Month: May 2020

Morrissey

HATEFUL AND HOLLOW

As promised, a bonus posting today, and it’s the first time that Morrissey has been the main feature of a post in more than two years.

Steve McLean, a dear friend of mine and occasional contributor to the blog, writes and performs comedy for a living. He’s very much of the stand-up or compere variety, and although a huge fan of much of the music that features on this blog (we first met at a Butcher Boy gig), he doesn’t really incorporate songs into his act.

Having seen this the other day on Facebook, I might start to encourage him.

I’m starting a new musical project called –
Morrissey Fan’s Stockholm Syndrome.

This song is called Girlfriend In A Coma

https://www.facebook.com/McleanSte/videos/10156908508866360/

Feel very free to share as widely as you like.

JC

Ian Brown

CHANCE MEETING

JC writes…..

A good mate of mine from my workdays is Welshy (it’s to do with his surname rather than where he was born or where he lives). These past few weeks, he has been brightening up Facebook with a series of posts called ‘Morning Positivity’ in which he recalls stories from his past with the intention of putting a smile on a few faces. He did one which had a musical bent to it….and he’s generously given me permission to share it with you as it is just perfect for TVV.

Here’s Welshy…..

Morning positivity #23

This one prompted by becoming Facebook friends with Thomas on my Dad’s side of the family. Thomas won’t remember but I stayed at his parents’ house/flat in Tooting Broadway, London, in September 1997 when me, Rydell High and Robbie Allan travelled to London to see Oasis supported by The Verve at Earls Court. £15. What a gig.

From memory we got the train down on Friday, stayed two nights, the gig was Saturday, and we headed back home on Sunday. The gig was not till Saturday night so during Saturday daytime we three still-teenagers hit the streets of London for a nosey and a few pre-gig refreshments.

We hadn’t even stopped at a pub when something magical happened. Walking along the streets of central London, despite it being mobbed, we all instantly spotted the face of a hero of ours, Mr Ian Brown (The Stone Roses frontman, everyone). It wasn’t even up for debate to stop him and talk to him which we did and he was lovely and he said nice things about Glasgow and we were in awe.

He learned we were down for the gig and told us to enjoy it and off we walked our separate ways. And then the collective realisation … man, wouldn’t it have been perfect if we’d got a photo? Not a mobile phone between us (I’m not sure Snake on a Nokia had even been invented yet!) so we took quick action … although the clock was ticking.

We could see a Boots. Bolted in. Grabbed a throwaway camera. Paid quickly and back out on to the streets. Ok, which way did he go? We started running that way. I reckon 9 times out of 10 you give someone a 3-minute head start in the streets of London on a Saturday afternoon and you’ll struggle to find them. Well, this day was the 1 out of 10.

So this picture you see was taken by his partner, on a camera we just bought, about five minutes and nearly half a kilometre after we had met him! It’s one of my favourite pictures. Without a word of a lie, we went to the nearest pub and ordered a bottle of champagne which unfortunately we started drinking before seeing the price! But it was the perfect start to a brilliant day and night, an unforgettable gig and we were well fed at Chez Welsh the morning after before making the long journey home.

Happy days. As the great man once said; the world is yours. 🌍 ❤️

mp3 : Ian Brown – The World Is Yours

NB : Welshy is the bloke with his arm around the neck of Ian Brown.

PS : Bonus guest posting being added later on today.

Roxy Music

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #250 : BRYAN FERRY & ROXY MUSIC

I’ve mentioned before that not having an older sibling meant that, outside of what I heard on the radio, there was a reliance on my cousins and the older brothers of friends to assist with my musical education.  I can’t actually remember anyone who fits into either the cousins/friends’ big brothers categories ever having any great love for Roxy Music and so it was something I developed myself from the radio.

And let’s face it, when you’re hearing stuff when you’re not quite a teenager, it has to contain something very special to lodge itself in your brain that it sticks with you for the rest of your life, and I’ll say here and now that it was very much the voice of Bryan Ferry that did it for me….and maybe that’s why throughout my formative and later years that I’ve always had a thing for those who crooned with a difference – and in particular why I fell for the charms of Billy Mackenzie and Paul Quinn.

As I was starting to form a few thoughts about what songs to include in the ICA, which I had intended to solely focus on Roxy Music, it came to me that much of my exposure to the songs came from hearing them played at fairgrounds.  Yup, more than 40 years later and the thought has just struck me that the fairground hustlers would have been happy to blare out the songs of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry on the basis that:-

(a) they were familiar from being chart hits
(b) teenage girls liked the songs as some of the band were heartthrobs
(c) teenage boys would like the songs as some of the band were cool
(d) if you can teenagers of both sexes to come together at the fairground, you’re going to make money

To all of that can be added that while I can’t recall any mates older brothers liking them, there were a couple of older sisters of mates who adored Roxy Music as I recalled when I wrote previously about the band in the short-lived and not terribly popular ‘Had It, Lost It Series’ back in September 2017. Click here for more of the back story to my thoughts on vintage and not so vintage Roxy Music.

That particular piece concluded with the following words:-

“…I won’t argue that you can date Roxy Music losing it to when they reformed in 1979 as I was a huge fan for a while thereafter. But what I will say is, that if I was to piece together an ICA all these years later, it would almost certainly be made up of music that was recorded and released in the period 72-75.”

Which would have been the case except I’ve decided to include some top-notch solo singles and taken in a couple of songs from the later period – it did after all coincide with the one and only time I saw the band live – Glasgow Apollo, July 1980, when they toured the Flesh and Blood album and the support was Martha & The Muffins. All in all, it makes for an unusual beast from me, and that’s a 12-song ICA. But a fitting selection for #250 in this long-running and incredibly popular series.

Side A

1. Virginia Plain (single, 1972, reached #4)

As I’ve said before, one of THE greatest of all debut 45s. There’s no better way to open up the ICA…

2. Pyjamarama (single 1973, reached #10)

Many folk who left behind a comment when I wrote about Virginia Plain, suggested that this was the band’s finest ever 45. They could well be right, but it is a hard one to call.

3. A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (single 1973, reached #10)

The ten-year-old me had no idea who Bob Dylan was. This just sounded like a Roxy Music single with additional backing vocals. At the time, because it was even more catchy than anything I had ever heard him sing previously, this was my favourite Bryan Ferry vocal of them all, where it stayed until……………….

4. Love Is The Drug (single 1975, reached #2)

This 45 cannot, surely, be 45 years of age? The crazy intro with the car revving up is memorable…but, it is the bass line that really makes this so special – it’s a killer and it set the scene for what would be laid down on disco records in the coming years.

5. Over You (single 1980, reached #5)

ICAs don’t work on the basis of them being the best 10 (or in this case, 12) songs by a band or artist. Over You is a decent record – of its time – but it has aged in much the same way as the rest of Flesh and Blood. It is unmistakenly the sound of the early 80s, unlike the classic Roxy era which just feels timeless. It also set out the template for many other pop/synth acts whenever they were looking for a song that was a bit removed from being full tilt but wasn’t quite a ballad. The bittersweet love songs that have become the staple of smooth-listening radio stations the world over. But it fits in well at this juncture on the ICA.

6. In Every Dream Home, A Heartache (album track, 1973)

The ten-year-old me didn’t know this song when it was released on the album For Your Pleasure. In fact, as it wasn’t included on the Roxy Music Greatest Hits compilation that I got as a Christmas present in 1977, I didn’t even hear of it until the late 70s when the music chat in the school common room turned to sex dolls, on the basis of many of us liking The Police and talking about the track Sally/Be My Girl. We all thought it was daring and really funny to have a song about a sex doll on a new wave LP, till someone piped up that Roxy Music had done it years previously. A cassette was brought in the next day and the song was played. It’s fair to say it divided opinion. I thought it was stunning. Still do.

Side B

1. Manifesto (album track, 1979)

Manifesto was the first Roxy Music album that I bought at the actual time of release and while it might not be their best ever effort, there was something quite special about doing so. The opening track is the title track and it contains a really long and drawn out intro which has a feel of late 70s era Bowie and the then-emerging Simple Minds which I kept returning to again and again. In my mind, it makes perfect sense to have it open the flip side of the ICA.

2. The ‘In’ Crowd (single 1974, reached #13)

Again, I had no idea that this was a cover, nor that Ferry had his tongue firmly in his cheek by recording and releasing a track that was having a go at his detractors calling him an art school poseur. It just sounded great coming out of the radio.

3. Do The Strand (album track 1973)

I would have first heard this when I got my hands on the Greatest Hits compilation in 1977. I know now that it is one of the band’s most legendary, popular, and well-known compositions, and in subsequent years at ‘alt’ discos at uni and other locations, I’d find myself dancing to it. Hugely unusual in that it goes straight into the vocal and over the subsequent four minutes there’s a fair cacophony of noise including a decent sax solo, a sound that I’m normally immune to. Ferry’s vocal is just magnificent – all-knowing, almost arrogant, and defying critics to have a go again at his nonsensical lyric. A song about a dance that doesn’t exist…that’s post-modern before anyone ever came up with the phrase.

4. This Is Tomorrow (single 1977, reached #9)
5. Let’s Stick Together (single 1976, reached #4)

Two singles that prompted my memory recall of funfairs. Particularly the latter which must have been omnipresent in Blackpool the summer of 1976 as that was the location of the family holiday that year during which we would have spent time at the famous Pleasure Beach as well as strolling in and out of various amusement arcades. Listening to these now, it really does feel that Ferry had a great time recording his solo material and while the 13/14-year-old me thought they were no different from the Roxy songs (on account of THAT voice), I know can appreciate that is very much not the case. But, and the reason why there are four solo singles on this ICA, they have very much stood the test of time….unlike much of the 80s and later output.

6. Street Life (single 1973, reached #9)

I didn’t recall this from the time of its original release, indicating that it’s not as immediately and catchy as the other early 70s singles that I featured on Side 1 of the ICA. This would be another that I ‘discovered’ via the Greatest Hits album – it actually closed that album and so again makes perfect sense for it to close the ICA. In 1977, I didn’t know the Eno back story and wasn’t aware of how important he had been to the early sound, nor that this was the first single he hadn’t been part of. It’s a more bombastic sound than many of the other Roxy songs and it was one that took a bit of getting used to. As my tastes evolved and developed, so did my affection for Street Life.

So, there you have it. ICA #250. One that breaks a few rules and one that makes no apologies for leaning heavily on hit singles.

I do wonder if there’s life in this series for another 250 efforts…if so, it’ll take around another six years to compile as ICA #1 dates back to June 2014. There’s been a few amazing efforts in that time, particularly those offered up as guest contributions. Feel free to keep them coming…(there’s a couple currently in the pipeline)

Oh, and yes, I am of a mind to have another sports-style ICA knockout competition, probably next year…..

JC

PJ Harvey

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 32)

A GUEST SERIES

14 – Sheela Na Gig – PJ Harvey (1992, Too Pure Records)

Released as a single in February 1992 (Reached Number 69)

“She said no, ah mate I’m sorry”. I’m outside the Hempstead Valley branch of Our Price with Dubstar Chris who has just asked out the girl who works behind the counter in the bookshop next door. Her name is Rachel and her mum owns the bookshop. He looks proper gutted to be honest, but he asks a girl out like once a week so he’ll bounce back.

We’ve known Rachel for a little while, and to be fair to her she was never ever going to go out with Dubstar Chris. For a starters she is about 21, he is just 17. She has her own car, he does not. She is funny, smart and seemingly very popular. Dubstar Chris is a bit of an arse.

Chris is now in a bad mood, which you can sort of understand, and he tells me that he is going home, which is a bit irritating because this means I have to kick about on my own in the shopping centre for the next hour – as that is when I am being picked up.

I wander into Our Price – largely because I was hoping that for some reason OPG might be working in here that day (she wasn’t, it wasn’t her store), but I also wanted to check out the 12 inches just in case there was something decent in there.

I pick up a couple of records and read the back covers in a pathetic attempt to waste time. I know that in about four minutes time I will be in WHSmith’s buying a magazine and the after that I will be sat in Burger King, trying to make a bean burger and fries last for thirty minutes.

As I turn round I see Rachel, she has popped from next door and she sees me and waves and walks over to me.

“Is he ok?” she asks me. I nod my head. I’ll be honest, I have a wee crush on Rachel from the bookshop, so I’m a little embarrassed but I think I manage to ride it out. Rachel laughs and said that Chris was sweet but she was really happy with Matt, who happens to be her boyfriend. I didn’t know about Matt. I decide that Matt is probably a very lucky man.

She tells me that she won’t mentioned this to Matt. I nod again and say that “it makes sense”. I apologise on Chris’s behalf. She laughs again and tells me not to worry about it.

Rachel suddenly reaches past me to grab a record and a waft of something fragrant hits me. Some of the older readers may remember, that in the early 90s The Body Shop used to do (and they still might) a range called White Musk and nearly every girl that meant anything to me, used it – but that was the first time I had ever smelt it. For some reason the 16 and a half year old me, thought it would be a wise thing to say to the most beautiful woman in the shopping centre

“You smell lovely”.

Not “I like your fragrance” or something else less weird but “you smell lovely”. I cringe now even typing it. Its Rachel’s turn to look a bit embarrassed (or on reflection just creeped out) she thanks me and tells me what it is “Its just White Musk from the Body Shop”

Queen – Perfume Genius (2014, Matador Records, Unknown Chart Position)

I rather too quickly say that I might buy some and then add, “for my girlfriend” and hope that she hadn’t noticed the pause. I mean that is what I meant but it still sounds like I’m a stalker or something.

Rachel is holding ‘Sheela Na Gig’ by PJ Harvey and I look at it and rapidly change the subject. “Is that good?” I ask. She nods and tells me that PJ Harvey is amazing. OPG had mentioned her a few weeks ago and I’d been meaning to check her out. Rachel tells me she has to go, and she walks very quickly to the counter, awkwardly waving at me as she leaves the store.

Bizarrely I had heard Polly Harvey sing before I even knew that PJ Harvey existed. In fact I’d seen Polly Harvey live before I even knew that PJ Harvey existed and that was because before her debut album came out she provided backing vocals on not one but two Family Cat singles and the first time I saw them live, she came on and sang her bits (supporting Carter at the ULU in London). The best of the two singles which feature her is

Colour Me Grey – The Family Cat (1991, Dedicated Records, Number 57)

SWC

Model Fighter

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #211 : MODEL FIGHTER

As mentioned in an earlier entry in this series, it was back in 2000 that Chemikal Underground came up with the idea of having an imprint named Fukd ID for limited edition releases (1,000 maximum) by a variety of acts, not all of who were on the label.

There ended up being eight releases via the imprint, one of which (Fukd ID #3) was the first ever release by Interpol and is fairly valuable to collectors.

Fukd ID #7 was released in June 2003 and featured four tracks by Model Fighter.  A contemporary review, on Drowned In Sound stated:-

This is bizarre, very bizarre, likeable yet at the same time a bit grating. Model Fighter is one man, Daniel and some sounds, some of which are normal like keyboards and guitars, others that are a bit stranger; toy music machines and looped sounds. He keeps to 60 or 120 bpm and uses anything that makes a noise but no computers!

‘Blipdat’, is nearly two minutes of high pitched, slightly squeaky notes. Half way through appears a sound like a door bell…good but in an odd way. ‘Sleepatronic’ is a bit dancier, keyboard drum beats and a sound like something you’d get off those keyboards with 200 different noises on them. ‘Metallic Rutland’ and ‘untitled (Horse Giant)’ are darker, slightly haunting and different.

One of the tracks was later included on a Chem compilation CD, which is why I can offer up:-

mp3 : Model Fighter – Metallic Rutland

JC

Radiohead

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 31)

A GUEST SERIES

15 – No Surprises – Radiohead (1997, Parlophone Records)

Released as a single in January 1998 (Reached number 4)

In an ICA that Tim Badger wrote for this very fine blog, on Teenage Fanclub, he told a tale about how he sang a cover version of ‘Tears are Cool’ and dedicated it to a girl in the pub. He told us that he never sang live again as a result of that. Well, ladies and gents, that was not strictly true because he forgot to tell the tale of the Open Mic Night at the Thatch. Although I think it happened after JC published the Teenage Fanclub story, so he was telling the truth I suppose.

The Thatch is my local. An old pub right near the sea, which in the winter is largely deserted and where five or six weary locals prop up the bar and tell tales of old to each other. A few years back, the new manager of the Thatch decided to have an ‘Open Mic’ night as a way of getting some new folk in.

It just so happens that Badger and I and a few others had arranged to meet there one night anyway – and that night was Open Mic night, although we didn’t know it was Open Mic night.

Anyway we sat in the corner drinking our beer and chatting about everything under the sun as various people turned up and played – one lady played a ukulele, another chap did a passable impression of Bruce Springsteen and so it went on – it was a good evening.

After about four pints, Badger stood up and wandered over to the bar and came back with a wry look on his face. “I’m going to do a couple of songs” he said. Which caused all of us to laugh out loud. One of the guys we are with, Mark, asks if he can record it to ‘ward off burglars, cats and foxes’ as he intends to play it on a loop as an alarm.

I’d never heard Badger sing before, largely because he said he ‘sung like horse with laryngitis’ so I was mildly intrigued because that would make him sound like the singer of Mumford and Sons.

He ambled over to the stage (I say stage, I mean floor space) popped his pint on top of the speaker, spent a few minutes tuning the acoustic guitar, took a heavy gulp of Fursty Ferret and spoke into the mic.

“Ok” he said, his voice had gone all quiet, “this is a Radiohead song, and, er, it goes a bit like this, I mean I’ll fuck it up, but its supposed to be ‘No Surprises’, it will sound more like the ‘Wheels on the Bus’ but…” he stops, or rather he starts.

Radiohead were one of Badgers favourite bands and ‘No Surprises’ was one of his favourite tracks by them. He would also tell anyone who was listening about when he first saw them live in a venue called The Cockpit in Leeds (I think) where they were supporting a band called Suede.

Metal Mickey – Suede (1992, Nude Records, Number 17)

Of course, its brilliant, its Badger, I wouldn’t be telling you this if it was rubbish, well I would, but, anyway…he gets it near perfect and when he opens his mouth to sing about fifteen mouths drop open at the same time. The boy can sing. I mean he can really sing. The singing is better than the guitar playing and that is bloody good.

He finishes ‘No Surprises’ and the place goes mental – largely in the corner occupied by me and the guys we’d gone to the pub with. Badger, looks at us and says “Shut Up, you numpties, I’m not Ed Sheeran” but he smiles. He uses this as an excuse to carry on, and he follows up with

Levi Stubbs Tears – Billy Bragg (1986, Go! Discs, Number 29)

Which he dedicates to ‘all the communists” but I think the joke is lost on people. Again its wonderful – to be honest its better than Bragg’s version and I wish I’d recorded it and then he sits down. Three people immediately bring him over pints.

“I see that horse laryngitis has cleared up”. Is all I can think of saying.

SWC

Fall

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #249 : THE FALL (6)

An Imaginary Compilation Album – The Fall (of the 80s, with Brix [mostly])
Hybrid Soc Prof : Your Dreaming-of-Face-2-Face-Classes-in-the-Fall Correspondent

JC adds……as a way of intro………..

HSP, in his accompanying e-mail, acknowledged this was far from the first ICA for The Fall and that tracks in this would may well have appeared previously. The thing is, that doesn’t matter in the slightest. An ICA is just one person’s suggestion of a ‘perfect’ album and there is no question that others will have their own thoughts. So, if anybody out there has given thought to making a submission, but refrained from doing so on the basis that ‘it’s been done already’, then fear not…….

Back now, to our dear friend who is stuck at home in Michigan…….

If it’s next to impossible to write about Television, it is beyond impossible to say anything new about The Fall. I’ll make it quick.

I wanted The Minutemen to be my favorite band of the 80s, but D. Boon died. I wanted the Dream Syndicate to be my favorite band of the 80s, but the precipitous decline after Out of the Grey in ’86 did that in… to my mind, the same thing happened to The Replacements, after Tim. All this might have led Sonic Youth to take that spot at the top but, while their records got better and better across the decade, I deeply appreciated them but didn’t love ‘em. Other bands appeared early or showed up late and the Feelies didn’t release enough music to qualify. It’s not that this all “left” to top spot to The Fall since a better run of recordings – from Perverted by Language (1983) to the Frenz Experiment (1988) – is beyond rare, it’s simply to lay out who else I thought might have challenged to the decade.

My introduction to the band came via The Wonderful and Frightening World of… in 1984, once again lionized by Robert Palmer in the NY Times. It was the first record I can remember buying, putting on the turntable, and asking myself what the hell THIS was. And not because I liked it. I didn’t like it. At all. I almost hated it. But it was weirdly intriguing. So, I put it on again a few days later. I mean, really, “Bug Day”?! The previous summer, after about a month cycling all over northern England and Scotland, I’d come down Lewis and Harris and done my requisite shite day in cold rain on Skye before stayed in Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig… The next day, a warm, late July day with not wind, I’d ridden to Oban, solo. “Bug Day” brought back memories of cycling through stagnant air infested with midges and flies (and then a nightmare evening of well-off tourists with screaming kids at the Grade 1 Hostel.)

The third listen “2 By 4” and “Slang King” verged on enjoyable and by the 10th spin I was playing it almost daily. The only other album that’s rewarded me that way is the Danny and Dusty LP, The Lost Weekend, which I at least thought I should like given who wrote and played on it.

I bought the rest of the 80s records as they came out, and went back and picked up older releases finding very little I didn’t enjoy a lot. I collected about 23 songs to consider and then decided to bounce back and forth across the decade until arriving at the center – and I do think the This Nation’s Saving Grace and Bend Sinister are just wonderful.

HSP

PS: It is in fact, Demo Suzuki – from the 3CD re-release of This Nation’s Saving Grace… it’s rare that I like demos more than final products but in this case I do.

PPS: I’ll note that The Fall were the worst live show I have ever seen. Diane and I saw them in Boston in the early 90s and not only was Mark almost fall-down drunk and indifferent but, as far as we could tell not one in the band wanted to be there that night. Among my biggest disappointments.

1. Bombast, from This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985)
2. Hip Priest, from Hex Enducation Hour (1982)
3. New Big Prinz, from I am Kurious, Oranj (1988)
4. Totally Wired, from Grotesque (After the Gramme) (1980)
5. Carry Bag Man, from The Frenz Experiment (1988)
6. Kicker Conspiracy, from Perverted by Language (1983)
7. Terry Waite Sez, from Bend Sinister (1986)
8. Slang King, from The Wonderful and Frightening World of… (1984)
9. Demo Suzuki, from This Nation’s Saving Grace (1985)
10. Dktr. Faustus, from Bend Sinister (1986)

JC adds….as a way of an outro. 

I had a short post all written up on New Big Prinz in which I dared to suggest its tune owed something to Rock’N’Roll (Part 2) by the now disgraced Gary Glitter……any thoughts???

Pavement

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 30)

A GUEST SERIES

16 – Trigger Cut – Pavement (1992 Matador Records)

Released as a single in late 1992 (Did Not Chart)

I could of course talk about ‘Summer Babe’ but I always talk about that record and the way that it was playing in the background when I finally plucked up the courage to ask OPG out. I also always talk about it because it is the first song I play whenever I move into a new house, I’m not sure where that tradition came from it’s just one that has sort of stuck. I think it’s probably because when I left home to become a student that was the record I grabbed when I checked the stereo speakers were all plugged in properly. So to be honest ‘Summer Babe’ is a very influential song in my life.

But let’s talk about the events of the first Wednesday in April 2010. This folks, is the day when a 34 year old me, finally got his hair cut. Now, the more astute amongst you will say that surely a more suitable song would be ‘Cut Your Hair’ by Pavement and you would all be right, but there is a reason why I went for ‘Trigger Cut’.

It’s a better song that ‘Cut Your Hair’ and besides I had my hair cut at gunpoint surrounded by Rwandan militia so its more appropriate. Ok I didn’t really. I had my hair cut because a pretty girl laughed at some chocolate stuck on my nose.

Two days before I got my hair cut I was in a branch of Costa Coffee – one which was inside a branch of Waterstones, and I was sat a table and I was reading my new book, which was, for those that are interested, by Cormac McCarthy, in front of me was hot chocolate and a muffin (blueberry). The table in front of me is occupied by two younger women, who are looking at me and smiling.

Now, I’m happily married, but its nice to get a smile from random strangers. I smile back and they laugh. I work out pretty quickly that they are not ‘smiling’ smiling at me. There must be something wrong with me. I finish my muffin and my hot chocolate and head to the gents.

I stand in front of the mirror and look at myself. I’m 34 years of age, I’m wearing a jumper I bought from a charity shop, my jeans are old, my trainers are battered (but must be cool because the homeless guy I spoke to the other day remarked on how nice ‘New Balance were’). My hair is a mess, its long, its tied up in a pony tail and its scraggly and dry and horrible. Then I realise why the ladies were laughing. I had a big splodge of chocolate on the bridge of my nose, where the grated stuff they put on the cup had stuck.

I wipe it off and arrange my hair so it looks a bit better, but it doesn’t it still looks rubbish. I frown at myself and walk home in a sulk.

At home I ask my wife what she thinks about my hair. She looks at me and tells me that “Its awful and its needs cutting” is her blunt answer. She then offers to do it for me, which I think about for a moment or two, and fearing some sort of hatchet job I decline her offer.

Sabotage – Beastie Boys (1994, Grand Royal Records, Number 19)

Two days later I am sat in the chair in my local branch of Toni & Guy. My wife has booked it for me, having phoned her hairdresser, a lovely guy called Jamie, who wears leather trousers, chains and calls literally everyone ‘darling’. I expect him to be camp but he sounds like Ray Winstone.

Jamie has a pair of scissors in his hand and he collects all the hair that is dragging down my back and in a matter of seconds, he snips it off. He walks around to the front of chair and utters this sentence to me.

“Darling,” he said “Some men, like to keep their pony tails, do you want to keep it?”. Jamie is about half my age. He will, a bit later in the morning, trim my eyebrows for me, and tell me that “Darling, it’s a sign of getting old”.

I shake my head and he throws the hair on the floor like an old dishcloth, three minutes later he will stand on it whilst cutting the rest of my hair. I’m sure that I hear my hair weeping about twenty minutes later as a work experience girl sweeps it away.

When Jamie has finished, he looks at me and says “Darling, that is better, my god, it was awful before”. He holds up a mirror to show me the back. I’d forgotten about the star shaped scar on my neck from where my brother accidently hit me with a stapler when I was seven. I smile, my wife is standing behind me. “Darling, he looks so much better” she tells Jamie and then she kisses me in front of everyone in the entire shop. It was brilliant as well, proper kissing in the public at the age of 34.

I pay Jamie £45 (I know, be quiet) and I walk outside. It is 10am. My wife and I walk up the street arm in arm, one of us with a proper swagger.

Mr E’s Beautiful Blues – Eels (2000, Dreamworks Records, Number 11)

SWC

James King & The Lone Wolves

INSPIRED BY YESTERDAY’S POSTING

I hope flimflamflan doesn’t mind, but I’m going to take the opportunity offered by his guest posting from yesterday to drae attention to the four other songs that appeared on the Texas Lullaby EP, an artefact that I have previously stated is one of THE greatest lost Scottish releases of the era. Ripped from the now very old vinyl!

mp3 : James King & The Lone Wolves – Texas Lullaby
mp3 : James King & The Lone Wolves – Sacred Heart
mp3 : James King & The Lone Wolves – Chance I Can’t Deny
mp3 : James King & The Lone Wolves – Until The Dawn

In case any of you are wondering, here’s an edited bio from the website of Stereogram, the record label to which they are presently attached:-

LINE UP:
JAMES KING: Vocals/Guitar
JAKE MASON: Guitar/Vocals
JOE SULLIVAN: Guitar
NICK CLARK: Bass.
COREY LITTLE: Drums

In the early 80’s, I was fascinated by how extreme bands were in the Post-Punk scenario. Particularly The Birthday Party, The Pop Group and Einsturzende Neubauten, even The Gun Club with their take on Voodoo Blues. I should have been looking closer to home! Some bunch of misfits in Glasgow were kicking up a hornet’s nest accompanied by the soundtrack of the darker sounds of the USA. Hank Williams, The Stooges and Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers, come to mind, but James King and the Lonewolves may have been using archetypical elements, yet they made them sound eloquent – there was classic songwriting here, although it may have been ‘cursed, poisoned and condemned’. James King had most definitely sold his soul to the devil at the same crossroads as Robert Johnson.

I remember writing a review in Cut magazine, stating I found them more sinister than The Violent Femmes, which was saying a lot, as they had just written Country Death Song – all about a father murdering, and disposing of his own daughter down a well. In the early 80’s, while Scottish pop was getting brighter and shinier, James King and the Lonewolves were the dark side, and they made no bones about it.

While ex-Fall guitarist, Martin Brammah’s band The Blue Orchids did the honours in Edinburgh, as fallen Velvet Underground chanteuse Nico’s backing band, The Lonewolves did the same in Glasgow.

They signed to Alan Horne’s Swamplands label in 1984 alongside Davy Henderson’s WIN! and Steven Daly’s Memphis, but after an Old Grey Whistle Test performance, featuring multiple profanities, which received countless complaints from viewers, Swamplands washed their hands of this unmanageable collection of individuals in 1985. An album recorded with John Cale at the height of his madness would never see the light of day. Until now that is – Sterogram Recordings are about to set the record straight, through the bands main protagonists burying the hatchet.

Fast forward to the future – James King and Jake McKechan make it up in 2011 after 25 years of not speaking and play a memorial show for former agent, Alan Mawn. It is nothing, if not fantastic. In light of all the complacency we are currently experiencing in modern music, hearing the sounds of James King and the Lonewolves again is a joy. This is Rock’n’Roll as it should be and you can tell they mean it maaan!

The first recorded fruits of the revamped Lonewolves in May 2013 was a revelation. Pretty Blue Eyes sounded like it should have been a double-sided 7” on Ork Records from 1975, as cool as Little Johnny Jewel by Television, you kinda wanted it to be longer. Fun Patrol kicked in like The Smiths’ How Soon is Now, then morphed into The Glitter band meets The Stooges – need I say more, and James still has a vicious tongue. James King and the Lonewolves – as stated on their very first single, were indeed Back from the Dead!

Now, having hooked up with Edinburgh’s Stereogram Recordings (home to The Cathode Ray and Roy Moller), that fantastic, long-lost album, Lost Songs of the Confederacy, has finally seen the light of day – obviously re-recorded, re-mastered and brought up to scratch with new recordings to supplement the buried ones resulting in James saying ‘ there was unfinished business to be done’. I’m sure there are many other buried treasures out there, meanwhile, this is as good a place as any to re-acquaint yourself with the Lonewolves’ particular brand of classic rock through the ages.

https://stereogramrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/lost-songs-of-the-confederacy-lp-cd-dl

JC

James King & The Lone Wolves

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 34)

A GUEST POSTING by flimflamfan

Following a rather down-beat post I provided to this very series (Antony and the Johnson’s – Paddy’s Gone) I became somewhat fixated by a much-loved song which is almost as down-beat as it is sparse with its evocative storytelling: James King and the Lonewolves – Lost.

Released in 1983 (Thrush 2), the final song on a 5 track 12” e.p., Lost leaves me anything but. It’s one of my all-time favourite Scottish songs; ranking extremely high within my favourite Glaswegian songs. It’s like a close friend. I’m very protective of it. It has brought joy when joy was needed.

Like Paddy’s Gone, Lost is delivered with such fragility there’s a sense that it could fall part at any moment. The hesitant vocals, the lyrics, the bass-y induced thud and that ending … a wall of guitar lost in its own melee. Genius.

The thing about this song and its story is … I’m not actually sure if the words below are the correct ones? This is how I’ve been signing it since, ahem, 1983. I’ve tried to find ‘actual’ lyrics but have had no luck.

You’re all I live for
You’re all I care for
I still have time for
Holding on

We’ve grown impatient
We’re tired of waiting
When are you coming?
I’m holding on

Searching for some feeling
Forever drifting
Our hopes are fading
I’m holding on

If I got any of the lyrics wrong then I’m a bit of a fool but … I won’t change them. I’ve lived with this song for so long that even if the words are incorrect, I care not.

Who did he/she live for? Who did he/she care for? And despite hope fading he/she held on – was his/her hope ever requited?

I’m quite in awe when a lyricist can say so much with so few words and this is a perfect example. With 4 other very strong contenders on one e.p. it may seem unkind, perhaps ungrateful, to choose a favourite but this short story seduces me every time.

mp3 : James King & The Lone Wolves – Lost

flimflamfan

Verve

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 29)

A GUEST SERIES

17 – History (Radio Edit)– The Verve (1995, Hut Records)

Released as a single in September 1995 (Reached Number 24)

Of course, the album version with its reference to ‘Beds being unmade and having a skin full of dope’ is the superior version.

History (Album Version)

‘History’ was the single that was released about a day before The Verve split up (the first time at least). It a luscious string laden epic that is obviously about the break up of whatever relationship Richard Ashcroft was in at the time, although he denies that. The front cover of the single sees the band standing in front of an American theatre with the words ‘All Farewells Should be Sudden’ reaching out from top of the theatre.

When I listen to this song I can only think of one thing. A guy also called Richard, although nobody called him that. We all called him Dickie Twice.

Dickie Twice was a student at my University. He got the nickname ‘Twice’, because he used to repeat everything twice. Especially, but not exclusively, jokes. We’d be in the bar and he would be telling us a story of his formative days living on a rough estate in Portsmouth and he would get to the point of the story and then he would repeat it, just in case, we’d missed it, “so we legged it and hid in the pub. (Pause) We hid in the Pub.” – that sort of thing.

He did it all the time. Hence Dickie Twice. He was a brilliant rugby player as well, but that’s not relevant.

Dickie Twice had a girlfriend, who we will call Natalie. She is relevant because half way through our second year, Natalie decided to out of the blue, give up University, go travelling and find herself in some Guatemalan jungle (I’m told she got a refund…). She had been with Dickie Twice about a year at this point and three weeks before Christmas she told Dickie in the Guildford Branch of Marks and Spencer that the reason, she was buying travel socks was because she was catching a flight to Santiago in a weeks’ time and no he wasn’t coming with her.

At 2am, the next day, the phone in my house rang. Johnny my housemate answered the phone and about ten minutes later he was knocking on my door, about five minutes after that Mrs SWC, Johnny, Johnny’s girlfriend Amanda and me were sitting in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil. Johnny explained what was going on but Johnny being the wickedly funny and heartless soul that he is, did it in full on Dickie Twice mode.

A Little Soul – Pulp (1998, Island Records, Number 22)

“That was Dickie Twice on the phone. Nat’s dumped him. She’s going travelling. She’s going to the jungle. To the jungle. To help save monkeys. Monkeys. He’s spent the last six hours trying to change her mind. Change her mind. But she’s going next week. Next Week. Christmas in La Paz is lovely apparently. La Paz.”

This went on for about five minutes, we sat there spellbound as Johnny recreated the phone call word for word. At times it was hilarious, and Mrs SWC and Amanda chastised us for laughing as the intimate moments of Dickie Twice’s relationship breakdown were revealed to us…” and she thinks its weird that I insist on wearing my Quins Top during sex. My Quins Top! I never mentioned her third nipple. Third nipple.”

Eventually Johnny tells us this sentence…”Oh he’s going to go to Wisley Rock and chuck himself off the top. Off the top. And we mustn’t try and stop him. Do not try and stop him. I know he’s serious because he said it twice”. Johnny said between laughter. Wisley Rock is a small rockery located at a famous garden in the Surrey countryside. You could barely chip a toenail by throwing yourself off it. Besides it costs ten quid to get in and Dickie Twice hasn’t got ten quid and couldn’t find his way there even if he was serious.

Johnny refills the kettle and grabs some crisps from the food cupboard. I get out some biscuits, sensing an all-night tea and chat session.

Coffee and TV – Blur (1999, Food Records, Number 11)

Mrs SWC, ever the voice of reason, looks at me and Johnny, and says you should both go over and see him. Take a beer over or something and make sure he’s ok. I look at her and tell its two thirty in the morning and its minus bloody four outside. Amanda nods and tells Johnny the same thing.

He switches the kettle off and I sigh and grab some gloves. It’s a twenty minute walk to Dickie’s house. I give Mrs SWC a look and pocket the biscuits. She stands up goes over to the other food cupboard and takes out some Galaxy Chocolate and sticks her tongue out at me.

Dickie Twice was fine. We wake up his housemates and find him passed out on his bed wearing his Quins Top and cuddling a small toy bear, a half drunk bottle of Jim Bean is on the floor next to him. We check he is breathing, and then before we leave Johnny draws a moustache on a small photo of Natalie that is next to the bed and with a stifled giggle, we leave him alone.

SWC

Mindstore

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #210 : MINDSTORE

I’ve more or less drawn a complete blank on the latest Scottish music combo to roll round on the alphabetical run through of tunes on the laptop.

There are three songs by Mindstore on the hard drive, all courtesy of compilations issued by the Hamburg-based Marina Records.  I can’t find too much of a backstory, nor any pictures, on t’internet.  The Marina website has only the very basic information on the one album that was released (and from which the tracks would be put on later compilations) and Discogs has next to nothing.

Mindstore was a duo consisting of Fiona Colvin (vocals) and Roger Shepherd (keyboards, acoustic guitar, bass).  Their sole album, Lightening The Load, was released in 1996, consisting of ten tracks recorded at Riverside Studios in Busby, a village on the outskirts of Glasgow. The producer was Johnny Cameron, who did a lot of work for Creeping Bent Records, a label that always had a close connection with Marina.

A listing in a local paper, advertising a gig in 1997, says “Thoughtful atmospherics from the duo of Roger Shepard and Fiona Colvin whose new album Lightening The Load has a mellow, jazzy soundtrack feel.” Beyond this, I can offer nothing.  Here’s what I think is the best of the three tracks that have, lifted from In Bed With Marina, which also dates from 1996.

mp3 : Mindstore – Mindstore Springs

It’s a pleasant enough, rather dreamy, if unspectacular affair.  It’s worth five minutes of your time to judge for yourselves…..

JC

Various

WELCOME TO THE NEW MONTH

Here’s 60 minutes and 30 seconds of stuff to get your May Day off to a decent start. I’d like to think that there is something on offer for everyone:-

TRACKLIST

[10 Good Reasons For Modern Drugs] – The Twilight Sad
Still In Love Song – The Stills
Dreams Never End – New Order
Musette and Drums – Cocteau Twins
PDA – Interpol
When It All Comes Down – Miaow
Chili Town – Hinds
Another Girl, Another Planet – The Only Ones
Ever Fallen In Love? – Buzzcocks
No More Heroes – The Stranglers
Sing It Back – Moloko
Kool Thing – Sonic Youth
Splashing Along – Jesse Garon & The Desperados
Morning Is Broken – Lloyd Cole
Don’t Swallow The Cap – The National
No Bulbs 3 – The Fall

mp3 : Various – The Merry Month of May

Perfect for listening to as you take your daily hour of fresh air exercise.

PS:

A huge thanks to everyone for dropping in and leaving comments in these trying times.  There may have been some comments that have inadvertently failed to appear, having initially found their way into the ‘Spam’ folder.  I normally filter this out every couple of weeks, thinking on it as a task akin to cleaning a swimming pool (not enjoyable, but essential).

To my horror, there were over 1,000 comments in the Spam folder, seemingly generated from one source and linked to some sort of cure for coronavirus.  I couldn’t face trying to wade through it all to find stuff that shouldn’t have been in there and so just trashed the lot. Sorry if some wise words from one or more readers were caught up in all this.

One other thing to mention – there have been a number of very welcome guest contributions fired over via e-mail.  Feel free to keep them coming, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to post all of then immediately.

Thanks folks. Stay safe. and take care, and in the words of The Twilight Sad, it won’t be like this all the time.

JC