Ireland's That Petrol Emotion emerged from the remnants of The Undertones to produce well-crafted pop songs with a rock aggression that had been lacking until the mid-1980s. Signed by Demon they hit the European tour circuit and are caught here on a fiery blast of wit and wisdom.
Portsmouth guitar outfit at the time with psychedelic twinges whose debut mini album was given its name by John Peel 'Psylons Is Golden'. After this indie hit more singles abounded moving into "frantic drumming, femmes bass and buzzshaw guitars" territory which to continue the reviewers quote made them like "joy-riders on PCP".
This eulogy to the actress was actually recorded in 1979 when The Go Betweens were but two, Grant McLennan and Robert Foster, and issued in their native Australia as their first single. Only issued in the UK in 1986 after signing with the Beggars Banquet empire.
Leeds' love of wired Goth music, long hair and serious attitudes continued with this nicely worked sub-rock groaner. Rose Of Avalanche quickly developed their cult following, progressed in Europe and secured their place in the goth hall of fame.
While the world was beginning to jingle jangle in earnest, the Midlands' Pop Will Eat Itself launched themselves as aggressive heavy duty punk saviours. Playing it fast, flash and trashy they were quick to swap their roots for dance when the opportunity arose. 'PoppiecockEP' however, is as raw and rootsy as it gets.
Emotional Goth-based minimalism in the true Kate Bush sense of the word, A;; About Eve were set to draw a shroud over many a bedsit session of outpouring hearts with this early 'In The Clouds' 45. Later signed to Phonogram they perfected their sound and charted.
Possessing a wicked vocal style and well-crafted lyrical edge, Close Lobsters are yet another indie legend who disappeared long before they had time to fulfill their promise.'Going To Heaven' tells just part of the story, if you ever get the chance to decipher any of their other drawled vocals, then grab it.
Another phase for the Leeds-originated band who emerged as punk heroes and embraced folk music after getting heavy-handed for a while. Whatever their guise, the secret of The Mekons was their numerous disparate bodies pulling together to make a complete sound. 'Cruel World' is a perfect example.
The Flatmates were altogether a wimpier variation of rock music. There were moments when the two-girl/two-boy axis strode out of their jangly following and threatened to turn the world around to their pop vision but 'Heaven' was never really capitalised on and the band eventually fell apart.
The Chesterfields had little resumption of the big time, or even a grand plan. Writing throwaway pop songs in the Orange Juice mould, they were destined to be ignored by most but cherished for every limited edition 45.
Blending pop into an electronic setting but still retaining the melody...it's easy to over-analyse Erasure. The truth of the matter is they write great pop songs.
Blonde power emerged in the C86 boom and The Primitives' Lazy label were snapped up by RCA. With more than its fair share of punk power and leather-clad posing, The Primitives rock lineage was destined for chart success but they could never live up to the excesses of their status.
The poppy, bedsit side of the jangly generation was all about goofy looking guys being able to fall in love and have natural feelings - well, sort of. Mighty Mighty were the goofiest and even became groomed for pop success. Sadly, their looks never lived up to their songwriting skills.
From the nucleus of The Cravats, The Very THings resurrected Motown melodies and added a gruff, growling vocal. 'Motortown' was anthemic and should have given them a career of film noir influenced success. Sadly, and probably through the success of labelmates The Sugarcubes, they were overlooked.
Scots band Goodbye Mr Mackenzie included a former Exploited guitarist and the success if this indie 45 earnt them an EMI contract. The subsequent years saw a string of releases but it was only the numerous re-issues of this track that retained their commercial success.
Also from north of the border and later signed to the London label. His Latest Flame were an all-girl six-piece who fused harmonies and melodies with a Motown bent on this excellent single debut. They never quite managed to repeat the formula but this track makes up for their later output.
Billy Bragg's position as one of today's greater writers of telling lyrics was assured already. 'Levi Stubbs' ' merely confirmed that the simple folk sound and aggressively-penned lyrics shouldn't pass anyone by.
Madness also existed in 1986 and Tranmere's Half Man Half Biscuit had plenty of it. From and album and live show filled with TV references to Peel single success, Half Man were loved and trusted by cult fans and the rockhierarchy alike.
* As written is the sleeve notes. Don't blame my unreliable typing for the errors above. Oh and why didn't it simply say under Billy's entry.....a candidate for the most gorgeous and saddest love song of all time.
Sheffield's Jarvis Cocker and his cohorts have only recently re-emerged from a self-imposed sabbatical. Their roots go back to well-designed pop madness like this prime example from the mid-80s. Perversely on the wrong side of pop acceptance, 'Little Girl' sounds just as offbeat today.
Bristol's multi-talented and multi-personed Blue Aeroplanes were scooped from their own label onto Fire and more recently Ensign where major chart success rewarded their years of wordy prose, and multi-layered guitars.
OK folks....you need to indulge me a fair bit over the next few postings.
I'm off on holiday for 11 nights....to somewhere far away where it is sunny and warm. And I don't intend to check in on-line all that often and see how the blog is doing in my absence. And I've decided to be really lazy while I'm away and do 11 posts of two songs each, all taken from a CD album called The Indie Scene 1986 that was released some six years later. Not only that, but I'm going to just repeat word for word what was said in the accompanying sleeve notes.
The first and best single from former Loft frontperson Peter Astor's Weather Prophets first arrived as a double-45 pack, filled with emotional harmonies and a killer hookline. The world expected the group to make major label history but their time was shortlived and superseded by a succession of fellow labelmates.
Manchester's Easterhouse were acclaimed as The Clash to The Smiths' Pistols and certainly their songs were strong enough. Sadly, inter-band rifts saw their demise but not before this carefully-crafted pop song that exposed the inadequacies of the Northern Ireland situation.
Two previous postings featuring the man with possibly the biggest ego in pop music in my lifetime have escaped the notice of the dmca chaps. Will it be third time unlucky??
You wont be surprised to find that the record label had to provide radio stations the world over with a censored version of the song. It was a huge hit in the UK, reaching #4 in the charts in the summer of 1992, but less so in the USA where it stalled at #66 (I'm guessing that even with the censored version many stations didn't play the song for fear of an orchestrated backlash among local communities).
There's a funky groove thang going on in the TVV house today.
The Jam released three cracking singles in 1979 - Strange Town, When You're Young and The Eton Rifles.
Personally, I thought the last of them was the weakest of the three, but it did give the band their first Top 10 single at the ninth attempt. Oh and every single afterwards (with the exception of the import-only That's Entertainment) would also go Top 10.
Paul Weller was only 21 years of age when he wrote this song, and contrary to popular belief, it isn't based on anything that happened to him.
It was inspired by newspaper story that concerning elements of a Right To Work march going through Slough in 1978 breaking off to attack pupils from Eton College who were jeering them. However, the marchers got a bit of a kicking for their troubles as the posh boys tuned out to be younger, fitter and more than capable of looking after themselves.
Much of the trouble was blamed on marchers from a far-left political party, with some first-hand reports claiming that they instigated the fight and then fled the scene when they realised they were going to get a hiding - thus Weller's scathing lines
" What a catalyst you turned out to be Loaded the guns then you run off home for your tea Left me standing like a guilty schoolboy."
Here's a clip from a BBC2 programme called 'Something Else' back in the days.
Oh and here's wee bonus of a demo version (although its actually a solo Weller recording):-
That above is a picture of one of the many line-ups of The Monochrome Set.
It's easier to tell you their story with an adaptation from wikipedia:-
The original line-up consisted of Indian born lead singer and principal songwriter Bid (real name Ganesh Seshadri), Canadian guitarist Lester Square (real name Thomas W.B. Hardy), drummer John D. Haney, and bassist Charlie Harper. The band went through several bassists in the next few years, including Jeremy Harrington, and Andy Warren of the Ants, a childhood friend of Bid.
Experimental filmmaker Tony Potts began collaborating with the band in 1979, designing lighting and stage sets with film projections for their live appearances. The band's early persona was defined by the shadowy, uncertain stage images created by the films to such an extent he is often described as being the band's "fifth member."
They released several singles for the Rough Trade label before recording their debut album, "Strange Boutique", produced by Bob Sargeant, for Virgin Records' imprint DinDisc in 1980, as well as their follow-up effort, Love Zombies, produced by Alvin Clark and the band later that same year. John Haney left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Lexington Crane.
In 1982, the band switched labels to Cherry Red to release their third full-length album, Eligible Bachelors, produced by Tim Hart. Lester Square and Lexington Crane left soon afterwards, and were replaced by keyboardist Carrie Booth and drummer Nicholas Weslowski. This line-up recorded 1982 single Cast a Long Shadow, for Cherry Red before Booth was in turn replaced by new lead guitarist James 'Foz' Foster.
In 1983, Cherry Red released Volume, Contrast, Brilliance... sessions & singles vol. 1, a retrospective of the band's early Rough Trade singles, BBC and Capital Radio sessions, and other unreleased early sessions.
In 1985, with the same line-up as on Cast a Long Shadow, The Monochrome Set recorded the relatively mainstream album The Lost Weekend for major label Warner Bros. Records. The Lost Weekend failed commercially, and after a few singles, the band officially broke up, though they served as Jessica Griffin's backing band on the first album by the Would-Be-Goods, The Camera Loves Me.
In early 1990, Bid, Lester Square and Andy Warren reformed the band, with the addition of keyboardist Orson Presence and drummer Mike Slocombe (who was quickly replaced by Trevor Ready). The new band toured extensively—especially in Japan, where Bid had become a major star.
The band released several low-key albums for Cherry Red Records during the 1990s, and has been on hiatus since 1998, though Bid has since recorded a number of albums with his new band, Scarlet's Well. The song "He's Frank" appears on the popular tv series "Heroes" in the second season.
The band reunited on 8 October 2008 for a one-off performance at Cherry Red's 30th Anniversary party at Dingwalls, London. It also marked the 30th year of The Monochrome Set. Bid, Andy Warren and Lester Square were joined by Jennifer Denitto (drums) and Sian Dada (keyboards) of Scarlet's Well, and performed 13 songs.
Do you want to know something else about this largely-forgotten band? They were big favourites of both Johnny Marr and Morrissey....and musically and lyrically they were an influence on the Manchester magicians. All sound quite interesting doesn't it:-
My very dear friend Jacques the Kipper cannot abide Simple Minds. They've always been one of those bands that get that sort of reaction from otherwise fair-minded folk. Even back in the days before they went massive and all stadium-rock wanky on us.
Me?? I loved them to bits back in the early 80s. I even forgave them some of the early pomp-rock because the video for Waterfront was shot on location in Glasgow and gave the city a real boost at a time when many had written us off as being in terminal decline. I didn't even mind the fact that they enjoyed massive success across the world in the mid-late 80s....local boys made good and all that. But I could never again take them seriously after the monstrosity of the 1989 #1 that was Belfast Child....
It was all so different just eight years previously:-
This was the band's sixth single, and the first to threaten the charts when it peaked at #47 in August 1981. I was just about to start university, and this songs and so many other great pieces of synthesiser-led music would form the backdrop to my first forays into the student union where I would spend far too much time over the next four years.
Happy Listening.
PS
I know this is a music blog, but I cant let today pass by without this clip from 15 years ago today:-
My thanks go to everyone who made the effort to enter - I got e-mails from all over the place, including Canada, USA, Australia and Germany.
I've been going through the vinyl cupboard in recent weeks and found a couple of things Smiths/Morrissey related that I have two copies of, so there's likely to be another competition early in 2010.
I don't reckon I'm alone in the fact that first time I ever heard Paranoid Android was when Radiohead appeared on the late-night BBC music programmeLater in May 1997. The person who posted this on YouTube said it was one of the greatest performances ever to grace the stage of that show. And they're not wrong:
It was something totally unexpected. Yes, the band had released a cracking LP in The Bends a couple of years previously that had brought them to the attention of the wider public and also got them positive reviews from the rock meeja. But this was something else entirely.....
The single had in fact been released a few days before the TV performance as was on heavy rotation on the evening shows on Radio 1. It was already being described as the Bohemian Rhapsody of the 90s. But to me that's just a lazy description based on the fact that the song has different and distinct sections at more than six minutes in length is not anything like your average single.
Paranoid Android is a strange, complex and twisted song that really shouldn't work, but somehow it does.
Maybe its the fact that we're all lulled into a false sense of security by the gorgeous opening with its acoustic guitars over Thom Yorke's high-pitched vocal. And for about three minutes we can sing along, tap our feet and move our head of work from side to side enjoying a song that is that is not all that indistinguishable from other admittedly top-quality indie pop/rock.
But then it gets all strange as Jonny Greenwood batters the shit out of his guitar and it suddenly comes not quite to a halt, but slows to a ballad pace and becomes almost like a hymn sung by a choir before Thom Yorke comes back in with a vocal that seems to challenge his God to take out his anger on him. Then just when you thought that would be it...there's about 45 seconds or so of a guitar solo and backing music that wouldn't have been out of place on a heavy metal album from 15 years or so earlier....certainly something that air guitarists would get awfully excited about.
As I said, it shouldn't work, but it does.
It reached #3 in the UK singles charts on its release and remains the biggest hit Radiohead have ever enjoyed. There were two CD singles available to buy, and the b-sides are well worth a listen as they show different sides to the band, but they wont be everyone's cup of tea. In fact some of you might find them downright irritating:-
Today is the 25th November, exactly one month until the day that Santa pops down your chimney, so this is the last of the short series with a few suggestions for gifts to either put on your own lists or buy for someone else.
Today's suggestion features The Twilight Sad, a four-piece band formed in Kilsyth which is a small town some 12 miles north of Glasgow. This year saw the release of the second LP Forget The Night Ahead, the long-awaited follow-up to the very highly acclaimed 2007 debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters.
Ed from 17 Seconds was one of the first bloggers to review this album back at the beginning of October, and part of what he said was spot-on:-
Second albums are traditionally difficult things. And when your first album, almost always written before you’ve been signed, has been a kick up the backside to an industry that fifty years in, is still always in danger of getting smug and self-satisfied, that momentum needs to keep going. The problem is that bands frequently never get enough time to do their second album. It’s a good companion piece to their debut - and if I hadn’t heard their debut, I’d probably be blown away.
Well, it was spot-on at the time on my first listen to this record.
I do happen agree with Ed that Forget The Night Ahead isn't as good as the debut. But that would be an impossible task. On the first couple of listens you might not even think it comes close....but this is a record that just gets better and better with every listen. It's big, its noisy and in places it is catchy (not something I thought I'd ever say when talking about The Twilight Sad). Two or three weeks ago I would have said it was a good album. Now I think it is an exceptional album.
Invest not just your money in this album, but your time and energy to get to know it. Before long you will come to realise that it is a masterpiece....
I normally move away quickly to the opposite corner of the record shop as fast as I can if someone points in the direction of a charity record, for almost without exception they are well-meaning but crap.
But not Dark Was The Night, a 2CD release from earlier this year on behalf of Red Hot, the long-established AIDS charity (I remember buying a compilation VHS tape for Red Hot back in 1990 that featured loads of covers of Cole Porter songs).
It has 31-tracks from some of the very best indie artists around, mainly from the USA. It was a project produced by Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner of The National with assistance from John Carlin the founder of Red Hot - some blogs and sites give the impression that the songs themselves were all produced by the trio but this is not the case.
Released on the 4AD label back in February, the record had, by late October, made almost £450,000 in profit for the charity. But if some of you who havent yet bought it do so as Xmas presents, then that figure can increase further.
Those featured on the record are Antony, Arcade Fire, Beirut, Andrew Bird, Blonde Redhead, Bon Iver, The Books, David Byrne, Cat Power, The Decemberists, Devastations, Dirty Projectors, Kevin Drew, Feist, Ben Gibbard, Jose Gonzalez, Grizzly Bear, Iron & Wine, Kronos Quartet, Stuart Murdoch, My Brightest Diamond, My Morning Jacket, The National, Conor Oberst, The New Pornographers, Riceboy Sleeps, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Dave Sitek, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Gillain Welch, Yeasayer, Yo La Tengo.
I'm not fond of all 31 tracks, but then again I dont think I own any album of that length that I can say every song is an absolute stunner. But at least three-quarters of these are among some of my favourite releases of 2009. This however, is the one I nominate as the absolute stand out:-
I've reviewed some books this past 12 months on TVV, and if you haven't got hold of them already, why not add these to your lists?
1. Bad Vibes : Britpop and My Part In Its Downfall - Luke Haines
In which the ex-frontman of The Auteurs recounts an insiders view of all that was wrong with UK pop music in the 1990s. Reviewed here on 21st January. Click here to buy.
2. The Song Of The Soul - Richard Cundill and Mark Bradley
An authorised biography of Martin Stephenson. As a fan of more than 25 years, I thought I knew a lot about one of the best singer-songwriters ever to come out of the north-east of England. I learned a lot.... Reviewed here on 17 June. Click here to buy
3. Falling & Laughing : The Restoration of Edwyn Collins - Grace Maxwell
A compelling read. An eye-opening and astonishing book. The title tells you all you need to know. Reviewed here on 28 July. Click here to buy
4. You're Entitled To An Opinion - David Nolan
A wonderful bio of the late Tony Wilson which I raved about only a few weeks ago. Reviewed here on 27 October. Click here to buy.
And one I thought I know I disnt review, but I did go on about its subject matter quite a bit in 2009:-
5. Mozipedia : The Encyclopdia of Morrissey and The Smiths - Simon Goddard
There's hardly a fact or stat missing from this 532 page opus. And very well-written to boot...but be warned, it will be impossible for any fan to agree 100% with the opinions expressed. Click here to buy.
There's just no way I could ever claim to have bought this back in 1979. I listened to John Peel occasionally, but not every night. And his was the only show that played any songs by Wire.
And although I became aware of them during my students days in the early 80s, I didn't rush out and but any of their albums. Indeed, I think the first thing I ever owned was a John Peel Sessions CD released in the early 90s (and it was courtesy of a birthday or Xmas present from my amigo Jacques The Kipper)
But in recent times, with the records of old being repackaged and reissued, I've got a hold of all three of the albums that were released in the 70s and now realise just how important and special they were.
The band also released six singles in the 70s, of which this was the nearest to a hit, reaching #51 in January 1979:-
......probably know this song better than many other flop singles from 1994.
While I can't vouch for this myself, I believe it is a playable track in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour.
I believe they are some some sort of interactive electronic games. Whatever happened to the days when you picked up a tennis/badminton/squash racquet and did it yourself all in your own head?
Formed in Glasgow in 1991 as Dove by Applied Biochemisttry student/graduate Dorothy 'Dot' Allison, along with Ian Carmichael and former Altered Images man Jim McKinven. Initailly released on the local Soma imprint, the dreamy ambience of 'Fallen' was subsequently remixed and re-issued by the 'Boys Own' label, an operation partly run by DJ extraordinaire, Andrew Weatherall. The band's association with Weatherall helped create a buzz that peaked with the release of 'White Love' (recorded with the help of Jah Wobble and Primal Scream's Andrew Innes amongst others), another slice of shimmering, crescendoing ambient dance-pop that only just missed out on a Top 40 place in Summer '93.
The band's rock'n'roll credentials were assured by a headline grabbing jaunt down the Thames and with the hype machine still in overdrive much vaunted debut album, 'Morning White Dove' was finally released in September 1993. Not exactly the groundbreaking opus some fans had been led to expect, the album was nevertheless a pleasant enough melange of classic pop, dub reggae, ambience and rock dynamics, all wrapped up in Dot's Julee Crusie-esque vocals.
Very much a band of their era, One Dove split acrimoniously in 1996 during the recording of their second album.
At the age of 30, I felt I was too old for all that trippy dance nonsense, and so I ignored a lot of the stuff that was being writen about at the time. It was only at the end of 1993 when I picked up a compilation CD which brought together some of the 'NME Singles Of The Week' did I realsie the error of my ways. This is a true classic in every sense of the word:-
This reached #43 in the charts in July 1993. Deserved much better.
PS : Readers from days of old will be thinking they may have heard all this before. Well, you did, I wrote about this single back in August 2008....and said this at the time.
My good friend, and occasional TVV contributors, ctel, has been singularly unimpressed with some of the songs that have found their way here in recent times. But I'm hopeful that today's offering will be more to his liking as I think it is one that wouldn't look out of place on his amazingly informative and educational Acid Ted blog.
One Dove were a Scottish act founded in 1991, and comprised the vocal talents of Dot Allison, and the musical brains of Jim McKinven and Ian Carmichael (the former had been part of Altered Images in the early 80s).
They were around for no more than 3 years, during which time four singles and one LP were recorded. Their sound was a mixture of pop, dub, ambiance and rock. While I have a few things in the collection that I've downloaded as mp3s (oops....I'm not supposed to do that sort of thing am I?), I've only one CD single in the collection and it dates from 1993. Its a track that reminds me an awful lot of parts of Scremadelica by Primal Scream, but in a sense that's hardly a surprise given that Andrew Weatherall was heavily involved with the band at this point in time.
There's four mixes available on the CD, and all of them are well worth a listen.
The one common feature is Dot's wonderful dual-delivery which to me sound like the pop sound of Bananarama backed by a manic Kate Bush. The radio mix is the most accessible, coming in at just over four-and-a-half minutes, and it was remixed by Stephen Hague who worked with many a successful chart act in the 80s and 90s. But I particularly like the 10 minutes plus of the guitar paradise mix which shows just how close the relationship between rock and dance can be - when in the right hands.
I raved about this album a while back without actually posting any of the mp3s. Read here for a reminder.
But dont just take my word for it. Here's the review that the ever-articulate Matthew from Song, By Toad posted around about the same time:-
Having just complained about Dent May being overly arch and insincere I am about to praise an album which is rather arch and definitely very stylised, and I can imagine people feeling that to be a slightly false distinction. There is a cool veneer of old-school indie meets sixties beat combo, but if you’ve ever seen this band live you’ll know that there’s not the slightest distance between them, their music or their audience: they are fucking amazing.
This record has been gestating for some time now, as the Low Miffs rebuilt from something of a personnel shakeup a couple of years ago, started working with Malcolm Ross, and finally pulled together an album of new material after two excellent singles on Art Goes Pop. I confess I was somewhat guilty myself of taking my eye off what they were doing – the world thunders on at pace, and a year below the radar can see people move on pretty quickly, I guess. Then suddenly, this appeared.
I am not yet completely on board with all of the songs; Scarface isn’t really a favourite, but I really like almost everything else. The Man Who Took on Love and Won and Cressida are exuberant pop gems, where Kind of Keen and The Back of Midnight are laid back dive bar lotharios and Mankind is flamboyantly over-the-top, mixing Scott Walker with Franz Ferdinand* to produce a somewhat mental piece of cabaret art rock.
I am still coming to terms with the songs themselves, so for the moment the whole album hasn’t quite crystallised for me, and I am still hearing it as a collection of songs rather than as a single piece of work. It’s a collection of songs I really like though, so I reckon the rest will come with time.
*Sorry lads, I know you probably won’t like this, but it’s not far from the truth
So there you have it. A working-class bloke Glaswegian and a posh chap from Edinburgh in agreement. You really can't have more of a recommendation for an album than that.
Available to buy from loads of places (including the record shop in the above clip which, incidentally is where I do most of my shopping). Try here if you need to buy online.
Those of you who tuned in every Friday over the best part of a year for the long-running series on Morrissey solo singles will be familiar with all 18 tracks on his latest album which was released just last month.
It is of course, another compilation - but this time featuring many of the b-sides ( released on the singles that have been lifted from You Are The Quarry, Ringleaders of The Tormentors, Greatest Hits and Years of Refusal. And collectively, they combine to make this as excellent and consistent a solo LP in the great man's career as there has been.
I'm not saying all 18 tracks are essential. but the vast majority of them, as I said time and time again during that series, are as good as if not better than tracks we have been able to get very familiar with thanks to them being on the LPs.
Despite having all the songs in the collection, I bought Swords simply for the 8 live tracks taken from the concert performed in Warsaw in July 2009. And having loaded them on the PC, I now want to offer the album as a giveaway to one luck TVV reader.
That's the 2 CDs, the booklet with lyrics and Morrissey interview and still inside the cellophane protective cover when I bought it from the local indie record shop.
All you have to do is drop me an email, at the address over on the right hand side of the blog and saying you are entering the competition to win the album. I will then put all names (assuming there is more than one entry) into some sort of hat or cap and draw put one lucky person to who I will post the CD before I go off on holiday on 1st December. The closing date is a week today, 25th November. Good luck one and all.
In the meantime, here's what I think is one of the best of the 18 tracks as well as something from the live bonus disc:-
Swords should be available from your local record store. If not, try here. Where you'll also see not everyone agrees with my view of the quality of this release.
There were great expectations about Lungs, the debut album by Florence & The Machine. Prior to its release, Florence Welch was being hailed as the next great female singer-songwriter - the person who had the artistic and critical credibility of Kate Bush, but who had the hooks and tunes to appeal to all ages, crucially the younger more pop-orientated lovers of music at whom so much is aimed nowadays.
Certainly, the two singles from 2008 - Kiss With A Fist and Dog Days Are Over - were hugely promising. Live appearances on TV which were plastered all over the likes of youtube showed an attractive young lady whose vocal and musical talents were plenty. By February 2009, before an album had got anywhere near the shops, there was a Critics Choice Award at the Brits as well as a place on the prestigious NME Awards Tour alongside Glasvegas, White Lies and Friendly Fires. But it wasn't until June 2009 that a third single was released, and more than a few of the previously fawning critics weren't impressed with Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up). Some knives were being sharpened.....
A month later and the release of debut LP Lungs seemed to provoke completely contrasting reactions - folk either adored it or thought it ridiculously over-hyped and nowhere near as good as they had been led to believe. But credit has to go to Ms Welch and her band for they took on some very high profile support gigs for the likes of Blur and Duran Duran, proving they were determined to have as big an impact as possible to as wide an audience as they could achieve. There were slots at all the big outdoor festivals in the UK and Ireland where the sheer effort put into the live performances helped win over quite a number of the sceptics.
Excellent cover versions of songs by Candi Staton and Beyonce (You've Got The Love and Halo) also helped things along, and while it is accurate to say that Florence & The Machine still have a lot of folk who don't like what they do, they have more fans than most of the new acts that have emerged in 2009.
Lungs did reach #2 in the UK charts, so it has sold a fair amount of copies. Personally, I wasn't entirely convinced about it on the first two or three listens - I think I was expecting just a bit too much. But gradually, I've fallen for the album, and its blend of indie, pop, blues and soul has done enough to convince me that Ms Welch can be around for a long tome to come. But then again, the pop world is littered with all sorts of acts, but particularly female singer/songwriters, whose subsequent albums haven't fared well and they've very quickly fallen from favour and become obscure within months. So there's a lot of pressure on the follow-up. I wish her well.
Up until now, I've been quite specific with my recommendations and ideas for Xmas gifts for yourself or passing on to others. Today I'm being a bit looser in that I want you to take a look at the on-line offers from Scotland's best and most creative record label, and make your own selections.
I'm referring of course to Chemikal Underground records, a label formed in 1995, in the first instance to issue Monica Webster, the debut record by The Delgados. Since then, the label has nurtured some of the most wonderful talents to have come out of Scotland - far too many to mention just now, but the names will appear as this posting unravels.
Earlier this year, as part of the job that I'm paid to do, I had the great fortune to meet up with Stewart Henderson, best known to most of you as the bass player for the afore mentioned The Delgados but whose main role is as MD of Chemikal Underground. It was a real honour to meet such a legend and inevitably we got talking about music, and in particular how a record label can keep its head above water in challenging economic circumstances and changing ways that music is consumed nowadays.
I was shocked to discover just how few records even the most famous and critically acclaimed acts on Chemikal Underground sold in a good year - and appalled to learn the numbers for acts scrambling for attention. But Stewart explained that by keeping overheads down at the label (eg there's no big executives with expense accounts nor any fat cat company HQ) as well as being innovative in finding ways to promote and sell the music, Chemikal Underground can plough on and find ways to bring great new music to Scotland and the rest of the world.
Well, I reckon that we can all do our bit to help, which is why I am asking you to click here and spend a bit of time looking at what you can buy and then send the bank and credit cards into action.
Not sure about things? Well, the great thing about the Chemikal shop is that, in most instances, you can listen to a track in its entirety before buying it. If you try a whole LP but only like some of it, then you have the option of just picking up just your favourites for 69p per song.
It's also great for putting loads of old stuff that otherwise has been very difficult to track down (including loads of the early Arab Strap singles and b-sides)here really is so much in there to enjoy, and something for everyone's tastes.
Of the 2009 LPs that are available on Chemikal Underground, I thoroughly recommend the releases from Lord Cut Glass, The Phantom Band and Zoey Van Goey. Oh and Aidan Moffat & the Best Ofs who made what is surely the best pop promo of 2009.
Happy Listening. Happy Viewing. Now please get spending and play your part in ensuring a bright future for this fantastic record label.
Having become highly popular in the first half of 1979 with an album and singles originally released back in 1978, there was a huge amount of interest in the new material that was going to be released by The Police.
In September 1979 they unleashed a single which somehow straddled new wave and MOR rock and in doing so turned the band into a global product for mass consumption. In other words, this is the single that re-invented stadium rock just as those who had fought in the punk wars had thought they were going to win.
mp3 : The Police - Message In A Bottle mp3 : The Police - Landlord
I'm not going to sit and here and say that this is a dreadful song. Far from it. Its got a great tune and a catchy chorus to kill for. And the drumming from Stewart Copeland, in particular the way he changes tempo all the way through it, is something to behold. Hell, even the bass playing of Sting is top-class stuff. As for Andy Summers on guitar.....well he's not a million miles away from playing the same notes as can be heard on Don't Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult which has long been regarded by rockists as a classic. Indeed, just last week I was surprised to be in a room full of Glasgow hipsters of all ages and discovering that I was very much in a minority with my distaste for Reaper....
So this was a single which tailor-made for sounding brilliant on the radio. And heavy rotation on Radio 1 as well as across the ever growing independent local stations in the UK meant it was a certainty to hit the #1 spot within a very short space of time.
The Police had shown that emerging from the new wave/indie pack was no barrier to mainstream success, and the 80s saw a procession of bands try and follow their way of developing a loyal following through constant gigging and regular record releases which would grow year after year after year, and before you knew it, the world had been conquered. Step forward U2, Simple Minds, R.E.M and Depeche Mode. Close but no cigar to Echo & The Bunnymen, Talking Headsand The Cure.
I bought this single on green vinyl when it was released - just as I owned other earlier singles by the band on different coloured vinyl as part of the marketing ploy from A&M Records. After the success of Message In A Bottle there would be no need for such gimmickry.....
It's been a wee while since I threw some interesting cover versions your way. So much so, I feel it needs to be a quartet today - all of them covers of classics:-
mp3 : British Sea Power - A Forest
This is such a difficult song to cover. I've always felt that with this 1980 single The Cure created one of the all time classic goth anthems. Almost 30 years on the original hasn't dated one bit - it still fills the floor of indie discos the world over. Just the other week I saw trendy young things dressed head-to-toe in black at a Halloween event scream with delight when this was played. Alongside them on the dance floor there were blokes old enough to be their dads just as excited....and closing their eyes and imagining themselves to be three stones lighter, with full heads of hair and so on.
To be fair to British Sea Power, they make a good first of it and they manage to make it sound like one of their own songs. But....given how much prominent the bass line is in the original it seems strange to discover it is so relatively low in this mix. Anyone got strong views either way?
mp3 : Carter USM - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
Once again, a very difficult track to do justice to. But if you didn't know the original I reckon you'd think this was yet another a Carter USM classic lyric and tune. Jim-Bob and Fruitbat have done a very fine job....the vocal delivery isn't a million miles away from that of Paul Weller...and they keep the classic chant-along "whoa-oh-oh-oh" refrain after the song title is sung. I love it.....
mp3 : The Divine Comedy - Party Fears Two
Now I am very sure about this. The Divine Comedy have taken one of the best-loved songs ever released by a Scottish group and ruined it. Neil Hannon is not a bad singer by any means, but his half-arsed effort at this shows just how distinctive and unique a vocal talent we had in the late and lamented Billy Mackenzie. And don't get me started on how a great pop tune in the hands of Alan Rankine has been turned into something that makes me want to throw rotten fruit in the direction of those with the musical instruments in their hands. Bloody awful. But feel free to disagree.
mp3 : Aidan Moffat - I Got You Babe
Despite me being just 2 years old when Sonny & Cher took this to #1 in both the USA and UK in the late summer of 1965, it is a song that I know every single word to and note of simply because it was a staple favourite of radio stations for at least a decade afterwards. These were the years when DJs relied heavily on requests from listeners, and inevitably it would be a couple's anniversary and this was the song they fell in love to and/or it was the first song at their reception. Oh and it was always one asked for by wives on the Armed Forces request show on Sunday mornings for their husbands serving their country, usually in Germany or Belize.
Aidan Moffat's version, which was made available on 7" vinyl if you bought the deluxe version of his 2009 LP How To Get To Heaven From Scotland has turned into one of my favourite bits of music released over this past year. Aidan delivers it with enough sincerity to make us feel believe that he's a big fan of the original, and yet thanks to that brilliantly distinctive Falkirk twang in his voice he could just as equally be accused of taking the piss such is the lack of polish in its production. Personally, I think he really is delivering a heartfelt tribute....and the singing and playing compliment much of what was on his own LP. But if you don't get Aidan Moffat or thought Arab Strap were hugely overrated, then I suspect this cover is not for you.
For a whole bunch of complicated and related reasons, I sort of lost touch with music from late 1986 through to early 1990. Thankfully, I've been able to plug the gaps in my musical knowledge thanks in the main to my dear friend Jacques The Kipper who supplied me with all sorts of C90 cassettes over many years chock-full of great tunes that had passed me by.
By the time I had even heard of Close Lobsters, they had come and gone leaving behind a body of work that consisted of 2 LPs and 6 singles. Indeed, the first time I ever heard any of their songs was when The Wedding Present did a cover version on a b-side.
It was talking to folk in a pub one night in the early 90s about my recently discovered love of TWP (it took me until the single Kennedy in 1989) that mention was made of Close Lobsters and a couple of folk said they were best described as the CaledonianWeddoes. Intrigued, I tried to track down some of their songs, but wasn't successful as they had been released on a record label which weren't the best for re-stocking when a shop had sold out.
So it has only been in recent times through their songs appearing on compilation CDs that I've picked up on Close Lobsters. Oh and the advent of ebay which has allowed me to pick up one or two releases.
But above all else, its the recent re-releases on CD of 1987 debut LP Foxheads Stalk This Land and the release of Forever, Until Victory!a fantastic compilation of the singles that I've been able fall totally head over heels with the band.
A potted history:-
Close Lobsters were formed back in 1985 in Johnstone, which is a small town a few miles to the south-west of Glasgow by Andrew Burnett, Bob Burnett, Tom Donnelly, Stuart McFadyen and Graham Wilmington. They got their break via a song on the legendary NME C86 tape and then signed a deal with Fire Records. They toured extensively, including a major support slot to Jesus & Mary Chain. Bob Burnett left after only a couple of singles and was replaced on bass guitar by Paul Bennett.
Their sound was unmistakably of its era which is no bad thing. And yes, there's an awful lot of musical similarity between Close Lobsters and The Wedding Present, which again is no bad thing.
For a while, the band looked as if they would break through, thanks in particular to their songs featuring heavily on college radio across America. But it just never happened, and by mid 1989 they had split, reforming very briefly two years later for some live gigs but no new records.
The release of Forever, Until Victory! has been overseen by two members of the band, and a superb collection of songs it has proven to be. Indeed, in addition to including a look at one of the singles today, I'm also suggesting the LP as part of my Ideas for Xmas (see below.....)
And the single I'd like to rave about today?? It was released in August 1988 :-
mp3 : Close Lobsters - What Is There To Smile About? mp3 : Close Lobsters - From This Day On mp3 : Close Lobsters - Loopholes mp3 : Close Lobsters - Skyscrapers of St Mirin
It reached #17 in the UK Indie Charts. Which in sales terms maybe amounted to a couple of thousand.
If you've read the posting above about the latest great Scottish single to feature in the on-going series, you'll understand why I'm asking you to have a good think about adding this gem to your lists for Santa.
Ok, this is a bit of a cheat as the LP in question actually came out in November 2008 and I'm supposed to be giving you ideas for Xmas gifts based on things that were released or issued in 2009. But my excuse was that I didn't get a hold of this album for a couple of months after its release.....
Last week, I mentioned that Song By Toadis the best blog out there. I've a whole list of reasons for holding that view. There's the quality of the writing from Matthew, not to mention the contributions made every day via the comments section by his many hundreds if not thousands of regular readers. The fact that the blog covers loads of new music while not neglecting the legacy of songs from days of old is quite unusual and highly commendable, and then there's the always entertaining Toadcasts during which Matthew often drinks gin and and swears a lot in a highly entertaining way.
But above all else, the reason I so admire Matthew - and indeed Ed who runs the 17 Seconds blogspot - is that both have gone that stage further and ploughed their own money into record labels and offered the chance for emerging singers and acts the opportunity of some fame and hopefully some fortune.
One of the acts on Song By Toad Records is Meursault. I really liked debut LP Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues when I eventually got a hold of it, but was a bit worried that my judgement may have been influenced by wanting it to be good to show support for Matthew. But any such minor negative thoughts were banished when I got to see the band back in April when to my astonishment, they blew away headliners Frightened Rabbit - and on a night when the latter gave one of their best performances in all the times I had caught them live. It's hard to pin down Meursault. There's touches of indie, electronica, folk, electronica and pop within the 11 songs on the debut LP and also on 2009 release the Nothing Broke EP. But while the music is something to behold, there's no getting away from the beauty and magnificence of the vocals of Neil Pennycook, who is also the writer of all the songs.
A singer like Neil Pennycook and a band like Meursaultwouldnt get past the first hurdle of any TV stardom show like X-Factor (not that they would look to enter such a 'competition' in any instance). But there's no doubt that they have more talent in their pinkie fingernails than any of those who dominate the telly ratings of a weekend, who are guaranteed to have the #1 single in the UK come Xmas Day and are already bound for a sell-out Arena tour in 2010.
It's your duty dear readers to balance out this travesty of justice. Go and visit the website of Song By Toad Records and buy not only Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues, but all the other things Matthew has for sale.
And when you've done that, go and do the same at the website of 17 Seconds Records. Your soul will be immediately cleansed.
mp3 : Meursault - The Furnace mp3 : Meursault - William Henry Miller (Pt 1) *
For some reason or other blogger doesnt like the direct link.
the face of the vinyl villain....
ALL 'DMCA' CREEPS PLEASE READ THIS.....COS ITS IMPORTANT....NO REALLY IT IS...
All the mp3s posted on the site are there to encourage listeners to enjoy and then rush out and buy the songs direct from the artist, by mail order or from a decent record shop near their house.
Any artist who doesn't want their works featured here only needs to get in touch and the mp3 will be removed at the earliest opportunity.
In any event, all mp3s are posted for a limited time only.
IF YOU WANT TO GET IN TOUCH.....HERE'S THE EASIEST WAY
