Volume 7 Side 2 - Oyster Band, Men They Couldn't Hang, Man From Delmonte, Inspiral Carpets, Wolfhounds

1. Oyster Band - Polish Plain (Cooking Vinyl)

"It's Fab!!!"

Good God, The Oyster Band, you're not quite The Pixies or The Stone Roses... such minimal sleevenotes will do you little favours at this stage.

Still, "Polish Plain" is actually one of the better slices of the late eighties folk-rock revival. On one occasion while I was playing it, my wife walked in and asked if it was an American college radio track from the same period, or possibly even REM. It's not, but the guitar lines and some of the vocals do recall eighties alt-pop from the period, though the cat-gut being scraped and skriddled so effectively towards the end screams "Folk on Radio Two". In other words, this is a very neat crossover single indeed, and one which brought folk music to the attention of larger audiences.

It's also a far cry from the bands origins as Canterbury based chartbusters releasing "Daytrip to Bangor", and a damn sight less irritating. "Polish Plain" is rich with both energy and atmosphere, and conclusively proved that modern British folk music had plenty of life left in it beyond its seventies heyday.



2. The Men They Couldn't Hang - Rain, Steam, Speed (Silvertone)

"These guys are good, and if you think they only do Pogues impressions The Men They Couldn't Hang offer far, far more than that" Time Out - 1st March 1989

... and further proof, if proof were needed, comes in the form of track two. The Men They Couldn't Hang were at the point of being considered folk-punk stalwarts at this point, their excellent debut release "The Green Fields of France" having had considerable exposure (and a number one indie chart position) in 1984.

"Rain, Steam, Speed" is nothing like as maudlin as that World War One tribute, however, being a pounding, beating track about Isambard Brunel's often ill-fated railway construction workers. The final verse makes the message utterly clear: "Soon they'll build a tunnel under England through to France/ Will it make the tide run quicker? Will the flow of trade advance?/ Underneath the ocean there is limestone, chalk and sand/ But coming up through the virgin rock will be a human hand". It's a brilliant and incredibly well written track about the industrial revolution and - much like "Green Fields of France" - the exploitation of humans for the benefit of others.

The Men They Couldn't Hang remain active today, but we won't be encountering them on "Indie Top 20" again.



3. The Man From Delmonte - "My Love Is Like A Gift You Can't Return" (Bop Cassettes)

"It's Morrissey in short trousers; it's Anthony Newley behind the bike sheds; and it's that nutter off Playaway making a bid for indie fame....."

Infamously managed by a pre-success Jon Ronson (who also directed the video below) The Man From Delmonte were actually a Manchester band with their heads firmly in the indiepop era - no electric organs, funky drummer beats or ecstacy tablets for these chaps, thank you, they were happy enough to tend their catchy sixties melodies instead. Fronted by the effervescent Mike West, who was the son of Australian author Morris West, they oozed a carefree uncool which was as thrilling to some indie pop-pickers as it was alienating to others.

"My Love Is Like A Gift" is a goldmine of catchiness from start to finish, cramming in so many melodic and lyrical hooks that it edges closer towards Herman's Hermits than more credible sixties influences. For all that, it's a fine single, and while it was never going to reverse the emerging trends of the time or storm the National Charts, it was going to offer listeners missing the incessant melodic chirpiness of the likes of The Housemartins something to enjoy.

Hilariously, The Man From Delmonte's output was indeed regularly inspected by staff at the food company Delmonte to ensure that it did not tarnish the reputation of the brand. The group were never asked to cease and desist, which can only mean that The Man From Delmonte said "yes" to The Man From Delmonte.



4. Inspiral Carpets: Joe (Cow)

"Inspiral Carpets third single, and first for their own Cow label; went straight into the Indie Charts at number one: Cool as F**k!"

It's worth noting that this is also the first Inspiral Carpets single with Tom Hingley on lead vocals, and expanded significantly on the group's popularity.

"Joe" is a significant step up. The opening funky drum rhythms are the first obvious concession that the group were making towards baggydelic trends, but the rest of the track is actually quite overblown psychedelia with Clint Boon's keyboard work stuck right at the forefront. With its disorientating, giddy merry-go-round organ riff, screeching and almost improvised sounding organ work and Hingley's impassioned ranting about a Manchester tramp, it's actually a very strange single to become so massive (even in an indie sense of the word) in 1989. And huge it was, emerging as the number one best-selling single on the year-end indie chart (ahead of The Roses, The Happy Mondays, The Pixies and others besides).

Still, the thundering and driving bassline and funky rhythm patterns give the track incredibly solid foundations to build on, and it remains a compelling listen to this day. The Inspiral Carpets would release increasingly conventional songs as their career progressed, and become fairly serious contenders in the mainstream charts right up until their split in 1995.



5. The Wolfhounds - Happy Shopper (Midnight Music)

"An innocuous pop song with obnoxious anti-consumerist lyrics. Not actually about the cheap food chain, but their lawyers seemed to think so".

Indeed. The Happy Shopper chain had form for being quite threatening towards indie bands who appeared to be mildly dismissive of their products. Foreheads In A Fishtank released their own single "Happy Shopper" around the same time, which also attracted legal attention - though to be fair, that particular single did also involve the lead singer screaming "Oh God! Who BOUGHT THESE BISCUITS?" so you could see their point of view.

The Wolfhounds aren't quite so ridiculous or provocative. Their "Happy Shopper" is, as stated, a very simple and brief anti-consumerist statement, which is disappointing by the band's usual standards. It's less than two and a half minutes of distorted guitars and lyrics stating the obvious about capitalism and fashion. It's enjoyable enough, but sounds like a B-side or a demo rather than a fully fledged single. Never mind Happy Shopper, the Man From Delmonte's nose might have turned if they'd managed to drag him into the argument.

Indie Top Video featuring New Order, Darling Buds, Birdland, McCarthy, They Might Be Giants, Oyster Band

Format: VHS
Year of Release: 1989

Hot on the tails of the CD88 compilation - indie music on a digital format, whoever would have thought it? - came "Indie Top Video", which brought together sights as well as sounds from Volumes 1-6 of the series.

Though this again was something of a lie. Not only did no videos whatsoever feature from volume one or two of the series, there were also five non-canon "bonus tracks" nestled amongst the fifteen vids, and one track which wouldn't emerge until Volume Seven of the CD/vinyl/cassette format.

Not that it really mattered, and not that I ran to Our Price demanding my money back. "Indie Top Video" was fantastic viewing for those of us who wanted to see videos of some our favourite tracks in full, especially those "The Chart Show" had rudely skated past during the Indie Chart rundowns. And "The Chart Show" clearly had an enormous influence on this tape as well, as prior to each song commencing a flashing "Play" logo emerged. Fortunately, they didn't trouble us with any "Stop" and "Rewind" nonsense, though.

Beechwood didn't handle this release themselves, and looked towards the mighty powerhouse of EMI to take on the manufacturing and distribution. Their Picture Music International arm handled it, meaning that when you started the tape you were introduced to the same charming and whimsical animated logo and music that greeted you whenever you pressed play on a "Now That's What I Call Music" VHS compilation. It was hard to know what to make of that, really.

While this Indie Top Video sold enough copies to climb into the national Music Video Top 20 - which seems like an astonishing achievement given the relative obscurity of a lot of the contents - subsequent tapes sold less and less well, and the series failed to get beyond six editions. We'll take a look at each in order when they occur on our timeline and discuss the tracks that don't appear elsewhere, providing a link back to the others that do.

1. New Order - Fine Time (Factory) - Bonus Track

Straight off the bat, here's our first bonus track, and it doesn't get much better than this. "Fine Time" caused a flurry of both panic and speculation at the point of its release. Being the first track off New Order's "Technique" LP, its frantic Acid House rhythms and full-on collision of dancefloor ideas made some think that the band were going to return with a fully fledged House LP. Of course, they didn't - and in fact, while "Technique" may be a wonderful album, it's actually much more subdued and moody in places than it's widely given credit for.

Still, "Fine Time" constantly ricochets around in such a manner that you do have to wonder what the band were on when they came up with it. The central keyboard riff is never far away, but across only a few minutes we're also treated to Peter Hook's bad Barry White impersonations, stammering vocals and guitar lines, loud, dominant whooshing effects, acid house squelches and a fantastically simple and pretty melodic guitar line at the end. It's supremely hyperactive, and you get the sense that once the group had built the basic foundations of the track and nailed the hook, they went wild taking every popular Ibiza idea they'd heard and throwing it in the blender alongside it. The result is something so impatiently itchy sounding that you want to be dragged along with it. You're never entirely sure where it's going or what the point is, but it throws everything it's got in your direction. It is unbelievably huge fun.

The video is no "True Faith", but is an absurd festive promo about the surreal and faintly disturbing adventures of one boy and his aggressive looking Jack Russell terrier. I didn't know what to make of it at the time, and I'm afraid I still don't now. Even when the track climbed to Number One on the Chart Show indie chart, they failed to play it, for reasons I've always found hard to understand (druggy imagery? Dated Christmas imagery? Just plain "being faintly disturbing"? Who knows?)



2. The Shamen - Jesus Loves Amerika (Moksha)

3. Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One (Chapter 22)

4. A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Rham)

5. The Darling Buds - It's All Up To You (Native)  - Bonus Track

I always felt that his was probably The Darling Buds' strongest moment. Released prior to them signing to a major label and becoming steadily smoothed over, "It's All Up To You" still has a hard, abrasive edge beneath Andrea's double-tracked choirgirl vocals. It also contains a killer rumbling bassline and lovely Ramones styled guitar solo from Harley Farr, and like some of the finest Indiepop feels like Phil Spector's girl group ideas meeting with the best punky sounds.

"It's All Up To You" did make some of the hype feel justified, and it was impossible not to wish the best for the band - but the Epic years delivered very little success, and by the early nineties I bore witness to them in a very Spinal Tap situation, sitting in a corner of Southend's HMV waiting for people to come up to get copies of Darling Buds records signed. I thought about buying one just for the sake of saying hello to the group and getting some of their inkwork on a copy of their record, but I was short of money that day and badly wanted to buy a copy of something else, so I didn't. To be fair, it's unlikely that my life would have been wildly changed by such an event. And anyway, I probably would have nervously stammered a lot in front of Andrea Lewis.



6. Wedding Present - Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? (Reception)

7. Birdland - Hollow Heart (Lazy) - Bonus Track

Within a few singles, Birdland went from being the saviours of British music to a standing joke, leading the Manic Street Preachers to nervously protest "We're not the next Birdland!" to any journalist who would listen. In fact, that was one of the last things Richey Manic said to Steve Lamacq before carving "4 Real" into his forearm. Imagine that - you feel so strongly that you might be going down the same career path as another group that you're driven to such a violent act (this, I realise, glosses over Richey's problems perhaps inexcusably for the sake of a semi-joky aside, but there is nonetheless a grain of truth to it).

You can hear what the original fuss was about here, though (and I've also met more than one person who has insisted that Birdland were staggeringly good live). "Hollow Heart" is hyperactively brilliant, with everything taken at a breakneck speed. The cymbals hiss and crash constantly (I've seldom heard this much white noise coming from a drummer) the guitar lines are riddled with dumb, simple hooks, the vocals seep attitude - it's just fantastic in a primitive, slack-jawed way. This is garage punk at its very best, the only question it begged at the time was whether the band had the creativity or imagination to deliver more greatness across an LP or even whole career. The eventual answer was "no".

Still, just as we didn't ask The Kingsmen for another "Louie Louie", there's no reason at all (beyond record company expectations) that we should have demanded Birdland create another hundred or so "Hollow Hearts". This is the distinct sound of a group shooting out their finest moment from the barrel first, and rather than condemning them for that, we should still acknowledge that it was a pretty spectacular moment.



8. Cardiacs - Is This The Life (Alphabet Business Concern)

9. Danielle Dax - White Knuckle Ride (Awesome)

(A bit confusing, this - "White Knuckle Ride" wouldn't appear on the Indie Top 20 series until Volume 7. So as not to mess around with the structure of these entries too much, we'll be discussing it  when we come to talk about that LP).

10. Fields of the Nephilim - Preacher Man (Situation Two)

11. Loop - Collision (Chapter 22)

12. Christian Death - Church Of No Return (Jungle)

13. McCarthy - Keep An Open Mind Or Else! (Midnight Music) - Bonus Track

Prior to entering a Krautrock inspired Moogy wonderland with Stereolab, Tim Gane fronted left-wing indiepop firebrands (TM) McCarthy. Their approach to political polemic was unorthodox and challenging, presenting all their lyrics in prose format with Tim squeezing them to fit around the simple pop melodies. Often too, they would adopt the style of someone else's tedious right-wing diatribes and set them to a chirpy melody to expose their arrogance, contradictory nature and stupidity - "The Home Secretary Briefs The Forces of Law and Order" is a good example of this. ("We don't believe in violence! Those who use guns to kill in cold blood, they deserve all they get, they deserve all they ask for. So when you catch them pump them all full of lead, tear them limb from limb. It will be okay! For the law will be on your side!")

"Keep An Open Mind Or Else!" follows a similar tack, sung from the perspective of a person who believes themselves to be reasonable and right-thinking, but who simply cannot or will not engage with political arguments coherently and pushes away any facts they're presented with. To be frank, it hasn't dated one jot and actually probably feels even more applicable now in these social media times. It begins as an order to calm, rational debate being sung in a reasonable tone ("You should always try and see another person's point of view. You should never think that you know everything!") before descending into impatient, aggressive verbal carnage ("I don't believe in facts! No, I just believe in me. Argue, I don't care! Would you like your face smashed in?") And that, my friends, is just another Sunday night on Twitter, and even an eerie precursor to the Stewart Lee line "You can prove anything with FACTS". Times may change, but the patterns of conversation never really do.

"Keep an Open Mind" is backed with a truly sumptuous melody as well, like a trashy, harsher take on The Byrds, delicate backing vocals and fantastic hooks permeating the track. It probably is McCarthy's best moment, and is an unexpectedly pretty and melodic musing on pointless political discourse. Further proof (if it were needed) that political songs don't all have to sound like Crass or The Clash.



14. They Might Be Giants - They'll Need A Crane (One Little Indian) - Bonus Track

I've never much cared for They Might Be Giants. A few tracks aside, their material has always sounded far too much like the work of people who enjoy their own jokes too much. I made the mistake of buying the LP "Flood" back in my youth, and became desperately angered and annoyed with it within three listens. This was back in the days where buying an album probably meant one less night out for me that week, and it wasn't just that I hated much of the LP, it was also that I couldn't remove it from my brain afterwards either. Everything felt like a Sesame Street educational jingle sung by a New Wave Bert and Ernie. In fact, please don't make me dissect that LP again when there's no need. The songs! They're coming back to me!

"They'll Need A Crane" is proof that the band did have a sensitive and considered side, though, as the track takes a very considered look at a collapsing relationship. This verse alone is both witty and familiar: "Don't call me at work, no no/ the boss still hates me/ and I'm just tired/ and I don't love you anymore/ and there's a restaurant we should check out where/ the other nightmare people like to go/ I meant nice people, baby wait/ I didn't mean to say nightmare..."

Other than that, "Crane" is a simple and catchy shuffle through one relationship's wasteland. It's a shame they couldn't be this thoughtful and personal more often.



15. Oyster Band - New York Girls (Cooking Vinyl)

The Oyster Band went through a period of being both music press favourites and Radio Two "Folk On Two" stalwarts for a confusing point in the late eighties, and that's even more bizarre when you consider the fact that they were initially just Fiddler's Dram (of "Daytrip to Bangor" fame) recording and performing under another name. The original purpose of the alternate name was for the Oysters to act as a dance band for specific live shows and events, before eventually the Fiddler's Dram moniker was jettisoned entirely.

Given the success of The Pogues around this time, there was no reason why another folk group couldn't have broken through, and indeed The Oyster Band were probably one the finest examples of the genre at that point. "New York Girls" has just enough of a rough edge to set them apart from the competition, and it's impossible to sit still while this rattles along. The fiddle player alone deserves a gold medal for speed.