Tours: Paul Slattery reports on the long-awaited reunion of the New Wave/Power Pop legends

Tours, photographed Summer of 1979 by Paul Slattery (L to R: Richard, Ronnie, Mark & Steve)

Tours "Language School" heard live again for the first time in almost 40 years! I went down to Poole with writer Dave McCullough back in 1979 to photograph the band Tours for a feature in Sounds magazine. They were unusual because there were two songwriters and two lead singers, Richard Mazda singing his own songs and Ronnie Mayor singing his. However unusual, they were a really excellent band with great tunes and a fantastic sound. The following is from journalist Derek Hammond’s sleeve notes for Tours "Album of The Year That Never Was": "In 1979, there was a buzz about Tours that made them one of the hottest properties in the music industry. John Peel played the self-released "Language School" single for 50 consecutive nights on Radio 1, declaring it at the time his second favourite 45 of all time behind the Undertones "Teenage Kicks". The band were tracked down to Poole, Dorset by labels including Virgin, Polydor/Fiction, EMI, Sire and others – and a feeding frenzy ensued. "The songs are the best you’ll see this side of the Undertones for sweet melodic genius…reincarnating the spirit that the Beatles early singles" (-Sounds 1979). Signed personally to Virgin by Richard Branson on a £225,000 six-album deal, the dual singer-songwriter attack of Ronnie Mayor (rhythm gtr/vocals) and Richard Mazda (lead gtr/vocals) led Virgin CEO Simon Draper to describe the pair as "the Punk Lennon-McCartney".

Tours, Autumn 2017 (L/R Mark, Richard, Ronnie, Steve & John) - Photographed by Paul Slattery

Tours, Summer 1979 (L/R Mark, Richard, Ronnie & Steve) - Photographed by Paul Slattery

1980 should have been Tours’ year. Boasting a killer live show and incredible strength in depth, they had a seemingly endless collection of two-minute pop classics. Yet the band were doomed never to make it to 1980, torn apart by a conflict of egos and by a deep mistrust of industry dabbling with the band’s line-up and sound. Only one single on Virgin was ever released – the mighty "Tourist Information". Having sold 13,000 copies of "Language School" under their own steam, it seemed obvious that a company like Virgin would do better. In the event, their efforts to promote "Tourist Information" were pathetic. The unreleased songs were lost – the band mythologised on countless compilations and, more recently, the internet Power Pop scene – until 2009. Derek Hammond spent 18 months sourcing the the long-lost Tours tapes and getting the album into production. Derek tells me that right from the start the project was a labour of love, Ronnie was somewhere in Australia, Richard didn’t want to talk about the band, Virgin wanted cash up front for the tapes before even searching the vaults and Iain at Cherry Red turned the idea down flat. Until Derek got a no-fi CD of some of the songs and played them to him – then he couldn’t resist. "The Album of The Year That Never Was" was finally released at the end of 2009 – this is the review from Record Collector August 2009. "For anyone into gutsier, hook-heavy, modpunkpowerpop, get ready for the unleashing of Peel faves’ the Tours’ (remember "Language School"?) long-lost holy grail of an album. Talk about '30 years of hurt'. Ker-pow! This definitive collection of singles and previously unreleased demos recreates the album that Tours might have produced, had the band survived the pressure and the fall-outs, and come out fighting fresh for a brand new decade".

Tours, Rehearsals Autumn 2017 - Photographed by Paul Slattery

Steve and I have played many of the tracks from this album on our Retrosonic podcasts over the last few years, the album is one of the the most played on my iPod and I continue to tell friends what a really great band Tours were and what a superb album they produced. Each song is a two minute Post-Punk Powerpop gem. I was always gutted that Tours life was so short – these songs were great and this band really could have been contenders for greatness so it was with great excitement I heard from Ronnie Mayor that the whole band would be getting back together to do some rehearsals so at the end of October in preparation for maybe some 40th anniversary gigs I headed down to Absolute Music in Bournemouth to see them. Richard lives in New York now so it’s quite a commute for him! They may have changed a bit in the ensuing time but I was left in no doubt about their ability to play or their enthusiasm, after only a day of rehearsal some of the songs sounded excellent. It’s the first time that the band have ever played as a five piece as John Hole the original member of the band who quit and was replaced by Richard, is back. There’s no Tours song that goes past three minutes, they’re short and sweet. You would not have known that Ronnie had not played an electric guitar in some years and the three guitarists created a jangling wall of sound. Basher (Mark Spiers) and  Steve Jeff on bass creating an excellent rhythm section. I was in my element as the band went through eight songs TWICE. It was like being back at The Hope and Anchor in 1979!

Richard Mazda, Tours - Photographed by Paul Slattery

Mark Spiers, Tours - Photographed by Paul Slattery

Dave McCullough said in the Sounds Magazine review of that gig: "...the songs themselves are the best you’ll see this side of the Undertones for sweet, melodic genius. Tours songs concern themselves with slightly more intricate human problems, though examining them with a directness and profitable naivete that has until now been the sole property of our heroes from Derry. The songs are unashamedly directed at the feet, care of Mazda and Mayor’s melodic flair and gilt-edged musicianship that has range and scope above the remarkable rhythm foundation of young Mark and Steve, a precocious drum and bass pairing. I can’t see anything thwarting this potent rural uprising".

Steve Jeff, Tours - Photographed by Paul Slattery

Ronnie Mayor, Tours - Photographed by Paul Slattery

There are more rehearsals planned for the new year and the band will see how it goes from there, the hopes are to do some gigs. There are things to overcome - the album is now out of production and the usual difficulties of re-licensing tracks will have to be sorted out before any re-release. There is already interest though and I’m sure that if there was an album worthy of re-release it’s "The Album of The Year That Never Was". These superb Powerpop gems need to be heard again live, and maybe it’s going to happen. Watch this space for more developments. - Paul Slattery 2017

You can hear "Tourist Information" and also listen to Paul talking about Tours before the reunion was announced in Episode 26 of Retrosonic Podcast here.

Good Vibrations: Terri Hooley and a Tale of Teenage Kicks, Undertones, Outcasts, Music & Mayhem..!

Richard Dormer is sensational as Terri Hooley in Good Vibrations

"Good Vibrations" is the heartwarming and uplifting true story of Belfast music legend Terri Hooley, the man responsible for discovering The Undertones and recording "Teenage Kicks". Terri is a radical, rebel and music lover in 1970's Belfast, when the bloody conflict known as The Troubles shuts down his city. As all his friends take sides and take up arms, Terri opens a record shop on the most bombed half-mile in Europe and calls it Good Vibrations. Through it he discovers a compelling voice of resistance in the city's nascent underground Punk scene. Galvanising the young musicians into action, he becomes the unlikely leader of a motley bunch of kids and punks who join him in his mission to create a new community, an Alternative Ulster, to bring his city back to life.

Feargal Sharkey by Paul Slattery

Richard Dormer puts in a stunning performance as Terri Hooley, expertly portraying the wide-eyed, sorry make that, wide-one-eyed, almost childlike enthusiasm and passion for music in all it's forms, bursting with energy, ideas and scams. As Terri recounts in his excellent biography "Hooleygan", people think he was just into Punk but he was probably Northern Ireland's biggest Reggae fan and was first awakened to the joys of music by Hank Williams "I Saw The Light" at a very young age. It was that power of music to unite and uplift people that moved him to call his record store "Good Vibrations" right slam in the middle of a place where good vibes were a very rare commodity. A radical and politically driven hippy in the Sixties, he was constantly demonstrating and campaigning against whatever injustice he saw in the world at large, "Hey Terri, what are you rebelling against?", "whaddya got?". Although wary of aligning himself to any particular party or movement for long, mainly due to his somewhat maverick approach, he managed to take this neutrality and outsider persona into the dark days of the Troubles. In fact it's the unifying spirit he found in the Northern Irish Punk scene that inspired him as much as the music - Protestants and Catholics braved the curfews to go to gigs together and this created a camaraderie, united against the religious bigotry, paramilitary violence  and the brutality of the R.U.C. All this played out on Belfast's war-torn, dangerous streets, something that the Punks in London, safe in the boutiques of Chelsea's Kings Road, could not even comprehend.

Protex outside the Harp Bar in Belfast - Photo by Paul Slattery

Intrigued by punters coming into his shop asking for records with strange and violent names, he is persuaded to go and see the band RUDI. Terri enters the venue and finds himself amongst the crowd of Punks and he slowly lets himself go, lost in the euphoria he ends up joining in the pogoing. I'm not sure a film such as "Good Vibrations" would ever get anywhere near the Oscars, but Dormer certainly deserves one for this scene alone. Terri is so inspired by this Rock & Roll epiphany that at the end of RUDI's set he rushes over and offers to sign them up on the spot despite not having a label at all. It's this naive enthusiasm and total disregard for money, contracts and business acumen that makes Terri such a likeable and inspirational character. He then, rather reluctantly at first, signs up The Undertones from Derry, but as soon as he hears "Teenage Kicks" he releases it on Good Vibrations Records, convinced it will be a massive hit. The scenes where Terri desperately shops the single around London are magnificent, faced with the utter cynicism and disregard of record company moguls (in his book, he admits even Rough Trade turned him down), he is distraught. Only John Peel is impressed, and historically played the song twice in a row on his influential late night radio show much to the delight of Terri and his friends back in Belfast. 

The Undertones - Photo by Paul Slattery

It all goes a bit wrong for Terri from there, he famously signed away the rights for "Teenage Kicks" to Sire Records for the price of a new van and his failure to get RUDI's single released in time for a high profile TV appearance sees the band lose patience with his haphazard business planning. He has to close the doors of Good Vibrations due to mounting debts and then loses money on one of the biggest Punk gigs in Belfast due to the longest Guest List ever known. But the irrepressible Terri, with a gleam in his one good eye, will not be beaten and you are left with a feeling that another scam is just around the corner. The movie shines a light on some excellent and totally underrated bands such as RUDI and Terri's loyal helpers and friends The Outcasts, who he refused to manage as they had a particularly violent fan and a dangerous reputation. Of course The Undertones might get the attention, as they were the only Good Vibrations band to break through, but check out the brilliant Power Pop band Protex, or Ruefrex or The Moondogs...there's so much great, uplifting music to have emerged from such a troubled period, thanks mainly due to Terri Hooley.

Protex with Good Vibrations' iconic Elvis - Photo by Paul Slattery

Terri is still involved in music, he now has a new Good Vibrations store at 89-93 North Street, Belfast and he helped to set up the Oh Yeah Music Centre, a charity dedicated to helping local musicians, so he remains a truly inspirational figure for all those passionate about making things happen. His story can be followed in the fantastic book "Hooleygan", in which, written together with Richard Sullivan, Terri weaves his autobiographical musings alongside stories and tributes from other characters such as RUDI guitarist Brian Young, Greg Cowan from The Outcasts, journalist and broadcaster Stuart Bailie and Gary Lightbody. Good Vibrations was nominated for three Irish Film and Television Awards, and is the second film from "Cherrybomb" directing duo Lisa Barros D'Sa and Glenn Leyburn and is scored by David Holmes with a screenplay by Colin Carberry and Glenn Patterson. The movie was released via The Works.

With sincere thanks to both Lucy Fleet at The Works Film Group for the film stills, and to photographer Paul Slattery for the superb, and truly evocative, black and white photos.

Check out Punkerama Records another Belfast based label that specialises in great vinyl picture disc releases from bands such as The Defects and Charlie Harper of the U.K. Subs' Harbour Rats project.