Coventry Bands 1960's to Now: The PRISTINES

THE PRISTINES

Pristines Via John Docker / Genre: Indie / Psychedelic / Shoegaze. Location Coventry, Midlands, UK

Record Label Sunday, Series Two, Cloudberry, Edition 59, Susy etc

Type of Label Indie

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Download their album here (£1) on Band camp

http://thepristines.bandcamp.com/album/keep-passing-the-open-windows

Tracks on My Space - Rose Honey - It's My Problem - Sea Horse - Suitable Lies - A Parting Kiss - A Second Pick Twice not Out - Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm - Coping - Digest of Mayflower -

Albums and singles for sale on the My Space.

My Space Video - Betswy Song

from the above website - The Pristines came out of Balloon Farm etc.

"A song Pristine Christine was a particular favourite - sometimes The Balloon Farm did it in rehearsals, and I had to sing it as it was out of Tony's vocal range.

Hence The Pristines a band name made up on the spot which has stuck now for over 15 years and numerous albums!

Everyone agreed the song didn't sound too out of place amongst all the others on the compilation cassette. So, I chanced my arm (and my postage stamps), compiled a first homemade cassette album called Honestly and sent it out to the fanzine community.

To my surprise they liked it (I was expecting derision more than anything..)

Songs were included on fanzine compilations. To me it felt like getting a record deal.

I was delighted.

The unthinkable - the smell of vinyl

Indeed the unthinkable for 2 reasons.

I was asked to record a real record for a split single release

It was in the UK

Some lovely people at a label called Pillarbox Red (I'll never forget you guys) must have heard one of the tapes and sent me a letter asking me if I wanted The Pristines to be on a split 7" single!

A vinyl release!! something I had always dreamed about, one day making a record of my own was now about to come true.

The drawback...

I needed to go back into a real recording studio to make the record for only the second time ever (The first was for The Balloon Farm demo/single), but this time I had no band with me and quickly had to drum up (pun slightly intended) a bass player & drummer.

We did 2 songs Pristine Dream the requested song for the single, and a new song I Think You Know both of which I had to teach the others in valuable studio time - lucky the songs were so easy.

Fortunately, they came out really well.

Even more fortunately it was the best recording on the 4 track 4 band single.

They sent me 20 copies to sell. I handed them out to my friends at Silvers (the Indie club and mecca for the indie kids in Coventry, the one set up by DJ Cap as I mentioned earlier..)I secretly hoped they were as jealous as I was proud."

Bio: (From My Space)

The Pristines - out of Coventry, England.

Indie lo-fi guitar pop - you know the type - jangly chiming guitars with a touch of psychedelia thrown in for good measure. Or

GAZE-EDELIA!!

Released 4-track tape cassette albums via fanzines in the early 90s before being asked to produce singles for the likes of Pillarbox Red records (UK) and most notably Sunday Records (USA).

Debuted with the Souls to the Devil 7" e.p for Sunday, which was quickly followed by the Kimberley Somebody single. The Pristines also appear on Sunday Records compilations and also featured on the Happy Sunday rare flexi with a cover version of labelmates They Go Boom! "She's Not My Friend".

The Pristines finest moment on Sunday was the album Teen-Fraud, Pop-Whore (part one), which still sounds as refreshing and pure today as it did when released in 1995.

Other mentions must go out to all the other labels that also put-out material be as singles, cassette-singles or on compilations. Most notably Elefant (Spain), Meller Welle Produkte (Ger), A Turntable Friend (Ger) and Sofa (Japan).

The Pristines still release CD albums today, however, no longer for Sunday but purely self-produced. "Teen-Fraud" was followed up by the equally poppy Get Caught in Showtime (2000), and the much darker & challenging 3rd album Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? (2003). Before a whopping 17-track third album Coping: Not Coping (2005).

Recently MySpace has led to the band forming new alliances and further releases have occurred. November 2007 saw the release of a 3-track mini CDR single on the Miami based Cloudberry records, a popular & productive new label running very much in the old fanzine ethos really independent style (cloudberry 59).

Cloudberry also put a Pristines track on their 5 band e.p Nothing Matters When We're Dancing that was not available by general release but given as a handout at selective indie nights at clubs in London & Sweden.

More recent developments have seen The Pristines agree a deal with Series Two Records to release the album States of Mine in 2008.

This new album was completed in 2007 but has so far only been circulated in demo or promo format on the whole.

This album has now got a release date for 24/06/08. Orders by Paypal from Series Two - see their MySpace page.

Also - The Pristines's on Face book http://en-gb.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=370268742500

Ballon Farm - Pristine's records on offer on the Facebook site.