R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 2)

SWC has provided some outstanding entertainment over the past few months but it is now time for Sundays to be returned to its traditional slot of looking at the UK singles released over the years by a singer or band.  The spotlight was most recently shone on The Auteurs/Luke Haines, while previous efforts have included Simple Minds, Marc Almond, Paul Haig, Grinderman, New Order, XTC, Undertones, Buzzcocks, Cinerama, The Clash, The Style Council, The Jam, Altered Images, and James.

It’s fair to say that some efforts have been better received than others and a few suffered from fatigue in that they covered too long a period and/or some 45s were pretty sub-standard.  There’s a chance that by deciding to go with R.E.M. that something similar will happen, but hopefully not for a long while.  This will, all being well, run for over a year…..

And the reason it is kicking off with Part 2 is all down to the fact that Radio Free Europe, featured, very recently, as part of the great debut singles feature.

The Hib-Tone version of Radio Free Europe was released in July 1981 and was a USA-only release.  The same was true for the next piece of vinyl, the Chronic Town EP in August 1982.  A year later, the band re-recorded the debut single for inclusion on the LP Murmur, and new label, IRS, decided to issue it as a single.  It charted at #78 at home but didn’t do anything in the UK.  For the sake of completeness, and to bring this long and rambling into to a merciful conclusion, here is its b-side:-

mp3: R.E.M. – There She Goes Again

It’s a rather perfunctory cover of The Velvet Underground song.  This was one of the first songs I ever heard by R.E.M. and I thought it was so dismal that it put me off them for a long time – it would take until the release of Document in 1987 before I began to pay proper interest.

Let’s quickly move on to November 1983.

IRS issued Talk About The Passion as a promo-only 12″ single in the USA with the two b-sides, Catapult, and Sitting Still, similarly taken from Murmur.  Here in the UK, the track was given a proper, if somewhat limited release, on 12″ vinyl with Shaking Through, also from Murmur, included while the flip-side offered up two of the tracks from the otherwise unavailable Chronic Town EP:-

mp3: R.E.M. – Talk About The Passion
mp3: R.E.M. – Shaking Through
mp3: R.E.M. – Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)
mp3: R.E.M. – 1,000,000

I can now totally understand why the early singles and debut album had such an impact on those who picked up on the band at the very beginning, but I still feel that ‘Passion’, after an amazing instrumental opening and initially mesmeric vocal delivery, folds in on itself after about two minutes and becomes repetitive and I find myself switching off.

The b-sides are all reasonable enough without really setting any heather on fire.  I certainly don’t think they were, or are, as memorable and timeless as many of the UK singles from indie-guitar bands that I was more familiar with back in 1983.

Bring on the brickbats………

JC

Fatboy Slim

BREAKING IT ALL DOWN : WEAPON OF CHOICE

This might be a one-off, or it might turn into an occasional series. It’s a series that will require a fair bit of digging and research and there will be extended periods of time when I can’t be bothered with that. But, as with everything else, the dancefloor is open to anyone wanting to try similar via a guest posting.

Weapon of Choice was a Top 10 hit for Fatboy Slim back in 2001.

mp3: Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice

I was sure it had reached #1, but that’s only on account of how often the video was aired at the time. And quite rightly so, as Spike Jonze‘s direction of Christopher Walken shaking his thang in the Marriot Hotel in Los Angeles is a magnificent few minutes of footage that picked up all sorts of awards in due course.

I’ll pick up now from wiki:-

“Weapon of Choice” features Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band bassist Bootsy Collins, who provides the lead vocals. On the album version, Collins’s normal vocals are heard through the right audio channel; the same vocals, distorted to a much deeper pitch, are heard through the left. The song features a prominent sample of Sly & the Family Stone’s 1968 song “Into My Own Thing”, as well as samples from “All Strung Out Over You” by The Chambers Brothers and “Word Play” by The X-Ecutioners.

The chorus of the song, “You could blow with this, or you could blow with that…”, is a homage to the Black Sheep song “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)”, which features a similar chorus.

And here comes the breakdown.

Into My Own Thing was the fifth track on Side A of the album Life. The opening notes will be instantly recognisable to those only familiar with Fatboy Slim.

mp3: Sly and The Family Stone – Into My Own Thing

All Strung Out Over You was a modest hit single for The Chambers Brothers in 1967. It was also the opening track on Side A of the album The Time Has Come. It’s this tune that provides the initial tempo and rhythm for Weapon of Choice.

mp3: The Chambers Brothers – All Strung Out Over You

The X-Ecutioners are New York-based hip hop DJs/turntablists and Word Play appears on their debut album, X-Pressions that was released in 1997. There’s a number of samples to be found on the Fatboy Slim single, including the lyric about funk getting your teeth smoked.

mp3: The X-Ecutioners – Word Play

As mentioned earlier, the chorus is based on The Choice Is Yours (Revisited) a song released in 1991 by NYC-based hip-hop act, Black Sheep, that was a single and a track on their debut album A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.  The Choice Is Yours itself relied on a number of samples, – “Keep on Doin’ It” by The New Birth, “Her Favorite Style” by Iron Butterfly, “Big Sur Suite” by Johnny Hammond Smith, “Impressions” by McCoy Tyner, and “I’d Say It Again” by Sweet Linda Divine. But I ain’t going there.

mp3: Black Sheep – The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)

Anyone got suggestions on what track to break down next time around? Or, even better, does anyone want to have a go at it??

JC

Various

THE BIG HITS…..30 YEARS ON (6)

June 1990.  My first birthday spent with Rachel.  She tried to book a last-minute trip to Italia 90 to take in Scotland v Brazil but there was just no room at the inn.  We ended up heading to Albufeira in Portugal where we watched a number of matches in various pubs that were packed with tourists from all parts of Europe – lots of great memories.

We weren’t the type to go clubbing as we felt ancient, but thinking on it now, we weren’t….it was just that the pure dance music of the era wasn’t our scene.  We were, however, enjoying some of the stuff that had a bit of an indie-bent to it, and many of the tracks that have been featured in previous editions of this feature, soundtracked that first happy summer together. As you’ll find out, June 1990 itself was a far from vintage month for new singles.

It began with EnglandNewOrder at the top of the pile.  It ended with Luciana Pavarotti battling for the #1 spot as folks rushed to buy his version of Nessun Dorma that had soundtracked the BBC coverage of the World Cup.  Football and music were now interlinked in a way that I hadn’t ever really experienced – interesting to note that the other #1 in the month of June 1990 was Sacrifice by Elton John who was one of the few pop superstars to have previously linked his fame with a love of the great game, having invested in his local and unfashionable club at Watford in the mid 70s and become its chair.

But’s that’s enough of the all-our-yesterdays stuff from me. Here’s the music.

Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina – Pop Will Eat Itself

See….I wasn’t bullshitting about the omnipresence of football and music in the month of June 1990.  PWEI had released eight singles prior to this, with only Can U Dig It ever scraping into the Top 40.  But they came to greater prominence with this magnificent celebration of Italia 90, combining a house tune, sampled football commentary and a lyric that paid homage to Italy’s best-known hardcore porn star.  The single came complete with a cheeky sticker on the sleeve that declared it the “unofficial World Cup Theme”.  Entered the charts on 3 June at #28, stayed in that position the following week and then dropped out quickly as soon as the tournament was over.

It’s still an incredible sounding piece of music.

Lazyitis – One Armed Boxer – Happy Mondays with Karl Denver

A single that had bummed on its initial release in May 1989 now re-entered the chart at #46 in June 1990, illustrating the huge interest in everything that was coming out of Madchester. Composed by a stellar and unusual cast – credits are rightly given to Lennon/McCartney, David Essex and Sly & The Family Stone as well as those who performed on the song.

Shall We Take A Trip – Northside

A third entry for Factory Records in the singles chart this week – possibly for the first and only time.  The debut single from Manchester band Northside hung about the lower end of the charts for a month or so, entering at #53 on 3June and rising to #50 the following week.  It’s a fairly impressive effort given that the single was banned by the BBC thanks to the drugs references.

I’ll mention in passing the appearance of an initial slow burner that eventually seemed to take over the nation.  Unknown American rapper MC Hammer sneaked into the charts at #66 on 3 June 1990.  Nobody was really paying too much attention – there was football to be watched.  Three weeks later, his infectiously catchy (i.e., annoying) U Can’t Touch This, propelled by a promo video dominated by a crazy dance and crazy trousers, went Top 20 where it stayed for a further 12 weeks.  There was barely a singles chart over the next year and a bit that didn’t have an MC Hammer song in the Top 75.

The chart of 10 June 1990 had plenty of new entries, but for the most part they should, mainly in the interests of good taste, also be skipped over:-

Step By Step – New Kids On The Block(#2)
Oops Up -Snap! (#13)
Nessun Dorma – Luciana Pavarotti (#22)
Whose Law (Is It Anyway) – Guru Josh (#32)
Thinking Of You – Maureen (#38)
Mona – Craig McLachlan and Check 1-2 (#44)
Move Away Jimmy Blue – Del Amitri (#54)
Love Is – Alannah Myles (#61)
Jack’s Heroes – The Pogues and The Dubliners (#64)
Ways Of Love – Claytown Troupe (#70)
Time – Kim Wilde (#73)
Chapel of Love – London Boys (#75)

Just typing out that list illustrates just how much money was spent by record labels on stuff that had no chance of ever recouping its cost. Utter madness.

There was one other new entry in the chart. Which sort of illustrated the point.

Won’t Stop Loving You – A Certain Ratio

ACR, had left Factory Records to sign with A&M in 1987. The major label obviously felt they had a success story on their hands but the Good Together album and the three singles lifted from it in 1989, had sold dismally.

They did, however, get their name into the singles chart in June 1990 with a new single, which benefitted from the fact that it had been remixed by a bloke whose band were at #1 in the charts. Yup, the friendship with Barney Sumner sort of paid off, and after entering at #69, the single climbed to the dizzy heights of #55. ACR were dropped soon afterwards by the label.

The chart of 17 June was similar to that of the previous week. The new entrants included Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Bruce Dickinson, and Magnum (an indication that some sort of hard rock festival was in the offing). It also saw Bob Geldof‘s appropriately titled Great Song of Indifference enter at #43 only to fall out of the charts altogether the following week.*

 

* CORRECTION :  I hadn’t spotted that Bob Geldof’s single in fact climbed the charts in the filling weeks and went on to be a Top 20 hit.  Happy to put the record straight…in my defence, I’ll just say that I can’t recall the song at all…

 

Two songs worth mentioning. The first of which saw a third chart single (#46) in 1990 for the biggest rap act on the planet, while the second saw a song enter at #67, a full 34 years after it had been a #1 hit:-

Brothers Gonna Work It Out -Public Enemy
Paint It Black – The Rolling Stones

The Stones single had been re-issued on the back of it being the title tune to the hit TV series Tour Of Duty.

The new chart of 24 June was just as depressing in terms of the majority of new singles. Indeed, the whole thing was pretty stagnant with only the aforementioned MC Hammer being a new song inside the top 20, with the others all hovering around the previous week’s positions.

These four, however, are rare rays of light, entering respectively at #40, #48 #49, and #75

She Comes In The Fall – Inspiral Carpets
Put The Message In The Box – World Party
Dangerous Sex – Tack Head
Anyway That You Want Me – Spiritualized

This was Tack Head‘s only ever brush with the singles chart.

The cover of a Troggs song was the debut single from Jason Pierce‘s new band following the break-up of Spaceman 3.  And one of SWC’s favourite songs of all time.

I bet these facts are making a few of you shake your heads and wondering where the time has gone.

JC
(aged exactly 57 years)

 

Dandy Warhols

THAT TIME WHEN CATCHY INDIE-POP WENT ANNOYINGLY MAINSTREAM

This came up on random play the other day. It was probably my first listen to it in at least a decade. I got really sick of it back in back in 2001 when, after it had featured as a relatively unknown song in an advert promoting a mobile phone company, it was everywhere in the UK, reaching #5 in the singles chart and never off the radio or video channels, even though the promo had to be edited with pixelation to cover full-frontal male nudity and a topless female.

mp3 : The Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You

Putting aside that it became so annoying to hear it so often, there’s no denying it’s a decent bit of indie-pop.

Here’s the only CD single by The Dandy Warhols that I have in my collection. A chart hit from 1998 that I still enjoy listening to:-

mp3 : The Dandy Warhols – Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth

Not sure where the rest of you stand but this probably the only time I’ll feature them on the pages of the blog.

JC

Primal Scream

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 45)

A GUEST SERIES


1. Come Together – Primal Scream

Released as a single on Creation Records in August 1990 (Reached Number 26)

There were two plans for the number one and last segment of this series. The first plan was to write something about my daughter and post ‘Shake It Off’ by Taylor Swift. I was going to wax lyrical about how fantastic my daughter is and how it was because of her that I decided to scratch this particular itch that had developed inside me. Then she wrote that ICA from a few weeks ago and sort of showed everyone reading how fantastic she is.

Although I will tell you about the events of a cold December morning, which will further evidence it. On that morning, my daughter caught me crying. It was two in the morning and I couldn’t sleep. I’d had a bad day and sat up in the lounge and I was listening to something I downloaded (a podcast about the disappearance of Maddie McCann) and it made me cry. My daughter, bless her, stumbled into the lounge, needing the toilet and happened to see me.

Six hours or so later I walked my daughter to school. There is a bit on the walk where we always decided to go left past the farmhouse or right along the track. I always ask her which way she wants to go. On this morning she told me I could decide. We walked along the track and halfway along the track my daughter stops and asks me why I was crying in the night. She asks me (and remember she is seven) if I still loved mummy and if I still loved her. I stop in my tracks and kneel down, skilfully avoiding the horse poo.

I tell her that I was crying because I was listening to something sad on the computer and that, of course, I still love her and mummy. My daughter nods and tears appear in her eyes and she tells me to listen to something happy, which is devastatingly brilliant advice. We hug each other. There is not a soul around and the world just kinds of fast forwards itself around us. It’s one of those moments that should last forever and one of those moments that make you feel better instantly.

I’m going to stick a song in here, just because it needs one

Lazarus (12” Version) – The Boo Radleys

Ten minutes later we are at the school gates and I stand with my daughter and tell her to have a good day and that I will see her later. She stops at the door of the school and spins round and runs back to me. She digs her hand into her coat pocket and pulls out this little pink rubber unicorn thing that goes on the end of a pencil. She hands it to me.

“I always bring a friend to school in case I get lonely” she tells me, “But you can have this one, if you get lonely, give it a squeeze”, she says and with it she spins back around and runs in the school. My hand closes around the unicorn and I have to turn around quickly, otherwise the parents will see the tears in my eyes. That unicorn remains in my pocket to this day. I’ve just squeezed it a minute ago whilst writing the paragraph above this one and every time I squeeze it makes me happy or happier. Sometimes it’s the small things that make me realise/remember that I am one of the luckiest men there is. Anyway, let’s look at the second plan.

The second plan was to end this series by posting the song that was sitting on Top of the Charts on the day I was born. Sadly that for me is ‘Whispering Grass’ by Windsor Davies and Don Estelle, for those in the dark, these two were in the old BBC comedy ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’, a tragically unfunny, possibly racist sitcom about some men in the army. The song is awful as well. So I abandoned that plan too. But if I had been born the year after that….then this would have been sat at the top of charts, and it is way better (so same time next year…?)

I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester by The Wurzels

I was always going to say thank you to JC though, for allowing me the time and space to write this series though. This series was always supposed to be about influences, people, songs, events, places, things that have happened that influenced me over the last 45 years (although in reality 35 years). One of those things has been this very website, one of those people has been you Mr Clark, and if I was wearing a hat, I would be tipping it right now. The knowledge, the humour, the comradeship and the all-round warmth shown across this page is refreshing and a joy. The fact that you allow me to witter on, unquestioned is appreciated more than you will ever know, although I would imagine that one or two of the regulars would disagree with that.

Thanks for reading, as ever. Its been a pleasure. Stay tuned for my A to Z of ICAs….I’m joking…I think

SWC

JC adds:

Happy 45th birthday SWC.

Thanks for an incredible series that felt as if we were on board the most emotional of rollercoasters, with shrieks of laughter interspersed with ‘WTF!!!!????’ moments.   You cannot let this be your final contribution to the blog, unless, of course, this has helped mend a few scars that have prevented you from getting things going again under your own steam.

Have a great lockdown birthday with your loved ones.  Play some songs, have some dances, and eat loads of cake. I’ll certainly, at some point today, pour myself a glass of rum and toast your good health.  7pm UK time if anyone cares to join me while I’m giving this 7″ single from 2008 a spin.

mp3: The All New Adventures Of Us – 45 Forever

7pm update:  as promised.  Spiced Rum from Glasgow with ice.  And a 45 rotating at 45rpm.  Happy birthday SWC.

 

 

Various

FROM THE BIG BOX OF CASSETTE TAPES : RADIO DAZE

This one is for my good pal Jonny the Friendly Lawyer.

Today should have seen myself and Rachel boarding a plane to head over to Los Angeles to be the guests of him and his wife, Goldie.  There were all sorts of plans in place, including a Flaming Lips gig and dinner in a restaurant highly recommended by SWC.  Oh, and I would have celebrated my 57th birthday over there.

But for now, it’s all very much on hold.

A recent posting highlighted some Peel Session versions of songs by PJ Harvey, and in it I recalled that I had first heard Water courtesy of a cassette giveaway with a music magazine.

I also mentioned all the other acts that had been included on the cassette and it was that fact which prompted Jonny to say ‘sounds like a hell of a cassette’.

Radio Daze was given away with the May 1992 edition of Vox Magazine.  I was never really one for keeping old music papers or mags, so it has long been part of a landfill just outside of Glasgow. The cover looked like this:-

Given there was an ‘exclusive’ story on The Jam and a feature on The Cure, I’d likely have bought it notwithstanding the tape offered up these:-

A1: The Cure – 10:15 Saturday Night (broadcast 11 December 1978)
A2: Madness – The Prince (broadcast 27 August 1979)
A3: Happy Mondays – Mad Cyril (broadcast 27 February 1989)
A4: Babes In Toyland – Catatonic (broadcast 29 September 1990)
A5: Buzzcocks – What Do I Get? (broadcast 19 September 1977)
A6: Chicken Shack – I’d Rather Go Blind (broadcast 22 June 1969)
A7: The Undertones – Love Parade (broadcast 7 December 1982)
A8: Billy Bragg – A13 (broadcast 3 August 1983)

B1: Syd Barrett – Gigolo Aunt (broadcast 14 March 1970)
B2: The Only Ones – The Beast (broadcast 14 April 1978)
B3: The Fall – Return (broadcast 15 February 1992)
B4: PJ Harvey – Water (broadcast 3 November 1991)
B5: Inspiral Carpets – Beast Inside (broadcast 5 June 1990)
B6: The Birthday Party – Big Jesus Trash Can (broadcast 10 December 1981)
B7: The Damned – Neat Neat Neat (broadcast 10 December 1976)

Copies of the tape can be found on Discogs from as little as 99p each, although someone in the USA is asking for $30 to part with his copy.

JC

LCD Soundsystem

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 44)

A GUEST SERIES

2 – Call the Police – LCD Soundsystem (2017, DFA Records)

Released as a radio-play only single in May 2017 (Did Not Chart)

Ok I think I’m safe to tell this story…

Badger and I have been to a gig down in Cornwall, it was PJ Harvey at the Eden Sessions. We have decided perhaps against our better judgement to camp afterwards at a small site just outside the lovely seaside town of Perranporth.
This wasn’t our first choice of campsite. That was in Newquay, but as our decision was rather last minute most places in Newquay were full, it being July. At about three pm we rock up at this campsite and a kindly old man tells us that he has room for us. We pitch the tent and when we are finished we hungrily eye the small on-site shop.

The shop is possibly the strangest shop I have ever been into, except perhaps one in Gateshead which sold ‘cowboy hats’ and ‘dental equipment’ and nothing else, I digress, the shop is stacked with booze, plonk, liquor the devils home brew. It is like an overpriced, much smaller version of Bargain Booze. It has way more alcohol than anything else. We pop a couple of bottles into our basket alongside some crisps and the last two packets of sandwiches (cheese and tomato). Its then we see the book section.

I say book selection, what it actually was, was a shelf containing roughly 50 colourful small books each one a different version of a Bible story. ‘Jesus and the fishes’, ‘Jesus and the Good Samaritan’, ‘Jesus and Goblet of Fire’ that sort of thing. We shrug, thinking nothing of it. It’s then we see the noticeboard next to the counter.

“Welcome to Cornwall’s Premier Christian Campsite, please do not feed the donkeys”.

I look at Badger and mouth “Cornwall’s Premier Christian Campsite”. The kindly old guy is behind the counter and smiles at us when we pay for our goods. He hands a pamphlet with our change that invites us to ‘Morning Prayers’ at 11am the next morning. Badger and I decide that we will be gone by 11am the next morning.
The pamphlet also tells us that ‘Curfew’ is 9pm and noise must be kept to an absolute minimum after 10pm. Our gig finishes at 1030pm and is about thirty minutes’ drive away.

I mention to the kindly old guy that we will be back well after 11pm because we have an appointment in St Austell and he makes me promise that we will be ‘as quiet as church mice’ when we return. I nod innocently. He says ok but reminds me that “God will be watching”.

On the way back to our tent I pop to the toilets. A sign above the sink helpfully tells me that “Jesus washes souls as well as his hands…”

We go to the gig. PJ Harvey is amazing.

After the gig we return to the campsite to find it locked. The main gate is shut, so we park in the little car park and try and find a way in. We find a way which is jumping over the main gate. Sadly, this sets off a red light which sets off an alarm. Effectively we have just broken into a campsite luckily it is pitch black we have a quick cursory look around for cameras and then do then decent thing and leg it.

Four minutes later, Badger and I are back at his tent and we are between the giggles thinking that perhaps we should go and report what we have done. We can still hear the alarm whirring away and by now there are several torches flashing around and we hear voices asking, “What’s Going on?”. Badger sticks his head out of the tent door and asks a passing person with a torch what the racket is all about. The person tells us that a couple of youths have been seen breaking into the site and that the police are on their way. Badger then, ever, the charmer asks if they need a hand looking for them. I try and hide in my sleeping bag secretly pleased that I have been mistaken for a youth.

Badger returns an hour later, armed with a burger and a can of Stella. These are courtesy of the kindly old man who owns the place. He kicks me awake and tells me that ‘Police never turned and we couldn’t find them youths’.
The next day we check out, just before morning prayers and the kindly old man warmly shakes Badger by the hand and gives him a 50% discount. We leave me shaking my head for most of the journey home.

Oh yes, Call the Police was the best song of the last decade and these two were third and fourth-best:-

Avant Gardener – Courtney Barnett (2013, Mom and Pop Records, Did Not Chart)
Seasons (waiting on you) – Future Islands (2014, 4AD Records, Reached Number 25)

SWC

 

 

Motorcycle Boy

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #216 : THE MOTORCYCLE BOY

The Motorcycle Boy formed in 1987 in Edinburgh with Alex Taylor (vocals, formerly of The Shop Assistants) along with Paul McDermott (drums), Michael Kerr (guitar), and Eddy Connelly (bass) (all formerly of Meat Whiplash), and David Scott (guitar).

Their pedigree was such that they were signed by Rough Trade for whom there was a debut single, Big Rock Candy Mountain, at which point the majors, the shape of Chrysalis Records, came calling.  Two singles saw the light of day in 1989, Trying To Be Kind, and You And Me Against The World, neither of which charted.  As is so often the case in such circumstances, the label got cold feet and chose not to release the already recorded debut album and quietly dropped the band from the roster.

Undeterred, the band, or what was left of them as there had been a bit in-fighting in the wake of the Chrysalis debacle, went with their own label in 1990, Nymphaea Pink, on which there were two singles before they called it a day.

It is one of the great mysteries why The Motorcycle Boy never made any commercial breakthrough.  All five of their singles are excellent listens, as too is that long-lost debut album – Scarlet – which was finally issued by a small Scottish indie label, Forgotten Astronaut, in late 2019.

The label and the release was the brainchild of the above-mentioned Michael Kerr.  He must have been delighted that the initial run of 1,000 – consisting of 500 vinyl and 500 CDs – sold out almost immediately.

I’ve previously featured the Rough Trade and Chrysalis singles on previous postings.  So, here’s the two singles from 1990:-

mp3: The Motorcycle Boy – The Road Goes On Forever
mp3: The Motorcycle Boy – Here She Comes

JC

Spiritualized

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 43)

A GUEST SERIES

3 – Anyway That You Want Me – Spiritualized (1990, Dedicated Records)

Released as a single in June 1990 (Reached Number 75)

A few years back I wrote about an incident that happened to my dad when I was five. Without going into the gruesome details, most of you will hopefully recall them anyway, he was stabbed by my mother. From there, the story twisted and turned into a piece about my mother, who is dead now, and some issues that I had with grief, or rather the lack of grief I felt over her death. I recalled sitting on a bench in a cemetery and letting about 30 years of anger weep out of my eyes as the song below played away to me, a song I consider to best track ever recorded, but one that I skip on the old ipod when it comes on.

Shine A Light – Spiritualized (1992, Dedicated Records, Did Not Chart)

A little while after I wrote that I talked about going to see Spiritualized in Canterbury at the University, on the ‘Feel So Sad’ tour and the entry price was £2. I had a spare ticket and my dad said he’d come along with me and two mates, saying that the ‘new series of Casualty wasn’t very good anyway”. At that gig my dad stood at the bar and waxed lyrical to a bunch of students about why The Beatles were terrible and how they ‘needed to listen to a lot more music released by Motown Records between 1960 and 1969’.

On that night I bonded with my dad more than I ever had before. On the way home as my two mates slept in the back of the car, he told me about his love of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, The Rolling Stones, Marvin Gaye and weirdly Petula Clark and I can’t help myself,

Downtown – Petula Clark (1964 Pye Records, Number 2)
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long – Otis Redding (1965 Volt Records, Number 2 (in the USA))

Because they are belters that’s why.

It was Petula Clark that my dad insisted on listening to, when he was recovering from heart surgery a few years ago. To the point where I just arrived at the hospital in London after a three hour trip on a train from Devon and he wouldn’t speak to me until the song had finished ‘Never interrupt a man when he’s having a moment with Petula son’ he said afterwards in between mouthfuls of chocolate and tea that is.

Everyday’s a school day.

Which sort of brings me back to right now and the surreal situation the world finds itself in. As I type we are in week five of lockdown. My dad is 224 miles away from my house and I lie awake at night worrying about him. I phone him daily and when he can work out the video conference I get to see him. He tells me he is fine. He also tells me that he is staying in the house but I know he isn’t. My sister tells me that she literally bumped into him in the queue (the queue!) to go into Tescos the other day.

On the last video call I had with him (which was yesterday) after my daughter had shown him all the pictures she had drawn and we’d discussed the 1980 FA Cup final again (“Trevor Brooking finest hour, son”). I implore him to stay in – I even offer to arrange home delivered food for him. His reply is “Well don’t think I’m not grateful, boy, but they’d only get the wrong sort of cheese”.

The wrong sort of cheese.

Seriously the stubborn old bugger. “Besides I’ve got to walk the dog”.

Hang on, what dog. He doesn’t have a dog. Cue a bark from the background and this charming little yappy thing walks into view. He didn’t have that last week.

“Meet Petula” he says.

Now. My friend Aaron used to have a dog called Roy, which was, up until now the stupidest name for a dog I have ever heard. Petula. Sheesh.

“Oh, there is someone else you need to meet as well”. Oh god. He’s bought two of them I think, as a woman wanders into view.

“This is Marion”.

Well that explains the cushions on the sofa and the fresh flowers on the table. Marion is about twenty years younger than my dad and has a nice smile. She appears to be wearing a Manchester City Shirt though, which immediately makes me dislike her.

I don’t mean to be rude but why is there someone in your house that shouldn’t be. I ask him. Marion wanders out of view and you hear teacups tinkling in the background.

“She lives here has done for ooh, six weeks” he says.

Turns out she’s been hiding in the bedroom whilst we’ve been on the phone. You never thought to mention it I tell him. Silence.

“Been seeing her for about six months, realised that lockdown was going to come and asked her to move in for a bit see how we get on, bit of company of an evening.” I’m sure he winked at me then, I shudder away the thought that momentarily entered my head.

I can’t argue with his thinking, but my original question stands about him not mentioning it to me. Then he drops a clanger.

“We’re…” he starts then he coughs a bit, “… getting married. I asked her two days ago”.

Oh, is all I can think to say.

SWC

 

 

Poly Styrene, X-Ray Spex

POLY STYRENE : OH, TALKING HEADS UP YOURS!

A GUEST POSTING by flimflamfan

“Oh, for fuck sake!” “Whit!?” “Oh, come on!” “What a load of shite!” “Prick!” (whether male or female). These are but a small sample of my regular responses to interviews by nonentities (Talking Heads) all too keen to embarrass themselves with their ignorance re: the one, the only Poly Styrene.

I’m not one for musical heroes, although I’ll confess to flirting with the notion on a number of occasions, but Poly comes as close as I’m ever likely to get. She entered my life at a very early age and while I can’t recall hearing the previous singles it was the X-Ray Spex single Germ Free Adolescents that captured my imagination. I was indeed adolescent but couldn’t claim with any certainty to be germ free.

My friend, who’s family had ‘disposable income’, had an older sister and brother who regularly bought the most amazing music. The brother obsessively defaced his every purchase with his initials – usually in the top, right-hand corner with a inky. I owe a great deal to his musical guidance but, I digress … of course, he had all of the previous singles and told me that an LP was to be released soon. I wouldn’t be in a position to buy an LP so I waited …

Some weeks later the LP Germ Free Adolescents was released, and as was my way, I inveigled an opportunity to listen. It was breath-taking – every single thing about it. Everything! Once I achieved a little disposable income of my own (some years later), I would re-buy the LP if ever I saw it in a 2nd hand or bargain bin. I’d then give it to someone who I thought might appreciate it.

X-Ray Spex – Germfree Adolescents

I can’t recall being aware of the band splitting but I was aware that Poly Styrene was to release a solo LP, Translucence (1980) from which only one single, Talk in Toytown, would be released. I loved this LP. I still do.

Poly Styrene – Dreaming

In general, I believe it was panned for being too unlike X-Ray Spex. Musically, that could possibly be argued but lyrically it couldn’t. Even musically it would be rather a stretch as Translucence hinted at the sound of Poly’s debut single Silly Billy (released as Mari Elliot) and the b-side What a Way (1976). The comparison is there for anyone truly listening.

Mari Elliot – Silly Billy
Mari Elliot – What a Way

Somewhere between 1984 (I think?) and 1986 I acquired an address to write to Poly. Taking this as an invitation I did so and was extremely surprised to receive a reply – not from Poly – but from her manager Falcon Stuart. Mr Stuart may have learned to regret that 1st reply? A few letters in and I was informed that Poly would be going into the studio and new material would be released. It was all suitably vague but it piqued my interest and then some.

Gods and Goddesses (single and 4 track 12” e.p.) was released to mild disinterest to most but to joy for me. It was a superb release. I wrote immediately to inform Poly of my joy. How thrilled she must have been? The performance below pre-dates the release date by 3 years.

From this point on, until the release of the Poly’s LP Generation Indigo (2011), it was largely reported, in knowing musical documentaries, that Poly was a recluse no longer involved in music. This was not the case.

In 1990 she sang and chanted on the Dream Academy’s cover version of John Lennon’s Love – enjoying an extended appearance on the 12” Hare Krishna mix.

Live LPs and compilations aside X-Ray Spex had – if talking heads are to be believed – released but one studio LP – this is constantly replayed as fact. The fact is that in 1995 X-Ray Spex released their 2nd LP Conscious Consumer. As you might have guessed by now, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

X-Ray Spex – Party

Below is a video for a stripped-down version of Prayer for Peace – this version appeared in 1983.

Flower Aeroplane was released in 2004 and revisited some of the songs that 1st appeared on Translucence.

2008 saw her team up with Goldblade for City of Christmas Ghosts. In was also in 2008 that my wee world was gripped by X-Ray Spex fever – the band was to play London Roundhouse in September of that year, a day before my birthday. I had to be there. I was … but not before a little drama. I managed to damage my right arm – leaving it in a sling – just days before the gig. I was gutted. There was no way I’d be able to get into the belly of the crowd. Arrrrrrrgh! With my sling visible and my Amphetameanies t-shirt worn with some pride we entered the Roundhouse. I was buzzing. The place was all but packed and peppered with ageing life-time punks who could only live in London.

I was ecstatic. The band were just astonishing; everything I could ever have wanted they delivered and a little bit more …

As we stood to the rear ‘due to my ’disability’ we were assaulted by the most dreadful loud-mouth bore. On and on he went about himself and his career it was more than distracting, it was fucking disgraceful behaviour and that’s exactly what I told the ‘celebrity’ Paul Kaye. I also pointed out that I was here to listen to X-Ray Spex, not him, and that he should be fucking ashamed of himself. I swore a lot. I was very, very angry. Mr Kaye trundled off with some snot hanging onto his every word.  Prick!

You may recall, you may not – I’ve been going on a while now that:

a. I had a habit of writing to Poly
b. X-Ray Spex delivered a little more at the Roundhouse gig
c. It was my birthday – just about

I wrote to Poly (via a new address I had acquired. Scary, huh?) explaining I’d be coming to the gig and could she ‘do’ a little something for me. What a chancer. She did.

All is revealed in the video below. It’s a highlight of my life. I’m not kidding. If you listen carefully to the introduction at 0.25, you’ll maybe understand my delight.

In 2010 Poly released Black Christmas as a stand-alone single. It was quickly followed by the sublime LP Generation Indigo and it’s 2 singles Virtual Boyfriend and Ghoulish.

This was a standout track from Generation Indigo

Poly Styrene – Kitsch

To all those that promote to the notion that X-Ray Spex released one LP and that Poly Styrene was a recluse I say, fuck right fucking off! I haven’t mellowed.

I sign off with this. Not one of Helen Love’s best but I uphold the sentiment.

flimflamfan

Cure

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 42)

A GUEST SERIES

4 – Pictures of You – The Cure (1990, Fiction Records)

Released as a single in March 1990, (Reached Number 27)

There was of course an eleventh commandment scrawled by God on the stone tablet at the top of Mount Arafat when Moses came looking for them that sunny Thursday a few years back. The eleventh one, only just fitted on the rock. It said ‘Thou must never, ever, not even as a joke, or to be ironic, ever, full stop, wear double denim”.

The editor of the music pages at the student rag when I started was a long-haired double denim wearing Poison fan called Jonno. He one true aim in life was to turn the music section into a soft rock mecca, a place where Guns N Roses and Pearl Jam were kings and bands like The Pastels were publicly ridiculed for being bed wetters.

Jonno was also good mates with the band we now know as Knobheads. Knobheads were due to play a gig in the Union on Wednesday night, and Jonno couldn’t go so he was sending me out to review the gig. I reluctantly agreed, I was a bit annoyed because I’d already promised a mate, that I would go for a pint with him and besides I’d listened to Knobheads self-financed CD, ‘Crapsticks’ just yesterday (it wasn’t really called Crapsticks) and it was awful. In fact it was bilge, pish, shite, septic discharge and other words usually used to describe something wet and smelly. This was something I intended to tell the student population about in print in next weeks paper. I’d given it 1 and a half out ten. The musical equivalent of being stabbed up the arse by Piers Morgan.

The night of the gig came along. The Union was sort of half full, students encouraged along by the promise of cheap spirits and half-price bottled lager, which sort of became the norm for Wednesday night in the Union, I grabbed myself a bottle of Becks and gravitated to the back of the hall already knowing that this would be awful.

It was then that I saw her. Standing next to a pillar, dressed in a Chumbawamba t-shirt and black jeans, vodka (which turned out to be Malibu) and coke in one hand, cigarette in the other, she oozed cool and she was beautiful, easily the most stunning thing I’d seen in, well, ever.

The band walked on to a ripple of applause, I barely noticed, my eyes kept wandering around the room looking for Chumbawamba girl.

Enough Is Enough – Chumbawamba (1993, One Little Indian, Number 56)

She looked bored, in fact she looked unhappy. I decided that I was going to talk to her. She was off to the bar, one of the few quiet spots in the place. I decided that it was now or never. I ambled over.

“They’re terrible aren’t they…?” I said to her, casually leaning on one elbow, skilfully avoiding the beer slops on the bar. She looked at me and nodded, “Pretty boys with guitars”. Silence. Say something, my brain told me. I garbled something out about seeing Chumbawamba a few weeks back in London. It worked, she stayed still. We talked, we exchanged names, the minutes flew by. The band finished. We barely noticed. We were talking about whether or not Jock Young was right about drugs or not (sorry that is a very niche Sociology joke).

It was close to eleven and the bar was starting to empty, I didn’t really want to go anywhere, we didn’t notice Knobheads (or two of them) ambled over. This was annoying because I was just about to ask CG if she wanted a cup of tea.

The guitarist of Knobheads came over, his dreadlocks sticking to his face, came up to Chumbawamba girl and hugged her. This was interesting. She never mentioned a boyfriend, certainly had never mentioned that she knew the band that I’d just spent half an hour slagging off in front of her. I mean, you would say – “Look, chap, I understand you don’t like them, but you see that bloke playing guitar, well me and him, we are together”. I started to rewrite that review in my mind.

I stood there, analysing the situation, they did look very close, I mean she is laughing at his jokes. Good friends perhaps, brother and sister maybe? I introduced myself. “Yeah, I know you” the guitarist said. “Jonno, tells us you don’t like our music, man”. That is what he said. He virtually spat the word ‘man’ at me. “Ah, well..” I said, “We can’t all be the Smashing Pumpkins” and immediately regretted it, although CG did smirk as I said it.

Then he pushed me and luckily I fell back against the bar. Now, I’m no fighter, anyone will tell you that, which is a shame because I’m a sarky bugger, I always have a quip for the wrong occasion, and actually knowing how to punch someone would have on occasion, been a good thing. This being one of those occasions.

Street Fighting Man – The Rolling Stones (1968, London Records, Number 21)

I decided to cut my losses and told CG that I was going, and that I really wanted a cup of tea. She nodded and said, if I hung on a minute she’d come with me. So I stood there, like a lemon for about five minutes, whilst the guitarist out of Knobheads slowly killed me with murderous looks as he got closer and closer to CG. Just before CG left he took her to one side and she slowly touched his arm and shook her head.

We left together. CG and I. We sat in the café on campus that doubled up as a computer lab and finished our chat about drugs, deviance and her liking of really cheesy dance music over several cups of weak tea and a few Jaffa Cakes. I was enthralled by the way she sat, the way she drank, the way she ate, breathed, smiled, walked, talked, listened. I still am.

Ecuador – Sash (1997, Polygram Records, Number 2)

Then on her doorstep at three am, we kissed.

SWC

 

 

Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #254 : ‘GREEN’

An anti-ICA, of a sort, for Earth Day, sorta

A Guest Posting by Hybrid Soc Prof

Your ‘Struggling to get the boys out of bed’ Michigan Correspondent

JC writes…..

This arrived in my Inbox on 21 April. If I had been able to get my shit together at that time, it would have been posted on Wednesday 22 April. It’s still a great read, even if the late appearance takes away from some of the impact of HSP’s excellent words. Over, without further delay, to our man in Michigan.

HSP

In honor of the politically ambiguous event that is Earth Day, an anti-ICA where the anti-part is like the anti- in the anti-folk of early-80s New York… sure as heck sounded like folk, it’s just that it wasn’t done by folksters.

Basically, I searched my hard drive for the word Green. Then I tossed out all the album titles with the word, all the band names with the word, all the songs where the word was a root rather than stand-alone (all those versions of Greensleeves, POOF!)… and I still had too many. So-o-o, I reduced the list to songs that started with the word Green and got a manageable number.

I then played with different combinations, permutations, sonic themes and trajectories and ended up with these. It ends with my favorite of the bunch.

About Earth Day, my area of expertise is political ecology/critical environmental sociology. I was raised hiking, camping, canoeing, rafting, recycling, worried about extinction, population, consumption, resource inefficiency, pollution, acid rain, nuclear energy/war/winter, solid waste, litter, and – after we moved out of low income neighborhoods in smog-filled cities – with an organic garden and massive compost pile in the backyard. We were pretty active in Earth Day 1970 – I was 8.

By the time I wrote my undergraduate thesis on acid rain and freshwater fish, however, I’d studied pesticides, deforestation, desertification, the ecological devastation of war from Southeast Asia to Central America, and the anti-toxics campaigns soon to combine with struggles against environmental racism as what we now call the environmental justice movement. Of course, at that point, Reagan was dismantling the environmental state in all its legislative, administrative and bureaucratic manifestations. I’d thought environmentalism was about sublime nature – as America wrote in the song, Horse with No Name, “plants and birds and rocks and things”… I’d thought it was about ecological science and rational, expert-led, science-based policy. I’d though that no reasonable person could oppose what some European scholars later named ecological modernization.

By my second year of grad school, however, I’d read enough histories of the idea of nature, enough environmental history, enough research into the history of environmentalism to understand why elite “environmental” concerns with population, landscape preservation, resource efficiencies, environmental health and consumption were seen by some folks on the left and right as bourgeois concerns the implementation of which would hurt and disenfranchise working people, small businesses and small farms… much less the people of the global south, particularly land-poor low income women. Legitimate critiques of technocratic blindness to social justice and refusal of democratic participation in program implementation abound.

Like a lot of environmentalists, I find wilderness, mountains, plains, oceans and wildlife sublime. I marvel at and am in awe of them. Put I’m privileged to do so. Similarly, I’m physically and spiritually rejuvenated when I spend time in such places, where such beings still reside. Moreover, I think resource efficiency – extractive and in consumption – is inordinately important for all manner of reasons, including not despoiling landscapes, polluting neighborhoods and eliminating species. On top of that, who in their right mind wants to live in a polluted, litter-strewn, toxic terrain watching people of all ages die young? And who is affronted by the fact that all negative environmental consequences disproportionately effect lower income – especially lower income historically oppressed minority – populations?

But the thing is once you’ve made it to the last paragraph – and I know this is less of an insight for our European readers than it is for Romantic Americans who tend to think North and South America were pristine and Edenic, barely populated much less modified by “natural” peoples living lightly on the land – it should be clear that environmentalism is far less about Nature and Science – defined by gov’t and universities – and far more about health and justice – broadly defined.

Environmentalism, then, isn’t about pierced and tattooed, patchouli-drenched, long-haired, unshaven, bicycle-riding, vegan, recycling-obsessed, squatters younger than 28 fighting to save the planet – as most of my students, and pretty much all of their parents – think, it is and has always been about quality of life. The question is, of course, quality of life for whom and how many, and that’s not a technical question, it’s a social one… connected to the pandemic.

Thanks to all here for improving my quality of my life.

Side A
Green Jeans – The Fabulous Fleerekkers
Green Sea – Blue Stingrays
Green Onions – Booker T and the MGs
Green on Red – The Serfers
Green Fuz – Green Fuz

Side B
Green River – Creedence Clearwater Revival
The Green Manalishi – Arthur Brown
Green Machine – Hawkwind
Green Light – Sonic Youth
Green Shirt – Elvis Costello & the Attractions

HSP

Robert Rental, Thomas Leer

TWO BOYS FROM THE PORT

As mentioned a few weeks back, I’m not long finished reading Long Shadows and High Hopes, a highly enjoyable and enlightening biography of Matt Johnson.

The book provided a reminder that The The owe a huge debt to Thomas Leer, a fairly obscure Scottish musician – and by obscure I mean not widely known as he’s had a lengthy music career going all the way back to 1978, albeit there were periods of time when he was inactive.

Thomas Leer was born, as Thomas Wishart, in 1953 in Port Glasgow, a very working-class/blue-collar town some 20 miles west of the actual city. It relied heavily on shipbuilding and manufacturing for its existence, so it was no surprise that from the late 60s onwards, like so many other similar British towns, it went into a sharp decline from which it has never really recovered. It’s a town I’m vaguely familiar with and if Wishart/Leer was displaying any sort of artistic merit, especially in electronic music when it was very much in its infancy, he would have been given a tough time by his peers.  It’s a town where conforming with the norm is often a pre-requisite for survival.

By the mid-70s, he had moved to live and work in London, at one point forming a punk band before deciding that electronica was his forte. Buzzcocks may well have shown the way in terms of writing, recording and releasing self-financed singles, but Thomas Leer was probably the first to do it as a solo artist in that his debut was recorded in his bedroom and that every single note and vocal contribution came from him. Nobody else played on the single and nobody had any input to the production and distribution side of things – the only thing he didn’t do was physically press the record.

Matt Johnson has often paid tribute to Thomas Leer, and he does so again in this book, making it clear that the Port Glasgow man was the main influence in him pursuing the sort of music he wanted to make with The The.

I hadn’t realised Johnson’s first job, as a 15-year old having left school with no qualifications, was in the music industry in a recording studio in the Soho district of London, which provided him with access to equipment and technology to pursue his dreams – he had already, as an 11-year old, been part of a band that had performed shows in the London suburb in which he spent his teenage years. The first band, Roadstar, had been guitars, bass and drums but he wanted to do something entirely different and the debut single by Thomas Leer provided something of a template.

mp3 : Thomas Leer – Private Plane
mp3 : Thomas Leer – International

In due course, the pure electronica of The The would be supplemented by some great pop songs and thus bringing Matt Johnson a fair deal of commercial success while his influencers remained resolutely underground. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than John Peel playing either side of that debut.

I mentioned earlier that Thomas Leer would have likely had a hard time growing up in Port Glasgow but quite incredibly, there was someone else of his age and from the town who shared his interests. Robert Donnachie, who would later take the stage name of Robert Rental, moved to London with Leer and in due course, he too would release a self-financed electronica single in 1978:-

mp3 : Robert Rental – Paralysis
mp3 : Robert Rental – A.C.C.

The following year, the two of them hooked up to record an album, The Bridge, which was issued on Industrial Records, the label established and run by Throbbing Gristle (click here for more – it’s an impossible task to try and summarise who and what they were).

Rental died from lung cancer in 2000, but Leer remains active today, having also had a period in the 80s when he was signed to ZTT Records (home of Frankie Goes to Hollywood) as one half of Act, in which the words to his music was sung by Claudia Brücken, formerly of Propaganda. I’ve long aspired to write a piece on Act, there was a draft from around three years ago kicking around somewhere but I suffered from a severe laptop crash a few weeks back and a number of draft efforts have been lost forever.  I suppose this song is kind of appropriate:-

mp3 : Act – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now

I do find it astonishing that Thomas Wishart and Robert Donaldson emerged from a town such as Port Glasgow. They would have had no local points of reference in terms of experimental music as they were growing up and they weren’t immersed in any sort of art school or college scene.

I’ll be honest, and this probably comes through in this piece in that there’s a lot of facts and not much in the way of opinions, but I find what they did in 1978 isn’t terribly accessible or even enjoyable, but there’s no doubt that without them, much of the great music that would emerge in the 80s, including that of The The, just wouldn’t have been possible.  It’s amazing, in all walks of life, how often the story of the pioneers is overlooked while those who come along later and make something popular are lauded, feted and commemorated.

JC

Jesus & Mary Chain

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 41)

A GUEST SERIES

5 – Sidewalking – Jesus and Mary Chain (1988, Blanco Y Negro Records)

Released as a single in March 1988 (Reached Number 30)

Unlike the Reid Brothers, I can explain exactly what I am doing standing in the rain. I’m looking for the late-night chemists. The problem is I can’t find it and if and when I do, I think that as it is now well past eleven o’clock it will probably be shut.

I’ll rewind a bit. Its 1992 and OPG and I have just gone to see the Jesus and Mary Chain at Brixton Academy. If my memory is correct, this makes it December and not only is it cold, its damp as well – hence why I remember it raining. OPG thinks that it would be a great idea if we spent the weekend at her brothers. He is a student at Queen Mary’s and has a house over in Mile End, we are going there after the gig.

OPG’s brother is a cool guy, I have no idea what he is studying, something science-y I think, but he has a vast record collection, lots of brilliant guitar pedals, and a computer with Doom on it. So I’m happy.

We watch the Mary Chain who are they usual combative brilliance selves. They were a band that OPG and I had sort of fallen in love to, they soundtracked our lives together I suppose, it sounds daft, but I can’t think of a better way of putting it. It was a show that we had been looking forward to for a long time.

They play a two hour set, during “Happy When It Rains” OPG grips my hand tightly and I stand there grinning, not wanting this gig or this moment to ever end. In the last few months our relationship had developed or if I was writing novels, I would say it had blossomed and life was at that point with her was brilliant. I was 17 I had a beautiful girlfriend, a great bunch of friends, and no real problems in life. I was lucky.

We spent the next day bumming around London, we went shopping – I distinctly remember buying a Frank and Walters TShirt from a shop on Carnaby Street and eating something in a café in an old church near OPGs brothers house. Around 6pm OPG’s brother tell us that he and housemates are all going to the Students Union for some drinks and we decide to join them. It is dark when we leave his house. We walk there, as being students, they have no money, besides it’s a twenty minute walk tops. He takes us down a couple of side roads, down a right dodgy alley and on to the main road where the Union is.

We have a fun time and at around 10pm OPG whispers something in my ear. She whispers a question to me and the only answer to that question, no matter how much fun you are having, is to get your coat, grab her hand and leave, because what she whispered is way more fun that anything else that you might do that evening.

Which is what we do. We tell OPG’s brother that we will see him in the morning. We jump in a taxi and head home and this is where things get complicated. We get comfortable, and things are going really smoothly, we are, shall we say in a state of undress. Which is when I reach for the small bag and the even smaller packet inside that bag, to find it empty.

I swear. OPG looks at me, and I’m stood there, and she tells me that the taxi passed a chemists that was open, but that was like 20 minutes ago or something. If you run she says….

I leg it. I leg it down the side roads, down the dodgy alleyway, I literally leap over a sleeping homeless person and onto the High Street. I jog up and down the bloody road looking for this chemist but it is not there. I ask a random student if he knows where the chemist is, he points across the road at Boots. Which is shut. Obviously its shut. OPG did not mean Boots. The man is clearly crazy.

I check the watch. Its been fifteen minutes since I left OPG in the house, I picture her under the duvet, waiting, an image which makes me run down the road a bit faster. Still no late-night chemists magically appear.

It started to rain about ten minutes ago, I ran out the door without a coat, my lust addled brain telling me that I can run quicker without it – and socks, I have Converse boots on with no socks. I am soaked and as a mood killer, this really works. I kick a handily placed rubbish bin, regretting it instantly because it hurts my foot, and I’m standing there cursing my luck.

Today More Than Any Other Day – Ought (2014, Constellation Records, Did not Chart)

It’s then I see the Marquis of Grandby Public House, my little ray of light, they will have a machine in the gents for sure. I check my wallet I smile and I pull out a couple of pound coins and with a swagger I push open the door, like a gun swinger in the Old West…

…and like the Old West I walk straight into a bar fight, well I say fight, the precise moment both my feet were inside the bar, I see a man get thrown across a pool table and two men run across the bar towards him. A man sitting about ten feet away from me looks at me and shakes his head. I do the quickest about-turn that I have ever done and walk out.

I’m somewhere on Mile End High Street, freezing my gonads off, and by now I’m miserable, so I decide to give up and tell OPG that I failed. I convince myself that she will, when I tell her, dump me on the spot, and that would be that. I walk back and just before I reach the dodgy alley I see a shop that is open. Its literally two shops away from the alley I would have run past this place, three maybe four times.

It’s not a chemist but it is a general store. I walk in. They have some. I’m not embarrassed to say this but I punch the air in delight. Two minutes later the purchase has been made and I’m off again, renewed vigour flowing through my veins. I jog happily back down the alley I jump over the still sleeping homeless guy, lazily dropping a quid or two in the hat next to him. I skip merrily down the side roads and back to the house. There I find OPG, her brother, his girlfriend and three other students sitting in the lounge, rolling joints, listening to My Bloody Valentine and eating toast.

OPG looks at me and smiles and then picks up another piece of a toast, a glint sparkling in her eyes.

Soon (Andy Weatherall Mix) – My Bloody Valentine (1990, Creation Records, Did Not Chart)

SWC

 

 

Uncategorized

BONUS POSTING : MUSIC FOR OUR TIMES (2)

I mentioned in a bonus posting last Saturday that I was now making a weekly contribution to a download-only publication being produced by Raith Rovers FC.  Here’s my 500(ish) words that were published today:-

“The initial idea behind this part of the Rovers Bulletin was for it to be of a light-hearted nature.

The plan, agreed with our esteemed editor, was to come up with five song titles that had some sort of link to a topical theme, but in a way that hopefully amused readers and maybe even raised the occasional laugh. Even last week’s extended list of ten songs which were to do with antics of Dominic Cummings had a hint of satire behind the anger and frustration, but to try the same again this week would be futile and would demean the events of the past couple of weeks in America.

Protest songs have been part of the fabric of society for decades. Many of the best-known songs were written in response to issues and events that have faced the black communities across America. The famous and brilliant jazz singer, Billie Holliday, recorded ‘Strange Fruit’ as long ago as 1939 as a protest about the lynchings carried out by the Klu Klux Klan – anger in songs around ‘Black Lives Matter’ is not, I’m sad to say, a new thing.

It’s something of an impossible task to just pick out five songs that seem to best capture all that’s happening. Indeed, such has been the continued anger of young Americans of all colours about repeated injustices in recent years that even the most basic of on-line searches throws up the best part of 100 new songs, most of them being rap or hip-hop, whose messages are direct, angry, and to the point.

My suggestion for this week’s ‘Music for our Times’ is that you go online – you honestly won’t have to dig too deep. A small word of warning for the easily offended – the ‘f’ word is a frequent occurrence.

I don’t think I’m being controversial by suggesting Donald Trump hasn’t helped things. A man who would, as the cliche goes, start a fight in an empty house. There’s plenty of songs that have been written in recent years that are critical of him and his actions and I’m thinking a few more are being penned right now. The first three on this week’s list, however, are from years back and aren’t about him, but the titles fit the bill.  The final two are recent efforts:-

American Idiot – Green Day

The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum – Fun Boy Three

You’ve No Clue Do You – King Creosote

Demagogue – Franz Ferdinand

FDT – YG and Nipsey Hustle

The fifth song? DT are the initials of the president. You can guess what the F stands for.

I’ll leave you this week with some lyrics written by Prince, a native of Minneapolis on whose streets George Floyd was horrifically murdered. They are taken from the song ‘Baltimore’ which he wrote in 2015 as his response to the unrest in that city over the police custody death of Freddie Gray.

‘If there ain’t no justice, then there ain’t no peace.’

Five years on, and his words have never rung more true.”

mp3 : Prince – Baltimore

PS: Here’s a link should you want to download the entire bulletin. Click here

PPS: One of my earlier offerings to the Rovers Bulletin formed part of a guest posting that I was involved in earlier this week. 

I’m hoping most of you will have seen it already, but if not, please click here and you’ll be taken to the magical world of Rol’s Top Tens, and in particular, last Thursday.

JC

Mother and The Addicts

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #215 : MOTHER AND THE ADDICTS

From wiki

Mother and The Addicts were a Glasgow-based band signed to Chemikal Underground Records, who formed in 2003.

Originally inspired by bands like Dr. Feelgood and The Modern Lovers, their later material gives a heady nod in the direction of Krautrock and sees an increasing complexity in their music combining elements of funk and rock and roll. Mother and the Addicts released their debut single “Who Art You Girls?” in December 2004, followed by “Oh yeah, You Look Quite Nice” in July 2005 and their debut album, Take The Lovers Home Tonight in August 2005. Their next single a double a side “Watch the Lines/Are Other?” was released in August 2007.

From The Chemikal Underground website

Sam Smith, the brains and bandleader behind Mother And The Addicts, came to Chemikal Underground via a demo featuring various personae and alter egos: Duane Reddy was one but it was Mother And The Addicts and in particular the track ‘Fuck Me Mummy, I Feel Ugly’ that really stood out. Throwing Sam and his cohorts Ian, Peter (Val), Douglas and Kendall into the old Chem19 (at the same time The Delgados were recording ‘Universal Audio’) and asking them to record and complete their debut album, we may have inadvertently contributed to Sam temporarily losing his mind.

Their debut ‘Take The Lovers Home Tonight’ was an explosive, technicolour affair owing as much to Dr Feelgood and The Upsetters as it did The Violent Femmes or Roxy Music. The energy of their debut was harnessed and controlled (to a degree) by Paul Savage for their follow up (and Chemikal’s 100th release) ‘Science Fiction Illustrated’ in August 2007, an album which earned them plaudits aplenty…

From wiki

On 17 July 2008, the band announced on their website that they had disbanded.

mp3 : Mother and The Addicts – Oh Yeah, You Look Quite Nice

JC

Blisters, Urusei Yatsura

A TALE ONCE TOLD ON THE OLD BLOG (circa 2012)

So I glance at this single in a box in a shop in Glasgow. £2.50 for a split effort between a band called The Blisters and occasional TVV favourites Urusei Yatsura. Never heard of the main band and certainly not that sure if I’ve ever heard this particular track by Urusei Yatsura. Oh it’s on red vinyl…..but £2.50?? What if it’s a total dud??? Do I really want to waste my cash.

You’ll know that those last two sentences never even entered into my head when I saw this piece of vinyl. I’m a saddo for things like this…..there’s quite a few bits of vinyl sitting in the cupboard gathering dust just because I took a punt for a few bob in the hope it might make something interesting for the blog only to discover that it’s just not very good.

Now clearly this bit of vinyl has some merit otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here typing these words. So without any further ado, here’s that track by the band featured on TVV a few times before:-

mp3 : Urusei Yatsura – Pampered Adolescent

This was actually one of the band’s very earliest releases coming just a few months after their debut mini-LP All Hail Urusei Yatsura that was released in January 1995. It’s a little bit less polished than the material that would later emerge on Che Records from late 96 through to mid 98 when they just about became famous, but still well worth a listen. Indeed they themselves probably realised that as well as they would go on to re-record it and make it available as an extra track on the 1997 single Fake Fur. So it was a song that I should have known…..but I can’t just rhyme off every b-side in the collection. (Maybe when I was younger I could but that’s being nearly 50 for you….)

mp3 : Urusei Yatsura – Pampered Adolescent (later version)

Very reminiscent of Pavement dontcha think??

But what of the other side. This mysterious mob called The Blisters. On first listen…..it sounds awfully familiar…the spiky guitars and that voice…..awfully like one of the most successful bands to come out of Glasgow in the 21st Century. But this is some eight years earlier…so it can’t possibly be. Let’s hit wiki…..

Fuck me.

Alex Kapranos (born Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley, 20 March 1972 in Almondsbury, Gloucestershire) is a UK based musician who is the lead singer and the guitarist of the Glasgow band Franz Ferdinand. From the early 1990s, he was a fixture of the Glasgow music scene, running live nights at the 13th Note, most notably The Kazoo Club. While working as a chef, bartender, lecturer in IT at the city’s Anniesland College, and other various jobs, he played in some of Glasgow’s popular bands, including The Blisters (later known as The Karelia), long-standing ska stalwarts The Amphetameanies, Quinn (now known as A Band Called Quinn) and The Yummy Fur. He is also known to have contributed to Urusei Yatsura and Lungleg recordings.

And sure enough this track was composed by A Huntley and The Blisters:-

mp3 : The Blisters – A Dull Thought In Itself

Now I know it’s not a hugely valuable piece of plastic in itself, but the fact it’s one of the earliest recordings by someone who many years later became incredibly famous makes it well worth the £2.50 that I handed over…..

Happy Listening.

JC

Franz Ferdinand

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (49)

My introduction to Franz Ferdinand came via the video for the debut single airing on MTV2, probably on the Zane Lowe show.

The tune itself would have been enough to make me sit up and pay attention, but the fact that the video had been shot in my home city just made it that bit more exciting. I made a point of seeking out the single the following day and learned from the bloke behind the counter that, yes they were from Glasgow and that they had been part of the scene in the city for a few years with a few other bands which were rhymed off, none of which meant anything to me.

I took the CD single home and found myself a little bit anxious before playing it for the first time. The video was fresh in my head as was a chant-a-long chorus which I was sure was in German or perhaps Polish or Czech. What if it didn’t live up to expectations and that further listens would reveal it to be a bit of a dud?

Thankfully, it proved to be the opposite, with it sounding better, fresher and increasingly energetic with each repeated listen. It was that mix of angular spiky guitars that got me – as if the best of Glasgow and NYC had come together in three fabulous minutes

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Darts Of Pleasure

It was the release of the sophomore single, Take Me Out, that turned Franz Ferdinand into indie and festival superstars in early 2004. Luckily, I had managed to catch a couple of shows in smaller venues but gently kicking myself that I had missed out on the gigs they had played in all sorts of unauthorised locations across the city in the preceding months as they built a reputation among the young folk who just knew about these sort of things. Looking back, it was an early example of the social media/internet going a long way to breaking a band and it was a medium I had no involvement with at all.

The other thing that I liked about the debut single was that the two b-sides (as such on a CD) were just as enjoyable but were nothing like the single. There was a sort of 70s art-rock about one of them, which also sounded as if it had a different singer (which turned out to be the case) while the other made me think of The Fall, but with a singer who didn’t drawl in a Mancunian accent but instead rapped about being the new Scottish gentry:-

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Van Tango
mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Shopping For Blood

I actually don’t think Franz Ferdinand really bettered the debut single, certainly not in terms of me getting quite as excited (actually, that’s not quite true – I think Michael is an outstanding single, one which was bold and daring as it challenged the machismo of many a Glasgow male to sing-a-long – oh, and their cover of Sound and Vision where they roped in Girls Aloud to do the backing vocals!!);  but it is fair to say that they struck a chord with a wider audience, partly from the consistent excellence of the songs on the first couple of albums, but also from the fact they were a really good live act, capable of putting on a show in the smallest of venues as well as the large arenas and outdoor stages to which they would soon become very familiar.

JC

Kendrick Lamar

45 45s @ 45 : SWC STYLE (Part 40)

A GUEST SERIES

 

6 – The Blacker the Berry – Kendrick Lamar (2015, Interscope Records)

Released as a single in February 2015 (Reached Number 83)

Before TSOBO stopped we were running down a list of the 200 Best Songs of the Decade (the 2010s that is) and this track was the track that Badger and I ranked at Number 2 – the Number 1 track will follow at Number 3 – but please feel free to place your bets as to what you think it might be. This is an extraordinary track., It’s a racially charged, fierce, and angry riposte to hatred, set largely around the time of the death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager gunned down by a police officer in Florida.

Kendrick Lamar was, the only American rapper who could have made this record. It’s the greatest hip hop record of the last twenty years, easily, and Kendrick Lamar is, right now, the best rapper in the world. Oh and in 2014, I very nearly met his mother. Sort of.

In 2014 I was in Los Angeles, on a whistle-stop visit to see a friend of mine who had just retired from the Los Angeles Police Department (District 17 – Devonshire – which is why I knew him). His name is Jason and he literally knows everyone in Los Angeles. He had worked for LAPD all his life, he worked on the OJ Simpson case, he worked on the Rodney King case, and he counted various celebrities as close personal friends. Largely because in 2005 his patrol patch was Mulholland Drive in Beverley Hills.

We are sat in the bar of a restaurant (Johnny, JC – It was South End) in Venice Beach and Jason has just asked me what I want to do for the rest of the afternoon. I look at him and tell him that I’m unsure. I’m quite happy strolling along the beach – I quite fancy popping up to Santa Monica and perhaps having a cup of tea in the roof top bar at the Huntley. He looks at me, shakes his head. “You are so English” he says. “Let me show you the real Los Angeles” .

We drive. Or rather he does. Our arms hanging out of the window, radio on, sun streaming into the car. In my mind we look like Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice, only in LA obviously and with better haircuts.

Our first stop is a place called MacArthur Park. Although Jason, knows all these places by their district names – This is Rampage apparently. MacArthur Park is, apparently the place to go in Los Angeles if you need to get a fake passport. It’s a beautiful spot. Jason tells me that in 2007 (six weeks before I met him in fact) that there was a riot where we stood. “A riot”, he said with a sad look in his eye, “caused by a couple of racist dumbass cops” On the way back he tells me that May 1st 2007 was the only time in thirty years that he thought he’d made the wrong career choice. As a black guy, he took a hell of a lot of shit, for doing the job he does, from both sides of the divide.

Our next stop is Compton. Gang Central if you believe the hype. Jason was born in Compton. He shows me the house where he was born. “Four rooms”, he says. “I shared a bed with my brother until I was six”. He tells me that this still feels like home, despite the fact that he now has a massive house on the edge of the desert in Palmdale.

He points at another house across the street, “you see that lady in the window, the one with the hat on” I nod. “Kendrick Lamar’s mother” he says. “That’s his grandmas house.”. What. Oh. My. Jason looks at me and winks, “He’s almost as popular around here as I am” he says with a laugh.

Being in Compton feels weird, I feel totally safe, but I can’t help but gawp at the shoes slung over the telephone wires, a sign of a gang murder nearby. I’m a tourist in a place where I shouldn’t really be a tourist. He parks his car, gives a nearby lad $5 and tells him that there is $10 more if he looks after it for an hour and we walk off. For what it’s worth, Compton is nice. I recommend it. We stop at a corner store and Jason looks at me.

“Could you go in there and get me a Lotto ticket”, he asks me. “I’ve just gotta make a phone call” He opens the door to the store and literally pushes me in. I stupidly don’t turn right around.

Inside there are four guys, three are wearing hoods and bandanas that are the same colour (Green). The three green guys sit on stools by the counter, and behind the counter is the biggest guy I have ever seen in my life. He looks like a bigger, angrier, stronger version of Mike Tyson. They all stop what they are doing and look at me. The stupid English guy in gang central.

I wander up to the counter and go all Hugh Grant on them. “I say, chaps, do you, erm, gosh, have Lotto here” is what I probably said. The big guy stands up and makes himself ever taller, its then I see the baseball bat behind the counter. He does this lip sucking thing and the three other lads all stand up as well.

“You the Feds?” he asks me. I look around for Jason. “Do I look like the Feds?” I stutter. “Yep” all four of them say at the same time. I’m sure the baseball bat has just moved. One of the guys takes a step closer. “Where you from?” he asks me, it felt intimidating at the time. I like to think that I played it cool though.

“England” I say followed by. “Long way from home…I’m just visiting…” . My voice was getting squeakier by the second. Then the door opens and Jason walks in and immediately the big guy shouts out something and walks over to Jason and embraces him. “He’s with me…” he says and I’m fairly sure that my bowel breathed a sigh of relief. They all start laughing at me. Jason hugs me and says sorry and then tells me to meet his brother Don. Don grabs me and tells me that this was all planned. Jason phoned him when I went to the bathroom at lunch.

I eventually see the funny side and as it happens this turns out to be one of the best days of my life.

Here’s two more of my favourite hip hop tracks from the last decade. One from LA and one from the East Coast just for balance. The first one’s for you Jason. You wait until you come to big bad Devon. I’m going to take you to the Big Sheep and run off and leave you.

Norf Norf – Vince Staples (2015, Def Jam Records, Did Not Chart)

Rockabye Baby – Joey Bada$$ (2017, Cinematic Records, Did Not Chart)

SWC

JC adds……the timing of this post is totally coincidental. It landed in my inbox more than three weeks ago and has long been scheduled for today as part of the rundown.

The reference to South End, the restaurant in Venice Beach, along with the namechecks given to myself and Jonny, are related to the fact that, until COVID-19 changed everything, the Villains were scheduled to spend a week in LA as the guests of Jonny and his wife, a trip that would also take in my birthday.  SWC had booked a table at South End for us to celebrate that occasion.

Maybe next year…..