Month: July 2018

Hue and Cry, Simply Thrilled

CITIZEN(S) KANE

Here’s a single which is kind of like a skeleton in my closet in that I don’t admit to many folk that I like it; indeed it is one I rarely play given nowadays given that I’ve never transferred it or anything else by the band onto the i-pod or i-phone.

Just as I’m finding it really hard to listen to anything involving Morrissey, so it has been for some 30 years with Hue and Cry. For those of you who perhaps aren’t familiar with the group, (which I imagine will be the case with almost all the non-UK readers), it is basically a duo, formed by brother Pat Kane (vocals) and Greg Kane (everything else!) in the mid-80s.

After a debut single in 1986 on a small Glasgow-based independent label, they came to the attention of Virgin Records who signed them to a subsidiary label Circa for whom there was immediate success which was sustained for a few years with a number of chart singles and two albums which went Top 20. They were incredibly popular in Scotland, emerging at a time when a number of others acts across the country were embracing that late 80s big-sounding production with big vocals and big social statements to match, selling out much bigger venues up here than anywhere else.

It soon became apparent that Pat Kane was never going to be content with being a mere pop star.

He made use of his fame to promote himself as something of an intellectual, penning newspaper columns and appearing on television programmes in which he never shied away from airing what he considered to be left-wing credentials. He was also a very strong advocate for independence for Scotland and, to be fair, his arguments and viewpoints did make for interesting reading, gaining more than enough traction to ensure his success when he stood in an election in 1990 for the post of Rector at Glasgow University, which in effect is the highest office that can be held by a non-academic person at that particular seat of learning.

There was seemingly nothing on which Pat Kane didn’t have an opinion, and there was seemingly nothing on which his opinion was wrong. I don’t think I was alone in growing very bored of him very quickly, switching the telly over any time he appeared and completely by-passing any articles I came across in any newspapers. There was an arrogance about him that jarred and, looking back, it is clear to see that he was one of the first ‘champagne socialists’ who would rise to power in later years, albeit at the UK level of politics rather than in Scotland.

All of this made it tough to enjoy his music anymore, but to compound things, he and Greg announced that having enjoyed the rewards from two hit albums they were now going to embrace their lifelong love of jazz, which was my cue to bail out entirely.

Hue and Cry are still on the go today and Pat Kane still has something of a profile as a journalist and political activist but I continue to pay no attention.

But….and this came from looking deep for stuff that might go down well at the Simply Thrilled night(s)….there’s no denying that the duo did write and record an absolute belter of a radio-friendly tune back in 1987:-

mp3 : Hue and Cry – Labour of Love

This was the second single lifted from the debut album and it climbed all the way to #6 in the UK charts. It’s big, bold and brassy with a defiant message. Yes, it could be interpreted as a break-up song with someone telling their other half that the love they had endured for seven years was now over; but let’s not kid ourselves – this was very much an open letter to a right-wing government which was causing havoc to so many communities, including many in and around where the Kane brothers had been brought up. If Billy Bragg had penned this lyric, we’d be still celebrating it as genuine classic.

Here’s yer ballad found on the b-side:-

mp3 : Hue and Cry – Widescreen

JC

Aztec Camera, Simply Thrilled

SIMPLY THRILLED

So here’s the thing……..

Three top blokes – Robert, Hugh and Carlo – for a decade have been promoting a club night in Glasgow called Strangeways. I’ve written about it before, and indeed chronicled my experience of being given an amazing opportunity to do a guest slot at one of the nights.

There have been a couple of spin-offs from Strangeways in which I’ve had some involvement – most recently being the Mixtape Nights – but now things are going to a slightly different, higher and really exciting level. Best if I let Robert explain:-

“It’s a round world

While it turns things go in cycles, we presented our much cherished Strangeways night for almost ten years, and we loved every night.

Putting our hearts and souls into every one with the eternal hope that you guys would love them too.

And you came back time and again, dancing and singing until you drifted off into the night, it was happy, happy times.

We decided it was time to close the doors on Strangeways this year while it was still a popular night and leave on a high. But we couldn’t just waltz off into the sunset, naw.

Time for something new and the sounds of Northern Britain are calling you, Scotland’s music needs celebrated and celebrated loudly! It’s colourful, diverse, inventive, quite frankly it’s brilliant and we want to get you dancing once more.

So say hello to ‘Simply Thrilled’ our first night will be back at the fantastic Admiral once more on the 28th of July.

And here’s the dust jacket : Simply Thrilled: Glasgow’s new club night for Songs from Northern Britain and Beyond The mission? To celebrate all that’s great about alternative Scottish music – as well as some terrific bands from beyond. With a playlist that reads like a roadmap of Scotland, Simply Thrilled will be thumbing an A-to-Z of everything from the Associates to The Zephyrs. So expect to hear Glaswegian heroes including The Pastels, Franz Ferdinand, The Royal We and Teenage Fanclub – plus the sounds of the Chemikal Underground: Mogwai, The Delgados and Bis. And, celebrating another groundbreaking label, listen out for Postcard’s Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera. Need more? Here’s more: Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits, Bossy Love, Camera Obscura, Cocteau Twins, Frightened Rabbit, Lloyd Cole, JAMC, Primal Scream, Simple Minds, The Soup Dragons, Snow Patrol, Young Fathers… And with a glut of newer names like Sacred Paws, TeenCanteen, Spinning Coin, Modern Studies, Happy Meals, Apostille and Hairband

There’s even a wee video trailer to cast your eyes over.

Here’s the thing. The intrepid trio have invited me to join them on a regular basis. And I’m simply thrilled, honeys.

These guys really do know what they are doing and they really play to their individual and collective strengths. Robert and Hugh in particular know how to crank things up at just the right moments in an evening to take the atmosphere to new levels. I can only hope that my own contributions, in whatever shape they take and whatever hour(s) of the evening they occur, maintain that level of quality.

And to celebrate all of this, I’m going to have a short series which celebrates some of the best in Scottish music. Not sure just how often the pieces will appear as they will be built in around the ongoing stuff like the 2018 ICA World Cup, the guest postings, Charged Particles and other inane ramblings that I have in the pipeline. There’ll even be an ICA from a Scottish act which I wrote a few weeks back but never quite manage to slot in.

For today, I’ve pulled out this double-pack single which was posted on the old blog but is one which I can’t trace via my search of what archives have survived.

Oblivious had been released by Rough Trade in January 1983 and reached a reasonably respectable #47 in the charts. The album High Land, Hard Rain had come out a few months later to huge critical acclaim and the band had enjoyed a very successful summer promoting it out on the road. There was a feeling that Oblivious could benefit from a re-release which duly happened in November 1983, with a new sleeve and bolstered also by a limited edition double-pack release to entice those of us who had bought the 45 first time around.

mp3 : Aztec Camera – Oblivious
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Orchid Girl
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Back On Board (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – We Could Send Letters (live)

The live renditions were from a gig at El Mocambo in Toronto on 11 May 1983 which had been broadcast by a local radio station. No apologies for the fact the mp3s pop and crackle a bit….I’ve played them a lot over the years.

The marketing campaign for the re-release was a success, taking the song into the Top 20, and providing a very fresh-faced and excited Roddy Frame with his first appearance on Top of The Pops.

More Simply Thrilled induced nostalgia coming your way tomorrow.

JC

Various

A RE-POST TO BUY SOME MORE TIME (13)

WHY DID I START THIS THING?

from 26 August 2009

I get the occasional email from readers, and a couple of times recently I’ve been asked, in passing, why I started this blog.

There were loads of reasons at the time, but in the main it boiled down to the fact that having installed broadband in the house back in 2006 I could now browse the world wide web seeking out songs of old, and I decided on a whim that this was something I wanted to do myself. So Mrs Villain bought me a USB turntable and told me to stop just talking about it…

There’s thousands of music blogs out there, and on the right hand side of this page you’ll find a list of some of my particular favourites. There’s one or two other new blogs that have started up in recent times that are also proving to be royally entertaining, and they’re likely to be added to the list in the weeks ahead.

But there’s also been a number of blogs that have come and gone. For a while I kept a list of the ‘dead’ blogs, but ended up deleting this during one of the periodical clean-ups. I’ve actually lost count of the number of songs I’ve downloaded from blogs over the years. Some of them I’ve kept….

But when I do that, I will usually make an effort to track down some product and purchase something, even if it is just a legitimate mp3 download – and I hope that’s what most of you will do of and when you download something from my wee place. So, despite some folk claiming that bloggers are killing the music industry, I find I’m spending more on music now in 2009 than at any other point in my life, and am running out of space in the cupboard that holds the vinyl and on the shelves where the CDs are stacked.

But enough rambling. The idea of today’s post is to bring you some of the more obscure and wonderful things I’ve downloaded over the past three years…and here’s to more of the same going forward:-

mp3 : Coin Op – Hey Uri
mp3 : Arab Strap – Here We Go (live acoustic session)
mp3 : Jens Lekman – You Can Call Me Al
mp3 : Elle S’Appelle – Little Flame
mp3 : Paris Motel – Mr Splitfoot
mp3 : Blur – Close

JC

ICA WORLD CUP

BONUS SERIES : THE ICA WORLD CUP : SEMI-FINAL (2)

It appears that there is an actual football world cup causing much excitement across parts of the planet, but surely it isn’t anywhere near as important as the competition which has been dominating the Saturday pages of this little corner of t’internet these past few months……………it’s perhaps a pity that neither The Wannadies or The Cardigans had an ICA eligible to begin with…..just imagine the fun we could have had if they had been still standing at this stage and ready to play today against one of the titans of late 20th century contemporary England……

You all know from last week that The Clash and The Jam are going to square up for place in next week’s final….and I’ll get to that in just a moment. First of all, here’s the outcome of the first semi-final in which Babies was pitted against Between The Wars:-

Pulp 16  Billy Bragg 18

It was a titanic struggle. One in which nobody was ever more than three ahead at any time….and going by the responses, many of you had a real tough time with your eventual choice in a match-up that would have made a great final.

Dirk (aka Sexy Loser), not for the first time in this tournament, perfectlly captured the dilemma facing many of you:-

This sucks. And it’s a bit like when someone asks you “Would you like to have a glass of ice-cold beer, a German one, or one from Belgium – not a British one? Or would you like a glass of real good Shiraz from Australia instead”?

The point I’m trying to make is: you cannot compare the two drinks, can you really? Personally, I’d like to have BOTH of them, in exactly that sequence! Then again I say that about almost every alcoholic drink being offered to me … but, if I HAVE to choose, at the end of the day, the decision would depend on the mood I’m in, I think.

The very same is true for the two songs in question. Let’s say Bragg = beer and Cocker = Shiraz. And as it’s already 30 degrees Celsius in this bloody office (and it’s not even 11 AM my time!), I’d currently favour the cold beer …

Follow that Joe/Mick/Paul/Topper/Paul/Bruce and Rick……..

THE CLASH v THE JAM

The home side have long been seen as the firm favourites for the overall tourney while the away side have, in some ways, defied incredible odds to get this far given that the ICA selections are restricting them only to album tracks as the 45s had been featured in their entirety in a separate series. However, the home side may have one weak spot in an otherwise stellar line-up of songs and it may be exploited in this semi-final.

Capital Radio 2 v To Be Someone (Didn’t We Have A Nice Time)

The Clash track was used to close the ICA. In doing so, I wanted to find a way to bring out the humorous side of the band and to demonstrate that the very best ICAs aren’t always the greatest or most admired 10 songs but the tracks which hang well in a particular sequence. Capital Radio 2 was the fourth and final track on The Cost Of Living EP. The original was something that I only had on tape….and it was a poorly recorded low-quality effort straight from the radio. I loved the idea of getting my hands on the new version which is why I was desperate to but the EP the day it hit the shops….indeed I played this track before any of the others.

As I said in ICA 12, the fact that it came with an outro that spoofed the sort of ads you could hear on the actual radio station was, to my ears, a stroke of genius. I spent a few hours back then wondering whether this or Train In Vain should close the ICA….if it had been the latter and it was your option today, then I think it could edge towards a landslide win. As it is, this is perhaps the one song which might not appeal to everyone, especially considering the opposition.

The Jam had to wait until ICA 52 but this was down to the fact that they had been appearing each week via a singles series. As I said at the time, it was self-indulgent to pull together an ICA without any of the songs that ever appeared on the 45s and extending that to excluding songs which had been live tracks on b-sides (thus no appearance for Away From The Numbers). The quality of the album tracks has been such, however, that the band has fairly coasted to this stage, albeit they have had a fairly kind draw….so you could say they are doing it the quintessential English way!

This track was slotted into the ICA following on from Saturday’s Kids and in advance of Man In The Corner Shop. It did seem strange to have it slightly out of context with it not being preceded by the title track of All Mod Cons, but it worked perfectly as far as I was concerned. I still find it incredible that this was written by someone who was barely out of his teens at the time with the world at his feet and not by some crinkly, ageing old has-been who was jealous of the new wave who were breaking through. I hung on every word Paul Weller was saying at that time….and if he was warning me that there was a huge downside to being famous and rich, then I was going to take heed.

So there you have it….two incredibly personal songs that I wanted to, needed to and ultimately did include in two early ICAs. Which one will take their performers into a match up with Billy?

JC

Landscape

A SMALL PORTRAIT OF LANDSCAPE

The bloke who sat in the producer’s chair and helped propel Spandau Ballet to initial fame was Richard James Burgess. What many folk probaly don’t realise (and I include myself in that vast number) is that way before the Kemps put their band together, the man in the producer’s chair was a wannabe pop star.

Landscape formed in 1974, playing pop and jazz tunes and released a couple of low-key EPs in the late 70s. They turned to synthesisers and electronica in 1979 but with little commercial success….until Burgess’ name became famous thanks to his imprint on the Spandau Ballet singles and other emerging acts like Visage.

Cleverly cashing-in on the fame, Landscape then enjoyed some minor success in 1981 with a Top 5 hit in Einstein A Go-Go and a Top 40 hit with follow-up Norman Bates. Subsequent singles and LPs were not hits, and by 1983, Landscape had split-up.

Richard James Burgess worked with quite a number of successful chart acts in the early-mid 80s, and also released some more jazz-influenced material. He is highly respected in the world of academia thanks to his pioneering work with electronica when it was just emerging, and has taught and lectured in a number of high-profile educational establishments in the USA. But most of us I suspect know him best through this:-

mp3 : Landscape – Einstein A Go-Go

Note the recording and mixing of various telephone calls in the opening part of the mp3, which I’m sure must have been one of the first such examples of sampling on any record. Interestingly, the info on the record label advises that the song is 3 minutes in length, but the intro is 32 seconds long….thus allowing radio DJs to cue the record up properly so that listeners got to hear only the actual music.

JC

Stereolab

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #174 : STEREOLAB

A GUEST POSTING BY ALEX G

https://wewillhavesalad.wordpress.com/

Presenting a selection from the premier Anglo-Australo-French London-based situationist krautrock exotica group, Stereolab. For this ICA, it was pretty much a straight pick of six or seven favourites I always return to, and then using the remainder to fill any obvious gaps. I felt confident that French Disco and Ping Pong would be popular choices, but that I might be alone in selecting the unrepresentative minimal disco groove of Margerine Melodie or the joyous but essentially throwaway Heavy Denim. It was only after I’d come up with a tracklist that I looked up other people’s “best of” lists online to see if there was anything really obvious I’d missed out and found that none of them remotely agreed with mine… or with each other. Everybody’s got different favourites – they’re just that kind of band.

On the other hand, it should be said that this isn’t really my personal “best of” – that would be far too difficult and probably focus more on the mid-90s albums (for a start, there would definitely be more than one track from Emperor Tomato Ketchup). It’s more of a beginner’s guide for people understandably overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of material Stereolab turned out. One effect of this is that it’s considerably more song-oriented than groove-oriented, though I did make sure to include one long “statement” piece. Of their non-imaginary non-compilation albums, both Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements and Dots and Loops were released as 10-track double-albums in a 3+3+1+3 configuration (several others also had one side taken up with a single track), and that’s what I’ve gone with here. I’ve also thrown in a bonus 7” with two instrumentals.

All songs on the main album are written by the constant core duo, Tim Gane (guitar, keyboards) and Laetitia Sadier (vocals, guitar, keyboards, a bit of everything). There were a lot of line-up changes along the way, but other key long-runners were Mary Hansen (vocals, guitar) and Andy Ramsay (drums). Stereolab do have a reputation for just doing the same thing for 20 years, but I don’t think that’s true, and there’s quite a bit of diversity on display in the ten tracks here. If it weren’t for Sadier’s voice, you wouldn’t necessarily think all these tracks were even by the same band.

Side one

French Disco (B side of Jenny Ondioline single, 1993)

Seems to be the Stereolab song that people most latch onto, and as good a place as any to start. Presented here in its original, longer and correctly-spelled B-side form.

Self Portrait With ‘Electric Brain’ (Chemical Chords, 2008)

Chemical Chords was Stereolab’s last “proper” album (a companion out-takes volume, Not Music, emerged two years later) and is the most focused, least noodly of the lot. For some fans this is a bad thing, but personally I like it. The backing track here could be Saint Etienne, though of course Saint Etienne would probably use it to write a song that scans and generally makes sense.

Margerine Melodie (Margerine Eclipse, 2004)

Stereolab go disco! Well, sort of. As you will hear on this track, the Margerine Eclipse album has a gimmick of being mixed so everything is either completely to one side, or dead centre. It works a lot better in practice than you would expect.

Side Two

Ping Pong (Mars Audiac Quintet, 1994)

Mars Audiac Quintet was a huge leap forward for Stereolab, the first album on which they really integrated their love of lounge, exotica and bubblegum with the familiar krautrock grooves half-inched from NEU! and Can, and this was its most accessible song. Indeed, probably the group’s best-realised attempt on mainstream pop ever.

The Free Design (Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night, 1999)

I’m not sure this would necessarily have made the cut but for a feeling that there ought to be something here to represent the Dots & Loops / Microbe Hunters / Cobra & Phases period. Some may have more tolerance for the noodliness of mid-period Stereolab than I do, but I’ll just stick with this relatively focused and structured track which was pressed into service as the lead single for Cobra & Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night.

Lo Boob Oscillator (single, 1993)

Some facts, thoughts and fancies about Lo Boob Oscillator:

This song has always struck me as needing to be placed at the end of an album side, and annoyingly it never has been. Until now!

The title is supposedly a numbers-to-letters rendering of a noisemaker called the L0 800B Oscillator. But I can’t find any evidence of its existence beyond being used as an explanation for this title. They couldn’t have made up the story, could they?

This is the only full-on French-language track on the compilation, and there probably ought to be more. Cybele’s Reverie (which was the only chanson Français to appear as a general-release single rather than a limited edition like Lo Boob Oscillator) would have been my #11 pick, I think.

Maybe I’m making connections that aren’t there (and nobody else seems to have advanced this hypothesis) but it’s very tempting to see this as an answer record to Sleeping Satellite the huge hit for Tasmin Archer in the autumn of 1992 and a song bemoaning the Apollo programme’s appropriation of mankind’s dream of space travel for short-term political gain. Then one writing and recording cycle later, along come Stereolab with a song reaffirming the moon’s traditional role as “symbolique de quelque visions imaginaire”. Hmmm.

On the original single, “Oscilator” is spelt with one “l”. But it’s always been spelt the correct way since, so presumably that wasn’t deliberate.

Apparently Lo Boob Oscillator appears in the film High Fidelity. I’ve never seen High Fidelity so I didn’t know this. On the soundtrack LP, it’s placed at the start of side four, which is so, so wrong.

Side Three

Jenny Ondioline (Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, 1993)

Probably the apex of Stereolab’s early shoegazer-friendly “layers of noise” phase. A remixed extract was released as a single, though it got rather overshadowed by its more popular B side, French Disco. Because going on for a very long time (preferably with as few chord changes as possible) is also one of Stereolab’s major traits, here you get the full 18 minute album version.

Side Four

Nothing To Do With Me (Peel Session version) (ABC Music: The Radio 1 Sessions, 2002)

Side four features three songs which showcase the interplay between Sadier and second vocalist Mary Hansen, starting with probably the funniest song Stereolab ever recorded (though admittedly the competition for that title is not particularly fierce). It’s just Laetitia and Mary quoting lines out of context from Chris Morris‘ Blue Jam but since it was that sort of show anyway, it actually kinda works.

Tomorrow Is Already Here (Emperor Tomato Ketchup, 1996)

Although Sean O’Hagan left Stereolab after Mars Audiac Quintet to concentrate on his own band The High Llamas, he frequently returned as a guest to add his trademark exotica tinges, particularly lashings of vibraphone. This particular track was originally demoed as Reich Song since they reckoned it sounded a bit like the work of minimalist composer Steve Reich.

Heavy Denim (B side of Wow And Flutter single, 1994)

They are here to disrupt, to have the time of their lives. An absolute blast.

Bonus 7”

A: Symbolic Logic of Now!

AA: Iron Man

I think we’d be talking about a box set before either of these tracks had a hope of making the proper album, but it struck me that if this compilation were issued on vinyl, it’s quite likely that it would include a bonus 7”, and this is the sort of thing I imagine they’d choose to put on it – in fact both tracks made their original appearances on limited 7”s. The A side is a “nu jazz” workout, typical of the Dots And Loops period (and it does have some vinyl crackle I’m afraid, but hey, it’s a free 7”, what do you expect?). The AA side would be great background music for a chart rundown.

ALEX G

Auteurs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL MY FRIENDS WAY OVER YONDER

mp3 : The Auteurs – American Guitars

And just to avoid any confusion, Luke Haines was NOT having a dig at grunge as many have long believed (including myself). He said this in an interview a few years back:-

Totally misunderstood. I thought all those Seattle bands Nirvana, Mudhoney, Tad etc. were great. (I thought Teenage Fanclub were great but for some reason I never would have admitted it at the time) I thought the British slacker imitators were weak. I thought all those British bands that came before (MBV, Slowdive etc) were fundamentally simple minded and weak. The Auteurs were not weak.

JC

Various

30, 20, 10 (Parts 14 & 15)

I completely forgot about this series last month – what’s more disconcerting is that nobody dropped a line asking whatever happend to it!  It’s probably on its last legs…..but for now, here’s two months worth in one go.

1 June 1988 : mp3 : New Order – Blue Monday 88

As featured not long ago in the New Order singles series.  Not the best remix of the song but not the worst.

1 June 1998 : mp3 : The Tamperer featuring Maya – Feel It

An Italian dance music group consisting of Italian record producers Mario Fargetta and Alex Farolfi, and American singer Maya Days.

Feel It was their first release and it went massive right across European dance clubs in the summer of 98. Heavily reliant on a sample of a song by The Jacksons.

1 June 2008 : mp3 : The Pigeon Detectives – This Is An Emergency

Indie band from Leeds.  Formed in 2004 and still going strong today.  I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never knowingly heard any of their songs.  There’s only so many skinny boys with guitars that you can cope with in a lifetime before it gets dull and repetitive….but there will be folk of a younger ilk than me who will, rightly, be fond of this lot and laugh in my face with my championing of 80s stuff.  This one starts off a bit like Interpol and then gets a tad anthemic but I suppose it is easy to see why folk do like them.

1 July 1988 : mp3 : The Timelords – Doctorin’ The Tardis

Drummond and Cauty demonstrate how following a formula can get you a #1 hit….they even wrote a book about it and then got serious with The KLF.  Genius.

1 July 1998 : mp3 : Fatboy Slim – The Rockafeller Skank

One interesting point you may or may not know. Fatboy Slim got no royalties from this track, with the monies going to the writers of all the songs which had been sampled; then again, given how much he was coining in from the live appearances at the time, it wouldn’t have been too tough a situation to have been in.

1 July 2008 :  Sukie – Pink-A-Pade

Indie band from Kettering.  Formed in 2006. Looks like they released one single which went to #1 in the UK indie charts and then they broke up.  Had a listen to it on-line and wasn’t impressed enough to purchase it, so it’s a no-show here.

JC

Kid Creole & The Coconuts

A RE-POST TO BUY MORE TIME (12)

SKELETONS IN MY CLOSET (Part 9)

originally posted on 24 June 2009

I may have thought I was really cool back in 1982 with my ever expanding record collection full of great indie music, but every now and again I fell for the charms of sheer radio fodder.

Blame it on the hormones as I couldn’t take my eyes off the telly screen whenever the bikini-wearing Coconuts were there doing their stuff on backing vocals to Kid Creole.

But let’s be honest listen to the sax playing on ‘Wonderful Thing’ and accept its not far removed from that which appears on Rip It Up…..

From seemingly out of nowhere (although it turned out he had been part of band or production teams for a few years), August Darnell hit payola with his alter ego as Kid Creole & The Coconuts had a triumphant year in 1982. Three Top 10 singles in the UK and a Top 2 LP that hung around the charts for some nine months, and loads of TV appearances in the days when we had just the three terrestrial channels in the UK.

mp3 : Kid Creole & The Coconuts – I’m A Wonderful Thing Baby
mp3 : Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Annie, I’m Not Your Daddy
mp3 : Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Stool Pigeon

Ha cha cha cha……

Don’t worry too much folks, I never adopted the bright shirts or zoot suits as a look…..I still wore my raincoat as I danced to this lot.

JC