Saturday 19 November 2011

Bobby McAlister and the Telstars - Band of Gold (1998)

We've been fairly unashamed of hiding how much we like the Film Extras tracks from the Oooh, I'm So Pretty compilation, which we now know was a Bobby McAlister project. Thanks to Aaron Booth and his secret stash of tapes, we're now in possession of a post-Film Extras McAlister band.

Aaron tells us that the Film Extras were shortly-lived, and went on to become the Accommodations (with Derek Hannah), who were also shortly lived. They then morphed into Bobby McAlister and the Telstars in 1997, and were, well, shortly-lived. The Telstars were Booth on bass, Aaron McCullogh on guitar and Calvin Becker on drums.

Bobby himself got in touch with us to fill in massive amounts of detail on all of the tracks here:


"Modern Man", "Sing Whatever You Know" - Artist:  The Accommodations
Vocals: Derek Hannah
Bass & Guitar & Vocals:  Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboard:  Cal Becker
Guitar:  Brooker Buckingham
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, Band of Gold
Recorded:  1996

"Amelia", "This Life"  (actually named "Waking Up Someday") - Artist:  Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals, Bass & Guitar:  Bobby McAlister
Drums:  Cal Becker
Guitar:  Aaron McCullough
Keyboard:  Dylan Haveron
Engineered:  Rob Smith, Rocky Mountain
Recorded:  1997

"Brother, That's All There Is", "Rain Won't Get Near Me"  - Artist:  Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Bass & Guitar & Keyboard:  Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboards:  Cal Becker
Guitar & Vocals:  Aaron McCullough
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, 4-track
Recorded:  1997

"Love Stings", "Sing Whatever You Know", "Do You Wanna Break Up?" - Artist:  Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Guitar:  Bobby McAlister
Drums:  Cal Becker
Bass & Vocals:  Aaron Booth
Guitar & Vocals:  Aaron McCullough
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, 4-track
Recorded:  1997

"Something In Your Heart", "Sunshine In The Middle Of The Night", "Rain Won't Get Near Me" - Artist:  Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals, Keyboards & Guitar :  Bobby McAlister
Drums:  Paul Robertson
Bass:  Aaron Booth
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded:  1998

"Unit 22" - Artist:  Bobby McAlister and the Telstars
Vocals & Guitar :  Bobby McAlister
Drums & Keyboard:  Cal Becker
Bass:  Aaron Booth
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded:  1998

"Speed Of Light" - Artist:  Bobby McAlister
All instruments:  Bobby McAlister
Engineered:  Bobby McAlister, Sundae Sound, 8-track
Recorded:  1998


This is pretty great, 70's influenced pop - beard rock, 90's style. Naturally, traces of Paul McCartney abound. We're told that after the recordings were mostly completed - and then shelved - the band imploded, but became the Hardtime Brothers for a short period.

There's some debate raging in the CCPS office about the right car to cruise around listening to this tape in. The usual CCPS chariot, our 80's BMW, is out of the question - right now, we're leaning towards a late 70's Lincoln Continental like this one:



Because Bobby also has his standards.

4 comments:

Aaron said...

Nice choice on the Lincoln! Looks about right.

A bit more on the recordings. Most of the tunes were done at Sundae but some were (amazingly) recorded by Bob on a 4-track Tascam. Love the raw sound of them.

Sing Whatever You Know
Brother, That's All There Is


The Accommodations tunes were recorded at a little garage studio called "Band of Gold". Bob built it himself in Kensington, behind Sam's Deli. The masonry work was particularly impressive.

Amelia
Modern Man
Rain Won't Get Near Me


It was a really focused, creative era for everyone, especially Bob - the man was on fire. Seemed each time we met he was rolling out another timeless pop song.

brooker said...

Wow. That's me on lead guitar on Modern Man (track one) and the first version of Sing Whatever You Know (track three.) I was moonlighting in the Accommodations while I was in Pavonine. Those were Band Of Gold recordings in winter 96/spring 97.

DH said...

It was an amazing little scene. Really hardly anyone was in on it. Rehearsing in that garage studio with the steel plate reverb built into the wall. Wearing slippers made by Bobby's mum. Playing at Sam' just across the fence. Mostly drinking there. But there were moments of being glad to be around someone that was giving off the kind of light Bobby Mac was at that stage, man. He was throwing OUT hits! I'm so pleased to find this. I've not heard any of it since then and some of it is really good.

Off the Coast of Utopia said...

I remember this music so well. Aarons right - Bobby was on fire. Great time in my life. Thanks for sharing.