The Passmore Sisters, heading into Wednesday – Short-lived, but with a considerable amount of heart and good music. Coming from Bradford in November 1984 the Passmore Sisters formed to write songs about “politics and girlfriends” the band’s first recording in September 1985 appeared on a 3-track EP titled ‘3 Love Songs’ , with the A side Dance The House Down spitting with anger, all 3 tracks displayed a distinctive cheap up-beat indie pop not too dissimilar to that of fellow Yorkshire pop merchants, The Housemartins. This first single was followed up by the first of two Radio 1 sessions for John Peel who championed the band throughout their short career.
The band’s second EP/single included the lead track Violent Blue and featured the band sounding more poppy and with a lyrical touch not too dissimular to the Redskins, it sounded more angry than the 1st EP. Released on 12 inch only format and with tracks not issued on the LP this EP has become the most collectable of the band’s releases. Doing the opposite of the Wedding Present the band moved from West Yorkshire to Manchester and by 1987 they consisted of Martin Sadofski – vocals, Brain E. Roberts – guitar & vocals, Howi – bass, Robert Grace – drums. This was the line-up which recorded the 3rd single Every Child In Heaven
Beginning with a haunting rap, the line “This is the head Passmore speaking….let’s franchise” the 12 inch (and hence longer version) of Every Child In Heaven opens and begs for your ears! During the 14 years since it’s release this slice of 80’s jangle pop has dated very little.
The final single A Safe Place To Hide was released and being as good as the previous singles, it’s lead track featured an almost reggae beat underneath a jangly guitar sound. The apparent soothing tones of the song reflected a harsh statement against the homelessness of England in the late 1980’s and in true political nature the band donated all royalties of their final track Red Star Blue Heart to the charity Terrence Higgins Trust. Around this time the band visited BBC’s Maida Vale studios for the last time to record a session for Radio 1’s Janice Long
The Passmore’s only LP First Love Last Rites which was named fittingly enough after a collection of short stories about sex and death by Ian McEwan, was released after the band slit-up, it coupled tracks from 3 of the 4 singles and included songs from the band’s 3 Radio One sessions onto one handy record.
In case you missed them the first time around, here is their second (and last) session for John Peel, recorded on October 5, 1986 and broadcast on November 11th – crank it up and enjoy.
