THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

KEEPING IT PEEL FOR ONE LAST TIME

A GUEST POSTING by WEBBIE

It will be the last time I will commemorate the passing of Peelie with the thing I created all those years ago – #keepingitpeel. A day to remember Peel and to play that artist you discovered when he played their music on his programme.

It was a couple of years after the BBC commemorations for John Peel day that I noticed there wasn’t one planned for that year. The mentions and memories about him were slowly disappearing and as a listener, wanted to make sure we remembered the impact he had on our musical lives. If the BBC were going to do nothing, we would. Thus the hashtag (remember when Twitter was the place to be back then) #keepingitpeel emerged and on the 25th of October we posted on our blogs (remember when everybody used to…etc), on Twitter and everywhere else with our favourite music first played on the John Peel show.

It was 7 years after his passing that it really peaked. As well as everyone joining in by posting online, there were a few articles in the press, I was interviewed on Irish radio and most importantly – there were promoters in various venues who put on new bands under the John Peel day banner. And a few years later, there was even a night in Aberdeen for local unsigned bands that took place on 25th October 2014. I have a copy of the promo poster. (JC adds……see above!!)

But now it is time to raise a glass for one last time.

Please mention your favourite music that you discovered via Peelie in the comments below. I want to just mention one – a song which wasn’t actually played on his show but was scheduled to be part of a Peel Session, aired in memoriam.

mp3: Shellac – The End Of Radio (live at Maida Vale) – 2nd December 2004

Webbie – Keeping It Peel

JC adds………

Webbie is someone who dates back to what many of us refer to as ‘the golden age’ of blogging. By that, I mean it was a time, dating from the mid-2000s for about a period of a decade or so, prior to the increasing use of podcasts and the growth of streaming services, when enthusiastic music fans were kind of omnipresent and offering up thoughts, views and opinions on music to what was a decent sized community of like-minded enthusiasts. There aren’t anything like the same number of us as before, and certainly the ‘audience numbers’ are much smaller (not that this matters, as none of us do this to earn any money from our efforts), but I’d like to think the quality has remained high.

Football and Music is Webbie’s unique creation, and it’s quite unlike any other blogs. It was through the blog that he came up with the idea of keeping the legacy of John Peel at the forefront of people’s minds, and for that I think many of us owe him a huge thanks. He is asking today that we use the comments to mention our favourite music that we discovered through John Peel. I am taking that a stage further.

mp3: The Smiths – What Difference Does It Make? (Peel Session)
mp3: The Smiths – Handsome Devil (Peel Session)
mp3: The Smiths – Miserable Lie (Peel Session)
mp3: The Smiths – Reel Around The Fountain (Peel Session)

Recorded on 18 May 1983 and first broadcast on 1 June 1983. It was so popular it was repeated just three weeks later and then again on 24 August and 29 December. The requests continued to come in, and it was repeated further on 28 May 1984, 27 May 1985 and 3 November 1986.

I had a cassette copy of the session, taped from the first repeat on 21 June 1983. The quality wasn’t great, but that was irrelevant. It was the only way to hear the band’s songs, as all that had been released at this point in time was the debut 7″ single.

The Smiths used to feature on this blog a great deal, but not in recent times. I stopped knowingly listening to the band a long time ago, but there have been occasions when a song has come on when I’ve been somewhere else, and I’ve found myself enjoying it.

I couldn’t deny that I missed them, but I remained determined not to put any records on the turntable, far less on the blog. The thing that has changed my mind?? It’s all down to enjoying the fact the that increasing numbers of people have recognised Johnny Marr as being the true creative genius. The music of The Smiths is very much part of Johnny’s legacy and doesn’t deserve to be ignored.

The decision to go with this particular session was also inspired by some words Webbie wrote in the email which accompanied this guest posting. But I’m keeping that to myself, if you don’t mind.

Pete Best Beatles

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #072

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#072: Pete Best Beatles – ‘Alamein Train’ (Strine Music ’84)

Hello friends,

I often thought that if there’s one chap who once a week drives a nail through his foot to remind himself of the stupidity of not performing better when he had the chance to do, it must be Pete Best. ‘Who?!’, the younger readers of this blog may be asking … well, let me explain:

The Beatles (now, this is a name you should have heard before, at least I hope you did) invited Best to join the band in August 1960, but unfortunately, in August 1962, in circumstances still clouded in mystery, he was dismissed from the group by the other members he had played with for two years – just to be replaced by Ringo Starr. The real reason was never given to Pete, but I mean, come on: he either was a total bore or he didn’t shower often enough … or his drumming wasn’t good enough for the others. Perhaps all of this is true, who possibly knows? Either way, as so often, it goes to show: always give your best – or you may lose eventually, and sometimes you even lose big time!!

On the plus side: over 30 years later, Best received some monetary payout for his work with the Beatles after the release of their 1995 compilation of their early recordings on ‘Anthology 1’, Best played the drums on ten of the album’s tracks.

And because of this tragic story, I always thought the “Pete Best Beatles” was just a grand name for a band – and apparently some Melbourne youngsters had the same feeling some 40 years ago. Which brings us to a genre which, shamefully enough, has been heavily underrated so far on The Vinyl Villain: Australian Cabaret!

I must admit I’ve never heard anything else about Australian Cabaret, I only ever did in conjunction with the Pete Best Beatles – and I can’t quite see the context, to be frank. Yes, today’s song is on a 7” EP called “Sounds For The Sophisticated Cabaret Music Lover” – but that’s about it, as far as I’m concerned. The tune below is just brilliant, to me it has nothing to do with cabaret whatsoever (not that I’m an expert on cabaret by any means). Occasionally the Pete Best Beatles were referred to as an “eccentric Melbourne pub rock comedy act”, which might be a bit more closer to the truth, they certainly managed to creatively blend humour and satire.

In the UK there was The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias, the U.S had Frank Zappa and the Mothers Of Invention and Melbourne had the Pete Best Beatles, “the purple princes of Cabaret”. Leading the pack of musical humour surrealists, they specialized in riotous live shows in the mid-Eighties, and apparently an album which captures those show exists as well – something I should try to get my hands on, that’s for sure!

But until this has been achieved, I only know the four songs from the 7”, this one, by quite some distance, is the best of the lot:

mp3: Pete Best Beatles – Alamein Train

There’s a version of this on youtube, which gives you a glimpse of how great the Pete Best Beatles were live – and I only wish I had been there to witness one of those shows back then … marvellous!

Enjoy – and, as always, let me know what you think, please!

Dirk

Emily, Remember Fun

THE SHA LA LA FLEXI DISCS (007)

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The James Bond of the Sha La La flexi discs series with a couple of bands that are making their debut on this blog.

The two bands are Remember Fun and Emily. Two fanzines were involved in this giveaway, Are You Scared to Get Happy? and 373 miles is a very long way. Discogs indicates these would have been Issue 6 and Issue 1 respectively, but I’m not sure that’s the case.

mp3: Remember Fun – Hey Hey Hate

Remember Fun have a song within the C88 box set, a 3 x CD compilation issued by Cherry Red Records in 2017. I hadn’t realised they were from Glasgow, otherwise they would have been a previous part of the alphabetic run through singers and bands over at the Saturday’s Scottish Songs series, but I’ll pick them up for that series in due course.

The band members were Andrew Smith, John Eslick, Mark Kane, Raymond MacDonald and Steven Dunbar.

Here’s what the blurb in the box set offers up:-

This Glasgow five-piece could be described as the archetypal mid-80s indie combo, blending pure pop with combustible and wittily-observed lyrics (courtesy Andrew Smith) that drew comparisons with The Close Lobsters, The June Brides (minus the brass), The Smiths and even Billy Bragg. Sadly, they left behind a tiny musical legacy. The cool, irreverent Hey Hey Hate graced a Sha La La flexi in 1987 and various tracks troubled compilations. A four-track EP, Train Journeys, finally surfaced in 2001.

I honestly can’t recall them at all which, given the description applied above, seems a damn shame (on me!!).

mp3: Emily – The Old Stone Bridge

It turns out that Emily were also contributors to the same C88 box set (along with the C87 boxset via Cherry Red) as well as appearing on Creation Records compilations. Here’s the blurb from the same C88 booklet:-

Built around the talents of singer/songwriter Ollie Jackson, Emily released just three singles and one album on four different labels and incorporated flute into their otherwise treble-laden guitar sound. They announce themselves with the shared Sha La La flexi ‘The Old Stone Bridge’, a slow-burning ode delivered on Jackson’s deep vocals, also issued as their own flexi via Mmm….No Idea! fanzine. Emily then joined Creation for 1988’s four-track EP, the indie hit ‘Irony’ which opened with ‘Mad Dogs.’ Following a move to Kevin Pearce’s Esurient label, signature track ‘Stumble’ appeared before 1990’s ‘Rub Al Khali’ album (on Everlasting). A long-overdue 29-track compilation, ‘A Retrospective; appeared on Firestation Records in 2016.

It might have been long overdue to some, but based on The Old Stone Bridge, I’m happy to give it a miss.

Just one more to go in the series……and it’ll be appearing next week.

JC

Spare Snare

MIX-UP by SPARE SNARE

JC writes………………………

I’m not one for normally using the blog as a promotional vehicle for new music, but I will make an exception when it comes to the work and efforts of personal friends.

Jan Burnett, the lead singer of Spare Snare is someone I’ve got to know in recent years, after a chance encounter at an event organised by Last Night From Glasgow. He is, without question, one of the nicest and most unassuming persons on the planet, as well as being extremely gifted, talented and charismatic, a statement that would, I’m sure, be backed up by anyone who was the 2024 edition of the At The Edge of The Sea festival in Brighton where he and the band stole the show thanks to an outstanding set and performance.

There’s a new album coming out soon, on CD and digital. It’s something a bit different for the Snare, albeit it’s the sort of thing quite a few other singers and bands have done with a degree of success over the years. Here’s Jan to tell you a bit more:-

Jan writes…………………………………….

“I’m not sure too many people who follow The Snare know the initial dabbling of releases lent a little to sampling a few rhythms or guitar at a with a maximum of a couple of seconds… the most my little £30 Yamaha sampler toy(ish) keyboard could manage.

Nor that I’m a collector of 12” singles of a certain period. I’m a sucker for a ‘Super Sound’ Extended 12″ from the 80s.

So a Spare Snare remix album actually isn’t too much of a surprise, in fact we’ve had the odd remix done previously as a bit of an experiment and because people asked to do them.

This time we have a standalone album, MIX UP, which features remixes of our last album, The Brutal, recorded in Leith by Steve Albini.

It took a little while to work out the running order, I’m describing it as a ‘remix oddity odyssey’, but once I knew the beginning, middle point and end, the rest fell in to place. A perfect 50+ minute headphone journey.

Alan and Adam from the band did a few, while big hitters like Hifi Sean and bis dropping there takes into the inbox were a delight.

I’m so chuffed to have friends and comrades like White Label, Scanner, The Leaf Library, Raz Ullah and Pete Silvers involved too, cutting, chopping, and re imagining to their individual agendas.

A really variable take on an album that’s reached out to an extended audience so far. These remixes won’t disappoint any fans of The Brutal, it just gives the listener a different view through the prism, a new glimpse through the frosted glass.

All the remixers were given the original stems recorded by Albini to do what they wanted with, no guidelines. I find that the best way, free reign. So what came back was part pop, part dancefloor, part progressive, part dub and part psyche, and strangely… putting all those parts back together again is probably the original Spare Snare.

It’s released November 1st, and can be pre-ordered now.

Digital only available direct from the band. The strictly limited 300 CDs, initially signed, will be available direct from the band and couple of choice stores.”

JC writes (again)…………………………

A taster for the album was made available a short while ago through the release of some very limited edition 7″ singles which, you won’t be surprised to hear, I’ve picked up. The Hifi Sean remix on vinyl is the ‘radio edit’ and comes in at a little over two minutes in length.

mp3: Spare Snare – I Have You (HiFi Sean echoplex) radio edit

The full version on Mix Up runs to over five minutes, and is one of a number that you can listen to over at the Spare Snare bandcamp page, where you can put your order in. https://sparesnare.bandcamp.com/album/mix-up

It really is highly recommended.

And just so that you can appreciate how much work has gone into the remixes, here’s the original as recorded by the late Steve Albini

mp3: Spare Snare – I Have You

Enjoy!

Cure, Dead Kennedys, John Cooper Clarke, Joy Division, Martha & The Muffins, Passage, Pere Ubu, Talking Heads, The Pop Group, Wire

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (October, part two)

As with last month, I’ve given this one a bit of a build-up, one that I am sure will live fully up to its billing. It’s a bumper edition, with ten tracks in all, beginning with the single that I listed at #6 in my 45 45s @ 45 series back in 2008 over at the old blog.

mp3: Joy Division – Transmission

Released on 7 October 1979. The first time that many of us had heard it would have been a few weeks previously on the BBC2 programme, Something Else. It would be the only time the band appeared on a TV programme that was broadcast across the entire nation – everything else was via Granada TV and only available in north-west England.

mp3: John Cooper Clarke – Twat!

One of JCC‘s best-known and most-loved poems. Just in case anyone not from the UK doesn’t know, twat is vulgar slang for a vagina, as well as being the perfect word to describe a stupid, obnoxious and unpleasant person, for example D Trump or N Farage.

mp3: The Cure – Jumping Someone Else’s Train

Their third single of 1979 that failed to get anywhere other than the indie charts. The good news is that the next single, A Forest, released in March 1980, would reach the destination of the mainstream chart.

mp3: Dead Kennedys – California Uber Alles

The name of the band led to hostility from the outset, even over here in the UK. The music papers weren’t really sure how to handle them, and there was certainly no chance of the major labels offering them a deal. There were a few writers who mentioned, based on their debut single that had been released In America, on their own label, back in June 1979 that there was a bit of musical merit to pay attention to. Bob Last, the entrepreneur behind the Edinburgh-based Fast Product label, managed to secure the license for a UK pressing. I don’t ever remember hearing it on the radio back in 1979, but I do know a few of the independent record shops proudly had the distinctive sleeve on display.

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Eddie, the bona-fide punk in our school, of course bought a copy and brought a tape in so we would listen to it in the common room. Let’s say it divided opinion. I liked it, but I didn’t go out and buy it for fear that the name of the band might cause offence to my parents.

The song was re-recorded the following year for inclusion the band’s debut album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

mp3: Martha & The Muffins – Insect Love

There’s a misconception that Echo Beach, the Top 10 single for the Canadian band, was the debut. It charted in March 1980, but their little-known debut single dated back to October 1979. One of the reasons it is forgotten about is that it was left off the debut album.

mp3: Talking Heads – Life During Wartime

The press may have been positive, particularly around how good they were as a live act, and the album Fear of Music, released in August 1979, may have gone into the charts at #33 the previous month, but the search for a hit 45 went on. And would continue to do so until February 1981.

mp3: Wire – Map Ref. 41˚N 93˚W

The third single from Wire in 1979. Lifted from the album 154, which had been released a few weeks previously, it proved to be their last involvement with the folk at Harvest Records, whose bungling back in March 1979 had caused the band to miss out on a Top of The Pops appearance when Outdoor Miner was on the threshold of becoming a Top 40 hit.

Finally, for this month, three cult bands whose names begin with the letter P.

mp3 : The Passage – 16 Hours

One of four tracks from the About Time EP, released on the Manchester-based indie, Object Records.

The Passage were from the city and at the time consisted of Dick Witts, Tony Friel and Lorraine Hilton. Witts was a multi-instrumentalist who spent time as a percussionist with a symphony orchestra, while Friel was the bassist with The Fall.

mp3: Pere Ubu – The Fabulous Sequel (Have Shoes Will Walk)

From Cleveland, Ohio. I own nothing by the band, and indeed they have always been an act that I don’t get the appeal of. They had already been on the go for some four years by this point in time and inked a deal with a major label, as this one came out on Chrysalis Records. But as you’ll have noticed last week, Dirk is very fond of an earlier single.

mp3: The Pop Group – We Are All Prostitutes

The Bristol-based post-punk group were much feted in the UK music papers back in the late 70s. Indeed, they have always been very revered with an article in The Guardian in 2015 declaring that “they – ahead of Gang of Four, PiL, A Certain Ratio and the rest – steered punk towards a radical, politicised mash-up of dub, funk, free jazz and the avant-garde.”

Rough Trade Records had signed them in the summer of 1979, and this 45, a critique of consumerism, was their first release for the label.

I think this edition of TVV has something that would meet the tastes of just about everyone who drops by today.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Forty-Eight)

The Home Internationals EP, as featured last time around, had been released in May 2017. It was a full 18 months later that the next EP was put into shops. For those of us who perhaps had found our patience tested with Home Internationals, the new 10″, issued on Hatch Records, did feature four songs on which David Gedge did sing….and in English!!

The thing was, it wasn’t exactly something new that was on offer as the EP was a recording of songs that had been recorded for a BBC radio show back in 2006.

At the age of 17, Huw Stephens had become the youngest ever DJ to broadcast on BBC Radio 1, back in 1999, as part of what was a regional opt-out in Wales. In 2005, he gained a UK-wide slot when he became one of three replacements for the late John Peel as part of Radio 1’s One Music strand, which was intended to keep the spirit of Peel’s show.

His show on 19 July 2006 featured a session by The Wedding Present, recorded at the famous Maida Vale studios, the location of many of the Peel sessions previously recorded by the band. It featured four cover versions.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Step Inside Love
mp3: The Wedding Present – Lovin’ You
mp3: The Wedding Present – Our Lips Are Sealed
mp3: The Wedding Present – Back For Good

The DJ contributed notes to the release, and here’s what he had to say about each of the songs:-

“Listening to it now, it still sounds great. Maida Vale has a sound of its own.

Step Inside Love was written by Paul McCartney for the late Cilla Black‘s TV show of the same name. Just a throwaway TV theme tune that happens, of course, to be a classic.

Lovin’ You is one of my all time favourites. Minnie Ripperton‘s voice is exquisite on the original recording. David Gedge doesn’t quite the high notes on this version but the guitars do a good job in taking it somewhere else. And excellent use of the Maida Vale glockenspiel!

The Go-Gos Our Lips Are Sealed sounds brilliantly frantic. And Gary Barlow‘s Back For Good? It’s heartbreaking stuff.”

———

The session was recorded by musicians who had long taken their leave of TWP, with Terry de Castro on bass and backing vocals, Graeme Ramsay on drums and percussion and Chris McConville on guitar. They were joined by Catherine Kontz on keyboards and glockenspiel.

You’ll perhaps recall that a studio version of the Take That tune was released in 2008 as part of the Holly Jolly Hollywood EP. This radio session version predates it.

JC

Breakfast Muff

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #425: BREAKFAST MUFF

It was only a matter of weeks ago that I featured Breakfast Muff, as part of the ‘Songs under 2 Minutes’ series.

There’s not much to add to what was said previously. They were (and I’m using the past tense as there’s been nothing released since 2018) a hugely entertaining pop-punk trio from Glasgow consisting of Eilidh McMillan, Simone Wilson and Cal Donnelly.

Their sole album was called Eurgh!, released on the Amour Foo label in 2017. 13 bouncing and boisterous tracks across 25 minutes. This is my favourite:-

mp3: Breakfast Muff – R U A Feminist

A song about sexuality, feminism and feelings, delivered with an all-round giant dose of fun. I shamelessly stole that line from their Bandcamp site.

JC

Lou Reed

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (6): NEW YORK TELEPHONE CONVERSATION

The-2-Minute-Rule

There’s a lot of love out there for Transformer, with many citing it as Lou Reed‘s finest solo record. Among its 11 tracks, you’ll find the likes of Walk On The Wild Side, Satellite of Love and Perfect Day, all of which are cited as bona fide classics that have more than stood the test of time in the 52 years since the LP was released.

It’s an album with what I’d classify as a novelty song in its midst. Side Two, Track Four. It’s one which dates from the Velvet Underground days, having been aired live in 1970, albeit never recorded in a studio. Like many novelty songs, it is catchy and annoying in equal measures. But I like it!!!

mp3: Lou Reed – New York Telephone Conversation

I’ve read somewhere that it was written as a send-up of Andy Warhol‘s diaries. If so, it was kind of careless of the artist to leave them lying about.

JC

Strokes

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (14) : The Strokes – Last Nite

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I’ve previously stated in past editions of this series that whenever I have CD singles in multiple formats, I’ll include both when I bring them to the blog.

But I’m not doing so today.

I do have both CD1 and CD2 of Last Nite, released in October 2001 and which provided The Strokes with their second Top 20 hit single in quick succession.

mp3: The Strokes – Last Nite

I still think this is a fine piece of music, albeit it was played to death back at the time and became slightly irritating. But the band had gained enough goodwill here in Villain Towers, particularly with Rachel, for them never to be too far away from the CD players. Here’s the additional song, described on a sticker plastered on the front of the case as a ‘brand new track’

mp3: The Strokes – When It Started

It’s ok, and has that angular sound we were all becoming very familiar with.

As it turned out, When It Started wouldn’t continue to be a relatively unfamiliar song for much longer. The American release of the debit album was meant to be on 25 September 2001. The terrorist attack on the Twin Towers just two weeks prior to this led to the band and record label quickly agreeing that the track New York City Cops should be removed and replaced with When It Started. It was relatively easy enough to do with the CD version (which was by far the biggest selling format at the time) but not with the vinyl, which was issued with the ‘offending’ track in situ. The CD version of the album was delayed until 9 October.

Returning to CD2 of Last Nite. It consisted of three ‘live’ tracks – Last Nite, Take It Or Leave It and Trying Your Luck. The reason for ‘live’ is that while that is how they are described on the CD, there was no gig involved. Instead, they are radio session versions, played and captured at the Village Recorder Studios in Los Angeles. They’re not different enough from the original versions to bother you with.

JC

Siddeleys

THE SHA LA LA FLEXI DISCS (006)

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Total cheat alert. This was previously featured back on 17 August 2021. I’ll confess that I’d forgotten all about it, but it’s impossible to remember, off the top of my head, everything I’ve written over the years. I’ll offer a silent prayer to the indexing system….

It was while scrolling through the hard drive the other week, sorting out the posting on Restricted Code for the Saturday series, that I gave another long-overdue listen to the one, rather excellent, song I have by Reserve, courtesy of it being part of the C88 boxset compiled by Cherry Red Records a few years ago:-

mp3: The Siddeleys – The Sun Slid Behind The Tower

As the notes in the accompanying booklet explain:-

The Tower in question is within All Saints Church, Notting Hill, just around the corner from the Rough Trade shop where singer/songwriter Torquil Macleod placed ads to form Reserve. He worked initially helping Jonny Johnson (The Siddeleys) on her songs before Reserve were born in autumn 1986.

Band members came (from Bob) and went (to James Dean Driving Experience) before the luminous ‘The Sun Slid Down Behind The Tower’ appeared on a Sha La La flexi in 1987 (shared with The Siddleys), given away with Trout Fishing in Leytonstone fanzine. It then appeared again on Reserve’s only stand-alone release, 1988’s Two Hearts Beat In A Hole EP.

Some of you will recall that last October (2020), there was a Siddeleys ICA, courtesy of Strangeways. He included the track which can be found on the flexi disc, offering this as his observation:-

It seems that back in the day The Siddeleys were dogged/blessed by comparisons with Talulah Gosh. Whilst, round these parts, this is pretty much the ultimate in accolades, it’s not really that accurate. This track could be the culprit. It does actually sound like Talulah. It’s a blast. But it’s not representative of the wider Siddeleys sound.

mp3: The Siddeleys – Wherever You Go

So there you are, a repeat for the two songs on the Sha La La Records flexi disc #6 which was originally given away with the fanzine Trout Fishing in Leytonstone (Issue #4).

Just two more to go in this series.

JC

Pere Ubu

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #071

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#071: Pere Ubu – ‘Final Solution’ (Hearthan Records ’76

Hello friends,

the more ingenious of you will have realized that the singles in this series are featured in strictly alphabetical order. And therefore today’s tune should of course be ‘Box Elder’ by Pavement – which is one of the five finest songs in the history of the whole world ever, if you ask me. One copy of ‘Slay Tracks: 1933 – 1969’, the 7“ which contains the tune, is available on discogs. Now, I always said I gave away my beautiful daughters for a copy if one would ever become available. Now, at the time of writing this, one has become available, the thing is: the owner wants $ 700,- for it, which is okay, I suppose, but I don’t have any beautiful daughters to give away instead. To be precise: I don’t have any daughters (to give away), as opposed to: not just hideous ones!

So instead I have a record for you today which is important mainly for two reasons. I mean, all of the singles in this series are simply awesome, of course: if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in my box, right? So quality isn’t one of the reasons, no, we’re on the educational path again, I’m afraid. Let me explain:

I may be wrong, but I can imagine that today’s tune isn’t as commonly known to you as many of the previous singles have been. Which is great, because it might give you the chance to experience something new. So don’t skip the tune, listen to it instead, please: it really is worth the effort, believe me! So, getting to know something new may – or may not – be the first educational effect for today, the second one is: this song was recorded in 1975, released in April one year later (although I only have a re-release from 2018 on Fire Records)! ‘So what?’, you might be thinking! Well, no one back then was making music that sounded even vaguely like this, and therefore this record is so groundbreaking, that’s why!

Pere Ubu (the group’s name is a reference to Ubu Roi, an avant-garde play by French writer Alfred Jarry) come from Cleveland, Ohio and when I say ‘come’ and not ‘came’, then it’s not me being stupid again, no: they are still performing today, although David Thomas, the singer, is the only original member left. ‘Final Solution’ was the band’s second single, ’30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ being the first, and it is highly recommendable as well. Pere Ubu coined the term avant-garage to reflect interest in both experimental avant-garde music (especially musique concrète (a type of music composition that utilizes recorded sounds as raw material. Sounds are often modified through the application of audio signal processing and tape music techniques)) and raw, direct blues-influenced garage rock.

But now, to the song: recorded in just three hours at the Suma studio, it’s a bleak and morbid worldview, still, despite the title, “Final Solution” was never intended to evoke memories of the Holocaust; it was actually Thomas’ play on a Sherlock Holmes story called “The Final Problem”. When some later punk bands employed Nazi imagery for shock value, Pere Ubu dropped the number from their repertoire to avoid any confusion.

I simply love everything this song offers; the bass guitar it begins with and the solid tempo it keeps throughout all of the song, the drums and the complex lead guitar, the hammering industrial synthesizer: great stuff! But then the solo ends and the singer enters: his voice is raucous, growly, squeaky, he is like no-one you’ve heard before: “the girls won’t touch me”, he protests, but you can’t be certain if it’s because he’s got a misdirection or a missed erection:

mp3: Pere Ubu – Final Solution

A real treat, I’m sure you agree – even more so when you played it good and loud! And especially when bearing in mind when this was written: post-punk before there was even punk to be post!

Enjoy,

Dirk

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

THE MOST DANCEABLE ANTI-WAR SONG OF ALL TIME?

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Released just over 40 years ago, on 26 September 1980

mp3: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Enola Gay

The spectre of nuclear war was all too real in 1980. Membership of CND was on the rise, and would indeed increase very dramatically in the early 80s after Ronald Reagan became US President, give he seemed to have no concerns about using deadly weapons against the Soviet Union should it come down to it.

The release of Enola Gay was timely. From a musical point of view, it was another signpost that electronica was becoming ever-increasingly important across pop music. But for many of us of a certain age, it added to our knowledge base of what had happened in Japan back in 1945.

Yup. We were taught that two atomic bombs had brought an end to World War II, and that these weapons had been so deadly and devastating that they hadn’t been used over the next 35 years. But Andy McCluskey‘s lyric added a poignancy and human element to the event. The name of the plane that had carried the bomb dropped on Hiroshima would now be etched forever in the minds of a generation of music-lovers.

It’s quite remarkable, and indeed ironic, that such a serious subject matter was accompanied by such a danceable and happy tune. And in an era where chorus was king, OMD showed, again, as they had with Electricity, that there were different ways to make memorable 45s that will always stand the test of time.

The b-side wasn’t too shabby either, albeit it’s far less immediate or danceable than the a-side:-

mp3: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Annex

Enola Gay reached #8 in the singles charts, and was the first of what proved to be seven Top 10 hits across the group’s career.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Forty-Seven)

Given how long he has been making music, I think David Gedge can be allowed the occasional moment of self-indulgence.

2016 had seen the release of Going, Going…., the ninth studio album by The Wedding Present. It was an incredibly ambitious release, consisting of 20 tracks, as the frontman explained in media interviews at the time:-

I’d already decided [soon after the 2012 release of their last album] that I didn’t want to make the next release just ‘another album’ and so I came up with the idea of twenty ‘interconnected’ pieces of music. Then, in the summer of 2014, I travelled across the USA with photographer Jessica McMillan, and we made some atmospheric short films to accompany the tracks. Since then it’s been a case of progressing through the music, trying all sorts of ideas, seeing how they work set against the visuals.

The album opened up with four instrumental numbers. One reviewer (Simon Tucker, writing on Louder Than War), sums things up nicely:-

Going, Going… is an album that is full of left turns, sudden bursts of feedback-drenched guitars and luscious soundscapes. It is schizophrenic and unsettling yet full of beauty and melancholy. A hard album to grasp as it is constantly going through gear changes (even within the confines of one song) Going, Going… is the sound of a band throwing everything they have into the mix which has in turn created a work that is at once familiar yet progressive, homely and disturbing.

It was released on Scopitones on CD, but also on limited vinyl with additional bonus material via DVD, a 7″EP and a book. A couple of songs were identified as ‘singles’, but were only promoted as such via videos and not with any separate physical release on vinyl or CD.

It was all a bit strange, as some of the songs on the album were among the best that David Gedge had come up with in a very long time, with this being a particular favourite here in Villain Towers

mp3: The Wedding Present – Rachel

It took until May 2017 for an actual single/EP to hit the shops. Here’s the promotional blurb:-

The Wedding Present release a four track instrumental EP called ‘Home Internationals’ on the El Segell del Primavera record label.

‘Wales’ is taken from The Wedding Present’s recent and critically acclaimed album ‘Going, Going…’ while the other three tracks have been specially written and recorded for this release.

David Gedge was inspired by the challenge of writing a number of instrumental tracks for ‘Going, Going…’ and decided to use ‘Wales’ as the starting point for an EP of further instrumental pieces.

Freed from the restriction of a lyrical narrative the music frequently becomes more experimental and delves deeply into David’s love of pop, rock and film scores for inspiration.

England also features poet, playwright and novelist Simon Armitage reading his poem The English. The EP was also inspired by the ‘Home Internationals’ which was an annual football competition between the United Kingdom’s four national teams: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the last of whom competed as Ireland for most of the competition’s history). It started in 1883 and is the oldest international football tournament in the world. The competition ended in 1983.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Scotland
mp3: The Wedding Present – Northern Ireland
mp3: The Wedding Present – England
mp3: The Wedding Present – Wales

All in all, it’s one of the more unusual offerings across the series.

Things do sort of return to normal next week in that the songs have lyrics. But in keeping with all that was going on with TWP releases at this point in time, it will prove to be a bit different.

JC

Boy Who Trapped The Sun

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #424: THE BOY WHO TRAPPED THE SUN

All I have from today’s lot is one track as provided by Jacques the Kipper via a homemade compilation CD that he gave to me more than 10 years ago. It was an oversight on my part that The Boy Who Trapped The Sun was missed out in the original alphabetical run through of Scottish singers and bands who have at least one song on the laptop’s hard drive.

So, who are TBWTTS?

This is an edited take taken from a promo blurb back in 2010 to accompany the release of the album Fireplace, which came out on Polydor.

“The Boy Who Trapped The Sun is 25 year-old Colin MacLeod – the ‘Boy Who’ moniker, he says, ‘feels bigger and less lonely’. Originally from the Isle of Lewis, a windswept outcrop of the Outer Hebrides, MacLeod was discovered swinging round the rafters of an Aberdeen bar, dishing out Deep Purple covers and, he says, ‘generally acting like an arse’. Having smashed his guitar and knocked himself unconscious on stage, he set to cleaning up both the broken instrument and his act. Thus The Boy moved to London, to become a solo artist and an adult.

And so emerged “Fireplace”, with MacLeod playing all the instruments bar the strings himself. It is a beautifully realised debut from an authentic new talent. Listen again and again.”

Here’s the song included on Jacques’ compilation CD, which turned out to be Track 2 from Fireplace

mp3: The Boy Who Trapped The Sun – Katy

JC

Public Enemy

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (15): Public Enemy – Fight The Power

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In effect this is a lengthy guest posting, as it would be impossible for me to even dream of bettering what was written by Dorian Lynskey back in 2019, for a lengthy piece within the Culture section of the BBC website.

———-

In the first episode of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix drama When They See Us, a couple of dozen black teenagers pour into Central Park on the night of 19 April, 1989. Five of them will end up spending years in jail for a rape they didn’t commit, but for now they’re having fun. They walk to the beat of Public Enemy’s unstoppable rebel song Fight the Power.

The choice of song may be anachronistic (it wasn’t released until June) but it’s perfect for a story about outrageous racial injustice in 1980s New York. That was a volatile decade for the city, with high-profile cases of African-Americans dying at the hands of racist mobs (Michael Griffith, Willie Turks) and police officers (Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Stewart), all of which were on director Spike Lee’s mind when he wrote his third movie, Do the Right Thing. DuVernay’s selection doubles as a nod to Lee’s movie, which opens with Rosie Perez dancing and shadowboxing to Fight the Power in front of a row of Brooklyn brownstones with an expression midway between agony and defiance. Unusually, the song plays to the very end, when it is replaced by the strident blare of an alarm clock. Both Lee’s movie and Public Enemy’s song were designed to wake people up.

Lee knew that his of-the-moment movie needed a song that was defiant, angry and rhythmic, which made Public Enemy the obvious choice. Political hip hop was born in 1982 with The Message by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, but even the people who made it couldn’t follow up that brilliant one-off. It took Public Enemy, formed in Long Island in 1986, to create a form of hip hop that was radical both politically and sonically, track after track. No group had ever had so much to say, with so much urgency.

Inspired by The Clash, the Black Panther party and football teams, frontman and ringleader Chuck D marshalled the disparate talents of Public Enemy into an irresistible force in which the music of the production team, the Bomb Squad, was as dense and relentless as Chuck’s vocals. Their formidable second album, 1988’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, led the NME to bill them as “The greatest rock’n’roll band in the world?!”

In the autumn of 1988, Lee took Chuck and two of his bandmates to lunch in Greenwich Village and asked them to write an anthem. At first he pitched them the idea of updating the civil rights hymn Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing with jazz composer Terence Blanchard but, at a subsequent meeting, the Bomb Squad’s Hank Shocklee told him to stick his head out of the window and listen to the street. “Man, what sounds do you hear?” he asked. “You’re not going to hear Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing in every car that drives by.” Lee relented and let them do their own thing, which Shocklee summed up with a line from the movie Network: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”

Chuck always wrote from the title down and he took this one from the Isley Brothers’ 1975 hit Fight the Power, which he remembered as the first time he had ever heard the word “bullshit” in a pop song. Ron Isley’s defence of the word – “It needed to be said” – was an apt sentiment for Public Enemy. Chuck wrote most of the lyrics in Europe, where Public Enemy were opening for Run-DMC. The tough work, he said, was compression, crunching his ideas down into a tight, hard grenade of information: “the rhymes designed to fill your mind”. He wanted the righteous immediacy of black talk-radio hosts like Gary Byrd and Mark Riley, who spoke out about the kind of racist outrages that inspired Lee’s movie. “I knew I had to step up to the plate and present an anthem that answered the questions from this film,” Chuck said

Unfolding on a single block on a single day at the height of a heatwave, Do the Right Thing climaxes with a riot that begins with an argument about the absence of black faces on the wall of the local pizzeria. Chuck ran with the idea of building a pantheon of black icons (“Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps”), which meant taking down some white ones. In his 1980 single Blowfly’s Rapp, the funk prankster Clarence “Blowfly” Reid had a Ku Klux Klansman provoke him by saying, “Motherfuck you and Muhammad Ali.” This led Chuck to wonder which sacred cows would have a similar effect on a white American: “Elvis was a hero to most/ But he never meant shit to me/ Straight up racist that sucker was simple and plain/ Motherfuck him and John Wayne.” Even Shocklee was taken aback when he heard those lines.

Not every message in Fight the Power was that direct. “Swinging while I’m singing” alluded to Malcolm X’s famous 1964 dismissal of We Shall Overcome (“It’s time to stop singing and start swinging”), with the implication that Public Enemy could do both at the same time. Chuck knew his history. Whether by directly quoting the Black Panther slogan “Power to the people” and James Brown’s Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud or making veiled references to Bob Marley and Frederick Douglass, he was staking Public Enemy’s place in the long tradition of black pride and dissent and steeling listeners to join the fight: “What we need is awareness, we can’t get careless.”

Even as an a cappella, Fight the Power would have been thick with meaning – but the Bomb Squad’s audacious production added another dimension to its black history lesson. Sampling was still in its Wild West phase, when you could take whatever you wanted and copyright be damned: this was the year of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique. While those sample collages were vibrantly playful, the Bomb Squad aimed for an intense, overwhelming ‘hailstorm’ of sound, pushing their equipment to its limits by cramming in so many samples that even they couldn’t remember them all: “loops on top of loops on top of loops,” said Chuck.

The WhoSampled online database lists 21 and counting, including speeches by civil rights activists (Jesse Jackson, Thomas ‘TNT’ Todd), classic soul (Sly Stone, Wilson Pickett), reggae, electro, R&B and even Public Enemy’s own Yo! Bum Rush the Show. The clamorous central loop alone, which Shocklee compared to war drums, was constructed from 10 different samples. Lee managed to get his beloved jazz in there via saxophonist Branford Marsalis, whom Shocklee asked to perform three solos in different styles and then surprised by weaving all three into the mix to intensify the sense of a city at boiling point. “I wanted you to feel the concrete, the people walking by, the cars that are going by and the vrroom in the system,” the producer said. “I wanted that grittiness, the mugginess, the hot, sticky, no-air vibration of the city.”

Summer seemed a long way off when Spike Lee shot the song’s video on a cold, wet spring day in Brooklyn. Holding up portraits of black heroes, the band and hundreds of volunteers staged a ‘Young Person’s March to End Racial Violence’, ending up on the Bedford-Stuyvesant block where Do the Right Thing had been filmed. By opening with footage of Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington, the video, like the song and the movie, created a provocative dialogue between the past and present of the African-American experience to challenge the mainstream narrative of progress. How much had the US really changed?

When Chuck first saw a rough cut of Do the Right Thing he was stunned by how many times the song appeared. As well as opening with it, Lee had made Fight the Power the theme tune of Bill Nunn’s character Radio Raheem, who blasted it from his boombox every time he appeared (“I don’t like nothin’ else”), thus making it the heartbeat of the movie. Marsalis called the song’s placement “the greatest marketing tool in the world”. When Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson chose a movie for their first date, the first thing they saw was Rosie Perez dancing to Fight the Power.

Public Enemy were unable to savour their big moment because between the video shoot and the single’s release date, antisemitic comments by their ‘Minister of Information’ Professor Griff plunged the band into an existential crisis that almost proved fatal. Torn between loyalty to his group and a blistering media backlash, Chuck himself agonised over how to do the right thing. Accused of inciting violence, the film itself was controversial enough to merit a round-table debate in the New York Times, during which a white judge from the Bronx complained that it was too negative: “Why can’t we fight for power, rather than fight the power?”

But the song, which sold half a million copies despite being shunned by mainstream radio, took on a life of its own, from the black students in Virginia Beach who chanted the chorus at police during riots that September to Serbia’s dissident radio station B92, which turned it into an anti-Milošević anthem in 1991, playing it on repeat when banned from broadcasting news during an armed crackdown by the regime. That first summer, it could not have been more relevant. In August, New York’s racial unease came to a head with the murder of 16-year-old Yusef Hawkins, which provoked a real-life march through Brooklyn and contributed to the election of David Dinkins, the city’s first black mayor. Time magazine claimed that Fight the Power, more than any other track, proved that hip hop was “more than entertainment – more, even, than an expression of [fans’] alienation and resentments. It is a major social force.”

Chuck D continues to perform Fight the Power, both with Public Enemy and with his rock-rap supergroup Prophets of Rage. As Ava DuVernay recognised, it summed up its historical moment but its faultless alloy of intelligence, excitement, anger and empowerment still makes it a masterclass in hip hop’s potential to inspire and inform. Asked in 2014 how he felt about Fight the Power 25 years on, Chuck replied, with justification: “I feel like Pete Seeger singing We Shall Overcome.”

——-

I’d love to boast that I bought this 12″ single at the time of release, but instead it’s one that was picked up decades letter in a second-hand shop, but thankfully at a time before the prices started getting increasinglky stupid. I think this was one of the three for £5 deals on offer at the time…..

mp3 : Public Enemy – Fight The Power (extended version)
mp3 : Public Enemy – Fight The Power (radio edit)
mp3 : Public Enemy – Fight The Power (Flavor Flav meets Spike Lee)

A re-recorded version would appear on the 1990 album, Fear Of A Black Planet.

For all that Public Enemy were ground-breaking and hugely important back in the late 80s, and the song was associated with a hit film, it stalled at #29 in the singles chart.

JC

Orchids, Sea Urchins

THE SHA LA LA FLEXI DISCS (005)

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Now that I’m well on the way with this series, I’m assuming you all know the drill and no background explanation is needed.

The fifth of the Sha La La flexi discs wasn’t given any specific title, just sticking to names of the tracks. This one was given away with five different fanzines – The Dream Inspires (Issue Unspecified), Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (issue #1), Turn! (Issue Unspecified), It All Sounded The Same (Issue Unspecified) and Baby Honey (Issue #4).

One of the bands came from West Bromwich in the English Midlands, and the other from Glasgow. Neither of them are strangers to this blog., so it’s another cut’n’paste alert!!

mp3: The Sea Urchins – Summershine

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 first two ‘proper’ singles were on Sarah Records, but with the label unwilling/unable to commit to an album, two of the members decided to quit. One more single for Sarah and one for Cherree Records would follow before they called it a day in 1991.

mp3: The Orchids – From This Day

The Orchids, consisting of James Hackett (vocals), John Scally (guitar), Chris Quinn (drums), Matthew Drummond (guitar) and James Moody (bass), formed in 1986 and were signed to Sarah Records, releasing a of singles as well as three albums, Lyceum (1989), Unholy Soul (1991) and Striving For the Lazy Perfection (1994).

They originally split in 1995 but reformed in 2004, since which time they have four further albums, Good to be a Stranger (2007), The Lost Star (2010), Beatitude#9 (2014) and Dreaming Kind (2022).

JC

Jam

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (5): IN THE STREET TODAY

The-2-Minute-Rule

There’s not too many out there, if indeed anyone, who’ll make the claim that The Modern World, the second studio album by The Jam, is their finest body of work.

It was all a bit rushed, being released in November 1977, just five months after the debut, In The City. Twelve songs, one of which was a cover, all crammed into under 32 minutes of music. It does, however, contain this gem.

mp3: The Jam – In The Street Today

The song is credited to Paul Weller/Dave Waller. The latter was a founding member of The Jam when they were all in their early teens, but he left well before any record deals were signed as he wanted to pursue his interest in poetry. The two remained close friends and 1980 saw the publication of Notes From Hostile Street, a collection of poems written by Dave Waller and issued through Riot Stories, a publishing outlet owned by Paul Weller.

Dave Waller died of a heroin overdose in 1982. Paul Weller would later write A Man Of Great Promise, a track on the album Our Favourite Shop, in tribute.

JC

Damned, Public Image Limited, selecter, Slits, Sparks, Specials, Stranglers, Undertones

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (October)

The first of the singles charts to be looked back at this time around covers 30 September–6 October. The Top 3 positions were taken by The Police, Blondie and Gary Numan. Quite a few of those mentioned over the past two editions of this series were still showing up well in the Top 50 – Buggles, Michael Jackson, Secret Affair, Madness, Squeeze, The Jags, The Skids, Roxy Music, XTC, The Stranglers, The Specials, Stiff Little Fingers and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

I’m mentioning all of this as it was a chart when the dull and boring started to fight back. There were 10 new entries in the Top 75, the highest of which came in at #51. None of them (IMHO) are worth posting – The Nolans, Fleetwood Mac, The Chords, Viola Wills, Gloria Gaynor, Earth Wind & Fire, Cats U.K., New Musik, The Addrisi Brothers and Diana Ross.

I’m aware that some of you might be thinking that New Musik were seen as part of the growing new wave scene back in 1979. I suppose it’s a matter of taste, but I thought they were awful. It was the single Straight Lines that brought them into the chart in October 1979. It entered at #70 and peaked at #53. But they were another whose presence on a major label led to an invitation to appear on Top of the Pops.

Let’s quickly move on to 7-13 October.

The highest new entry, at #36, this week belonged to Sex Pistols with what felt like the 758th single lifted from the soundtrack to the film The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle. I won’t waste your time by linking anything.

Scrolling my way down through the chart proved to be a depressing experience. There was a decent disco number courtesy of Chic in at #51, but My Forbidden Lover isn’t up there as one of their classics. Just as I was thinking it was going to be two duffs week in a row, the new entries at #60 and #64 saved the day.

mp3: The Slits – Typical Girls
mp3: The Selecter – On My Radio

Debut singles for both bands…although some may disagree with that!

The Slits, as I mentioned in a posting back in June 2021, were an act that the 16-year old me didn’t get, and so I totally ignored this and indeed their debut album, Cut. As I grew older, and my musical tastes developed/matured, I was able to see them as truly astonishing and ground-breaking as nobody was making music like them back in the day. They were true punk/new wave pioneers. Typical Girls was the only single of theirs to ever bother the chart compilers. It came in at #60 and then dropped out altogether within two weeks.

As this is the first time The Selecter have really been featured on the blog, please allow me to give a potted history.

It could be argued that On My Radio is not the debut single by The Selecter. The evidence would be that the b-side to Gangsters, the debut hit by The Specials, was credited to The Selecter.

But my take on things is that particular b-side is the work of a precursor to the band we would come to recognise as The Selecter. It was an instrumental, written by Neol Davies and John Bradbury that was originally called Kingston Affair. It was re-titled The Selecter and credited to an act of the same name. Its success led to Neol Davies wanting to put a new band together to capitalise on things (and who could blame him?), which he did by bringing together musicians who had long been part of the scene in Coventry and recruiting an unknown female singer. The singer’s name was Belinda Magnus, and she worked as a radiographer in a Coventry hospital. She wasn’t keen on her employer learning that she was getting involved in the music scene, and so she adopted the stage name of Pauline Black. She has enjoyed a long and successful career as a musician and actor, and is still going strong at the age of 70.

On My Radio, which in due course climbed all the way to #8, was the first of four hit singles in a 12-month period for The Selecter, while their 1980 debut album went Top 5. That initial burst of success, however, wasn’t maintained and by 1981 they had disbanded. There were various reunions from the early 90s onwards, but as often is the case with such things, there were disagreements and more splits, leading in due course to there being two versions of the band on the go, one led by Neol Davies and the other by Pauline Black.

I think it’s time to move on and look at the charts for the rest of October 1979.

New singles from Abba and Queen entered the Top 40 on 14 October 1979 and both would still be hanging around when the new decade came around. The third-highest new entry was one that came in at #40 proved to have no such longevity.

mp3: The Stranglers – Nuclear Device (The Wizard Of Aus)

Duchess had only dropped out of the Top 75 the previous week, and so this was something of a fast cash-in to maintain momentum. I don’t think, despite having a sing-a-long chorus (of sorts) that it was an obvious choice as a single, which is maybe illustrated by it getting no higher than #36 and dropping out altogether after four weeks.

Now on to one that should have been a bigger hit than it turned out.

mp3: The Damned – Smash It Up

Some might have thought of them as cartoon punks, but I thought they were great, and this is their finest 45. In at #43, but it only got as high as #35.

mp3: Public Image Ltd – Memories (#60)

PiL‘s first two singles had both gone Top 20. John Lydon obviously decided this was unacceptable, and so the band’s third 45 was one that daytime radio wouldn’t go near. Memories proved to be a great indicator of the direction the group was heading with their impending album, Metal Box that was released in mid-November.

mp3: The Undertones – You’ve Got My Number (Why Don’t You Use It) (#64)

This proved to be the second mid-position hit for The Undertones in 1979, reaching #32, which was two places higher than Here Comes The Summer. The following year would see better returns for them, with My Perfect Cousin providing them with their only Top 10 hit, and it’s follow-up, Wednesday Week, reaching #11.

The chart of 21-27 October didn’t have any new entries at all in The Top 40, which probably made for a rather dull or least repetitive edition of Top of The Pops. But this one came close.

mp3: The Specials – A Message To You Rudy

The fact that The Specials second 45, a double-A side effort, turned out to be a hit was further proof that the Two-Tone movement was of some significance, culturally and musically. A Message To You Rudy was a cover version of a 1967 tune written and recorded by Dandy Livingstone, but the other A-side was an original.

mp3: The Specials – Nite Klub

Fun facts. Both sides of the single were produced by Elvis Costello while Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders offered a backing vocal on Nite Klub. It would spend 14 weeks in the charts, peaking at #10.

mp3: Sparks – Tryouts For The Human Race (#74)

A third hit of the year for the brothers Mael, aided and abetted by Giorgio Moroder. I remember one of the writers in one of the music papers being apoplectic with rage that a third single had been lifted from an album, No.1 In Heaven, that had just six tracks on it. Tryouts…. would spend five weeks in the chart and reach #45. And while Sparks would continue to release albums on a very regular basis throughout the 80s, they wouldn’t enjoy another hit single until 1994.

A bit of a mixed bag then, hits wise, for October 1979. But if you care to come back in a couple of weeks time for Part 2 when I look at singles that weren’t hits, there will be a few of real interest.

JC

Go-Betweens

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (24) : Go-Betweens – Man o’Sand to Girl o’Sea

First posted in May 2008 over at the old place. Re-posted in May 2016. It’s appearing in a slightly adapted form today to celebrate that Comrade Colin is currently in Australia, combining work, a family holiday and a pilgrimage to various sites and locations that are part of the story of the Go-Betweens. I am, of course, insane with jealousy.

I think most people are surprised with my answer to the not-too-often posed question of ‘What’s Your Favourite Go-Betweens Song?’ It really is nigh-on impossible to ignore the merits of the genius, majesty and sheer beauty of Cattle and Cane – the track that is probably their best-known and best-loved song? Not to mention the gorgeous vocal delivery of the much-missed Grant McLennan. But the follow-up single just means an awful lot more to me.

It was at the age of 20, in August 1983, that I finally moved out from underneath my parents’ protection and branched out to a place of my own. It was a student residency flat on campus in Glasgow City Centre. It was a two-bedroom job, complete with kitchen, toilet and shower. I had the single room, while my two flatmates shared a larger space. The rent for each of us was £510 – for a full year including the summer months.

I had a reasonable record collection, but one of my other flatmates had a collection that I reckon was probably only second to that of John Peel (for instance, he had every single that had come out on Postcard Records). It was a time when my musical tastes broadened more than ever before, thanks to hearing some old stuff for the first time, but also on account of new and emerging bands throughout the early and mid 80s. This was where I first learned about, among others, The Go-Betweens.

The location of the flat was incredible, a mere stone’s throw from the student union where we seemed to spend most of our free time. We’d spend hours every weekend getting ready to go out, taking turns to play some of our favourite songs, often dissecting the lyrics and melodies in a way that seemed very important and meaningful.

Every Friday and Saturday, the set-lists for going out would change, but there was one single from October 1983 that always seemed to get played – as indeed was the b-side:-

mp3 : The Go-Betweens – Man O’ Sand To Girl O’ Sea
mp3 : The Go-Betweens – This Girl, Black Girl

Robert Forster’s manic delivery of the line ‘I feel so sure about our love I’ve wrote a song about us breaking up’ is one of the finest moments in pop history. As is the chorus that isn’t a chorus – ‘I want you baaaaaack.’ And don’t get me started in the great backing vocals.

But there’s something else…..

This was another 7” which was ‘lost’ in Edinburgh all those years ago, although I did still have copies of the songs on a double compilation LP called 1978-1990. However, by the early part of this century, it was all CDs or digital and I just couldn’t get my hands on a copy of the b-side.

But….there came a day when, after much humming and hawing, I plucked up the courage to ask a bloke called Colin who at the time (2006) had a great blog called Let’s Kiss And Make Up that had previously featured The Go-Betweens if he could post an mp3 of This Girl, Black Girl. He willingly obliged.

Colin also later replied to other e-mails from me in which I asked for advice in setting up my own blog – and without fail he was always courteous, charming, witty and hugely supportive, especially in the very early days when I was unsure of what I was doing and terrified that I was out of my depth, making a fool of myself and wasting my time.

Without him, and without this particular 45, I wouldn’t be doing this.

Thanks comrade. I’m proud to call you a mate. Real proud. And I hope you’re having the time of your life in Australia right now. Say hi to A & L from me if that part of the trip does come off.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Forty-Six)

So…. Part 42 of this series had a 4-track 10″ EP on clear vinyl for Record Store Day in 2012 on which The Wedding Present played and David Gedge sang in French. Part 44 had a 4-track 10″ EP on clear vinyl for Record Store Day in 2013 on which The Wedding Present played and David Gedge sang in German.

I think you can guess what’s coming next……….

I don’t actually have the EP for Record Store Day 2014, but digital versions of the tracks have been sent to me by my dear friend The Robster. I had an idea that this was a release Rob might have in his collection, given that this time around, the songs were sung in Welsh.

The EP was named the 4 Cân EP. And Rob, in his accompanying e-mail, made sure I wouldn’t mess this up as the accent above the ‘a’ is crucial

“……the little accent above the a (known in Welsh as a ‘to bach’) is important as it extends the sound of the letter, so it’s pronounced like “carn” without accentuating the r, rather than as in a can of beer. Also, Welsh for 4 is pedwar. Cymraeg lesson over…

I can’t thank him enough for the files and for keeping me right.

mp3: The Wedding Present – 1000 Fahrenheit (Welsh Version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Meet Cute (Welsh Version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Journey Into Space (Welsh Version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Can You Keep A Secret? (Welsh Version)

It turns out that this was the third and last time TWP went down the road of EPs for Record Store Day with the vocal being delivered in a language other than English.

The next two vinyl ‘singles’ released by the band will, I’m sorry to say, not be featuring in this series. These took the form of EPs, and were given the titles of Hove Sessions 1 and Hove Sessions 2.

They were only made available to anyone who purchased the complete bundles of the 2014 CD reissues of all the Wedding Present studio albums being issued by Demon Records. Both EPs contained four acoustic tracks, with EP 1 having songs from George Best, Tommy, Bizarro and Seamonsters, while EP2 had songs from Hit Parade, Watusi, Mini and Saturnalia. They are incredibly difficult to find on the second-hand market, and when they do come up for sale, the prices tend to be on the stupid side.

Instead, I’ll be leaping forward to 2017, and a themed EP about the UK that was issued on a Spanish label connected to the annual Primavera Festival. I hope you’ll tune in.