16th August 2025
Hi everyone, sorry about the little break I took. My only excuse was that I got hit by a bit of writers block :p Anyway, a bit of personal news for you... A couple of days ago, I was accepted into University! I start in just under a month and it's terribly exciting. Anyway, please enjoy this post I put together about a shortlived band called Stoliday.
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Stoliday were a four piece twee band from Douglas on the Isle of Man. They're one of only a handful of indie bands, or bands in general, from the island with a physical release. The Isle of Man is a beautiful place and, having been myself a couple of years ago, I could only describe its landscapes as pretty "twee" (any time I see green nature, it's always twee to me). Stoliday seems to have been a cumulation of quite a few Manx bands - shoegaze group Postcode, the ever mysterious Tea from the 90s as well as Weirdo and Tate!, both of which I can't say I'm too familar with (but I'd love to hear them, so if anybody knows anything about them, drop me an email!). The lineup consisted of Marie Reynolds (vocals), Martin Rigby (drums, vocals, bass, guitar), Mikie Daugherty (bass, guitar) and Phil Reynolds (guitar, bass, keyboards). Phil is paticularly prolific in the Manx indie scene, still playing in bands that were active very recently.
Stoliday released their one and only single in July 2007. Slow Motion Dances (Cloudberry-025) was released on US based Cloudberry Records, then in its infancy, on a cute little 3" mini CD. By the way, shoutout to Cloudberry for having one of the best pop blogs going at the moment, it's one of my main inspirations for this site. Anyway, Slow Motion Dances is a fairly unassuming little single. It doesn't do anything too special but what it does do is done well. The title track is a quick pop song with a great chorus. I'm not 100% why, but this song reminds me a lot of Language of Flowers? Maybe it's because the vocalist, Marie, has a similar voice... I was also felt there was bits of The Sundays in there, which is always a good thing. The following track, "Happy With Me", feels all very whimiscal with the introduction of more prominent keyboards. If I was to describe it, this song feels like being in a field in the early morning, not long after it has rained so that so that there's still some droplets of water on the grass. Is that too specifc? "Home" is the closing track and it takes things more in the rock direction. I mean it's definetly still twee, but it definetly has its toes in indie rock territory. To be honest, I didn't really like this song as much as the other two. Maybe I'm too rockphobic.
After Slow Motion Dances, Stoliday appeared on the Spanner Records comp Last and First in 2009 and then seemingly fizzled out of existence. In 2013, a compilation which brought together Stoliday's releases, as well as some live performances, called "Eldery People Are Punk" released on Manx indie label Small Bear Records. Slow Motion Dances is able for streaming on Cloudberyy Records Bandcamp. Although, in classic Cloudberyy fashion, there is no download so you better get searching for that 18 year old mini CD if you're so inclined.
Stoliday were a little band from a little place that play little songs. What's not to love?
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