Foxdude Records

                                  Big Flame Discography

    7 Sink/Illness/Sometimes (Laughing Gun - Plaque 001)                          04-84
    7 Rigour E.P./Man Of Few Syllables/Debra/Sargasso (Ron Johnson - Zron 3)      03-85
    7 Tough E.P./All The Irish (Must Go To Heaven)/Where’s Our Carol?/
      !Cuba! (Ron Johnson - Zron 4)                                               09-85
    7 Why Popstars Can’t Dance/Chanel Samba!/Birth Of A Nation
      (Ron Johnson - Zron 7)                                                      03-86
   10 Two Kan Guru E.P./Sink/Sometimes/Man Of Few Syllables/Sargasso/
      All The Irish/!Cuba!(Ron Johnson - Reron 8)                                 07-86
    7 Cubist Pop ManifestoEP/tracks unknown (Ron Johnson - Zron 13)               02-87
    7 XPQWRTX E.P./ (Ron Johnson - zron 15, unreleased?)                          02-87
   CD Rigour (Drag City - DC 19)                                                  03-95
     Tracks are:Sink/Sometimes/The Illness/Man of Few Syllables/Debra/Sargasso/
     All The Irish (Must Go To Heaven)/!Cuba!/Where's Our Carol?/
     Why Popstars Can't Dance/Chanel Samba/Breath of a Nation/Every Conversation/
     New Way (Quick Wash and Brush Up With Liberation Theology)/Cat With Cholic/
     Earsore/3 on Baffled Island(The Hard Rock Movement)/
     Let's Rewrite the American Constitution/XPQWRTZ

Tracks on Compliations :
FL V/A "Solid Gold EP" (Free with the magazine the Catalogue)
    - Big Flame track = "Sargasso"
LP V/A "NME-C86" (Rough Trade - Rough 100)
    - Big Flame track = "New Way (Quick Wash & Brush Up With Liberation Theology)"
LP V/A "Communicate!!!-Live At ThamesPoly"
    - Big Flame track = "All The Irish Must Go To Heaven"
LP V/A "10 Years After The Goldrush" (Constrictor - Con! 00022)
    - Big Flame track = "Sargasso"
LP V/A "The First After Epiphany" (Ron Johnson - Zron 21)
    - Big Flame track = "XPQWRTZ"

John Peel Sessions:
July 1984 "Man Of Few Syllables/Debra/Sargasso/Breath Of A Nation"
March 1985 "All the Irish Must Go To Heaven/New Way/Chanel Samba/These Boots Were Made for working"

Big Flame 1982-1987.

"Why do you go on about C86 all the time yet not include an artist from the tape in your articles," said one of our customers recently. Well firstly there was more to C86 than just a tape, it was a musical attitute and secondly here is one from the tape, Big Flame!

"Perhaps only once in a producer’s life does he meet musical greatness." Not my words but the words of Big Flame record producer John Brierley in January 1986. Listening and ultimately understanding Big Flame’s contribution to the indie scene of the mid 1980’s can make you think statements like John Brierley’s hold some truth. The Big Flame sound although slightly 80’s still stands out from all the other indie artists of the time and

perhaps since. As a band they held a certain agrogance and they liked to take the piss. From their sleeve notes and record inserts they were clearly big fans of Toucans, Kangaroos and ultra left politics. Probably the best words are those of the band themselves at the time of their 1st and now very rare single "Sink."

"We are a tense and quirky 3-piece pop group born out of a common dismay/disgust/distrust at the way creativity and individuality in pop music has been stifled by the music industry. We play a 9 song 25 minute set because we feel that people tend to get bored after that. We made a deliberate decision to follow a certain musical path derived from our influences and more importantly, the attitudes of those bands that influenced us. These range from the Sound Of Young Scotland through the Pop Group, the Higsons to such diverse persons as Jacques Brel, Gil Scott - Heron, Erto Morero and the Meters."

What made the band sound so distinctive is hard to gauge, it could be that the base player was the singer, it could be that each instrument seems to be at odds with itself, or it could be that they sound like the Fire Engines on speed! Whatever the reason, the Big Flame sound is very difficult to categorise.

In completing the discography below we had a few a problems namely that the tracks to the Cubist Pop Manifesto E.P. are not listed on the record, or it’s sleeve so we do not know what they are called, if anyone reading this knows the titles let us know and we will update the list below.

Also we are quite sure that the band did releases on other compilations and had a record out on the constrictor label again any info will be helpful.

Finally the band said that they would only release 3 track 7 inch E.P’s because that is what all the best pop must appears on and true to form that is what they did.
The 3 members of the band were :
                                              David "Dil" Green (drums),
                                              Greg O'Keefe (guitar)
                                       and Alan Brown (base & vocals)

Big Flame came from Manchester.