The Frames In Session – 1981 – Past Daily Soundbooth

The Frames – in session for John Peel – February 24, 1981 – Broadcast March 2, 1981 – BBC Radio 1 –

The Frames tonight – a band who only released one single and had two other songs issued as part of a compilation album. The Frames were a four-piece from Portsmouth who apparently got started in 1978 and consisted of: Sue Jones on vocals, Nick Radford on guitar, Mike Marshfield on bass and Stephen Wood on drums.

They only did one session for John Peel – this one, which was recorded on February 24, 1981 and first broadcast on March 2nd.

After considerable research and digging around, I have come to the conclusion that no photos of the band exist and this lone single was issued via their own Independent label, Brain Boosters, which also had another band, The Attic as part of their roster. Other than that, nothing.

So, with only one official single – two tracks on a compilation album and one session for John Peel, what makes this band so special? Nothing, aside from the fact that the songs they play in this session are catchy as hell and why there wasn’t more done with them is a mystery. A Google search brings up nothing for the individual members and how long the band was together and what they later became or if they even stayed in the music business.

The irony is – there are more of these bands than the ones who became sensations, or proved to be highly influential or who went on to greater things. The bands that started off with a lot of promise, had attractive songs and who also had the support of someone like John Peel, who brought them into the studio to record them, and than vanished.

Maybe that’s more the rule than the exception – with the current climate of every band and singer and every artist, no matter what genre, either available via Soundcloud or have their own YouTube channel, you realize there is a serious flood of talent out there now – more than possibly any other time in history. It only seems more likely that there are more bands like The Frames than are not. And the possibilities of becoming that “band with a lot of promise” and not much else, is high on most musicians lists.

But in case you were wondering about the ones who should have made it, who had all the ingredients and who had support and their own label, here is a classic example of one of those cases.

You might want to crank this one up.

p.s. – anyone with any information or photos would be most appreciated by just about everybody.

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