U2

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (30)

I’m serious.

The earliest music and indeed live shows by U2 are a world-removed from the bombastic style over substance era which began, arguably, with their appearance at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in July 1985.

They certainly had come a long way in just six years, with their initial release being a 3-track EP on 12” vinyl, in a cheap record label sleeve, with a pressing limited to 1,000 copies, available only in Ireland (and for the most part, only in Dublin). The band were making a great impression on the local scene but struggling to be heard above everything that has happening in the UK in 1979 as post-punk/new wave became the flavour of the day for the industry bosses, albeit only as a way of trying to gain some critical credibility as the big monies were still being made from MOR chart fodder and disco (it’s worth remembering that CBS was the home to Abba as well as The Clash).

But, as David Byrne would come to sing, ‘How Did We Get Here?’

The abbreviated version is that they formed in 1976 while all still at school, going through a few personnel and name changes in the early years. They began life as a covers band, gradually incorporating more new wave/post-punk songs into their sets. In March 1978, they became a four-piece and took the name U2 and around the same time won a talent contest for which the prize was £500 and studio time to record a demo. They began to be hyped by Hot Press, a new fortnightly-published Irish music magazine and then approached by a 27-year old named Paul McGuinness who offered to be their full-time manager with the promise of booking gigs and studio time.

The band members were just 16-18 year old at the time and there is absolutely no doubt that without these developments, they would likely have sunk without much of a trace beyond the Dublin scene. Word of mouth that they were a great live act, with an energy not unlike many of the new UK bands who were making waves, ensured the youth of Dublin turned out in ever-increasing numbers. By August 1979 they were largely performing their own numbers and felt confident enough to return to the studio, determined that the mistakes made after the initial effort on the back of the talent contest the following year wouldn’t be repeated.

The said demo was three tracks and it was enough for CBS Ireland to show some interest. They offered to issue it on 12” vinyl but hedged their bets somewhat by making it a cheap release with just a generic sleeve and a run of 1,000 copies.

mp3 : U2 – Out Of Control
mp3 : U2 – Stories For Boys
mp3 : U2 – Boy-Girl

The initial 1,000 copies sold out quickly, and in due course the 12” would be re-pressed on at least seven occasions as well as appearing in 7” format, this time in a picture sleeve

Known as U2-3, it sold enough copies to go Top 20 in Ireland, leading to interest in the UK, with a London show in December 1979 being their first performance outside of Ireland. That particular show didn’t go well and so it was back to Ireland to think things over. The manager suggested a second single, which CBS Ireland were OK about releasing but without any further long-term commitment, as well as a tour which would culminate in a 2,000 capacity show in Dublin, one which would subsequently go down in local legend as one of the all-time great Dublin gigs.

Island Records swooped in as CBS continued to hum-and-haw. The rest, via a one-off single recorded in May 1980 with Martin Hannett, is history:-

mp3 : U2 – 11 O’Clock Tick Tock

The debut album, Boy, was released in October 1980. It included newly recorded versions of two of the songs that had appeared on the first release.

There is something about the early U2 releases which hinted they had something of a future, but I imagined at the time it would have been akin to so many other of the bands which emerged in the late 70s, namely a bright beginning followed by a fizzling away after a few albums. I had them down as being the Irish equivalent of The Skids…..

JC

Carter USM

HE WAS INFAMOUS FOR FIFTEEN MINUTES AND HE APPEARED ON PANORAMA

SWC and Badger, as part of this rather wonderful ICA on Carter USM that appeared back in November 2015, made the observation that Jim Bob wrote such wonderful lyrics that he had to become an author. As ever, the dynamic duo were bang on the money, with him now being the proud author of six books, two of which are autobiographical from his time with the band, and four highly readable and enjoyable works of fiction.

Jim Bob (real name James Robert Morrison) has long been a social commentator, with his lyrics, (and in later life his novels), making all sorts of observations about the unjust world we live in. He’s enjoyed chart success covering dark matters such as racism and bullying in the British Army, alcoholism and child abuse; he’s also targeted the rich, the pompous and the pampered, and on one occasion weaving all three attributes into a none too thinly disguised attack on the pop music industry.

Twenty years ago, he came up with one of his best – a blistering attack on slum landlords and the way they exploit their poor and vulnerable tenants in sickening and despicable ways,

Sheriff Fatman started out in business as a granny farmer
He was infamous for fifteen minutes
And he appeared on Panorama
Then he somehow got on board a Starship Enterprise Allowance Scheme
With a Prince of Wales Award
For pushing valium and amphetamines

Moving Up on Second Base
With Nicholas Van what’s His Face
At six foot six
And 100 Tons
The undisputed King of the Slums
With more alias’ than Klaus Barbie
Master Butcher of Leigh on Sea
Just about to take the stage
The one and only – hold the front page

Fatman’s got something to sell
To the Capital’s homeless
A Crossroads Motel
For the No Fixed Abodeless
Where you can live life in style
If you sleep in a closet
And if you flash him a smile
He’ll take your teeth as deposit

There’s bats in the belfry
The windows are jammed
The toilet’s ain’t healthy
He don’t give a damn
Just chuckles and smiles
Laughs like a madman
A born again Rachman
Here comes Sheriff Fatman

With his valium, amphetamines
Sicknotes and his phoney prescriptions
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the kitchen
Dead heads and cracked heads
Bunk beds and breakfasts
Wake up you sleepyheads
Check this

Moving up on second base
With Nicholas Van Whatshis face
At six foot six
And 100 tons
The undisputed King of the Slums
With more alias’ than Klaus Barbie
The Master Butcher of Leigh on Sea
Just about to take the stage
The one and only hold the front page

It’s a lyric that will, in all likelihood, make more sense to my domestic audience than those of you who reside overseas, so here’s a few wiki links to help with the background should you wish to explore:-

Panorama
Enterprise Allowance Scheme
Nicholas Van what’s His Face
Crossroads Motel
Rachman

The really frightening this is that nothing has changed in 30 years – indeed in many parts of the UK , the situation has got worse. It is estimated that more than 10,000 rogue landlords in England and Wales are collecting ridiculously high rents and offering sub-standard and cruelly inhumane conditions and the laws in place seem inadequate to prevent it happening time after time after time……

mp3 : Carter USM – Sheriff Fatman

The single was initially released in November 1989 when Carter USM were just beginning to come to the attention of an audience that went beyond the London pub circuit. It enjoyed a re-release in June 1991 and this time, despite most fans already having the song via the 101 Damnations album, it reached #23. The artwork and b-sides were the same on both the 89 and 91 releases, although they do have different catalogue numbers:-

mp3 : Carter USM – R.S.P.C.E.
mp3 : Carter USM – Twin Tub With Guitar
mp3 : Carter USM – Everybody’s Happy Nowadays

The first of the b-sides is another of the social commentary lyrics. Here in the UK, we have the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Birds (RSPCB) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (RSPCC). Jim Bob combines all three to invent the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Everything and has a dig at ivory poachers, factory farming and sadistic parents.

The second of the tracks is an instrumental – a genre which Carter USM were particularly adept – and takes its name from a 1981 piece of Modern Art which is most often on display in the Tate Gallery in London but is presently on loan to the Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle in Berlin.

The last on offer is a cover of the Buzzcocks single. The Carter USM version has its tongue very firmly pressed into its cheek, with the emphasis very much on life being an illusion……..

JC

Various

DISARMED IN LIMBO – A MIX FOR TURNING 56


It’s becoming something of a tradition, merely for the fact that I want a new hour-long mix to listen to when I’m heading to work.

Feel free to join in with a download.

mp3 : Various – Disarmed In Limbo (a mix for turning 56)

TRACKLIST

Whatever Helps – Siobhan Wilson
Happy Birthday – The Birthday Party
Dare – Gorillaz
Ciao! – Lush
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
Say Sue Me – Say Sue Me
All Fall Down – Primal Scream
Humble – Kendrick Lamar
Intergalactic – Beastie Boys
Taste The Last Girl – Sons and Daughters
Why Are People Grudgeful? – The Fall
Let Them All Talk – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Promises – Buzzcocks
Sister – Tracey Thorn feat. Corinne Bailey Rae
Juxtaposed With You – Super Furry Animals
This Is The Day – The The
Monkey Gone To Heaven – Pixies
Intuition Told Me (Part Two) – Orange Juice

JC

Lost!, Nirvana

HEART-SHAPED BOXES AND MARIGOLDS

Heart-Shaped Box was the first single in the UK to be lifted from In Utero, the third and ultimately final studio album by Nirvana.

It was released at the end of August 1993 and, in reaching #5, it gave the band their highest chart position on terms of singles.

The band had enlisted the services of Steve Albini to be the producer on the new album, intending to move away somewhat from the style and sound that helped Nevermind shift zillions of copies. They certainly achieved the desired outcome, much to the horror of the bosses at the record label, with the consensus being that it was bordering on the unlistenable and unlikely to get much, if any, exposure on mainstream radio – the suggestion was that it should be re-recorded or at very least, remixed. (During the subsequent row which broke out, the label denied they had felt this way and had put no pressure on the band to do anything in terms of re-recoding or remixing…..the facts of the matter have come to light in subsequent years)

It is fair to say that having left the studio and listened to the recordings back at home, the band members themselves were themselves having a few doubts over the end product – particularly with regards to how low the bass was in the mix and how so many of the lyrics seemed inaudible. Albini declined their request to do get involved in any remixing effort and so the band turned to Scott Litt, best known for his work with R.E.M.

Changes were made to a few tracks, including Heart Shaped Box, with Kurt Cobain also taking the opportunity to add acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies.

mp3 : Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box

There’s a very interesting story behind the b-side of the single.

During the period when Nevermind was being recorded, drummer Dave Grohl was busying himself in another studio writing and recording songs on which he sang and played all the instruments. He wanted to issue them in as low-key a way as possible and so they were sneaked out, as a cassette-only release on a small independent label. The album was called Pocketwatch and the work was attributed to an act called Late!. The only possible indication as to the true identity of the composer/performer were the words ‘all music and instruments by Dave G’.

The band, while in the studio with Steve Albini, recorded a new version of one of the songs that could be found on Pocketwatch, most likely always intending to issue it as a b-side to a subsequent single:-

mp3 : Nirvana – Marigold

Dave Grohl is on lead vocal on this recording. There was something of an element of surprise that, in the wake of Kurt’s death, he would find even greater and enduring success with Foo Fighters. Those who were perhaps paying closer attention to things might well say that his move into some sort of solo work was inevitable.

Here’s the original version of the single before Scott Litt did the remix…..the biggest difference is certainly in the vocal during the chorus and some harmonising during the verses….oh and the drums bring mixed right up top!!:-

mp3 : Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box (Albini recording)

And here’s the original version of the b-side, in its rough and lo-fi format:-

mp3 : Late! – Color Pictures of a Marigold

JC

Marc Almond

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MARC ALMOND (Part 35-40)

And so to the last of this run through of the solo singles issued over the past 35 years by Marc Almond. One thing for sure, you can never accuse him of churning out the same old stuff, time after time…..

(35) Scar
(36) Pleasure’s Wherever You Are
(37) Bad To Me
(38) Demon Lover

(All taken from the 2015 album, The Velvet Trail)

The Velvet Trail is the twentieth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released by Strike Force Entertainment / Cherry Red Records on 9 March 2015.

The Velvet Trail is Almond’s first album of original material since Varieté in 2010. It was produced by Christopher Braide and features a duet with Beth Ditto of indie rock band Gossip on the track “When the Comet Comes”.

Almond had previously stated that he would no longer record albums of original material following Varieté, calling that album “a kind of swansong”.He subsequently recorded a number of albums outside of the pop genre which mostly featured songs written by others. During this time he was approached by Braide, known for his work with pop artists such as Lana Del Rey, David Guetta and Britney Spears, who urged Almond to make “the ultimate Marc Almond album”Braide was a longtime fan of Almond and had in fact worked with Almond before, unbeknownst at that point to the singer. Almond explained the situation to Simon Price of The Quietus, stating “it was only afterwards that I realised where I knew Chris Braide from: he’d sung backing vocals on the Soft Cell reunion album Cruelty Without Beauty, and I’d passed him in the corridor”. Braide lured Almond back into songwriting by sending him three instrumental tracks, “hoping to change his mind about retirement”, a plan that worked when “all three were met with resounding enthusiasm”. They continued to work in this manner until the album was completed.

(39) A Kind Of Love (from the 2017 album, Hits and Pieces)

Hits and Pieces was a 35-track compilation of singles covering his entire career, and included Soft Cell hits and collaborations. A Kind Of Love was a new track, one which has been described as “three effortlessly breezy minutes that hint at Almond’s past the ‘light summery psychedelic sounds’ on that mid-60s transistor radio, the Northern soul scene that inspired Soft Cell to cover Tainted Love and What! without really sounding much like anything Marc Almond has recorded before.”

(40) How Can I Be Sure (from the 2017 album, Shadows and Reflections)

From The Line of Best Fit website:-

A title like Shadows and Reflections might make this album sound like a contemplative take on an illustrious three decades for synth pop pioneer Marc Almond, but it is certainly not a retrospective.

Recent success with his Hits and Pieces took care of previously released material; Shadows and Reflections is pure Almond, back on form and seemingly loving every moment. In fact, his new LP demonstrates that despite celebrating his 60th year in 2017, Almond has lost none of his heart stopping irony or youthful dramatic exuberance for mining 1960s back catalogues to create an astonishingly contemporary sound.

The songs on Shadows and Reflections were written or recorded by some of the most influential names in music over the last 50 years; veritable pop royalty including the likes of Burt Bacharach, The Action, The Yardbirds, Bobby Darlin, Julie Driscoll, Billy Fury and the Young Rascals. This impressive list alone stands testament to the reach and considerable influence Almond still wields after more than 30 years in the music industry.

Almond has never been one to shy away from theatrics, and so Shadows and Reflections is a showgirl of an album with sardonic delight bursting from under the petticoats of each baroque-styled pop song. As well as anthemic favourites such as Young Rascal’s “How Can I Be Sure” and gothic pop The Herd’s “From The Underworld” there are also new original compositions that provide “Overture” and “Interlude” to the performance.

When the curtain closes with yet another Marc Almond original “No One to Say Goodnight To” – composed and orchestrated by long-time collaborator John Harle – the dream is over and the tears can begin. For ultimately, in true Almond fashion, this musical nod to 1960’s Italian cinema is as much tragedy as comedy. The real tragedy however would be not to check it out.

And that final line is what I hope some of you will have been doing over the past few months of this series. Marc Almond is, very much, someone who should be in all your record collections and to a greater extent than you likely have.

My huge thanks to those of you who have dropped in to leave comments during this particular series – and yes, Echorich, there were times when I felt I was writing solely for your pleasure but that in itself was something of an honour and far from a chore.

Next up for the Sunday spotlight????  Ah…..you’ll need to tune in next week to find out…..

JC

Jonnie Common

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #165: JONNIE COMMON

This is how his PR agency sells him:-

Jonnie Common is a Scottish songwriter, producer and performer known for making catchy, digestible pop songs from strange sounds and subjects. With his own special blend of electronic apparatus, acoustic instruments and field recordings, this is an artist who doesn’t quite fit into any box perfectly and that’s just how he likes it.

As you can see from his website, he’s been part of the music scene around these parts for about a decade.  He first came to my notice via favourable noises being made by Matthew, from Song by Toad Records and given he’s a man with fairly impeccable taste, I was soon paying attention.

Jonnie Common is another performer, akin to Adam Stafford, who makes great music on record but is best enjoyed in the live setting.  Given we are in mid-June, it makes sense to have this song, from the 12″ split single that was released on Song, By Toad back in 2014:-

mp3 : Jonnie Common – Summer Is For Going Places

JC

Boots For Dancing

ANOTHER OLD SCOTTISH BAND DEBUTING ROUND THESE PARTS

Turning again to the Big Gold Dreams box set for inspiration and shining a light on Boots For Dancing.

The fact that this Edinburgh band, who were around initially from 1979 – 1982, didn’t appear in the alphabetical rundown of the Scottish songs that appears here most Saturdays is the perfect indicator that I didn’t, until the purchase of the box set, have anything by them in the collection.

Wiki advises that:-

The band was formed in late 1979 by Dave Carson (vocals), Graeme High (guitar), Dougie Barrie (bass), and Stuart Wright (drums). Showing influences from the likes of Gang of Four and The Pop Group, they signed to the Pop Aural label for their eponymous debut single, receiving airplay from John Peel. In the next two years, the band had more line-up changes than releases, first with ex-Shake and Rezillos drummer Angel Paterson replacing Wright, to be replaced himself by Jamo Stewart and Dickie Fusco. Former Thursdays guitarist Mike Barclay then replaced High, who joined Delta 5. The band also added ex-Shake/Rezillos guitarist Jo Callis for second single “Rain Song”, issued in March 1981. Callis then left to join The Human League, with no further line-up changes before third single “Ooh Bop Sh’Bam” was released in early 1982. Barrie then departed, his replacement being ex-Flowers/Shake/Rezillos bassist Simon Templar (b. Bloomfield), and ex-Josef K drummer Ronnie Torrance replaced the departing Fusco and Stewart (the latter forming The Syndicate). The band split up later in 1982.

Between line-up changes, the band recorded two sessions for John Peel’s BBC radio show, in 1980 and 1981. In 2015 they reformed and released The Undisco Kidds, an album of recordings from the 1980s.

An article in The Herald newspaper at the end of 2015, presumably to coincide with the band reforming and the release of The Undisco Kidds , expanded somewhat on this rudimentary information, including the observation that while they weren’t alone in enjoying and benefiting from the patronage of John Peel, they transcended the norm for the simple fact that the DJ was on record as saying they were one of the few bands whose music was liable to persuade him on to the dance floor.

Boots For Dancing were an unusual act, and judging from the constantly changing line-up, one which lived off a fair bit of creative tension. The constant presence throughout was Dave Carson, whom the Herald article describes as ‘frontman, vocalist, proto-rapper and mean mover’ It also refers to the 2015 album, which brings together tracks from the Peel sessions and mostly previously unreleased material from 1981, and gives it high praise:-

“The variety in the music is terrific, ranging from the foot-stomping chants of Get Up and Ooh Bop Sh’Bam that grew straight from that eponymous punk-disco debut, to the lounge supper club jazz aesthetic of Style in Full Swing and South Pacific and culminating in the uncategorisable Bend and Elbow, Lend an Ear. While the skill of the young musicians develops in provocative directions, the common thread is Carson’s way with an ear-catching lyric, cheerfully plundering a hinterland of showtunes, gospel and r’n’b for memorable phrases to repurpose.”

The track on Big Gold Dream is their third single, dating from 1982:-

mp3 : Boots For Dancing – Ooh Bop Sh’Bam

Upon hearing this, I have a feeling that I danced to it a few times back in the days at the Student Union – I probably went to the trouble of finding out who the song was by but wasn’t interested enough to take it further by seeking it out in a record shop. Kind of says more about the real narrowness of my tastes at the time than anything else.

Here’s the Talking Heads-esque b-side of the single:-

mp3 : Boots For Dancing – Money (Is Thin On The Ground)

And here’s a link to where you can pick up a copy of the 2015 album.

JC

Go-Gos

THIS MIGHT STIR UP A DEBATE……

Another scroll down through the list of bands who have featured previously on T(n)VV reveals that this will be a debut for The Go-Gos.

It’s no real surprise as they were a band that never really appealed to me all that much in my late teens when they were at their peak.

The Go-Gos formed in Los Angeles in 1978 but were initially better known in the UK thanks to them spending much of 1980 over here, releasing this single on Stiff Records.

mp3 : The Go-Gos – We Got The Beat

This would have been my first exposure to their sound, but I was quite lukewarm about it, not buying into any suggestion that they were a new wave act….they seemed far too pop orientated for that.

The Stiff single didn’t do all that much and the band moved back to LA, going through a personnel change on bass guitar, and finding themselves being courted by I.R.S. Records for whom they signed in April 1981 and subsequently going into the studio to record the debut album.

The five piece now consisted of Belinda Carlisle (lead vocals), Jane Wiedlin (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), Charlotte Caffey (lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Gina Schock (drums, percussion) and Kathy Valentine (bass, backing vocals). The first fruits of their labour became their debut single in the USA:-

mp3 : The Go-Gos – Our Lips Are Sealed

It went Top 20 in the States but was a relative flop in the UK where the most interesting thing stemmed from it being written jointly by Jane Wiedlin and Terry Hall. The duo were quite coy about it all, merely saying they had been able to work together when The Go-Gos had supported The Specials on an American tour in 1980. It later transpired that they had a brief affair but nothing was said at the time as Hall had a girlfriend back home. It’s a fine enough record, certainly with much more to offer than the plodding and basic We Got The Beat, but it was later blown away when Hall did his own version with Fun Boy Three, taking it all the way into the Top 10 in the UK and giving us one of the defining moments of his illustrious career.

What happened next to The Go-Gos was a huge surprise in that a re-recorded and very light version of We Got The Beat, having been released as a single by I.R.S. some six months after the debut album Beauty and The Beat hit the shops, became a huge hit in the States, getting to #2 on the Billboard charts, only being kept off the top spot by I Love Rock n Roll, the clichéd almost cartoon rock number by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts.

I had to laugh at the way the USA went mad for The Go-Gos. The video for We Got The Beat was a big player in the success, enjoying heavy rotation on the fledgling MTV station. It was one of the few promo films to feature home-made talent and of course it was tailor made for the teen audience with girls wanting to be as cool as the band members and boys, well let’s not go there…….; the fact that the song was so dull, insipid and limp was quietly ignored as the LA-based music moguls splashed around in desperation trying to find something that could be promoted to those whose prejudices were such that anything coming out of the UK was by weirdos and for weirdos,

And yes, I know it’s a bit of a two-faced position that I’m taking for seeming to suggest that all American new wave was dull and worthless when that’s clearly not the case. But it’s certainly my take that anything badged ‘new wave American’ which sold in decent amounts was corporately bland and nothing as innovative, exciting or challenging as what was happening here on my wee island.

It’s also interesting to look back and see that the initial reception afforded to the release of Beauty and The Beat wasn’t all that great, but history has been re-written somewhat to take account of the millions upon millions of sales it realised and the fact that it did show an all-female group, playing their own songs, could actually make a fist of things and not rely on the tunes of others.

The Go-Gos released two more albums – Vacation (1982) and Talk Show (1984), both of which went Top 20 in the USA. Interesting to note that other than Vacation managing one week at #75, none of their albums dented the UK charts….they were very much a band whose appeal didn’t cross the Atlantic all that well.

The band split in 1985 since when they have reformed, broken-up and reformed again on a number of occasions, with 2018 allegedly having been of the farewell tour, with summer dates across their home land.

Belinda Carlisle became a household name in the UK in 1987, thanks to the huge success of the awful power-pop effort Heaven Is A Place On Earth, thus ensuring she will always find a place somewhere on the bill on the festivals which make up the nostalgia circuit (sadly, many of my own favourites from the 80s are often alongside her). Of the others who were in the 80s version of the band, Jane Wiedlin was the only one to enjoy any solo success in the UK, with a one-off hit pop single in 1988….a song which is, by a fair distance, my favourite thing Go-Gos related:-

mp3 : Jane Wiedlin – Rush Hour

But having just listened to it for the first time in decades, it’s fair to say that it hasn’t aged well!!

I’ll admit this is an unusual posting from me, in that it’s not the most glowing or positive of things. Some of you out there might agree with my sentiments, but I’m thinking many of you will not. I’d be more than happy to redress the balance with another posting if someone wants to put together a few words in support of The Go-Gos. If not, then this is likely to be their first and last appearance on these pages.

JC

Martha and The Vandellas, Raith Rovers FC

HEAR YE, HEAR YE, HEAR YE…..

I think I’ve mentioned this before on the blog, but I know for certain that any of you who are in the unfortunate position of reading my Facebook postings (under my Sunday name of James Clark) will be aware that I have certain responsibilities at any home matches for Raith Rovers FC, not least pulling together the pre-match music and shouting excitedly and incoherently over the tannoy system whenever we score a goal.

I’ve just finished my second season in the role of ‘Assistant Matchday Announcer’, having been asked by the bloke who has been doing things more or less on his own for 20 years to give him a helping hand and to work as a team in improving things for fans on the day, particularly pre-match and at half-time when he has pitch side duties.

I haven’t gone the whole hog and made all Stark’s Park experience akin to a visit to this blog – to do so would be an invitation to get fired.

It’s all about balance, trying to blend popular/populist tunes of vintage and modern eras of all genres with the remit to being to play ‘upbeat music’, and trying to crank up an atmosphere, particularly in the final minutes before kick-off. On some occasions, the musical choices are taken out of my hands as the club occasionally decides on a particular theme for a day and asks fans to make song suggestions along such lines – although I do get round this a wee bit by submitting my own suggestions but attributing these to the names of some of the TVV regulars – Drew has had his name used on at least three occasions and there’s probably someone in the club offices searching for his address to try and get him to take up a season ticket. I also have no qualms about using Jacques the Kipper for the same purpose, given he is a Stark’s Park regular, but at least it’s always a song that I know he would approve of.

I have managed to throw in a few curve balls at times, and off the top of my head have treated fans to the delights of The Fall, Say Sue Me, The Twilight Sad, Butcher Boy, Kid Canaveral, The Popguns, Withered Hand and Julian Cope among many others.

There are, however, certain traditions that have to be kept. It pains me to say that, post-match, all victories are greeted by Status Quo liking things and rockin all over the world, but there is no way I could ever change things.

For as long as I can remember, the team has taken to the pitch to one or other particular tunes.

Geordie Munro is a traditional song about an inhabitant of Kirkcaldy, the town in which Raith Rovers play their football (look it up on a map and it is on the east coast of Scotland, halfway between the cities of Edinburgh and Dundee). It is the tune which most fans want to hear and is the nearest thing we have to a club anthem. It’s our You’ll Never Walk Alone as sung by the fans of Liverpool FC.

The matchday announcer, over the years had moved away from Geordie Munro being the tune at kick-off on the basis that a modern almost dance version of it had been recorded by a group of fans as a way of raising money for charity and he was getting a bit of flak from them when he played the traditional version – he was on a hiding to nothing as anytime he played the modern version, loads of folk complained about it being an abomination and made the club a laughing stock.

His solution was to revert to another song which is sort of synonymous with the club, harking back to a true story from the early 1970s when a BBC sports presenter, upon reading out that Rovers had won a home match by something like 6-0, then remarked ‘they will be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight’, clearly unaware of the town the club is based.

The matchday announcer has long been a fan of the Live Aid version of the song, and so it was voices of David Bowie and Mick Jagger which were heard most weeks at the stadium. He occasionally did go with the original but would ditch it next time around if it had been aired before a game we didn’t go onto win (which was quite often!!).

I’m very pleased to say that I’ve phased all of that out and found a regular slot for this to air, some 10 minutes before the teams emerge from the tunnel:-

mp3 : Martha & The Vandellas – Dancing In The Street

It’s a belter of a tune and it must be up there as one of the coolest things you’ll now always hear on an visit to any sports stadium in the world. I’ll gloss over the fact that it tends to followed by some chart-hit dancey stuff by the likes of David Guetta, Calvin Harris or Rita Ora in the final few minutes as that’s the sort of stuff the young ballboys and ballgirls want to hear as they line up to form a guard of honour to welcome the teams. Oh and it’s also the music of our matchday mascot, Roary the Rover (whose picture is at the top of this posting) as he kind of likes a boogie just before kick-off and I’m not sure late 70s new wave/post-punk would fit the bill.

JC

Malcolm Middleton

SUB-STANDARD VINYL PRODUCT? NO PROBLEM!

It was last August that I happened to be in Barcelona, helping Mrs V to celebrate a significant birthday. Whilst wandering the streets, I found a couple of record shops and decided that I had to find something to take home.

In the end, I bought a 7″ single which had been released for Record Store Day 2016 by one of my favoured singer/songwriters. I had seen it a couple of times in Glasgow stores but had passed up the opportunity to buy it…what I paid in Barcelona was probably a bit more than I would have back home (such has been the lousy rate of exchange this past couple of years), but it did make for a nice memento.

I actually kind of forgot about it till a few weeks ago when I went on a bit of a binge transferring vinyl to mp3s for use on the blog. I broke open the packaging (it came wrapped in a plastic seal) and put it on the turntable. I knew it was a track from the album Summer of ’13 and that it was no different from that previously available. But what I was most disappointed with was the near lo-fi experience from playing this single in comparison to what I’d got from the album:-

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – You & I

It’s damn near inaudible at times and, as I said nowhere near the quality of that on the parent album

Worse was to come when I flipped it over for the two previously unreleased tracks  Two quiet numbers to begin with, so the poor cut on the vinyl is really annoying. But the thing I can’t get over, and bearing in mind the single was sealed, is that it’s very audibly scratched and damaged for the much of the first 20 seconds or then again just short of a minute in.

If I’d bought it in Glasgow, I’d have taken it back to the store…but then again with it being a limited edition per shop would I have managed to get an exchange?

But here’s the thing…..through a friend, I got directly in touch with Malcolm who was annoyed to hear this, and he very kindly fired over very high-quality rips of the b-side.  Confirmation, if any was needed, that he’s a great bloke!

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – By Proxy Song
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Narky (’13)

JC

Hot Chip

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #216 : HOT CHIP

A GUEST POSTING by jimdoes

Ok, this is an unashamedly ‘greatest hits’ based ICA. Because Hot Chip are definitely more of a singles band – their albums are good but, much as I love their music, I don’t think they’ve ever released a truly great album. Whereas I think a ‘best of greatest hits’ would be incredible. If I was introducing someone to the magic of Hot Chip I’d always go with the singles so that’s what I’ve mostly done here – they are always so good and guaranteed to get me dancing. The lead track “Hungry Child” off their new album perfectly illustrates my point – it’s brilliant!

But there are so many good songs, it’s hard for me to cut it down to ten tracks – so I’ve just gone with all my favourites. Hot Chip are one of those bands that remind me of my closest group of friends – they all love them and we’ve all screamed, shouted, whistled, danced and hugged each other while watching them live more times than I can remember.

READY FOR THE FLOOR – A HOT CHIP ICA

1) Ready For The Floor (From Made In The Dark)

Do it do it do it do it now. For Lola my daughter – she first saw Hot Chip when she was 13 – all rave paint and glow sticks at LoveBox.

2) Boy From School (From The Warning)

I’ve no idea why but it took me a while to warm to Hot Chip. Alexis Taylor hasn’t got the strongest voice and they don’t look cool and are just not very rock n roll. And they are not as full-on ravey as the likes of Underworld and Orbital – I guess they fall somewhere between dance and indie without being either. Anyway I hated this song when I first heard it but my friend Suzy always liked them and kept playing this song to me until I was converted.

3) Flutes + Flutes (Sasha remix) (From In Our Heads)

Bit of a cheat here – the original is great but the Sasha remix takes the song into a whole new territory. For my brother Simon as he likes a bit of a dance to this one.

4) Huarache Lights (From Why Make Sense)

Named after a type of Nike Trainer. But the song’s not about shoes. Singer Alexis Taylor explains it as, “It’s about the joy of playing a show. The image of Huarache trainers seemed to sum up how something meaningless can encapsulate the happiness of a moment.” What a lovely thought. For Anna – who I’ve never seen Hot Chip with but she loves them too.

5 One Life Stand (From One Life Stand)

Romantic and soppy – a song with a great sentiment. For Lucie, my wife.

6) Over and Over (From The Warning)

LAAAAAIIIIID BACK. For Darren as he always barks the words to this.

7) Brothers (From One Life Stand)

A song about loving all your male friends – a subject that isn’t touched upon too often in popular music. Always causes a mass hug amongst my friends when they play it live. This one’s for all of them. It’s a wild love that I have for my brothers.

8) Hold On (From Made In The Dark)

For Jessica. Dancing at Brixton Academy. Always.

9) No Fit State (From The Warning)

This is traditionally the first track played in the car on the way back from Glastonbury – started by one of my oldest friends Nick – this one’s for him.

10) Let Me Be Him (From In Our Heads)

EPIC. Uplifting. A fitting end to this ICA. This one’s for me.

Bonus Track

Gabriel by Joe Goddard

Because it’s a truly great record – my favourite song of 2011 and one that still graces long car journeys. I’ve included it because from time to time Hot Chip play it live. Not sure if it counts as a cover version or not – Hot Chip always do great cover versions – 1999, Dancing In The Dark, and on their most recent tour Sabotage.

xxxjim

 

Marc Almond

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MARC ALMOND (Part 29-34)

The next two weeks will bring an end to this particular series.

I lost track of Marc Almond‘s career at the turn of the century with Open All Night being the last of his music that I bought at the time of release.  I’ve looked things up and to my surprise, have learned that he has released a further 14 albums this century (taking the total to 24) and, according to wiki, there have been 12 singles in the period 2001-2017, none of which charted.

I’ve tried my best to track down each of the singles, but obviously I don’t have the b-sides.  I’m also being lazy but doing some cut’n’pasting from wiki for the background info:-

(29) Glorious (from the 2001 album, Stranger Things)

Stranger Things is the eleventh solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released by Blue Star Music, in conjunction with XIII BIS Records, on 18 June 2001.

According to an article in Billboard magazine, the sound of Stranger Things “finds a middle ground between the spare gothic synth-pop of Open All Night and the orchestral grandeur of 1991’s Tenement Symphony. Almond employed the services of Jóhann Jóhannsson, Icelandic multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, to produce the album. Jóhannsson also plays most of the instruments, with some assistance from other musicians from Iceland, and is responsible for many of the arrangements.

(30) Gone But Not Forgotten (from the 2003 album, Heart On Snow)

Heart on Snow is the twelfth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released by Blue Star Music, in conjunction with XIII BIS Records, on 21 October 2003.

An article by the BBC describes how Almond “went to St Petersburg to interpret traditional Russian romance songs” to make what “may have become his most ambitious album so far”. Almond mostly sang cover versions of traditional Russian songs, including a number from the Russian romance canon, and collaborated with a number of Russian artists on the album, such as Alla Bayanova and Lyudmila Zykina.

(31) I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten (from the 2007 album, Stardom Road)

Stardom Road is the thirteenth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released by Sanctuary Records on 4 June 2007.

Stardom Road was Almond’s first new album after his involvement in a near-fatal traffic accident in October 2004. It is an album composed mostly of cover versions, a fact borne out of necessity as Almond found himself unable to write following the accident. Almond told Time Out that the album is intended as “a trip down memory lane, a musical journey from the 1950s to where he finds himself today”.

The album features collaborations with Sarah Cracknell, Antony Hegarty and Jools Holland, with some of the tracks also featuring members of Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

(NB : The single features the Saint Etienne chanteuse…..)

(32) Gabriel b/w The Lunatic Lover (from the 2011 album, Feasting With Panthers)

Feasting with Panthers is the sixteenth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. The album is credited to Almond and Michael Cashmore, of Current 93 and Nature and Organisation, with both given equal billing. The album was released by Strike Force Entertainment, part of Cherry Red Records, on 30 May 2011.

Marc Almond first worked with Michael Cashmore when Almond contributed guest vocals to the Current 93 album Black Ships Ate the Sky. They next collaborated as Marc Almond & Michael Cashmore for the EP Gabriel and the Lunatic Lover in 2008 and continued to occasionally work together until they completed Feasting with Panthers. The album is entirely composed of poetry set to music and was produced with both artists separate at all times with music and vocals being sent back and forth. The Guardian describes the album as “a sumptuous piano-driven collaboration with Michael Cashmore, featuring songs derived from the poetry of Jean Cocteau, Gérard de Nerval and Jean Genet”, which Almond in the same article calls “decadent poetry translated by Jeremy Reed.

(NB : The album was released in 2011, but the single pre-dated it somewhat, being issued as far back as 2008)

(33) Nijinsky Heart (from the 2010 album, Varieté)

Varieté is the fifteenth studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released on 7 June 2010 through Strike Force Entertainment, part of Cherry Red Records.

Varieté marks Almond’s 30th year as a recording artist. It is his first album of original material in nine years. At the time of its release, Almond himself stated it would be his final album of original material as he had increasingly become more interested in recording pre-existing songs (as many of his covers albums have showcased), but this would prove to be untrue and he went on to record further original material afterwards. Much of it is self-produced and co-written with longtime collaborators Neal Whitmore and Martin Watkins.

(34) Burn Bright b/w The Dancing Marquis (from the 2014 album, The Dancing Marquis)

The Dancing Marquis is the eighteenth solo studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released by Strike Force Entertainment / Cherry Red Records on 16 June 2014.

The Dancing Marquis compiles the songs from the limited edition 7″ vinyl EPs Burn Bright and Tasmanian Tiger together with two new tracks and two remixes. The album features guest appearances from Jarvis Cocker and Carl Barât, and some of the tracks were produced by Tony Visconti.

JC

Jolt

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #164: THE JOLT

I remember some local press about The Jolt, a band from the late 70s who really talked up The Jam as being an influence.

This is what wiki had to say:-

The Jolt were a Scottish band formed in Wishaw in 1976.

They started out playing 1960s covers and then sped up their music, playing a mix of punk rock and power pop. The lineup was Robbie Collins (guitar, vox), Jim Doak (bass, vox) and Iain Shedden (drums). The band built up its following playing at the Crown Hotel, Wishaw. They enjoyed moderate success during the punk and early new wave era. They moved to London, England and signed to Polydor Records. They opened for bands such as The Jam, The Saints, Generation X and The Motors. They were precursors to the mod revival, which came to fruition around 1979, the year the band split.

They actually covered a Jam song, See-Saw, and it has been included in the excellent and comprehensive Big Gold Dreams box set that I’ve referenced a few times.  But rather than that, here’s one of the three singles they recorded for Polydor:-

mp3 : The Jolt – You’re Cold

It’s their hugely enjoyable just-under-two-minutes-long debut, dating from 1977, and is more punk than mod orientated….I’m assuming their sound evolved and was moulded somewhat by the record label bosses.

JC

View

SUPERSTAR TRADESMAN

I don’t think Superstar Tradesman quite qualifies for inclusion as a song lyric making for a great short story, but there is a very clear message being put across:-

Superstar tradesman, stand at the bar
Get a trade son, you will go far
You have a house in The Ferry and a new guitar
That’s never been played before and it never will
Never been played before and it never will

This was the second single to be released by The View, a band from the Dryburgh area of Dundee, Scotland. It’s not the most salubrious of communities but has long enjoyed a strong working class/blue collar tradition in which the most important thing for any young lad leaving school was to get himself a job, and preferably one in which he could learn a trade, such as electrician, plumber, joiner, bricklayer/builder or heating engineer, that would ensure a comfortable(ish) life in years to come.

The boys in the band were no doubt hearing this, if not from their parents then certainly from other members of their extended families. They might have talents in singing and playing of instruments, but it was no guarantee of success or a decent income. Much better to take the well-trodden path and once you’ve got your new house in Broughty Ferry (a very salubrious community on the eastern fringe of Dundee), you can buy yourself a decent new guitar and have another go at making it as you’ll have something solid to fall back on.

The boys, however, know that once you give up on the dream, even if it’s in your best financial interests to do so, it will never be realised; and while the trappings of a comfortable life might enable you to purchase a new Fender Stratocaster, it will just sit in its case rather than be put to good use.

mp3 : The View – Superstar Tradesman

The song crashed high into the charts in late October 2006, straight in at #15 on the back of what had been some four weeks of advance play across radio stations, including the accolade of ‘Record of the Week’ on a BBC Radio 1 show. The following week, however, it had dropped out of the Top 40 altogether, indicating that while there was a large and dedicated fan base, there was little evidence of them reaching a wider market.

The b-side was a cover, and an absolute stinker at that:-

mp3 : The View – Up The Junction

It had been recorded for a Radio 1 session in August 2006 and the label decided it should be utilised for the 7” vinyl and CD single. It was a bad call……………

JC

Grinderman

THE GRINDERMAN SINGLES (7)

I mentioned last time out about my unwillingness to get involved in the shenanigans around Record Store Day which means that Palaces of Montezuma is  the only physical copy of a Grinderman single not in the collection.

The facts coming up are that Evil was also part of Record Store Day 2011, but that’s not my recollection.  I certainly picked up a copy outside of RSD and I still smile at the idea of someone at Mute Records coming up with the idea that it be given the catalogue number of MUTE 666.

mp3 : Grinderman – Evil (album version)
mp3 : Grinderman – Evil (The ‘Michael Cliffe House’ Remix)
mp3 : Grinderman – First Evil
mp3 : Grinderman – Evil (‘Silver Alert’ Remix)

The Silver Alert remix has a guest vocal contribution from Matt Beringer of The National and it’s most likely the strangest thing he’s ever done.  All told, it’s a very bizarre and very unconventional 12″.

JC

Wild Billy Childish & The MBEs

THE ULTIMATE BREAK-UP SONG FOR THE MUSO ANORAKS GENERATION

Billy Childish was, for years, one of those artists whom I knew of by reputation rather than being in possession of any of his music. All that changed with the purchase of Archive From 1959 – The Billy Childish Story an epic 51-track compilation released on Damaged Goods back in 2009. The record label offered up this as background:-

Billy Childish has been releasing records, painting, writing poetry and generally doing his own thing for the past 32 years.

He first took to the stage back in October 1977 with seminal punk garage band The Pop Rivets, they split after two years and from there he joined The Milkshakes along with fellow Pop Riveter Bruce Brand and local lads Micky Hampshire & Russ Wilkins, after that came Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Headcoats, The Buff Medways and right up to date with his two current ensembles The Musicians Of The British Empire & The Chatham Singers.

This 51 Track compilation is a look back at the more Rock N Roll aspects of his musical career which is why there’s no spoken word or poetry on this album.

In amongst these more well known bands are tracks he recorded solo and with other artistes like The Delmonas, Thee Headcoatees, Singing Loins, Kyra Rubella etc.

Over the years Billy has been championed by lots of great bands and musicians including Beck, Mudhoney and Kurt Cobain and more recently by Eddie Vedder & The White Stripes. Even with that praise Billy has been largely ignored by the music press in this country which is really surprising as he has now released over 120 albums (including 4 on one day!).

Many of the tracks on this compilation have been unavailable for ages and some also have never appeared on CD as well as many unpublished photos on the cover and 12 page booklet.

Lois Wilson (Mojo) has writing the sleeve notes and there will also be a deluxe triple vinyl version as well as a double CD digipak deluxe package.

Now seems to be the perfect time for people to catch up with what he has been doing for the last 32 years.

The compilation features songs attributed to no less than 12 differently named acts. As such, it does suffer a little bit from inconsistency but it’s fair to say that it makes a fairly compelling listen, albeit I usually find myself hitting the FF button on every occasion, albeit not for the same songs every time. One my favourites is a single released back in 2008:-

mp3 : Wild Billy Childish And The Musicians of the British Empire – He’s Making A Tape

There’s a case to be made that this is the ultimate break-up song for the muso anoraks generation. I’m surely not alone in having spent hour after hour in my bedroom working out the best way to fill up both sides of a C90 cassette in order to gain the attention of someone with whom you hoped intimacy would appear on the agenda. Furthermore, I can understand the anguish being ably demonstrated by vocalist Nurse Julie (aka Julie Hamper aka Mrs Billy Childish) given that there was period in my life when I was married to someone but spent a fair bit of time lovingly compiling tapes to pass onto someone with whom I was having an affair to demonstrate the extent and quality of music in my collection (it obviously worked as I’ve now been living with the recipient of the tapes for nearly 30 years!!).

It’s just two minutes in length, and comprises a great tune and very droll and funny lyric. But obviously not if you’re on the receiving end.

JC

Blink-182

ANOTHER LULLABY

One of the most pleasantly surprising things in my lifetime of appreciating music was owning up to loving a song by Blink-182.

This most juvenile, annoying and misogynist of bands somehow released an absolute belter of a single back in 2004:-

mp3 : Blink-182 – I Miss You

They’re a band that I was more aware of than I should have been or would like to have been, but that’s all down to Mrs Villain as she has long had a soft spot for them, arguing that the juvenile and annoying misogyny was very much tongue-in-cheek and more of a pisstake than anything else. She really hooked onto the band through their promo videos, which were a staple of the many music channels which came ‘free’ via the satellite TV package we had through our service provider and I was never allowed to hop over to another channel anytime the band burst onto the screen.

To be fair, I did laugh at how they poked fun at boybands, and in particular The Backstreet Boys, in the promo for All The Small Things – indeed, I wasn’t aware of how much of a pastiche the promo was until I saw some Backstreet Boys video years later as part of one of those ‘what year was this?’ show.

One of the things that really got in my way of liking the band was the vocal delivery of guitarist Tom DeLonge, a man who was known within Villain Towers as Mr Shouty. Blink-182 deployed two vocalists, and while bassist Mark Hoppus had a fairly inoffensive style of singing, not too far removed from the tortured souls of the men with acoustic guitars, Tom DeLonge just yelled everything at listeners, clearly in the belief that it was the only way to get anyone’s attention. The fact that he did so in videos in which he appeared naked, with his modestly either pixelated out or covered by a guitar, made it all the more unbearable.

So, it was a huge shock when the video for I Miss You made me look up again at the screen and then retained my attention.

For one, it sounded like The Cure when Robert Smith has decided to compose another of his superb songs about his relationship with his wife. The tune was entirely acoustic with some strings to add to the mood. The drummer was using brushes instead of sticks and the lyric was being sung beautifully by Mark.

And then Mr Shouty joins in with a cry of ‘Where are yaaaaa?’

But, here’s the thing, he does it in a fairly understated way that doesn’t take away from the song. Even when he does raise the tone a bit in the chorus, the harshness is cushioned by his mate crooning ‘I Miss You’ in the background.

It does seem like the band took The Cure as the starting point for the song and not just in terms of the tune and ambience. The lyric refers to webs, spiders and the sort of things they eat, much in the same way as Lullaby had provided the band with their best ever UK chart performance in 1989.

I Miss You took Blink-182 into the Top 10 of UK singles chart – the only other time they achieved that was with the afore-mentioned All The Small Things. I think you’d be hard pushed to come up with an act whose two biggest 45s were so diverse in mood and tempo.

JC

Various

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL AN ICA (v)

I’m due back in Glasgow at some point today and will get the blog back to some sort of normality in due course..

Just a reminder that this series has been a pastiche of the NOW albums which, since their inception in 1983 have been, for want of a better word, a shit listen, bought in the main by folk who don’t explore much beyond the mainstream fodder.

The words used to describe each of the songs have been lifted from the particular individual ICA in question. There’s a multitude of contributors, but I’ve decided against highlighting who wrote what…..I like to see this, and indeed the entire output of T(n)VV as a collective.

NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL AN ICA….(v)

SIDE A

Daft Punk is Playing At My House – LCD Soundsystem (Track 1 from ICA#9)

I’ve gone for Soulwax Mix simply because of the bit where it goes ‘DOWNTOWN’

This was LCD Soundsystem’s most successful song, earning a Grammy nod and reaching No. 29 on the UK charts. It’s not hard to see why. Murphy always knew how to start a party, from the opening “OW! OW!” to the smashing hi-hats to cowbells and even reminding us that he had moved the furniture to the garage. A belter of a record.

Electricity – OMD (Track 2 from ICA#151)

The first single by OMD and less polished that the later re-recorded and better-known versions for DinDisc.

The story goes that following a successful debut gig at Eric’s in Liverpool, at which they supported Joy Division, the duo sent off a tape of their demo to Tony Wilson in the hope of having it released on Factory. The boss wasn’t that keen on it, but his wife, Lindsay Reade, thought Electricity sounded good and so he decided to release it on a one-off basis with it becoming just the third piece of vinyl to be issued by the label, with 5,000 copies pressed up. It received a fair bit of critical praise and although it didn’t chart, set the duo up for a multi-album deal and the initial steps along the road to fame and fortune. How different might have the Factory story turned out if OMD had been offered and signed a long-term deal with the label…..

The Hellcat Spanged Shalala – Arctic Monkeys (Track 3 from ICA#193)

After ‘Humbug’ the band abandoned trying to be a South Yorkshire version of the Queens of the Stone Age and returned to making beautifully wistful guitar pop and it suited them down to the ground – and you know what – I think right now, ‘Suck It and See’ is my favourite of their albums, is it their best – not sure – but I personally don’t think that they have ever sounded as confident and as sparkling as they do in this song. It’s marvellous.

I Wanna Be Sedated – The Ramones (Track 4 from ICA#185)

“I Wanna Be Sedated” was described by the author Brian J. Bowe as one of the band’s “most classic” pieces of music. After a show in London, Joey told manager Linda Stein: “Put me in a wheelchair and get me on a plane before I go insane”. This quote would be the chorus to “I Wanna Be Sedated”, whose lyrics invoke the stress which the band was under during touring. It is the most downloaded song from the catalog by The Ramones.

Party Fears Two – Associates (Track 5 from ICA#141)

The 45 that delivered on Billy’s dreams and ambitions. Their best known few minutes and among their finest. Enough has been written before about, both on this blog and elsewhere. Just enjoy the full majesty of the 12” version with its fabulous drawn-out ending.

SIDE B

Who The Fuck? – PJ Harvey (Track 6 from ICA#63)

Now we’re talking! PJ’s angry. Someone’s pissed her off and she can’t wait to tell us. Coming across like a demented Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, WTF? kicks like an angry mule, a fuzztoned, vocally distorted, brilliant mess of a record.

It’s a sloppy, stroppy, brilliantly sweary track. If you took ten wasps in a jar and stuck them in a food blender with the short-lived RRRRRiot Grrrrrrl movement, it would sound something like this.

Pump It Up – Elvis Costello & The Attractions (Track 7 from ICA#136)

I observed that, while I wasn’t that fond of Costello’s genre exercises and anemic later-career albums, I rated his early LPs so highly that “I don’t think I could narrow down a 10 song ICA from just his recordings with the Attractions.” It was Brian who responded: “Nobody has had the guts to do that so far.”

Of course Brian’s right. I once made a playlist for my daughter of ‘essential’ EC songs and there were almost 100 on it.

No, there’s absolutely no way to have a 10-song Elvis Costello ICA. So, what the hell — with no discussion of the songs at all here’s an ICA of the TEN BEST songs by Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

Echo Beach – Martha & The Muffins (Track 8 from ICA#27)

I nearly didn’t put Echo Beach on this compilation. After all, you already know it, you’ve probably got it, and if you want to hear it, you can just hang around any supermarket with an in-store radio station and it’ll turn up soon enough. But it’s here anyway, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because inevitably nothing else on “Metro Music” really comes close. I was going to use the follow-up single Saigon, but the write-up came down to “it’s pretty good, but it’s not Echo Beach”, so what’s a diligent compiler to do? More importantly, if we’re going to pretend that this could be a proper vinyl album, then let’s face it: there’s no way on Earth that you’d ever do a Martha And The Muffins compilation and NOT put Echo Beach on it. Apart from anything else, it’s just too damn good. So good, in fact, it was very nearly a career killer.

Man In The Corner Shop – The Jam (Track 9 from ICA#52)

There’s something intrinsically sad about this mid-paced number which I’ve always thought is a hidden gem of a song.

I’ve never thought its central message was that everyone is born equal; nor do I think Paul Weller thinks that to be the case and so his tongue is very much in his cheek when he sings those particular lines. The sadness come from the fact that neither of the factory worker or shop owner are happy with their lot and both believe the grass on the other side is a much more favourable shade of green. Even sadder isturning your thoughts to what was likely to have happened to the protagonists in real life over the subsequent 2-3 years….a factory closure and redundancy for the blue-collar worker and the end of the family business for the shop owner as the supermarkets take over? Most likely…..and and as for the factory owner….well, he was never really ever any better off than the other two….maybe just a little bit richer in financial terms. In other words, the central message of Man In The Corner Shop is really quite simple……………………….

Life Sucks.

There Is No Ending – Arab Strap (Track 10 from ICA#14)

The closing track on the closing album. After dozens of songs that dealt with teenage and 20-something angst here’s one that celebrates love lasting forever until you grow old.

For a band that had to face up to so many accusations of being latent miserablists this is an extraordinary way to sign off and it captures Aidan Moffat for what I think he is – romantic at heart. For the most part in the Arab Strap canon he’s been a sad and depressed romantic all too often seeking solace in the comfort of the bottle or from the drugs cabinet but now at last he’s happy and looking forward to the future and he wants the world to know it.

A joyous and wonderful anthem to finish things off.

ENDS

Marc Almond

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF MARC ALMOND (Part 26-28)

Open All Night, released in March 1999, was the tenth solo studio to be released by Marc Almond. It was on Blue Star Music, a new indie label that he himself had founded and on which all his UK releases would appear for the next decade

It’s a fascinating album with a couple of guest contributions, not least from The Creatures (aka Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie), and in songwriting terms was a continuation of the partnership forged with Neal X (aka Neal Whitmore) on Fantastic Star.

Some six months prior to the album, Marc had issued a single on Echo Records, a subsidiary of major label Chrysalis. I’m assuming both parties were testing each other out and decided there would be no point in any long term relationship, for it proved to be his only release for the label.

(26) Black Kiss b/w Satan’s Child b/w Black Kiss (Live at The Almeida) (October 1998 – #84 in the UK charts)

I think it’s worth giving you Ned Raggett‘s review of this single from the All Music website:-

Though the only single released via his abortive deal with Echo Records, “Black Kiss” proved to be the signal of Almond’s full artistic renaissance. The first offering from what would become Open All Night, “Black Kiss” blends spare, jungle-touched production with spooky, Brazilian-derived music and vibes (heightened by the inclusion of Henrique da Silva’s muffled backing vocals). It’s a magnificent performance from Almond and his band both, continuing his night-prowling lyrical vibe with surprising, intriguing new results. A live version also appears, with da Silva briefly explaining at Almond’s prompting the voodoo-derived background of the mysterious “queen of the night” who figures in the song. A separate stand-alone track also crops up which surfaced on Open All Night’s American release — “Satan’s Child,” a finger-snapping, brassy number that finds Almond tackling his Eartha Kitt/Vegas cabaret side with a tech-sharp edge. It’s not quite Foetus, but it’s a calmer kissing cousin.

The move to a self-financed indie brought to an end the idea of Marc Almond being someone who would bother the singles charts given the costs involved in issuing, promoting and hyping any such releases, but two tracks from Open All Night were nevertheless issued, one of which accompanied the album and the other much later in the year.

(27) Tragedy (Take A Look and See) b/w Beautiful Losers (March 1999 – did not chart)

(28) My Love b/w Threat of Love b/w One Big Soul (October 1999 – did not chart)

The former is a slow-paced number at which Marc tends to excel, although this one has a bit of a pop-tune feel rather than it having the kitchen sink thrown at it….it’s almost the sort of thing that boy bands have hits with.  The b-side is a blend of trip-hop and pop and the fact that it didn’t make the final cut for the album just highlights how much of a good listen it is…..it certainly shouldn’t have been the monumental flop it turned out, not even cracking the Top 100 in the UK.

The latter is a great listen.  The lead track could well have been a tune composed by Beck with Marc adding a lovely camp lyric on top.  The first of the b-sides is the album track on which The Creatures guested, and it’s every bit as wonderful as you’d hope and Almond/Sioux collaboration would sound.  The final track is a happy upbeat number, and again it’s a bit of a mystery as to why it was left off the parent album.

JC

John Martyn

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #163 : JOHN MARTYN

From The Guardian, 30 January 2009:-

Ain’t No Saint was the title of the four-CD restrospective of John Martyn’s career, released to mark his 60th birthday last September. The name could hardly have been more apt, since Martyn, who died yesterday, became renowned for a career that lurched between triumph and disaster, both personal and musical. Drugs, drunken brawls and marital breakdown littered his CV, but then so did several of the most enduring and idiosyncratic albums made by a British artist in the last 40 years.

Martyn was born Iain David McGeachy in New Malden, Surrey. His parents, Betty and Tommy, were professional light-operatic singers who worked the postwar variety circuit, singing Gilbert and Sullivan in period costume. They divorced when their son was five, and Tommy took the boy back to his native Scotland, where he proved academically gifted. However, he became fascinated by the music he heard in the Glasgow folk clubs, and felt galvanised towards a musical career by the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and British guitarist Davey Graham.

By 1967 he had moved back to London, living like a hobo and carrying only whatever he could cram into his guitar case. He changed his name to John Martyn on the advice of a booking agent and was snapped up by Island Records. His debut album, London Conversation, recorded in a few hours, had a somewhat conventional approach that did not reflect the true Martyn, who was soon introducing elements of jazz and experimental electronics into his music. “I didn’t like that finger-in-the-ear stuff,” he said later. “I’ve never been the morris dancing type. I’m a funky, not a folkie.”

His 1970 album Stormbringer! found him collaborating with his new wife, Beverley Kutner, and taking an innovative approach using phase-shifting and Echoplex devices with which he could create a one-man wall of sound.
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The Road to Ruin (1970) and Bless the Weather (1971) marked the start of Martyn’s long musical relationship with jazz bassist Danny Thompson, and he was beginning to perfect a slurring, impressionistic vocal style that complemented the rich ambiguities of his music. He often cited the avant-garde saxophonist Pharoah Sanders as an inspiration. He hit a creative peak with 1973’s Solid Air, which included May You Never – covered by Eric Clapton on Slowhand in 1977, earning Martyn the largest royalty cheque of his career.

Happy to play the poet-ruffian, Martyn threw himself into American tours with Free and Traffic, where groupies and drug abuse were integral. He gave full vent to his vagabond ways while touring his Sunday’s Child album in 1975, accompanied by Thompson and former Free guitarist Paul Kossoff. The atmosphere grew fraught when Kossoff broke a bottle over his head, and a Melody Maker journalist, Allan Jones, described seeing Martyn backstage “looking like he’d been drinking since the dawn of time”.

Dabblings with heroin and an American tour with Clapton took Martyn to the brink. He split up with Beverley and made the infamously bleak break-up album Grace and Danger (1980) with help from Phil Collins. He married his second wife, Annie Furlong, in 1983 but they later separated.

Collins produced Martyn’s next album, Glorious Fool (1981), but further plans were scuppered when a drunken Martyn broke several ribs by impaling himself on a fence. By now he had left Island for WEA, but their plans to expose him to a wider audience were doomed. By 1984 he was back with Island and recorded Sapphire and Piece by Piece, but Island dropped him again in 1988.

The Apprentice (1990) and Cooltide (1991) appeared on Permanent Records. In 1996 he released And, on Go! Discs, also home to Portishead. Perhaps influenced by the latter, he explored the use of samples and triphop beats, and a Talvin Singh remix of the album track Sunshine’s Better won plenty of radio play. Glasgow Walker (2000) featured more triphop adventures, and Martyn modified his approach further by writing on keyboard rather than guitar. In 2001 he featured on DJ/musician Sister Bliss’s electronica track, Deliver Me.

In 2006 the BBC screened the documentary Johnny Too Bad, which followed Martyn as he wrote and recorded the album On the Cobbles, and also covered the amputation of his right leg, made necessary by a burst cyst. He remained stoical, but his weight ballooned to 20 stone. He retreated to his farmhouse in Thomastown, Kilkenny, with his partner Theresa to recuperate.

Martyn was greatly touched to be given a lifetime achievement award at the Radio 2 folk awards last year. Collins made the presentation, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones accompanied him on mandolin as he performed May You Never and Over the Hill. Speaking at the award ceremony, Martyn said: “I didn’t set out to achieve anything. I was driven. I’m still driven. It wasn’t like a great mission to save folk music.”

He was appointed OBE in the latest new year honours. He is survived by Theresa and his two children, Mhairi and Spencer.

• John Martyn (Iain David McGeachy), musician, born 11 September 1948; died 29 January 2009

mp3 : John Martyn – May You Never

JC