What do we reckon about Bis then?

[Rev+]

Famously the first unsigned band to appear on Top of the Tops, they were...  sort of shite initially.  Kandy Pop has an appeal but it's not for me.

A few years later they released 'Social Dancing', which was great at the time and still sounds entirely fresh to me.  C'mon, this is great:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBLAzPTf1lU

They're vaguely back together but pandemic and all that, but were massive divisive when they were properly active.  Any fans?

[imitationleather]

I like them a lot, even the data Panik stuff. I saw them support Japanese funsters Polysics under that name and I didn't realise it was them until after.

Sorry can't think of much more to say right now and I am shite at writing about music anyway so it's best I don't try.

[madhair60]

I remember they did a song I loved, I think it was the closing theme of something. Not PowerPuff Girls, another cartoon.

[chveik]

the collab with Hijokaidan is fun enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjVT-jsiPnw&ab_channel=avex

[Kankurette]

Kandy Pop was wank but Action & Drama? Yes please.

[itsfredtitmus]

I'm a Slut is a great choon

[itsfredtitmus]

Helen Love on the other hand!!!

[imitationleather]

What was the story behind an unsigned band getting on Top of the Pops anyway? I saw that episode at the time but record labels and all that shite flew way over my innocent head at the time for I can have only been about nine years old.

I guess it was some kind of publicity stunt? But how and why? Please answer without linking me to a three hour long podcast explaining it if possible.

[Bently Sheds]

Only ever knew of them from that TotP performance, so when I heard The Sound of Sleet many years later it kind of blew my mind that it was by the same band.

[holyzombiejesus]

Weren't they on Chemikal Underground when they appeared on TOTP?
Also, does anyone remember a really nasty review or article in MM/ NME that focussed on the teenage Manda Rin's weight?

[Seedsy]

I absolutely still love to this day "this is fake DIY" i often have a lil bop to that.
Also, does anyone remember a band of similar ilk called Dweeb? The had a tremendous single called no hit wonder.
A quite liked that lofi artsy demo sounding 90s indie back in the day

[Tokyo van Ramming]

Weren't they on Chemikal Underground when they appeared on TOTP?

Bis themselves clear this up in the comments for the youtube vid; they had a single out on Chemikal Underground but didn't have any kind of a deal.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Surprisingly powerful guitar based group live.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I liked Euro Disco at the time (and still do actually) it's a bit like New Order, but more fun. I don't think I ever heard anything else they did. What's worth giving a listen?

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Eurodisco is another "can't understand why this wasn't massive" song, only made #37 in the charts! I feel like maybe they were still regarded as a bit of a novelty act and weren't taken seriously beyond that, which is a shame.

Detour was great as well. got bugger all radio play and didn't even scrape the top 70.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ0LG1r-qRc

[Kankurette]

Helen Love on the other hand!!!

Just wait till you hear their Gareth Bale song.

[Pauline Walnuts]

I liked Euro Disco at the time (and still do actually) it's a bit like New Order, but more fun.

Shouldn't the lyrics to that be 'If it's NOT a new beginning then I don't want to know'.


This is something I've been obsessing droning on for about for 22 years now.

[sovietrussia]

Quite by chance they happened to be playing in a club in Glasgow I ended up in following a GYBE gig about twenty years ago.  After an initial sigh due to my only prior exposure being the TOTP Kandy Pop appearance, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good they were.

[Kankurette]

Were Bis ever part of the whole riot grrl movement? (Despite being 2/3 male)

[phantom_power]

No, more the DIY punk pop thing, like Helen Love

[kngen]

the collab with Hijokaidan is fun enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjVT-jsiPnw&ab_channel=avex

My mate told me about this a couple of years ago, and I genuinely thought he was talking about the Bis in this thread. Could not get my head around that. I suppose, if you were Japanese, BisKaidan would be even more of a headfuck, but the world seemed a little less confusing to me when I worked out what was actually going on.

[cosmic-hearse]

I always thought the thing about being 'unsigned' was a bit misleading - plenty of bands on indies weren't / aren't 'signed' in any legal sense. Also, Chemikal Underground was a fairly established, professional independent label - not a major label astroturf but hardly a bedroom no budget outfit (probably similar in size and scope as Wiiija, Too Pure et al).

I hated Bis as a teen but with hindsight I've no idea why, there were far worse bands around at the time. I remember they were supposed to play a gig at a small punk record shop in Croydon, but they cancelled at the last minute. It was rumoured that they'd chosen to play some industry event instead, which at the time was an unforgivable DIY transgression.

Anyway I like that Power Puff song.

[cosmic-hearse]

I absolutely still love to this day "this is fake DIY" i often have a lil bop to that.
Also, does anyone remember a band of similar ilk called Dweeb? The had a tremendous single called no hit wonder.
A quite liked that lofi artsy demo sounding 90s indie back in the day

I remember them - previously a couple of them were in a pop punk band called Wact (who I seemed to see playing constantly around 1995). Apparently they saw Bis and had a road to Damascus conversion to overly cute electro punk.
A cynic might suggest that by 1996 the post Green Day market was shrinking and they we're seeking another bandwagon, but who knows? Maybe they genuinely thought a new youth movement was being shaped.

[chveik]

My mate told me about this a couple of years ago, and I genuinely thought he was talking about the Bis in this thread. Could not get my head around that. I suppose, if you were Japanese, BisKaidan would be even more of a headfuck, but the world seemed a little less confusing to me when I worked out what was actually going on.

i may be talking bollocks but i feel like the Japanase public have a far higher tolerance to genre-bending music than us westerners

[Pauline Walnuts]

Just been listening to a bit of Return to Central, It's Grrrrrratt!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdp8EU1jVrE&list=OLAK5uy_lxsdL4TyZRLUhg2oCBShAd1647oxJrR04&index=14

[Pauline Walnuts]

Just remembered they had a load of small adverts for their first album on the buses in the Greater Glasgow area, but they put them on the front of the bus at the top corners, where no one else would put adverts so they seem to stay on for months, possibly years.

[Brundle-Fly]

First discovered them through this unusual grouping of artists on an EP. I heard they were a new ska band who were a bit Cardiacs-y. This was my thing some years earlier. Fair enough, on this early offering.

I saw them live at Dingwalls in the mid 90s at the height of the Bis buzz.  Went a bit gooey when Manda Rin grinned at me in the afternoon while the band were loading into the venue. I was a sucker for indie chicks in hair grips back then.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ausR2lIDsaY

[kngen]

i may be talking bollocks but i feel like the Japanase public have a far higher tolerance to genre-bending music than us westerners

Nah, you're probably right. It's more my deeply ingrained prejudice that a band I have a massive amount of respect for (Hijokaidan) would want to work with a bunch of Scottish indie pop types that I'm, at best, indifferent to. Like if Sakevi from GISM went: 'You know what? We really should get Steven Pastel in for a few of these songs.'

[Hat FM]

ah i used to love Bis. remember seeing them a few times. once at the ULU and once at another place. i think it was called the embassy ballroom. Action and drama is a great album. full of catchy pop. Eurodisco is an incredible song as is detour and i always had a love for shopperholic. i see they put out a new album recently. not sure i can be bothered listening.

Also, does anyone remember a band of similar ilk called Dweeb? The had a tremendous single called no hit wonder.
A quite liked that lofi artsy demo sounding 90s indie back in the day

Yezzir! i loved dweeb! they had some other tunes called 'scooby doo' and 'oh yeah baby' which were incredible. if they were around now they would be like an indie british version of 1000 gecs which is some amazing musical commentary by me.

[Norton Canes]

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