S4C Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack (Volume 1)

 

This post is a special request for our follower NewPuritan.  (link fixed now)

S4C Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack was a 7" EP that came out in early 1995 on the north Wales based Atol label (serial number ATOL 02). The EP was pressed in a limited run of 500 copies and is subsequently very difficult to find and much sought after, largely due to the subsequent rise to stardom of Catatonia, whose featured track Cariadon Ffôl is unavailable elsewhere. In fact, the only one of the four songs that did subsequently appear again was Rheinallt H. Rowlands' Charles Bukowski, which featured in an extended version as the (sort of) title track of Rheinallt's second LP Bukowski in 1996.

Paladr changed their name to Topper shortly after the release of the EP and went on to release many fine records under that name, although this remains their sole appearance under their original monicker. Ectogram's uncharacteristically gentle Gwagle gained the group record company interest from Radar Records, who soon changed their mind upon checking out the group in concert! The song was re-recorded in a very different arrangement for the group's debut LP I Can't Believe It's Not Reggae! in 1996, the LP version featuring a piano solo from renowned producer Gorwel Owen, while this version has an (uncredited) piano part from Dewi Evans, of Rheinallt H. Rowlands fame.

A second volume appeared in 1996 on the Ankst label, with further contributions from Rheinallt and Topper, alongside tracks by Melys and David Wrench. This second volume is much easier to track down and appeared on both 7" vinyl and CD.

 

Here's what the NME had to say about the record at the time:

Various: S4C Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack (ATOL)

As a wise old owl noted just the other pint, 'tis a thin line between John Barry and Barry John. The cunningly titled "S4C Makes Me..." is in fact a four track effort from those extremely nice people at Ankst Records in Wales and thus - leaving miracles aside for a second - features four bands singing in the language God tossed upon them.

To wit, the normally boisterous (see drunk) Catatonia are caught in a relaxed, almost choral mode. Ditto for Ectogram, stripped of their rock edge for an eerie, beatless few minutes. Paladr, meanwhile, are all feisty melodies and stumbling enthusiasm in a post Gorky's Zygotic Mynci (good grief!) kind of way, and...

...Shiver the timbers of Sherwood Forest! For then we get one Rheinallt H. Rowlands and his quite insane paean to Charles Bukowski. See the gleaming teeth! Check the beaming bowtie 'n' tuxedo set! Feel the vibe, which is Las Vegas transplanted to North Wales! Charles Bukowski is cheesier than - yes - a mouse's larder and hence exactly what Bryan Ferry should sound like in 1995.

Gwyrthiol, in any language

(N.M.E - Jan 1995)

...Melody Maker were less kind:

Various: S4C Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack (ATOL)

Does Beck ever sit in front of the fire at night and say to himself, "What kind of monster have I spawned?" His MTV double bluff gets appropriated for an EP featuring Catatonia, Ectogram, Paladr and Reinallt H. Rowlands, all flying the flag for that idea someone once had about Welsh bands saving us from spiuritual penury. Catatonia are most convincing with their "Cariadon Ffol", a title that translates - a bit too pointedly for my liking - as "Foolish Lovers".

The other acts, sorry to say, are poo the size of continents. Ectogram even come up with a drumless track called "Void", conclusively proving that Welsh goth ambience isn't any more useful than its English equivalent. I guess ordinariness is a universal language.

(Melody Maker - Jan 1995)

 

S4C Makes Me Want To Smoke Crack (Volume 1)

1 Catatonia - Cariadon Ffôl

2  Paladr - Dwi'm yn Gwybod. Pam?

3  Ectogram - Gwagle

4  Rheinallt H. Rowlands - Charles Bukowski

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The Miaow Beasts

Cemaes Bay (photo: Bob Jones)

The small northern Anglesey coastal town of Cemaes Bay is generally more famous for its nuclear power station than for any form of artistic culture. However, for a brief moment in 1981, the town was home to one of the finest cutting edge post-punk combos to emerge from the UK.

Wylfa nuclear power station

The Miaow Beasts seemed to arrive on the scene fully formed - clad in desert-issue army surplus and Tommy Adkins haircuts, quite at odds with the local fashion of the time. Big fans of Can, their songs were sparse and rhythmic, pivoting around drummer Alan Wills' cyclical patterns and his brother Dennis' austere clipped funk basslines. They certainly fitted in alongside such contemporary left field Peel faves as 23 Skidoo, Clock DVA and A Certain Ratio, although front man Tony Byrne's aggressive vocal delivery also had a touch of early Killing Joke to it.

They could be regularly found at Cemaes Bay's long lamented Faraway Club, site of many classic Northern Soul gatherings in the 70s, but would occasionally make it as far as Bangor or Llanedwen's Plas Coch club, where this live performance was captured on 22nd September 1981.

From the start, it was obvious that they were destined for bigger things either collectively or individually, and before long, Alan Wills moved to Liverpool to play drums with The Wild Swans, who were one of the hottest tipped groups in the country at the time. He went on to play with The Lotus Eaters, The Room and Shack and more recently set up Deltasonic Records, where he has brought us a whole new generation of Liverpool groups including The Coral, The Zutons and The Dead 60s. Dennis Wills tragically passed away later in the 80s while Tony Byrne popped up working in the music biz in London a little later. We don't know what happened to the other members - maybe someone out there does?

line-up:

Tony Byrne - vocals (& trumpet?)
Alan Wills - drums
Dennis Wills - bass
Jeff Turner - guitar
Nelwyn Jones - sax

The Miaow Beasts - Plas Coch, Llanedwen 22nd September 1981

1  unknown
2  unknown
3  All Talk
4  He
5  The Party's Over
6  Tin Pan Alley
7  Crow on a Garage Roof

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Skinflick - Six Stone Junkie EP

OK... here's something that's not at all archive - in fact it's so up to date that it's only released today! Bangor's industrial rock terrorists are celebrating more than 20 years of making punishing mechanical misanthropic grind-o-throb. We first encountered Skinflick playing in the back room of a Bangor High Street pub back at the very dawn of the 1990s and they stood out as sounding refreshingly like nothing else in the area at the time... and guess what? - they still do!

Their brand new EP 'Six Stone Junkie' is out today as a free download, and we here at Turquoise Coal reckon it's their best yet. No need for us to upload it though - just go to the group's Soundcloud page and grab it for nothing - it's the best bargain you'll get all year!

We hope to dig out some archive goodies from the group in the near future, but in the meantime, where better to start than right here and now?

Tales from the Golden Casket

 

Between 1990 and 2002 something weird and wonderful happened in north Wales when a series of recordings, 130 in number, descended from the spheres onto a series of cassettes and CDs with titles like Transbluscent, My Sonic Lodge, Yellow Shell and The Gadfly. There were songs about dna and rna, stuff we're not supposed to know, butterflies, lost love, unvarnished desire, vanity and deceit, spiritual quest, molecules, balloon trips, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Ramblin' Jack Elliot, hoo hah!, new philosophy, serotonin, Jesus, trout, Rimbaud and of course Shar Lopez. There were covers of The Electric Prunes, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Webb, Al Bowlly, George Harrison, Jane Bond and Nirvana. There were extended electronic tracks including the psychedelic masterpiece Mantra, Atman Revisited, I Dreamt I was Still In the Rainforest and Santa Fe Epiphany.

 

These emerged year by year from small studios in the Bangor area and were focussed around the work of an enigmatic character who operated under many different aliases including Cody and the Machine Elves, The Lineman, Cody and Dean and Cody and the Pilgrims of the Sky. In addition to Cody himself, several of the Bangor area's leading underground musicians would often pop up on the recordings - John Cratchley, Sheila Brook, Rob Parry, John Lawrence, Ann Matthews, Dewi Evans and most commonly Alan Holmes are all evident on various recordings.

Now after ten years silence comes a collection drawing from this cornucopia plus the additional bonus track from 1984 recorded in York. These are The Tales From The Golden Casket. This CD's worth of samples provides a mouth watering taster for the full casket itself, rumoured to be scheduled for release in the near future. Draw up a velvet footstool, dim the lamps and light up your world with these 15 songs.

1 Love Song (Shimmering Highway)  1990
2 Becoming Director of Earthly Movies  1993
3 Seven Veils (for Tom Robbins)  1991
4 Primrose Vaulting  1995
5 Butterfly Man  2002
6 Saffron  1995
7 It's All Hurtin'  1990
8 V.M. Workshop  2000
9 Sending Out Love As The Code  1991
10 Halo of Thorns  1995
11 Jelly Man (1971)  1995
12 1898  2002
13 Dream Blues Vol.23  1993
14 Avalon Odessey  (for D.F.)  2000
Bonus Track:
Heart Play  1984

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Alan Holmes sings lesser known songs of The Archies

 

OK... been a slow start to the year so far, but we've actually had a request for this one, so we'll get one January post in at least! This recording is apparently a big favourite of Pontardawe's foremost cultural commentator and Welsh rock scene legend Gari Melville... so this is for him and Nia.

While on their way to cut the master for their debut LP "Amhersain" in London in 1988, Fflaps suffered an unfortunate accident on the M6, when their trusty tour van's brakes failed and they careered into a tree. Driver and bassist Alan Holmes was subsequently hospitalised with a dislocated hip and was out of action for some months. During his time in hospital, ex-Fay Ray and Hot Water (and subsequently Banda Bacana) drummer and owner of Cob Records Owen Hughes was among his visitors. Rather than add to Alan's growing stockpile of grapes, Owen brought him a songbook featuring the words and music to the debut LP by 60s cartoon bubblegum group The Archies. As with most people, Alan was only really familiar with the group's October 11th 1969 number one hit single 'Sugar, Sugar', but was intrigued by their lesser known songs that featured in the songbook.

 

Once discharged from hospital, Alan had a lot of time on his hands while recuperating and so decided to record a series of interpretations of The Archies' catalogue... without having actually ever heard any of the songs. Drawing on his very rudimentary understanding of musical notation (having dropped music at school in the 2nd form), he pieced together these recordings using only a guitar and a Yamaha SHS-10 'keytar' from the notation in the songbook and then released the results on cassette, still without having heard any of the originals.

It would be over a decade before Alan actually found a copy of the original LP by the Archies and was able to hear the original versions at long last. He was reported to be very satisfied with the way his 'blind' covers compared with the originals, considering many of his versions to have surpassed the originals!

 

1 Bicycles, Roller Skates and You
2 Circle of Blue
3 Don't Touch my Guitar
4 Kissin'
5 Catching up on Fun


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It's Christmas!

 

Here's a little festive treat for you - we are pleased to be able to bring you the 1981 Christmas night at Bangor's Glanrafon Pub in its entirety! The event took place upstairs at the legendary venue (now the "Yellow Pub") on Friday 18th December 1981 and was headlined by a special once-only extended line-up of jocular country combo The Yahoos, supported by all manner of festive talent.

Originally a trio of Scott Saunders, John Cratchley and Martin Wilson, The Yahoos on this occasion were quite different, augmenting their line-up with Malcolm Budd and Andy Beaumont of the Rub-a-Dub Jug Band on banjo and fiddle respectively and Maeyc Hewitt and Alan Holmes of the Pinecones on drums and bass. It's not entirely certain whether all the original line-up were also in this extended version, but front man and songwriter Scott most certainly was. The group played a set of Christmas themed country songs, specially penned for the event by Scott and never repeated. Malcolm and Andy also both had short solo spots during the evening.

The evening kicked off with a rare solo appearance by Cut Tunes' enigmatic leader Gary Cut, who performed a rousing version of Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas with the assistance of Alun Rhys Jones and Wil jones of the Alun Rhys Jones Band on backing vocals. Drummer Maeyc Hewitt then joined the trio as they performed Alun's classic Pot of Gold and their interpretation of perennial show standard Till There Was You.

Following Malcolm's moving rendition of Scarlet Ribbons, a special one-off group treated the audience to a variety of Christmas standards. The Festive 5 were a vocal harmony combo who got together specially for the night and comprised Scott Saunders on guitar and lead vocals, backed up by the harmonies of Pinecones Maria Hycz and Alan Holmes and The Bellman mastermind Phil Layton. The festive cheer is palpable on the recordings, with the audience cheering and laughing at Phil's hilarious Ian Curtis dance moves as he harmonised on the likes of Frosty the Snowman and Sleigh Bells.

Next up was Andy Beaumont, who enthralled the audience with his interpretation of Tom Lehrer's Christmas Time Is Here by Golly, a song he still enjoys playing 31 years later as the audience at this month's open mic night at the Auckland Arms in Menai Bridge can attest! All that was left then was for the rest of the Yahoos to join Andy on the stage to whip the crowd into a festive frenzy.

Much of the music contained here is of slim artistic merit, and the recording quality leaves something to be desired, but what the hell - it's Christmas! ...so pour yourself a few beers, switch the TV off, crank up the volume and you'll be transported back 31 years to that crowded upstairs room full of melodious Christmas cheer!

1    Gary Cut - I Believe in Father Christmas
2    Alun Rhys Jones - Pot of Gold
3    Alun Rhys Jones - Till There Was You
4    Malcolm Budd and Ann - Scarlet Ribbons
5    Festive 5 - Winter Wonderland
6    Festive 5 - Sleigh Ride
7    Festive 5 - Little Drummer Boy
8    Festive 5 - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
9    Festive 5 - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
10    Festive 5 - Frosty the Snowman
11    Festive 5 - White Christmas
12    Festive 5 - Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
13    Andy Beaumont - Christmas Time Is Here by Golly
14    The Yahoos - Introduction
15    The Yahoos - Tasmania
16    The Yahoos - Country Christmas
17    The Yahoos - Christmas in Tuscon
18    The Yahoos - Another Christmas Without Snow
19    The Yahoos - Granpappy
20    The Yahoos - The Finest Meal
21    The Yahoos - We'll Hang Our Stockings on the Bedpost

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The Baudelaires

The Baudelaires were a short lived but unique group, existing between February and May 1984. In fact, the trio never decided on a name but when they were invited to support the legendary Cut Tunes at Bangor University on 29th March 1984, Gary Cut needed a name to put on the posters and so christened them The Baudelaires. This was to be the sole public performance of the group, who were memorably described by an audience member as "the worst group in the world ever".

Listening to the recordings made by the trio however, it becomes clear that the world in 1984 just wasn't ready for a group who operated so far outside the fashionable scenes of the period. The line-up of acoustic guitar, violin and bass sounded light years from the lyrical folk sound normally associated with such instrumentation, coming over more as a meeting between Sun Ra, Edgard Varèse and the Velvet Underground.

The group explored unorthodox harmonic and rhythmic structures, stitching together composed and improvised sections into an out-there post structural mélange of uncompromising wonderment. Although the trio were not averse to performing the odd song, their true strength lay in extended instrumental compositions such as the hour-long Concerto for Strings, composed and recorded in March 1984.


The Baudelaires - Concerto for Strings (1984)   1:00:00

Alan Holmes - acoustic guitar
Nicki Dupuy - violin
Scott Saunders - bass guitar


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