Last year, I wanted to make a point about how many Merseyside bands were around in the 1980s. I made a list and called it Four hundred 1980s Liverpool bands you’ve never heard of (and some that you have). Actually there were 417 names. Then people kept suggesting more names so I think we are closer to 500 now. Which proved the point, just a bit.
Then I wondered if the 1990s would be similar, so I made another list. Again it’s based on the Merseyside bands that I wrote about in my Echo column and in the Melody Maker.
Things had moved on from the post-punk years of the ’80s. In the 1990s, Merseyside music seemed to be split mainly between dance music and 1960s throwbacks. Plus several groups that came with the evergreen description “Wirral rock band”.
It was obviously going to be a good decade. In the Liverpool Echo on 30th December 1991, I wrote a piece on “a good year for Liverpool bands”. At the end I put “Apologies to the hundreds of groups I didn’t have space to mention.”
And there were hundreds. There are over 500 on this list already. And it’s definitely not definitive because I stopped writing about music in the mid-90s so it’s only covering half the decade.
I know I won’t have time to keep up with all the new suggestions, so here’s the deal. If you’ve got additional names that I missed/ don’t remember/ didn’t know about, please stick them in the comments, and people can read them in conjunction with this post. It’ll be a team effort.
Over to you now!
The list of 1990s Liverpool bands
16 Tambourines, 2 Funky 2, 25th Of May, 35 Summers, 56 Kiss
Abdul and the Blue Notes, Abigail, Absaloot, Acoustic Club, Acrobats of Sa, Adams Family, All of Everything, Alternative Radio, Anathema, Andrew Bowers, Angel Child, Anthony J Clarke, April Rains, Arcoroc, Ask Mamma, Association, Atlanta, Attic Head, Australians, Autumn Tone, Axis
Baby Boys, Back to Back, Bamboo Fringe, Bantu, Barbarella, Barbel, Bassheads, Beach Bastards, Bemused, Benny Profane, Black, Black Summer Rain, Blakeys, Blasted Tower, Blip Culture, Bliss Beat, Bloody Picnic, Blue Meanies, Blue Vein, Bluenose, BND, Bob Bob Bob and Bob, Body, Boo Radleys, Born Devotional, Brasshoppers, Breed, Brood Room, Bullet Proof Halo, Bullyrag
Candy Opera, Candyman, Candystore Rock, Caprice, Carcass, Cast, Cat Scratch Fever, Catapult, Cathy Gilliat, Cecil, Chad, Chaingang, Chameleon Zoo, Charlie Don’t Surf, China Beach, China Crisis, Christians, Cindy and the Barbie Dolls, Clocktower, Collectors Bizarre, Colourfall, Commercials, Connie Lush, Contempt, Co-optimists, Corkhills, Cosmic Donuts, Costels Tastee Wowens, Courarge de Sarge, Crash Babies, Crash Control, Crawlspace, Cream of the Barley, Cromptons, Curly Smoke
Da Books, Danny Woods, Dass Unser, Dawn Patrol, Daze, Dead Beat Life, Dead Men’s Suits, Deadline, Dean Johnson, Deceiver, Dee Boss Scalls, Demolition Co, Desert, Deterrent, Dharma Bums, Dining with Len, Dirty Blue Hook, Dirty Deeds, Diskworld, Donny and Marie Handbag Revolution, Doo Doo Chasers, Doris Stokes, Dr Phibes, Dread, Dreamland, Drive, Drone, Drumanattic, Dube, Duke Footwarmers, Dust
Earz, Eat My Dog, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eclipse, Eddie Shit, Edge, Eight, Elaine Harris, Electra-City, Electrafixion, Ellis O’Neil, Empty Hours, Engine, Entourage, Epodrhythmology (no, I don’t know either), Experimental Gardens, Express Desire
F.A.B., Family Vibe, Fantastic, Farm, Feeling Tones, Fenris Wolfe, Fergus, Fiasco, Firecharmers, Fish Cake Shake, Fishmonkeyman, Forecast, Freefall, Freeworld, Frontiers of Chaos, Froth, Fugitive, Fuzzy Logic
Gary Potter, Glad Eyes, Glass, Glide, Global Fusion, G-Love, Gluebound, Gnarl, Go Heads, Gonzo, Goodness Gracious Groove, Graham Trust, Greg Milton Singers, Grin, Groovedriver, Guilty, Gutta Band
Half Man Half Biscuit, Halfway to Eddie’s, Hannah Black, Hellfire Sermons, Hello Felix, Henesy Jones, Her Room of Light, Herbs, Here’s Johnny, Hey Marsha, Hippopotamuses, Holly Johnson, Hoovers, Horizon, Hubba Hubba, Hurricane
Ian McCulloch and the Prodigal Sons, Ian McNabb, Icicle Works, In Too Deep, Incredible Blues Machine, Indigo Wild, Innerdaze, Insanity Beach, International/Internationale, Isis, It’s Immaterial
Jack Kennedy’s Outlaws, Jack Roberts, Jah Deanko, Jah Scouse, Jegsy Dodd, Jellystone Park, Jennifer Fever, Jennifer John, Joanna, Joe Public, Joey and the Wheels, Johann Skauss, Jonville Road, Jules Verne, Julius Calendar, Junglebone, Just Vibration
Kate, Kathryn Dion, Kikin’ Birds, Kill Laura, Kindred Soul, Kindred Spirit, King B’s, Kiss the Frog, Kiss the Prezident, Kit, K-Klass, KL5, Kudos
La’s, Larrikin, Laughing Sam’s Dice, Lawnmower, Lazy S, Libertines (not that one), Liberty, Lightning Seeds, Limehouse, Listening Pool, Little Boy Sick, Live Transmission, Living Image, Loop Garu, Love and the Guitars, Love That Spout Medley, Lovely Amber, Lovenuts, Low
Made for Jane, Magic Carpet, Magic Clock, Magic Roundabout, Mahalia, Marina van Rooy, Martian Juggernaut, Master Murphy, Mazey Fade, MDM, Mello-D-Funk, Melthead, Mephisto Waitz, Mercy, Mexico Party, Mind Body and Soul, Miracle Workers, Mixies Men, Mojo Hand, Moon Spooks, Morbid Sheep Farmer, Morph, Mr Hyde, Mr Ray’s Wig World, Mr Strettles Piano, Muffin Men
Napoleon, Natural Life, Never Revolution, New Atlantic, New Breed, Nine, Nothing for Nothing, Now Here This, N-Trust, Numbers
Oceanic, Oh Yeahs, Oink Babies, OMD, On Tick, Once Bitten, One Over The Eight, Onset, Out of England, Out of the Blues, Outland, Ozana Man
Paradox UK, Passchen Flowers, Passion House, Patriots, Paul, Peacemakers, Pele, People Get Ready, Perfume, Perfumed Garden, Perri Alleyne, Personal Column, Pete Wylie, Peter Coyle, Philip Johnson, Pigs from a Gun, Pink Fish Quartet, Pipe, Playing Fields, Poisoned Electrick Head, Poke, Pond Dwellers, Pondskater Rejuvinator, Pool Of Life, Powerhouse, Preachers, Prescots/Prescotts, Prophets, Pure, Pure Morning, Pyramid Dream
Quit Bitch’n
R.E.D.0., Raconteurs, Radiators, Raft, Rain, Rainbow Coalition, Ramrod, Raphael Callaghan and Christine Purnell, Raven Rocker, Raw Unltd, Real People, Real Thing, Reality, Red Dog, Red Line, Red Stone Dancer, Reindeer Brigade, Relive the Dream, Revelation Dawn, Reverb Brothers, Riff Raff Element, Ritual, River City People, River House, Roadside Prophets, Rob Jones, Rob White, Robbie Wayne Anderson, Roger Christian, Room to Move, Rosetta Stone, Rubber Sun, Rumblefish, Rumbletrain, Ruthless
Safehouse, Scarlets, Scattered Fall, Scorpio Rising, Screamies, Sea Horses, Second Life, Sense of Sound, Sex Kittens, Shack, Shadowland, Shell Collectors, Shell Shock, Shine, Sian, Silas, Singing Ringing Tree, Sister Madly, Six, Skin’n’Bone, Sliced Bread, Slug, Small, Small Wonder, Snakeskins, SO77, Something Wonderful, Sonia, Soothe, Space, Spontaneous Cattle Combustion, Stairs, State O’Maine, Steal, Stein, Steppin Stone, Stepping Stones, Stracey Band, Strangeloves, Strip Wax, Substitutes, Subterraneans, Sugargun, Sunprobe, Supercharge, Suspira, Sweet Liberty, Sweet Mercy
Tambourines, Tansads, Telefone, Terrajacks, That Man, The 3 Blaggers, The Apartment, The Big I Am, The Eye Dance, The Fevertree, The Free Zone, The Greater Good, The Iliad, The Industry, The Instinct, The Matrix, The Mist, The Modern World, The Moon’s A Balloon, The Nice Party, The North of England, The Parade, The Paragonz, The Pies, The Playground, The Profile, The Reserection of Richard Joy, The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus, The Rivertrade, The Shining Net, The Star Spangled Banana, The Stoops, The Street, The Switch, The Thousand, The Truth Band, The Underground, The Void, The Vow, Thin Ice, Thomas Lang, Thought Association, Three Little Pigs, Tidemarks, Tiempo Libre, Timeshard, Tin Gods, Too Young To Die, Top, Torino, Tractors, Transparents, Traveller, Trust, Two Funky Two, Two Moon Sky, Two Way Street
Ugly, Ultimate Fiasco, Unholy Row, Unlimited Dream Company, Up and Running, Urban Cookie, Urban Muther, Urban Strawberry Lunch, Urchins, Us Being Them, Use, Usurpa
Valle Crucis, Volunteers, Vow Vow
Wah! Now, Wailing Souls, Waiting for Deffo, Walking Seeds, West 11, Western Promise, Where’s the Beach, Who’s Dreaming, Who’s Henry, Wig Love, Wired, Wise Monkeys, Wizards of Twiddly, Wooden Egos, Woodjammers, Words in Motion, Worlds Apart
Zak Daniels, Zeb, Zebedee, Zeitgeist, Zen Baseballbat
Unrest.
Ricky Spontane, Blue Juice and 0898.