Blyth Power - Meanwhile Gardens Westbourne Park - 23rd June 1984

For a while in the mid-eighties, Blyth Power were one of my favourite bands, and the gigs were some of the highlights of that era. This recording is Blyth Power’s seventh gig. Obviously due to the band learning the songs, there are mistakes on some of the songs, and with no backing vocals (Sarah and Andy joined up a few months later), the songs sound a little flat. The listener can hear that the spark is there in the songs, and that spark would ignite by the early months of 1985 and kick off from there, Blyth Power ending up being one of the best live bands on the circuit. A decent version of ’Dancing’ originally by Zounds and also the song ’Lord of the Isles ’ on this Meanwhile Gardens performance. This mixing desk audio is taken from the second time that Blyth Power performed at Meanwhile Gardens. The first time they were out in the sun on a rickety wooden stage was just a few days prior, on the 17th June. NOTE: Blithe Power on the flyer. Joseph Porter had started writing and singing one his own compositions for The Mob toward the end of that bands lifespan in 1983. The track ‘Hurling Time’. A soon to be Blyth Power ‘dirge’ (as Joseph likes to call some of his own material) was performed at the very last gig that The Mob performed at in Doncaster with Passion Killers and Benjamin Zephaniah. Mark Mob drove away in his converted truck from the stresses of London squats, co-op housing (and performing in The Mob) to live a simpler existence at Pooh Corner. The two other members of the Mob were slightly at odds at what to do. Joseph and Curtis roped in Brougham Road resident and ex Faction member Neil Keenan, and started practising a host of Joseph’s original compositions and a few cover versions down in the basement of 96 Brougham Road, the home of J.C and also base for All The Madmen Records run by Rob Challice, ex Anthrax and Faction. It was this three piece line up that performed at the Bingo Hall squat (now mainstream music venue – The Garage) in Islington just a few weeks after The Mob had folded. Two gigs in the middle of February 1984 and KYPP’s Val Drayton and Elaine ex-Hagar The Womb, were invited to perform the backing vocals for these performances. The band did not perform again until the middle of May. Those performances were at the squatted pub ‘The Hemingford Arms’ in which Blyth Power performed with The Mayday Theatre group, incidental music to a play entitled ‘Mother’ by Berthol Brecht. Those performance continued nightly until the end of May. A very strange residency for sure! Other notable performances in 1984 were three shows at Meanwhile Gardens in the summer and also the first ‘out of town’ gigs at Nottingham and Sutton Cum Lound. The debut studio recordings, a demo recorded in March 1984 is wonderful, but very basic. Again this was the three piece line-up. In December of 1984 the band decided to record a demo in the basement of 96 Brougham Road, with Protags mixing board. Protag and Grant Showbiz were the sound men for the Meanwhile Gardens events. Protag was also an ex-Instant Automation. Sarah Lewington, originally from Leeds who had been mixing it up in the squats of London for a couple of years was invited to perform backing vocals during these sessions, making the band a four piece. The finished product was released as ‘A Little Touch Of Harry’ on 96 Tapes run by soon to be All The Madmen manager, Rob Challice. The tracks that appeared on the cassette are (in my opinion) absolutely wonderful, and brought a fuller sound with Sarah on the vocals, Curtis’s basslines still seemed reminiscent of The Mob, Josephs lyrics seemed wacky at first but on further investigation dealt with contemporary issues. Neil’s buzz-saw guitar sounded , well great. All in all things were going well. The cassette sold well over 1000 copies in less than six months of release, not bad sales at all, booklets were reprinted, tapes were re-released, and professionally reproduced. At the beginning of 1985, Andy Morgan was invited by Joseph to add further backing vocals. The five piece line-up. If memory serves me correctly Andy not only used to help at All The Madmen records, but also had a fair amount to do with the Street Level studio’s, and also performed in the Hamburger All Stars, a band affiliated with Street Level. This Street Level link is important as Grant Showbiz, the owner (alongside Kif Kif) at Street Level studios had engineered work with The Fall, Here And Now, The Mob, The Astronauts, The Smiths and dozens more. He would eventually engineer both the first couple of 12“ records by Blyth Power and released on All The Madmen. Grant also helped organised the four times yearly Meanwhile Gardens free festivals along with Protag. Justin Adams from the Impossible Dreamers who performed at Meanwhile Gardens also helped engineer the first couple of 12“ records by Blyth Power. The five piece line up made their live debut at The Pinder Of Wakefield pub in Kings Cross in February 1985.