© Fotos & Words by Steve Drury

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Party Day: Memories

Memories I Will Always Cherish

1 in 12 Club, Bradford

Leeds University

The Back Catalogue

A Yankee At King Arthur’s Court

A Few Memories Worth Cherishing

Here are a few of the moments that bring a smile to my face each time I think of the fun and hard times with the band: Although there were many and quite a few ‘lost’ nights amongst these times - it was a joy to be had.

• The time James Brown (Mr Loaded lads mag himself) reviewed them for his fanzine, Attack on Bzag. He thought they were fantastic as he'd never seen anyone play so many instrumentals in a set before. Actually, neither Martin nor Carl had wanted to sing that night, and it became a war of nerves as to see who would crack first . . . it was me! Nobody sang that night except for the closing number ‘Row the Boat Ashore’. but I guess it made a change to the dynamics that night.

"I can only stay a while"

Let’s not forget the first rebirth in interest of this band, when in the summer of 1994 from the land of stars and stripes, Marc Berger came a calling.

As he put it, as I was in the country at the time, it would’ve been rude of me not to go to Barnsley to seek out this band that he much admired (pictured here, L to R: Carl, Marc, Martin and Greg), down the local. And Marc actually jammed with them, and he knew more about the song structures than they themselves remembered!

Marc was later instrumental in the production and design of the two ’official’ bootleg CD’s of extra material (no longer available).

[Party Day Website - went on line as of 1999, and updated 'Aug 02' (both on Geocities), now here as from October 2010]

1 in 12 Club Bradford

This venue became a favourite of the band, as the played there on three occasions:

• The Club’s 3rd Anniversary, 8 April 84: Party Day headlined the event, supported by The Three Johns / The She-Hee's / Dirk Spig / Pariah / Wild Willi Beckett / Requiem / Morbid Humour / Screaming Jellyfish
• 27 March 85: Party Day and Surreal Estate
• 27 Sept: Party Day and The Blood Brothers (see poster)

• 22 January 86: Party Day and Chinese Gangster Element.

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So much has changed. Sorted! Was released, and now almost all recorded songs are available again. As for the originals, then check out the Auction section, which shows abay and similar sites.New homes for little treasures.

As for video, if you’ve seen the 2015 News, then you'll know one such video did exist of the Party Day ‘in transition’ in December 1984. (Can’t thank you enough Dean for this). But I still don’t know what happened to the video recordings of their gigs at La Phonographique in Leeds and Queens Hall in Bradford. Although the quality was crap, there might be something to salvage  . . . or not.

The Back Catalogue

Leeds University & The Duchess

Every time Party Day  played Leeds, it was always a great gig. So here’s the Gig listing at the University when they supported The Chameleons and Getting The Fear - mid 1985 as the band were in transition. And later, at the Duchess 1985.

A Yankee At King Arthur's Court

After Marc, the planet rotated around the Sun for a few more years and then appeared Strobelight Records. . . the first inklings of an afterlife for the band . . .

• The first single; setting up Party Day Records, having the plates cut in London, playing that first test pressing (and trying to find a decent stereo player to try it on!), having the first single all packaged up and ready to go. Played on the Peel Show. There can’t have been many singles that had a cloth sleeve cover.
• The first time at La Phonographique in Leeds, the band didn’t want to play an encore, as they thought the sound had been crap (it was just their monitors), however the audience had loved them. The band didn’t want to do an encore, but I persuaded Carl to go back onstage and he began to play the bass line to a new meaty number, ‘Bleed Me’. First for 4 bars, then 8, then 12. He kept playing not knowing if the others would join him. Mick eventually walked onstage, sat down and immediately began to pound out the rhythm. 12 bars later and still no sign of Martin… (I was beginning to age). They kept up the rhythm. And then, what seemed like hours, Martin appeared and instantly, his crashing chords and vocals started at once. It was beautiful but not planned. It was a nail biting moment for me, but it worked. And the crowd loved it. A fantastic song.

Sadly, this song was never recorded, but a demo version of its intro section appeared on the bootleg CD ‘Splitting the Atom, Shelling the Pea’ . It’s title for the CD was ‘Matter’.

• And annoying times . . . when we didn’t make the Futurama list because of a missed phone message . . The Cure pulling out of the Elephant Festival, which their management company had agreed a support slot for us . . . Running out of petrol on the way home from a gig, miles from anywhere.