THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (3)

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The fact that this is another one picked up in Canada might give away the fact that these 12″ picks aren’t really the result of lucky dips. It doesn’t make me a bad person.

Gang of Four were on EMI over here in the UK and on Warner Brothers in North America.

I Love A Man In Uniform was released in the UK as a single, on 7″ and 12″, in May 1982, just a week ahead of the album Songs Of The Free. The single version was identical to the version on the album, and was backed by The World At Fault, an otherwise unavailable song. There were no extra tracks made available on the 12″. It reached #65 in the singles chart, just the second time Gang of Four had breached the Top 75, a full three years after At Home, He’s A Tourist.

Things were a bit different over in North America. Warner Brothers went with an extended and remixed version of Uniform as the a-side, while the b-side offered a dub version of the song along with another track which, as far as I know, was only made available initially via this release, although it would be added to compilation albums in future years.

mp3: Gang Of Four – I Love A Man In Uniform (remix)
mp3: Gang Of Four – Producer
mp3: Gang Of Four – I Love A Man In Uniform (dub version)

The drum sound is different on the remix, and the song ends up about 90 seconds longer than the original. The dub version is largely instrumental in nature and should be played loud. Producer is a fine track, and I’m assuming was left off Songs Of The Free either for reasons of space or that the band members felt it wasn’t quite a good fit.

JC

I'm From Barcelona

AROUND THE WORLD : BARCELONA

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The second-largest city in Spain, with a population of approximately 1.6 million within its city limits, which expands to 4.8 million across a wider urban within the province of Barcelona. It is located on the coast between the mouths of the rivers Llobregat and Besòs, bounded to the west by the Serra de Collserola mountain range. Founded as a Roman city, it has been through a lot ever since, fought over on countless occasions. It is a city famed for live music and performances, and can count the Sónar Festival and the Primavera Sound Festival among its cultural highlights.

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That there’s a picture of I’m From Barcelona, a pop group from Jönköping, Sweden, best-known for having up to 29 band members and the eclectic mix of instruments such as clarinets, saxophones, flutes, trumpets, banjos, accordions, kazoos, guitars, drums, and keyboards among others. There were five albums between 2006 and 2015. This can be found on the debut album, Let Me Introduce My Friends

mp3: I’m From Barcelona – We’re From Barcelona

It’s certainly not the sort of music you normally hear on this corner of t’internet. The next city stop on our world tour will take us back to our comfort zones. In the meantime, please just sit back and enjoy the journey.

JC

Kid Creole & The Coconuts

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #046

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#046– Kid Creole & The Coconuts – ‘Gina Gina’ (Island/Ze Records ’83)

Hello friends,

looking at the previous 45 posts, you surely wouldn’t believe that I would pay even the slightest attention to a combo described @ Wikipedia as thus:

“its music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular a mix of disco and Latin America, Caribbean, and Calloway styles conceptually inspired by the big band era”.

Still, I did pay attention, and I did from a very early age on, because by sheer coincidence I happened to see the famous Rockpalast show on German television in 1982. I must admit I never knew much about Kid Creole before, by God – I was 14 then, so forgive me! But what I saw just blew me away – one of the last great performers, for sure! It’s a very good question why it was that I was so taken aback, not easy to answer for sure.

Why? Well, because the Rockpalast show certainly stood in marked contrast to the bands I usually listened to at the time – The Kid, Coati Mundi and The three Coconuts were by no means comparable to the sulky German post-punk bands, all dressed in black, not able to play any instrument halfway properly – which normally would have caught my attention. In hindsight, I think that exactly this difference made them so worthwhile to me, it was like entering another world. All the kitsch, all the moves, all the dancing, all the choreographies were so way over the top – you could easily tell that self-irony was a big part of the show. It isn’t easy to explain, as I said, but I really think – and thought – Kid Creole & The Coconuts were absolutely special because of that.

And, JC, I know what you are thinking right now: for me, it wasn’t just the Coconuts. Unlike what you witnessed, at the Rockpalast they wore long dresses all the time, not bikinis, as pictured above. Alas. So it was the show for me, nothing else. Only years later – through the internet – I found out what a clever and funny lyricist Kid Creole was, some great words in many great songs. This one always was one of my favorites:

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mp3: Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Gina Gina

Only a B-Side (again), to ‘The Lifeboat Party’ in fact, but what a song, ey!? If only someone could tell me – after 40 years – what ‘Saliva Gutz’ means, my life would be complete, honestly – so please please please: help me here!!

Thanks ever so much for an answer – and enjoy

Dirk

Various

EVEN MORE SURPRISING COVERS

A guest posting by Leon MacDuff

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Recently on these pages, if pages they be, Adrian Mahon offered up a selection of surprising and interesting originals of well-known covers, signing off with “I’m sure you’ll have a few of your own!”. Challenge accepted…

Let’s start with a couple of very well known 80s hits. Yazz and the surely fictional Plastic Population (and her real-life pals in Coldcut) made this one into a huge house-pop success in 1987, but the original goes back to 1980 (and a bit of a throwback even then; from the sound alone, I would have guessed about 1974). I’ve always reckoned that Yazz’s reading feels like false hope, but Clay actually makes it believable.

mp3: Otis Clay: The Only Way Is Up

Like most people, I knew this next one from the 1982 smash by Odyssey. And like most people, I associated its author Lamont Dozier pretty much exclusively with being a songwriter for the sixties Motown production line. But post Motown he went on to issue a string of solo albums, and this future classic arrived on his 1978 offering, Peddlin’ Music On The Side. I do prefer the Odyssey version though:

mp3: Lamont Dozier: Going Back To My Roots

Nowadays no Sam and Dave compilation would be complete without this song, but without Elvis Costello it might well have remained just a little-known throwaway B side to a single nobody bought:

mp3: Sam and Dave: I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down

Some songs come a long way from their originals. You definitely will know this one, but see how long it takes you to recognise it from the original 1948 version, in German…

mp3: Horst Winter und die Swingsingers: Und jetzt ist es still

I always loved Dubstar‘s version of Not So Manic Now. A song with subject matter you don’t hear very often and full of words you would imagine had no business appearing in a pop song. I did notice the writing credit wasn’t for the regular band members, but it was a few years before I got to hear the original by fellow Novocastrians Brick Supply. It was the lead track on their 1994 release Somebody’s Intermezzo EP, which got some decent critical notices but basically went nowhere.

mp3: Brick Supply: Not So Manic Now

And finally, a bit of a mystery, and a bit of an investigation. For this one I’m going to share the cover as well, so from 1980 here is the debut single by It’s Immaterial, and from 1967 the original by The First Impression:

mp3: It’s Immaterial: Young Man (Seeks Interesting Job)

mp3: The First Impression: Young Man Seeks An Interesting Job

It’s Immaterial are cult favourites of course, but weirdly, there’s practically nothing out there about The First Impression. What we do know is that they recorded two LPs for budget label Saga in 1967: the all-covers Beat Club, and the majority of an album called Swinging London which also included a scattering of Beatles covers by Russ Sainty (replaced on the second pressing with a handful of originals by The Good Earth, who subsequently morphed into Mungo Jerry). Young Man is from the Swinging London LP, the sleevenotes of which tell us only that The First Impression are “top discotheque favourites” (Beat Club is similarly unhelpful, offering no description beyond “top London beat group”) – and while some of the songs have appeared on subsequent compilations of 60s mod and psychedelia, the sleevenotes to those seem to just take Saga’s blurbs at their word and have nothing further to add.

Perhaps they were indeed a top London beat group, but even if they were, nothing about their one-and-two-thirds album discography suggests that they were engaged as anything other than a session band. Saga Records weren’t actually a “pop” label – their specialism was cheaply-recorded classical albums, plus bought-in jazz and folk LPs. And really, everything about “Beat Club” and “Swinging London” screams “cheap cash-in played by anonymous session musicians”. They can’t even manage to keep the name of the group consistent: while the back of the Swinging London LP, and the labels, credit The First Impression, the front names them as The First Impressions. My first impression is: oh dear.

So can we find out anything at all about this group? A line-up, for example? Apparently not. Or perhaps somebody’s shared memories of seeing this band playing at the time? Not that I can find. I was briefly led down a dead end by a suggestion that before recording for Saga, The First Impression were signed to Pye. But no, that was a group legitimately called The First Impressions, who in 1967 were recording their own original material for Parlophone, having changed their name in the meantime to The Legends. So I think we can rule them out.

The album credits someone called Britten as writer of the First Impression songs, maybe can we track him or her down? I was initially led astray by the Discogs entry for the It’s Immaterial single, where somebody’s linked the name Britten to Terry Britten. In 1967, Terry was playing in the Australian group The Twilights, and the following year he had one of his compositions recorded by Cliff Richard, opening up a successful career as a songwriter for others with hits including Devil Woman and Carrie for Cliff, and What’s Love Got To Do With It and We Don’t Need Another Hero for Tina Turner. That he also, even by accident, penned It’s Immaterial’s debut single would be an entertaining little factoid but alas, it’s not true – as I realised when I turned to a second line of enquiry.

Most of the First Impression tracks, including Young Man, credit Britten alone, but two bear a credit to Cumming / Britten – could I perhaps find this equally mysterious co-writer? That was easier: just a couple of minutes checking the various Cummings on Discogs (I didn’t bother clicking on Alan though, since while the theme song for The High Life may be a major earworm, 1967 was definitely going to be too early for him) and I was able to identify Britten’s collaborator as one David Cumming, a comedy scriptwriter with a sideline in songwriting who that same year not only supplied a B side to Kiki Dee, but even more interestingly, also released a single himself which was co-written by not Terry but John Britten. That’s our man! It looks very much like our tunesmiths are not people in a “top London beat group” – they are a producer of budget albums and a scriptwriter who both dabble in songwriting.

All of which means that honestly, I’m just not buying this “top discotheque favourites” line. I think Saga Records, looking to cash in on the mod scene, just put some session musicians in a studio and gave them a bunch of songs written to order by… well, hacks. But I still think “Young Man Seeks An Interesting Job” is a good one – even if it took It’s Immaterial to tease the quality out of it.

Leon

Hinds, Steve Mason

SOME LIFE-AFFIRMING EXPERIENCES (1)

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February 2024 was always going to be a busy time for gigs, and my intention had been to round everything up at the end of the month. I’ve changed my mind on the basis of the first two shows, given that I’m so compelled to describe how they went.

First up, as you’ll see from the above promo poster, was Steve Mason on 1 February. It was the second time in nine months that I’d seen him on stage, the previous occasion being Manchester last May when, with the aid of a full band and backing singers, he was touring in support of the album, Brothers and Sisters. This time he had just two other colleagues on stage with him – Darren Morris on keyboards and Calie Hough on drums/percussion – which meant that there was some reliance on backing tapes/technological wizardry.

Any fears that the sound or show would somehow be diminished were very quickly removed and a packed audience inside St Luke’s, a converted church close to the famous Barrowlands in the east end of the city, was treated to an outstanding gig with a set-list which largely relied on songs from Brothers and Sisters, a record that I’m increasingly of the belief is up there in terms of quality with anything he’s issued throughout his now 28-year career as a musician, stretching back to the formation of the Beta Band.

Steve Mason doesn’t say much all evening other than variations on ‘thank you’, with the longest chat (until the encore) being to thank everyone for showing up and allowing him the opportunity to play in the live setting. He is, however, a constant force of energy as a performer, always seemingly on the move as he sang, other than the occasions when he strapped-on an acoustic guitar or provided a bit of additional percussion to flesh out some songs. The approach meant that the show never seemed to pause for breath.

With it being a home-gig (of sorts), he was always likely to get a rapturous welcome, but it really seemed that the appreciative roars and applause greeting the end of each song got increasingly louder as the night went on. Actually, that’s a wee bit of a bending of the truth, as the loudest cheers came at the end of the three occasions when he aired Beta Band songs – Dog Got A Bone, Dry The Rain and Squares – all of which sounded every bit as fresh and indeed spiritual (maybe the venue played its part??) as they did back in the late 90s and early 00s.

mp3: The Beta Band – Dry The Rain

The encore was magnificence personified, with the one-two punch of the upbeat and incredibly danceable I Walk The Earth, released in 2000 when Steve Mason was using the King Biscuit Time nom de plume, and closing with a seven-minute rendition of The People Say, in which the audience very willingly played its part with the call-and-response elements.

mp3: Steve Mason – The People Say

I was there with my regular sidekick Aldo, and we both felt it might be a while before we had such an enjoyable time at a gig. Turned out, we had just 48 hours to wait.

Saturday 3 February saw the two of us rock up to Stereo, a basement location in the city centre that was playing host to Hinds as part of the annual event known as Independent Venues’ Week held across a number of UK towns and cities.

I’ve long had a love of the Madrid-based indie-pop charms of Hinds, pulling together an ICA back in June 2021, but unlike Aldo, I’d never had the opportunity to catch them live – last Saturday was the fourth time he’d seen them.

I was particularly pleased to get the chance as it has been four years since Hinds last released any new music, and I had long assumed they had called it a day, perhaps frustrated by the inability to come together to write and perform while the world dealt with the COVID lockdown restrictions. In the middle of last year, a long period of silence was broken, but only with the news that two of the band – bassist Ade Martín and drummer Amber Grimbergen – had some months previously chosen to quit after nine years. Although it was an amicable split, it did leave the guitarists/vocalists and principal songwriters, Carlotta Cosials and Ana García Perrote, with the dilemma of what to do next.

There was no record deal, management or support structure in place, but the decision was taken to keep things going. New songs were written and demoed and in due course replacement musicians were found to enable shows to get back on the road (the new bassist is Paula and the new drummer is Maria, but I don’t know their surnames).

Glasgow was the fifth show in a week-long UK tour of independent venues. I know the city has a reputation among many musicians as having highly knowledgable and enthusiastic audiences whose responses to live music can border on the legendary – it’s a reputation that goes back, certainly in my lifetime, to the former Glasgow Apollo and that has been cemented by venues such as Barrowlands and King Tut’s, which are often name checked as being among the best that you could hope to play.

The Hinds show last Saturday seemed to confirm all of that, judging by what they posted the next day on Instragram:-

“historically the best hinds show ever. tears, blood, buckfast and sweat for and towards music. wow. we will be back”

I’m not going to argue. I can’t judge against previous shows, but Aldo can, and he thought it was astonishingly good. The set-list contained songs from all three studio albums, four new tunes (all of which sounded great) and a couple of covers, including their fabulous take on a Clash number (which was even better in the live setting):-

mp3: Hinds – Spanish Bombs

Carlotta and Ana were both moved to tears by the way the crowd was reacting to the show, loving the old and new material in equal measures. Stereo is a hot and sweaty sort of venue, and the energy on display from the stage, and among the adoring audience, which was probably a 50/50 mix across the male and female genders, made for one of those nights where you just feel there can’t be anything better than live music when a band/performer and those who are there to watch become a single entity. It was frantic from the opening notes all the way through to the encore, with the faster songs being welcomed and celebrated by a mosh-pit down the front, with myself and Aldo standing on its fringe and looking on with big smiles on our faces.

Retreating to a nearby pub afterwards, there was a chance to reflect on the night and to realise we had been really lucky to have been present. Neither of us knew that the band were about to go on record as saying it was their best ever.

Reflecting a bit more as I pull this piece together, it’s easy to forget that the musicians who we admire and love are just like the rest of us and will go through the whole gamut of emotions as they live their lives. Carlotta and Ana were at very severe lows not that long ago. COVID halted the band’s momentum and ultimately led to what had been a closely-knit group of four kindred spirits seemingly coming to an end. They weren’t sure if their audience would still be there for them if they kept going. It was almost as if they had to start all over again from the beginning. The tears came in Glasgow as they reflected on the past four years – they weren’t of sadness, but an outpouring of relief and joy that it really had all been worth it.

The new songs have whetted my appetite for the next album, which hopefully will be sometime in 2024. In the meantime, here’s the one from which the last album, The Prettiest Curse, title took its name:-

mp3: Hinds – Just Like Kids (Miau)

What’s next for myself and Aldo? That’ll be Hifi Sean and David McAlmont this coming Thursday, back at St Luke’s. Regular readers will know just how highly I rate their music….so it too should be a belter of a show.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Fifteen)

hits Just before 1991 came to a close, The Wedding Present released details of an audacious plan that would, if successful, put them on a plateau with Elvis Presley.

The King had, since the late 50s, held the record of the most Top 30 hits in a calendar year. TWP were determined to match this, and would do so by releasing a brand-new single, on the first Monday of each month. Only 10,000 copies of each single would be pressed up, all on 7″ vinyl only (which must have had the RCA execs pulling their hair out in despair given that CD singles were becoming increasingly popular and profitable). Each single, which would consist of a TWP original on the A-side and a cover on the B-side, would be deleted the following day, and the calculation was that the 10,000 copies selling out in the blink of an eye would be enough to ensure Top 30 status for one week only.

It was a great plan, but there were serious flaws as soon became evident on Monday 6 January as loads of fans were left unable to get their hands on a copy of the single with shops all only getting a small number. I was working that day, in Edinburgh, and myself and Jaques the Kipper spent an extended lunch break going round everywhere we knew, chain stores and smaller shops alike, only to be constantly told that the stock had sold out. The same thing happened the following month, which led me to abandon plans to get out to the shops each Monday. Before the year was out, I did have three of the 12 singles – I had a couple of Mondays where I wasn’t working and could get to a shop in Glasgow for it opening, while towards the end the demand had eased a little bit, partly because CD compilations of the singles and the b-sides meant there were other ways to get your hands on the songs.

(Spoiler alert. I’ve since procured copies of all the singles that I didn’t have at the time, and the original vinyl will be getting used to supply the music over the coming weeks).

The group also announced that each single would be accompanied by a video, all to be made at a really low cost of £3000 per promo, with the group asking young, independent filmmakers to submit ideas and storyboards.

David Gedge has since said that, in an ideal world, he would have been able to use a different producer for each single, but the expense and practicalities of doing so were prohibitive, and so they were recorded over four different sessions…..

I’m intending to also, for reasons of time, bundle up some of the 1992 singles, but with this being such a long and rambling intro/backstory, I’ll limit myself today to the first in the series.

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One of the things that really pissed me off about not getting this back in January 1992 were that the TWP original was a very fine song, taking up where Seamonsters had left off, albeit there was a new producer involved. Chris Nagle was a legend to those of us who loved Factory Records, having worked alongside Martin Hannett on many of the seminal records. He was part of the fabric at the famous Strawberry Studios in Stockport, and although no fans knew it at the time, he would be at the helm for the first three of the singles.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Blue Eyes

The other thing was not being able to listen to the b-side, a cover of one of my favourite records of all time.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Cattle and Cane

It’s a very decent take on things, which is high praise given how that I feel the original version by the Go-Betweens is so very special. The Weddoes stick to the basics and don’t try and do anything flashy with it. The one big difference being that the lyric is very much what had been sung by Grant McLennan back in 1982, and there was no attempt to reproduce Robert Forster‘s spoken contribution.

Blue Eyes reached #26. This would prove to be the worst chart placing across the next 12 months, so I’m assuming 10,000 sales in the first week in January had stiff competition with folk going out and spending Christmas money/gifts on singles that had been in the charts over the previous weeks. It was the highest new entry in the charts that week.

It got them an appearance on Top of The Pops in which David sang ‘live’ over a backing track, but didn’t take his guitar playing all that seriously.

One peculiar thing to mention.

Blue Eyes was still in the charts the following week, at #56. This is perhaps an indication that the distribution hadn’t gone exactly accordingly to plan, and some shops were late in receiving their copies. But all 10,000 copies were sold….

Remember the bit earlier about the cheaply made promos?

This one was directed by Mark Turner.

Quick word re the quality of this one. It was the hardest of the singles to track down online and the copy I’ve ended up with is less than pristine. All the other singles (with one exception, which is a bit crackly in places) are in better condition and will sound much better.

JC

Zephyrs

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #390: THE ZEPHYRS

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From allmusic:-

“With a gentle balance of vintage folk-rock and British shoegaze influences, the Zephyrs emerged from Edinburgh, Scotland in the late ’90s. Sharing common collaborators with Glasgow’s Mogwai on early releases, they made their full-length debut in 1999 with It’s OK Not to Say Anything. The group made a subtle shift toward a more muscular sound on its still languid fifth album, 2010’s Fool of Regrets.

The sons of a rock musician, Stuart and David Nicol grew up playing music together before founding the Zephyrs, which they named after their father’s band from the ’70s. The brothers’ first album was recorded by Mogwai producer/engineer Michael Brennan, Jr. and featured Stuart on lead vocals and guitar, David on bass, and Gordon Kilgour on drums as well as guests including the Cowdenbeath Brass Band and Gordon’s brother Jonathan Kilgour on guitar. Titled It’s OK Not to Say Anything, it got a limited release on Edinburgh label Evol in 1999.

The album came to the attention of Mogwai themselves, and the Zephyrs were signed to the band’s Rock Action label, an imprint of SouthPaw Records. The label released their Stargazer EP in 2000 and sophomore LP When the Sky Comes Down It Comes Down on Your Head in 2001. The latter received very little promotion due to the label folding within days of its release.

The Madrid-based Acuarela label stepped in to issue the EP The Love That Will Guide You Back Home in 2002. The band then signed with Setanta for 2003’s Year to the Day, which saw the Nicols joined by both of the Kilgours, multi-instrumentalists Cian Ciárán and Michael Cochrane, and guests on various orchestral instruments. The Nicols assembled a completely different backing band for their fourth album, Bright Yellow Flowers on a Dark Double Bed. It followed on Acuarela in 2005. With the exception of a performance at a festival in Spain in 2008, the band was essentially inactive for the next four years,

The group eventually returned to the studio with Michael Brennan, Jr. to record Fool of Regrets, released by Club AC30 in 2010. It was accompanied by a tour of the U.K. The Zephyrs took more time off, then reconvened in 2014 with another new line-up to play some shows and start writing material for their next album. They eventually re-emerged in 2018 with the two-track release The Witches and The Crown Prince of Lies, issued by Acuarela, and earlier this year For Sapphire Needle, their sixth studio album was released.”

I’ve just one track of theirs.

mp3: The Zephyrs – Setting Sun

It’s from When The Sky Comes Down It Comes Down On Your Head, the 2001 album as it was later included on A Quiet Riot, a 34-track double CD compilation released that same year and featuring all sorts of names from the era. Rachel Goswell of Slowdive offers a guest vocal on Setting Sun.

JC

Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #357: UNCOMMON INSTRUMENTS (2)

RIPPING OFF THE IDEA FROM JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

JTFL, having offered up some ICAs featuring Trumpets, then went one better with an ICA made up of ten tracks in which uncommon instruments were used – Steel Drums, Theremin, Oboe, Musical Saw, Harp, Xylophone, Melodica, Spoons, Harpsichord and Mellotron.

The task I set myself was to come up with ten completely different instruments. I’ve managed it, and while there’s a few more familiar instruments involved, they are not heard on recordings on a very frequent basis. Oh, and I only had to look one of them up. Let’s starts with something Scottish……

SIDE A

1. Bagpipes

Sleep The Clock Around – Belle and Sebastian

The pipes drone their way in at the end of this, the second track of the band’s third album, The Boy With The Arab Strap. Credit is given to Ian Mackay for this one and appears to be the only song on which the piper is credited anywhere on Discogs.

2. Banjo

Sing – Travis

I’m not a musician and haven’t ever paid much attention to the origins of any instruments. I’ve always assumed the banjo came out of one of the states of America, but have now been educated and finally know that the modern take on it derives from African-style instruments brought to that part of the word by enslaved people.

Sing was the first single to be lifted from the album The Invisible Band and, in reaching #3 in May 2001 turned out to be the most successful 45 released by Travis. The banjo is played by their guitarist, Andy Dunlop.

3. Chapman Stick

I Don’t Remember – Peter Gabriel

This is the one I had to look up. I had come up with nine instruments, but reckoned that a glance at the credits on Peter Gabriel 3, released back in 1980, would throw something different up. And so it proved.

The Chapman Stick was developed in the early 70s by jazz musician Emmett Chapman. It has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or textures, and unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, rather than plucking them. (you can tell I’ve looked this up!!). Tony Levin, a proliic session and touring musician, was one of the first to specialise in playing the Chapman Stick and it’s his work you’ll hear on I Don’t Remember.

4. Glockenspiel

No Surprises – Radiohead

A rather beautiful number from OK Computer (1997) which was later released as a single and reached #4 in January 1998. The single was accompanied by a brilliant but scary video that I’m sure all of you have seen. If not, then head over to YouTube or the likes. The glockenspiel on this one is courtesy of Jonny Greenwood.

5. Trombone

Hyperactive – Thomas Dolby

It seems that Thomas Dolby wrote this with the intention of having Michael Jackson record it. Having sent the ‘King of Pop’ a demo version but hearing nothing back, he decided to have a go at it himself, and in doing so kind of throws the kitchen sink at it, including a trombone solo from Peter Thoms

SIDE B

1. Accordion

This Is The Day – The The

An instrument that makes me think of France, as it seems to accompany any first sighting of the Eiffel Tower in any feature film or documentary. It’s use on this, one of my favourite songs of all time, made it a certainty for the ICA. It is played by the then 24-year-old and largely unknown Wix, but who has since become a bit of a legend as part of Paul McCartney‘s touring band since 1989.

2. Mandolin

When I’m Asleep –Butcher Boy

Yet another song in which the accordion introduces proceedings, this time thanks to Alison Eales. But its inclusion on the ICA is thanks to Basil Pieroni’s contribution via mandolin. It was either this or Losing My Religion, but I reckon you’re being treated to a better song.

3. Harmonica

For Once In My Life – Stevie Wonder

I wasn’t sure about including the harmonica in the ICA as it is quite common, relatively speaking. There are hundreds of examples out there, but I’ve settled on this rather fabulous upbeat pop single from 1968. Stevie Wonder‘s take on it is quite different from the original, as it was written as, and subsequently recorded as, a slow ballad by a number of different performers.

4. Bassoon

Flaming Sword – Care

I knew this single from 1983 contained an unusual instrument, but I couldn’t have told you what was making the sound. But I’ve just finished reading Revolutionary Spirit: A Post-Punk Exorcism, the very enjoyable memoir penned by Paul Simpson, who among other things was one-half of Care, and he mentions, on Page 205, that it is bassoon-laden. He doesn’t say, however, who played it.

5. Clarinet

Say Hello Wave Goodbye – Soft Cell

Not the version you all are most familiar with, either through the 7″ or 12″ singles that have been featured on the blog on many previous occasions. This is the b-side of the 7″. It’s an instrumental version. It’s rather wonderful, thanks to the two Daves – Mr Ball or synths and drum machine and Mr Tofani on clarinet.

Bonus Song

Tindersticks – No More Affairs (instrumental)

In keeping with the closing track of the ICA, here’s the b-side of a 1994 single, in which the voice of Stuart Staples is replaced by the magnificent Terry Edwards on trumpet.

JC

Various

WELCOME…. TO NOTHING MUCH

Untitled

mp3: Various – Welcome to Nothing Much

First new day of the month has come to mean an hour-long mixtape round these parts.

Hope this one meets your approval.

The National – Apartment Story
Basement Jaxx – Red Alert
Magazine – Definitive Gaze
Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love?
Sons & Daughters – Dance Me In (album version)
Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing
Working Men’s Club – Teeth
Dinosaur Jr. – Freakscene
dEUS – Suds and Soda (album version)
Brenda – Cease and Desist
Kirsty MacColl – Walking Down Madison (album version)
The Clash – The Magnificent Seven
Electronic – Feel Every Beat (7″ remix)
Album Club– The Hard Part
The Wedding Present – What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?

JC

Care

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (76)

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This one has been inspired by Revolutionary Spirit : A Post-Punk Exorcism, a book published in late 2023 by Jawbone Press, a London-based independent publisher which specialises in music and popular culture.

It was written by Paul Simpson. I’ll let the Jawbone Press folk say some things:-

“Part memoir, part social history, Revolutionary Spirit is the poignant, often hilarious story of a cult Liverpool musician’s scenic route to fame and artistic validation. If Morrissey was the Oscar Wilde of the 1980s indie scene, Paul Simpson was its William Blake, a self-destructive genius so lost in mystical visions of a new arcadia that he couldn’t meet the rent.

“Simpson’s career begins alongside fellow Liverpool luminaries Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie, Will Sergeant, Pete Wylie, Pete Burns, and Pete de Freitas at the infamous Eric’s club, where, in 1976, he finds himself at the birth of the city’s second great musical explosion. Along the way, he co-founds and christens the neo-psychedelic pop group The Teardrop Explodes, shares a flat with a teenage Courtney Love, and forms The Wild Swans, the indie band of choice for literary-minded teens in the early 1980s, who burn bright and brief, in the process recording one of the all-time great cult hit singles, ‘Revolutionary Spirit’.

“Marriage, fatherhood, and tropical illness follow, interspersed with artistic collaborations with Bill Drummond and members of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, among others. Following an onstage reunion with Cope at the Royal Festival Hall, Simpson discovers that seven thousand miles away, in the Philippines, he is considered a musical god. Presidential suites, armed guards, police escorts—you couldn’t make it up, and, incredibly, he doesn’t need to.

“Revolutionary Spirit marks the arrival of an original literary voice. It is the story of a musician driven by an unerring belief that artistic integrity will bring its own rewards—and an elliptical elegy to the ways it does.”

It really is a remarkable and engaging read. It is not your typical rock bio, and is very much all the better for it. The chapters on his childhood and upbringing are every bit as enjoyable as the years when he was such an integral part of the Liverpool ‘scene’, while the later years, which cover a long period when I was unaware that Paul Simpson was still involved in making music, are illuminating. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The chapters on his time with Care make for rather sad reading. Without going into too much detail, he had been burned by the break-up of The Wild Swans and embittered by the success of The Lotus Eaters, who in effect were The Wild Swans with a different vocalist. He hooked up with Ian Broudie, then trying hard to make it as a performer rather than merely as a producer, and they signed to a major label in the shape of Arista Records. A debut single was recorded in the summer of 1983 with uber-producers Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley.

There was considerable airplay via the evening shows on Radio 1, which is where I heard it and fell heavily for its charms. But it didn’t make the A-list, and the single faded into obscurity.

The friends of the two musicians, and the book reveals there’s a huge cast who come into that category, suggested that maybe Ian Broudie should produce things from now on. He was at the helm of the follow-up single, Flaming Sword, which got to #48 in November 1983.

Work got underway on a third single as well as songs intended for a debut album. The third single, Whatever Possessed You, hit the shops in early 1984 at which point Paul Simpson got cold feet and walked out on Care.

Ian Broudie was stunned by this, but his ambitions weren’t derailed, which is why, a few years later, he in essence went solo but under the guise of Lightning Seeds. Paul Simpson went down a totally different path…..

Care really could have been and should have been contenders. But it’s quite clear, from Paul Simpson’s own recollections, that they were more or less doomed from the outset.

All the music by Care that was either fully produced or in the process of being finalised was collated on a 1997 CD, Diamonds & Emeralds, which really only saw the light of day as something of a cash-in on the success of Lightning Seeds. But let’s be grateful for small mercies.

Here’s the tracks from the 12″ version of the debut single, of which I’ve been a proud owner for 41 years!

mp3 : Care – My Boyish Days (Drink To Me)
mp3 : Care – An Evening In The Ray
mp3 : Care – Sad Day For England

The version that can be found on Diamonds & Emeralds is different in that it has a longer outro offering up an additional 40 seconds or so.

JC

Cure, Destroy All Monsters, Fingerprintz, Jilted John, Ramones, Those Naughty Lumps

SHAKEDOWN, 1979 (January, part three)

While lying on a beach in Barbados last month, it hit me that quite a few tremendous, or at the very least, interesting, singles from 1979 wouldn’t have made the charts and would therefore be missing from this series. So, the plan is to consult one of my reference books – in this case the mighty tome that is The Great Indie Discography by Martin C. Strong (Canongate Books Ltd, 2003 edition) – and find some 45s which didn’t sell in great numbers. These are from January 79.

mp3: The Cure – Killing An Arab

The band’s debut was released on 22 December 1978 on Small Wonder Records, and later in 1979 was given a re-release on Fiction Records. Those lucky enough to have a Small Wonder pressing could get £150 upwards if they wanted to sell it.

mp3: Destroy All Monsters – Bored

Destroy All Monsters came to be in Detroit in the mid-late 70s. The vocalist was Niagara, (real name Lynn Rovner), a former model and visual artist, while the musicians included, among others, Mike Davis (ex-MC5) and Ron Asheton (ex-Stooges). This was their debut single, released in the UK on a then newly-formed label, Cherry Red Records (Bored has the catalogue number Cherry 3). I think it would be fair to say that Sonic Youth were influenced by them.

mp3: Fingerprintz – Dancing With Myself

Debut single, on Virgin Records, of a London-based band whose singer Jimmie O’Neill was from the Glasgow area. Fingerprintz were perfectly described by Martin Strong:-

One of the earliest bands to translate the energy and anger of punk into a more accessible New Wave style, they were an obvious choice for Virgin.

mp3: Jilted John – True Love

The eponymous debut single had gone Top 5 in August 1978, but ultimately proved to be a one-hit wonder for the first alter-ego of Graham Fellows. There was an album, True Love Stories, which was produced by Martin Hannett, from which this single was lifted without much fanfare in January 1979. Twee-pop anyone?

mp3: The Ramones – She’s The One

This was the third single to be lifted from the Road To Ruin album, but if failed to trouble the charts. Its b-side, which could also be found on the album, is probably the better known song:-

mp3: The Ramones – I Wanna Be Sedated

Bill Drummond has been around a long time. He’d been part of Big In Japan, whose debut (and only) single has been the first release on the Liverpool-based Zoo Records. He was also part of the band which who released the label’s second 45:-

mp3: Those Naughty Lumps – Iggy Pop’s Jacket

Bill played lead guitar on this one.

JC

Jam

THE 12″ LUCKY DIP (2)

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Another one that was picked up in Canada.

Absolute Beginners was only ever issued on 7″ in the UK. It was released in October 1981, and got to #4 in the singles chart. The b-side, Tales From The Riverbank, is considered by quite a few fans to be the better song. It’s certainly quite a contrasting effort, being a psychedelic-type of number where the a-side was a joyous and triumphant blast of soul/r’n’b.

I don’t know the exact date when this Canadian version was put into the shops. It contains five tracks – the two sides of the UK single, along with two previous singles and one of the best-loved of the band’s b-sides. All told, it would certainly make for a decent side of an ICA….

mp3: The Jam – Absolute Beginners
mp3: The Jam – Tales From The Riverbank
mp3: The Jam – When You’re Young
mp3: The Jam – Funeral Pyre
mp3: The Jam – Liza Radley

I’ve always loved the photo that was used for the picture sleeve of this single and wondered where it was taken. There’s no info or credits offered up on either the UK or Canadian releases.

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part Fourteen)

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I’d long believed that the executives at RCA were quite satisfied that Seamonsters reached #13 in the album charts the week after it was released on 27 May 1991. Turns out I was wrong, as will be evidenced at the end of this week’s musings.

Nobody knew it at the time, but it would prove to be the second and final studio album that the group would record for the label, and indeed no studio album by The Wedding Present would ever again get into the Top 20 – compilation albums would do well in 1992, but that’s for upcoming parts of this series.

Two months after the album hit the shops, an edited version of one of its songs was released as a second single, or more accurately, the lead track of a new EP:-

mp3: The Wedding Present – Lovenest

It’s about a minute shorter, omitting the ‘beached whale’ guitar sounds that take up the opening 20 seconds of the album version, with the other 40 seconds being chopped off the lengthy outro, which on the album, segues majestically into the re-recorded version of Corduroy, a song that had been part of the 3 Songs EP.

There were no real obvious radio friendly songs on Seamonsters, and compared to previous singles, it was something of a low-key effort, issued on 12″ and CD only, with the same three new tracks made available on both releases:-

mp3 : The Wedding Present – Mothers
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Dan Dare
mp3 : The Wedding Present – Fleshworld

All three songs were engineered by Steve Albini, so I’m guessing it meant all the tracks recorded in Minnesota back in April were now in the public domain.

The first of them is a cover of song by the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience. I have always been under the asumption that they was some sort of weird and underground 60s act, but it turns out they were an 80s/90s indie band from New Zealand, with Mothers being a track on a version of their 1989 album, The Size Of Food. I’d love to tell you more, but I’d only be guessing. One thing for sure, is that it does sound like a TWP original, with the anguished shouts of ‘you were going out with HIM!!!!!’

Here’s the original version:-

mp3: Jean-Paul Sartre Experience – Mothers

Dan Dare is a rare thing…..or was at that point in time….an instrumental. It’s short and to the point, coming in at not much more than a minute-and-a-half.

Boring fact alert. Dan Dare is the only song recorded in Minnesota that had more than a one-word title. All ten songs on the album, plus the b-sides that were Niagara, Mothers and Fleshworld. Talking of which…

……it’s another of the many excellent songs relegated to b-sides over the years. This is one that I think must have come close to being included on Seamonsters, but then again, don’t ask me which of the tracks it would have taken the place of.

One final point to wrap up today.

The sessions for Seamonsters weren’t all sweetness and light, and not long after the band returned to the UK, the decision was taken to sack Peter Solowka. His place on the subsequent live dates was taken up by Paul Dorrington, which meant just two of the original members were now part of the group. It was a sore one for ‘Grapper’ as can be seen from an answers he gave in an on-line interview in 2005:-

Q: Describe your time with The Wedding Present in five words:

A: “Thoroughly enjoyable life-changing journey”

Q: Tell us exactly why you left The Wedding Present?

A : ” I was kicked out! Officially this was for not being a good enough guitar player and not contributing enough to the song-writing (David still feels he needs to recite this story 14 years after the event). I’m not going to entertain this idea further by listing things that I’ve done. All I’ll say is that I know who I am and what I’ve been responsible for, and I can’t agree with this idea.

“Reasons for actions such as this are complex but I am sure that it had a lot to do with the following. We had just recorded ‘Seamonsters’ – our (in RCA’s opinion) ‘very difficult’ third album. RCA needed something that would increase sales beyond our fanbase and although we were really happy with the album, it was clear to us that there was no ‘mega hit’ there. We knew we’d have to face their disapproval. Also, the Ukrainian music was still generating interest, at times deflecting interviewers from the current records we were trying to promote. As I was the Ukrainian link, they thought this problem would go away when I did. I feel I was made a bit of a scapegoat for the band’s failings.

“David, Simon and Keith did not consult me about any of my wishes or plans, even though we’d been on the same team for five years. I was especially disappointed with David as we’d been friends since school. After twenty years, I expected a lot more from him.”

———

Peter would continue to write, record and play music with The Ukrainians as a fully-fledged band, and would later become a science teacher in schools. In due course, the wounds did heal to some extent, with The Ukrainians playing at the second staging of the annual Edge Of The Sea festival back in 2010 and the eleventh staging in 2019.

And with that, we are about to hit 1992 in which TWP again took the record label by surprise.

JC

Zed Penguin

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #389: ZED PENGUIN

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Last week’s entry featured a singer via the 2013 Song, By Toad Sampler. Today’s featured group, Zed Penguin, were also on that sampler, but I also have two further tracks, courtesy of them being part of a spilt 12″ on the same label in the same year. This is one of them:-

mp3: Zed Penguin – Wandering

There are four musicians in the Edinburgh-based group – Matthew Winter (vocals, guitar), James Metcalfe (bass), Casey Miller (drums) and Atzi Muramatsu (cello). All the music I have dates from 2013, but there was, much later, a debut album A Ghost, A Beast issued on Song, By Toad in 2019. The reason for such a delay is sad and sickening, in that Matthew Winter was the victim of a serious assault one evening in Edinburgh, the effects of which were significant and long-lasting. Not only was his physical and mental health impacted, but the inability to be in any paid employment meant that finances to work on the album weren’t there.

The album was one of the last to be released on Song, By Toad prior to the label coming to an end. There’s still a Zed Penguin presence on Bandcamp and Facebook, but there’s been no signs of any new music being recorded or released.

JC

Joy Division

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #045

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#045– Joy Division – ‘Atmosphere’ (Factory Records ’80)

jd11

Dear friends,

„oh, bugger off:“, I hear you saying, “’bloody ‘Atmosphere’! Are you serious?! Why not ‘Transmission’? Or ‘Love Will Tear us Apart’?”.

Well, yes, you have a point there, I admit. Still, I think we can start a war upon what’s the best Joy Division song released on 7” – and probably no-one will ever win this war. I mean, yes – if I had a 7” copy of ‘Transmission’, I would perhaps even have chosen it instead. But those go for € 50,- these days – and that’s one reason why it’s ‘Atmosphere’ today.

Basically the same applies for not presenting something from ‘An Ideal For Living’, but a) it’s questionable whether ‘Leaders Of Men’ and/or ‘Failures Of The Modern Man’ are preferable to ‘Atmosphere’ (‘Warsaw’ and ‘No Love Lost’ certainly are not!) and b) the current value for a copy is € 8.000,-. So, perhaps after Christmas, who knows?

So its inclusion today is an objective of cheap in a way, if you want. Forgive me. And also I know that ‘Atmosphere’ is often considered as not being one of ‘the real things’, if you know what I mean … not in a ‘row’ along with ‘Transmission’, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and ‘She’s Lost Control’. Probably its fragility is one reason, it being overshadowed by ‘She’s Lost Control’ at the time of release another one.

Then again, perhaps you remember, on the US-release of the 12”, ‘Atmosphere’ was the A-Side and ‘She’s Lost Control’ was (only) the B-Side. A questionable decision perhaps, but then again Factory Records have never been famous for marketing wisdom, have they? They even had to hold back the UK release for half a year to avoid affecting the sales of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

This though was not a problem for the lucky ones who managed to get their hands on one of the 1578 copies of ‘Licht & Blindheit’, a 7” issued on a French label, Sordide Sentimental, which had ‘Dead Souls’ on the flipside. Why? Because those lottery winners (it’s now worth € 3.000,-) would have known the song since March ’80 – before ‘Love Will Take Us Apart’, in fact! Also it was already recorded in October of 1979, quite some time before ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.

So, the point I’m trying to make is: if you look closely, it’s a song which should not just be seen as a nice dessert served after a superb three-course-dinner. No, it actually had its (deserved) place in the ‘Joy Division sequence of things’: as far as I’m concerned, and I have never seen this differently, ‘Atmosphere’ simply is a brilliant song – and therefore it should not be neglected:

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mp3: Joy Division – Atmosphere

If you remember, the links in this series always lead to a rip of mine of the actual 7” singles – depending on their age and the way they were recorded the sound quality may suffer a bit from time to time. It will probably do so even more than usual on this occasion, because ‘Atmosphere’ might well be the most quiet and frail one in all of the 111 songs.

Also, both of my copies of ‘Licht & Blindheit’ are currently in a bank safe in Switzerland (along with all my Misfits and early Postcard singles plus a copy of ‘God Save The Queen’ on A&M), therefore I had to rip the 1988 reissue which, confusingly enough, has ‘The Only Mistake’ as the B-Side – it’s the very same version as the original one though.

Still, I hope you enjoy it. I certainly do.

Peace,

Dirk

Melanie

MELANIE SAFKA : AN APPRECIATION

A guest posting by flimflamfan

mel

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.