- How many more volumes will you do?
As long as we find the bands, and our want list is long, we will continue releasing more volumes. Volume 6 is coming in 2007.
However sales are much lower for the later volumes than for the older ones
and it may no longer be practical to release further volumes. So please
keep buying them rather than just downloading them.
- Explain the title please:
"The Sound Of Leamington Spa" was the working title for this project
back in 1998 when we started working on it, somehow we kept it all the way to the release.
Royal Leamington Spa is a town in central England south of Birmingham.
It doesn't have a particular good pop music scene nor are any of the bands featured here from the area. However if you
take a look at records by 80's indiepop bands such as "The Brilliant Corners, Mighty Mighty, The Jazz Butcher, The Chesterfields
and loads of others you will find "recorded at WSRS in Leamington Spa"
or "recorded at Woodbine Studios in Leamington Spa" all over the place.
These studios were run by producer John A. Rivers and he probably contributed to some of the sound on those records.
I think none of the bands on volume one actually recorded in Leamington Spa,
but hey we have more volumes to come to justify the title.
In August 1996 on the indiepop list:
Peter Hahndorf:
Did you guys ever noticed that 99% of the eighties indiepop was
recorded in Leamington Spa, what was so magical about that place?
Martin Whitehead:
Leamington Spa was were John Rivers had his Woodbine Studio. He was
very much the desired producer for mid eighties indie bands (and
apparently he's no mean keyboard player either). Most engineers in
small local studios had little grasp of what these bands were trying
to do at the time and were still trying to produce booming drums,
slappy bass and choppy funk guitars. In the mid eighties indie bands
were very much on the fringe of what was happening and were pretty
obscure. A producer who understood them was worth travelling for.
Even to Leamington Spa.
- What happened to the release party:
We had a release party planned in London, which unfortunately didn't happen due to various reasons.
We may get a of some bands together in 2001 to play a gig, most likely at the Bull & Gate in North London.
With more London bands on volume two we will try again to set up a release party whenever it comes out.
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