The Prisoners: Your Stories and Memories Needed for New Book on the Medway Garage Psych Legends (feature includes rare Paul Slattery photos)

The Prisoners at The Hope & Anchor - Copyright Paul Slattery

A new book on Medway Garage Psych legends The Prisoners is currently being planned by an Anglo-German collective of fans and they are asking for your memories and contributions. They would like to hear what the band means to you, when you saw them, what records you bought and any memorabilia or photos you would like to share. The book has had the official blessing of the band and here's a few words from bassist Allan Crockford in support: 

"I thought I'd bring this to your attention, if anyone's missed it. My sister Elinor is teaming up with a couple of friends and fans in Germany to put together a book about the Prisoners. It will be from the perspective of fans of the band (and maybe people who hated us - that would be an interesting perspective!) who came to the gigs and bought the records. They want your stories and memories of the band and the times. Me, Graham, James and Johnny have given it our gracious blessing and look forward (with some trepidation) to reading your stories. At least we finally might find out what happened..."

The Prisoners at The Hope & Anchor - Copyright Paul Slattery

As regular readers to Retro Man Blog will know, The Prisoners and all their many and varied spin-offs are a huge inspiration on what we do so we'll also be keeping a close eye on the progress of the book. You can send in your contributions to be considered for publication via email to Atasteofpink9@gmail.com

Don't forget our thoroughly entertaining Graham Day & The Forefathers Retrosonic Podcast special with Graham Day, Allan Crockford & Wolf Howard on the complete story of The Prisoners, The Solarflares, The Prime Movers and all their other projects and bands over the years.

Retrosonic Podcast · Graham Day & The Forefathers

 

Photos of The Prisoners at The Hope & Anchor, London March 24th 1983 copyright Paul Slattery.

Nika Leeflang Project "Bad Sunday" New Album Out on March 19th

Two years after her EP "Hey Right" and a long tour with The Limiñanas, Nika Leeflang returns with the excellent album "Bad Sunday". "This Record balances between French and English, calm and storm, melancholy and euphoria, introspection and the desire to break everything. As always, to make a good record, you need a good mixer then, good ingredients. Take Kurt Cobain's blond hair, Kim Gordon's class and flow, add the Bardot/Gainsbarre period, the co-arrangements of Aymeric Severac, Romain Preuss and David Darmon and finally, PJ Harvey's guitar and you'll get Nika". (Translated from Gaëtan Chapiteau's Bio). "Bad Sunday" will be released on March 19th via M.A.D. Pias (Mutual Artist Distribution) at all the usual streaming services such as Spotify, Deezer and iTunes and then physical copies will follow via Bandcamp, so please keep an eye on Nika's official web-site or Facebook pages for news on how to order. The band's new music video "Good Sunday" will be released on March 15th, but in the meantime, here's a superb video for another track off the record entitled "Broken Bones".

 

Shouting her Lyrics and Guitar: Nika Leeflang. Hitting the Drums: Yannick Gomez. Playing Bass, Guitars, Backing Vocals, Organs: Aymeric Severac. Swinging additional Guitars, Organs, Backing Vocals: Romain Preuss. All songs written by Nika Leeflang. All tracks were recorded at Vox Studio Montpellier by Jeff Saboy and John Chapman except "Night Call" produced by Ty at Noisy Bay Records. Mixed at Mirador Sound Studio by David Darmon. Mastered at Vintage Sound Studio by Luis Mazzoni. For more information on the official release date of "Bad Sunday" and how to order, please check out the official Nika Leeflang web-site.

Sounds Incarcerated "Unswitchable Hits Vol. 1" - New Album of Lockdown Sessions Cover Versions from Allan Crockford & Viv Bonsels of The Galileo 7

In the long and depressing wait for the return of live music, one of the undoubted musical highlights of Lockdown has been Kevin Younger's on-line open-mic evenings broadcast and available at his Mister Unswitchable YouTube channel. These thoroughly entertaining events see lots of his (mainly Medway based) musician pals submitting videos of a hugely eclectic range of cover versions based around various themes. So, for example the theme of 'Animals' saw a be-wigged Graham Day performing a wicked version of the Osmonds' Glam racket "Crazy Horses" and Bob Collins of The Dentists with his version of "And Your Bird Can Sing". The "Boys & Girls" themed night saw Groovy Uncle's Glenn Prangnell tackle The Monkees "Forget That Girl" under the name The Unkees, so I'm sure you get the drift. However, it's probably Allan Crockford and Viv Bonsels of our favourite Psych-Pop band The Galileo 7 who really took to the task with aplomb - treating us to witty, often very well produced videos for a variety of unexpected and superbly executed cover versions. We've seen the duo take on songs by bands and artists as diverse as Robyn Hitchcock, Haircut 100, Buzzcocks, John Denver and The Stranglers all of which were so well received that it was decided to put them all together and release as an album "Unswitchable Hits Vol. 1" under the name of Sounds Incarcerated. It's a fantastic companion piece to the recent LP "Decayed" which was a brilliant collection of all the cover versions that were recorded by The Galileo 7 over the years and released to celebrate their 10th anniversary. In fact, don't forget you can still check out our special Retrosonic Podcast episode with Viv and Allan treating us to a track-by-track guide to "Decayed" and of course, their involvement with the Mister Unswitchable nights below. 

Retrosonic Podcast · The Galileo 7 "Decayed" New LP Track by Track Guide with Allan Crockford & Viv Bonsels

Allan and Viv have just released a great promo video to tickle your taste buds so, over to Sounds Incarcerated for a little explanation. "Here's a high budget promo for our pandemic-induced side project...When you can't play with your regular band, what do you do? In our case we made a load of D.I.Y. cover versions for our Mister Unswitchable's themed open-mic night. Eventually we realised that we had an album's worth of material, and that it was actually pretty good. We called ourselves Sounds Incarcerated and put it out on our own label. What else could we do...? Vol. 2 is now in the works!"

 

Don't forget there's also our other special Retrosonic Podcast episode with Viv and Allan looking back over 10 years of The Galileo 7 and that's available at our Soundcloud archive here. "Unswitchable Hits Vol. 1" and "Decayed" are both available to order from The Galileo 7's on-line store here. You can check out the Mister Unswitchable YouTube channel here.

Sounds Incarcerated by Darryl Hartley

 

Killing Joke "A Prophecy Fulfilled" New Promo Video for Limited Edition Offical Book by Chris Bryans

 

The publishers have just released a new promo video for Chris Bryans' Killing Joke book "A Prophecy Fulfilled" as previously featured in Retro Man Blog, take a look below...

 

Here's a reminder...
Since late 1978, Killing Joke have been ripping up rule books. The original (and current) line-up of Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (bass) has been responsible for pioneering albums that have shaped music genres and pulverisingly intense gigs often likened to religious ceremonies. The band achieved mainstream success in 1985 with both the album "Night Time" and the single "Love Like Blood". But Killing Joke’s influence runs much deeper and darker. No Killing Joke no Nirvana, no Jane’s Addiction, no Faith No More, no Nine Inch Nails, no Soundgarden, no Marilyn Manson, no Metallica not in the form you have come to know them. This official release "A Prophecy Fullfilled" is an oral history of Killing Joke, mixing over 300 anecdotes from the fans known as Gatherers with a narrative by the band, other musicians and celebrity devotees. The book also features never-before-seen photographs, collectable memorabilia and fans’ pictures capturing Joke’s incendiary live performances. The book is now available for pre-order from This Day In Music Books here and the first 1,000 special edition copies come with an exclusive free "Wardance" (Liminal Twins disorientation mix) 7 inch vinyl single, numbered 1 – 1,000. Author, Chris Bryans can barely remember a time when Killing Joke were not part of his life. With three decades of experience as a journalist, writer and editor, he has worked/written for the BBC, The Observer and Time Out. He’s also been a writer and co-editor on "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" and several other titles in the hugely successful "1001…" franchise. But whatever Chris is doing, all roads usually lead him back to Killing Joke. There is no escape.