Nick Cave

LET THEM ALL TALK

I honestly can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Nick Cave in the live setting. It’s been lots and has encompassed The Bad Seeds, Grinderman and solo shows.

There hasn’t ever been a duff show and he even managed, back in 2008 on the Dig Lazarus Dig!!! tour, to make a gig at the usually horrific (for sound and sight lines) Corn Exchange in Edinburgh bearable. Not least for the fact that his 18-song set was drawn from ten different albums – little did I know that the tour would be the last time I’d see Mick Harvey on stage with him.

The announcement in 2017 that the Bad Seeds were putting on a show at the cavernous Hydro Arena was quite disconcerting as I just couldn’t imagine it working in an arena of that scale. My mind wasn’t quite made up on whether or not to go when the ticket prices were announced and I decided that £70 plus booking fees was just too much. The subsequent chats with those who did go along did cause pangs of regret with a number saying it was as fine a spectacle as they had seen in years, although interestingly a couple of folk who have been fans since The Birthday Party days felt it was a tad on the self-indulgent side with Nick throwing himself into the crowd knowing he would be held aloft whereas the old days would have seen fights break out down the front!!

But let’s face it, Nick Cave has more than paid his dues over the years, making consistently great music and, just as importantly, making sure that every tour offers something different from its predecessors so that you never tire of going along.

So, when it was announced that he was bringing his latest show to Edinburgh, and that it would involve him taking part in a Q&A that would involve audience participation (with no subject matter deemed to be off-limits or taboo), as well as playing some songs solo on the piano, I was really keen to get myself along. And then I saw that the cost of the best seats in the house (it’s at the Usher Hall, an old fashioned but lovely three-tiered venue including what must be the closest seats to heaven in all mankind), I changed my mind and came to the realisation that I’m unlikely top ever see Nick Cave in concert ever again.

£93.50 plus booking fees. Even the seats in the gods are £33 from where I imagine you’ll stand little chance of interacting with things on the stage.

If it had been a full Bad Seeds Show, I might have considered it…..but it might have needed Grinderman to be the support act to be the clincher (and I haven’t forgotten that I’ve a few of their singles to feature in an on-going and occasional series). But the best part of £200 for myself and Mrs V to go to a talk show with a few songs? For that amount of money, I’d be looking for him to pop round to Villain Towers for a chat and cup of tea (but not owning a piano, the songs would need to be left off the itinerary.)

It seems the ‘Conversations with Nick Cave’ idea is building on what appears to have been a successful tour of a similar nature earlier this year in Australia and New Zealand. 14/15 songs per night appear to have been worked into each event – which, to be fair, is more than I would have imagined – with many of the more popular ballads such as The Ship Song, Into My Arms, God Is In The House, West Country Girl and Love Letter being mainstays alongside re-workings of the likes of The Mercy Seat and Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, while his cover of Leonard Cohen’s Avalanche has also been dusted down. It has also found favour with many aficionados in the UK and Europe who have parted with their hard earned cash and made the tour a sell-out…..bit it ain’t for me, babe.

mp3 : Nick Cave – I’m Your Man

JC

Various

A COMPANION PIECE TO YESTERDAY’S POSTING

February 2019 was something of a poignant month. Comrade Colin wrote brilliantly and eloquently about the death, at the age of 64, of Mark Hollis. I’d like to now say a few words about Peter Tork and Beatrice Colin, both of whom also left us last month.

Peter Tork was one-quarter of The Monkees, a band without whom I’d unlikely have developed such an affection for great, guitar-based pop music. The TV show seemed to be on BBC1 during the children’s hour all the time in the 70s, a show which I would get to watch just after getting home from school and before my mum would get in from her long shift in the factory to make us something to eat. The Monkees were, to my young mind, a magical and fun group of people to be around. It made for great TV with what seemed to be a perfect blend of slapstick comedy and drama, soundtracked by songs which, by the third or fourth time you’d heard them, were embedded in your brain, but in a very good way. Of course I had no idea that so much of it was manufactured and that the songs were the work of others who weren’t ever going to appear on-screen but to be honest, that didn’t matter and I wouldn’t have cared in any event. I just wanted my four heroes to come good and play us out with a great song…which they always did.

I’d be a liar if I said Peter was my favourite Monkee….that honour was bestowed on Micky Dolenz as he made me laugh more than the others and the songs he sang on seemed to be the best. But I loved watching all four of them, and the news of Peter’s death made me recall happy memories of very olden days while providing a sad reminder that I’m now constantly losing people who in some shape or form shaped me, directly or indirectly, into who and what I am today.

mp3 : The Monkees – (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone

Beatrice Colin didn’t have anything like the impact on the music scene as Peter Tork – indeed very few people will actually associate her with the genre. Readers of old, however, will know that she was one half of the very short-live band April Showers who emerged out of Glasgow in 1984 – the other half was David Bernstein. (co-author of a very fine book which was reviewed back in 2014)

There was just the one single, but it was absolutely glorious and one of my favourites from the era:-

mp3 : April Showers – Abandon Ship

Beatrice was ages with me and I happened to be in her company a couple of times, but only as part of a larger social group in a city centre pub. She was the girlfriend of James Grant who, by complete coincidence, was featured on the blog just last Saturday.

She seemed a lovely, down-to-earth person and not the slightest bit big-headed or boastful about the fact she had made a pop record (which to me, at the time) was the be-all and end-all.

But pop music was not be her forte and while she remained on its fringes as a backing vocalist in studios and on stage – including stints with Love and Money – (and as I’ve since learned with a band of her own called Pale Fire, she began to carve out a career in journalism and writing, initially penning reviews and features for newspapers and magazines. Such was her talent for writing that, by her mid-30s, she was a published novelist and playwright. In later years, she would expand her horizons even further with a move into academia as a lecturer in Creative Writing. Her tragically young death at the age of 55, came after a long battle against ovarian cancer and has left a significant hole in the cultural life of my home city.

Thoughts are with her husband, children and close friends who will be missing her so much.

JC

A hastily added PS….

The above words were pulled together a few days in advance of the very sad news of the passing of Keith Flint.

There will be many tributes across the internet today on top of those which appeared throughout yesterday.  I’ll simply take a few words from a Facebook posting by a London-based friend of mine, the comedian Steve McLean:-

You know what I really loved about The Prodigy?

Almost everybody liked them. 

Back when people had very firm music camps that they stayed in, everyone would be enticed out with The Prodigy.  You were as likely to hear them played at The Underworld as you were at The Ministry.  Even before their heavier guitar sampling tunes too, everyone loved Charly and Out of Space – The Prodigy let you dance with all your mates regardless of your snobbery.

Later in their career they headlined both Download and Creamfields. Has there ever been another band that could do that?

RIP Keith Flint.

Mark Hollis

THE SPACE BETWEEN THE NOTES: A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE MARK HOLLIS

A GUEST POSTING by COMRADE COLIN

“Sketches of Spain is a beautiful artistic endeavour. It took two dates to complete, with basically the same orchestra as the two previous large group sessions. Miles is playing slowly, methodically, and, for the first time, using extensively bent notes. Also, for the first time, the orchestration, with its colours streaming like a series of rainbows, definitely telling a story, seems to be what Miles primarily wants. Although he and the orchestra are almost antiphonal, it is a true dialogue, as between a preacher and his congregation.”

Bill Cole (1974) Miles Davis: A Musical Biography, William Morrow and Company Inc: New York, pp 87-88.

Rob Young (interviewer): “Are you delivering gospel or apocalypse? Good news or bad?”

Mark Hollis: “I dunno… don’t know the answer to that one. I think I’m done.”

James Marsh, Chris Roberts and Toby Benjamin (2012) Spirit of Talk Talk Rocket 88: London, p192.

—

Grief is a very curious bedfellow. At times it can evade us when most expected, such as the sudden death of a close friend or a family member. At other times grief will cross the road, stare at us, and shout obscenities in our face, so close up that we can’t ignore it. That these emotions can spill out and come undone for people we’ve never even met is a most peculiar thing. But it happens. All the time. Tears will flow.

There had been Bowie of course, there had also been (the artist formerly known as) Prince. We recall the reactions to these deaths and many more in 2016. It was a year and a half for our idols departing. But we accepted it, naturally, in terms of the ‘rich legacy’ and ‘cultural influence’ left behind. Posterity would redeem, value, recognise. The enigmatic adjectives were produced and refashioned. Bowie’s death, in particular, was a meticulous example of how to exit stage left with a certain vision and a plan. What a performance it was.

In contrast to…

And, so it was on Monday 25th February, 2019. News of Mark Hollis and his cruel sudden passing, at the not-quite-there statutory retirement age of 64, started to ripple across the world in a sequence of zeros and ones. A close friend, knowing my interest, messaged me via Twitter alerting me. His source had been a statement via Twitter from Matt Johnson of The The.

But was it true? How could it be? What? How? When? Where?

We held out, many of us, searching for ‘verified’ and ‘confirmed’ news. We refused to believe it unless a direct statement from the Hollis family was forthcoming. And sadly, via Twitter again, the toxic Town Crier of the digital age, it did arrive, via Mark’s cousin-in-law Professor Anthony Costello of University College London. Anthony referred to his relative, “RIP Mark Hollis”, as “an indefinable musical icon” and, of course, a great dad. Then, over the next few hours and days, several music journalists and staff writers and (pop) cultural commentators tried to do exactly this. But how to define and categorise someone, and their music, who just couldn’t be placed? Someone who was “indefinable’? Why would you even try?

So, I will not do this. I refuse. And more pragmatically, I simply can’t. So many words have already been written about what Hollis achieved before he ‘retired from the music industry’ in his early forties (apropos, ‘how to disappear completely’). This is the popular narrative and central discourse. This is what we have been told. Except, as we all know, it simply isn’t true. Hollis kept his hand in with music, he still played all the time according to Tim Friese-Greene, he just did so quietly, without fanfare, and outside of a studio. There was a degree of silence that was only broken when the mood struck. For example, he co-produced and arranged music for significant others (Anja Garbarek, 2001), he played and co-wrote for other bands (Unkle, 1998). Similarly, he added his ‘Piano’ contribution to the ‘AV 1’ album by former producer Phil Brown and his partner Dave Allinson (1998), as well as writing and performing a short, original piece of music entitled ‘ARB Section 1’ for the TV series Boss (2012). The music continued, it never actually ended.

But all this you know. He did not ‘retire’, he just preferred a degree of relative quiet, anonymity, family life, privacy and some further ‘space between the notes’. And, given what he had so brutally endured through the mid-80’s height of the EMI Talk Talk years – as an example, just watch some of the white-knuckle interviews and ‘live’ comedic playback performances from mainly European music shows during 1984-1986 – you can understand why Hollis and company just wanted to be immersed in a studio cocoon like Wessex. Yes, perhaps true, we can speak of the Talk Talk ‘transformative metamorphosis’ or some such; a story of ‘Europop emergence’, ‘post-rock ascendancy’ and then a ‘near-silent exit’ via the solo recording. But what good does this do? And is it even true? I am unsure, and I think I always will be. Even imaginary compilation albums seem a bit meaningless right now.

All this, naturally, brings me back to Miles Davis and Sketches of Spain (1960). Since the news of Mark’s untimely death I’ve been playing this album constantly, and reading about its recording. I am actually playing it again now as I sit and type this out at the kitchen table; it is casually drifting through from the living room where my record player stays. Anyway, I think this mild obsession, again, with Davies is, in part, due to reading an interview some time ago where Hollis discusses the influence of both this album, as well as the earlier Davis/Evans recording of Porgy and Bess (1959), on the sessions for his 1998 self-titled album. The quotation given at the top of this page, taken from the Bill Cole (1974) book, struck me as being the kind of thing we could say about Hollis… the invocation of ‘colours and rainbows’, an unsubtle comparison with ‘a preacher and his congregation’. But we won’t. I just think it’s apt to note that what Cole said about Davis we could say about Hollis. If we chose to. We might even guess that Hollis would appreciate that association. Then again, knowing his humour and modesty, perhaps not. He’d just laugh and dismiss the notion out of hand.

Quite possibly, instead, it is better to conclude with the final words spoken by Hollis himself to interviewer Rob Young at the close of an essay and conversation that was originally published by The Wire (#167, 1998): “I think I’m done”, Hollis remarked, before making his move to leave Young alone. To be fair, it was a rather glib and facile question about whether the album was delivering the gospel or warnings of apocalypse. Wouldn’t you also not quite know what to say to that kind of question and just leave?

So, just as we accepted Hollis’s supposed ‘retirement’ twenty odd years ago from the music industry, we must now accept a new kind of silence. Indeed, this seems to the defined word of choice for many ‘in remembrance’ type articles right now. And it does ring true, to an extent. But then again, you can listen to that seventy-five second malfunctioning variophon solo from ‘After the Flood’ or the stark Hollis call and ‘lift’ of “Nature’s son” from the track ‘Inheritance’, at the one minute and forty-four second mark. Then you realise that there was also a gloriously multi-faceted – spontaneous but spliced together – noise happening. It’s evident that people were listening and noticed this.

In the end, you realise, there is no ‘return to Eden’, we truly never know what day is going to pick us, as Mark Kozelek pointedly sings on ‘Duk Koo Kim’ “…out of the air, out of nowhere”. Instead, we can only recognise and value the space between the notes that we play or don’t play. We can choose to wear our grief on our sleeves, as an open border, relational kind of coping strategy, or we can just go about our (intimate) daily lives whilst playing over and over again that sequence, live, when ‘Mirror Man’ becomes ‘Does Caroline Know?’. It is glorious, as you know, your heart skips a beats and you feel a sharp intake of breath.

But what happens after the music stops? We continue. We remember, in our own way. Indeed, the following day, after the news of Mark’s death on February 26th, 2019, I was down to chair an event for a third-sector organisation which I am a Board member of, at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. I had thought, at 4am, about feigning illness, or rather, admitting I wasn’t coping too well, and cancelling my involvement. However, I decided against this. It was too late. Instead, I arranged for ‘Sketches of Spain’ to be played during registration and coffee. No one recognised it (I asked delegates this question in my opening remarks, everyone looked nonplussed). Further, I wore my ‘The Colour of Spring’ pin badge on the lapel of my grey Jasper Conran corduroy jacket. No one recognised it, in conversations over lunch, no one said a word. But at least I tried to make a connection, physically, with a kindred spirit that day. I reached out.

Enough, enough now; simply embrace the space between the notes.

COLIN

PS : After penning the above words, Colin asked that I draw attention to this, a near 8-minute long Eden rehearsal cassette that has been placed on Souncloud by Tim Friese-Greene as his tribute to his late colleague.

JC adds…….

I had to tease these words out of Comrade Colin.  He’s been hit every bit as hard by the death of Mark Hollis as those who were the biggest fans of Bowie and Prince back in 2016….in the ten years and more that I’ve known him, he has never stopped trying to convince me that Hollis was a visionary genius. I felt that him penning a tribute, in his own unique style, would help with the grieving process.

His original piece didn’t come with any songs, but after a think about it, he has suggested these:-

mp3 : Talk Talk – After The Flood (from Laughing Stock, 1991)
mp3 : Mark Hollis – A Life (1895-1915) (from Mark Hollis, 1998)

I’ve posted this today in place of the usual Monday Morning, Coming Down piece which has been held over for a week. Thanks for dropping by today.

JC

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 18)

I mentioned in last week’s post that Paul Haig had revived ROL Records in 1999 for the purpose of issuing Memory Palace, attributed to Haig/Mackenzie, and consisting of the music that he and Billy Mackenzie had collaborated on in the early-mid 90s.

ROL has been the vehicle for Paul’s work throughout the 21st Century, all of which in the early part of the decade were albums, with the imagined soundtrack albums Cinematique 2 and Cinematique 3 appearing in 2001 and 2003 respectively. ROL was also the label for the issuing of some more posthumous (and quickly deleted) previously unreleased material by Billy Mackenzie (solo or in collaboration with Steve Aungle) and a live CD by Josef K, featuring two Edinburgh gigs from back in 1981. Again all of this activity was between 2001-03.

It was another four years before the next burst of activity, with the biggest surprise that it consisted of a 7″ single and download:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Reason
mp3 : Paul Haig – Maybe

There was never any real push to make it a hit – it was pushed and promoted largely through Paul’s website and I’m not sure just how easy it was to find in shops. It’s a decent enough and enjoyable piece of music, not as immediate or upbeat as some of his previous 45s, but catchy enough, and with its refrain of ‘It’s time I was leaving…I’m moving on….’ it seemed to be sending out the message that this could be the farewell to the industry.

Thankfully it wasn’t.

The b-side is a short (just over 2:20) but interesting enough song….it was just a real joy to hear Paul singing again after all these years.

JC

James Grant

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #150 : JAMES GRANT

From wiki:-

James Grant’s music career began in 1982 as songwriter and guitarist in Friends Again, alongside Chris Thomson, later of The Bathers. The group had minor hit singles with “State of Art”, “Sunkissed” and “Honey at the Core”. They released a self-titled EP in 1983 and then recorded their debut album, Trapped & Unwrapped, in 1984.

When Friends Again split in 1985, Grant went on to form Love and Money along with drummer Stuart Kerr and keyboardist Paul McGeechan. In their nine years together they recorded four moderately successful albums, All You Need Is, Strange Kind Of Love, Dogs In The Traffic, and littledeath.

Grant’s first solo album, Sawdust in My Veins, was released on Survival Records in 1998. It featured long term collaborator Donald Shaw, Karen Matheson, harmonica player Fraser Speirs, drummer James MacKintosh and the BT Scottish Ensemble. After a label change to Vertical, the same lineup was retained for My Thrawn Glory in 2000.

I Shot The Albatross, a collection of poetry set to music, was released in 2002. It included interpretations of works by Edwin Morgan, EE Cummings, and William Blake. The gentle, introspective Holy Love, followed in 2004, featuring contributions by dobro player Jerry Douglas and ex-Thrum vocalist Monica Queen. Strange Flowers, a more upbeat collection, was released in February 2009

Grant also scored the film The Near Room and has collaborated with Capercaillie’s Karen Matheson, performing live and writing songs for her solo records The Dreaming Sea, Downriver, and Time To Fall.

Love and Money reformed for a show at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections 2011; this was intended to be a one-off but was very successful and the band subsequently decided to tour the UK. Following this the band released their fifth studio album ‘The Devil’s Debt’ in 2012. A limited edition live album of their Royal Concert Hall show, ‘Strange Kind Of Love’ was also released.

In conversation with radio presenter Billy Sloan on BBC Scotland’s Music Through Midnight show on 5 June 2015, Grant revealed he was writing material and suggested it was more likely to be for a solo album than another Love & Money project.

James Grant is another of the many largely unheralded Scottish musicians who really should have a worldwide following.  He’s a ridiculously talented guitarist, and while I’ve not always fallen deeply for some of his post-Friends Again material, almost all of his albums have had something worthy and of note.

He’s still very active on the live front, and upcoming shows in 2019 include London on 2 May, followed by some Scottish shows later in the month.

This is from Sawdust In My Veins, his solo album from 1998 – it was also released as a single:-

mp3 : James Grant – Pray The Dawn

JC

Beastie Boys

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 20)

Johnny Ryall is the bum on my stoop
I gave him fifty cents to buy some soup
He knows the time with the fresh Gucci watch
He’s even more over than my mayor Ed Koch
Washing windows on the Bowery at a quarter to four
‘Cause he ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more
Livin’ on borrowed time and borrowed money
Sleepin’ on the street there ain’t a damn thing funny
With the hand-me-down food and hand-me-down clothes
A rockabilly past of which nobody knows
Makes his home all over the place
He goes to sleep by falling down on his face
Sometimes known as the leader of the homeless
Sometimes drunk, man the kid’s always phoneless
Sleepin’ on the street in a cardboard box
He’s better off drinkin’ than smokin’ the rocks
Johnny Ryall, Johnny Ryall
Kickin’ uptown, kickin’ downtown, kickin’ crosstown
Johnny Ryall, Johnny Ryall

He drinks where he lies
He’s covered with flies
He’s got the hand me down Pumas and the tie dyes
Well, you go upstate and get your head together
Thunderbird is the word and you’re light as a feather
Detox at the flop house no booze allowed
Remember the good old days with the rockabilly crowd
Memphis is where he’s from (out in Tennessee)
He lives in the street but he’s no bum
He’s the rockabilly star from the days of old
He used to have teeth all filled with gold
He got platinum voice but only gold records
On the bass (was Boots), on the drums (was Checkers)
Louis Vuitton with the Gucci guitar
Johnny Ryall
Who do you think you are?
Johnny Ryall, Johnny Ryall
Takin’ the night train, drinkin’ O.E
Johnny Ryall, Johnny Ryall
One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four
One, two, three

Donald Trump and Donald Tramp living in the men’s shelter
Wonder Bread bag shoes and singing “Helter Skelter”
He asks for a dollar you know what it’s for
Man, bottle after bottle he’ll always need more
He’s no less important than you working class stiffs
He drinks a lot of liquor but he don’t drink piss
He paid his dues playing the blues
He claims that he wrote the Blue Suede Shoes
Elvis shaved his head when he went into the army
That’s right y’all his name is Johnny
Kick it
Johnny Ryall, Johnny Ryall

Track 3 from Paul’s Boutique, and one the most extraordinary parts of an extraordinary album.

Worth recalling that the prior to the release of their second album in 1989, Beastie Boys were regarded by many as one-trick ponies. The album caught just about everyone out in that it wasn’t anything close to a re-tread of Licensed to Ill, and indeed the past 30 years have only seen it grow in stature, partly from the recognition of its ground-breaking nature but also from the fact that many have since tried but failed in their efforts to replicate it. And given just how expensive it would be nowadays to get clearance for that amount of samples (over 100 were used on the album), it never again will be attempted.

The idea of the these three early-20s rappers writing something making reference to the plight of a homeless man on the streets of NYC would have seemed ludicrous to those who were part of the initial journey from hardcore to hip-hop, but what you have here is one of the earliest examples of the band increasingly making use of their profile and platform to make significant sociopolitical statements.

A book dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the album reveals that Johnny Ryall was the name given to a vagrant who had hung around the outside of Mike Diamond’s apartment building in NYC a few years previously. The vagrant was also given a back story of being a down-at-luck rockabilly star who had been friendly with Elvis Presley. The source for the name and the back story was Mike D’s flatmate, who was Sean Casarov, previously a member of the inner circle of The Clash before he upped sticks and moved to the States. The Beastie Boys book also reveals that neither Mike nor Sean regarded the vagrant as a source of fun or amusement and indeed would provide him with clothes when it got particularly cold. The irony of the song is that the lyric was pieced together in Los Angeles where the band had relocated to and the inspiration was long gone. Nowadays, the power and reach of social media would likely have tracked him down for a reunion with Mike D.

mp3 : Beastie Boys – Johnny Ryall

Oh and I bet nobody involved would have thought the person referenced in the first line of the final verse would one day be PoTUS.

JC

pacific

DOING IT FOR THE KIDS VIA C88

For years, thanks to its inclusion on the Doing It For The Kids compilation, released by Creation Records in 1988, I’ve had one song by pacific in the collection:-

mp3 : pacific – Jetstream

I always found it a bit on the dull side, one that was often subject to the skip button when the CD was getting played. It just felt too light and whimsical with the trumpet part taking a bit too close to jazz cafe music for my liking.

Many years later, I doubled my collection of songs by the band:-

mp3 : pacific – Barnoon Hill

This, on the other hand is quite splendid. Yes, it’s still light and whimsical but the faster pace and tempo makes it way more palatable.

It came as part of the C88 boxset released a couple of years back by Cherry Red and the liner notes in the accompanying provided some useful information:-

Fronted by Dennis Wheatley who sang, played guitar and created noises via an Atari computer, Pacific melded traditional indie with the intelligent off-kilter pop explored by The Colour Field or, later, The Lightning Seeds. On their debut EP, 1988’s Sea of Sand, they used cello and trumpet and a deft Japanese spoken word intro on Barnoon Hill.

Wheatley had fallen into the Creation camp whilst at college in Brighton…..a second single – the seven-minute epic ‘Shrift’ followed in 1989, followed by a split flexi with My Bloody Valentine courtesy of the Catalogue magazine.

In all, they recorded eight tracks, seven of which were compiled on Inference, a 1990 release on Creation. One UK seller on Discogs is asking for £50 for an unplayed vinyl copy,but you can seek out second-hand versions from some overseas sellers from about £13 plus shipping should your heart desire. It should be noted, however, that the version of Shrift on the vinyl version of the compilation album is about three minutes shorter than that put out as a 12″ single. Oh and it also doesn’t have the track put out as the joint flexi with My Bloody Valentine.

I went digging….found out that the band comprised Dennis Wheatley, Rachel Norwood, Vanessa Norwood, Nick Wilson and Simon Forrest.

I think it’s time I lived up to my name….here’s everything else they put out. Just don’t ask how:-

Sea of Sand EP (CRE 058)

The 7″ (pictured above) had two tracks – Barnoon Hill and this:-

mp3 : pacific – I Wonder

The 12″ had both those tracks, the afore-mentioned Jetstream and this:-

mp3 : pacific – Henry Said

One thing that proves is that Dennis Wheatley didn’t exclusively supply the vocals!

Shrift EP (CRE 064)

The 7″ had these:-

mp3 : pacific – Shrift
mp3 : pacific – Autumn Island

The 12″ had an extended version of the main track, plus one other song not on the 7″:-

mp3 : pacific – Shrift (12″)
mp3 : pacific – Minerals

Flexidisc

mp3 : pacific – December With The Day

Turns out that the track I most dislike was the one on Doing It For The Kids….a sampler which was supposed to draw you into seeking out other material by the featured singer or band!!!

JC

Just Joans

GETTING OLD JUST AIN’T NO FUN

The Just Joans will be appearing on the Saturday run through of Scottish singers/bands in the not too distant future, but a dig through some vinyl singles that had been bought in 2017/18 but left unkempt in a plastic bag for over a year, unearthed a gem of a 45 which just has to be shared.

They formed in 2005 and were, as the main protagonists have always admitted, an initial shambling effort of a band who rarely, if ever, took themselves that seriously. As time went on, and they began to attract an increasing fan base from well beyond their natural habitat of Glasgow and its neighbouring south-easterly towns in Lanarkshire, they took things up a few notches and began to release singles and albums that went beyond rudimentary.

The band has always centred around the siblings David and Katie Pope. Indeed, for much of the past near 15 years, the duo have taken to the stage as The Just Joans but there has been an increasing use of other musicians to flesh out their sound, both on record and in the live setting. David is a very talented and observant writer, penning witty and wry lyrics that are more often than not from the perspective of one of life’s eternal losers, albeit someone who never loses optimism or hope. He’s the first to admit that he’s not blessed with the most classic of singing voices but his delivery, always in the most direct of local dialects, fits perfectly with the subject matters in hand.

Katie’s role in the band has grown immensely in recent years. She’s well known in Glasgow as a visual artist, with her works often selling for substantial sums of money to collectors and fans alike. She’s painted many of the sleeves for band’s singles and albums, bringing to mind the work of Jenny Saville for Manic Street Preachers – an ugly side of reality but with the brightness of colour. Katie has taken on more vocal duties in recent years, either on lead or performing duets with her brother, providing not only a very fine contrast but enabling many of the songs to be seen through the prism of an unlucky and sad but optimistic female.

The band’s most recent album was You Might Be Smiling Now, released on Fika Recordings in late 2017. It was their third after Last Tango In Motherwell (2006) and Buckfast Bottles In The Rain (2012). Their preference has been the EP with seven of them released between 2007 and 2013.

You Might Be Smiling Now is a fabulous record from start to finish. There might just be too many local references and in-jokes to have it make perfect sense further afield, but at long last the previously used description of them being ‘the missing link between The Magnetic Fields and The Proclaimers’ made sense. They were now a six-piece, featuring Chris Elkin (lead guitar), Fraser Ford (bass guitar), Doog Cameron (keyboards) and Jason Sweeney (drums) – and yes, it’s the same Fraser Ford who performs with Butcher Boy – and while the song themes were still, for the most part self-deprecating, the playing made for a great listen, regardless of whether or not a listener understood the cultural or geographical references.

There was one single lifted from the album. It’s the most ambitious piece of music The Just Joans have tackled, with cellos, horns and female backing vocals added in for good measure.

Katie’s wistful delivery of the tale of someone coming to the realisation that they are no longer of an age to dance the night away, and indeed the horror that their preferred look is now that of a middle-aged aunt rather than a stylish teen, is one to make everyone of a certain age, regardless of gender, smile in recognition. The fact that it is delivered to a tune that just makes you want to get up and dance, with its chorus in particular making a passing nod to 60s Motown, only adds to the joy:-

mp3 : The Just Joans – No Longer Young Enough

And the 7” came with a gloriously evocative painting by Katie.

And a more than half decent b-side:-

mp3 : The Just Joans – Breakfast For Our Tea

It’s indie pop at its most indie and its most pop. What more could you ask for?

I’ll be back with more of this lot in a few weeks.

JC

Tracey Thorn

DON’T MESS WITH ME……..

One of my favourite albums of last year was bought on a whim.

The cancellation of the next train home meant I could spend some bonus time in a record store close to Glasgow Central station. I always like to buy something when I’m in the shop, even if it is just a cheap paperback book or DVD. I noticed a display near the shop entrance promoting a new album by Tracey Thorn, something I wasn’t, until this point previously aware.

Regular readers will know that I’ve long been fond of Everything But The Girl but that I’ve also used the blog to offer the opinion that Tracey’s greatest vocal performance came when she guested for Massive Attack. I’ve a couple of her recent solo albums in the collection, neither of which I’ve regarded as essential listening, albeit they both contain a number of very fine moments. I have, however, enjoyed Tracey’s forays into the world of books, particularly her autobiographical work Bedsit Disco Queen, one of the most engaging and honest tomes about life in the music business. It was my thoughts about the book rather than the more recent albums which made me take a CD copy of Record to the counter.

It turns out that Record (ree-cord) is quite an extraordinary record (rek-ord), in which Tracey offers reflections from the perspective of who and what she is – a 50-something mother of three whose life-partner has been to hell and back in terms of his health, and who herself now has a breadth of knowledge and experience that can only come with age. Tracey has experienced things that just weren’t on her radar when she was young, fearless and feeling more or less unstoppable (not in any bravado way….just simply that fact that the vast majority of young folk are hardwired to feel like that).

It’s also a work in which the music is as clear and uncluttered as anything she’s done before, benefiting immensely from the fact that all the tunes are her own as well as her being able to utilise the talents of a number of high quality collaborators from the worlds of indie and pop. It’s a work which obviously means a lot to Tracey – she certainly went out on a limb by describing it as ‘nine feminist bangers’. The danger with such language is to over-promise and under-deliver, but in this instance, from the very off, this was never going to be the case.

Like many of my favourite releases of recent times, Record has changes of mood and tempo throughout, never threatening at any point to be monotonous or mundane. Synthpop, ballads, disco and indie are all on display with that distinctive and soothing voice to the fore. It’s an entertaining, charming and enjoyable album, very moving in places and continually thought-provoking. It doesn’t sound like an album by a 55-year old and it’s probably fair to say that Tracey has been influenced by the music that her grown-up kids listen to.

One of the best songs, Sister, was released also as a single, complete with radio edit and some remixes. It’s an absolute triumph on all fronts:-

mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Sister
mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Sister (radio edit)
mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Sister (Andrew Weatherall remix)
mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Sister (Andrew Weatherall dub)

The co-vocal is from Corrine Bailey Rae, whose soulful pop/jazz debut was a huge hit in 2006 on both sides of the Atlantic, but who just two years later had to cope with the tragic death, by misadventure, of her husband. She has since released two more successful Top 20 albums as well as rebuilding her life….

The energetic and driving bass and drums come courtesy of Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa from indie band Warpaint.

Essential listening if you don’t mind me saying.

JC

Twilight Sad

BONUS POSTING : IN PRAISE OF THE TWILIGHT SAD

You’ll have to forgive me, but I’m, understandably, a bit obsessed with The Twilight Sad this week.

The poster above indicates that our Simply Thrilled night, in which we get to host the official post-Barrowlands gig event, has completely sold out. What it doesn’t indicate is that the sell-out involves the entire space within The Admiral Bar, both the basement level where the club night normally takes place together with the ground floor bar area. The band have a good number of guests coming along but we have sold over 300 tickets which means there will be a substantial donation going the way of the Scott Hutchison fund.

The planning and preparation for the Simply Thrilled night has kind of overshadowed the fact that I’ll be seeing the band at the Barrowlands beforehand – I’m still working out how best I can quickly get out of the venue and make the mile and a bit journey to The Admiral for the 11pm start time and as such, a taxi may well be utilised.

I didn’t think things could get much better but at the tail end of last week the band announced a warm-up gig at King Tut’s in Glasgow for Tuesday 26 February with tickets available only via a link from their mailing site. Tickets went on sale the following morning (Friday) at 9am, but with a capacity of just 300, and each person entitled to two tickets, it was always going to be a long shot to land lucky, even getting into the queue would be something of a result!!

I clicked on the link…..pressed a few keys on traffic lights to prove I wasn’t a robot…..entered in that I would like two tickets please…..and waited all of ten seconds to be advised that tickets weren’t available just now and to try again later. I did and went through the same process except this time I clicked on few cars in squares to demonstrate that I was genuine flesh and blood, and again was advised to try again.

Third time lucky????? Well, I wasn’t asked to prove my credentials but then again I was quickly advised no tickets were available….in other words it was a sell-out.

I checked up with four other folk who had been trying and each had the same sad story to tell but then my dear mate Aldo, who had been incommunicado because of work issues, got I touch to say I wasn’t to worry!

I found out later that while most of us were sitting at laptops with the fastest possible wifi speeds, he had been walking along to his office at 9am and casually clicked on his mobile phone to have a try and not only got into the queue but got the tap on the shoulder to enter in the full payment details. And I’m going to be his +1!

It also looks as if a couple of the Simply Thrilled gang are getting in via the guest list, so all in all, it’s shaping up to be a memorable evening and hopefully my hearing will recover in time to do it all again four nights later.

The critics have given an enormous thumbs up to the new album It Won/t Be Like This All the Time, and understandably so. There is no question that the four year gap since last being in the studio, during which time they played cavernous arenas and outdoor shows as the special guests of The Cure, has been good for The Twilight Sad with the new record meshing all that they have put down before – the loud guitars, the sombre electronics and the intense vocals from James Graham – but adding in places a number of almost pop-like hooks and melodies that can only bring them to the attention of a wider audience. I’ll be very surprised if hear a better album in the rest of 2019.

I was lucky enough to attend this show in Leeds last year at which three unreleased songs that were aired and it was immediately clear that the band’s new material was going to be quite sensational. They have, some twelve years down the line since the first album, penned a song which will most define The Twilight Sad. James has said in interviews recently that the line ‘there’s no love too small’ is one of the most hopeful he’s ever penned which nevertheless is surrounded by lines which are full of anxiety and fear. He’s also said that the album was written while the band was dealing with ‘birth, death, illness, uncertainty and self-hatred’. But in an album of outstanding numbers, it is this upbeat tune with its optimistic refrain which carries the biggest and most important message.

The other ten songs on It Won/t Be Like This All the Time are every bit as strong…..here’s some more footage to help illustrate that:-

Oh….and is that isn’t enough to get me thinking how special the next few days are going to be, the Simply Thrilled team have been given another huge honour in respect of this Saturday as will be the first to air, outside of a couple of radio stations, a new song by the incredibly talented Siobhan Wilson, whose debut album There Are No Saints, released in 2017, just gets better and better with age.

Her sophomore album, The Departure, is being released in May 2019. I’ll certainly be giving it a mention or two around then.

Seems appropriate to return to The Twilight Sad and their tour de force from 2014’s Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave. This was the one which Robert Smith couldn’t wait to get his hand on, and no wonder.

mp3 : Robert Smith – There’s A Girl In The Corner

Just occurred to me…..all that is needed to make this week unbelievably perfect is for Robert, should he happen to be attending the Barrowlands gig, to come along and say hello at The Admiral afterwards.

Dreaming is Free.

JC

Cousteau

MONDAY MORNING….COMING DOWN (5)

The previous time I featured Cousteau on the blog was in August 2014 when I posed the question ‘Anyone Remember This Lot?’

It was very pleasing that a number of very favourable comments followed on, including a couple of personal anecdotes from folk who knew, for one reason or other, vocalist Liam McKahey.

This oustanding piece of music is tailor made for this particular series.

mp3 : Cousteau – The Last Good Day Of The Year

JC

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 17)

The period after the final release on Crépuscule saw Paul Haig back in Scotland where he rekindled not only his friendship but his working relationship with Billy Mackenzie, the two of them getting together every now and again in Paul’s home studio to work on tracks that could, perhaps, one day see the light of day. Neither of the two geniuses had record deals at the time (which in itself is indicative of the sad state of the music industry) and for the most part, it was all about enjoying one another’s company.

Billy’s suicide in September 1997 was devastating to his family and friends, and even today, more than 20 years on, there’s a sense of disbelief about it.  Paul was sitting on the music they had made, and in 1999 he took the decision to make available nine bits of music they had put down between December 1993 and July 1995 as the album Memory Palace, attributed to Haig/Mackenzie. It was released on ROL Records, newly revived by Paul for the purpose and the first on the label in 18 years.

A few lucky people had been able to hear one of the songs prior to Memory Palace, thanks to a very limited 7″ vinyl release in 1998.

Syntanic was a label based in Vienna which, from 1993 to 2001, released records, tapes and CDs, specialising in exceedingly limited editions.

100 individually copies of the song Listen To Me, backed by two tracks, Looking and Irresponsible, formed the release with the catalogue number nice49. Of these, 15 were even more exclusive with a signed card lyric insert.

It’s not something I have in my collection – there’s currently one for sale on Discogs just now from a German dealer who is looking for £50. I might treat myself at one point in the future…

I’m assuming that the version of the song is that which was released on Memory Palace the following year:-

mp3 : Haig/Mackenzie – Listen To Me

Billy’s backing vocals make this a really moving and emotional listen, and it’s interesting to ponder if a more widely available release would have perhaps troubled the charts….but most likely not.

It’s a song that Paul that has returned to a couple of times. First of all, on his 2009 album Relive:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Listen To Me

I can’t help but feel that Paul would have welled up a few times recording his fresh vocal, thinking back to the happy times he spent with his great friend.

And then, just last year, a different version was made available on the compilation, Goosebumps – 25 Years of Marina Records. It’s a much more gentle and sedate take, and it comes with a wonderfully imagined string section, arranged by Dave Scott of The Pearlfishers. And while it didn’t enjoy a release until 2018, the notes in the accompanying booklet date the recording back to 2005:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Listen To Me (orchestral version)

Worth also mentioning that a track called Looking (the name of one of the b-sides of the Vienna release) was recorded for Paul’s album Cinematique 2, released on ROL in 2001. Again, I can’t be sure if it;s the same as the 1998 single, but here’s the 2001 version:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Looking

I know this post has been a bit all over the place time wise, but I did want to make available all three versions of Listen To Me that I have in the collection.

JC

Jacob Yates & The Pearly Gates Lockpickers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #149 : JACOB YATES & THE PEARLY GATE LOCKPICKERS

from wiki:-

Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers were formed in 2007 by Jake Lovatt, former front man with Uncle John & Whitelock. The band was initially a three-piece, consisting of Lovatt on vocals and guitar, Ric Holmes on bass guitar and Michael Bleazard on drums. This lineup was later augmented by the addition of former Uncle John & Whitelock member, Jamie Bolland, on keyboards and guitar. In 2011, former Paper Planes guitarist Christopher Haddow was added to the lineup. Taking many of the signature “Horror R&B” elements of the previous band with them, The Pearly Gate Lock Pickers’ music has been described as Doom Wop.

Their debut album, Luck, was released on 20 June 2011. The album was well-received, with the music described as “dark with a mischievous grin” and as having a “Mississippi-meets-Maryhill sound”, drawing comparisons with Tom Waits, Nick Cave and The Cramps

And here’s the superb opening track from said album which ceratinly holds up the Cave comparisons:-

mp3 : Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers – Mark

JC

Malcolm Middleton

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

It was last November when Malcolm Middleton released Bananas, his tenth solo album if you include the efforts issued under the guise of Human Don’t Be Angry and his collaboration with the artist David Shrigley. It’s a highly significant release, being the first in nine years that he’s focussed on having his guitars at the forefront of new material as well as being his first venture back into the studio following the triumphant and acclaimed live reunion of Arab Strap.

It was perfectly understandable, after some 15 years of ploughing the indie-guitar furrow, that Malcolm would get tired of the same old scene and to seek to make a different sort of music. The debut effort under Human Don’t Be Angry was a fantastic piece of work, showing just how many dimensions there were to his talents. The albums since haven’t quite hit those heights in terms of overall quality, but they all had their fair share of minutes to make them worthy purchases. Nevertheless, I always pined for him to return to what I feel he does best and this was thrilled to read in a message sent to those on his mailing list that 2018 was going to be that year.

It is hugely satisfying to report that Bananas is a fine a solo album as he’s ever made, and indeed is as good as any other album that was released in 2018. It contains just the eight tracks, but during a very brief chat at Mono Records on the day it was launched with an acoustic set, Malcolm explained that he wanted it to come initially on vinyl and to have it retain a high standard of sound, and as such there was only enough space for a limited number of songs; and, as if to demonstrate this, the acoustic show (and indeed the full band show a few weeks later) featured written but as yet-unreleased songs of a very high quality.

The album opens up with the very jaunty and seemingly uplifting Gut Feeling, in which he again demonstrates he can be every bit the wordsmith as he is an axeman, with a very honest appraisal of what it’s like to deal with depression and how even making what appears to be the most basis of decisions or choices is riddled with difficulties – “I don’t have a gut feeling, I’ve got loads and loads of wankers inside my head shouting my gut feeling down….all the fucking time”

Every album, going back to 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine in 2002, has contained songs of self-loathing, often delivered with a very large side-order of self-deprecation and sprinkled with humour. Bananas is no different, but this time it does feel as if Malcolm is prepared to be more open about his mental health issues – maybe indeed, the tragic suicide of Scott Hutchison has changed things for ever – and on the second track, “Love Is a Momentary Lapse in Self-Loathing”, he does it all, with the ridiculously catchy and laugh-out-loud chorus sequence of “Fuck off with your happiness”. In doing so, he has provided what is now my favourite of all his solo songs, and if you recall just how much praise I was heaping on the older material in an ICA just last September.

The 1-2 opening punch sets the tone for the rest of the album and while it is a return to guitar-led material, there’s no lack of ambition or depth of sound, none more so than Buzz Lightyear Helmet, an eight-minute opus with nearly as many tempo and mood changes as Bohemian Rhapsody, which Malcolm introduced, with his tongue slightly in cheek, at the all-band show as his effort at composing a rock opera.

‘Man Up Man Down’, with its reliance on electro-pop is a fine reminder of what Malcolm’s been concentrating on these past nine years and, if this was an era when stand-alone singles could be released and make some money, then it would be an obvious candidate.

It is truly wonderful to hear such a ‘comeback’ albeit, our man never really went away. Bananas is now available to buy on CD (a full three months after the vinyl was put into the shops) and of course you can take advantage of a digital download. Simply make your way over to Malcolm’s bandcamp page for details. You won’t regret it.

And that’s where you’ll also find a couple of the songs in demo form, available a free downloads, under the guise of Unripe Bananas:-

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Gut Feeling (demo)
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Love Is A Momentary Lapse In Self Loathing (demo)

 

JC

Son Volt

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #207 : SON VOLT

A GUEST POSTING by HYBRID SOC PROF

LONG INTRO, BEWARE:

I remember when The Washington Squares album came out (shades of my parents’ Kingston Trio records!), and soon thereafter Michelle Shocked released The Texas Campfire Tapes… wait, what?! Punks gone folk? How can that be? And this was after the confused adoration I’d felt when Meat Puppets II was released and my easy love of Jason and the Scorchers’ first LP, Fervor… While I was convinced by newspaper and magazine reviewers that Steve Earle’s Guitar Town was cool country music and Dwight Yoakum’s, Guitar, Cadillacs, etc., etc. was enough of a throwback to an prior, authentic time to be OK (and, heck, he hung out with the guys from Los Lobos!), I really didn’t understand very much about the meaning of DIY in the mid-80s.

Given who I was and when I came of age, I thought the The Long Ryders, Lone Justice and Green on Red were harkening back to the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield… I didn’t know that those bands were also recalling to Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash and Leadbelly. It took until the BBC/PBS History of Rock ‘n’ Roll series for me to begin to understand that the Blues, Jazz, Country, Folk, Rock, Soul, Funk, and Punk were all DIY traditions and any and every permutation and combination of them – particularly after the rise of what Horkheimer and Adorno called The Culture Industry in the 1930s – were forms of bottom up resistance to injustice, to power, to manufactured tastes, and more.

All of this is to say that, by the time I started grad school in 1987 and grabbed a spot on the university radio station, I was almost ready to understand what the band Uncle Tupelo was up to as they melded the punk sensibility of the Minutemen with the Appalachian folk of the Carter Family on their 1990 LP, No Depression. A lot of people trace the start of Alt-Country/Alt-folk to that record, but that ends up making no sense given the history above – much less the prior existence of the Pogues, Mekons and (for all that I can’t listen to them) Dexy’s Midnight Runners. Whatever it signaled, however, No Depression is a great record – and I really like everything Uncle Tupelo released.

Which made it a real disappointment when the band split up…. But Jeff Tweedy quickly formed Wilco and released A.M. and Jay Farrar put Son Volt together and released Trace. I loved both but Son Volt more and, as with a lot of Uncle Tupelo fans, felt half-obliged to choose one to prefer, one camp to side with… Jeff or/vs. Jay. Idiocy, I know, but fandom can be stupid and irrational. You see, Tweedy and his songs always leaned a little more towards pop and Farrar’s always tilted to pain… and Farrar has a voice like no other, both lyrically and sonically. I’m the moody artsy political one and my wife’s the dancing pop fun one when it comes to music… I lean Son Volt, she leans Wilco.

While Wilco stayed the course with country/folk influenced tunes for about a record and a half, Son Volt doubled down on it, sometimes a little too experimentally, and at different points getting a little stale, but always deep in the muck. Each has done a turn with the Woody Guthrie archives, Tweedy and Wilco with Billy Bragg, on the Mermaid Avenue discs, and Farrar with Will Johnson, Anders Parker and “Yim Yames”, on New Multitudes. I can’t recommend those five CDs enough.

But this was supposed to be about Son Volt…and so here’s some great music (It’s 11, rather than 10 cuts because of the short instrumental intro.)

1. Son Volt – Chanty (from Wide Swing Tremelo, 1998)
2. Son Volt – Midnight (from Notes of Blue, 2017)
3. Jay Farrar – Drain (from Sebastol, 2001)
4. Son Volt – Medicine Hat (from Wide Swing Tremelo, 1998)
5. Son Volt – Lookin’ At the World Through A Windshield (from Rig Rock Deluxe (A Musical Salute to The American Truck Driver, compilation album, 1996)
6. Son Volt – When The Wheels Don’t Move (from American Central Dust, 2009)
7. Son Volt – Threads and Steel (from Notes of Blue, 2017)
8. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker and Yim Yames – Jake Walk Blues (from New Multitudes, 2012)
9. Son Volt – Ten Second News (from Trace, 1995)
10. Son Volt – Left A Slide (from Straigtaways, 1997)
11. Son Volt – Windfall (from Trace, 1995)

My sense is that Wilco is well-enough known that they may not need an Imaginary Album, but Uncle Tupelo probably does. We’ll see what I can do.

HSP

 

Flock of Seagulls

THE WORST LIVE SHOW I’VE EVER SEEN…..BUT……

The lead song from this 1981 release was supposed to be part of the throwaway and disposable New Romantics EP which I put together for my wee brother’s birthday yesterday.

The thing is, A Flock of Seagulls are, by a long chalk, the worst headline band it’s ever been my misfortune to see and after the gig, at Strathclyde Students Union in 1982, I never again listened to them knowingly.

They were so badly off-key and out of sync on the night that they were genuinely painful to listen to, with many walking out. It seemed strange, given that all the UK music papers were full of how the Liverpool quartet had conquered the USA and were about to do the same over here. In the end, they enjoyed a fleeting moment of fame when Wishing (I Had A Photograph Of You) hit the Top 10, but it was far less than what they had experienced with earlier single I Ran (So Far Away) which sold millions in the States, thanks in part to the video being on heavy rotation on the newly launched MTV.

I’ve long ago lost or given away my copy of the debut album, but I do still have a 12″ EP and, as I said at the top of this post, was ready to give it away the lead track very cheaply just yesterday…..until I played it.

The opening minute and forty seconds or so are not what I remembered or expected….it’s as gothic as anything from The Cure/Bauhaus/Sisters of Mercy and indeed, if heard in isolation, the guitar work is akin to the late and great John McGeogh.

mp3 : A Flock of Seagulls – Modern Love Is Automatic

It does kind of degenerates a bit when the vocal kicks in, but even then there is the occasional burst of guitar to rise above the averageness of the melody.

The next song also caught me out in that the guitar playing is very reminiscent of The Skids!!

mp3 : A Flock of Seagulls – Telecommunication

I suppose I shouldn’t really be too surprised given that the production on this track is credited to Bill Nelson who worked very closely with the late Stuart Adamson on the album Days In Europa.

The third track on the A-side of the EP….and another surprise with a guitar-led instrumental:-

mp3 : A Flock of Seagulls – D.N.A.

OK, it does get a tad repetitive but it doesn’t go on for too long at just two-and-a-half minutes.

Flipping over to the B-side:-

mp3 : A Flock of Seagulls – Windows
mp3 : A Flock of Seagulls – You Can Run

Ah….this brings back those memories which were buried very deep.

Windows was one in the live setting where the singing really hurt the ears while the latter is one of those clichéd efforts that should be have been left at the demo stage (also sounds as if it’s a different lead vocalist than usual).

But hey, let’s face it, I’ve found that there was more to AFOS than a lead singer with a dodgy haircut, later immortalised in Pulp Fiction.

JC

Various

53 AND COUNTING…..

It’s become something of a tradition to use the 19 February posting to wish my wee brother, SC, a happy birthday.  This year, I’ll give him a New Romantics EP to remind him of the time when, as a teenager, he went about dressed a wee bit silly.  Only wish I had a photo from that era to share with you…..

mp3 : Duran Duran – Planet Earth
mp3 : Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This
mp3 : Visage – Fade To Grey
mp3 : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short

Incidentally, there was a song intended for this post but which I’ve pulled so that it can feature on its own tomorrow.

JC

PS : The lady holding SC is our mum, who herself turned 80 just a couple of weeks back.  And who can hold her drink and party harder than either of us!

Paul Haig

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF PAUL HAIG (Part 16)

Given that nobody was interested in assisting his efforts to become a pop star, it was no real surprise that Paul Haig turned inwardly and that his next release proved to be experimental and as far removed from a commercial sound as could be imagined.

He was assisted by an old acquaintance, James Nice who, as a schoolboy, had founded the LTM label in Edinburgh in 1983 issuing material by bands previously associated with Factory Records. After attending university, James ended up in Brussels where he worked for Crépuscule and kept his own label going, specialising in the reissuing of long-deleted cult albums and material on the new CD format with some of the biggest sales coming via a Josef K CD compilation and the reissue of the Postcard album by the band. He was keen, however, to issue new albums from scratch and provided a home for Paul to record and release Cinematique in 1991, a wholly instrumental album of imaginary film themes.

At the same time, Crépuscule was determined to do justice to the work that had been shelved by Circa (see last week’s posting for details) and sought about finding a way to have it see the light of day.

And so, in 1993, a full four years after its completion, the album that should have been called Right On Line was released by Crépuscule as Coincidence vs Fate. A three-track CD single was also issued to help support the promotion of the album.

mp3 : Paul Haig – Surrender
mp3 : Paul Haig – Heaven Help You Now (remix 93)
mp3 : Paul Haig – Coincidence vs Fate

The lead track was on the album, and is Paul’s take on a Suicide song dating back to 1988.  It’s quite unlike any other 45 in this series…..and it’s one of his best…..nothing like Josef K, nothing like his electronica period and very like something out of a David Lynch movie.

You might recall that the press release included in last week’s posting refered to the fact that Mantronik had been working with Paul on an update of one of his most dynamic old songs and at long last, it was available. It was well worth the wait.

The final instrumental(ish) track, despite being the name of the parent album, was only available via the single which just seemed to be such a Crépuscule/Haig thing to do.

Neither the album nor the single sold all that well (there’s a shock!!!) and it proved to be the end of Paul’s long relationship with Brussels.  It would also mark the beginning of a very quiet period for Paul, with a full five years before any more new music appeared.

JC

 

Jackie Leven

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #148 : JACKIE LEVEN

Today’s piece is an obituary from The Guardian newspaper, penned by Robin Denselow. Says it all way better than I could.

*******************************************

Jackie Leven, who has died of cancer aged 61, was a brilliant outsider, a remarkably prolific Scottish singer-songwriter who built up a devoted cult following during his lengthy, wildly varied and often turbulent career, but never achieved the level of success that he deserved. An intense, passionate giant of a man, he first came to attention in the late 1970s and early 80s, as leader of the highly praised but commercially unsuccessful band Doll By Doll. He went on to found a successful charity, the Core Trust, which treats “addicts of any sort”, before continuing his musical career as a soloist – still acquiring devoted fans, but never selling many albums.

Born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, of Romany descent, he began singing his own, blues-based songs in local folk clubs, but said he was forced to leave the area because he was picked on by a local gang. He was first married at 16, but began travelling, sometimes working as a labourer, although still performing, now sporting orange hair and using the name John St Field.

His friend Joe Shaw, the guitarist with Doll By Doll, remembers meeting him in a folk club in Bridport, Dorset, and finding that their common interest was “not folk songs about young maidens, but Hendrix and Van Morrison”. He says that Leven was “very intense. He could make you feel uncomfortable or the best ever – and he made me feel the best ever. He was the best friend I ever had.”

They shared a squat in a farmhouse in Dorset, and met up again in Hamburg “and spent all our time jamming on guitars”. Later, when Leven moved to another squat, in Maida Vale, London, he suggested they bring in a bass player and percussionist to form a band, and they started rehearsing “with mattresses around the walls to deaden the sound, but still annoying the neighbours”.

The result was Doll By Doll, dominated by Leven, whom I described at the time as “a mixture of Van Morrison and a psychopath”, but who could mix edgy, brooding rock songs, such as Butcher Boy, with stirring, lyrical Celtic soul, including the exquisite Main Travelled Roads.

The band recorded four albums between 1979 and 1982, including Gypsy Blood, which would later be hailed as a forgotten rock classic. At one memorable show at the London Venue, they were supported by the young U2. Shaw says: “It’s a mystery why we didn’t make it, when all our contemporaries did well. And our live shows were something else.”

In 1984, Leven’s musical career was brutally interrupted when he was mugged as he walked home at night in north London. His ribs were broken, and his larynx was “almost destroyed”. With his career apparently wrecked, he turned to heroin, and told me later: “I was spending £150 a day, and found I had no money.” He beat the heroin habit using acupuncture and reflexology, and with Carol Wolf founded the Core Trust to help addicts by using alternative medicine. He and Wolf recruited other counsellors offering free treatment, and was helped by Pete Townshend and Westminster city council. When I met him in 1988 he seemed far keener to discuss Core than Concrete Bulletproof Invisible, the short-lived band that he and Shaw had then started with the former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock.

For the last 17 years, Leven worked as a solo artist, recording for the independent label Cooking Vinyl. “It took me two years to sign him,” according to Martin Goldschmidt, who runs the company, “and since then we have released 26 of his albums. I kept telling him there were too many, but he kept coming up with scams to get another album out.” Some of his albums were credited to Sir Vincent Lone.

His remarkable solo output also included the 1994 album The Mystery of Love is Greater than the Mystery of Death, which included contributions from the poet Robert Bly and musician Mike Scott, along with one of his most thoughtful, lyrical songs, Call Mother a Lonely Field. It was ranked by Q Magazine one of the “best 100 albums of all time”. On other albums he was backed by former members of Doll By Doll, by his partner Deborah Greenwood, and by David Thomas of Pere Ubu. After finding that he was mentioned in one of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus novels, he contacted Rankin, and the result was the stage show and 2005 album Jackie Leven Said (a parody of a Van Morrison song) in which a Rankin story is matched against Leven’s music.

Leven was himself a great story-teller, and delighted in teasing his followers. According to Goldschmidt, his much-publicised whisky brand Leven’s Lament was “a complete scam – new labels on old bottles”, and so was Leven’s claim to have written a song with Bob Dylan on a train to Moscow. He was a hugely likeable, larger-than-life figure, with a legacy of more than 400 songs, and I suspect his music will reach a wider audience still.

Leven was married twice, and is survived by Deborah; his son Simon, from an earlier relationship; and his sister, Wendy.

• Jackie Leven , singer-songwriter, born 18 June 1950; died 14 November 2011

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mp3 : Jackie Leven & David Thomas – Hidden World Of She

(I don’t actually have all that many songs, and most have come from compilation CDs or via internet.  This is from the 2001 LP, Creatures of Light and Darkness)