THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #350: TRAVIS

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Isn’t it amazing how young they all looked when they were doing the promotional rounds for the debut album?

Some of the members of what eventually became Travis actually started playing music together as far back as 1990 when they were at school. The first name they played and recorded under was Glass Onion. Theirs is a story of finding success the hard way, a number of years grafting away to refine and improve their playing and songwriting abilities, taking a lot of flak and criticism along the way.

Things began to change dramatically in 1996 when the decision was taken to reduce the size of the band by asking two of its founding members to leave, and at the same time, recruit a new bass player. The same four musicians – Fran Healy (vocals/guitar/piano), Andy Dunlop (guitar), Neil Primrose (drums) and Dougie Payne (bass) have been together ever since.

Having attracted the attention of Andy MacDonald, formerly of Go! Discs and now the founder of Independiente Records (a minor label backed by the resources of the multinational Sony Records), they signed a deal that led to the release of the album Good Feeling in 1997.

It was an indie-rock record, one that wasn’t out of fashion with the times – Noel Gallagher declared himself a fan and Travis went on tour as support to Oasis – but it had very little to make it really stand out from the crowd and sales weren’t huge.

The Man Who was the next album, released in 1999. It was a different beast altogether from the debut, with many of its songs being more downbeat, almost acoustic in nature. But still, there was no real audience for their music.

Glastonbury 1999. After two years of the festival being played in monsoon like conditions, the sun shone for the most part in 1999. Except when Travis took the stage, which made it really ironic when they played the opening notes of their minor hit single Why Does It Always Rain On Me?. The sort of moment which is loved by the media and the BBC , the broadcaster of choice at the festival, were all over it, turning the performance into a news story. And, in those pre social media days, where TV led, the newspapers followed.

Travis were now a household name.

The Man Who started to sell in greater numbers, eventually reaching #1. The Brit Awards of 2000 declared it album of the year, while Travis took the best band trophy home, handing immediately to the landlord of the Glasgow city centre pub above whose premises Glass Onion and the early incantation of Travis had been allowed to graft away. The trophy remained on display for many years.

It’s for reasons like this that it’s almost impossible to have any dislike for the band. Their music might not be inspiring, but they are all really good people who, over the years, have put much back into the music scene in Glasgow and done some quietly effective work to bring positivity into poor and deprived communities.

They are now nine albums into their career, and while they don’t get anything like the audiences or attention they did at their peak, which was unarguably with the release of The Invisible Band (2003) which went on to sell 1.2 million copies in the UK alone, they still sell out decent sized venues, especially round these parts

mp3 : Travis – All I Want To Do Is Rock

The debut single on Independiente in June 1997.

It entered at #39 and dropped the following week to #73. Success was still two years away.

JC

Beastie Boys

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #53

Anthology : The Sounds Of Science – Beastie Boys (1999)

Here’s the thing. I came into this exercise with the intention of the rundown to consist only of 60 original studio albums. Next to Beastie Boys, I typed up ‘Paul’s Boutique’ and thought whereabouts in the Top 20 it might eventually place.

The problem was that I didn’t buy Paul’s Boutique at the time of release in 1989. Indeed, it wasn’t until Hello Nasty (1998) that I ever made any timely purchase of a Beastie Boys album.

I was already weighing up whether any ‘best-of’ collections or indeed box sets should qualify for consideration when the Beastie Boys created this dilemma. In the end, I decided that if any compilation was listened to on a regular basis from start to end, then it was permissible. Which is any Anthology : The Sounds Of Science is in the rundown at #53, a position far lower than Paul’s Boutique would have obtained.

This particular release contains 42 tracks, of which around one-third were what could be described as hits. The rest consists of album tracks, b-sides and some material that had previously been unreleased. It’s not offered up in any chronological fashion, and the best-known songs are scattered liberally throughout.

It came out a year after their fifth studio album, the aforementioned Hello Nasty. It would have been an easy cash-in to shove out a single disc of all the popular songs with minimum attention paid to the artwork and packaging. Indeed, such a release would likely have generated more sales, as some would be-purchasers would have been put off by some reviews that concentrated on the unreleased material on the basis that quality control was the reason a lot of the songs hadn’t previously seen the light of day.

Instead, the two discs came beautifully packaged, complete with a lovingly written 80-page booklet offering up the backstories of each track, in the words of one or other of Adam Yauch, Michael Diamond or Adam Horowitz, along with many previously unseen photographs. Sure, there were bits on both discs that seemed a tad superfluous, but not at any time should they be regarded as self-indulgent. No Beastie Boys album had ever been a straightforward listen, so why should this collection be any different?

mp3: Beastie Boys – Shadrach

Beastie Boys are a rare example of a group winning me over after early scepticism. I wasn’t enamoured by the debut album, Licensed To Ill (1986) nor its early singles. It was for this reason, as much as any other, that I paid no attention to Paul’s Boutique when it hit the shops. I wasn’t alone in this, certainly in the UK, as the album didn’t sell all that well. Their next album, Check Your Head (1992) didn’t even make the Top 100 over here and to all intent and purposes, the trio had been dismissed and forgotten.

It was the release of Ill Communication (1994) and the relative success of the singles Sabotage and Sure Shot that transformed their fortunes over here. The end of year write-ups were full of praise, and so I made sure I got Santa to deliver me a copy. Things being what they are at such busy times (I had just got myself a new job in Glasgow) that it took me a few months to actually sit down and give it a proper listen. It proved to be the album that had me reassessing things and eventually going back to listen to what I had missed.

JC

Chumbawamba

(BONUS POST) : ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #013

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#013– Chumbawamba – ‚This Girl’ (One Little Indian Records, ’95)

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Hello friends,

my anarchistic career solely consists of listening to ‘The Feeding Of The 5.000’ by Crass. I should admit I didn’t listen to it when it came out in 1979, I only listened to it some five years later. But I listened to it very closely indeed (if I exerted myself, I would still be able to recite most of ‘So What’, I reckon), which probably doesn’t turn me into being the next Federico Garcia Lorca, but hey, I experienced more anarchy than most of you lot ever did, right?!

And because I was so hardcore and in the thick of the scene, I never cared a great deal for the only other anarchistic band on the planet: Chumbawamba. They started out in 1983 and always pretended to be the most anarchistic thing on earth. At least much more anarchistic than Crass ever were … so they said. They had their own little label, Agit Prop, until the early 90’s. Then they switched to One Little Indian Records, home of The Sugarcubes, and probably this move made them a little better known. This and Peel playing a few tunes from their 1992 ‘Shhh’ – LP, which I bought myself because I thought what I heard (‘Behave!’ and ‘Look! No Strings!’) was ace. But the album disappointed me, if I remember correctly, and I sold it pretty quickly to some poor soul.

Two years later, in 1994, Chumbawamba, still being as anarchistic as possible, teamed up with hip-hop labelmates Credit To The Nation. There was ‘Enough Is Enough’ (which was good throughout) and perhaps some other song, I forgot about the details. Then, one year later, they released their album ‘Swingin’ With Raymond’. I would never have known about its existence, hadn’t a young lady (Petra) I was briefly together with at that time, made up a tape for me which included two songs from this album. First ‘Not The Girl I Used To Be’ (absolutely fantastic, should you never have heard it) and, secondly, today’s choice:

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mp3: Chumbawamba – This Girl

And, as you can tell, if you look at the sleeve above, it only was the B-Side of another song from the album. Quite why they didn’t release this the other way round will always remain a mystery to me. Then again, who cares … I got it as a 7”, that’s all that counts!

The rest is, as they say, history: after ‘Swingin’ With Raymond’ Chumbawamba hid under the wings of EMI Records (not necessarily the most anarchistic move on earth, it must be said), where they released ‘Tubthumping’ in 1997. And at this point even younger readers of these pages (if such creatures exist at all), at least if they’re male and go to the football grounds every once in a while, should realize who Chumbawamba are: “I get knocked down, but I get up again /You are never gonna keep me down” … oh come on, I’m sure you know it by heart, don’t you?!

And this tune, ‘Tubthumping’, after nearly 15 years of anarchy, chaos and destruction (to quote The Damned), finally made Chumbawamba a one hit wonder – band. You can argue for hours about whether this success is deserved or not and/or whether having a multi-million dollar hit complies with the international rules of anarchy.

My personal position is very clear: a combo which issues a tune as awesome as ‘This Girl’ deserves everyone’s love, applause and homage …

Take good care,

Dirk

National

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #54

Boxer – The National(2007)

2007 turned out to be an unexpectedly important year in my life.

It was a year that had begun appallingly, workwise, in that I had not long been passed over for a promotion in what could be seen as controversial circumstances thanks to some politicians interfering where they had no right to. My role in the local authority was nigh on untenable, but given I had done nothing wrong, I had to be found another position within the organisation.

The sideways shift I undertook actually turned out to be the best thing that ever happened, certainly in the long term. Through an incredible set of circumstances, and really being in the right place at the right time, I was able to later take up a temporary position in Toronto, beginning in June 2007, carrying out a study and analysis of the procedures and processes in place for the Ontario Provincial Elections that were taking place on 10 October 2007

I made the move to Toronto, not taking too much in the way of personal belongings beyond clothes, golf clubs and maybe around 50 CDs. It was a five-month secondment and Rachel stayed back in Glasgow, albeit, along she came for a visit that lasted a couple of weeks.

I soon grew bored with what little music I had brought with me, and so started to browse the record shops of my temporary home city. I found loads of great second-hand stores selling vinyl for what seemed like bargain prices, and so Rachel was instructed to bring over an empty case when she visited that she would then take back with some booty. This exercise was repeated with a couple more friends who also came over for a visit.

But it wasn’t all second-hand stuff that I ended-up buying. I was vaguely aware of The National before I went to Canada, in that a few bloggers had been talking them up. My interest rose substantially when I caught them performing a song on one of the late-night TV chat shows in America (all the US networks broadcast north of their border – I’ve just done a bit of research, and it seem it was the David Letterman show on 24 July). I was transfixed.

I bought all four of their albums on my next visit to a favourite record store. It also doubled up as a place to buy tickets for upcoming gigs, and so I grabbed one for the show The National were playing at the downtown Phoenix Concert Theatre on 8 October.

All the albums were on heavy rotation for a while, but it was the newest release, Boxer, that I kept returning to. It was a riveting listen, one that seemed to offer something different with each fresh listen. The band, and the many other additional guest musicians, were a joy to listen to, but the greatest pleasure came via Matt Berninger‘s sublime baritone.

mp3: The National – Brainy

I’ve remained a big fan of the National ever since, always buying the new albums at the earliest opportunity. They all have something wonderful to offer, but none have quite been at the consistent and effortless magnificence of Boxer.

Oh…and the reason for such a lengthy and detailed backstory?

I didn’t get to the concert on 8 October.

It became the evening when I, along with someone who has become a very close friend, had to do what turned into an 24-hour overnight shift to ensure that the polling stations in one particular locality would actually open as scheduled on the morning of 10 October, as the staff in charge on the ground had made an almighty mess of things, and indeed were now nowhere to be seen.

Nobody, other than the CEO back at Elections HQ thought we could pull it off, but we repaid his faith in us by busting our asses and every other part of our anatomy, fuelled only by adrenaline, caffeine drinks and Tim Horton doughnuts. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of myself, workwise, than when the auditor declared that everything was good to go, just a few hours short of the scheduled opening.

Incidentally, the someone who worked that shift with me is coming to Scotland in June to help me celebrate turning 60. We will no doubt, as we always do, talk long and drunkenly about it all. I’ll again curse the fact that it caused me to miss what would have been a memorable gig.

JC

ABC

(BONUS POST) AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #338: ABC

A GUEST POSTING by KHAYEM

https://dubhed.blogspot.com/

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Something To Believe In: An ABC ICA

I posted an ABC selection over at my blog back in November 2022, which was well received. JC had the following to say:

Here’s the thing……

The Lexicon of Love was such a perfect album that I reckoned ABC would never be able to come close to matching it. As a result, I more or less ignored everything that followed and had no idea so much material had been released since. I’ll need to give this mix a good listen over the coming days/weeks/months – I’ve so much to catch up with just now.

PS : Do you fancy adapting this piece to turn it into an ICA?

How could I refuse an offer like that? However, I was clear from the start that, rather than a rehash of my original post, I wanted to come up with something new. Over four months later…

I confessed then, and I’ll admit now, that I must have been one of the few people on the planet who didn’t buy The Lexicon Of Love in 1982. In my defence, I was 11 years old and didn’t get enough pocket money to spend it all on records. However, I belatedly caught up with ABC’s albums up to and including The Lexicon Of Love II in 2016. I admire that Martin Fry resisted attempts to do the latter until then – there must have been an incredible pressure to go there with each ABC album in the past three decades. When he eventually revisited that world, it was with the benefit of all that lived experience and an older, wider perspective.

Not that any ABC album is bad. The musical styles and genre-hopping may have been frequent between 1982 and 2016 (rest easy, there’s not an experimental drum ’n’ bass ABC album hiding in there) but the characteristic ABC sound and lyrical themes remain intact throughout.

I played around the 10-song selection here a fair bit but I’m happy that the final ICA gives ABC a fair shout, from their debut single to their last (to date) album.

Side One

1) The Very First Time (Traffic, 2008)

Traffic was ABC’s first album of the 21st Century and over a decade since their previous release. This is the second song but was an immediate choice for an opener here, a modern take on classic ABC.

2) The Greatest Love Of All (Album Version) (Up, 1989)

ABC go clubbing. There was a whiff of bandwagon-jumping with this one, but their choice of collaborators was impeccable: Graeme Park and Mike Pickering on this track, Frankie Knuckles, David Morales and Derrick May on the single remixes. Up is not my favourite album, but Martin Fry and Mark White had definitely not ‘sold out’.

3) Tears Are Not Enough (Extended Version) (Tears Are Not Enough EP, 1981)

What a statement of intent for your debut single. If anything, the song is even better in it’s extended 12” version, a format that ABC immediately embraced with some stunning results throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Would I lie? Could I lie?

4) Bad Blood (Alphabet City, 1987)

I wasn’t a fan of When Smokey Sings when it was released as a single, though I’ve come to appreciate it much more since, particularly when I paid more attention to the lyrics. The record buying public clearly disagreed. Whilst the single narrowly missed the Top 10 in the UK, fourth album Alphabet City scored ABC their first Top 10 hit since The Lexicon Of Love. It’s chock full of poptastic tunes, as Bad Blood attests.

5) Who Can I Turn To? (Skyscraping, 1997)

ABC released two albums in the 1990s, Abracadabra in 1991 and Skyscraping six years later. By the time of the latter, ABC was essentially a solo vehicle for Martin Fry, writing with collaborators including Heaven 17’s Glenn Gregory on this song. This ‘comeback’ album wasn’t a commercial success and it was more than 10 years before a new album emerged. A shame as Skyscraping deserved more.

Side Two

1) Vanity Kills (U.S.A. Remix) (Vanity Kills EP, 1986)

Third album How To Be A… Zillionaire! delivered a new ABC line-up and diminishing chart success, again which is a shame as there are some great pop songs within. Vanity Kills made #70 in the UK singles chart and #91 in the US Billboard Hot 100. This rather good remix by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent didn’t get a UK release until the 2005 expanded issue of … Zillionaire!, as far as I can tell.

2) What’s Good About Goodbye? (Love Conquers All EP, 1991)

I’ve opted for a B-side rather than an album track from Abracadabra, not because the album is poor but I just really like this song. What’s Good About Goodbye? features earlier as a line in Bad Blood. Clearly it stuck in Martin Fry’s brain as he returned to it a few years later, pairing it with the equally great line, ‘What’s fair about farewell?’

3) Valentine’s Day (Album Version) (The Lexicon Of Love, 1982)

I briefly toyed with the idea of not including anything at all from The Lexicon Of Love. I mean, everyone knows it surely and for many, it raised the bar so high that ABC couldn’t hope to match it for brilliance. Then again, how could I ignore it? Valentine’s Day is so familiar, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t actually a single (apart from in Japan, who knew their onions). A classic Trevor Horn and Gary Langan production, eminently quotable lyrics from Martin Fry and a band who were really at the top of their game.

4) I Believe In Love (The Lexicon Of Love II, 2016)

For the sequel, the only returnee from the 1982 crew apart from Martin Fry was Anne Dudley. She co-wrote a few songs, though not this one, which Fry wrote with Matt Rowe, who I only knew from his time as one half of remix/DJ duo Biff & Memphis. It’s a slow-building song, starting off with acoustic guitar and ending as a bit of a banger. Great stuff.

5) United Kingdom (Beauty Stab, 1983)

Beauty Stab suffered at the time from not being The Lexicon Of Love II, keeping some of the lush, string-laden sound of it’s predecessor for a rawer, guitar-based sound. United Kingdom is a simple, piano-led piece, Fry duetting with himself on a sadly still-relevant song about life on the dole. A perfect closer to both Beauty Stab and this iCA.

Khayem

Adam Stafford

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #55

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Imaginary Walls Collapse – Adam Stafford (2013)

I’ll never tire of shouting out very loudly that Adam Stafford is a musical genius. It’s his misfortune (as such) to have been born in Sunderland and to spend most of his life in Falkirk, instead of one of the great and innovative cities of the world where his talents would have been more readily acknowledged.

I first came across him as the frontman of indie band Y’All Is Fantasy Island. I later read that the band had broken up and Adam had decided to pursue a solo career. It was around the same time as I was making my first foray into gig promotion in 2011 by putting on a home town show by Butcher Boy, partly to mark the 5th anniversary of the old blog and to showcase the band’s new album, Helping Hands.

I made contact with Adam, and he agreed to come along as the support act. He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought he was magical. I started going to as many of his live performances as I could and mentioned his name to a few folk, including Matthew Young, the entrepreneur behind Edinburgh-based Song, By Toad Records. The next thing I knew, Adam had a deal to release his music on the label.

It was the start of a partnership that saw five albums between 2013 and 2021. The first of these was Imaginary Walls Collapse, an astonishing LP that was longlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year, which was quite some feat for a label that was not much more than a cottage industry.

I previously described it as being something that defied conventional description, with a thin white duke playing his guitar, beat-boxing, crooning and using effect pedals to make sounds unlike any other of my records. I’ll stand by that description, but quickly add that the live experience always outshines what comes across on vinyl:-

mp3: Adam Stafford – Cold Seas

I know that Adam’s currently working on new material, and fingers crossed it will see the light of day over the next year or so.

Feel free to come back later on for a bonus post ICA……

JC

Underworld

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #56

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Beaucoup Fish – Underworld (1999)

There won’t be a huge amount of dance music in this rundown. It’s not anything to do with my taste in music, but more down to most of the vinyl/CDs associated with the genre and sitting in Villain Towers are singles rather than albums.

One exception is Beacoup Fish, the mighty opus released by Underworld in 1999. Eleven tracks that take almost 75 minutes to get through, and not at any point do I ever feel like reaching for the remote and pressing the FF button to the next tune.

I wasn’t all that familiar with Underworld prior to the heights scaled by Born Slippy following its use in the film Trainspotting. I know I wasn’t alone in that regard, and I found it entertaining to read the views of many long-time fans and critics, who were often quite sneering to the millions of us who were so late to the party. It kind of felt inevitable that there would be some sort of backlash when Karl Hyde, Rick Smith and Darren Emerson got round to writing and recording the new material, and so it proved as Beaucoup Fish was greeted, not quite with cat-calls, but certainly plenty of choruses of it not being as great as the previous four albums.

Not having any of these in my possession meant that I wasn’t in place to make any sort of judgement. I took this CD entirely on its merits and found it to be a thing of great joy.

It’s another record that lulls listeners into a false sense of security, as album opener Cups meanders along fairly gently for the best part of its opening seven minutes before taking an abrupt turn with a techno beat that seems to build gradually for its remaining five minutes before bouncing straight into the joyous Push Upstairs, a track that must surely never fail to fill any dance floor. The pop/dance nature of Jumbo merely keeps things going. All of a sudden, almost 23 minutes have passed in a flash and there’s still eight tracks for your senses to absorb.

mp3 : Underworld – Jumbo

Things do veer a bit for much of the rest of the album between high-tempo dance stuff and more ambient or chilled numbers, before it all signs off with the magnificence of Moaner, a track I have previously waxed lyrically about on this blog, and one that I believe to be the greatest club number of them all.

The thing is, I never went back to Underworld in the years immediately after this album. It was more a reflection of my limited interest in their type of music than anything else, but if I can jump ahead to 2016, I picked up a copy of their ninth studio album, Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future on the recommendation of a few bloggers I admire, and found it a very enjoyable listen, albeit it was far less frantic and manic than their album from seventeen years earlier. I suppose even the ravers get old and have to slow down.

JC

Various

(BONUS POST) : JUST FOOLING AROUND

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This month’s offering is sort of over the place. A few risks have been taken, not least an eight-minute version of a song early on and the later inclusion of Sting.

All tunes included in this month’s mix comes from a bygone era.

mp3: Various – Just Fooling Around

Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug
Echo and The Bunnymen – Nocturnal Me
This Poison – Poised Over The Pause Button
Curve – Fait Accompli (12″)
Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria (12″)
Prefab Sprout – Bonny
Jens Lekman – The Opposite Of Hallelujah
Allvays – Adult Diversion
The Police – Message In A Bottle (7″)
Fun Boy Three – Our Lips Are Sealed (single version)
The Rakes – Retreat
The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing
The Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail
Bodega – Jack In Titanic
Hi Fi Sean and David McAlmont – All In The World
The Goon Sax – Till The End

Comes in at 13 seconds under the hour.

JC

Half Man Half Biscuit

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #57

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Back In The D.H.S.S. – Half Man Half Biscuit (1985)

I had two folk sharing the first flat I lived in over in Edinburgh, one male and one female. He, like me, had an office based job with regular hours, but the woman worked in the hotel/hospitality industry as a trainee manager and get the strangest hours. It meant we had to be careful not to make too much noise when she was catching up with her sleep, and inevitably, there were days on end when there was no loud music played in the flat.

Which is why I associate the debut album by Half Man Half Biscuit with headphones. It was one that I had on vinyl but in order to be able to listen to it as and when I wanted, it had been transferred to a cassette and played on the Walkman.

It was already a lo-fi recording with plenty of hisses throughout, which were only magnified by the rubbish way I’d done the recording on what was likely one side of a Memorex C90, with some sort of compilation, possibly full of slow songs/ballads in the hope that maybe one night I’d meet someone who was willing to come back to the flat.

HMHB made me laugh. I’d picked up on them via John Peel and I particularly enjoyed the cultural references within the lyrics, not all of which were topical. The reverse of the record sleeve also amused me. I knew most of the celebrities name-checked in the songs, and so was well aware that none of the descriptions of who they were and what they did were close to being accurate. This is the opening number:-

mp3: Half Man Half Biscuit – God Gave Us Life

The count-in of ‘1234, John the Baptist knows the score’ never fails to make me smile.

The gentle start to the song lulls the listener into a false sense of security….a trick that the band have made use of on a few occasions over many years. Just as you think it’s a ditty about all the nice things in life for which we should be thanking the lord above, there’s a mention of strange men trying to lure kids into cars, before an explosive tirade of celebrities who the singer seems to have no time for.

It’s not the best song on the album, but it captures perfectly everything that made HMHB in 1985 such an essential listen.

The thing is, I don’t think anyone ever imagined they would still be going in 2023, releasing consistently enjoyable albums every few years, and in the process, having frontman and main songwriter Nigel Blackwell become an unofficial national treasure. I genuinely don’t know any fan of ‘indie’ or ‘alternative’ music in the UK who hasn’t at one time or other expressed admiration for HMHB. The Voltarol Years was their 15th studio album, and was one of my favourite releases of 2022.

It, like many of their records for a long time now, is nowhere near as rough’n’ready as the early offerings. Indeed, with almost 40 years experience behind them, it’s probably fair to say that the band are as competent and professional in the studio or on stage as any. I did consider a few of the other HMHB albums for the longlist, but the memories of listening so intently to the debut in circumstances I’ve never experienced since, became the overall deciding factor.

PS : Come back later today for a bonus posting. It’s first non-weekend day of a new month.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Eleven)

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No sooner had Go West taken its leave of the singles charts was another single readied from Very.

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I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing was reckoned to be one of the standout tracks from the album. It had hit single written all over it from the outset, but Neil and Chris decided to do something quite radical in that a three minute song was extended by the best part of an additional two minutes, while the really catchy piano opening in the house music style piano opening was replaced by something rather grand, orchestral and epic. The opening refrain was put to much use throughout the new version, particularly within each chorus as the words ‘I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing’ were followed with an uplifting flourish of noise.

The remix was the work of Beatmasters, a four-piece electronic/dance group who had enjoyed some chart hits in the late 80s but had really found fame and fortune as producers and remixers, and were riding high at the time from their work with The Shamen.

I wasn’t initially all that fussed about the remix as I really loved the album version, but it has grown on me over the years. Looking back, it was the right sort of big and bouncy remix needed to complement the success of Go West, but I still feel it goes on for maybe 30-45 seconds too long.

7″

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Too Many People

The b-side is another excellent listen. There’s so much going on over its four minutes. It opens up as something akin to a house tune (and like something off the Electronic album) before settling into something which harks back to the music of the first two albums, but the next thing you know there’s all sort of production tricks thrown in, but that proves to be short-lived, and soon we are back to classic early days PSB with a sing-along chorus.

Worth mentioning that this single was released across a range of formats, with ‘I Wouldn’t Normally….’ getting at least five different remixes/dub versions, while West End Girls was given the remix treatment of the 12″ and CD versions. No wonder, for the sake of my sanity, I’m sticking to the 7″ releases (while I can!!).

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The next single was released on 4 April 1994.

I’ll be honest and admit that until pulling this series together, I had no idea that Liberation, one of the slower numbers on Very, had been issued as single, never mind that it was a decent-sized hit, entering and peaking at #14 on the basis of its first week of sales.

I don’t mind the song, but it’s not close to being one of my favourites. It did fit in very well on the album – it was the third track and provided a nice change of pace after the one-two opening of Can You Forgive Her? and I Wouldn’t Normally…., but I much prefer To Speak Is A Sin, one of the other ballads on the album.

7″

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Liberation
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Decadence

I’ve only just got to know this b-side, thanks to me picking up a second-hand copy of the 7″ single. On first play, I thought it very cinematic in theme, while the very opening notes reminded me a bit of Confide In Me, the superb single released by Kylie Minogue a little later the same year. I was really enjoying it, but there was something else that I couldn’t quite put by finger on. I put on my reading glasses and looked at the small print on the back of the sleeve.

Guitars : Johnny Marr

All of which led to me doing a little bit of searching on t’internet and coming across this nugget of info*:-

” Pet Shop Boys had been asked to write the theme music for a film titled Decadence based on a play by Steven Berkoff. Chris began writing a song built around a sample of the opening two bars of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune “I Say a Little Prayer” as performed by Aretha Franklin. When the song was finished, however, Neil and Chris decided that the track didn’t need the sample and thus removed it. They also decided not to submit the song for use in the film after having seen a rough edit, which they apparently didn’t particularly like.

According to Neil, the lyrics directly address “someone who’s become a really horrible person because they take lots of drugs and all they think about is money.” When once asked whether “Yesterday, When I Was Mad” was about the Boys’ former manager Tom Watkins, Neil replied, “No, but ‘Decadence’ was.” Neil has also stated elsewhere that he regrets the reference to “fin de siècle pretense” (fin de siècle is French for “end of the century,” commonly a period for decadent behavior), chiding himself for his own pretentiousness in authoring such a line.

Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, played guitar, giving the track a distinctly “unplugged” feel—which undoubtedly inspired the Boys to go all the way and provide an “Unplugged Mix”. Chris says the recording “cost a fortune.””

There was no way I wasn’t hunting that down….

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Decadence (Unplugged Mix)

As found on CD2 of Liberation.

*it was found on what can only be described as probably the most informative and well-written PSB fan site anywhere on the internet. It’s called Commentary, and it’s the work of Wayne Studer. It can be found here.

Apologies to Wayne for not acknowledging this fully when the piece was initially posted.

JC

Trappists

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #349: THE TRAPPISTS

Untitled

There isn’t much to say about the small Midlothian town of Bonnyrigg. It is located a few miles outside of Edinburgh, it has a statue dedicated to a leader of the miners in its park. It has several churches, and a decent Italian. It also gave us the hugely influential post rock band The Trappists.

The Trappists were artistes who refused to compromise. They were a band who tore up the rulebook, threw it away, then wrote their own rulebook which they then ignored. The Trappists didn’t tour, they didn’t do interviews, they issued very few promotional photos, they never appeared on the radio, and they only ever wore brown.

There was of course a reason why the Trappists didn’t tour, didn’t do interviews and issue photos. They were Trappists Monks and upon entering the Order of Silvino Francisco (which was a small monastery located just behind Dundas Park, home of Bonnyrigg Rose FC) they swore a vow of silence and as such became the most punk rock band to have ever driven along the A7 in a clapped out minibus without even knowing it.

The Trappists were formed of three brothers, (who were not actually brothers in the Noel and Liam sense but in the professional sense) Thelonius (born in Grimsby) who played guitar, Garry (born in Ormskirk), who banged the drums and Adrian (born in Akron) who played bass. They did not sing on any of their releases, not only because they had taken a vow of silence, but just like Mogwai they preferred to let the music do the speaking.

The legend goes that one day after prayers and a short pilgrimage to a Dalkeith bakery, the three brothers were in the monastery’s music room tidying away the pan pipes and simply started jamming together. Within an hour, they had recorded their first track, their instrumental take on Madonna’s ‘Erotica’.

Despite its tough and ready nature, they were confident enough to offer it immediately to the one person allowed to utter any words within the monastery, their head abbot, who had taken the holy name of Russell when entering the order back in 1946. He gave it a thumbs-up, but after a second listen, he felt it would benefit from a minor contribution, around the four-minute mark, by some of the nuns who lived in an adjacent convent.

Erotica – The Trappists (1992, Cachinno Records, Taken from ‘Trappist Music Vol. 1’ – the complete collection’)

Thus, The Trappists silently announced themselves to the musical world of Midlothian. The abbot was approached on their behalf with the opportunity for the lads to have a Saturday night residency at nearby Danderhall Miners Welfare Club, as the Committee considered them as the perfect opening act prior to the bingo and the headline show performed by the legendary Englebert Humperdinck.

The abbot was tempted, but he decided that their musical careers would always play second fiddle to their commitments to the brotherhood and their other extracurricular activities. Because of this, recorded material was eventiually restricted to just one album – ‘Aprilis stulti locus’ and one very limited edition EP ‘Hoc est ventus est’.

The album itself took five years to record as Thelonius was regularly called upon (not in the vocal sense obviously) to play the harpsichord at local schools and at the convent. Garry was also employed on occasion as a football manager for the local church side and under his silent but incredibly detailed diagrammatic team talks, the local church side won the Scottish Challenge Cup twice in the late nineties (beating Raith 4 – 1 in 1997 and Airdrie 3 – 2 in 1999). Adrian meanwhile spent a year working as a consultant detective in the Chicago Police Department, in that time he was also briefly employed as a session guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins, and despite his vow of silence, still managed to talk more sense than Billy Corgan.

The album was a post rock masterpiece, it drew comparisons to recently released works by the likes of Tortoise and Slint. It consisted of fourteen tracks all of them instrumental post rock versions of eighties and nineties alternative rock classics, many of them had a religious (in name at least) theme to them. Like this one for example.

Jesus Christ Pose – The Trappists (1996, Cachinno Records, Taken from ‘Aprilis Stulti Locus’)

The limited edition EP- which was only made available in the gift shop at the Francisco Monastery in Bonnyrigg for six weeks, now changes hands on Discogs for around £1000 a time.

Here is one track taken from it. The EP was actually produced by the abbot, who sadly forgot that he had left his own mic on during the process, and the three words he actually knew from the original are occasionally and accidentally chanted.

Holiday In Cambodia – The Trappists (1995, Cachinno Records, Taken from ‘Hoc est ventus est’)

The Bastard Sons of Dean Friedman

Camper Van Beethoven

(BONUS POST) : ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #012

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

#012– Camper Van Beethoven – ‚Take The Skinheads Bowling’ (Rough Trade Records, ’86)

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Hello friends,

the first single from a band starting with a ‘C’ … and all the way to America we go, too!

Let’s be honest, not very many of us know a lot more songs by Camper Van Beethoven than ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’ – their signature tune, I think it’s fair to say. When trying to find out more about the band, I learnt that their output was quite massive, and I made a note to myself to start a more profound search within their back catalogue soon.

Camper Van Beethoven hail from Santa Cruz, California, and if you – like me – ever wondered why it is that they called themselves Camper Van Beethoven and not something more easy, like, say ‘The Beatles’, here’s yer explanation:

“The band’s name was coined by McDaniel (on guitar ’83 – ’84): according to (David) Lowery (lead singer) “McDaniel was into this stuff that would sound like it made sense, but really it didn’t… He’d watch a lot of TV, accept all this mass-media stuff and spit it out all chopped up.”

And not only the band’s name is strange, the title of today’s tune is strange as well. But of course David Lowery has an explanation for that as well:

“We regarded ‘Take The Skinheads Bowling’ as just a weird non-sensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling. BTW this is the most important fact about this song. We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning. There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song.”

So there you are, two lifetime mysteries solved, as easy as that! I really don’t know how often I must have listened to this song since it came out in 1986. But each and every time I did, I thought to myself “next time you are late for work because you had a few too much to drink the evening before (and look appropriately hangoverish), just look your boss firmly in the eye and say to him: ‘Sorry for being late, boss, but last night there were skinheads on my lawn!’” … so far I never remembered to do it, but one of these days I will, for sure!

And finally, this is the first record of quite a few from the nice people of Optic Nerve Records in the UK, a label who re-releases old gems for rather fair prices. They stick to the original artwork, but include some extras, like little posters and/or postcards. This comes in shimmering orange vinyl, rather nice in fact:

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cvb

mp3: Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

See you soon, take care

Dirk

Sons & Daughters

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #58

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Love The Cup – Sons and Daughters (2004)

This is one of the increasing number of postings which me think time is passing far too quickly. It can’t really be 20 years now since Sons and Daughters burst on to the Glasgow scene and got lots of people very excited.

In those pre-blogging days, I wasn’t nearly as switched on as I should have been to what was happening in and around my home city. A couple of work colleagues and associates, knowing my taste in music, had mentioned that I should check out Sons and Daughters as they were quiet the live act. I was aware that they had two lead vocalists – one of who was Adele Bethel whom I’d seen on stage with Arab Strap. But in some ways this was one of the reasons I never pursued things to begin with, as I didn’t think she was capable of having the voice or personality to be centre-stage.

A video on MTV2 was my first introduction to the band. It was the guitar riff and broad Scottish accent that grabbed my attention – the video had already gone past the bit where the info about the song and band had been on-screen, so I looked on in total ignorance. The video itself, which had by now descended into a bar-room brawl, was also something to enjoy. Just as the song ended, the info came up, and I was formally introduced to the pleasures of Sons and Daughters and their debut single:-

I was hooked. The single was bought the following morning, followed soon after by the debut mini-album Love The Cup.

mp3: Sons and Daughters – Fight

They were a great live act. No gig ever fell into chaos, and with the vocal duties being spilt between Adele and Scott Paterson, there was never any desire or requirement to focus attention mainly on the one person on the stage. Many of the songs had great instrumental breaks, which only highlighted the talent and tightness of the rhythm section of David Gow and Ailidh Lennon.

I never fell out of love with the band, catching them live on many an occasion whether as headliners or support acts, including at the cavernous Alexandra Palace in London when they opened for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds in 2005, just after the release of the first full-length album, The Repulsion Box (which was under serious consideration for this rundown).

It was a sad day when they split in 2012, their full potential having never been realised. One of the many ‘should have been massive’ bands I’ve seen over the years.

JC

Billy Bragg

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #59

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Talking With The Taxman About Poetry – Billy Bragg (1986)

The so-called ‘difficult’ third album.

Billy Bragg had very quickly become a hero of mine. He had been a big part of the soundtrack to my political development at University, and it’s not much of an exaggeration to suggest that I hung on to his every word.

As mentioned yesterday, I had moved to Edinburgh to work in July 1985. I don’t think I’ve given the details before, but my first job was as a committee administrator with a Tory-led council, one that involved me working directly with a number of folk whose political views were at odds with my own – not that I ever uttered anything in public as it could have led to me being fired! To be fair, and looking back on it, these particular Tories, with maybe a couple of exceptions, were far from Thatcherites and very much to the centre of their party – back in the mid 80s, the Tories weren’t comprised completely of right-wing nutters.

Billy Bragg’s first two albums were a godsend. If I’d had a bad day at the office, they could be my go-to records – along with those from Paul Weller and The Clash. The third album was eagerly awaited. It had been trailed by the release of a new single, Levi Stubbs’ Tears, whose promo video had been recorded onto VHS tape after it had been shown on Whistle Test on BBC2. The promo was a single-track shot of Billy playing guitar and singing live until the point that the trumpet solo comes in to end the song. I thought it was astounding.

I bought the album on cassette for the simple reason that I was going to be heading back and forth to Glasgow a couple of times over a short spell and thought it would be perfect for shoving into the Walkman.

My instincts were right. It made for a wonderful listen. It was a totally different type of album than his previous efforts, thanks in part to the contributions made by other musicians such as Johnny Marr, Kirsty MacColl, Hang Wangford, Bobby Valentino and Dave Woodhead. It’s the album which took Billy beyond any one-dimensional caricature of a protest singer and really laid the foundations for a career that is still going strong today.

mp3: Billy Bragg – Greetings To The New Brunette

Given that I’ve seen Billy Bragg play live more than anyone else in all my near 60 years on the planet, it was inevitable that one of his albums would make the longlist. It was a hard choice between all the early albums and a couple of the later ones. In the end, I went with the one that I can honestly say was the first to be on constant rotation, if indeed that’s a description you can give a cassette.

I still have the cassette, but I’ve also got this album on CD and vinyl, while it also, in extended form, forms part of a Billy Bragg boxset. I won’t, however, be shelling out for Billy’s 14-CD Super Deluxe Box Set (RRP £120) that’s being issued this coming October to commemorate his 40th Anniversary as a performer. Kind of feels like he’s taking the piss……

JC

Klark Kent, Police, Stewart Copeland

(BONUS POST): AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #337: STEWART COPELAND

A GUEST POSTING by JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

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Stewart Copeland with The Police: an ICA

Most of the Police’s great big hits (and duds) were written by Sting. Stewart Copeland also wrote a number of songs for the Cops, but his contributions are few and far between. Kinda like how Paul Weller let Bruce Foxton squeak a tune onto a Jam album once in a while. Definitely not like the great Colin Moulding, XTC’s auxiliary songwriter, who didn’t get in as many tracks as Andy Partridge but still had his share of singles (see ICA #26). I got to wondering if Copeland wrote enough Police songs for an ICA. Turns out there are exactly 10, so here they are, in alphabetical order.

1. A Sermon

B-side of the UK single “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da.” The chorus sounds like a Sting song, the verses are a little stilted. A respectable choice for a b-side. Better than the A-side anyway.

2. Bombs Away

Album track from Zenyatta Mondatta. One of the band’s best songs. Lovely middle-eastern sounding solo (“phrygian mode,” says my lead guitarist) by Andy Summers.

3. Contact

Album track from Reggatta de Blanc. Hmm…I’d call this filler. It’s got the band’s trademark sound, but doesn’t do anything special. Next.

4. Darkness

Album track from Ghost in the Machine. Here’s a good one. Unrushed and moody, fits really well with the rest of the band’s fourth album, which I always thought didn’t get the recognition it deserves. Well, it did, sales-wise, but I like it more than their other ones.

5. Does Everyone Stare

Album track from Reggatta de Blanc. The drummer got three solo credits on their second album, as well as three tunes co-written with his bandmates. This one’s my favorite. Police tunes don’t feature a lot of keyboards, and I like what Copeland does here on piano.

6. Fall Out

The band’s debut single on Illegal Records, before Andy Summers joined the band. Wiki says original guitarist Henri Padovani was too nervous in the studio to play anything but the solo, so Copeland played the rest of the guitar parts. This non-album track was the only Police A-side Copeland ever got.

7. Miss Gradenko

Album track from Synchronicity. Great melody. Summers does some beautiful finger-picking before peeling off another stellar lead. Summers actually wrote a few tunes for the band, too, but they’re pretty weak. Can’t touch his guitar playing, though.

8. Nothing Achieving

B-side to Fall Out. Co-written with big brother Ian. Copeland’s playing the guitar parts again with Padovani on the solo, such as it is. Meh.

9. On Any Other Day

Album track from Reggatta de Blanc. Copeland starts with the spoken words, “You want something corny? You got it!” Then the lyric is about the day of a hapless idiot, which I guess was meant to be funny. Or corny. Not sure—is ‘corny’ a word in the UK? Does it excuse the homophobic dis in the chorus? Probably not. Maybe that’s why Sting didn’t sing lead on it. Despite its daft lyrics, I love this song because it’s got such a great bass line. Sting is noted as a songwriter and singer and heartthrob and actor and lutist. But no one ever talks about his bass playing, which is outstanding. He always plays an interesting line that serves the song. He doesn’t get fancy unless he has to.

10. The Other Way of Stopping

Album track from Reggatta de Blanc. On my bass forum there was a poll recently asking if you could play with any drummer who would it be? Lots of folks picked Copeland and you can hear why on this instrumental. His timekeeping is perfect. His fills are fast and unpredictable. He has great touch—he can smack away or brush gently. Love or hate the Police, you can’t deny they were all awesome musicians.

Bonus Track. Don’t Care

Released under the pseudonym Klark Kent on Kryptone Records back in 1977. I guess Sting was more interested in trying to nail down the Police sound so Copeland put it out himself. It’s a great little new wave tune with Copeland singing and playing all the instruments.

Copeland made a hell of a lot of music after the Police. Film and TV soundtracks, collaborations, solo projects, and as a member of Oysterhead—a supergroup including Les Claypool (Primus) on bass and Trey Anastasio (Phish) on guitar. You can always tell it’s him drumming. I’d be curious if anyone’s familiar enough to do a separate ICA drawn from his lengthy post-Police career.

JTFL

Propaganda

60 ALBUMS @ 60 : #60

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A Secret Wish – Propaganda (1985)

This is one of those albums thay belatedly and perhaps unexpectedly sneaked its way into the Top 60. It’s also fair to say that if the list had been compiled a few months back, it wouldn’t have made it.

It’s an album I played a great deal when it was released. It had been preceded by two fabulous singles – Dr Mabuse and Duel. I recall buying it with some of the money left over from my first ever salary at the end of July 1985, having just moved to Edinburgh to live and work. I had a very small and inexpensive stereo system at the time, so I certainly didn’t get the full effect of its OTT production for a few more years. It was one of those albums I had a habit of playing when I had come in from the pub but was too tired/pissed to have a dance around the room…..this was one for lying on the bed, trying to avoid the sensation of the room spinning out of control, and waving my hands around as if I was some kind of crazy German conductor.

A few years later, I ended up buying the CD version, which had a different running order from the vinyl, as well as having a couple of extended versions of the songs, and so it became the version more commonly played.

Indeed, it was only a couple of months back that I dug out the vinyl copy again after what will be more than 30 years, and that was to play it immediately after giving a spin to my newly acquired copy of the excellent The Heart Is Strange, the album released last year by X-Propaganda, the group formed by Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag.

It’s fair to say that my passion for A Secret Wish has been smouldering rather than burning brightly for a long time. But it’s been on a healthy rotation in 2023, and as I said earlier, has unexpectedly crept into this rundown.

mp3: Propaganda – The Murder Of Love

Worth mentioning that the bass slapping on this one is courtesy of Derek Forbes, once of Simple Minds before they went all stadium rock on us.*

*Correction. While Derek Forbes played live with Propaganda in 1985, and would be part of the group on later records, he didn’t actually contribute the bass parts on the debut. With thanks to Post Punk Monk for the info……see comments section for more details.

JC

Radiohead

NOT JUST ANY OLD RUNDOWN…..

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On Sunday 18 June 2023, I turn 60 years of age.

On that day, I’ll reveal what I’ve decided is my favourite album of all time. It probably won’t be too big a surprise. Between now and then, I’m going to have an almost daily rundown of my 60 favourite albums as compiled at the end of February 2023. I reckon that if the list had been compiled a month or so previously, there may have been a few variations.

In fact, I know it would have been different, as all sorts of factors and distractions played their part as I worked tirelessly to get things down to a final 60.

There were rules set in advance, There have to be, otherwise anarchy would prevail.

No singer or band would be allowed more than one entry. But, in saying that, an individual may appear on more than one occasion. I’m not saying anyone actually does, but the longlist saw Arab Strap, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton all came into consideration, as did Edwyn Collins/Orange Juice, Roddy Frame/Aztec Camera and Bjork/Sugarcubes to offer a few illustrations.

All of the albums had to have been bought at or around the time of their original release, either on vinyl or CD, which meant any record I belatedly discovered and fell heavily for more than a couple of years after the event was ruled out prior to any longlist.

I had intended not to include any compilation/best of efforts, but in the end there were some that just were too good and played far too often not to be included.

The initial long list had 198 releases for consideration. The first cull took this down to a more manageable 96. Some of those who missed out at that stage included some that I thought had actually stood a great chance of making the Top 60 – The Auteurs, British Sea Power, The Cure, David Bowie, Everything But The Girl, Franz Ferdinand, Gorillaz, Happy Mondays, Iggy Pop, Joe Jackson, Kirsty MacColl, Leonard Cohen, M.I.A., Neil Young, The Organ, PJ Harvey, Roxy Music, The Specials, Talking Heads, The Vaselines. Wire and Yazoo is almost an A-Z set of omissions on their own (but don’t automatically think any singer or bands with Q, U, X or Z are shoo-ins!).

There will be one album per day on Mondays – Fridays, with the final two being on the weekend of 17/18 June. Don’t worry…..there will be all sorts of additional postings appearing over the period in question, such as ICAs, Dirk’s regular contributions, and the look back at 1983, as well as anything else that might come in via guest contributions, or I feel I want to say. Indeed, the next ICA is scheduled for tomorrow, later on in the day after the #60 in the rundown is revealed.

In the meantime, here’s something from one of the albums that made the initial cut down to 96 but didn’t make the Top 60. I’m not saying it was #61 as I stopped when I got to #60, but let’s just say it would have come in somewhere between 61 and 96.

mp3: The Bends – Radiohead

The title track from the 1995 album, the second in what has proven to be a long and highly successful career for Radiohead. It’s the album which changed everything for the band. No longer would they be in any danger of being labelled one-hit wonders. It did lead to a lot of poor imitation angst-ridden alt.rock acts in the UK in the immediate years, which is perhaps Radiohead, after the even bigger success of OK Computer (1997), were always striving to do something different.

A few years ago, The Bends would easily have made it quite high up into any albums listing I might have happened to pull together, but it’s placing outside the Top 60 in 2023 reflects that I am listening to them a lot less than I used to, and unlike other bands who will feature over the coming weeks, they do not have the same sort of emotional pull.

JC

Altered Images, Bananarama, Big Country, Blancmange, David Bowie, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Duran Duran, Jo Boxers, New Order, Orange Juice, Style Council, Wah!

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (3)

Y’all ready for this?

From the UK singles Top 10 of the last week of March 1993.

mp3: The Style Council – Speak Like A Child (#4)
mp3: Altered Images – Don’t Talk To Me About Love (#7)
mp3: Orange Juice – Rip It Up (#8)

Oh, and Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by the Eurythmics was at #5, well on its way to what would be six weeks in the Top 10.

There were also some other great pop tunes at the higher end of the charts….not all of which will be to everyone’s taste, but can offer an illustration that we were truly enjoying a golden age of memorable 45s:-

mp3: Duran Duran – Is There Something I Should Know (#1)
mp3: David Bowie – Let’s Dance (#2)
mp3: Jo Boxers – Boxerbeat (#6)
mp3: Bananarama – Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (#9)

The other two places in the Top 10 were taken up by Bonnie Tyler and Forrest (no, me neither!!!)

Do you fancy looking a bit further down the Top 40?

mp3: Big Country – Fields Of Fire (400 Miles) (#13)
mp3: New Order – Blue Monday (#17)
mp3: Blancmange – Waves (#25)
mp3: Dexy’s Midnight Runners – The Celtic Soul Brothers (#36)
mp3: Wah! – Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me) (#37)

Some facts and stats.

The debut single by The Style Council was the first of what would be four chart hits in 1983.

Altered Images and Orange Juice had both appeared on Top of The Pops the previous week on a show presented by John Peel and David ‘Kid’ Jensen, with both singles going up in the charts immediately after.

Is There Something I Should Know? was the first ever #1 for Duran Duran. It had entered the charts at that position the previous week.

David Bowie would, the following week, supplant Duran Duran from the #1 spot, and Let’s Dance would spend three weeks at the top.

The debut single by Jo Boxers would eventually climb to #3. It was the first of three chart singles for the group in 1983. They never troubled the charts in any other year.

Bananarama‘s single would reach #5 the following week. The group would, all told, enjoy 25 hit singles in their career.

Fields of Fire had been at #31 when Big Country had appeared on the same TOTP show presented by Peel and Jensen. A rise of 18 places in one week after appearing on the television was impressive.

Blue Monday was in the third week of what proved to be an incredible 38-week unbroken stay in the Top 100. It initially peaked at #12 in mid-April and eventually fell to #82 in mid-July, at which point it was discovered for the first time by large numbers of holidaymakers descending on the clubs in sunnier climes. By mid-October, it had climbed all the way back up to #9.

Blancmange were enjoying a second successive hit after Living On The Ceiling had gone top 10 in late 1982. Waves would spend a couple of weeks in the Top 20, peaking at #19.

The success of The Celtic Soul Brothers was a cash-in from the record company. It had touched the outer fringes of the charts in March 1982, but its follow-up, Come On Eileen, had captured the hearts of the UK record-buying public. It was re-released in March 1983, going on to spend five weeks in the charts and reaching #20.

Hope (I Wish You’d Believe Me) was the follow-up to Story Of The Blues. It wasn’t anything like as successful and spent just one week inside the Top 40.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Ten)

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1992 had been very quiet in the world of the Pet Shop Boys. 1993 started very quietly. It took until the month of June before they popped their heads up above the parapet again. The wait was worth it.

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1 June 1993. The first new material since the release of the Discography collection back in November 1991. It was the longest they had been out of the spotlight since West End Girls had propelled them to superstardom.

Can You Forgive Her? proved to be a tremendous return to form. There is absolutely no messing around with this one. The first note is bombastic, and it never really relents. It’s the sort of tune that lends itself to a full orchestra, but somehow Chris Lowe manages, thanks to his keyboard wizardry and arrangement skills, to do it all by himself. At just short of the forty-second mark, Neil Tennant joins in as the narrator of what turns out to be a desperately sad tale.

A man can’t sleep because he’s angry/upset that his girlfriend/wife has made a fool of him in public. His mind then turns to the other humiliations he’s experienced at her hands, including the taunts about his sexual inadequacy. Finally, the reasons behind it all are revealed, in that the man is, and has been since his school days, gay but is unwilling to face up to the fact. His wife/girlfriend clearly knows the truth and piles on the misery by saying she will cheat on him and his mind turns to revenge…..except that he’s clearly too weak/cowardly to actually do anything.

It might be a really sad and tragic set of circumstances, but it’s set to an absolute barnstormer of a tune. One that went to #7 in the charts.

7″

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Can You Forgive Her?
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Hey, Headmaster

It’s a hugely enjoyable b-side. It’s another sad tale, but this time it has the sad sounding tune to match. I’ve often wondered if it was a close cousin to the A-side in that the headmaster in question was repressing his sexuality in order to maintain his position. But then again, it might well be the tale of someone who is just fed up with his lot and is past the stage of caring about the school and the pupils who attend it. All in all, this really is one of those occasions when a listener shouldn’t try to read too much into a song and simply enjoy the music and vocal delivery for what they are.

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The next single was released on 6 September 1993.

It wasn’t until doing a bit of research for this single did I learn the full backstory.

As we’ve seen, 1992 was a quiet year for PSB. However, on 13 May, they had accepted the invitation from filmmaker Derek Jarman to participate in an AIDS charity event at The Haçienda nightclub in Manchester. The duo decided that Go West would be the song of choice.

Neil and Chris later went into the studio with the intention of recording it as a stand-alone single, but having listened to the results, the idea was put on the back-burner. It was revisited during the sessions for the next album, where it was decided that what was really needed was an all-male Broadway choir to get the message of the song across more fully.

It was an audacious move. One that rode a very fine line between producing something that was genius or ridiculous. Me? I’m very much of the view it was genius – a sentiment shared by many others as the single reached #2 in the charts

7″

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Go West
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Shameless

This b-side is one of their very best. An upbeat and very danceable number where the duo have their tongues very firmly in their cheeks:-

We’re shameless, we will do anything
to get our fifteen minutes of fame
We have no integrity, we’re ready to crawl
To obtain celebrity we’ll do anything at all

It really is hard to fathom why Shameless was thrown away as a b-side. Not only would it have been a great track on any album, but there’s a real sense that it could have been lifted as a future single.

I bought Go West on the week of release. Listening to it, and its b-side, and recalling the quality of both sides of the previous single, had me thinking that the upcoming new studio album, their fifth but first in three years, was going to be an absolute belter.

Very was released on 27 September 1993. It did something no other PSB album had ever done in that it went to #1. And the next part of this series will look at its later singles.

I’ll finish off today with a bit of footage that might bring back memories for some UK members of the TVV community and maybe put a smile on the faces of those who are seeing it for the first time. It’s what I reckon is the definitive performance of Go West at the Brit Awards on 14 February 1994:-

Neil and Chris are in suspiciously clean overalls, while the backing vocals come courtesy of a Welsh male voice choir, all dressed as miners. And given how many mining communities right across the UK had been decimated over the previous decade, it was a very poignant, powerful and moving sight.

JC

Trashcan Sinatras

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #348: TRASHCAN SINATRAS

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Here’s the basics. For all the information you want, I can make no better suggestion than recommending Five Hungry Joes, a wonderfully curated and maintained fan website.

Trashcan Sinatras came together in 1986 in Irvine, a town on the Ayrshire coast, some 30 miles south-west of Glasgow. Still very much on the go today, with four of its members, Frank Reader (vocals), John Douglas (guitar), Paul Livingston (guitar), and Stephen Douglas (drums) having been part of things from the beginning.

Signed to Go! Discs for whom three albums were recorded – Cake (1990), I’ve Seen Everything (1993) and A Happy Pocket (1996). There’s since been three more albums – Weightlifting (2004), In The Music (2009) and Wild Pendulum (2016).

They have been consistently excellent their entire career. I’ve long intended to come up with an ICA of my own as a companion piece to #24 in the series, which was pulled together by rhetor.

mp3: Trashcan Sinatras – Stainless Stephen

A b-side. Some of their best songs only ever appeared as b-sides, and that was because they cared about what was added to the singles on the basis that many of their own favourite bands across the years had done similar.

Inspired by Stephen Milligan, a Tory MP who met, shall we say, rather an unfortunate end. Click here for more.