THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

A SHAMELESS RIP-OFF OF IGGY POP

Lloyd Cole & the Commotions released just nine singles and three albums during a four-year period between April 1984 and April 1988. Their biggest hit single was Lost Weekend which climbed as high as #17 – a bit of surprise to me as I was sure they had enjoyed at least one Top 10 single and I’d have thought it would have been debut Perfect Skin, but it only reached #26.

Lost Weekend was also the only single on which bass player Lawrence Donegan got a writing credit. After the band broke up, Lawrence became a very successful journalist and author and it was in the pages of one of his excellent and hugely enjoyable books – No News At Throat Lake – that he briefly mentions his part in the writing of Lost Weekend and fully acknowledges the tune is a shameless rip-off of The Passenger by Iggy Pop.

If you can’t quite hear that for yourself, then take a listen to the extended version of the song as it appears on the 12″ single, and in particular the extended instrumental break in the middle:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Lost Weekend (extended version)

It’s actually a reasonably decent extended version, only about a minute longer than the 7″ radio friendly version which can be found on the flip side along with a couple of half decent otherwise unavailable tracks:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Big World
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Nevers End
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & the Commotions – Lost Weekend (7″ version)

Enjoy

ADDENDUM

It was only after writing this and going to load up the tracks that I discovered all of these songs were featured as recently as last December as part of the Saurday’s singles series. Sorry for the repetition.

Twilight Sad

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM #3 : THE TWILIGHT SAD

Just a reminder…the idea of this series is to take one of my favourite bands or singers and list what I think would make the idea ‘Best of’ album with a few words on why. The only proviso is that I’m going to do it as a proper old-fashioned LP…10 tracks in total with an A-side and a B-side and it’s got to hang together like a proper LP and not just a collection of greatest hits. Neither will it necessarily be the 10 best songs (which in any event change on a regular basis)

I started things off with The Smiths and then looked at the solo career of Edwyn Collins. Today it’s The Twilight Sad.

Once again, the inspiration was seeing from a live performance, in this instance in Richmond Park in Glasgow as part of the Last Big Weekend which saw them take to the stage at 5pm under the canvas of a tent. It was an electric performance, but then again every time I’ve seen the band perform over the past seven years has left me awestruck, whether it is the full-blown band, an acoustic stripped down version or, as on one occasion, accompanied in a fabulous gothic abbey by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

It was the opening three songs of the 45-minute long Richmond Park set that got me thinking they would be the perfect opening to any compilation LP and therefore I only had to narrow things down by another seven songs. It was also the fact they aired a brand new song as the fourth offering in the set that got me determined to do this now as to wait for the release of what will be their fourth full-length LP this October would make it an impossible task.

Side A

1. Cold Days From The Birdhouse
2. I Became A Prostitute
3. Reflection of The Television
4. Sick
5. That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy

Side B

1. And She Would Darken The Memory
2. The Room
3. I’m Taking The Train Home
4. Seven Years Of Letters
5. Kill It In The Morning

Despite getting the head start from the first three songs, it’s still take ages to come up with the final seclection….but the bonus has been getting to play all the songs all over again before working things out.

1. The first track of Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, the 2007 debut LP. It contains a couple of particularly incredible moments in what is an incredibly good song….the first of them at the two and a half minute mark when Andy McFarlane’s wall of noise from the guitar kicks in….played live it really does get the hairs on the back of the neck standing to attention. The second bit of true magic comes just under a minute from the end when James Graham‘s vocal fades out to be replaced by an unexpected bit of acoustic guitar accompanied by a repeated single piano note.

2. The second track of Forget The Night Ahead, the sophomore LP from 2009 and it’s straight back into the wall of noise, this time with pounding drums courtesy of Mark Devine and a great bass back-up by then member Craig Orzel. This is alternative indie-rock at its very best and goes a long way to explaining why the band have a decent following over in the States

3. More loud and wailing guitars, pounding drums and a killer hypnotic bass line. The opening track of the second LP. The song was later given a complete remix by Errors for inclusion on the Wrong Car EP – by complete I mean the drums, bass and guitar are almost completely replaced by electronica and a dance beat. And such is the greatness of the song and the music that the remix more than holds its own.

4. The band surprised many fans with the contents of the 2012 LP No One Can Ever Know. The previously dominant guitars were replaced by keyboards and drum patterns from machines. Imagine the music of Joy Division benefitting from technological improvements over the past 30 years and you’ll get an idea of what many of the songs sounded like. I felt the imaginary compilation LP needed a little bit less intensity at this point of listening, so in comes a slightly slower and softer number.

5. A track which in some ways is eerily reminiscent of Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, this is a strange and disturbing song told from the point of view of a very unhappy and disturbed teenager. It was my introduction to the band back in 2007 when I heard it played over the speakers in a Glasgow record store. And yes, there is the occasional use of the dreaded c-word which is normally a bit of a taboo, but it is spat out by James in such a way that you can have no doubt that the person being sung about is truly loathed. They say you never forget your first time and in the case of The Twilight Sad I never will.

Take a deep breath and turn the record over……

6. Just as you might be thinking from the opening minute or so that this track from the debut LP (an edited version of which was released as a 7″ single) might be a more easy-going indie-pop listen, then the brutality and violence of the lyric and takes centre stage with boots being put in and rabbits being threatened with death. And then the final two and a half minutes deliver the sort of shoegazing noise most usually experienced via a My Bloody Valentine track. Aurally stunning…..

7. This was the most difficult part of the imaginary album to compile. I just find it near impossible to have anything follow-on to Track 6 and not sound inadequate. But I think this song from the second LP. which was also released as a 45 (and later remixed in spectacular fashion by Mogwai) does the trick. It is driven along by a constant drum and keyboard but in a minimalist way this enabling James to display that he is a very fine singer.

8. Back to the first LP again. A softer song than the others selected from that LP, this has a lyric which refers to green and blue eyes and as such recalls Temptation by New Order...not that it sounds anything like that song…just the bit about the green and blue eyes. Again, it’s a song like so many of their earlier efforts, one which builds up a great bit of momentum before slowing to a lovely climax.

9. A similarly paced song to that which precedes it on this imaginary album. Released as a 7″ single with a very surprising and very understated cover of Suck by The Wedding Present on the b-side, this is one of the few tracks that James has been happy to explain – ‘the lyrics revolve around running away from people and things’

10. I’ve ended with a song that splits a lot of fans. It’s the closing track from the third LP and it’s rather unlike anything else I’ve included on this imaginary compilation. It was originally made available free via the band’s website some five months before the release of the LP and it’s fair to say the electronica caught out a lot of folk who were desperate for more of the same after the first two LPs. I fell in love with it right away and I have never got bored with it. It belts along at a great pace and then just as you think it is going to fade away quietly, a change of rhythm takes it off on a different course altogether before it does conclude with a shouted single line. A perfect ending and again has the intention of making you want to get up out of your chair to turn the LP over and listen again.

mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From The Birdhouse
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – I Became A Prostitute
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Reflection of The Television
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Sick
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – And She Would Darken The Memory
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – The Room
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – I’m Taking The Train Home
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Seven Years Of Letters
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – Kill It In The Morning

Enjoy

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (16)

The fact that Ring The Bells had been a flop didn’t strop the record label wanting to extract every last possible drop out of James as they continued their merry way across the festivals of Europe playing the songs off Seven alongside the better received older material. Whatever else could be said about the band, they were still continuing to improve as a live act and take things to some quite substantial heights backed by huge crowds willing to sing and dance along.

Their biggest ever show was scheduled for July 1992 at the Alton Towers theme park in England with 30,000 fans making the pilgrimage…a hugely impressive achievement given the band were also high up on the bill of Glastonbury just a few weeks prior.

The Alton Towers show was also scheduled to broadcast live by BBC Radio 1 and the record label was keen to exploit the exposure offered by the broadcast with a fourth single from the LP. The band weren’t happy, especially on the back of the backlash about the poor value offered to fans by the previous single (see Part 15 of this series), but realising they weren’t in much of a bargaining position decided that they would re-record the title track of the LP along with three brand new songs.

mp3 : James – Seven (remix)
mp3 : James – Goalies Ball
mp3 : James – William Burroughs
mp3 : James – Still Alive

The remix is so blatantly stadium rock….it’s almost like a U2 cast-off…Tim Booth sounding uncannily like Bono at times. I just can’t bring myself to listen to this track….

However……….it’s a release very much saved by the b-sides.

Goalies Ball, despite the title, is not a song about football, but a commentary on human evolution set against the backdrop of a strangely melodic and haunting tune.

William Burroughs is a manic few minutes which provided a great reminder of the band at their critical peak a few years earlier when they were lucky to sell out venues with a capacity of 30 never mind 30,000. The record company must have hated it…

Still Alive is a real oddity given the rest of the material the band had been recording at the time. It’s a vocal-led track with the minimal of accompaniment in the background. It certainly sounded like nothing James had recorded before and it is one of the few tracks from the era which has dated well.

This release was made available on 7″, 12″ and CD single but for once, all four tracks were available on each format. This meant completists only had to shell out once and this was probably a contributory factor in it stalling at #46. As I said above, it’s a dreadful single and so deserved such a lousy chart performance, but long-term fans could be pleased and intrigued by what they heard on the b-sides. Were the band already preparing a move away from the stadium rock nonsense??

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 26)

Released in April 1990, November Spawned A Monster shocked an awful lot of people with its candid lyrics about disability. Some weren’t sure if Morrissey was mocking the wheelchair-bound or whether he was championing their cause.

Sleep on and dream of love
Because it’s the closest you will get to love
Poor twisted child, so ugly, so ugly
Poor twisted child. oh hug me, oh hug me

One November spawned a monster in the shape of this child who later cried
“But Jesus made me, so Jesus save me
From pity, sympathy and people discussing me”
A frame of useless limbs what can make good all the bad that’s been done?

And if the lights were out could you even bear
To kiss her full on the mouth (or anywhere?)

Poor twisted child so ugly, so ugly
Poor twisted child oh hug me, oh hug me

One November spawned a monster in the shape of this child
Who must remain a hostage to kindness and the wheels underneath her
A hostage to kindness and the wheels underneath her
A symbol of where mad, mad lovers must pause and draw the line

So sleep and dream of love
Because it’s the closest you will get to love

That November is a time which I must put out of my mind

Oh one fine day let it be soon
She won’t be rich or beautiful
But she’ll be walking your streets
In the clothes that she went out and chose for herself

It was a song I found really disturbing on its release, and even all these years later, it still makes me uncomfortable. But then again, I’ve no doubt that was the whole point and intention behind its writing and recording.

It’s a tune which is one of the most unusual across the solo material…it’s almost driven along by a dance-beat akin to Barbarism Begins At Home….and again given the subject matter, that can interpreted as a bit of a sick joke. But just as the tune is bouncing along, and the dancers are in the midst of throwing the Morrissey shapes, it slows right down and Mary Margaret O’Hara comes in and starts screaming….

I read many years ago at the time of its release that she was asked to go to the studio and make noises as if she was having a painful and difficult birth. Given this, the lyric does begin to make some literal sense….the child in question was not planned, and to complicate matters for the mad mad lovers who failed to pause and draw the line, nine months later they have a daughter whose physical appearance and dependencies make it so difficult for them to love her….but who think everything will be fine if there is some sort of miraculous recovery…..

So….maybe the song isn’t really about disability and it’s actually a cautionary tale to those who were prepared to sleep around without thinking of the consequences….

Other people have got their own theories. I read once on a forum one fan’s view that the song is a parallel to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – a monster created in November but who was unloved by its ‘parent’. The monster then had to endure a life of misery and loneliness (a regular theme in many Morrissey songs), and this is going to be the fate of the girl in the song. The fan goes as far to comment that Morrissey is making a really strong statement here that society judges people on their looks alone….

Someone else makes reference to the accompanying video which they feel mocks so many others of its time, with Morrissey wriggling around in the desert making himself look ludicrous to emphasise the point that image and beauty isn’t everything…

Your own thoughts dear readers????

mp3 : Morrissey – November Spawned A Monster

Oh and the two extra songs on the 12″ and CD single are well worth a listen as well:-

mp3 : Morrissey – He Knows I’d Love To See Him
mp3 : Morrissey – Girl Least Likely To

The latter is probably the nearest thing we’ve ever had to a song that could have come straight from the days of The Smiths since the break-up – it was co-written by Andy Rourke.

Facts and figures time. It reached #12 in the UK singles charts. The image on the sleeve is by celebrated rock photographer Anton Corbjin…

Oh and just in case there’s any doubt….November remains one of my favourite ever Morrissey releases.

Enjoy.

Supernaturals

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 107)

Adapted from wiki:-

The Supernaturals were a five-piece guitar-based pop band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, they signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine.

Debut album It Doesn’t Matter Anymore received good reviews (8/10 NME and 4/5 Q) as did the follow-up A Tune a Day (7/10 NME and 4/5 Q). The band’s third album saw a change of musical direction into Europop and electronica and wasn’t as well received.

They were a band which enjoyed playing live, appearing at all sorts of music festivals in the UK and Europe (including four successive year at T in the Park between 95 and 98) and were happy enough to appear on the supoort bill for a number of better known acts and bands including Robbie Williams, Paul Weller, The Boo Radleys, Gene, Blondie, Dodgy, The Bluetones, Ocean Colour Scene, Texas, Sleeper and Tina Turner.

The band’s best known songs (Smile” and I Wasn’t Built To Get Up) were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements while The Day Before Yesterday’s Man was used on three occasions in film and TV in the UK.

Eight singles were released from the first 2 LPs, all of which went Top 50 in the UK, but only three made the Top 30 with none getting any higher than #23.

Here’s their first Top 30 hit from 1997:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals – The Day Before Yesterday’s Man

Listening now, it’s catchy enough and radio friendly (albeit I’m sure the word shit was edited out of the radio mix) but I was sad to discover that it hasn’t dated all that well…..

And here’s the two additional tracks made available on CD1 of the release:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals – Ken’s Song
mp3 : The Supernaturals – Honk Williams

The first few bars of the latter had me panicking as it felt as if Mull Of Kintyre was about to be played. But stick with it as it is a fun little number about a spaceman who looks and sounds like a dead country and western singer…..with a great wee singlaong chorus towards the end.

Enjoy

Jam, Style Council

SEPARATED BY 105 DAYS

I initially didn’t like Beat Surrender. I couldn’t really bring myself to accept that The Jam were breaking up and the one band that I’d ever slept overnight outside the box office would never be becoming back again to the Glasgow Apollo. It was a real sore one to take.

I also didn’t like Beat Surrender as it was absolutely nothing like all my favourite Jam singles like Tube Station, Strange Town, When You’re Young etc. OK, it was a tad like Precious as it had trumpets on it and that was a song I’d grown more fond of the more I got used to it, but I just so had wanted the last single to be a throwback to the angry young man who wanted to tear down the oppressive systems.

That was November 1982….fast forward 15 weeks and the release the debut single by The Style Council, the new group formed by Paul Weller. He has been telling everyone via the music papers (which in those days was the only way you could get news and information out to fans) that the new band was not really like The Jam although you would spot a link from the later material from his former new wave/post-punk/mod combo if you listened close enough.

By this time, I had gotten over the break up of The Jam. There was enough happening out there in the early 80s to make any 19 year old think it was the most exciting time imaginable, both in terms of getting out to gigs and increasingly getting to hear things in a number of what were being described as ‘alternative’ discos (dance clubs had still to be invented!!) or on the sticky floors of various student unions.

So when I finally heard Speak Like A Child, I did so with a different mindset and an acceptance that whatever they were, TSC were not The Jam. It made it very easy to realise I was hearing a great pit of pop music….and to realise that I should go back and re-assess Beat Surrender as a pop record and not as a new wave release.

It’s coming up to the 32nd anniversary of the news that The Jam were breaking up (time flies) and both singles remain, all these years later, very very listenable and very very danceable:-

mp3 : The Jam – Beat Surrender
mp3 : The Style Council – Speak Like A Child

Enjoy

Rosa Mota

GONE AND TOTALLY FORGOTTEN?? (2)

Type in ‘Rosa Mota’ to a typical search engine and you’ll get loads of info about a very talented athlete who dominated the Womens’ Marathon in the 80s. You need to add the words ‘the band’ to learn a little bit more about today’s largely forgotten musical ensemble.

Formed in 1992 (just as the athlete’s career came to a close), Rosa Mota consisted of Ian Bishop (vocals, guitar, clarinet), Julie D Ramsey (vocals, guitar), Sacha Glavagna (guitar, bouzouki, keyboards), Michelle Marti (bass guitar, harmonica) and Justin Chapman (drums and percussion).

As one historical tome records it, they drew sonic inspiration from Bauhaus and Echo & The Bunnymen, (although I also detect a bit of that Pixies/Breeders/Belly thing going on). Two EPs and two singles in 1994-95 sold in very little quantities but such was the record industry in those days that enough faith was shown in them to enable a debut LP, Wishing Sinking to emerge in January 1995, although it too sold in small numbers. Fast forward two years and new material was released in the form of a CD single and a month later the sophomore LP Bionic was released.

It was the Jan 97 single which brought the band to my attention thanks to the promo video being aired on a BBC music show. Seeing said single on sale for a very low price the following week, I bought it:-

mp3 : Rosa Mota – Space Junk

All these years on and I’ve still got a soft spot for it while its b-sides are a mix of the good, bad and indifferent:-

mp3 : Rosa Mota – Thenezine
mp3 : Rosa Mota – Starstruck
mp3 : Rosa Mota – Angel (French)

I recalled reading at the time of the release of this single that the wonderfully sassy and sexy Clare Grogan had been tempted out of semi-retirement to contribute a vocal to one of the tracks on the second album and so when I saw a second-hand CD copy going for £3 a few months later I took a gamble. Nowadays you can pick it up for 60p plus postage which means it is like probably 90% of my music collection in that its value is less than the sum originally paid. It’s also reflective of the album being no more than average for the most part, which is also the word I’d use to describe the track featuring Ms Grogan:-

mp3 : Rosa Mota – The Grudge

Enjoy

Salad

CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THESE BACK IN JUNE

One of the things I do to support the daily outpourings on the blog is scour the racks of a few second-hand record stores in the hope of turning up something different or unusual. I’ll often buy up to 20 cheap bits of vinyl, usually made up of 7″ and 12″ singles and look to see if any b-sides prove to be something worth hearing. I’ve a very bad habit of picking out two or three from a day’s particular purchases and discarding the rest until another day which could be as far as a year or more down the line.

This is why, in a posting about Salad back in June (click here for link), I had no recollection that I had some time previously bought their 12″ debut single for £1 on the basis that I quite knew and liked the a-side from its inclusion on a compilation CD.

This is a vinyl based blog, so I’ve now deleted the track ripped from CD back in June and instead offer the three songs from the vinyl:-

mp3 : Salad – Diminished Clothes
mp3 : Salad – Clear My Name
mp3 : Salad – Come Back Tomorrow

The b-sides? One is passable and the other is distinctly ordinary.

Enjoy

Some Bizzare compilation

SOME BIZZARE ALBUM

Back in 1981, an emerging record label decided to draw attention to itself by releasing a budget-priced compilation LP as its first ever release. This was a bold statement as most labels went for a more low-key approach with a handful of 45rpm singles or, if they wanted to feature more singers/bands/acts then it tended to be a cassette-only release.

The other thing which made Some Bizzare Album such an unusual work was the fact that, at the time, none of the acts had officially signed to the label. So while in some ways it was a showcase for Some Bizzare it was more of an opportunity for various synthpop musicians to show how talented they were.

It is testament to the talent spotting powers of Stevo Pearce that four of the acts chosen went on to enjoy major success in the charts. Some of the other acts achieved cult status or subsequently released other bits of music while there are two acts who seemingly did nothing beyond recording a song for this album.

Here’s those who found success:-

mp3 : Blancmange – Sad Day
mp3 : Depeche Mode – Photographic
mp3 : Soft Cell – The Girl With The Patent Leather Face
mp3 : The The – Untitled

The tracks from Blancmange and Depeche Mode would later be re-recorded and included on their debut LPs (neither of which were recorded for Some Bizzare) with many of their fans insisting that these earlier demo-type versions are the superior and more enjoyable recordings.

The tracks from Soft Cell and The The are a long way removed from the sort of material which would bring them fame and fortune sounding but both give an indication of the sort of talents that their various component parts possessed. I’m a fan of the Soft Cell track as it is a dark and desolate sound that they would return to on some of their later LP cuts.

Here’s the cult bands:-

mp3 : B Movie – Moles
mp3 : Blah Blah Blah – Central Park
mp3 : Naked Lunch – La Femme

B Movie released an LP and handful of singles in the first half of the 80s, the best known of which was Nowhere Girl, a top 10 hit in many European countries although it stalled at #68 in the UK. I must get round to posting one of their singles at some point.

Blah Blah Blah completely passed me by but there’s folk out there who are fans judging by the fact that their sole LP from 1981 will set you back over £25 over at Discogs….proof, based on the track made available for this compilation, that folk will pay good money for any old rubbish.

Naked Lunch released three singles in the 80s to no great acclaim, all on low-key and indie labels.

And finally, those who were never more or less heard of again:-

mp3 : Illustration – Tidal Flow
mp3 : Jell – I Dare Say It Will Hurt A Little
mp3 : Neu Electrikk – Berlin Girls
mp3 : The Fast Set – King Of The Rumbling Spires
mp3 : The Loved One – Observations

Illustration and Jell are the two acts who did nothing beyond appearing on this LP which is a bit surprising as they are among the best of its tracks. Illustration are a bit New Order-y while Jell are very reminiscent of Cocteau Twins…….and 30 plus years on theirs is the track which I think has dated best of all.

Berlin Girls had been the 1979 debut 7″ by Neu Electrikk (although I can’t verify if the version on this compilation is a re-recording). There had also been a second 7″ single in 1980 called Cover Girl, but there was never any follow-up material after Some Bizzare Album was released.

The Fast Set recorded the only cover version on this album. It’s a Marc Bolan number which had been a flop single back in 1969 for the then Tyrannosaurus Rex. The only other Fast Set release had been an earlier 7″ single, one side of which was an original and the other was, yup, a cover of a Marc Bolan song (the slightly better known Children of The Revolution)

Somebody in the music industry saw some potential in The Loved One as their next release was a 7″ single on Polydor which was in those days, a major player. The said single was an electronic version of Telstar….which I’ve managed to track down:-

mp3 : The Loved One – Telstar

It was such a flop that the option on the band after the initial single wasn’t taken up…..

Most label-promoting compilation LPs tend to be a mixed bag and the Some Bizzare Album is no exception. It is however, well worth giving some time to, if for nothing else to experience the humble beginnings of some famous names in the electro-pop world and perhaps to wonder what did become of all those musicians whose recording careers never got much further than his.

Enjoy

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (15)

This is where the band just about hit rock bottom.

The LP Seven been released and had sold well enough to reach #2 in the charts despite the lashing it took at the hands of the music critics and many long-term fans. Tim Booth however, was nonplussed suggesting that no matter what the band had did post-Goldmother and Sit Down there was bound to be a backlash.

There was a feeling that time away from the UK might help and so the first ever tour of North America was organised (11 major cities) followed by three weeks in Europe. The record label however wanted to keep up a profile at home and so decided that a third single from the LP would be released.

Ring The Bells was no different at all from the LP version. It entered the charts at #38 and then sunk without trace. It wasn’t helped by the band not being around to promote it and that the accompanying video was deadly dull being a live performance from a fan only gig a few months earlier.

It was released on 7″, 12″ cassette and CD. An anti-war song, Fight, was given the dance treatment and put on all formats. The CD single had another two (!!!) remixes of Come Home. Which was bad enough except that one of them – the Skunk Weed Skank Mix – had already been released as the Weatherall Mix on one of the 12″ re-releases of Come Home a couple of year earlier!

Oh and to rub salt into the wound for the completists, they had to shell out for the 12″ to get one previously unavailable song in Once A Friend which turned out to be a dud as it was a rejected track from the LP and was over and done with in a little over two minutes. All in all, it was a very unsatisfactory state of affairs:-

mp3 : James – Ring The Bells
mp3 : James – Fight
mp3 : James – Come Home (Skunk Weed Skank Mix)
mp3 : James – Come Home (Hugo Live Dub Challenge)
mp3 : James – Once A Friend

There was a prophetic review in Melody Maker:-

I don’t begrudge James their success. There have probably been two occasions (If Things Were Perfect and Come Home) in their career (and doesn’t that seem like the right word?) when I found them more than mildly loveable. I don’t particularly mind that their last two singles really did sound like Simple Minds as everyone kept saying. What does bother me is that musically Ring The Bells sounds so small, so village fete. The only function the instruments have at all seems analogous to a dinner-suited announcer at a high-class ball – “Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting Mr Timothy Booth! (cue fanfare)” – before the entrance of the man with an ego the size of East Anglia. They can do better. And maybe, when they’ve sold enough shirts and filled enough stadia, they will.

But there was one more low point to come before that prophesy came true.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 25)

Released on 11th December 1995. What I’ve long referred to as the outtakes single.

After Boxers was put out in January 1995, Morrissey was no longer obliged to stay with EMI under whom his albums and singles had been issued on the Parlophone label. He chose to move to RCA where he recorded the critically-savaged Southpaw Grammar, from which were taken the disappointingly selling singles Dagenham Dave and The Boy Racer.

So I’ve no idea what possessed his old record label to shove out Sunny just 14 days after the release of The Boy Racer other than assuming it was out of spite and possibly to try to cash in on folk buying Xmas presents for Morrissey fans . The three tracks dated back at least 18 months and more and quite frankly, are rubbish and the #42 placing was at least 200 places higher than it deserved.

Actually that’s unfair as the single borders on the OK.(and it’s not as bad as Roy’s Keen) But the b-sides really should never have seen the light of day….

mp3 : Morrissey – Sunny
mp3 : Morrissey – Black-Eyed Susan
mp3 : Morrissey – A Swallow On My Neck

Better informed fans have said elsewhere that Sunny was originally intended to be part of the Boxers single, and Black-Eyed Susan was considered but rejected for the flip-side of The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get. No mention is made of the original plan for Swallow…..

Sorry for the dip in quality control. I promise to do better next week.

Strawberry Switchblade

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 106)

I liked this description of today’s Scottish pop combo:-

“From the ominous shadows of Goth suddenly appeared two young girls in polka-dot dresses, flaming red lipstick, and hair ribbons. Looking like the brides of Robert Smith, Strawberry Switchblade made a brief splash on the U.K. charts and then abruptly vanished in the mid ’80s, leaving their fans with a handful of collectible singles and one LP of deceptively sweet-sounding dance pop.”

Here’s wiki:-

Strawberry Switchblade was a female pop rock/new wave band formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1981 by Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall.

The punk movement expanded rapidly in the United Kingdom in 1976. At the time, Rose McDowall and Jill Bryson were classic Glasgow punks. As the punk rock scene electrified Glasgow in the late ’70s, they were a part of the bohemian art scene who adored the New York Dolls and who followed Scottish punk band Nu-Sonics during their career, with McDowall playing and recording with Paisley punk band The Poems.

Bryson studied for four years at the Glasgow School of Art where she achieved a BA honours degree in mixed media.

As friends, McDowall and Bryson socialised in Glasgow pubs, catching many local bands at the time. One of these bands was Orange Juice, fronted by Edwyn Collins. Members of New Pop and Orange Juice had recorded a live version of “Felicity” as a flexi-disc and intended to release it. A fanzine, to be titled Strawberry Switchblade after a James Kirk song, was planned to promote the flexi-disc but never materialised. The “Felicity” flexi-disc was eventually released in conjunction with the debut Orange Juice single, “Falling and Laughing”. McDowall and Bryson adopted the fanzine title as their band name.

Strawberry Switchblade played at a John Peel gig in Scotland, and he invited them to record a session for his BBC Radio 1 show in October 1982.They also recorded a session for David Jensen’s Radio 1 show three days later. On both sessions the band were augmented by James Kirk from Orange Juice on bass and Shahid Sarwar from The Recognitions on drums.

The sessions were heard by Bill Drummond (a Scottish musician who went on to form The KLF) and David Balfe, respectively manager and keyboard player with the recently defunct The Teardrop Explodes, who became the group’s managers.

The band’s first single, “Trees and Flowers”, was released in July 1983 through 92 Happy Customers, an independent record label run by Will Sergeant from Echo & The Bunnymen,and sold over 10,000 copies. It was featured at number 47 in John Peel’s 1983 Festive 50. “Trees and Flowers” was written by Bryson about her medical condition agoraphobia.

Drummond signed the band to Warner Music Group subsidiary Korova in 1983. They got a full backing band with whom they toured and began recording an album with producer Robin Millar. However, at the record company’s behest, they reverted to the duo of Bryson and McDowall and for production duties they hired David Motion, who would soon go on to produce hits for Red Box.

In late 1984 their second single, “Since Yesterday”, was released. Having been given a large marketing push over the festive period, it became a UK top ten hit in early 1985, peaking at number 5, and also met with success in Europe and Japan.

Their cover version of “Sunday Morning” (originally by Velvet Underground) was released as an extra track on the 12″ of “Since Yesterday”. It was not included on any of the Strawberry Switchblade albums.

The track’s opening fanfare came from Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5, which had also featured prominently in the coda section of the earlier hit “Beach Baby” by The First Class. The band’s’ strikingly contrasting black and white wardrobe, including the polka dot rah-rah skirts worn for the sleeve of “Since Yesterday”, attracted coverage at the time. Their somewhat ‘gothic’ appearance was also of note.

In March 1985 they released their next single, “Let Her Go”, a tune in a similar vein to “Since Yesterday”.

Following the release of their eponymous album in April, in May 1985 they released a further single, the ballad “Who Knows What Love Is”,[6] one of two tracks on the album produced by Phil Thornally of The Cure.

Their fifth single, an electro-pop cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, was issued in September 1985 in the UK and Japan.

Although their commercial success had waned in the UK they remained popular in Japan and two later singles, “Ecstasy (Apple of My Eye)” and “I Can Feel”, were only issued in that country.The second of these only featured McDowall as by this time the partnership had irreparably fractured. By early 1986, the group had disbanded.

In December 2005, Warner Bros. Platinum Records released a career retrospective of the band, made up of sixteen different tracks from various recordings on one compact disc.

And here’s the 7″ version of the hit single with the bonus 12″ track:-

mp3 : Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday
mp3 : Strawberry Switchblade – By The Sea
mp3 : Strawberry Switchblade – Sunday Morning

I really do love their quite gorgeous take on Sunday Morning.

Enjoy

Spandau Ballet

TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT….

…. this is a cracking bit of pop music.

mp3 : Spandau Ballet – The Freeze

While making my way through Mad World (see yesterday’s posting), I got to the chapter on Spandau Ballet which sadly concentrated on the slushy hit single True as it is the song they are best known for over in the States. But reading it did lead me to dig out my copy of the band’s debut LP Journeys to Glory and give it a spin for the first time in gawd knows how many years. Which is where I realised just how great a song The Freeze is.

It was the second single lifted from the LP, reaching #17 back in early 1981.

The band did of course go onto to become one of the most dull and bland outfits of the 80s and a song like The Freeze is a long way removed from the sort of sounds they are more associated with. I reckon that if they had broken up on the back of the debut LP then many a modern day hipster would be proclaiming it, and especially this track, as one of the great influencing records of the era.

I can recall a remix version of this song getting played a lot in the sorts of Glasgow discos that I frequented among other great electronic-pop tracks of the day by the likes of OMD, Soft Cell, Simple Minds, Heaven 17, Yazoo, Associates, Human League and Magazine. Turns out it was the b-side of the 12″ and I’ve managed to procure a copy via fishing around on t’internet:-

mp3 : Spandau Ballet – The Freeze (version)

Enjoy.

April Showers, Echo & The Bunnymen

MAD WORLD

One of the 45s featured in the regular Saturday series on great Scottish singles was this:-

mp3 : April Showers – Abandon Ship

Released to almost complete indifference in 1984, it really is one of the great lost singles of the era. April Showers was a short-lived Glaswegian pop duo comprising Jonathan Bernstein and Beatrice Colin.

I’m a huge fan of this song. It was the only piece of music the band got round to releasing (other than the b-side!!) . Today is probably now the fifth time I’ve made it available as an mp3 over the past eight years. I was amazed that a few weeks ago the very same Jonathan Bernstein dropped me an e-mail, thanking me for the kind words and asking if I’d be interested in having a read of a book that he had co-authored and which was due for publication in the UK later in the year.

How could I say no?

The 300+ page book in question is called Mad World : An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs that defined the 1980s. And it’s very very good……

Jonathan moved to Los Angeles quite a few years ago and is nowadays more widely known thanks to his exploits as a movie screenwriter, author an occasional contributor to magazines and newspapers. For this particular project he has hooked up with Lori Majewski, herself a successful music and entertainment writer.

Th authors were inspired to write the book came about after they both read an interview with a well-known 80s musician from the UK in which he had discussed the inspiration, writing and recording of the song, as well as its reception and place in pop history. If it could be done for this particular song then why not for others which had made such an impact on them as music fans?

Each of the 36 individual chapters begins with an introductory paragraph which puts the artist and song into a broader context – where and how they fit with the rest of the 80s and perhaps any enduring influence they have had on music all these years later. Each of the authors then offer very short pieces expressing their own views on the song or the artist before the pages are turned over to those who matter most – the musicians. This is where the excellent writing skills and styles of the authors shine through – all of the interviews were carried out face-to-face or by e-mail in the classic Q&A style, but they appear on paper as superbly written monologues.

This leads to a consistently entertaining read – no single musician comes across as a pretentious prat nor do the authors leave anyone hanging out to dry (although it should be pointed out that some of the tales highlight how different musicians in the same band see things from different perspectives and you have to draw your own conclusion as to which is the truth and which version is fabricated…..)

It is a book written initially for an American market and so the songs and bands featured will have had to enjoyed a bit of success over there for it to make commercial sense. As such, there’s a number of songs in the book that I am no fan of – and a couple that I’ve never even heard of – but at no time did I feel like ever skipping any of the chapters.

The title is also a wee bit misleading for the songs featured were released between 1978 and 1985, an era which the authors unashamedly say was the Last Golden Age Of Pop. So there’s a lot of great music from the decade missing from the book but those of you with a bent towards great indie or electronic pop will particularly enjoy the chapters on New Order, ABC, Echo & The Bunnymen, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, The Normal, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Joy Division, OMD and The Smiths among many others.

What I particularly enjoyed was the authors abilities to look at the 80s in a way which is warts and all and come to the conclusion that it was a time far preferable to nowadays when any semblance of individuality is ridiculed on TV ‘talent’ shows or is then removed by such bland, dull and ultra safe production values designed to appeal to the biggest common denominator.

“Were the artists ridiculous? Was the music overproduced? Was the influence of Bowie ubiquitous to the point of being suffocating? Guilty on all accounts. But it was also an era of imagination, vaulting ambition and incredibly memorable songs.

Mock and ridicule the excesses of the 80s if you want, but don’t try and deny that the stars of the era had personality. They may have been pretentious, pompous and absurd, but it was their own pretension, pomposity and absurdity. They didn’t have to bow their heads and nervously wait for the approval of a jaded record executive on a judging panel. Love or hate them they were their own glorious creations.”

The other great strength of the book is the diverse backgrounds of the two authors.

Majewski is an American who was a teenage music fan in the period concerned with an undiminished passion and love for the likes of Duran Duran and Adam Ant but a huge appreciation of what makes a great indie song – she’s the contributor who likes The Smiths and is not ashamed to admit that she knew nothing of Joy Division until she checked out the original version of the song covered by Paul Young; Bernstein is Scottish, older and, thanks to April Showers, a participant in the era. He claims he is too sour by nature, too uptight and suspicious of emotion to declare himself a fan of anybody, but this enables him to take a dispassionate approach to each singer or band and articulate just how he feels they are worthy of a place in the book – except in the chapter on The Smiths where he simply says ‘Not A Fan’. But I’m willing to forgive this for all of his other contributions – in particular his words on Simple Minds – where he captures perfectly how all of us who had grown up with them in Glasgow were feeling as they took the USA by storm.

Together they have cooked-up a really good read. One which can be enjoyed in bite-size chunks or devoured ferociously in a single serving….either way it won’t come back on you and leave feeling queasy. Indeed, I suspect it will leave you longing for further servings.

Mad World has been well received by critics and fans alike since its publication in the States back in April. UK readers can pick pre-order copies on-line in advance of its release date next week on Monday 1 September from when It will hopefully be available in all good book stores.

Here’s one of the songs featured in the book in its full extended nine minute plus glory:-

mp3 : Echo and The Bunnymen – The Killing Moon (all night version)

Enjoy

MAD WORLD by LORI MAJEWSKI and JONATHAN BERNSTEIN

Published by Abrams & Chronicle Books

320 pages : RRP : £12.99

Mark Ronson

HANG THE DJ

From wiki:-

In 2007, the song was re-composed as “Stop Me” with additional lyrics from the song “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” by The Supremes by British DJ Mark Ronson using the voice of Daniel Merriweather as the lead. Merriweather admitted in an interview with The Guardian that he was not very familiar with “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One” before he recorded Mark Ronson’s revised version. He explained: “Mark said, ‘I want you to sing on this – it’s my favourite Smiths song,’ so I listened to it. I’d heard it once before, but I was never a Smiths fan. But I thought it was beautiful.”

The song was later released as a single on 2 April 2007 on Columbia Records with the shortened name “Stop Me”, and featured on the compilation album Version. The music video, released at the same time as the song, features a man who finds a pair of trainers that control him and force him to run along the motorway near the Blackwall Tunnel. This version was released in the United Kingdom. The international version featured people crying animated tears, causing some small floods. Live versions such as Mark Ronson / Stu Zender featuring Merriweather—”Stop Me” (Conan O’Brien, NBC, 12 July 2007) have been televised, among others (BBC Radio 1, Jimmy Kimmel Live!).

The single reached number two in the UK Singles Chart, number one in the UK Download Chart and gained considerable praise and reference, as well as controversy from loyal Smiths fans despite its chart success being the highest ever UK chart position for a Smiths song.

The music review site ThisisfakeDIY gave the single a 5-star rating, citing that its popularity stemmed from its abstraction from a typical Smiths song, resembling a “sweeping, orchestral pop song with horns to boot … soulful, evocative vocals … a stirring mix”. This song was number 80 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.

It received a mixed review from musicOMH reviewer, Jenny Cole who remarked that the notion of “discoing up a Smiths track” was a “travesty”, and queried that “Morrissey would no doubt hate the idea of someone who has previously worked with Christina Aguilera and Robbie Williams” re-composing his songs. However, despite such reservations, the reviewer remarked that despite its composition “in a mad way it works … Electronic, cheery and danceable, it’s really not half bad” but that the addition of The Supremes to the song was “just mad”.

A slightly shorter edited version (where the lyrics start at the first verse) was released to mainstream radio in October 2007. A remix by Kissy Sell Out features on Ministry of Sound 2008 compilation The Annual. Trance DJ Paul Oakenfold also remixed the song exclusively for his 2007 compilation album Greatest Hits & Remixes. After the win and performance of Ronson at the 2008 edition of the Brit Awards, “Stop Me” climbed as high as number 31 on the iTunes Top 100 and re-entered the UK Top 75 Singles chart at number 51. The song featured prominently in the opening scenes of the premiere of the second half of Nip/Tuck’s fifth season. The song featured on the 2013 show reel for Seattle-based b-boy crew, Art of Movement, uploaded by Korean-American singer and member of the crew, Jay Park.

The single also includes a cover version of Queens of the Stone Age’s “No One Knows” with vocals by Domino Kirke.

mp3 : Mark Ronson – Stop Me feat Daniel Merriweather
mp3 : Mark Ronson – Stop Me feat Daniel Merriweather (A Chicken Lips Malfunction)
mp3 : Mark Ronson – Stop Me feat Daniel Merriweather (Dirty South Remix)
mp3 : Mark Ronson – No One Knows feat. Domino

I actually think, having listened to the QoTSA cover that Moz and Johnny actually got off lightly.

Funkadelic

FEET DON’T FAIL ME NOW

I was very pleasantly surprised when I returned the Fun Lovin’ Criminal CD singles to their place on the shelves to discover right next to them was a sole CD single by Funkadelic.

I have no recollection of buying this…the sticker on the from says £1.99 and it was released as a 4-track single in 1996 on Charly Records.

I know what I bought it..it was a replacement in effect for the original 7″ version that I used to own. That’s right…in the middle of going crazy for punk/new wave I was still willing to hand over money for some great disco music. OK, One Nation Under A Groove is more funk than disco, but to the untutored ears of a 14-15 year old back then anything with a great bass line that forced the hips to be gyrated was disco. And it didn’t suck.

The single that I used to own had, from memory, Parts 1 and 2 on either side. I’m also sure it was just the extended full length version spliced into two just to make if fit into a 7″ bit of black vinyl. Here’s the first two tracks on the CD single:-

mp3 : Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove (Original Radio Version)
mp3 : Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove (Original Full Length Version)

So I think I’m on safe ground to say that the former would have been Part 1 of my 1978 single and the latter the LP version.

I have no idea why the single was re-released in 1996. Perhaps it was used in some sort of TV advert that has made no impact on me but maybe it was just that some smart-ass DJ thought it was time to give this 70s classic a 90s makeover as there were two ’96 versions on the CD. Which brings me to these abominations:-

mp3 : Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove ’96 (The Craig Nathan Nation Mix)
mp3 : Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove ’96 (The K.D. Radio Edit)

I’d never played this until a few minutes ago when I decided to put the single onto the blog – as I say I had no idea I had it in the collection. I will never play them again. They have already been deleted from the tens of thousands of mp3s on the PC. Possibly one of the biggest abominations of a great song ever inflicted on mankind. Talking of which….tune into tomorrow as I’ve now got a nice lead into something I’ve been meaning to post for the past six months but could never quite bring myself to inflict upon y’all.

Fun Lovin' Criminals

THE TARANTINO EFFECT

Fun Lovin’ Criminals first came to prominence on the back of a single which sampled dialogue from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction:-

mp3 : Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Scooby Snacks

Both films had been huge hits, turning a previously unknown scriptwriter and director called Quentin Tarantino into the hottest name in Hollywood. Notwithstanding that the radio versions had to be heavily edited, it was a great ploy by FLC to incorporate the dialogue into a hip hop/rock/pop hybrid that was made catchy thanks to a guitar riff (also sampled!!).

It’s perhaps debatable whether or not FLC would have gotten any sort of prominence without Scooby Snacks as much of their other material at the time was no different or better than other similar acts who were fusing hip hop and rock. What it did do however, was give a platform to frontman Huey Morgan, whose natural wit, charm and sense of humour and easy-going interview technique saw him become a regular on many a TV chat/entertainment show here in the UK. That and the fact that the band gigged relentlessly across Europe, particularly becoming a mainstay of the outdoor festival circuit (where pissed-up audiences would have a great time dancing and singing along to Scooby Snacks) saw the band gain a decent following without ever becoming truly big stars.

One of the things that some folk found enduring was the easy-listening style of the cover versions they occasionally threw out there along with what they themselves described as the ‘schmoove’ versions of their own songs. I was never all that convinced but I’ll leave it you dear listeners to see what you think of these:-

mp3 : Fun Lovin’ Criminals – The Summer Wind
mp3 : Fun Lovin’ Criminals – Scooby Snacks (Schmoove Version)

The former is a 60s number made popular by Frank Sinatra. What makes the FLC version of interest to the things that normally feature on this blog is the guest vocal from Ian McCulloch.

The latter was the b-side to yet another easy-going cover:-

mp3 : Fun Lovin Criminals – I’m Not In Love

Enjoy…if only for the fact this is an unusual posting at this joint.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 24)

Today’s offering is the third single lifted from the 2006 LP Ringleader of The Tormentors.

Morrissey was riding the crest of a critical wave on back of the album as well as gaining loads of kudos for a UK tour that had taken him to loads of smaller venues in towns that rarely attracted any decent live gigs (e.g. Greenock, Grimsby, Halifax, Whitehaven, Blackburn, Truro, Cheltenham, King’s Lynn). The goodwill extended to his fans who bought enough copies of the single to take it to #17 in the charts.

I was personally surprised that this was released as a single. I’m not arguing that it’s a dull or boring song, but it wasn’t one of the stand-out tracks on the LP by any stretch of the imagination. The opening 20 seconds or so remind of songs by T Rex and Oasis, and I suppose I can never really get those thoughts out of my head as it unravels itself over the next three and a bit minutes…but it is, on reflection, the sort of track that would sound reasonable enough when coming over the radio airwaves.

mp3 : Morrissey – In The Future When All’s Well
mp3 : Morrissey – I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero Now (live)
mp3 : Morrissey – To Me You Are A Work Of Art (live)

The two live tracks are Ringleader tracks that were recorded on Sunday 28th May 2006 at the London Palladium on what was the last night the UK tour (Morrissey, in a tribute to an old TV variety show had played three Sunday Nights at The London Palladium during May). They’re actually quite good versions of the tracks…..Morrissey is in very good voice while his backing band stick to faithful reproductions….

There was also one new track is one that I think deserved a place on the album itself rather than being thrown away on a b-side….but then again this outstanding tribute to the French fashion designer is probably the reason so many of us bought the actual single:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Christian Dior

Oh and I also love the sleeve on this one. I’m sure I had a jacket exactly like that when I was about 12 years of age….and I certainly would have had an ice cream like that when I was that age….

Spirea X

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 105)

From wiki:-

Spirea X were an alternative rock band from Glasgow, Scotland, formed by Primal Scream founding member Jim Beattie in 1990.

After six years in the band, Jim Beattie left Primal Scream in 1988.

Two years later he formed Spirea X, the name taken from a Primal Scream b-side (an instrumental track that he had written), announcing “We’re going to do it…by having better songs, better melodies, better arrangements, better everything. By sheer force of ideas”.

The band’s first demo prompted 4AD to sign them, their first release eagerly anticipated, with BBC 2’s Snub TV featuring an interview with them and a couple of live tracks before they had released a single. The band’s original bass player and guitarist (The McGovern brothers) soon left, with guitarist Robert forming cult underground Glasgow indie punk band Dresden and his bass playing brother Tony becoming a well established member of Glasgow band Texas. Jamie O’Donnell and Thomas McGurk joining Beattie, his girlfriend Judith Boyle, and Andy Kerr in 1991.

Debut EP Chlorine Dream was released in April 1991, the title track inspired by the life of Brian Jones. This was followed up by “Speed Reaction” and the album Fireblade Skies (the name taken from a volume of Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry), both in 1991. Fireblade Skies met with positive critical reaction, Lime Lizard’s Nick Terry stating: “If Jim Beattie’s last longplaying endeavour, Primal Scream’s Sonic Flower Groove, was a thoroughly flawed masterpiece, he’s found his groove with Fireblade Skies”.

Beattie was known for his self-confidence, verging on arrogance, once proclaiming himself to be God, and stating “David Icke is my bestest friend”, later saying “Yeah, I thought I was God before, but now I feel more like Jesus”. Beattie rejected comparisons with other bands of the era, stating “I don’t think we fit in anywhere, really”, and “I don’t think we’re egotistical like Ride are. I don’t need to be egotistical, because I’ve got the music to back it up”.

The band was subsequently reduced to a duo of Beattie and Boyle, and were dropped by 4AD in 1992, the band splitting the following year.

Beattie and Boyle resurfaced in 1994 with a new band, Adventures in Stereo.

This, if you haven’t heard it before, is a cracking single with two hugely enjoyable b-sides:-

mp3 : Spirea X – Chlorine Dream
mp3 : Spirea X – Spirea Rising
mp3 : Spirea X – Risk

Enjoy

Fall

THIS NATION’S SAVING GRACE

Today’s blast from the past is from away back in December 2006. It was just 10 weeks or so after I’d started the blog. I’ve included it as a way of showing just quickly things can change….see sentence now marked with **

————————————-

Last week it was Morrissey who made a long-overdue debut on the blog. This week it is the band dominated by the mercurial, (isn’t that always the adjective that you have to apply?), talents of Mark E. Smith.

I’m referring of course to The Fall.

I’ll be honest – I wasn’t someone who loved this band from the outset. I did hear them on John Peel time after time, but I didn’t quite ‘get it.’ And things weren’t helped by my first live experience of the band back in late 1982 (it might have been early 83) at Night Moves in Glasgow.

I’d gone along to see the Cocteau Twins but stayed on to watch the main act, which turned out to be The Fall. It was a pretty poor gig – the sound was all over the place and the band were not even talking to one another far less having any communication with the audience. Thankfully, it turned out to be a short event (maybe 30 mins at the most), and then there was an hour or so of ‘indie-disco’ to send everyone home in a good mood.

So I more or less ignored them for a while. But a couple of years later, a move to a new record label – and a crucial change in personnel – led to the release of a run of records that were easier to listen to, and to the horror of the hip-priests, The Fall got radio-friendly with a broader appeal. I started paying attention again.

With a recording history going back almost 30 years, featuring dozens of singles, EPs and albums, there’s plenty to choose from. But I’m sticking with a song that has turned into something quite personal in recent years.

** I’ve been lucky in that almost all of my close friends are still alive. But there is one who passed away a couple of years ago after a long illness, and I do think of him every now and again. Especially at this time of year.

This is for AGF. And while he would have abhorred The Fall – he was a classical music buff – he would have been very amused that there is a song out there that makes me think of him every time I hear it.

mp3 : The Fall – Edinburgh Man

It’s a 1991 release, originally on the LP Shift-Work. It’s also available on a multitude of compilations, but surprisingly not on 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong – 39 Golden Greats which is pretty much indispensable.

————————-

2014 Update.

I’ve since lost a number of close friends and a brother, all in tragic circumstances and all of whom were taken too early. I’ve also got to know someone who lost a child at a horribly young age after the bravest of battles against a horrible form of cancer and right now I’ve got another mate who is terminally ill but is making sure his final days are memorable in so many ways for so many people.

I’ve also heard and lots of other sad and distressing tales since that original posting above which have made me realise just how lucky I was in the first 43 years of my life to have been more or less untouched by tragedy.

As I say, much has happened this past eight years or so and I’ve no doubt that much more pain and heartache is still to come – some might think that’s a bit doom-laden but it’s actually laced with realism as both my elderly parents are still alive and as I type keeping excellent health all things considered. What I can say is that when things have been difficult, then I’ve taken great strength from the help and support offered so willingly by my friends electric. Thank you one and all.

I can’t possibly finish on that downbeat note…here’s another great MES track…a cover of a Kinks classic and it’s especially for my great mate ctel!!

mp3 : The Fall – Victoria

Enjoy.