March 2017 – Page 2 – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

BONUS POSTING : NEW BAD THINGS

Yesterday’s posting on Government Administrator by Eggs attracted this comment from Wirey:-

Amazing. Was in John Peels Festive 50 in 93. Great tune. Seek out ‘I Suck’ by New Bad Things from the same Festive 50, if you haven’t done so already.

And so I consulted one of my reference books – the one that deals with Peel’s Festive Fifties – and found something really interesting:-

1993. The first ever festive fifty to be broadcast in one show, on Christmas Day evening.

One of the undoubted highlights of the chart came with the appearance of New Bad Things with ‘I Suck; at number 16. Although the record would gain an official release (with different, and nowhere near as good, lyrics) in the following year, the original release proved impossible to track down in the UK even on import and, as Peel mentioned in the broadcast, it became commonly accepted that he possessed the only copy in the country , which suggests that those who voted for it here had either taped it from the radio or simply had it lodged blissfully in their memories, which would be understandable, or that the votes all came from abroad. There were, after all, 610 copies of the disc somewhere in the world. Anyway, it was a gratifyingly high placing for a unique record and one of those occasions where an entry genuinely reflected what the Peel Show was really about. The applause after the singer reveals he doesn’t have a job , incidentally, was sampled from Cheap Trick’s Live At Budokan album.

Next stop was wiki and here’s what it says:-

New Bad Things (later No Bad Things) were a Portland, Oregon indie rock band active during the 1990s. They recorded for Candy Ass Records, Rainforest Records, Lissy’s Records, Pop Secret, Punk in my Vitamins Records, Kill Rock Stars, and Freewheel Records.

The band formed in 1992 for a one-off opening set at a Sebadoh concert in Portland, and initially comprised Matthew “Hattie” Hein, Luke Hollywood, “Prince” Mattie Gaunt, Jasin Fell and Dave French. Their first single was “I Suck” (backed with “Concrete” and “Knott St.”), which was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, and reached number sixteen in the 1993 Festive 50. They recorded their debut album, Freewheel! in 1992, released on the local indie label Candy Ass Records. The album was described as having a “sloppy charm”, and drew comparisons with the likes of Beat Happening. Second album Society followed in 1994, released on the United Kingdom label Lissy’s. Ennui Go was released in 1997, by which time the band’s sound was more pop-oriented, and in the same year Hein left to pursue a solo career. An album of previously-unreleased and rare tracks, C-sides, was released in 1999, containing tracks ranging chronologically from their earliest recordings to their latest. Later band members included: Christine Denkewalter, Lars Holmstrom, Eric von Borstel and Andrew Leavitt. The band toured Europe twice and recorded John Peel sessions for Radio One in the UK each time. The band name changed to No Bad Things in 2001.

And then I went searching….and to my genuine surprise found the version of I Suck that was played by Peel was available via i-tunes

mp3 : New Bad Things – I Suck

It’s a superb five minutes of slacker pop. Made me think musically of Violent Femmes and Pavement and lyrically could be linked to Half Man Half Biscuit (with a nod to Public Enemy about halfway through); I don’t think they were entirely serious……

I also discovered that in 1997, their then label Lissy’s had issued a split single with one of Glasgow’s finest (albeit I don’t think it’s one of said Glasgow’s finest finest-ever few minutes)

mp3 : The Delgados – Sacré Charlamagne
mp3 : New Bad Things – Down
mp3 : New Bad Things – Caravan

Thanks for the head-up Wirey. What’s most interesting is that the song which ended up in the Festive 50, and therefore arguably their best known bit of music, was actually the b-side of the debut single.

You learn something new every day!

JC

Wire

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #113 : WIRE

A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM MIKE MELVILLE

Wire. A British rock institution rapidly approaching the 40th anniversary of their first gig as a 4 piece. And, after all that time, still making great albums.

Yet, funnily enough, they were a band who remained on the periphery of my experience for so long. Definitely someone I knew I should check out but hadn’t actually managed to properly do so until a few years ago. Fair to say, since I did, Wire have belatedly become something of an obsession.

For much of their lifespan, Wire have featured only four members – Colin Newman (guitar/vocals), Graeme Lewis (bass/vocals), Robert Grey (nee Gotobed) – drums) and Bruce Gilbert (guitar).

Yet, despite a remarkably stable line-up, intra-band tensions have always played a huge part in the Wire story. Wilson Neate’s book ‘Read & Burn: A Book About Wire’ is a superb telling of their history portraying it as a struggle for control between principally Newman and Gilbert.

Of course, the outline of Wire’s story is fairly well known. The late 70s produced three classic LPs in ‘Pink Flag’, ‘Chairs Missing’ and ‘154’ on which the band pretty much invented post punk. This purple patch however was curtailed by an acrimonious split with songs written for a fourth album.

Perhaps surprisingly after several years apart the band came together again in the mid 80s. Their 80s/90s output is less well regarded than the original trilogy but almost any band would consider the run of records from the ‘Snakedrill’ E.P. to ‘The First letter’’ to constitute a decent career.

Having lost drummer Gotobed during the band’s second incarnation, the internal dynamics of the remaining three members meant that they ceased activity for a second time in 1991.

Unexpectedly the band reconvened for live shows and to produce another LP ‘Send’ in the early Noughties. Since then, although Gilbert left the band for good after ‘Send’, the band have enjoyed the most active phase of their career releasing four albums and a mini-LP since 2008 with another album due at the end of March.

After a period of operating with three official members the band finally recruited guitarist Matthew Sims as a permanent member in time to record 2013’s ‘Change Becomes Us’.

Selecting a 10 track ICA from the band’s entire career would be next to impossible for two reasons. Firstly, any career long compilation is going to feel bitty and incomplete because there’s so much to choose from and the records cover such a lot of ground. Secondly, given how short some of the earlier material was, it would be a fairly short album! Perhaps JC will give special permission for a 16 or even 20 track 70s Wire ICA at some point.

(JC adds….Yup!!! Watch this space……)

So, for those reasons I’ve concentrated on 21st century Wire with the second aim of perhaps alerting some folk to the fact that Wire remain a potent creative force.

1 Doubles & Trebles (from ‘Change Becomes Us’)

Released in 2013, CBU is something of an oddity as the majority of the songs were actually written in the early 80s for the band’s planned fourth album. That record was never made because of the band’s first split although many of the songs were captured in rudimentary form on live albums ‘Document & Eyewitness’ and ‘Turns and Strokes’. What’s remarkable is that how recognisable many of the songs on CBU are from these scratchy live recordings.

‘Doubles & Trebles’, with its air of paranoia and 70s spy craft, went by the name of ‘Ally In Exile’ for most of the intervening 30 years between its conception and its eventual recording. Its basic riff has also spawned at least one other close relative from the ‘Send’ era in ‘I Don’t Understand It’.

2 Comet (from ’Send’)

A brutal return, ‘Send’ was constructed by Newman and Gilbert largely through cut and paste sampling (‘12XU’ is apparently liberally sprinkled throughout the record!) with Lewis’s and Grey’s parts emailed in. Frantic, punk rock filtered through the Young Gods, ‘Comet’ is a black story about the astronomer who discovers a comet that will obliterate all life on Earth.

3 Smash (from ‘Red Barked Tree’)

Although ‘Red Barked Tree’ is the album that opened up possibilities for Wire, ‘Smash’ is another relentless crash and bang tune. For my money RBT, which along with ‘Send’, is probably the best 21st century Wire album.

4 Split Your Ends (from ‘Wire’)

Are there many band that self-title their FOURTEENTH album? A typically perverse Wire move for an album that refines rather than redefines their sound.

‘Split Your Ends’ is one of the poppier moments off the album yet it’s a tune that still builds up a fair head of steam. Its essence is unmistakeably Wire.

5 Red Barked Tree (from Red Barked Tree’)

Wire have always had a dirgy side to their music and ‘Red Barked Tree’ fits in even if it deals in more organic textures than the band would normally use. Newman has said that this song was a big influence in plotting a way forward for the band.

6 One of Us (from ‘Object 47’)

The first post Gilbert album opened with the chorus ‘One of us is going to rue the day we met each other’. A coincidence?

With its driving bassline, ‘One of Us’ is a propulsive opening which signifies that Wire could escape the darkness and claustrophobia of ‘Send’.

It has to be said despite being littered with great moments, ‘Object 47’ isn’t not the most convincing record overall. Yet it was a critical record proving to the remaining three members that they could take Wire forward without Gilbert.

7 Spent (from ‘Send’)

More claustrophobia from ‘Send’ with its principal riff locked into a savage loop. An unexpected encore at the 2013 Tut’s show.

8 Desert Diving (from ‘Read and Burn 03’)

In deciding what to do with the tracks that the band had worked on around Gilbert’s departure, a decision was taken to put those songs that he had had the most influence on out as a four track E.P. keeping the remaining tracks for ‘Object 47’.

In truth the album might have benefitted from a couple of the E.P. tracks although the two records do have distinguishing characteristics with the E.P. having a more languid sound. Indeed, lead track ’23 Years Too Late’ is nearly 10 minutes long!

9 Fishes Bones (from ‘Nocturnal Koreans’)

Although last year’s mini-LP ‘Nocturnal Koreans’ originated from the same sessions as ‘Wire’ it is nothing like a record of cast-offs. Rather it demonstrates that the band hasn’t lost its sense for quality control.

The band differentiated the two records by virtue of the fact that ‘Wire’ was designed to be played live whereas NK features far more studio effects.

‘Fishes Bones’ is a typically off kilter Wire tune.

10 Harpooned (from ‘Wire’)

If ‘Split Your Ends’ comes from the more accessible end of ‘Wire’ then LP closer ‘Harpooned’ is coming from the opposite direction. Musically as harsh a song as anything they’ve done post ‘Send’ ‘Harpooned’ is an addictive black hole sucking everything into it. It’s also utterly astonishing live.

Bonus track:

11 Drill (live) (from ‘The Black Session’)

The only song Wire have played at the three shows I’ve seen them play since 2011. This version is taken from a show recorded for French radio around the time they toured ‘Red Barked Tree’.

MIKE

www.manicpopthrills.wordpress.com

Eggs

A SONG SORT OF APPLICABLE TO MY LINE OF WORK

Given the title of this song and the fact its about the banality of life in the American civil service, it seems sort of appropriate that Eggs hailed from Washington DC.

mp3 : Eggs – Government Administrator

The four-piece released two albums and five singles between 1992 and 1994. I only know of them from this song being included on a Rough Trade compilation CD a few years back. I’ve managed to track down it’s b-side:-

mp3 : Eggs – Sugar Babe

Two decent enough without being truly outstanding songs. They’ve not to be confused at all with yesterday’s featured band.

JC

Simple Minds

BONUS POSTING : THE MISSING LINKS

I had a go recently at providing all the 12″ versions of Simple Minds singles in the period before they went all stadium rock on us. I was missing two of the bits of vinyl but regular reader and occasional contributor David Martin dropped them off via e-mail last week. Makes sense to post the missing links:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Promised You A Miracle
mp3 : Simple Minds – Waterfront

Both were chart hits, reaching #13 in May 1982 and December 1983 respectively. Both are marginally longer than the album versions but not on the scale of some of the other 12″ releases from this period.

Big thanks to David. I know my wee brother in Florida will really appreciate hearing these again.

JC

Lovely Eggs

ONE OF THE UK’S MOST BELOVED UNDERGROUND BANDS

I’ve lifted the following from the bio page on the official website:-

“The Lovely Eggs are an underground punk rock duo from northern England.

They have a fierce punk rock ethos that music should have no rules.

For Holly and David being in a band is a way of life. True to this, they live the way they play. Fiercely, constantly in search of the good times.

With observational and often surreal lyrics about life The Lovely Eggs have a powerful stripped down sound: one vintage guitar amp, one Big Muff distortion pedal, a guitar and a drum kit.

With releases in the UK, Europe, USA and Japan, The Lovely Eggs have played hundreds of gigs around the UK, USA and Europe supporting the likes of Half Japanese, Shonen Knife, The Slits, Young Marble Giants, The Television Personalities and Art Brut as well as a two month tour of America and a string of dates at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

The Lovely Eggs have recorded sessions for BBC Radio One, BBC 6 Music and XFM as well as being played by a host of UK DJs including Radio One’s Huw Stephens and Rob da Bank and 6 Music’s Marc Riley, Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson, Gideon Coe, Chris Hawkins, Tom Ravenscroft and XFM’s John Kennedy.

Holly (guitar/vocs) and David (drums/vocs) have also worked with comedian Graham Fellows (aka John Shuttleworth) as well as Jad Fair from the seminal Texas band Half Japanese. Their songs appear in Canadian film Molly Maxwell and have been sampled by Zane Lowe for Scroobius Pip. The pair also feature on a Radio 4 Richard Brautigan documentary, presented and in discussion with Jarvis Cocker contemplating the influence of the American surreal author on their music.

They have produced four albums.

The first ‘If You Were Fruit’ (Cherryade Records, 2009) ranked in the top 40 records of the year by Artrocker Magazine and was nominated for XFM’s ‘Debut Album of the Year’.

The second ‘Cob Dominos’(Cherryade Records, 2011) has gained widespread critical acclaim, with ‘Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)’ (featuring a video with guest appearance from John Shuttleworth) fast becoming an internet hit.

Their third album ‘Wildlife’ (Egg Records, 2012) featured the Gruff Rhys-produced single Allergies, originally released on 7″ on the Too Pure Singles Club label. The track (which sold out before release day) won the BBC 6 Music Rebel Playlist – with 82% of the public vote, was declared winner on Steve Lamacq’s 6 Music Round Table and was Artrocker’s single of the month. The song featured a death-shaped psychedelic spectacular promo vid featuring a special guest appearance from Gruff Rhys.

With a 4 Star review in Record Collector, ‘Wildlife’ also contains the singles ‘Food’ which was remixed by Cornershop’s Tjinder Singh for release on his Singhles Club Label as well as ‘I Just Want Someone to Fall in Love With’. Both songs received much support from BBC 6 Music.

The Lovely Eggs have become well-known for their live performances and have played everywhere from Amsterdam squats and Los Angeles scrap yards to steam trains in Ripley and charity shops in Leeds.

In April 2013, the pair had a baby but true to their ‘no rules’ philosophy they bundled their newest member in the van and took him on tour with them, racing round the UK with family and friends like a tripped out version of On The Buses with two fingers up to conventional family life firmly out of the window.

2015 saw The Lovely Eggs return with their fourth self-produced and self-recorded album ‘This is Our Nowhere’: a title which sums up their celebration and love of a scene which doesn’t exist in the eyes of the manufactured mainstream. Ironically the record received 8/10 in the NME.

Lead single ‘Magic Onion’ (made in collaboration with artist and video director Casey Raymond and released as a limited edition 7″ on the Cardiff-based D.I.Y. Flower of Phong label) was accompanied by a handmade book of psychedelic/nightmarish proportions and included a B side version of the song with Sweet Baboo, who joined them in an acoustic and decidedly pickled duet. The single gained much support from BBC 6 Music and a sell out tour of the UK followed.

The second single to be released from the album ‘Goofin’ Around in Lancashire’ was released in November 2016 on ltd edition 7″ “fried egg” vinyl. With an accompanying video by Casey Raymond, again it sold out immediately and gained much support from BBC 6 Music, with 6 Music’s Marc Riley declaring it one of his top tracks of 2015. To promote the release, the Eggs embarked on another tour of the UK, with many sold out dates and in 2015 alone were invited to perform two live sessions for Marc Riley’s BBC 6 Music show.

The Lovely Eggs live in Lancaster, England.”

And my good friend Aldo is a big fan of theirs. Understandably so when you listen to these:-

mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – I Like Birds But I Like Other Animals Too
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like It)
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Allergies
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – I Just Want Someone To Fall In Love With
mp3 : The Lovely Eggs – Magic Onion

Indie-pop with more than a hint of cheek and fun. No wonder they’ve had so many influential people say good things about them.

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 2)

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In early 1978, there was a fair bit of excitement in the music press around XTC with some journalists boldly claiming that they were the sort of band that would have a future beyond that of many of their peers thanks to their ability to knock out the sort of catchy, upbeat tunes that had been evidenced on their debut single and which were very much to the fore on the follow-up.

Only problem though, was that the BBC Radio 1 refused to play it for reasons that, 40 years on, seem ridiculously petty, especially given the lyrics that freely get aired nowadays.

As Andy Partridge later observed, “A certain radio station banned it for its ‘risqué’ line ‘I sailed beneath your skirt’, whilst they played ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ in which Lou Reed’s characters are busy shaving their legs, changing their sex and giving each other head.”

Indeed.

mp3 : XTC – Statue of Liberty (single edit)
mp3 : XTC – Hang On to the Night

The single is about 30 seconds shorter than the version later included on the debut LP White Music. The b-side is another very fine new-wave number that would have got any audience all hot and sweaty as they pogoed away down the front. The two tracks between them barely scrape four and a half minutes.

JC

Danny Wilson

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #66 : DANNY WILSON

From wiki:-

Danny Wilson were a Scottish pop group formed in Dundee, Scotland. The band are best known for their 1988 UK number 3 hit single Mary’s Prayer.

The band served as a launchpad for the career of Gary Clark, who also played in the 1990s bands King L and Transister before becoming a successful songwriter for other artists including Natalie Imbruglia, Liz Phair, Nick Carter, k.d. lang and former Spice Girls Melanie C and Emma Bunton. Other former members of the band have played in Simple Minds, Deacon Blue and Swiss Family Orbison.

The band released three albums between 1987 and 1991 but only enjoyed limited chart success with The Second Summer of Love being their only other hit single in 1989. I was tempted to throw up one or other of the two chart singles but was inspired instead, from comments left behind a few weeks ago (see I do read them!!), to seek out what I was informed (correctly) was a very fine cover:-

mp3 : Danny Wilson – Kooks

It was on the b-side of the 12″ remix version of the re-released Mary’s Prayer in 1988 – the one that went all the way to the Top 5.

JC

Dub Sex

ANOTHER GREAT RECORD THAT INITIALLY PASSED ME BY

I’ve said on a number of previous occasions that the period from late 87 through to mid 90 wasn’t one when I kept up with much of what was going on musically. My immense gaps have been filled in over the years, initially by Jacques the Kipper and increasingly so from the many fine bloggers who were immersed in things at the time and write so eloquently about it these days.

One of the finest songs from that period was this 1989 single from a Manchester band:-

mp3 : Dub Sex – Swerve

Dub Sex were a band seemingly impossible to pigeon-hole. They made raw, angry sounding music with a pop bent to it and nothing at all like so many of their peers and neighbours who would go on to enjoy, and in many cases waste, fame and fortune. There wasn’t all that much released – one flexi disc, four singles, one LP and one compilation between 1987 and 1989 . After the inevitable split, vocalist Mark Hoyle and bass player Cathy Brooks formed Dumb but again with no signs of obvious success.

The years have been kind to Dub Sex. By all accounts they were a blisteringly good live act fondly remembered by many who caught them back in the day; I think there’s also a great deal of goodwill towards them with the fact that their music has dated much better than many of the tunes which were better known back in the day. Swerve, which also had the distinction of making the Peel Festive 50 in 1989 (at #39), is a tremendous record in which Mark growls to his audience that ‘the choice is yours’ driven along by a tune that wouldn’t have been out-of-place on a Pixies release.

The band did get back together a few years back, playing shows to sell-out audiences in 2014 along with a new 7″ single specially put together for Record Store Day. That’s about as much as I can fill you in on – there will be, I’m sure, readers who can say a lot more. Here’s the two hugely enjoyable and still fairly contemporary sounding b-sides to Swerve:-

mp3 : Dub Sex – I Am Not Afraid
mp3 : Dub Sex – The Big Freeze

And here’s how I first heard the band – courtesy of its inclusion on a Peel Sessions compilation CD. This version is about a minute longer than the single version:-

mp3 : Dub Sex – Swerve (Peel Session)

JC

Love & Money

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE (AND MONEY)

My one previous mention of Love and Money was as part of the Scottish Singles series back in January 2014. It was always likely that the next mention would have been when it was their turn to feature in the Scottish songs series currently running every Saturday but given that I’ve only just hit the letter ‘D’ after 64 weeks it would have been a long wait.

But there were a couple of admiring mentions in the comments section accompanying the recent birthday tribute to my young brother and so I’ve decided, in a Going Underground sort of style, to ensure (some of) the public gets what the public wants.

Love and Money rose from the ashes of Friends Again when three members of the latter decided to continue to work together while drafting in a new bass player. The fact that I had been such a huge fan of Friends Again should really have meant that I’d fall for the charms of this new combo but in all truth it never quite happened. It wasn’t for a lack of effort on my part as I went along to a lot of the early gigs in Glasgow and bought the singles and then the debut LP (All You Need Is….Love and Money) almost as soon as they were released. But the purchases were often out of a feeling of loyalty to James Grant (vocals/guitar), Paul McGeechan (keyboards), Stuart Kerr (drums) and Bobby Paterson (bass) as the music was just a bit too clean and antiseptic for me, certainly in the form it was released on vinyl, although they remained at all times a formidable and entertaining live band with a great mix of pop, soul and funk to get your feet moving.

They were part of what seemed to be a movement based around Glasgow in the mid-80s. The success, critically, of Orange Juice and Aztec Camera in the early part of the decade had seen the A&R departments of all the major labels send their foot soldiers north of the border with the mission to sniff out and sign the next big thing. The indie aspect of things from the Postcard acts were however to be just a minor element of what was to be scouted out and so the likes of Hue and Cry, Hipsway, Wet Wet Wet, Fiction Factory and Deacon Blue would sign deals and have hit singles while the likes of The Big Dish, The Silencers, The River Detectives, Fruits of Passion and Sunset Gun joined Love and Money (and others) as getting advances but no big hits.

In Love and Money’s case they were signed to Mercury Records who first of all teamed the band up with Andy Taylor (Duran Duran and The Power Station) and then with Gary Katz, a producer who had done much to popularise Steely Dan.They even sent the band to Los Angeles to make the record.

As Friend of Rachel Worth astutely observed in a comment last time round, this all led to a very expensive 2nd LP – Strange Kind Of Love (1988) where all the rough edges were smoothed out. The singles should, by the formula they followed, have been huge hits on both sides of the Atlantic but it just never happened.

In 1990, a third LP was rejected by the label but they provided enough finance for another release the following year. I never bought Dogs In The Traffic at the time and indeed it took me till about two years ago to finally pick up a copy. It’s a long way removed from the first two releases and all the better for it, but I’m not sure if it is really as good as the critics would have you believe with a number of appraisals many years later proclaiming it to be among the best albums ever released by a Scottish band and something of a lost classic.

The band was dropped in the early 90s and eventually released one more LP on a local indie label before calling it a day. James Grant still writes and performs to this day, having successfully reinvented himself as a solo artist of some note and critical standing with a large following in his home city meaning his gigs tend to sell out decent sized venues in short amounts of time. And deservedly so….what I have heard of the stripped back versions of the Love & Money material demonstrate he’s always been a highly talented singer, songwriter and guitar player who ought to be better known further afield.

Here’s one song from each of the three LPs released on Mercury:-

mp3 : Love and Money – Love and Money
mp3 : Love and Money – Strange Kind of Love
mp3 : Love and Money – Looking For Angeline

JC

Friends Again

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #112 : FRIENDS AGAIN

With apologies to readers of old as today’s posting features an element of cut’n’paste from a piece in the 45 45s at 45 series.

It would have been 1983 when I first heard Friends Again, catching them live at the Students Union at Strathclyde University. As it turned out, this was the first of many times that I would be lucky enough to be at their gigs, venturing down on one occasion to London on the day of the show and then back up immediately on the overnight bus. There was so much to like about how this band looked and sounded with guitarist James Grant and keyboardist Paul McGeechan sounding fbeing far more accomplished than many of their peers while the stylish and ultra-cool frontman Chris Thompson had a vocal style that was a cross between Motherwell and Memphis. And like all great bands, they had a deceptively brilliant rhythm section with Stuart Kerr on drums and Neil Cunningham on bass.

It is baffling that they would endure a career of such poor record sales and never getting beyond headlining the student circuit in the UK ( the London gig I went to was at the London School of Economics where they shared top billing with Fad Gadget). But theirs is an all-too familiar story of a label interfering and seeking to control the artistic and performance side of things, with bosses insisting on certain production values that diluted rather than strengthened how the band’s sound came across on record.

In short, they were stifled at every turn, including for a rare and important live TV appearance where somebody came up with idea of adding two female vocalists despite the band never having worked with any backing singers at any point in their career in the studio or on stage. Utter madness. And when success didn’t come with the first LP and the record label asked questions the band did the sensible thing and broke up, leaving the individual members to go off and do their own thing.

Friends Again were highly talented. On stage, they delivered sets that meshed the best of the Postcard bands with all sorts of folk, soul, blues and pop undertones depending on the rhythm and tempo of a song. I’ve come to realise that in some ways they were a bit ahead of their time in that a few years later there was a bit of a craze for rock/pop bands to demonstrate the strength of their songs and their playing abilities through ‘unplugged’ performances. Friends Again would have blown folk away if they had been given such a stage.

Their first three singles were largely self-produced but hadn’t yielded the results that Phonogram Records had hoped for. Big name producers were brought in as hired guns, particularly Bob Sargeant who had delivered chart success to the likes of The Beat and Haircut 100, but also Tom Verlaine, best known as part of legendary US art-rockers Television. The fact that two such diverse individuals with different approaches to production and indeed differing production values surely is all the evidence you need to realise that the label didn’t know what to do with the band.

In due course a debut LP, Trapped and Unwrapped, did eventually emerge after many painful and difficult sessions in the studio. Twelve songs that required the input of four different producers behind the desk although three-quarters of the album is credited alone to Sargeant. Worth mentioning that whatever work was done with Verlaine was obviously deemed unsatisfactory as only one track from those sessions made the cut.

Three of the songs on the LP were also re-recordings of earlier singles or b-sides and in each case were vastly inferior. A band who, on stage, were such an exciting and vibrant presence had recorded an album that was bitterly disappointing with the best moments being the acoustic numbers that hadn’t allowed themselves to be subject to the kitchen sink approach from the production desk.

More than 30 years on and I have calmed down a lot. I listen to the record and sort of enjoy it but still think of it as a missed opportunity. So maybe I can rectify it by offering up a Friends Again ICA as an alternative LP to that which was released, compiled from the album and the songs that appeared on the six singles released during their all-too-brief career.

SIDE A

1) Honey At The Core (original version and the debut single)
2) Sunkissed (12″) (original version and the second single)
3) Swallows In The Rain (album track and only one produced by Tom Verlaine)
4) Lullaby No. 2 (lead track on the EP/ fifth single, also on album)
5) Tomboy (album track)
6) Dealing In Silver (b-side of Sunkissed single)

SIDE B

1) Lucky Star (original version and b-side of Honey at The Core)
2) State of Art (12″) (third single and later remixed for album and EP)
3) Vaguely Yours (album track)
4) South Of Love (fourth single and album track)
5) Thank You For Being An Angel (b-side to Lullaby No.2)
6) Moon 3 (closing track on album)

And here’s the two sides of the ICA in LP sized chunks :-

Side A
Side B

JC

Simple Minds

BONUS POSTING – ASK ME, I WON’T SAY NO (HOW COULD I?)

Alex left behind this comment yesterday after I posted the 12″ of The American:-

Used to stare longingly up at the section of the Union St Virgin Megastore wall stocked with Simple Minds 12 inch singles thinking I will get them all one day. I never did but bought all the albums.

Even though they have sucked for so long, listening to one of these vintage tracks like this one (in extended form for first time) it’s like being transported back to a happy time.

They are still in this phase my spirit band.

Thanks for the post, JC. If you want to put up any others you may have……(he asks hopefully)

Happy to oblige.

The first Simple Minds single to get the 12″ extended treatment was I Travel. For the purposes of this posting there were a further ten singles released through to those lifted from Sparkle In The Rain, and all with the exception of Love Song were extended in some way from the album versions.

I don’t have all of them with both Promised You A Miracle and Waterfront missing; but here’s the others as requested (with the exception of The American and Speed Your Love To Me as these were posted very recently).

mp3 : Simple Minds – I Travel (12 inch version)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Celebrate (12 inch version)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Sweat In Bullet (12 inch version)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Glittering Prize (club mix)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Someone, Somewhere In Summertime (12 inch version)
mp3 : Simple Minds – Up On The Catwalk (12 inch version)

JC

Orange Juice, Squeeze

THIS ONE’S FOR JOHNNY BOTTOMS

The day is drawing ever closer when our dear friend Jonny the Friendly Lawyer (JTFL) aka Johnny Bottoms, the country bassist, will cross the Atlantic with his fellow Ponderosa Aces to begin the tour of English cities and towns. I’m delighted to say that I’ve made arrangements to get myself down to the gig in Manchester on Sunday 23 April, and all being well I might get to hook up with another dear friend of this parish, the mighty Swiss Adam of Bagging Area fame.

If anyone cares to join us, then feel free to come along for the ride. To paraphrase one Adam Ant, country music is nothing to be scared of.

As evidenced by this #4 hit from October 1981:-

mp3 : Squeeze – Labelled With Love

A sad and melancholy single lifted from the excellent East Side Story LP, on which Elvis Costello did a sterling job in the producer’s chair, it was the band’s final ever entry into the Top 10. It’s a very fine example of a talented band, fronted by incredibly gifted songwriters, demonstrating that they can turn their hand to any genre.

The b-side was a bit of throwaway fun:-

mp3 : Squeeze – Squabs on 45

It’s a medley of earlier singles akin to what was a fad at the time in the UK where excerpts of hit songs, sometimes from one act but more often than not from a variety of artists, were spliced together as a 45. Very scarily, an act called Stars on 45 enjoyed four Top 20 hits in the UK in 1981/82 by employing such a technique. And yes, Squeeze were making a point about how awful these medley efforts were – everything reduced to one simple beat and rhythm.

Orange Juice also did something similar as a piss take for a Peel Session:-

mp3 : Orange Juice – Blokes on 45

JC

Simple Minds

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO LIKED THE PREVIOUS EXTENDED MIX

I was genuinely surprised that a couple of the very nice comments left behind when I posted Speed Your Love To Me mentioned that it was the first time some folk had ever heard that song in its extended version. But then again I do forget that only if you bought the 12″ release at the time, (or have since gotten a second-hand copy), would you really ever get the chance to hear it given it was never put on the album and may not even ever have a had a subsequent CD release.

Maybe it’s the same for many of you with this single from May 1981, which appeared in edited form when included on Sister Feelings Call:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – The American (12″ version)

Once again, the decision to record a near seven minute version (which isn’t far off being double the length of the album version) really pays off. It’s a song which reminds me a lot of Magazine, albeit there’s huge vocal differences between Jim Kerr and Howard Devoto, as the keyboards, guitar, drums and bass lines wouldn’t have been out-of-place on any of the albums of the Manchester-based group. It was maybe no coincidence that Simple Minds had been lured across to Virgin Records just as Magazine had broken up and left the label.

I really had high hopes that The American would provide the band with their breakthrough hit. It was their first single for Virgin and sounded tailor-made for radio with its sing-a-long chorus coming amidst a tune that somehow simultaneously felt futuristic and contemporary.

It was a 12″ that I had on very heavy rotation as I came towards the end of my schooldays and began to dream of what life might be at university in a few months time. I certainly had ambitions of meeting folk who loved music as much as me and I couldn’t wait to get myself along to the multi-storey student union where at least one of the floors was legendary for offering a disco where they played punk/post-punk/new wave and championed bands like Simple Minds. I wasn’t to be disappointed…..unlike Simple Minds and the good folk at Virgin who watched as The American stalled at #59 and neither of the two superb follow-ups – Love Song and Sweat in Bullet – did much better. But their day would of course come.

The b-side was a largely instrumental track that would subsequently be unaltered when it was included on Sister Feelings Call on its release in September 1981;-

mp3 : Simple Minds – League of Nations

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 1)

I hummed and hawed about who to follow-up The Undertones with. Your offered suggestions of Joy Division/New Order, Big Dynamite, REM and The Cure were all very tempting but I felt would take forever to do…and when I had a look at the James singles a while back I did get a wee bit bored towards the end and I’d hate for that to happen again. But it may well be that I’ll have a look at all of said suggestions in due course.

So, as you’ll see, I’ve plumped for XTC. I have a number of their 45s in the collection as well as a pristine vinyl copy of a Singles/B-side compilation from the early 80s that offered some that I didn’t have. I’ve also been on to Discogs to fill in a few gaps.

One of the things that most attracted me to featuring XTC is that some of the 45s were non-album tracks or were different versions of songs on parent LPs along with the fact that a lot of the b-sides are quality offerings. I hope you’ll enjoy the ride.

The debut EP appeared in 1977. Think about that. Fully 40 years ago. Hell, I feel ancient.

Two of the tracks had initially appeared as a 7″ single on Virgin Records but the decision was taken to withdraw it not long after it went into the shops and instead issue them along with a further track on a 12″ EP. Anyone who has the original single is sitting on a fairly rare and therefore valuable piece of vinyl.

The EP, like so many of the early recordings, didn’t ignite with the record buying public and failed to trouble the charts. It’s hard to see why lead track Science Friction was a flop as it’s a fantastic early example of what we would come to file under ‘New Wave’ – it bounces along at a frantic pace with a catchy tune and lyric. It was far from being a punk song but it had all the energy, enthusiasm, freshness and DIY-sounding values of the movement that had made it connect with so many:-

mp3 : XTC – Science Friction

The two other songs are hugely enjoyable if not quite as immediate:-

mp3 : XTC – She’s So Square
mp3 : XTC – Dance Band

The former has a tune that is reminiscent of early Squeeze while the latter, with its bass intro and weird keyboards always brings to mind a more pop-orientated version of The Stranglers. What all three songs did tell was that XTC sounded as if they could be great fun to listen to and keep an eye on.

All three versions are lifted from the Waxworks/Beeswax compilation LPs.

This, however, was lifted from elsewhere. It’s a secret track on the 3D EP. It’s not listed on the sleeve nor the label

mp3 : XTC – Goodnight Sucker

It’s less than ten seconds in length. The creepy whisper is provided by Terry Chambers.

JC

Dananananaykroyd

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #65 : DANANANANDAYKROYD

Sometimes a band has such an annoying and stupid name that I just switch off immediately. As I did throughout the career of this lot. From wiki:-

Dananananaykroyd was a six-piece, self-dubbed ‘Fight Pop’ band formed in 2006 in Glasgow, Scotland. Their name is a play on the name of Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd. They announced via Facebook and Twitter on 29 September 2011 that they would be disbanding after one farewell tour.

Wiki also informs there were two albums – Hey Everyone! (2009) and There Is A Way (2011) along with seven singles and an EP. I’ve one track of theirs, a single from the debut LP:-

mp3 : Dananananaykroyd – Black Wax

It’s fast, loud and shout-along catchy. The sort of thing that every late-aged teeenager at the time thinks will change the world although the rest of us will recognise it’s something we’ve all heard before. The late-aged teenager will inevitably find his/her tastes expand in years to come and while they will nowadays recall the band with some fondness they quickly accept there was a lot more and a lot better out there at the time.

JC

Housemartins

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #111 : THE HOUSEMARTINS

The self-styled ‘fourth best band in Hull’ only released two studio albums and nine singles in their all too brief time together before two of them (Paul and Norman) went onto enjoy more fame and fortune in later bands or as solo artists, one of them (Stan) did all sorts of things before becoming a very succesful writer of children’s book and TV scripts for a young audience and the other (Hugh) was part of other indie-pop outfits before he ended up in jail.

Some might argue that they didn’t quite release enough songs to merit an ICA. I beg to differ and will demonstrate otherwise below. And without using any of the a cappella stuff as those songs never did anything for me.

SIDE A

1. Five Get Over Excited from The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death (1987)

Fun, Fun Fun. On the surface that was what The Housemartins seemed to always be having but just about every single lyric masked a bitter take on what life was like in the Thatcherite UK of the mid 80s, particularly if you happened to live in what had been traditionally working-class towns in the north of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. “Feigning concern, a conservative pastime”

2. We’re Not Deep from London 0 Hull 4 (1986)

Wonderful use of ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba as so often utilised by Julian Cope! A two-fingered salute to those politicians who demanded that the youth of the country get themselves a job, despite the fact that outside of London there were next to none available.

3. Flag Day single (1985)

Let’s drop the pace with the song with which they introduced themselves to the listening public only for it to fall on deaf ears, peaking at a miserly #124 in the singles charts. This actually predates Norman Cook joining the band on bass to replace Ted Key who has a writing credit on this track. Morrissey might have ridiculed the British monarchy but The Housemartins went further with “Try shaking a box in front of the queen, cause her purse is fat and bursting at the seams”

A different, piano-led version, was re-recorded and put on debut LP London 0 Hull 4.

4. Anxious, b-side to Sheep single (1986)

“Don’t they know it is wrong, it makes me anxious”

A lyric with even more relevance today.

5. There Is Always Something There To Remind Me single (1988)

The last thing they did before they broke up….and vowed never to reform (although in an interview a few years back, Norman Cook said they would do so, but only if The Smiths reformed first!). And appropriately enough, here’s their equivalent of The Headmaster Ritual, proving that Manchester didn’t have a monopoly on teachers who were all too quick pour scorn on those who weren’t academically minded.

SIDE B

1. Happy Hour from London 0 Hull 4 (1986)

The third single and the first of the big hits. The accompanying video, with its animated plasticine figures of the band, was quite groundbreaking at the time, brilliantly ridiculed one of the growing menaces in mid 80s, namely gangs of young successful men in suits out getting drunk in wine bars on their bonuses all the while thinking they were god’s gift. There were some who actually believed the song celebrated such people….and then Paul Heaton began to be interviewed more widely!

2. Build from The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death (1987)

Some of the social messages could get lost amidst the jaunty upbeat tunes which the band were most famed. Not so when they slowed things right down. New homes, new roads, new infrastructure right across green countryside at a time when traditional communities in poorer parts of the country were crying out for support and investment to recover. Environmental and economic madness.

3. Me and The Farmer from The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death (1987)

A hymn to those who, every year, were exploited as casual labour by those who owned large swathes of the countryside and believed they were pillars of society.

4. Sheep from London 0 Hull 4 (1986)

Another single, which is testament to the fact that the label bosses at Go!Discs were adept at picking out the very best tunes for wider public consumption. Lyrics speak for themselves over a ridiculously catchy and radio-friendly tune that wasn’t a million miles away from Happy Hour.

5. The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death from album of same name 1987

Even more of an anti-royalist rant than The Queen Is Dead and yet didn’t create the same amount of controversy. That’s what happens when you have a jaunty tune that helped to disguise the sentiments involved.

JC

Uncategorized

A LITTLE BIT OF ADMIN WORK

moodle_upgrade

I’ve just upgraded to a paid plan with the lot who host this little corner of the internet.

The main thing that you should notice is no more adverts when you visit the site and read the posts.

The domain name has now changed to thenewvinylvillain.com but you should still get here if you use the old address of thenewvinylvillain.wordpress.com

All part of what I hope will be an improved look and feel to the blog in the coming months.

Prince

A SERMON THAT CALLED FOR ACTION

I’m less than 18 months away from turning 55 and so it’s fast approaching the tenth anniversary of the 45 45s at 45 series. It was a series featuring favourite singles around which, sort of, I provided much of the story of my life through anecdotes. The singles however, could only qualify if they, or the parent album they had been lifted from, had been purchased at the time of release and as such, a great many wonderful records missed out.

I’m already thinking of a 55 45s at 55 series in which I’ll feature songs that I either discovered late or didn’t buy immediately at the time of release for one reason or another. It’s just a concept kicking around in my head at the moment and it’ll probably take some chill out time on a Caribbean beach between now and June 2018 to come to full fruition.

But I can guarantee that this will feature in any rundown:-

mp3 : Prince – Sign “O” The Times

It is now exactly 30 years since this single was released with the album of the same name following a month later. This coincided with the period when I wasn’t paying as much attention to pop music as I had in previous years. My consumption was mainly through radio and TV and so I’d have heard this and caught the video a fair bit, not only for the fact that it reached #10 in the singles charts but as it proved to be one of those songs that was retained on playlists for many months afterwards on account of most folk declaring it instantly as a classic.

Nowadays it is a simple task to read about the background to the song and the recording process that was undertaken. Wiki can again be your friend. It was a bit of a surprise to learn that everything you hear, other than some backing vocals, was provided by Prince.

It’s a song that sounded unlike anything else he’d done up to that point with more reliance on a synthesiser and catchy electronic drum pattern (I was tempted to describe it as infectious but that would be poor taste given that AIDS is one of the issues addressed in the lyric). And what a lyric it was…a sermon that called for action without resorting to bellowing or shouting from the roof tops. It was like a brilliantly argued column in a newspaper put to music.

I picked up a 7” vinyl copy of the single a short while back. I’m not an avid collector of vinyl, albeit I’ve a substantial amount sitting in Villain Towers, but I really felt that it would never be complete without this, albeit the track was readily available through a Greatest Hits CD that I bought a long time ago.

The b-side is a bit of fun. It’s not one that can be described as a masterpiece but it stands up to repeated listens:-

mp3 : Prince – La, La, La, He He, Hee

Seemingly composed as a rejoinder to Sheena Easton, but it takes a special kind of genius deviant to do so by way of a lyric that refers to a dog’s affair with a cat…..

Enjoy

Campfires In Winter

ANOTHER SCOTTISH ACT TO DRAW TO YOUR ATTENTION

thumbnail_ciw-ischaemia-rgb

Last week saw the release of Ischaemia, the debut LP from Campfires in Winter, a four-piece band from the village of Croy which is some 15 miles to the north-east of Glasgow. It’s also fairly adjacent to Kilsyth which is the roots of The Twilight Sad.

Campfires in Winter have been on the go for the best part of a decade. I can recall seeing them as a support act as far back as 2010 and I’ve caught them live on a few occasions since. They’re a four-piece consisting of Robert Canavan (lead singer/lead guitar), Wullie Crainey (bass guitar), Scott McArthur (keys/guitar) and Ewan Denny (drums). Robert’s vocal delivery leaves you in no doubt that they are from Scotland as he rightly makes no effort to disguise his lilt. They’re a band who, to my ears, have been greatly influenced by a fair number of most critically acclaimed bands to emerge since the turn of the century. At times on this album I could hear more than a hint of The Phantom Band, the afore-mentioned Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit and going back a bit in time there’s some Idlewild and even the The Skids in their Iona/Joy-era.

Perhaps therein lies why I’ve never quite elevated the band to the higher echelons of the listening post – they’re excellent at what they do but there’s never been quite enough to make them really stand out from what has been an ever-increasing crowd. There are a number of really special moments on the debut LP which has nine songs spread over just under 45 minutes. The opening track and past single Kopfkino will certainly remain on heavy rotation for a while and I really enjoyed Eating All The Bodies, a track that goes someway to making up for the absence of new material from The Sad this past 18 months or so while they were touring with The Cure.

It’s a solid and worthy debut LP but one that I feel will appeal more to their existing fan base than anything hugely wider.

Here’s one of their past singles, from 2013:-

mp3 : Campfires In Winter – Picture of Health

Here’s another from 2014:-

mp3 : Campfires In Winter – We’ll Exist

I do hope that some of you, having listened to the three tracks on offer, will consider buying the debut LP or indeed the older material not included on it. Click here for details.

Enjoy