THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Armoury Show, Associates, Aztec Camera, Bluebells, David Sylvian, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Farmer's Boys, Friends Again, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Marc Almond, Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins, Smiths, Tears For Fears

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (August)

29 July – 4 August

Two Tribes remains at #1 for an eighth successive week. Careless Whisper would be the song that would eventually end its reign at the top, and it was the highest new entry this week, coming in at #12. It would prove to be THE big song of August 1984, giving the Wham vocalist a #1 hit with his debut solo effort.

This particular chart does offer up plenty that you will still hear today on those sorts of radio shows where the adverts are for SAGA holidays, funeral plans and the like – at least it seems that way when I’m the passenger in a car being driven by someone who really doesn’t care about music, or worse, knows that I’m such a snob they deliberately tune into the stations most likely to wind me up.

Some sanity does come courtesy of an indie-type band from Norwich, but who were signed to EMI Records, offering up their take on what had been a Top 10 hit for Cliff Richard & The Shadows* back in 1966:-

mp3: The Farmer’s Boys – In The Country

In at #50, it would then spend the next three weeks in the mid-40s.

Coming in at #59, for what would be their only Top 75 entry in what, in a parallel universe, would be an illustrious career, were TVV favourites:-

mp3: Friends Again – Lullaby No 2 Love On Board

The lead track on The Friends Again EP, a five-track release issued on 2 x 7″ singles and 12″ single. I still get pissed off thinking back to how badly Mercury Records mishandled the band.

*a second cover of a Cliff and The Shadows tune entered the charts this week. The song was Summer Holiday (#1 in 1963) and the ‘singer’ was Kevin the Gerbil, a puppet character on a kid’s TV programme. Kevin the Gerbil would eventually reach #50…..which, FFS, was higher than Friends Again managed.

5-11 August

Frankie Goes To Hollywood narrowly held off George Michael at the top of the charts, but we should be grateful for small mercies, as the horrific Agadoo by Black Lace would probably be #1 otherwise.

The highest new entry at #33 belonged to Howard Jones, who, along with Nik Kershaw, is a reminder of how synth-pop had been hijacked and turned into chart fodder by the major labels, as well as offering evidence that the mid-late 80s, for much of the time, was a really boring period for chart music.

There were loads of other new entries – Miami Sound Machine (#41), Dio (#42), The Pointer Sisters (#43), Break Machine (#51), Elton John (#52), Change (#53), Gary Moore (#55), Michael Jackson (#62) and Second Image (#68). I take it, like me, you’ll be really struggling to remember anything about many of those acts, while the songs of those you’ve heard of were all, without fail, the ones you don’t most associate with them (e.g, Passengers by Reg Dwight and Girl, You’re So Together by the King of Pop). Just as I was about to completely blank the entire Top 75, a little bit of salvation appears at #72:-

mp3: Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes

The mighty Quinn might have left Bourgie Bourgie floundering with his unexpected departure, but the results of his first solo effort, via the newly formed Swamplands Records, under the leadership of Alan Horne (Postcard Records) and funded by a major in the shape of London Records, offered up immense hope. But as the saying goes, it’s the hope that kills you…………………………….

12-18 August

Between the slim pickings of July 1984 and the first two weeks of August 1984, I was dreading opening up the webpage for this and indeed the following week. At long last Two Tribes was no longer #1, ending a nine-week stay, but such was its omnipresence that it would be a further 11 weeks before the sales were such that it dropped out of the Top 75.

Iron Maiden were the highest of the new entries, in at #27 with 2 Minutes To Midnight. I’ve never thought of this lot being a singles band, but it turns out this was their ninth Top 40 hit, going back to February 1980, and there would be a further 26 singles to make the Top 40 up until January 2007. I would probably recognise three of them at most…..

A couple of songs sneaked into the Top 40 this week, and while I’m familiar with the performers in both instances, I honestly couldn’t recall either single:-

mp3: David Sylvian – The Ink In The Well (#37)
mp3: Tears For Fears – Mother’s Talk (#38)

19-25 August

Another of the year’s massive songs made its first foray into the Top 75 this week. Stevie Wonder might have been responsible for some of the greatest funk/soul/pop hits of the 70s, but the following decade saw him go dreadfully mainstream, and none more so than I Just Called To Say I Love You, in at #3 and soon to spend six weeks(!!!) at #1.

Some awful song by Spandau Ballet was next highest at #23. It was called I’ll Fly For You, and it would eventually soar its way into the Top 10. I think it’s fair to say that Top of The Pops in the month of August 1984 was far from essential viewing.

The theme song from the film Ghostbusters entered at #56. It was still in the Top 75 some 31 weeks later, in March 1985, having peaked at #2. I wonder how much money Ray Parker Jr has made from said song over the decades, notwithstanding that some ten years later, he and his record company had to reach an out-of-court agreement with Huey Lewis who had sued on the grounds of plagiarism.

For the third week in four, some respite came from musicians with a Glasgow connection:-

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Forest Fire (#59)

The big ballad from the debut album. I suspect Lloyd and the Polydor Records high heid-yins expected and hoped for better things than the #41 placing it eventually reached. One of the most enduring songs of the entire year as far as I’m concerned, as it helped soundtrack many a romantic post-indie disco session in my student digs.

Two more worth mentioning sneaked into this particular chart:-

mp3: The Armoury Show – Castles In Spain (#69)
mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – The Only Flame In Town (#71)

Richard Jobson‘s new band in the wake of the break-up of The Skids had, on paper, loads going for it what with Russell Webb also coming over from The Skids as well as John McGeogh and John Doyle having previously been part of Magazine, also in the line-up of The Armoury Show. Sadly, and maybe there was just too much in the way of expectation, the music never really hit the spot, and if they are remembered for anything (which I doubt), it will be for this debut single.

As for Elvis, this was the second single lifted from the rather underwhelming album, Goodbye Cruel World. #71 was just about all it deserved.

26 August – 1 September

mp3: The Smiths – William, It Was Really Nothing (#23)

The a-side of what I still believe is the greatest 12″ single of all time, with Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want and How Soon Is Now? as the b-sides.

William might only be 131 seconds in length, but not a single one of them is wasted. The chart position led to what proved to be one of the band’s most memorable Top of the Pops appearances, with Johnny playing a guitar gifted to him by Elvis Costello and Morrissey stripping to the waist mid-song. It all should have meant it went to #1 the following week, instead of #17, where is peaked.

A few more to see the month out….

mp3: Aztec Camera – All I Need Is Everything (#61)
mp3: The Bluebells – Cath (#65)
mp3: Marc Almond – You Have (#67)
mp3: Associates – Waiting For The Love Boat (#71)

Aztec Camera‘s advance 45 off their forthcoming second album was a bit of a letdown to those of us who thought the debut album High Land Hard Rain was as good as anything to ever come out of Scotland. It felt like a real betrayal of the Postcard-era roots, and not simply because Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits was the producer, but there was also the nonsense of a Van Halen cover as its b-side. I was disgusted in 1984, and I’m still disgusted 41 years later….albeit All I Need Is Everything, it has to be admitted, is a fine pop single.

Cath was a remixed version of the song that had taken The Bluebells into the chart a year or so earlier, being an attempt to cash in on the success of Young At Heart a few months earlier. It would peak at #38 a few weeks later.

Marc Almond‘s second solo single would, like its predecessor The Boy Who Came Back, fail to break into the Top 50. It would take quite a few years before any of the totally solo material would replicate the sales of the Soft Cell singles, and even then, it would require to be cover songs.

The Associates without Alan Rankine weren’t making the music that had been so successful back in 1982. Billy Mackenzie‘s voice remained quite magical, but the tunes were, it could now be argued with hindsight, kind of Associates by Artificial Intelligence (not that such a thing existed back then).

And with that thought, I’ll call a halt to proceedings this month.

JC

Vampire Weekend

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #104

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 104: Vampire Weekend – ‘The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance’ (XL Recordings ’08)

Good morning friends,

just back from Turkey and I’m gorgeous golden-brown: if you could see me, I’m sure you wanted to dance around me! And for a change: chart band-sound for you today, and I bet you are as astonished as me! Vampire Weekend it is, and I must confess that I liked their early stuff quite a lot, but soon lost interest. Probably a huge mistake, but there you are.

If I remember correctly, Vampire Weekend first came to my attention via the “Contrast Podcast”, which was a fabulous little thing, hosted by the mighty Tim, who now lives right in the Swiss mountains. Tim would announce a theme, you see, and various folk from all around the world then had a week to record a little intro for a song which they thought would fit said theme somehow and Tim would put it all together. All styles were allowed, which made the podcast very interesting indeed. JC and me were regulars back then, so was Matthew from Song from Toad-fame. I do miss the Contrast Podcast, I must say!

Anyway, someone chose Vampire Weekend, until then unbeknownst to me – and they blew me away, you see, because what they did was really new, at least to my ears. I mean, doing style crossovers was a common thing to do for many artists since Stone Age of course, but the styles Vampire Weekend went for, or better: the combination thereof, were extraordinary indeed! Indiepop, Punk Rock, Chamber music (which I know nothing about, I must admit), soukous and Congolese rumba – and let’s be honest: who of you doesn’t like to dance to a good Congolese rumba at times, come on?!).

Now, normally you would think that such a mix is bound to fail, but as we all know the band became the hottest shit whatsoever in 2008, after the release of their debut album. Which had eleven tracks on it, five of which were released as singles in 2007 and 2008. I’m quite sure that even if you remember pretty much nothing else, ‘A-Punk’, ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’, or ‘Oxford Comma’ will still ring a bell, right? All singles, great ones at that – but typically my favorite one is this, the lesser known of the lot:

mp3: Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance

It was the album closer, which most of the time is not the preferred choice – but hey, I don’t care, I always loved this song. A catchy little tune – and even today I haven’t got a clue what it possibly might be about. Then again: do I want to know? No, because knowing would risk its beauty!

Enjoy,

Dirk

Velvet Underground

‘STEALING’. A FOUR-PART GUEST SERIES IN BOOK FORM : #2 THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

A guest series by Steve McLean

NOOOOOO! Not The Velvet Underground, NOOOOOO! They’re too cool. You expect bogus line ups of The Pacemakers or Herman’s Hermits or Ratt (spoiler; all line ups of Ratt are bogus). But not the Velvet Underground. You see it’s one thing when ‘naff’ bands like Amen Corner or The Sweet tour with multiple line ups and a scarcity of original members but when it’s a group of beloved untouchables, it becomes an outrage. Put your handbag away. (Also, fuck you, The Sweet were boss).

I’ve been looking forward to writing this. In our world of Mandela Effect false memories it’s worth keeping in mind that The Velvet Underground couldn’t get arrested when they existed. These days they are adored by thousands more people than ever saw them in their lifetime, but speak to just about every music fan from the time and they’ll swear blind they were huge fans all along; Like the three million people who attended Woodstock or the people who were definitely in the French Resistance or the people who always knew that the sexism in Britpop wasn’t ironic and didn’t like it, there’s way more of them now than were at the time.

Time has a habit of playing tricks on us when it comes to the zeitgeist. The Velvet Underground are fucking cool now, but when Lou Reed quit in 1970 they were just another band singing for their supper, albeit one who were doing a mammoth nine week residency at Max’s Kansas City (which sounds impressive but; capacity 200 with many tickets available on the door most nights)

During the run of Max’s gigs Lou Reed decided to quit with little or no warning. He just got up and fucked off on the band he formed. He had his reasons, mainly because he wanted a solo career and felt he was stagnating in the band who by this time were no longer the Warhol superstars that had been launched on the art world nearly four years earlier but also his manager was a slippery fucker and played the band off each other.

‘Basically he just didn’t show up one Tuesday night or whenever it was for the beginning of that week’s shows’ Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

With Lou gone, they should have broken up right? Yeah probably but the problem is when Lou left the band still had a stack of gigs at Max’s and other live commitments to complete. Plus they had an album that they were recording and was currently unfinished (to be titled Loaded). Ultimately, the VU were a working band, they couldn’t sit back and live off record sales. Just because Lou doesn’t fancy it. that doesn’t mean everyone else suddenly has no rent to pay.

‘It was a band, not Lou and a backup band. We had commitments. We just kept going. I wasn’t in charge although I was singing most of the leads’ Doug Yule, Hound Dawg Magazine May 2010

Doug Yule had replaced John Cale in 1968, he was already presented the co-lead vocalist during the live shows, his boyish voice meant the band could play the Nico and the softer Lou Reed songs from earlier in their career. Creatively, the group were sharing the workload, while most of the songs being recorded are still being credited to Reed, it’s fair to say the majority were an effort between Reed’s writing and Yule’s arrangement. As distasteful as it might seem now to the hardcore, the band were desperate to buck the label of cult favourites

‘(We were) intent on one thing and that was to be successful and what you had to do to be successful in music, was you had to have a hit, and a hit had to be uptempo, short, and with no digressions, straight ahead basically’ Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

On August 24th, 1970 Yule took over frontman duties. His brother, Billy Yule, was already filling in for a pregnant Mo Tucker on drums which meant for the final week of the Max’s Kansas City dates there was only one original Velvet in the current band. Somehow, they scraped through the remainder of the residency.

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Beatles movie Help, in the last scene there was a guy running on the beach in crutches saying ‘I’m going to miss the sacrifice, I’m going to miss the sacrifice’ and he ends up being the sacrifice. Well that’s sort of my experience with the velvets. The first time I heard them play was on stage at Max’s and I was playing with them. I was a 17 year old kid working for cab fare, movie tickets. That’s about what I got paid plus free beers and dinners”Billy Yule, Mojo Magazine Feb 2000

Contractually the remaining band were in a bind, they had to tour the upcoming record or they might find themselves in court against Atlantic Records. To promote the release of the record in November the band hired bass player Walter Powers from Yule’s old band The Grass Menagerie. Tucker returned to the drum stool and It’s fair to say the band of plodded along. Instead of residencies in cool NYC pre-punk hang outs, they found themselves headlining places like The Main Point in Pennsylvania, a small coffee house style venue (On a side note, the Main Point homed some shows by Bruce Springsteen and was scene of the first ever live performance of Thunder Road)

After almost a full year of post-Lou life original member Sterling Morrison quits. When the band gig in Texas, Sterling opts to remain in the Lone Star State. Around this time the band have been agreed to tour Europe. Loaded had done well in Amsterdam and the record label wanted to cash in. Europe had always loved the Velvets more than the States and a Lou-less line up could still be a big deal. Doug did a passable impression of Reed with his curly hair, so the stupid limeys probably wouldn’t even notice.

Willie Alexander was a keyboard player who had played with Powers and Yule in the Grass Menagerie. He was hired to fill Sterling’s boots. In November a line-up of Tucker, Yule, Powers and Alexander began a tour of Europe that took in Scotland, Wales, Holland, Belgium, Germany and dozens of shows at universities in England.

“I don’t remember much, I liked the fog and the Newcastle Brown Ale” Willie Alexander 2025 (Facebook Conversation)

With Alexander the band seemed to take on a new lease of life albeit after a few teething troubles. The success may be attributed to two things; Perhaps because the evolvement of the sound but also due to the lack of any Velvet Underground activity in Europe, even though the fans had always been more receptive to them than in their home country.

‘People were just happy to see any Velvet Underground it seemed. In one place in England someone thought I was John Cale. I had dreams about being in this ghost band. I was pretty buzzed most of the time’ Willie Alexander, Hound Dawg Magazine May 2010

This needs to be hammered home, in a pre-Transformer world, no one really cared that that the band didn’t contain Lou Reed or John Cale. Just like no one cared that the then current version of the Flying Burrito Bros didn’t contain Gram Parsons, or that Fleetwood Mac had no Peter Green. Regardless how history judges the band, in 1971 this was the Velvet Underground.

(Poster for a show at the London College of Printing)

The Velvet Underground were taking the UK by storm, albeit medium-sized storm. I suppose I should acknowledge just how surreal it might be for the casual observer to see the band from Warhol’s factory, steeped in drug-counter-culture playing around rural England. While it’s understandable that that group would be booked around a multitude of universities and city locations like the Speakeasy or the Bumper Club, they look quite out of place on the South Peir Parade in Portsmouth or the Malvern Winter Gardens. Did you ever think you’d see a review of a Velvet Underground live show in the Whitstable and Herne Bay Herald?

(Whitstable and Herne Bay Herald 11 November 1971)

Like the UK, the continental leg of the tour is nothing short of a success. The jaunt found the band playing to double the size of the crowds that they were used to, and they even managed a TV appearance in Holland. The boxset Final V.U. released by Captain Trip in the early 2000s features a stellar version of What Goes On, recorded by a Dutch radio station and reimagined with a 1970s rock vibe that wouldn’t be out of place in a setlist by the aforementioned Flying Burrito Brothers. Yes, that is Doug Yule shredding that guitar.

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – What Goes On (live, Holland 1971)

Ideally, this is where the Velvet Underground story should end. However, manager Steve Sesnick had other ideas and he might be described as of dubious character;

“He was a manipulator, he’s a woman hater, which implies a self hater. He’s a very… He lies compulsively, his whole mentality is himself. To get over on everyone else and take care of himself.” Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

The group returned briefly to England,. While there, Steve Sesnick signed a recording deal with Polydor UK for a new album. The songs for record (to be titled Squeeze) were mostly written during the tour and premiered on the road. The idea was that the band would be able to record well–rehearsed songs quicker and cheaper than coming up with arrangements in the studio, like they did with Loaded.

What happens next is up for debate; it’s possible that the record was intended to be a Doug Yule solo record, it’s possible that Polydor always intended to release it as a VU album and it’s possible that both are have an element of truth.

Regardless. Tucker, Alexander and Powers were all sent back to the States and Yule was retained in the UK. Sesnick had a habit of misleading people. It as been implied that he told the rest of the band that they were sacked and he told Doug that they had all quit. Either way, Yule recorded Squeeze as the lone Velvet Underground member with session musicians filling in the studio. Deep Purple‘s Iain Paice is reportedly on drums, although Paice claims not to remember the sessions

“I heard the tape, I don’t think it actually sounds like me. I have no recollection of the session. I might have played on some of the tracks at some point. But it definitely doesn’t sound like me.” Ian Paice, Deep Purple. Mojo Feb 2000

Paice not remembering the sessions might seem a little strange. However, this is once more evidence that the Velvet Underground were not a band of high stature, regarded like they are today. Plus, it should be noted that Ian Paice recorded a lot of sessions in his time. However, Yule has confirmed that he did in fact work with Paice.

‘I was very much caught up in my own hubris at the time, I so full of ‘Ok, here I am, I’m in England, I’m recording, I’m working with Ian Paice of Deep Purple’. Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

The music itself has been derided over the years. In the last decade or so it has come to be viewed in a more favourable light. The accepted narrative will tell you that reviews panned Squeeze but once again the accepted narrative lies through its banana shaped arse.

I think most fans see the Powers / Alexander line up of the VU as a legitimate evolution of the group. They were certainly seen as legitimate enough to support the likes of Alice Cooper and Buddy Miles. However once again Yule had a record to promote and now he didn’t even have a band. Here’s where the bones of contention mainly lie in the hardcore Velvet devotees. In 1972 Yule recruited Rob Norris, George Kay and Mark Nauseef (check out Nauseef’s career; an award winning percussionist and a sometime member of Thin Lizzy, Dio’s Elf and The Ian Gillan Band. He’s also recorded with Jack Bruce, Gary Moore, Andy Summers, Carlos Santana and a fuck ton of others. You could argue he has been creatively the most successful VU member outside of Reed and Cale and you’d be right). In order to retain legitimacy, both Sterling in Moe were both offered places in the band by Sesnic but refused.

‘Sesnick took me aside and told me that Polydor wanted to release Doug’s record as the fifth Velvets album and would line up another European tour. The band would consist of Doug, Sterling, Mo and Me. Maureen came by a few times to jam and to visit with Steve and his wife Penny, but when it was learned that Sterling wasn’t interested in touring Mo changed her mind’ Rob Norris, I Was a Velveteen, Kicks Fanzine 1978

What is true is that the press of 1972 where pretty much on-board with this line up of The Velvet Underground. Copies of Squeeze were promoted in newspaper columns in reviews and offered up as competition prizes. The modern opinion is that the band and the album was instantly derided by the press and the public saw through it all as sham. This isn’t true. While most contemporaneous reviews of the album are mediocre, there is also the odd one that shines.

The Evening Post reviewed the record thusly; “Squeeze kills any suggestion that when Lou Reed walked out the group was hit by creative bankruptcy. The band has parted but not before putting this surprising joyous piece of rock carefully together”

There’s a couple of stand-out songs on Squeeze. Both Friends and Wordless would fit in nicely on Loaded.

mp3 : The Velvet Underground – Friends

mp3: The Velvet Underground – Wordless

I once asked John Cale what he thought of the fact that the band Squeeze who he produced was named after the Doug Yule album. He harrumphed and pretended I asked a different question about how good the musicians were. We’ve not spoken since.

According to Rob Norris, Sesnick was claiming that he owned the name of the Velvet Underground which is possible if he registered the trademark, since he also reportedly signed a publishing deal on Yule’s behalf, never told him about and pocketed the advance money. It’s also worth remembering that Sesnick was prone to bullshitting people. For Doug the tour was an easy choice.

“I got a call from Sesnick who said ‘There’s some people who want to do a tour, do you want to go to England as the Velvet Underground?’ ‘Sure I’d love to’ I said, ‘I don’t want to be a carpenter, I want to be a musician!’. So we put together a band, that was the last one with Rob Norris, the drummer who’s name I can’t remember” Doug Yule, Perfect Sounds Forever 1995

Like his behaviour with skimming Yule’s publishing advance, it seems the tour was little more than a cash grab by Sesnick for the up-front money that promoters would pay. In blunt terms the Velvet Underground had been asset stripped.

“We went over there and we got into London, with the same people that we had worked with before, and as soon as we walked in (to the airport), there was nobody there to meet us. Sesnick didn’t turn up and we didn’t have any money or any hotel. So we were stranded in the middle of London” Doug Yule, Perfect Sounds Forever 1995

Striking a deal with a promoter for another advance, Yule’s Velvet Underground toured the UK for nine shows in 1972 playing such establishments as St David’s University in Lampeter, Wales and the Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (nothing says big time like County Cricket Club). A show at the Top Rank in Cardiff, Wales was featured on the same newspaper advert as a Lou Reed show. This proved not to be the only notable thing about the gig in Wales;

“We had one really rough time in Cardiff. The club was supposed to pay us cash up front and they didn’t, and our road manager said, ‘Well, then they’re not going to play.’ We were in the dressing room and this real sleazy, low-brow guy with the club went on-stage and got these skinhead types all revved up, like ‘Well, they’re here but our money’s not good enough for them.’ They came after us and tried to bang down the door. It was George Kay who said, ‘Shit-ass punks aren’t gonna bother us, we’re gonna go out that door, we’re gonna get in the car and get out of here, and they’re not even gonna touch us”. We formed a ‘V’ with the guitar cases, burst the door down and moved through the crowd, and they didn’t bother us. But I was fearing for my life.” – Rob Norris Mojo, Feb 2000

(From Lou to the VU – Top Rank Cardiff show)

Trouble aside, this even more diluted line up of the Velvet Underground, who still weren’t seen as anything other than legitimate. Once again, the public wanted a Velvet Underground and they got one. Although it must have been quite jarring to find a Velvet Undergroud show advertised on the same page as a Lou Reed show in the Melody Maker, November 4, 1972

“I don’t know why people didn’t go ‘Where’s Lou’ or ‘Where’s Cale’ or ‘What is this’ but they didn’t. The shows were good” Rob Norris, Mojo Feb 2000

Although in more recent times, Doug Yule has been slightly more critical of his actions. Perhaps as his stock has increased with the fans, he’s allowed himself some realignment.

“The band (of 1972) was literally assembled in an afternoon. It was available. That’s one I consider a cash-in trip.” Doug Yule. Mojo, Feb 2000

In 1973 Doug, George Kay, Billy Yule and a guitarist called Don Silverman found themselves playing around the New England area as The Velvet Underground. There’s an oft told tale that they were supposed to be billed as Doug Yule from The Velvet Underground but promoters would shorten the name. Sounds plausible but it’s interesting that in the recorded show that survives from Oliver’s Venue in Boston, Doug doesn’t correct the billing mistake from the stage.

The semi legal boxset ‘The Final VU’ documents the line ups of the band from 1971 until 1973. It shows several decent bands and when the Velvet Underground may have become had the Squeeze album been a success.

Thanks to Lou Reed’s success in the early 1970s, the Velvet Underground gained interest from a larger market. While Reed’s live versions of Velvet songs from Rock and Roll Animal and Lou Reed live are credited with bringing VU songs to a wider audience, it’s the success of Transformer that can be classed as the Year Zero of the re-appraisal of the Velvet Underground. Reed’s success also contributed to mythos of the Squeeze era band being a ‘rip off’

“From what I understand Lou Reed was not real happy about this because he was over there and we were kinda following in his footsteps. He was doing the Transformer tour, and I think he thought what we were doing was pretty much a bunch of bullshit. Which I think was kind of accurate from his perspective.”Rob Norris, Mojo Feb 2000

The point is, had Reed not become a massive 1970s star, the Velvet Underground would be loved today by about the same amount of people who loved them in 1970. Absolutely no one would care that Doug Yule toured with multiple musicians and recorded a solo record under their name. In fact, the fans of the VU would point to Fairport Convention, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Deep Purple, The Byrds and many others and say ‘Yup, that’s what bands did back then’

‘We toured all over England, played also in France, and places like that – and nobody ever said ‘hey, where’s everyone else? There was no complaining from anybody on the road, that this was not the real Velvet Underground. When we finished, we all counted ourselves lucky and went home. That was the last thing that the Velvet Underground officially did.” Doug Yule, Perfect Sound Forever 1995

Not only did the VU probably invent punk (sorry Stooges, MC5, NY Dolls. But they fucking did), but they were the very first of the bands that annoying hipsters could say ‘I liked them before they were cool’.

So, I put it to you had Squeeze been a success and Transformer not so much, then we would view Lou Reed the same way we look at Peter Green or Peter Gabriel. Doug Yule is the Buckingham / Nicks line-up of the Velvet Underground that never quite happened.

Ron Norris’ account of his VU life can be found here https://planetwaves.net/pdf/velveteen-norris.pdf It sometimes contradicts the stories that have come out since but it is an interesting footnote of history.

STEVE McLEAN

Fall

ON THIS DAY : THE FALL’S PEEL SESSIONS #24

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Session #24 was broadcast on this day, 12 August 2004, having been recorded on 4 August 2004.

The Fall’s final ever Peel session. The renaissance of the previous year’s workout is continued here with another crackling performance. All of the tracks – apart from the addition of The Move’s ‘I Can Hear The Grass Grow’ to the revival of ‘Wrong Place. Right Time, appeared on the late 2004 album of demos and live tracks, ‘Interim’. The storming ‘Blindness’ here comes out as the clear winner, while ‘Clasp Hands’ provides another return to The Stooges’ sound. Eleanor Poulou, the third Mrs Smith, adds noteworthy keyboard texture to these fantastic tunes.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Clasp Hands (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Blindness (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – What About Us? (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Wrong Place, Right Time – I Can Hear The Grass Grow (Peel Session)

Production details unknown

Mark E Smith – vocals; Ben Pritchard – guitar; Jim Watts – guitar; Steven Trafford – bass; Spencer Birtwistle – drums; Eleanor Poulou – keyboards; Ed Blaney – guitar, vocals

JC

Smiths

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (27): The Smiths – This Charming Man

From wiki:-

“The earliest version of This Charming Man was recorded on 14 September 1983, in Maida Vale Studio 4, for John Peel’s radio programme (first broadcast: 21 September 1983). Produced by Roger Pusey, and assisted by Ted De Bono, this version of the song was first included on the 1984 compilation Hatful of Hollow. On 28 October 1983, the “Manchester” version was released in the UK in 7-inch and 12-inch formats, reaching number 25 in the UK charts

In December 1983, DJ François Kevorkian released a “New York” mix of the single on Megadisc records. Kevorkian geared the song for nightclub dancefloors. The track was intended to be pressed in limited numbers for New York club DJs. However, Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis liked the mix and gave the release wide distribution in the UK. Morrissey publicly disowned the mix, and urged fans not to purchase copies. Travis later claimed, “It was my idea, but they agreed. They said ‘Go ahead’, then didn’t like it so it was withdrawn.” He also said, “Nothing that ever happened in the Smiths occurred without Morrissey’s guidance; there’s not one Smiths record that went out that Morrissey didn’t ask to do, so there’s nothing on my conscience.”

Of course I rushed out and bought it!!!! I loved the way the Rough Trade logo had been bastardised for the American market.

And, it goes without saying, that I loved this remix and the instrumental version on the b-side.

mp3 : The Smiths – This Charming Man (New York Vocal)
mp3 : The Smiths – This Charming Man (New York Instrumental)

JC

Super Furry Animals

SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A guest series by The Robster

#24: Lazer Beam (2005, Epic, 676 011 7)

Ten years after Super Furry Animals released their first EP, they’d come a very long way. They had forged themselves a path that had put them at the very forefront of the Welsh music scene, had stomped a huge footprint in the overall music scene in the UK, and had carved a loyal following across Europe and the USA, and all while doing their own thing and refusing to follow trends, fashions and expectations.

But things were changing. Increased digitisation in the way people consumed music meant there were so many options and all of a sudden, you didn’t have to spend stupid amounts of cash and hours in record shops to find something different. All those obscure techno, psychedelic, indie, 70s rock records were available online without a great deal of effort. All of a sudden, Super Furry Animals were not sounding as “different” as they used to.

They still had plenty of magic mind, it’s just that some of the fanbase they picked up over the previous decade was moving on, and only the most loyal remained. Us faithful were going to be rewarded a few more times, and it started with a new single and album released in August 2005.

MP3: Laser Beam

I love this one. It’s so irresistibly catchy, and it has all those hallmarks of SFA that we love. It’s also a critique of the political and social state of the word at the time (and sadly, two further decades on, still is…) Gruff’s opening lines state:

“This song is daunted by a radical new vision, no more imperial colonial bastards, no more romantic comedies, this is a fanfare introduction to a high-powered, purposeful theme.”

The words “radical new vision”, as well as other phrases in the lyrics, refer to Tony Blair’s speech at the 2004 Labour Party Conference. “I’ve nicked that wholesale,” Gruff would explain. “But I am offering a radical new vision whereas he wasn’t.”

The song is further explained by Bunf thus:

“Today’s reality is insane so we may as well make our own. It’s about aliens coming down from space and zapping humans with amazing lazer beams that make them intelligent rather than being jerks. It’s obviously a highly unlikely scenario”.

Which is a shame, because the one thing our world needs right now is an alien invasion and intelligence. With our world so-called leaders intent on blowing each other up into oblivion (or rather, blowing us into oblivion while they’re safely tucked away in their underground nuclear bunkers safe from the chaos they’ve wreaked), and the ordinary people of the world becoming so disillusioned with it all they’d rather just soak up social media soundbites and bizarre conspiracy theories spouted by weirdos and billionaires (same thing?) rather than actually THINK about what is actually going on, the world is closer to being doomed than we ever thought possible when Laser Beam was released.

Anyway, the genesis of Lazer Beam lies way back during the ‘Guerrilla’ sessions when a track called John Spex was written, demoed and even mixed, but never actually finished. An attempt to revive it for ‘Rings Around The World’ failed to take it any further. But the band felt there was something in it that was worth persevering with, and it was finally reworked and transformed into the backing track for Lazer Beam.

It was the first – and as it turned out – only single from the band’s 7th studio album ‘Love Kraft’. It was also the last single they’d release with Epic/Sony, their contract ending with this album. Maybe that was why only the one track was put out as a single – Sony couldn’t be bothered to promote an act that was leaving them. Another shame, as there are some excellent tracks to be found on ‘Love Kraft’, even if it wasn’t as immediate, or even quite as enjoyable as its immediate two predecessors.

Laser Beam was also the last time the Super Furries would grace the Top 40 singles chart in the UK, peaking at #28 in its first week of release. There were plenty of critics who loved it, describing it as “an absolute powerhouse of a song”, “acid-carnivalesque” and “like a kids TV theme heard through an acid-pop filter”. One or two critics, however, defied the general consensus, but when you consider the NME called it “the worst Furries song ever” at a time when no one took the NME in the slightest bit seriously (and to be fair, no one has ever since), I think we can brush over the negatives. But, the fact that a band so universally loved was starting to attract some less than favourable reviews comes back to what I said at the start – things were beginning to change…

Lazer Beam was released on 7” and CD formats, both of which contained this upbeat little number:

MP3: Sunny Seville

I like this one a lot, but it is so unlike everything else on ‘Love Kraft’ it was always destined to be a b-side. It sounds like it’s a cover rather than an original, it’s so unlike a Super Furry Animals song. However, it might be a hint of what was to come…

The CD also contained this:

MP3: Colonise The Moon

An acoustic track with 60s psych infused into its DNA, and some birdsong. It’s a tad longer than it perhaps should be, but otherwise, both these tracks show an improvement in b-sides over the ‘Phantom Power’ period.

Now, bonus tracks. ‘Love Kraft’ celebrates its 20th birthday this year. At the point of writing, an anniversary edition has not been announced, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. It means there’s not a huge amount of bonus material to share (something that’s going to become more and more noticeable as we enter the final six weeks of the series), but at least with this single, I can turn to the various promos and collect together some bits and pieces.

MP3: Lazer Beam [radio edit]
MP3: Lazer Beam [Danger Mouse remix]

The Danger Mouse remix offers a radically different interpretation of the song, but I happen to like it. It even plays around with Gruff’s melody in the chorus. In the US, this version (listed as Lazerbeam) was released on a split 7” with a Danger Mouse remix of Easy/Lucky/Free by Bright Eyes.

Two more remixes, neither of which do an awful lot for me, especially the latter which is just rubbish:

MP3: Lazer Beam [DJ Marlboro remix]
MP3: Lazer Beam [LFO remix]

And finally, here’s the song that dates back to the ‘Guerilla’ sessions that eventually became this fine single:

MP3: John Spex [unfinished rough mix]

Next week – the post-Sony years commence…

The Robster

Fatherson

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #464: FATHERSON

Today’s featured band are well-loved by many in Scotland.

Fatherson hail from Kilmarnock, a blue-collar industrial town some 22 miles south-west of Glasgow. They are, individually, Ross Leighton (guitar, lead vocals), Marc Strain (bass) and Greg Walkinshaw (drums) who came together along with a past band member Chris Beltran (guitar, keyboard and backing vocals in 2011. The first singles between 2011 and 2013, a period in which the band toured extensively.

Debut album I Am An Island was released in 2014. It has been followed by Open Book (2016), Sum Of All Your Parts (2018) and Normal Fears (2022) – only the debut album was as a four-piece as Chris Beltran left in 2015.

At this point, I have to confess that I own none of the albums, or indeed any of their singles or EPs. I just never took to the band, but that’s really a matter of my taste. As I said, they are popular with many, and have won new audiences the old-fashioned way, through hard work in the studio and out on the road, where they have opened for many a big name including Biffy Clyro, Frightened Rabbit, Panic! at the Disco, Feeder, Twin Atlantic, Enter Shikari and Idlewild.

What I do have is their contribution to Whole Lotta Roadies, a charity digital album issued in 2020 with the aim of raising monies that could go members of live crews in Scotland who were facing the prospect of at least a year with no income as a result of shows being cancelled as the COVID pandemic took its ferocious grip on society. The album featured 12 well-known Scottish bands, but with the twist that the crew members themselves would play on the songs – we’ve all been to enough gigs to know that roadies are often very talented and possibly frustrated musicians:

mp3 : Fatherson – Just Past The Point Of Breaking (Whole Lotta Roadies version)

The original version can be found on the Open Book album.

More info on Whole Lotta Roadies can be found here.

JC

Jam

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(8)

The post-punk/new wave bands were never all that keen to lift too many album tracks as singles. Take The Jam, for example.

Many of their singles were stand-alone efforts – All Around The World, News Of The World, Strange Town, When You’re Young, Going Underground, Funeral Pyre, Absolute Beginners, The Bitterest Pill and Beat Surrender to be precise.

Most of their albums contained just one single – In The City, The Modern World, Setting Sons, Sound Affects and The Gift fall into this category, albeit the latter two did yield two further hits singles via imports.

Which leaves us with All Mod Cons.

It’s a real anomaly in that three of its songs – David Watts, A-Bomb In Wardour Street and Down In the Tube Station at Midnight, were already known to record-buyers prior to the album’s release in November 1978, thanks to the first two being on a double-A side and the latter being released as part of the efforts by Polydor to better market the band.

I recall Paul Weller, while being happy that the band was beginning to enjoy chart success, was miffed that fans were being asked to shell out for songs that were otherwise available. So there was absolutely no way he would have agreed to this being released as a single:-

mp3: The Jam – Billy Hunt

One of the most immediate songs on All Mod Cons, I have no doubt that the record company execs would have wanted to put this into the shops on 7″ vinyl and relished it going at least Top 20, such was the popularity of the band and the way the song fitted in perfectly to the sounds of early 1979.

Should’ve been a single? Well, let’s just say it merited such an accolade, but let’s be glad it never came to that.

JC

Undertones

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #103

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 103: The Undertones – ‘My Perfect Cousin’ (Sire ’80)

Dear friends,

for me, The Undertones simply had to feature in this series. I have always loved them very much, and even today I’d rate them as being one of my Top Five bands. Although they grew up in the punk or post-punk era, they were never ‘punk’ to me, a fabulous mixture between punk, power-pop, new wave and rhythm. The debut album from 1979 is ace, all killers, no fillers – and the second one, from a year later, is absolutely great as well. If you never listened to it in its entirety, you should do so soon!

They are often referred to as “Derry’s finest”, I know too little about the late 70s Derry music scene to be able to confirm this, but for sure they must have been somewhat special. They got together in 1974 and from 1975 to 1983 there were no personnel changes: Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O’Neill (rhythm guitar), his brother Damian (lead guitar), Michael Bradley (bass) and Billy Doherty (drums) . This may not sound very important, but do me a favor and try to remember what you were up to when you were that young: I’m willing to have small bet that you did not write, record and release an album as groundbreaking as The Undertones’ debut (from (January) 1979, as I said) when you, like them, were only 21 (Feargal + Billy), 22 (John) 18 (Damian) or 20 (Michael). An album, mind you, which included the classic ‘Teenage Kicks’ in all its greatness!

But I went for something different today, one which perfectly shows what made The Undertones so very special: they were more into teenage angst and heartbreak than into politics, you see. They came up with very clever lyrics most of the time, put into shape by Feargal’s distinctive voice. We have their sixth single today, and as far as I know it’s the one that charted the highest. But don’t let that put you off, I could have chosen any single preceding this one, this is no chart-pop nonsense, this is The Undertones in top form:

mp3: The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin

Enjoy,

Dirk

Fleetwood Mac

‘STEALING’. A FOUR-PART GUEST SERIES IN BOOK FORM : #1 FLEETWOOD MAC

A guest series by Steve McLean

First up…..the Prelude

In October last year, I sat down to write a blog for this site about the story of The New Deep Purple, a band that toured in 1980, causing much controversy with the fans.

As I pulled more at the thread of the story, it became apparent there were multiple tales like this dotted around the music world. “Oh great” I thought. I’ll do a series of blogs. I always wanted to do a series of blogs with a common theme.

I started finding all sorts of murky tales involving bands like The Zombies, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly and even Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

By the end of May..2025 I’d written about 80,000 words, but most of the story was about Deep Purple, I’d accidentally written a book*. Which is lovely, but I didn’t know what to with the rest of the work.

So I’ve decided to ask the lovely JC to carry the blogs as a series after all…what follows, across today and each of the next three Wednesdays, will be posts which are a lot longer than what you would normally find on TVV.

JC and I, very much, beg your indulgence…..

Stealing…. Fleetwood Mac

Most music fans are aware of the nostalgia circuit; One member of the Bill Haley’s Comets supported the Original Herman’s Hermits featuring the drummer with the show opened by one of The New Seekers billed as The New New Seakers . There has always been a market, not a massive one, but a market nonetheless for bands who will keep a name alive with only the flimsiest connection to the original group.

On paper, Fleetwood Mac are probably the biggest band ever to have the ‘New’ prefix. It’s worth keeping in mind though that Fleetwood Mac have been multiple different bands during their existence; The blues rock pioneers, cult favourites, the 1970s and 80s cocaine fuelled behemoth, the 90s Dave Mason led version that played Butlins (probably) and finally the We-Love-Money-More-Than-We-Hate-Each-Other festival headliners that featured Tim Finn of Crowded House. Tim Finn! Truly the glory years. On a side note, whenever Lindsey Buckingham has left Fleetwood Mac he’s been replaced by two people, make of that what you will.

In 1973 Mac fit very snuggly into the second category, attracting college students and die-hard blues fans who remembered the hits like Oh Well and Rattlesnake Shake. Christine McVie and Bruce Welch had done a lot to drag the band into the radio friendly mid-70s but it’s safe to say that most people didn’t care about Fleetwood Mac. That aside, the song Hypnotised from 1973 was something of a radio hit and might be considered the start of FM’s 1970s ascendancy.

mp3 : Fleetwood Mac – Hypnotised

The current Mac roster consisted of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie plus Bob’s Weston and Welch. Weston was the relative newcomer. He’d replaced Danny Kirwan and had contributed to both albums they’d recorded in 1973, Penguin and Mystery to Me. His most visible musical contribution was probably dueting with Christine on Did You Ever Love Me.

mp3 : Fleetwood Mac – Did You Ever Love Me

But his biggest contribution to the legacy of the band is without a doubt his shrewd career move to have an affair with Mick Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd.

“Bob Weston had an affair with Mick’s wife and Mick found about it and just left. He was absolutely distraught, their marriage wasn’t going very well. Mick was really in a bad way for a while” Christine McVie, Off The Record, 1986

Fleetwood and Boyd had been on and off childhood sweethearts for fifteen years and had been married since 1970 (they would divorce, re-marry and divorce a second time). In the 1980s she married King Crimson drummer Ian Wallace. Honestly, marrying one drummer can seem like a mistake but two? At some point you have to just assume the lady had a thing for mopping up drool.

Once Fleetwood found out about the affair the group soldiered on for a few weeks, but ultimately they fired Weston and went on hiatus. The band cancelled the rest of the dates and had binned the upcoming US tour in the new year. Cliff Davis, Mac manager and former Brian Epstein apprentice went fucking nuts. He would be liable for a hefty legal bill, and his reputation would be in tatters with promoters.

“The manager said do you realise what you’ve done, “we’re gonna be sued for millions.” I mean we wouldn’t have been. The way Mick wasn’t it wouldn’t have been possible for him to play. He was really in a bad way. So we all went back home again” Christine McVie, Off The Record, 1986

Cliff Davis decided that he alone owned the name to Fleetwood Mac and set about putting together a new band.

“I want to get this out of the public’s mind as far as the band being Mick Fleetwood’s band, this band is my band. This band has always been my band.” Clifford Davis, manager of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour, Rolling Stone February 28, 1974

While it’s true that Mick Fleetwood was the only remaining member of the band that recorded their first single as John McVie joined after their debut release, it was often assumed that the Fleetwood and the Mac in the band name was due to the ownership group. Not according to Davis;

A lot of people over the years have misconstrued the Fleetwood Mac as Fleetwood and McVie. ‘Fleetwood Mac’ was a song written by Peter Green when he was with John Mayall.” Clifford Davis, manager of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour, Rolling Stone February 28, 1974

What happened next is where the tale gets murky, depending on who you talk to. Davis did this with Mick Fleetwood’s consent or Mick Fleetwood had absolutely no knowledge of this happening. Davis hired former Curved Air member Kirby Gregory and built a group around him and vocalist Elmer Gantry from Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera.

Both Kirby and Gantry (real name Dave Terry) had recently been in a band called Legs, their single So Many Faces is something of a lost freakbeat classic.

mp3: Legs – So Many Faces

According to the new members, the legalities of the band at this point were certain, Davis had the paperwork and the contracts and Fleetwood was on board. They were told that while Fleetwood wasn’t going to start the tour with them, he would join them partway through after he had rested.

“I just decided it was time to change the band, certainly onstage, and that’s what I did. I’ve always been sort of the leader. I’ve always sort of picked who was going to be in it and who wasn’t. I decided to keep Mick.” Clifford Davis, manager of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour, Rolling Stone February 28, 1974

The members of the new band all corroborate the story; they were told that Fleetwood would be in the band eventually, even claiming to have met them beforehand

“Mick Fleetwood came to our house and we talked through the new band, and it all seemed fine. Mick said, well, I can’t actually come and rehearse with you, it was fairly imminent going to America to tour, but if you get [a temporary] drummer, I’ll join you for the tour.” Elmer Gantry, The New Fleetwood Mac Member, BBC Radio 2017

As with a lot of these stories, multiple versions are told and there are various versions of truth, Legend has it that the band played poorly and the audience were upset with the shows, but this doesn’t quite line up with some first-hand accounts.

“[The New Fleetwood Mac] were really good. I don’t know if the crowd was just really stoned or didn’t know what Fleetwood Mac looked like,” Rich Engler, Promoter ‘Behind the Stage Door,”

While you would expect such a quote from a show’s promoter, press reviews were mixed. Once again, the negative shows rise to the top. The band and their peers were happy with their output;

“Joe Walsh told me at one gig in Florida that despite Mick Fleetwood not being there, he thought we were rockin’ with the best of ’em. I don’t recall any major hostility towards us either. Elmer and I just thought: ‘We are stuck with this so let’s make the most of it’ – and we gave it all we had.” Paul Martinez, The New Fleetwood Mac bass player, Classic rock Classic Rock 168, in March 2012.

When Davis’ Mac where on the road they were sometimes billed as The New Fleetwood Mac or Fleetwood Mac’s New Band but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest it wasn’t the con that history has declared it to be. A prefix of ‘THE NEW’ on a band poster rarely means original members but it doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the performance. just ask the New Yardbirds. This isn’t the case for The New Kids on the Block, who were definitely shit. It should be noted that ‘THE NEW’ was doing some pretty covert work on some of the Fleetwood Mac posters

(Advert for The New Fleetwood Mac.. spot ‘The New’)

Eventually the tour starts to break down. As news of the stunt spreads around the music press, the shows suddenly start to suffer. In a self fulfilling prophecy, the band who were playing well, start playing badly when a crowd turns up and expects them to play badly. That’s the problem with the court of public opinion, it rarely changes its mind after the initial decision.

At this point Mick Fleetwood starts to decry the actions of the Davis & Co, at least publicly. However, it was Bob Welch who took the lead and flew back to England to meet Fleetwood and the rest of the actual members.

“It is a rip-off. The manager put together a group real fast using the name Fleetwood Mac before we had a chance to do anything about it.” Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac Member, Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour, Rolling Stone February 28, 1974

Welch stepping up to the plate is a weird move. He wasn’t an original member of the group and he was pretty burned out from the constant tour-album-tour regime. Could it be that Welch was the focal point for the legal action because he was the least informed member of Davis’ plans. Davis and The New Fleetwood Mac have always claimed that Mick knew and approved of his plans. It would be naïve to believe that at least the McVie’s didn’t also. According to Bob Brunning’s book Rumours and Lies, John McVie sent Clifford Davis a postcard from Haiti saying ‘Good luck with the new band’.

“I was making practical arrangements for auditions and rehearsals for the ‘New’ group in the middle of December 1973. I met John in a pub in Chelsea. John asked me whether or not Cliff would ‘get away with’ what he was doing. I asked him what he meant and he said ‘Putting completely different names on stage and calling them Fleetwood Mac’ I said I did not think he’d be wasting his time doing so if he thought it would not succeed’ Phil McDonnell, Bob Brunning, Rumours and Lies.

Regardless, if the band had agreed to the plan and then later changed their mind or if Davis was making a grab for the name, lawfully it was a murky water.

The problem for the group was the precedent set with multiple line-up changes plus Davis involvement in the band’s formation. He might actually have a legal case. The law generally considers a band as a company rather than a work of art and doesn’t care too much about who the founding members are or who has been in the band the longest. It tends to just notice who signed the contracts and who holds the purse strings. To make matters worse, it seemed that the band’s record label where none-the-wiser as to who exactly that it was that they had a record contact with; Fleetwood and McVie or Davis.

“I’m in the midst of trying to find out who has exclusivity on the name,” Don Schmitzerle, executive director, Warner Bros label management,

One major issue, when a band is treated as a brand or a franchise it that the Brand Manager could hire different musicians every single show and not care about the quality of the performance. They may not even be too concerned about the songs the outfit played or the style they are played in. In other words, the people who paid to see Fleetwood Mac may well end up seeing a Jazz Trio playing under the name Fleetwood Mac. That would be an issue for a court to consider. Welch summed it up neatly;

“To the band’s thinking that’s kind of beside the point. If he [Davis] has the rights to the band’s name, theoretically he can put anybody there. He can put four dogs barking on a leash and call it Fleetwood Mac. Basically what it boils down to is the manager flipped his lid. We’re going to take legal action as soon as we know where we can take it from.” Bob Welch, Fleetwood Mac Member, Fleetwood Mac Flak: Manager Takes Name, Not Members, On Tour, Rolling Stone February 28, 1974

To play devil’s advocate for Davis’ plans; he was seemingly convinced that the band were breaking up and not just going on hiatus. Christine McVie was starting a solo project, John McVie was making noises about going to LA and Fleetwood was making noises about moving to Kenya. Clifford had contracts that needed fulfilled before the band wound up, or the lot of them would be in financial ruin for years. As a reputation saving move, it would seem like an okay idea

The legally dubious point comes if the hypothetical Jazz Trio include a musician who is recognised to be Fleetwood Mac and has given their blessing. It appears the legal case against Davis hinged on whether or no Mick Fleetwood was actually involved in the project.

“For a while we believed that Mick would show. However, when he never appeared and we were later branded in the press as imposters, I felt a rage towards him that has taken decades to subside – even slightly. We desperately wanted out, but we were convinced that we had to do the gigs or end up in court in the States, so we carried on.” Elmer Gantry, ‘The New Fleetwood Mac’ Classic Rock Magazine 168, in March 2012.

The closing bell tolled for The New Fleetwood Mac after only about 15 shows. The band were due to perform to the assembled press at Howard Stein’s Academy of Music. Stein had decided to offer refunds to anyone not satisfied with the show as long as they left within the first fifteen minutes. It was announced that Mick Fleetwood wouldn’t be there and the band would be playing an instrumental only set. It seems Elmer Gantry’s voice decided not to play ball that evening, so the band played a set full of vocal-free boogie-woogie numbers, much to the crowd’s annoyance.

The Welch led legal case proved fruitful. Eventually the high court in England found in favour of the Mick Fleetwood and co for an injunction, but not before Davis himself had pulled the plug on the tour. He couldn’t stop the avalanche of bad press, regardless if the band played well or not. Eventually Davis Vs Fleetwood Mac was settled out of court with neither side being too keen to comment on who got what and how much… and importantly it’s never been revealed as to who in the Fleetwood Mac camp knew what and when they knew it.

“Davis split with the original band of course, and I believe an ‘accommodation’ was reached. Cliff certainly didn’t seem to be any poorer for the experience.” Elmer Gantry, ‘The New Fleetwood Mac’ Classic Rock Magazine 168, in March 2012

It seems strange that Davis was keen to protect his reputation as a manager and music industry professional and yet would risk throwing it all away with a stunt like this. It could have been ego but it also could have been that he believed himself to be telling the truth. Certainly, Gantry is still convinced that the band had official blessing from Fleetwood;

“If Mick had at any point said to us that he had changed his mind, or simply didn’t want to do it, we would never have gone to the States, I don’t know what his motives were and I’m not going to guess, but I can say, despite all the lurid claims, we never were required to go to court.” Elmer Gantry, ‘The New Fleetwood Mac’ Classic Rock Magazine 168, in March 2012

Gantry wasn’t alone in this assessment;

“I think Mick Fleetwood, in a moment of despair over his wife’s infidelity, agreed to do something that he later regretted, and to save face with his fellow bandmates he denied having made any agreement. It’s regrettable that he was not man enough to admit his mistake and come clean with everyone. So as far as I am concerned, he not only lost his wife, he lost his honour too – not to mention his hair!” Paul Martinez, The New Fleetwood Mac Bass Player, Classic Rock Magazine 168, in March 2012

The aftermath of the event was notable for both parties. The members of The New Fleetwood went on to form a funk rock band Stretch who hit the charts with the song ‘Why Did You Do It?’ reportedly about Mick Fleetwood agreeing to hire them.

mp3: Stretch – Why Did You Do It?

“The line that says: ‘The only ones who know the truth/Man that’s him, me and you,’ was about the fact that me, Elmer and Mick sat in our Tooting flat and discussed the new Fleetwood Mac” Kirby Gregory , The New Fleetwood Mac, Classic Rock Magazine 168 in March 2012

While Mick Fleetwood’s stance has remained consistent and one of total denial;

“To this day, I don’t know the names of the musicians involved and I don’t wanna know.” Mick Fleetwood; in the book ‘Fleetwood’ (1990)

Which to anyone familiar with the Watergate story, it sounds a little like a ‘non-denial denial.’ Indeed it seems to be a tone that the whole band followed, a ‘party line’ as it were’;

“Mick had no thought of going back to America with this whole bogus band” Christine McVie, Off The Record, 1986

The whole chapter could have been considered closed until in 2012 Classic Rock Magazine published an excerpt from the court case that seemed to imply that Fleetwood had at least met with Gantry and Kirby;

“On 13 November, as the plaintiff’s own evidence discloses, the plaintiff Fleetwood alone went to see the third and fourth defendants [Gantry and Gregory] and discussed the position and did not object”. Court Transcript

This comment has since been repeated by Gantry on the record;

“It wasn’t until about three years ago that somebody sent me anonymously some court papers where in court in the seventies Mick admitted he’d been to our house and discussed Fleetwood Mac” Elmer Gantry, The New Fleetwood Mac, BBC Johnny Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies 2017

The April 1974 confidential settlement that saw Davis relinquish his rights to his name may have actually been a canny bit of business, if you ignore what Fleetwood Mac would go on to become later in the decade.

In the early autumn of the same year, the band were back on tour. Listings found the line up Welch, McVie, McVie and Fleetwood listing them as ‘The Real Fleetwood Mac’

(Gig listings for The Real Fleetwood Mac)

Mick Fleetwood or any other member of Fleetwood Mac haven’t spoken about the event in years. Give the passage of time and the clouding of memories plus the fact that we all carve out our own reality from the truths we tell ourselves, who are the mere onlookers to call anyone a liar? But since no one from the official Fleetwood Mac camp seems to want to acknowledge the existence of The New Fleetwood Mac, it’s seems only fair to give the last word to Gantry;

“It’s not been contested because it’s absolutely true and it’s in court papers”Elmer Gantry, The New Fleetwood Mac, BBC Johnny Walker’s Sounds of the Seventies 2017

If taken on his word then it seems that Elmer and the rest of The New Fleetwood Mac were all victims, either of a duplicitous scam or a bad idea going wrong. However, Kirby and Gantry weren’t the only victims in this affair. The ripples of the venture touched a lot more people than just the main players. The band Silverhead supported The New Fleetwood Mac on a few dates before the ill-fated tour was brought to an early end.

“The gigs got pulled one by one. We had to go back to LA to regroup and find another tour maybe, but it was too late as everyone had schedules already out on the road. So, we sat in LA for weeks and all the money we earned was used up on fees and travel and we had to go home.” Pete Thompson, Drummer, Silverhead

Silverhead were signed in 1972 to the record label set up by Deep Purple called Purple Records. Unfortunately, the group weren’t just dropped from the tour though. Purple Records were desperate for the band to ‘break America’ and to do that they needed to be playing high profile shows. Since they were not able to promote their album via their Fleetwood Mac support slots, the label found it hard to bankroll them.

“(The tour collapsing) led to Purple records dropping us. Silverhead broke up soon after sadly and set me on the road to severe depression along with others in the band.” Pete Thompson, Drummer, Silverhead

Pete did eventually make a name for himself, becoming one of the most sought-after rock drummers around. He worked with (among others) Robert Plant and Robin Trower. His colleague Nigel Harrison would later join Blondie. Eventually, in Pete’s own words ‘It all worked out’.

For Fleetwood Mac, everything was set to go back to normal. Two albums a year and near constant gig schedule with respectable crowd numbers in the high hundreds and albums that straddle to US top 50. It was a very good living. Welch recorded one last album and performed one last tour. The Heroes Are Hard to Find album saw the band crawl ever closer to what they were about to become.

mp3: Fleetwood Mac – Heroes Are Hard To Find

As often the case, there was an unintended outcome to the event. Bob Welch, is often referred to as the man who saved Fleetwood Mac, found the whole affair incredibly draining and mentally taxing so he eventually quit the band. It had been one hurdle too many for a band that had been delivering on a punishing schedule of eight albums in five years and near-constant touring with only relative success to show for it. His marriage was breaking down and he was tired of essentially ‘running the band’. He managed to see out the rest of the year and jumped ship for a solo career at the end 1974.

The court case had been instrumental in convincing Fleetwood Mac that they needed to move to the USA (that and the fact they couldn’t get arrested in the UK). With Welch gone they needed a new guitarist and front person, so they turned to Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. and superstardom was on the horizon.

It’s strange to think that that Bob Weston’s poor life choices would ultimately give the world some of the best rock music ever produced. In honour of that wonderous period of clouded judgement I’d like to close this blog with a salute to his solo career…… HAHAHAHA nope….

mp3: Fleetwood Mac – Monday Morning

I’d like to thank Pete Thompson for answering my emails.

STEVE McLEAN

* JC adds

Steve is far too modest to push his book on to you, but I’m more than happy to do so. Click here to order.

I’ll admit to not knowing the foggiest about Deep Purple, far less the tale of how there was a counterfeit band on the go for a bit, and so I’ve already put in my order. Might end up being reviewed on the blog in due course….

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : AUGUST 2025 : ‘YOU AND ME AGAINST THE WORLD : 2 WOMEN, 5 BANDS, ’80s EDINBURGH by SASKIA HOLLING

I don’t have too many regrets in life. I’ve been incredibly lucky with every big decision I’ve ever had to make, personally and professionally, and as I move disgracefully into my 60s, I grow increasingly grateful for everything with each passing day. But, as I turned the pages of this wonderfully written newly published book about the growth, development and the death of the indie-music scene in Edinburgh in the 80s, I did get the occasional pang of ‘what if?’

Please allow me to explain. I moved to Edinburgh to live and work, at the age of 22, in the summer of 1985, eventually moving back to Glasgow in early 1990. I arrived in the capital with a love of music that had been with me all my life, but really ignited by the arrival of post-punk and further nurtured by meeting like-minded souls throughout my university years. I was convinced that Glasgow was still the place to be for music, particularly the live scene, and I spent many weekends travelling back west doing my best to keep up with things, but before too long, I got tired of this and looked around Edinburgh for things to get involved in.

In due course, I hooked up with some lovely people who were hoping to make a name for themselves in the creative arts through acting, dancing and stand-up comedy, and soon found myself immersed in the world of community theatre. It was great fun, and I can look back with pride on some of the shows I was involved, including being part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and ‘acting’ alongside people who would in due course make a name for themselves in film, TV and professional theatre.

No regrets at all about how I spent my leisure time in my adopted city, but as You and Me Against The World details across more than 400 hugely enjoyable pages, my short time as a luvvie coincided with Edinburgh experiencing a vibrant music scene of the type that was really up my street, if only I’d been paying attention. The ‘what if’ stems from wondering what might have happened if I’d met up socially with the musicians rather than the actors?

I’ve actually long been aware of what I missed out on, thanks in part to a friendship with Jacques the Kipper who, not long after we met in 1989, began to fill me in on what I’d been missing across the indie-scene in Scotland and further afield. Gaps in my music collection were gradually filled in, but have been accelerated greatly in recent years from the release of a number of compilation albums and box-sets whose liner notes offer some excellent background. The growth of the internet, and in particular blogs and fan-based sites, has also been a godsend.

There’s loads of info out there, and Saskia Holling has done a remarkable job in knitting this particular story together, and the book goes way beyond what it is suggested via its title. I make no apologies now for pinching a few paras from Saskia’s introduction. as there’s no better way to explain her achievement:-

“So, here he have the story of five bands whose fates were reliant on each other: Rote Kapelle, the Shop Assistants, Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes, The Fizzbombs and The Motorcycle Boy. The story is told through Margarita Vazquez Porte and the late Alex Taylor, whose voice I have attempted to make heard via extracts from music papers and other media interviews. These two women were musically involved, sometimes only briefly, with four out of these five bands. Both dealt with the experiences that involvement brought in different ways.

“This book is also the story of Margarita and Alex’s bandmates: Ian Binns, Chris Henman, David Keegan, Malcolm Kergan, Michael Kerr, Katy Lironi, Angus McPake, Johnny Muir, Fran Schoppler and Andrew Tully, along with Janie Nicholl and Allison Young of another Edinburgh-based band alive for a short burst in the 80s, The Vultures. These stories take us on a journey from school days to post-punk teenage years, to people meeting and making music in a small local independent scene. Along the way, we uncover the ‘shambling’, ‘anorak’, ‘cutie’ and ‘blonde’ representations of the national DIY independent music scene in the UK press and how that played into each band’s story”

The extent of Saskia’s research can be measured by her ‘References section’ with more than 100 articles from the contemporary music press quoted in some shape or form, and a further fifty online sources, including print, audio and visual, being sourced along the way. Oh, and on top of that, there’s the extensive interviews she did with many of the protagonists.

The thing that comes across more than anything, certainly for me, is that across a discography of more than 30 singles or albums released during the decade, you could count on the fingers of one hand the number which were commercially successful. All the bands at some point in their careers had their champions in the music press, albeit the same publications would, as happens with all singers and bands who are around for any length of time, come to disown or dismiss them as irrelevant, often on a whim. The sinister thing that comes through, however, is how sexism and misogyny, particularly within the UK music press of the era, played a significant and horrific part in things; even worse, but unsurprisingly, is that record label moguls were equally guilty of such behaviours.

You and Me Against The World really did give me a great deal to think about, but at the same time, it made me want to put aside all other music playing here in Villain Towers and listen again to the bands and musicians whose stories are so well told. I’m not going to claim that every record was wonderful and should be in the collections of anyone serious about indie music, but there’s more than enough to warrant the sort of Imaginary Compilation Album with which this blog has been associated with for many years. But maybe for another day. In the meantime, here’s a few singles:-

mp3: Rote Keppelle – These Animals Are Dangeroos (In Tape Records, 1986)
Andrew Tully (vocals), Margarita Vasquez-Ponte (vocals), Chris Henman (guitar), Ian Binns (keyboards), Malcolm Kergan (bass), Jonathan Muir (drums)

mp3: Shop Assistants – Safety Net (53rd & 3rd Records, 1987)
Alex Taylor (vocal), David Keegan (guitar), Sarah Kneale (bass), Ann Donald (drums), Laura McPhail (drums)

mp3: Jesse Garon & The Desperados – The Rain Fell Down (Narodnik Records, 1987)
Fran Schoppler (vocal), Andrew Tully (guitar/vocal), Kevin McMahon (guitar), Stuart Clarke (guitar), Angus McPake (bass), Margarita Vasquez-Ponte (drums)

mp3: The Fizzbombs – Sign On The Line (Narodnik Records, 1987)
Katy Lironi (vocal), Margarita Vasquez-Ponte (guitar/backing vocals), Ann Donald (bass), Angus McPake (drums)

mp3: The Motorcycle Boy – Big Rock Candy Mountain (Rough Trade, 1987)
Alex Taylor (vocals), Michael Kerr (guitar), Dave Scott (guitar), Eddie Connelly (bass), Paul McDermott (drums)

The book is available direct from Spinout Publications for £17.99 plus P&P. Click here to do so. Trust me, you’ll have a fine time, not just reading all that Saskia has to offer, but going down the inevitable rabbit holes listening to the music.

JC

Fountains Of Wayne

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (25) : Fountains Of Wayne – Radiation Vibe

Most of the singles appearing as part of the CD Lucky Dip are from the mid-90s, with many of them being picked up long after the time of their release via bargain bins or as cheap second-hand offerings. My copy of the debut single from Fountains Of Wayne has a 99p sticker on the front, but not from any easily identifiable shop or store, which means it was likely one of those found in Missing Records, a vast second-hand emporium in Glasgow whose location has shifted around a few times over the decades. It’s a shop I used to love browsing in, but in recent years it has annoyed me more often than not thanks to its practice of charging silly money for a large part of its second-hand vinyl, taking advantage of the hipsters and younger consumers eager to get their hands on original copies of singles and albums.

But back in the late 90s, it was very much a shop stacked with CDs, a medium that has had far fewer examples of vastly inflated prices being attached to the stock, and it was good fun rifling through the shelves looking for things.

I remember seeing the video for Radiation Vibe on television one day, back when it had just been released in 1997. I’m sure it was on one of the early editions of Top of The Pops 2, which went out on BBC2 and featured a mix of old performances from days gone by along with some promo videos from new singers and bands who were tipped to have some upcoming commercial success. I remember quite liking the song, but not enough to rush out and buy it immediately for whatever silly price CD singles were going for in early 1997. Handing over 99p a few months later was quite sufficient.

mp3; Fountains of Wayne – Radiation Vibe

There were three other songs on the CD. I can say in all honesty that airing them in preparation for this post would be the first time they have been played in the best of 30 years and I had no idea what they would sound like:-

mp3 : Fountains of Wayne – Karpet King
mp3 : Fountains of Wayne – Janice’s Party
mp3 : Fountains of Wayne – Imperia

The first of them reminded me a bit of the mellow side of Teenage Fanclub in places. The others merely annoyed me.

JC

Super Furry Animals

SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A guest series by The Robster

#23: The Man Don’t Give A Fuck – Live (2004, Epic, 675 304 6)

This week’s episode is short and sweet. Not because I’m getting bored, but because there’s not much to write about. The song in question was originally released in 1996 and thus has already been covered in this series back here, but here’s a version that was released as a single in September 2004:

MP3: The Man Don’t Give A Fuck [live at London’s Hammersmith Apollo]

I’m pretty sure that since 1995, there has not been a SFA live show where they haven’t performed this song. In fact, it became their de facto set closer. Essentially, the standard song would be played for around 5 minutes, before all but Cian would leave the stage. He would then continue the track in his own inimitable way with an extended electronic wig-out for as long as it took for the others to change into yeti costumes and bound back onto the stage to conclude the show for the final couple of minutes.

On this occasion at the Hammersmith Apollo (sorry, LONDON’s Hammersmith Apollo as it is stated on the sleeve, just to remind us what the most important musical city in the world is… Thanks BPI!), Cian’s solo part was extended even more than usual, the result being a version of The Man Don’t Give A Fuck lasting 20 minutes in length!

The original version set a chart record for the most number of f-bombs in a chart single. This was beaten a couple years later by Insane Clown Posse’s Fuck The World. The Furries’ title was reclaimed with this release, though I’m not sure how many times the word is used. Feel free to count them yourself and post in the comments if you have nowt better to do…

It was put out as a single to tie in with the impending release of ‘Super Furry Animals Songbook’, a compilation of the band’s singles a few weeks later. The studio version of The Man… was included on that album, not this live version, which itself was only produced in limited numbers. Only two formats were released in the UK, a 12” and a CD, both of which contained just the one track, no b-sides. Promo CDs, however, contained two edits – one with the swear words, and one, rather hilariously, without!

MP3: The Man Don’t Give A Fuck [live – edit]
MP3: The Man Don’t Give A Fuck [live – radio edit]

The lack of b-sides this week means I kind of feel like you’re being cheated, so I’ve dug out something from a bootleg I have. In 2004, Gruff and Bunf did some promotional performances while the band was on tour in the US. While in Denver, Colorado, they stopped by Twist & Shout Records to play an instore show. Included in their rather informal set was a song dating from the same period as The Man Don’t Give A Fuck, so I’ve decided to throw this one in today out of the kindness of my heart.

MP3: Gathering Moss [live in-store at Twist & Shout Records]

Next week, one of my faves.

The Robster

Father Sculptor

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #463: FATHER SCULPTOR

It really was careless of me to feature Father Sculptor just a few weeks ago, given that their turn to be part of the alphabetical run-through (second time around) of Scottish music on the hard drive happens to be today.

I won’t repeat what I said about this wonderful band who really should have been, and nor will I post any of the songs issued on their own physical release, the Faith & Violence EP. The band hailed from the SoundCloud era, and many of their earliest material was made available, in digital form, over there, including the two songs which made up the debut single:-

mp3: Father Sculptor – Ember
mp3: Father Sculptor – Blue

From 2012, if my memory serves me correctly.

I had forgotten just how wonderfully derivative Blue is. It’s so catchy and danceable.

JC

Various

LIFE IS TIMELESS, DAYS ARE LONG

One of my best mates turns 60 tomorrow. He occasionally hangs around this little corner of t’internet where he goes by the name of Jacques the Kipper. He isn’t one for having big celebrations… there was nowt for him turning 30, 40 or 50….he may have had an 18th or 21st, but as I didn’t get to know him until 1989, so I can’t say one way or the other, but I’ve a fair idea he had quiet ones.

I’ve decided, if you don’t mind, to have this month’s mix made up of songs that he is rather fond or perhaps are related to some of the shenanigans we’ve got up to over the years.. And as he likes to holiday in a certain European country and its various islands…….Feliz aniversário!

mp3: Various – Life Is Timeless, Days Are Long

Intro (8 seconds)
Buzzcocks – Sixteen Again
The Wedding Present – Shatner
Half Man Half Biscuit – Mr Cave’s A Window Cleaner Now
M.I.A. – Paper Planes
Prince – Raspberry Beret
Public Enemy – Fight The Power
Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
The Pixies – Debaser
Paul Quinn & The Independent Group – Stupid Thing
Edwyn Collins – Keep On Burning
Dum Dum Girls – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
Mcsleazy – Don’t Call Me Blur
Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Bloodsport For All
Jay Z ft Alicia Keys – Empire State of Mind
The Jam – When You’re Young

JC

Shuttleworth

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (21)

One of the things I enjoy most about curating this blog is the fact that so many folk come forward with guest contributions, and it is from one of those back in 2017 that today’s song had been plucked.

The post came from Jonder, and was the first of what proved to be a number of ICAs by The Fall that he would submit in due course. ICA#137, published in September 2017, had the title ‘Elena’s The Fall’, and focussed on the ten-year period between 2007 and 2017, and was pulled together to acknowledge the contribution to the band by Elena Poulou, who had married Mark E. Smith and joined the band prior to 2003’s “The Real New Fall LP”, and then departed when the marriage fell apart.

The post included this bonus song:-

mp3: Shuttleworth – England’s Heartbeat (Brazilian Ambush)

Here’s what Jonder had to say:-

A 2010 World Cup song created by ex-Fall member Ed Blaney, Mark E. Smith and Jenny Shuttleworth. Blaney has remained on good terms with Smith, a feat unmatched among the scores of former Fall members. He and Mark made several records credited to “Smith And Blaney”, and Smith appears on Blaney’s 2016 album “Urban Nature”

Fancy a look at the low-budget video?

Great fun!

Oh, and I’ll just mention in passing that England got through the group stage but were then hammered 4-1 by Germany in the first knock-out round. At least they made it to South Africa…..Scotland fans were sitting at home and watching on television.

JC

Elvis Costello

FOUR TRACK MIND : A RANDOM SERIES OF EXTENDED PLAY SINGLES

A guest series by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)

#4: New Amsterdam – Elvis Costello (1980)

New Amsterdam was technically the third single taken from Elvis Costello’s fourth album, Get Happy! (1980) but with the inclusion of three other non-album songs the EP feels as though it inhabits its own little space in the Costello canon, separate from what came before and after. Stylistically, none of the songs, including New Amsterdam, have much in common with the rest of Get Happy! and they don’t signal a shift towards either the expansive sophistication of Trust or the country and western detour of Almost Blue that appeared the following year.

At the time Get Happy! came out, the story went around (and was subsequently confirmed) that Costello had written most of the material in a compositional binge assisted by a crate of old Stax and Atlantic soul singles that he had bought in bulk from a couple of London record shops. Song after song was absorbed, analysed, deconstructed and reassembled into original material, distilling the hooks and hit factory tricks into new songs. As well as the obviously soul-styled songs like Love For Tender, High Fidelity, 5ive Gears in Reverse and Beaten to the Punch, there are two cover versions, I Stand Accused and the lead single I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, all of which imbue the album with a 1960s r’n’b vibe. A further cover of Van McCoy’s Getting Mighty Crowded appears on the B-side of second album single High Fidelity to amplify the effect.

Get Happy! is much more than an edition of Soul Train, however. There are several songs that flaunt different roots, such as the ska-styled B-Movie and Human Touch, torch-song crooner Motel Matches and the closer Riot Act, which could have been written and arranged in the same session as Party Girl from Armed Forces. New Amsterdam is likewise of a different kind.

For a start it’s in 3/4 time. This wasn’t entirely new for Costello – Little Triggers from This Year’s Model and Sunday’s Best on Armed Forces both employ waltz rhythms. Sunday’s Best also fades out with a musical quotation from the 1950s Danny Kaye hit Wonderful Copenhagen, betraying Costello’s familiarity with old-time schmaltz, no doubt inherited from his band-leader father. To my mind, Costello employed the crate-of-singles deconstruction method for New Amsterdam, but rather than some old soul banger, the inspiration came from the unlikely source of Tulips From Amsterdam, a big hit in 1958 for Max Bygraves. A double A-side in fact, with You Need Hands. Maybe a copy got mixed up in a Sam and Dave sleeve by mistake.

Tulips From Amsterdam was originally a German song written in the ‘schlager’ or ‘hit song’ tradition, a particularly Germanic style of cheesey, simplistic, sentimental pop born out of folk tunes and operetta. The English lyrics were provided in 1957 by Marcel Stellman, a Belgian-Scottish producer and lyricist, and Max Bygraves never looked back. Listening to Costello’s New Amsterdam it’s not difficult to hear a slight tonal shift that would produce an altogether more naïve version, oom-pahed out to an audience of swaying grannies and children before the tubas and accordions segue slickly into The Birdie Song.

Costello’s lyrics wouldn’t work in that schlager version though. Apart from the wilful perversity of using Rotherhithe as a rhyme, and the difficulty of ever working out exactly what he’s talking about, the song finds its composer overwhelmed and disappointed by the city of New York (New Amsterdam prior to 1667) and closes with a withering judgement on the “transparent people who live on the other side / Living a life that is almost like suicide.” Not quite the stuff to get the grannies rocking in their seats.

Another thing that sets the New Amsterdam EP aside is that none of the tracks are credited to Costello and the Attractions. It was released under Costello’s name alone because he provides almost all the accompaniment himself, except for Pete Thomas adding drums to Dr Luther’s Assistant and Steve Nieve the keys on Just a Memory. New Amsterdam itself was played and recorded entirely by Costello some time in 1979 in a “fifteen-quid an hour demo studio” in London using the drums, fretless bass, vibes and “a very nasty synth” that he found there. Another version was attempted with The Attractions, but ultimately rejected in favour of the original demo. The group version eventually appeared on the 2003 reissue of Get Happy!

Dr Luther’s Assistant is a song left over from the writing of This Year’s Model in 1977-78 and it’s easy to see why it was left off that album. Not because it’s bad, but because it just doesn’t fit. It’s a sordid tale of an imaginary but all too believable sexual creep, voyeur and pornographer, set to a slightly plodding Paul McCartney-esque arrangement and a verse melody that somehow puts me in mind of The Beatles’ She’s Leaving Home.

Ghost Train is one of those Costello songs that sit almost entirely within quite traditional genres and could just about pass for an old standard were it not for the rather bleak portrayal of social and romantic relationships. Maureen and Stan are a couple of aspiring performers (“She plays the queen of the fleapit / He plays a Spanish guitar”) thwarted by their lack of good looks (“Step right up and show your face / We only want the pretty ones”). The failure of their careers is soon mirrored in their personal relationship: “While they make believe it’s just another holiday / They turn on each other when they hear that joker say… / Roll up for the ghost train …” The style is 50s/60s cocktail bar jazz-pop, a few years before The Style Council and Everything But The Girl got with it. Young Marble Giants were about the only other people in 1980 getting away with this kind of cool.

Finally, Just A Memory is a tender tragedy of love lost, a relationship falling victim to incompatibility, his inability to see what’s important to her. Brief and to the point in two verses, Costello pulling a poignant melody over Steve Nieve’s piano. It’s the kind of musical and lyrical material that Costello would frequently overwork in years to come, striving for that big Burt Bacharach complexity, but here he keeps it simple, and the result is a sparkling little teardrop of a song. As postpunkmonk has detailed (The Great B-Sides: Elvis Costello – Just A Memory | Post-Punk Monk ) the song was originally written for and eventually recorded by Dusty Springfield.

The whole package is housed in a beautiful laminated sleeve designed by Barney Bubbles to look a bit like a classic 50s or 60s jazz record with a very mid-century painting credited as “Jazz City Opus 1958 by Sal Forlenza” on the front, tying in with the New York theme of the title track. Sal Forlenza was a pseudonym used by Barney Bubbles, also to be found on the cover art for Imperial Bedroom.

New Amsterdam

Dr Luther’s Assistant

Ghost Train

Just a Memory

Fraser

Felt, Go-Betweens, Jazz Butcher, Shreikback, Sunset Gun, Woodentops

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (July Pt 2)

Congratulations to those of you who tolerated the chart offerings from July 1984 via the post from a couple of weeks back. Surely those 45s issued via the indie labels and who distribution methods/lack of daytime airplay were the biggest factors in them not hitting the Top 75 would prove to be a bit more palatable. Surely……..

In June 1983, Lawrence Hayward (aka Felt) had released Penelope Tree, a gloriously catchy piece of indie-pop which, if the world was a fair and just place, would have been a huge hit. The opening lines of Penelope Tree were:-

I didn’t want the world to know
That sunlight bathed the golden glow

Just over a year later, the new single from Felt opened with these lines:-

You’re trying to fool somebody
But you end up fooling yourself

Methinks Lawrence was, despite his claims of never really wanting to be a pop star, was getting a tad frustrated:-

mp3: Felt – Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow

Moving along quickly to another song which takes me back to that particular summer

mp3: The Go-Betweens – Part Company

Having, the previous year, come to the attention of the UK indie cognoscenti via Rough Trade Records, our wizards from Oz were signed by Sire Records and thanks to the snippets of news via the music papers, we learned they had headed off to France to record what would be their third studio album, Spring Hill Fair, from which Part Company was the lead single. It’s one on which Robert Forster takes the lead vocal, and musically there is a hint of the slower numbers that Johnny Marr was writing for The Smiths. Another that should’ve been a hit, but like every other 45 released by the band, it failed to trouble the charts.

mp3: The Jazz Butcher – Roadrunner

I’ll confess not to knowing that this rather frantic and fabulous cover version had been released in July 1984….it was many many many years later (via a blog in the 21st century) did I learn that Pat Fish et al. had taken Jonathan Richman‘s signature tune and made into something that sounded like one of their own.

mp3: Shriekback – Hand On My Heart

The mid 80s was a time when white-boy funk was a bit of a ‘thing’ (and Glasgow had more than its fair share of would-be bands). Shriekback had formed in 1982, with Barry Andrews (ex XTC) and Dave Allen (ex Gang of Four) being joined on vocals by Carl Marsh. By 1984, they were signed to a major label – Arista Records – and given a bit of a makeover with the addition of female backing vocals in an attempt to create a really radio-friendly sound. Debut single for the label, Hand on My Heart flopped. As indeed would the subsequent singles and two albums, Mercy Dash (Sep 84) and Oil and Gold (June 85).

It wasn’t just white-boy funk, mind you:-

mp3: Sunset Gun – Be Thankful For What You’ve Got

As mentioned previously on the blog, Sunset Gun were a Glasgow trio, made of up sisters Dee and Louise Rutkowski, and Ross Campbell. The Rutkowski sisters were a huge part of the Glasgow music scene in the early 80s, having been part of Jazzateers, the group that would in due course evolve into Bourgie Bourgie.

The demos recorded by Sunset Gun created a bit of a buzz, with a number of labels looking to sign the group, and in the end it was CBS that won the bidding war. The trio went into a studio with Alan Rankine (ex Associates) in the producer’s chair, and the debut single was a cover of the 1974 hit written and recorded by William DeVaughn, a song later covered by Massive Attack and included on their subsequent debut album in 1991.

Continuing with the theme of debut singles…..

mp3: The Woodentops – Plenty

A band who would influence and delight many in subsequent years without ever getting the sort of commercial success that their fans in the media believed should have been theirs. I’ve always associated The Woodentops with Rough Trade Records, but this particular 45 was released on the then very new Food Records that had been set up by Dave Balfe, formerly of the Teardrop Explodes. What a glorious and enduring debut!!!!

JC

Toy Dolls

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #102

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 102: Toy Dolls – ‘Olga … I Cannot!’ (Volume Records ’85)

Dear friends,

for those of you sitting there right now, scratching their heads and thinking: “so now he has gone completely bonkers”: just wait, will you?

As mentioned before, I am not a great fan of labelling bands into certain genres. That’s unless a band has invented (or at least co-invented a genre), something which Toy Dolls certainly have done: punk pathetique, or, for our (two) German readers: fun punk.

Now, you could argue that there were other bands around in 1980 who were not as dead serious as their ’77 punk colleagues, Splodgenessabounds come to mind, so do The Golinski Brothers and of course Peter & The Test Tube Babies. But apart from the latter, who became shite very soon, those were just one-hit-wonders. So at least to me, Toy Dolls were always way ahead of the game and, furthermore, they remained true to themselves.

They started in Sunderland in 1979, had a few member changes, but soon Michael ‘Olga’ Algar ended up on singing duties – and still does so, as freshly as ever! The thing is with this band, you see, they are always numbered down to just one song, which isn’t that good compared to very many of their other tunes: ‘Nellie The Elephant’. A classic children’s song which went to # 1 (Indie Charts) in ’82 and to # 4 (UK Singles Charts) in ’84 as a re-issue. It’s therefore somehow understandable that people remember nothing else by the band, but still it is a shame!

For example just listen to their debut single, ‘Tommy Kowey’s Car’ from April 1980, which is just fantastic, but due to the fact that there never was a repress of the initial 1000 copies, one of those go for a median of € 423,- on discogs currently. You see, I love you, I really do – but I’m afraid I’m having to give you something else today! There are many other Toy Dolls – songs which, if you only know ‘Nellie’, I urge you to listen to, ‘I’ve Got Asthma’, which is a must – and basically everything from the debut album from ’83, and, for that matter, the same is true for the follow-up-album from ’85: great stuff throughout!

But today it’s none of the above, we are back to B-Sides again – to the B-Side of ‘James Bond Lives Down Our Street’ from ’85, to be precise. Today’s song has everything I need basically: a great story of unfulfilled love & romance, combined with a most sensitive humour and a Pavarotti-like voice:

mp3: Toy Dolls – Olga…I Cannot!

A masterpiece, I’m sure you agree! Then again that’s the way I was put together, sometimes things don’t need to be other than just simple. If you follow my advice above and listen to other Toy Dolls songs, you’ll find out that Olga is a class guitarist, once described as ‘a jaw-droppingly fast guitar picker’, perhaps that’s why Toy Dolls are the only punk band where guitar solos are a common thing.

I like Toy Dolls, mind you, ever did – hope I gained some new fan, who knows?

Either way, enjoy,

Dirk

Super Furry Animals

SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals)

A guest series by The Robster

#22: Slow Life EP (2004, Placid Casual, BBN045CD2)

At a couple of points throughout this series, I’ve mentioned how some records and periods of Super Furry Animals’ career are considered by some people to be their absolute peak. The Ice Hockey Hair EP is one, the ‘Rings Around The World’ album is another. For some fans, though, it’s Slow Life. In fairness, it really does stand up as one of the finest moments of their existence, so it’s hard to argue against it.

MP3: Slow Life

The closing track on ‘Phantom Power’ is like nothing the band had done before, yet weirdly, it’s also the quintessential Super Furry Animals track. It brings together all the constituent parts of what made them great into one, single, seven-minute epic. I’m going to lift some bits from the song’s Wikipedia entry as it explains everything more than well enough:

Slow Life was written in two stages. According to bassist Guto Pryce the “electronic part” was composed by keyboard player Cian Ciaran “quite a few years” before its eventual release. The band had tried to fit this early, purely electronic version on previous albums but had “never got ’round to it”. By the time the group came to record ‘Phantom Power’ they were anxious to release the song, however Cian was reluctant to leave it in its original form and encouraged the rest of the band to jam over his original track. According to Gruff Rhys the instrumentation was recorded “pretty much live” after which lyrics were written and the band’s 10-minute jam session was “chopped up and made into a composed song” with the electronic section intact. Strings were later added by Sean O’Hagan.

Some promotional copies of ‘Phantom Power’ featured Slow Life as the first track, although it eventually appeared as the last track on the officially released version of the album. Gruff has stated that the song had to go at either the beginning or the end of the record as it is the “most sonically impressive” track on the album. He has described his lyrics as “regurgitating what we hear on the news, recycled, vomiting them all back”.

For me, that insight into the song’s formation makes it particularly great. Just a live, 10-minute jam over an electronic backing and voila! Those strings do finish things off wonderfully, mind. Slow Life really was – and still is – one of the best tracks of the century. And you can quote me on that.

It was the third and final single from ‘Phantom Power’, but its release, in April 2004, was far from conventional. It, along with its two b-sides, was initially available digitally only from the website of Placid Casual, the band’s own independent record label, which suggests that Epic may have been reluctant to release it themselves, possibly due to its length. They did, however, put out a single-sided 12” promo. It then featured as a CD single in the special limited edition of the ‘Phantom Phorce’ remix album in its own slipcase sleeve (as shown above). Needless to say, it didn’t chart due to the nature of its release.

The b-sides? Well, the ‘Phantom Power’ era is a bit of an odd one because up to this point, the vast majority of b-sides on Super Furry Animals singles were largely excellent, with some real lost gems to be found amongst them. I never found this for any of the ‘Phantom Power’ singles though, and these don’t really improve things that much.

MP3: Motherfokker
MP3: Lost Control

The former features Newport’s finest Goldie Lookin’ Chain larking around, pretending to be aliens. It was panned by reviewers, but to be fair I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as it’s made out to be. The London-based press were no doubt just exercising their well-versed snobbery, mainly because they just didn’t get it. Motherfokker may not make a Top 10 SFA b-sides compilation, but it’s better than 95% of anything in the charts in April 2004. Plus, Graham The Bear of GLC is a mate of mine, and he’s a bloody good bloke (he also runs a record shop in Monmouth, should you ever be passing through…) As for Lost Control, well it’s basically an instrumental remix of the album track Out Of Control.

Yer bonus tracks for this week – well my complete inability to make tough decisions means I failed to come up with just two tracks for you – so you’re getting twice that many! There was no demo made for Slow Life, but I’ve pulled together some things from various sources, some of which have not been commercially released. So here’s a CD2 of the Slow Life EP.

MP3: Slow Life [radio edit]
MP3: Slow Life [Bench remix]
MP3: Slow Life [rough mix]
MP3: Motherfokker [street edit]

As an added bonus, here’s some links to my aforementioned mate Graham The Bear talking about the Super Furry Animals and their legacy. Part three contains a little tale about when his side project supported the Furries in London, involving Slow Life, 50 Cent’s microphone and a very rude phrase. Don’t go playing this in front of your boss, young children or Daily Mail readers…

This is typical of the sort of conversations I have with Graham whenever I see him. It’s why I like the guy! (In another video on the same YouTube channel, he also talks about drinking with the Manics in a Newport pub while still underage, if you’re interested in that sort of thing…)