Original Info File:
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Recently I discovered some more gems of this festival held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on September 7. 1980.
This time it concerns parts of the concerts of Hazel O'Connor, The Passions, The Undertones and The Skids.
All were recorded and broadcasted by KRO Radio.
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HAZEL O'CONNOR :
The daughter of a sailor from Galway who settled in England to work in a car plant,
she went to Coventry Art College after leaving School. O'Connor originally shot to fame as an actress, playing the role of Kate in the critically acclaimed film Breaking Glass in 1980, and its accompanying soundtrack.
The years before she appeared in the film Breaking Glass were eventful to say the least.
As she wrote in the introduction note of the programme for a gig at "At My Place" in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in 1989 :
"I ran away from my home in Coventry when I was 16.....made and sold clothes in Amsterdam, picked grapes in France, joined a dance troupe that went to Tokyo then onto Beirut (escaping the start of the civil war by one month!) travelled West Africa, crossed the Sahara, sang with a dreadful singing trio for the U.S. troops in Germany and came home to "settle down".
Through all this experience of life and the world I realized that singing always cheered me up.
I decided to be a singer. Through strange turns of fate I ended up in a film called Breaking Glass I also ended up writing all the songs for the movie".
In 1980, her performance as Kate in Breaking Glass won O'Connor the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actor' and BAFTA nominations for 'Best Newcomer' and 'Best Film Score.'
The album of the same name has since achieved double platinum status, and was number 5 in the UK Albums Chart for 28 weeks and produced several hit singles, the most successful being the haunting "Will You", and "Eighth Day".
When O'Connor toured the UK in support of Breaking Glass the album, she selected as her opening act a then-unknown local group from Birmingham called Duran Duran.
It was this young band's first opportunity to garner exposure throughout the UK and gave the band the exposure it needed to secure a recording contract (with EMI). Ergo, O'Connor helped break one of the most successful musical artists of the New Wave era.
Subsequent albums for Hazel O'Connor include Sons and Lovers which featured the hit single "D Days", "Cover Plus", "Smile" and "Five in the Morning". Legal battles plagued O'Connor from the early 1980s - in her own words "I became famous, then had a load of court battles to fight against my first record company, I was ripped off, torn up and spat out by the machinery of 'Showbiz'" However, despite the hassle, O'Connor continued to record and to play live, touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and the U.S. with her band Megahype, and continuing her career as an actor.
She has made numerous TV appearances, starring in Jangles on British television and in 1986 playing the lead role of Vivienne in the critically acclaimed Fighting Back as well as singing the theme tune. She also played a singer in an episode of Prospects on Channel 4 alongside former Breaking Glass actor Gary Olsen.
She still performs these days.
The songs you can hear here are :
01 If only
02 Top of the wheel
03 Time (ain't on our side)
I don't know the line up of the band (help me out folks !)
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THE PASSIONS
The roots of the Passions were basicaly a Londonpunk band called The Delericts, although their bassist, Clive Temperly, had been involved in one of the mythical pre-punk bands: The 101'ers (other members of which further formed The Clash!). With this good musical background they soon started the new project, leaving back the punk and jumping to the post-punk sound to be on the wave : a goth touch, a cool look, and, the most important, a bunch of good and strange songs.
Their beginnings were not their best. The first album "Michael and Miranda" (1980), was too nervous and strange to convince. Thankfully, their second album , "Thirty thousand feet over China" (1981) started in a more melodic way, with great pop songs as "Bachelor Girls" or "Skin Deep" and also a strange and untemporal jewel of strange magnetism called "I'm in Love with a German Filmstar", in which the vocalist Barbara Cogan shows how to sing in the most unpassionate way a passionate song. "Skin Deep" and "I'm in love of a German Filmstar" where released as singles.
Their third and last album was "Sanctuary" (1982), it was also a very good record in the same way of dark pop with bits of epic sound and of course not very commercial. This was the last release of this strange band. By 1985 Polydor released a sort of best of called "Passion Plays".
The songs performed here are :
01 Snow
02 Love Song
03 Absenty
04 ?
05 Bachelor Girls
06 Absent (different mix)
Line up :
Barbara Gogan — guitar, vocals
David Agar — bass guitar
Clive Timperley — guitar
Richard Williams — drums
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THE UNDERTONES
The Undertones were a Northern Irish rock band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1975.
Singer Feargal Sharkey's quavering delivery was distinctive, and made the band instantly recognisable. By 1977 they were performing their own three-chord pop punk material influenced by Nuggets-type material and the Ramones. In 1978 they released their debut four-song EP Teenage Kicks on the Good Vibrations label and it became a hit with support from BBC DJ John Peel, who considered that EP's title song his all-time favourite.
The band released four studio albums: The Undertones (1979), Hypnotised (1980), Positive Touch (1981) and The Sin Of Pride (1983). Falling sales linked to their changing musical direction and tensions within the band led to their split in 1983.
From their ashes derrived "That Petrol Emotion", led by John and Damian O'Neil.
And of course Feargal Sharkey solo, but that is a different story !
Tracklist :
01 Boys will be boys
02 See that girl
Line up :
Feargal Sharkey - vocals
John O'Neill -guitar
Damian O'Neill - guitar, vocals
Michael Bradley - bass and vocals
Billy Doherty - drums
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Source : FM > Cassette > Audacity > WAV > FLAC
Another one from the box of old tapes !
ENJOY !
Fredheadset