Caretaker Race is a band I've been intrigued by recently. I'd only heard "I Wish I'd Said That", but now finally I've had the pleasure of hearing the rest of their only album Hangover Square that came out in 1990. Caretaker Race was one of the bands formed in the wake of The Loft's break-up, and this one was Andy Strickland's project. He's my favourite member of The Loft as he was the guy who played the Byrds style lead guitar. So no wonder I like Caretaker Race better than The Weather Prophets or The Wishing Stones. The album is not all as great as that that song due some all too common overproduction, but it's got its high points. The one I've chosen for this post is the closing track "Man Overboard", that had also come out as a single earlier that year. The whole album sounds quite inspired by Grant's contributions to the Go-Betweens songbook, and this is no exception. As a side note one of the b-sides to the single is called "Grey Gardens", which I'm dying to hear after having seen the film by the Maysles brothers (that is also Roxanne Clifford's choice for the next Monorail Film Club by the way). Incidentally Hangover Square was a film too, directed by John Brahm in 1945. There's plenty of more information about the band here.Sunday, June 24, 2007
DROP 71
Caretaker Race is a band I've been intrigued by recently. I'd only heard "I Wish I'd Said That", but now finally I've had the pleasure of hearing the rest of their only album Hangover Square that came out in 1990. Caretaker Race was one of the bands formed in the wake of The Loft's break-up, and this one was Andy Strickland's project. He's my favourite member of The Loft as he was the guy who played the Byrds style lead guitar. So no wonder I like Caretaker Race better than The Weather Prophets or The Wishing Stones. The album is not all as great as that that song due some all too common overproduction, but it's got its high points. The one I've chosen for this post is the closing track "Man Overboard", that had also come out as a single earlier that year. The whole album sounds quite inspired by Grant's contributions to the Go-Betweens songbook, and this is no exception. As a side note one of the b-sides to the single is called "Grey Gardens", which I'm dying to hear after having seen the film by the Maysles brothers (that is also Roxanne Clifford's choice for the next Monorail Film Club by the way). Incidentally Hangover Square was a film too, directed by John Brahm in 1945. There's plenty of more information about the band here.
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4 comments:
Hangover Square is a book, too, by Patrick Hamilton (well worth a read).
My favourite Caretaker Race moment is Somewhere On Sea. If you haven't got it, I could get round to posting it.
no, i haven't - so please do!
cheers,
chris
always good to hear more of the sound of young leytonstone.
i'm sure there's a line like 'almost heaven east eleven' in there somewhere.
trivia fans - sally ward from the early caretaker race records is married to lester noel of north of cornwallis.
x
In case you're interested, The Caretaker Race are playing at London's Water Rats Club on Friday 12 July. At the moment, "Grey Gardens" is on the set list! Cheers, Dave
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