Loft - Ghost Trains and Country Lanes: Studio, Stage and Sessions 1984-2005

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 7 / 4 / 2021

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In the mid 1980s, the coolest place to be in the UK if you liked alternative guitar pop was at The Living Room, a club run by Alan McGee at The Adams Arms in London. And in 1981, four guys in London started rehearsing as The Living Room, not knowing that they would be regulars at that very same club just a few years later. When they got in contact with McGee at his Living Room club, he offered them the opportunity to play there, but only if they changed their name, as it would be a bit weird to have a band playing with the same name as the club. The quartet settled on the name The Loft (which was appropriate, as the club was located in… the loft), and eventually ended up on McGee’s new label, Creation, in 1984. Their debut single, ‘Why Does the Rain’, was the ninth single released on Creation, and after that, they only managed one more, ‘Up the Hill and Down the Slope’ (1985) before the band fell apart and the members went their different ways and founded new bands - vocalist/guitarist Pete Astor and drummer Dave Morgan started The Weather Prophets, bassist Bill Prince played with The Wishing Stones and guitarist Andy Strickland founded The Caretaker Race. But enough about all that. This new compilation is all about The Loft. The first disc focuses on the studio recordings, starting off with the seven tracks released on the two singles on Creation, and also the five songs they recorded when reforming in late 2005 (which produced the single ‘Model Village’, released on Static Caravan in 2006). Between those two studio efforts, we are also treated to four songs recorded for Janice Long’s show on BBC Radio 1 in December 1984, of which ‘Lonely Street’, which appeared on the second single, is the only track that was previously released The second disc consists of two live recordings, the first one recorded at the aforementioned The Living Room club in June 1984. The ten songs are prime examples of the band’s rawer live sound, and among the tracks are live versions of both ‘Why Does the Rain’ and ‘Up the Hill and Down the Slope’ (while it was called ‘Over the Hill and Down the Slope’). One of the Living Room recordings was previously released on the Creation live album ‘Alive in the Living Room’, which came out in 1984, and features other regulars at the club, like The Pastels, June Brides, Jasmine Minks, TV Personalities and The Legend! The rest of this show is previously unreleased. The other part of the second disc is a recording that the reformed band made for Gideon Coe’s 6 Music show in September 2015, where they played four songs - three old ones and one new (‘I Can’t Keep My Mind Off You’). For those of you with any interest at all in indiepop history, and especially the C86 and British indie scene of the mid 80s, this is a must. The Loft may not have produced a lot of music in their very short lifespan, but as early contributors to the Creation catalogue, they have played an important part in how the indie scene evolved during the ‘80s, and also the creation of Britpop in the ‘90s. And if you like this, I can also recommend you to check out those other bands the members formed after the demise of The Loft, as they kept the musical spirit of that band alive.

Track Listing:-

1 WHY DOES THE RAIN
2 LIKE
3 WINTER
4 UP THE HILL AND DOWN THE SLOPE
5 YOUR DOOR SHINES LIKE GOLD
6 LONELY STREET
7 TIME
8 ON A TUESDAY
9 SKELETON STAIRCASE
10 THE CANAL AND THE BIG RED TOWN
11 LONELY STREET
12 MODEL VILLAGE
13 RICKETY FRAME
14 BEWARE
15 MAD OLD WOMAN MAD OLD MAN
16 RIDE
17 ON A TUESDAY
18 YOUR DOOR SHINES LIKE GOLD
19 TIME
20 COLOURS I SEE
21 EMILY
22 THE NOTHING BOX
23 THE CANAL AND THE BIG RED TOWN
24 WHY DOES THE RAIN
25 UP THE HILL AND DOWN THE SLOPE
26 DAY’S END
27 WHY DOES THE RAIN
28 I CAN’T KEEP MY MIND OFF YOU
29 UP THE HILL AND DOWN THE SLOPE
30 YOUR DOOR SHINES LIKE GOLD

Also In ReView

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Loft-British-band/113645381979547
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Loft_(British_band)

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