#edwyncollins45s

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

#25: Adidas World : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, SET 045, 1997)

The new album, I’m Not Following You, was released in early September 1997.  Twelve songs, two of which had previously been released as singles, and a number of guest musicians, one of whom, Mark E Smith had co-written one of the songs, a glam stomper called Seventies Night, with a playfully nostalgic lyric to match.   The reviews were mixed, with critics falling into two camps of love or loath.  Edwyn was either praised for another record in which he had shifted direction from last time out, steering away from the commercially obvious or being accused of taking an arrogant and self-indulgent approach to his art.

The truth is probably somewhere in-between, for there are some tremendous moments on the album alongside a couple of difficult, almost experimental tunes that seem to go on forever, including the title track, which closes proceedings and lasts the best part of eight minutes.  It’s a CD for which I was, and remain, grateful to have a skip button on a remote control.

By the time a third single was lifted for release, the album had completed what proved to be a two-week stay in the charts, doing no better than #55.  It was probably as well that Edwyn had such a great relationship with Setanta, as other labels, as had been the case in the past, might have called it a day.  Instead, one of what was a number of agit-pop efforts on the album was issued as a single, on 2 x CD and 7″ vinyl, in mid-October

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Adidas World (7″ Extended Radio Remix)

Yup….the album version was remixed and extended by over a minute!

I’m not sure if this attack on consumerism, and swipe at Britpop, was given much radio play.  I’m certain, for instance, it would have fallen foul of broadcasting rules at the BBC aimed at preventing brand awareness.  But somehow, it sold enough copies to make a very minor dent in the charts at #71.

There were three songs on CD1, with one of them also being the sole b-side on the 7″

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Mr Bojangles
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Talkin’ About The Times
mp3: Edwyn Collins – High Fashion

The first is a cover of the song written in the late 60s by American country/folk singer, Jerry Jeff Walker, and which subsequently became a staple among many popular entertainers. The other two are very much in keeping with the sort of songs that could be found on I’m Not Following You, and they may well have been under consideration for inclusion on it.  Or maybe it was always the intention to lift another single and some songs were held back to be used as b-sides.

CD2, if listened to by those who had accused Edwyn of self-indulgence with the album, would surely have led to loud choruses of ‘TOLD YOU!!!!!!’

mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 3
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 5
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Episode 10 (No, No, No, Adidas World)

The first two are attributed to Edwyn Collins/Sebastian Lewsley.  Those of you who have paid attention to whenever Mr Lewsley’s name has come up in previous offerings in this series will be aware that these tracks will be highly experimental offerings.  (that’s my way of saying unlistenable nonsense).

The third is written solely by Edwyn, but the liner notes state ‘Adileted by the Victorian Spaceman’.   The pun doesn’t make sense, but then again, neither does the music.

There would be one more release to close out 1997 before Edwyn considered it time to draw a line under the promotional activities around his latest album.

 

JC

Katrina and V-Twin

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #496: KATRINA AND V-TWIN

This one should have been picked up first time through the alphabetical run through of Scottish singer/groups with at least one song on the hard drive, as it comes from a compilation 2 x CD  – Rough Trade Shops Indiepop 1 – that I’ve owned since shortly after its release in 2004.

mp3: Katrina and V-Twin – Gifted

It’s a bit of a strange one, as the single released on Domino Records in 1998 is credited only to V-Twin, albeit Katrina Mitchell is mentioned as contributing vocals.

V-Twin are a legendary band in the pantheon of Scottish indie-music, but, and I suppose I better whisper it, I’ve really never taken to them.

The facts are that the band formed in 1997, with the mainstays being Jason MacPhail (vocals) and Michael McGaughrin (drums), but helped out in the recording studio and on stage by just about anybody was who was anybody in the late 90s Glasgow scene, before Bobby Kildea (bass) and Dino Bardot (guitar) became permanent members to record debut album The Blues is a Minefield, which was released in October 2002.  Kildea is probably better known as the guitarist with Belle and Sebastian.

A Drowned In Sound review of Call A Meeting, the single released in advance of the album, was very scathing:-

“V-Twin, noted for their immensely affable indie shoddiness, have decided that now is a time to go, yes, rock. Possibly it’s garage rock. That impression would be garnered based on the ‘let it all hang out’ production, and the breakneck speed that the first 120 seconds fly by in. More than anything, it sounds like a cheap Rolling Stones tribute band attempting to ingest all of Keef’s drugs in one go. Frankly, I prefer it when V-Twin were attempting to pastiche the Velvet Underground.”

Gifted predates all that. It’s actually a cover of I’m Tempted, an obscure 1968 Northern Soul record by Sandy Hollis.

In terms of the musicians on the single, Katrina Mitchell has been part of The Pastels since the late 80s while ‘Beans Geddez’ is a name used by Chris Geddes, the keyboard player with Belle and Sebastian.  Stephen Pastel didn’t play on the single, but he was involved in the production and mixing sessions.

 

JC

 

Clash

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE? (81)

What follows is more or less a lazy re-post, but given it is from 10 January 2016, there may well be a few who didn’t see it first time around.

Famously written in the aftermath of disturbances at the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1976, it couldn’t be any further removed from being about a call for some sort of race war, which incredibly was what some media commentators claimed was its subject matter when it was released. It is of course, a demand/plea/call-to-arms aimed at disaffected white youth in the UK, of which there was an ever-increasing number, to take note of the fact that the black community wasn’t afraid to take direct action to get their viewpoint across.

As a debut it was incendiary, raw and quite unlike anything most of us had heard before. I’ll admit, I wasn’t yet 14 years of age and so it kind of passed me by at the time as indeed did all the initial punk songs. But when I eventually did catch on to The Clash around 15 months later, it was great to go back and discover the early material.

The single version differs from the US album version in that it opens with a police siren instead of Mick Jones counting the band in:-

mp3 : The Clash – White Riot

The b-side was an otherwise unreleased song which became a bit of a manifesto for the punk era:-

mp3 : The Clash – 1977

The single peaked at #38 in the charts in early April 1977.   Almost 50 years ago, FFS………

I reckon we can all agree that White Riot was truly a cracking debut 45.

 

JC

Sister John

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #408 : SISTER JOHN

A GUEST POSTING BY KHAYEM (dubhed.blogspot.com)

JC writes………

I’m lifting these next five paras, adapted slightly, from the Last Night From Glasgow (LNFG) website.

“Sister John, a Glasgow-based quartet of multi-instrumentalists, has been captivating audiences since their formation in 2016.

Centered around the evocative songwriting of Amanda McKeown (vocals, guitar), the band also features Jonathan Lilley (guitars, keys), Sophie Pragnell (drums, viola), and Heather Phillips (violin, bass).

Their lo-fi yet lush instrumentation and harmonies, and introspective lyricism have garnered critical acclaim and a dedicated following. Their gorgeous, folk-influenced debut, Returned From Sea (2017), was described as “what might have happened had Lou Reed written for Vashti Bunyan.”

Their 2019 self-titled follow-up expanded their sonic reach, described as “The Beatles jamming with John Cale”—a balance of classic songwriting and experimental edge, and included the swaggering I’m The One. In 2021, I Am By Day pushed further into experimental textures and lyrical introspection.

After a four-year hiatus, Sister John returned with their fourth studio album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever, released on May 30, 2025. This collection offered an intimate portrayal of love amidst loss, reflecting on generational transitions and the evolving nature of identity. Raw, direct, and personal, the album represented Sister John at their deeply affecting finest.”

– – – – – – –

I’m now handing over to Khayem, who had all this to say in a posting over at his place a few days ago.

Take The World At 45

I have JC at The Vinyl Villain to thank for my love of Sister John.  It all started innocently enough on 12th March 2022, with #298 of JC’s epic Saturday’s Scottish Song series (still going strong, with #495 dropping yesterday).

Sister John were that week’s featured artist and JC was spot on when he wrote that,

“I’m guessing that, for the vast majority of you, this will be your introduction to Sister John. I thought that it would therefore be worthwhile to post one song from each of the three albums, and should you find yourself enjoying and liking what you hear, then perhaps you might be tempted to place an order with LNFG for some vinyl.”

I did like what I heard but wasn’t sufficiently moved to go to LNFG. After all, I hadn’t bought any vinyl for years! That all changed before the year was out, when JC enthused about the imminent debut album from HiFi Sean & David McAlmont, which was available to LNFG subscribers in 2022, ahead of a general release in 2023.

Suitably motivated, I took out an annual subscription, and got the album – Happy Endings – and was introduced to a load of other artists that I’d either not heard of at all, or not for a very, very long time.

One of the perks of LNFG membership is access to their digital vault of pretty much everything the label has released since day 1. And it was in the vault that I rediscovered Sister John, namely the three albums mentioned in JC’s post, plus singles and one-offs.

2025 saw the release of fourth album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever, the first that I’ve received in glorious vinyl and it maintains the high standard of the previous releases.

Amanda also writes all of the songs, which manage the balance between achingly sparse and deeply moving. JC reflected on “particularly enjoying [the music] when I’ve needed to, or wanted to, slow things right down.”

He’s absolutely right. Sister John’s albums would fit comfortably in a playlist including Nick Drake, late period Talk Talk, or Portishead, yet sounds like none of these. And chances are, Sister John may have passed me by altogether, were it not for the recommendation from the blogging community, which would have been a tragedy.

Today’s Sister John selection has been sitting on my hard drive and on my phone for well over a month. It was a last minute decision to go ahead with posting it today, and it was only when referring back to The Vinyl Villain that I realised that it’s pretty much 4 years to the day since that fateful Saturday’s Scottish Song post. Sometimes, these things are just meant to be.

So, this is me paying forward. As with JC’s original post, I’ve sampled three songs, one from each of the four albums, plus a 2016 single that also ended up on their debut. More by accident than design, the first half focuses on Sister John’s earlier recordings, the second half their output in the 2020s.

I had half a thought to match the compilation title by bringing the selection in 45 minutes. Sensibly, I went with a sequence that seemed to flow and play well as an album in its own right, so the running time went a bit over, but no regrets.

The closing song here is also the closing song on the current album and is as good a sentiment as any, in a world where it’s easy to become paralysed by fear and self-doubt. I should take Amanda’s advice myself.

And if you like what you hear, but are unsure whether to buy a Sister John album or, better still, subscribe to Last Night From Glasgow, you know what? Just do it anyway.

(JC interrupts……..and with that, Khayem’s 13-song selection magically becomes the latest ICA)*

*RUNNING ORDER AMENDED AT 9AM AFTER SEEING K’s COMMENT!.

SIDE A

1. Gone (from the album, Returned From Sea, released in 2017, LNFG 8)

2. Silver Whistle (from the album, Sister John, released in 2019, LNFG 18)

3. He Came Down (2016 single, later included on the album Returned From Sea)

4. Lost and Won (from the album, Sister John)

5. Backstreet Swimmers (from the album, Returned From Sea)

6. The Other Side Of Love (from the album, Sister John)

BONUS TRACK : Secrets You Keep (from the compilation album Isolation Sessions, released in 2020, LNFG 37)

Isolation Sessions was a COVID lockdown project on which one of the LNFG roster would cover a song by another.  In this instance, Sister John offered up their take on a song by Stephen Solo, whose album Pii was given a digital release back in 2016.

SIDE B

1. Strange Ideas (from the album, I Am By Day, LNFG 45)

2. Thinner Air (from the album, Returned From Sea)

3. Grief (from the album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever, released in 2025, LNFG 199)

4. The Bud (from the album I Am By Day)

5. Me & Nevine (from the album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever)

6. How Can I Keep It Alive (from the album, I Am By Day)

7. Just Do It Anyway (from the album, Don’t Worry, It’s Forever)

 

 

Khayem (and JC)

 

Brigitte Calls Me Baby

A SHOUT OUT FOR….

A GUEST POSTING from STRANGEWAYS

From Chicago – via Janis Joplin’s Port Arthur, Texas – comes Brigitte Calls Me Baby. Under the belt are two LPs: The Future is Our Way Out (ATO, 2024) and the so-new-it’s-not-even-released-as-I-type-this Irreversible (ATO, 2026).

Influences? Comparisons to the Smiths are nothing new – but also no less appropriate in part – and my sister reckoned a bit of Associates and a general feel of new wave. There’s maybe something of the Killers sometimes, and it would be remiss also not to note a sound that occasionally kind of honours New Romanticism. For that, head to We Were Never Alive – a song, like all the recommendations below, from The Future is Our Way Out.

That’s a debut record that begins ominously as a broody and beautiful title track fades in. It brings with it though a festival-level sing-along chorus about knowing there’s a place to be happy, but – bummer – not knowing where that place is. Later on, the protagonist appears to be imagining his funeral – one filled with people and flowers. The yearning and angst are delicious and wraparound and, being supplied by a good-looking and willowy frontman in Wes Leavins, deliver a pleasingly familiar experience. Later on, classic rock ‘n’ roll licks are heard from the lead guitar of Jack Fluegel on Eddie My Love. You’ll find a bit of Elvis now and again too, most especially in LP closer and outlier Always Be Fine.

Lyrically, Brigitte often concern themselves with those reliable building blocks from which much great pop is constructed: love and death. For dying – the four-car garage death wish of I Wanna Die in the Suburbs is your first stop. And if love is more your thing, you’ll be well served by the joyous expression found in the poppy and melodic Palm of Your Hand, a perfect gig opener for the way it melts in, prior to swiftly going straight for it. On that note, live, the band is tight and professional in every department – arresting too, and well capable of delivering a night that connects emotionally and walks you back home even if no one else does.

To finish up, and although it’s hardly the edgiest thing to say about a pop group, they feel managed superbly – and ambitious in the best sense: hard-working, serious and in it for the win via high-production promo videos, US talk show spots and the grunt of regular headline touring in their home nation and across Europe.

I know no aspiring rock star lives to one day be chucking a well-composed new email from the hotel window and into the swimming pool, but these things – announcements, sharing a few words of thanks, offering a stripped-back version of a song – matter. And if you follow artists or bands that don’t make those efforts you’ll know why they matter all the more.

Added to these promotional components have been support slots with the likes of Morrissey, Fontaines DC, and the Vaccines, the latter of which – yay – brought Brigitte to Glasgow for the second time in ten months. I see people I quite like and am close to with less frequency. At these shows and others, the group is generous with its time, making a point of meeting fans – and perhaps fans-to-be – when the house lights go up. Again: it’s stuff done right, even if you subscribe to the view that the only thing you owe the public is a good performance.

Last August at Gorilla, a venue in Manchester, a serpent of a meet-and-merch queue took 45 minutes to complete, and by its tail-end every single thing with the Brigitte name upon it had sold out. So what, you might say, but it’s recounted only to express the feeling that something exciting could be in the post for this band. I hope so, because it would be well deserved.

Some Baby boomers from the debut:

The Future is Our Way Out

If you’re in a hurry, I’d try this one first – elegant and anthemic.

Oh, if life could only be so kind I wouldn’t mind being alive…

Fine Dining

A choppy and frantic post-punk blast of relationship drama.

It’s not the way you smile that talks me off the ledge for a while…

I Wanna Die in the Suburbs

A death wish expressed via soaring chorus.

Turn out the lights, then send in the entourage…

Palm of Your Hand

Delightful pop song in the way the likes of In Between Days and Ask are unashamedly upbeat.

You know that the distance isn’t far to get to where you already are…

We Were Never Alive

One for old romantics everywhere.

However real it seemed, it was just a dream…

Beyond that first record, a couple of singles from new album Irreversible – Slumber Party and I Danced With Another Love in My Dream – are found at all your favourite online purveyors.

Lineup:

Wes Leavins – vocals
Jack Fluegel – guitar
Devin Wessels – bass guitar
Jeremy Benshish – drums

brigittecallsmebaby.com

Thanks as ever to Jim for the space, and to you for reading.

 

STRANGEWAYS

Eels

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (31) : Eels – Your Lucky Day In Hell

As mentioned before (away back in April 2019!!!), when I had a quick look at the Eels debut single Novocaine For The Soul, singer/songwriter Mark Everett had been making music for around five years prior to writing and recording material under the moniker of E and becoming an ‘overnight’ success.

This was an era when channels devoted to music videos were a huge part of the offerings on satellite television, with MTV2 being a great place to switch on at any time of the day to catch promos, old and new alike. Novocaine For The Soul had been a minor hit in America at the tail end of 1996 and the black and white video, in which the band appeared to be flying around a back alley in NYC while playing and singing the song, certainly captured the imagination. It was on heavy rotation and in due course, the song was picked up by radio stations, leading to it getting a big push by the record label and entering the UK charts at #10 in February 1997.

What I hadn’t known until doing a wee bit of research for this post was that the debut album, Beautiful Freak, had already been available in the UK prior to Novocaine For The Soul becoming a hit, and hadn’t done very much. It was, as you’d expect, re-released on the back of the hit single, at which point it entered the album chart at #5, eventually hanging around the Top 100 for over six months.

The sales of Beautiful Freak were assisted by the next single Susan’s House going Top 10 in May 1997 as well as by the band’s live shows and occasional appearances on TV shows, and not forgetting that the promo videos were still on heavy rotation on MTV2 and elsewhere.

A third single from the album, Your Lucky Day in Hell, did prove to be a case of just one visit too many to the well.  It was released in September, a few weeks after Eels had played a well-received show at the Reading Festival, but a chart position of #35 would seem to indicate it wasn’t one that brought them new fans interested only in singles:-

mp3: Eels – Your Lucky Day In Hell

One of the highlights of the album, but such a moody and understated tune with a downbeat lyric wasn’t really tailor-made for radio play.

There were two other songs on the CD single:-

mp3: Eels – Susan’s Apartment
mp3: Eels – Altar Boy

The former was a radically different take on Susan’s House, the hit single from earlier in the year, with this remix courtesy of Mike Simpson of the Dust Brothers, which is why it is a close cousin to songs you’ll find on Odelay, the album released by Beck in 1996.  The latter is a cover, a Rickie Lee Jones song, originally recorded for her seventh studio album, Traffic From Paradise, released in 1993.

Both are example of Eels, as they would do throughout their existence, offering up b-sides which added value to any single.

 

JC

14 Iced Bears, Groove Farm, McCarthy

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 Yellow Country 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