There's very little information about the Reasonable Strollers, other than that they came from Colchester, Essex, and comprised Steve Bywater on guitar, Geoff Coombs on guitar and vocals, Mat Fraser on drums and Pete Brown on bass. John Peel played their only single 'Tools For Africa', and not only was it a great post-punk noise, but they were almost a local band (only two counties away), so I snapped it up. A little while later I saw a cassette tape by them advertised and so I sent off for that, and those eight songs are the total output of this obscure band. They received a passing mention in Giles Smith's superb memoir 'Lost In Music', but it's a shame that they didn't produce more music, as their strange angular guitar-driven indie-rock was right up my street. This short-ish album is a reminder that there were many, many bands in the late 70's and early 80's who self-released one or two singles and then faded away, and some of them, like The Reasonable Strollers, deserve a re-appraisal.
Track listing
01 Tools For Africa (single 1982)02 Smile (b-side of 'Tools For Africa')03 No Wasting (b-side of 'Tools For Africa')04 Chalk (from the 'Secure' cassette 1982)05 Secure (from the 'Secure' cassette 1982)06 Finsinda Baxter (from the 'Secure' 1982)07 Doctor Sax (from the 'Secure' cassette 1982)08 Airhole (from the 'Secure' cassette 1982)
