Product Description
No, your eyes are not deceiving you!!! We can finally reveal that one of the longest awaited albums in pop history is finally being unleashed!

Detour Records started work on a planned retrospective by the Onlookers over fifteen years ago. It was a long, hard slog but we got there in the end with a little help from our friends. In a twist of fate, we discovered that Polydor’s A&R man Dennis Munday (who worked with The Jam / Style Council and Siouxsie & the Banshees) had wanted to sign the band to Polydor back in 1981. Fast forward 20 odd years and the group themselves believed that all their original recordings had been lost in the mists of time. Luckily for us, Dennis had actually held onto those recordings on a cassette tape and better still the quality was remarkably good. With some help from Martin Kelly of Heavenly Records - who'd been a massive fan of the band at the time and seen them on several occasions - the recordings were cleaned up, restored and compiled to startling effect.

The Onlookers emerged from the late 70's early 80's Mod revival scene but by the time the recordings on this CD were made the group had blossomed into one of the era's most interesting and gifted bands with fantastic songs and an image to match. The Onlookers left an indelible impression on anyone who encountered them during their brief live span and although they managed only one 7" release - the highly sought after 'You And I' on Demon Records in 1982 - the group has gained a cult, almost legendary status over the intervening 30 years. Their songs and sound as fresh today as they were back then. Whilst bootleg cassettes and CD's of live concerts have served only to fan the flames of interest - only rumours existed of an album of demo's that the Onlookers had recorded for Polydor with Jam producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven.

Finally we are proud to present 19 fully restored and enhanced tracks as they should have been heard back in 1981. The actual packaging for this CD (designed by Paul Kelly) is to die for… a full colour sixteen page booklet crammed full of rare photos, press cuttings, gig flyers and a comprehensive history of the band by Martin Kelly PLUS additional sleeve notes and commentary from Rick Blackman, Eddie Piller and Brian Kotz. No expense spared on this release... once lost and now found we present the Onlookers!

1. You And I
2. Julia
3. You Know Everything
4. Houseman
5. Someone's Daughter
6. Now I'm Sleeping
7. Chieftain
8. Duty Calls Me
9. Still She Waits
10. Good Friend Of Yours
11. Mystic Surrounds Me
12. Understand

Bonus Tracks:
13. Windsor Castle
14. Lonely Lady
15. Thinking Of You
16. Round And Round
17. The People There
18. Things Remain
19. Houseman (With Strings)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007W1PZH8/?tag=imwan-21

For those not familiar, The Onlookers were an early '80s group from Slough who gained notoriety as part of the UK's Neo-Psychedelic scene of that era. They amassed a huge Mod following because of their sound and style, which was much more Small Faces and freakbeat-influenced than the more psikepop and baroque leanings of contemporaries such as Mood Six.

The Onlookers sadly split just before their debut single was released, and the album due to follow it was shelved. Now, the three tracks from the 45 plus their unreleased album tracks and demos (all done under the aegis of The Jam's producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven) are going to be released on CD in Britain by Mod reissue specialists Detour Records.

ICErs who gravitate towards this kind of music, check out just how good The Onlookers were. Here's the audio of one track from their lone single, followed by a couple of 1982 TV performances:

Yeah, these guys were pretty good. What a shame the breakup occured before they really had a chance.

Rick A.

Detour's delightfully OTT description is now in the first post, along with a finalised track listing. They're saying that it will be a May 1st release, which might be optimistic since Amazon doesn't list a CD version yet at all, but an MP3 listing has been posted and you can hear audio samples there (which IMLO live up to expectations and then some):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UFP288/?tag=imwan-20

As it turns out, the Detour label is selling the CD directly as a third party seller at Amazon UK, so the May 1st date is just for the digital version. The order link for the proper compact disc version is now in the first post. (In fact, I've already received the confirmation e-mail from Detour's Amazon storefront while I was composing this post. )

Will be interested Linda in your thoughts of the disc upon your hearing it.

Rick A.

My anticipation for the CD is sky-high, Rick. I've been waiting 30 years for this album!

Another YouTube uploader has posted the lead track of The Onlookers' single "You And I". This is the same recording as appears on the CD (but not remastered, of course). Close your eyes to avoid seeing the out of place '79 Mod Revival images, and just listen for the cellos:

Has anyone here ever ordered from Detour before? I ordered one of their CDs direct about two weeks ago, and I haven't had any dispatch or even order confirmation emails (other than the confirmation email from paypal).

Nathan,

I've only ever ordered their releases through Amazon. This was the first time I'd ordered a CD directly through their Amazon UK storefront (and it came in less than a week). Never ordered from Detour's own website, but one assumes it has the same people manning it, and they sent me a shipment confirmation so quickly for the Amazon order, I can't believe they wouldn't confirm your order at all. You should definitely e-mail them and check.

Oh, I still need to post a review for this release.


Alright, let me put it this way: I've listened to many, many albums by many, many artists at this stage of the game. (I am old!) Personal favourites are firmly established in my heart and mind. So although I continue to collect a lot of new music, it's a genuine challenge for a new addition to crack my all-time top 50. The Onlookers immediately went into my top 5, and I know there'll be some days when they take a turn at #1. That's how good these recordings are. For somebody with my tastes, they're virtually perfect.

The album absolutely crushes the output of all the other British neo-psych bands of the era. I mean, it's not even a contest. But I'll go further than that. Had an Onlookers album been released back when it was supposed to be, while I'm not sure how they would have fared commercially, for me they might have actually supplanted The Jam as THE group of the era. They were possibly better songwriters (without ever lapsing into sloganeering as Paul Weller sometimes did), definitely better musicians ... hey, I think they were better dressers too.







Love that Swinging London clobber. There are different, clearer pics in the CD's insert booklet, which also includes a few informative essays about the band's history. The audio quality is very good, considering. They generally sound better than just demos -- a few tracks feature studio effects and even strings -- and they do seem fairly complete, just not of "perfect" studio quality. I'll guess that a finished Onlookers album wouldn't really have sounded that much different from what's on this disc.

I remember first reading about The Onlookers in a tiny article in Melody Maker (might have been in NME or even Sounds), with a black & white photo of some fabulously dressed musicians, a suitably trippy logo on the drumkit, a description of how they sounded -- The Small Faces, The Beatles, The Hollies, Traffic -- and I was in love. So little info trickled out since then. There was one 45 rpm single, a couple of other tracks on an obscure compilation ... I'd literally waited 30 years to hear all but a handful of these recordings, and they lived up to, and even exceeded, expectations. How often does that happen? The Onlookers can be safely sat next to The Action, Big Star and other legendary giants who deserved so much more success and recognition in their own time than they got.

WOW! Great review Linda. I'm in!

Rick A.