(c’89-’92) Paul Maguire (bass), Alan Mansbridge (drums), Dave Driscoll (guitar), Gary Wollen (guitar) and Paul Haskell (vocals).
The Vinegar Blossom’s first published track was “Quality Seems Totally Foreign…” on the ‘Something’s Burning In Paradise Again…’ shoegaze compilation put out on the Subtle label [Subtle 001] in November ’89. This was a numbered edition, released with an A5, 28-page fanzine, containing a feature page on each of the bands from the tape [Ed – If any one has a copy do send pic of the VB page]. That same year, the You Can’t Be Loved Forever No.2 fanzine came with a compilation cassette compiled by Phil and Malcolm Powell of Angel Talk that carried The Vinegar Blossom’s “Perfection Found In Good Health”.
The following year, a possibly reworked “Quality Seems Totally Foreign…” appeared on the ‘Instants Of Pleasure’ compilation cassette released on the Blam-A-Bit label [BLAM 001] in 1990 in Germany as “Quality Is Foreign To Me”, for Fleet based The Vinegar Blossom were popular in Germany.
But, before that The Vinegar Blossom’s second gig saw them supporting The Charlatans at The Buzz Club at the West End Centre, Aldershot. This was also the night that the band had asked Danny Hagan to manage them and The Charlatans asked Vinegar Blossom if they’d support them on a few dates later in the year. On the 29 May the band played the first of three dates with The Charlatans at Portsmouth Polytechnic, the next night they were at the Bierkeller, Bristol and on 1 June they supported at the Nelson Mandela Building, on the University of Sheffield campus. This was also the year they were supposed to support Flowered Up, with Here Comes Jordan, at The Buzz Club on 15 June. Flowered Up cancelled and Eusebio stepped in to headline.
Sometime in ’91 “Perfection Found in Good Health” was included on the “It’s All About Love” compilation cassette on the Smuf label [SMUF 003]; and later that year – September ’91 – they released “Absence of A Choice”, a 7″ single in Germany on the A Turntable Friend label [TURN 06], having recorded it at Studio Poisson, Crondall, with Patch Hannon, who has also produced Bennet and The Audience, as Engineer. This was backed by “Perfection Found in Good Health” on which Steve Collings played drums.
A local band night at the Buzz Club saw The Vinegar Blossom take to the stage with Slug, Phobia, The Rachel Papers and Flavour on 4 January ’92. Then on 28 March ’92 the band entered the Echoey Groove Studio at Bracknell Arts Centre and recorded a live demo which included “Don’t Go Raising Your Spirits Around Here”. It’s unclear if this was before or after the Andreas Hering compiled the “Everlasting Happiness” compilation cassette that included the band’s “Solstice”. After spending 16 months compiling the cassette, Hering released it in Germany sometime in ’92.
Two more compilation inclusions appeared over the years including: The Eleanor Linwood compiled “Out Of The Blue” which included the bands “Virginia Court” and a bio in a 16 page self-styled ‘mini-booklet’ that only came with some of the cassettes [Ed – again any picture of that would be great]. The newest compilation, a six-sided A Turntable Friend retrospective, was released in 2017 in Germany and titled “The Test of Time”, as CD [TURN50CD] and LP [TURN50LP] carrying “Perfection Found In Good Health”.
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