{"id":603414,"date":"2025-11-30T13:28:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/603414\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T13:28:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T13:28:18","slug":"the-box-in-a-loft-hiding-a-long-lost-northern-music-legacy-for-more-than-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/603414\/","title":{"rendered":"The box in a loft hiding a long lost Northern music legacy for more than 30 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

They were once called the \u2018most popular band without a record out\u2019 – and that has remained true until now\"FourJoanna came and went in 1989 and 1990<\/p>\n

Things could have been very different for local indie band<\/a> Joanna. On the cusp of world dominance, the four-piece sensationally fell apart just after huge shows in Manchester.<\/p>\n

The \u00bc-inch reel tapes of their unreleased debut album were left to sit idly by as the years went by- passing through both the city\u2019s thriving Madchester scene and the rise of Oasis<\/a>. Stored in the back of a Manchester loft collecting dust, they were discovered some 35 years after they had been recorded.<\/p>\n

In 1989, as The Stone Roses rose to prominence and the Happy Mondays<\/a> emerged as influential players, it had been hoped that Joanna would soon join them in the music ranks. Vocalist Neil Holliday and bassist Terry Lloyd, two work colleagues from Runcorn and Widnes, were joined by guitarist Tyrone Holt and drummer Carl Alty, who both studied at Leigh<\/a> Music College at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerry was already in a band when we left school,\u201d Neil recalls to the Manchester Evening News. \u201cI\u2019d never really given it a second thought but he was trying to get another band together but it hadn\u2019t worked out with their intended singer. I just said, oh, I\u2019ll give it a go.<\/p>\n

\"JoannaJoanna came and went in 1989 and 1990<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite an exciting time. There was one venue, The Queen\u2019s Hall, in Widnes which put on shows from the Happy Mondays, Stone Roses and Inspiral Carpets all in the space of a few weeks. It really whet your appetite for wanting to be a part of the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Terry\u2019s dad was able to get the band their earliest gigs. For reasons relatively hazy now, the band ended up finding their crowd in Manchester through regular gigs at venues like The Boardroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey asked us to play there on the night it reopened,\u201d Neil says. \u201cIt was a huge deal. It was a sold out house, people were ramming each other to try and get in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst continuing to write and record their own music, which was largely recorded at Pentagon Studios in Widnes, the gigs kept getting bigger and bigger. In 1990, they supported Asia Fields at the 1,500-capacity Ritz in Manchester following a personal recommendation from Clint Boon.<\/p>\n

\"JoannaJoanna were once described as ‘the most popular band without a record out’<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crazy thinking back to that time,\u201d Neil laughs. \u201cAll we had done was a demo. We had managed to get some free time at the studio and we were just messing about over a few weekends here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As momentum for the band grew, the band were interviewed on Kiss FM by Jon Ronson following a letter from then-producer Craig Cash, and also supported other acts like Shack, Dr Phibes and the House of Wax Equations, and Rig on tour. They were hailed by NME as the \u2018most popular band without a record out\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went on Kiss, Craig basically told us that the songs were good but the quality was poor,\u201d Neil explained. \u201cThey sounded rushed and, to be fair, he was right. So we decided to put some money together in order to do it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanna went back into the studio to make new music. The reaction didn\u2019t go down too well – failing to properly match up to the gritty, unique sound from their demo sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who had been initially encouraging of us were underwhelmed with what we had done,\u201d Neil says. \u201cSo, Martin Royle, our manager, decided we\u2019d go back to the original set, but I think the love for it had already started to fade away for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was a London show, set to impress A&R bigwigs at the top record labels, which ultimately sealed their fate. An earlier sound check had set the precedent for the night when Neil bumped into a girl from school who had begun dating a guy and was starting to make a life for herself outside of the small town.<\/p>\n

After a spiral of hiccups, the band left the gig without any interest from respected labels. The band grew weary of trying to make it, and it was decided shortly after that they would disband.<\/p>\n

\"AA ticket stub for Joanna’s show at Oldham venue Club 57<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d moved on from the training scheme and had picked up a job as a printer, and I just didn’t want to commit to having to give up more and more work each time,\u201d Neil says. \u201cAnd a couple of record labels started to tell us that the whole Manchester band thing had been and gone – even though we weren\u2019t all from Manchester, we were associated as being because we were Northern and not from London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings had just started to fizzle out. It just wasn’t the be all and end all for me, I had other things going on. It was sad at the time, you know, but the other three were serious musicians and I was just tagging along. They all went on to do big things. Carl toured with Jarvis Cocker and appeared on Top of the Pops, he was in Half Man Half Biscuit.<\/p>\n

“Tyrone and Terry went on to appear in the band SuperGiant, who have featured on BBC Radio 6 Music. So, yeah, Joanna just came and went within the space of a little over a year, really. So, that\u2019s why it\u2019s a little bit mad that we\u2019re at this moment where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This moment, in particular, being the fact that Joanna\u2019s debut album, Hello Flower, is set to be released in December. Made up of eight songs, the collection has been described as a time capsule of a Northern legacy which never came to be fully realised.<\/p>\n

\"JoannaJoanna came and went but their music is now set to finally be released after more than 35 years<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had just presumed these tapes had been lost,\u201d Neil explains. \u201cNobody knew who might have them. It turns out, during lockdown, that an old friend of Tyrone\u2019s was moving house and stumbled across them in his loft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were in great condition, but needed a bit of love and care. We thought we\u2019d get them mastered – just to revisit old times, really. One of Karl\u2019s friends, Jesse from New York, found out what we were doing and said he\u2019d love to release them on his record label. Now, the record has been pressed onto vinyl and the physical copies actually exist. It\u2019s quite surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what it was like hearing the songs again after 35 years, Neil said: \u201cIt was a proper flashback. And, you know what, they\u2019re actually really good. I\u2019m not just saying it but I think they stand up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a couple of them could quite easily be played on radio today because they sound really fresh. I feel they sit nicely alongside the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, as with all reunions, there will be a live show. To coincide with the album release, the band will play Low Four Studio in Deansgate on December 13. They are also contemplating more shows next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a very wild journey,\u201d Neil laughs. \u201cWe started the year not even remembering any of our old lyrics to having our own album on record with a gig lined up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the band is well and truly back, Neil says he has learnt to take things as they come for now. \u201cThe attitude is that we will go as far as we can with it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worked out this way for whatever reason and I think, realistically, it\u2019s the only way this could have ever happened. If someone had brought up the idea of reuniting, I don\u2019t think we\u2019d be as vigorous about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joanna’s Hello Flower can be pre-ordered on Bandcamp.<\/a> You can follow the band on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They were once called the \u2018most popular band without a record out\u2019 – and that has remained true…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,67033,9159,2465,696,269,8838,70573,180744,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-603414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-happy-mondays","10":"tag-indie-music","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-music","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-nostalgia","15":"tag-stone-roses","16":"tag-the-ritz","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115638889133755882","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}