THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

BIG, BOOMING AND MEMORABLE

Pete Wylie didn’t do things by half. The three occasions that he managed to enter the higher echelons of the UK pop charts left us with magical and timeless bits of music.

I did consider having a go at pulling together an imaginary compilation album featuring his best moments but in all honesty while I have some albums and this fairly comprehensive compilation CD that brings together most of his best recordings I didn’t think my words could do him justice. My cop-out is therefore just to dig deep into the cupboard and pull out the three hit singles in 12″ form as well as a double-pack of 7″ pieces of plastic from his last Top 20 effort:-

1982 : The Story Of The Blues

This climbed all the way to #3 in the charts and is probably the best known of the hits. To my young(ish) ears it sounded like no other record that had ever been released at that point in history. To my old(er) ears it still sounds like no other record that has ever been released in history. Oh and the b-side on the 12″ is a new version of an earlier and much-loved flop single.

mp3 : Wah! – The Story of The Blues (Parts I and II)
mp3 : Wah! – 7 Minutes Live(ish)

1983 : Come Back

Pete was infamous for being a bit of a gobshite who loved to spout opinions about everyone and everything, and an unwillingness to play by the record industry rules and regulations. Nevertheless, he was regarded as such a talent that WEA, the biggest label in the world at the time, signed him up after The Story of The Blues. He delivered an album that horrified them and they refused to release it and in doing so nullified the recording contract.

In due course the album was partially re-recorded and eventually released on Beggars Banquet as A Word To The Wise Guy. There was a Top 20 hit single from it, released in a number of formats including this 12″ version:-

mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – Come Back (The Story Of The Reds)/The Devil In Miss Jones (combined and extended)
mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – Come Back! (The Return of the Randy Scouse Git)
mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – From Disco Dicko to A Kid in Care

This was an almighty two fingers gesture to WEA. It was the big sound they had demanded of the album but only provided after Wylie had gone to pastures new…and in the b-side version the lyrics were altered to enable a sideways swipe at WEA singers and bands who were enjoying regular chart success…

1986 : Sinful!

Almost thirty years on and this still sounds amazing when it blasts out of the radio. It reached #13 but was worthy at least of Top 3 to match his biggest ever hit. The 12″ Tribal Mix goes on for more than eight minutes and while it does occasionally betray its age thanks to the rather dated production techniques and tricks of the day, it is still hugely enjoyable and a fine commentary on the social injustices imposed on society by the Tories and Republicans in the first half of the ‘greed is good’ decade.

mp3 : Pete Wylie & The Oedipus Wrecks – Sinful! (Tribal Mix)
mp3 : Pete Wylie & The Oedipus Wrecks – Sinful!
mp3 : Pete Wylie & The Oedipus Wrecks – I Want The Moon, Mother

This was another single released in a multitude of formats and quite recently I had the good fortune to get my hands on the 2 x 7″ release of the single and here’s the two tracks that weren’t otherwise on the 12″ ( a word of warning…..they’re really only for completists):-

mp3 : Pete Wylie & The Oedipus Wrecks – Sophie’s Sinful! (for Maurice or Isabelle)
mp3 : Pete Wylie & The Oedipus Wrecks – The Joy Of Being Booed

Enjoy

Echo & The Bunnymen

NOT TOO SHABBY A COMEBACK NUMBER ??

The idea of Echo & The Bunnymen reforming in the late 90s wasn’t entirely daft. It had been a full ten years since Ian McCulloch had left the band to with vocals duties taken on by Noel Burke – a move that no doubt stunned Bunnymac who thought he was irreplaceable. It certainly didn’t go down well with fans as the sales of the one LP and three singles with the new vocalist were negligible.

By 1994, Mac and Will Sergeant were working together again under the name of Electrafixion and in due course they asked Les Pattinson if he fancied joining the band. When he said yes, the trio decided to bring the Bunnymen back into being….

The move certainly caught the imagination, especially when Mac started telling everyone that the new songs were among the best they had written and recorded. There was certainly a hope and desire among the critics that this would be the case as the band were somewhat back in fashion at the time with an appreciation of just how good a band they had been at the height of their pomp and fame when Pete de Freitas (RIP) was on the drumstool.

It was June 1997 when the comeback single was released:-

mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Nothing Lasts Forever

It’s an absolutely stunning piece of music, right up there with many of the tracks released when the band were at the height of their powers in the early to mid 80s. It also crossed over extensively into the mainstream thanks to the rigorous promotional duties undertaken including a number of high-profile TV appearances in the UK and in due course it would ride high in the charts where it eventually reached #8 and equal their previous best ever position with The Cutter back in 1983. The parent album Evergreen was relleased the following month by which time the band were appearing on the bills of most of the summer festivals across Europe. It too went Top 10.

The album did get a lot of positive reviews but I feel most of these were as much down to wanting the LP to be a triumphant return rather than purely on the quality of its contents. It’s not that it’s a bad record, more that after a few listens it got a bit repetitive sounding with the comeback single really standing head and shoulders above all else. It certainly doesn’t come close to matching the outstanding first four albums, all of which really have stood the test of time.

I bought the comeback single on its release. In fact I bought the 2xCDs and so can also offer up the four tracks that were put on the b-side, some of which proved to be better and more durable than much of the album:-

mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Watchtower
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Polly
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Colour Me In
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Antelope

Enjoy.

Julian Cope

READ IT IN BOOKS : JULIAN COPE

Anyone who picks up this book can’t say they weren’t warned in advance….

“One Three One is a Gnostic whodunit that pursues readers’ memories of all previous fiction into a peat bog and impales them with seven-foot long pikes'”

“A total skullfuck of a book”

“The myths and legends of Rock, rock and rocks collide on a freak-strewn highway leaving the reader feeling like a back-seat passenger suffering psychic whiplash.”

All of the above spot-on quotes can be found on the jacket of One Three One, the debut novel by Julian Cope, a genuine epic of 438 pages. It is a work, I suspect, like very few others as it, I would surmise, put all readers through a topsy-turvy emotional and intellectual wringer for at times you will think it contains some of the best and most imaginative prose ever put to paper while there will be nights when you can hardly keep your eyes open such is the struggle to understand what the hell it’s all about and where it’s going to go next.

The novel centres around the exploits of Rock Section, a hit musician from the 80s who just also happens to be a time traveller capable of jumping back to a precious life 10,000 years ago. So far so bizarre.

The gist of the storyline is that Rock has travelled to Sardinia from England in June 2006 in an effort to find out why it was that he and some of his mates ended up being kidnapped when they were part of the football supporters who went to the island to watch matches (and take part in acts of hooliganism) at the 1990 World Cup. One Three One refers to the Strada Statale 131 which is the main motorway running in a north-south direction across the island, with almost all of the action taking place on the road or close by. Crucial to the plot is the fact that the road takes you close to many hidden ancient doorways which enable Rock to jump back and forth between 2006 and 10,000 years previous. And when he did, it more often than seemed to the complete bemusement of this reader taking the story off at huge tangents that make no sense at all.

On many occasions, One Three One reminded me of a Joycean epic….and here’s where I confess that despite at least twenty goes, I’ve yet to finish any of the books written by the much heralded Irish novelist. They are impenetrable, unfathomable and just too difficult for my level of intellect. And if wasn’t for the fact that I am such a fan of Julian Cope as a musician and writer, I would in all likelihood never have finished this book either.

And yet…..there were, as I mentioned earlier, sections of the book that were quite wonderful, not least the stunning puns that are littered throughout its pages. And if nothing else, the twenty-odd pages and two chapters covering the day of the Hillsborough Disaster when 96 people died at a football match through no fault of their own are essential reading. I was moved to tears of sadness and anger.

But overall, these plus points are not enough to say that reading One Three One was an entirely enjoyable or satisfactory experience. It was an almighty relief when I got to the end….which without giving anything away seemed a bit rushed and disjointed given all that had been described in such detail over the previous pages.

I should also mention that the book is full of references to what appear to be imaginary songs by imaginary bands, including those in which Rock Section had found fame. But what won’t come as a surprise given it stems from the amazing brain of Julian Cope, that nothing is quite as straightforward as it seems. The following I think gives a flavour of some of the best things about the novel….

Atlantis? : Formed in 1970 by Sardinian cave anarchists around the guitar talents of fifteen-year-old boy prodigy Gennargentu, Atlantis? was a fierce Mithraic ritualistic music beating bongos and bones in the dust of long-dead humans. This commune band was inspired by the post-war theories of Sardu writer Pedru Réppu, who popularised the belief that their island had once been the Atlantis of legend.

Brits Abroad : Formed with breathtaking audacity in the ecstasy-fuelled opportunism of the Rave Era by social worker and Jungian poet Mick Goodby, Brits Abroads’ world-infamous Number One anthem ‘Last Tango in Paris’ sets off an unholy chain of events central to the plot of One Three One.

MICK GOODBY – vocals, lyrics
ROB DEAN – guitar synth
BRENT GARRETT – bass synth, squeaky dog toy
DEAN GARRETT – tenor synth, squeaky dog toy
(Later KEV NOGGINS – drums)

Dayglo Maradona : Rave band formed by Rock Section, former Low Countries vocalist and hero of One Three One, in an ephedra-fuelled homage to his favourite footballer, Argentinean striker Diego Maradona.

Mick Goodby/Exercise Club : Picking himself up from rock bottom after being kidnapped during Italia ’90 and hermiting at his mother’s thereafter right up to the millennium, poet Mick Goodby makes an accidental comeback through his Exercise Club series of solo CD releases.

Forest of Dean : Formed by former Brits Abroad synthesist Dean Garrett in response to the wretched trajectory of his life, this rinky-dink New Age combo of one released several delicately-clad 10” EPs in the years 1994-2001.

Judge Barry Hertzog : This Dutch border rebel DJ renegade uses his role as the self-proclaimed ‘First Indie Football Hooligan’ to promote a Messiah-like solo music career from atop his DAF armoured car from deep in the woods around the uplands of his beloved Drenthe.

Kit Kat Rappers :Formed under protest by Rave scenesters Gary Have-a-laugh, Stu and Yeh-Yeh, at the behest of compadré Mick Goodby, the Kit Kat Rappers’ story permeates the various plots of One Three One. The later addition into the group of posh rapper Leander Pitt-Rivers Baring-Gould, under the name Full English Breakfast, leads to a large chart hit.

Low Countries : This Liverpool Post-Punk outfit was the place where One Three One hero Rock Section cut his music business teeth, being ‘installed’ in the band as lead singer at age seventeen by their manager/svengali Arthur Tadgell.

Make Fuck : Formed in the southern Sardu foothills of Mt Línas by cave anarchists from nearby Gonnosfanadiga, this famous power trio churns out ‘cavernous crud, only its lupine howling and overdriven bass bringing the remotest clarity to this soupy anarchist testament’ (One Three One, page 114).

Neon Sardinia : These high-living darlings of the 1970s Sardinian art scene – conspicuously wealthy with their Lamborghinis and actress girlfriends – reclaimed for the island many of those ancient traditions and festivals deemed by previous generations to be too heathen and unchristian to hold onto. Ironically, it was precisely these re-enactments and reconstructions that ultimately led to the kidnapping of their synthesist Fabrizio Arra.

FABRIZIO ARRA – vocals, synthesizers
ARTURO VACA – vocals, synthesizers

Nurse With Mound : This Japanese avant-garde duo were formed in Sardinia by visionary Egg with accompaniment by multi-instrumentalist Misstra Know-It-All. Their songs range from the angry-man-screaming-at-broken-walkman-style street corner protest of ‘We Apologise For Nothing’ to the multi-layered post-Miles Davis jazz of Mixing Concrète.

EGG – vocals
MISSTRA KNOW-IT-ALL – saxophone, clarinet, turntables, guitar, tuba, samples, synthesizers, cymbal, French horn, cor Anglais, piano, sousaphone, tympani, triangle, bass drum, snare drum, piccolo drum, tapes (cassette, DAT, 15” Studer), violin, contra bass, dwarf cello, music box, telephone, Buddha box, rhythm box, banana box, tambourine, cigar box, Jack-in-the-box, quardplums

Spackhouse Tottu : Formed by Sardinian brothers José and Luis Mackenzie, this pioneering Mediterranean dance act pumped out single after seven-inch single throughout their early career, sampling Krautrock, garage rock and electro punk for their mental two-minute-hate songs. As live DJs, the pair cannibalised Klaus Schulze’s most proto-techno pieces in order to stretch out Rave music into an over-caffeinated cartoon version of the Zeitgeist.

JOSÉ MACKENZIE – turntables, vocals, samples
LUIS MACKENZIE – turntables, vocals, samples
(Later BUGS RABBIT – music director, keyboards)

Spion Kop : Formed specifically to cause a rumpus by Dutch DJ Judge Barry Hertzog with cohort Pit-Yacker MC on dual vocals, Spion Kop managed one smash hit in the form of ‘Das Boot’. Taking a clattery drum and stomping sample from Japanese ’60s beat group The Spiders, Messrs Hertzog and Pit-Yacker screeched their declaration of the Anfield Kop’s pre-eminence in unison and without restraint.

HERTZOG – vocals, samples, FX
PIT-YACKER MC – vocals

Vesuvio : Famously reclusive throughout the 1970s, this Naples-based commune band made their name from their titanic metal self-titled debut, whence came their signature tune – the side-long fifteen-minute epic ‘Pompeii’. Generally a quartet, they were often augmented – live and in the studio – by relatives and family members.

Music as described above has been released and made available within a website associated with the novel and/or on bandcamp, although many of them are now hard to track down. It was thanks to a T(n)VV reader who, having picked up from a previous posting that I was taking on this book, got in touch with details of the novel’s bonkers soundtrack. Indeed, I’d go as far as to describe it as a total skullfuck of a soundtrack so don’t say you haven’t been warned.

mp3 : Brits Abroad – Last Tango In Paris
mp3 : Brits Abroad – Boogie Nights/Takin’ The Rap
mp3 : Dayglo Maradona – Rock Section
mp3 : Forest of Dean – Black Forest of Dean
mp3 : Judge Barry Hertzog – The Border Rebel
mp3 : Mick Goodby – Kick
mp3 : Spackhouse Tottu – The Daemon
mp3 : Spion Kop – Das Boot

Big shout out to Keith. Hugely appreciated.

Boy Hairdressers

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 38 of 48)

Today’s lot released just the one 12″ single on the 53rd & 3rd label, founded by none other than Stephen Pastel, back in 1987. It is a much-sought after piece of plastic fetching in the region of £40-£70 depending on the condition of the vinyl after all these years.

The reason for this is all down to the fact that most of the musicians who formed and comprised The Boy Hairdressers would become Teenage Fanclub with all three of the songs on their sole single being composed by Norman Blake.

Here’s the CD86 track:-

mp3 : The Boy Hairdressers – Golden Shower

Tracking down the other two songs on the 12″ has been a huge challenge and actually proved beyond me. But one out of two in’t bad….

mp3 : The Boy Hairdressers – Tidal Wave

It’s all a tad too 60s for my liking but there will be some of you who love it.

Enjoy.

Frightened Rabbit

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (43)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON WEDNESDAY 26 MARCH 2008

By now you’re probably all thinking its going to be really old stuff in this particular long-running bout of nostalgia. But as you can see from today’s posting, that ain’t necessarily so.

This was my favourite single of 2007. And it made such an impact on me, that its right up there as one of my favourite singles of all time.

I never imagined when I started this blogging lark that I would end up rediscovering such enthusiasm for new and fresh music. I always thought that was something best left to the kids. Certainly, when I was twenty years younger, there was a part of me that felt sorry for the old fogeys at the gigs I was at – I couldn’t help but think they looked so out-of-place.

Nowadays, I am that old fogey. And I don’t give a toss what anyone thinks of me. And If I can get down to the front of the gig, then all the better.

This lot are playing a tiny venue in Glasgow this coming Saturday evening**. And I’m going to be there are as they unveil the songs that are going to make up their forthcoming sophomore LP, as well as the older stuff.

Frightened Rabbit are a fantastic and exciting band. They’ve been increasing their fan base thanks to support slots with the likes of Sons & Daughters and Editors. It’s time they stepped out into the limelight.

Why this song? Its hard in some ways to put into words. I first heard it when Comrade Colin posted it over at his blog and just fell head over heels for it. I tracked down the LP the following day and it went immediately onto heavy rotation on the i-pod. Later in the year, a very slightly different mix was put out on 7″ vinyl, and that’s what I’m offering here:-

mp3 : Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude
mp3 : Frightened Rabbit – The Greys

I know…..some of you will be asking if this is really better than a single that hasn’t made the Top 45 such as Billy Bragg doing Levi Stubbs’ Tears?? Probably not….but as I said at the outset of all of this, there are some days when a particular song captures my mood and another doesn’t and where they feature in an all-time list will fluctuate.

But however you look at it, and whether you think it’s not worthy of a place in chart rundown of this nature, there’s no denying that both Be Less Rude and The Greys are great bits of modern indie-pop with a Scottish twist.

(** well, they were back in March 2008. I doubt they’ll be doing so tonight!!)

Charlatans

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #42 : CHARLATANS

JC writes…….I’m delighted that The Robster whose wonderful own blog Is This The Life? continues to educate, inform and entertain on a daily basis has come up with today’s posting. It’s a belter…..with a great piece of artwork too.

The Robster writes……….

This whole Imaginary Compilation has really got my tired old brain working again. I’ll often hear a song by a band I love and think: “Hmmm… I wonder what I’d put on an imaginary compilation…” Yeah, that’s the kind of life I lead, folks. I did vow to leave well alone after my last contribution as I didn’t want to hog things. This is JC’s blog, after all, and I’ve got my own (not that many have noticed…). Trouble is, they just keep coming – and JC being the top bloke he is seems happy to accept them.

So I’ve done a few more and it’s up to my Scottish friend to decide which ones, if any, he sees fit to publish. This one is inspired by me just buying tickets to see The Charlatans for the first time in some 25 years! They’re playing at a brand new venue in Cardiff in December so it was a no-brainer for me. They’ve long been a fave band of mine, although their more recent material has been rather patchy. The latest album, Modern Nature, has taken a while to grow on me, but I’ve become rather fond of it. Really looking forward to the show now. In the meantime, I’ve had a lot of fun trying to put together a career-spanning selection of ten choice cuts from the Charlies catalogue. The ones that didn’t make the final list would have made a fine album in their own right, but this is what I finally ended up with.

Let The Good Times Roll
An Imaginary Compilation by The Charlatans

SIDE ONE

1. Weirdo (from ‘Between 10th And 11th’, 1992)

Don’t you just LOOOVE that intro? (JC adds……YEEEESSSSS)

One of the best noises on any record. Weirdo was the lead single from the Charlatans’ second album and was the best thing they’d done up to that point. It slapped me around the face like a wet kipper before cheekily skipping off, enticing me to chase it. I followed it of course and fell for its cheeky charms. It’s still one of my fave tunes by the band.

2. One To Another (from ‘Tellin’ Stories’, 1997)

A remarkable track for numerous reasons. It was the last track to feature keyboard player Rob Collins who was killed in a car crash while the band recorded the Tellin’ Stories album. It really is a career high-point, and one they’ve never really quite topped. It reached number 3 in the UK charts and remains their biggest hit. MrsRobster has just secretly filmed me bopping away to it as I write this. Unforgiveable in my book, but an indication of how One To Another really grabs me. The rare version I’m including here was distributed to US radio stations.

3. Can’t Get Out Of Bed (from ‘Up To Our Hips’, 1994)

The Charlies’ third album marked a shift in styles. The guitars were somewhat louder and there was quite a bit of experimentation involved. Can’t Get Out Of Bed was an obvious single, though typically it really underachieved chart-wise, stalling at #19.

4. Judas (from ‘Wonderland’, 2001)

Now this is just BRILLIANT! ‘Wonderland’ was where the Charlies went funk and Tim Burgess adopted a Curtis Mayfield-type falsetto. The fact Judas was overlooked as a single is a crime, in my opinion, and I’m usually right about these things. It’s one of Tim’s faves too. It has a serious groove, a big phat bassline and some really cool guitar sounds. Wonderland is my favourite Charlatans album, and this is probably the reason why.

5. The Only One I Know [acoustic version] (from ‘Warm Sounds’ EP, 2011)

Probably the band’s most famous song, but done in a completely different way. The Only One I Know was their first hit, hitting the dizzy heights of #9 in 1990. It’s one of those tracks that has become synonymous with the Madchester scene they became part of (though they were at pains to remind us they were actually from Northwich and were formed in the West Midlands!) This acoustic reworking featured on 2011’s Warm Sounds EP and is really rather lovely, throwing a completely new light on the song behind those 90s Madchester vibes.

SIDE TWO

1. Indian Rope (debut single, 1990)

A few months before that first hit, the Charlatans announced their arrival with Indian Rope, an ambitious debut that relied heavily on Rob Collins’ funky organ sound. It hinted at something a little different to the rest of the scene at the time. Sure, the Inspiral Carpets were an obvious comparison, but Indian Rope suggested the Charlies were more about the groove. It still sounds good nearly 26 years later.

2. Let The Good Times Be Never Ending (from ‘Modern Nature’, 2015)

Although the last few albums have not really excited me in the way their previous works had, their latest effort – the first since the death of drummer Jon Brookes – has survived my initial scepticism owing to tunes like this. It’s a warm-sounding record that seems to subtly make the point that the Charlatans are far from finished.

3. As I Watch You In Disbelief (from ‘Up At The Lake’, 2005)

Can’t understand why this was never a single. Up At The Lake had some really good songs on it and this was always one of my faves. I love the bit when Tim shouts. It’s not something he does, so it was something of a surprise to hear him let go on this track.

4. Here Comes A Soul Saver [BBC session] (recorded for Mark Radcliffe, 1995)

There are so many good tracks on the Charlatans’ self-titled fourth album it was difficult to choose one which represents it. It’s regarded as one of their best records and rightly so. Here Comes A Soul Saver is a stormer, and this BBC session version has a bit of extra edge to it that comes with the live setting.

5. Sproston Green (from ‘Some Friendly’, 1990)

It’s not a Charlatans gig if it doesn’t end with Sproston Green. The closing track on the debut album has remained a firm favourite of fans all this time, and live it still thrills. Although it wasn’t put out as a single in the UK, it did get a US release and it’s the 12″ version I’m using to round off my Charlatans comp.

mp3 : The Charlatans – Weirdo
mp3 : The Charlatans – One To Another (swab radio mix)
mp3 : The Charlatans – Can’t Get Out Of Bed
mp3 : The Charlatans – Judas
mp3 : The Charlatans – The Only One I Know (acoustic version)
mp3 : The Charlatans – Indian Rope
mp3 : The Charlatans – Let The Good Times Be Never Ending (radio edit)
mp3 : The Charlatans – As I Watch You In Disbelief
mp3 : The Charlatans – Here Comes A Soul Saver (Mark Radcliffe Session)
mp3 : The Charlatans – Sproston Green (12″ edit)

The Charlatans show in Cardiff looks like being my last gig of the year. It could be a hell of a one to go out on.

The Robster

Green Day

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (29)

The Shoebox of Delights – #1 (again) : S-WC
Green Day – Dookie

JC writes……

I can’t abide Green Day. Mrs Villain on the other hand adores them. We really do violently disagree on their merits. I think of them as a second-class pub punk band fronted by someone who eerily reminds me in looks and voice of Billy Joel.

But I do accept that every band, no matter how lousy, will have a decent song in them somewhere. In Green Day’s case that is American Idiot which is deemed acceptable for sentiments in the lyric. But not any of the songs from Dookie, although what follows is a typically wonderfully surreal yet true episode in the life of S-WC.

———————————————————————————————

Hi Jim

Sending this early because I am away from a computer for the next three days. This was the CD at the top of the pile. So I just wrote about that.

Green Day – Dookie

At the start of 1994 I started my first ever stint as a DJ. It was a small affair, on a Thursday in a pub in Maidstone. It was my job to play records and CDs before a live band came on around 10pm and that was that. I got paid £15 for my troubles and I got two free drinks from behind the bar and my own weight in peanuts. It was alright, on the odd occasion I got to hang out with some up and coming indie upstart (Hi Ange from Eat if you are reading….) and I made some decent contacts.

For some reason my street cred went up whilst I was DJing – and I say DJing, I was literally pressing play on the CD Player or sticking a record on, I was hardly Brandon Block. However for about six months I was one of the people to know in Maidstone, well sort of.

One evening I was pressing play on the CD Player when the band for the evening turned up – they were a student band from nearby Canterbury and had that kind of attitude that made you hope that they never ever became famous – as it happens – they didn’t. They were called Black Vinyl Lust. To be honest that’s not a bad name for a band. They thought they sounded like the Jesus and Mary Chain but sounded more like Achtung Baby era U2. Actually they were pretty terrible, their guitarist, wore fish net tights, not a bad look if you are female and carrying a guitar (which he wasn’t), but a terrible look if you are an art student called Craig and hail from Weston Super Mare (which he was).

They bought a crowd with them though so it was pretty packed, people were dancing to my poorly selected tunes and I didn’t care. It was usual for people throughout the night to hand me CDs to play and I would play them, the cuter the girl the more likely I was to play them – I was 18 and single, come on, if you can’t be shallow then when can you?

About twenty minutes after the band arrived I was chatting to the drummer, a curly-haired chap called Brian, who said that his girlfriend had a CD on her and wondered if I could play track seven just before they came on. It was Basket Case by Green Day. A song which had kind of broken in the clubs and was one of the more popular tracks of the evening, I sort of wanted to play it earlier but I agreed.

‘Great’ he said ‘I’ll send her over later, she’s just parking her car’.

mp3 : Green Day – Basket Case

I carried on playing some records, I think I played something by Bjork and definitely something by Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins, I was just queuing up (as we DJs say), Stutter by Elastica when I saw her.

It was Our Price Girl. I’d not seen her for a year – since she’d dumped me in fact. This happened at twenty past eleven on an October evening outside the Kentish Town Tube Station after I dissed Cud. She was carrying a purple balloon at the time, she told me to fuck off and leave her alone as I stood on the down escalator. As I turned to reason with her, a man came bounding down the escalator to try and catch the train coming into the station. He burst her balloon as he barged past. She chased him to the bottom, caught him, and punched him full to the face, drawing blood and gasps from a frankly astonished crowd of Londoners. I walked on to the opposite Platform and jumped on the first train that arrived, I ended up at Waterloo Station, and spent the night at my uncles (I definitely did not sob into a House of Fraser duvet set in their spare room no matter what he tells you) who luckily for me lived near the train station and didn’t mind that much if I turned up reeking of cheap cider at close to midnight on a Saturday night.

‘Oh’ she said, then ‘Oh’ again.

She followed this with an embarrassed sounding ‘Hi’. I managed a Hi back.

I then realised that she was holding something in her hand, it was ‘Dookie’ by Green Day. So she was the drummer’s girlfriend. Brilliant. I hate drummers.

‘Brian said that you’d play Basket Case before they come on’.

Yeah, I did, hang on I said. I turned away and set ‘Stutter’ going.

I realised then I had no idea what to play next I didn’t even have the record ready. I grabbed something, anything, from my box. I span round again. She’d gone. She wandered back over to the band and was being massively affectionate towards the Brian the drummer. The CD was left on the side next to the decks. I threw it in the box containing my CDs and that is where it stayed (I had the single version of ‘Basket Case’ already). I looked in my hand and I swear I didn’t plan this but there in my hand was Purple Love Balloon by Cud. What the hell I thought, and stuck it on.

The band were about three songs in, I sat at the bar chatting (well shouting) to a chap I knew when Our Price Girl came over. She stood next to me and ordered a Bacardi and Coke – we chatted and it was more relaxed. It turns out she met Brian at a gig, they were supporting Senser at some venue somewhere and got chatting to him there (weirdly the next gig they had was supporting Cud in London). She seemed happy and that I suppose was the main thing. Suddenly she said ‘You were supposed to come after me…At the tube station…You vanished…I got arrested’.

I smiled, to be honest I was slightly pleased about that. Kind of. Sorry.

Then she said, ‘That is genuinely the first time I have heard ‘Purple Love Balloon’ since that evening’ and then she laughed and I joined in. I have something for you I said, stay there, I went and got the CD of Green Day and gave it to her. She smiled, grabbed a pen off the bar and wrote her phone number on the sleeve ‘Call me’ she said and with that she was gone.

You’ve probably all heard ‘Dookie’ by now. Love it or hate it – Its one of those landmark albums that forced record companies to start paying attention to punk rock again. It produced five hit singles, won them a Grammy for Best Alternative Album and to date has sold more than 8 million copies in the US alone. So I won’t go on about it. I will say that this is the same CD that Our Price Girl gave me that night and here is a photo of the sleeve complete with her old phone number on it (its not her phone number now – so don’t phone it!).

Did I call her???….that’s another story (sorry Dirk).

Here are the other four singles from it. Each one of them is great in its own merit. I personally think they never topped ‘Basket Case’ but certainly Welcome to Paradise comes close.

mp3 : Green Day – Longview
mp3 : Green Day – Welcome to Paradise
mp3 : Green Day – When I Come Around
mp3 : Green Day – She

S-WC

Editors, Midway Still

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (28)

The Shoebox of Delights – #1 – Graham Maguire
Editors – Munich

Graham, for those of you who are regulars to this wonderful blog, once called me an idiot because I dissed Nickelback (who are still shit by the way). We had a bit of set to. He got in touch via my old blog and after a bit of an online discussion we settled our differences via e-mail, with me somewhat mellowing when he revealed that he too is very fond of long forgotten early 90s punk poppers Midway Still. Weirdly, Graham is a barrister, he won’t mind me saying that, and so it is perhaps fitting that he chose this CD and I get to relay this story.

Some years ago I was asked to give evidence in a big trial down in Truro. Four excuses of human beings were in court for deception – they had basically conned some old chap out of his life savings, his house, his pension and his life insurance. I won’t go into why I was asked to give evidence, (largely because its pretty irrelevant). The guys were found guilty – and the ringleader was given 14 years at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. He deserved every single day of that sentence. This CD was bought on the day of trip – and yet up until two days after I pulled it out of the box I had never played it!

Returning however, to the story – I have to drive to the beautiful county town of Cornwall in order to be called to give evidence around 11am (roughly). Its about a two hour drive from my house in Exeter. Halfway down the A30 I get stuck in traffic – those of you who know the A30 will know that some of it in Cornwall is single lane (they are widening it as we speak – some ten years later) and that if you get stuck behind a tractor then you can be delayed for days. This is what had happened to me. The clock was ticking and I was starting to panic. I sent a text message (back in the days before smart phones) to the police officer that I was meeting saying I was delayed and panicked a bit more.

The delay is roughly about an hour and during that time I drive slowly past a field in which two cows (well one bull and one cow) are having energetic and somewhat violent sex. This cheers me up momentarily it cheers me even more when bizarrely it gets mentioned on Radio One about two minutes later by Jo Wiley followed by her playing Jump Around by House of Pain.

Eventually I get to Truro; it’s a beautiful city, full of character and decent shops. It has a hairdressers (or it did) called Jabba the Cutt which almost made me go and get my hair there and then, a greasy spoon called Licenced to Grill and a chippy called Codrophenia – complete with a Mod Fish on a scooter inside the shop. It also has a massive car park right outside the court – which was handy. So I park the car (badly) as I have precisely twenty minutes to get parked, and inside the court. My phone rang about ten minutes ago and the guy said that I would be needed at around 11.30am. It is now 11.10am.

I get to the car park ticket machine and search for the £4 it will cost to park all day. I have – and this sounds like a boast – it isn’t – I got the cash out to pay for a physio session later in the day – £100 in my wallet – all of it in twenties. I have no change, well I have 44p and that is not enough. The machine doesn’t take notes or cards. I swear loudly – and I then realise I have that funny feeling in my groin area. I need a piss. Great.

I look around, I need change, quickly. Then there is a little ‘Halluejah’ noise in my head as I spy a record shop. They will give me change surely.

I run over there and look upon the guy behind the desk and pray that he will be my saviour, that he will be a decent human being and change this bleeding twenty pound note in my hand. Will he? No of course he won’t, he says “you have to buy something first” – what!!– I need change not a bloody CD you feckless jobworth. I didn’t actually say that but I really thought it.

I was already starting to do that little jig that us chaps do when we need the loo badly as well, one foot to the other, like a pissed Michael Flatley. Right I said through gritted teeth, I looked around, there was nothing, I mean nothing remotely of interest in this store in my sight, and now the need of going to the loo was far more important that the change situation, the car park situation or even the evil bastards in cheap suits in the dock. Then I spied a bargain bin, and on top of that was Munich by Editors. So I grabbed it and said I’ll have this. It was 99p. He smiled a cheap smile as I gave him a £20 note.

The rotten bastard then tries to convince me that the CDs in the bin are 3 for 2 if I was interested.

No I said.

He then gives tries to give me a flyer for some rockabilly night in a pub in Truro next week.

A rockabilly night.

In Truro.

In a pub.

No I said. I don’t live in Truro, I’m just visiting and then for some inexplicable reason I said – I mean I don’t mind a bit of rockabilly in the right circumstances, but a pub in Truro on a Wednesday night in April is probably not it.

“Why not?” he says, and it dawns on me – it’s his rockabilly night and I have just insulted it. I jig some more. I have ten minutes I can probably make it if I can get my change and leg it back to the car park machine, then the loos and then the court. Look, mate, (I try the blokey camaradie that we resort to in awkward situations…), I just need some change, I’m due in court in ten minutes.

He looks at me, and says “well that explains the suit. What have you done?” What….! No I’m giving evidence I say. “Yeah, that’s what they all say” and he hands me a bag with the CD and gives me the change. “I’ll leave the flyer he says, you probably won’t make it eh?”. I offer the cheeky fucker my thanks and leg it. I chuck the CD in the boot – buy a ticket and run up to the court and find the loos. Ten minutes later they call my name and in I go. I am out again in seven minutes.

I sigh.

Seven Minutes.

I then mooch around Truro for a couple of hours – I find the pub where the rockabilly night is on and its awful. It has a giant statue of Elvis outside it. It does serve Doom Bar though which is a bonus.

That CD ‘Munich’ by Editors got its first ever play a few weeks ago when I found the box. I’d sort of forgotten I’d ever bought it. I always thought that their singer was trying too hard to sound like Ian Curtis – but it doesn’t matter who you sound like as long you’re good. This was the second brilliant Editors single, it follows on from the success of Bullets. It has a spine chilling guitar riff that introduces it and some pretty foreboding lyrics ‘I’m so glad I found this’ the singer claims – and I for one agree with him. It would have been messy had I not found this.

mp3 : Editors – Munich

What I didn’t realise until I played it is that the B Side to this is a cover version. A punked up balls out rock version of the cutesy Stereolab classic French Disko and it is terrible and doesn’t work. Singing the phrase ‘la resistance’ with a French accent when you are from Birmingham is just pretentious. It ranks up there in the worst covers of all time list, which I’m not compiling.

mp3 : Editors – French Disko

They have history of this as well, here is there version of the Cure classic Lullaby. Also terrible.

mp3 : Editors – Lullaby

It has some distance to go though to top this…..Probably the worst cover version of all time.

mp3 : Moby – New Dawn Fades

So that was number 1 – there are 20 CDs left in the pile. There will be numbered 1 – 20 because I forget which numbers have been and which haven’t. Feel free to pick a number – or I can just start at the top and work my way down.

Oh and just for Graham – Here’s some Midway Still

mp3 : Midway Still – I Won’t Try

See you all later.

S-WC

JC adds…….

I was lucky enough, along with Jacques the Kipper, to catch Editors in the live setting on the tour that was promoting the release of their debut album The Back Room in the summer of 2005. This would have been a few months before S-WC’s escapades in Truro which would have been April 2006. Although they had enjoyed a bit of chart exposure and could have cashed-in with a move to a bigger venue, they decided to play at the legendary but relatively small King Tut’s in Glasgow. The support act was the quite remarkable ¡Forward, Russia! and all-in-all it made for one of the most entertaining gigs I’ve ever been to. S-WC’s piece made me go back and listen again to The Back Room and I was pleased to discover that it has aged well.

So how come I can date S-WC’s adventures so precisely? Well, Munich was originally released in April 2005 when it reached #22 in the charts but the record label, keen to cash in on the on-going success enjoyed at the tail end of that year, decided to re-release the single on 2 January 2006. This time it reached #10 – and it ws the re-release that had the Stereolab cover included. Just call me Sherlock………

S-WC is right about the band not necessarily always getting it right when it comes to covers. Here’s another two for your enjoyment:-

mp3 : Editors – Orange Crush
mp3 : Editors – Bonny

The latter, to be fair, isn’t all that bad a take on the Prefab Sprout number.

Oh and tune in tomorrow for more S-WC stuff……….

Echo & The Bunnymen

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #41 : ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN

This one was composed at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet initially above the Atlantic Ocean and latterly over the north-east corner of Canada as the plane headed ever closer to the city of Toronto. The headphones were plugged into the i-phone and as I went through the songs I typed the words into its ‘Notes’ function from which I later did a cut’n’paste and edit.

Echo and the Bunnymen are still going strong these days, thirty-seven years on from their original formation. Well half of them are at least…..

They’ve made a lot of great music in that time but they’ve also released a fair bit of stuff that hasn’t quite hit the mark which, to be fair, is a sentiment that can be applied to almost any act which has been going for that amount of time. I don’t think it will come as too much of a surprise to find that what I consider to be the perfect compilation focuses entirely on the early 80s when they were at the peak of their powers and could do no wrong.

SIDE A

1. Show of Strength (from the LP Heaven Up Here, 1981)

Dark, brooding, intense yet ridiculously danceable….especially if you’re wearing your raincoat and the main shapes you’re throwing involving the shaking of shoulders. The opening track to what I consider their best album was always going to be the first song on this compilation.

2. Never Stop (Discotheque) (12″ single, 1982)

You’re on the dance floor and you’ve got those shoulders nice ‘n’ loose by now. Well let’s see those hips sway and while you’re at it get the arms swinging above your head. The band put the word Discotheque in brackets after this one. Years later Bono and his boys pinched both the title and the tune in an effort to prove they were a meaningful and relevant musical act.

3. The Killing Moon (single and track on the LP Ocean Rain, 1984)

The sound of three musicians and a vocalist at the very top of their game with a song that in 50 or 100 years time will still have the ability to make those hearing it for the first time stop in their tracks and go ‘wow’.

It’s little wonder that Mac the Mouth came out of the studio on the back of this and declared that Ocean Rain was the greatest album of all time. It isn’t….and indeed as I’ve already indicated it’s not even the greatest Bunnymen album but I think it’s fair to say that this is the greatest Bunnymen song. But how do you follow it????

4. Zimbo (b-side, 1983)

Released originally as All My Colours but re-named with the one-word chorus when this stunning live version was put on the b-side of the 12″ of The Cutter. The recording is taken from was a show at one of the earliest WOMAD Festivals back in 1982 which explains why the Royal Drummers of Burundi happened to be in Bath at the same time. It’s an incredible arrangement for a one-off collaboration and is the perfect demonstration of the fantastic arranging and drumming talents of the late and great Pete de Freitas.

5. A Promise (single and track on the LP Heaven Up Here, 1981)

If Postcard could claim to be the Sound of Young Scotland then those who came to prominence through Zoo Records are entitled to claim the same crown for Young Liverpool. This particular single could easily have been written and recorded by Wylie, Cope or The Wild Swans and it would have been equally majestic. Will Sargeant teased a ridiculous amount of stunning sounds from his guitar over these damn near perfect four minutes.

SIDE B

1. Heads Will Roll (from the LP Porcupine, 1983)

Critics of the band feel they got a long way on the back of one tune and one groove. But the thing is, when the tune and the groove is this divine why quibble? Yes, you might initially think this is ridiculously close to bring just a speeded up version of the track which closed the other side of this imaginary album but wait till you hit the two minute mark and get blown away by the psychedelic instrumental break…it’s still incredible to think that much of this album was written and recorded at a time when the band weren’t really on speaking terms. Much of the sound can of course be attributed to a guest musician mentioned a little later on…

2. Over The Wall (from the LP Heaven Up Here, 1981)

The fade in and slow build-up lulls you into a false sense of security that this is going to be a bit of a non-event. But then comes the catchiness of the simple chorus before Will’s attack on your aural senses and you realise that you’re listening to gothic atmospheric rock at its very finest.

3. All That Jazz (from the LP Crocodiles, 1980)

And now you’re listening to indie guitar pop at its very finest, all the while jumping back on that dance floor for a bop…..or two….

4. The Cutter (single and track on the LP Porcupine, 1983)

……for with this piece of glory blaring out over the speakers nobody will want to vacate their spot under the glitter ball. In 1983 I was convinced the band really were going to conquer the world for the simple fact that they not only made great records but they delivered what were blisteringly hot live shows….literally when the majority of the audience refused to remove their overcoats. The sweat pours out of you when you wear an overcoat to a gig. It’s the contribution of the Indian musician Shankar that really sets this single apart as can be evidenced if you listen to the original version which was rejected by the record label as being too uncommercial.

5. Ocean Rain (LP track, 1984)

When this track first aired as part of a John Peel session in late 1983, it was a medium-paced but hugely enjoyable bit of indie-pop. Somewhere over the ensuing months the band came to the conclusion that it would make for an epic ballad with which they should close their next LP. It was a stroke of genius as it became the perfect ending to an album that had often taken you to very unexpected places with acoustic guitars, lush orchestrations and the frequent use of brushes on the drums, even on the fast and wonderfully explosive Thorn of Crowns, a track which just missed out on being part of today’s feature. And if Ocean Rain was the perfect end to that very album then I’d like to think it is equally the perfect end to the 40th Imaginary Compilation.

mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Show of Strength
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Never Stop (Discotheque)
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Zimbo
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – A Promise
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Heads Will Roll
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Over The Wall
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – All That Jazz
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – The Cutter
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain

and just because I mentioned them earlier in passing:-

mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – The Original Cutter
mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – Ocean Rain (Peel Session)

Enjoy

Jam

THE JAM SINGLES (11)

Five months after getting their first #1 single, The Jam hit the top spot with the follow-up to Going Underground.

Start! was not exactly what folk were expecting and it was an uneasy time for those of us who were fans and who didn’t hide their disdain for The Beatles as it was impossible to deny the tune was a rip-off of Taxman. It didn’t go straight in at #1 but it did climb to the top of the pops some three weeks after its 15 August 1980 release. In 1983, upon its cash-in re-release by Polydor Records it reached #62.

mp3 : The Jam – Start!
mp3 : The Jam – Liza Radley

I don’t think I was alone in initially preferring the ballad that was released as the b-side although over the years I have grown to appreciate the a-side, thanks primarily to enjoying how it was performed in concert with the accompanying horns section that were a feature of the later tours.

The album version, released fully three months later, has an extra ten seconds or so tagged on at the end :-

mp3 : The Jam – Start! (album version)

The fact that many fans were bemused by the song can be evidenced by the lukewarm reception afforded it when it was introduced at a gig at Golders Green Hippodrome in London on 19 December 1981:-

mp3 : The Jam – Start! (live)

And finally for today here’s a demo version of the b-side, recorded in April 1980, in which Paul Weller sounds as if he is battling a bit of a cold judging by the occasional raspiness in his voice:-

mp3 : The Jam – Liza Radley (demo)

Enjoy.

Hurrah!

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 37 of 48)

This is another lot whose inclusion on CD86 baffles me.

Hurrah! were one of four highly touted bands that emerged through Kitchenware Records in the north-east of England in the early to mid 80s – the others being Prefab Sprout, Martin Stephenson & The Daintees and The Kane Gang. It was as far back as 1982 that the band released debut single The Sun Shines Here and by 1984 they were achieving success in the indie singles chart so to lump them in as part of a supposedly new movement two years further on doesn’t seem to make sense.

I was a fan of the Kitchenware product as it seemed to be a genuine attempt to replicate what had been done in Glasgow with Postcard Records a few years previous but I just never took to Hurrah! despite seeing them play live on a few occasions. They were too much like The Alarm for my liking…..

They ended up being part of Arista Records thanks to Kitchenware having a tie-up with the major and in 1986 a video for new single Sweet Sanity courted controversy for the then scandalous act of having two people of the same-sex hold hands in the promo video. The following year they would open for U2 at a number of stadium gigs and also provide support to David Bowie. They weren’t ever a band content with having a stab at indie-stardom.

The song on CD86 was one of the tracks on the 12″ release of the single with the ‘offensive’ video:-

mp3 : Hurrah! – Around and Around

Here’s the lead track:-

mp3 : Hurrah! – Sweet Sanity

Enjoy.

Soft Cell

A LAZY STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE : 45 45s AT 45 (44)

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON TUESDAY 25 MARCH 2008

There could have been any one of a number of Soft Cell singles put up for consideration in this particular countdown. So why Bedsitter?

Simple really – it was the one that showed they were not going to be novelty one-hit wonders courtesy of a cover version.

Loads of blokes – hetros, homos and those not quite so sure – fell in love with Marc Almond on first sight. For me, it was the clothes and his attitude of seemingly not caring what anyone else thought of him. I was 18 years of age at the time, not long into my first year and university, but still living at home. I was happy enough, but looking to do something different with my life. Black became the colour of all my clothes….eye liner became the choice of make-up…..I started going to discotheques in Glasgow….but only the ones that would play non-chart fodder. Sadly, there weren’t that many of them, and certainly not on Saturday nights. But Maestro’s was one such place, as was Night Moves (which also doubled as a concert venue in midweek).

I thought Soft Cell were incredible. The fact that Marc wasn’t a classical singer in the true sense of the word irritated so many folk. The fact that Dave Ball was a bit weird-looking disturbed a lot of folk. They reminded me so much of Sparks – a band that often brightened up my childhood with appearances on Top Of The Pops (and who would have made this Top 45 if I had in fact bought This Town Aint Big Enough For Both Of Us when it came out).

It’s amazing to look back and realise just how enormous Soft Cell actually were in the early 80s. Tainted Love was the biggest selling single of 1981. Bedsitter reached #4. Say Hello Wave Goodbye, #3 in early 1982. All of these were from Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret, a #5 LP.

Then it was Torch in April 1982 – it reached #2, followed by What! in July and it hit #9 in the charts. And those were the days when you needed to shift in excess of 500,000 copies to hit the Top 10…

The songs that followed – singles and LPs alike were, if anything, much more enjoyable. Problem was, they were less catchy and less radio-friendly. There also now loads of acts who sounded like Soft Cell and who could churn out hit after hit. Not surprisingly, Marc and Dave soon went their separate ways to enjoy decades of success in their own ways.

Back in 2002, the duo reformed an played a short British tour. Having been fortunate enough to see Marc Almond live several times as a solo performer, the gig at Glasgow Barrowlands was a night not to be missed. And so it proved….

More than quarter of a century after I first listened to Soft Cell, I’m still doing so on a regular basis. And I think there’s plenty more like me out there.

I still have my 12″ copy of Bedsitter – the label tells me that the single is the Early Morning Dance Side, while the flip track is the Late Night Listening Side. Both tracks clock in at almost 8 minutes….

mp3 : Soft Cell – Bedsitter (12 inch version)
mp3 : Soft Cell – Facility Girls (12 inch version)

Joe Strummer, Johnny Cash

DEATH IS NOT THE END

The following is a repost from the old place. It originally appeared on 16 December 2008 and received a number of lovely comments. I thought it was worthy of a cut’n’paste

——————————————————————————————–

With a career that lasted well over 40 years, Johnny Cash attracted millions of fans the world over, many of whom stayed with him through thick and thin – particularly in the late 70s and 80s when his recordings were infrequent and sold poorly.

It is of course no secret the Man In Black enjoyed enormous critical acclaim and re-assessment in the last few years of his life, as well as finding a whole new audience and set of fans, thanks to the series of LPs he recorded between 1994 and 2003 with Rick Rubin, someone whose initial burst with fame came courtesy of the Beastie Boys.

The merits of these LPs have split hardcore fans – there are some who think they’re an abomination made up largely of glorified karaoke, while there are others who rate some of the songs, and in particular the interpretations of the covers, as among Cash’s best.

It’s actually a difficult one to reach a definitive conclusion, partly because the advancement of recording and production techniques make the Rubin recordings completely different from anything else that Johnny Cash ever did. And it’s also clear that his voice wasn’t nearly the weapon it used to be – but then again, once any singer goes over the age of 40 or 50 they will never be able to hit the notes they could when they were in the 20s or 30s – for instance, ask Morrissey to try and sing the falsetto on Miserable Lie from The Smiths debut LP and I bet he’ll fail miserably so to speak….

I reckon Rick Rubin took a big risk when he initially partnered up with Johnny Cash, as no-one knew just how well the CD-buying public would react, and all too often stars of days of old come back and give us total turkeys. What we got over those last few years were a series of albums with a great deal of magical moments, but which also had some stuff that was dull and stodgy.

However, what it did do was create a new appreciation of the talents of Johnny Cash, and I’m guessing that almost everyone who bought one of the Rubin records would have at some point later and picked up one of the many compilation CDs released over the years that feature those mono-recordings with The Tennessee Three, not to mention the songs recorded live during concerts in infamous jailhouses.

The final LP released before Cash’s death was The Man Comes Around. By this time, illness had ravaged the singer’s body and his voice was not in great shape. There’s a lot of painful listening over the 16 tracks, and I think Rubin recognises this as evidenced by the inclusion of supporting and backing vocalists such as Nick Cave, Don Henley and Fiona Apple.

Nevertheless, the opening track after which the LP is named, is a truly astonishing bit of work. It is one of the last songs ever written by Cash. It has a hugely complicated lyric that weaves all sorts of biblical quotes into an incredibly catchy tune that is part-country, part-folk, part spiritual and part-rock. It’s a song written and sung by a man who knew he was dying and it is clearly an effort to leave one last might of memorable music behind amidst a tremendous legacy. In the accompanying sleevenotes, the great man admits “I spent more time on this song than any I ever wrote. “

mp3 : Johnny Cash – The Man Comes Around

It’s an LP best known for the cover of the Nine Inch Nails song Hurt, thanks to an unforgettable video that featured very heavily on the worldwide variations of both MTV and MTV2. The success of the video helped it to reach sales of more than 500,000 copies meaning for the first time in more than 30 years Johnny Cash qualified for a gold disc, an astonishing feat for someone who not too long beforehand would have struggled to get 1% of that amount of sales.

And while I’m rabbiting in this incoherent fashion, I think it’s a good time to share one of my favourite Cash recordings, a duet with Joe Strummer, covering a Bob Marley song:-

mp3 : Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer – Redemption Song

Happy Listening.

Jam

THE JAM SINGLES (10)

The first of the singles to hit #1 in the week of its release in March 1980.

There are still some who claim it only did so thanks to the initial 100,000 copies coming with a free live EP and while that was a factor in getting the single off the shelves and into homes very quickly there is a case to be made that the then rarely achieved feat was simply reflecting the fact that The Jam were by far the most popular post-punk band in the UK at the time and there was huge demand for this the first new songs since the release of the Setting Sons album. And it shouldn’t be forgotten that the two songs which made up the double-A side 45 were great bits of music:-

mp3 : The Jam – Going Underground
mp3 : The Jam – The Dreams Of Children

The free EP contained three live tracks from a concert at the Rainbow in London in November 1979, two of which (The Modern World and Down In The Tube Station At Midnight he already featured in this series. Here’s the third:-

mp3 : The Jam – Away From The Numbers (live)

There’s a couple of very special (for me anyway) live versions on offer today. They’re lifted from Dig The New Breed the post break-up release that featured 14 recordings captured over the best part of a five-year period:-

mp3 : The Jam – Going Underground/The Dreams Of Children (live)

The record makes it sound as if the songs were played back-to-back but I know different as I was part of the audience as the recording dates from 8 April 1982 at the Glasgow Apollo. This was the second of the two nights at the famous old (and long demolished) venue as part of the what was called The Trans Global Express tour – it was also the conclusion of what must have been a gruelling tour which had seen 25 gigs in 28 nights right across the UK. And t’internet confirms that Going Underground was the fourth song of the evening while Dreams was the eighth track aired. Looking back at the full set list I can see how privileged I was:-

Pretty Green; Carnation; Happy Together; Going Underground; Ghosts; Town Called Malice; Just Who Is The 5 O’Clock Hero?; Dreams Of Children; That’s Entertainment; Tales From The Riverbank; Precious; Move On Up; In The Crowd; Running On The Spot; Trans Global Express; Private Hell; The Gift; The Butterfly Collector; Start!; Strange Town; The Eton Rifles.

Enjoy.

Pet Shop Boys

MUCH MORE THAN JUST A GAY-DISCO COMBO

Those who are quick to dismiss Pet Shop Boys have got it all wrong. I reckon they’re about as great a singles act as has ever been, and not just in my lifetime, and they have confounded just about everyone with the truly groundbreaking and breathtaking live tours over the years.

And let’s not forget that some of the lyrics penned by Neil Tennant are as poetical and beautiful as anything that the great singer/songwriters armed with an acoustic guitar have ever produced.

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Rent

One of my favourite singles of theirs dates from 1993. It was their 13th Top Ten hit in the UK and took the storyline of a man refusing to accept his gay tendencies and thus finding himself trapped inside a loveless, useless and cruel relationship where he is continually being mocked by his wife or girlfriend….a plot that has been used every now and again by soap operas the world over.

mp3 : Pet Shop Boy – Can You Forgive Her?

It also has a very lovely b-side….with a lyric Morrissey himself might have penned, or at the very least inspired:-

Hey, headmaster, what’s the matter with you?
Why you always so serious? Why so blue?
All the kids in the school have seen you
being patient with the boys who fool you
when you used to hit them with your ruler
so independent too

Hey, headmaster, what’s the matter with you?

There’s a crisis rumoured in the school
The boys have cut their hair short to look cool
Examination time is drawing near
Disintegration of the football team
No one seems to want to play for real
in classroom, club or pool

Hey, headmaster, what you gonna do?

There’s an invitation in the post
to a reading party on the coast
Pack your bags up, you old bibliophile
Get together with your friends
who will give you time to think and time to kill
with independent hosts

Hey, headmaster, aren’t you gonna go?
Hey, headmaster, aren’t you gonna go?

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Hey, Headmaster

Sublime

Cinerama

AMERICAN SERVCO (anagram)

I stated yesterday that today’s posting would look at covers recorded by Cinerama…and I’m going to be as good as my word.

Peel Session 2 : recorded 15 August 1999, broadcast on 2 November 1999

mp3 : Cinerama – Elenore

A cover of a 1969 single by The Turtles; the song has a very interesting back story as it was composed as a riposte to the band’s record label who were desperate to be given a happy-go-lucky pop song in the style of the #1 hit Happy Together.

Peel Session 3 : recorded 13 May 2001, broadcast on 24 May 2001

mp3 : Cinerama – Yesterday Once More (Peel Session)

There’s no doubt that the young David Gedge listened to the radio waiting for his favourite songs to sing along. So it’s no real surprise that this 1973 single by The Carpenters became one of the dozens of covers he’s recorded over the years

Peel Session 6 : recorded 27 November 2003 , broadcast on 6 January 2004

mp3 : Cinerama – Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)

The smash hit club/dance single from 2003 is turned into a real heart-tugger of a love song, so much so it sounds like a Gedge original

b-side of Manhattan single, 2000

mp3 : Cinerama – London

In which the frantic and electric Morrissey/Marr composition is given a very fine and melodic makeover.

b-side of Superman single, 2001

mp3 : Cinerama – Yesterday Once More

Every sha-la-la-la, every whoa-o-whoa (etc)

b-side of Health and Efficiency

mp3 : Cinerama – Diamonds Are Forever

Well, if the call from the Bond folk to compose an original ain’t gonna come then you’re as well to show them what they’re missing.

Enjoy

Cinerama, Wedding Present

SOME MORE CROSSOVER BETWEEN HIS TWO BANDS

I’m a huge fan of Take Fountain which was the 2005 ‘comeback’ album by The Wedding Present in the sense that it was the first music released under that moniker in nine years. But during that hiatus, David Gedge had been very busy writing and recording music as part of Cinerama, a band which released three albums and twelve singles of incredibly and consistently high quality. There were also, you’ll not be surprised to know, a whole bundle of Peel Sessions and as was always the case with David Gedge, the opportunity was usually taken to air what were the unreleased tracks as well as having a stab at an unusual unexpected cover.

I’ll actually look at some covers in tomorrow’s posting but for today I’m focusing on some Peel session songs by Cinerama that wouldn’t see light of day until TWP laid them down for Take Fountain.

There’s two sessions involved – the first was recorded on 8 May 2003 and broadcast on 4 June 2003 and included these two tracks:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Edinburgh
mp3 : Cinerama – Larry’s

The former would be renamed as I’m From Further North Than You but in a tribute to its original title the promo video for its release as a single was shot entirely on location in Scotland’s capital.

mp3 : The Wedding Present – I’m From Further North Than You
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Larry’s

The other cuts are from the band’s sixth and final Peel Session, recorded on 27 November 2003 but not broadcast until 6 January 2004:-

mp3 : Cinerama – Always The Quiet One
mp3 : Cinerama – Mars Sparkles Down On Me
mp3 : Cinerama – Why Are Nickels Bigger Than Dimes?

Both sessions are unlike all the previous Cinerama material as they are arranged, more or less, for a more basic lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass and drums rather than the more complex style involving strings, brass and woodwind. So it made perfect sense just to take the songs and record them under the TWP moniker. Incidentally the last of the tracks on this second session was also given a different title and while it didn’t make the cut for Take Fountain it did appear as a b-side:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Always The Quiet One
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Mars Sparkles Down On Me
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Nickels and Dimes

Enjoy

Jesus & Mary Chain

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 36 of 48)

Continuing with the run of bands that I’m surprised to see on CD86.

I don’t think too many readers will need any lessons on the history and timeline of The Jesus and Mary Chain. If you do, then I’ll refer you to this wiki page which is extremely detailed and comprehensive.

I’m assuming that Bob Stanley has included the boys from East Kilbride (the same town as Roddy Frame was raised) on the basis that they would go on to be the best known and among the most sustainable indie bands to emerge from the era in question with all sorts of celebrity fans the world over. I don’t think anyone who watched the continual chaos and violence around the early gigs, combined with a total ‘fuck you’ attitude from the band members would ever have imagined they would enjoy such a long and incredibly successful and rewarding career in the music industry.

CD86 contains Upside Down, the debut single which actually came out on Creation Records in November 1984 when the line-up was Jim Reid (vocals), William Reid (guitar), Douglas Hart (bass) and Murray Dalglish (drums). The first 1.000 copies were in black with red writing and included a contact address for the band. and were printed by future band drummer and all-round superstar Bobby Gillespie. Later initial versions had a multitude of colours (red, yellow, blue or pink) but no contact address; nor where they printed by Bobby. Such was the demand for the single that Creation re-released in it 1985 with a totally different sleeve but with the same b-side, a cover of a Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd number:-

mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – Upside Down
mp3 : The Jesus and Mary Chain – Vegetable Man

Enjoy

Pulp

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

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON MONDAY 24 MARCH 2008

Not to be confused with Love of The Common People by Paul Young. Nor indeed the cover version that was later recorded by William Shatner.

Common People by Pulp is one of those songs that your instincts tell you the first ever time you catch it that it will become a timeless classic you will never grow tired of. And then you listen more closely as you get more familiar with the song and you realise that there is so much more to it than a catchy ditty that sound great on the radio or coming out of your telly on Top Of The Pops or whatever.

For me, this was the song that propelled Jarvis Cocker from talented but mostly unappreciated wordsmith into the people’s poet. At the time, I thought it was a fantastic bit of imaginary writing, but some years later, Jarvis revealed that the main protagonist was not a figment of his imagination – there really had been some upper-class toff at St Martin’s Art College in London who fancied a bit of rough (I suppose its makes a difference from the usual which seems to be a gap year traipsing round India seeking self-enlightenment).

This is a song that has a great storyline, fantastic lyrics, a catchy tune that you can dance to and an unforgettable sing-a-long chorus. And yet…..

……the version that was best known was the shorter 7″ version which omitted a few lines in the middle of the song when the tempo changed ever so-slightly, including what I reckon are the most telling lyrics:-

‘You will never understand
How if feels to live your life
With no meaning or control
And with nowhere else to go’

Jarvis Cocker’s life was never the same after this. He became a tabloid regular with his outspoken views and acidic one-liners – a genuine working-class hero who captured exactly how so many folk felt after nearly two decades of successive Tory governments in the UK. Then he waved his bum at Michael Jackson at the Brits the following year…….but that is another story.

Released in June 1995, Common People reached #2 in the UK charts, kept from the top spot by Robson & Jerome‘s cover of Unchained Melody.

(For those not familiar with the #1 act, they were two acts in a popular TV series who were encouraged to cash-in by the record industry. Nowadays, things like that have largely been overtaken by the myriad of talent shows that make new ‘stars’, but the effect is the same. Can anyone nowadays recall what Robson or Jerome looked like?)

I have what is described as CD2, which contains the full-length version of the song and three acoustic versions of older Pulp tracks.

mp3 : Pulp – Common People
mp3 : Pulp – Razzmatazz (Acoustic Version)
mp3 : Pulp – Dogs Are Everywhere (Acoustic Version)
mp3 : Pulp – Joyriders (Acoustic Version)

Oh and it also came with an unforgettable video.

All of this and it only made #45 in this countdown??

Cinerama, Wedding Present

GETTING YOUR TWO BANDS TO DO THE SAME SONG

The story is thus.

Back in 2003, Cinerama released a single called Don’t Touch That Dial. Like all other releases by the band, it didn’t sell in any great numbers.

A few months later David Gedge, decided it was time to put Cinerama on hold and resuscitate The Wedding Present.

Fast forward to 2005 and the release of the TWP comeback album, Take Fountain, and track 7 turns out to be a song called Don’t Touch That Dial.

Both versions are rather splendid in their own right. One sounds like Cinerama (with keyboards to the fore)and the other sounds like The Wedding Present (with backing vocals and much more guitar). They simply have a lead singer (and songwriter) in common.

mp3 : Cinerama – Don’t Touch That Dial
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Don’t Touch That Dial (Pacific Northwest Version)

Enjoy