Black Roots

Nubian Records Presents

DECEMBER 10th 2010 at TRINITY HALL, BRISTOL

For the first time in 25 years the 80′s root reggae band

Black Roots

Live on tour

With special guest

Dalas, Tan Teddy

Jamaican Folk Culture Group

Tickets £15 + bf / More on the door

On stage 12 o’clock

18+

Trinity now operates a “Challenge 25″ policy. If you look under 25, please be prepared to show proof of age on entry

Bristol Ticket Shop 0870 44 44 4400

Genesis Records 0117 955 4992

Frontline Video 0117 955 4992

Rooted Records 0117 907 4372

Chemical Records 0117 971 4924

Check: www.nubianrecords.co.uk

Confirmation just received that moving forwards Bristol Archive Records will be sponsored / supported / marketed with the assitance of the team at The Colston Hall, Bristol.

The Colston Hall will also sell our releases at the box office and promote any gigs we wish to put on with reformed Bristol acts in the smaller hall above the old foyer to tie in with future releases.

The joint venture is incredibly exciting as it stands but could move in the future to a full partnership arrangement.

An official full press release will follow at the end of October.

Mike Darby
www.bristolarchiverecords.com

The Pop Group: still blazing a trail that makes rock look conservative

More than 30 years ago, the Pop Group ransacked free jazz, dub reggae, noise and funk. But I never imagined they’d still sound so vital in 2010

Like Franz Kafka fronting Funkadelic … Gareth Sager and Mark Stewart perform at Alexandra Palace. Photograph: David Corio/RedfernsI saw the Pop Group just a couple of times back in the day, once in broad daylight at an outdoor festival in east London around about the summer of 1978. I’ve never forgotten that performance. It was the shock of the new writ large.

As far as I can remember, one member was wearing a skirt of some kind, another was sporting a Mohawk haircut. The lead singer sang though a kerchief and, later, though a megaphone. Every song seemed like a statement of wild intent, an unholy noise that merged funk, dub and avant-garde noise.

Back then, the Pop Group were almost too much to take in: pretentious, arrogant, noisy, chaotic, violent to the point of implosive. For me, they signalled the moment that punk mutated into something new and infinitely more ambitious, a chaotic merging of dub, funk, avant-garde noise with paranoid, often politically charged, lyrics. Their music spoke of a future free from the few already exhausted chords that rock’n’roll was built on.

I was reminded of all this on Saturday night at the Garage in north London, when the Pop Group, reformed with all but one of their original members, tore into We Are All Prostitutes, a song that sounds as tumultuous and deranged now as it did 30-odd years ago. I had gone to the gig with mixed feelings. When a beloved group reforms after years of silence, the heart sinks. What price memories if they are trampled on for nostalgic or economic reasons? The original Pop Group burned, and burnt out, in a few years. Now, 30 years on, older, portlier, unable to draw on the untramelled energy and optimism of youth, they were back. Would they still burn?

The answer, against all the odds, is yes. Nick Cave, once described the Pop Group’s music as “unholy, manic, violent, paranoid and painful”. To a great degree, that remains the case. They still sound like nothing before or since. And Gareth Sager still rushes on stage like a gleeful maniac and grabs whatever instrument is to hand – in this case, a keyboard – and unleashes a salvo of atonal noise to set things rolling. Then, a short silence broken by a familiar crash and what Cave once described as one “of the greatest ever openings of a song”; the bestial howl that begins We Are All Prostitutes.

The song rumbles and clatters along in its barely cohesive way, just about grounded by Bruce Smith’s extraordinary drumming and a taut bassline that shakes the floor. I was reminded immediately of Sager’s singular – and often overlooked – brilliance as a rhythmic lead guitarist of fierce intensity, a blur of movement chopping out dissonant shards of sound that punctuate the songs and undercut Mark Stewart’s anguished vocals. “Our children shall rise up against us,” Stewart chants, half-warning, half-hoping, still raging against those Babylonian forces of oppression.

How to describe the sound of the Pop Group? It is, more than anything else, a rhythmic noise, fractious and uneasy, dense and chaotic, but imbued with its own inner logic. It does not welcome you in, but instead provokes a reaction of some kind: fewer people leave the room tonight than used to. The vocals seem to emerge from another space than the music, a deeper, darker, even stranger, realm of the imagination. At times, it’s like Franz Kafka fronting Funkadelic; at others, like a madman with a megaphone ranting at the world over some strange collision of Ornette Coleman and Lee Perry.

Unsurprisingly, things often threaten to fall apart but the sheer propulsion of the rhythm section pulls it all back from the brink. It’s the exhilaration of watching a tightrope walker. The familiar thrust of We Are Time is as close as they get to a riff-based song but it careers off at warp factor 10 within seconds. The bass rumbles like an earthquake, one drumbeat echoes across another, dubbed-up, ghostly. Thief of Fire begins with an even more primal howl than We Are All Prostitutes, then stutters and judders along, frenetic, impatient.

Sonically, things can get strange when there is this much abrasiveness and distortion. You hear noises within noises: strange echoes, floating dismembered vocals, reverberations that seem to emerge from underneath your feet. And then there’s the lyrics. Mark Stewart has a post-Pop Group reputation as one of the great conspiracy theorists of the British music underground, but he is a singular songwriter all the same. She Is Beyond Good and Evil remains utterly unique, utterly spellbinding: an existential love song that posits a Nietzscheian worldview over a dub-funk maelstrom that perfectly echoes the lyric’s fraught articulation of all-consuming desire. Here, love is a unified front against a hostile and threatening world:

“Our only defence is together as an army/ I’ll hold you like a gun.”

No one has written lyrics this strange and startling since the Beats except maybe for the aforementioned Mr Cave when he was rooting though the southern swamplands with the Birthday Party. (An old Gareth Sager quote from 1978: “We are the beatniks of tomorrow”.)

Back in 1979, She Is Beyond Good and Evil, produced by British dub wizard, Dennis Bovell, sounded like the most extraordinarily adventurous pop single I had ever heard. On Saturday night, it blazed anew, the guitar much more upfront in the mix, altering the contours of the song altogether. Stewart told the rock writer Simon Reynolds that the song was “an attempt to mix up poetic, existentialist stuff with political yearnings”. It is all that and more, something truly beautiful and breathtaking in its formal risk-taking.

The Pop Group were young, fearless and full of themselves when I first encountered them, unafraid to be overambitious, even pretentious in order to express their impatience with pop music. They ransacked free jazz, dub reggae, noise, funk and the outer reaches of experimental rock and, for a few brief moments, before the conspiracy theories, the relentless politic ranting and the faux-tribal stylings took over, they blazed a trail that few, if any, have had the imagination or the bravado to follow. It was good to be reminded of how singular and beautifully abrasive the Pop Group could be, and how dreadfully conservative most rock music since sounds in comparison.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/sep/14/pop-group

  September Update Now Live At

www.bristolarchiverecords.com

New Release on CD and digital download:

                                                              VARIOUS ARTISTS

‘AVON CALLING 2’

Released worldwide on 14^th September 2010

20 SUPERB TRACKS ALL PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED

Buy now from www.bristolarchiverecords.com or HMV, AMAZON, PLAY.COM or any good Record Shop

In 1979, Bristols’ music scene was riding the crest of the new wave, spawning numerous bands and performers whose influences and indeed physical beings have gone on to feature in some of todays’ big music makers.

During this period local musician Simon Edwards decided to form Bristols’ first independent label, HeartbeatRecords, to capture all the excitement and get Bristols’ music out beyond the M32.

With so many bands to choose from the label set about releasing a series of 7” singles, and such was the demand realised by these that a compilation LP featuring fifteen of these bands was released. The album, topically titled AVON CALLING went on to achieve near legendary status – even hailed by John Peel as “truly superb, the compilation that all others should be judged by”.

Such was the interest in the album that the bands involved continued to supply the label with demo tapes, and the lucky ones went on to release more singles, even 12” EP’s and ultimately LP’s.  The sheer volume of demos and the eventual logistical constraints of “just how many records can one man put out in a year” meant that only a few would actually see further releases – though the content was in most cases nothing short of superb.

Label boss Edwards openly admits to continually returning to many of the songs purely to just listen and enjoy some “bloody good music”.  Long has it been his ambition to put together an album of these songs – for no other reason but to get them out there where they belong, so they can at last be heard by others and the bands once more be applauded for making such exciting and essential sounds.

Well, the dream has finally been realised and Bristol Archive Records have given him the platform to finally release AVON CALLING 2, a collection of previously unreleased recordings from the vaults of  Bristols’ Heartbeat Becords.  Featured bands include EUROPEANS, APARTMENT, SNEAK PREVIEW, JOE PUBLIC, 48 HOURS, ESSENTIAL BOP, THE DIRECTORS, THE X-CERTS and SOCIAL SECURITY.

This new album full of forgotten treasures will sit perfectly along side the original AVON CALLING release and go some way to completing the story of just what was happening in Bristol back in 1979/1980 and how the music sounds as relevant today as it did back then.

Tracklisting:

1          SOCIAL SECURITY   SELF CONFESSION                                       

2          EUROPEANS              THE ONLY ONE                                                        

3          APARTMENT             BROKEN GLASS                                           

4          PRIVATE DICKS        YOU GOT IT                                     

5          X – CERTS                  PEOPLE OF TODAY                                      

6          ESSENTIAL BOP        AUDITION ROOM                            

7          APARTMENT                         RETROSPECT                                                            

8          SNEAK PREVIEW      MR MAGOO                                                  

9          JOE PUBLIC               LETTERS IN MY DESK                                             

10        48 HOURS                  TRAIN TO BRIGHTON                                                

11        DIRECTORS               SHOWCASE                                                   

12        PRIVATE DICKS        WANT SOME FUN                            

13        SNEAK PREVIEW      I CANT GET OUT                                          

14        STEREO MODELS      MIDDLE OF NO WHERE                                          

15        THE PHONE               ANY TAKERS                                                

16        SEAN RYAN               SUICIDE MAN                                                                 

17        JOE PUBLIC               FASTER                                                         

18        TVI’S                           DANCER                                                        

19        DIRECTORS               EMPTY PROMISES                                        

20        UNKNOWN                YOU MIGHT AS WELL ENJOY YOURSELF                       

DIGITAL ONLY RELEASES THIS MONTH:

ARC 167              ANIMAL MAGIC

Originally released on Recreational Records in 1982

Recorded at Crescent Studios, Bath 11/12 April 1982

Engineered by Steve Street

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 170              SHARON BENGAMIN

Originally released on Shoc Wave Records in 1980

Drums

Rhythm Guitar

Keyboards                           Joshua Moses

 Lead Guitar                         Larry Wilson

Sax                                        Nigel Wood

Bass                                      Gene Walsh

Percussion                            All

Vocals                                   Sharon Bengamin

Produced by Gene Walsh

Rereleased with the permission of Gene Walsh

 Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 171              SHOES FOR INDUSTRY

Originally released in 1980 on Fried Egg Records

Recorded at Sound Conception Studios by Ken Wheeler

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 172              SHOES FOR INDUSTRY

Originally released in 1979 on Fried Egg Records

Recorded at Sound Conception Studios by Ken Wheeler

Crystal Theatre presents Shoes For Industry

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 173              BUGGS DURRANT

Originally released in 1983 on Shoc Wave Records

A Side Written by Errol Williams  and Produced by Gene Walsh

B Side Written by Richard Gibbons and Produced by Roger Lomas

Rereleased with the permission of Gene Walsh

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 164               DAN RATCHETT

Originally released in 1989 on Freshblood Records

A Musi –Tek Production

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 165    MYSTERY SLANG

1.       I’m Mad At You ( J.L Hooker and L Gardez)

2.       The Golden Cross ( L Gardez)

3.       Seven In A Ditch (L Gardez)

Produced by Stephen Street 1989

Constructive Music . Tristan Music

All instruments played by Mystery –Slang and Stephen Street except:

David Catlin Birch              B/A

Simon Roberts                     Harmonica

Front cover photograph by Neil Davenport

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC166                HERB GARDEN

1.       Bulldozer Jones

2.       Red Van

3.       Convicted Man

4.       Sunburn

5.       Ice Cream Man

Dave      Bass

Rat         Guitar

Phil         Lead Guitar

Carl        Vocals

Ben         Drums

All songs written by Herb Garden 1989

Recorded at S.A.M Studios

Engineered by Sooty/Simon Frazer

Sleeve    Steve Taylor

Produced by Paul Jocelyn / Herb Garden

Photo     Simon Sherrin

Illustration            Nick Hamer 

Originally released on Vermin Vinyls

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

ARC 161   ANIMAL MAGIC

1.       Grip

2.       Go Funky-Doo-Lally

Howard, Mark, Mark, Gill, Rob with Jamie on percussion

All tracks written by Animal Magic 1982

Published by Recreational Music / A.T.V Music Ltd

Originally released on Recreational Records

This was originally a 4 Track 12” two tracks have been excluded due to problems with the transfer. They will appear as a seperate release in the future

Remastered by Steve Street April 2010

DEVAN ARC162                                RAGGAFUNKIN     

 Produced by Desi ‘T’, Le-Roy, & Oliver Jones for Wild Cherry Productions

Recorded, Mixed and Mastered at Coach House Studios Bristol

All songs written & composed by Desmond Taylor

Originally released on wild Cherry Records in 1994

DEHVAN              ARC 163               MYSTORY-I

Recorded at J&J Studios

Recording Engineer – James Barr

Mixed at Easy Street Studios

Mixing Engineer Antony Ric

Mastered at Loud Mastering

Published by Wild Cherry Productions Publishing

Originally released in 2000 on Wild Cherry Records

ARC 159  Stargazer   ALBUM               ‘Beyond The Skyline’

All of these tracks would have been recorded between 1978 – 1980.Gimme Direction and Tonight being the last of those recordings during that period (at about the same time as the St. Pauls’s riots).The significance being, that the tracks were recorded at Cave Studios, just off Portland Square, St. Pauls.The band were blissfully unaware of anything going on outside and that close to them

WHATS NEXT?

VARIOUS ARTISTS

The Bristol Reggae Explosion 1978-1983

Released worldwide on 21st February 2011 

14 SUPERB TRACKS, 11 NEVER RELEASED BEFORE IN A DIGITAL FORMAT 

CD, DIGITAL DOWNLOAD and VINYL

From Pop to Punk, the late seventies and early eighties saw a huge explosion in the number of local bands as more and more people thought they’d give it a go, new studios and independent labels weren’t far behind and Reggae wasn’t going to be left out of the musical mix.

If the majors were even aware of Bristol they showed minimal interest and it was left to the bands themselves and the handful of indie labels to document Bristol’s contribution to what was then a vibrant UK Reggae scene. Working on tight budgets and with no money for marketing campaigns local bands managed to release a small, but steady flow of vinyl, mostly pressed in tiny quantities and often sold direct to fans at gigs, these records, although cherished by those who own them, and sought by those in the know, have been largely ignored by the wider music industry.

Fortunately Bristol music has its own champion in the shape of Bristol Archive Records, a label with a mission to share our great musical heritage with the world, “The Bristol Reggae Explosion 1978-1983” is the first and only attempt to document the local Reggae scene from the late seventies until the early eighties. With the exception of the Black Roots tracks none of the recordings have ever been reissued and all were originally released before CD had been launched, so this is their debut in the digital format.

The music itself reflects the dominance of the Roots style in Bristol, even today Roots is by far the most popular type of Reggae in both the retail and live scenes locally, Black Roots live up to their name and show why they were the equal of any UK Reggae band in their day, Talisman, Restriction and 3D Production follow in their Roots footsteps, but a real highlight of this release is the inclusion of the ultra rare “Africa Is Our land” from Joshua Moses, a UK Roots classic. Bristol wasn’t all about Roots though and the other tracks follow a more mellow template, dealing with love and relationships, both Talisman and Joshua Moses show another side to their music and are joined by tracks from Buggs Durrant, The Radicals and Sharon Bengamin who’s “Mr. Guy” is a classic UK Lover’s track in the mould of Janet Kay, Carroll Thompson, Louisa Marks et al.

“The Bristol Reggae Explosion 1978-1983” will be released as a fourteen track CD, but you can’t have a proper Reggae release without it being on vinyl so there will be a very limited vinyl pressing featuring an eight track selection and just to keep things local the sleeve art is a mid-eighties carnival shot from Bristol’s own Beezer, (www.beezerphotos.com), featuring a classic image of Jah Revelation sound-system.

This release will shine the spotlight on a long neglected corner of the UK Reggae scene and Bristol’s musical heritage, the same music that would help underpin Bristol’s musical dominance in the following decade.

( Sleeve notes and press release by Martin Langford)

 Thanks for reading, check us out at www.bristolarchiverecords.com

Bristol’s famous for many things like Chatterton the poet, Cary Grant and now the Archive can be added to fellow locals ‘Blackbeards the Pirates chest’, as a true treasure trove of wonders.

Bristol Boys make more noise…

Mark Stewart
( THE POP GROUP)

Mike and The Team

Release date has been pushed back to September 13th

Sorry about that…

Reissues can be a tricky affair: as Captain Oi! founder Mark Brennan once observed, it’s far easier to get a bad name than a good one. This isn’t the case with Mike Darby and his operation, Bristol Archive Records, which aims to document the city’s leading punk and post-punk lights from 1977 onwards. Having interviewed and/or spoken to guitarist Nick Sheppard, and drummer Daniel Swan, I naturally had to inquire a bit more closely after eyeballing the Cortinas’ “MK I” release on the label’s website, www.bristolarchiverecords.com.

For ’77 buffs, the Cortinas definitely rank among the archetypal “Here today, gone next year” bands. Formed in 1976, the boys were barely out of their mid-teens before catching the proverbial big break in January 1977 as the Stranglers’ support at London’s famed Roxy Club. By June, they’d issued their first classic 45 (“Fascist Dictator”/”Television Families”), with the second (“Defiant Pose”/”Independence”) capping a triumphant year in December.

Of course, that’s exactly when things started coming unglued. On joining the Clash at CBS Records, the band released its only album, TRUE ROMANCES (1978), which tamped down the original unbounded energy for a poppier, more R&B-ish approach (though it’s not an unbridled disaster, at least to these ears). Disillusioned with the outcome, the band broke up before the album appeared that fall (though not without the boys dutifully doing a couple of “last hurrah” shows to pay bills).

That’s how the party line usually runs, but Bristol Archive’s release of the live album, “FOR FUCK’S SAKE PLYMOUTH” — taped in November ’77 — confirmed long-held sneaking suspicions that was more to the story, and “MK. I” affirms that notion. Of course, both singles are included on this 14-track release, along with seven TRUE ROMANCE demos that show a rougher edge that could have captured adequately…if only the songs had been left alone!

Other highlights include two songs that never got on vinyl, “Justice,” and the self-explanatory “I Don’t Want To Compromise” — which would have made an ideal third single — and rawer-than-raw takes of “Slow Down,” and an echo-laden version of “Television Families,” hailing from Bristol’s own GBH Studios (more on that momentarily).

Boasting stunning black ‘n’ white back cover shots by Stephen Swan (especially the back cover, snapped during “Fascist Dictator”‘s March 1977 recording at Polydor Studios), this 500-copy limited edition will definitely hit all the right notes with anyone remotely interested in that era. Suitably fired up, I emailed two batches of questions to Mike, and these are his replies (7/22 and 8/2/10), presented in the same spirit of his releases.

CHAIRMAN RALPH (CR): For those of us who know about Nick Sheppard and company, it’s exciting to see so much unheard material tumble out (as “For Fuck’s Sake, Plymouth” showed). What was the major impetus for putting out this particular record?

MIKE DARBY (DB): Bristol Archive Records was launched to re-release hidden gems, forgotten classics, previously unreleased demos from people who have made up the music scene over the years and should never be forgotten. The label is about the people as much as the music — THE CORTINAS were the leaders, the first, the trendsetters, the role models the Bristol gods if you like of the 1976/77 scene — they paved the way for others, including me, to follow, so it’s only right and correct that their album should be the first Vinyl release from the Archive. We are very proud to have been given permission to rerelease their music.

CR: What was the source material for the demos, and did they require any special restorative processes (e.g., “baking ‘em in the oven,” as we’ve heard done with so many tapes?)

MD: The tracks from Step Forward came directly off the vinyl and were then remastered. The live tracks came from a dodgy old cassette found in Steve Street’s attic.

The demo album tracks came from a 1/4-inch Ampex tape that Dexter gave Steve Street at a family party, it didn’t need baking in the transfer stage but it did get ruined when going through the process and the tape unwound ( fortunately the tracks transferred OK). The three previously unreleased tunes came from a 1/4-inch copy of the original 1/4-inch kept by Simon Edwards and copied in 1977 from GBH Studios.

CR: Who is Stephen Street, and what role did he play in the Cortinas’ history? I think his tracks are among the most interesting and/or revelatory on this record…is he still active behind the boards today?

MD: Steve Street started GBH Studios with Andrew Peters in 1977, took it over in 1979 and then recorded virtually every Bristol band from then until the late ’80s. Then sold the studio and went to work as the in-house engineer at the Woolhall — Tears For Fears’ studio. Steve was probably the most influential person in the whole history of early Bristol Punk and post-punk.

CR: The Cortinas also did a Peel session between those great early singles and the TRUE ROMANCES album: I imagine that getting it out of Auntie Beeb’s hands might be tough, but was any thought given to that scenario?

MD: This session will appear on a Cherry red Anthology CD later in the year. the sleeve notes are being worked at the moment, Shane Baldwin is writting them.

CR: Is there any other unreleased material that might see the light of day (especially since the Peel session contains at least one other title I haven’t run across before, “Having It”)?

MD: There is one other demo that I have copies of but the tunes arn’t probably played well enough to be included on anything

CR: As we all know, TRUE ROMANCES came across as a bit of a shock to the fans back home — what accounts for the reception?

MD: I only bought the two singles so can’t comment. The impression I get from Nick is that CBS tried to do the usual major label thing and change the band to make them more pop.

CR: A bit speculative, I suppose, but take a stab, if you like — what do you think the Cortinas would have done, had their recording experience been a bit more productive for them?

MD: Not sure, but dealing with them can be like dealing with a band that is still active. They appear very close, very much a gang, very cynical about everything.

CR: A lot of bands were filmed during the original ’77 explosion. Does anything exist from the Cortinas?

MD: No footage that I know about.

CR: Seems like we had a pretty supportive local (TV) station, as well, in RPM — who’s that blond frizzy-haired guy seen doing the painstaking interviews on Youtube (such as the Spics?

MD: Andy Batten Foster, who later became a BBC 1 DJ. Nice guy, recently retired, I’ve had a couple of meetings with him. At the time he wasn’t thought of as especially cool or popular, but when you look back, he did an enormous amount for the local bands and should deserve special recognition.

CR: As I recall from your own interview, you played in a band yourself — did you find the Cortinas an influence, in terms of, “Wow, they’ve done it, so can I”? How did Bristol fare, compared to the bigger scenes of London, and Manchester?

MD: My band started in 1980 so, no, The Cortinas weren’t an influence as The Rimshots was a Mod band…but me my brother had bought “Fascist Dictator” and “Defiant Pose” in 1977, so we were aware of the brilliance of the Cortinas.

The Bristol scene is and was completely different than everywhere else in the country. More Art than Punk, more laid back than anywhere on the planet, more lazy and secretive, more middle class and more money. A great place to live, a great place to hang out. A great place to talk about world domination and artistic creativity.

Back in 1977 and right through to the mid-’80s there was no infrastructure, no management, no music business. If the kids or the bands wanted to take it seriously they had to move to London, London would never come to Bristol! The only thing that came to Bristol was drugs. The Cortinas were the odd exception – thats probably why they were and are so important to the history of Bristol music.

CR: Has the city of Bristol itself done anything to officially acknowledge the ’77 era, and — in particular — the Cortinas’ contribution to it, given how well-known they are among punk and non-punk collectors’ circles?

MD: No and there is no chance — Bristol is all about Trip-Hop (it’s almost as if the early punk stuff didnt exist or have any value except for The Pop Group, who have just reformed – of course, they were mates with The Cortinas.

CR: From your perspective, what does this release say about the Cortinas’ legacy? A lot of people have written that the band helped put Bristol on the map during the ’77 era — true?

MD: Completely 110% true. Loads of other bands would have started by seeing The Cortinas, The Pigs are a 1977 example ( their album will be released in October 2010).

Nick Sheppard in particular paved the way, made the grade, had the balls but always supported the Bristol scene and his Bristol mates. Nick was in the following bands, all of which were brilliant and can be found at www.bristolarchiverecords.com:

THE CORTINAS
THE SPICS
JOE PUBLIC
HEAD…and, of course, THE CLASH.

Check this quote from Mark Stewart – (The Pop Group) as it think it says it all:

“Bristol’s famous for many things like Chatterton the poet, Cary Grant and now the Archive can be added to fellow locals ‘Blackbeard’s the Pirate’s chest’, as a true treasure trove of wonders.

“Bristol Boys make more noise…”

Interview live today and taken from:

 http://www.chairmanralph.com/communiques/

Mike Darby has been asked to speak on this panel at Unconvention, a great industry platform for www.bristolarchiverecords.com to be recognised and celebrated for its achievements to date

Check out the site for further details at  www.unconventionhub.org

Panel 1: Music, Heritage and Cities: Digital Archives (on a barge – Friday 1^st October, 10am)

Venue: The Barge

Led by Jez Collins – Birmingham City University

Popular music heritage is becoming an increasingly important marketing tool for cities as they seek to move away from their traditional manufacturing and industrial past. In Manchester there is the Manchester District Music Archive, Salford has the Quiffs, Riffs and Tiffs exhibition and the Salford Music Map, and Birmingham has the Birmingham Popular Music Archive and the Home of Metal project. In America cities such as New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago and others recognise the value of their musical heritage to aid cultural tourism and their global profile as ‘music cities’.

For citizens of these cities, recognising and celebrating their musical heritage is a way of expressing civic pride in their hometown. For many, music is one way of expressing and making meaning of their lives and the opportunity to share those memories and experiences via the projects mentioned above is evidently clear in the responses to the archives.

In this panel we discuss with some of the founders of the archives why digital archives are important and not simply a nostalgia trip, of what use they are for cities, why musicians and bands should know their history and find out some interesting facts you may not know!  Oh, and watch a film!!

Hello Mike…

Well, for those who don’t know please present Bristol Archive….

Bristol Archive Records is a record label dealing in Bristol post punk 1977 onwards.

We aim to showcase music from the diverse Bristol Music scene and provide a historical account / document of all things Bristol that should never be forgotten. Many of the artists and releases are rare, unknown or never before released. The material has been lovingly digitally remastered from vinyl, ¼ inch tape, dat or cassette. The original vinyl releases would generally have been limited to runs of 1000 copies or less.

We would like to thank the original label owners and/or the artists for allowing us to share with you their forgotten works and provide a statement of how brilliant bands have always been from the city of Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Enjoy and never forget the talented ones from the past, they deserve to be recognised & remembered.

I am a musicfanatic myself but with exploring the archive of the Bristol scene, I guess it’s like playing Indiana Jones in musicland, not?

No not really, everything is interwoven, interlinked if you know where to look and who to speak to. Lots of musicians played in various bands throughout the 70’s and 80’s. It might be different now but before computer games and mobile phones lots of kids wanted to be Rock Stars

How did this idea started anyway?

I thought of it in 2000 released Western Stars which didn’t sell very well although it was obvious it was a good idea. A friend of mine Dave Bateman dropped dead suddenly in 2008 and it got me thinking. Dave had been the original guitarist in Vice Squad, I just felt as we all get older more people will disappear and we should remember them for what they once were and what they achieved large or small, they were part of the Bristol music scene.

I know someone has to do the job but if you were not around I guess all those releases landed up in some dusty attic to disappear later in the dustbin, not?

For sure, all destroyed and forgotten, lost forever, dosn’t bear thinking about does it!

You choose a specific decade, I mean it’s only mid 70’s till the 80’s, not?

No we start there and touch on the early 90’s. As the years go on I’m sure we’ll move through the decades, but everyone has to start somewhere and I know alot about late 70’s and early 80’s so it seemed the perfect place

How do you work? Ringing from door to door? I mean, Mike, there’s no info on the net about such bands at all…

Luck, chance, fate, a contact or two, a friend of a friend, no plan just make it happen. Most if not all people are keen to be involved and pleased I’ve phoned them – they understand the historical importance without me having to spell it out

I guess it must keep you busy day after day, not?

Independent Financial Advisor

Chairman of Chipping Sodbury Golf Club for 8 years

Immediate Past Presidnet of The Gloucestershire Golf Union

Captain Elect of the Gloucestershire Golf Union

You could say I’m busy busy busy

If you hear these releases they can all be reduced to some sad stories : I mean they could have been, if only….well if only…

Yea I know – I blame most of the non success on the infrastructure in Bristol through the ages, no managers, music accountants, lawyers most of our talented kids left and went to London to seek fame and fortune ( or Heroin)

I guess one Mr. John Peel played its part in it too….

Sure did certainly for Simon Edwards at Heartbeat Records, Avon Calling 2 is released on August 23^rd, if Mr Peel was still alive he’d be playing it all the time as its the follow up to Avon Calling released in 1980

I thought the day Mr. Peel died, music died a bit as well.

Maybe – he gave people more of a chance and a hope that anyone could get on Radio 1

Look, Mike, you are exploring an area from singles and tapes and the sad truth is that outside Bristol no one knows about these bands (well not many….).

How do you react if you see in 2010 that there are 1.000.000 bands on My Space?

Don’t understand this question – sorry

What’s your opinion about the current musicscene itself?

Ok- big bands are making fortunes playing live shows, small bands still have no one coming to see them play. No one is selling records. Its tough but there will always be great bands

Sometimes I think everything in this world has so mellowed…I mean we have everything now but the voice inside has gone too…

Kids have to much opportunity – we’ll never see Punk Rock again – lets all have a go!

Are there any bands around who decide to reform after the re-releases?

Yes

The Pigs

The Stingrays

The Untouchables

The Fans

The Fans have toured Japan this year and released material over there via 1977 Records

I ask this to everyone : what’s your fave record of all time and please tell why….

Dancing With Myself – Generation x ( Billy Idol is my hero!!!)

The last words are yours…..

Give Bristol a chance its not all about Massive Attack, Portishead and Roni Size if you look behind these bands you’ll find musicians from the late 70’s in their lineups – Punk Rock lives on in a very quiet way

Mike Darby

www.bristolarchiverecords.com

August 2010

Thanks a lot!!!

Didier

Can be found at   http://www.darkentries.be/

The Pigs have confirmed a home town support slot in Bristol for Friday November 5th supporting the legendary 999. The venue is The Fleece and there will be a Punk club night until 2am.

Put a note in the diary