THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE MOZ SINGLES (44, 45, 46 & 47)

And so it came to pass that in the year 2014 AD, Steven Patrick Morrissey released four download only singles, all of which would subsequently appear on his critically acclaimed LP World Peace Is None Of Your Business, the tenth studio album of his career.

I’m not all that convinced that it is the memorable return to form that many people have been raving about this past few months. It does have a number of more than decent tunes, but there’s also a few clunkers in there as well, while the marketing ploy of having ‘a deluxe edition with bonus tracks’ was annoying, especially as the inclusion of a number of these tracks on the ‘official’ album would have made it a far stronger record.

The download singles were, in chronological order:-

– World Peace Is None of Your Business : released on 13 May and which reached #83 in the Uk singles chart

– Istanbul : released on 20 May

– Earth Is the Loneliest Planet : released on 3 June

– The Bullfighter Dies : released on 17 June

Each of them came with a music video consisting of a spoken word performance which was a neat twist. I had planned to provide links to said videos but they’re not available anywhere, innocent victims of the spat which broke out between the singer and Harvest Records in respect of the (non) promotion of the new album. Here’s what Morrissey said about it in an open letter:-

PLEASE CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND ME: Morrissey statement

In response to 77 million questions I can only say this much on the subject of the Harvest drama. It is quite true that Harvest initially appeared like a saintly beacon of light, and they instantly packed us off to France where we recorded World peace is none of your business. The universe was back in balance, and we all considered this to be the very best Morrissey recording ever, and even the boo-hoo-suck-it-off elements of the press appeared to want to agree. At last I am born.

It all seemed too good to be true. It was. I believed that the rich soil of the album had several strong hit singles. Frayed tempers began when Harvest arranged the ‘spoken word’ films, none of which gave any clue as to what World peace is none of your business intended to be, or is. The films were OK, but they went nowhere and stayed there.

With every nerve alert, we pushed the label for a proper video for Istanbul to precede the album, not least of all because a single ahead of the album release might inch the album to a higher chart position. The label backed off, even though Istanbul received 55 radio plays in just seven days on a major US station. Instead, the label requested a fifth spoken-word film, which naturally had me fumbling around for an axe: no independent thought required. The UK label, meanwhile, created a quite fantastic television advertisement to transmit during the week ahead of the album release. I could taste excitement once again. The TV ad never appeared and my hackles bristled as my bristles heckled. The label responded with frosty aloofness, and I suddenly realized that we were not, after all, of the same species. I ploughed into them insisting upon “proper band videos, where the band play and I sing” – an evidently confusing concept that required seven weeks of explanation, detailed graphs and several drawn up maps.

The label suggested I come to Los Angeles and read passages from Autobiography in front of selected audiences. As frightening as that idea was, I hung on, desperate to believe that Harvest were not as cheap as they now looked. I hope to finish this statement whilst I’m still clean-shaven, so I will jump to the final curtain: during the weeks of the album release, the label were minus one single structural idea, and it appeared evident that each member of the team was acting in separate rooms without doors or windows. Mutual mistrust exploded between Harvest and I, and with fashionable pessimism, the label boss yawned and ordered the surface smartness of dropping World peace is none of your business three weeks after its release. There, now! This would not have happened to the Teletubbies.

Sorrily botched the project may now be, but it’s worth it to get Morrissey out of our Inbox. Yes, I can be intensely persistent, and I certainly have an over-active fantasy-life, but the Harvest experience tells us that despite the blinding flash of teeth and smiles, it doesn’t take much for the coin to flip and suddenly we’re all compromised and shattered. All you need to do is disagree with the vanity of the label boss and your beheading will be slotted in between bottles of the most average champagne on the market. Just one weak-chinned drone can assert the fist of injustice and all of our efforts are flushed away. And thus … they were.

I might be wrong, but I think World peace is none of your business will instantly disappear from iTunes and record stores and every download-upload-offload outlet on the planet, because Harvest technically have no right to sell it.

Most of the Harvest team are very nice, and I sincerely thank them for trying and caring so much – even if their promotional duties were fully undertaken by the Morrissey audience themselves, whose You Tube videos for World peace is none of your business fully provide the art that the label could not muster. The listeners instantly understood how entertainment could also be art.

Staggeringly, I still believe that there’s a label out there with my name on it, and one that will issue World peace is none of your business, and afford it the respect it deserves.

Thanks for reading this (rashly assuming that you have), and thanks once again to the Harvesters who tried.

We are boot-camp ready for Lisbon in October, so with the will of many gods, hopefully at least 38 of you will turn up.

MORRISSEY
20 August 2014

He was right – the album was removed from i-tunes and the various download outlets.

Given that there was meant to be a ‘proper’ release of a new 45, it seems fair to feature it today:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Istanbul

The final part of this series will appear next week after which I’ve a plan for a new Sunday feature. Stay tuned.

Wendys

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 125)

This particular 45 came out on Factory Records back in 1991. I had completely forgotten about it and indeed the fact that The Wendys were a Scottish band until I was checking on something for what will be #126 in the series and spotted that this lot were originally from Edinburgh. Listened again for the first time in aaaaaaagggggggeeeeeessss and quite enjoyed it although the instrumental b-side hasn’t dated all that well.

Formed in Edinburgh in 1987, they were the second Scottish band to be signed to Factory Records. As an unsigned band they gained a support slot with Happy Mondays and on the back of the shows were encouraged to send a demo to messrs Wilson & co. It was a short-lived career, consisting of two singles, an EP and an album called Gobbledygook that was produced by Ian Broudie, with the label running into severe financial difficulties which ultimately led to its demise in November 1992. The Wendys disappeared off the radar for a long time, coming back in 1999 to release a second LP, many of the featured songs dateing back to work that had been aborted when Factory went down the tubes.

In 2012, the band reformed for a one-off gig, in Glasgow, to commemorate a re-release of Gobbleydegook.

mp3 : The Wendys – Pulling My Fingers Off
mp3 : The Wendys – I Feel Slowly

Enjoy

Go-Betweens

1978 – 1990 ON VINYL (Part 4)

Completing the look back to 1978 – 1990, a 2 x LP compilation from The Go-Betweens released just after they had initially broken up. Sides 1 and 2 were more or a ‘Greatest Near Hits’ comprising flop singles and some of the best-loved album tracks (and can be found in postings earlier this week)

Sides 3 and 4 however, are a bit different consisting of some rarities, radio sessions and previously unreleased tracks and is what made the purchase of the record so essential back in the day. Side 4 was curated entirely by Grant McLellan and he supplies the liner notes.

Side 4

1. Dusty In Here

This song is about my father who died when I was four.

(Recorded in October 1982 in Eastbourne, England. Originally released on the LP Before Hollywood in May 1983 on Rough Trade)

2. A King In Mirrors

Emmylou Harris meets The Velvet Underground. I sang this is a French toilet during the Spring Hill Fair sessions but I prefer this earlier version. It’s spookier and more languid. I’m very happy with the lyric.

(Recorded in December 1983 in London and broadcast on 5 January 1984 on the David Jensen Show on BBC Radio 1)

3. Second-Hand Furniture

I had a dream about a divorced man who looked into a shop window and saw his old bed. I think it was snowing. The catalogue of objects was an ad lib. For some reason this song is popular in Stockholm.

(Recorded in October 1984 in London and broadcast on 29 October 1984 on the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1)

4. This Girl, Black Girl

There was an annual event in north Queensland country life called the Oak Park Races. People came together to race their horses and to congratulate each other on a good year or to console each other if it has been a bad one. I had just returned from a trip which included a recording session in Scotland, a close shave in Egypt and a six-week hangover in New York. I found myself in a tent three hundred miles from the nearest bookshop. My relatives asked me to play the guitar for them but I knew it was impossible to dance the gypsy tap to “I Need Two Heads” so I wrote this song.

(Recorded in August 1983 in Sussex, England. in Brisbane. Originally released in November 1983 as the b-side to on the 7″ only release of Man O’ Sand to Girl O’ Sea. It’s also, indirectly, the song that led to me starting up a blog, the original TVV, back in September 2006)

5. Don’t Call Me Gone

I’ve always liked country music. This is a typical mix of pathos and sentimentality in the tradition of George Jones and Tammy Wynette. It comes close to pastiche but The Go-Betweens seldom genre hop so this is what it is.

(Recorded in January 1987 in London. Originally released in November 1983 as a bonus track on the 12″ release of Right Here)

6. Mexican Postcard

This is a super 8 film about a country I have never been to. For further reference listen to the soundtrack for “Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid”.

(Recorded in August 1988 in London. Originally released in October 1988 as a bonus track on the 12″ release of Was There Anything I Can Do?)

7. You Won’t Find It Again

This is an acoustic version of a song that never made it onto “16 Lovers Lane”. It was a great summer and you could see the Sydney Opera House from the window. It was also only twenty minutes walk to Bronte Beach.

(Recorded in January 1988 in Sydney. Previously unreleased)

Just click on the song titles to get the mp3s.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the past four days. I have.

Go-Betweens

1978 – 1990 ON VINYL (Part 3)

Continuing the look back to 1978 – 1990, a 2 x LP compilation from The Go-Betweens released just after they had initially broken up. Sides 1 and 2 were more or a ‘Greatest Near Hits’ comprising flop singles and some of the best-loved album tracks (and can be found in postings over the past two days)

Sides 3 and 4 however, are a bit different consisting of some rarities, radio sessions and previously unreleased tracks and is what made the purchase of the record so essential back in the day. Side 3 was curated entirely by Robert Forster and he supplies the liner notes.

Side 3

1. 8 Pictures

Christmas 1978. The family are all around the tree and gifts are being given out. My brother has bought me the fourth Velvet Underground album “Loaded”. I’m walking around the house with the ugliest guitar in the world – a black Ibanez Les Paul that I wrote far too many good songs on, one of them being 8 Pictures.

(Recorded in July 1981 in Melbourne. Originally released on the LP Send Me A Lullaby in February 1982 on Missing Link Records)

2. I Need Two Heads

Grant and I leave Brisbane in late 1979 for London, then Paris, then London , then Glasgow where we record this song for Postcard. I wrote one song on the first six months of 1980. This.

(Recorded in April 1980 in Castle Sound Studios in Pencaitland, Scotland. Originally released as a single in June 1980 on Postcard Records – and for nearly 20 years was the only version of the song I had until I found a mint copy of the 45 going very cheap on e-bay – changed days now that vinyl is back in fashion)

3. When People Are Dead

I wish I’d written this two months earlier so it could have been included on “Tallulah”. The words are by Marion Stout, an Irish poet I met in London. The band sounds absolutely great.

(Recorded in January 1987 in London. Originally released in February 1987 as the b-side on the 7″ and 12″ release of Right Here)

4. The Sound of Rain

We were living in this house by the Brisbane river that had a very thin roof (or the rain was harder that year). This is a very pretty, soft tune about crossing that river and killing a girl in the West End.

(Recorded in November 1978 in Brisbane. Raindrop guitar by Peter Milton Walsh and drums by Tim Mustafa. Previously unreleased)

5. People Say

A classic 24 carat. An old school friend of mine is on piano and hammond organ. We were going for that ‘wild mercury sound’. Sometimes I think that this is the best song I’ve ever written.

(Organ and piano by Mal Kelly. Recorded in May 1979 in Brisbane. and originally released as a single the same month on The Able Label)

6. World Weary

Recorded in Sydney 1981 as a b-side to “Your Turn, My Turn”. Our first session with Melbourne engineering genius Tony Cohen. I have no idea what the song is about.

(Recorded in April 1981 in Sydney. Originally released a b-side in July 1981 on Missing Link Records. It’s just over 90 seconds long…..)

7. Rock and Roll Friend

Self-pity is a beautiful well to repeatedly dip in and find more reasons not to live, more reasons not to cheer. And the well is an illusion until the well runs dry and then you’re ready for another song.

(Recorded in August 1988 in London. Originally released in October 1988 as the b-side to on the 7″ and 12″ release of Was There Anything I Could Do? Robert would later re-record the song for inclusion on his solo LP Warm Nights, released in 1996.)

Just click on the song titles to get the mp3s.

Enjoy – Part 4 will wrap up the series tomorrow

Go-Betweens

1978 – 1990 ON VINYL (Part 2)

As I mentioned yesterday, Domino Records are about to release G Stands For Go-Betweens – Volume One. which is a very thorough look back of the band’s output from 1978 through to 1984.

I’m giving it a bodyswerve as I can’t really justify the price tag of £120 but it has inspired me to feature all of 1978 – 1990, a compilation which looked back at the band just after they had initially broken up. Here in the UK, it came out on a single CD with 22 tracks and a double album with 28 tracks.

Today it is the turn of Side 2 which is again more or less a ‘Greatest Near Hits’ comprising flop singles and some of the best-loved album tracks, this time from 85-88.

Side 2

1. The Wrong Road

We lived in London for almost six years. I shared a dark flat with a painter and then a comedian. The painter was obsessed with grey. The comedian loved Tommy Cooper. This song fits somewhere between these two things – GM

(Recorded in November 1985 in London. Originally released on the LP Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express in March 1986 on Beggars Banquet)

2. The Clarke Sisters

Old friends of mine originally friends of my mothers. They adopted me as some lost son. I spent many afternoons in their splendid company. They had a magnificent house that sadly was pilfered by antique dealers in their last years – RF

(Recorded in January 1987 in London. Originally released on the LP Tallulah in June 1987 on Beggars Banquet)

3. Right Here

Two friends of mine once worked in a funeral parlour. Constant exposure to the chemicals used in the preparation of the bodies turned them into addicts. I thought this would be a good subject to write about in a pop song. My friends heard it, and I’m happy to say, are no longer working for the Ministry of the Dead – GM

(Recorded in December 1986 in London. Originally released on the LP Tallulah)

4. Bye Bye Pride

Cairns is a lazy, small town full of boats and cane fields. It is also unbearably hot. An old army officer once said to me that the heat took away his pride. He then sucked loudly on the straw in his gin and headed out to the first hole. I was his caddy so I followed him – GM

(Recorded in January 1987 in London. Originally appeared on Tallulah but released as a single later on in August 1987)

5. The House That Jack Kerouac Built

My Irish phase. Unfortunately I’d been in London long enough to be on the edge of a truly appalling crowd of people. Bad bands, theft, sad energy and general devil-may-care attitudes that amount to nothing. I left them early and then in November 1987 we left London for Sydney – RF

(Recorded in January 1987 in London. Originally released on the LP Tallulah)

6. Streets Of Your Town

A pop song. A song written with car stereos in mind. Amanda doesn’t like the backing vocals. She says she sounds too Jane Birkin. I love them. I also love the guitar break by John Wilsteed. The BBC would only play this on sunny days – GM

(Recorded in May 1988 in Sydney. Originally released a single in July 1988 on Beggars Banquet and included on the LP 16 Lovers Lane one month later)

7. Love Is A Sign

There is a museum on the outskirts of Oslo that holds much of the best work of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. We were touring there in 1987. A married couple asked me if I would like to visit the museum. I went with them, got inspired and wrote this songs in the backseat of their car as we drove back to Oslo. I played it to them in my hotel room. The man smile. The woman said it sounded like a Blood on the Tracks out-take. They were a great couple – RF

(Recorded in May 1988 in Sydney. Originally released on the LP 16 Lovers Lane in August 1988 on Beggars Banquet)

Just click on the song titles to get the mp3s.

Enjoy – Parts 3 and 4 are on their way

Robert Forster

LOOK WHO’S BACK……

His first words for a very long time:-

It’s been a good wee while since I last visited these familiar lands – some eighteen months or so – and whilst I could offer several (rather poor) excuses I won’t even bother. Instead, I’ll just present my annual ‘best of’ compilation (for both 2013 and 2014) and hope that makes up for being so absent. I hope to be around this pixel geography a bit more during 2015 but, aye, no promises I’m afraid. I’m still as obsessed as I once was with all things music; especially going to gigs and buying vinyl. Life just sometimes gets in the way of translating that into words about music. I’m sure you all know how that can be. Keep well and see you down the road.x

http://andbeforethefirstkiss.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/you-just-wanna-tick-some-boxes.html

Welcome back Comrade. Your many fans will be delighted and hope that you stay good on the idea of posting a bit more in 2015. Seems apt that you’ve returned just as I’m in the middle of a series on the band which did more than any other to forge our much valued friendship.

This one’s for you:-

mp3 : Robert Forster – Rock n Roll Friend

Go-Betweens

1978 – 1990 ON VINYL (Part 1)

Later this month Domino Records will be releasing a tremendous artefact called G Stands For Go-Betweens – Volume One. Containing four vinyl albums, four CDs and a 112-page book complete with liner notes and guest essays, it captures the band’s output from 1978 through to 1984. The vinyl consists of the first three studio LPs plus a specially compiled record entitled The First Five Singles while the CDs contain rare, hard-to-find and unreleased demos, recordings, radio sessions and a live gig. There’s also a few other things thrown in such as prints, posters and a reproduction of a 1978 press release while the first 600 folk to order through the record label will receive a randomly selected book from the late Grant McLennan‘s personal collection with a bookmark signed by Robert Forster (from now on referred to in this post as GM and RF)

It really is an enticing package but it comes with a hefty price of £120…and no doubt the same again for Volumes 2 and 3 for the later stages of the band’s career. And so with a heavy heart, I’ve passed on the chance to purchase. I’ll regret it in times to come but other than the majority of tracks on the CDs there would be nothing I don’t already own and I’d be shelling out for what would quickly become a lovely ornament.

I’m sure also that I will own some of the tracks coming onto the CDs thanks to my purchase some 25 years ago of 1978 – 1990, a compilation which looked back at the band just after they had initially broken up. Here in the UK, it came out on a single CD with 22 tracks and a double album with 28 tracks. It’s the latter which sits in my collection and which I’ve dug out for a bumper posting over the next four days.

It’s a really neatly packaged record. Sides 1 and 2 are more or less a ‘Greatest Near Hits’ comprising flop singles and some of the best-loved album tracks. Sides 3 and 4 contain some rarities, radio sessions and what had been previously unreleased tracks….and there were liner notes from the band’s two front men. In essence, it was an affordable prototype of the Domino Records release….

Side 1

1. Karen

Nineteen Years old, depressed, nervous and probably distrustful. I wrote this, Lee Remick and 8 Pictures in what seemed like a month, after making the decision not to write about Universal Themes but about my feelings in the bedroom, Brisbane, driving my car and anything from overheard conversations – RF

(Recorded in May 1978 in Brisbane. Originally released as a single that month on the Able Label in Australia. The sleevenotes add ‘apologies for crackles on this track as it had to be dubbed from a disc)

2. Hammer the Hammer

Too many late nights in St Kilda, Melbourne. An incomplete meditation on loneliness and violence, sometimes mistakenly thought to be about drugs. Recorded during a lull in The Birthday Party’s “Junkyard” session. This was the last song we cut in Australia before moving to England – GM

(Recorded in January 1982 in Melbourne. Originally released as a single in July 1982 on Rough Trade)

3. Cattle and Cane

Written in summer on a borrowed guitar in a Paddington bedroom, London. The other rooms were occupied by unconscious friends. The rhythm struck me as strange, the mood as beautiful and sad. The song came easily, was recorded quickly and still haunts me – GM

(Recorded in October 1982 in Eastbourne, England. This version was released as a single in February 1983 on Rough Trade with the LP version, with a slightly extended intro, appearing on Before Hollywood, released in May 1983)

4. Man O’ Sand To Girl O’ Sea

In rock’n’ roll terms The Go-Betweens always take the checkered flag. This road running slice of beauty and mayhem – I can distinctly remember turning to the band and saying “let’s burn this land”. And by Jesus we did – RF

(Recorded in August 1983 in Sussex. This version was released a single in November 1983 on Rough Trade with the completely different LP version appearing on Spring Hill Fair, released in September 1984)

5. Bachelor Kisses

We came back from Christmas in New York having lost our record company somewhere along the way. I wrote this in Immigration having been refused entry to the United Kingdom. The first person who heard it was my sister. She said that Marianne Faithful should sing it – GM

(Recorded in July 1984 in London. Originally appeared on Spring Hill Fair but released as a single later on in November 1984)

6. Draining The Pool For You

I wrote this melody in ten minutes in a London Hotel while waiting for Lindy Morrison to put on her lipstick. The lyric takes place in either Sydney or L.A. – a big mansion, an idiot movie star, luxury parties and the only intelligent, talented person there being me and I’m the hired help cleaning this guy’s pool – RF

(Recorded in May 1984 at Studio Mirival, France. Originally appeared on Spring Hill Fair)

7. Spring Rain

London, summer 1985. This seems a rough description of me around the time I started writing songs. There’s some Creedence Clearwater Revival in here – RF

(Recorded in November 1985 in London. Originally released a single in February 1986 on Beggars Banquet and included on the LP Liberty Belle and the Black Diamond Express one month later)

Oh….you just need to click on the song titles to get the mp3s.

Enjoy – more to follow the rest of this week

Big In Japan, Echo & The Bunnymen, Expelaires, Lori & The Chamelons, Teardrop Explodes, Those Naughty Lumps, Wild Swans

A GRAND TOTAL OF 9 SINGLES….

This is some of what Bill Drummond wrote in August 1990 when The Zoo – Uncaged 1978-1982 was released finally bringing together all the various singles and most of the b-sides:-

We had one room up some dark, dirty stairs. We paid six pounds a week rent. We had one phone and an answer machine which we played all our cassettes on. We believed albums were the downfall of GREAT POP MUSIC. Although The Beatles were the greatest group ever, “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was a disastrous wrong turn that pop music is yet to recover from.

Big In Japan were a group that I and David (Balfe) had been in. It split in August 1978 and we put out the band’s demos as our first release. We were seem to be ripping off other ex-members. From that point in we were deemed unethical, underhand and undeserved of the ‘premier Liverpool independent label’ reputattion that grew around us.

Other than Expelaires, which was the only other Zoo record not to sell, we made the descision to get involved with a group based on their choice of name alone. We had no idea what sort of nusic Echo & The Bunnymen played before we went in to make their first records.

We fought and quarrelled with the bands, memebers got sacked and others brought in. We drove around the country in David’s Dad’s car with boxes of records, sleeving them and selling them. There was no independent distribution network in 1979.

Due to a lack of finances we signed The Bunnymen and The Teardrops to major labels and took on the role of managers, something we had no idea about. Our plans for the future were to build giant pyramids out of ice, travel space and make movies. We believed The Teardrops and The Bunnymen were the new Beatles and Stones – We were wrong, nothing is ever the new anything.

We burnt out.

But the last single on the label was the greatest.

I thought it would be an idea to kick off 2015 with each of the nine singles in turn:-

Cage 001

mp3 : Big In Japan – Nothing Special
mp3 : Big In Japan – Cindy and The Barbi Dolls
mp3 : Big In Japan – Suicide A Go Go
mp3 : Big In Japan – Taxi

Cage 002

mp3 : Those Naughty Lumps – Iggy Pop’s Jacket
mp3 : Those Naughty Lumps – Pure and Innocent

Cage 003

mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Sleeping Gas
mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Camera Camera
mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Kirkby Workers Dream Fades

Cage 004

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – The Pictures On My Wall
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen – Read It In Books

Cage 005

mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Bouncing Babies
mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – All I Am Is Loving You

Cage 006

mp3 : Lori & The Chamelons – Touch
mp3 : Lori & The Chamelons – Love On The Ganges

Cage 007

mp3 : Expelaires – To See You
mp3 : Expelaires – Frequency

Cage 008

mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Treason (It’s Just A Story)
mp3 : The Teardrop Explodes – Read It In Books

Cage 009

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

The last of these singles was on 12″ vinyl while the rest were all 7″. And Bill D is of course spot-on in his assessment that Cage 009 was the greatest of the lot. (I know my dear friend Dirk from Sexy Loser thinks so…..)

Happy New Year Folks

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (43)….this time with music

Sorry folks….I did have at one time all the tracks that were made available with this release but I’ve seemingly deleted the file. Here’s the stuff from the 7″ vinyl:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Satellite Of Love (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – You Say You Don’t Love Me (live)

Enjoy

We Were Promised Jetpacks

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 124)

From All Music:-

Half bracing post-punk and half tuneful indie pop, Glasgow’s We Were Promised Jetpacks feature vocalist/guitarist Adam Thompson, guitarist Michael Palmer, bassist Sean Smith, and drummer Darren Lackie. The group formed while the four were still attending an Edinburgh high school, where they won a battle of the bands contest with their very first gig. After graduation, the band relocated to Glasgow, and their sound matured as well, moving from simple song structures and clean guitars to a more ambitious, anthemic approach. They were also inspired by The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit, and these influences could be heard on the three-song demo the band recorded, which received airplay on BBC, XFM, and Q Radio in the U.K., and KEXP in the States.

In 2008, We Were Promised Jetpacks toured as Frightened Rabbit’s opening act; that year, they were signed by Fat Cat Records (also home to both Frightened Rabbit and the Twilight Sad). In 2009, two singles, Quiet Little Voices and Roll Up Your Sleeves, preceeded their full-length These Four Walls.

They followed up the next year with the EP The Last Place You’ll Look, which featured some unreleased tracks and more orchestral rearrangements of some of the songs from their previous album.

In 2011, the band returned with another full-length effort, the more driving In the Pit of the Stomach. While they toured in support of the album, they recorded E Rey: Live in Philadelphia, a live album named after the band’s tour manager that was released in early 2014. During that time they also recorded their third album, Unravelling, with producer Paul Savage, which arrived in October 2014. Shortly before the album’s release, multi-instrumentalist Stuart McGachan joined as the band’s fifth member.

As you might imagine, I’ve seen We Were Promised Jetpacks a fair few times – particularly when they were very busy establishing a name for themselves back in 2008 and 2009, and they rarely disappointed. They’ve sort of disappeared off my personal radar in recent times although just over a year ago they played a great set in support of The Twilight Sad at the Barrowlands. I notice that they are playing in King Tut’s next month and there’s a fair chance that I’ll head along and give the new material a try. In the meantime, here’s the debut single:-

mp3 : We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices
mp3 : We Were Promised Jetpacks – Let’s Call This A Map

Enjoy

Paul Haig

A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER 2011 : PAUL HAIG

From 26 September 2011

Personal circumstances prevented me trying to organise Paul Haig Day III back in April.

I’m quite sorry about that as Days I and II on 6 April 2009 and 2010 respectively were by far the most exciting days I’ve had as a blogger as folk the world over used their spaces on the interwebby thing to post a track featuring the very talented Paul Haig, whether it was from his early career with Josef K, his solo career or his collaborations with other musicians including the late and great Billy Mackenzie.

I couldn’t possibly let the run up to the 5th Birthday of TVV to go past without featuring Paul Haig.

For PHD III my own contribution would have the posting of an entire LP from back in 1988, one that has a few rare tracks and different mixes. And here it is. The 12 tracks which make ip the vinyl version of European Sun – Archive Collection 1982-1987.

After each mp3. there’s a short description of each song as described on notes on the back of the sleeve:-

mp3 : Paul Haig – Running Away
7″ version of the first solo single, recorded in Brussels 1982. Written by Sly Stone, produced by Paul Haig

mp3 : Paul Haig – Chance
Short version of B-side from Heaven Help You Now. Written and produced by Paul Haig

mp3 : Paul Haig – Justice
Unreleased 7″ version, recorded Summer 1982. Written and produced by Paul Haig

mp3 : Paul Haig – Swinging For You
Unreleased 7″ version, recorded in Brussels 1987. Written and produced by Paul Haig (A different version would appear on the 1989 LP Chain)

mp3 : Paul Haig – Shining Hour
From the unreleased second solo album, November 1984. Written by Paul Haig. Produced by Alan Rankine

mp3 : Paul Haig – Fear And Dancing
From the unreleased second solo album, November 1984. Written by Paul Haig. Produced by Alan Rankine

mp3 : Paul Haig – Psycho San Jose
Spaghetti Western home recording, Summer 1987. Written and produced by Paul Haig (on 8 track)

mp3 : Paul Haig – Ghost Rider
cover version of Suicide’s road classic, with help from Malcolm Ross and David McClymont in December 1983, with Paul Haig and Alan Rankine co-producing. B-side of Big Blue World 12″ single.

mp3 : Paul Haig – Torchomatic
12″ single, recorded in Brussels in 1987. Written and produced by Paul Haig

mp3 : Paul Haig – Endless Song
b-side of Big Blue World 12″ single. Written by Paul Haig and co-produced by him and Alan Rankine

mp3 : Paul Haig – Closer Now
outtake from 1985 LP The Warp Of Pure Fun. Written by Paul Haig and co-produced by him and Alan Rankine

mp3 : Paul Haig – The Executioner
collaboration between Paul Haig and Cabaret Voltaire. Recorded in 1984 but never released. Produced bu Paul Haig, Richard Kirk and Stephen Mallinder

Now I will be the first to admit that a number of these tracks aren’t up there in terms of the best Paul Haig has ever recorded, but the whole point of originally starting up TVV was to make available songs which might otherwise be hard to obtain (I know…..it’s changed a lot since the early days). But today’s posting is intended to be in the spirit of those distant pioneering days when nobody cared or visited…….
Happy Listening

Billy Bragg, Billy Bragg & The Blokes

A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER 2011 : BILLY BRAGG

From Monday 5th September 2011

In 1988, you weren’t supposed to pay anymore than 99p for this 7″ single:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg – She’s Got A New Spell
mp3 : Billy Bragg – Must I Paint You A Picture (extended version)

In 2011, I paid £1.50 which I don’t think is too bad. The single and sleeve are both in very good condition.

The thing is, I had no reason to buy it other than I could and I wanted to. The A-side is no different to the version found on Worker’s Playtime, while the extended b-side I have from buying both Billy Bragg box sets a few years back. But the fact of the matter is that this blog-writing malarkey has re-ignited a passion for vinyl.

I had a fair collection back in 2006…and while I haven’t added all that much in the way of LPs, the number of 7″ and 12″ singles has grown enormously. As I said back in a very early posting that one of the ideas behind the blog was to try to make available some otherwise unavailable bits of music – stuff long out of print or never released on CD, and still I go round all sorts of places looking for bits of vinyl….not necessarily featuring songs you can’t get anywhere, but simply because I like them and wished I had bought the bit of plastic back in the day (or else re-purchasing it to replace something lost or stolen).

One of the other things I’ve tried to consistently do is offer other less-known recordings of the songs in the hope someone might find something new to enjoy or perhaps pick up something they might have been looking for. Not sure if this falls into either category, but I think it’s worth a listen:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg & The Blokes – Must I Paint You A Picture

This is taken from a CD picked up quite a while back now at one of Billy’s tours which features 12 songs (10 of them Woody Guthrie tracks from the Mermaid Avenue project plus two 2 of Billy’s original songs). As you can hear, this is a live performance….a simply beautiful rendition made ultra-special by the incredible skills of Ian McLagan on the Hammond organ……

Wipe away those tears now…..

Uncategorized

AND FINALLY…FOR THIS YEAR AT LEAST

I’ve pulled myself out of a bit of a nosedive in time to do one last post for 2014…although for some readers in far-off lands the year of 2015 will already be a few hours old.

The last 25-30 posts were all put together in a burst of activity before I headed off on holiday a few weeks back, mostly as an insurance policy in case I ran into problems with motivating myself on my return although I usually find that relaxing on the beach gives me some fresh inspiration and leads to all sorts of new postings and long-term features. But this time I came back devoid of ideas and then just before Xmas I learned of three separate deaths over three successive days which affected the families of some of my very closest friends. To put it mildly, I was on a bit of a downer and although Xmas with Mrs Villain was enjoyable enough, I haven’t been motivated enough to return to the keyboard. Till now.

First of all….a huge thank you to those of you who said such lovely words on the occasion of the 500th posting on T(n)VV – they were hugely appreciated.

Secondly….apologies for those of you who were looking for the Morrissey links from last Sunday’s post – a slight technical hitch has emerged (i.e. – I can’t find three of the five tracks as I appear to have deleted a batch of downloads at some point in time and only have those that I got from the purchase of the vinyl; I’m planning to try to rectify things by this weekend)

Thirdly….apologies in general if some of you have dropped an e-mail to me in recent weeks. The malaise around the blog has extended to the e-mail account which hasn’t been opened in nearly four weeks. I’m going to get round to it again soon.

The strange thing is that, from a musical perspective, 2014 turned out to be hugely enjoyable in many ways, primarily from the number of tremendous and unusual live shows that I managed to get along to. Glasgow’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games also saw it host a diverse cultural programme, within which sat something called the East End Social (click here) which was single-handedly responsible for some of the most unforgettable moments in what is now 35 years of going along to gigs.

Other highlights in my home city included Aidan Moffat at the Barrowlands, the Cairn String Quartet (with all sorts of special guests) at Platform, Johnny Marr at the O2 and Randolph’s Leap at the Glad Cafe while the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh brought great joy on a few occasions, not least the last ever gig by Meursault (not that I was happy the band were splitting up but they really went out in style)

The year was rounded off by something special too, namely getting to see The Twilight Sad at the Tolbooth, a 200-capacity venue in Stirling, when the band demonstrated just how strong and memorable their new songs are while somehow also making the old favourites sound better and more powerful than ever before.

I’ve also got into the habit in recent years of holding back on some of the music I’ve most wanted to buy so that Santa can bring me joy on Xmas Day. 2014 was no exception and this past week has seen me really appreciate the work of Honeyblood, The War on Drugs, Owl John, Roddy Frame and the wonderful soundtrack that Edwyn Collins put together for The Possibilities Are Endless film.

2015 will hopefully turn out to be half-decent. I’ll do my very best to keep T(n)VV ticking over. Thanks for being part of it.

This was the final few minutes of a look back at 2014 which went out on BBC2 in the UK last night. I can’t think of a better way to end the year.

mp3 : Charlie Brooker and The Blockheads – Reasons To Be Fearful ’14

Enjoy

Fun Boy Three

A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER 2011 : FUN BOY THREE

From Friday 9th September 2011

Picked up a 12″ copy of this for just 50p not too long ago. Then I picked up a copy of the LP Waiting, from which the single was lifted, for just £1 the day after in a totally different shop. Until then I had no idea that David Byrne had been behind the production desk…..

Fun Boy Three are a band that don’t get the praise they merit in blogland. Maybe it was because they formed from the messy break-up of critically acclaimed The Specials or maybe it is because Terry Hall would enjoy more success later on his career with The Colourfield. I don’t know….

I liked them a lot. They made great pop music and yet the lyrics were often edgy and confrontational, particularly in regards to dealing with nasty night-wing racist bigots. They weren’t afraid to have fun…although whenever you looked at Terry Hall performing with them on any telly programme of the era he seemed a right miserable sod. The sum of their recording career was two LPs, both of which went Top 20 and eight singles (nine if you include their collaboration on Really Saying Something by Bananarama), most of which also went high in the charts.

Their final hit was a cover of a song that Terry Hall had co-written with Jane Wiedlein of The Go-Gos and it reached #7 in the singles charts in mid 1983.

What I hadn’t appreciated until I played the disc is that the single is a completely different mix from that which originally appeared on the LP.

mp3 : Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (single version)
mp3 : Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (LP version)

I’m also sorry to say that the six minutes plus remix version made available on the 12″ is a bit of a disappointment…..it probably seemed a good idea at the time, but some songs will always sound at their best when kept down to the three minute mark:-

mp3 : Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (special remix version)

The other track on the 12″ is well worth a listen…..much better and way more original than I ever imagined it would have been:-

mp3 : Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (urdu version)

Anyone else listen and think of Blancmange doing Living On The Ceiling???

Flowered Up, Rockingbirds, Saint Etienne

A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER 2011 : THE FRED EP

From Saturday 24 September 2011

Now I never thought I’d feature anything by Right Said Fred on TVV. But there was a charidee EP released back in 1992 which might be of some interest:-

mp3 : The Rockingbirds – Deeply Dippy
mp3 : Flowered Up – Don’t Talk Just Kiss (edit)
mp3 : St Etienne – I’m Too Sexy (edit)

For those who perhaps don’t know, Right Said Fred were absolutely massive in the UK in 1991 and 92. Their first three singles, all of which are covered on this EP, went Top 3. Since then, they have continued to record and tour without achieving much in the way of chart success….but they have an incredibly loyal fan base which ensures their gigs tend to sell out.

The EP features three of the best-known artistes on Heavenly Records and all profits from the release went to supporting the AIDS charity, The Terence Higgins Trust. As with most charity records, the cause is better than the music…..none of the three songs featured do all that much for me I’m afraid to say.

But feel free to disagree.

Red Guitars

A LOOK BACK AT SEPTEMBER 2011 : RED GUITARS

I know from past experience that the number of hits and visits to the blog goes down quite dramatically at this time of year and so I’m going to use the period to look back at some postings from September 2011.

This was a significant period for the old blog as it was coming up to its 5th Birthday and it was marked by a series of fresh postings reflecting in part why I was performing this labour of love and it built up to an announcement that I was going to, for the first ever time, promote a live gig under the banner of ‘The Vinyl Villain presents…..’

Here’s the posting from Saturday 3 September entitled “Approaching the Age of 5 (Part 3)”

Normally on a Saturday I’m to be found taking a look at a song by The Smiths. I will return to that particular series in October, but for today I thought I’d have a quick look at the band who supported Moz & Co the first time I ever saw them away back on 2 March 1984 at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow.

The support act were Red Guitars, one of the three bands from Hull who The Housemartins thought were better than themselves. They consisted of Jeremy Kidd (vocals), Hallam Lewis (guitar), John Rowley (guitar), Louise Barlow (bass) and Matt Higgins (drums). They were another of the bands from the early-mid 80s who were happy enough to play at gigs that were seen as supporting left-wing/socialist causes in the UK and internationally (the hint is in the band’s name….) and naturally enough got some positive press in the NME.

But the music they were making did mark them out as well worth a listen. Their first single was Good Technology, released in 1983 on their very own label which was called Self Drive Music. It was a hit in the Indie Charts and at student discos up and down the land. They were a band that always seemed to be out on tour and were considered a very good act which is probably why they landed the job of supporting The Smiths on their first ever UK-wide tour.

Despite being a well-respected band, they never really achieved mainstream success – indeed the debut single, which was re-released in 1984 at the time of debut LP Slow To Fade – is their best-known song and is reckoned to have sold around 60,000 copies between the two issues.

It was a copy of the 1984 re-issue that I picked up a few weeks ago, bringing the total of Red Guitar singles in the cupboard to three – all from 1984 and all on the label mentioned above:-

mp3 : Red Guitars – Good Technology
mp3 : Red Guitars – Paris France

mp3 : Red Guitars – Steeltown
mp3 : Red Guitars – Within 4 Walls

mp3 : Red Guitars – Marimba Jive
mp3 : Red Guitars – Heartbeat Go

The constant touring, comboned with the pressures of running their own record label, led to tensions and lead singer Jeremy Kidd quit in late 1984 just a short time after the release of said debut LP. The band continued on bringing in a new vocalist in Robert Holmes for vocals, but were never the same again, even among the critics.

But you can never take away the fact it was a cracking debut single.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (43)

Now this one I did buy….and it is currently the last Morrissey 45 I bought at the time of release which was January 2014.

The single was a bit of a rush-release, with a digital version coming out just six weeks after the death of Lou Reed. It’s a live cover recorded in November 2011 in Las Vegas but which had been a staple of all the live shows throughout that particular year.

The physical product in the shape of 7″ and 12″ picture discs hit the shops just the other side of Christmas. It was the 7″ I bought on the basis of it containing a live cover version of a great track by Buzzcocks recorded at an outdoor gig in London back in 2008:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Satellite Of Love (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – You Say You Don’t Love Me (live)

I was hacked off that the other track on the 7″ was the studio version of You’re Gonna Need Someone On Your Side, especially as the 12″ and digital versions had other stuff to perhaps get excited about. I was even more hacked off when I played the two live tracks – having heard Moz give decent performances of both of them at various times at small venues in Scotland I wasn’t prepared for the poor quality of what had been captured and put on the single. Hugely disappointing stuff and again an example of taking the fans for granted.

Here’s the other stuff that was made available on the download and 12″:-

Morrissey – Vicar In A Tutu (live)
Morrissey – All You Need Is Me (live)
Morrissey – Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed (live)

All of the above were also taken from the same Hyde Park in London show as the Buzzcocks cover.

The digital single sold enough copies to take it to #124 in the UK singles chart and that is now officially the lowest ever position for any Morrissey single although a number of the limited edition releases didn’t chart at all.

Wake The President

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 123)

From allmusic:-

Twin brothers Bjorn and Eric Sandberg, bassist Mark Corrigan and drummer Scott Sieczkowski formed Wake the President in 2005 while the twins were students at Glasgow University.

Informed by a number of shambly indie pop acts from the ’80s and ’90s (the Go-Betweens, Arab Strap, and Orange Juice among them), the group put together a group of demos that welcomed comparisons to the Shout Out Louds, Je Suis Animal, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The band was eventually picked up by Douglas MacIntyre and Ken McCluskey’s Electric Honey Records, a student-run label (manned by the music industry management students of Glasgow’s Stow College) that gained some attention in 1996 for releasing Belle & Sebastian’s Tigermilk.

Wake the President’s debut single on that label, “Sorrows for Clothes,” was released in 2007; another single, “Remember Fun,” came out on Norman Records soon after. In 2008 the singles caught the attention of BBC Radio 2’s Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe; the singles were put into rotation, and each song went on to earn the coveted title of single of the week. Wake the President’s debut full-length, You Can’t Change That Boy, was released in the U.K. and the States the following year, on Electric Honey and Magic Marker Records, respectively. They followed it up in 2011 with an album titled Zumutung! on We Can Still Picnic records.

By all rights, I should adore Wake The President given all the boxes they tick in terms of influences and the great names from the Glasgow pop scene who were working with them from the start.

And while a recent listen again to this debut single and debut album does demonstrate some really good songs my lack of love for the band was coloured from going along the LP launch at the beginning of 2009 and coming away incredibly underwhelmed. Maybe I just caught the band on a bad night or maybe I just expected too much from them but apart from the sound being really awful (which makes me think the choice of venue was probably wrong – they went for a grand looking old hall which is more used to staging wedding and ceilidh bands rather the alleged bright new things of Scottish indie-pop) there was also the thought that the boys took the audience for granted and posed their way rather than grafted their way through the set.

mp3 : Wake The President – Mail Alice
mp3 : Wake The President – Sorrows For Clothes

Just a pity the band didn’t become as big as they had hoped. This single was limited to just 500 copies and could have been a sort of golden ticket (not that I would have sold!!)

Happy Mondays, Happy Mondays and Karl Denver

THE DAY THE BARGAIN HUNTERS COME OUT IN FORCE

(A shorter version of this originally appeared back on 26 December 2011)

The day after Christmas can sometimes be a bit of an anti-climax. I hope it is not the case with you dear readers.

The folk I feel sorry for are those in the retail sector. They probably finished at 6pm on Christmas Eve after about three or four weeks in a row without a day off during which time they dealt with customers who were clueless and often rude. I certainly saw some supermarket check-out staff get a mouthful of abuse because the shop had the temerity to have run out of some foodstuffs and those who left it till the last-minute were disappointed and in some cases angry.

Today, many of those hard-pressed workers will have had to go to their place of employment at stupid o’clock to get their shops and stores ready for those who still think that the best bargains in retail world are to be had on 26 December and so they queue up for hours, often in the miserable cold and wet, and then have a mad dash inside when the doors open.

I guarantee there will be footage on the news later on.

Over here, 26th December is referred to as Boxing Day. Thought I’d find a track with a very tenuous link to the theme of boxing for. It was one of three on a belter of a CD single from 1990:-

mp3 : Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck (Vince Clarke mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays and Karl Denver – Lazyitis – one armed boxer

Enjoy.

Sultans Of Ping

SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN

Here’s the usual Christmas posting, featuring, without any question, the best festive-themed song ever. If only for including the line..’Christmas in Glasgow.’

Natives of Cork, Ireland, they were once known as The Sultans of Ping FC, then just The Sultans of Ping, before eventually becoming The Sultans. Their career initially lasted from 1988 to 1997, but they reformed again in 2005, and continue to be hugely popular in their native land and in Japan.

This particular offering was on the b-side of a 1993 single – during their period as The Sultans of Ping – that just missed breaking into the UK Top 40.

Please enjoy the wonderful:-

mp3 : Sultans of Ping – Xmas Bubblegum Machine