See review at www.ripplemusic.blogspot.com
APB formed in 1979 in the small rural town of Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Ignoring their remote location the boys took inspiration from the punk do it yourself ethic of the burgeoning independent music scene. With a hard-working approach to writing, rehearsing and performing, George Cheyne (drums), Glenn Roberts (guitar) and Iain Slater (bass, vocals) became APB. Meanwhile in Aberdeen, a small independent record company called Oily had started to release records and they were impressed enough by the band's live shows to release a single in 1981.
The song was "Chain Reaction", which had long been a favourite at gigs. It was basically a two and a half minute punk/pop song with fuzzy distorted guitar and Scottish inflected vocals, but already the band was evolving with a sparser and more rhythmical sound. Bootsy, Clinton, GO4, ESG, Buzzcocks, Clash, were all filtered through three teenagers from Aberdeenshire and came out as infectious and rhythm-driven pure !
The change in sound first became evident with their second single for Oily, "I'd Like To Shoot You Down" (1981).
The single did well and sold out its first pressing, with some copies finding their way to New York City. Soon it was regularly played at most of NYC's underground dance clubs.Unaware of the popularity of 'Shoot You Down' in the USA the band and Oily were busy pushing their third seven-inch, "Palace Filled With Love" (1982).
This is when the Radio 1 sessions began. Peel and Jensen ( and lastly Peter Powell) were playing the tunes nightly and offering sessions despite the lack of a major record deal. So, in between USA trips, the band travelled to London to record their first BBC session for John Peel. He was full of enthusiasm for the band and gave their next single "Rainy Day" (1982) loads of plays!
Nick Jones joined in 1982 playing percussion (Later to be replaced by Mikey Craighead) , adding another dimension to the proceedings.
The band then went to NYC to record another single at PlazaSound On the 7th floor of Radio City. ( Sadlly not there any more!)
Cool Slideshows
The autumn of the same year Mark Beaven of AAM, New York City made contact with Oily to enquire about the availability of APB for a small tour of the East Coast of AmericaWhen they arrived in New York they heard their tracks played on college radio and in clubs such as Danceteria, Berlin and the Mudd Club. This went down well! The tour went well !! and with the backing of Mark Beaven would turn out to be the first of 12 visits over the next 7 years The band's sixth single "What Kind of Girl" (1984) came out on Albion in the UK and "Sleeping Bag Records" in the USA. It was recorded at Unique in Manhattan, home of the electro/hip-hop producers,Arthur Baker and John Robie and got to no. 1 on the Billboard dance chart . The track got lots of radio play, especially on WLIR/WDRE on Long Island. By now US tours were becoming more extensive and audiences were increasing with the Ritz in Manhattan being a regular High point in the proceedings.
Cool Slideshows
APB's seventh release was "Summer Love" (1985) on their own Red River Label, quickly followed by "Something to Believe In" (1985). By now, the band had released eight singles, many of which were hard to find and were only available on import in the USA. At this point Link(NYC)released the much sought after compilation of the singles as a first LP release simply called "Something t'o Believe In" (1985). after this,'Cure for the Blues' was released as the first full album
Then, 'Open your eyes ,'Missing you already', 'When I feel this way' and 'Funk invective' were all released as 12 inch singles/eps
The final release on Link records was the cd version of 'Something to believe in'
In 2006, Young American Recordings re released a 20th anniversary edition of 'Something to believe in' with a 2nd disc of previously unreleased live tracks and studio recordings. Also on Young American,released in march ,2006,was the complete Radio One Sessions cd, which features all the John Peel sessions fron the early 80s.
The band have now reformed and have recorded a new 14 track cd for release on their own Red River label in January 2007
'SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN' AND 'THE RADIO 1 SESSIONS' BOTH AVAILABLE ON I TUNES AND AMAZON NOW.
NEW ALBUM APB THREE AVAILABLE JANUARY 25 2007 HERE!!!
Track listing 1 Ghost of my love
2 Free again
3 love by the seasons
4 Yawn
5 Drag
6 bad tempered spinster
7 Less
8 Convoluted
9 Shock you
10 Choose your exit
11 Rhyme together
12 House of the living dead
13 24 hour century
14 Death of rock and roll
You've been marked on my visitor map!
