© Fotos & Words by Steve Drury

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2016 started with the wrong kind of news, as former band member Dean Peckett passed away in Early January.

Dean was a damn fine guitarist and vocalist.

He told me that during the Autumn of 1984: ”At the time, we (Second Coming) and Party Day were both rehearsing at the same pub, The Rising Sun, on Sheffield Road in Barnsley. I began filling in for Martin as he was very ill at the time. He never fully recovered, and by April 1985, I became more of a permanent member and contributor to the band”.

Also Dean was responsible for the Barnsley gig of Dec ‘84, when both PD and SC joined forces onstage to share the Set, and fortunately, Dean had it video recorded. PD’s only ever live recording!

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• News about Publications:

• Mick Mercer’s Music to Die For: the international guide to the last great underground scene (2009). This book was intended to be the ultimate resource to make sense of the chaos that the web phenomenon has helped to fuel, in all things Goth that go crash in the night- Party Day is included along with their discography
• Party Day gets a listed mention in the latest book on Peel by David Cavanagh, as part of the John Peel show for 2nd July 84, amongst others). The book is called ‘Good Night and Good Riddance: How Thirty-Five Years of John Peel Helped to …’  [Publisher: Faber & Faber; Main edition (19 May 2016) ISBN: 978-0571327898]

• 1977cc published ‘The Black Book (the life and times of Richard Rouska) by Captain Swing. 2014. This book contains many references to Party Day, and their jolly time with Rouska Records
• Two new reviews Glasshouse EP and the Glasshouse LP
• Two group photos from ‘85 were added to the Gallery page
• Another TWO Bootleg compilations surfaced!

• Possibly the very first publicly aired compilation, it’s a cassette comp ‘Collage V’ (1986), with ‘My Heroine’
• Online was the Gothic Rockpilation CD 5, (Sept 2011), which included   ‘Atoms’ [terrible CD title, terrible cover image]

• Added to Party Day YouTube:

• Brand new video of ‘My Heroine’ by yours truly (sdtfoto). Once again, most of the visuals came from public domain material, except the party day live shots.
• A compilation of ‘Giraffe in Flames’ has surfaced in its entirety on You Tube

• Club Playlists throughout the world:

• DJ Dragnet and The League of Extraordinary DJ’s, Cafe Mono, Amsterdam played ‘Rabbit Pie’ (Nov 16), ‘Firehorse’ (May 16) and ‘Rabbit Pie’ (Feb 2016)
• DJ Dragnet: at Club Weemoed, Amsterdam with ‘Row the Boat Ashore’ (Aug 2016)
• Sacred Root Kava Lounge and Tea Bar, Ithaca, New York played ‘Atoms’ (May 2015)
• Coffin Maker Sessions, Madrid (Sept 2012) - track?
• John Peel Playlist: Here’s another one that has come to light. This time it’s the 03 April 84 show, airing ‘The Spider’ - ten days before its release

• Online Radio Playlists:

• Strawberry Tongue aired ‘Atoms’ (Sept 2016) and also played ‘Athena’ and ‘My Heroine’ as part of its ‘rolling’ schedule
• PD on Lost.fm have had loads of airplays. This is a list for the last six months (Apr-Oct 16). And also, Last.fm played ‘Atoms’ 28 times in 2007, from the Coast is Clear - Indie Pop blog. Excellent stuff
• Vegan Logic on Istanbul radio played both ‘Row the Boat Ashore’ and ‘Atoms’ (Aug 2016)
• Songs from under the Floorboard, Xray.FM Portland, with ‘Rabbit Pie’ (April 2016)
• Mick Mercer Radio Show played a tribute to Dean, with ‘Hymn’, a track from the abandoned third album sessions (Jan 2016)
• Vita Noctis Radio show on Bermuda Funk plays ‘Atoms’ (2016)
• Adventure Rocketship! in Northampton played ‘Glasshouse’ (Oct 2015)
• Loose Bones radio show, NTS, London gave us ‘Let Us Shine’ (Mar 2015)
• Numerous play listings from Bremen’s Waiting for the Weekend online Radio show, to date: 'Glorious Days' (Oct 2014), ‘Atoms’ (Jul 2014), ‘Atoms’ (Sept 09), ‘Rabbit Pie’ (Oct 08) and listed (Oct 08)
• Too Dark Park No. 34, German radio, the ‘Best of 2011 Show’ aired ‘Let Us Shine’ (Dec 2011) and again with No. 23 (May 2011)
• Oscilloworld.de, German (Mar 2008) aired ‘Atoms’
• Dare Waves in Cleveland, Ohio listed ‘Athena’ (June 2006)
• Phase 108.1 podcast, Beko No.12 featured ‘Glasshouse’.

• Mixtape: From Worldwide Underground Music, DJ Epitaph Set with ‘Rabbit Pie’ (no date)
• additions on YouTube/ Facebook:

• Elxose80 - Post-Punk, Darkwave, Coldwave Selection, features ‘Atoms’ (Sept 2016)
• ‘1985 Legend of Goth’ compilation from Elwe Med, and had PD at No.35 with ‘Borderline’ (March 2016)
• Diabolus in Musica - Post-Punk, Coldwave, Batcave, Gothic Selection and features ‘My Heroine’ (Aug 2015)
• Travel Book TV, https://www.facebook.com/InDepthMusicProject presents a Post-Punk Mix 1985, this time it’s ‘Rabbit Pie’ (n/d)
• Yamie Spechie - 80s-90s Post-Punk Selection with ‘Row the Boat Ashore’ (Aug 2014)

• AND Former band member Paul Nash (back with The Danse Society) created a You Tube film for PD’s 1987 track - ‘I Held her Hand’. This song arose from the abandoned third album sessions
• Interviews/Fanzine Round Up:

• local newspaper interview for Glasshouse EP (1985)
• DIY’ing in the bedroom. An article on Yorkshire fanzines by ayup.co.uk, which has mentions
• Interview with the Dutch fanzine, Motion No.10 (1986)
• Rouska fanzine issued in Summer 1985, featured an interview with PD

• Poster(part of!) for the Rouska EP Release Party for the Glasshouse EP, at the Hive Club in Leeds, 1985. (Shown left)
• Besides the Raging Sun LP, there was also a cassette version from Rouska/Flame! (used for promo)
• Releases page:

• Best Ever Album’s site, gives the Glasshouse LP a ranking of 32,514 in the ‘Best Ever Album’s of all time’ list as it shows in three lists. Considering the millions of other albums released, that can’t be that so bad. (March 2016)
• Zarah Leander’s Greatest Hits - a copy of the cover image has been added to the Recordings page
• Cd and LP.com have a list of singles and compilation tracks for sale (March 2016)

• Auction activity continues…

• Simplicity turns up on Ebay: Apr 2016
• Early demo appeared on Ebay: Mar 2010 (and £9.99 no less)
• Rouska front cover listing, No. 3, Summer 1984, (shown left, in blue) and the Raging Sun rear sleeve photo (see auction)

• PD gets a name check in Trip Creator’s notes on Barnsley
• America Pink online-Encyclopedia has a good representation of Barnsley bands
• A site about Opium related music obviously needs PD’s ‘Opium Gathering’! (2016)
• Gig listing for Leeds University in 1985 supporting The Chameleons and Getting The Fear
• Received a poster of the ‘1 in 12 Club, Bradford’ with Party Day and The Blood Brothers playing on 27th Sept. This is an unknown fourth appearance by PD at this venue. (Many thanks Scott [poster pdf])
• Touching Hearts guide to the Gothic Subculture, is an interesting piece on all things Goth, and also notes PD in the music section
• And one of the most surprising to date: A Spanish Band advert! They need a guitarist whose influenced by PD amongst others. Wow! (Sept 2016)

Party Day: 2016 News