Pelts, Randolph's Leap

DID THEY CUT THE MUSTARD IN 2017? : #1 : RANDOLPH’S LEAP and PELTS

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As I’m not expecting to get to anything like the same number of gigs in 2017 as I have in recent years I’m going to make more of an effort to share my thoughts on any live experiences. My only worry is that I’ve never really liked the idea or concept of the blog being used to rubbish something – that’s why when a new release or a gig has not lived up to my expectations that I don’t mention it at all rather than offer some derogatory observations. But I promise to be honest and be brutal, should the need arise, throughout this series.

My first gig in 2017 only came about from being badgered by MJ, a mate of many years standing and whose interests in music occasionally dissect with my own. MJ does like his indie music – indeed he was saying on the night we met up how much he had enjoyed Echorich’s ACR ICA as it brought back happy memories of seeing and then meeting them backstage in Aberdeen in the mid-80s when it took a great effort not to do his fan-boy thing and ask all about Joy Division/New Order/Factory Records. MJ however, also has a predilection for some of the traditional folk material that has been the mainstay of Scottish music for centuries and so he has always been a huge supporter of the Celtic Connections festival that takes place in Glasgow each January/February.

He was insistent that we go to a gig together this year and he gave me free rein to choose and I plumped for something on the final night of the 2017 event with Randolph’s Leap headlining at Broadcast, supported by Pelts. I did so on the basis that I thought MJ, knowing very little about the Leap, would find something enjoyable in their music and performance. I’ll come back to that in due course…..

First of all though, I want to give a thank you to Pelts for getting 2017 off to a decent start in terms of live music. I knew nothing about the band in advance and deliberately didn’t seek out any info beforehand as I wanted, as dear old George Michael advised, to listen without prejudice.

There were six members of Pelt on stage last Sunday – seemingly there is a magnificent seventh who plays a little bit of horn but who was otherwise professionally engaged and unavailable. That left us with two vocalists (one of whom doubled up on rhythm guitar), a lead guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and drummer. They were neither young nor old (although compared to your 53-years of age scribe almost everyone else inside the 200-capacity Broadcast was young) – the sort of folk who you could picture being  decent and popular work colleagues; and nor could I help but think such was their technical abilities and lack of nerves that most, if not all of them, had been performing in bands for quite some time.

They played a set of maybe seven or eight songs, most of which started off quietly and then gradually built up a wall of sound to which all the musicians contributed impressively while the contrasting styles of the two vocalists – Graham and Natasha – suited perfectly. The set included a number of past singles, one of which they were rightly proud to inform us had been praised on social media by the comedian Johnny Vegas, before they brought things to a close with the two songs that were making up their latest double-A sided single that had been released specially to coincide with the gig. Maybe it was the fact that the band was naturally less familiar with the newer material but the two new songs didn’t quite seem to have the punch and instant appeal of some of the material, but again, maybe that’s as much to do with me having really enjoyed the opening 20-25 minutes and then thinking the eventual final running order didn’t quite work. But on this first exposure, I’d certainly be happy enough to go see Pelts again, as indeed I imagine would most of the those present, judging by the appreciation shown throughout the gig (nobody was talking during the quiet moments) and the loud applause at the end.

Here’s where you can read more about them as well as listen to some music. Here’s one of the past singles which dates back all the way to July 2013 :-

After a quick turnaround, all eight members of Randolph’s Leap came on stage for what was their first show of 2017. It was an occasion when they had asked fans in advance to make suggestions via Facebook and so it was odds-on that some old favourites would be aired for the first time in ages. Over the piece they delivered with aplomb, thanks to a 19-song set that leaned for the most part on the two studio LPs Clumsy Knot (2014) and Cowardly Deeds (2016) but which also delved into the earlier lo-fi releases that had earlier brought the talents of frontman Adam Ross to the attentions of many across the Scottish blogging community.

It was as confident, vibrant, self-assured and as tight a performance as I’ve ever seen from the band albeit we had the amusing and highly unusual sight of Adam forgetting one or two of the lyrics along the way. There was a great rapport with the near-capacity audience who, as with Pelts previously, behaved impeccably and showed great respect during the quieter moments. It would be great to think the rest of the gigs I head out to in 2017 will be similar….but I know it won’t work out that way.

MJ came away very impressed at what he’d seen. This was his sixth Celtic Connections gig of 2017 and it made enough of an impression that he raced to the merchandise stall to buy a CD before picking up a wonderful souvenir as the band, thanks to the help of manager Lloyd Meredith, put each of their signatures to the promo poster.

I know Randolph’s Leap don’t perform all that often outside of Scotland which is a real shame for those who do live further afield for they make for a great night out with the live versions of the songs achieving that rare and difficult trick of proving to be better than they are on record – and given that I went on record that Clumsy Knot was the best LP of 2014 you can tell I’m not offering the live observation as any double-edged sort of compliment.

Set List

Deep Blue Sea/Not Thinking/Real Anymore/Goodbye/Back Of My Mind/Under the Sun/Isle of Love/Microcosm/Psychic/News/Hermit/Like A Human/Nature/Counting Sheep/I Can’t Dance To This Music/Crisps

Encore

Weatherman/Indie King/Light of the Moon

The band also revealed that they will be next on stage in Glasgow on Saturday 1 April, headlining what will be the fifth of their own special curated festivals of music and comedy under the banner ‘Can’t Dance To This Music’. The other acts on the bill will be announced over the coming weeks, but given that these were the previous musicians, you can guarantee quality:-

I Can’t Dance To This Music 1 : July 2014 (daytime event): Randolph’s Leap/BMX Bandits/The State Broadcasters/Skinny Dipper/Neil Pennycook (Meursault)/David MacGregor (Kid Canaveral)/Vic Galloway (DJ set)

I Can’t Dance To This Music 2 : November 2014 (evening event) : Randolph’s Leap/TeenCanteen/Ballboy/CARBS/Adam Stafford/Chrissy Barnacle

I Can’t Dance To This Music 3 : February 2015 (two-part all-day event): Randolph’s Leap/Tigercats/Withered Hand/Henry & Fleetwood/Eagleowl/Viking Moses/Prehistoric Friends/Kate Lazda (Kid Canaveral)

I Can’t Dance To This Music 4 : October 2016 (two-part all-day event): Randolph’s Leap/Kathryn Joseph/James Yorkston/Ette/Spare Snare/Book Group/Life Model/

Keep an eye out for tickets for edition #5. It will be a grand day out

mp3 : Randolph’s Leap – Hermit

More stuff available here

Enjoy.

Public Enemy

THIS 30 YEARS AGO THING IS REALLY SCARY

Later this year will see the 30th Anniversary of the first time that Public Enemy cracked the charts.

30 years. A whole generation has passed since Rebel Without A Pause sneaked in to the singles chart at #37 during an eight-week stay at the end of 1987 and into the early weeks of 1988. It was interesting that their commercial break-through came over here and not at home, but then again, the new-style black rap acts were scaring the shit out of the establishment in their home nation and radio stations (as Chuck D astutely observes) just wouldn’t play them.

I owe my real appreciation of rap to Jacques the Kipper. I did own some of the more poppy side of rap such as the tunes released by Grandmaster Flash and The Sugarhill Gang but I had no real appreciation of Public Enemy, Ice-T, NWA or the likes until JtK started incorporating them into his many compilation tapes. These, the four tracks that make up the 12″ version of that first hit single, are dedicated to him:-

mp3 : Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause (vocal mix)
mp3 : Public Enemy – Terminator X Speaks With His Hands
mp3 : Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause (instrumental mix)
mp3 : Public Enemy – Sophisticated Bitch

Enjoy, while feeling very old.

Undertones

THE UNDERTONES SINGLES 77-83 (Part 11)

The Undertones, by 1982, were at a crossroads.  They had grown tired of making the fast, spiky post-punk music that had brought them chart success and led to the the lucrative deal with EMI.  The problem however, was that the sort of music they were now leaning towards was not what the label bosses were looking for.

There was also the fact that the band, having gigged extensively from the outset, had spent much of the year back home in Derry trying to find the magic formula that would provide more hit singles and critically acclaimed albums, and their absence in the live setting created a bit of a void among many of their fans.  It took a full eight months after the flop of Beautiful Friend before the next single was released in October 1982:-

mp3 : The Undertones – The Love Parade

Again, it was a million miles away from the sound with which they were most associated but unlike the previous single this had something going for it.  There was a real sense of it sounding as if it had been made with radio play in mind with all sorts of ooh-ooh backing vocals over a soulful, almost Motown, type of tune.  The problem though, was that the record label more or less disowned it and didn’t put any real effort into promoting it and so, like its predecessor, it sunk without trace, stalling at #97 in the charts, despite, in what was a first for the band, it also being released in an extended 12″ format with an extra 90 seconds of music:-

mp3 : The Undertones – The Love Parade (12 inch version)

The b-side is, sorry to say, a rather unremarkable bit of music which sounds as if it never got much beyond its demo version:-

mp3 : The Undertones – Like That

Just two more weeks left in this particular series.  Does anyone have a band or singer they particularly want featured  next? But please bear in mind that I’ll need to have the majority of singles already in the collection with what I don’t have being easy enough to get my hands on.

Or indeed, does anybody want to take on the mantle of doing the next series themselves?

I’m in your hands.

 

Conquering Animal Sound

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #61 : CONQUERING ANIMAL SOUND

I don’t own anything else other by today’s featured band other than this 2013 single. It was bought on a whim as it had come out on Chemikal Underground, a label which is not afraid to take risks but more often than not over the years has called it right. I’m not so sure on this occasion however as it didn’t tempt me to buy the LP….but I’ve no doubt there will be folk more than prepared to put the case for Conquering Animal Sound.

mp3 : Conquering Animal Sound – The Future Does Not Require

A brief bit of background cribbed from wiki:-

Conquering Animal Sound is a Glasgow-based electronic duo consisting of Anneke Kampman (vocals/music) and James Scott (music). Gizeh Records released their debut album Kammerspiel, recorded and mixed via a lo-fi approach in Kampman’s flat. It was widely praised in print and on-line with Drowned In Sound stating that it “simultaneously managed to capture on record the full depth of their creativity and imagination, as well as the inherent beauty of their sound”.

The success of the debut led to the interest from Chemikal Underground and the band went into the label’s Chem 19 studios to mix their second album On Floating Bodies. Again, it was well received, being included in the Top 10 albums of 2013 by The List magazine which praised its “daring and gloriously rich palette”; an intereseting BBC online review said the album is “not always comfortable, but consistently engaging … persist and there’s real beauty to be found in its digitised designs” while a local paper called it “cosmic, disorientating and sublime”.

I’m not too sure if the band are still a going concern – for instance the official website is no longer maintained and its been a year since the twitter account was last activated.

Enjoy.

David Bowie, Tindersticks

DELIBERATELY LATE

 

There were many fine tributes paid to David Bowie a few weeks back on the first anniversary of his death and/or what would have been his 70th birthday. Some of the best could be found within the pages of the blogs listed over on the right hand side and knowing this would be the case I decided to hold off paying my own small tribute until now.

Many of the tributes rightly focussed on the incredibly diverse styles adopted by Bowie throughout his stellar career and it was fascinating to read so many lovingly crafted words paying homage to a fan’s favourite song or album. I don’t ever expect to see a David Bowie ICA in the long-running series as it genuinely is impossible to narrow things down to ten tracks to make up the perfect sounding LP. I was tempted to have a go myself and wait with interest what the likes of The Robster and Echorich (among others) would say in response, but in the end I came to my senses.

Instead, I thought I’d settle for posting a song that I’m rather fond of along with a reasonably rare cover version taken straight from my vinyl copy (albeit I’m willing to admit it is far removed from being one of the essential Tindersticks recordings).

mp3 : David Bowie – Kooks
mp3 : Tindersticks – Kooks

The well-known story behind its composition back in 1971 is that Bowie wanted to write a song especially for his new-born son, one which would capture his feelings of excitement and nervousness about becoming a dad. It seemingly ended up being a pastiche of the sort of songs Neil Young was writing and recording at that time for the simple reason that Bowie was listening to the great Canadian when he learned his son had been born. Now I appreciate that very few folk would say that Kooks is one of his greatest compositions in the grand scheme of things but there’s just something very touching about the lyric that over the years must have put smiles on the faces of many new sets of parents.

Enjoy.

Leftfield

A CHART HIT THIS TIME 21 YEARS AGO

My only prior knowledge of Leftfield at the time of the release of the album Leftism in January 1996 was the single Open Up, the collaboration with John Lydon at the tail end of 1993. It wasn’t so much a lack of enthusiasm that prevented further learning and exploration, more a matter of time as I was in a demanding and high-pressure job that meant any spare time was spent keeping up with the indie guitar stuff that has always been my go to music in times of stress.

The album was purchased on its release in early 1995, and before I knew it, I had fallen head over heels for Original, the track to which Toni Halliday of Curve contributed a stunning vocal. It took a while for me to really get into the remainder of the songs but in due course found myself increasingly playing the CD at home of an evening, glass of vodka in hand as I tried to wind down after another tough day working alongside and for the politicians who were governing my home city.

I was however, bemused to read that the band were intending to lift the opening track of Leftism as yet another single in January 1997, a full year after the album had hit the shops, especially given that so much of its near eight minutes, while being a tremendous blend of dance and reggae, seemed just too trippy and languid to be tailor-made for radio:-

mp3 : Leftfield – Release The Pressure

A couple of weeks later I caught the video for the new single on the Chart Show on the telly one Saturday morning and found myself staring at the screen as it sounded very different from the album version. Even through the rubbish speaker on the television I could tell something a bit special had been done to it, and so I went out and spent £1.99 on the single (I only know this as the sticker is still on the case – I bought it from the Virgin Megastore).

mp3 : Leftfield – Release The Pressure (single version)

Edited down to just under four minutes and with the hip-hop beat being maintained constantly throughout amidst additional vocal ad-libbing, it had been transformed into a bona-fide classic of appeal to fans of many genres and went on to hit #13 in the charts, matching the placing of Open Up.

What I didn’t know for many more years was that Release The Pressure had in fact been previously released by Leftfield on vinyl back in 1992 and so in fact was one of their oldest songs being given a makeover for the LP and again for the single. I’ve never heard the original version or the mixes found on its b-side, but I’m guessing that much of it would have sounded in places much like the other four versions made available on the 1996 CD single:-

mp3 : Leftfield – Release One
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Two
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Three
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Four

I particularly enjoy playing these bits of music loud through the headphones while sunning myself on a faraway beach. But that’s not to say they can’t be fully appreciated in the depths of winter.

Enjoy.

A Certain Ratio

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #107 : A CERTAIN RATIO

A GUEST POSTING FROM ECHORICH

“Hi JC,

Well I took the bait and here is my ACR ICA, or should that be ACR:ICA?

I’m afraid I just couldn’t whittle it down to just 10 tracks and do ACR any real justice, so I have given you a Baker’s Dozen of 13 tracks.

I hope Adam also takes up the challenge as I hope and really expect we will take different approaches as well as choose different tracks to give ACR the justice they deserve as a 40 year survivor.

ECHORICH”

In every music fan’s collection, there’s a band that they cherish; a band that went unsung during their time or, if they still soldier on, have managed to persevere without breaking through in a sense that is considered successful. These bands become that much dearer to their smaller numbers of fans because they take on a very personal connection with the music and its makers. Some of those fans become proselytizing acolytes, some never mention “their band” to anyone.

For me, A Certain Ratio is one of those bands. And I am a proselytizer! I will take any chance I can to turn people on to ACR. To my mind, they were the middle child at Factory Records. Loved by their label but pretty much left to fend for themselves as big brother New Order and the baby, Happy Mondays were given all the love and attention. This led to a band with a mission and a sound that grew much more organically than that of those brothers.

A Certain Ratio’s roots are in the darker, brooding sound of Post Punk circa 1978 -79, but they found rhythm and beat and incorporated it into their initial sound fairly quickly. Their sound can be a bit difficult to pin down to a single genre – Post Punk – definitely, Funk – but more of the Fractured kind, Jazz – well certainly informed by Jazz and Jazz Fusion, but they know a great pop song when they hear one. In the end, it’s best to approach ACR by following the development of their sound over 40 years.

Now on to the personal… I first heard ACR in late 1979. I was 16 and Hurrah Nightclub was my music mecca. To this day I appreciate the lax enforcement of age restriction at clubs in NYC. All Night Party, their first single, was played along with other broody Post Punk tracks during dj sets. These were the days when a DJ didn’t have to worry about BPMs, or alienating the crowd by switching things up. You went to Hurrah FOR that switch up – to be surprised. I bought All Night Party and then the cassette only The Graveyard And Ballroom at the beginning of 1980. By the summer of that same year, alternative NYC radio and the dance clubs were pumping the follow up and their milestone, Shack Up. This was miles away from All Night Party, but was right in the groove of the sound that was taking over Manhattan. Fractured Funk with a bass sound that could destroy masonry.

But it was on September 26, 1980 that my fandom was signed and sealed. A Certain Ratio was in NYC and headlining at Hurrah – with a new band, New Order, as their opening act. This is one of those magical nights that is almost impossible to remember without giving it an even bigger legend that it already has. Suffice to say, memories of that night still fly in and out of my middle aged mind and cause me to smile that smile of experiential satisfaction.

A Certain Ratio – From The Graveyard to Mickey Way – a Baker’s Dozen ICA

1. All Night Party

This one always brings back memories of hanging out in the deeper recesses of Hurrah watching the dancers sway too and frow on a dark lit dance floor. All Night Party has a soulless urgency that just builds and builds until it stops. It is certainly night music, but the only party it would soundtrack would likely occur in a mausoleum.

2. Do the Du – From The Graveyard And The Ballroom

Amazing what can happen in a year or so. But I suspect that their heart and feet were never far from the FUNK. But where All Night Party was a night ceremony for the ghoul in us all, Do The Du was like a waking from the dead. With still disembodied vocals, ACR now seemed intent on defibrillating it’s audience with a bass sound that just took over. It’s said (by Jez Kerr) that when ACR opened for Talking Heads on their Fear Of Music tour, that David Byrne was on side stage every night, seemingly taking mental notes. I think that’s a fair assumption when you hear much of Remain In Light.

3. Shack Up

The song any music fan of the early 80s will know from A Certain Ratio. Here the band decides the best way to change the world is to work together, live together, sleep together. Pop sociology with thumping bass, manic guitar and horns straight off of J.B.’s charts. You can’t help but move to this. Played loud enough, the ground below you will force it upon you. I remember Shack Up being one of those songs DJ’s would wait to play at the peak hour in Hurrah, Peppermint Lounge or Danceteria for years. It never failed to get the crowd to the next level.

4. Felch – from To Each

To Each is an experimental masterpiece. Recorded in East Orange, New Jersey at the legendary Eastern Artists Recording Studio (EARS) with Martin Hannett, It is an album so many personalities, it could have text books written about it. Post Punk, Punk-Funk, Latin street rhythms, and lots of free form Jazz. Hannett, away from Manchester and Tony Wilson, was able to let freedom reign and put so much passion into the production of To Each that it remains among my favorites of all his productions. Oh and the album cover is an illustration by Ann Quigley of Swamp Children with art coordination by Peter Sleazy Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle.

5. Lucinda – from Sextet

Here is the stand out track from my favorite A Certain Ratio album. Sextet amps up the funk and the dark backroom Jazz with an undercurrent of urban decay. No pastoral English countryside here. There’s a sort of Apocalyptical urgency to these rhythms – like the band playing in an underground bunker while the city above devolves in flames. Martha Wilson takes on the vocals here adding a new dimension to ACR’s aggressive funk.

6. I’d Like To See You Again – from I’d Like To See You Again

I’d Like To See You Again was the band’s second album of 1982. On the surface it’s a more approachable album than Sextet, but it is still an album with little to no compromise. It features Brazilian rhythms, lots of Jez Kerr’s funky bass and jazz workouts, but the title track managed to have a pop purity mixed into all that and it was really something that stood out to me. The album would be followed by a stand alone single, Need Someone Tonite, six months later that further explored pop as another aspect of the band’s sound.

7. Life’s A Scream

1984 and A Certain Ratio had become a leaner, tighter unit with the previous departures of both Simon Topping in 1983 and Peter Terrell at the end of 1982. Life’s A Scream was one of two stand alone singles (Brazilia was the other) in which the band could be heard to on a new journey into pop and dance – one that was sharp and focused, less freeform. This is a bright and airy ACR. Life’s A Scream that could be found on dozens of mixtapes I made in the mid 80s. A poppy, feel good track to make the subway ride to work an easier affair.

8. And Then She Smiles – from Force

Force should have been massive. Fact. Unfortunately, for ACR, their wasn’t a budget at Factory Records in 1986 to promote both New Order and, well, anyone else… Critics took to Force in a big way, and they scored some airtime as well. But that groundswell needed something to push them over the top from their record company. Unfortunately they were busy pushing New Order on a global scale with little time for anything else. (Yes, opinions may vary on this…) And Then She Smiles best exemplifies the band’s new found “slickness.” Jez is almost plaintive in his vocals and the overall sound has an emotional dreaminess about it. It remains to this day a song that moves me when I hear it.

9. Mickey Way – from Force

But all was not gone from ACR’s funky bag of tricks. Mickey Way is a razor sharp funk workout that incorporates samples sounds and words, punchy brass and tight driving bass in possibly the band’s cleanest, clearest production to date. Some fans may have lamented the loss of gritty, chaotic muscular funk of their past, but for me Mickey Way and Force overall kept ACR relevant.

10. The Big E

ACR would persevere over the next few years, releasing singles like the wonderful Bootsy off Force and an EP called Greeting Four made for the Italian market which included one of the bands gems in The Runner.

They resurfaced on vinyl in 1989 with a new record label – A+M – and a sound which was obviously influenced by House and Balearic sounds. But the album, Good Together was preceded by a single which absolutely floored me.

The Big E was this island of pure, soulful pop music surrounded by the burgeoning UK House and Madchester scene. It owes much to the previous, And Then She Smiled from Force, but it went another level in its execution and power. The strong bass and jazz influence was still there, but as a counterpoint to the beauty of the pop music at the song’s core. I consider The Big E to the song that closes my 1980’s musically. It even has an ending that darkens a bit like a reminder of times passed.

Many will pass over The Big E for the remake/remodel version which would be known as Won’t Stop Loving You which featured sported remixes by Barney Sumner and Norman Cook, but for the dancified remixes pale in comparison to the original songs beauty.

11. Spirit Dance – Four For The Floor EP

Now ACR was not about to ignore a sound that was growing out of the clubs of Manchester in 1989. House was more than just a trend and the band knew it early on. Right on the heals of the Good Together album, A Certain Ratio released the Four For the Floor EP. It contained the recent album acid-y title track with Barney Sumner and Shaun Ryder on vocals, and three other tracks which showed how their sounds of the past fit in well with the experimentations of House Music. Of those tracks Spirit Dance was the one which seemed to sum up A Certain Ratio’s position as a direct influence on the sounds of late 80s – early 90s dance music. It is spooky, and entrancing music with Jez’s signature growling bass and Donald Johnson’s machine like drums. All the songs from the EP would feature on ACR:MCR, which was put out to take advantage of the dollar power of House/Dance music. But ultimately, ACR would be let down once again in the marketplace.

12. Sister Brother – from Change The Station

ACR:MCR saw the end come to the band’s time with A+M Records and a move to former New Order manager Rob Gretton’s Robs Records.

I will admit I find the two albums the band put out at this time Up In Downsville and Change The Station to not have had any real immediate impact on me. In the intervening years though, I have grown to enjoy the return the band would gradually make back to a freer and funkier place musically.

Sister Brother is a perfect example of this return to their roots. It has a jazz funk musical bed with some gorgeous singing and scatting from Corinne Drewery and Denise Johnson. Andy Connell also returned to the band for this song, as he did for one track on Up In Downsville, making the track a sort of ACR/Swing Out Sister collaboration. It’s a muscular workout.

13. Mind Made Up – from Mind Made Up

Some 31 years after the original lineup of A Certain Ratio first got together, A Certain Ratio released Mind Made Up in 2008. In the wake of former manager and Factory Impresario Tony Wilson’s passing, Kerr, Johnson and Moscrop, along with the players they had been recording and gigging with since 1996, found it was time to get back in the studio and lay out another phase in A Certain Ratio’s history. They managed to entice original members Simon Topping and Peter Terrell into the studio to contribute on some tracks as well. It’s an album that smacks of A Certain Ratio acknowledging their past while looking firmly at the world around them and the future.

The title track is, for me, the stand out track. Jez Kerr pounds his bass while singing like a man who’s gained the knowledge of 30’s years experience. Donald Johnson keeps a strict time and Martin Moscrop plays some massively funky guitar riffs.

Mind Made Up is dark and lovely – especially with the distinctive soaring vocals of Denise Johnson. Mind Made Up is an album that I’ve played constantly now for nine years – it’s that good. I believe my patience will be rewarded later this year with an new ACR album.

Enjoy.

Ette

JUST REALISED…..

……that it’s the end of the first month of 2017 and I never ever got round to sharing with you my favourite record of 2016.

For the first half of the year, I had assumed it was going to be Adam Stafford who would have taken the honour for his wondrous work Taser Revelations which was without any doubt my most played album across the entire year; there was also going to be an honourable mention for Emma Pollock whose In Search Of Harperfield was as classy and enjoyable as anything she had ever recorded in her time with The Delgados and was way superior to her previous two solo efforts.

But in mid-July, Ette released their debut LP Homemade Lemonade which in due course proved to be the one that I fell most for last year.  I wasn’t alone as a number of other Scottish-based bloggers and professional writers (i.e. those who get paid by magazines and newspapers for offering their opinions) also gave it the highest possible praise.

Ette is sort of the solo project of Carla Easton, one of the four members of the all-girl Glasgow band TeenCanteen. She teamed up with multi-instrumentalist, arranger and producer Joe Kane and in just five days they recorded a damn-near perfect, diverse and intelligent pop album.  All ten tunes are memorably catchy, tipping their hat to all sorts of all genres and influences – I hear, among others, the girl-groups so beloved of Phil Ramone mixing it up with Clare Grogan, Kate Bush, Kylie, 80s synth bands, bubblegum, rap and the occasional hint of folk-rock that so many bands from Scotland are proving so adept at.

I was also delighted that it came out on Olive Grove Records, a label that has been on the go for a few years now thanks to the hard work and dedication of Lloyd Meredith, one of the real unsung heroes of the music industry in Scotland; at long last, his label has what I hope is proving to be a reasonably decent selling record after so many top-quality releases over the past five or so years have sold in relatively small numbers.

https://olivegrove.bandcamp.com/artists

No mp3s with this posting – I encourage you all to spend your money on this very fine record which comes in eye-catching pink vinyl (or digitally if you prefer things that way).  Here’s a promo for one of the songs.

I was lucky enough to see Ette at a tiny venue in Glasgow for the gig that launched this album – and had the privilege of actually working on the merchandise stall that night as an Lloyd needed an extra pair of hands given that just about everyone who was at the gig also bought the album such was the quality of the performance from Carla, Joe and the band they had put together for the evening.

Enjoy.

New Order

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #106 : NEW ORDER : VOL. 3

They were #20 in the series back in June 2015 and I went with these tracks:-

Side A

Age Of Consent
The Perfect Kiss (12″)
Lonesome Tonight
Temptation (12″)
Run

Side B

Love Vigilantes
True Faith
Ceremony
Blue Monday
Leave Me Alone

Just six weeks later, a second New Order ICA was offered up as #28 in the series, courtesy of a guest posting by Martin Elliot from Sweden, that had been a work in progress when my own offering appeared:-

Side A

Blue Monday
1963
Round & Round (KS club mix)
Regret (Sabres Slow n Low)
Age Of Consent

Side B

True Dub
Someone Like You (GD Vocotech dub)
World (Brothers in Rhythm)
The Perfect Kiss (12″)
Ceremony

I happened to put New Order on shuffle on the i-pod the other week and was quickly reminded just how many great bits of music they had put out, particularly in the early part of their career, so much so I thought a record-breaking third ICA would go down well. The only rule being all ten songs this time can’t have been featured at all in any shape in either of my own or Martin’s postings from 2015. Let’s Go……

SIDE A

1. Love Vigilantes (from Low-Life, 1985)

If it wasn’t for the fact that Age of Consent is such a stunning opening to Power, Corruption & Lies than I would reckon many of us would argue that this is as fine an opening, not to just to any New Order LP, but to any LP as there has been. It’s a tremendous bit of pop music and one of the finest ghost stories that anyone could ever sway their hips to.

2. Confusion (rough mix) (single, 1983)

Let’s stay up there on the dance floor with the song that paid tribute to the changing face and sound of NYC nightclubs and hatched the idea for The Hacienda. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, it wouldn’t have happened without the production work and values of Arthur Baker as clearly demonstrated by its similarities to the earlier hit single I.O.U. by Freez, but it was a sound and a technique which New Order were already exploring, the conquering of which would make them as important as any band that has ever emerged from the UK.

3. Thieves Like Us (single, 1984)

I had the b-side to this on the original ICA and while I stand by my claim that Lonesome Tonight is the better song there’s no getting away from the fact that this is a hugely under-appreciated single which in many ways ticks all the boxes – great bass line, unusual and catchy drum beat, the one-fingered keyboard solo and a nonsensical lyric that, by somehow hanging brilliantly together, makes perfect sense. And as an added bonus it has Barney singing in and out of tune….

4. Shame Of The Nation (7″ version) (b-side 1986)

While he’s no Weller or Bragg, I’ll doff my cap to Barney for having a go at writing a political protest song at the height of Thatcherism. It was a single that was widely ridiculed upon its release and which, to be honest, hasn’t date all that well , but the additional work on the b-side, for which producer John Robie is attributed a credit, means it is more than salvageable thirty years on. As far as I know this particular version has never been made available in any other format than the original 7″ vinyl. It’s clearly been edited down from the full-length format with some unwieldy edits but it’s included here given that any Volume 3 of a release needs some sort of rarity to make it appeal….

5. Dreams Never End (from Movement, 1981)

This is inspired by Martin who, in his New Order ICA, pointed out that a brilliant LP opener – Age Of Consent – can also work just as effectively as a closer to a side and make you want to flip the vinyl over without any hesitation. The one where Hooky had a go at being lead vocalist and the one that you know would have made a great Joy Division single.

SIDE B

1. Your Silent Face (from Power, Corruption & Lies, 1983)

This was the one track that I just couldn’t find the room for back in June 2015 which was painful as it is one of my all-time favourite NO songs, but my rule of thumb for an ICA is that it has to hang together as an album and not merely be a collection of tunes. It opens up Side B of PC&L and this is perfectly place right here.

2. Bizarre Love Triangle 94 (from Best Of, 1994)

The rapid advances in production techniques were such that Stephen Hague could take what was one of the band’s most recognisable numbers and make it even more New Order-sounding than the band had managed back in 1986. It was one of four tracks that he worked on for this particular release and helped make it something worth purchasing with the nice little fade out at the end allows a nice lead-in to….

3. Paradise (from Brotherhood, 1986)

The band’s fourth album was something of a disappointment in comparison to the other work that came immediately before and shortly afterwards. It certainly suffered from the decision to put five guitar-based songs back-to-back on side A with the flip side being the more electronic based numbers. I’m not going to argue that all ten tracks are essential but it certainly isn’t as duff a record as I first thought.

4. Vanishing Point (from Technique, 1989)

I’ll long argue that Technique is the band’s finest LP, It’s strange because it came out at a time when I was missing out on so much music and I wasn’t buying much, but as a long-standing fan and having just about everything in the collection I made sure I picked it up when it was released. It came across as such a happy and triumphant record that I fell for its charms on first listen – it seemed to have everything I wanted the band to do with its mix of guitar and electronica with so many that you just wanted to dance to…and yet the tracks that really seemed to stand out early on was this resigned sounding mid(ish)-tempo number. Maybe it was that I was feeling my own life was no holiday and I had personally reached the point of no return. Imagine that…a New Order lyric that proved to be philosophical.

5. Ruined In A Day (from Republic, 1993)

I’m closing things off with a track that I’ve come to love and appreciate only in recent years. I was never fond of much of the parent album and thought it was a sad ending (as it appeared at the time) to the band’s career. I also hated the promo video that accompanied the release of Ruined In A Day as a single and struggled to disassociate the two. But a few years ago, this came up via shuffle while I was lazing out in the garden on one of the few sunny days we get in Glasgow and it just sounded quite lovely through the headphones. It would probably have made a superb Electronic record….just imagine Johnny Marr adding a guitar solo in the middle of it and it would be damn near perfect.

So there you have it. A third volume, and while it is easy to bemoan the lack of some classics, I think it hangs together pretty well.

Bonus track today. It’s featured before on the blog in video form. If you do like this, then I urge you to go and purchase it along with the other four versions that are available:-

mp3 : Mike Garry & Joe Duddell – St Anthony : An Ode to Anthony H Wilson

Just when you thought Your Silent Face couldn’t be bettered. Buy here.

Enjoy

Undertones

THE UNDERTONES SINGLES 77-83 (Part 10)

The next single was released in February 1982.  I’ll hand over to Michael Bradley from the band to offer his take on it:-

“A strange one : probably the first song we didn’t have live. We hadn’t properly played it before going into the studio. There’s a sort of sequencer or synthesiser type thing going on there. It was a big departure for us. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea. But it came at a time when, commercially, we were down. We were very vulnerable to someone saying ‘This is shite.’ Our confidence had been weakened because Julie Ocean didn’t get into the Top 40, Positive Touch wasn’t as successful as Hypnotised and It’s Going To Happen! was a bit of a disappointment, too. Beautiful Friend was a good song, and we enjoyed it as a development, but it was never going to set the charts on fire, as they say.  The whole new romantic thing was happening, suddenly we were passe. People weren’t interested in boys from Derry playing guitars.”

mp3 : The Undertones – Beautiful Friend

To say it bombed would be an understatement.  It didn’t sell enough copies to scrape into the Top 100, this from a band who less than two years previous had enjoyed a run of Top 20 singles.

It was the first of their singles I didn’t buy.  I thought it was dull and uninspired and I haven’t changed my mind all these years later.

The b-side was a reworking of Life’s Too Easy, a song on Positive Touch.  Here’s Michael’s take on it:-

“Another strange one.  It was contrived. Again, it was us doing something different, possibly for the sake of doing something different. I wasn’t happy with that one.”

mp3 : The Undertones – Life’s Too Easy

(apologies for the poor quality of this track – I had to source it from somewhere else on t’internet – it’s not worth paying 99p for via i-tunes).  Worth mentioning too that Michael was a co-writer of Life’s Too Easy so his criticism of the new version has to be seen as very valid.

The band, on a new label with bosses having high expectations, were at a crossroads.  The new material for the fourth LP was going to be crucial….

 

Communards

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #60 : COMMUNARDS

I wasn’t sure whether to include Communards in this series – but using the same logic as I did with Bronski Beat then I’m more than happy to do so.

They formed in 1985 after Jimmy Somerville left his band behind to team up with classically trained musician Richard Coles who was best known as a pianist although he was already familiar to Bronski Beat fans thanks his clarinet solo on the hit single It Ain’t Necessarily So.

Pursuing a left-wing political agenda in their lyrics while making hi-energy dance music proved to be a successful formula. The duo gradually expanded, incorporating, among others, Sarah Jane Morris on vocals and June Miles Kingston on drums, and would go onto enjoy nine hit singles, including a #1 with a cover of Don’t Leave Me This Way and two Top 10 albums.

There was an acrimonious split in 1988, sparked seemingly by the instrumentalist lying to the singer that he had contracted HIV/AIDS.

Jimmy Somerville would subsequently embark on a solo career which has been sporadically successful while  Richard Coles firstly pursued a career as a journalist before training as a priest, eventually being ordained in 2005, all the while maintaining a writing career combined with an increasing number of radio and television appearances, often in the area of light entertainment but increasingly on religious issues.  He’s actually better known and more famous these days than his former sidekick.

This was on the b-side of their debut single back in 1985.  It’s sadly still as relevant and poignant more than three decades on.

mp3 : Communards – Breadline Britain

Enjoy

 

A Certain Ratio

THEY PUT THE FUNK IN FACTORY

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A Certain Ratio were also responsible for the first ever release on Factory Benelux/Les Disques du Crépuscule back in August 1980 with a song that bemused everyone who had considered everyone on, and involved with, the parent label to be doom merchants:-

mp3 : A Certain Ratio – Shack Up

Here’s some other singles from their time on Factory which ended in 1986 although they would continue recording and performing for a number of labels for many more years to come.

mp3 : A Certain Ratio – Knife Slits Water (12″)
mp3 : A Certain Ratio – I Need Someone Tonite (12″)
mp3 : A Certain Ratio – Mickey Way (The Candy Bar) (12″)

You can tell they are a band I don’t actually know that much about!!  Anyone care to offer up some words and tunes via an ICA? (I’m thinking and looking at you Swiss Adam….the fount of all Mancunian knowledge….)

 

 

 

Mock Turtles, Pop Will Eat Itself

WHICH ONE DO YOU DIG?

If you happen to use a similar browser as mine then underneath this bit of text is Pop Will Eat Itself while the right hand image is Mock Turtles.

 

 

In 1989, the grebo/crusty combo finally cracked the Top 40 at the sixth attempt with this:-

mp3 : Pop Will Eat Itself – Can U Dig It? (extended mix)

In 1991, the indie/baggy combo enjoyed a #18 hit with this:-

mp3 : Mock Turtles – Can You Dig It? (extended mix)

Totally different songs by totally different bands but which I bet are often mixed-up in pub quizzes.

And getting down to it boppers, I’m in the PWEI camp in terms of preference, albeit it’s not among their greatest 45s. Mock Turtles is just a wee bit too samey as so many other songs by so many other bands of the same era.

Happy Mondays, John Kongas

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING

I would have been just short of my 8th birthday when South-African musician John Kongos took He’s Gonna Step On You Again into the UK charts in May 1971. I can honestly say that I have no recollection of the record whatsoever and therefore had no idea, until reading about it at the time back in 1991, that Happy Mondays latest single Step On  was a cover.

The two songs are really quite dissimilar and I don’t think may would argue that the Happy Mondays greatly improved on the original. I think the big difference is that the original really does sound of its time while the cover has become genuinely timeless – it does help of course that the production advances over the two decades between them meant that loveable Mancunians could do so much more with the tune but it still doesn’t detract from the fact that they derived a classic.

And yet, the original outperformed the cover – John Kongos got as high as #4 while Happy Mondays stalled at #5 – and it’s likely in pure sales terms that the original did better. What I didn’t know until doing a wee bit of research for this piece is He’s Gonna Step On You Again, according to wiki, is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as being the first song to have used a sample which just goes to show how long that’s been around contrary to popular belief. Having said that, a much later CD reissue of the parent album states it wasn’t a sample but a tape loop of African drumming and so debunked the alleged first.

Also worth mentioning that the Happy Mondays version actually sampled three guitar notes from the original as can be heard easily when you listen to both versions:-

mp3 : John Kongos – He’s Gonna Step On You Again
mp3 : Happy Mondays – Step On

Enjoy.

Various

BONUS POSTING : IT’S GETTING BETTER

Not too long ago, I shared with you some of my on-going concerns in life and how they were combining to impact on my ability to get fully motivated this year. Those of you who know me in any shape or form will have immediately realised that throwing in Trump and Raith Rovers was just my way of clouding what was really on my mind, namely Mrs Villain being unwell and requiring a couple of hospital visits over the festive period.

The emerging and good news is she has nothing that is life-threatening; she does have some issues with a lung which is likely to make her susceptible to infections, some which will be worse and more painful than others (the 2016/17 strain is a belter in that regard) but nothing that can’t be fixed in the medium-long term with medication and a degree of rest. Given there is a history of fatal lung diseases in her family, there was a real fear gripping Villain Towers for a while.

Thank you for all your very kind words and thoughts after that particular posting – they meant a great deal and were hugely appreciated. Here’s my way of showing said appreciation; don’t read anything into the choice of songs – it was just me having a bit of fun and thinking this would make a good hour of listening:-

mp3 : Various – Breathing That Sigh of Relief

Tracklist

Love Vigilantes – New Order
Did You Evah? – Iggy Pop & Debbie Harry
Kelly’s Heroes – Black Grape
Waking Up – Elastica
Penelope Tree – Felt
My Love Is Like A Gift You Can’t Return – The Man from Delmonte
Radio Radio – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Amateur Hour – Sparks
Sheila Take A Bow – The Smiths
Bye Bye Pride – The Go-Betweens
Fait Accompli – Curve
Setting Sun – The Chemical Brothers
Come Home (original version) – James
Sweetheart Contract – Magazine
The Model – Kraftwerk
Lost Weekend – Lloyd Cole & the Commotions
Talulah Gosh – Talulah Gosh
Final Day – Young Marble Giants

Worth mentioning that my football team are still struggling to win a game – the last victory was in late October – but we did a well merited draw in a cup tie last Sunday against a team from a higher division. Maybe it’s a sign that things will begin to improve on that front.

Cheers.

Justified Ancients of Mu Mu

THE FIRST KLF RECORD?

The label says it’s The KLF but to all intent and purposes it really is a release from The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu ; the packaging and labelling are the same as their three previous singles and the biggest clue can be seen from a few words that were printed on the label – ‘THIS IS A TRANSITION RECORD’. There’s also the fact that the record, prior to it being issued as a single it had been a track on the LP Who Killed The JAMMs released in February 1988.

There’s no doubt that the wholly uptempo nature of the tune is in keeping with that much later KLF material which brought fame and fortune, not to mention infamy after the burning of £1,000,000.  But at the time, it was simply a way of drawing the ‘career’ of the JAMMs to an end and the next thing that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty would go and do is record and release a novelty single as The Timelords that became a surprise #1 hit.

The subject matter of Burn The Bastards is the debut JAMMs LP 1987 (What the Fuck Is Going On?) which had been produced using extensive unauthorised samples in a very crude and elementary way – eventually a complaint from ABBA about the use of Dancing Queen led to an order from the bosses in the music industry for all remaining copies of the album to be firstly withdrawn and then destroyed.  Drummond and Cauty took legal advice but were told it would cost a minimum of £20,000 to defend in court and they had little chance of winning.

They complied but in ways that were often unorthodox such as throwing them into the sea off the coast of Sweden after a well-publicised but totally futile attempt to have ABBA’s management change their minds.  The records overboard event had come after they had illegally gone into a farmer’s field outside of Stockholm and set fire to copies of the record – only to be forcibly removed with the threat of arrest by the police (it’s even been suggested they were chased out of the field by the farmer brandishing a shotgun). An image of the bonfire was used on the sleeve of the second LP.

mp3 : The JAMMs – Burn The Bastards

Making great use of Dance to The Music by Sly and the Family Stone (along with a cheeky wee swipe of Bad by Michael Jackson), this single is an absolute hoot and infectiously danceable. If Bill’s rough Scottish brogue is too much for you, then get yourself moving to the instrumental b-side:-

mp3 : The JAMMs – Burn The Beat

The single vanished without a trace.

Enjoy

Pet Shop Boys

ELECTRO-POP MAGNIFICENCE

It was Heart which made the rundown of my 45 45s at 45 but I reckon now that of all the Pet Shop Boys singles, my favourite is  Left To My Own Devices. My first exposure to this particular track was the LP version at just over 8 minutes:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (album version)

It would become the second 45 to be lifted from the LP Introspective which itself was an unusual album for the fact that it was far removed from the normal process for pop/dance acts to release as singles with it being made up of lengthy songs and the versions issued singles had to be heavily edited for radio play.

I was quite bemused when I read it was going to be issued as a single given it was such a strange and almost surreal lyric. OK, the word love was contained within the chorus but it wasn’t quite boy meets girl or boy meets boy or girl meets girl material what with it also wittering on about Che Guevara drinking tea and setting the sounds of classical composer Claude Debussy to a disco beat. But somehow the madcap approach worked as it reached #4 in the UK singles chart when it was released in November 1988 and climbed all the way to #4 in the UK singles chart.

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (single edit)

But it turns out that the album version wasn’t the one that they had also thrown in the kitchen sink. Nope, for that you had to get the 12″ version which extended out to an incredible eleven and a half minutes, beginning with an unlikely drumroll before incorporating house, disco, brass, strings, operatic backing vocals and a more deliberate spoken rap from Neil. What’s not to love?

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (disco mix)

The b-side is a bonkers sounding bit of music, the sort of thing that seems to accompany a character in a film having a drugs-induced breakdown or panic attack. And in the typically perverse way the boys were behaving at the time, the short version was put on the CD and 12″ releases with the full version only on the flip side of the 7″:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – The Sound Of The Atom Splitting (extended version)

Enjoy.

Undertones

THE UNDERTONES SINGLES 77-83 (Part 9)

The next single was released in July 1981 and became the first since Jimmy Jimmy not to crack the Top 40.

The band’s third album Positive Touch had been released a couple of months previously, their first for EMI, but it hadn’t sold nearly as many copies as the previous records.  Critics had been a bit bemused by it – while they were keen to praise what was a marked departure in sound with comparisons now to The Velvet Underground instead of Buzzcocks, there was a sense that the band were missing what many felt they were best at – fast and furious post-punk guitar led music. The use of piano and trumpet, combined with an increasing reliance on acoustic guitars, certainly divided fans and there was a marked reluctance from them to embrace much of the new material in the live setting as you couldn’t really dance to it.

It also created a problem for the label bosses as there was no real obvious single to follow-up It’s Going To Happen! and so the decision was taken to take a fabulous ballad and re-record it. Here’s the LP version:-

mp3 : The Undertones – Julie Ocean (original version)

The Velvet Underground influence can easily be discerned across its less than two minutes of magnificence.

Here’s the outcome of asking Dave Balfe and Hugh Jones to come in and work their brand of magic on it:-

mp3 : The Undertones – Julie Ocean (single version)

At almost three and a half minutes, it’s way longer than the album version – it also sees Feargal deliver a different vocal with a change in tempo and use of echo taking away from the simplicity and fragility of the original. It also has a long fade-out which seems to indicate that the producers weren’t quite sure what to do with it.

I don’t think I’m alone in preferring the album version but at the same time I can see what the new version was trying to achieve in terms of creating a more radio-friendly sound. They did a decent enough job in that regard and the song certainly deserved to do better than #41 in the charts.

The b-side was a new song, and again came via the time in the studio with Balfe and Jones:-

mp3 : The Undertones – Kiss In The Dark

Again, it marked the new more mature sounding Undertones. I remember being a bit disappointed with it at the time but as my tastes have developed and matured over the years I’ve grown to like it a bit more. But it’s no True Confessions or Mars Bar…..

Come On Gang!

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #59 : COME ON GANG!

Come On Gang! were an Edinburgh trio who formed in 2007 and broke up in 2011 almost immediately after the recording of their debut LP.  They were a trio consisting of Sarah Tanat Jones (vocals and drums), Mikey Morrison (guitar) and Trev Courtney (bass). Jones, who was originally from Brighton, and Courtney, from the Scottish Border town of Galashiels, had met at Edinburgh College of Art and recruited Morrison via a locally placed advert. They quickly gained a reputation for being a more than decent sounding indie-pop band with the media particularly keen (as usual) to shine a light on an act who had a charismatic and articulate female lead.

An early single on a small indie label was picked up by Radio Scotland and this additional exposure saw them invited to perform sessions for television which at the same time helped increase their profile. They were a hard-working group, supporting many bands in venues all over Scotland and appearing low down on the bill of many festivals but also being recognised as having huge potential as can be seen from being part of a Scottish showcase at the 2009 South by Southwest festival in Texas.

There were however, only three singles ever released (one of which was a split single with Kid Canaveral with whom they gigged on many an occasion) followed by Strike A Match, the debut LP (produced by Paul Savage of The Delgados) in February 2011 which was launched at a gig in Edinburgh, an event the band had already indicated would be their last.

mp3 : Come On Gang! – Fortune Favours The Brave

Enjoy

British Sea Power

MY POLITICAL PROTEST SONG FOR TODAY

I’ll do my best to avoid watching any coverage of today’s inauguration ceremony and instead immerse myself in music. Here’s one of my favourite songs of recent years. Such a positive message even if few in power really want to listen:-

mp3 : British Sea Power – Waving Flags

You are astronomical fans of alcohol
So welcome in
Are rising in the East and setting in the West
All waving flags

We’re all waving flags now
Waving flags
But don’t be scared
And you, you will be here for a while
And it’s all a joke
Oh, it’s all a joke
Oh

Are here of legal drinking age, on minimum wage
Well, welcome in
From across the Vistula, you’ve come so very far
All waving flags

We’re all waving flags now
Waving flags
But don’t be scared
‘Cause you, you will be here for a while
And it’s all a joke
Oh, it’s all a joke
Oh

Beer is not dark
Beer is not light
It just tastes good
Especially tonight

So welcome in, we are barbarians
Oh welcome in, across the Carpathians
Oh welcome in, we are from Slavia
Oh welcome in, across the stadion
Oh we cant fail, not with Czech ecstasy
No we won’t fail, not with Czech ecstasy
So welcome in

It was released in January 2008 as the first single from the LP Do You Like Rock Music? There were 2 x 7″ singles and a CD version – all had different b-sides while one of the pieces of vinyl had a lovely and melancholy instrumental version of the single:-

mp3 : British Sea Power – Waving Flags (Wandering Horn Instrumental)

Always brings a lump to my throat.