The Twilight Sad appear to have won legions of new fans this year, thanks to them being the special guests of The Cure on what was a very extensive tour of North America back in May and June.
It’s not, of course, the first tour they have undertaken as the specially invited guests of the legendary pop-goths, and the fact they were asked to do so again is testament to their abilities not to be overawed by the logistics of playing in cavernous arenas not forgetting also that Robert Smith has been a long-time admirer of their music.
It was back in 2015 when Smith provided a vocal to a Twilight Sad song, one which was issued as part of a Double-A side single:-
mp3: Robert Smith – There’s A Girl In The Corner
The song had originally appeared as the opening song on the album Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave. I’m sure I wasn’t alone, when I read that it was to form one half of the latest Twilight Sad single, that it would be one where he contributed a vocal to either the original tune or would see him in the studio with the band doing it all again fresh.
Nope.
As you can see from the back of the sleeve above, the voices and instruments were all the work of Robert Smith, and that he engineered, produced and mixed everything too.
The result is hugely enjoyable, with James Graham and Andy MacFarlane both saying at the time how thrilled they were that one of their heroes had accepted what they thought was an ambitious request to cover one of their songs.
But it’s not a patch on the original.
mp3: The Twilight Sad – There’s A Girl In The Corner
I’ve this one on 7″ white vinyl, which I had long believed was the only format in which it was released. Turns out there’s a rare and sought after CD version, with only 100 copies issued as a promotional release in America.
The late Alan Rankine, who passed away on 2 January 2023, was probably best known as being a founder member of Associates. He quit in 1982, not too long after the release of their third album, Sulk, quickly moving into production during which he worked with, among others, Paul Haig, Cocteau Twins and The Pale Fountains.
He returned to performing in 1986, eventually recording three solo albums before moving on in a new direction by joining Stow College in Glasgow as a lecturer on a music business course, where he was instrumental in providing a very firm launchpad for the career of Belle & Sebastian.
His solo material was a bit on the patchy side, and that’s me being kind. This is the single which also lent its name to his debut album:-
mp3: Alan Rankine – The World Begins To Look Her Age
It’s one in which the kitchen sink has been thrown at, production wise, but all it seems to do is highlight that his own vocal is quite one-dimensional and limited. I don’t think he was ever cut out to be a frontman. He was probably more comfortable doing the more experimental stuff that was on the b-side:-
mp3: Alan Rankine – Can You Believe Everything I See? (Part 2)
This single, like much of his solo material came out on Virgin Records. It didn’t chart.
#038– The Jam– ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ (Polydor Records ’78)
Hello friends,
in the long run The Jam certainly were one of the most notable bands of all time. If you just consider the five years from ‘In The City’ to ‘The Gift’, there aren’t that many competitors who managed to keep up with such a level of constant brilliance. This makes it rather hard to pick just one single out of the big lot that the band had released within this period. So at the end of the day, basically it could have been any other one, but I went for their eighth 7”, ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’, taken from their third album, from 1978.
Why this one? Well, just like The Clash, The Jam have always been a “lyrics band” for me. I well remember that once I finally had access to internet (when would that have been? 1995 or thereabouts?) I more or less immediately tried to get hold of free porn Jam lyrics, and when being successful, it was always a revelation for me, nearly for each and every tune of theirs. But I think finally being able to understand the full lyrics of ‘Tube Station’ stood out by quite some distance.
Of course I had already realized that Weller is not exactly singing about love, peace and harmony, no, the message seemed to be quite the opposite, in fact. But only after having access to the ‘missing parts’ – the bits I simply couldn’t translate, regardless how often I would play the record – the circle closed, and I loved the tune even more than I already had done before – a masterpiece, I thought: not only lyrically, but musically as well, obviously.
The funny thing is: Weller wasn’t at all fond of the song, so I learnt very much later. He even didn’t want to have it on the album. Apparently the producer, Vic Coppersmith-Heaven convinced him in the end: “I was insistent on him reviving it, and once the band got involved and we developed the sound it turned into an absolutely brilliant track, a classic. Maybe we would have come around to recording it later on in the project, but he’d just reached that point of ‘Oh bollocks, this isn’t working, it’s a load of crap.’”
In hindsight, it seems rather ludicrous that Paul Weller thought so bad about this song. But it is easily forgotten that Weller was only 20 years old in 1978. Me, I could barely write my bloody name when I was 20, let alone write three essential albums full of clever lyrics – which often tried to give the listener an understanding of the fucked up state of Britain’s politics, economy and society.
But the BBC, in their wisdom – instead of putting the single on heavy rotation in order to spread the word – subsequently banned it: in a time when racism was commonly accepted in British society, the song’s powerful message was not acceptable to play on the radio for the station apparently. To quote Tony Blackburn, BBC Top DJ at the time: “It’s disgusting the way punks sing about violence. Why can’t they sing about trees and flowers?”
These days a down-right ridiculous attitude of course, but as it seems at least a handful of young Britons were ahead of their time, because ‘Down In The Tube Station At Midnight’ became The Jam’s second Top 20 hit:
mp3: The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
And finally, for fact-fans: the cover photo was shot on Bond Street tube station on the Central Line whereas the sound of an Underground train at the beginning of the song was recorded at St. John’s Wood Station.
The eighth of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
OK. This is a total nostalgia kick. There’s a huge number of singers and bands who’ve been around for decades flogging many a dead horse to fans who are prepared to pay silly money for limited edition represses, gig tickets, t-shirts and all the other paraphernalia that comes with music in the modern era. I’m as guilty as most when it comes to forking out, although I’ve increasingly become tetchy and unwilling to pay the asking price for live shows which are unlikely to be as memorable or enjoyable as those from a few years or decades ago. (£50 for the Bunnymen at the Barrowlands next year? No thanks…….)
I did, however, fork out for the James show in Glasgow that was to feature an orchestra and choir. I did so as the venue was more than decent, and I’m very fond of hearing songs adapted to include strings. It proved to be a good call, as it turned out to be one of the best of what ended up being many live highlights during 2023.
I have to admit that the actual performance was far more spine-tingling than the accompanying album, but that really is down to the magic of seeing and enjoying things in the flesh as opposed to hearing a note-for-note perfect reproduction at home via the stereo speakers. It’s also the fact that the running order of the live show was quite different from the order in which the songs appear over the four sides of the vinyl, as well as having a number of songs that don’t appear on the record. But, all minor grumblings aside, Be Opened By The Wonderful is an album I’m very happy to recommend be added to your wish list from Santa if you’re looking for ideas.
I love that James went deep into the back catalogue for this one. Yup, a fair chunk of the better-known hits are given the full treatment, but there’s also a fair number of album tracks from before they hit payola, at least one very obscure b-side, a handful of songs from their most recent releases and one completely new song. They have all been imaginatively arranged by Joe Duddell, the Manchester-based composer and conductor, and the playing by the ORCA 22 Orchestra and the singing from the Manchester Inspirational VoicesChoir is, as you’d expect, from the very top drawer, as too is the playing by the various members of James.
But none of it would work if Tim Booth wasn’t on top form. It’s hard to believe that he sounds as young, fresh and invigorated as he did when he started out some 40 years ago. He brings beauty, drama, power and raw emotion to every one of the tracks, his voice soaring when required but falling to a near whisper when the moments call for it, sometimes on the same song.
mp3: James – Hey Ma
The album and concept was pulled together to mark 40 years in the business. It would have been easy enough to go down some sort of box set route, but instead the band, and all involved with them on the management side, have spared no expense in this incredibly lavish production. Here’s one of the big hits.
If you need any more tasters for what the album offers, you can hear everything over at the James YouTube channel. Just click here.
A guest posting by J.C. Brouchard (our French Correspondent)
When JC placed a call for a guest posting about Rachid Taha, I thought I could only step up to the plate.
After all, I bought his band Carte de Séjour’s first record back in 1982 and wrote about it on my blog Vivonzeureux! back in 2007 (click here) and earlier this year, I remembered and reviewed one of his solo singles (click here). I have read his autobiography, Rock la casbah and many years ago, I bought on release and thoroughly enjoyed Carte de Séjour’s biggest hit Douce France, which I’m glad to introduce you to today.
What made Carte de Séjour stand out after they formed in Lyon in the early 1980’s is that they were a great rock band, with a line-up made up mostly of « beurs » (a French slang word which became popular at the time, derived from a reverse pronunciation of Arab »). They were maybe one of the first, and not many have followed suit since.
Their name itself was a statement (The « carte de séjour » is the residence card for foreigners in France) and they purposely elected to write lyrics in an arabic-Algerian dialect mixing in some French words.
Carte de Séjour performed their cover of Douce France for the first time on June 15th 1985 at a huge anti-racist concert on Place de la Concorde in Paris. A short clip is on YouTube, with comment by Rachid Taha, complete with subtitles:-
The choice to cover this Charles Trenet song was perfect. The original song itself has a chequered history. It was written and first performed by Charles Trenet in the 1940’s, during the German occupation. Some took this nostalgic paean to France and childhood memories as an endorsement of the Vichy regime, while others saw in it some form of passive resistance to the Germans, harking back to an eternal idealised France. Trenet first recorded it in 1947, and it became a classic of the « chanson française ».
Carte de Séjour recorded their studio version of Douce France with British producer Nick Patrick, who worked a lot with Barclay artists at the time and had produced Alain Bashung’s Touche pas à mon pote the year before. It was released as a single and was also included on their second album, 2 ½.
mp3: Carte de Séjour – Douce France
Asked later what he meant by covering this song, Rachid Taha replied « I meant «Fuck you», » We are here, we are to stay for good, we can sing this, we can sing Brassens,… ».
It was a way to reclaim a piece of French heritage as their own, but if their intentions were initially ironical, as underlined, by the use of a forced Arabic accent, it is not exactly the way in which their cover was ultimately received.
Here’s how Barbara LEBRUN puts it in “Carte de Séjour: Revisiting ‘Arabness’ and Anti-Racism in 1980s France.”, the first academic study published in English about Carte de Séjour (Popular Music 31, no. 3 (2012): 331–46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026114301200027X) :
«the unchanged lyrics suggested that ‘Arabs’ expressed their love of France just as Trenet, and by extension white French people, once had. This literal interpretation also implied that, like the French, ‘Arabs’ had had childhoods in France, were an integral part of the nation, and kept ‘sweet’ memories of their life in France. This assimilationist interpretation was not intended.(…)
Taha detested Le Pen, but his intentions in this cover were ironic rather than literal. Instead of appropriating the patriotism of the original, his ‘Douce France’ was ‘an antiphrasis. It was out of irony precisely because France was not sweet for immigrants, that we chose that title’ »
The Douce France cover was a soft but also violent way to denounce rampant fascism, in the context of ambient racism, the rising far-right Front national and a new rightist government intent on fighting immigration (If you think the past sounds like our present, you’re unfortunately right !).
This culminated on November 19th 1986, when Parliament was debating a reform of the Nationality Code. With the band’s approval, ex-culture minister Jack Lang and Charles Trenet himself took it upon themselves to hand out copies of the single to members of Parliament at the National Assembly.
I didn’t underline it enough, but Carte de Séjour’s version of the song is a success all over, energic and exhilarating.
Unfortunately, even with a lot of media coverage, it was not that big a hit. The band never really made it big and split after two albums.
We’ve now reached 1987, the year in which The Wedding Present would break out of cult status and take firm grip of the indie-scene in the UK. It all began with the release of a new song in February, one which was given the accolade of ‘Single Of The Week’ in the NME:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – My Favourite Dress
There can’t be too many of us who haven’t been on the bad end of a painful break-up at some point in time. The luckier ones are those who never see the previous other half ever again, but such instances are very rare. It is an inevitability that paths will cross in the most difficult and agonising circumstances. Plenty of poems, prose and songs throughout history have touched on the theme, but there can’t be many better that have captured the gut-wrenching feeling of having it confirmed with your own eyes that it really is all over.
“A stranger’s hand on my favourite dress. That was my favourite dress you know.”
It was released on 7″ and 12″ on Reception Records.
As with previous singles, the b-sides proved to be worthy of attention.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Every Mother’s Son mp3: The Wedding Present – Never Said
The former is a ridiculous burst of energy that is done and dusted in just over 90 seconds with Pete Solowka playing his guitar at a speed very few of us can comprehend, while the latter is another example of what has turned out to be the many hundreds of Gedge songs dealing with break-ups – in this instance the protagonist is seeking an explanation of what went wrong. But at least it seems he was spared seeing a stranger’s hand on his previously favourite dress.
Withered Hand is the stage name adopted by Dan Willson, an English-born but Scottish-based musician who made a bit of a comeback this year after quite a lengthy spell out of the limelight.
He was a relative latecomer to music, seemingly not picking up a guitar until the late-90s, by which time he was in his 30s. Around the turn of the century and beyon, he became part of a number of bands based in the Edinburgh-area, none of which made any sort of commercial breakthrough. He was then involved in the Fife-based Fence Collective scene, quickly making a name for himself as a talented singer-songwriter in the folk/indie style that was becoming increasingly popular in Scotland at the time.
In 2009, he released what proved to be a very-well received debut album Good News, on Edinburgh-based SL Records, all the while attracting very positive press for his live shows. The next few years would see a number of EPs and singles and a move to Fortuna Pop!/Slumberland Records for whom he recorded New Gods, his second album, in 2014.
New Gods is a hugely enjoyable record from start to finish, and for a time it looked as if Dan would be the next singer/songwriter to emerge out of Scotland to a wider, international audience.
But it has taken nine years to write and record a follow-up, with How To Love making its appearance back on 28 April, and the momentum has been lost. In the media rounds accompanying the new release, Dan hasn’t shirked away from explaining what happened, revealing that he has been having severe struggles with his mental health much of his life, trying to deal and cope with anxiety, depression and addiction. He found himself totally unable to write anything in the wake of the acclaim heaped on New Gods.
I’m really pleased that Dan is on the comeback trail, and I did make a purchase of the new album a few months back. But it’s proving to be a difficult listen – it’s not that I think it’s a poor or disappointing record, but it had so much to live up to with the previous two albums and I can’t help but think it comes up a bit short. I’ll persist with it in the weeks and months ahead. It could well prove to be a grower.
In the meantime, here’s one of the songs from New Gods.
#037– The Indelicates– ‘We Hate The Kids’ (Sad Gnome Records ’06)
Hello dear friends,
what would the world of music be without all those fine famous duets consisting of a male and a female part? You know what I mean, clear, strong, beautiful voices, which, in the combination of themselves – plus a little bit of seduction, if I may say so -, enrich a song to a degree where shivers are being sent down your spine each and every time you hear it. There have been quite a few of those duets over the years: Nancy & Frank Sinatra, John Travolta & Olivia Newton John, Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes, Sonny & Cher, Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, Simon & Julia Indelicate … sorry, what do you say? Oh, the latter are not known to you? Well, let’s revise this then straightaway – because quite clearly they are the fucking best of the whole lot, no question about this!!
Simon and Julia Indelicate, or Simon Clayton and Julia Clark-Lowes, to give them their real names, founded The Indelicates in Brighton in 2005. Simon was a poet, active in cabaret things, so most probably that’s why he didn’t appear on our radar before. Julia though was active in The Pipettes for two years, and perhaps this name rings a bell – it certainly should, they were a great little combo!
The Indelicates gained some attention with the online-only release of a tune called “Waiting For Pete Doherty To Die” in 2005. Doherty, he of TheLibertines fame, but back then in Babyshambles, still was quite big in the press at the time, mainly for what he put in (drugs + drinks) than for what he put out (good music), I think it’s fair to say, so the song soon became the source of a lot of misunderstanding and controversial mentions in the press.
I won’t go into detail here, but if you listen to the tune and its lyrics, you will very quickly find out that it wasn’t about wishing Doherty to die, but instead about the media profiting of the death of musicians in general (before I forget: by coincidence I saw an up-to-date picture of good ole’ Pete a few weeks ago, opening some art exhibition here in Germany. You have to google him, you won’t believe your eyes if you, like me, last saw him some 15 years or so ago).
But I digress, as I so often do. Today’s song has nothing to do with any of the above apart from the fact how important lyrics can be: it is The Indelicates’ first proper single from one year later, 2006, in fact. The band found a record company, Sad Gnome Records, the single being the label’s first release, and although I tried to follow them a bit for a few years, they never did anything quite as fantastic as this afterwards, I would say:
mp3: The Indelicates – We Hate The Kids
Obviously this is one of those songs that lives from its lyrics, and boy – that’s what I call lyrics! A perfect mixture of cynicism, disaffection and cleverness, well-packed in a lo-fi tune that make you want to jump along with it. What more could you possibly ask for, I wonder? One year later the band released an EP called ‘The Last Significant Statement To Be Made In Rock ‘n’ Roll’.
Well, as far as I’m concerned, ‘We Hate The Kids’ actually has already been the last significant statement to be made in rock’n’roll. By a mile …
The seventh of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
The inclusion of Brutal by Spare Snare shouldn’t come as a surprise, given how much I waxed lyrically about it a few months back as part of a lengthy double-feature over two successive days with Jan Burnett, the band’s lead singer. I know that the lengthier articles on the blog are glossed over by a few folk, so I’m happy enough to do a bit of cutting and pasting from that time.
Most Spare Snare records are released in a low-key manner, partly as the time constraints on everyone really restricts how much can be delivered in the way of promotional activities. This time around, the release of the album is going to be accompanied by a week-long tour of venues in England, with Scottish dates later on at weekends. There’s a real desire and willingness to get the album out to as wide a crowd as possible, with a collective belief that it is as strong a collection of tunes as any they have ever delivered.
It’s a compact effort, with its ten tracks coming in at around 35 minutes all told. I played it with a pre-conceived idea of what a Steve Albini-engineered album was likely to sound like based on listening and enjoying his work with The Wedding Present, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey and so on, but found myself really appreciating how different and diverse things sounded on this occasion. I really shouldn’t have been caught out in that way given that Albini is far removed from being a one-trick pony, having worked with, among others, The Auteurs, Low, Cinerama and Jarvis Cocker, none of whom relied extensively or exclusively on guitars to make great albums.
But please, don’t be under the impression that the brilliance of this record is down solely to the magician behind the desk.
Far from it.
Spare Snare have very much upped their game on this occasion. As I outlined earlier, they took a different approach in the advance planning for this album, working and preparing harder than ever before. By the time they went into the studio, they knew they had a set of very strong songs, their first new material since the release of Unicorn in 2018; by the time they came out of the studio a week later, they had very much risen to the occasion and, to this particular set of ears, delivered the performance of a lifetime.
In summary, they nailed it.
mp3: Spare Snare – The Brutal
Spare Snare have always looked to closely control and manage the distribution of their music, and while there may well be copies kicking around in some of the independent record stores across the country, it’s probably best you pick it up via the Bandcamp page. Just click here.
mp3: Various – No Idea Where This Is Going (So Have Some Fucking Empathy)
For this edition of the monthly mix, I started off with a particular song to open things up, with the idea/concept that I’d try it as an imaginary live broadcast with no preparation. All I knew was that the next song and/or band would have to flow well from the previous one.
By the time I reached the 14th song, I wasn’t sure if it was working, which is where the inspiration for the 15th song, and the title of the mix, came from. The 16th song was an attempt to finish off with a bit of pop, but then realising I still had a couple of minutes left, which is why song #17 was added to take it to almost the full hour, thus enabling the incoming newsreader to do their bit and on time.
Enjoy.
The Skids – One Skin Blur – Colin Zeal Hinds – The Club Echo & The Bunnymen – Do It Clean The Wedding Present – You’re Just A Habit That I’m Trying To Break Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip – Letter From God To Man Joy Division – Disorder Working Men’s Club – X The Cranberries – Zombie SPRINTS – Modern Job Alvvays – Plimsoll Punks Grrl Gang – Dream Grrl David Westlake– The Word Around Town Half Man Half Biscuit – Persian Rug Sale at the URC Dream Wife – Leech Jane Wieldin – Rush Hour Soup Dragons – Whole Wide World
By way of a backpedalling preface, after reading the words below, maybe I’ve gone too heavy regarding my take on Alvvays’ perceived influences. But hopefully these work as very broad signposts, and might even create a bit of debate among newbies and fans. So…
Alvvays: Belinda and Bilinda – an Imaginary Compilation Album
I’ve arrived very late to the Alvvays party-proper.
That said, I was aware of the irresistible Archie, Marry Me, the 2013 sing-along single that pricked ears and turned heads in advance of the following year’s self-titled debut LP.
The mystery then, if you’re me, is why I didn’t explore beyond that one song.
Well, whatever the reason, I didn’t. And it’s therefore not in my gift or capacity to offer detailed histories of records and gigs I wasn’t experiencing. And besides, it’s likely that if you’re reading this you may well know all that stuff. Most especially if you read JC’s piece from October 2022….click here for a reminder
If you’re uninitiated though, and a bit Alvvays-curious, the Toronto-based band have variously been stapled to styles as similar and diverse as dream pop and shoegaze, power pop and twee. Genre-hoppers then, albeit beneath the blanket-descriptor of indie.
Live covers have included Camera Obscura’s Lloyd, I’m Ready to be Heartbroken and Kirsty MacColl’s He’s on the Beach. Add to these Blue by Elastica, Remember This from Dolly Mixture, Trying To Be Kind by the Motorcycle Boy and the Breeders’ Divine Hammer. Plus tracks from Devo and Ramones, and a couple from the Primitives too.
Alvvays are their own band, of course, but a love of glide guitar, bending strings and diffused vocals sometimes recalls My Bloody Valentine, post-Isn’t Anything. Indeed Easy On Your Own?, from latest LP Blue Rev (2022) – named for Rev – a skull-splitting vodka/cola drink popular in Canada – feels like a way poppier, less enigmatic Valentines. Something like this track – or the phasey Pharmacist from the same record – would have brightened that band’s singles-free m b v album from way back in 2013.
Across Alvvays’ three LPs – the eponymous debut (2014), Antisocialites (2017) and Blue Rev – there’s occasionally something approaching both a Sundays jangle and the vocal delivery of Harriet Wheeler. Could the wintry Tile by Tile, again from Blue Rev, take its place on a phantom fourth Sundays album? And winding back to Antisocialites, the spirit of old-school R.E.M. pops up too, via the coda of Atop A Cake. Plus there’s no end of Scottish indiepop. To these ears the likes of Camera Obscura and Shop Assistants.
Connected to this, and in a case of JAMC’ll Fix It, in 2016 singer and guitarist Molly Rankin joined her heroes the Jesus and Mary Chain on a stage in Sydney for Just Like Honey. And Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake sings on In Undertow, the mighty Antisocialites opener.
Selected group surnames past and present even read like the morning register at your local Scottish secondary: Rankin, of course, and also O’Hanley, MacLellan, Murphy and Riley. That’s a Celtic five-a-side right there. And because we Scots can usually find a route to claim pretty much any invention and innovation as our own, you could say that there’s some corner of a Toronto field that is forever Scotland. Glasgow, specifically. And Bellshill.
Enough. Here’s Belinda and Bilinda, an Alvvays ICA with selected tracks from all of the albums.
Side 1
1. Ones Who Love You (from Alvvays)
For me, the emotional heart of the debut LP. If you don’t have time for ten tracks, this is not a bad go-to. “You know that Archie, Marry Me band?” said my friend one evening, “Well, they do this one too.”And from then on, for both of us, that was that. There’s a lovely textured guitar and bass bed on this one.
Recommended is the live take from the December 2014 KEXP session.
A frazzle of distortion/ambience opens the in-and-out-of-consciousness Easy On Your Own?. And when it rapidly explodes following the ‘college education’ line, it’s thrilling every single time. Super drumming too. One who stalks this blog considers Molly’s Rankin’s voice to be an instrument all of its own, and the range present on this song is maybe a good example to cite.
3. Lollipop (Ode to Jim) (from Antisocialites)
The oded Jim in question being Jim Reid. But don’t expect a JAMC-style number. Instead, this is magnificently fizzy and twee, with a riot of la-la-las following an intro that maybe recalls Blondie’s Dreaming.
4. The Agency Group (from Alvvays)
From its sinister-sounding title onwards, this is a brooder that draws you deeper and deeper in.
5. In Undertow (from Antisocialites)
What an intro, and what a way to open an LP. So, naturally, it closes Side 1 of this compilation. Would love to have heard an extended guitar outro to this one.
Side 2
6. Many Mirrors (from Blue Rev)
Airy and earnest, and led by a lovely Kirsty MacCollesque vocal. And if it’s Kirsty MacCollish then it’s surely also Tracey Ullmanish. And that’s OK by me.
7. Belinda Says (from Blue Rev)
A super racket, a quieter moment, then back to noise, robust glide guitar and a key-change to die for. All this, plus a Belinda Carlisle reference. Sounding every inch a single, the band performed a storming version – elevated by live strings – on The Tonight Show at the start of 2023.
8. Atop A Cake (from Alvvays)
Scrunching this ICA down to just ten tracks was especially difficult. And the desire to well-represent all three albums meant banishing songs that would have otherwise breezed in. So Atop A Cake ended up giving Not My Baby, from Antisocialites, a biffing.
This winning eighth track is from the debut record – an album that on another day could have supplied Archie, Marry Me, and Party Police too. But, searching for criteria, and not wishing to draw lots, I chose Atop A Cake partly because that early R.E.M.ish jangle might appeal to readers of this blog who engaged, in big numbers, with JC and The Robster’s epic, near-60 posts, Singular Adventures of R.E.M. series.
Plus, and perhaps less scientifically, a song with Cake in its title is pretty much going to get the nod from me on any given day.
9. Velveteen (from Blue Rev)
Possibly the most commercial-sounding take in all of Alvvays’ catalogue.
Velveteen’s flickering 80s, John Hughesy feel is made lush and lustrous, synthy and shimmery thanks to Kerri MacLellan’s keyboards. The song is decorated with elegant lyrics of banister-sliding, of closets stuffed with lace and, most notably, contains the disarming and poignant chorus ‘Who is she?/Because I know that it can’t be me’.
So Velveteen is brill – and, yes, I’ll propose it out loud: when it comes to B(e/i)lindas, this one is more Carlisle than Butcher.
10. Forget About Life (from Antisocialites)
A bit of a cheat here, as this end track takes its cue also from the Antisocialites closer. But it’s such a terrific way to lay this ICA to rest that I couldn’t resist it.
Quite a few of the songs that will feature on this occasional series will be as a result of them being included on some sort of compilation album or CD. Such as this:-
mp3: Quasi – Hot Shit
This was one of 36 tracks on Worlds of Possibility, a 2xCD release in 2003 to mark the 10th Anniversary of Domino Records. It was one of those releases that I took a punt on – I genuinely can’t recall what I paid for it, but it was considerably more than the £1 it is going for among some current sellers on Discogs.
The punt was taken because lots of goof things were being said and written about Domino, and I wasn’t familiar whatsoever with the vast majority of the bands/singers. It proved to be an ill-advised punt as very few of them ended up being explored further, such was my disappointment with many of the ‘introductory’ tracks.
Hot Shit veers all the over place far too much for my liking. A slow, dramatic almost cinematic-theme opening soon gives way to acoustic instrumentation that is deliberately out-of-tune/distorted, which makes for an uneasy listen. Next up is a drum pattern that is quite standard in terms of beat and rhythm. Electric guitars? Check. Strained vocals?? Check.
Nothing above the ordinary. Some of you, however, may very well feel differently. That’s the beauty of the comments section; and indeed, if anyone really is a fan of the band, there will always be room for a guest ICA.
As it happens, this isn’t the first time Quasi have featured on the blog. Back in March 2014, SWC was just starting out with his blogging musings and was a regular guest correspondent. He did this piece on bands with the letter Q.
Here’s an abridged bio from allmusic:-
Idiosyncratic indie rock duo Quasi paired singer/guitarist/keyboardist Sam Coomes and drummer Janet Weiss, making music that rocked hard and was joyously tuneful when they were so inclined. Hailing from Portland, Oregon, Coomes and Weiss had previously joined forces in the group Motorgoat, but with Quasi they let their sense of humor inform both their lyrics and the buoyancy of their music, though they were willing to poke fun at serious subjects.
In the new millennium, Weiss and Coomes found a new label home with Touch & Go and The Sword of God appeared in 2001, marking some of Quasi’s sharpest material since their inception, and plenty of satiric commentary about organized religion. Two years later, the band’s snide sense of humor was highlighted once more on the politics-heavy Hot Shit, which called out the rise of conservatism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
In 2006, the band returned to the studio and, with the help of producer Dave Fridmann, released the rollicking and straightforward When the Going Gets Dark. After adding Jicks bassist Joanna Bolme to the lineup and moving to Kill Rock Stars, the group released its seventh album, American Gong, in February of 2010. Quasi returned to being a duo in 2011 before returning with their eighth album, the sprawling Mole City, in 2013.
They unofficially went on hiatus after Mole City, with both Coomes and Weiss devoting their time to other projects, but in 2019, a month after she left Sleater-Kinney, Weiss was involved in a serious auto accident that left her with a broken collarbone and two broken legs. She was still recuperating at home when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down any options for touring, and with plenty of time on her hands, Weiss and Coomes got together to jam, with their practice sessions helping her regain her skills after time away from the drum kit. They started writing songs together, and in April 2022 they set out on a 27-date tour. Later they booked time at Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, Washington and in five days recorded Quasi’s first album in a decade. Breaking the Balls of History was released on Sub Pop in February 2023.
I’m hoping that you’ll recall, from the posting just two weeks ago, mention being made of The Wedding Present playing their first ever Peel Session, recorded on 11 February 1986 and broadcast on 26 February.
Such was its popularity of the session that it was given a vinyl release before the year was out, via the Strange Fruit label that had recently been established to issue some of the best and most in-demand of the Peel show recordings.
This was among the first ten releases in the series, coming out alongside sessions by New Order (1982), The Damned (1977), Screaming Blue Messiahs (1984), Stiff Little Fingers (1978), Sudden Sway (1983), Wild Swans (1982), Madness (1979), Gang Of Four (1979), and Twa Toots (1983).
As can be seen, TWP’s session was, by two years, the most recent.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Felicity (Peel Session) mp3: The Wedding Present – What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted (Peel Session) mp3: The Wedding Present – You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends (Peel Session) mp3: The Wedding Present – This Boy Can Wait (Peel Session)
As you might expect, I’m a sucker for the Orange Juice cover. The Gedge sense of humour comes to the fore with the intro explanation of it being a William Shatner number.
For those who aren’t aware, Felicity was written by James Kirk (albeit Edwyn Collins sang lead vocal).
Oh, and What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted would undergo a name change not too long after, and eventually be recorded in the studio, as It’s What You Want That Matters.
They were on the blog just last week. It hadn’t occurred to me that they were due up in this alphabetical run-through.
Here’s wiki;-
After the dissolution of The Fire Engines, Davy Henderson formed Win with Ian Stoddart (drums, keyboards), plus ex-Fire Engine member Russell Burn (keyboards). They were joined by Emmanuel “Mani” Shoniwa (guitar/bass/backing vox), Simon Smeeton (guitar/backing vox), Karl Mariner (keyboards/backing vox), then Willie Perry (keyboards). A more determinedly pop act than The Fire Engines, they were commercially successful in Scotland, partly due to their single “You’ve Got the Power” being used in a lager advertising campaign for Scottish brewers McEwan’s.”You’ve Got the Power” appeared in the UK Singles Chart at number 95, but reportedly sold enough copies to be a hit, with Henderson stating that many copies of the record sold had been excluded from the chart data, as they (Gallup) thought the single was being illegally hyped in stores around Scotland, rather than recognising that McEwan’s was a local firm advertising in the region, with a song by a local band. However, they had another couple of hits in the UK charts with the single “Super Popoid Groove” reaching number 63 and album Uh! Tears Baby (a Trash Icon) getting to number 51 in 1987.
#036– Ian Dury & The Blockheads – ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’ (Stiff Records ’78)
Hello friends,
a further history lesson, this – at least a bit of it. Why? Well, when doing my researches for this tune, I found some interesting facts which I didn’t know about yet. Of course, you might have been familiar with them forever, who knows? In this case: just proceed to the download link.
Over the years I have always had quite a fair interest in Ian Dury. I remember having seen him performing ‘Sex & Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll’ in the very early 80’s (not live in person, I was too young, obviously, but on the telly here in Germany!), and said performance blew me away more or less. His outfit was great, and he was an interesting bloke to watch, and one with a great voice, too. But still it took me quite some years to get a copy of an early repress of 1977’s ‘New Boots And Panties!!’, I admit.
I also have to admit that this first album didn’t blow me away as much as the aforementioned performance did. There were a few good songs on it, yes, but nothing spectacular. Then the internet came up, youtube came, lyrics became available, and I delved a bit deeper into Ian Dury & The Blockheads. I even got hold of both ‘Handsome’ and ‘Wotabunch!’, the two albums he did with Kilburn And The High Roads before he accompanied The Blockheads. They were too much pub-rock for me, something I couldn’t really cope with back then (this has changed by now though!).
So, as years passed by, I nearly forgot about ‘New Boots’. I think it was some 15 years ago when I found it again when searching for something else in the collection. I put it on and – wow, it wasn’t as uninteresting as it used to be. Broadened mind perhaps, who can tell? I searched for early Blockheads-performances in the net, found them, and suddenly I remembered what was so unusual about the performance I had seen so many years ago (don’t get me wrong: apart from its strength and brilliance musically, that is): it was Dury’s handicap, the left part of his body was somewhat paralyzed and he looked a bit strange. He stood there on stage with a walking stick, which was a bit odd to me back then. Apparently Dury, unbeknownst to me of course, contracted Polio when he was seven.
Now, ‘New Boots & Panties!!’ may not be the best album in the history of the world ever, but there is one song on it, which made it into the singles box as the B-Side of a German release:
mp3: Ian Dury & The Blockheads – Sweet Gene Vincent
And this is where the history lesson finally starts, you’ll be relieved to hear: Gene Vincent, he of 1956 ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’-fame, was handicapped as well: his left leg was shattered in an auto crash in 1955, he refused to have it amputated, and consequently he had to wear a steel sheath as a leg brace for the rest of his life. In later biographies it was said that there never was such a car crash, instead he was wounded in combat in Korea (which is an excuse I often use myself when women want me to dance with them, so I cannot blame Gene here, I suppose).
Back to Ian Dury, who had a lifelong admiration for Vincent, so much so that he very much copied his style and his outfit, he would talk almost poetically about him. I don’t know if this can be believed or not, but Dury always said he didn’t even know that Vincent was also crippled when he started becoming a fan as a teenager. ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’s’ lyrics are full of references towards Vincent and Vincent’s songs: ‘Blue Gene Baby’ = ‘Blue Jean Bop’, ‘Who, who, who slapped John?’ = ‘Who Slept John’, ‘And you lay that pistol down’ = ‘Pistol Packin’ Mama’ and also ‘Uncanny Annie is the one with the flying feet’ = ‘Be-Bop-A-Lula’. Also the song has two sections which are entirely focusing on Vincent’s outfit, the typical black and white dress including the gloves (= ‘black gloves, white frost, black crepe, white lead, white sheet, black knight, jet black, dead white’).
I love this record. Not necessarily because of the clever historical background, I’m way too simple for such things, I suppose. Me, I just love how it paces up into breakneck speed … that and Ian Dury’s voice, of course!
The one song I have from Rachid Taha is courtesy of its inclusion on this free CD given away with Mojo magazine in November 2008.
It is a piece of nonsense that his name wasn’t included on the cover of the CD sleeve, given that Rachid Taha is every bit as important and influential as those who are listed.
He was born on 18 September 1958 in Algeria, and he died in a Parisian suburb on 12 September 2018, just a few days short of his 60th birthday. He had moved with his parents to France when he was ten years old, settling in Lyon. By the age of 17, he was holding down a menial job in a factory but working as a DJ at night, playing Arabic music, rap, salsa, funk and, as he put it in a later interview “anything else that took his fancy.
In 1981, along with Mohammed Amini, Mokhtar Amini, Djamel Dif and Eric Vaquer, he formed the Arab-language rock group Carte de Séjour whose music combined Algerian raï with funk and punk rock. Rachid was a big fan of The Clash, and prior to one of their gigs in Paris, he met the band and handed them a copy of a demo tape by Carte de Séjour. He later, in 2013, told The Guardian newspaper:-
“They looked interested,but when they didn’t get in touch, I thought nothing of it. Then, a few months later, I heard Rock the Casbah. Maybe they did hear it after all.”
The group didn’t enjoy much success, and in due course Rachid moved to Paris to launch a solo career in the early 90s. It took time, but he became an increasing success in France and further afield, always looking to being new ideas to his music. He was revered by many musicians across the world, and was able to play shows in front of 20,000 fans in his adopted country.
In the mid-2000s, he decided to record a cover version of Rock The Casbah, one which was later used in The Future Is Unwritten, the 2007 award-winning documentary film about Joe Strummer that was directed by Julien Temple. His take on things was then included on that Mojo compilation a year later:-
mp3: Rachid Taha – Rock El Casbah
It’s really to my eternal shame that I’ve never since got out to discover more about his music. If anyone out there has more knowledge and wants to offer a guest posting, then I’d be honoured and thrilled to have it appear on the blog.
Lots of comments last month…..my huge thanks to everyone. I didn’t quite realise there would be such love for New Song by Howard Jones. Who am I going to dismiss with such impudence this time???
Chart dates 2- 8 October
Late September 1983 must have been a time when record labels had all their promotional folk go off on holiday. The highest new entry in the first chart of October was all the way down at #38. I won’t bore you with the details…..
It’s all the way down into the 60-somethings before there’s anything worthy of particular mention
mp3: Time UK – The Cabaret (#63)
It had been almost a year since The Jam had broken up. Paul Weller had continued to enjoy success via The Style Council, while Bruce Foxton had released solo material. Rick Buckler had formed Time UK with two members of Masterswitch ( me neither!), and two other musicians who had previously played with the Tom Robinson Band and Sparks. A record deal was secured, and The Cabaret was the debut single. #63 was as high as it reached….neither of its two follow-ups or parent album did anything. I’ll be honest….I don’t recall this 45 at all.
Just slightly lower in the rundown was this.
mp3: The Lotus Eaters – You Don’t Need Someone New (#64)
Debut single, The First Picture Of You had been one of the songs of the summer, and in reaching #15, seemed to provide a good platform for The Lotus Eaters to become chart staples. This was the rather enjoyable follow-up, but it only ever crawled its way to #53, and that, more or less, was the last time the UK record buying public spent money on the band.
Chart dates 9-15 October
I think I have to run through some of the acts hanging around the Top 20 this week to give an idea of how awful the singles charts exactly 40 years ago.
Culture Club – Karma Chameleon (#1) David Bowie – Modern Love (#4) Howard Jones – New Song (#5) George Benson – In Your Eyes (#7) UB40 – Red Red Wine (#8) David Essex – Tahiti (#10) Rocksteady Crew – Hey You The Rocksteady Crew (#11) Black Lace Superman (Gioca Jouer) (#12) Paul Young – Come Back and Stay (#13) Peabo Pearson & Roberta Flack – Tonight I Celebrate My Love (#14) Nick Heyward – Blur Hat For A Blue Day (#15) Lionel Ritchie – All Night Long (#16) The Alarm – 68 Guns (#17) Kajagoogoo – Big Apple (#18) Genesis – Mama (#19) Ryan Paris – Dolce Vita (#20)
In what is a particularly awful list, I will single out that Black Lace song for a special mention. Look it up on YouTube if you dare.
Oh, and the four who were trying hard to shore things up were Tracey Ullman (#2), Siouxsie& The Banshees (#3), Public Image Ltd (#6) and New Order (#9).
It wasn’t much better further down the charts…with worse to come as Billy Joel‘s Uptown Girl came in at #54 for the first of what would be a 17-week stay in the Top 75, all the way through to February 84, including five weeks at #1.
Once again, the 60-somethings offer some respite:-
mp3: China Crisis – Working With Fire and Steel (#66)
I’ve never been a fan, but a previous mention on the blog did throw up some love as well as a guest ICA from Martin, our Swedish Correspondent, although this particular single (which would eventually peak at #48) didn’t make his cut.
mp3 : XTC – Love On A Farmboy’s Wages (#67)
The band’s 8th Top 75 hit (from their first 17 singles) eventually went to #50. It would until January 1989 for XTC to again get higher than #50, and it came through Mayor of Simpleton (their 24th single and 10th to go Top 75).
Chart dates 16-22 October
I was going to pass completely on this particular chart. Nothing of merit whatsoever. Apart from
mp3: This Mortal Coil – Song To The Siren
I was stunned to spot that this had made the Top 75 back in the day, as I was sure it was just a cult song. I was even more stunned to spot, in the summary, that it went on to spend 13 weeks in the chart, but a closer inspection tells the true story, with the chart at the time being considered as the Top 100.
22 October – 12 November : 4-week stay at #66, #72, #77 and #75
3 December : 1-week stay at #98
14 January – 11 February 1984 : 5-week stay at #97, #98, #82, #85 and #83
25 February – 10 March : 3-week stay at #97, #80 and #93
Given that it wouldn’t have received any radio airplay beyond that from Peel, it’s hard to figure out why it spent so much time around the very lower ends of the chart. I wouldn’t imagine that even in the weeks it wasn’t in the Top 100 that it sold 0 copies, which means it sold in small numbers across the UK for at least a five-month period, while wiki reveals that Song To The Siren enjoyed a run of 101 weeks on the UK Indie Charts, one which ranks fourth in the 1980s behind Bela Lugosi’s Dead (131 weeks), Blue Monday (186 weeks) and Love Will Tear UsApart (195 weeks).
Chart dates 23 -29 October
Any DD fans out there?
mp3: Duran Duran – Union Of The Snake (#4)
Their 9th single since February 1981, but their first in six months, with the previous effort Is There Something I Should Know? giving them their first #1. The record company would no doubt prove to be disappointed that Union of The Snake, would stall at #3.
Two feline-related songs made their entries into the charts this week:-
mp3: Adam Ant – Puss’n Boots (#21)
mp3: The Cure – The Lovecats (#23)
I don’t like the Adam Ant single. But I’m posting it to remind you that, just a few years after he’d emerged from the punk world into mainstream pop with his Ants, he was now pursuing a solo career in which Phil Collins had been engaged to produce the songs as well as contribute his drumming skills. This one would eventually peak at #5
I do like The Cure single, albeit there’s a real novelty feel to it. Anyone who fell for the quaint charms of The Lovecats and raced out to buy any of their earlier albums probably recoiled in horror at what was coming out of the speakers. Maybe Robert Smith was trying his best to be subversive.
The Lovecats reached #7, which would be the biggest hit for the band until Lullaby reached #5 in mid-1989.
A rather unusual release entered the singles chart this week at #52.
The Singles ’81-’83 was a six-track release by Bauhaus, that I’ve seen described as a mini-LP and an EP. It seems, for the purposes of chart positions, it was considered as an EP. The six tracks were The Passion Of Lovers, Kick In The Eye, Spirit, Ziggy Stardust, Lagartija Nick and She’s In Parties. Here’s Track 1 on Side A:-
mp3: Bauhaus – The Passion Of Lovers
A re-release entered the charts at #71:-
mp3: Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
It would spend seven weeks in the charts, making it all the way to #19 in mid-November, which wasn’t too far behind the #13 spot it had reached in July 1980.
OK, so it took some old songs being re-released to really perk up the charts back in October 1983. The question is…..did it set things up for a decent November? Tune in next month to find out……
The sixth of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
This is actually a bit of a two-for-one effort, as this year also saw me make a purchase of the artist’s previous album that was released back in 2021.
Hamish Hawk is an Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter. He’s been making music since as far back as 2014, but it is really only over the past few years that he’s come to greater prominence. He’s someone I had previously dismissed out of hand, all as a result of seeing him as a support act for Arab Strap back in October 2021. His performance that evening was a solo show, and while there were a couple of times when I thought there was a decent song or vocal coming from the stage, he didn’t do enough to keep my attention for more than a few minutes.
The songs he played that night were mostly from the album Heavy Elevator, a record that many folk in Scotland were talking up as being an exceptional release, with references to The Divine Comedy, Pulp and Scott Walker very much to the fore. Reference was also made to the involvement of Rob Jones from Idlewild on the production and management side of things, but I really felt, based on that performance in Paisley, that Hamish Hawk wasn’t for me.
At the end of last year, SWC over at No Badger Required selected a new Hamish Hawk song as one of his favourites of 2022. SWC is someone whose taste in new music is usually bang-on, so I gave it a listen:-
Yup. This ticked a lot of boxes. Maybe I had been a bit hasty….this was quite different from what I’d been exposed to some 14 months previously in Paisley.
The new album, Angel Numbers, was released in February 2023. Once again, there were loads of very positive reviews kicking around various Scottish-based websites and publications, but I still didn’t bite.
My ‘Road To Damascus’ conversion came about in a slightly strange but ultimately very rewarding way. A short-break to Berlin was on the agenda in mid-October for myself and Rachel, and I had a look to see if there were any gigs worth seeing while we were there. It turned out that Hamish Hawk would be in the city on our first night, at a small venue not far from our hotel. Given that he’s on his way to likely selling-out Glasgow Barrowlands early next year, we decided it would be worth taking in the Berlin show.
I went out and bought a copy of Angel Numbers, determined to listen without prejudice.
I’m so glad I did, as It’s a truly outstanding record from start to end. I already knew Think Of Us Kissing, which proved to be the most accessible and immediate of the tracks, but after just a couple of listens, in which I was able to fully appreciate how fabulous a wordsmith he is, I had to hold my hand up and admit that Hamish Hawk is quite a unique talent, and someone who is fully deserving of the plaudits and acclaim being heaped on him. Oh, and his band, all of whom are credited as writing the music, provide the perfect accompaniment to his prose and poetry.
mp3: Hamish Hawk – Elvis Look-alike Shadows
This led to me going out to find a copy of Heavy Elevator. It’s an equally enjoyable listen, and while I recognised a few tunes from that Paisley show of October 2021, they sounded so much better when delivered by a full band.
The former has become a huge favourite. Watch out for it, and a few others, appearing on some of the hour-long mixes that pop-up round here on the odd occasion.
Oh, and I should, for the sake of completeness, say that the show in Berlin was a delight. I picked up an as yet unreleased 12″ EP of four cover songs that have previously been available on Bandcamp, and had a brief chat with Hamish post-gig in which I told him that I’d been a late convert and why.
He wasn’t the least bit offended by what I was saying, and indeed he offered a bit of moral support by saying he remembered the gig in question, and he felt afterwards that he hadn’t fully clicked with the audience. He signed the EP with a very lovely message, and I promised him that both myself and Rachel would make it to the Barrowlands next year. It should be quite the show.
Just over a week ago, the second 45 by The Wild Indians featured on the regular Saturday series.
That very same morning, I received a very pleasant e-mail from regular reader and occasional contributor, Leon MacDuff:-
Hello there!
Noting your regret at having no other tracks by The Wild Indians to share… happy to help! There’s nothing else to threaten the status of “Penniless” as their magnum opus but here are the three tracks from their previous single (and of course you may share them!).
I downloaded and listened to the three songs, and to my complete amazement, I immediately recognised Maybe, one of the tracks on the b-side of what was a 12″ only release. But I had never heard the a-side before……….
Was it one that Jacques the Kipper had included it on what is now a long-lost C90 tape? The thing is, I was more fairly sure that I knew a slightly different version of it. Has someone I know covered it on record or played it live? I certainly don’t seem to have any other version of it among almost 50,000 bits of music on the hard drive, so it’s something of a mystery.
It’s a wonderful wee tune, as indeed are the other two tracks kindly sent over by Leon.
mp3: The Wild Indians – Love Of My Life
mp3: The Wild Indians – The Biggest Man
mp3: The Wild Indians – Maybe
I hope it all helps to make your day the way that Leon did for me last week.
It’s still 1986, and we’ve reached the release of the third single, one which came out on 7″ and 12″ on Reception Records. Let’s deal with the 7″ first of all:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends mp3: The Wedding Present – This Boy Can Wait
There’s no indication on the sleeve or labels as to which of the two songs is the A-side. The Scopitones website, which really is the go-to place for all things related in any shape or form to The Wedding Present and Cinerama, lists ‘Friends’ as the lead track.
But, the recently published book, All The Songs Sound The Same, contains this contemporary review:-
The Wedding Present – This Boy Can Wait (Reception)
A frenzied guitar ushers in a breathless vocal and neither goes away throughout this prime slice of Leeds indie pop, free at last from the Gang Of Four hangover that has dogged so many of that city’s favourite sons, and now veering more towards a deranged folkies-on-speed extravaganza that overstays its welcome by just about the right amount.
The B-side is called ‘You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends’ which is sound advice and again it’s like some sort of folk music gone mad with lots of room for the omnipresent guitar to clang about in. If I had enough to drink I think I would probably die watching this band play live.
The there’s the 12″, with the slightly different coloured sleeve:-
It has This Boy Can Wait on one side, with two tracks, one of which is ‘Friends’ on the other, which would naturally make anyone think there was a clear A-side in terms of the 7″. But it doesn’t matter as both have proven to be timeless and part of the set lists all these decades later.
Here’s the other track on the 12″:-
mp3: The Wedding Present – Living and Learning
Just under three minutes of something which is fast, frantic and, if danced to, would leave even the fittest of persons gasping for breath. An excellent song by any stretch of the imagination, but not one that many fans would have high up on their lists of favourites, such has been the quality over the years.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 