Wednesday 13 June 2007

Fingerprintz- Lost in the 1980's

Here are the 3 Fingerprintz albums that I managed to track down: Distinguishing Marks, The Very Dab and (the best in my opinion), Beat Noir.

Fingerprintz are one of my favourite lost bands of the 1980’s. What at treat to come accross them on youtube at last! As a teenager I didn’t have much to spend on music so I always had a good rummage through the bargain bin and one fine day I came across an album called ‘Beat Noir’ by a group I had never heard of, Fingerprintz. Here they are on youtube on the Whistle Test.

I recently came across a fan website dedicated to the band. Its worth checking out cause there's very little about this band on the Internet. You'll also find some more info here and a May 2006 interview with ex-fingerprintz and The Silencers Jimme O'Neill.

There's also a blogger review on the Vinyl Villain from some time back, and on Silence is A Rhythm Too . I can't find any of their music on mp3 so I must record a few tracks from their albums and put them up here (see below). After many years of searching I managed to come across 3 of their albums, Beat Noir(1981) , The Very Dab (1979) and Distinguishing Marks (1980), all great new wave pop.


Recorded direct from vinyl with crackles included free!

Beat Escape - Fingerprintz / Beat Escape zshare

Get Civilised - Fingerprintz / Get Civilised zshare

The Chase - Fingerprintz / The Chase zshare



(There's a problem with my filehoster but it should be sorted soon)

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wrote to EMI a few months ago and asked them why there was no digital product for this group. They replied that they would try to make some available. Unfortunately, nothing to date.

AA

The Brunt Family said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I have been a fan of the Fingerprintz and I was wondering if you have a copy of the full album cover from THE VERY DAB, where they are standing togeather and Johnny is standing with his arms crossed. Their names are printed underneath them and there was a info page to the right, In the bottom right hand cnr of the info page was a cork. I am after those images plus the info page for personal reasons.

Alex
abrunt@c895fm.com

Anonymous said...

I put together a 'best of' for EMI three years ago which was rejected by the sales guys as being not saleable(!).
I don't think they'll ever do anything with the catalogue but someone like Captain Oi or Cherry Red might...

The Comtesse DeSpair said...

Beat Noir is a brilliant album! It was one of my favorites in the '80s. Talk about unjustifiably obscure.

Unknown said...

Any mp3's floating on FingerPrintz?

Blogger said...

I'l going to re-record these from the vinyl lp and put them back up. Check back is a few weeks.

Carla Moar said...

I just bought The Very Dab at a Record Convention. It was a good deal!

Anonymous said...

Fingerprintz were one of my favorite bands of the early '80's. I saw them on the 'Beat Noir' tour Stateside on hte east coast. I'd like to call for a complete collection of ep's, lp's, b-sides, outtakes and video boxed for our dining and dancing pleasure. I know I'd buy one if someone could put it together.
I cast my vote on two things as my favorites; 'Sean's New Shoes' which was on the b-side 12-inch of 'Dancing With Myself' and 'Distinguishing Marks' LP. One of the finest pop LP's ever made. Nothing against 'Close Circuit Connection' but overall listenable pop LP.

Unknown said...

I working on a short story and trying to reference some things from back in those rockin/wave days that I'm a little hazy on. I'm hoping some of the fans still remember and can help out with details.

There was a great club that had everyone from big or small bands play the stage, and it was across from the DC garabge truck parking lot - like hundreds of trucks. Was that called The Buoyou Club?

Downtown the FingerPrintz and The Urban Verbs (along w/ B52's, Cramps) very often played a club I think was called ...the "F" club?

What was the name of the little theater that always showed Rocky Horror Picture show every Fri & Sat night on M Street in Georgetown?

Do I have the right names? Anyone remember street names those were on?

Thanks in advance for helping spur the old memories!
Tom

Anonymous said...

i still cannot believe with all the (crap) stuff that gotten the cd reissue treatment over the past couple of years, that NOTHING from this band has ever even been issued on cd at all.

Anonymous said...

I found "The Very Dab" on a bit-torrent site for download. Original source unknown.

DJ E-Z Lou said...

Wow. I never thought there were others who loved this band as well. I never found a copy of the very dab but I bought Distinguishing Marks and Beat Noir when released. I saw them at the Decade (Pgh) 1981. I just copied my Lps to Digital format and I can't stop listening to D.M. It's like 1980 when I bought it. For weeks the only record I listen to.

_Griphin_ said...

Just got Distinguishing Marks on vinyl, I've always been a fan of "Amnesia" which was featured on the Cash Cows comp. This is a good album, now to hunt down the other 2 albums they released.

Stapes said...

First saw Fingerprintz as a support
act at Manchester Apollo and was instantly hooked.
Later saw them play Russell Club in Hulme with The Headboys sharing the bill.
Can anyone tell me who they supported at the Apollo. I can't
remember but remember.It may have even been The Polytechnic.Not sure.

Anonymous said...

Not sure who the headliners were at that Manchester gig but one strong possibility would have been Bill Nelson's Red Noise. The tour of Red Noise and Fingerprintz is the one I count as the greatest ever tour that I missed completely.
Meanwhile, I'm thrilled to say that I own everything Fingerprintz ever released AND a straight-from-the-BBC-archives copy of the band's 1979 John Peel session - with the original vocalist, Step Lang. Yes, there should be something out there for the fans to buy digitally. I'd suggest the Cherry Red label as the best option.

Anything Should Happen said...

I'm a music collecting addict and Bill Nelson costs me a fortune.

I haven't got the Peel Session but I do have the In Concert of Fingerprintz and Red Noise.

The Red Noise is readily available on bootleg but I've not seen Fingerprintz around.

I've also all the albums that I ripped for the ipod if anyone wants them.

It is and it isn't strange that the albums haven't been reissued.

Of course they should be and the music world is littered with similar stories as a few of us in the blog world testify daily.

UK and US Power Pop albums just litter the cellars and due to the current climate I can't see many getting a release now.

With Not Lame gone, the only hope is the likes of Cherry Red.



I saw them on that tour and it was amazing.

Anonymous said...

Just found a mint copy of Fingerprintz self titled album for a 75 cents at the GW. I have to say I'm impressed. I thought it was going to be pretty bad considering the lyrics on the inner sleeve.

Anonymous said...

I saw this band in the fall of 1980 at the "Hope And Anchor" in the Islington area of London. I was 20 years old. The show was in the basement of the pub. It was a very long time ago and I do not remember much of the show. Here is what I can tell you:
I was waiting upstairs, in the pub, for the doors to open and some local punk rockers asked to sit at my table and I talked to them for some time. (Their style of dress told me they were full-blown hard core punks.) They were curious about me because I did not look like a local and I was curious about the punk rock movement. Back home, the punk rock movement was just getting going and we did not know very much about it yet. We were all hard rockers and metal heads.
You see, I'm from the Canadian prairies and I was there on holiday.
I told them that I was there to see "Fingerprintz", they dismissed them off-hand. I guess "Fingerprintz" weren't hard core enough for them. (Truly, Fingerprintz are not a hard core punk band so I guess their dismissal was valid for them.) Nevertheless, I had heard their first two albums and was a huge fan. When the show started the venue was full. No tables or chairs, just an open room with a stage at one end and a bar along one wall. The only thing I remember from the show was that one of the people dancing at the front bumped into the microphone stand and knocked the microphone right into Jimmie's mouth while he was singing. Jimmie never missed a beat, he licked his lips and kept singing like nothing happened. I can't explain it but I was impressed by that!
Anyway, the reason I am here is because I am currently ripping my "Fingerprintz" vinyl to my hard drive so that I can clean up the sound and burn it to CD for my listening pleasure. While listening to the albums I was searching the internet for information on the band and that brought me to this blog...
Not sure if this is going to work very well. The preview doesn't look promising. Oh well,
Cheers,
Derek

teadoust said...

It looks as though Fingerprintz 3 LP's will be available digitally in early fall of this (2013) year on Amazon. oddly, the EP "who's your friend?" EP does not appear to be scheduled for digital release, as the four tracks on it have not been appended to any of the three albums.

Anonymous said...

Useful information. Lucky me I discovered your website by
chance, and I'm shocked why this coincidence didn't happened in advance!

I bookmarked it.

Feel free to surf to my website ... gold watches - http://sociabilidade.org/sociabilidade/index.php?p=blogs/viewstory/90782 -

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure exactly why but this site is loading extremely slow for
me. Is anyone else having this issue or is it a issue on my end?
I'll check back later and see if the problem still exists.


my weblog ... portal 2 pobierz

Anonymous said...

Yoս need to make fіve posts ѡith regard tߋ spider solitaire
in а single horizontally сourse. I posѕibly could basically Һave fun with all day on end using one online nevertҺeless you shouldn't ցet
a online game finished properly. Nonetɦeless, inn a veгy online, the volume οf charge
cards іs determined ƅy the advantages ߋf the overqll game.


Review mү web page: solitaire game download

Anonymous said...

Great article! That is the type of information that are supposed to be shared across the net.
Shame on the seek engines for no longer positioning
this put up upper! Come on over and discuss with my website .
Thank you =)

My page :: belanja kaos pria murah

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
I put together a 'best of' for EMI three years ago which was rejected by the sales guys as being not saleable(!).
I don't think they'll ever do anything with the catalogue but someone like Captain Oi or Cherry Red might...

3 February 2009 at 11:00


HELLO

Can we have the track list of your best of project ?

Thanks

Arnaud

yanmaneee said...

calvin klein outlet
balenciaga shoes
nike vapormax
fila
supreme new york
off white shoes
golden goose outlet
valentino
curry 6 shoes
yeezy boost 350

Anonymous said...

Finally out in import in the Uk this Friday, "Tough Luck " the best of Fingerprintz(see Amazon Uk)

wholesale salwar kameez online shopping said...

I wrote to EMI a few months ago and asked them why there was no digital product for this group. They replied that they would try to make some available. Unfortunately, nothing to date. wholesale stitched salwar kameez , stitched salwar suits wholesale ,