Embedded Files
The Halcyon Years...
The 1980's are considered by many to be halcyon years.The main reason for this was the vast amount of time we had available to do the things we wanted... going out almost every night to pubs or to see bands with friends was one of them, and another was to spend time making music. We could do these things whenever we fancied and in whatever order we liked. All we needed was a 'New Wave Society' membership for Leicester Poly and some beer. We ate when we were hungry and slept when we were tired. The only thing Mr Concept had to do at a set time was to go out to work and he enjoyed that as well. Happy days...
"Hey you guys - which pubs did you go to?"
Helsinki Bar
Simon's Bar
The Barley Mow
The Black Boy
The Bricklayers Arms
The Crown & Thistle
The Durham Ox
The Globe
The Grand Hotel
The Haunch of Venison
The Magazine
The Marquis of Wellington
The Nags Head & Star
The Old Horse
The Princess Charlotte
The Rutland and Derby
The Saracen's Head
Flushed with the success of 'The Amazing World of Mr Concept' , Mr Concept began working on his second solo cassette tape straight away. At the same time however Mr Concept's alta ego 'Rob Grant' played guitar in local bands during the early 80's:-
Sticky Bob and the Klingons
The Sinatras
Three Sharp Pins
Several recording studio sessions took place with varying degrees of success. Lots of gigging also took place in 1981/82, but hey!, this CD's about CONCEPT CITY not those guys! (although I have since added a little bit about them all anyway as they all wrote songs covered in Concept City recordings)
This external career ate up a lot of the creative juice (or should that be 'drank up' - you can't eat juice unless it's a lolly. Hmmmm 'Creative Juice On A Stick' - make mental note for new money making scheme) and so the going was slow in the Concept City department but Mr Concept continued to produce only the finest recordings and, after more than two years, a second solo cassette tape was released:-
Around this time Mr Concept had also become the proud owner of a Portastudio. The Portastudio inspired a new surge of creativity and in the same year we saw the release of a 5 track mini EP cassette:-
Not only did we have new equipment, but a new studio. The old 'Amazing World Studio' was replaced by a brand new studio just around the corner - aptly named 'Studio 2'. The Akai reel-to-reel recorder was relegated to being used for echo effects and gave rise the wonderful s-p-a-c-e-y guitar sound you'll hear on many of the recordings from those days.
"...Say Buddy! Who were those local bands you mentioned?"
Art Failures
Deep Freeze Mice
Disco Zombies
Dog Patch Four
Electraplexx
Erratix
Farmlife
Foamettes
Future Toys
Groundation
I Live Here
Johnny 7
Last Resort
New Age
Newmatics
Pressure Shocks
Robin Banks
Room 101
RTR's
Shapiros
Snufflix
Standard Issue
Sticky Bob & The Klingons
Suspect
The Castaways
The Northern Comperes
The Observers
The Pokers
The Sinatras
The Sincere Americans
Three Sharp Pins
Trance
Volkswagens
Wendy Tunes
Woody and the Woodlanders
"...and where did you go to see them?"
Phoenix Theatre
The Magazine
The Fosseway
Leicester Polytechnic
Demontfort Hall
Leicester University
The Princess Charlotte
LUCA Centre
"I hear you had 'Fanzines' in those days... tell me more, buddy."
Yes! That's correct - these were locally produced magazines written by music fans for the music fans. They contained reviews of gigs, both local bands and main bands. They also had interviews and other information. Some names that come to mind are 'BUT Fosse', 'Printhead' and '0533'.
Cheers buddy.....
Half way through making the next cassette 'Open Up The Network' Mr Concept was made an offer he couldn't refuse. Alan Jenkins of Cordelia Records asked "How would you like to record an LP on my record label?". Real vinyl... Late in 1985 the album was released. A proud moment for all in CONCEPT CITY...
One thing lead to another and Mr Concept was invited to record with up and coming band Yeah Yeah Noh. Two tracks were released : Penetration and Mr Hammond Has Gone For Lunch.
The final cassette tape from CONCEPT CITY was released in 1986.
So what happened next? Technology advanced and the digital age crept up on us and we moved on into the next era...
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