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MP3 Vince Smith Garcia - Vinces Ha Ha
20 MP3 Songs in this album (75:39) !
Related styles: Pop: New Romantic, Avant Garde: Electro-Acoustic, Type: Vocal
People who are interested in Duran Duran Talk Talk Thomas Dolby should consider this download.
Details:
The Story of ‘Vince’s Ha Ha’
Vince Smith Garcia was well known in the nineties for hits like, ‘Real Love’, by ‘Drizza Bone’. He started his musical carreer with Paul Cullen, writing and playing their own songs. Paul was the main songwriter, lead vocals and rhythm guitar.
Vince added his own lyrics and tunes from his own scrapbook, playing base and twelve string treble guitar and singing backing vocals. After making some rough home-made tapes and circulating them, Vince landed a job as a trainee tape operator at Orange Studios. He went on to manage and play in the ‘Smith and Cullen Contract’. Gary Brown was brought in on lead guitar with Gary Slade on base, Pete Mc Geary on drums, playing the queens Theatre at Hornchurch in the Capital Radio, ‘Battle of the Bands’, (with an early ’Iron Maiden’ on the same bill!).
Later lineups included John Carrol on lead guitar, Mark dingle, (x-‘Hammer and Chaser’) on base and Martin Brown on drums. This line up was less successful but did play a Jubilee Street party. Next stop, a brief involvement in Gary Slade’s ‘Fly by Night’ rehearsal bands, ‘Friends Jams’ and ‘The Deetrod Stadium Dogs’. Morphing into ‘Night School’, Vince on lead vocals, rhythm and keyboards; Gary Slade on base guitar, Gin Gin on flute and backing vocals and Adam Smith on percussion. This was to become ‘Vince’s Private Lives’, supplemented by house musicians. One of these, the sax player joined ‘Haircut 100’. They recorded three songs; ‘Just Another Love Song’, ;’2000 Miles Away’ and; ‘Do You Really Love Me’, included here as bonus tracks.
The three songs came out in London and Essex as a DIY release on TCS; ‘Just Another Love Song’, ‘2000 Miles Away’ and ‘Do You Really Love Me’, enjoying a token play on Essex Radio. These also received some airplay in Australia via relatives.
After a while, ‘Nicknames Drive’ were formed with Vince on vocals, Gary on base, Chris Pearce on lead guitar and Keith Ball, (Kenny Ball’s son), on drums. Keith now sings in the Kenny Ball Jazzman’s line up. Gary left soon after to form ‘Brama’. Vince left just before they changed name to ‘Holocaust’, who in turn became ‘Trade Secret’ with concommitant changes in members, eventually becoming, ‘The Results’. They would end up supporting Vince’s next band, ‘Vince’s Play Things’, himself on base and vocals. John Cussack, (X-‘This Way Up’, a British funk band), played keyboards and Steve Greenland was on drums. They were joined by John Carrol, and Mick Todd on guitar. This turned into ‘The Stripes’; Vince, Mick and Steve.
Vince going under the name of ‘Brick Garage’, (a piece of post punk garage mod rock), they released a 45 single on the ‘ellie jay’ label, ‘Pinko 1’; ‘One Step Ahead’ and ‘Canteen Girls’, included here as bonus tracks!
This brings us to ‘Vince’s Ha Ha’. By this time, Vince had successfully evolved to not only play in, but also produce this band. Gary, Gin Gin and Vince were joined by Max Rousch, (keyboard and engineer) and supplemented by Mick Todd and sessions with a representative of the chart band, ‘New Musik’.
Recording at Max’s studio, brief involvement with Pinnacle, led via Transvision Videos, to a ‘Red Bus’ remix of ‘In Every Dream’, which was put out as a cassette single by Metro for radio only. As a retail single on VG Limited Tapes, with ‘Today’ and ‘Talk’, on the B side, this DIY Essex only release outsold the latest Japan single, ‘10 to 1’. The Ha Ha tape LP outsold the latest ‘Wham’ LP, ‘5 to 1’, in Romford over a three week period.
Vince stayed with Metro Management and Gary and Gin Gin, (who was also a working fashion model) went on to form ‘Passion La Motion’. Ha Ha are a new romantic electro band influenced by Japan, Duran Duran, Talk Talk and Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Howard Jones and Warsaw/Joy Division.
Vince’s next project was ‘Cain and Able’ which was Vince and John Carrol, supplemented live by their band, ‘Push’. After several years they signed to Rondor Publishing and etc. Management with Billy April from the British funk band, ‘Strength’, joining after the white label recording of ‘Real Love’ became the most played white label release on Kiss Radio.
John Carrol went on to form ‘Cut to Taste’. He had started with Gary Slade years back in the band, ‘Frame’, alias, ‘French Letter and The Condoms’, playing when ‘The Sex Pistols’ were trading under the name, ‘The Strand’, alias, ‘The Wankers’. After the swingbeat R & B success of ‘Driza Bone’, Vincent Garcia was briefly seen in the company of Kate Moss and was last heard of forming a band called, ‘Blood’.
Ha Ha are an important part of Essex Pop history from the early ‘80’s. Thanks for reading this - and if you’re still awake, we all hope you enjoy the free download!
By the way, I’m Justin Scarlett, (endorphin) and I digitally remastered this album, put the videos together from photos and penned this blog.
PS. Photos by the fabulous Franchesca in The London Studio. Body make up and digital photo editing by Gary.
PSS. This was all Vince''s fault... Ha Ha!!!
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