0005 - 1910 Fruitgum Company

The first victim here of my hard-drive wiping disaster; a single mp3 file, shorn of any ID tags - goodygoodygumdrops.mp3 - it's the one song I have by the 1910 Fruitgum Company.  Presumably it was at some point part of a larger 60s compilation, but it now lies orphaned and lonely, friendless amongst hundreds of gigabytes of cold, hard drive platters that just don't care!

On the other hand, there can be no better way to illustrate my (lack of?) purpose here and it allows me to establish my dull music geek credentials early on, by referring to early-90s Teenage Fanclub b-sides.

Goody Goody Gumdrops is a 1968 single by the 1910s (The Fruitgums?  The Company?), and it's a pretty great slice of bubblegum pop.  It's also, to my knowledge the only song I've ever heard by the band, which is a bit of an oversight on my part, since they seem to have been rather big in their time.

I was surprised to learn that the band reformed in 2007, not by the reformation itself - everyone's at it these days, after all - but by their website, which appears to date from 1997.  I seem to be the first visitor they've had in those six/sixteen years, so take a look - they have music and videos!

I'm probably only aware of the song because it was covered, in 1993, by Teenage Fanclub on the b-side of the single Norman 3.  I also had the TFC version on an NME cover cassette from about the same time, which featured various Creation Records acts and had a demo of Oasis's Cigarettes and Alcohol - the first time I ever heard Oasis.  It's not all good memories here.

I have to remember when I get to the letter G that the band apparently got their name from a sweetie wrapper that the guitarist found in his attic.