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 #3 was broadcast on this day, 24 September 1980, having been recorded on 16 September 1980.
Arguably the greatest Fall session, this is the occasion, according to Riley, where producer John Sparrow’s pipe had gone out, and he’d fallen asleep. Returning with newcomers Scanlon and the Hanley brothers, this is the first truly great Fall Peel Session. The definitive recording of ‘New Puritan’ (with the Ur-Smith lines “I curse the self-copulation of your record collection – New Puritan says ‘coffee table LPs never breathe'”), the fresh and quick ‘Container Drivers’ and the extended ‘New Face In Hell’ offer glimpses of past and present, while ‘Jawbone And The Air Rifle’ offers the first tart taste of ‘Hex Enduction Hour’, still some 18 months away.
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Container Drivers (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Jawbone And The Air Rifle (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – New Puritan (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – New Face In Hell (Peel Session)
Produced by John Sparrow
Mark E Smith – vocals; Marc Riley – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – drums;
I know these blogs are supposed to be about music, but this story is a fucking doozie. My name is Fleming, Ian Fleming and I got caught ripping off my mates….
Cast your mind back to 1983 and the summer of the ‘Battle of the Bond Films’ – Octopussy versus Never Say Never Again.
Octopussy was the ‘official’ Bond film (official because it was produced the Bond rights holders EON). Never Say Never Again was produced by Jack Schwartzmann and saw Sean Connery return to the role he originated for the big screen.
Octopussy gets a bit of stick for Roger Moore being old enough to be the creepy grandfather of some of the supporting cast, but generally it’s an okay film with Steven Berkoff over-egging the pudding for maximum results. The film is based on a Fleming short story of the same name which serves as background to film’s narrative. While Rita Coolidge delivers up a cracking Bond theme (All Time High) via John Barry and Tim Rice (check out the Pulp cover version too).
mp3: Rita Coolidge – All Time High
mp3: Pulp – All Time High
Never Say Never Again is actually a remake of Thunderball (1965) and is a great lesson in not nicking the work of others or (depending on your point of view) not allowing others any kind of claim on original work.
In 1957, long before Bond was officially adapted to the big screen Fleming started work on some scripts with film maker Kevin McClory (working titles include SPECTRE and James Bond of the Secret Service).
By 1959 Fleming was beginning to lose interest in the project since it had no real backing and McClory’s current film ‘The Boy and Bridge’ had flopped at film festivals. McClory was tenacious if nothing else and took the rough drafts to Ealing Studios writer Jack Whittingham. Together they crafted a script based on McClory and Fleming’s ideas and presented it back to Fleming with the working title of ‘Longitude 78 West’.
Fleming reportedly said the work was ‘very good’ and did very little re-writes himself, save from retitling the work ‘Thunderball’. As negotiations with MCA were ongoing to produce the movie, Fleming began work on the novelisation of the script which he decided he was taking full credit for. McClory and Whittingham thought ‘fuck no’ and went to the high court. Whitingham had already sold his rights to McClory and so only served as a ‘principle’ witness’
Fleming and McClory ultimately settled out of court, the result was McClory was given screen rights to the film and Fleming could publish the book under his name with the caveat of “based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author” McClory was also credited to co-authorship of ideas and characters; Spectre and Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
In the official EON produced documentary ‘Everything or Nothing’ there is some staunch defence of Ian Fleming’s behaviour. The talking heads take great care to mention the alcohol consumed by Fleming and McClory during their writing sessions and how ‘no one could be sure who came up with what characters’ and other hazy comments. It’s all very partisan and perhaps rightfully so. One thing the film heavily implies (through talking heads) is that the court case against McClory was the thing that caused Fleming’s fatal heart attack. This claim would carry more weight if didn’t come a few minutes after a segment that documented his heavy problem drinking and his 70-a-day cigarette habit.
Fast forward to 1964, when the production company EON had the James Bond license and delivered three hit films through the studio MGM. Thunderball had been a massively popular book, so EON struck a deal with McClory to adapt it into a film that allowed him to act as producer and with the rights returning to him after a decade.
Before the franchise launched it was apparently intended to be the first movie of the series. EON producers were so confident in the story that they commissioned a script to be authored long before they spoke to McClory. They even used the script to lure Connery into the role;
“The first James Bond film which I was hired for was Thunderball, for United Artists… The first script I was given to read by Broccoli and Saltzman’s company was Thunderball”Sean Connery, Undated Letter from the EON Archives
The film version of Thunderball was massive, it earned $141m worldwide on a $9m budget (times it by 10 for the 2025 value). The theme tune was originally supposed to be Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Shirley Bassey who had scored a massive hit with the title song to the previous film, Goldfinger.
After recording, the track was found not to be long enough for the opening credits so was re-recorded. Unfortunately, Bassey wasn’t available for the second session so Dionne Warwick was tasked with delivering a version. Ultimately the producers wanted a song with the film name in the title and given that neither Warwick or Bassey were available, they went with the next best thing, which was clearly Tom Jones.
mp3: Shirley Bassey – Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
mp3: Dionne Warwick – Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
mp3: Tom Jones – Thunderball
As popular as James Bond was, no one would have predicted the decades long British institution it would have become, even in 1965. The McClory deal, on paper, seemed like a good one for Fleming. Ten-year franchises didn’t really exist outside of Hammer Horror films and Sherlock Holmes. Who would be interested in a Bond film in 1975?
Even as late as 1969, many industry people thought the Bond bubble would eventually burst. George Lazenby was advised not to sign a seven-picture deal because he was told that the arse would drop out of cold war spy films in the hip 1970s.
“I had advice that James Bond was over anyway. It was Sean Connery’s gig and, being in the ’60s, it was love, not war. You know, hippy time. And I bought into that,” George Lazenby, The Guardian 2017.
Shrewd.
By 1974 McClory announced a film called ‘James Bond of the Secret Service‘ while Cubby Broccoli and EON were struggling with the critical flop of The Man with the Golden Gun;
“Amid the general lack of gumption, Roger Moore’s large rigid figure appears to be wheeled about on tiny casters” The Times, December 19, 1974
In order not to have their product damaged any further, they hit McClory with a massive lawsuit. Realising that he doesn’t have the financial clout to counter the MGM backed producer, McClory backs down…… for now.
As the late 1970s approach and McClory now has the rights to ten unfinished Bond scripts that he had worked out with Fleming, and he has the backing of Paramount pictures. Once again there’s legal action to stop or delay him but this time it’s less successful. By 1981 Paramount Pictures have backed out but Warner Bros via Jack Schwartzmann (an entertainment attorney and Mr Talia Shire) are on board. Schwartzmann licenced the rights from McClory and set about producing his first film.
In the early 1980s, Sean Connery was not exactly a massive box office draw, in fact he had spent a decade trying to get away from the Bond image. Unfortunately, he’s also been in a fair few flops (including Zardoz which is a science fiction head fuck about a society that worships the Wizard of Oz and finds Sir Sean in knee high fuck-me boots and a red bikini combo; Objectification isn’t so sexy now is it? How do you like it, Sean? Eh?… seriously though, you would)
Earlier McClory had pulled off a genius move; Connery had previously said he’d never play Bond again. Playing on the actor’s ego McClory brought him on board to help with the script re-drafting and as a consultant, in fact a de-facto co-producer.
Schwartzmann kept that deal going and he also involved him in casting choices making sure that he saw a lot of below-par actors for the role. Ultimately this led to Sir Sean being swayed towards the part.
“(Kevin McClory) knew I wasn’t interested in playing the part but would I consider writing a screenplay with Len Deighton. I worked with Len… six months nearly and the script was coming on rather well and I was discussing it with my wife and she said ‘well if it’s going so well why don’t you play the part’ Sean Connery, Film ’83 with Barry Norman
Maybe Connery was duped or manoeuvred into the role but personally I think Schwartzmann gave him a reason that he could use to publicly change his mind after so many years of saying he’d never do it again.
With the help of re-writes from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Likely Lads, Porridge and Auf Wiedersein, Pet!) the film was ready to go by 1983. For all intents and purposes, it was a Bond film. It had great set piece stunts, gadgets, half naked ladies and not one but two (!) Johnny Foreigner bad guys.
MGM then try to tie up McClory in more legal trouble but this eventually worked in his favour with EON having to remove elements of Spectre and Blofeld from any upcoming films, but the flip side of the court ruling was that any film McClory made couldn’t deviate from the Thunderball template.
“Because of the threat of litigation they were told at some point ‘you can only use original dialogue from the book’ it’s impossible to write a screen play where you only use dialogue from a book. Everything had to be checked by the producer, the director, by Sean and then by the insurance company who were insuring the company against litigation. There were four sets of people checking everything we wrote which was extraordinary” Dick Clement – uncredited writer Never Say Never Again. The Big Gamble; The Making of Never Say Never Again 2009
As for the cast; Edward Fox adds a star to the ratings as an excellent middle-management version of ‘M’, Barbara Carrera massively upstages Kim Basinger as Fatima Bush. Rowan Atkinson plays every Rowan Atkinson character that isn’t Blackadder or Mr Bean and Pat Roach rocks up as a baddie (that’s living alright).
Peter Hunt, who directed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (and had been an editor on many other Bond films) was offered the chair but turned it down;
“I would have offended Cubby if I had done it. That whole situation was very poor in their thinking, and I think if I had done it, they would have thought that I was a traitor. We had talks about it, but I wouldn’t have taken it for that reason” Peter Hunt, Retrovision 1998
After shopping the job around for a few months, Irwin Kirschner eventually accepted the job. Kirschner had recently smashed Empire Strikes Back out of the park then turned down Return of the Jedi to work on this film….. and that’s why we have Ewoks. Plank.
(Advert from Smash Hits January 1984)
The film was released to a massive fanfare, mainly that of ‘Sean is BACK!’ and it should be taken literally when I say reviews were ‘mixed’. As in some found it to be amazing and other found it to be amazingly average. The headline from the Chicago Tribune seems to be a tad too inflated for what they themselves say is a 3.5 star film, Be consistent, guys! (Since writing this I’ve been informed that the Tribune’s reviews are actually out of four stars. I’m not fucking changing what I’ve written, even though it’s now wrong. Four stars? Who the fuck does that? The phrase FIVE STAR REVIEW is there for a reason you fucking bellends)
Success is relative. A multitude of middling 6 or 7 out of 10 reviews ignore the fact that the film is highly watchable and fun against all odds.
The film essentially had three producers all of whom had different ideas on what the film should look like. As well as Warner Bros management, there was Jack Schwartzmann, Sean Connery and Kevin McClory who all had something to say. Plus there were lawyers all over the place, making sure the Thunderball scripts were being stuck to. The multiple checks and balances each script and shoot went through left a bitter taste in the director’s mouth. The script changes required multiple re-shoots to make up for cut dialogue;
“We had some pick up shots in the caves. I was bored with shooting this kind of thing….I never had a moment of pleasure after that. I was tired of the way the picture had to be made, in pieces with different writers, with holes in the script that had to be filled on the set” Irwin Kirschner, The Big Gamble; The Making of Never Say Never Again 2009
There are multiple stories of Connery not liking Jack Schwartzmann to the point that Schwartzmann would leave the room if Connery entered. Clement later claimed that Schwartzmann was scared of Connery.
“Sean and the producer just didn’t get along at all. They hated each other.” Barbara Carrera, 007 Magazine, 2007.
In Schwartzmann’s defence he was spending a lot of time in court and had no time for the job of actual producer. He was the man doing everything and nothing himself.
The soundtrack is a big part of any Bond film and unfortunately Never Say Never Again film had no access to any of John Barry’s previous work. Like most Bond soundtracks, the production has two vocal songs among the instrumental music. Never Say Never Again by Lani Hall starts with the hallmarks of a Bond theme but then just sorted fizzles out. Like they got the introduction and thought ‘that’ll do, that’s Bond enough’. Slightly better is the song Une Chanson D’Amour by Sophie Della but even then it’s only good by comparison,
mp3: Lani Hall – Never Say Never Again
mp3: Sophie Della – Une Chanson D’Amour
Ultimately both sound like an A.I. was asked to write an 80s James Bond tune and the AI said ‘Do I have to? For fuck’s sake, will this do?’
According to Bonnie Tyler, she was approached to sing the theme but took a hard pass
“They just asked me. Would I like to do a song? And they sent me the song. “Never Say Never (again)” and I listened to it, and I thought, “Ugh! Shit! I don’t like it.” I had to turn it down. Now how many people turn down a Bond song? I don’t know. But I turned it down because I didn’t like it. And I was proved right. Because I think out of all the songs… I can’t even remember it.” Bonnie Tyler, The Bat Segundo Show 2008.
A song that was too shit for someone who once recorded a duet with Shakin’ Stevens. Blimey.
The soundtrack does have some gems of music though. Most of the great tunes in a Bond film are hidden in the incidental music and Never Say Never Again is no different. Michel Legrand who composed the score delivers this beauty;
mp3: Michel Legrand – Felix and James Exit
It’s s a nice piece of 80s cop funk that wouldn’t be out of place on Miami Vice.
Apparently it was Connery himself that enticed Legrand to work on the film.
“Sean’s warmth and enthusiasm persuaded me,”Michel Legrand, Jon Burlingame’s The Music of James Bond
As with most Bond films there’s a passed over tune that didn’t make it ( among others; Johnny Cash turned in a tune for Thunderball, Blondie had a stab at For Your Eyes Only and Alice Cooper composed The Man With The Golden Gun… honestly that’s a different blog for another day; Run, James, Run by Brian Wilson deserves a whole page to itself…..
‘Never Say Never Again’ By Phyllis Hyman could have done wonders for the film’s press.
In the battle of the Bond soundtrack, Octopussy wins hands down. When it comes to the reception of the films, it’s probably a tie. Never Say Never Again was generally well received. Both are three out of five 80s action mehhhs. I think the best description of the work lies in the title of the reformed New York Dolls album; ‘One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This’
For Connery it would be the last time he would play Bond. The film drained him to the point that he was happy to complain about it publicly.
“It should have been a great deal more pleasure than it was. What I’m thrilled about is the huge success that it’s had…But it’s unfortunate that yet again one has had to carry someone incompetent” Sean Connery, Film ’83 With Barry Norman
He was a few years away from the massive success of Highlander, The Untouchables, The Hunt for Red October and many others as his career got a second wind.
McClory ended up trying to cash in on the Bond resurgence of the mid 1990s; he’d hawk a script around Hollywood called Warhead 2000 which again was another remake of Thunderball. Timothy Dalton. Liam Neeson and Sean Connery were all attached to the role of Bond at some point. Sony took the plunge and in 1997 they released this press statement
“Columbia Pictures, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company (SPE), today announced a new association with producer/director Kevin McClory and his company Spectre Associates Inc. to make a series of new James Bond feature films. These movies will be based on original works created by McClory, James Bond novelist Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham” Sony Press Release Oct 1997
MGM said nope. They sued and Sony counter sued, and in 1998 a court ordered the production of the film halted until it could be sorted out. Ultimately both sides came to a settlement. And by that I mean Sony probably ran the numbers and found that the court case would triple the budget of the film, and they had no idea if that film would even recoup its costs let alone that of the legal trial. They didn’t want to be into the third sequel before they made a profit.
In 2001 McClory had one last stab at some Bondage. He claimed he had a portion of the ownership rights of the character since so many of his idea were adopted into the franchise. The 9th Circuit Court that oversaw the case said he’d left too long to make that charge and was he out of his fucking mind? Okay they didn’t say the second bit.
Eventually Sony obtained MGM as a company and with it was able to merge the Bond franchise with their rights to Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again (and supporting creative works), which is why we eventually got a proper Casino Royale and a return of Blofeld.
I feel we should take a moment here to adore the glorious Burt Bacharach soundtrack to the 1960s Casino Royale;
mp3: Dusty Springfield – The Look Of Love
mp3: Burt Bacharach – Hi There, Miss Goodthighs
mp3: Burt Bacharach – The Big Cowboy and Indian Fight at Casino Royale
Since the MGM acquisition the Bond community are still split on the film. Some even sent hate mail to McClory when he was alive. There are multiple fan edits of the film including this on which adds a ‘Gun Barrel’ intro and includes John Barry music
Hardcore Bond fans still argue over whether Never Say Never Again should now considered an official film in the series but those arguments will almost certainly stop once they find someone who will fuck them.
As Big As Life, As Small As Nothing: A Thomas Leer ICA
It’s 25th February 2023, and JC has posted #344 in the excellent (and still ongoing) Saturday’s Scottish Song series, featuring Thomas Leer.
The post prompted some enthusiastic responses, including one from me:
“I’ve got an ICA nearly finished and ready to send, but I’m now thinking of having a try with Thomas Leer next. I may be some time…!”
I wasn’t kidding! The ‘nearly finished’ ICA (ABC, #338, fact fans) saw the light of day in April 2023. It’s taken considerably longer for Thomas Leer’s turn to come, but here it is at last!
Some of the delay has been due to life stuff, but I also have to attribute much of it to the ‘rabbit hole’ factor that frequently affects the ideas that pop into my head.
When I posted the comment, I had enough material for an ICA, but then I discovered that Thomas had released an album in 2022 and I had to check it out. Thomas Leer’s Future Historic site on Bandcamp then revealed a load of unreleased albums and EPs that had been recorded, and I was literally lost in music. In fact, I was taking so long, that Thomas even recorded and released a brand new song in 2024! How on earth was I going to absorb all this and condense it into an ICA that would do him justice!
Yep, time for those self-imposed rules to help me out.
My first act of sacrilege was to rule out using 1979’s seminal experimental album The Bridge by Thomas and Robert Rental. Given that I had nearly five decades to cover, I didn’t want the ICA too heavily weighted towards his earliest recordings and already had a couple of songs from 1978 that I couldn’t exclude.
I also focused exclusively on songs featuring Thomas’ voice. He’s recorded a ton of instrumental music over the years, but that’s for a different time, a different compilation.
I guess that other connecting thread is that to these ears at least, the ICA collates some of Thomas Leer’s more accessible – I hesitate to say ‘pop’ moments – songs, even if they don’t necessarily confirm to the rigid rules about structure, running time, or being commercially appealing.
In his Saturday’s Scottish Song post in 2023, JC described the featured song (Don’t) as “a bit of a hidden gem” which I think sums up Thomas Leer pretty well.
I hope this ICA serves as a helpful summary and/or introduction and inspires you to dive deeper into his music.
Side One
Private Plane (single, 1978)
Leer’s self-financed debut (just 650 copies) and NME Single of the Week. The ‘DIY @ home’ feel is the real deal, but the Can-inspired motorik bass and plaintive vocals are compelling from start to finish. Like Cabaret Voltaire, if they were fronted by Matt Johnson.
Don’t (4 Movements EP, 1981)
Opener of the 4 Movements EP or, in other words, 4 off-kilter A-sides. I love the dynamics of this song, the stuttering synth bass, the tinkling chords, and repetitive riffs, at odds with and complementing one another simultaneously. The narrative sidesteps a chorus, building instead around the one word title to create structure.
Transition (The Scale Of Ten, 1984)
A more accessible, commercial sound on Leer’s debut album, and on a major label (Arista) too. Still left of centre but sailing close to the kind of music that was enjoying chart success from New Order to China Crisis, even Men Without Hats. This wasn’t a single, yet ticked all the right boxes to have been a contender.
Tonight (A Rose, 2009)
As far as official music releases are concerned, Thomas Leer was dormant throughout the 1990s. Collaborative ventures outside of his partnerships with Robert Rental and Claudia Brücken have also been few and far between. And yet… Unexpectedly, a co-write and a vocal on the penultimate song of Stefano Panunzi’s 2009 album A Rose and it was like Thomas had never been away. One of his most conventional – and beautiful – songs.
Death Of A Dream (single, 2024)
Thomas Leer’s Bandcamp site, Future Historic, has been a repository and treasure trove of recordings, rarities and works in progress never completed, as the name might suggest. Spanning 1979 to the present, including the aforementioned ‘lost’ 1990s, where Leer was in fact far from unproductive. Death Of A Dream is his most recent offering, an 8-minute epic from January 2024. This may be an older, ‘broken’ Thomas Leer, but the fire still burns brightly.
Side Two
Absolutely Immune (single, 1987)
From Death Of A Dream to Rebirth Of The Cool, at least according to ZTT in the late 1980s. Act – Thomas partnered with Claudia Brücken, freshly divorced from Propaganda – should have been huge and weren’t. From a vocal perspective, Act was mainly a showcase for Claudia, but on songs like Absolutely Immune and Snobbery & Decay, it’s clear that Thomas brought a quality beyond his songwriting and musicianship. A personal favourite from this short-lived duo, though I’m still not sure about Thomas singing, “I’m going to spray your empty face with flecks of ecstasy”!
The Devil In Me (Fairlight EP ’83, 2015)
From a 7-track EP of demos recorded during a 7-day Fairlight session in 1983, providing a missing link between Leer’s releases on Cherry Red and Arista and the move to a poppier, more chart-hungry sound. Considering some of the pop pap that was troubling the upper reaches of the UK singles chart at the time, it’s a shame that this song remained incomplete and unreleased for over thirty years.
Looks That Kill (Contradictions, 1982)
…Not that the previous year’s Contradictions EP/mini-album missed its own fair share of pop hooks. An insistent synth guitar strum and bubbling preset percussion underpin a persuasive and occasionally meandering vocal from Leer.
Touch My Screen (From Sci-Fi To Barfly, 2022)
Recorded in 2004, released in 2022, the brilliantly titled album From Sci-Fi To Barfly is self-described as “possibly (Thomas Leer’s) most disparate collection”. Maybe so, though Touch My Screen shows that Thomas’ continual crafting and honing of music at home still produced aurally stimulating and lyrically sharp songs.
Chasing The Dragon (No. 1 B-side, 1985)
Relegated to the B-side of the optimistically titled single No. 1 (it didn’t chart), possibly due to it being Leer’s “drug song”. An obvious (a little too obvious) Oriental music motif aside, Chasing The Dragon is a pretty good song and would undoubtedly have made the cut, if it had been recorded ten years earlier… or later.
WeatherBelle (Radio Cinéola Trilogy: Volume 4: The End Of The Day, 2017)
Thomas Leer’s association with Matt Johnson goes way back. The first time that I saw Leer’s name was in the credits for GIANT, the epic closing song of The The’s album Soul Mining in 1983. Although Thomas has recorded very few cover versions in his career (and mostly as Act, with Claudia Brücken singing), it was perhaps inevitable that he would one day get the nod from Matt.
In 2000, The The released the album NakedSelf, with the idea that the companion EPs would feature covers of The The songs by hand-picked artists. Record label shenanigans meant that this never got past the first single, ShrunkenMan. However, various versions by the likes of Elbow, Ergo Phizmiz and Anna Domino have popped up here and there over the years.
Thomas’ cover of WeatherBelle from NakedSelf appeared on the Radio Cinéola Trilogy box set in 2017 and it’s brilliant. As a listener, you can feel as well as hear Leer’s cracked, aged voice stretching to breaking point, lyrical lines like the proverbial torture rack, yet losing none of the emotional impact of Matt Johnson’s original work. Astonishing.
International (single, 1978)
And the ICA comes full circle, ending where it began with Thomas Leer’s debut double A-side single. Leer obviously had a thing for the title/word, as a completely unrelated song called International appeared on debut album Scale Of Ten in 1984 and was also a (flop) single.
The post-punk, synth pop International from 1978 is the one to go for, though. Again, the appeal is all in the lo-fi, home recording, scuzzy riffs, and surfing vocals. Compare this with 2024’s Death Of A Dream, and you’ll see how far Thomas Leer’s music has travelled, yet how connected the timeline is. Future Historic, indeed.
Back in November 2003, the Wales national football team stood at the precipice of history. After 45 years, they were just a single game away from qualifying for their first major tournament in 45 years – Euro 2004. It had been an odd campaign, during which they won their first four matches – including a massive shock win against Italy – before drawing one and losing three of their next four. It meant they finished second in their group and headed for a two legged play-off against Russia.
There was excitement in the nation, none more so than in the Super Furry Animals camp, containing five footie fans who, in the video for Play It Cool some years earlier, had played for Wales and beaten the mighty Brazil. Kind of. In preparation for what would surely be a glorious win against the Russians, they wrote a song that they planned to record and release in line with Euro 2004 in Portugal, supporting the Welsh team.
The first leg of the play-off finished 0-0, slightly disappointing, but it meant it was all or nothing for both teams in the second game. Sadly, a single goal sank the brave Welshmen that night. A qualification that started so well ended, as we all knew in our heart of hearts it would, in failure. That was the story of Welsh football. And the song written by our heroes lay buried among giant inflatable bears, various stage props, dreams and paraphernalia in the Furries archive for the best part 12 years.
Fast-forward to 2015, and after nearly six decades of failure, and against all the odds, a new breed of players finally took Wales to a major football tournament. As if by coincidence, or fate, or a bit of both, this also coincided with the Super Furry Animals’ 20th Anniversary tour. As a recording outfit, the band had been dormant for half a dozen years, but they saw a golden opportunity to soundtrack this unlikely success story, with what they described as “the lunar howl of their lost opus”. So after its prolonged hibernation, Bing Bong was resurrected, recorded, and released in the summer of 2016 as a prelude to that year’s European Championships.
“Into the studio we went, with wagging tails to record what is a rite of passage to many a band: the football cup song,” the band explained. “See also fine examples by New Order for England in 1990 and Primal Scream for Scotland in 1996.
Bing Bong isn’t a song of victory, nor of defeat, but a beacon of faith to return to when your best centre forward gets sent off, or it rains at your festival.” According to Gruff: “Bing bong is a Welsh folk idiom that we have appropriated, but its pronunciation has been partly inspired by the sonic motif of the talking robot, Twiki, in the sci-fi series Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century.”
The story of Wales at Euro 2016 is well documented. Experiencing the sheer joy and excitement of a nation who until then had almost forgot there was a sport involving a round ball, was exhilarating. What has been largely forgotten is that their best ever band delivered one final tune in celebration before parting ways. Kind of.
They called it ‘cosmic disco’, which I suppose it is. The lyrics were largely nonsensical, even when translated into English, and it really didn’t sound like the Super Furry Animals at all. In fact, it was more in keeping with what four fifths of them would emerge with a few years later under the moniker of Das Koolies. You won’t hear much in the way of guitars in it, it’s all shimmering, sparkly synths and otherworldly electronics. I don’t think it would have sounded like this had Wales beaten Russia and Bing Bong been recorded for Euro 2004 instead.
It would be the last new material Super Furry Animals would ever release. Well, at least as far as we know. We live in hope. It was also the first (and last) physical single they released in nine years. It was put out as a single-sided 12” on their own Strangetown Records label.
Promo CDs contained a much shorter radio edit, which may well do the job for some people:
mp3: Bing Bong [radio edit]
Some final live dates followed across North America before it ended. Super Furry Animals went into hibernation at the end of 2016 and have not been seen since. Well, kind of.
Your final bonus track is taken from the band’s performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, in July 2016.
mp3: Bing Bong [live]
And that, my friends, is it! Of course, the members of Super Furry Animals are all alive and well, and still making great music. Gruff released his 9th solo album this year, while the other four are out and about as Das Koolies, who also put out their second record in 2025. Guto’s other band Gulp also released their third album recently, and I’ve no doubt everyone else is doing all kinds of weird and wonderful musical things.
Oh, and for those pedants among you who are screaming right now: “Robster, you’ve forgotten about that obscure digital single Of No Fixed Identity the band released for charity in 2022!” Well, no, I haven’t. That track, you see, was unearthed from the Super Furry Archive and dated back to 1993 when Rhys Ifans and Dic Ben were still in the band, before Cian joined and before they had actually released any records. If you swing right the way back to part one of this series, I included it there because I reckon, despite when they released it, that’s where it belongs.
Thanks for riding with me on this Super Furry Journey. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself, hope you have too. Now, I need a nice long catnap. Night night…
The Robster
JC ADDS……..
I think I speak on behalf of all the TVV community when I say that this has been one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and informative series in all the time this blog has been on the go. The Robster has a wonderful writing style, and his passion for all things SFA really shone through, while his idea to offer up so many extras in the shape of live recordings, different and unique mixes etc., really did make his contributions such essential reading these past 20 weeks.
I’ll of course say thank you (as I have done on a regular basis when his emails had arrived in the Inbox), but those two words on their own don’t quite seem enough.
A reminder of which beat combos and singers have now had their singles featured in depth over the years – Altered Images, Cinerama, The Clash, The Fall, Grinderman, James, The Jam, Luke Haines/The Auteurs, Marc Almond, Morrissey, New Order, Paul Haig, Pet Shop Boys, R.E.M, Simple Minds (the early years!), The Style Council, Super Furry Animals, The Undertones and The Wedding Present. Everything can be found in the vaults via the index.
Next up is………well, you’ll just have to tune in next Sunday to find out.
Today’s post is closely linked to this post back in February in which the story of Cindytalk was featured and which then later led to this guest posting from Fraser recalling a Rock Against Racism gig in Edinburgh in 1978.
The Freeze are part of the Big Gold Dreams box set, one of 115 singers and bands included across five CDs telling the story, but not quite the definitive story, of Scottish Independent Music 1977 – 1989.
mp3: The Freeze – Paranoia
“Vocalist Gordon Sharp, guitarist David Clancy and bassist Keith Grant were joined by Grangemouth drummer Graeme Radin in The Freeze, formed at Linlithgow Academy, West Lothian. Lyrics for this lead track from their debut EP were provided by their English teacher manager Alistair Allison, helping make this a far darker proposition than this straightforward thrash might suggest; second single Celebration (1980) was a tribute to American actress Louise Brooks. With an American hardcore band The Freeze in existence, and British disco act Freeez charting with Southern Freeze in 1981, Sharp and Clancy morphed into Cindytalk. This gave Sharp especially free rein, as he went on to work with kindred spirits The Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil, ploughing a wilfully singular fashion under the Cindytalk banner to this day.”
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 #5 was broadcast….well actually not on this day as I messed it up and missed it by 96 hours. It was broadcast on 15 September 1981, having been recorded on 26 August 1981.
Recorded after their defining second American tour and before the group went to Iceland to gig and record some of ‘Hex Enduction Hour’, this Dale-Griffin-produced session was another showcase for ‘Hex Enduction Hour’ material, plus the accompanying ‘Look, Know’ single. It also offers the clearest description of the light rating system used in ‘Winter’ and fierce run through of ‘Who Makes The Nazis?’
DARYL EASLEA, 2005
mp3: The Fall – Deer Park (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Look, Know (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Winter (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Who Makes The Nazis? (Peel Session)
Produced by Dale Grffin, Engineered by Nick Gomm
Mark E Smith – vocals; Marc Riley – guitar; Craig Scanlon – guitar; Steve Hanley – bass; Paul Hanley – drums;
when it comes to female-fronted punk bands, at least those who joined the party early, The Slits will certainly be mentioned, and so will X-Ray Spex. The thing is, you see: whereas Ari Up always left a bit of a childishly fresh impression, a little bit naïve even, or, at least, acting naïve – Poly Styrene did not. Quite the contrary in fact, she was the prototype of self-confidence, coolness and style. And as a black woman, just 18 years of age in the UK (and we are talking ‘76 here, mind you – NF et al on the rise), your admiration for what Poly achieved in those few years before the end of the decade – as well for feminism as musically – cannot be high enough if you ask me! Honestly, when you’re looking for a guitar-driven blend of Ska and Reggae, presented by a great voice, all you need is X-Ray Spex really! And if you don’t believe me re feminism, perhaps you’ll believe all those Riot Grrrls, Bikini Kill or Bratmobile or Babes In Toyland, who constantly referred to Poly Styrene as a massive influence when they started out in the early 90s.
X-Ray Spex already disbanded in ’79, which means that they weren’t able to provide us with a huge legacy, well, not in terms of records, at least: one album, five singles – but 50% of the singles’ tracks were on the album anyway. Then again, hardly a bad song can be found, all pure energy, clever lyrics, but probably the most remarkable difference in comparison to their combatants of the time was the inclusion of a saxophone – which, until ’77 was played by Lora Logic, a name which might or might not still ring a bell with some of you. Lora left though and got replaced by Rudi Thomson for the album, ‘Germfree Adolescents’, released in November ’78.
As I said, I could easily have picked any of the five singles, as they are all outstanding in their own rights. But I have gone for the album’s title track, I think I always liked it a little bit more than the other tunes
mp3: X-Ray Spex – Germfree Adolescents
And before you complain, there are various forms of spellings everywhere around, on the label, on the sleeve, all rather confusing to me: ‘Germ Free Adolescents’, ‘Germfree Adolescents’, ‘Germ Free Adolescence’, ‘Germfree Adolescence’, Germ-Free Adolescents’, ‘Germ-Free Adolescence’ … feel free to go for the one you like most, it’s your language, not mine!
Apart from that, the track is most ace, mind you – I’m sure you agree!
So enjoy,
Dirk
PS: for our overseas and continental readers: ‘S.R.’ used to be a toothpaste in the UK, hence the “cleans her teeth ten times a day, scrub away, scrub away, the S.R. way”– line …
PPS: Poly Styrene died in 2011, being just 54. Cancer sucks!
A guest series by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)
#6: Starethrough – Seefeel (1994)
I can’t now remember how Seefeel became known to me. Perhaps it was a magazine review, but at any rate I picked up the Pure, Impure CD around the middle of 1993 and took an immediate liking to it. Initially I thought it was their first LP, but later realised that it was merely the Plainsong 3-track EP bundled together with two Aphex Twin remixes of the track Time to Find Me from their earlier debut EP More Like Space, and rounded off with an unreleased remix of Plainsong.
In the Autumn of 1993 Seefeel released their first album proper, Quique, which enjoyed frequent spins on my Ariston Q-deck over the following months. In February of 1994 I then got the chance to see them live when they came to the Cambridge Corn Exchange as support to The Cocteau Twins. I went along specifically to hear Seefeel rather than The Cocteau Twins, in whom I wasn’t particularly interested. I can hear your eyes swivelling in your heads all the way down here in NZ.
I seem to recall some comment about Seefeel, perhaps from the theoretical magazine review, that described them as a guitar band that didn’t sound like a guitar band, and that was borne out by their live performance that night. They certainly looked like a guitar band, taking the stage with a standard drum kit, a bass player, and at least one guitar, as well as a small bank of electronics.
Once they started playing, however, it was clearly the electronics that were creating all the surface texture and atmosphere to the music. The crisply rhythmic drums and dub-heavy bass set up an unchanging foundation, but the guitar was fed through some kind of sampling and looping process that created multi-layered washes of sound that grew and changed as each piece developed.
In retrospect, it appears that the Seefeel method was an early use of the kind of technology that is now commonly at the fingertips (or toes) of many musicians. A few years ago I saw ex- Mutton Bird Don McGlashan here in Wellington, performing solo but using a foot pedal sample and loop set-up to build up a backing accompaniment that created the effect of a small ensemble rather than one bloke with a guitar (and a French horn to recreate the signature motif from The Mutton Birds’ ‘Dominion Road’).
The nearest point of reference I had to Seefeel’s music was Fripp and Eno’s mid-70s collaboration on No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, and in fact the technique is not dissimilar. Eno used two reel-to-reel tape recorders with a continuous loop of tape strung between the two, the first one recording Fripp’s guitar figure and then the second one playing it back while the first was still recording, adding layer upon layer of sound to create a great pulsating tide of music. Seefeel’s technology was digital rather than analogue, but the principle was pretty much the same.
The difference was that Fripp and Eno used no percussion, where Seefeel’s sound was pleasantly propulsive, an original and fortuitous blending of indie and dance music that didn’t just re-hash Screamadelica.
A couple of months later, the Starethrough EP came out. It was recognisably Seefeel, but things had obviously changed a little. Perhaps it was the new label. The first singles and album had all been released on Too Pure, the indie label that had first introduced PJ Harvey and Stereolab to the world, along with several other largely rock-oriented artists. While Seefeel may have looked the part in photos, their sound was perhaps not comfortable in such company. Starethrough came out on Warp, which should give you a better idea of what you’re about to hear.
The dreamy blend of dub and shoegaze that characterises Quique is still there to a large extent. The track titles share the faintly romantic connotations of the first album. Air-eyes, Spangle and Lux1 complete the quartet of pieces, evoking similar feelings to Quique track names like Charlotte’s Mouth, Climactic Phase #1, Polyfusion.
Musically, the title track is in a similar groove to much of Quique, with a deep, dubby bass line, ethereal, wordless vocals from Sarah Peacock and looping, overlapping glissando guitar. The percussion, however, forsakes the conventional rock kit for a more or less uniform synthetic timbales sound throughout. Air-eyes sounds as it reads with no bass or drums, just dreamy electronic wash. Spangle picks up the metallic drum sound again but rhythmically none of this can be construed as dance music, unlike most of Quique. It’s well into ambient territory and the drums frequently sound more like bumps in the road rather than smooth rails helping the music along.
The follow-up single in September 1994, a neat little 10” disc titled Fractured, previewed the second album Succour which came out the following March. In both look and sound, the single and album present a quintessential Warp Records experience of abrasive, abstract electronica wrapped up in austere, typographically smart-arsed packaging, with track titles like pseudo-classical sci-fi planet names: Gatha, Ruby-Ha, Tempean. None of these track titles are actually printed in full on the sleeve, instead abbreviated to look like fictional elements in the periodic table: Ga05, RuH06, Tempean not even abbreviated, just listed by the superscript 11.
The music is equally inaccessible. Emotionally, if we are on one of those sci-fi planets, it’s a cold, industrial one, on which we find ourselves trapped in lightless mineshafts rather than tripping through sunlit meadows. See? Feel? With Succour I am blind, groping my way across wet, hard metal. If you are a fan of things like Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Vol 2 you might enjoy some of the ferocious sonic textures there. Unfortunately, I’m not, so at this point, Seefeel and I parted company. I was completely oblivious to the 1996 release of a mini-album (Ch-Vox) which I’ve still never heard, and with track titles like E-hix² I’m not that bothered. By all accounts it was a close cousin of Succour.
And that was that for Seefeel for the next fourteen years until out of the blue appeared the self-titled Seefeel album in 2010. I’ve listened to it online a couple of times and it’s something of a return to the lighter textures of their early work, but doesn’t rekindle the fire all the same. Last year saw two releases, another couple of mini-albums called Everything Squared and Squared Roots. I haven’t heard either of them, but the latter appears to be remixes of material from the former, although so different you’d never know, according to one review. The urge to seek them out is not terribly strong as I suspect none of it will approach the pleasures of their earliest work which I was lucky enough to catch at the time, with Starethrough the closing act of that phase.
I had a recent visit from my younger sister, and we were reminiscing that the first concert she ever saw when I took her to was The Undertones at De Montford Hall Leicester and in true brotherly fashion (I was only 17) rushed towards the front and dragged her with me to join the bouncing throng, and JC’s comment that ‘Get Over You’ never made the top 30 single charts, drew me back to The Undertones and I realised two things, firstly, how happy their tunes made me and secondly they are seriously under rated as lyric writers.
In my humble opinion The Undertones should be regarded as one of the greatest lyric writers of their generation, uniquely managing to combine relatable everyday events/ phrases with humour, they really did make you feel as though they were living the same life as you were, they weren’t millionaires living in mansions nor were they living in trendy squats in trendy London. Of course not only did they have great lyrics, they had the voice of Feargal Sharkey to deliver them.
So here comes my Undertones ICA selected upon specific lyrics.
More Songs About Chocolate & Girls
Sets the tone perfectly and manages to take the mickey out of themselves and Talking Heads and even better includes a line about their first and the song they are forever associated with:-
Our teenage dreams They’re surely worth a mention ‘Cause here’s more songs about chocolate and girls
My Perfect Cousin
A single release which also combines humour with a staple boys game of the seventies and a musical reference
Even at the age of ten Smart boy Kevin was a smart boy then He always beat me at Subbuteo ‘Cause he ‘flicked to kick’ And I didn’t know
His mother bought him a synthesiser Got the Human League into advise her Now he’s making lots of noise, playing along with the art school boys
Mars Bars
This track was the b side to the Jimmy Jimmy single and uses the tag line from the advert of the time. But what this anthem to the chocolate bar has hidden away is a verse that which refers to a TV personality and also refers to another musical act.
I need a Mars Bar I’ve had ten so far It helps me, makes me Work, rest and play
To Patrick Moore and David Bowie And all the other stars There’s evidence here to show you That there’s Life on Mars
Boy Wonder
Real life, this time of a more mundane nature and a concise and vivid description of the boy at school who was physically stronger.
Boy Wonder never wants to grow up Cos with some competition he wouldn’t look so great Well he’s the biggest in the street He knows to use his weight But when it comes to real life It’ll be too late
Casbah Rock
a short track that celebrates the band’s early experiences playing at the Casbah Club in Derry which it is claimed is the only venue at the time that would play ‘Alternative’ music:-
Cos you’ll never get pop at the Casbah Rock
Fairly In The Money Now
Released as the B-side to their 1981 single “It’s Going To Happen!”. The song is about a band achieving success and the subsequent changes that come with it, including newfound wealth and attention. And the need to continue releasing songs that are maybe not as good as their earlier ones.
Tommy always said he would make it one day Lead singer in a top show band So with some friends and latest tunes to play Tommy Tate and the Torpedoes began
Soon they were the rave of all the high school hops In satin suits, all dressed to kill Soon Tommy’s boys became Top of the Pops But then the money came over the hill
All the cash to spend, on their girlfriends, And in then their interest, and manager’s request They all bought their mansions
Hype-notised by every part that arrived Higher prices for indifferent songs But nevertheless big Tommy’s into success So his Torpedoes kept plodding on And his Torpedoes keep plodding on
Fascination
As true today as it was, if not truer as it has taken me over 6 months to put this together
Sitting in a front room Nothing ever gets done
Get Over You
My favourite Undertones song, with their best opening line, how did it fail to make the top 30?
Dressed like that you must be living in a different world
His Good Looking Girlfriend
A lovely song which tells the story of how a young lad becomes popular only because of his girlfriend.
He’s never been more popular Since he met Marie He never went to parties Then last week he went to three
Male Model
I know it dates me, but Freeman’s Catalogue was an ever present in the 70’s but the idea that a rock band would ever admit to wearing their clothes???
When I was young, I never wanted toys Things like that were for little boys My mama bought me clothes for her favourite son Freeman’s, item A, page 61
Jimmy Jimmy
Another great song, combined with Feargal’s voice the lyrics are simple but heartfelt and poignant
Now little Jimmy’s gone He disappeared one day But no one saw the ambulance That took little Jim away
I hope this ICA brings a smile to your face and brightens your day as it has done mine.
Those of you who spend time immersed in the Bagging Area will know that Swiss Adam is part of a collective known as The Flightpath Estate, a Facebook group dedicated to the music, art and work of Andrew Weatherall. It was established in 2013 and has become a virtual home to his fans, friends and family. It is also the host of the Weatherdrive – thousands of hours of recordings of Andrew Weatherall’s DJ sets, mixes and radio shows.
In recent years, the collective has been part of regular shows put on at The Golden Lion in Todmorden, a pub, music venue and community hub within the small town in West Yorkshire, close to its border with Lancashire. Back in February 2024, the collective compiled a double LP – Songs From The Flightpath Estate – which sold out its pressing of 1,000 copies within a few weeks, and in doing so raised more than £6000 for charities.
Volume Two, of which 1500 copies were pressed, came out at the end of last month. Ten more tracks inspired and influenced by the spirit of Andrew Weatherall, again exclusively on vinyl. It’s the sort of music that, more often than not, takes me out of my comfort zone….and yet, I am quite happy to suggest that this must be one of the best releases of 2025.
Even before the vinyl was put on to the turntable, I got a sense of excitement from reading Adam’s sleevenotes which provide the background to the process that has gone into compiling the record along with a description of each performer and each track.
The ten tracks take 68 minutes to listen to. It opens up with the longest of them all, twelve-and-a-half minutes of what is a previously unreleased Sabres of Paradise track that had been stored on DAT after being worked up a few years back – 1993 to be precise. Lick Wid Nit Wit (From The Flightpath Estate Mix) is an extraordinary recording/mix, amid-uptempo number dominated by a jazzy bassline and perfect percussion while being underpinned by an organ and synthetic strings. It is hypnotic and captivating.
I was so blown away by the track, that I thought it would be a hard task to maintain the standard, but somehow, they just about do it, although Dicky Continental has a near impossible task to really hold a listener’s attention with Large Bongos, the second track on Side A, but being the most soulful of the ten cuts, it does fit in perfectly after the mind-blowing opener.
Side B of the record was particularly enjoyable, consisting of two contributions with a running time of more than sixteen minutes. The first is by Unit 14, whose identity is shrouded in mystery as he/she/they don’t want to be known. The track is called Rough Spirit and I can’t do any better than use Adam’s description of it being ‘speaker-rattling techno of the highest calibre’. It blends magnificently into Richard Fearless‘ offering, which is called Haywire in tribute to a club that he and Weatherall used to play in London. These two tracks were blasted out especially loud one wet afternoon last week in what was an empty house, with the downstairs folk both out at work. I am a considerate neighbour if nothing else.
Side C is taken up in turn by Los Angeles-based David Harrow whose Aanndee was fascinating; just as I thought I was getting comfortable early on and thinking of which Hacienda type acts to associate it with, it totally shifted in mood and tempo. Not the sort of music I’d ever have associated with LA, but again, really engrossing. It is followed by Red Snapper with Oraqeb, one which has a something of a TV/film soundtrack feel to it; finally there is another true highlight – Estate Kings (Number Rework) by Factory Records legends, A Certain Ratio. This offers more than a reminder of what Barry Adamson does so well – ‘Manc Noir’to borrow another of Adam’s phrases in the sleevenotes.
Side D initially is turned over to the unknown/underground act of Bedford Fall Players, whose tune changes tempo on more than one occasion and whose title In The Trees (It’s Coming) can be attributed to the sample lifted from a 1957 horror film Night Of The Demon which became really well-known after Kate Bush used it on Hounds of Love. It’s the sort of tune that would not sound out of place on BBC 6 Music. It is followed by Richard Norris whose Brave Raver will surely take listeners back, initially at least, to 1989 when New Order released the majestic tour de force, Technique. This is the one track more than any other I’ve gone back to.
The album closes out with Sleaford Mods, an act I can take or leave….and I’ll be kind by saying I’m glad that Sick When We X, a cover of a Two Lone Swordsmen track, was stuck away at the end of things as I can gently lift the needle from the vinyl after the last note of the previous track is struck.
Neverthless, Sleaford Mods not withstanding, this is a superb offering. Maybe not the sort of music you most associate with this little corner of t’internet, but I hope you’ve enjoyed me sharing my thoughts. Congratulations to Adam and the rest of the Flightpath Estate posse. You boys done good.
‘Dark Days/Light Years’ had a potential 5 or 6 singles on it, but in the end just the two were released, its second being one of the three songs on the album not written or sung by de facto band frontman Gruff Rhys.
mp3: Mt. [edit]
Despite the abbreviated title, it is pronounced in full – Mountain – and according to the band, it “concerns people turning molehills into extreme sport venues.” Written and sung by keyboard/electronics wiz Cian, the lyrics examine the topic of how some problems appear to be so huge, when in reality they can be solved easily, especially when we all support one another. This lyric sums it up, and there are plenty of lessons our leaders could learn from these lines alone, but never will:
Do we need more than diplomacy To get us through tragedy? One thing is for sure, You can’t beat solidarity.
Ask the likes of Kneecap and Bob Vylan about that last line – that’s something they have been experiencing for a little while, much to our increasingly fascistic leaders’ disdain.
Enough politics! The single was a digital-only release and edited out the profanity, replacing the f-word with “scary”, though I’m not sure it gained much more radio airplay than the uncensored version would have. It’s a decent enough track, but I think it’s about a minute or so too long. A three-minute edit would have made it pretty much perfect.
I’ve assembled another live single for your bonus tracks this week. Two more ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ songs recorded live in New York City in 2009.
mp3: Mt. [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
mp3: Crazy Naked Girls [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
On the album, Mt. followed the wild opening track Crazy Naked Girls, co-sung by Gruff and Bunf. As one reviewer put it: “Crazy Naked Girls signals the band asserting its ambitious, messy, daft, generally inspired side – the side that some of us love the most, to be honest.” He’s not wrong. While it’s far from typical of the songs on the album, it certainly opens proceedings by putting a big, silly smile on the faces of the fans who had stuck with them from the start.
Both these live tracks are officially unreleased, and are my gift to you lot who have stuck with me throughout this series. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and it seemed that Mt. might well have signalled the end of Super Furry Animals. It was the last track they would release until… well, until something of a sporting miracle occurred some years later…
Multi-instrumentalist Ross Clark first came to prominence as one-third of Three Blind Wolves, alongside Dave Cleary and Kevin Mackay. They formed in 2010 with debut mini-album Sound Of The Storm coming out the following year on Communion Records, the London-based label which gave the first big break to the now popular and famous Michael Kiwanuka. Three singles and an album, Sing Hallelujah For The Old Machine, would be issued by Glasgow label Instinctive Raccoon in 2013, and while the band gained a degree of popularity across Scotland, they never really got beyond cult status before calling it a day in 2017.
Clark has continued a career in music across many dimensions and fields, and he performs solo under the moniker Fuskur. The first, and this far only, release was the album Cold Hands Slow Burn, released in 2020 which was recorded and produced by Andy Monaghan, who is probably best known as being the guitarist and keyboardist with Frightened Rabbit.
A couple of years prior to that, Fiskur had recorded a cover of a Frightened Rabbit song. He wasn’t the only one doing so at the time, as plans were afoot to celebrate the 10th anniversary of The Midnight Organ Fight with the release of the album being covered by some of the band’s favourite musicians and friends who had supported Frightened Rabbit along the journey from unknowns to a band on Atlantic Records who could sell out large venues wherever in the world they played.
The death of Scott Hutchison in May 2018 meant a bit of a rethink, but in due course the planned album was released in the summer of 2019 as Tiny Changes: A Celebration of Frightened Rabbit’s The Midnight Organ Fight, with the compilation now sharing its name with a tribute concert and a mental health charity, with the proceeds from both the concert and the album going to the charity. Fiskur had recorded his take on the third song on the album.
mp3: Fiskur – Good Arms Vs Bad Arms
Regular readers will know just how much I adore The Midnight Organ Fight, and while I admired the sentiments behind the idea of the covers, I felt it would be an impossible task for anyone to improve on the originals. Which, other than in one instance proved to be the case.
This is a CD single that I didn’t buy at the time when it was released in late October 1992, and so I can’t take any credit for helping it reach the giddy heights of #52 in the UK singles chart. The reason for not doing so was to do with economics. I already had the album Dirty, and I wasn’t prepared to shell out £4 for a single in which the lead track would be a cleaned-up version of the album track with the swear words either bleeped out or replaced.
It would be at least 15 years later, and for the princely sum of £1 in a second-hand shop, that I brought the CD single back to Villain Towers and learned that Youth Against Fascism (Clen-Ex Mix) was quite different. Yes, the swear words had been removed, but the tune was a different mix to that of the album. The album version had been produced by Butch Vig and mixed by Andy Wallace, while the single was all down to Vig. It’s a slightly louder take on things and Thurston Moore‘s vocal delivery is not as buried:-
mp3: Sonic Youth – Youth Against Fascism (Clen-Ex Mix)
mp3: Sonic Youth – Youth Against Fascism (Album Version)
The album version was the fourth track on the single. The two tracks were sandwiched by these:-
mp3: Sonic Youth – Purr (Mark Goodier Session)
mp3: Sonic Youth – The Destroyed Room (Previously Unreleased)
The original version of Purr can be found on Dirty. This slightly slower and semi-acoustic take was recorded for a BBC Radio 1 session, broadcast on 20 July 1992.
A quick reminder that this occasional series doesn’t involve any new writing and instead delves back into the TVV vaults where I’ll pick out what I think is one of the more interesting postings from yesteryear. It’ll always be from quite a while back and will usually feature a singer or band whose appearances aren’t one of the regulars. The main idea being that those readers who are relatively new to the blog get to, hopefully, enjoy something they would otherwise have probably missed, while those of you who have been coming here a long time can just sigh as you see how the quality of writing has diminished with each passing year. Let’s begin by taking a trip back to 5 September 2016. And yes, the timing of this for today is very deliberate.
CALL ME STAR-STRUCK, UNCLE SAM
I’ve always been fascinated by New York City.
As a young kid, I thought it was the most famous place in the world thanks to it being the backdrop to so many films and TV shows. Hell, it even was the setting for one of my favourite cartoons – Top Cat – while there was no mistaking that my favourite comic book hero’s home of Gotham City was just a different name for NYC.
It was, in my young eyes, everything that America stood for where everything was bigger and better than you could wish for while growing up amidst the monochrome or at best faded-beige UK of the mid 70s. If someone had asked me, as an 11 or 12-year-old, why I wanted to see New York they would have got the 11 or 12-year-old’s classic answer…….just because!
If pushed I would say it was all to do with the fact it seemed to be the best place for sport with the best known names such as the Jets, the Yankees and the Harlem Globetrotters (little did I realise the last of these was showbiz and not sport!). In ‘soccer’ you had the phenomenon of the New York Cosmos, and I was desperate to be given the chance of seeing Pele and Franz Beckenbauer take to the field amidst pomp, pageantry and cheerleaders.
Boxing was another sport I watched – particularly the exploits of Muhammad Ali – and it seemed that every other month there was a world championship fight taking place in NYC at Madison Square Gardens. I wanted to be part of such a loud and raucous crowd (albeit years later my first experience of a live boxing match put me off for life)
Oh, and then there was the fact that I was fascinated by the idea of hot dogs, hamburgers and milk shakes, none of which you could get in Glasgow at the time (well you could, but you knew that they were all fifth-rate and not a patch on the real things).
Then I got slightly older and began to fall in love with pop music. NYC began to loom even larger as all the best bands in the world constantly talked about how it was the greatest city to play in and how the energy and vitality of the place brought so much to the performances. It also appeared to be where some of the best new music was coming from. And it seemed as if all the women were as gorgeous as Debbie Harry.
But the sheer cost involved meant that visiting NYC in my truly formative years was always going to be an unfulfilled dream. It was difficult enough finding the money to go and visit London far less get on a plane and cross the Atlantic. I didn’t even know how to go about obtaining a passport……
The idea of visiting in later years did come up – myself and Mrs Villain talked about going there for my 30th in 1993, but in the end we went for a beach holiday in the Caribbean. Her 40th in 1998 was another possibility, but again the lure of the sand and the sun proved too much.
By now I was in a job that had me seeing a fair bit of the world as I was a senior aide to the equivalent of the Mayor of Glasgow and accompanied him on a number of occasions, especially when he was to deliver a keynote speech at a conference or event.
I had always hoped the opportunity to do so in NYC would occur and so when he received and accepted an invitation to be part of a conference on Waterfront Regeneration, taking place at the Brooklyn Marriott, the dream of so many years was set to some true.
I began to plan everything in terms of how I would spend my free time at the conference, and before long I had arranged to stay on for a few extra days at my own expense. Greenwich Village, Central Park, Times Square, Madison Square Gardens, Yankee Stadium, the Chelsea Hotel, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, the Guggenheim and the Statue of Liberty were all on the list as was a ride in a yellow cab. I’d find small and bohemian record and book stores and have the time of my life. I was counting down the days to the conference which was taking place from September 20-22 2001.
It’ll soon be 15 It is now 24 years to the day that the Twin Towers came down and changed everything we thought about the world in the proverbial blink of an eye. It’ll soon be 15 24 years to the day that I made my first ever visit to NYC as incredibly enough, the conference wasn’t postponed.
It’s true that more than half of the delegates cancelled, including I would reckon 90% of those scheduled to come from Europe as travel plans were predictably chaotic and uncertain.
As it turned out, I was a passenger on the first Glasgow-Newark flight after 9/11. What I experienced during my stay will stay with me forever. There’s an entire book can be written about my experiences over the following seven days – understandably, it wasn’t what I ever imagined NYC to be in my long-held dreams. But if anything, I fell in love deeper and harder than I thought possible. But back in 2001, I didn’t stay on any longer than the time needed to be involved in the conference.
I’ve returned a couple of times since and seen more of the ‘real’ New York and thoroughly enjoyed myself. But everywhere I look, there seems to be a haunting and chilling memory of my first time…..
I was hopeful of returning to NYC this year (2016), on my 53rd birthday no less, to fulfil the ambition of attending a gig at Madison Square Gardens as The Twilight Sad were supporting The Cure that day. But some months out I knew that events close to home would mean I had to be in Scotland for something important the day after my birthday, and so the plan was shelved.
I almost set myself up to head over this past weekend with today being Labor Day at the end of a long holiday weekend in the USA with my beloved Toronto Blue Jays playing at Yankee Stadium. But I chose instead to head to Toronto later this month and enjoy an extended break of a week rather than a few days.
Maybe NYC will be on the agenda for next year*. Or maybe I’ll wait a while longer and go over when I have as much time on my hands as possible and do things properly and not in a rushed way, hopefully with Mrs V in tow.
Here’s some music from UK and Irish bands just as equally fascinated with the city, including the song from which I stole the title of todays’ posting:-
mp3 : Prefab Sprout – Hey Manhattan!
mp3 : The Clash – Broadway
mp3 : The Frank & Walters – Fashion Crisis Hits New York
JC
* Haven’t been back to NYC since this post originally appeared. And the way the country is being run right now means I’m unlikely to make any plans to return, at least for a few years yet.
# 107: Wild Swans – ‘Revolutionary Spirit’ (Zoo Records ’82)
Hello friends,
a cult classic for you today – originally recorded in mono, with an inaudible bass and muffled guitars plus vocals which sound like they were sung through a sock. Still, this tune is exquisite beyond belief, so perhaps you should not be put off too easily, even though it might sound a bit ‘amateurish’ to you at first sight! I mean, I’m willing to bet a considerable sum of money that you will already know it by heart of course, but again: if there is at least one young soul reading this to whom this song is still new, I have achieved enough.
Right, let’s explain: the song was first issued as the last ever record on Zoo Records from Liverpool in 1982 as a 12” only. Apparently Peel was rather fond of the record, so much so that a session followed shortly afterwards, and luckily it was amongst those that got released on Strange Fruit Records back in 1986. All of this may be known already, but perhaps this is new:
a. some quite big names were in the band at various times, Paul Simpson (Teardrop Explodes), Alan Wills (Lotus Eaters), Ian McNabb (Icicle Works), Ian Broudie (Big In Japan), Rolo McGinty (Woodentops), also Pete De Freitas from Echo & The Bunnymen, who did drums on the record, also he produced and financed it.
b. If you think ‘Revolutionary Spirit’ is ace, then I urge you to listen to ‘No Bleeding’ from the aforementioned Peel Session: it’s even better … by a hundred miles!
I have never really been able to put a finger on what it is that makes this record so very special, and – mind you – if I had, I probably wouldn’t be able to describe it even halfway properly. But for sure there’s a feeling of strangeness to what is going on in this song, as if something is not quite right, but a bit off rather by a very small number of degrees – still you can’t tell exactly pin those degrees down. In a way, listening to it always drove me a bit nuts, but perhaps that’s just me.
It was re-released three years ago on the (then) ever reliable Optic Nerve Recordings label (which, alas, has gone bankrupt by now, so it seems) as a 7”, and as a band-approved stereo mix as well for that matter, so thanks to the label – because otherwise it wouldn’t have found its way into the 111 singles box.
Someone once described ‘Revolutionary Spirit’ as “the perfect blend of melancholy and hope”. Well, that’s not too far from the truth, as far as I’m concerned …
The month of August 1984 did offer up some gems, including what I have long held to be the greatest 12″ release of all time, William It Was Really Nothing/Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want/ How Soon Is Now?, issued on Rough Trade Records and which, in the first week of September 1984, peaked at #17 in the UK singles charts. Turned out it would be another two years before The Smiths experienced another Top 20 single.
So here’s a few other things that were happening forty-one years ago.
The highest new entry was a re-release, and one that wasn’t all that old. We Are Family by Sister Sledge had been a #8 hit in May 1979, and here it was, just five years later, coming back in at #32, and before the month was over it would peak at #4. It does seem the 1984 edition of the song was different from the original in that it was a remix by Nile Rogers.
The second and third-highest new entries at #39 and #43 are again examples of songs I genuinely cannot remember a single not of. Torture by The Jacksons and Heaven’s On Fire by Kiss. There’s actually only two new entries in the Top 74 worth posting here, and even then, the first of them, as far as I’m concerned, is far from this particular synth-pop duo’s finest 45s
mp3: OMD – Tesla Girls (#48)
The second, and I think I’m right in saying this, was the only hit single on which keyboardist and main songwriter, Jerry Dammers, took the lead vocal, and he does so with a falsetto.
mp3: Special AKA – What I Like Most About You Is Your Girlfriend (#72)
The former would reach #21 and give OMD a ninth Top 30 hit in four years. The latter, in reaching #51, was the last single released on 2 Tone to reach the charts.
9-15 September
Dare I post the highest new entry this week, knowing that it’ll be met mostly by sneers and snorts of derision? Mind you, my young brother likes it, and he pops his head in almost every day
mp3: U2 – Pride (In The Name Of Love) (#9)
The lead-off single from the soon-to-be released album The Unforgettable Fire. This, more than any of their songs, was the one which suggested their future lay in arena-rock. It would, in due course, reach #3, and remain their biggest hit single through till 1988 when Desire became their first #1.
The rest of the new entries really are like a roll-call of Smooth Radio computer generated playlists. It was painful enough being reminded of them again without actually typing them out.
16-22 September
David Bowie’s new single was the highest new entry this week.
mp3: David Bowie – Blue Jean (#17)
1983 had been Bowie’s best year ever, in terms of the actual sales/success of hit singles with Let’s Dance (#1), China Girl (#2) and Modern Love (#2). There had also been Serious Moonlight, a hugely successful world tour of arenas and stadia which brought on board millions of new fans, but had left fans of old wondering why their hero had sold out to the shiny pop world. This brand-new song won’t have done too much to put smiles on the faces of the older fans, while the newer ones might have been less than impressed, as it was nowhere near as immediate as the offerings from the previous year. Time hasn’t been kind to Blue Jean, or indeed the parent album Tonight. Blue Jean would climb to #6 the following week before experiencing a rapid tumble out of the charts.
Queen had the next highest new entry at #22 with Hammer To Fall, another song from 1984 that I can’t recall. Unlike the song coming in at #22:-
mp3: Bronski Beat – Why?
An absolute floor-filler at the student discos, and quite possibly the discos where the girls in white stilettos danced around their handbags, but I wouldn’t know as I never went near such places. Too many pounds, shillings and pence were required to gain entry, while the drinks were way more expensive than any student union. Smalltown Boy had only just fallen out of the Top 75 after a 13-week stay, so it was great that Why? kept Bronski Beat’s name prominently featured on the radio and TV stations of our nation. It would eventually reach #6 around the same time as debut album Age of Consent entered the charts at #4.
Another interesting song came in at #25.
mp3: Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain
Not one of my favourites, but loved by so many others. This single, its parent album and the film of the same name truly made a superstar out of Prince. This would also, like Why?, peak at #6.
I mentioned up above that Queen had a new entry at #22. The band’s lead singer, Freddie Mercury, saw his first ever solo single also chart this week. Love Kills came in at #27. Two weeks later, it peaked at #10 which meant it had outsold and outperformed the band’s new 45. I wonder if any tension was created from such an outcome.
And finally from this week’s chart, a prime example of a slow burner
mp3: Giorgio Moroder and Phil Oakey – Together In Electric Dreams (#74)
There is a very interesting and telling background to this one, as recalled by the director of the film Electric Dreams, for which this was written as the theme song:-
“Giorgio Moroder was hired as composer and played me a demo track he thought would be good for the movie. It was the tune of “Together in Electric Dreams” but with some temporary lyrics sung by someone who sounded like a cheesy version of Neil Diamond. Giorgio was insisting the song could be a hit, so I thought I’d suggest someone to sing who would be as far from a cheesy Neil Diamond as one could possibly go. Phil Oakey. We then got Phil in who wrote some new lyrics on the back of a fag packet on the way to the recording studio and did two takes which Giorgio was well pleased with and everybody went home happy”
The song would spend 13 weeks on the chart, taking six of them to reach its peak of #3, all of which made it feel as if the song had been around forever, and even worse, was never going to go away
23-29 September
Big Country had been one of the UK’s breakthrough bands in 1983, and the band’s willingness to be seemingly constantly out on the road was a huge factor in how their fan base continued to grow. There had been one ‘stopgap’ single, Wonderland, earlier in the year which had provided a third Top 10 hit, and hopes were very high for the lead off 45 from what was soon to their sophomore album:-
mp3; Big Country – East Of Eden (#27)
To the consternation of the band and the record label, East of Eden would stall at #17, which was maybe an indication that the new material was less radio-friendly and a tad more rock-orientated than had come before. The big consolation was that the album, Steeltown, would enter the charts at #1 in early October.
And finally, in what it has to be said, really is something of an underwhelming month in this series:-
mp3: XTC – All You Pretty Girls (#69)
XTC released loads of great singles over the years. This, I’m afraid to say, wasn’t one of them. It would peak at #55.
The good news is that Part 2 of this feature will have a bundle of non-hit singles that have proven to be absolute classics.
A guest posting by Jonny the Friendly Lawyer (aka fiktiv)
There are hundreds of bands named after songs, but not necessarily bands named after good songs. Following is an ICA of great songs that bands took their names from. Have a listen and reply if you think there’s a song/band that should have made the top 10.
Radio Head – Talking Heads
True Stories might be the worst Talking Heads album, but the film of the same name is worth a look. It doesn’t hold together that well, but it features the unfortunate Spaulding Gray and you get to see an extremely awkward David Byrne in a cowboy hat. I’ve heard that Big Country took their name from ‘The Big Country‘, a song on Talking Heads’ second LP, but I couldn’t find any corroborating evidence.
Seether – Veruca Salt
I don’t know a whole lot about South Africa’s Seether, other than they took their name from Veruca Salt‘s killer debut single. (Actually, VS’s ‘Seether’ should be considered for the cracking debut series.) Wiki tells me the Pretorian group got together 20+ years ago and are still at it, having released multiple platinum albums in the US. I like that Veruca Salt got their own name from the bratty rich girl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Baby Lemonade – Syd Barrett
I only learned from the readers of this venerable blog that there are two Baby Lemonades: a Scottish one and the boys from my adopted hometown of Santa Monica, California. Not too surprising as Syd Barrett was an iconic legend and loads of other bands have named themselves after his songs, notably Gigolo Aunts and Dolly Rockers.
Shakespeare’s Sister – The Smiths
Siobhan out of Bananarama named her band after the Mancunian foursome’s 1985 single. Another band named themselves after Pretty Girls Make Graves, from the Smiths‘ first album, but this is the better song.
Kooks – David Bowie
A charming tune from Hunky Dory about Dave and Angie’s baby son. I like the band Kooks okay, especially because they don’t sing in fake American accents. The UK folks will know that Simple Minds took their name from the lyrics of Bowie’s Jean Genie (and the Scottish folks will know that Cocteau Twins took their name from a song by Simple Minds predecessors Johnny & the Self-Abusers).*
Bad Brain – The Ramones
Bad Brains were the best hardcore band ever and they got their name from the best punk band ever. Second to last track on the classic Road to Ruin album.
Velocity Girl – Primal Scream
I love this 80-second gem from when Primal Scream were a jangly C86 band. For the life of me, I don’t know how they became so popular–Bobby Gillespie can’t sing and their songs are so derivative. They’re like the Glaswegian Tom Petty or something. The band Velocity Girl was a DC outfit that released three really listenable pop albums in the early 90’s. Try “Crazy Town” or “Sorry Again” if you’re not familiar.
Slowdive – Siouxsie & The Banshees
The unmistakable Miss Ballion, backed by the best line up of the Banshees. Damn, I wonder how much great music John McGeoch would have made in the last 20 years. Slowdive were perhaps unfairly labelled a shoegaze band, but they made a lot of pretty recordings over the years.
Spoon – Can
I like the band Spoon so much I wrote an ICA about them (#104), to mixed reviews. Can are also not for everyone, but when you’re in the mood there aren’t a lot of bands like them. And like Spoon, there’s a Can song for everyone. This is from 1972’s Ege Bamyasi, which, of course, the German band with a Japanese singer named after a Turkish vegetable.
Ladytron – Roxy Music
Also from way back in ’72, featuring maybe the best use of oboe in a rock song until Julian Cope got a hold of one. Early Roxy was exciting and different and experimental and showy. The Liverpool outfit named after this song from the eponymous debut are…showy.
Jonny
* JC ADDS………
I had long forgotten that Cocteau Twins took their name from a new wave song by the predecessors of Simple Minds. I recall dismissing the tale as an urban myth when I was first told it, and I can’t recall actually mentioning it on the blog when I’ve written about either band before. The song was never actually recorded, but t’internet being what it is, I’ve managed to get my grubby paws on a version.
mp3: Johnny and The Self-Abusers – Cocteau Twins
Later re-worked as No Cure and included on the 1979 album, Life In A Day
In a parallel Super Furry universe, there is a utopian European town that has just opened a new public tram system. The authorities have dubbed it a day of celebration and a public holiday has been announced. Yes, of course, it’s an obvious subject for a song. Well, it is if you’re Super Furry Animals, anyway!
mp3: Inaugural Trams [edit]
The first track released from the band’s 9th studio album ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ is a blinder. There’s a real krautrock feel to it, supplemented by some spoken German from special guest Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand. His rap in the middle is, as far as I can make out, quite nonsensical, but that might just well fit the general SFA aesthetic. Let’s face it, there really haven’t been many songs written about trams, and certainly none with such a brilliantly unique chorus:
It’s a secular day and it will be even better tomorrow It’s the first day of the integrated transport hub Let us celebrate this monumental progress We have reduced emissions by seventy-five per cent
The inspiration behind the song seemingly comes from an event involving one of Gruff Rhys’ family: “My great-grandmother was run over by a tram in the Mumbles*. But I’m still very much in favour of trams as a low-emission inner-city transport solution. The song is about commemorating the opening with a secular holiday. It’s a celebration of living with science rather than religion.”
Inaugural Trams was a sign that the new album was going to be a little more elaborate than its stripped-back predecessor. Also, in comparison to ‘Hey Venus!’ being the band’s shortest album, ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ is their longest, weighing in at a full hour. It showcased a real mixed bag of styles and was described by Gruff as having a “biblical sound”, with songs that couldn’t be played indoors!
“There are not a whole lot of chords in these songs; they’re not as song-based in the conventional song-writing way. They’ve been developed out of band jams, but it turned out sounding like songs pretty much anyway.”In fact, many of the songs on ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ had evolved from jams, riffs and grooves the band had been working on for a number of years. Some had originally been mooted for the previous album, but ended up being held over.
I think Inaugural Trams kind of sounds how Gruff described – there are only two chords, by-and-large, but it has a great melody and a compelling groove. There are a few songs on the album that follow this trend – the psychedelic odyssey Pric probably being my fave of the lot. That said, there’s a sequence of songs in the second half of the record that show the poppiest side of the band we’d ever heard before, which is ironic considering ‘Hey Venus!’ was a deliberate attempt to make a straight-up pop album. Helium Hearts in particular has “massive chart smash!” written all over it. Maybe if it had been performed by some teen heartthrob of the period, I’ve no doubt it would have fulfilled its potential. It wasn’t a single, but it’s the most obvious single the band ever wrote.
There were no physical formats of Inaugural Trams made available, but promo CDs featured two edits – a radio edit and an album edit, so-called because it is the album version, but it doesn’t crossfade into the next track. It’s also about 15 seconds shorter than the version that would appear on the 2016 compilation ‘Zoom! The Best Of Super Furry Animals’.
mp3: Inaugural Trams [album edit]
While there was no official tour to promote the album, they did still play some shows. So with there being a distinct lack of b-sides, I’m going to give you some live versions of ‘Dark Days/Light Years’ songs taken from a bootleg of the band playing in New York City in 2009.
mp3: Inaugural Trams [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
mp3: The Very Best Of Neil Diamond [live at the Highline Ballroom, NYC]
If you cast your minds back a few weeks (to the Slow Life post, to be precise), you’ll remember I posted a few links to an interview with my friend Graham of Goldie Lookin Chain. In one of the clips, he spoke about his disbelief on learning that SFA had a new song called The Very Best Of Neil Diamond.
“I texted Cian and said ‘If you’ve written a song called The Very Best Of Neil Diamond…’ I think I offered to chop my bollocks off, but I changed it [to] ‘You owe me a pint’. Lucky old bollocks!” I mean, it’s an utterly brilliant song title that only a band like Super Furry Animals are worthy of, if you ask me. According to Gruff: “[It’s] about how you can’t choose the soundtrack to your life.”
Hmm, maybe not, but if a film was made about my life, I’d want Super Furry Animals to soundtrack much of it.
Next week, a single with something of a new voice…
* For those unfamiliar with this part of the world, Mumbles is a headland just to the southwest of Swansea. The most famous person from Mumbles is Catherine Zeta-Jones.
It’s a return to the Big Gold Dreams box set for this week’s edition of the Scottish song, and it’s one from 1979 that would also qualify for the ‘One Song On The Hard drive’series but is just 18 seconds too long in length for the ‘Songs Under Two Minutes’ series
mp3; Fire Exit – Time Wall
From the BGD booklet:-
‘Recorded with assistance from Vibrators bass player Pat Collier, this piece of street-smart dystopian desire to get beyond the punk era’s all-pervading sense of urban dread marked the arrival of Gerry Attrick‘s much lauded combo who are still going strong. With three albums released since 2004, a compilation, Religion Is The Biggest Cause of War, arrived in 2013. This was followed by 40 Years of Punk Rock, a 2CD collection of assorted demos, scraps and unreleased recordings. Now in their fifth decade, Fire Exit are growing old disgracefully, and are probably coming to a punk festival near you soon.’
The Wonder Stuff hadn’t quite come totally out of nowhere, but their ascendancy was very rapid. Formed in March 1986, they would release a self-financed EP within six months, after which Polydor Records came calling, which meant they bypassed all indie labels from the outset. It didn’t seem to do much damage to their credibility with the UK music press, with plenty of column inches devoted to their live shows, while frontman Miles Hunt seemed to be on speed dial with a few journalists.
The constant touring was a big factor in building up their fan base, with each of their first four singles for Polydor, in 1987/88, charting higher than the previous. Debut album, The Eight-Legged Groove Machine, went into the Top 20 in its first week of release in August 1988, and it was further promoted by a sell-out 19-date tour of the UK in October.
A test for any band that gets early hype is how good the follow-up material proves to be
mp3: The Wonder Stuff – Who Wants To Be The Disco King?
The growth in popularity continued, with this one providing their first Top 30 hit in March 1989. Before the year was out, they would have a Top 20 single with Don’t Let Me Down Gently, while their second album, Hup, would go Top 5.
The b-side to Disco King was a live version of debut single Unbearable, as recorded at the London show during the October 1988 tour. The difference being it was a stripped-back, acoustic take, which must have taken the capacity audience by surprise.
mp3: The Wonder Stuff – Unbearable (live)
Having said that, there were clearly plenty of cheers when the song ended. Looking now at some of the published set lists from 1988, it appears, the band had a habit of playing Unbearable in this acoustic fashion early on but would then play the more frantic and familiar version of the song towards the end of the show.
Apologies for the crackly nature of the tracks, but this was a 7″ single picked up second-hand for not a great deal of money.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 