Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters (band)

Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters were an English psychedelic garage rock band formed in in late 1985 in London. The band comprised primarily of vocalist Emilee Brown, rhythm guitarist Sandy Fleming, 12-string guitarist Gordon Dawson, bassist Phil King^[1] and drummer Ray Philpott. The band dissolved in and around 1989.

They recorded an EP, album and single for Dreamworld Records, run by Dan Tracey of Television Personalities ^[2]. They also released a flexi-disk for YoJoJo Records and two mini-albums for the German label Constrictor Records, plus a US album released by Voxx Records. The band has also featured on three compilation albums: Dreamworld 1985-1989 (for the Japanese market), plus Scared to Get Happy and C87 (both on Cherry Red) ^[3].

In 2019 a new album, Smashed Full of Wonder featuring all the band's recordings including unreleased material will be released by Optic Nerve Recordings.

They toured throughout mainland Europe and the UK and were part of the decade’s nascent indie record movement.

History

The genesis of Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters goes back to the late 1970s, when a young Sandy Fleming met a young and Dan Treacy (of Television Personalities fame) in London’s Kings Road. There, they would watch band’s like Reacta, The Piranhas and The VIPs at a local pub, hang out at the Tate Gallery and obsess about everything to do with the 60s. Dan suggested she form a band and came up with a name (The Psycho Daises). It went no further than that, but was promoted anyway.

Eventually she met Emilee Brown and they decided to put the plan of forming a band into action.

The new band, named after an album by The Incredible String Band, was initially centred around The Ambulance Station, a squatted music venue in South London, which witnessed the first London gig by The Jesus and Mary Chain ^[4]. There they met Gordon Dawson, who joined first on drums before moving onto guitar, Alvin Carter who took up bass duties and a guitarist called Carole. Carter left to form The Looking Glass, while Carole also departed. Bass duties were picked up by Phil King, who had previously been in The Servants and Felt and later joined Lush and The Jesus and Mary Chain. A succession of drummers also followed: Danny Weinstein, John Wills (of The Servants) and a Mo Tuckeresque thumper whose name is lost to posterity. Eventually a full-time member arrived in the shape of Ray Philpott, who later went on to play with UK Decay (and even appeared with The Television Personalities for one gig).

Recordings

The band’s first release was the Love is Blue EP, recorded for Dreamworld Records. It quickly garnered radio play and positive reviews in the NME, Sounds and The Melody Maker, with the band gigging regularly around the London club scene to promote it. At this time, Emillee Brown was also promoting gigs at The Room at the Top in Camden, where the band appeared with many of the era’s leading indie lights.

Further Dreamworld releases followed: the 7 inch single They Fell for Word Like Love and the mini album Trash Mantra for both UK and German markets and Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters for Germany. Positive reviews and airplay followed, and the band began to play across the UK, plus Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland and Scandinavia. They toured extensively with The Television Personalities and appeared with acts including My Bloody Valentine, The House of Love and others. They also recorded a flexi single as a free giveaway for the music press, which included their version of Darkside – originally recorded by The Shadows of Night.

A further Dreamworld four-track EP release was written and recorded at Brixton’s Barrington Studios.

Phil King departed and a series of stand-in bass players (including Terry Bickers from The House of Love and Dan Treacy from The Television Personalities) helped the band fulfil gigs in the UK and mainland Europe. Eventually a regular replacement was found in Jon Rickards (who appears on the final Barrington sessions). However, budgetary issues between the label and the studio meant the master tapes were not released for pressing and the EP never saw the light of day.

Other projects began to take up the band’s time, and just before they slipped away into the night, a compilation album, Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters, featuring all of their previous output material was released in the US by Voxx Records.

The release was instigated by Voxx owner Greg Shaw, a legend from the LA music scene. As a writer, his first fanzine inspired the creation of Rolling Stone, and as a record label owner, he had released material by Iggy Pop, Devo, Brian Jonestown Massacre and many others. He arrived in London with a list of band’s he wanted to work with, especially Spacemen 3 and Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters.

Alas, the partnership only stretched to the release. A planned tour of the US to promote the album was discussed, but never took place.

In 2019 Gordon Dawson – who since 2000 has been part of Viralux, a music and art collaboration with Trish Lyons – was approached by Ian Allcock of Optic Nerve Recordings with the idea of releasing a compilation of everything the band had recorded, including the lost Barrington sessions. These unfinished 24 track tapes were lost to posterity, but the band reconnected and discovered that some of them possessed rough mixes of them on cassette tape, which Dawson cleaned up, overdubbed and mastered.

This release, Smashed Full of Wonder, is due out on Optic Nerve Recordings in March 2019. It will be available on coloured vinyl and comes with an eight page booklet, written by Jowe Head, friend of the band and bassist in The TV Personalities and Swell Maps.

Core members

Emilee Brown - vocals Sandy Fleming – rhythm guitar Gordon Dawson – 12-string guitar Phil King – bass guitar Ray Philpott – drums

Other members

Alvin Carter – bass Terry Bickers – bass Jon Rickards – bass Danny Weinstein – drums John Wills – drums ‘Carole’ – guitar

Associated Acts

Lush, The Jesus and Mary Chain, UK Decay, Felt, The Servants, Viralux, The Television Personalities, The Looking Glass, The House of Love.

Associated Labels

Dreamworld Cherry Red YoJoJo Records Constrictor Records Voxx Records Vinyl Japan Optic Nerve Recordings

Discography

Singles

And Love is Blue (12” EP) They Fell for Words like Love (7” single) Darkside (7” flexidisc)

Albums

Trash Mantra The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters (German mini-album) The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters (US compilation album) Smashed Full of Wonder (UK compilation album)

Compilations

Dreamworld 1985-1989 Scared to Get Happy C87

References[edit]

↑ Strutt, Anthony. "[1]". Penny Black, 23 June 2012. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019
↑ Earp, Joseph. "The Missing Man Of Music: A Search For The Elusive Dan Treacy Of Television Personalities". The Brag, 26 July 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2018
↑ Taylor, Neil. "[2]". Cherry Red, 2016. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019
↑ Gregory, Richard. "[3]". Richard Gregory, 2019. Retrieved 21 Dec 2019