INVISIBLE GIRLS [GROUP]

Gez notes:

'The main nucleus was Martin Hannett and Steve Hopkins with other contributors amongst them Shelley who often played a role.
The Invisible Girls played on all of John Cooper Clarke's records. Shelley was definitely involved in the first LP Snap, Crackle And Bop on Epic. The Invisible Girls also played with Pauline Murray on her 1st LP Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls. Incidently, Pauline Murray used to be in a band called Penetration - on their 1978 LP Moving Targets they do a version of 'Nostalgia'.'

Alan Rosiene notes:

'A few corrections and additions here [to Gez's notes]. The Invisible Girls do not play on *all* of Clarke's records and Snap, Crackle, And Bop is not Clarke's *first* album. Clarke's first is Ou Est La Maison De Fromage? (Rabid, 1978; Receiver, 1989). Almost the entire album is spoken word; what little music there is is credited to "The Prime Time Suckers," who "appear courtesy of themselves. "Clarke's second album is Disguise in Love (CBS, 1978).
Shelley appears among the Invisible Girls, who are listed in alphabetical order on the cover. According to the cover, he plays guitar on three tracks:Teenage Werewolf, (I Married A) Monster From Outer Space, and Strange Bedfellows. Snap, Crackle [&] Bop is Clarke's third album. By this point, according to the cover, "the invisible girls are the cheese nightmares are martin hannet [sic] & steve hopkins!!"The girls are "ably assisted" by several folks, including Shelley. No particular credit for tracks is given on the cover, but the original album (which I do not have) included a lyric sheet that may have given more info. Shelley is not listed among the artists contributing to Clarke's fourth and final album, Zip Style Method. Finally, according to Ira Robbins, the only Buzzcock among the Invisible Girls on Pauline Murray's first LP was drummer John Maher. If you're going to cite that, you might as well include Wah!' (see WAH! entry)

Gez [subsequently] notes:

'Alan Rosiene's info is correct here. The invisible girls do however play on all J. C. C's stuff with the exception of Ou Est. . . (but this is a very low key album with pretty poor quality sound and no real music as such) and on a live clear vinyl LP entitled Walking Back To Happiness. Maher played on the Mr X single as well as the eponymous Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls LP, another single taken from it (as was Mr X) called `Dream Sequences' released on 7" and 10" and another 7" the name of which eludes me at the moment. All the Murray releases I've mentioned, I remember, were on Illusive Records. '

Contents