Month: August 2024

Beat Poets

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #419: THE BEAT POETS

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Another that come courtesy of its inclusion within the Big Gold Dreams box set, released on Cherry Red back in 2019.  This one dates from May 1987

mp3: The Beat Poets – Killer Bee Honey

Here’s the blurb from the booklet:-

“Taken from The Beat Poets debut EP, Glasgow, Howard, Missouri, released on 53rd & 3rd* Killer Bee Honey is an infectious beach-bound instrumental designed to shimmy to, while trying not to kick sand in the faces of tough guys.

Formed by former Primevals guitarist Tom Rafferty, the Beat Poets mined a retro-bound seam of party music, with twanging guitars married to smooth sax on several singles and an album, Totally Radio.”

*the label founded in 1985 by Stephen Pastel, Sandy McLean and David Keegan

The back of the sleeve for the EP provides the names of the band members.  Tom Rafferty (guitar), Keith Bruce (saxophone), Stewart A Nicol (more guitar), Paul Bridges (drums & tambourine) and T Morris Fraser (bass guitar).

By the time the follow-up single, Rebel Surf, was released in 1988, again on 53rd&3rd, they had a different bass player – Robert Renfrew – and a different drummer – John Currie.  That line-up would record the group’s sole album, the above-mentioned Totally Radio, issued by the Lanacashire-based label, Imaginary Records.

JC

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (14): Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – The Rattler

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This lead track on this 12″ single came up via random shuffle the other day and made me determined to write about it…..but there’s nothing really much different to add to what appeared just over three years ago.  Sound the klaxon……….

Lazy repost alert.  Feel free to ignore and come back tomorrow.  This is from May 2021.

The original version of The Rattler has a link to, of all bands, Wet Wet Wet. The pop/soul combo was managed by Elliot Davis who founded an independent label, based in Glasgow, called The Precious Organisation for which he had grand plans, unless the major labels came calling – which they soon did in the shape of Phonogram.   In the end, only two other acts other than ‘The Wets’ ever released anything on Precious, one of them being Goodbye Mr Mackenzie with The Rattler being issued on 7″ and 12″ vinyl in September 1986, and was a relative success in that it reached #13 on the Indie Singles Chart.

Fast-forward two years and a different major label, Capitol Records, had dangled a lucrative contract in front of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie that was duly signed. After a couple of singles hadn’t provided the hoped-for breakthrough, the decision was taken to release the re-recorded version of The Rattler was released in March 1989, going on to enjoy a six-week stint in the Top 75, peaking at #37. It proved, however, to be the only time the band ever cracked the Top 40 of the singles charts, which is something of a mystery as much of their music was tailor-made for radio consumption

mp3: Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – The Rattler (extended version)

There’s three other tracks on the 12″, two of which pay homage to the band’s roots in Edinburgh:-

mp3: Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – Here Comes Deacon Brodie
mp3: Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – Theme From Calton Hill

The former, while nothing to do with his actual real-life story, name checks an 18th Century individual, William Brodie a seemingly respectable tradesman in the city who also served on the Council, holding the position of Deacon of the Incorporation of Wrights, which locally controlled the craft of cabinetmaking. The thing was, Brodie maintained a secret life as a housebreaker, abusing his position as the foremost locksmith of the city to get access to the homes of the wealthy, as well as the vaults of banks. It all went wrong in 1788 when a raid on an excise office was botched and although Brodie fled to Amsterdam, he was caught and brought back to Edinburgh where, after a high-profile trial found him guilty, he was sentenced to death by hanging, at the age of 47. My first knowledge of Deacon Brodie came via drinking in the pub which now bears his name, as it was the closest to the office of my first place of employment back in 1985.

The latter is an instrumental which sounds as if it would make for a great piece of music over which film or television credits would roll. Calton Hill is a stunning city centre location upon which a number of historical monuments and buildings are situated, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s worth mentioning in passing that, for decades, Calton Hill has also had a reputation as a dangerous place at night, a location where male prostitution, drug use and underage drinking has not been uncommon. It may well have been all the latter rather than the lovely buildings which inspired the title of this particular b-side.

The other track? Possibly one of the best-known shanties of them all:-

mp3: Goodbye Mr Mackenzie – Drunken Sailor

No apologies for the pops and crackles on the four tracks today. It’s the price of using vinyl that’s over 30 years of age and has been picked up second-hand.

JC

 

James

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (21) : James – Come Home

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The idea today in featuring the original version of a song that would eventually become a big hit for James, is two-fold.

Firstly, given that I’m getting on a plane much later on today for an overnight flight to Glasgow, the title is appropriate.

mp3: James – Come Home

Released on Rough Trade to complete indifference in November 1989.   The failure of the label to provide the band with sufficient support for both this and previous single Sit Down led to a parting of the ways and James making the move to Fontana Records.  The re-recorded versions of the two Rough Trade singles, along with the album Goldmother, brought the commercial success they had been dreaming of for years.

There is no question that Fontana insisted on a more commercial radio-friendly sound, but at the same time, with baggy/Madchester being very much to the fore, the stars had aligned perfectly for the band.

The second reason is that the b-side to the Rough Trade 45 provides one of James’ finest recordings, and one of my very favourite political protest songs

I’ll settle down and watch some television
Watch the news
Confronted by an ugly politician
And her ugly views
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here
In your promised land
In your promised land

She is at the scene of every disaster
Shaking hands
Circling the corpses like a vulture
Coming into land
I don’t belong
Here, I don’t belong
Here, in your promised land
In your promised land

Never tell the truth
Look them in the eye
Soften up the voice
Justify a lie
Smother us in blue
Smother us in rust
Images are true
Images we trust

Promise us a home
Sell us what we own
Give the dog a bone
Dog a, dog a bone
You are the one
Ever so strong
Never be wrong
Never be wrong

The people of my country are divided
By her greed
Money is directed to ambition
Not to need
Now the scum is really floating to the surface
Of the sea
Everything she touches is infected
Including me

I don’t belong here
I don’t belong here
In your promised land

Thatcher may be long gone, but her legacy lives on, especially in the way Tory and the far-right politicians go about their business.  I really wish the lyrics of this song weren’t still so meaningful 35 years on….can only hope the recently elected government will do things differently and better.

Early signs are…….well, the jury is still deliberating.

mp3: James – Promised Land

JC

Slaughter Joe

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (14)

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This is one of the tracks included on Creation Records (International Guardians Of Rock ‘N’ Roll 1983-1999), a compilation of 30 tracks, across 2xCDs, issued by Sony/Columbia after Alan McGee‘s label had folded.  The final cash-in, if you like.

It wasn’t too long before it was in the bargain bins, and I picked my copy up in Fopp Records for £5.  Given that I already had quite a few of the songs from the original releases, it’s hard to say if it was worth it, but then again, the fact it has enabled at least one post for the blog all these years later does give it something on the credit side of the balance sheet.

Slaughter Joe was the name used for recording purposes by Joe Foster, one of the three individuals who formed Creation Records in 1983. Better known as a producer, he was also a member of The Television Personalities and Biff Bang Pow!

mp3: Slaughter Joe – I’ll Follow You Down

The credits on this rather noisy three-minute single from 1985, which has the catalogue number of CRE 019, list Slaughter Joe (guitar howl harmonica), Nathan Detroit (bass), Richard Berlin (electric viola) and Memphis (drums).  I’ve a feeling these may not be their real names.

Indeed, a click on the credits on Discogs reveal the other three to be Alan McGee, Frank Sweeney (of the June Brides) and Alec Palao.

I haven’t been at all inclined to seek out any of their other releases, but it might well appeal to some of you.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

JC

Residents

I AM A MOLE AND I LIVE IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE…

A guest posting by Fraser Pettigrew

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I’ve been to a few gigs over the years. Not as many as some readers here, for sure, but the list includes artists from the globally stellar to the defiantly cult. I’ve seen Prince and Bob Dylan, Comsat Angels and Pere Ubu. The majority of these concerts have followed the time-honoured format and mostly don’t deserve description beyond the fact of being there, it was great, Bob wore a black suit and sang through his nose for two hours.

There are some gigs, however, that ought to be filed under ‘unusual’ for various reasons.

One of the most seriously out-of-the-ordinary shows I went to was The Residents at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall in June 1983. I knew very little about them at the time. I’d seen a video on the Old Grey Whistle Test of their alien interpretation of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction, heard a few other snippets on John Peel and that was about it. I’ve still never bought any of their records. But they were legendary for their uncompromising avant-garde obscurity, reclusiveness and personal anonymity. I was a moth to the flame.

For those of you that have never encountered them, The Residents are noted for never appearing unmasked in public, usually to be seen in promo photos or album artwork wearing top hats and tails with giant eyeballs where their heads should be. To us, children of the punk revolution, such anti-fame was deserving of high respect. And the music was staunchly uncommercial, surreal-satirical, the epitome of American weird, refreshing the parts that even Zappa and Beefheart couldn’t reach.

I’ve subsequently dipped into The Residents’ back-catalogue thanks to Spotify and while I can’t offer a complete summary of so many dozen albums, much of what I hear casts them firmly in the role of electronic-industrial pioneers, experimenting with synthesisers and treatments that warp familiar forms into a disquieting zone of creepy twilight jitters. It’s like listening to Dome or Cabaret Voltaire playing Roald Dahl poetry in the style of Sun Ra. It’s not unreasonable to argue that those groups show the influence of The Residents, as do the likes of Throbbing Gristle, Pere Ubu and Devo, albeit in (sometimes) much more accessible form.

Prior to the extensive European tour that brought them to Edinburgh, The Residents had played barely a handful of live shows over their decade-long existence. This was seen as part of their studied obscurity, but in fact it was driven as much by the difficulty the group itself perceived in reproducing their studio music on a live stage. Advances in early sampler technology in the early 80s presented a solution, and the Mole Show was born.

The Queen’s Hall is not your typical rock venue, which seems entirely appropriate for a band like The Residents. It’s a former presbyterian church with no real backstage area or clear division between auditorium and the stage, a low platform projecting into the seated area and overlooked on both sides by the upper balcony. Ironically, however, The Mole Show was clearly designed with a more traditional theatre in mind and the stage end of the Queen’s Hall had to be screened off with a huge improvised white curtain that would ordinarily hang handily across the proscenium arch.

The show started with the curtain still closed, lights blazing behind it and some quasi-industrial music kicking in. Eventually the curtain parted to reveal… another curtain! Or at least a rough sackcloth screen held up on a large gantry behind which the band members could be made out, backlit and silhouetted as they played. A group of dancers occupied the area in front of the screen, writhing about with a large eyeball held in each hand. So far, so weird.

To be honest, I don’t remember that much about the music or all the barmy things that happened in the show. I do remember that when band members finally emerged from behind the screen they weren’t eyeball-headed but wore those joke plastic Groucho Marx glasses-nose-moustache masks to obscure their faces. There was an MC who explained to the audience what was going on at various points. I have subsequently learned that the MC was none other than Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller fame, before anyone in the UK knew who Penn and Teller were. Towards the end of the show, after he had spent the evening using his role to sarcastically deride the performers, he was brought back onto the stage gagged and tied to a wheelchair. Apparently, during a performance in Spain, Jillette was attacked by an irate audience member while thus bound and gagged. No such assault occurred in Edinburgh, however.

Fortunately, to make up for my feeble recollection, there is a video on YouTube of an entire performance of The Mole Show

It was recorded in Madrid for an arts TV programme, so we can all marvel at the impenetrable insanity of the whole thing. (The show starts at about 8m30s. The role of MC is played by the tour manager in this recording, as Penn Jillette was ill).

Click here.

There is also an excellent fan website here  that relates the complete logistical and financial nightmare of the tour, an experience of mismanagement that reads like the most typical rock’n’roll thing The Residents have ever done.

It’s the familiar story of setting out to tour as a way of generating income, but designing a show that cost more to stage and transport than came in at the box office, having to sell the merchandising rights to generate funds but thereby losing out on the substantial income stream from merch sales, and finally their tour manager failing to pay the UK shipping company who impounded all their gear until he was paid, requiring The Residents to rebuild all their sets for one last money-spinning performance back in America, eating into the fee for that. Two days before this final show, the original sets and gear arrived from the UK.

Despite ending up penniless from this exhausting experience, The Residents have gone on to embrace live performance over subsequent years, mounting elaborate stage shows that have managed to actually make money on occasion. They have also managed to remain anonymous, with the exception of founding member Hardy Fox, although his identity as one of the band’s primary composers was only revealed on account of his death in 2018. He had previously been openly associated with the group as one of the ‘Cryptic Corporation’, a group of people supposedly brought in to manage and represent the band.

As I mentioned above, even the experience of The Mole Show didn’t motivate me to seek out any of their records. It was as though the gig was more of a theatrical experience than a musical one, and certainly almost all of The Residents’ LPs can be defined as ‘concept’ albums, like little theatrical creations of their own. Consequently, it’s very difficult to pick out any kind of representative sample of tracks, so I’ve confined it to a couple of pieces from Mark of the Mole, the album that spawned the whole idea of the show, plus a couple of other pieces from the same era. The Commercial Album (1980), whilst laughably un-commercial (natch!) at least has the virtue of limiting each track to exactly one minute, and as a consequence is more listenable than a lot of their others. I’d be hard pushed to say I was recommending any of this mind you, but if your tastes take you to some wilder shores then you might enjoy. Or you’ve been there already. Plus, if you were canny enough to buy a copy of the Satisfaction single in 1976 you could possibly raise anything between £400-800 for it these days.

mp3: The Residents  – Voices of the Air  (from Mark of the Mole, 1981)
mp3: The Residents – Another Land (from Mark of the Mole, 1981)
mp3: The Residents – Amber (from The Commercial Album, 1980)
mp3: The Residents – Perfect Love (from The Commercial Album, 1980)
mp3: The Residents – Satisfaction (single, 1976)

The long history of The Residents is a furiously complex web of personas, mythologies, conceptual contrivances and symbolism that makes the KLF look like part-timers. The fact of having seen them live illuminates none of this really. It was just one incarnation of an endlessly morphing artistic project that has rolled along for around fifty years, the product of a group of people with singular imaginations and a lifelong dedication to their concept. I still feel privileged to have witnessed them perform live at that time, when few others ever had. For all the mainstreaming of what was once avant-garde in the decades after punk, I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it since.

Fraser

Breakfast Muff

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (3): LUNCH MONEY

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This one is all done and dusted in 50 seconds.  Trust me, it’ll be the best use of 50 seconds in your entire day. Think of X-Ray Spex crossing up with Wire.

mp3: Breakfast Muff – Lunch Money

Breakfast Muff were (and I’m using the past tense as there’s been nothing released since 2018) a hugely entertaining pop-punk trio from Glasgow consisting of Eilidh McMillan, Simone Wilson and Cal Donnelly.  This is the opening track from the 2017 album Eurgh!, and it sets the tone perfectly for what follows.  13 bouncing and boisterous tracks across 25 minutes.  

JC

 

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Thirty-Nine)

 

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You’ll hopefully remember from the 1992 series of Wedding Present singles that the year was rounded off with what seemed like a festive number in the shape of No Christmas.  But as I mentioned at the time No Christmas, other than its title, had very little to do with the festive season and was really just about the saddest and bleakest of all the break-up songs that David Gedge has ever written.

He later said in an interview that he maintained the hope and ambition of writing, recording and releasing a bona-fide single celebrating the (supposedly) most wonderful time of the year.  His ambition came to be realised at the end of 2008.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Holly Jolly Hollywood

This was the lead track on EP4 of How The West Was Won.  It’s a light, almost flimsy throwaway number in which a co-vocal is delivered by Simone White, a Hawaii-born singer/songwriter whose recording career began in 2003 and has, to date, encompassed eight albums with a similar number of singles and EPs.  A promo video was made:-

The promo actually has a big part to play in why I dislike this song.   David Gedge might only be ten years older than Simone White, but the age gap looks a lot wider in the video, three minutes of footage in which he appears stiff and wooden, not to mention he’s put just too much black in his hair dye prior to the shoot.

As with other songs in the box set, an acoustic version was offered up:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Holly Jolly Hollywood (acoustic version)

The digital download came, as with the box set CD, came with a cover version of possibly the most famous festive song of them all.

mp3: The Wedding Present – White Christmas

It’s delivered at a funereal pace.  I have no love for it, so I’ll leave it at that.

The record label did produce a few promotional CDs containing all three of the above songs for distribution to radio stations.  A copy is currently up for sale on Discogs for a little over £20, including postage and packaging.

The promo CD doesn’t have the fourth track that was included in the CD contained within the How The West Was Won box set.   It, too, was a cover version, and was the song that had been released as the bonus track with the ITunes download of El Rey some more than six months earlier.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Back For Good

Take that…….and weep.

The Wedding Present went into a bit of a hiatus for a few years, certainly in terms of recording. This was partly to do with David Gedge coming back to live in the UK after quite a few years on the west coast of America, and much of his time being taken up with planning, organising and curating his At The Edge of The Sea festival, the first of which was in August 2009 and which, other than when COVID restrictions prevented it, has been an annual event in Brighton at that time of year.  The band did continue to perform extensively, particularly in 2010 with shows celebrating the 20th anniversary of Bizarro. 

This series, however, won’t be having any similar hiatus.  Tune in at the same time next Sunday, when I’ll have jumped forward to 2012.

JC

Be Charlotte

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #418: BE CHARLOTTE

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Be Charlotte is the stage name taken by Dundee-born Charlotte Brimmer.  Earlier this year, at the age of 27, she released her debut album Self Doubt and Fictional Doubts on her own label Enough Records.  It’s been quite the journey…..

She emerged onto the scene almost a decade ago, singing and performing her own songs in venues in and around her home city. She is on record as saying that her inspirations were Tracey Chapman, Lauren Hill and Avril Lavigne.

Her first recordings emerged as 7″ singles in 2016, and in the immediate years afterwards she went on the road a fair bit, including European shows, played on bills at a number of the annual festivals that are held throughout Scotland, and landed some high profile support slots, including opening for The Proclaimers at a sold-out Glasgow Hydro (capacity approx 13,000) in September 2019.

In 2020, she was named as ‘Best Newcomer’ at The Scottish Music Awards.  The future looked assured, especially as she had signed a deal with Columbia/Sony Music with a 12″ EP being released that same year. Sadly, the pandemic brought things to halt, as they did for so many young and not-so-young musicians, and the planned tours in the UK and Europe didn’t take place.

Charlotte took time to reflect on things and decided that she wasn’t comfortable or happy with the record label deal and walked away from it.  She also had a bit of turmoil in her life – she had moved to live and work in Berlin, but then had to return home to Dundee after finding herself the unfortunate victim of a scam involving a rogue landlord.  It was quite the emotional and professional rollercoaster.

Her songs are very pop-related and pleasant enough on the ear, but other than having one of her early singles dating back to 2016, there’s nothing on the shelves here in Villain Towers

mp3: Be Charlotte – Machines That Breathe

There’s a great deal more to watch and listen to over at the Be Charlotte YouTube channel.  Click here.

JC

Soft Cell, Spandau Ballet

GOT TO KEEP THE CUSTOMERS SATISFIED (2)

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I hadn’t intended to do such a quick follow-up to the post from earlier this week, but it felt like the right thing to do on the back of the comments that were added when I featured Hard Times/Love Action by The Human League.

Mention was made of July 1981 being a great month for 12″ releases, thanks not only to the Human League but also singles by Soft Cell and Spandau Ballet, with the latter being a particular favourite of postpunkmonk (whose website/blog is one of the best written and most informative out there….his depth of knowledge is ridiculously impressive).

As I’m away on a short holiday, I felt it made a bit of sense to do a bit of cut’n paste from the previous occasions when the 12″ versions of Tainted Love and Chant No.1 featured on the blog.

It was only after making this decision that I found out the long pieces on both singles were over on the old blog, going back to sometime between 2007 and the first half of 2013. 

Damn!

But here’s what was said as part of the Soft Cell ICA (#156) from February 2018.

mp3: Soft Cell- Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go (12″)

“On the LP (Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret), the last wail of the sax on Frustration goes straight into one of the most recognisable two-note pieces of music ever recorded.

Marc Almond has since written that the arrangement on Tainted Love is all down to David Ball, with one exception; it was Marc’s idea to open with the tinny sounding ‘bim bim’ that would then be repeated throughout the song in the background. It was also his idea that the song would segue perfectly into another sixties classic, albeit in Where Did Our Love Go? they were deploying a tune that was incredibly well-known. At this time, the duo were still focussed on being experimental as much as possible, and the plan when they went into the studio was to go for a 12” release aimed at the club market. It was producer Mike Thorne who twisted their arms to go with Tainted Love as a stand-alone track and as a compromise, a stand-alone cover of the Supremes number would be the b-side.

The 7” became a #1 hit the world over and went Top 10 on the Billboard chart in the USA, staying in that particular Top 100 for 43 weeks. It has sold millions, but of course neither Almond nor Ball have any songwriting royalties from such sales thanks to the error of not including one of their own compositions on the single (albeit a re-recorded Memorobilia was on the 12”).”

And here’s what was written in September 2017 in a longish piece offering the opinion that Spandau Ballet once had ‘it’ but lost ‘it’ somewhere along the way….probably around the release of Gold or True.

mp3 : Spandau Ballet – Chant No.1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) (12″)

This piece of horn-driven funk climbed all the way to the Top 3 in the UK, spending months hanging around the charts and becoming a staple of every club and discotheque in the country. If a black band, say from NYC or Philadelphia, had written and recorded Chant No.1, it would have been held up as an instant classic, but instead this group of young, fashionable Londoners were accused by their critics of music by numbers. It was, and remains, a nailed-on classic that the band never ever bettered.

I stand by all of the above paragraph.

As my dear friend from Germany says in his sign-offs,

Take care.  And enjoy.

JC

 

Nina Hagen Band, Penetration, Runaways

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (August, part two)

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Time for another dip into my well-thumbed big book of Indie music to check what memorable singles were released in August 1979 but didn’t bother the chart compliers.  I’ll start of with one for my good mate, Dirk.

mp3: Nina Hagen Band – TV Glotzer (White Punks On Dope)

Nina Hagen is regarded as ‘The Godmother of German Punk’.  Born and raised in East Berlin, she moved to Hamburg, aged 21, in 1976 when her stepfather’  East German citizenship was withdrawn. Her stepfather was Wolf Biermann, a singer-songwriter/poet, who was on an officially sanctioned tour of West Germany when the East German authorities,without warning, revoked his citizenship.  The dissident nature of his work had long put him at odds with the authorities.

Nina, who herself was making a name as a performer who was a bit of an agitator, immediately put in a request to join her stepfather in exile, which was granted very quickly.  Not long after she arrived in Hamburg, she signed a record deal with CBS and in due course went to live and work in West Berlin.

TV-Glotzer was released in Germany in 1979 and eventually in the UK on 29 August 1979. It is a cover of a cover of White Punks on Dope by The Tubes, with different German lyrics from the perspective of an East German unable to leave her country, who escapes by watching West German television, where “everything is so colourful”.  It was recorded at the Hansa Studios, made most famous by David Bowie with his trilogy of albums between 1977 and 1979.

mp3: Penetration – Come Into The Open

I’ll repeat what I said back in April.  Penetration were one of those band who generated a lot of very positive media that failed to translate into any meaningful commercial success. Actually, that’s not strictly accurate. There were five singles released between 1977 and 1979, none of which troubled the charts, but the two studio albums Moving Targets (1978) and Coming Up For Air (1979) went Top 40, with the debut actually reaching #22.

Come Into The Open was the second single issued in advance of the release of the second album, but like all 45s issued by the band on Virgin Records, it didn’t reach the Top 75.

mp3: The Runaways – Right Now

The Runaways were very much an American band who didn’t have too much exposure over here in the UK.  The band actually broke up in April 1979, so I have no idea how it came to be that UK indie label, Cherry Red, came to issue this single in August 1979. Well, I had no idea until I looked into things and saw that the band’s fourth and final studio album And Now….The Runaways, had only been released in mainland Europe back in December 1978 and that it’s UK release was handled by Cherry Red in the late summer of 79.   The single would have been pressed as part of the promotional activities.

A bit like July 79, the month proved to be quiet.  But I can promise a much larger selection of songs when we reach September 1979.

Oh, and just to mention that later this morning, I’m heading off to Toronto for a short 7-day break to catch up with some old friends. The blog will continud with a combination of some guest post, the usual things you find on Saturdays and Sundays and some of the pre-preparedthings on singles that I pull out of storage at times like these.  Hopefully there will be enough to keep you entertained.

JC

New Order

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #065

 

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#065: New Order – ‘Ceremony’ (Factory Records ’81)

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Good morning friends

another one which will most certainly divide the millions of readers of this excellent blog into exactly two divisions: one which will think that I am a total tosser, and one which will think that I am a real genius.

Given the number of singles New Order released over the years, there will obviously be quite a lot of opinions about which one was the best of the lot – which easily makes the first division the bigger division, I would reckon. I just had a quick look @ discogs: 36 7“ singles have been issued, their filter says. But those include things like single sided promo versions on coloured vinyl, stuff that no-one can afford anyway …‘Blue Monday’ being a good example.

What I’m trying to say, first division, is: even if you number the lot down to ‘the pure’ 7“ releases, it’s still quite a bulk of records, so even if the chances are not exactly 1:36 against my choice, they are still pretty low I’m afraid.

But 7 inches is the topic, ‘original’ ones at that, so I had to draw the line somewhere. ‘Blue Monday ’88’ could theoretically have featured, but it is shite, of course. ‘Temptation’ could have featured, but there was no way it could have made the top, because even if you had heard the 12“ only once in your life, you would never include the 7“ in any chart whatsoever! Also JC featured it just a few weeks ago, which might or might not be a good reason not to pick it.

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mp3:  New Order – Ceremony

I first fell in love with ‘Ceremony’ when I heard it on ‘Still’ – and, as you know, old love never fully dies. I know I am easily aroused, but when Barney opens with the ‘this is why events unnerve me’ – bit, it still sends shivers down my spine … and that’s quite a task after 43 years, isn’t it?

As far as I’m concerned, they never released a better 7“.  A better 12“: yes, easily. Feel free to disagree, but if you are in the second division with me, let me know …

Take good care,

Dirk

Siouxsie & The Banshees

GOT TO KEEP THE CUSTOMERS SATISFIED

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It’s always a nice feeling spotting that someone has taken the time to offer a comment on whatever has been posted, and in typing those words, I’ll take the opportunity to particularly thank flimflamfan, strangeways, fiktiv, sk, postpunkmonk and Adam from Bagging Area for their very regular contributions.

Every comment is read, and there are times when I wish I had the discipline of someone like Jez over at A History of Dubious Taste who always responds to those who visit his place and offer up some thoughts.  But I do always take note of what is said, which is why today’s offering features a 12″ single that I don’t actually own a copy of, but I was able to ‘ahem’ acquire digitally using my villainous ways.

One of last week’s posts looked at Cities In Dust, a 1985 hit single for Siouxsie & The Banshees.  One of the responses that came in simply said:-

“You really need to post Dazzle and the 2 b-sides to that, which are a couple of my favourite Banshee songs that aren’t that well known.”

It was an anonymous contribution; it’s really annoying that WordPress make it so awkward for occasional contributors to put their name to comments, but in saying that, the service provided by them for the blog is excellent and that’s probably my only grumble. 

Sorry for the brief digression there.  Just a quick word of thanks to Anon and I trust today’s post puts a smile on your face.

mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Dazzle (Glamour Mix)

The production is courtesy of Mike Hedges, and there are moments on this seven-minutes plus mix that remind me so much of the work he did with Associates in the early 80s.  It’s also worth mentioning that Hedges had worked with The Cure on a number of their early releases, and the Banshees at this particular time in their history had Robert Smith on lead guitar and keyboards, and as such it all made for a great fit.

Dazzle was the second and final single to be lifted from the album Hyæna.   It only reached #33 in May 1984 by which time Smith had long announced his departure from the Banshees, citing exhaustion as he couldn’t manage the workload involved in being in two busy and high-profile bands.

The two b-sides on the 12″ don’t have Mike Hedges involved, with the credits being simply given as ‘A Siouxsie & The Banshees Production’

mp3 : Siouxsie & The Banshees – I Promise
mp3 : Siouxsie & The Banshees – Throw Them To The Lions

The former is an excellent listen, albeit it’s title being so similar to a Bunnymen song that I found my mind drifting off to that one, given there is some similarity in the way that Mac and Siouxsie sing the word ‘promise’.

The latter, in places, is very gothic in nature, with Smith’s guitar work recalling some of the Cure’s early non-hit tunes. It’s one that gets the thumb-up from me.

Thanks again to Anon for this fine suggestion.  Everyone is welcome to offer things in a similar manner, and I’ll do my best to keep the satisfaction levels at a high rate.

JC

 

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Thirty-Eight)

 

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The third EP inside the How The West Was Won box set contained an edited version of the opening track of El Rey along with three previously unavailable songs – in essence, this particular EP was what most likely made fans go out and buy the box set.

Santa Ana Winds is one of the strongest and most memorable songs on the new album, which is no doubt why it was selected as its opener.   It is a pounding rock number, one with a great bassline courtesy of co-writer Terry Di Castro as well as sorts of Albini trademarks throughout; the fact that a few songs afterwards failed to reach similar standards is very much a contributory factor as to why my overall reaction to the album was one of disappointment  – at this point I should add that I gave El Rey a fresh listen a few weeks ago when preparing these run of posts related to 2009, and there’s certainly more to like about it than I had been thinking all these years….but it’s still low down on my list of favourite TWP albums.

The edited version cuts out the 40 seconds or so from the album version, omitting the morse-code style intro and gradual build-up.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Santa Ana Winds (edit)

The other three tracks make for decent enough listening, but at the same time didn’t really offer too much in the way of truly memorable tunes. 

mp3: The Wedding Present – Hulk Loves Betty
mp3: The Wedding Present – Drink You, Eat You
mp3: The Wedding Present – Twenty Jackies

The box set, of which there were just 1,000 copies pressed, was released at the end of October.  EP#4, or at least most of it, would end up receiving a digital release before the year was out.

JC

Bachelor Pad

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #417: THE BACHELOR PAD

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Last week in this long-running series saw the appearance of a song which was on one side of a 1987 flexi disc issued by Sha La La Records.  It turns out, quite fortuitously, that the song on the other side of the same flexi disc is on offer today!

The one previous occasion when The Bachelor Pad got a mention on this little corner of t’internet was in May 2015 as part of a series looking at all the tunes on the CD86: 48 Songs From The Birth Of Indie Pop (Castle Music/Sanctuary 2006).

By rights, they should have featured in this particular series just a few weeks later, but having, at the time, just the one song by the band, I felt that I would have been short-changing everyone by offering a repeat so soon after the event.

I’ve picked up four more songs in the intervening period, all through their inclusion on compilations or box sets, one of which is the superlative Big Gold Dreams : A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989 (Cherry Red Records, 2019).

mp3: The Bachelor Pad – Girl Of Your Dreams

The blurb in the BGD boolet advises that The Bachelor Pad emerged out of the ruins of The Wee Cherubs (as featured previously in this series last September) with the same songwriters, Tommy Cherry and Martin Cotter in charge.

I’m delighted to say that this song is a lot better than the two that I posted back in 2015 when I was less than complimentary to the band!

JC

Human League

LUST’S JUST A DISTRACTION

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Today’s isn’t one for the TikTok generation or folk with short-attention spans. It’s more than ten minutes long and a total contrast to the new series that was launched a few days back.

mp3: The Human League – Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe In Love)

Love Action was released in July 1981.   It climbed all the way to #3 and provided the group with its first Top 10 hit, building nicely on the success of previous single Sound of The Crowd which had got to #12.  At this stage, nobody was really sure if the success could be maintained or whether they would come to be regarded as a footnote in musical history, best recalled for having a frontman with a silly haircut and two backing singers whose appearances on Top of the Pops were a bit lacking in confidence.

Six months later, the success of the single Don’t You Want Me and the album Dare ensured that The Human League would be anything but a footnote….and fair play to them. Some of the band had long been at the vanguard of innovative synth music, and it was a bit of a eureka moment with the realisation that the addition of a pop element would take it out of the bedrooms of the geeks and into the living rooms, lounges and patio extensions of countless millions.

The 7″ version of Love Action is a brilliant four-minute pop single. The group were of course more than happy to have it pushed via the radio stations to become a big hit, but at the same time they were really keen to let people hear the fully extended version they had come up with in the studio with producer Martin Rushent, one which involved the song emerging from a near-instrumental track called Hard Times (which itself was made available as the b-side to the 7″).  

The marketing folk at Virgin Records were equally keen, possibly trying to avoid the group being pigeonholed at this juncture purely as pop-fodder, and so the 12″ was put into the shops at the cheap price of £1.49, thus offering up what in effect was more than 20 minutes of music at a cost that wasn’t that much more than the 7″.

mp3: The Human League – Hard Times/Love Action (I Believe In Love) (instrumentals)

Fun fact.   Lou Reed was a big influence on the lyric.   The song is not only named after I Believe in Love, as written and recorded for the 1976 album Rock and Roll Heart, but Phil Oakey would later reveal that the lyric “I believe what the old man said” was a specific reference to the gruff New Yorker.

JC

 

Quando Quango

FAC 102 : WHEN BARNEY AND JOHNNY FIRST WORKED TOGETHER

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Yesterday’s post on Forbidden City by Electronic made passing reference to Atom Rock/Triangle by Quando Quango in that it had been the first time Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr had worked together.

Here’s the skinny.

Quando Quango had formed in 1980 as a trio in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Specialising in electronica/dance, its members were Manchester-born Mike Pickering (vocals) and locally-born sister and brother, Gonnie Rietveld (synths and programming) and Reiner Rietveld (drums).  Nothing was ever recorded or released prior to the trio moving to Manchester in 1982 when Pickering took up a job offer to be one of the main DJs at the new Hacienda Club, his connection being that Rob Gretton (New Order’s manager and prime mover behind the opening of the club) was a friend of many years standing.

The trio signed to Factory Records and debut single, Go Exciting/Tingle (FAC67) was released in October 1982.  There would be a further single, Love Tempo (FAC79) in 1983, around which time Reiner Rietveld decided to return to Rotterdam and pursue his own dreams.

Quando Quango then expanded to include other prominent musicians with a Factory connection. Simon Topping of A Certain Ratio came in as percussionist while Derrick Johnson of 52nd Street joined as bass player, albeit he soon moved on and was replaced by his brother Barry Johnson, formerly of the soul band Sweet Sensation, and who in later years would join British-reggae band, Aswad.

Love Tempo had been a DoJo-Be Music production, which was the name adopted by Donald Johnson (A Certain Ratio) and Bernard Sumner (New Order) whenever they worked together on that side of things.  The duo remained in situ for Quando Quango’s next single, released in May 1984, and given the title of 2 From Quando:

mp3: Quando Quango – Atom Rock
mp3: Quando Quango – Triangle

It was a 12″ only release, albeit a rare white label 7″ was also pressed up but never made commercially available. The full list of credits?

A DoJo-Be Music Production
Gonnie Rietveld : Synths, Drum Programmes, Vocals
Mike Pickering : Sax, Vocals
Barry Johnson: Bass Guitar
Simon Topping: Percussion, Trumpet
Johnny Marr: Guitar

The stellar cast didn’t deliver much in the way of commercial success – it’s listed as reaching #42 in the Indie Charts.  I know it won’t be to everyone’s liking, but it’s one I have much fondness of, getting to know it back in the day through a flatmate having a copy, albeit I will admit it sounds very much of its time, although there are hints on one side of what New Order were doing -the bass line on Triangle is Hooky-eque with added funk – while Atom Rock does still have an ability to get the toes tapping and the hips swaying.

The group would release a further single, Genius, and an album Pigs+Battleships, in 1985 before calling it a day.  Mike Pickering would later be part of the spectacularly successful pop/soul band M People, while Gonnie Rietveld would move into writing and academia, in due course gaining a PhD and in later years, as Dr Hillegonda Rietveld, becoming the Course Director of BA Music and Sonic Media at London South Bank University.

JC

Electronic

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (12) : Electronic – Forbidden City

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(with apologies to those of you who saw this the other day when I pressed publish instead of save!!)

An very abridged potted history, edited from the Electronic ICA pulled together back in 2019.

“Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner first worked together when the man from The Smiths/The The contributed guitar to Atom Rock/Triangle, a single on Factory Records by Quando Quango which the man from New Order was co-producing.

Five years on and the increasing tensions within New Order led to Bernard contemplating a solo record, but instead he called on Johnny, and together they came up with the idea of Electronic, thinking of issuing instrumental house music for clubs via white labels only. Next thing you know, they’re talking to Neil Tennant and found that he was interested in helping out…but with his distinctive vocal delivery, there was no chance of anonymity.

First single Getting Away With It was released in 1989.  By 1991, the initial ideas had crystallised into a self-titled debut from which two more chart singles – Get The Message and Feel Every Beat were lifted.  They then went off and did things with their bands, getting back together in 1992 for Disappointed, a single which again utilised Neil Tennant.

The next burst of activity was in 1996 with the album Raise the Pressure.”

This was the ‘comeback’ single, released in June 1996:-

mp3: Electronic – Forbidden City

There was a fascinating snippet of information within the sleeve of the CD, in that Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk played keyboards and Ged Lynch, most recently with Black Grape,  was on drums.   The single didn’t give any indication as to how much Karl Bartos had been involved – there were no writing credits offered up, and just Barney and Johnny appearing in the artwork.

It was only a few weeks later, when the album Raise The Pressure was released, did we learn that Karl Bartos had a co-write credit on six of its thirteen songs, including Forbidden City.  I’d have imagined that his contributions would have led to much more synth-type songs, and while this did prove to be the case with some of the album tracks, there’s no question that the lead-off single is guitar-orientated….and I’ll happily confess that it’s one of my favourite songs that Barney and Johnny were ever involved in, no matter who they were surrounded by.

There were two other songs included with the single, neither of which were included on the album.

mp3: Electronic – Imitation Of Life
mp3: Electronic – A New Religion

I’m not sure if Karl Bartos was involved in writing either of these, but the former, which extends out to almost six minutes, has a greater use of keyboards, albeit it wasn’t that different from what had been written for the debut album some five years earlier – which isn’t a criticism, by the way!!!

The latter has a lot to take in.  In places, it feels like a mid-tempo New Order cast-off, albeit with a heavier guitar sound, and then just before the two-minute mark, the distinctive voice of Denise Johnson comes in to take it in a different direction.  The most noticeable thing is that Denise shows up just how limited a singer Barney really is……which isn’t a criticism by the way!!!

Forbidden City reached #14 in the charts, one of six Top 20 hits the group would enjoy between 1989 and 1999.

JC

Close Lobsters, Spare Snare, Ukranians, Wedding Present

BONUS POST : AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA 2024 (DAY 2)

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With apologies for the slightly blurred image today  – I didn’t realise until looking at it for the purposes of this post that it wasn’t perfect.

The day didn’t get off to a great start.  I had looked at the Scopitones website at lunchtime which gave the Saturday timings as doors opening at 3pm, so our arrival at 3.30 meant we missed all but the last song from Everett True, and it wasn’t even him singing The Fall.  But then again, his take on Chaise Longue by Wet Leg was fun.

One of the things about this particular festival is the timings, with the thought process being that anyone going along can seamlessly catch every single act.  The main part of Concorde 2 is badged as Le Bikini Stage, while an outdoor area takes the name of the Swim Stage.

A couple of minutes after Everett True stepped off Swim, Cinerama walked onto Le Bikini.  The four members of The Wedding Present augmented by Emily on flute and Charlotte on keyboards (apologies for not catching their surnames), while at one point Andrea from Melys joined to provide a co-vocal.  It was a short and very enjoyable set:-

146 Degrees
Close Up
7x
Ears
Sly Curl
Apres Ski
Careless
As If

Just eight songs over what should have been 40 minutes, but with David Gedge chatting away happily on stage, it meant it overran by a few minutes and led to  Melys having already begun the acoustic set by the time we ventured outside into what was a blisteringly hot and sunny day.  The space was rammed, and we couldn’t really see, so we went back inside to where it was a bit cooler and went down near the front to get ready for what Peter Solowka and Len Liggins from The Ukrainians were going to do. 

Turned out it was a mix of a Q&A with some live songs – the questions being asked by David Gedge (who also joined in on the songs on acoustic guitar) – as a way of promoting what looks like a fabulous new book ‘Taking Kyiv to the Kosmos’ which celebrates the now 35-year career of the band (a copy was bought and brought back with us).  The talk and performance was a real joy, particularly when they played this

mp3: The Ukranians – Batyar

Their manic and joyful take on Bigmouth Strikes Again from their 1992 EP, Pizni Iz The Smiths.  I never thought I’d hear that played live, and it put a daft grin on my face.

We forsake watching Jar of Blind Flies, instead making our way just across the road to a beachside cafe for a snack, where we could easily hear the band’s take on noisy alt-rock.  Listening in, we were a bit annoyed at ourselves at missing out, but as it was about to get a bit manic for the rest of the evening, a short break really had to be built in.

Having been sure Batyar would turn out to be my personal highlight of the festival, I was soon proved wrong when the Scottish contingent had their turns in the sun.  

Close Lobsters bounced on the main stage at 6pm and delivered a magnificent show.  The songs covered their entire career, from the early material of the mid-late 80s right through to brand-new songs that came out on a new EP just last week, with everything in between.  We stood near the back of the hall for this show as we were determined to get down the front for the next band on The Swim stage, and with things running marginally late, we had to, very sadly, leave just as Close Lobsters struck the opening notes of their last song:-

mp3: Close Lobsters – Going To Heaven To See If It Rains

And so we ended up right down the front for Spare Snare, who very cleverly waited until Close Lobsters had stopped playing before beginning their set.    I knew from having a wee catch-up with frontman Jan Burnett a few weeks back that he was really looking forward to being part of the festival, and the plan was to blast out, loudly, fast and energetically, a 35-minute set of what the band was all about.

They were truly majestic, with a show that was worthy of headlining Glasgow Barrowlands and not the second and temporary stage at Concorde 2 in Brighton.   Every song was given a rapturous response by an audience that was growing by the minute as word began to spread about the performance that was unfolding.  

I’m not too sure just how many folk at the festival knew of Spare Snare before last Saturday evening, but I’m certain that their name was put into loads of search engines once folk got back to their hotels or returned home.  There was certainly quite a line-up at the merch stall the rest of the night, where new fans took the opportunity to press flesh with Jan and the rest of the band, while picking up CDs, t-shirts etc.   Oh, at Gatwick Airport waiting patiently for a delayed flight back home, we overheard a group of people who were, by the sounds of things bound for Belfast, talking about the festival and saying that Spare Snare had been the support act they had been most enjoyed, especially as they had not known what to expect.

mp3: Spare Snare – Action Hero (Marc Riley Session Version, 2018)

It took us a few moments to catch our breath, and by the time we got back inside to the main hall, the show by Miki Berenyi Trio was already underway.  I’m sure that quite a few of the audience, the opportunity to hear a few Lush songs sprinkled throughout the set was a real highlight, but it kind of felt a bit ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ coming on the back of the two Scottish acts.  Still, finishing off with Ladykillers was a nice populist touch that raised a loud cheer.

Again, it was time for another tough decision.  Back out to the Swim stage to see Lande Hekt (who I had enjoyed in Glasgow a few months back) or stay put to ensure a good spot for the second performance of the weekend by The Wedding Present? The opportunity to lean against one of the columns holding up the venue’s roof, thus giving a bit of support to my increasingly stiff back and legs, made our minds up, and so we reluctantly missed out on what by all accounts was a fine show by the Bristol-based singer.

And so to the end show.  TWP Take II. 

Any worries or fear I had from the previous night were quickly allayed. The sound wasn’t nearly as vicious as it had been on Friday – maybe the more gentle performance as part of Cinerama earlier in the day had rubbed off on Vince Lammi on drums as he was way less violent this time around.  Rachael Wood proved to be a very fine foil on lead guitar for David Gedge while Paul Blackwood very effectively and efficiently did his bit on bass, often over in the corner out where the stage lights were shining. It was quite the set that seemed to feature a fair-amount of duelling guitars, in which David and Rachael brought out the very best in one another.

Rachel
A Million Miles
You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends
Momento Mori
Dalliance
Loveslave
Come Play With Me
Crushed
Don’t Talk, Just Kiss
Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm
I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You
Corduroy
Science Fiction
My Favourite Dress
Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)
Crawl
What Have I Said Now?

I have avoided describing it as a career-spanning set.  17 songs, of which 13 were originally released between 1987 and 1992.   One from 2016 and three from 2022.  Nothing whatsoever from Take Fountain, El Rey and Valentina, the three albums that marked the second coming of the band in the 00s and 10s. Over the two nights, six out of nine songs from Bizzaro were played, along with a b-side from that particular era.  There really is nothing to complain about.

2025 will mark the fifteenth edition of At The Edge of The Sea and tickets have already gone on sale without knowing anything other than The Wedding Present show on the Friday night will centre around Mini, the six-track EP released in 1996, while Cinerama will play an extended set on the Saturday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album Disco Volante. 

David Gedge looked absolutely knackered at the end of it all.  Three sets plus the appearance with The Ukrainians, and at other times doing interviews/chats for those watching a live stream of the event or hanging around the merch stall chatting away to anyone who stopped by.  It would take a lot out of anyone half his age – he turns 65 next April – so we might be getting close to a time  where it proves nigh on impossible for him to stage the festival.  On that basis, there’s every chance we will go back again next year, but it’ll be hard-pressed to better the 2024 event.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Thanks

One they didn’t play from Bizarro!

Oh…..I nearly forgot about my wee postscript.

Sunday evening, at the aforementioned Gatwick Airport just waiting to be called to board and I spot various Close Lobsters along with friends and family members.  Andrew (lead singer) sits a few seats along from me and Rach with his wife/partner.  

I take the opportunity to pass on my appreciation for what had been a great set and apologising for missing the last song.  I also mentioned I was marginally disappointed that Foxheads hadn’t been part of the set.  He smiled, said thanks and said that everyone in the band had thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend.  On the plane, I found myself in the same row (but across the aisle) from Bob (bass player) and as we get ready to exit having landed in Glasgow, I take another opportunity to repeat what I had said to Andrew, and received a similar reply as to how enjoyable the whole experience had been for the band.

Your humble scribe…..rubbing shoulders with the cream of indie-pop!

JC

 

British Sea Power

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (1): FAVOURS IN THE BEETROOT FIELDS

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A new series. 

If, like me on occasion, you find yourself just too busy or distracted to listen in full to a song, this may be a partial solution.  It’ll feature some of the shortest-length tunes I have here in Villain Towers on vinyl or CD. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it going, as I might get too busy or distracted every now and again.  First up is one which the CD states lasts 1 minute and 17 seconds, but the last note is probably a couple of seconds prior.

Who’s a little Caesar taking all the world?
Who’s a little Caesar breaking all the records?
Who’s a little Caesar?
Who’s a little Caesar?
Who’s a little Caesar taking all the world?
The universe is a record of everything you say and do
Who’s a little Caesar?
Who’s a little Caesar?
The universe is a record of everything you say and do
The north island isle is a mighty good isle
The north island isle is a mighty good isle
The north island isle
North island isle
North island isle

mp3: British Sea Power – Favours In The Beetroot Fields

A band that has undergone a fairly recent name change to Sea Power.  This is track 3 on their 2003 debut album, The Decline of British Sea Power.

The meaning of the song title?  Seemingly, it’s a euphemism for visiting prostitutes in brothels, with the phrase being used by the World War II leader, Field Marshall Montgomery, to encourage his troops to take care of their sexual desires while on leave from the battle front.

Typing out that explanation took longer than listening to this energetic number. 

Oh, just a quick reminder that Part 2 of the review of At The Edge of The Sea 2024 will appear later on today.

JC