Chesterfields - Janice Long Session 06.01.87

  by Dixie Ernill

published: 17 / 4 / 2025

Label: Select Label
Format: N/A

intro

Dixie Ernill enjoys a radio session from indiepop act The Chesterfields, which recorded for Janice Long in early 1987, has been released on 10” vinyl, on Precious Recordings of London.

Postcard Records in the early 80’s, with great singles by Orange Juice, Josef K, Aztec Camera and The Go Betweens, kind of started the alternative music movement away from the more angular sounds of post-punk and new wave to the more melodic jangly 60’s beat group sound that became de rigueur in the mid 80’s. The Smiths may have been the poster boys, but it was the provincial groups that sprung up in the surrounding towns and suburbs of Glasgow, Bristol, London and Manchester that would form the bedrock of this joyous music that would become known as C-86 on the back of a cassette released by the NME that featured some of them. Whilst The Chesterf!elds didn’t appear on the cassette, they were certainly very much part of the scene and in Janice Long had found a key supporter on BBC Radio. So, it was no surprise that she signed them up for this glorious session. The band had already made waves in the indie charts after signing to Bristol’s Subway Records, run by Martin Whitehead the guitarist with fellow indie-pop band The Flatmates, and releasing two wonderful slices of 7” pop in the shape of ‘The Guitar In Your Bath EP’ and ‘Completely & Utterly’ (which remains to this day one of the very best songs of the era). They were also underway with writing their debut album, ‘Kettle’, too. For the session, the band chose two tried and tested numbers from their debut EP, ‘What’s Your Perversion?’ and ‘Love Mountain’, together with the unreleased ‘Two Girls and a Treehouse’ and ‘Oh! Mr Wilson’ that would appear on “Kettle” later in the year. All four songs are instantly danceable and laced with humour, making this a great session. The band would go on to record more singles and a couple more albums before disbanding in the mid-90’s. Sadly, Dave Goldsworthy, who was the main singer in the band, was killed in a hit and run in 2003 and it would be 13 years later that founder member Simon Barber, with the blessing of Dave’s family, reformed the band and resurrected the exploits Mr Wilson in a classic single ‘Mr Wilson Goes to Norway’ in 2022, some 35 years after ‘Oh! Mr Wilson’ first bounced out of the radio,

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