Skin and Bone - SB01

Now, I can remember buying this one... It was not long after I had started college at Teesside Polytechnic in September 1985 and it was advertised in the NME. I sent off for it with the second cheque in my Midland Bank cheque book (the first had paid for my student accomodation) - only for it to come back (with the tape) as I hadn't signed it. So it cost me another 20p stamp to send the cheque back duly monikered. Funny how these things stick in your mind.

This was another sort of fanzine affair that was packaged with a neat and densely handwritten magazine folded up in a concertina which had extended information on the bands and music but of course with my usual filing skills it too has disappeared, although I know it's in the study somewhere.

Anyway, the music... very much of a certain type of northern English indie with both the north-west and Yorkshire well represented. It parallels what could be heard on the John Peel show (which, let's not forget, was really the only outlet most of us had for new music) at the time plus some common fanzine obsessions: two poets/ranters in Swift Nick and Nik Toczek (who was also a fanzine writer, the man behind Bradford's Wool City Rocker): John Robb with his band the Membranes and as MC in preparation for the role of post-punk national treasure that he reluctantly wears today: a cross section of early Ron Johnson bands such as Big Flame, A Witness and Splat!, a couple of In Tape's finest in Marc Riley and the Creepers and Yeah Yeah Noh, that rough and ready scratchiness that accounted for a large part of the independent music scene at the time. Of the most interest are probably the Very Things interview as the band were always very entertaining in a low key West Midlands way. Leading behemoth The Shend's future as Big Ron in Eastenders was still merely a vague thought in a script writers mind. There's also something of an oddity from the Mekons, seemingly catching them between their punk and electric folk phases with an electronic version of 'Roger Troutman'.

Track count and listing don't match as there are interjections from John Robb in a number of places.

Side One:

1. Five Go Down to the Sea - Another Spark
2. A Witness - Kitchen Sink Drama (Live)
3. Big Flame - Sargasso
4. Marc Riley and the Creepers - Hole 4 a Sole
5. The Bomb Party - The Great White Hope
6. Swift Nick - Mr Bottomley
7. Leven Signs - Sedes Sapientiae
8. Thrashing Shit - Relax (huh!)
9. The Very Things - Phillips World Service + Interview

Side Two:

1. The Membranes - Kafka's Dad
2. The Metal Doughnut Band - Glamourous Nights
3. Splat! - Eve
4. Nik Toczek - West Yorks Nurse
5. Yeah Yeah Noh - Prick Up Your Ears
6. The Mekons - Roger Troutman
7. The Legend -  The Rugby Club
8. The Old Contemptibles - The Bells are Ringing
9. Brix Smith and Criag Scanlon - Interview

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