Month: April 2017

Elastica

ROUNDING UP ALL THEIR SINGLES

OK.

I’ve said before that so many of their best songs being total rip-offs is a bit cringeworthy, but at the same time there’s no denying that the six singles put out by Deceptive Records between 1993 and 2000 were magnificent:-

mp3 : Elastica – Stutter (Oct 93 – did not chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Line Up (Jan 94 – #20 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Connection (Oct 94 – #17 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Waking Up (Feb 95 – #13 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – How He Wrote Elastica Man (Aug 99 – did not chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Mad Dog (June 00 – #44 in UK singles chart)

Bonus track….the farewell single.  Issued on Wichita Records. All 80 seconds of it.

mp3 : Elastica – The Bitch Don’t Work (Nov 01 – did not chart)

Worth mentioning that the self-titled LP went to #1 in the UK in March 1995 and sophomore effort The Menace peaked at #24 in April 2000.

JC

Uncategorized

BONUS POST : A VERY QUICK THANK YOU

Folks, how was your weekend?

I certainly hope it was bit less stressful and worrying than it was for my young brother SC, a long-time friend of this blog who pops in every day and leaves the occasional comment – especially when I’ve said something nice about Simple Minds.

The photo above was taken by SC on Saturday afternoon as he and his family (including the dog) were hurriedly evacuating their home not far from Orlando, Florida as a brush fire closed in very suddenly. It was a fire that, at its height, covered 165 acres – and an acre is the size of your average football pitch – so it was a big and dangerous motherfucker.

SC’s home was in serious danger of being burned to the ground, thus the urgent evacuation. The flames got to within 15 feet of the property but thanks to the skills and talents of the Seminole County firefighters, and the deployment of helicopters to pour down huge amounts of water from a great height, the danger was narrowly averted

SC was out of his home for nearly 24 hours before being allowed to return. He tells me, unsurprisingly, that there is very severe smoke damage to the house while it took a pounding from the water that was being dropped from the chopper – his solar panels are goosed while ash from the flames has created holes in the roof. And that’s just for starters.  The clean-up will take months and a lot of dollars.

The cause of the fire will be investigated but it is possible it was caused by a discarded cigarette that set flame to a grassy wooded area that was bone dry from months of no rain. Words fail me that someone could be so careless.

But the purpose of this additional post is just to say a huge thanks to the brave men and women who tackled the blaze over the weekend – and indeed are still on-site as 48 hours on it is still only 90-95% under control – and indeed for the public service they put in each and every single day of the year.

JC

Siddeleys

ONE FOR AFICIONADOS OF THE C86 GENRE

Actually….it’s not one, it’s four. And they’re for fans of witty, intelligent and catchy pop music no matter the genre.

I featured The Siddeleys back in 2015 during the year-long look at acts which had been on CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. I said at the time they were are one of those bands that sometimes cropped up in conversation but of whom I knew nothing until I did some research on them for that series.

Debut single What Went Wrong This Time? is one of the real highlights on the CD86 compilation and as such begs the question as to what went wrong for The Siddeleys as they never enjoyed any real success. After all, the NME had described the debut, in July 1987, as a “gentle teasing lament with cool female vocals and a lilting backing which trickles around the back of the nervous system with deceptive charm”.

The main issue was that it took a full year for the follow-up to appear by which time the band were on a third drummer. They had also switched labels to Sombrero Records and in August 1988 a 12″ single was released :-

mp3 : The Siddeleys – Sunshine Thuggery
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Are You STILL Evil When You’re Sleeping?
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Falling Off My Feet Again
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Bribes and Bruises

The lead-track combines the best of Close Lobsters, June Brides and Orange Juice. High praise I know….but in this case it is merited.

The other three tracks are also great slabs of music that deserve to be much better known than they are.

As I mentioned last time out, the band recorded two Peel Sessions in late 88/early 89 but plans for a third single were dashed when the record label ran out of money and when no other offers emerged they soon called it a day.

Incidentally, anyone who has a vinyl copy of this 12″ is sitting on something of value. The only one for sale on Discogs just now has an asking price of £60. So I’ll mention that these mp3s are not ripped from any vinyl!

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 6)

At last, at last, at last. A hit single in September 1979. It reached #17.

mp3 : XTC – Making Plans For Nigel

Jonny the Friendly Lawyer said this when he included it within an XTC ICA a while back:-

One of the band’s best known and loved songs, but what is it about, exactly? Parents planning their child’s future? A comment on English society’s emphasis on steady employment? Never been able to work that out, but I do love this number.

Colin Moulding has said it is semi-autobiographical in that his parents weren’t sure about his efforts to pursue a career as a musician and tried to persuade him to remain at school and get enough qualifications to go to university.

Lyrically, it was a brilliantly timed song. The British Steel Corporation (BSC), for so long a cornerstone of the UK economy at a national and many local levels, was now in deep financial trouble and making huge losses, largely from the fact that the more modern plants elsewhere in Europe and further afield could easily supply the products to manufacturers much more cheaply. Nigel, or indeed anyone, didn’t appear to have too much of a future,and indeed there soon followed a high number of plant closures in the early 80s that put tens of thousands of men out of work and with few prospects.

But having said all that it is the tune that was responsible for the single getting loads of airtime and leading to enough sales to finally propel the band into the charts. I think that has a lot to do with the sound of the drums which were quite unusual for the time in question as well as the nagging riff that once heard isn’t easy to forget….in a good way!!  Oh,  and it’s worth mentioning that the single edit is some 20 seconds shorter than that which would appear later on Drums And Wires.

Two tracks on the b-side, one being the second in the Homo Safari set of tunes referred to last time out:-

mp3 : XTC – Bushman President

The other is a short 90-second track that has a catchy, infectious riff but sort of feels a bit like a demo that never really developed much:-

mp3 : XTC – Pulsing, Pulsing

JC

Dead Hope

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #70 : DEAD HOPE

Dead Hope are a three-piece group from Glasgow.

They were initially brought to my attention by Basil Pieroni of Butcher Boy as he is good mates with one of the guys in the band who, many years ago, was also part of The Big Gun as featured previously in this series.

Back in August 2015, I was given a copy of a single by Dead Hope. I described it then as bringing back memories of that warm noisy fuzzbox sound that was very fashionable for a period back in the 80s while there’s a hint of the much missed Urusei Yatsura about them too.

mp3 : Dead Hope – Swordz

I didn’t manage to ge along and see the band when they played some live shows to promote the single. I’m hoping they have some shows planned this year so that I can rectify things.

JC

Stranglers

BASS, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO?

It was Jonny the Friendly Lawyer who took on the tough task of compiling an ICA for The Stranglers. He did an excellent job that incorporated familiar material (hit singles) and some album tracks whose worthiness was articulated eloquently by a true fan.

JTFL is, as we all now know, something of a dab hand as a bassist and so it really is something of a surprise that he left this off his ICA:-

mp3 : The Stranglers – Nice ‘n’ Sleazy

It was the band’s sixth single, released in the UK in April 1978.

This was a period in which they had released three hit albums – Rattus Norvegicus, No More Heroes and Black and White – in a little over a year, It was also a time, however, when some elements of the music press, and indeed a number of their peers in the punk/new wave movement, were creating something of a backlash with accusations of misogyny and racism being levelled at the band.

It wasn’t easy to dismiss such accusations with evidence such as some live shows being accompanied by strippers doing their act while the band played. But those who championed the band said that such gestures and some of the provocative stuff being said in interviews was satirical rather than serious and that they were actually doing everyone a favour by bringing certain issues to wider attention. It’s not the most convincing of defences and there’s no doubt that if the sort of social media we have today had been around in the late 70s then The Stranglers would most likely have not enjoyed any sort of mainstream success as record labels and promoters would have been terrified of being caught up in any angry backlash.

It didn’t help matters with the image chosen to adorn the sleeve of the new single. It was the picture of what was clearly a female murder victim and although it was impossible to determine the cause of death from the image, the fact that the ‘The Stranglers’ was printed underneath the image and the reverse had the words ‘Nice ‘n’ Sleazy’ and ‘Shut Up’ beneath what could accurately be described as ‘drawings of the accused in court’, felt a bit tasteless to say the least.

The three and bit minutes of vinyl on the other hand were extremely tasty. It’s driven along initially by the most hooky of hooky bass lines in which Jean-Jacques Burnel confirmed he was the worthy winner of the title of best four-string player of the punk world; I’ve no doubt that JTFL would have practiced this daily in his bedroom or parent’s garage until his fingers were just about bleeding. I loved it as a teenager and still think of it as one of the most enduring singles of the era.

The b-side was an out-and-out shouty, punk record that is less than 90 seconds in length. It was quite possibly the band’s message to those journalists who were quick to castigate them.

mp3 : The Stranglers – Shut Up

JC

Talking Heads

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #115 : TALKING HEADS

A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM ECHORICH

TALKING HEADS ICA – OR THE BAND THAT FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE POP SEA….

Talking Heads are a true foundation of my musical experience.

Growing up in the late 70s NYC, Talking Heads held a certain aura and mystique and offered a true alternative to what was then mainstream Pop and Rock.

David Byrne sang of real dislocation from the expected and “normal” emotions and feelings of society. The band, from the outset was made up of musicians that, to this day, can inspire awe. Byrne’s guitar work is masterful and new, Tina Weymouth’s bass is strong and expansive in its range. Jerry Harrison’s keyboards were often subtle, giving Byrne’s sharp angles some rounder edges and the Chris Frantz percussion was far more than just a metronome to pace their songs.

Their debut, 77 was one of the albums that developed my appreciation for music in ways I find it hard to describe. It opened popular music’s possibilities for me, showing me a band didn’t just have to have one sound, or make records that flowed with a concept cobbled from another art form to be relevant and moving.

Their first 4 albums are very different and equally important in the development of “alternative” pop and rock music entering into the 8os. But then something happened to Talking Heads for me.

By 1980 they were at risk of becoming too big an entity – both in the size of the recording and touring band and in their search for the next sound. Heavy touring from 1979 to 1982 left a band in need of a rethink. What came next, Speaking In Tongues, sounded too much to me like an attempt to be popular. Burning Down The House, while no chart burner, became a radio friendly song that overexposed the band in my eyes. Some of this can certainly be described as sour grapes from a fan who wasn’t ready to share such a closely loved band with the masses, but I think there were also obvious tensions building in the band that would play out over their last four albums. I would find songs on these records I liked, but none mattered in the way the songs on the first four albums did.

Here is my TALKING HEADS ICA built around those first four albums:

Side A:

The Good Thing – More Songs About Buildings And Food

Many have written of David Byrne’s dissociative tendencies. Some have said it was likely Asperger’s Syndrome, some just say he’s just “a prick.” I think it more a case of his wanting to express his fears, concerns, dreams in the most real way he knew. The Good Thing begins benignly and builds into a defiant growler of a song, laying out a path of life and success that will not be deviated from.

New Feeling – 77

Here we have Byrne in “out of step with everyone and everything” mode. The warped guitar work and wobbly bass are perfect foils to this bit of pop mania.

Paper – Fear Of Music

With each album, the sound of Talking Heads grew and grew. Lots of people want to credit the influence of Brian Eno in these leaps forward, but I think Eno was a real fan and had a lighter touch than many give him credit for. Paper is a monster of political and social paranoia. The musical unit is so tight, it feels like it might break before the first verse of the song is even complete.

Artists Only – More Songs About Buildings And Food

Jerry Harrison is the star of this track, building it out with psychedelic organ that is dark and trippy. Byrne sings as if the mescaline he took has given his entire body an uncontrollable, nervous tick. Tina’s bass and Chris’ drums provide the high speed velocity.

Psycho Killer – 77

The bass line of God. Psycho Killer is a song that I hold close to my heart. It was less than a year since the killing spree of the Son of Sam killer, David Berkowitz when Psycho Killer came out. I lived not 4 blocks from the next to last of his killing scenes at local discoteque, Elephas, in Bayside, Queens. The events of that killing changed my neighborhood for years. Psycho Killer was the darkest song I had ever heard. The motorik influence of the song brings out the detached nature of the song. Its darkness is still powerful 40 years on.

Side B:

Life During Wartime – Fear Of Music

Fear Of Music deals with many dystopian issues of society and politics. No song more so than Life During Wartime. It’s a song with lyrics from the margins, underground and clandestine. The urgency of the newly presented Punk/Funk was what got people up on their feet and moving to it. The jam session origins of the song are translated on record into a cohesive, massive sound with the early hints of things to come in one year’s time.

Born Under Punches – Remain In Light

If life was lived in a carnival funhouse maze, then Born Under Punches would be the soundtrack playing over and over as we spent our lives walking into walls and mirrors while we dreamt of our own perfect world. Much of the beauty and complexity to this song and Remain In Light as a whole comes from the likemindedness of Chris and Tina and Brian Eno. They all agreed that the band should make a more democratically structured album and they were all interested in other rhythms and sounds. What came from this and the sessions that followed was a real attempt to fuse Western African Music, Funk and Post Punk – World Music. To this day Born Under Punches manages to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

The Book I Read – 77

Back to the beginning. I feel side two of 77 is a perfect album side, one of the two best perfect album sides in my mind (ok, side two of Ocean Rain by The Bunnymen is the other). The song that anchor’s that special quintet of songs is The Book I Read. It’s a song about the euphoria of love or the realization of love’s affect. Byrne breaks free of his self imposed emotional boundaries and proclaims to the world, or is it all just in his own mind, what love has done for him.

Found A Job – More Songs About Buildings And Food

Where Talking Heads record their own take on a kitchen sink drama. It may be a commentary on modern culture, modern artists or just a narrative about the creative process, but Found A Job is a massive song. Byrne’s frantic guitar is a thing of beauty, Harrison’s electronic marimba is soothing and Chris and Tina bash out a rhythm to keep up perfectly with Byrnes guitar.

The Great Curve – Remain In Light

Sure, I could have given this ICA a real ender of a song – maybe The Overload, where Talking Heads show their appreciation of A Certain Ratio and Joy Division (no one will ever dissuade me of this opinion), or Pulled Up where 77 ends with a feeling of promise and ecstasy, or maybe Heaven – a song that puts Byrnes lyrics on a par with Leonard Cohen. But I’ve chose to end my picks with some New Wave Gospel. The Great Curve has the energy and trance-like abandon of a Gospel Church service. The expanded Talking Heads is taken full advantage here. Adrian Belew’s treated guitar is stand out and Nona Hendryx adds body to the choral portions of the song. Jon Hassell’s horns are tortured and twisted. The song relies on the different lyrical codas being sung as a round and this vocal layering along with the polyrhythms of the music.

ECHORICH

Various

DIVING DEEPER FOR MORE PEARLS

Thought it might be worth it 24 hours on, for a bit of fun, to try and pull together all the b-sides from the tracks featured on the Diving For Pearls compilation album.

SIDE A

mp3 : Department S – Solid Gold Easy Action

Originally released as b-side on 7″ of Is Vic There? Demon Records, 1980

mp3 : Stone Roses – Here It Comes
mp3 : Stone Roses – All Across The Sand

Originally released as b-sides on 12″ of Sally Cinammon. Revolver Records 1987. These versions from the 1989 re-release.

mp3 : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Burro

Originally released as b-side on 7″ of Pale Blue Eyes. Swampland Records. 1984

mp3 : Kirsty MacColl – Patrick

Originally released as b-side on 7″ of A New England. Stiff Records 1984

mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Feeling Dizzy
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – On My Mind

Originally released as the b-sides on 7″ of Night and Day. Cherry Red Records. 1982

mp3 : Red Guitars – Paris France

Originally released as the b-side to the second issue of Good Technology. Self Drive Records 1984

SIDE B

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Birthday (Icelandic)

Originally released as the b-side of Birthday. One Little Indian Records. 1987

mp3 : Spacemen 3 : Just To See You Smile (Honey Pt 2)

Originally released as the b-side of Hypnotized. Fire Records. 1989

Mari Wilson – Rave (live version)

Originally released as the b-side of Cry Me A River. The Compact Organisation. 1982

mp3 : The Monochrome Set – Love Goes Down The Drain
mp3 : The Monochrome Set – Noise (Eine Kleine Symphonie)

Originally released as the b-sides of Jet Set Junta. Cherry Red Records 1983. Both tracks from a February 1979 session for the John Peel Show

mp3 : The Au Pairs – Diet

Originally released as one of two ‘A’ sides alongside It’s Obvious. 021 Records/Human Records. 1980.

mp3 : Robert Wyatt – Memories Of You

Originally released as the b-side of Shipbuilding. Rough Trade Records. 1983

Sorry if you desperately wanted the Mari Wilson track.

JC

Compilation (Diving for Pearls)

DIVING FOR PEARLS

This is a re-post from the old blog back in November 2011, but I think it’s worth it.

Most compilation albums have at least one song that you find yourself skipping over. Not this gem from 1989 released by Dino Entertainment Ltd with the catalogue number of INDLP 1.

Here’s all the songs along with the sleeve notes:-

SIDE 1

mp3 : Department S – Is Vic There?

From 1981. A No.1 indie hit and also spent 10 weeks in the Gallup chart when Demon picked up the rights, getting to No.22. They released two more singles and then disappeared never to release an album.

mp3 : Stone Roses – Sally Cinnamon

This single made in 1987 has recently been re-released and went Top 10 on the indie chart. This is not on their great debut album and is one of the biggest tracks in their live set. Last Christmas they were little known outside Manchester. They recently sold out in Blackpool to 3000 fans and have just sold out Alexandra Palace in London.

mp3 : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes

This Velvet Underground track was recorded for the Swamplands label and went into the Gallup chart in 1984. The ex-Orange Juice and Bourgie Bourgie team created a great buzz for their debut album but it never came.

mp3 : Kirsty MacColl – A New England

This track was a top 10 hit for Kirsty in 1985 and is her biggest hit to date. Written by Billy Bragg and released by Stiff it never appeared on an album until ‘Diving For Pearls’. Kirsty is back in the public eye with her new album for Virgin.

mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Night And Day

Their very first single for Cherry Red before signing to Blanco Y Negro and having a string of hit albums. Recently promoted on CD single.

mp3 : Red Guitars – Good Technology

A No.1 indie hit from this great band from Hull. Championed at the time heavily by the TUBE T.V. how that later led to a major signing by Virgin Records.

SIDE 2

mp3 : Sugarcubes – Birthday

Another band to watch for in the nineties. This was the single that not only took them to the top of the indie chart but also into the Gallup chart twice. All record companies chased with open cheque book but they have resisted to retain full artistic control.

mp3 : Spacemen 3 – Hypnotised

Recently seem on the Chart Show. A top ten indie hit this month and a band on the ascendancy. Again this track was not on their album, Watch out for a tour and a Sonic Boom solo album.

mp3 : Mari Wilson – Cry Me A River

The Compact Organisation struck a deal in 1982 with the reactivated London label. This quirky label gave us Miss Beehive and a classic single that hit the Uk Top 30 in that same year. What is she doing now? Who knows but also featured in the band was Julia Fordham.

mp3 : The Monochrome Set – Jet Set Junta

Another track from the vaults of Cherry Red who gave us the brilliant compilation ‘Pillows And Prayers’. They later signed to W.E.A.

mp3 : The Au Pairs – It’s Obvious

An indie chart topper and featured on their debut album which went top 30 in the UK charts. A great album and we may see another Au Pairs’ track on volume 2

mp3 : Robert Wyatt – Shipbuilding

This track topped the indie charts in 1983 and got to No.35 in the UK charts. Written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer about the Falklands War. It closes the album and gives us our title ‘Diving For Pearls’.

Now I know many of these tracks have appeared on TVV before today, but what you’re getting with this post are the versions ripped from the vinyl version of this compilation as picked up in a second hand shop during a recent trip to London.

Oh and despite the optimism in the notes that accompanied The Au Pairs track, there wasn’t ever a Volume 2.

JC

Jens Lekman

BONUS POST : DID THEY CUT THE MUSTARD IN 2017? : #3 : JENS LEKMAN

Gig #3 of 2017 was one that I was hugely anticipating for the simple fact that three previous efforts to catch Jens Lekman in Glasgow had ended in failure – at least twice as he’d played when I was away on holiday while the other time the show was sold out by the time I went to sort out tickets and I couldn’t be bothered trying on the night.

For those of you who don’t know, he’s a singer-songwriter from Sweden whose fourth LP, Life Will See You Now was released some six weeks ago.  He’s a fairly unique talent although in his own self-deprecating way he describes himself as a wedding-singer; but his body of work, which also consists of a number of EPs released in his native land before landing a worldwide deal with the American label Secret Canadian in 2004, has won him a decent sized following attracted by his ability to mix and match a wide range of styles and influences – I’ve seen comparisons to acts as diverse as Scott Walker, Jonathan Richman, David Byrne, Edwyn Collins, Belle & Sebastian, The Magnetic Field and Wham! (yes Wham!….and to be fair the boy does write some cheesy, danceable pop tunes alongside some achingly beautiful ballads).

Anyways….judging by reviews he had been wowing fans in North America this past few weeks and he was coming into this part of the world for gigs in Dublin, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow before an extensive tour of Scandinavia, Germany, Holland, France and Switzerland throughout April. But somewhere along the way he has picked up a virus that led to a curtailed show in Leeds and the cancellation of Manchester the night before Glasgow. I really feared I was going to miss out again…

The venue is St Luke’s, a fairly recently converted old church in the east end of the city just a few hundred yards from the iconic Barrowlands where an all-day ultra hard rock festival with nine bands on one stage (not all at the same time!!) was taking place. Twee v Death Metal on a Saturday night in Glasgow. You can’t beat it.

I was there with Aldo and we arrived in time to see support act The Dove & The Wolf, two females on guitar who delivered what proved to be an entire set of melancholy and sad sounding songs based on vocal harmonies. They did talk in between songs and, judging by their accents, we were trying to work out which part of America they were from. And then, as if reading our minds, they asked the audience to shout out the name of their home city with the promise of a free CD to the first correct answer.

Nobody guessed they were from Paris….and NOT Paris, Texas…albeit they spend much of their time in Philadelphia which perhaps explains the American twang to their spoken English.

Their guitar work was reminiscent at times of early 80s Cocteau Twins and they provided a genuinely moving aspect to the night when they introduced one of their songs that had been written as their response to the tragedy at the Bataclan in September 2015.

Jens Lekman and his all-female backing band took to the stage at 9pm. He looked a ghastly shade of white and he immediately sat down on a chair in the middle of the stage announcing that he was determined to play but it would need to be, on doctor’s orders, a shortened set with certain songs omitted as he was incapable of hitting any high notes.

I had a real sinking feeling, thinking it would be four or five songs and goodnight…just enough to prevent anyone asking for a refund of the £16 ticket (plus booking fee & postage!). As it turned out, he played for around 50 minutes, told a couple of funny anecdotes and while he was seated throughout, his band played with real gusto and energy as if determined to take everyone’s mind off things. The set was split roughly 50/50 between songs off new LP and some old favourites, some of which were specially re-arranged. There was also a wonderful one-song encore in which The Dove and The Wolf added their fine voices.

So did Jens cut the mustard? The honest answer is yes. Of course I’d have preferred to see him in peak health and delivering the full show but the truncated version was splendid in its own right with enough magical moments ti make it memorable. He’s coming back to the UK later in the year and myself and Aldo are seriously contemplating heading south to take one of them in.

I’ve every intention of a Jens Lekman ICA in the reasonably near future, but for now I’ll leave you with one of the upbeat numbers from the new LP – one that meshes a clever and witty lyric with the best 70s disco sounds such as McFadden & Whitehead or Earth, Wind & Fire and one of the old classics that was aired last night that on its own would have the gig worth attending.

 

JC

Felt

SOME WORDS OF APPRECIATION FOR FELT

I once read somewhere that one of the reasons why Felt aren’t as widely revered as so many of their 80s peers is that they never managed to release an album that folk could hold up as being their one true and defining classic piece of vinyl. It’s a very fair point to make, for none of their studio albums is really one that can be defined as being “essential” for a collection.

Nor indeed has there ever been a real gathering of the ‘Best of Felt’ (however which way you choose to try to define that) as most of the five compilation LPs that have been released have either focussed in on a particular period of time while the one that went for the entire career contained only the singles.

It’s also the case that the eccentric and enigmatic frontman Lawrence probably ensured that there would never be any one LP to define his and the band’s career;  after all this was someone who announced a plan, which he stuck to, of having a ten-year career during which there would be ten singles and ten albums and nothing more. It also can’t be denied that the band were forever changing their core sound, albeit they are probably best-loved (certainly in my case) for those records which are as close as can be to the formula of jingly-jangly guitars making perfect indie-pop.

My favourite song of theirs is Ballad of The Band, a track featured previously on the blog via a guest contribution back in January 2014 from Friend of Rachel Worth when he wrote about cult classics. Another one that I have a huge amount of time for is Primitive Painters, a song from the LP Ignite the Seven Cannons, and which was also released as a single.

mp3 : Felt – Primitive Painters

It’s an epic rolling track of more than six minutes in length that has all the hallmarks of the involvement of the Cocteau Twins with Robin Guthrie behind the production desk and Liz Fraser on co-vocals. It turned into Felt’s biggest selling single, topping the indie charts for two weeks in September 1985, but where others would have sought to at least maintain such a head of steam their next release was a ten-track instrumental album less than 20 minutes in length. And for an entirely new label.

But there’s another earlier track from Felt that I rate above what is the undoubted majestic shimmering of Primitive Painters, It dates back to June 1983 and would have been the first time I ever heard any of their music, thanks to it being aired often at the Thursday night alternative/indie disco in the student union:-

mp3 : Felt – Penelope Tree

In an era when indie-guitar pop was king thanks to the likes of The Smiths, Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, The Fall et al, there is something really special about these three minutes of music. The lyric is one that Morrissey must have read and realised immediately that he had to up his game, particularly the line “I was lonely until I found the reason and the reason was me.” It’s a sad, depressing and melancholy thought buried in a tune that is as jaunty and carefree as they come.

What I didn’t know at the time I was gyrating my hips to this tune – and indeed nor did I find out till the turn of the century when I came across the name in a magazine piece about fashion – is that Penelope Tree is a real person. I had always assumed it was a name adopted in the song given how easy it was easy to rhyme with ‘me’.

Not only a real person, but someone who was, for a while, incredibly famous. A member of UK high society in the swinging 60s, Penelope Tree became one of the first so-called supermodels in 1966 at the age of 16, living with photographer David Bailey and being someone whom John Lennon described as “Hot, hot, hot and smart, smart, smart.” Six years later things suddenly unravelled very quickly as her career was ended by scars from late-onset acne and she was arrested for possession of cocaine.

I hadn’t known anything of her life but clearly Lawrence from Felt was not only familiar with every nuance but sympathised so much with her sad predicament that he wanted to immortalise her. Incidentally, if I’d ever bought the single at the time I would probably have learned all this as said supermodel adorned the cover.

 

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 5)

A few things worth noting.

This April 1979 release was the first A-side that was written by Colin Moulding.

It was the first song on which Dave Gregory played having come in as replacement guitarist for founder member Barry Andrews who had left after the release of Go2.

It was the first XTC single to make the charts, reaching #44.

mp3 : XTC – Life Begins At The Hop

It’s an autobiographical number, telling the story of the bass player’s teenage years where the highlight of his week was getting along to the dance that was held every Saturday night in a local church hall.

Funnily enough, although this isn’t an XTC song that I’m all that fond of, I too have great memories as a 14-16 year old going along with my mates from school to a local church hall for a weekly disco on Sunday evenings (7-10pm). Not too many of the songs I was listening to and subsequently buying would get played at the disco but it was something to do in a crowd in a safe environment and going along sort of helped to increase confidence around girls. Sort of.

My issue with the song is probably that it veered too much on the poppy side of things and didn’t feel nearly as worthy as the earlier flops. Still, it did raise their profile a bit further, including a debut appearance on Top of The Pops and helped pave the way for what would happen next.

The b-side was a very strange affair:-

mp3 : XTC – Homo Safari

It was the first of what proved eventually to be a series of six experimental instrumentals, composed by Andy Partridge, that would appear on singles over the coming years.

JC

Deacon Blue

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #69 : DEACON BLUE

An unseemly spat broke out in the comments section on the last occasion I featured this lot on the blog. Hopefully nothing untoward happens after today’s posting.

Like many others, I fell for the charms of Raintown, the debut LP from Deacon Blue, as it looked and occasionally sounded like a bit of a love-letter to my home city at a time when we needed it most as we were just beginning to emerge from an extended post-industrial slump and about to kick-start different ways to be vibrant, energetic and economic. It was also great for my homesickness as I was at the time living and working in Edinburgh – enjoying myself for sure but never really feeling that I truly belonged.

I haven’t listened much to the band for many a year now, but I did recently put the debut CD on again in its entirety in preparation for pulling together this post. It still has some very good moments on it and the ballads in particular remain strong. But the years haven’t been kind to other songs, mainly as a result of what now sounds like a duff and dated production – but that’s a criticism that can be equally levelled at many other releases of that era. Maybe it’s also that too many bands have come along over the past 30 years and occupied the same sort of musical ground as Deacon Blue and what once felt bold and different has become too much of the bland and the norm.

It really is a record, however, that I can still appreciate by taking myself back to 1987 and recalling what it was like as a 20-something fairly unsure of his future and already feeling some pangs to return 45 miles west and try again. The previous posting highlighted three of the album’s songs that still have a sprinkling of magic. Here’s another:-

mp3 : Deacon Blue – He Looks Like Spencer Tracy Now

It’s a song that was inspired by a very detailed and sympathetic profile of Harold Agnew in Time magazine that was published in 1985.

JC