THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

NEW YOUTH BIBLE

A guest posting by flimflamfan

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Edinburgh School for the Deaf – New Youth Bible

Re-issue : Absolutely Kosher Records 25th Anniversary

I’ve written much in these pages about the emotional response to music, my own included – sometimes bordering on the spiritual (all the while jabbing at any thought of religion with a long-armed stick). Phrases to describe such experiences can include ‘the hairs on the back of my neck stood up’. Remember that phrase.

I’ve listened to ‘a lot’ of records, saw more than my fair share of live bands, and some – I’ve no idea why – affect me more than others. I’ll not list bands / songs – it could prove to be an unhelpful construct although I might, just might, make one or two references here and there.

Imagine the Star Wars intro text title screen… It was a long time ago…

I was asked to assist with a ‘battle of the bands’. I was incredibly proud to be asked to do so by Sandy, the man behind the event, but was ambushed by Imposter Syndrome. Sandy had arranged to host one of Alan McGee nights, in Perth, in which a lucky recipient would be ‘signed’ to McGee’s new label – who was I to judge? Although I do think I’d look quite dashing adorned in powdered wig, gown and wielding a gavel. Sorry, I digressed, with what was an unrealistic TV adaptation of a UK court scene.

Off I popped to Perth full of excitement and trepidation on an overnight stay with my bag packed full of social anxieties.

I think it’s fair to say that I’m not the most gregarious person you’ll ever meet – certainly not initially. If I feel comfortable, or have had a wee drink, I can be quite the chatterbox. I say, quite the chatterbox. I’ve never liked to be seen – even as a kid. It’s a peculiar thing to say – even after all these years – but it makes me feel uncomfortable. Every interaction is stage-managed internally by skilled ‘imaginary’ puppeteers pulling every string to make my interactions seem natural.

I arrived in Perth. I arrived at the venue.

Neither of these things seem like big deals, yet both are to me, especially entering the venue on my own. This is something I have done so rarely it could be referred to as a rare occasion.

Sandy was there to greet me, bands were sound checking – it was noisy but with few folk milling around. I was introduced to Mr McGee and then Sandy began to outline how the night would pan out. It seemed quite straight forward and something that could be enhanced by a dark rum and green ginger. I was right. That dark rum and green ginger, they should bottle that. Oh, hang on…

I’m ashamed to say that I don’t recall all of the bands that played. I could go and look at information from that time, but that doesn’t seem terribly honest. Suffice to say, only two bands stood out. The soon to be ‘band in first place’ and ‘band in second place’. The band in first place were damn good. Young. Fiery. Full of fight and ambition. I liked them. Mr McGee announced them as winners. In a brief comment to me later, he uttered ‘it would have been too obvious for me to pick the other band’. The words “too obvious” are a direct quote and remain etched forever in my reminiscences of that night.

The other band? The band in second place? That band provided me with one of the most spiritual musical experiences I have ever encountered. Known for a short time as Deserters Deserve Death, but soon to be known as Edinburgh School for the Deaf, that band destroyed every social anxiety I had. They pummelled any and every doubt. They raised me to a point of spiritual ecstasy. They made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up – a physical response to music that I’ll never forget. They made me dance (swaying really) to music I was unfamiliar with – it was unadulterated joy. Anxieties? What anxieties?

As much as I was pleased for the band that came in first, and I was pleased for them, Edinburgh School for the Deaf was robbed.

How a band can create and sustain such chaos, yet exude a calm presence, still confounds me. It was akin to watching three maniacs tethered to their jailer. Was there a single space in that bar that Kieran had not jumped on, or jumped from, all the while playing note perfect? Each band member seemingly in their own space, unaware of the other band members at all, then coming together triumphantly as a sonic force that made you want to cry. I did cry. It was a powerful, moving performance, and they are by definition of this event the second-best band in the world (as far as I am concerned).

Throughout the gig I was plagued by a sense of familiarity but couldn’t place it? It transpired that Edinburgh School for the Death rose from the ashes of another much-loved band, St Jude’s Infirmary.

Soon after the gig the band ‘signed’ to Glasgow label, Bubblegum Records with which they released the single Orpheus Descending / Orpheus Ascending and their sole LP New Youth Bible (on CD) back in 2011.

I am delighted to say that thanks to Absolutely Kosher Records (California) enjoying a 25th anniversary, it has decided to reissue the LP on limited edition silver vinyl (20th October).

The LP captures the mood of the band perfectly. Of Scottish Blood and Sympathies overwhelms the senses with it’s glorious wall of noise that carries a fragile vocal to where we know not.

mp3: Edinburgh School for the Deaf – Of Scottish Blood and Sympathies

Love is Terminal is the epitome of a post-punk classic that brandishes its pop sensibilities with a sharpened knife. I’ll allow you, dear reader, to go through each song and come to your own conclusions. Suffice to say, my limited-edition silver vinyl is secured. I’ll be thrilled to teeny tiny bits when it arrives.

This is an LP for those that enjoy: The Velvet Underground, The Fall, Joy Division, The Jesus and Mary Chain et al. It is by far one of the most important LPs in my collection. It was a once lost but now re-found Scottish classic, thanks to Absolutely Kosher Records.

The LP can be purchased via bandcamp. It’s also currently on pre-order from the likes of Assai Records, Juno Records, Norman Records and Rough Trade, with no doubt many other similar stores likely to add it to their impending arrivals over the coming days.

flimflamfan

JC adds

The write-up today is not mere hyperbole. It’s a record that I wasn’t entirely sure of back in the day, but it has very much grown on me over the years, and I have long come to the conclusion that I wasn’t quite ready, back in 2011, for its sonic magnificence. Surely we’ve all got much-loved albums that took a long time to worm their way into our affections???

Smarter folk like Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills got it right away, with a tremendous review back in 2011 (click here), and in one short phrase he captured it perfectly.

“thrilling proof that rock music can be exciting and beautiful at the same time”.

Jacques the Kipper also raved about it at the time, and included one of the tracks from the album on a homemade ‘best of 2011 compilation CD’ he gifted to me.

Like fff, I’ve got my order in for the vinyl.

Helen Love

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #034

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#034– Helen Love – ”Girl About Town (Damaged Goods ’96)

Dear friends,

to Swansea, Wales we go today, although – let’s face facts – the Welsh are a strange bunch, aren’t they? I mean, the language is pathetic, and their humor, well, it takes getting used to, let’s put it this way. But once you have achieved this, you’re up for a treat. Quite some time ago I bought myself a double album ‘Dial M For Merthyr’, which was – and still is, I suppose – a compilation of Welsh Indie bands from 1997 on Fierce Panda. The music is okay by and large, as it so often is with compilations: killers and fillers, you know what I mean. But it still blows me away each time I look at / listen to it, because:

a) the cover reads: “record hir cymraeg gorau yn byd erioed… mwy na thebyg”, which might or might not translate as “the Scots are going to come and turn our fishing village into a top secret radar establishment!”

b) all over the front cover is Johnny Owen, Welsh bantamweight boxer, in all his glory, jogging near Merthyr bridge. Now, if this weren’t a Welsh compilation, but a Jamaican one, you probably would have seen Usain Bolt on the cover and bloody Beckham if it were UK bands. Why? Because sex sells, we all know this! Now, Johnny Owen, well – and I am trying to remain polite here, I really do – is nothing like that! But I’m sure his mother loved him anyway:

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And also: c) track one, side one is by Teen Anthems and it’s called “Welsh Bands Suck”. And if this weren’t funny enough, the lyrics are: ”oh no, it can’t be true/everybody’s saying Welsh bands are cool/oh no, that can’t be right/ apart from Helen Love they’re a load of shite/oh no, they sing in Welsh: chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck chrck” …. which is just priceless, I always thought!!!

Yes, I might have digressed a little bit, but to have singled out Helen Love as being not shite really offers a useful segue: Helen Love have been around forever, haven’t they (30 years definitely is ‘forever’ in my books)? From scratch on they provided us with a brilliant mix of lo-fi punk rock and bubblegum pop, which never got boring. They always only had one God, and that was Joey Ramone. This ended up in Helen working with Joey and vice versa. Not on this song though, which, regardless of that, is their finest moment in my humble opinion:

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mp3: Helen Love – Girl About Town

When they go “she had her picture in Rolling Stone/she was third from the left behind Joey Ramone/you couldn’t see her face/but I’m sure she looked great anyway”, I nearly wet myself each and every time I hear it.

Years ago I read something somewhere, and I don’t feel ashamed to steal it for using it here, because it pretty much sums up everything you need to know about Helen Love: “Helen Love: sticky as a chewing-gum on the sole of a Converse!”.

Whoever thought of this, he – or she – couldn’t have been more right!

One more thought to leave you with. Some applause should be given to Mr Paul Weller for listening to this song with what must have been a smile on his face and taking the decision not to ask for a co-writing credit. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I should ask that you give a listen to Boy About Town as recorded by The Jam for the 1980 album, Sound Affects.

Enjoy,

Dirk

Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry

ABOUT THE WEATHER

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48 hours ago, some of the most torrential rain I can ever recall fell over much of Scotland in a very short space of time. What made this feel very unusual was that just a couple of hundred miles to the south, much of England was basking in unseasonably warm and sunny weather for what is supposed to be the autumnal month of October.

Many football matches were, unsurprisingly called off due to waterlogged pitches. My team, Raith Rovers, play on an artificial surface which meant the game was never in doubt, which meant I had to make the 70-mile journey from Glasgow to Kirkcaldy on a day when the authorities had issued a ‘don’t travel unless you have to warning’.

Oh, and I was going by train – I don’t drive…I never have although I keep threatening to take lessons. And as you can see from the above picture, quite a number of the train lines were under a lot of water, especially those close to rivers and canals.

What would normally be a two-hour journey at most involving two changes of trains, ended up taking more than four hours, but I’m incredibly grateful to the staff who worked so hard and tirelessly in such miserable conditions to ensure there was at least some service on the least-affected lines. The effort was worth it as I was treated to a decent game of football.

I couldn’t help but quietly sing a particular song to myself as I watched the weather worsen from the comfort and safety of the railway carriage.

mp3: Bryan Ferry – A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

I’d have barely been ten years old when I first heard this. It was, thinking back on it, probably my introduction to the crooning voice of Bryan Ferry. It’s a song that has so much going on throughout – wonky keyboards, crazy strings and soulful backing vocals are just the tip of the iceberg. I had no idea what the song’s bonkers lyrics were actually about, I just loved how infectiously catchy it all was and looking back, it was one of those songs that subconsciously created my love for music that was maybe just a bit out of the norm.

I can tell you when and where found out that it was a cover version. It would have been in 5th year at school and in our common room where we would idle away the time in between lessons. One of our esteemed and elite group (not many folk at my school stayed on beyond the earliest point you could leave) had discovered Bob Dylan and brought in a compilation tape that he insisted we listened to. It included this:-

mp3: Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall

It was only then did I realise just how radical the cover version had been. To take a such a folksy ballad and turn it into something so unworldly was bordering on the point of genius. I still can’t get my head around that the original take was such a slow number with a low-key production.

Oh, and I also can’t get to grips with Dylan being just 21 years old when he wrote and recorded it. It’s a fantastic piece of poetry and prose, but surely that’s the voice of someone well into their advancing years?

JC

Wedding Present

THE WEDDING PRESENT SINGLES (Part One)

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So…..the very large tasks of sharing the singles by The Fall and Pet Shop Boys have been completed. I thought about now turning my attention to a singer or band whose output has been slightly less in number, but as you can see I’ve changed my mind.

The opening sentence of The Wedding Present discography page at wiki states:-

The Wedding Present’s discography consists of 54 singles, 17 extended plays, 9 studio albums, 24 live albums and 21 compilation albums.

It’s gonna be a long ride….and I hope you’re all up for it.

There’ll be a lot of things over the next year-and-a-bit lifted from previous witterings on the blog as so many of the 45s have been written about already.

It’s time to head back to 24 May 1985, and the very first single, and b-side, released on 7″ via the newly formed Reception Records.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Go Out And Get ‘Em Boy
mp3: The Wedding Present – The Moment Before (Everything’s Spoiled Again)

500 copies were pressed up. Later in the year, it was re-released on City Slang Records, again in fairly limited numbers and with different artwork. Both songs were later included on the compilation album Tommy, released in 1988.

In 2019, Optic Nerve Records brought out a fresh pressing of the debut single, on white vinyl, and using the same sleeve as had been used on the Reception Records release.

As calling cards go, it’s not too shabby, although the lo-fi nature of the production kind of gives away that things were basic in the studio and money was tight.

The Wedding Present line-up back then was David Gedge (vocals, guitar), Peter Solowka (guitar), Keith Gregory (bass) and Shaun Charman (drums). However, it’s not Shaun who is drumming on the a-side of the debut. He would later explain:-

“The reason why…..is because I couldn’t play the drums well enough, and thought it would be a better single if I got somebody else in – I still think so. I asked Julian Sowa, the drummer of the band I played the bass in, to play for me.

“The b-side has a slow bit in the middle. The reason I could play that song is because it had the slow bit. I ran out of puff, had a bit of a rest and then launched into the second half of it. That’s how the first single came about.”

JC

Whiteout

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #376: WHITEOUT

Whiteout formed in Greenock in 1991, briefly gaining a bit of fame in the Britpop era, although their best chart position for any single was #72, while the debut album stalled at #71.

As the promo photo above indicates, they were on Silvertone Records, the label that had brought Stone Roses to the attention of the masses. Whiteout had a reputation as a decent live act, thanks in part to touring in front of large audiences as support for The Charlatans and Pulp, and they were also on the road alongside Oasis when that band was just getting things going.

I’ve only one of their songs, and it comes courtesy of its inclusion on a compilation CD which celebrated songs recorded at Park Lane Studios in Glasgow:-

mp3: Whiteout – Jackie’s Racing (alternate mix)

The single version of the song was the one that took them to #72 in the charts back in February 1995.

JC

Echo & The Bunnymen

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(4)

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I kind of forgot about this series…….

A reminder that it’s designed to suggest that a singer/band and/or record label missed a trick by not issuing a particular track as a single.

Heaven Up Here, the second album from Echo & The Bunnymen, was released on 30 May 1981. It wasn’t preceded by the release of any single, and indeed only one of its tracks, A Promise was released on the 45rpm format, and not until 10 July, some six weeks later.

I don’t know why this was the case given the quality of the material on the album. Maybe everyone had a listen and felt that while the songs were first-rate, none of them really stood out as having the potential to make an impact on daytime or commercial radio. It shouldn’t be forgotten that the band’s previous singles had barely dented the charts, and indeed A Promise stalled at #49, although I’ve long advocated that if it had been released a few weeks in advance of the album instead of six weeks after, then it would have cracked the Top 20.

Heaven Up Here had entered the album charts at #10 on the week of its release. It continued to sell in decent enough number for the next month or so before just about slipping out of the Top 75. The release of A Promise did give it the expected and hoped-for boost in mid-summer, and it climbed back into the Top 40. But after that, it was a gradual drift back down the charts, disappearing by the end of August. Surely a second single would have boosted sales, especially if it had been the song from which the album took its name:-

mp3: Echo & The Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here

Go on…..admit it, it makes you want to throw back the years and shake all your limbs in a totally uncontrollable fashion.

JC

101'ers

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (3)

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Last time out in the occasional series, I featured the one song I have by Nightmares In Wax, courtesy of it being on the compilation CD Indie Scene 80.

Today, I’m leaning on another CD from that particular family:-

mp3: The 101’ers – Keys To Your Heart

Originally released on Chiswick Records in 1976, it was included on Indie Scene 77.

I probably don’t need to tell the backstory, but maybe there’s some who don’t know. The 101’ers were a London pub band, formed in 1974, whose main form of music was rockabilly covers alongside a few originals. Keys To Your Heart was their debut single, but by the time it was released, they had spilt as their lead singer and main songwriter had left to join another band. His name was Joe Strummer and his new band were called The Clash.

JC

Electronic

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (7)

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Yup. It’s come out in the 7″ lucky dip. I wrote about it in October 2013. I’m more than happy to cut’n’paste as I can’t really better what was said at the time.

When Barney met Johnny, and they team up with Neil. Proof that supergroups sometimes do work:-

mp3 : Electronic – Getting Away With It

The debut single. Hugely anticipated on release, it didn’t disappoint. Reviews were almost universally and deservedly positive:-

NME : “The most complete pop record of the week, by an infinite margin… A lovely airy melody drifts in and out of the song; gently weighted with obtuse, lovelorn one-liners… The record somehow manages to be much more than the sum of its parts and stubbornly refuses to give up its element of mystery”

Sounds : “It’s nothing shocking, nothing that surprising, it’s just that every time you think you’re tired of it you can’t help flipping back the stylus to catch that chorus”.

Over the next decade or so, Electronic would write and record some brilliant dance music with some of the best guitar work that Johnny Marr ever laid down. But they never again got as close again to the sound of Italian House that was all the rage for a while at the end of the 80s.

The orchestral arrangement came courtesy of Anne Dudley of The Art Of Noise.

The b-side is total house music and was for a number of years uses as the theme tune for a football highlights programme here in Scotland:-

mp3 : Electronic – Lucky Bag (edit)

A #12 hit in the UK.

JC

Robert Forster

RECOMMENDED LISTENING FROM 2023 (Volume 3)

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The third 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. It’s an LP that came out on Tapete Records back in February.

The Candle and The Flame is the eighth solo album to be released by Robert Forster, going back all the way to Danger In The Past in 1990. There have also, of course, been three Go-Betweens album in that period, with the last being Oceans Apart (2005) which came out a year before Grant McLennan passed away, at the age of 48, after a heart attack.

It’s always been a tough one comparing Robert’s solo releases to those with his former band. He’s never been one to completely let go of what came before, with his always entertaining live shows being a mix of the solo and band material. As much as I’ve always enjoyed the solo records, none of them have really managed to have the same longevity as most Go-Betweens records in that I don’t often find myself going back for very regular listens once the vinyl or CDs were put on the shelf.

Things are going to change with this one, thanks to it easily being his best solo effort this far. It’s an album that was largely conceived and recorded against the challenging background of Karin Bäumler, his wife and musical partner for more than 30 years, being diagnosed, during the COVID lockdown period, with ovarian cancer that was inoperable and could only be treated with chemotherapy.

Robert, who makes great use of social media to keep in touch and update his fans, broke the news in October 2022. It’s best to actually reproduce what he said:-

“Greetings from Brisbane

Dear friends, pull up chairs, this is a difficult and lengthy post. It is tough news that I wish to share with you and not for you to pick up second hand on the internet over the next months.

In early July last year (2021), Karin Bäumler, my wife and musical companion for thirty-two years, was diagnosed with a confronting case of ovarian cancer. It was a time of shock and grief, and that same month, she embarked on a regime of chemotherapy treatment.

Ever since we met, Karin and I have sung and played music together in our home, and in these dark days we turned to music once again. I had a batch of new songs I’d written over the last years, and we started playing them together. Our son Louis often dropped in for a meal and a chat and soon he began joining us on guitar. One night, when sitting cross-legged on the couch, after we had played a song, Karin looked up from her xylophone and said, “When we play music, is the only time I forget I have cancer.” That was a big moment.

In the meantime some of our very kind Brisbane friends had formed a cooking roster, leaving meals at our front door to support us through this time. One of them was Adele Pickvance, former Go-Betweens and Warm Nights bass player. On one of her meal delivery trips, I asked her to bring her bass and an amp along. She pulled up a chair in our lounge room and fell right in on the new songs.

In October, Karin was scheduled for surgery. We booked a studio, and on September 27th, the four of us sitting in a circle, recorded 10 songs live in 7 hours. Whatever would happen in the future, we would always have the tape.

Over the next months, when Karin was strong enough and Covid numbers were low, we booked odd days in the studio. Sometimes our daughter, Loretta, would come along and join us and we brought in friends to help us, too. Karin was driving the album and listening to what we’d done on each session, gave us weeks of enjoyment and a place we could retreat to, away from hospital visits and scans and blood tests. In early March, with her chemotherapy course just finished, we did our last day in the studio.

The songs we recorded formed an album that will come out early next year, and this Wednesday, the 19th, we will release a single. But we wanted you to know the story of the creation of the record first. Why it exists. Why these musicians are playing on it. Why there isn’t layers of production, instead a live, catch a moment feel to the sound. Two of the songs on the album are from that September 27 recording. We didn’t know we’d started an album but we had, in the shadow of Karin’s hospital visits.

With a challenging year behind her, Karin is feeling strong and positive now and she can’t wait for our music to go out of our house and into the world. It may seem strange making an album in these circumstances and looking back, we really don’t know how we did it, but we do know that it helped us just so much as a family. It was done in drops and gave us this other reality we could live in. Something that music is great in giving.

In the slow process of the album’s recording, we didn’t inform a wide range of family and friends of what we were doing, and we ask for their understanding in the delivery of this news.

The album is called The Candle And The Flame. We hope you will enjoy it!

Fondest Regards from Karin and myself,

Robert”

This is the video which dropped into our inboxes a short time later:-

Not too much in the way of words, but by god, it delivered a musical and emotional punch. Robert would later reveal that the bones of the song had actually been written prior to Karin’s diagnosis, but it emerged fully from those home sessions in Brisbane.

She’s A Fighter would be the track chosen to open the new album. It’s totally different, musically, from any of the other eight songs, but what they all have in common is that they are a celebration of the good and happy things in life, all of which makes for an album that was, without any question, the most uplifting and rewarding listen of 2023.

One of the standout tracks, Tender Years, is a wonderful love song, an autobiographical tale of domestic bliss with a video that matches it perfectly,:-

Surprisingly for an album that was made in such challenging circumstances, there are many moments of humour across the record, particularly in the self-deprecating I Don’t Do Drugs I Do Time, while album closer When I Was A Young Man sees Robert look back on his own life and the paths that led him to become a musician. It’s yet another song of celebration, but its not made with any sort of boastfulness, and the lyrics and tune clearly pay homage to those heroes of Robert who helped him on the journey.

Robert has been out on the road with the album. I was lucky enough to see him twice – the first being in Hebden Bridge when he was accompanied on stage by his son Louis, while the second was when he played solo as the headline and closing act of the 2023 edition of Glas-Goes Pop. The latter was probably my favourite gig of the past year, perfectly paced with the usual blend of solo and band material, but taken to new levels thanks to Robert’s chat in-between the songs being just as entertaining. This song was a particular highlight:-

mp3: Robert Forster – There’s A Reason To Live

The Candle and The Flame is a tremendous record. If you don’t have a copy, please do something about it. At the very least, have one of your loved ones make sure that Santa Claus knows you’re interested……

JC

Various

THIS MONTH’S MONTHLY MIX IS A GUEST OFFERING

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I’ve been very lucky to get to know Jan Burnett of Spare Snare in recent years, after what was an initial chance encounter. He’s one of the nicest persons you’ll ever encounter and he’s probably the most knowledgable person involved in the music scene in Scotland, which is why I was delighted when he agreed to come up with a mix for this monthly series.

Jan’s tastes are very eclectic, but his real love is for pop music with hints of electronica, as can partly be evidenced by this offering. It’s a rather wonderful listen, with some ridiculously good switches between songs

mp3 : Jan The Man’s Hour Long Mix Tape

The Kane Gang – Gun Law
Simple Minds – The American (demo version)
The Evolution Control Committee – Rebel Without A Pause (Whipped Cream Mix)
Kylie Minogue – The One
Robyn – Dancing On My Own
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (Feed Me Remix)
The Afghan Whigs – Be Sweet
Eno • Hyde – Who Rings The Bell
Depeche Mode – Useless (The Kruder + Dorfmeister Session)
Sugababes – Freak Like Me (We Don’t Give A Damn Mix)
Junior Marvin – Police & Thieves
(interlude : Little April Shower)
U2 – In A Little While
Carmel – Take It For Granted
The Lilac Time – If The Stars Shine Tonight

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty-six)

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The 36th and final instalment of what has turned out to be the most epic series ever to have appeared on the blog. It’s been a bit of a challenge as there were a lot of tunes I didn’t know beforehand when I was putting the pieces together, but I had a feeling from the outset that it was all going to work out fine given the real quality, not just of the singles, but the b-sides and additional tracks recorded by the Pet Shop Boys over what is now a 40-year career (and counting!).

Hotspot remains the most recent studio album, dating back to January 2020. The intervening years have seen the eventual staging of a triumphant world-tour, with the sets dominated by all the big hits, while earlier this year, on 16 June, there was the release of SMASH, the complete collection of Pet Shop Boys singles in chronological order.

I genuinely had no idea that release was in the pipeline when I started this series all the way back on 22 January. (And, for what it’s worth, I’m actually writing this on 30 May 2023, as I was determined to write everything up in advance of the release of SMASH, so that I didn’t find myself relying on the contents of an illustrated booklet in which all the songs are discussed).

Two CDs to wrap things up, both courtesy of inclusion with different editions of Annually – CDs that I actually have managed to order through the PSB website in advance of their actual release.

The Pet Shop Boys Annually 2021

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Cricket Wife
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls (Lockdown Version)

The former is a very unusual song. It is ten minutes in length and has a really ambitious chamber/orchestral-pop feel about it. It is totally unlike anything else Neil and Chris have ever written or recorded. It really threw me when it arrived in the post shortly after its release on 16 April 2021.

The PSB website provides a bit more background detail:-

Annually 2021 will be accompanied by a two-track CD single featuring a dramatic new song, almost ten minutes long, entitled “Cricket wife”….. it uses orchestral sounds and was written as a classical-style instrumental piece by Chris over which Neil sang lyrics taken from a poem he had written. Both Chris and Neil recorded their parts at their homes, and Pete Gleadall mixed the final track.

I’ve really grown to like it as a stand-alone piece of music, but it did take a good number of listens.

It is perhaps, because it was such a challenging listen, that the duo used lockdown to revisit the breakthrough hit as the other track issued with Annually 2021. I’ve already included the version in one of the monthly one-hour mixes which have been known to pop up on the blog, and I’ve a feeling it’ll go down well with most of you.

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The Pet Shop Boys Annually 2023

Annually 2022 didn’t have a CD. But things got back to normal in 2023 with the inclusion of Lost, an EP containing demos of songs written in 2015, for potential inclusion on the album Super, but ultimately not taken forward and developed.

There’s a section in Annually 2023 dedicated to the CD in which Neil explains “It’s not that we didn’t like them, it was that they didn’t fit into the album. The idea for this EP was spurred by the realisation that the songs may not otherwise be heard, and they all sit together quite well, production-wise – they’re all supersonic”

The four tracks were given a digital release on the same day as the now long sold-out Annually 2023:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – The Lost Room
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – I Will Fall
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Skeletons In The Closet
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Kaputnik

At the same time as Annually 2023 was published, a new home demo recording was made available via a YouTube video. I think it’s fair to say that it is a poignant way to wrap things up:-

And with that, it is time to say farewell to this series. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening and reading as much as I’ve enjoyed researching and writing.

Feel free to drop in again next Sunday for the start of what will be a new series on this familiar theme.

JC

Wendys

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #375: THE WENDYS

The Wendys formed in Edinburgh in 1987, they were the second Scottish band to be signed to Factory Records. As an unsigned band they gained a support slot with Happy Mondays and on the back of the shows were encouraged to send a demo to messrs Wilson & co. It was a short-lived career, consisting of three singles, an EP and an album called Gobbledygook that was produced by Ian Broudie, but sadly their time with the label coincided with the severe financial difficulties which ultimately led to its demise in November 1992.

They also featured on the Factory Tape, a 1991 cassette given away free with Select magazine. This was their contribution.

mp3: The Wendys – Suckling

The band disappeared off the radar for a long time but came back in 1999 to release a second LP, Sixfootwingspan, on Starshaped Records. They reformed briefly in 2012 for a one-off gig in Glasgow to promote the re-release of Gobbledygook and other singles, and five years later were on the bill of the Shiiine ON Weekender festival in Minehead that took place between Friday 10 November and Monday 13 November 2017

Guitarist Ian White is currently involved with Sons of the Descent, a duo that I’ve been more than happy to give space to on the blog.

JC

Nightmares In Wax

ONE SONG ON THE HARD DRIVE (2)

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The Indie Scene was the title attached to a number of CD compilations via the Connoisseur Collection label, an imprint whose speciality was in the reissue market.

There were, as far as I can tell, ten such compilations, each covering a particular year between 1977 and 1986.

Indie Scene 80 contains 22 songs, many of which are by perennial favourites of this blog such as Associates, Bauhaus, Dead Kennedys, Echo & The Bunnymen, Fad Gadget, The Fall, Joy Division and Wah!

Track 5 is this rather wonderful number:-

mp3: Nightmares In Wax – Black Leather

Nightmares In Wax were a short-lived group from Liverpool, gigging and recording in 1979/80. They would record just one EP, entitled Birth Of A Nation, released on the Inevitable label. Black Leather was the lead track on the EP.

The musicians who played on the EP were Pete Burns (vocals), Phil Hurst (drums), Martin Healy (keyboards), Pete Lloyd (bass) and Mick Reid (guitars), although quite a number of other musicians were involved in what was a constantly-changing line-up from the very outset.

By April 1980, just Burns and Healy would remain of those who had made the EP. The next time they went into the studio to record a new single called I’m Falling, again for the Inevitable label, they would be accompanied by Adrian Mitchley (guitars), Sue James (bass) and Joe Musker (drums). Oh, and they had changed their name to Dead or Alive…….whose first Top 20 hit eventually came in 1984, thanks to a cover of KC and The Sunshine Band‘s disco smash from 1975, That’s The Way (I Like It).

And if you do find yourself listening through the five minutes of Black Leather, you’ll spot that KC’s song making an appearance around the three-minute mark.

JC

Pipettes

LIFTED FROM ICA 93

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ICA 93 was a guest posting from strangeways. It appeared in November 2016.

It was, in keeping with the handful of other things he has contributed over the years, quite wonderful and rather obscure.

The ICA was devoted to The Pipettes.

Here’s how strangeways introduced things:-

“Gwenno. RiotBecki. Rosay. They are The Pipettes. Or they were The Pipettes. Well, one of them, I think, still is The Pipettes. Or maybe not.

“It’s all rather complicated.

“So during this Imaginary Compilation Album I’m going to concentrate on the incarnation above – best described as that terrible pop cliché, the classic lineup. But I’ll also throw in a couple of respectful curveballs.

“Like a lot of the 60s Girl Groups without whom…The Pipettes were, it seems, authentically, a creation. They were the joint design of one Monster Bobby – a sort of indiepop Victor Frankenstein from what I can gather – and singer Julia Clarke-Lowes. In 2003, in Brighton, they put together the band, recruiting Rose ‘Rosay’ Elinor Dougall and Rebecca ‘RiotBecki’ Stephens. Providing the brilliant Spector-inspired tunes: The Cassettes – Monster Bobby and pals – who, with respect, were essentially the three singers’ backing band.

“As regards the definable We Are The Pipettes era that dominates this ICA, it didn’t last long: 2005/06, really. Perhaps the whole pouting, shape-pulling, polka-dottedeness of it all became too much. Maybe it locked-up rather than liberated. Whatever, with ill-advised confidence I predicted a 2016 reunion tour that would mark the ten years since the LP’s release. It was inevitable. And, inevitably, it didn’t happen.”

This was track 5 on the ICA, the one which closed Side A:-

Judy (single/We Are The Pipettes LP track, 2006)

“Just what did Judy do when she was older and no one wanted to know her? This is a terrific single and its worth having a look at its fun comic book-style video too. If you’ve ever invited the collective wraths of the God of Pop and the God of, well, God by wearing an upturned LP sleeve on your head and pretending you’re a bishop, you could do worse than track down a copy of a limited 7″ of Judy. Its sleeve, brilliantly, can be unfolded and worn as a skirt.”

I thought strangeways was having a laugh when he said the sleeve could be worn as a skirt. Turns out he was offering fashion advice of the highest order:-

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I’ve tracked down the two songs that were on the b-side of the single:-

mp3 : The Pipettes – It Hurts To See You Dance So Well
mp3 : The Pipettes – KFC

The former is just 67 seconds long and is great fun.

The latter is 102 seconds long and is not very good. It is, indeed, about a chain of fried chicken restaurants and may well be the silliest thing that’s ever appeared on the blog since its inception in 2006.

JC (and strangeways)

PS : I’m away for a few days and won’t have access to a laptop to keep an eye on the blog. Any bits needing tidied-up, particularly any anonymous comments, will be sorted out from Monday or Tuesday next week. Thanks in advance…….

Hefner

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #033

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#033– Hefner – ‘Pull Yourself Together’ (Too Pure Records ’98)

Dear friends,

to be absolutely frank to you: I never really liked Hefner all too much. They were on heavy rotation with John Peel, and believe me, I often tried to give them a chance, but at the end of the day I always thought they were a bit too ‘arty’, if you know what I mean. Obviously, their music was always on the quieter side, which is alright, of course. But if you don’t sit there on your own, preferably with your headphones on, with a lyric sheet in your hands (‘cos that’s what you need to do if English is not your mother tongue) and try to understand what a band is singing about, the music (alone) often remains rather boring or dull. And this, basically, was the case with Hefner, at least it was for me.

Hefner were founded in 1992, but only in 1996 they recorded their debut single “Another Better Friend”. The record attracted positive underground buzz, and in late 1997 Hefner signed to the legendary Too Pure label, issuing the limited-edition 10″ “The Hefner Soul” the following spring. Then, the band released the full-length “Breaking God’s Heart” in mid-1998; “The Fidelity Wars” appeared a year later. And within all these years Peel was a great admirer and within all these years I listened, and I thought “nah, I don’t really get them”. This, of course, was pre-internet, no lyrics available, I should add!

Now, Rolling Stone, the magazine, back at the time, was issued in Germany (perhaps they did the same elsewhere as well, who knows?) accompanied by a CD, it was either called “New Voices” (which featured – surprise, surprise – unknown bands, most often not too entertaining ones, it must be said) or “Rare Trax”. “Rare Trax” was always theme-based, and the December 1998 issue was titled “1998’s Secret Hits!”. The problem is: I only got my hands on a copy of this CD in the summer of 2000, if memory serves correctly, on a flea market somewhere. And what was on this CD? Yes, “Pull Yourself Together”, the Didgeridoo version thereof, in fact!

I was totally blown away by it immediately …. “this can’t be right, this must be a different Hefner”, I thought! Well, no, it wasn’t, as it turned out: the truth of the matter was, totally unbeknownst to me, the band had already released this post-punk-rhythmic-driven frenzy as a single two years ago, it was, although totally missed by me, heavily championed by both Peel and Steve Lamacq. And rightly so, of course:

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mp3: Hefner – Pull Yourself Together

Around the time when I finally encountered this song, Hefner released their “Boxing Hefner” – compilation of singles, which I quickly bought, because I thought there was more excellence I might have missed. This pretty much didn’t turn out to be the case alas, although I would still recommend this compilation today, but “Pull Yourself Together” remains its highlight by quite some distance.

It’s one of those astonishingly simple, musically very basic tunes that somehow sounds rather exceptional, almost in spite of itself … and it always puts a smile on my face whenever I hear it.

I do hope it makes you smile as well!

Enjoy,

Dirk

J.P Shilo

RECOMMENDED LISTENING FROM 2023 (Volume 2)

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The second 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 one is different….it’s an album released as long ago as October 2019, but which I only got to hear about and then buy in September 2023.

Here’s the backstory.

Mike from the Manic Pop Thrills blog, who has been a friend for decades pre-music blog stuff (we are both Raith Rovers fans) got in touch to ask if I fancied going to see Mick Harvey play live in Glasgow. Mike knew that I was a fan of the Australian multi-instrumentalist, thanks to his many years in The Birthday Party and The Bad Seeds, and his past work with PJ Harvey, although to my shame, I hadn’t ever followed his solo career.

Ostensibly, the gig was to promote Mick’s latest album. It’s called Phantasmagoria in Blue, which he has recorded in tandem with Mexican singer Amanda Acevedo (and yes, I’ll get round to including the album in this series in due course).

The publicity poster promised a show by an ensemble called The Invisible Blue Unicorns, so we didn’t quite know what to expect.

unicorns

To both of our surprises, the gig proved to be one of the highlights, not just of this year, but in all the years we’ve been going along to enjoy live music.

It began with six musicians on stage, none of who were Amanda Acevedo, and with Mick Harvey on keyboards. We have, by now, have clocked the fact that most of the musicians are from a Berlin-based band called Sometimes With Others, accompanied by Australian guitarist J.P.Shilo, and Mick Harvey. Mick explains that they will be performing songs from one another’s records, and other musicians will be coming to and leaving the stage at various points.

In due course, Amanda does take to the stage and then leaves again, returning later on during what is a two-set evening, both lasting about an hour in length. She sings on those songs which I now know could be found on Phantasmagoria in Blue, while songs from a J.P. Shilo solo album and material by Sometimes With Others is played when she is not present.

It was an astonishing night. All three acts were clearly sharing equal billing, and indeed Mick Harvey, who was very much the reason 99.99% of the sadly quite sparse audience (70-75 would be my guess) was in attendance, seemed to be at his happiest when he wasn’t the centre of attention. All of which meant we were able to focus on an extraordinary performance from J.P Shilo, a musician Mike knew something of, but of whom I was wholly ignorant.

He’s best known for his time with Hungry Ghosts, an instrumental group from Melbourne who were in existence around the turn of the century, as well as being involved on a number of albums by highly-regarded acts from Australia, including The Triffids.

His guitar work at the gig was ridiculously good, no matter whose material he was playing. He really came into his own when it came to his own songs, with a baritone vocal that howled and whispered, and all points in-between, to equal effect. Most of his songs on the night were taken from the album Invisible You, release on Ghost Train Records in Australia in October 2019, and which was available at the merch stall afterwards.

The gig was on Wednesday 20 September. I’m typing this up on the evening of Monday 25 September. I’ve played the album three times (I had a busy weekend with non-music things)…..and I’m happy to declare that it’s a long-lost classic.

Nine songs, of which seven are originals and two are covers. Here’s the opening track:-

This really sets the tone for a rocking first-side. If anything, it seems just a little on the tame side in comparison to how it came across in the live setting, but it’s quite marginal.

Things kind of slow down on side two, but the quality remains high, as evidenced on the title track:-

mp3: J.P. Shilo – Invisible You

Atmospheric is what comes to mind.

No apologies for drawing this one to your attention. Here’s a link to one indie store where you can order it. You’ll also get a short blurb about the album.

JC

Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Freeez, Heaven 17, New Order, Public Image Limited, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Soft Cell, Specials, The The, Toyah, Tracey Ullman

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (9)

Let’s travel back in time to see what 45s were being most bought in UK record shops in September 1983

Chart dates 28 August – 3 September

Oh my. For once, the highest new entry had some merit. But the question really has to be…..How did Factory Records organise itself enough to get copies out and distributed into the shops?

mp3: New Order – Confusion (#17)

Released only on 12″ in the UK, it came with four different mixes. There was no way the radio stations would have played the full eight-plus minutes, and indeed promo discs were sent out with an edit, which was, many years later, made available on one of the numerous New Order compilations. Confusion would go up five places to #12 before slowly drifting out of the Top 75 over the following six weeks. Worth mentioning that in the same week Confusion entered the charts, Blue Monday was spending its 25th week in the Top 75 – and indeed was just about to gain a second wind and climb back up the way, peaking at #10 in mid-October.

Just slightly lower in the rundown was this.

mp3: Freeez – I.O.U. (#25)

I’ve deliberately kept I.O.U. away from this series until today. It had already been in the singles chart for twelve weeks, spending three weeks at #2, and kept off the top spot by Paul Young wailing about his hat. The sleeve for this single gives much prominence to the fact it was produced by Arthur Baker. I think it’s fair to say he got two-for-one out of this tune.

Much lower down the chart, entering at #64, and only ever getting up to #60, was a 45 with a message:-

mp3: The Special AKA – Racist Friend (#64)

Chart dates 4-10 September

Not a good week for new entries, with Status Quo (#24) and Paul Young (#27) being the highest, with both of Ol’ Rag Blues and Come Back And Stay annoyingly hanging around for a few more weeks to make the Top 10. Just below those was a little bit of agit-synth:-

mp3: Heaven 17 – Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (#28)

The fourth and final chart hit lifted from the album The Luxury Gap, it went on to reach #17.

Chart dates 11-17 September

I’m not a fan of the tune, so I won’t share any mp3, but this was the week when Boy George really made the crossover into pop stardom, as Karma Chameleon entered the singles chart at #3. It went onto to sell 1.6 million copies in the UK, as 1 million in the USA and some 7 million all told across the world. That’s a lot of plastic……

It was also the first week that Howard Jones hit the charts. He’s another from that era I have no time for at all, but I was clearly in a minority. New Song came in at #51. It would go onto spend 12 weeks in the Top 75, reaching #2. He would follow that up with eight more Top 20 singles through to March 1986, and it seemed he was on Top of The Pops every other week.

Among the mediocre and mundane, there were a few gems

You’ve got to go a long way down to find a couple more excellent new singles:-

mp3: PiL – This Is Not A Love Song (#47)

The first new single in two-and-a-half years, it would go on to spend 10 weeks on the singles chart and get all the way to #5, easily the best performance by any of PiL‘s 45’s released between 1979 and 1992.

mp3: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Let Them All Talk (#59)

A rather disappointing outcome for the second and final single from the album, Punch The Clock, as this was as high as it got. At least there was the consolation of the album reaching #3.

mp3: The The – This Is The Day (#71)

I placed this at #4 in my 45 45s @ 45 rundown. It’s very obviously one of my favourite songs of all time. It is criminal that it only ever got to #71 in the UK singles chart. It would take until 1989 before a single by The The cracked the Top 20.

Chart dates 18-24 September

Karma Chamaleon was at #1. It would stay there for six weeks. The one small consolation was that it kept David Bowie‘s awful new single off the top. Modern Love came in this week at #8 and would more than likely reached #1 is it hadn’t been for Culture Club.

Coming in at #21 was a synth duo who some had written off:-

mp3 : Soft Cell – Soul Inside (#21)

It reached #16 the following week, a welcome return to pop stardom after Where The Heart Is and Numbers had both peaked outside the Top 20 after the first five singles had been Top 5.

There will be some of you out there who are fond of Toyah Wilcox, so here’s a reminder of what she inflicted upon us in 1983:-

mp3: Toyah – Rebel Run (#29)

This one got to #24 the following week and then, thankfully, disappeared.

If you look closely at the bottom of the page:-

mp3: Tracey Ullman – They Don’t Know (#69)

One of the UK’s most popular actress/comediennes had embarked on a singing career. Having already enjoyed a Top 3 hit with Breakaway in which she had covered a 60s song, she turned to the back catalogue of Kirsty MacColl for her next venture, offering her take on a 1979 flop single. This one went all the way to #2, spending almost the rest of 1983 in the Top 75, and bringing some well-deserved royalties to Kirsty.

Chart dates 25 September – 1 October

A cover version was the highest new entry this week. And a good one too….

mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Dear Prudence (#17)

Siouxsie and Budgie had been enjoying chart success with The Creatures. Robert Smith was often on Top of The Pops in 1983 with The Cure. Here they all were together on one gloriously psychedelic offering of a song originally found on The White Album, released by The Beatles in 1968.

I think that’s just about enough for this edition of nostalgia central. I’ll be back in about four weeks time.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty-five)

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Another single from Hotspot was issued on 24 April 2020. There was a digital and CD release, along with a 12″ vinyl version.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – I Don’t Wanna (radio edit)

It’s about 40 seconds shorter than the album version. Again, like much of the later material from the Pet Shop Boys, the tunes from the Hotspot era, all the way from the advance singles through to the b-side of this, the fourth and final single, were all new to me when I reached the stage of putting the various pieces together for this series. I Don’t Wanna is one of the rare times I’ve been disappointed, as it’s all just a bit functional and dull.

The CD and 12″ single were dominated by remixes, but there was one new song kept back for use as a b-side:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – New Boy

This one caught me by surprise. After all the twists and turns and changes of direction in recent years, here’s a ballad that wouldn’t have been out of place on the earliest albums or as a b-side to some of the biggest hit singles back in the 80s. It is classic PSB, and an interview with a journalist in Australia reveals that the song indeed, did have very deep roots:-

“One or two years ago I was listening to the cassette demos and I’ve always liked this song we wrote at the time we wrote ‘Rent.’ It’s called ‘New Boy.’ I was at Smash Hits at the time. It’s about two girls on the phone in some suburban area, they see a new boy in town and are talking about him. It’s got a very strong melody, I’ve always remembered it. Anyway, Chris and I finally finished it off after however many years….”

(with thanks to Wayne Struder‘s hugely invaluable fan site, Commentary, for that particular snippet of info).

I Don’t Wanna remains the last ‘actual’ single that the Pet Shop Boys have released. There have been a few more editions of Annually that have contained CDs, and I’ll cover them off next week in what will be the very final part of the series.

JC

Wellgreen

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #374: THE WELLGREEN

I’ve one song by The Wellgreen, and it comes courtesy of being included on the digital download to commemorate and celebrate Indietracks 2014

mp3: The Wellgreen – Grin And Bear It

It was originally released as the opening and title track of the band’s second album, released on their own label, The Barne Society, in 2013.

The following info has been listed from a piece that appeared on the website, Penny Black Music, in May 2014:-

The Wellgreen are a Glasgow-based band, which is centered around multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Stuart Kidd and Marco Rea.

They have recorded two albums to date, 2011’s ‘Wellgreens’ and last year’s ‘Grin and Bear It’, which, produced on vintage equipment, they have released on their own label, the Barne Society. Their music, which seamlessly combines 60’s-pop and folk sounds with psychedelia, has won much local acclaim, and earned Kidd and Rea, with their evocative and inventive harmonies, comparisons with the Beach Boys, the Beatles and also Crosby, Stills and Nash.

The Wellgreen recently expanded to a four-piece with the addition ofJim McGoldrick and Daniel McGeever.

JC

Au Revoir Simone

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (6)

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I think we’ve all been guilty of buying music on the basis of reading about the singer or band before we’ve ever heard a note. I’ve not done it all that often, but inevitably I’ve got home and put on the vinyl/CD are wondered just what the fuss was all about.

This certainly happened at least once in 2007 when I bought a 7″ single by the Brooklyn-based synth-orientated indie-pop combo, Au Revoir Simone. The trio, consisting of Erika Forster, Annie Hart and Heather D’Angelo were very near the top of the hipster’s lists of acts to latch onto, and when I came across the single on display in a shop in Glasgow, I decided to plunge in…..possibly having been subconsciously influenced by the sleeve!

I recall being a bit underwhelmed by it all, and after a couple of listens just stored it away. But it was one which came out via the lucky dip a while back, and so it was given a fresh spin:-

mp3: Au Revoir Simone – Sad Song

It’s not earth-shattering, but it’s certainly a pleasant enough listen. Maybe I was expecting too much back in the day.

Here’s the b-side, which I don’t think I’d ever listened to ever since its initial play on the mp3 turntable for conversion to digital purposes for the i-pod.

mp3: Au Revoir Simone – Sad Song (Alexis Taylor remix/version – 7″ edit)

The man from Hot Chip does exactly what you’d expect from him, and while it might be down as a 7″ edit, it still comes in at over six minutes in length.