THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

MELANIE SAFKA : AN APPRECIATION

A guest posting by flimflamfan

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It was a phase. A phase that, till now, has lasted most of my lifetime. That phase was a love of the music of Melanie Safka, known professionally as Melanie.

The news of her death left me feeling old, sad and tearful but above all thankful that I had ‘accidentally’ stumbled upon her music in the very early 80s.

I feel like an imposter-fan… I own only four LPs and one single (three of the four LPs are Best Ofs) and another ‘Best Of’ CD.

Introduced to the world of ‘hippy’ music, as I entered my teens, I tended to side with West Coast psychedelia and had only a passing interest in the UK cohort. When I first heard Melanie (not taking into account the wonderful pop-hit Brand New Key) – that voice! As mellifluous as it was strident – it called to me.

My first purchase was Affectionately, Melanie (1974). I most likely bought it second-hand in 1980/81? One listen and I was hooked. I had Janis (Joplin). I had Grace (Slick). Now, I had Melanie (Safka).

Around the time of my Melanie epiphany there was another epiphany and the soundtrack to that, for me, was Melanie’s I Don’t Eat Animals (1970). Another soundtrack, a few years later – from another Melanie fan, an independent pop star – was to make a starker more dramatic statement but till then I had my anthem.

In 1983 Melanie released the single Every Breath of the Way. I was sure it was going to be a hit. I had to be, surely? It was not to be, but… I still have my 7” picture disc.

As a singer/songwriter Melanie is a colossus. As an artist interpreting the work of others she can, on occasion be a genius. Her versions of Ruby Tuesday and Mr Tambourine Man are THE definitive versions, in my opinion.

This is a sad day. It’s also a joyous day as I’m reminded of her body of work and what it meant, what it means to me.

Thanks, Melanie

flimflamfan

JC adds……

I never turn down requests for guest postings, and especially when it comes from someone who is such a friend and valued member of the TVV community, and a huge thanks to fff for his wonderful and heartfelt words.

Just to mention that today was scheduled to feature #45 in Dirk’s long-running series. It’ll still be with you, but a few hours later than the usual time for the daily post.

Various

THE BEST OF SWEDISH MUSIC IN 2023

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT

(Our Swedish Correspondent)

Hi Jim,

Although this time I might not really be in the place to answer that question, I will as tradition now has it at least say something about what happened in Sweden last year. Of course, we’re talking music, for a while let’s forget last year’s double digit inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and worst of all the way too strong influence on our government by the populist right-wing morons in the Sweden Democrats Party. Frankly, a quite miserable story.

Looking back, last year saw a not neglectable increase in records joining the collection, but at a closer look – very few Swedish acts were included. Whether this is due to my oversight or it actually was a quiet year, I’m not totally sure. Several of the artists I have my eye on released records in 2021/2022 so since not all bands are as feverishly active as Bar Italia it might be a natural thing.

As you will notice there is a strong majority for electronic music here, only 7ebra would qualify for the normal kind of indie shared here at TVV, which is kind of odd as the opposite is valid for international artists finding their way to my home last year.

So this time it’s just an EP – This Happened In Sweden Last Year.

A1. Kite – Don’t Take The Light Away

Synth duo Kite actually released several 7″ singles last year, but as all but this one had been released digitally earlier, they were disqualified. Kite do very emotional and dramatic music, it’s almost operatic in the way singer Nicklas Stenemo delivers. They without competition won the prize for best live performance 2023 for their show at Dalhalla, a former quarry now transformed into a spectacular arena (Bernard S announced it to be the coolest place they ever played when I saw New Order there a couple of years ago). For the first time they had a full band on stage, which added depth (and guitar) to the performance. A magical night!

A2. The Mobile Homes – Some Days

After a long hiatus, The Mobile Homes returned in 2021 with Trigger, now reinforced with two of the guys formerly in Swedish indie (“emo”) rock band Kent. Last year saw the release of Tristesse, which is very much a false declaration. These two albums are the two best Depeche Mode albums released since Violator…

A3. 7ebra – Lighter Better

The odd bird this time (pun intended as the album is called Bird Hour), 7ebra reminds me a lot of my old DIY records by Young Marble Giants, the Gist and Weekend.

B1. Memoria – From The Bones Of The Dead

Memoria is Tess De La Cour, wife of Henric De La Cour who has a past in the same band(s) as Christian Berg, nowadays the other one in Kite. The album From The Bones is filled with dark and moody synths, it’s her second release under the Memoria moniker – both worth having if you’re into darkwave. Kite vocalist Nicklas makes a guest performance on one of the tracks; Along The Sea.

B2. Natten – Ringen

I discovered Natten (The Night) by chance, going to a gig night with 3 different acts. They played an organic variant of half ambient electro, almost techno, adding saxophone and vocals to the mix, I was totally blown away by the combination and got hold of their only full length album so far, Dolce Vita from 2017. Later in 2023 they released the EP Máni digitally through Bandcamp, a slight bit more towards the ambient side compared to the live experience.

B3. Kite – Remember Me

So I break the “only one song per artist”-rule by ending this EP by the flip of the Kite 7″ starting it off. This is 8 minutes drama, a long intro and then a full-blown pledge to Remember Me, an almost overloaded ending I just couldn’t omit.

Enjoy!

Martin

JC adds..…As I say every single year, I always look forward to Martin’s end of year round-up as there’s inevitably something in there that is of huge appeal, and this year is no different. These tunes are well worth a listen.

Blur

AROUND THE WORLD : PYONGYANG

First of all, thank you for the very positive response to the idea of this new and occasional series. It might now be a bit more frequent than I had anticipated!

Secondly, this is post number 4001 on the reincarnated version of the blog going back to July 2013. Given that I enjoy featuring so many guest contributions, I thought it was appropriate to have such an offering as post #4000. Oh, and I’ll mention just now that 4002 and 4003 will also be guest offerings from some of my dearest and oldest friends.

With that out of the way, let’s touch down somewhere on Planet Earth.

The capital and largest city in North Korea, with a population of approximately 3.1 million. It is located on the Taedong Rover, 109 km (68 miles) upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been founded in 1122 BC. Musically, there’s not a lot I can offer up, but it does seem that 2012 saw the formation of the Moranbong Band, the country’s first girl-band, with its members hand-picked by Kim Jong Un, the country’s supreme leader. The Moranbang Band are still on the go today, with one English-based reviewer stating:-

“The Moranbong girls are not what you’d expect from an unfashionably totalitarian regime where grey is the new grey. Their skirts are short, the hair is trendy, the music danceable. It could just about pass as a Eurovision entry from Azerbaijan.”

mp3: Blur – Pyongyang

A track from Blur‘s eighth studio album, The Magic Whip, released in April 2015. It was inspired by a trip Damon Albarn had made to the North Korean capital in 2014, and in a later interview with a glossy lifestyle magazine, he likened the city to ‘a magic kingdom, in the sense that everyone is under a spell.’.

JC

Various

SURPRISING COVERS

A GUEST POSTING by ADRIAN MAHON

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JC interjects……

Adrian sent this over with the intention of it being a bunch of videos to watch and enjoy. I feel too many videos take up too much space when folk are browsing through things, so I’ve taken the liberty of digging all up, bar the first and last of them, as mp3 rips. Hope you don’t mind, Adrian. And with that, it’s over to you…………………..

I was enjoying my favourite Bananarama track, and it got me thinking about a piece in the NME about how they were searching very obscure Filipino b-sides for their next single (they were only ever there to front others’ work.).

There are those tracks that you kind of know are covers, but have never dug out the original and then there are the surprises. Well: here’s a selection of mine. Some work…and linked to the previous track:-

mp3: Jimmy Lunceford – ‘Taint What You Do

One for TNVV fans:

mp3: Diana Ross – Love Hangover

In the ‘just a great sound, so leave it be’ category:

mp3: The Strangeloves – I Want Candy

In a similar vein (‘Kitty’?):

mp3: Racey – Kitty

Then there’s this lot:

mp3: The Paragons – The Tide Is High

And again:

mp3: Randy & The Rainbows – Denise

Then you’ll be pleased that some artists changed things:

mp3: Robert Hazard – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Like here:

mp3: The Family – Nothing Compares 2U

Finally: you knew this was a cover. Wrong time, wrong haircuts, but I imagine it played well (on the Mark Bolan show?):

I’m sure you have a few of your own!

ADRIAN

Billy Bragg & Wilco

THE CD SINGLE LUCKY DIP (1)

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As much as I would love to say every physical piece of music in Villain Towers is on vinyl, the reality is that substantial amounts are on CD. It’s no real surprise given that CDs were the preferred, and indeed, often the only format for most of the 90s and a substantial part of the 00s.

Given that I’ve been offering up some singles that I own on 7″ and 12″, it would be foolish not to acknowledge those that I have on CD which is why this particular feature is being launched.

Ideally, the singles in this series would only have been released on CD but it won’t be the case. However, it will likely be that the CD single was the only one at that time which was widely available, with very few record stores at the time stocking vinyl. As in the case of the first in the series.

June 1998 saw the release of Mermaid Avenue, an album in which Billy Bragg and Wilco came together to write and record music for previously unheard lyrics written by Woody Guthrie that had long been in the trust of Woody’s daughter, Nora.

There were more than a thousand sets of lyrics that had never been put to music, and Nora asked Billy if he’d be interested in doing so. Slightly daunted and unnerved by the scale of the task, Billy approached Wilco, and the band got on board.It was decided, at an early stage, that, rather than trying to come up with tunes that were totally in keeping with Woody Guthrie’s style, a contemporary approach should be taken.

In some cases, Billy went off and wrote the tune, while in others it fell to Jeff Tweedy and/or Jay Bennett and there was the occasional joint collaboration. The sole single lifted from the album was one of Billy’s tunes, but very much a sound that was delivered by the four members of Wilco.

mp3: Billy Bragg and Wilco – Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

The addition of a violin and accordion make this just about the most folk-like of all the songs on the album, and the song is really enhanced by a guest vocal from Natalie Merchant. I had no idea the single had been released on 7″ vinyl, but there’s one for sale via Discogs from a seller in Canada.

Turns out the vinyl version has the same two tracks on its b-side as were made available on the CD single, neither of which had been included on the album, and both of which have Billy on lead vocal.

mp3: Billy Bragg & Wilco – My Thirty Thousand
mp3: Billy Bragg & Wilco – Bugeye Jim

In an era where the UK charts extended into a Top 100, Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key made it in, for one week only, at #89 on 21 November 1998.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Thirteen)

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A slight deviation from the norm today.

Dalliance was the 13th single. It was released in at the beginning of May 1991. It reached #29. It had been one of the songs recorded in April 1991 at the Pachyderm Recording Studio, which is located in the small town of Cannon Falls in rural Minnesota.

The first version of the song, however, had been aired in October 1990, during a session for John Peel, an occasion I’ve written about before:-

“I remember hearing something that night and just thinking how loud it was – loud as in just a total wall of noise. It was not the sort of sound I normally associated with the band.

It took until the release of the Peel Session box set in 2007 before I could relive those moments from all those years ago. Of the near 100 bits of music spread across the six discs, this was the first I played..I felt like a kid on Xmas Day getting the present they’ve been dreaming about for what seems like forever:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Dalliance (Peel Session)

Give it a listen. The noise that so startled me back in 1990 comes in at the 2 minute 21 seconds mark. It is just after the Boy David has poured his heart out – again – and said “after all you’ve done, that I’m so…I still want to kiss you.””

Dalliance is quite extraordinary. A woman is walking away from an affair, deciding that her life is going to best spent with someone who, it is fair to presume, is her husband of many years. Her lover is, understandably, distraught about it. He recalls incidents from their time together, and in particular how she used to always bin his gifts and presents, because she was scared what her husband would say or do, and he does now finally realise that the two relationships were built on tissues of lies and at least one of them was doomed from the outset.

Then, the kicker comes.

You told him what he wants to hear and so you got another chance
But I was yours for seven years
Is that what you call a dalliance?

Seven years?? For fuck’s sake, that’s a helluva time for things to have been going on. I can say that with some personal knowledge….the affair between myself and Rachel – we were both married at the time – was so intense that it all came to a head after four months, and we knew decisions had to be made one way or another. Both marriages were soon over, and we’ve been together since February 1990. There is no way either of us could have tried to keep things secret for seven years………..

I’m digressing. But the fact this song was released in its recorded form just slightly more than a year later has always made me shiver.

The Peel version proved to be shorter than that which was released as a single

mp3: The Wedding Present – Dalliance

I’m not sure if the band, having listened to the results of the Peel Session, decided a change of pace was required. The studio version is even more intense….the wall of noise maybe doesn’t quite have the same shocking impact, but it then, thanks to the skills of Steve Albini, it then builds and builds and builds in a way that doesn’t happen on the Peel version and brings a whole new concept to how the group was now sounding. Jingle-jangle in an indie-pop style no more……

I’ve recently read a contemporary review of Dalliance, as part of what was written for a review of the album Seamonsters. I think it was from the pen of the late Dave Jennings, who wrote for the NME and Melody Maker:-

“Dalliance, the first item here, sets the unsettling tone, building slowly from a choked whisper to a desperate plea, before that astonishing avalanche of gritty noise sweeps away everything in its path.”

Seamonsters has long been my favourite TWP album. Dalliance proved to be just one of ten pieces of perfection spread across the two sides of vinyl.

It was issued on 7″, 10″, 12″ and cassette. Until pulling this series together, I only had the 12″, but I went onto Discogs for the 10″ so that, this time around, I can offer up the exclusive live track that was only available via that particular release:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Niagara
mp3 : The Wedding Present – She’s My Best Friend
mp3 : The Wedding Present – What Have I Said Now? (live)

Niagara was from the Seamonsters sessions, and it does feel like a good call not to have it on the album. It’s not that it’s a poor song, but I find it hard to see where it would have fitted on without disrupting the perfect flow.

She’s My Best Friend is a cover of a Velvet Underground song, on which was the TWP contribution to the ten-song tribute album Heaven And Hell Volume One. The other contributors were Chapterhouse, The Telscopes, Nirvana, Buffalo Tom, James, Screaming Trees, The Motorcycle Boy, Terry Bickers & Bradliegh Smith, and Ride. It’s a very understated and gentle take on a very understated and gentle song.

The original version of the live track can be found on Bizarro. It’s one that I’ve long liked, and so was very happy to go and find a second-hand copy of the 10″ single.

One more single was later lifted from Seamonsters. I’ll feature that next week.

JC

Yusuf Azak

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #388: YUSUF AZAK

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There’s not much I can really say about the latest name to be part of this long-running alphabetical series.

Yusuf Azak is an Aberdonian of Turkish descent who lives in Glasgow. There were three albums in a relatively period of time in the last decade – Turn On The Long Wire (2010), Go Native (2012) and Peace In The Underworld (2014). The first two came out on Song, By Toad Records and the last of them on Gerry Love Records.

The record label publicity associated with the third album said:-

It’s an album of off-kilter folk pop songs with Yusuf’s unique gruff-but-sweet vocals. It’s also a more luxurious sound than his other records, with his excellent songwriting and acoustic guitar skills filled out with drums, drum machines, keyboards, electronics and more.

I’ve only one track on the hard drive, and it came courtesy of a Song, By Toad sampler released back in 2013

mp3: Yusuf Azak – Go Native

The short title track of the second album – it comes in at just under two minutes. I did try to get some more recent info on the singer/songwriter, but all travelled paths came to dead ends.

JC

Ultravox

AROUND THE WORLD : AN INTRO

EARTH

It’s an idea for a new and occasional series to be launched in early 2024…..the sort of thing I’ll lean on when I’m short of inspiration.

It’s simple in concept and execution. I’ll find a song on the hard drive in which the song title makes specific reference to a city, town or village. There will be a dull, boring intro para about said place followed by the actual song and some words, which some of you may find equally dull and boring, about said song.

Let’s start off with one which means nothing to me.

Vienna is the capital and largest city in Austria, with a population of just over 2 million. It is the sixth-largest city proper by population in the European Union, and the largest of all cities on the Danube river. It is located in the eastern part of Austria, close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. It has been called the ‘City of Music’, thanks to the many classical composers who were born or worked in Vienna. It’s not a city renowned for pop/rock musicians, with arguably the most famous being the late Johann “Hans” Hölzel, better known by his stage name of Falco, who enjoyed a world-wide hit with Rock Me Amadeus in 1986 (it reached #1 in the UK). Hölzed died in February 1998, just before his 41st birthday, from injuries sustained in a road accident in the Dominican Republic.

mp3: Ultravox – Vienna

The title track of Ultravox‘s fourth studio album, released in May 1980. The band felt it was a potential hit single, but the record label felt it was too slow and too long to ever get airplay. It was eventually released as the third single from the album, after Sleepwalk (#29) and Passing Strangers (#57). Vienna would end up being the UK’s sixth-best selling single of 1981, spending 11 weeks in the Top 40 between January and April, including four successive weeks at #2, kept off the top spot for three of them by a novelty record in the shape of Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce. Ultravox never enjoyed a #1 hit single in their career.

JC

Blondie, Lurkers, Members, Undertones, Wire

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (January, part two)

If you need to know what this is all about, here’s a link back to part one of the post.

mp3: Blondie – Heart of Glass

The third single to be lifted from Parallel Lines entered the charts at #6 on 21 January 1979. The following week, it went to #1, where it stayed for four weeks. It didn’t leave the Top 75 until mid-April. The thing is, Parallel Lines had already been in the album chart for 21 weeks, so all Blondie fans would already have the song. The fact that the single went on to sell over a million copies shows just how big it became – indeed, its release was a huge factor in the album climbing back up the charts to #1 and what would prove to be a 96-week stay in the Top 75. It really is an astonishing stat……as is that one which reveals that for 35 of the 36 weeks between 14 January and 22 September 1979, Parallel Lines was always in the Top 10 selling albums.

mp3: Wire – Outdoor Miner

A song that had originally been on the 1978 album Chairs Missing, the record label felt it had potential hit single all over it, but at 1:45, was thought to be too short. The band obliged by adding another verse and chorus, along with a piano solo played by producer Mike Thorne, which took it to #51 on 21 January

Here’s something I didn’t know. The BBC approached the label and asked if Wire would appear on Top of The Pops if the single continued to rise. However, the company who compiled the chart, the British Market Research Bureau, felt that the record label was trying to rig the charts and took the decision not to restrict the sales to be counted for the following week, which meant Outdoor Miner, which otherwise would have gone Top 40, dropped down.

mp3: The Members – Sounds Of The Suburbs

If ever a song signified what 1979 was going to hold in store, this was it. A previously unknown band outside of the London pub scene get picked up by the record industry and given the chance for a brief dalliance with fame. It was Virgin Records who took a chance on The Members, and it paid off with this fast, frantic tune and lyric about boredom which was an understandable hit with teenagers and adolescents. It might have dated a wee bit, but it did sound ridiculously fresh in January 1979 as it made its way, eventually, up to #12 in late February/early March.

mp3: The Undertones – Get Over You

Teenage Kicks had been one of the great post-punk anthems of 1978, although surprisingly, it had only reached #31. Hopes were high for the follow-up, Get Over You, released in January 1979. With a lyric that wasn’t far removed from what Pete Shelley had been wowing the world over the past couple of years, and a tune which was ridiculously frantic and catchy, this should have been massive. It got no higher than #57.

mp3: The Lurkers- Just Thirteen

Arguably, this London-based outfit were the UK’s answer to The Ramones. Two singles had gone Top 50 in 1978, while a debut album had reached #57. They were regularly aired on John Peel’s show, but never quite ever got beyond cult status. Maybe just a touch too one-dimensional to be really memorable? A #66 hit in January 1979.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the first month of the 45-year look back at the 45s which were hits as much as I’ve enjoyed the trip down the lane of nostalgia. It really is what this blog is most about……

JC

PS : A quick reminder that tomorrow is the closing date if you want to enter the competition to win a copy of the vinyl release of The Decline and Fall of Heavenly.

John Cooper Clarke

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #044

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#044– John Cooper Clarke – ‘Suspended Sentence’ (Rabid Records ’77)

jcc

Hello friends,

as I mentioned numerous times by now, I suppose, I didn’t grow up with the music we all love so much, because I was a bit too young back then. Joy Division being a prime example, I missed them by, say, four or five years. They, like The Clash, soon became absolute favorites and after having bought the six records widely available, I started to delve deeper – into the Warsaw corner, to be precise. Back in those days, getting hold of the unreleased RCA album was like finding the holy grail, so naturally it took me quite a while to achieve this. But in the meantime I got my hands on a copy of ‘Short Circuit’, a 10” EP on Virgin, which featured live recordings from the Electric Circus, if memory serves correctly it was some ‘protest’ against its closure – but I might well be wrong here.

Either way, on this EP were some great tracks, ‘At A Later Date’ by Joy Division – that’s what I bought the record for, of course, but also The Fall, Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, plus two tunes by John Cooper Clarke – a chap until then totally unbeknownst to me. I didn’t understand everything he went on about on the two songs on this EP, ‘(You Never See A Nipple In The) Daily Express’ and ‘I Married A Monster From Outer Space’. But what I understood was simply great, I listened to those two tracks over and over again – fantastic stuff, I thought!

Then, not very much later, Peel played a track from John Cooper Clarke’s very first output, the ‘Innocents’ EP. As it is often the case, first records are the best records, and although I listened to the two early albums in their entirety, the old theory proved itself right again here. I always thought that if John Cooper Clarke could have kept the level he showed on the first record, he would probably rule the world by now. You think I’m exaggerating? Oh, just listen to this:

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mp3: John Cooper Clarke – Suspended Sentence

Apparently I was not the only one who thought that Cooper Clarke was – and probably still is – some sort of genius: in 2013 Salford University made him an honorary doctor of arts for delivering poetry and influencing artists for five decades. John’s reply: “Now I’m a doctor, finally my dream of opening a cosmetic surgery business can become a reality.”… great!

What else is there to mention? Well, most importantly perhaps, that our man is still going strong, there are loads of gigs in the UK and in Ireland in spring next year – and John will be 75 years of age then! Me, I’m 20 years younger but still tend to moan just when getting off the couch, so bloody go and see him when you get the chance!

And finally, to those of you who, like me, always had some trouble in understanding all of the lyrics – his website is ace, and it has the lyrics to each and every song (if I had had this internet thing 40 years ago, my life would have been much easier indeed):

John Cooper Clarke – Poems

so there is no excuse not to sing along loudly to today’s choice, right?

Enjoy, friends – and take good care,

Dirk

Cars

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (75)

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In later years, The Cars became most famous for Drive, a rather dull ballad that was twice a hit single in the UK….firstly in late 1984 and then again the following year when It was re-released after it had been aired during the Live Aid convert in London, when it was used as background music as a montage of newsreel clips, showing the extent and impact of the Ethiopian famine, was shown to the 80,000 attendees and the many millions watching on TV.

Credit has to be given to Ric Ocasek, the writer of the song, for handing over the monies made from the re-release, to the Live Aid charity.

Although written by Ocasek, the lead vocal on Drive was delivered by the band’s bassist, Benjamin Orr. It had been a similar story for the band’s debut single back in May 1978.

mp3: The Cars – Just What I Needed

It’s a great example of the sort of new wave/power pop sound that was very much coming to the fore at the time, one that was particularly going down a storm in the USA. It reached #27 on the Billboard Chart in mid-78, and paved the way for their self-titled debut album to go Top 20.

Slightly different story here in the UK. The first single over here was this:-

mp3: The Cars – My Best Friend’s Girl

This was one on which Ocasek took the lead with the vocals. It was released in November 1978, and made it all the way to #3, which proved to be the highest-ever chart placing for the band (Drive sold more, but never got higher than #4).

Just What I Needed was the second single in the UK, and proved to be a bit of a slow-burner, taking seven weeks in the charts to hit its peak of #17 in March 1979.

The Cars never really became a huge success over here. Despite having two hit singles, the debut album did no better than #29 – even the greatest hits package, issued cynically by the record label a few months after the Live Aid concert, just scraped the Top 30.

They weren’t always my cup of tea, but the early singles were great.

Benjamin Orr died in 2000 at the early age of 53, succumbing to pancreatic cancer. Ric Ocasek died in 2019 at the age of 75, from natural causes.

JC

Various

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (1)

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Given that I’ve plenty 12″ singles sitting in the very large and near antique cupboard in which most of the vinyl sits, it makes some sense to introduce (or more likely, re-introduce) some of them to you.

Things are kicking-off with one that I picked up on one of my numerous trips or stays in Toronto. The Fatima Mansions were on Kitchenware Records here in the UK, but it was Radioactive Records for the American releases.

Blues For Ceausescu, an absolutely blistering and incendiary piece of music, had been put out as a stand-alone single on Kitchenware in September 1900. In some parallel universe, this will have acted as a call-to-arms to the disillusioned and downtrodden, provoking them into some sort of action that led to much-needed and desired change. The reality was that it was ignored, being far too provocative for our media outlets to give time to.

mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Blues for Ceausescu

I have absolutely no idea why the American label, some six months later, issued it on a 12″ single and CD, complete with a remix, but I’d very much like to thank them for doing so.

mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Blues for Ceausescu (Only Solution Mix)
mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Chemical Cosh (Scream Mix)
mp3: The Fatima Mansions – Chemical Cosh (LP version)

The Only Solution Mix is radically different. Indeed, you’d be hard pushed to find elements of the original tune – it sounds in places as if Cathal Coughlan is fronting Pop Will Eat Itself…..which is far from a bad thing.

The LP version of Chemical Cosh is less than two minutes long, while the remix extends out to almost four minutes. Both are interesting but kind of challenging, in different ways, to listen to. But then again, the whole idea of The Fatima Mansions was not to make things comfortable for anyone.

Ciao.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Twelve)

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1990 was a year that The Wedding Present spent mostly on the road. There was a substantial tour of North America from 10-29 June, with shows in Hoboken, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York City, Boston, Providence, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego.

There was a three-day gap between the Chicago and San Francisco shows, during which time the band went into the Chicago Recording Studio to meet up again with Steve Albini, the fruits of which were issued on a new single, which came out on 17 September.

The 3 Songs EP was issued on 7″, 12″ and cassette, along with a limited edition 10″ which actually had four tracks on it and was given the very tongue-in-cheek title of All The Songs Sound The Same.

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As I’ve only the 12″ in the collection, you will just have to make do with the 3 Songs from which the EP takes its name (which means you miss out on a live rendition of Take Me!, a track that had been originally issued on Bizarro).

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Corduroy
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Crawl
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me)

Two originals and a cover of a #1 single for Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel back in 1975. The two new TWP songs are outstanding efforts. There are many fans who have Crawl high up on their lists of all-time favourites, while I’ve always had a real love for Corduroy (both this, the original version, and the one which was re-recorded for the next album).

The cover song on this occasion also went down well with one particular Radio 1 DJ whose airing of it so regularly on his drive time show led many to think that it was the lead track.

The EP did chart, reaching #25 which was one place lower than previous single Brassneck.

The band were totally enamoured with the way Albini was working with them, and plans were made to work with him on the next album, which was scheduled for recording and release in 1991.

*apologies for the initial error with the files, and thanks to those of you who brought it to my attention. Sorted now!!

JC

Yummy Fur

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #387: THE YUMMY FUR

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From wiki:-

“The Yummy Fur were a Scottish indie rock band from Glasgow, formed in 1992, and disbanded 1999. The band consisted of lead singer and guitarist John McKeown and a regularly changing line-up of other musicians. McKeown has since gone on to form the band 1990s. Their name was taken from the comic book Yummy Fur by Chester Brown.

After leaving the band in 1997, Lawrence Worthington would drum for both The Male Nurse and The Fall-influenced art punk band Country Teasers.

Three future members of internationally successful Glasgow indie band Franz Ferdinand played in The Yummy Fur. Drummer Paul Thomson who joined the band in 1997, and multi-instrumentalist Alex Kapranos Huntley, who joined in 1998, were founder members of Franz Ferdinand, and Dino Bardot would join Franz Ferdinand as guitarist in 2017 to replace Nick McCarthy”

The disbandment of Yummy Fur came after keyboard player Mark Gibbons committed suicide, and it was at that point that Kapranos and Thomson, along with McCarthy and Bob Hardy, formed Franz Ferdinand.

Despite a discography consisting of two albums and seven singles, I’ve just the one track by Yummy Fur, and it was their contribution to the Glasgow EP, released on the Plastic Cowboy label back in 2000. It was one of a series issued by the label in which they took four singers/bands from a city or region and put out 2 x 7″ singles in a sleeve that had some very weird images of each place. The Glasgow EP was followed by efforts from Liverpool, Oxford, Essex and Tokyo.

mp3: The Yummy Fur – Shivers

JC

Blondie, Buzzcocks, Chic, Clash, Funkadelic, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, X-Ray Spex

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (January, part one)

Last month, in the final part of the year-long series on the singles charts of 1983, I promised that the next series along such a theme would be a 45-year look back at the 45s that were making all the noise in 1979. The difference being that I won’t be looking at the charts in any depth, but aiming instead to celebrate (mostly) those post-punk/new wave/alt singles which attracted the attention of the record-buying public. Makes sense to start in January…..

mp3: Ian Dury and The Blockheads – Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Released in November 1978, it enjoyed a gradual climb up the charts to eventually reach #1 on 21 January, having patiently waited its turn for a couple of weeks at #2 behind Y.M.C.A, by The Village People. It has proved to be one of the most memorable, engaging, enduring and enjoyable singles of the era of appeal to music fans of all ages and with all tastes. And one of the few songs in which I don’t mind a sax solo.

mp3: Chic – Le Freak

Another that had been released in November 78 but reached its peak of #7 in January 79. It commemorates Studio 54 in New York City for its notoriously long customer waiting lines, exclusive clientele, and discourteous bouncers. According to Nile Rodgers, the song was devised during New Year’s Eve 1977, as a result of his and Bernard Edwards’ being refused entrance to the nightclub, where they had been invited by Grace Jones, due to her failure to notify the nightclub’s staff. The lyrics of the refrain were originally “Fuck off!” as that was what the bouncer had said as he slammed the door closed.

mp3: Funkadelic – One Nation Under A Groove

The only hit single in the UK for Funkadelic, and from what was their tenth album, having started out in 1970. I wasn’t quite 16 years of age at this point in time, and my musical tastes were still evolving. I didn’t know too much about funk, but I recognised immediately that this was a very special sounding track.

mp3: The Clash – Tommy Gun

It peaked at #19 in the final chart of the previous year, but was still hanging around during January, and indeed beyond. As Joe Strummer would late explain in the liner notes to the Clash On Broadway box set, he got the idea to write “Tommy Gun” when it occurred to him that terrorists – like rock and movie stars – probably enjoy reading the press about their so-called triumphs. Memorable in the main for Topper Headon’s drumming sounding like a machine gun as much as the lyrics condemning mindless violence.

mp3: Buzzcocks – Promises

This peaked at #20 in the final chart of the previous year, but was still just about hanging around into January. It was the band’s seventh single, and had maintained the momentum, of Ever Fallen In Love…and indeed was a song in a similar vein, given it dealt with a love affair gone wrong. There were no longer any hard and fast rules that such songs had to be sloppy.

mp3: Blondie – Hanging On The Telephone

This just qualifies and no more. It was a big hit (#5) in November 1978 but thanks to its 11-week stay in the Top 7 meant it was still listed come January. A fast and frantic cover version, it was the second single to be lifted from Parallel Lines….the real biggie was just about to hit the shops.

mp3: X-Ray Spex- Germ Free Adolescents

As with the above 45, this qualifies and no more. It had reached #19 in November 1978 but thanks to what proved to a 12-week stay in the Top 75, it was still listed come January. A single from an album by a band whom I grew to only really appreciate in later years upon realising how much of an influence it all was on what was to come.

The intention had been to cover all of the month in one post, but having already hit seven absolute belters from just the first week of the singles chart of January 1979, it’s probably a good idea to draw breath.

JC

Jilted John

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #043

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#043– Jilted John – Jilted John’ (Rabid Records ’78)

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Hello friends,

first of all: a very happy 2024 to you and your loved ones: keep healthy, keep the faith, and keep reading (and commenting to) this ongoing nonsense of mine!

Now, in 1978, 18-year old, Manchester-based, Shefﬁeld Polytechnic drama student Graham Fellows managed to write and record one of punk’s most eponymous tales of teen angst, rejection and confrontation, underpinned by its wickedly infectious “Gordon is A Moron” chorus and featuring perhaps the most poignant line ever to grace a Pop song, “I was so upset that I cried all the way to the chip shop.”

You remember it well, do you? Yes, it’s debatable whether the record has dated well or not – in my book it surely has, which is reason enough to have included it in the 111 singles – box. But om that, if you’re honest to yourself, a) you would never have named your son ‘Gordon’ and b) the tale being told in the song is (or rather: has been) most common to all of us, isn’t it? I mean, when I was younger, I found myself stuck in the very same situation a handful of times, I must admit (greetings, at this point, to Sabine and the twat she ran off with in 1993 – I hope your piles got worse in the last 30 years, you bastard!!).

Jilted John’s very existence owed everything to a fragile combination of luck, inspiration and sheer chance. As Fellows recalls: “It all came about by naiveté really, I’d written a couple of songs and I wanted to record them…so I went into a local record shop and asked if they knew any indie or Punk labels. They said there were two, Stiff in London and Rabid just down the road. So I phoned Rabid up, and they told me to send in a demo.”

“We did the demos with the late Colin Goddard – of Walter & the Softies – on guitar, and the drummer and bass player of The Smirks, I took it along to Rabid, who loved it…so we re-recorded it a few days later, at Pennine Studios, with John Scott playing guitar & bass and Martin Zero (aka Martin Hannett) producing. Martin did a great job creating the vocal choruses and that bass pattern before the ‘here we go, two, three, four’ bit.”

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mp3: Jilted John – Jilted John

The single got approved by Tony Parsons, Paul Morley, Bary Lazell and John Peel, which was enough to shift half a million units, making it to Top Of The Pops and number 4 – not too shabby for the picture Fellows presented of himself: a naive, anorak-wearing nerd, a failure with girls.

To me, this song still is a Pop drama, no less: “so here I am, all alone, in my bedroom, with my chips, feeling, SAD”: priceless!!

Enjoy,

Dirk

PS: ‘Jilted John’ was a B-Side to start with, as pictured above. Alas, I only owe one of the EMI company sleeve represses, but no matter …

Heavenly

COMPETITION TIME!

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Yesterday’s post giving a mention to Heavenly was just a prelude to what’s on offer today which will see the first of the TVV competitions in 2024…..don’t ask me how many I’ll be running as it’ll depend on how generous I feel as the weeks and months go by as I’ll be purchasing all the prizes that end up here rather than relying on freebies from record labels.

The Decline and Fall of Heavenly, the band’s third album, was originally released on Sarah Records in 1994. Its 30th anniversary is being celebrated with an expanded re-release, via Skep Wax, on 2 February, and I’m delighted to put two copies of the re-release up for grabs – how you might get lucky can be found a few paragraphs further down.

The original album contained eight songs, but the expanded release will include five further tracks, consisting of the A and B-sides of singles released in 1993. Here’s the Skep Wax press release:-

The third Heavenly LP will be re-released by Skep Wax Records on Friday 2nd February. The re-release will include all five tracks from the Atta Girl and P.U.N.K Girl 7” singles. These are the songs that have earned Heavenly a whole new generation of fans: Tiktoks based on P.U.N.K Girl have been liked by millions of teenagers and that song alone has accumulated over 7m Spotify streams.

The Atta Girl and P.U.N.K. Girl singles were released in 1993; album The Decline and Fall of Heavenly came soon after in 1994. Collectively they show a band that is rapidly expanding its scope. The album veers confidently from high speed indiepunk (Me And My Madness) to cool surf instrumental (Sacramento) and back again to the sweetest indiepop (Itchy Chin). Meanwhile, the singles, which include the band’s most celebrated tune – P.U.N.K Girl – demonstrates how much confidence Heavenly were deriving from their involvement in the nascent Riot Grrrl scene. All the anger is there, the politics are direct and crystal clear – yet the whole thing is still delivered with the sweetest pop melodies. It’s like being punched and kissed at the same time.

The three releases also show how Heavenly had come to feel equally at home in the UK and in the US. The album maybe feels more British, as demonstrated by the Old World irony of the ‘Decline and Fall’ title. At Heavenly gigs in the UK, often playing with other bands on the increasingly influential Sarah Records, audiences were getting bigger, while the bands were finding a sweet spot where anti-corporate understatement and a dismissive attitude to an increasingly misogynist UK Press was no barrier to success. P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl on the other hand, are more gleeful, more headlong, and somehow feel more American: they are carried along by the excitement and adrenaline of having found another spiritual home – the indiepunk Riot Grrrl scene that was focussed on Olympia, WA, the HQ of Heavenly’s US label K Records. (K released P.U.N.K Girl and Atta Girl together on one 10” EP.)

Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers were now confidently sharing vocals, sometimes harmonising, sometimes taking it in turns, sometimes singing over each other. Peter (guitar), Mathew (drums) and Rob (bass) had become adept at changing gear from ornate pop to full-on punk, unafraid of genre rules and increasingly happy to make up their own version of what pop music should sound like.

The more delicate, more decorative arrangements of Heavenly’s first two albums had been left behind. The band – or more accurately, the women in the band – were still dogged by accusations of being too fey, too ‘twee’: not ROCK enough. But, as the chorus of Atta Girl makes clear, any attempts to define Heavenly by their ‘cuteness’ now received an unambiguous response: ‘Fuck you, no way!’

So…….to possibly get your hands on a copy of the album, please come up with the correct answer to the following question:-

What was the catalogue number of the original release of The Decline and Fall of Heavenly, back in 1994 on Sarah Records?

Please 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).

mp3: Heavenly – P.U.N.K. Girl

The closing date is Friday 19 January. Good luck etc.

JC

Bis, Heavenly

INTERNATIONAL POP UNDERGROUND : VOL. LXVI

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K Records is a record label based in Olympia, Washington that was founded in 1982 by the musician Calvin Johnson. Many of the initial releases were on cassette, but in 1987, a decision was taken to launch International Pop Underground, which would take the form of 7″ releases featuring a diverse range of indie-musicians from all over the world.

Some of the most prominent singers/bands to feature in the early years included Courtney Love, Teenage Fanclub, The Pastels, Modest Mouse, Heavenly, Beck and Robyn Hitchcock, along with a myriad of cult acts.

There have been something like 140 releases in the series, with the majority of them being plentiful and inexpensive on the second-hand market. Maybe if I lived in the USA I would have been more interested in tracking them down, but as it is, with me being quite unaware of the output of most of those involved, I’ve been happy to give things a miss.

I do have just one single that I picked up in a second-hand store in Glasgow a couple of years back. It was Volume LXVI in the series (#66 to those who don’t do Roman numerals) and was released in 1996. There is one track from the afore-mentioned Heavenly and two from bis, which probably explains why a copy ended up in a shop in my home city.

mp3: Heavenly – Trophy Girlfriend
mp3: bis – Keroleen
mp3: bis – Grand Royale With Cheese

The Heavenly track was lifted from the 1996 album, Operation Heavenly, that came out on Wiija Records. Some of you might recall from a previous posting on the blog that the group’s drummer, Matthew Fletcher, tragically took his own life in June 1996 shortly after the recording of the album was complete. The level of promotional activity around the album was, understandably, almost non-existent, and I’m assuming that K Records also went about things in a low-key manner with this single.

Heavenly were near-veterans of the indie-music scene, having started out on Sarah Records in 1990. bis, on the other hand, were very much the new kids on the block, having seemingly emerged out of nowhere in 1995 to release a debut single on Chemikal Underground, later finding themselves attached, in America, to the Grand Royale label which was owned and run by the Beastie Boys, which perhaps gives you an idea where the title of the instrumental second track came from.

The single is a bit battered and bruised, with is why the sound quality on offer is a bit iffy in places on the two bis tracks – Trophy Girlfriend has been sourced from a different piece of vinyl. No apologies are offered!!!!!

JC

Various

WELCOME…. TO THE NEW YEAR

2024

Things will now get back to something approaching normality, including some very welcomed guest contributions and the return of our dear friend, Dirk.

For the first time in a very long while, I stayed well away from the blog, so much so that the comments section got all messy with loads of things attributed to anonymous sources that hadn’t ever been corrected. A huge thanks to everyone who dropped by and had their say.

I know that I took some liberties late last year with the number of hour-long mixes and so, for many of you, this might not be the most ideal start to TVV in 2024. But here goes anyway……..and this one includes a fair bit of music that I got to Santa to bring me, thanks in many instances to recommendations from various ‘best of year’ lists on other blogs. Much appreciated!

mp3: Various – Welcome to The New Year

Micky Dolenz – Shiny Happy People
Peaness – Oh George
Sleaford Mods – West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys remix)
The Fall – Hey! Luciani
Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo – Song To The Siren
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Jack The Ripper
One Dove – White Love
Bar Italia – Missus Morality
Hi-Fi Sean & David McAlmont – Hurricanes
Hamish Hawk – Dog-Eared August (alt version)
SPRINTS – Delia Smith
Problem Patterns – Advertising Service
Steve Mason– The People Say
Coach Party – What’s The Point In Life?
Alison Eales – Come Home With Me
Chumbawamba -Behave!
Lloyd Cole – On Ice

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled later this week for a chance to win some goodies!!!

JC

Gil Scott-Heron

FROM THE ARCHIVES (17)

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It’s time to partially close down the blog for the period over Christmas and New Year. This time around I’m going to put up a re-posting from times gone by, and I’ll try my best to have all of them feature musicians whose appearances have been infrequent.

This dates from 6 April 2016. The title reflects it was part of a short-lived series on 10″ singles that sit in the cupboard here at Villain Towers.

MY SMALL BUNDLE OF TEN INCHERS (2)

Gil Scott-Heron (1 April 1949 – 27 May 2011) started out as a novelist, but from 1970 onwards became better known as a poet and musician thanks to a body of work which addressed much of what was wrong in modern society, particularly in his home country of America. His long time collaborator was Brian Jackson, a multi-talented musician and arranger. Scott-Heron and Jackson were unflinching in their approach, caring little for any criticism thrown at them that they were artists and musicians who had no concept of the ‘ghetto’ life they often wrote and sang about. They didn’t care much for mainstream success and acceptance, happy enough to write music and lyrics that would attack the most conservative values of America, knowing that the vast majority of radio stations and TV producers would shy away from giving them an airing.

The protest singing and poetry was well received in many parts of Europe. His songs and poems highlighted the dangers being posed by politicians who were moving ever further to the right, seeking out all sorts of enemies to fight with and all for the purpose of currying favour with an electorate stoked up by a frenzied media. It was a message that struck a chord with many.

He achieved most fame in the 80s as a vocal opponent of Ronald Reagan and the apartheid system, and the 10″ EP I have is a 1985 release to promote a Best Of compilation. Three of its songs are from the mid 70s, while the other – a superb attack on Reaganomics – was recorded in 1981.

mp3 : Gil Scott-Heron – Winter In America
mp3 : Gil Scott-Heron – Johannesburg
mp3 : Gil Scott-Heron – The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
mp3 : Gil Scott-Heron – “B” Movie

The 90s and first decade of the 21st Century were far from kind to Gil Scott Heron. There were thirteen studio albums released between 1970 and 1984, but only one more would appear before 2010 albeit some compilations and live recordings kept his name known, aided too by just about every rapper who burst onto the scene mentioning Gil Scott-Heron as being a huge influence.

He had developed serious issues with drug addiction that led to him spending time in jail. Having been released in 2007, he dedicated himself to performing, writing and recording again, culminating in the release in 2010 of I’m New Here, an extraordinary but very short album (28 minutes spread over 15 tracks) full of intensely personal and reflective lyrics that one UK critic described as ‘Massive Attack jamming with Robert Johnson and Allen Ginsberg.’

A remix version of the album, We’re New Here was released in February 2011, featuring production by English musician Jamie xx, who reworked material from the original album to great effect. But just as many were again paying attention to Gil Scott-Heron, he died just a few months later at the age of 62. The cause of death has never been revealed, but the man himself in interviews on his release from prison had confirmed he was HIV-positive and that his health hadn’t been great.

A further album of stripped down music from the I’m New Here session was made available in limited release for Record Store Day in 2014, and then given a full release on 1 April 2015 on what would have been his 66th birthday. His life has been remembered too with the making and release of ‘Who Is Gil Scott Heron?‘, from the UK film makers Iain Forsyth and Jayne Pollard, whose previous work included the Nick Cave drama/documentary 20,000 Days on Earth.

Many of the tributes and obituaries at the time of his death used the words tortured genius. For once, they were being applied properly.

This is the last day of the archival material. The blog returns to normal as from tomorrow.