The People I Meet As I Walk Down The Street Say, "Hey! What's Your Name?"

Brace yourself. Time for The Dave Howard Singers, please. 

 

Over at Musk's swirling social media shitstorm, I've been motivated to join a thread running for the whole of May, posting personal favourite 12" singles from the 1980s. It's a bit of a fun and it has the benefit of getting some vinyl off the shelf and on the turntable.

As far as physical product is concerned, I only have the two 12" singles of Yon Yonson that The Dave Howard Singers released back in 1987. The original 12" version (together with an extended mix and an instrumental/bonus beats) is nonsense but an earworm. Teetering on the brink of being bloody annoying, I love it. I first heard it on TV, during the Indie Chart countdown on The Chart Show and Rob Jukes, whoever you are, thanks for uploading a VHS rip to YouTube.

The other 12", titled Yon Yonson Meets Dr. R-R-Ruth (Sex Sample Sequel) is if anything even more bonkers. The two remixes cut and paste sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who was a well-known face (and voice) on TV at the time. It was hardly a VFM purchase at the time, I think it cost me a couple of quid for 12" vinyl with a total running time of under five and a half minutes. But I love it.

 

I've also got the 1987 compilation album Funky Alternatives Vol 2, a good collection as a whole but also featuring further variant Yon Yonson III, which doesn't stray too far from the original version.

Since then, I've managed to track down another couple of 12" singles on t'internet, What Do You Say To An Angel (1989) and All My Relatives Look The Same (1990) but seem to have missed a compilation of The Dave Howard Singers' early material which surfaced in 2006. 

There's a potted history of The Dave Howard Singers on Iffypedia and whilst the official website now appears to be completely devoid of content, the DHS Facebook page was detailing live activity up to summer 2019.

YouTube has a fair bit of DHS audio floatin about and I've managed to find a few videos to accompany Yon Yonson, which kicked off this post. 

 

So, without further ado, here's Dave's unique take on David Essex's Rock On, followed by B-side Nothing To Say, both from 1986. Next up is the aforementioned All My Relatives Look The Same from 1990. Finally, the oldest song and video on here is Intervals, which dates from 1983 and leads the 3-track cassette release, A Loan And Yawn.

 

Canada's not just Neil Young, you know.