Something for the Weekend
Don’t believe them, I went out with several London girls and not one of them darned my socks. They did always buy their round though.
Don’t believe them, I went out with several London girls and not one of them darned my socks. They did always buy their round though.
Had another stroll down 45 memory lane the other day and pulled this plum out of the singles box. You probably all know the a-side “Plain Sailing” from her 1982 student-bedsit classic album A Distant Shore, but it was the other side I loved more. “Goodbye Joe” is a cover of a Monochrome Set song and is a beautiful little gem of a track. Those were the days when you were more likely than not to find such hidden treasure on the other side of a single. We got our money’s worth back then.
I have posted this track before but I think it was long enough ago — eight years! — to warrant doing it again. Another reason is it’s only available on a rather expensive Cherry Red boxset which is a shame. Such beauty shouldn’t be so rare.
Download: Goodbye Joe – Tracey Thorn (mp3)
Been listening to the new Róisín Murphy album all week so I thought I’d jump in my time machine and go back 20 years (blimey) to her very first record which is still terrifically sexy and goofy.
We play this a lot in the car and the kids sing along to it, thankfully they have no idea what ‘I dreamt that the bogeyman went down on Mr. Spock” means.
Download: Love Of The Common People – Nicky Thomas (mp3)
Download: Ain’t No Soul Left In These Old Shoes – Major Lance (mp3)
Download: Don’t You Rock Me Daddy-O – Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group (mp3)
Download: Sweet And Tender Hooligan – The Smiths (mp3)
Download: Tear The Whole Thing Down – The Higsons (mp3)
So nice to have the great Róisín Murphy back after an eight-year gap since her last album. Even better to have her back in top form too because her new album Hairless Toys is terrific. It’s electronica with it’s feet tentatively on the dancefloor while it’s head and heart are somewhere stranger and more eclectic.
Listen to the whole thing here.
Richard Jobson’s dancing makes me think of him as the Elaine Benes of Post-Punk.
Not many bands have had a better year than the one Frankie Goes To Hollywood enjoyed in 1984. That year they became the first group since Gerry & the Pacemakers to have their first three singles all get to Number One, and at one point they occupied the top two charts spots — the first time that had been done since another little band from Liverpool called The Beatles. For a brief shining moment they were as big as the Fab Four and as thrillingly scandalous as the Sex Pistols. Even their t-shirts were a phenomenon.
But their story would be more perfect if they’d split up or all died in a car crash at the end of that year, because they had to go and spoil the ride by putting out an album that didn’t live up to the hype (how could it?), and they suddenly seemed like just another ordinary fallible pop group and not the fabulously provocative performance art piece they seemed in 1984. I guess the writing was on the wall when their fourth single was a dreadful flop that only got to number two in the chart. Still, it was great while it lasted.
Download: The World Is My Oyster (12″ mix) – Frankie Goes To Hollywood (mp3)
This was the b-side of the “Power of Love” 12″ single and is a much longer version of the track on their debut album. Besides those first three singles this is my favourite record of theirs.
Two new designs on sale, get them while they’re hot and only $14.
I have more planned in this range. Any requests for other genres? Funk? Prog? Handbag House?