MemberD Sandbox

Draft for Invisible Girls band - not easy to compile as IG were a band but also a "non-band", sometimes credited, sometimes not...May require some extra work! - SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!
The Invisible Girls were a band initially formed in Strawberry Studios, Manchester to provide backing music for punk poet John Cooper Clarke on his debut album Où Est La Maison De Fromage? in 1978 and more prominently on the follow-up Disguise In Love later the same year, on which the combo was named as "John Cooper Clarke with the Invisible Girls". 
Group core members were Factory producer Martin Hannett and Steve Hopkins, plus various contributing musicians who revolved around the Manchester studio, including Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe and The Buzzcocks' Pete Shelley. A further album by Cooper Clarke, Snap, Crackle & Bop, "Written, played, arranged & produced by The Invisible Girls", followed in 1980, as did the debut album by Penetration singer Pauline Murray, which took the title of Pauline Murray and The Invisible Girls, and also featured contributions by Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/New Order) and The Durutti Column's Vini Reilly. 
In 1982, the band returned to work with John Cooper Clarke for his fourth album, Zip Style Method, and on the single Procession b/w All Tomorrow's Parties by Velvet Underground singer Nico. 
Not just a studio outfit, The Invisible Girls performed live on stage, and on The Old Grey Whistle Test, with both Cooper Clarke and Pauline Murray.
A compilation CD of recordings made by Martin Hannett & Steve Hopkins between 1976 and 1987 entitled The Invisible Girls was released in 2015.
==Links to Peel==
As a champion of John Cooper-Clarke's work since his early days, Peel featured the music of Hannett & Hopkins via the single Post-War Glamour Girl and various tracks from Disguise in Love. It was however noted by Peel on his 28 September 1978 show that he had received letters from listeners who agreed with him that the instrumental bits of the album are "very irritating indeed". Peel's support did not wain, however, and he continued to play tracks from this and subsequent albums by the poet with Invisible Girls. Hannett & Hopkins (and others) played as backing musicians on Cooper Clarke's second session for Peel in March 1982.
The DJ also showed support for Pauline Murray's work with the band, although on one occasion was of the opinion that the track Dream Sequences was "turgid". The only Peel session recorded by Murray, in 1980, featured musicians who were not part of the regular Invisible Girls roster and in fact were not credited as such.
==Sessions==
*none
==Shows played==
;With Pauline Murray:
*30 June 1980: Dream Sequences (One) (7") Illusive IVE 1
*10 July 1980: Dream Sequences (One) (7") Illusive IVE 1
*12 July 1980 (BFBS): Dream Sequences (One) (7") Illusive IVE 1
*31 July 1980 (BFBS): Dream Sequences (Two) (7") Illusive IVE 1
*30 September 1980: European Eyes (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*30 September 1980: unknown (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*02 October 1980: Screaming In The Darkness (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*08 October 1980: Shoot You Down (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*14 October 1980: Judgement Day (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*18 October 1980 (BFBS): Mr X (album - Pauline Murray And The Invisible Girls) Illusive 2394 277
*15 December 1980: Mr X (7") Illusive IVE 2
*27 April 1981: Animal Crazy (7” – Searching For Heaven) Illusive IVE 3
*28 June 1982: Dream Sequence
*
;With John Cooper Clarke
* tracks mostly uncredited to 'Invisible Girls' although all tracks played from Disguise In Love (album, 1978), Snap, Crackle & Bop (album, 1980), It Man / Thirty Six Hours (7", 1980) and Post-War Glamour Girl (7", 1980), feature musical and production contributions by Hannet/Hopkins and other members of the roster.
==See Also==
*Karl's Tape April May 1981
==External Links==
*Wikipedia
*Discogs