Thursday 9 August 2007

Panorama "Dream Home" (Kamera, 1982)


Pete O'Dowd (aka Pete Petrol) was Spizz's foil in Spizz Oil and Spizz 77, and would continue to play a role in the group on and off until he relocated to New Zealand sometime in the early 1990's.

This record was Pete alongside Jim Solar (also a Spizz member) who seemed to have joined up (whilst on hiatus from Spizz? who knows) sometime in 1982.

It's a radical departure form all the Spizz stuff, being in fact, a fairly faithful copy of the first couple of Depeche Mode singles. If you could whack Dave Gahans vocals over the top, it would have been a double "A" side with "Dreaming Of Me". What I love about it is the sense of experimentation: 1981-2 were fertile times for synth experimentation, the technology was new, yet becoming readily available- and just as with Punk 5 years previously, there was a glorious slew of people just "having a go". This sense of breathless enthusiasm permeates the entire song, there's a confidence and a swagger to it's metronomic heartbeat.
Also, it sums up the times quite well:

Tinny beat? check.

Glacial vocals? check.

Lyrics dealing with the theme of urban alienation? check.
And all of this on a label more used to relasing singles by The Fall!
It's an oddity, to be sure, but I had no idea it was valuable as well, maybe because it's never been issued anywhere else) Mine was bought in 1982, in a pack of "10 singles for a quid". Vinyl Tap have got a copy, if you'd like to buy it-it'll set you back thirty sheets. Crikey.
Spizz stuff on Amazon: Here.

11 comments:

Mick said...

Wow, you weren't kidding with the Dreaming of Me comparisons, were you. I missed this one when it was out or it would have been in my collection for sure. Thanks for posting.

Iain Baker said...

I'm amazed that Viny Tap want to charge thirty quid for it, that's incredible....
More good stuff on the way :)

Anonymous said...

You are right,it wouldn't be outta place on Speak And Spell.Obviously there was large swathe's of synthpop I missed out on, oh yeah by then I was into psychobilly :-} Andythefireman

Anonymous said...

Iain,
I'm flattered, thanks for the posting... I personally have no probs with you putting the MP3 up there either ;-)
A bit more info. The girl on the cover of Dream Home was Adrian Wright's (from Human League) girlfirend at the time, I used her as she looked a bit like Princess Di.

Anonymous said...

Also I wrote the song with Malcolm Baxter from the Last Words who was a good friend of mine at the time.

If I think of any more trivia I'll post

Cheers
Pete Petrol

Iain Baker said...

Blimey, i'm guessing you're something to do with the single then? :)
Thanks for letting me keep it up there, i've had loads of comments from people who LOVE it!
You know, i'd noticed that "Diana" thing about the single sleeve as well!
keep in touch,
iain

So It Goes said...

'New Life, New Life'....oh sorry lost my concentration there a minute. Another great post, Iain. Keep it up.

Iain Baker said...

Blimey, Pete, glad to have you posting on my blog, many thanks :)
And i'm impressed with the Last Words connection: that "Animal World" single of theirs is possibly my favourite Aussie punk record of all time......

Anonymous said...

Picked this up in a charity shop in Cheam earlier this year. It interested me because it was on Kamera, a label The Fall graced at least once. Scavenging for obscure records is such fun but the girlfriend wants me to get a proper job. Even MVE can deliver sometimes, last week I found the Screen Gemz, an obscure Welsh punk band circa 1977, single in the 50p bargain section. My only disappointment was it lacked the picture cover.

Anonymous said...

hi, is it possible to re-up this gem?

thx

Anonymous said...

the link just leads to fileden....no straightforward download:(