BARRICADES AND ANGELS

Before there was The Cleaners from Venus, prolific singer-songwriter and national treasure of Wivenhoe, England, Martin Newell was in a band called The Stray Trolleys. In 1980, he and a few youngish unknowns got together in a little home-built country studio and recorded a handful of songs for an album that eventually emerged on a DIY cassette, Barricades and Angels. They weren't perfect, but there is something very special about this collection. The music captures a time. Just listen.