Download our press release here and our press release photo here

 

Write up from the Unpopular Music blog (UK) by Alistair Finchett:

I was just about to type ‘some days I really love the Internet’ but I just stopped myself. Because when I stopped to think about it, what I really meant to say was that I love the way connections are made between people. The passing of knowledge. The sharing of information. The Internet is just a medium that makes that easier, but it’s the action that I really love.

Here’s what made me think of that: Everett sent me a download link for the aforementioned ‘The Legend! meets The Young Liberals Uptown’ set. I emailed Everett to say WOW! Everett emailed me and amongst other things asked if I knew their friend Alex of ‘Alex Loves You And Your Silly Pop Songs’. I didn’t, but I do now. Well, not physically, but at least I now know of her blog and it’s in my Google Reader list. And thanks to reading her blog I’ve discovered another fine Brisbane band in The Bell Divers and their rather delectable June July set. I think a lot of you would like it. It’s in the vein of Pants Yell! My Teenage Stride, Luna, early Go-Betweens, Esiotrot and the delectable and much missed Sodastream. With some hints of Blueboy in places too. And what’s even better is that they are giving the record away as a free download on their website. If you are like me though, you will want to support such wonderful music and buy a copy of the CD as well. 20 Australian dollars for shipping anywhere in the world. Result!

 

Time Off Single of the week review by Chris Yates Wednesday 15 October 2008 - Time Off:

The Bell Divers are from Brisbane and their single ‘Fallen Down’ is influenced heavily by the Go-Betweens, which is only surprising and worthy of note because it doesn’t happen that much really. ‘Fallen Down’ is less than two minutes of pure pop bounciness with vocalist Clinton Toghill’s wavering and delicate delivering displaying an impressive honesty and genuineness that is not only refreshing, but gives the Bell Divers an instant uniqueness. While his vocals are a little jarring at first, the odd timbre of his singing quickly becomes something to relish and appreciate about the group. “life In a Caravan’ Still doesn’t crack the three minute mark. but still manages to pains some vivid pictures of real life sadness that somehow avoids wallowing in dreariness. Matt Lobb’s barely-there backing vocals teasingly remind me of the awesomeness of his old band Arbuckle, whom I dearly miss. Sigh. Both tracks are from the Bell Divers excellent album June July

 

Review from the Is By Bus blog:

I've wanted to write something about The Bell Divers for a while, having lived with their debut album June July for a few weeks and an unmastered version for some months before that. However, I've been hesitant to tarnish such a finely crafted thing with my comparatively fatuous rambling. What got me moving is that they're launching the album at the Brisbane Powerhouse this Sunday arvo. As well as wanting to at least try to be timely, there's some combination of the blogger's desire to get in first with a kind of protectiveness. See, I wouldn't be surprised if they were picked up by the broadsheet weekend liftouts like Augie March given their literate, elegant songcraft and understated Australianness - which is all well and good, but there's also this delicious oddness, a wilful perversity that needs celebrating and that somehow seems to make them our thing.

Rock 'n' Roll was supposed to be music for outsiders. We all know what happened to that idea and the marketing opportunities it presented but, even if it had remained pure, what are the outsiders to the outsiders to do? Some chase extremes and wind up self-mutilating performance artists but it's often the quiet, thoughtful ones that surprise us the most.

Consider Scotland's post-punk Postcard Records scene: Orange Juice and their fey, jangular mates. The Bell Divers probably know well the story of Forster and McLennan showing up at the door with their suitcases in 1980 and seeing Edwyn Collins or someone on all fours, ear up to the speaker to identify the precise model of Fender guitar being played on a John Fogerty song. If the story took place a few years earlier that person might come across as somewhere between sad and despicable but in the atomic shadow of punk's Year Zero policy they seem downright revolutionary.

The Bell Divers have their ears up to the speaker for OJ, The Go-Betweens, Magnetic Fields, forgotten '80s pop, Flying Nun, Swedish troubadours, and probably other things I've never heard of. Not that any particular influences are obvious. They seem to be one of those intensely focused bands formed by people who no longer have the naive enthusiasm required to accept compromise as the price of playing music with others and are lucky or determined enough to have found other people with a similar, very particular sound in their heads.

In this case the sound is a chiming, cleanly strummed guitar pop with keyboards; pithy and restrained but certainly not lacking decoration. Precisely the kind of thing you have to do really well to avoid mediocrity, but which shines all the more brightly when it is good.

The lyrics, enunciated with sincere plainness like a less droll Robert Forster, continue the double-outsider theme. Class is avoided in Australian alternative music and understandably so - inner-city kids with supportive parents playing dress-ups in back alleys seem damnably blithe when Bird Blobs come out with "I don't want to end up like my old man/Drunk at the mill you know he chopped off his hand". Bell Divers tackle it head on but from an honest, unromantic perspective, like Todd Solondz making a film about the kid brother of Bird Blobs' protagonist, gaybashed for pronouncing his "T"s, hiding from his dad and reading novels.

The songs are glimpses into the lives of ignored characters: the woman sharing life in a caravan park with "these brutal men/who have never seen the world". The lover of a man in jail who sees the sorrow in his "underwater eyes". The middle-class single who takes a tracksuit-panted "white trash lover" or invites a homeless man inside for potentially sinister purposes. And in the beautiful, dreamy "Little Breath", the 50-year-old woman whose son hangs up to soon but for whom "flour turned to wheat" when a 53-year-old man she met on a cruise made love to her. This isn't exploitation. The refrain from "Life in a Caravan": "The tourists come/and they go away/They take something from us/I don't know what". (Of course, the same song comes up trumps again with "Meet me in the games room and fuck me on the pool table".) Nor is it borrowed glamour. The other half of the album's songs deal with nothing more exotic than thoughtful youngish men considering relationships and personal growth, but share an uncommon eye for meaning in the mundane epitomised by "Fallen Down"'s "deep in a photograph of her family/you stare out dumbfounded".

Finally, a word about mystique. The Bell Divers have it. Singer Clinton navigates a crowd like some sort of noble among savages, wearing shorts. Guitarist Lobby is a smart-casual style icon who has busted out Chic-style guitar breaks mid-song and opened a set by deadpanning "Walk Don't Run" at 1am in the Troubadour. Their handful of gigs have included Ithaca Pool and community halls in the daytime. They have the ability to jar with a turn of phrase or by simply stopping a song when you're not ready. These details are important and, when the only criticism I can drag up after listening to the album too much was expressed by a friend as "it's a bit Bell Divers", the mystique could be what keeps me eager for what's next. For now, though, I don't need to be reminded not to take for granted this gem of an album.

Visit the Is By Bus blog.

 

Review from the alex-loves blog:

I've noticed some bands spend their entire musical lives trying desperately to sound like their heroes, falling miserably into that horrible limbo of pastiche. Others, however, nail their sound perfectly first time around, channelling the best of their heroes and adding glimmer and polish to their sparkling sound as they progress. The Bell Divers are my favourite Brisbane band at the moment, and they certainly fall into the latter category. Do you like Postcard-era Go Betweens? Those Orange Juice tracks that sound like the ones Roger McGuinn casually left behind in the studio? Everything on The Lucksmiths' "Where Were We?" compilation? Then you'll love every track on June July, their debut album.

Despite being recorded more than a year ago, yesterday marked the official album launch with a splendid afternoon show at The Powerhouse. These afternoon shows really are something to cherish - after the stellar performances by The Motifs and The Crayon Fields a wee while ago, it was a treat to hear more pop on a Sunday afternoon.

While the songs feature guitar lines straight out of the Pop Songbook and warm organ sounds and harmonies to complement, it's Clinton's darkly wry lyrics that stand out against this shining backdrop. One minute he'll be singing about self-harm, the next he'll pull out a line like, "When we pulled in to the shore, he was pulling out of me". And yet, it all works and has this charm about it that almost makes you forget the heartbreak being sung. The set featured a mix of tracks from the album and some newer songs, one of which I think was called "Pinpoint Eyes", sounds brilliant. Please record some of these newer, more upbeat songs because they are just wonderful!

I've had the guitar line from "Fallen Down" stuck in my head since yesterday - it sounds exactly like the perfect pop guitar lick should, and it ain't going nowhere until my mind can tell me where I've heard it before.

Best of all, June July is available for free download here! But really, you should buy the album so you can get David Thorley's terrific artwork in your little hands. Lovely albums like this don't come out of Brisbane too often, and it's a privilege to finally have The Bell Divers playing out of my stereo at last.

Visit the alex-loves blog.

 

REVIEW OF JUNE JULY FROM RAVE MAGAZINE:

Bris indie outfit provide poetic pop via the imagination of Clinton Toghill.

Founded in London, The Bell Divers came into their own when guitarist/singer/songwriter Clinton Toghill and guitarist Matthew Lobb returned to Brisbane to turn the line-up into a quintet, specialising in clean, melodic guitar pop. There’s plenty of same to be found on the group’s excellent debut June July. Toghill possesses the kind of slightly plummy vocals one would hear all over Postcard and Flying Nun label bands in the 1980s and the record is full of appropriately chiming guitar hooks, all of which infuse the record with a great deal of chime. It’s the kind of indie music you don’t often hear these days. For a truly independent debut album, June July sounds a treat getting a crisp production job from Tim Whitten. The arrangements are subtle enough so that you hear songs becoming enriched by the additional instrumental textures added to the sounds, from pedal stell to keyboardist Melanie Smart’s piano and Hammond organ shadings. Toghill is also a dreamy, slightly surreal and blackly humorous storyteller in his lyrics. The combinations fit together like an jigsaw with an old photo of a canal. An accomplished and quietly confident debut. If there’s a criticism, it’s that title. June July? That is soooo last month (geddit?).

***1/2
MATT THROWER
RAVE MAGAZINE

 

LIVE REVIEWS OF THE BELL DIVERS:

Wireless Bollinger - review 16th Feb show at Ric's with the Ruby Suns

According to Wireless Bollinger:

"The Bell Divers play an intelligent and catchy brand of indie pop that would be at home warming up for the likes of The Magnetic Fields, The Mountain Goats, Robert Forster or Jens Lekman.

Tonight they cut through a seamlessly tight set, filled with memorable pop moments. Audience favourites, 'Making You Shout' and 'Fallen Down' are attention grabbing and instantly hummable and the band's farewell combo of 'Lucifer' and 'Who You Love' bring the punters inside with some vibrant foot-tapping fun. Their stage presence is not quite there yet; the band could loosen up slightly by engaging with each other and the audience a lot more but their songwriting and musicianship is top notch. Unsigned, but with a Tim Whitten-produced long player in the bag and ready for release sometime early this year, these guys deserve the attention of a major record label..."

read the whole thing here wirelessbollinger

Show review from Before Hollywood blog, August 19 2007

"The Bell Divers had the middle slot for the evening. As far as I can remember it was my first time seeing them, but some part of me thinks that I've seen them before... Their tunes pulled me in to a much greater extent than the previous band's, and they seemed to have more of their own personality. The singer reminded me of a more nasal Paul Banks of Interpol (kind of halfway between Banks and The Gin Club's Brad Pickersgill), with the music being an at times atmospheric but always melodious and poppy kind of indie rock. I don't know, maybe kind of Go-Betweens-esque? Kind of maybe but not really?" - Cam

Read the whole thing at http://before-hollywood.blogspot.com/

Show review, Rave Magazine

From Tue. 14 Aug. 2007, The Troubadour, Brisbane:

"The house starts filling suddenly, and a line appears out the door. The Bell Divers' are what Red House Painters would be, if still an indie band. Metronomically rhythmic bass, churchy-plunky keys, antipodal electric guitaring, and Lou Reed-illy untuned vocals brew a sound like Polvo on too much Thorazine. Soothing and easy to slip into, this is a good set." - Jesse MacPherson

 

INTERVIEWS:

Interview in Time Off Magazine, 17 Jan. 2007

The Bell Divers is the result of a planned band in London, which eventuated when the two founding members - Clinton Toghill and Matthew Lobb - returned to Brisbane after spending a little time abroad.

"Clinton had been living in Clapham North, a bustling suburb in London's south-west, when I moved there in 2005 with a working visa," Lobb explains. "We met five years earlier at an Elanora barbeque, and eventually became lazy penpals. I moved to London with my de facto at the time, so it made sense for me and Clinton to form a band."

However, the duo predicted better luck back home, and relocation was in order to focus on the band. No sooner had the two returned than Bell Divers formed - and now the quintet have their debut single 'Fallen Down' to release.

"The single is a home recording, and was started and finished in an almost off-hand way," he says. "We wanted to put across some sense of spontaneity in our playing, nothing too calculating, hoping it was possible to do well. I'm not sure if the process was lo-fi or not - it certainly isn't a big-room recording - but I think it has a relatively pretty production gloss across it, considering.

A friend of ours commended 'Fallen Down' for being the shortest Brisbane pop song he'd heard all of last year - I guess that's encouraging."

And yes, a debut album is in the works.

"With five members, it's easier to plan a recording that ends nightly with a short drive that leads to your own kitchen and bed." he says. "Tim Whitten - a Sydney man we admire lots - has thankfully agreed to record us, so we'll probably bring him up for a week sometime after March.

Before that, I need to find him a decent bed-and-breakfast motel. Maybe near Hamilton."

Interview in The Gold Coast Bulletin, Jan. 18 2007

Bell Divers, a new Brisbane five-piece with some key Gold Coast connections, launch their first CD at The Chophouse tomorrow night.

The pop outfit has been on the go in Brisbane for about a year, with Matthew Lobb, the driving force behind the now-defunct local act Arbuckle [I wasn't. -M.L.], in the lead guitar seat.

Lobb says the plan is to get a few more shows in on the back of the two-track debut CD - 'get some live fitness back up', he says - before starting work on an album.

"We wanted to release something now because it takes such a long time to get an album together and we didn't want to seem stranded in the doldrums without having anything out," he says.

Bell Divers' first release comprises two tracks the band are happy with - Fallen Down and Making You Shout - but Lobb won't call it a double A-side.

"The double A-side, that's one of the conceits of modern music - that nothing's second rate," he laughs.

"I guess I'd call it a single."

The first 15 people through the door tomorrow will get a free copy of the recording, which is on sale for $5.

Clinton Toghill, another ex-Gold Coaster, writes and sings for Bell Divers, with Melanie Smart, of Palm Beach, recruited a few months ago to play keys.

"Clinton and I had known each other for years. He was in London when I moved there and that's where we started Bell Divers," says Lobb.

For about three months, the act was just two voices and two guitars. Despite the pair's best efforts, no one else was coming to the party.

"We knew nobody. There are so many people starting bands over there (in London) that we were lost in the crowd," says Lobb.

"We were canvassing for people who looked like musicians to join us, but we couldn't find anyone musically suitable."

Lobb knew getting a band together nearer to home was a simpler prospect and with Brisbane calling, the pair returned to Australia, quickly filling out the line-up and finding shows.

"In Brisbane it's beautifully simple - everyone has a friend playing in The Valley somewhere," says Lobb.

- Sam Cleveland

Interview in Rave Magazine, 17 Jan. 2007

Following the dissolution of Brisbane popsters Arbuckle, singer and songwriter MATTHEW LOBB headed to London and teamed up with old friend Clinton Toghill. The pair kicked around some of Clinton's tunes and The Bell Divers was born. But it took a move back to Australia for the duo to expand into the quintet that's just produced the endearing, dark-edged guitar pop of first single Fallen Down/Making You Shout. Interview by BRETT COLLINGWOOD.

What initially brought you and Clinton together musically?

Before I knew Clinton, we were invited to a mutual friend's house where the three of us each played a handful of songs on an acoustic guitar, trading opinions, and eating barbequed food. He was on holiday from London, and I was happy to never leave Palm Beach. This was 2000, sometime. We didn't play together, or see each other again for five years, when he again came to Australia for a short holiday. He played at Ric's to only a few people, but made a great impact on me. In an unspoken way, our bands were respectively starting to break up, and I had decided to move to London. So we started Bell Divers over there. He had a bunch of songs we could work on, and I think we both enjoyed having a clean slate.

I believe you both had trouble finding other musicians in London who shared your vision for Bell Divers – why do you think that was?

We knew nobody. The few people we met, nice people, just weren't musically suitable. Depending on who we trialled, for 15 minutes we would be a blues band, or an Irish folk trio, which we aren't.

Whereas to make music in Brisbane is easier: if you want to form a band, you just ask around, and then it happens. Here, everyone has a friend treading water weeknights at Ric's or The Troubadour. And that is where you go. It's beautifully simple.

So once you returned to Brisbane, you hooked up with drummer Donnie Mackay, keyboardist Melanie Smart and bassist Kyle Smith – did you know these guys already?

I didn't know our drummer, Donnie. A friend suggested him, and I liked the idea. I took his address and sent an old-fashioned letter, inviting him to practice with us. It was good and easy. Our keyboardist Melanie is one of my dearest friends; she was the first person I had in mind to join, but was circumstantially the last person to do so.

Is the new single a taste of a forthcoming larger work, an album or EP for instance? How do these two songs compare to the rest of your repertoire?

The single is more of a stepping-stone than a sample of our next work, which will be an album. The two songs, Fallen Down and Making You Shout, are probably good examples of the way we make pop music. They're arranged simply, are lyrically pretty terse, and finish before you might expect. I think the tone of production, (whatever that means) quite austere on the single, will be a bit slicker on the album, but with instrumentation that's probably sparer.

What are your plans after the single launch shows?

For a while, we've neglected the bulk of our set to just work on finetuning songs for recordings. With a few shows now coming up, we've gone back to rehearsing, which is great fun, but we'll soon be again only tinkering, taking apart, and having a look at what will musically work best for an album. It's actually quite boring, really. I thought bands just work up setlists, then wing things a bit in astudio. But it's not that intuitive. There's a good deal of fastidious planning that dulls the nerves and hedges all bets. I really can't wait.