Detour Rock & Indie 6 Items

After releasing Three singles already this year, THE Clerks are now set to release their album! Only 150 Copies Pressed! From their beginnings in late '76 The Clerks had been gigging the pubs, clubs and halls of Birmingham and London and places in between. By the start of 1980 they'd built a reputation for delivering a lean 45 minute set of their own three-minute songs with a 6o's sensibility and a pop punk energy. They had a loyal following and had supported the likes of Spizz and Tenpole Tudor. The Hope & Anchor in London had become a regular haunt where the small room would overflow with fans, pub rockers, punks and mods plus the odd record company A&R guy. The twelve songs on this LP were recorded by a friend and fan of The Clerks as they played a live set. Consequently, the recording is not of studio quality; it's been transferred, restored and edited but has no overdubs nor any other musical enhancements and is now available for the first time on Detour Records. All of the songs are written by The Clerks apart from 'I'm Down' written by a certain Lennon-McCartney. Lead guitarist Paul Day takes lead vocal on ten of the songs; rhythm guitarist Martin Booth sings lead on 'Cold About Love' and ' It Doesn't Mean That Much To Me'. Martin Poole is on bass and vocals and Paul Cuthbert plays drums. Despite the growing reputation and record company interest, by the end of the year the band had split up and gone their separate ways. So, turn the lights down low, turn the volume up and imagine you're in the steamy basement of a north London pub on a mid-winters evening in 1980. This is the authentic sound of The Clerks as you would have seen and heard them 'Live in London'.

This is the story of the “lost” album. Shortly after The Small Hours had three tracks included on the Mods May Day '79 album, we went back into the recording studio to record an album of our own. Most of the songs were recorded in one take in London. At least one was recorded as a jam session while waiting for the sound engineer to adjust his settings. This gave the album the raw energy and drive of a live performance. We had everything: great songs, strong band dynamics and a large and enthusiastic live following. The only ingredient missing at the time was a record contract. So the tapes were mothballed and life moved on… until some 43 years later Carol Isaacs found a copy of the tape in the back of a cupboard. Carol sent it to Dizzy Detour, who in turn passed it to his genius sound engineer, James Perret. With 21st century technology, James was able to do a total remix of the sound adding double/ triple tracking, delay and echo. The result is an astonishing “virtual reality” of what the band would have sounded like live. As Neil Thompson would say, we had "Ingredient X”. A meld of the individual members of the band into a complete sound. The sound that was held together by a great drummer, the late Iain Shedden. As the saying goes," All things come to those who wait”. Thanks to Carol, Dizzy and James Perret, the wait is over.

Like all “cult “ underground bands, people hear a bands name before their music..... This gem from Detour will enable some of the enigmatic, unique, mysterious and individual sounds from Dc10 emerge from the vaults from 1984, highlighting their raw energy, individually and uniqueness that shows their pedigree was second to none. YES!! Dc10 should have gone much further - but by doing their own thing and refusing to conform to archaic pop protocols, this was not to be....... Tune in - Turn on :- Play Loud! enjoy Dc10 at their best - the classic "Isabella", the melodic "I Forgot Your Birthday" and probably my favourite the charismatic "Fallen Star" - Gaz Poundall / What's Happening today Fanzine

In 1976 The Clerks were a four-piece group of schoolfriends living amidst the burgeoning punk rock scene in Birmingham. In October '76 two members of the band saw the notorious Sex Pistols gig at Bogarts, a small club in the city, and later the likes of Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Clash and Ramones at Barbarella's. Like many others, the guys were inspired by what they were hearing and before too long The Clerks would be playing these clubs themselves. From the start they wrote their own three-minute songs with a 60's pop sensibility and included in the set a couple of covers of The Beatles, 'I'm Down' and the Stones 'Paint It Black'. The guys didn't consider themselves to be Punks or Mods although they did share some of the same influences. Indeed, The Clerks name was taken from a line in a Velvet Underground song, 'Sweet Jane'. Throughout 1977 and '78 The Clerks gigged the pubs, clubs and halls of Birmingham, a demo was recorded in late '78 and the group decided, with a handful of friends and fans, to move en masse, to London. Starting to gig around London and with demo tape in hand the guys were picked up by ROK records for a single and compilation LP. 'No Good For Me' and the LP 'Odd Bods, Mods and Sods', were released in the spring of 1979. The single 'No Good For Me' was described by the music press at the time as 'Straight out of organised Sixties Pop'. Two of the group had become homesick by this time and moved back to Birmingham. However, the song writing team Paul Day and Martin Poole remained and recruited Londoner Paul Cuthbert on drums and another schoolfriend, now working as a photographer in London, Martin Booth on guitar and vocals. 1980 was a very busy year for the new line up. They gigged extensively in London and Birmingham and places in between, developed a new following, supported the likes of Athletico Spizz 80 and Tenpole Tudor and in the summer made another recording of four of their own songs. Dancing With My Girl, All I Want Is You, On The Telephone and Cold About Love. Things seemed to be going well enough and by now there was some record company interest but by the end of 1980 for reasons lost in the mists of time, the band had had enough and had gone their separate ways. A couple of years after their demise a limited-edition EP called Dancing With My Girl with three of the four 1980 studio recordings was released. This EP is now a collector's item and changes hands for up to £50 in mint condition to grateful fans as far away as Japan, Europe and USA. However, for some reason that no one can recall, one song 'Cold About Love' was not included and has never been released. Until now that is, on Detour Records! So, we have for you, three new 7" vinyl releases. For the first time Detour Records release from 1978 (dr124) 'No Good For Me' and 'When The Light Go Out' back-to-back and from 1980 the previously unreleased (dr128) 'Cold About Love' b/w 'On The Telephone' and last but not least, also from 1980 (dr129) 'Dancing With My Girl' b/w 'All I Want Is You'.

In 1976 The Clerks were a four-piece group of schoolfriends living amidst the burgeoning punk rock scene in Birmingham. In October '76 two members of the band saw the notorious Sex Pistols gig at Bogarts, a small club in the city, and later the likes of Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Clash and Ramones at Barbarella's. Like many others, the guys were inspired by what they were hearing and before too long The Clerks would be playing these clubs themselves. From the start they wrote their own three-minute songs with a 60's pop sensibility and included in the set a couple of covers of The Beatles, 'I'm Down' and the Stones 'Paint It Black'. The guys didn't consider themselves to be Punks or Mods although they did share some of the same influences. Indeed, The Clerks name was taken from a line in a Velvet Underground song, 'Sweet Jane'. Throughout 1977 and '78 The Clerks gigged the pubs, clubs and halls of Birmingham, a demo was recorded in late '78 and the group decided, with a handful of friends and fans, to move en masse, to London. Starting to gig around London and with demo tape in hand the guys were picked up by ROK records for a single and compilation LP. 'No Good For Me' and the LP 'Odd Bods, Mods and Sods', were released in the spring of 1979. The single 'No Good For Me' was described by the music press at the time as 'Straight out of organised Sixties Pop'. Two of the group had become homesick by this time and moved back to Birmingham. However, the song writing team Paul Day and Martin Poole remained and recruited Londoner Paul Cuthbert on drums and another schoolfriend, now working as a photographer in London, Martin Booth on guitar and vocals. 1980 was a very busy year for the new line up. They gigged extensively in London and Birmingham and places in between, developed a new following, supported the likes of Athletico Spizz 80 and Tenpole Tudor and in the summer made another recording of four of their own songs. Dancing With My Girl, All I Want Is You, On The Telephone and Cold About Love. Things seemed to be going well enough and by now there was some record company interest but by the end of 1980 for reasons lost in the mists of time, the band had had enough and had gone their separate ways. A couple of years after their demise a limited-edition EP called Dancing With My Girl with three of the four 1980 studio recordings was released. This EP is now a collector's item and changes hands for up to £50 in mint condition to grateful fans as far away as Japan, Europe and USA. However, for some reason that no one can recall, one song 'Cold About Love' was not included and has never been released. Until now that is, on Detour Records! So, we have for you, three new 7" vinyl releases. For the first time Detour Records release from 1978 (dr124) 'No Good For Me' and 'When The Light Go Out' back-to-back. and from 1980 the previously unreleased (dr128) 'Cold About Love' b/w 'On The Telephone' and last but not least, also from 1980 (dr129) 'Dancing With My Girl' b/w 'All I Want Is You'.

Portsmouth mod stalwarts are back with 4 new tracks!We all love a bit of Alfie, don’t we! The Media have nailed the trick of sounding exactly like they did in 1978/1979, while offering up enough nods and winks, unmissable guitar riffs and quality, quality saxophone to make you prick up your ears and put on your dancing shoes today! The second side of the double A side single kicks off with what is going to be one of their signature songs - Don't Go Away - this is a huge rush of Marc Bolan’s Glam Rock Super Boogie! The rhythm section are to die for … in no small way! The four track EP includes the Morricone/Spaghetti Western styled Hombre Sin Nombre (you don't have to be American to guess the translation for that one). Grab yourself a copy before they all fly out the beat club door. (Just Like) Alfie Hombre Sin Nombre Don’t Go Away What Doesn't Kill Ya