Medium Medium was a

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

band from

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, England, initially active between 1978 and 1983.

History

Emerging in 1978 out of the Nottingham punk/

rhythm & blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

band The Press,Unterberger, Richie " Medium Medium Biography,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, retrieved 2 October 2010 Medium Medium's first single was "Them or Me", which was released in late 1978 and was still selling well enough in 1980 to appear in the

UK Independent Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p. 257Lazell, Barry (1998) ''Indie Hits 1980-1989'', Cherry Red Books, , p. 145 The second single, "Hungry, So Angry", was released in February 1981 on

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as well ...

. One of the first records to introduce slap bass - a technique borrowed from black funk music - to a generally white audience, "Hungry, So Angry" reached #48 in the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Disco chart - the single and the album were released in 1981 on the New York-based indie label Cachalot Records - and has appeared on over a dozen compilations over the years. The band released one studio album, ''The Glitterhouse'', in late 1981. Its stark, stripped-down dub and dance rhythms and chiming, funk guitar with occasional saxophone and other sounds, failed to attract a large following. John Rees Lewis, the lead singer and saxophone player, left at the start of 1982 to form

C Cat Trance C Cat Trance were a post-punk band from Nottingham, England, formed by John Rees Lewis after his departure from Medium Medium. They released five albums before splitting up in the mid-1990s. History After leaving Medium Medium, Rees Lewis forme ...

with the original drummer Nigel Stone, who had left shortly before the release of "Hungry, So Angry". The remaining members, Andy Ryder (guitar/vocals), Alan Turton (bass guitar), Graham Spink (offstage special sounds) and the replacement drummer Steve Harvey, continued to tour and were later augmented by, first, Leslie Joachim Barrett (guitar/keyboards), then Julie Wood (keyboards). Forays into a fuller, more produced sound failed to earn the band a new record deal and Medium Medium split up in late 1983. Inspired by a Cherry Red retrospective CD release in 2001 and the subsequent

dance-punk Dance-punk (also known as disco-punk, punk-funk or techno-punk) is a post-punk subgenre that emerged in the late 1970s, and is closely associated with the disco, post-disco and new wave movements.Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 ...

revival, Medium Medium reformed in late 2004 for several live shows, including a showcase at the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

Music Marathon in New York. No longer a full-time venture, the band has stated plans to continue to write, record and perform. In 2010, Medium Medium released a split-LP with

Kommissar Hjuler Kommissar Hjuler (born Detlev Hjuler; 1967) works as a sound recordist in the field of Noise and Post-industrial music, visual artist, film maker and police officer at Flensburg, a town on the German border with Denmark. He often works together wit ...

on the German label Der Schoene-Hjuler-Memorial-Fond, containing tracks from their concert at Part Time Punks Festival USA, followed by a second split-LP in 2011. The band's "The Glitterhouse" was reissued in expanded form as a triple vinyl edition in 2016 by Optic Nerve Recordings.

Discography

Albums

*'' The Glitterhouse'' (1981), Cherry Red *''Live in Holland'' (1988), Trance *''Hungry, So Angry'' (2001), Cherry Red - compilation *''Fluxus and Funk'' (2010), split-LP with

on (SHMF) *''Fluxus and Funk 2'' (2011), split-LP with Kommissar Hjuler on (SHMF) with cover art by

Clayton Patterson Clayton Patterson (born October 9, 1948) is a Canadian-born artist, photographer, videographer and folk historian. Since moving to New York City in 1979, his work has focused almost exclusively on documenting the art, life and times of the Lower ...

Singles

*"Them or Me" (1978), Apt - UK Indie #42 *"Hungry, So Angry" (1981), Cherry Red - 7-inch single *"Hungry, So Angry" (1981), Cherry Red - 12-inch single, released six months later *"If You Touched Her She'd Smear" (1982), Intercord *"Splendid Isolation" (1982), Intercord

References

External links

www.mediummedium.com Official site

Cherry Red Records
"Hungry, So Angry"
Split-LP
with

Video

PUNKCAST#593
live @

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

NYC on 16 October 2004. (

RealPlayer RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimedia realm, including MP ...

) {{Authority control English dance-punk musical groups Cherry Red Records artists