Kenny & The Carparks - "Top Speed"

Kenny and the Car Parks - Top Speed b/w Never Felt Bad (Sonet 1980 - UK issue)

Been searching for info on these guys a while now. It turns out this was written by Bilbo Baggins' guitarist Brian Spence. Mark over at SpenceMusic tells me these studio-only recordings featured Spence on guitar and bass, Bilbo Baggins' singer Colin Chisholm on drums, and Brian's brother Kenny on lead vocals. The band also included, in some capacity, other Spence brother Stuart, Jeremy Walker, and Derek Thomson.

I've seen French, Swedish, and Yugoslavian releases, all in different pic sleeves. Rumor is, it was released in several other countries as well. Both sides are great, mid-tempo power pop. Pick up this excellent 2-sider on the cheap, while you still can!

Beano - 1974 Italian magazine article

Click to enlarge

Are there any Italian-speakers out there that can translate this for me? I'm not sure what magazine this came out of, but it was rather small. (A6 format, I believe) Given the vehicles in the pix, it looks like the photoshoot was also in Italy. This article is probably just a fluff-piece, though hopefully, a translation will reveal something useful.

Beano - "Remember"

Beano - We Don't Wanna be the One b/w Remember (What we did on Holiday) (DERAM 1975 - German Issue)

Beano consisted of Freddie Phillips (lead vocals, guitar), Ken Smith (guitars), John Birch (bass) and Ray Johnson (drums).

I haven't been able to find much information on Beano. It seems that, for much of the seventies, Beano worked the clubs in Northern England as some sort of music and comedy act. They broke up around 1980, but released 5??? singles and a 1979 LP

A bit of Google wizardry shows that 3 out of 4 members, along with Richard Tallent on drums, entered a song, "Don't Throw Your Love Away," in the 1980 Eurovision contest under the new name Scramble. Scramble claimed to have been formed in Liverpool in 1969, which likely refers to Beano's origin.

Both sides were written by Freddie Phillips and produced by Nick Tauber. (Thin Lizzy, Slaughter & The Dogs, Toyah) This is the superior B-side, sounding somewhat like a continuation (*ahem*, rewrite) of their "Little Cinderella." It putts-along rather nicely.

SOUND FILE BACK UP SOON!