Somebody Famous - "Prisoners Of The Real World" (Falling A)
Before Stone Premonitions took off, supremo Tim Jones was in Somebody Famous, and with their recent compilation album introducing the band to the general public, they have now dusted off the tapes of their original 1985 album and released it on Falling A Records. Many of the names on here are familiar to SP watchers like myself, with Paddi on drums and Mark Dunn on bass, and even Terri B providing the graphic design for the sleeve. Despite its vintage you can still tell straight away that it is Jones' band, with the title track sounding very much like The Rabbits Hat in vocal delivery. The spacey sound which permeates most of the SP rosta is also evident here on tracks like 'Get Out While You Can' and 'Why Do We', and with Jones writing all of the material bar the lyrics for 'Ramehead' you can hear pointers to the style of what would later become The Rabbits Hat. 'Silvery Waves' and 'Petunia' are typical Jones songs, with quirky rhythms and offbeat lyrics, resulting in a sound which must have seemed quite out of place when it was recorded nearly twenty years ago. Certainly an interesting insight into the first steps of the people who would later be the backbone of Newcastle's finest independent recording studio.
by Peter Jolly, Feedback Magazine, UK