Saturday, September 22, 2007

Children's Hour - 7" & 12"


Another contribution from Lo Spettro Di Se Stesso. Never heard of this New Zealand band before. Children's Hour play excellent postpunk. The 'Ya! Ya! Ya!' 7" and 'Flesh' 12" are the sole releases of the band although there are other songs that appeared on compilations. Here the entry on Children's Hour found on Discogs:
Whilst Chris Matthews was struggling within the pop-confines of the Prime Movers, Johnny Pierce (bass), Grant Fell (guitar) and Bevan Sweeney (drums) were forming their own sound as Children's Hour. More intense and experimental than what the Headless Chickens eventually became (Children's Hour were essentially the chooks in their original incarnation), they fused electronic and analog instrumentation, and wrote thoroughly brooding rock music that actually went rather unnoticed. Matthews (vocals / guitar) eventually joined the trio in 1983, and it was this line-up that released two eps on Flying Nun - and went on to tour New Zealand. Fell left for Australia, but after a short-absence, the group eventually reformed as the International Headless Chickens, and with Fell back in line (and the 'international' dropped), the Headless Chickens went on to become one of New Zealands' most successful bands. In 2005 the core remaining members (plus failsafe's Rob Mayes) reconvened for a handful of reunion performances, playing a swag of material both old and new, released as 'Looking For The Sun' - as part of Mayes archival 'retrogenic' series.
Bassist John Pearce committed suicide in 1986.

Flesh 12" (Flying Nun-FN C60-1983)
1. Caroline's Dream
2. Go Slow
3. I Know Where She Lies
4. Slaughter House
5. Looking For The Sun

Ya! Ya! Ya! 7" (Flying Nun-KID 001-1984)
1. Stuck Pig
2. Washed Away

Children's Hour


Image of the 7" taken from Discogs. Image of the 12" taken from Rateyourmusic (thanks for the link anonymous).

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/ep/the_childrens_hour/flesh/

Anonymous said...

anyone else having a probem with this link?

tried several times, and the download isn't starting up for me.

Unknown said...

looks like someone is really picking on your blog... this one doesn't work for me either :(

Curious Guy said...

Think I need to re-up then (sigh...). Seems that some of the servers are blocked or something.

noisepress said...

thanx a lot! never ending party here!
i've re-upped it to massmirror to help:

http://s2.massmirror.com/84cdcaf539190fd253609ba3a599bd01.html

Anonymous said...

this is great! Thanks.

Curious Guy said...

Noisepress thanks for the extra link. Checked the Marc Riley and Batfish Boys links and those are blocked too for the moment. Hope it gets solved in the next days.

scissorkicks said...

Wow.. didn't realise Headless Chickens had a post-punk past!

My old band did some gigs with HC in the 90s. Looking forward to checking this out.

Lo Spettro Di Se Stesso said...

If anyone is interested please check their "Looking For The Sun" cd only release... a sort of live gig... here: http://www.muzic.net.nz/artists/11/release1945.html

1. Slaughter House
2. Mr Dead
3. Caroline's Dream
4. I Know Where She Lies
5. First Time
6. Go Slow
7. Untitled
8. Creeping/Flesh
9. Gutter Puppet
10. Marion The Spider
11. Stuck Pig
12. Burning Boats
13. Washed Away
14. Looking For The Sun

"Caroline's Dream" video is availiable for preview here:
http://www.amplifier.co.nz/default,16807.sm

http://www.myspace.com/headlesschickensband

http://www.myspace.com/childrenshournz

This should be the label beyond the cd re-issue I guess...
http://www.failsaferecords.com/artists/current/childrens.htm

This is the label beyond the vynils http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/index2.html?#

Hard to get through mail since NZ is not exactly behind the corner!

Enjoy!

Holly said...

Sweet as! Thanks for this!

Pure NZ Alt Radio said...

Hi there,

I'm a bigggg 'Childrens Hour fan and love Chris Matthews' lastest album as well.

Have a listen to my online radio station and you'll hear heaps!

Cheers.

Paul

Anonymous said...

thanks so much, i've always coveted a friend's copy of "ya ya ya" and have never found one myself.

ORMUS said...

So, here I am again, requesting yet another re-up. I do look very thoroughly before doing so, mind.

Curious Guy said...

Can't find the files for the moment. I'll need to take them from a cdr. Be patient.

ORMUS said...

I have patience! Many many thanks, once more.

ORMUS said...

PS I notice you had this on your wantlist, don't know if you saw it here already...

http://www.systemsofromance.com/blog/2013/04/la-valse-winter-7/

Curious Guy said...

Hey Ormus, here's a new link. Enjoy! Thanks for the other link.