The Rose Of Avalanche: String 'A' Beads 1990

 

Leeds, 1983. Three tearaway school mates are skipping school to listen to Hendrix, MC5, The Stooges,

Lou Reed and daydreaming about becoming rock stars. But even the most idealistic adolescent couldn’t have guessed just how quickly those dreams would become reality. The band name arrived in early ‘84 and just 12 months later, having not yet played a gig, this fresh-faced ragtag band were in the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios recording their own John Peel session.
                                             

The Rose of Avalanche is an English alternative rock band from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England,

formed in 1984. They have currently released ten albums. The band was formed by Phil Morris, Paul James Berry and Alan Davis. The name came from the "rose" for the beauty and the "avalanche" for the power, as a way of describing their music. Before they had played a gig they signed to local independent label LiL, and released two singles: "LA Rain" and "Goddess". Both made the Top 20 of the UK Independent Chart, with "LA Rain" also featuring in John Peel's Festive Fifty in 1985.  
                                           

Young, naive, and still learning their craft, however right from the off they were churning out finely

tuned slabs of sleazy, guitar-driven goth rock that belied their age and experience. Peel loved them and followed the BBC1 session by placing the bands first single “L.A.Rain” at number 26 in his 1985 Festive 50, above songs by The Cure, The Smiths and The Sisters of Mercy.
                                  

From there the next four singles dominated the UK Independent Charts. “Goddess” matched the chart-

topping debut “L.A.Rain” and was named Single of The Week by Sounds, “Too Many Castles In The Sky” went Top 5, followed by “Velveteen” and “Always There”. In parallel to this chart success, the band were fine-tuning their live show in the limelight of the prestigious UK & European support slot to media darlings The Mission on their hedonistic 1986/87 World Crusade Tour.
                             

Then just at the point of taking the next big leap, the band hit legal issues which put a metaphorical

“stick in the works”. Their much-anticipated debut album was delayed by nearly two years, with “Never Another Sunset” finally being released in 1989. Despite this loss of momentum, the band retained a loyal following in mainland Europe and went on to release two further albums, 1990’s “String A Beads” and I.C.E. in 1991. At the turn of the decade, musical tastes & the priorities of band members were changing and following a final European tour in 1992, the band called time and split.
                                

27 years of silence followed.   

                                          

Various rumours of a reunion surfaced over the intervening years, and there was still clearly a demand from a passionate fan base. In August 2019, seemingly out of the blue, the impossible happened. The band announced it was reforming the original line up and played a secret friends and family gig at the Fox and Newt Leeds in September 2019. 2020 started strong with an appearance at the Porta Nigra Festival in Belgium and a headline at the famous Gibus Live in Paris, but then the comeback was put temporarily on hold due to the pandemic. At the end of 2021 the band released their long awaited BBC sessions recorded for John Peel and Janice Long, and closed the year out with an intimate club tour of the UK.  

                                              

The Rose Of Avalanche – String ‛A’ Beads
Label: Rebel Rec. – SPV 084-30962
Format:    CD, Album
Country: Germany, Austria, & Switzerland
Released: 1990
Genre: Rock
Style: Goth Rock, Indie Rock

TRAXS

                                       

01. Your Lights On    3:58
02. All We Want    4:04
03. Make It Right    4:54
04. If You Only Knew / A Certain Truth    7:17
05. A Certain Truth 2:51
06. String ‛A’ Beads    3:51
07. If It's Right For You    3:47
08. Second Sight    5:04
09. A Different Child    5:22
10. Be True To Your Love 6:30   
11. Lights On (Dasilva's Dark Dub Digig Mix)
(Engineer – Ben Sky/Remix, Producer [Additional] – Jon Dasilva)  6:45

MEMBERS

Bass – Darren Horner
Concept By [Design] – The Rose Of Avalanche
Design – Kate
Drums, Synthesizer – Andy Porter
Engineer – Dave Creffield, Steve Harris
Guitar, Synthesizer – Paul James Berry
Producer – The Rose Of Avalanche
Vocals – Phillip Morris

MP3 @ 320 Size: 122 MB
Flac  Size: 347 MB