There was no plan…there were no goals…and there it was…

Occasional Albums Thing 078 - The Mighty Lemon Drops “Happy Head”

The Mighty Lemon Drops might be considered the first of the Black Country bands of the mid 80’s to make their mark, the forerunners of the Stourbridge scene in a ways. They were from Wolverhampton, dressed in black leather and wraparound shades, they played cool Vox Teardrop guitars and came at ya like a Yam-Yam Velvet Underground/Bunnymen/Doors hybrid…oh and they had the tunes too.

The beginnings of the Lemon Drops are somewhat complicated, but as I understand it, singer Paul Marsh, guitarist Dave Newton, and bassist Tony Linehan had played together in an early 80s Punk band called Active Restraint. Newton left that group to help found the Wild Flowers (see here). He returned to his former bandmates, now calling themselves the Velvet Monsters (possibly), before settling on the Mighty Lemon Drops. Things stalled when their original drummer, one Martin Gilks, left to hook up with a newly formed band from Stourbridge, The Wonder Stuff! He was ably replaced by Keith Rowley, and the Lemon Drops went on to release their first classic single “Like An Angel” on Dan Treacy of Television Personalities Dreamworld Records. They were pretty quickly snapped up by Chrysalis offshoot label Blue Guitar courtesy of Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and the result was this, their debut album “Happy Head”.

The album is an amalgam of Post Punk, Indie jangle and 60s LA Psychedelia in perfect proportion. Highlights are a re-recorded “Like An Angel”, the sublime single “My Biggest Thrill”, the thunderous title track, the gorgeous “On My Mind” and another re-recorded tune in former B-side "Something Happens." This edition of the album is a 40th anniversary remaster that not only includes a bonus 7” single featuring earlier Dreamworld versions of “Something Happens” and “Now She’s Gone” but comes on marbled Red & Black vinyl and includes a new note from the band and an Obi strip. It's a splendid package in a limited edition of 500 copies by Dinked Editions (https://dinkededition.co.uk/).

It is fair to say there was a lot of the sound of the Bunnymen about the Mighty Lemon Drops, but they were local heroes and trailblazers to us and “Happy Head” is a great album. I got to see them just twice, first at a benefit gig in Birmingham in 1986 on a bill that also included PWEI, the Wild Flowers, The Wonder Stuff and Pig Bros., whose drummer at the time was Fuzz Townsend. The second time was in 1991 at a festival in a baseball stadium near Phoenix, Arizona, all us Midlanders suffering under the searing late summer Arizona sun. Their 2nd album “World Without End” and its follow up “Laughter” had both reached #1 in the US Modern Rock charts and the band were quite the the big deal in the US by then.

The Lemon Drops split up in 1992, briefly reforming for a Wolverhampton gig in 2007. I’ve been after a decent copy of this album for some time, so this anniversary edition hit at just the right time. One of the bands that led the way for Midlands Indie music in the mid 80’s and still important to me.

My Biggest Thrill - https://youtu.be/tmMLZIh46H4?si=7bnvUp7MYFND8WDp