THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

Let Love In, the 1996 album by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds will always be one of my all-time favourites. I placed it at #16 in the 60 albums@60 rundown a couple of years back, which was probably lower than I would have anticipated, but then again, many of the reasons as to why I have grown a bit less enamoured with Red Right Hand can be applied to why the album’s appeal has slightly diminished.

It dates from an era when Bad Seeds albums were greeted, in the main, by shrugs of indifference and accompanying tours were played in regular sized venues with tickets very much at the affordable end of the scale. I’ll repeat what I said two years ago – it’s not for me to say that the old days were the best, or that I begrudge the success that has come Nick Cave’s way in more recent times. But it all feels as if there’s a huge cash-in taking place, albeit there’s plenty out there willing to pay the big prices for tickets and to purchase all sorts of things direct from the man himself, such as a Red Hand charm (pictured above) with necklace for just £75.

The album is a masterpiece. Songs of menace, songs of mystery and songs of love over which Nick Cave delivers imaginative gothic poetry. An album of great beauty but also dotted with self-deprecating humour in many places. Red Right Hand has, from the outset, been its cornerstone. Played on most tours since the mid 90s, it was always met with rapturous applause.

And then came Peaky Blinders, the first-rate BBC TV show that ran from 2013-2022, and which had Red Right Hand (or extracts of it at least), as its theme tune. The use of the song, and other Bad Seeds material, made the public way more aware of the band than anyone could ever have contemplated.

The clock cannot be turned back. It is painful to accept that the nights at the Barrowlands and other similar types of venues will never be repeated, and as the blame for this, to some degree lies with Red Right Hand, then I have no issue by declaring that the songs means a lot less to me nowadays than it did almost thirty years ago.

I know it’s a twisted sort of logic. But that’s just the way I feel.

JC

Sub Sub

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (39) : Sub Sub (feat. Melanie Williams) – Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use)

There’s a certain timeless element to great pop songs, especially the type that make you want to get up off your chair and dance.

This banger was a hit in 1993. More than 30 years ago, FFS!

Sub Sub were an English dance act trio consisting of Jimi Goodwin and twin brothers Andy and Jez Williams. The 1991 release of their debut 12″ single Space Face had caught the attention of Rob Gretton, manager of New Order and one-quarter owner of The Hacienda nightclub, and he signed them to his own label, to Rob’s Records, issuing the instrumental Coast EP to little fanfare outside of the clubs in 1992.

Out of the blue, the trio came up with the tune that became Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use). Jimi Goodwin knew Melanie Williams, the singer with the little-known English soul/dance duo Temper Temper and thought her vocal style would be perfect for the song. Melanie gave the demo a listen and agreed to come on board, while offering up a few suggestions for additional lyrics within a verse, which ultimately led to her getting a well-merited writing credit on the single.

The reviews were almost universally positive, but more importantly, it was picked up early by the dance shows on BBC Radio 1, especially by DJ Pete Tong, who played a white label copy weeks in advance of its actual release on 29 March 1993. It very quickly made the crossover onto the more mainstream shows, and entered the singles chart at #10, a superb achievement for an unknown dance act on a tiny independent label/

It would eventually peak at #3, spending eight weeks in the Top 20.

mp3 : Sub Sub (feat. Melanie Williams) – Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) (original edit)
mp3 : Sub Sub (feat. Melanie Williams) – Ain’t No Love (Ain’t No Use) (Parkside Mix)

Sub Sub wouldn’t experience any further commercial success, thus earning them a place in the category of ‘one-hit-wonders’. Goodwin and the Williams brothers would, however, change direction and focus a few years later and as Doves would enjoy two #1 albums in the 00’s and another which reached #2.

Rob’s Records never again had as big a hit single, albeit the music on the label always had credibility with dance enthusiasts. The label ceased operations shorty after Gretton’s death, of a heart attack at the age of 46, in May 1999.

JC

R.E.M.

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(12)

Today’s offering contains some words of wisdom from the R.E.M. singles series which ran on the blog back in 2020/21. Here’s The Robster writing back in July 2020:-

“After a few questionable choices of singles, 1986 saw the release of what was arguably one of R.E.M.’s best-ever singles. Fall On Me was a prelude to the band’s fourth album ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ (no apostrophe again), though in many ways it didn’t tell the whole story of what that record would sound like.

‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ was the second R.E.M. album I ever heard, shortly after ‘Document’. I was struck by the quality of the songs which I found to be more accessible and melodic than much of what I’d heard previously. It was an album I listened to for months and months on end, even though it was getting on for two years old at the time. I had copied my friend’s cassette of it, and had it on one side of a C90.

After the loud rush of the opening two numbers, Fall On Me came into play. I was yet to discover the wonders of the first three R.E.M. albums so I wasn’t to know that this song was probably the most similar to those earlier recordings. The one thing that struck me immediately though was the vocal, or rather the vocals, plural. Fall On Me has what could be the best interaction between Stipe and Mills of all. The harmonies and counter melodies were divine and I’d argue probably never bettered by the band over their next 25 years. It remains one of my favourite R.E.M. songs. Whenever I attempt to sing along, I find myself alternating between the lead and backing vocals, especially during the closing refrain. I even sing Bill Berry’s parts. Hopefully you never have to hear that.”

And now me, in August 2020:-

Fall On Me was everything you would expect from a band who were being increasingly put forward, in the USA at least, as the saviours of guitar-pop with an independent bent. The subsequent album hit the stores two weeks later, and ‘Lifes Rich Pageant’ continued the happy trend of each new album initially selling more copies than its predecessor.

September – November 1986 saw the band out on the road in North America playing 64 shows in 82 days, in ever-increasing sized venues, leaving no real opportunity for any promotional activities around any follow-up single, of which there were three or four candidates, especially from the first side of the latest album which was as strong and consistent as anything they had ever released to this point.

The second side of LRP, however, was a pointer to the fact that the band had almost exhausted itself of material with two tracks from 1980 being resurrected in the studio along with the decision to add an obscure cover to take the number of songs on the album up to twelve with a running time short of 40 minutes. IRS was, nevertheless, determined to make sure there was some new product to coincide with the tour and on 4 November, in the same week as the band was set to play two sell-out shows in New York, they released a second single from LRP in the shape of Superman.

On the face of it, releasing a second single from an album isn’t really a crime. IRS (the band’s label), however, was quite perverse in going with Superman as it was the cover version that had been tagged onto the end of the album to prevent any fans feeling they were being short-changed.”

There’s no other way to say it, but IRS fucked it up big style. This should have been a single:-

mp3: R.E.M. – Begin The Begin

The opening song on the album which, with the benefit of hindsight, can be seen as R.E.M. taking their first serious steps away from being a cult indie/college band towards world domination within five years. The album tackled a range of political and ecological issues and its release seemed to coincide with Michael Stipe finally getting comfortable with the idea of the frontman being seen by so many, fans and media alike, as the spokesperson – albeit he was often singing lyrics penned by one of the other members, such was the joy of having all compositions attributed to Berry-Buck-Mills-Stipe.

Begin The Begin has always been a band favourite, being played extensively at gigs and long after most of the other songs from the IRS years had been dropped to accommodate the ones the arena and stadium audiences had paid good money to hear – y’know, the 19 singles lifted from the first four albums from the 90s which have come to define the band in the eyes and to the ears of so many. It really should be as well-known and well-loved as ‘the classics’.

JC

Pete Shelley

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (29): Pete Shelley – Homosapien

I’ve written about Homosapien before, but it was away back in October 2018, so I’m happy enough to revisit it, especially as this time round it’s the 12″ release rather than the two songs on the 7″.

As I said back in 2018, the former frontman of Buzzcocks stunned many, fans and critics alike, when he released Homosapien a his debut solo single in September 1981.

I’m certain that I would have first heard this played at a night in the Strathclyde University Student Union on the basis that it had been banned by the BBC. I do recall, vaguely it has to be admitted, one of the weekly music papers having a real go at the record and its singer, accusing him of betraying his punk roots by sliding over onto the dance floor and jumping on the bandwagon of what the writer thought would be a short-lived craze for electronic music. Long live rock’n’roll and all that….

Did I take an instant liking to the track? Truth be told, not really as I wanted Pete Shelley to somehow create MkII of his former band. But, as I grew increasingly familiar with the song, I came to the realisation that it was an absolute belter of a new-era dance track, with as catchy a hook via the synths as had been managed previously with the guitars. Indeed, it is a close cousin to the new pop-savvy sounds that were being released by The Human League, which is no coincidence when you consider that Martin Rushent was could be found in the producer’s chair in both instances.

Few people knew that Pete Shelley was in fact revisiting his first love, having dabbled unsuccessfully in electronic music before meeting Howard Devoto at college and forming one of the most important punk/new wave bands to emerge out of the UK. It was something he had kept quiet about all the time his band becoming a success; in much the same way, he’d previously stayed schtum about his bisexuality, but the release of Homosapien, with its far from subtle references (e.g. ‘Homo Superior, in my interior’) provided him with a perfect opportunity to be open about things.

It was a far less tolerant world back then, and there was a sense of a substantial number of fans moving towards disowning Pete Shelley. The excuse given was the shift in music, but there were other unsaid things at play…..

There were a lot of really nice things said in the comments section back in 2018, along with a few snippets of info that added to things.

Jonny the Friendly Lawyer and Echorich recalled it being massive in NYC clubs. Postpunkmonk described it as ‘a major event when it dropped in ’81’ adding that while he was not a huge Buzzcocks fan, with his tastes much more in the synthetic direction at the time, this single this pushed all of his 1981 buttons” , adding “the juxtaposition of Rushent’s Roland Microcomposer and the chugging acoustic rhythm guitars was singular to me at the time. No one else was making a sound like this.”

It was described by ratherarthur and Mopyfop as a great dance record, while Swiss Adam called it ‘ A great song. Lyrically, sonically, philosophically.’

Brian over in Seattle added, “Nothing wrong with this version, but I also like the 12″ even more.”, which is why I’m delighted that at some point over the past eight years, I’ve picked up a second hand copy of a 12″ version. But it’s not from 1981 and instead is a reissue from 1982,

mp3 : Pete Shelley – Homosapien (Dance Version)
mp3 : Pete Shelley – Homosapien (Elongated Dancepartydubmix)
mp3 : Pete Shelley – Love In Vain

Worth mentioning that the Elongated Dancepartydubmix extends to over 9 mins in length during which Martin Rushent brings out his entire box of tricks.

Once again, it failed to chart, having been disgracefully ignored by the radio stations too concerned that listeners would complain. I’ve a feeling the video was aired on The Tube which went out on Channel 4, but don’t quote me on that as being fact….my memory may well be playing tricks on me!

JC

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#8:I Can’t Help Myself : Orange Juice (Polydor, POSP 522, 1982)

The next single was another that had been debuted on the David Jensen Radio 1 show back in April 1982:-

mp3: Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself (Radio 1 session)

I had access to the four songs played at this session, courtesy of a hissy C90 cassette with a far from ideal sound quality, and I have to admit to being surprised when I read that I Can’t Help Myself had been slated as the next single as it had come across as a bit uneven and disjointed.

Thankfully, the time in the studio, along with the band becoming more familiar with the song, meant that the recorded version (jointly written by Edwyn Collins and David McClymont) proved to be something quite joyous, one which appealed immensely to the dance-side of this particular indie kid:

mp3: Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself

The funky/soulful nature of the song, combined with what is a very happy sounding and joyously delivered vocal makes for damn fine, near perfect for daytime radio pop single. It surely had chart hit written all over it, but to everyone’s immense disappointment, it stalled at #42 in October ’82, meaning that the often-dreamt of appearance on Top of The Pops would have to be delayed till another time.

The writing credits on the b-side introduced a new name. Collins/McClymont/Manyika/Quinn. At this point in time, I knew of Paul Quinn having seen him perform with the French Impressionists and Jazzateers, and would fall deeply for his charms and talents in later years when Bourgie Bourgie formed. This was, thinking back, the first of his vocal performances that I ever bought:-

mp3: Orange Juice – Tongues Begin To Wag

Four minutes and fifteen seconds of sonic magnificence, which is very much down to the singing as it has to be admitted that the 80s production style and value, particularly around the jarring synth, has dated things quite a bit.

The 12″ release of the single had an extended version of I Can’t Help Myself, with the extra two minutes being taken up by a sax solo to fade-out, all of which just adds an extra layer of funk to the song.

mp3: Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself (12″ version)

There was also an additional song on the b-side:

mp3: Orange Juice – Barbeque

A strange but not entirely unpleasant near five minutes of music, attributed to Collins/McClymont/Manyika/Ross. It sounds like a jam in the studio, to which Edwyn has added a few lyrics recalling events at an actual barbeque in someone’s garden. OK, it wasn’t Falling and Laughing or Blue Boy, but there was the consolation that it wasn’t Two Hearts Together. Maybe there was some hope after all for the new album.

JC

Green Telescope

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #479: THE GREEN TELESCOPE

Another courtesy of the Big Gold Dreams boxset:-

mp3: The Green Telescope – Face In A Crowd

“The Green Telescope offered a raw mix of fuzz guitar, reedy organ and deranged vocals that sounded so authentic on their two singles that they sounded like off-cuts from seminal ’60s psych-garage compilation, Nuggets.

The first, Two by Two was on Imaginary Records, while the follow-up Face In A Crowd was the sole release (in July 1986) on the Wump label, and featured a cover of Thoughts Of A Madman by The Nomads (originally released in 1967) on the flip. Soon after they morphed into the Shakespearian-sounding Thanes of Cawder before simply becoming The Thanes. Subsequently, the band’s founder, Lenny Heisling, has also been a music journalist of note.”

JC

James

SONGS UNDER TWO MINUTES (21): WHAT’S THE WORLD

If SWC was to call upon the members of his musical jury over at No Badger Required to cast their votes for the greatest songs that are under two minutes in length, then I would certainly be making something of a case for this:-

mp3: James – What’s The World

The lead track on JIMONE, the band’s debut single on Factory Records back in 1983. It had the distinction of being voted single of the week in all three major weekly music papers – NME, Melody Maker and Sounds.

The Smiths would later cover What’s The World during some of their live sets, and in due course a recording from a Glasgow Barrowlands show in September 1985 would find its way onto the cassette release of I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish.

JC

Manic Street Preachers

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (27) : Manic Street Preachers – You Stole The Sun From My Heart

Edited from Wikipedia today:-

You Stole the Sun from My Heart was released on 8 March 1999 as the third single from Manic Street Preachers‘ fifth studio album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. The song reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart.

Nicky Wire has described the music as a mix of New Order and Nirvana and explained that the drum loop was sampled by Sean Moore from the sound of a pinball machine. The lyric concerns Nicky Wire’s dislike of touring. He has said that, much as he enjoys being on stage, he hates the routine of travelling: soundchecks, hotels, and the homesickness it causes. The lyric “but there’s no, no real truce with my fury” is a reference to a poetry book by R. S. Thomas entitled No Truce with the Furies. The song title is name checked in a later Manic Street Preachers single, Your Love Alone Is Not Enough.

mp3: Manic Street Preachers – You Stole The Sun From My Heart

As was the common practice in those days, the single was released on 2 x CDs. The second of them has remixes from David Holmes and Mogwai, but the copy you’ll find in Villain Towers is CD1, purchased as I was keen to hear the cover version, which was recorded at the Newcastle Arena on 14 December 1998. Turns out it was merely OK.

mp3: Manic Street Preachers – Train In Vain

Of more interest was the other, previously unreleased track:-

mp3: Manic Street Preachers – Socialist Serenade

Written as a response to some of the policies being adopted by the recently elected Labour government (known to all and sundry as New Labour) that had been elected in 1997 under the leadership of Tony Blair, and in particular the decision to introduce university tuition fees. The last two lines of the song – Change your name to New, Forget the fucking Labour – leaves nobody in any doubt about the message the song is conveying.

JC

Frankie Goes To Hollywood

MORE ‘STEALING’: THE GUEST SERIES IN BOOK FORM : #8 : FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

A guest posting by Steve McLean

This is a strange one. Usually when a band finds themselves ‘cloned’ there’s a link to the original group. It could be a manager or former member or even a record company who have ended up owning the name. The New Frankie Goes To Hollywood was seemingly just a group of geezers from Alabama who thought ‘fuck it, no one will ever find out, it’s Alabama’

According to an article archived on the Zttaat.com website the group were formed by Davey Johnson who wasn’t in anyway related to Holly Johnson. In fact, he was so unrelated that his name wasn’t even Johnson, he was a bloke called RD Turner. This didn’t stop initial reports claiming he was Holly Johnson’s brother.

Very few publications did enough fact checking into Turner’s background but after the legend of brotherly love was proven to be false, the story was changed to Turner being a member of the band, at least in the studio. The press releases made the bold claim that he was one of the musicians who played on Welcome To The Pleasuredome.

“[Davey] never toured with the group but was a studio musician with the original group,” Chuck Harris of Visual Arts Group speaking to Pollstar. May, 2000.

A bold claim that Trevor Horn, Welcome to the Pleasuredome album producer refutes;

“It was a very small nucleus of people that worked on Pleasuredome and I go out of my way to credit.” Trevor Horn, Spin Magazine 2000

As usual with these things, the local newspapers where happy to re-print the press copy with little or no pushback. Slowly over time the national magazines took an interest and Davey Johnson’s story then evolved.

According to an issue of Spin Magazine in 2000, Davey Johnson and bandmate Will Martin claimed to be ‘great friends’ with the Frankie lads even though the band deny ever meeting them..

The same magazine goes on to claim that the band’s manager Chuck Harris also represented an act called “The Great Regurgitator” and a guy who can fart to the tune of “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?”

Frank(ie)ly I can’t believe Chuck has had to go to such duplicitous lengths with Davey Johnson when his other acts sound fucking awesome.

“(The Great Regurgitator) He makes $250,000 per year doing that.” Chuck Harris, The New Frankie Goes To Hollywood Manager, Spin Magazine.

Turner’s claims that he was related to Holly and that he had appeared on the debut album ‘Welcome To The Pleasure Dome’ fell apart like the Monty Python sketch where the guy reckons he wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays, the claim breaks down under them most basic scrutiny. Such scrutiny like “Are you really related to Holly Johnson? Because he said you’re not” and “What were you, a man from Alabama, doing in a Liverpool recording studio in the early 80s with a then relatively unknown band?”

The usual ‘legal right’ claims were blabbered by those close to the group. It’s often code for ‘morally wrong’.

Harris also told Pollster that he couldn’t remember which album Davey Johnson played on but insisted he had the legal right to tour under the name.

“Davey legitimately went down and hired an attorney and paid the price to register that name legally” Chuck Harris, Fort Worth Star Telegram May 2000

This is probably because the proper Frankie Goes To Hollywood never got a US Federal Trademark for their name, so Davey Johnson was able to register a local one in Alabama. “Hey folks, we’re legal in ‘Bama.” yeah well, so is fucking a pick-up truck if you plan to marry it.

Starting out they just pretended to be Frankie Goes To Hollywood, they copped a bit of heat from Holly Johnson and his legal team, so they soon changed their name to The New Frankie Goes to Hollywood featuring Davey Johnson. When a case like this happens, the response often seems to be about buying time until the operation is shut down completely.

For live gigs the band were represented by Richard Lustig of Lustig Talent. Formed in the 1980s, the agency still runs today and proudly states on their website the “Lustig Talent Enterprises has since been providing entertainment for casinos, city sponsored events, corporate events, fairs, festivals, night clubs and theaters”. Their page also claims to have represent quite a number of bands who have had dubious line-ups. I don’t know which versions Lustig represented but the likes of Ratt, Bill Haley’s Comets, The Boxtops, The Drifters, The Coasters and Badfinger are mentioned on the site and all have had multiple versions at some point or other.

Often there’s an unbelievable naivety in statements from promoters or managers of these bands. Now I’m not someone who calls out the promoters of reconstituted acts as slimy, lying, duplicitous bastards, but if I was then I’d follow it up with a comment like ‘yeah, but do they have any faults’. However usually the press blurbs reek of disingenuousness.

“When we originally started out, that’s what we were calling it (of the name Frankie Goes to Hollywood). Months ago, we started changing all the promo material and everything over because we were running into the problem that people weren’t understanding and were misconstruing what the group exactly was. So we said, ‘Let’s change it to The New Frankie Goes To Hollywood so people will know that this is different.” Richard Lustiq, Lustiq Talent, Pollster May 2000

Now you might find it hard to believe that Richard, a booking agent of twenty years standing would be surprised that an act he booked and advertised as Frankie Goes to Hollywood would be interpreted by the public to actually be Frankie Goes to Hollywood but here we are. But look how he took steps to counter the issue he created. In many ways he’s the hero.

Except according to Pollstar the name Frankie Goes To Hollywood without the ‘New’ prefix was still being used on his agency’s own website much to Lustig’s ‘surprise’.

“We’ve been changing it everywhere we can,” Richard Lustig, Pollster, May 2000

(An advert for The New Frankie at ‘Shooters’, sharing a venue with the post-Natalie-Merchant 10,000 Maniacs.

Why use one of the fonts when you can use ALL OF THE FONTS)

Even with the New Frankie moniker, it didn’t stop newspapers from implying they were connected to the original band.

(The New Frankie : just a regrouped version of the old Frankie with a different singer as long as you didn’t know what anyone looked like)

Frankie Goes To Hollywood Featuring Davey Johnson was another title the band were billed as. On the surface this seems more honest but realistically, if a punter didn’t know the names of the band members to begin with, then this just sounds like it’s a group fronted by an original member.

(Featuring THE Davey Johnson)

Later, Fakey Goes To Hollywood found themselves on the “Club 80’s The Flashback Tour” with Flock of Seagulls. While the band’s management and bookers were falling over each other to tell everyone what a great show their Frankie mob put on, Flock of Seagulls front person Mike Score was less than complimentary;

“The new Frankie are laughable. They’re not even a passable cover band. They might as well call themselves Cleatus Goes To Alabama” Mike Score, Flock of Seagulls speaking to Spin magazine in 2000.

Score’s shit banter aside, this is a telling remark, especially when you consider both bands shared a booking agent. To pull off this kind of caper the band would need to be beyond reproach in their performance and the way they carried themselves. When a tenuously connected band gets rumbled, the stock answer is usually ‘But we put on a great show. Ask the audience if they didn’t enjoy it’ It’s a strawman argument against one of legitimacy but it does often work in the eyes of the punter.

I usually sit on the fence of these stories trying not to take sides. In a world where we’ve allowed the industry part of the Music Industry to dominate, I’m not sure how there can be any real response other than ‘oh, you’re doing that kind of shit thing as well? Typical.’ Also there’s the argument that these bands do provide musicians with solid, if unspectacular work.

This story is different, I’m not really a Frankie fan but it does kind of boil my piss. The proper Frankie were queer icons of 1980s pop, at a time of heightened rank homophobia and repression (like that’s changed, I know)… while the Faux Frankie’s manager, Chuck was almost in a hurry to point out the band were “all straight guys; they’re not gay,” A bunch of straight hicks from Alabama going out as Frankie seems as appropriate as a bunch of Surrey trustafarians going out as Public Enemy. Although I should make it clear that Chuck Harris didn’t clarify if they were straight in the traditional sense of the word or because they only fucked female cattle.

Seeing them on a Pride line up just makes me wonder if they had a commitment to their heritage or a commitment to paying bookings.

(Pride Fest listings in St Louis, Missouri)

Interestingly the Pride show also lists Chic on Sunday at 11.45am. It’s quite possible that this Chic are a fake version of the 70s Disco greats. The official band were back together at that time but it’s unlikely they’re playing a regional pride festival before midday. Still on paper; Frankie, Chic and Jimmy Somerville (assuming it actually was him!). That’s some line up.

A quick search of the Fake Frankie’s name throws up about 60 shows between the arse end of 1999 and early 2000s including a New Years Eve 1999 event in Singapore. They played such esteemed venues as The Fat City Deli in Charlotte, North Carolina and Dewey’s Deck Bar in Minnesota. The last show logged with Setlist.com was in October 2003 in St Petersburg, Florida.

Unlike other fake bands, the whole Frankie affair took place in the tail end of the 1990s. which was probably the last time a stunt like this could be pulled before the internet gave the fans a proper voice.

It seems the money involved wasn’t enough for a proper court case. Holly Johnson and his lawyer attempted to put a stop to it but phoning bookers and promoters to let them know what exactly they were getting.

When Johnson made it known that they were not authorised, Chuck Harris then claimed to have severed all ties with them but considering they were still taking bookings three years later that seems unlikely.

By 2003 the New Frankie had expose stories printed about them in Spin Magazine, Polster, Q magazine and finally the regional press were taking note. That’s when the game is up for this sort of thing in the US. There are whole cities of people who only read state press and when they were finally pointing out the fraud then the local venues lost interest.

Usually telling these stories, I enjoy the audacity of the venture, because often there is normally another side that, if not entirely defendable then understandable. But the Frankie story is grim and just seems like a blatant theft

(Regional Newspapers wising up to Frankie… Davey is now ‘no relation)

The final word should go to Holly Johnson who managed to destroy the whole caper in a wonderfully cutting manner,

“I’m very sorry that people who are getting duped. But God, what Frankie fan who knew anything about the group could possibly ever believe in a million years that we would play steak houses and county fairs?….It’s so small fry and unstylish” Holly Johnson, Spin Magazine September 2000.

The Frankie song I’ve chosen is the 12″ remix of Two Tribes. It’s the real deal. The video had Reagan fighting Konstantin Chernenko (he was head of the USSR for about six minutes in 1984. Seriously the 12” mix lasts longer than his leadership term) It’s the record all the cool kids talked about at school.

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Two Tribes (12″ mix)

STEVE McLEAN

Stereolab

FOUR TRACK MIND : A RANDOM SERIES OF EXTENDED PLAY SINGLES

A guest series by Fraser Pettigrew (aka our New Zealand correspondent)

#9: Low Fi – Stereolab (1992)

I wrote previously about how I discovered Stereolab in May 1992 with the release of their first album Peng! In some ways Peng! is untypical of their early period, or at least it presents a different version of their early sound, more fuzzy and shoegazey. Shortly after buying Peng! I found a copy of the Slumberland pressing of Switched On, which compiles their first two EPs and a single released during 1991. The sound of these early recordings is much louder and harder, as though several layers of gauze between you and the band on Peng! had been removed.

Switched On came out in October 1992 and it must have been around the same time that I picked up the 10” EP Low Fi which had been released in September. Despite post-dating Peng! Low Fi sounds a lot more like the older tracks collected on Switched On. I wasn’t initially aware of the release chronology, and kind of assumed that Low Fi sat alongside the other Switched On tracks, encouraged in that view by the repetition of the sleeve design across all these discs.

At any rate, it showed that it was more than mere surface texture that appealed to me in Stereolab’s music because I liked the louder stuff as much as the fuzz, the weird mash-up of Velvet Underground, krautrock and French pop.

One reason I might have a strong affinity for Stereolab is the close parallel between my formative musical experience and that of Tim Gane. Almost exactly one year younger than me, Gane reveals in an interview with Synth History website that the first LP he ever bought was Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model. Apart from a couple of Beatles LPs, it was my second or third purchase, after This Is The Modern World and at the same time as Another Music In A Different Kitchen.

“In 18 months I’d gone from Elvis Costello and Buzzcocks to Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire,” says Gane, which is pretty much true for me too. He then goes on to list a dozen ‘mainstay’ LPs he listened to in those days, off the top of his head, including Chairs Missing, This Heat, Metal Box, Marquee Moon, The Voice Of America, and The Scream, all of which blared frequently from my stereo or cassette player at the end of the 70s.

Turning to the subject of films, Gane adds, “When I first saw The Good, The Bad and the Ugly it really blew my mind,” with which I must agree, for its striking style and ground-breaking Ennio Morricone soundtrack. He also had a five-pin DIN plug lead with which to record from his TV, and I used one to tape John Peel off my parents’ old stereogram. So much in common – the music, the movies, the analogue tech!

The significant difference between me and Tim Gane, of course, is that I didn’t grow up to lead one of the most original and exciting alternative rock bands of the late 20^th/early 21^st century. My cultural output, despite these same cultural inputs, is precisely fuck all, while Tim Gane continues to produce wonderful music, with the first new Stereolab album in 15 years, and also through his Cavern of Anti-Matter project.

Enough of my creative inadequacy – back to 1992… Low Fi was the first Stereolab recording with Mary Hansen and Andy Ramsay on board. And it was the last on which New Zealander Martin Kean played bass, having been a constant on the early singles and first album. Ramsay drums throughout, while Hansen only contributes vocals to the title track and Laisser-Faire, no guitar or keyboards as she would over the coming years. As well as drumming, Ramsay is credited with a bouzouki part on (Varoom!). If it wasn’t written on the sleeve, you’d never know. Similarly, producer/engineer Robbs contributes piano to Low Fi and Elektro but he obviously didn’t big himself up when he got back behind the mixing desk.

All four tracks are drawn from the same well of inspiration that produced Super Electric and other mini-Sister Rays in Stereolab’s first phase, two-chord guitar riffs and dirty over-amped organ noise, mollified on Low Fi and Laisser Faire by Laetitia Sadier and Mary Hansen’s hymnal voices. The closing section of instrumental (Varoom!) jumps from one of these Velvety thrashers into a looping squall of electronic noise that refuses to end, the needle trapped in a run-off lockgroove. Contrastingly, Elektro switches mood to conclude with a gentle acoustic guitar and vocal passage.

For some reason the tracks on Low Fi evaded compilation on Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On Volume 2) which otherwise hoovered up all the other stray B-sides, split singles and concert giveaways from 1992-93. It wasn’t until 2022’s Pulse of the Early Brain (Switched On vol.5) that you could hear this music if you didn’t already own the vinyl, or the CD version released in 1993. The track timings on different versions (original vinyl, CD, compilation) seem to vary, sometimes by a couple of minutes on (Varoom!) and Elektro, with no clear explanation why.

Quite by chance, my copy of Low Fi is one of the 500 so-called ‘clear vinyl’ copies, although whoever described it as clear obviously comes from somewhere without an adequate purified water supply. I am fucking not drinking that! To be strictly accurate, I’d have to describe it as semen-coloured vinyl. On a swatch in your local paint store, it would be called Jizz Grey or Hand Shandy. Whatever, it seems to add about 20% to the resale value according to Discogs depending on how rabidly desperate your buyer is. Not that I’m selling, so put your wallets away. This one is a keeper.

Low Fi

(Varoom!)

Laisser Faire

Elektro (He Held The World In His Iron Grip)

Fraser

Art of Noise, Big Country, Bronski Beat, Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Human League, Kane Gang, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Redskins, Scritti Politti, Strawberry Switchblade, Tears For Fears

WHEN THE CLOCKS STRUCK THIRTEEN (November)

4-10 November

The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the first week in November 1986 belonged to Depeche Mode, a favourite of many TVV regulars but a band that your humble scribe has never taken to. Which is why there’s no link today to Blasphemous Rumours or Somebody, a double-A sided single which came in at #29 en route to becoming their 11th successive chart single going back to Dreaming Of Me in early 1981, (of which five had gone Top 10)

I’ve had to go all the way down to #54 to find a new entry worth offering a listen to:-

mp3: The Kane Gang – Respect Yourself

The trio’s third hit of the year, thanks to a cover of 1971 R&B/gospel number originally written and recorded by the Chicago-based Staple Singers. One of the highlights of the debut album The Bad and Lowdown World of The Kane Gang, which would reach #21 on its eventual release in March 1985.

Just two places further down the singles chart this week was another gang who often inhabited a bad and lowdown world, certainly in the eyes of the tabloid media:-

mp3: The Redskins – Keep On Keepin’ On (#56)

A real favourite in the student union discos among us who were of a left-wing persuasion. The Redskins delivered a fine mix of pop, soul, blues, folk, punk and politics, who, if it hadn’t been for the fact that collectively the idea of a career in pop music was not their idea of fun, would surely have enjoyed a run of great albums beyond their sole offering, Neither Washington Nor Moscow, which would eventually appear in early 1986. Keep On Keepin’ On would eventually reach #46, and the offering today is the 12″ version as that’s a bit of vinyl I proudly still have all these years later.

mp3: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Never Turn Away (#70)

Probably the least-remembered of the twenty-two singles released by OMD during the 80s, it was also the one which performed the worst as #70 in the first week in November 84 was as good as it got. It’s one of those rare 45s on which Paul Humphreys rather than Andy McCluskey delivered the lead vocal.

11-17 November

The highest new entry on the singles chart back in the second week in November 1986 belonged to The Riddle by Nik Kershaw, someone who has his admirers among fans of 80s synth-pop. I always felt he was synth-pop with a soft rock edge, and while he may perhaps feature via guest postings, he’s not showing up today. This one came in at #17 and would peak at #3. It was his fourth smash hit of the year, and his success would continue throughout the following year.

mp3: The Human League – Louise (#36)

I think it’s worth lifting some stuff about this one from wiki:-

The lyrical story telling of “Louise” superficially seems to be a story about a chance encounter between a man and a woman on a bus who seem to be on the verge of a lover’s reconciliation. But like much of Phil Oakey’s songwriting, what seems ‘sugary sweet’ on the surface actually has a much darker subtext. Oakey points out that the story is actually about the original protagonists from “Don’t You Want Me” meeting up 4 years later. In “Louise” the man sees his lost love again and still cannot deal with reality. The anger that drove the earlier song has dissipated, and is replaced with a hopeful fantasy that his ex-lover is drawn to him all over again. So “Louise” is really about self-deception, delusion and eternal sadness. Oakey says about “Louise” in interview:

It’s about men thinking they can manipulate women when they can’t, even conning themselves that they have when they haven’t.

However, like the less savoury premise of “Don’t You Want Me”, the darker side of the “Louise” story went over the heads of the record buying public, who misinterpreted the lyrics as “sweet and upbeat”.

Louise would eventually reach #13 and still features in the band’s setlists to this day.

mp3: Strawberry Switchblade – Since Yesterday (#63)

I can’t claim I came up with this description, but it is so accurate:-

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

Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall were very well-known figures in Glasgow in the early 80s. The look they had for their pop success was how they walked the streets of my homw city – everyone, while not knowing exactly who they were, certainly recognised them. Since Yesterday is a very 80s sounding song, and there’s an argument could be made that it hasn’t dated brilliantly thanks to its rather lightweight production. But I’ll always a have a soft spot for it….it’s just one of those songs which sound tracked the festive period of 84/85, eventually peaking at #5 in late January and spending an incredible 17 weeks in the Top 75.

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rattlesnakes (#65)

The third and last single to be lifted from the debut album. Maybe it was all down to all the band’s fans having bought the album the previous month that this single, a genuinely outstanding song, stalled at #65.

mp3: Scritti Politti – Hypnotize (#67)

The third hit single of the year for Green Gartside & co, but #67 was as high as it got, coming nowhere near the success of Wood Beez (#10) and Absolute (#17). The band would bounce back in great style in 1985, with The Word Girl delivering a #6 hit and the album Cupid & Psyche ’85 going Top 5.

18-24 November

It was probably inevitable that after such a fine run of new singles the previous two weeks, the well would just about dry up completely this week. You could tell the Xmas marketing campaign was getting into full swing as the novelty records began to make showings – yup, this was the week We All Stand Together by Paul McCartney and The Frog Chorus came into the charts at #50, going on to reach #3 and particularly annoy the hell out of me for the many months it was never off the bleedin’ radio.

Having said that, there’s probably many fans of the lovable mop top who would have got annoyed with this one:-

mp3: The Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) (#62)

The ZTT collective’s music hadn’t struck a chord with the record-buying public. Debut single Beatbox had failed to chart in Aril 1984 and debut album Who’s Afraid Of The Art Of Noise had languished at the very lower end of the chart. But for whatever reason, and I think a lot had to do with the imaginative video(s), Close (To The Edit) found favour. It was also released in a ridiculous amount of formats – standard and picture disc 7-inch versions, five 12-inch singles (one a picture disc) and a cassette single – and would enjoy a 20-week residency in the Top 75 right through to the end of March 1985, peaking at #8. It did lead to a Top of the Pops appearance that they wasn’t taken too seriously while illustrating the actual size of the synths that were required back in those days:-

Anne Dudley would later say:-

Top of the Pops was one of the worst experiences of my life. We’d done so many edits of the single I wasn’t even sure what its final structure was. We just stood there behind three keyboards. The director saved our bacon by cutting away to the animated video the record company had commissioned – they hadn’t liked the original one made by Zbigniew Rybczyński, featuring a punkette girl and three blokes in tails dismantling musical instruments with a chainsaw. It was the polar opposite of Duran Duran on a luxury yacht.

25 November – 1 December

The Art of Noise might not have been making much money for ZTT but this lot were:-

mp3: Frankie Goes To Hollywood – The Power Of Love (#3)

The Xmas single – not an obvious one but the nativity-themed video, which was being aired everywhere, even on news programmes, made it clear what the marketing campaign was. It was all set to spend umpteen weeks at #1 and confirm the band’s total dominantion of the singles charts on the back of Relax and Two Tribes. It did reach #1 the following week, but then Band Aid came along………

Fun fact…..The Power Of Love was re-released just before Xmas 1993 and again went Top 10.

mp3: Big Country – Where The Rose Is Sown (#35)

The second single to be lifted from the #1 album Steeltown. Kind of feels strange that the record label pushed out a new 45 at this particular time of year. It certainly didn’t do anything to lift the album back up the charts and in reaching just #29, became the poorest-performing 45 of what was ‘peak’ Big Country.

mp3: Tears For Fears – Shout (#45)

I may have mentioned previously in this series that I couldn’t for the life of me recall Mother’s Talk which had charted in August 1984. But I certainly can’t say the same about Shout, which thanks to its boombastic chorus easily lodged into my brain. I recall being very disappointed with this. I had so much love and time for Tears for Fears when they emerged, and I still think the debut album The Hurting is a masterpiece. But Shout felt like synth pop with a stadium-rock edge and not for me, but loads of others loved it and took it to #4 in January 1985.

mp3: Bronski Beat – It Ain’t Necessarily So (#53)

A lot different from the previous two hit singles of Smalltown Boy and Why?, this inventive cover of a song written in 1935 by George Gershwin for the opera Porgy and Bess would spend 12 weeks in the chart, reaching #16. It helped further establish Bronski Beat as one of the best new arrivals in the UK music scene in 1984.

mp3: Dead Or Alive – You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (#55)

I hadn’t, until now, appreciated that Pete Burns‘ biggest hit single actually dated from 1984. Turns out it came into the chart at the end of November 1984 and then spent another 11 weeks stuck in the lower regions of the Top 75 before bursting into the Top 20 and eventually reaching #1 in early March 1985. Say what you like about manufactured pop music and be as critical as you want to be, but this makes for a majestic, magnificent and memorable single. I will not tolerate any dissent!!!! Wylie, Cope and McCulloch must have been looking on in bewilderment.

So there you have it. November 1984. A month in which the singles chart, certainly at the lower end of things, was worth recalling in some detail. Keep an eye out later on for Part 2 looking at the new indie singles from the era.

JC

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#7:Two Hearts Together/Hokoyo : Orange Juice (Polydor, POSP 470, 1982)

I really don’t want to spend any more time than I need to on this one as it’s quite simply the worst 45 ever released by Orange Juice, and quite possibly the worst ever by Edwyn Collins including his solo career.

Malcolm Ross had joined the band and after a number of auditions, Zeke Manyika, a Zimbabwean who had lived in the UK for most of his life, was recruited as the new drummer. Edwyn, in press interviews, was indicating that the band would be moving in a different direction, and that all four members, including David McClymont, would be involved in the songwriting process.

In April 1982, fans and the wider listening public were given the opportunity to hear this new brand of Orange Juice, with four songs debuted in a BBC Radio 1 session for the mid-evening David ‘Kid’ Jensen show. One of the new songs was this:-

mp3: Orange Juice – In Spite Of It All

Fast-forward four months and the release of the band’s seventh single, their third on Polydor and their first without James Kirk or Steven Daly.

mp3: Orange Juice – Two Hearts Together

Turns out, In Spite Of It All had undergone a name change between the Jensen session and its recording as what turned out to be a stand-alone single as it was subsequently left off the sophomore album. The photo of Edwyn and David, with Malcolm and Zeke in shadow, on the front of the sleeve, is perhaps as good an indication as any that this was very much aimed at the pop market and not the indie kids who had been the band’s mainstay up until now. Indeed, it was very much a sign of the band jumping on the bandwagon of what would, in time, be called ‘sophisti-pop’ which was all the rage.

I hated it. Really, really hated it. And feared that Orange Juice were a busted flush. Turns out that Edwyn also accepts it was a misstep:-

“Two Hearts Together’ is the worst thing we’ve ever done. I really regret that now. We thought we were missing out on all this New Pop, we’d better get in on this. It was staying in the same hotels as a lot of other rock groups like ABC. You get to thinking, ‘well, maybe Orange Juice are reactionary old has-beens. We ought to get hip.’ So you start trying to do something that’s really current. I regret that.”

There were enough sales to take it into the UK charts at #60.

The double-A side on this occasion was a track written by all four members of the band, along with Zop Cormorant (someone whose name would later be credited as drumming on one of Edwyn’s solo albums but of whom I know nothing!).

mp3: Orange Juice – Hokoyo

If Two Hearts Together was in the vein of sophisti-pop, Hokoyo is bang in the middle of a world music track, with Zeke taking the lead vocal in his native Shona language prior to Edwyn joining in a bit later on. It was very unexpected. I’ll leave it at that.

The single was released on 7″ and 10″ vinyl, with both songs being extended a bit on the larger format.

mp3: Orange Juice – Two Hearts Together (10″ version)
mp3: Orange Juice – Hokoyo (10″ version)

Next week sees the lead-off single for the second album.

JC

Green Peppers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #478: GREEN PEPPERS

Jim McCulloch is very much part of the ‘Bellshill scene’ which made such important contributions to music, not just in Scotland, from the late 80s onwards. He was (and remains) the guitarist in the Soup Dragons, and for a while he was also involved in BMX Bandits. After the Soup Dragons initially disbanded in 1995 he joined Superstar (another of the Bellshill bands) and later, in 2004, he would embark on a solo career, recording and touring under the name of Green Peppers.

There would be three albums between 2004 and 2008, all of which featured guest musicians, with the cast more or less being a who’s who of the Scottish indie scene. I’ve only one song on the hard drive, courtesy of its inclusion on the Ave Marina: 10 Years of Marina Records compilation, released in 2004.

mp3: Green Peppers – I Get It

It’s a track from the debut album, Joni’s Garden, also from 2004 and which has been described by one critic as ‘a stunningly beautiful assortment of vibrant acoustic guitars, haunting pianos and superbly crafted songwriting that echo classic artists such as Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen as well as contemporary artists like Damien Rice and Tom Baxter.’

JC

Fictive Fridays, Various

FICTIVE FRIDAYS : #3

a guest series, courtesy of a very friendly lawyer

I read JC’s post the other day about Trump smashing up the White House, and it occurred to me: America’s fucked all the way up. Maybe I should start thinking about other options. Where to go? No idea, really, so instead I did what I usually do–make a list of songs. Let’s get out the Atlas and see what’s on offer around the globe!

Cuban Slide. Not sure why this banger was an unused out take from The Pretenders‘ debut. Thankfully, it showed up a couple of years later on the US-released Extended Play and in the UK as the b-side to the ‘Talk of the Town’ single.

Spanish Bombs. As the years go by, London Calling just gets better. Here our man is evoking images of the Spanish Civil War, brought to mind during the recording of the album when Joe Strummer heard a radio report about ETA terror bombings along the Costa Brava.

Mexican Radio. A college radio staple from back in 1982. If I’m honest, I can’t think of any other songs by Wall of Voodoo, and I wonder if this tune got any airplay outside the States. I just remember that when this song came on at parties everyone would shout “What does he say?” at the appropriate moment.

Chinese Rocks. Right up there with ‘Waiting for the Man‘ as the best song about scoring heroin in Manhattan. Written by Dee Dee Ramone and recorded by Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers for the classic L.A.M.F. I guess it doesn’t have too much to do with China. Unless I develop a habit.

Italian Horror. Kasabian never cracked the US, perhaps due to the questionable decision to name themselves after a Manson Family spree murderer. But they’ve been at it for a while and this track, from 2024’s Happenings, is a good snapshot of what they’re like.

Swedish Fish. From Luna‘s 2002 collection, Romantica. Crap, now I have to make a playlist with husband and wife band members.

Japanese Cowboy. Ween are like an alt-rock Frank Zappa: brilliant musicianship, complex songwriting, juvenile and often offensive lyrics. From 1996’s 12 Golden Country Greats (which had 10 songs on it).

French Navy. I don’t know too much about Glasgow’s Camera Obscura, but it looks like they’ve been a going concern for nearly 30 years. This is from their fourth LP, My Maudlin Career. Maybe our host can enlighten us as to whether diving into the band’s catalog is a good idea.

Aldo says: I’d suggest Camera Obscura are well worth exploring further, and to that end has given me fresh impetus to deliver a long promised ICA which will hopefully act as an enticing taster for the uninitiated. Spoiler alert, French Navy hasn’t made the shortlist!

English Roundabout. Kind of a tough one, this, having to bypass the Stranglers‘ ‘English Towns’, the Jam‘s ‘English Rose‘, Fleet Foxes‘ ‘English House‘ and others. But the boys from Swindon get the nod with this guitar workout because it’s from the stellar English Settlement.

Haitian Divorce. I can’t remember ever seeing Steely Dan mentioned here at the Villain’s place. That makes sense, they were a mainstream American radio act dating back to the early 70’s and so don’t really fit in here. But I chose this track for a simple reason: Dean Park‘s talkbox solo at the 2:43 mark is just FILTHY and I never get tired of listening to it.

Best Wishes from The Divided States!

Jonny

Bonus tracks:

Belgian Friends by The Durutti Column
Lebanese Blonde by Thievery Corporation

Book Reviews

BOOK OF THE MONTH : NOVEMBER 2025 : ‘LE FREAK : AN UPSIDE DOWN STORY OF FAMILY, DISCO AND DESTINY’ by NILE RODGERS

Book reviews were an occasional part of the old blog, the original Vinyl Villain, hosted by blogger between 30 September 2006 and 24 July 2013. I have been known to dive into what’s left of the vaults and re-post some things that kind of feel timeless but until now, have refrained from doing so with any of the book reviews.

Until today.

It’s partly to do with that I’ve been a tad busy in recent weeks and while I’ve managed to keep up with some reading, I haven’t been able to make the time to sit down and type up my thoughts about any music bio. So, in order to keep the monthly series going, I’m reaching back to Friday 3 February 2012. What follows is the review posted at that time, but augmented with a couple of additional sentences/snippets that emerged from the comments section (my thanks to Swiss Adam and Craig McAllister), which also influenced the mp3s and the video footage.

– – – – – – – –

“I asked Santa to bring me this as it had received quite a number of excellent reviews towards the end of 2011. I’m pleased I did.

Nile Rodgers is best known as one of the founding fathers of disco, thanks in part to the songs he wrote and recorded with Chic and the songs he wrote and recorded with others acts such as Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. What I hadn’t realised until picking up this immensely satisfying 300 pages was his contribution to the careers of so many others, including David Bowie, Madonna and Duran Duran.

He was also a big influence on Johnny Marr, to the extent that he named his firstborn after him as well as ripping-off the Chic sound – hook, line and sinker-for the second verse of The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.

OK. Nile Rodgers’ musical career is not one your average indie-kid will confess an undying love for. And to be honest, outwith the Chic songs, I don’t have much else in either the vinyl or CD collections. And if this had been a book in which all Nile did was talk about music and musicians, I don’t think I’d have been impressed.

What makes this such a cracking read is the life he has lived…..particularly his childhood and formative years. For once, it is easier to just crib from the dust jacket.

Born into a mixed-race family of dope fiend bohemians, he learned – at a very early age – everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mum and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather…..

His upbringing is a genuinely astonishing tale as he went from east coast to west coast and back again (more than once) living sometimes with mum, his grandparents, with hippies and members of the Black Panther organisation. The first third of the book is genuinely unputdownable.

The middle part is a bit less interesting – just a wee bit too ‘rags to riches to excess’ for my liking. Loads of sex, loads of drugs and loads of dancing and not too much humility. But to a large extent, given how wild an upbringing Nile Rodgers had experienced, it’s not hard to understand why he went off the rails so easily. To be fair, parts of the middle section of the book are a great read when he’s telling you about his family rather than tales of how great it was to work with the rock and pop gods of the 80s.

The final part of the book deals pretty quickly with the last 15 years. There’s a fair bit of death and tragedy in here, with the author acknowledging that but for the grace of god…and there are things you learn about what he’s now doing with his life and the fortune he has amassed.

I’m fairly sure that the story that Nile has set down is like a 7″ version of his life….and the extended 12″ version would be well worth getting your hands on. For instance, I’m sure he’s got loads more tales from his childhood – it really does seem as if that alone could have been a 500-page volume.

The positive reviews are merited. And you don’t need to be a disco king or dancing queen to get a lot of pleasure from this book.”

mp3 : Chic – Good Times
mp3 : The Smiths – The Boy With The Thorn In His Side

JC

Byrds

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #398 : THE BYRDS

A guest posting by Marc Goldstein

I’m too young to have experienced The Byrds in real time. I first heard them when I was 11 or 12, by which point they were already in the “oldies” category – but I loved the sound of those records; the harmonies and the 12-string Rickenbacker. And it soon became clear that lots of other people still loved them as well, including Tom Petty, REM, Robyn Hitchcock, Teenage Fanclub and a dozen other mainstays of my music library. The Byrds rival Fleetwood Mac or Deep Purple for the sheer number of line up changes they underwent – and I’m not even counting the ersatz post-1973 versions of the band that Steve McLean recently wrote about. And while the original line up is still my favorite, every edition of the group made some great music.

That original lineup included Jim (later known as Roger) McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Michael Clarke. The fact that they chose their drummer (Clarke) for his looks might cause you to roll your eyes, but the others were legit musicians and singers, who had played folk and bluegrass but fell in love with the Beatles and decided to turn to rock. Their first single (as The Beefeaters – ugh – before Hillman joined) didn’t do much, but when they changed their name and signed with Columbia, their first single as The Byrds hit number 1. That was of course Mr. Tambourine Man, the first of many Dylan songs they would cover. But Gene Clark contributed many fine songs as well,

mp3: The Byrds – I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better

mp3: The Byrds – She Don’t Care About Time

(The latter is sublime, and, OK, Clark had a little help from JS Bach on the latter.)

The story goes that when the other guys saw the Ferrari that Clark bought with his songwriting royalties, they were motivated to get serious about writing as well.

mp3: The Byrds – Eight Miles High

A McGuinn/Clark/Crosby co-write influenced by John Coltrane, was pretty cutting-edge for 1966. Some radio stations banned it, assuming it was about drugs, but while the group were no strangers to drugs, this song was about a flight to England and their experiences there. (I mean, was it ALSO about drugs? Maybe?) And after Clark left the band that year, due to his fear of flying, McGuinn and Hillman in particular stepped up with some classics. In fact, the group’s first post-Clark album, Younger Than Yesterday, is probably my favorite. Highlights include

mp3: The Byrds – So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n Roll Star

mp3: The Byrds – Have You Seen Her Face

(There’s one lowlight, however: Crosby’s Mind Gardens, which is pretty much unlistenable.)

Rock ‘n Roll Star was coincidentally featured in the Financial Times’ Life of a Song column as I was compiling this ICA. Hillman was quoted as saying the song was written about the Monkees, but his co-writer McGuinn said he didn’t have anyone in particular in mind. Anyway, this is by no means a “diss track” – it’s a bemused look at the absurdity of the star maker machinery, but hardly a rejection of it.

Crosby was the next to depart, after the others basically got tired of his BS. (Like haranguing the audience at live shows.) The next album, Notorious Byrd Brothers, was a transition between their folk-rock past and country-rock future, and while it may not be their best-remembered record it did feature something rather lovely

mp3 : The Byrds – Wasn’t Born to Follow

Gram Parsons only spent a few months in the Byrds, but he had a major influence on their next album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, recorded with some of Nashville’s finest sidemen. (And in fact a major influence on the rest of their career, as they kept making country-influenced albums until their last record, which reunited the original members.) Parsons wrote the only two originals on Sweetheart, including this

mp3: The Byrds – Hickory Wind

Although neither country fans nor rock fans were ready for the album in 1968, it’s now regarded as a classic, and a big influence on countless Americana artists.

Hillman followed Parsons out the door and into the Flying Burrito Brothers, but not before bringing Clarence White into the group as a full member. Like Hillman, White had played in bluegrass bands before joining the Byrds, and as much as I love the sound of McGuinn’s 12-string, White was arguably the best musician the group ever had. His playing is featured on the final three tracks I’ve picked out for this ICA:-

mp3: The Byrds – Nashville West (from the Untitled album)

mp3: The Byrds – Tulsa County (alt version that was a bonus track on the reissued The Ballad of Easy Rider)

mp3: The Byrds – Black Mountain Rag (live version)

Sadly, White was killed in a senseless accident – hit by a drunk driver while he was loading gear into a car after a concert with his brother in 1973. Parsons died two months later. McGuinn, Clark, Hillman and obviously Crosby all continued to make records, with varying degrees of commercial and critical success, though to my mind none of them equalled what they did in the Byrds.

Bonus Track

mp3 : Teenage Fanclub – Gene Clark

Marc

Fall

ON THIS DAY : THE FALL’S PEEL SESSIONS #22

A series for 2025 in which this blog will dedicate a day to each of the twenty-four of the sessions The Fall recorded for the John Peel Show between 1978 and 2004.

Session #22 was broadcast on this day, 4 November 1995, having been recorded on 18 October 1995.

Only Smith and Nagle here provide continuity from the last session, representing the largest alteration of personnel between recordings since the first and second session back in 1978.

It was still a transitional time, bedding in the latest edition of the band, and this is reflected by the tentative performances, especially on ‘Antidotes’ which fails to pack the same Zep-driven punch as it does on its key position on ‘The Marshall Suite’. Julia Nagle’s jazz piano solo on the minor-key fade-out is of note.

There are also two covers: The Audio Arts’ ‘Bound Soul One’ and a brief, skeletal run-through of The Saints’ ‘This Perfect Day’, which begins with Smith berating his roadies, reconnects the group with the garage. ‘Shake-Off’ however redeems; a broken guitar riff over insistent drums, electronics and a quick exit. All this done in less than two minutes. The 13 minutes in total for this session is only slightly more than the version of ‘Garden’ on its own from 1983.

DARYL EASLEA, 2005

mp3: The Fall – Bound Soul One (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Antidotes (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – Shake-Off (Peel Session)
mp3: The Fall – This Perfect Day (Peel Session)

Produced by Mike Robinson

Mark E Smith – vocals; Julia Nagle – keyboards, guitar; Neville Wilding – guitar; Karen Letham – bass, keyboards; Tom Head – drums; Speth Hughes – special effects

JC

Various

THE FIRST MIDWEEK DAY OF A BRAND NEW MONTH….

……can only mean one thing round these parts.

mp3: Various – Baby It’s (Probably) Cold Outside

Edwyn Collins – Knowledge
The Nectarine No.9 – Don’t Worry Babe You’re Not The Only One Awake
Tindersticks (feat. Isabella Rossellini) – A Marriage Made In Heaven
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Peek-A-Boo
Wire – A Question Of Degree
Pavement – Shady Lane
Frightened Rabbit – Fast Blood
Bar Italia – Punkt
The Shop Assistants – Somewhere In China
Trembling Blue Stars – ABBA on the Jukebox
Say Sue Me – My Problem
The Television Personalities – Part-Time Punks
The Cure – Lullaby (extended version)
Broken Chanter – Allow Yourself
The Delgados – Everybody Come Down
The Wedding Present – Deer Caught In Headlights

JC

#edwyncollins45s

THE TESTIMONIAL TOUR OF 45s (aka The Singular Adventures of Edwyn Collins)

#6:Felicity/In A Nutshell : Orange Juice (Polydor, POSP 386, 1982)

Possibly the only man who had any involvement with Orange Juice who was really smiling when 1982 rolled out was Geoff Travis of Rough Trade. He had been conned out of the band’s debut album when they had taken the tapes he had funded to a major label, only for half of the band – James Kirk and Steven Daly – to then abruptly quit just as the first single on Polydor was released and the marketing plans for the album were beginning to get into full flow.

The live shows were turning into a shambles, with most of the songs on which James Kirk took lead vocal being left off the set lists. The release date for the album, to be called You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever, was announced as mid-February 1982. A second Polydor single was chosen, and released some four weeks in advance of the album. There’s no doubting that it made for a great 45, being one of the band’s best songs of all, but the fact it had been written by James Kirk, (albeit one sung by Edwyn Collins) makes it a bit of a strange decision, almost as if everyone was in denial.

mp3: Orange Juice – Felicity

In at #63, and that was as good as it got, sliding down to #68 and #73 over the next two weeks. There must have been a sharp intake of breath as the debut album hit the shops, but it came in at #21, reflecting perhaps that fans were really keen after such a long time to finally have an album’s worth of material, and it probably helped that the band had re-recorded Falling and Laughing for inclusion as its opening track.

But back, briefly, to Felicity.

No images of the band were used on the sleeve…no real surprise, given the fact the Orange Juice of January 1982 was not the Orange Juice that had recorded the single. It also meant that what what should have been the b-side, an Edwyn Collins song, was promoted to function as a double-A side:-

mp3: Orange Juice – In A Nutshell

The two different aspects of the band are very apparent. Felicity, one of their very oldest songs, has the rougher new wave feeling and energy. In A Nutshell is a more polished offering with backing singers very much to the fore. In later years, a demo version of In A Nutshell would emerge, and other than the use of the backing vocalists, it wasn’t too different, so perhaps there were early indications that Edwyn, if not necessarily the rest of the band, was prepared to smooth out any rough edges.

The 12″ came with an extra song.

mp3: Orange Juice – You Old Eccentric

Not just another of the James Kirk songs dating back to the old days (and seemingly a piss take of their manager Alan Horne), but it also has James on lead vocal. Totally wasted as a b-side……but for me, the definitve version dates back to December 1980 with this highly energetic take was recorded for a Peel Session.

mp3: Orange Juice – You Old Eccentric (Peel Session)

All of what I’ve written above is very much with the aid of hindsight and the emergence of what was going on behind the scenes. The 18-year old me just simply thought Felicity was one of the best records I’d heard in my then young(ish) life, and it’s an opinion I hold to this day.

JC

Gracious Losers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #477: THE GRACIOUS LOSERS

From the Last Night from Glasgow website:-

The Gracious Losers : Glasgow based 9-piece, lead by songwriter Jonathan Lilley, featuring members of Sister John, Thrum, God Help the Girl, The Parsonage, Sporting Hero and the Berie Big Band.

Their debut album ‘The Last Of The Gracious Losers‘ (2018) combines the soulful sensibilities of early 70’s Van Morrison with the interplay and prowess of Neil Young & Crazy Horse. The vinyl edition featured a gatefold sleeve, designed by none of other than graphics legend Sean Philips (Marvel, DC, 2000AD etc).

The Losers released their new album “Six Road Ends” in March 2021 it features the singles “Loath To Leave” and “The Fire At The Bottom Of The Sea”

mp3: The Gracious Losers – I Can Never Read The Signs

The near 8-minute long closer to the debut album. They are very much a band who will appeal to those whose tastes veer towards what is often defined as Americana.