THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

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

Tindersticks

IT WAS CHRISTMAS EVE BABE, IN THE…..

mp3 : Tindersticks – Drunk Tank

Don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m well fed-up with hearing the same old festive-related songs in every single shop I go into as I search for the perfect last-minute gift for Mrs Villain. Consider this my equivalent of the dirty protest.

But tune in tomorrow for what has become the traditional 25th December posting on TVV (and no looking back to previous years to spoil it….)

Hope Santa is good to you all.

(Lifted from the posting of 24 December 2009)

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (22)

The first James single that I didn’t set out to buy at the time.

Waltzing Along was one the tracks from Whiplash that I liked most, helped by the fact that it is driven along by some lovely work on the slide guitar which gives the song a country feel akin to some work a decade or so earlier by R.E.M.

mp3 : James – Waltzing Along (LP Version)

A lovely bit of slide guitar that was replaced by a horrible bit of standard guitar work. Indeed, all the lovely subtle sounds which made this such an enjoyable LP track were butchered away and in their place came a more commercial and jarring sound.

The single was released in June 1997. Again, it involved 3 x CDs.

The first of them had three live renditions of songs lifted from a London gig a few months earlier, and for the second single release in a row Greenpeace featured as did Homeboy (another track on Whiplash) together with an old favourite:-

CD1

Waltzing Along (single version)
Homeboy (live)
How Was It For You (live)
Greenpeace (live)

The Second CD was where you’d find the three new songs:-

CD2

Your Story
Where You Gonna Run?
Long To Be Right

And finally, yup, you guessed it, CD3 for the diehards who wanted all the remixes:-

CD3

Waltzing Along (Disco Socks Mix)
Waltzing Along (Flytronox Mix)

Once again it was all three for £5 if you wanted or £1.99 each. Fans bought enough copies to have it enter the charts at #23 before it plummeted like a stone.

There was a rather savage review of the single in NME but it was hard to argue with it:-

Time was when these merry Mancunian misfits could lay claim to being one of the most forward-looking groups in this country, with their weird take on rock music and an ascetic outlook that stuck out a while in times of much frippery. These days, James are more like Simple Minds than the Scottish stadium rockers themselves, if the hackneyed and plodding backing track here is to be taken seriously. Which is a pity as Tim Booth still sings like he’s got something of importance to impart – in the case a prayer for the dying. Oh well, there’s always the solo career.

The really annoying thing is that having subjected myself to so many sub-standard b-sides with the Whiplash singles I missed out for 17 years on one of the more interesting efforts from the band. CD2 was well worth £1.99….

Your Story is a song about being obsessed with sex and rather unusually has the odd expletive thrown in during its five-minute duration. The tune is a bit more rock orientated than most James songs but it is different enough to merit attention.

It’s a total contrast to the instrumental track which follows – you could have given me 100 guesses and I don’t think I’d have stumped up James as the band who composed and recorded what is the rather haunting and occasionally beautiful Where You Gonna Run? It sound like the sort of music that comes over the credits of a movie that just had the saddest and most moving of endings.

Just a pity that the final new song, Long To Be Right, is a self-indulgent, noodling waste of three and a bit minutes of your life.

mp3 : James – Waltzing Along (single version)
mp3 : James – Your Story
mp3 : James – Where You Gonna Run?
mp3 : James – Long To Be Right

Tune in next time to see how James got the critics and record buying public to like them again!

Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn

NOT QUITE SCOTTISH ENOUGH TO HAVE BEEN PART 123

It’s down to the fact that this is more of a Vince Clarke record than a Paul Quinn record which kept it out of the ongoing Saturday series.

Vince had enjoyed chart success with Depeche Mode, Yazoo and The Assembly between 1981 and 1983. Indeed, there hardly seemed to be a singles or album chart in the UK over that period where one of his songs didn’t feature.

In 1985, much to many people’s surprise, it was revealed that he had hooked up with Paul Quinn. Some of the fruits of their labour were released on a 7″ and 12″ single on Mute Records. This is the 12″ version:-

mp3 : Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn – One Day (extension)000000000000
mp3 : Vince Clarke & Paul Quinn – Song For (extension)

The two talents never quite gelled. Vince would team up with Andy Bell to form the incredibly succesful and occasionally brilliant Erasure while Paul would team up with some of the best musicians ever to come out of Scotland to form the incredibly unsuccessful but always brilliant Independent Group.

Here’s the rarely seen promo for One Day which was a #99 hit in the UK charts.

And now for a little footnote….

The b-side (and superior song in my view) was composed solely by Vince Clarke.

The a-side is attributed to Clarke/Morgan/McVey….and here’s who the other two were:-

Morgan McVey were a mid-1980s pop duo with a background in fashion photography, video direction and modeling, composed of Jamie Morgan and Cameron McVey. Jamie Morgan has been highly influential as part of Buffalo, a styling team whose streetwise look was typical in the style mags of the time.

The group released a single, “Looking Good Diving”, through Sony Records in 1986, produced by Stock Aitken Waterman and mixed by Phil Harding. The B side, called “Looking Good Diving with the Wild Bunch” featuring Neneh Cherry, was a tribute to the buffalo stance. The B side was re-recorded 2 years later by Neneh Cherry as “Buffalo Stance” and it went to #3 in the UK Charts and the Top 10 around the world in 1988.

You learn something new all the time round here.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (42)

Another single that I didn’t bother to rush out and buy.

The next attempt to milk the cash-cow was in April 2013 with the limited edition reissue of one of the earliest and most enduring singles. This edition of The Last Of The Famous International Playboys came in three versions – 7 inch picture disc, CD and digital download – all featuring one previously unreleased song that had been recorded and broadcast by BBC Radio 2 back in June 2011.

mp3 : Morrissey – People Are The Same Everywhere
mp3 : Morrissey – Action Is My Middle Name
mp3 : Morrissey – The Kid’s A Looker

Not the worst ever b-sides but a tad worrying that none of the three songs, (two of which had featured very heavily in live sets over the previous two years), were considered worthy of a studio recording or for release as a new 45. It didn’t help mind you that the great man was without a record label and so the single went out on EMI Records via the Parlophone imprint.

Enjoy

Wake

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 122)

From wiki:-

The Wake were founded in Glasgow in 1981 by Gerard “Caesar” McInulty (formerly of Altered Images), Steven Allen (drums) and Joe Donnelly (bass), the latter soon replaced by Bobby Gillespie. Steven’s sister Carolyn Allen also joined on keyboards, and remained in the band thereafter.

The Wake released their first single on their own Scan 45 label, coupling together “On Our Honeymoon” and “Give Up”. This single eventually caught the attention of New Order manager Rob Gretton, who helped the band sign to Factory Records in 1982 and record an LP (Harmony) at Strawberry Studios in Stockport.

This was followed by a number of singles on Factory and its Belgian sister label Factory Benelux. In 1983, The Wake toured with New Order, and thus received critical attention but were often unfavourably compared to their more celebrated labelmates. Gillespie was asked to leave in 1983, subsequently playing drums with The Jesus and Mary Chain and achieving fame with his own band Primal Scream.

After an amicable but short-lived stint with Caesar’s ex-classmate Martin Cunning on bass , Alexander ‘Mac’ Macpherson permanently replaced Gillespie. That same year the band recorded a session on John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 programme. The band toured extensively and scored an indie hit with their 1984 single “Talk About The Past” which featured Vini Reilly of Durutti Column on piano.

The recording and release of their seminal 1985 album Here Comes Everybody marked the apex of their career. Further releases were few and far between: one more single “Of The Matter” emerged in 1985 before their last release for Factory, a 4-track EP entitled “Something That No One Else Could Bring” finally appeared in 1987.

In 1988, disillusioned with the lack of proper promotion and indeed apathy from Factory Records, The Wake left the label and signed to Bristol’s legendary Sarah Records, releasing two singles and two LPs, the last being 1994’s Tidal Wave of Hype. By this point, once again down to a three piece featuring McInulty, Allen and Steven, they also shared personnel with another Glasgow-based band on Sarah, The Orchids, with whom they had also played a few live gigs. When Sarah shut down in 1995, The Wake effectively dissolved.

In autumn 2009, The Wake (McInulty and Allen) came together once again to record a new album, “A Light Far Out”, but it wasn’t released till April 2012 on LTM Records In July 2013 The Wake performed at the Indietracks Festival.

I saw The Wake on a number of occasions back in the days including at least three support slots for New Order. They weren’t the easiest band to take to – they always looked and sounded so dour and miserable and at a time when The Smiths were taking the world by storm The Wake seemed very much out of touch.

I’ve picked up a second-hand 7″ copy of FAC 88, the aforementioned indie hit which featured Vini Reilly on piano:-

mp3 : The Wake – Talk About The Past
mp3 : The Wake – Everybody Works So Hard

Enjoy

Catatonia

GANGSTA RAP

A hit single in 1998 took Catatonia out of cult status and into the rooms and CD collections of the general public thanks to having the great idea of writing a song which directly referenced two of the then most popular characters in TV fiction.

It’s true that Mulder and Scully will always be the song most associated with the band and there’s no denying that it is a catchy and clever pop song with absolutely nothing to do with the sci-fi or paranormal subject matter of the TV show, but I think their previous single, released at the back-end of 1997 remains their finest non-Welsh lyric moment:-

mp3 : Catatonia – I Am The Mob

A surprise Top 40 hit in as far as radio play was near non-existent thanks to lyrics about kneecapping, oral sex, murder, extortion, all on the back of a stupendous opening line which pays the ultimate tribute to The Godfather.

The CD single has three other tracks on it:-

mp3 : Catatonia – Jump Or Be Sane
mp3 : Catatonia – My Selfish Gene
mp3 : Catatonia – I Am The Mob (Luca Brasi Mix)

While Jump or Sane is more or less a bog-standard filler for a single, the band obviously realised that the piano ballad My Selfish Gene was too mainstream sounding to be thrown away as a b-side and it became the final track on the triple-platinum selling LP International Velvet. It’s a song which shows off the vocal talents of Cerys Matthews.

The remix of the single is also reasonably entertaining.

Enjoy

Wedding Present

A WALL OF NOISE (PEEL VERSION)

The Wedding Present recorded an awful lot of sessions for the John Peel Show, and indeed for many other BBC radio programmes.

It was often the case that they took the opportunity to unveil new songs which wouldn’t be released for weeks or even months. On the 28th October 1990 they played four songs which would be part of the Seamonsters LP that came out in May 1991, more than six months later.

I remember hearing something that night and just thinking how loud it was – loud as in just a total wall of noise. It was not the sort of sound I normally associated with the band.

It took until the release of the Peel Session box set in 2007 before I could relive those moments from all those years ago. Of the near 100 bits of music spread across the six discs, this was the first I played..I felt like a kid on Xmas Day getting the present they’ve been dreaming about for what seems like forever:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Dalliance (Peel Session)

Give it a listen. The noise that so startled me back in 1990 comes in at the 2 minute 21 seconds mark. It is just after the Boy David has poured his heart out – again – and said “after all you’ve done, that I’m so…I still want to kiss you.”

Wow.

Dalliance is one of the greatest ever songs about the feeling of total and utter despair from being strung along and let down at the very last moment. It’s a song I always imagined could be turned into a real tear-jerker by the original Tindersticks line-up if they had taken hold of the song and given it an arrangement with strings and keyboards.

The Peel version is shorter than that which was released on the LP – partly because it was played faster. I’m not sure if the band, having listened to the results of the Peel Session decided a change of pace was required. It makes the Seamonsters version even more intense….the wall of noise maybe doesn’t quite have the same impact, but it then seems to build and build and build in a way that doesn’t happen on the Peel version.

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Dalliance

Oh and let’s not forget the live version in concert for French radio. It lets you hear just good this band were and continue to be on stage:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Dalliance (Black Sessions)

Simply thrilling honeys.