Pool Of Sound - The Room

The Room

In September 1979, Dave Jackson and Becky Stringer, having scrapped their first venture '051' advertised for a guitarist to join them in a band called 'Blown Cones', which then became named 'The Room'. Robyn Odlum turned up sans sax, but with a guitar amp that made weird throbbing noises, and ignoring the fact he was a bit of a hippie, they asked him to join and, together with the drummer from '051', they did their first gig at Eric's. They gigged around the northwest, shedding drummers before finding Clive Thomas, fresh from the South African merchant navy. The line-up then was Dave Jackson on vocals, Robyn Odlum on guitar, Becky Stringer on bass and Clive Thomas on drums and percussion.
Their first single, 'Motion' c/w 'Waiting Room' in 1980, formed part of a cassette album 'Bitter Reaction' released at the end of the year on their own self financed Box Records. DJ John Peel liked their material and played four tracks off the cassette as a session.
In July 1981 they released a second single on Box records, 'Baited Breath' c/w 'In Sickness And In Health' and they also played the Futurama Festival. The July and August of 1981 saw them tour the USA playing their first gig supporting Manchester band 'The Fall' at the American Indian Centre followed by five nights in LA and a positive write up in the LA Times.

Once back in the UK they played an ICA Rock Week and performed their first proper session for John Peel that October. He loved, and played frequently, the companion single 'Things Have Learnt To Walk That Ought To Crawl' from their first proper album 'Indoor Fireworks' which they recorded in April 1982 on the Red Flame label. Their second session for John Peel however wasn't quite as good as the previous one.
1983 saw major changes to the band's line-up. Young keyboard player Peter Baker impressed enough to join their next recording session and started touring with them but a few months later Odlum and Thomas decided to quit. Despite good reviews, record sales were poor and the band hadn't been able to reproduce the intensity of their live performances in the studio. They played their final gig with this line-up at Liverpool Warehouse in December 1982.
The next version of 'The Room' was a very different band. Ex 'Wild Swans' drummer Alan Wills then joined together with ex 'Ludus' guitarist Paul Cavanagh giving the band a 'jazzier' sound and in late 1983, with trumpet/trombone player Phil Lucking joining them on the session, they released the mini LP 'Clear', containing six self produced songs but the reviews weren't very enthusiastic. However with Virgin's new label '10 Records' taking on Dave Kitson's Red Flame label, money was available to buy an electric organ for Peter and in writing new songs they developed a new style of their own which led to better reviews.

'In Evil Hour' received rapturous reviews when released in November 1984 and was followed up by sessions for Janice Long, 'Saturday Live' and 'Whistle Test'. They started to build up a head of steam touring with 'Red Guitars' and 'Violent Femmes' and did a few dates with Tom Verlaine who had part-produced 'In Evil Hour'.
Bad news was to follow though with Virgin dropping the 'Red Flame' label, and even though the next John Peel session was probably their best, Alan accidentally burnt his hand and then experienced a family tragedy. Paul and Dave then began to fall out which resulted in the band disbanding in the summer of 1985 playing their final gig at Liverpool's Haig Building.
'Clear' and 'In Evil Hour' were later re-issued as a double-LP set, titled 'Nemesis', and an EP of one of the band's four sessions for John Peel's programme was issued by Strange Fruit Records in 1988. Released in April 2004, the CD 'No Dream' is an unashamed Best Of compilation spanning the band's entire career, comprising singles, choice album cuts and unreleased demo tracks from their final studio session. Even the most cursory listen reveals 'The Room' as one of the most criminally underrated bands of their time.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2019/08/pool-of-sound-afraid-of-mice.html