Ashley's take on, well, everything
1 Nino Temple and April Stevens - I Love how you love me (Nancy and Lee lite type duo rip off The Byrds, but throw in bagpipes - brilliant!)
2 The Church - Under The Milky Way (Their biggest hit, such a classy song)
3 David Devant and His Spirit Wife - This is for real (Really sinister bagpipes kick in at the end of this amazing song)
Back in the late 90s a highlight of the Devant's stage show featured a man grating carrot on another bloke's head - which in my book just about sums the band up, anarchic, innovative, theatrical and utterly bonkers.
Based around the very considerable songwriting talents of lead singer The Vessel DDAHSW produced a trio of albums, two of which are quite the equal of anything else recorded in the 90s. http://www.myspace.com/daviddevantandhisspiritwife
They sounded like no one else too. Think pre-Space Oddity Bowie (my fave era for Mr Jones) hanging out with early Roxy and add a dash of Syd's Floyd and you are there. The songs were astonishingly good. In a parallel universe This is for real, One thing after another and Pimlico would have been more than enough to clinch The Vessel a Novello or two.
He still makes records today under the guise of Mr Solo, and they are almost as good as his band in its heyday, which quite frankly is so much better than everyone else it is laughable. http://www.myspace.com/mistersolo
They are playing live soon http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=99907172559&mid=beaca9G1fb86cb4G2d88... turn up and watch grown men weep with joy.
