PADCAST #9: Priceless Restoration - Miaow's Lost Factory Demo Part 1




The Pad turns the microphone around and talks to Cath Carroll about her former Factory Records' band, Miaow.

Viva Che´
Jumping Lorries Again
Inglorious Miltons

All Songs: Words © 1987 Cath Carroll / Music © 1987 Carroll, Caine, Korner and Fenner
Sound Recording: © 2009 Lilypad Records / Superclammy, Ltd. Publishing ASCAP



ENGINEER'S NOTE

In 1987, Cath Carroll's former Factory Records' band, Miaow, had enjoyed some success with their single "When It All Comes Down." As most bands would be inclined to follow this up with another release, Miaow was no exception and headed straight into the "studio" or living room as Cath called it, and began to capture a series of demos, ten songs in all, to present Tony Wilson for a release on Factory.

In the late 1990s, I came across a box and thought the time to sort out the mess had arrived. In the process, I discovered a cassette marked "Sep Nov Dec '87" and proceeded to attempt to play it. I immediately recognized the sound of Miaow but didn't get much farther than that when it became apparent that the tape was wrinkled and twisted in the case with some of the oxide looking brittle or at least odd. Fearing that this tape would trash one of our last working cassette players, I removed the tape. And forgot about the discovery for some time.

As Miaow fans began to surface here and there, writing and commenting in the newly emerging social networks, I began to look at the cassette again. At the same time, a fellow by the name of James Nice, owner of LTM Records surfaced with an interest to reissue England Made Me and compile the Miaow output into a cohesive collection. We liked what James had to say and proceeded to make that happen also adding our newest collaboration, The Gondoliers Of Ghost Lake to the mix.

To add content and deeper interest for Miaow fans, James dug up two Peel Sessions from the BBC which Miaow had recorded. I dug up that cassette and proceeded to restore two selections that cooperated with the technology I possessed at the time. Those two songs, "Carnal Drag" and "Fear Of The Sun" were included on LTM's 2003 release, "When It All Comes Down."

Well, here it is 2009 and I now possess much better restoration software and hardware and have been quietly working on pulling the muddied and garbled songs off that TDK metal-oxide cassette tape. I even posted the work-in-progress on our website, ReverbNation and MySpace pages. At this point, I have gotten everything off the cassette that would cooperate. Nine out of ten songs to be exact. At this time, I am entering the final phase of restoration in preparation for some type of release, yet to be determined.

It seemed appropriate to make this collection available from our Lilypad blog for the Miaow fans that still carry the torch. A lower resolution allows us to place the songs for streaming here. Eventually, we will release the final results. In the meantime, these songs sound good enough to put here. When a final decision has been made concerning the fate of the nine song collection, we'll let you know. Until then, I hope you enjoy this one. - Kerry (Lilypad restoration)
PADCAST#9: MIAOW'S PRICELESS RESTORATION PART 1 by lilypad

Posted by The Pad at April 18, 2009 1:00 PM
Categories: blog, Music, live interviews
Tags: Cath Carroll C86 Factory Records Miaow LTM Records Priceless Innuendo Lilypad Records When It All Comes Down
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