All You Ever Say, Salisbury Indie Sounds
The Salisbury Indie Scene
Indie Rock/Pop/Jangle later-comers The Mayfields with 'All You Ever Say'. I guess coming in at the tail end of the C-86 scene, but none the less they had a great sound. The band were fairly short lived lasting only a couple of years and were from Salisbury. They formed in 1987 and were part of the C-86 Indie Pop Scene, they initially released a two track shared Flexi disc along with other Salisbury band The Badgemen on the 'Compact & Bijou Label' in 1988 and appeared to be part of a clutch of bands from the area at the time such as 'Bubblegum Splash' and 'Jane From Occupied Europe'.
Catch 'All You Ever Say' on the youtube video below...
World Of Your Own
It appears that they did release several other singles; 'World Of Your Own' and 'Deeper Than The Ocean' on both the Ambition Label and also US based The Bus Stop Label, both were released in 1989. Ambition Records was also home for another Indie act of the day featured on this site called 'Jane Pow'. You can go to the Cloudberry Records website and catch the interview with the guy who started off the record label and his impressions of first hearing The Mayfields.
Have a listen to their track 'World Of Your Own' at the link, it sounds punchy and tight and it kind of reminds me a wee bit of the early material by Scottish Indie band 'The Soup Dragons', which in turn throws me back to bands like The Undertones or The Buzzcocks from about ten years earlier. Either way both of the tracks featured in this post have the punch, drive and raw energy that make me want to listen.
They Were
- Kevin - Guitar/Vocals
- Iain - Bass
- Mark - Drums
- Paul - Guitars
- Swanny - Vocals/Tambourine
- Bob - Glockenspiel
- Dan - Guitar
- Rich - Drums
Another one of those bands that clearly didn't go for that whole overrated surname thing! 😉 It also looks possible that there were some changes in line-up?
Support, Break Up & The Firekites
As a band they also managed to perform support for The La's in London and another Indie band of the day 'The Pooh Sticks' (also featured on this site). It appears that shortly after this gig The Mayfields were to break up. A later release of more of their material was re-issued by 'Firestation Records' in 2018. You can check a review of it at LouderThanWar.com website which gives a bit more information about them and their work and you can catch a preview of their sound at the youtube link.
All in all they seemed to produce some really good songs, it is a shame that inner tensions in the band seem to have caused them to cut short according to the interview at Cloudberry Records website, added to that I guess a slight overshadowing by other up and coming bands of the time such as The Stone Roses bringing the world the whole 'Manchester Indie Scene' and lashings of 'Baggy-ness'.
The Mayfields were a band I clearly appear to have missed back in the day, but I am pleased that their material has been re-issued and for the youtube video which led me to investigate them more.
Anyway, looking around I can see that several of the band members i.e. Iain, Mark and Danny went on to create a band The Firekites with a vocalist called Annie who released the single 'Tears and Togetherness' on the Cloudberry Record label in 2008.
Video Source Thanks
Info Thanks
LouderThanWar.com, Discogs.com & CloudberryRecords.com, RateYourMusic.com
Photo Source Thanks
Photo by Alekon pictures on Unsplash
Many, Many Thanks for the Tweets!
https://twitter.com/MarkHiLife
...And catch the wonderful Hi-Life Companion with the track 'Dark Heart' at the link