The Woodentops - Plenty (1988)

Rolo McGinty was pretty ubiquitous on the Liverpool music scene of the early 80's, playing bass with The Wild Swans, who released the classic single 'Revolutionary Spirit' on Zoo Records, and then joining his old friend Pat Fish in the Jazz Butcher, once again on bass. Alice Thompson was also in the group playing keyboards, and in 1983, with the Jazz Butcher on a temporary break, McGinty and Thompson moved to south London and started to practice, building up some material and establishing themselves as The Woodentops. Initially the group was Rolo McGinty on guitar and vocals, Alice Thompson on keyboards, Simon Mawby on guitar, James Rawlings on bass and Paul Hookham on drums, and their early influences were Can, Kraftwerk, the Feelies and Suicide, mixed with rockabilly and strummed acoustic guitars, producing a kind of rhythmic beat music. The group played local gigs and rehearsed in a warehouse at Clapham Junction, which was owned by the artist Panni Bharti, who would become an important visual part of the group, designing much of their artwork. In 1984 they released their first single, 'Plenty', on Dave Balfe’s Food Records, and it was awarded single of the week by Morrisey in Melody Maker, with Morrisey later inviting the band to support The Smiths on tour. In September 1984 they recorded their first Peel session, and with their one record deal with Food Records now over, the group began to think about changing labels. Their manager worked at Rough Trade and they liked the set up, so in 1985 they signed a deal with the label, and at the same time they recruited Frank de Freitas (brother of Pete of Echo And The Bunnymen) as their bass guitarist. Their first single for Rough Trade was the Andy Partridge-produced 'Move Me', which was noticeable for its five note melodica opening and its forceful drumming, and this, coupled with rhythmic guitars and light keyboard, heralded the start of their 'hypno beat' style, and a string of great singles. In 1985 Paul Hookham left to drum with the Redskins and was replaced by Benny Staples, who made his debut on their August single 'Well Well Well'. 'It Will Come' came out a few months later, and with its subtle key changes and harmonies giving the song a gospel feel, it could have been the band's attempt at a Christmas hit single. 

1986 continued to be hectic for the group, recording their third and final Peel session in March, followed by the 'Good Thing' single in May and the 'Giant' album in June. Despite positive reviews, it was said that 'Giant' could have sold better if there had been more product in the shops, and Rough Trade were later accused of concentrating a lot of their promotion effort on the Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead' over their other artists. 'Giant' is an accomplished debut album by anyone's standards, with all the tracks sounding polished, and it only including one previously released song, until 'Everyday Living' was lifted as a single in 1986. Adrian Sherwood remixed both the single and it's flip 'Why', after McGinty approached him with the intention of asking him to do some remixing. Sherwood agreed to work on some Woodentops' tunes, and this spurred McGinty's interest in the newly emerging dance music scene. The 'Live Hypnobeat Live' album was released in early 1987 as a stop-gap while the band toured and worked on new material, but at some point in 1987 Alice Thompson left the group, to return to Scotland to follow a literary career. Anne Stephenson, who had played with the Communards, took over on keyboards, and in January 1988 the band recorded a Radio 1 session for the Simon Mayo show, while later in the year the new album 'Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway' was released. The album encompasses a wide range of musical styles all given the familiar Woodentops treatment, with 'You Make Me Feel' being extracted as a single, being one of their better ballads, and second single 'Wheels Turning' proved popular on the west coast of America. 'Why Why Why' became a club hit in the summer of 1988, with a remix by Paul Oakenfold becoming an early indie-dance favourite. In 1989 the band stopped working together, although they didn't actually split up, but the collapse of Rough Trade in 1991 probably didn't help matters. The group had allegedly been working on a double album in the early 1990's, which never saw the light of day, and there were some white label techno crossover 12" records released around this time, with 'Conehead' becoming a hit on the northern techno scene, and 'Tainted World' was popular on NYC radio. It seemed that McGinty had possibly become more interested in dance music than The Woodentops, and so the other members of the group started to do different things. In the mid-1990's he was releasing dance music under the name Pluto and also as Dogs Deluxe with Rob Miller, and The Woodentops did occasionally get back together to promote various compilation albums and to play some festivals. The band finally recorded some new material in 2014, releasing the 'Granular Tales' album under The Woodentop's name, but their biggest successes were now in the past, and so as a reminder of their exuberant indie sound of the early 80's here is a collection of their rare singles, b-sides and out-takes up to their hiatus in 1989.   

Track listing

01 Plenty (single 1984)
02 Have You Seen The Lights (b-side of 'Plenty')
03 Everybody (b-side of 'Plenty')
04 Move Me (single 1985)
05 Do It Anyway (b-side of 'Move Me')
06 Steady Steady (b-side of 'Move Me')
07 Well, Well, Well (single 1985)
08 Cold Inside (b-side of 'Well Well Well')
09 It Will Come (single 1985)
10 Special Friend (b-side of 'It Will Come')
11 Plutonium Rock (b-side of 'It Will Come')
12 Why (b-side of 'Everyday Living' 1986)
13 I Want Your Love (out-take 1986)
14 Keep A Knockin' (out-take 1986)
15 Hallelujah (b-side of 'Wheels Turning' 1988)