I’ve decided to have a bit of a breather from the normal run of things as I’m off on holiday for a wee while (Barbados since you’re asking, Dirk) and have decided that while I’m away, and for a few days beyond so that I can recover from the jetlag, I’m going to resurrect the ‘Cracking Debut Single’ series (albeit the usual Saturday/Sunday features will still be delivered in the usual way…..)
Here’s what you’ve had thus far:-
1. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Perfect Skin 2. PJ Harvey – Dress 3. Six Pistols – Anarchy in the UK 4. The Cure – Killing An Arab 5. The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure 6. Roxy Music – Virginia Plain 7. Orange Juice – Falling and Laughing 8. Teenage Fanclub – Everything Flows 9. Talking Heads – Love → Building on Fire 10. New Order – Ceremony 11. The Specials – Gangsters 12. Fun Boy Three – The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum 13. Magazine – Shot By Both Sides 14. James – JimOne EP 15. Pavement – Slay Tracks 1933-69 EP 16. The Libertines – What A Waster 17. Aztec Camera – Just Like Gold 18. Curve – Blindfold EP 19. The Police – Fall Out 20. The Damned – New Rose 21. The Monkees – Last Train to Clarksville 22. The Skids – Charles EP 23. A Certain Ratio – All Night Party 24. The Strokes – Hard to Explain 25. The Waltones – Downhill 26. Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone 27. The Who – I Can’t Explain 28. Nirvana – Love Buzz 29. Eels – Novocaine For The Soul 30. U2 – U2-3 EP 31. Subway Sect – Nobody’s Scared 32. Buzzcocks – Spiral Scratch EP 33. Suede – The Drowners
I really should feature The Smiths given that Hand In Glove was such an astonishing statement of intent, but this blog firmly remains a Moz-free Zone.
#34 in the series is a song released around the time of my 16th birthday in June 1979, to be later re-recorded for inclusion on the band’s debut album in 1980. It has a very distinct subject matter, being a satirical attack on a real-life politician. It was an incendiary and controversial release as the title clearly alluded to former stanzas within a national anthem that have been withdrawn in modern history due to them being linked with Nazism. It’s a song that was (and is), in its 7” vinyl form, quite rough and unpolished, and with the lead singer not making much of an effort at the time to explain himself, nor make any concessions to those who were incensed and offended by the name of his group it ended up being banned from most radio stations across the globe.
The song dated from 1977 when two members of The Healers co-wrote it for that band, but it was never properly recorded until the singer hooked up with another guitarist to form a new punk/surf band based out of San Francisco. The name they took caused controversy and led to difficulties in them getting bookings without the use of one or more pseudonyms. The singer had to explain that they were as far removed from a far-right, fascistic and hateful band as could be imagined and that their name was not meant as an insult to the memory of one of the great American political dynasties but simply drew attention to the fact that the late 70s were seeing the end of the American Dream.
Despite all this, no American label would touch them which led to the formation of Alternative Tenatacles on which the debut single (and all subsequent material for the next eight years) was released.
mp3 : Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles
mp3 : Dead Kennedys – The Man With The Dogs
The single was licensed in the UK by the Edinburgh-based Fast Product, selling enough copies, without much radio support, to go Top 5 in the UK indie charts. It proved to be the only release by the band on Fast as the following year saw Cherry Red sign a deal to release a subsequent single and the debut album on which a harder and faster version was issued:-
mp3 : Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles (album version)
Worth mention here that in 1981, Dead Kennedys recorded an EP entitled In God We Trust, Inc.. The first six songs were around a minute or so in length before the centrepiece was revealed, an updated version of the debut single, now specifically about President Reagan, with a lounge-jazz sound, alternative lyrics and a much slower pace (well for bits of the song, anyway):-
mp3 : Dead Kennedys – We’ve Got A Bigger Problem Now
There have been numerous covers/interpretations of California Uber Alles over the years, with many versions updating the lyrics so that they feature more contemporary politicians. Here’s a couple of my favourites, one being a straighforward cover and the other just a bit different:-
mp3 : The Delgados – California Uber Alles
mp3 : The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy – California Uber Alles
I promise something a little bit less frantic and controversial tomorrow,
After Murder Park entered the album charts at #33, dropping down the following week to #52 before disappearing altogether. Sales are disappointing and Luke Haines decides to call a band meeting and to inform everyone that once all the touring commitments are over, firstly to the USA and then Europe, there will be no more Auteurs.
The front man was already planning his next move which was to take up the offer from the record label to work up the idea of a Baader Meinhof album, but there was to be one last hurrah for the band via the release of an EP about which one critic would later say ‘proved to be one the best things Haines has ever released… and probably the most miserable.’
Kids Issue features four songs, two of which, the title track and A New Life A New Family, hadn’t previously seen light of day. They were all taken from a John Peel session, recorded on 20 February and broadcast on 8 March 1996, just a week after the release of the new album and just as it was falling out of the charts.
mp3 : The Auteurs – Kids Issue (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Auteurs – Buddha (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Auteurs – A New Life A New Family (session)
mp3 : The Auteurs – After Murder Park (session)
Confession time.
Until getting things underway on this series, I had no idea whatsoever that this EP even existed. Wiki states that it reached #163 in the charts….I had no idea that the singles chart went so deep (or least it did in 1996)….which probably equates to sales of about 1,000 (which is a complete guess on my part!).
I did know the songs from their inclusion on a 3xCD retrospective Luke Haines Is Dead that was released in in 2005 but I’ve now managed to pick up a second-hand copy of the actual EP. These four songs are an absolute delight, and it is hard to reconcile them with the fact that they were recorded at a time when the band was about to give up the ghost………..well, for now anyway, as will be explained in Part 13 of this series which will be here at the same time next Sunday on this very same channel.
Those of you who are able to cast your memories back to July 2014 will recall that the previous time this singer and song was featured. Today’s posting leans heavily on that occasion….
This song was brought to my attention via the exceptional Football and Music website. It is devoted to linking football and music and it does so to great effect, very often in the most entertaining and educational way and is the way that I came to learn about Lonely Tourist, the name adopted by Paul Tierney, a Glasgow-born singer/songwriter now based in Bristol (well, at least he was back in 2014).
mp3 : Lonely Tourist – The Ballad of Paul Tierney
The thing is, the song written by Paul Tierney the musician is about Paul Tierney the footballer. This is the summary from wiki:-
Born in Salford, Greater Manchester on 15 September 1982, Tierney signed for Manchester United as a trainee in July 1999 and as a professional 12 months later. He was loaned out to Crewe Alexandra (where he scored his first career goal against Blackpool), Colchester United, and Bradford City. He made his senior debut for Manchester United on 3 December 2003 against West Bromwich Albion in the League Cup. He signed for Livingston on 16 June 2005 having been released by Manchester United, but failed to impress in his first season at the club and they were relegated from the Scottish Premier League. He joined Blackpool on 2 June 2006 on a free transfer.
In July 2007, Blackpool manager Simon Grayson allowed Tierney to join Stockport County in a six-month loan deal. At Stockport he scored once against Macclesfield in the Football League Trophy. Tierney returned to Blackpool in January 2008, and in May 2008, he was released by the club. In September 2008 he signed for Conference National club Altrincham. However, he left the club after less than a month.
Tierney has also represented the Republic of Ireland at under 21 level.
Here’s the thing, Paul Tierney’s one first team appearance for Manchester United was alongside a few household names, with none more famous than Cristiano Ronaldo. As Webbie, the brains behind Football and Music said:-
Paul Tierney in his time did something we all dream about – playing football for an elite team. Playing football professionally and being paid for it.
It was during his spell in Scotland with Livingston FC that Paul Tierney the musician first noticed him and led to the writing of the song. It turns out that, via Radio 1 DJ Steve Lamacq, word got back to Paul the musician that Paul the footballer had heard the song, and not only did he like it, but he was flattered by it.
I picked up a copy of the song via bandcamp. If, having listened to via this posting and you find that you like it, I’d respectfully ask that you do similar.
1985 was the year that the NME went nuts for the Jesus and Mary Chain.
Psychocandy was placed at #2 in the albums of the year poll, beaten to the top spot by Rain Dogs by Tom Waits.
As far as the tracks of the year went:-
#1 : Never Understand #2 : Just Like Honey #6 : You Trip Me Up
Interestingly enough, while three tracks from Psychocandy were among the best six songs of the year, none of the songs found on Rain Dogs made the Top 50. Go figure that one out……………..
You Trip Me Up was released as a single in May 1985. It was the band’s third 45 on the back of Upside Down and Never Understand.
mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – You Trip Me Up
It’s worth recalling that the JAMC enjoyed a certain amount of notoriety at this point in time, partly from the violence that seemed to be present at almost of their live performances (and which was a huge factor in my decision not to venture along to see them) but also for them being bloody-minded and provocative when it came to getting product into the shops.
They had signed a fairly lucrative contract with Warner Bros. but through the subsidiary Blanco y Negro – bands hadn’t forgotten the backlash faced by The Clash when they had signed on the dotted line with CBS and the trick was to try and appear as if you were still of an indie-bent when in fact your paymaster was one of the biggest global operations imaginable.
Never Understand was only eventually issued as a single after much to-ing and fro-ing about the b-side with the label rejecting Suck, no doubt imagining and dreading the backlash from the tabloid press picking up on the closing line of Cunts!Cunts!Cunts!Fuck!Fuck!Fuck!……but eventually giving in when it was indicated that the only alternative would be a new song, still to be recorded, that had the title of Jesus Fuck…..
Everyone seemed OK with the fact that You Trip Me Up would the next single, but yet again the band, egged on by their confrontationally-minded guru Alan McGhee, wanted the newly named Jesus Suck as the b-side and while the record label eventually gave in, the folk at the pressing plant refused to authorise its pressing, on the grounds of blasphemy. It was all great publicity as far as McGhee was concerned and in due course, things were settled with the a much acceptable track offered up as the b-side:-
mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – Just Out of Reach
The 12” came with an additional track, one that made an ICA as selected by swc in November 2016. Here’s his fabulous description:-
“Opening line ‘C…..F!
Some people say that the Marychain did thus sort of thing to be deliberately provocative and to show they were angry but I think on reflection it was weariness and frustration. Its songs like this that give us fans that were too young to witness the early chaotic violent gigs, some impression as to what they actually sounded like.”
mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – Boyfriend’s Dead
It pains me to argue with swc – and I’m doing it from the safety of my bedroom and using a keyboard as he’d wipe the floor with me if we were sitting opposite one another and talking this one through – but it really was all down to provocation. In evidence, I present the song that could have, and in the eyes of the JAMC, should have, been a b-side, finally made available in 2011 when Pyschocandy was re-released as a two-CD edition with the extra tracks consisting of both sides of the debut singles, three separate John Peel sessions, demos and a small batch of previously unreleased material:-
mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – Jesus Fuck
It’s fair to say that the lyric won’t be a candidate for the ‘Some Songs Make Great Short Stories’ series.
I was tidying up a few things a few days back when I came across this comment from Echorich, in response to my lavishing praise on Record, the 2018 release from Tracey Thorn:-
“Record is all about strength, doubting it, gaining it, using it, sustaining it. It was certainly one of my favorite albums of 2018. I’m currently obsessed with the track Smoke. I might suggest it for Some Songs Are Great Short Stories…”
Let’s just say, it’s a great suggestion.
From Carlton Road came Mirriam and Joab Came Mirriam and Joab Came Mirriam and Joab
From the wide flat fields to the rolling smoke to the rolling smoke to the rolling smoke
I made a little home in the family a family, a family
As the years went by they led to me led to me
In good time they had a son called James who had a son called James, were there no other names?
The first world war and the second one came the second one came the second one came
My mother now was a teenage girl she survived the blitz she survived the blitz
Though she knew a girl, who knew a girl Who was blown to bits who was blown to bits (ah, ha)
London you in my blood and you’ve been there for so long London you in my blood but I feel you going wrong
And so my parents fled the smoke some ancient feel for green awoke
But I look down the railway line back to the city, that felt like mine Where no one cared, what clothes you wore Or who you loved, what books you bought Where you were born, what God you loved, or so I thought or so I thought
London you in my blood and you’ve been there for so long London you in my blood but I feel you going wrong
And though its streets are paved in gold all bought and sold all bought and sold
Still the river runs its course Back to its source back to its source
Tied and broke and river fleet and hearts that beat, and hearts that beat
Blood that flows and hearts that beat And hearts that beat…
From Carlton Road came Mirriam and Joab Came Mirriam and Joab Came Mirriam and Joab
From the wide flat fields to the rolling smoke to the rolling smoke to the rolling smoke
I crave your indulgence with what is a rather long article.
Recently JC posted Ricky’s Hand by Fad Gadget (a band whose creative nucleus is Frank Tovey). This got me thinking that, as I consider myself a fan, perhaps I should give an ICA a go. My problem was where to start and what theme, if any, should I use?
I thought the songs would largely take care of themselves but what to write and how? Should I go for something factual – an almost Wikipedia summation – or something a little more personal? So many questions. It took me a while but I eventually decided on personal.
I’ve opted for an almost chronological tracklist. The songs chosen are derived only from the Fad Gadget period. Perhaps a future ICA on Frank’s other works may follow.
Side One
1. Back to Nature (non-album single)
Back to Nature is the second single to be released by Mute Records. Laconic and brooding the song comes in at a whopping 5.49 minutes – hardly radio friendly. To promote the single Fad Gadget began to play live gigs, the 1st being on 18th July, 1979, at The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead. They shared the bill with The Monochrome Set with whom Frank had previous form. Leading to his 1st meeting with Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Frank said … “My flatmate said he knew Daniel Miller so I arranged to meet him at a Monochrome Set gig. I got kind of pissed and fell behind the drum kit so we didn’t meet that night. I met him at Rough Trade later.”Miller claims that their initial meeting was always planned to take place at the offices of Rough Trade in Ladbroke Grove
It’s worth noting that about this time Frank portrayed Daryll of the Silicon Teens; a virtual band created by Daniel Miller but Frank did not play on any Silicon Teens’ record.
A convincing piece of miming by Frank can be viewed in the Teens’ Memphis Tennessee video:
I’d be keen to know if “geodesic” has appeared in any other song lyric?
2. Lady Shave (b-side of Make Room non-album single)
Fans listed Lady Shave within the top 5 most popular Fad Gadget songs as part of the Fad Gadget by Frank Tovey retrospective that took place in 2006.
This is an incredible dance-floor filler with a pulsating beat that’s now synonymous with the time. Speaking to Paul Morley at the NME a year later Frank explained “I object to the pressures put on people to have hair here but not there … the pressure that says that hair on a certain part of a woman’s body is unfeminine. I don’t think pubic hair is shocking at all. I think it’s quite funny. I can’t understand why pubic hair is supposed to be naughty or shocking? Why are there certain parts of the body that you mustn’t talk about? Why can’t you have your pubic hair coloured and attended to by a hairdresser?”
When David Hepworth reviewed the single for Smash Hits it’s not clear if he was including Lady Shave within his comments “Spare, rhythmic and very clever. If Fad is crazy, he’s crazy like a fox and this deserves radio play at the very least.”
3. Ricky’s Hand (non-album single)
As much as I enjoyed the synth pop that would soon fill the charts, I genuinely believe this helped pave the way. There’s a raw naivety to it – it’s pop but it’s also quite experimental too. I think Frank had a knack to be at the forefront of genres without gaining much of the recognition:- synth/new wave/industrial. He later rejected synthesizers in favour of more traditional instruments circa 1986. I’ve actually got Toyah to thank for all of this you know. She was a fan of Fad Gadget. I was a huge fan of Toyah. Fad Gadget provided support for her Glasgow Apollo show December 1981. I was ridiculously excited to be going with my friend. My friend decided to paint his face (one of the faces from the cover of 4 from Toyah) – a brave move as we were travelling from Easterhouse on the 41 bus. However the face painting took so long that we arrived just as Fad Gadget left the stage. It remains an open wound.It transpires that I saw Toyah 3 times at the Apollo, in just over a year for the princely sum of £12 in total.
4. Pedestrian (from the album Fireside Favourites)
Prescient is the best possible term for this song. While there was some understanding of the negative impact on ill-health and environmental impact due to increasing car usage in the early 80s it now seems more stark in the present generation climate emergency.
This is perhaps as funky as Fad Gadget ever got.
“Twenty-five acres every day to make one mile of motorway. Pedestrian wait. Don’t breathe the air it’s full of lead, babies sick, babies dead. Pedestrian wait.”
This is a theme that would be further explored in Wheels of Fortune (Under the Flag)
“I choke on my words as I speak Brain damaged citizens file along the street A view from my window A motorway intersection Exhaust pipes at pram level Now playgrounds are carparks”
5. Innocent Bystander (from the album Incontinent)
The stunning Friedrichstrasse blog that dedicates 4 pages to early Fad Gadget contends that Innocent Bystander and Blind Eyes reflect the social unrest in the UK at the time. Whether true or not the lyrics are striking …
“Wiped away the condensation Looked down at the empty street A girl in white – fright screaming loudly A screwed-up nut in pursuit
I stood and watched Frozen to the spot I stood and watched her bruised chest heave and stop”
6. Swallow It (live) (b-side of Saturday Night Special from the album Incontinent)
This song instantly catapults me back to a time when I would just constantly turn the 7” vinyl from side to side – perched as I was on the edge of my bed and covered in oose (oos or fluff) from a deteriorating candlewick bedspread. It’s one of a very few live, recorded performances that I can say I find captivating. The cynical delivery and impact of the lyrics continues to resonate. The “regurgitated” remix that appeared on the 2001 Best of … is also well worth seeking out.
I add some insightful live information below although it predates the release of Swallow It (live).
Fad Gadget was a performance art band and Frank often put his own safety at risk. There are a number of incidents on file …
Paradiso, Amsterdam: when in the audience he made a flying leap and landed on his heels on a set of steps. He snapped the tendons in both legs in the process. He managed to crawl back on stage, using a tunnel under the main hall, to finish the show. The remainder of the tour was a write-off.
Clarendon, London: Frank decided to play electronic drum with his head during the opening track, managing to gash it open in the process. His head was bandaged, the performance completed, with photographers from “The Face” on hand to capture it for posterity. Frank then went to Charing Cross Hospital.
The Mudd Club, New York: Frank hung from the lighting rigging, beating his chest and making animal noises with the microphone jammed firmly into his mouth.
I believe the photo below was taken after Frank re-emerged from the crawl space of the lowered ceiling. I hope the venue had decent insurance.
His on-stage behaviour was not exactly atypical of so-called synth bands of the time.
Side Two
7. King of the Flies (from the album Incontinent – kind of)
The track 1st appeared on Flexipop issue 11 as a split single with Depeche Mode’s Sometimes I Wish I Was Dead on the a-side. It’s been suggested that this is a different mix although it’s also noted as a promo for the forthcoming single and album. I’m ashamed to admit I don’t own a copy. The single however is a different mix from the album version.
It was anticipated that with an NME interview with Paul Morley, having his photo taken by Anton Corbijn, and being the subject of a whole page feature and interview in Smash Hits, that King of the Flies might be the break-through hit. It wasn’t to be.
It reached number 17 in the UK independent singles chart in April, 1982*. It was during this time that news filtered through that Frank was working on a collaboration with Boyd Rice. Titled, “Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing”, the album was eventually released in 1984.
* The highest charting Fad Gadget single was Collapsing New People which reached No, 5 (independent charts) in January 1984.”
8. Life on the Line I (a non-album single)
I was all but convinced that this single would enter the charts and was hugely disappointed when it didn’t. I have noted it here as version I for clarity however it is listed plainly as Life on the Line. It did chart at number 10 in the independent charts. Versions I to IV were released as b-sides and album tracks. It’s a concept that I believe works superbly. This is one of the tracks on which you can distinctly hear Alison Moyet.
Where version I (7”) is a straight forward pop song, version II (12”) is a proper mash-up remix. Glorious. Version III (12”) is a vocal and piano version with the backing vocal choir coming into full effect. Exquisite. IV returns us to a more conventional pop orientated mix and appears on the album Under the Flag.
9. Under The Flag II (from the album Under The Flag)
Under the Flag I opened the album Under the Flag while Under the Flag II closed it. I have chosen II for its plaintive, yet anthemic, feel.
Lyrically it’s akin to Bauhaus …
“Well I tried so hard to please you ’cause I know that you crave blood Consumer credit carnivores And now the masses have been fed Suck the offal from the dead Now the joker’s here to pick the sores”
10. Speak to Me (from the album Gag)
Appearing on the final Fad Gadget studio album, Speak to Me is a pop delight. Vocals are shared between Frank and Barbara Frost.
If the line “Hang your bloody linen on the barbed wire fence”doesn’t capture your attention I’m not sure what will?
“Um, sha la la la, um sha la la la ooh,” indeed.
11. Jump (from the album Gag)
I have had the honour of dancing to this at an indie disco. I played it and then ran like a maniac to the dance floor. Lyrically, it’s far from uplifting but somehow, lost in the trance of rhythmic disco lights and an insistent sound system I was uplifted.
The window ledge is calling you Your mind’s in disarray The way out seems so simple now In the cold, cold light of day
The world is rough and jagged And it tears you up, it tears you up
12. One Man’s Meat (from the album Gag)
Frank seemed to favour the darker side when it came to lyrics and none more so than here.
“I felt like dropping down Sick in the street I could hardly care about walking Dragged along with no force in my feet And all the bones in me knocking Worn down by caution Make numb with restrain In all of my sweetness I retch and I faint”
I get a clear sense that I Discover Love – a non-album single released prior to the album – was recorded very close to One Man’s Meat the final single to be released by Fad Gadget in 1984 (not including the re-emergence of Fad Gadget with remix singles in 2001 and 2003).
I was gutted on hearing the news that Fad Gadget was no more. It was ‘my band’ I was the only person that I knew that liked them and I felt a little cheated. It would be 4 years later, in 1988, before I met someone who had a) heard of Fad Gadget and b) liked Fad Gadget. We remain friends to this day.
Bonus Track
13. Spoil the Child (b-side to Collapsing New People from the album Gag)
This gem has an almost nursery rhyme feel to it and I can’t but wonder if it was originally linked to M4 (the b-side to Life on the Line). Vocals are by Barbara Frost who by this time had dropped the middle-initial J from her name and was now married to Tovey. Their daughter Morgan appears on M4 and Sleep (Gag album).
While it is often reported that Einstürzende Neubauten played on Collapsing New People, the seven-inch sleeve only credits the band as guest musicians on the single’s B-side, Spoil the Child. It credits them as appearing “with or without the kind permission of Some Bizarre”.
Blixa Bargeld has noted that overdubs from the Einstürzende Neubauten sessions were used by Gareth Jones on Depeche Mode’s People Are People.
In May, 2001 I learned that Fad Gadget would be supporting Depeche Mode on their Exciter tour, via a poster within Madrid Rock, a record shop once located on Gran Via, Madrid. I immediately double-checked the tour dates and was overjoyed to learn that a Madrid date had been scheduled. We bought our tickets then and there and began to plan for our return to Madrid from Glasgow in late September. Fast forward to the day of the gig …
We arrived at the stadium as elated as it’s possible to get. There was some dreadful, deafening music being played by a DJ (Angel Molina). The sounds of the DJ died away and Depeche Mode took to the stage. Eh? What!? It seems that Fad Gadget could not play due to a car accident in which a band member was injured. I nearly cried. I probably did. We decided to stay for Depeche Mode but my mood was dark. We sidled to awful seats and were confronted with some of the worst live sound it has ever been my misfortune to be assaulted by. It was so shriekingly-trebly that it actually did go right through us – like fingernails snaking their way down a blackboard. Our experience is substantiated by others at the gig and reviews on the Depeche Mode live site. I think we lasted 5 songs and left.
I’d like to say I was inconsolable – it’d be terribly dramatic. I was upset. However, I was also in my favourite city and it worked it’s magic. We visited some local music bars in Malasaña and I think I recall some indie-dancing as I stood at the bar watching in disbelief a vodka being poured: one, two, three, four, five seconds. Needless to say the remainder of the night passed quickly and enjoyably.
In issue 11 of Flexipop magazine, September 1981 Frank was asked what his fantasy was and he replied
On Wednesday 3rd April 2002 Frank realised his fantasy. He died of heart failure at his home in London.
It was May 1979 when most of us got our first ever look at Gary Numan as he fronted Tubeway Army and enjoyed a #1 hit:-
mp3 : Tubeway Army – Are Friends Electric?
He was a very peculiar looking individual, looking more like a dummy or a robot from a sci-fi film than a human being. It’s only when doing the research for this post did it hit me that he was just 21 years of age when he achieved this mainstream success – he was only five years older than me but I remember watching him on Top of the Pops and thinking that he was ancient.
The mentality of the school playground was such that I can’t recall any of my male peers being fans as he was considered an out-and-out weirdo. The girls didn’t fancy him either, probably on account that he didn’t ooze sex appeal. Looking back, we were of an age that didn’t get it.
You had those of us who loved the fast spiky guitars of new wave while others were at the other extreme of appreciating nothing but the bombastic noise of hard rock, and, for both camps, the very thought of synthesisers blasting out of the cheap stereo speakers in our bedrooms was too much to handle. There were some who had a love for keyboards via their prog rock collections, but their contempt for Numan was ever worse given his haircut and the fact he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing patchouli oil.
But it’s amazing what a difference a few months can make. Most of the gang had left school in the summer of 1979, with many finding work as cheap labour in the banking and retail sectors, while others got a foot on the bottom rung of the civil service ladder. The luckier ones found themselves an apprenticeship/trade and and the unluckiest found themselves on the dole, from where they would eventually be plucked and put into some sort of training scheme for not much more than slave wages. Only about a quarter of us returned to school in August 1979, into 5th Year to sit exams that would possibly see us eventually go to college or university, and the biggest single change was that we now had a common room in which we could congregate when we weren’t attending lessons. A common room in which we could play music, mostly via radio but very occasionally someone would bring in a cassette player, having saved all their pocket money to buy the six large batteries that powered it. It was in that very common room that I would have first heard this:-
mp3 : Gary Numan – Cars
It seemed the weird looking bloke had gone solo and cut a record that was tailor-made for radio. He still had a squeaky, robotic-type voice but there was something rather immediate about the song which made it an enjoyable listen. Being know-all 16/17 year-olds, there was a bit of a competition to come up with the songs/records that were closely related to Cars, with, as you’d expect, David Bowie being mentioned, and in particular, Heroes. Those who had older siblings were dropping he names of Roxy Music and Brian Eno into the conversation and I threw in the name of a new band that had just come across my radar, Magazine, but was quick to point out that their songs also had loads of guitar and bass on them.
So…..we now had a situation where is it was now very acceptable to like Gary Numan, and indeed there were a number who were now saying that they had liked Are Friends Electric? all along (I’ll plead guilty to that charge…..). Little did any of us realise that an electronica revolution was just around the corner, and that just over a year later, a number of us would be making our way to the Glasgow Apollo to our first ever synth-gig where the headliners were Orchestral Manoeuvres in Dark, a duo that had just taken the singles chart by storm. Little did we know, until Andy McCluskey spoke during the set, that this was not OMD’s first appearance at the hallowed venue, having been there 12 months earlier as support to, yup, Gary Numan.
I now recognise just how big and important and how brilliant Gary Numan/Tubeway Army was back in the day. He paved the way for what would come next, enabling the likes of The Human League and Soft Cell to enjoy chart domination at the start of the 80s. But I still can’t get my head around the fact he was in his early 20s at the time.
Here’s the b-sides of the two songs featured above:-
mp3 : Tubeway Army – We Are So Fragile
mp3 : Gary Numan – Asylum
The latter, an instrumental, is like something out of a horror movie.
Here’s some good news to brighten up a November morning.
Butcher Boy have been back in the studio in recent times, working on new material that could see the light of day in 2020. If so, it will be the first release since the Bad Things Happen When It’s Quiet EP that was issued by Damaged Goods on Record Store Day 2017 – Saturday 22 April – which itself was the first new material in six years.
The 2017 EP consisted of three songs which made up a three-part story told from three perspectives. It was an ambitious effort, with singer/songwriter John Blain Hunt taking his inspiration from what he had seen in his surroundings during some holidays to the Cape Cod area of the USA to which he applied his own fabulous imagination and story-telling skills to compose three faultless tunes that brought out the very best in his long-time bandmates together with a guest vocal from Anna Miles, a mainstay of the music and broadcasting scene in Glasgow. I’ve long wanted to feature the three tracks but have held off on account of it still being available from the website of the record label and my fear that I would be posting them as a eulogy for one of my favourite bands. The news of new material coming over the horizon has changed things:-
mp3 : Butcher Boy – November 1947, Storm Warning In Effect
mp3 : Butcher Boy – July 1950, The Captain is the Whale
mp3 : Butcher Boy – November 1951, Bad Things Happen When It’s Quiet
Butcher Boy have always made music that is a cut above the ordinary, but the ambition of these three songs really was on another level. The only sad thing, from a selfish point of view, is that the band haven’t ever aired them in the live setting beyond the one gig, held on Record Store Day 2017, in the unlikely setting of a disused swimming pool in a socially challenged community in Glasgow. It was a show that was very special in terms of location but it provided a unique set of challenges in terms of a live sound given the size, dimensions and acoustics of the venue – the band were set-up in what was the deep end of the pool with the audience sitting high above them.
It really would have been wonderful to hear things in a ‘proper’ venue whose acoustics were better suited to the music – maybe next year, although I’m reliably informed that with it being a logistical nightmare to get everyone together in one place at the one time, there are currently no plans for live gigs to accompany any future physical releases.
Previously on The Singular Adventure of Luke Haines:-
“It was April 1995 before he was in any sort of shape to return to the studio, where he took the songs he had been writing while recuperating and teamed up with Steve Albini, the producer best known from his work with Nirvana, It took just 13 days to finish work on the new album, which was given the title After Murder Park, and it was presented to the record label in May 1995. For one reason after another, its release is consistently delayed and it doesn’t see light of day until 1 March 1996. But that’s a story for another day”
We have now reached ‘another day’, via last week’s wonderful guest contribution from chaval with his thoughts on the masterful Back With The Killer EP.
It took just six weeks for Hut Records to issue the next 45 by The Auteurs, the all-important track to fully showcase the forthcoming album recorded so many months previously with Steve Albini. It came in at just over two minutes in length; it featured a swear word in the second line amidst a lyric that seemed to make little, if indeed any, sense; the responsibility for the promo video was handed to an up-and coming director named Chris Cunningham whose ideas bordered on the surreal; and it had a title that, in the event of a war breaking out or some sort of aeronautical disaster incurring, faced an automatic radio ban:-
mp3 : The Auteurs – Light Aircraft on Fire
I really didn’t like this single when I first heard it, thinking it was the final nail in the coffin for The Auteurs and indeed for Luke Haines himself. It’s a hard-edged, rockier sort of sound, which to be fair, should have been anticipated given who was in the producer’s chair, miles away from the chamber/baroque-pop that had been such an attraction in the early days. It was only when I read Bad Vibes more than a decade later did it hit me that Haines had come to the conclusion he was both unable and unwilling to play the game in terms of being a pop star, with things like the broken ankles from the fall that had brought a previous tour to an end and the release of the Baader Meinhof single being clear signs that he wanted someone to drive the stake through the heart of his band.
And it was only in listening to the track alongside the others that would appear on After Murder Park on its release a month or so later, did it make some sort of sense why Light Aircraft on Fire had been selected as a single – the other tracks were even less commercial sounding, although many of them bordered on genius, albeit from the mind of a complex individual. It was a long way removed from country houses, cigarettes and alcohol and the lives of common people. The fact that the album had titles such as Unsolved Child Murder, New Brat In Town, Tombstone (in which he dreams of blowing up the hotel of choice for the Britpop cognoscenti) and Dead Sea Navigators are all you need to know, not forgetting a wonderfully powerful version of an old b-side, Everything You Say Will Destroy You.
The reviews were again reasonably positive, with one or two being astute enough to suggest that Haines had things in common with the newly revitalised Radiohead and that songs on After Murder Park would not have sounded out of place on The Bends.
But that was all for the future. The most disappointing thing from the release of the new single was that the b-sides felt like the b-sides, which seemed a first in respect of The Auteurs (albeit the demo showed promise!):-
mp3 : The Auteurs – Buddha (4-track band demo)
mp3 : The Auteurs – Car Crash
mp3 : The Auteurs – X-Boogie Man
All told, it was no real surprise that the single failed to crack the Top 50.
Tune in next week for another instalment is this tale of the top of the flops.
I’ve written many words on many previous occasions, so this time round I’ll just go with some songs, covering what could have been six separate entries along with some background info. As far as I can recall, none of the six songs have been on the blog before.
mp3 : Lloyd & Will Cole – Perfect Skin
From 2012 when Lloyd and his son Will, having played some shows together for which they had worked out some brand new arrangements (and some variations on some very old ones), decided to drop into a studio and do some live material of said arrangements.
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?
In January 2010, Lloyd went into a studio with what he termed his Small Ensemble for a one-off recording of stripped-down acoustic takes on Commotions and solo material, which were then sold as a limited edition CD. The Small Ensemble consisted of Lloyd Cole and Matt Cullen on guitar and banjo, and Mark Schwaber on guitar and mandolin.
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Andy’s Babies
B-side to Forest Fire (1985)
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Negatives – Impossible Girl
The Negatives consisted of Lloyd Cole (vocals, guitar and synthesizer), David Darby (bass guitar, vocals), Michael Kotch (guitar), Rafa Maciejak (drums) and Jill Sobule (guitar, vocals). They released an album, with eleven tracks, in 2000, a couple of which, including Impossible Girl, also had strings.
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & Jill Sobule – For The Good Times
Recorded for a 2006 tribute album to Kris Kristofferson
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & Robert Quine – I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself
Recorded for a 1997 tribute album to Burt Bacharach.
Taken together, these six tracks would have made for a very fine EP.
I’ve decided to close this week off with a look back at one of the pieces in the mini-series ‘The £20 challenge’ during which Tim Badger and SWC took their collective lunacy to new heights
It all stemmed from Tim finding a £20 note inside a book he’d bought from a charity shop….and deciding it should be recycled back to various charities by the purchase of CDs, with not more than £2 being spent at any one time and that the results of the various purchases should be shared with the readers of TVV. This was week four…….and it appeared on 13 May 2016. There’s a fair bit of conversation in this one…direct quotes from SWC are this colour, from Tim appear like this, while Mrs B (who as usual steals the show) has her words in this colour
———-
Readers of our blog ‘When You Can’t Remember Anything’ will know that SWC and I have spent a week in Newbury for work purposes. We were called late on Saturday night and told to drive there for a 10am briefing on the Sunday Morning. It has been a fairly hectic week, with things not really calming down until Thursday. On the Thursday SWC nipped out to buy this week’s CD from a charity shop, he played it safe choosing an Oxfam store about ten minutes’ walk from where we are working this week.
I’m going to drop the CD surprise early this week, as it becomes relevant to the story below. The CD he chose was ‘Flood’ by They Might Be Giants. It cost £2.50 (SWC blames South East/London Bastard Inflation for ignoring the £2 rule – but we are actually in credit still so I ignore it). Meaning we know have £13.00 in the kitty – its an envelope we haven’t stuffed the money inside a cat or anything.
They Might Be Giants are band I have heard of but never really been into. Weirdly in one of those strange events, SWC and I both saw They Might Be Giants in concert at the same time back in 1994 – at the Reading Festival I was waiting for Echobelly to come on I think – he was probably down the front. I can probably name two of their songs and perhaps hum one or two more.
There is obviously ‘Birdhouse in Your Soul’ but then again I think everyone probably could name that one.
mp3 : They Might Be Giants – Birdhouse in your Soul
Birdhouse in Your Soul is the story of a nighlight that is in the shape of a blue canary and is a wonderful song – telling the story of the nightlight and painting a picture of the room its in – talking about its ancestor the lighthouse. Its brilliantly surreal.
SWC gives me the CD after a night out in Newbury with some of our hosts for the week. – a decent Italian meal followed by several beers in a Wetherspoons pub. Football is the main topic of conversation. I keep quiet that I am a Spurs fan, fearing the derision and laughter at Leicester’s recent success.
SWC is in top form though, telling anyone who will listen that he is a Stranraer fan and regularly travels there from Devon to watch ‘The Blue Brazil’ (he is aware that this actually what they call Cowdenbeath but I don’t think he cares). That’s the thing with SWC sometimes I can’t tell if he is winding people up or being serious. Its 449 miles from his house to Stranraer’s ground – yet people are convinced he makes a 1000 mile round trip there every two weeks
The following morning we are going home and SWC asks to put the new CD on – as he wants to listen to it. He then tells me this: –
“This album was once featured in a Steven Spielburg cartoon series. It features Plucky Duck and Hampton Pig playing along in a music video style cartoon to songs off the album. Plucky and Hampton were the offspring of Daffy and Porky if remember the series correctly, I think the songs chosen were…..”
mp3 : They Might Be Giants – Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
and
mp3 : They Might Be Giants – Particle Man
“The second one was about wrestling I think”
I immediately laugh and think he is winding me up and say that its ok, we not in the pub anymore. ‘True Story’he says. I laugh again. Last night he told me that ciabatta was only invented in 1976. He said this whilst the waiters brought us some ciabattas in the Italian restaurant we were sat at. I think people believed him until he added the ‘In a back room of a dentists just outside Croydon’bit. Then he laughed. I remind him of this and tell him to stop winding me up. A small argument ensues and for the first time in ages SWC looks generally cross with me.
We listen to the album and I agree with him that it is very good. His mood lightens.
I get home and dump my bags in the lounge and start to sort out my washing, Mrs Badger wanders into the room and see the CD. “Where did you get that?” she say holding it and adding “I used to love this album…”.
I tell her the story of the CD and she says three things: –
“Can I buy SWC the next CD?”– definitely is my answer (he doesn’t know that bit yet).
“I got into They Might Be Giants through Jason, my gay ex boyfriend – they were the first band I ever saw live – well – the second if you count the support band (yes you do, so the first band my wife saw live was indie no hopers Family Gotown, ha ha ha ha ha – sorry where was I). It was at a theatre in London and we went with a chap called Nick, who turned out to be a massive racist and actually stood for election for the BNP. The idiot.”
mp3 : They Might Be Giants – Your Racist Friend
“I once saw an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures which featured two tracks from this album recreated as cartoons, one was about wrestling. It was brilliant.”
“What?” I say – meaning the bit about the cartoons, I had been listening. “You mean it was true – SWC told me that in the car and I thought he was winding me up. Then again he also told me that ciabatta was invented in Croydon in 1976, so you can’t blame me.”
“Its definitely true” she says and after a few clicks on here computer I can actually watch the cartoon, its brilliantly mental, totally bonkers. Sorry SWC.
A few year back, Tim Badger was recuperating from an operation and in that time SWC visited the Oxfam Charity Shop in Totnes to buy him some vinyl on the premise that Tim would write about them for TVV……here’s what was unveiled on 2 December 2016
——————
“The fifth, sixth and seventh records are a lot better than the third and fourth ones; two were by bands that I know and like and one was a band that I had never heard of, but one which led SWC into another one of misty eyed tales from the past. He’ll take over in a bit after we talk about Record Five.
SWC’s daughter unwraps the fifth record and it is a mash up of different colours and swirling images it also has some writing on it, in red pen. I look at and then I tilt the record sideways to try and read what it says.
“Is this signed?” I ask SWC.
He nods enthusiastically, “That record has been touched by four bonafide rockstars” he tells me. Bonafide rockstars is pushing it a bit, but all the same, this is exciting news. I own three signed records, (well four now), one is my pride and joy a vinyl picture disc of ‘The Holy Bible’ signed by Richey Edwards, the second is a Carter USM 12” signed by Jon Fat Beast (RIP) and the third is splodgenessabounds 7” signed apparently by band member ‘Baby Greensleeves’. The authenticity of that is dubious at best.
The record is ‘Is It Too Late?’ by Senseless Things. It cost £1.99 and that includes the signatures of all four members of the Senseless Things which as SWC adds “Probably increases the value by at least 50p”.
mp3 : Senseless Things – Is It Too Late
Senseless Things are a band dear to my heart. They feature on the WYCRA 200 both in this guise and in one of their off shoot bands Delakota.
‘Is It Too Late?’ was one of the band’s early singles, their second or third I think. It has a sleeve designed by Jamie Hewlett the guy behind Tank Girl and Gorillaz and it is a brilliant couple of minutes of punky pop.
The interesting thing is that a few years back Senseless Things released a singles compilation and this record wasn’t included on it, I imagine this is because of record company rules and the like but it almost feels forgotten about, which is a massive shame.
I’ve also attached two of the three B Sides which are pretty much the same thing, two minutes shouty indie punk pop with thrashy guitars and sneery vocals. All excellent and a welcome addition to any record collection I would say.
mp3 : Senseless Things – Andi In a Karmann
mp3 : Senseless Things – Ponyboy
———–
Tim Badger came up with an Arctic Monkeys ICA on 18 October 2018. His words about two of their earliest songs really hit the nail on the head:-
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (From Whatever People Say I Am…)
When the Sun Goes Down (From Whatever People Say I Am…)
These two tracks sum up everything about the band when they first burst onto the scene. They are both essential listening and frankly without them this ICA would be useless. I’ve written about the first song before in some depth but I don’t think I have ever waxed lyrical about ‘When the Sun Goes Down’.
It is quite astonishing, both lyrically and musically. A bleak ode to prostitutes in Turner’s native Sheffield and their scummy pimps or customers. It’s astonishing in a number of ways – firstly the way that the tone changes after the line “He’s a scumbag don’t you know’ is breathtakingly mature for a band who are releasing just their second single. Then we are astonished again near the end when the scummy man arrives the prostitute becomes happy because as Turner tells us, sagely, “she must be fucking freezing, scantily clad beneath the clear night sky”. I mean that is some tragically beautiful poetry there.
The second day of some old postings written by Tim Badger. This one was part of a double-header, part one of which had been written by SWC and which appeared on 17 December 2015. It was all to do with the two of the them ending up in the pub after the office Christmas lunch/party during which they try to agree on the best 20 albums of the year. It is probably best to use the final para of SWC’s piece to set the scene:-
“The taxi dropped Badger off at home around 11pm – it was not even a late night. I look behind me as the taxi drives away to see Badger fall into a hedge. I smile, it’s been the best Christmas party for a while. Even if I appear to have inherited a horse shaped balloon (no idea at all where that came from).
I phone Badger – his wife answers, he’s not up yet, she says.
It’s 3pm
Excellent”
Here’s Tim……………..
My wife has been doing wonderfully well since her accident she is recovering brilliantly and is now able to hop around the house on crutches with the dexterity of a gazelle on amphetamines. It is I think slightly embarrassing that here I am on the afternoon after the afternoon before at 4.10pm just about to get out of bed because I have had a ‘slight headache’.
She has won an award, the clever thing. It is some women in business thing, and as I slowly drag myself down the stairs, clutching onto the bannister for near life, like a newly walking child, she is sitting in the study (I say study, I mean small tiny spare box room), typing her speech up. She has been reading a book by a chap called Max Atkinson, who writes about the use of three-part lists in speeches. Why am I telling you this, well all will be revealed.
The night before ended with S-WC and I listing our Top 15 albums, the last 40 minutes or so of this were a ferocious argument about whether or not we were going to allow EP’s into the list. In the end I relented, we had yet to reach a decision on the Top 5 – I mean we know what they are – but not in what order. Side One of this compilation will be the tracks from 10 to 6 and where I can remember I’ll add what parts of the conversation that decided that. obviously I’ll embellish it make me sound cool and to make S-WC sound like Brian Blessed on Botox – which by the way is exactly what he looks like.
I head into the study I intend to give my wife a kiss and tell her that I am sorry for being such a lightweight. I am 48 years of age and I really should know by now that drinking the best part of a bottle of rum, six pints and three glasses of wine (I think) is not the greatest idea in the world. I remember telling my taxi driver telling me that “I was absolutely fucking shedded’I have never used the word ‘shedded’ in my life before. I hang my head with shame.
My wife is typing away, she has her back to me, suddenly she stops and holds up one hand. Then she starts speaking “Before you step one foot inside this room, darling, you must a) Shave, b) Shower and c) Clean your teeth. Not necessarily in that order”. This reader is the three-part list I referred to above. Delivered with style and authority, the word ‘darling’ has never been said with such menacing threat. I turn around and creep back along the corridor to the bathroom.
Half an hour later I am sitting on the couch in the study cradling a cup of tea like it was my last possession. At least I am washed, shaved and my mouth no longer feels like it has a couple of angry wasps having post break up sex in it. Actually you remember that bit from Itchy and Scratchy (the cartoon within a cartoon on the Simpsons) where Scratchy (he is the cat, right?) gets his tongue pulled out by Itchy so it goes right to floor and the some dynamite gets put in it and then lit – rolled back up and his head explodes, that’s how I felt earlier on.
My phone rings it is S-WC, of course it is, he chuckles down the phone at me as I groan about my head and the last hours events. At least it sounds like his hangover was just as bad as mine. I end up inviting him round for lunch tomorrow so we can finish off the list.
It is tomorrow and S-WC are I are laughing about the Christmas Do, neither of us have been into work since then – both having sensibly taken the rest of the week off, but we understand that there is some scandal involving at least one high-ranking manager, a park bench and a ‘lady of the night’. This cheers us massively.
———–
JC adds
I can still laugh out loud at all of that…. and here now is the song the song that Tim and SWC chose as their #1 of 2015:-
mp3 : Courtney Barnett – Depreston
which they introduced with the following words:-
The most lovely song on this album (Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I just Sit) is one about house hunting. “Depreston”, it’s called—a quiet little ballad that just kind of submits itself to the noise around it. It’s the details that make this album so compelling, even down to the safety rail in the shower. Then she tells us how much it would cost to rip the whole house down again and again.
I was at a theatre show in London recently and one of the best delivered comic lines of the night, in response to a character making a sideways reference to a dangerous animal was, “What??? A Badger?????”
I laughed out louder than I should have, and later explained to Rachel that it had felt like the sort of exchange I’d have had with Tim had I ever managed to find my way to the deepest south-west before the tragedy struck earlier this year. I do miss him, and if that’s how I feel about things, then it must still be incredibly tough for his family and the closest of his friends, so once again the sympathies of this blog, and everyone associated with it through guest postings and comments, are extended to them.
I want to use this week to revisit some songs that Tim had made mention of during his many guest postings on TVV, with the accompanying words providing a reminder of his wit, warmth and talent.
Here’s part one, and it originally appeared on 17 August 2015 as part of the Pulp ICA:-
Quite simply one of the best British singles, ever, by anyone. Absolutely their defining song, and the classic song of the Britpop era. I toyed with the idea of leaving it off just to be controversial but then I realised that I can’t write about Pulp without mentioning it. It’s too good a record. As a song it is scathing yet hilarious, deeply personal yet turns an eye to larger questions, intelligent yet simple enough to fit within a massively infectious pop melody. And to top it all, triumphant enough to close a live show.
mp3 : Pulp – Common People
There will longer, wonderfully written and occasionally surreal pieces these next few days. I really hope you enjoy reading them (and thanks to SWC for the green light to go with this mini-series).
Cast your minds back a couple of weeks to JC’s celebration of Chinese Bakery, a single which featured a throwaway line about “Bob Dylan on a motorbike”. For Dylan’s 1966 Woodstock crash that released him from the album/tour/voice of his generation treadmill, Haines’s equivalent was that reckless drop off a wall in San Sebastian.
As well as instilling respect for the difference between sand and concrete, Haines’s leg fractures allowed him an interval of reflection. Like some post-Britpop James Stewart in Rear Window, Haines brooded and read, and like Dylan in 1967, unleashed his creativity in several directions, only tangentially connected with the pop marketplace.
By the end of 1995 and drift into 1996, Haines’s career was all over the place. The Auteurs’ best album After Murder Park was in the can but still awaiting release. Baader Meinhof, Haines’s unhinged, brilliant homage to 70s terrorism, was about to baffle critics with its mash-up of crunching retro-funk, dub and lyrics about hijacks. Always ready to muddy the waters, The Auteurs released the Back With The Killer EP, fresh material that took Haines’s lyrical provocations further than ever, albeit expressed very succinctly (the four tracks clock in at a total of just over nine minutes).
mp3: The Auteurs – Unsolved Child Murder is as uncompromising as its title, a dark depiction of an event dragged from the news headlines and given unsettling intimacy, exploring its devastating effect on a suburban family. Haines says it was based on a childhood memory of a local doctor’s family whose child went missing, presumed dead. Haines’s 70s childhood would prove a rich and often disturbing seam of material from this point on.
Haines had covered vaguely similar territory on Daughter Of A Child on Now I’m A Cowboy, but otherwise the only indie-rock point of comparison with regard to subject matter would be The Smiths’ mawkish Suffer Little Children from their first album. Where Morrissey’s lyric is mostly adolescent melodrama, Unsolved Child Murder is a richly detailed and empathetic depiction of tragedy, irrational desperation and a viciously judgmental world, wrapped up in a gorgeously melancholic tune (the EP version is enhanced with a French horn omitted from the album track that appeared later).
Along with the title track of After Murder Park, it showed how far Haines had shifted from the usual lyrical terrain of mid 90s popular music. The band had just finished recording these tracks in Abbey Road when Paul McCartney looked in and amiably asked if he could hear what Luke had been working on. “I politely decline the ex-Beatle’s request,”Haines recalled. “I don’t want him to be the first person to hear these songs; they’re too good for him.”
This startling work merited that kind of pride, but this EP contains another masterpiece:
mp3: The Auteurs – Back With The Killer Again takes the direct route of Lenny Valentino musically, although the atmosphere is distinctly psychotic. In Tim Mitchell’s deranged non-biography of Haines the author suggests the song is about “a man who takes drugs to turn himself into a murderer”, an explanation that may have come directly from Haines. Certainly the lyric offers a disturbing cluster of allusions to nerve gas, bad dope, primed bombs . . .
Those better versed in 70s counter-culture might be able to identify all the references in the line “John got Barrett for the lot, it must have been the Microdot”. All I can offer is that the Microdot happened to be the name of the early 70s gang of underground LSD chemists eventually busted by Operation Julie (as immortalised in the Clash song), who were rumoured to have links with the German terrorists Red Army Faction aka Baader-Meinhof, bringing it all back home to Haines’s reading lists. “A damning, self-mythologising riposte to the current crock that is the UK scene,” is how Haines described the song.
If the other tracks on the EP can’t match the impact of the first two, that’s not to say they are filler.
mp3: The Auteurs – Former Fan continues the murder theme, seemingly from the viewpoint of a Mark Chapman type obsessive whose disenchantment with a former idol turns homicidal. Or it might be a twisted love song, you tell me.
mp3: The Auteurs – Kenneth Anger’s Bad Dream name-checks the underground film-maker (or “pornographer” as Haines somewhat harshly calls him when introducing the song at live shows) and keen disciple of the Satanist Aleister Crowley. Haines’s insatiable cultural curiosity is on display once again, and given a pretty, folk-rock-ish tune.
The EP reached number 45 (says Wikipedia, Haines’s memory says 48), a commercial disappointment in the hit-crazed climate of Britpop, but undeniably a remarkable achievement considering the artistic reach and lyrical ambition.
Fancy a little bit of shoegazing type music from Scotland?
Le Thug, from Glasgow, formed some six years ago but thus far have released just a six-track EP, Place Is, on Song, By Toad Records.
The label was recently would up by owner Matthew Young after ten fairly succesful years which means that Le Thug, are currently without a deal. Indeed, I’m not sure if the band are still in existence, as the last I thing I can find is them playing a gig at King Tut’s in Glasgow in January 2018.
A very positive review, from a Scottish broadsheet, when Place Is was released, back in 2015, will give you a flavour of the band:-
Layers of distorted guitar, a dreamy vocal pushed back in the mix, a minimal drum beat. There’s a fashion for this stuff at the moment, even an attempt to label it nu-gaze, but in most cases it only makes you want to go back and listen to original albums by My Bloody Valentine or The Jesus And Mary Chain instead. Not so with Glasgow-based trio Le Thug. Clio Alexandra MacLellan is one of those rare singers whose hauntingly addictive vocals would have seen her bracketed alongside Elizabeth Fraser back in the day; Michael Gilfedder’s guitars, especially on the monumental Basketball Land, are thick and all-enveloping; and Dann McColgan’s laptop beats and synthesiser pulses, while more mechanically insistent, introduce a musical factor from a different era that may well be the key to why Le Thug rise above the retro fad. The melody lines on this six-track EP have a deceptive simplicity but it’s the slow harmonic changes of direction that will make you swoon – those and the sheer sonic completeness of the studio production.
I was telling a white lie when I said Le Thug had released just a six-track EP; in fact, they contributed to one of what were a handful of spilt 12″ releases issued over the years by Song, By Toad, often to act as an introduction to singers and bands on the label. The song featuring today has been taken from such a spilt 12″.
mp3 : Le Thug – New Balance
And here’s a promo film that was made to accompany what many regarded as the best track on their own subsequent EP:-
Relying on the info on wiki to introduce this particular story.
The Saints are an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1973. The band was founded by Chris Bailey (singer-songwriter, later guitarist), Ivor Hay (drummer), and Ed Kuepper (guitarist-songwriter) and began life as Kid Galahad and before taking the name The Saints in 1974. Jeffrey Wegener joined on drums and Hay switched to bass guitar. Wegener had left by 1975, Hay moved to drums and Kym Bradshaw joined on bass guitar.
Contemporaneous with Ramones, the group were employing the fast tempos, raucous vocals and “buzz saw” guitar that characterised early punk rock. Kuepper explained that they played faster and faster as they were nervous in front of audiences. The police would often break up their gigs, and arrests were frequent. Unable to obtain bookings, Bailey and Hay converted the Petrie Terrace house they shared into the 76 Club so they had a venue to play in.
In June 1976, the Saints recorded two tracks, “(I’m) Stranded” and “No Time” with Mark Moffatt producing. Unable to find any interested label, they formed Fatal Records and independently released their debut single in September.Their self-owned Eternal Promotions sent discs to radio stations and magazines both in Australia – with little local interest – and United Kingdom.
In the UK, a small label, Power Exchange, issued the single. Sounds magazine’s reviewer, Jonh Ingham, declared it, “Single of this and every week”.
mp3 : The Saints – (I’m Stranded)
mp3 : The Saints – No Time
It was this review that led to EMI in London contacting EMi in Sydney with instructions that The Saints be signed to a three-album contract. In December 1976, the group recorded their first LP, (I’m) Stranded which was released in February 1977 by which time they had also been give a support slot on an Australian tour undertaken by AC/DC.
Despite this, The Saints continued to be ignored at home. The band moved to the UK in mid-1977 but soon ran into problems with EMI who wanted to promote them as a punk band – complete with ripped clothes and spiky hair – while the group just wanted to be themselves.
In due course, they would enjoy minor chart success with the This Perfect Day hitting the Top 40 in July 1977 but the relationship with EMI soured beyond repair when the second album was full of tunes leaning heavily towards RnB and the third under the contract was more or less a jazz/blue effort. In due course, the band would disintegrate and by 1979, just Chris Bailey remained from the original members.
mp3 : The Saints – This Perfect Day
I don’t think anyone would have imagined, 40 years on, that The Saints would still be rockin’n’rollin; but sure enough they continue to tour and record, having ammassed thirteen studio albums, seventeen singles, six EPs, two live albums and ten compilation albums. And just about every Australian musician of note has lsted them as being a key influence for one reason or another
While jetsetting around Spain with the Villains I asked JC about getting the Charged Particles series going again. I proposed to get the ball rolling with a bit about Shirley Manson, whose name I’d casually dropped in a recent TVV post. It’s not much of a story, but it fits in nicely with another Charged Particles entry about my gym buddy Chris, who turned out to be a Foo Fighter. So, here you go:
THE SHIRLEY MANSON STORY
My wife, the beautiful Goldie the Friendly Therapist (GTFP), has a childhood friend named Lisa, whose boyfriend was a nice guy named Dan. “You’ll like Dan,”Goldie told me, “he’s a bassist in some band.”The band turned out to be Garbage. Dan wasn’t one of the four principal band members but he had recorded and toured with them. When Lisa and Dan got married I was hoping the band would be there because I was really interested in talking to Butch Vig. I didn’t listen to Garbage; nothing against them but just not my thing. But Butch Vig! With the possible exception of OK Computer I don’t think there was a more important rock record in the 90’s than Nevermind, and Vig was the guy that produced it for Nirvana!
The wedding took place on a classic Hollywood summer night at a 1920’s hilltop mansion. Probably because of Goldie’s long friendship with the bride, we were put at the band table. The Garbage table, as it were. Before I could position myself next to Butch Vig, Shirley Manson sat herself down at the corner on my left, gave me a big smile, reached out her hand and said, “Hi! I’m Shirley.” “I know who you are,” I smiled back. Then we chatted for the next 3 hours. I can say from personal experience that she is an absolute sweetheart. She has what can be called a charming laugh, and she laughed a lot that night. No airs or pretensions whatsoever; no need to call any attention to herself. Never having heard her interviewed, I was surprised at her thick Scottish accent. For some reason we got to talking about David Beckham, who I think had just been sold to Real Madrid. “Ach, e’s pew say wept!” said Shirley. It took me a moment to understand she was saying that Beckham was pussy-whipped by Posh. Then she did a pretty funny imitation of their appearance on Da Ali G. Show.
I don’t really remember what else we talked about. I just recall that she was super friendly, asked loads of questions, laughed quite a bit, didn’t talk about herself, and was a lot of fun. Later in the evening a few of the band left the table and went off to smoke cigars on a veranda looking down the hillside. I like a cigar and was regretting I hadn’t thought to bring one of my own. Shirley must have noticed my envious look because she turned to me and said, “Oh! Would you like a cigar?” and popped off somewhere before I could answer. She returned and presented one for me. So I nicked off to the smokers and had a cigar. With Butch Vig.
Goldie has a theory that I’m constantly running into famous folks because I am the least starstruck person there is. There are thousands of celebrities in Los Angeles, but very few are celebrated for doing something intelligent, or for being kind souls, so I’m just not interested. I used to work at a firm that did a lot of industry work which involved meeting loads of famous people, and there are very few I’d like to meet again. And I figure that people just want to be left alone anyway.
At the end of the night Shirley gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek and said, “Lovely talking with you, sweetie!” I’d love to tell you that rock stars and international sex symbols naturally gravitate to me, but it was just happenstance. She might remember the night, because it was a very beautiful wedding of one of her close friends, but I sincerely doubt that Shirley Manson would have the faintest idea of who I am or was. It was a good cigar, though.
Garbage – Medication
JTFL
JC adds – in case anyone wasn’t aware, all charged particle songs must end with the letters -ion.
A GUEST POSTING by HYBRID SOC PROF, our Michigan Correspondent
So, if I have a clear memory from 1992 (and I guess I still have a few…), it is the first time I pulled the Mexican R’n’B record from its sleeve, put in on the turntable and dropped a needle on it… pure, unadulterated sonic joy. I was bouncing all around Studio B at KZSC. I’d really liked the Bevis Frond’s psychedelic noodling and pretty much everything from the gloriously low-fi world of Billy Childish, but, jeez, The Stairs, they satisfied my 1967 jones, they hit the sweet spot of my retro-60s fanboy affections… and not taking themselves at all seriously made it SO much better.
I’d been well-primed for The Stairs by a raft of bands – mostly from New England and many with some kind of tie to the Boston scene in the early 80s. The Chesterfield Kings, The Fleshtones, The Fuzztones and The Real Kids come to mind… but, for me, the cream of the crop was The Lyres. The Fleshtones played at my college and blew the roof off the old library we used as an indie venue, but I had to go into Philadelphia to see The Lyres.
I have no idea where I saw them, just that it was arctic outside and hellish inside that night. The opening bands were local and terrible – much like the “metal” bands my now-wife and I saw open for Pere Ubu in San Francisco a decade later – but the Lyres started off on fyre and never let up. Dancing wasn’t like a mosh pit but it had that energy and sweat, a lot of sweat. The songs came fast and furious until we were just about broken… and they’d save us with a ballad, maybe two, before testing our stamina with another blitz of ever-accelerating songs. My clothes almost froze on the way back to school – leaning back into the rear seat was like propping myself up on ice – but, before my knees went bad and my wife had two kids and I put on weight, I’d have done it again in a heartbeat.
Their albums have a ton of energy but their shows were radiated garage band boy-dom. We knew it was stripped down, we knew it was kinda dumb, but my friends and I were 19 or 20 and it was about girls – those we desired, those who’d dumped us, those we desired because they’d dumped us, the ones we’d dumped but desired to have desire us and every other permutation and combination of those things imaginable. It was rock… and there were young women about.
The Lyres definitely had a peak period there in the early 80s, though they held on for quite a while and reformed once or twice but, lord, what a peak. There’s something about the world of the Nuggets, Pebbles, Boulders and other collections of independent “garage” music from the 60s – whether distilled into Los Angeles power pop variants, exploding into a Detroit-driven fury, or looking back romantically to a small set, a bass, and guitar and a singer out front – optimally one who can play organ/keyboards – that never dies, periodically flourishes and is a boatload of fun.
If you still need a frame of reference, think of The Sonics, whether their original 1960s or more recent 21st century work. Here’s to the Lyres and the world of post-punk that sought pre-punk garage punk joy.
Because they were primarily about live gigs, their records couldn’t contain everything they played, whether originals or covers and so this selection is from a smaller number of albums than usual. It happens…
The Lyres – You’ll Never Do It Baby – from Lyres Lyres (1986)
The Lyres – I Love Her Still – from Lyres Lyres (1986)
The Lyres – You Won’t be Sad Anymore – from Lyres Lyres (1986)
The Lyres – Not Like the Other One – from On Fyre (1984)
The Lyres – Love Me Till the Sun Shines – from On Fyre (1984)
The Lyres – Getting’ Plenty Lovin’ – from Shitkickers (1995)
The Lyres – Soapy – from On Fyre (1984)
The Lyres – Help You Ann – from On Fyre (1984)
The Lyres – She Pays the Rent – from the collection, Lyres (1981)
The Lyres – Knock My Socks Off – from A Promise is a Promise (1988)
It transpires that I saw Toyah 3 times at the Apollo, in just over a year for the princely sum of £12 in total.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 