XDreamysts were a Northern Irish band from Coleraine. Initially formed as a country-rock band called Flying Squad, the band switched gears in 1977 with the arrival of punk rock and changed their name to XDreamysts and began playing punk-inspired music. Their first single, 1978's 'Ri read more. XDreamysts were a Northern Irish band from Coleraine. Initially formed as a country-rock band called Flying Squad, the band switched gears in 1977 with the arrival of punk rock and changed their name to XDreamysts and began playing punk-inspired music.
Is it stupid to sell water bottles when half the country is still freezing its collective ass off? Or is that, in fact, the perfect time for a bargain-bin like us to sell water bottles? Yes, it’s another example of how counter-intuitive shopping can save you big counterintuitive bucks. Don’t wait until everybody in America is like “Oh, man, I’d give anything for a pair of collapsible silicone water bottles, one blue and one clear, especially if they’re dishwasher-safe!” Get 'em now, ahead of the rush, while it doesn’t make any sense to the layman.
So, in an equally incongruous spirit, I now present a weekend playlist that has nothing whatsoever to do with this product. (That’s “I” as in me, Meh writer @JasonToon: dancer, dreamer, lover of life.) For reasons I can’t begin to fathom, I’ve always been into music by uptight, awkward nerds with a chip on their shoulders. There was a little period there in the late '70s and early '80s when the commercial success of Elvis Costello gave the record industry a template for a new kind of rock figure, who couldn’t be further away from the rock-god likes of Robert Plant. These guys were soon known by a name swiped from a wave of British dramatists of the '50s and '60s: the Angry Young Men.
The typical Angry Young Man was actually not that young, at least compared to the teenage punk hordes. He (always he) wore his dad’s castoff suits a few sizes too small, had short hair that looked like he cut it himself, and twitched and jerked onstage like someone straining at a straitjacket. Musically, he’d clearly learned a thing or two from his record collection, showing a working knowledge of classic pop, r&b, and rock ‘n’ roll, swiping a move or two from reggae, and stripping it all down and speeding it up like punk rock. Lyrically, he struck a too-smart-for-his-own-good stance that could range from wry to jaundiced to aggrieved; and vocally, he probably overenunciated those multisyllabic words in a nervy, not-conventionally pretty voice. Why don’t I shut up and let you listen to some? (It’s also compiled in a YouTube playlist, if that’s what you’re into.)
Elvis Costello - “No Action” (1978)
The anger and tension of Elvis Costello’s first album, My Aim is True, was leavened by the country-rock flavor of the hired-hand backing band, Clover; there are moments that could be Randy Newman or some other '70s singer-songwriter. But when Costello assembled his own tight-as-a-noose band, the Attractions, his sound moved to a higher plane of “revenge and guilt” (his words). The difference was obvious from the opening seconds of his second album, This Year’s Model, with the song “No Action”.
Graham Parker - “Saturday Nite is Dead” (1979)
Graham Parker beat Costello to the record racks by a couple of years, but his sound and persona were similar enough that the two were reflexively lumped together by the music press. Parker had more facility with r&b, his own tough backing band, the Rumour, and his own grievances to get off his chest. This is from his third and best-selling album, 1979’s Squeezing Out Sparks.
Joe Jackson - “Don’t Wanna Be Like That” (1979)
The third member of the original Angry Young Man trinity, Joe Jackson was a jazz-trained pub-rock journeyman who put together yet another crack band to squeeze his smart, witty songs into the New Wave gold rush - indeed, bassist Graham Maby might have been the best musician in any of the three bands. When the trendy punkish sound passed, he breathed a sigh of relief and spent the next three decades relaxing into reggae, jazz, swing, and classical along with the occasional flash of uptight rock, just to remind us he can.
John Hiatt - “Radio Girl” (1979)
The Angry Young Men were a very British phenomenon, but that didn’t stop record companies from trying to shoehorn in the occasional American talent they didn’t know how to sell otherwise. John Hiatt’s own tendencies were far rootsier, but he recorded a couple of excellent albums in AYM rock mode before getting back to the country/soul sound closer to his heart.
Any Trouble - “Second Choice” (1980)
Clive Gregson out-Costelloed Costello with his office-nerd look: bigger glasses, wider forehead, more rumpled suits. And he proved adept at reassembling Elvis C’s bits and pieces into songs that were just original enough to be his own. After Any Trouble broke up, he evolved into a respected Anglo-folkie; is it wrong of me to prefer his less original early stuff?
The Jags - “Back of My Hand” (1979)
The Attractions never sounded quite this jagged (no pun intended), but otherwise this is a pure Elvis Costello soundalike. It’s so monstrously catchy, who cares?
Xdreamysts
The Gas - “Definitely is a Lie” (1981)
Donnie Burke of the Gas, on the other hand, sounded like nobody but himself. Rather than rip riffs from the Costello catalog, he went deeper, drawing on the same well of itchy resentment but putting it in his own musical terms. The end result is much more powerful, sonically and emotionally.
The Exits - “Fashion Plague” (1978)
The '60s-obsessed “mod revival” of 1978-1980 overlapped some with the punkish pop of the Angry Young Men, especially in the cynical “Fashion Plague” by the Exits.
The Vapors - “News at Ten” (1980)
While you probably know them from their huge semi-novelty hit “Turning Japanese”, the Vapors were a much more interesting proposition. Their moody kitchen-sink mini-operas owed a little to the Jam but they were nobody’s imitators. It’s too bad their huge hit made everything else they did seem like an afterthought, with the band breaking up after two albums.
Sussman Lawrence - “Shelly’s Dog” (1980)
As New Wave seeped out to cities across America, budding songwriters gravitated to the Angry Young Man template: it was a cool new sound but not so new that it was radio poison. In Minneapolis, Peter Himmelman formed Sussman Lawrence with a more whimsical take on the Attractions sound. He grew up to be a much more serious, rootsy singer-songwriter, even scoring a few commercial hits.
Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons - “Puppet on a String” (1980)
Like Costello, Parker, and Jackson, Joe Camilleri was kicking around doing soul and early rock covers for years before punk came along. The difference is, he was doing it in Australia. By 1978, he too had adopted the reggae-inflected, punk-fueled sound in his band Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. They earned the ultimate accolade when Elvis Costello covered their great song “So Young”. Even better, to my ears, is “Puppet on a String”, a 1980 Australian hit.
Xdreamysts - “I Don’t Wanna Go” (1980)
Xdreamysts (previously featured in our X is the Punkest Letter playlist) were country-rocking post-hippies in Northern Ireland who, cleansed by the fires of punk, retained enough of their musicality to wind up sounding not dissimilar to their angry English peers.
The Roms - “Your Love is Neat” (1980)
New Jerseyite Rich DaSilva was yet another wiry American nerd who found his niche in the AYM’s wake. If “Your Love is Neat” isn’t as bitter as anything in Costello’s repertoire, it’s at least as charming. This clip of their 1980 appearance on the legendary local TV show The Uncle Floyd Show was too long for this playlist, but captures their charm even better.
3-D - “Telephone Number” (1980)
All I know about 3-D is that they were an American band who released a couple of albums on Polydor. And that they proved that Yanks could imitate Costello as well as any Londoner.
You’ll notice that all of these songs were released in a three-year span: even as pop archetypes go, “bitter nerd in a thrift-store suit” was a fleeting one. '80s mainstream music moved on in a more lighthearted mood, while underground music got heavier and darker; there was less and less room for anything in between. But if there’s one thing you can say about the Angry Young Men, they wrote some brisk, clever pop tunes that have absolutely nothing to do with Life Gear Collapsible Water Bottles.
If this weekend playlist didn’t make you too angry, check out these past playlists while you’re young, man:
Good Vibrations is a Belfastrecord label and store. Founded by Terri Hooley in the early 1970s, Good Vibrations started out in a small derelict building on Great Victoria Street, Belfast. Its last place of residence was above Cafe Wah, on North Street Belfast.
Hooley's main objective in starting the company was to introduce punk bands from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom, as he did not believe Northern groups were given enough attention.
The label's first recording was for a local band called Rudi, a single called 'Big Time'. Hooley went on to sign and release groups such as Victim, The Moondogs, The Shapes, Protex, The Outcasts, The Tearjerkers among others such as Shock Treatment and The Lids, whom he signed and recorded but did not release due to the limitations of his (mostly self-financing).
Of all the Good Vibrations acts, the most famous of all were The Undertones, later picked up by Sire Records. Ironically, Hooley was unsure, at first, whether or not he should sign them. 'I wasn't sure about them because nobody liked them. People crossed the road just to spit at Feargal Sharkey.'[1]
After Good Vibrations issued The Undertones' 'Teenage Kicks', he 'hustled it around every record company in London and they all hated it. I came back to Belfast and cried my eyes out. That night John Peel played it on the radio and said, 'wasn't that the most wonderful record you've heard in your life?' and played it again.'
The company also put on concerts around Northern Ireland, hiring hotel function rooms, church halls, youth clubs, and any other available venues. Good Vibrations hosted the first ever International Festival of Punk and New Wave at the Ulster Hall in Belfast over two nights in 1980 featuring almost the entire roster of the label's bands and other punk acts such as The Saints.
Many listeners were brought to Belfast by the Good Vibrations DIY independence and Hooley's persistent determination and desire to see local music recognised nationally. Despite growing popularity, though, Good Vibrations filed bankruptcy in 1982. Bands that had gone to London, such as Protex and Rudi, went back to Hooley – and Belfast. Releases of 7' and 12' singles and EPs continued sporadically as Hooley's finances allowed. Although the original Good Vibrations shop on Great Victoria Street in Belfast had closed, Hooley's friends later got him a shop called Vintage Records, Co. just around the corner. As Good Vibrations he reopened in 1984, closed in 1991, reopened in 1992, closed in 2004 and reopened in 2005. Due to ill health, Hooley closed the doors for the final time on 13 June 2015.
Discography[edit]
Albums[edit]
- BIG1The Outcasts – Self Conscious Over You LP
- BIG2 V/A – Ulster on a Thin Wire LP (Unreleased)
- BIG3The Nerves – Notre Demo LP
- BIG4 Protex – Listening In LP (Release originally cancelled, finally issued in 2001)
- BIG5 Terminus 5 ( Belfast band) LP 'The Killer breed'
Singles[edit]
- GOT1Rudi – 'Big Time' / 'No. One' 7' (Pink or white wraparound sleeve, 3000 pressed)
- GOT2 Victim – 'Strange Thing By Night' / 'Mixed Up World' 7' (Pink wraparound sleeve)
- GOT3 The Outcasts – 'Justa Nother Teenage Rebel' / 'Love Is For Sops' 7' (White wraparound sleeve)
- GOT4The Undertones – 'Teenage Kicks' 7' (4 track EP, most in white wraparound sleeve, also very rare yellow, green, pink & blue sleeves. Reissued several times, firstly on Sire)
- GOT5 Xdreamysts – 'Right Way Home' / 'Dance Away Lover' 7' (White wraparound sleeve)
- GOT6 Protex – 'Don't Ring Me Up' / '(Just Want) Your Attention' / 'Listening' in 7' (Wraparound sleeve, reissued as RT/GOT1)
- GOT7 V/A – Battle of the Bands 7' (2 x 7' in orange gatefold sleeve. Rudi, The Outcasts, The Idiots, Spider)
- GOT8Ruefrex – 'One By One' / 'Cross The Line' / 'Don't Panic' 7' (White wraparound sleeve)
- GOT9 The Tearjerkers – 'Love Affair' / 'Bus Stop' 7' (White wraparound sleeve)
- GOT10 The Moondogs – 'She's Nineteen' / 'Ya Don't Do Ya' 7' (White wraparound sleeve)
- GOT11 Tee Vees – 'Doctor Headlove' / 'War Machine' 7'
- GOT12 Rudi – I Spy 7' (4 track EP)
- GOT13The Shapes – 'Blast Off' / 'Airline Disasters' 7'
- GOT14 PBR – Streetgang 'The Big Day' 7' (1-sided flexi-disc)
- GOT15Andy White – 'Six String Street' / 'Travelling Circus' 7' (Also 12')
- GOT16 Cruella De Ville – 'Drunken Uncle John' / 'Those Two Dreadful Children' 7'
- GOT17 The Outcasts – 'Self Conscious Over You' / 'Love You For Never' 7'
- GOT18 The Bank Robbers – 'On My Mind' / 'All Night' 7'
- GOT20 Rain Saints – 'Caroline' 7'
- GOT21 Four Idle Hands – '99 Streets' / 'Friday Man' 7'
- GOT22 PBR – Streetgang 'Get Down (Before You Fall)' / 'Come Alive For Me' 7'
- GOT23 Tiberius' Minnows – 'Time Flies' / 'Cuckoo' 7'
- GOT24 Four Idle Hands – Four Idle Hands EP 12' (4 track EP)
- GOT25 Glam Slam – 'The Leader' EP 7'
- GOT26 Preacher John – 'The Mountain' 12'
- GOT28 Tiberius' Minnows – 'Oh June' / 'The Way I Feel' 7'
- GOT29 The Beekeepers – Howl EP 12' (4 track EP)
- GOT30 PBR – Streetgang 'This City' / 'Talking To You' 7'
- GOT31 The Mighty Fall – 'Kick It in the Head' 7'
- GOT32 Ten Wheels For Jesus – 'Everybody's Making Money (Out of Me)' / 'I Gave Up Waiting' 7'
- GOT33 Heat The Beans – 'Hallucinate' 7'
- GOT34 Tiberius' Minnows – The Love EP CDS
- GOT36 Payola – Stick 2 Fingers Up EP CDS
- GOT37 Twinkle – Aphyd EP CDS
- GVI GOT1 The Bears – 'Insane' / 'Decisions' 7' (Wraparound sleeve)
- GVI GOT2 The Jets – 'Original Terminal' / 'Block 4' / 'The Iceburn' 7'
- GVI GOT3 Static Routines – 'Rock 'n' Roll Clones' / 'Sheet Music' 7'
- GVI GOT5 Strange Movements – 'Dancing in the Ghetto' / 'Amuse Yourself' 7'
- GVI GOT6 Zebra – 'Repression' / '931' 12'
Xdreamysts Band
Film adaptation[edit]
A film adaptation based on Terri Hooley's life called Good Vibrations was released in 2013. It is directed by Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn. Jodie Whittaker and Dylan Moran are among the cast.[2][3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'The man who brought punk to the Province'. The News Letter. 2 September 2008.
- ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 2 July 2007. Retrieved 5 June 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) link
- ^'Good Vibrations'. IMDb.com.
Xdreamysts
External links[edit]
- Hill, Geoff (2008) 'The man who brought punk to the Province', News Letter
Dreamystar