| RECORD REVIEWS |
| Publication unknown, 1987 |
THE BODINES
Therese (Magnet) |
| The Bodines have pumped up 'Therese' and hit out with an all-embracing dance mix.
Fiery guitars and glitzy vocals make for a glorious trek down the pop lane. |
|
| NME, 9 May 1992 |
MEDALARK 11
Snake (Creation) |
Named, naturally, after Meadowlark Lemon who, if memory serves me right, was the
"zany" one in the Harlem Globetrotters cartoon.
Medalark 11 are neither yer average Creation band nor yer average Manc band despite a chirpy sense of
rhythm akin to Factory-era James. 'Snake' is an appropriately twisty piece of steel-wire guitar dance
music and dead spooky with it and suggests a happier early ACR. Fresh! Zippy! Plangent! Odd! This is
what we pay Alan McGee his weight in diamonds for. |
| David Quantick |
|
 VOX, issues 42, March 1994 |
MEDALARK X1
Medalark XI (Creation CRE LP 145) |
Fronted by former Bodine Mick Ryan, this Manchester trio's 1991 debut single 'Snako' [sic] was
in the vein of the then 'Blissed Out' Beloved. On signing to Creation, Medlark XI released 'I Call Your Name', a simple
melody that ignored their dance orientation and set Mick up as Britain's precursor to Evan Dando.
Despite that song's critical success, it's a formula that they have decided not to repeat on their debut album. Instead, they
opt for a loose-limbed, swaggering instrumentation, reminiscent of Happy Mondays. Sadly, some excellent playing and well-written
tunes can't hide the fact that Ryan's softm self-conscious vocals simply don't suit this sort of well-managed madness. Consequently,
it's the two instrumentals, 'Querelcia' amd 'Metalark' that fare best. In the end, however, Medalark XI's debut seems too unfocussed,
out-of-date and lacking in original ideas. 5/10 |
| Lisa Verrico |
| LIVE REVIEWS |
| NME, 9 February 1985 |
| MINKS SLEEPING-GASSED! |
THE JASMINE MINKS
THE BODINES
Islington The Three Johns |
| Six days after their outskirts debut, The Bodines arrived in Central London, one
of the most powerful new bands to have emerged in the New Year. Performing on a Rubrik Cube of a stage,
the four teenagers that make up this Glossop band wedged power, energy, and effort between a boringly
tedious Jasmine Minks sound check and a tediously boring Jasmine Minks set. |
| The Bodines are actually very young (youngest 15, oldest 19) yet by the time they'd
reached their third number, 'I Feel', they were performing like old masters, carefully forging a united
sound out of Michael Ryan's excellent sounds. Paul Lilley perched on a pedestal like Keith Moon without
the whisky drip frantically pumped out a beat with all his 15 year old might, whilst Paul Brotherton
provided an excellent bass line for Ryan to punctuate with his teeth-gritting vocals. |
| But it's not only youth and talent that is on the side of The Bodines, they also seem
to have that energy and enthusiasm that so epitomised the circa '78 Merseyside bands. 'Paradise' accelerated
into a fast, dominating mesh of guitar, reminiscent of songs like 'The Puppet' before rigor mortis set into the
Bunnymen. 'Will You Shatter' [sic] slowed down the pace and weaved a wordy web 'round a jangly guitar, leaving
Ryan to adopt an early Cope-style idol's image - a sort of Kirkby worker's dream come true. |
| It's impossible not to like The Bodines - in particular, Michael Ryan. He possesses all
the quirks and qualities of the early Ian McCulloch. He's effortlessly forceful during songs like 'Paradise',
and he's incredibly charismatic during the musical interludes. With a mere flick of his fringe he can
replace lyrics with an image that exudes a confidence which captures and carries his audience. |
| It would be nice if the same could be said of The Jasmine Minks, but tonight they displayed
a dullness that these days seems to characterise any band that's been in the business longer than six months.
Perhaps it was the two hour soundcheck or perhaps it was the incredibly muffled wooliness of their set, but the
only Jasmine image of the evening that sustained was that of the keyboard player combing and recombing his hair
IN EVERY MIRROR in the Three Johns pub. |
| Perm the first band, flick over the straggly bits and cover up the musical bald patches on
the second. |
| Neil Taylor |
|
| Publication unknown, 1987? |
THE BODINES
Hacienda, Manchester |
| Eclectic, that's the word you keep seeing in the Eighties. It's often the polite way of saying
"nothing new here". Apparently The Bodines have survived the obligatory Postcard / Bunnymen comparisons, though
on tonight's evidence it's hard to see why. Paul Brotherton guitar sounds alternately like he's into Albrecht or Sargeant.
If it were 1981, with Mick Ryan's fringe-in-the-eye job, they'd be genuine rivals to the Bunnymen but it's not and neither
are they. The Bodines are a well oiled, finely tuned machine that makes a nicer noise than a Fiat exhaust. |
| Hitting the home town with a warm-up for their American tour the band are seriously getting down to
working their way up. Tomorrow they'll be in California. It's all well played, well rehearsed, well sussed. . .
well behaved. |
| The Bodines simply blend in too well with their mediocre surroundings to be regarded as anything other than
the best of the bunch, typical new dark hopes. Geographically California's a fair stretch from Glossop. Musically it won't
be so easy to leave behind. |
| Bill McCoid |
|
| Sounds, 1987 |
| STINGING THE BLUES |
THE BODINES / NIKKI SUDDEN AND THE JACOBITES / VOICE OF THE BEEHIVE
University Of London Union |
| At last, a pop group to sing and dance to. Voice Of The Beehive are two extremely
bubbly American female vocalists and a couple of Mad musicians called Woody and Bedders, who've had some
free time on their hands since their old group split up. Collectively, this lot blow up some sweet and sour
pop bubblegum that makes gig-going fun again. |
| You can't help but have a good time listening to VOTB. Californian surfing hook lines,
shirt-shaking choruses and songs that seem to have been with you since the day you discovered the thrills of
pop music, makes them more than just something special. In time, they will be bigger than Fuzzbox, The Bangles,
The Shop Assistants and Madonna put together. |
| Nikki Sudden followed but only succeeded dampening the jollity with his dribbling, self-pitying
laments about chicks who no longer want to unzip his rock 'n' roll leathers to blow on his bazooka. Surprise guest
Rowland Howard - whose smoky blue guitar chimes are so effective in the City Solution's landscapes - only helped to
push Nikki further into the guise of a pantomime figure, acting out the life and death of a rock 'n' roll guitar hero. |
| The Bodines have left Creation for Magnet Records, and even if they were "never up to the same
quality of The Weather Prophets and Primal Scream" - to quote Alan McGee of Creation - they've still created a
vitriolic pop gem in 'Therese', tonight's only obvious highlight. |
| Sadly, The Bodines' sophisticated barrage of post-Postcard guitars sounded confusing; and the songs
were always almost there but you knew they would never fully arrive. It also seemed as if smiling was forbidden
as a 'let us all go hang ourselves' Joy Division style depression set in. |
| Because The Bodines are part of the new pop brat pack, it seems they still feel a need to gloss over
their charms with miserable romanticism. A depressive angst is always a lot more credible! |
| Ron Rom |