Journey into the unknown

By Paul Flower on May 21, 10 02:53 PM

I went to see The Godfathers last week. I know. You don't know who they are, I've had to explain their existence and repertoire to almost everyone I've spoken to about this gig. It's nothing new to me; I'm used to being an 'enthusiastic supporter' of bands of whom no-one else seems to know anything at all.

I didn't previously mind when it was local or unsigned bands I was championing, being ahead of the curve was an ambition back then, but The Godfathers signed to one of the World's biggest labels - they released singles which probably even made the chart.

Perhaps it was just a bit too long ago. Judging by the shockingly small crowd at the Academy 3 it obviously was. I consider it, therefore, my duty to re-educate you all - and as a recent reader complained about the lack of videos I can easily satiate that desire (with the help of YouTube).

Or at least I thought I could, except Sony/BMG don't allow their videos to be embedded in blogs. You'll just have to look here, why? Cause I said so:

It's not a video that bears repeated viewing, unless you like to laugh at the vocal track being completely out of sync with the visual. Great song though. As with all good gigs I came away with the desire to hear the songs again. Using Spotify I found those and was also able to trawl my way through a number of tracks I hadn't heard in a while.

Of course the danger with plumbing the past is you find that your tastes weren't quite as adventurous as you remember. From a similar era, a track I frequently played on my old BBC Radio WM show - clearly no-one was listening; certainly no-one bought this in the UK.

Michael Penn - brother of Sean and Chris. For all I know he still releases music, or maybe not. The next choice I stumbled across, even though I still own two of their albums - it also prompted a discussion on Facebook between me and two members of great Wolverhampton bands - The Mighty Lemon Drops & The Wild Flowers, prompting us to wonder if The Pursuit Of Happiness had a pocket of UK fans in the Black Country. This is lyrical genius, even if they look funny.

Brilliant. Dave Newton even went on Wikipedia to discover that they'd actually released 5 albums, not the three that all of us could remember. Mr Newton features here, since I mentioned the Lemon Drops.

I could go on, but I'm sure you're either bored or thinking of your own mix-tapes now. I veered off with The Smithereens, The House of Love and Ride - follow your own journey on Spotify or YouTube. It reminded me why I loved to do radio shows, crashing from one song into another and trying to introduce people to music that I loved. Clearly they weren't listening, maybe they never will.