THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

MY OLD PIANO

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Browsing around a large second-hand store in Glasgow a few months back, my eye was caught by a 12″ single dating back to 1980.

Despite very much being a post-punk addict, I was still fond of disco music in various guises, not having a care about what any of my gig-going mates from the school thought. I didn’t buy all that much at the time – there was no need to, as many of the great songs were chart hits and never off the radio.

One of the biggest successes of the year had been Diana, the eleventh studio album released by Diana Ross, and one which had seen her forge a partnership with Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards who had taken Chic to great heights in the previous couple of years.

History shows that Diana was the biggest selling solo album in her career, reckoned to have shifted a million copies in the USA alone and that its three singles, Upside Down, My Old Piano, and I’m Coming Out were hits, with the first of them only kept off the top spot by Abba and The Winner Takes It All which had provided the Swedish superstars with their eighth#1 in six years.

I never bought a copy of Diana, or indeed any of the singles. But for just £1, I was more than happy to shell out for what the sleeve promised was ‘A Long Playing 12″ Disco Single’.

It turns out to have been a misleading sleeve, as the track was identical in length to the album cut. It also turned out not to be in the very best of condition, and as it was likely doing a bit of damage to the stylus, it was whipped back off the turntable after about 30 seconds. You’ll need to make do with a digital version:-

mp3: Diana Ross – My Old Piano

The b-side wasn’t another track from the album, which is hardly a surprise as there were just eight songs on it. Instead, a golden oldie, was offered up:-

mp3: Diana Ross – Where Did We Go Wrong

A tear-jerker of a (boring) ballad that had been included on the 1978 album, Ross. Again, it’s the digital version on offer.

Having likely taken many of you out of your comfort zones today, I better get some indie-schmindie lined up for tomorrow.

JC

Al Joshua

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #351: AL JOSHUA

A DEBUT GUEST POSTING from SIGISMUND

Circa 2016, thanks to music writer Ran Prieur, I found my way to a cult album from 2009 — heard by few, but disproportionately beloved — Orphans & Vandals’ I am Alive and You are Dead. Ran’s current blurb for the album reads:

“The best of these songs have complex, rambling structure like good prog rock, string arrangements like good chamber rock, and primal beats and chanting vocals like the Velvet Underground — but nothing else that sounds like this can touch this.”

…which sounded enticing to a Floyd/Tull fanatic like myself. What I soon discovered was that the proggy folk-punk epics on the album were also soulful and exploratory like Van Morrison, who has long been one of my all-time favorites, and whose disciples (see also: Daniel Romano, who somehow hasn’t listened much to/hates Van) I’m in constant search of. So: folk + prog + punk (+ chamber rock, which isn’t my thing, but on this album, I’m in) + VU + Van = whoooaaa…

Granted, initially, only a couple of the songs took hold. But they held me hard enough that I started thinking, “Well, it can’t be only these tracks that are insanely awesome, right…? At least, the others should be better than I’ve been giving them credit for.” I spent about a year and a half finding my way into the album as a whole. Then it happened: on a splendidly bright day in late summer, I was wandering the seaside in Macau, watching the birds and the boats and the gleams of sun on the water, and I was listening to Orphans & Vandals, and it hit me: “This is one of the best albums ever made.”

Its cult fanbase agrees. Back around the time it came out, the album garnered several glowing reviews, if generally not from the trendiest publications (though NME, of all things, noticed). The band performed live a lot, and got booed a lot, when pub audiences weren’t open to how openly the songwriter celebrated his sexuality. In interviews, songwriter & frontman Al Joshua mentioned he was already writing songs for a second album. And then —

…and then, that was it. No second album materialized. The band broke up. Frontman Al Joshua maintained a semblance of presence on the Internet, occasionally sharing demos of new songs through Facebook and YouTube. I found the demos intriguing but fairly impenetrable (and, like an idiot, neglected to save the files; I regret it bitterly, now that they’re no longer available), since their tone was so different from the jagged Orphans & Vandals material. That’s on me. If I had listened more, and listened better, I would have realized that the songs Al was sharing were another set of masterpieces in the making.

In 2015 came signs of life in the form of a soundtrack release, for the film Set the Thames on Fire. Al also wrote the screenplay. But the soundtrack was all-instrumental, and I wanted more songs! I continued checking for updates from Al’s social media every now and then, but things seemed quiet.

Later on, Al Joshua disclosed that the nine years which ended up separating the Orphans & Vandals record from his next one were hard years, characterized by illness, poverty, alcoholism, debilitating heartbreak… to some extent, it seems a miracle that he made it out at all.

“I lost somebody I loved and afterwards I simply drifted,” he explained in the liner notes to 2018’s Out of the Blue. “These are some of the songs I wrote as I spun untethered through the years of low-paying jobs and cheap rooms and in and out of other people’s lives.” In an interview, he added, “I never intended for the wilderness years to be so long.”

That release of Out of the Blue went under my radar — as did that of Al’s subsequent album! It wasn’t until one late evening in 2020 that it occurred to me, “Hey, it’s been a while since I checked in on Al Joshua, hasn’t it?” So I did, and I found, yep, two new albums, TWO. From the man who had written I am Alive and You are Dead — TWO NEW ALBUMS! A-and, one was a double! Holy hell! A couple of cups of strong coffee later, I had both new records on my walkman (not kidding: Sony goes on producing portable mp3 players called walkmen) and after my wife was asleep, I lay beside her in our little bedroom, in the dark, with our cat Khonsu curled up and dozing nearby, I slipped in earphones — and began with that double album from late 2018, Out of the Blue.

The first song was a shortened version of Johnathan, which I remember listening to the 11-minute demo of back in the day. The studio arrangement wasn’t rock at all, or even particularly reminiscent of folk, it was something hazier, more luxuriant, a whole lot more jazzy, in a Parisian cafe sort of way… so that was curious, and new. The voice, though — the voice I recognized and hung on every intonation of.

The second track was Judd Street, a dark vision of past love, which features this marvelous, patient verse: “We drank from stolen / milk bottles taken / from neighbors’ doorsteps / early in the morning, / when the puddles are frozen / and the mist is still hanging / over winter gardens / ruined by the season.” And the third was Love You Madly, which broke through whatever remained of the skepticism and distance I had armed myself with for fear of disappointment: here were absolutely beautiful melodies, lyrics that gave me chills, and a development of my favorite spiritual/ecstatic strain from the Orphans & Vandals record, the strain that used to make me think of Van Morrison and which now, and thenceforth — since it has been honed into something singular — makes me think only of Al.

Again, it wasn’t that I fell for every song on the album on first listen; but I did fall for several, and being an album kind of guy, I didn’t clip out the songs I loved and fit them into a playlist, I kept going back to the whole thing, because who knows, what if the other songs blossomed? Sure enough, they did. Today, Out of the Blue is one of my ten favorite albums by anybody.

2020’s Anomalous Events, the second Al Joshua album I dove into that late night, was less forthcoming, though it too, like I am Alive and You Are Dead, is now in my top 20 or top 25. It was a lo fi release, out of necessity; Al was at home, in lockdown, and wanted to make new music, but didn’t have the equipment, so: smartphone. You can hear the cars and trucks rolling by outside his window. It was also almost wholly acapella. But the lyrics were fascinating, and since by then I had come to feel that the only singer whose phrasing could compare to Al Joshua’s was the very emperor of phrasing, Bob Dylan, an album in which the sole instrumentation was Al’s voice wasn’t exactly a turn-off.

Al has described the album as made up of “strange acapella songs … out of an ancient seam. I didn’t know if I was writing about the times now, the past, myself or just stories. [Anomalous Events] is not attempting to make you like it and it has no interest in comforting you. It comes not with peace but a sword.”

This past February, Al Joshua released Skeletons at the Feast, his fourth full-length. It’s a double album once again (I love double albums) and features Al fronting a folk-rock band for the first time since 2009. It’s the album I’ve listened to more than any other this year. It adds several all-time classics to the catalogue, and hints at new directions its maker might take. In Al’s words, it’s “folksy, rootsy, bluesy … Lots of bright yellows and green and primary colors … I wanted a record that sounds human, raw, rough, full of the real ragged joy of playing music, glad to accept errors and happy accidents. I believe I got that. As to what the album is about, I think it’s about the bitter laughter of tears, waking up on the bridge in the red dawn and knowing you have somehow survived the long night, hungry and battered but alive.”

A while after the new album came out, Al wiped his Internet presence completely — no Facebook or Instagram now, just the music itself. Hopefully the reason is not that he intends to vanish again, but that he’s too busy fashioning his soul and too busy making art (is there a difference?) to give heed to the noise of the Internet.

Here and there behind the noise, however, are good spots like this one; and so here, good readers, is an ICA.

Like I said, I’m an albums guy. But there’s power in a good starter collection. So here’s an album-esque introduction (“album-esque,” in the sense that the sequencing took some work) to a catalogue in which each of the four constituent albums is fantastic. Once you’re hooked, they’re all required listening.

Al’s best songs are long, which makes my ICA more of an “LP1” and “LP2” affair than JC’s traditional “Side 1” and “Side 2.” The first disc showcases the first and fourth albums — the ones with a band. The second disc is the lonelier one, featuring the sparser material from Out of the Blue and a closer from Anomalous Events.

LP1 (35:01)
1. Mysterious Skin
2. Laurel and Hardy
3. Liquor on Sunday
4. Let My Body Sing
5. I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down

LP2 (39:27)
6. Good Times
7. Souvenirs
8. Peacocks
9. Skinned Alive
10. A Bird Flew In

LP1

1. Mysterious Skin, from I Am Alive and You Are Dead (2009).

In his Clash ICA, JC said: “You’ve got to open any imaginary compilation album with a killer tune…something of an anthem which epitomizes the band or singer being featured….and I can’t think of anything better than this.” I expect this song served as the gateway track for the majority of Al’s cult following. I’ve been losing myself in it for seven years and there are still things in the lyrics I haven’t figured out. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I realized the “you” throughout (or, one of the “yous” throughout) is Rimbaud. I remain unsure why, at the end, “violence won’t be far behind,” or what kind of violence the singer has in mind. I do know that the song is joy incarnate. It’s the most resplendently happy and hopeful song I’ve ever heard. At the same time, it’s sorrowful, it’s graphic, it has room for a joke… what would joy mean, after all, if it didn’t take the wider world into account? The song looks all around — at death, sex, passion, emptiness, panic, claustrophobia, love — and refuses to flinch. (Great arrangement detail: the way the vocals are like a duet with the drums.)

2. Laurel and Hardy, from Skeletons at the Feast (2023).

My favorites in Al’s catalogue are all on the ruminative side, but he’s got this wilder, more punkish streak in him too, and I’d be remiss not to highlight it. A vivid opening verse paves the way for that beautiful chorus (“my heart is as big as a ship / God willing, we’ll all sail away on it”), which gives way to an alternate chorus, only to careen into a steamrolling second verse, and then off to a curious succession of more choruses and alternate choruses and near-reggae bridges. You know how there are drumbeats you default to as soon as your hands meet a sturdy surface (for me, Heart-Shaped Box and Pain of Salvation‘s If This is the End)? Ever since Skeletons at the Feast came out, “I was watching Laurel and Hardy” as Al sings it in the outro is what my brain fills the void with whenever it slides into “idle.” (Great arrangement detail: the band throwing the song back into its former shape after “it was soooo fuuuunnnyyyy.”)

3. Liquor on Sunday, from I am Alive and You are Dead (2009).

Again — this arrangement!!! Orphans & Vandals were a wonderful band: Al on guitar and lead vocals, a guy named Raven on bass, and three women — Francesca, Quinta, and Gabi — making short work of the rest. This is a tender, defiant, and sore-hearted song, with one of my very favorite basslines in recorded music (or… bassmountains? Dare we call what Raven plays a mere “line” ?). And the flurry of handclap percussion at the end! From how Al sings of the old men “singing songs about their regiment,” you’d think they’re rehearsing some ageless and profound mystery — something incomprehensible, and incomprehensibly sad, and despite that, a worthy target for the singer’s scorn. (Great arrangement detail: bassmountain.)

4. Let My Body Sing, from Skeletons at the Feast (2023).

Four open notes in standard tuning on the ukulele herald eight minutes of darkness that sound like something Michael Gira would have put out on his Young God Records label circa 2007. This song scared the hell out of me on first few listens — “Whose dark dreams were these? Whose hands? Whose deeds? Whose dark mills and factories? Whose plaintive pleas on bended knees? NOT MINE.” Or — “Finally awake… this time, really, truly, COMPLETELY AWAKE,” implying god knows how many times that he hadn’t been. But it’s a hopeful song. The darkness was real enough, god knows — but so is the renewal, the rebirth, the understanding: “On this thing — THIS taut and trembling string — the whole universe depends.” (Great arrangement detail: the particularly Young Godian breakdown that accompanies Al delivering the song title. How is Thor Harris not playing?!)

5. I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down, from Skeletons at the Feast (2023).

This closes LP1 of Skeletons, as it closes “LP1” of this ICA. Never before has a song made me think, “Sure, that would’ve fit right on Saint Dominic’s Preview.” The lyrics are simple, limpid — actually, not that simple — I understand the narrator being unhappy about the coming of the night, and the rain over the city, but the rainbow?! The lyrics seem to be the thoughts of somebody who believes himself as good as dead, and who doesn’t want to be called back to the pain and beauty of the world, but that’s exactly what the rainbow is asking of him, and what every sunset, and every gray evening of rain, and even the bedraggled laundry on the clothesline are asking of him — like the various speakers in Leonard Cohen‘s Night Comes On: “Come back, back to the world.” Fanciful interpretations aside, do you know of a better ode to sunsets? Or to walking around town? (Great arrangement detail: the electric guitar riff at 2:51 and the harmonica solo Al follows it with.)

LP2

6. Good Times, from Out of the Blue (2018).

The “good times” are clearly not those of Mysterious Skin or Liquor on Sunday anymore — they’re wholly conjectural — none of what he sings about may happen — in fact, it almost certainly won’t — there shall be no Dance of the Rose — and who cares, that lonesome but jaunty piano part seems to ask, there’s richness enough in memory and imagination, isn’t there? (Great arrangement detail: the Dance of the Rose.)

7. Souvenirs, from Out of the Blue (2018).

My favorite Al Joshua song. Also would make my list of ten favorite songs, period. Also has my favorite metaphor in music (the bit about the anchor, but the subway train and the Golden Vanity come close, so I guess that’s three of my favorite metaphors in song, all in one song). It’s unfair, Al, you know, some of us… but then, who among us, who anywhere, can write a song like this? If we could, wouldn’t we do it all the time? I could start to list some of the things that make the song mean as much to me as it does but ultimately, I think, the less you know going in, the better. That Souvenirs is preceded by Good Times on the original album just as it is on this ICA is all the advance knowledge you need. (Great arrangement detail: sorry, no spoilers.)

8. Peacocks, from Out of the Blue (2018).

Memories of childhood, cherished and sung many years and an untold volume of sorrow later. Another of the most beautiful metaphors ever put into a lyric brings this song to a close. If you’re wondering why tracks 6-8 of this ICA flow so well, it’s because they appear in the same sequence on the album I’ve plucked them from. This particular song was finished the year after Al’s first album came out — there’s this beautiful rendition of Al playing his new song solo at the piano in 2010, filmed by Orphans & Vandals’ drummer Gabi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri1KrzNjtLU) — but it needed to wait eight years to appear on a record. (Great arrangement detail: the trumpet harmonies that accompany Al on the last word of each verse.)

9. Skinned Alive, from Out of the Blue (2018).

Al’s own favorite of his songs. The instrumentation is voice, acoustic guitar, and the echoes off the studio walls. That’s an exhaustive list. I can’t think of a song more truthful, poetic, and intimate. Now let me tell you something: the first time I heard Out of the Blue, in a pitch-black room in the middle of the night, heavy curtains closed against the streetlights, Skinned Alive and Souvenirs moved me so profoundly that I had an out-of-body experience. Well, two: one per song. If this sounds like the usual dumb smitten-music-writer hyperbole, allow me to protest: it’s an honest attempt to describe the sensation! It certainly didn’t feel the way lying in bed late at night listening to amazing music usually feels. It was more like my whole being got compacted into an orb, or a wicker ball, and then: there was the ball, and there I was outside or beside it, every speck of my spirit attending Al’s breath and words and guitar or piano notes. It was surreal and wonderful and not so far out of my body that it stopped me from crying. I’m not saying you’re going to have a comparable response to either song. But if, on first listen, this or Souvenirs pass you by as just “pleasant” or “interesting,” come back to them, and give them your full attention when you do, and then come back to them with equal attention a few more times after that, and see how you feel when you’re hearing the songs properly for the seventh or eighth time. (Great arrangement detail: the bitter “No!” after “And you think you’ve had enough of hurting others and yourself?”)

10. A Bird Flew In, from Anomalous Events (2020).

I close with the closer of Al’s third and strangest album — the least apologetic in a discography that doesn’t exactly pander to anyone. In a couple of meaningful ways, Anomalous Events is not unlike John Wesley Harding, but in most ways, it’s probably like nothing you’re used to hearing. It doesn’t relinquish its secrets easily, and the secrets are many, and their mystery and darkness a marvel to behold and to play at unraveling. I tried to get two or three Anomalous Events songs onto this ICA, but the album defies such cherry-picking; the songs won’t appear alongside anything but themselves, in Al’s chosen order. So here I offer just this one sudden, maybe jarring preview. “My true love and I were escaping,” it begins. “It was either dawn or dusk but the gray sky hung over a country lane.” Pay attention to the two distinct appearances of the song title — the first literal, the second rather less so. (Great arrangement detail: the beauty of the two descending notes that each main/preliminary line of melody ends with — “[country] lane,” “[can’t remember] which,” etc.)

Sigismund

Glass Torpedoes

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #031

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#031– Glass Torpedoes – ‘Morning, Noon and Night’ (Teen Beat Records ’79)

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Dear friends,

you know what they say: ‘all good things come in threes’. And this has never been more true than today, because – again – the next single in the box, after Flophouse and Friends Of The Family, is by a band virtually unknown to most of you, at least that’s my assumption.

But I won’t get tired of pointing out that this doesn’t mean anything: just because you never heard this tune before, it doesn’t mean it’s no good, right?

So, here’s the little bit I know about today’s band, Liverpool’s Glass Torpedoes: they formed in late ’78, and their debut single, the one below, was released half a year later. It was halfway successful back then, it was given a bit of airplay, and it ended up being #5 in the alternative charts. Not too shabby, I would have thought, but apparently it wasn’t good enough for Paul Cunningham, the bass player, who left the band in order to form China Crisis. In hindsight, of course, he took the wiser decision, but we all know better in retrospect, don’t we?

Either way, again half a year later, in early ‘80, the band got the chance to do a Peel Session and in October of that year they opened on a tour with Gary Glitter, the old pervert: again, of course, in retrospect ….. you know what I want to say …

A second single was released (with John Milton) and a final third one in 1981. One or two compilation tracks followed, but by the end of 1982 The Glass Torpedoes were no more, because their (new) bassist and their drummer joined Ex-Post-Facto and the guitarist got hired by Nightmares On Wax.

So their legacy, basically, consists of three singles, the first of which contained three songs. This one has always been my favourite, by quite some distance, with the wonderful Barbra Donovan on vocals:

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mp3: Glass Torpedoes – Morning, Noon and Night

Perhaps this song is even new to you, who knows? If so, I hope you like it as much now as I have done for nearly 40 years! Just let me know in case this is the case …

Take good care,

Dirk

PS: and next time, you’ll be relieved to hear, for a change we’ll have a band with a huge level of familiarity! No, not bloody Guns ‘n Roses, you weirdos!!

JC adds……

Many years ago, Dirk and myself were occasional contributors to The Contrast Podcast, which was the brainchild of Tim Young.

It ran from around 2009 – 2019, and the idea was that a particular theme would be selected a week in advance of publication, and bloggers from all over the world were asked to record their own introduction to a song on said theme. It was a great little community and I have no idea how Tim, who lived and worked in Geneva, found the time to pull it altogether.

There were a few spin-off ideas, including all the contributors making a CD compilation but with the songs being on a randomly selected letter and that the CD should then be posted to a randomly chosen member of the collective.

It turned out that Dirk got the letter ‘G’ and his CD had to be sent over to me. Morning, Noon and Night by Glass Torpedoes was Track 3 out of 22, and proved to be the first time I’d heard the song. I’m now very curious to see if any of the other songs from that CD will feature in future weeks….

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty-three)

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The bells to ring in the new year had barely stopped ringing when the Pet Shop Boys issued a third advance single from the forthcoming new album.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Monkey Business (radio edit)

2 January 2020 was the digital release date, just three weeks ahead of Hotspot, the fourteenth studio album. A CD version would be in the shops in early February, slightly after the album was put on sale.

Monkey Business was another well-received track. The duo have been more than happy to describe it as a party song, one which pays a bit of lip service to a number of upbeat, almost funky tunes that had been riding high at the top of the charts over much of the past couple of years.

Its backstory is now well known, thanks to Neil telling it on each occasion it has been played live over the years. The duo were on tour and had reached Austin, Texas when they chanced upon a larger-than-life man at their hotel who explained that he was in town “On monkey business—just playing around”, which Neil then used as inspiration to put him in a song as a shameless hipster who lived purely for the high-life.

Given all that, the choice of B-side for this one was interesting:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – At Rock Bottom

Everyone talks about
their loss and the legacy
Sharing condolences
and offering sympathy
But at rock bottom
what got him?

It’s all about
It’s all about
It’s all about
It’s all about drugs

Almost as if to say to anyone who wants to live a life of Monkey Business that there’s very likely a price to pay.

Again, it’s a more than decent b-side. As the vast majority of them have been over the years.

JC

We Were Promised Jetpacks

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #371: WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS

Today’s featured band have been around for quite some time without ever really making a commercial breakthrough.

We Were Promised Jetpacks formed, while all the band members will still at school, in 2003. I first came across them in 2008 when they were gigging regularly in Glasgow, and in due course they went on the road with Frightened Rabbit during the tour to promote The Midnight Organ Fight.

Jetpacks were a classic four-piece band in those days, consisting of Adam Thomson (vocals, guitar), Michael Palmer (guitar), Sean Smith (bass) and Darren Lackey (drums). They were a tight and very entertaining band, full of vigour and youthful energy, as well as having a decent set of indie-rock songs with which to entertain audiences. It was no surprise that their debut album, These Four Walls, proved to be a good one. It was released in June 2009 on Fat Cat Records (home also to Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad at the point in time) and the future looked bright.

It took two years for the follow-up, In The Pit Of The Stomach, to be released, again on Fat Cat. I caught them live on their own headlining tour around this time, but it must have been a bad night, as I came away a bit underwhelmed, certainly in comparison to how they had come across back in 2009. I bought the CD, but it never quite hit the spot in the same way as the debut had.

I really thought that would be the end of the band, especially as their mentors had moved on somewhat, but Fat Cat were happy to stick with them and a third album, Unravelling, came out in October 2014. I actually managed to see them about a year later as they were the support act for The Twilight Sad at a Glasgow Barrowlands gig. They were again quite excellent, but to my shame, I didn’t get myself along to their own headlining show in King Tut’s the next time they were in the city.

Wiki has now had to become my friend, and I’ve read they have been a trio since Michael Palmer took his leave in July 2019 at the end of an American tour which was centred around the 10th anniversary of the debut album and the promotion of their fourth studio album, The More I Sleep The Less I Dream, which had come out in September 2018 on the Big Scary Monsters label.

2021 saw a new album, Enjoy The View, recorded by the trio who remained. There was a European and US tour in 2022 on which Andy Monaghan, who was with Frightened Rabbit for a decade, right up until Scott Hutchison‘s sad death in 2018, played guitar.

The band will be out on tour in December 2023, playing shows in Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Birmingham and London. Although I have ‘lost touch’ with what they’ve been doing in recent years, the reviews of the live shows indicate they remain a very decent act when on stage.

Here’s a song of theirs of which I have long been fond. I associate a lot with those shows back in 2008/9.

mp3: We Were Promised Jetpacks – Quiet Little Voices

I’ve tracked down one from the most recent album:-

mp3: We Were Promised Jetpacks – Fat Chance

It’s quite decent. I’d probably have gone along to the Glasgow show in December, but it clashes with the annual holiday to far off places……

JC

Spoilsports

SPOILSPORTS

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Another sourced from a compilation – this time round it is Make More Noise! – Women In Independent UK Music 1977-1987, a 4 x CD set issued by Cherry Red Records back in 2020.

mp3: Spoilsports – Love and Romance

(Originally released as the b-side to the self-financed You Gotta Shout Single in April 1980).

Spoilsports consisted of Angele Veltmeijer on saxophone, singer Barbara Stretch, songwriter Carole Nelson on keyboards, percussionist Isabel Postill, bassist Lesley Shone (later replaced by Ruth Bitelli) and Sheelagh Way on drums.

The band’s sole self-financed record release was described in the NME as a cross between Steely Dan and The Joy of Cooking, and they became regulars at benefit gigs and women’s music festivals, appearing in Hyde Park at the 1979 Gay Pride show. The group were never shy about the importance of the lyrical content of their music, or of talking about the sexual side of performance, and spoke often about issues they faced as working female musicians during the 1980s, including the pressure they felt to be feminists first and musicians second.

Here’s the a-side

mp3: Spoilsports – You Gotta Shout

I’ve ascertained that the single was recorded in Archipelago Studios in London in the same year that Elvis Costello and The Attractions used the facility to record Get Happy, from which, just yesterday, a track appeared on this very corner of t’internet.

I have to say, that despite the blurb in the Make More Noise booklet describing the band as that mix of Steely Dan and The Joy of Cooking, I was expecting to hear something that was a bit more angry sounding rather than such a jazzy groove. Not really my cup of tea, but it’s on offer today as there may be a few of you who appreciate the tunes.

JC

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (5)

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I reckon the late 20th Century fad for CDs as opposed to vinyl was really responsible for the demise of singles as a meaningful way for singers and bands to reach out to their fans. There always seemed to be a need to have a CD single extend out to three or four songs, with a running time of at least fifteen minutes, thus leading to all sorts of remixes and live versions which weren’t always loved by those making the music or those buying it.

It was much simpler when it was a 7″ piece of vinyl and nobody cared a jot about running lengths and value for money, as in the case of the two songs on today’s offering, which have a combined running time of four minutes.

As ever with this lazy series, writing wise, here’s wiki:-

I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down is a song written by Homer Banks and Allen Jones. Originally recorded by soul duo Sam & Dave in 1967, the song was famously covered by new wave musician Elvis Costello with his backing band the Attractions in 1980 for their album Get Happy!!.

Costello’s version was drastically rearranged from the original, turning it from a slow soul ballad into an uptempo Northern soul-style dance track. It was one of three singles taken from the album in the UK. It was supposed to be released on the 2 Tone Records label in the UK, but even though copies were pressed, contractual difficulties eventually halted its release on that label. The single was eventually released on F-Beat Records, which was the charted release, reaching #4 on the charts over a stay of eight weeks.

mp3: Elvis Costello and The Attractions – I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down

At 2:05 in length, it certainly can’t be accused of taxing the patience of any listener. But it was a beast of a track in comparison to its b-side, which lasts just 1:56:-

mp3: Elvis Costello and The Attractions – Girls Talk

A song written by Elvis Costello, that had been a Top 10 hit for Dave Edmunds more than a year previously.

There’s actually a mistake on the reverse of the sleeve of this single as it refers to the track as Girl’s Talk, albeit the label in the centre of the single has the correct details.

JC

Alimony Hustle

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (1)

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This is a new series, kind of inspired by Dirk.

Our dear friend from Germany is currently entertaining us with an alphabetical rundown of his favourite 111 singles, all of which he has gone out of his way in recent years to ensure he has a copy.

In recent weeks, he’s mentioned that a couple of the acts have given him some problems in terms of having anything to say in terms of background as there is so little information, even in this modern age when t’internet is full of facts and figures.

It got me thinking that I could do a semi-regular feature on singers or bands of whom I’ve just one song on the hard drive, but only on the basis that I actually like the song. This is quite an important aspect, as almost all the instances where I have just one song will involve it having been part of a compilation of one sort or the other, and let’s be brutally honest about things, compilation albums/CDs often have stinkers.

I’m kicking things off with something that was on Indietracks 2016

mp3: Alimony Hustle – BNOC

It’s a fine couple of minutes of indie pop/rock, one which sounds as if it has been made by just more than two people.

Alimony Hustle consisted (and I’m using the past tense as I’m reckoning they are no more) of Leah Pritchard (guitars/vocals) and Matt Mndolo (drums/bass/vocals). There’s not a huge amount about them out there, but I have ascertained they were from Bristol, while this bandcamp page reveals there were two singles in 2015 and one in 2017. Their inclusion on the Indietracks 2016 compilation is an indication they played the festival that year.

There’s a great one-liner on the bandcamp page. ‘the non white stripes’.

BNOC was the duo’s second single, released digitally on 9 September 2015. It does look as if all their releases were of the digital variety as there’s no physical product available vis Discogs.

JC

Warm Jets

WHO?

Warm-Jets

So there I was, scrolling through the list of bands on the hard-drive of the laptop looking for the next entry for the Scottish Songs series after Wake The President, and I see the name Warm Jets, a band of whom I have absolutely no recollection.

I appear to have two of their tracks on the hard drive, both courtesy of them being part of compilation CDs that were released back in the 90s. One was called Fresh, and looking it up on Discogs, it turns out it was given away with the June 1998 edition of Select magazine. The other was called Shine 9, which I do recall was a relatively long-running series of 2 x CDs compilations which was a sort of indie version of the NOW That’s What I Call Music releases that sold in their millions to the masses.

I’ve just looked up Shine on t’internet, and indeed my recollection is just about spot-on as there were ten volumes all told, released between April 1995 and August 1998 (along with two ‘Best Of Shine’ efforts), by the Polygram label. If my arithmetic is correct, there were 322 songs across the ten volumes – I don’t have the time or inclination to see if any songs were ever repeated across different discs, but I can tell you that Oasis featured on the first nine volumes of Shine (with nine different song titles), and that any band who was remotely linked to the Britpop phenomena appears at least once.

Warm Jets, as well as being on Shine 9, also were part of the last in the series, Shine 10.

So who were Warm Jets? I must have listened to both the songs on the hard drive at least once when I picked up both CDs, but there is a complete blank in my mind. Here’s the basics courtesy of wiki:-

Warm Jets were a British indie pop band, who had two UK top 40 singles and a top 40 album in 1998. The group’s name derives from Brian Eno’s 1973 album, Here Come the Warm Jets.

The band was formed in 1995 by Louis Jones, Paul Noble (formerly of Eat) and Ed Grimshaw, and signed to This Way Up records in early 1996. They recruited former Pale Saints, Parachute Men and Rialto member Colleen Browne on bass guitar 1995–1997. She was replaced by Aki Shibahara.

After the release of their debut EP Autopia the band received positive press and played prestigious support slots and festival appearances, including an arena tour with Blur. The band appeared on NME’s annual tour of up-and-coming bands in early 1998.

Their only album, Future Signs, was released in 1998. The band had top forty hits in Britain with “Never Never” and “Hurricane”.

Still means absolutely nothing.

Maybe giving a listen to the tunes might help:-

mp3: Warm Jets – Desert Cats (From Fresh)
mp3: Warm Jets – Hurricane (From Shine, Vol.9)

The former certainly nods in the direction, musically, of Super Furry Animals, but it lacks the warmth, humour and genius of the Welsh wizards.

The latter, which cracked the UK Top 40 in April 1998 is, classic landfill-indie. It reminds me a lot of a hit single by Feeder that Mrs JC was quite fond of, but I couldn’t stand. I’ve just asked her – seems it was called Buck Rogers.

So there you are. Warm Jets. A debut appearance on this blog and, unless there’s a mention from a guest contributor who has more affection for them than I have, their last.

JC

14 Iced Bears

UNCOVERED/UNWRAPPED (1)

A guest posting by flimflamfan (and a great idea for a new series)

wrapped

Uncovered / Unwrapped

Music is great, isn’t it? I’m sure each of us could wax lyrical on a multitude of genres; the artists, art work and illustrators (me, less so when it comes to illustrators) and most importantly, how that music makes us feel.

I’d like, if I may, to concentrate on art work; from the outer sleeve design and liner notes to the inner sleeve and liner notes, label, and if included, a booklet. The music plays as we (I hope you don’t mind the collective we?) pore over all of the information provided and the lyrics. Oh, the lyrics. Is it a standard rite of passage or only a rite of passage for those interested? I can’t answer that. However, what I can say is that on some occasions the art work seemed almost as important as the music.

Art work had a way of drawing me in. All those racks (please leave your double-entendres at the door) to explore, and all that music vying for my attention. An effort had to be made by bands/labels to make their release stand out and more than that stand up to the ever-changing whims of style and trends.

In a recent conversation with JC and Strangeways I noted that I often bought music based solely on the art work. I found it intriguing. I may like the cover art, but what would this sound like? What are its musical influences? Are they what I think they might be? What I hope they will be? There was only ever one way to find out – buy it. I often did. Now, these were rarely new LPs. They were second-hand and at the very affordable end of second-hand. I wasn’t being frivolous, oh no.

And so, it is, that I write this piece. Am I the only one that did this? JC and Strangeways didn’t – which I found odd. Based on the percentages, it was clearly me that was odd.

Before I offer up an LP bought for its cover art alone – I’d like to ask if anyone else did this / does this and share their cover art(s)? This could be a solo, irregular series from me but I’m hoping it may become a wider series for TnVV readers.

14 Iced Bears – 14 Iced Bears

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There are perhaps some of you who may be thinking “they were on Sarah, you would have known about them?” I can honestly say I hadn’t. That may be because Come Get Me was released on Sarah in the same year as the LP (Thunderball Records, 1988). The previous proper singles (Frank Records) were, at that point, unknown to me.

I couldn’t wait to get this home. I bought it from the second-hand section of Missing Records (Glasgow) – located on the mezzanine. It was £2.99.

Take It sets the scene for this 10 track LP, and for me, that scene was one of psychedelic noise that immediately made me think New. Favourite. Band.

mp3: 14 Iced Bears – Take It

Quieter moments on the LP reminded me, in places, of another emerging band, Stone Roses.

I can’t say for certain, but I think that Take It would have appeared on my DJ playlist from that time?

The band released three LPs in its initial stage – two studio albums 14 Iced Bears and Wonder and a compilation Precision (singles 86 – 89). All are worth searching out.

Until the band split, I remained an active fan and believe their output to be some of the most interesting from that time. Often associated with shoegaze the band reformed when the first full-throated revival took hold in 2010/11.

From seeing the art work, to listening to the songs, to realising the connections to the emerging scene, that £2.99 bought me a little glint of happiness, a glint that continues to catch my eye.

I’ve added two more songs from the LP that I hope you’ll enjoy.

mp3: 14 Iced Bears – Cut
mp3: 14 Iced Bears – Florence

If you’ve had a similar experience, why not share it – otherwise there’ll be more of my nostalgic nonsense.

flimflamfan

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty-two)

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Just two months after the release of Dreamland, another new single in advance of the new studio album was released:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Burning The Heather

Having gone all synth-pop last time out, this time out it’s a slow-paced number with its sound relying somewhat on an acoustic guitar, courtesy of the wonderfully-talented Bernard Butler.

I’ve long been fond of those occasional moments when PSB slow things down and move away from the clubs and dance floor. I think Neil Tennant is a much under-appreciated song-writer/lyricist, and Burning The Heather, if offered to, and accepted by, any one of the many 21st Century male pop stars whose songs of pain and anxiety sell by the millions, then this would have been a hit.

It’s a complex lyric, open to a number of possible interpretations, one of which is that it was inspired by the true life story of an elderly man who took committed suicide on the moors of Northern England, but who was not properly identified for more than a year as a result of him having lived as a loner who suffered from depression in London. It’s a very sad take on things, but it does fit the narrative, albeit the final verse does suggest he was open to having his mind changed about his plans to end his life.

The initial digital-only release on 14 November was later accompanied by a 7″ single on 13 December 2019, with this being the additional song in both instances:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Decide

An electronic classic in which Chris Lowe takes lead vocal for much of the song, albeit through his usual trick of having his vocal go through a distorter. Is it too obvious to say that this is PSB offering their take on the truly awful state of the nation as it approached the impending General Election with the expectation that the Tories under Boris Johnson would get their mandate to ‘Get Brexit Done’.

2020 was fast approaching. The Pet Shop Boys had a new album ready for release, after which they would embark on Dreamworld: The Greatest Hits Live tour, in which the duo would visit 24 cities in Europe and the UK between 1 May and 24 June, with more festival dates and cities in the Americas, Asia and Australia likely to be added for later in the year.

SPOILER ALERT : The tour, like all major music events in 2020, was cancelled as COVID rampaged its way across the globe.

JC

We See Lights

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #370: WE SEE LIGHTS

Depending on whether today’s song appeals to you, the thanks or blame must be given or aimed squarely in the direction of Jacques the Kipper as the one song I have by We See Lights comes courtesy of a handmade CD compilation he put together for me back in 2011.

Here’s an abridged bio adapated from wiki:-

We See Lights is a Scottish alternative indie pop band from Edinburgh.

The band was started by Stephen James Bogle (vocals and guitar), Paul Dougall (vocals and guitar) and Allan Rae (vocal and guitar) in 2007. The band were originally called The Quiet Revolution and after new members were added in January 2008 – Craig Ross (bass/guitar), Ross Harvey (drums), Ciaran McGuigan (vocals) and Jonathan Lapsley (keyboard/vocals), the band changed its name to We See Lights.

In 2008, We See Lights won the BT National Battle of the Bands, securing a main stage slot at the Isle of Wight Festival 2008 that year playing alongside The Police, The Kooks and James. In November 2008, the band received funding from the Scottish Arts Council (now known as Creative Scotland) to record their debut album, Ghosts & Monsters. The album was released in March 2010. By this time, Ciaran McGuigan and Craig Ross had left the band, with their places taken by Paul Livingston and Kat Oatey.

In March 2011, the band released their EP Twee Love Pop on Edinburgh indie label Heroes and Gluepots. It received support from DJ’s such as Lauren Laverne who played the track My Oh My Oh My on her BBC Radio 6 Music Show

On 31 March 2015, the band released their second album, Throw Your Arms Around Someone, You Will Each Weigh a Little Less.

At which point, they seemed to call it a day.

Here’s the song JtK threw my way:-

mp3: We See Lights – I Hope You Like The Smiths

This was one of the tracks on the Twee Love Pop EP. It’s one that seems to just involve the three original members of The Quiet Revolution rather than the full band. I’m guessing the title of the song is what mostlt led to its inclusion on JtK’s CD, but it does have a degree of charm in that indie-folk style that has long been very fashionable here in Scotland.

JC

Various

NO RHYME NOR REASON

No-Rhyme-or-Reason-Day

mp3: Various – No Rhyme Nor Reason

EMF – Children
Bodega – Can’t Knock The Hustle
Gang Of Four – Damaged Goods
LCD Soundsystem – Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
Britney Spears – Toxic
Nadine Shah – Holiday Destination
New Order – Dreams Never End
Longpigs – She Said
Steve Mason – Brothers and Sisters
Wet Leg – Angelica
Say Sue Me – Old Town
Robert Forster – When I Was A Young Man
James – What’s The World
The Rakes – Retreat
Bikini Kill – Rebel Girl
The Strokes – The Modern Age
Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (New Lockdown Version)
Half Man Half Biscuit– When I Look At My Baby

JC

Secession

A LOST 80’s BAND FROM SCOTLAND

I am hugely indebted to Jan Burnett, best known for his work with Spare Snare, for all of what now follows.

Secession – an 80s Scottish synth band who I had absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever until the name was mentioned, during a chat in a Glasgow coffee shop. There are over 1000 entries, covering all musical genres in the excellent and essential ‘The Great Scots Musicography’, written by Martin C Strong and published back in 2002, but there is no mention of Secession.

It’s a rare oversight, especially as the band, between 1983 and 1987, released eight singles and one album, some through Beggars Banquet and some through Siren Records.

Jan is a big fan…..as indeed he is of a great deal of synth music which emerged in the 80s. The picture at the top of this post dates from their time at Beggars Banquet which was 1984 by which time they were a trio, having originally started out as a four-piece and later a five-piece.

The founding members were Peter Thomson (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer and vocals), Jack Ross (guitar, synthesizer and vocals), Jim Ross (bass guitar) and Carole L. Branston (keyboards and vocals), with a small pre-programmed drum machine keeping the beats.

The debut single was Betrayal, released on their own The Garden Label in 1983:-

Listening to this now, I have no idea how I missed out on it, other than to highlight it as another example from those days when music that wasn’t from Glasgow very often failed to penetrate in my home city.

Shortly after the debut single, Alistair MacLeod (percussion and vocals) joined up, helping to reduce the over-reliance on the drum machine. They began to pull together demo material at Palladium Studios in Edinburgh (where Cocteau Twins had recorded their 1983 masterpiece Head Over Heels), but Jack Ross, being unhappy with the direction the music was taking, decided to quit. Not long after, Jim Ross (and I’m not sure if he was related to Jack), followed suit.

More demos were recorded, this time at Planet Studios in Edinburgh, where Goodbye Mr Mackenzie would work in future years, thus launching the stellar career of Shirley Manson. One of the demoed tracks, Fire Island, brought interest from London-based Beggars Banquet, and they signed to the label.

At this point in time, Alistair McLeod decided he preferred to concentrate on pursuing a career as a photographer, and so he left, to be replaced by Charlie Kelly. The new trio re-recorded Fire Island, and it was released as their Beggars Banquet debut in 1984:-

mp3: Secession – Fire Island

All of which means that the persons in the photo up top, from left to right, are Charlie Kelly, Carole L. Branston and Peter Thomson.

A second single, Touch was released later in the year by Beggars Banquet. Although it failed to reach the Top 75 at home, it did enjoy a bit of success over in Germany. There soon followed a change of label, to Siren Records, an indie-style set-up supported by Virgin.

The band had now grown back in size to a four-piece with the addition of bassist JL Seenan, with this being their debut 45 for the new label in 1986:-

The band were extremely active in 1987, releasing a further four singles, and the album A Dark Enchantment, all through Siren Records.

Secession broke up not long after the release of the debut. JL Seenan and Charlie Kelly joined The Vaselines (their co-founder member Eugene Kelly was Charlie’s brother), and played on their debut album, Dum-Dum, released in 1989.

Sadly, Peter Thomson, the main songwriter in Secession, died in 2001.

So why am I drawing all this to your attention today?

It’s all to do with the very impending release via Jan Burnett’s Chute Records, of a 40th Anniversary celebration of the two singles released on Beggars Banquet. Jan has been able to obtain the licence to do this as a physical release, with orders being taken from tomorrow, 1st September.

It’s going to be a full-length CD, extending out to 78 minutes, with 7″, 12″, remix, demo and outtake versions of the songs. At this point in time, it will be a physical release only, with Beggars Banquet very likely to issue the material in digital form in due course.

All the information you could want will be available, from tomorrow, at https://secession.bandcamp.com/

There will only be 500 copies of the CD pressed up, so if you’re enjoying what you are hearing today, then I suggest you might want to move in quickly.

JC

Friends Of The Family

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #030

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#030– Friends of the Family – ‘Rotten To The Core’ (Ediesta Records ’87)

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Dear friends,

I’m still caught in last week’s trap, so much so that – again – the next single in the box is by a band no-one knows, most probably. No, that’s not true, I’m sure my chum Brian knows them – because he is the renowned expert for jingly C86 – stuff, otherwise unbeknownst to the masses. And the less such a band is known, the less information one can find about them some decades later …. as pointed out last week.

Of course, we have all learnt by now that just because a band didn’t end up with a massive output, it automatically means they are crap. You see, if such a band has released just one single which meets with my approval, they have achieved more than I have achieved in my lifetime! There are dozens of examples proving this great theory, and today’s single is just one of them.

Apparently there are quite a handful of bands called Friends Of The Family, a “Dutch folk collective”, based in The Hague. Also there is a “fun-loving big band” from Perth in Australia. Then, one from northeast Pennsylvania, with “an ever rotating lineup of musicians”. Also, of course, there were Friends Of The Family from Wilmington, Delaware, one of the “more progressive 60’s garage bands”.

So, which of those will it be today, I’m sure you are eager to learn?! The answer is, none of them, because today’s Friends Of The Family came from the UK, originally from Harrogate, but ended up in Birmingham.

Basically the only member with at least a little bit of background on the internet is Matthew Eaton. He used to play in a band called Delta, and after Friends Of The Family he moved on to join Pram, and, as it seems, he took singer Rosie Cuckston with him.

But as Friends Of The Family, they only recorded two records, both on Ediesta Records and both in 1987: a 12” called “Three Fat Men (On A Bicycle)” and today’s offering, the absolutely stunning

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mp3: Friends Of The Family – Rotten To The Core

And the above, folks, is all I know about this single. So, as they say, let the music speak instead: nothing wrong with that, I’m sure you agree. Especially when the music is as fine as it is today.

Just let me know what you think, please!

Enjoy!

Dirk

Carmel, Glove, Kinks, Kraftwerk, Madness, Style Council

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (8)

The month of August 1983 as delivered by the UK record-buying public.

Chart dates 31st July – 6 August 1983

Nope. There’s nothing new in the Top 40 worth featuring, while all those that are half-decent that have been in the charts for a few weeks were mentioned either last month or back in June.

A 7″ I did buy back in the day did enter the charts at #48, and eventually made its way up to #15 in mid-September.

mp3: Carmel – Bad Day

A jazz/soul group whose name was taken from that of the lead singer, Carmel McCourt. The other two members were Jim Paris and Gerry Darby. This was the lead single from their second album, The Drum Is Everything, but their first for a major label, in this instance London Records. It was produced by Mike Thorne, who at the time was one of the most-sight after in his profession, thanks to his success with Soft Cell, The The and Bronski Beat, among others. It’s well seeing I was being influenced by The Style Council at this juncture in my life.

Chart dates 7th August – 13th August 1983

At long last, after a combined six weeks of sitting at the top of the charts, Rod Stewart and Paul Young were finally displaced by KC and The Sunshine Band. Sadly, it wasn’ttty quite the way (ah-huh, ah-huh) I liked it, as the song was the rather bland and dull Give It Up.

Weller and Talbot came to the rescue:-

mp3 : The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (#8)

I’ve said enough over the years about this particular song. It was, and remains after 40 years, a real favourite. It’s certainly stood the test of time. It would, over the course of the remainder of the month, reach #3 and in doing so, be the best-performing song, chart-wise, for TSC.

I’m off to Dusseldorf with a mate very soon for a weekend, during which we will take in a couple of matches. He’s not big into his music, but I’m sure even he’s heard of that city’s greatest and best known exports:-

mp3: Kraftwerk – Tour de France (#31)

It eventually manoeuvred its way up to #22.

Chart dates 14th – 20th August

mp3: Madness – Wings Of A Dove (#19)

The 15th time that Madness entered the singles chart. This time, they threw in some steel drums and the vocal talents of The Inspirational Choir of the Pentecostal First Born Church of the Living God, who had been runners-up in a talent show organised by Channel 4, but whose performances led to Madness asking them to do the additional/backing vocals on a newly written song that was intended for release as a single. What did surprise me is that Wings Of A Dove was Madness’s second-best ever performing 45, reaching #2, bettered only by their sole #1, House of Fun.

mp3 : The Kinks – Come Dancing (#29)

The Kinks hadn’t enjoyed a hit single in 11 years, and the success of Come Dancing was a bolt from the blue. It had actually been released, to complete indifference, in late 1982 but to almost everyone’s surprise, it found favour with the American audiences, reaching#6 on its release in April 1983. The UK record label quickly made plans to have a second go with things over here, and in due course it would reach #12. It proved to be the 17th and last time the band would reach the Top 20 in their homeland.

Chart dates 21st – 27th August 1983

As with the opening week of this month, nothing new came into the Top 40 to provide any excitement. Digging deep down, I found this:-

mp3 : The Glove – Like An Animal (#52)

This was actually a rise of one place from its entry into the Top 75 at #53 the previous week.

The Glove was a side project involving Steve Severin (Banshees) and Robert Smith (The Cure). A clause in his contract seemingly prohibited Smith singing with another band, which is why Jeanette Landray, a former girlfriend of Severin’s bandmate Budgie, was recruited as the lead singer.

May 2019 was the only time The Glove previously featured on the blog. It came from a great discussion via the comments section involving Martin (Sweden) and Dirk (Germany) about the merits of this single.

Martin

I must point out that the B-side of the first single by The Glove (Like an animal) is one of the best pop songs ever recorded by RS, Mouth To Mouth.

Note I post this as a fact.

Dirk

Even better than the A-Side, Martin? Must listen to it once I get home … and if it ever comes to an ICA, ‘Like An Animal’ M.U.S.T. be included … at least as far as I’m concerned …

Martin

Dirk – In my eyes, yes without a doubt! And it has Robert singing as if I remember correctly he could for contractual reasons not do the lead vocals on any of the singles. Like an animal has Landray on vocals.

So… the contractual issue wasn’t he couldn’t sing lead vocals – he just couldn’t do it on any singles. Here’s your b-side

mp3: The Glove – Mouth To Mouth

I’ll be back again with more of the same in four or so weeks.

JC

Kinks

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #350: THE KINKS

Kinks

FIRST UP…….

I have no idea why, all of a sudden, all comments are being recorded as ‘anonymous’. I am trying to find a solution. In the meantime, if you do make a comment, could I suggest that you add your name at the end (if you want to!!!).

LUNCHTIME UPDATE

Still no long-term solution, but in the meantime, I’m going to go back and ‘amend’ all the anonymous comments, so that names and contact addresses are added. Who knows, it might turn out to be a solution (oh, and I’ve been alerted by flimflamfan that he was unable to post a comment at all and he’s sent me it by text! – I’ll sort that out too.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get on with today’s business……..

I thought, given I’ve been relying heavily on very welcome and diverse guest contributions for ICAs in recent times, that I should do #350 in the series myself. And turn my attention to a band whose recognition on this blog is way overdue.

This one will be very single-heavy, as that’s really the medium by which I know today’s long-overdue recipients of an ICA. I’m turning to the words of Stephen Erlewine, over at allmusic, for the bio.

“One of the great bands of the rock & roll era, the Kinks pioneered hard rock with such wild early ravers as “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night,” singles that inspired such peers as the Who and David Bowie while also pointing the way forward for punk and metal.

“That turned out to be the first act in a career that ran into the 1990s, making them the only British Invasion band outside of the Rolling Stones to last that long. Where the Stones always occupied centre stage, the Kinks operated on the margins, both by accident and design.

“Lead singer/songwriter Ray Davies fashioned himself as an observer of human behaviour, developing a gift for character and commentary that flourished on such mid-’60s singles as “Dedicated Follower of Fashion” and “Sunny Afternoon.” As their peers indulged themselves in trippy psychedelia, the band embraced the idiosyncrasies of British culture on The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, a record that helped shape the sound and aesthetic of indie rock in the decades to come.

“The Kinks may have been outsiders, especially during a stretch in the ’70s when Davies pushed the band to record elaborate rock operas, yet they always belonged to the mainstream, managing to bring “Lola” into the Top Ten in 1970 before settling into a long decade on the road where they cultivated a fervent fan base in America. This hard work paid off in the early ’80s when the exuberant nostalgia of “Come Dancing” rode an MTV endorsement into the Top Ten, giving the group another decade of work. Over those ten years, the Kinks were eventually whittled down to the core of Ray Davies and his brother Dave, siblings who battled but usually found common ground in the band. The pair split in the mid-’90s, just as Brit-pop pushed their influence to the forefront, but rumours of a reunion continued to circulate as late as the 2020s, when both brothers said they were collaborating on new music. ”

So, without any further ado:-

SIDE A

1. You Really Got Me

The band’s third 45, released in August 1964, and their first #1. It’s opening three seconds have always been among the instantly recognisable in all music, no matter the genre. Seemingly, it was originally intended to be recorded as a laid-back number, with it originally written on an upright piano. It was Dave Davies who decided it sounded better as a guitar number…..a loud and bluesy guitar number.

2. Sunny Afternoon

This was just two years after You Really Got Me, but the fact it was the band’s 13th single only demonstrates just how prolific they were. Between 1964 and 1968, there were 5 studio albums, 23 singles and, 1 live album, not forgetting 6 compilations as well as 8 EPs that were released specifically for the American market. No wonder the Davies brothers got rich quick, and it’s no real surprise that, as with a number of their contemporaries, they were soon writing about their taxation woes (although it is hard to feel any sympathy, even at almost 50 years removal). This was their third #1 single in the UK.

3. David Watts

The opening track from the 1967 album, Something Else By The Kinks. And yes, its inclusion on the ICA is inspired by the later cover by The Jam, a take on things that first got me really interested in finding out about The Kinks as up to now, I just knew of them as an old band whose songs often got played on Golden Hours or as requests from listeners on Radio 1.

4. Lola

Talking about hearing songs on the radio, this was the one I reckon I heard the most. Possibly it’s down to the fact that it was released in 1970, around about the time I turned 7 years old, and that it has a nursery-rhyme ‘spellathon’ chorus that tends to stick in the minds of kids that age. I, of course, had no idea what the hell the song was about. This reached #2 in August 1970, kept off the top spot by Elvis Presley crooning about The Wonder Of You.

Fun fact : The BBC banned the track, but not because it was worried about gender issues. The original version of the song had the words ‘Coca-Cola’ in the lyrics, and so was banned, as you couldn’t do product placement. Ray Davies had to fly back from New York to London to change the lyric to ‘cherry cola’ to allow a single version to be cut.

5. Dead End Street

The sound of Britpop some 30 years before it became ‘a thing’. A #5 single in late 1966.

SIDE B

1. Waterloo Sunset

I reckon most folk will suggest this as the greatest of all the songs written and recorded by The Kinks. It’s a beautiful and timeless love song, despite being very much a product of the 60s in sound and texture. It’s an evoking number, quite possibly the unofficial anthem of the city of London, although there have been so many changes to the skyline over the decades that it must be nigh on impossible to recreate the scenes imagined by Ray Davies. a #2 hit in May 1967, kept off the top by Silence Is Golden by The Tremeloes, which seems to have been a huge miscarriage of justice.

2. All Day and All Of The Night

The follow-up to You Really Got Me didn’t stray too far from the template of 1964. Another huge and catchy guitar-riff, one that subsequently has been mimicked on countless occasions – not least by The Doors when they penned Hello, I Love You just a few years later. It’s worth mentioning at this juncture that Dave Davies is rarely recalled as a teenage prodigy in musical histories, but he was just 17 years old when he came up with these hot licks. This stalled at #2 in November 1964…..kept off the top by the poptastic Baby Love by The Supremes.

3. Tired Of Waiting For You

This one must have come as a shock to fans back in January 1965. The two huge hits in 1964 of ‘Got Me’ and ‘All Day’ had been blues-based rockers and as the new year dawned, most would have expected more of the same. Instead, they released a mid-tempo ballad in which the guitar riff, although not totally absent, is very much in the background. It must have been unexpected, but the fact it went all the way to #1 gave them the confidence to go down a different road than had perhaps been envisaged. If this had flopped, there’s every chance that The Kinks, or at least their record label, would have seen their future in classic rock terms.

4. Days

One that I first became aware of thanks to Kirsty MacColl‘s excellent cover version in 1989. The original is every bit as lovely….one that took on an entirely new meaning for me when it was chosen by a good friend of mine to play at the funeral of his late wife, who had died very suddenly. 49 years they had been together since their first date as teenagers, going back to around the time this went into the charts at #12 in 1968. It was a wonderful way to get across the love they had for one another and, as often happens with music at funerals, it choked me up.

5. The Village Green Preservation Society

The final track of any ICA is always a tough one to choose. I always try and have it as a song that would, if on the imaginary two sides of vinyl, make the listener very keen to flip the vinyl over and play it again. There were so many hit songs still left from the longlist and not going to make the cut, such as the 80s ‘comeback’ hit, Come Dancing, and the satirical, Dedicated Follower of Fashion. But, maybe unusually, I’ve gone for the lead-off and title track from a 1968 LP that was an absolute flop back in the day, failing to trouble the charts at all……but has since, thanks to continual reappraisals and further anniversary-type re-releases, become the best-selling of all studio albums released by The Kinks. It’s the answer I’d give if I’m to ever be posed the question ‘What’s the quintessentially English pop song of them all?’.

So there you have it. An ICA that has as much missing as it has included. Hope it gets greeted with at least a modicum of approval.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty-one)

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Last week’s piece made an observation that while the fanbase was happy with whatever direction PSB would head, the general public wasn’t too enamoured by the political slant on the songs issues with the 2019 edition of Pet Shop Boys Annually.

Here’s wiki:-

“Dreamland” is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys featuring English synth-pop band Years & Years (the solo project of singer Olly Alexander). It was released on 11 September 2019 as the lead single from Pet Shop Boys’ fourteenth studio album, Hotspot.

During the writing process, Neil Tennant explained that the title of the track came when Alexander told the duo that he had just visited the Dreamland Margate amusement park. According to an interview in The Guardian, the trio wrote the track in 2017, with Alexander explaining, “I felt like I didn’t want to write about politics simply because I felt like I should but then last week I wrote a song with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s inspired by a fairground in Margate called Dreamland, but while I was writing it, Neil Tennant said to me, ‘This makes sense right now with Trump closing the borders.’ The song became something that touched on what’s going on in the world. I’d write lyrics and he’d say, ‘No, it needs to be more direct.’ He’d take a simple line and interject a subversive political statement. That’s the challenge as a pop writer, to do both at once”.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys (ft. Years and Years) – Dreamland

This one doesn’t sound like any sort of protest song. It’s synth-pop at its purest and most danceable, with an incessant beat that sounds great coming out of the radio. While it’s not entirely in keeping with my own tastes, It should have been a smash hit, the sort that gets you invited to appear on stages at free music festivals organised by pop radio stations, but I guess the music industry frowns upon OAPs trying to be hip and down with the kids. As it was, PSB ended up debuting the song live at the Radio 2 live festival in Hyde Park, London on 15 September 2019, just a few days after the CD and digital versions had been made available.

Two new songs were on the CD:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – An Open Mind
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – No Boundaries

It was now 35 years since the debut single, and still PSB were capable of jaw-dropping moments when it came to the quality of b-sides.

The fourteenth studio album was still a few months away from being released, but if these hadn’t made the cut, then it was understandable that fans were excited by what was coming.

JC

Waterboys

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #369: THE WATERBOYS

Back in April 2019, I featured a song by Another Pretty Face, in which I explained why a really popular group had never graced the pages of TVV.

“I’m not a fan of The Waterboys which is why they haven’t ever appeared on these pages, nor indeed the pages of the old blog. The anthemic folk/pop combo, fronted by Mike Scott enjoyed massive success at the tail end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s. Their biggest hit was The Whole of The Moon, which had been a moderate hit on initial release in 1985 but went all the way to #2 in 1991 when it was reissued to support a Greatest Hits package. It’s a song I never took to and at this late stage in my life never will.

“My better half was a huge fan of the band at the time when we first hooked up, and so I was exposed a fair bit to 1988’s Fishermen’s Blues, but it always felt to me like the sort of record that would be enjoyed by a tourist (most likely from North America) who wanted something a little bit Celtic (with a hard ‘C’) to remind him of a holiday round these parts.”

Mike Scott was part of Another Pretty Face prior to forming The Waterboys, which is why I was able to refer to that band in the way I did. But we’re reached the stage in the alphabetical rundown where I have to bow down to the inevitable. One of the band’s songs appears on the Big Gold Dreams box set. Here’s the accompanying blurb:-

Mike Scott’s Another Pretty Face eventually morphed into The Waterboys whose debut single on Scott’s own Chicken Jazz label announced a more panoramic sound that would ebb and flow with assorted musical influences over the decades.

Scott’s homage to Patti Smith set the tone for a series of records that mixed spiritual roots with epic productions that hit the zeitgeist with the questing euphoria of ‘The Whole Of The Moon’.

Overseeing numerous line-up changes, Scott stripped things back to incorporate Irish traditional music influences for 1998’s ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ album. Assorted solo wanderings followed before Scott picked up The Waterboys name once more for albums including the WB Yeats inspired ‘An Appointment With Mr Yeats’ and 2017’s ‘Out Of All This Blue’.

mp3: The Waterboys – A Girl Called Johnny

This actually just about made the charts when released in April 1983, getting as high as #80 in an era when the Top 100 was published. Doesn’t do anything for me, though.

JC

Curve

CURVE BALLS (5)

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And so we reach the final part of this mini-series as after this, I don’t have any of Curve‘s later singles on vinyl.

Just over a year has passed since the remix of Horror Head, during which time Dean Garcia and Toni Halliday worked on writing songs for a new album.

The first of the new material appeared on 23 August 1993, consisting of a new single and four other tracks spread over 12″ vinyl and CD. The release was called BlackerThreeTracker, and here was what was on the vinyl:-

mp3: Curve – Missing Link
mp3: Curve – On The Wheel
mp3: Curve – Triumph

Is it more of the same or is it different from what had come before? My own take is that Curve had moved on from the more gothic nature of many of their earlier songs, but in doing so it feels as if they lost that special little hard-to-describe ingredient that made them so appealing.

Sadly, I don’t have any reviews from the weekly music papers to offer on this occasion to see if they agree with my take. There are mixed reviews of their second album, Cuckoo, which was released a couple of weeks later and which included Missing Link as one of its ten tracks. The new single did come in at #39 which was in keeping with many of the previous chart positions of EPs and singles, but the album only reached #23, which was twelve places lower than that of the debut.

It would all lead to a fair bit of disenchantment, and Curve broke up in early 1994, albeit they reformed a couple of years later, going on to release two further studio albums and a handful of singles, but they never managed to replicate the success of the initial era.

Here’s the promo video for Missing Link:-