THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Farmer's Boys, Higsons, Popular Voice, Serious Drinking

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #56 : THE SOUND OF YOUNG NORWICH

A GUEST POSTING FROM STRICTLY ROCKERS

Norwich Cassette (1)

Just to prove that it’s not all Cope, Cope, Cope chez Rockers, here’s an Imaginary Compilation Album on a totally different tip.

Way back in the early 1980s the talk was all about the mythical ‘Norwich Sound’, a scene allegedly created by John Peel centring on the University Of East Anglia (UEA) and peopled by the likes of Gee Mr Tracey, The Fire Hydrant Men, Screen 3, Popular Voice, Serious Drinking, The Higsons and The Farmer’s Boys. These were bands linked not by musical style but by postcode. Two bands in particular, The Higsons & The Farmer’s Boys, teetered on the verge of major success, recording a total of seven Peel sessions and a joint ‘In Concert’ programme for Radio One but, despite major-label backing, never quite made the jump to the big-time and, by the mid 1980s, the A&R men were focussed elsewhere.

The Higsons formed in 1980 at UEA, Norwich. An energetic, brassy, punk/funk band influenced by the New York ‘No Wave’ bands and often referred to as the ‘British Talking Heads’. Colin ‘Bilko’ Williams played Bass. Simon ‘No Nickname’ Charterton, Drums. Switch ‘Charles Aznovoice’ Higson did ‘Singing’. Stuart ‘Radar’ McGeachin played ‘One Guitar’ and Terry ‘Individual’ Edwards did ‘Everything Else’. They first recorded two songs for the now legendary ‘Norwich: A FIne City’ compilation, designed to give exposure to local bands. John Peel picked up on the album but only played the Higsons’ songs!

My introduction to them was through a friend who played me his precious copies of their first three singles. I persuaded him to let me borrow them so that I could tape them but conveniently ‘forgot’ to give them back until two weeks later. Happily I now have my own copies that still receive regular play. Their excellent first album ‘The Curse Of The Higsons’ is now available as a deluxe 3-CD set (‘The Complete Curse…’) with extra singles, b-sides and two incredible live sets. Highly recommended!

Terry Edwards now fronts his own band and is a prolific session player having played with the likes of Gallon Drunk, Tindersticks, Spiritualized, The Blockheads, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and Julian Cope (http://www.terryedwards.co.uk).

According to Wiki, Simon Charterton is in Camden based ‘The Aftershave’ and both Stuart McGeachin and Colin Williams have now got ‘proper jobs’ but I wonder what happened to ‘Switch’…???!!!

Farmer’s Boys were BazFrogMarkStan (formerly trading under the name Bang Goes My Stereo). A very British ‘country’ band with, as one reviewer put it, ‘a lack of musical prowess thinly covered by a mask of superficial humour’.

‘I Think I Need Help’ was released in April 1982 and received plenty of evening-time plays on wonderful Radio One which is where I heard John Peel play them. The DIY nature of the band showed especially in the live shows where their battered Casio keyboard/drum machine would be supported, front-of-stage, on an ironing-board. Two further singles followed in 1982 and the third, ‘More Than A Dream’ was re-released by EMI when they signed the band at the start of 1983. They released two albums but essentially were a great singles band. Their cover of Cliff’s ‘In The Country’ awarded them their highest chart position (44!) and a promised TOTP appearance, only to be replaced at the last minute by one-hit-wonders Alphaville with ‘Big In Japan’.

The band split in 1985, Baz, Mark & Stan continued to gig variously as ‘The Avons’, ‘The Nivens’, ‘Dr Fondle’ and ‘The Great Outdoors’ and currently play the Norwich area as The McGuilty Brothers. Keyboard player/guitarist Frog (K.R. Frost) found a home with Julian Cope’s band between 1986 and 1994 (from Saint Julian to Autogeddon). Their first album, ‘Get Out & Walk‘ is available with extra tracks and a compilation of their session tracks (‘Once Upon A Time in The East’) is still available from The Farmer’s Boys ‘official unofficial website’: http://www.thefarmersboys.com.

Serious Drinking formed at UEA in 1981 and included an original Farmer’s Boy, the Higson’s drummer and occasionally, Mr Terry Edwards. They were another Peel favourite, recording 4 sessions of songs about football, love and drinking — often combinations of all three. Their debut EP, ‘Love On The Terraces’, produced by Bedders from Madness, was followed up by an album ‘The Revolution Starts At Closing Time’ and a retrospective, ‘Stranger Than Tannadice: The Hits, Misses And Own Goals Of Serious Drinking’.

Popular Voice were a well-polished indie/funk band, active between 1980 and 1983 often seen gigging with both The Higsons and Farmer’s Boys (where I saw them in support at Bristol Polytechnic). They released two singles in 1982 on Backs and seem to have totally disappeared.

Just to prove I’m not making this all up, here’s a documentary on the ‘Norwich Sound’ (featuring a very young Charlie ‘Switch’ Higson): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmTEq-Sfxqk

OK, so I lied… it IS all about Cope:

• Nick Rayns, the Entertainments Manager at the UEA, responsible for putting on gigs by all the Norwich bands, was the ex-Road Manager for The Teardrop Explodes.
• Colin ‘Bilko’ Williams was part of the late-70’s Liverpool scene and played guitar in an early version of Wah! before studying at UEA.
• Frog (K R Frost) is married to Jill Bryson (out of Strawberry Switchblade) who appears on the cover of Cope’s ’20 Mothers’ album.
• As well as playing with Julian Cope, Terry Edwards has also played with Robyn Hitchcock who wrote a song entitled ‘Listening To The Higsons’ and covered Cope’s ‘Charlotte Anne’.
• The Farmer’s Boy’s cover of Cliff’s ‘In The Country’ follows in the rich line of Bah-Bah-Bah songs.

‘The Sound Of Young Norwich’: An Imaginary Album for The (new) Vinyl Villain

The Higsons Side:

1) I Don’t Want To Live With Monkeys (Single, 1981) ‘Hoop Hup / Be Doobie Doobie Doobie / Hoop Hup Be Du Du Doo!’ If there is a better start to any single, I don’t know it! Sheer genius.

2) It Goes Waap!! (Single, 1981) The theme song for their own label.

3) Conspiracy (Single, 1982) ‘Who Stole My Bongoes?’

4) Tear The Whole Thing Down (Single, 1982) Originally titled ‘Burn The Whole Place Down (Before The Yanks Come)’ their first single on 2 Tone.

5) Run Me Down (Single, 1983) Their second, and final, single on 2 Tone backed by the marvellously-titled ‘Put The Punk Back Into Funk (Parts 1&2)’

The Farmer’s Boys Side:

1) I Think I Need Help (Single, 1982) FB’s debut. Released on The Higson’s Waap label

2) Whatever Is He Like? (Single, 1982) Swift follow-up single on the Backs label originally titled ‘Funny Old Mr. Baz’

3) More Than A Dream (Single, 1982) Re-released as their debut single on EMI. With ‘Thanks to the Terry Edwards Brass Experience’

4) Apparently (Single, 1984) The highly polished sound of the major label FB’s with their own horn section and ‘real’ drummer. Reached a staggering #98 in the charts!

5) In The Country (Single, 1984) Curse you Alphaville! ‘Bah, Ba-ba-ba-baaaa!’

Bonus 7″:

A) The Popular Higson Boys – Can’t Get Next To You (A bonus track from the ‘Touchdown’ compilation, 1982) A great cover of the Temptations’ classic featuring the massed bands and vocalists of Popular Voice, The Higsons and The Farmer’s Boys. The compilation is named after the B-side of the Higsons’ ‘Conspiracy’ single and also featured various indie/jazz/funk misfits such as Maximum Joy and Pinski Zoo.

B1) Popular Voice – Home For The Summer (Single, 1982) A beautiful single released on the Backs label. I can find little information about it.

B2) Serious Drinking – Love On The Terraces (Single, 1982) ‘Love’ – check. ‘Football’ – check. ‘Drinking’ – check!

mp3 : The Higsons – I Don’t Want To Live With Monkeys
mp3 : The Higsons – It Goes Waap!
mp3 : The Higsons – Conspiracy
mp3 : The Higsons – Tear The Whole Thing Down
mp3 : The Higsons – Run Me Down
mp3 : The Farmer’s Boys – I Think I Need Help
mp3 : The Farmer’s Boys – Whatever Is He Like?
mp3 : The Farmer’s Boys – More Than A Dream
mp3 : The Farmer’s Boys – Apparantly
mp3 : The Farmer’s Boys – In The Country
mp3 : The Popular Higson Boys – Can’t Get Next To You
mp3 : Popular Voice – Home For The Summer
mp3 : Serious Drinking – Love On The Terraces

ENJOY!!

David Bowie

ONE FINAL PIECE ON DAVID BOWIE

David Bowie and Mick Ronson's infamous Starman performance.

My best mate Jacques is a tremendous writer who keeps his talents far too well hidden for my liking. Occasionally, he will leave behind a nugget of a comment but more often his best stuff comes in texts and e-mails.

This morning he posted a comment in response to the original piece on David Bowie that I typed up as I heard the news yesterday morning. It is far too good to be left there in the hope that some readers may stumble on it and so I’m reproducing it is a stand-alone piece. I think it will resonate with many.

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I found it tough to write anything sensible about the passing of DB yesterday. I was truly stunned by the suddenness of it, just as we’d been discussing elsewhere his 69th birthday and the merits of another new album. As with everything the great man did, he moved on to some other cosmos with both style and dignity.

Musically he touched me deeply over the years and he was responsible for a, probably the, genuinely seminal event in my musical education. Starman truly was a magical moment that night it appeared on TOTP. So weird and wonderful that it had many of us kids arguing about it as we played in Primary School the next day. (So memorable, this is one of only 3 or 4 moments I can vividly recall from school in those early years). Of course it wasn’t so much the music we analysed, it was essentially the acceptability of a man looking a bit like a woman, the bending of gender. Fair to say that the argument split along the line of me and the girls versus the farmer boys. The die was cast for me – being a bit weird was okay. (And for the record, if ever I really was doing a Desert Island Discs, Starman is in there first, because that’s where the music began for me.)

It was a formative moment, but I’m not going to pretend that I totally “got” the music then or suddenly became a devotee. Hey, I was seven. But it had made a big impression and I always looked out for that weirdo over the next few years, buying the odd single and wishing the north of Scotland of the time was just a bit (well, a lot) more cosmopolitan.

During the punk years, I made a new friend, let’s call him Graham. He was a music collector the likes of which I had never known before, and he had copies of all the Bowie albums. For the first time, I could enjoy the full breadth of his back catalogue. And what breadth. Genuine pop majesty.

Again though, I still wasn’t a devotee. Loved pretty much all that he’d done at that point, but was ever keen to broaden my musical knowledge and experience, and wasn’t going to waste my life listening to the same old stuff over and over. It’s only now that I look back that I realise just how much of my record/cd collection is influenced directly and indirectly by Bowie. Without whom and all that. He’s always been there – a friendly uncle to turn to in times when you need something reliable, something you can trust to still be the friend you always knew. Something, let’s be honest, brilliant.

I never saw him live. I’m not sad about that. By the time I could, he was mostly playing to massive barns or stadia. Not for me.

And I’ll happily stand by the fact that, FOR ME, he hasn’t made a decent album in 30 years. But those 1970s ones are pretty much perfect. And for that I will always truly love him.

The Queen is dead, long live the Queen.

Style Council

THE STYLE COUNCIL SINGLES (6)

Back in 1974, Gladys Knight & The Pips enjoyed what at the time was their biggest chart success in the UK with a soulful version of a country and western song called You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me. Their cover was never off the radio for months on end and even now, more than 40 years on, despite me never owning a copy physically or digitally I can still very clearly recall the way that Gladys majestically soars across the sentimental message at the heart of the song while her backing vocalists do a killer job in driving it along at a perfect pace.

The thing is, if I can remember it that well from the perspective of an 11-year-old than I’m sure someone with a great interest in music such as the then 16-year old Paul Weller will have taken even more notice and in due course, as he himself falls head over heels, harnesses his talents into delivering something just as special. As indeed he would do with subsequent TSC singles….be patient and all will be revealed!!

And so it proved ten years on when once again radio stations up and down the country never got tired of playing this wonderful ballad:-

mp3 : The Style Council – You’re The Best Thing

It was certainly one of my songs of the summer of 1984. It was also one of the songs of the summer of my then girlfriend as we travelled across Europe on cheap student railcards visiting cities that previously had only been figments of our imagination including Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo, Milan, Florence and Venice where eventually the money ran out and we had to quickly re-adjust our plans and head home leaving the likes of Munich and Amsterdam for other times. Our relationship was a happy one for a decent enough time but sadly it turned sour before 1985 was over by which time we had been to see The Style Council in concert and enjoyed the experience of ‘our’ song beimg played live. I’ve always felt that particular ballad was all about that particular relationship and so even when I’ve been wooing subsequent girlfriends with compilation cassettes that showed off my musical tastes I never once included ‘Best Thing’ on any of them.

The single, which was released just before my 21st birthday, was in fact a double-A side but thinking back I don’t recall ever hearing the upbeat other half of the 45 ever aired on daytime radio:-

mp3 : The Style Council – The Big Boss Groove

It reached #5. Little did we know that TSC wouldn’t ever get that high in the singles charts ever again……..(although they came close!)

Here’s the other track on the 12″ single:-

mp3 : The Style Council – You’re The Dub Thing

Enjoy

David Bowie

DAVID BOWIE

David Bowie in 1973

It was a stunning and wholly unexpected start to the morning to wake up to the news that David Bowie had passed away at the age of 69. There will be many more people better qualified than I am to pen an appropriate tribute including many of those whose blogs are listed on the right hand side of this corner of the internet but I want to give it a go.

I was a fan, but not a devoted one. As a teenager, I liked his music….as I got older I came to realise that what I had liked I should have loved. The first album of his that I was musically mature enough in my own development to appreciate was Scary Monsters and that LP remains my favourite to this day.

I did get to see him play live once in the 90s when he was touring the release of a greatest hits effort. It was in a dreadful venue at Ingliston in Edinburgh – a barn of a place with dreadful acoustics – but it did mean that another musical ambition had been realised. Mrs V was with me, but by then she was a veteran of seeing the cracked actor, with her first being as a mere 14 year-old back in 1972 at the old Green’s Playhouse in Glasgow. Between the great tours of the 70s and the stadium/arena things she went to in later years (not forgetting she was also at Live Aid) she was in his presence on maybe eight or so occasions and she remained a fan for life. Indeed, we were only talking some 48 hours ago about her being at the Ziggy Stardust tour and how the memories of that gig were still so fresh in her mind. She’s pretty shaken up today.

His was a body of work that surpassed just about everyone who is/was part of the modern music industry. Of course it is not without flaw – no-one who makes music for almost 50 years will be any different – but right now it is much much easier to recall the great songs rather than the few clunkers. The fact that in the first few hours since the announcement that so many different tributes on social media have highlighted so many different songs is testament to the quality of his work.

It is a very sad day.

PS : BBC Radio 6 is a doing a tremendous job with the tributes being paid.

PPS : I mentioned that many other members of the blogging fraternity would likely make their own personal tributes…here’s some links (which I will endeavour to update as and when I can)

Drew : http://acrossthekitchentable.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/and-scattered-stardust-trails-between.html
Swiss Adam : https://baggingarea.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/freak-out-in-a-moonage-daydream/
CC : http://www.charitychicmusic.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/starman.html
The Robster : http://isthis-thelife.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/bowie.html
Kaggsy : https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/goodbye-david/
Post Punk Monk : https://postpunkmonk.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/david-bowie-1947-2016/
The Swede : http://unthoughtofthoughsomehow.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/nothing-to-say-blue-blue.html
Alex G : https://wewillhavesalad.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/dave-bowie-the-chameleon-of-rock/
Rol : http://histopten.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/my-top-ten-david-bowie-songs_23.html
Jonny G : https://myvinyldreams.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/david-bowie-1947-2016/
Phil Spector : http://plainorpan.com/2016/01/11/a-crack-in-the-sky-and-a-hand-reaching-down-to-me/
GBU : http://goodbadunknown.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-111-best-dreams-by-david-bowie.html
Jamie : https://formalcontentsonly.wordpress.com/2016/01/11/goodbye-david-bowie/
singing bear : http://flyingdownzedalley.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/david-bowie-rip.html
Andrea : https://conventionalrecords.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/david-bowie-1969-2016/
Ed : http://17seconds.co.uk/blog/2016/01/12/david-bowie-remembered/
Andrew : http://www.armagideon-time.com/?p=11165
London Lee : http://www.londonlee.com/2016/01/goodbye-spaceboy.html

And a special mention to Echorich, a really dear friend of this and many other blogs who is one of the biggest Bowie fans there is and for whom today must have been awful and difficult to get through. He wasn’t alone mind you…Mrs Villain ended up working from home today so that she could shed tears as and when she needed. She tells me that BBC Radio 6 continued to surpass itself all day.

Tomorrow will be another difficult day for many. I’ve decided however, to make it business as usual and to stick with the post as I had scheduled and to do likewise for the rest of the week and beyond. Will understand if folk can’t be bothered to read and/or comment.

Kitchens of Distinction

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #55 : KITCHENS OF DISTINCTION

A GUEST CONTRIBUTION FROM THE ROBSTER

kod-imcomp

Mad As Snow: An Imaginary Compilation : Kitchens Of Distinction

I love Kitchens Of Distinction. They really were one of the great overlooked bands of their period and should have received far more acclaim than they did, though what they did get was rarely less than glowing. It makes sense therefore that they should get the Imaginary Compilation treatment.

I’ve done a few of these for JC now, and I have to say this was one of the most difficult. My own Best Of KOD folder contains 30 tracks, none of which I feel I could leave out, so narrowing it down to a mere 10 to suit this remit was a real battle. As a result, there are plenty of notable omissions. I’m sure most people would have included Drive That Fast, but then I’ve never been most people. It also irks me that I’ve had to forego the likes of When In Heaven, the original 12″ mix of 4 Men, and Mad As Snow which is what I had already decided was going to be the title of the comp.

Argue away folks, I’d love to know what you’d have included. As it is, all five albums are represented, so I’m pretty happy with what I’ve done here. Well, apart from leaving out Mad As Snow. What was I thinking? Can I have 11 songs JC…?

Side One

1. The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule (from ‘Love Is Hell’)

The third single, the second track I ever heard by KOD. I still love it. It sounds like an opening track to me and shows off both sides of the band – those hypnotic, shimmering guitar sounds, but with a good strong rhythm keeping things going.

2. Quick As Rainbows [single version] (single; later re-recorded for ‘Strange Free World’)

It has to be the single version as the most read article ever on my blog explains: http://isthis-thelife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/20-more-songs-to-take-to-my-grave-35.html

3. Japan To Jupiter (from ‘Folly’)

What a comeback. Seriously, who could have expected a song even half as wonderful as this after 18 years away? My second-fave KOD track of all time. Not sure if they have any other things planned together – I hope so – but if not, ‘Folly’ is as good an album to go out on as any.

4. Elephantine (non-LP; from ‘Elephantine’ EP)

A stunning single that marked noticeable shift towards the lush multi-layered guitar sounds the band would become known for. It has been tacked onto the end of reissues of ‘Love Is Hell’, but definitely sounds more like a ‘Strange Free World’ kind of track. It’s also one of the bands more politically overt songs, with Patrick Fitzgerald proclaiming “Every great nation ends up deserving war.” Sadly, here we are more than 25 years later and that still couldn’t be any more apt.

5. Gorgeous Love (from ‘Strange Free World’)

One of Patrick’s finest vocals here, I think. A definite standout from the second album.

Side Two

1. Sand On Fire (from ‘Cowboys And Aliens’)

‘Cowboys And Aliens’ was to be Kitchens Of Distinction’s last album for the best art of two decades. You can hear the direction they were moving down; shedding the shoegaze label that had been lazily thrust upon them, they seemed to be forging a louder, rockier sound as evidenced on the album’s opener.

2. Wolves, Crows (from ‘Folly’)

One of the big surprises from the comeback album was this monster of a track. It’s quite unlike anything else the band ever recorded, but kind of backs up what I just said about the rockier elements of the band coming to the fore. Those pounding drums! Shoegaze it most definitely ain’t.

3. Breathing Fear (from ‘The Death Of Cool’)

Remarkable isn’t it. The US of A considers itself to be the ‘Land Of The Free’, a bastion of democracy and freedom, tolerance and respect. Yet they could never accept a song about ‘queer bashing’ being released as a single. Unless perhaps it was a song that condoned such predjudice, was performed by Ted Nugent and used by Donald Trump as part of his election campaign. In the much more enlightened UK however, Breathing Fear trailed KODs third album. It’s not a comfortable listen, but musically it’s as delightful as anything the band made.

4. Prize (from ‘Love Is Hell’)

Back in 1988 I bought a double-album compilation of acts signed to the One Little Indian label. It included Prize. It was the first time I ever heard Kitchens Of Distinction, and that’s the reason it’s included here. Sure, they made better songs, but the fact Prize drew me in makes it more than worthy.

5. Now It’s Time To Say Goodbye (from ‘Cowboys And Aliens’)

While it wasn’t intended to be the band’s swan song, there aren’t many better ways to bow out. Following the release of ‘Cowboys And Aliens’, KOD began working on new material and put a single out in 1996, but nothing else materialised until 2013. If this had been their final tune though, I’m not sure there would have been many complaints. It’s the natural album closer for me.

Special bonus one-sided coloured vinyl 10″ (available with initial pressing only):

1. Mad As Snow [long version] (from ‘The Death Of Cool’)

mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – The 3rd Time We Opened The Capsule
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Quick As Rainbows [single version]
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Japan To Jupiter
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Elephantine
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Gorgeous Love
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Sand On Fire
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Wolves, Crows
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Breathing Fear
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Prize
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Now It’s Time To Say Goodbye
mp3 : Kitchens of Distinction – Mad As Snow [long version]

The Robster

Clash

THE CLASH ON SUNDAYS (1)

So here it is. The new series for Sundays in 2016. Well, for the next 19 weeks anyway.

Inspired by last year’s purchase of The Clash Singles Box for a bit of a bargain price.

OK, its all CDs rather than vinyl but I’m consoled by the fact that the 19 discs in the box are packaged in sleeves that are reproductions of the original singles with the CDs themselves cleverly designed to look like vinyl records, complete with grooves and a label in the centre of each disc.

Disc 1 is White Riot.

Famously written in the aftermath of disturbances at the Notting Hill Carnival in August 1976, it couldn’t be any further removed from being about a call for some sort of race war, which incredibly was what some media commentators claimed was its subject matter when it was released. It is of course, a demand/plea/call-to-arms aimed at disaffected white youth in the UK, of which there was an ever-increasing number, to take note of the fact that the black community wasn’t afraid to take direct action to get their viewpoint across.

As a debut it was incendiary, raw and quite unlike anything most of us had heard before. I’ll admit, I wasn’t yet 14 years of age and so it kind of passed me by at the time as indeed did all the initial punk songs. But when I eventually did catch on to The Clash around 15 months later, it was great to go back and discover the early material.

The single version differs from the US album version in that it opens with a police siren instead of Mick Jones counting the band in:-

mp3 : The Clash – White Riot

The b-side was an otherwise unreleased song which became a bit of a manifesto for the punk era:-

mp3 : The Clash – 1977

One of the things I’m going to do with this series is also feature the short essay that accompanies each single within the boxset.

WHITE RIOT : Released March 18 1977 : Highest UK Chart Position 38

All the Clash singles came down to White Riot. It was the first single, it wasn’t on the album, it’s got 1977 on the b-side and I’ll always remember the day I bought it – which was the day out it came out.

It was March ’77 and you could really see that the party was already over and we were rushing headlong towards the summer of hate. White Riot and 1977 really gave off that feeling of paranoia and The Clash were doing their up-against-the-wall stance in their stencilled suits and the whole thing was really fresh.

It was all about staying out in sexually deviant or heavy duty black night clubs, you know – 48 thrills, speed and massive creativity. It had a great picture sleeve and was saying ‘White riot, I wanna riot, white riot, riot of my own’

It was also a piss-take of how pathetic white people are ar standing up for their rights and having fun, whereas black people know how to do both. Both The Clash and The Pistols were masters of being completely decadent and they made decadent fun.

The essential theme behind punk wasn’t hate; it was complete contempt for the idea of the right to work or the need tp do anything. It wasn’t ignorance, it was simply ‘Fuck it. I don’t care. I just wanna have fun.’ And White Riot says it all.

Shane McGowan, The Pogues

Trashcan Sinatras

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (30)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MONDAY 14 APRIL 2008

(and reposted on 11 October 2014 as part of the Scottish singles series)

We now move into the middle third of the most self-indulgent chart run-down of 2008, and coming in at #30 will be a band probably not all that familiar to some of you.

The Trash Can Sinatras were formed in the late 80s, in a town called Irvine, which is around 25 miles or so south-west of Glasgow.

Much of the initial attention was focussed on singer Frank Reader, simply for the fact that his elder sister, Eddi Reader had enjoyed a fair bit of attention and fame, firstly as a backing vocalist with Gang Of Four, and later as the singer with Fairground Attraction who enjoyed a #1 hit with Perfect in 1988.

I suppose I first noticed the band for the simple reason that they were signed to Go! Disc Records which was the home of Billy Bragg and The Beautiful South, leading me to think the Trashies would be have some sort of political bent. I saw their debut 12” EP on sale in a record shop in Edinburgh and bought it on spec for £2. It was only then that I discovered the band were in fact more aligned with the other reasons that label boss Andy MacDonald signed acts – they wrote and sang gloriously catchy pop songs that were full of clever lyrics that demanded close listening.

In due course, I bought two follow-up EPs as well as the debut LP, all of which appeared in 1990. They were a band on heavy rotation, but I wasn’t really giving music too much close attention, as it was a time when I had not long met the now Mrs Villain and there were far more important and pressing things on my mind …….such as sorting out the divorce from the first wife…..

One day, I went to see the Trashies live in concert and came away rather underwhelemed. It was 1993 before the band released any new material, but the comeback single, like the gig a few years earlier, didn’t do much for me. And with that, I stopped taking an interest in the band.

However, I never stopped loving that debut EP, which still astounds me all these years later. I mentioned earlier about the catchy pop songs with clever lyrics…check this out:-

Always at the foot of the photograph – that’s me there
Snug as a thug in a mugshot pose
Owner of this corner and not much more

Still these days I’m better placed to get my just rewards
I’ll pound out a tune and very soon
I’ll have too much to say and a dead stupid name

Though I ought to be learning I feel like a veteran
Of “Oh I like your poetry but I hate your poems”
Calendars crumble I’m knee deep in numbers
Turned 21, I’ve twist, I’m bust and wrong again

Rubbing shoulders with the sheets till two
Looking at my watch and I’m half-past caring
In the lap of luxury it comes to mind
Is this headboard hard? Am I a lap behind?

But to face doom in a sock-stenched room all by myself
Is the kind of fate I never contemplate
Lots of people would cry though none spring to mind

Know what it’s like
To sigh at the sight of the first quarter of life?
Ever stopped to think and found out nothing was there?

They laugh to see such fun
Playing Blind Man’s Bluff all by myself
And they’re chanting a line from a nursery rhyme
“Ba Ba Bleary Eyes – Have you any idea?”

The calendar’s cluttered with days that are numbered..

Now have a listen:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Obscurity Knocks

It was a song that struck a chord with me. Just a short time earlier, I had been in a rather unhappy marriage. I had a job, but it was far from fulfilling. I did seem to know what it was like to have sighed at the first quarter of life. And I wasn’t sure if I had any real idea….

Thankfully, things changed for the better in the early 90s…..oh and there will be further chapters about my life this countdown continues.

I still have the EP in the collection, and here’s the other tracks:-

mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – The Best Man’s Fall
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Drunken Chorus
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras – Who’s He?

Tune in next week for something you might not have expected at #29…..

Jo Mango

BONUS POSTING : NEW MUSIC FOR YOUR AURAL PLEASURE (1)

I promised the other day that I’d put the occasional bonus posting up featuring newly released (or soon-to-be released) music that I’m enjoying. The first act in the series is from round these parts.

One of the hardest working folk in the Scottish scene is Lloyd Meredith who does all sorts of things, not least running a great wee label called Olive Grove Records. One week from today will see the first release of 2016 in the shape of Wrack Lines, an EP by the folkish singer-songwriter Jo Mango. There are five tracks on it, with four of them being collaborations with other Scottish artists in the shape of Rachel Sermanni, RM Hubbert, Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow) and The Pictish Trail.

Here’s a link to the track that Jo and Rachel have put together:-

https://soundcloud.com/olivegrove/rachel-sermanni-and-jo-mango-bitter-fruit-1

The thing is,this is an EP with a bit of a difference. As Lloyd so eloquently puts it in the media release:-

The germ of the idea formed back in 2007, when Jo, while on tour with cult singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, found herself sitting on her third aeroplane of the day in a holding pattern above an American city at which point she had a revelation about the potential impact of her itinerant job on the world and on herself. That moment led to some serious decisions about her lifestyle and an ongoing fascination with exploring the unsustainability of the musical life.

The EP’s title is an extension of those thoughts into a project for which Jo enlisted the help of the other singer-songwriters and their work together explores a gamut of emotions related to travel, the environment and music. The EP will be released on CD and on digital format through Olive Grove Records on 15 January 2016 and the artists will celebrate its launch with a one-off performance at Platform in Glasgow on 21 January 2016 as part of Celtic Connections.

All profits from the sale of the EP will go to the charity Creative Carbon Scotland in their work to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland.

See, I told you it was an EP with a difference.

Here’s some more Jo Mango.

mp3 : Jo Mango – The Black Sun

Enjoy.

Roxy Music

ARE YOU CUSTOMISED OR READY-MADE?

At the age of 15, going on 16, one of the things that attracted me to Roxy Music were the LP covers as they featured stunning looking ladies in various states of undress. You have to remember folks that semi-nude women were a real rarity in those days outwith pornographic mags or X-rated movies, and having a bit of a baby face and being a bit of a short-arse, I could neither buy such mags nor get into such movies.

The music however proved to be pften be rather good, but then again by this stage in my life they were a band who had come and gone, leaving behind a lead singer with a solo career that had sometimes caught my attention but at other times left me stone cold, although there was no denying he had a distinctive and alluring vocal delivery.

The thing is, in the late 70s I just didn’t ‘do’ old bands……but then it turned out that after after a four-year hiatus Roxy Music announced they were going to reform. I found myself attracted to their slightly strange-sounding and incredibly short comeback single which I heard getting played on Radio 1 a few times. I bought it on its release, and was disgusted to find just a few weeks later that it was in countless bargain bins as it had been a flop, peaking at just #40 in the charts. Records were relatively expensive in those days and given I was reliant completely on the proceeds of a paper round to pay for them, it didn’t do to find you could have bought something for less than half the price if you had shown some patience.

mp3 : Roxy Music – Trash
mp3 : Roxy Music – Trash 2

It’s a single that has been largely forgotten about as the two follow-ups, Dance Away and Angel Eyes were given the disco treatment, including extended mixes, which helped make them Top 5 hits and at the same time change the way that Roxy Music went about their business, with every release thereafter aimed very much at the pop rather than art end of the market, culminating with a rather appalling #1 in 1981, the cover of Jealous Guy, released in tribute to the recently murdered John Lennon.

In other words, for me, Trash was their last great and essential bit of plastic in the 45 form.

All of which is a precursor to say that I recently picked up some original Bryan Ferry solo LPs from the 70s and may well burn some tracks and feature them here in the coming weeks and months. Or is he too much of a twat nowadays to give time to?**

Enjoy.

** I know…..the irony of me asking that question when this blog has and will no doubt continue to rely on the work of Morrissey for postings……

A Craze, Carmel, Everything But The Girl

BONUS POSTING : INSPIRED BY BRIAN FROM LINEAR TRACK LIVES

Brian from Linear Track Lives yesterday posted a long-forgotten song from the 1980s:-

mp3 : A Craze – Wearing Your Jumper

He reminded us that it was an era for what he descibed as suave bands – the likes of Everything But The Girl, Carmel, Matt Bianco etc (I’ll throw in Blue Rondo A La Turk and Sade for good measure). He also provided a potted bio of A Craze – who were Lucy Loquette and Chris Free, among whose claims to fame were that they wrote “Give It Some Emotion,” which was the second biggest charting single in the career of Tracie Young. Just as important was the release of the single “Wearing Your Jumper” which was not only on Respond Records but was produced by the label owner – Paul Weller – whil the other two male members of The Style Council played on it. (Mick Talbot on the Wurlitzer and Steve White on percussion.)

I hadn’t heard this single for more than 30 years but the moment it came on it brought back some crazy and mostly happy memories as it was one of the tunes which featured on ‘The Hangover Tape’ in my first student flat. One side of a C90 cassette consisting of laid back tunes from female fronted bands.

It wasn’t me who put the tape together – in fact it wasn’t any of us who rented the flat who was responsible. It was the work of another mate who more or less moved in on Friday nights as our city centre location allowed him to have a great weekend and somewhere to stay without the hassle and expense of getting home to his folks’ place in the suburbs. There were lots of laughs on Sunday mornings/afternoons while this tape played and listening last night to A Craze after all such a long gap saw incidents and events I hadn’t thought about for so long come flooding back into my mind.

Here’s another two tracks that were on the tape:-

mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Each and Every One
mp3 : Carmel – Storm

Thanks Brian.

Style Council

THE STYLE COUNCIL SINGLES (5)

The fifth single, released in February 1984, was the first to feature the drumming talents of Steve White who at the time was just 18 years of age and whose more gentle, jazz influenced style was quite different from that of Zeke Manyika who had played on each of the previous singles.

The Style Council were now seemingly following a clear plan of a new single every three months and once again this sold well, reaching #5 in the charts. Indeed by the time it had drifted out of the charts at the beginning of April, the band (and more importantly I guess Polydor Records) had enjoyed having a single in the Top 75 for 42 out of 56 weeks which equates to a huge amount of radio airplay and exposure.

The first new bit of TSC music in 1984 was ridiculously catchy, jaunty and quite splendid:-

mp3 : The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods (12″ version)

Two songs were on the b-side, one of which was a throwaway but pleasant enough acoustic ballad while the other was an instrumental that brought home how talented the other two main musicians were but also gave a reminder that talent doesn’t always translate to enjoyable and memorable music:-

mp3 : The Style Council – Spring, Summer, Autumn
mp3 : The Style Council – Mick’s Company

One thing worth mentioning is that the sleeve of My Ever Changing Moods gave notice of the first TSC album with news that it was to be called Cafe Bleu and that it wouldn’t include any of the five previously released 45s when it hit the shops in April 1984. So there was the inevitable head-scratching when the LP’s track listing turned out to include ‘Moods’ but lo and behold, it was a completely different and wholly unexpected version:-

mp3 : The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods (album version)

Enjoy

PS

Over the festive period I finally caught up with viewing something that I had recorded back in September which has since been made available on DVD and Blu-Ray.

About The Young Idea is a full-length documentary about the life and times of The Jam and it turned out to be surprisingly good. I say surprisingly as these things tend to be a bit on the self-indulgent side and are often from one person’s perspective, but in this instance all three members of the band make invaluable contributions and insights, albeit they were interviewed separately (which is no surprise given there is still obvious pain in the faces of Bruce and Rick about the timing and finality of the break-up). There are articulate and heart-felt contributions from a wide range of fans that are also worth listening to – at first they appear to have been selected at random but it eventually becomes clear that they have been included for particular reasons. The film certainly brought back loads of happy memories for me – as I’ve said, they were the band that more than any other ignited my love for music and the film makes it quite clear that I was only one of a great many from all over the world affected in that way.

It’s well worth shelling out for and you’ll find it quite easily on t’internet.

Courtney Barnett, Hudson Mohawke

BONUS POSTING : THE TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2015…. AS CHOSEN BY YOU

s_turntable

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to drop me a line with your personal Top 10 albums of 2016. More than 200 different records were nominated of which 34 received multiple nominations, with #1 and #2 in the list receiving by far the most. Here’s the reverse rundown of what I’ve submitted to the 2016 BAMS on behalf of the readers of The (New) Vinyl Villain:-

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

For what it’s worth, only two of my own Top 10 made the list, which kind of makes me worried that I’m out of touch with the readership but I console myself with the fact that I spend so much time looking backwards for the blog that I’m really unable to keep up much with new music and therefore the number of new albums I buy or listen to is ridiculously limited. Having said that, Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills has put together a mouth-watering list of new albums that are scheduled for release in 2016 and so I expect to be a bit more active on that front in 2016.

I would like to finish by posting a personal Top 10 of 2015 from ISM, a friend and occasional but discerning reader who is always telling me to end what he calls my obsession with 80s jingly-jangly indie-pop. None of his choices made the final list, but I wanted to share with you his cracking descriptions on why he fell for certain records in 2015:-

Hudson Mowhawk – Lantern

Glasgow’s supplier of beats and cutting edge sounds to Kanye West (he’s on his payroll) adds great tunes for his second album.

Four Tet – Morning/Evening

Ssublime, ambitious two 20 minute long pieces with beats, samples and tunes – fought the punk rock wars to get rid of such pretentiousness – and lost!

Mogwai – Music Industry 3, Fitness Industry 1 EP

Remixes and a blistering new tune in Teenage Exorcists.

Craig Armstrong – Far From the Madding Crowd OST

The best soundtracks are written under our noses up in Park Circus, but beware, 50% sublime orchestral tunes and 50% ‘enters room and sits on sofa’ as per most film scores.

Idjut Boys – Versions

Deep, dubby, sub-Fleetwood Mac outtake type bliss! I know, who would have thought it possible or desirable!

Damian Lazarus – One Hour With (Mixmag cover CD November)

The fine art of the DJ dance mix, taking the willing on dizzying musical trip – and leaving the unwilling grumbling ‘WTF is this all about’?!

Four Tet – Pink

Him again, this time with a compilation of magnificent sold out 12″ releases first issued in 2012 and only made available as a download in the UK afterwards (or Japanese import CD – I know, get a life) before being released on a double vinyl album a few weeks ago, SO IT COUNTS for 2015!

Admiral Fallow – Tiny Rewards

Too early to tell how good this is, but who can resist their latest efforts after absorbing their tunes after seeing so many excellent live performances?

Trevor Jackson Presents Science Fiction Dancehall

One more re-release of old stuff allowed surely? – in this case a collection of original spaced-out dub released on the On U Sound label from way back and far ahead of its time.

John Hopkins – Late Night Tales

‘Dance’ mix of tracks with hardly any beats, but instead a collection of tunes and moods forming something a lot bigger than the sum of its parts.

ISM

JC adds…..

Seems only fair to recognise his contribution along with what was a very clear winner from all you good good people.

mp3 : Hudson Mohawke – Scud Books
mp3 : Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best

Oh and as part of an effort to get more with it in 2016, I’ll be doing the occasional bonus post on the occasional midday featuring new music that has caught my fancy. You’ve been warned……..

Scarfo

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (33)

The Shoebox of Delights – #6
Scarfo – Alkaline and Cosmonaut #7

scarfo1 scarfo2

It was at a Scarfo gig that Our Price Girl dumped me for good. There was no going back this time.

Actually, technically it was at a Snuff gig that Our Price Girl dumped for me good, but Scarfo were supporting and it was during their (brilliant) thirty minutes set that it happened. To be honest it had been coming – since our week away on the Norfolk Broads (which had been to celebrate our A Level results – her 3 A’s (Sociology, English and weirdly RE) – me erm, Not 3 A’s) things had been going downhill. We’d been arguing, largely over the fact that we were heading off to University in two different parts of the country and it probably would have happened soon enough anyway.

We’d also as usual argued about music, she had recently started listening to a lot of grunge and American rock, well it was 1994 and since Nirvana exploded a lot of people were listening to bands like Soundgarden, Tool and the Jesus Lizard. Our Price Girl was listening to all this and Soul Asylum. Yep, ‘Runaway Train, never comin’ back’ wanky bland tosspots Soul Asylum.

We’d also argued about a guy who I called Mr Goatie. So called because he fucked goats – or had a stupid goatie beard – I forget which. Mr Goatie worked in the same branch of Our Price as OPG – I think he was the boss and he was really irritating he insisted on calling everyone ‘Dude’. Mr Goatie liked Soul Asylum, in fact Mr Goatie liked Soundgarden, Tool and all those other bands that OPG had started to like. All of a sudden. I decided that Mr Goatie probably liked Our Price Girl.

One Wednesday afternoon Our Price Girl said that there was a really good punk band playing in Reading and that we should go to the gig – besides it was three weeks before the Reading Festival and it would be good practice to see how long it takes to get there in my second hand Nissan Cherry. Being the sort of guy who was always up for a bit of live music, I agreed. Oh, the Reading Festival – a gang of us were going to this festival, me, OPG, a few of my mates, a few of hers and Mr Goatie, he was coming too, of course he was. Soundgarden were playing and he ‘was like their biggest fan, dude’.

We were about half way when Our Price Girl decided to put a tape on, now I didn’t mind her tapes, because usually they consisted of stuff she had ‘borrowed’ from the Our Price Stock Room and stuck on a tape – nearly always they were excellent and featured the up and coming acts of the time. This one however featured Soundgarden, Tool, the Red hot Chilli Peppers and Soul Asylum (and Therapy?). I sighed inwardly as ‘Jesus Christ Pose’ belted out but carried out driving but it didn’t put me in a particularly good mood. I decided I needed a toilet break when Soul Asylum came on. Although that didn’t stop her going on about what a ‘wonderful lyricist’ whoever wrote the lyrics was.

Did you make this tape? I asked as we rolled into Reading City Centre. Silence. I asked her again, on the off chance that she didn’t hear me over the caterwauling that was coming on the speaker – I was driving a second hand Nissan Cherry, possibly the worlds most boring car (well perhaps the Allegro comes before that) with (I think) Blind Melon coming out of the speakers fairly loudly, I must have looked so uncool.

“Stuart, made it for me” she said. Stuart was Mr Goatie. This was about the 900th time she had mentioned him to me that day. “Stuart’s trying to get me a move to the new Maidstone branch”, “Stuart’s put me in charge of vinyl orders this week”, “Stuart took me roughly from behind in the store room for about three brilliantly breathless hours yesterday” that sort of thing. Not that I was jealous or remotely paranoid you understand.

We got into the gig, it wasn’t very busy. There were two other bands on the bill – a local band who I think were called ‘Who Moved the Ground?’ (they were straight out of the crusty scene that was growing at the time) and a band called Scarfo. I’d only really heard of Snuff though – thanks largely to a friend called Justin.

“Stuart told me about Scarfo the other day” she starts, “he doesn’t like them, he says that they sound too manufactured”. Unlike Soul Asylum obviously who sound like they are recording their songs in a garage.

I decide there and then that Scarfo are probably the future of rock and roll and no matter how awful they are I will love them and talk about them ALL THE WAY HOME. IN A REALLY ANNOYING VOICE. It transpires later that this was in fact Scarfo’s fourth ever gig and they hadn’t released any records yet so it is highly likely that Stuart was talking bollocks. Anyway, we went to the bar and immediately ordered some drinks – I was obviously on the soft drinks, Our Price Girl had a Bacardi and coke.

Roughly six minutes later we are met by a familiar face. Yep, Mr Goatie himself. I honestly dropped my half pint of orange juice when I saw him. It slowly made sense, he had told Our Price Girl that he was going to this gig and she therefore had wanted to go.

They say hello – it’s well too informal – if I’d greeted a female like that, I would have got a kick in the balls and no chocolate for a week. I get dragged over to sit with ‘his gang’ – a bunch of older people, far cooler than me, none of whom, are wiping orange juice off their Pop Kid T Shirt, they are all drinking bottled beer, smoking Lucky Strike Cigarettes, wearing battered Converse and massive jumpers. I don’t get introduced to anyone – I may as well have been wearing a bell around my neck – that’s how popular I was. Something was seriously wrong here.

Anyway, Scarfo come on – they are tremendous, spiky punky indie, a band in their infancy who look and sound brilliant. Mr Goatie was well wrong about them. Our Price Girl wanders up to me about half way though and says “We need to talk”. That was kind of all I needed to hear. I was pissed off for two reasons, firstly I knew what was coming and secondly, I wanted to watch the end of Scarfo.

It wasn’t pretty, two people shouting at each other in the pissing rain outside a club in Reading and as relationships go it was a fairly rubbish ending if I am honest. I won’t go into details but it was definitely over. There was no coming back from here. Not Reading, obviously you can come back from there. I went back inside ordered a vodka and lime, downed it and then got my coat.

I spent two hours in Reading Burger King waiting for the alcohol to leave my system as I was shit scared that I would get pulled over by the cops. Oh and she left the tape in the car – my biggest smile of the evening was brought about by the satisfying sensation I got when I hurled out the window somewhere near Junction 11 of the M25.

Scarfo were formed in 1994, the brainchild of Jamie Hince, they released two albums and these two singles came from the second ‘Luxury Plane Crash’ and they were excellent.

mp3 : Scarfo – Alkaline
mp3 : Scarfo – Brazil
mp3 : Scarfo – El Topo

mp3 : Scarfo – Cosmonaut #7
mp3 : Scarfo – Alcatraz

You are getting both singles because, my daughter decided to put both CDs back into the same case after using them as roundabouts for her Peppa Pig toy. Bonus. You also get the rather wonderful cover version of the Elvis Costello classic ‘I Want You’ which is up there with the Greatest Covers of All Time.

mp3 : Scarfo – I Want You

Scarfo split late in 1998 I think, as one of the band was severely injured in a car crash – Hince went on to form Fiji and then more famously he formed The Kills and hooked up with Kate Moss.

Scarfo were much better than The Kills and The Kills are excellent.

Enjoy.

B-52s

I’VE DANCED TO THIS IN EACH OF THE 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s and 10s.

This sounded really weird on first listen back in 1979. And 37 (!!!!!!!) years on I still think it has a fair degree of weirdness.

But when I say that, I am praising and not castigating the record for it’s one that has aged magnificently.

mp3 : The B-52’s – Planet Claire

Ok, I know that it chunders along in much the same way as The Theme From Peter Gunn, but back in 1979 I had no idea of the existence of that bit of music….

Planet Claire is one of those songs that I sort of dread coming up on random shuffle on the i-pod if I’m using public transport as its impossible to keep still while it plays. At the very minimum my head will move from side to side and my shoulders will start shaking, thus putting my fellow passengers in great fear that I’m about to suffer some sort of fit. And god forbid that it should ever come on when I’m half-drunk as I’m very likely to wail tunelessly in a dreadful impression of the organ sound…

Here’s the equally bizarre b-side:-

mp3 : The B-52’s – There’s A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)

Enjoy

Last call for readers to e-mail me lists of their Top 10 LPs for 2015 so that I can submit a collective entry for the BAMS 2015. Click on this post for more background.

Flunk

IF ONLY……

blue-monday-doorkomen
I’m guessing most folk will be back into the full swing of things from today.

mp3 : Flunk – Blue Monday

It’s a rather decent cover from Norway, released as a single back in 2002. Hopefully it will cheer you up on a day when I bet few of us can be bothered.

That is all.

Beloved, Shamen, Stump, Vee VV, Wedding Present

THIS YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Postscript 2)

Today sees the second and final part of the look back at A Different Kind of Tension, the 10-track compilation released in 1986. Here’s the b-side of the album:-

1. The Beloved – A Hundred Words
2. Vee VV – The Romance Is Over
3. Stump – Kitchen Table
4. The Wedding Present – Once More
5. The Shamen – Happy Days

The Beloved, in their dance guise, were featured a couple of months back. It’s hard to believe that it is the same band who would go onto enjoy such massive success with the club crowds in the early 90s. But before they were embraced by the dance brigade, The Beloved were just another indie-pop guitar band. This is actually their debut single from April 1986 on Flim Flam Records which made #15 in the UK Indie Chart (which I’m guessing amounted to about 5,000 sales).

mp3 : The Beloved – A Hundred Words

The next lot needed a bit of detective work on the t’internet. They emerged from the ashes of a band called Tunnelvision who released one single, entitled Watching The Hydroplanes, on Factory Records in 1981. And no, I can’t say I’ve ever heard it. They seem to have been an act signed on a whim by Tony Wilson after they appeared on the bill at the first ever New Order gig in Blackpool. Anyway, it seems they were a band that were continually slated by the music press and continually compared to Joy Division.

Members of Tunnelvision would, in due course, form Vee VV. The band recorded a flexi single for a music magazine before releasing a double-side 7″ single on Cathexis Records and the track featured today was part of that artefact. A second 12″ single soon followed and Vee VV gained some exposure through support slots for My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses and the afore-mentioned New Order. But before long they had broken up unwilling to embrace Madchester.

mp3 : Vee VV – The Romance Is Over

Stump were an Anglo-Irish band that featured former members of Microdisney.

This is the only track of the ten on the compilation that hadn’t been released at the time, although it would eventually appear on the Quirk Out mini-LP that came out in late 1986 on Stuff Records. The band would gain enough fame to be featured on the covers of both the NME and Melody Maker, and there was enough of a buzz about them that they eventually inked a deal with Ensign Records who released the LP A Fierce Pancake in 1988, from which the single Charlton Heston reached #72 in the UK singles charts. But the album did not bring the crossover success the label had hoped for and, after recording a few b-sides and some demos, they split before 1989 was over.

mp3 : Stump – Kitchen Table

Ah….the wonderful Weddoes. This was a very early single from 1986. ‘Nuff said.

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Once More

The final track on the compilation is technically, the first ever single by The Shamen, released on One Big Guitar in 1985. The band had changed their name from Alone Again Or and moved to a different record label after just two singles. Frontman Colin Angus was one of the first to realise that indie-pop didn’t guarantee fame and fortune, and by mid-1988 the band was down to a two-piece who were more focused on dance. Four years later they were among the biggest acts in the UK with a string of chart hits including the unforgettable (not necessarily in a positive way!!) Ebeneezer Goode which was #1 for a number of weeks in August 1992.

By the mid-late 90s, the band had turned their backs on commercial soundimg dance music and frustrating the life out of their record label bosses at One Little Indian. The Shamen called it a day in 1999, but will be remembered fondly by a great many clubbers of a certain generation. However, they would be hard pushed to recognise this as one of their songs:-

mp3 : The Shamen – Happy Days

And that concludes the look back at the songs of 1986 for this series at least. Tune in next week for something going back even further in time….

Enjoy

Wild Swans

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (31)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON FRIDAY 11 APRIL 2008

Now look, its my chart and I’ll have obscure 45s in it if I want to.

The Wild Swans were one of the key bands in the Liverpool Scene that also produced Echo & The Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and Pete Wylie/Wah! As a band, they were in and out of existence from 1980 to 1986, during which time they recorded a number of BBC sessions but released just one single (released in 1982) and no LP. Then, in 1988, they reformed and finally recorded an album which was disowned almost immediately by all concerned and thus received a limited release…

Talk about perverse…..

Somehow a further album was recorded in 1989 (despite the departure of half of the band), but again to little acclaim. The Wild Swans called it a day shortly afterwards and retreated into cult obscurity.

Revolutionary Spirit/God Forbid was the last single to be released on the legendary label Zoo Records which was run by the equally legendary Bill Drummond. As I mentioned above, it came out in 1982. It was produced by the late Pete De Freitas who also drums on the record.

I remember hearing both sides of the single on Radio 1 – it was most likely on the John Peel show but I can’t be certain – and then trying to track it down in shops in the coming days. It proved an impossible task. One of my mates did however know someone who had a copy (I think it was a cousin in Liverpool) and he sent us up cassettes of the record.

In those days, maybe it was the sheer obscurity of the songs that helped make it all so special but in all truth they both perfectly capture so much of what was great about the sound of new young Liverpool. It took me until 1990 to finally got a hold of my own copy of the songs thanks to the purchase of a Zoo compilation which brought together every single the label had released between 1978 and 1982. It was so good to finally get ‘clean’ copies to listen to.

Lead singer Paul Simpson enjoyed more cult success with his next band, Care, alongside Ian Broudie who would then find fame and fortune with The Lightning Seeds. Much of the distinctive sound of The Wild Swans was down to guitarist Jeremy Kelly and he became part of Lotus Eaters who were one-hit wonders with The First Picture Of You in 1983.

As mentioned above, The Wild Swans did reform in 1988 to release a debut album, and while they still had a hardcore following of fans, their time had come and gone. The music they were now making was part of a different era, and certainly to the ears of this listener, was a disappointment, being nowhere near the class of the debut single, nor have the consistency of the releases by Care. I have however, since re-assessed things somewhat over the past few decades and have a fair bit of time for much of the later material. But they never quite matched the majesty of the Zoo single.

Oh and despite the wonders of e-bay and my rekindled interest in vinyl, I have still not yet been able to pick up a reasonably-priced vinyl copy of the single, originally released in February 1982**:-

mp3 : The Wild Swans – Revolutionary Spirit
mp3 : The Wid Swans – God Forbid

** that was back in 2008. I now have a copy in the collection, albeit it’s not in all great condition.

PS : If you’re wondering about the photo that now accompanies this post, its of the fantastically entertaining Dirk from Germany who runs a superb blog called Sexy Loser.

By ‘sheer coincidence’, he also posted Revolutionary Spirit on the day of this original posting and and he couldn’t resist showing off that he has long had a mint vinyl copy of the single……

I’m determined to meet the handsome devil in the flesh one day…..

Radio 236 (various)

RADIO 236 : THE FIRST EPISODE

index

I genuinely had no intention of blogging on 1 January 2016. But things changed as a result of my investing in a new laptop to replace what had been a faithful 10-year old PC that was no longer fit for purpose. The old PC wasn’t great at doing anything beyond the most basic of operations and things I wanted to bring to the blog were proving beyond it.

Radio 236 (named after the number of the house I live in) is launching today. It’s basically a podcast without words and as I learn how to do things better with the new programmes available to me then it will improve. Episode 1 contains 14 songs in just under 53 minutes.

Tune in here: https://www.spreaker.com/embed/player/standard?episode_id=7482774&autoplay=true

Or feel free to download:-

mp3 : Various Artists – Radio 236 (1st Episode)

It sounds not too bad albeit it has been recorded a bit too quietly for my full liking.

Songlist:-

Breaking Point – Bourgie Bourgie
A Punk – Vampire Weekend
Feed The Tree – Belly
No Bulbs – The Fall
Teardrop – Massive Attack
Nowhere Fast – The Smiths
Atheist Money – Adam Stafford
A Great Example To The Dogs – Lord Cut Glass
Friday Night At The Drive In Bingo – Jens Lekman
Sick, Tired & Drunk – The June Brides
This Corrosion – Lambchop
Water (Peel Session) – PJ Harvey
Man O’ Sand To Girl’ O Sea (single version) – The Go Betweens
Song From Under The Floorboards – Magazine

Enjoy.

PS

New Year….new (and returning) blogs to get excited about.

From Alex G : We Will Have Salad

From S-WC and The Badger : When You Can’t Remember Anything

Franz Ferdinand, Sparks

BORN TO DO COVER VERSIONS

franz-ferdinand
From Rolling Stone magazine:-

LCD Soundsystem’s tragically nostalgic dance-rock epic ‘All My Friends’ is arguably the best indie-rock song of the ’00s. The B-sides to the single were all cover versions, hinting that the song was a classic the minute it was released.

Scot rockers Franz Ferdinand, who’d already taken bracing, contorted grooves to the pop charts, were born to do ‘All My Friends’ and they turned in an incisive, raging guitar-grinding version with singer Alex Karpanos boozily crooning James Murphy’s forlorn lyrics about losing touch with your friends as you grow older and more ambitious. Musically, they pull of a wonderful trick of interlaying their version with references to legendary post-punk bands like New Order and the Gang of Four that LCD and Franz share as influences. It’s an A-plus history project you can get way down to.

mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – All My Friends

It really is a cracking, crackling energetic cover that is among the best things that FF have ever laid down. But then again, they’re a band who have never shied away from tackling cover versions throughout their career, some without question more successfully than others as evidenced here:-

mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – Sexy Boy
mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – Get Up and Use Me
mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – What You Waiting For?
mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – Sound and Vision

I’m quite fond of the first two of the four featured above, not convinced by the third as I’ve no time for the original (albeit Mrs Villain is a fan of Gwen Stefani) while the latter is fun enough for the fact that Girls Aloud are on backing vocals!

I never ever got round to mentioning that the FFS project turned out to be one of the best surprises about 2015. The idea of Franz Ferdinand and Sparks combining into a supergroup for an album and live performances didn’t seem like a good idea when first mooted but then I gave the album a listen and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was but that was nothing compared to seeing them perform at the Glasgow Barrowlands which turned out to be a fun-filled and hugely entertaining gig. This was the night when I did truly understand the FF boys were born to do cover versions.

Watch this entire 70 minute performance while you have spare time over the festive period

You can perhaps do it tomorrow when I’m taking a day off blogging. I’ll be back on Saturday with the latest in the re-run of the 45s series

Happy New Year when it comes.

Wonder Stuff

I DIDN’T LIKE YOU VERY MUCH WHEN I MET YOU

It was back in 1987 that a new band from Stourbridge in the heart of the Midlands in England came to critical prominence through the release of two singles on their own Farout label. The second of them featured a cracking sing-a-long chorus referred to in the title of today’s posting:-

mp3 : The Wonder Stuff – Unbearable

The Wonder Stuff signed with Polydor Records not long after and over the next six years went on to enjoy a great deal of success with four Top 10 albums and a bundle of hit singles including a #1 hit when they backed Vic Reeves on his remake of Dizzy in October 1991.

But with the success came the critical backlash and there was a feeling among the band that it wasn’t much fun anymore. Much of their enjoyment in the early days came from the live performances and having caught them of an evening at the Glasgow Barrowlands in 1989 I can vouch for how good they were – it was a frenzied, boisterous and incredibly entertaining night – but as the venues got bigger and the set lists had to become centred around all the hits (especially the one that wasn’t really theirs) there was a sense that it was all getting a bit routine and treadmill like.

They called it a day in mid 1994 and closed with a headlining set at an outdoor festival in front of 30,000 fans. Three months later Polydor issued a best-of album that went Top 10 and promoted it through the re-release of Unbearable, including the original b-sides as well as making a second CD available with the re-recorded version of the song that had appeared on The Eight Legged Groove Machine, the debut LP back in 1988:-

mp3 : The Wonder Stuff – Ten Trenches Deep
mp3 : The Wonder Stuff – I Am A Monster
mp3 : The Wonder Stuff – Frank

mp3 : The Wonder Stuff – Unbearable (re-recorded)

Enjoy