RFi/RFD: The Lines (Early 80s UK band)

I have a mini-LP by The Lines called "Cold Snap", which came out in the very early '80s. At least half of it is terrific (although it hasn't emerged from the pile for a few years, I'll confess). I'd have put it closer to scratchy, Postcard-ish pop than "brittle funk", myself.

I was enough of a fan to buy another LP a couple of years later, which I didn't like anywhere near as much and sold fairly quickly. I seem to recall it having a nasty, slightly goth feeling (like they'd bneen listenign to "Faith" by the Cure too much, but I really could be mis-remembering.

Sorry that's not very helpful.

I used to have a 7 inch single by a band called the Lines. I think the a-side was 'White Night' and the b-side 'Barbican'. This came out on the band's own label, I think, around 1977-78. Quite odd, punk influenced but slower - a touch of the Velvet Underground I suppose, melodic, rhythmically primitive. I wonder if Mark S. knows of them. I think they might have been based around Islington/Hackney.

Ah.. Google reveals that the single I referred to was picked up by Illegal Records in 1978, although the pressing I had pre-dated that and was on their own label (I think it caught my eye one afternoon in Compendium). It appears their next release was in 1980 on Cherry Red.