i was down in 3rd st jazz one day in i think 1992 after work and i looked thru a million recs but didn’t see anything interesting – until i saw the the first 2 Cornershop recs in the new bin. “in the days of ford cortina” 7” and the “england’s dreaming” 10”! they both totally caught my eye with the mod targets, the Indian-English faces and the WIIIJA record label name on the back covers. that label’s name rung out with the chime of UK riot grrl – i dont recall now however, how and why i knew that, plus the name Hanif Kureeshi in one of the song titles. are you thick? after sussing all those signifiers, how could i have said no?!?! so i bought them both and rode my bike home, listened to the song “england’s deaming” and then the ford cortina 7”, with the “when i leave like mahatma gandhi i want my ashes strewn all over the Ganges” lyrics, literally 5 times in a row. and then out at 48th & Walton in west philly for dEALERS rehearsal (aka ‘stoned out jam session’). by the time i got out there those songs were already deep in my brain. they were totally empowering and inspiring songs to a filipino-american freak like me. i was instantly obsessed with cornershop. flash forward a few months and a few letters later- letters sent back and forth from Philly to Preston, England and already we were hammering out what was originally going to be a split LP of dEALERS and Cornershop songs. David Chambers, their original drummer came over to the USA to visit his lady Emma who was teaching or something at a summercamp for Brits in upstate NY or somewhere. They came to philly and we hung out tremendously (took them to a WESTON show at the unitarian church on 21st and chestnut, took them up to Kutztown, PA and Hawk Mountain, took them to Bethlehem to see the Original Sins cover “makin time” at the Funhouse – and we even took them to 411 to see a basement practice by the Mark Jackson Jetset (or actually the 411 Blue Ribbon Band, i just made up that Jetset name back then lol). everything was trans atlantic and peachy, but then David soon left or had to leave Cornershop and all plans for a split LP were torn assunder. I even got phone calls from Gary the WIIIJA head honcho who was miffed that Cornershop decided to put out songs in the USA without his permission (i was like ‘what?!’ i never even considered that anybody but the actual people in a band could have any say in how, when, where a band’s songs could appear.) (that sort of pro rock business action was so weird to a punkrock like me). eventually it was mutually agreed upon that we could put a couple of Cornershop’s old 7” songs on a split single with the dEALERS on the other side – the split LP became a split 7” (thus the ‘Jr in the title), released in a threeway tie between W111JA, Easy Subcult and Charles from the dEALERS new label called The Administration. Whats really cool was that it was hand pressed by the punks at Prole Art Threat in Texas. We recorded the dEALERS song “the movie of my life” at the Friz (art di furia’s awesome cavernous 2 floor studio / hang out spot on 12th and walnut, on the night before Charles moved to Vermont. it was one long meandering jammer and if it sounds a little melancholic and wet with tears its because of that context. and it was raining pretty hard. Later i took a recording of Dave from Weston wandering around the unitarian church when David and Emna were there with us at that show, and mixed his monolouge in. ; it seemed fitting since David was there while it was being recorded (on a hand held Walkman with a condensor mic.) and that was that….. ? until Cornershop came to the USA a year or so later and we all hung out a lot in Philly and NYC. and the NYC hangouts got intensely crazed and funny, involving David Byrne (by that point he was Cornershop’s label head honcho), a fucked up hotel in the east village and smoking out way too much all over Central Park during their Summer Stage appearance. i can’t believe that no one died that weekend, or that Tjinder didn’t get mugged or something. (all the debauchery and good times are recounted in an issue of Raw Pogo On The Scaffold, but i can’t recall which one). ? At that point i thought ‘well, that was that!’ ? but fast forward one year and me and Beth are living in Tokyo and very, very removed both physically as well as spiritually from the Philly of the 90s (I mean everything is bright and clean and well-paid and fun), I get an email from some rock management company saying that Cornershop are about to come play in Tokyo for the first time and would I like to get guest listed. So i say yes and then run out the door to sell the 10 remaining Cornershop / dEALERs 7″s I’d brought to japan to Rough Trade Tokyo – to further capitalize on their recent ‘Big Beat’ Brimful of Asha mega success (and you know in Tokyo, the remix of that song of theirs was totally mega). Yanome at Rough Trade (whom i think ran the label 100 Guitar Mania which put out a Photon Band 7” back then, ie. 1997 or 8) immediately bought all of them. But a week later he called me up explaining that the Rough Trade squares wouldnt in good conscience sell them because of how Gary W111JA still felt stiffed by the release (or jealous) and how i should come and retrieve remaining 5 that hadn’t yet sold for ¥75,000. But in return and as an apology he would give Beth & I passes to an all nighter event he ran at a cool little club in Shimokitazawa. And thank god he did because otherwise we never would have seen & heard and met and hung out with The UK SUBWAYS, who at that moment were Tokyo’s rawest, coolest, youngest, smartest and loudest teenage band. And that was that.
-Eric de Jesus EASY / Raw Pogo On The Scaffold
A1 – Cornershop – Waterlogged
A2 – Cornershop – Kawasaki (More Heat Than Chapati)
B – The Dealer – The Movie Of My Life
