THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Twenty-Nine)

R-685782-1147608468

Last week, I mentioned that the relative failure of Watusi, along with the re-recorded version of It’s A Gas, meant that the Island Records era was really over before it had begun.

In some ways, it was a strange situation as 1994 had been the year the band’s records had sold so poorly, and yet they were very prominent on the bill of the Reading Festival, albeit not playing the biggest of the stages:-

Reading-1994

1995 proved to be a transitional year. Live shows, to begin with, were few and far between. An 8-date tour of France in March before 4 shows in the UK (Leicester, Huddersfield, St Helens and York) in mid-June. There were then 5 festival appearances in July. The strange thing for fans was that these shows saw The Wedding Present perform as a three-piece band, as guitarist Paul Dorrington had quit at the start of the year.

A ‘proper’ tour was scheduled for November/December – 15 dates in England plus one in Newport, Wales – prior to which Jayne Lockley became the first woman to join the band. Jayne played bass, which meant Darren Belk switched to guitar.

The tour coincided with the release of the first new 45 of the year. It turned out to be a self-released single, only available in the UK at the shows during the November tour or by mail order, although two small record labels – Merge and Siesta – took on the task of giving it a physical release in America and Spain respectively.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Sucker

Not being available in any shops, it was never going to chart, thus bringing to an end the run of 20 successive 45s that had gone at least Top 75.

Sucker isn’t the most memorable of singles, and at just over 100 seconds in length, there isn’t all that much to it. For all that it was only available at the live shows or by mail order, it’s not all that difficult to find on the second-hand market at a relatively low cost, which I think gives a fair indication of what most fans think of it.

The b-side was a cover:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Waiting On The Guns

The original dates from 1994, and was written and recorded by Butterglory, a little-known indie band from Kansas, who were also on Merge Records. It’s a bit more substantial than Sucker, and while it does have a certain charm in places, it isn’t the most memorable or unusual of covers.

I think it’s fair to say that The Wedding Present were in danger of becoming a bit of an irrelevance in terms of the big picture….much of the band’s core fanbase had moved on, albeit there was still much love on offer from John Peel for whom they recorded an eleventh session in December 1995, offering a tantalising glimpse of new material scheduled for release on a new label in the new year. Worth mentioning that December 1995 was when John Peel was the subject of the long-running TV show This Is Your life, and David Gedge was one of the surprise guests invited to come on and say a few words.

JC

Ace City Racers

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #399 : ACE CITY RACERS

Ace

Ace City Racers came onto my radar in 2021, thanks to the release of the album Citalodisco on Last Night From Glasgow.

They describe themselves as a post-punk, new wave, art pop band from Glasgow, which certainly ticks many of my boxes.

The group cut their first record in 2012. It came about after James Barker (guitars) and Mark Daniels (bass) had seen their previous electro-pop outfit disband back in 2009. Deciding to now go down a guitar pop/rock road, they sent a demo to uber-producer Stephen Street who invited them into his London studio where the track Waiting was recorded and later released. This was all before they had played any live gigs.

Although Street was keen to work further with the band, they retreated a bit and indeed it took until 2017 before they released they self-released their debut album, Take It, It’s Yours by which time Andrew Campbell was on drums.

Looking back at some of the things written about the debut, I’m a bit annoyed at myself for missing out, but it is impossible to keep up with everything that’s going on, even in my home city. It might have been different if I’d caught them live.

The 2021 album has some fine moments on it. One of our locally based websites and magazines said of Citalodisco:-

…..elements of no wave, art-rock and post-disco can be found all over Citalodisco. Ace City Racers at times bringing to mind the likes of Devo, A Certain Ratio, 80s New Yorkers’ ESG and Liquid Liquid, and, from a bit closer to home, Franz Ferdinand. Across its ten tracks, it rarely lets up and is awash with pleasing electronics, an abundance of disco drums, cowbells aplenty, and has us pining for an indie disco.

I wasn’t quite so much in awe of the album, but there was more to enjoy about than simply endure. This one was a highlight:-

mp3: Ace City Racers – Gideon Takes The Train

I really must stick this, or perhaps one of the other tracks, on one of the monthly compilation efforts.

JC

Paris Angels

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (6) : Paris Angels – All On You

R-86134-1342501961-6381

Last time out in this series, I brought you a single that I bought from the merch stall at a gig in Manchester. This time around, it’s a 12″ single that is associated fully with that wonderful city. Wiki actually tells the tale in a good way.

Paris Angels were an English seven-piece band whose music fused indie guitars with electronic dance music. They were regulars of the Boardwalk and Haçienda clubs in Manchester, and as such were heavily influenced by acid house and the nascent Madchester scene of the late 1980s.

Their initial recording contract was with locally-based Sheer Joy Records. An early single, All On You (Perfume) was really well received and sold enough copies to get itself into the lower end of the charts at #91 in July 1990. In due course, they were signed by Virgin Records and a different version of the song, this time called Perfume (All On You), was issued as a single, and thanks to the might and oomph of the bigger record label’s promo folk, this one reached #55 in July 1991 despite being, certainly to my ears, a lesser version.

It was Jacques the Kipper who brought the song to my attention, courtesy of him including it on a homemade compilation cassette back in the day. More than a decade later, I picked up a copy of the Sheer Joy release for £1 in a second-hand shop.

mp3: Paris Angels – All On You (Perfume)
mp3: Paris Angels – Muffin 2
mp3: Paris Angels – Perfume (version)

Muffin 2 sounds exactly as I’ve always imagined the early nights at the Hacienda to sound like in the era when nobody went along but those who did, would be able to thoroughly enjoy music that you’d not normally hear in clubs.

Perfume (version) has an early New Order feel to it, certainly via the guitars, although I would have imagined Hooky would have demanded much more bass in the mix.

All in all, an absolute belter of a 12″.

JC

PS :

A reminder that I’m currently running a competition to win a copy of Chorus of Doubt, the new album from Broken Chanter – the official release date is today.

I stupidly had a rogue space in the email address for entries, so my apologies if anyone got a strange bounce back. SORRY!!!!!!!!!

So….I’ll try again.

Q: ‘On which well-known Scottish record label has Chorus of Doubt been released?’

(hint, if needed, – it’s a label closely associated with the album’s producer, Paul Savage)

All entries should be sent to thevinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk

Please also include your full name and address so that I can work out postage costs should you be lucky. (Once again, I promise that all the emails will be deleted afterwards so that I don’t keep any of your personal info).

The closing date is Saturday 13 April. Good luck etc.

Cocteau Twins

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (4) : Cocteau Twins – Bluebeard

R-189883-1154443557

I wouldn’t have been buying vinyl in 1994. I was doing well to keep hold of what I already had, as space was at a premium in the small flat I was living in at the time. It was strictly CDs, for albums and singles alike.

Which is why I wouldn’t have been on the look-out for either of the limited edition 7″ and 12″ releases of Bluebeard, the second single to be lifted from Four-Calendar Café, the seventh studio album by Cocteau Twins.

mp3: Cocteau Twins – Bluebeard

I already had bought the album on its release in October 1993, and wasn’t sure at all about shelling out four months later for the single, despite the fact that it had a couple of otherwise unreleased tracks. The doubts, however, were put to one side when I spotted that it also contained an acoustic version of the single, one which I was very keen to hear.

mp3: Cocteau Twins – Three Swept
mp3: Cocteau Twins – Ice-Pulse
mp3: Cocteau Twins – Bluebeard (acoustic version)

Both the unreleased tracks are enjoyable enough without being the sort of thing that really makes you sit up and pay more attention. And if I’m being honest, I was expecting a bit more from the acoustic take on Bluebeard – it just meanders a bit too much for my liking.

Enough fans were enticed by the release to buy enough copies to have it enter the charts at #33 on 26 February 1994.

JC

Dennis Bovell

BONUS POST : AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #361: DENNIS BOVELL

A Guest Posting by Khayem

DENNIS

Dennis Bovell ICA: Respond To The Cause

This ICA has been a long time – too long – in the making. JC mentioned in a post or a comment – possibly here or on my own blog – that he didn’t have much reggae or dub in his collection, so I thought that would be a good theme for an ICA. The problem is, I think this was at least a year ago, if not longer, so the chances are that things have changed dramatically since then! (JC adds……not really!)

No matter, the subject of my ICA is one of the greatest and original producers of any genre. Not constrained by reggae or dub, he was one of the originators of Lovers Rock and also found a spiritual connection with punk, post-punk and, continuing into the 21st century, a host of post-modern artists. He’s also a mean bass player and handy when stepping up to main vocal duties. I present to you the legend that is Dennis Bovell MBE.

His production and performance CV reads more like a Who’s Who of music legends: Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Slits, Orange Juice and Edwyn Collins solo, Janet Kay, Benjamin Zephaniah, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, Dubblestandart, Jah Wobble, Jarvis Cocker and The Pop Group. Amazulu, Bananarama, Thompson Twins and even Jack Johnson have all benefitted from a dub rinse over the decades.

And that’s not even touching on his own music, which started with Matumbi and The 4th Street Orchestra, and have included legendary releases as Black Beard, Dennis Curtis, Dennis Matumbi and of course Dennis Bovell. There are hundreds and hundreds of songs out there, many now available on his own site at Bandcamp as Dennis discovers more gems in the vault and records updated versions of old songs or something completely new.

Dennis Bovell is an unstoppable force of positive energy, and his impact on music changed my life before I even knew he was doing it. This ICA can only hope to hint at the magic and encourage you to go out there and discover more.

In time-honoured tradition, I’ve split the album into a vocal and a dub side, the first showcasing Dennis’ own music, the second shining a light on some of his revelatory reworks of some well-known songs and/or artist. I’ve cheekily slipped in a sixth track on side 1, but both sides come in at just under 21 minutes so I hope JC will let this one pass! (JC adds……of course! There’s no hard and fast rule for ICAs)

Without further preamble, here’s your track-by-track guide

SIDE ONE

1) (I Can’t Get Enough Of That) Reggae Stuff by Matumbi (single, 1973)

Where it all started, really. Dennis moved from Barbados to London at an early age and co-founded 7-piece reggae band Matumbi in 1971. This was their debut single and, if it sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a cover of ‘Funky Stuff’ by Kool & The Gang. A great version and an obvious opener for this ICA though I’ll admit that I also had one eye on the inevitable ICA World Cup and the hope that Dennis & Co. get beyond the first round!

2) Fall Babylon (Version) by Dennis Bovell & Roots United ft. Skarra Mucci (single, 2020)

This single came out at the tail end of 2020, an apposite release following (what would turn out to be the first) lockdown and a coming together of generations. Jamaica’s Skarra Mucci guests on this alternative version, and there was a shining bright video to boot (check it out on YT).

3) Blood A Go Run by Dennis Matumbi (single, 1977)

Three singles were released between 1977 and 1978 under the nom de plume, Dennis Matumbi. I first heard Blood A Go Run on the 2003 compilation Decibel: More Cuts And Dubs 1976-1983, one of many, many DB collections, all highly recommended.

4) Empire Road by Matumbi (single, 1978)

This was the theme tune to the BBC TV series of the same name, which starred Norman Beaton. Empire Road also featured on the 1978 compilation Don’t Walk, Boogie, included in my parent’s modest record collection. Both the TV show and the song made a big impression on me and – unknown to me at the time – was my introduction to the genius of Dennis Bovell.

5) Afreecan by Dennis Bovell ft. I-Roy (‘Mek It Run’ album, 2012)

Had it not been for Dennis having neck surgery and strict medical orders to stop playing the bass until fully recovered, Mek It Run might never have seen the light of day, or at least so soon. Deciding to return to unfinished work during the enforced rest, Dennis discovered a stack of boxes in a lock-up, full of master tapes from the 1970s and 1980s. Utilising an I-Roy vocal from 1983, Afreecan is a retro future classic.

6) Bah Be Lon by Dennis Bovell (‘Brain Damage’ album, 1981)

After two dub albums as Black Beard, Brain Damage was the first released under his own name. An ambitious 16-track double album that takes reggae into the 1980s and pointed at a different direction from the more sanitised, pedestrian music that would popularise the genre for a new generation in that decade. The year before, Bovell also scored the film Babylon, which was based in part on his lived experience. Bah Be Lon doesn’t feature in the film as far as I can remember, but it narrates a similar sorry tale of racism and wrongful imprisonment.

SIDE TWO

7) Dub I Just A Man (Version of ‘Am I Just A Man’) by Steve Mason (‘Boys Outside/Ghosts Outside’ album, 2011)

I’ve been a fan of Steve Mason since I first heard The Beta Band and I’ve enjoyed his further excursions as King Biscuit Time, Black Affair and as a solo artist. Boys Outside as of itself is a brilliant album but it was a stroke of genius to bring in Dennis Bovell to create a dub companion. I could have picked any track, to be honest, it’s that good.

8) Funny Dub (Version of ‘It Noh Funny’) by Linton Kwesi Johnson (‘Sonny’s Lettah!’ single, 1979)

Dennis Bovell has worked extensively with Linton Kwesi Johnson throughout his career, not least 1980’s seminal LKJ In Dub. Rather than choose from there or it’s two follow ups, I’ve gone for an earlier dub of a song from LKJ’s debut Forces Of Victory, which appeared as a B-side on his second single. Much as I love LKJ reciting his words, Bovell’s dub creates a poetry all of it’s own.

9) Earthdub (Version of ‘Earthbeat’) by The Slits (single, 1981)

Dennis produced The Slits’ 1979 debut Cut and half of the 1981 follow up The Return Of The Giant Slits, not including the opening song Earthbeat. However, on the 12” single the song segues perfectly into a DB dub that bends the shape to near-snapping point, to memorable effect.

10) The Smoke (Dennis Bovell Rmx) by The Smile (single, 2022)

Dennis Bovell continues to be an in-demand producer and remixer, recent years seeing him rework JARV IS…, A Mountain Of One, Animal Collective and The Smile, Thom Yorke’s latest outfit and nothing like Radiohead, honest. On the strength of this, one can only hope that they ‘Do A Mason’ and ask DB to dub up their entire catalogue.

11) Radio Africa (Dub-Mix) by Latin Quarter (single, 1984)

I bought this on 12” vinyl back in the day, but only relatively recently discovered that there had also been a limited edition UK 12” with a couple of DB dub mixes on it. This is perhaps one of Dennis’ most straightforward dubs, but even as it strips away vocals and instrumentation, it puts so much more back, in terms of depth and space. A classic to close, and a selection I hope will have you looking out for more.

Khayem

Broken Chanter

BROKEN CHANTER’S BRAND-NEW ALBUM (and another TVV competition)

a2146678807_10

David MacGregor is one of the best musicians to have emerged out of Scotland over the past couple of decades. He started out as part of Kid Canaveral, a band which formed in St Andrews fully 20 years ago- and I find myself shaking my head in astonishment at how quickly the time has passed.

Kid Canaveral released three excellent albums full of catchy, thoughtful and insightful indie-pop tunes before beginning to drop off the radar back in mid-2018. Not that any of us knew it at the time, but the band had more or less run its course – David himself wasn’t sure where there the future lay, but in the interim, and to the absolute delight of those of us who had long succumbed to his charms, he announced plans to record a solo album.

He decided to adopt the stage name of Broken Chanter. David’s reason for taking on this moniker was in recognition of his failed attempts, as a toddler, to play his grandfather’s chanter, the part of the bagpipes which creates the melody.

The eponymous debut album appeared in 2019. It was a bit of a shift in direction from the music he had made with Kid Canaveral – a more rural, almost pastoral effort, one that had been inspired by David spending time in the remote Scottish Highlands, along with the Isle of Skye and County Donegal. The results were a joy to listen to – one very astute review identified it as an album clearly forged in Scotland, and filled to the brim with music and lyrics that appealed to Scottish sensibilities.

By 2020, it was clear the old band wouldn’t be getting back together, and David announced he’d continue to record and perform as Broken Chanter. The second album under that name was Catastrophe Hits, released in October 2021, one which saw a slight change of direction. The debut had been largely a solo effort, augmented with musicians with whom he was good friends. This time around he wrote the songs with the thought of it being recorded by a fully functioning band – again made up of friends he had known for many years – that would also get out on the road and play in a live setting. Musically, it was a further and cohesive development of what had made the debut such a joy to listen to, with the addition of a number of upbeat pop tunes which were packed with socially aware lyrics.

This week sees the release of Chorus of Doubt, the third Broken Chanter album. Having been one of those lucky enough to get an early listen to its contents, I can only concur fully with the words that have been penned as part of the promotional efforts.

“From the propulsive immediacy of the bass and drums’ taut groove, it’s clear something has changed in Broken Chanter’s world.

Thudding, powerful odes to the strength of collectivity and togetherness, David MacGregor’s Broken Chanter bristle with energy and empathy on their incendiary third album Chorus Of Doubt.

Recorded (and produced) by Paul Savage over 2023’s spring and summer months, Chorus Of Doubt is fuelled by a burning desire to resist an encroaching, global tide of misery, informed by a wide-eyed sense of solidarity and the searing truth that a universal humanity is the only path out of darkness.

Featuring frequent collaborators Charlotte Printer, Bart Owl and Martin Johnston, Broken Chanter’s world is populated by hope and vitriol rendered in ecstatic rock music, terse agit-Funk and soaring choruses.

The most immediate Broken Chanter record to date, Chorus Of Doubt is David MacGregor’s open love letter to never giving up, a personal road map out of collective lethargy.

I got an invitation to the ‘Listening Party’ for the new album that was held in a Glasgow pub just last Thursday. My pre-ordered copy of the album then arrived in the post the following day.

I’ve been playing nothing else all Easter weekend. It’s a fabulous listen from start to finish, with more hooks than a tackle box at an angling contest.

The next thing to look forward to are the live shows.

Broken Chanter will be playing Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow later this month, while May will take in Gateshead, Cambridge, Rainham, Coventry, London, Oxford and Sheffield. I can guarantee that every show will provide the various audiences with a memorable evening – David is a tremendous frontman, full of energy and charisma, and his band members are ridiculously talented. Oh, and the songs will have you dancing! Click here for ticket details.

I’ve purchased two additional copies of Chorus of Doubt to offer up as prizes for the third TVV competition of 2023. The usual thing….answer a question and send in your reply via email.

Q: ‘On which well-known Scottish record label has Chorus of Doubt been released?’

(there’s plenty of clues available from the above videos!!)

All entries should be sent to thevinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk – but please also include your full name and address so that I can work out postage costs should you be lucky. (Once again, I promise that all the emails will be deleted afterwards so that I don’t keep any of your personal info).

The closing date is Saturday 13 April. Good luck etc.

JC

PS : A bonus posting will appear on the blog later on. It’s the guest ICA I trailed last week….trust me when I say it really is worth coming back for another visit around midday.

Michelle Shocked

AROUND THE WORLD : ANCHORAGE

Anchorage

The 73rd most populous city in the United States, with a population of 291,247 according to the 2020 census, but also the fourth-largest by area. I think it’s fair to say that Anchorage is not your atypical location in the USA. Archaeological evidence suggests the area was first populated some 5,000 years ago by the Alutiiq people who arrived by kayak, but it wasn’t until 1914,thanks to it being chosen as a site for railroad construction, that Anchorage began to take shape. Its unique location has resulted in its international airport being ranked as the fourth-busiest in thw world for cargo traffic, surpassed only by Memphis, Hong Kong, and Shanghai Pudong. Musically, there’s not much I can pick out that would be of huge interest to TVV readers albeit the city’s 6,000 capacity Sullivan Arena, has been a location where a number of renowned rock bands have played over the decades.

mp3: Michelle Shocked – Anchorage

The Texas-based singer-songwriter’s debut single back in 1988, which reached #60 here in the UK, while the album it appeared on, Short Sharp Shocked, got to #33. It’s the story of Michelle making time to write to an old friend in Dallas, only to find in due course that the reply comes back from Anchorage. The lyrics are inspired by what was written in the reply, as Michelle learns that her friend had moved to Alaska as a result of her husband, Leroy, getting a new job, and in the interim period a second child had come along. The sort of song that wouldn’t really happen nowadays with the growth and development of e-mail etc.

JC

Various

DON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN (and Competition Result)

fool

Hopefully, there’s a little bit of something for everyone.

mp3: Various – Don’t Get Fooled Again

Mogwai – Party In The Dark
The Fall – Open The Boxoctosis #2
Charlotte Hatherley- Bastardo
Joy Division – Transmission
Pixies – Planet of Sound
David Westlake – The Word Around Town (BBC Session)
The The – Uncertain Smile (7″ version)
The Motorcycle Boy – This Road Goes On Forever
The Pains of The Pure At Heart – Young Adult Friction
Trembling Blue Stars – A Statue to Wilde
Cinerama – Dance Girl Dance
The Strokes – Reptilia
McAlmont & Butler – Yes
James – Come Home (Weatherall Mix)
Chumbawamba – Blackpool Rock

Worth mentioning, in passing, that the David Westlake song was part of a session broadcast on the Janice Long show on Radio 1 on 25 February 1987. His backing band for the session included three members of the Go-Betweens, with Robert Forster on guitar, Amanda Brown on violin, oboe and backing vocals, and Robert Vickers on bass.

I also want to thank everyone who entered the competition to win a copy of Four For A Boy, the new EP from Alison Eales.

The answer to the question ‘For which Glasgow-based indie-band does Alison Eales play keyboards?’ is Butcher Boy.

The three names drawn out of the hat were Gary O’Connor, Conrad Zimmer and Neil Tilston. I’ll get the vinyl in the post later this week.

Watch out for another TVV competition coming your way on Wednesday.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Twenty-Eight)

R-1142363-1238889110

Before we get to the 28th single, please have a listen to this:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas

That’s the album version that you’ll find on Watusi. And given what I said last week about how Steve Fisk had been asked by the band to come up with a new, 60s influenced sound, it’s fair to say he got there with this one.

The thing is, there had been a critical and commercial backlash to Watusi and fans weren’t happy either. The album had entered the charts the week after its release at #47 and then sunk without a trace. For the very first time, since bursting onto the scene back in 1985, it seemed as if The Wedding Present had misfired.

In an attempt to rectify things, they went into a studio and asked Ian Broudie if he could work his magic on a track from the album, for potential release as a follow-up single.

mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas (single version)

It probably placated a few folk, but the damage was done. Released on 12″ purple coloured vinyl, 7″ black vinyl, cassette and CD, It’s A Gas limped in at #71, and worse than that, failed completely to give the parent album any sort of boost. The Island Records era was, in effect, over before it had really begun.

The 7″ had one other previously unreleased TWP song on it:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Bubbles

Recorded in Seattle but left off the album. It’s a gentle number, totally stripped back in a near unplugged way. There have been worse songs shoved on b-sides, but plenty that have been better. There’s a backing vocal credited to Claire Elise Fisk, who I presume is the daughter of the producer.

The 12″ and CD single had two more tracks, both recorded in Seattle.

mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas (acoustic version)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Jumper Clown

The former does exactly as it says on the tin. It’s evidence that It’s A Gas is actually a damn fine pop tune….the difficulty that everyone had was finding the best way to record it.

The latter is a cover of a song that had been released by The Creepers in 1983. It was one that had begun life as an unreleased instrumental by The Fall in the late 70s, and then resurrected by Marc Riley when he quit the band, with the lyrics very much geared towards taking the piss out of Mark E Smith‘s often dishevelled appearance (it was all in the days before Brix Smith appeared on the scene and smartened him up). I think it was recorded with the intention of being a future b-side, with the sound being a hybrid of traditional TWP and the surf sound that was beginning to take hold in the Seattle studio. It’s good fun, and the group certainly sound as if they enjoyed making it.

JC

39 Lyon Street

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #398 : 39 LYON STREET

This one is a straight re-lift from February 2015, the final part of the predecessor series to this, in which I looked at Scottish singles.

39 Lyon Street was a one-off single project created by Associates. The group used an alternative name to exercise a clause in their contract with WEA that stated they could record for any label they desired, so long as the A-side was not credited to Associates.

I’ve pinched this from a now defunct blog called Retro Dundee:-

This is how Lyon Street looked back in the 1980’s. A typical Dundee street that you would pass going into the city centre. In the early 80’s, however, something was brewing at number 39. A wee social gathering of creative musicians were busy producing acts who would go on to record some classy alternative pop music.

This is where Billy Mackenzie & Alan Rankine of The Associates were living, along with others. In amongst the others were Christine Beveridge & Steve Reid who went on to record as Orbidoig, releasing a couple of singles. A cross-pollination of The Associates & Orbidoig created a 3rd act called…39 Lyon Street. They also released a single, called “Kites”, which was a cover of the Simon Dupree hit from the psychedelic 60’s.

And here we are:-

mp3 : 39 Lyon Street – Kites (12″ version)

The wonderful Sid Law, an individual who is the font of all knowledge on all things related to Associates/Billy Mackenzie, had this to say back in August at his now defunct Whippet At The Wheel blog:-

Released in 1981, it features Christine Beveridge on a whispery lead vocal with Billy taking the back seat until the choruses. The Associates were allowed to release singles on other labels as long as Billy didn’t sing lead vocals on the A-side. Recorded in the midst of the Situation 2 stream of singles, Kites is an atmospheric musical delight. The twelve-inch version has a rolling piano intro which slides effortlessly into an utterly groovy version of Simon Dupree And The Big Sound’s biggest hit.

It was released on RSO Records in a one-single deal. The B-side A Girl Named Property is credited to The Associates and is the same version released on Fourth Drawer Down.

JC (and Sid Law)

PS : By sheer coincidence, this is appearing on the blog on a day when I’ll be in Billy’s home city for a football match…..and when the walk from the city centre will see me pass Lyon Street as I head up Dens Road in the direction of Tannadice Park, home of Dundee United FC.

Walkmen

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #360: THE WALKMEN

A Guest Posting by SWC

Walkmen-847x1024

JC writes………………………………

Today’s guest contributor doesn’t know I’m doing this. You can call it a bit of intellectual theft.

SWC has, this very day, completed an excellent series this past month over at No Badger Required in which he called on the services of a musical jury, drawn from visitors to his consistently excellent blog, to nominate Rocks Greatest W – and by that he was seeking out the best singer/band whose name begins with ‘W’ and not somebody who likes to stimulate their own genitals.

Coming in (ahem!!) at #13 was The Walkmen. As it turned out, SWC went on to list ten great songs by the band, which I immediately wanted to turn into an ICA. Which I’m now doing.

First up, an intro…from wiki.

“The Walkmen is an American indie rock band formed in New York City, in 2000. The band consists of Hamilton Leithauser (vocals), Paul Maroon (guitar, keyboards), Walter Martin (bass, organ), Peter Matthew Bauer (organ, bass) and Matt Barrick (drums) – all former members of Jonathan Fire*Eater and the Recoys.

Initially active from 2000 to 2013, they are known as part of the 2000s-era post-punk revival in New York City. The band released seven studio albums during their initial run: Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone (2002), Bows + Arrows (2004), A Hundred Miles Off (2006), “Pussy Cats” Starring the Walkmen (2006), You & Me (2008), Lisbon (2010) and Heaven (2012).

The band went on hiatus in 2013, with Leithauser, Bauer and Martin all pursuing solo careers, and Barrick joining Fleet Foxes in a session capacity. In 2023, the band reunited for an extensive tour named The Revenge Tour.”

And now, here’s what appeared on No Badger Required last month. Over to SWC….

I’m going to start by quoting, not one, not two but three members of the Musical Jury, who all rather interestingly said the same thing about The Walkmen.

“Despite the fact that they’ve only got one good song….”

Yet they still voted for them, heavily in some cases.

Now, I don’t want to turn this entire blog into a Walkmen tribute site in order to prove my point but I definitely will if that kind of Bolshevikian insubordination continues in the ranks. The Walkmen have about 75 good songs (admittedly the blog wouldn’t last that long and its almost worth daring me). I will now list them all (well ten of them) in no real order of their brilliance. If I voted in this countdown, The Walkmen would have had twenty more points. Just saying.

The “one good song” that I suspect that they are talking will be this one,

The Rat (2004, Record Collection Records, Taken from ‘Bows + Arrows’)

Largely because it is quite a song and to be honest if this was the only Walkmen song that ever saw the light of day then it would still be heads and shoulders above nearly every other song that was ever written or released. It was also Badger’s favourite song and for that alone, it stands unchallenged as a moment of beauty and angsty post punk excellence. It is the sort of song that makes you throw yourself around the lounge like a petulant teenager.

Luckily for us, The Walkmen didn’t just split up after recording ‘The Rat’ (I mean they’d already released an album before they recorded ‘The Rat’ anyway, but surely you get my point). They released seven albums in total, all of them extraordinarily good. I’ve written before in the Nearly Perfect Series about ‘Lisbon’, which is the Walkmen album that I think is their greatest but if you twisted my arm hard enough I’d also grab albums six and five (in that order) and waggle those in your face as examples of nearly perfect records.

Here are two tracks from ‘Heaven’, the title track and ‘Heartbreaker’, both were released as singles from it.

Heaven (2012, Bella Union Records)

Heartbreaker (2012, Bella Union Records)

The fifth album was the more intimate and stripped back, ‘You & Me’ is also a wonderful listen, full of textured songs that when explored properly were full of lyrics that were about loss, yearning and rejection, the vocals of Leithauser are outstanding throughout it. Here are two songs from it, my favourite track from it (which featured in the second season of Breaking Bad, in case you recognise it) and the best single from it.

Red Moon (2008, Fierce Panda Records)

In the New Year (2008, Fierce Panda Records)

Let’s go back to ‘Lisbon’ and explore that a bit more shall we – and we should because its one of the greatest indie guitar records made in the last fifteen years and you should ignore a statement like that at your peril my friends. Here are two tracks from it, the first one is a bit gentle and see Leithauser almost crooning over a tinkly piano backdrop. The second one is almost alt country, but it kind of forgets that when the first chorus kicks in and the guitars soar.

While I Shovel The Snow (2010, Bella Union Records)

Juveniles (2010, Bella Union Records)

The Walkmen should have been massive after, ‘The Rat’ launched their careers, and the album that followed it, ‘Bows + Arrows’ should have cemented them somewhere near the top of indie’s ladder for a few years to come. It didn’t and for some reason it remains slightly unloved, which is a shame because it houses brilliant tracks like this.

138th Street (2004, Record Collection Records)

Also criminally ignored is the very early work of The Walkmen, the stuff that they released a few months after the break up of Jonathan Fire*eater. The self titled debut EP for instance was long thought to be lost forever until it was reissued in 2009 on the Startime International Label. It was originally recorded three years before the released of the bands debut single ‘The Rat’ but already those flirtations with synths that appear ten years later are there. It also reminds me of the work of Pavement around the time of ‘Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’, no bad thing at all.

Summer Stage (2001, Startime International Records)

I’m going to end with my second favourite Walkmen track, purely because if you badged all these up into an Imaginary Compilation Album (and there’s an idea for a series) it would make a great album closer.

Angela Surf City (2010, Bella Union Records, Taken from ‘Lisbon’)

———–

JC adds…..

I really hope SWC is OK with what I’ve done here. I’m sure, if I’d asked him, that he’d have sat down and crafted a ‘proper’ ICA, possibly re-ordering the tracks and providing a bit more in the way of commentary….but I’m very happy with it as it reads right now.

Keep your eyes peeled next week for another guest ICA – one that I’m particularly pleased about as it come from one of my favourite writers out there and covers a type of music that doesn’t appear often enough on this particular blog.

Bon Iver

AROUND THE WORLD : PERTH

perth

The fourth-most populous city in Australia, with a population of approximately 2.2 million. Perth dates from 1829, and was named after the Scottish town (and itself a city since 2012), but there is archaeological evidence demonstrating that the Noongar people have inhabited the area for at least 45,000 years. It is one of the most isolated major cities in the world, with Adelaide, the nearest place with a population of more than 100,000 being over 2,100km away. Such isolation had long been considered problematic for many rising artists, as it increases costs associated with touring and promotion. Nevertheless, music is very much part of the city’s fabric, with all the modern genres well represented. It does seem, however, that in recent years, a number of music venues have closed and redeveloped as restaurants, public bars or apartments.

mp3: Bon Iver – Perth

This song by the American indie/folk band, led by singer/songwriter Justin Vernon, opens up their second album, Bon Iver, released in 2011. It is not directly to do with the city, but was inspired by the passing, at a young age, of one of the most famous people to have been born there. Here’s an extract from an interview given by Vernon a few years later.

“The first thing I worked on, the riff and the beginning melodies, was the first song on the record, ‘Perth’. That was back in early 2008. The reason I called it that right away, is because I was with a guy, Matt Amato, that I didn’t know very well, but basically, it’s a long story, but in the three days we were supposed to spend together — he’s a music video maker — in those three days, his best friend (Heath Ledger) died, and he was from Perth.

“It was January, fucking 25 below. We’re out shooting, and we come back in (to my parent’s house where we were staying), and his phone had been going off. Ledger, it turned out, was dead. So I’ve got this guy in my house whose best friend just passed away. He’s sobbing in my arms. He can’t go back to L.A. because the house is under siege.”

He then recounted that for the next two days, Amato drank brandy, cried and reminisced about Ledger riding horses back home in Perth. The morning he left, Vernon wrote the song’s first draft.

JC

Mighty Wah, Pete Wylie

BONUS POST : ADDITIONAL WYLIE

R-1010872-1188865402

Not too long ago, I posted a review of the Pete Wylie and The Mighty Wah! gig at King Tut’s in Glasgow. In truth, it was a hurried review, piggybacked onto a review of a gig by Yard Act a few days later, and I didn’t really do it justice.

I’ve finally been catching up with lots of things that have been written at some of my favourite blogs these past weeks – the trip to Vienna and a few other things to deal with on my return resulted in me missing out a fair bit at the time – and I was delighted that Adam over at Bagging Area posted a much more detailed review of Pete’s show in Manchester. Please click here to have a read.

Adam arrived slightly late and missed a couple of songs, including Come Back, one of the few hits in Pete’s back catalogue, and which he seems to be airing as the second tune in the current tour. I thought, as a way of thanking Adam for his review, that I’d return to part of a TVV posting from back in October 2015, when I wrote about the three chart hits under the heading of ‘BIG, BOOMING AND MEMORABLE’

1983 : Come Back

“Pete was infamous for being a bit of a gobshite who loved to spout opinions about everyone and everything, and an unwillingness to play by the record industry rules and regulations. Nevertheless, he was regarded as such a talent that WEA, the biggest label in the world at the time, signed him up after The Story of The Blues. He delivered an album that horrified them, and they refused to release it, and in doing so nullified the recording contract.

In due course the album was partially re-recorded and eventually released on Beggars Banquet as A Word To The Wise Guy. There was a Top 20 hit single from it, released in a number of formats including this 12″ version:-

mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – Come Back (The Story Of The Reds)/The Devil In Miss Jones (combined and extended)
mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – Come Back! (The Return of the Randy Scouse Git)
mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – From Disco Dicko to A Kid in Care

This was an almighty two fingers gesture to WEA. It was the big sound they had demanded of the album but only provided after Wylie had gone to pastures new…and in the b-side version the lyrics were altered to enable a sideways swipe at WEA singers and bands who were enjoying regular chart success.”

I’ll throw in the 7″ edit of the song for good measure, along with the b-side as a stand-alone track in additional to how it was offered up on the 12″:-

mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – Come Back (7″ edit)
mp3 : The Mighty Wah! – The Devil In Miss Jones

The Randy Scouse Git has a biting lyric, one that Pete must have had great fun composing. I can’t find them anywhere on t’internet, but I’ve done my best to work them out, albeit there are a couple of gaps.

Well did you ever hear of hope?
A small belief can mean relief when troubles start
Well did you ever hear of faith?
Encouragement, development,
and it’s all up to you, yes it’s all up to you

Come Back! It’s been over a year
Come Back! When you’re gone I’ll be here
Come Back! Well, it is your career
Come Back
Come Back! Howard Jones can have hits
Come Back! The Pretenders have hits
Come Back! even The Truth can have hits
Come Back!

We’ll get to shoot some videos
We’ll bribe the shops ? change
Cos money talks
We’ll get you on the Sooty show
Exposure is ???
And Annabel Lamb..it’s a battering ram

There’s then an outro in which the wall of sound production makes it difficult to work out all the names being shouted, but there’s certainly mention of Aztec Camera and Yes among others.

Feel free to offer up suggestions as to who is missing (or if I’ve got things badly wrong!!!).

JC

Maggie8

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (8)

maggie8

Maggie8. The one song I have is a pleasant and slightly unusual number thanks to it being part of the Indietracks 2016 compilation.

mp3: Maggie8 – Mitzi

Some info taken from elsewhere on t’internet.

Maggie8 are an indie folk band from Leeds, UK whose sound juxtaposes Eastern harmonies with Western sensibilities. By adding banjo, melodica, violin and trumpet – as well as Hindi influences – to an ‘indie pop’ sound they have prompted listeners to describe them as a ‘Hindi Housemartins’ or a “Bhangra Belle and Sebastian”.

The band’s singer, Niv, says Maggie8 are ‘a little bit pop, a little bit folk, Hindustani classical with some old Bollywood tinges’. Their influences include John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin, Aphex Twin, The Housemartins and a mix of bollywood and classical Indian ragas.

Maggie8 are: Nivedita Pisharoty (vocals and bass), Mark Wright (vocals, guitar and banjo), Peter Mottram (keyboards), Dominic Hand (trumpet and melodica), James Mann (guitar), Matt Figgis (drums).

Discogs lists two albums from 2015 and 2016, along with a couple of singles. I can only presume that the band is no longer active.

JC

Alison Eales

BONUS POST : ANOTHER COMPETITION!

a1290972585_10

Mox Nox, the debut album from Alison Eales, was one of my favourite releases of 2023.

I am delighted that this ridiculously talented musician has followed it up with a 4-track EP, Four For A Boy, now available digitally and on 7″ vinyl courtesy of Fika Recordings.

The songs have been co-written by Alison and a very good friend of hers going back decades, Garry Hoggan, and as with last year’s album, it has been produced by Paul Savage of The Delgados. The lead song is Minuet, described by its authors as ‘a minimalist love song that pits its protagonists against zombies and nanobots’.

The other three songs are every bit as wonderful, and it all adds up to a charming, delightful and essential release.

I’ve purchased three additional EPs for the purpose of offering them as prizes in the latest TVV competition…..so, to possibly get your hands on a free copy of Four For A Boy, please come up with the correct answer to the following question:-

For which Glasgow-based indie-band does Alison Eales play keyboards?

Send your answer to the blog e-mail address – the vinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk – but please include your full name and address so that I can work out postage costs should you be lucky. (I promise that all the emails will be deleted afterwards so that I don’t keep any of your personal info).

The closing date is Saturday 31 March. Good luck etc.

JC

National

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (12): The National – Terrible Love

R-2574079-1291288501

I wasn’t incredibly quick to latch on to The National, but I wasn’t painfully slow either. It was the third album, Alligator (2005) that got me to sit up and pay attention. The next few years, as far as I’m concerned, they were damn near untouchable and could merit a mention as being the best and most significant alt-rock act on the planet. Boxer (2007) and High Violet (2010) are exceptional listens.

I’ve not been fully on board with any of the five albums since then, but strangely enough, all of them have brought greater sales and much bigger audiences than from the days when I would go and seem them in mid-sized concert venues in Glasgow.

The 2010 tour for High Violet saw them at the Academy, a 2,500 capacity venue on the south side of the city, one that had previously served time as a cinema and bingo hall. The 2023 tour for The First Two Pages of Frankenstein was held at the 14,300 capacity and purpose-built Hydro in the heart of the city’s entertainment/exhibition area. Being a great live band, I can guess that the latter show was exceptional, but having caught them playing in Manchester the previous year when it turned into a mass sing-a-long for the most part, I preferred to sit at home with my memories of when the audience primarily went along to watch and listen….unless requested to join in by the band during the near a cappella encore.

This growth in popularity over the years means that I could get a reasonable amount of money if I was to look to sell a copy of a 7″single, on purple vinyl, from the High Violet era. Not a huge amount, but certainly, even allowing for inflation, an increase on what I paid for it over the counter at the time

mp3: The National – Terrible Love (alternative version)

Ah….a different recording from that which is on the album. Still don’t think it was an obvious choice for a single. It didn’t trouble the charts.

The b-side was an otherwise unavailable song

mp3: The National – You Were A Kindness

It’s the sort of slow, languid number the band had been increasingly edging towards at the time. If you like Matt Berninger‘s voice (and I do!!) then it will appeal. There’s not too much of a tune driving it on.

JC

PS : Come back later on today for a Bonus Post featuring a chance to win some vinyl.

A Night At The Opera

BONUS POST : SOME LIFE-AFFIRMING EXPERIENCES (4)

Vienna-State-Opera-House

Fraser said that he hoped I’d review the Rossini gig referred to in this post from last week. My mantra is to always give the readers/contributors what they want, so here goes.

The Vienna State Opera House is quite the venue. Our seats were among the cheapest in the house, but still came in at 65 euros a head and found us in the top tier at what I’d describe as approx somewhere between 4 and 5 o’clock from the centre of the stage….I think the best seats went for something like 300 euros. The capacity is a little over 1700, but I should mention that the venue has an historical practice of offering up tickets for as little as 10 euros, made available on the day – these are standing tickets for away, way way up in the gods and certainly aren’t for the faint-hearted!

I have, over the years, posed myself the question as to why operas/ballets etc, despite receiving very generous public subsidies not really offered to other performing arts, tend to be expensive to attend. Well, looking at the numbers involved last week at the performance of Guillaume Tell perhaps offers some clues.

Ten principal singers together with a chorus that was genuinely too large to keep an accurate count of – I’ll guess at 50. The orchestra had at least 90 players. A dozen stagehands constantly involved in moving an elaborate and stunning stage set. Add in those involved in the direction, the choreography, the lighting etc, and the numbers become mind-boggling. It was a tad more complicated and expensive to organise than a show at King Tut in Glasgow……

I enjoyed the performance immensely. I’m not qualified enough to offer a comprehensive critique, but I was particularly impressed by the soprano, Lisette Oropesa (who sang the role of Mathilde) and the tenor, John Osborne (who played Arnold). I did, however, think that Roberto Frontalli in the titular role was a bit underwhelming, but perhaps that’s down to the stronger arias belonging to other characters.

The chorus, whose participation involved multi-dimensional roles, was absolutely magnificent at all times, and I really can’t heap enough praise on the conductor, Bertrand de Billy, and the orchestra who got things under way in a most spectacular and unforgettable fashion.

mp3: Vienna State Opera Orchestra – Guillaume Tell: Overture

The overture is over 11 minutes in length, but if you fast-forward to the 8:20 mark (approx) you’ll get to the bit everyone recognises!!

All in all, a tremendous experience. But I’ll still probably restrict myself to the very occasional night at the opera in the years ahead.

JC

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #051

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#051: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – ‘Rattlesnakes’ (Polydor Records ’84)

3210

Hello friends,

thinking about it, there might be four, five, six albums which, after all those decades, I would still consider to be good throughout. And with ‘good throughout’, I mean all songs: ‘no fillers, just killers’ as we, rather pathetically, used to say when we were younger. Well, I did, at least. ‘Psychocandy’ comes to mind, Billy Bragg’s debut as well as the first one by The Undertones, ‘Crazy Rhythms’, ‘London Calling’ of course (sorry George), perhaps the first one by The Smiths – but also ‘Rattlesnakes’, the first album by one of the finest bands ever to emerge from Glasgow, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions.

I just had to look that up: it was released in October 1984, which means I will not have held it in my hands before the spring or summer of 1985 … it always took a while for good indie stuff to get known in the middle of nowhere in Germany, believe me. And even though there were far more record shops in Aachen, the nearest town, than nowadays, there was no way to get really ‘fresh’ releases basically, especially not when they came out on some obscure indie label. I’m willing to have a small bet that the owner of my favourite record shop (Plattenbörse), Reinhold, and his aide looked at each other and said: ‘oh no, not that twerp again!’ when they saw me on the street approaching the shop. Why? Well, it took me quite a time to understand that they neither were ever in the position to have new records available which I heard on John Peel’s Music a few weeks before nor could they always order those for me …. in hindsight, I must have been a ‘difficult’ customer, I suppose.

But I digress, so back to ‘Rattlesnakes’ – a record that Reinhold did store back then … I mean, it was on Polydor Records, so it probably was easier for him to get hold of this item than that long deleted Peruvian punk 7” on the Fistfuckers Unite label …. yes, I made that up, but you got the point, right?

I remember taking the record home, and it did not get off my turntable for weeks – every song a winner, as I said. I still cannot say what it was that attracted me so much back then. I mean: I can now, but in 1984/85 it was punk/New Wave only for me by and large, so how on earth a record as fragile and in parts even turgid as this managed to meet with my approval, I simply don’t know. Perhaps I just wanted to show off a bit, presenting my oh so clever Dylanesque side to those girls I couldn’t convince with my oh so dangerous Strummeresque side …. as you might already have gathered, none of it worked at the slightest, of course – but hey, I was 16 and desperate! But I loved these songs even when I listened to them on my own, so it wasn’t all about impressing the female population, I reckon.

There are so many perfect songs on ‘Rattlesnakes’, for all I know Lloyd Cole could have chosen each one to become a single. But he went for ‘Perfect Skin’, ‘Forest Fire’ (backed with ‘Andy’s Babies’, another particular favorite) and, after the album came out, this one, the title track:

R-1602048-1586084698-6377

R-1602048-1586084667-6104

mp3: Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Rattlesnakes

As much as I do hate snakes, this is a mighty fine tune and for me, it hasn’t aged a bit. Then again I’m still a bit of a hopeless romantic poseur, so …

Dirk

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Twenty-Seven)

R-1142358-1234134713

It’s not that 1993 was a quiet year for The Wedding Present. The gig history over at the official website shows:-

February: 2 UK shows in Carlisle and London, followed by 18 dates in France
March: 4 shows in Japan and one in Hong Kong
April: shows in Leeds and Sheffield
July: part of the bill at the Phoenix Festival in Stratford-Upon- Avon
September – 3 shows in France
October: 3 shows in the UK (Portsmouth, Windsor and Southampton) and 1 in France
November: 4 shows (Newcastle, Galashiels, Glasgow and Belfast)
December: 5 dates in Ireland, followed by a gig in Leeds.

I make that 45 gigs. It was a year in which Keith Gregory took his leave of the band. It wasn’t the first time he’d wanted to quit, but David Gedge‘s powers of persuasion finally failed to work. He was replaced by Darren Belk. The Wedding Present now had just one original member left as part of its ranks.

Oh, and they were let go by RCA, which was no real surprise given that they never did play the game the way a major label would have expected.

The only release came courtesy of another hook up with Strange Fruit. This time around the BBC vaults were raided for a CD/LP release called John Peel Sessions 1987-1990, issued in November 1993, just in time for the Christmas market.

1994 opened up with tours of France and the USA, but all the while new songs were being written and worked on for what would be the next album. Undaunted by the RCA experience, the group signed to Island Records having arranged a budget that would enable the new material to be recorded in Seattle, with Steve Fisk, who was best known for his work on records released on Sub Pop and K, two of the hippest indie labels at the time.

The producer was given a specific brief by the group – ‘make us do something different and sound like a Sixties band’. The first thing that anyone heard was a new single released at the beginning of September 1994, on 12″ vinyl, cassette and 2 x CDs.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

It was different. And it was a bit of a jolt to the system. Fans really weren’t quite sure what to make of it. It was fast, and it had rhythm, as well as that unmistakable Gedge singing voice. But isn’t that an organ to the fore? What the heck……????

As it turned out, Yeah to the power of five set things up for the following week’s release of Watusi, the first fully-fledged studio album in more than three years. It’s one which divided fans on release and still does 30 years on. It has many lovers and many detractors. I’m one of those who sits on the fence.

The lead-off single is fine in its own way, but such was the shock of the new sound, that I’ve never fully taken to it. I wasn’t alone, as it only reached #51 in the charts, which must have been a bit of a sore one to take for a band who just a couple of years ago were regulars in the Top 20, albeit via a clever piece of marketing.

The 12″ and CD1 had three additional songs, two of which were originals, with the other being the now, much anticipated cover.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Le Bikini
mp3: The Wedding Present – Flame On
mp3: The Wedding Present – Him Or Me (What’s It Gonna Be)

Anyone scratching their head at the single probably had their jaws hit the floor when the 100 seconds of the instrumental Le Bikini came to an end. It was surf-rock. It was not anything TWP had attempted before.

Flame On was on ground that was a bit more secure, albeit the fast guitars were twisted around in a way that were a tad different.

One thing to note….after years when most songs were credited to ‘Gedge’, these three new tracks were attributed to ‘Belk/Dorrington/Gedge/Smith.’ The signs of a new democracy within the band? Or maybe it was really the case that everyone, working with a new producer in a new city, was contributing on an equal basis.

The cover? It was of a 1967 hit single by Paul Revere & The Raiders. I say hit single, but that would have been in their native America. They might have been part of the music scene on that side of the Atlantic for the best part of 20 years across the 50s, 60s and 70s, but they rarely had their records played on UK radio stations, far less have any chart success. The cover is OK as these things go, but again, it was hard to digest.

CD2 had three more songs. They were lifted from a John Peel session that had been recorded on 22 March and broadcast on 16 April 1994. None of these rang any alarm bells as they couldn’t be anything other than Wedding Present songs and there was no reason to think a drastic change of sound was on its way. All three tracks would later be included on Watusi, but in two of the cases, in drastically different form to the session versions:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Gazebo (Peel Session)
mp3: The Wedding Present – So Long Baby (Peel Session)
mp3: The Wedding Present – Spangle (Peel Session)

There would be one further single lifted from Watusi, but given so much of the backstory has been told today, the posting on that should be a bit shorter. Indeed, I might do a cut’n’paste from a few years back.

JC

35mm Dreams

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #397 : 35mm DREAMS

R-1539722-1548614770-5049

I’ve this one courtesy of it being included in the many-times mentioned Big Gold Dreams box set.

mp3: 35mm Dreams – More Than This

It was released as a single on More Than This Records in November 1980, and that’s the picture sleeve above. There was a small flyer with the 45:-

R-1539722-1265838352

The BGD booklet offers up the following:-

“Taking their name from a song by Lou Reed and John Cale favourite Garland Jeffreys, Edinburgh’s 35mm Dreams sounded on their debut single like a post-punk ‘Eleanor Rigby’. This followed a four-track cassette of demos, Suburbia Sheiks, which perhaps nodded to the band’s roots at Craigmount High School in west Edinburgh, also alma mater to assorted Fire Engines and Scars.

“A second single, ‘Fasten Your Safety Belts’, followed. Drummer Moray Crawford went on to play in Buba & Shop Assistants before decamping to Japan where he guested on Shonen Knife’s Heavy Songs album. A briefly reformed 35mm Dreams and Moray Crawford’s Japanese band My-T-Hi played an Edinburgh show alongside Shock and Awe thirty years to the day since the release of ‘More Than This.'”

I knew nothing of this song or the band prior to getting the box set back in 2019. It’s become one of my many favourites across the entire 115 tracks – there’s nothing particularly ground-breaking about the 2 minutes and 18 seconds that it takes from first note to last, but it’s interesting and catchy enough to warrant repeated listens.