Shambolics

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #290: SHAMBOLICS

Shambolics are from Kirkcaldy, the town in which my football team, Raith Rovers play our home matches at Stark’s Park.

A few years ago, one of the young folk working at the football club noticed that a new indie band from the town were beginning to attract a bit of attention, and he got in touch to find out if they were fans of the Rovers.  On finding out that they were, the idea was hatched to try and forge a link.  Seizing upon the name of one of the band’s songs, the club decided to adapt it slightly and use it as a rallying call for season 2019/20:-

mp3: Shambolics – My Time Is Now

#ourtimeisnow became the rallying cry for the supporters.  The song was used as part of the promotional efforts to push season tickets and the band members came along to matches to take part in promotional activities.  And as match day announcer, in charge of the music played in the build-up to kick-off, my role was to include My Time Is Now on a regular basis.

As if by magic, the whole thing worked with Rovers clinching the league title and promotion at the end of what proved to be a COVID-shortened season.  Shambolics now feature most weeks in the selected tunes, and while My Time Is Now still a popular choice among supporters, this season has seen the inclusion of some of the band’s new material.

They have been together since 2016 and within a couple of years had been snapped up by Alan McGee for the new label he had just launched, Creation 23.  As a band whose blueprint for growth was based on building up a fanbase through constant gigging, their hopes and aspirations were temporarily put on hold by the COVID outbreak.  They have been playing live again, and new songs have been released in 2021, including this indie anthem:-

mp3: Shambolics – Dreams, Schemes & Young Teams

Most of the regular readers of TVV will reckon that Shambolics aren’t doing anything we haven’t heard before, and I wouldn’t argue with anyone making that point.  The thing is, they aren’t aiming to capture the attention of the 40-somethings who hang around here. Everything they do is geared towards the young folk who are hopefully as consumed by music as we wall were back in our teens and 20s when you’re of an age when you fully believe that the music you’re listening to cannot possibly ever be bettered, and is much superior to anything that has come in the past.

You can hear more of what they do over at Spotify, if streaming is your style.  Click here.

2022 will see the band attempt to make up for lost time.  Friday 28 January will see them play their biggest ever headline show at SWG3 in Glasgow. Prior to that, they will be opening for Cast in Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, when the Britpop veterans take their, delayed, All Change 25th Anniversary tour out on the road.

JC

Stornoway

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : ZORBING

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

Z is for Zorbing released by Stornoway as a single in July 2009

It really is incredible how quickly the way music is consumed these days.  Back in 2009, streaming didn’t exist, but there were a proliferation of websites and mediums through which unsigned bands could look to grab someone’s attention.

Stornoway had a brand of indie folk that was quite fashionable towards the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.  Two of its members – Brian Briggs (vocals, guitar), and Jon Ouin (bass) had met as students at Oxford University, and in due course they would be joined by brothers Oli and Rob Steadman on bass and drums, respectively.  Their debut single, as you can see from the picture at the top of the posting, was self-released with the contact info being via myspace and an e-mail address.

mp3: Stornoway – Zorbing
mp3: Stornoway – On The Rocks

In this instance, it worked. Stornoway came to the attention of a DJ at the local BBC radio station in Oxford, and from there things kind of snowballed, and by January 2010 they had signed a deal with 4AD Records who would release the debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill in May 2010. The album was basically self-produced by the band and the record label was happy enough not to insist on the songs going through some sort of slick re-recording process.

The debut album did reasonable well in reaching #14. Zorbing was re-released by 4AD in June 2010, but it barely dented the charts at #74. It proved, however, to be the only single by Stornoway to breach the Top 75, but then again, such was the state of the music industry throughout the 2010s that the sales of physical singles were becoming increasingly irrelevant.

The band stuck around till 2016, releasing two more albums, Tales From Terra Firma (2013) and Bonxie (2015).

And with that, this extended break for the blog comes to its end. Tomorrow will see the return of the long-running Scottish songs series, while Mark E Smith and pals are back on Sunday, before things get back to full normality on Monday. There’s even some ICAs coming down the pipeline.

JC

Cardigans

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : YOUR NEW CUCKOO

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather. Unchanged: The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD. Unchanged: Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

Y is for Your New Cuckoo released by The Cardigans as a single in August 1997.

Your New Cuckoo was the third single lifted from the album First Band On The Moon. The fact that it appeared a full year after the album had been released verifies that the record company was really keen to cash in on the new found fame and success of The Cardigans. Added: It really is incredible how quickly the way music is consumed these days. Back in 2009, streaming didn’t exist, but there were a proliferation of websites and mediums through which unsigned bands could look to grab someone’s attention.

The band had been enjoying some minor success in the UK, always on the end of critical acclaim for their brand of intelligent and upbeat Scandi-pop, but the move to the major label Mercury Records in 1996 had upped the ante in terms of expectations. Their first release for the new label was the single Lovefool, which reached #21 in the singles chart in September 1996.

Its follow-up was Been It, which stalled at a disappointing #56. Meanwhile, the album First Band On The Moon had entered the charts at #18 but had dropped out altogether after just four weeks, an indication that nothing was selling much beyond the established fanbase.

Towards the end of 1996, a new film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet became a box office smash. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, it was a modern take on the Shakespeare play, and it came with a pop-based soundtrack, with one of the tracks being Lovefool by The Cardigans. Cue some new interest in the band……

Lovefool was re-released in May 1997, entering at #4 and eventually reaching #2, and in many people’s eyes, making an overnight sensation out of the band. There was a minor spin-off in that First Band On The Moon came back into the album charts for a couple of months, and to help further with its marketing and promotion, the decision was taken to belatedly release a third single:-

mp3: The Cardigans – Your New Cuckoo (radio edit)

It’s about thirty seconds shorter than the album version, and the majority of the edit comes towards the end with the flute outro more or less removed as it was likely deemed to be too quirky for radio.

Your New Cuckoo was issued on 2xCD format and generated enough sales to enter the charts at #35 before disappearing almost immediately. At this stage, it was still fair to say that nothing was selling much beyond the established fanbase….although that would all change when the band went for a harder, more rock orientated sound by the time they released their next album…..

Here’s the extra pieces of music on CD1….it’s just a couple of remixes, neither of which sound anything like the original track!

mp3: The Cardigans – Your New Cuckoo (Hyper Disco Mix)
mp3: The Cardigans – Your New Cuckoo (Super Stereo Mix)

JC

Blondie

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : X OFFENDER


The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

X is for X Offender released by Blondie as a single in June 1976.

This is mostly adapted from wiki:-

X Offender is the debut single by Blondie. Written by Gary Valentine and Debbie Harry for the band’s self-titled debut album, it was released as the album’s lead single on Private Stock in June 1976.

The title of the song was originally “Sex Offender”. Bassist Gary Valentine originally wrote the song about an 18-year-old boy being arrested for having sex with his younger girlfriend. Debbie Harry changed the lyrics so that the song was about a prostitute being attracted to the police officer that had arrested her.

Private Stock insisted that the name of the single be changed to X Offender because they were nervous about the original title. It was released in mid-1976 with the B-side being In the Sun. Due to limited copies of the single being released and the subsequent popularity of the band, a copy of the original UK Private Stock single (catalogue number PVT 90)  is a sought-after rarity. The last copy to go on Discogs was in March 2019, and the seller was able to get £240. One of the reasons is that the mixes of both songs on the single are different from those on the Blondie album but then again, both were made available as bonus tracks on a 2001 CD re-release of the album whih is where these come from:-

mp3: Blondie – X Offender (single version)
mp3: Blondie – In The Sun (single version)

JC

Paul Weller

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : WILD WOOD

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

W is for Wild Wood released by Paul Weller as a single in September 1993.

Again, I won’t take up too much of your time today.

The Jam and The Style Council have featured heavily on the blog over the years, but there’s been next to nothing on the solo career of Paul Weller. The simple explanation is down to the fact that other than Into Tomorrow, the first ever solo single, released under the name of the Paul Weller Movement in 1991, I have just one CD single in the collection:-

mp3: Paul Weller – Wild Wood

I have this as Rachel bought me it.  She had heard it on the radio and was very pleasantly surprised to find out it was the work of Paul Weller, especially as she never had time for any of the work of his two previously successful bands.

I quite like Wild Wood as it’s a pleasant enough acoustic ballad.  I thought it made a bit of a change from the largely lumpen R’n’B stuff of his eponymous debut solo album from the previous year, and it did tempt me into getting Santa to bring me a copy of the Wild Wood album.  I just didn’t take to it, but I did hang onto it for a bit.  The release of Stanley Road in 1995 was the breaking point for me.  I didn’t understand the critical praise that was heaped on it, and I certainly couldn’t get my head around how well it had sold, as I thought it was plain awful, dad-rock with nothing inventive, different or interesting about it.  A colleague who thought Stanley Road was as good as anything they had ever heard in their life was with the recipient of my CD copy of Wild Wood in a secret Santa that next Christmas.  Judging by their reaction, on opening the parcel, I think she was now the proud owner of two Paul Weller albums.

mp3: Paul Weller – Ends Of The Earth

That’s your really dull and boring b-side to the single, which was mostly bought on CD format but was also issued by Go! Discs on limited edition 7″ and 10″ vinyl.  It reached #14 in the singles chart.

JC

Twilight Sad

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : VIDEOGRAMS

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

V is for Videograms released by The Twilight Sad as a 10″ single-sided etched single in October 2018

I won’t take up too much of your time today, given how much I’ve written about The Twilight Sad over the years.

2022 is going to be some year for the band.  It will begin with four dates in January at which James and Andy will take to the stage and perform stripped-down versions of their songs, while April sees the full band play two nights at Glasgow Barrowlands, shows that have been postponed on at least two (and maybe three?) previous occasions as a result of COVID restrictions.  Tickets have been in Aldo’s possession for a long, long time and we can’t wait.

From October – December, they will be  the special guests of The Cure on a 44-date arena tour of Europe and the UK, playing to about 10,000 folk on average each night. Other news of their own summer dates is awaited…..and possibly some new material too, as it’s been a while.

Today’s musical offering is a limited edition single from the most recent album It Won/t Be Like This All the Time.

mp3: The Twilight Sad – Videograms

While it was one of three singles lifted from the album, it was the only one given a physical release, with it appearing in the shops some three months in advance of the January 2019 release of the album. There was also a digital version on offer, one which not only appealed to the long-time fans but was of interest to those who followed the work of a well-known producer and mixer:-

mp3: The Twilight Sad – Videograms (Weatherall Mix)

It wasn’t the first time that The Twilight Sad and AndrewWeatherall had worked together, but with the untimely death of the producer in early 2020, it proved to be the last.

JC

Young Knives

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : UP ALL NIGHT

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

U is for Up All Night released by The Young Knives as a single in February 2008

The Young Knives are a band both myself and Mrs Villain (aka Rachel) went to see a fair bit back in the day. They got their initial break through Shifty Disco, an Oxford-based indie label, before a number of tours supporting some of the newly emerging and chart-reaching indie-guitar bands saw them land a deal with London-based Transgressive Records in 2005. A very busy three years followed, with the release of two albums and eight singles, five of which did make the Top 50, although none got any higher than #35.

Consisting of the brothers Henry Dartnall (vocals, guitar) and Thomas Bonsu-Dartnall, whose stage name was The House of Lords (vocals, bass guitar, keyboards) along with Oliver Askew (drums, backing vocals), they made pop music fun again in that eccentrically English sort of way that has a long line running through it going back to the Kinks and taking in the likes of Squeeze, XTC and Blur among others. They were always an entertaining live act and never really worried too much about whether any music writers thought they were hip, and indeed they seemed to thrive on their perceived nerdiness and geekiness.. From recollection, they were loathed by the NME.

I certainly wrote about them a few times over at the old blog, but this seems to be the first time since I shifted to wordpress.  The debut album was produced by the late Andy Gill (Gang of Four) while its follow-up, recorded in Glasgow, at a studio built by Mogwai, had Tony Doogan, best known for his work with Belle and Sebastian, was in the producer’s chair.

Up All Night was the second single taken from the second album, Superabundance.  It was released on 2 x 7″ vinyl and CD. The b-sides on the vinyl were otherwise unavailable originals while the CD had a cover version of a #1 hit from the 80s, recorded for a session that was broadcast on XFM radio

mp3: The Young Knives – Up All Night
mp3: The Young Knives – Le Petomaine
mp3: The Young Knives – Swimming With The Fishes
mp3: The Young Knives – Stand and Deliver

It reached #45 and was the last time the band enjoyed any singles chart success.

Having been dropped by Transgressive in 2009, they set up their own label, Gadzook for the third album, Ornaments From The Silver Arcade (2011). I bought it at the time but didn’t take to it on the first couple of listens, thinking it wasn’t what I was expecting or wanting to hear, and put it away on a shelf.

Ten years on, and I decided to give it another listen during a train journey up to the football a few weeks ago, and came to the conclusion that it was actually something of a lost classic, different in some ways from the previous two albums, but still laced with the catchy hooks and clever lyrics I’d enjoyed previously. It got me thinking again about XTC and how some of their best material was written and recorded when all but their most loyal fans had deserted them. I’ve since bought the fourth and fifth albums released by The Young Knives – Sick Octave (2013) and Barbarians (2020) and will get myself sorted out for an ICA sometime soon.

JC

White Lies

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : TO LOSE MY LIFE

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

T is for To Lose My Life released by White Lies as a single in January 2009.

White Lies burst onto the scene in 2008, one of those bands who get hyped all over the media on the back of some journalists having caught them at a gig and prior to any music being available to buy.  This is normally a recipe for disaster, but for once the music did just about live up to expectations, although there was, by the time the debut album hit the shops, the inevitable backlash.

Harry McVeigh (lead vocals, guitar), Charles Cave (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums) had been performing together since their late teens, initially under the name Fear of Flying. A couple of singles, produced by uber-producer Stephen Street, as well as some high-profile support slots on UK tours, hadn’t generated much success, and so the trio decided to have a serious rethink, choosing to ditch the name and to move to a darker, less pop-orientated sound.

The best part of five months was spent on refining and rehearsing, but all the while demos were being put out across various social media channels to generate a buzz. The extent to which it worked can be seen from Zane Lowe of BBC Radio 1 naming their song Death as ‘the hottest in the world‘ in early February 2008, despite it not having been released; in fact White Lies didn’t even have a record label and weren’t scheduled to make their live debut until 28 February 2008.

Within days of that debut, there were numerous offers on the table, with the band deciding to go with Fiction Records, part of the Universal Music empire. They were also added to a nationwide tour being promoted by the NME and by the end of May 2008, had also appeared on television, playing two songs on Later With Jools Holland on BBC2.

The deal with Fiction allowed for a small indie label to release the band’s debut single, Unfinished Business, on a limited edition 7″ vinyl. The debut for their new label was Death, the song hyped up many months earlier), and it only reached #52 in September 2008. Its follow-up would wait until January 2009, just a week before the debut album hit the shops:-

mp3: White Lies – To Lose My Life

It would only enter the charts #34, and drop down immediately, but as if to show that hit singles were no longer all that important in the grand scheme of things, the album, which was also called To Lose My Life, entered the charts at #1 the following week.  The critics, however, were no longer fawning over White Lies now that they were no longer a secret.

The single was issued onto separate 7″ vinyl records as well as a CD.  I’ve got your CD b-side on offer

mp3: White Lies – To Lose My Life (Filthy Dukes Remix)

The band is still going strong with a sixth studio album scheduled for a release later this year, supported by thirteen shows across the UK/Ireland in March and a very extensive 35-date trek around France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal between 4 April and 25 May.

JC

Stranglers

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : SOMETHING BETTER CHANGE/STRAIGHTEN OUT

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

S is for Something Better Change and Straighten Out, released by The Stranglers as a double-A single in July 1977.

We can argue all day and all night whether The Stranglers should be seen as a bona-fide punk outfit, or whether they were lucky grubby pub rockers who happened to be in the right city at the right time.  I liked a lot of their singles, although I reckon if I’d been a few years older and more politically/culturally/socially aware, I’d have been appalled by some of their lyrics.  As it was, the tunes got inside my head and the shout-along style of the vocals was nigh on perfect for any teenager looking to annoy their parents and teachers!

mp3: The Stranglers – Something Better Change
mp3: The Stranglers – Straighten Out

This made it all the way to #9 in July 1977. Something Better Change was the first single lifted from the album No More Heroes, released two months later. Straighten Out didn’t appear on the album.

JC

Maxine Nightingale

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

R is for Right Back Where We Started From released by Maxine Nightingale as a single in November 1975.

Some songs just sound so great coming out of the radio that they stay with you forever.  So it is with a Top 10 single from when I was just 12 years old:-

mp3: Maxine Nightingale – Right Back Where We Started From

Maxine Nightingale was 25 years old when this single was a hit.  British-born, of Guyanese parents, she began singing in groups while still at school, and by the time she was 16, was a vocalist in a cabaret band, and playing to club audiences all over the country.  She cut three solo singles in the late 60s/early 70s, but none of them achieved anything.  She then spent a number of years as part of the cast in the musical Hair, initially in London before taking the lead female role in the German production.

Newly married and with a daughter, she returned to London but took time off after doing a limited amount of session singing as it was impossible to juggle work and being a mother.  One of her appearances in the studio had caught the ear of producer Pierre Tubbs, who asked his friend, J. Vincent Edwards if they could come up together with a show-stopping tune for the vocalist.

The song was written in a matter of hours, and within a few days of being asked, Maxine was in a small demo studio in London putting down her vocal.  She was still reluctant to think about a career and her preference was that, should it be taken up by a label, it be released under a pseudonym. She also asked for a flat, one-off session fee for her performance, (probably around £25) but Edwards convinced her that would be a bad idea, and she should take her cut of the royalties instead.

Tubbs and Edwards pulled everything together using session musicians. The first label it was offered to was United Artists who pounced on it.  The speed at which things were moving helped persuade the singer that it should go out under her own name.  It reached #8 in the UK, but more importantly it would get to #2 on the US Billboard Chart. All this led to a proper contract for Maxine Nightingale resulting in three albums in the late 70s (the image at the top of this post is the sleeve of the debut album…the single came in a plain sleeve as there hadn’t been any time to take professional, publicity photos).

She never really came close to repeating the success of Right Back, and in many ways, Maxine Nightingale is regarded as something of a one-hit wonder.

My own love for the song has never left me, and I’ve aired it a few times in the pre-match build-up at Stark’s Park on Saturday afternoons, often in the important games as we chased promotion to a higher division.

JC

Wire

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : A QUESTION OF DEGREE

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

Q is for A Question of Degree released by Wire as a single in June 1979.

Wire formed in London in 1976.  Mike, from Manic Pop Thrills, provided as good a summary as you’d ever want, when he pulled together an ICA back in March 2017:-

A British rock institution rapidly approaching the 40th anniversary of their first gig as a 4 piece (in 2017). And, after all that time, still making great albums.

For much of their lifespan, Wire have featured only four members – Colin Newman (guitar/vocals), Graeme Lewis (bass/vocals), Robert Grey (nee Gotobed) – drums) and Bruce Gilbert (guitar).

Yet, despite a remarkably stable line-up, intra-band tensions have always played a huge part in the Wire story. Wilson Neate’s book ‘Read & Burn: A Book About Wire’ is a superb telling of their history, portraying it as a struggle for control between principally Newman and Gilbert.

The late 70s produced three classic LPs in ‘Pink Flag’, ‘Chairs Missing’ and ‘154’ on which the band pretty much invented post punk. This purple patch however was curtailed by an acrimonious split, with songs written for a fourth album.

Perhaps surprisingly after several years apart the band came together again in the mid 80s. Their 80s/90s output is less well regarded than the original trilogy, but almost any band would consider the run of records from the ‘Snakedrill’ E.P. to ‘The First letter’’ to constitute a decent career.

Having lost drummer Gotobed during the band’s second incarnation, the internal dynamics of the remaining three members meant that they ceased activity for a second time in 1991.

Unexpectedly, the band reconvened for live shows and to produce another LP ‘Send’ in the early Noughties. Since then, although Gilbert left the band for good after ‘Send’, the band have enjoyed the most active phase of their career, releasing four albums and a mini-LP since 2008 with another album due at the end of March 2017 (and one more for good measure arrived in 2020).

Today’s song was released after Chairs Missing, but prior to 154:-

mp3: Wire – A Question of Degree

It’s an excellent piece of music, and I’d love to be able to tell you that I picked up on it as a teenager back in 1979.  But I was quite late to Wire, albeit I was aware of Pink Flag as it was a favourite album of a flatmate in the student years.    It’s no surprise that the single was a huge flop, but I don’t think the band or the label ever thought it would deliver any mainstream success.  The first two minutes or so move along at a fair lick, almost power-pop in places, but then it changes tempo and seems to go through some sort of machine that forces a change in shape, to something approaching psychedelia; it only lasts 30 seconds or so, but it is quite disorientating and makes it nigh on impossible to play on daytime radio, before reverting to that earworm of a tune.

The b-side:-

mp3: Wire – Former Airline

I’m very grateful that I didn’t buy this single in 1979.  If I’d played Former Airline, then there’s every chance I’d have made a fool of myself by taking it back to the shop and asking for a replacement copy on the grounds that the record was so badly damaged it was unlistenable.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

JC

Sex Pistols

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : PRETTY VACANT

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

P is for Pretty Vacant released by Sex Pistols as a single in July 1977.

I did think long and hard about featuring this.  I do despise everything that John Lydon has become in recent years, and the blog really should be giving him as much oxygen as it does Morrissey.  But I never invested anything near as much, emotionally and all the rest of it, in Lydon/Sex Pistols/PIL as I did with The Smiths/Morrissey, and as such, I can, in my head, make some differences.  Besides, homing in on Pretty Vacant, and extending it to the b-side, does allow some sort of link to how yesterday’s post finished off.

It was released on 2 July 1977 as the band’s third single, reaching #6 in the UK singles chart. And yes, I’m still amazed all these years later that the BBC and all other radio stations accepted that the singer was pronouncing it as ‘vacant’………….

mp3: Sex Pistols – Pretty Vacant

Here’s the b-side, seemingly a one-take in the studio, featuring a cover of a Stooges song:-

mp3 : Sex Pistols – No Fun

Talking of covers, The Ukrainians, the band fronted by Peter Solowka, formerly of The Wedding Present, did this in 2002:-

mp3: The Ukrainians – Цiлкoм Baкaнтнi

JC

Ida Maria

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : OH MY GOD

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

O is for Oh My God released by Ida Maria as a single in October 2007 and re-released in January 2009.

Ida Maria was born in 1984 in the small town of Nesna, Norway.  At the age of sixteen she moved to the bigger town of Bergen, looking to try and make some sort of career as a musician.  It took another move, this time to Stockholm, the capital city of Sweden, before she was able to gain some success, fronting a band and becoming a reasonably popular live act within the Swedish rock scene without any commercial success or record deal.

It would take until 2006 to make her name back home in Norway, thanks to winning national competitions for unknown artists and capturing the attention at rock festivals.  She was signed to the Norwegian arm of Universal Records, releasing Oh My God as her debut single in late 2007, with the album Fortress Around My Heart following in July 2008.

The album was a huge success in Norway, and was also picked up on by the music press in the UK, thanks largely to the success of the single I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked, which was a Top 20 hit and helped land Ida Maria slots at summer festivals as well as an appearance on Later With Jools Holland.

The decision was taken to re-release Oh My God as the follow-up, but for whatever reason, it was held back on a couple of occasions and didn’t hit the shops until January 2009. It didn’t crack the Top 75, despite it being an infectiously catchy piece of indie-rock:-

mp3 : Ida Maria – Oh My God

Here’s the b-side from the original release

mp3 : Ida Maria – We’re All Going To Hell

Later in 2009, Ida Maria released a remix of Oh My God, one win which a grizzled rock veteran added his co- and backing vocal:-

mp3 : Ida Maria – Oh My God (remix featuring Iggy Pop)

It’s a pity that I’ve previously featured The Passenger on the blog as it would have made for a neat follow-up tomorrow.

JC

Vince Staples

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : NORF NORF


The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

N is for Norf Norf released by Vince Staples as a single in June 2015.

The first in the series not to actually get a physical release, as a single.

I’m sure it was SWC who brought this to my attention.  If it was, then thank you….and if it was someone else, then I apologise profusely.

Here’s all music’s take:-

One of the most talented voices in rap to emerge in the late 2010s, Vince Staples took the hardened perspective of his Long Beach-via-Compton upbringing and elevated it above his contemporaries with forward-thinking production choices and lyrical introspection. After releasing a batch of mixtapes that were well-received by fans and peers alike, he issued his official debut Summertime ’06, a 2015 hit that spawned the gold-certified Norf Norf. Staples quickly followed with 2016’s politically charged Prima Donna EP. With his star swiftly rising, he had a breakthrough year in 2017 with a spot on the Black Panther soundtrack, a feature on the Gorillaz track Ascension, and another hit single, BagBak, from his critically acclaimed sophomore album, Big Fish Theory. Pivoting to shorter LPs, he released the brisk FM! (2018) and Vince Staples (2021).

Norf Norf did not peak in any major chart, but received widespread acclaim by critics and was placed on several year-end lists. In February 2018, the song was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, which I am assuming was based on the number of downloads over the years.

mp3: Vince Staples – Norf Norf

The song, which is a hard hitting and gritty tale about life on the streets, gained notoriety over a year after its release. It was all on account of social media lighting up after a woman, a Christian mother, posted an eleven minute-long video blog in which she tore into the song, lamenting the fact it was being aired:-

“This is on our local radio station, this crap is being played.  I couldn’t even believe the words that I was listening to. As a mom, it infuriated me.”

The woman was ridiculed, largely on the basis of privilege and was accused of being racist.  Staples, however, refused to jump on the bandwagon, stating, via twitter, that everyone was entitled to an opinion, and adding that he didn’t believe she was racist.  His take on it was the woman in the video was confused on the context of the song and this caused her to be frightened, and understandably so. He went further and called out those who were attacking her.

It seems to me to be a strange one.  I get the idea of Staples suggesting that those who were attacking the woman were displaying as much a lack of understanding as she had shown back when she posted the video online.

But surely there is some noise to be made about the fact that the woman displayed such a shocking lack of empathy towards the situations being described in the lyric?  If white parents continually stigmatise young black people and pass on their unjust fears to their children, then the issues that have caused so much pain and grief these past 12 months in particular are never going to go away.

Apologies for a bit of a Sunday sermon today.  I’ll try and pick out a happy song tomorrow.

JC

Tindersticks

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : MY OBLIVION

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

M is for My Oblivion released by Tindersticks as a single in October 2003.

This is the sort of thing I sneak out on the blog when folk aren’t paying too much attention.

Tindersticks had released a sixth studio album, Waiting For The Moon in June 2003.  Even for a band who rarely made the most commercial of music, this was a difficult listen, one which it was later revealed to have taken a long time to get down in the studio, with the recording process running from September 2001 – January 2003.  It also proved to be the last album the original line-up would make as by the time The Hungry Saw was released in 2008, three of the original six members had quit….a genuine case of musical differences.

For some strange reason, the label that the band were on at the time, Beggars Banquet, felt that a drip-feed of single releases would somehow help with sales.  Both of Don’t Even Go There and Sometimes It Hurts had bombed, and there really wasn’t another track suitable for release as a single…..and besides, there was no radio station prepared to play their music except when it was the time of day, dead of night when listening numbers were miniscule.

And yet, the decision was taken to edit down the seven-minute version of an album track, into something just a little over four minutes, and issue a third single from the album:-

mp3: Tindersticks – My Oblivion (edit)

I’m not saying that My Oblivion is a poor piece of music – far from it – but it is a ridiculously poor choice for a single.

But then again, all the diehard fans went out and bought it as there was a previously unreleased song along with what was thought, at first glance, to be an instrumental version of another track on the album:-

mp3: Tindersticks – Now It’s Over
mp3: Tindersticks – Running Wild (extended instrumental)

Now It’s Over is a decent enough song, especially for a b-side and actually could have gone on to the album as a replacement for one or more of the hard listens.

Running Wild, in its original form, was the closing track on the album, coming in at just over four minutes and with a typically morose vocal. This version comes with a warning. It is more than 14 minutes of compiled takes, recorded during the various sessions for Waiting For The Moon.

Anyone who gets all the way through it without hitting the off or fast-forward button deserves some sort of reward. Or at least a long lie-down.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

JC

One Thousand Violins

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : LOCKED OUT OF THE LOVE-IN

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

L is for Locked Out of the Love-In released by One Thousand Violins as a single in September 1987.

One Thousand Violins, from Sheffield, formed in 1985. The original members were John Wood (vocals), Colin Gregory (guitar), David Walmsley (keyboards/guitar), Darren Swindells (bass), and Peter Day (drums). They were signed by Dan Treacy of The Television Personalities to his Dreamworld Records, with debut single Halycon Days being the second release on the label in July 1985. Incidentally, the B-side of the 7″ single, Like One Thousand Violins, was voted in at #49 in the John Peel Festive 50 of 1985.

The second single, Please Don’t Sandblast My House followed in October 1986, after which Ian Addey came in as the new drummer. A third and final single on Dreamworld came out in September 1987:-

mp3: One Thousand Violins – Locked Out of the Love-In

It reached #13 in the indie chart, but before too long Dreamworld Records folded.

In due course, lead singer John Wood departed, but with the key songwriting team of Colin Gregory and David Walmsley still involved, they soldiered on, recruiting a new singer and signing to London-based Immaculate Records, a label which normally specialised in synth pop. A few more singles and an album followed, but to little fanfare, and it all came to a halt in 1989.

Like many other bands of the era, there was a renewed interest in their music many years later, and Cherry Red Records, in 2014, released a compilation album covering all the songs recorded between 1985 and 1987.

Here’s the three tracks which were included on the 12″ of Locked Out of the Love-In

mp3: One Thousand Violins – Why Is It Always December?
mp3: One Thousand Violins – I Was Depending On You To Be My Jesus
mp3: One Thousand Violins – No-One Was Saving The World

Cracking names for the songs, but the best song title of the lot can be found as the extra track made available the 12″ version of the debut single:-

mp3: One Thousand Violins – I Remember When Everybody Used To Ride Bikes… Now We All Drive Cars

JC

Siouxsie & The Banshees

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : KISS THEM FOR ME

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

K is for Kiss Them For Me released by Siouxsie & The Banshees as a single in May 1991.

This is another of those occasions when I look at the date of the release and think to myself that I can’t possibly be that old a song.

Kiss Them for Me was the lead single from the band’s 10th studio album, Superstition, which would be released about a month later. It was something of a shock to hear a fairly substantial shift in direction, more dance/groove orientated than normal, with a very clear and distinct bhangra, as well as baggy, influence. The promo video turned out to be all Siouxsie with little of the Banshees, focussing on her looks as she swayed, moaned and sighed her way through what was bound to be a sure-fire hit single.

mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Kiss Them For Me

It didn’t completely stiff, but at #32, it was along the lines of most of the band’s 45s. It as their 25th single release in the UK, of which only five had made it inside the Top 20.

Released on 7″, 12″ CD and cassette, many of the b-sides were remixes, but there were some other otherwise unavailable tracks:-

mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Return
mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Staring Back
mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Kiss Them For Me (Snapper Mix)
mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Kiss Them For Me (Kathak Mix)
mp3: Siouxsie & The Banshees – Kiss Them For Me (Loveappella Mix)

What I didn’t know until doing a bit of background research for today’s post is that Siouxsie’s cryptic lyrics are a tribute to Jayne Mansfield. It seems her catchword was ‘divoon’, a slang word used in the lyric, while there are also references to heart-shaped swimming pools, a love of champagne and parties, and also the horrific car crash which killed the actress in 1967. And neither was I aware that Kiss Them for Me was also the name of a 1957 film in which Jayne Mansfield had starred with Cary Grant.

JC

Dexy's Midnight Runners

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : JACKIE WILSON SAID…..

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

J is for Jackie Wilson Said (I’m In Heaven When You Smile) released by Dexys Midnight Runners as a single in October 1982.

Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile) was written by Van Morrison and is the opening track of the album Saint Dominic’s Preview, released in 1972.

Dexys Midnight Runners were just over two years removed from the success of Geno and the album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels when seemingly out of the blue, and sporting a whole new look and sound, they had the big hit of the summer of 1982 with Come On Eileen. The new album, Too-Rye-Ay became an instant success, entering the charts at #2 in its first week of release at the beginning of August. Come On Eileen was still riding high and so there was no urgency for a follow-up 45, and it took until October before Mercury Records opted for the cover version as being the most suitable.

It also proved to be a huge hit, reaching #5 despite the fact that it, and its b-side, could both be found on the album.

mp3: Dexys Midnight Runners – Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)

There are maybe some hints that Kevin Rowland would have preferred that the b-side had been chosen as the single. Its name appears on the front of the picture sleeve, and its lyrics can be found on the reverse. I’m surely not alone in thinking that this is a far superior song to the cover:-

mp3: Dexys Midnight Runners – Let’s Make This Precious

This one can be heard, more weeks than not, blaring out pre-match at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy as one of the tunes that I choose, in my role as match day announcer, to play prior to kick-off. It’s an uplifting and rousing sort of number, one that always help with gradual build-up of the atmosphere.

JC

Kylie Minogue

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : I SHOULD BE SO LUCKY

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

I is for l Should Be So Lucky released by Kylie Minogue as a single on 29 December 1987. Which makes it one day short of being 34 years old…..

Kylie Minogue was one of the most popular stars of Neighbours, an Australian soap opera which aired daily here in the UK on BBC1 at 5.30pm, preceded by children’s TV and followed immediately by the evening news bulletin. Back home in Oz, she was already something of a pop star in that Locomotion, her debut, and at this point only single, had spent six weeks at #1. She was invited to the UK to work with Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW), a songwriting and record producing trio who had enjoyed considerable success, beginning from the mid-80s, with an approach to music that was akin to an assembly in that the tunes would be put together using synths, drum machines and sequencers, before the singer was asked to add the vocals at the end.

History records that SAW weren’t ready for the arrival of the soap star, and didn’t have a ready-made song to hand. Everything was put together in a hurry, and Kylie seemingly left at the end of the day, really unhappy with how it had gone.

Nobody really knew what to expect when the single was released in that period between Christmas and New Year. It was a slow burner of sorts, in that it entered the charts at #90, before climbing to #54, #31 and #16 before leaping to #2 and then hitting #1 in late February, where it would stay for five weeks. By the time it left the charts in May 1988, it had sold almost 700,000 copies.

SAW, by this time, had gone out to Australia to apologise for the initial lack of welcome, realising that they had, certainly for the short-term, another singer they could add to the assembly line, with a guarantee of a few hit singles before Kylie went out of fashion, as all pop stars of the nature inevitably do.

mp3: Kylie Minogue – I Should Be So Lucky

The partnership with SAW eventually came to an end in 1992 with Kylie saying she now wanted the freedom to pick and choose which songwriters and producers she would work with. Very few people thought she would thrive or develop with the guiding hand of SAW. Twenty-five further Top 20 singles in the UK would suggest she made the right call.

JC

Thom Yorke

A RANDOM A-Z OF SINGLES : HARROWDOWN HILL

The traffic to the blog slows up over the Festive period, and it’s therefore something of an opportunity to take a bit of a breather.

Over a period of 26 days, I’ll be posting a single never previously featured on its own before – it might have sneaked in as part of an ICA or within a piece looking at various tracks – with the idea of an edited cut’n’paste from somewhere (most likely wiki) and then all the songs from either the vinyl or CD.

H is for Harrowdown Hill, released by Thom Yorke as a single in August 2006.

Harrowdown Hill was released on Thom Yorke’s debut solo album, The Eraser (2006), recorded while Radiohead were on hiatus.  At the time of release, Yorke said the song had been “kicking around” during the sessions for Radiohead’s sixth album, Hail to the Thief (2003), but that it could not have worked as a Radiohead song.

The lyrics are about David Kelly, a British weapons expert who died, allegedly from suicide, in 2003 after telling a reporter that the British government had falsely identified weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly’s body was found in the woods of Harrowdown Hill, near Yorke’s former school in Oxfordshire.

Yorke was uncomfortable about the subject matter and conscious of the late man’s grieving family, but in press interviews he stated that “not to write it would perhaps have been worse”, that it was “the most angry song” he had ever written.

mp3: Thom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill

The single was released on  7″, 12″ and CD. Here’s the other tracks that were made available:-

mp3: Thom Yorke – The Drunkk Machine
mp3: Thom Yorke – Jetstream
mp3: Thom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill (extended mix)

It entered the charts at #23, before dropping all the way down to #55 the following week and out of the Top 75 after three weeks. It’s not the most commercial of singles, but things weren’t helped by what appeared to be an unofficial radio ban here in the UK, thanks to the controversial subject matter and the fact that Thom Yorke, in all his media interviews and appearances, was openly implicating the UK government and the Ministry of Defence in the death of Dr Kelly.

JC