THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE STYLE COUNCIL SINGLES (10)

The second album from The Style Council had been released to a fair amount of critical acclaim in May 1985. Our Favourite Shop also proved popular with the record buying public and in fact reached the #1 spot, albeit for one week only. It was an incredibly diverse LP in terms of sound with elements of pop, soul, funk, rap, jazz and the spoken word all to the fore at various times. The credits for the record show that in addition the regular four Councillors, there were three other guest vocalists (including the comedian Lenny Henry) with eighteen other musicians receiving one or more performance credits.

It was an ambitious and sprawling work with not all that many really obvious candidates for radio-friendly singles, and therefore it was always going to be interesting to see what was going to be the follow-up to the catchy and splendid Walls Come Tumbling Down.

Very few of us would have put money on it being Come To Milton Keynes.

For starters, it’s a strange old tune with a number of changes in pace and tempo. There’s no killer chorus and there’s all sorts of different instrumentation on the record including what appears to be a harp over an incomprehensible spoken word section towards the end. The lyric is a bit garbled and there’s a few bad puns included, none of which would have made much sense to folks outwith the UK. Oh and there’s also the fact that a number of radio stations shied away from it as there was a bit of a media controversy over the title and the subject matter of the lyric.

mp3 : The Style Council – Come To Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is synonymous with the sort of developments that Paul Weller had attacked during his days with The Jam via The Planner’s Dream Goes Wrong which appeared on The Gift. It was one of the few places that was economically booming in the early-mid 80s thanks to it being able to offer all sorts of economic incentives to businesses and industries, and almost as if it to rub other’s noses in it, the town fathers embarked on a marketing campaign that extolled many virtues under the slogan of ‘Come To Milton Keynes’.

The songwriter thought it was all based on a false premise and penned a lyric which basically said the town, far from being an idyllic spot, had more than its fair share of social problems which couldn’t be masked by lovely new houses and amenities. Indeed, the perceived intention of the strange tune was ‘to create a musical pastiche which matched the supposed artificiality of Milton Keynes itself.’

As is always the case when any sort of artist has an attack on a particular community, the local politicians and residents are whipped up into a frenzy by the media and the band was warned to stay away. In an effort to defuse things, Paul Weller used a BBC interview, when offered the opportunity to explain the song’s meaning, to say it was about much more than this particular corner of England:-

“It was more about the new towns, the fact we used Milton Keynes is neither here not there. They’re up in arms about it apparently, but big deal, you know. It’s more about the way Britain’s values are changing and us as a race are changing as well, I think, and the kind of materialistic values we seem to have adopted, quite American I think.”

All of which saw the song stall at #23, the first by the band (if you exclude The Council Collective effort) to not reach at least #11 in the singles charts.

It was released on 7” and 12”. The common b-side was a rather exquisite love song with a catchy and lovely tune that was tailor-made for daytime radio and would have made a fine single. And yet, it hadn’t even made the cut for the album

mp3 : The Style Council – (When You) Call Me

It’s the 7” version of the single I have in the cupboard and so that’s all I can offer today.

Earth Wind and Fire

IF I MAY BE INDULGED FOR A MOMENT OR TWO

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I haven’t been in and around blogworld much this past few days, and to those of you whose places I like visiting and leaving comments, then I promise to do so when I get my mind back focussed on things again, hopefully in the next couple of days.

Huge thanks to everyone who left such kind and lovely words after my posting a few days back when I had learned that a good friend had been given just 48 hours to live.

As with so much ever since he was initially diagnosed he proved them wrong yet again and that 48 hours ended up extended enough that I was able to get to see him one last time, to share some final happy thoughts and reflect on how lucky I am to know so many amazing people. He finally succumbed last night, but I’m adhering to his final wish and nor to be maudlin, sad or upset about it.

I noticed too that the music world lost another bright star the other day with the passing of Maurice White. I’ve admitted on these pages to having a soft spot for disco, and Maurice’s band were among the greatest exponents of the genre. Indeed, a few weeks back myself and Jacques the Kipper were at a football ground bemoaning the dreadful choice of music being played by the stadium announcer until this came on and made us both smile:-

Sheer brilliance.

PS : There was a comment from Webbie the other day after The Skids posting that linked to a September 2015 internet radio show from Gary Crowley in which he interviewed Richard Jobson. It’s a tremendous show, packed with great punk/new wave tunes and a hilarious chat with Jobson that is chock-full of wonderful anecdotes as well as having some lovely words about the late Stewart Adamson

https://www.mixcloud.com/sohoradio/gary-crowleys-punk-and-new-wave-show-15092015/?utm_source=widget&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=base_links&utm_term=resource_link

If you can’t be bothered with the music, then FF to the interview which begins at 61 minutes in….

Clash

THE CLASH ON SUNDAYS (5)

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Disc 5 is Clash City Rockers.

The time in and around the release of Complete Control had seen the band out on the road for a fair bit, and is often the case in such situations, there was a bit of a fall-out with Mick and Paul not on speaking terms for a bit. Part of this came from the fact that Mick and Joe had been given the opportunity to go to Jamaica to absorb some of the culture on offer in the hope it would have a positive effect on the songs that were going to be needed for the second album – Paul being the biggest reggae fan in the band was understandably annoyed at having to stay in the cold and damp UK while his mates went in search of inspiration (forlornly as it turned out as later captured on the album track Safe European Home).

While the two songwriters were in Jamaica, manager Bernie Rhodes pulled a trick that caused yet another rift in Camp Clash. The band had gone into the studio to record a new single – an anthemic number that partly mythologised all that The Clash considered they stood for while incorporating, in part, a section of a tune from a 17th century children’s nursery rhyme about church bells in London.

The thing is, Rhodes thought the final recording was a bit flat sounding and so he convinced producer Mickey Foote to increase its speed marginally thus making it slightly higher in pitch. All this was done while Joe and Mick were away and the single had been pressed before they heard the results. They were appalled and angered and Foote was sacked on the spot.

mp3 : The Clash – Clash City Rockers (single version)

All subsequent releases of the song on compilation albums etc have featured the original version of the song (at the proper speed)

mp3 : The Clash – Clash City Rockers (original recording)

The b-side was an update of one of Joe’s old pub rock songs but the vocal gifted to Mick:-

mp3 : The Clash – Jail Guitar Doors

It’s long been a popular song among fans and indeed was deemed worthy of inclusion on the track-list of the band’s debut LP when it was finally released in the USA in a form almost unrecognisable from its UK counterpart.

Jail Guitar Doors is also the name of a charity, set up by Billy Bragg, whose aim is to aid rehabilitation by providing musical equipment for the use of inmates serving time in prisons and funding individual projects such as recording sessions in UK prisons and for former inmates. A similar scheme was later established in the USA.

The single reached #35 in the charts and again they declined an opportunity to promote it via an appearance on Top of The Pops.

CLASH CITY ROCKERS : Released 17 February 1978 : #35

The opening chopped guitar riff, executed with such abrupt power and precision, immediately arrests you and informs you you’re in the presence of true greatness. Punk was primarily a male youth culture, and the song audaciously kicks over the previous statues of lad iconicism – Bowie (and the pre-nonce) Gary Glitter. It was saying that it wasn’t wearing make-up and pretending to be camp that made us shocking; it was because we were obnoxious, spotty, angry, bored young cunts.

This was one of the songs that made me leave home and go to London, then underscored my early years in the city. It was always on at all hours in the Shepherd’s Bush squat and Queensbridge Road pads, and it was our national anthem. I became an insomniac because of this song. There was never a centre-half at Hibs who got up as high for corner kicks as I did when this bastard blasted out.

Every time you put it on you were making a statement: this is our time and we will not be denied. A lot of water, beer, amphetamine and music has flowed under the bridge since then. But under the right conditions – for example, blasting out from a Stoke Newington stereo on a hot London summer’s day – I feel a shiver down my spine and nearly 30 years seems to have been shed. I love it so much.

Irvine Welsh, novelist (Trainspotting, The Acid House, Filth)

Sons & Daughters

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (26)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THURSDAY 18 APRIL 2008

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Quite a few folk told me that I really would like Sons and Daughters long before I ever got round to hearing them. I did know that Adele Bethel was in the band, but having seen her previously perform live on stage with Arab Strap, I wasn’t convinced she was capable of fronting her own act. So despite there being a real buzz about the band in Glasgow, I remained quite blasé about things, and I never got round to finding the time to check them out.

One day, while pottering around the house (quite possibly yet again putting the CD and vinyl collections into the proper alphabetical order) I heard a great noise coming from my TV which was tuned into MTV2. I wandered into the living room and started paying attention to a video for a song that had caught my ear partly because of a great guitar riff and partly because it was being sung in a broad Scottish accent. Then there was a chorus of sorts in which a vaguely familiar looking female came in on joint vocals, and then the video descended into chaos with a bar-room brawl. Fantastic stuff, but who the hell were these fabulous people??

Up came the caption, and at that point dear readers, I hung my head in shame. For it was of course this:-

mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Johnny Cash

So out I traipsed to Avalanche Records to purchase the LP Love The Cup. I felt as if everyone I the shop was laughing at me for being the last person in Glasgow to buy the album which had been on prominent display for ages. I took it home and played it. And then I immediately played it again. And again. And again.

Not long afterwards, the Villains were on one of their regular pilgrimages in search of the sun. We found ourselves one day on the French island of Martinique on a day-trip from our main base on St Lucia. Mrs V was trying on some clothes in a boutique, and there was a French-language radio station on in the background. Without warning, Johnny Cash came on – and it wasn’t the Man In Black.

I grooved….well, I was on holiday and unlikely ever to set foot in the shop again and didn’t care how ridiculous I looked. I may have been the last Glaswegian to pick up on the song, but I bet I was the first to hear it on a radio station in the middle of the french-speaking part of the West Indies.

The b-side of this single, as you’ll see from the sleeve is called Hunt. A version of this song was put on the follow-up LP, The Repulsion Box:-

mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Hunt

Now if this version is different from that on the b-side of Johnny Cash, I apologise. I have found a copy on e-bay and ordered it, but it never arrived in time to make this particular post…if it is different, I’ll try to add it in later on…

I thank you.

(2016 update). It was different. Here is the b-side

mp3 : Sons and Daughters – Hunt (single version)

Enjoy.

Chumbawamba, Credit To The Nation

FIRST-RATE PROTEST POP

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Chumbawamaba were part of the UK music scene for 30 years prior to them calling it a day in November 2012. In that time they released a whole bundle of singles and albums that raised awareness for all sorts of just causes and campaigns as well as getting across their viewpoint about a burning issue of the day, as was highlighted in the recent posting looking that 1992 single behave!

Some folk got awfully annoyed by Chumbawamba on the basis that they took life far too seriously, but any band that is prepared to tackle issues as diverse as domestic violence, religion, racism, fascism, war, homophobia and the decline of working class rights within short and catchy pop songs is all right by me.

It was really bizarre to seem them gain their 15 minutes of real fame in 1997 when the very catchy and anthemic Tubthumping went to #2 in the UK singles chart and I’m sure the band were bemused to see how it was adopted by the lager-swilling lad culture who regarded the concept of getting pissed and falling over only to pick yourself up and start all over again as something to boast and sing about at the top of your voice. Anyways, the song so was so ubiquitous at the time that just I quickly got sick of it and even almost 20 years on don’t enjoy listening to it.

Having wound up their own Agit-Pop label on the back of being frustrated at the failure of behave! to get into the charts they signed to One Little Indian with the first release in September 1993 being a joint single with Credit To The Nation, an act which was in fact a teenage UK hip-hop singer called Matty Hanson aka DJ Fusion with two backing dancers who had come to the fore earlier in the year thanks to the chart success of Call It What You Want, a single which sampled Smells Like Teen Spirit….a piece of music which got many of those in the press who worshipped Nirvana all hot and bothered under the collar.

This anti-fascism single, released at a time when right-wing politicians were rearing their ugly heads all over Europe, reached the Top 75 despite a lack of support from radio stations:-

mp3 : Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation – Enough Is Enough
mp3 : Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation – Hear No Bullshit (On Fire Mix)
mp3 : Chumbawamba & Credit To The Nation – The Day The Nazi Died (1993 mix)

Different versions of the b-sides can be found elsewhere

mp3 : Credit To The Nation – Hear No Bullshit. See No Bullsit, Say No Bullshit
mp3 : Chumbawamba – The Day The Nazi Died

Enjoy.

Style Council

THE STYLE COUNCIL SINGLES (9)

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that White Riot had been written as a call-to-arms for disaffected youth in the UK. Eight years on, and the disaffection was still there – indeed it was increasing all the while thanks to a government whose policies were not of the caring, sharing variety. Paul Weller‘s increasing frustration with young people not willing to engage in the political process on the basis that ‘they’re all the same aren’t they?’ or ‘it’s only one vote for me and that ain’t gonna bring about change is it?’ led to him penning the lyrics to Walls Come Tumbling Down with such lines as

“Are you gonna realise the class war’s real and not mythologised?’

mp3 : The Style Council – Walls Come Tumbling Down

It was released as a single in May 1985 and its jaunty radio-friendly tune, combined with a high-profile promotional campaign with appearances on all sorts of TV shows, helped it crash into the charts at #13 after which a TOTP appearance helped climb to its highest position of #6. The fact that it dropped down the charts afterwards rather quickly was perhaps an indication that mixing pop and politics wasn’t helping the band find any new audiences. But that didn’t stop the main man continuing to get on his soap box and promise that many of the songs that had been penned for inclusion on the second LP would further attack the unfairness of life under the Thatcher government.

As it turned out, the song’s lyrics became a bit of prophesy for what would happen over the next few years in Eastern Europe with the collapse of one totalitarian dictatorship after another and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. Indeed, Annie Nightingale, in her final show of the decade which celebrated some of the best and most popular songs of the 80s dedicated it to everyone in Germany whose lives had clearly changed forever more.

There were three quite different songs on the b-side of the 12″

mp3 : The Style Council – Spin’ Drifting
mp3 : The Style Council – The Whole Point II
mp3 : The Style Council – Blood Sports

The first is by far the weakest of the tracks with a bland tune set to sixth-form lovelorn poetry while the last is an acoustic and angry attack on those who supported hunting in the UK countryside and provided further evidence of Weller’s willingness to pen political material of a very personal nature.

The Whole Point II however, is something really powerful and disturbing. The tune was first used on the Cafe Blue LP with a lyric that attacked the political classes in the UK. This updated and very sad version is from the perspective of someone who is contemplating suicide by jumping into the sea…….

The lyrics have undoubtedly aged Walls Come Tumbling Down, but it is a cracking tune that demands to be danced to.

Enjoy.

Skids

MY FIRST CELTIC/FOLK RECORD

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That’s Celtic with a ‘K’ incidentally……

Glasgow has, for many years now, used the month of January to stage a three-week festival called Celtic Connections which nowadays really does offer something for everyone and goes well beyond the celebration of fiddle and accordian based folk/trad music that has long been associated with my home country. To get an idea of what 2016 had to offer, pay a visit over to Charity Chic as he took in a number of gigs and has provided some excellent reviews.

I went along to a couple of shows but pressure of work and a clash of commitments prevented me taking in more. As I sat at one of them with a mate who really is big into his folk/trad music, as well as being a huge fan of post-punk and in particular Joy Division, I got thinking about how in some ways the final two singles and album by The Skids back in 1981 were ahead of their time in that nobody who was aiming at the young market in Scotland made use of folk or roots music. Instead, it was regarded, in Glasgow at least (as that’s all I can authentically vouch for as it was where I was raised and had lived all my years till that point) as being music for old fogies. Nowadays, you look round an audience at a Celtic Connections gig and it takes in all age ranges with ever-increasing numbers in the 16-30 bracket.

I can take it in small doses. And in much the same way, I can take the excesses of the final stuff by The Skids in small doses and only every few years. It’s amazing to realise that this music was recorded in August/September 1981, just two and a half years after Into The Valley, one of the great new-wave anthems of all time, had propelled the band to fame. Of course, by 1981 The Skids were really just a two-man outfit consisting of Richard Jobson and Russell Webb augmented by guest and session musicians. Jobson has warned everyone the next LP was going to be different and those of us who had got our hands on a copy of the Strength Through Joy extra album with The Absolute Game (see this previous posting for details) were, shall we say, a tad concerned.

Joy bombed, not even making the Top 100. The two singles also sold abysmally and it was no real surprise that Jobson went off to lick his wounds with poetry readings and it would be three years before he returned to music with The Armoury Show, again with the help of Russell Webb.

This was the band’s last ever single:-

mp3 : The Skids – Iona
mp3 : The Skids – Blood And Soil

The a-side is a shortened version of a track which lasts more than seven minutes on the album. It’s the second best thing on the album (the best was featured in this post last year) and by far the most accessible track. The b-side, which is one I’ve grown to appreciate over the years as it does sound authentically traditional, is an alternative version of the track which opens the album (and which still makes me grimace a fair bit).

mp3 : The Skids – Blood And Soil (album version)

One other thing worth noting and including today is that Stuart Adamson contributed guitar to Iona while the Fairlite, which is responsible for the bagpipe sound, is played by Mr Tubular Bells himself, Mike Oldfield (and that’s the first and likely last name check he gets on this blog).

The album closes with an ambitious but ultimately flawed track on the basis that the kitchen sink and the rest were thrown at it and there’s just too much going on to take it all in:-

mp3 : The Skids – Fields

The reason that particular track also features today is that Alan Rankine plays guitar on it while his band mate Billy Mackenzie contributes a backing vocal. Sadly, the opportunity to turn into something akin to an Associates track isn’t taken.

Enjoy…even if only for the fact it’s not the normal sort of fare on offer round these parts.

Coral

I HEARD SOME NEWS TODAY OH BOY…..

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With apologies to Swiss Adam for adding a posting on the same day as his excellent ICA. I prefer, if possible, to give guest contributors the floor to themselves.

January was an appalling month.

February just got a lot worse.

A good mate of mine in his mid-50s was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer just under two years ago. He decided there and then to fight things on his terms, declining courses of chemo or radiotherapy on the grounds that all they would do is make him miserable while only giving a slim chance of extending his life. He also very publicly, via social media, recorded his battle happy and willing to provide his family and friends with all sorts of updates. Every month on a particular date he would commemorate the fact that another period of time had passed and he was still there smiling and laughing away.

Things took a turn for the worse just after Christmas, but my mate again demonstrating his courage and determination saw in the New Year at home before admitting himself to hospital on the first day of 2016. His January has been spent in and out of hospital as the cancer began to spread viciously to other parts of his body and he required help to eat and drink to prevent kidney failure. He still kept up the running commentary, saying he was determined to get out and about and see folk, with a special effort likely to be made to see his beloved Raith Rovers at least one more time.

This afternoon he posted what he said would be his final note on social media. Pneumonia had set in and he had been given the news by his docs that he had 48 hours. He signed off ‘Thank You Everyone for your love and friendship. Talk of the times, the love and the laughing.”

He’s the bravest, inspirational and most selfless man I have ever had the privilege to know.

He was a huge music fan. He wasn’t a blogger but he did present shows on community radio in which he played all sorts of music that reflected his incredibly wide taste. He liked a number of hip and trendy bands and he was one of those on whom punk/new wave had a huge influence. At the same time however, he never hid away from the fact that he also loved just about every pop record that had conquered the charts when he was a lad,back in the 70s and he took great delight in airing them on his radio shows.

And then there was Roy Wood and Wizzard who he was convinced was the greatest musician and band ever to walk this planet. He got to meet his hero too, in an unforgettable night that was plastered all over social media and put the widest of grins on the faces of everyone who knew him.

But it’s approaching a time when he no longer will be with us and I’m not ashamed to say that I’m missing him already. I’m sad that I never got the chance to say my final farewell in person as the pneumonia came on very quickly and unexpectedly and the plans to travel the 70-odd miles to the hospital this coming Friday are now worthless.

Matthew from Song By Toad also knew my mate and in his brilliantly succinct way has just captured exactly how so many of us are feeling when he replied back to my mate “Sorry. I know you want us to remember the good times, and soon we will, but for now it’s just sad as fuck.”

He was keen on this lot. I’ll think of him every time it pops up on shuffle

mp3 : The Coral – Pass It On

Things surely, can only get better.

Big Audio Dynamite

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #58 : BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE

A GUEST POSTING FROM SWISS ADAM

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Big Audio Dynamite are one of my favourite bands- pioneering, imaginative, forward thinking but always remembering that the song is the thing. B.A.D. formed after Mick Jones got kicked out of The Clash. Even though he made up with Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon pretty quickly and Joe realised that the Clash didn’t work without him Mick was already well away with B.A.D.

Hooking up with London face and filmake Don Letts, keyboard man (and husband of Patsy Kensit) Dan Donovan, bassist Leo ‘E-Zee Kill’ Williams and drummer Greg Roberts, Mick saw the new group as a chance to prove Joe and Paul wrong and there’s no doubt about who had the best post-Clash 80s. B.A.D.’s back catalogue is chock full of genre-busting, sampledelic, pioneering stuff but also fully loaded with tunes. Mick’s lyric writing is superb, witty, wide ranging and warm, as is their use of technology and their wider influences – hip hop, reggae, house, spaghetti westerns and British films. Some of it has dated, like the white jeans, baseball caps and Dalek guitar, but there’s more than enough to put together a worthy ten track imaginary compilation. As I shall suggest here….

Sit Tight And Listen Keenly While I Play For You A Brand New Musical Biscuit

1. Medicine Show.

Opening song off the 1986 debut album and a killer single too with a lovely FXed guitar riff, Mick rhymes his way through dozens of laugh out loud lines. The cowbell and drum machine pump along and the liberal use of sampled film dialogue (Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and James Coburn among them) make this song worth every second of its six-and-a-half-minute length. Paul and Joe and John Lydon turn up for the video too.

2. V Thirteen.

Probably their single finest song, co-written and produced by Joe Strummer (Joe did this live in the late 80s).

3. The Battle of All Saints Road.

Revisiting the West London of Clash mythology, the stomping ground of rockers, dreads and rude boys. Musically it takes in Clancy Eccles’ Fire Corner and duelling banjos. From 1988’s Tighten Up Vol ’88.

4. E=MC2

Pop and then some- Nic Roeg’s films set to a hugely catchy song. You really don’t get this from anyone else.

5. C’Mon Every Beatbox.

The single to lead into album number two No. 10 Upping Street (‘home to an alternative funky Prime Minister’ apparently. Thanks Joe) this song has Mick and Don trading rapid fire lyric lines, buckets of samples, a guitar solo that apes Jimi Hendrix and Neneh Cherry strutting her stuff in the video.

6. I Turned Out A Punk.

After 1989’s Megatop Phoenix the original line up disintegrated. Don Letts, Greg Roberts and Leo Williams went off to form Dreadzone. Mick subsequently put together various different BADs (Big Audio Dynamite II, Big Audio). The ‘new’ BAD had several moments that I wanted to put in here but space won’t allow- The Globe is a cracking single, Rush is top stuff too, Mick proving yet again that he can rise from the ashes. I could make shouts for Innocent Child, Harrow Road and Can’t Wait as well. In 1996 F-Punk came out, a funny album marred by some iffy production and cardboard drums. I Turned Out A Punk shows Mick’s muse and signwriting remained intact. Two chord, fuzzed up, organ led augmented garage rock and Mick’s formative years collapsed into rhyming couplets.

7. Rewind.

I was going to include Contact, house music turned into a pop song, from Megatop Phoenix. I probably should but I don’t want this to be too singles dominated. Instead here’s another song from the same album, digital reggae influenced and sung by Don Letts.

8. Beyond the Pale.

Mick sings about his roots. Immigration as a positive force for the individual and society.

9. Other 99 Extended Mix.

Over guitars and electronics Mick sings the song of the 99%, of not making 10 out of 10 and how sometimes 5 is just fine. The band don’t settle for half marks though, turning in a cracking tune. The 12” extended mix adds several minutes more after the breakdown.

10. The Bottom Line.

That shuddering bass. The guitars. Cowbell. The horses are on the track. There’s a new dance that’s going around. Economic decline. Nagging questions always remain. Even the Soviets are swinging away. From the debut album and still fresh as a daisy. I’m gonna take you to…part two.

Bonus Track

Greg Dread (Roberts) recently put the band’s intro music onto his Soundcloud page. Built of two minutes of samples, beats and synths, it’s the fanfare that announced B.A.D.’s arrival onstage

B.A.D. Live Intro Tape

mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – Medicine Show
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – V Thirteen
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – The Battle Of All Saints Road
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – E=MC2
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – C’Mon Every Beatbox
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – I Turned Out A Punk
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – Rewind
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – Beyond The Pale
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – Other 99 (extended mix)
mp3 : Big Audio Dynamite – The Bottom Line
mp3 : Live Intro Tape

JC adds : More great stuff every day from Swiss Adam can be found in the Bagging Area.

Council Collective, Style Council

THE STYLE COUNCIL SINGLES (8)

(And so to the second posting of the day, held over from last week)

Is it or isn’t it?

Technically, it’s a single by The Council Collective, but the a-side is a Weller/Talbot composition and it is in effect The Style Council supplemented by guest vocalists (Jimmy Ruffin, Junior Giscombe and Vaughan Toulouse) as well as guest musicians (Dizzi Heights and Leonardo Chignoli). Oh and Martin Ware was involved in the production and mixing.

As the rear of the sleeve explains:-

The aim of this record was to raise money for the Striking Miners and their families before Xmas but obviously in the light of the tragic and disgusting event in South Wales resulting in the murder of a Cab driver, some of the monies will also go now, to the widow of the man.

We do support the miners strike but we do not support violence. It helps no one and only creates further division amongst people.

This record is about Solidarity or more to the point – getting it back! If the miners lose the strike, the consequence will be felt by all the working classes. That is why it is so important to support it. But violence will only lead to defeat – as all violence ultimately does.

The single was released at the end of 1984 but proved to be the band’s poorest selling record thus far, stalling at #24 in the UK charts. This was likely down to a combination of it not getting as many radio plays as previous singles (the stations being disinclined to mix pop and politics….well for the time being!!), that some of the natural fan base weren’t as politically inclined as Paul Weller had thought and sadly, just the fact that it wasn’t all that good a song. But in 1984, reaching #24 in the singles chart would have meant tens of thousands of sales and so decent enough amounts of monies will have been raised:-

mp3 : The Council Collective – Soul Deep (12″ version)

Here’s the b-side:-

mp3 : The Council Collective – A Miner’s Point

It is a fascinating piece of social history. It is a near 17-minute long spoken piece in which Paulo Hewitt interviews two striking miners. I say fascinating, but it is also very sad. These two quietly spoken men are determined to see things through and firmly believe that they are going to win. They articulate very well their reasons for taking such action and while critical of those who are still working, they hold out olive branches to all concerned. That it didn’t work out as they hoped or anticipated makes it in fact that rare artefact – history as recounted by the eventual losers.

The b-side is also listed as a Weller/Talbot composition – I’m assuming this is as much to do with the payment and collection of royalties (and subsequent donations to the causes) as anything else.

Radio 236 (various)

RADIO 236 : THE NEXT EPISODE

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Nobody laughed in my face last month when I ‘produced’ the first edition of Radio 236. So I thought I’d give it another go.

Once again it’s all music and no talking. A little bit longer this time but still five minutes under the hour. It’s still a bit rough in terms of volume control but I’m getting there!

Tune in here: https://www.spreaker.com/embed/player/standard?episode_id=7681477

Or feel free to download:- https://www.spreaker.com/user/8537283/radio-236-episode-2

mp3 : Various Artists – Radio 236 (2nd Episode)

Songlist:-

Hello Again – BMX Bandits
Song 2 – Blur
Age Of Consent – New Order
Seether – Veruca Salt
I Saw You Blink – Stornoway
Batyar – The Ukranians
Fait Accompli – Curve
All On You (Perfume) – Paris Angels
Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads
Yes – McAlmont & Butler
The Man Who Took On Love (And Won) – The Low Miffs & Malcolm Ross
Gold Digger – Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
Seven Seas – Echo & The Bunnymen
No Danger – The Delgados

Enjoy.

Volume 3 should be with you next month.

Clash

THE CLASH ON SUNDAYS (4)

Disc 4 is Complete Control

I’m not sure how much to type today as I’m guessing that most T(n)VV readers will be very familiar with the fact that Complete Control was written, recorded and released in a fit of anger by The Clash as their response to CBS having released Remote Control as a single in May 1977.

It’s interesting to note that the attack on CBS via the line ‘They said, we’d be artistically free when we signed that bit of paper’ was savaged by many critics at the time with the band being accused of complete naiveté and indeed some went as far as suggesting the row was manufactured to allow Joe Strummer in particular to continue to appear as a spokesman for the people.

Some other facts.

It was engineered by Mickey Foote and produced by Lee “Scratch” Perry who happened to be in London producing for Bob Marley & the Wailers and readily accepted the invited to produce Complete Control. However, it turned out that his contribution to the track had to be toned down with Mick Jones re-working things to bring the guitars out more to the fore and drop down the echo Perry had dropped on it. The song was also Topper Headon‘s first recording with the band.

mp3 : The Clash – Complete Control

The b-side is one that many fans are very fond of and its inclusion of a saxophone part was hugely unusual in punk circles:-

mp3 : The Clash – City of The Dead

It reached #28 in the singles chart, making it The Clash’s first Top 30 release. The essay in the booklet was penned by a footballer.

COMPLETE CONTROL : Released 23 September 1977 : #28 in the UK singles chart

When I was 14, I was living with my mum and dad in Kingsbury, north-west London. After school I’d be straight up to the bedroom and get the records on. The walls had posters of all the bands I liked, The Clash, Stranglers, Stiff Little Fingers, Bowie – I got into music through him and then punk came along. I had a Lurkers set list and a massive Holidays In The Sun Pistols poster. I’d get this stuff from point of sale in the local record shops , they’s have big cardboard displays of the bands and I’d ask the bloke if he could save me it when they took them down.

I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do back then. I still don’t now. I was just into music. Back then I didn’t want to hear any slow songs or any ballads; I just wanted something fast and loud that I could sing along to and jump up and down on the bed with a baseball bat like an idiot. Complete Control was the rawest song I had, everything I wanted was on it, the rawness. I can still remember my old girl coming in and telling me to turn it down.

I probably saw The Clash up to ten times, the best was in Harlesden. Another tack I really liked was The Prisoner, which I think was on the B-side of White Man In Hammersmith Palais. I’d play White Riot before I went out to play, mainly at Forest; that was my musical peak because I was captain. Brian Clough sort of turned a blind eye to it, really.

Stuart Pearce, England’s greatest-ever left back

Bronski Beat

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (27)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WEDNESDAY 17 APRIL 2008
AND AGAIN ON SATURDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2013

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I’ve written about Bronski Beat before. And I make no apologies of repeating what I said then – it really is all too easy to forget how brave Jimmy Somerville and Bronski Beat were for being so open about their way of life and their views. Their records, and those of such as the Pet Shop Boys and Frankie Goes To Hollywood took the celebration of queer culture into the mainstream, and made many people realise, probably for the first time, that homophobia was every bit as distasteful as racism and apartheid.

This was a band that came from out of nowhere. They inked a deal with London Records after a mere handful of gigs, and the debut single, Smalltown Boy, sold by the barrowload, hitting #3 in the UK charts in May 1984. It also made the Top 50 in the USA and Top 10 in Australia.

A trio of follow-up singles and the debut LP all sold in great quantities and the band seemed set for a long and successful career. But out of the blue, vocalist Jimmy Somerville (and acknowledged by everyone as the band spokesman) announced he was quitting the band to pursue an outlet that would allow him to be ‘more political.’ In due course, he would find massive success, including #1 records, with Communards. He also became part of Red Wedge, the conglomeration of musicians who campaigned for the Labour Party at the 1987 UK general election.

As for Bronski Beat – they did manage a couple of hits with new vocalist John Foster (who in retrospect sounds awfully like Andy Bell who would later come to prominence with Erasure), but they were very much overshadowed by the success of Communards. They soldiered on for a few more years, ever more fading into obscurity from the mainstream.

There’s just something about the early Bronski Beat records that make them sound so special. There’s a bit of the inventiveness of Giorgio Moroder in there, along with the pop-savvy touch of Human League and Heaven 17. There’s also the choir-boy falsetto vocals of Somerville that recalled, in some ways, Russell Mael from Sparks. Theirs were records that struck a chord with so many people, from the hard-core gay militants to the indie-kids and the disco-divas with their handbags and stiletto heels.

The look adopted by Jimmy Somerville for the video to the debut single is one that has become synonymous with young gay men in the early 80s. If you want proof, look no further than the recent BBC cop/sci-fi series Ashes to Ashes which was set in 1981, but in an episode centring on a young gay man, that particular character was dressed straight out of a Bronskis video from 1984.

That’s the impact and legacy of this one song –

mp3 : Bronski Beat – Smalltown Boy (extended version)

Jam, Supernaturals

ONE MORE REASON WHY JANUARY 2016 HAS SUCKED

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Today was meant to feature the latest in the series of singles by The Style Council but this is what I’d rather share with you today.

Some of you will know that this particular blog, which sprang into action in July 2013, is the descendant of The Vinyl Villain which ran with more than 1,000 postings (many of which were from guest contributors) between September 2006 and June 2013 when it was closed down by Google without any advance warning.

The one thing the two blogs have in common is the ability to bring total strangers together and turn them into close friends, even if they never ever get to meet in person. The common bond of course is a love of music and the fact that there are people out there who share similar tastes and whose fandom for certain singers, bands or even certain songs piques an interest.

It was a song that led to a blogger called Helpless Dancer (HD) to get in touch back in 2008, and after a very pleasant exchange of emails, this is what he ended up writing on his blog:-

Music and Dumbarton FC – Two Passions Collide

For a long time I have been searching through my boxes of stored CD’s looking for a CD Single by The Supernaturals which had a B-side entitled “High Tension At Boghead” to no avail.

Recently I have been checking out and enjoying the Vinyl Villain blog which features a massive amount of Scottish related music and as a last resort I posted a comment asking if by any chance they had the aforementioned track and to my great pleasure it has been posted today so many thanks VV!!

I should explain that the song is directly related to HD’s football team, which as you’ll have surmised from the title of his post is Dumbarton FC.

High Tension At Boghead is a strange but enjoyable wee number telling the tale of a young boy’s first venture to a ‘big’ football match, an occasion he found rather underwhelming but thankfully there was enough happening around the ground to keep him amused.

The picture at the top of this post is the rear of the main stand at Boghead, a ground I had the pleasure of visiting a few times and which has a particularly happy memory as being the place that I took a child to his first match – the son of my best mate (RIP) who at this point in time had left Raith Rovers to play for Ayr United at the tail end of his career.

Dumbarton FC left Boghead Park in 2000 and moved a few hundred yards away to a new ground by the banks of the river which flows through the town. The old ground is now occupied by housing but it has of course been immortalised in song:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals – High Tension At Boghead

HD subsequently became a regular contributor to the blog via the comments section, as indeed did Son Of The Rock another music fan with a love for Dumbarton FC (or perhaps the other way round!!). I actually ended up going to a couple of Rovers v Dumbarton matches with SoTR, always thoroughly enjoying his company, but a couple of plans to meet up with HD fell through on my part.

HD’s blog came to a halt in mid 2011, some 18 months after the very sudden death of his wife at the young age of 49; it was clear to those of us who were reading his stuff that listening to a lot of his favourite music had just become too painful. He was the sort of blogger who wore his heart on his sleeve and the way he wrote about his love and adoration for his late wife was very moving. When he closed down the blog he indicated that archive postings would remain open which is why I’ve mean able to maintain a link over on the right hand side under the section ‘Old Friends No Longer Active In The Field’

The sad thing now is that HD himself has passed away at the age of 55 – very suddenly and very unexpectedly.

And it was only a week or so after his after his death that I’ve been able to join some dots and realise that HD was in fact not just a fan of Dumbarton FC, but one of those hardy souls who devote all their spare energy to their team. In this case, HD had risen from being a fan on the terraces to the position of Chief Executive at his club, a role that also saw him provide sterling service to the game in Scotland as a whole.

The realisation came from reading his obituary in a newspaper which mentioned that he had been widowed back in 2010 which was just too much of a coincidence for me not to delve a bit deeper. For the first time in ages I went back into his old site and there it was, just below the posting announcing he was closing down the blog, vital info that you could catch him on Facebook under his real name of Gilbert Lawrie.

The realisation hit me quite hard for the simple reason that on at least ten occasions over the past few years I will have been sitting a matter of yards away from him at football matches and had many an opportunity to introduce myself and say hello….and I really regret that it never happened. After all, over the years I’ve met a fair number of folk who I got to know initially through blogging, and to a man and woman they have been the most wonderful and warm people imaginable. HD/Gilbert would have been no different.

The tributes for Gilbert Lawrie last week were many for he was incredibly popular in the small world that is Scottish football. At least one of the formal obituaries which appeared in a local paper made reference to his love of music and in particular that he was a fan and avid collector of all things by The Who. The conversation we would have had about Paul Weller would have been fascinating.

This one is for a good mate who I never ever met, but who I’m proud to say I knew.

mp3 : The Jam – So Sad About Us

RIP Helpless Dancer. The music and football worlds are poorer places without you.

Thrills

THAT SUMMER FEELING

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January is a depressing month. Tired and skint after Christmas. Trying hard to get back into the swing of things at work. Dark mornings when you set off and even darker evenings when you come home. It’s cold, it’s wet or snowy. The joys of summer seem a long way off.

This January has been even worse with so many untimely deaths in the music world.

Sometimes though a chirpy cheery rather forgotten pop song comes on the i-pod shuffle and helps lifts that gloom.

mp3 : The Thrills – One Horse Town

Released in March 2003, it reached #18 in the UK singles chart. It was just about the band’s biggest ever hit – but this equally jolly follow-up did better by hitting #17 a few months later:-

mp3 : The Thrills – Big Sur

Told you.

Not quite one listen and it feels like July….but it does make you realise the short days and long nights will soon be a thing of the past.

Colin Vearncombe

READ THIS IF, LIKE ME, YOU KNEW ONLY ONE SONG

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January 2016 has been a foul month. Many are still coming to terms with the passing of David Bowie, the magnitude of which has understandably overshadowed the deaths of other musicians over the past two and a bit weeks. Various blogging friends have paid great tributes to Otis Clay, Dale Griffin and Glenn Frey. The latest name to join what is an ever-more depressing list is Colin Vearncombe.

His real brush with fame came back in 1987 when, under the moniker of Black, he had a huge and deserved hit all across Europe with Wonderful Life. It’s a song that has been much covered and in recent years become increasingly used in TV commercials and there’s no doubt that for many, and I include myself among them, the hit single is all they can recall.

But Colin Vearncombe had a substantial following out there who followed his career throughout the peaks and troughs, delighting in the fact that in recent years he had written and recorded some of the best songs in his career. All the more tragic therefore, that he died earlier this week having been unable to recover from an horrific brain injury sustained in an accident a few weeks back on a road near Cork in Ireland.

One of the biggest supporters of T(n)VV is Echorich – there’s barely a day goes by that he doesn’t leave some sort of comment on a posting, offering a wonderfully concise and often personal take on the song or the artist featured.

I had long known that Echorich was a huge Bowie fan and he was one of the first I thought of when the news of that death emerged. I hadn’t however, known till recently that Colin Vearncombe was another of his favourites and so he really has had an awful start to 2016. Typically, he has put together a very lovely tribute to his hero, highlighting 17 of his best songs. It is well worth a few minutes of your time:-

http://thatperfectbeat.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/its-wonderful-wonderful-life.html

Thank You.

PS : Two more very fine tributes courtesy of friends of this blog:-

From djjedredy :https://myvinyldreams.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/black-black-compilation-from-1984-cd-re-issue/

From Post Punk Monk* : https://postpunkmonk.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/colin-vearncombe-1962-2016

* as with Echorich, PPM is a big fan of Bowie so he too has had an unimaginable start to 2016.

Orange Juice

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #57 : ORANGE JUICE

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It’s been 18 months since I made an effort for an Imaginary Compilation Album for Edwyn Collins. It’s been 18 months that I’ve been putting off having a stab at an ICA for Orange Juice.

The dilemma here is that the band, despite only releasing records over a five-year period between 1980 and 1984, have three quite distinct periods to take into consideration. In the beginning was Postcard and its four singles (as well as an album that finally saw light of day in October 1992), as well as the debut album on Polydor. Then you have the mid-period when two of the original members left the band just as it finally enjoyed its brief dalliance with chart fame. Finally, there’s the time when the records came out under the name of the band but were, in effect, the first Edwyn’s solo recordings. I could very easily have three ICAs for each period but that would be cheating.

So here we go, with what I have decided should be called ‘The Sound Of Happiness’.

SIDE A

1. Felicity (single, 1982)

A #63 smash hit in the UK charts. Written by James and sung by Edwyn. It probably came to far more people’s attention a few years later when David sang lead vocal when his band The Wedding Present included it within a Peel Session. James himself would then cover it on his sole solo LP in 2003. I finally got to hear it played live in June 2013 when Vic Godard sang it during a set in Glasgow when he was joined on stage by its composer (now there was a ‘wow’ moment in my gig-going career).

One of the greatest bits of pop music of all time with a killer hook and chorus. It’s my favourite ever 45 from a Scottish band. It was a no-brainer for the opening track of the ICA and for the studio version refrain to supply an imaginary title. But, for a change, I’ve decided to go with the version recorded for a BBC Radio 1 session – it was the Richard Skinner show in January 1981 – and which was finally made available on the Coals To Newcastle box set in 2010 in which said refrain is missing!

2. What Presence?! (12” single, 1984)

For all that the early material is the stuff that everyone considers to be the most influential on the growth and development of indie-pop (and I won’t argue against that being a fact), I’m a sucker for the swan song material on the final album. By now it was just Edwyn from the original line-up albeit Zeke had been the drummer since 1982 (and whose talents were also being utilised by the likes of Matt Johnson and Paul Weller).

The lead-off single from the final LP climbed to the giddy heights of #47 – a few more thousand sales and we may well have been treated to what I’m sure would have been a legendary Top of The Pops appearance. Edwyn’s baritone vocal showed that he’s been paying attention to how his good mate Paul Quinn treated a song.

3. Blue Boy (7” single, 1980)

Falling and Laughing may have been the debut but Blue Boy has proven to be the most enduring and enjoyable single from the Postcard era. And surely the greatest song to ever make use of the word ‘gabardine’.

The unexpected appearance of an organ just short of two minutes in adds to the charm of this otherwise noisy and frantic guitar frenzy.

4. Consolation Prize (LP track, 1980/1982)

Glasgow has long ‘enjoyed’ a reputation for being a tough town built on the blood, sweat and toil of heavy and grimy industries. Until Orange Juice came on the scene, all of the local bands played music which veered towards the hard end of the music spectrum. They would never dream of writing songs about wearing fringes in tributes to a 60s singer or that a bloke is considering buying women’s clothing. As for admitting that they will never be man enough for anything??……………don’t even go there.

Camp, comic and cool. With the sort of few-notes guitar solo that made punk music so enjoyable and got on the nerves of those whose music veered towards the hard end of the music spectrum. I’ve included the Postcard version rather than that which appeared on You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever simply on the basis that it lasts about 25seconds longer and has a really weird note two seconds in!

5. I Can’t Help Myself (7” single, 1982)

The old adage of ‘musical differences’ had been was cited when Steven and James left the band after the debut album but in this instance it was the truth. This left Edwyn and David to take things forward, augmented by the fantastically talented Malcolm Ross and a Zimbabwe-born drummer called Zeke Manyika but the initial fruits of their labour – the double-sided single of Two Hearts Together/Hokoyo – was a huge disappointment and nothing like any of the old songs. It was a worrying time.

All fears however, were banished when the next single hit the shops. A lyric in which Edwyn admitted he was concerned about the future delivered over probably the most danceable and funky tune the band ever recorded. The 12″ version is one of the few instances when an extended sax solo is appropriate…..sadly, my copy jumps a bit a couple of times and so you will all have to make do with the 7″ version.

SIDE B

1. Intuition Told Me (b-side 1981 & LP track 1982)

In which I cheat and sneak an extra song onto the album.

Intuition Told Me So is a song of two distinct halves. Part 1 (which is just 69 seconds long) was put on the debut album while Part 2 (clocking in at a shade over 3 mins) came out as the b-side to L.O.V.E. Love. The original and superior versions didn’t appear until 1992 when Ostrich Churchyard was released (this is what the debut album would have sounded like if it had come out on Postcard instead of Polydor). It’s those that I’ve gone for in this wonderful sing-a-long call and response in respect of fun beginning when the whining stops.

2. Out For The Count (b-side 1984)

As I’ve said before, the ICAs that I pull together won’t necessarily be the best or indeed my favourite ten songs as the idea is to create an album that works well as a stand-alone item. Thus it is time to include the first version of Out For The Count.

This is proof that Orange Juice had come a long way in a short period of time, or I suppose more accurately that Edwyn’s song writing abilities had done so. A track driven along by an upbeat organ sound but inexplicably left off the mini-LP Texas Fever and used instead as the b-side of the single Bridge. Purists who longed for the jingly-jangly guitars were probably appalled but I was intrigued and delighted. New guitar bands such as The Smiths were now on the block and so it seemed right that Edwyn sought to deliver a different sort of sound to keep things moving along. A slower and most wistful version of the song would later be re-recorded for the final LP.

3. Three Cheers For Our Side (Peel Session, August 1981)

It just wouldn’t be right to not include a lead vocal from James on this ICA.

One of the criticisms of the debut album is that the production moved away from the original spirit of the band with, for instance, the use of female backing singers being seen as gimmicky and unnecessary. This is certainly true in the LP version of Three Cheers For Our Side.

But what annoys me more than anything else though, is this use of professional backing singers exacerbates the fragility of James as a lead singer and makes him sound a bit ridiculous. Much better to go back a few months to the version recorded for their second and final John Peel session (later BBC appearances would be with David ‘Kid’ Jensen) in which, probably for the last ever time (until the 90s re-releases) they sounded as if they were on Postcard and not a major.

4. Falling and Laughing (single, 1980)

The indie equivalent of the pelvis doing That’s All Right (Mama) or the Fab Four hitting payola with Love Me Do. A genuine break-through moment in the history of popular music. Y’know, I think I’ve just found the area I’d like to study if I was going for a PhD….

5. In A Nutshell (LP track, 1982)

Having had a go about the backing singers ruining Three Cheers, it is only right to acknowledge that they turn this song from the Postcard era into an absolute epic. Interesting too that the very first OJ post break-up compilation was named after the track that had closed the debut album. The final minute after the vocals come to an end is magical and, to quote another song that didn’t quite make this particular cut, it’s so audacious.

Now let me get the songs posted before I change my mind again.

mp3 : Orange Juice – Felicity
mp3 : Orange Juice – What Presence?!
mp3 : Orange Juice – Blue Boy
mp3 : Orange Juice – Consolation Prize
mp3 : Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself
mp3 : Orange Juice – Intuition Told Me (Part 1)
mp3 : Orange Juice – Intuition Told Me (Part 2)
mp3 : Orange Juice – Out For The Count
mp3 : Orange Juice – Three Cheers For Our Side
mp3 : Orange Juice – Falling and Laughing
mp3 : Orange Juice – In A Nutshell

And building on what The Robster did with his wonderful ICA for St Etienne, here it is as as two sides of an LP.

mp3 : The Sound Of Happiness (Side A)
mp3 : The Sound Of Happiness (Side B)

ENJOY!!!!

Uncategorized

BONUS POSTING : KATHRYN JOSEPH TAKES THE HONOURS

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You’ll recall from this posting that I submitted a Top Ten albums, as chosen by the blog’s readership, as part of the 2016 BAMS.

Our top ten was:-

10.The Spook School – We Try To Be Hopeful
9. Miaoux Miaoux – School Of Velocity
8. Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space
7. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
6. Belle & Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance
5. John Grant – Grey Tickles, Black Pressure
4. Blur – The Magic Whip
3. Lonelady – Hinterland
2. New Order – Music Complete
1. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

The overall outcome was:-

1 Kathryn Joseph – Bones You Have Thrown Me, And Blood I’ve Spilled
2 Mioux Miaoux – School Of Velocity
3 C Duncan – Architect
4 Young Fathers – White Men Are Black Men
5 Chrvches – Open Every Eye
6 Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
7 Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
8 Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
9 Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
10 Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space
11 Belle & Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance
12 Julia Holter – Have You in My Wilderness
13 Best Girl Athlete – Carve Every Word
14 Lonelady – Hinterland
15 FFS – FFS
16 Garden Of Elks – A Distorted Sigh
17 CARBS – Joyous Material Failure
18 STOOR – STOOR
19 Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love
jt 20 Prehistoric Friends – Prehistoric Friends
jt 20 The Cathode Ray – Infinite Variety

Overall, we were one of 31 sites to cast a vote. 160 different albums were nominated.

The folk who compiled everything provided a few interesting stats including the fact that six #1 nominations didn’t receive votes from any of the other twenty-five bloggers!

The winner (pictured above with her prize) has also given a lovely interview in respect of the award.

Singer/songwriter Kathryn Joseph has become the seventh winner of the annual BAMS Award (Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites) after her exquisite album “Bones You Have Thrown Me, And Blood I’ve Spilled” topped the poll.

“Bones You Have Thrown Me, And Blood I’ve Spilled” turned out to be a convincing winner after early challenges from C Duncan’s ‘Architect’ and Young Fathers’ ‘White Men Are Black Men’ although in the end both were pipped for second placed by Miaoux Miaoux’s ‘School Of Velocity’.

2013 winners Chvrches again had a strong showing finishing just behind the leading group in fifth.

In all 31 writers this year voted for 160 albums with 11 selecting Kathryn in their top 10s.

Although Scottish acts filled the BAMS’ top 5 slots the remainder of the top 10 was very much an international affair.

When contacted by the BAMS with news of her win, Kathryn was delighted.

Kathryn, congratulations! bones you have thrown me blood I’ve spilled is the winner of the Scottish BAMS Award for 2015! How does it feel?

“It feels amazing! Thank you so much!”

Previous winners include the likes of The Twilight Sad, CHVRCHES, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat. Good company to be in?

“Yeah the best company! I can’t believe I get to sneak in with my fellow bams!”

Last year was a really exciting year for you. As well as the BAMS award, your album was also the Scottish Album of the Year as well. What have been the highlights of 2015 for you?

“Pretty much every single gig we’ve played!

“The SAY Awards night was just the most beautiful ever. I keep saying even if we hadn’t won it would still have been the best night ever because it was just such a beautiful atmosphere and the dancing afterwards was great, and Halina from Podcart played the most amazing records. And Suzie from Happy Meals was dancing around our heads, it was amazing!

“But yeah it has honestly been the best year of my life. All of the things I’ve got to do, all of the people I’ve got to meet, and all of the other music I’ve got to hear. It’s been amazing. Even if nothing good happens this year I won’t mind because I have that.”

Speaking of that, what other music where you enjoying last year?

“Live wise my first obsession last year was Babe. I saw them firstly at GoldFlakePaint’s festival at Glad Cafe and just begged them to play at our single launch. They make a perfect and beautiful noise.

“Bossy Love also. Best live woman in the world. I’m going to say that now before anyone else does. She [Amandah Wilkinson] is incredible. They all are. They are just an incredible band, the atmosphere that they create and how they make other people feel is beautiful.

“And yeah A Mote of Dust is my most recent falling in love with something. The first two tracks of that album made me cry. It’s just perfect perfect beautiful music.

“There’s too many though. I could go on and on about all the people I’m in love with!”

Also on the BAMS list we had music from the likes of Miaoux Miaoux, Sufjan Stevens, Kendrick Lamar, C Duncan, CHVRCHES, Courtney Barnett. An amazing year for music wouldn’t you agree?

“Yeah, I mean Sufjan Stevens record is the most beautiful piece of music ever. For me that is the most beautiful record of last year.”

In regards to the album, when you finished recording it, did it match up to your expectations?

“I don’t think I had any expectations! I remember that moment of Marcus playing back what he’d done, and it just being like yeah ok that’s what I wanted it to sound like. But I still managed to convince myself that it wasn’t that great and then it took me another three years to think yeah maybe someone else would want to hear it.”

Obviously this is the Bloggers and Music Sites Award. How important to the success of the album have blogs and music sites been?

“Oh god, it’s massive. I mean that’s how anyone hears it or reads about it. At the very beginning to get any feedback at all is amazing. And then to realise that’s how other people discover it. And those are the people you want to like it and who matter.

“Weirdly for me, the people who did write about the record in the first place, and who did interview me in the first place, have ended up being some of my very best friends of this year. For me it’s been personally I’m so lucky to know these humans! And you are all amazing. And how much effort you put into listening and caring about it. It would be absolutely pointless if no one was going to listen and care about it.”

Now sadly our award doesn’t come with a £20,000 cheque, but you do get the infamous BAMS Award bottle of Buckfast. I hope you enjoy it, and enjoy 2016!

“Who needs money! No, thank you so much, and thank you to all the beautiful BAMS.”

And once again, my thanks to everyone who got involved in the T(n)VV vote. Let’s do it all again next year!

KLF

3 A.M. ETERNAL (ETERNALLY RE-MIXED…)

Back in 1989, very few folk other than the fans of trance music took much notice of the release of 3 A.M. Eternal by The KLF. And even then, the hardcore trance fans were dismissive of it as being too poppy and gimmicky:-

mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal (pure trance original)

Fast forward two years and the stadium house version went to #1 in the UK and to #5 on the US Billboard Chart:-

mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal (live at the S.S.L – radio edit)

Then in 1992, it became infamous as the song with which The KLF quit the music industry:-

mp3 : The KLF vs Extreme Noise Terror – 3 A.M Eternal

Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty accepted the invitation to appear at the The Brit Awards ceremony in 1992 and to perform their #1 single. They didn’t let on that it would involve a duet with a little known punk band during which Drummond would fire machine-gun blanks over an audience of what was mainly music moguls and pop stars……with the bonus that it went out live at 7pm on BBC Television. It was astonishing to watch from the confines of your living room….if you wait till the end of the clip you’ll see that Billy Bragg was well impressed with the performance.

The CD version of the #1 single also had two other mixes available:-

mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal : Guns of Mu Mu (12″ edit)
mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal : 1989 ‘Break For Love’ Mix

The 7″ vinyl version had a shortened version of one of the above:-

mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal : Guns of Mu Mu

And two more bits of music for pleasure:-

mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal : Moody Boy Mix
mp3 : The KLF – 3 A.M. Eternal : Blue Danube Orbital Mix

Enjoy

Emma Pollock

BONUS POSTING : IN SEARCH OF HARPERFIELD by EMMA POLLOCK

EP-Cover-3501

It’s now almost 11 years since The Delgados called it a day, leaving behind as fine a collection of music – five LPs and sixteen singles – as any band from Scotland has ever achieved.

Of course, the four band members still have a huge influence on music in my home country thanks to the continued existence of Chemikal Underground Records whose releases from a wide array of artists across a range of genres always seems to impress, astound and amaze in equal quantities. Theirs is a label which constantly gets critical acclaim without ever achieving a huge breakthrough in commercial terms….but maybe the release this coming Friday of the third solo album from Emma Pollock, will at long last rectify that.

Such was the impact of The Delgados – who it must be remembered were huge favourites of John Peel, recording 13 separate sessions and being the house band at parties held at Peel Acres – that there was always going to be a huge amount of pressure put on the shoulders of the band members when it came to solo material. Emma tried to start completely afresh by issuing her debut, Watch The Fireworks on 4AD back in 2007 but was back on old stomping ground of Chem for The Law Of Large Numbers in 2010. Both of these LPs, although containing a number of individual highlights, never quite had enough to be thought of as anything but solid pieces of indie pop/rock that you could listen to intermittently.

It is wonderful to report that In Search Of Harperfield is in a different league altogether and is one which any discerning listener will return to time and time and time and time again. And I will make the bold prediction that it will top a number of end of year lists in eleven months time…

There is so much to enjoy, appreciate and admire – classy guitars, piano and string arrangements abound throughout but more than anything else, Emma’s voice has never sounded better. It’s as if, having hit her mid 40s (how did that happen without her looking any older than when she first burst onto the scene?) she has discovered the range and tempo that she is most comfortable with.

There are many moments within its 45 minute duration when you will find yourself comparing a particular moment or an entire song to something else you have heard and enjoyed before. There are moments on this record that are reminiscent of the best of Kate Bush, Kristin Hersh, Annie Clark or Jenny Lewis and that’s no bad thing in my book.

The LP enjoys a wonderful 1-2 punchy opening – each of Cannot Keep A Secret and Don’t Make Me Wait are tailor-made for coming out of your radio on gloriously warm and sunny days….

Up next are three consecutive tracks where Emma takes the tempo down just a shade and allows the quality of the songwriting and arrangements to grab hold of your senses. And as you listen to the cleverness and loveliness of Alabaster and think that it will be hard to top, along comes the bitter-sweet betrayal number that is Clemency to blow you away before, for this listener at any rate, you will get to hear the high point of the album; Intermission is just Emma and strings. No guitars, keys or drums. Absolutely stunning. Like a female fronted Tindersticks classic.

And then, in complete contrast, these are followed by probably the most catchy and upbeat track on the album – Parks and Recreation – and it has unsurprisingly been selected as the lead single from the album and I’m guessing will get the second side of the vinyl version of the album off to a great start. And as with side one, it is followed by another upbeat indie pop number in Vacant Stare.

In The Company Of The Damned (which will be tucked away in the middle of side two) is the sole song that initially I can’t get to grips with – probably only in as much that it isn’t as catchy as the great pop tunes that precede it nor does it match the majesty of the closing three songs.

Dark Skies is another string-laden number in which Emma demonstrates she is a very fine singer who, in a parallel universe, will be revered and adored and as rich as the likes of Adele……

The opening notes of Monster In The Pack are unmistakably the work of RM Hubbert as he returns the favour of Emma guesting on Half Light, which was one of the stand out tracks on Thirteen Lost and Found, his award-winning album from 2012. It is every bit as lovely and exquisite as you’d expect.

Emma closes out her album with Old Ghosts. This is another of the highlights being a song which changes tempo a couple of times, going from ballad to mid and even uptempo. Fans of Dusty Springfield will hear her influence on the vocal as indeed will fans and admirers of Karen Carpenter. It is also a song that harks back to some of the best material that her old band ever recorded.

This blog doesn’t do stars or marks out of ten ratings – hell, regular readers will know that it rarely does new album reviews. But if it did, the stars would look this – ***** – and the magic number would be 10/10.

Do yourself a big favour and get a hold of this record – and do Chemikal Underground an even bigger favour by getting hold of it direct from them! Click here