williams of Another Sunny Day & Field Mice fame posted the Primal Scream Peel session recorded in 1985 a while back where they played Aftermath, I Love You, Crystal Crescent and the cult track Subterranean. Now is an ideal time to link to it again! More about that session here.

Primal Scream - 1985 Peel Session

(via)