THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE JAMES SINGLES (25)

It’s now approaching nine months since the nonsense of the Sit Down remix and it is time for what would be the 25th single to be released by James.

Let’s give the band a bit of credit. They were wounded by the criticism offered by fans about the multi-formatting of recent 45s and that almost all of them had been padded out with remixes or live versions. and so it was made clear that the first post Best-Of single would come accompanied by high quality new songs unavailable elsewhere.

The single itself caught more than a few folk out:-

mp3 : James – I Know What I’m Here For

This was a different sounding James…well to an extent. It had a joyous sounding 45 with a catchy chorus but in a way that was unlike any of their other singles. I was caught out by it at the time and to all intent and purposes I should have fallen for its charms. But I couldn’t help but think that they were trying to take a leaf out of the book of U2 with a conscious and deliberate attempt to make something different just for the sake of it rather than head down any new and exciting musical direction. And sixteen years on, I remain strangely unmoved by the single. There’s evidence that I wasn’t alone as it stalled at #22 in the charts.

So what about these anticipated b-sides??

mp3 : James – All Good Boys
mp3 : James – Imagine Ourselves
mp3 : James – Downstairs
mp3 : James – Stolen Horse

CD1

All Good Boys is a slow song initially driven along by a strong vocal from Tim over an acoustic guitar before the chorus licks in where it sadly falls away into something a bit dull and leaden with the rest of the band joining in on backing vocals over a tune that could pass for a Robbie Williams b-side.

Imagine Ourselves is another slowie. This time it is initially driven along by a strong vocal from Tim over some electronic noodling. However, there is no upbeat shouty chorus to take the song to a different level so it sort of meanders along for the whole four and a half minutes but in a way that is quite lovely and moving. It’s a song that needs two or three listened to be fully appreciated but there’s no denying it is top quality for a b-side.

CD2

Downstairs is very much James in the 90s by numbers in that if you were fond of the singles you’d immediately fall for its charms. Regular readers will know that I found the James of the 90s a bit more miss than hit and so it is with this song. But I can see and appreciate why it is so well-regarded by fans

Stolen Horses is yet another ballad and again doesn’t do all that much for me but this is as much to do with the fact that James are no longer sounding anything like the band that I had fallen for almost 15 years previously than it being a crap song.

Listening to the songs some sixteen years later and I think I may have come up with the answer to as why I’m not a huge fan of them…….

These b-sides, and indeed the a-side could have been written today and no-one would be any the wiser. There’s lots of singers and bands out there who have great sounding voices and whose technical skills on their chosen instruments are there for all to hear and who have no trouble filling large venues and arenas to ever-increasing fanbases. These James songs from 1999 sound as if they would fit very comfortably into such sets and that’s what’s wrong with them. The music snob in me shies away from the mainstream for the most part and these highly proficient songs repel me in the same way.

But this journey of looking at James singles is almost at an end and so I’m not disembarking the vehicle until it reaches its final destination. I am however, bored with the repetitive scenery as I look out the window. I need that ‘wow’ factor………

Lucksmiths

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #10 – THE LUCKSMITHS

One of the things I like most about doing all this is the feedback and contributions from others. There’s been hundreds of you left behind comments at some point in time while many of you have gone that bit further and offered to make one or more guest postings.

I’m thrilled that two readers got back to me the other week – both of them from America (and I can’t quite believe that I have so many folk visit T(n)VV from that great country on a regular basis) – in response to my asking if anyone wanted to put together an imaginary album by The Lucksmiths as I didn’t know enough about them or have enough of their songs to do it justice.

The first has come in courtesy of Eric who lives away over in Oakland on the west coast many many time zones removed from Glasgow. It’s pretty wonderful (albeit he has gone with a compilation CD approach rather than giving himself the torture of trying to do a 10-track vinyl album!!!). In his covering e-mail he said

Hi Jim,
I did it! I think you might regret that last statement. It’s so long. Once I started going I just couldn’t stop. So feel free to edit or send it back to me to edit. I won’t be hurt. The process itself was worth it. Thanks!
Eric

There is no way I’d ever dream of sending anything back or editing it down on my own accord. Besides, as Eric points out, this was band akin with the CD-only era and 15 songs were atypical of any release.

So here, without prejudice, are the words Eric has so kindly contributed today:-

I first became aware of the Lucksmiths in the 90s through a little file-sharing ring my sister set up. They quickly became a favorite and provided a private soundtrack to my 30s. I say private because I honestly can’t remember hearing them played on any radio or media in the SF Bay Area. Still, their shows here were always well attended, so I know people were buying their CDs (yeah, mostly CDs, their prime was right at that vinyl nadir when so many recordings came on CD only). I always thought they must be massive in their home country. Every time I’d meet an Australian I’d bring up the Lucksmiths. In all but one case I was met with a blank stare.

Whatever the success or failures of the band, they managed to produce quite a catalogue: 11 albums, 3 EPs and a handful of 45s and other singles. Thankfully the entire body of work is available on Spotify. I just spent two weeks annoying my co-workers with endless humming and singing in the hallways as I remembered song after song.

I never realized how hard these imaginary LPs were until I had to do it myself. I allowed myself 15 songs, which might seem excessive, but it’s on par with the albums of their heyday. I remember reading a review of their posthumous “greatest hits” compilation that called two hours of their word play and tweeness maddening. As much as I love them, I can see the point. An hour with the boys is a good stretch, and of course some of their finer moments come in tight 3 minutes pops.

1. The Golden Age of Aviation

I mean come on, it literally starts with the words “Hello everybody!” Unabashedly upbeat in the face of a disintegrating relationship, the song is a great Lucksmiths primer, full of overlaid metaphors and clever wordplay.

2. There Is a Boy That Never Goes Out

This one is just fun, and it brings to mind their name-checked heroes. I always thought it was funny that they so identified with the Smiths. They feel like totally different animals. Where the Smiths were constantly swinging for the fences, the Lucksmiths seemed perfectly content to play small ball; a double here a single there, sacrifice to bring a man home.

3. Southernmost
Quite simply my favorite opening lyric of any of their songs. The whole verse builds to such a satisfying couplet. I’m tempted to include it here, but I think it’s better heard than read.

4. The Cassingle Revival

The Lucksmiths released a number of one-off and tour singles, something I wish more bands would do. Of course they were totally prescient. My local record shop now sells scores of vintage cassettes. I guess Vinyl just isn’t hipster enough anymore…

5. The Great Dividing Range

Maybe my favorite song of all time. If you don’t feel like an hour of these boys, just start with this one. Great economy of language in a perfectly understated setting. Oh and somehow uplifting and melancholy at the same time. This one has it all!

6. Don’t Come With Me

The thing that drew me in to the Lucksmiths was their uncanny ability to articulate little moments of life. This has happened to me and I don’t think I’ve ever heard another person write a song about it, let alone a catchy clever one.

7. The Chapter in Your Life Entitled San Francisco

I was very fortunate to be in the SF Bay Area during the Lucksmiths run. They came here a lot, way more than my favorite UK and European bands of the time. In 2005 they released a love letter to San Francisco. All the songs had some sort of Bay Area connection. I read later that they felt like my home was their second home. Cheers to that.

8. I Prefer the Twentieth Century

I remember in 1999 a number of bands were trying to write the perfect millennial song. I can’t remember a single one of those, but 15 years later I find myself humming this one. According to Discogs “Produced for a New Years Eve gig in Melbourne featuring the bands. All songs recorded December 2000.“ There’s a comment on the Discogs page, purportedly from one of the other bands on the bill: Guy Blackman of Sleepy Township: “I think we sold 17 on the night. We should have just given them away.” I don’t know how but I somehow ended up with two of these. They must have done just that on their subsequent gigs.

9. T-Shirt Weather

This is easily the most popular and well-known Lucksmiths song (and the one that inspired this post). It’s perfectly timed for the coming of spring and can be heard emanating from me as I tool around town on my own bike.

10. Untidy Towns

“First things first I have a happy secret.” For the longest time that secret was this great band called the Lucksmiths. The boys always knew how to open an album.

11. Wyoming
The song that started it all for me. I had just driven cross-country a few years before hearing this song. I remember being shocked a how well a band from halfway around the world so perfectly captured my experience of Big Sky Country.

12. Jennifer Jason

There aren’t any songs here from their early albums. It’s not that there isn’t great stuff there, it’s just that the 1997-onward material is so great. I always feel like it’s nice to have a palate cleanser in an album so why not this one. Also Jennifer Jason Leigh, amiright?

13.The Invention of Ordinary Everyday Things

“She’s telling me she’s tired of relationships / And I’m bending bits of wire in to paperclips.” I think we’ve all been there.

14. Camera-Shy

I love a band that can seamlessly work in a word like heliolithic. As a camera-shy person myself I listen to this song and am immediately transported to umpteen memories.

15. The Year of Driving Languorously

So many of these songs deal with long distance relationships. It seems fitting to end with the Lucksmiths driving us to the airport to fly who-knows-where maybe never to come back. We want to believe this will go on forever, but we both know it won’t. So we find excuses to avoid talking because if we start talking we’ll have to acknowledge it. The song is all the more heartbreaking due to the relentlessly upbeat setting.

Ok that’s the album, but I want to include an imaginary 45 as well.

The Lucksmiths wrote one of my favorite Christmas songs, but I hate it when bands include holiday material on their regular releases. It just ruins the mood when I’m listening to the album in April. On the B-side, a song that just guts me every time I hear it. I just couldn’t get it in to the imaginary LP because everything about it just screams B-side. I can’t explain it, but here it is as the B-Side of my imaginary 45.

A. The Thought That Counts

B. Postcard

Woah! That got very long very fast. If you made it all the way here then cheers. If any Lucksmiths fans out there are wondering why there’s nothing here from their final album, First Frost, it’s kinda the same story as the early albums. It’s not a bad album, it’s just that the other stuff is so good. My last Lucksmiths show came during the First Frost promotional tour and you could just feel that the boys were tired. 16 years is a long time to do anything, so it wasn’t a total shock when they called it a day.

Thanks JC for prompting this little trip down memory lane. The last few weeks have been a total joy, and it’s great having all these songs in my head again. I also want to give props for the imaginary album idea. It’s so much more satisfying than a greatest hits or singles album. There are great album tracks that never make it on to those things, and they are often too long and disjointed.

Eric from Oakland

OK. One more PS, secret track, whatever… It’s Good Friday as I write so this song has been coursing through my head all day. I just missed the Imaginary LP cut for being a little to similar to The Great Dividing Range. That said it does contain one of my favorite Lucksmiths stanzas.

Hidden track : Guess How Much I Love You

Here’s me, here’s you.
Draw a line between the two.
This is cartography for beginners.
On the map the gap’s three fingers,
But it’s more than that, it’s more than that.

I know this isn’t how you usually do things, but I created a Spotify playlist incase you want to use it. I found tool invaluable in creating the imaginary LP.

https://open.spotify.com/user/122829849/playlist/2UZAxUd4vRdgPqBgn6Fn1b

Note from JC….

At a pinch, Eric has tripled the number of songs by The Lucksmiths that I have the good fortune to have in the collection. They really are/were a very fine band. And here’s my old-fashioned way of making the songs available:-

ALBUM

mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Golden Age of Aviation
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – There Is A Boy That Never Goes Out
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Southernmost
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Cassingle Revival
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Great Dividing Range
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Don’t Come With Me
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – I Prefer The Twentieth Century
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – T-Shirt Weather
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Untidy Towns
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Wyoming
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Jennifer Jason
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Invention Of Ordinary Everyday Things
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Camera-Shy
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Year Of Living Langurously

BONUS SINGLE

mp3 : The Lucksmiths – The Thought That Counts
mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Postcard

HIDDEN TRACK

mp3 : The Lucksmiths – Guess How Much I Love You

Enjoy!!!!!!

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

THE UNDERRATED SECOND LP

Everyone I knew in the mid 80s…..and I mean everyone……adored Rattlesnakes, the debut LP from Lloyd Cole & The Commotions. It’s a record packed with great tunes that you can latch on to immediately while lyrically its as fine an album as any. Poetry and prose set to music….

However, not so many folk seem so fond of the follow-up Easy Pieces, released in 1985 just 13 months after the debut. While Rattlesnakes was commemorated with a 20th Anniversary Tour in 2004 (where the band played a blistering set at Glasgow Barrowlands only spoiled by the fact that a then unknown but cringingly appalling James Blunt was the support act), Easy Pieces is passed off with the words ‘its ok….but nowhere near as good as the debut’ – even by the band themselves.

I’m not going to sit here and argue that Easy Pieces is a better record than Rattlesnakes…..but I am prepared to say that it as a far far far better record than many give it credit for.

Lead-off single Brand New Friend is a near perfect piece of pop, brilliantly polished by the production skills of Langer and Winstanley. Trust me on this one….

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Brand New Friend

Lost Weekend, with its clear-rip of The Passenger (as mentioned previously here) was the next 45 while the third single lifted from the LP was Cut Me Down. I many ways this was a strange choice as it isn’t the most commercial of songs but I suppose when six months have passed since the LP was released and the promotional tour is over then the third and final single isn’t really all that important in the grand scheme of things. I still think they missed a trick not issuing this as a 45:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Why I Love Country Music

Two other songs on the LP are also personal favourites – opening track Rich which is one that seems tailor-made for radio and is very reminiscent of REM and closer Perfect Blue with its wonderful harmonica and acoustic guitar opening that screams out Americana Road Movie……….

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rich
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Perfect Blue

So there you have it. Four of the ten songs from the LP. Everyone a gem. And the other six aren’t too shabby either……

Razorcuts

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 11 of 48)

There comes a tipping point when too much twee starts to annoy me. I’ll admit that, despite intending to feature all 48 songs and artistes who appear on CD86, some of the stuff gets the skip treatment on the i-pod. And today’s offering is one of them.

Razorcuts formed in 1985 with the mainstays being Gregory Webster (vocals/guitar) and Tim Vass (bass) augmented at times by various drummers and other musicians who came and went. After a couple of singles on the Subway Organisation label and a one-off on Flying Nun Records, they ended up signing to Creation by 1988 for who they would release two albums in 1988 and 1989 without setting the heather on fire.

The song on CD86 is a b-side to one of their June 86 debut on Subway and while it is far from a bad song – the tune is actually fine – the dreadful sub-standard vocal performance borders on the unlistenable. It is also a perfect example of the off-putting whining, struggling-to-hit-the-right notes delivery that quickly became synonymous with much of the C86 genre and which led to its rather prompt demise.

mp3 : Razorcuts – I’ll Still Be There

Here’s yer A-side:-

mp3 : Razorcuts – Big Pink Cake

The band split up in with Vass going on to form Red Chair Fade Away, and Webster joined The Carousel before the duo reunited under the name Forever People in 1992 for a one-off single called Invisible on Sarah Records.Between 1997 and 2002, Webster was part of Sportique, a sort of twee supergroup made up of ex-members of the likes of Heavenly, Television Personalities and Tallulah Gosh.

Aidan John Moffat

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #6 : AIDAN JOHN MOFFAT

Aidan John Moffat is the most diversely talented and intriguing Scottish musician of my generation.

He celebrates his 42nd birthday next week and he’s now been a staple part of the music scene in my part of the world for 20 years ever since Arab Strap came to prominence. He’s never been one to let any grass grow under his feet whether it has been recording albums – musical and spoken-word – under his own name), ambient dance music under the guise of L Pierre or Lucky Pierre, as part other of groups such as the low-fi The Angry Buddhists or the hard-to-pigeonhole Aloha Hawaii, as guest vocalist with countless others such as Mogwai and R M Hubbert and not forgetting his incredible collaboration with jazz musician Bill Wells that led to the Scottish Album of the Year award for 2011 for Everything’s Getting Older (the follow-up,The Most Important Place In The World, has just been released). Then of course 2014 saw him spend most of his time exploring the oral traditions of Scottish music with a tour of some very unusual venues and the making of a documentary film that was shown at the Barrowlands in Glasgow.

In short, he’s a one-off and he’s a national treasure.

I thought I’d treat you to one something from the 2009 release How To Get To Heaven From Scotland together with a rare live radio session.

mp3 : Aidan John Moffat & The Best Ofs – Big Blonde
mp3 : Aidan John Moffat & The Best Ofs – Big Blonde (session)

Given his propensity for being part of acts that begin with the letter ‘A’ you can bank on Aidan featuring in this slot a few more times in the coming weeks.

Dexy's Midnight Runners

ON A NIGHT WHEN FLOWERS DIDN’T SUIT MY SHOES…

A re-run of a guest posting from August 2011

They took their name from the recreational drug of choice for the Northern Soul fans at the time of their formation, Dexedrine, a brand of dextroamphetamine, the “midnight runners” refers to ability to dance all-night after taking said drug !!

Formed in Birmingham by Kevin Rowland and Kevin “Al” Archer, they arrived on the music scene with their own distinctive sound and dress style, they didn’t want to be a part of anyone else’s movement they wanted their own.

Their look was described as being “straight out of Robert DeNiro’s film Mean Streets” with their Donkey Jackets, Leather Coats and Woolly Hats…. ..at the same time in Kirkcaldy I was wearing a Donkey Jacket……this had absolutely nothing to do with any music scene, I just thought it may make me look more attractive to the young Irish student Midwives that were studying in my home town in the late seventies/early eighties!!!! For the record I had little success!!!

Rowland had a whole manifesto for the band – among other things they lived together in a squat and used public transport, which they never paid for. I remember seeing footage of them jumping over the barriers at an underground station in London and fleeing from the ticket collectors enroute to a gig.

After their first album, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels, Rowland fell out with most of the music press and many of his band members quit over Rowland’s antics including his “press embargo”.
The NME accused the band of “emotional fascism”.

This didn’t stop Rowland, he recruited new blood and changed their image again, this time his mantra was fitness and the band was seen out training together and running. With this change came a new look, which included hooded tops, boxing boots and ponytails. Alcohol was banned and exercise sessions would take place before gigs, he felt now the band had the right fighting spirit.

Co-founder Archer had left after the release of the first album, he formed a new band The Blue Ox Babes and was to later claim that Rowland stole his Celtic sound with the fiddles from Archer’s new group.
The one member of the band that stayed loyal to Kevin Rowland, was the leader of the brass section, Big Jim Patterson, the Scottish trombonist. He remained in Dexy’s until he felt their presence in the band had been diminished by the arrival of a new sound that used mainly fiddles. Big Jim and the rest of the brass players left to form the TKO Horns who played on Elvis Costello’s album Punch the Clock. They also went on to perform with numerous artists including Madness, Squeeze, Nick Lowe and Howard Jones.

In a BBC 2 Documentary for the Young Guns series, Archer played a demo he had made before the unveiling of Rowland latest re-incarnation of Dexy’s that sounded very much like their first single with the new direction, The Celtic Soul Brothers.

Rowland recruited Helen O’Hara from The Blue Ox Babes to join his “new” creation the Emerald Express, who joined the remainder of Dexy’s for the album Too-Rye-Ay, and with it came another new look best described as raggytail Gypsy, with dungarees, scarves and waistcoats.

Dexy’s Midnight Runners had worldwide success with the single Come on Eileen and I’m sure that it will be a floor filler at wedding evening discos for years to come. It was the biggest selling single in the UK and USA in 1982 and sold over 1.2 million copies in the UK alone.

I bought their first single Dance Stance after hearing it on Annie Nightingale’s Sunday Night Radio One Show, while working at St Andrews’ University.

On the February 1st 1980, the band played at the St Andrews’ Student’s Union, it was a blistering gig with Kevin Rowland turning in a very charismatic performance and, “Big” Jimmy Patterson a standout on trombone on his return to his homeland. A short while later, in May 1980, Geno No.1 in the UK charts.

mp3 : Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Geno (live)

Through all their time as a band Dexy’s produced some wonderful singles, the best for me being, produced during the brass/soul period and these are particular favourites of mine:-

mp3 : Dexy’s Midnight Runners – There There My Dear
mp3 : Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Plan B

They also turned in some very good cover versions of the Northern Soul Classics, Chuck Wood’s Seven Days Are Too Long and Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon’s Breaking Down The Walls Of Heartache that showed where Kevin Rowland’s musical preferences lay.

mp3 : Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Seven Days Are Too Long

Over the years, Rowland proved himself to be a control freak and a bit of a prat, who liked to be a chameleon and change his appearance, at will, he took it too far in 1999, when after an absence of 11 years away from the music scene, he released his second solo album My Beauty complete with cover photo of himself in a dress and stockings!!!!

It has been said My Beauty was a good piece of work but many shied away from it because of the cover. He appeared at the Reading music festival to promote the album dressed as he was on the cover and was bombarded on stage with a hail of bottles.

FOOTNOTE : Best place seen wearing a donkey jacket:

Picture the scene it’s July 1982 in a nightclub in San Antonio, Ibiza. Everyone is dancing about wearing their finest shorts and t-shirts to show off their fast growing tans- when on the music system comes Rock the Casbah by The Clash and out of nowhere appears a guy wearing a DONKEY JACKET with NCB* emblazoned on the back!!!

* NCB means National Coal Board

John Greer, Monday 22 August 2011

Smiths Covers

COVERING ALL THE BASES

While I was digging out the original version for yesterday’s posting, I noticed that I had a fair few cover versions on the hard drive. Some are far better than others but I think there will be something for everyone:-

mp3 : Clayhill – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : Deftones – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : Johnny Marr – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want (live)
mp3 : Josh Rouse – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : Muse – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : She & Him – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : The Dream Academy – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : Tinderbox – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
mp3 : Vitamin String Quartet – Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

It was while putting this piece together that I learned of the sad and untimely death just a few weeks back of Gavin Clark, the lead singer with Clayhill and who also contibuted to the work of UNKLE. He was 46 years old.

R.I.P.

Monochrome Set, Smiths, Style Council, Tracey Thorn

FOOLS IN LOVE (APRIL AND OTHERWISE)

This is loosely adapted and then expanded from a post over at the old place back in February 2010.

One of the minor reasons I ever started a blog was to bring attention to otherwise unavailable or difficult to find very fine records that had only ever been placed on the b-sides of long-deleted singles and while there is a growing tendency for album re-issues to bring together such tracks and label them ‘bonus’, nothing beat finding bits of vinyl with the crackly old originals.

One of the songs I really loved from my old vinyl days but had missed for many a year was Goodbye Joe, originally recorded as a b-side to a 1979 single :-

mp3 : The Monochrome Set – Goodbye Joe

It begins as if it is a live track, and one that is of poor sound quality at that. You can hear some crowd sing-a-long at the outset in what is clearly a small venue, then some cheering as a guitar as struck. After just under 50 seconds, lead singer Bid utters the words ‘Let’s Have Some Decorum’ and suddenly we switch to a quite gorgeous and moving studio track.

It’s about watching a film performance of this bloke here in case you were wondering.

Oh and for the record, the song was later recorded by Tracey Thorn, and again was consigned to obscurity on a 1982 b-side :-

mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Goodbye Joe

The original posting also featured the A-sides of the singles which, in Tracey’s case was also a beautiful piece of music:-

mp3 : Tracey Thorn – Plain Sailing

In the Feb 2010 posting I mentioned in passing how both of Tracey’s songs had featured heavily on compilation tapes in the era of 82/83/84 as a way to demonstrate to would-be girlfriends that I really did have a sensitive side but it never ever worked all that well. Seems I wasn’t alone in that failing as my good mate Dirk from Sexy Loser left behind the comment:-

“Yeah, mate: those tapes, ey?! I only wish I still would own a few of the dozens of them I made up back then with all my passion, heart and soul … instead I gave them away to girls who didn’t give a fuck. Literally.”

I remember that as being a genuine ‘splutter the tea all over the monitor’ moment when I read it. Still makes me smile………

And while I’m here, I just can’t resist:-

mp3 : The Style Council – The Paris Match (LP version)

Days of skinny-ribbed hooped t-shirts, a headful of perfectly coiffured hair and a devil-may-care attitude to life that I thought would last forever. How the fuck has Johnny Marr changed so little since those days???????

mp3 : The Smiths – Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

Sigh.

Teenage Fanclub

MY FIRST TASTE OF TEENAGE FANNIES

I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that Teenage Fanclub are a bit hit and miss with me but this particular 45 is one I’ve adored for nigh on 25 years now and I still think it is one of their all time greats:-

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – God Knows It’s True

I reckon this was the first time I ever heard the band and again it was thanks to it appearing on a compilation tape put together by Jacques the Kipper. It’s quite incredible to realise this single came out as far back as November 1990. It was the last thing they released on the Paperhouse label before the switch to Creation Records and the deserved commercial success from Bandwagonesque onwards.

I was delighted a few years ago to pick up a mint condition copy of the 12″ for just £3 and to discover that the other tracks consist of a cracking b-side that could easily have been released as a single and a couple of instrumentals which demonstrate the boys liked to listen to bit of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr just as much as the west coast Americana that they claimed were the biggest influences:-

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – So Far Gone
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Weedbreak
mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Ghetto Blaster

Enjoy

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (24)

I hadn’t forgotten about this series….I was simply putting off having to write about this rip-off.

I mentioned last time out that the release of Runaground, while being a right pain in the proverbial with its 3xCd format, at least, and for the first time in ages, provided some value(ish) for money with decent b-sides, mixes and live session versions.

Six months later in November 1998, and with the Best Of still doing quite well in the album charts James were about to embark on a sold-out tour of large arenas in the UK complete with support from either Stereophonics or Gene. The record label decided something had to be done to tie-in with the tour and also to prompt the Christmas market record-buyers that a James greatest hits CD might be worth popping into someone’s stocking.

And so the idea of a remix of Sit Down was hatched……

There’s lots to despise about this release. It has an appalling sleeve and the remix isn’t very good…it sounds awfy like the Doctorin’ The Tardis by The Timelords which had got to #1 away back in 1988…and then there’s the heinous crime of the record label stating that the inclusion of Sit Down on the b-side was the ‘original version’ when in fact it was the hit single version already on ‘Best Of’ rather than going to the trouble and expense of getting permission to go with the version released back in the days on Rough Trade.

What almost saves it are the two acoustic tracks lifted from the April 1998 session recorded for GLR Radio and the rocking version of China Girl which the band had recorded as a one-off on 21 April 1997 as a contribution to a Radio 1 Show, hosted by Jo Whiley, to commemorate the 50th birthday of Iggy Pop. If you hadn’t taped it off the radio it was otherwise unavailable:-

mp3 : James – Sit Down (apollo four forty mix)
mp3 : James – China Girl
mp3 : James – What For (GLR session)
mp3 : James – Sit Down (GLR session)

Enjoy.

Raw Herbs

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 10 of 48)

The Raw Herbs were a four-piece London band who released most of their material in what was a very brief career on Medium Cool, a Manchester-based label. The members were Derek Parker (vocals, guitar), Kevin Bache (guitar), Steven Archibald (bass), and Brian Alexis (drums).

There were just four singles during their two-year existence between 1986 and 1988 but they were regarded highly enough to also score a Radio 1 session for Janice Long who, at the time, broadcast in the early evening slot. The track on CD86 is in fact a b-side from their final single recorded for Rooster Records which, as far as I can tell, was their own label as I haven’t been able to find anything else released on that particular imprint:-

mp3 : The Raw Herbs – He Blows In

I’ve been able to track down the A-side of the 45:-

mp3 : The Raw Herbs – The Second Time

They’re decent enough quality indie-pop without being ground-breaking. And the a-side is better than the track included on CD86.

The lead singer went on to be part of a group called Horse Latitudes who, in 1990, released an LP entitled September Songs on Cherry Red Records. This particular band should, on no account be confused with a more recent combo using the same name – they are a death metal outfit from Finland and about as far removed from the C86 sounds as imaginable.

I’ve also learned that the drummer died in 2011 after suffering a deep-vein thrombosis.

Here’s a link to a fan site.

Aereogramme

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG :#5 : AEREOGRAMME

Aereogramme were a Scottish alternative/post-rock rock band from Glasgow, consisting of Craig B. (vocals, guitar), Iain Cook (guitar, programming), Campbell McNeil (bass) and Martin Scott (drums).

Formed in April 1998, the band released two 7″ singles in 1999 before signing the following year to Chemikal Underground on which they released two EPs and two LPs over a three-year period before a short-lived move to Undergroove Records in 2003 for whom they released their third LP.

By 2006, Aereogramme were back at Chem (as the Glasgow-based label is affectionately known) and their fourth, and what turned out to be their final LP, was released in January 2007 just a few months before they called it a day with the following message to all and sundry:-

“ It is with heavy hearts that we tell you all that Aereogramme have decided to split up. Reasons are multiple and complex. It is however fair to say that the never-ending financial struggle coupled with an almost superhuman ability to dodge the zeitgeist have taken their toll, ensuring that we just don’t have any fight left in us.

We are immensely proud of the four albums that we made over the past seven years. We hope that they continue to grow in your hearts. We plan to honour and celebrate the beautiful friendships we have made along the way with these final shows over the summer.”

The band then saw out various contractual obligations on the gigging front and played their last ever show at the Connect Festival in the Highland town of Inverary on 31 August 2007.

Iain Cook and Craig B. have since formed another successful and highly regarded band, The Unwinding Hours with two critically acclaimed albums released by Chem in 2010 and 2012 but more recently Cook has found more fame and a little fortune as a member of Chvrches.

As for the other two past members of Aereogramme, Martin Scott is the tour manager for Biffy Clyro while Campbell McNeil works in the same capacity with Chvrches.

I was very late in discovering Aereogramme with my first exposure coming via a Chemikal Underground compilation LP around the time of their final material.

More fool me.

Other than the compilation material, there’s just one rather splendid single – Barriers – from 2006 in the cupboard and I thought that given the b-side is otherwise unavailable to showcase that as this weekend’s Scottish song:-

mp3 : Aereogramme – Dissolve

Enjoy

Billy MacKenzie

HE WOULD HAVE TURNED 58 YEARS OF AGE TODAY

I recently sent Sid Law an e-mail with a great big ‘thank you’ on behalf of everyone for his words and songs in the recent Billy Mackenzie series. Here’s his lovely reply:-

I’m really glad the Billy posts were appreciated by your Vinyl Villain readers. I am awfie glad that people took the time to download some of the music I sent on to you, I hope it casts a little more colour and light on Billy and the range of his music. Billy and The Associates left behind a legacy of some very fine work which was remastered and expanded in the Virgin re-issues. For me the tragedy was always what was missed from the re-issue schedules, the weird collaborations, the mental B-sides, the long deleted and forgotten, the out-takes, the unreleased stuff. Maybe its all a bit train spotter-ish… but that is being a fan.

I think the work Billy was doing during the last few years of his life was some of the best he had ever done. His vocal work with Barry Adamson, Apollo Four Forty and Loom are of a richness, depth and scope which eclipsed almost everything he had ever done before. He was flying…

Billy would have been 58 on Friday 27 March.

Please find attached two commercially unavailable items of some charm and interest. The fully extended 12″ Mix of “Cinemas Of The World” from Billy’s 1987 collaboration with Uno. The following year The Associates released their last Warners single “Heart Of Glass” and on the four track 3-inch CDEP version (there were many formats…) there lurked “Her Only Wish” a dark little beast of a song which never saw the light of day on any of the re-issue CDs.

Post as you see fit Jim!

All the best – enjoy what we have!

Sid Law

How could I resist??

mp3 : Billy Mackenzie/Uno – Cinemas Of The World (12″ mix)
mp3 : Associates – Her Only Wish

And here’s one from me….fairly widely available but a personal favourite:-

mp3 : Associates – Breakfast (Peel Session)

Enjoy

Morrissey, NME Compilations (CDs)

THIS WAS STUCK TO THE FRONT PAGE OF A MAGAZINE (6)

Thus far any NME efforts in this series have harked back to the cassette era. This one however, is much more recent.

The NME and Morrissey have had an on-off relationship over the years. Simon Goddard sums up succinctly:-

His history with the NME is a tragicomedy unto itself. In the 1970s, they shunned his attempts to join their exclusive club as a freelance writer, barring him at the threshold of their letter page and the classified columns. Exacting the ultimate revenge, in the 1980s they lauded him as their pop saviour, the would-be critic having transformed himself into the object of their stupified desire. In the 1990s, as if suddenly humiliated by their sycophancy, they would try to destroy him. And in the 2000s they would beg him back on bended knee only to end their affair once and for all with an act of monumental dull-wittedness.

The bended-knee approach incorporated a Morrissey-curated free CD given away with the 19 June 2004 edition of the NME. The editor at the time, Conor McNicholas, penned these words:-

Morrissey hopes this compilation will say everything to you about your life, and maybe a little about his. Over the course of this CD Morrissey leads you by the hand from spiky punk to sun-kissed country grooves via bands he’s influenced and new acts he’s now consciously endorsing as the legacy of his talent and work. It’s a fascinating compilation and we’re very proud to present it. Now it’s all yours.

A wee bit over the top perhaps, but to be fair the 17 tracks are extremely diverse and as a free CD it is better than most. It was certainly unbeatable in terms of value. As with these sorts of compilations, there really should be something for everyone who reads TVV but at the same time, I’m prepared to accept there will inevitably be stuff that gets on your tits…..

mp3 : Morrissey – The Never Played Symphonies
mp3 : The Killers – Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
mp3 : Gene – Fighting Fit
mp3 : Sparks – Barbecutie
mp3 : The Slits – Love Und Romance
mp3 : The Ordinary Boys – (Little) Bubble
mp3 : New York Dolls – Vietnamese Baby
mp3 : Franz Ferdinand – Jacqueline (live)
mp3 : Raymonde – No One Can Hold A Candle To You
mp3 : Ludus – Let Me Go Where My Pictures Go
mp3 : Sack – Colorado Springs
mp3 : Remma – Worry Young (Demo Version)
mp3 : Pony Club – Single
mp3 : Jobriath – Morning Star Ship
mp3 : Damien Dempsey – Factories
mp3 : The Libertines – Time For Heroes
mp3 : Sir John Betjeman – A Child Ill

Morrissey would himself record and release a copy of the Raymonde track later that year as a b-side:-

mp3 : Morrissey – No One Can Hold A Candle To You

I should also mention at this point that last Saturday saw Morrissey play the Hydro in Glasgow as part of his latest UK tour. For the first time ever, I made a conscious decision not to go along, choosing instead to spend my day at an alternative music shindig featuring, among others, Randolph’s Leap.

I do have the very slightest of regrets at missing Moz just in case it does turn out to be the final time he tours this part of the world and judging by the press reviews it was a belter of a gig….but against that, a couple of folk who were there and have been fans for years think that his best shows are long behind him and I didn’t miss out too much.

What I will say is that Randolph’s Leap were magnificent and provided further evidence as to why this, in my opinion, was the best album of 2014.

LCD Soundsystem

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #9 – LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

From the fingertips of S-WC…..

A few years back James Murphy, the kingpin behind LCD Soundsystem said that this band are ‘over once and for all’ and I for one was gutted. I think I said before that this is the only band I regret never seeing live. They were great and having earlier this morning dug out all of the tracks by them that I own and played them back to back in order to compile this (five hours it took, roughly) they are still great.

What made them great was the fact that they were genreless, they were DJs, they did songs, techno, dark stuff, rock stuff, pop crossover. LCD Soundsystem transcended the divide by combing dance and punk and I always thought that Daft Punk would have been a better name for them. For what its worth, ending LCD Soundsystem was I think the most selfish decision in musical history, solely because I can never see them live (until the obivious multi million pound reform deal in 2025 to mark 20 years of the release of their self-titled debut that is). Until that reform happens, here is their ultimate compilation.

Side One

1. Daft Punk is Playing At My House

(I’ve gone for Soulwax Mix simply because of the bit where it goes ‘DOWNTOWN’)

This was LCD Soundsystem’s most successful song, earning a Grammy nod and reaching No. 29 on the UK charts. It’s not hard to see why. Murphy always knew how to start a party, from the opening “OW! OW!” to the smashing hi-hats to cowbells and even reminding us that he had moved the furniture to the garage. A belter of a record.

2. I Can Change

The legend goes that after recording this song, he had to leave the room when the rest of the team listened to it. When he came back in, they all hugged him, to be honest when you hear the line ‘I can change if it makes you fall in love’ I wanted to bleeding hug him. The song reads like a quarrel that he is narrating.

3. North American Scum

You’ll all know this song but the point where the cowbell clangs and organ buzz that set off North American Scum is one of the greatest moments in recent music history. This is one of the finest anthems of our generation. There is an angry guitar that pushes its way to the front, and as it does burst through, you can’t help but grin at the stupidly brilliant American.

4. Someone Great

I once saw a man get shot, sorry to get personal on your asses, but I did, I won’t go into details, but it wasn’t pleasant, I didn’t know the chap I was literally waiting for a bus. The next morning around three am I woke up in my room after about two hours restless sleep. I switched on the iPod and this song came on – and the lyric ‘To tell the truth I saw it coming, the way you were breathing, but nothing can prepare you for it, the voice on the other end’ made my eyes sting. Not because its about death but because everything felt like a dream until about six seconds after that line was delivered.

5. Yeah (Crass Mix)

The first LCD Soundsystem I ever heard. I was hooked straight away. The perfect end to any compilation of their music. It twists and winds and bleeps and whirls and just explodes.

Side Two

1. Dance Yrself Clean

The one thing about LCD Soundsystem that frustrated everyone was their reluctance to write ‘hit records’. They never got played on the radio, not the shows that sell records anywhere. This track was another raised middle finger to the industry, an eight minute raised middle finger of a single. It kind of wobbles along at half volume and includes a flute – A FLUTE – instead of a crashing beat or bass that you kind of expect and then suddenly it bursts and goes on for eight minutes. Plus and perhaps the main reason it is here – The Muppets are in the video for it, and it is the greatest music video ever made.

2. All My Friends

Murphy hates this song, and yet it is clearly their greatest moment. He thinks it is too poppy and embarrassing. It is certainly the most romantic song he ever wrote. I have always thought it is widely reminiscent of ‘Ceremony’ by New Order but the call to arms of for his friends ‘If I could see all my friends tonight’ really emphasises the quality of this band and the friendship its members have.

3. Losing My Edge

Apparently Murphy wrote this song after hearing DJs in a club playing music he thought onlty he was playing on his club night, ‘I’m losing my edge’ he bleats out – out of time – of the beat, if perhaps to make the point. He lists band after band to try and reclaim his relevance, its tongue in cheek of course, but wonderful all the same.

4. You Wanted A Hit

My point in Side Two Track One is proved here, ‘You wanted a hit/But Maybe we don’t do hits’ sings Murphy in front of a synthesizers and tiny little guitar line. The song simply fades away. Much like that dream of making it big. Also it involves handclaps, and that in a LCD Soundsystem track deserves to be heard.

5. New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down

The only closer that was possible, firstly because it was the last song they ever played live (at Madison Square Garden, New York). Secondly because of THAT piano that starts up again after a massive silence near the end of the track. If you have ever been to New York, or if you ever go, take a trip to the Williamsburg Bridge at night – gaze across to Manhattan and you’ll know what Murphy means.

mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Soulwax Mix)
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – North American Scum
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Yeah (Crass Mix)
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Dance Yrself Clean
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Losing My Edge
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – You Wanted A Hit
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down

JC adds………..

Huge thanks to S-WC for this. LCD Soundsystem are a band I should know a lot more about and I certainly should owm much more of their material than I do. This is a cracking and seamless mix.

The mention of that last gig in New York got me digging into the vaults to May 2011 for this fantastic guest posting from Iain Fenton, a good friend of my good friend Mr John Greer.

FAREWELL LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

The rumours that James Murphy, the architect and brainchild behind New York collective LCD Soundsystem, (and cofounder of DFA Records) was due to retire the band had been circulating for a while and he had been laying the ground for an announcement for some time when finally it came…. on Feb 5th 2011.

There was to be one last LCD farewell gig on their home turf at Madison Square Garden on Sat 2nd of April and billed as the ‘long farewell’ it was to be a 3+ hour show with guests and all sorts of extras and unusual song inclusions.

In the time since Losing my Edge announced LCD to the world back in 2002 they have released three unmissable albums (four if you count 45.33) and numerous classic singles and remixes. No other band in the last 10 years has given me so much enjoyment and after having seen them live a number of times I absolutely had to be there for the final farewell on 02/04!

Tickets went on-sale on 11 Feb at 14.00 UK time which shouldn’t have been too much of a problem as MSG has a capacity of 15.000 and LCD had never played to a crowd of that size for one of their own shows prior to this (James Murphy subsequently admitted that he thought they would fill the venue but only perhaps with a few days to spare). So, 14.00 arrived and Ticketmaster US and the Bowery websites show sold out within 2 mins of going on sale…. WHAT??? How can that be???

The LCD web forum filled with fans complaining that they couldn’t get tickets and some of the band’s friends (not wishing to hassle them) can’t get any either WTF???? Within 5 mins the first scalper tickets appear on E-bay and StubHub with a face value of $80 selling for $1,000.

It’s all kicking off and within a few hours Murphy has posted a long tirade on the website entitled ‘Fuck You Scalpers, Terminal 5 shows added’. In order to screw the scalpers and suppress demand, he has added four extra shows at the 3,500 capacity Terminal Five venue on the 28/29/30/31st of March with details of ticket sale to be announced – Yay, back in with a shout of a ticket!!

Finally on 22 Feb at 14.03 UK time I secured two tickets for the show on 30 March with all four shows selling out quickly but far more of the fanbase had been satisfied and would be at one of the farewell shows.

Well done to James and LCD for adding the dates and listening to the fans (an almost Joe Strummeresque thing to do).

No tickets would be sent electronically or by hardcopy. The only way of collecting your ticket was on the night itself by showing photo ID and producing the credit card that you used for payment – a pretty good way of stopping scalpers in their tracks!

Fast-forward by a few weeks and the 30th of March had now arrived and here we were in NYC already having holiday fun and full of anticipation for the show at Terminal 5 that night. Reviews from the fans on the LCD forum for the previous two shows were absolutely raving and the setlist looked unbelievably mouth watering. After a perfectly executed ticket collection we entered the venue in enough time to catch a bit of Shit Robots support slot. The venue is on 3 floors with plentiful facilities and drinks can be had within a couple of minutes (nothing like Brixton Academy then!) and finding a good position was relatively easy from which to view this historic farewell.

At 9.05, to the walk on music of 10cc’s ‘I’m not in Love’, the final LCD Soundsystem show (for me anyway) was underway. Starting with Dance Yrself Clean the atmosphere was electric, more like a fiesta really with seemingly the whole 3,500 attendees ready to party and celebrate big time. Now, my friends, I have been to more gigs than had hot dinners with the count into the high hundreds and have tasted the atmosphere of many a fine venue including the legendary Glasgow Apollo. However, I have NEVER experienced such a strong sense of camaraderie and sense of purpose to simply have fun and support the band! For the next 3 hours and 20 minutes T5 was a full-blown rowdy, singing, dancing cacophony of noise and celebration for the finest band of the last 10 years. Playing many songs that hadn’t been heard live before or at least for a very long time and aided by additional singers and a very tasty brass section, the sound was fantastic and joyous. Comprising of two sets with a very brief break between them, the night flew by and soon it was the final farewell.

Set 1

Dance Yrself Clean
Drunk Girls
I Can Change
Time To Get Away
Get Innocuous!
Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Too Much Love
All My Friends

Set 2

45:33 Part One
45:33 Part Two
Sound of Silver
45:33 Part Four
45:33 Part Five
45:33 Part Six
Freak Out/Starry Eyes
Us v Them
North American Scum
You Wanted A Hit
Tribulations
Movement
Yeah

Encore:

Someone Great
Losing My Edge
Home

Encore 2:

All I Want
Jump Into the Fire  (Harry Nilsson cover)
New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down

It’s difficult to pick out any one highlight, but the rendition of the full version of 45.33 was truly epic and so wonderful I can barely communicate how fabulous it was.

Now that the dust has settled and a few weeks have past I can reflect back on what was truly one of the top 5 gigs of the whole of my life and that’s really saying something!

So thanks for the memories James & Co and enjoy whatever you do next!

To quote from Losing my Edge ‘I was there!’

Luke Haines

READ IT IN BOOKS : LUKE HAINES (2)

As with yesterday, another re-post. This time from 11 December 2012:-

Readers of old will hopefully recall back in early 2009 when I posted a very glowing review of Bad Vibes, the wonderfully funny and acidic take on Britpop as seen through the eyes of Luke Haines.

The follow-up to Bad Vibes was published in mid-2011. Entitled Post-Everything, it was a book I rushed out and bought on the first day it was available…but the lack of any subsequent review will perhaps indicate that I was left feeling a wee bit disappointed with it. It wasn’t that Post-Everything was a rotten read….it was more that it didn’t tickle me the same way as Bad Vibes…..but as with when I go and see a disappointing gig I don’t offer my negative thoughts via this blog.

But the other day I picked up Post-Everything again, and this second go has totally changed my mind as I’m very firmly of the view that it’s not only as good as Bad Vibes but is a more enjoyable and entertaining read. It’s a book that is still incredibly funny in places but there’s also a lot of cracking passages in which Luke Haines got me thinking about lots of different things well beyond music. Oh and there’s a fair bit of piss-taking at famous people – dead and alive – in the music industry which is wonderful to read.

In a way, my view in this book is akin to that when you go back after a while to a record that you rush out and buy and find a bit of a let-down, but as time goes on and you get a bit more used to it – perhaps appreciating the subtle change in sound that the band/singer has adopted – it becomes something of a classic. A bit like Strangeways Here We Come which I initially couldn’t bring myself to like, partly as it was The Smiths break-up album but mainly because there was a lack of killer jangly guitar tracks on it…..but after some nine months once I’d resigned myself to the fact the band wouldn’t be getting back together again I was able to listen without prejudice…..and it is now my favourite studio LP the band ever made.

I used to say that if I ever wanted to be stuck in a pub with two other folk just to listen to what they had to say it would have been Tony Wilson and Bill Drummond. I can pay Luke Haines no higher compliment than saying nowadays I’d love for him to be the replacement for Tony…..although I’ve a feeling that if that particular scenario was to arise it wouldn’t take too long before Haines and Drummond were physically fighting with one another…and I abhor mindless violence!

The period covered by Post-Everything is mid 1997 – January 2006. An awful lot happens to Luke Haines in that period including unexpected chart success and being dropped more than once by one or other of his record labels. There’s a particularly brilliant chapter about the demise of Hut Records and the devious plot that was hatched to get one final wad of money from the bosses under which old songs were re-recorded and sneaked through as back-catalogue. The result was the fantastically titled Das Capital : The Songwriting Genius of Luke Haines And The Autuers. And in typical style, not only was it old songs given lush orchestral arrangements, there were a handful of new tunes to enjoy. Seems appropriate to go with some stuff from Das Capital today:-

mp3 : Luke Haines – How Could I Be Wrong
mp3 : Luke Haines – Lenny Valentino
mp3 : Luke Haines – Satan Wants Me

Enjoy

Auteurs, Black Box Recorder, Luke Haines

READ IT IN BOOKS : LUKE HAINES (1)

A bit pressed for time just now, but no apologies for this re-posting from January 2009. It follows-on nicely from yesterday’s effort:-

There’s been a substantial number of good reviews about this book…..and here’s another one coming.

For those of you who don’t know, Luke Haines first came to fame as a member of The Autuers, before later making records under his own name, as well as a member of Baader Meinhoff and Black Box Recorder. The fact that first chart success coincided with the rise of a few other UK bands at a time when American bands and grunge was the dominant force. This led to Mr Haines, along with the likes of Brett Anderson of Suede, to be christened as the founding-fathers of Britpop….

But this bio, which covers 1992 -1997, makes it quite clear that Luke Haines had very no time or most of his peers. Indeed, an anecdote that pre-dates The Autuers has the author admitting and illustrating that he has always had an arrogant and cocky attitude, an astounding sense of self-importance and a massive ego. But he argues that he had the talent which justified all of this and therefore has every right to be so dismissive of those in the music industry whom he felt had little or no ability.

There’s a very long roll-call of folk who really do get it with both barrels within the 243 pages, some of them being heroes of mine that I have long loved and admired (e.g. Matt Johnson of The The). Sometimes I was wincing as I read a particularly barbed paragraph, but mostly I was nodding in agreement, or indeed laughing out loud.

By the end of the book, I had no doubt in my mind that Luke Haines is someone who cares passionately about music, but has no time not for the music industry or those who service it. Some of his best passages are about journalists, and he takes great pleasure in some of the things said about him over the years. For instance, one scathing reviewer in Melody Maker thought they were insulting him by describing him as the new Nick Lowe, little realising that for Luke Haines, that was just about as big a compliment he could be given.

One of the other things the book reminded me of was how few Britpop singles went to #1 and how the very highest echelons of the pop charts were as rank rotten during this so-called golden era as they are now – Mr Blobby, 2 Unlimited, Take That, Mariah Carey, East 17 and Robson & Jerome are among the acts that hit the top spot. And what Luke Haines has written has got me thinking just how much of Britpop will be truly remembered in 20 or 30 years time outwith Blur, Pulp, Suede and Oasis (and of course, the first two of these bands had been around for a few years before the actual movement).

I don’t agree with every word that is in the book as I reckon a number of the acts that Luke rails against had some talent. In the introduction, our esteemed author makes it quite clear that he wishes things had turned out differently, and while there’s a lot of bitterness, the vitriol and poison is laced with too much humour, much of it self-deprecating, for the book to leave any lingering bad taste. Indeed in his intro, the author makes it clear the he didn’t set out on an exercise in score settling – although he also acknowledges that the casual reader may have every reason to beg differ – and that what he has written is very much what he thought at the time, not necessarily what he thinks now. Nor does he bear any ill towards the people and characters in the book…..although I think that might just be stretching things a bit far.

I’m guessing that most folk who pop into TVV consider themselves fairly serious music fans. Well, I reckon every serious music fan would enjoy devouring Bad Vibes on first reading, and then a few weeks later will be more than happy to read it again….it’s a real early highlight of 2009.

Oh and it also made me want to go back and listen to some of the great music he’s made over the years:-

mp3 : The Auteurs – How Could I Be Wrong (1993)
mp3 : The Auteurs – Lenny Valentino (single version) (1994)
mp3 : The Auteurs – Unsolved Child Murder (live on French Radio) (1996)
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – England Made Me (1998)
mp3 : Black Box Recorder – Andrew Ridgeley (2003)
mp3 : Luke Haines – Leeds United (2007)

Enjoy

Servants

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 9 of 48)

Today’s look back at the class of 86 is one of the most intriguing tales of the era.

The Servants were actually featured on the C86 tape with Transparent, a track that would feature as the b-side to the first single released, in March 1986, on a new London-based indie label called Head Records. The line-up was David Westlake (vocals), Philip King (bass/guitar), John Mohan (guitar/keys) and John Wills (drums).

Their second single was released on 12″ vinyl in October 1986 and is a timeless classic. Heavily influenced by The Smiths, Go-Betweens and Felt in equal measures, it’s a song that really should have been picked up and placed on the A-playlists of Radio 1 and the commercial stations here in the UK and propelled high into the charts. This was classy indie-pop that nowadays you still hear in the likes of Cats on Fire and I’m delighted that as it was on CD 86, it features today:-

mp3 : The Servants – The Sun, A Small Star

Incidentally, it does seem that the Go-Betweens influence is far more pronounced than I thought as Amanda Brown, who in 1987 would become a member of the very fine band, is credited with playing the violin part on this song.

The failure of the single, and the fact that The Servants were a cut above many of the shambolic sounding acts they were being lumped in with under the C86 banner, were probably contributing factors to the band breaking up shortly afterwards. John Wills joined Loop, Philip King shifted seamlessly into Felt as well as linking up again with John Mohan as Apple Boutique. David Westlake meantime would record a solo mini-LP for Creation Records in 1987 – six songs that saw him backed by a number of The Triffids as well as a new up-and-coming musician called Luke Haines.

The Servants, in name, reformed in late 1987 with its membership now consisting of Westlake, Haines, Alice Readman (bass) and Hugh Whitaker (drums) – the latter being a former member of The Housemartins.

This version of the band was dropped by Creation before any work was released but in 1988 they signed to Glass Records who soon after ran into financial difficulties as a result of the collapse of its distributor. Cue more frustration for The Servants and it wasn’t until late 1989 that they issued another single after which they had to sign to yet another label – Paperhouse – for who they cut one single and one album, aptly named Disinterested, in 1990 before finally calling it a day in August 1991 after a gig at the Rock Garden in London.

So in just four years, David Westlake, regarded by many in the music press as one of the most intelligent songwriters of his era, had tried his luck on four different labels without ever escaping cult status.

So what happened next?

Luke Haines and Alice Readman would go onto form The Auteurs while Hugh Whittaker in 1993 would become infamous for being sent to jail for six years for assaulting a former business associate as well as setting fire to his house on three separate occasions.

David Westlake faded away from the music industry but he wasn’t ever forgotten – and it emerged, thanks to a 2004 interview, that Stuart Murdoch had attempted to track him down in the hope of forming a new band with him only to give up and form Belle & Sebastian instead!!

In 2002, Westlake released a very low-key solo LP called Play Dusty For Me and all the while, thanks in part to the continued success of Luke Haines, there was a growing appreciation of the work of The Servants and the Disinterested LP, by now long-deleted, became a sought-after piece of work. In 2011, MOJO magazine put the record in its Top 100 Indie LPs of all time and shortly afterwards Cherry Red Records released Small Time which had been intended as the band’s second LP by The Servants.

I don’t own anything by The Servants other than the C86 and CD86 tracks but I have tracked down the September 89 release on Glass Records:-

mp3 : The Servants – It’s My Turn

By now a solicitor and part-time lecturer at Brunel University in London, David Westlake was coaxed out of his semi-retirement to play shows in May/June 2014, firstly as a duo with Luke Haines and then as The Servants with their first shows in 23 years. It must have been great for those lucky enough to be there as evidenced by this:-

Big favour to ask…..if anyone out there has a copy of Disinterested and can burn the tracks onto a CD for me, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.

Cheers.

Adventures In Stereo

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG: #4 : ADVENTURES IN STEREO

After their previous band Spirea X split up in 1993, Jim Beattie and Judith Boyle took a year out before forming Adventures in Stereo, bringing in Simon Dine, who had been the manager and co-producer of their previous combo.

They were a trio who created music based on sampled loops created by Dine with Beattie adding guitar and Boyle the vocals, but in the fullness of time expanded into a six piece before calling it a day in 2000 after a handful of 45s and LPs, most of which were issued on the Edinburgh-based Creeping Bent label.

I never owned anything of theirs at the time but have picked up second-hand copies of some singles in recent times. One of these has the catalogue number of bent019 and is a split single, released in 1997, with the other side featuring the very talented and wonderful The Leopards who are a Scottish supergroup of sorts with its members all having played in a range of indie-bands over the past 30 years – they are also the musicians Lloyd Cole now turns to when he needs a full backing band here in the UK and they played a couple of great shows in Glasgow in 2014.

But I digress….here is the song on bent019 from today’s featured band:-

mp3 : Adventures In Stereo – Waves On

Enjoy

Ruts

CLOSE COUSINS TO THE SKIDS AND E.C.

The Ruts had scored a well-deserved top 10 hit in the summer of 1979 with Babylon’s Burning and in doing so demonstrated that they were no minor-league tribute to the big boys of the London punk scene. They were a band much championed by both John Peel and David ‘Kid’ Jensen on BBC Radio 1 for whom they recorded a total of three sessions in advance of becoming chart stars.

The follow-up single arrived in August 1979 and listening to it all these years later you can hear a huge similarity to The Skids while the b-side, featuring a Peel Session track, is eerily reminiscent of the sound that had propelled Watching The Detectives by Elvis Costello & The Attractions into the charts.

It’s no real surprise in either case. The single was produced and arranged by Mick Glossop who just a year later would work with The Skids on their masterpiece The Absolute Game while the b-side highlighted the influence that reggae and dub had on the punk movement.

The Ruts were a band who really deserve a lot more praise than was given them at the time. They certainly lived in the shadow of The Sex Pistols and The Clash and looking back they may have been championed a bit more if they had been a provincial band. The contribution of Mick Glossop as a producer also gave them a cleaner and more polished sound than many of their contemporaries while the fact this band could play actually play their instruments with a degree of style and professionalism probably counted against them in the eyes of the music paper critics and writers.

Whether they would have enjoyed a decent and lengthy career is of course a moot point given the death of lead singer Malcolm Owen, from a heroin overdose, in July 1980 at the tragically young age of 26.

mp3 : The Ruts – Something That I Said
mp3 : The Ruts – Give Youth A Chance (Peel Session)

Enjoy