#rob pursey

[bandcampsnoop]

7/21/23.

The Five Year Plan were a Bristol, England band whose members went onto bands like Heavenly, The Beatnik Filmstars among others. It's always interesting to listen to the pre-bands of indie semi-gods. Rob Pursey (Heavenly, Swansea Sound) and Tim Rippington (The Beatnik Filmstars, The Charlie Tipper Rebellion) founded the band as teens. It's the classic story of learning to play instruments together and finding a sound.

The band wrote and recorded "1985" but it never released. A couple of years ago they reformed and "properly" re-recorded the album, but added no new sounds. We posted their 2014 compilation CD release "Peacetime Broadcast" back in 2016. A lot of the comparisons remain - The June Brides, Orange Juice, Monochrome Set. This has a decided C86 sound.

[meddwlyngymraeg]

Dwi'n dechrau deall mwy pam dwi'n gwrando ar y radio yn Gymraeg y dyddiau hyn. Dwi'n gwella yn araf, ond yn bendant. Ro'n i'n gwrando ar BBC Radio Cymru, ar y sioe Rhys Mwyn, cyflwynydd (wrth gwrs) a cerddor bwysig i'r sin roc Gymraeg o'r 80au a 90au.

Heddiw, wnes i ddysgu bod: Oedd Huw Williams, aka Hue Williams/Hue Pooh o'r band Pooh Sticks, y manager i fand Big Leaves am gyfnod. Oedd Huw ar y radio nawr achos ei fand newydd Swansea Sound yn rhyddau sengl newydd am recordiau a siopau record, enw Markin' It Down. Mae band yn cynnwys Huw, Amelia Fletcher (oedd yn y band 'c86' indie, Heavenly, a wnaeth hi ganu gyda Huw ar gyfer Pooh Sticks yn y 90au) a Rob Pursey (yn y band Catenary Wires gyda Amelia yn fwy ddiweddar), ac eu sengl newydd yn ddoniol iawn. Cwsmer mewn siop record yw Huw, a mae fe'n trio bod yn 'cwl' a 'hip' gyda blas miwsig da, yn chwilio am albwm ddiweddaraf Yard Act, ac mae fe'n siarad gyda gweithiwr yn y siop (Amelia) am y recordiau, ac mae hi'n ddweud bod mae recordiau yn y discount bin, mae hi'n 'marking it down to £11'. (Dwi'n gwirfoddoli ar radio cymunedol, so mae Amelia wedi anfon y sengl i fi hefyd eto, ro'n i'n hapus iawn amdano fe!)

Wnes i ddysgu bod 'cyhoedd' yw public, a cyhoeddiad yn announcement, hefyd.

A meddai Rhys, Cadwch yn saff, stay safe!

[punkrockhistory]

A great line-up of famous punk/postpunk legends

Pauline Murray from Penetration, Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69, Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto from Magazine, Rob Blamire from Penetration and Mark E Smith from The Fall

#punkrock #postpunk #history #punkrockhistory

[crystalfurs]

"Rose-Colored Glasses" - a track from our latest album, In Coastal Light, that we wrote as a bit of an homage to the sounds of beloved '90s UK indie band Heavenly.

We actually got to do guest vocals on the debut album of Swansea Sound, a new band that features Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey of Heavenly and Hue Williams of the Pooh Sticks. Steph performs a co-lead on "I'm OK When You're Around," and all three of us do backing vocals of "Freedom of Speech"

[daggerzine]

Heavenly- Heavenly Vs Satan (Skep Wax)

Heavenly were originally a 4-piece band from Oxford England, that created unique pop music for the time. Amelia Fletcher was on vocals, while on guitar was Peter Momtchiloff and the rhythm section was Rob Pursey on bass and Matthew Fletcher on drums (the band then added Cathy Rogers on vocals/keyboards on their next album). To longtime fans, this band was really something special.

Amelia and Rob started up a label a few years ago, Skep Wax Records, and have been releasing all kinds of excellent records. Then it was announced earlier in the year that the Heavenly albums would be reissued on vinyl so this was, of course, great news.

The band released this debut back in 1991 on the Sarah Records label. The Sarah label, known for releasing that wimpy, twee music, was both loved by a small army of fans and not-so-loved in the UK music press (remember, this was during the grunge era).  Honestly, what did the UK press know anyway? Heavenly were a terrific band and it's high time these records are getting reissued.

Oh sure, Heavenly had a light sound at times, sometimes due to Amelia Fletcher's fluttery voice (which I happen to love) but could also rock/pop with the best of 'em and the songwriting was absolutely fantastic!

A few of my favorites on here include the great, strummy opener "Cool Guitar Boy," "Lemonhead Boy," "Wish Me Gone" (which I believe they rewrote a few years with a song called "Escort Crash on Marston Street"). It also adds the first two Sarah singles by the band, "I Fell in Love Last Night" and "Over and Over" both ace tunes and among the band's best.

The world eventually caught up with Heavenly, as in the past decade or two plenty of bands have copped their sound, but they were among the first. Hear it here in all of its airy, marvelous glory.

www.skepwax.bandcamp.com

www.heavenlyindie.bandcamp.com 

[vmonteiro23a]

ONCE IN 79’: Sham 69' Dave Parsons and Jimmy Pursey, Middlesex Polytechnic, Hendon, London, 26th January 1979

ONCE IN 79’: Sham 69′ Dave Parsons and Jimmy Pursey, Middlesex Polytechnic, Hendon, London, 26th January 1979 Photo by © Rob Hall. (Photo from 3rd February ’79 – “New Musical Express”, UK) “January 26, 1979 SHAM 69 are shaken tonight by more violence at a hometown gig in Hendon, North London. The group had been plagued with trouble at their shows since right wing factions have labeled the…

[musicblogwales]

Swansea Sound announce new album 'Twentieth Century'

An album of sparkling pop-punk tunes from these lovable veterans of the indie scene, Featuring Hue (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia (Heavenly) deploying their fuzzed-up guitars and melodic wiles in a set of loud, energetic pop songs, an album, containing self-deprecating critiques of everything that was supposed to be great about the alternative culture of the Twentieth Century – and of the way that culture left its adherents totally ill-equipped to deal with the reality of the Twenty First. 

Released on the 8th of September via Skep Wax Records, format's will include Vinyl LP CD and digital versions.

Swansea Sound Full Lineup includes

Hue Williams (The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (both Talulah Gosh/Heavenly, The Catenary Wires), Bob Collins (The Dentists, The Treasures of Mexico), Ian Button, (Death in Vegas, with Louis Philippe, Pete Astor and Papernut Cambridge)

In Paradise, the first track, old-school futuristic synth-bleeps accompany Hue as he tries to establish some kind of relationship with a woman who only really exists on his screen.  Like an early 80s Gary Numan aficionado, he spends most of his life in digital isolation.  Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in a coltan mine, using their bare hands to dig out the precious ore that will provide the raw materials for the manufacture of Hue’s smartphone, impoverished workers lose their lives: ‘servers hum/and miners die’ goes the chorus, as the woman Hue hopes to communicate with remains as elusive as ever.

In ‘Click It And Pay’, another cracked duet, Hue is the stressed-out home-worker doing some online shopping.  Amelia is the girl in some distant hyper-warehouse who fulfils his requirements. They don’t get to meet – they will never meet - but they kind-of bond through CDs by The Police and Primal Scream that form part of his shopping list.   Twenty-First Century romance amounts to no more than the purchase of music reissued from the Twentieth.

The Twentieth Century provided other rock prophets: more political than Gary Numan, these men wore combat gear and sang of revolution.  In title track ‘Twentieth Century’ we meet a pseudo-punk singer in fatigues, a purveyor of radical anthems, cushioned by a major label deal, who wonders why he’s lost contact with his once-devoted fans.  One of those disappointed fans crops up in ‘I Don’t Like Men In Uniform’: it’s 2023 now, and he’s still angry, still seething with pain – but he’s no longer robust enough to sink his fists, or his teeth, into the authority figures he hates.  Meanwhile, in ‘Punish The Young’, an ageing rock icon and sometime rule-breaker curses the young people of 2023 who couldn’t care less about his heroic past, and despises them because they don’t want to work for shit wages on the trout farm that he bought with his royalties back in the 1980s

‘Greatest Hits Radio’ pulls focus, and suddenly we are looking at three centuries – the brutal Nineteenth Century slate mines of North Wales depicted alongside the digital corporations of the Twenty-First, extracting as much profit as they can from two things people need: shelter and entertainment.  In the chorus, once again, we hear the voice of the young girl forced to work in the contemporary coltan mine - as downtrodden and as abused as the kids who toiled underground in Blaenau Ffestiniog to extract the slate two hundred years ago.

This sounds grim, and if you look at the Twenty First Century hard enough, it really is.  So where is the hope?  Well, the music on the album really is joyful, and it really will put a smile on your silly indie face.  There’s a love song to Pete Shelley (‘Far Far Away’) - a tribute to a true Twentieth Century hero. And in the final track – ‘Pack The Van’ – the band make fleeting contact with the pure idealism of their early teenage years, remembering the beautiful beach on the South Wales coast that provided the backdrop to their passionate youth.  Maybe if we could access that optimism again we might find a way forward...

Anyway.  Swansea Sound themselves never pretend to be anything other than creatures of the Twentieth Century.  They still celebrate the joy of cramming into a car with loads of mates to see a gig at a crappy indie venue in the small town where they live (‘Seven In The Car’).  And they don’t see why that kind of joy needs to stop: in fact, it may be one of the important things we’ve got left.

Swansea sound will be recording a BBC6Music Riley & Coe session in September, and will be Hue Stephens’ album of the week on BBC Wales. They are touring the UK in September and October, then playing in the US and Japan in 2024.

Swansea Sound: a brief history.

Formed during lockdown, the band recorded three singles without actually meeting each other.  Corporate Indie Band appeared as a cassette on specialist label Lavender Sweep.  It got a lot of airplay, and the next releases were on 7” vinyl, including Indies Of the World, which made it into the UK vinyl Top 10.  A debut album, Live At The Rum Puncheon, was released in 2021 to considerable critical acclaim:

‘The glorious sounds of C86 brought into the now.’ Thomas Patterson, Shindig.

‘Close to an indie pop miracle.’ Tim Sendra, All Music.

‘An essential broadcast from the forefront of the indiepop resistance.’  Andy Brown, Louder than War.

TRACKLIST:

PARADISE

SEVEN IN THE CAR

KEEP YOUR HEAD ON

CLICK IT AND PAY

I DON’T LIKE MEN IN UNIFORM

TWENTIETH CENTURY

I MADE A WORK OF ART

MARKIN’ IT DOWN

PUNISH THE YOUNG

FAR FAR AWAY

GREATEST HITS RADIO

PACK THE VAN

Swansea Sound will play a number of live dates in the Autumn.

09 Sep 2023:  London, Rough Trade East, LP launch 14 Sep 2023:  Manchester, The Talleyrand 15 Sep 2023:  Cardiff, Moon Club 16 Sep 2023:  Carmarthen, Cwrw 17 Sep 2023:  Bristol, Rough Trade 29 Sep 2023:  St Leonards, The Piper 30 Sep 2023:  Paris, Popfest 13 Oct 2023:   Leeds, Wharf Chambers 14 Oct 2023:   Newcastle-On-Tyne, Cumberland Arms 27 Oct 2023:   Brighton/Hove, The Brunswick 28 Oct 2023:   London, The Water Rats

Music Blog Wales wish Swansea Sound all the best with the new release and all the tour dates, make sure you catch them live x

[sex-gang-children-official]

Recorded live at the Batcave 20th Oct. 1982.

"This live recording is of the one and only SGC performance at the Batcave. We were looking to do a secret London show as a warm up to our first headline slot at the Lyceum Theatre. Ollie Wisdom and Jon Klein who ran the Batcave had suggested we do our secret show there. At the time it was the best underground club in London, and I had been a regular visitor so it felt like a home run. I remember the concert itself had a lot of energy and feel to it, one our better nights, I thought. The whole event felt like an intense and enjoyable love affair between band and audience, who were by the way, mainly a who's who of London's many notable musicians, more so than the regular lot who frequented the club. I definitely felt the pressure of the spotlight on us that night and we felt a strong obligation to prove ourselves and that's how we liked it. After the show, Jimmy Pursey (the singer from Sham 69) grabbed my arm and said "Wow! You guys really mean it!" I told him, of course we do!" - Andi Sex Gang (Andi McElligott)

released October 31, 2014

Vocals - Andi Sex Gang (Andi McElligott) Guitar - Terry MacLeay Bass - Dave Roberts Drums - Rob Stroud

[yellowsnow77]

Under The Bridge

Supongo que los seguidores de Sarah Records, y de todo lo que rodea a su sonido, ya tendrán más que masticada esta recopilación llamada ‘Under The Bridge’. Sobre todo, porque se publicó el pasado marzo. Pero no quería que se acabara el año y que no hubiera caído por aquí. Y es que estamos ante una compilación ideada por el sello Skep Wax, el cual fundaron Amelia Fletcher y Rob Pursey el año…

[redsoapbox]

Swansea Sound and Spearmint Unveiled as Contributors to Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas

Swansea Sound, described by the NME as ‘the funny, angry and savage past, present and future of indie’, also happen to be something of an underground super group to boot, bringing together Hue Williams (The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher (The Pooh Sticks, Tallulah Gosh), Rob Pursey (Heavenly) and Ian Button (Death in Vegas). There is no space here to go into the legend of The Pooh Sticks (c’mon folks, I’m 80 bios’ in and running on empty), but this will clue you in - https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-pooh-sticks-mn0000489909/biography

Below is “Indies of the World”, a track from Swansea Sounds’ debut album Live at the Rum Puncheon (2021).

Released in 2021, the throbbingly vivacious “Happy Christmas to Me” is the Xmas song the Buzzcocks never got around to making. Yes, it is that good! It was also a Snowflakes Singles Club release - a hallmark of Christmas quality! Here it is in all its glory -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fycUjJfql8

Next up Spearmint

Here's Spearmint's mission statement from their website. 'Spearmint are a London-based band. Our debut album was A Week Away and our latest is Are You From the Future?’ We’re very proud of others which came out in between, like A Different Lifetime, Paris in a Bottle and Shirley Lee. We’re not part of any scene or movement, we don’t do cover versions, we don’t have guest-lists and we don’t do encores. We are trying to make perfect Pop which means something, trying to capture bits of life and play them back to you in three- minute bursts. We mostly fail, but sometimes we get close, and we’d love you to join our club'. They insist their contribution to Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas is a true story!

The wonderful “Santa Lives in my Building”

https://www.spearmint.net/

Have Yourself a Merry Indie Christmas is being released on the 4th of November and will be available via Bandcamp. Every penny I raise will go to Crisis at Christmas.

[sistermorph1ne]

Talulah Gosh

[bandcampsnoop]

12/9/21.

Snooping the Bandcamp has never been easier. Between their articles, the new vinyl tab, and artist suggestions, it usually doesn't take much on my part (can't speak for Micah) to find some that's either new to me, or I love.

Swansea Sound (members of Heavenly, The Pooh Sticks and The Catenary Wires) recently posted their Bandcamp favorites. Rob Pursey's list does mention the great David Lance Callahan that was posted recently. But, Ian Button's list steered me in the direction of this reissue/issue from Thomas Leer and Robert Rental (Glasgow).

This is post-punk/electronic music from the late 1970s. If you've enjoy The Fall, or Grauzone (posted 3/10/21), or Chris Knox, there's definitely something here.

This is released by Mute Records (New York), which we've apparently never tagged. Hard to believe since this label also has releases from CAN, Phew, and The Pop Group.

[polaroidblog]

What will be the first song that I play?

Ragazzi che inneggiano alla rivoluzione, sostengono il do-it-yourself come unica via, puntano il dito contro i fascisti e non vedono l’ora di prendersi una meritata rivincita sulle corporation. La cosa che non ti aspetti è che i ragazzi in questione sono in realtà over-50 che riescono a canalizzare tutta questa grinta in una band indiepop. Si chiamano Swansea Sound e sono una specie di super-gruppo: dentro ci sono Hue Williams (dei leggendari Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher e Rob Pursey (Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, fino ai Catenary Wires: semplicemente la storia di questa musica che amiamo) e Ian Button (Thrashing Doves, Death in Vegas, Darren Hayman e altri: una sicurezza)...

[porcupiny]

New music Friday: Bitmap, European Son, C-Beem

New music Friday: Bitmap, European Son, C-Beem

Today’s new music comes all from England, but spans the indie pop and post punk genres so I guess it might appeal to different audiences?

Bitmap “Micro/Macro”

Bitmap

First, Bitmapis a project by Luke Barwell – who is music photographer Ami Barwell’s brother (small world) and he used to release music under the name Salako. I managed to find the Musicality and Reinventing Punctuation LPs on vinyl…

[daggerzine]

Swansea Sound- “Twentieth Century” single (Skep Wax)

When Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey have time from their myriad of other projects they also do another band called Swansea Sound with Hue from the Pooh Sticks (Ian Button is on drums and it looks like they’ve added Bob Collins from The Dentists, too).

Their new album of the same name comes out in a week or so, but this is the 2nd single from it and it’s just what the doctor ordered.

Hue sings about wanting to sell out (or not) while Amelia sings backing vocals and the guitar rumbles in a  wash of six-string melodic churn.  This is one of those songs that you just can’t help tapping your foot to (and the video, showing all of your favorites, Strummer, Bowie, Daltrey, Mark E. Smith, as their faces flash on the screen ) rules as well.

I think the forthcoming LP is gonna knock my socks off (and most days I don’t usually wear socks so that will be quite a feat, but Swansea Sound is up to the challenge!).

www.swanseasound.bandcamp.com

www.skepwax.bandcamp.com

[vmonteiro23a]

A great line-up : Pauline Murray from Penetration, Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69, Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto from Magazine, Rob Blamire from Penetration and Mark E Smith from The Fall.

A great line-up : Pauline Murray from Penetration, Jimmy Pursey from Sham 69, Pete Shelley from The Buzzcocks, Howard Devoto from Magazine, Rob Blamire from Penetration and Mark E Smith from The Fall.