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Love Positions
(Australia)
The Love Positions was Nic Dalton and Robyn St.Clare. They released an album (vinyl only) called Billiepeebup and a 7 inch single 'Light Of Day', which were both released in October 1990. All songs recorded on a Tascam 244 four track onto cassettes (mostly old TDK compilation tapes taped over!) in various houses in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney between 1985 and 1989. At the time of its release Robyn was playing in the Hummingbirds and Nic in the Plunderers. The Love Positions played in Sydney about 4 times. The name "Love Positions" comes from a cheap paperback title about sexual positions for young couples!

The album Billiepeebup was the first full-lengther released by Half A Cow but Half A Cow had the test-pressing of it for close to a year as they didn't have any money to press the record (John Needham of Citadel Records ended up putting the manufacturing on his account when Nic told him their predicament!) and the 'Light Of Day' single was the first seven inch released by Half A Cow. Each copy of the single was touched off by Musk oil scent and the old Hac store smelt of musk for a few weeks. The band were very surprised when both album and single went in at #2 first week in on the Aria Alternative Charts in October 1990 . Rolling Stone gave it a very positive review (by future EMI Records head honcho John O'Donnell) but the Drum Media (or OTS as it may have been called then) said they were disappointed with it's sound quality - I think they expected more since it was the work of one of the high-profile Hummingbirds and one of the Plundee guys. Looking back, releasing an album of 4 track home recordings wasn't really the done thing in Australia at the time (even though across the Tasman, Flying Nun had been doing it for some time). Speaking of Flying Nun - a major influence on the attitude behind the Half A Cow label and also the only label that were ever sent a Love Positions demo tape to(they got no reply!).

Billiepeebup contains the original versions of two songs that went on to be massive hits for other bands. 'Don't Slow Down' was written by Robyn and Simon Day of Ratcat and they rewrote some of the lyric and turned it into 'Don't Go Now' - a #1 hit on the Australian charts for Ratcat in 1991. 'Into Your Arms' was covered by The Lemonheads in 1993 and was the biggest hit worldwide that Evan and Co. had - yes, bigger than the other more well-known cover 'Mrs Robinson'. 'Into Your Arms' was the first single off The Lemonheads Come On Feel album reaching Top Ten in the UK, New Zealand and many countries throughout Europe. It has also been covered live by such bands as Hole, Redd Kross and Eugenious. The song has been on the soundtrack for at least two Arron Spelling TV productions and two Hollywood movies so far and appeared on the Rhino Records Power Pop Compilation Volume 3.

In 1997 Half A Cow finally released the album on compact disc with ten extra tracks - in fact everything that Nic and Rob recorded together between 1985-1989 is on the ceedee release of Billiepeebup. The bonus tracks include an electric version of 'Into Your Arms' (that they didn't even know existed!), covers of Prince's 'Kiss' and Captain Sensible's 'Glad It's All Over'.

Review:

Love Positions: Billiepeebup (Half A Cow 1990)

"Now that the fevered indie-rock gold rush is over and things have settled back into boring old normalcy, it's still possible to be dazzled by small, shiny nuggets that were overlooked in all the madness. Billiepeebup is just such a sliver of solid gold. The Australian duo of Nic Dalton, who was between stints in the Plunderers and Godstar, and Robyn St. Clare, a member of the Hummingbirds, recorded a batch of gorgeous, witty, dreamy pop songs in the late 1980's. The LP, named after Joey Ramone's slurring of the words "Blitzkrieg Bop", was released on Dalton's Half A Cow label in 1990. Only a handful of mail-order/import rack devotees heard the album in these United States. Half A Cow has reissued the record, plus bonus tracks that boost the CD's total to 24 songs. Listening to Dalton's perfect pop hooks and St. Clare's little-girl-lost vocals is a welcome flashback to a time when bands like Small Factory roamed the land, playing clubs and making records just because it was fun and they loved it. Dalton went on to play bass in the Lemonheads, which had a hit with the St. Clare song "Into Your Arms", here in two versions. Call me sentimental, call me a fool: I love this stuff."

(Phil Sheridan, Magnet Magazine April/May 1999)


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Releases:
Billiepeebup (LP+CD) 1990
on Half A Cow Records - HAC 01
CD released in 1997
Light Of Day (7") 1990
on Half A Cow Records
Last updated: 14-Sep-2009 © 1994-2024 TweeNet Creative Commons License