housemartins 0, hull 2

i've only been to hull a couple of times.
the first time was to help a friend of mine move up there to do his degree.
i found a smashing record shop and spent a good hour or so looking through the records.
can't for the life of me remember what it was called - it appeared to be in the basement of a house (or at least that's how i remember it). down some steps outside and into the store.

i went back up there once to check the shop again but couldn't find it - i went through a stage of travelling long distances to record shops.
how the internet has changed life eh?

but that's not the reason for this entry.


apart from "sheep" i didn't like the housemartins - i bought their "london 0, hull 4" album, listened to it once and filed it away.
i think it might have been due to the overkill of the "happy hour" video on TV.
it was everywhere.
drove me mad.
perhaps i ought to dig the album out and listen to it again.
though i doubt time will have been kind to it.

however, there were two bands from hull that i really liked.

one of them was 3-action. a band that seems to have been written out of the history of 80's indie pop.
i'd not heard of them until they appeared on the "gimme shelter" video (man, i really ought to write something about the "gimme shelter" video. it's as important a document as the "C86" album).
the footage on the video was a live recording of "i get around" and it was ramshackle, falling apart, amateur, but GREAT.



i checked my cartel catalogue - yes, i was sad enough to buy the distributors catalogue and browse it, marking off things as i bought them.
3-action had two 12" EPs out on ediesta and i ordered them both (i later foudn they'd released a 7" but could never get hold of it).
"i get around" was an instant top tune. very surfy, like a schlock jan & dean, trumpets blaring and two chord chugging guitars.



"if only i had the guts" from the other 12" was the killer though.
another two chord wonder, but this time far more spiky and a little bit lurchy.



death by milkfloat were the other band from hull.
the BEST band from hull.
the trebliest bIG fLAME-y guitars scratched like fingernails on a blackboard, the bass was all thundering funk and the drums were a rollercoaster of jazz mess.
and their longest song came in at under two minutes.
for a long time they were THE band for me.
they captured all the best bits of my favourite bands, mashed them all together, and spat them out in bursts of pure joy.



in 1988 vinyl drip released "uninformation" and death by milkfloat could do no wrong.
they're still welded into my iPod and i still listen to them just about every day.