I’m thinking that I’d like to get the new place looking a wee bit more like the old place before I get right back into the swing of things and so for the next few weeks I’m going to have fresh posts along with making use of use Pip’s brilliant suggestion to access an archiving service and pick and mix some of the old material in a chronological fashion.
TVV had just the single post in September 2006 and twenty five in October 2006 as I dipped my toe tentatively into the world of blogging. These earliest posts demonstrate what I was hoping to achieve, which was to bring to the attention of those interested some songs that were often unavailable elsewhere thanks to them being obscure b-sides or different mixes on 12″ vinyl. The inspiration for starting something came from reading what other great people were doing (most of whom have since given up blogging for one reason or another) while the push came from Mrs Villain buying me a turntable that allowed vinyl to be ripped to mp3. I think she sometimes regrets what she did as I now spend more time at the PC than I do with her…..
I’m a bit embarrassed at the quality of the early postings – I really was nervous about the whole thing and wondered if there were folk out there who were interested and it showed with a lack of conviction in the writing. But I was happy when I realised that the mp3s were being downloaded and even more thrilled when the comments began to appear. Sad man that I was, I remember spending hours analysing every single hit made on TVV and being amazed that folk were reading it from PCs in America, mainland Europe, Japan, Australia, South Africa as well as the UK which made up the bulk of the traffic very early on.
Here’s who got covered in September/October 2006:-
29 September : James
1 October : Lloyd Cole
2 October : Hey! Elastica
3 October : A House/David Kitt
4 October : Julian Cope
5 October : The Triffids/Carter USM (part one of a series looking at covers)
7 October : The Jam
9 October : Albert Hammond Jr/Half Man Half Biscuit/The Beta Band
10 October : Billy Bragg/Arab Strap
11 October : The Pale Fountains
12 October : Jonathan Richman
14 October : Poppy Factory
15 – 21 October “New Order Week”
22 October : James/Edwyn Collins
23 October : The Young Knives/The Grates/The View (first ever gig review!)
24 October : The Bible
25 October : Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
26 October : Lloyd Cole (gig review)
26 October : AKA The Fox (first plug for a new band….it was for a workmate!)
31 October : Happy 43rd Birthday to Johnny Marr (first mention of The Smiths!)
I thought some of you might be interested in the post from 9 October :-
LIFE SOMETIMES IMITATES ART YOU KNOW
I’ve never been stopped and surveyed on my favourite ever movie scene. If I was, there’s every chance I’d go for something from ‘High Fidelity’You know the one…when Rob (played by John Cusick) insists he can sell a certain number of copies of a Beta Band EP when it gets played in the shop.
Well……….earlier today I was in Fopp in Glasgow city centre, idly passing away a spare 30 minutes. I was enjoying the sounds coming out of the speakers, but hadn’t a clue who it was. I was determined not to fall into the trap of asking the bloke behind the counter – I’m terrified I’m going to be a victim of some spectacular piss-take by someone who is lucky enough to have a job in a good record shop.
As it is, Fopp is one of those stores that displays what is being played at any point in time – so I didn’t have to ask. And it turned out, much to my surprise, to be ‘Yours To Keep’, the debut LP of Albert Hammond Jr that was released just today. And I bought it. And I don’t care if me doing so resulted in Fopp’s equivalent of Rob being smug with his colleagues…..
Why was I surprised?
For one, it sounds nothing like The Strokes.
For two, Albert has a voice that can hold a tune (I don’t think he supplies backing vocals when his band play live).
For three, it is consistently very good – unlike his band’s last two offerings.
And for four – there’s whistling on one of the songs!
I’ve now played the album right the way through a couple of times at home, and it is every bit as enjoyable as it was in the shop a few hours ago.
mp3 : Albert Hammond Jr – Hard To Live In The City
Albert’s old man – who unsurprisingly is Albert Hammond Snr – is a famous musician and singer/songwriter in his own right (but you all probably knew that already). However, he even pre-dates an old codger like me, and I can’t post any of his tunes for your enjoyment.But I can offer this from 1986 –
mp3 : Half Man Half Biscuit – Albert Hammond Bootleg
As first brought to the attention of the world on ‘The Trumpton Riots EP’
Oh and for the hell of it, the superb song that was in the scene in High Fidelity-
mp3 : The Beta Band – Dry The Rain
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I’ll keep plugging away at re-building the links etc over the coming days. Before you know it, TVV will be but a memory and T(n)VV the place to hang out!
Being serious for a moment…..yesterday was a sore one. I was fighting back the tears at times thinking of what had been lost. But I feel a lot better as I can find much of the old material and will find ways of bringing back to its new rightful home.
It was also hugely uplifting to see so many messages of support in the comments section and at many other blogs – with a particular word of thanks to Drew at Across The Kitchen Table Thanks folks for all your kind words and encouragement.
PS : If by chance you’d like to see a re-post on any of the above mentioned artists or bands from Sep/Oct 2006…(are there any Poppy Factory fans out there?)….. just leave a comment or drop me a line…..
Enjoy!! (I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ll be using a new sign off stolen from Dirk at Sexy Loser…….)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 