Michael Baxter | Flowers In The Dustbin - 1984 - 1986 All The Madmen Records Mortarhate Records Cold Harbour Records @mickeypenguin | Uploaded November 2019 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Folk that know me, know of my fondness for Flowers In The Dustbin. I witnessed Flowers In The Dustbin many times throughout the bands lifetime in the 1980's. The performances were colourful, chaotic, sometimes shambolic and beautiful.
I wrote to the band several times and always got a couple of pages back in the most beautiful handwriting I had ever seen from Gerard the vocalist. Just a merchandise list was certainly not good enough to send back to a young kid who had placed the time and the effort to write a badly spelled and horrendously punctuated letter that would shortly be soap-stamped up for the eventual delivery to the band somewhere in the furthest southern suburbs of south London. I still have those letters safe. Gerard along with Andy Martin from The Apostles were pretty much responsible inspiration-wise to get my spelling, my handwriting and my punctuation to a far better standard, an inspiration that still remains today. Who needs school?
Flowers In The Dustbin released a 12" E.P on All The Madmen records and were a quarter of the reason I visited Brougham Road in Hackney in 1985 to search out something far different to the life I was used to back in my Hertfordshire / Essex border town. The other three quarters of the reason for the first visit to All The Madmen records were, in no particular order, The Astronauts, The Mob and Blyth Power.
The All The Madmen 12" single 'Freaks Run Wild' released in 1984 was an absolute classic.
Indebted to Gerard for the informative text below.
“Flowers In The Dustbin were doing a gig at the Roxborough Tavern in Harrow when Mick Lugworm came up and asked us if we wanted to do a record on All The Madmen records. It was a complete surprise – we hadn’t even considered a record at that point. But it was full of good omens for me. David Bowie’s ‘mad’ brother was in “Cane Hill loony bin”, which was my local (so to speak) – so doing a record on a label named after the song Bowie wrote about him was neat, particularly given our fondness for utilising the Doors ‘all the children are insane’ line. Freaks was recorded after Si and Bill had been in the band less than a week. Bill had filled in on drums with us before however, and none of the songs required a Jimmy Page level of competence for Si to learn. Finding a studio was done via the local Yellow Pages. I found one just around the corner from my old school, which at the time seemed some kind of fitting, if ill-defined, revenge. We booked two days and invited old friend – and This Bitter Lesson chanteuse – Claire Taylor to put some extra vocals on it. I thought Claire was a Goddess and her voice was liquid velvet and so could take the edge off my own perceived vocal shortcomings. Also it seemed a good idea to have a woman singing at a time when the only female punk vocals around seemed to be aping the numbing aggressive shouting of their male counterparts”.
A little over a year later Conflicts record label Mortarhate released the 'Nails Of The Heart' 7" single which also included 'The Reason Why', my favorite Flowers In The Dustbin song.
"People look but they just don't see
Seem like they're listening but never seem to hear
Insomnia, pain, won't stop whirling
Love is a currency, you still use sterling
But some children never grow up
And see the world and see it fucked
And lyrics might be eloquent
But they stop at the skin
Whilst my heart cries tears
For the love wasted within
Like me when I ignored you on the bus
And you even sat next to me on the tube
And the mutual strangers never connect
And people even talk but nothing gets said
I'm reaching for your heart but your skin's like lead"
A year or so after that release, 'Like My Crazy Colours' was released on Cold Harbour records.
Coming up a close second to 'The Reason Why', 'Lick My Crazy Colours' was for a while played back to back on the stereo, both records played many times in one session.
"The windswept horizon of hot summer paradise
You realise the truth, you find where your freedom lies
The taste of love on a dear friends lips
Feel your vision blur as you give in, so willingly
The old ones complained, and they said they were wiser than us
But us we're just having a party to last for the rest of our lives
They wised it and sized it and they analysed it through and through
But us we just did it, we had nothing better to do, so willingly
Oh Mr Clean with your nicotine-stained brain
Businesswoman Julie, never felt the beauty, never picked a tulip, just kept fixing Pepsi
But in your business-suits of navy blue
Do you really think your children take any notice of you? Not willingly"
Some of Gerard's lyrics seemed to hit the spot every time for someone like me with my awkwardly shy sensibilities at that age, desperately trying to figure out a way to change my world and the outside world for the better.
This 7" single released on Cold Harbour Records was to be the last offering from Flowers In The Dustbin.
Folk that know me, know of my fondness for Flowers In The Dustbin. I witnessed Flowers In The Dustbin many times throughout the bands lifetime in the 1980's. The performances were colourful, chaotic, sometimes shambolic and beautiful.
I wrote to the band several times and always got a couple of pages back in the most beautiful handwriting I had ever seen from Gerard the vocalist. Just a merchandise list was certainly not good enough to send back to a young kid who had placed the time and the effort to write a badly spelled and horrendously punctuated letter that would shortly be soap-stamped up for the eventual delivery to the band somewhere in the furthest southern suburbs of south London. I still have those letters safe. Gerard along with Andy Martin from The Apostles were pretty much responsible inspiration-wise to get my spelling, my handwriting and my punctuation to a far better standard, an inspiration that still remains today. Who needs school?
Flowers In The Dustbin released a 12" E.P on All The Madmen records and were a quarter of the reason I visited Brougham Road in Hackney in 1985 to search out something far different to the life I was used to back in my Hertfordshire / Essex border town. The other three quarters of the reason for the first visit to All The Madmen records were, in no particular order, The Astronauts, The Mob and Blyth Power.
The All The Madmen 12" single 'Freaks Run Wild' released in 1984 was an absolute classic.
Indebted to Gerard for the informative text below.
“Flowers In The Dustbin were doing a gig at the Roxborough Tavern in Harrow when Mick Lugworm came up and asked us if we wanted to do a record on All The Madmen records. It was a complete surprise – we hadn’t even considered a record at that point. But it was full of good omens for me. David Bowie’s ‘mad’ brother was in “Cane Hill loony bin”, which was my local (so to speak) – so doing a record on a label named after the song Bowie wrote about him was neat, particularly given our fondness for utilising the Doors ‘all the children are insane’ line. Freaks was recorded after Si and Bill had been in the band less than a week. Bill had filled in on drums with us before however, and none of the songs required a Jimmy Page level of competence for Si to learn. Finding a studio was done via the local Yellow Pages. I found one just around the corner from my old school, which at the time seemed some kind of fitting, if ill-defined, revenge. We booked two days and invited old friend – and This Bitter Lesson chanteuse – Claire Taylor to put some extra vocals on it. I thought Claire was a Goddess and her voice was liquid velvet and so could take the edge off my own perceived vocal shortcomings. Also it seemed a good idea to have a woman singing at a time when the only female punk vocals around seemed to be aping the numbing aggressive shouting of their male counterparts”.
A little over a year later Conflicts record label Mortarhate released the 'Nails Of The Heart' 7" single which also included 'The Reason Why', my favorite Flowers In The Dustbin song.
"People look but they just don't see
Seem like they're listening but never seem to hear
Insomnia, pain, won't stop whirling
Love is a currency, you still use sterling
But some children never grow up
And see the world and see it fucked
And lyrics might be eloquent
But they stop at the skin
Whilst my heart cries tears
For the love wasted within
Like me when I ignored you on the bus
And you even sat next to me on the tube
And the mutual strangers never connect
And people even talk but nothing gets said
I'm reaching for your heart but your skin's like lead"
A year or so after that release, 'Like My Crazy Colours' was released on Cold Harbour records.
Coming up a close second to 'The Reason Why', 'Lick My Crazy Colours' was for a while played back to back on the stereo, both records played many times in one session.
"The windswept horizon of hot summer paradise
You realise the truth, you find where your freedom lies
The taste of love on a dear friends lips
Feel your vision blur as you give in, so willingly
The old ones complained, and they said they were wiser than us
But us we're just having a party to last for the rest of our lives
They wised it and sized it and they analysed it through and through
But us we just did it, we had nothing better to do, so willingly
Oh Mr Clean with your nicotine-stained brain
Businesswoman Julie, never felt the beauty, never picked a tulip, just kept fixing Pepsi
But in your business-suits of navy blue
Do you really think your children take any notice of you? Not willingly"
Some of Gerard's lyrics seemed to hit the spot every time for someone like me with my awkwardly shy sensibilities at that age, desperately trying to figure out a way to change my world and the outside world for the better.
This 7" single released on Cold Harbour Records was to be the last offering from Flowers In The Dustbin.
