THE FRIDAY CLUB - DEMO TAPE

It must have been the year 1992 when Jan (Firestation Records co-founder) told me about The Friday Club and their classic "Window Shopping" 12" single. i have to say honest that the band was unknown for me until then. it took another while before i had the chance to listen to "Window Shopping". i fell in love with the song within the first 30 seconds. since that day the single became an absolute alltime fave of mine. back then it was hard to believe that the band never released any other material apart from the 7"/12"-release on Two-Tone Records back in 1985. many moons later i found out about the band's first (withdrawn) 7" release "what is soul"/"tissue of lies". it came out on the band's own label and never made it into the shops, so i heard that there were no more than 100 copies pressed back then. it took me years to track down a copy of it. this record is another lost classic which makes it even harder to believe that the band never became more famous. later on i had a short conversation with one of the bandmembers when trying to get an song by them for the sound of leamington spa compilation serie. i can't remember what went wrong back then but in the end i lost all contact details to the band. i was nearly sure that i would never get the chance to hear any other recordings by them until a week ago when i found out about one of the band's demo-tapes. no idea if this is the same demo-tape which was mentioned on the internet a couple of times before. The tape-owner got it from Adele Winter in the mid 80's just before the band signed to Two-Tone and went on tour with label-mates Madness. There is no sleeve or tracklist, just a standard cassette! The 6-track demo kicks of with an jazzy/swing-kind of song. Next up we have an early take on “Window Shopping“. This version sounds just like gold to me. While the later version has Adele Winter on vocals only (apart from backing vocals) this one saws Andrew Brooks (at least i think it is him) on co-vocals as well! As much as i love the single-version of this track, this version sounds even more amazing to me, although it misses my favourite line at the end of the track - “standing at the counter with the pocket full of nothing“. Song three is another northern soul meets indiepop-monster and would have made the classic follow-up single to “Window Shopping“. This track sees the band on the highest level, what a dancer!! The same goes for “What Is Soul?“, the band's withdrawn debut 7“. absolute no idea if this version here is a demo-take or if it is even an re-recording. The following track is pure 80's indiepop which sounds to me like a mix of Ala Pana Fuzo and Everything But The Girl (Idlewild-period)! Wow!! The tape closes with a Swing meets Northern Soul-number. This track is my least favourite song from this fantastic collection. I am such an happy boy to got the chance to listen to more material by this unique band, so a big thanks to the tape-owner for sharing the material with me! No question that i would love to release this material, so maybe there will be a chance to get in contact with the band again to ask them about it or to least to tell them how much their music means to me!!