Marshmallow Overcoat, Mel-O-Tones, It’s Immaterial, 1984

Ucatalogueable entities with unpredictable consequences.

The Mel-o-Tones © Gary Lornie

Proof that there were lots of Liverpool bands that might not have gone down in history but were still worth your notice.

The Liverpool Irish Centre at this time was housed in a once-grand building on Mount Pleasant (near the Catholic Cathedral), originally a Regency-period assembly rooms. It mostly hosted events for the city’s large Irish community but was occasionally hired by music promoters.

It’s Immaterial are best known now for their 1986 hit Driving Away From Home (scroll down for the video). Marshmallow Overcoat were best known for having a typically Liverpool wacky band name. (Although a quick look at Google tells me there was an American band with the same name in the 90s.) And I’ve told you about the wonderful Mel-o-Tones before: I interviewed them the following year.

As you’d expect, there are connections between the bands. John Campbell from It’s Immaterial and Martin Dempsey from the Mel-o-Tones were both in the late 70s art-school group Yachts. And Barry Sutton from Marshmallow Overcoat joined Walkingseeds, the band that the Mel-o-Tones evolved into later.

MARSHMALLOW OVERCOAT/ MEL-O-TONES/ IT'S IMMATERIAL

Irish Centre, Liverpool

MELODY MAKER December 22/29, 1984

IT'S Immaterial prove that numbers are immaterial, revealing the former beat group to be currently a beat duo. The format is in the usual two men-and-a-Teac mould but the songs are still beat and the style, thankfully, still owes little to the technological age.

MarshmaIlow Overcoat make the same point about numbers, from the opposite direction. Famous locally for their name as much as their surprises, they're an uncatalogueable entity with unpredictable consequences. This time, I fell asleep before I could finish counting them.

Between two extremes, the Mel-O-Tones employ the classic, basic line-up. But where moderation's concerned, that's as far as they go. The attraction's instant - first the corners of the mouth are affected, then the feet. Idle interest's impossible, as they pull you immediately towards them.

"Strychnine" is one of the half-buried covers (there's a Sam the Sham hidden somewhere, for further reference points), but, if an idea like subtlety has any meaning here (which is doubtful), it's in the influences. There are no clones here, and if the sound's occasionally swampy there's nothing Gothic about the style. The best thing is, for a newish group, their songs don't all sound the same. And the personnel, like all the most dangerous eccentrics, look (almost) normal.

The victim is willing, and happily surprised.

The Mel-O-Tones are not mellow. But they are magnetic.

Watch It’s Immaterial

Here’s It’s Immaterial doing Driving Away From Home. The duo of John Campbell and Jarvis Whitehead are joined here by Henry Priestman, also from Yachts and later of The Christians.

Back in the 21st century

Production continues on my memoir, which is out on 2nd October next year. I’ve just had it back from my editor and have been going through the edits. She also sent me this style guide, designed specifically for music books. It’s a bit different from the sort of thing I use for editing in my day job.