#3: Simply Thrilled Honey : Orange Juice (Postcard 80-6, 1980)
Postcard Records had come a long way in a very short space of time. The first two Orange Juice singles had been critically acclaimed, likewise the two Josef K singles issued by the label and that of The Go-Betweens. By the time it came to issue the third OJ single, the numbers being pressed were significantly higher than before, with the first 5,000 coming in a sealable polythene bag with the double-sided insert as pictured above. A lot of the monies to support the expansion of the label’s activities came from a distribution arrangement with Rough Trade. And yes, the photo in the bottom right of the back of the sleeve is that of Jill Bryson, then a very close friend of the band but soon to find fame as one half of Strawberry Switchblade.
Once again, it was recorded at Castlesound Studios, but this time Malcolm Ross was on co-production duties alongside the band. I’m not going to suggest that Simply Thrilled Honey is a duff record, but there’s something about it that comes up short in comparison to Blue Boy and Lovesick. In later years, James Kirk (not the Star Trek character), would accept the single fell a bit below expectations, possibly down to the fact that it was one of the band’s oldest and most-played tunes and the studio recording didn’t find the same levels of energy and enthusiasm of the live takes.
It was released in December 1980 and would make the Top 5 of the newly created Indie Singles chart.
The b-side was a short and angular punky sounding effort, coming in at less than two minutes in length. It would later, in 1982, be substantially re-recorded with some additional and different lyrics and in a cod-reggae style for inclusion on the album Rip It Up, running to more than five minutes in length:-
Nobody knew it at the time, but there would be just one more single for Postcard Records.
JC
PS : AND A VERY LATE ONE AT THAT……
It’s nothing at all to do with music….but it is something that absolutely and simply thrills me. This particular post will appear as I set out on some travels again, and a trip that was arranged at extremely short notice. I’m off, again, to Toronto, for what will be a very short visit – arrive at Sunday lunchtime and fly back on Tuesday evening – for the sole purpose of attending a significant baseball match on Monday for which a ticket was only picked up last Friday night. It’s lucky I’m retired from work and can do things at the drop of the proverbial baseball cap, and also that I have a few pre-prepared posts to keep things ticking over for the next few days. Only downside is that I’m dreading what it’s all going to do to my body-clock…………..
Early 2012. Aidan Moffat of Arab Strap and James Graham of The Twilight Sad announce a collaboration. It’d be a bit of an understatement to say that I was excited by the prospect.
The announcement actually came a few months after the release of a single, Killing This Time, on Rock Action Records (owned and run by Mogwai), credited to James Graham and ‘someone else’, although the talk around the Glasgow music scene was that Aidan Moffat had supplied the music.
The album, These Actions Cannot Be Undone, was released in May 2022. Ten songs….nine of which James takes lead vocal and one on which Aidan does.
Maybe my expectations were far too much, but the album proved to be a bit of a letdown, albeit it has a few moments dotted throughout that act as a reminder of just how talented the duo are. Looking back, I maybe should have realised what was on offer thanks to this extract from an NME interview in advance of the album’s release:-
“I love being in The Twilight Sad, (said James). I’ll write with Andy [MacFarlane, Twilight Sad guitarist] for the rest of my life, but I wanted to see what else I could do, and push it as far as I possibly could, Then Aidan said: ‘Aye, I’ve got some stuff!’”
Moffat had recently finished work on Arab Strap’s most recent acclaimed album ‘As Days Get Dark’. “After a big album with a lot of words in it, I get sick of my own voice, so I tend to retreat a little bit and do instrumental stuff. It was pure serendipity that James was looking to do something that way.”
He began sending music to Graham for him to add vocals, with a focus on pushing boundaries. “We had an unspoken rule, that if we hadn’t done something before we should definitely try it, which is why James is trying all manner of vocal gymnastics”.
New single ‘Face To Fire (After Nyman)’ is based around a thumping dance beat. “It’s reflecting that we both tend to listen to pop music more than people would think,” Moffat revealed. “We have all these ideas that we probably couldn’t do with the other music we make.”
The track, like the rest of the album, constantly shifts in tone – taking in a wild opening riff that recalls AC/DC‘s ‘Thunderstruck’, and a middle section inspired by the minimalist composer Michael Nyman. “When I sent it over to James I thought he’d never go for it!” Moffat admitted. “Then by complete surprise he sent me back the perfect song. It’s always been my dream in life to do an AC/DC-Michael Nyman crossover song about mental health issues. It’s win win all round!”
Thankfully, Aidan returned to full form with Arab Strap’s eighth studio album, I’m Totally Fine With It Don’t Give A Fuck Anymore, released in May 2024 and one of my records of that year. Still waiting on The Twilight Sad issuing a follow-up to 2019’s It Won’t Be Like This All The Time.
a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer
I don’t know a more indulgent man than our good host. Over the years, JC has posted every random thing I sent him. A series about New York City songs. Another series called Charged Particles where all the song titles end with “ion.” Lots of nonsense about my tenure in a country band. Song Story entries. Interviews with guys who made REM videos. And while the faithful crowd submits lovingly curated imaginary compilation albums by their favorite bands, JC never once objected to my oddball ICAs about trumpets, side projects, days of the week, presidential elections (sob), stellar basslines, songs that bands took their names from, or unconventional instruments. Not to mention my chiming in every day with unsolicited opinions in the comments section.
But, being an incorrigible and pushy New Yorker, I thought, “why not shamelessly take advantage of Jim’s good graces and try to unload even more of my musical BS on him? He knows I’m too lazy to start my own blog–could I get away with hijacking even more of his web space?” I was facetiming with Jim when I threw the idea at him and he didn’t appear to choke on anything or swear at me, even under his breath. Instead, he greenlighted Fictive* Fridays, a platform for yet more of my, er, idiosyncratic musical observations.
So, here goes. Let’s revisit some themes I posted about before, and take a look at some new ones to expect, smorgasbord style:
Charged Particles: Annihilation by Wilco. This is from the band’s most recent release, an EP from 2024 titled Hot Sun Cool Shroud. Trademark Wilco everything: clever lyric, hummable melody, arty guitars, and Jeff Tweedy‘s relaxed, friendly croon over the top.
Trumpets:Burial Ground by The Decemberists. Lead single off the 12ths last album, As It Ever Was, So Will It Be Again. The trumpet arrives around the 2:43 mark, and that’s exactly how Victor Nash played it at LA’s Bellwether when I saw them tour the LP last summer. And, yes, that is the Shins’ James Mercer guesting on background vocals.
Basslines: B-Movie by Elvis Costello & The Attractions. I get that folks don’t care a lot about bassists, but if you’re ever going to pay attention to what’s happening on the low end, this song is as good as it gets. It’s only 2 minutes long, and Bruce Thomas plays about 2,000 notes. And not one is out of place, and nothing in the line is predictable. From the spectacular Get Happy!! album, recorded 45 years ago this month.
Everyone’s Your Friend in NYC: Rockaway Beach by the Ramones. EYFINYC was a series of reminiscences about Gotham co-written with long-time contributor Echorich. We had a fun time collaborating but stopped for reasons I can’t even remember. But I found what was to be another instalment, a bit about specific NYC neighborhoods. Rockaway Beach is part of a long spit of land enclosing Jamaica Bay in southwest Queens county, not too far from the Ramones’ home base of Forest Hills. (Echorich grew up in Queens and I was born there.) There was a wooden boardwalk along the beach that lasted nearly 100 years, until it was unceremoniously destroyed by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Now the boardwalk is concrete. Some of my earliest memories are of Far Rockaway, where my great-grandma lived. Dee Dee was reportedly the only beachgoer in the band and he wrote the song. I love the couplet “Chewin’ out a rhythm on my bubble gum–the sun is out and I want some.” A banger from 1977’s Rocket to Russia.
What Is That Thing? (weird Instruments): No Surprises by Radiohead. That’s a glockenspiel Jonny Greenwood‘s playing here. Thom Yorke wanted the song to sound like a lullaby, and had Pet Sounds and Louis Armstrong‘s ‘Wonderful World’ in mind when he wrote it. You can YouTube our boy studiously malleting the thing on the Jools Holland show circa 1997.
DIY:Alone+Easy Target by Foo Fighters. DIY songs are–you guessed it–songs where the musician recorded everything by themselves. I’m not the biggest Foo Fighters fan, despite my (and JC’s) drummer Randy being a major fan, but I’m impressed that Dave Grohl wrote all the songs on the self-titled debut album and played all the instruments. This one sounds more like Nirvana to me anyway, which is a good thing.
Wiseguys:Tidal Wave by Apples in Stereo. “Smart people do a lot of things well,” the beautiful Goldie once told me. Robert Schneider founded the Elephant 6 record label, a collective of great American indie bands. In addition to the Apples, whom Schneider fronted, E6 released records by the Minders, Olivia Tremor Control, and Neutral Milk Hotel, whose classic In The Aeroplane Over The Sea Schneider produced. He’s also got a Ph.D. in mathematics and is now an assistant professor specializing in number theory and combinatorics. I met Schneider after a gig many years ago and asked about a song in the set that I didn’t recognize. It was their version of the Beach Boys‘ ‘Heroes and Villains,‘ which, he said, “is the greatest song ever written…yet.”
Who’s That Girl?:Yesterday Girl by The Smithereens. When I was in college I made a compilation tape called ‘Who’s That Girl’ which was a bunch of songs that were all titled “[something] Girl.” I ended up making quite a few of those. When my music collection was computerized I continued putting the songs in a playlist. I thought about doing an ICA, but I didn’t know where to start, since I’ve got literally hundreds of songs to choose from. But this one was an easy call–a straight up power pop classic from the Jersey boys and a favorite of my (and JC’s) lead guitarist Dr. Rigberg. Third single from the band’s 1989 LP, 11.
Jane Says:Captain Easychord by Stereolab. My daughter’s musical knowledge is astonishing. She started a Spotify playlist of songs she thinks I’d like that she adds to periodically. Artists on it include Fundkadelic, Kevin Ayers, Sonic Youth, Les Baxter, Pinback, Hole, Yusef Lateef, MF Doom, Nina Simone, David Byrne, Harry Nilsson, Kings of Convenience, Trembling Blue Stars, plus hundreds of others I’d never heard of. The playlist is about 24 hours long now. How does she know about all this music? I was an early fan of Stereolab but forgot about them until Jane dropped this into the list. From the 2005 compilation LP Oscillons from the Anti-Sun.
He Said She Said:Sometimes Always by The Jesus and Mary Chain. I was wondering how many songs I could think of where male and female singers trade verses. Not duets, mind you, but a straight up back and forth. Other folks think about the Gaza genocide or the Nazification of the US–but I wonder about things like this. I came up with quite a few, actually, but I picked this one–with Mazzy Star frontwoman/LA native Hope Sandoval singing along with the Glaswegians–in honor of my friendship with the Villain.
*JC asked me why I changed my handle from JTFL (Jonny the Friendly Lawyer) to Fiktiv. Not sure why anyone would care, but the answer is simple: I’m not that friendly and I pretty much stopped practicing law. Man, I hate lawyers.
Please stay tuned for more Friday fun.
FIKTIV
JC adds……..
Delighted to have Jonny on board, and despite his protestations, he is indeed a friendly guy, as I can very much readily testify to after he and his amazing wife Goldie hosted myself and Rachel, for more than a week, at their wonderful home in Santa Monica.
And just in case anyone doesn’t understand the references to Randy and Dr Rigberg, they are members of the Dial-Ups, a rather wonderful covers band from Santa Monica who were kind enough to have me become a temporary member one night when I joined them on stage and played cowbell…while I was wearing a Raith Rovers football jersey. A genuinely unforgettable experience.
Jonny, like anyone who wants to offer up a guest posting on TVV, is free to say go anywhere he likes. Strap yourselves in for what should be an epic ride.
# 111: Young Marble Giants – ‘Final Day’ (Rough Trade Records ’80)
Dear friends,
probably I shouldn’t even begin trying to explain the merits of Welsh outfit Young Marble Giants and/or how groundbreaking their only album, ‘Colossal Youth’, was for so many listeners back in 1980. Because, you see, for some it’s an absolute masterpiece, others will tell me to bugger off, as to them it’s just minimalistic nonsense with a severe lack of melody. I mean, those people do have a point: ‘Colossal Youth’ in its entirety certainly isn’t ‘easy listening’ and whether this chap out of Nirvana, Cobain, wasn’t pushing a bit too hard when constantly praising the album as the best thing since sliced bread, remains debatable.
In Germany we even had a band who named themselves after this album, ‘Kolossale Jugend’, pioneers of the Hamburger Schule in 1989 and led by the wonderful Kristof Schreuf, who, alas, died three years ago. Listen to their song ‘Bessere Zeiten’ and you have at least one thing to thank Young Marble Giants for!
But enough of the album, because today’s song isn’t even on it! It was a single, well, one song on a four-track-EP, also from 1980, but what the band managed to come up with within the 100 seconds the tune lasts, is remarkable! The combination of guitar and electronic rumble and Alison Statton’s (who later found fame with Working Week) naïve, genuinely artless vocals make the song so damned special. All of this, plus what she was singing about: ‘the final day’, as the title suggests. Applicable somehow, as this is the ultimate post in this series on TVV, but no, the lyrics were not written for this occasion nor are they about the end of a relationship: the end of the world they are about, not more, not less!
You see, in the early and mid-80s this was rather a hot topic – and back then I would never have thought that I’d have similar fears again some 40 years later. But to my great dismay this is the case: every morning in the bathroom when I open Google News on my mobile, I expect to be confronted with one – or both – of our two genius world leaders on either side of the Pacific having done something (to quote The Primitives) really stupid, something irreversible! Therefore I lately often find myself humming along to below song whilst shaving a few minutes later:
Now, when I started this nonsense (with the Akrylykz – in November ’22, remember?), I thought to myself: ‘well, let’s wait and see what people think, perhaps there will be one or two comments. If not, then you can decide whether to continue or not.’ Well, I continued, as you can tell, and this is purely because of you and your nice words. I enjoyed every single comment, regardless of their length: there were short ones, there were essays (this is to you, FFF!) – I was happy about each and every one, and this is what kept me going, by and large.
So please let me use this opportunity to say ‘thank you’ for everything you commented (I know I didn’t thank you for any comments at the time, deliberately so, I thought this would take things too far perhaps) from the bottom of my heart, friends – I mean it! In equal measure of course: thanks to our host JC for having given me the opportunity to occasionally ‘borrow’ TVV for this series: highly appreciated, mate – because I think we all know that I’d never had such a great audience over @ sexyloser, right?
And that’s it then, friends. Hope you enjoyed the majority of it, perhaps there even was someone who heard something new – and didn’t totally dislike it. As I said before: in this case I’d have fully accomplished my mission …
JC has asked me if I might contemplate to continue with something else, he says he would support it. In addition to this there are of course contractual obligations between him and me, and I think it’s fair to say that presumably you’d rather get out of the French Foreign Legion than out of this contract. So you wait and see, perhaps I’ll crop up again here in due course … I might even already have a clever idea, who knows?
Until then, take good care – and enjoy!
Peace,
Dirk
JC adds…………..
This series of 111 singles has been an absolute joy to post on the blog over the past two years. Dirk is one of my oldest ‘imaginary friends’ (as Rachel used to call the blogging fraternity) and who, through his determination a few years ago to meet up in the flesh, instigated a memorable weekend in Glasgow during which a number of imaginary friends became flesh and blood, and so I’ll always owe him a great deal.
He’s also, as this series has demonstrated, a very astute and knowledgeable purveyor of the music scene, with his tastes being as wide and diverse as anyone I know. He’s also a superbly entertaining writer, and given he does so in his second language, he puts many of us who rely solely on English very much to shame. I can’t thank him enough.
And, as ever, his timing is impeccable. The 111 singles series may have come to an end, but as it happens, a brand new occasional series is about to get underway immediately, courtesy of another long-standing friend of the blog, one that should be as enjoyable as that which has been delivered by Dirk. Hope to see you all again tomorrow.
A guest series by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)
#7: How Much Are They? – Jah Wobble/Holger Czukay/Jaki Liebezeit (1981)
A collaboration between two members of Can and the bass player for Public Image Ltd was bound to pique my interest in 1981, when this four-track 12” EP was released. Sometimes these kind of tie-ups fail to deliver on their promise, but on this occasion the results were highly satisfying and the EP has remained a favourite ever since.
Wobble and Czukay first met through journalist Angus Mackinnon, a friend of Wobble’s who mentioned to him during an interview that Czukay was in London at that time (late ’80 or early ’81) and arranged a meet up. Wobble had grown frustrated with PiL’s creative inertia. He had released his first solo album, The Legend Lives On… Jah Wobble in “Betrayal”, in May 1980, but his unauthorised use of recordings from the Metal Box sessions on that album ultimately led to his ejection from PiL in late 1980.
Funnily enough, it was John Lydon who was the better-known Can fan, praising them and playing the full 18 minutes of ‘Halleluwah’ during his appearance on Tommy Vance’s Capital Radio show in July 1977 at the height of the Sex Pistols’ infamy. Wobble also liked Can but as he explained, “I liked the groove stuff, I wasn’t mad on everything, but it was the stuff where Jaki got his thing going on those earlier albums that I liked.”
Wobble jumped at the chance to meet the Can bassist. Czukay hinted in a later interview that Lydon may also have been invited but passed, so it was Wobble alone who arrived at Mackinnon’s flat wielding a six-pack of beer. Given his reputation for alcohol abuse in those days, this didn’t bode well, especially since Czukay was in the surely tiny minority of German people who don’t like beer. In the end, however, only one can was consumed as the musical discussion took up all their attention.
The pair first worked together in a London studio where the track How Much Are They? was recorded. It’s the funkiest of the four tracks, and the only one that might induce you to try some restrained dance moves. Wobble then travelled to Can’s Inner Space studio near Cologne where the other three pieces were created. Wobble is also credited with the bass part on the final track of Czukay’s 1981 solo album On The Way To The Peak Of Normal, although whether this was before or after the EP recordings I can’t tell.
Despite Wobble’s admiration for Jaki Liebezeit’s phenomenal extended grooves on the early Can albums, the rhythms on this EP are driven much more by the Englishman’s characteristic reggae-influenced basslines. Jaki’s drumming is of course impeccable, but there is no reprise of ‘Mother Sky’ or ‘Halleluwah’ here. Czukay’s contribution, apart from his woozy French horn, is most prominent in the artful assemblage of the disparate parts into satisfying wholes. Long recognised as a master of pre-digital cut-and-paste tape editing, Czukay wields the scissors and Sellotape here with imperceptible precision and compositional skill. His guitar work also suggests he learnt how to play from Can’s Michael Karoli, though at times he also channels Keith Levene’s fractured and discordant PiL sound.
No one would ever mistake Jah Wobble for a gifted singer, something the critics of his “Betrayal” album homed in on. Punk and the new wave had long since abolished the idea that this mattered, however, and Wobble the singer delivers vocals for each track that sound like a drunk man making it up as he goes along, which is quite possibly an accurate summation of what happened. Or more likely, they showcase the spontaneity and willingness to give it a crack that were apparently shared points of musical approach with Holger Czukay.
‘Twilight World’ may be the title of just one of the four tracks, but it could almost serve as a description of the EP’s prevailing atmosphere. The combination of Wobble’s dubby basslines, wandering vocals, opaque lyrics and the fragmentary sounds flashing across the soundscape make for a surreal and psychedelic experience, like the kind of disorienting dream sequences in movies where our hero is waking up in a strange room after being captured and drugged by the baddies. Just my kind of scene, really.
The following year (1982) the four tracks were augmented by another two longer pieces, one called ‘Full Circle R.P.S. (No.7)’ and the other ‘Mystery R.P.S. (No. 8)’ and released as Czukay’s fourth solo album Full Circle. The two longer pieces are definitely from the same stable as the EP tracks, but feature more found sounds and radio samples typical of Czukay’s earlier album Movies (R.P.S. stands for ‘radio pictures series’). Both tracks could be described as less focused, and Full Circle has a jauntier mood that sets it a little apart.
Overall, I like to think that if you came across this music without knowing who or what it was, then you would have to describe it as sounding like a cross between Can and Metal Box, which probably accounts for its enduring appeal. Metal Box’s debt to Can did not go unnoticed at the time, even by callow youths like me, whose exposure to the German band in 1979 was limited to their first and last albums.
I didn’t notice that Wobble and Czukay collaborated again in 1983 with The Edge on a five-track EP called Snake Charmer, but having heard it recently I can tell you it’s nothing like this. It’s a very mixed bag, and with Francois Kevorkian twiddling knobs on a few of the tracks it has a much more notable dance stance. Czukay’s presence is negligible.
While I’ve enjoyed much of Czukay’s solo work I can’t say the same for Wobble’s. I heard some Invaders of the Heart and didn’t go for it, and then he disappeared from view. Recently I came across his Metal Box Rebuilt in Dub album and made the mistake of listening to it. As website The Vinyl District put it, this abomination “isn’t a reimagining of Metal Box, it’s a betrayal of the very spirit of Metal Box, and why anyone would listen to this perverse act of urban gentrification more than once is beyond me.”He is too generous. Even if you had never heard Metal Box it is still utter shit, and if you have, well it’s the musical equivalent of someone exhuming and desecrating the body of one of your loved ones. Metal Box has many fine legacies, amongst which is this excellent EP that Wobble made with Czukay and Liebezeit in its immediate aftermath. He should have left it at that.
A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.
Session #9 was broadcast on this day, 7 October 1985, having been recorded on 29 September 1985.
As if to compensate for the previous year’s dry spell, The Fall returned to Maida Vale just four months after their last session. The best sessions were on the verge of something big; this one. on the eve of the release of ‘This Nation’s Saving Grace’ is another classic, with Smith’s introduction suggesting “Lloyd Cole’s brain and face is made out of cow-pat – we all know that and herewith is an instrumental track”. ‘L.A.’ , Brix’s signature tune, if you will, is served clean and crisp. The Fall’s occasional visits to old material in sessions is also a joy. ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded’, just two years old, felt like a rare trawl into the archive. After a vibrant ‘What You Need’, we have that special moment that only the Peel sessions could offer – work in progress. Here we have a try-out of the following year’s ‘DKTR Faustus’, then only catalogued as ‘Faust Banana’. One of Mark and Brix’s greatest joint moments, here it is much better than the muddy rendition on ‘Bend Sinister.’
“Paul Simpson is one of the great underappreciated and underrated figures from the late 70s post punk scene in Liverpool. I highly recommend his book Revolutionary Spirit to anyone curious about that unique and fertile time frame in music. It is a perfect companion read to Julian Cope’s Head On.”
The words of drskridlow last month when responding to Dirk‘s posting of the Wild Swans 45 from which the book takes its name. And while I agree that it is a perfect companion to the earlier autobiography by Julian Cope, it is a book that more than stands on its own merits. Indeed, I’d be happy enough to say that is one of the best of any rock autobiographies……but it’s a story that I was a bit wary of reviewing, as I’ll explain a bit later on.
In many ways and across many of its pages, Revolutionary Spirit is a love letter to Liverpool, and more specifically, to the Liverpool of the 1980s. And yet the book begins, rather unexpectedly, in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, in September 2011 where Paul Simpson and one of the bands he played in, The Wild Swans, are feted as superstars. The band is on a nine-day trip and is due to appear on national television and play two gigs that, with the hoped for/anticipated accompanying merch sales, will finally give this impoverished musician a small degree of financial security. The only problem is that their arrival coincided with the city and country being hit by a massive cyclone, which throws everything into a state of chaos and uncertainty. It sets the scene perfectly for all that follows, as Paul takes us on an epic ride from his 60s’ childhood to the completion of the book in 2022.
There is a great deal of self-deprecating humour, much of it drawn from the fact that Paul in later years came to acknowledge just how ridiculous it was that he so often self-sabotaged his career:-
“I’d been living in a bubble for so long that I hadn’t realised that I had acquired a reputation. In 1979, I’d left the band most likely, The Teardrop Explodes, to work in a city-centre tearoom. In 1984, I’d walked out of Care, my collaboration with Ian Broudie, after a hit single. And as far as the world was concerned, The Wild Swans had had their moment and blown it. Twice. What I had viewed as perfectionism in myself was interpreted by the industry as a self-destructive streak.”
But there is also a huge amount of poignancy and pathos, which reveals itself early on when Paul writes about his family, and in particularly his fraught relationship with his father, which is more than compensated for through the love and encouragement offered by his mother. By his late teenage years, and having been friends from a very early age with Les Pattinson, he begins to meet those with whom he would later play such a significant role in the musical renaissance of his home city. Like so many other people, he begins to properly form emotionally and intellectually once he has left school and, in his case, gone to a Further Education college to ‘study’ advertising and exhibition design, and where he falls in love for the first, but not the last time, all the while becoming something of a music and clothes obsessive. All of this across what really is a rivetting 88 pages of prose taking us up to December 1976 and his first visit to Eric’s in Matthew Street, the venue making a name for itself as the place in the city for those with an interest in the emerging punk rock scene.
And from there the book rolls along at an incredible pace, with a cast of dozens, many of whom have been mentioned frequently and lovingly on this blog over the past 19 years. What is most striking is just how many people become close friends with Paul, which is a fair indication of how affable, amenable and approachable a person he genuinely comes across as. Or maybe the drugs that he and everyone indulged in had a lot to do with it…..
His recollections of his response to the news that his ex-flatmate Pete de Frietas had died in a motorcycle accident will resonate with anyone who has lost a dear friend unexpectedly and at a tragically young age. His tales of the way that Courtney Love caused absolute havoc when she arrived unannounced and unexpectedly in Liverpool will resonate with anyone who has been in the orbit of a disruptive force whose levels of self-awareness are next to non-existent. And maybe that’s what lies at the heart of why I really fell for the charms of this book – it is very much the tale of a man and his place in a musical scene of a city at a particular point in time, but there is much in his life that we can all relate to, no matter how seemingly mundane, dull or ordinary our own existence may appear on the surface.
Paul Simpson should have been a superstar in so many other places other than the Philippines. His book offers up explanations as to why it never came to pass, and at no point in time does he ask readers to feel sorry for him. This is a frank, honest and above else, hugely engaging autobiography.
From an appearance by Care on the BBC’s Oxford Road Show, which was broadcast direct from Manchester between 1981-1985. I’ve a copy of this on VHS tape somewhere, and a huge thanks to parkhill62 for taking the time to transfer his copy across to youtube.
Oh, and the reason I was wary or indeed reluctant to review the book stems from the fact that Adam, from Bagging Area, did so in September 2024, and I can only dream of matching his way with words. Adam called Revolutionary Spirit ‘a delight…..that he can’t recommend highly enough.’. I’m more than happy to echo those sentiments.
WITH THANKS TO MARK LEE, WHOSE PHOTO ABOVE I’VE ‘BORROWED’ FROM FACEBOOK
The newly arrived Sunday series has taken its name from the tour currently being undertaken by Edwyn Collins, his likely last lap before a well-deserved retirement.
The tour arrived in Glasgow one week yesterday, Saturday 28 September. I had a ticket, but for reasons that I won’t bore you with, I didn’t go along, and thus missed out on the partial reunion of Orange Juice Mk1, as James Kirk and Steven Daly played with the band on the final two songs of the encore. The only reason David McClymont couldn’t make it is all down to him now living and working in Australia.
While it was a sore one to take, I was more than consoled by the fact that two days later, Monday 30 September, I’d be seeing Edwyn and his band at Buxton Opera House, having secured just about the best seats possible (three rows from the front and in the centre), and there was the bonus of Rachel coming along with me as we made it an overnight stay in the Derbyshire market town. It also ticked off another from the bucket list, as the Opera House had long been on the list of places I’d wanted to see a gig.
This is a bonus post, so I won’t make it too lengthy. Buxton itself was a lovely place to visit, particularly the gardens and pavilions area on a pleasantly sunny autumnal afternoon. There should have been plenty of options for food and drink, but it seems to be a town where many of the restaurants are closed on Mondays, and just as we were beginning to panic as we hadn’t booked anywhere in advance, the good folk at Lubens, a small and independently owned bar not far from the Opera House came to the rescue with the offer of the last free table they had at 5pm. The establishment is named after its 30-something owners – Lucy and Ben – and proved to be the perfect way to get the evening underway. If any member of the TVV community ever happens to be in Buxton, you’re guaranteed great food, great drink and a ridiculously warm welcome at Lubens.
The 900-capacity Opera House itself more than lived up to expectations. Built in 1903, it may have undergone a number of refurbishments since 1979 but it retains all of its original class and charm – I think the word ‘delightful’ was invented just to describe the exterior and interior of the building.
The gig is one that will stay with me for a very long time. In many ways, it was simply a continuation of the sort of shows Edwyn has been putting on sporadically since returning from the debilitating stroke of 2005, with four of the five band members having both played and recorded with him for many years. The difference this time, for me certainly, was knowing this was going to be the last time I get to see the great man on stage, allied to the fact that it proved to be a setlist of dreams.
Being up so close to offered us a view of just how hard Edwyn has to work each night he takes to the stage. It remains something of a miracle that he is able to sing his songs fairly fluently when his speech is severely restricted. It has always been noticeable how occasionally, but briefly, he gets lost on stage, struggling perhaps with memory, and he gets flustered with his inability to articulate himself in the way he wants to. There will never be a perfect Edwyn Collins show nowadays – he admits there are notes he can longer reach and there are times when he will, in his own words, fuck up the lyrics, but the sheer bravery and determination on display will always more than compensate. I can’t have been the only one with tears in my eyes as he ended the show, as he often does, by standing up to lean on his cane during the final two numbers, only to find myself welling up again when he used his one working hand to pick up and play the harmonica during a song in the encore.
Twenty-two songs all told, of which twelve dated back to the Orange Juice era. Three of the four Postcard singles were aired. He also leaned heavily on his most successful solo album, Gorgeous George, with five of its tracks being performed. There was a duet with his son Will – and again being so close to the stage meant we could see just how much love and affection was on dad’s face as he watched his son give everything to his performance. It was a perfectly paced and perfectly judged set, one which reminded everyone just how many great songs Edwyn has written over the years.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Rachel has never really been a big fan of Orange Juice or the solo career, but she came along to the show knowing how much it was going to mean to me, as well as liking the idea of visiting Buxton as she had read it was a lovely town and the train journey went through nice scenery. She grabbed my hand as we left the Opera House and said, ‘that was very special.’
Quick and belated PS. Khayem over at Dubhed has written up a more detailed review of Edwyn’s show in Bath that took place the night after Buxton. As you’d expect, it’s an excellent read. Click here.
#2: Blue Boy/Lovesick : Orange Juice (Postcard 80-2, 1980)
Having been embittered a bit by the experience in the Strathaven studio with the debut, the band, in April 1980, headed east to Pencaitland, a village some 16 miles south-east of Edinburgh and home to Castlesound studios. This time, Alex Fergusson, who had been part of various bands from the mid-70s onwards, including punk act Alternative TV, was in the producer’s chair. The session delivered two songs for a double A sided effort, including what many consider to be Orange Juice‘s most enduring song:-
Released in September 1980, on the same day as Josef K‘s Radio Drill Time, which was just as well as the two singles shared doubled up picture sleeves. These were black and white, with the plan being to have them hand-coloured individually, using pencils. The members of Josef K were meticulous in their approach, carefully adding relevant colours to a pair of shoes and a pot plant.
Orange Juice did things a bit differently. The band, and a few of their friends held a ‘colouring-in party’ at 185 West Princes Street in Glasgow, home of Alan Horne and the de facto HQ of Postcard Records at which, having discovered that doing things carefully and properly would take an incredibly long time, they all just scribbled lines, shapes and the occasional words randomly, meaning that no two sleeves were the same. This Discogs page has a quite a few of the examples…just click the ‘More Images’ link.
In 1993, Postcard Records would be temporarily reactivated, and Blue Boy/Love sick was released as a CD single, along with a limited edition on 7″ vinyl (catalogue number DUBH 934), complete with a fully coloured sleeve:-
The CD would come with two additional and previously unreleased versions of Poor Old Soul, a single which will actually feature later on in this series:-
The worldwide lockdown in the wake of the outbreak of the COVID pandemic meant musicians had to be a lot more innovative in how they went about their business and tried to make a living.
Glasgow-based singer/songwriter Louise Quinn and producer/musician Bal Cooke, with the support of Creative Scotland’s Open Fund to sustain creativity during lockdown, teamed up remotely with producer/ DJ Scott Fraser (London), producer/ DJ Kid Loco (Paris) and film/art director Tim Saccenti (New York) to form Gates of Light for the release of an eponymous album of what was described as a psychedelic, dream-pop glitch landscape of future folk, and which was released on Shimmy Records, a New York label owned by Mark Kramer, a veteran of the music scene.
The experience proved to be an enjoyable one, and the idea behind Gates of Light continued into the post-pandemic age, with three digitally released EPs that were rooted in different cities – Glasgow, Paris and London – which were then collated and released as Gates of Light II by Last Night from Glasgow in February 2025.
# 110: Yazoo – ‘Nobody’s Diary’ (Mute Records ’83)
Dear friends,
synth-pop is a dangerous thing, I always thought. You see, your approval for it falls and stands with your age, more specifically: when you were 14, 15, 16, developing a serious interest for music – was it 1983 then or was it 1993? The point I’m trying to make is: in 1983, 1984, at least here in Germany, there was nothing else but synth-pop by and large, you were flooded with it everywhere: radio, TV, clubs (well, ‘clubs’ in a sense: we are talking rural village gatherings here, you see – those venues you could get into when you were an adolescent, a club bouncer in town would just laugh at you and send you away).
In addition to this the media was still desperately trying to reanimate the dead horse that was called „New (German) Wave“ over here, basically this was awful synth-pop, albeit sung in German. There were positive exceptions, but very limited ones, believe me, the vast majority was total crap.
So, the point I’m trying to make is: you were battered with new romantic synth-pop all day long, sung in English and sung in German – there was no escape! Please get me right: the new bands were not bad per se, 99% of their synth stuff was much more enjoyable than the 12-minute-guitar-solo-prog-rock-stuff we constantly had to listen to in the aforementioned “youth clubs“ before. Why? Well, because the DJs there were always either old hippies or hard rock fanatics, always much older than you … and you would not argue with them when you were 14, that’s why! But eventually they could not close their eyes any longer, the demand got too big, or the requests too many, I suppose – soon synth pop had found its way into those youth clubs as well.
Now, coming to the essence of all of this: you might already have gathered it, but of course only the mainstream stuff got played there, just like on the radio – Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Heaven 17, Human League, Icehouse, Tears For Fears, you know the lot!
But there were quite some bands which flew below the radar, undeservedly so, because what they offered was superb: clever, thoughtful, special. Three totally underrated bands stood out here, one and two were – in my humble opinion – Blancmange and Soft Cell and the third was Yazoo. We can have endless discussions about which single to go for by Yazoo, ”Only You“, „Don’t Go“, „Situation“, „The Other Side Of Love“ – or my absolute favourite, this:
The tabloids back then were more uncertain than me, apparently:
Smash Hits: “Strong on emotion and weak on melody but the combination of ringing synths and bluesy singing is still a winner.”
Number One: “It sounds like all the rest, and yet, it doesn’t! Somehow they keep coming up with enough hit variations on their theme. Can’t fail.”
Melody Maker: “quite like[s]” the song, but would “like to hear a different kind of backing track” for Moyet’s “wonderful” vocals as Yazoo’s “synthesized sound doesn’t have very much depth”. Still it would be a big hit and that Moyet “sounds very different on this, a bit restrained, a bit deeper”.
Contrary to the music papers, there is nothing at all which I miss from or would add to this single – it’s just perfect the way it is!
What the hell, indeed? My first ICA was on PWEI in January 2020. That took me two years to write. This second one has taken nearly six years. I’m not sure I can really explain why. But here we are with an ICA that moves more firmly into dance territory with the fantastic Orbital. All tracks are in the Spotify playlist below and there are a few videos to enjoy as well.
Orbital are brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll from Kent. Legendarily, the band’s name is taken from Greater London’s orbital motorway, the M25. The M25 was central to the early rave scene of the 80s, as ravers ended up playing a cat and mouse game with the police waiting at service stations for news on where the next rave was located.
Live is where they’ve really shone, with their semi-improvised sets that twist and stretch originals into new thrilling shapes. They’ve played one of the iconic Glastonbury sets in 1994 and also appeared at the Royal Albert Hall (twice).
They’ve had a few compilations over the years, including Work 1989-2002 (2002), 2Twenty (2009) and A Beginners Guide (2024). All of these are decent resumes of their best moments, so this ICA takes a slightly less travelled path.
Side A
This side is a non-chronological trawl through a few of their more danceable moments.
This is featured on all their compilations, but there really wasn’t any other place to start. Chime from 1989 is their breakthrough track. This was recorded under the stairs on their father’s 4 track tape deck, which they released on DJ Jazzy M‘s Oh Zone Records in December 1989. It was re-released on FFRR Records in 1990. The track reached number 17 in the UK charts, and they appeared on Top of the Pops wearing anti-Poll Tax T-shirts and with their equipment visibly not plugged in.
The heart of the track is the stabby piano chord allied to a chunky bass and of the time percussion. I’ve included the full 12 minute version to give you the full ‘lost at the rave’ experience. It’s a classic close to my heart but unsurprisingly for something that’s 35 years old it does sound a bit dated.
Taken from their second album, known as the Brown album, this is an in your face climate change anthem. Orbital have always been awkwardly principled and this track pushes the environmental concerns to the fore.
The track offers their usual tumble of break beats along with almost symphonic brass synths. The samples that pepper the track talk about “A cry for survival”. Live this builds and builds and is immense.
Jumping forward to 2003, here’s Orbital showing their ability to do a soundtrack for an indie film Octane. This was done just before they split up in 2004. It’s a largely beatless track but employs a spooky keyboard and a dark bass line to offer that horror vibe.
As for the film, Octane (released as Pulse in the United States) is a 2003 horror film directed by Marcus Adams and starring Madeleine Stowe, Mischa Barton, and Norman Reedus. The film follows a divorced mother and her teenage daughter on a late-night road trip, and the mother’s battle to find her daughter after she gets caught up with a bizarre cult of young criminals at a truck stop.
Orbital reformed at the end of 2008 and ended up creating this absolute classic using a track from the album Wonky. One of my all-time favourite tracks this manage to be magisterial in its opening, awe-inspiring in its use of Stephen Hawking’s vocal and utterly danceable.
Orbital appeared at the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Paralympic Games, performing “Where Is It Going?” live with Stephen Hawking delivering a speech about the Large Hadron Collider. “Transform our Perception of the Universe.”
Orbital split up again in 2014 and returned in 2017. Tiny Foldable Cities was their first release in this new period, ahead of their Monsters Exist album (2018).
The track has a woozy fairground organ as its centrepiece. This is all very English and is happy to remain strange even when the beats and synths arrive.
Taken from the album The Altogether this shows how adept Orbital are at marrying their music to ethereal vocals. The vocals are from Naomi Bedford of Jonah Hex whilst the lyrics are by Naomi together with fellow band member Andrew Bramley.
Unusually for Orbital this track includes trumpet and sax from Michael Smith and Dominic Glover. They offer additional support to the vocal, allowing it to really soar within the track.
Taken from their Radicchio EP this features a line from Scott Walker’s Next. It’s a doomy bass heavy track that offers only pleasures in the next world, not this. It’s a largely instrumental track that pounds along from start to finish.
Side B
This side is another non-chronological trawl but with a more chilled come down feel.
Originally released on the Radicchio EP, this version is another that’s taken from the Brown album. But also another stone classic. The repeating refrain, the thrummed synth and the use of the Opus III sample from Kirsty Hawkshaw all combine into a total anthem.
The inspiration for the track is Phil and Paul Hartnoll’s mother, who was addicted to the tranquilliser Halcion (Triazolam) for many years. As Phil explained “my dad was working really hard and was rarely at home while our mum was freaking out on Halcyon (a then-popular prescription tranquiliser)… Don’t get me wrong, mum was always very loving and caring. But they prescribed her this drug and she just kept on doubling the dose.”
Live, Orbital were famous for adding Belinda Carlisle (Heaven Is A Place on Earth) and Bon Jovi (You Give Love A Bad Name) half way through. This was a cause of many mass singalongs. In recent years they’ve sadly dropped Belinda and Bon Jovi, but it’s still a wonderful track.
Taken from the album Snivilisation and meaning non-drinking water, this is another of those built around a set of arpeggiated piano chords. It bursts with exuberance that eventually turns into some of Orbital’s favoured break beats at the half way mark. There’s something quite Mozart about the piano.
Imaginary spy theme for an imaginary compilation. The Box is taken from the In Sides album. The version released on In Sides is in two parts, a slow downbeat Part 1 and a faster upbeat Part 2 of the same song. The track has a wonderful darkness to it.
Paul Hartnoll told the NME that the song was based on a recurring dream he had about the discovery of a mysterious wooden box in the Welsh countryside, but that he would always wake up just at the point he was opening the box, so he never found out what was inside it.
A classic chillout track taken from the Blue Album. This has ethereal vocals from Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance. They dominate the track and help it manage the assertive breakbeats.
The final track on this ICA is another low-key one. It’s also a movingly poignant one as it was dedicated to the memory of photographer Sally Harding, who died in 1995. The track was recorded using electricity from a Greenpeace solar power generator.
It opens with a heartbeat sound focusing in on our life essence. It’s then followed by one of Orbital’s most classic and heartfelt keyboard riffs that recurs throughout the track. The beats are less prominent than many Orbital would do to allow the melodies to hold the centre stage.
Perhaps the track that deserves to be Orbital’s best known. Originally released in 1991 the track uses a sample of soprano Emily Van Evera performing “O Euchari” (a vocal composition by Hildegard von Bingen) from the Gothic Voices album A Feather on the Breath of God. It’s a spiralling sprawling mix of the classical vocal and dreamy synths and beats. This version is a David Holmes remix from 2024.
As for its genesis. Paul Hartnoll said “I decided to make an ambient song,”He explained, “It was a rainy melancholy mid-week kind of afternoon. I got the chords first and just went from there.”
Then Orbital went to Belfast to play at David Holmes’ Sugarsweet club. “So, after the gig, in David’s Mum’s house’s spare bedroom, David asked if we had any demos. Two weeks later, David rings up and tells me that him and his friends all love the second track on the tape. We called it Belfast after the brilliant time we had there. The track was named after, and dedicated to David and all his friends.”
To end, a curiosity but one I love. Orbital have done relatively few remixes (they did do a not very good one for Madonna BITD).
They did this one for EMF in 1992. No idea why. It takes fuzzed guitars and marries them to a string drenched start and a one note piano line to die for. There’s a wonderful naivety that comes through.
As promised…….the entire ICA on Spotify. Click here.
Total and very happy coincidence this dropped into the Inbox just as I was finalising stuff for the blog’s 19th birthday.
For those of you who perhaps don’t know the back story, Acid Ted has been the blog’s longest-serving guest contributor – his first guest posting would have been in 2007– but so many of his pieces were lost when Google removed the old blog. AcidTed was also the first non-Glasgow blogger I ever met face-to-face, as far back as October 2009. And above all else, he was the person who stepped in back in 2010 and 2011 when a couple of deaths, firstly to my brother and then my best friend, meant I had to take a couple of extended breaks.
He, along with Rachel (Mrs Vinyl Villain) and Comrade Colin (ex-blogger from Glasgow), are the folk who I’ll always be most indebted to for getting things going and established, but there are also many dozens of others who have been incredibly supportive and whose help has been invaluable over the years.
Once again….and I’ll never get tired of saying this……..THANK YOU!
Port Sulphur (feat Vic Godard) – Fast Girls and Factory Cars
Buzzcocks – Love You More
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Green Shirt
Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone
Heavenly – Modestic
Kim Deal – Are You Mine?
Working Men’s Club – Widow
Follytechnic Music Library – Fined
Happy Mondays – W.F.L (Vince Clarke mix)
McAlmont & Butler – Falling
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Come Saturday (‘Searching For The Now’ version)
Sonic Youth – Kool Thing
The Futureheads – Decent Days and Nights (radio mix)
Urusei Yatsura – Super-Fi
The Motorcycle Boy – Big Rock Candy Mountain (velocity dance mix)
The Wedding Present – Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm
Truth be told, I forgot I’d already pulled together a monthly mix for October, and I couldn’t be arsed putting this on the shelf for another 31 days. You don’t need to listen, arms are never twisted round these parts.
The Wedding Present – Corduroy (single version)
Half Man Half Biscuit – Jack’s Been To The National
The Spook School – Gone Home
The Monochrome Set – He’s Frank (Slight Return)
Beck – Devil’s Haircut
Dream Wife – Hey! Heartbreaker
Luke Haines & The Auteurs – Showgirl (orchestral version)
Butcher Boy – Profit In Your Poetry
The Luxembourg Signal – Take It Back
The Sisters of Mercy – This Corrosion
New Order – True Faith
Neutral Milk Hotel – King Of Carrot Flowers (Part 1)
The Delmonas – Comin’ Home Baby
Magazine – I Love You You Big Dummy (Peel Session)
Brian Bilston & The Catenary Wires – Might Not, Might Not Have
Scritti Politti – Lions After Slumber
The Raveonettes – Let’s Rave On
19 years in the business. Let’s Rave On indeed. There’s more a wee bit later on today….
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 