This piece was inspired by a recent lengthy article written by Bill Drummond, penned in the aftermath of the death of Pete Burns. I’ve never hidden my admiration for the author believing him to be a true genius whose contribution to arts, music and culture won’t really be appreciated until long after he’s no longer with us; this latest piece of writing (click here) is up there with his best.
It was the fact that he mentioned the one-off band in the photo accopanying the article were playing Paint It Black that jogged my memory and got me thinking back to a gig played by Echo & The Bunnymen at Glasgow Barrowlands in December 1985 for they ended what I’ve long considered to be as great a live performance as I’ve ever seen with a rendition of the Rolling Stones number.
More than 30 years on and I’ve often wondered what exactly it was that made that particular gig so special. I know that some of it would have been the fact that I was there on a date with a girl who I had long been besotted with and that she too was a big fan of the Bunnymen. We had a great time but we didn’t see each other again for a few weeks as the gig was just a couple of days before Xmas and we both had plans to spend time with our families in separate parts of Scotland and being an era well before the likes of mobile phones, the cost of longish distance phone calls was something we kept to a minimum. In the end, we went out just one more time in early 1986, both realising it would be better to stay friends than fuck things up completely.
So it’s not entirely the memory of a short-lived romance that makes this gig a highlight. I’ve always thought that it was down to the majestic nature of the set, combined with the fact the band were probably at their peak and that it was in the best music venue known to mankind anywhere on the planet. That and the fact that I was blown away by the fact they did such a storming final encore of Paint It Black before sending us all home.
There’s folk who now collate set lists from gigs of way back and put them on the internet. I’ve dug in and looked up that Barrowlands gig. It turns out to have been the final gig the band played that year and it was on Sunday 22 December and so they were obviously determined to go out in some style. The full set list is evidence:-
Going Up With a Hip Heads Will Roll My Kingdom Lips Like Sugar Villiers Terrace All That Jazz The Back of Love Ocean Rain Seven Seas The Killing Moon Bedbugs and Ballyhoo Angels and Devils The Cutter Never Stop Rescue Thorn of Crowns Do It Clean Over the Wall Crocodiles Paint It Black
It’s almost as if I’d been asked to come up with a set list of my own and the band played it there and then. I just know that it was a gig where I didn’t stop dancing from the first minute to the last, all the while trying to look cool and dignified for the goddess I was next to. And probably failing – after all, when Pete De Freitas was in the house, none of the rest of us stood a chance.
I know that on many an occasion over the past 31 years I have come away from a gig believing immediately afterwards that it is the best I’ve been to; but by the time the following morning comes around and I’ve replayed it in my head and compared it to that 1985 night in the Barrowlands it then just comes up marginally close but not quite good enough.
The one funny thing about the night is that over the years I’ve tended to be able to recall something about the support acts at the countless gigs I’ve been at but I’ve a total blank on that particular evening. It may well have been I didn’t get along in time but that’s unlikely as anyone who knows me will testify that I always insist on seeing the support act ‘just in case they are any good’. It is simply the fact that the Bunnymen that night blew everything else out of the water.
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Angels and Devils (live, 1985)
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Crocodiles (live, 1985)
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Paint It Black (live, 1985)
Sadly, not from the Glasgow gig, but lifted from the Crystal Days box set and a set played on 25 April in Gothenburg, Sweden where the band acted as their own support by playing a set of ten cover versions before coming back on and playing their own stuff.
Listen in particular to Crocodiles which comes in at a storming 6 mins plus which is more than twice the length of the studio version. It was, in those days, that way for Mac to ad-lib all sorts of lyrics and for the band to really go for it and get the crowd going crazy towards the end of sets.
In which the band finally, and deservedly, hit the Top 20.
Jimmy Jimmy is one of the finest of all the post-punk singles. It was written by John O’Neill although many folk probably thought it was all down to singer Feargal Sharkey as he is the one pictured on the front of the sleeve holding a trophy he had won a teenager.
mp3 : The Undertones – Jimmy Jimmy
Seemingly, the song, with its sad ending, wasn’t based on anyone or on any sort of true story.
The b-side is just one of the most fun records ever made:-
mp3 : The Undertones – Mars Bars
Composed by Damien O’Neill and Michael Bradley, it’s an ode to the band’s staple diet of that era…with the chorus and some other of thre lyrics drawing inspiration from the TV ads which promoted the chocolate confectionary.
The single spent ten weeks in the chart from the end of April 1979, including a four-week run in the Top 20 without managing to climb any higher than #16.
The Cinematics were an alternative rock band founded in 2003 and disbanded in 2011. The band consisted of Scott Rinning, Larry Reid, Adam Goemans and Ross Bonney. The members originally met while at school in Dingwall but the band itself was formed in Glasgow, signing to TVT Records in 2005 after playing at an In the City showcase gig in Manchester.
They would go on to make two albums, the second of which was on Orchard Records after TVT went bankrupt. There was also a handful of singles and EPs.
The band never really got beyond cult status in their native city and by 2010 had relocated to Berlin where work began on a third LP but it was never released.
I did see them on a few occasions, the first being in 2005 when they were a decent support act to Editors at a packed King Tut’s in Glasgow. This was one of the singles from the debut LP, A Strange Education, which came out in March 2007:-
Back in 2004/2005, the UK charts were seemingly dominated by a plethora of emerging guitar-led bands, very few of whom lasted the course beyond the debut LP. One of my favourite records from the period has turned out to be Capture/Release, the debut LP by The Rakes. Now I’ve tried over the years to be an avid reader of blogs, but I haven’t read too many pieces that have mentioned far less praised this particular record. Which is a bit of an oversight in my humble opinion…..
The Rakes never really fitted in with any genre – some thought they were from the post-punk art scene like Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park or Bloc Party, while others thought they were just another London band like Razorlight or The Libertines who owed their success to a lazy, fawning media.
I first heard the band through seeing some of their videos on MTV2 and thinking that they were infectiously catchy songs. I’ll be honest and admit I never rushed out and bought anything right away, nor did I go along and catch them playing live. But in due course, maybe about a year after it came out, I picked up a second-hand copy of their debut LP and gave it a listen. Eleven brilliant pop songs in just over 30 minutes – and a record that really should have gotten a lot more critical acclaim at the time.
I bought follow-up LP Ten New Messages not long after it was released in March 2007, and it too became a bit of a favourite, although like a lot of records that I bought in 2007 wasn’t listened to all that often as I spent a fair chunk of the year working in Canada and far away from the record collection. And then blogging sort of took over and bands like The Rakes, The Libertines and The Futureheads, all of whom had released some cracking stuff over a two-year period, were sort of forgotten about as I delved further and further back in time and listened to loads of old vinyl for the first time in years.
The band released their third LP in 2009 – Klang – but it proved to be a flop and the band called it a day this time seven years ago. The sum of their career was nine singles and three LPs, none of which ever hit the Top 20. But they were far better at what they did than many others who made money and a career out of it.
Here’s the four more than decent singles from the debut album.
mp3 : The Rakes – Strasbourg
mp3 : The Rakes – Retreat
mp3 : The Rakes – 22 Grand Job
mp3 : The Rakes – Work, Work, Work (Pub, Club, Sleep)
Loads of great things were said about Prince on his sad and untimely death earlier this year, including on this blog from a couple of guest contributors who were huge fans.
He was another who I admired rather than adored, but every now and then I’d hear his new single and rush out and buy it. As happened in June 1991 when my purchase of the 12″ vinyl helped it get to #4 in the UK charts:-
mp3 : Prince & The New Power Generation – Gett Off (Extended Remix)
mp3 : Prince & The New Power Generation – Gett Off (Housestyle)
For those of you interested in such things, the absolutely fabulous housestyle version was produced and remixed by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley. Oh and on other 12″ versions of the single it is known as the ‘Urge Mix’. The two tracks between them combine to make almost 17 minutes of music.
I also now have the 7″ single in the collection, and here’s your b-side which was originally scheduled to be included on the LP Diamonds & Pearls but removed at the 11th hour when Gett Off was finished off just in time. So why not….
Released in February 1978. It didn’t get near the charts. Indeed, I’d be surprised if it got much in the way of radio play. I know for sure that John Peel would have played it as it was performed in session in January 1978, one of three such sessions that Wire did for his show. But his listeners weren’t that enthusiastic, never once voting the quartet into the Festive 50 during their late 70s/early 80s heyday.
But it’s considered a classic of its ilk nowadays:-
mp3 : Wire – I Am The Fly
The flip side of the 7″ was one of the most popular tracks from the previous LP, Pink Flag, that had been released in November 1977:-
This was in the charts around the time of my 16th birthday in June 1979. It’s a record that reminds me of my first ever proper job which lasted for about six weeks over that summer.
It was in a Glasgow store of Halfords. I actually told a few white lies to land the post, in that I said to the store manager when I went for the interview that I had decided to leave school at the earliest opportunity, which was on my 16th birthday, when in fact I was always intending to go back in August 1979 to sit exams that I hoped I could pass and go onto university.
Anyway, the six weeks that I spent in the shop were great fun. It was mostly lads maybe three or four years older than me, but they seemed awfully grown up in so many ways, especially the fact that they went out to the pub after work every Saturday night – I was always young-looking for my age and stood no chance of getting served. Everyone liked their music, but we all had different tastes, so the solution was to just have Radio 1 on in the background all day long – and the Sparks record was on very heavy rotation.
By the time I had started work, just about everyone had more or less forgotten about Sparks after a bundle of hit singles in 1974 and 1975 – they were probably regarded as a bit of a novelty act thanks in part to the fact that Russell Mael had a singing voice that hit higher notes than just about any other bloke on the planet, but mainly to the fact that Ron Mael when appearing on telly stared intensely at the camera and freaked everyone out. Oh and he also had a moustache and haircut that made him look awfully like Adolf Hitler….
The Number One Song In Heaven was totally unexpected. The only way you could tell it was Sparks was the distinctive vocal – but what Russell was warbling over was something mind-blowing and astonishing.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that very few bands used electronic keyboards to any great effect 30 years ago. Sparks went for it in a big way, deciding to recruit Giorgio Moroder into the band – an act of absolute genius. Moroder, Italian-born but German-based, was well-known for his work on disco music on the Casablanca label, particularly with Donna Summer, as well as the fact that in 1978 he’d won an Oscar for his soundtrack to the movie Midnight Express (the single The Chase – Theme From Midnight Express used to amaze my dad – we had wall-mounted stereo speakers and it sounded as if the music was actually crawling its way across the wall as it moved from one stereo speaker to the other)
Anyways, the first thing the public got to hear from the Maels/Moroder canon was this:-
mp3 : Sparks – The Number One Song In Heaven
I was sure this was a truly massive hit, so I was surprised to learn that in fact it only reached #14 in the UK charts, although it did hang around the Top 40 for almost two months (which was why it was on heavy rotation on the shop radio).
Strangely enough, I didn’t play the A-side all that often, for the version of the song that was put on the reverse was far superior, but at 7 plus minutes long wouldn’t ever have gotten played on daytime radio:-
mp3 : Sparks – The Number One Song In Heaven (long version)
It was where prog met glam met disco met film soundtrack on one piece of 7″ black vinyl – one that, sadly, is no longer in the collection.
So there you have it. The celestial song which cleared the decks for the likes of Soft Cell, Pet Shop Boys, Human League and Heaven 17 (as well as many other inferior versions of electro-pop) to come along in the 80s and make a fortune.
“In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered commercially attractive to those companies. By 1978, labels like Cherry Red, Rough Trade, and Mute had started up, and a support structure soon followed, including independent pressing, distribution and promotion. These labels got bigger and bigger, and by 1980 were having top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart. Chart success was limited, however, since the official top 40 was based on sales at large chains and ignored significant sales at the scores of independent record shops that existed. Iain McNay of Cherry Red suggested to the weekly trade paper Record Business the idea of an independent record chart to address the problem, and the first independent chart appeared in 1980, published in Record Week, and later licensed to Sounds.
To be included in the indie chart, a record had to be distributed independently of the corporate framework of the major record companies; the genre of music was irrelevant.
The first weekly independent chart was published on 19 January 1980.”
What I’m intending to do is feature many of the songs that went to #1 in the indie singles chart in the 80s, but not in any sort of series as doing so would require a degree of discipline that I don’t think capable of providing. But it does make sense to begin at the beginning with the first ever 45 that made the top of the chart.
It does somehow seem apt that this particular 45 was on Rough Trade as it was, without any argument, the best-known indie label in the UK during the late 70s and 80s. There’s also something reassuring by the fact that the band involved had an annual name change policy that was seen by some as a mere marketing tool but by others as a way of continually confirming the most indie of credentials.
I haven’t ever owned own anything ever released by Spizzoil in 1978, Spizzenergi in 1979, Athletico Spizz 80 in 1980, The Spizzles in 1981 or Spizzenergi in 1982. I don’t ever recall seeing them play live and so what follows is a short tale pulled together from a few different sources.
Spizz was vocalist/guitarist who founded the band in August 1977. His real name was Kenneth Spiers. He had started out as a solo act By the following year, he had recruited Pete Petrol (real name Pete Hyde) and the duo, having supported Siouxsie & The Banshees and recorded a Peel Session, were signed to Rough Trade and issued two 7″ EPs as Spizz Oil.
The following year, the name was changed to Spizzenergi; Petrol left after falling out with Spizz but three new musicians were recruited. Two more singles followed including this in December 1979:-
It’s 2:15 of superbly silly, atypically enjoyable post-punk that no doubt got the musos shaking their head in complete disbelief. It was released at the same time as the first Star Trek movie which no doubt helped raise its profile, and as mentioned was #1 in the first ever UK Indie Singles Chart when that was published on 19 January 1980, a position it proudly held for 8 weeks before being replaced by UB40‘s debut double-A side single Food For Thought/King.
By this time of course, Spizzenergi were, on the face of it, no more but as Atletico Spizz 80 they added a fifth member and released a further single on Rough Trade before being snapped up by A&M Records for whom they released two singles and an album; in 1981 as The Spizzles, it was two singles and an album.
The only commercial success while at A&M was the debut LP Do A Runner reaching #27 in July 1980, and come 1982 they had been dropped and were back at Rough Trade, again as Spizzenergi with a further two singles.
The group then disbanded but in 1987 Spizz came back as a solo artist with a re-working of his most famous single.
Sorry for the lack of a posting today. Been a bit busy at work and things on over a few evenings recently that I couldn’t quite keep on top of things.
I’ve been in Birmingham today on work stuff and will soon be boarding a train back to Glasgow, during which time I will do a bit of catching up including posts for the rest of the week and hopefully reading and enjoying all the stuff that other bloggers have been posting at their place.
Just one thing to add. Was lucky enough to see The Pixies at Glasgow Barrowlands last Friday. They were, as the saying goes, the dog’s bollocks.
Late addendum at 11pm
I got reasonably near the front at one point last week….
I don’t think I can do any better than cut’n’paste from a post on this very blog back in August 2014:-
It was back in 1978 that The Undertones released their debut single and the best ever 45 of all time in the opinion of the late John Peel.
But it was in February 1979 that I reckon the band released their best ever single…..the flop-follow up to the debut.
Teenage Kicks was not an out-an-out chart success, reaching the relatively low position of #31 in the UK charts. Get Over You however, was a bit of a disaster as far as the band was concerned, hitting only #57.
In sleeve notes to a compilation CD released back in 1999, the band’s Michael Bradley said:-
“We were very disappointed by the chart position. We thought it was all over and our career was finished.”
They weren’t the only ones bitterly disappointed. I remember hearing this on Radio 1 one morning and making sure that on the way home from school later in the day that I bought the single. I also remember putting it on the turntable and being really disappointed in the first few seconds as I thought either my needle was damaged or my speaker was broken (it was still an old-fashioned Dansette record player in those days). Thankfully, it was just the opening riff that blasts away in the background before giving way to a short wolf-whistle clearly delivered by someone who had ambitions to get on a building site…..and then the opening riff comes in at full tilt. It’s Status Quo on speed……
mp3 : The Undertones – Get Over You
At this point in my life, I had yet to have my heartbroken by a member of the opposite sex…..but I instinctively knew, on hearing this record, that when that particular day came, as inevitably it had to, this was a song I would play, again and again and again until the pain went away.
There were two songs on the b-side, and they also dealt with girls:-
mp3 : The Undertones – Really Really
mp3 : The Undertones – She Can Only Say No
The latter of these is only around 40 seconds long, and the biggest tribute I can possibly pay it is that it’s the greatest song that Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks never wrote.
2016 update. Here’s some songs that were in the chart the same week Get Over You peaked at #57:-
HEART OF GLASS : BLONDIE : #1 HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK : IAN AND THE BLOCKHEADS : #8 MILK AND ALCOHOL : DR. FEELGOOD : #9 KING ROCKER : GENERATION X : #11 OLIVER’S ARMY : ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS : #13 THE SOUND OF THE SUBURBS : THE MEMBERS : #25 STOP YOUR SOBBING : THE PRETENDERS : #46 INTO THE VALLEY : THE SKIDS : #50
So it’s not as if there wasn’t an appetite or market for the song, which makes it all the more bemusing that it failed as a 45.
I run the risk of alienating a few folk here, so I’ll whisper it. I don’t quite get all the hoo-ha over Chvrches.
In saying that, I’m pleased that a Scottish act, particularly one featuring an ex-member of the hugely underrated and largely unappreciated The Unwinding Hours and Aereogramme, is being so critically acclaimed and selling decent amounts of records, but the synthpop music they make just doesn’t move me. Probably an age thing…..but the vocals in particular often make them far closer to the clean, near antiseptic pop fodder that makes up much of the modern era chart stuff than it is to the pioneering stuff from the late 70s and early-mid 80s with which they are often compared.
Here’s one that I don’t mind too much from their debut LP The Bones Of What You Believe, released back in 2013:-
Last time round I changed the title of this series which was a bit naughty of me. This is the third and final part of what happened after SWC visited the Oxfam Charity Shop in Totnes and bought the then recuperating Badger some indie vinyl on the premise that he write about them for T(n)VV.
Badger writes………………
The fifth, sixth and seventh records are a lot better than the third and fourth ones; two were by bands that I know and like and one was a band that I had never heard of, but one which led SWC into another one of misty eyed tales from the past. He’ll take over in a bit after we talk about Record Five.
SWC’s daughter unwraps the fifth record and it is a mash up of different colours and swirling images it also has some writing on it, in red pen. I look at and then I tilt the record sideways to try and read what it says.
“Is this signed?” I ask SWC.
He nods enthusiastically, “That record has been touched by four bonafide rockstars” he tells me. Bonafide rockstars is pushing it a bit, but all the same, this is exciting news. I own three signed records, (well four now), one is my pride and joy a vinyl picture disc of ‘The Holy Bible’ signed by Richey Edwards, the second is a Carter USM 12” signed by Jon Fat Beast (RIP) and the third is splodgenessabounds 7” signed apparently by band member ‘Baby Greensleeves’. The authenticity of that is dubious at best.
The record is ‘Is It Too Late?’ by Senseless Things. It cost £1.99 and that includes the signatures of all four members of the Senseless Things which as SWC adds “Probably increases the value by at least 50p”.
mp3 : Senseless Things – Is It Too Late
Senseless Things are a band dear to my heart. They feature on the WYCRA 200 both in this guise and in one of their off shoot bands Delakota.
‘Is It Too Late?’ was one of the band’s early singles, their second or third I think. It has a sleeve designed by Jamie Hewlett the guy behind Tank Girl and Gorillaz and it is a brilliant couple of minutes of punky pop.
The interesting thing is that a few years back Senseless Things released a singles compilation and this record wasn’t included on it, I imagine this is because of record company rules and the like but it almost feels forgotten about, which is a massive shame.
I’ve also attached two of the three B Sides which are pretty much the same thing, two minutes shouty indie punk pop with thrashy guitars and sneery vocals. All excellent and a welcome addition to any record collection I would say.
mp3 : Senseless Things – Andi In a Karmann
mp3 : Senseless Things – Ponyboy
Next up I’ll hand over to SWC
“There was this kid at college, we’ll call him Jeremy in case he is reading. Jeremy told everyone he was in a band, I think in an attempt to impress impressionable girls, his band were always playing gigs in London and around the South East, they were supporting larger acts in proper venues (rather than just playing in the same old dreary Maidstone pubs). They were called Spartac – with the R the wrong way round to make it look Russian, which isn’t a bad name for a band to be honest – yet something didn’t add up, no one had seen this band, apart from Sad Gary, the bloke who no one listened to, he told us he had seen them. Jeremy tried to convince me that his band Spartac had played at the club I DJ’ed at and they supported a band called Tiny Monroe. They didn’t because Tiny Monroe never played at the club, they were supposed to, but they actually did cancel due to illness. The support band that night were called Torque and I know that because the lead guitarist in said band was my mate Dom and they needed the ‘exposure’. The general feeling was that Jeremy was a bullshitter but he was a convincing one because people started to believe him a couple of other people started to mention that they had seen them and they were playing a demo CD of his band.
Anyway, I said, to Jeremy that if he provided me with a demo tape I would get them a gig in the next few weeks, we had a few decent bands coming up at the club and I could probably get them a support slot when Delicatessen play. “Oh I know them, we played with them in London a few weeks back I’ll dig you out a demo, is a CD ok”. Yup absolutely.
About a week later, Jeremy gives me a demo. I play it that evening at home, it sounds familiar. I have heard this before, I know I have, I just can’t place it, maybe, at a party somewhere, maybe he was in a band. I mean it sounded like a demo, it was pretty badly recorded.
About two weeks later, my mate John and I went to London to see a Pop Will Eat Itself gig at the much missed Marquee club. The support band that night was a band from the same next of the woods as them, they are called Scorpio Rising and they come on and bugger me sideways the opening song they play is track 2 on Spartac’s Demo CD – Scorpio Rising call it ‘Watermelon’ Spartac call it ‘Inside Her’.
The next weekend John tracks down a copy of ‘Watermelon’ by Scorpio Rising in a record shop and we play it to a couple of our mates, and then I play Spartac. There is general disbelief and laughter, John then tells me that I should play this at the club the next time we see Jeremy there, which isn’t often to be fair, he’s probably off playing live at the Viper Rooms in LA or something.
We don’t do that. Deciding that it would be cruel and besides like me and a load of others Jeremy would be leaving the area in October to go to University (in Huddersfield if I remember rightly), we let things lie, smug in the knowledge that we know. Around August, Jeremy announces that his band have split due to ‘musical differences’ and that three of them were continuing without him and the drummer under a different name. Shame, another great lost band, like the Badgers I suppose.”
And now it’s back to Badger….
Yes although that’s quite enough of them.
Record Six is ‘Saturnalia EP’ by Scorpio Rising and is kind of ace in warped wobbly kind of way – the recording is not great – the B Side is ‘Watermelon’. Price £1.50
…and finally we come to record 7 – another day another remix 12” but this one is slightly different in that it is actually quite good, I won’t bang on about this one because I have to be somewhere in fifteen minutes and I’m running late, but I’ve saved the best for last.
Record 7 – Price £2.50
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – Australia (Lionrock remix)
One of the reasons I began to listen to Peter Gabriel was the fact that he was championing the end of apartheid at a time in my life when I was just beginning to become more socially and politically aware of what was going on in the world. In particular, he recorded a song demanding justice for the death in custody of Stephen Bantu Biko which he featured on his LP Peter Gabriel III, and which he later released as a single
This was also the LP that brought Gabriel his first real degree of solo success, thanks to the lead-off single Games Without Frontiers which was a #4 hit in the UK. Today’s offering was the follow-up single, a rather dark number that focuses in on lust. The fact that it has the utterly delicious Kate Bush singing away rather erotically on backing vocals somehow only adds to its intensity.
mp3 : Peter Gabriel – No Self Control
I’ll quietly ignore the fact that it is Phil Collins who plays drums on the record. Actually, that’s a bit unfair….if he had stuck solely to his original day-job as a sticksmith, then Phil Collins would probably be lauded as a superb musician. As it is, we all think of him as the chart-topping man of the 80s loathed by many, but as the record sales demonstrate, loved by so many in the Thatcherite era…..
Quite clearly, the record label weren’t all that fussed about whether or not folk would buy this single, for the b-side was a track lifted from the LP.
mp3 : Peter Gabriel – Lead A Normal Life
A strange little number, largely instrumental in nature, it seems out of place on its own as a b-side as it was tailored-made for its particular spot on the album to lead into the epic closing track, the aforementioned Biko.
Incidentally, fans of the modfather might be interested to know that Paul Weller played guitar on one of the other tracks on the album.
I’ve never hidden my love for cover versions having featured many hundreds of them over the years at this and the old blog. Here’s three of the more unusual examples of the genre that I’m fond of:-
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – Uptown Top Ranking
Yup, it is a cover of the #1 single by Althea & Donna back in February 1978…..one that takes what was a perfect pop/reggae single and turns it something quite disturbing and haunting. Not sure how many of you will actually like it, but there’s something quite erotic about the vocal delivery by Sarah Nixey – ‘see me in my halter back, see me give you heart attack, give me little bass, let me wind up my waist…’
mp3 : Martin Gore – Loverman
Yup, it’s the fella out of a band that I was never that keen on after Vince Clarke left them….this takes something that was quite disturbing and haunting and turns into something quite poppy and disposable. Not sure how many of you will actually like it….I mean where Nick Cave sounded menacing and a danger to society, this could almost pass as a version you’d hear on Pop Idol or X-Factor.
mp3 : Cake – I Will Survive
The best cover versions are by those bands and singers that take something incredibly well-known and turn into something that something that sounds like one of their own originals (see The Wedding Present on just about every occasion). If you like the sort of stuff churned-out over the years by Californian alt-rock act Cake, then you’ll adore this. If you consider the disco-classic to be sacred, you’ll hate it. For the record, I adore the original, but I want to be counted in, if not quite a loverman of the cover, then an admirer.
There was a request made recently for a Johnny Marr ICA to complement the efforts (# 96 and #97) afforded to his former band mate.
What follows aren’t by any stretch of the imagination the best tracks that he’s played on but they do serve to highlight some of the diverse acts he’s been involved in, either as a member or as a guest musician, presumably being paid union rates.
Side A
1. Native Land – Everything But The Girl (1984)
So let’s start by actually featuring something he played on while he was in The Smiths. I wrote about this on the old blog back in 2011 and will just regurgitate those words one more time:-
The decade that was the 80s is one that divides opinion on whether it was a good era for music. On the one hand, there were some really appalling things inflicted upon us…..Jive Bunny, Shakin Stevens, Joe Dolce, The Birdie Song, Cliff Richard being #1 every Xmas, Bucks Fizz, T’Pau, Bowie & Jagger destroying Dancing In The Streets, Agafuckingdoo, Phil Collins, Billy Joel and soap stars becoming pop stars (Kylie Minogue excepted!!)
But on the other…..well, there’s been loads of great and often long-forgotten bands featured here on TVV which hopefully more than make up for the monstrosities listed above (many of which remain staple diets of loads of ‘classic’ radio and video stations).
The track featured today came up on random shuffle on the i-pod the other day. It’s one that sums up a lot of the 80s for me….new emerging bands that made intelligent pop records that were jaunty and upbeat…the soundtrack to the seemingly continuous demonstrations against the bomb, nuclear power, the ideologically-driven attacks against the coal industry, the apartheid regime, homophobia, racism and Thatcher/Reagan. Every other weekend in 1984 I seemed to be off somewhere or other determined to make my voice heard…
The line-up on this single was an indie supergroup with Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt being joined by Phil Moxham of Young Marble Giants fame on bass and June Miles Kingston who was part of Fun Boy Three and later on was with The Communards playing drums. Oh and Johnny Marr played harmonica…..
The single should have been a big hit. But it only reached #73 and it would take another four years and a cover version for EBTG to enjoy real success.
(The b-side of this single, Riverbed Dry, is at the foot of this post as an mp3; but Jonny didn’t play on that)
2. Up Against It – Pet Shop Boys (1996)
Johnny had of course worked previously with Neil Tennant in the early days of Electronic and so it can’t have been too much of a surprise to receive a call asking if he could add his talents to what they felt was a ‘guitar-sounding song’ that was to feature on the next Pet Shop Boys LP. The song turned out to be Up Against It which is tucked away as the eighth track on Bilingual – the backing vocals on the song were seemingly an idea hatched by Johnny in the studio on the day he went into record his part.
3. Get The Message – Electronic (1991)
I love how the first few bars of are so reminiscent of a slowed-down Bigmouth Strikes Again before Bernard Sumner adds his special ingredients via the keyboards and vocals. In 2007 Johnny Marr said it was “…maybe the track I’m most proud of out of my whole career”, while in June 2009 he reiterated that it was “the best song I’ve written”. That’s good enough for me to make it the centrepiece of the first side of this ICA.
4. Rolling Back The Rivers In Time – Girls Aloud (2008)
As part of a feature in music magazine in 2012, Johnny was asked ‘ What possessed you to work on Girls Aloud’s last album?’
His reply was that he was evangelical about pop music and the idea that pop is crass and commercial is an old-fashioned rockist conceit linked to the whole “Disco Sucks” campaign. He added that he had always seen The Smiths as a pop group and cited that Sparks, Roxy Music, Bowie and Sweet all made great pop 45s, stating that he wanted to hold on to the nobility and aspirations of pop, and what it can be.
Until I looked at what could feature on this ICA, I had no idea he had played with Girls Aloud. Makes me smile and a wee bit proud that as far back as December 2006, over on the old blog, I sang the praises of this particular all-girl band. I revisited the post in August 2013.
5. Love Is Stronger Than Death – The The (1993)
Strange as it may seem, but Johnny was part of The The for a longer period that he was in The Smiths, albeit his tenure from 1988-1994 only involved two albums, both of which were the most commercially successful in the long career of Matt Johnson. This wonderfully sad song, written by Matt following the death of his brother, is as far removed from the sound of early The The as can be imagined – indeed, it is such a powerfully delivered number that you can imagine it belonging to the arsenal of the big stadium rockers of the era – but thanks to Johnny’s contribution on guitar and harmonica nobody, no matter how talented they are as a vocalist and whoever they got in beside them to work on the arrangement, could dream of ever topping the original version….which may well be why nobody has tried (to the best of my knowledge).
SIDE B
1. Shirley – Billy Bragg (1986)
This is the a different recording of Greetings To The New Brunette, the track which opened the LP Talking With The Taxman About Poetry. Much more of a band effort than the better known version, there’s a lot of Johnny on guitars and harmonica. Was tough to not feature Kirsty MacColl on backing vocals but I can more than make up for that with….
As mentioned in a previous posting, it was just a week after the break-up of The Smiths that Johnny penned a tune which he quickly sent onto Kirsty who, at the time, was needing a bit of help overcoming writer’s block. Although it would take four more years before the tune was made available, the addition of lyrics, melody and a touch of rap brought about a Top 30 hit in the summer of 1991.
3. European Me – Johnny Marr (2013)
His decision to throw caution to the wind by writing and recording under his own name, and indeed taking lead vocal, took a fair few folk by surprise. There’s nothing particularly earth-shattering about the songs on the two albums to date – The Messenger (2013) and Playland (2014) – with them being a blend of solid guitar solos and melodies tacked onto the verse-chorus-verse approach that has been the most solid of foundations for rock and pop music since the genres came into being. What was more interesting was that he threw himself wholeheartedly into being an out-and-out frontman for the first time in his career which, in a live setting, meant also singing lead on numbers he had written with Morrissey. It was a beautiful contrast that he was determined to play the songs as close to the renditions from the 80s as possible while his more esteemed former band member was going down ever increasingly rockier takes to utilise the talents of his own backing musicians.
It also meant that Johnny had to face up to and deal with questions from the press on the increasingly bizarre outbursts from Moz, including his views and opinions on race and politics; to his credit, Johnny has more or less avoided any slanging matches simply pointing out that his own beliefs on what makes a just society haven’t changed all that much since he was a teenager. Given all this, I felt the title of this song made it a certainty for the ICA. Oh and for the fact it owes more than a small debt to Penelope Tree by Felt.
4. Dashboard – Modest Mouse (2005)
I can’t claim to be any sort of expert on Modest Mouse; I do know however, that their 2004 single Float On is an exceptionally enjoyable few minutes of indie pop music. That however, pre-dated Johnny joining the band in 2006, being part of the ensemble who wrote, recorded and toured the LP We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank which hit the shops the following year.
The album got a lot of positive reviews and featured highly in a number of end of year critics polls, but I’ve always found it a bit of a difficult listen with too many of the songs seeming to last maybe 45 seconds or a minute beyond what they should have been – almost as if the musicians were just to keen to show off their skills at the expense of tightening up on the numbers. It’s also in many places, very reminiscent of the sort of music that had propelled Arcade Fire to fame and fortune. The lead single, which appeared some two months in advance of the release of the album, remains a very fine listen, clearly benefitting from Johnny’s input as a player and writer.
(as with the EBTG single, I’ve made the b-side available as a bonus track to the ICA)
5. Hand In Glove – Sandie Shaw (1984)
The debut single by The Smiths had been a relative flop. Now that they were famous and the ever-increasing numbers of fans were snapping up everything, the idea of re-releasing Hand In Glove with Sandie Shaw on lead vocal was an inspired one. The three boys in the band re-recorded their bits and Moz watched on from the sidelines as Sandie demonstrated how to give it the big vocal treatment. It reached #27 in April 1984, enabling an appearance on Top of The Pops in which they boys appeared sans shoes in homage to the singer as she had done this more often than not at the height of her fame in the 60s. Sandie kind of threw Moz shapes in what has become a legendary performance.
Enjoy!!!
Bonus songs:-
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Riverbed Dry
mp3 : Modest Mouse – King Rat
I had this crazy notion that I’d go out and find cover versions of all the singles that were released on Postcard Records and pull together a short series for the blog. Indeed it crossed my mind to make it a regular for Sundays over the next few months.
But finding this stopped me in my tracks.
Try as I can, I’m unable to give you anymore info on this amazing piece of footage from Japan. They also lovingly do another great Postcard record:-
Oh well…….here’s the one Postcard cover most folk will be aware of.
mp3 : Propaganda – Sorry For Laughing
And no, that’s not meant as an intentional pun on the video clips which I happen to think are quite brilliant.
I don’t feature The Undertones too often on this blog, mainly as I have a huge dislike for Feargal Sharkey in his latter-day role in the music industry when he was the bulldog who attacked bloggers.
But it does make sense to have them follow on from Buzzcocks in this slot given that they too have reformed and enjoyed success in the live setting many years after first bursting onto the scene. I was actually due to go and see them in Glasgow just over two weeks past, but a bout of ill-health confined me to the house (it also prevented me seeing Trash Can Sinatras a few days prior). I’m told I missed two unforgettable evenings by those who were there.
It’s worth using suff from wiki to get an idea of how The Undertones came into being:-
The Undertones formed in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. The band members were five friends from Creggan and the Bogside, who originally drew inspiration from such artists as the Beatles, Small Faces and Lindisfarne. The band initially rehearsed cover versions at the home of the guitarists, brothers John and Vincent O’Neill, and in the shed of a neighbour. In early 1976, before the band had played gigs at any venues, Vincent O’Neill left the band being replaced by his younger brother Damian.
Beginning in February 1976 the group began playing at various minor local venues, including schools, parish halls and scout huts, where the band’s lead singer, Feargal Sharkey, was a local scout leader. With the arrival of punk rock in late 1976, the artistic focus of the band changed. Artists such as the Adverts, Sex Pistols, the Buzzcocks and, particularly, the Ramones became major influences on the Undertones.
By 1977 the band were performing their own three-chord pop punk material alongside cover versions at concerts. By mid-year they performed concerts outside Derry for the first time. In March 1978, the Undertones recorded a demo tape at Magee University in Derry and sent copies of the tape to various record companies in the hope of securing a record deal, but only received official letters of rejection.
The band had also sent a copy of their recordings to influential BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, requesting he play the songs on his radio programme. Peel replied to the band, offering to pay for a recording session in Belfast. On 16 June 1978, the band recorded their debut four-song EP “Teenage Kicks” on a budget of only £200. The EP was engineered by Davy Shannon at Wizard Sound Studios, Belfast – and was released on Belfast’s Good Vibrations record label. The title song became a hit with support from John Peel, who considered Teenage Kicks his all-time favourite song, an opinion he held until his death in 2004.
In June 1978, these were the ages of the band members:-
Feargal Sharkey (vocalist) : 19 John O’Neill (rhythm guitar/vocals) : 20 Damian O’Neill (lead guitar/vocals) : 17 Michael Bradley (bass) : 18 Billy Doherty (drums) : 19
It’s genuinely scary that five blokes as young as that could come up something as unforgettable as this:-
mp3 : The Undertones – Teenage Kicks
The song dated back some 12 months prior to its recording and so its writer, John O’Neill was still in his teens at the time. Within a month of it being released on Good Vibrations the band had been snapped by Sire Records who re-released it on 14 October 1977. Three weeks later, it peaked at #31 in the UK singles charts.
A copy of the single on Good Vibrations is worth a small fortune nowadays. Sire had the decency to include all four tracks when they released it.
mp3 : The Undertones – Smarter Than U
mp3 : The Undertones – True Confessions
mp3 : The Undertones – Emergency Cases
Four songs with a combined running time of under 8 minutes. An EP completely of its time and yet timeless. Oh and the use of the letter ‘U’ instead of the word predates that very practice by Prince by quite a few years. Maybe the purple one had picked up a copy while browsing through the record stores of Minneapolis….
Oh and if True Confessions had been released on its own as a 45, it would be surely been a massive hit and almost as fondly regarded as the lead song.
Douglas Veitch, better known as Champion Doug Veitch (born 1960, Hawick, Scotland) is a Scottish musician and songwriter.
The self-styled ‘King of Caledonian Swing’ rose to some prominence in the mid 1980s.A favourite of John Peel, for whom he recorded two radio sessions, he holds the record for having most (six) consecutive NME singles of the week. His music was a ground-breaking polycultural mix, using elements from dub, reggae, country Music and Scottish folk music, which foretold the cross cultural mixing more common in later years.
In 1985, he co-founded the label DiscAfrique with his colleague Owen Elias, which was one of the first world music labels in the United Kingdom, releasing records by The Bhundu Boys, Orchestre Baobab and The Four Brothers amongst others.
In 1989, he released an album of Scottish country dance music with his wife under the moniker Martin, Doug and Sara.
And from his own website, a more recent update:-
In 1989, Doug released a compilation album, “The Original”, which included all the singles plus tracks from radio sessions.
This album featured all of Doug’s musical influences, from Country, Reggae, Mariachi, Western Swing, Cajun through to the High Life guitar music of Ghana. The album gained much media attention from the press. Despite renewed interest, Doug remained a virtual recluse and could not be persuaded to perform live.
However, in the summer of 2014, Doug replied to a Facebook post from Pete Lawrence (Making Waves) regarding “Reeling” – an album of Scottish dance music that Doug had released with Martin Bell. This led to a discussion on the prospect of playing a live gig. After a gap of some thirty years and largely due to the efforts of Martin in sourcing a truly all-star band, in February 2015, Champion Doug Veitch made a “triumphant and joyous” return at the 100 Club in London.
This the second half of the journey back from Cambridgeshire – the sister bit to SWC’s one about the Jesus and Mary Chain (oh and I agree – where was ‘Upside Down’). Its been delayed a bit because events overtook us. I did start it – I’d chosen the tracks and had actually written the majority of it but then my bollocks swelled up and I kind of forgot about everything, which I think you can forgive. Everything from the words ‘The Journey…’ was written about eight weeks ago, it sat unloved on my computer at home. I only found it this morning and added this paragraph.
The journey back was thankfully uneventful, apart from the service station incident.
We stopped off at a Service Station on the M42, I think it was called Hopwood Park, it was very good. We are sitting in the café and SWC is warbling on at me about the football, he moaning that his team have lost again, but I am distracted.
Sitting opposite me, with a lady who has her back to me, is Keith Chegwin. Cheggers Plays Pop, tackle out for a Channel Five Game Show, Keith Chegwin. He is drinking a large cup of coffee and has what looks like a Burger King Whopper and Supersized Fries in front of him. Its definitely him. I’d recognised his squashed up, punched too often by Edmonds, face any day of the week. I haven’t been this excited about seeing a celebrity since the time that Martin Clunes stood behind me in Exeter’s Marks and Spencers and I’ve taken a piss next to Chris Kamara, so you can imagine how excited I am.
SWC stops and moans at me a bit more “Are you even listening to me, I said, that’s what we get for appointing ex Spurs players as a manager”.
I shake my head and mouth ‘Cheggers is behind you’.
“What?”he says.
I don’t want to draw attention to the fact, that its him. Literally no one else has approached him although, a women keeps looking at him and smiling – I mean why wouldn’t you – its Cheggers.
I text SWC. Yes, I know he is sitting opposite me, but I can’t just tell him, what if Cheggers hears me. “Keith Chegwin is sitting behind you and he has tomato sauce on his shirt” (he has, he has made the school boy error of trying to eat his burger in one go and the sauce has squirted out) I type. SWC’s phone buzzes and he looks at it – then looks at me, and then looks at the text again.
He texts back “Why didn’t you say so?” , he then does this little turny head thing and pretends that he is tying his shoelace before declaring “yup its definitely him, shall we go and say hello, I wish I’d bought my copy of Brown Sauce’s ‘I wanna be a winner’ with me. I could have doubled the price of it by getting it signed.”
I look up, the women from across the seating is now having her photo taken with Chegwin. He gives her a peck on the cheek, much to her delight. A few more people, mainly sad older women in sports casuals are now starting to queue up to have their photo taken. Cheggers is loving it though, despite the fact that he has tomato ketchup on his face and shirt and his chips are getting cold. Come to think of it, he’s a bit of an idiot.
“The moment has gone” I say to SWC, who looks disappointed and we finished our drinks and get up to leave, not before I say, rather too loudly, “John Craven would have never had his photograph taken with tomato sauce on his face”. SWC nods in agreement before adding “and I always preferred Philbin”. I’m pretty sure that Cheggers heard us, because he has wiped the sauce of his face and is scowling slightly.
Back to the music, which what we are here for after all. The 11th song was by The Libertines. This feels me with joy, I already knew this when we saw Cheggers, it kind of was the precursor to a great day. A tremendous choice. When I told SWC told JC about our randomly picked choices he said “It just goes to show, crap football equals excellent ICA’s”. Absolutely.
So – an ICA on the Libertines – here goes – I’ve tried to keep it singles light and I have completely ignored the third album on the grounds of being utter rubbish. I’ve kept the notes short because the tunes speak for themselves.
Side One
Can’t Stand Me Now – Single
I’ll start at the very top I think. Easily the bands finest moment, and put simply one of the greatest indie guitar records of the last fifteen years or so. I would imagine that you all own this. I wanted to include it over at my place in the WYCRA 200 (sorry shameless plug that) but we’d already featured it before so had to leave it out – but had we it would have been Number 7 in that list.
Don’t Look Back Into The Sun – Single
The song that replaced ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ in the WYCRA 200 and therefore the band’s second finest moment. The single that was supposed to be the ‘goodbye’ record from them. Again I’d be surprised if anyone reading this didn’t already own a copy. So let’s go down the slightly obscure route…
The Delaney – Taken from ‘I Get Along EP’
I saw Babyshambles live a few times and was once surprised to hear them playing this, but then again this has always been something of a fans favourite. The original version appears as the B Side to the second Libs single ‘Up the Bracket’. Easy to see why it’s a fans favourite though.
All At Sea – Taken from ‘What Became of the Likely Lads?’
This was originally supposed to have been on the debut album but was scrapped at the very last minute, and then surfaced as the B Side to the ‘…Likely lads?’ single. It also happens to be an outstanding little track.
Music When the Lights Go Out – Taken from ‘The Libertines’
Peter Doherty once played this track live on Newsnight and again is a tremendous little song. It is that is credited to Peter Doherty and Carl Barat and appears on the second album. The song deals with the problems of trying to end a relationship. It was one of the first songs (along with ‘Albion’ that Doherty wrote (and I cut ‘Albion’ to include it). It is also a song that apparently Pete and Carl physically fought over during the second album sessions because of the way that they wanted to record it.
Side Two
Boys In the Band – taken from ‘Up the Bracket’
Apparently named after a 1970 film of the same name, which was one of the first films to openly address gay issues. This song however is about groupies and how they follow and worship bands. It is a song about attention and how easy it is to get it when you are a boy in a band. The line ‘And they all get them out for the boys in the band’ is apparently about red carpets. So they say.
Never Never – Taken from ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ single
Another firm fans favourite and again a track that was meant for an album but was cut at the last minute. The original version of this was called ‘Never Never (Hancock)’ and was something of a mythical release in which the band recorded the track and added a load of samples from the Hancock Half Hour TV Programme. The recording as far I know was never (never) released.
Death on the Stairs – taken from ‘Up the Bracket’
Carls favourite Libertines song and one that the band have admitted that they find very hard to play live. This is largely because the band could never seem to get it right. The song is about madness and Carl often refers to seeing himself sitting alone in a bedsit eating beans of toast and he called that feeling ‘Death on the Stairs’. Although Pete claims that they called it that because they got thrown out of a record company’s office and down the stairs. Personally I believe Pete.
What Became of the Likely Lads – Single
The bands eventual final single (before the reformation). The song is obviously about the breakdown of the band – you can hear that in the lyrics “What became of the dreams we had?” and “What became of forever?”. Its another brilliant sad, although one tinged with sadness and poignancy. Interestingly the video shows footage of two young boys (actors) on a council estate, which is implied to be Pete and Carl (but in reality can’t be them)
I Get Along – From ‘Up the Bracket’
The first Libertines song I ever heard. It was the second track on their debut single ‘What A Waster’. That song was written by Doherty about Doherty and the legend goes that ‘I Get Along’ was written by Barat about Barat. It was eventually released as a single on its own and famously Doherty forgot to turn up for the video shoot.
I said most of what I had to say yesterday. Here’s some more great songs.
Side One
That Way from Before Hollywood (1983) : lead vocal by Grant McLennan
Until now, I don’t think I, or indeed anyone, has ever opened up an ICA with the closing track of an LP. It just goes to show how many great songs there were back in the day that they could put this gem at the end. It certainly would make you want to get up and turn the record back over immediately.
The House That Jack Kerouac Built from Tallulah (1987) : lead vocal by Robert Forster
Having failed to crack open the markets with the first four albums, everyone involved threw the kitchen sink and the rest into the recording of Tallulah including the addition of a fifth member on violin and oboe. It was a record greeted with some scepticism on its release as a result of to its lush production and move away from indie-guitar pop, but which is now regarded as a bona-fide classic.
The Wrong Road from Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express (1986) : lead vocals by Grant McLennan
The thing is, the path that would lead to Tallulah had in some ways been set by this track from the album released the previous year. The addition of violin, cellos, viola and organ take this to places the band hadn’t explored before and the result was one of their finest ever songs. Epic.
Was There Anything I Could Do? from 16 Lovers Lane (1988) : lead vocals by Grant McLennan
FFS. How did this single not get any airplay?
Surfing Magazines from The Friends of Rachel Worth (2000) : lead vocal by Robert Forster
Here’s a band that came out with some of the best lyrics of their generation falling back on a variation of la-la-la-la-la for the chorus and pulling it off with some style.
Side Two
Bye Bye Pride from Talullah (1987) : lead vocal by Grant McLennan
In which the decision to bring in a new member who plays oboe is totally justified in four minutes flat.
Rock and Roll Friend b-side to Was There Anything I Could Do? (1988) : lead vocal by Robert Forster
A song that became synonymous with Robert’s efforts to get back in the saddle after Grant’s shock death in 2006. It must have been very tempting just to pack it all in. Instead, he went into the studio and recorded The Evangelist, his first solo LP in 12 years and hit the road and in every show he played this (a song he had re-recorded himself in 1996) and dedicated to his late band mate. It’s worthy of a place on this ICA for that alone notwithstanding it is such a fine number.
I Just Get Caught Out from Tallulah (1987) : lead vocal by Robert Forster
Another great little failure of a pop single. I defy you to listen and not dance.
Dusty In Here from Before Hollywood (1983) : lead vocal by Grant McLennan
A ballad just to mix things up a bit and because it fits in well at this point on this ICA.
Dive For Your Memory from 16 Lovers Lane (1988) : lead vocal by Robert Forster
Couldn’t think of a more fitting way to end this ICA. The other song that Robert often dedicates nowadays to Grant; there’s something poignant that he once wrote a line ‘I miss my friend.’
Don’t we all?
Bonus 45 : The debut single from 1978.
mp3 : The Go-Betweens : Lee Remick
mp3 : The Go-Betweens : Karen
Tune in tomorrow for ICA #100 as it features a tale and a half from Badger.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 