Saturday, January 13, 2007

The Freshies - complete 7" discography

The seeds of this UK pop group were sown in 1971 when Chris Sievey and his brother hitched a lift to London and staged a sit-in at the Beatles' Apple Records headquarters - eventually going on to record a session.Subsequently Sievey recorded numerous demos which were sent to record companies, resulting in an avalanche of rejection slips he later published as a small book. Another book was dedicated to Virgin Records rejections alone. His own label RAZZ was formed in 1974, releasing a variety of singles, videos and over 60 cassettes. In the meantime, Sievey attempted to form his own band under the title the FRESHIES.Among a stream of musicins who collaborated were Martin Jackson(later Magazine) and Billy Duffy(later the Cult). The most consistent line-up, however, was Barry Spencer(guitar), Rick Sarko(bass, ex-The Nosebleeds) and Mike Doherty(drums, ex-Smirks), the line-up operating between 1980 and 1982. Afterseveral small pressings on Razz, Sievey finally hit the charts with "I'm in love with the girl on the Manchester Virgin megastore..", when it was re-released by MCAin 1981. Two other curious but enduring singles were also released on the major, the ambiguous anti-war "Wrap up the rockets", and the paen to record collecting, "I can't get boucing babies..". However, after a solitary single on Stiff the band split. Sievey, ever the optimist, went on to a similarly bizarre solo career alongside appearances as his alter ego Frank Sidebottom. Incredibly, for a band with literally hundreds of songs behing them, THE FRESHIES never released an album.


One of the best and most underrated UK DIY/pop groups!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stop it! Stop it! Another fraudulent Freshies link!!! This is a link to the Best Of Freshies CD and CERTAINLY NOT all their 7" releases!!! It doesn't even have their BEST 7"s like My Tapes Gone or Children Of The World! Instead of someone actually POSTING these we get this poor excuse of a Best Of compilation!!! Croaaak!!!

Anonymous said...

Beware, this is NOT all the Freshies 7"s - far from it. It doesn't have Octopus, Children Of The World or My Tapes Gone - essential Freshies 7"s - and many others are missing - this is simply a Best Of CD that was released by someone with really poor taste in music!

Anonymous said...

It's FREE music to listen to---what the Hell are you squawking about?! If you don't like it, simply DELETE it! Thanks for the many great posts, Mutant-Sounds!