The Dinner Ladies have occasionally been compared to The Fall, especially for our more shouty songs like ‘That London’ and ‘Hip Potater’, but obviously not as weird or wonderful. So here are our top ten Fall ‘pop songs’. Although Mark E Smith was known mostly for the weirdness and obscurity of his material, he could write a great three minute pop song when he wanted to and also covered some great songs. This may also serve as a way into The Fall for some people who have found their stuff impenetrable. It’s still not exactly Buck’s Fizz!
Touch Sensitive
1999 from the album ‘The Marshall Suite’
Victoria (Kinks Cover)
1988 from the album ‘The Frenz Experiment’
Hit The North
1988 from the album ‘The Frenz Experiment’
Hey Luciani
1986 Single
Telephone Thing
1990 from the album ‘Extricate’
No Bulbs
1984 from the album ‘ The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall’
Mr Pharmacist (The Other Half Cover)
1986 from the album ‘Bend Sinister’
Cab it Up
1988 from the album ‘I Am Kurious Oranj’
Creep
1984 from the album ‘ The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall’
There are lots of great local rock & roll bands that have played Free Rock & Roll over the last year such as Bovver Bailey, Sheepy, Mincemeat and many more but here are five of the most individual and interesting Liverpool bands that we’ve had at the Free Rock & Roll nights in 2017.
Unstoppable Sweeties Show
Describing themselves is punk, prog, psychedelic, free improvisation, jazz, spoken word, avant-garde, noise, and comedy. Insane genius and probably closer to the original free spirit of punk than all your mohawk bands.
Queen Zee & the Sasstones
Not a DIY band now of course but they’ve gone from that to being on the telly and everything in less than 12 months. I went to one of their early shows not long after they expanded to to five piece and what was great about it, was that it felt like what it must have been like at an early Velvet Underground gig or an early Sex Pistols gig, in that it was obviously about much more than just the music. There were young kids running round experimenting with their identities for the first time and stuff. It’s hard to find that freshness and excitement in rock & roll these days.
Faniel Dord
Faniel is obviously from the long line of great British eccentrics like Spike Milligan, Vivian Stanshall etc. He’s a real artist in that it’s a performance thing and he’s unafraid to just do what he does and not worry what people think of him. He won’t die wondering. It’s wonderful stuff. He should maybe write the next Jona Lewi style Christmas song?
Ohmns
Garage and 60s Psyche is a very hip thing isn’t it these days. All 60s Psyche can’t all have been good though can it? These have got that 60s garage band thing but are another band who are not afraid to go off in all directions. They aren’t just ticking boxes. I love that freedom. Dead powerful live too.
Rat Bit Kit
The accordian playing, avant-garde bellboy has been around a while now I know but thank God for eccentrics eh? He has a backing band now and does some great covers too. When you see him live, I love the way he divides the room into those that love it and those that can’t hack it. That’s always a good sign that something is different and worthwhile.
These are five of my favourite bands I’ve seen from playing around the UK on the DIY underground scene.
Interrobang!?
These are from Leeds and have that Gang of Four, Mekons, post-punk Leeds sound. The singer Dunstan was formerly in Chumbawumba. These are my favourite band at the moment with great social comment over a dead interesting soundscape. I think Leeds is producing loads of good bands on the DIY scene at the moment, such as Nosebleed, Cyanide Pills, X Ray Cat Trio, Nervous Twitch and more.
The Twistettes
These are a two piece garage band from Glasgow. We played with them in Glasgow and were blown away. It manages to have the power of the two-piece garage thing but the pop hooks of stuff like The Ronettes. Nothing beats a great song with a great chorus.
Wonk Unit
These have been around a few years now but currently sit at the top of the DIY punk rock pyramid, through a lot of hard work and great songs with interesting lyrics. Has the London element of The Blockheads and Madness. Great people too who run their own festival Wonkfest and contribute a lot the DIY scene and it’s causes.
Bratakus
Another two piece girl band from Scotland. They actually live right up in the north in the middle of nowhere so have to drive miles even to the nearest gigs. They are dead young, vegan, feminist, politically aware and fun. The perfect Riot Grrl band.
Evil Blizzard
There seem to be quite a few bands on the punk sene trying to push the boundaries from the punk by numbers, three chord thing and these are one of them. Also part of that attitude, like Interrobang!? Wonk Unit and hopefully the Dinner Ladies is putting on a great visual show. Musically you can hear all sorts including Hawkwind and Public Image.
So there you go. All just my opinion of course. But one things for sure…there’s loads of great bands out there if you are bothered to go out and watch em.
