Felt is amazing! This is agreat overview of thie stuff...

yeah - cool band who i don't know a whole lot about. save me a copy. i think "my face is on fire" was my fave tune.

good job, rob. 'penelope tree' is probably my favourite felt song.

Alas, I don't own "Penelope Tree"... there are a few singles and b-sides that I'm missing, and that's one of them. :-( I think the song Sean is talking about is "I Will Die with My Head in Flames", which is indeed a worthy song (but not quite enough of a favorite to include here).

well conroy, made a copy of this to me, let's trade whenever you're ready

Well done, Rob! Great choices....

This looks very cool. Full of Felt-y goodness.

I know little of this band, and hope to remedy that soon, Rob. Time we traded again, my friend?

Lawrence used to drink in my local back in the days when their was a minor Thames Valley music scene going on, Lush, Thousand Yard Stare etc, great bloke, great band, great mix.

This time Rob, I heartily endorse yr choice in a single mix artist. Felt were great!

interesting mix, but I disagree that Mr.Marr owes anything to these guys. Time frame wise, he had developed his own sound well before Deebank even joined Felt.
Felt owe any royalties they might have to Television, while Mr.Marr was in a different area entirely.

Thanks, all. To Mr. Holland... Although I agree with you that there was certainly some Television influence in Felt's sound, particularly during the Maurice years, and also admit that I was being flippant re: the "half of his royalties" statement, I think that Lawrence & Maurice's influence on Johnny is pretty undeniable. I also am interested in hearing upon what you are basing your statement that Marr had "developed his own sound well before Deebank even joined Felt", since the first Felt album (on which Deebank appears) is from 1981 and the first Smiths single is from 1983... If there are other, earlier Marr recordings out there, I'd love to hear them.

Marr was a member of many bands prior to the Smiths, none of whom were recorded but certainly he didn't just appear fully formed as a guitar player one magic morning in 1983. Quote from allmusic.com "Before forming the Smiths in the Spring of 1982, Johnny Marr had played in a variety of Manchester-based rock & roll bands, including Sister Ray, Freaky Part, White Dice, and Paris Valentinos."

Deebank didn't join Felt's lineup until 1981's, and seeing as all they released from then until 1984 was a single EP I'd find it really hard to believe that Marr was solely influenced by an obscure EP from a band that he may very well never have heard, or even heard of. These 2 guys are contemporaries.
Here's an interesting quote, which is totally uninformed.
"As does Johnny Marr whose style owes something to Deebank and his tremendous dexterity on songs like The "World is as Soft as Lace"
Of course that song came out in 1986, the year before the Smiths broke up. So really, any thought that Marr was influenced by Deebank is misled at best. Perhaps it was the other way around?

Okay, now you're misrepresenting provable facts. Felt released one full-length, two mini-albums and six 7"es between 1979 and 1984, all of which (if you've read My Magpie Eyes Are Hungry for the Prize) created a buzz in the British indie community. The song that you referenced came out in February, 1984, as well. I'm not accusing Marr of ripping him off (I actually prefer both Marr and the Smiths to Deebank and Felt), but just noting what is a fairly obvious similiarity between the two guitarists. Beeing that Deebank (who also released a solo album in 1984) predates Marr, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt, influence-wise. Why you are insisting on arguing this point (upon which we're barely differing) is beyond me.

By the way, I stand corrected on my correction to Sean: there is indeed a song called "My Face is on Fire" which I do not own.

whether it was meant to sound like an accusation or not "Johnny Marr (whom I love and adore, guitar-wise) owes half of his royalties to Lawrence and Maurice Deebank"
sure sounds like one to me!
My point is this...why would a young guitarist from Manchester who was influenced by much older sources and who'd been playing in bands before Felt even existed all of a sudden base his sound on the guy? Just because a bunch of rock snob writers tried to play connect the dots with a paintbrush doesn't mean it's right. When has Marr ever mentioned Felt as an influence?

My point is that just because you assume that Marr was not influenced by Deebank does not mean that it is so, either. There's no reason to go off on this, because you have no more information than I do. It's all a matter of opinion.

wow, i'm pissed i missed out on this discussion!! my belated opinion is this-apart from a few songs on the album before strange idols pattern (i'm pretty sure it is fear or something like that...) has a few good tracks which kind of escape me now except for "the day the rain came down" and every single song on strange idols pattern-felt was nothing big without deebank, who was the shit-i don't think him or jonny marr crossed paths at all as contemporaries-i think their shared sound, if you'll call it that-was the logical extension of the vibe of brit indie rock at that point-see echo and the bunnymen, durutti column, chameleons etc. however, where marr is explosive and challenging, deebank is repetitive and classical sounding. i haven't heard too much stuff after strange idols pattern, but what i heard was so disappointing i gave up with them altogether-can't say i'm not curious what this mix sounds like but i would definitely group felt with television if only for the fact that after finding their stride with two pretty awesome albums-the vibe hit a wall. wow that was fun to write WAIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT!!!!! where is Denim???? thats what i want to know!!!

Whew! Now that I'm exhausted reading the feedback, I just want to say, "Wow!! This looks amazing!" and "Maybe Mr. Rob 'My Mix Master Powers Are Unstoppable' might want to trade for this?"

Dear Rob:
Johnny Marr said in an N.M.E. interview in the late 80s or eraly 90s ( I do not remember exactly) that Maurice Deebank was Marrs' biggest influence. I hope this clear up this matter. N. Silver

Dear Rob: I've just remembered something else about Marr and Deebank (the latter I was a student and disciple of for many years). Felt supported the Smiths two or three times before Deebank left. It was at one of those concerts that Marr approached Lawrence and asked him what sort of electrical equipment Deebank used(amplifier, signal processing gear etc.)