By the mid-1970's, David Balfe, Alan Gill and Keith Hartley, three residents of Thingwall on the Wirral Peninsula, had formed a band called Mr. McKenzie. In November 1976, as punk was emerging and influencing them, the group changed their name to Radio Blank, composed of Balfe (bass and keyboards), Gill (guitar and vocals) and Hartley (lead vocals and guitar), as well as Stephen Brick (drums). They played their own material and also some covers, such as 'You Really Got Me' and 'Peaches', and they performed regularly at Eric's Club in Liverpool. Balfe and Gill lost interest in punk during 1977, and dissolved the band in October to form a more experimental project, and by December 1977, Balfe and Gill, influenced by Kraftwerk, had formed Dalek I Love You with Dave Hughes on keyboards and Chris Teepee operating a rhythm unit and tapes. The name was a compromise, as Balfe wanted to call the band The Daleks, while Gill wanted to call the band Darling, I Love You, so they agreed on Dalek I Love You. In 1978, Balfe left the group to manage other bands, and eventually joined Big in Japan and later the Teardrop Explodes, and by August 1978 the band were joined by Martin Cooper (saxophone), Andy McCluskey (lead vocals and bass, who was previously in the Id) and Kenny Peers (drums), along with poets Gordon Hon (aka "The Worm") and Max the Actor. In September, McCluskey quit to rejoin former Id bandmate Paul Humphreys, to form Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, and by October only Gill and Hughes remained in the band. As a duo, they signed to Inevitable Records, but before long a demo of 'Freedom Fighters' attracted the interest of Phonogram Records, who then signed them before they'd had a chance to release anything on Inevitable. However, Phonogram decided to shorten the name of the band to Dalek i, and also wanted to change the chords of 'Freedom Fighters', but the band prevailed and eventually 'Freedom Fighters' was released as their first single on Phonogram subsidiary Vertigo in July 1979, backed with 'Two Chameleons'.
It was followed by 'The World' in October 1979, and after a label change to Back Door Records, the almost self-titled 'Dalek I Love You (Destiny)' in May 1980. Dalek i's debut album, 'Compass kum'pas' was released on 24 May 1980 on Back Door to critical acclaim but poor sales, and by the time of the album's release, Dave Hughes had left to join OMD, leaving Gill as the only remaining member of the band. Shortly afterwards the project went on hiatus when Gill joined The Teardrop Explodes in July 1980, replacing Mick Finkler, and although his stay with the Teardrops was short-lived, while he was with them he did co-write their most successful single, 'Reward', as well as introducing frontman Julian Cope to LSD. By 1981, Gill had reformed Dalek I Love You, with himself as the sole member, although he recruited Hugh Jones and Chuca Russo on vocal harmonies, and Chris Hughes on drums for the recording of the single 'Heartbeat', which was released on 28 February 1981 by Back Door. By 1983, the band consisted of Gill and returning members Hartley, Hon and Peers, with backing vocalists Chuca Russo, Heather Balshaw and Amanda Hon, and this line-up released their eponymously titled album in November 1983 on the Korova label. After this, Gill continued making and recording music with local artists, and started his own cassette-only label, Bop a Dub, which released the cassette-only album 'Naive' in 1985, after which Dalek I Love You effectively disbanded. I've only recently come to this group, having somehow passed them by at the time, but I found that 'Compass kum'pas' has really stood the test of time, and stands up as a great little record, and that inspired me to investigate their back-catalogue, which has resulted in this collection of their non-album b-sides from their short career. In 1990 they contributed an otherwise unreleased song to an album celebrating the music of Liverpool, but as I can find out nothing about it this could be a Gill solo effort from the late 80's rather than a rare recording by the original band - but it's still a nice little song to close the album.
Track listing
01 Happy (b-side of 'Dalek I Love You (Destiny)' 1980)
02 This Is My Uniform (b-side of 'Dalek I Love You (Destiny)' 1980)
03 Astronauts (Have Landed On The Moon) (b-side of 'Heartbeat' 1981)
04 Masks & Licenses (b-side of 'Holiday In Disneyland' 1982)
05 Heaven Was Bought For Me (b-side of 'Holiday In Disneyland' 1982)
06 The Legend Of Wild Jim (from audio magazine SFX No. 15 1982)
07 (I Am) Hot Person (Extended version) (b-side of 'Ambition' 1983)
08 Would You Still Love Me (b-side of 'Ambition' 1983)
09 12 Hours Of Blues (Dub) (out-take 1983)
10 These Walls We Build (b-side of 'Horrorscope' 1983)
11 Heap Big Pow Wow (b-side of 'Horrorscope' 1983)
12 Horrorscope (Instrumental) (b-side of 'Horrorscope' 1983)
13 The Angel And The Clown (b-side of 'Horrorscope' 1983)
14 Everything I Do (from the 'Liverpool...All Of This & Heaven Too' compilation album 1990)
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