Ellery Bop formed in early 1981 in Huyton, Merseyside, and consisted of Jamie Farrell on vocals and guitar, Mark Parry (later Thunderboots, Steppin’ Razor, Western Promise) on drums, Robbie Butcher on bass, and Kev Connolly on percussion, and they were joined for their 1982 single 'Ringing' by future Lightning Seeds frontman Ian Broudie on bass. They toured infrequently, supporting Killing Joke at one point, but they did record several sessions for the BBC with John Peel and Janice Long. A John Peel session was recorded live at the London I.C.A., and they claimed bands such as MC5, The Stooges, Ramones, Heartbreakers and The Clash as their influences. They released a clutch of fine singles in the early 80's, but were yet another of a myriad of bands from that period who split up without every recording an album, even though they had easily enough material for one. As they didn't do it themselves, then it's down to me to do it for them, so here is the album that they could have released around 1983 if they'd wanted to, although after a two year gap they did issue one last single 'Torn Apart' in 1985. This post is a sort of follow-up to the recent 'Liverpool Peel Sessions' album, as while putting that together I found that there were a number of bands of the era who actually released enough music for their own stand-alone post, and so this is the first of them.
Track listing
01 Hit The Moon (single 1981)
02 One True Way (b-side of 'Hit The Moon')
03 Sharp Star Rising (John Peel session 1981)
04 Ringing (single 1982)
05 Fight And Desire (b-side of 'Ringing')
06 We Deny (single 1982)
07 To Fall (b-side of 'We Deny')
08 51st State (John Peel session 1982)
09 Imperial Way (John Peel session 1982)
10 Guilt (John Peel session 1982)
11 Fire In Reflection (12" single 1983)
12 Blind (12" single 1983)
13 The Calling (12" single 1983)
14 Jihad (12" single 1983)
15 A Scream To Touch (John Peel session 1983)
16 Ourselves Alone (John Peel session 1983)
17 Twisted (John Peel session 1983)
