Month: August 2019

Simple Minds

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF (EARLY) SIMPLE MINDS (Parts 11 & 12)

Some six weeks after Promised You A Miracle took its leave of the charts, the follow-up single was released:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Glittering Prize (edit)

Where I’d been a bit iffy about Promised You A Miracle, I pounced on Glittering Prize, telling anyone who cared to listen, that it was a magnificent piece of music whose shimmering majesty, particularly via its Associates-like guitar, bass and keyboard sounds, was the perfect soundtrack to the final few days of what had been the first long summer of my university years….I was happy and this song made me even happier.  I was certain it would be a massive hit, but it was very much a slow-burner, taking what seemed like ages to make its way into the Top 20 and only doing so at the same time as the LP New Gold Dream (81,82,83,84) hit the shops.

Looking back, the lack of b-sides for Glittering Prize didn’t help, with just instrumental versions of different lengths appearing on the 7” and 12” releases, with no new tracks or old live recordings to flesh things out:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Glittering Prize (theme)

The new album went straight into the Top 10 on its release and a week later was Top 3 (the new Dire Straits album, Brothers In Arms, Love Over Gold, went straight in at #1 when New Gold Dream hit its peak).

Virgin Records were desperate to issue a third single from the album but had to hold off until Glittering Prize stopped selling and dropped out of the charts which it did in early November. Just two weeks later, the new single came in at #36,

but to the shock and surprise of all concerned, that’s as high as it got:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere (In Summerime)

By general consensus, this was the highlight of the album and of the live shows the band were now playing to packed audiences. The 12” version even included a new extended introduction, one which Charlie Burchill had worked up during the live renditions and in doing so turned the song into a six-minute epic (and, although nobody knew it yet, gave an indication of what was about to come round the corner…..hiya U2!!)

mp3 : Simple Minds – Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) (extended)

Fans, however, seemed content with the fact they had bought the album, and perhaps it also suffered from the fact that many were also investing in what was by now an extensive back catalogue.

The band didn’t have much in the way of any new music for the b-side and so, for the 7” it was decided to offer up an early version of another track from New Gold Dream:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – King Is White and In The Crowd (session version)

This had been recorded back in February 1982 and broadcast on the Radio 1 evening show, hosted by David ‘Kid’ Jensen. It’s quite demo like, certainly in comparison to what was issued six months later on the album, providing evidence of the role that producer Pete Walsh had played in the studio.

The 12” did have a previously unreleased track:-

mp3 : Simple Minds – Soundtrack For Every Heaven

It later transpired that the music had been worked on for what had hoped would be the tenth track on New Gold Dream but had been abandoned as the band hadn’t been able to do quite get what they were looking for. In effect, what you have, is an unfinished demo……………..

New Gold Dream was placed high in just about every list typed up by the critics in their consideration of the best records of 1982. Simple Minds were now, at long last, a household name, and had even solved their drummer conundrum by keeping session player Mel Gaynor for the live shows and offering him a permanent position for going back into the studio for the follow-up.

JC

Justin Currie

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #172 : JUSTIN CURRIE

Justin Currie is best known as the front man of Del Amitri but he has also released four solo albums, all of whom have come in for critical acclaim and decent sales in his homeland.

His first album, What Is Love For, contained a sad and depressing indictment on modern society.  It is quite sickening that not only has nothing changed, but things have got worse andshow no sign of heading in the right direction:-

Big Macs for the fat, lo-cal wraps for the call centre battery hens,
Japanese snacks for the choice-spoilt citizens, caviar kickbacks for the citadel denizens.

Airport shoeshines servicing the suits among the little silver stereos and hand-rolled cheroots,
First class passengers file on last after the scum are packed in with their tax-free loot.

Checkout calamity, you’re cheated out of loyalty points, ten more years at this joint you’d be home & dry,
Beggars beat round the cash machines but you just slip between them with the usual lie.

Terrible tales of kidnapped kids keep you focused on the family and filling up the fridge,
Neighbourhood watchers shop dole dodgers, stick their semis on the market & start racking up the bids.

Should you stand and fight, should you die for what you think is right
So your useless contribution will be remembered?
If you’re asking me I say no, surrender.

Constant growth the cancerous cure, a swarming race of profiteers ensure
Cheap cars for the rich, cheap lives for the poor, cheap weeks in the sun, free drinks at the door.

Puerile propaganda plugs up the TV, keep folk following the money so they’ll never be free
Keep them swallowing the swill, the celebrities, the paedophiles, the immigrants invading from the
camp over the hill.

War talk, the big debate, footsoldiers in the capital liberating new kinds of hate
Cum-shots of human dots caught in the spotlight’s glare; he dies who dares.

Fatuous fast-trackers sneering at the shelf-stackers, little Middle-Englanders can’t stand the backpackers,
Fortress Freedom, come on in, take your chances-you might win.

Should you stand and fight, should you die for what you think is right
So your useless contribution will be remembered?
If you’re asking me I say no, surrender.

Sunset beaches security patrolled, keep out the undesirables who don’t accept the code
Equal opportunity to live in total poverty, execute the ignorant incarcerate the slow

Car caressing managers choking up the avenues, brain dead patriots standing in salute
Paperwork raining again and again so that billionaires can claim there’s an enemy to shoot

Pill pushers, doorsteppers, personal goal shoppers, lifestyle trendsetters, meditating mindbenders,
Hare-brained share sellers pumping out stocks til you’re choking on a chain-letter avalanche of dross.

God squads crawling through every country tracking down fools who are bullshit hungry
Blinded by divinity followers fall into the man-traps set along the Wailing Wall.

Athletes compete in grand charades while tanks flatten streets and a nation laughs,
Visa holders gape at the changing guards while creeps bribe bums to take their photographs.

Film fans flock to the latest schlock, blockbusters block out even the vaguest thought
Bankrupt schools grind out fool after fool then feed them to a system where idiots rule.

Polling booths, phone votes, bogus questionnaires, you get a say as if anybody cares
Joe Public doesn’t want to play so liquidate his life as he looks the other way.

Don’t get sick, don’t get wise or they’ll gut you with a jistice where everything is lies
March down Main Street, complain if you want but it’s twenty years straight for the losers at the front.

If you’re asking me I say no, surrender

It’ll take you almost eight minutes to listen from start to finish…..but it’ll be well worth your while.

mp3 : Justin Currie – No, Surrender

JC

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

YOUNG ADULT FRICTION

The bio is lifted from allmusic:-

With their wall-of-fuzz guitar stylings and sugary pop underpinnings, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart nodded to any number of old-school indie pop and shoegaze acts, most notably Black Tambourine and My Bloody Valentine. New York-based musicians Alex Naidus (bass), Kip Berman (guitar/vocals), Kurt Feldman (drums), and Peggy Wang (keyboards/vocals) came together to form the Pains of Being Pure at Heart in 2007.

The band recorded a few tracks soon after forming, which were released as a self-titled 3″ CD-R on Cloudberry Records. A self-titled EP followed soon after for Painbow. In 2008, the band released a number of limited-edition split singles on Atomic Beat Records and Slumberland. Their first album, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, was released in February of 2009 on Slumberland, and the good reviews and positive press (including a spot on Late Night with Carson Daly) made them one of the most talked-about bands of early 2009.

After the release of the summer 2010 single Say No to Love, legendary producers Flood (Smashing Pumpkins) and Alan Moulder (My Bloody Valentine) were hired to give the band a slicker, more powerful sound. The resulting album, Belong, was released by Slumberland in March of 2011. After touring their second album, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart returned to the U.S. and Berman began writing new material for their third album. With the departure of original keyboardist Peggy Wang and bassist Alex Naidus, Berman brought together a refreshed line-up — which featured A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s Jen Goma and brass player Kelly Pratt alongside Feldman — to record the album with Andy Savours (My Bloody Valentine, Sigur Rós). The resulting Days of Abandon was produced by by Andy Savours and released in 2014 by Yebo Music.

The band’s next album was produced by Savours again and featured Berman handling most of the music himself, though Goma contributed vocals on many songs and touring bassist Jacob Danish Sloan helped out too. The sound of the album was heavily influenced by ’80s new wave and pop, while the lyrics largely dealt with Berman’s impending fatherhood. The Echo of Pleasure was released by Painbow Records in September of 2017.

One of my favourite 7″ singles over the past decade and a bit came through one of the limited-edition efforts referred to above, although I’ll hold my hands up and say that it didn’t come to my notice until a few years later after hearing it at one of the indie discos and Aldo giving me all the info I needed to track it down:-

mp3 : The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction

It’s a wonderfully catchy, near-anthemic, gloriously happy four minutes of indie-pop. I defy anyone to listen and not want to start dancing.  It’s also on their debut album, a superb collection of indie-pop guitar tunes that are loud, infectious and have their roots very much in the best of the 80s.

Here’s your b-side to Young Adult Friction.  It demonstrates that even when they aren’t making energetic, jangly and joyous music, they are a band well capable of holding your attention:-

mp3 : The Pains of Being Pure At Heart – Ramona

JC

Everest The Hard Way

EVEREST THE HARD WAY

I had thought I’d found something that provided a missing link between Fire Engines and Altered Images, but, sadly, it appears not. Nevertheless, I can again offer up a more than decent piece of music courtesy of the Big Gold Dreams boxset:-

mp3 : Everest The Hard Way – Tightrope

The text in the booklet with the boxset states:-

Named after the 1975 documentary film charting Chris Bonnington’s heroic mountain-climb, this strident piece of European electro-pomp was Everest the Hard Way’s sole single release. A Kid Jenson session on BBC Radio 1 featured vocalist David Service, keyboardist Jim Telford, bassist and future member of The Chimes Mike Peden and drummer Ian Stoddart.

Another track, Consumption, appeared on Fools Rush in Where Angels Dare to Tread, a compilation collated from recordings at Richard Strange’s London-based Cabaret Futura club. The album also featured Skids vocalist Richard Jobson performing his poems, India Song and Daddy, and two tracks by Positive Noise. Strange’s The Phenomenal World of Richard Strange album featured keyboards from Everest the Hard Way’s Jim Telford and a guest vocal from Positive Noise’s Ross Middleton.

Released on 7” and 12” in April 1982, it was one of last releases on the London-based Do It Records, a small label that was around from 1977-1982 and is probably best known for the fact that it was the home of the pre-chart Adam & The Ants.

The instrumental break on Tightrope that comes in around the 1 min, 40 seconds mark isn’t a million miles away from the Sons and Fascinations/Sister Feelings Call era of Simple Minds and it’s interesting to speculate what would have happened if band had stuck together. As it was, Ian Stoddart (ex Fire Engines) would hook up again with Davy Henderson when he formed Win while Mike Peden became part of the dance-group The Chimes.

Where I got excited was these extracts from the wiki page on Fire Engines:-

The Fire Engines comprise David (Davy) Henderson (vocals/guitar), Murray Slade (guitar), Graham Main (bass), and Russell Burn (drums). Their most successful single was “Candy Skin”, released in 1981, but after the follow-up, “Big Gold Dream” failed to repeat its success, the band split up on 31 December 1981. Henderson formed the short-lived Heartbeat with Bob Last’s partner Hillary Morrison, the band’s only release a track on an NME compilation cassette. Burn formed Everest the Hard Way with bassist Ian Stoddart and guitarist Stephen Lironi (who later joined Altered Images), the band releasing a single in April 1982, before Burn rejoined The Dirty Reds. Henderson and Burn went on to form Win with Stoddart in the mid 1980s, the band continuing until 1989.

Not for the first time, wiki seems to be wrong in that no member of Everest The Hard Way had previously been in Fire Engines and none would later join Altered Images. I’ve done a bit of digging and found the 12″EP which has an extended version of Tightrope as well as three other tracks:-

mp3 : Everest The Hard Way – Tightrope (extended)
mp3 : Everest The Hard Way – Quarter to Six
mp3 : Everest The Hard Way – When You’re Young
mp3 : Everest The Hard Way – Take The Strain

Alas, the third of these (which was the sole b-side on the 7”) is not a cover of the hit single by The Jam.

I think a few of you out there might be intrigued and enjoy these.

JC

Associates

FANTASTICALLY UNLIKELY…AND IT WOULDN’T HAPPEN NOWADAYS

I think it’s fair to say that debut albums tend to be the ones that turn out the best and most memorable. This is often down to them being filled with the songs and tunes that brought the band/singer to the notice of the A&R folk in the first instance and having benefitted from being finessed in the live setting before any feet and other body parts ever entered a studio.

I think it’s equally fair to say that in the case of Associates, things are a wee bit different….but then again Alan Rankine and Billy Mackenzie refused to follow any of the norms when it came to making a career in the music industry. The duo had the audacity and genius to independently release an unauthorised cover of a current David Bowie hit single as their debut 45, knowing it would draw attention to what they were up to. The move worked and, at the start of the decade in which electronica would rule the roost for the most part, certainly here in the UK, Associates got themselves a record deal.

The early material as found on debut album The Affectionate Punch (1980) and the compilation effort Fourth Drawer Down (1981) is now considered to be ground-breaking and innovative, eschewing the poppy side of the genre for a harder-edged sound that took much of its inspiration from continental Europe. At the time, however, it was seen by many, including many critics in the weekly music papers, as a bit clunky and cumbersome – it was music to which you stroked your chin rather than shook your ass. It was a painful situation for Billy Mackenzie who had huge ambitions to be a fully-fledged pop star and really believed he could be so on his own terms.

Things changed dramatically in 1982 when two of the finest ever singles to come out of Scotland took them into the singles charts. Party Fears Two, with its ridiculously catchy tune and its impenetrable lyric, was released February 1982. It was something of a slow burner, taking six weeks to hit its peak of #9. The moment it dropped out of the charts, the band’s label, WEA, fired out the high-tempo and infectious Club Country, a song that left must have caused some panic in all the other electronica-pop bands who had absolutely no chance of sounding as brilliant as this.

A week or so later, the band’s second album Sulk was released. It comprised ten tracks, and outside of the two hits singles, it wasn’t a million miles removed from the earlier flop material, except this time around the critics lapped it up.

Sulk challenged its listeners in a way that very little else did in the early 80s. The hits were tucked away towards the end of the B-side of the record, meaning that there was a lot to get through before any familiarity kicked in. The whole of the A-side is brilliant and bonkers in equal measures. Everyone was saying it was the Mackenzie voice that made the band so unique and distinct, so it was perverse of them to open with an instrumental. The first actual song with a lyric is funeral in pace and is full of disturbing imagery about tearing out your hair, biting your nails and cutting yourself shaving while wrapping your arms in a strip torn from a dress:-

mp3 : Associates – No

And that’s not even the most bizarre moment of the A-side – that’s reserved for the closing track that Alan Rankine would later say was about an acid trip that Billy had had when he was fifteen or sixteen and during which some kitchen utensils were copulating:-

mp3 : Associates – Nude Spoons

Turning the vinyl over and putting the needle into the groove brings up what I will always consider my favourite track on the album. Skipping has Billy going through his entire vocal range from bass/baritone (with hints of a Sean Connery impression) to near falsetto as he lets tip at the end over what is a haunting melody that many have tried in vain to capture and replicate over the ensuing decades:-

mp3 : Associates – Skipping

The remainder of the B-side is the most accessible and commercial side of any record that either Alan or Billy would ever involve themselves, with the four tracks comprising a new version of the Party Fears Two b-side, the two hit singles and a closing two-minute long instrumental that would be extended, benefitting also from the addition of a lyric, and turned into a third and final hit 45:-

mp3 : Associates – nothinginsomethingparticular

Sulk is a masterpiece. It’s possible that without the two hit singles that WEA would have deemed it unworthy of release and it’s certainly the case that they didn’t want any of the gothic masterpieces that made up the album to get anywhere near daytime BBC Radio 1. The sad thing is that the LP marked the end of Alan and Billy’s partnership as the former quit the band just a few months later, frustrated by what he felt was an increasingly diva-type behaviour from the singer in the rehearsals that were due to lead to a series of cancelled live shows in the UK at major venues, not to mention an impending, and again cancelled, tour of the USA.

I’ve based my reminisces on the original vinyl release in 1982 as that was the one I wore out quickly from repeated playings. The USA version of the album, issued after Alan had departed, had a very different running order and indeed three of the tracks on the UK album, including Nude Spoons, were left off altogether and replaced by the later 18 Carat Love Affair/Love Hangover double-A single and two tracks the earlier material. This was obviously the album that WEA had really wanted as the USA version was used for the initial CD release of Sulk in 1988, with things only rectified in 2000 when it was finally reissued again on CD, in its original running order, after many years being out of print. Just a pity that it had taken the sad death of Billy Mackenzie a few years earlier to enable this state of affairs.

I’ll just about leave the last word to Paul Morley – here’s part of his review of the album in the NME:-

“Sulk deals with everything, in its hectic, drifting way … There is an uninterruptible mix-up of cheap mystery, vague menace, solemn farce, serious struggle, arrogant ingenuity, deep anxiety, brash irregularity, smooth endeavour … Sometimes Sulk is simply enormous: and then again it is fantastically unlikely.”

Fantastically unlikely is the perfect description. It certainly wouldn’t happen these days.

JC

Teenage Fanclub

A LOVE-LESS BAND

Every summer, Glasgow plays hosts to a series of outdoor gigs at a fabulous amphitheatre style venue in one of our many parks.

Summer Nights at The Bandstand is now in its sixth year, and as you’ll see from the poster above, it has again attracted an eclectic mix of performers. The tickets for each show aren’t cheap, coming in at around £50 each, but then again, it is something of a unique location with a limited capacity of 2,500. I’ve limited myself to going along to one event each year (with one exception as someone game me a freebie in 2016) , previously catching Teenage Fanclub (2014), Roddy Frame (2015), Super Furry Animals (2016), Lloyd Cole (2016) and Pixies (2017). None of the acts in 2018 were of much appeal but it was quite the opposite in 2019 and I really had a dilemma, deciding in the end to go, tonight as it happens, to see The National, mainly on the basis that this was a very small venue for an act of their stature and that Mrs Villain, having not come to any of the previous gigs at the venue, was most likely to come along.

A lot of folk I know went along to see Teenage Fanclub this year. I gave it a miss on the basis that I’m not quite sure if the band will ever be the same now that Gerry Love has taken his leave given that so many of their best songs were written and sung by him, added to the fact that they have always been a band whose charm lies in the harmonies they generate on stage. There was also the fact that just a few months ago, at one of the last gigs in Glasgow with Gerry aboard in late 2018, (for which they also had a guest appearance from original drummer Brendan O’Hare), I went home thinking I hadn’t ever seen the band in such fine form, and maybe it was best to let things lie with those particular memories.

The solution to being Love-less has been to take move Dave McGowan, a long-standing live band member, away from keyboards and onto bass guitar while adding the charming and talented Euros Childs (of Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci fame) to play keyboards and add sing harmonies. The reviews of the shows the new-look band played in Australia, New Zealand , the USA and across Europe earlier this year were fairly positive, with not too much being made of Gerry’s absence, although some fans did lament that his songs weren’t featuring.

The Glasgow show was always going to be something of a litmus test. It’s interesting that, unlike all other home shows they have over the years, there were no immediate reviews the day after in any of the Scottish newspapers – either the critics weren’t given tickets or they didn’t want to go on record with anything negative about a band that is, to all intent and purposes, a national treasure.

The comments on the TFC Facebook page the morning after the gig were incredibly complimentary, as you’d expect. There was, however, one interesting observation:-

“I’m just guessing here, but I don’t think their decision not to play Gerry’s songs since he’s left has anything to do with ill feelings, but it’s a practical consideration, since he’s not there to sing them and they can afford to choose from a wealth of songs from their catalogue. If I’m right, it’s still a shame, since so many of Gerry’s songs are so important in their canon and the prospect of them never playing them again is frankly quite grim…..”

Someone else said they were good, but different and expressed “…a fear they’re on the cusp of Norman Blake and his band.”

On balance, I’m fairly relaxed about having not gone along as I would likely having come away thinking I’d seen a good but not great show. It really is rather sad to think that, as things stand, these standout songs will never be played live again:-

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Guiding Star
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Sparky’s Dream
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Ain’t That Enough
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – I Need Direction

JC

Subs

THE FIRST KNOWN SIGHTING OF DEREK FORBES

As you’ll come to see, today’s piece owes an immense debt to the good folk over at the ever-informative and entertaining For Malcontents blog which I came across doing my research on today’s songs which I’ve picked up from the Big Gold Dreams box-set. It’s very much of interest as it features what must have been the first ever professional recording to involve Derek Forbes.

The Subs were a very short-lived Glasgow quartet, comprising Callum Cuthbertson (vocals), Kevin Key (guitars), Derek Forbes (bass) and Ali MacKenzie (drums). They were seemingly the winners of a 1977 talent competition organised jointly by Stiff Records and Chiswick Records that led to them releasing a single, on yellow vinyl, on 1 Off Records, an offshoot of Stiff:-

mp3 : The Subs – Gimme Your Heart

Their story was told, in May 2014, over at For Malcontents:-

Originally known as The Subhumans, the band made rapid headway after forming in the white heat of the punk revolution. They recorded a demo which impressed London’s best independent label, Stiff, who invited the lads down south, where they took part in a Stiff audition night at the Royal College of Art. Stiff must have liked what they saw as they quickly signed the Glaswegians for a one-off single (on their 1-Off imprint) which was recorded at Pathway Studios in the capital and produced by Larry Wallis, an early member of Motörhead and also a Stiff recording artist at the time.

Live favourite Gimme Your Heart was selected as the A side and the single’s centre came adorned with a typical Stiff slogan ‘The shape of things that win’.

Reviews were generally good with fanzine Next Big Thing, calling the 45 the ‘best Scots vinyl offering since Good Sculptures’, while NME picked up on the ‘Neanderthal Man drumming from Ali Mackenzie’ and Cuthbertson’s ‘suitably disgruntled’ vocals, which I think were both meant as compliments.

‘The Subs created quite a ripple at the Rochester Castle in what was one of the group’s first London gigs,’ Nick Tester wrote in April ’78 in Sounds, a magazine that was obviously rooting for the band: ‘The Subs are in fact like a stainless steel carving knife, rawness combined with a clean edged melody which utterly carves up any opposition in these supposed Power Pop times. Enough hooks to hang your C&A bondage pants out to dry.’

Despite recording one of the finest Scottish singles of the era, even by the blink and they’ll be gone standards of the day, The Subs were destined to enjoy only a very brief shelf life and sadly Gimme Your Heart would be their one and only release.

Drummer Ali Mackenzie left the band and they roped in Brian McGee of Simple Minds to replace him for a support slot they’d nabbed for a Graham Parker and The Rumour gig at Strathclyde Uni. The show was deemed a success but before long bassist Derek Forbes decided to join McGee in Simple Minds and guitarist Kevin Key took up the invitation to expand the ranks of The Jolt into a four piece.

Ali Mackenzie notably set up independent label Cuba Libre, which released records by James King and The Lonewolves, The Cuban Heels (who he later joined) and The Shakin’ Pyramids, whose 1981 album Skin’ Em Up he also produced.

As for Cuthbertson, well, he later carved out a career as an actor with a string of appearances in theatre, TV and film, appearing most recently in BBC Scotland sitcom Gary Tank Commander and the 2013 romcom Not Another Happy Ending, where he played the pub quiz fanatic father of Jane Lockhart (Karen Gillan).

I’ve gone digging and come up with the b-side of the single:-

mp3 : The Subs – Party Clothes

Both sides of the 45 still sound quite excellent.

JC

Simple Minds

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF (EARLY) SIMPLE MINDS (Part 10)

10 April 1982 and a new single by Simple Minds is released.

1 May 1982 and Simple Minds finally have the euphoria that comes with a single hitting the Top 20 in the UK.

mp3 : Simple Minds – Promised You A Miracle

It was the fourth successive week the single had climbed the charts, something it would do for a further two weeks, peaking at #13. It would hang around the lower parts of the charts for a while longer, finally taking its leave in mid-June.

It was really strange seeing the band achieve such high-profile success after five studio albums, one compilation LP and two record labels. It’s a single that didn’t quite gel with me at the outset. It seemed really light and sparse sounding, very much lacking the bite and energy of many of the previous singles but it was one that I came to appreciate after hearing it in the live setting and how it was actually all part of yet a further shift in sound with more reliance on the keyboard skills of Mick MacNeil and the thumping bass lines from Derek Forbes. It was more pop-orientated than ever and of appeal to fans of bands such as ABC, Associates and Yazoo, all of whom would enjoy stellar years in 1982 – it was also similar to the latest Roxy Music album, Avalon, which itself was a million miles removed from the art-house and experimental stuff from the 70s that had been such an influence on early Simple Minds.

A new producer, Pete Walsh, was also at the helm, the job his reward for the impressive remix work he had done on Sweat in Bullet. What very few knew at the time was that Walsh was a total rookie, just 21 years of age, but considered by the band, and indeed the label bosses, to be something of a genius in terms of eking out all sorts of new and fresh sounds from the advances in production technology.

As had happened the previous year with The American, the band rush-released Promised You A Miracle, it being the among the first of the completed songs from the studio sessions in London. There wasn’t really any new material well-developed enough to appear as a b-side and so the decision was taken to use an instrumental track from Sister Feelings Call.

mp3 : Simple Minds – Theme For Great Cities

It’s one of the bands finest bits of music in their entire career, capturing the moment when they stood on the very threshold of fame and fortune. I’m guessing that many of those who weren’t familiar with the band until this 45 would have had their minds blown by the b-side and gone exploring the back catalogue, much of which was available at reasonably cheap prices.

The big question, however, was whether time would show Simple Minds to be just a one-hit wonder. We didn’t have too long to wait to find out.

JC

Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #171 : THE JUSTIFIED ANCIENTS OF MU MU

Bill Drummond was/is part of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. And that’s justifiable enough in my book for this to appear today-

mp3 : The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu – Whitney Joins The J.A.Ms

Wiki does its best to describe it:-

The 7-minute song is progressive, funky house, and an early example of a mash-up. It opens with quiet synthesiser drones and cymbal percussion which are soon joined by the markedly louder Mission: Impossible theme. Drummond says “‘Mission impossible’ we were told, she’ll never join The JAMs”, a point answered by power chords sampled from Whitney’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”. Drummond then begs and pleads to Whitney for around ninety seconds before the first strains of her voice can be heard. Drummond sounds ecstatic, proclaiming “Whitney Houston joins The JAMs!” and “I’m yours!”.

The song develops to sample full sections of Houstons’s chorus, alternating these with increasingly pronounced guitar work taken from Isaac Hayes’ distinctive Shaft theme and portions of the Mission: Impossible theme complemented by piano work. Ultimately the track descends into an unrhythmic cacophony of samples.

I love it.  Not sure I’ve the courage to ever air it at a Simply Thrilled night mind you…..

JC

Billy Bragg, Kirsty MacColl

THE JOY OF (a mixed) SEX (duet) : Couple #10

Today’s offering is a cover of a song written and released in 1977 by Johnny Moped.

I’ll be honest, the only info I have on the band has been courtesy of t’internet. They have been described as a pioneering punk band but it would seem this reputation is based largely on the fact that so many on the scene in London in 76/77 were veterans of the pub circuit, often not quite as competent as those who took things seriously. They had formed in May 1974, initially as Johnny Moped and the 5 Arrogant Superstars, before changing their name to Assault and Buggery, then the Commercial Band, before reverting to just Johnny Moped, all in the space of eight months. One of their initial members was Ray Burns who would, as punk broke, change his name to Captain Sensible and run off to join The Damned, but in doing so he ensured his old mates got to play a few gigs as support act. They were one of the bands that appeared on a very early punk compilation LP, the Live At The Roxy album in 1977 (the others being Slaughter & The Dogs, The Unwanted, Wire, The Adverts, Eater, X-Ray Spex and Buzzcocks) and that helped them ink a deal with Chiswick Records for whom there were three singles and an album before calling it a day in 1978 (albeit there have been various reunions over the years since).

Were they any good? Well, given that one review has described the cut on Live At The Roxy as “….archetypal Moped: heavy R&B slobbering through a meat grinder and hung out for the fire ants. It sounded incompetent, but the best Moped gigs always did, a fumbling, bumbling, grumbling noise that boasted all the proficiency of a blind man playing poker….”, it’s fair to say they were an acquired taste.

But many music journalists seemed to love them, choosing to make their second 45 as single of the week in three of the weekly papers around at the time. Despite this, it sold miserably, probably shifting very few copies outside of the capital, but it would inspire this take on it:-

mp3 : Kirsty MacColl and Billy Bragg – Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby

It was recorded as part of a BBC Radio 1 session for the Nicky Campbell show that was broadcast on 26 June 1991 and later included as a b-side on the Walking From Madison single.

Kirsty and Billy were great friends, going back many years and it really does sound as if they had an absolute ball working together on this one. Likewise with this, that was also recorded for the same session:-

mp3 : Kirsty MacColl and Billy Bragg – A New England

RIP Kirsty. You’re still much missed

JC

Dusty Springfield, Pet Shop Boys

THE JOY OF (a mixed) SEX (duet) : Couple #9

Dusty Springfield is one of those singers I really should know more about. Her records, however, were not among those in the collections of any members of my extended family and the only songs I got to know, as I grew up, were those that were staples of the Golden Hour segments or request shows – I Only Want To Be With You, I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself, and You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me being the ones that come to memory.

The problem, however, is that two of those are ballads and the teenage me didn’t have any time for such slush. Dusty Springfield, in my mind, was just another 60s singer of as much relevance in the post-punk world as Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw and Petula Clark, all of whom had been just as ever-present on those radio shows.

It was astounding, therefore, to read that the Pet Shop Boys were huge fans as indeed were a number of other bands who were emerging in the 80s (Sandie Shaw had, of course, already been championed and had her career revived by The Smiths). It was only then that I came to realise there was much more to Dusty Springfield than well-known ballads and that she had, in fact been something of a pioneer in bringing soul and Motown to the wider attentions of UK audiences. It therefore made perfect sense for the pioneers of modern era electronic dance music to suggest a hook up, which they did to great effect in 1987:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys (featuring Dusty Springfield) – What Have I Done To Deserve This?

It’s one of those rare PSB numbers in which Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe called on some outside help with its writing. The co-credit sits with Ailee Willis, someone who, through a friend of a friend, had been commissioned to do some artwork of the band. As they posed and chatted with the painter, they were delighted and astonished to learn that Ailee Willis was the same ‘A.Willis’ who had helped write some of the Earth Wind & Fire songs, not least the majestic Boogie Wonderland and the poptastic September. The minute the painting commission was complete, the boys asked her to work with them and the result was the song they would later present to Dusty Springfield as a suggested collaboration.

JC