Uploaded today is the brilliantly twee debut LP by The Marine Girls released in 1981 on Dan Treacy’s Whaam Records. An absolutely wonderful bit of kit, and one of the late Kurt Cobain’s favorite releases to boot.
Text below from allmusic.com and the Balls Park College (Hertford) photo and flyer from the collection of ex TVP, McTells, Cee Cee Beaumont and Sportique member Mark Flunder.
Before Tracey Thorn established herself with Everything but the Girl, she produced mellow, spare indie pop with the all-female act the Marine Girls. Inspired by the Raincoats and the Young Marble Giants, Thorn formed the Marine Girls with her schoolmate Gina and Jane Fox in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England, in 1980. At first, Thorn played guitar with Gina on vocals and Fox on bass. Since they knew no drummers, the group decided to focus on a minimalist approach to music. After Gina kept missing rehearsals, she was replaced by Jane Fox’s younger sister, Alice Fox, on vocals; Thorn would eventually sing as well. The trio recorded a tape called ‘A Day by the Sea’ and sold it to their acquaintances. The Marine Girls eventually released two albums in the U.K, 1981’s ‘Beach Party ‘ and 1983’s ‘Lazy Ways’. The LP ‘Lazy Ways’ was produced by one of the band’s influences, Stuart Moxham of the Young Marble Giants. While attending Hull University, Thorn began writing songs for herself; she was only able to gig with the Marine Girls during holidays. The Marine Girls broke up after Thorn and Alice Fox had an argument following a concert in Glasgow, Scotland in 1983. Thorn then recorded her solo album ‘A Distant Shore’ before joining Ben Watt in Everything but the Girl.
The debut album ‘Beach Party’ by the Marine Girls is one of the most willfully amateurish releases of its era, which is not necessarily a bad thing. When it was first released on Daniel Treacy’s Whaam! label in 1981, it undoubtedly sounded impossibly shoddy and nearly inept, filled with deliberately out-of-tune vocals, extremely minimal guitar and bass, and almost no percussion. However, its place as one of the pillars of the twee pop scene, along with the Young Marble Giants’ ‘Colossal Youth’, is now incontestable, and what once might have seemed haphazard instead sounds refreshingly artless and slyly provocative. Tracey Thorn, whose vocals would gain much more technical polish during her years in her next band Everything But The Girl, sings with a sort of offhand grace, while Alice Fox’ more tuneless yelp sounds like a precursor to Kathleen Hanna or Sleater-Kinney. The songs are monochromatic, though a few, particularly the opening ‘In Love’ manage to marry memorable tunes to the group’s deliberate minimalism. This is not an album for anyone who requires a lot of studio polish, but ‘Beach Party’ is far from the grating tunelessness that some early reviewers had labeled it.
baron von zubb
March 12, 2009 at 7:16 pmHow brave they were amongst all that hardcore anger.
Is this the album with the song about a ‘small town girl’? Dunno the title of the track.
betab
March 16, 2009 at 3:47 pmAgreed wonderful stuff. Bought my copy of the cassette with its hand coloured box – but sadly the tape didn’t actually have the tracks recorded on it!!!
I had to wait until I bought the album and could then record it onto the cassette……?
A true definition of wilful shambolicness
edu
April 1, 2009 at 3:59 pmso great to see this post!
what a wonderful and amazing band were the marine girls, lord.
and so lovely to see some pics by them as well.
made me happy today.
kudos for your extremely inspiring and utterly brilliant blog.
edu
ag
January 29, 2010 at 3:01 amwhere can i get a copy of the “A day by the sea” cassette by the Marine Girls???
Moregeous
April 22, 2010 at 11:47 pmLovely, lovely, nostalgic, honest post, how great is that un-photoshopped 1980’s scanned-in picture? This blog post brought a smile to my face, thanks for posting 🙂
Bluenondescript
December 30, 2011 at 5:10 pmWhenever i run into Marine Girls my heart rejoices…
regards
Pooch
January 26, 2012 at 3:12 pmLOVE this album. Wish I could find their first tape cassette release.
Ian
January 26, 2012 at 10:07 pmI ran the record shop in Hatfield from 1980-85 and very happy times they were. I became good friends with Alice and Jane and remember the day they bought the tapes in for me to try and sell for them with little round stickers inside with drawings on. I think we sold all that we were asked to for them. I think myself Alice and Jane all went to the Smiths in Norwich or Colchester one saturday night? – Can remember Tracy in the secondhand section often having a good root through as we updated it daily. Happy times. I dont have a tape sadly. I had two others with me during the J and J years – Anne and Chris for those that remember the little shop. Pleased I found this page.