THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

R.E.M.

INDIE, POP, HONKY-TONK OR COUNTRY?

I’ve long been embarrassed at how slow I was to catch-on to R.E.M. and always had pangs of jealousy towards those who cottoned on from the start and got to see them before they became staples of the arena/stadium tours.

My excuse?

I was way too engrossed in UK jingly-jangly indie pop and the fact that in the early 80s my home city seemed to be the centre of the musical universe to pay any attention to what was coming out of the USA .

Besides….one look at the cover of this 1984 single and noticing that one of them had long hair was more than enough to put me off taking the band seriously at the time no matter what some folk were saying in the music papers.

But I should have trusted my ears and not my eyes. For quite simply, this single, which is rather astonishingly more than 30 years old, is quite wonderful:-

mp3 : R.E.M. – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville

A sad tale of long-distance love told over a quite exquisite tune that can’t quite make its mind up if it is indie, pop, honky-tonk or country.

Such is my belated love for this track that on the only occasion business has ever taken me to the Washington DC (it was back in 2002 and I was delighted to learn that the conference venue, which was where I was also staying for three nights, was the Watergate Hotel), I used a spare afternoon to hop on a commuter train out to Rockville, where I had a walk around for about an hour and took some photos. It was, and I guess still is, a lovely little town.

Here’s yer b-sides of the 12″ single that I picked up second-hand a couple of years ago:-

mp3 : R.E.M. – Wolves
mp3 : R.E.M. – 9-9*
mp3 : R.E.M. – Gardening At Night*

*Recorded Live at ‘The Eldorado’, in Paris on Good Friday 20 April 1984 in mono

That equated to around £6 or $9 (US) for the ticket.

Enjoy.

Bob Dylan, Cramps, Jam, Meursault, Randolph's Leap

THE 500th POST On T(n)VV

With thanks to everyone, whether you’ve submitted a guest post, left a comment, sent me an e-mail or simply dropped in for a look.

It’s sometimes been a bit of a struggle keeping the new blog going – I’m not sure it will ever give me the same sense of excitement and satisfaction as the old blog – but every now and again there’s something drops into the inbox or comments section that makes me realise that it is still all worthwhile.

I thought I’d celebrate by featuring some songs ripped from the vinyl collection that I don’t think have ever appeared previously on this or the old blog.

mp3 : The Jam – Happy Together
(From the LP The Gift (which I still I have in its pink and white gift wrapping))

mp3 : Meursault – Settling
(from the LP Something for The Weakened (in recognition of one of the best bands to have come and gone in the few short years I’ve been doing this nonsense – good luck with the new venture Neil)

mp3 : The Cramps – Jailhouse Rock
(from the NME compilation LP The Last Temptation of Elvis (in acknowledgement of my first ever gig more than 35 years ago))

mp3 : Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone
(from the LP Highway 61 Revisited (the original 1965 mono version – gifted to me by someone a few weeks ago when they learned I had a passion for vinyl))

mp3 : Randolph’s Leap – I Can’t Dance To This Music Anymore
(from the LP Clumsy Knot (just a way of sneaking in a track from my favourite album of 2014))

Here’s a live ‘unplugged’ version of the Randolph’s Leap song which was filmed in a pub very very close to my place of work in the east end of Glasgow and which was the venue for some of my most magical musical memories this past 12 months.

Enjoy.

And here’s to the next 500 bits of nonsense.

Iggy Pop

WHAT COMES INTO YOUR MIND WHEN YOU HEAR THIS SONG?

mp3 : Iggy Pop – Lust For Life

For years, it was always the downstairs alternative disco within Strathclyde University’s Student Union. Level 8 was the main place for live acts and a half decent indie and pop disco but two floors down, in what usually functioned as the main dining hall, you’d find a DJ playing more obscure and cult material. Iggy Pop featured every week, alternating between The Passenger and Lust For Life (it was vinyl in those days and I’m guessing that was the only LP that the student union had!)

Moving forward more than a decade and the song became synonymous with the opening few minutes of the film Trainspotting as Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Spud (Ewan Bremner) sprint down Princes Street in Edinburgh pursued by security guards after a shoplifting incident gone wrong. The joy and surprise of seeing so many familiar locations come to life on the big screen was part of what made that film so special, and every time I walk up Leith Walk and pass its junction with Calton Road I instantly recall the moment where Renton sprints down the sorts set of stairs and seconds later narrowly avoids getting killed by a car emerging from a side street as Iggy’s song pounds away in the background.

Almost 20 years later and I’ve a third abiding memory and that’s of Johnny Marr and his cohorts blasting out a tremendous live version from the stage of the O2 Academy in Glasgow. In a gig packed with many highlights, including some astonishingly good versions of Smiths songs, the unexpected blast of Lust for Life was just as much a stand-out.

It wasn’t originally released as a single in the UK but was readily available on import from the Netherlands where it went Top 3, with this same track on the b-side as had been put on the UK release of The Passenger:-

mp3 : Iggy Pop – Success

1977? Still sounds incredible and fresh today.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (41)

I don’t like the annual nonsense of Record Store Day. The concept itself is sound but all too often real fans are left out in the cold as things are snapped up and shoved on e-bay for astronomical amounts within a matter of hours, so I tend to give the event a miss and drop into a couple of my favourite stores a few days after and see what is still generally available.

Which is why I’ve never shown any interest at all in trying to get my hands on a 10″ single release for Record Store Day 2012, limited to 1000 copies:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Suedehead (Mael Mix)
mp3 : Morrissey – Now My Heart Is Full (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – We’ll Let You Know (live)

The main track was given the remix treatment by Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, with Ron adding some keyboards. It’s dreadful.

The live tracks were from a 1995 concert at the historic Theatre Royal in London which had been broadcast on BBC Radio 1. They’re almost as awful as the remix….

Total waste of time and money. Glad mine were, ahem, sourced.

View

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 121)

The View initially formed around a cover band from a school in the very working-class district of Dryburgh in the east-coast city of Dundee, initially signing to local independent label Two Thumbs on which they released the self-titled The View EP in early 2006. They quickly came to the attention of a number of radio presenters and before long were wooed onto 1965 Records, a London-based subsidiary record label of Sony, founded and run by James Endeacott (formerly of Rough Trade Records).

By late 2006 they had released two Top 20 singles – Wasted Little DJs and Superstar Tradesman – and at the same time began to tour extensively across the UK, including a prestigious slot on a heavily advertised package tour put together by MTV2. The View were incredibly hot property at this time thanks in part to what were exciting and chaotic live sets and the support of what seemed to be every DJ who played indie music on their shows across the UK. Their third single, Same Jeans, went Top 3 in early 2007 while debut LP Hats Off To The Buskers went straight in at #1. Subsequent singles didn’t fare anywhere near as well although the LP would subsequently be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize. The band were either still in their teens or barely out of them while this was taking place………

But just as quickly as the band rose to prominence, so did they disappear as the music press moved on to whoever was the next big thing. The band seemed to struggle with this and there was a two-year gap between the debut LP and the follow-up, Witch Bitch. Evidence of fans having moved on so quickly can be seen by the dramatic fall in sales of the second LP – less than half of what had been afforded the debut.

The band have now released a total of four studio LPs as well as a 20-track compilation album in 2013 featuring the tracks they had most played live over the previous seven years along with three new songs.

They are still an exciting live act, hugely loved in their home city and other parts of Scotland. A short tour in 2014 with shows Edinburgh, Aberdeen and three dates at Oran Mor in Glasgow, all selling out within hours of going on general sale. Despite a career which is now stretching into a ninth year, the band members are all still only in their late 20s.

Here is that #3 hit and b-sides from the CD single:-

mp3 : The View – Same Jeans
mp3 : The View – Cherry Girl
mp3 : The View – Superstar Tradesman (live at Glasgow Barfly, 2006)

and here’s the b-side from the 7″ vinyl version:-

mp3 : The View – Screamin’ n Shoutin’

The CD single also had a clip from that Barfly gig, one which myself and Mrs Villain had a thoroughly enjoyable time (and which was reviewed over on the old blog back in the day)

Handsome Boy Modeling School

A CONCEPTUAL HIP HOP DUO…WITH GUESTS

I picked up a second-hand copy of this 12″ single purely on the basis of once enjoying the promo video many moons ago on one or other of the satellite music channels.

I had to look up Handsome Boy Modeling School to find out more. They were a collaboration between two hip hop producers Dan the Automator and Prince Paul (both of whom I’d heard of thanks to owning material by Gorillaz and De La Soul). Over a seven-year period between 1999 and 2006 there were two albums and a handful of singles, containing songs that parodied and acted as a commentary on vain, consumerist, materialistic, and self-absorbed members of upper class society. The duo also roped in a wide range of guest performers from all sorts of musical genres including for this 2004 single (and track on the LP White People), Jamaican reggae superstar Barrington Levy, American rapper Del the Funky Homosapien and the then king of UK indie-pop, Alex Kopranos.

The result is very catchy:-

mp3 : Handsome Boy Modeling School – The World’s Gone Mad (album version)
mp3 : Handsome Boy Modeling School – The World’s Gone Mad (Part 2)
mp3 : Handsome Boy Modeling School – The World’s Gone Mad (Part 3)

Part 2 also features Alex’s bandmates Nick McCarthy and Paul Thomson from Franz Ferdinand.

Enjoy

Electronic

A CLOSE COUSIN TO YESTERDAY’S SONGS

It was just over a year after the relase of Phobia by Flowered Up that this track became known:-

mp3 : Electronic – Feel Every Beat

The combined talents of Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr, made Electronic a highly listenable band, coming to prominence with the hit single Getting Away With It (featuring a co-vocal from Neil Tennant) in late 1989. However, the next hit, Get The Message didn’t appear for some 15 months.

The self-titled debut LP hit the shops in April 1991 to near universal critical acclaim along with enough sales to propel it to #2 in the album charts. Factory Records must have been confident of getting the band a third successive Top 20 single when they released a remixed version of Feel Every Beat in September 1991. Regarded by many as the strongest track on the album with its mix of dance/house/indie rock appealing to a very wide audience, it was put out on vinyl in 7″ and 12″ form as well as on CD single with two top-notch previously unreleased tracks to supplement the remixes, all of which have something to offer:-

mp3 : Electronic – Feel Every Beat (7″ remix)
mp3 : Electronic – Feel Every Beat (12″ Remix)
mp3 : Electronic – Feel Every Beat (Dub Mix)
mp3 : Electronic – Feel Every Beat (DNA Mix)
mp3 : Electronic – Second To None
mp3 : Electronic – Lean To The Inside

One of the few lyrics ever to be explained by Bernard, Feel Every Beat registers his disgust at the criminalisation of rave culture in the UK over some of Johnny’s finest guitar work. But to the bemusement of all involved, it got no higher than #39. It deserved much better.

Enjoy

Flowered Up

THE ULTIMATE BAGGY BAND?

I only own a few singles or tracks on compilation LPs but it strikes me that Flowered Up made the sort of music that perfectly captures the feel, mood and ambience of the baggy movement. The shuffling drums, rinky-dinky keyboards to the fore and occasional 60s style guitar solos and a vocalist who would nowadays be laughed off the stage on the telly talent shows searching for the next big star when all the while he has more charisma and style in his little toe than they have in their entire genetic structure.

The backbone of Flowered Up were brothers Liam Mahey (vocals) and Joe Mahey (guitar) augmented by Tom Dorney (keys), Andy Jackson (bass) and John Tuvey (drums). This most Madchester sounding of bands were from London and are probably best known for the song Weekender, a 13-minute long epic which preached the virtues of a full-on hedonistic lifestyle in which the band were keen to drive home the message the drugs do work. Despite a near universal lack of radio play, Weekender went Top 20 in the UK in 1992.

I much prefer however, one of the band’s flop singles from a couple of years earlier.

mp3 : Flowered Up – Phobia (extended play)
mp3 : Flowered Up – Flapping
mp3 : Flowered Up – Phobia (paranoid mix)

The real tragedy of the band is not that they weren’t nearly as successful as they deserved but that the Mahey brothers couldn’t shake the lifestyle long after the band broke up in the mid 90s with Liam dying of a heroin overdose in October 2009 while Joe passed away in November 2012, both in their early 40s.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

SOMETIMES IT TAKES A WHILE

Aside from Simple Minds, which was largely on the basis of them being local, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark were the first electronic band that I really became a fan of, thanks to the early singles Electricity and Messages. They were certainly the first electronic band I ever saw play live at the Glasgow Apollo in November 1980, a gig which left me rather disappointed and underwhelmed, but then again I didn’t have a great seat stuck at the back of the circle (but not quite the upper circle which really was a dreadful spot in the building being so high up and far from the stage).

However, it was only some 20 years after its release that I really became a fan of the band’s debut LP. This was a record which had versions of the two hit singles I loved along with eight other bits of music, many of which were far darker, moodier and difficult for a 17-year-old weaned on guitar music to really get his head around. It wasn’t too long in the collection as I soon swapped it with a friend for a copy of Diamond Dogs (which I’m sure he had pinched from his big brother’s collection) as I was just really getting into Bowie on the back of Scary Monsters.

It was many years later that I picked up a copy of the OMD debut on CD for £5. I was of course approaching it with a whole new outlook on music with my tastes have broadened substantially from those long-ago teenage years. And I very much liked what I was hearing – and in particular what I had previously thought difficult and almost unlistenable bits of music.

A few weeks ago I picked up a second-hand vinyl copy of the album. It’s not the now rare first edition that I had bought away back in 1980 but one of what was a number of re-issues by Dindisc Records. It’s a near mint copy vinyl wise, but the sleeve is a bit tattered and torn which makes me think the original owner, a bit like myself, didn’t take a shine to the music and the sleeve ended up not being looked after as it was boxed up and moved house on a few occasions.

The closing tracks on the second side of the record in particular are quite stunning – the very experimental and inappropriately named Dancing and then the beauty and majesty of Pretending To See The Future which can now be seen as a huge influence on so many bands who were to follow:-

mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Dancing
mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Pretending To See The Future

It’s also worth having a listen to the original version and the single version of what would become their first Top 40 hits:-

mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Messages (LP version)
mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Messages (10″ single version)

It’s a very fine example of tweaking a song to make it far more daytime radio-friendly without losing the sense of magic that made it sound so special in the first place.

Enjoy.

Cornershop

CHANGE THE ‘T’ TO A ‘P’ THEN ADD AN ‘S’ FOR GENERAL CONSUMPTION

I am of the opinion that When I Was Born For The 7th Time, released by Cornershop back in 1997 is a tremendous record. It is the best known of all the band’s LPs thanks to it having the original version of Brimful of Asha which, thanks to a remix from Norman Cook, stormed to the top of the singles chart.

It was an album which received great acclaim on its initial release but for a time, not long after the remix was such a hit it did seem that many critics, having watched on as the band moved from cult status into commercial success, felt they could have a bit of a go at Cornershop’s particular mix of pop, dance, funk and politics, underpinned by a sub-continental groove. It certainly caught the band on the hop and caused a bit of a rethink on whether the fame and fortune was really worth the hassle and it would be five years before the next record was released.

Despite having all the hallmarks of a great single, Brimful of Asha wasn’t selected as the first single from the LP. That honour went to the ridiculously catchy Good Shit. Except that it didn’t quite….everyone involved knew that releasing a song with that title and a chorus of ‘Good Shit’s all around good people’ was doomed to an instant ban. So with the change of one little letter and taking it to the plural:-

mp3 : Cornershop – Good Ships

It still of course for the most part sounds as if nothing has been altered which is probably why it hardly got any radio play and was the latest in a run of flop 45s.

The first of the b-side reveals the full extent of the intro on the album version and then proceeds with a great instrumental version of the track:-

mp3 : Cornershop – Intro/Good Ships (instrumental)

The next track on the CD single turned out to be a straight lift of something which would appear unaltered on the LP when it was released some three months later. But at the time it just felt like a tremendous b-side:-

mp3 : Cornershop – Funky Days Are Back Again

And finally, with two minutes extra instrumental funkiness and an infectiously catchy drumming outro:-

mp3 : Cornershop – Funky Days Are Back Again (extended beats mix)

Enjoy

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (40)

Glamorous Glue was the next song to be issued as a single having been given the digital remaster treatment. Once again, I shied away from buying this on issue back in February 2011 but went back a few weeks ago and tracked down the 2 x 7″ singles – one of which is a picture disc – so that I can feature them in this new version of the Morrissey singles series.

The reason I was prepared to do this but not for Everyday Is Like Sunday (see Part 39) is that Glamorous Glue hadn’t previously been issued as a single plus the fact that two otherwise unavailable tracks, recorded in demo form, were being issued:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Glamorous Glue
mp3 : Morrissey – Safe, Warm Lancashire Home
mp3 : Morrissey – Treat Me Like A Human Being

Neither b-side, both of which give a co-writing credit to Stephen Street, is all that special (although after a couple of listens I am warming a bit to ‘Lancashire’ which could, if developed further, have become more than decent) but I have always been and still am very fond of the pounding glam-rock tribute of the a-side.

Oh and it should be noted that this single peaked at #69 in the UK charts, thus taking away the fact that Hold on to Your Friends when it had stalled at #47 back in 1994 had previously been the great man’s lowest charting single. But Glamorous Glue wouldn’t hold that ‘title’ for long.

Vaselines

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 120)

Cheating a bit this week. I don’t actually own a copy of this single, but I used to. I loaned it to someone many many years ago and through one thing and another we lost touch and I never got it back.

What I do have in the collection is a vinyl LP which brings together all the early release by The Vaselines, who, just in case you are wondering:-

The Vaselines are an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Formed in Glasgow in 1986, the band was originally a duo between its songwriters Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, but later added James Seenan and Eugene’s brother Charlie Kelly on bass and drums respectively from the band Secession. McKee had formerly been a member of a band named The Pretty Flowers with Duglas T. Stewart, Norman Blake, Janice McBride and Sean Dickson. Eugene Kelly had formerly played in The Famous Monsters.

The band formed in 1986, and released two short EPs, Son of a Gun, which featured a cover of Divine’s “You Think You’re a Man” on its B-side, and Dying for It, which featured the songs “Molly’s Lips” and “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” both of which Nirvana would later cover. In 1989 they released their first album, Dum-Dum, on 53rd and 3rd Records. The band broke up shortly after its release. They briefly reformed in 1990 to open for Nirvana when they played in Edinburgh.

Kelly went on to found the band Captain America (later renamed Eugenius after legal threats from Marvel Comics), supporting Nirvana on their UK tour. Following solo performances Kelly released the album Man Alive in 2004. McKee founded the band Suckle and released her first solo album, Sunny Moon, in 2006.

In the summer of 2006, McKee and Kelly took to the stage together for the first time since 1990 to perform a set of Vaselines songs, as part of a joint tour to promote their individual solo albums.

The Vaselines reformed (minus the old rhythm section) on 24 April 2008 for a charity show for the Malawi Orphan Support group at Glasgow’s MONO venue. Invitation was by word-of-mouth with no press announcements and the band played to a packed, enthusiastic audience. Over the next few months they played a number of other gigs in Scotland and the USA and in March 2009 they played their first London date in 20 years.

The Vaselines second studio album, Sex With an X, was released in September 2010 and earlier this year, their third studio album, V for Vaselines, was released.

But this was the second of the initial EPs from 1988:-

mp3 : The Vaselines – Dying For It
mp3 : The Vaselines – Molly’s Lips
mp3 : The Vaselines – Teenage Superstars
mp3 : The Vaselines – Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

Those are the song titles as they appeared on the back of the 12″ single (see photo above). The compilation LP I own (on a sort of red/pink coloured vinyl no less!!) renames the last two as Teenage Jesus Superstars and Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam which, once you listen to the songs, would appear to be the correct titles… it’s certainly the latter which is used on the Unplugged LP by Nirvana.

I still look back and marvel at the lyrics of ‘Sunbeam’. I was someone who rejected religion in my teenage years (something which got me into a wee bit of bother at my Roman Catholic school) and I was full of the utmost admiration at the way Eugene had managed to write such a beautiful sounding yet bitter and angry song. This was punk rock at its finest.

Enjoy

Squeeze

HOW MEN ARE?

A soap opera story in just over three minutes.

The boy about town gets caught out with his trousers down. He can’t cope with the fact that he has to grow up and take responsibility. The woman of his dreams soon moves on and all he has left are bittersweet memories.

mp3 : Squeeze – Up The Junction

1979. A massive hit and one of my favourite songs of all time, albeit as a 16-year old I didn’t quite understand the full nuances. But now I’m 51 and I’ve seen it this story play out in real life far too often over the years.

Tears and saying sorry are just not enough.

But the male side of the species just never learn.

David Holmes, Grant Lee Buffalo, Marc Almond

I BOUGHT THE MAGAZINE JUST FOR THIS

I’m not a great one for spending much time in the cinema, so the fact that today’s offerings come from a CD given away with a monthly movie magazine from back in 1998 is very unusual.

Neon was (and may well still be for all that I know) a magazine which focussed on new cinematic and DVD releases. The December 1998 edition also came with a free CD which will be the main reason I bought it – the other being that I was no doubt heading off on a long-haul flight and needed something to help keep my mind occupied while I ignored the in-flight movie(s). I’ve every reason to believe that the magazine didn’t even make it off the plane with me, left instead in the seat pocket to be either kept or binned by a member of the maintenance staff.

It really was all about the CD. This was an era before I went down the mp3 route and so it was a wallet full of discs and a bulky player which always accompanied me to the beach and so the following would have formed part of the soundtrack to that holiday:-

01 : Pulp – We Are The Boyz (from Velvet Goldmine)
02 : The Cardigans – War (from A Life Less Ordinary)
03 : The O’Jays – Love Train (from The Last days of Disco)
04 : Marc Alamond – One Night Of Sin (from Mojo)
05 : D’Angelo – She’s Always In My Hair (from Scream 2)
06 : Morcheeba – Killer Hippie (from Psycho)
07 : Odyseey – Going Back To My Roots (from The Full Monty)
08 : Space – Lost In Space (from Lost In Space)
09 : The Sons Of Silence – Bobby Dazzler (from The Acid House)
10 : Grant Lee Buffalo – The Whole Shebang (from Velvet Goldmine)
11 : Pete Wingfield – 18 With A Bullet (from Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels)
12 : Sunhouse – Monkey Dead (from Twentyfourseven)
13 : David Holmes – Rip Rip (from Out Of Sight)
14 : Fluke – Bullet (from Face)
15 : Madrid Symphonic Orchestra – Christmas 1970 (from Live Flesh)

The CD didn’t leave that much of an impression on me as I didn’t rush out to buy any of the full soundtracks although I would, a number of years later, pick up a copy of A Life Less Ordinary in a sale for £2.

But there are three brilliant bits of music on the CD which have subsequently been shoved onto compilation tapes and then onto the i-pod where they remain all these years later:-

mp3 : David Holmes – Rip Rip
mp3 : Grant Lee Buffalo – The Whole Shebang
mp3 : Marc Almond – One Night Of Sin

The first number is a real funky number that should get your toes tapping, your shoulders shaking and your head bopping in appreciation, It also contains dialogue from the film which starred George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez.

The second is, I think, one that will surprise any Grant Lee Buffalo/Grant Lee Philips fans out there as it is quite unlike anything else the band/he has recorded.

And finally, that Marc Almond song is an atypical offering from the sleaze-meister, and quite brilliantly done.

Enjoy

Elvis Costello, Elvis Costello & The Attractions

E.C. IS GOD

(This is another posting lifted from the old blog back in March 2007 – I had intended to feature one his singles today but instead felt it worthwhile sharing the old stuff)

I like to roam around hundreds of music blogs – sometimes looking for good ideas to steal and call my own – but mostly to read what other people have to say and occasionally listen to the mp3s they put up with the postings.

Many bloggers have a section that details the names of their favourite singers and bands, and I’ve come to discover that there is a name of a great singer/songwriter that doesn’t crop up all that often, and yet if you asked music-lovers the world over whether or not they like him, you would get an awful lot more folk shouting ‘AYE’ than you would those that would whisper ‘NAY’. I’m talking about Declan Patrick McManus aka Elvis Costello.

Have a think about this man’s recording career which now spans 30 years, and how many different styles and genres he’s had a go at. There’s been New Wave, Stax/Motown, Country & Western, Easy Listening, Classical, Jazz/Swing, Folk, Cover Versions, Protest Songs, Soundtracks, Pop and Rock.

I wouldn’t even begin to try to count how many labels he’s recorded for far less calculate just how many singles and LPs he has released in various guises. And there must have been at least eight Best Of compilations over the years.

He’s also been involved in high-profile recordings with folk of the stature of Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach (and they have stature whether you’re fans or not). He’s produced umpteen bands over the years, not least The Specials and The Pogues, the latter of whom he helped turn from a cult act into a chart act. And he’s been in numerous TV and film productions, often appearing as himself. He’s written songs and whole albums for other artistes.

So quite clearly the man is a living legend.But as I said his name rarely appears in the list of favourites that you find on many blogs.

I suppose part of the difficulty in anyone automatically reeling-off EC as one of the all-time greats is the fact that he has turned his hand to so many different things, some more successfully than others, and I don’t think there can be too many who can claim to own every bit of music he’s recorded and released over the past three decades. And given how long he has been going, there will naturally have been the occasional duff LP put out, and perhaps one or two of the projects were a bit too vain, and possibly even pretentious, rather than of top-drawer quality. I don’t think even EC would say that writing for, recording with and producing Wendy James in her thankfully brief post-Transvision Vamp solo efforts would be a high point of his career.

Some bloggers might have been embarrassed by some of the daft things he has said or done over the years, such as the drunken racist comments he uttered about James Brown & Ray Charles in the late 70s. Or the fact that he has been less than flatteringly portrayed in a number of rock biographies, not least this, written by Bruce Thomas the long-time bassist with The Attractions.

But overall, there can be surely no argument that as a composer and lyricist, there are few who can hold a candle to the talents of Elvis Costello in the latter part of the 20th Century, particularly in his prime of the late 70s and throughout the 80s. I could probably post any of maybe 100 songs to illustrate my point, but instead I’ve gone for this handful including some lesser known stuff:-

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Watching The Detectives
mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Man Out Of Time
mp3 : Elvis Costello – Brilliant Mistake
mp3 : Elvis Costello – Little Palaces
mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Battered Old Bird

The first two were singles. Tracks 3 & 4 are on King of America. Track 5 is one of many outstanding tracks on Blood & Chocolate.

And here’s a cover version of a Nick Lowe song that he did as a b-side in 1991

mp3 : Elvis Costello – The Ugly Things

Enjoy

Black Box Recorder, John Moore, Pete Astor

GIVE ME MOORE

(A Guest Posting……from Jacques the Kipper)

Pete Astor has always been a favorite of mine.  As far as I’m concerned much of what the Loft produced and most of the Weather Prophets‘ output was criminally under-rated at the time. Since then though I have to be honest and say that I’ve heard little of him or his music.  That’s not to say he hasn’t been issuing stuff, mind. Something I discovered when I noticed that coincidentally he was playing the Lexington when I was down in London for work.

Even better he was supporting John Moore, erstwhile of the Jesus and Mary Chain, John Moore and the Expressway, Black Box Recorder and Art Brut.   Again, a quick bit of research suggested that he hadn’t been resting on his musical laurels either, though possibly, if at all, he’s better known to non-indie fans for his role as a leading light during the 1990s importing what was at the time an almost fabled drink, absinthe, to the UK. Basically, absinthe had never actually been banned as was the accepted wisdom at the time. I’ll leave you to decide whether the country has been morally corrupted since its arrival.

Back to the gig. I turned up expecting a decent crowd of indie pensioners.   In fact, when I got to the bar downstairs us ‘civilians’ were outnumbered by the musical entertainment and their posse, more of whom later.   At least the bar bantering meant there was no chance of Pete hitting the stage upstairs without me knowing.

When he did take that stage, there were about 12 of us in the audience not obviously related to the musicians. Still criminally under-rated then.   Fair play, there were a pair of Japanese presumably C86 loving tourists there to pray at the Astor altar.  Perhaps they’d never forgiven John for leaving the Mary Chain or perhaps they preferred the Gillespie period. Maybe they’d been corrupted by absinthe. Whatever, they jumped ship after Pete’s set.

And what a set it was.  Did I recognise any of the songs?  No.   Were there any joyous proclamations of life?   No.  As he himself admitted, several times, miserable songs are where he’s at.   He also likes to include a name or three in his tunes.  Don’t let any of that put you off though.   He remains one of England’s finest songwriters, even if no-one (me included on recent evidence) is listening to his work.   I’ll happily (ironic smile) go see him again. And buy his recent stuff.   And you should too.

For those that want to track down his musical output, check in your local record shop under the Loft, the Weather Prophets, or Pete(r) Astor, or if you really must then there’s the internet. This page on Creation Records website gives you a flavour of what you might find

http://www.creation-records.com/weatherprophets/ from his earlier musical life.

You’ll find some recent musings here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyh-uvlUtgY&list=PLBA49AAC5E526AFCD

Just start with Dead Trumpets, lay back, enjoy. Then go purchase.

Back to the gig (2).

And then John Moore.  Sitting by him on a seat throughout was a ventriloquist’s dummy, who had his own ventriloquist’s dummy.  But this was no horror show.

John opened by throwing yet to be inflated balloons into the audience. There was no mention of why. He then started the show itself by reading from his book to be, Bad Light. You can help fund it through http://unbound.co.uk/books/bad-light . On the basis of what we heard, it’s well worth a punt, and for those who follow the link – who could refuse the chance to visit John’s shed for as little as £10.

Discarding the book, he began the musical entertainment with Smoking on the Cancer Ward, from his album Floral Tributes. A truly brilliant start. His second song lasted a mere couple of verses before he got bored with it and stopped.  A couple more followed in full. Lo-fi lullabies indeed. Amongst the songs he extolled the virtues of Hampstead Heath and amazed us with a tale based on his namesake. He then treated us to a couple of poems. Before he dedicated a couple of songs to the demise of Soho and Madame Jojo’s in particular.

There was then some more banter with us audience. And who should be amongst that audience and part of that posse in the bar I mentioned earlier – in fact, who was the biggest heckler in the room – none other than Luke Haines. Not to mention Sarah Nixey. They joined John on stage to ‘reform’ Black Box Recorder for an astonishingly good England Made Me.

As Luke and Sarah returned to the audience, rather worryingly John got out his saw. Yes, a saw. Which he proceeded to play with a bow. His request for requests was met with ‘tunes’ that left a lot to the imagination. Though I doubt that God Save The Queen has ever sounded so good.

The audience, including Romeo Stodart of Magic Numbers and I think Louis Eliot (now of Louis Eliot and the Embers, but previously Kinky Machine), was now probably up to about 40 in total. For such a great show this was criminal.  Which was highly appropriate as John introduced us to his planned musical on the Kray Twins – the Blind Beggars Opera, I think.  He battered out a couple of songs which suggested that lyrically this particular musical won’t be the subject of any Lloyd Weber style find-a-lead-singer Saturday evening reality show. No holds barred, guvnor. (And rather bizarre to wake up the next day to hear that Frankie Fraser had died.)

He ended with a singular look back to his days of ridiculously big hair. Then a desperate attempt to get us to blow up those balloons to complement his last song. To be honest, it was chaos by now. It truly was like having a good pal round playing songs in your living room as everyone got merry. One encore and a rousing response from us to what had been a truly memorable night.

Speaking to him afterwards I said that he really needs to find someone who will put him on in the Edinburgh Fringe. He’s up for it if someone has the wherewithal. Honestly, an hour or so of entertainment from John Moore is enough to put a smile on anyone’s face. Never a dull moment, and I suspect, never the same show twice. Brilliant.

Jacques

JC adds

It was down to me to select the mp3s to do with this piece….I hope they do Jacques’ words justice:-

mp3 : Peter Astor and the Holy Road – Almost Falling In Love
mp3 : Peter Astor – Take This Longing

(the former from the LP Paradise while the latter is from a Leonard Cohen tribute LP)

mp3 : Black Box Recorder – England Made Me

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (21)

The Top 10 success of She’s A Star was followed up with the issuing of an old song.

Tomorrow had originally appeared on the Wah Wah LP in 1994 but had subsequently been re-recorded as the opening track of the follow-up LP Whiplash, released in February 1997. Now the decision was taken to release it as a single and again completists would need to fork out for three separate CDs. At which point this fan decided enough was enough.

I’d been very disappointed for the most part with the content of the new songs, live versions and remixes which had accompanied the previous single (see Part 20 for more details) and I drew the line at Tomorrow. I wasn’t even remotely tempted by the fact that in some stores you could get all three together for £5. As a result there’s a gaping hole in the collection, one that would in fact grow in the years to come as I finally got bored with James (although that situation would change again many years later).

What I have done however, knowing I was trying to get this series sorted out as best I could, is go on-line and look to track down second-hand copies for as cheap a price as I can find. Which is why I can now at least bring you these from CD1:-

mp3 : James – Tomorrow
mp3 : James – Gone Too Far
mp3 : James – Honest Pleasure
mp3 : James – All One To Me

(all of them being previously unreleased songs)

and from CD2:-

mp3 : James – Lost A Friend (live)
mp3 : James – Come Home (live)
mp3 : James – Greenpeace (live)

All recorded for the Marc Radcliffe show on BBC Radio 1 in January 1997.

Tomorrow, helped by the multi-formatting, entered the charts at #12 but dropped down dramatically in the next two weeks…it was now becoming apparent that singles success was almost entirely down to long-standing fans…which would be further exploited by the record label in the months to come.

It’s a single which is a big improvement on She’s A Star but I feel it is very reminiscent of Ring The Bells which, as I mentioned in an earlier part of the series is one I’m not that fond of.

Turning to the new stuff on CD1.

Gone Too Far is a frantic and unusual sounding song (for James) and one that, on the first few listens in recent weeks, I will give the thumbs-up to.

Honest Pleasure is an out-and-out rock song driven along for the most part a ‘classic’ riff that you’ll find on compilation CDs made for driving along highways – it is bloody awful.

But not as awful as All One To Me which sound not much more than a demo…

CD2?

Well, the live version of Lost A Friend is a fairly faithful representation of one of the better tracks on Whiplash.

And while I know the world could exist happily enough without James releasing yet another version of Come Home, this live version does at least try to blend the sound of the original release with the sort of electronic noodling the band were growing increasingly fond of….and it’s also unusual in having such an understated vocal delivery from Tim – he almost sounds bored.

As for Greenpeace – again it’s a faithful representation of a Whiplash tune – one which starts off sounding as if it could be a real tear-jerker but drifts into something unlistenable.

I am sorry to sya that I”m beginning to lose interest in this series…..but I will keep ploughing on.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (39)

The original series on the old blog back in 2008-09 had 39 parts as that was the number of singles that had been released up until then. Many biographical books which go into a second or third issue in later years often have an additional chapter at the end to bring this up to date and I’m going to do the same with the Moz singles that have been released over the past 5 years. The original part 39 will however, be kept to the very end as it contains a nice tale.

It was in September 2010 that Everyday Is Like Sunday was reissued to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the release of the Bona Drag compilation. It was the first of an increasing number of Morrissey singles that I haven’t ever bothered to buy simply as I didn’t like the sentiment of, for the sake of keeping the collection complete that I’d need to shell out for a CD single and 2 x7″ singles, all of which were full-price, with only one new track being available.

All three versions had a digital remaster of the title track (big wow!!). The CD had the previously unreleased track, November The Second, plus 2 video clips featuring the original promo plus a Top of the Pops appearance from 1989. Single #1 had a really lame live version of a New York Dolls song recorded back in 1991 while Single #2 had a live version of Everyday Is Like Sunday recorded live in 2007.

And then when you listened to the unreleased track you discover that it is merely an alternative (but not that much different) version to November Spawned A Monster.

All in all a shabby release just looking to make a quick buck with little added value. But it sold in enough quantities to reach #42.

mp3 : Morrissey – November The Second

Enjoy

Valves

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 119)

From wiki:-

The Valves were one of the early punk groups from Edinburgh, Scotland. The band, cfeatured Dave Robertson as Dee Robot on vocals, G. Dair / Teddy Dair aka Gordon Dair on drums, Gordon Scott or Pada on bass guitar and Ronnie Mackinnon on guitar. The band was originally called Angel Easy and were a pub rock group.

The Valves released three singles before breaking up:-

Robot Love” / “For Adolfs Only” (Zoom – September 1977)
“Tarzan of the Kings Road”/ “Ain’t No Surf in Portobello” (Zoom – December 1977)
“It Don’t Mean Nothing At All” / “Linda Vindaloo” (Albion – June 1979)

I’ve got a second-hand copy of the final single:-

mp3 : The Valves – It Don’t Mean Nothing At All
mp3 : The Valves – Linda Vindaloo

But if there’s one song they are most remembered for it was the b-side of their second single:-

mp3 : The Valves – Ain’t No Surf in Portobello

A new wave classic.

Some of you may very well wondering where the hell is Portobello. Wonder no more…..

Fall

BARKING OR GENIUS? I KNOW WHERE I STAND…..

A couple of weeks back one of my re-posts made reference to the occasionally oblique lyrics which flowed from the pen of Billy Mackenzie. It got me thinking a bit more about Mark E. Smith who, over the years, really has had loads of us scratching our heads at many of his lyrics, including this effort from back in 1992:-

In 2001,
A life code
It pays to talk to no one
No one!

Proliferating across the earth
Also Sprach Zarathustra,
Faction Europa

Free range

2001,
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Proliferating across the earth
Pressure guilt, grudge match
12 cm flak unit,
Range 1 stroke 35

This is the spring without end
This is the summer of malcontent
This is the winter of your mind

Free Range

By 2001,
Also Sprach Zarathustra
It pays to talk to no one
No One!
Europa, faction
Proliferating across the earth

Free range

This is the spring without end
This is the winter of your mind
A life code
2001

Free range

Insect posse
Will be crushed

Moravia, trouble
Moldavia, Europa
Every second third word
Europa, it pays to talk to no one
No one!

Free range

mp3 : The Fall – Free Range

It’s an absolute belter of a tune and while the lyric might appear somewhat nonsensical it is packed with all sorts of imagery and references from history and philosophy with a message of concern about the ever-increasing rightwards shift of politics across Europe as the free market system took an ever-increasing stranglehold on society (of which one UK Prime Minister had just a few years prior stated there was no longer any such thing), events which Mark E Smith thought would inevitably lead to warfare on a scale of that such as 1914-18 and 1939-45.

The 12″ version of the single had three other belting tracks to enjoy:-

mp3 : The Fall – Return
mp3 : The Fall – Dangerous
mp3 : The Fall – Everything Hurtz

Fact….this is the only original Fall track to reach the upper echelons of the UK singles chart, hitting #40 for one week.