Although recorded in 1990, this song didn't see the light of day until 2008 when it was included on the Rough Digs album, a Summerhouse Records anthology of Whirlpool Guest House. Less indie and awkward than our 1980's material, Utterly Carefree was aiming for a timeless pop sound, and was one of the last songs we recorded before morphing into Shandy Wildtyme in 1992 (same band but this time a live entity).

Rough Digs

WHIRLPOOL GUEST HOUSE - Utterly Carefree (1990)

Lead track from Pictures On The Pavement, Whirlpool Guest House's 1988 sole album for Summerhouse Records. Although influenced by that decade's indie-pop movement, we (that's me, Andrew and Sally) were actually happier with late 1960's Laurel Canyon comparisons, and were suitably chuffed to be dubbed by someone I can't recall "the Poundstretcher Buffalo Springfield". Ludicrous of course, much like my hair "style" on this image, possibly the last band photo ever of me with hair. Hippy!

WHIRLPOOL GUEST HOUSE - The Plumber's Daughter (1988)

Another song from the Luminous album, and a live favourite.

Luminous

SHANDY WILDTYME - Happy Are The People (1995)

Shandy Wildtyme were active from 1992 until 1995, playing selective live dates round North East England and recording what turned out to be our final album for Summerhouse Records, Luminous. This particular song has a kind of Lou Reed meets the Stones quality, and finds the band in more playful mode than our previous Whirlpool Guest House incarnation.

SHANDY WILDTYME - Girlfriend Situation (1995)

This was a total contrast to everything else I'd been doing under the Posters guise- a soft, heartfelt, folky ballad, and possibly the saddest song I've written. I remember Mike being mock shocked that I didn't want to "add a mad backward kazoo or something"! By the time I recorded it, the song was around 7 years old, and dates from the final few months of Shandy Wildtyme.

Posters

POSTERS - No-One Came To Call (2001)

A slightly dancey vibe to this one utilising a fun sample of Dawn saying "She's pretty, but not as pretty as me"! There was a light hearted feel to this session and we spent as much time laughing as we did working. Happy days.

POSTERS - Not As Pretty (1998)

More decidedly left field pop with Mike once again working his studio magic. "How can we make it upbeat and unsettling at the same time?" was the kind of thing I'd ask him at the start of a session. He'd roll his eyes but never shirked a challenge! The Posters phase was never meant for public consumption and nothing was released at the time. I just wanted space to experiment and push myself, free from the constraints of being in a conventional band set up.  I've always loved being cocooned in a recording studio, and twenty odd years later I still feel exactly the same. The thrill of creating original music has been with me all my life and it can still make me tremble to this day. The intriguing female vocal you can hear on this song was provided by Mike's girlfriend Linzi Hunter.

POSTERS - Charmed I'm Sure (1998)

This was the first song I recorded as Posters and marked the beginning of four years of studio based musical experimentation. Despite the strange arrangement and bizarre tangents, it's still a pop song to me, albeit it one more likely to be a hit in Wonderland than Sunderland. Sadly, producer Mike Frankland who helped bring this curio to life via his extraordinary musical virtuosity and studio craft, died tragically young (in his forties) around three years ago. It was a massive loss to the Teesside music scene. He played guitar, bass, banjo and keyboards on all the Posters stuff and without his involvement it is uncertain any of these songs would ever have been anything more than wild ideas in my head. But as the song says- it shall be done. There's more on the Posters back story on my Soundcloud sister site Secret Carl: https://soundcloud.com/carl-will-do

POSTERS - It Shall Be Done (1997)

Me and Abby Connor, The Close-Ups in person. This was the B side to the second single (Mascara Dave- hear it on my Secret Carl Soundcloud page) but in hindsight should have been the main song. Steve Lamacq obviously agreed as he played this several times on his Radio One show, ignoring the A side. Fair enough. Nice dirty guitar sound on this, recently re-employed for some current Head Of Light Entertainment songs. It's Your Loss was at least a decade old by this point, its origins being the live Shandy Wildtyme set from around 1994.

Single B Sides

THE CLOSE-UPS - It's Your Loss (2005)

The Close-Ups was an animated band I created as a front for my indie-pop studio project (2002 - 2006). We launched August 2003 at Teesside University (who's animation department were involved) but it was exactly a year later before this, the first of three vinyl singles, was released. The artwork shows the album it came from (2am in Flat 3b, released 2006) and was designed by chief animator and all round talented bugger Jez Hall. The actual musicians on the recordings were Abby Connor on lead vocals, myself on guitar, bass and backing vocals, Adam Sayers on keys and Paul Smith (not that one!) on drums.  We created a quirky Archies-style video for this song which one day I'll get round to sticking on Youtube.

2am in Flat 3b

THE CLOSE-UPS - I'm On My Way (2004)

Hello again! Back in 2013 I set up a Soundcloud page (Secret Carl- go check it out) to share some of the music I made in obscurity between 1986 and 2006. This is the very belated sister site to that particular vanity project, and, like last time, it features an eclectic cross section of my home grown "pop" along with a few notes about each band/project. I'm still involved in music (always) and my current band Head Of Light Entertainment have been an unhealthy obsession of mine since 2008 (also for your listening pleasure on here).  Hope there's a few tunes that pique your interest, quicken your heart, and stay in your head.  Thanks for listening. Carl x
SECRET CARL: https://soundcloud.com/carl-will-do
HEAD OF LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: https://soundcloud.com/headoflightentertainment

Hidden Carl