Name: Ghost Trains and Country Lanes – Studio, Stage And Sessions 1984-2005
Brand: The Loft

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

CDBRED839

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2021-04-23

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cherry Red (ADA)

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5013929183933

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Total Cap

2 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

The Loft

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

Cherry Red

<p>Cherry Red is a British label that was founded by Iain McNay in 1978. Also known as Cherry Red Records, this label has become associated with the company Music and Media Group. With the label code LC 6730, Cherry Red has made a name for itself in the music industry. It is important to note that this label should not be confused with the US label of the same name.</p>

Compiled and coordinated by the band, <i>Ghost Trains and Country Lanes</i> expands on previous retrospectives of The Loft, adding those reunion recordings (including three previously unissued tracks), the Gideon Coe session and several live recordings from that historic performance at The Living Room back in 1984. (including many exclusive songs which were never recorded in the studio).

Among the first crop of Creation Records bands in the mid-1980s, The Loft seemed the most likely to break through. Following the success of The Smiths, guitar-based independent pop was in vogue, Alan McGee’s Creation label was turning heads – its bands blending 60s psychedelia, the melodic end of punk and a new sound which would soon be immortalised on NME’s C86 cassette. And in this London quartet, Creation had their answer to bands like Television, The Only Ones or early Modern Lovers, offering taut, off-kilter songs with an irresistibly deadpan cool.

Sadly, after just two singles, 1984’s downbeat debut ‘Why Does The Rain’ and the punchier sequel, ‘Up The Hill And Down The Slope’ – an indie hit which the band performed live on TV show The Oxford Road Show, The Loft dissolved, with various members founding new bands The Weather Prophets, The Caretaker Race and The Wishing Stones. They left behind seven studio tracks, a BBC Radio 1 session for Janice Long and one track from a Creation LP documenting the scene’s roots in small club The Living Room.

However, The Loft’s legend endured, eventually prompting a reunion in the early 2000s with all four original members – singer/songwriter/guitarist Pete Astor, guitarist Andy Strickland, bassist Bill Price and drummer Dave Morgan. Alongside various well-received live shows, that led to a new single, ‘Model Village’ (2006) and more recently a session for Gideon Coe on BBC 6 Music (2015). The Loft’s reputation as founding fathers of a new breed of mid-80s indie pop continues to grow to this day, with the band often cited as an influence.

With new sleeve-notes by Danny Kelly, this is the definite tribute to The Loft. 

Ghost Trains and Country Lanes – Studio, Stage And Sessions 1984-2005

Music GB