Simon Dine – who ‘discovered’ the Trashcans – is the man behind Noonday Underground.
Described as ‘Grace Slick wailing over the Bullitt soundtrack’, the album ‘Surface Noise’ sees Frank Reader lending his vocal chords to a couple of songs. ‘Windmills’ and ‘Barcelona’ are both filled with various loops, strings and are very down-tempo which works perfectly with his vocal delivery. Magic stuff.
Other notable contributors include Paul Weller and Peter Rose.
There are still copies of this album kicking around, maybe not on vinyl but certainly on CD – seek and ye shall find.
2002 Setanta Records SETLP109
2-track bootleg 7-inch single that, I think, accompanied some copies of the TCS fanzine, “Autopsy”.
This fanzine was published by TCS mailing list members Sarah Frederiksen and Chris Dooley. Running to approximately 20 pages it included lyrics, a discography, a band history, trivial facts and biographies. There were around 250 copies printed. The ‘Iceburg’ single, according to official sources, had no connection with Sarah or Chris, so I am unsure as to who actually produced it.
The two tracks are ‘Iceburg’ on the A-side and ‘Remember Phil’ on the flip side, which is, of course ‘Twisted and Bent’.
The uncredited cover photographs are, on the front, some penguins and a ship’s Captain on the reverse. No idea who the Captain is but the handwritten note underneath states ‘Look after my best girl, but don’t flirt with her”.
An unofficial release that is extremely hard-to-find.
1993 POIT Records POIT01 L-43877 (USA)
This rare CD, limited to approximately 4,000 copies, includes the Trashcans performing an acoustic version of ‘The Safecracker’. An updated version appears on A Happy Pocket.
The Adventure Club was a Sunday night session hosted by Alex Luke on the Dallas-Fort Worth radio station The Edge 94.5. Some sessions were recorded live on air on the night the bands played in the studio, others were recorded at the Edge studios.
All proceeds from the sale of these CDs went to charity. The artists included XTC, Frank Black, Lemonheads, James, and Blur, amongst others.
1993 The Adventure Club ASC001 (USA)
The album was released in 1996. It was compiled by the French art criticism magazine Les Inrockuptibles and released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Smiths’ 1986 album, ‘The Queen Is Dead.’
10-track compilation with the Trashcans covering ‘I Know It’s Over’ amongst others. This was also released on cassette. Sleeve pictures are from ‘Kes’, a film by Ken Loach.
1996 Les Editions Indépendantes/Les Inrockuptibles “Small” 486 745-2 LI 9602
Five Hungry Joes - A pictorial archive of the Trashcan Sinatras. Legendary Scottish Band 