THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

C86 : THE ULTIMATE SERIES (Parts 15, 16 and 17 of 114)

The Groove Farm were from Bristol, active and prolific between 1986 and 1990 across a number of labels and their songs have appeared on loads of subsequent compilations released during the 21st century. Despite not appearing on the C86 cassette, they will feature twice across this series.

mp3: Captain Fantastic (demo) – The Groove Farm

Track 17, Disc One of C86 The Deluxe 3CD Edition.

The next two paras are lifted from the website, Bristol Archive Records

The Groove Farm were a noisy guitar pop band that came to life in 1986, with the release of their first 7″ EP ‘Sore Heads And Happy Hearts’ it was a self released effort, cheaply recorded, with cheaply made sleeves, and hand coloured labels to save money. Only now people describe it as lo-fi, at the time it was ‘DIY’. The band were instantly picked up on and became fanzine favourites with the then booming ‘C86’, ‘shambling’ ‘anorak’ ‘twee’ pop scene that was sweeping England.

The Groove Farm live were never ‘twee’ and they never wore anoraks. They at times, could shamble though! They could also be fantastic, and powerful, pop with the honest and true spirit of punk. Soon they signed to Subway records, but the results of recording in a ‘better’ studio under the orders from the label, were to soften the harsh trebly garage sound, and the band weren’t happy with the records, Things turned sour with Subway, after money owed, failed to arrive. The last few years found the band back on their own Raving Pop Blast! label, and again recording on 8 track.

The studio version of Captain Fantastic would appear on the magnificently named EP Only The Most Ignorant Gutless Sheep-brained Poltroon Can Deny Them Now, which came out in 1987 on Raving Pop Blast! The band called it a day in 1990 after, if Discogs is accurate, eleven singles/EPs/flexidiscs and two albums.

McCarthy. A band that I’ve long intended to give some space to on the blog but failed miserably. A few years ago, I picked up a 3xCD collection of their albums, singles and BBC sessions from which I planned to come up with an ICA….maybe one day. They came from Barking, Essex (just east of London) and were active between 1985 and 1990. There had been a self-financed debut single, In Purgatory in 1985, prior to them being asked to contribute to the C86 cassette:-

mp3: Celestial City – McCarthy

Track 9 on side 2 of the C86 cassette; Track 20, 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)

McCarthy, very much a left-wing band when it came to politics, next released two singles on The Pink Label in 1986/87. After that label closed down, they switched to September Records, which was owned and run by Paul Sutton, who had been part of the management team at The Pink Label. There would be three singles and an album on September Records in 1987/88 before the label was sold to Midnight Music, on which there would be three singles and two albums in 1989/90.

When McCarthy came to an end in 1990, lead guitarist Tim Gane formed a new band, which saw his girlfriend Laetitia Sadler taking on vocal duties. That band was called Stereolab…..

As mentioned above, all the studio recording, along with BBC sessions, was compiled by Cherry Red Records on a 3xCD compilation, released in 2014.

14 Iced Bears were from Brighton and were active between 1985 and 1992, before reforming for a short time in 2010. They initially signed to Frank Records, based in Hertford just north of London, but by 1988 they had been asked by Sarah Records to record what proved to a rather splendid and catchy single as the fourth 45 issued by the label.

mp3: Come Get Me – 14 Iced Bears

Track 5, Disc 2 of CD86.

It proved to be their only release for Sarah, and like many other singles on the label, it is now quite valuable. The band were never really tied to any one label during their existence, and they were also more than happy to be on shared releases with other bands, often on flexidiscs. As far as I can work out, there were ten singles and two albums.

All three of today’s featured bands will return at some point in this series.

JC

#edwyncollins45s

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

#24: The Magic Piper (Of Love) : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 041, 1997)

Many thanks for the particularly lovely comments last Sunday, and if you are one of those readers who settles down to read/listen with a coffee in hand, then I hope you enjoy today’s instalment.

One of the biggest movies in 1997 was Austin Powers : International Man Of Mystery, starring the Canadian comic actor Mike Myers, a parody mainly of the James Bond spy films, but also of the entire hip/swinging/hippy 60s pop culture. The film opened in May, and anyone going along on the back of the rave reviews (and myself and Rachel will admit to being two such paying customers) would probably have been very surprised to hear, if you paid close attention, a familiar voice singing an entirely new song over the closing credits, albeit it was one of those times when the song plays as out takes from the film are played on screen, and the music is kind of incidental.

The credits continued to roll and eventually reach the part where the music is listed. The Magic Piper (Of Love). Written by Edwyn Collins. Performed by Edwyn Collins. Courtesy of Setanta Records.

Well, well, well.

The soundtrack album to the film was released around the same time, and The Magic Piper (Of Love) is its opening track. I resisted the temptation to buy the soundtrack in the hope that the song would either get a single release and/or appear on Edwyn’s next solo album, a hope that, happily was soon realised, being released at the end of July 1997 on 2 x CDs and 12″ vinyl.

CD1

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – More Than You Bargained For
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Red Menace
mp3: Edwyn Collins – It Takes A Little Time

CD2

~~mp3~~: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Who Is It?
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Who Is It? (Halterbacked By The Victorian Spaceman)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Welwyn Garden City

Six new songs plus a remix, so it kind of felt as if Xmas had arrived in the middle of summer.

The Magic Piper (Of Love) is a fun number, maybe a wee bit silly to some, given that it does have that 60s lounge music feel, complete with a flute (and it is a real flute, not one whose sound was created in the studio using a keyboard and technology). I’m not going to claim it is anything close to being Edwyn’s best single, but it has a soft spot among fans, given it did provide him with just the second Top 40 hit of his career, coming in at #32 before falling away.

More Than You Bargained For is a fairly straightforward pop song, one which seems to rely solely on the classic vocals, guitars, bass and drums. It’s actually one of those songs, when you realise a few years later it hasn’t ever appeared on an album, you come to think of it as being wasted purely as a b-side.

Red Menace is a curious one. It has a retro feel to it, and it reminds me of the sort of music that accompanied American cop shows from the 70s, complete with sound effects such as wailing sirens.

It Takes A Little Time is another that has a bit of a throwback sound, particularly across its chorus. The lyric is the sort which Edwyn has churned out a few times over the decades – it might sound as if it is about personal relationships, but it could just as easily be his reflections on a career in the music industry, during which he has taken more than his share of hard knocks.

There’s two versions of Who Is It? The first is a minimalist sort of song, heavily reliant on synths to set the mood and tempo. It acts as a fine reminder that it has always been impossible to pigeon-hole Edwyn Collins. The second version sees the reappearance of The Victorian Spaceman, aka Sebastian Lewsley, last given a specific credit for his radical remix of A Girl Like You as one of the b-sides on If You Could Love Me back in 1995. As you’d expect, it’s full of studio gimmickry, and includes a number of uncredited dialogue samples along the way. Very much something to be hidden away on a b-side.

Finally, we have Welwyn Garden City. I have no idea why Edwyn chose to use the name of a smallish town in the south-east of England, some 20 miles from London, as the three-word chorus of this funky, spaced-out piece of electronica, co-written with Sean Reed, someone who has long been involved with Edwyn and is still very much part of the support network in the studio and out on the road.

Oh, and I almost forgot that there was a slightly extended version of the single included on the 12″ vinyl. It’s roughly a minute longer thanks to its outro:-

mp3: Edwyn Collins – The Magic Piper (Of Love) (extended version)

The 12″ b-sides consisted of the Macrame Mix by Youth take on A Girl Like You (as featured a couple of weeks back as a previous extra track on a CD) along Welwyn Garden City.

A couple of weeks after The Magic Piper (Of Love) had enjoyed its very brief stay in the singles chart, Edwyn’s fourth studio LP was released, from which another single was lifted. And if you think the b-sides this week were a bit on the strange side……..

JC

Joyce Delaney

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #495: JOYCE DELANEY

I’ve come back again today to David Cameron’s Eton Mess, the compilation CD issued on Song, By Toad Records in 2015:-

mp3: Joyce Delaney – Don’t Be An Asshole

Joyce Delaney were a lo-fi act from Glasgow, originally consisting of Chrissy Barnacle (guitar and vocals) and Nyla Ahmad (bass and vocal), later joined on drums by Barry Carty. Over at Bandcamp, you can find digital releases in the shape of Demos (2014), What’s Up Wanda (2017), Busy Girls Lament (2017) and Gently But Firmly (2023).

Don’t Be An Asshole, all 82 seconds of it, can be found on Demos. The band called it a day in June 2023 with a one-off gig to launch Gently But Firmly.

JC

Broken Chanter

BONUS POST : THE NEW SINGLE FROM BROKEN CHANTER

I’ve never hidden my fandom for Broken Chanter, and I’ll be all over this blog in the coming weeks and months raving about their upcoming album and no doubt my fingertips will be battering the laptop’s keyboard in May after I catch them out on tour.

I’m lucky enough to have been shared files containing the songs that will make up This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else, which comes out on Chemikal Underground on 10 April. It’s every bit as brilliant as the previous three albums, and if there’s any justice in this world, it will make big stars of this Glasgow-based four-piece of David MacGregor (lead vocals/guitar), Charlotte Printer (bass/backing vocals), Bart Owl (guitar) and Martin Johnstone (drums).

In the meantime, here’s the wee promo that’s been made for the lead-off single.

I’m willing to bet that you’ll be humming this one for the rest of the day….and probably over the weekend too!

JC

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #11

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

Twinset

I honestly can’t imagine being a twin. Just one of me is more than enough for most people. But of course there are twins in the music biz and, as it turns out, some pairs make exceptional music together.

I’m On My Way. Proclaimers. I thought I’d start off with the popular Scottish duo in honor of our good host, but it occurs to me now that JC might not even like them. Oh well. I do, and this is my favorite song of theirs. From their second LP, Sunshine on Leith.

Safari. The Breeders. Recorded while Pixies were between albums and Tanya Donelly hadn’t formed Belly yet. The Safari EP was the band’s first release to feature Kim’s twin Kelley Deal (and the only one to include both Tanya and Kelley).

Walking with a Ghost. Tegan and Sara. I don’t know too much about T&S, if I’m honest, apart from the facts that they’re Canadian and are vocal LGBTQ+ activists. I did sell a bass to their music director once, and he seemed like a pretty nice guy.

The Skin of my Country Yellow Teeth. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Third single from the self-titled debut album, when the band included twins Lee and Tyler Sargent. The band chose its name after seeing it spray-painted on a wall in their adopted hometown of Brooklyn.

Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces). The National. Here are frontman/lyricist Matt Berninger and two pairs of brothers. Only Aaron and Bryce Dessner are twins, though. It’s awesome that twenty years into their recording career the National are still producing great tunes like this one. An album side from 2023’s Laugh Track. I don’t know who Paul is but I hope he’s okay.

23. Blonde Redhead. Title track from the NYC dreampop trio’s 2007 album. The band features Milanese twins Amadeo and Simone Pace and are named after a song by the o.g. No Wave group DNA.

God Only Knows. MonaLisa Twins. Mona and Lisa Wagner might be the first group I discovered on YouTube. From Vienna and based in Liverpool, they made a name for themselves by posting videos of their acoustic versions of Beatles songs. Those are great, but their harmonies on this Beach Boys classic are just gorgeous.

Windstorm. School of Seven Bells. From the band’s second album, Disconnect from Desire, before singer Alejandra de la Deheza‘s twin Claudia left the band. SVIIB are purportedly named after a South American school for pickpockets.

Black and White Town. Doves. Twins Jez and Andy Williams met high school buddy Jimi Goodwin in 1985. They released a few records under other names, but have been going as Doves since 1998. From 2005’s Some Cities album.

Hey Scenesters!. The Cribs. The band are twins Gary and Ryan Jarman joined by their little bro Ross on drums. This is the lead single from their second album, The New Fellas, produced by TnVV champ Edwyn Collins. The Jarman brothers are still active as a trio, although the band included none other than Johnny Marr for a few years.

With apologies to Cocteau Twins, Thompson Twins, Nova Twins, the Glitter Twins, and the Gutter Twins, who aren’t twins, and without apologies to Good Charlotte, who do include a pair of twins but are truly awful.

Jonny

Madness

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (33): Madness – Cardiac Arrest

Cardiac Arrest, in February 1982, was the eleventh single to be released by Madness, and proved to be their first not to reach the Top 10 since debut The Prince.

There are a couple of underlying reasons. It was the third single to be lifted from the album 7 which had already been in the shops for four months. It also, despite seemingly having an upbeat and jaunty tune, had a lyric that wasn’t exactly tailor-made for daytime radio, being the story of a stressed-out workaholic who suffers a fatal heart attack while travelling on a bus on his way to his office.

mp3: Madness – Cardiac Arrest (extended 12″ version)

I’ve always thought it genius that the band/producers used the opening few notes to symbolise an increasing heart rate. The extended 12″ version is basically the 7″ take on the song up to 2:54 followed by some instrumentation and a refrain from earlier in the tune, finishing up with the final few notes symbolising a failing heart rate.

Chas Smash later explained the thinking behind the song:-

“We got a lot of trouble over it. People writing to me saying, ‘How dare you write a song like that? My father had a heart attack, you don’t know what it feels like’ etc. But I did know what it felt like – my own father had a heart attack; that’s why I wrote it. It was born out of concern. The message was, ‘Relax darling, don’t get stressed.’ As the Arabs say, ‘Walk through life, don’t run.’”

The b-side, sadly, is not a cover of the debut single by The Jam. Instead, it is a song that was used to sell cars in Japan!

mp3: Madness – In The City

The jingle for the TV adverts for the Honda City was co-written by Madness with the aid of Japanese songwriters. The band also appeared in the adverts. The adverts used the phrase ‘Honda Honda Honda’ as part of the lyric, but this was replaced by ‘doomba, doomba, doomba’ in the version recorded for this particular b-side. It proved to be such a well-loved song that it was included on the Complete Madness greatest hits compilation issued later on in 1982.

JC

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : MARCH 2026 : ‘TO HELL WITH POVERTY!’ by JON KING

Today’s post has been partly created with the use of AI. I’m really sorry, as I did swear to you all some time ago that this blog would forever steer away from such monstrosities, but the response to a particular question did provide some helpful pointers.

‘Why are so many musicians writing their life stories?’

The answer was a bit long-winded, but at the heart of the matter is a wish/desire to ‘own the narrative’, particularly in an age where social media can lead to much muddying of some waters, and at its very worst have truths bent completely out of shape. There’s also the fact that market forces are in play as these types of books are very much in vogue right now. Sure, there always has been, and there will continue to be, a market for books by, or about, the sort of musicians whose records sell by the millions, but more recent times have seen less-heralded and hugely admired artists such as Viv Albertine, Miki Berenyi, Stuart Braithwaite, Kim Gordon, Luke Haines, Kathleen Hanna, Stephen Morris, Will Sargeant, Paul Simpson and Tracey Thorn (to name but ten!) publish their memoirs – some across more than one volume – to great acclaim and more than decent sales figures.

Something that the best memoirs have in common, and to the above list I could have added many more, including some who would have no problem getting to plug their wares on prime-time chat shows on mainstream television, is them being written in ways which appeal beyond the narrow fan base. It seems to me that the skills and talents required to entertain in the music industry can often transfer seamlessly into this longer-form of storytelling.

And to that above list of authors, I would have no hesitation in adding the name of Jon King, whose ‘To Hell With Poverty!’ was published in April 2025. The synopsis is concise and spot-on:-

” ….(his) story from a South London slum and impoverished working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four. The reader is taken on an episodic and kaleidoscopic journey full of adventures from childhood to the end of Gang of Four’s ‘golden period’ in 1984.”

Some biographies, even the best of them, do take a bit of time to get going. Not in this instance. The opening words in the two-page introduction are ‘1979. Britain is fucked.’ Five concise paragraphs explain why this is this case, before we are given a reminder that it was also an era when all UK households were delivered a booklet called ‘Protect and Survive’, chock-full of handy tips about how to deal with the impending apocalypse. Jon comes to the conclusion that ‘it’s the right time to write radical music’

It would have been really easy to then go straight to the why’s, how’s, where’s and when of such music, but instead we are taken on quite a lengthy journey, one which takes up half of the book’s 333 pages, kind of beginning in the year of his birth, 1955, but which reflects back to the circumstances of his grandparents and parents, and meanders through to the first time that his band, Gang Of Four, enter a recording studio in late 1978.

There will likely be some readers out there who will be frustrated that it took such a long time to reach the part where the story of the band begins to be told, but there is no doubt, in my mind at least, that the first half of the book is one of the keys to understanding just why Jon had come to the realisation that if he was going to be a musician, he would be doing so with anger and a desire to right the wrongs that was the inequitable society of the UK in the late 70s.

The other key? The second half of the book begins with ‘I never wanted to be in a full-time band’, with Jon happier in his painting and drawing (at which he was incredibly talented), with no desire to be famous. Unusually, for someone who was the main singer and lyricist, he was the one member of the gang who preferred to be unnoticed offstage while the others enjoyed and sought the attention. And yet, as he comes to realise, the reaction to the music, and in particular the live shows, is something which makes it worthwhile, and he comes, in his own words, to love rock’n’roll.

There is very little in the way of boasting or self-aggrandising within this memoir. It is a warts-and-all tale. It tells of how band members, who found themselves placed on idealistically lofty pedestals by fans and critics alike, largely as a result of their obvious left-wing leanings, were really no different from many others, experiencing the same problematical tensions and frustrations that culminate with in-fighting and loathing. In many ways, it is a real surprise that the ‘golden period’ actually lasted five years and delivered four albums, albeit history hasn’t been as kind to Hard, released in 1983, as it has been to Entertainment! (1979), Solid Gold (1980) and Songs Of The Free (1982).

The final few chapters make for a hideous end to proceedings, thanks to the band being ripped off by an unscrupulous manager, leading Jon to conclude, ‘We brought nothing into this world, it is certain we carry nothing out.’

And yet, despite being a book whose premise is very much a cautionary tale about life as a rock’n’roller, it is packed with anecdotes, and the occasional self-deprecating putdown, that will result in smiles, all thanks to the wonderful way that Jon has with words. The book was, quite rightly, given all sorts of plaudits, and so it’s no real surprise that, one year on, a paperback edition is being published to which has been added another chapter which takes Jon’s story beyond 1984, and despite it reflecting on a number of sad and premature deaths, including band members Andy Gill and Dave Allen, it makes for a happier and more optimistic ending.

The paperback edition of To Hell With Poverty! is being published by Constable on 16 April 2026, and will be widely available. Jon is helping to promote the book with some personal appearances, including Edinburgh on the evening of Friday 24 April. The venue is the Voodoo Rooms, a popular music spot in the city centre, with Jon chatting to at the actor, poet, cartoonist, retired standup comedian, and huge music fan, Phil Jupitus. Tickets can be found here.

Oh, and thanks to a friend of a friend, I’ve been put in touch with Jon and will soon be having an online chat with him about the book and a few other things, including his plans to make new music and possibly tour this year and beyond….so watch this space. To say I’m excited about this upcoming chat is putting it mildly!

mp3: Gang Of Four – To Hell With Poverty!
mp3: Gang Of Four – We Live As We Dream, Alone

JC

Lovely Eggs

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (43): The Lovely Eggs – Long Stem Carnation

I think it would be fair to describe The Lovely Eggs as the ultimate cult indie band. Their tour late last year, which included a show in Glasgow in October that was much loved by my dear friend and more than occasional gig companion, Aldo, was in celebration of the band being together for 20 years. It did take until 2007 before a debut EP appeared and there’s been just eight albums across that time, albeit there have been more regular recent releases in the shape of Eggsistentialism (2024) and Bin Juice (2025).

The band is a duo, consisting of married couple David Blackwell and Holly Ross. Just about everything they’ve released has come out on their own Egg Records. One on-line reviewer, Daniel Clancy at AllMusic, has very accurately stated:-

“The Lovely Eggs make bold, genre-defiant psychedelic rock sounds, beholden to nothing but their own artistic expression. The band managed to land in the U.K. charts without any outside representation or label support, riding an ethic of staunch independence into collaborations with artists as big as Iggy Pop, sold-out gigs, and a YouTube series (EGGS TV) that included guests like Cate Le Bon, Ian Mackaye, Gruff Rhys, Stewart Lee, and many others.”

You’ll always find their songs and albums riding high in the Indie Charts, and in April 2020, while we were all stuck in our homes unable to enjoy live music unless via the medium of our laptops/PCs etc, their sixth album I Am Moron entered the ‘proper’ chart at #51.

A couple of months later, a single was taken from the album

mp3: The Lovely Eggs – Long Stem Carnations

It came out on 7″ orange-coloured vinyl, and seemingly was limited to just 500 copies. Given it was a time when we couldn’t really go anywhere, I’m thinking I must have ordered it direct from the band. It turns out that the version issued as a single is over two minutes shorter than the album version, cutting out part of the intro and greatly reducing the wig-out that makes up the outro.

The b-side is five minutes of uncompromising psychedelia:-

mp3: The Lovely Eggs – The Voyage

A wee bonus for you today, with another of the 7″ singles you’ll find here in Villain Towers

In 2021, The Lovely Eggs teamed up with one of their biggest fans to record a one-off single, with the b-side being their take a tune originally recorded by said fan:-

mp3: The Lovely Eggs featuring Iggy Pop – I, Moron
mp3: The Lovely Eggs – Dum Dum Boys

Enjoy!!

JC

Various

DEEE-LITE FULL

mp3: Various – Deee-Lite Full

How Can You Expect To Be Taken Seriously? – Pet Shop Boys
Psychokiller (live) – Talking Heads
I Love A Man In A Uniform (remix) – Gang of Four
Kick – The Dare
Cowbella – Bar Italia
Tit School – Panic Shack
Kwenchy Kups – Dry Cleaning
Hair on Coffee – Cousines Like Shit
Better Way To Live – Kneecap
Shout To The Top (HiFi Sean Mix) – Fire Island feat. Loleatta Holloway
Birdhouse In Your Soul – They Might Be Giants
I Can’t Imagine The World Without Me – Echobelly
Ten Little Girls – Curve
Chaplins – HighSchool
Wouldn’t Be Me – Brontes
Last Orders

JC

#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.

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.

View this post on Instagram

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