(Another forgotten) Classic Album Review: Five Thirty – Bed (1991)

Craig Stephen digs deep to come up with another should-have-been but never-quite-got-there classic album from the vast vaults of the early 1990s shoegaze scene …

In the days when British television made music shows that mattered, there was a one-off series that stood out because it unveiled some emerging and exciting acts.

I had long forgotten the programme’s title, but Mr Google informs me it was called the Yamaha Band Explosion, and that it was filmed at the Marquee Club in London.

The nauseating yet enthusiastic DJ Gary Crowley introduced a variety of shoegazing bands who looked aloof and immersed themselves in wah-wah effects. This contrasted with a very young and electrifying Manic Street Preachers and an act that, sadly, has disappeared off the historical radar, 5:30 (also written as Five Thirty).

Timing was cruel to 5:30 who were in the right place, at the wrong time. In 1991, the world had a choice between the Madchester / indie-dance bands, shoegazers, techno geeks and the grunge noiseniks from America. It was impossible to market a band decked in shirts from Carnaby Street, and possessed a sound that didn’t really fit into any of the above scenes.

 Their sole album, Bed, which was released a week before Nevermind, is a classic of the era, and I was delighted when 3 Loop Music re-released it a few eclipses ago with a welter of extra tracks. Indeed, there were two discs of B-sides, a John Peel session, and demos of songs that would have made up the second album.

It includes ‘Supernova’, the burning pop single with heavy tremolo-effected guitars that should have gone higher in the charts, while ‘13th Disciple’ was tuneful, assertive and owed a small debt to the Stone Roses. ‘Junk Male’ used some clever guitar techniques with a stunning opening stanza: “If God were to ever come my way, I’d spit into his face. Then calmly walk away.”

‘Songs and Paintings’ was about how creativity couldn’t change the world: “Songs and paintings never brought a regime down. It cannot be fair.”

Bed was surprisingly diverse, ranging from funk-infused numbers to slow burners to guitar-driven belters, sometimes beefed up with the use of wah-wah pedals.

While their recording output was tragically brief, the band was in existence for seven years, forming in 1985 in Oxford while Tara Milton and Paul Bassett were still at school. Despite their youth, they released a cracking EP (as 5:30!) that same year. It was headed by ‘Catcher in The Rye’, which was brimming with youthful cockiness and possessed the headstrong maturity of a more seasoned group.

What happened thereafter is somewhat mysterious as they disappeared for four years. They then reappeared in 1989 in London - having dropped the exclamation mark - and had been joined by Phil Hopper on drums. Soon after they signed to East West, in the days when real talent could get you noticed by big to middling labels.

The following year came the long-awaited second single, ‘Abstain’, which sounded like late-period Jam and The Clash rolled into one. Later, in the year of ‘Fool’s Gold’, ‘Step On’ and ‘Sit Down’, came the edgy guitar-driven ‘Air-Conditioned Nightmare’. Not quite as good perhaps as ‘Abstain’ but still way ahead of many other, more successful but more limited, British bands. Neither single was deemed suitable for Bed.

These singles set them up for a big 1991 and they were on fire during the year. ‘13th Disciple’ was released as a single in May, ‘Supernova’ in July, Bed in September, and the You EP in November. Every single was a stunner, and the album was packed full of them. However, the singles reached No.67, 75, and 72 respectively in the UK. Not surprisingly with such low sales numbers, Bed never stood a chance. The radio DJs, the music journalists and the TV producers were nowhere to be seen when they were needed most.

The almost vilified Northside had more success FFS.

Alas, 5:30 split up in 1992, a second album not progressing beyond the demo stage. Hindsight might proffer that, had they been more aware of how the tide surges and subsides, they could’ve been contenders. But you can understand why they packed it in. Pop music is a fickle industry indeed.

Tara Milton subsequently formed The Nubiles which had one decent album, the slightly left-field Mindbender, and later had a solo career. Paul Bassett was part of Orange Deluxe which released a string of albums, while Phil Hopper left the music industry altogether.

My vinyl copy of Bed is much played, and the triple disc version of Bed is getting its turn when the time allows. I only wish many more people and their pets could say the same thing.