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Friday, April 24, 2009

Seeing Red In Black And White



I've been involved in some lively discussions at the New Wave Outpost concerning a couple of vinyl rips I posted. Because the interest was greater than I expected, I decided to do a full post here.

Seeing Red was a band from Guernsey, Channel Islands that released one solitary single, a double A side. Track one was "Ice" which reflected on Robert Scott's tragic expedition to the South Pole in 1912 and in particular the self-sacrifice of Captain Lawrence Oates who walked to his death in order to give his companions a better chance to survive. The back of the sleeve quotes H.R. Bowers, another member of the five man expedition.


Track two was "Weekahead" which was a little moodier but probably my favorite out of the two.

The band consisted of Graham Luxton (vocals), Stephen Luxton (keyboards), Dave Upson (bass) and Gary Rouget (keyboards). The single was pressed on the Les Disques De La Rose Rouge label, serial number SRS001.



Graham Luxton and Dave Upson went on to form The Johndoes, a band that is still around today, albeit in a much altered line up. They have a MySpace page.

The Luxton brothers are my cousins and that is why I have owned this single since 1985. I'm amazed it didn't get lost or otherwise disposed of over a 20 year period.

Ed from CFRC-FM was kind enough (and had enough good taste) to recently feature "Ice" on his weekly show, 80's Retrospect.

10 comments:

C said...

Great work, phenomenal blog. Keep it up!

McDoC said...

I like both songs but "Ice" is quite catchy. Thanks and great job on cleaning the audio. The vinyl pops help us remember the 80's even more... and it's great!!!

Ed said...

It was my pleasure to feature the track. Quite frankly it deserves to be heard. I will feature the other track in a week or two.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Ed

James W said...

I also have a copy of this 45. Seeing Red came out of another Guernsey band called Afrika Korps who were gigging around the island in 83/84. I have some audience cassette recordings of Afrika Korps, all featuring Ice and Weekahead.

mineforlife said...

Hey James I am in Guernsey for at least a few weeks now. Any chance I can get a copy of the cassettes you mention?

Anonymous said...

You ever get that cassette?

mineforlife said...

No unfortunately I never heard any more about the Afrika Korps tracks. I'm thinking of doing a Facebook related to Guernsey groups though. Maybe that would generate some response.

James W said...

I have at last got round to ripping the gigs off the cassettes. I have 5 concerts in all. I do not live in Guernsey anymore, but I will try find a suitable place to post the files.

James W said...

I have at last got round to ripping the cassettes. I need to find somewhere to post the tracks.

mineforlife said...

That's great James, please let me know. I can host them if you need. Can't wait to hear!!