Advanced State of Refreshment

Advanced State of Refreshment  Another compilation to trample across the eras and genres:

Track 1 Where Were You at Midnight (on the 4^th July) – Club of Nuns Darlington drum and production prodigy Graeme Robinson has performed with a myriad of cutting edge and popness combos since the early 80’s. Here he is with Club of Nuns live at the Nursery Inn in Hartlepool – Graeme Robinson drums/vocal, Nigel Brooke bass/vocal, Josephine Warden vocal, Brian Moss synthesizer/vocal and Chris Stroud guitar/vocal.

Track 2 Fine – The Menials Right up to date now with the (shortlived) Hartlepool pop group built around the songs and voice of Simon Reed with fulsome support provided by Patrick Cannell drums, Ian Rowley rhythm guitar, Andrew Minister lead guitar and Jason Hunt bass.

Track 3 Newtons Law – Art Fixter – When he’s not riding about on his motorbike or slicing off the tips of his widdling fingers in bizarre landscape gardening accidents (he made a full recovery folks), Billingham lad Art Fixter has found the time to amass a fine collection of what he call his ‘little tunes’. (for more see the Art Fixter page)

Track 4 Sebastian – Graham Palmer – Not much is known about this mysterious chap except that this song of paternal heartbreak is sung from the heart (see the video of it on youtube) and it is rather good.

Track 5 Spread it Around – The Mike Lee Sound – This is the 7″ single mix version, whereas the full X-rated performance can be found on the ‘Mike’s Bag’ album on the Mike Lee Sound page

Track 6 Chameleon – Andy Power Band – Workaholic (or should that be playaholic) guitar slinger and producer Andy Power has been scooting up and the down the country for the past 20 odd years performing in a multitude of ensembles and shows. Here he is doing his own thing with co-conspirators Les Crosby drums and Paul McClenaghan bass.

Track 7 Dozy Dora – Bullfrog – One of the finest North East rock bands of the early 70’s, Bullfrog released a couple singles and featured future Godfather of the New Wave British Heavy Metal Steve Thompson (he would also demonstrate his diversity by doing things with Celine Dion and Alvin Stardust). This song is taken from the ‘Aces to Zebras’ Volume 1 album (Volumes 1 and 2 of course being available via the Bullfrog page.

Track 8 Heart and Soul and You 2.4 – Geoff Grange and Carmelo Luggeri – Hartlepool chap Geoff Grange relocated to the big city in the late 70’s and has played and recorded with Bill Wyman and Thomas Dolby. In the mid 80’s Geoff teamed up with Carmelo Luggeri and Terry Taylor to form Sons of Heroes who released three singles and an album (produced by Bill W). Geoff of course can be seen now across Europe with his bluesy rock group The Blue Bishops but here is a left over demo featuring Geoff’s vocals at their most sweetest.

Track 9 Freeze Out– Jarvis Humby – This bunch of Teessiders have carved out a big dollop of hard edged modern riddum n blooze starring Andy Smith vocal/guitar, Michael Hepple vocal/guitar/organ, David Heard bass, Trav Jordan drum. This is a Wicked Cool recording

Track 10 Right Back where We Started – Lauren Field and Mr Dee – Charlie Foskett has had an interesting career, early 70’s glam folk with Sandgate (see the Sandgate page), then to West Coast softrock with SideKick, not to mention his work with Paul McCartney. Here he is with partner Lauren Feld and the mysterious Mr Dee with a spoonful of soulful pop.

Track 11 Mistreat Me – UnderGroove – Funky grunge from darkest Northumberland from the sensational trio. This little beauty features the mk1 incarnation containing not one but two Angus’s (or should it be Angii): Angus Neal guitar and long blonde hair, Mark Thompson on bass/vocals and long blonde hair, and Angus Bewick drums and long black hair. This song has previously been unreleased, however also check out their album ‘Virtual’ on the UnderGroove page.

Track 12 The Plumber’s Daughter – Whirlpool Guest House – The infamous Carl Green has been fronting quirky pop type ensembles since the 80’s and his current band are hard at even as we speak as the Head of Light Entertainment zoom up and down this fair nations motorways. Meanwhile here is something from his extensive back catalogue.

Track 13 Noddy – Shan Doom – Time for a bit of errr weirdness with this rather edgy ode to a Nations preschool favourite from in the olden days. The culprits here are Keith Sharp drums, Tony Waite bass, David Cairns vocals and Peter Casson guitar.

Track 14 Truth is Beauty – Alan Snowdon – This former Catweazle impersonator, prolific recording engineer, guitar hitman and occasional psychedelic traveller has two albums, ‘Acoustic Daze’ and ‘Studio Daze’ available on the Alan Snowon page

Track 15 Now You’re Gone – The Wildon Brothers – Expatriate Hartlepudlians Neil Griffin (Pity Me) and Kevin Robson (Billingham) take a diversion from their normal political satire for this delicious ballad. The Wildons more famously appear on the 1986 Heroes concert at the Albert Hall.

Track 16 People Keep Winding Me Up – Jimmy McKenna – this most modest egomaniac has his musical tongue firmly in his cheek with this little ode to club band paranoia, and (of course) the various incarnations of his stuff stuff can be found on the Jimmy McKenna, TVA and DisGuise pages