Forgotten Pop Bands of Leeds

biofichompinc · Post by **biofichompinc** » Sun 30 Oct, 2011 1:00 pm

Following my earlier post I have googled combinations of Sneakers, Leeds and one or two appropriate song titles which eventually came up with...http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single ... rails/This brought back what had eluded my memory before. The 'A' side of the single was a track called Link Lady, a song about a TV presenter if I remember correctly.Vapour Trails was the 'B' side.Hope the link to the website works for those of you who are interested. It includes a photograph of the record, which confirms Parkinson as the name of the writer. D (for David?) Parkinson.

Bruno · Post by **Bruno** » Sun 30 Oct, 2011 7:22 pm

Hi Salt n PepperTake a look at this:http://mylifesajigsaw.blogspot.com/2010 ... 77.htmlNot a huge amount of info, but all the names. I'll be coming back to this subject.

biofichompinc · Post by **biofichompinc** » Mon 31 Oct, 2011 11:35 am

Thanks for that Bruno.I did buy a copy of Link Lady/Vapour Trails back in the day and it may even be lying around my house somewhere now.I was sad to discover that the very gifted David Parkinson has passed away. My recollection is that he was rumoured to be an academic who wrote words and music because he could, and that the whole Sneakers thing was more of a hobby for him.There has been a beam of light since yesterday in that I seem to remember the Sneakers drummer's name being John Shepherd, but this does not tie up with the names on the blog in your post.The Sneakers drummer I am thinking of had blonde hair and wore fell boots and denim shorts on stage, even back in 1975. Or it may be that I have conjured the name up subconciously, but that is what I seem to remember.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Tue 08 Nov, 2011 11:20 pm

There was The Edsel Auctioneer who were quite popular in the late 80s / Early 90s and they produced a record called The Voice of The Harolds, names after the streets in Hyde Park where the band lived. They were typical sound of this era pre-grunge / brit-pop. They were sort of jangly sixties guitars verging on what used to be called shoegazing... Anyone remember them?

simong · Post by **simong** » Wed 09 Nov, 2011 12:15 am

jonleeds wrote: There was The Edsel Auctioneer who were quite popular in the late 80s / Early 90s and they produced a record called The Voice of The Harolds, names after the streets in Hyde Park where the band lived. They were typical sound of this era pre-grunge / brit-pop. They were sort of jangly sixties guitars verging on what used to be called shoegazing... Anyone remember them? I certainly do, they had a fair amount of play by John Peel. Someone has collected their tunes as always and they can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?2v54w9pjgf0y1

oldleedsman · Post by **oldleedsman** » Wed 09 Nov, 2011 5:21 pm

Anyone remember Girls At Our Best! - late70s/early 80s indie band from Leeds who had some minor success, including a John Peel session? Great little band.Their song 'Getting Nowhere fast' was covered The Wedding Present, another Leeds-based band (although I'm not sure how many of them actually came from Leeds - certainly not the main man, David Gedge).

Chrism · Post by **Chrism** » Thu 10 Nov, 2011 11:32 am

I've known Dave (Gedge) for a long time. I used to live a couple of doors away from him. I know he was brought up in Manchester (as you can tell when you hear him talk) but I am quite sure he was born in Armley/Bramley ( can't remember which).

oldleedsman · Post by **oldleedsman** » Thu 10 Nov, 2011 3:49 pm

You're quite right about David Gedge - I was fooled by his Manchester accent!

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Sat 12 Nov, 2011 1:51 am

Ho Ho! I am a certified Weddoes (Wedding Present) fan, I have followed them all over the country back in the late 80s / 90s. I used to have all their records in MINT condition vinyl kept in those see-through plastic wallets, some of them I bought twice for collectables value, then my mum threw the whole lot in a skip when she moved house as I was storing them at hers for "safe-keeping" - what a con eh!I also had a book about The Wedding Present called "Thank Yer Very Glad" and I'm sure it said that Dave Gedge lived in Middleton in Manchester. Myabe he was born in Leeds though I dont know. I do know that they (the Weddoes) lived all over LS6 for a while, including Churchill Gardens and Midland Road as I made a point of living in the same streets when I moved to Hyde Park. I've met and spoken Mr Gedge on several occasions and he seems like quite an affable chap, although I have also spoken to some of the other band members about him - Peter Solowka and Paul Dorrington (Who I went to Kitson College with for a while) and they had some very different things to say about Gedgy ("he's a [edited for content]", "Tosser", "Prima-Donna" amongst others)... Ah well, alls fair in rock an roll I guess (or not as the case might be!).

simong · Post by **simong** » Sat 12 Nov, 2011 11:53 am

jonleeds wrote: Ho Ho! I am a certified Weddoes (Wedding Present) fan, I have followed them all over the country back in the late 80s / 90s. I used to have all their records in MINT condition vinyl kept in those see-through plastic wallets, some of them I bought twice for collectables value, then my mum threw the whole lot in a skip when she moved house as I was storing them at hers for "safe-keeping" - what a con eh!I also had a book about The Wedding Present called "Thank Yer Very Glad" and I'm sure it said that Dave Gedge lived in Middleton in Manchester. Myabe he was born in Leeds though I dont know. I do know that they (the Weddoes) lived all over LS6 for a while, including Churchill Gardens and Midland Road as I made a point of living in the same streets when I moved to Hyde Park. I've met and spoken Mr Gedge on several occasions and he seems like quite an affable chap, although I have also spoken to some of the other band members about him - Peter Solowka and Paul Dorrington (Who I went to Kitson College with for a while) and they had some very different things to say about Gedgy ("he's a [edited for content]", "Tosser", "Prima-Donna" amongst others)... Ah well, alls fair in rock an roll I guess (or not as the case might be!). Oddly enough, my wife works with Pete Solowka, who is a maths teacher, and a few years ago, I worked with Paul Dorrington, who is now an accounts manager (or was back then). Paul's story is interesting as he was previously in a band called Tse Tse Fly (another lost Leeds band - great LP called Mudflat Joey) and replaced Pete half way through the recording of Seamonsters. He was eventually followed by his colleague from Tse Tse Fly, Simon Cleave and it seemed like the band was reversed into the Wedding Present.Gedge was born in Manchester and came to Leeds to go to university. I've met him a couple of times and he's generally a good chap by all reports but does have a fairly ruthless approach to band members, including sacking the entire band to go to the US and become Cinerama, and then, sacking that band to restart the Wedding Present.Pete still plays in the Ukranians and my wife has to occasionally field emails asking about his choice of guitars and requests for interviews about his role in the Wedding Present, which, of course, ended 20 years ago.