6 May 2023 - The Darling Buds - You've Got To Choose

You had to expect this today.  It's Darling Buds Day.  

Long time readers of this blog will know that this happened accidentally - when we posted Darling Buds songs on two May 6ths in a row.  I hope you, as a new long-time reader, will enjoy this for years to come.   

This song, the FIFTH single from their debut album Pop Said..., is a power-pop masterpiece, with Andrea Lewis (who co-wrote every song on the album with Harley Farr) exercising her vocal chops and eschewing any comparisons to Debbie Harry, Tracy Tracy, and Wendy James.  

6 May 2022 - The Darling Buds - Let's Go Round There

Our 11th trip to the Darling Buds well is a bit of a slower jam.

Damn.  We've been doing this for a decade now.  And we aren't done yet.  Enjoy your yearly dose of the Darling Buds.  

6 May 2021 - The Darling Buds - Isolation

We interrupt this K-Pop bonanza to bring you the Darling Buds.

And thank God for the Darling Buds.  They last year recorded an update to one of the tracks from their 2020 album, Erotica. Which, of course, was a really timely update.  

They even recorded it in May, but too late for our 2020 Darling Buds Day.  However, something tells me it's still going to be somewhat appropriate this year.  At any rate, Andrea Lewis's dog steals the show here.  

6 May 2020 -The Darling Buds - Hit the Ground

Remember music programs when they made the artists lipsync?

On this ninth annual Darling Buds Day, we go back to the late 80's and Top of the Pops, where there were no cables or microphone cords to trip over and the band sounded studio-fresh.

They STILL rocked it.



There was an official video for this song, too.  This way, you can hear the whole song.


Will we be able to do this in Year 10?  Well, the Darling Buds are rumoured to be in the studio, so I am guessing we will.

6 May 2018 - The Darling Buds - Sure Thing

Admit it. You thought this was a one year joke. You thought I'd run out of material.

No. It's a real thing. And Darling Buds Day is actually noticed.  We'd like to think we are responsible for their new material.  I'm not sure that's true, but we're happy to take credit.

5 May 2017 - The Darling Buds - Evergreen

Darling Buds Day is on Saturday this year. So I'm observing it a day early, but it is taking a lot of restraint to wait THAT long.  With one pause, we've been doing Darling Buds Day on this blog every year.  It started accidentally. And, famously, I begged Andrea Lewis, their lead vocalist, to stay together last year after they did a few reunion shows.

My begging worked.

THIS IS NEW MATERIAL.

And, just like I said, they haven't lost their edge.  They're still excellent.

6 May 2016 - The Darling Buds - Tiny Machine

Dear Andrea Lewis,

I see that your little band did some one-off shows in 2014 and 2015. I even saw some video from those shows.  You've lost nothing - none of your zip, none of your talent, none of your excitement.  I thoroughly enjoyed every song

I had, of course, hoped that you would all see my posts, and see that I was trying to rally support for an international holiday commemorating your band's three fantastic albums.  I wasn't really ALL that hopeful that I would be successful.   But my posts have been popular.  You still have fans - fans who miss you.  You proved that you still have the talent you always did.

So, please.  Don't make this one-off.  Make this a permanent reformation.  You won't be sorry.  We will keep Darling Buds Day going.

Best regards
Wicked Guilty Pleasures.

6 May 2015 - The Darling Buds - Please Yourself

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st 
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

6 May 2013 (Part II) - The Darling Buds - Burst

So, while planning for Darling Buds Day 2014 - because, you know, this is a thing now - I will be petitioning to make this a national holiday in Wales - I started to worry.  What if I had found their only two videos?

I need not have worried.  We're so set for years to come that I felt it safe to post a SECOND video.  Whereas this and this were from their second album, the classic Crawdaddy, this one is from their debut, Pop Said.... The sound is slightly different - less pop, more rock - but three things are clear.

1. Their record label was hellbent on marketing them as a rock band with a blonde female lead vocalist.
2. Said blonde lead vocalist - Andrea Lewis - was really charismatic without showing too much boob (something that I would not say about Wendy James of Transvision Vamp, who was marketed the same way).  In fact, she was kind of modest.
3. This band is full of great musicians.

This song is fast-paced and will give you whiplash, much like most of their first album.  Probably why I love it so much.

6 May 2013 - The Darling Buds - Crystal Clear

I am thinking of making May 6th Darling Buds Day. After all, last May 6th, I posted a video of theirs under the Guilt-Free Sunday hashtag.

This song gets no such hashtag.  In fact, this was the song - and video - in which the Darling Buds had the exact opposite reaction to being lumped in with all the other vaguely rock-and-roll alternativesque British bands led by blonde lead vocalists - c'mon, I've told you about this before.  They ran right toward it.  They got poppier, less dark, and tried to be mainstream.  This pursuit led to the band's implosion, but that's another story.

As far as this song, from the great Crawdaddy album.... well, it's just poppy fun, and there's nothing wrong with that.  The video is a little odd, but hey. So, enjoy it.

6 May 2012 - The Darling Buds - It Makes No Difference

A lot of people have asked me how I can like The Darling Buds.  They were really girly.  They were poppy and chipper.

This. This is why. A quiet song that's still bad-ass, this opened their Crawdaddy album, and it is one of the best songs I have ever heard.  I can still listen to it, more than twenty years after its release, and it still gives me chills.

This video was filmed in 1991, but only recently unearthed.  So, sit down and enjoy it.