Sleeping Gas

I was in the enormous and ostentatious Westfield shopping centre at Shepherd's Bush on Thursday night, wandering round waiting for our 6th formers to finish their shopping (a treat for them after a long day treading the streets of London). I nipped into the Fred Perry shop, weary and wanting to get back the hotel and also slightly disappointed with the new season's line, when this Teardrop Explodes song came on the in-store stereo and perked me up no end- almost had me bouncing round the shop like a nipper. Although as the only customer the lad behind the till began to give me an odd look.

Sleeping Gas

In the picture is Wyndham Lewis, who London Lee pointed out was the Lord of the Vorts (Vorticists that is).

Starlite

No-one seems to split blogger/reader opinion quite like Paul Weller, and even some of the diehards are now suggesting the haircut should probably go for a man of his age. This year's album (Sonik Kicks) had a cracking lead off single (That Dangerous Age), some krautrock influences, a dub duet with his latest missus, and various other things he wouldn't necessarily have tried in the mid 90s. This song, Starlite, came out this time last year, a stand alone 12". Listening to Sonik Kicks it's difficult to see where it would have fitted. Musically it harks back to The Style Council. The voice may not be quite up to the tune, but it's got a late summery feel that feels right.

Starlite

In the picture he's wearing the white version of his Fred Perry limited edition, signature range. I got the black with grey piping one cheap in an outlet a good while back. Mine's numbered 948/1000, and as Arthog noted re: the Bradley Wiggins Fred Perry range, black Fred Perry's always fade. But white ones will stain. What you lose on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts.

Tour De France

It's about time a mod won the Tour De France isn't it?
And while trying to ignore Murdoch and Sky's role in all of this we could coo over the very lovely Bradley Wiggins X Fred Perry range of cycling/leisure shirts, available here, in pale blue, white and black. Pale blue for me I think.

With crushing inevitability, from their 2003 remake and remodel album, here come Kraftwerk.

Tour De France Etape 1

Fun Boy Three 'Tunnel of Love'

In the five years after punk a narrow trousered army of people and bands stormed the singles charts, in the days when that meant something, who wouldn't have been pop stars in any other period. If punk musically was an ending, a full stop, it was a beginning for a mass of men and women with ideas, inspiration (do it yourself), and newly found access to the means of production (instruments, recording studios, independent record labels, pressing plants). Some brought a load of new or forgotten influences and musical styles (The Clash, Orange Juice, Scritti Politti, The Slits, The Specials, later on The Style Council, amongst others), some brought angry/fizzy pop songs (The Jam, Buzzcocks, Dexys Midnight Runners, Magazine, loads more) and found a mass audience, some went deeper and further (PiL, Joy Division) and some brought a unique view of the world and their place in it (Ian Curtis, John Lydon, Joe Strummer, Green Gartside, Edwyn Collins, Terry Hall). I'm sure there's loads of names you could insert or change. These people changed lives, trouser cuts, hairstyles, political beliefs, outlooks. They didn't really sound anything like each other- just relatively like minded, making outsider pop music.

Terry Hall had a reputation for being miserable. In recent years he's been diagnosed as bipolar. In between he recorded some great vocals and lyrics, in The Specials, Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield and his solo career. While musically The Specials were Dammers' band, making ska popular with teenagers, then branching off into lounge, easy listening and jazz, all the while with a frustrated rockabilly guitarist, it was often Terry's words or delivery of other people's words that gave them their contemporary twist- Too Much Too Young, Ghost Town, Gangsters, Friday Night Saturday Morning. When Terry, Lynval Golding and Neville Staple left to form Fun Boy Three they carried this on- weird, skewed pop music with interesting lyrics- try The Telephone Always Rings, or The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum. Or this, Tunnel Of Love, surely the most jaundiced, cynical view of love and marriage to hit the charts.

'You gave up your friends for a new way of life
And both ended up as ex-husband and wife
There were 22 catches when you struck your matches
And threw away your life
In the tunnel of love'

With violins and fiddles and a catchy pop tune. Selling hundreds of thousands. Who could do this today?

In the picture above right Terry Hall is modelling a limited edition V neck jumper from a well known street style label. Available in black or maroon, 500 of each, with a deeper than usual V and slimmer cut, and a signature label. I'm snobbishly thinking 'turning rebellion into money', while also thinking 'Mmmm.. nice, want one.'

08 Tunnel of Love.wma