THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

CONFESSIONS OF A CONDOM SALESMAN : PHOENIX, FLEADH & THE SUMMER OF ’93

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

Over a couple of months in the summer of 1993 you would have variously found me swanning around backstage with performers at the Fleadh in Finsbury Park, then working on the set-up of the first Phoenix Festival at Stratford-upon-Avon, and later helping out at a photo shoot for a wannabe pop star alongside legendary producer Martin Rushent.

I’d love to tell you that amongst all this involvement with the music biz I witnessed some epochal live performances and had unforgettable encounters with a few rock icons, but instead it most notably saw me handing out free condoms from the back of a van while the bands I wanted to see were playing elsewhere.

This was not for pleasure but for work, you see. I had recently taken a blind leap into a new job with a small public relations agency based in the sleepy fenland town of Ely, ten miles north of Cambridge. The agency’s major client was the London Rubber Company, producer of the Durex brand of condoms. As often in the world of PR, the agency had been founded by a former exec at LRC’s old agency who had left with the express purpose of stealing the account for himself.

Said former account director and MD of the new agency was a man to whom I will refer simply as the Big Nosed Cunt. You may feel such an offensive epithet is excessive, but I can assure you it is purely descriptive, for he had a very big nose and he was a cunt. I’ll call him the BNC henceforward in order to reduce the cunt-count.

For my first few months in Ely I was unaware of the full extent of the BNC’s true cuntiness, and so I was an eager assistant in executing his plans for Durex. The PR strategy was to strengthen association between the brand and the world of rock and pop, on the sound basis that teens and young adults were the ones doing all the casual shagging, not older couples in long-term relationships for whom the increasingly antique phrase ‘family planning’ meant The Pill or lust-crushing parenthood.

In pursuit of this racier brand alignment, the BNC secured the main sponsorship rights to the first Phoenix Festival that July at a disused airfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. Vince Power’s Mean Fiddler organisation conceived The Phoenix as rising from the supposed ashes of the Reading Festival, deemed incinerated by a business dispute, but ultimately Reading ’93 went ahead under new management, while Power forged ahead with the rival event.

Preparations for July saw me organising production of large pvc banners emblazoned with Durex logos and liaising with Mean Fiddler over logistical matters. To get a feel for how things would work backstage, a VIP pass was procured for the Irish-themed Fleadh festival in Finsbury Park in June and I was told to go and check it out.

The headline act was Bob Dylan, preceded by Van Morrison, preceded by a string of other acts including The Pogues, John Martyn, Kirsty MacColl, The Men They Couldn’t Hang and Stiff Little Fingers. The only problem for me was that a very good friend was having his stag night in Cambridge on the same evening. I realised that it was either Bob and Van or my friend Martin.

Martin won, but I did go down to Finsbury Park early and hung around backstage where the only person of note that I recognised was Bruce Foxton. If you’ve ever wondered, backstage in the VIP area at a rock festival is pretty much like front of stage, except people are better behaved at the bar, and there are seats that would otherwise be stolen away by punters. The weather that night was dreadful, possibly making it easier for me to pass up Bob and Van and catch the train back to Cambridge after seeing The Pogues. Martin’s pre-nuptial rite turned out to be the most uneventful stag night I have ever been to, apart from my own – a few quiet pints and a chicken jalfrezi at The Curry Queen on Mill Road.

If you’ve also ever wondered how one of these huge festivals comes together I sincerely hope it is nothing at all like how it came together at the Phoenix because it very nearly didn’t. We took up residence in Stratford three days before the opening Friday and experienced 72 hours of mind-boggling chaos and frenzy. Right up until the first act was due to take to the stage I was convinced it would never happen, such was the apparent state of disorganisation and panic behind the scenes.

I contributed to a flood of questions both petty and serious with which the poor site manager was incessantly bombarded concerning anything from plastic chairs and spare rope, to scaffolding, power supplies and perimeter fence security. Every single decision about anything could only be answered by this one bloke who basically didn’t sleep all week and was physically and mentally fucked by the time the curtain went up.

To add to everyone’s explosive stress levels, on the Thursday night a bunch of ticketless crusties tried to storm the entrance to the camp site, initiating a ruck with security and a lengthy stand-off that blocked passage for everyone else, leaving people still pitching tents after midnight.

Although I knew I would be working, I was hopeful of being able to see several bands at the Phoenix, including my new faves Stereolab. Some I’d seen already – Fatima Mansions, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Gil Scott Heron. Several others I wanted to see, including Sonic Youth, Julian Cope and George Clinton. There were lots of bands that no one had ever heard of in 1993, like Pulp and Cornershop, and many others you still haven’t heard of.

Sadly, the list of bands I saw was very short on account of having to work shifts dishing out free condoms to fans from the window of a converted ice-cream van, or going backstage to make sure the corporate bores from Durex had someone to talk to. Stereolab would have to wait a few more years, but at least I did get to see most of Sonic Youth’s headline set, which was fantastic, a raging crepuscular drama in the midsummer twilight. The Young Gods were an interesting surprise, being 1-Swiss, and 2-sounding full metal without even having a guitarist. George Clinton was a no-show. The BNC was of the opinion that Sonic Youth were rubbish, but The Black Crowes were great. If you think I was being uncharitable to him before I bet you think differently now, eh?

Backstage we didn’t see too many stars in our sponsor’s marquee. Richey Edwards was one. Vince Power himself was another, and he introduced me to a bona-fide multi-millionaire. “This is Mr Murphy,” said Vince, eager to get rid of me. Mr Murphy and his friends looked like a group of elderly Irish farmers in tweeds and flat caps, which is not far off what they were. If you’ve lived in the UK since the 1970s, especially round London, you’ll have seen many of Mr Murphy’s big green lorries hanging around road works and building sites. As Wikipedia records, “At his death in 2009, his worth was estimated at £190 million. He valued his privacy and was known to spend little on luxuries, instead preferring to spend time with his own workmen and other Irish friends.” Mr Murphy didn’t have a lot to say to a soft-fingered office boy like me.

A few weeks after the Phoenix the BNC took me on another poptastic outing to deepest Berkshire to photograph ‘pop star’ Mike Fab-Gere “playing live inside a giant condom.” This was the kind of worthless PR shit that ex-tabloid hacks like the BNC excel at. Pointless, patronising, inaccurate, trivial, titillating, sub-moronic trash.

Mike Fab-Gere was another Durex sponsorship property, the alter-ego of one Mike Southon, a former IT entrepreneur who’d sold his business for enough cash to live on forever and rededicated himself to getting onto Top of the Pops dressed in platforms, spangle flares, chest wig and droopy Jason King tache. Tapping into the first wave of 70s revivalism like Björn Again he carved a niche for himself playing swinging 60s and glam rock covers to halls of drunk students, chucking buckets of Durex rubbers into the crowd.

We found Mike all dressed up and ready to go in a small field in some unremembered village, accompanied by his pal Martin Rushent, erstwhile producer of several discs in my collection by The Stranglers, Buzzcocks and Generation X, and later of The Human League’s chart successes. I think he and Mike were neighbours who had bonded over a few jars at their local pub on Millionaire’s Row. Rushent looked like a porky middle-aged plumber with a scruffy beard rather than the sonic architect of some of the finest new wave albums of the age. I was just 30 and guessed Rushent was maybe hitting 60 and had retired from producing. In fact he was 45. God knows what I look like to 30 year-olds, but by 63 – my age today – Martin Rushent was sadly dead.

I tried to chat but didn’t get far, failing to elicit any interesting anecdotes about Billy Idol or Pete Shelley. He was probably as irritated by this little PR twat as he was by the stupidity of the whole scene before us. Needless to say, there was no giant condom, it was a Durex-branded hot-air balloon, part inflated on its side so that Mike could get inside it and pretend to perform (there was no live music) while the BNC’s brother took pictures. All this to provide some promo shots no one would ever publish to plug Mike’s forthcoming single (a Rushent-produced cover of I Am The Walrus) that would not secure a TOTP appearance. Utter, utter bollocks.

Mike Fab-Gere never got onto TOTP, and a few years later Mike Southon had gone back to being a businessman. I had escaped from the BNC and gone on to do PR for entrepreneurs far less pleasant than Mike and my brief brush with the music industry was, quite thankfully, over. As you probably guessed, the BNC carried on being a cunt and will by now be a retired cunt, boring people with fabricated tales about ligging with The Black Crowes back in ’93. Me, I’m still working and boring people with my tales of ligging with Mr John Murphy, elderly Irish roadmender. Rock and roll, baby!

Side one

London You’re a Lady – The Pogues
100% – Sonic Youth
The Night Dance – The Young Gods
John Cage Bubblegum – Stereolab
Razzmatazz – Pulp

Side two

England’s Dreaming – Cornershop
Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line – Julian Cope
Go Home Bible Mike – Fatima Mansions
It’s Not What You Know – New Fast Automatic Daffodils
I Am The Walrus – Mike Fab-Gere and The Permissive Society

Fraser

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (4)

Rhythm of Cruelty (VS 251) : Released March 1979 on 7″

The most recent appearance of this single came via its inclusion in Dirk‘s memorable series ‘One Hundred and Eleven Singles’, back on 2 May 2024.

Dirk began by saying there can be no argument that Magazine were, in comparison to their peers, more progressive and less traditional. He then posed the question “How did you see this development back in 1978 or thereabouts? I mean, if memory serves correctly, Devoto was seen as a bit of a betrayer to punk when leaving Buzzcocks … just in order to front this strange modern New Wave combo”

His own take on things was that a lot of people rather wasted their time complaining about Devoto having left Buzzcocks and blaming Magazine for that event, rather than closely listening to early Magazine with an open mind. He is convinced that taking such an approach would have everyone a lot, including the record buying public and, by extension, Magazine as well.

Rhythm of Cruelty, like all the Magazine singles (with the exceptions of #41 hit Shot By Both Sides and later offering Sweetheart Contract which raced to #54 in 1980) failed to trouble the Top 100. Maybe there’s merit inDirk’s observation that they weren’t really given a fair hearing, as it does seem it was only after they split up did the the accolades and credit come thieir way.

Wiki lists Rhythm of Cruelty as being taken from the album Secondhand Daylight which was released just two weeks after the single. But the fact is, the version issued as a 7″ single is a completely different mix from the album version.

mp3 : Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (single version)

The band had worked with a new producer, Colin Thurston, who up to this point was best known as a studio engineer for the 1977 albums Heroes by David Bowie and Lust for Life by Iggy Pop album. Secondhand Daylight was Thurston’s debut as a solo producer and he would go onto work with The Human League on the album Reproduction later in 1979 before hitting the jackpot with the first two Duran Duran albums in ’81 and ’82.

Rhythm of Cruelty is a much underrated single. It harks back, in part, to the band’s post-punk roots, as can clearly be heard in the opening bars as well as the cartoon violence of the first two lines spat out by Devoto. Secondhand Daylight proved to contain a fair degree of prog/krautrock elements, which is an indication of the increasing influence of Dave Formula on keyboards. Compare and contrast….

mp3: Magazine – Rhythm of Cruelty (album version)

The b-side is T.V. Baby. The music for this one was written by Formula but for much of the song his keyboards are hidden or well back in the mix. Indeed, the most prominent sound for much of its near four minutes is the saxophone playing of McGeoch. It sounds nothing like any song on Secondhand Daylight, which leads me to think it was always destined for use as a b-side. As these things go, it’s more than alright

mp3: Magazine – T.V. Baby

No other singles were released in the UK to support Secondhand Daylight, but over in New Zealand, one of its tracks was issued on 7″

mp3: Magazine – Believe That I Understand

It was backed by Rhythm of Cruelty as the b-side – whether it’s the single or album version, I’m unable to say as this is the one 7″ release from back in the day that I don’t have in my collection and the asking price on the few occasions it pops up on Discogs is just too much.

JC

Muldoons

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #519: THE MULDOONS

Here’s a few sentences lifted from a Scottish daily newspaper back in 2017:-

“Members of one of Paisley’s most popular indie bands have decided to dust down their guitars and play a reunion show… more than 20 years after their last gig. The Muldoons were a familiar name of the local live circuit in the early 90s, taking the stage at pubs and clubs, and even the town hall to impress fans. However, the group decided to call it a day after a coupe of line-up changes and put their instruments into storage.

Now, 20 years later, the boys are back in town, and ready to rock The Bungalow, in Shuttle Street, on Friday night.

Guitarist Bobby Corrigan, said: “We were Paisley’s finest indie band after forming in 1998 and playing venues like the now defunct Ale House, Toledo Junction supporting Paisley’s own Close Lobsters and also the Lagoon supporting another Paisley artist, Carol Laula.

Now, 20 years later, the boys are back in town, and ready to rock The Bungalow, in Shuttle Street, on Friday night.”

The reaction to the reunion show was so positive that the band decided to fully reform and record a self-released debut single in 2018. Further live shows followed and a follow-up single, again self-funded and released, came out in 2019. This all led to Last Night From Glasgow indicating an interest, and The Muldoons signed on the dotted line in 2020, since when there have been two deservedly well-received albums, Made For Each Other (2020) and We Saw The View (2024).

The LNFG website says this about the band:-

The long awaited debut album from Paisley’s Muldoons is a glorious jangly guitar lovers dream. The music will excite lovers of Lou Reed, Lloyd Cole, Lawrence and of course, the sound of Johnny Marr’s guitar. The Muldoons are inspired by bands like the Brilliant Corners, The Bodines, June Brides and all the great indie outfits who might have graced John Peels evening shows.

Judge for yourself.

mp3 : The Muldoons – Every Week Is The Same (from Made For Each Other)
mp3 : The Muldoons – Audacity (from We Saw The View)

My own take? The Muldoons make music that puts a smile on my face and has me sighing for that era when I was younger, more energetic and had great haircuts!

JC

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #22

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

DR FINETHANG

When I started dating Goldie The Friendly Psychologist, long distance between NYC and LA, she was working at a rehabilitation hospital in Downey, CA. It was a challenging job and Goldie was naturally great at it. Her unsinkable optimism, her sense of humor, her remarkably high medical IQ, and mostly her profound warmth and kindness made her invaluable there. Consequently, she was well-loved at the hospital by the patients and the staff. This was particularly true for an orderly who called her ‘Doctor Finethang’. We thought the sobriquet was pretty funny and of course that’s what I titled the first mixtape I made her.

It’s GTFP’s birthday tomorrow so I was going to try to recreate the mix. But it was so long ago I can’t remember all the songs! Instead, here’s a short set of tunes that I know were on it, that might have been on it, that should have been on it, or that would have made the cut in later years.

She’s Got Everything and When I See That Girl of Mine – The Kinks.

Right out of the gate I broke the cardinal rule of mixtapes by including two songs by the same band. But I couldn’t decide between them and they’re pretty short, so both these Klassics were on.

Kinda Kute – Joe Jackson.

An absolutely perfect pop song, from I’m The Man. Can’t help but think of Goldie whenever I hear it.

You’re The Best Thing – Style Council.

The title pretty much says it all.

Sea of Love – Phil Phillips.

I always loved this song, but I can’t remember if I put it on the tape. At the beginning I was maybe not too quick to drop the L word. But it was the first song we danced to at our wedding, so it definitely belongs.

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby – Colourfield.

My favorite version of a 1965 hit for the Four Seasons.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic – Police.

Another tune that was probably included and another apt title. Second single from 1981’s Ghost In The Machine.

Two of Us – Beatles.

Goldie is really fun to sing with because she’s a natural at harmonizing. She might start on the melody but after a couple of measures she’ll go right to the third. If someone’s already there she’ll go to the fifth. We sometimes sing together–would be more often if I ever learned to play guitar properly–and this has been in our repertoire from the start.

You Said Something – PJ Harvey.

This tune was definitely NOT on the mixtape, having come out a decade or so after I tricked Goldie into marrying me. But it acquired a lot of meaning over the years and now rightfully belongs.

Message of Love – Pretenders.

I have a thing for talented gorgeous brunettes, so a love song by the Ohio goddess fits in here nicely.

Golden Lady – Stevie Wonder.

Goldie’s last name is Golden, and that’s where the nickname came from. This tune, from 1973’s landmark album Innervisions, was an obvious choice. I only learned later that a high school boyfriend once wrote out the lyrics and framed them for her in some big, romantic presentation. What makes it worse is that the guy is actually pretty friendly, and is both better looking and much richer than I. Oh, well. To paraphrase Daniel Johnston, true love found us in the end.

Happy birthday, baby.

Continue reading “FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #22” →

APB

THE CULT CLASSICS :THE RE-RUNS (7)

2 February 2014. This came from Richard Kolnsberg, aka Echroich who for such a long time was posting over at his place s us all informed and amused on a daily basis over at The Never Ending Search For The Perfect Beat, but who last posted there in April 2023.

– – – – –

Being an American with a love of British pop and rock from the Punk and Post Punk Era, there are literally thousands of song which I consider cult classics, but with just the slightest attention on the interweb it can be determined that they were indeed hits in their native land.

One band that had the odd distinction of being quite bid in NYC in the early to mid 1980’s but only had a whisper of success in the UK was APB.

Scots with a massive love of angular guitar, funky bass and a pure pop sensibility, I just don’t know why each of their first 5 or 6 singles didn’t storm the UK charts. They gained attention from Peel and Jensen but went no where in the charts. Their biggest success was a Billboard #1 Dance/Club Chart hit with What Kind Of Girl in 1984 on the backs of a seemingly unlikely occurrence – underground success in NYC at the hands of a few DJ’s and radio programers with their ears to the ground. Their NYC success was all but unknown to the band for almost 2 years, but their sound was right on target for the City’s college radio and the dance clubs like Peppermint Lounge and Danceteria. This was a time when ESG, NY Peech Boys and Material were spreading left of center funk all over the City.

The story goes that someone at one of the college radio stations called up their label in Scotland, Oily, for some more info on the band and that was the first time anyone at the label or the band were aware of the cult following they had in America’s biggest city and Tri-State area. A quick set of dates on the East Coast went down a smash…I was at 2 of those shows, and they would come back something like a dozen more time over the coming years and I don’t believe I missed any of those shows. Their tours would usually start and finish at NYC’s The Ritz Club and they were sold out events.

For me the track of theirs that was the most personal and thus a classic as well was Rainy Day.

mp3 : APB – Rainy Day

I love Shoot You Down and One Day which are equal in power and hip gyrating attack, but Rainy Day had that plaintive, almost angry lyric that just grabbed me. It’s a song about a day with nothing going right and not knowing exactly what to blame it on.

I count it as one of my Favorite 50 songs of all time for all those reasons. It was also the track I always remember getting the crowd going mental – part angry anthem and manic dance groove. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove. The Ritz’s dancefloor would actually move as if a small earthquake was heaving and swaying it during Rainy Day. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove.

Richard Kolnsberg

Girl Scout

‘I LIKE THIS BAND AND I INSIST YOU DO TOO’

A GUEST POSTING from STRANGEWAYS

PHOTO CREDIT : Jakob Ekvall for NME

Hallå där.

It’s a privilege to be gifted by Jim the space to share pop thoughts with the (New) Vinyl Villain’s many readers. And here I go again. But don’t look like that – this is a piece I wanted written quickly and, for a change, without going on and on and on.

So welcome to this, the latest ‘I like this band and I insist you do too’ post.

This time it’s Girl Scout, all the way from Stockholm.

I got to know Girl Scout via their opening slots for Alvvays in the summer of 2024 when a pal and I splurged on a few of those gigs. These culminated in one held outdoors on a roasting-hot evening in Bologna during which the local mosquitoes’ love of indiepop was trumped only by their penchant for my blood. There, from the stage, Alvvays’ Molly Rankin thanked Girl Scout on that final support date and commended them for toughing out – ‘always with smiles on their faces’ – the comforts-free odyssey that characterises the lot of the warm-up act.

By this time we’d fallen for these affable Swedes too, and hoped to see them again in Glasgow. We did – and twice, including a real beauty of a recent date at Room 2 in promotion of the Scouts’ new and self-produced LP Brink (Human Garbage Records/Awal Recordings). It’s a corker of an album; the kind of release that after a trio of EPs you kind of kept every appendage crossed for.

Led by Emma Jansson’s super-versatile deliveries – equally at home with pop and rock – below are a couple of Brink cuts.

Crumbs (Brink LP track, 2026)

There’s a few single-worthy tracks on Brink. The actual lead-off single is Same Kids – about finding kindred spirits a bit later in life. That one is lifted by a bratty skater-pop feel and Avril Lavigne-ish chorus. Next up there’s more of the same via the powerful pop of Dead Dog.

And then there is Crumbs. Its weary lyric rails against music industry movers and shakers, plus hideous ‘finance bros’ and hangers-on who ‘bleed me dry and leave me with…’ …the crumbs of the title of course. Here, a life – and its ambition – is summarised as an ‘afterthought’ and the hopeful artist diminished as being ‘just a lark’ by those pulling the strings. It’s a loud, guitar-heavy rocker, and if I’d been pranked – told Alvvays had returned with a newly minted ‘dream-rock’ genre – I’d have fallen for it. That might sound snide but it’s not meant to – after all, pop influencing pop is its lifeblood.

Anyway, Crumbs really is a standout – indeed the one complaint is that its thrilling tractor-beaming intro isn’t three times longer. Heralded by lyric of the year ‘Everyday’s a funeral‘ – itself deliciously rhymed in short order with ‘And I’m making jokes I’ll sue you all’ – Crumbs’ chorus is a soaring bully, its entry preceded each time by the merest beat of silence. Live, it could shred to ribbons, at one-thousand yards, all of those skyscraping flags you see on the Glastonbury horizon. It’d be like that bit when they open the lost Ark in Raiders – only with a fewer Nazis and more A&R men. And yes, I know there’s an off-colour joke in there somewhere.

Simple Life (Brink LP track, 2026)

My friend said of this dry and sarcastic song that if Olivia Rodrigo was singing it – and you could totally imagine that – it’d score a number one. To mix things up further, and it’s likely just me, Simple Life reminds me of the Velvet Underground’s After Hours – but mainly in terms of its nursery-room oddness and irreverence. It also has a kind of just-woken-up feel you’d maybe expect from slackers like Pavement. And the thrown-away, fourth-wall-breaking line ’OK, that’s enough of that, let’s do the chorus again’ always makes me smile.

Other Brink recommendations are:

Intro – It opens the LP – no surprise there – and the short song’s detached and dreamy call-outs are ripped into with brief stabs of distorted guitar.

Uh-Huh – this is a brooder, and it’s plodding in the best way possible. Uh-Huh’s words are predicated on a past infatuation – a character whose incessant presence pops up in laundrettes, on the radio and even in the rain. Not to keep banging on about it, but you could stick this one on Alvvays’ Blue Rev LP and not see the join.

Operator – loads of fun, especially at a gig. Listen out for the ‘beep-beep’. Could be one for Riot Grrrl fans. A review references Elastica too – for me a broadly correct shout when you think of the rampant likes of Annie, All-Nighter and Vaseline.

For making it this far, you’ve earned your Girl Scout badge and also one older song

And here it is: the poppy and infectious Honey. An amusing video features the band gadding around in the typical indie style. This is the tune that first turned my head, and therefore the one you can blame for this post.

Honey (Headache EP track, Human Garbage Records, 2024)

Want to learn more, but avoid odd looks at your favourite internet cafe? Then rather than inadvisedly googling the search term ‘girl scout’ – or, I assume even worse, ‘girl scout honey’ – head straight to the group’s website, and from there onto Bandcamp if you fancy it.

www.girlscouttheband.com

Lineup:

Emma Jansson: lead vocals, guitar

Kevin Hamring: guitar and bass guitar

Per Linberg: drums

Tack så mycket as ever to Jim for the space, and to you for reading. Always appreciated. Never taken for granted.

STRANGEWAYS

Dentists, Noseflutes, Soup Dragons, This Poison!

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 75, 76, 77, and 78 of 114)

The story of The Dentists was outlined in great detail in an earlier edition of this series (Parts 43-46), but a quick reminder that they were active between 1984 and 1995, during which time they released ten singles/EPs and four albums.

mp3: Peppermint Dreams – The Dentists

Track 9, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

One of five tunes to be found on the 12″ EP Down and Out In Paris and Chatham, released in 1986 on their own Tambourine Records.

The second time that The Dentists have featured and the second time the word ‘Dream’ has featured in the song title.

The Noseflutes, from Birmingham, released three EPs and three albums between 1986 and 1991.

The first two releases were the debut EP, Girth, which came out in 1986 and the album Several Young Men Ignite Hardboard Stump in 1987, both on Reflex Records which was based in Malvern, Worcestershire.

mp3: Perfect Cockney Hard-On – The Noseflutes

Track 12, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

The opening track on the debut album.

A columnist in a Birmingham newspaper once said The Noseflutes were a ‘wonderfully perverse avant weird outfit’. If you want my take, there’s at least one too many words in that description.

The next two EPs would be issued by Ron Johnson Records in 1986 and 1987, while two albums would be issued courtesy of their own label, Rictus Recordings in 1989 and 1991.

The Soup Dragons, from Bellshill (see previous entries in the series) were initially active between 1985 and 1995, and again since 2023. There were sixteen singles and four albums first time around, and there’s been one single since the comeback, albeit there’s been loads of gigs.

An initial flexidisc release brought them to the attention of the Bristol-based The Subway Organisation, and their debut single, Whole Wide World was released in mid-1986, reaching #2 on the indie chart

mp3: Pleasantly Surprised – The Soup Dragons

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

Yup, one of the two songs on the b-side of the debut single was already known via its inclusion on the C86 cassette.

This was the only single the band would issue via Subway as they were then snapped up by Big Life Records, a label best known for dance music but whose owners thought The Soup Dragons would be the next big thing in indie music, while Sire Records took care of everything for the band stateside. As it turned out, the band’s indie-style music never took them beyond cult status, but by 1990, having experimented a bit with drum machines and samplers and edged their way into what would be termed indie-dance, they really hit the big time, with hit singles on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Soup Dragons disbanded in 1995, and its members went into do all sorts of things in music via other bands, DJ’ing and mixing.

Spoiler alert…..Whole Wide World will feature later on in this series.

This Poison!, from Perth (Scotland and not Australia!) came together in 1985 and disbanded in 1989, and would release just two singles during that time.

Like many other bands of the era, their initial demo recordings were on cassette, copies of which were sent out to all and sundry in the hope of landing a record deal. The band members also thought that Perth, being a reasonably-sized city, could get a big enough audience to attract indie bands slogging their way around the UK, and so they set themselves up as promoters.

One of the bands who agreed to play in Perth was The Wedding Present, in 1986. David Gedge liked what he heard on the demo tape and invited This Poison! to record and release singles via his band’s newly established Reception Records. The debut, Engine Failure, was released in 1987, the catalogue number shows it was released between You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends and George Best.

Next up was their second and as it turns out, final single

mp3: Paused Over The Pause Button – This Poison!

Track 16, Disc 2 of CD86.

Another of the great lost 45s of the era, if very much of its time. It was released, going by the catalogue number, immediately before Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm. Derek Moir, the guitarist with This Poison! has since said that the inability to fully market the singles proved to be a hindrance, and in due course the collapse of Red Rhino Distribution meant there was no money for a planned third single, and so the band called it a day.

JC

Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway, Hifi Sean

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (38): Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top

Fire Island is a name used by the English house music duo, Pete Heller and Terry Farley, and in 1998, they recorded a version of The Style Council‘s hit single from 1984, Shout To The Top, and brought in the veteran American singer Loleatta Holloway to provide the vocal.

Musically it’s reasonably true in many ways to the original, but the vocal, as was so often the case when Ms Holloway got involved, quite sensational.

Loleatta Holloway died in 2011 at the age of 64, and sadly she wasn’t around to ever hear the amazing remix job delivered by Hifi Sean in 2021.

Seemingly there were no musical parts on the tape which landed in Sean’s hands, just the vocal, and so he went about rewriting the arrangement and, in the words of the record label which released the 12″ single “brings this beauty into the present day with three versions that include a soulful string laden soul groover, a late-night gospel house jam and a swooning orchestral reprise.

mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean House Mix)
mp3: Fire Island (feat. Loleatta Holloway) – Shout To The Top (Hifi Sean Reprise)

There has been many a day when I’ve thought this might just about the most joyous piece of plastic you’ll find in Villain Towers. Oh, and one of my proudest moments came when I sneaked the mix into a pre-match playlist for a Raith Rovers game during the few years when I was stadium announcer.

Happy Monday, everyone.

JC

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (3)

Give Me Everything (VS 237) : Released November 1978 on 7″

This was originally posted on 8 April 2010 (and re-posted on 7 August 2014) with the title ‘GET IT RIGHT UP YE’

– – – – – – –

For years, I thought that the Factory Records mogul was the brains behind the production of this, the third single from Magazine released on 17th November 1978.

Turns out it was a totally different Tony Wilson…one who for years worked at the BBC. Stupid me…..

For some artistic reason, Howard Devoto insisted that Give Me Everything be released without any marketing campaign and with no review copies to be sent to the music press. Almost as if he wanted it not to succeed. And almost as if he wanted to avoid dealing with any music journalists.

However, the review penned by Dave McCullough in Sounds showed that the strategy somewhat backfired:-

At last I have Howie and his chums sussed. They’re really The Muppets in disguise laughing their scraggy-heads off while the hundred thousand punks STILL take them seriously. This is dreadful – the lyrics proving more cringeworthy even than usual. ‘You’re so oblique and easy’. Look – Howie – you’re as much a poet as Len Fairclough is a poet – so why don’tcha sod off – you baldy little pain?

Or had it backfired?? Howard’s response was to send the journalist a cheque for £10 with the words:-

Your review of Give Me Everything was so unbelievably sympathetic, was so to the point that this £10 of my enthusiastic and shrieking money must go to you. You’re not so oblique but you’re so easy. You must have it. I hope you can see that. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more. Please cash it. Have a Christmas. Howard.

Which was of course printed in full in the following week’s edition of the paper…….an incident that helped inspire the later song Feed The Enemy.

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy

The b-side is a cover of a Captain Beefheart song (now there’s something I never ever got….and as a consequence have nothing of his/theirs on vinyl or CD). It remains one of the most popular Magazine recording ever as evidenced by its inclusion in the sets of the comeback gigs in February 2009.

I wonder if the journo and Howard ever kissed and made up??

Oh and as a wee bonus, here’s yer Peel Sessions versions:-

mp3 : Magazine – Give Me Everything (Peel Session)
mp3 : Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy (Peel Session)

Broadcast on 24 July 1978, some four months before the 7″ single was released.

Happy Listening.

JC

Mt. Doubt

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #518: MT. DOUBT

Mt. Doubt first appeared on the scene back in 2015, thanks to a ten-song self-released CD. It began as a solo project by Edinburgh-based singer/songwriter Leo Bargery, but in subsequent years, would expand to a collective of musicians who would come-and-go depending on their own availability or commitments to other bands.

There have been two further albums – In Awe Of Nothing (2016) and Doubtlands (2020). The former originally came out on Scottish Fiction Records, but was later given a repress by Last Night From Glasgow, which was also the label on which Doubtlands was released. There’s also been a handful of singles and EPs issued by both labels.

The music, certainly on the latter two albums, is often dark and brooding, perfectly suited to Leo’s baritone voice, which has been compared by some to Matt Berninger of The National.

mp3: Mt. Doubt – Stairwell Songs

One of the many enjoyable songs to be found on Doubtlands

JC

Arctic Monkeys

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (49) : Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning

Arctic Monkeys featured previously in this 7″ nostalgia fest. On that occasion, it was Brianstorm, the lead-off single from their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare. I feel I can just about repeat the opening two paras:-

“Fair play to Arctic Monkeys who indicated well in advance of any new material that they weren’t going to be content with simply regurgitating the indie-sounds of their 2006 debut album and 2007 sophomore album, and the various hit singles they had spawned.

But I don’t think anyone was fully prepared for the lead-off single for the third album.”

mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Crying Lightning

The band had more or less taken 2008 off with singer/songwriter Alex Turner embarking on his side project The Last Shadow Puppets. It was then announced that Arctic Monkeys third album would be recorded in the USA and that hard-rocking Josh Homme, best known as the frontman of Queens of The Stone Age, would be taking on production duties. The indie kids must have been trembling in fear.

The internet now recalls that the song was given its debut on 6 July 2009 on a Radio 1 show hosted by Zane Lowe, one of the band’s earliest and loudest champions, and made available that same day as an iTunes download the same day. It was well different from what had come before, with the opening few bars in particular being as hard or as stoner as anything Homme was normally associated with. It was a bold move, and with the benefit of hindsight, can be seen as laying the foundations for the band to constantly shift and shape change with each passing year and new album with Alex Turner determined never to be accused of either resting on his laurels or being a one-trick pony.

The band advised that the single wouldn’t be available in any physical format until mid-August, some seven days ahead of the new album, which was to be called Humbug. It was also revealed that the vinyl would be a limited run and only available via charity shops run by Oxfam.

The downloads alone in the first week took Crying Lightning into the singles chart at #12. It fell back down the chart over the next few weeks, dropping to #72 before jumping back up again to #45 in the week that vinyl was released.

The b-side was a blistering and unexpected cover:-

mp3: Arctic Monkeys – Red Right Hand

Four years prior to Nick Cave‘s song becoming really well known thanks to its association with the TV drama series Peaky Blinders.

My copy of the 7″ single is second-hand and was bought at least five years later. I got it from a charity shop on the south side of Glasgow, close to Villain Towers, but not Oxfam. There was no sticker on the front of the sleeve, and from memory I paid £5.

JC

Kilgore Trout, Laugh, Nightingales, Television Personalities

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 71, 72, 73, and 74 of 114)

The Television Peronalities, from London, were active between 1977 and 1998, and then again since 2004. There have been twelve albums, going back to And Don’t The Kids Just Love It (Rough Trade, 1981) through to Beautiful Despair (Fire Records, 2018). Discogs lists 36 singles/EPs, some of which were split releases with other band, on over 20 different labels, two of which, Whaam! and Dreamworld were owned and run by frontman, Dan Treacy. The debut single was the self-released 14th Floor in 1978, later re-pressed in 1989 by Overground Records, a label specialising in punk releases and reissues.

Given it had been so far back since the debut, it was fair to say The Television Personalities were veterans of the indie music scene and indeed already had with eight singles and four albums to their name. They weren’t part of the C86 cassette, and I’ve a feeling they wouldn’t have wanted to be, but Bob Stanley was never going to ignore their influence and significance when he came to curate the 2006 celebratory release:-

mp3: Paradise Estate – The Television Personalities

Track 24, Disc 1 of CD86.

Paradise Estate, was the b-side of A Sense of Belonging, a single released on Rough Trade back in early 1983. Lyrically, both tracks were far from cheery numbers, and were housed in a sleeve that had a photograph of the face of a young child who had been beaten and battered. Both songs can also be found on The Painted Word, the band’s fourth album, released by London-based Illuminated Records

The Nightingales, from Birmingham, were active between 1979 and 1986, and then again since 2004, with frontman Robert Lloyd being one of the most important and influential figures across the post-punk/indie scenes. The first time around, there were ten singles/EPs and three albums, while there have been twelve singles and eleven albums since the band reformed. Huge favourites of John Peel, the band recorded eight sessions between 1980 and 1986.

They have released their music across a number of different labels. The debut single, Idiot Strength, was on Rough Trade in 1981, but much of the rest of the 80s was through Cherry Red Records or Vindaloo Records, which was established by Robert Lloyd in 1980 prior to any music being released by The Nightingales.

mp3: Part Time Moral England – The Nightingales

Track 6, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition

This was originally recorded for the 1986 album, In The Good Old Country Way, which came out on Vindaloo. The album which was written and recorded when Robert was, as he put it, going through his country music phase, listening a lot to Tammy Wynette. Not that you’d recognise many of its songs as being country in the way we’ve long been used to.

Laugh, from Manchester, released one flexidisc, four singles and an album between 1986 and 1988. There were three singles in 1987 and 1988 on The Remorse Label, a short-lived operation which was based in Orpington in Kent, which were followed by a single and an album on Sub Aqua, an even shorter-lived label that was started up by Jeff Barrett, a former press officer at Creation Records and who would later be the founder of Heavenly Records, which is still one of the most important labels operating in the UK today.

mp3: Paul McCartney – Laugh

Track 13, Disc 1 of CD86.

Their second single for Remorse, released in 1987 and one which featured Craig Gannon, not too long removed from his brief stint as the additional guitarist in The Smiths. Laugh would break up in 1989, but the following year two of the band’s members would be part of Intastella, who signed to MCA Records and enjoyed some minor chart success over the first half of the 90s.

The appearance of the lid of the C86 boxset should give you an indication that there’s not a lot out there on this lot, and they appear to be another of the obscure and, for the most part, wholly underwhelming acts that Neil Taylor pulled out from either his memory bank or past mentions in the NME when compiling this on behalf of Cherry Red Records.

mp3: The Peacock Nose – Kilgore Trout

From Last.fm:-

Kilgore Trout – an alternative rock band that was based in Nottingham and Sheffield in the north of England between 1985 and 1991. In that time Kilgore Trout released two EPs, contributed eight tracks to two compilation LPs, and appeared on a flexidisc. This band’s mainstay was Chris Trout, a seminal figure in the British alternative music scene, who has also worked with Bear, A.C. Temple, Spoonfed Hybrid, Lazerboy, Coping Saw and Smokers Die Younger.

If you say so.

JC

Drugstore

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (26): SUPER GLIDER

As mentioned previously, Drugstore were around for much of the 90s, formed in London but with a Brazilian born singer-songwriter in the shape of Isabel Monteiro. The band were one of those who always made for an interesting opening act and so fans of the likes of Radiohead, Tindersticks, Jeff Buckley and The Jesus and Mary Chain would have had opportunities to catch them.

My introduction to the band would have come from this song, just 1:33 in length, being included on a compilation CD:-

mp3: Drugstore – Super Glider (Volume 11 version)

A vocal delivery that is very reminiscent of Hope Sandoval.

It is lifted from Volume which was a magazine in the form of a series of compact disc compilation albums that were published in the UK in the early to mid 1990s. The albums typically contained exclusive tracks and remixes from a diverse range of indie artists. Each album was packaged with a 192-page booklet that contained features on the artists, and original articles. The booklet was the size and shape of a CD jewel case, and was usually packaged with the CD case in a cardboard sleeve. Volume One, the first issue, was published in September 1991. The series came to an end in January 1997, with Volume Seventeen.

Super Gilder was the opening track on Volume 11, which was published in August 1994. A longer version of the song would appear on Drugstore’s eponymous debut, released in March 1995.

mp3: Drugstore – Super Glider

A case could be made to suggest that this could be defined as one of the great lost songs of the era.

JC

Whipping Boy

THE CULT CLASSICS :THE RE-RUNS (6)

26 January 2014. This came from SWC who keeps us all informed and amused on a daily basis over at No Badger Required.

– – – – –

Not released on an indie label but very much an indie band.

Whipping Boy formed in Dublin in 1988 and started out in life as a Fall covers band. In 1992 they released their first album Submarine and then signed to the Columbia label. In 1995 they came to the attention of a wider audience with the release of Heartworm their second album.

It is from this that We Don’t Need Nobody Else was taken. It’s a brutal episode of love, betrayal and heartbreak with singer Fergal McKee at first speaking over the wall of guitars in the back ground, then getting angrier and angrier. There is one verse in the song that makes your hairs stand up on end and genuinely made me shiver it’s the bit where Mckee says

“I hit you for the first time today, I didn’t mean to It just happened You wouldn’t let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not Now I know the distance between us Christ we weren’t even fighting, I was just annoyed”

Is it misogynist? No, well probably not. What it is, is a raw and emotional account of a love lost. Follow the song through, you’ll understand. Listen to A Natural, the very last (hidden) track on Heartworm, and it all becomes very clear, well it did to me. To me, this identified how music can be a very powerful thing, in fact it can tear your heart out whilst you sing along. Lyrically this song is as beautiful as anything I have ever listened to, and yet they are not the household names they should be.

mp3 : Whipping Boy – We Don’t Need Nobody Else
mp3 : Whipping Boy – A Natural

Is it a cult classic? Yes it’s the very definition of a cult classic, it scraped the Top Fifty. The album is better received now than it was 19 (now 31) years ago. The band had very little success when perhaps they should have been megastars, Heartworm was recently voted one of the greatest Irish Albums of all time, I would lose the word ‘Irish’ there myself.

S-WC

Various

IT’S A NUMBERS THING…

mp3: Various – It’s A Numbers Thing

Someone’s Calling – Modern English (Track 1 from the album After The Snow)
Today’s Lesson – Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Track 2 from the album Dig Lazarus Dig)
Venus As A Boy – Bjork (Track 3 from the album Debut)
Pump It Up – Elvis Costello & The Attractions (Track 4 from the album This Year’s Model)
Fluorescent Adolescent – Arctic Monkeys (Track 5 from the album Favourite Worst Nightmare)
Loved – Follytechnic Music Library (Track 6 from the album Ordered 81-85)
How Could I Be Wrong – The Auteurs (Track 7 from the album New Wave)
Death Of A Party – Blur (Track 8 from the album Blur)
Sports Car – The Wedding Present (Track 9 from the album Locked Down and Stripped Back)
This Is Love – PJ Harvey (Track 10 from the album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea)
Videograms – The Twilight Sad (Track 11 from the album It Won/t Be Like This All The Time)
Take The Skinheads Bowling – Camper Van Beethoven (Track 12 from the album Telephone Free Landslide Victory)
Swerving The Checkatrade – Half Man Half Biscuit (Track 13 from the album No One Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut)
Never Here – Elastica (Track 14 from the album Elastica)
Mr E’s Beautiful Blues – Eels (Track 15 from the album Daisies of The Galaxy)
Sweet and Tender Hooligan – Nouvelle Vague (Track 16 from the album Bande a Part)

JC

#magazine45s

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MAGAZINE (2)

Touch and Go (VS 207) : Released April 1978 on 7″

This was previously posted on 5 November 2019 with the title ‘THE BARELY REMEMBERED SOPHOMORE SINGLE’

– – – – – – –

A previous instalment of the cracking debut singles series enabled the spotlight to be put on Magazine and the quite majestic Shot By Both Sides, released in January 1978.

It would be a further five months before the debut album, Real Life, hit the shops, comprising just nine tracks, one of which was a re-recording of Shot…., but noticeably absent was the single the band had released in the intervening period.

mp3 : Magazine – Touch and Go

It’s very much a song of its era, relying heavily throughout on the new wave guitar work of John McGeoch while Barry Adamson on bass and Martin Jackson on drums provide ample support as the rhythm section. And of course, there’s the unmistakable whining vocal delivery of Howard Devoto, seemingly almost breathless at trying to keep up with the relentless pace of the playing. It’s almost as if Dave Formula’s dainty keyboard solo, which comes in at exactly halfway through the song, is there to enable the vocalist to get a second wind.

Touch and Go isn’t a bad song. It’s big problem is that it is a very long way removed from the brilliance of the debut 45 and it didn’t have enough going for it to make it stand out among the other post-punk singles that were being released in 1978. It’s also quite unlike the other songs that Magazine were beginning to write and record – compare for instance with the opening track on said debut album:-

mp3 : Magazine – Definitive Gaze

I recently came across a review of Definitive Gaze that described it perfectly – ‘it switches between a sci-fi love theme and the score for a chase scene’ (Andy Kellman, allmusic). Touch and Go feels lumpen and unimaginative in comparison, and while there was ample space for it to be included on the debut album, it was a wise decision to cast it aside.

The b-side to the 7” was a real hoot:-

mp3 : Magazine – Goldfinger

Yup…..a cover of the theme tune to the James Bond movie as penned by John Barry and sung by Shirley Bassey. It’s almost as if Howie & co are auditioning for the right to compose and perform the next again Bond movie. The thing is, they would have certainly done a better job than what was used in the 1979 movie in the series – can anyone, without looking it up, recall what Moonraker sounded like?

Fun fact pop-pickers.

Despite being one of the most instantly recognisable of the Bond theme songs, Goldfinger only got as high as #21 in the UK singles charts in 1964, albeit it performed better in the USA by hitting the Top 10.

In fact, only one James Bond theme song has ever reached #1 in the UK. And very surprisingly, that accolade belongs to Sam Smith and his rendition of Writing’s On The Wall, which was written for Spectre in 2015.

Every day is a school day round here…………

JC

Mount Vernon Arts Lab

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #517: MOUNT VERNON ARTS LAB

I’ve only one song by Mount Vernon Arts Lab in the collection, and it comes courtesy of its inclusion on the compilation album Bentism that was released in 1999 by Creeping Bent Records.

Here’s some abridged stuff from wiki:-

Mount Vernon Arts Lab is a musical project of Drew Mulholland.

Taking inspiration from Joe Meek, and from Daniel Miller’s work as The Normal, Mulholland began creating avant-garde/post-rock recordings in 1996, and soon found the support of independent labels such as Via Satellite and Earworm, who between them issued a series of vinyl-only releases during 1997 and 1998. Mulholland used a range of electronic and acoustic instruments including Moog synthesizers, theremin, and a specially-built unit which he calls a “Turbine Generator” The debut mini-album, Gummy Twinkle, was issued in September 1998, featuring guest appearances from Pete Kember (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub.

He then signed a deal with Ochre Records, who issued his second mini-set, a collaboration with Adrian Utley of Portishead, featuring a single 23-minute track, “Warminster”. A second mini-set followed for Ochre, this time recorded 100 feet below ground in the abandoned nuclear bunker at Troywood. A final album as Mount Vernon Arts Lab was released in 2001 on Via Satellite; The Séance at Hobs Lane and featured guest appearances from Blake, Utley, Isobel Campbell, and Barry 7 (of Add N to (X).

mp3: Mount Vernon Arts Lab – Bad Vibrations

Not specified in the wiki entry was that in 1997, there had been a contribution to edition #5 of the Creeping Bent Singles Club, supplying one side of a 7″ single with the other being courtesy of Future Pilot A.K.A. vs. Alan Vega / Revolutionary Corps Of Teenage Jesus. It was the same track later included on the Bentism compilation.

JC

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #21

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

KINKY

What’s your favorite Kinks song? You know you have one—everybody does. So, it’s no surprise that so many artists have released Kinks covers over the years. There are far too many for a single set so, to narrow it down, the songs in today’s post must have been originally included on a studio album. It’s okay if they were singles, but they couldn’t have been bonus tracks on a re-issued album, or live versions, or a song recorded for a compilation album. I also left out songs from artists’ collections of their favorites (e.g. Pinups, by Bowie). And none from a Kinks or Ray Davies tribute album, of which there are several. Maybe we’ll get to some of those down the road. Meanwhile…

David Watts – The Jam.

Released as a single and then included on 1978’s All Mod Cons. Originally released as the B-side to ‘You Really Got Me,’ and an album track from 1967’s Something Else by the Kinks.

Stop Your Sobbing – Pretenders.

Despite the fact that every single song on the Pretenders’ debut album is a banger, the first single by Chrissie and the boys was this cover. An album side from the Kinks’ self-titled debut, released in 1964.

The Hard Way – The Knack.

Half of the twelve songs on the Knack’s sophomore album ‘…But The Little Girls Understand’ (1980) were singles, but not this one. An album track from 1975’s Schoolboys in Disgrace.

She’s Got Everything – The Romantics.

Another cover from 1980, this time from the Detroit power pop purveyors’ self-titled debut. I love this song so much that I put it on the Kinks’ version on the first mixtape I ever made for GTFP. Not that big a deal for the band, though, who recorded it in 1966 during the Face to Face sessions but left it off the album. It came out a couple of years later as the B-side to ‘Days’.

Act Nice and Gentle – Black Keys.

From Rubber Factory, the third studio LP from Akron, Ohio’s finest, released in 2004. Again, an afterthought for the Kinks; it was the B-side to 1967’s tremendous ‘Waterloo Sunset’ single in the UK. It never made it onto an album until the 1998 reissue of Something Else.

Victoria – The Fall.

From 1998’s The Frenz Experiment. It’s a testament to how great this song is that Mark E. Smith pretty much tries to sing it straight. The First single and leadoff track from 1969’s Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).

Time Will Tell – Holly Golightly.

The most appealing thing about Ms. Golightly is that she’s such an amateur. My bandmate Bess can sing rings around her. I could form a pickup band in 10 seconds that can play the track better than this recording. But I never get tired of listening to Holly because she’s absolutely all in, and you have to admire the effort. From her 11th studio album, Truly She Is None Other, released back in 2003. Originally recorded in 1965 during the Kinks Kontroversy sessions, but left off the album. The Kinks didn’t release it until its 1983 inclusion in a greatest hits package.

Big Sky – Yo La Tengo.

Hoboken’s favorite sons and daughter usually include a cover or two on their records, starting with this song on their 1986 debut, Ride The Tiger. An album track from 1969’s The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society.

Tired of Waiting – Lyres.

From the Boston garage rockers’ 1984 first LP, On Fyre. It occurs to me that all of the tracks in this set are pretty faithful to the original recordings, apart from this one which features Jeff Connolly’s signature Farfisa organ. A 1965 single (full title: ‘Tired of Waiting for You’) included on the second studio LP, Kinda Kinks.

This Strange Effect – The Shacks.

This one’s a bit of a mystery. The Shacks arrived with a self-titled EP in 2016, which included this song. I’d never heard it before and was surprised to find out it was a cover, since it doesn’t sound especially Kinks-like. It was originally a single for Dave Berry in 1965, and was covered by the likes of Bill Wyman, Steve Wynn, and Squeeze, among others. To date, the Kinks never released their own studio version, if there is one.

Days – Kirsty MacColl.

Second single off 1989’s Kite, by the late great Ms. MacColl. Originally a non-album single released in 1968. ‘Days’ has also been covered by Elvis Costello, Kate Rusby, and David Byron. My favorite version is by alt-rock mainstays Guster, but it came out as a bonus track on the 10th anniversary edition of 2003’s Keep It Together, so I had to exclude it.

Nah, fuck it: Days – Guster.

I hope y’all liked these Kinks Klassics, because there are WAY more than enough covers—by Queens of the Stone Age, Detroit Cobras, Green Day, the Smithereens, Raincoats, Big Star & co.—for at least one more round.

Jonny

bIG fLAME, Blue Aeroplanes, Pooh Sticks, The Turncoats

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 67, 68, 69, and 70 of 114)

Big Flame, or to be more precise bIG* fLAME, were from Manchester, active from 1983 to 1986 during which there were five singles/EPs, the debut on their own Laughing Gun Records in 1984 with the remainder being on Ron Johnson Records during 1985 and 1986. They were also invited to contribute to the C86 cassette:-

mp3: New Way (Quick Wash And Brush Up With Liberation Theology) – biG*fLAME

Track 7 on side 2 of the C86 cassette; Track 18, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This 1 minutes and 38 seconds of mayhem wasn’t made available elsewhere, but was included on a post-career compilation, Rigour 1983-1986, released in 1996 by an American label, Drag City

The very title of the song should give you a hint that bIG* fLAME were quite different from everyone else on C86. Named after a revolutionary socialist feminist grouping, they were more punk than indie, with an uncompromising sound and attitude. I have suggested they are an acquired taste, but there are times when their music just perfectly matches my mood.

After bIG* fLAME, we go to another extreme of indie music, and possibly the most jangly indie band to ever take the piss out of the jangly indie scene while still making great music.

The Pooh Sticks are from Swansea in South Wales, initially being together between 1987 and 1995, before reforming in 2010. Their first five singles were released in 1988, all on the locally-based Fierce Recordings, and all being single-sided on 7″ in limited numbers. Among the titles were I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well and Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution, but perhaps their greatest two minutes and forty seconds came via this:-

mp3: On Tape – The Pooh Sticks

Track 18, Disc 2 of CD86.

I’ll stand by my words from a few years back:-

“On Tape is a brilliant record on so many different levels. It sounds as shambolic and cheaply recorded as most of the C86 tracks were, it pays homage to the humble cassette which, after all, was the medium under which C86 thrived and above all else the lyrics gently mock the trainspotter obsessiveness of so many music fans (myself included!!) with lyrics such as “I’ve got Falling and Laughing – the original Postcard version” and “I sent for the Soup Dragons single, mail-order only; £1.30 to Martin Whitehead, but it never came!”

They would later sign to labels in America, and by 1991 had changed direction to a more power pop sound, through to the 1995 break-up. There hasn’t been much in the way of new material since the 2010 comeback, which in essence was to play at the Indietracks Festival that year, and there have been just a handful of appearances since. Having said that, main man Hue Williams is very much part of the very active group Swansea Sound alongside many other indie alumni.

mp3: One Breath – The Turncoats

Track 22, Disc Two of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

This has proved among the most difficult to get info on. The Turncoats had just one release, and it was the Motor Ball Meltbeat EP on Noiseannoys Records in 1986, which was the label That Petrol Emotion had briefly set up and which saw the release of the single V2 in 1985. If the info on Discogs is correct, then V2 and Motor Ball Meltbeat were the only two released on Noiseannoys. I’ve also found that The Turncoats supported TPE a few times in the mid 80s.

The band members were Nick Brown, Roger Hellier, James Murray and Chris Teckkam. I’ve since established that Roger Hellier and Chris Teckkam were later part of an early 90s band called Swimmer.

And that’s it……………………………………

The Blue Aeroplanes are a band from Bristol who have been on the go since 1983 with thirteen albums and countless singles to their name. Their debut release was an album rather than a single. Bop Art came out in 1984 on their own Party Records. One of its tracks was later included on the expanded C86 release:-

mp3: Outback Jazz – The Blue Aeroplanes

Track 13, Disc Three of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

It is genuinely impossible to summarise the band in a few paragraphs. Back in 2017, the comedian and writer Stewart Lee, described The Blue Aeroplanes a being “like Philip Larkin fronting Television”. Why? Well, the band has long fused poetry and guitar-led melodies, while throwing in elements of folk. They have also been subject to almost as many changes in membership as The Fall, with some 50 different musicians/performers having at one time or other being in the band. And in Wojtek Dmochowski, they have engaged a dancer as part of their live shows since the very beginning.

Maybe it’s best I refer you to this ICA, penned for the blog by Mike Melville, a long-time fan of the band and whose own website/blog, Manic Pop Thrills, is always a fascinating read.

One final overall thought…..the foursome making up this latest edition of the series have very little in common, and as Josef K might have put it, it’s kinda funny that they all ended on up on releases associated with the C86 genre.

JC

Sunstinger

AN INTRODUCTION TO…SUNSTINGER

A guest posting by flimflamfan

Some of you may of course be conversant with all things Sunstinger. If that’s the case for the next few minutes or so, please feel to take the dog for a walk. If you don’t have a dog well, I’m not here to listen your canine inadequacies – he joked.

Sunstinger are originally from Dunfermline but have close ties to Aberdeen.

My first connection with the band is vague. I was aware of the first EP being released but I couldn’t tell you how I was aware? It seems the band had an association with a company called Lucid Shade from at approx. 2018 and have released videos for songs that were never released e.g.:

Sunstinger – All The Things You Wish I’d Say

Bandcamp now tells me that the band released at least 2 individual tracks available to download. I’d no inking of these songs till the debut 4-track EP, Beyond The Frame was released in 2021. It captured my imagination for two reasons:

1. I was taken with each song: and

2. I wanted to own them.

The price of the self-released EP was £20 plus £5 postage. It just seemed too much for me. I declined the purchase. Yet, every now and then ownership of the EP would float through my head and I felt like a fool as the limited-edition EPs were snapped up in short order.

It should be noted that in 2024 Sonic Rising Records (US) re-released Beyond The Frame to include 4 more songs. It was like an LP, right? Some limited to just 25 copies. I was in. I wanted this. I even liked the cover art variation more than the original. As might be expected, once postage and tax had been added via Bandcamp the price of the vinyl I was looking at rose to £44. I once again declined.

Sunstinger – Beyond The Frame

What we have next is all but a repeat of the above. The second 5-track EP Worthless was released in 2024. I was determined just to buy the EP having tortured myself about not buying the first. However, the same issue arose. The price. It was just too much. I decided not to purchase, again.

I do understand the cost of limited-edition vinyl production but there’s a point when my early 1980s vinyl radar pulses with “£1.99. £1.99. £1.99”.

Sunstinger – Sink

And so, bang up-to-date Sunstinger is set to release a new EP Spare Me The Rapture come mid-September. Again, it’s a limited edition. This time 100 on Absinthe Bloom coloured vinyl? I wonder if B&Q have Absinthe Bloom paint in stock? I think it’d cheer my kitchen up no end.

In the meantime, I’ve been able to acquire the first 2 EPs at reasonable prices. I’m pretty chuffed – although the US variant eludes me, for now. I bit the bullet and paid the pre-order price for Spare Me The Rapture. My reasoning – the music is beautiful, and we have to support grassroots music, don’t we?

Spare Me The Rapture is the only track from the new EP that is publicly available, for now.

Sunstinger – Spare Me The Rapture

And here’s the link to purchase the new EP: https://sunstinger.bigcartel.com/

Enjoy!