THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

SHOUT TO THE TOP

I knew that I had previously had a series which looked at every 45 ever released by The Style Council, but was quite stunned when a glance at the archives told me it was seven years ago. As such, I have no qualms about going in for a repeat of sorts; nor do I offer any apologies!

The group’s seventh single was a big hit, peaking at #6 in the charts in October 1984. It was released on 7″ and 12″ vinyl, and had all the hallmarks of the upbeat and jaunty sound we had by now come to associate with TSC, but this time with added strings.

mp3: The Style Council – Shout To The Top

The reverse of the sleeve indicated a few causes that the band thought were worth drawing attention to:-

– No! To the abolition of the GLC & local councils
– Yes! To the thrill of the romp
– Yes! To the Bengali Workers Association
– Yes! To a nuclear-free world
– Yes! To all involved in animal rights
– Yes! To fanzines
– Yes! To Belief

The single came out in the midst of an ongoing and increasingly embittered national strike by the National Union of Mineworkers. If really felt as if the UK government, led by the singularly-minded Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, was at war with many of its own residents, particularly those whose traditional industries were closing with no thought or care given as to how these ailing communities could be supported. Paul Weller made no bones about it, firmly nailing his colours to the mast of those who were on strike.

There’ was no difference in the versions available on 7″ and 12″ and this was the common b-side:-

mp3 : The Style Council – The Ghosts of Dachau

A haunting ballad about the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, it was as far removed from the jauntiness of the a-side as can be imagined.

There were two other tracks on the 12″

mp3 : The Style Council – Shout To The Top (instrumental)
mp3 : The Style Council – The Piccadilly Trail

The latter, I described in January 2016 as being a slow-paced number that was about as dull a b-side as the band had released up to this point in their career. I was taken to task via the comments section by londonlee who very much expressed his love for said b-side.

Shout To The Top has aged very well in terms of its sound. I’ve been known to air it at Stark’s Park, as part of my efforts to build up the pre-match atmosphere. I’ve also occasionally played this cover version:-

mp3: Fire Island feat. Loleatta Holloway – Shout To The Top (HiFi Sean Mix)

This dates from 2021, and it involved Hifi Sean getting his hands on a tape of a version of a track that had been recorded and released by Fire Island (English house music duo, Pete Heller and Terry Farley) in 1998.

Seemingly, there were no musical parts on the tape which landed in Sean’s hands, only the vocal from soul diva, Loleatta Holloway. He got to work rewriting the arrangement, and in doing so he created a soulful string-laden groover.

And talking of string-laden groovers, it’s getting close to 3 February 2023, which is the official release date for Happy Ending, the stunning new album from HiFi Sean and David McAlmont.

JC

Joy Division

FAC 10 : UNKNOWN PLEASURES

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The first post on the contents of the Hearing Protection : Factory Records 1978-79 box set, was on 24 March 2022. I hadn’t intended it taking this long for the series to come to its conclusion, especially as there was only ever going to be ten parts, but having covered all of FAC1 through to FAC9, I didn’t think it would be right to do anything in depth on FAC10 while Joy Division were competing in the ICA World Cup.

FAC10 is in the above picture in the front row on the left-hand side. It is, of course, the album Unknown Pleasures.

I’ve long had a copy of this album, originally released on 15 June 1979. I bought it a few months after it came out, on the back of falling very heavily for the single Transmission. I haven’t taken good care of it. The vinyl itself isn’t actually too bad, but the sleeve is bashed, battered and creased, and the edges have splits to the extent that the info is unreadable. I get quite embarrassed when I look at, with the realisation that I have played loose and free with a wonderful piece of art.

I now have a second copy of Unknown Pleasures, thanks to it being part of the box set that I bought when I visited the Factory Records exhibition that was put on at the Manchester Science and Industry Museum in the latter part of 2021. It is not a replica of the original album, instead being the reissued and remastered version of the album issued by Warner Bros in 2015.

There is an on-line debate about the merits or otherwise of this particular repress, with many at pains to point out that it is actually a remastered version of something that had originally been remastered in 2007, meaning that the 2015 version was further compressed from digital files. This has led to accusations that the differences in sound from the original are more than minor, and that the 2015 version is cleaner, punchier and at odds with what Martin Hannett wanted to deliver.

There is no question that the version of the album that came with the box set is different. For one, it has no clicks or pops in the way that my 1979 pressing has succumbed to. And yes, I find I do have to play it a little louder than I do with the original pressing, which is maybe the clearest indication that the two pieces of vinyl are far from identical. The thing is, I have ears which are almost 60-years-old and which are well past their best, (thanks, somewhat ironically, as a result of my failure to use hearing protection while DJing or going to gigs), so I’m not really best placed to outline the differences, other than to say that the remastered version feels/sounds as if I’m listening to things via a CD rather than a slab of vinyl.

Unknown Pleasures has become, with the passing of time, one of the most important and influential albums ever released. I’ll be honest and say that when I bought it, I thought it to be a bit on the ‘meh’ side, as there wasn’t really anything that grabbed me in the same way that Transmission had. My excuse is that I was 16 years of age, and my musical tastes weren’t fully developed. I won’t waste anyone’s time arguing the merits of its contents or otherwise, other than to say that no music collection, in my opinion, is complete unless you have a copy…..but I suppose I’ve got something of a cheek to say this given I’m someone who has nothing from Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd (among many others) in his own collection.

Here’s four tracks from the remastered album, all recorded at 320 kbps which is as good as I can do for you. None of them made it to the Joy Division ICA:-

mp3: Joy Division – Day Of The Lords (Outside, Track 2)
mp3: Joy Division – New Dawn Fades (Outside, Track 5)
mp3: Joy Division – Wilderness (Inside, Track 3)
mp3: Joy Division – She’s Lost Control (Inside, Track 1)

JC

China Crisis

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #327: CHINA CRISIS

A GUEST POSTING by MARTIN ELLIOT (Our Swedish Correspondent)

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It’s Fun To Entertain

About a month ago there was a pretty thorough writing on the blog about China Crisis which basically ended up in the confession they never really made it at Villain Towers while there were some positive comments.

I also added my share of appreciation, especially for some of the single b-sides, a comment supported by Postpunkmonk. So I thought I’d increase the China Crisis content here at The new Vinyl Villain by offering an ICA primarily based on single b-sides.

For an extensive read please go back to the “Rarely Mentioned In Dispatches” entry, I will not repeat the history so well put down by JC.

Just one addition; the CC single Wishful Thinking (not featured) hit the number 1 position on the Swedish radio show Poporama where listeners voted. However, they did never really bother our charts in terms of sales.

It’s Fun To Entertain – A China Crisis ICA.

Side A:
1. Greenacre Bay 12″ version (b-side to Christian 7″/12″).

My all-time favourite CC song kicks off the ICA, a true pop gem thrown away as b-side. The use of what sounds like a Caribbean steel drum is just fantastic.

2. No Ordinary Lover (from the Virgin compilation Methods Of Dance volume II).

Also featured as a slightly shorter edit as b-side to No More Blue Horizons 7″/12″. A bit confusing as the chorus goes watching over burning fields for a rising sun, while the song titled Watching Over Burning Fields (second b-side of the NMBH 12 inch) is a 6+ minutes instrumental ambient-ish track. You can hear the early influences from bands like OMD and Depeche Mode, a sound they would abandon after the first album.

3. The Gates Of Door To Door. (from the album Working With Fire And Steel. Possible Pop Songs Volume 2).

One of only two album cuts in this ICA, and another favourite. At the time of the release, the lyric part “She dreams of childhood, and I dream of her” was pretty on spot and the track has stuck with me as a soundtrack to any unanswered affection.

4. Trading In Gold (b-side to Arizona Sky, the first single from fourth album What Price Paradise.)

Produced by Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley the sound builds on the more slick pop from the Walter Becker of Steely Dan fame produced third album Flaunt The Imperfection.

5. Scream Down At Me.

A stand-alone single, originally recorded for Inevitable Records who released the debut single African & White (later re-released by Virgin Records when they had signed CC). A cut aimed at dance floors, where it worked very well, but a path never really tried again (well, let’s see).

Side B:

1. African & White (Inevitable 12″ version)

So the very start for the band, released 1981, a rather basic drum machine driven track. The 7″ somehow found its way into the local record store of my then small Swedish hometown and that’s how I discovered them.

2. This Occupation 12″ version (b-side to Wishful Thinking 7″/12″)

Another style-wise offspring, I can only guess they had listened a couple of times to New Order’s Confusion released a couple of months earlier.

3. You Did Cut Me.

Third and last single released from Flaunt The Imperfection, which failed to repeat the Top 20 chart success of the two preceding singles. Still my favourite track from the album.

4. A Golden Handshake For Every Daughter (b-side to Tragedy & Mystery 7″/12″).

Very much a track of the Working With Fire & Steel era, and would have fit nicely on the album too.

5. Hampton Beach. (Album track from What Price Paradise)

We close with a soft ballad that I have for some reason always connected to the John Irving novel The Hotel New Hampshire. There is something comforting over this track I can’t really finger point, a nice closure to a nice ICA.

Admittedly not the usual jangly guitar pop often featured in this corner of the internet, still I hope you can enjoy some of it.

Best,

Martin

JC adds…….this was originally meant to appear on the blog last month, but was replaced by my tribute to Terry Hall.

Only Ones

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 18)

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I bought a second-hand CD a long time ago, specifically for the purposes of having a bit of fun on the blog, and I’ve decided to use the normally quiet festive period, when the traffic and number of visitors drops quite dramatically, to go with it.

The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – Another Girl, Another Planet

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet

Released as a single in April 1978.

And that, my dear friends, brings an end to this short but fun series. I know that it wasn’t to everyone’s tastes, but it was designed to be a bit of filler over what is usually a quiet period, visitor numbers wise, but events meant I chose to return to normal a bit earlier than normal.

A comment was left behind a while ago about the similarities between the music of The Nutley Brass and the cover versions offered up by Nouvelle Vague. I think it’s fair to say that the latter probably took some inspiration from Sam Elwitt, given that the debut album from the French musicians didn’t appear until eight years after The Nutley Brass.

PS (1) : Many thanks for the contributions last week to the question about The Smiths. Very very helpful, and I’ll come back to it again in a couple of weeks time.

PS (2) : I’ve listened to what was said yesterday about a possible series of singles from the Pet Shop Boys. It’ll begin next week.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

FROM THE 7″ PILE OF RECORDS (2)

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Prior to deciding to go in randomly among the 7″ singles for the new Sunday series in 2023, I did give a brief consideration to Pet Shop Boys being the focus of an extended series in a similar fashion to The Fall in 2021/22. I have been picking up second hand copies of a few of the 7″ singles in recent times, and there’s also the fact that many of their re-mastered and re-released CDs have been extended to include various b-sides and mixes from their singles. In the end, I felt it would just be too tall an ask to actually track down everything, and besides, while I’m a huge fan, I appreciate not everyone who drops into TVV feels the same.

Here’s wiki on today’s offering.

Suburbia is a song by English synthpop duo Pet Shop Boys. It was remixed and released as the fourth single from the duo’s debut studio album, Please (1986), and became the band’s second UK top-10 entry, peaking at #8.

The song’s primary inspiration is the 1983 Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia, and its depiction of violence and squalor in the suburbs of Los Angeles; in addition, the tension of the Brixton riots of 1981 and of 1985 hanging in recent memory led Neil Tennant of the duo to thinking about the boredom of suburbia and the underlying tension among disaffected youth that sparked off the riots at the least provocation.

The various versions of the song are punctuated by sounds of suburban violence, riots and smashing glass, as well as snarling dogs on the re-recorded single version (extended even further on the music video), which were derived from typical scenes in suburbia. The Please version of the song sounds very sparse in comparison. The version used for the video was the song that appeared on the PopArt compilation in 2003.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia

The b-side has long been one of the duo’s most loved among the fan base, partly for the fact that the majority of the vocal, albeit more spoken than sung, is provided by Chris Lowe.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Paninaro

It is seemingly about an 80s Italian youth subculture whose members hung around US-style fast food restaurants and had preferences for designer clothing and disco music. Paninaro was actually released as a limited edition 12″ single in Italy in 1986.

JC

Suckle

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #335: SUCKLE

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I’m going to go to the website of Chemikal Underground today:-

The evocatively dark, neo-gothic visions of ex-Vaseline founder Frances McKee found a new outlet in 2000 with her band Suckle. Joined on vocals by her sister Marie, Suckle would go on to release one album and two EP’s with Chemikal Underground, garnering praise from all quarters and cementing her reputation as a uniquely gifted singer-songwriter.

It was of course Frances’ earlier musical incarnation, The Vaselines with Eugene Kelly, that brought her work to prominence: hailed as Kurt Cobain’s favourite band, The Vaselines would have three of their songs covered by the ill-fated band – notably Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam which appeared on the now legendary MTV Unplugged album.

From Chemikal Underground’s point of view, getting the chance to work with Frances was a real honour, having been longtime Vaselines fans.

A review in a Sunday newspaper back in 200o suggested that Suckle “….brought to mind Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds fronted by the vocal duo from Stereolab.”

I’ve only a couple of songs, courtesy of their inclusion on two different Chem compilations, so I can’t really say if that’s entirely accurate.

mp3: Suckle – Saturn
mp3: Suckle – To Be King

It certainly wasn’t what I expected…..

JC

Stranglers

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 17)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – No More Heroes

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: The Stranglers – No More Heroes

Released as a single in September 1977.

The 18th and final part of the series will be with you next Monday.

JC

Uncategorized

DEAR READERS, CAN YOU HELP ME OUT?

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dilemma : noun

a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable.

As I said yesterday, I got thinking a while back that, once the calendar turned over into 2023, I could have some fun out of creating a new series for the blog, turning the clock back 40 years to look at some of the great music that was released in 1983, perhaps throwing in a few stories/recollections/memories of the era. And judging from the responses to the Wah!/Echo and The Bunnymen offerings, it’s a series that would be popular.

My dilemma is that it feels it would be almost impossible to look at 1983 without considering The Smiths, a band who, other than one instrumental song, haven’t featured on TVV in more than five years.

The reason for all this doesn’t have to be over-analysed today. I abhor the views that have been increasingly aired by Morrissey, and it goes beyond not posting stuff on the blog as I’ve not played any of his solo records, or those from his former band, for what feels like an eternity.

The thing is, I really miss The Smiths records. They were a huge part of my life back in 1983 and over the next few years. It is fair to say that I placed a lot of faith in the band, arguing long and hard into many a small hour about their merits and greatness. I invested greatly into things (but never to the extent of going vegetarian!), and defended Morrissey to the hilt when many of the controversies emerged, including when some of the solo songs hit raw nerves.

Jez, over at A History of Dubious Taste, penned this, interesting article on Morrissey last October which I read at the time when I was pondering a potential series on 1983. He posed the question….

“So what to do? Do we deny our experience and love of The Smiths on the basis of what Morrissey patently is, or at best, has become.”

That’s been my position for the past five years. But I can say, in all honesty, it is making me increasingly miserable now. Johnny Marr was every bit as important to me when I immersed myself in the band….and to a lesser extent, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce (and Craig Gannon) also made me very happy thanks to the way they contributed to the songs and the live shows and TV appearances. It feels increasingly wrong to be cutting them out of the picture on the basis of what one other, admittedly important and high-profile, band member has become.

So, I’m turning to the TVV community for your thoughts, views, opinion and advice. Do I stay on the current path, or do I gently bring The Smiths back in from the cold at an appropriate point in time over the coming months? It’s not any sort of vote or survey….I’m simply trying to read the room.

Here’s another song from 1983 that has long stayed with me since I first heard it.

mp3: The Special AKA – Racist Friend

As I said, it’s a dilemma.

JC

Television

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 16)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – Marquee Moon

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: Television – Marquee Moon

Released as a single in July 1977.

JC

Echo & The Bunnymen, Wah!

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER

I got thinking a while back that, once the calendar turned over into 2023, I could have some fun out of creating a new series for the blog, turning the clock back 40 years to look at some of the great music that was released in 1983, perhaps throwing in a few stories/recollections/memories of the era. In doing so, I have created a bit of a dilemma for myself, but I’ll come back to that tomorrow.

In the meantime, to give you an idea of how good a start it was to 1983, here’s a single that had been released just prior to Christmas where it bubbled away outside the Top 40 for a few weeks, unable to compete with the might of Renee and Ronato, Phil Collins, David Essex or Shakin’ Stevens, not forgetting the unlikely duet from Bing Crosby and David Bowie.

The first week in January saw it reach #34 and an invitation from the Top of The Pop producers for the 24-year-old lead singer to realise his pop star ambitions.

The following week, Story of The Blues climbed all the way to #6 and then the following week to its peak position of #3. All told, it stayed in the Top 20 for six weeks and didn’t drop out of the Top 75 until late March. I wrote about this song back in 2015. I’ll stand by what I said then

To my young(ish) ears it sounded like no other record that had ever been released at that point in history. To my old(er) ears it still sounds like no other record that has ever been released in history.

mp3: Wah! – The Story of The Blues

And, because you’re worth it, here’s the full version, ripped at a high quality direct from the Canadian import 12″ single :-

mp3: Wah! – The Story of The Blues (Parts One and Two)

The same week that Pete’s epic peaked at #3, saw a bunch of his mates achieve the highest new entry in the singles charts:-

mp3: Echo and The Bunnymen – The Cutter

Oh, how the 19-year-old me loved throwing shapes to this one on the floor of the student union disco as I lay down my raincoat and grooved.

I did a lot of grooving in 1983 as it turned out to be a more than decent year for alternative pop music, albeit there was still a great deal of dross dominating the higher end of the charts most weeks.

JC

Sex Pistols

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 15)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – Pretty Vacant

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant

Released as a single in July 1977.

NB : I’ve good news if those of you have been following this series turned out to be disappointed to find that the mp3 of the Nutley Brass version of New Rose skipped and ground to an untimely stop. I wasn’t aware until earlier today of the problem, but I’ve now loaded up a fresh and clean copy of the file.

JC

Beat

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #004

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

004 – THE BEAT – ‚Ranking FullStop’ (Two Tone Records, ’79)

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Hello friends,

‘Oh no, not a Ska-record again!’, I hear you shout! Well, what shall I say? You better get used to it, because this music really formed my life from rather an early age on . Consequently, there will be quite some Ska records in this series, nothing wrong with that, if you ask me!

But why do I like this genre so much? I mean, I’m not a dancing man, not at all. So even the coolest rhythms hardly make me move my feet. So there must be another reason, and I think it is because I met so many very nice people in this scene, it is hard to believe. The people I met were the most tolerable, impartial, friendly persons you can imagine. And I am talking about regular fans here as well as ‘stars’ of one sort or another.

I won’t go too much into detail, but a mate of mine became some sort of manager for a German Ska band in the late 80’s and I often needed money then, so I worked for him occasionally. He did a big festival two years in a row, ‘Skankin’ Round The Christmas Tree’ – and I was responsible for all things backstage by and large. And obviously that’s where you meet bands and get to know them better.

The Beat, or, for JTFL (and other potential US-readers as well, of course), The English Beat, came from Birmingham. I suspect there isn’t all too much to say about them or their importance to second wave Ska which hasn’t already been said elsewhere. What some people don’t know though, or, perhaps rather forgot about, is the amount of really good bands that rose from the ashes of (former members of) The Beat: General Public, Fine Young Cannibals, Two Nations and of course Ranking Roger’s solo stuff, which was good throughout.

For the 111 Singles project, I went for The Beat’s debut single, but, as you will be astonished to learn, I left the A-Side behind: a cover of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Tears Of A Clown’. It is a neat song, but – in my humble opinion – not nearly as good as the B-Side:

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mp3: The Beat – Ranking Full Stop

If you really want to be pedantic, you could argue that the version I have, the one with the silver injection labels, state this record to be a double A-side, but no, ‘Ranking Full Stop’ had always intended to be seen as a B-side. Quite why, I have no idea – because it is a song that REALLY kicks ass, even after all these years!

I do hope you enjoy it as much as I do, see you soon.

Dirk

Jam

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 14)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – The Eton Rifles

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: The Jam – The Eton Rifles

Released as a single in September 1979.

JC

Alison Eales

A SOLO RECORD FROM A MEMBER OF BUTCHER BOY!

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Last year’s compilation album You Had A Kind Face was the first time Butcher Boy had released new music since 2017, but you have to go all the way back to 2011 for when a fully formed LP was released.

The void will be filled in to an extent this coming March, thanks to the debut solo record from the band’s keyboardist, Alison Eales.

Alison is actually much more than a keyboardist. She’s been immersed in music her entire life, to the extent that she achieved a PhD a few years back, with her thesis offering a critical history of the Glasgow Jazz Festival from its inception in 1987 through to 2015. She sings with the Glasgow Madrigirls, a 40-strong choir closely associated with Glasgow University and whose work has featured on a number of film and television soundtracks. Oh, and anyone who has ever caught Butcher Boy live on stage will know her backing vocals are an important element to many of the songs.

She has been working away, in a low-key manner, on her solo material for many years, hoping that her dream of landing a deal with a record company would allow the songs to one day see the light of day. The dream is about to become a reality, thanks to London-based Fika Recordings where she joins an impressive roster of artists that includes, among others, Darren Hayman, The Just Joans, Randolph’s Leap and The Smittens.

Mox Nox is the name of the debut album, and it comes out, digitally and on vinyl, on 24 March. It was recorded at the famous Chem 19 studios with in-house producer Paul Savage of The Delgados at the helm. A video for its first single, Fifty-Five North, has just been released:-

It really is a lovely piece of music, with a hint of some of the gentler sounds that were occasionally offered by the late Kirsty MacColl. It’s an ode to Glasgow from someone who is not a native but now calls it home after many years of studying, performing and working.

Alison will be performing at two shows (matinée and evening) this coming Saturday, the 14th of January, at the Lexington in London, on a bill alongside Ballboy and The Just Joans, while I’m intending to get along to the 13th Note in Glasgow on Thursday 19 January where she opens at a show for the launch of the new album by local band, Marshall Chipped.

I’ve already put in my pre-order for Alison’s album, and I’ll no doubt give it a review on TVV in due course. If the debut single is anything to go by, then it’s something to look forward to.

JC

Saints

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 13)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – I’m Stranded

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: The Saints – I’m Stranded

Released as a single in September 1976.

JC

Marlody

MY FIRST NEW PURCHASE IN 2023

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It was towards the end of last year that an e-mail from a very unexpected source landed in the TVV inbox. I was so taken aback that I was scared to open it in case it was a spam or piece of junk.

The e-mail was from Amelia Fletcher.

Yup…..Amelia Fletcher, one of the most revered and adored musicians in the world of indie-pop, and whose work has been the subject of a few posts over the years, most notably this ICA in March 2022.

It turns out that Amelia had quite liked a few of the things that have been written round these parts and had taken note of the contact address. She wanted to know if I would be interested in music from a new artist. How could I possibly say no……..

The artist in question was Marlody. That’s her picture at the top of this posting.

Amelia described Marlody as being an incredibly talented performer and someone she and all involved at Skelp Wax Records believes is ready to make an impact.

A link to the debut album was provided, along with a press release.

Marlody’s first album I’m Not Sure At All takes anxiety, weakness, fear – and turns them into strength: powerful melodies, the sweetest harmonies you ever heard, and lyrics that insist on the possibility of hope, without losing sight of the possibility of despair.

Dominated by her extraordinary keyboard playing, Marlody’s songs are illuminated – and sometimes made sinister – by occasional bursts of programmed percussion, submarine bass and distant, chiming digital bells. These are deep, darkly beautiful pop songs.

When she was a girl, Marlody was one of the higher-achieving classical pianists of her generation, winning competitions and destined for greatness. She hated it, and threw it all away. In the intervening years, putting more and more distance between herself and her classical origins, she listened to Yo La Tengo and Shellac and a hundred other things that took music to new, untutored extremes. ‘I’m Not Sure At All’ is the outcome.

There are musical echoes: the infectiousness and daring of some of the vocal melodies might remind you of Kate Bush, the intimacy might remind you of Cate Le Bon, the stabs of anger and pain might remind you of Liz Phair. The keyboard is sometimes as smooth as Fleetwood Mac; other times it’s as raucous and distorted as Quasi. The harmonies are from another place again – you could imagine hearing them in an Unthanks recording.

I’ll admit to not knowing all the references in the press release, and to being a bit wary of something being described as being as smooth as Fleetwood Mac as I’m not a fan. But I was more than happy to give the album a listen. And I’m really glad I did.

The album opens with what was the advance single. It’s called Summer. My thoughts soon turned to names that weren’t referenced in the press release. One was Tori Amos, thanks to the way the piano is played, while the other is Anne Briggs, a UK folk singer whose name I only became aware of after Green Gartside released two cover songs on a 7″ single in 2020.

Summer is an incredible calling card for the album. It’s whatever the folk-equivalent is of toe-tapping, given that I found myself keeping time to the song by drumming my fingertips on my thighs. But on further listens, I came to realise it’s actually a tragically sad song, one that, if stripped of its tune, would bring a tear to any eye given it’s the words and memories of a child whose mother has died and whose father isn’t coping all that well.

There’s nothing quite as ‘folky’ across the rest of I’m Not Sure, with it dominated largely by ballads and slow-tempo pop tunes. There were times it reminded me of the sort of record that Anne Clark (aka St Vincent) would likely make if she stripped things right back to vocals, keyboards and occasional contributions via a drum machine.

I can only imagine that Marlody would be an intense but beguiling live performer, someone whose voice and playing demands 100% attention. The album is similar, best appreciated with no distractions, ideally through headphones on the first few listens so that all of its nuances and beauty can be appreciated.

Up till now, I’ve been making do with digital versions of the songs, but I’ve ordered my vinyl copy which should be with me soon after its official release this coming Friday, 13th January. It’ll be my first new purchase of 2023. I bought it direct from the record label, via bandcamp, but I’m sure your friendly local indie record store can arrange to get you a copy if you prefer.

If you happen to live in the south of England, then you’ll have the opportunity of seeing Marlody in person when she plays two shows to launch the album.

The first is on the evening of Saturday 14 January at the Unitarian Meeting House in Tenterden, which is the area in Kent when Marlody is from. Click here for tickets.

The second is on the afternoon of Sunday 15 January, is at the Betsy Trotwood, a wonderfully intimate venue in the Clerkenwell area of London. Click here for tickets.

There is every chance that I’m Not Sure will be a much talked about album in the coming weeks and months, so I reckon it would be well worth the effort to get to either of both shows so that you can boast about how quick you were to pick up on things

Amelia Fletcher is right…..Marlody is an incredibly talented performer.

JC

Teenage Fanclub

FROM THE 7″ PILE OF RECORDS (1)

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Sundays here at TVV have been taken up in recent months by the ICA World Cup. I was so thrilled by the level of interest and the amount of interaction via the comments section that I planned, in my head, a variation on the theme for 2023.

But then I got thinking.

This is the year I turn 60 years of age. I’ve a few plans in hand that will see me travelling the globe at various times, to the extent that I won’t always be in a position to keep a check on how votes might or might not be coming in. So, sorry to say, the plans for a variation of the ICAs (it would have been on the basis of Imaginary EPs!), won’t see the light of day…well, for now anyway.

So, I’ve decided that Sundays should be turned over to the pile of 7″ singles that sit here in Villain Towers. I’ve now accumulated so many in recent years, often via second-hand markets in shops or online, that they have outgrown the space that has been set aside for them, and they are kind of crammed.

It’s now become a bit of a chore to go and fish just the one of them out for listening purposes, and what I need to do is pick up a large number in the one visit, as it makes things easier. This has led me to also make a fresh, higher-quality rip with each listen for the purposes of this new series for 2023. Here’s wiki on the one I’m starting off with:-

What You Do to Me is a song recorded by Scottish rock band Teenage Fanclub. The song was released on 27 January 1992 through Creation Records, as the third single from the band’s third studio album, Bandwagonesque. The song was written and sung by vocalist and guitarist Norman Blake.

The song peaked at number 19 on Billboard‘s Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, and number 31 on the UK Singles Chart.

The 7″ version that sits in the cupboard has a few pops and clicks, but all that does is add to the authenticity.

mp3: Teenage Fanclub – What You Do To Me

It is actually a 4-track EP, with two songs on either side of the vinyl. Here’s what comes on straight after the two minutes that make up the single:-

mp3: Teenage Fanclub – B-Side

It’s one of Gerry Love‘s compositions, and very good it is, too.

Flipping things over to the b-side:-

mp3: Teenage Fanclub – Life’s A Gas
mp3: Teenage Fanclub – Filler

The former is a fairly faithful take on a T.Rex song, while the latter is a Raymond McGinley number (and very good it is too!) which means the EP gives you songs from all three of the principal songwriters.

But there’s more. After 1:56, Filler seems to come to a complete stop, but there’s then there’s a slight gap before a short (55 seconds) uncredited instrumental kicks off. The fact it’s just an extended drum solo could mean it’s all the work of Brendan O’Hare, in which case you’ve got original material from all four members contained with one compact piece of vinyl

mp3: Teenage Fanclub – Hidden Drum Solo

With apologies, if in fact the drum solo is the end of Filler and not a separate song!

JC

Subs

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #334: THE SUBS

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First up, apologies that this series has gotten a little bit out of sync. It’s meant to be an alphabetical run through of Scottish singers/bands where there’s at least one song on the laptop’s hard drive. I was doing OK till a few weeks ago:-

#332 : The Styng Rytes
#333 : The Submaries
#336 : The Suede Crocodiles
#337 : Sugartown
#338 : Sunset Gun

Yup…..I missed out #334 and #335. I’ll sort things out today and next Saturday/

As it turns out, #335 involves a cut’n’paste from a 2019 posting. It’s the best and easiest way.

As you’ll come to see, today’s piece owes an immense debt to the good folk over at the ever-informative and entertaining For Malcontents blog which I came across doing my research on today’s songs which I’ve picked up from the Big Gold Dreams box-set. It’s very much of interest as it features what must have been the first ever professional recording to involve Derek Forbes.

The Subs were a very short-lived Glasgow quartet, comprising Callum Cuthbertson (vocals), Kevin Key (guitars), Derek Forbes (bass) and Ali MacKenzie (drums). They were seemingly the winners of a 1977 talent competition organised jointly by Stiff Records and Chiswick Records that led to them releasing a single, on yellow vinyl, on 1 Off Records, an offshoot of Stiff:-

mp3 : The Subs – Gimme Your Heart

Their story was told, in May 2014, over at For Malcontents:-

Originally known as The Subhumans, the band made rapid headway after forming in the white heat of the punk revolution. They recorded a demo which impressed London’s best independent label, Stiff, who invited the lads down south, where they took part in a Stiff audition night at the Royal College of Art. Stiff must have liked what they saw as they quickly signed the Glaswegians for a one-off single (on their 1-Off imprint) which was recorded at Pathway Studios in the capital and produced by Larry Wallis, an early member of Motörhead and also a Stiff recording artist at the time.

Live favourite Gimme Your Heart was selected as the A side and the single’s centre came adorned with a typical Stiff slogan ‘The shape of things that win’.

Reviews were generally good with fanzine Next Big Thing, calling the 45 the ‘best Scots vinyl offering since Good Sculptures’, while NME picked up on the ‘Neanderthal Man drumming from Ali Mackenzie’ and Cuthbertson’s ‘suitably disgruntled’ vocals, which I think were both meant as compliments.

‘The Subs created quite a ripple at the Rochester Castle in what was one of the group’s first London gigs,’ Nick Tester wrote in April ’78 in Sounds, a magazine that was obviously rooting for the band: ‘The Subs are in fact like a stainless steel carving knife, rawness combined with a clean edged melody which utterly carves up any opposition in these supposed Power Pop times. Enough hooks to hang your C&A bondage pants out to dry.’

Despite recording one of the finest Scottish singles of the era, even by the blink and they’ll be gone standards of the day, The Subs were destined to enjoy only a very brief shelf life and sadly Gimme Your Heart would be their one and only release.

Drummer Ali Mackenzie left the band and they roped in Brian McGee of Simple Minds to replace him for a support slot they’d nabbed for a Graham Parker and The Rumour gig at Strathclyde Uni. The show was deemed a success but before long bassist Derek Forbes decided to join McGee in Simple Minds and guitarist Kevin Key took up the invitation to expand the ranks of The Jolt into a four piece.

Ali Mackenzie notably set up independent label Cuba Libre, which released records by James King and The Lonewolves, The Cuban Heels (who he later joined) and The Shakin’ Pyramids, whose 1981 album Skin’ Em Up he also produced.

As for Cuthbertson, well, he later carved out a career as an actor with a string of appearances in theatre, TV and film, appearing most recently in BBC Scotland sitcom Gary Tank Commander and the 2013 romcom Not Another Happy Ending, where he played the pub quiz fanatic father of Jane Lockhart (Karen Gillan).

I’ve gone digging and come up with the b-side of the single:-

mp3 : The Subs – Party Clothes

Both sides of the 45 still sound quite excellent.

JC

Talking Heads

THE TVV 2022/2023 FESTIVE SERIES (Part 12)

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The CD was issued in 1996. It is called Beat On The Brass, and it was recorded by The Nutley Brass, the brains of whom belong to New York musician Sam Elwitt.

The concept behind the album is simple. Take one bona-fide punk/post-punk/new wave classic and give it the easy listening treatment.

There are 18 tracks on the CD all told. Some have to be heard to be believed.

Strap yourselves in.

mp3: The Nutley Brass – Psycho Killer

And, just so you can appreciate the magnificence (or otherwise) of the renditions, you’ll also be able to listen to the original versions as we make our way through the CD in random order.

mp3: Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

From the album Talking Heads : 77

Part 13 of this series will be posted up next Monday.

JC

Various

KIDS, EH #4

A GUEST POSTING by SWC

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JC writes…..

Before I hand over to SWC, a little bit of explanation. One of his previous posts over at No Badger Required, in which he offered up the views and opinions of his daughter, made me laugh so hard that I asked if a future instalment could be offered up to TVV. He’s been a as good as his word….in fact, he sent this over just prior to Christmas and I’ve had to sit on it waiting for the blog to get up and running again. Given that yesterday saw a somewhat sad but brilliant post about the passing of Alan Rankine, I thought this made for the ideal way to try and put a smile on our collective faces.

Here’s SWC……

“For those of you who haven’t ventured over to my little corner of the Internet, which is more commonly known as No Badger Required, this is the fourth instalment in a series that I am calling ‘Kids, Eh’. It is a series in which I randomly pick three songs from my music library (or rather an algorithm picks them for me), give my daughter a pencil and some paper and tell her to write what she thinks about them.

“We started this series when she was nine, and I have learnt four things, firstly that she is a harsh critic, no song has yet to score more than eight out of ten.

How Did This Happen! – Bodega

“Secondly, she hates shouty, angry records that “Don’t say anything”. Thirdly, she has a knack of being able to bring some form of creature into every review she does, so far we’ve had hippopotamuses, toucans, crocodiles and cats and fourthly, now aged ten, and armed with her own Alexa, my daughter has developed a love of music by bands like Air, Four Tet, Boards of Canada and Massive Attack (but only the album ‘Mezzanine’, the rest are a bit “meh” apparently). She, dare I say it, has cool taste in music, so this might be quite interesting.

“All the songs today are randomly picked from an iPod Playlist that I called “Another Playlist” when I compiled it. There are over 4000 songs in this playlist and as we sit in the lounge five days before Christmas, armed with paper, pencils, custard creams, a half-eaten box of Roses, and some Wasabi Peanuts (they are mine) I’m ready to press the shuffle button.

““Will there be Christmas songs?” my daughter suddenly asks. I tell her there might be. I know that the Fucked Up version of “Do They Know Its Christmas?” is definitely on there, but I don’t tell her that, because she will definitely hate it. “I hope its not that stupid song that talks about the “the bells ringing out” J (name changed of irritating boy in her class) in my class keeps singing it to annoy the teacher”. That isn’t on there, I tell her. I finally press the play button and I have to say I grinned when the first song came on because it was this absolute banger.

Soon (Andrew Weatherall Mix) – My Bloody Valentine

Now in reality, this is one of the greatest remixes to have ever grace anyone’s stereo, full of loops, samples, twists, “Here We Go’s” and “Ahhh’s” it is extraordinary, outstanding, a proper floor filler. My daughter catches me nodding my head along to it and I tell her that the man who remixed this, was a genius and that in a perfect world he would have been Minister of Culture. She looks at me blankly and frantically scribbles on her pad.

About four minutes in she tells me that she likes the little “Ah ha” bits and then she puts her pencil down. I type verbatim the bits in italics are my interjections.

“It keeps saying the same thing, ’Here We Go’ but doesn’t tell you where they are going, they might be going to the zoo to see the giraffes [ ooh, she’s gone early on the animals] or to the shops. It’s quite good I suppose but it just does the same thing over and over again. I like the ‘Ah Ha’ bits but it is not as good as ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’”. [I might confiscate her Alexa, if she keeps up that nonsense]

‘Soon’ gets a six out of ten. Which on the Kids, Eh scoreboard makes it the fourth-best song in the world. So Far at least.

Next Up

Dead – Pixies

It’s the version from the ‘At the BBC’ album so it’s slightly faster and slightly rawer than the album version but all the same it’s still a bloody marvellous ninety seconds or so if you quickly skirt over the biblical violence backstory. Although I think a certain ten year is about to disagree with me and tell me off for playing a song which has the word ‘crapper’ in it.

“He said a rude word, I don’t like it [now thankfully, my daughter hasn’t grasped the full concept of a swear word, but thanks to Howard from the Big Bang Theory she knows that “crap” is a bad word. She hasn’t noticed, yet that someone has written ‘FUCK’ in red pen on the bench at the park, but she knows that is a very rude word], the singing is all weird and he keeps repeating the rude word. He sounds like he is going to have a sore throat in the morning, he should try singing a bit quieter, or let someone else sing, I’m glad actual Pixies don’t sound like that”.[She used to have a pixie living in her playhouse when she was five, only she could understand it because it spoke ‘half German and half Italy’]

That my friends, is all she has to say about it. She could be right about Black Francis letting someone else sing though. ‘Dead’ scores one out of ten. Which still places it higher than ‘Husbands’ by Savages, which was erm, savaged when my daughter reviewed it.

Finally, we come to the last song of the day, well actually I skipped one because Pixies came on again

Here Comes Your Man – Pixies

The last song of the day is this, which might go down quite well

Don’t Look Back In Anger – Oasis

Which, if we are all absolutely honest with ourselves, is one of Britpop’s finest four a half minutes, from the piano at the start, through Noel’s singing about “Starting revolutions from his bed”, the brilliant drumming and the way the song all moulds together rather excellently. ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ is definitely in the top five Oasis tracks.

“Who’s Sally, and why is she waiting, what’s too late, is she being dumped?” my daughter asks me. I tell her I’m not entirely sure. “Well, he shouldn’t tell her to wait, that’s rude and its rude to be late, Uncle Bill is always late, my chips went cold the last time he was late”. I nod in agreement, so did mine as it happens. “It is a nice song though. I like the singing, much better than the last one. I like this one best today. Can I add Oasis to my playlist please.”

With that she scores ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ a relatively unheard of seven out of ten and goes off to play Minec.