Sunday 12 May 2013

The Flatmates: a slight return

The eagle-eyed amongst you might notice this year's all-dayer line-up has a distinctly Bristolian feel to it, and this has been further strengthened by the mysterious appearance of late 80s indiepop tyros, The Flatmates.

I first came across The Flatmates on those old Beechwood Indie Top 20 records you could buy if your local shop didn't sell all those seemingly obscure seven inch singles you read about in the music press each week. These albums were often erratic, but contained just enough to keep me buying them.

In 1988 I bought volume four of the Indie Top 20 series from Andy's Records in Grimsby, and fell in love with 'Shimmer' by the Flatmates. In fact the whole album was pretty great, if you ignore the Fields of the Nephilim track...

Fast forward a couple of centuries and a message from Rocker, the all-seeing eye of the indiepop scene, who informs Ian that The Flatmates are getting together again, with Brian from Peru on drums, and Lisa Bouvier on vocals, and could they play the Nottingham all-dayer in September. Okay, so it's not the original Flatmates, and we're pretty wary of this whole reforming malarkey thing that's going on at the moment, but this was too good to turn down.

And so, 25 years after first discovering The Flatmates and Subway Records, they're playing a gig I have a hand in. This sort of thing doesn't happen in real life, does it?




No comments: