MORE GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 3)

Back in 1993, the great Leonard Cohen made a very rare live TV appearance on Later with Jools Holland. He performed two songs, including this stunning version of the title track from his then newly released CD:-



The interesting thing that I didnt pick until a number of years later when I had one last nostalgic look and listen before boxing up the VHS tapes was that he changes a lyric from 'Give me crack and anal sex' to 'Give me crack and careless sex'. I presume this was at the behest of the BBC, but this seems very bizarre given that the show aired sometime around 11.45pm.

mp3 : Leonard Cohen - The Future
mp3 : Leonard Cohen - The Future (live on 'Later')

Happy listening and viewing.

MORE GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 2)

Two songs on offer today. And that's because I can't imagine one without the other.

Gathering dust in a box under my bed is a VHS tape with a stunning appearance from James. It was filmed in 1985 at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London for BBC2's Whistle Test. They don't half look young....and the dervish Tim Booth is still to emerge.....





mp3 : James - If Things Were Perfect
mp3 : James - If Things Were Prefect (live at the ICA)

mp3 : James - Scarecrow
mp3 : James - Scarecrow (live at the ICA)

Happy Listening and viewing.

MORE GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 1)

See, the thing is, I was thinking you might all be bored with the Scottish singles appearing every day, so for the second week of the holiday I'm returning to some great live telly performances. First up is one which I've featured beore on TVV but just in case some folk missed it, this is what I reckon is Weller's best ever telly appearance in a career than spans almost 35 years. It's from a long-forgotten Channel 4 Friday tea-time programme called Switch which was on in the summer months when The Tube took a break:-



mp3 : The Style Council - Money Go Round (Parts 1 & 2)
mp3 : The Style Council - Money Go Round (Live on 'Switch')

Happy Listening and viewing.

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 12)

Aztec Camera were a Scottish New Wave band from the Glasgow suburb of East Kilbride, formed in 1980 and centered around teenage singer-songwriter, Roddy Frame.Their album Love was among the nominations for Best British Album at the 1989 BRIT Awards. Their 1983 album High Land, Hard Rain is considered among the finest of debut records.


he band's line-up changed numerous times in its first few years. The constant member has been guitarist / vocalist / singer-songwriter Roddy Frame. Founding members included Campbell Owens (bass) and Dave Mulholland (drums). Craig Gannon and Rob Cremona were members from 1983 to 1984. Guitarist Malcolm Ross (formerly of Josef K and Orange Juice) joined the band in 1984, and played on the Knife album. By the time of their third album, Love (1987), Frame was the only de facto member of the band: this and future albums credited to Aztec Camera were actually performed by Frame and studio musicians hired on a track-by-track basis.


The band first appeared on a Glasgow cassette-only compilation of local unsigned bands on the Pungent Records label, affiliated with the Fumes Fanzine run by Danny Easson and John Gilhooly, who championed several Glasgow bands before they hit the big time.


The band's first UK 7" single was released by Glasgow based indie label Postcard Records in March 1981, and contained the songs "Just Like Gold" and "We Could Send Letters". An acoustic version of the latter song appeared on the influential C81 compilation cassette, released by NME in early 1981. A second single, "Mattress Of Wire", was also the last Postcard Records release before the group signed for fellow independent record label, Rough Trade. U.S. releases were on Sire Records.


Aztec Camera's debut album, High Land, Hard Rain, was produced by John Brand and released in April 1983. The album was successful, gathering significant critical acclaim for its well-crafted, multi-layered pop. The band went on to release a total of six albums, although most of these were essentially written and played by Frame. The albums included Knife (1984), Love (1987), Stray (1990), Dreamland (1993) and Frestonia (1995). In 1990, Aztec Camera contributed the song "Do I Love You?" to the Cole Porter tribute album "Red Hot + Blue" produced by the Red Hot Organization, the proceeds from which benefited AIDS research.


After the release of Aztec Camera's sixth album, Frestonia, Frame finally decided to record under his own name, and left the major record label, WEA.


Popular songs by Aztec Camera include "Oblivious", "Still On Fire", "Walk Out to Winter", "Somewhere in My Heart", and "Good Morning Britain" (a duet with former The Clash guitarist Mick Jones). "Somewhere in My Heart", the second single from Love, remains their biggest hit, reaching #3 on the UK Singles Chart. "Good Morning Britain" was considered to be a comeback for them, as previous single "The Crying Scene" had only reached #70 in the UK.


A 'Best of' collection was released in 1999.

Again.....so many great things to choose from.

mp3 : Aztec Camera - Walk Out To Winter (12" version)
mp3 : Aztec Camera - Set The Killing Free
mp3 : Aztec Camera - Walk Out To Winter

Next up.....the first of the letter 'B'.......

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 11)

Associates were a Scottish post-punk and new wave band of the early 1980s. They were known for the operatic voice and theatrical antics of singer Billy Mackenzie, who committed suicide in 1997.


Mackenzie and guitarist Alan Rankine met in Dundee in 1976 and formed the cabaret duo The Ascorbic Ones. In 1979 they recorded songs under the name of Mental Torture before finally changing their name to The Associates. They then recorded their debut single, a cover of David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging". Their version attracted a good deal of attention, not least from David Bowie, as it was released in June 1979 just six weeks after Bowie's version had hit the UK Top 10 in April. A string of highly regarded singles were released and two albums The Affectionate Punch and Fourth Drawer Down.


In 1981 Rankine and MacKenzie also released a version of "Kites" under the name "39 Lyon Street" with Christine Beverage on lead vocals, the b-side track "A Girl Named Property" was credited to The Associates. The band's breakthrough came in 1982 with the release of the single "Party Fears Two". Buoyed along by the popularity of synthpop at the time, the song reached number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. Two other hits soon followed, "Club Country" and "18 Carat Love Affair". That year the band released their most commercially successful album, Sulk. Martha Ladly, of Martha and the Muffins, contributed backing vocals and keyboards to this album.


Rankine left the band in 1982 just before the Sulk tour. This proved disastrous in terms of the band's career, in particular as the band were being actively courted by Seymour Stein who thought they could become massive stars in the USA. Mackenzie continued to write and record music under the Associates name until 1990. The albums Perhaps, The Glamour Chase (which the record company refused to release, considering it not commercially viable) and Wild and Lonely were made during this period. However, without the guiding hand of Rankine, recordings were sporadic and subsequent Associates records failed to reach the charts in the UK and sold far fewer than their early albums.


The Associates name was put to rest and Mackenzie released the electronica-influenced solo album Outernational in 1992 with limited success. In 1993 Mackenzie and Rankine began working on new material together: news of an Associates revival generated hype and speculation of a tour and the demos recorded by the two were promising. However Mackenzie was not fully committed to the reunion and especially touring with it so Associates split for a final time. Mackenzie went back to his solo work, signing a deal with Nude Records and finding a new collaborative partner in Steve Aungle. Between 1987 and 1992 Billy worked with Swiss avant-garde outfit Yello. MacKenzie wrote the lyrics of the song "The Rhythm Divine" performed by Shirley Bassey on the album One Second, with MacKenzie singing backing vocals. MacKenzie contributed to three Yello albums; One Second (1987), Flag (1988) and Baby (1991). Some tracks for The Glamour Chase and Outernational were recorded with Boris Blank at Yello's recording studio.


MacKenzie committed suicide in 1997 aged 39, shortly after the death of his mother. He had been suffering from clinical depression. He was contemplating a comeback at the time with material co-written with Aungle. The albums Beyond the Sun (1997) and Eurocentric (2000) were released posthumously and re-constructed (and expanded with new unreleased songs) in 2004 into two albums: Auchtermatic and Transmission Impossible.


Rankine is now a lecturer in music at Stow College in Glasgow, and worked with Belle & Sebastian on their debut album, Tigermilk in 1996.


The book The Glamour Chase by Tom Doyle documented the band's career and MacKenzie's subsequent life.


So many to choose from. Let's celebrate the last hit single the duo enjoyed:-

mp3 : Associates - 18 Carat Love Affair
mp3 : Associates - Love Hangover

And as a wee bonus, here's a very different early version of the single as made available on the Double Hipness compilation.  Dig that sax!!!!

mp3 : Associates - 18 Carat Love Affair (early version)

Next up......Aztec Camera

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 10)

The Armoury Show was a New Wave band formed in 1983 by Richard Jobson on vocals, Russell Webb on bass guitar, John McGeoch on guitar and John Doyle on drums. Each member was known for being in a previously acclaimed band, as Jobson and Webb were in The Skids and McGeoch and Doyle in Magazine. The band was named after the Armory Show, a famous 1913 modern art exhibition in New York. They released only one album, Waiting for the Floods, in their brief existence.


Previously, Richard Jobson and Russell Webb were both members of the band The Skids, while John McGeoch and John Doyle had both been in Magazine. The latter band dissolved in 1981 and the first in 1982, both after their last and unsuccessful albums (Joy and Magic, Murder And The Weather, respectively). But McGeoch departed from Magazine in 1980, before the recording of the last album, joining Siouxsie and the Banshees. By the time, he replaced Stuart Adamson in The Skids for a Peel Session in 1981, being that probably their first contact with Richard Jobson and Russell Webb.


In 1986, after the releasing of the album and the next tour, McGeoch and Doyle left, with the first joining Public Image Ltd. and the latter beginning to work with the Buzzcocks singer/guitarist Pete Shelley. Jobson returned from China, where he was working as model, and reunited with Webb, calling Dave Lockwood on guitar and Ray Weston on drums for the next projects.


In 1988, after some releases in 1987, they announced the band had split up. Webb pursued a solo career (according to the band's fansite) and in 1992 followed McGeoch to Public Image Ltd. Jobson returned to a solo career and became a television presenter.

And here's the one single I have:-

mp3 : The Armoury Show - We Can Be Brave Again
mp3 : The Armoury Show - A Feeling

Next up.....Associates

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 9)

From wiki:-

Arab Strap were an indie rock band from Scotland that consisted of core members Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. The band were signed to independent record label Chemikal Underground, and split in 2006. As indicated by the title of Belle and Sebastian's third record, The Boy with the Arab Strap, and by Aidan Moffat's involvement in the two Reindeer Section albums, they were a central part of Glasgow's influential late 1990s music scene.


Vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton grew up in Falkirk, and bonded over their mutual love for Drag City recording artists such as Smog and Will Oldham (who at the time recorded under the name Palace Brothers). They began collaborating in 1995, and their debut album, The Week Never Starts Round Here, was released the following year.


Over the course of their ten-year existence, Arab Strap worked with a number of musicians, including Jenny Reeve and Stacey Sievewright, as well as Adele Bethel and David Gow, who went on to form Sons and Daughters. Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian featured on the album Philophobia, but the Belle & Sebastian album/song "The Boy With the Arab Strap" would later create something of a feud between the two singers.


Arab Strap's marked characteristics include sordid, personal, yet honest, lyrics – described by the NME as "fly on the duvet vignettes". Like fellow Scottish band The Proclaimers, their lyrics are sung in their native Scots tongue. At first essentially an electro-acoustic band with a brooding, spare sound, later albums and gigs saw them develop a fuller sound that drew deeply on both indie and dance music.


Arab Strap's first two albums, The Week Never Starts Around Here (1996) and Philophobia (1998), depicted the desperate decadence of post-Thatcherite Britain. The former album's "The First Big Weekend", a five-minute piece of drunken mayhem that end with a joyous singalong, "Went out for a weekend, lasted forever / Got high with our friends, it's officially summer," which was the chorus to "Hey!Fever," one of the tracks on the EP The Girls of Summer. The 1999 live album, Mad for Sadness, demonstrated how the sometimes spare recorded sound of their early music could lift into a celebration of a sexually empty, drug- and alcohol-dependent life.


After these albums, Arab Strap's music became much more musically polished, but continued to focus on drink, drugs, and existentially bereft versions of sexuality.


In keeping with the theme of sexual allusion (see arab strap (sexual device)), Moffat records as a solo artist under the name Lucky Pierre (later changed to L Pierre)– slang for the man in the middle of a gay threesome. This work is also characterised by a brooding, spare sound, but is instrumental in nature. Middleton also has a solo career under his own name, releasing two albums with Chemikal Underground and three more via Full Time Hobby Records.


On 9 September 2006, the band announced on their website that they were to split up. They celebrated the ten years since their first studio album with the release of a compilation record, Ten Years of Tears. They went on tour in Europe for the last time at the end of the year, and played their final show at the end of a secret tour of Japan at Shibuya O-Nest on 17 December 2006.


In a 2008 interview, Middleton stated: "It was a good time to call it a day. Unless there's a definite need and desire for us to play, I don't think we should ever get back together. We always said we would [collaborate again] when we split up, but I think maybe it's still too soon. Maybe in a few years when we've got time, we'll maybe try something for a laugh. Who knows?"


In December 2009, Monday at the Hug and Pint, The Red Thread and The Last Romance entered The Skinny's "Scottish Albums of the Decade" list at #7, #12 and #25 respectively.


In April 2010, the Scenes of a Sexual Nature box-set was released, featuring early albums, live recordings, and a newly-recorded track.


In August 2011, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton released a cover version of Slow Club's new single, "Two Cousins", under the name "Two Cousins 1999". Moffat noted, "It’s not an Arab Strap performance as such, rather it’s the two guys who used to be Arab Strap recording their own, informed pastiche".

And as regular readers know all too well, one of my all time favourite bands And I'm awfy fond of the post-band work from both of them. Thought long and hard about which single to feature and ended up going for one from the short period circa 1999-2000 when they left Chemikal Underground and signed for Go! Discs.

mp3 : Arab Strap - Cherubs
mp3 : Arab Strap - Motown Answer
mp3 : Arab Strap - An Eventful Day
mp3 : Arab Strap - Pulled

Next up....The Armoury Show

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 8)

From somewhere on the interwebby thing:-

April Showers were a short-lived Glaswegian pop duo comprised of Jonathan Bernstein and Beatrice Colin.


Releasing their only known single “Abandon Ship” on Big Star, a subsidiary of Chrysalis, in 1984 it quickly gained a cult following due to it’s sparkling production from Anne Dudley (Art of Noise) and string-heavy arrangements. This quality was echoed on B-side “Everytime We Say Goodbye” with the 12-inch featuring an instrumental of Abandon Ship “Abandon Ship Sing-A-Long-A-Wonder Mix”. Both records are now highly collectible.


Plans to release a second single on the label Operation Twilight, and the inclusion of Abandon Ship on the compilation album “10 Years Of Marina Records” seems to be a footnote to the woefully brief story of April Showers, the perfect example of a band that has disappeared into, and whose status grows with, history.

Now here's where I cheat.

I don't own this single.....it's one that's near the top of those I dearly would love to get my hands on but won't pay the money demanded by the sellers......

I've the compilation LP mentioned above, and thanks to modern technology (and the generosity of folk who make the recordings available), I've picked up the other two tracks:-

mp3 : April Showers - Abandon Ship
mp3 : April Showers - Abandon Ship (instrumental)
mp3 : April Showers - Everytime We Say Goodbye

One of the great lost pop-songs of the 80s

Next up.....Arab Strap

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 7)

From some site out there that I can't quite remember!!!

The Apple Scruffs were four best friends from Glasgow that got together and began writing songs about their everyday lives and surroundings. After four months of hard work and practice the Scruffs played their first gig in Nice N Sleazy supporting the Ronelles at the end of May 2005.


From then on the band built up an amazing reputation in Glasgow supporting well known bands such as Dogs and The Ludes. They then landed a single deal with Hijacked Records. the scruffs released their debut single Danielle on Vaults Recordings on November 2006.


The scruffs were tireless on the Glasgow gig scene and played some all of Glasgow's famous venues. lacklustre in their performances the crowd were still right behind their fast paced guitar led tunes. Giving a final shot at breaking through the blinkered music industry they tailored a new single to a more commercial sound in Big Hearts launching this in the Apple store in Glasgow however it wasnt to be and Johnny and the boys broke up to go seperate ways in 2010.

mp3 : The Apple Scruffs - Danielle
mp3 : The Apple Scruffs - Car Thief
mp3 : The Apple Scruffs - Lit The Candle At Both Ends

Next up....April Showers

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 6)

From wiki:-

Altered Images were an early 1980s Scottish New Wave / post-punk band. Led by lead singer Clare Grogan, the band branched into mainstream pop music, and had a string of chart hits between 1981 and 1983


Ex-school friends with an equal interest in the UK post punk scene, Clare Grogan (vocals), Gerard "Caesar" McNulty (guitar), Michael 'Tich' Anderson (drums), Tony McDaid (guitar) and Johnny McElhone (bass guitar), sent a demo tape to Siouxsie and the Banshees, who soon gave the band a support slot on their Kaleidoscope tour of 1980. The band's name referred to a sleeve design on the Buzzcocks' single "Promises", and was inspired by Buzzcocks vocalist Pete Shelley's constant interfering with the initial sleeve designs.


After being championed by BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, they garnered enough attention to be offered a recording contract with Epic Records, but mainstream success was not immediate; their first two singles, "Dead Pop Stars" and "A Day's Wait", failed to reach the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. "Dead Pop Stars" was particularly controversial at the time, sung at the viewpoint of a "has-been" icon with irony, but badly timed in its release shortly after John Lennon's death, even though it was recorded earlier. It was absent from their studio album releases. After these two singles and their first two sessions for John Peel, Caesar left and formed The Wake.


With additional guitarist Jim McKinven, they recorded their debut album, Happy Birthday (1981), largely produced by Steve Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees. The band also worked briefly with producer Martin Rushent (who had garnered tremendous success producing The Human League that year), who notably produced the title track which became the band's third single and their biggest hit. The song reached number 2 in the UK (for three weeks) in October 1981,catapulting the band to fame. They quickly became established as one of the biggest New Wave acts around, and were subsequently voted "Best New Group" at the NME Awards. Meanwhile, Grogan, with her quirky candy-floss voice and energetic stage persona, became something of a pin-up at the time.
After a successful headlining tour, the band retained Rushent as their producer and released their second album, Pinky Blue, in May 1982. It reached the UK Top 20 and provided three more Top 40 hit singles with "I Could Be Happy", "See Those Eyes", and the title track.


Later that year, after McKinven and Anderson left to be replaced by multi-instrumentalist Steve Lironi (formerly of the band Restricted Code), the band began working on their third album with producer Mike Chapman. The collaboration provided them with another Top 10 hit, "Don't Talk To Me About Love", in spring 1983 and the subsequent album, Bite, was released in June. Half of the album was produced by Chapman, and half by Tony Visconti. Although it reached the UK Top 20, the album sold less than the band's two previous offerings (which had both earned a Silver disc) and, following another concert tour, the band broke up.


After the breakup of the band, Grogan attempted a solo career, signing to London Records in 1987 and releasing a single, "Love Bomb". Grogan was also included on a London Records compilation album titled Giant, contributing the track "Reason Is the Slave". After "Love Bomb" failed, plans for a follow-up single release, titled "Strawberry", and the album, Trash Mad, were shelved by London Records.


Grogan also became a film and television actress, appearing in productions such as Gregory's Girl, Red Dwarf (in which she originated the role of Kristine Kochanski), EastEnders, and Father Ted. In recent years she has also become a presenter on UK television, as well as a children's novelist.


Grogan and Steve Lironi (who eventually married) formed Universal Love School, performing together but never releasing any recordings. Johnny McElhone went on to perform with Hipsway and eventually Texas. Grogan sang live under the name Altered Images in 2002 for the Here and Now Tour, showcasing a revival of popular bands of their era alongside The Human League, ABC, and T'Pau, and again for some separate shows in 2004.


And I have all the singles on 7" and a number on 12" to choose from. I went for this as the it gives you the pop-era Altered Images while the b-sides give you a remix of 'the controversial' single and something which was very like the Banshee-lite early sound of the band:-

mp3 : Altered Images - See Those Eyes (12" version)
mp3 : Altered Images - Insects
mp3 : Altered Images - Disco Pop Stars
mp3 : Altered Images - See Those Eyes

Given it's going to take forever and a day to get through this series, and that I'm off on holiday from tomorrow for a couple of weeks, I'm taking the lazy route and using cut'n'paste bios like the one above for loads more Scottish singles until I get home and recover from the jetlag.

Next up is The Apple Scruffs.

PS

As I'm going on holiday it will be a while before I'm able to tell you how well tonight's show with Butcher Boy and Adam Stafford goes.  Unless someone else reviews it.......

PPS

For anyone who wondered what the divine Ms Grogan is up to just now...... Click here.

5 GREAT ALBUM TRACKS FOR FRIDAY......WITH AN APOLOGY TO THE AUTHOR!!!

Y'see, the thing is, Mike from Manic Pop Thrills sent this over to me in mid-October and I should have featured it there and then as it mentions a gig which has now come and gone. The fact that the gig was a cracker is another reason I feel bad. Anyway, here's what Mike has to say:-

I've long promised JC a post for his “5 Great Album Tracks for Friday” series, so I thought I'd finally deliver on that promise.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing  I’ve decided to go with one of the most singular and special bands in my collection – Throwing Muses.

It’s a good time to be writing about the band as the first Throwing Muses collection ‘Anthology’ was released last month on 4AD.

I was introduced to them by a friend in late 1987 and their sound was genuinely like nothing I'd ever heard before.

The band were formed by singer-singwriter Kristin Hersh in the early 80s when she was 14 and the line-up which came to prominence in the late 80s also featured her half sister, Tanya Donelly, bassist Leslie Langton and drummer David Narcizo (who is not, and never has been, a girl).

After early demo tapes, the band were signed for 4AD in the UK by Ivo (who definitely didn't sign American acts) and they released their untitled debut LP in 1986. One oddity of the Muses story is that, despite fitting so well into the 4AD art-rock aesthetic of the time, the band were actually on a major label  in the States - Sire.

As a consequence, there were pressures on the band to make their sound more accessible. These pressures did occasionally bring results from the record company's perspective, most notably on near hit single ‘Dizzy’ from their third LP ‘Hunkpapa’  but it’s a song that Hersh has subsequently disowned. However by anyone’s standards, the Muses continued to stick to their guns, something we should all be grateful.

Despite continuing critical support the band were never able to make a commercial breakthrough although the ‘University’ album (in 1994) did make it into the UK Top 10, perhaps on the back of the success of grunge.

So after recording 7 albums, 2 non LP EPs and a handful of singles, the band went on hiatus in 1997 due to financial constraints.

Hersh subsequently embarked on an extensive solo career but she realised that she was still writing songs for her “dead band”.  Throwing Muses was therefore revived early in the new century and an eighth, self titled, LP recorded with some assistance from Donelly (who had left the band to form Belly in 1991). Released in 2003, with a tour to support it, the album only managed to tickle the UK Top 75.

Since then the band has gigged occasionally, usually in the States, whilst Hersh has continued to record both as a solo artist and with her other band 50 Foot Wave.

Over the years, Hersh has been an outspoken critic of the music industry and, now freed from all her recording contracts, she has been able to operate in a manner to back up her words.

Her most recent solo LP 'Crooked' was funded entirely through listener contributions ('Strange Angels' via the CASH music project), and every 50 Foot Wave track is available for free legal download, again through CASH.

The same system is being used to fund the next Throwing Muses LP, which is now recorded and could feature as many as THIRTY EIGHT tracks. The record will likely appear some time in 2012 but you can hear solo demos of some of the songs on the record here.

As if her varied musical output wasn't enough to keep Kristin going, last year she embarked on a new career as a writer and published her extraordinary memoir,  'Paradoxical Undressing' (titled 'Rat Girl’ in the States). The book tells the story of the year in her life leading up to both the recording of the first Muses LP and the birth of her first child.

It strikes me as unjust that a band as original and consistently great as the Muses seems to have achieved little in the way of recognition. Their singular sound was undoubtedly a factor in preventing them reaching a wider audience but equally there is no doubt that an absence of hit singles was a factor. Their legacy is perhaps further hampered by the lack of any consensus over which is the definitive Muses record. Perhaps the release of 'Anthology' will go some way to redressing that balance.

Back to 5 tracks from Throwing Muses. In making the final choice I've decided to limit myself, not just to avoiding the singles, but also to avoiding tracks on 'Anthology'. So if you like the following five songs, then the collection would be a good place to start:

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Call Me (from 'Untitled' 1986)

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Take (from 'Hunkpapa' 1989)

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Say Goodbye (from 'The Real Ramona' 1991)

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Pearl (from 'Red Heaven' 1993)

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Half Blast (from 'Throwing Muses' 2003)

Although copies of the initial 2 disc release of 'Anthology' are close to sold out, there are still copies from Kristin's own web store or from 4AD.

A single disc version of 'Anthology' is released on 7th November to coincide with the first Throwing Muses European tour since 2003 which includes a  date at Oran Mor in Glasgow on 7th November.

Mike Melville, Friday 18 November 2011

And click here to read Mike's review of said Oran Mor Gig.

And here and here are where Mike has posted, in two parts, a tremendous interview he had with Kristin Hersh when they met up in Edinburgh a few months back.  It's way better than anything you find in music mags. Part 2 of the interview in particular, in which Kristin pulls no punches with her thoughts on the failure of major record labels is essential reading for anyone who considers themself to be a music fan.

Happy Listening to the tracks.  And Happy Reading of the day when Mike met Kristin.

SURELY I'VE FEATURED THIS BIT OF VINYL BEFORE???

Seemingly not.......

A #22 hit in the UK charts back in 1983, this is a piece of vinyl that I've now owned for almost 30 years.  And yet it's the only record by Kraftwerk that I've ever bought.

I can't explain why other than perhaps folk I shared a flat with had just about everything they've ever done and I never had any need to buy.  Come to think of it, the only reason I bought Tour De France was its appearance in a Bargain Bin in a record shop close to my parental home that I happened to drop into while waiting for a bus back to said student flat.

Anyways here's the three tracks on the 12":-

mp3 : Kraftwerk - Tour De France (Long Version)
mp3 : Kraftwerk - Tour De France
mp3 : Kraftwerk - Tour De France (Version)

That's how the tracks are described on the label of the record.  The back of the sleeve says something a bit different:-

Whether it is Tour De France (version) or Tour De France 2e Etape, it's a cracking little bit of music that seems somehow to be a lot fresher than 1983.

Happy Listening

IN PRAISE OF THE COMPILATION ALBUM : DIVING FOR PEARLS VOLUME 1

Most compilation albums have at least one song that you find yourself skipping over.  Not this gem from 1989 released by Dino Entertainment Ltd with the catalogue number of INDLP 1.

Here's all the songs along with the sleeve notes:-

SIDE 1

mp3 : Department S - Is Vic There?

From 1981. A No.1 indie hit and also spent 10 weeks in the Gallup chart when Demon picked up the rights, getting to No.22. They released two more singles and then disappeared never to release an album

mp3 : Stone Roses - Sally Cinnamon

This single made in 1987 has recently been re-released and went Top 10 on the indie chart. This is not on their great debut album and is one of the biggest tracks in their live set. Last Christmas they were little known outside Manchester. They recently sold out in Blackpool to 3000 fans and have just sold out Alexandra Palace in London

mp3 : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins - Pale Blue Eyes

This Velvet Underground track was recorded for the Swamplands label and went into the Gallup chart in 1984.  The ex-Orange Juice and Bourgie Bourgie team created a great buzz for their debut album but it never came

mp3 : Kirsty MacColl - A New England

This track was a top 10 hit for Kirsty in 1985 and is her biggest hit to date. Written by Billy Bragg and released by Stiff it never appeared on an album until 'Diving For Pearls'. Kirsty is back in the public eye with her new album for Virgin

mp3 : Everything But The Girl - Night And Day

Their very first single for Cherry Red before signing to Blanco Y Negro and having a string of hit albums. Recently promoted on CD single.

mp3 : Red Guitars - Good Technology

A No.1 indie hit from this great band from Hull. Championed at the time heavily by the TUBE T.V. how that later led to a major signing by Virgin Records.

SIDE 2

mp3 : Sugarcubes - Birthday

Another band to watch for in the nineties. This was the single that not only took them to the top of the indie chart but also into the Gallup chart twice. All record companies chased with open cheque book but they have resisted to retain full artistic control.

mp3 : Spacemen 3 - Hypnotised

Recently seem on the Chart Show. A top ten indie hit this month and a band on the ascendancy. Again this track was not on their album, Watch out for a tour and a Sonic Boom solo album

mp3 : Mari Wilson - Cry Me A River

The Compact Organisation struck a deal in 1982 with the reactivated London label. This quirky label gave us Miss Beehive and a classic single that hit the Uk Top 30 in that same year. What is she doing now? Who knows but also featured in the band was Julia Fordham

mp3 : The Monochrome Set - Jet Set Junta

Another track from the vaults of Cherry Red who gave us the brilliant compilation 'Pillows And Prayers'. They later signed to W.E.A.

mp3 : The Au Pairs - It's Obvious

An indie chart topper and featured on their debut album which went top 30 in the UK charts. A great album and we may see another Au Pairs' track on volume 2

mp3 : Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding

This track topped the indie charts in 1983 and got to No.35 in the UK charts. Written by Elvis Costello and Clive Langer about the Falklands War. It closes the album and gives us our title 'Diving For Pearls'

Now I know many of these tracks have appeared on TVV before today, but what you're getting with this post are the versions ripped from the vinyl version of this compilation as picked up in a second hand shop during a recent trip to London.

Oh and despite the optimism in the notes that accompanied The Au Pairs track, there wasn't ever a Volume 2.

Happy Listening.

THE TUESDAY CORRESPONDENT

RAP BOY RAP !!!!

In 1982, I bought my weekly fix of music news,the NME, where, in the days before the internet, is where everyone got their music information.

The New Musical Express music weekly has been around since 1952 and at its peak would sell 300,000 copies per week.The mid70's would have been when I started buying the NME; it was around the start of the punk explosion. The writers of the day were the likes of Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent.

Thursday was the afternoon when I'd walk a mile and a half into St Andrews town centre and head straight to John Menzies to pick up my weekly fix.

The week that sticks in my mind was in May 1982 as there was a free cassette available, by collecting a coupon, called Jive Wire. The coupon was duly filled in and sent away with the required amount for postage. (free in those days didnt really mean free)

Nowadays, it feels like you have barely put your order in online and there's a knock at he door with your delivery from Amazon arriving.Back then I'm sure it took 14 days to arrive.

The cassette had the wonderful slogan:

And remember. For the news, that moves at the speed of sound--NME. The paper that put its music where its mouth is.

The freebie was dedicated to Hoagy Carmichael, Thelonious Monk and Sam Lightnin' Hopkin, giants of American music that had died during the previous year. Carmichael was a composer, pianist, singer and actor, who famously wrote Georgia On My Mind, Monk founded bebop music and was a jazz pianist while Hopkins was a famous blues singer songwriter.

The cassette's opening track was a dub version of The Thompson Twins single In The Name Of Love. The track in its original form was released as a single in the UK but it never charted, while in the US it became a hit in the dance chart reaching No.1. Some time later, I used the dub version to make my own remix version of ˜Love On Your Side. In the lyrics of that single, there a verses that goes: ˜I played all my favourite records' and then it played the melody of' In The Name Of Love' and I used that part to add the dub version in the middle. Ah the fun!!!!

Next on the cassette was David Gamson with 'Turn On Red'. Now this was a style of music that was quite alien at the time to me, it even had a black dude rapping. This was before he started working with Green Gartside in Scritti Politti.It's a track that I tried to find for a number of years and happily, just recently a version became available on iTunes.

Leisure Process with 'Love Cascade' was third on the tape. Leisure Process was a duo consisting of Ross Middleton and Gary Barnacle. The track is a good piece of early 80's electro pop.

Middleton was a singer from Glasgow and was previously in a band called Positive Noise (JC can hopefully fill us in with details of Positive Noise - indeed I, and TVV reader scan as featured in this past post)

Gary Barnacle was a session saxophone player who played with as varied acts as The Clash, The Ruts and everything in between up to Sam Fox and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. In the eighties he was Kim Wilde's boyfriend.

The track was produced by Martin Rushent, who during that period was the hot producer after he produced The Human League's album ˜Dare' He also produced Altered Images 'Happy Birthday' that also features on the cassette.

Leisure Process only ever produced 4 singles before going their separate ways.

The other track that made a lasting impression on me was Gil Scott Heron's 'B Movie', it was something again, that I would never have listened to if it hadn't been available on the tape.

His style on this track, of almost poetry to a thumping backing track is very effective to put over his political message on the selection of the American President and the election process. It also informed me of a political system that I knew nothing about. It also turned out to be a very good prophecy of the future for the oil producing countries.

There was also a certain humour that was shown, with his use of Ronald Raygun.

To even up the political score on our side of the Atlantic, The Beat's 'Get A Job/Stand Down Margaret' also featured.

Coming from Birmingham and featuring a band line up that had black and white members, they played a mixture of ska, reggae and pop. This track saw them spearheading a movement wanting social change and multicultural inclusion.

In the eighties they were at the forefront of 'Rock Against Racism'

The full track listing for Jive Wire.

Side One

Thompson Twins- In The Name Of Love (3.45)
David Gamson- No Turn On Red (6.12)
Leisure Process - Love Cascade (6.19)
Buzzz - Tonight's Alright (3.31)
Pigbag- A Live Orangutango (6.04)
Aswad- Ghetto In The Sky (6.25)
Scritti Politti- Asylums In Jerusalem (3.10)
The Beat- Get A Job/Stand Down Margaret (7.02)
Gil Scott Heron - 'B'-Movie (5.19)

Side Two

Suicide- Dream Baby Dream (3.16)
Kraftwerk- Das Model (3.39)
Altered Images- Happy Birthday (3.15)
Theatre Of Hate- Dreams of Poppies (3.45)
The Gun Club- Ghost on The Highway (2.43)
Tav Falco's Panther Burns- Ms Froggy (2.30)
Black Uhuru- Happiness (4.30)
Defunkt- Illusions (7.00)
Rip Rig & Panic- Billy Eckstein's Shirt Collar (3.15)
Carmel- Storm (4.07)
Vic Godard & Subway Sect- Just In Time (2.35)
Pablo Lubadika Porthos- Madeleina (4.00)

Jive Wire was numbered NME 02, in October 1981 they had given away NME 01 named Dancin' Master.

Dancin' Master also contained some great tracks - Tom Browne- Funkin' For Jamaica; Junior- Mama Used To Say; The B-52's - Give Me Back My Man (instrumental); Teardrop Explodes- Traison (C'est Juste Une Histoire)

These cassettes were a great way of sampling different styles and bands that you wouldn't readily hear.

I stopped buying the NME many years ago but occasionally, when shopping in a supermarket I'll go over to the magazine/paper rack pick it up and have quick look through.

However, I've collected every copy of the Q music magazine since the first one was available, and have just received the 25th Anniversary copy and being a typical collector I have all the free CDs, supplements etc still intact with the magazines.

The other magazine I buy every month is the WORD magazine which comes with a free sample CD and like the Jive Wire tape all those years ago, gives me the chance to try out different styles and bands without having to purchase.

This post is dedicated to the memories of Martin Rushent and Gil Scott Heron

mp3 : David Gamson - No Turn On Red
mp3 : David Gamson - No Turn On Red (Fat Camp Version)
mp3 : Leisure Process - Love Cascade
mp3 : The Thompson Twins - In The Name Of Love (dub mix)
mp3 : The Thomspson Twins - No Talkin' (Love On Your Side)

Mr John Greer, 15 November 2011

I MIGHT HAVE TO SELL A KIDNEY

It was Mike from Manic Pop Thrills who gave the best advice when I asked a number of people who had previously done such a thing what was the best advice they could give to an aspiring promoter.

'Don't' was his Mike's simple one-word piece of advice.

I of course didn't listen which is why it's now only a few days until Butcher Boy, with special guest Adam Stafford grace the majestic Langside Hall in the south side of Glasgow under the guise of 'Brought To You By The Vinyl Villain'.

I've enjoyed the experience although I've had a few sleepless nights and probably at least one more to come this week.  Both acts have been great - Butcher Boy in agreeing to do the gig in the first place and Adam for responding to my plea for the perfect second act on the bill.  Many others - particularly among the blogging community - have been very generous with their time in helping me along with sound advice and suggestions, particularly on how to best spread the word.

A couple of friends in the design and print trades helped out big time with the poster while Anna Doherty from The Skinny has been incredibly supportive giving the gig a very favourable mention in the November edition of the paper.  I don't think much more could have been done to promote the gig in its truest sense of the word.

And yet, a few days out, it's looking as if the numbers coming along are such that they won't meet the full  costs of hiring the venue, paying for the sound system and lights and a few other sundries.  This is what Mike and a couple of others warned was likely to happen.  If I'm being honest, I'm not all that bothered as I knew when I set out  that there was a huge risk involved in everything and that I wouldn't make any money.  In fact I never set out to make any money as I had always intended that any excess if that happened would go straight to the artists who were performing, and in some ways I feel as if I'm letting them down a bit as this doesn't look likely to come to pass.

Now this might be a case of a premature prediction that goes wrong. I'm told by those in the know (including both acts on the bill) that the number of tickets sold on-line so far are quite good and that many folk tend to leave things to the last minute and come along hoping to get in on the night.  My original plan had been not to offer tickets at the door, but given it is very unlikely the hall's capacity will be reached, I've had a rethink on that one. It might eventually turn out that I do get enough bums on seats to more than cover the costs, but it will still take quite a bit of a last minute rush.

All of the activities of the past few weeks has only increased my admiration for the likes of the afore-mentioned Mike and others such as Matthew (Song By Toad), Ed (17 Seconds), Lloyd (Peenko) and Jim C (Aye Tunes) who have been at this particular game for so long, not to mention Alan Hendry who seems to now be promoting gigs under his Sounds In The Suburbs banner every other week.  And why I have my fingers crossed for Lisa (Last Year's Girl) who is venturing out with a promotion of her own on 2 December (see the right-hand side of this blog for details).

So what exactly am I trying to say?

The fact remains that I'm really pleased that I've been able to put this gig on, partly as it is always something I wanted to do (blame the ego) and partly as I think Butcher Boy deserve to be given every chance possible to play their magnificent songs in a live setting, and if no-one else was prepared to put them on then I was determined to step up to the plate.  No matter what happens it is going to be one of the greatest nights in my life....and I can't wait.

There's one daft postscript to all of this.

The gig is on Saturday night, and by the time I get the hall emptied etc and say thank to everyone, I probably wont get home till midnight.  I'm then due at Glasgow Airport at 5am to book in for a flight to Amsterdam one hour later and then a connection over to the Caribbean island of Aruba for a much-needed break in the sun.  I reckon I might sleep most of the way.....

See....I knew any sympathy any of you might have been feeling for me would automatically disappear when I mentioned the holiday!

mp3 : Adam Stafford - Fire & Theft
mp3 : Butcher Boy - I Am The Butcher

And here's a classic from Adam's old band:-

mp3 : Y'All Is Fantasy Island - That We Are All Doomed

Happy Listening.

PS


I wrote this piece about 48 hours ago. In the intervening period, said Mike from Manic Pop Thrills got in touch to let me know he was running a competition on his blog to offer someone two tickets to the Butcher Boy gig which is incredibly generous of him.


Click on this link to have a chance of winning.  And while you're there, spend some time at what is a consistently excellent and well-written blog.  


You better be quick....you have until 5pm tomorrow (Tuesday) to enter the competition

THE STORY OF SARAH (Issue 17)

'Saw a guy in the window, with a crewcut staring back...'
-
To say Fred Cornog is an enigma is a bit like saying it can sometimes be wet and windy in Glasgow. An understatement of epic proportions. Cornog's life story should really be a Play for Today. Or a book published by Fourth Estate. Possibly both. At the very least, his life could be transported into one of those arty StudioCanal films with the lead role going to, perhaps, Cillian Murphy. Anyway, this glorious track featured on the A-side of the first recording East River Pipe offered Sarah Records - it was #75 in the #100 Sarah catalogue and entitled 'Helmet On'. The band - that is, Cornog - went on to record one further 7" single for Sarah and a couple of mini-albums and a full-length album as well. Again, all the long-players were given catalgoue numbers from the Bristol bus timetable of the day. You know, when Cornog put his mind to it, he really worked hard and those songs and lyrics just seemed to spill out of him beautifully. As for this particular track... well, it has been analysed time and time again but the message seems pretty clear to me: there is no need for cryptic subtext. It is, at heart, just a song to saviour and play again and again with Bose headphones on and a warm latte in your hand; ideally as you move your way through Queens, NY, watching interesting people go about their busy days and lonely nights. Fred might bump into you, and tell you to watch where you are going.

East River Pipe - 'Helmet On' (4.18)

-

Visit here. Watch this.

Comrade Colin, Sunday 13 November 2011

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 5)

From the Chemikal Underground website:-

The brainchild of our very own Aidan Moffat and Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite, Aloha Hawaii will, according to the two protagonists themselves, be bringing you random releases of sonic experimentalism as and when they can be arsed. I'll leave it to their self-penned press release to explain exactly where they're coming from with this...


Aloha Hawaii is the result of at least a decade of (often drunken) planning that has finally come to some form of fruition: to record any kind of sounds that please our four ears whenever we have the time, inspiration and enthusiasm. There is no game-plan, no style, no genre; anything that makes us smile will make it onto our records, which will take the form of sporadic, vinyl-only singles to be released on any record label willing to accommodate us over the next year or two. The first label to support our efforts will be our good friends, Chemikal Underground, who release the 10" single Towns On The Moon b/w I’ve Been Bad For Years And Years on September 8th 2008.


There will be no digital formats whatsoever.


This could be a statement about the cheapening of an art-form in a world of disposable download culture or it could simply mean that we're interminably old-fashioned and hopelessly out of date. We also reserve the right to change our minds.

So far there's only been the one single so it remains very sporadic. And it is still available to buy from the record label. Click here.

But to hell with it.  Though my conscience tells me I shouldn't make the songs available as mp3s I'm trusting you lot to listen to it but not keep them on your hard drive.

mp3 : Aloha Hawaii - Towns On The Moon
mp3 : Aloha Hawaii - I've Been Bad For Years And Years
mp3 : Aloha Hawaii - Untitled Third Song

The next part of the series will feature Altered Images.

GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 5)

There's only clip of mine up on youtube.  It wasn't me that put it there...but i'm so glad it is as otherwise it would have been lost forever.

I do have hundreds of old VHS tapes with stuff from all sorts of telly shows.  I've always been too busy with this blog to do anything about converting them so they gather dust in a series of boxes.  But a while back I did sent an old tape down to the proprietor of the Punk Rock Hotel as there was a very rare clip of  Paul Quinn & The Independent Group somewhere in the middle of the 180 minutes of recordings.  It was from a long-forgotten arts show that was broadcast on the local Scottish Television channel and it was to preview an upcoming gig/event at the Glasgow Film Theatre.

The very same show had a live appearance by Edwyn Collins to promote his latest LP and he performed a solo acoustic version of the title track.  Little did anyone realise that within months, a hit single from that very album would transform Edwyn's life totally and make him financially secure for the first ever time.  That clip was transferred to you tube on my behalf by the proprietor.  And just as well.....for no sooner had he done so than the tape snapped. The clip would have been lost forever.  And when you see it, and realise that with his illness Edwyn will never be able to play guitar again, it is a very important bit of footage.

It's not one that can be embedded anywhere.....but here's the link:-

http://youtu.be/mPKX2oc2NMY

and here's the mp3s:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George (live and acoustic - 1994)
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Gorgeous George

And that's a wrap on this particular series.  Hope you've enjoyed it.

GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 4)

One of the most innovative and exciting live acts over the past decade or so has been British Sea Power.  And while none of their telly appearances has quite captured their brilliance to full effect, this from October 2003 on Later With Jools Holland on BBC 2 is quite memorable:-



mp3 : British Sea Power - Remember Me (live on 'Later')
mp3 : British Sea Power - Remember Me

Only one more to go in this short series......

GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 3)

I've no doubt in my mind that the performance of Bigmouth Strikes Again on The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC2 was the best live telly appearance by The Smiths.  But this, from The Tube on Channel 4 is also exceptionally good....



Andy and Mike shows just how important they were to the sound of the band.

mp3 : The Smiths - Barbarism Begins At Home (live on 'The Tube')
mp3 : The Smiths - Barbarism Begins At Home

Happy Memories indeed.....

GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 2)

With apologies to ctel who is most certainly not a fan......



Taken from The White Room, a relatively short-live and much missed Channel 4 programme fronted by Mark Radcliffe.

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee (live on the 'White Room')
mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee

And more swearing than the Bill Grundy/Sex Pistols clip.............

GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 1)

This next five postings should be self-explanatory.

They will feature some of my favourite TV performances over the years.  I'll show the clip, the mp3 of said clip as well as the original version of the song will be on offer.

Let's start with something quite brilliant from 1993.  Now The Word might have often been a dreadful Friday night Channel 4 programme, but some of the bands they featured were tremendous...indeed the programme  was often the first time a band would ever appear on British telly.  Like this:-



Now as promised:-

mp3 : Stereolab - French Disko (live on 'The Word')
mp3 : Stereolab - French Disko

It is sad to think that guitarist Mary Hansen died back in December 2002 at the very young age of 36 after she was struck by a lorry while riding a bicycle in London.

This song remains one of my favourites to dance to even after all the years.

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 4)

From wiki:-

Alan Rankine (born 17 May 1958, Edinburgh, Scotland) played keyboards, and guitars, for the rock band, Associates, which he co-founded with Billy Mackenzie in the late 1970s. Together they recorded three albums: The Affectionate Punch (1980), Fourth Drawer Down (1981) and Sulk (1982). Rankine left the band in 1982 on the eve of what would have been the Sulk tour.


While Mackenzie continued with other associates, Rankine started a solo career as a recording artist. He recorded three solo albums: The World Begins to Look Her Age (1986), She Loves Me Not (1987) and the fully instrumental The Big Picture Sucks (1989).


He became a record producer, producing such artists as The Pale Fountains, Cocteau Twins and Paul Haig, before joining the Belgian independent record label, Les Disques du Crepuscule, as a permanent producer and relocating to Brussels.


Rankine eventually came back to Scotland, and he now works in Stow College in Glasgow.

It's a bit of a thin entry if you ask me.  For instance, no mention of the big part he played in getting Belle & Sebastian off the ground.  Mind you, his solo career was bitterly disappointing. It was put very eloquently in a a comment left behind previously on TVV when I did a feature on Alan Rankine:-

"Rankine had a shockingly disappointing solo career, recording a couple of dismally bland lite funk-pop LPs that had so little in common with his genius stuff for The Associates that it was hard to believe it was actually him..."

There were three singles lifted from the debut LP and not one of them came near the charts. The third of them was the title track. The b-side is a very early example of sampling dialogue and matching it to music. It sound very primitive compared to what you can achieve nowadays:-

mp3 : Alan Rankine - The World Begins To Look Her Age
mp3 : Alan Rankine - Can You Believe Everything I See?

The next part of this series features Aloha Hawaii.

IN THE BED WHERE THEY MAKE LOVE, SHE'S IN A FILM IN THE SHEETS

Completing this unintentional wee run of releases with fine female female performances is a #28 hit for Saint Etienne from February 1994.

Pale Movie very much reminds me of the 80s hit Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys as it is a mix of a great dance tune with some traditional sounding Spanish guitars.  It was a fairly brave move by the band to go down this road - all of the songs on Tiger Bay, the LP that was released a few months later, was described by Bob Stanley as an album of modern folk songs done in twentieth century styles like techno and dubmix.  It didn't go down all that well at the time with the singles that were lifted from it not doing nearly as well as previous efforts and dance fans being left a bit bemused by it all.

If only the hardcore element had bought the 12" version of the single for they would have found all sorts of different styles to meet their every whim, including a hugely extended 10 minutes plus version:-

mp3 : Saint Etienne - Pale Movie
mp3 : Saint Etienne - Pale Movie (stentorian dub)
mp3 : Saint Etienne - Pale Movie (secret knowledge trouser assassin mix)
mp3 : Saint Etienne - Pale Movie (lemonentry mix)

I've really no idea where the names for these mixes come from.......might have seemed a great idea at the time but they now just look daft.

Happy Listening.

YOU'VE COME TO FIX ME GOOD, GOOD, GOOD

Previous posts featuring Curve have proven popular in the past.  Hope today's continues that trend.

For newer readers, Curve comprised of Toni Halliday and multi-instrumentalist Dean Garcia, and formed in Manchester in 1991. At a time when the Madchester sound (Happy Mondays/Stone Roses/James etc) was very much in full flow, Curve were something a bit different. The first few releases were EPs. The music press loved them, and they were championed by John Peel.

And yet they didn't ever quite turn the critical praise into popular acclaim and really meaningful sales, albeit the debut LP in 1992 , Doppelganger, reached Number 11, while the follow-up, Cuckoo, went Top 30.

I love an awful lot about Curve, but especially the sound of Toni Halliday's voice. In many places it reminds me of Elizabeth Fraser, and there's no doubt that Shirley Manson of Garbage owes a lot to Toni.

Here's the four tracks from the second of three EPs they released on Anxious Records back in 199!:-

mp3 : Curve - Ten Little Girls
mp3 : Curve - I Speak Your Every Word
mp3 : Curve - Blindfold
mp3 : Curve - No Escape From Heaven

All really good stuff I reckon - particularly the two opening tracks

For footage today, here's one of Ms Halliday's finest ever vocal performances:-



Happy Listening

WHERE SNAKES IN THE GRASS ARE ABSOLUTELY FREE

Formed in 1980, Bow Wow Wow were a band you tended to read far more about than actually get to hear for yourself thanks to the influence that Malcolm McLaren had over them.

Having convinced himself and may others that he was the master of hype post-The Great Rock'n' Roll Swindle, the svengali of new wave persuaded a the original Ants of Adam & The Ants to form a new group.  He told them they'd be famous and rich but he had to have the responsibility of finding the perfect lead singer. Six months later, the then 13-year old Annabella Lwin, daughter of a Burmese father and an English mother, was unveiled as the singer with the claim (true as it turns out!!) that she was discovered in a dry cleaners shop in London after she head been heard singing along to tunes on the radio.

The debut single C30 C60 C90 Go followed in July 1980 and immediately caused a n outcry as it actively promoted the use of home taping to save money at a time when the industry was mounting a large awareness campaign against the practice under the slogan 'Home Taping Is Killing Music'.  Despite a lack of promotional sypport from the record label, the single charted at #34 in the UK, although the two follow-us stalled outside the Top 50.  When McLaren then insisted that  that the debut LP be released only on cassette this was the last straw for EMI and they let the band go.  Cue more publicity......

Within days Bow Wow Wow were signed by RCA and McLaren really went into overdrive with the campaign to gain prominence/notoriety.  Word got out that Lwin, who by now was around 14 and a half years of age, would be posing nude for the covers of single and LPs.  McLaren argued there was nothing perverse or pornographic about it and that the poses would be similar to famous painting that hung in art galleries the world over.  Cue outrage from the tabloid press who of course fell into McLaren's perfectly laid trap of getting the band talked about.

Before you knew it, Lwin's mother had made a complaint to the police that her daughter had been exploited as a minor for immoral purposes. More tabloid media frenzy......

Meanwhile, the singles continued to stall just outside the Top 50....a run that eventually came to a halt in early 1982 when the latest single, Go Wild In The Country,  was issued with the cover being the infamous nude shot of Lwin. True enough it was a replica of a famous painting, that of  Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe, painted by Edourad Manet in 1863 and which was considered highly immoral at the time.   Say what you like about Malcolm McLaren, but he was brilliant at this sort of thing.....

Certain stores refused to stock the single on the grounds of indecency and so special bags were made to overcome this.  Whether the sales were boosted by perverts only interested in the cover we can only speculate, but in reaching #7 it was the biggest hit in the career of Bow Wow Wow

mp3 : Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild In The Country (12 inch version)
mp3 : Bow Wow Wow - El Boss Dichio!

The band enjoyed some success throughout 1982 but tensions quickly emerged as the outside world focussed almost exclusively on Lwin and the musicians were largely seen as a mere backing band for the vocalist.  By September 1983, just a month shy of her 17th birthday, she was ousted from the group who reformed under the name Chiefs Of Relief - an act that had a bit of critical acclaim but no commercial success.

The thing is.....Go Wild In The Country is a cracking bit of music and probably would have been a hit notwithstanding the furore over the cover.  Yes, it has dated a bit and can be seen as very much of its time.  But its got a memorable and catchy chorus and is a track brimming with energy.  And I'm not alone in thinking it wonderful....why else would Mr Gedge have covered it in 1992?

mp3 : The Wedding Present - Go Wild In The Country

Finally, some vintage Top Of The Pops footage........



Happy Listening

A NOSTALGIC LOOK BACK

Last Saturday night was the latest Little Pop League Night that has been going now for almost 10 years. As ever, John as host and resident DJ did a fantastic job and a fun time was had by all.....

On the way home it got me thinking back to the summer of 2010 when I was part of a wee team that put on a total of three nights at the fabulous Flying Duck in Glasgow.  As it turned out. various logistical problems meant that the four of us never ever got together on the same evening  - indeed I missed one of them altogether.  But they were tremendoud fun, and looking back the set-lists put together weren't too shabby (although I only have the fist two nights available:-

12 June DJs : Drew (From Across The Kitchen Table). JC (The Vinyl Villain). ANCB (A North Country Boy)

Drew

BMX Bandits – Serious Drugs
Peter Parker – Swallow The Rockets
Crystal Stilts – Love Is A Wave
The Fall – Blindness
The Kingfishers – Make Me Sad
Jenny Lewis – Carpetbaggers
Lone Justice – After The Flood
Pavement – Summer Babe (Winter version)
Bobby Cook – Gone So Far
Dr Rubberfunk – Fantasy Funk Band
The Staple Singers – I’ll Take You There
Smith & Mighty – Walk On By
Primal Scream – Uptown (Long After The Disco Is Over)

JC

The Clash – Radio Clash
Teenage Fanclub - Life's a Gas
Associates – 18 Carat Love Affair
Fatima Mansions – Blues For Ceaucescu
Electronic – Getting Away With It
Blur – Popscene
Orange Juice – L.O.V.E. Love
Kirsty McColl – You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby
The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
Johnny Cash – Ring Of Fire
Friends Again – Sunkissed
Scritti Politti – Asylums In Jerusalem
Paul Haig – Never Give Up (Party Party)

ANCB

The Clash – Bankrobber
James – Come Home
Cameo – Word Up
Human League – Love Action
The Cure – Love Cats
The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

Drew

Squeeze – Up The Junction
The Jags – Back Of My Hand
Specials – Too Much Too Young (fucked and pulled off about 30 seconds in)
Amy Winehouse – Monkey Man
The Clash – White Man In Hammersmith Palais
Battle – Demons
Ida Maria – Stella
Shout Out Louds – Very Loud
Inspiral Carpets – I Want You
Velvet Underground – White Light White Heat
Pastels – Crawl Babies
Airborne Toxic Event – Moving On
Frightened Rabbit – Backwards Walk
Meursault – A Few Kind Words

JC

Young Knives – Up All Night
Magazine – A Song From Under The Floorboards
Morrissey – Last Of The Famous International Playboys
Bourgie Bourgie – Breaking Point
The Style Council – Speak Like A Child
Aztec Camera – Walk Out To Winter (single version)
Pixies – Monkey Gone To Heaven
REM – Don’t Go Back To Rockville
Go Betweens – Streets Of Your Town
Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling
New Order – Age Of Consent
Orange Juice - Felicity
Teenage Fanclub – Everything Flows

Drew

The Pale Fountains – From Across The Kitchen Table
Woodentops – Good Thing
Human Beinz – Nobody But Me
Jackie Wilson – Because Of You
Johnny Boy – You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
Elvis Presley – Crawfish (Pilooski edit)
The Cramps - Can Your Pussy Do The Dog
Bang Bang Machine – Geek Love

JC/Drew

Aztec Camera – Oblivious
Belle & Sebastian – Lazy Line Painter Jane
The Bodines – Therese
The Slow Club – Trophy Room
The Smiths – Hand In Glove
The Wedding Present – Kennedy
The Jesus And Mary Chain – Upside Down
Ballboy – All The Records On The Radio Are Shite
Orange Juice – Blueboy
Jonathan Richman And The Modern Loves – That Summer Feeling
Bessie Banks – Go Now

(and every single song was vinyl played on turntables)

10 July : DJs : JC and ANCB

ANCB

Primal Scream – Higher Than The Sun (American Spring Mix)
NERD – Provider (Zero 7 Mix)
A Man Called Adam – Barefoot In the Head
D Note – The Garden Of Earthly Delights (Original Mix)
Kate Bush – Running Up The Hill (Ashley Beedle Re-Edit)
DJ Food – Peace Part 1 (Harvey’s Persuasion Mix)
Rae & Christian – Spellbound
808 State feat James Dean Bradfield – Lopez (Propellerheads Mix)

JC

Public Image – Public Image
Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck
The Smiths – The Headmaster Ritual
Elvis Costello – The Ugly Things
Orange Juice – Love Sick
Arab Strap – Speed Date
The Clash – The Magnificent Seven
Frightened Rabbit – Be Less Rude
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Come Saturday
The Wedding Present – It’s A Gas
The Fall – Mr Pharmacist
Friends Again – South Of Love
Cats On Fire – Tears In Your Cup
James – What For
Bourgie Bourgie – Careless

ANCB

Love Unlimited Orchestra – Strange Games & Things
The O’Jays – For The Love Of Money
Barkays – You Cant Run Away
4 Hero – Les Fleur
Lee Dorsey – Night People
Gladys Knight & The Pips- Bourgie Bourgie
Rare Earth – I Just Want to Celebrate (Mocean Worker Mix)
Temptations – Just My Imagination (DJ Jazzy Jeff & Pete Kuzma Remix)
KRS I – Sound Of Da Police
Primal Scream – Come Together (BBG Remix)

JC

Chemical Bros – Block Rocking Beats
David Bowie – Boys Keep Swinging
Echo & The Bunnymen – Never Stop
Kirsty MacColl – A New England
Sons & Daughters – Dance Me In
REM – Finest Worksong (Lengthy Club Mix)
Teenage Fanclub – Sparky’s Dream
Iggy Pop – The Passenger
Butcher Boy – Profit In Your Poetry
Meursault – A Few Kind Words
The Clash – Bankrobber

ANCB

Primal Scream – Dont Fight It , Feel It (Whistling Mix)
Ella Fitzgerald – Sunshine Of Your Love (Rockers Hi-Fi Mix)
A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (GW Edit)
Adamski – One Of The People (Ashley Beedle Mix
Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug (GW Edit)
Sister Sledge – Lost In Music (12″ Mix)
Stevie Wonder – Masterblaster (Jammin) (12″ Disco Mix)

JC/ANCB

Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself (12″ mix)
The Smiths – This Charming Man (New York Remix)
Fire Engines – Candyskin
Sugardaddy – Love Honey (GW Edit)
Kid Creole & The Coconuts – Wonderful (GW Edit)
Associates – Party Fears Two
The Trash Can Sinatras – Only Tongue Can Tell
Soup Dragons – Lovegod Dub
Red Guitars – Marimba Jive
The Third Degree – Mercy
The Charlatans – North Country Boy
James – Hymn From A Village
Kid Canaveral – Smash Hits
The Jam – Beat Surrender
Louis Armstrong – Wonderful World

I'd love the chance to do it all again some day.  Ah.....the sad delusions of a middle-aged saddo.

Here's one song from each of my mini-sets:-

mp3 : Electronic - Getting Away With It
mp3 : The Style Council - Speak Like A Child
mp3 : The Bodines - Therese
mp3 : The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual
mp3 : Butcher Boy - Profit In Your Poetry
mp3 : James - Hymn From A Village

Happy Listening. And dancing.....