So, another musical icon from Liverpool passed on this week. While he had an association with the Cavern Club scene of the 1960s, it was in the 70s and 80s that Geoff Davies really left his mark on the music scene in Merseyside.
It was in 1971, that Davies and his then wife Annie (who also sadly passed away recently) opened Probe Records on Clarence Street on the eastern fringes of the city centre. Following some advice, the shop relocated to Button Street, close to the illustrious Cavern and opposite that, Eric's (the legendary venue of the punk scene). As Peter Hooton of The Farm noted, the store and its owners became, "giants of the Liverpool music scene."
It was the epicentre for the second wave of glorious music that erupted out of the city in the late 70s and early 80s. In fact, some of those music pioneers also worked behind the counter at Probe - including no less than Julian Cope, Pete Burns (Dead or Alive) and Paul Rutherford (Frankie Goes To Hollywood). Most of the other influencers you can imagine, including others from FGTH, Echo & The Bunnymen and Teardrop Explodes, all seemed to frequent there on a regular basis.
In 1981, Davies decided to branch out into making records, as well as selling them - beginning what would eventually be known as Probe Plus Records, which ran all the way until he decided to retire it a few years ago (after he and Annie split, she continued to run the shop and he the record label). They signed a number of local and Welsh bands over the years, most notably probably being the legendary Half Man Half Biscuit. He once described the label as producing "music to drive you to drink."
The record store would move again, first in the 1990s to Slater Street, before in 2010 moving to its current location on School Lane. Davies had a reputation for 'interesting' customer service, not suffering gladly any fans of bands he deemed not good enough. Writer, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, recalls that all local music fans had "a story about Geoff chasing them out of the shop for asking for the wrong records."
Geoff passed away last Tuesday (12th), having been diagnosed with dementia in 2019. Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit commented, "OMD, Echo and the Bunnymen, Wah!, The Teardrop Explodes, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Farm, The La's, Lightning Seeds, Boo Radleys, The Coral - magnificent bands all, and yet somehow Geoff missed each and every one of them and ended up with us. Poor blighter."
So, to celebrate Geoff, his record shop and label, and the various musicians that surrounded him and his work - here is a playlist....
1. Ex Post Facto: Marilyn
The first record released on Probe Plus, in 1981, was by this somewhat obscure Liverpool post-punk outfit. It was an eponymously titled EP, which I have failed to find a version of to share with you. However, it appears that this song was released the following year, also on Probe Plus.
(1982 audio only)
2. Frankie Goes To Hollywood: Welcome To The Pleasuredone
As mentioned above, FGTH's Paul Rutherford used to work at the Probe record store, and other future band members frequented it. Relax and Two Tribes usually get all of the air time, so I thought it time to roll out the under rated final single (and title track) from their debut album. The song is lyrically inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan.
(1985 official music video.
I would advise skipping to 1:30 to avoid the dreadful first bit of the music video)
3. Pete Wylie: Sinful!
Another regular of the store in the late 70s, Wylie played in a range of bands including The Spitfire Boys, before leading his own band, known variously as Wah! or Mighty Wah! (showing how much he loves a good exclamation mark!). Sinful! was his first solo single, reaching UK number 13 in 1987. Although probably not the same, the pool used in the video looks very similar to the one seen in glimpses in True Faith (New Order). It's a belter of an 80s synth pop tune.
(1987 official music video)
4. No Man: Colours
This art pop duo consisting of Tim Bowness and Steven Wilson, who were once described by Melody Maker as "conceivably the most important English group since The Smiths", made their first significant inroads with label One Little Indian. But just before that, they had released this single, a cover of an old Donovan tune, on Probe Plus. The use of dub-loop arrangements was seen to be forerunner of the soon to happen trip hop explosion.
(1990 music video)
5. Dead Or Alive: You Spin Me Round
Pete Burns was another Probe store worker and veteran of the Liverpool scene, including The Mystery Boys with Wylie and Cope, before he emerged with his own band, Nightmares In Wax. In 1980, with some changes in personnel, that band became Dead Or Alive. This, there biggest hit, was something of a slow burner, taking an incredibly seventeen weeks from its release in November 1984, to get to number one in March 1985!
(1984 official music video)
6. Hole: Celebrity Skin
This is a really interesting one. It is fair to say, Courtney Love had a somewhat broken and troubled childhood, including spells in foster care and juvenile detention. But in 1981, aged seventeen, she used a small trust fund from her maternal grandparents and went to Dublin (where her biological father was living). She studied for two terms at Trinity College (theology of all things), where she met Julian Cope after a Teardrop Explodes concert. He offered her the use of his place in Liverpool, and having met up with her friend (and future bandmate) Robin Barbur, she took him up on the offer, or though it turned out he wasn't there. Several other artists were also living there, including Pete De Freitas of the Bunnymen, and it was then that she was introduced to the world of the Probe Records store, where she would hang out for much of her time in the city. She would later say, "Before Liverpool, my life doesn't count. Ian McCulloch and Julian Cope taught me a great deal. I owe them a lot. Liverpool had been a great school to become a rock star."
(Official music video)
7. The Farm: Body And Soul
The Farm had formed in the early 80s, evolving from the band The Excitements. Before their eventual rise to fame in 1990 with the hit Groovy Train and the album Spartacus, they had released four independent singles. One of those was Body And Soul, released in 1989 on Probe Plus. It has all the brassy energy you expect of this era, with an interesting vocal delivery from Hooton.
(1989 audio only)
8. Echo & The Bunnymen: A Promise
We've already met Pete Wylie, one of the holy triumvirate that were the Crucial Three - perhaps the most legendary band that never really existed (outside of Wylie's bedroom). Second member was one Ian McCulloch, lead singer with the Liverpool scenes hottest property as the 70s became the 80s. Probe Records was a common committee room for the Three's musical discussions. As we have also seen, Bunnymen drummer Pete de Freitas was a roommate of fellow Probe customer, Courtney Love.
(1981 mimed version from Belgian tv)
9. Teardrop Explodes: Reward
One of the greatest of the post-punk singles? Maybe? It has everything - a relentless, driving beat, catchy brass hooks and singalong chorus, all delivered by an enigmatic man in a flying jacket. Julian Cope is the last of the Crucial Three - he played bass in their brief, six week existence. He had moved up to Liverpool from Tamworth to go to college, but ended up engrossed in the music scene. Various post-Three bands were all short lived before in 1978, he formed Teardrop Explodes with Gary Dwyer, Paul Simpson and Mick Finkler. Five years, two albums, multiple line-up changes, almost constant utter chaos, drug use and infighting, and it was all over. But we did this song out of it....
(1980 live on The Old Grey Whistle Test)
10. Half Man Half Biscuit: Joy Division Oven Gloves
We had to finish with the band who defined Probe Plus's output - all fourteen albums they released before Probe Plus was retired, went out on that label (they have since released The Voltarol Years on their own label). As James Dodds on Bibo Lito! summed it up, they have an "uncanny way of chronicling two of his greatest passions in life: television and small town England." Their signing with Probe Plus is a thing of legend. Blackwell apparently ambled into Probe Records with a battered cassette tape and mumbled, "B'lieve you do records." Davies replied, "Bloody Hell. If the music is half as great as these titles, I'll be up for this." So here we are - I could have picked a whole raft of their tunes, but we'll go with everyone's favourite oven glove based song.
(Fan made video)
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