My mum and dad spend a lot of time in Conwy.

And they like to walk.

One of their favourite places in the world is Abergwyngregyn -- particularly the waterfalls at the back of the valley behind the village.

I packed all of my photog gear into the car and hauled myself down the A55. You take a left off the expressway just past Llanfairfechan, follow a narrow road up through the village, and you come to a [rather expensive] car park.

The signs claim that it the walk to the falls requires you to negotiate a 'gentle slope'. Trust me, it's not so gentle with a rucksack full of camera equipment strapped to your back!

The pictures of the waterfall came out quite badly. My lens / NGrad filter kept getting soaked by the mist. But I like this moody shot of the valley.

A few months ago I started leaking old Immediate recordings onto the internet via my myspace blog, but the lack of a response only served to resurrect old feelings of failure and under achievement.

But I do get e-mails from people who still remember the band and enquire as to what happened to us.

Whatever we weren't, we were a good live band, and we had a mailing list -- at one time -- in the high hundreds.

Initially I wrote 'thousands' but mummy told me never to tell a lie.

So this is everything we ever recorded, bar what has been lost [which is quite a lot, actually].

I offer it as a one-stop shop to the curious and nostalgic, and to Duncan and Richard, my co-conspirators in the band, who have had the good sense to lose all of their cassette and CD copies of this shite.

And lose me.

Lucky I was still deluded enough to think that someone might, one day, decide to have a listen through.

The tracks are in chronological order, which means that they start off awful and progress to half bad.

Bands who I criticise for being 1) derivative, 2) simplistic & 3) for singing in American accents are going to have a fucking field day with this.

If you do happen to enjoy anything you hear, please let me know... it's not so much an ego thing, just a desperate attempt to validate six years of my life spent skint and freezing my bollocks off in Blaenau Ffestiniog and Saltney.

Ta x

[for details on where / when the songs were recorded, please see the 'Comments' in the ID3 tags]

The Immediate -- You're Not Fucking Mods - the first and the last word

1992
First recording session in Blaenau Ffestiniog [at The Pharmacy]
01 - Wake Up You're Dead

Live on 'Roundabout' on BBC Radio Clwyd
02 - Where the Sun Shines

Live rehearsal at The Pharmacy, Blaenau Ffestiniog
03 - Spike Gets By [live]
04 - Apathy Incorporated [live]

1993
Studio session in Liverpool. Ripped off by the fuckers who owned the studio who confiscated a DAT [we had recorded elsewhere] because we had the audacity to cancel a studio booking a fortnight in advance. I *wish* I could remember who these bastards were. They were two 30-something Goths and they were utter twats.
05 - Carrie Anne
06 - Oxfam Chic

1994
Recorded as a BBC Radio Wales session for, erm, my show ['Revolution'] at The Tannery in Oswestry by Ken 'Coldplay' Nelson.
07 - The Boy Who Tried to Change the World
08 - Anna Jay
09 - Girl

Recorded at Gwydir Castle, Llanrwst by Gordon Linfoot.
10 - Deadend Town

Recorded at The Tannery Studios in Oswestry by Nige, Summer '94
11 - Superstar
12 - Man Next Door
13 - Seagull

1995
Recorded at The Tannery Studios in Oswestry by Nige, early '95 for a 7" single on Townhill Records that never materialised [a great shame!]
14 - Anna Jay [unreleased single version]
15 - Superstar [alternate version]
16 - Everything She Wants

Debut E.P. [on Essential Records -- our own label, but distributed in the shops, like!]
17 - Stay Young
18 - Don't Give Up
19 - Praying For Sunshine
20 - The Dreamers
21 - She Was My World [EP outtake -- monitor mix]

Session at Le Mons in Newport with Rich Jackson, 1995 [Stay Young, above, comes from this session]
22 - Birds of a Feather
23 - Suzannah
24 - I Need My Friends

Acoustic session recorded for my BBC Radio Wales show [I know! I'm embarrassed, trust me] live in our studio in Mold. Guest starring Mike Davies on extra guitar and in tune backing vocals. December '95.
25 - Runny Nose
26 - Pictures of the World at Midnight
27 - Keep On Burning

1996
Our last recording session with Mo Plume on Garden Lane, Chester, 1996.
28 - She Do Me No Wrong
29 - Forevermore
30 - Blue
31 - Singing With the Birds
32 - Smile [monitor mix edit]

much later
Home recording of an Immediate song that we never recorded. The last word. And a pretty shit one, at that!
33 - Nightingale

It's just possible that someone out there has one of our 'lost recordings' -- TV Generation, Getting Over You, the full version of She Was My World, Major Universe, the Animals, Anyone Anywhere Anytime -- or, indeed, any old Metroland / Daisychain stuff... I'd love to hear that again. Especially the original Blaenau sessions... Alfie, We Live Our Lives Apart etc.

Drop me a line at: themysterytour@gmail.com

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