Bogshed - kings of swing: discuss

Wingco and Oldfield were the Monitor chaps with the real leftfield tastes.

Back to Simon, the mid-eighties and the weekly music rags. Wasn't that the time of the infamous NME hip-hop wars with certain writers pushing hip-hop and go-go music as the next big thing while other writers pledged allegiance to mop topped boys with guitars? As a yank it never made any sense to me why there was this musical schism. It certainly wasn’t that way in the early eighties. Just contrast the difference between C81 and C86. C81 had the usual indie suspects, but also had slinky funk from Linx, jazz from James Blood Ulmer, and Furious Pig. C86 had the Byrds/Velvets axis, the Ron Johnson crew and nothing else. C86 is a musical runt when compared to its predecessor.

Side one

1. "The "Sweetest Girl"" – Scritti Politti (6:09)
2. "Twist and Crawl Dub" – The Beat (4:58)
3. "Misery Goats" – Pere Ubu (2:26)
4. "7,000 Names of Wah!" – Wah! Heat (3:57)
5. "Blue Boy" – Orange Juice (2:52)
6. "Raising the Count" – Cabaret Voltaire (3:32)
7. "Kebab Traume (Live)" – D.A.F (3:50)
8. "Bare Pork" – Furious Pig (1:28)
9. "Raquel" – The Specials (1:56)
10. "I Look Alone" – Buzzcocks (3:00)
11. "Fanfare in the Garden" – Essential Logic (3:00)
12. "Born Again Cretin" – Robert Wyatt (3:07)

Side two

1. "Shouting Out Loud" – The Raincoats (3:19)
2. "Endless Soul" – Josef K (2:27)
3. "Low Profile" – The Blue Orchids (3:47)
4. "Red Nettle" – Virgin Prunes (2:13)
5. "We Could Send Letters" – Aztec Camera (4:57)
6. "Milkmaid" – Red Crayola (2:01)
7. "Don't Get in My Way" – Linx (5:15)
8. "The Day My Pad Went Mad" – The Massed Carnaby St John Cooper Clarkes (1:46)
9. "Jazz Is the Teacher, Funk Is the Preacher" – James Blood Ulmer (4:03)
10. "Close to Home" – Ian Dury (4:13)
11. "Greener Grass" – Gist (2:32)
12. "Parallel Lines" – Subway Sect (2:38)
13. "81 Minutes" – John Cooper Clarke (0:13)

And for C86:

Side one

1. Primal Scream - Velocity Girl
2. The Mighty Lemon Drops - Happy Head
3. The Soup Dragons - Pleasantly Surprised
4. The Wolfhounds - Feeling So Strange Again
5. The Bodines - Therese
6. Mighty Mighty - Law
7. Stump - Buffalo
8. Bogshed - Run To The Temple
9. A Witness - Sharpened Sticks
10. The Pastels - Breaking Lines
11. Age of Chance - From Now On, This Will Be Your God

Side two

1. The Shop Assistants - It's Up To You
2. Close Lobsters - Firestation Towers
3. Miaow - Sport Most Royal
4. Half Man Half Biscuit - I Hate Nerys Hughes ( From The Heart )
5. The Servants - Transparent
6. The Mackenzies - Big Jim (There's no pubs in Heaven)
7. bIG fLAME - New Way (Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology)
8. Fuzzbox - Console Me
9. McCarthy - Celestial City
10. The Shrubs - Bullfighter's Bones
11. The Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait

Here are a couple of links:

Indie pop and Rockism

Taking Sides : C81 vs C86

Happy days. Slightly embarrassing happy days.

Even generously shoehorning the likes of Mighty Mighty and the Close Lobsters into the former category, your still left with Half Man Half Biscuit, Fuzzbox, McCarthy, Age of Chance, Miaow, Shop Assistants, Soup Dragons, Wedding Present adn the Wolfhounds who have no relationship to either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C86_%28music%29

Did this sort of thing really well. Great Lyrics, too:

"I hear backstairs destitution,
Should I walk on?
Should I listen?"

v. similar to Mekons circa "Kill".

Well I don't think this is the thread I was really looking for, but it will do, I was pretty desperate trying to find the one I was thinking of that compared all these late 80's Brit indie bands to Beefheart. Can anyone please find the thread I'm thinking of?

The reason I'm here is look, does anyone remember this band called Slab! ?

I didn't get to hear them until now and I think "People Pie" is fab though I'm not sure how much I'll dig the album it's from. "Mars on Ice" was pretty good, though.

You know what I mean it's the thread where we talked about those late 80's Brit Indie bands. Damnit. You know the ones I mean. Stump were mentioned, and Stitched Back Foot Airman and you know the ones I mean.

MacKenzies, Big Flame. Was it a Big Flame thread?

Well fuck me, it probably is this thread anyway.

bogshed is probably the best band that has ever existed. i'll give 'em a spin. now.

sorry. i just checked. don't think i know anything about slab.

Damnit it's only 6:30 am in Britain I think. See how I'm always doomed with these time zones?

I remember Slab! They sound like their name, right? Kinda monolithic de-funked indie-funk? I liked them in 1986, as I recall.

Yeah Slab! were a noisy indie-funk thing, repetitive bass stuff with a bit of gtr scree over the top. Sort of like Swans-lite trying to make dance music. Actually I saw them once with That Petrol Emotion... and VOTB IIRC!

Thanks guys! It's great to know people remember them.

So, looks like Simon Reynolds has started writing nostalgically about the Bogshed/Big Flame/Pigbros/ Membranes/Nightingales era (whatever it was called):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/13/mid-1980s-revival

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2009/02/heres-my-second-blogpost-for-guardian.html

And I guess this is him writing back in 1985 about it:

http://bringthenoisesimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2007/07/btn-deleted-scene-1-funks-fictional.html

(Actually, nah, now that I actually look at it, that 1985 piece is about other stuff. Don't think I every heard Chakk.)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Trad-Rock-John-Robb/dp/1901447367/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246826560&sr=1-10

In the 1980s, the charts overflowed with what felt to many like the most boring pop music ever made - and the underground exploded. The post-punk scene was a diverse collection of bands brought together by independent releases and aided by reportage in fanzines and airplay by John Peel. This is the first time this era of music has been analysed in such depth, exploring the loose confederation of noisenik outfits including Three Johns, The Membranes, The Ex, Wedding Present, A Witness, Bogshed and Big Flame.

Pretty interested in this but John Robb is going to write it in the style of John Robb and that will make it less good

what felt to many like the most boring pop music ever made

He lost me there.

Wd love to read a good book about those bands tho.

This was a great thread since it made me go back and listen to C86 again. I think my previous posts were much too dismissive. Some of the bands on c86, as everything stated, had nothing to do with the Byrds/Velvets floppy fringe conspiracy or the Beefheart crunch of some of the Ron Johnson bands. The Wolfhounds, for example, where garage band refugees who found a home with Sonic Youth style skree and stutter. Not to mention the lead singer, Dave Callahan, was one bitter guy who knew his way around a lyric. He later went on to found Moonshake who are an entirely different can of worms. Nobody seems to remember the Wolfhounds which is a damn shame. As a side note, I just recently tracked down a live show from Big Flame which is far better than any of their official releases.

A book would be interesting, but may be very difficult to write given the scattered nature of this scene. Most of the bands were quite local and only released a small amount of product. If everything or Rhodri ever to reply to this thread they could sort this out since they were there and involved with the scene. Me, I'm just a yank who bought weird noisy records.

The records generally don't give more than a flavour of how intense these bands were live. I saw the Three Johns, The Membranes, Bogshed and Big Flame over the mid 80's and they were incredible live acts. The Johns and the Membranes in particular toured incessantly, and you always came away from gigs with a bundle of fanzines. I think there was actually a very strong fan network, the more so because this stuff went so much against the vein. John Robb was right in the middle of it all, which makes him well placed to write about it.

As for the charts, I realise that this is ILM, but it certainly felt like the most boring pop music ever made to a lot of us at the time.

An excerpt from John Robb's book which touches on many of the things said on this thread.

I'm looking forward to reading this book - hopefully there are some good interviews in it. I'm more than happy with John Robb as the writer of this book. I can't really think of anyone who's better qualified actually, let alone anyone who would even bother. His writing has absolutely none of the depreciation that some other UK music commentators his age indulge in, especially when they are discussing non-canonical/critically maligned music. This music was very self-confident and positive and so is Robb's writing.

One thing he talks about there is the influence of the Stranglers' bass guitar which I have never really considered but it makes some sense, eg. Let Them Eat Bogshed.

Yes, Burnell's bass playing is an interesting connection. I read somewhere that the Cravats were formed after seeing the Stranglers - puzzled me at the time, as they seemed poles apart, but Shend's bass is very much upfront in their sound. (And, for me, the Cravats and the Very Things were very much the weird elder brothers of the scene Robb is writing about.)

How come nobody told me the Membranes were back together? (We Americans are always the last to learn these things.)

http://thequietus.com/articles/03623-john-robb-the-membranes-reform-interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtG1sLMyfLA

Good vid

Got John Robb's Death To Trad Rock book for Xmas -- Tons of context in there, not to mention more bands I never heard of. Am starting to get obsessed again, and wish I'd kept all my Pigbros and Bogshed and World Domination Enterprises and Big Flame etc. EPs and 45s from back in the '80s when almost nobody else in the U.S. was paying attention.

Get yourself bogged. If you choose.

https://bog-shed.bandcamp.com/album/the-official-bog-set

Mike Bryson RIP ;_;
it were all about dat bass
:-(

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/15/bogshed-bog-set?fbclid=IwAR1ybOITJE6_o6agV0E2tktVi1FkzOxqyWG0jh6mDkezGHO4Ig5LvWwYza4

Wow, shocking that 3 of them are dead. How sad.

Yes, shocking.

CD5 on the bog-set looks exciting - i've only heard half of these on those DVDRs that were doing the rounds turn of the century
CD5 – Who Scoffed The Trill?
1 Budgies
2 This MUST Be Taken Seriously
3 Necktie Murder Shopping Trollies
4 Gathering Change
5 Proper Music
6 You Are This
7 Too Many Personalities
8 The Amazing Roy North Penis Band
9 Hardly Manky
10 I Feel Like A Thing
11 Are You Alive
12 Thankyou Horse
13 Pain Is Nice
14 Lodger Problem
15 Piano Vocal Easy Organ
16 I Taste Little Windmill
17 I Prayed In Your Parlour
18 Monument
19 Soon To Exist
20 Oh Regulation!
21 Sunday Man
22 My Little Heart's In A Whirl
23 Simple Spinal
24 Runner On A Blunder

Yeah nothing there is familiar & should be a fun listen. Mostly looking to hear the later peel session tracks in best quality because that was some gold.

been catching up with this thread today, really great read. Listening to the Death to Trad Rock comp on Spotify. Love this kind of thing, always fascinated by UK bands that didn't didn't fit in with whatever the narrative of what was going on in the UK musically was at that point.

I remember hearing there was supposed to be a volume 2 of "Death To Trad Rock".

just discovered this super fun band… correctly guessed there would be an informative ilm thread <3 would have liked to see them in the day, such a great kind of energy. Adventure of Dog!!!