Tones on Tail

Tones on Tail was a musical side project created by Daniel Ash of Bauhaus along with art-schoolfriend/flatmate and "Bauhaus roadie" Glenn Campling in 1982. After the breakup of Bauhaus in 1983, they were joined by drummer Kevin Haskins. The band disbanded in 1984 shortly before Ash and Haskins went on to form Love and Rockets. Glenn Campling was also responsible for the cover art of Bauhaus' first full release, In the Flat Field.

Tones on Tail's music could be described as experimental surrealist with a gloomy atmospheric vibe or as Ash put it: "We were a motley crew of individuals who essentially wanted to sound like a band from Venus or Mars!" The band made a point of having each song sound as different as possible. As Ash put it "We were a mos In concert, the band sported all-white as a reaction to Bauhaus's all-black look. They never achieved a large following, though the track "Go!" is a retro dance club staple, a frequent addition to 1980s music compilations, and the sample source for Moby's hit "Go". They rarely played live, and only did one short tour of the UK and North America.

The band's tiny back catalog has been subjected to a lot of compilation over the years. Small, independent labels like 4AD and Situation Two would issue limited editions with subtly different track listings from previously released items. Some tracks were only available on rare vinyl records, so collecting the entire Tones on Tail discography was a difficult task. This was the situation until the 1998 release of Everything!, an appropriately named two-CD set of every track, fully remastered, plus a radio interview with Ash and Haskins.

Discography

Chart placings shown are from the UK Indie Chart.^[1]

Albums

• Pop (1984) LP/cassette

EPs and singles

• Tones on Tail (1982) 12" EP only
• "There's Only One" (1982) 12" only
• "Burning Skies" (1983) 7"/12" (#11)
• "Performance" (1984) 7"/12"
• "Lions" (1984) 7"/12"
• "Christian Says" (1984) 7"/12"
• "Go!" (1984) 7"/12"

Compilations

• The Album Pop (1984) LP/cassette, a reconfiguration of Pop
• Tones on Tail (1985) LP/cassette
• Night Music (1987) CD only
• Tones on Tail (1990) CD/cassette
• Everything! (1998) CD only, contains every released track and a radio interview
• Something! (1998) CD EP only, a promotional item with alternate edits/mixes of tracks from Everything!

Licensing

"Go!" has been used in the Beverly Hills 90210 episode "U4EA", in this episode the song is being played while Brandon and Emily are dancing at a downtown Los Angeles rave. And also in the 2009 commercial by the Ford Motor Company for their Mercury Mariner.^[2][3]

References

External links

• Official website
• [1]