November 5, 2021

Self-Drive Indie Rock

Photo Sunset, C4Di, Hull Queen Street by Luke Thornton on Unsplash

In a way a shame I wasn't from the Hull area in my teens, I would have loved to have seen this band....Red Guitars.

Marimba Jive

Marimba Jive, reaching the legendary status of 'Single Of The Week' in The NME in 1984. The Lyrics written by Jeremy Kidd and music by Hal Lewis I guess sounds being influenced by African Highlife bands , you can catch the sound at the link. The single eventualy climbed to the dizzy heights of #1 in the UK Indie Charts of the day.

This song, is a dig I guess at the 'colonial' attitudes in Africa at the time. The Marimba being pushed down over the 'Xylophone', really quite clever lyrics please listen carefully. This is accentuated by lead singer Jeremy Kidd it describes the Marimba as singing of freedom but being kept under by colonial masters of the time, also there are many other references to colonial suppression of native African traditions, cultures and people at the time. This recording of the song sounds like it is delivered with so much urgency, passion and conviction, check out the Peel Session recording below...

Although extremely 'upbeat' in its African inspired rhythm, the song is, as usual for Red Guitars lyrically meaningful, covering anti-apartheid and anti-colonialism...A good few years before Paul Simon's Graceland.

Taken from the Peel Session 6th August 1983. In my opinion the Peel Session version is so much more punchy than the album version.

You can catch them on a rare live video of them performing this song at Sheffield's 'Leadmill' venue in 1984 at the link here: Marimba Jive Live

It was released in the same year as The Special A.KA. with their song covering similar kind of subject matter 'Free Nelson Mandela'. Here it is slipped in below from a Top Of The Pops performance from '84.

The Band

Red Guitars were:

Matt Higgins (drums)
Lou Howard (a.k.a. Louise Barlow, bass)
Jeremy Kidd (vocals)
Hallam Lewis (lead guitar)
John Rowley (rhythm guitar)
Robert Holmes (vocals/guitar – replaced Kidd on lead vocals in 1985)

Pretty much everything was d.i.y. which made a refreshing change, a band that wrote their own music and released their sounds on their own 'Self Drive Redords' label, although I am sure that must have been hard for them to manage it all, however, they did and were in many ways a success story in their own right. I personally loved that smaller anti-corporate/capitalist labels could run rings round the major labels in terms of producing unique sounds that were ahead of the game at the time.

Fact

This track taken from the Old Grey Whistle Test 1983, it was released on the band's own Self Drive Record Label. Reaching #7 in the UK Indie charts, originally released around the same time as the Falklands War and carrying a strong anti-war message.

Good Technology

Anti-Corporate, this track being released on their own D.I.Y. 'Self Drive' Record label The song describing from an early 1980's perspective so many things we take for granted today, but perhaps some have become less ' Corporately Good' over the years...

This one reaching #8 in the UK Indie Charts of the day. The video for the single was played on Channel 4’s The Tube as part of a feature on Hull’s music scene.

Whatever you think about them they did it their way, on their own label in thier early days, not dictated to by the major labels, wrote and produced some fantastically diverse sounds all of their tracks featured here come from diffrerent music genre styles and finally in singing their praises they tried to uphold their political beliefs of anti-capitalism, anti-war, anit-racism.

Steeltown

This track reaching #2 in the UK Indie Charts in 1984, describing the grimness and despair of the closures of industries in the north in the '80's.

By now the constant touring by the band to support this song and the above track 'Fact' as well as release of the album 'Slow To Fade' and managing their own label began to cause tensions. Jeremy Kidd left just two months after the release of the album taking the 'Self Drive Label' which he had initially set up with him. The band soldiered on and recruited Robert Holmes on Guitar and Vocals to replace Jeremy Kidd and signed eventually to the major label Virgin Records. They eventually called it a day in 1986 sadly never quite hitting the highs of their early performances.

Hats off to what was an awesome band, musically diverse, independent, lyrically thought provoking, anti-corporate and sticking two fingers up at major labels.