Prophets Creation

Pete Astor's second Creation band following The Loft, The Weather Prophets wrote one stone cold indie classic, Almost Prayed, which has been here before. This is a little gem from the B-side.

Like Frankie Lymon

Loft Creation

A couple more Creation posts to come, kicking off this chilly Monday with Pete Astor's 80s indie band The Loft, described in the Creation documentary Upside Down as 'the first proper band Creation signed'. The Loft didn't last long, splitting up onstage with Pete Astor and drummer Dave Morgan moving on sharpish to The Weather Prophets. The Loft's best song, Up The Hill And Down The Slope, has been featured at Bagging Area before. This is a live version from a Loft compilation cd released by Rev-ola in 2005. I'd like to tell you when and where the performance dates from but at some point the booklet has been victim of a spillage accident. The pages are stuck together and ripping as I open them, destroying the info. Grrrrr!!! Bleeding kids!!! Anyway, seeing as The Loft only really existed between 1982 and 1985 we'll just have to say that this is The Loft live, for over six and a half minutes, sometime in the early-to-mid 1980s.

Up The Hill And Down The Slope (Live sometime in the 80s)

Out Of The Loft

Pete Astor has featured at Bagging Area before as head honcho of 80s indie bands The Loft and The Weather Prophets and 90s/00s ambienty act Ellis Island Sound. As well as becoming a lecturer in Popular Studies he's got a new album out called Songbox- 2 cds, one of new songs and the other cover versions of his songs by others. It comes in a very nice cardboard box. Pete's an underrated songwriter but a good one, as this swinging, bluesy song demonstrates, and the woodwind instruments make this as good a way as any to start the working week.

Dead Trumpets

My Magpie Eyes

The Queen Is Dead is twenty five years old this week, which makes this piece of UK indie twenty six years old. The Loft were signed to Creation in the days when Creation was all about shambolic guitar bands. Up The Hill And Down The Slope rattles along, chasing it's own tail for most of it's four minutes, while singer Pete Astor declares his ambitions ('My magpie eyes are hungry for the prize') and asks to be given a shot at the world ('please don't say no, once around the fair, so I know'). The Loft would implode in 1985, splitting up onstage, which seems like a pretty spectacular way to go out. Pete Astor would go on to form The Weather Prophets (also on Creation), and write several minor classics, Almost Prayed for one. Neither Up The Hill And Down The Slope nor Almost Prayed of these will be remembered like The Queen Is Dead but that doesn't mean they ain't no good.

Up The Hill And Down The Slope