The Train Set first emerged on the indie music scene in the mid-80s, releasing two critically acclaimed 12″ singles on Dave Haslam’s and Nathan McGough’s Playhard label and going on to tour with the Happy Mondays (Bummed Tour) and gigs with James and others at places like The Hacienda, Astoria and Dingwalls, London. The CD album ‘Never California’, was released at the end of last year on Firestation Records and is now soon available on Vinyl featuring a dozen finely crafted songs including the highly sought after singles, the CD has earned amazing reviews and plays worldwide and on BBC Radio 6 shows such as Radcliffe and Maconie, Chris Hawkins, Gideon Coe and Tom Robinson etc The band have just made a welcome return to the live music circuit with their first gigs for over 27 years this autumn and played The Shiiine On Weekender in November sharing the stage with The House of Love, The Wonderstuff and Echo and the Bunnymen etc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EkRjausn9A). The band are in the studio recording new material and just released their latest single ‘Beautiful Monster’ from their vinyl release of ‘Never California’.
MORE: Back in the mid to late eighties The Train Set emerged from Crewe to make an impact on the Manchester and Liverpool gig circuit as well as the national music press. The band released two 12″ singles on Nathan McGough and Dave Haslam’s Play Hard records which both broke the Indie Chart and performed at venues across the country including a Tour with The Happy Mondays (Bummed Tour) and gigging at Dingwalls, the Astoria in London and Manchester’s Hacienda. The band were featured in both the NME and Melody Maker through interviews and features by Stuart Maconie and Robin Denslow. The compilation album ‘Never California’, released on Firestation Records, features The Train Set’s highly sought after singles including ‘She’s Gone’ which was the band’s first record, recognized as a stunning debut by the press and selected as NME’s ‘Single of the Week’ when it was originally released in 1988. Writing in NME, James Brown said “The Train Set have done their growing up in private and will now have no trouble copping off with the entire teenage nation of orphaned Smiths fans”. Stuart Maconie described ‘She’s Gone’ as “sleek and shiny, fizzy and witty”, predicting “The Train Set will be huge when the world sees sense”. Also The Inspiral Carpet’s singer Ton Hingley wrote in his book that The Train Set single ‘She’s Gone was one of Noel Gallaher’s favourite tunes. Well, whilst we wait for the world to take heed, immerse yourself in these finely crafted songs and enjoy a band that made a significant impact on the music scene amongst the abundant indie/jangle bands of that era and who are now back writing fresh new exiting tunes. To read more about how the album has been positively received now click here. The album contains tracks from a band that had promised so much but disappeared far too soon. The members have recently come together to oversee the release of this album and to play live again providing a vital listening experience and an opportunity to discover The Train Set’s material again, or perhaps for the first time.