Great Lost Indie Bands #3 – Ludicrous Lollipops

In this regular feature hosted by Simon Smith (@HertfordSoul) we will be re-discovering some lost indie favourites who didn’t quite make the grade and have since disappeared off many people’s radars.

We’ll be featuring one Great Lost Indie Band each time and, in true indie style, we’ll be following the ‘Who? Why?’ Where? format (copyright Jesus Jones). ‘Who are they?’, Why are they a Great Lost Indie Band?’ ‘Where are they now?

Of course there are only so many bands a middle aged indie kid can muster so, once Simon has posted a few of his own chosen long lost gems, he’ll be opening this feature up to the rest of the Everything Indie Over 40 community to share theirs.

In this edition, Simon turns his attention to….

_________________________________________________________________________________

Great Lost Indie Bands #3 – LUDICROUS LOLLIPOPS

Who are they?

Ludicrous Lollipops were perhaps the greatest band to ever come out of Coventry (*ducks tomatoes being thrown by fans of The Specials & Adorable*). They were a 4 piece consisting of Simon, Lol, Chris and Alan.  Simon used to drum in The Candy Thieves, who then became Adorable, before he left to concentrate on his far superior band (*ducks again*).  They released 3 E.P.s and a 6 inch (yep, that’s 6 inch – cool, eh?!) single before it started to go downhill and one of the members left.

I first read about The Lollies in the music press when Steve Lamacq wrote a live review of them.  He likened them to Mega City 4, one of my favourite bands at the time, and I just had to check them out.  Not long after Gary Crowley played them on his GLR show – the song ‘Lies about my life’ (YouTube clip below), and I found out they were playing the brilliant Chelmsford Y Club, which was only a short train ride from my home town of Brentwood.  My life was about to change…

Why are they a Great Lost Indie Band?

I’ve seen a lot of bands in the last 25 years but, hands down, that was one of my favourite gigs ever!  The music was brilliant, it was a great, small, intimate venue and the atmosphere in the crowd was amazing.  I ended up buying a ‘Scrumdiddlyumptious’ (the name of the E.P. ‘Lies about my life’ was on) long sleeve top, which I ended up wearing until it pretty much disintegrated (I think it said ‘Scoff that lot, big mouth!’ on the back) – I was falling madly in love with this band.  So what did I do?  I ended up writing letters to them, of course! I sent them stuff, they sent me stuff, I told them about a girl at school I fancied (please don’t laugh!), they gave me some advice on this. It was the start of a beautiful relationship.

When a few of us went to see ‘The Cult in the Park’ gig in 1992, I was wearing my ‘Scrumdiddlyumptious’ top and someone called me over to them. It turned out to be Simon’s (lead singer) brother, we had a chat, spoke at length about our love for the band, and then parted ways.  He was a lovely man.

The band played the Y Club shortly after that and this time it was even better, I knew more of their songs, people were dancing, the crowd got a special mention in the Ludicrous Lollipops monthly newsletter.  I ended up buying a blue band t-shirt with a dayglo front and the words ‘Scruffy Little Git’ on the back. I bloody loved that top!  Indie life was perfect.

That summer I went to my first festival (Reading ’92) and again I was wearing one of my Ludicrous Lollipops shirts and Simon’s brother saw me.  A couple of the band members were with him and we got chatting.  They were one of the first bands I’d ever spoken to and they were so friendly, I felt like a lifelong friendship was being forged.  They invited me to their tent later for a party and I went back to see my friends to tell them, bursting with excitement.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find The Lollies’ tent when I went looking for it so that was the last I saw of them.  Not only that but they split up a few months later. I often wonder whether if I had found their tent, and attended their party that night, they’d still be with us…Or maybe they just gave me the wrong directions so that ‘the sad bloke who keeps asking us for advice on his love life doesn’t turn up!’

Where are they now?

Simon went on to manage fellow Coventry band Adorable but I can’t find anything about Lol, Chris or Alan.  If you know them please tell them I’m married with two kids now so don’t need their relationship advice anymore and would still like to be their friends if they’ll have me.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with ‘Lies about my life’.  What a band…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Failed Rock Star in awful early 90s grunge band, Prehistoric Wife, failed blogger with dad blog ‘musodad’ and collaborative music blog ‘Session Bloggers’, Simon went solo in 2013 with the release of his own music blog ‘Hertford Soul’.

With over 6 months without a post, Simon was recently plucked from obscurity by the lovely people at EIO40 with a chance to resurrect his music blogging career. Many have likened the transfer to the risk Brendan Rodgers took in signing Mario Balotelli but Simon sees himself as more of a Rickie Lambert-type blogger. Erm, hang on a minute…

_________________________________________________________________________________

What great lost indie band will Simon be tracking down next?