THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE 80s PRODUCTION MASTERPIECE MINUS THE PRODUCTION IS STILL A MASTERPIECE

There are very few music fans of my generation who won’t admit to having a soft spot for Steve McQueen, the majestic LP released by Prefab Sprout back in 1985. It was eleven tracks of near perfection, thanks in part to the quality of the songs but there were also many sublime touches brought to the party by producer Thomas Dolby.

There were a load of raised eyebrows when, more than 20 years later, it was announced that the LP would not only undergo a remastering exercise at the hand of its original producer but that Paddy McAloon was going to enter into a studio and record new acoustic versions of what were regarded as the eight strongest, most-enduring and popular tracks for inclusion as a bonus CD. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking it was no more than a cynical and cheap way of making fans part with their cash for the LP for a third time, having bought the vinyl in the 80s, the CD in the 90s and now this new version in the 00s. After all how do you improve upon near perfection?

And yet, as the notes in the accompanying booklet points out, “The 80s production masterpiece minus the production is still a masterpiece.”

Paddy McAloon is famed for being a perfectionist but there is no way I would have expected that the time taken to record the eight acoustic versions would be in excess of that taken to originally record the LP. Those close to the process think it took three times as long. It’s therefore clear that this wasn’t a job where he went in and came back out in one take – there was clearly an attempt a number of different arrangements, musically and vocally, before determining which approach worked best on each song. Some are just voice and guitar, others have keyboards and others have backing and multi-tracked vocals.

Paddy was 27 years of age when he first recorded the songs – by the time he went back into the studio for the acoustic versions he was in his very late 40s and his voice was deeper and richer. This alone would naturally change the way the songs would now sound. But he was also able to bring those many more years of experience, knowledge and songcraft to the recording process and so what he ends up giving us is something truly special and more than capable of being held up as a brand new LP rather than just re-recordings in an acoustic fashion.

There is no finer example of what I am trying to get at than with the hit single from the LP:-

mp3 : Paddy McAloon – When Love Breaks Down

But of all the re-recordings, this is the one that stands out most:-

mp3 : Paddy McAloon – Desire As

The original was chock-full of poignant keyboards and wonderfully fragile harmonies and an acceptable and very understated use of saxophone. This new version opens with some tremendous Roddy Frame-esque acoustic guitar work and leads to a surprisingly strong almost angry sounding and passionate vocal. It is a totally different song than that from 1985…and whisper it…..it’s even better.

Enjoy….and feel free to differ from the above opinions.

Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins, Tindersticks

THE MAGIC OF MUSIC

I’m sure most of you will be familiar with the memorable and imaginative video where Christopher Walken is sitting slumped and tired in a chair in the foyer of a hotel only to be shaken from his slumbers by the music that is Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. Next thing you know he is tap-dancing and flying his way through the hotel with the biggest grin on his face….and then as the song ends he finds himself sitting back in his chair with the same tired look on his face as a few minutes earlier.

The tap-dancing and aerial acrobatics were of course all in his mind – it was his imagination running away as the magic of music took his mind off whatever had been troubling or tiring him and made him ecstatically happy for a few short minutes. If it wasn’t for my self-imposed policy of not posting anything from youtube I’d have it embedded at this juncture of this post.

The point is….I had my own Christopher Walken moment on the way to work yesterday.

I was sitting on the train yesterday morning, tired and worried a bit about how much I have on my plate just now and also still trying to think what to do next with the blog feeling grateful that S-WC had come up with the goods. I’ve the music on shuffle hoping that I might get inspired but all the songs seem to be stuff I’ve written about before or else aren’t all that worthy of spending time writing about.

Then….there’s a little bit of flamenco guitar that I know lasts precisely 56 seconds for it is the intro to a song which is one of my favourites from one of my favourite bands.

I smile.

And just like Christopher Walken, I am shaken from my slumbers. The next two and half minutes of music have me imagining that I am running up and down the crowded carriage grabbing fellow passengers and getting them to dance with me; that I am singing the lyrics at the top of my voice and that when the trumpet solo comes I should be blasting it out as the train staff put down their ticket checking machines and join in on percussion. Such is the power of this:-

mp3 : Tindersticks – Her

It’s from the band’s debut release – a double album – back in 1993. It’s just one of a number of stunning bits of music that Tindersticks recorded with their first six albums after which the band broke-up. The reformed line-up a few years later saw only around half of the members get together and while it’s been decent enough in places, the music since has seemed less special.

As Her bounced around my head I knew I had a blog piece ready to go with the Christopher Walken comparison. But one thing that was different is that as my happy song came to an end, the next track on random play began. The smile didn’t leave my face as it revealed itself as one of the greatest cover versions of all time and a track which was part of the recent Saturday singles series.

mp3 : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes

I came to work feeling a lot better, switched on the PC and typed all the words you’ve just read.

Enjoy

Cable, Electronic, Heave

FROM THE SOUTH WEST CORRESPONDENT….

The Return of the Box

Some time ago, whilst sitting in a transport café just outside the drab Kent market town of Sittingbourne two friends and I set upon a challenge.

It was six in the morning, we hadn’t slept that much and we were awaiting our greasy spoon fry up, John (full English), me (veggie version, no egg) and Adrian (Mushroom, Egg, Tomatoes and Toast). We were talking about music, primarily New Order, and John likes to think of himself as a New Order oracle, he claimed right then and then to be able to list more singles and albums by the band along with Joy Division, Revenge, Monaco, The Other Two and Electronic than the rest of us.

We went to the counter and asked for three pencils and three sheets of paper, and we gave ourselves five minutes or until breakfast arrived, the winner got a free breakfast. Four minutes later breakfast arrived – so we put our pencils down, and ate up. Then we totted up the correct answers, I was last, in fact last by some distance, if it was Spiritualized, Spectrum and Spacemen 3 I would have won, but it wasn’t.

Adrian scored one more than John – and John demanded a recount and verification (at this point the truckers in the café were starting to get fed up with the manky students in the café disturbing their breakfasts). I was appointed judge and went through the lists –they were largely the same, both had missed the classic New Order single Run 2 which even I had got , but when it come to the end, Adrian had listed an Electronic single called For You and that was the difference between the two of them.

John sighed and said that he forgotten about it because it was rubbish. His grapes were sour all the way home. When we got home Adrian popped round my house and gave me this CD, he’d bought it in Woolworths two days previously for 49p – hadn’t even played it. I did play it, it’s not rubbish. It’s very pleasant indeed.

mp3 : Electronic – For You

‘For You’ was in fact the second single off of the second Electronic album, Raise the Pressure, an album which I have never heard. The single peaked at Number 16 in the UK Chart. It is well worth the price of a greasy fry up in a truckers café in Kent (about £2.99 in 1996).

———————————-

I remember getting this particular CD sent to me because it came with a promotional gun and me and my mate Chris drove around Maidstone taking pot shots at chavs with it all afternoon.

mp3 : Cable – Whisper Firing Line

Having re-read that sentence, I should make it clear – it was a water pistol, and not a very good one, as it leaked. The fun was spoiled when we squirted a big bloke and then got stuck in traffic, (Inbetweeners Bus Wankers Style) and he threatened to hit us.

Cable were from Derby and were big favourites of John Peel they released three albums in the late 90s and this was taken from their second album When Animals Attack.

They are by far the greatest band to have ever come out of Derby (come on name another one!) and probably the only one to have had their music feature on a Sprite advert (‘Freeze The Atlantic’). Whisper Firing Line is a good example of the kind of thing Cable did on each of their three albums, I’d recommend the first two Cable albums – I’ve not heard the third, but by and large, this is decent garage rock with a nod towards the punk rock of American labels such as Blast First and Dischord. The B Side comes with a nice little cover version of the Stevie Winwood song Can’t Find My Way Home which as it’s a cover version gets an obligatory posting.

mp3 : Cable – Can’t Find My Way Home

———————————————-

Getting a bit more obscure now, I can’t find much more out about Heave, I know that this single came from an album called Scaramanga which I remember being quite good, it has long since vanished from the shelves of my house though.

mp3 : Heave – Pig Pretty

They had an earlier single Suna which is terrific – kind of art rock in an Earl Brutus meets Wire kind of way (there was a cover of 12XU as the B Side). The band featured a female model and keyboardist Sharon Mew who later went on to be in Elastica. Heave I think split up around 1997.

That is it.

More next week folks

S-WC

PS from JC

This is about as close as we will be getting to a random shuffle series as S-WC digs into his long-lost box of CDs from back in the day, pulls them out three at a time and writes some fine words about each of them. I genuinely had no idea whan I did yesterday’s posting on Wire that his scheduled piece, which has been sitting unread in my inbox since 29 May, also mentioned that very fine band.

Just to say that S-WC will next week feature on the Monday, a day earlier than normal. Tune in and all will be revealed why…………

Wire

AN APOLOGY TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU

Standards have been slipping badly in recent weeks.

There’s been too many stupid errors creeping in with one of the the worst examples being when I forgot to uploads the links to the tunes. Many of the posts have been lazy rehashes of old material and there’s barely been an original though shared with you in weeks. I could blame it on being busy at work or the fact that much of whatever little spare time I’ve had has been taken up with things away from the PC – for instance the shedload of great gigs I’ve been lucky enough to attend in recent weeks (something that is of relevance to this blog) while the weekend just passed was spent with a crowd of long-time mates playing golf and drinking till all hours in the same way we have doing at a weekend in June every year since 1989 (something that is of no relevance to this blog – but which you are going to hear a little bit about…).

I’ve just got home on Sunday evening and I’m dead beat. My powers of recovery from a weekend of golf combined with over-indulging in alcohol and getting very few hours of sleep in a strange bed are not what they used to be. I wanted so badly to come in and get inspired as I sat looking at the screen with my fingers poised above the keyboard. But nothing is coming. So you’ll need to make do with another old posting….from November 2009 as part of a series entitled The Class of 79:-

There’s just no way I could ever claim to have bought this back in 1979. I listened to John Peel occasionally, but not every night. And his was the only show that played any songs by Wire.

And although I became aware of them during my students days in the early 80s, I didn’t rush out and but any of their albums. Indeed, I think the first thing I ever owned was a John Peel Sessions CD released in the early 90s (and it was courtesy of a birthday or Xmas present from my amigo Jacques The Kipper)

But in recent times, with the records of old being repackaged and reissued, I’ve got a hold of all three of the albums that were released in the 70s and now realise just how important and special they were.

The band also released six singles in the 70s, of which this was the nearest to a hit, reaching #51 in January 1979:-

mp3 : Wire – Outdoor Miner
mp3 : Wire – Practice Makes Perfect

The single was actually a re-recorded and extended version of a song that had appeared on 1978 LP Chairs Missing.

And it is quite wonderful.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 13)

The second single taken from Your Arsenal surely contains one of the laziest ever Morrissey lyrics:-

You’re the one for me, fatty
You’re the one I really, really love
And I will stay
Promise you’ll say
If I’m in your way

All over Battersea
Some hope
and some despair

Repeated umpteen times with the occasional Buddy Holly impressions (a-hey) thrown in for padding.

It preceeded the album by three weeks and had me a bit worried about how it was all going to turn out. As it was, Fatty was one of the poorest tracks on the LP and was soon a candidate for frequent use of the skip button on the CD player.

Sometimes disappointing singles get rescued by decent tracks on the b-side, but sadly these efforts are quite forgettable.

mp3 : Morrissey – You’re The One For Me, Fatty
mp3 : Morrissey – Pashernate Love
mp3 : Morrissey – There Speaks A True Friend

At least the cover was a cracker…..another Linder Sterling photo taken at a concert in Chicago in 1991.

But my opinions weren’t shared by the general public….it was a single that climbed higher in the charts than any of those taken from Kill Uncle, hitting #19 in July 1992.

Happy Listening.

Rezillos

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 95)

From wiki:-

The Rezillos are a punk/new wave band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1976. Although emerging at the same time as other bands in the punk rock movement, the Rezillos did not share the nihilism or social commentary of their contemporaries, but instead took a more light-hearted approach to their songs, preferring to describe themselves at the time as “a New Wave beat group”.

Their songs are heavily influenced by 1950s rock and roll, 1960s English beat music and garage rock, early 1970s glam rock, and recurring lyrical themes of science fiction and B movies, influences that mirrored those of US bands the Cramps and the B-52s who were starting out at the same time. The Rezillos’ biggest hit in their home country was the UK Top 20 single “Top of the Pops” in 1978, but they are best known outside the UK for their cover version of “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight”, which featured on the soundtrack to Jackass: The Movie in 2002. Since the Rezillos recorded it, the song has been covered by other punk bands, including Youth Brigade and Murphy’s Law.

Released in July 1978, the Rezillos’ only studio album Can’t Stand the Rezillos is now considered a classic album of the first wave of British punk, but the group split up four months after its release, following internal arguments about their future direction.

After the Rezillos split the band’s guitarist and principal songwriter Jo Callis briefly joined a couple of unsuccessful Edinburgh post-punk groups, before being invited to join The Human League. He went on to co-write some of The Human League’s best known songs during their most successful period, including their biggest worldwide hit, “Don’t You Want Me”.

The Rezillos’ vocalists Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife formed the Revillos, a group with an ever-changing line-up that continued where the Rezillos left off. The Revillos split up in 1985, briefly reforming in 1994 for a tour of Japan, and again in 1996 for a UK tour. In 2001 the Rezillos reformed after being invited to play at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations, and have continued to play live ever since, as well as releasing new singles occasionally.

And, straight from the cupboard full of vinyl, here’s the tremendous follow-up single to the big hit:-

mp3 : The Rezillos – Destination Venus
mp3 : The Rezillos – Mystery Action

Enjoy!!

Blur

A LONG WAY REMOVED FROM PARKLIFE

In 1993 and 1994 it was all a bit ‘cor blimey guv’ and catchy upbeat sing-a-long numbers driven along by the classic sounds made by a line-up consisting of singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Things had changed a lot by 1997….

To be fair, Blur released a lot of great songs in 93 and 94, many of them being introspective and sad ballads, hat have aged a lot better than the likes of Parklife and Country House. And yes, it wasn’t always down to the use of the guitar-genius of Graham Coxon to make these songs memorable – some of their best and catchiest somgs used keyboards – e.g. Girls and Boys.

But very few fans were prepared for the self-titled 1997 LP. It sold less in the UK than more recent albums but sold far more in other countries. Blur and Britpop had parted forever….indeed their turning their back on the sound and movement that had brought them immense fame and fortune was the beginning of the end. That and it being endorsed by politicians.

I was thinking all this the other day when a stunning remix of one of the tracks on Blur came on the i-pod shuffle. The song that to me was their sign-off from Britpop. Something that I had not quite forgotten how good it was, but for the first time I was listening with a decent pair of headphones and I turned it up loud. Sorry it’s the usual shitty mp3 low-fi quality on offer. But you should get the drift:-

mp3 : Blur – Death Of A Party (12″ Death)

It’s taken from a Japanese CD called Bustin and Dronin’ although it may well be available elsewhere. As I said, it’s stunning…..it’s more than 7 minutes long ….it’s a mix by Adrian Sherwood and it’s miles from the poppy stuff – it’s almost reminiscent in places musically of Ghost Town – and it has a chorus Mozza would have been proud of:-

Another night
And I though well well
Go to another party
And hang myself
Gently on the shelf.

Feel free to sing along girls and boys.

PS : I make no apologies for this particular re-post from October 2012 as it features a cracking piece of music that might surprise those of you who normally have no time for the band.

D.C. Lee

DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE

Released in October 1985, See The Day by D.C. Lee sold more than 250,000 copies and climbed to #3 in the UK singles chart. This was at a time when The Style Council were at their most popular having enjoyed a run of hit singles and two top selling albums in Cafe Bleu and Our Favourite Shop.

D.C. Lee was an integral part of The Style Council, and indeed by 1985 was the partner and soon to be wife of Paul Weller – it was all a long way removed from her first brush with fame as a backing singer with Wham!

At the time, I wasn’t all that impressed with See The Day. I thought then that it was a lumpen, messy and over-produced ballad, and so it wasn’t a single that I set out to get a hold of. But I couldn’t resist paying 99p for it in a second hand shop a few years back and giving it a spin almost 25 years on to see if I had changed my mind. I hadn’t.

mp3 : D.C. Lee – See The Day

I’ve a feeling a lot of TSC fans bought this single because of the b-side. It featured all the other members of the band performing one of their most popular tunes – a song that had previously featured vocals by Tracey Thorn on the Cafe Bleu LP and then by Weller himself on the b-side to Long Hot Summer – and now it was the turn of Diane Catherine Sealy:-

mp3 : D.C. Lee – The Paris Match

Musically, it’s not far removed from the version which featured Weller on vocals, but overall, all it does is confirm for me that while she is a fine singer, she isn’t truly instinctive enough to stand out from the crowd. I’m probably damning her with faint praise to say that if she was waiting to be discovered nowadays, she would probably get a fair way on the X-Factor…..but not be the winner.

Incidentally…..time to help further nail a wee bit of an urban myth. I’ve read in some places that Paul Weller played drums on See The Day. He didn’t. Instead it was Paul Waller, who was a member of jazz-pop combo Animal Nightlife….

Enjoy.

Streets

A TRULY-WORLD CLASS RAPPER FROM THE U.K.

A couple of weeks back I decided to have a first listen in ages to Original Pirate Material, the debut LP by The Streets. It has aged very well…..but I was astonished to look at the back of the CD and realise that it dates back to 2002.

In essence, The Streets are/were a vehicle for the Birmingham-based rapper Mike Skinner and in much the say way as De La Soul had done on the late 80s, he wanted to release a rap LP that was a bit different from the mainstream and which relied on some different and unusual influences. The result was something I shouldn’t really have had any time for – it was linked closely to the genre of UK garage (which I had very little time for) and much of its subject matter was based around clubbing (which is something I had no time for). But somehow it clicked with me.

Part of it was the music – I never expected to hear a rap LP which drew on ska influences – while part of it was down to the delivery of gritty lyrics in an accent that you rarely heard on mainstream radio. I was almost 40 years of age and so I couldn’t claim to be in touch with the issues that Skinner was rapping about, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t listen with a degree of empathy with the thought that for young folk, not much had changed in the two decades since I was struggling to get to grips with what life was throwing at me.

It’s an LP which sold by the bucketload in 2002 and yet two years later achieved an even higher chart position as the follow-up LP spawned a ballad – Dry Your Eyes – which went very mainstream and brought The Streets to a whole new audience who were happy enough to delve into the limited back catalogue which the record label were quick to capitalise on with a re-launched marketing campaign.

The mainstream chart success inevitably saw many of the band’s original fans turn their backs on The Streets, especially as the gigs went from being in small clubs and venues to arenas. It was interesting that success changed the way Mike Skinner looked at the music industry – in much the same way as it had affected Jarvis Cocker a decade or so earlier – and later LPs were more introspective and melancholy, but all the while having a commercial edge which ensured mainstream interest. And while they all have material of merit, none of them match what was released on the debut:-

mp3 : The Streets – Let’s Push Things Forward
mp3 : The Streets – Has It Come To This?
mp3 : The Streets – Don’t Mug Yourself
mp3 : The Streets – Too Much Brandy

Enjoy

LCD Soundsystem, Leather Face, Local Natives

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT …AN L of A DAY

Last week I told you that my iPods are always set to random. The big iPod has nearly 9500 songs on it these days, I am worrying about it breaking as it now 4 years old. Weirdly the Top 25 most recently played songs on my iPod are not all bad. At Number 5 is ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes, at Number 4 is ‘Sun Hits the Sky’ by Supergrass, at Number 3 is ‘Bloodbuzz Ohio’ by the National, at Number 2 is ‘Leave Them All Behind’ by Ride, these are chosen randomly by the iPod remember. At Number 1, the most frequently picked song on my iPod is ‘Someone Great’ by LCD Soundsystem. What. A. Song.

I love LCD Soundsystem and right now they are the only band I regret never catching live. To be honest apart from Primal Scream and perhaps PJ Harvey, there hasn’t ever been anyone better than LCD Soundsystem. The way that James Murphy blends disco, dance, rock and punk together to produce tune after tune of effortlessly cool anthems is nothing short of genius. ‘Someone Great’ is taken from their second and probably most well received album ‘Sound of Silver’. It contains this wonderful lyric:

“The worst is all the lovely weather, I’m stunned, it’s not raining. The coffee isn’t even bitter, because, what’s the difference?”

“Someone Great” is Murphy’s lament to a lost friend, lover, associate or child. The way that Murphy has I think, deliberately never revealed who or what the song is about I think adds to its brilliance. It is obviously about loss but in these eyes loss sounds beautiful, almost heavenly. There is a synth sequence running through this song that is kind of angelic and that corresponds with the lyrics which suggest someone who could do nothing bad, it is a lovely lovely record. One that should be sitting somewhere in your most frequently played songs on the iPod. The irritating thing is that this, this wonderful piece of music, is probably only their third or (possibly) fourth best song.

mp3 : LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great

I have a claim to fame.

In 1992 I saw Leatherface in the Melody Maker tent at the Reading Festival it was Friday afternoon, two days before the whole tent sunk under a biblical deluge of water. They were amazing, incredible, a performance that fitted a band at the peak of their musical powers. They were just becoming something, their (fourth?) album ‘Mush’ was gaining cult status and with the stand out song ‘Not Superstitious’ they had a song that was sort of crossing over. Singer Frankie Norman Warsaw Stubbs (his actual bonafide real name) possessed a voice that was as soft as sandpaper – he more growled down the speakers at you – but there was/is something beautiful in the way he did it. Musically it was kind of punk rock but there was a bleak humour about it. I urge you all now, if you haven’t got or heard ‘Mush’ to download it today. I promise you won’t regret it.

The claim to fame?? Oh, standing behind me at that festival performance was John Peel. I knew he was there, I was 17, he was like a hero (he smelt very nice by the way), and at the end he tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘What did you think of that then?’ I laughed and said ‘Mr Peel, that was shit hot and anyone who missed them should be ashamed’. He nodded and smiled and wandered off saying that he had to introduce some bunch of idiots on the main stage in five minutes but thanked us for our brief review.

We wandered over to the main stage the idiots were Public Image Limited. John Peel came on over the tannoy just before they wandered on stage. His opening words, ‘I’ve just seen Leatherface, they were, shit hot, if you missed them, then shame on you. Right then, here’s Johnny Rotten and his mates…’

mp3 : Leatherface – Not Superstitious

Finally for the letter L I struggled to find something that could compete with LCD Soundsystem and Leatherface so I did the random thing, the iPod chose ‘Breakers’ by Local Natives, this is taken from their much under rated album from last year ‘Hummingbird. They originate from Silver Lake in California. ‘Breakers’ was the lead single from ‘Hummingbird’ and it sounds a lot like Arcade Fire and the National.

Well perhaps a younger less grizzled National and less stadium friendly Arcade Fire.

mp3 : Local Natives – Breakers

Next week the BOX IS BACK.

S-WC

Sea Urchins

A VERY VALUABLE PIECE OF PLASTIC

If you own a mint copy of today’s single, then make sure you continue to look after it lovingly. And maybe think about adding it to an insurance policy.

The first ever single release on Sarah Records was by The Sea Urchins. From wiki:-

The initial line-up of The Sea Urchins was James Roberts (vocals), Simon Woodcock (guitar), Robert Cooksey (guitar), Mark Bevin (bass), Bridget Duffy (tambourine, organ), and Patrick Roberts (drums). Their first two releases were flexi discs given away with fanzines in 1987. Bevin soon left, to be replaced by Darren Martin.

Their “Pristine Christine” single was the first Sarah Records release, and is highly coveted among vinyl record collectors. With the following year’s double-A-side “Solace”/”Please Rain Fall” they began to show more mod-rock influences. Both singles were successful in indie terms, but Sarah Records were unwilling to commit to an album, and Duffy and Martin left.

Woodcock took over on bass, with James Roberts adding guitar. The band released one more single for Sarah (“A Morning Oddyssey” in 1990), but disagreements about the next single saw them move on to Cheree Records, who issued “Please Don’t Cry” in 1991. The band split up in summer 1991. Two albums were subsequently released; Sarah Records issued a compilation of the band’s material for the label, including the flexi-disc tracks, as Stardust in 1992, while Fierce Recordings issued a live album in 1994.

James Roberts, Cooksey, and Woodcock later formed the band Delta. James Roberts, Patrick Roberts, and Robert Cooksey also formed The Low Scene.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the record is ‘highly coveted’ with the only available copy on Discogs having an asking price of over £300. I don’t own a copy, and while it would be nice to, I’m happy enough that I have the song via one of the many CD86 style compilation CDs that have been released over the years:-

mp3 : The Sea Urchins – Pristine Christine

On thing to note is just how young all the band members were at the time this single was released – all of them were with just 17 or 18 years of age. When I look around today at similarly aged kids of a number of friends, I find it a scary thought that such fresh and innocent faces would be capable of such works of class.

Enjoy

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 12)

It is sometimes easy to forget that there was no new Morrissey music released between 1997 and 2004 – a period of time that was well in excess of his career with The Smiths.

The disappointment of Southpaw Grammar and Maladjusted (although I don’t think the latter is as poor an LP as is often perceived), combined with the fact that only one of the last ten singles had ever cracked the Top 20 led many to write off Morrissey once and for all. He had been signed and dropped by a number of labels in the 90s and it looked as if his recording days were over.

But this period of inactivity at the end of the 20th Century coincided with many writers and journalists getting all nostalgic and acknowledging his importance to pop music, mostly in partnership with Johnny Marr. It also coincided with a fresh interest in indie-music as it came back into vogue one more time, and many of the singers and songwriters now being profiled in magazines, newspapers and within these new-fangled things called blogs started namechecking Morrissey all the time.

In 2002, he undertook a three-month long world tour, partly as a reminder that he still existed, but mainly to air a number of new songs that he had written over the past five years in the hope that some label would come in with an offer that wasn’t insulting. The tour got a lot of positive publicity, with many reviewers commenting that much of the new stuff sounded as good as anything he’d ever released and many alos wrote that they hoped these would see the light of day on a forthcoming record.

It was also noted that many of the new songs had a contemporary feel to them – ie indie-pop – that would find favour with a brand new audience, many of whom hadn’t been born when The Smiths formed and to who Morrissey was a mysterious figure that loads of their mums, dads, aunties and uncles held in high esteem.

I first heard the comeback single courtesy of MTV2. I wasn’t actually paying all that much attention at the time when the first notes were struck – I was reading the sports section of a newspaper – but then I realised that this was a voice with which I was very familiar. The focus of my attention immediately shifted…..

I was stunned. At long last, Morrissey sounded important again. Here was a single that was wasn’t all that different from the sounds being churned out by the popstars of the moment, but his presence on it – his vocal delivery, his charisma within that video, his ability to come up with a great singalong chorus without it being something dumb – made it something truly special.

The other great trick was that we were getting to see the video some 4 weeks before the actual single was available in the shops, so that with every showing and listening, we realised how exceptional a song it was, especially compared to recent Morrissey songs. Some old fans might have bought the single out of habit, but many more came back to Morrissey for the first time in a over a decade, and along with an army of new fans bought it because it was something worth owning.

And despite it getting very little support from Radio 1 in the UK, the comeback single entered the UK charts at #3 which was easily the highest position in his entire career. If this single had been a stinker and a flop, then I guess Morrissey would have had no option but to retire from music, so in many ways, this was probably the most important record of his career:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Irish Blood, English Heart
mp3 : Morrissey – It’s Hard To Walk Tall When You’re Small
mp3 : Morrissey – Munich Air Disaster 1958
mp3 : Morrissey – The Never-Played Symphonies

What initially struck me when I bought the two CD singles was that the other songs were actually more than half-decent tracks and that in being able to issue them as mere b-sides, Morrissey must have great confidence in the dozen or so that he was going to issue on his comeback LP, You Are The Quarry.

His confidence wasn’t misplaced, as it is a very fine recording, ….but I’ll argue that it could have been a truly great album if some of the tracks that he kept back as b-sides (four singles were eventually issued) had replaced some of the less memorable tunes on the album.

But that’s Morrissey for you…..he never really does things the easy way.

PS

A few weeks back, as Part 8 of this re-posted series, I mentioned that the single Everyday Is Like Sunday had previously been the subject of a dmca complaint but that I had filed it differently this time to avoid a repeat situation.

I’m guessing someone out there decided to have a laugh at my expense. This e-mail arrived during the week:-

To whom it may concern,

We have recently received a complaint regarding the following file(s), which you have been sharing through your Box account, and infringe on a previously-held copyright:

MyBox/Morri$$ey – Everyday…(is like a certain day of the week).mp3
MyBox/Marion – Violent Men.mp3
MyBox/Morrissey – Sister I’m A Poet.mp3
MyBox/Morrissey – Disappointed.mp3

We have deleted the above file(s) from your account. Please delete any other files from your account that may infringe on any previously-held copyrights, as these go against the Box Terms of Service. Be aware that further infractions may result in account termination.

Sincerely,
The Box Team

Totally bemused.

(1) the person making the complaint will have to have spelled out to box, that the artist had two dollar signs in the middle of his name rather than the usual double s.

(2) the person making the complaint has thrown in a Marion track from a different posting

(3) the person making the complaint didn’t extend it to Will Never Marry, the fourth track on the 12″ of Sunday which was also part of the posting at the beginning of May.

Ho hum.

Irvine Welsh, Primal Scream

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 94) (take two)

This should have appeared last week…..but I forgot to transfer the text over from a word doc. Apologies.

I’ve reached the stage of this incredibly long-running alphabetical series where it is time to feature Primal Scream. So many great things to choose from but I thought I’d go with something a bit different and one probably not so well-known to readers from overseas.

The summer of 1996 was to feature a major football tournament. It was the European Nations Championship, conveniently shortened to Euro 96, and the host nation was England. Being just over the border, there was huge interest in whether Scotland could also make it through the qualifying stages which we did reasonably comfortably, although it has to be said we did have an easy group (Russia, Greece, Finland, Faroe Islands and San Marino) as well as some half-decent players at the time.

It was inevitable however, that having qualified with a bit of ease that the footballing gods would deal us a cruel hand in the actual tournament which is why we ended up drawn against Holland, Switzerland and the hosts.

The fact we were playing such an important match against our oldest and deadliest rivals created all sorts of interest and in the tournament not to mention weird spin-offs. One of these was the release of a very unofficial single by Primal Scream.

It was a collaboration with the Scottish author Irvine Welsh who just three years earlier had shot to fame and infamy with the publication of his debut novel Trainspotting, as well as the team at the English-based On-U Sound, a record label best-known for dance and dub releases. The end result is everything as crazy, imaginative and offensive as you’d imagine.

Is it any good though?

Well….as a huge fan of much of what Irvine Welsh has written over the years, I’m prepared to say that this is a tremendous release. As with any bit of writing by Welsh, it is OTT and then some. There’s a fair bit of black humour mixed in with some excellent social observation and commentary although it will not be to everyone’s taste. And again, as with any bit of writing by Welsh, there’s loads of gratuitous swearing, so be warned when you click on the mp3s.

The full title of the release was Primal Scream, Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound present….The Big Man and the Scream Team meet the Barmy Army Uptown. There were two musical versions made available along with a spoken word track featuring Welsh alone.

mp3 : Primal Scream et al – Full Strength Fortified Dub
mp3 : Primal Scream et al – Electric Soup dub
mp3 : Irvine Welsh – A Jake Supreme

Released by Creation Records on 3 June 1996 on the eve of the tournament, this reached #17 in the UK charts despite, to the best of my knowledge, never receiving a single airing on radio….such was the pulling power of the Scream and Welsh.

As to the tournament itself…….Scotland didn’t disappoint by doing what we always do and that is being eliminated in the most ridiculous of ways. We drew with Holland and then lost that important game to England – a match in which the decisive and brilliant second goal by Paul Gascoigne came a few seconds after we had contrived to miss a penalty.

In the final matches, played on the date of my 33rd birthday, Scotland beat Switzerland 1-0 but had to rely on England pulling off the most unlikely result of a four-goal win over Holland. Unbelievably, they were within 12 minutes of pulling off that very feat when Holland scored to make it 4-1 meaning Scotland were eliminated on the rule of having scored less goals over the three matches than the Dutch.

It was very cruel way to bow out – and our hope of a re-match in the final against England was cruelly dashed!

But such is the way of being a fan of Scotland. At least we don’t have the torture of the upcoming World Cup to distract us.

Enjoy

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (12)

I mentioned last time round that a short pre-Xmas tour had been put together to support the release of Lose Control and how the band, despite very little chart success, had sold out two successive nights at the 10,000 capacity G-Mex in Manchester.

One of the gigs, on Saturday 8 December 1990, was being filmed for future release on VHS. The band were on top form, but so was the audience who turned the event into a giant celebratory party – one that recognised James for what they were but one that also symbolised the fact that Manchester had become, at that moment in time, THE happening place for rock music not just in the UK but right across the planet, although things would shift many thousands of miles west to Seattle in the coming months….

The footage of the performance of Sit Down remains a thing of wonder. The old-fashioned indie anthem was hijacked by the audience for a massive sing-a-long, way beyond the wildest dreams of the band. As one review at the time said, it was a gig which inspired the sort of messianic, almost religious devotion not seen since the days of The Smiths. The song went on and on and on and on for well in excess of ten minutes. It was no surprise afterwards that all concerned thought a re-release might just be the thing that finally cracked the charts.

Personally, I prefer the old Rough Trade version of the song, but there’s no denying that Gil Norton delivered a dynamic production that was tailor-made for daytime radio, especially the way the chorus now dominated the whole thing:-

mp3 : James – Sit Down (re-release)

The record label made sure they could shift 10,000 copies on the first day by putting this on the b-side:-

mp3 : James – Sit Down (live at G-Mex)

I have no doubt that the entire audience rushed out to but the single to relive that special night a few months earlier.

The 12″ and CD single had a previously unreleased (but largely unremarkable) song that had been recorded at the same time as Lose Control:-

mp3 : James – Tonight

At the end of March, the single charged into the charts at #7 and the band finally made a long-overdue appearance on Top of The Pops. It was on heavy rotation on radio as well as MTV, and the band were also able to promote it through prime time telly in the UK. It was surely destined for #1……

…..but nobody had reckoned without the poptastic hit that was The One and Only by Chesney Hawkes which kept Sit Down at #2 for three weeks!

Spiritualized

THE TRACK MARKS OF MY TEARS

For the second successive day, I’m featuring a track that had to be trimmed back dramatically to make it suitable as a single.

The world was going crazy for all things Spiritualized in early 1998. The LP Ladies and Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space has been name top of loads of critics lists at the end of the previous year and was making its way back up the charts again as folk rushed to find out what the fuss was all about.

Dedicated Records decided to cash in. Here’s how I imagine the conversation went.

Concerned bloke at record label : “It’s a great idea to go another single. But there’s a couple of problems with the choice of I Think I’m In Love. First of all, the album version is almost 8 minutes long and meanders along at a dreamy pace with all sorts of instrumentation not to mention a gospel choir thrown in on backing vocals…and it takes nearly two and a half minutes before it hits the upbeat sounding chorus that will sound good on radio as I will now remind you.

mp3 : Spiritualized – I Think I’m In Love

Money-grabbing bloke at record label: “Piece of piss. Just cut down on the instrumentation and reach the radio friendly bit after 45 seconds.”

Concerned bloke : “But what about the fact that this is a song about all the great things taking heroin can do to your mind? There’s no way the radio bosses will allow it, and besides, do we really want to be corrupting the kids? Have another read at these lyrics:-

Sun so bright that I’m nearly blind
Cool cause I’m wired and I’m out of my mind
Warms the dope running down my spine
But I don’t care about you and I’ve got nothing to do
Free as the warmth in the air that I breathe
Even freer than dmt
Feel the warmth of the sun in me
But I don’t care about you and I’ve got nothing to do
Love in the middle of the afternoon
Just me, my spike in my arm and my spoon
Feel the warmth of the sun in the room
But I don’t care about you
And I’ve got nothing

I think I’m in love
Probably just hungry
I think I’m your friend
Probably just lonely
I think you got me in a spin now
Probably just turning
I think I’m a fool for you babe
Probably just yearning
I think I can rock and rool
Probably just twisting
I think I wanna tell the world
Probably ain’t listening
Come on

I think I can fly
Probably just falling
I think I’m the life and soul
Probably just snorting
I think I can hit the mark
Probably just aiming
I think my name is on your lips
Probably complaining
I think I have caught it bad
Probably contagious
I think I’m a winner baby
Probably Las Vegas
Come on

I think I’m alive
Probably just breathing
I think you stole my heart now baby
Probably just thieving
I think I’m on fire
Probably just smoking
I think that you’re my dream girl
Probably just dreaming
I think I’m the best babe
Probably like all the rest
I think that I could be your man
Probably just think you can
Come on

I think I’m in love

Money-grabbing bloke : “Ah…. but here’s the genius bit of the edit – it will also involve cutting out those ten lines of lyrics that refer to putting needles in one’s arm and heating up substances with the use of a spoon…..the sort of lyric that would have seen the single banned in the first place. Everyone will now just assume it’s a straightforward love song and have it played at weddings and the like.

Concerned bloke : “That is fucking genius…when’s the release date?”

So, the single edit transforms immediately what this song is really about:-

mp3 : Spiritualized – I Think I’m In Love (single edit)

It’s a very funny but cruel lyric in many ways. All the positive, upbeat and romantic things that are uttered by the protagonist are slapped down immediately with a reminder that life really is shit.

The CD single came with a wonderful Chemical Brothers remix that re-instated the full uncensored lyric as well as an instrumental version:-

mp3 : Spiritualized – I Think I’m In Love (vocal remix)
mp3 : Spiritualized – I Think I’m In Love (instrumental)

Enjoy.

Pavement

EVERYBODY WANTS ONE

In 1997, Domino Records tried really hard to make a huge hit of the song Shady Lane by Pavement.

The song had been one of the most popular tracks on the LP Brighten The Corners. Known as Shady Lane/J vs S, it was the best part of four minutes long and as the title suggests, consisted of two distinct and very different bits of music.

It was decided to give the song a subtle remix. A couple of silent gaps from the original track were eliminated and the remix also saw the new version come to a halt as the last guitar note on Shady Lane was struck, bringing it right down to just over two and a half minutes.

An up and coming director by the name of Spike Jonze was brought in to make a promo and the mult-formatting approach was taken meaning that to obtain all five of the track on the b-sides, fans would need to buy the 7″ vinyl and the 2 x CD singles.

Despite this, it stalled at #40. Criminal if you ask me:-

mp3 : Pavement – Shady Lane (krossfader)

I only have the second of the CDs in the collection and both of the b-sides are belters in different ways:-

mp3 : Pavement – No Tan Lines
mp3 : Pavement – Wanna Mess You Around

The former is a tremendous if atypical Pavement song (jerky guitars and that fast-slow-fast killer combination) that you find yourself singing along to once you’ve listened a few times. The latter, coming in at just under 90 seconds sounds like The Fall crossed with The Pixies and The Ramones. Oh and the lyric is a little ruder than messing you around…

Manic and Mad.

Enjoy

Gumball, Menace Beach, Mogwai, Monaco

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT….TALK ABOUT POP MUZAK

Today’s letter was chosen by my friend Mark. He asked the question why – and I told him so we will probably have another reader today (welcome Mark). He chose the letter M, and a conversation started about randomness. I have lived most of my life by randomness, my iPods are only ever set to shuffle, at the start of the 11th song, whoever is playing at the time, I stop the iPod and listen to whatever album, single etc that song features on. Yesterday for instance Bombay Bicycle Club were the 11th band, well the first one, Goldfrapp were the second. Try it, it’s a great way to live. Its also why I contacted JC in the first place after his ‘Random Shuffle’ series which he should definitely bring back.

It goes further than that though, I still have a half empty box of cd’ s in my shed, gathering dust which I have to pick out at random for this very blog (more on that later), but I also like to travel by random. Once I bought a guide book of Europe, and I asked the person who sold it to me to pick a number between 24 and 1283 (the guide book pages), she picked 535. I turned to the page and within 48 hours I was in Berlin (Berlin being the place on page 535) and that is really where my love affair with the random started.

I have used random picks to find bars, museums, art galleries you name it. In a bar in Berlin (the Grapes in Kreuzberg, since you ask) I asked the barman to pick a number between 1 and 67 (all the bars/clubs in Berlin listed in a mag I picked up) he chose 19, a club in Mitte housed in a burnt out cinema. A great choice, made all the greater because that night, by complete chance, Mogwai were playing there. Even luckier than that, was the fact that there were tickets still left on the door. Three hours later, having decided to spend the entire weekend, doing things chosen by random or by other people I was watching Mogwai in Berlin in a burnt out cinema. Mogwai were as you can imagine, incredible. When they played ‘Mogwai Fear Satan’ I honestly felt like what was left of the cinema ceiling was going to collapse. Here’s a true story about Mogwai, once when reviewing them live for a magazine I mistyped Satan leaving out the first ‘a’. My editor phoned me and said “Mogwai sound great live but who is Stan”? I had no idea what he was talking about, so he published anyway, and then took the piss in print.

I told Mark that the first choice of band would be Mogwai, he had never heard Mogwai, so I posted some to my Facebook page the next day he said that it had a very long intro, its that sort of humour that makes me like Mark – which is why I was glad I asked him to pick my random letter.

mp3 : Mogwai – San Pedro

The next two songs are usually picked by me looking through the iPod for songs that I can write about or have a story about them. But today as I’m feeling random I have created a playlist of all my bands that start with M and after Mogwai’s ‘San Pedro’ has finished whatever is next shall be the choice. Warning I have at least one Madonna song on here (long story). Luckily I just deleted my Meatloaf, Richard Marx and Mantovani. Mogwai has finished…Oooh…

A few weeks ago, JC wrote a brilliant piece about Peter Hook and Revenge, the band he formed after New Order. Back in 1995 (?) he teamed up with fellow Revenge member David ‘Pottsy’ Potts to form Monaco (yup it was Monaco up next). They produced a sound not that dissimilar to New Order with songs set around Hook’s distinctive bass sound. There most well known and successful single was their debut one ‘What do you Want from me?’ which went all the way to Number 11 in the charts. It was taken from the album ‘Music For Pleasure’ which I think is probably the best thing Hooky has done outside of New Order. On that album was the track ‘Shine’ and it is that track which came up next on the iPod. A song that I had largely forgotten about, but one that is lovely. It was released as a single, the third from the album and stalled at Number 55, a shame because it deserved to go much higher. To be honest it wouldn’t sound out of place on any New Order album, in fact if Barney had sung this instead of Pottsy, I think it would have gone much higher in the charts. However, dismissing the New Order lite comments, it is a great pop record, and that folks is what we expect from Peter Hook.

mp3 : Monaco – Shine

Next up…There is I am told quite a scene going on in Leeds at the moment. I’ve been to Leeds once, it involved three pints of lager and two hour wait at a train station (It wasn’t random, I had to be there). It needs a scene. Menace Beach hail from Leeds and are a new band (read Leeds supergroup featuring members from other bands in the aforementioned scene that I have never heard of) that fuse shoegaze and college rock and come out sounding somewhere in the middle of My Bloody Valentine and the Smashing Pumpkins, this is not a bad thing at all. In fact it is a very good thing.

The track that came up was ‘Fortune Teller’ the lead track from their recent ‘Lowtalker EP’ and it sounds like something that would have been popular in 1995 when I was student. It has a trippy pyschadelic organ sound running through it and laid back guitars which are complimented by some floaty dreamy vocals. Part Pixies, part Beach Boys perhaps.

mp3 : Menace Beach – Fortune Teller

Back to the box, my new CD player has arrived. So, next week I will do the letter L and then I will be back to randomly selecting things from it, there are a few to catch up on. As a special treat here is the Gumball track that I mentioned a while ago – it doesn’t start with M but it was on top of the ‘pile that I have already pulled out and need talking about’ pile.

mp3 : Gumball – With A Little Rain

S-WC

Adult Net, Cult, Fall, Go-Betweens

SOUNDS SHOWCASE 1

Of the quartet of WEEKLY music papers that were available in the UK back in the 80s, Sounds was my least favourite, mainly as it seemed more often than not to be aimed at the heavier end of the rock market. And yet, history shows that during its existence (1970 – 1991) it was often at the forefront of things ahead of the more renowned New Musical Express (NME), Melody Maker and Record Mirror – for instance it was the first of the three to give coverage to punk.

While the mid 80s saw the NME keep a reputation for reporting on and ‘breaking’ new scenes, Sounds began to increasingly concentrate on in-depth coverage of indie bands on major labels and less and less coverage to new or emerging groups. Allied to this was a series of vinyl giveaways with the paper, the first of which, in early 1987 was associated with Beggars Banquet under the title of Sounds Showcase 1:-

Here’s what was said on the back of the EP:-

After a lengthy absence The Cult return in prime strength to re-affirm their position among the world’s best rock groups. They’ve been recording their third album in New York with Rick Rubin producing, and have stripped down their sound to barbed-wire force. Outlaw is work in progress from these album sessions – the long-awaited new album will be aptly entitled Electric.

mp3 : The Cult – Outlaw

Not the recent single version, but the original John Leckie recording of the track, which presaged the staging of Mark E Smith’s play of the same title. Last year celebrating ten years of The Fall, this sparkling yet sinister track shows their continuing ability to surprise and stimulate with every release.

mp3 : The Fall – Hey! Luciani (original version)

The enigmatic Brix Smith weaves another fine web of 60s-inspired musical Americana. Spin This Web is the possible title track from The Adult Net’s forthcoming debut long player. Just who is Count Gunther Hoalingen?

mp3 : The Adult Net – Spin This Web

With a string of critically-acclaimed albums behind them, The Go-Betweens continue to produce distinctive quality pop songs, under the guidance of Robert Forster and Grant McLennan. I Just Get Caught Out, specially recorded for this EP, is no exception, and heralds their new LP for April release.

mp3 : The Go-Betweens – I Just Get Caught Out

This is the first time The Cult have appeared on this or the old blog. It will be the last time cos they really are shit. Outlaw is bloody awful.

The Fall track is different enough from the single version to make it an interesting listen, while The Adult Net is a reminder of how close that band sounded to the poppier version of The Fall that was kicking around at that time…..which is of course no surprise as The Adult Net were The Fall without Mark E. Smith (except when he guested on their records as Count Gunther Hoalingen)

The Go-Betweens would later re-record this great bit of music and make it available on the Tallulah LP:-

mp3 : The Go-Betweens – I Just Get Caught Out

Enjoy!!!

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 11)

Released in February 1991, Our Frank was the eighth single by Morrissey in just three years, but turned out to be the first flop of his career in as much as it failed to reach the Top 20.

It was also the first track on the LP Kill Uncle which hit the shops in March 1991.

I remember being utterly underwhelmed by this single at the time, but it is one that has grown on me quite a bit. The opening few bars, including the little burst of piano at around 0:17 remind me somewhat of Madness….

mp3 : Morrissey – Our Frank

I suppose on reflection that my initial reaction to the single was somewhat determined by my feeling let down by the two b-sides:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Journalists Who Lie
mp3 : Morrissey – Tony The Pony

Great titles. Shame about the tunes.

The sleeve shot was taken by Pennie Smith whose work has graced many album covers, including that of London Calling.

Happy Listening (especially now that one week on I’ve remembered to add the links!!!!!!).

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