Monochrome Set, Smiths, Style Council, Tracey Thorn

FOOLS IN LOVE (APRIL AND OTHERWISE)

This is loosely adapted and then expanded from a post over at the old place back in February 2010.

One of the minor reasons I ever started a blog was to bring attention to otherwise unavailable or difficult to find very fine records that had only ever been placed on the b-sides of long-deleted singles and while there is a growing tendency for album re-issues to bring together such tracks and label them ‘bonus’, nothing beat finding bits of vinyl with the crackly old originals.

One of the songs I really loved from my old vinyl days but had missed for many a year was Goodbye Joe, originally recorded as a b-side to a 1979 single :-

mp3 : The Monochrome Set – Goodbye Joe

It begins as if it is a live track, and one that is of poor sound quality at that. You can hear some crowd sing-a-long at the outset in what is clearly a small venue, then some cheering as a guitar as struck. After just under 50 seconds, lead singer Bid utters the words ‘Let’s Have Some Decorum’ and suddenly we switch to a quite gorgeous and moving studio track.

It’s about watching a film performance of this bloke here in case you were wondering.

Oh and for the record, the song was later recorded by Tracey Thorn, and again was consigned to obscurity on a 1982 b-side :-

mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Goodbye Joe

The original posting also featured the A-sides of the singles which, in Tracey’s case was also a beautiful piece of music:-

mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Plain Sailing

In the Feb 2010 posting I mentioned in passing how both of Tracey’s songs had featured heavily on compilation tapes in the era of 82/83/84 as a way to demonstrate to would-be girlfriends that I really did have a sensitive side but it never ever worked all that well. Seems I wasn’t alone in that failing as my good mate Dirk from Sexy Loser left behind the comment:-

“Yeah, mate: those tapes, ey?! I only wish I still would own a few of the dozens of them I made up back then with all my passion, heart and soul … instead I gave them away to girls who didn’t give a fuck. Literally.”

I remember that as being a genuine ‘splutter the tea all over the monitor’ moment when I read it. Still makes me smile………

And while I’m here, I just can’t resist:-

mp3 : The Style Council – The Paris Match (LP version)

Days of skinny-ribbed hooped t-shirts, a headful of perfectly coiffured hair and a devil-may-care attitude to life that I thought would last forever. How the fuck has Johnny Marr changed so little since those days???????

mp3 : The Smiths – Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

Sigh.

Smiths, Unknown, Young Marble Giants

A READER NEEDS YOUR HELP…

Hello JC,

Firstly, I’d like to thank you for many hours of music listening and informative post reading over the years. I’ve been using HypeMachine (as MrPharmacist) for what is now getting close to ten years, and you have always been my favourite blogger.

Apologies for never actually commenting on your posts, like many others out there just happy to consume, although wishing I had the drive to apply myself to a similar task.

The reason for this correspondence after all this time. I have a track that I have been listening to for over twenty years now and the tape is pretty much warn out…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt9I8SjiiLc

I have never been able to ID it. I heard a chill out DJ play it once in a Manchester bar in about 1992 but can’t remember who he said it was. I’m pretty sure they were once on Granada local TV news as well. Could you give it a listen? One Dove meets Cocteau Twins, or it might have just been cash-in Ibiza ambience!

PS. A recently considered top 12 lps from Feb that say something to me about my life as press ganged into on facebook…

1. Belle & Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister
2. The Cure – Pornography
3. The Smiths – Meat is Murder
4. Echo and the Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here
5. Conflict – The Ungovernable Force
6. Various – Dance Craze (Specials et al)
7. Jesus and Mary Chain – Psychocandy
8. The Fall – Bend Sinister
9. Elbow – Leaders Of The Free World
10. LFO – Frequencies
11. Metronomy – English Riviera
12. Happy Mondays – Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)

Thanks again for all your posts,

All the best,

Sid – DrSidders – Mr. Pharmacist

———————————————————————-

So please dear readers, click on the above youtube link and have a listen. If you’re able to identify the tune then please share the knowledge with us.

And looking at Sid’s list of 12 albums gives me an excuse to feature a song from the set I aired at the Strangeways night last Saturday

mp3 : The Smiths – Vicar In A Tutu

Dedicated to this very fine chap who came along dressed perfectly as the said vicar…….

Other pics, including some of me doing my best to add a touch of John Peel-esque farce* to the night have also been posted on t’internet. Here’s an example:-

Quick PS

I ventured along the other night, with Aldo, to see Young Marble Giants at Stereo in Glasgow. It seemingly was the first time the band had ever played in my home city.

For those of you who don’t know, this is a band which released just one album and a couple of EPs back in 1980 and 1981. The music is quite minimalist and on the quiet side and the songs are on the short side.

So much could have gone wrong at this gig. Stereo was packed to the rafters so there was probably about 300 folk in the basement space. It was hot and it was sticky.

The band took to the stage at around 8.50 and played a note-perfect set for 50 minutes. The audience paid rapt attention. It was the first time I’d ever been at a pop/rock gig where the audience behaved as if it was a classical performance and didn’t speak as the band were playing and furthermore didn’t speak when the band members were talking in-between songs. Nor did anyone go up to the bar and order drinks and so causing the staff to clank glass or cans or make the till bleep away. This was all about 300 fans coming along to experience live music in its purest sense and it was quite magical.

So if you were part of that particular audience, a big thank you from this particular fan for making the occasion so wonderful. It was also very clear that the band really appreciated things….

mp3 : Young Marble Giants – Wurlitzer Jukebox
mp3 : Young Marble Giants – Eating Noddemix

Enjoy

* where the great man occasionally played a record at the wrong speed, I managed to press play on two songs at the same time on the laptop causing all sorts of confusion for a few seconds…….

Morrissey, Smiths, Strangeways Glasgow

STRANGEWAYS, HERE I COME

Have I ever mentioned that I’m a big fan of The Smiths and Morrissey?

It should therefore come as no surprise that I am recommending the above as an event not to be missed

Strangeways Glasgow is a club night dedicated to the music of Moz and The Smiths with the occasional associated track thrown in for good measure and variety. It’s an event that has been going for a number of years thanks to the hard work and dedication of a small group of Glasgow-based uber-fans with maybe three or four shows in a calendar year, albeit the guys have become so well-known and appreciated that they are often asked to appear in other towns and cities across the UK at various points in time.

All the profits from the Strangeways Glasgow nights are always donated to a charitable cause and in this particular instance it will be to the Manchester and Cheshire Dogs Home which suffered a genuine tragedy a few weeks back. The music and the cause alone should be enough to make you fancy parting with the £5 for a ticket. But there’s something more this time…………….whisper it.

I’m doing a stint on whatever the modern-day equivalent is of the wheels of steel.

Yup. Fatboy Jim will be doing his thing for the first time since 2010 when Drew from Across the Kitchen Table talked me into being part of a triumvirate of Scottish bloggers to do some stuff at the Flying Duck in Glasgow.

Actually, I was thinking that since this will be my first bit of DJing since I turned 50 that I should update my name to something like Grandfather Flash but the connotations of that name right now are just too much to bear given the number of awful sex scandals in the UK featuring DJs dead and alive. So I’ll simply be at the Strangeways night as JC (aka The Vinyl Villain).

The invite has come courtesy of a very wonderful and lovely gentlemen called Robert who, along with Carlo and their respective partners Jen and Angela, have been the driving force behind Strangeways Glasgow over the years. I got to know them initially through going along to another wonderful club night – Little League – and was thrilled by the fact that they knew about my blog and were fans of what I was writing about and featuring.

They kept telling me that I should get myself along to Strangeways but I had shied away as I wasn’t sure if I could go an entire night dedicated to Moz, especially as I had this pre-conceived idea that while Robert and Carlo were very decent down to earth folk the rest of the clientele would surely consist of hardcore fans made up of look-alikes standing around demanding to be noticed. It took me until March earlier this year to go along and realise how wrong I had been. I wrote about the experience at the time. Click here if you’re interested.

I made it along to the next night back in August which is where the idea of me taking a turn playing some tunes was talked about and agreed. It seemed like a good idea at the time and it still does.

But I’m happy to admit that I’m nervous. But very very very excited and honoured.

mp3 : The Smiths – Panic
mp3 : Morrissey – Dear God Please Help Me

Tickets are still available but the night inevitably sells out. Click here if you’re tempted

Billy Bragg, Smiths

THERE’S ICE ON THE SINK WHERE WE BATHE

As I mentioned yesterday, I do quite like it when bands take one of their own songs and give them substantial makeovers for the subsequent single release. But what I also like is when someone decides that their cover version of a song will involve a complete reinterpretation so that you hear it in a completely new light. Billy Bragg did such a thing to a Morrissey/Marr song a fair bit back:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Jeane

This was one of band’s first ever releases, turning up on the b-side of the second single This Charming Man in 1983. We now know all these years later that it is the only track the band ever got round to releasing from the aborted LP sessions recorded with Troy Tate but at the time it was just regarded as a great b-side which you could put on and have a great little dance to. It was the music that stood out more than the lyric.

A year later, the band re-recorded the song alongside Sandie Shaw. The slowed-down version did draw a bit more attention to the lyric but to this fan, it was still very much about the tune and how Johnny had got something different out of the song this time round.

Fast forward two more years and Billy Bragg, having already played the song a few times in his live sets as well as recording a frantic almost speed-fuelled version for a Peel Session in August 1985

mp3 : Billy Bragg – Jeane (Peel Session)

then puts down another version as the b-side to Greetings To The New Brunette in 1986:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg – Jeane

This is heart-wrenchingly beautiful. This is when you get to fully appreciate the story of a love affair doomed to failure as a result of, above else, grinding poverty. The fact that the protagonists had to work so hard at merely surviving every day of their sad and miserable lives, wondering where the next meal will come from and how they can afford to heat the house they live in, left no time for the nicer things in life. They did try….but they ultimately failed.

All of this was lost with the original version as we flailed around the living room or dance halls throwing our best Morrissey shapes. With a tune this good, who needs to think about the message? And then along came Billy to reduce us all to tears…..

Jeane could very easily pass itself off as a Leonard Cohen lyric. Discuss.

Smiths

BOOT THE GRIME OF THIS WORLD IN THE CROTCH, DEAR

Not only is this a fantastically funny, upbeat and wonderful single, you flip it over and find two quite special b-sides:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow
mp3 : The Smiths – Is It Really So Strange?
mp3 : The Smiths – Sweet and Tender Hooligan

Here’s some facts and background info.

It was released in April 1987, reaching No. 10 in the UK Singles Chart, their highest chart single placing while The Smiths were together.

Morrissey‘s original idea had been to bring back Sandie Shaw to be a second vocalist on the track but after she had recorded her vocals, that version was scrapped. Sandie was not happy in being reduced to what she perceived just to be a backing vocalist. Another early version of the track was produced by John Porter but it was also deemed unsatisfactory, this time by the band. It featured a prominent sitar-sounding riff:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Sheila Take A Bow (John Porter version)

Stephen Street came on board. He scrapped the sitar (which had been played by Porter) and instead used a brief audio clip of a marching temperance band from the 1954 film Hobson’s Choice in the song’s intro.

Oh and to complete the catalogue of woes, the scheduled promo video had to be scrapped at the 11th hour when Morrissey refused to show up for the taping.

The two b-sides were lifted from a John Peel session recorded and aired in late December 1986. Just as well as the band never got round to recording and releasing their own studio versions of what are rather outstanding songs.

In the midst of life we are in debt, etc.

Arab Strap, Billy Bragg, Cinerama, Delgados, Half Man Half Biscuit, Madness, Smiths, T Rex, Urusei Yatsura, Wire

MY FRIENDS ELECTRIC (16)

JUST BECAUSE……

http://keepingitpeel.wordpress.com/

and in particular:-

http://keepingitpeel.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/john-peel-10-years-gone/

mp3 : Arab Strap – The First Big Peel Thing (Peel Session)
mp3 : Billy Bragg – Lover’s Town (Peel Session)
mp3 : Cinerama – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Delgados – No Danger (Peel Session)
mp3 : Half Man Half Biscuit – Mr Cave’s A Window Cleaner Now (Peel Session)
mp3 : Madness _ Bed & Breakfast Man (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Smiths – Rusholme Ruffians (Peel Session)
mp3 : T.Rex – Ride A White Swan (Peel Session)
mp3 : Urusei Yatsura – Hello Tiger (Peel Session)
mp3 : Wire – I Am The Fly (Peel Session)

Smiths

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #1: THE SMITHS

The first of a new series.

It’s inspired in part by the fact that a framed limited edition copy of the above print, signed by the photographer, hangs directly above the space in my house where I have the PC and where I try my best to come up with entertaining words for this blog. It was given to me a year ago yesterday as a 50th birthday present by a dear friend and occasional contributor to the old blog, Mr John Greer.

It’s strange that while The Smiths remain my all time favourite band, I don’t write about them all that much these days, albeit there is a regular series on Morrissey being re-used as filler for posts on Sundays. I thought I’d address the situation by featuring the band in the first of what will be a very occasional series in which I take one of my favourite bands or singers and list what I think would make the idea ‘Best of’ album with a few words on why. The only proviso is that I’m going to do it as a proper old-fashioned LP…10 tracks in total with an A-side and a B-side and it’s got to hang together like a proper LP and not just a collection of greatest hits. Without further ado, here’s my go at The Smiths:-

Side A

1. The Queen Is Dead (Original Unedited Version)
2. Still Ill
3. How Soon Is Now?
4. Rubber Ring
5. Asleep

Side B

1. The Headmaster Ritual
2. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
3. Accept Yourself
4. Bigmouth Strikes Again
5. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

It’s taken about three hours of humming and hawing and numerous changes of mind before I settled on the above. There are loads of songs that I can’t believe didn’t make the final cut which may well invite ridicule from other fans. But the logic is:-

1. The opening track is where any myth that The Smiths were just a singer and guitarist augmented by two session musicians is nailed once and for all….especially on this version with its extra 70 seconds or so of pulsating drums, bass and wah-wah guitar work

2. Self-deprecating and joyous; and impossible not to dance to.

3. Pride of place as the centrepiece of the all-important opening side of the album.

4. The band were better than most at recording something which, on the first few listens, sounded disposable and throwaway and yet with the passing of time revealed itself as something special. Rubber Ring is a tremendous example of this and perfectly complements what had come just before it on this imaginary LP

5. Because Asleep has to follow Rubber Ring. It is the law. And besides it’s time to show the band didn’t need guitars to be very special.

6. If the band had never written and recorded The Queen Is Dead then this was a stick-on to open the LP

7. Every LP recorded by The Smiths had its share of tear-jerking ballads. This is the one I’ve chosen, after much deliberation.

8. An early song thrown away on a 12″ b-side that has more than stood the test of time and long been a personal favourite

9. The song that marked the comeback after 18 months inactivity. It proved they still had it…and a joyous single that deserved to reach #1

10. It’s not a personal favourite but I can’t think of a better way to have a one-off record by the band beautifully fade out and leaving the listener wanting to pick up the vinyl, turn it over and start all over again.

mp3 : The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (Original Unedited Version)
mp3 : The Smiths – Still Ill
mp3 : The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
mp3 : The Smiths – Rubber Ring/Asleep
mp3 : The Smiths – The Headmaster Ritual
mp3 : The Smiths – Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
mp3 : The Smiths – Accept Yourself
mp3 : The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
mp3 : The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

That was incredibly difficult to do.

Magazine, Morrissey, Smiths, Strangeways Glasgow

I STARTED SOMETHING I COULDN’T FINISH

A few years ago, a couple of folk I knew from the Little League events decided that a night dedicated to The Smiths and Morrissey would be a good idea. I’ve long-planned to get myself along, but for one reason or other it just never happened until last Friday night when Aldo made sure of it by purchasing a ticket for me in advance.

Even then, I almost never made it along. I was very tired after a hard few days at work and wasn’t sure if a night in basement venue beneath one of Glasgow’s best pubs was really what I was after.

One of the things I most feared was that it would be a hardcore crowd made up of Morrissey look-a-likes standing around just trying to pose and be noticed. There were a handful of such creatures, but the vast majority of the 200 souls who were lucky enough to get tickets were there for a great night out on the dancefloor. I wasted little time joining in despite the fact that I had told Aldo beforehand that in an effort to pace myself I had mentally drawn up a list of songs that were certainties for dancing to and a list (including some of the better-known band and solo material) that were strict no-nos. I got carried away (as I feared!!) and danced myself dizzy, mostly without the aid of alcohol to throw off any inhibitions as I was very quickly onto bottles of water to stop the dehydration.

Even when the DJs played non-Moz material I couldn’t drag myself off the floor – not when you get stuff like The Wedding Present, The Cure and Associates thrown in….and as the night went on I knew I’d pay the price the following morning when I’d inevitably wake up with another realisation that I’m not as young or fit as I used to be and that I really out to know better at my age.

And all this despite me leaving more than an hour before the end of the event to catch the last train just after midnight and so missing what many of the showstoppers that the younger Aldo was able to shake his frame to before the lights came up.

The next Strangeways night will be in August 2014. Details will be unveiled at this facebook page (where incidentally a photo of my good self taken last Friday night can also be found).

So a huge thanks to Robert, Carlo, Angela and Hugh for a magnificent and memorable evening, made all the more special by the fact that all proceeds, as with all the Strangeways events, went to a local charity with a second charity benefiting from food bank donations on the night.

Sadly, the laptop that was used to supply the tunes for the evening was missing a few of the more obscure b-side cover versions which meant my request for the one that matched my t-shirt couldn’t be realised. I’ve been promised it will feature next time….so I better get myself along to make sure….and next time I will finish the night along with everyone else.

mp3 : Morrissey – A Song From Under The Floorboards

It’s a good version. But nothing can ever hope to match the original….

mp3 : Magazine – A Song From Under The Floorboards

Enjoy.

Billy Bragg, Bis, Boo Radleys, Divine Comedy, Frank & Walters, High Llamas, Placebo, Smiths, Supergrass, Therapy?, Trashcan Sinatras

IT’S COVERS WEEK ON T(n)VV : DAY 4

S-WC outlined all sorts of reasons why cover versions are recorded. As he mentioned, sometimes it can be for a tribute album. From wiki:-

The Smiths Is Dead is a tribute album to the 1980s’ English alternative rock band The Smiths, released in 1996. It was compiled by the French cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles and released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of 1986’s The Queen Is Dead. The album was released at the height of the Britpop phenomenon and contained covers by many popular Britpop acts such as The Boo Radleys, Supergrass, Bis and Placebo.

It’s very much a mixed bag and I think it’s accurate to say that none of the covers improve at all on the originals, but that would have been a near impossibility to begin with. The other biggest problems are that too many of the tracks fail to digress all that much from how The Smiths themselves recorded the songs or that the band asked to do the cover do so in a way that even Morrissey’s backing band would have been embarassed by the efforts. However, an honourable mention must go to Boo Radleys for what is a hugely different take on the title track…..one that too me many years to really appreciate but nowadays is the only one I have on the i-pod :-

mp3 : Boo Radleys – The Queen Is Dead
mp3 : The High Llamas – Frankly, Mr. Shankly
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – I Know It’s Over
mp3 : Billy Bragg – Never Had No One Ever
mp3 : The Frank & Walters – Cemetry Gates
mp3 : Placebo – Bigmouth Strikes Again
mp3 : Bis – The Boy with the Thorn in His Side
mp3 : Therapy? – Vicar in a Tutu
mp3 : The Divine Comedy – There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
mp3 : Supergrass – Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Enjoy.

Smiths

MY ALL TIME TOP 10 SINGLES : HAND IN GLOVE by THE SMITHS

The position of this song in the chart down at #7 will come as a shock to many regular readers and to those who have known me for many years. There’s at least one mate who tipped it to be #1….

I was fortunate enough to be around when The Smiths first came to prominence. They remain my all-time favourite band, and I don’t think they will ever lose that particular mantle however long I manage to live.

I was present at their first ever gig in Scotland – at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow on Saturday 2nd March 1984. This was a truly astonishing night in a small student-venue that was packed to the rafters. It was very hot, sweaty and tightly-packed and it is probably the nearest I’ve ever came to passing-out at a concert.

The Smiths had not long cracked the Top 20 with their third single What Difference Does It Make?, while their recently-released debut LP had gone Top 10. So they were hardly a secret.

The venue was woefully inadequate for the demand for tickets, and there were dozens of folk outside pleading for the lucky few to sell for way over the cost (which I can’t recall, but was no more than £4 or £5). The level of expectancy was enormous, and the build-up to the band taking the stage bordered on insane hysteria. I’d never experienced anything like it beforehand, and never again since (although the first five minutes down the front of the Morrissey ‘comeback gig’ at the MEN Arena in 2003 came awfully close).

Steven, Johnny, Mike and Andy took to the stage to a crescendo of noise – I was worried that the crowd was so loud that we wouldn’t hear anything above it. The opening notes of Hand In Glove were struck – if anything this only cranked up the atmosphere. The one song that those of us who had been in from the start adored above all else – the song that had been the flop single with the controversial nude male on the sleeve – and the song that seemed more than anything to sum-up what was a truly unique relationship between the band and its fans.

And that is why Hand In Glove is my all time favourite single by my all time favourite band.

And because it is my favourite, I was prepared to pay a fair amount of money to pick up a mint copy of the single on e-bay as a replacement for the one lost all those years ago in Edinburgh. Let’s face it, the b-side, which to my knowledge has never appeared on any subsequent compilation, is every bit as amazing:-

mp3 : The Smiths – Hand In Glove
mp3 : The Smiths – Handsome Devil (live at The Hacienda)

As with The Wedding Present, there would have been multiple entries for The Smiths in this chart were it not for the one single per artist rule that I set. In fact as much as one-quarter of the chart could have been a Morrissey/Marr compilation.

I surprised myself when I identified six other 45s that were even more of a favourite than this.

You’ll soon learn what they are over the coming days, but I suspect that many of you will be beginning to narrow it down pretty accurately.

Enjoy.

Morrissey, Smiths

AUTOBIOGRAPHY by MORRISSEY

Purchased at 6pm last Thursday night, and tucked into straight away. I managed 300 pages in a marathon session that very night, got through another 50 the following night before heading out to a gig with the final 100 taken early on Saturday morning before the rest of the day was dominated by football. I’ve now woke up Sunday morning determined to compose my own thoughts all the while making sure I don’t venture to see what others have made of it.

Autobiography by Morrissey is unlike any other book of its type that I’ve come across with its entire contents having no chapters or an index. A stroke of genius if you ask me given that many a reader would likely have gone straight to the chapters about The Smiths or looked to the back of the book for a name or subject matter and gone straight there.

So everyone has to make a start where it all began, which was Manchester, England on 22 May 1959. The opening 150 or so pages consist of a fascinating, superbly written account of growing up in a working-class family in a working-class part of a working-class city. Many of the words brought back long-forgotten memories of my own childhood – such as the coal fire and the dangers from it – and it also got me thinking how, in less than half a century, the whole nature of how raising children has changed beyond recognition.

Morrissey’s childhood isn’t dominated solely by his own parents or siblings but by his extended family of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. What stands out by a country mile is just how many strong and resourceful women there were surrounding the young Morrissey and the lack of any obvious male role-models. He himself hints that this led to a spoiled and somewhat sheltered existence in his formative years.

In many ways this is the best bit of the book, probably in as much that it reveals much more than was previously known and is so expertly crafted that that I had devoured two-thirds of the book in a single sitting late into the night, and indeed the early hours of the following morning , without realising the time.

Morrissey’s account of his self-confessed miserable late-teenage years don’t come across as self-pitying – yes, he does stray into being a tad pretentious occasionally, but for 99% of the time he is hugely entertaining and more often self-deprecating. We do learn however, that there were a number of tragedies that befell the young Morrissey as he was growing up, with the loss of a number of family members and close friends having a huge impact, so perhaps his morose manner was more justified than you’d previously have imagined.

Johnny Marr bursts onto the scene almost one-third of the way through the book. The story of The Smiths is handled in not much more than 50 pages, so anyone looking for an in-depth study of what made the band tick or juicy gossip about the sudden and painful break-up will be disappointed. But Geoff Travis of Rough Trade probably won’t be all that comfortable reading it….and hip fans of The Smiths might be stunned to learn that A-Ha were among the favourite other acts of Morrissey and Marr.

On that first night, I finally put the book down at the first mention of the court case brought against him in 1996 by Mike Joyce. As I switched the light off, I thought to myself that I was reading a very entertaining and less bitter book than I had imagined. I was taking some of the things with a pinch of salt….having read many other books about The Smiths and more general books about indie-pop in the 80s, I knew that this book was simply Morrissey’s take on things and wasn’t always the full extent of what had actually taken place or had been the outcome of one action or another.

Picking things up on Friday night after work I was stunned to discover that the court case took up almost as many pages in the book as had the career of The Smiths. There is real venom within many of these passages, most of it directed at Judge John Weeks, Mike Joyce and his legal representatives (particularly the barrister Nigel Davis) with the occasional swipe at Johnny Marr. Readers are left in doubt that this entire episode has caused Morrissey enormous pain and left him feeling very vulnerable, and not just financially. Morrissey repeatedly implies that the judge was using the case to even up old scores on behalf of society – and reading the extracts of the summing up and some of the logic applied it is hard not to sympathise with the author.

Some might say that this section of the book is far too long and convoluted and out of sync with the rest of a general autobiography.

But in defence, I’m recalling the approved biography of a politician that I know very well, written in the aftermath of what had been a protracted and messy legal matter (one in which, unlike Morrissey, this politician emerged triumphant) and again a very substantial chunk of the book is dedicated to the legal battles. It was the one and only time the politician had to fully set the record straight from his point of view and similarly for Morrissey in his autobiography.

I’m not convinced in terms of the court case that Morrissey tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth but it’s certainly how he remembers it and how it all panned out has and continues to have a huge psychological impact on him. Some of the words used by Judge Weeks will haunt Morrissey to his grave….oh and having read this part of the book I think we can all now forever give up on dreaming of a full reunion of The Smiths….

That section over, I headed out to a gig (more on that later in the week) which meant putting the book down just as Morrissey picked himself up by leaving England to live in Los Angeles. There’s about 25 pages covering the wilderness years with no record deal before the closing 80-odd pages cover from the recording of You Are The Quarry in 2003 right through to a final paragraph describing a scene in December 2011. It’s a breathless description of seemingly never-ending world tours in which Morrissey finds ever-increasing numbers of new devotees, often in countries where he least expects it (after all, he is a well-know racist….) and muses how as he gets older his audiences at the front of what are often chaotic, energetic and frantic gigs, get younger and younger and younger.

The book also allows Morrissey to take the opportunity to air his views on a whole range of issues but primarily the British monarchy, Margaret Thatcher and animal rights. There are references to relationships that he’s had throughout his life but no salacious details are revealed. Quite a few well-known names are savaged, some more cruelly and viciously than others. And there’s a number of eyebrow-raising moments in a ‘well-I-never’ sort of way, such a the A-ha fandom and that It was John Walters and not John Peel who was the true champion of the early meteoric rise of The Smiths. Oh and Morrissey once seriously thought of fathering a child………….and there’s a genuinely creepy ghost story contained within the pages.

I approached Autobiography with some trepidation as I feared it would simply be 457 pages of Morrissey getting to even-up old scores. My fears were banished by the beautifully, vivid descriptions of his early life and from then on in I was hooked. There’s been some controversy over the fact that it’s been published under the canon of Penguin Classics, but for my money that’s just a brilliant bit of marketing, as is the fact it’s been made instantly available in paperback at a very affordable price and not as an expensive hard-back. This book is filled with humour, love, hate, tenderness and bitterness in the same way as so many of his best lyrics. It was time that the tale was told and if I may be allowed to quote the Bard of Barking, the boy done good.

mp3 : The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain (Peel Session)

mp3 : Morrissey – That’s How People Grow Up

Enjoy

Smiths

THE FIRST TIME I SAW THE SMITHS

It was actually five days earlier than the above ticket but it was the same tour.

My gig was at the Queen Margaret Union, which was part of Glasgow University. I don’t think actual tickets were used but instead it was some sort of specially numbered pass only determined as and when the gig was announced and only available from the venue box office. That was certainly the method used at my regular haunt at nearby Strathclyde University – the benefits were the venue could pre-print a year’s worth of passes and save a fortune; the downside of course was that without the name of the band being on the ticket it wasn’t anything worth keeping and besides the entire ticket was taken off you by the security folk at the venue. Such happy and innocent times indeed….

Here’s some words from an external site:-

2 March 1984
Queen Margaret Hall, University Of Glasgow, Glasgow

This concert was very crowded, sweaty and memorable, like most visits to Glasgow. There was a lot of heckling so Morrissey lectured the crowd about bad behaviour. Performance-wise and sound-wise, it was one of the best concerts of the period, probably because it was recorded.

After “Hand In Glove” Morrissey greeted the fans by shouting “Hello Glasgow!”. He changed one line in “This Charming Man” to “This man said it’s gruesome that someone so ugly should care”, as he had been known to do now and then. “Pretty Girls Make Graves” was introduced with the words “And now, a lesson for everybody…” The following song, “Still Ill”, was introduced as “…a nice song about the most enviable position imaginable, ‘Still Ill’!..” There was a lot of heckling from the audience so after “This Night Has Opened My Eyes” Morrissey shouted “Aaarrgh, listen! What?”. In the part in “Barbarism Begins At Home” where Morrissey just moans and la-la-la’s, echo effect was applied, making it sound eerie. “Back To The Old House” was introduced with the line “This is for all you marsh-mellows…” Before “Handsome Devil” Morrissey teased the audience by shouting “More?”

This concert was recorded and broadcast in full on Scotland’s Radio Clyde.

It was an incredibly hot and sweaty night. It was, after at least one false start with gigs being postponed, the band’s first time on a Scottish stage. I so wanted this night to be special. I loved the songs and I just didn’t want them to be a disappointing live act.

They weren’t.

I’m actually not so sure there was a load of heckling at the gig as this would imply fans were unhappy or being critical. To my ears it was just a lot of shouts of joy aimed for the most part at Morrissey.

A few days ago, box were contacted and subsequently deleted a file which had linked to a track from that gig which had been posted ages ago on the long-defunct blog. I don’t like to take these things lying down, so here for your enjoyment is the complete Radio Clyde broadcast (with thanks to Mike from Manic Pop Thrills who supplied it to me from his own collection)

Hand In Glove
Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now
Girl Afraid
This Charming Man
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Still Ill
This Night Has Opened My Eyes
Barbarism Begins At Home
Back To The Old House
What Difference Does It Make?
Reel Around The Fountain
You’ve Got Everything Now
Handsome Devil

Enjoy!!

Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Paul Quinn & The Independent Group, Smiths, Tindersticks

AS SEEN OVER AT THE OLD PLACE : MAY 2007

I’ve jumped straight from March to May as looking back over the postings from April 2007 didn’t show anything that I feel worth repeating here. Thinking back, April 2007 was a very busy time at work…loads of hours being spent in the office building up to an important set of elections at the beginning of May 2007….and that would explain why a lot of the posts were hurriedly written and posted just for the sake of it.

And so onwards to May 2007….and another self-indulgent post which will hopefully provide you all with a little more of my DNA if you’re interested:-

YOU TALKING TO ME??????

Fil at the blog ‘Pogo A Go-Go’ was the first person I saw have this little bit of fun.

Then it ended up with Crash at the blog ‘Pretending Life Is Like A Song’.

And because Crash didn’t want to be Johnny no-mates that he couldn’t pass the chain onto, and I’m an all-round nice guy, I volunteered to be next. So he sent me five questions,…..

Q1. Alerius C of Tralfamadore likes the cut of your jib, and empowers you to revisit specific live performances of five songs whenever you choose. What five performances do you choose, and why?

A. How joyous to find that someone at last, after almost 44 years on this planet, likes the cut of my jib.

I have no idea how many live gigs I’ve been to since 1979 – and lord knows how many live acts I’ve seen. I could go through the record collection and work part of it out, but for every one of them, there will probably be two acts that I’ve never bought any records by.

But enough of the gibberish – it’s time to face up to the question.

(a) Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him?

Glasgow Tiffany’s 1980. Joe Jackson had enjoyed his chart success and was about to enter into a few years of oblivion before Stepping Out went Top3. The venue was maybe 70% full and I got right down near the front for the first time in my life. This song was the encore – and Joe turned it into a masterpiece lasting the best part of 10 minutes, starting it off as a piano-led ballad before bit by bit the rest of the band (who had been in top form all night) joined in. By the end it was an angry rant keeping in spirit with the true meaning of the song.

(b) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Curse of Millhaven

Glasgow Barrowlands 2001. Mrs Villain’s favourite Bad Seeds number and one neither of us thought we’d ever see live. Another one kept for the encore and so rare in the live canon that Nick needed idiot boards to get all the words correct. The band thrashed away and Nick ranted and raved about murders and Prozac. A few weeks later he did the same again in Lyon, France and the results can be seen on the live DVD God Is In The House. But being there in Glasgow was even better.

(c) Paul Quinn & the Independent Group– Will I Ever Be Inside Of You?

Glasgow Film Theatre – October 1994. A one-off gig in a cinema. the band played as movie montages unfolded behind them. A quite incredible night topped-off when a singer from Scottish Opera hotfooted it from her performance on stage some 500 yards around the corner and provided backing vocals, still dressed in her operatic outfit, for the title track of Paul Quinn & The Independent Group‘s second LP. Truly beautiful. Truly breathtaking. And the last time that i ever got to see Paul Quinn perform on the stage. Sigh

(d) Tindersticks – Jism

Edinburgh Jaffa Cake late 90s. The hottest gig I’ve ever been at in my life. A tiny attic room that was part of an Edinburgh Fringe Festival venue more akin to hosting comedians and staging plays by undergraduate theatre groups. I’ve no idea just how the fire authorities were able to let so many folk in. So hot that the band removed their jackets. I know I’m likely to go to hell when I die – and it will be a dawdle compared to surviving that August night without passing out. The roar that greeted this epic number would have graced the winning goal of any cup final.

(e) The Smiths – Hand In Glove

Glasgow QM Union 1982. The first time I ever saw them live. The first song I ever heard them play live. A life-changing moment.

Q2. Tell us about the high points and low points of a typical working day.

The high point is lunchtime and the moments that I’m able to spend in any one of a number of half-decent (Avalanche, Fopp, Missing) or indeed rubbishy (Virgin, HMV) record stores in Glasgow city centre.

I don’t think about the low points – if I did I wouldn’t make any effort to come in. But they’re usually the result of something happening outwith my direct control but which ultimately will end up at my desk requiring immediate fixing.

Sorry it’s a dull answer, but there’s little really exciting about working in a huge bureaucracy.

Q3. You’ve been convicted of the murder of the football commentator who said they’ll be dancing on the streets of Raith tonight, and your final appeal has failed. It’s time to choose your last meal.

I wouldn’t be settling for a last meal at this point. I’d be mobilising the troops, with hopefully comrades like Toad, Colin, Simon, Liz, Crash and everyone who has a modicum of love for me (that includes you Mrs Villain) organising last minute petitions to the top brass explaining that it was a mercy killing as all football commentators on British television deserve to be garroted.

But I guess you guys will get nowhere. So I would demand, as my last request, a bowl of pasta from a magnificent Milanese restaurant called Da Ilia– to be washed down with a bottle of Valpolicella Amarone red vino. Failing that, a bowl of Kellogg’s Frosties – after all, on the eve of my execution, I will no longer be worrying about its effect on my waistline.

Q4. It’s 2012 and Scotland is to be retired in order to pay for the London Olympics. You’re responsibility is to preserve ten Scottish songs for posterity. What do you choose.

I could refer you all back to a series of earlier postings that appeared on TVV in which the choices of the personal Top 10s of myself & Jacques the Kipper for the poll at Jock’n’Roll were aired and discussed. I was only allowed one song per artist, and my list featured Orange Juice, Sons & Daughters, Bronski Beat, Bourgie Bourgie, Associates etc, etc…

But if Scotland is to be retired, then the lawmakers will inevitably deem that all good things associated with the country must be outlawed forever in order to prevent a revolutionary uprising. So all my choice of songs will come from a prescribed list of such crap that the authorities will thereby ensure that no-one in their right mind would ever want to be part of a nation once again….

Andy Stewart – A Scottish Soldier;

Neil Reid – Mother Of Mine;

Jim Diamond – I Should Have Known Better;

Darius – Colourblind;

Simple Minds – Belfast Child;

Aneka – Japanese Boy;

Wet Wet Wet – Goodnight Girl;

Gun – Word Up;

Lena Martell – One Day At A Time;

Runrig – Loch Lomond.

Ten stinkers I’m sure you agree.

Q5. We all need a bit of direction in our leisure time. What should we be watching on the telly? Something current, something from the last few years and something to buy and enjoy on dvd.

The only long-running thing really worth watching is The Simpsons. Need I say anymore?

In terms of recent stuff no longer with us, I think it has to be Our Friends In The North– the last thirty seconds of which had me blubbering away like a big southern jessie.

On DVD – make sure you get every episode of The Sopranos. It can be watched over and over again as small details emerge each episode as hugely significant for the future.

If I was to choose a DVD movie, it would be High Fidelity. I want to be as cool and handsome as John Cusack, and I want to own a record store but only if I could afford it to run at a huge loss as I would only sell records which I liked…..

So that’s what I’ve got to say in response to Crash’s five questions. If you’d like to play along, send me an e-mail and I’ll get some probing stuff over to you. Go on…you know you want to.

Oh, I suppose I better put up an mp3 given you’ve got this far:-

mp3 : Tindersticks – Jism (live, Bloomsbury Theatre)

Oh and here’s another while I’m at it. Sorry it’s not live:-

mp3 : Paul Quinn & The Independent Group – Will I Ever Be Inside Of You?

——————-ends————————————

2013 Update

Q1 : I’m still happy enough with the five live renditions selected, although I know for certain that the rendition of Felicity by Vic Godard & The Independent Group just a couple of months back when they were support to the one-off reformation of Jazzateers would get in.

Q2 : Have changed job since May 2007. No longer work in Glasgow city centre, so browsing round record stores no longer the daily highlight. Truth is, walking out of train station and into the front door is the highlight as it’s the last time I will be in full control of the situation as I’ve no idea what the day will bring. Low Point? Any unexpected phone call from a journalist bringing news of an unforseen problem….

Q3 : The troops mentioned in the original answer were the small group of like-minded bloggers who were providing all sorts of support and advice on a daily basis at a tine when TVV was in its infancy. Today, I’d be confident the troops that I could muster in support would be bigger in number.

Q4 : It wasn’t the Olympics that bankrupted us….it was the fucking bankers.

Q5 : Since then, box sets like The Wire, Deadwood, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire and Six Feet Under would be added to the list….

Oh and I have no idea who it was I passed my own list of questions onto.

Suppose I better add some more mp3s as you’ve got this far……

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – High Fidelity (Peel Session, March 1980)

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Curse Of Millhaven (live, Lyon)

mp3 : The Smiths – Hand In Glove (live, Glasgow QMU)

Enjoy!!!!