BEYOND THE BLUE / SIDEWAYS LAUGHING / THE TENDERHOOKS

I fell in love with british indiepop back in 1986 and became an collector soon after i left school a year later. Beside all those lovely records i was always into demotapes. To locate those obscure stuff always giving me the biggest thrill. I was getting very nervous the last year when i received an offer to buy an demotape collection from an english ex radio dj who was on air between the mid 80's – early 90's. From the start it was a sure thing for me that i have to buy this amazing collection. I collect nearly 100 hundred tapes from him and it will not surprise you to hear that the lot contains some of the most greatest stuff i've ever heard. I wrote about demos from well known bands as The Jeremiahs or The Rain before but now it is time to go deeper into the more obscure stuff. Some of you may remember the excellent “Beyond The Fence Begins The Sky“ compilation LP released in 1986 on Plastic Head Records. Full of hits there was a band called BEYOND THE BLUE which really kicks me. I once wrote that their song “The Return Of The Prodigals“ is one of the most finest indiepop songs ever written. All the years i've tried to track down this band to get the chance for more recordings by them. Without luck i was an happy man to found one of their demotapes among the collection i've bought. This untitled collection contains six songs recorded back in 1986. i can't stop listening from the start as all of the songs contain some of the most fantastic jangly guitars i've ever heard. How great ! The tape contains an different version of “The Return Of The Prodigals“ plus five other tunes which left me sleepless. I have to think of all those classic bands as The Love Parade, Mighty Mighty or The Aurbisons while listening to those recordings. The tape's tracklist looks as follows:

Beyond The Blue
Time To Smile
The Return Of The Prodigals
A Time In My Heart
The Never Never Girl
Acid Rain

To my surprise i found out that the band's members played in two other band's as well whose tapes were also part of the lot. Although i'm not sure i believe that SIDEWAYS LAUGHING were pre BEYOND THE BLUE. Songs full of love and vocals somewhere between Edwyn Collins and Paul Haig. I received two tapes by them with 12 tracks in total, no filler, hits only ! I really wonder why i never heard about them before ! They should have became huge and i'm more than sure that everyone who is into the first Orange Juice album would have fell in love with them.
As it seem's BEYOND THE BLUE split up in 1987 and members of the band formed an group called THE TENDERHOOKS and tell you what, the band's demotape contain some of the greatest song's i've heard in years. Unfortunately no songtitles were given on the tape's sleeve but can let you know that it contains an new version of one of the SIDEWAYS LAUGHING tracks. Over all those years, some songs became special to me in the likes of Mighty Mighty's “Is There Anyone Out There, Aurbisons “Ring Collector“ or Close Lobsters “Mirror Breaks“. It's that wonderful feeling that hit's me while listening to those songs. Some of Tenderhooks song's now means the same to me and it's not often that i can say something like that. Now it's up to you, try to locate them and when you found them let them know that there is an label who would love to release an retrospective by them !!!!