The Great Outdoors were Birmingham’s great hope in the early ‘80’s. A flamboyant looking 4 piece led by singer Martin Silvers (who also ran the Highway 69 record shop in the city centre) and guitarist Simon Holland they seemed forever on the brink of the big time. If you need a musical reference then think somewhere around very early REM with a hint of 10,000 Maniacs all seen through a lens pointed at British Psychedelia including early Floyd and the Teardrop Explodes. I saw them live once, in a club in a hotel bar in Brum, and they absolutely blew me away.

By the time they made this, their only album, they had become a 5 piece by adding 2nd guitarist Julian Gibson, with whom I’d been in a band for about 10 minutes prior to him snagging this gig. With respect and love to Julian I don’t think they needed a 2nd guitar. Some of the songs on this record sound confused purely because it feels like a 2nd guitar part has been tacked on where it wasn’t needed. The prime example of this is what I would guess most would remember as the Great Outdoors great moment, “Acid Rain”. 

I’d bought a cassette at the gig I saw them at which featured a demo version of “Acid Rain” exactly as I’d heard it live that night, and that night it had been an absolute highlight of the gig. By the time the album was released and Julian added, the song, to me, had become a stumbling confused mess (sorry mate).

The album was recorded in London and produced by Pat Collier (who would later do fantastic work with The Wonder Stuff among many others) and I’m not sure this would be one he would look back on too often. There are great songs on here, the single “World At My Shoes”, the beautiful “Bird In The Hand” and the Teardroppy “Glass Houses”, it’s the execution that’s lacking. The version of “Acid Rain” I’ve included below is the album version, the demo version did used to be available on YouTube but it seems to have been deleted. Don’t let the confused guitars put you off what is a fabulous song.

In the year after this album was released another wave of Midlands bands came along who did make the breakthrough, initially the Wild Flowers, Mighty Lemon Drops and Balaam & The Angel swiftly followed by Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wonder Stuff and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, and the Great Outdoors window of opportunity was closed. For those that saw them play around the early to mid 80’s you’ll know how great they were, for those that didn’t you’ll just have to trust us.

Acid Rain - https://youtu.be/ELMn0fSIHNA

Another band/record I discovered via a track on a comp CD sent to me by Miles. The track wasn’t the reasonably well known single “Mockingbirds”, which is an absolute beauty, but the opening “Lone Star Song”, a crushing guitar riff, that most grunge bands of the time would have been proud of, leads us into a song about David Koresh and the Waco Massacre. It’s a song that struck me immediately and has been a favourite ever since.

Grant Lee Buffalo formed in Los Angeles in 1991. A three piece headed up by songwriter Grant Lee Phillips, “Mighty Joe Moon” is their 2nd of four studio albums and could loosely be placed in the Americana bucket if you needed to do that. It has hints of country and folk music but equally has splashes of Grunge, The Beatles and classic American Rock, Americana in the loosest sense.

2nd track “Mockingbirds” maybe one of their better known songs, a gentle lament with Beatle-esque strings and that’s followed by the folksy “It’s The Life”, all ringing 12 string acoustics and gently brushed snare; “Sing Along” returns us to the grungy feel of the opening song. And so it progresses swinging twixt beautifully melodic ballads like the title song and the tougher songs in the vein of “Lone Star Song”.

On its release in 1994 “Mighty Joe Moon” was about as out of step with American music as it was possible to be at the time, which is likely what drew me to it. Grunge was where it was at, Cobain had recently taken his own life, and here was a band with a predominantly acoustic rooted album singing songs referencing Tecumseh, David Koresh and John Wayne Gacy with hints of country and folk. Gimme that over bands who were playing heavy metal in check shirts any day. Needless to say it wasn’t a huge seller and remains a much overlooked classic to these ears.

If I have one problem with this album it would be that the original CD and my recently acquired remastered clear vinyl beauty is mastered so bloody quietly that you really have to crank the volume and consequently I always feel like I’m never hearing it at it’s best. But don’t let that put you off…

Lone Star Song - https://youtu.be/-bz71U4BZGk

I first came across the Gigolo Aunts when they opened for The Wonder Stuff on a couple of tours around Europe and the UK in 1993 and ‘94. They were young, musically extremely proficient, a bit starry eyed at being on tour with what was at the time a very big band, genuinely bloody nice people and hell’s teeth did they have a knack with a song.

If they entered the mainstream consciousness in the UK it would be when their song “Where I Find My Heaven” was used as the theme tune for some utterly forgettable 90’s sitcom. Internationally it also featured on the soundtrack of the mind numbing movie “Dumb And Dumber”. That song is a Power Pop masterpiece. Not Power Pop as we think of it here but US Power Pop in the vein of Big Star, Jellyfish, Player etc. American rock bands with great songs and an ability to utterly destroy you with seemingly effortless 3/4 part harmonies, they’d obviously worked at their “craft”. Three of the band sang lead vocals (Dave Gibbs, Phil Hurley and Steve Hurley), Phil was (and still is) a superb guitar player. The bottom line here is I bloody loved the Gigolo Aunts and they shoulda been massive.

Highlights on this album would be the aforementioned “Where I Find My Heaven”, the single “Cope” with it’s big fat wah-wah’d guitar riffs and chorus to kill for, “Bloom” featuring Phil Hurley on vocals which was always a live highlight and the ending title track, a great “ballad” about being at the edge.

I’m still in touch (virtually) with Dave, Phil and Steve and they’re all doing well in their own thing now, still all playing either full time or occasionally. I found this album on lovely red vinyl quite recently so I’ve been playing it a lot. It’s great, you should try it.

Cope - https://youtu.be/ZcnoFqvrS2g