Madchester, the glorious wave of rave-friendly rock bands that emerged from Manchester, England in the late '80s and early '90s, yielded heavily canonized artists like the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. But there were lots of acts in that scene that have not been so thoroughly entrenched in music history. One such act was Joanna, a quartet whose sole album is about to get a spotlight moment three and a half decades later.
Joanna brought together coworkers Neil Holliday (vocals) and Terry Lloyd (bass) plus Leigh Music College students Tyrone Holt (guitar) and Carl Alty (drums). "I think the first tune we rehearsed was called '(I Wanna) Marry Joanna,'" Holliday recalls in a press release. "I'd never sang into a mic before and had no clue about levels, amps or speakers and started sweating after a couple of failed attempts to vocalise the words I had on a scrap of paper about smoking weed." Soon enough, the band had honed in on a groovy, hallucinatory sound that fit right in at the Hacienda. Momentum built to the point that, in 1990, the NME touted them as "the most popular band without a record out." But a label deal never materialized, so the recordings intended to be Joanna's debut album ended up shelved.
Recently, in a Manchester loft, the members of Joanna came across the long-forgotten ¼-inch reel tapes from their album sessions at Pentagon Studios. "We realised we were actually as good as we remembered," Alty says, which led to renewed efforts to get the music out all these years later. Those efforts have led to a forthcoming release of Joanna's album Hello Flower by the great New Feelings label. It'll be out in December, and opening track "If You Don't Want Me To" is available to stream below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "If You Don't Want Me To"
02 "Bandit Country"
03 "Hey Presto"
04 "Weather Vane"
05 "Mr. Sunshine"
06 "Hello Flower"
07 "It's Worth A Try"
08 "Gardeners' World"
Hello Flower is out 12/5 via New Feelings.
