#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#23: Keep On Burning : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 004, 1996)

There was no attempt to cash-in on the belated success of A Girl Like You.  There had been a renewed amount of media interest in Edwyn Collins and he modestly accepted things for the way they were, happy that the money earned from the big single could be re-invested in expanding and improving his own studio as well as enabling a larger recording budget for his next album for Setanta Records.

Said album would take until late 1997 to reach the shops, and when it did, what could have been a stand-alone single from the previous year was included on it.

Keep on Burning is another glorious piece of pop music, Edwyn’s one-man tribute to the Northern Soul scene, and in particular the all-night events that had been the mainstay of the Wigan Casino, the legendary nightclub which existed between 1965 and 1981, as particularly evidenced by the promo video:-

It was released at the end of February 1996 on 2 x CDs and 7″ vinyl.

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Keep On Burning
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Won’t Turn Back
mp3: Edwyn Collins – You’ve Grown A Beard
mp3: Edwyn Collins and Bernard Butler – A Girl Like You (live)

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Keep On Burning
mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (In Time and In Space)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Lava Lamp
mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Campaign For Real Rock (Battle Of Brazil Mix)

Seven songs all told, of which one was a cover and three were part of the Gorgeous George album.

Of the two new bits of music, You’ve Grown A Beard is a fast folksy-type song with a lyrical dig at the way some contemporary musicians were re-inventing themselves (it’s important to note that Edwyn has always been clean-shaven!!) while Lava Lamp is a strange two-minute electronic instrumental on which Edwyn had collaborated with Sebastian Lewsley.  The latter truly is only one for the completists.

A Girl Like You was recorded for the Channel 4 TV show The White Room, broadcast on 31 March 1995, which is when Edwyn and Bernard had been working together in a studio, and shortly before Edwyn was the special guest as the opening act to some live shows by McAlmont and Butler.

By my reckoning, this is the third time If You Could Love Me has appeared in some shape or form on a single.  In this instance it has been remixed by Jackson Gold’s Disco Demand, and given that there is no other known recording by said mixer, I think it’s fair to say its Edwyn himself just having a bit of fun with a version that is speeded-up and given a few disco-style noises, including the electronic tom-tom drum sound.

The Campaign For Real Rock was the six-minutes-plus opener on Gorgeous George, and is a caustic attack on the grunge scene and American rock music in the wider sense.  This remix is the work of Hidetsugo Ito, a sometimes musician/producer and sometimes music journalist who worked closely with Edwyn on various releases for the Japanese market. As someone who is a big fan of the original version, this remix gets on my nerves.

Which leaves us with the cover version, which was the track selected as the b-side to the 7″ single.  It’s a Vic Godard song, a musician with whom Edwyn had a long link, going back to the Orange Juice days when the band covered Holiday Hymn.  Vic had been away from the music industry for the best part of a decade, but then was persuaded to sign to Postcard Records after Alan Horne had resuscitated the label in 1993, primarily as a way to give a home to Paul Quinn & The Independent Group.

Vic’s comeback album, The End of The Surrey People, had been produced by Edwyn Collins.  Its lead single had been Won’t Turn Back, a song Edwyn was particularly taken by, and so he recorded his own version, with Vic offering himself as a backing vocalist.  It’s a wonderful piece of music, and with Edwyn mentioning in interviews that Vic was going to be involved with his next album, it kind of got the pulses raising.

Keep On Burning should have been a hit, but instead it came in at #45 and that was as good as it got.

JC

Joe Kane

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #494: JOE KANE

From the Bandcamp page:-

Glaswegian songwriter/producer releasing DIY albums for the last 20 years variously recorded in basements, bedrooms and garden sheds.

Previous acts include Radiophonic Tuckshop, The Owsley Sunshine & Dr Cosmo’s Tape Lab.

Joe has worked with Neil Innes (Rutles/Monty Python), Joey Molland (Badfinger), BMX Bandits, ETTE (Carla Easton), Fast Camels, The Martial Arts and The Bootleg Beatles.

mp3: Joe Kane – Fake Folk On A Tampere Tram

This was one of the songs on the Joe Kane/Radiophonic Workshop album, released on Last Night From Glasgow Records back in 2108.  The album was described as ” a journey through the genius of Mr Joe Kane. Stuffed full of hooks, melodies, psychedelia and infectious grooves. It’s both immediately recognisable and utterly unique and uncategorisable.”

 

JC

 

Pastels, Pop Will Eat Itself, Shrubs, Stump

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 11, 12, 13 and 14 of 114)

Pop Will Eat Itself…..they really shouldn’t need an introduction, but hey! Formed in 1986 in Stourbridge, a town in the English Midlands.  Kicked around till 1996, reformed briefly in 2005 and then for a second time in 2010, and they are still entertaining the masses today. There have been 35 singles/EPs and nine albums across many different labels, with fourteen of the singles making it into the Top 75, while four albums went Top 40.

mp3: Black Country Chainsaw Massacreee – Pop Will Eat Itself

Track 4, Disc 2 of CD86.

This was the lead-track on Poppycock, a five-song EP released in 1986 and their first for Chapter 22 Records, a label based in Warwick.

All five tracks on the EP were short and sharp – none of them reached the two-minute mark and are very much of their time and place.  By 1988, the band’s sound had changed completely, fusing a range of genres and heavily incorporating samples.  They soon became chart staples, including a run of twelve Top 40 hits between 1989 and while part of RCA Records.

The Pastels……well, they already have been introduced in an earlier part of this series.

mp3: Breaking Lines – The Pastels

Track 10 on side 1 of the C86 cassette; Track 10, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

The Pastels had already released five singles prior to appearing on C86.  These had been recorded across three different London-based labels – Waaam! Records (owned by Dan Treacy of The Television Personalities), Rough Trade and Creation.  They had, however, by then taken their leave of Alan McGee‘s label and signed to another London-based label, Glass Records.  Breaking Lines would later in 1986 be issued as a b-side to Truck Train Tractor, their debut for Glass, and one of their finest releases across their long career.

 

Stump was a band whose members were drawn from Ireland and England, active between 1983 and 1988.  They were initially on the Ron Johnson label, with the music being described by some critics as a cross between Captain Beefheart and The Fall. The sole EP on Ron Johnson was released in 1986, after which they contributed to the C86 cassette.

mp3 : Buffalo – Stump

Track 7 on side 1 of the cassette; Track 7, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

The next release later in the year was a highly-acclaimed mini-LP, Quirk Out, issued on their own Stuff Records, and it would spend six months in the indie charts, selling something in the region of 50,000 copies. This led to a major label, Chrysalis/Ensign, signing Stump in 1987.  The band would make it into the official charts in July 1988, with a #72 hit, Charlton Heston, one of twelve tracks to be found on the debut album A Fierce Pancake.  The label then re-released Buffalo (which wasn’t on the album) as a single in late 1988, the sleeve of which is illustrated above.  The lack of any real commercial success played a large part in the band calling it a day in 1989.

The Shrubs were from Watford, forming in 1985 and splitting up in 1988. They were signed to Ron Johnson Records, but prior to ever releasing anything for the label, they would find themselves on the C86 cassette:-

mp3: Bullfighter’s Bones – The Shrubs

Track 10 on side 2 of the cassette; Track 21, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

This song was only ever made available on the C86 cassette (and subsequent vinyl and CD re-releases)

Their debut six-track EP Full Steam Into The Brainstorm came out on Ron Johnson in July 1986.  There would be one further EP and an LP for the label before it collapsed, after which The Shrubs established their own Public Domain Records for one further EP and album before calling it a day.

 

JC

Manic Street Preachers

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE? (80)

Today is one of those when I try and give myself the equivalent of bank holiday.  It’s a cut’n’paste from wiki:-

– – – – – – –

Suicide Alley is the debut single by Welsh alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers. It was self-financed and released in 1988, while they were still an unsigned act.

Only 300 copies were originally pressed. Around 200 came in a picture sleeve.  The single has the catalogue number SBS 002. The ‘SBS’ stands for Sound Bank Studio, the studio in Blackwood where the single was recorded. The numbering 002 was meant to add some credibility by implying SBS was an established record label, but there had never been a release with the catalogue number SBS 001.

The sleeve is highly reminiscent of the Clash‘s eponymous debut album and was photographed and designed by future guitarist-lyricist Richey Edwards. Around a third of the copies were released in a plain sleeve, and a handful featured handmade covers with glued-on newspaper cuttings, which were assembled by Edwards.

Musically, the influence of the Clash, the Skids and other late-70s punk rock bands is evident – the title track bears a strong resemblance to the Clash’s 1978 single Tommy Gun.

B-side Tennessee was later re-recorded and featured on the band’s debut album, Generation Terrorists. The title was included on all formats of the later single Little Baby Nothing, partly to curb the demand for the original single, which was changing hands for hundreds of pounds.

A reproduction 7″ single, complete with original B-side Tennessee (I Get Low), is available as part of the Super Deluxe Edition of National Treasures – The Complete Singles.

– – – – – – –

mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – Suicide Alley
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – Tennessee (I Get Low)

I’m not a huge fan of the Manics, but I do find myself toe-tapping along to this one.

 

JC

Pinkpop '97, Various

THE RESPLENDENT RETURN OF LITTLE LOSER’S LOTTERY : #3

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’

# 03: Pinkpop Festival – Landgraaf, Netherlands (1997)

dEUS

Morphine

Eels

Dear friends,

75,- Deutschmarks equal € 38,- today, that’s £ 33,- or $ 45,-. Considering inflation it’s € 65,- (£ 57,- or $ 77) today.

The point I’m trying to make is: it is a considerable amount, and certainly it has been one back in 1997, a time when I was always skint, because by and large I lived my life in the many fine pubs and clubs in my hometown, Aachen, although already being 29 years of age. So what on earth might have driven me to invest this money back then is a total mystery to me this morning – I swear to God I have no memories at all of having attended this festival, so I had to look up the line-up:

Op maandag 19 mei 1997 staat Beck dan ook op het Zuidpodium van Pinkpop, waar die dag ook Fountains Of Wayne, Silverchair, The Gathering, Kula Shaker, Osdorp Posse en Live.

Op het Noordpodium: Bush (Headliner), dEUS, Counting Crows, Tracy Bonham, Supergrass, Eels en Nada Surf.

In addition to those apparently Descendents, Dodgy, Atari Teenage Riot and Morphine were there, I can’t figure out which stage they played though.

Perhaps I went there out of curiosity, because Pinkpop is the oldest festival worldwide in terms of continuousness. Reading is even older (they started in 1961), but there were no shows in ’84 and ’85. So Landgraaf’s Pinkpop ran from 1970 to today, only interrupted by Covid recently. Basically all the great bands played there, Peel compered it for some time in the late 70s, and they are still going strong today (this year’s headliners for example: The Cure), so looking back I can’t quite understand why it took me so long to attend this festival. I mean, you can go from Aachen to Landgraaf by bike, so travel would not have been an obstruction.

To be honest, I first cursed Little Loser for drawing just another ticket I have forgotten all about, but the more I read about the event, I imagine it must have been rather a great day with an impressive line-up. There are many great videos of this day on yt, and I spent quite some time watching them, trying desperately to recognise my younger self somewhere in the crowd – to no avail, of course! But the bands were great to watch (again), that’s for sure!

In hindsight, if I had to go again there tomorrow, I’d go for Morphine really – they are just outstandingly brilliant, I reckon. Second and third would be Eels and dEUS. The ‘big’ names, well, today I’d say you can take them or leave them, but apparently I have witnessed the three combos mentioned above. And let’s be honest: if it weren’t for this series, my memory of this would probably never have come back, right?

Either way, let’s have some music, shall we? Again, even if there is one band or one song which one of you has never heard and said band or song meets with your approval, my mission is accomplished. I mean, I know it’s boring old crap for the bulk of you, but there you are … it has never been my claim to settle your demand for new stuff, you see …

Fountains Of Wayne – ‘I Want An Alien For Christmas’ (’97)
Silverchair – ‘Straight Lines’ (’07)
dEUS – ‘Hotellounge (Be The Death Of Me)’ (’94)
Tracy Bonham – ‘Mother, Mother’ (’96)
Supergrass – ‘Grace’ (’02)
Eels – ‘The Sound Of Fear’ (’99)
Descendents – ‘All’ (’87) [this one is EXCELLENT for dancing to, in fact!]
Morphine – ‘Cure For Pain’ (’93)

As usual, enjoy!

Dirk

 

 

Jesus Jones

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #407 : JESUS JONES

A guest posting by Acid Ted

Jesus Jones – Nobody knows if they are alive or dead ICA

Jesus Jones are one of those late 80s/early 90s bands that have been unfairly forgotten. They had a blistering mix of guitars and samplers. They started in 1988, had a few big hits, including in the USA. But they seemed to fade quickly after their more industrial edged album Perverse (1993). They took a hiatus but came back in the early noughties and have been touring and releasing material ever since. Here’s an idiosyncratic look at their career. This is designed to fit on a CD, including the two bonus tracks at the end.

Jesus Jones formed in late 1988 in London, England. They were built around Mike Edwards, the band’s lead vocalist and primary songwriter who was from Bradford on Avon, near Bath. He wanted to merge rock music with dance and electronic music. Edwards was joined by bassist Al Doughty, guitarist Jerry De Borg, drummer Gen (Simon Matthews), and keyboardist Iain Baker. They were signed to Food Records (which became part of EMI) alongside Blur.

Info Freako – PWL Remix 12″ (1989)

Their rock and dance template was set in their first single Info Freako. This was taken from debut album Liquidizer. It had themes of information overload that remain relevant today. The original version has an industrial edge. But I’ve gone from the softer and dancier PWL Remix version. It’s fun but can’t help feeling a touch dated.

Real Real Real (Rhythm 1) Raw Mix (1990)

Taken from the band’s second album Doubt but released ahead of the album, the single Real Real Real came in a myriad of versions. It got to 19 on the UK Singles Chart and became the band’s second top-10 US hit, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991.

A track that questions perception and reality. There’s a lovely funkiness about this version, despite the slightly tinny 1980s syndrum sound. That’s overcome by the guitar / chorus combination which meant I’d never tried to work out what this was about until writing this ICA.

Move Mountains (Ben Chapman 7” Mix) (1990)

Staying in 1990 but switching back to a track from Liquidizer we have Move Mountains in its Ben Chapman version. I do love the combination of House piano and squally sampler on the intro. This track is about faith, life and human experience. “Nothing I can do or say, Will ever move people this way.”

None of the Answers (1989)

My favourite Jesus Jones track and the source of the title of this ICA. None of the Answers was a B side to Bring It On Down. The sample “Nobody knows if they are alive or dead” may act as a kind of story for Jesus Jones but is in fact Jeremy Paxman’s report on Newsnight about (the bravery of) the protestors at Tiananmen Square – a piece of Chinese state brutality which seems to have been largely written out of the West’s conscience.

Who? Where? Why? 12 Foot Mix (1991)

Another track from the album Doubt. I’ve gone for another remix here as this version offers a synth driven strangeness that the original lacks. It also has a big whomping drum sound that you need in your life. That strangeness is reflected in the lyrics which muse on confusion about one’s true self and being an observer on your life.

IBTY 12 (International Bright Young Thing) (1991)

The third single from Doubt and once which got to No. 7 on the UK Singles Chart. It was their highest placing if not their strongest track. The theme is pretty self-explanatory. This 12” version offers plenty of time for musical interludes from the slightly lack lustre lyrics.

Enough – Never Enough (1990)

As a break from the dancier tracks above here’s Enough – Never Enough, a B side to the Never Enough single. This version cranks the guitars up to 11 and sets course for something more grating and industrial. Think Kennedy era Weddoes with an added sampler. A howl of protest about everything “So you want to be happy, Don’t you know happy is never enough.”

Welcome Back Victoria (1990)

A track from Doubt that is more low key than their usual fare and also more directly political being an attack on late era Margaret Thatcher. “Welcome back Victoria, Clean books, clean screens, clean words. Dirty minds”

Broken Bones (1989)

This is a band favourite and a B side to Info Sicko (above). It’s a hymn to the inevitability of failure. Key lyrics: “You can crawl, you can walk, You can beg or you can talk, There’ll always be broken bones.” And I love the way there’s no fade at the end, just a sudden explosive collapse.

Animal Instinct (2024)

A recent track that shows their current much more rock focused stance. It demonstrates they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

Right Here Right Now (The Martyn Phillips Mix) (1990)

Saved until late, here’s their big hit. This was a big hit in the USA and also among US soldiers in the first Gulf War. It’s a song about the end of the Cold War. And it has a massively catchy chorus, perfect for singalongs.

Next Big Thing (1997)

Taken from the album Already, this is another muse on technology and the love of the new and the jadedness that it brings. Features a lovely chiming guitar riff.

Blissed (1990)

As this ICA starts to come to a close the last track is the come down track Blissed. Taken from the album Doubt it’s about as low key as Jesus Jones got. Key lyric: if the sun shines today, I think I’ll stay here anyway, and if the world makes demands of me, then I’ll wait and see.”

Lovers of guitars should probably stop here. But the curious or more electronically minded should continue and enjoy two extra tracks.

Hidden tracks:

Zeroes and Ones (Aphex Twin Reconstruction) (1993)

Jesus Jones had very few offbeat remixes, of which this one is the most famous. Aphex Twin does his angular IDM thing and retains virtually nothing of the original except the fragment of Mike Edwards singing which is looped forever.

Metambient (Demo) (1995)

Released on The Collection – A Selection Of Band Favourites And Rarities (2011) this is a proper piece of aching ambient with its lyrics of philosophy and beyond.

And here’s the entire ICA on Spotify. Click here.

Acid Ted

 

JC adds……..

Once again, in case you don’t know the back story…….Acid Ted has been the blog’s longest-serving guest contributor – his first guest posting would have been back in 2007, but so many of his pieces were lost when Google removed the old blog.  AcidTed was also the first non-Glasgow blogger I ever met face-to-face, as far back as October 2009.  And above all else, he was the person who stepped in back in 2010 and 2011 when a couple of deaths, firstly to my brother and then my best friend, meant I had to take a couple of extended breaks.

If you’re remotely interested in dance music, then his place is an absolute treasure trove.  Click here.

 

 

Style Council

FOUR TRACK MIND : A RANDOM SERIES OF EXTENDED PLAY SINGLES

A guest series by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)

#13: The Style Council  – À Paris (1983)

I love Paris. It has a special appeal to me on account of three weeks living with a Parisian family in May 1978 at the age of 14 as part of a school exchange, attending the Lycée Henri-IV, a historic school that counts amongst its former pupils the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault, André Gide, Guy de Maupassant, Éric Rohmer, and later on Emmanuel Macron no less.

I say attending, but my school pals and I spent most of the three beautifully warm weeks dossing around Paris on our own, jumping the Metro, munching baguettes, swigging tepid Valstar table beer and choking on filterless Gauloises on street benches like the happiest juvenile vagrants in France. It’s an unimaginable scenario nowadays, that you would allow such freedom to unaccompanied 14-year olds, a measure of what a different world it was then.

May ’78 was, of course, the 10th anniversary of Les Évenements of May ’68. There was a huge Communist Party rally at the Porte de Pantin one weekend at which The Clash were playing, and I was most pissed off at being prevented from going, and being taken instead to the family’s second home in the country where there was nothing to do but get thrashed at tennis by my exchange partner Jean-Yves. Jean-Yves’s pop record collection consisted of The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl and both he and his family probably rated a Clash gig at a communist rally on a par with Satanic child abuse. Jean-Yves and I didn’t stay in touch after the exchange, but he lived on in our family folklore on account of literally clogging our toilet back in Edinburgh with the biggest shit we had ever seen outside of a zoo.

But Paris ’78 was a hugely privileged experience for me, and every time I’ve revisited I’ve felt at home, able to find my way around like a local. The first time I returned was for a damp, graveyard-cold week in January 1983. In the interval between those first two visits my favourite band The Jam had effectively come and gone, dismantled by my hero Paul Weller at the height of their fame.

The Jam were really the first ‘punk’ band that I latched onto when I saw them on Top of the Pops performing In The City and All Around The World in mid-1977. None of my peers at that time had the same enthusiasm for them so they became ‘my’ band in a way, independently chosen. That personal identification was reinforced by the lyrics to songs such as Art School, Away From The Numbers, Life From A Window, Tonight At Noon, and In The Crowd, which struck a chord, so to speak, in my developing teenage mind with their focus on individuality, detached observation and dreamy poetics.

Despite my constant devotion over subsequent years, I wasn’t bereft when Weller split up the band in 1982. It’s not hard to listen to some of those songs above and others besides as a kind of preparation for the inevitable end. “All around the world I’ve been looking for new…” The relationships in I Got By In Time and Thick As Thieves were inconstant, mutable, dissolved, sometimes with regret, sometimes not. The Jam had changed significantly over those years since 1977 and evolution was a given in all the other music I’d been listening to as well. By 1982 everything The Jam released steamed to the top of the charts and Weller could see what an albatross around his neck that had become, whether he changed tack or not.

For all the talk of untethering from the past, The Style Council’s first two singles Speak Like A Child and Money-Go-Round wouldn’t have felt wildly incongruous if they’d been released under The Jam’s name. But the third single Long Hot Summer, as astutely noted in the comments to JC’s 2015 run down of Style Council singles, marked the point where Weller definitively hacked through the hawser connecting the new band with the old.

Mick Talbot’s languid, spongy synth refrain, the delicate electronic percussion and Weller’s falsetto backing to his own soulful lead vocal all perfectly evoke the sensation of living through a heatwave in a seemingly endless summer holiday, loafing around in simmering parks and cooling off on slow-drifting riverbanks. In the accompanying video, Paul and Mick are filmed drifting down the quintessentially English River Cam in Cambridge, the city where I found myself living little more than three years after this single came out. Compared to Edinburgh the East Anglian summers definitely seemed long and hot, and lazing around on those very same riverbanks became another one of the privileged pleasures I was able to enjoy many times during my 22 years there.

The video’s evocation of Brideshead Revisited and the kind of privilege it represented seems an odd association for Paul Weller who has been a vigorous opponent of unearned privilege throughout his career. It’s also not very Parisian for an EP titled The Style Council À Paris with a big picture of Paul and Mick in front of the Eiffel Tower. Teenage drummer Steve White plays bongos in a beret and stripey t-shirt, but it’s a bit more beatnik than Boulevard Saint Germain.

I didn’t see the video at the time I bought the EP so that conundrum came later for me. Nevertheless, the ineffable cool of Paris, confirmed by my earlier experience, gave this EP an immediate five stars for style in my book.

Further Frenchiness comes from the B-side song entitled The Paris Match and the wistful piano instrumental Le Départ, plus the fact that all the tracks were recorded at Le Studio Grande Armée in Paris. The Paris Match was later given a pop-jazz makeover for The Style Council’s first album Café Bleu by guest artists Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt a couple of months before Everything But The Girl’s debut album Eden.

Party Chambers is a new instrumental version of the B-side of TSC’s debut single Speak Like A Child, more Georgie-Fame-stylee than the screaming Dave Formula synth sound that Mick employed on the original.

I swithered about whether to include my two Style Council EPs in this series when I saw that JC had already written about them several times, and noting in particular how Long Hot Summer held a special place in his affections. On that basis, however, I reckon he won’t mind posting it yet again. While it doesn’t hold such a special place in my heart, Paris does, and so did Paul Weller once upon a time, so I concluded it would be churlish, not to say perverse, to exclude it. And it is a great pop song, deservedly The Style Council’s biggest ever hit, released only in EP format in the UK (12” or 7” with edited lead track), peaking at number 3 in August 1983.

Long Hot Summer

Party Chambers

The Paris Match

Le Départ

 

Fraser

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#22: A Girl Like You : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 003, 1995)

A Girl Like You had been a hit all over Europe in late 94/early 95, but as was mentioned two weeks ago in this series, it had stalled at #42 in the UK in November 1994.

Sometimes, a bit of good fortune can make all the difference, and for Edwyn Collins it came, unwittingly, in the shape of Chris Evans, a UK TV presenter who, in April 1995, returned to his first love, being a Radio DJ, when he was given the job of helming the UK’s most listened to programme, the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show.

There’s a lot of people who severely dislike Evans, and with good reason.  But one of the things he did on his return to radio was insist that he be given a free rein on the show, including playing songs that were among his favourites and weren’t necessarily chart hits.  He loved A Girl Like You, and it was played on his show a few times from the outset.  It created a new level of interest but some six months after its initial release via the Expressly Yours EP, it wasn’t all that easy to find as the EP had already gone through the bargain bucket stage and was now, almost literally, indie landfill.

Setanta did what any sensible record company would, and reissued it, this time on one CD and as a 7″ single.  On 11 June 1995, A Girl Like You entered the UK singles charts at #13.  It would remain in the Top 75 for 17 weeks, all the way through to late September, peaking at #4 in mid-July.  It was, without question, one of the defining songs of the summer and seemed to be blaring out of radios on a constant basis. Out of the blue, Edwyn had become an overnight star, with many of those who were buying the single quite, if not totally, unaware of his past career as a member of Orange Juice.

Remember that so-called ban from Top of The Pops that had seemingly been imposed after the second Rip It Up performance in 1985?  Ha, ha……

Even better was that Setanta gave a second push to its parent album, and on 22 July 1995, as A Girl Like You was sitting in the Top 5, Gorgeous George came in at #8, and went on to steadily sell enough copies to hang around the album chart for nine weeks.

The only thing is that all the available songs for b-sides had been used up on the EP back in November 1994, and with the 2 x CDs that had formed If You Could Love Me.  The only ‘new’ bit of music came via track two on the CD:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (acoustic version)

Quite a bit shorter than the studio version, it is very much the Unplugged version.  Or a busker’s version if you prefer.  Edwyn and his acoustic guitar…and it’s rather lovely.

JC

Jill Lorean

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #493: JILL LOREAN

I feel pretty bad that this is the first time Jill Lorean has been featured on the blog in a way that I can finally talk in detail about Jill O’Sullivan.  There should have been something a long time before now, especially as all three Jill Lorean releases have found a home here in Villain Towers and I really should have written about one or more of them by now. What I can mention at the outset is Jill has played on a number of records that have previously appeared on the blog through, (in alphabetical order),  Bastard Mountain, Broken Chanter and Sparrow and The Workshop.

And with this being the day of the week when I look to take a wee bit of a rest, I’ll also apologise for using parts of wiki rather than typing out my own thoughts on this rather wonderful and unique musician.

“Jill O’Sullivan is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Born in Belfast but whose early years were spent in Dublin before growing up in Chicago and finally coming to Glasgow via London.  She is currently performing as Jill Lorean, a name that comes from a nickname she had as a child when her father worked in the De Lorean car factory.

O’Sullivan moved to London in 2005 to pursue a master’s degree in sociology, completing her studies in Glasgow in 2007, where she soon after formed Sparrow and the Workshop with Nick Packer and Gregor Donaldson.

The trio released two EP’s and three albums over the course of 6 years. After releasing their third album, Murderopolis, in 2013, the band took a break and O’Sullivan formed Bdy_Prts, an alt pop duo with Jenny Reeve and, with the help of drummer Johnny Scott, released the album Fly, Invisible Hero in 2017.

O’Sullivan’s latest project, Jill Lorean, is a collaboration with musician/producer Andy Monaghan and drummer Peter Kelly and has so far resulted in one 6-track EP, Not Your First (2020), and two albums, This Rock (2022) and Peace Cult (2024).”

mp3: Jill Lorean – Eyes On The Bird

From the Not Your First EP.  Described by one reviewer at the time of release:-

It’s that voice that first demands attention, pure and keening over low droning noise and rattle. The ghost of Sandy Denny. And then 50 seconds in, there’s a deep bass rumble and we’ve moved into Led Zep territory. The result is deeply thrilling. 

I’ve been lucky enough to have heard this played live, and it was quite sensational.

 

JC

 

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #10

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

Making Videos with Björk

Vince Landay is best known as my and JC’s pub trivia team captain. He’s also a producer guy who makes films and music videos. Here’s what he had to say when I asked him about making one with Björk:

She is exactly what you’d hope for: a generous collaborator and a singular artist.

The first music video I produced for her was “It’s Oh So Quiet,” directed by Spike Jonze. Spike’s idea was to borrow from the tradition of classic movie musicals – bold choreography, emotional excess, clean visual storytelling – and drop it into the least glamorous setting possible: an unremarkable street in the San Fernando Valley, where the exuberance of the song collides with everyday life.

The structure of the music naturally breaks into chapters, and Spike designed distinct sequences for each one, allowing the choreography to build as the song escalates. One of the more interesting challenges was figuring out how to subtly adjust tempo within a single take, so certain moments could feel suspended, almost dreamlike, while remaining musically precise.

Then there were the small realities of production. At one point, when we suddenly needed another dancer, Spike looked at me. I said yes before fully processing what that meant, which is how most bad dancing decisions are made. If you happen to notice one person slightly out of step in the tire shop, that’s me.

What I remember most, though, is Björk’s steadiness. The 102-degree heat asked a lot of everyone involved, and she never let any of it show. She was playful, focused, and entirely present, take after take.

The video went on to receive a Grammy nomination and 6 MTV Video Music Award nominations, winning for Best Choreography. Accolades aside, it remains one of those rare projects where ambition, craft, and joy genuinely aligned.

Kolbeinn Einarsson is lead guitarist in my band, Hypermiler. I asked him to write something about making a video with Björk, since I know he and his wife have a history with her and that his cousin Fridrik was in the Sugarcubes (there are only 10,000 people in Iceland and 9,800 of them are musicians). Here’s what he had to say:

“I am going to pass on this – don’t feel comfortable sharing.”

Alrighty then. At least there’s this video by Megas in which a 16-year-old Kolbeinn appears, looking bored, in a black suit jacket. Björk and one of her sisters show up a little later to sing the chorus, which I think translates to “Reykjavik nights,” or perhaps “Reykjavik at night.” I don’t know if they were all on the same sound stage at the same time, or anything else about the video. Kolbeinn did say, before he elected to keep shtum, that Megas was kind of a big deal at the time.

Balfua is a digital artist currently living in Berlin. I’ve known him for a long time because he’s my son. Here’s what he had to say when I asked him about making a video with Björk:

I’m friendly with a talented artist called James T Merry. He asked if I wanted to work on an upcoming project and revealed that it was for Björk after I expressed interest. She then reached out to me on Instagram, and we had a few video calls discussing what she had in mind.

She’d been making field recordings of various endangered species around the world with the help of a few biologists and had written a ‘Nature Manifesto’; a poetic call to action for the future of our relationship with the environment. She was interested in the AI experiments I was working on at the time — realistic videos of magical shapeshifting creatures in natural environments that I call Slollas.

We decided to make a number of short videos using 3D and AI models where Björk transformed into Slollas for a sound installation of her ‘Nature Manifesto’ at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

The videos were paired with a voiceover of Björk reading the Manifesto, her voice digitally altered and infused with the sounds of endangered birds, orcas, etc. They were used as promotional material to announce the installation, and were on display at the gallery opening. I met her in Paris for the opening and she was lovely, very open and interested.

She bought me a salad. We talked about our many shared loves—Adventure Time, Spirited away, Chinese fantasy drama, etc. It was summer, but we drunkenly sang Christmas carols in the car on the way to the opening, to the amusement of the uber driver. 

Jonny

 

Various

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YA DAFTY

He’s Scottish.  But he lives in Florida.  And that’s him celebrating and holding the trophy after he had captained the team of Scottish ex-pats to victory over the English ex-pats out on the golf course.

My wee brother turns 60 years of age today.  I hope he never changes.  Seems appropriate to mark the occasion with 60 minutes of the stuff he most enjoys.

mp3: Various – Songs For SC

Young At Heart – The Bluebells
Liberator – Spear of Destiny
Waterfront – Simple Minds
Tinseltown In The Rain – The Blue Nile
New Life – Depeche Mode
Visions Of China – Japan
The Cutter – Echo & The Bunnymen
She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult
I Will Follow – U2
Locomotion – OMD
Our House – Madness
Two Tribes – Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The Honeythief – Hipsway
Perfect Skin – Lloyd Cole & The Commotions
Absolute – Scritti Politti
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers

JC

Grant-Lee Phillips, New Order

SMALL SCREEN GEMS (2): New Order – Channel 4 (1983)

This is from Switch, a short-lived weekly music show on Channel 4 that ran between 24 March and 2 September 1983.  There’s actually a fair chance a few clips from the 24 episodes of the programme will feature across this series.

There’s a few versions of this clip posted to YouTube, and I’ve lifted this one from ORBI 609, to whom I give a huge thanks.

I’ve got this on a VHS tape somewhere in a box in storage space here in Villain Towers.  It’s a clip I played over and over and over again back in the day.  It was followed immediately by a live performance of Blue Monday.

mp3 : Grant-Lee Phillips – Age Of Consent

From the 2006 album Nineteeneighties, which featured eleven cover versions of songs from that particular decade.

 

JC

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : FEBRUARY 2026 : ‘STREET LEVEL SUPERSTAR : A YEAR WITH LAWRENCE’ by WILL HODGKINSON

The hardback edition of this book was published in August 2024, with the paperback following on a year or so later.  I finally got myself a copy via Santa Claus in December 2025.

The reviews have been unanimously favourable, with many focussing on the somewhat unusual way this particular rock autobiography somehow came together.  The author has been published extensively in the press and mainstream media, and as well as previously writing four books has been the rock and pop critic for The Times newspaper since 2010.  The subject matter is an infamously enigmatic musician who, over the decades, has fronted four of what can perfectly be described as cult indie bands in the shape of Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart and Mozart Estate.

Much of the narrative emerges from long walks that Will Hodgkinson and Lawrence embark upon, mostly in and around Greater London, during which the musician occasionally opens up and reveals details of his life, from his working-class roots in Birmingham through to how he came to be living in a council flat in the east of London in his early-60s.  The voices of many others who have been in and out of Lawrence’s life add colour and context, and the end result is an engrossing, if not always fully enjoyable, read.

I was attracted to the book as I like a lot of the music Lawrence has made over the years, albeit a fair bit of his output has baffled and bemused me.  There are many out there who consider Lawrence to be a genuine genius, someone who should be lauded for the single-minded approach he has taken to his art, even if, on many occasions, it led to a number of acts of self-sabotage.  The author is one who does place Lawrence on such a pedestal, but nevertheless the book was very much a labour of love, given how difficult and unengaging the musician often proved to be.

The reason I couldn’t fully enjoy it was my thinking that Lawrence comes across, in my eyes at least, as a largely unlikeable person, a control-freak who makes things nigh-on impossible for those around him, whether in personal or professional capacities.  I have long held the view that those who inhabit the creative worlds are wired differently from those of us who live more humdrum and mundane lives, and there has to be a certain amount of leeway offered.  But Lawrence seems to be just far too uncompromising, with a selfish streak and a lack of empathy for anyone who doesn’t accept his take on things.  I have no idea how he has managed not to alienate every single person he has ever spoken to.

And yet……

…….the book was a page-turner, one that I was wholly immersed in, which says a lot about the writing skills of the author. The end result is probably as much a character study as it is a rock biography, and it’s the former aspect which makes the endeavour so worthwhile.  And while so many aspects of Lawrence’s behaviours and traits annoyed the hell out of me, the context which begins to emerge as the book moves into a more reflective than merely descriptive tone, did find me softening my take on things.

I remain of the view that I don’t think I’d like to spend any time in Lawrence’s company, knowing that if we did, we would fall out within a matter of minutes as I wouldn’t be able to sit quietly and not challenge something or other that he’s said.  I will, however, accept that he is a unique and genuinely gifted person who has led a  fascinating and very unconventional life, and that Will Hodgkinson has done us all a great favour in writing this book.

mp3: Felt – Ballad Of The Band

A single from 1986.  Issued by Creation Records (CRE 027).  Reached the giddy height of #12 in the Indie Charts.

 

JC

Darling Buds

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #406 : THE DARLING BUDS

A guest posting by The Robster

Stop Press! Hold The Front Page! The Darling Buds are releasing a new album, their first in – wait for it – THIRTY FOUR YEARS! Who’d’ve thunk it, eh?

Indeed, it’s kind of hard to believe how a band, seemingly so long out of the picture, could suddenly make a comeback years after they sadly faded away when early promise turned to the brink of fame followed by the inevitable frustration and disillusionment that the music industry all-too-commonly thrusts upon its artists. Yet it’s true, the Darling Buds – the darlings of the Newport music scene years before the term Cool Cymru was coined – are back. But do they still have ‘it’?

Well, Newport has really raised the bar in terms of live music events in Wales of late. Sure, mid-Wales has the now more-loved-than-Glastonbury Green Man Festival every year, and Cardiff has its multi-venue bash Sŵn each autumn, but my adopted hometown has recently mounted a challenge to regain its title of music capital of Wales with a series of free – yes, that’s FREE – gigs across its multiple venues. Why, only this month I caught our beloved Bug Club (supported by the brilliant Family Battenberg) at the Corn Exchange for the princely sum of nowt. The following night, at the CE’s sister venue Le Pub directly opposite, 100 people crammed into the tiny space to see once lauded local indie heroes of more than a generation ago play a set comprising a lot of new songs and a fair smattering of old faves. And again, it cost nothing for the privilege.

They were, of course, brilliant. OK, so only Andrea Lewis Jarvis now remains from the original line-up, though the two guitarists Matt and Chaz were official members toward the end of their original incarnation before the band split in 1993. But let’s face it – if I asked any of you to name any members of the Darling Buds, you’d have struggled after saying “Andrea”, wouldn’t you, so it hardly matters who the guys are, right?!

I reckoned it was a good time to remind ourselves why we loved the Darling Buds so much by compiling an ICA. Being me, of course, it’s not going to be a greatest hits or anything of the sort. You’re getting some album cuts, a b-side or two and a couple of little surprises, but don’t worry – such is the quality of material on offer, you’ll not be disappointed about not hearing Shame On You or Burst (although the crowd at Le Pub did go particularly barmy when those two were played at the end of the set…)

One Thing Leads To Another: A Darling Buds ICA for the (new) vinyl villain

SIDE ONE

It Makes No Difference (from ‘Crawdaddy’, 1990)

I’m kicking things off with a song that sounds like a natural opener. It Makes No Difference was the first track on the Darling Buds’ second album ‘Crawdaddy’, and it marked a real shift in direction from everything that preceded it. Longer songs, a bigger sound and less poppy – ‘Crawdaddy’ turned a lot of early fans off the band as it wasn’t just more of the same. But I love that record and played it a lot back in the day. This song’s inclusion in the set at Le Pub was something of a pleasant surprise, and it went down an absolute storm with the crowd, so I guess I’m not alone in my love for it.

Valentine [Peel Session] (from second Peel Session, BBC Radio One, 1987)

Although not a part of the C86 “scene”, the Buds’ early singles were very much in keeping with that movement – inexpensive production, fuzzy guitars, and melodies you could catch out of thin air. Valentine appeared on the flip to the band’s second single Shame On You in 1988, but the previous year it was aired as part of their second John Peel session on Radio One.

The Other Night (from ‘Pop Said…’, 1988)

A somewhat surprise inclusion in the set at Le Pub was this deep cut from ‘Pop Said…’ Maybe more of a surprise that it was played, while Let’s Go Round There wasn’t. I love Let’s Go Round There. A lot! Not going to complain though, it sounded really good.

Off My Mind (from ‘Erotica’, 1992)

The band’s third album was kind of an attempt to break the American market, and while they did pick up some radio play, along with a track also appearing on a popular movie soundtrack, it didn’t quite work out as planned. Within a year, the Darling Buds had called it a day. A shame, really, as I think ‘Erotica’ is a really good album. It doesn’t sound like ‘Crawdaddy’, nor ‘Pop Said…’, it’s altogether more mature, taking in some of the alt-rock leanings that was ‘in’ at the time, as Off My Mind clearly demonstrates.

Low (from A Carnival Of Sorts: An R.E.M. Covers Compilation’, 2021)

Now, here’s a nice surprise for you. This is the most recent recording released by The Darling Buds, featuring their current line-up. It features on a tribute album compiled by the Welsh e-zine God Is In The TV, along with contributions from the likes of Hadda Be, Quivers, Taffy, Mark Morriss (he of the Bluetones) and a host of others. The Buds’ version of Low sounds like nothing else they’ve done to date. It starts off sounding like Every Breath You Take, but actually gets more interesting. It also has keyboards, which you won’t find on many other Darling Buds tracks. To be fair, if I didn’t know who it was, I wouldn’t have guessed this was the Darling Buds at all.

SIDE TWO

One Thing Leads To Another (from ‘Erotica’, 1992)

The opening track from Erotica is one I would put on a lot of mixtapes back in the day, and after hearing it again while compiling this ICA, I’m going to slip it into my Ever-Evolving Random Playlist folder for a future airing.

Spin (from ‘Pop Said…’, 1988)

The debut album ‘Pop Said…’ is pure bubblegum pop, and no track sums this up more than Spin. Not even the Primitives sounded as sugar-coated.

That’s The Reason (from ‘It’s All Up To You’ 12”, 1987)

The 12” of the third Darling Buds single featured this gem on it’s b-side, and was perhaps an early example of the psychedelic leanings they would explore a couple years later. That feedback-drenched coda is reminiscent of the Velvet Underground in their wig-out jam moments, and it sounds eerily close to the bands who would emerge under the press-adopted banner of Shoegaze over the next couple of years.

Complicated (from ‘Evergreen’ EP, 2017)

There hasn’t been a lot of new material from the Darling Buds since their reformation in 2013, but a four-track EP called Evergreen was put out in 2017, featuring four new songs. It showcased another new sound for the band, but their knack of gifting us good tunes certainly hadn’t dimninished. This was another song aired at Le Pub the other week, and that chorus sounded even bigger live. Evergreen was the last record featuring original bassist Chris McDonagh who left the band shortly after.

The End Of The Beginning (from ‘Crawdaddy’, 1990)

A fitting finale. We began with a track from ‘Crawdaddy’ so we’re ending with one too. This was always one of my three favourites from this album and was always going to make this ICA.

I’m interested to hear what direction the band will take with the new album, but whatever it sounds like, I’m pretty sure it’ll be great. There’s also a lot of live dates planned around the UK throughout the Spring. Don’t think they’ll be free, though – sorry for rubbing it in…

 

The Robster

 

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#21: If You Could Love Me : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 002, 1995)

“The thing is.  If this had been released as a single by someone like Robbie Williams, it would have been a huge hit and made Edwyn a lot of money.”

The thoughts of my old friend Jacques the Kipper as we chatted about and rued the fact that If You Could Love Me had been a total flop.  It hit the shops in March 1996, once again on 2 x CDs and 12″ vinyl

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (radio edit)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – In A Broken Dream
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Hope and Despair
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Insider Dealing

CD2

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (radio edit)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – If Ever You’re Ready
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Come To Your Senses
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You (Victorian Spaceman Mix)

JtK was bang on the money.  If You Could Love Me is an unashamedly pop song, and if any of the pop world’s male vocalists had taken into the studios with no expense spared (just imagine it having an orchestral backing!!), then it would by now be a ballad that we would be utterly sick of hearing all these years later!  But #98 in the expanded Top 100 was all that it managed with Edwyn’s vocal. Incidentally, the radio edit is just six seconds shorter than the album version, with a slightly different opening which doesn’t fade-in.

The two CDs offered up b-sides, mostly from the post-Gorgeous George period.  Edwyn had become good friends with Bernard Butler, who, in a move that had stunned the world of indie music, quit Suede in 1994 with the band seemingly at their creative peak, not to mention enjoying substantial commercial success.  Edwyn liked to self-produce his songs, but he took up Bernard’s offer to come into a studio to work together, with Bernard taking on production duties.  The results can be heard on some of the tracks which came out on these two CDs.

In A Broken Dream was a cover version, one recorded in the late 60s by Australian rock band Python Lee Jackson,  but only became a hit in 1972 thanks to the fact that the unknown session singer they had used, Rod Stewart, was riding very high both as a solo star and the frontman of The Faces.

Hope and Despair is a new recording of the title track of Edwyn’s 1989 album – very much a case of duelling guitars, acoustic and electric.

Insider Dealing is the curveball, extending to more than 8 minutes and being a song co-written by Collins/Butler. It’s a very understated ballad, possibly a little bit self-indulgent at times, as it feels as if Bernard is trying different production techniques as they could best apply to a very slow song.  But as bonus songs on CD singles so, it was more than fine.

If Ever You’re Ready was one of Edwyn’s oldest songs, appearing initially as a b-side to debut single Don’t Shilly Shally and then being re-recorded for his debut album Hope and Despair.  Five years on and the duo’s take on it is rather sublime, one that feels as if it should run over the credits of a film where the hero has met an unexpected end and the fade to black out has seen his wife/girlfriend/partner in tears.

Come To Your Senses gives a production credit to Dave Anderson, and with Discogs indicating that he often worked at Power Plant studios, where Edwyn had recorded his 1990 album Hellbent on Compromise, I’m wondering if this was a song dating back to those sessions. There’s no info within the liner notes and it is pure speculation on my part.

The Victorian Spaceman Remix of A Girl Like You had actually been included on the 12″ vinyl of the Expressly Yours EP (see last week).  It was the work of a then mostly unheralded producer/engineer named Sebastian Lewsley who would, over the next 20 years, become one of Edwyn’s most trusted collaborators. This remix is over six minutes long and contains all sorts of elements of studio trickery, turning it into a near instrumental that I suspect will delight or annoy in equal measures.

The 12″ vinyl release of the single also contained an otherwise unavailable mix:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – If You Could Love Me (M.C. Esher Mix)

A different mix altogether, with the fabulous guitar riffs to the fore.  I’ve no idea who M.C. Esher is, but I’m guessing it might be a pseudonym used by Edwyn.

JC

JiH

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #492: JiH

This is an edited repost of something put up on the blog back in 2010, a year or so after I picked up the Big Gold Dreams box set.

“Scotland is not a large country by any stretch of the imagination. As such, it should always be relatively easy for music fans (or indeed fans of any cultural activity) to keep tabs on what is happening outside of their own local community.

The release of the Big Gold Dreams box set has highlighted just how much I managed to miss out on over the decades, even the periods when I was paying particular attention. It is only now that I have learned of the brief existence of an 80s band from Dundee:-

JiH revolved around the voice, attitude and style of Grant McNally, who was part of the same Dundee society frequented by mercurial Billy MacKenzie. Indeed, various live incarnations of JiH featured Billy’s brother Jimmy MacKenzie on bass. This debut single was a string-laden slice of epic 1980s pop produced by Dave Ball of Soft Cell, and which showed off McNally’s own vocal ambitions in impressive fashion. An album, The Shadow to Fall, followed, as well as two singles. The last of these, Take Me to the Girl, was a cover of an Associates song produced by MacKenzie, who also provided backing vocals. McNally continued to perform for a time as Jesus in Heavens, but sadly died in September 2018.

mp3: jih – Big Blue Ocean

The 1985 debut single.

 

JC

 

Lush

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (42): Lush – Ladykillers

Lazy post time as I’m regurgitating the words used in September 2016 when I wrote about having CD2 of this single sitting here in Villain Towers.

– – – – –

Many folk have tried to re-write history and get sniffy about Britpop, that era from around 1994 – 1997 when just about every indie-guitar band snagged themselves a record deal, got written about in NME and/or Select magazine, appeared on TV to promote their latest single (usually on TFI Friday) and then found themselves dropped and in debt when the bubble burst in spectacular fashion.

Now there was a lot of really average, and in fact, sub-standard stuff, that became very popular in that era. I mean, does anyone really have a soft spot for the abomination that is Ocean Colour Scene? Or Cast?? (see that opening phrase re getting sniffy and about Britpop, this post is akin to the pot calling the kettle black!)

But there was a lot of great stuff including music from a band that was originally lumped in with the very early 90s genre of shoegazing. And no, don’t ask me to explain what shoegazing was exactly – something to do with a bands’ inability to look at their audience when playing. By that definition, just about every band in its existence has gone through a shoegazing period. Unless they have a lead singer who is just a big show-off.

Fast-forward to 1996, and Lush are now part of the latest genre dreamt up by the media (shame on you for this one, Stuart Maconie). Although it was inappropriate for the band to be lumped-in with loads of acts with whom they had nothing in common, it did at least get them some daytime radio play, and in 1996, three singles in a row cracked the Top 30, including this:-

mp3 : Lush – Ladykillers

It’s just a cracking pop song. Great riff, melody and lyric. You can’t really ask for anything more….

– – – – –

As I was only buying CDs in 1996, I wouldn’t have noticed that Ladykillers had been released as a 7″ on Green Vinyl. Seemingly, 7,500 copies were pressed up.  I picked up a copy via Discogs for £10 in April 2021.  It’s b-side was otherwise unavailable

mp3: Lush – I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend

It’s Miki and Emma’s take on I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, a 1979 single by American power-pop combo, The Rubinoos, and it’s great fun.

 

JC

Dubrovniks, O.K. Corral

THE RESPLENDENT RETURN OF LITTLE LOSER’S LOTTERY : #2

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

‘GIGS FROM YESTERYEAR, WHEN I WAS YOUNG + PRETTY AS A PICTURE’

# 02: The Dubrovniks, supported by O.K. Corral (1991)

Dear friends,

The Dubrovniks — an Australian super-group born straight from the beating heart of the country’s punk underground. Still, I’m willing to have small bet, you have never heard of them, have you? Which is a real shame, but I am here to rectify this situation – so let’s begin, shall we?

Formed in Sydney in 1986, The Dubrovniks brought together true icons of the Aussie underground scene: James Baker, legendary drummer for Beasts of Bourbon, founding member of Hoodoo Gurus, and a driving force in The Scientists; Roddy Radalj, co-founder of Hoodoo Gurus and veteran of The Scientists; and Boris Sujdovic, who also played with both The Scientists and Beasts of Bourbon.

Basically the genesis of The Dubrovniks can be traced back to Sujdovic’s departure from the The Scientists in 1986. Sujdovic had travelled across to Europe with Kim Salmon, Tony Thewlis and Brett Rixon in 1983. When his Visa ran out three years later, he returned to Sydney. Sujdovic teamed up again with old Scientists-pals Radalj and Baker plus guitarist Peter Simpson to form The Adorable Ones.

After learning of a Brisbane band called The Adorable Ones, Sujdovic, Radalj, Baker and Simpson chose the name The Dubrovniks in celebration of the Croatian (Yugoslavian then) city in which both Sujdovic and Radalj were born.

In Sujdovic’s mind, the new band was designed so they could play rock’n’roll without the threat of confrontation from audiences and venue owners. “With The Scientists, we’d have to be careful where we played half the time – we’d fear for our lives sometimes,” he laughs. “So with The Dubrovniks it was a bit of a relief at the beginning, not to have to worry too much about where we played. Though with Rod in the band, you never knew – he’d walk out with a turban on his head, and you’d think ‘Oh, here we go again’,”

The Dubrovniks’ first record, „Dubrovnik Blues“, was released on Timberyard Records in 1989, produced by Radio Birdman and The Hitmen guitarist Chris Masuak.

Well, that’s all you need to know as a matter of fact. This and the music, of course, which is absolutely brilliant, at least if you ask me: one can tell that all band members had already seen quite some stages at the time they recorded their debut album – to my ears it sounds highly professional for a debut. But judge for yourself:

Dubrovniks – ‘Christine’
Dubrovniks – ‘Dubrovnik Girls’
Dubrovniks – ‘Speedway Girls’
Dubrovniks – ‘Freezing Rain’

The second album, „Audio Sonic Love Affair“, released in 1990, wasn’t too shabby either, but nothing compared to the debut. This one wasn’t too bad perhaps:

Dubrovniks – ‘As Long As I Can Listen’

Now, what has all this got to do with me, you ask? I have already mentioned this before on various occasions on the old blog, so those of you who already know the story: please bear with me, I’ll keep it brief:

In February 1991 I had to join the airforce as a medic, not that I wanted to, but back then one had to. And they’re bringing the draft back right now, I am still unsure what to think about this … perhaps things have changed in those 35 years within German military structures – I strongly doubt this though! Either way, obviously money was always low when I got off the airfield at weekends, but luckily a mate of mine from school had established himself as a sort of questionable manager for various bands / freelancer for a local tour agency. So whenever there was something to do gigwise, me and another pal, the mighty Fatman, were called in for some slavery work.

Most of the time we were bored to death by what we had to do, but on occasion we had fun co-slaves, which made it all more worthwile then. Also, of course, I got to hear good music (which meant nothing to the Fatman, who was a great admirer of Elvis and thus classified everything as ‘hopeless’ by and large) and I met nice bands, and The Dubrovniks certainly were no exception: great lads, if memory serves correctly! Alas, James Baker passed away last year, I remember him as being an especially friendly bloke.

I saw The Dubrovniks on various occasions and spent a bit of time in their company, most likely on festivals. But they have toured Europe so often, I cannot remember when or where that was exactly. What I know for sure though is that I did an admission job for them at a gig in East Belgium, that’s where above backstage pass relates to.

Support band on that night were O.K. Corral, a Swedish cowpunk outfit – but as I had to work, I did not see them. Perhaps our friend Martin knows more?

Here, for the sake of completeness, a tunes of theirs from that era:

O.K. Corral – ‘Run For Your Life’

And should you be thinking that I made this up (I mean, The Scientists’ Kim Salmon last time and the remaining Scientists this time is somewhat strange, I admit), well, I am not. In fact I asked Little Loser why he chose this specific stub (and once more, he knows NEITHER of the bands nor any potential relations between them), his answer was: ‘because I quite liked the picture’.

So there you are, life’s little mysteries perhaps …

Enjoy,

 

Dirk

 

 

Age Of Chance, Mackenzies, North Of Cornwallis, Pastels

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 7, 8, 9 and 10 of 114)

The Pastels are from Glasgow.  They formed in 1981 and are still very much on the go today, having gone through numerous line-up changes, but always having Stephen McRobbie (aka Stephen Pastel) at the helm and as the band’s guiding force.  There have been five albums and twenty-one singles on various labels over the years, as well as collaborative EPs/albums with each of Jad Fair, Tenniscoats and Sonic Youth.

As you can see from the reverse side of the above picture sleeve, this was initially released as a b-side, in 1984, of Million Tears, which was their fourth-ever single and their second (of three) on the London-based Creation Records.

mp3: Baby Honey – The Pastels

Track 24, Disc 2 of CD86.

Baby Honey is an absolute beast of a song, coming in at just under seven minutes in length. A re-recorded version would later be included on their debut album, Up For A Bit With The Pastels, released on Glass Records in 1987.

There’s a lot been said and written about the band, and in particular Stephen, over the years.  I think our dear friend flimflamfan summarised things best when he put together a fabulous ICA back in September 2022.

“My experience of The Pastels as people (I’m talking Stephen and Katrina as I’ve not had much contact with other group members) is one of warmth, generosity, graciousness, unaffectedness, supportiveness and kindness. 

As musicians they: inspired so many (aspiring musicians and fans alike), inadvertently spawned ‘scenes’ and developed outstanding collaborations with musicians and other artists while remaining unfettered by music business limitations.

The Pastels are still very much at the beating heart of music in Glasgow and beyond. That’s quite a feat for a group now enjoying its fourth decade.”

The Pastels will be back later in the series.

Age of Chance were from Leeds and were active between 1983 and 1981. Their initial releases came out on their own label, Riot Bible, with some later material appearing on the Sheffield-based Fon Records (Fon being short for ‘Fuck Off Nazis’). It was on the latter label that they enjoyed a surprise hit with their take on Kiss by Prince, which in due course led to one of the majors, Virgin Records, dangling a contract in front of them, which was duly signed in 1987.

mp3: Bible Of The Beats – Age Of Chance

Track 9, Disc 2 of CD86.

Bible of The Beats was actually their second single, released on Riot Bible in 1986, and it reached #3 on the Indie Chart. It was this success that led to them being asked to contribute a track to the original C86 cassette, despite their mixture of punk, hip hop, rock and Northern soul having little in common with the indie/twee nature of much of the rest of that release.  And, because they were on the cassette, they will be back later on in this series.

The Mackenzies, from Glasgow, were initially active only in 1986/87, but just last year emerged from a very long hibernation. The band, whose angular and abrasive sound is, again, unlike most of the other acts across this series, were on Ron Johnson Records, which was based in Long Eaton in the English Midlands. There had already been one 7″ single, New Breed, prior to them appearing on the C86 cassette:-

mp3 : Big Jim (There’s No Pubs In Heaven) – The Mackenzies

Track 6 on side 2 of the cassette; Track 17, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This song was only ever made available on the C86 cassette (and subsequent vinyl and CD re-releases)

There would be just two further singles, as well as two John Peel Sessions, before they called it a day, with band members moving onto other projects.  However, they played some live shows in Glasgow last year with another scheduled for the end of this current month.  It may very well be that some new material will emerge in due course.

North of Cornwallis don’t appear to ever have released any singles, EPs or albums, with just a couple of tracks making it into compilations back in the day or retrospectively.

mp3: Billy Liar – North Of Cornwallis

Track 16, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

As mentioned before on the blog, info is hard to come by. The song was written by Lester Noel and Robert Adamson. The former was previously part of Grab Grab The Haddock, a band that had been formed by Jane and Alice Fox following the disbanding of Marine Girls (the first band in which Tracey Thorn was ever involved). Lester Noel later joined Beats International, the dance group formed by Norman Cook and who enjoyed a #1 hit with Dub Be Good To Me in 1990.

A previous solitary appearance on TVV in December 2023 did solicit some great bits of info from readers, namely that there had been a six-song tape of unreleased material and that in 1987 they had supported The Housemartins during a UK tour.

JC

ABC

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (32): ABC – The Look Of Love

This 12″ single was accompanied by a message from lead singer Martin Fry, penned on the back of the sleeve:-

Dear Reader

24 March 1982

I hold in my hand four letters….L.O.V.E. welcome to the new ABC record, it’s called ‘The Look of Love’.  The third in a series of three and a story with a happy ending. Do you remember ‘Poison Arrow’ or even ‘Tears Are Not Enough’? Well, I hope you agree with me that this is the best ABC recording so far. It’s time to put down that bow and arrow and dry those tears and enjoy the one thing, yes the one thing that turns this grey sky to blue.

Incidentally, it comes from the first ABC Long Player ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ which we are making right now. It’s my ambition to make a record you can cherish and to be Number One in your personal chart – maybe Lexicon of Love will be such a record’

The message then thanks the record label for giving him the opportunity to pen the sleeve notes and everyone who has a copy of the single is encouraged to write to the ‘Very Special ABC club’, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope.  Did anyone reading this do such a thing or know anyone who did?  I’d be curious to know what was sent back in return.

As it turns out, The Look of Love, in reaching #4, would prove to be the best performing single in the history of ABC. The album that Martin Fry referred to in his notes was finished and then released on 21 June 1982.  It went straight to #1, a position it held for four weeks, and would spend 40 weeks in the Top 75, becoming the fourth-best selling album of the year.

There were four tracks on the 12″ single, but just the one song:-

mp3: ABC – The Look Of Love (Part One)
mp3: ABC – The Look Of Love (Part Two)
mp3: ABC – The Look Of Love (Part Three)
mp3: ABC – The Look Of Love (Part Four)

Part One is the version that was all over radio stations in the summer of 82.  It’s also track six on the album, which in those days meant it was the first track on Side Two.

Part Two is an instrumental version where the lush production delivered by Trevor Horn can be fully appreciated, along with the orchestrations that were arranged by Anne Dudley.  I have no doubt that Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe paid close attention, as there’s a lot in there that would influence the music of the Pet Shop Boys over the years.

Part Three is the longest of the versions, one in which a lot of the orchestral overdubs are removed, and the vocal is more to the fore.  Something akin to an advanced demo or early take on things.

Part Four is barely over a minute in length.  It made much more sense when it appeared on the album a few months later as the closing track, offering itself as the perfect outro to all that had come before it.

I’m more than happy to state out loudly that The Look of Love is one of the great pop singles, not just of its time, but of all-time.  It sounds just as big, powerful, catchy and radio-friendly nowadays as it did back in June 1982.  Hip-hip hooray, yippee-aye, yippee-aye-a.

JC