FFLAPS 1987-1992 ( a crymi ankst ffilm)

youtu.be/39NgTDd5Yt4

‘Amhersain’ if full of barbed wire bouquets of melody and fuzzy ecstasy. Happy-go-lucky rattling drums providing roller skates for some scratchy guitar and incisive, tender vocals. It does backward flips with its choruses. NME

INFO - Having played their very first gig in Bangor University Jazz Room on 24th April 1987, Fflaps became actively involved in bringing together the Welsh and English language music scenes in the Bangor area over the following months, working alongside such tireless legends of both scenes as 4Q and Anhrefn. This cultural mélange injected a new vitality into the scene, and by the time Anhrefn's Rhys Mwyn invited the trio to record an EP for his Recordiau Anhrefn label less than five months after their first appearance, the group had already played twenty gigs around Wales as well as one in London and one in Wigan.

Rhys booked the group into Foel studio in his remote mid-Wales hometown of Llanfair Caereinion for a day's recording on 4th October. The group were especially excited about this arrangement as it was the very studio where such seminal classics as The Fall's Fiery Jack, Peter Hammill's "Over", Young Marble Giants' Colossal Youth, The Pop Group's For How Much Longer do We Tolerate Mass Murder?, Datblygu's Hwgr-Grawth-Og, My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything and Van Der Graaf's The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome had been recorded. Fflaps arrived at the studio late at night on the 3rd of October, totally convinced that they were about to make a record that would join that prestigious list of classics.

They were greeted and entertained by the studio's owner Dave Anderson, the original bassist with both Amon Düül II and Hawkwind! This was the man who played bass on Master of the Universe and Archangel's Thunderbird - two of the pinnacles of human artistic achievement... and if that wasn't enough, he was also now in The Groundhogs! The group enjoyed a pleasant evening of drinks and anecdotes with the seventies legend before getting a good night's sleep in preparation for the following day's work.

Happily, the session went well, with engineer Brian Snelling putting the group at ease and effortlessly capturing their raw energy in a series of first takes. In addition to three of their own compositions, the group chose to record a Welsh language cover of The Slits' Love and Romance as an acknowledgement of their roots, but also with one eye on John Peel airplay, knowing that the song was a big favourite of the legendary Radio One DJ, who was also a big supporter of Welsh music.

The EP was released on Recordiau Anhrefn a few weeks later, in a sleeve designed by the group using photos Alan and Ann had taken during a recent trip across the Iron Curtain to East Berlin. This was to be the first of several engagements with the eastern bloc by the group as over the next few years they witnessed and documented the fall of the communist regimes in the region. The front cover depicts the changing of the guard outside the Eternal Flame Against Fascism (since renamed the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Tyranny) at the the Neue Wache on Unter Den Linden, while the back cover depicts a street scene of a trio of east German skinheads on their way home after a night of drinking, captured in as blurry detail as they probably perceived it themselves.

The record did indeed catch the ear of John Peel, who played it quite extensively and invited the group to record a session, and it also gained several positive reviews in the music press of the time. The three original songs on the EP would appear the next year on the group's debut album in re-recorded form Following EP airplay and a session on John Peel's Radio One show, Fflaps were approached by Geoff Davies of Liverpool's Probe Plus Records in April 1988 with an invitation to record an LP for his label. The group booked themselves into Les Morrison's Unlucky Søn studio in Bethesda and recorded their entire live repertoire over a three day period between 25th and 27th April.
Having a busy schedule during the Summer, including their debut gig outside the UK - at KOB in Berlin, in addition to performances in Deiniolen, Penmon and Newport, the group put the album on hold for a few months as they concentrated on live work.

The group travelled up to Liverpool with the master tapes on October 6th and spent a day in Sanatorium studios with engineer Kevin Wright adding overdubs (including a track of cutlery on one song!) and remixing the material until it was to both Geoff and the group's satisfaction. The following week, Fflaps were due to play in London and so Geoff booked in an LP cut to coincide with the gig so that the group could be present to supervise it. Ann went down on the train while Alan and Jonny drove down in the group van with the gear.

Unfortunately the van never got to London, crashing on the M6 and leaving Alan hospitalised for several weeks. Ann soldiered on however and ensured that the record was mastered properly (a legendary 'Porky Prime Cut', no less!) and Probe Plus' resident artist Steve 'Jacuzzi' Hardstaff (Led Zeppelin, Strawbs, Half Man Half Biscuit etc...) designed the sleeve, collaged from images supplied by the group together with his own. The cover looked great apart from the fact that the explanatory notes the group had supplied had been mixed up and were now designated to random songs! - see if you can match up the correct notes with the appropriate song!

The LP came out in November and was well received by the press, and again had plenty of airplay on John Peel's programme. Fflaps - Amhersain (Probe Plus Records PROBE 21) 1988

Ann Matthews - vocals, guitar
Alan Holmes - bass
Jonny Evans - drums
with Les Morrison, Kevin Wright and Geoff Davies

recorded at Unlucky Søn, Bethesda 25th-27th April 1988
overdubs and mix at Sanatorium, Liverpool 6th October 1988