THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

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

PJ Harvey

WOW

Back in the early days, during the promotion of the first couple of albums, whenever PJ Harvey took to the stage for a gig or made a rare live TV appearance her appearance wasn’t that far removed from a 20-something indie-student going to the local union. Hair swept back and held in place by an Alice band and everyday clothes such as baggy black jumpers, leggings or jeans, all rounded off with a pair of trainers or Doc Martens.

She was determined to let the music do the talking and image was secondary.

But that all changed dramatically during the recording of the LP To Bring You My Love which was released in February 1995. I don’t think I was alone in being gobsmacked when I first caught sight of the promo for the lead-off single.

Long flowing black hair. Bright red lipstick around a mouth that pouted at the camera. A ruby-red designer dress that showed a vamp with a gorgeous figure. High heels. Slinky dancing. PJ submerged underwater. A vision of absolute loveliness.

It really should have been a massive hit and deserved much more than the paltry #38 it achieved in the UK.

mp3 : PJ Harvey – Down By The Water

Over in the States, it was a different story – the single was massive on the US Modern Rock chart partly because the video, unsurprisingly, was on heavy rotation on MTV. It was clear that PJ Harvey had decided to play along with the game, and the image was every bit now as important as the songs.

Here’s your b-sides:-

mp3 : PJ Harvey – Lying In The Sun
mp3 : PJ Harvey – Somebody’s Down, Somebody’s Name

Oh and interesting to note that the sleeve of this single would probably get banned nowadays thanks to the cigarette in Polly Jean’s right hand. Strange how much some things have changed in the past 20 years.

Queens Of The Stone Age

WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (27)/IMAGINARY COMPILATION (40)

The Shoebox of Delights – Jim Picked Number 15
Songs For The Deaf – Queens of the Stone Age

SWC writes.…………..

I was (and had before I went on holiday) going to write a little story about how wonderful charity shops are. This album folks, was until about 0930 Tuesday morning, the last CD I ever bought, found in a charity shop in Exeter for £1.50. An absolute chuffing bargain. On Tuesday whilst in Burlington, Vermont I found a copy of ‘After Murder Park’ by The Auteurs in a thrift shop – price – $2. Now that is the last CD I ever bought and also an absolute chuffing bargain.

But, as I cycled, walked, drove and on one occasion horse rode, through the countryside of Vermont and New Hampshire, this band kept coming on the iPod, the car stereo and I am pretty sure that the horse was singing ‘Feel Good hit of the Summer’ whilst I was on its back. So I thought, bugger it, let’s do an Imaginary Compilation on Queens of The Stone Age. Also I am stuck at an airport for at least three hours and I have time to kill (well it gets me out of shopping with the family – I’ll stay with the bags and this MASSIVE doughnut, you go and have fun, its fine….).

I came to Queens of the Stone Age late. The first album of theirs that I owned was the most recent – but since then I have actively sought out as much of their stuff as I can find, and ‘Songs For the Deaf’ is totally brilliant, it is their third album and they recruited Dave Grohl and Mark Lanegan to bolster their sound – which pretty much turned them into a super group by adding two guys who are always on top of their game. Queens of the Stone Age are a consistently brilliant band, one who have a biit of mystique about them. Their world is a sexual drug filled and somewhat paranoid place that is laced with darkness and humour.

So here is my Imaginary Compilation

Side One

‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’ – There is perhaps no better place to start, that chugging riff at the start which to me is instantly recognisable. An open letter to the (apparent, I wouldn’t know, I’m pretty much a tea total monk) joy of various types of narcotics, with just that simple lyric of seven types of drugs repeated over and over again. Simple, effective and downright incredible despite featuring the bloke out of Judas Priest on backing vocals. Ready everyone…..’Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin…’

‘If I Had A Tail’ – Filth. Utter Filth. This song makes me want to go and have a shower, I’ve never been sure why, perhaps it’s the way its bass line throbs away and the guitar kind of just toys with you. Or perhaps its those lyrics particularly the bit where Josh Homme goes ‘oooh La La’ and talks about sucking and licking. Yes it’s that bit. Definitely. Features a cast of thousands (well Dave Grohl on drums, Alex Turner, Mark Lanegan and Nick Oliveri) as well. On a separate point Nick Oliveri deserves your highest praise because he was once arrested for punching two of Terrorvision.

‘Monsters in the Parasol’ – More filth. This is a butt shaking romp about a transvestite (the monster in the parasol, I assume is a metaphor, is that the right grammar?). It’s really catch again and is a bit of an earworm. One that I know now will be playing over in my mind on the forthcoming flight.

‘First It Giveth’ – In which Josh adopts a painful sounding falsetto and warbles over punishing riffs and then it bursts into full on strop mode for a chorus which I think is best described as apocalyptic. That might be over doing it, but I love it all the same.

‘No One Knows’ – Here the album slightly changes pace a bit and we find ourselves sliding into a nice and sleazy dimly lit bar. This song is song sleazy it may as well be half drunk, reeking of cheap petrol station bought cologne and making a move on your girlfriend/wife/brother/well anything really. Its slime of the highest quality and it is genius.

Side Two

‘You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire’ – This the greatest strengths of rock at its hardest– stunning riffs, breakneck speed, and guitars that churn and spit like a threshing machine. Yes its full of really old metal clichés but this is the Queens of The Stone Age, this what you expect from them. It’s fantastic and rather like the musical equivalent of a bouncer putting you in a full nelson until you beg for mercy – and then – giving you a hug for your troubles.

‘I Sat by The Ocean’ – One of the more straight forward tracks that the Queens have recorded. The sound here and across the whole of the ‘Like Clockwork’ album is more tight and this track is actually quite poppy. On this track the vocals are shared by Homme and bassist Michael Shuman.

‘Better Living Through Chemistry’ – Possibly the greatest song in the world to start with a bongo drum and perhaps the closest that Queens get to matching the sound of Homme’s previous band Kyuss. Its kind of floaty and it shows that this track was written in the desert. It is one of their greatest songs, epic and somewhat surrealist, if that is even possible.

‘The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret’ – This was supposed to be a macho kind of record but the rumour goes that Homme got stoned whilst recorded it and decided to bring in a marimba and a saxophone and turned it into a wonderful pop record. The chorus is probably the catchiest thing that they’ve recorded. Strangely I nearly left this off for one of its B Sides but changed my mind.

‘……..Like Clockwork’ – I’ll end with what I think is the nicest track that Homme and co have ever recorded. It starts with voice and piano and builds majestically into a guitar sound that is swelled by some strings. Then in comes that falsetto again and he warns ‘Its all downhill from here’. I’m getting on a plane in about twenty minutes – I don’t believe him.

A lot has been written about Queens of the Stone Age, they say that ‘Rated R’ is one of the greatest records ever made, it even made that book ‘1001 records to hear before you die’. It is a wonderful record. If you are new to Queens of the Stone Age, start there and then indulge entirely.

That was supposed to be Number 15, it kind of was. Can I have some more numbers please?

Thanks everyone have a good day.

S-WC

mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – Feel Good Hit of The Summer
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – If I Had A Tail
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – Monsters in The Parasol
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – First It Giveth
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – No One Knows
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar But I Feel Like A Millionaire
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – I Sat By The Ocean
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – Better Living Through Chemistry
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret
mp3 : Queens of the Stone Age – ….Like Clockwork

JC adds……

I’m with the author on the quality of Rated R and the greatness of ‘Lost Art….’ I’m otherwise a bit ambivalent about Q0tSA but there’s no arguing they’re exceptionally good at what they do.

Marc Almond

23 YEARS SINCE HIS LAST TOP 20 HIT??

I couldn’t believe it either!!

Fair enough that the singles charts have not been targeted all that much in recent times, but I was bemused to learn that late 1992 with this cover version was the last time that Marc Almond enjoyed genuine commercial success:-

mp3 : Marc Almond – The Days Of Pearly Spencer

It’s also a fact that all five of his singles which have made the Top 20 since the initial demise of Soft Cell are cover versions :-

I Feel Love (with Bronski Beat) in 1985
Something’s Gotten Hold Of My Heart (with Gene Pitney) in 1988
Tainted Love ’91 (as part of Soft Cell) in 1991
Jacky in 1991
The Days Of Pearly Spencer in 1992

I could have sworn there had been some success with one or more of his own compositions, but Stories of Johnny (1985), Tears Run Rings (1988), A Lover Spurned (1990), and Adored And Explored (1995) didn’t get any higher than the mid 20s chart-wise.

Again, I find that to be something quite bemusing as many of his own compositions have been excellent releases which usually received the full marketing and promotional treatment from his record labels.

As ever, here’s the b-sides of the single featured today:-

mp3 : Marc Almond – Bruises
mp3 : Marc Almond – Dancing In A Golden Cage

Enjoy

Jam

THE JAM SINGLES (9)

The first of the singles to hit the Top 10 reaching #3 just after its release on 26 October 1979 around the same time as the Setting Sons album gave The Jam their first Top 5 LP.

mp3 : The Jam – The Eton Rifles
mp3 : The Jam – See-Saw

The album version is also getting an airing today. It’s not much different except that there’s an extra 30 seconds or so of incendiary guitar playing after the three-minute mark and it was this version that tended to feature in the live setting:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Eton Rifles (LP version)

Two more bonus versions, the first being from the Peel Session recorded on 29 October 1979 and broadcast on 5 November 1979. To be honest it sounds a little limp compared to the studio versions:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Eton Rifles (Peel Session)

Finally what could well be the best version of the lot…

mp3 : The Jam – The Eton Rifles (demo)

Recorded in July 1979 as a solo recording by Paul Weller.

Enjoy.

bIG fLAME

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 35 of 48)

Now I might have been surprised at Age of Chance being part of CD86 (see Part 34 for details) but I’m bemused as to the inclusion of biG*fLaME although the reason is probably the same as last week in that they were part of the original C86 cassette – although this most likely had more to do with office politics at the NME than the music.

Named after a revolutionary socialist feminist grouping that had formed in 1970, this Manchester-based trio, consisting of Alan Brown (bass, vocals), Greg Keeffe (guitar) and Dil Green (drums), were incredibly different from most. They were more punk than indie with an uncompromising sound and attitude.

Their debut single was released in 1984 on their own Laughing Gun label after which they became part of Ron Johnson Records (you’ll note that I didn’t use the word signed as I don’t think that would have been part of the band’s manifesto). There would be just the four 7″ singles, one 10″ EP and one 12″ compilation issued between 1985 and 1987 before the end of biG*FlaME. but Browne and Keefe joined other Manchester bands with varying degrees of success.

It is fair to say they were an acquired taste but my good mate Jacques the Kipper has always been a fan. Here’s the track from CD86:-

mp3 : biG*fLaME – Why Popstars Can’t Dance

It was the third of the singles release on the Ron Johnson label back in 1986. There were two bits of music on the b-side:-

mp3 : biG*fLaME – Chanel Samba
mp3 : biG*fLaME – Breath Of A Nation

Enjoy