Nottingham alternative group 1979 – 1986 but continued since intermittently. Supporting acts like Ultravox and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and gaining TV and Radio coverage including Channel 4’s “The Tube” in 1983 and many Radio 1 sessions they released 2 albums and many singles. They changed their name to “Love Brigade” circa 87/88 and as the 90’s dawned they changed their name to “State of Grace” with a change in direction to a more ambient dance/pop style.
Core Line up:
Paul Arnall: Guitar
Kev Davies: Bass
Dave Barker: Keyboards
Kev Gallagher: Drums
Sarah Simmonds: Vocals
Formed by Paul Arnall in Nottingham in late 1978 as “Fantastic The Feedback”, under which name they recorded a demo tape. By late 1978 they had been renamed The Fatal Charm, and the following year dropped the definite article to become simply Fatal Charm. Paul Arnall had been in Nottingham group Matarka and for a brief time London group The Secret. Kev Davies had roots back in the sixties with Almost Grown.
A quick guide to their recorded career is on Discogs.
Sarah Simmonds website
Paul Arnall in Matarka (1974-77)
& The Secret (1977/78)
1978/79
Line up *1: 1978/79
Paul Arnall – Guitar, Vocals
Kev Davies – Bass Guitar
Bob Fawcett – Drums
Line up *2: 1979
Paul Arnall – Guitar, Vocals
Kev Davies – Bass Guitar
Dave Barker – Keyboards
Bob Fawcett – Drums
Line up *3: 1979
Paul Arnall – Guitar, Vocals
Kev Davies – Bass Guitar
Dave Barker – Keyboards
Kev Gallagher – Drums
Paul returned to Nottingham in 1978 after his stint with The Secret ready to form his own band. He made plans to make some demo’s. These demo’s where under the band name “Fantastic The Feedback“.
“The first demo’s would have been in a bedroom, drumbox, borrowed synths using an akai 4000ds tape machine, the akai had an option to bounce and record left to right, so all demo’s were in mono. When Kev and Bob joined we recorded the drums where we rehearsed which was a church hall, then the same process, back to the bedroom for overdubs”.
It was deciding a better band name was needed. The name came about from a record Paul Arnall had by The Mumps. It was their second single in 1978 called “Rock & Roll This, Rock & Roll That” and had a track on the B-Side called “That Fatal Charm”. Paul chose that for the name of his new band. The Mumps were an American pop/punk from New York City active from 1975 to 1980.
After their demo’s the first vinyl release by Fatal Charm was more in a punkish new wave feel rather than the alt 80’s pop they would become known for. The first single under the name of “The Fatal Charm” had three tracks: Paris, Glitterbit & Out of my Head.
1980
Much More Coming Later …
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Notes for later.
Regarding demos:
when we signed to company records we used chapel studio, wragby, 16 track.
for carrere, the single version of summer spies was recorded at warner-chapel music in house 8 track studio. all other carrere releases were recorded at fairview studio, hull, 24 track.
from 1984 onwards all our recordings were bedroom recordings, fostex 4 track for demo’s. for native records we hired a fostex 8 track, for the strange attraction album we hired afostex b16, for state of grace we bought our own fostex 16 track and recorded some drums in the living room, neighbors loved us