Month: January 2025

Half Man Half Biscuit

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (9): WHEN I LOOK AT MY BABY

The-2-Minute-Rule

I did promise that Half Man Half Biscuit would feature prominently in this occasional series. This is a belter from their 2022 album, The Voltarol Years.  A sing-a-long number which could easily have been a hit in the music-hall era.

mp3: Half Man Half Biscuit – When I Look At My Baby

No real cultural references in this one for fiktiv to concern himself with, other than ‘Silver Cross’ being a famous UK manufacturer of baby transport.   Oh, and Garstang being a small market town in north-west England.

When I look at my baby
All I see is Richie Stephens
It’s got the same uneven eyebrows
And the snidey little mouth
And it reminds me of the evening
When you said you’d been to Garstang
You’d gone to see Amanda Warhurst
About a Silver Cross pram

But there was never any Garstang
And there’s no Amanda Warhurst
You were in the Coach and Horses
With that low-down, no-good
Pig-thick waster Richie Stephens
And his weird uneven eyebrows
And his snidey little mouth which
I’d like to see leave town

JC

 

Pulp

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #081

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#081: Pulp – ‘Common People’ (Island Records ’95)

Dear friends,

This is a very special single in the series indeed!

Those of you who remember the post on the very first one (The Akrylykz, quite a long time ago, mind you – 14 November 2022!!! ) might also remember me moaning about the fact that so many great songs were not released on 7” in the first place and some of those which were, are now way too expensive to get hold of these days.

Today’s offering is actually an example of both.  It was just over a year after it had been a big hit that the record company decided to give it a reissue via 7″ yellow vinyl, but the quantity pressed was so small that it was hard to get a hold of, and the second-hand market is now expensive.

Now, one very kind soul and a very dear friend of mine read this and sent me today’s single. I’ll let him go unnamed, because knowing him, I can well imagine that he would not want it otherwise, something which only honours him even more, as far as I’m concerned! So thank you, my friend – drinks are on me the next time we meet!

I must admit there is nothing new I can tell you about ‘Common People’, everything has been written before in lengthy detail. I have never been one for praising Britpop all too much, not now and certainly not at the time. But I think people are right when describing this song as Britpop’s ultimate peak – it did not get any better than this, if you ask me.

But this does not mean that one shouldn’t take closer care of Pulp’s back catalogue, they have always been around – from the early 80’s on, if I remember correctly. Not very much successful in their early days, it must be said, but from the early 90’s on they were simply brilliant: ‘Babies’, ‘O.U.’, ‘Razzmatazz’, ‘Disco 2000’– all killers, no question about this! And consequently it would be a shame if you concentrated on ‘Common People’ only, as great as it might be.

So, personally I already quite adored Pulp in the very early 90s, but said adoration turned into profound love in the mid-90s, one reason being ‘Common People’, of course, but another reason was (true arousing story to follow – a bit in SWC’s famous Our-Price-Girl-style probably, if you remember her) that at the time I encountered a girl and not very much later we used to have sex fairly frequently. It was all pretty much normal stuff going on, but this changed within a second when Pulp came on the radio. I won’t get into detail here, but she was like a different person when this happened!

Now, the amateurish psychiatrist in me believes that the combination of us screwing and simultaneously Pulp thundering away in the background brought up an acute schizophrenic episode to her, resulting in a firm belief that she was shagging good ole’ Jarvis instead of me. I mean, I don’t even look remotely like Jarvis, but hey – being a helpful chap, I consequently provided her with a lot of Pulp albums and also a live-DVD …

“well, what else could I do?”, as Jarvis asks here:

mp3: Pulp – Common People

Oh, I do love this record, and I do love Pulp – for many reasons!

Enjoy,

Dirk

Alien Sex Fiend, Brilliant Corners, Dolly Mixture, Hey! Elastica, Pale Fountains

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (January Pt 2)

It’s now time to look at some of the 45s released in January 1984 that didn’t make enough impact with the record buying public to leave a dent in the singles charts but have proven to be of enough cultural significance to be recalled here in Villain Towers.  By cultural significance, I mean I either bought a copy or danced to it to at the student disco….or perhaps actually discovered it many months/years later and kicked myself for being late to the party.  Or it might well be that I think its inclusion in this piece will be of interest to someone out there who drops by this blog on the odd occasion.

1984 was a year when the goths really came to the fore, but as it was a genre that I didn’t really take to, I won’t really be able to do it justice throughout the year.  A reminder that back in July 2021, flimflamfan came up with this wonderful ICA on many things goth, while the following month saw complementary offerings from Middle Aged Man (click here) and Echorich (click here).

None of those three superbly written ICAs made space for a band, formed in London in 1982, and whose third single was released in January 1984:-

mp3: Alien Sex Fiend – R.I.P.(Blue Crumb Truck)

It might not be goth in the purest sense of the word, but I think it’s great fun.

mp3: The Brilliant Corners – She’s Got Fever

It took me until 2016 to discover The Brilliant Corners, thanks to one of their songs being included on the C87 box set released by Cherry Red Records.  After mentioning them on the blog a couple of years later, Eric from Oakland came up with this terrific ICA, which led to me then purchasing a two-disc compilation, Heart on Your Sleeve, that offered up 48 tracks drawn from the ten singles and five albums the band released between 1984 and 1993.  She’s Got Fever was the debut single, and I feel it’s a bit rawer and less polished than some of the later offerings; it also comes in at just over 90 seconds in length.   More rockabilly than indie.

mp3: Hey! Elastica – This Town

1983 should have been the year that Edinburgh’s Hey! Elastica made it big.  Signed to Virgin Records and given a decent budget to record the debut album, they did their best, but it just didn’t happen.  They could have been, and I reckon, should have been, the Scottish B52’s.  The first three singles had flopped, and the folk at the record label, all too aware that this was a signing that hadn’t worked out, were just going through the motions when the calendar moved onto 1984. January saw a fourth and final single, while the album was issued with no fanfare in March.   I get all nostalgic whenever I listen to them.

mp3: Dolly Mixture – Remember This

Best known for being the backing vocalists when Captain Sensible enjoyed some very unexpected chart success as a solo artist in 1982, Dolly Mixture had their own parallel career which had begun back in 1978 as a trio of teenagers, and included significant support tours with The Undertones and Bad Manners, signing a record deal with Paul Weller‘s label, Respond Records, and in due course setting up their own label.  Remember This was a single on Dead Good Dolly Platters, but with no success coming their way, they chose to split-up just a few months later.

And finally for this month:-

mp3: The Pale Fountains – Unless

Consisting of Mick Head (vocalist/guitar), Chris McCaffery (bass), Thomas Whelan (drums), Andy Diagram (horns) and Ken Moss (guitar), this Liverpool-based band had a wide range of influences such as Love, Burt Bacharach and the Beatles. They were critically feted on the back of their 1982 debut single (There’s Always) Something on My Mind issued by the Belgian-based Les Disques du Crépuscule and this then led to a big deal with Virgin Records for whom there had been two well-received 45s in 1983, one of which, Thank You, had made the Top 50.  Hopes were high for 1984, and Unless was the lead single from what would be the debut album, Pacific Street, scheduled for release in late February 1984.  Sadly, the critical acclaim didn’t cross over to widespread radio play or commercial success.

JC

Lou Reed

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #383: LOU REED (2)

A guest posting by Walter (A Few Good Times In My Life)

JC writes……

It was at the tail end of last November that I lazily posted a Lou Reed ICA, basing entirely on a compilation album released by RCA Records in 1977.  Just a few days later, another of my dear friends from Germany, Walter, whose blog A Few Good Times In My Life has been such a consistently wonderful read for many years, send me an e-mail, which for some reason or other, I never saw.  The most likely explanation is that it likely found its way into a Junk folder and then was automatically deleted after a period of time.

Walter got back in touch yesterday, and kindly re-sent the e-mail.  I’m really pleased he did.

—————————————

Hi Jim,

I hope everything is well with you and your family.

I’ve been trying to put together an ICA of Lou Reed for several weeks now. But as you may know, a pensioner has many other things to do and it is difficult to choose ten songs from Lou Reed’s complete works. In the end, your ICA was the deciding factor in finalising my compilation.

Of his probably best-known albums, Perfect Day stands out because it is extremely quiet and introverted by his standards. To this day, it has not been conclusively clarified whether this is a glorification of drugs or not. Presumably it is – why else would it have made it onto the soundtrack of Trainspotting.

1. Perfect Day (from Transformer, 1973)

Reed released his first live album Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal in 1974. For many, it was too heavy at the time, but it also expressed his inner turmoil, the effects of his drug addiction and his separation from the Velvet Underground. A contemporary document of how he saw the song.

2 Heroin (from Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal , 1974)

Occasionally Lou Reed also recorded cover versions. Surprisingly, however, he did so with a song originally recorded by the Drifters. The song actually only consists of the plucked guitar and Lou’s vocals. In its radical reduction, it is the perfect soundtrack to David Lynch‘s movie.

3 This Magic Moment (from Lost Highway OST, 1997)

Towards the end of the 70s, his albums fluctuate between good and not so good. For me, his first album for Arista falls more into the first category, which with its final track still produced a highlight of his career. A dark atmosphere, a sawing guitar, reduced drums and vocals that have not been heard from him for a long time.

4 Temporary Thing (from Rock ‘n’ Roll Heart, 1976)

Lou Reed has always been a great storyteller for me too. Whenever he took on the events of the day, it was always terrific. Sentimental, of course, but also intense and believable. Songs that will outlast everything.

5 The Day John Kennedy Died (from The Blue Mask, 1982)

6 Halloween Parade (from New York, 1989)

Two albums from the 80s stand out, which had the old magic of him again. On The Blue Mask he returned to his roots and released an album full of guitars. Together with Robert Quine, he managed to give guitars new possibilities by mixing the guitars on two different channels. The best examples are these songs

7 Waves Of Fear (from The Blue Mask, 1982)

8 Underneath The Bottle (from The Blue Mask, 1982)

In 1989, he released New York. This album was well-received critically, thanks in part to it having a more straight-forward rock and roll sound. Reed said at the time he required simple music so that it would not distract from the frank lyrics.

9 Hold On (from New York, 1989)

10 Romeo Had Juliette (from New York, 1989)

Bonus Track

In 1990 he released a song cycle together with John Cale for their mentor Andy Warhol under his nickname Drella. There is also a lot of sentimentality here, but without falling into kitsch

11 I Believe (from Songs For Drella)

Enjoy

WALTER

Various

THE BEST OF SWEDISH MUSIC IN 2024

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

Hi Jim,

I almost feel like a broken record, but as tradition now has it – here I am once more with some highlights from the Swedish music year of 2024. Experience telld me I will as usual have overlooked a coupe of great releases, but these are the ones that have shone a bit brighter over at my place. Last year saw me discover a few more electronic acts, and ionnalee/iamamiwhoami had a very active year so I turned this year’s album into an electronic side, and a more “analogue” side.

Let’s start gently with the analogue side of things.

A1. Annika Norlin – Full På Dan

Annika, also known as Hello Saferide when singing in English and Säkert! when in Swedish, released her second album using her real name. She’s becoming more and more quiet for every release and En tid Att Riva Sönder follows the path, lyrics being in the centre. Maybe not so strange as she has now published two books, so writing text has taken up more and more of her interest. This is the album opener, translates to Drunk During Daytime.

A2. Maja Francis – Hello Cowboy

Maja has been here before, a wonderful mixture of Dolly Parton and Kate Bush. Hello Cowboy from the album with the same name is country pop when at its best. Her voice can divide, but man I love it.

A3. Linn Koch-Emmery – Borderline Iconic

Linn released her second full length album, and in interviews she has talked a lot about letting her medication for NPF go and replace them with music. The lyrics on the album are all her own experiences, and opening with the short “A Room Where I Can Scream” you kind of get the picture. The title track Borderline Iconic is a great guitar driven song about (maybe) being bi-polar.

A4. Moto Boy – Satanic Love

From the said to be last album using the Moto Boy moniker, Drown Out The Noise. Unmistakably, Oskar’s falsetto voice over a sweet melody.

A5. Webstrarna – Utomhus (öst)

Webstrarna were originally active in the 90’s with their quirky indie pop. Too pop for the indie kids, too quirky with weird lyrics for the pop audience, they fell somewhat in between. Since a few years back they started to release new music through their YT channel, last year saw them release four songs all called Utomhus (Outside), each with a direction attached – this is east. A slice of post punk funk.

A6. Thåström – Norrut/Söderut

Thåström is in my mind our Nick Cave, a storyteller coming from the late 70’s punk scene and over the years becoming a narrator grounded in blues, a dark and slow form of it. Last year’s album, Somliga Av Oss, is actually a little more hopeful than of late, Thåström singing in a slightly brighter voice and with subjects not always about alienation.

The B-side. Are Swedes Electric?

B1. Video L’Eclipse – Let It Begin (feat. E:Lect)

From the album Begin-Repress-Depart. A band I have not heard of before but came across when reading about the best Swedish synth band of the last 10 years or so – Kite. A bit of dark wave with a synth-riff that almost adds an Italo-disco feel. But it works.

B2. Kite – Losing (feat. Henric de la Cour & Anna von Hausswolff)

Kite has released a number of singles in recent years, 2024 saw the release of Losing / Glassy Eyes and the compilation VII collecting all these singles. As usual, very (melo)dramatic and emotional. I saw Kite play a tiny venue in February where they ended their set with this track, played live for the first time. This year, on February the 1st, they will play a stadium concert in an ice hockey arena, adding ice hockey players, ice skating princesses and ice rink cleaning machines to the show… They never shy away from the extremes!

B3. ionnalee – Keep Me From Dreaming

During December, up to Christmas, ionnalee released a song every second day at her YT channel, totally 12 tracks making up the collection Kronologi 2. Where the original Kronologi was a summary of 10 years as an artist (as iamamiwhoami and ionnalee), Kronologi 2 consists of demos, alternative takes and unreleased songs. This is trademark ionnalee with a instrumental break that goes off a bit…

Saw her play a rather small show with full band in September, she’s surprisingly good live.

B4. iamamiwhoami – Don’t Wait For Me (Daithi remix)

First thing in 2024 under the iamamiwhoami moniker the release of a remix version of the 2022 album Be Here Soon. Same tracks, in the same order, just remixed by different people – and in my eyes a great improvement on the original turning a pretty bleak and slightly boring album into a shimmering piece of dreamy, and partly more clubby, synth-pop.

B5. ionnalee – Innocence Of Sound

In September ionnalee (I told you she was productive!) released the sibling albums Close Your Eyes and Blund, an English and a Swedish version of the same album. If you, as I do, like her music you’ll be pleased with this one too – otherwise I guess your finger is lifting the pick-up by now…

B6. Abu Nein – Wir Leben

From their third album Dark Faith, a pretty dark and slightly gloomy piece of electronic goth (they do a Bauhaus cover, Hollow Hills). Not only the title of the album hints towards The Cure, the last track of the album is 11+ minutes that could potentially have made it onto Disintegration or Songs Of A Lost World, they just do it the other way around – vocals from the start and then a long instrumental ending. Fabulous.

I apologise if the sound quality has suffered a bit cramming in this much music on a single LP, value for money! 🙂

Bonus track: ionnalee – Allting Vill Rinna Ut I Sand (Swedish version of Innocence Of Sound, from Blund)

See you in a year!

Martin

JC adds..… As I say every single year, I always look forward to Martin’s end of year round-up as there’s inevitably something in there that is of huge appeal, and this year is no different. These tunes are well worth a listen.

 

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Sixty)

I know that I’ve banged on a fair bit these past few weeks about the writing credits on the tracks released as part of the year-long 24 Songs project, but I make no apologies….especially as I’m going to do so again today!!!

A reminder that The Wedding Present, in terms of the touring and recording line-up in 2022 consisted of David Gedge (vocals, guitar), Jon Stewart (guitar), Melanie Howard (bass, keyboards and backing vocals) and Nicholas Wellauer (drums).   These were the four credited with writing We Interrupt Our Programme, the seventh of the singles in the series, released in July and which featured on TVV last Sunday.

It would have been natural to expect that the same line-up would be responsible for the eighth release, which landed on our doormats on or shortly after 18 August 2022.  But no……this turned out to be a song whose composition appears to go back to early 2018, to a time when Terry de Castro briefly rejoined on bass guitar prior to Melanie Howard’s arrival as the writing credits are Gedge, Wadey, de Castro and Layton…..and yet it appears to be a song that wasn’t ever played live until 2022!

mp3: The Wedding Present – Each Time You Open Your Eyes (7″ version)

A ballad with minimal playing up until around the 1:30 mark, at which point it gets very loud…..and then it goes all quiet and minimal again to the point that David Gedge’s delivery is almost down to a whisper before the volume is again turned up above the same lines as before:-

You’ll always know which side I’m on because, without you, well, I’m not anyone
We might have bad days but I will always thank my lucky stars the world revealed you

Shortly after, the song fades out quickly….and I’ve always felt it was something of a clumsy and ill-judged fade-out.    The full version of the song, eventually made available a few months later on the 24 Songs album is almost exactly two minutes longer, and is very representative of the harder edged rock sound that had been increasingly embraced by the band since coming back again in the era after Cinerama had run its course.  The late-20s and 30-something me would probably have hated Each Time You Open Your Eyes, but the 59-year-old me very much appreciated and enjoyed it. 

mp3: The Wedding Present – Each Time You Open Your Eyes (album version)

The band, in addition to the monthly singles in 2022, had found time to release an album Locked Down and Stripped Back Volume Two, of songs that had been recorded at home during the COVID lockdown in the summer of 2021 and which had formed the basis of the on-line version of the August 2021 Edge of The Sea Festival (temporarily renamed as The Edge of The Sofa festival).  A few very welcome guests had contributed, including Peter Solowka adding accordion to a fabulous version of Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm, to which Amelia Fletcher also dropped by to reprise and indeed add to her vocal part to the 1988 single:-

 Locked Back….Vol 2 contained a previously unreleased song, This Could Only Happen In A Movie, which had been written by the 2021 line-up of the band, namely David Gedge, Jon Stewart, Melanie Howard and Chris Hardwick (all of whom can be seen in the above clip for Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm). Just a few weeks after the album came out, it was given a release as the b-side to the eighth of the 24 Songs releases:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – This Would Only Happen In A Movie

It’s not too dissimilar to the version that can be found on Locked Back….Vol 2.   It’s a more than decent enough b-side. 

JC

Chump

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #437: CHUMP

Today’s featured Scottish act’s song comes courtesy of its inclusion on David Cameron’s Eton Mess, a compilation album released in October 2015 on Song, By Toad Records.  This is the fifth time I’ve gone to that album, and here’s a reminder of what it was all about:- “Almost all of the singers and bands were, at the time, unknown with very little more than a few tracks available online or via a limited physical release, most often cheaply done on a cassette. Label owner, Matthew Young, said at the time:- “Most of the bands are friends and a lot of musicians feature on several of the album’s tracks, one of the reasons why we’ve put the compilation together. It feels like there’s this pool of really talented musicians bubbling away and all sorts of excellent music is starting to emerge from the mix. Bands are forming, breaking up, and starting again all the time. When you see a loose collection of bands connecting like this you never know what is going to happen. A few will disappear, some will do okay, some might pave the way for others, and a few of these bands could go on to do really well.” The track from Chump was this:- mp3: Chump – Sleeping In (Bedroom Demo) It’s as lo-fi and minimalist a song as I have on the hard drive, but there’s something very beguiling about it. It’s quite difficult to find out much about Chump. Discogs describes their sound as ‘sulkcore’ which I think is a fantastic word.  The bandcamp page reveals the three members are Tara (guitar, vocals), Matthieu (drums, piano, metallophone) and Tony (bass, guitar).  In addition to this track, there’s five other songs available in digital form, originally released via a cassette called Treat Me Mean, back in April 2016.  There was a later 7″ single, At Least We Got A Song Out Of It, that was released on Gerry Loves Records in March 2017. The Facebook page has details of some live shows in March 2018, after which it all went quiet. I’m really quite pissed off that I never got to see them as I reckon, having listened to the tracks via bandcamp (and then paid for the digital download), that I would have enjoyed them.

JC

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : JANUARY 2025 : ‘THIS AIN’T NO DISCO’ by ROMAN KOZAK

I’m hoping I can make this a monthly feature.

The idea is to give you some thoughts on a book, associated with music, that I’ll have recently just finished reading. Who knows, if I can get my act together, it night even become a bit more frequent….and as with all TVV series, the door is very firmly open if anyone who wants to submit a guest posting.

This was one which was on the Xmas wishlist.  I’ll set the scene by quoting how Amazon sold it to me in terms of it being added to said wishlist.

Originally published in 1988 and out of print for decades, This Ain’t No Disco tells the real story of CBGB, the birthplace and incubator of American punk and new wave music. The Ramones, Blondie, Television, Talking Heads and many other rock greats all got their starts there. Written by a club regular well before the legend overtook the reality (while CBGB was still open and most of its principals alive), this is an honest, opinionated, outrageous, hilarious document of 15 years of late, loud nights at CBGB, with memories, stories and gossip from dozens of people who played, worked or just hung out in the long, dark club on the Bowery in New York City.

This new edition (published on 15  October 2024) adds a new foreword by Chris Frantz of Talking Heads, a new selection of photographs by the acclaimed Ebet Roberts and archival reporting by Ira Robbins about the club’s closing in 2006.  It contains exclusive interviews with Hilly Kristal (CBGB founder), Joey Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone (Ramones), Clem Burke and Chris Stein (Blondie), David Byrne (Talking Heads), Jim Carroll, Willy DeVille (Mink DeVille), Annie Golden (Shirts), Richard Hell and Richard Lloyd (Television), Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Handsome Dick Manitoba (Dictators), Wendy O. Williams (Plasmatics) and many others.

As a teenager, I was fascinated by America, and in particular New York City.  It was a place I never imagined I’d get to see as, until the late 1970s/early 80s, transatlantic air travel was very much the preserve of the well-heeled and/or famous.  Besides, the newspapers didn’t sell the city too well, and so the fascination was something which always felt as if it would be a pipe dream.  In terms of music, I really was only aware of five venues – Madison Square Gardens, Greenwich Village, Max’s Kansas City, Hurrah’s and CBGB – with the latter three being down to reading about them in the UK music papers or seeing them as locations where some of the new wave acts had made live recordings for b-sides and/or for use on compilation albums.

Blondie was one of the first groups that this late-teen fell for, and almost all the interviews and/or background pieces in the music papers made many references to how their development had centred around loads of gigs at CGGB.  My first ever trip to New York wasn’t until a time when my job took me there, and such was the packed schedule that there was no time at all to try and visit the venue – indeed, much to my frustration, I couldn’t even free up any time to take in any sort of live music while I was in thercity.  I’ve only been back to NYC on two more occasions – the first again being on business, and the second being when I had one overnight stay to break up a return trip from a Caribbean, and the day was spent doing the whistle-stop touristy stuff on a bus.  As such, and much to my annoyance, I’ve still never been to a gig inb New York.

So, the idea of reading This Ain’t No Disco was to have an imaginary visit to the esteemed venue back in the day, ideally on a night when one of my favourites happened to be playing.   I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Roman Kozak‘s account of things, and he really did bring to life the sights, sounds and personnel who made it such a success, very much against the odds.  I knew that the club was in a far from luxurious or even welcoming part of the city, but had no idea that it was actually beneath an establishment called the Palace Hotel, which was the largest flophouse for homeless men on the streets of Manhattan, and that 315 Bowery was a notorious address.

There was so much I either learned or was reminded of.  I knew that CBGB was short for ‘Country, Bluegrass, Blues’ as the idea when it had opened up was to concentrate on those types of music – the fact it ended up being at the heart of the new wave scene in New York wasn’t part of the original plan, but then again I had long forgotten that the second part of the venue’s name was ‘OMFUG’ which was short for ‘Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers;, so it was always a likelihood that Hilly Kristal would open its doors to whoever was capable of drawing a crowd.

And while Hilly is at the heart of much of the book, the author really does draw on the thoughts and memories of unsung heroes who worked at the club in all sorts of capacities from bartending, security, finance, kitchen staff, sound technicians and so on, as well as members of the Kristal family.  The famous musicians (or those who became famous) are well-quoted, but so too are those from bands who never made it, but were very much part of the scene in and around the club.  Those who wrote about what has happening are given space to offer their own recollections.  I learned about Merv Ferguson, a Scotsman who was integral to the operations of the venue, and indeed is described as ‘the heart, soul and glue that held CBGB together’ prior to his death, in his early 40s, after succumbing to cancer of the colon.  I found out more about bands such as the Dead Boys who I only vaguely knew of in passing and read, for the first time, about acts such as Tuff Darts and The Shirts, of whom my knowledge beforehand was zilch.

It’s an oral history as told by many different people, and as such, some incidents and events are recalled in ways that can seem contradictory.  But I think this is one of the book’s strengths.  Roman Kozak, who himself died at the age of 40 just after the book was originally published, doesn’t put his voice above anyone else’s to offer his take on things.  His trade and profession was as a writer/editor, initially in newspapers and later at Billboard magazine, which is primarily a trade paper for the music industry, and he seems more than happy to let those who wrote for the likes of Village Voice, Trouser Press and Soho Weekly News to provide a more astute take on things.

I hadn’t appreciated how the club had evolved in the wake of the new wave/post-punk era coming to an end. The book’s original publication in 1988 came at a time when it was increasingly home to a scene around metal/hardcore, with the pogo dancing of the 70s being replaced by body slamming. I’m not entirely sure that if I had made it to NYC in the mid-20s whether or not a visit to CBGB would have thrilled me.

The newly published version of This Ain’t No Party is interesting for the fact that nobody has come in to try and offer a take on things between 1988 and 2006 when the club was forced to close its doors after a long-running dispute with the landlord ended with the lease not being renewed. It simply offers up a couple of magazine pieces – one of which was written in 2005 when it became increasingly clear the club was seriously under threat, and the other being an article written for a New York newspaper the day after the final gig, which had been a three-hours long set by Patti Smith, with all sorts of alumni on stage or in the audience.

There was a much to enjoy about the book.  As the blurb on the back page says, ‘written long before the legend overtook the reality – while the club was still open and most of the principals still alive – this is the real story’.

And it’s a really good one at that.

mp3: Patti Smith – Kimberley
mp3: Television – Friction
mp3: Blondie – X-Offender
mp3: Talking Heads – Life During Wartime

JC

Propaganda

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #080

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#080: Propaganda – ‘Jewel (Rough Cut)’ (Island/ZTT Records ’85)

Hello friends,

back to sunny Germany we go today, and way back in time as well: to 1985 in fact. I am sure there are some of you, after having recognised the picture above, that are now thinking: „hold on, why 1985 and not 1984: why this and not the wonderful ‘Dr. Mabuse‘?“. Well, first of all because, to be honest, I never really cared for ‘Dr. Mabuse’ all too much when it first came out. Maybe there was so much other great stuff in 1984 that I didn’t find the time to like it enough, but be honest: I forgot the reason.

But what I haven’t forgotten is how much I loved the follow-up to Mabuse, ‘Duel’! I loved the bass, I loved the voice, I loved everything this tune offered. I loved Susanne more than I loved Claudia, partly because the back cover of the 7“ explained that she ‘compels her boyfriend to do infamous things’, which was, let’s say, an attitude which I quite admired when dreaming of her. Also, she looked better than Claudia, I always thought …

Anyway. Quite some time passed on before a friend of mine gave me a soundboard mixtape from a local Indie club where her and me used to go to rather frequently, on it the DJ segued Soft Cell‘s ‘Martin’ into the B-Side of ‘Duel’ (but the 12“ version thereof), but this segue went on for more than a minute – brilliant! And after that he segued Propaganda into Einstürzende Neubauten‘s ‘Yü-Gung’, crossfading it equally long – genius!!

Now, I suppose this was the moment where I may have listened to Duel’s B-Side, ‘Jewel’, really closely, and two things I found out: a) it’s ace with its 3:39 minutes and in its „Rough Cut“ – comparison to ‘Duel’ and b) but the 12“, with 6:53 minutes, styled „Cut Rough“, is even better by a million miles!

Still, it’s 7“ singles here, but also, of course, the above sounds as if the ‘Rough Cut’ is somewhat shabby. It is not, promised, so give it a chance:

 

mp3: Propaganda – ‘Jewel’ (Rough Cut)

Great, right? I’m sure you agree. Consequently only one question remains: Claudia or Susanne?

Take care,

Dirk

Super Furry Animals, Welsh Wednesdays

WELSH WEDNESDAYS : #10 : SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Is This The Life?

#10: Patience by Super Furry Animals

Ah fuck it. I tried, I really did. I don’t want you to think I’m weak or anything, but I guess I am. Try as I might, I just couldn’t let this series pass without including the Super Furry Animals. This might be the last episode of Welsh Wednesday, or it may not, but just in case, I’m getting that monkey off my back and giving them the space they deserve. (JC adds……..I really hope it isn’t the last episode!!)

You see (and I’m aware many of you will already know this) Super Furry Animals simply are the greatest thing to ever come out of Wales. Like EVER. OK, I mean Aneurin Bevan was a decent fella for inventing the NHS, and Brains do make a very decent pint of ale. That Owain Glyndŵr bloke probably deserves a mention too, but for me, the Furries take it because they always make me feel good. Not many things can do that: chocolate-coated pistachios do, browsing record shops does too, and maybe one or two things I’m not going to share with you…

As I’m more than likely preaching to the converted, I’ll just introduce today’s song. Patience was recorded during the sessions for ‘Rings Around The World’, SFA’s feted fifth record from 2001. It’s one of my all-time favourite albums ever of all-time ever. Like EVER! It was also hugely groundbreaking in that it was the first ever fully multimedia album, with a DVD format which included animated videos for each song on the album plus ones for two bonus tracks.

Patience was one of those bonus tracks, and for years languished, almost forgotten, as track 17 on the DVD. It took 15 years before it saw the light of day again, since when it’s been a popular inclusion of the band’s releases. Firstly, it was included on the best of album ‘Zoom!’, though even then it was buried away with little fanfare between two well-loved singles. The 20th Anniversary release of ‘Rings…’ saw it revived TWICE on the CD of b-sides and outtakes (the original and a demo version), and then for Record Store Day in 2022, a lovely little b-sides companion record included an exclusive extended version of it.

It’s a mystery why Patience was such a secret for so long. It’s a delight, as pretty much everything the band did around that time was. Its got that widescreen cinematic feel and a wonderful melody – it would have felt right at home on the album. I suppose it illustrates just how good the Furries were at the time, that a song like this was so surplus to requirements, it didn’t even make it out as a b-side. What a band. So sadly missed.

mp3: Patience – Super Furry Animals (outtake from ‘Rings Around The World’, 2001)

The Robster

Various

SONGS AEROSMITH TAUGHT US

A GUEST POSTING by STEVE McLEAN

Hello my lovely cyberspace dwellers. It’s been AGES. I know you’re thinking ‘well if McLean’s here then what’s he selling?’ I realise I’m usually only here when I have a show to promote, like some online Arthur Daley. Fear not, I have nothing to hawk, today I’m more like Dennis Waterman’s Terry, just happy to have some time to myself.  
 
I’ve wanted to write about Aerosmith for a while. While ACDC and ZZ Top both have their place among hipsters, they always seemed scared to embrace the world of Boston’s bad boys. But don’t worry, there’ll be no MTV hits here (although Pink is a banger). There’ll be nothing about a Lady or an Elevator. In fact, there won’t be any Aerosmith in this blog about Aerosmith, for two reasons. 
 
Reason 1: Because of everything HE has done. No defence of anything, I’m wrestling with my own fandom. I guess the one thing I will say is that heroin addicts don’t make good choices and generally aren’t good people. 
 
Reason 2: I once had a great LP called Songs The New York Dolls Taught Us which was all songs that had inspired the Dolls and I thought ‘WHY ISN’T THERE ONE FOR THE TOXIC TWINS!’ On a side note, Steve Tyler and Joe Perry used to be known as the Toxic Twins. Jerry Garcia once said of Aerosmith ‘Aerosmith are a great band but they take too many drugs’ How fucked up are you if you’re too fucked up for the Grateful Dead? 
 
Aerosmith would usually record a cover version per album, sometimes two. They wanted to show the world their influences, but mainly they wanted to get the record done and get back to snorting freeze-dried petrol off of a mermaid’s tits. They very much had a ‘that’ll do’ attitude to their albums and I fucking love that about them. 
 
I’m going to focus on the cover versions they recorded between 1973 and 1983. Pound for pound, the Aerosmith albums are a match for any other hairy behemoth of that period.  
Walkin’ The Dog – Rufus Thomas 
 
One of the great things about Aerosmith is that they turned me on to Atlantic R&B in my early teens. I know the Stones covered this but then so did a lot of bands and I didn’t like the Stones when I was 13 (I mean I did but only because my Uncle told me I had to). But this was a door opening to classic music genre at an early age. The first Aerosmith album is a wonderful garage-blues-rock affair and sounds like it was recorded in a barn. 
 
The Train Kept A Rollin’ – The Johnny Burnette Trio
 
In 1974 Tyler & Co released Get Your Wings. If you’re wondering what the title refers to, it means drugs. As do the albums ‘Rocks’ ‘Draw The Line’ ‘Done With Mirrors’ ‘Permanent Vacation’ and ‘Rock in a Hard Place’… they all mean drugs. ‘Pump’ is about sex. You may have missed the subtlety.  Aerosmith fucking loved drugs. It was their favourite hobby. On a side note, I was once using a dating app in Glasgow and under Hobbies and Interests someone had listed ‘Smoking’. Legend. 
 
This was a song that came to Aerosmith via the Yardbirds but they came by it through the rockabilly hero, Johnny Burnette. The Burnette version pisses all over the Yardbirds version. Frankly, the only good thing Eric Clapton has been good for his whole miserable ant-vax / Ukip promoting life is as an influence on Joe Perry. That’s it. I feel I’m straying into ‘What have the Yardbirds ever done for us’ but that’s a blog someone else can write. Someone dull. I used to be in a band with a guy who would play the riff to Layla every time we had a break. Every fucking time. He was bell-end like his hero..   
 
Big Ten Inch Record – Bull Moose Jackson
 
From their first ‘massive’ album, Toys in the Attic, that also featured Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion. A lot of people think that Walk This Way’ invented the rap / rock crossover genre, but those people are fucking morons and the ghost of Chuck Mosley haunts their sleep. Another great R&B door opening for me. It took me a few years to track this down. I found it on a compilation called Badman Jackson, it’s a bold title given the geography teacher vibes of his photo. 
 
Instead of singing “Except for my big tench in” Steve Tyler sings “Suck on my big ten inch” which was hilarious when I was thirteen but these days I roll my eyes and tut if there’s anyone young around (I’m laughing on the inside, young people! LAUGHING MY FUCKING TITS OFF! Would it be too much to ask for just one more Carry On film? WOULD IT?)
 
Milk Cow Blues – The Kinks 
 
In 1977 Aerosmith were burning out. 76 had seen them record their bestest record, Rocks which contained absolutely no cover versions but a year later they are running on fumes. Fortunately Tyler and Perry’s main source of protein was fumes, but the other three were getting pretty sick of their bullshit. They hired an abandoned monastery in New York’s Westchester area with the idea that the isolation would keep them away from drugs. There was one flaw in the otherwise brilliant plan; drugs are fucking portable. They can be moved around, that how the band could come by them in the first place. 
 
Milk Cow Blues was another song brought to the band by The Yardbirds. The Kinks version which was earlier is way better. Both have their seeds in an old blues song that Elvis made popular as The Milk Cow Blues Boogie. It had been in Aerosmith sets since 1972, which suggest where they were creatively. 
 
I Ain’t Got You – Jimmy Reed 
 
Another song that came to Aerosmith from the Yardbirds. It’s depressing how much of my early music came via Enoch Clapton. BUT! It’s another cover version that they themselves performed. Lazy Yardbirds, it’s only cool when Aerosmith do it.  
 
In 1978 Aerosmith took a break. To buy themselves a bit of time they released a live album called Live: Bootleg, it was an uneven collection of songs including a version of this blues thumper recorded in 1972. The record also featured two other cover versions (three if you include the little bit of Strangers in the Night that Perry plays in a guitar solo). The other songs are the James Brown classic Mother Popcorn (Aerosmith got me into James Brown is not something you had on your Steve McLean bingo card) and a version of the Beatles Come Together. They recorded it for the soundtrack of the frankly amazing Bee Gees / Peter Frampton film Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. A film that was basically a set of Beatles cover versions set to music video set pieces and given narration by George Burns. It featured Billy Preston as a Weathercock and starred Frankie Howard, Steve Martin, Donald Pleasance and Paul Nicholas from Just Good Friends. The answer to your next question is drugs. 
Aerosmith’s version of Come Together is decent enough, it’s fucking miles better than Paul Weller‘s version fucking miles behind Tina Turner‘s. But I Ain’t Got You is a fucking doozie. 
 
Remember (Walking In The Sand) – Shangri Las 
 
Aerosmith were heavily influenced by The New York Dolls and the Dolls loved the Shangri Las. This seems like hero worship multiplied. It’s a cracking version and Mary Weiss provides backing vocals on the song.  The album it featured on was called Night In The Ruts since the record label said that they weren’t allowed to call it Right In The Nuts.. because they’re not fucking twelve.
 
It also featured not one but two other covered songs. Another fucking Yardbirds hand-me-down called Think About It which Jimmy Page reckons he wrote but he says that about a lot of songs. The other cover was an old blues standard called Reefer Headed Women, and it is fucking hard work. During this album Perry has had enough of Tyler being a fucking twat all of the fucking time and quits. A near tea-total Jimmy Crespo joins the band, and guess what? That’s right, DRUGS! Welcome to the club Jimmy, here’s a slice of the thing that killed Belushi. 
 
Cry Me A River – Julie London
 
It took the new boy Crespo and the rest nearly four years to record the next record. Guess what caused the delay? You’re wrong! So ner! Steve Tyler had a motorcycle crash and needed eighteen months recovery time. Yeah, but guess what caused the motorcycle crash? Yeah, okay, you’re right.  It was drugs. AND THEN! in recovery the fucking plank goes and gets himself addicted to painkillers as well as everything else he’s currently enjoying. 
 
In spite of all this, Rock in a Hard Place, the 1982 album is decent. No Perry, no problem. This is a strange cover version, but it’s faithfully done and takes the band out of their comfort zone. I still think the ultimate reason for the song is drugs. 
 
Bonus track – Helter Skelter: The Beatles 
 
In the early 1990s, a box set would uncover a few more version of other people’s songs. Titled Pandora’s Box, it showed up just how little there was in terms of throw away songs. A few jams, mainly instrumental, a few live tracks and a handful of cover versions. They really were lazy fucks in the studio. Included among them were versions of For Your Love, an Otis Rush song, On The Road Again by The Lovin’ Spoonful and Fleetwood Mac‘s Rattlesnake Shake which is dull as fuck. 
 
Helter Skelter was a decent version of the Beatles song from a recording session in 1975. 
 
That’s us! Up to 1983. On the whole I’m glad Aerosmith were the first band I truly loved. They opened the door for much for me, including The New York Dolls which got me into the Stooges, girl groups, blues and soul and all sorts. When the hairy kids around me all liked Guns and Roses, It was great having a ‘my band’ that no one else liked. Joe Perry is still cool as fuck. 
 
I’ll be back in the spring where I hope to have some lovely second hand microwaves and a Ford Cortina that you might be interested in (I actually have something exciting that I’m dying to tell you about). 
 
Big love, you beautiful fruitloops xx 
 
STEVE

 

Altered Images

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (27) : Altered Images – I Could Be Happy

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It was back in 2015 that Altered Images featured in the Sunday Singles series.  I actually wasn’t sure about doing a full series on them or not, but my mind was then made up after a fair number of positive reactions to this post.

——

They began as a post-punk band championed by John Peel and Siousxie Sioux but within a relatively short period of time their move into pure pop music saw them conquer the singles charts before all of a sudden they fell spectacularly out of fashion and breaking up before the lead singer had reached her 22nd birthday after which she moved into acting.

I loved Altered Images. They were great fun. And Clare Grogan was, and still is, gorgeous.

The band were mere teenagers when they formed in 1979. Their first two singles were released to almost complete indifference in early 1981 but seemingly out of nowhere Happy Birthday hit the #2 spot in the UK on its release in August 1981. Over the next nine months, they were rarely out of the singles charts thanks to the success of I Could Be Happy and See Those Eyes with Clare’s ‘little-girl on helium’ vocals and persona making them stand out just that bit more than most.

The age-old issue of failing to deliver a decent follow-up LP to the debut in 1982 was a setback and led to two-fifths of the band leaving on less than amicable terms and a whole change in direction in both sound and look. Veteran producer Mike Chapman was brought in to bring a more polished and mature sound while Clare turned overnight into an Audrey Hepburn lookalike. It did bring initial success through the outstanding 45 Don’t Talk To Me About Love, but it wasn’t sustainable and before 1983 was out the band were no more.”

—–

The band’s fourth single highlighted, more than any other, the two distinct sides to the band.

mp3: Altered Images – I Could Be Happy

It’s pop at its most disposable.  Great wee eardrum of a tune with nonsense, almost nursery-rhyme lyrics.  It got to #7 in January 1982.

The b-side is quite different – it’s still pop music but with a harder-edge and a nod to the sounds of early Banshees, Cure, Bauhaus etc.

mp3: Altered Images – Insects

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Fifty-Nine)

It really was Lucky 7 when it came to the Wedding Present‘s 24 Songs project of 2022 as the single released on 15 July turned out to be a gem.

mp3: The Wedding Present – We Interrupt Our Programme (7″ version)

A spiky and upbeat tune that plays host to a catchy chorus of ‘what we want and what we get are not always the same’.   And it’s one of those Gedge tales, of the type that I’ve always thought he does better than any others, in that he’s on the receiving end of the ending of a relationship.  But in this case, he sounds as if he’s quite relieved about it all.

Spoiler alert!!!   After all 12 singles had been released, they were compiled into an album, unsurprisingly called 24 Songs.  Some of the tracks were now made available in their full form, having been edited down a bit for the 7″ release.  We Interrupt Our Programme was one of those, with the album version not fading out just after the 4:20 mark but continuing on its merry and noisy way for another 80 seconds or so – and it was always the longer version that was aired in the live setting.

mp3: The Wedding Present – We Interrupt Our Programme (album version)

The single was attributed to the four members of the band who were active throughout 2022 – David Gedge, Jon Stewart, Melanie Howard and Nicholas Wellauer.  The flip side, Telemark, is a tune that was dusted down from a few years previously, as it is attributed to the line-up which had been together up until the end of 2019 – David Gedge, Danielle Wadey, Melanie Howard and Charles Layton, which, if you recall from earlier entries in this long-running series, was broken-up when Danielle and Charles became parents to a newborn baby. 

mp3: The Wedding Present – Telemark (7″ version)

The unusual thing about this one is that the verses are delivered in a spoken-word manner, while the chorus is sung.  There’s also a distinct change in tempo and pace just short of the three-minute mark, which is not something that the band have done too often over the near 40 years that their music has been written and recorded. 

As with the A-side, the full length version (just under a minute longer) was made available on the subsequent album.  Not only does it not fade out, but there’s an additional spoken-outro from a female voice, with the words presumably being in Norwegian, given that Telemark is a region of Norway……

mp3: The Wedding Present – Telemark (album version)

One of the many fan sites dedicated to the band, indicates that Telemark was originally part of the live set back in 2019, only to be heavily re-worked and released for the 24 Songs project, and looking back on the set list for the show at the Classic Grand in Glasgow on 25 October 2019, it was indeed aired.  But as this fan-shot footage from a gig in Paris a week prior to Glasgow demonstrates, it was indeed a bit different from the version that was eventually recorded, albeit the change in tempo and pace was there.

 

 

Chrysanths

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #436: CHRYSANTHS

Today’s accompanying picture is of a gig last year at which myself and Aldo were much entertained….I had meant to write up a short review afterwards, but other things got in the way. I’m now going to be really really lazy, and quote extensively from the website of Chemikal Underground Records, as the label was responsibel for releasing the debut album by Crysanths, and the gig on 16 October was just one of two in which a full band was put together to perform it in its entirety as part of the promotional activities:- “Dancing slowly into view with grace and poise, Chrysanths’ debut album Leave No Shadow feels like a major work from the start. A deep, technicolour world landscaped by multi-instrumentalist Emily Scott, Leave No Shadow evokes the immediacy of the moment, the richness of the senses, the flow and drama of existence. Intersecting with her fluid piano playing, Scott weaves complex string arrangements that invite in her effortless vocal performances. It’s the sound of a unique artist finding their voice. “Recorded in Scotland with Emily Scott firmly in the producer’s chair, Leave No Shadow finds the artist flowering in new territory from that associated with her band, Glasgow-based Modern Studies. The most distinctive sonic elements here are the swirling, enveloping string arrangements written by Scott. With Susan Bear’s thoughtful bass guitar and Owen Curtis Williams’s delicate drums, the album takes on a luxurious timbre reminiscent of Jean Claude Vannier’s late 60s studio work or the evocative world-building of Fontana-era Scott Walker. “Written between 2020-22, Leave No Shadow finds Scott revelling in insularity, zooming in on the small details of her home and immediate environment, spinning universes of sound that feel like they erupt from every moment. Although Chrysanths’ compositions and timbres are sometimes mournful, they’re infused with colour and bold shifts in tone that often provoke joy. The introspection of the writing invites the listener into Chrysanth’s private world, a flowering imagination full of the immediacy of the senses.” It really is an album full of beauty and wonder, and to hear it performed in such a small and intimate space such as the Glad Cafe – there were six musicians on stage, including three string players on cellos and violins – was an absolute treat.  All this coming after TVV favourite Adam Stafford had delivered a short but enjoyable set with music taken mostly from his 2024 album, Daylight Slavings, on which he concentrates on his keyboard skills. Leave No Shadow came close to making the cut of my favourite albums of 2022, and it is well worth a few minutes of your time to give it a listen over here at the bandcamp page.   You might just be tempted to pick a digital or physical copy. mp3: Crysanths – Rising As my dear friend Dirk might say, enjoy.

JC

Big Country, China Crisis, Colourfield, Echo & The Bunnymen, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Madonna, Prefab Sprout, Simple Minds, Smiths, Spear of Destiny, Talk Talk, Talking Heads, Thomas Dolby

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (January)

The 1979 series was so well-received that I felt there really should be some sort of follow-up.

The 1979 series went into great detail, partly as I wanted to demonstrate just how magnificent a year it had been for singles.  The spotlight on 1984 won’t quite be as intense, but I still intend to pick out quite a few tunes that have stood the test of time.

The year began with the #1 slot being occupied by a novelty song in the shape of The Flying Pickets acappella cover of Only You.  The rest of the Top 20 was equally gruesome, with the likes of Slade, Billy Joel, Status Quo, Paul Young, Cliff Richard and Paul McCartney all vying with Roland Rat Superstar for the right to be exchanged for the record tokens that had been left under the Xmas tree. There were a few decent enough tunes from the likes of The Smiths, The Style Council, Aztec Camera, The Cure and Blancmange in the lower end of the charts that had been released towards the tail end of 1983 to make things slightly bearable.  But in terms of new entries in the chart of 1-7 January 1984, there was nothing to write home about.

Fast-forward a week, and The Police had the highest new entry, at #32, with the distinctly underwhelming King of Pain, the fourth single to be lifted from the album Synchronicity.  Just a few places below that was the fifth chart 45 from one of the many bands to emerge out of the Liverpool area in the early part of the decade:-

mp3: China Crisis – Wishful Thinking

In at #36, this was given a wonderful retrospective write-up by Post Punk Monk back in October 2011, and I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting him:-

“This single is one of my all time favorites by the group in that the A-side is sweetly melancholic and unapologetically gorgeous, with a wonderfully played synthetic string section sweeping the tune along. Other tracks on the album this single is from have live strings, but I guess the recording budget didn’t extend that far. The synth strings still sound rather good and more importantly, the addition of oboe and fretless bass, two of my favorite instruments, on this track lends it a gentle nobility that carries it far above the sound of the crowd in the charts at the time of its release.”

Loads of folk in the UK clearly agreed with him, as Wishful Thinking would eventually climb all the way to #9 and prove to be the band’s best charting single.

This week’s chart also saw the debut of someone who would, in quite a short period of time, become, arguably, the biggest pop icon of the late 20th century.  It’s a tune that was later given this accolade many years later on one of the biggest digital sites out there:-

“A song as utterly ’80s as Rick Astley or the Pet Shop Boys, it is also surely the most evocative theme tune ever created when it comes to packing a suitcase and jetting off for beach cocktails […] A feel-good pop giant with an infectious chorus – and the closest thing we have to bottled sunshine”.

mp3: Madonna – Holiday

In at #53, it would reach #6 in mid-February, the first of what thus far have been 64 Top Ten hits in the UK for Madonna, of which 13 have reached #1.

The third of the new entries into the Top 75 being highlighted this time around turned out to be one which became a big hit six years down the line:-

mp3: Talk Talk – It’s My Life

The lead single from the band’s forthcoming second studio album came in at #67, and two weeks later peaked at #46.  It was then re-released in May 1990 to support a Greatest Hits package, at which time it reached #13.

Scrolling down now to the chart of 15-21 January.

mp3: Big Country – Wonderland (#13)
mp3: Thomas Dolby – Hyperactive (#45)
mp3: The Colour Field – The Colour Field (#53)
mp3: Spear of Destiny – Prisoner of Love (#60)
mp3: Talking Heads – This Must Be The Place (#61)

I’m not going to argue that all of the above have aged well, but they provide a fine snapshot of the variety that was on offer to anyone seeking to expand their 7″ or 12″ vinyl collection. I certainly bought all five back in the day.

22-28 January. Have a look at what hit #1

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax

Even back then, in an era when it was possible for a slow-burner to reach #1, it was almost unheard of for it to take 12 weeks. But that’s what happened with Relax. Released in late October 1983, it had spent two months very much at the lower end of the chart, reaching #46 in the final chart of that year, and reaching #35 in the first chart of 1984, which earned Frankie Goes To Hollywood an invitation onto Top of The Pops for the show broadcast on 5 January.

The following week it climbed to #6, at which point Mike Read Reid, one of the highest-profile DJs on BBC Radio 1, publicly expressed his disdain for the single and said he wouldn’t be playing it on any of his shows, leading to a chain of events where the single was banned right across the BBC on radio and television. None of which stopped it being played on independent radio stations, or indeed on The Tube TV show which aired on Channel 4; Relax would spend five weeks at #1, and indeed would go on to spend a total of 48 weeks in the Top 75, not dropping out until the chart of 14-20 October.

All of which kind of overshadowed these new entries that week:-

mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (#17)
mp3: Simple Minds – Speed Your Love To Me (#20)
mp3: The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make (#26)
mp3: Prefab Sprout – Don’t Sing (#62)

Looking back at things, the singles charts of January 1984 weren’t too shabby, were they?

As with the 1979 series, I’ll be consulting my big red book of indie singles to identify those 45s that didn’t bother the mainstream charts, but were well worth forking out some money for. It should be with you in the next week or so.

JC

PS : Total coincidence that thirteen songs feature in this post…….or is it?????

(It is!!!)

Princess Kaiulani

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #079

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#079: Princess Kaiulani – ‘Alamoana Fade Away’ (Motorway Records ’99)

Hello friends,

well, let’s be honest – this was bound to happen one day: a record I know NOTHING about whatsoever!

Those of you who listened to Peel more or less frequently back then will be able to confirm that some of the stuff he played was of quite some obscurity at times … still great, but nevertheless obscure. But despite of this it doesn’t happen all too often that you don’t find anything at all about the obscure record in question nor about the band on the internet these days – one would think there are at least an additional handful of people on the globe who had approved of it as well.

Not so today! But I always liked this single so much from the moment on I first heard it, it simply had to feature here. On the other hand you might be relieved that you don’t have to bear with my usual debouchery this time, who knows?

So here are the facts:

a) Princess Kaiulani (as pictured above) is correctly spelled Princess Ka’iulani, with an apostrophe, or, for the faultfinders amongst you, Victoria Kawēkiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn.

b) she was Hawaii’s last princess and she died in 1899, aged only 23, after „gleefully galloping through the rain without a coat“ (now, this should teach you not to do the same – alway wear a coat when riding your horse!).

c) she was, and probably still is, famous in Hawaii for standing up against the American annexation of the island.

d) Motorway Records are based – or at least they were in 1999 – in Chiba, Japan.

e) „Ala Moana“ is a huge shopping center and also a hotel in Honolulu.

And that’s it, to be frank, fact fans. Feel free to figure out by yourself what all of this means or may not mean: did the band come from Hawaii, did they come from Japan? No one can tell, for all I know they could have come from the nearby village, the one I look at when staring out of my window right now!

If all of this hasn’t already put you off, listen to the tune: it’s rather hard to describe other than ‘avant-garde’, but still worth a few minutes of your time. Perhaps it even grows on you the way it grew on me, who knows? If so: mission accomplished, I would think!

mp3: Princess Kaiulani – Alamoana Fade Away

Enjoy,

Dirk

Tristwch Y Fenywod, Welsh Wednesdays

WELSH WEDNESDAYS : #9 : TRISTWCH Y FENYWOD

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Is This The Life?

#9: Blodyn Gwyrdd by Tristwch Y Fenywod

This week’s band comes from the ancient Welsh-speaking heartland of Leeds, a…. wait, Leeds? Let me just check that……. Nope, I’m right, they’re from Leeds. So what the hell are they doing on Welsh Wednesday? Well, I mean, their name, right? And the song title? And the fact it’s sung completely in Welsh. Oh, and at least two of the members are actually Welsh. Look, Julian Cope qualified back in the original series because he was born a few miles the right side of the border, so if he gets in, so do Tristwch Y Fenywod.

Gwretsien Ferch Lisbeth, Sidni Sarffwraig and Leila Lygad are all members of other bands on the underground scene in goth’s first city. They collaborated following trips to North Wales and deciding to play instruments other than their usual ones. Leila, usually a vocalist, learned the drums, while Gwretsien invented a new instrument, which essentially consists of two differently tuned zithers stuck together.

The result: a band whose name translates as Sadness Of Women and who sound like a cross between early Dead Can Dance and The Cure (‘Pornography’-era). They definitely would have been signed to 4AD back in the 80s, and would have played the same festivals as Sisters Of Mercy, The Rose Of Avalanche and numerous other Leeds-based goth luminaries.

They released their self-titled debut album back in August, a record described as an “unholy grail of edgy, atmospheric, occult feminist goth emissions.” Blodyn Gwyrdd (trans. Green Flower) is the record’s opening track, and is without a doubt the most haunting music you’ll hear today. And a tad unsettling too, perhaps.

mp3: Blodyn Gwyrdd – Tristwch Y Fenywod (‘Tristwch Y Fenywod’, 2024)

These mysterious elfins seemingly shy away from visuals, so there’s no video this week. I did toy with finding some classic Welsh goth as an alternative, but the only band of that ilk I could track down was Gene Loves Jezebel, and they were shite…

The Robster

Uncategorized

WHEN JONNY CALLED JC

Some of you may recall that last June, a proposed trip for myself and Rachel to the Los Angeles area was postponed at the very last minute after I was unexpectedly admitted to hospital to sort out an issue with one of my kidneys. We were to be the guests of Jonny the Friendly Lawyer and Goldie the Friendly Psychologist at their family home in Santa Monica. As part of celebrating the trip, Jonny had compiled an ICA celebrating various neighbourhoods and communities in the LA area.

A number of those previously unfamiliar locations were all over the news last week, and indeed remain so just now as a result of the devastating wildfires that have engulfed the area. Here’s what Jonny wrote about the Pacific Palisades area:-

“The Palisades is a town on the coast immediately north of Santa Monica. It’s where GTFP went to high school (classmate: Susanna Hoffs), 10 years after Sparks’ Russell Mael was quarterback of the football team.”

The photo above is what remains of the home Goldie lived in as a teenager, which she and Jonny had only sold last April. The new buyer hadn’t moved in yet as he intended to do some renovations, so luckily he didn’t lose a house full of possessions. But now, with the whole block gone, it’s uncertain what he can or might rebuild.
The day after the fires broke out, I contacted Jonny via e-mail, hoping that he was somehow OK and to wish him well over the coming days. He replied quickly to say:

“It’s really bad, Jim. Some of our friends lost their homes–we don’t know how many. Three of my bandmates evacuated. Not sure if the fires near us are even partially contained. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for checking in.”

5pm or thereabouts last Saturday, the phone rang with Jonny coming through via FaceTime. I thought he looked as if he’d aged ten years over the course of events, but he was insisting he was fine, as was Goldie. He talked about the impact of the multiple fires across the LA region, mentioning how many people he knew had been directly impacted, adding in the details surrounding Goldie’s former home in the Palisades that I referred to above.

He went on to explain that where he lives in Santa Monica (the southern part of the city) had managed to avoid any of the wildfire reaching his community, but not too far away, where there had been less shelter, more brush and at a higher level where the winds would blow stronger, it was utter devastation.

The number of Jonny and Goldie’s friends and acquaintances who have lost their homes is over 30. And that’s about the same number for everyone they know–the impact is hard to comprehend. He described a surreal scene, of whole areas where nothing remained other than rows of brick chimneys that somehow still reached into the sky, while the rest of the structures had collapsed around them. Of burnt out cars and trucks and of whole blocks of buildings in what had previously been densely populated and thriving neighbourhoods now just vast areas of still smouldering wastelands.

It was no wonder that Jonny looked in such a state of shock, and while I know he is an incredibly resilient individual, he looked frightened as there were still all sorts of issues and problems expected over the coming days. When I asked after Goldie, I was not surprised to learn that she was spending every spare minute that she had, out there lending a hand, not just to people she knew, but total strangers.

The TV pictures and the accounts across the UK media have, in their own way, conveyed how awful things have been in Los Angeles, just as they do whenever there is any sort of natural disaster across the world. Lives have been lost – the actual number is rising with each passing day – and likewise with the homes, businesses and properties that were everything to those who lived and/or worked in them. But it was only after spending 20 or so minutes on a call with Jonny, did I get a fuller understanding of what had happened, but even then I found it impossible to comprehend what it must have been like to have been an actual eyewitness.

This little corner of t’internet is very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it has organically developed its own small community of like-minded people brought together by a love and appreciation of good music. I’d like to think we all look out for, and care about, one another, and that Jonny, his family and friends, and indeed everyone who has been impacted by this natural disaster, are in our thoughts during these dark times.

Kind of feels a bit trite to offer up any sort of song after all of that. I hope, however, this is acceptable.

mp3: Wilco – California Stars

Written in the dim and distant past by Woody Guthrie, with the tune being composed by Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy as part of the Mermaid Avenue project, recorded alongside Billy Bragg.

 

 

JC

Fall

ON THIS DAY : THE FALL’S PEEL SESSIONS #7

A quick reminder that this is a new series for 2025 which will feature all twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Each session will, going forward, be posted on the actual dates each session was first broadcast, but this one and the one which opened up the series last week, were originally broadcast in the very early days of January, and to stick fully to the plan would have involved new material while the blog was on its festive break.  We’ll get fully on track next time around.

Session #7 was broadcast on 3 January 1984, having been recorded on 12 December 1983.

Another transitional session: the debut of Smith’s then-wife Brix, with the band on the cusp of signing to Beggars. While future B-side ‘Pat-Trip Dispenser’ is tentative, ‘2×4’ points to the Wonderful and Frightening rockabilly that lay ahead and Brix’s increased role within the band. ‘Words of Expectation’, all nine minutes 15 seconds of it, was originally to be featured on the last Sanctuary Peel sessions CD, but it didn’t.  Now you can hear again its low-key detective music, which was an intermittent concert favourite between 83-86, with its vocal patterns predicting ‘Living Too Late’. The refrain of ‘I’m The Head Wrangler’ provides one of Smith’s classic moments, backed by some almost fretless-sounding bass.  Of course, ‘C.R.E.E.P.’ divided The Fall audience when released as a single, and here it is in a early form, all bright and poppy.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Pat-Trip Dispenser (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – 2×4 (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Words of Expectation (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – C.R.E.E.P. (Peel Session)

Produced by Tony Wilson, engineered by Martin Colley

Mark E Smith – vocals; Brix Smith – guitar, vocals; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – drums; Karl Burns – drums

 

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Fifty-Eight)

I’ve long felt, in terms of quality control, there’s an enormous risk attached to issuing twelve new singles across a calendar year.  I say that as I would have thought it’s a hard enough challenge for a band, especially one that’s been on the go for over thirty years in some shape or form, to come up with say 14 new tunes in a year from which a decent album could be made up, including a couple that could be held back to support any release of a single in some sort of physical form.  Even when a band comes to selecting the dozen or so songs for the new album, there will most likely be some that aren’t as ‘strong’ as others, a position that surely is only intensified when it comes to working out if something is ‘good enough’ to be an actual single.

Which is my sort of confused way of saying that Once Bitten, the sixth single across the 24 Songs project, released on 17 June 2022 is merely an ‘ok tune’.  

It actually has a really decent opening lyric, the sort which David Gedge has been coming up with all his life.

You are an empress so I’ll grovel
You’re a beauty from a bygone age
You are a pop song
You’re a novel and I can’t wait to read another page

But it kind of descends into some bad sixth-form lovelorn poetry by the end which is just a bit too cringey:-

Is this the moment when we kiss because I’ve been hurt before when I’ve been through things like this?
I long for your touch but it can wait; the thought of getting it wrong again’s too much to contemplate

On the other hand, it has a decent enough tune of the sort that The Wedding Present seem so capable of writing, recording and performing without breaking any sweat.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Once Bitten

It turns out that this is another of the 7″ releases in 2022 when I found myself preferring the b-side, one that was given the strange title of Kerplunk!, which itself is the name of a children’s game invented in 1967 that involves sticks and marbles:-

“With the Kerplunk game, kids test their skills and their nerves. Players compete to keep their hand steady enough to pull out the sticks without dislodging the marbles. One wrong move and the marbles will come rolling down the chute! Take turns carefully pulling out sticks from the Kerplunk bowl but watch out for a marble avalanche sending marbles rolling down the chute! The player who finishes the game with the fewest marbles wins.”

mp3: The Wedding Present – Kerplunk!

This is actually a bit of a hidden gem.  It’s one of those Gedge-imagined tales of bad romance in which he’s been on the receiving end of his partner calling an end to the relationship to run off with someone else, and then he bumps into his old flame about a month later and learns she is on her own again.  He takes a bit of delight in this new twist…….