THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #029

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#029– Flophouse – ‘Right Now’ (Harp Records ’91)

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Dear friends,

I mean, come on: if you are honest to yourselves, you knew all along that this was absolutely inevitable, didn’t you?

The thing is, as already explained in the last post, living in a village in the middle of nowhere in the 80’s, no internet, TV with three channels only, all under public law, my sole resource for new music was John Peel on the radio. And those of you a) located on this side of the ocean and b) of a certain age and c) with a liking for things not too mainstream (which, let’s face facts, will 100% apply to everyone reading this nonsense. Apart from Johnny and Brian.) will surely have heard a BBC or BFBS program presented by John Peel back in those golden days of the Cold War. And if you did, you will surely know that very often records were played which only appealed to those, let’s say, with an appetite for the bizarre.

Now, nothing wrong with this, of course: there’s no accounting for taste after all, but my approval for quite a lot of “those” records constitute the dilemma I am in now with this series. Why? Well, the more unheard-of these bands were some 40 years ago, the harder it is to ascertain any reliable information on the internet today. In addition to this, very often the specific record I heard on Peel remained the specific band’s only output. And this, in combination, is the reason why on occasion there isn’t pretty much I can tell you about my specific single of choice …. which explains the sentence introducing all of this stammering!

So, to cut a(nother) long story short, here’s the only thing I found on the net about today’s band, alas it’s Trouserpress quite slagging them off really: Flophouse.

“Produced by Peter Case, this mild-mannered San Francisco quartet’s uneventful debut proffers nicely played folk-rock (genus Californius), alternately sung by bassist Kim Osterwalder and guitarist J.C. Hopkins. Cello, violin, piano, mandolin, harmonica and trombone help color the tunes, but Hopkins’ material (and voice; hers is much better) lacks character, and the band doesn’t do anything special that would make up for it.”

Well, I can’t argue with Trouserpress, because I never heard Flophouse’s first album from 1990. But somehow I doubt that the review can be taken entirely seriously, bearing the strength of this single in mind, which came out just one year later:

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mp3: Flophouse – Right Now

To be fair, if it weren’t for the wonderful Kim Osterwalder, I might think differently about this record. But because of her, it remains a real treat and therefore deserves to be included in this series.

Enjoy!

Dirk

Mahalia Jackson

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #349: MAHALIA JACKSON

A GUEST POSTING BY flimflamfan

Parents, eh? They can influence us in ways they’re unaware of and in ways that endure.

I had two parents. Then I had one. Now I have none.

From a very early age both parents seemed to enjoy music. From what I can recall – it’s quite the recollection for what would have been an 8-year-old. I recall Elvis, The Beatles, Patsy Cline, Perry Como, Mario Lanza, Doris Day and Yma Sumac, among many others.

The post 8-year-old – now with just the one parent – recalls the prophetic and devastating sadness of Mud’s It’ll Be Lonely This Christmas; a song I still struggle to listen to. A few years later a closeness was forged with my ma – Saturday afternoon telly – films with Doris Day, Judy Garland, Yma Sumac, Mario Lanza and Mahalia Jackson. Out of all of those the artist that affects me most is Mahalia Jackson, although Yma Sumac is a close second with Mario Lanza sneaking in – a tenuous reminder of my da which became more tenuous and odder when I unknowingly visited Lanza’s ancestral home town in Italy many years later.

My ma, who liked a lot of the above singers, seemed to adore Mahalia Jackson and Yma Sumac and had a soft spot for Lanza as he reminded her of my da. Those Saturday afternoons seemed long and boring, if I’m honest, but I know I must have enjoyed some of the films – sometimes I’d be treated to a snowball (a cake) when the van (a mobile shop) decided to show up. I found it difficult to remember the name of the film Mahalia Jackson was in but always referenced it by ‘she sang at a funeral’. The film is, of course Imitation of Life (1959).

Note: I pronounce her name Ma-ha-lee-a… others pronounce it Ma-hay-lee-a. Ma-hay-lee-a is correctt I’m not one for change.

I must have been ten or eleven when I first heard Mahalia Jackson sing in this film and I was moved. At this point in my life, I was an altar boy and quite familiar with the standard fare of ‘spiritual’ but I hadn’t ever heard devotional music like this before. There was a ‘power’ that I can’t fully explain and I guess, at the age I was, I believed this to be some kind of divine intervention. The message of Imitation of Life was a strong one and at my tender age I watched the injustice unfold – even if I didn’t properly understand it.

I looked forward to an Yma Sumac film with my ma, it was escapism, but Imitation of Life was our film and far from escapism.

Fast forward about 15 years and my own musical tastes have developed as has my utter revulsion of any form of religion

but… at a car boot sale I see a Mahalia Jackson LP. I want to buy it but have internalized issues about the religious content – all songs are gospel spirituals. Do I really want to hear that?

I buy the LP – Great Songs of Love and Faith (1967).

Fuck me (sorry, Mahalia). What an incredible LP. Despite buying it – I think part of me didn’t want to like it be because of the obvious religious content – this was an incredible record that holds a significant place in my collection. The way she sings seems to this day, a way that only she can sing. Her pronunciation is individual (‘I’ sung I as if it sounds like ‘Oi’).

There were two songs that I was familiar with Danny Boy and Crying In The Chapel but… I’ve never heard them quite as beautifully constructed as this. The orchestra and chorus are conducted by Johnny Williams (who we now know better as John Williams). It’s on this LP that my favourite Mahalia Jackson song resides… Because.

Because opens the LP and if another track never appeared I wouldn’t have cared. It’s just a beautiful song that affects me each and every time.

I fought hard with myself to extricate Mahalia’s devotion from my own aural pleasure. I understood her commitment to her God. Her love of her God. To me though that was only a channel through which I got to hear her sing. Her religion was hers. My joy through her music was mine.

It’s long been mooted that Mahalia turned her back on the trappings of fame – at the height of her popularity – and that is generally accepted. However, Mahalia – in later life – enjoyed great privilege and stayed in some of the very best hotels across the US and Europe… she did enjoy some of the earthlier trappings. However, she was known to be extremely generous throughout her lifetime, often paying for the education of those who could not afford it, or providing financial assistance to those that needed it. She seemed to be living her faith.

Her significant role in the development of the civil rights movement in the USA should not be underestimated. Working in racially segregated venues she’d ask her audiences to integrate themselves and sit together. She and her band of musicians would often play then go to their accommodation only to find that hotels would not accept them – leaving them to sleep in their cars on a 200-night tour – not for the faint-hearted. As her fame grew, she used that ‘fame’ to raise further awareness of inequality and to directly challenge what she believed to be injustices. She became a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and his family, and a vocal supporter of JF Kennedy. Mahalia resisted calls for her to sing secular music – a move which would have saw her reap significant financial dividends – but to her, when she sang, she sang to her God. She sang for her God.

Mahalia Jackson died in 1972. She was already dead by the time I was watching Imitation of Life. She is someone that I admire. She’s a vocalist like no other.

I offer this ICA. I do so with limited knowledge of Mahalia’s entire output. I’ve chosen songs that I own, but have replaced some with live versions from live performances and tv appearances (quality may not be great). I hope you’ll listen and enjoy.

1. Because

2. Elijah Rock (from Louis Armstrong at Newport, 1970)

3. Power In The Blood

4. Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho

5. Crying In The Chapel

6. Didn’t It Rain (live at the Newport Jazz Festival, 1958)

7. My Friend

8. Trouble Of The World

9. Just A Closer Walk With Thee (from Louis Armstrong at Newport, 1970) *

10. A Perfect Day

* Track 9 is over nine minutes long as Louis Armstrong joins Mahalia on stage.

flimflamfan

JC adds……..

It’s rather wonderful how memories can be triggered off by music, and I really want to thank flimflamfan for sharing something so very personal with us.

I have to confess that I knew nothing of Mahalia Jackson until the release of this single in 1986:-

mp3 : The Bible – Mahalia

That’s the extended version of the song, courtesy of a 12″ copy of the single being bought at the time, and still present in Villain Towers.

New Order

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(3)

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My favourite song of all time?

mp3 : New Order – Age Of Consent

It’s now 40 years since it was released, so I can’t ever see it being displaced by anything else. It makes the ‘faves’ thing a New Order double, as Temptation topped the 45 45s@45 rundown in 2008, and would still sit at the top if I were to go through things again right now.

Neither Movement nor Power Corruption and Lies, the first two albums released by New Order, contained any singles. It was very much an artistic decision, but looking back on things, it really does feel like something of a missed opportunity. Let’s imagine that they were prepared to issue a 45 exactly a week in advance of the release of each album….I won’t dare suggest there would be a second 45 lifted from either as a way to boost sales, purely on the basis that with just eight tracks on both records, there would be a massive loss of credibility from issuing 25% of the album as singles.

Here’s how the singles discography could have looked.

March 1981 – Ceremony
September 1981 – Procession/Everything’s Gone Green
November 1981 – Dreams Never End
May 1982 – Temptation
March 1983 – Blue Monday
May 1983 – Age Of Consent
August 1983 – Confusion

But looking at this shows the dilemma. In terms of how the band’s sound was developing and evolving, Age of Consent would really have needed to have been the follow-up single to Temptation and issued in advance of Blue Monday, otherwise it might have been seen by some critics as New Order rejecting the club/dance sound in favour of a return to the instruments more associated with Joy Division.

But I have no doubt whatsoever, that if Age of Consent had been a stand-alone 45, it would have been a big success. After all, it should be remembered that each of Ceremony, Procession/EGG and Temptation all reached the Top 40 at a time when the band were still very much an unknown quantity with much of the record-buying public.

JC

Chameleons

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(2)

A guest posting by Adrian Mahon

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JC writes……

When I made the suggestion that the possible new series of ‘Could Have Been A Single?’ could have been ripe for possible guest contributions, I certainly wasn’t expecting to wake up and find something already in my inbox. Huge thanks to Adrian.

I hope this passes muster:

‘For a nigh on perfect album, 1985’s ‘What does anything Mean…’ album had only one single release: ‘Singing Rule Britannia…’. Whilst the most ‘punk’ track on the LP, it was possibly hindered in airplay by the title. There were some others that could well have propelled them to the status they should have had at the time.

My vote would go to ‘Looking Inwardly’. I’ve chosen the version on ‘Dali’s Picture’ here as it’s easy to imagine the song live on TV at the time.

mp3: The Chameleons – Looking Inwardly

Originally written in ’81, it missed that first LP and isn’t rated by Mark (“Confused introspection, very dull in my view”). It’s a firm favourite live; possessing that instantly recognisable guitar sound. I’m sure that others in their early 20s at the time would’ve found the album the soundtrack to their lives at the time…

ADRIAN

PS from JC.

Given there’s a possibility of my proposed second entry in the series perhaps being suggested by a guest contributor, I’ve decided to bring it forward as a bonus post for later on today.

Clash

SHOULD’VE BEEN A SINGLE ?(1)

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So………

I come up with this idea of looking at songs that would have been massive hits if the band and/or record label had released them as singles. The first one that came to mind was this

mp3: The Clash – Clampdown

Here’s what I typed out back in May 2015 when I pulled together The Clash ICA (#12 in the series).

“The Clash famously had a policy of minimising the number of 45s that would be taken from any album – a stance that led to a lot of friction with CBS Records. It also caused the band to miss out on chart success, as they left behind so many great album cuts that were tailor-made for radio airplay – none more so than this track from London Calling.

I suppose that’s not quite true as Clampdown was released in early 1980 in Australia where, it being the height of their summer, I’d like to imagine that it would be blasting out over Bondi Beach at high volume. But I doubt it….

Oh, and there are many reasons to say thank you for the invention of the internet, not least being the fact that you can now, all these years later, put in the relevant search and get the previously impossible to work out spoken intro:-

“The kingdom was ransacked, the jewels got ransacked and a chopper descends
They hid it in the back and they switched it on and off but the tape of spool just ends
They say now I’m back,hit at his face in a crack but he said there’s a crack on the lens”

Before one of the great shout/sing-a-long lines ever written…WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?”

Which means this proposed new idea for the blog has gotten off to a very shaky start. I had forgotten all about it being given an Australian release, where it was backed by this on the b-side:-

mp3: The Clash – Guns Of Brixton

Another song from London Calling, and one which, in 1990, was pulled out of the vaults and given the dubby indie-dance treatment and released as a single to help promote the compilation The Story Of The Clash Volume 1:-

mp3: The Clash – Return To Brixton

I’ll hopefully do better next time I return to the idea…..which strikes me as being nigh-on perfect for guest contributions if anyone has a suggestion they want to offer.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Thirty)

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Last week’s piece focussed on the CD release which came with the book Pet Shop Boys Annually 2017.

The 2018 version of the book didn’t have any additional CD, and there was no new music released in that year. It all meant that the next release would be via the 2019 edition of Pet Shop Boys Annually, with a four-track CD:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Give Stupidity A Chance
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – On Social Media
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – What Are We Going To Do About The Rich?
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – The Forgotten Child

At the time of its release (5 February 2019), Neil Tennant said of the EP, “It contains three satirical songs and one rather sad song. I think it’s because of the times we’re living through.”

You’ve probably worked out from the song titles alone that the sad song is the final track on the EP.

I don’t have a copy of Pet Shop Boys Annually 2019 (it’s going for £85 on Discogs) and I haven’t a copy of the 12″, so these songs are completely new to me.

Given it was the first completely new material in more than three years, it most likely took fans by surprise, but it’s another example of the duo going in the most unlikely of directions. In an era when next to nobody was doing protest songs or agit-pop, material of this nature has to be welcomed. I’m not making any claim that they are among the best PSB tunes over their stellar career, but it’s a very worthy EP, albeit it would have been more of a statement if it had been given a wider and general release rather than through the website as part of a package with a hardback book

Maybe in response to possible criticisms of this nature, the songs were issued to shops on 12″ vinyl. Copies of this retail for quite modest sums, and there’s plenty available on Discogs, which perhaps reflects that the general public weren’t too keen on the left-wing version of PSB.

JC

Wake The President

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #368: WAKE THE PRESIDENT

Today sees the repeat of a posting from 27 December 2014.

From allmusic:-

Twin brothers Bjorn and Eric Sandberg, bassist Mark Corrigan and drummer Scott Sieczkowski formed Wake the President in 2005 while the twins were students at Glasgow University.

Informed by a number of shambly indie pop acts from the ’80s and ’90s (the Go-Betweens, Arab Strap, and Orange Juice among them), the group put together a group of demos that welcomed comparisons to the Shout Out Louds, Je Suis Animal, and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The band was eventually picked up by Douglas MacIntyre and Ken McCluskey’s Electric Honey Records, a student-run label (manned by the music industry management students of Glasgow’s Stow College) that gained some attention in 1996 for releasing Belle & Sebastian’s Tigermilk.

Wake the President’s debut single on that label, “Sorrows for Clothes,” was released in 2007; another single, “Remember Fun,” came out on Norman Records soon after. In 2008 the singles caught the attention of BBC Radio 2’s Stuart Maconie and Mark Radcliffe; the singles were put into rotation, and each song went on to earn the coveted title of single of the week. Wake the President’s debut full-length, You Can’t Change That Boy, was released in the U.K. and the States the following year, on Electric Honey and Magic Marker Records, respectively. They followed it up in 2011 with an album titled Zumutung! on We Can Still Picnic records.

By all rights, I should adore Wake The President given all the boxes they tick in terms of influences and the great names from the Glasgow pop scene who were working with them from the start.

And while a recent listen again to this debut single and debut album does demonstrate some really good songs my lack of love for the band was coloured from going along the LP launch at the beginning of 2009 and coming away incredibly underwhelmed.

Maybe I just caught the band on a bad night or maybe I just expected too much from them but apart from the sound being really awful (which makes me think the choice of venue was probably wrong – they went for a grand looking old hall which is more used to staging wedding and ceilidh bands rather the alleged bright new things of Scottish indie-pop) there was also the thought that the boys took the audience for granted and posed their way rather than grafted their way through the set.

mp3 : Wake The President – Mail Alice
mp3 : Wake The President – Sorrows For Clothes

Just a pity the band didn’t become as big as they had hoped. This single was limited to just 500 copies and could have been a sort of golden ticket (not that I would have sold!!)

JC

Franz Ferdinand

THE 7″ LUCKY DIP (4)

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Alexis Petrides, the rock and pop critic for The Guardian newspaper, is someone I’ve long regarded as being a sharp and astute observer of music across all the genres. Back in 2004, he offered up a 5-star review of the self-titled debut album by Franz Ferdinand and in doing so welcomed them as a real breath of fresh air in an increasingly tired-looking indie scene. He especially went out of his way to mention the song Michael:-

Michael appears to be a love song aimed squarely at a man. This really shouldn’t seem like a brave move in 2004, but it does. Morrissey and the Magnetic Fields aside, indie doesn’t really do gay. On the rare occasions that an alt-rock artist dabbles with sexual ambiguity in their lyrics, they either start carrying on as if they personally invented the concept of homosexuality and deserve some sort of medal – see electro-rapper Peaches – or else, like Suede, they overdo the mincing and end up sounding ridiculous, like John Inman visiting an indie disco. Michael does neither, settling for an intriguing combination of sly humour and bug-eyed lust, as if the song’s central character started camping it up for a laugh and ended up in rather deeper water than he had anticipated.

You simply don’t get songs like Michael very often in current rock music. It’s symptomatic of the originality that makes Franz Ferdinand so intriguing.

I never imagined that Michael would have been thought of as a single, partly as I thought it would be unlikely to receive any daytime radio play, but also because it was a song that had caused a bit of angst among the homophobic element of the ever-increasing number of FF fans. It was the one that didn’t quite get the full sing-a-long from the packed audiences in the large arenas…..but, come August 2004, a full six months after the album had been released, it became the fourth single to be lifted from it, going on to sell enough copies to reach the Top 20.

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Michael

Domino Records issued the single across a number of formats, and in doing so ensured the completists would have to spend money as the different b-sides/additional tracks were spread out across them. The b-side of the 7″ wasn’t available elsewhere:-

mp3: Franz Ferdinand – Michael (Simon Bookish version)

Simon Bookish is the stage name of Leo Chadburn, a British musician and composer, whose work has long embraced experimental, electronic, pop and classical music. He is genuinely impossible to pigeon-hole. His take on Michael is more conventional than most of his work, but it’s different enough that it’ll likely split opinions across the TVV readership.

I like it……a lot!!!

JC

Leather Nun

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #348: THE LEATHER NUN

A GUEST POSTING BY MARTIN ELLIOT (Our Swedish Correspondent)

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Hi JC,

I hope all is well around the Towers. It’s been a while now, sorry of that, I have for a long time been working on two different ICA’s, both with Swedish artists, I feel some responsibility here, and now as my three weeks of vacation comes to an end I took the chance of another rainy day to complete at least one of them.

So let me introduce The Leather Nun, at times in their Swedish form Lädernunnan, a band formed in Gothenburg 1979 around the singer Jonas Almqvist as he should record a b-side to a single on Industrial Records.

Recruiting three guys from the disbanded punk outfit Straitjackets they started playing live, blending punk, industrial noise and garage rock. They recorded an early single for Industrial Records, Slow Death, in 1979 and in 1982 a punk single in Swedish for small label Sista Bussen (The Last Bus) called Ensam I Natt (Lonely Tonight). At the same time, bassist Freddie Wadling (a legend in Swedish punk/alternative music scene) left the band to start Blue For Two – actually Freddie was involved in so many things I might have to come back to him another time. They kept on as a trio adding different bass players over the years, moving their sound to a more grinding garage rock style, with singer Jonas heavily influenced by Lou Reed‘s singing/talking style (Allmusic describes them as Lou Reed fronting The Cramps or Sisters Of Mercy…).

The name came from a stripper in London and rumours later said they used to have a girl in nun’s clothes stripping on stage in the beginning of their career. As so often, this is a myth, likely based on one A&R gig in London when their label unknown to the band sent in two strippers during the band’s first song. The band afterwards have said they hated it and had felt extremely embarrassed on stage.

Albeit touring and playing live a lot the first half of the 80’s they didn’t record much, the first full length album was a live recording, called Alive, in 1985. They had by now signed with Wire Records and studio recordings became more regular, first a few 12″ EP’s and a mini-LP prior their first full length studio album, Steel Construction, in 1987 – and by then the sound had again changed incorporating synthesizers and the occasional flirt with dance floor rhythms. By 1991 Wire went bankrupt and recording seized, the band kept on touring until 1995 but then disbanded. In 2013 Jonas reformed the band as they finally got the publishing rights to their old material, 3 albums (2 of them being live recordings) have been released since then by Jonas and a host of guest musicians, among others some of the old band members.

This compilation, with three exceptions, concentrate on the material preceding the Steel Construction album. So here we go;

Can You Make Me A Star? An Imaginary Compilation Album by The Leather Nun.

A1. Prime Mover

Released as a stand alone 7″/12″ in 1983 this is pretty well standing up that Allmusic description…

A2. Pink House

From the In Lust Mini-LP released 1986. Recorded as a parody on the John Cougar Mellancamp single Pink Houses, a lyric that feels even more current today.

A3. Jesus Came Driving Along

From Lust Games. The title of this ICA is taken from this track.

A4. Lollipop (suckers version)

B-side to the Gimme 12″ (see B2). Quality Leather Nun with the guitar to the front. Regularly played live in the early years, and is on the Alive album as well. Lyrics not so sublime…

A5. Demolition Love (Tyson mix)

Another stand alone 7″/12″ released in 1988. This is their best flirt with dance floor rhythms (in my eyes), with some guitars kept in the background. Could have been an early Billy Idol release.

B1. I Can Smell Your Thoughts (Aron remix)

Originally from the Lust Games mini-LP, the track was remixed by the guitarist Aron and released as a 7″/12″ in 1987. A clear improvement to the track in this not revolutionary remix, but it adds some air and clarity to the song.

B2. Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) (Chopper mix)

Released as (you guessed it, a stand alone) 7″/12″ single in 1986, in two different versions offering a few different mixes of the classic ABBA track. Pretty much what you expect The Leather Nun to do with it.

B3. Desperation Drive

From the last Wire album, Nun Permanent, released in 1991. Classic rock’n’roll.

B4. Lost And Found

From the Steel Construction album. A track I see a bit as a bridge between the earlier grinding garage rock and the slightly more commercial tracks on the album. There are horns, there are keyboards, but the roots are still heard.

B5. Desolation Avenue

Released as yet another stand alone 7″/12″ single in 1985. This was the obvious choice to close the ICA with, classic Leather Nun extended a bit over 7 minutes.

Potentially not the most varying 49 minutes you have listened to, but when in the mood for some dark and moody music with what could almost have been Lou Reed at the mic – well, then you’re in for a treat.

Enjoy.

MARTIN

Vultures

KEEPING GOOD ON A PROMISE

A short time ago, I gave a first ever mention to The Vultures as part of the long-running ‘Saturday’s Scottish Song’ series. The song, Good Thing, was lifted from the box set, Big Gold Dreams (A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989). Click here for a reminder.

It was the lead track of the band’s sole EP, released on the Nardonik label in 1988, and I closed off by saying that I was so taken by again hearing it that I’d gone and ordered a second-hand copy of the EP via Discogs with the intention of sharing its other three tracks with you.

Here we go:-

mp3: The Vultures – Jack The Ripper
mp3: The Vultures – What I Say
mp3: The Vultures – You’re Not Scared

The whole EP comes in at 9 minutes, and that’s only because What I Say takes up three of those minutes. The other three tracks all come in at less than 120 seconds.

It’s not a huge output in terms of the history of recorded music, but The Vultures deserve to be celebrated.

JC

Curve

CURVE BALLS (4)

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Curve’s debut album, Doppelgänger, may have come in at #11 but it was back outside the Top 75 within just three weeks. It was actually the same for all the EPs and singles, with each of them entering at their highest position after the first week of release, and then dropping out of sight.

A similar pattern was experienced with the next single, a remix of one of the most popular and acclaimed tracks on the debut album.

mp3: Curve – Horror Head (remix)

The week prior to its release on 6 July 1992, saw one of the NME staff writers, David Quantick, liaise with Mark E Smith to pen the pages that made up the Singles Review. Here’s their take:-

DQ: It’s the Goth Eurythmics, with their patent phased whoosh of melody, mystery and more-money-than-Lush type production. Awesome but somewhat unengaging.

MES : Great bass. Are these the ones who gave us Single Of The Week for ‘Free Range’? That Curve… I saw them in a hotel in Birmingham. Didn’t talk to them. I wouldn’t have thought they’d sound like this. Good though. Bass is brilliant, innit? The vocals are over-produced. It is really 4AD, though, that innit? Good though.

Despite MES’s unexpected enthusiasm, Horror Head came in at #31 and then dropped to #69.

There were three new songs made available on the 12″ and CD releases:-

mp3: Curve – Falling Free
mp3: Curve – Mission From God
mp3: Curve – Today Is Not The Day

Falling Free is good fun….the sort of thing that would go down really well in the indie-goth disco. Mission From God is more mid-paced, while Today Is Not The Day is almost a ballad and comes very close at times to Cocteau Twins territory.

Here’s the promo video:-

JC

Feelies

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #028

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#028– The Feelies – ‘Fa Ce La’ (Rough Trade Records ’79)

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Dear friends,

obviously all the nice comments that come in keep this series alive – so I thought I’d start today with telling you all how very much those are being appreciated: they really are, believe me!

As for the last entry, Fad Gadget, I might not have expressed myself all too well perhaps, so, Flimflamfan: what I was trying to say was that I did not hear that record for the first time when I was 11 (in 1979), I only got to know it when I was old enough to get into those Blackwave/Gothic/Punk clubs in town. And this began in 1985/1986, when I was 16/17. I knew a girl from a nearby village, she was a bit older, had a car, was dead cool and occasionally managed to smuggle me in – although I was too young, obviously. And that’s where I first heard music like this, sometimes quite some years after its release. And yes, Johnny, a Tai Chi studio is a good comparison, everybody was looking down on the bottom when creeping around on the dance floor, moving rather slowly altogether, just as if they were afraid to be struck by lightning if they raised their heads! All dressed in black, of course, me too – but, Robster, believe it or not: I barely danced there, too shy, I suppose.

The only contemporary alternative music I got to know was from mid-1984 onwards, because this was when I started to listen to John Peel’s Music on BFBS each and every week in a more or less religious manner. So at the weekend, at the clubs, I was usually ahead of the game, because I knew all about The Jesus & Mary Chain before ‘Psychocandy’ hit the German shops, ‘Bend Sinister’ or Half Man Half Biscuit being prime examples as well. Although the latter weren’t pretty helpful when bragging with my superior knowledge in front of the Goths, I must admit.

Of course Peel would often play ‘oldies’ as well, and that usually was a history lesson for me, because all this stuff prior to 1984 I never knew about. So all the money I got hold of ended up in the three or four good record shops the town of Aachen had back then – partly for ‘new’ stuff, but mostly for post punk albums from 1979 to 1983, i.e. Joy Division, Bauhaus etc.

And today’s single is no exception: first heard on Peel, but I remember that I wasn’t able to afford the album before 1986, a German reissue on white vinyl on Line Records. The original album was issued on Stiff in 1980, but the below single on Rough Trade preceded the album by one year, which – again – throws us back to 1979 …. a great year for music, I’m sure you agree. I suppose there isn’t all too much I could tell you about The Feelies which you are not already aware of these days: if you have heard their debut album in its entirety, you basically know all you need to know in life! Their sound was so totally unique in 1980 (well, at least I guess it was: I can’t think of something similar from that era), so fresh and so mind-blowing that ‘Crazy Rhythms’ would surely still be one of my desert island discs.

But what you don’t know perhaps is that five (!) more albums were released after the debut. I (still) haven’t heard the last one, but the other four are absolutely worth listening to – so do yourself a favor, folks! But for now it’s this gem:

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mp3: The Feelies – Fa Ce La

Both tracks from the single are from the debut album, again I went for the B-Side. Don’t skip it just because you think you already know it: it’s a different version, not as ‘polished’ as on the album plus it’s 12 seconds longer, although I can’t immediately identify where those 12 seconds hide themselves. Perhaps you can do? Ah, and it’s not me being stupid again, the hyphen is indeed missing on this release, but I assume ‘fa cé la’ still means ‘what’s going on’…?

Either way, as usual, enjoy!

Dirk

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Twenty-nine)

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I thought very long and hard about whether to include Undertow in the series.

Technically, the eighth track on Super was never released as a single, but it is out there on Discogs, on CD, with an asking price of over £100.

It came as part of Pet Shop Boys Annually, a hardback book that was released via the official online store on 12 April 2017.

Annually has now become something of a tradition – it wasn’t something I was aware of until a few years later (and which I’ll expand upon in a later entry in this series) – with a number of the books coming with CDs containing otherwise unavailable bits of music, more often than not, but not always, in remix form of songs from the back catalogue.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Undertow (Tuff City Kids remix)

The other two tracks on the CD were also remixes, one being a very old favourite and the other being another of the most popular tunes on Super:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (Super Version)
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Burn (Baba Stiltz remix)

The former involved Stuart Price, the producer of the two most recent albums, visiting the much-loved tune from the 80s and giving it a contemporary twist. Given that the original is up there with my all-time favourite PSB tunes, you’d imagine I’d dislike this take on it……but I’m happy to give it pass marks.

The latter is more than ten minutes long, and while it will have its fans among you, it does illustrate why, for the most part, I’ve shied away from featuring remixes throughout this series.

JC

Wake

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #367: THE WAKE

It’s a four-for-one deal today.

The alphabetical rundown has reached The Wake. They’ve been on the blog a couple of times before, but here’s a reminder of the potted and far from complete history.

They were formed in Glasgow in 1981 by Gerard McInulty (aka Caesar), on guitar and vocals, Steven Allen on drums and Joe Donnelly as bassist. Previously Caesar had played with Altered Images, and was responsible for the superb Dead Pop Stars, but he left prior to the band enjoying chart success with Happy Birthday.

The Wake released their first single on their own Scan 45 label, coupling together “On Our Honeymoon” and “Give Up”. This single eventually caught the attention of Rob Gretton, who helped the band sign to Factory Records in 1982 by which time Bobby Gillespie had replaced Donnelly on bass and Carolyn Allen (the drummer’s sister) had joined to play keyboards.

The album Harmony appeared in 1982, followed by a number of singles in ’83 and ’84. The band toured with New Order in 1983, shortly after which Gillespie was asked to leave in 1983.

It is reckoned by most observers that The Wake’s best recordings came towards the end of their time with Factory, and in particular the album Here Comes Everybody (1985) and then a 4-track EP, Something That No One Else Could Bring (1987).

Copies of that quite excellent EP, which has a catalogue number of FAC 178, are very few and far between on the second-hand market, and as such the asking price has now reached £100. I’ve not got a copy, but I do have all four tracks in digital form:-

mp3: The Wake – Gruesome Castle
mp3: The Wake – Pale Spectre
mp3: The Wake – Furious Sea
mp3: The Wake – Plastic Flowers

In 1988, disillusioned with the lack of proper promotion and indeed apathy from Factory Records, The Wake left the label and signed to Sarah Records, for whom they released two singles and two LPs, the last being 1994’s Tidal Wave of Hype. When Sarah shut down in 1995, The Wake effectively dissolved.

Fast-forward to 2009. The Wake reformed as a two-piece consisting of McInulty and Carolyn Allen and recorded a new album, A Light Far Out, but it wasn’t released till April 2012 on LTM Records In July 2013. Later in the year, The Wake performed at the Indietracks Festival.

JC

Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #347: ‘BASS LINES’

A BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

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I’m breaking my self-imposed unwritten rule of never having two ICAs in the same week as I want to wish Jonny the Friendly Lawyer, one of the best friends that this blog could ever ask for, a very happy 60th birthday this coming weekend.

JTFL pops in here every single day, and along with flimflamfan (whose most recent ICA on Cranes appeared just a few days ago), makes the most contributions via the comments section, often heaping praise on all sorts of contributions for the quality of the writing.

The thing is, I’ve been very lucky to meet and get to know JTFL, spending time with him on a couple of occasions, one of which also involved myself and Rachel (Mrs JC in case you weren’t aware) meeting his wonderful wife, Goldie, when they stopped off in Barcelona for a few days during a holiday to Spain. It’s long been a plan for us all to meet up again in Santa Monica where JTFL resides, and indeed plane tickets were purchased for such a trip a few years ago, only for COVID to impact on the world and do away with plans. Since then, we’ve both been just too busy with other things to make it happen, but fingers and toes are crossed for 2024…..

Jonny is a fanatical bass player, going back to his youthful days in New York, where he was part of a number of post-punk bands that gigged and recorded. He seemingly collects bass guitars with the same enthusiasm as I do vinyl records of a bygone era, and he was telling me that he’s splashed out on something rather special to mark the big birthday. He’ll no doubt bring it on stage quite soon, as he’s still involved in a couple of LA-based bands, one of which does original material while the other plays all sorts of new wave/post-punk cover songs. Maybe one day he’ll use this little corner of t’internet to share some tales.

My birthday gift is far more modest, but is delivered with a great deal of love and affection. I asked him to give me a list of the ten songs which he believes have the best bass lines so that I could turn the suggestions into an ICA. The songs are Jonny’s suggestions, the running order is mine. As indeed are the words written beneath each song in the ICA.

SIDE A

1. The Beat – Mirror In The Bathroom (bassist : David Steele)

A #4 hit in the UK in 1980. Dave Wakeling, the lead vocalist with The Beat, has described David Steele‘s 2/2 bassline as ‘revolutionary’ (being a total non-musician, I have no idea what that means, but it sounds ridiculously impressive).

2. 5ive Gears In Reverse – Elvis Costello and The Attractions (bassist : Bruce Thomas)

Jonny is a huge fan of the music played by The Attractions, so it was no surprise that one of their songs featuring Bruce Thomas appeared on the shortlist. If he’d asked me to guess which one, then (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea or Pump It Up, two big singles from the late 70s, would have been the first things which came to mind. But no, a fairly obscure, but brilliant, album track from Get Happy! (1980) gets the nod.

3. Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed (bassist : Herbie Flowers)

A #10 hit in the UK in 1973. All sorts of things make this one of THE greatest songs of all time (even as a nine-year old, I fell heavily for its charms even if I had no idea what it was about), but there can be no doubt that Herbie Flowers‘ bass playing has a lot to do with it. There’s a fabulous and very practical reason why it turned out so distinctive:-

The song is noted for its twinned ascending and descending portamento basslines played by Herbie Flowers. In an interview on BBC Radio 4 (Playing Second Fiddle, aired July 2005), Flowers claimed the reason he came up with the twin bass lines was that as a session musician, he would be paid double for playing two instruments on the same track.Flowers’s bass hook was performed on double bass overlaid by fretless Fender Jazz Bass. He was paid a £17 flat fee (equivalent to £200 in 2021)

4. Down In The Tube Station At Midnight – The Jam (bassist : Bruce Foxton)

A #15 hit in the UK in 1978. The Jam never made it big in the USA, so I was kind of surprised but chuffed, (a word Jonny laughs at when I use it on the blog), that this post-punk classic made the list. Bruce Foxton was an underated bassist, one whose contributions were very much over-shadowed by Paul Weller‘s lyrics, certainly to the vast majority of the hundreds of thousands of Jam fans back in the day. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really learned to appreciate just how much the bass line, every bit as much as the angry and frightened lyric, makes this such a special song. Oh, and the backing vocals too……(which will get another mention a bit later on in this ICA)

5. This Charming Man – The Smiths (bassist : Andy Rourke)

A#25 hit in the UK in 1983. Back in the day, we all wanted to be either Morrissey or Johnny Marr. Then again, those who were paying close attention had spotted from the outset that the engine room of Mike Joyce (drums) and Andy Rourke (bass) were very much at the heart of what made The Smiths sound so fresh, invigorating and energetic. They might not have got any writing credits, but without their contributions, the records would have been a lot less essential.

SIDE B

1. Duran Duran – Girls On Film (bassist : John Taylor)

A #5 hit in the UK in 1981. I’ll be honest. I liked quite a lot of the early Duran Duran singles as they were great fun to dance to….and they were certainly more likely to invoke a conversation with the fairer sex than talking about the merits of The Clash. But I never paid attention to how good the musicianship was on the songs till many years later – all I knew back in 1981 was that the bass player was the one most girls fancied, and the one I had the least chance of ever looking like.

2. Found A Job – Talking Heads (bassist : Tina Weymouth)

It’s no real surprise that Tina Weymouth‘s bass playing gets on to the list, but yet again, the song selected by Jonny catches out us who are non-musicians. If he said ‘Talking Heads’, I’d have said ‘Psycho Killer’, as I think many others would too. But this track, from More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), is a great shout. A critic elsewhere on t’internet just a few months had this to say about the song:-

“….you might or might not notice that his (David Byrne’s) band is basically playing straight-up disco, tweaked only by yet another one of Tina Weymouth’s endlessly inventive basslines weaving in and out of the rhythm guitars…”

(Jim Connolly, Medialoper.com, 8 May 2023)

Endlessly inventive. A perfect description of what Tina Weyworth brought to her art.

3. I’m The Man – Joe Jackson (bassist : Graham Maby)
4. Mayor of Simpleton – XTC (bassist : Colin Moulding)

Graham Maby and Colin Moulding are two of Jonny’s all-time favourites.

In fact, I believe that Mr Maby is the bassist he admires most, having described him in a previous guest post as ‘my hero’ and his playing as ‘irresistible’. I’m The Man was the lead single from Joe Jackson‘s second album back in 1979, but it failed to chart. It’s a frantic tune all round, one that I recall with much fondness from seeing the band play live back in the day, and I can picture Jonny, on stage with his covers band, working himself into a sweat as this one gets played.

Jonny previously contributed an ICA that was devoted to XTC songs written by Colin Moulding, so I was surprised that it’s an Andy Partridge tune which makes the cut. But then again, Jonny also previously penned an ICA that was devoted to XTC songs written by Any Partridge, and he had this to say about Mayor of Simpleton:-

Another single, this one from 1989’s Oranges and Lemons, perhaps the group’s last great LP. This one features terrific basslines from man of the match Mr. Moulding, who also provides solid backing vocals. As a rule, the songwriters usually sang lead on their songs, but Moulding’s voice was always present in the mix, much like how The Jam’s Bruce Foxton co-sang along with Paul Weller on the majority of that band’s songs. (Let’s add Foxton to the list of under-appreciated musicians from the era, while we’re at it.)

I’ll let you into a secret. Jonny is working hard at learning the difficult and complicated bass lines on Mayor of Simpleton as he wants to incorporate the song into the cover band’s setlists.

5. Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division (bassist : Peter Hook)

A #13 hit in the UK in 1980. I know Peter Hook‘s bass playing is a huge part of what made Joy Division and New Order so successful. But as a non-musician, I find it hard to explain why that is. This is how his work on LWTUA is described on the website, Talking Bass:-

This is a great bass line to play for players of any level. It’s instantly recognisable. What I really like about Peter Hooks bass lines, is how melodic and creative they are. The line for ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ features the actual vocal line of the chorus alongside a drone to highlight the chord that’s played underneath. You have everything in there, the melody AND the harmony. This makes it very recognisable and hooky (excuse the pun!), he was unusual in that he plays bass as more of a lead instrument rather than the traditional supporting role bass usually occupies.

A great way, I reckon, to wrap up an ICA with a difference. It’s one that wouldn’t look too shabby as a mixtape………

mp3: Various – Ten Bass Lines for a 60th Birthday (35:26)

All the best, Jonny. Have a great day with your family and friends.

JC

Sugababes

THIS ONE IS FOR SWC

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It genuinely was a coincidence yesterday that I posted a song called ‘Kirsty’ on the same day as SWC over at No Badger Required offered up my guest post on the late and great Kirsty MacColl.

He dropped me a note when he spotted what had happened.

“Your girl band piece is up tomorrow so I demand a piece on Sugababes on tnvv tomorrow’

Here’s the thing.

I did a piece on the old blog on Sugababes. It’s gone forever as it’s one of those that hasn’t ever been captured by the Wayback Machine, otherwise I would have reproduced it today.

It was part of an occasional and short-lived series about songs you might be surprised to find in the vinyl/CD collection. It was all about the debut single.

mp3: Sugababes – Overload

I think this is a magnificently crafted piece of pop music. It was released in September 2000 and reached the Top 10 in the UK. It introduced us to the original three members of the group – Siobhan Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan.

I was intending to just wax lyrically about the song. It’s one that still sounds fantastic all these years later, but having come across an article that appeared in The Observer newspaper in June 2003, I was provoked into doing something a bit more substantial.

Siobhan Donaghy sits in a restaurant in Primrose Hill, north London, sipping mineral water. Talking comes easily; she is, after all, one of three sisters, her family are Irish; there’s not a lot of peace and quiet. She is skinny, not unnaturally so, but her slenderness accentuates a vulnerability. Although it’s a busy Friday lunchtime, no one even glances at this pretty girl in loose, pale blue dungarees, strappy black T-shirt, boxfresh white Converse.

Things move fast in the world of pop. Back in 2000 Siobhan had her first top 10 single. She was 16, as was Keisha Buchanan; the third Sugababe, Mutya Buena, was 15. A smoothly produced, seductive R&B track, ‘Overload’ stayed in the top 30 for six weeks, delivered a silver disc and was nominated for Best British Single at the Brits: not bad for a debut single. At the start of 2001 Sugababes released their debut album, the mature, classy One Touch . It was critically acclaimed and went gold.

Sugababes had been brought together by Ron Tom, who worked with the fantastically successful All Saints (Ron Tom was managing Siobhan for two years before he found Mutya; Mutya had known Keisha since they were eight). The girls signed to London, the same record label as All Saints; they lured Cameron McVey, husband of Neneh Cherry, producer of Massive Attack and All Saints, into the studio. With their slick R&B pop and honey vocals, Sugababes were worthy successors to All Saints.

Anyone coming to the article with no knowledge of the group would think they had been spat out by the industry, given that it had opened with Siobhan not being recognised. However, the piece was reflecting on the fact that, at the age of 19, she was about to embark on a solo comeback, having quit the group back in 2000 at the age of 17. In her own words:-

‘I was 12 when I met the manager, 14 when I met the girls, 16 on the first release, 17 when I left. At which point I was happy never to work again. I had got to the point where I’d look in the mirror and not know who I was. I felt like I didn’t have a personality. I’d lost my identity… I felt like a zombie. A dead person.’

The author of the piece later writes:-

At 17, she had learned the rules of the music business the hard way. Like any other big business, it is motivated by money. Creativity is a means to an end. It has no time to indulge depressed young girls.

It’s a sobering thought that many of us who love music to the extent of buying records, attending gigs and hoovering up merchandise are, to a large part, simply propping up large businesses. OK, it has changed a bit in recent years as in many cases the support goes direct to the singers and bands (especially those who are starting out or are increasingly involved in self-releasing their material), but all too often, the money we spend on music, and indeed on all forms of the creative and performing arts, ends up in the pockets of those with no real talent other than the ability to make a quick buck….with no better example being those involved in the selling and distribution of tickets. But that’s for a rant for some other time…..

Sugababes weren’t as manufactured as was perhaps portrayed when they burst onto the scene. The trio contributed a great deal beyond their vocal talents to the debut album, to the extent of receiving writing credits on nine of its twelve tracks. A long career surely beckoned….which of course proved to be the case.

There have been six #1 hits in the UK, beginning with Freak Like Me in 2002, with the last of them being About You Now in 2008, by which time just Keisha Buchanan was left from the original trio.

A year later, she quit, but to nobody’s surprise the management and record label brought in a replacement and work got underway on new material, all of which was critically panned on release, but more crucially didn’t sell well.

To nobody’s surprise, the record industry pulled the plug on Sugababes.

In 2012, it was revealed that the group had been re-formed by the original trio but under the name Mutya Keisha Siobhan. They had no legal rights to the name Sugababes.

They finally won a long battle to get their name back in 2019, since when they have recorded and toured to what remains a fairly loyal fanbase.

I’ve nothing else in the collection other than the debut single on CD. It’s far from the most valuable piece of plastic lining the shelves of Villain Towers as it can be bought for as little as 23p on Discogs. But what price can you really put on such a piece of great pop music?

Here’s the two other tracks on the CD:-

mp3: Sugababes – Lush Life
mp3: Sugababes – Overload (instrumental)

Oh, and click here if you want to read what I’ve got to say today about some more contemporary and ‘punky’ girl groups over at No Badger Required.

JC

BOB

BOB – KIRSTY (PLUS THREE)

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This one comes courtesy of its inclusion in the C88 box set, issued by Cherry Red Records in 2017.

BOB have had a couple of mentions before, both within a period of 18 days in June 2018. The first post focussed on the debut EP, What A Performance, while the second post on a later single, Convenience, was triggered by some comments left behind at the time of the first post.

I’m now getting round to drawing attention to the band’s second EP, released on Sombrero Records in June 1988:-

mp3: BOB – Kirsty

The C88 book notes very accurately describe this one as being yet another wonderful example of BOB’s talents for lilting, fey, melodic songs.

Here’s the three other tracks on the EP:

mp3: BOB – The Hippy Goes Fishing
mp3: BOB – Banwell Blues No.2
mp3: BOB – Times Like These

I’m beginning to really kick myself for not knowing about BOB back in the day…..there’s a real warmth and happiness to their brand of pop music.

Addendum

This is just a complete coincidence…..but it does indeed look like perfect planning.

I’ve contributed a guest posting to the wonderful No Badger Required blog that has been published today. It’s all about the late Kirsty MacColl. Click here if you’d like to read it.

JC

Fad Gadget

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #027

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#027– Fad Gadget – ‘Back To Nature’ (Mute Records ’79)

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Hello friends,

well, the ‘E’s’ are done, so let’s start with the artists beginning with an ‘F’, Fad Gadget, or Frank Tovey to his mother and perhaps to you as well, being the first one.

To be fair, I only know a handful of his songs, but the one I chose for today, I certainly do know by heart! I was 11 when it was released, too young to know anything. But ‘Back To Nature’ was still constantly played in all of the New Wave/Gothic clubs I went to in town when I was old enough to do so, you simply could not avoid this tune – even if you wanted to.

Now, this might either demonstrate how outdated the clubs were I went to in the mid-Eighties, then again it might as well show what a killer tune this ‘oldie’ was … and perhaps still is. Anyway, people literally stormed the dance floor whenever the DJ put it on, so it must have had its fans even it was already six or seven years old at the time. Me, well, by and large you only saw me on the dance floor when I was crossing it on me way to the bar. But still I enjoyed listening to ‘Back To Nature’ mightily, each and every bloody time. And I still do so today, it’s one of those records that has stood the test of time, if you ask me.

Fad Gadget was the first artist to sign to Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Miller had just released the first single on Mute under his ‘The Normal’ – moniker, ‘T.V.O.D.’, but perhaps better known for its B-Side, ‘Warm Leatherette’. Spoiler alert: no, this song, as mighty as it may be, will not feature in a later post, because I stupidly sold this single years ago!

(JC interjects…….if anyone wants to read the story of T.V.O.D/Warm Leatherette, click here to be taken to a previous post from back in November 2019.

Anyway: because of this record, Miller, contrary to Gadget, knew what he was doing in the studio, so basically he turned out to be the “mastermind” behind ‘Back To Nature’ as far as recording/producing was concerned. And the sales results for this second single on Mute show that both folks must have done a pretty good job – it was a great success for the label.

As I said, a song I never get tired of. I hope the same is true for you. But perhaps, who knows, there are even one or two people who never heard of it, and, again, who knows, it might even meet with those two people’s approval. And if this happens, well, to quote Tom Cruise: “mission accomplished!”.

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mp3: Fad Gadget – Back To Nature

Fad Gadget died in 2002, aged only 45. As mentioned above, I didn’t really follow his output in his later years, perhaps I should have done this. Then again, with this record alone, at least to me, he was a groundbreaker for synth music and most surely an inspiration for many many bands to come.

Enjoy,

Dirk

Cranes

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #346: THE CRANES

A GUEST POSTING by flimflamfan

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Cranes – From When The Fuse Was Lit, an ICA

2023 saw the proper re-emergence of Cranes. First there was news of the John Peel Sessions being released and then… three gigs; two in London (of course) and one in Portsmouth (their hometown). Then bam! Another re-release – see below.

The only two musicians to appear on all releases are siblings Alison and Jim Shaw. I think it fair to say that Cranes are an indie band; surfacing with Bite Back! then Dedicated and latterly their own imprint Dadaphonic, despite a very brief encounter with Elefant.

Wrench (Fuse Cassette. 1986)

Things have been relatively non-existent for the band since their last proper gig (in London) in 2012 – although their actual last gig was at a festival, Electric Picnic, Galway. There have been and continue to be re-releases of albums that were previously released on vinyl, or that have never been released on vinyl – the latest being La Tragédie d’Oreste et Électre, all courtesy of Music On Vinyl.

My initial intention was to re-buy all of the re-releases from Music on Vinyl, whether I had them originally on vinyl or cd (or both). I’d convinced myself I ‘needed’ them. I put my ‘need’ on pause as more albums were released and decided that to begin to re-buy would be a costly effort and, surprise, surprise… I didn’t really ‘need’ what I already had.

However, I did fall foul of the John Peel Sessions. I did have this digitally but no physical format had previously been released and so I bought the limited-edition cd, ‘Dinked’ vinyl edition and limited edition first-press black vinyl edition. When the releases arrived, I initially felt quite content, but soon after realised I’d probably never open any of them, let alone play them. This was a relatively new phenomena for me – having only recently re-bought two treasured LPs I knew I’d never open, or play. I previously bought music to play. To pour over art work. To enjoy. Here I was, coldly and callously, collecting. It felt weird. I have a collection. I was a collector but, I was connected to what I was buying and there was a reward in the pleasure of the music. Something had changed. I didn’t like it.

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Since that day, I have vowed that I will only buy a physical format if I intend to listen to it. That seems an odd thing to agree with oneself, but there you are. The ICA is presented in a chronological order and features some of today’s Cranes favourites. They may not all be tomorrow’s Cranes favourites.

All of the above is a prelude to me as ‘Cranes fan’. The fan who just couldn’t wait to get that new single/LP home and listen to it again and again and again…

I was introduced to Cranes by a friend, the Self-Non-Self LP – other reminiscences are available. I was immediately taken by the vocals and later the tracks Joy Lies Within and Focus Breathe (which vocally reminded me of Lisa Gerard – always a good thing). I liked this band. I bought the LP.

Focus Breathe (Self-Non-Self, LP. 1989)

As we drafted our playlists for our ‘ultra-cool’ club night Cranes featured – possibly the only time they ever did, at that time, in a Glasgow disco. It was my friend’s section of the playlist, not mine.

Give (Inescapable, EP. 1990)

While others pondered and attempted to pigeonhole the band’s sound – I viewed them simply as post-punk. They were making the kind of racket that didn’t fit within either confines of shoegaze or goth.

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Starblood (Wings Of Joy, LP. 1991)

With each new release, I became more and more captivated. Wings Of Joy stripped back some of the noise to allow us to hear such beauty as Tomorrow’s Tears.

Far Away (Forever, LP. 1993)

That stripped back sound continued on the following LP, Forever – possibly their best known? It may seem a bit contrived of me to omit Jewel – I didn’t do so lightly. Jewel was, at this time, without doubt the song that most people would associate with Cranes. Released as a 3 x 7” box set with different mixes but oddly no standard 12”.

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Everywhere (Forever, LP. 1993)

Loved was the last (at the time) LP to be released on vinyl. On the LP, and as a b-side to the single Shining Road, sat Paris and Rome. A remix by Flood originally appears on the 12” promo and has since been replicated elsewhere.

Paris and Rome – Flood remix (12” promo. 1994)

In 1996 Cranes released La Tragédie D’Oreste Et Électre. The LP was recorded prior to 1994’s Loved LP but was delayed due to copyright issues with the estate of Jean-Paul Sartre whose words are used as lyrics. The LP is sung/spoken entirely, in French, by Alison. It reminds me of LPs Tindersticks would go on to record to greater acclaim.

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Cranes go pop? Well, as pop as Cranes can go…

Can’t Get Free (Population Four, LP. 1996)

In 1997 EP Collection Volumes 1 & 2 was released. The CD held no surprises but I was more than happy to add this to my collection. It’s been played – lots.

There was quite a hiatus until the release of the LP Future Songs. It is here that Cranes brought me to tears. The culprit, Driving In The Sun. The utter fragility of this song continues to make me weep. I have a wonderful memory of being in Madrid, the song playing loudly as I looked out over the rooftops towards Plaza de España, the evening sun casting light and shadow. The LP ends with the wonderfully titled The Maker Of Heavenly Trousers, a nod to the book of the same name.

Driving In The Sun (Future Songs, LP. 2001)

In 2002/2003 the band released Submarine and Live In Italy, respectively. Submarine, a maxi-single consisted of remixed songs from Future Songs. It’s the only Cranes release that I don’t care for.

Particles and Waves seemed to sneak out. It contained 10 songs book-ended by Vanishing Point and Light Song. How is it that something so beautiful can go largely unnoticed?

Light Song (Particles and Waves, LP. 2004)

The final Cranes LP (thus far), coincidentally named Cranes, is probably their most ambient to date. I can’t help but wonder which direction would have followed? 15 years later, I’m no closer to knowing the answer to that question.

High and Low (Cranes, LP. 2008)

The release of the John Peel Sessions masquerading as an LP was quite the stretch for me. Four songs from 1989 plus another three from 1990 equals seven songs. Seven songs – to my mind – does not an LP make. But… I forgive them in the hope that a new LP is forthcoming.

I can think of no other band that I owned all t-shirts of (long and short sleeve versions) all the way from the first to the last. I treasure my records, my CDs. I, on occasion, carefully look through my signed copy of Til The Stars Shine (a lyric booklet) handmade by Alison and chuckle gently and my silly collecting ways.

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I hope you enjoy some of these songs. I found it a difficult, personal challenge to whittle my choices down for this ICA knowing full well my choices will have changed as soon as I send this to JC.

Bonus Tracks

Happy Xmas (War is Over) ( Ancienne Belgique, CD single. 1996)

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Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Twenty-eight)

R-9058714-1474397011-8348

The next single to be lifted from Super was issued on CD and digital form on 16 September 2016.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Say It To Me (new radio mix)

Say It To Me is a banger of a tune, and the new radio mix doesn’t actually sound all that different from the album version. In days gone by, this would have smashed into higher echelons of the singles chart.

Here’s the two new tracks that came with it:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – A Cloud In A Box
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – The Dead Can Dance

See that comment I made about the single being a banger? Well, feel free to take and multiply it by a thousand to get the best description of A Cloud In A Box. Faithless meets Left To My Own Devices. It’s rather wonderful.

The Dead Can Dance is another song that deserved a far better fate than relegation to a b-side. It’s not anywhere as immediate as A Cloud…..but with a hypnotic and repetitive beat and rhythm, there’s a claim to be made that’s it is another of the many dozens of three-minute-long PSB classics that not many have heard before.