He’s all over this blog, so I won’t waste anyone’s time with any words today.
mp3: Roddy Frame – Forty Days Of Rain
As found on his most recent studio album, Seven Dials, released back in 2014.
Category: Roddy Frame
The final Aztec Camera album was released in 1995. It was the band’s sixth studio album, with them, more or less, appearing at decent-enough intervals without, apart from the sophomore album, ever appearing to be rushed out.
High Land, Hard Rain (1983)
Knife (1984)
Love (1987)
Stray (1990)
Dreamland (1993)
Frestonia (1995)
The trend looked as it was going to continue when Roddy Frame dissolved the band and began recording under his own name with The North Star (1998), Surf (2002) and Western Skies (2006) all hitting the shops in the same year as a football World Cup finals tournament was held. But then, total silence, albeit there was a spell in which he went on the road as a member of Edwyn Collins‘ backing band, playing a huge role in the efforts to help the frontman deal with the after-effects of his devastating bouts of illness.
It wasn’t until 2014 (again a year of a football World Cup Finals) that his next album, Seven Dials, was released on AED Records, the label that had been started by the afore-mentioned Mr Collins in 2011. Since then….nothing, and that’s despite Roddy, in an interview a few months after the release of Seven Dials saying that he was going through a prolific period in terms of new songs. Given that he seems to release new albums now at eight-year periods, here’s hoping that 2022 will prove to be the next occasion, although ideally, it would be sooner.
Anyone who ordered Seven Dials from the AED website also received a bonus CD of songs from a live show at Buxton Opera House in Derbyshire, England. It’s a venue I haven’t been to but it’s one I hope, post-COVID and the eventual return of live music, to one day pay a visit. It dates from 1903 and was fully restored to its full magnificence in 1979 after surviving threats to its existence following a three-year period in which it had closed. It now plays hosts to a whole range of comedy, variety and musical acts.
Roddy Frame played the venue on 18 February 2007….the show was recorded but none of the songs were made available for a further seven years until the bonus CD was issued.
There are six songs in all, consisting of three tracks from Surf, one from each of The North Star and Western Skies, and a b-side from a single released back in 1998:-
mp3: Roddy Frame – The Sea Is Wide (live, Buxton Opera House)
mp3: Roddy Frame – Small World (live, Buxton Opera House)
mp3: Roddy Frame – Over You (live, Buxton Opera House)
mp3: Roddy Frame – Western Skies (live, Buxton Opera House)
mp3: Roddy Frame – Reason For Living (live, Buxton Opera House)
mp3: Roddy Frame – Surf (live, Buxton Opera House)
It’s a very fine listen, and it really does makes me pine for the return of live music.
JC
It’s a great photo isn’t it? It could be captioned ‘I’ll never be man enough for you’.
Edwyn and Roddy have always been good friends going right back to the Postcard Records era, and Roddy was among the first to offer his services to play in any touring band that Edwyn wanted to put together when he finally ventured out again after his illnesses. Those gigs were memorable for so many reasons, not least hearing Roddy’s effortless takes on the old tunes.
Way back before than, in 1990, the two of them appeared together on stage during one of Roddy’s gigs to promote the release of Stray. It was at the Glasgow Barrowlands in August 1990; I believe that our dear friend Drew from Across The Kitchen Table was present that night. One of their fun-filled and laughter-inducing duelling-guitar collaborations was captured and later made available as a b-side to the CD release of the single Good Morning Britain.
mp3 : Edwyn Collins & Roddy Frame – Consolation Prize
Priceless.
JC
I was lucky enough just last Friday to get myself along to see Roddy Frame play an outdoor solo acoustic set in front of an adoring home audience at the restored bandstand in Kelvingrove Park here in Glasgow. He was on blistering form and relaxed enough to engage in a fair bit of entertaining chat with the audience in between songs. It was only after this set, which extended out to well over 100 minutes, that I fully appreciated just how many great songs he’s written over the years under his own name and of course under the label of Aztec Camera. And that was after a set that didn’t include all four of his Postcard songs!!
So I thought it would be worthwhile giving him the imaginary album treatment.
Side A
Track 1: Western Skies (from the 2006 solo album Western Skies)
This wasn’t aired at the recent gig and more’s the pity. It’s the opening track to what was the third LP released under his own name. I rarely like when ballads open up albums but this is such a lovely little understated song with very fine acoustic guitar plucking and a melodoica. And I’m a sucker for that particular instrument…
Track 2: The Boy Wonders (from the 1983 Aztec Camera album High Land Hard Rain)
Notwithstanding that some of the production has dated poorly there can be no question that the first Aztec Camera LP is one of the greatest records in Scottish history. It is a record packed with ridiculously catchy and memorable tunes and some wonderfully observant lyrics. And of course Roddy Frame wrote most of the songs before he had reached his 18th birthday. This song may not have been a single but it is the one that really has endured…a joyous celebration of youthful life with that fearless take on things that you have at that age. And its a great record to dance to.
Track 3: How Men Are (from the 2006 solo CD Live In Osaka)
I have a real love/hate relationship with the third Aztec Camera LP from 1987. Love is over-produced to the point where at times it becomes near unlistenable which is a damn shame as some of Roddy’s best songs can be found among its nine tracks. It is when you hear them played nowadays, almost 30 years later, with just the voice and the acoustic guitar to occupy your thoughts, that you get a full appreciation of their majesty. As with this, the sublime second track on Love but captured live in Osaka, Japan in September 2006.
Track 4: Just Like Gold (Postcard single, 1981)
A 16-year old kid wrote this. Johnny Marr must have been tuning in and been inspired. And Grant McLennan and Robert Forster will have looked on while they made their fleeting visit to Glasgow to record for Postcard and smiled at being in the presence of a genius.
I’ll admit that this wasn’t a song I took an instant shine to. It was, if anything, too clean sounding. I realise now that my musical tastes in 1981 hadn’t quite evolved enough to appreciate it. It’s now probably my favourite Aztec Camera song of them all.
Track 5: Orchid Girl (b-side of the Aztec Camera single Oblivious, 1982)
I somehow haven’t found space on this imaginary offering for the single that first brought the band to the wider attention of the record buying public albeit I think it’s a belter of a 45. But it is the b-side I have always been really fond of….not least as it helped me along the way to reassessing how I felt about Just Like Gold. A short while later I fell for the charms of Billy Bragg and there’s many a time I’ve thought that Orchid Girl is the greatest BB love song that he never wrote…..
Side B
Track 6: Bigger Brighter Better (from the 1998 solo CD The North Star)
The North Star was the first album that Roddy hadn’t released as Aztec Camera and yet it is the album which overall is closest to the Aztec Camera debut record than any other in that it was packed with hooks and catchy choruses. There’s an irony in there somewhere….
This track, tucked away in the middle of the CD, was the one that I thought at the time could have taken him back into the charts if the record label, Independiente, had gone for it as a single….but they didn’t. It’s the one where Roddy reflects how maybe he wasn’t quite prepared for everything that was involved with being a pop star on a major label. There would have been a real irony if Bigger Brighter Better had turned out to be his return to the singles charts.
The final irony? In 1999, Independiente oversaw the release of The Man Who by Travis – a record that wasn’t really all that far removed from the sort of songs Roddy had tried to make his comeback with and yet it sold in millions. The record buying public at their fickle best.
Track 7: Killermont Street (from the 2006 solo CD Live In Osaka)
The closing track on the Love album wasn’t one that suffered from too much over production and almost made the cut. But there’s just something a bit special hearing Roddy, with just a guitar for accompaniment, deliver this ode to his roots at a venue thousands of miles away and realising that it’s a song capable of bringing a lump to the throats of an audience who have never set foot in the famed bus station.
Track 8: We Could Send Letters (from the 1983 Aztec Camera album High Land Hard Rain)
Originally released on the b-side of Just Like Gold and I honestly don’t know which of the versions I prefer.
The original is more dependant on the acoustic guitar and in comparison to the album version is almost demo-like in nature but comes with a passion and energy that makes it an essential listen. However, the slicker production and the fact the tempo on the album version is slightly slower allows the song to breathe a bit more. Oh and it’s also nearly a minute or so longer in length with a cracking solo from Roddy thrown in that ensures its place on this imaginary compilation.
Track 9: Good Morning Britain (from the b-side of the 1992 Aztec Camera single Dream Sweet Dreams)
A rare time when Roddy puts the guitar to one side and plays the piano to turn his radio-friendly stomp chart hit into a thing of beauty. The lyric was always a social commentary on life in the UK under a right-wing Tory government with no prospect of things changing but was kind of lost in the bombastic tune that with the help of Mick Jones took Aztec Camera into the charts for one last time in 1990. This live version demonstrates just how great a song it is….maybe it is time for it to be dusted down and updated to take account of life under David Cameron….
Track 10: Down The Dip (bootlegged version from Paisley Abbey, 27 October 2012)
The closing track from High Land Hard Rain has always been a crowd favourite. Nowadays, and this is what he did at Glasgow the other week, Roddy extends it out with a coda of It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) and then shows off his guitar skills. There’s a few versions of this out there but the fact that this was another gig in front of a home crowd who you can sense are going wild in the aisles of the historic old church makes it an ideal closer for this imaginary compilation……
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Western Skies
mp3 : Aztec Camera – The Boy Wonders
mp3 : Roddy Frame – How Men Are (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Just Like Gold
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Orchid Girl
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Bigger Brighter Better
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Killermont Street (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – We Could Send Letters (LP version)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain (live)
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Down The Dip (live)
Enjoy!
It’s been almost four weeks since I sat in this chair in front of the keyboard and thought about this blog. All the recent posts were composed in a frenzy of energy before I went on holiday and put into a daily schedule. I’ve been back from Canada for well over a week but left so exhausted/jet-lagged by the trip, not to mention feeling rundown from having a chest infection that won’t shift, that I haven’t had the energy to get my brain in gear.
I’d love to spend ages boring you rigid with the events of the past two weeks – after all you should have to suffer the same way my colleagues at work have heard over and over again about my adventures in Toronto and slightly further afield, but I will resist that self-indulgent temptation. For now anyway.
Instead let me share with you something two things that have annoyed me in recent days.
It’s now been the best part of six weeks since the original TVV met its demise at the hands of blogger. Thanks to advice from a number of readers I have been able to access some of the material in an indirect way which is why I’m able to fill the new place with inane ramblings from the old place.
One of the things that often accompanied a dmca notice was a notice being served on the place where I pay a monthly subscription to host my files (box.com) saying I was breaching copyright. Box, without failure, always immediately deleted the ‘offending’ file. The thing about many of these dmca notices was they were in respect of posts that were week, months and in some cases years old with the links having often been long removed so I wasn’t all that bothered that the box file was ever deleted.
With TVV having gone forever I thought that, unless a dmca was served in respect of stuff at T(n)VV then my box files were safe. But I came back from Canada to find four separate e-mails from box advising that they had received notices about breached copyright. But with none of the songs being available via a link I’m bemused as to how someone could serve such a notice…unless off course it’s the fact that summaries of the old posts with the tracks featured can be found over at Hype Machine and the continued appearance on those pages is causing offence.
And it’s worth mentioning that in three of the four emails from box, I was informed that the files removed were in relation to around ten different songs by Belle & Sebastian (the other was an obscure b-side by Echo & The Bunnymen). Any of you other bloggers had similar experiences??
The other annoying thing? It’s probably saddened me more than anything now I’ve had time to reflect on it.
I was initially excited by the news that High Land Hard Rain, one of my favourite LPs of all time, was going to be performed by Roddy Frame at a special show at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 4 December. It is one of just three specially arranged shows which will mark 30 years since the LP was released. The one fly in the ointment was that the date coincided with a planned week’s holiday with Mrs Villain but with nothing having been booked I was going to ask her to look at either going out early or delaying by a few days so that I could go to the show.
Until I saw how much I would have to pay for a decent seat – £45 plus booking fee.
This is just greed on the part of all involved and I’m sorry to say that I can’t absolve Roddy from blame. If he was going out on tour with a new record there is no way as an artist whose hit-making days are behind him would go dare dream of asking for more than maybe £20. I’m sure that as a sop to his fans such a gig would include a handful of tracks from the LP for which he is most fondly regarded by most. £45 is just too rich for my tastes…and I know I’m not alone as there’s a couple of other long-time fans who equally have shied away from the gig.
I’m sad because this marks the first time in my life when I have put the cost of a gig before the value of the experience of being there. It’s not that I can’t afford the ticket – and even if I was that skint I’d save the money by not doing something else such as miss out on a couple of football matches.
It’s the plain and simple fact that I’m not having my fandom and dedication taken for granted. I’ve seen Roddy Frame play live many times over the years and I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve bought all the records/CDs over the years and I even got a an overpriced but attractive t-shirt the last time I caught him in Glasgow (it’s a bad habit of mine but when I really enjoy a gig I do buy something to commemorate it such as a t-shirt or tour edition CD).
But this time I’m giving it a miss. Right now I have no regrets. But just to make sure I will be taking that holiday so I’m out of the country on the night of the gig.
It’s good to be back dear friends.
mp3 : Belle and Sebastian – The Boy Done Wrong Again
mp3 : Roddy Frame – The Boy Wonders (live at Ronnie Scott’s, 2005)
Enjoy.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 