AUTUMN ALMANAC TOUR - NOVEMBER 2003
Following their triumphant homecoming show (under the pseudonym Situation Vacant - it's a long story) at the Felipop
festival last month, Bronco Bullfrog and their label Rock Indiana have announced no less than eleven Spanish dates in
November as part of Rock Indiana's Autumn Almanac festivities. Every year since 2002, the label has sent it's bands off
on a package tour around Spain with different acts playing in different towns and special guests joining in the fun
along the way. The 2004 tour which features Bronco Bullfrog, Sweet Apple Pie, The Shannons, The Nominees and Bombones
promises to be the biggest yet.
Here are the dates so far:
- 03/11/04 - Valladolid (venue TBC)
- 04/11/04 - Burgos, Carmen 13
- 05/11/04 - Bilbao, Bilborock
- 06/11/04 - (TBC)
- 07/11/04 - (TBC)
- 08/11/04 - (TBC)
- 10/11/04 - Madrid, Moby Dick (22:00)
- 11/11/04 - Torres de Cotillas - Murcia ,Retrodelia
- 12/11/04 - Valencia, Matisse (22:00)
- 13/11/04 - Tarragona, Zero
- 14/11/04 - Castellón, Ricoamor (21:00)
OAK APPLE DAY ALBUM SOLD OUT!
Yes, the first pressing of Oak Apple Day has officially sold out at source within just four months of it's release
date in April! The last copy was sold at the Felipop festival last month. Rock Indiana are re-issuing the album immediately.
"Like a bottle of fine wine, these English gents keep getting better with age as their fourth album, Oak Apple Day,
would attest. The band boasts three ready, willing, and able tunesmiths in Andy Morten, Louis Wiggett and Michael Poulson,
and their songwriting, which had lacked a bit of cohesiveness on earlier efforts, is as tight as a drum here. Try to picture
The Monkees playing cricket with The Byrds, with Teenage Fanclub waiting to play the winner and that will effectively describe
Oak Apple Day. It’s filled with classic pop songs with liberal doses of jangle, harmony, Michael Poulson’s candy-coated
(in a good way) vocals and the kind of good feelin’ that harkens back to the American Top 40 as it was in the early ‘70s.
Songs like "I Don’t Need The Sunshine", "Wrong Things Right" and "I Got The Rain" are bright, happy, and full of optimism,
which is something we could all use plenty of these days. "Mock Orange Innocence" is a nice hybrid of power pop and
psychedelia and should be considered a classic of the genre. "New Day Way" builds on a sort of "Michael Row The Boat Ashore"
melody line and adds warmth and harmony. "You’re My Head" is a bit like Rare Earth meets Raspberries and features some
amphetamine-fuelled drumming by Morten while Morten lends some fine lead vocal chops on the album’s closing cut, the touching,
alt-country ballad, "Litmus Paper Suit".
Congratulations lads, you’ve really done it this time!
- David Bash ~ www.shindig-magazine.com ~ June 24th, 2004
"British Pop Songs as they used to be.
Gathered from material recorded between 1997 and 2002, this collection represents what much of pop has recently lost
sight of: melodies, lyrics and performance all working together in an uplifting way.
The Bullfrogs feature a drummer, Andy Morton (sic), who writes most of the songs, with all members singing
enthusiastically with unison harmonies. Their strength is perhaps best in the song lyrics, which evoke a timeless
British youth of climbing trees, balls over fences, Sunday lunches with gravy boats and being home in time for tea.
Musically though it’s all delivered in a happy guitar jangle that will raise smiles from modern fans and those old
enough to remember the sixties excitement.
Most importantly though, these are complete songs that improve with repeated listening, that make it well worth the
attention to the discerning punters who still care for such things."
- Kingsley Abbott, Record Collector magazine, July 2004
"It's deceptively difficult to write songs in a band that manage to act as a both a revisionist nod towards the past
whilst simultaneously appearing as though they emerged from the present, and yet Rev-Ola 'Now-Sound' fledglings Bronco
Bullfrog, named after the gritty working-class East End film of 1969, pull off the task miraculously. The brilliantly-named
compilation What People Did Before TV, a collection of the stronger cuts from their previous albums, is a delicious
introduction to anyone unsure of the wonders Bronco Bullfrog behold. Whereas fellow Rev-Ola labelmates the Wondermints
funnel their sixties fixation through a mixing pot of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach and Scott Walker, Bronco Bullfrog are
their British counterparts, instead channeling their creative angle through such sixties Britpop as mid-point Beatles, The
Hollies and Jeff Beck.
Not bad for a three-piece who, despite a welcome following in Europe, are virtually unknown to most hip consumers of UK
music. Lead singer Michael Poulson certainly has a Graham Nash tone to his vocal delivery, which helps accentuate the
mid-sixties aesthetic. The psychedelia leanings are well observed, with a heavy-dose of power-pop-rock thrown in to add
further edge. As this is a compilation, some of the recordings will obviously have a different tone to others, and the
fact that Toe Rag studioman Liam Watson, more famously the man who produced The White Stripes' latest sell-out, suggests
that the band are keen to reconstruct arcaic recording techniques to further drive home that revisionist sound.
Still, there are some fine slices of retro-rock on offer here by Bronco Bullfrog. "One Day With Melody Love" sounds as if
it were broadcast direct from a 1967 radio station, whilst "Down Angel Lane" has a warm rock sound that suitably drives
the vocal. There's even a thundering rhythm and bass solo midway through. "Blow Yourself Up" is a smouldering, pounding
rock number complete with sixties' distortion, whilst the mainly acoustic-driven multi-harmonied "Sweet Tooth" suggests
a more mature side from the band.
On the whole, What People Did Before TV is a fine package that certainly sixties-pop fans will savour. As the
music industry seems intent to kill off the growth of singer-songwriters with their quick-buck mentality, it's bands such
as Bronco Bullfrog that we really should be championing."
- Raphael Pour-Hashemi ~ www.cdtimes.co.uk ~ 20th June
WHAT A CONCEPT! AVAILABLE NOW
After several delays, the Teenage Fanclub tribute album is now available from Not Lame in the United States,
Houston Party in Spain and Wizzard in Japan.
The album includes the Broncos' version of "I'll Make It Clear" from the Fannies' Grand Prix album
as well as contributions from Redd Kross, The Shazam, Captain Soul, The Andersons, Cloud Eleven, Chewy Marble,
The Mockers and a whole heap of others.
Click here ~
www.notlame.com ~ to order the album.
EMPORIUM DAYS: THE HARRINGAY DEMOS 2003
Since it's release in October, the band's home-made, self-released Emporium Days album
has been selling fast and attracting great reviews. They've just done another pressing of the
CD which is available now from the following retailers:
UK - Heyday Mail Order ~ www.heyday-mo.com ~
USA - Not Lame Records ~ www.notlame.com ~
USA - Kool Kat Music ~ www.koolkatmusik.com ~
Spain - Pop Madrid ~ www.popmadrid.com ~
Australia - Off The Hip ~ www.offthehip.com.au ~
BRONCOS ON SAMPLER CDS
"I Got The Rain" from Oak Apple Day appears on Rock Indiana's 10º Aniversario sampler CD while The
Broncos' former label Mushroom Pillow have included "History" on their The 45 Section Volume 2 sampler.
LOS BRUJOS UPDATE
Renowned Spanish musician/singer/songwriter Miguel Angel Villanuera's new album,
cut in 2002 with Louis on bass and Andy on drums, will no longer be released on
Rock Indiana. Miguel plans to release the album himself on his own label in the summer.
