British Sea Power

SUCH AN UPBEAT TUNE, SUCH A SAD SENTIMENT

It is, of course, Remembrance Day.  If previous years are anything to go by, then Drew will post something very moving and appropriate over at his place.

I don’t ever really do anything to mark what today is all about, but I thought I’d post the second single released by British Sea Power, but their first on vinyl and their first for Rough Trade Records:-

mp3: British Sea Power – Remember Me

This dates from 2001. It’s the version that many fans have said they prefer in comparison to that re-recorded for the debut album two years later and which itself was released as a single and went to #30 in the charts.

It’s a rip-roaring, energetic and lively old tune, but it masks a sad lyric in that it is all about dementia.

Do you worry about your health
Do you watch it slowly change
And when you listen to yourself, does it feel like somebody else
And did you notice when you began to disappear
Was it slowly at first
Until there was nobody really there
Increment by increment
Increment by increment
Increment by increment

Oh remember me
Yeah remember me
Oh remember me

Yeah remember me
Oh remember me
Will you remember me?

Did half of you pass away
What about the other half
Yeah what about the other half
Whatever!
We’re all part of the same old bloody regime
With someone taking it out whilst you were putting it in
Increment by increment
Increment by increment
Increment by increment

Oh remember me
Yeah remember me
Oh remember me

Yeah remember me
Oh remember me
Will you remember me?

Oh remember me
Yeah remember me
Oh remember me

From the here and now to eternity
Will you remember me?

There was a more gentle sounding tune waiting to be found on the b-side:-

mp3: British Sea Power – A Lovely Day Tomorrow

It too would be re-recorded in later years, this time with the assistance of The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa, a shoegaze band from the Czech Republic, and released as a limited-edition single.

mp3: British Sea Power Allied With The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa – A Lovely Day Tomorrow

If you’re hearing the above track for the first-ever time, I envy you. It’s a real treat for the ears.

But here’s the thing…..it’s the song that really has significance for today. The subject matter is the Czech resistance against the Nazis during WWII,and in particular, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking German SS official and a main architect of the Holocaust, who was ambushed by a team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill the Reich-Protector; the team was trained by the British Special Operations Executive.

The twist in the tale was that the Nazis falsely linked the Czech and Slovak soldiers and resistance partisans to the villages of Lidice and Ležáky. Both villages were razed; all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of the women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps.

The BSP/Ecstasy of Saint Theresa single was a celebration of the entry of Czech Republic into the European Union, with a limited edition of 1,942 copies (the year the operation took place). Kateřina Winterová delivers an ever better rendition in her native tongue, on the b-side:-

mp3: British Sea Power Allied With The Ecstasy Of Saint Theresa – Zítra Bude Krásný Den

Thanks for reading.

JC

Basement Jaxx

ROMEO….MAGNIFICENT IN ALL ITS MANIFESTATIONS

Basement Jaxx had ended the 20th century as one of the hottest and most popular new pop/dance acts in the UK, thanks to debut album Remedy, a Top 5 hit that had also spawned four massive singles including the infectious Red Alert which was used on film soundtracks as well as the music in an advert for Coca-Cola.

It took a couple of years for the duo of Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe to emerge with new material, and when they did, it was with this instant classic:-

mp3: Basement Jaxx – Romeo

Released on 6 June 2001, it was met with enormous enthusiasm, helped immensely by a terrific video that paid homage to the Indian Bollywood films of the 70s.

Here’s a taste of the reaction from some of the media:-

It is groovy and luscious enough to be the next single from Destiny’s Child and can be likened to old school disco music. A bittersweet pop classic and will break your heart or make you dance in one frantic twitch, complete with a sassy disco-diva vocal, cornball lyrics, and cheesy new wave synths and background vocals that quickly establish the duo’s obsession with retro kitsch.

It’s also a frisky slip of spicy feminine pop perfectly tailored for maximum radio rotation (the lead vocal is delivered by UK R’n’B artist, Kele Le Rock).

But the song itself went beyond that tailor-made for the charts, as can be heard in this stripped-backed version that highlights it also works as a defiant feminine anthem that wouldn’t sound out of place at a Las Vegas cabaret night or the sort of song that Marc Almond would make a great job of covering:-

mp3: Basement Jaxx – Romeo (acoustic)

And finally, it was put in the hands of the Dewaele brothers, part of the Belgian indie-band Soulwax but who had branched off as 2 Many DJs under which they would become one of the world’s most sought after remix production team. One of their specialties was the mash-up in which the vocals from one song were played over the tune of another. Somehow, they made this one work with The Clash:-

mp3: Basement Jaxx – Magnificent Romeo

Originally issued as a 2 Many DJs white-label single, it was later included on a bonus disc when Basement Jaxx released a ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation in 2005.

JC

Spiritualized

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part Eight : ANYWAY THAT YOU WANT ME

A GUEST POSTING BY FLIMFLAMFAN

I’d like to suggest Spiritualized’s version of Anyway That You Want Me 12” extended mix.

mp3: Spiritualized – Anyway That You Want Me (12″ extended mix)

I don’t know why a decision was made, if one was made at all, to combine Any and Way as one word for this version? Prior to this version, my absolute version was by The Troggs. On hearing this version, however, The Troggs were knocked swiftly to the number 2 spot.

mp3: The Troggs – Any Way That You Want Me

One of my abiding, happy memories of the song, circa 1990, is going to work on the bus – I worked nights at the time and was (and remain) a stickler for arriving on time. There I was at the back of the downstairs, 41 bus, volume to max on my Walkman (or derivative thereof), and lost to the bustling Friday night world outside. So lost was I to Anyway That You Want Me that I missed my stop – Cathedral Street at John Street – and only realising my misjudgment when the bus pulled in at its terminus at the Odeon cinema some 4 stops ahead.

Despite being able to recollect running like hell through the throng of Friday night revellers, back towards John Street, I can’t recall if I was late or not?

It’s a moment I think of fondly; lost in a space where only I and the music seemed to exist – if even for a short time – a feeling that I doubt I could describe without seeming like an absolute arse.

I’m guessing that others may have had similar experiences with other songs on other modes of transport?

flimflamfan

Various

A LETTER FROM AMERICA

A GUEST ICA by JOHNNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

Jim facetimed today to offer congratulations. He knew I’ve been out of my mind about the election, as has everyone in the States. I tried–and failed–to explain my mixed responses to the long process culminating in Biden’s victory: befuddlement, outrage, hopefulness, worry, elation, relief, exhaustion. Jim says, “If you want to write it all down you know where to send it.” Here you go, brother. (JC adds…..this arrived with an hour of the phone call!!)

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2020 – an ICA

Goldie the Friendly Psychologist and I discuss the debates, the barnstorming, the reports and analysis leading up to Tuesday, November 3rd. She’s all in for the fight but I can’t bear Electioneering.

Goldie and I bet on whose ballot will be received first: She mails hers with extra postage and I drop mine off at a neighborhood ballot box. I lose: she gets an email saying hers has been received and will be counted. I have to wait another day before I’ve Got Mine.

I am swayed by Goldie’s unrelenting optimism. The polls are looking really good. Our friend Aliceann is wary on the Monday but I’m projecting confidence. “Don’t Worry About The Government” I jokingly text her.

And then it’s the 3rd. Goldie is upbeat as always but I’m getting the uneasy feeling that Something’s Gone Wrong Again.

As the day progresses it’s clear that the lopsided polls were All Wrong, and I’m sick, depressed, and stunned. Not Goldie. “It’ll be fine when they count the mail-in votes. Don’t worry.”

Meanwhile, The Waiting is killing me. I am plagued by the twin thoughts that Voldemort will win a second term and that all the wisdom I can muster in opposition is a Tom Petty lyric.

Goldie is unperturbed late into the evening. “We’re going to win,” she says with peremptory authority. I am wondering whether to crack another bottle but She Goes to Bed.

Thursday the 5th things are looking a little brighter. Will Anything Happen? Apparently not. Biden is stuck on 253 electoral votes all day long and the next day, too.

Friday night and still no announcements. The vote counts are turning the battleground States blue. Goldie takes it as a certain victory but I’m at my limit: “Just Tell Me When It’s Over.”

We wake up Saturday and Pennsylvania has declared for Biden, followed shortly by Nevada. JC rings and we muse about possible criminal convictions of the *President*. Whatever happens to him, at long last we can say Clowntime Is Over.

“I knew it all along,” says the beautiful Goldie, and goes off to walk the dog,

Songs linked to above:

Radiohead
UB40
Talking Heads
Buzzcocks
Morphine
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Jason Falkner
Blondie
The Dream Syndicate
Elvis Costello (of course)

JTFL

JC adds……this has been an unexpected and essential late change to plans.  The R.E.M. series will return next Sunday.

Park Attack

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #236: PARK ATTACK

One in Four is a compilation CD that was released by the Scottish Association for Mental Health in 2004. It contains 14 exclusive and previously unheard tracks recorded by artists who had previously been involved in events run by the charity.

Among the better-known names you will find Teenage Fanclub, Snow Patrol, The Delgados, Mogwai, Arab Strap and Belle & Sebastian. The CD also included the one track I have in the collection by Park Attack, a band that I had to turn to Amazon to find detail as you can still pick up a digital copy of Half-Past Human, their sole CD:-

Park Attack are the new noise. Driven and intense, the band’s music is an explosion of feedbacking power and wild-throated melody. Founded by the trio of guitarist Rob Churm, drummer Lorna Gilfedder and keyboardist Tom Straughan, Park Attack have been the best-kept secret of the Glasgow music scene for years.

After releasing their debut EP in 2005 (the stunning 16-minute Last Drop At Hideout, on French label Tigersushi and Club Optimo’s O.S.C.A.R.R. imprint in the UK) the group headed to France to record their first full-length. A wild mix of stomp rock, slop punk and no wave intensity, Half-Past Human recalls the tribal arrhythmic sounds of DNA, the blaring energy of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, and the noise-guitar hell of early Sonic Youth. The synth-heavy sound does little to smooth the roughly sewn corners, which sets electronics against grumbling guitar and wailing vocals. The recent addition of a fourth member, Jamie Grier, on electronics, synth, and bass has further intensified the band’s sound. Live, they are a severe, stomping force of nature and with a host of US dates planned for 2006, the noise will finally be heard.

mp3: Park Attack – Boo Hoo!

This would have been an unreleased track back in 2004 when the SAMH CD was distributed, but it would later appear on the debut album, although I’m unable to say whether it was in the same form or was re-recorded. I wasn’t tempted by this taster to explore any further.

JC

Squeeze

EAST SIDE STORY

I made the promise a while back, when featuring Labelled With Love as an example of a song being a great short story, that I’d offer up some thoughts on its parent album, East Side Story.

As an adolescent teenage lad, I enjoyed listening to Squeeze as there really was something mischievous about them, with many of their lyrics dealing with various aspects of sex, especially on the sophomore album, Cool For Cats, released in 1979 which happened to be the first of theirs that I bought.

Slap and Tickle, Touching Me Touching You, It’s So Dirty, and Cool for Cats are packed with lyrics that are a mixture of being right there in your face, hidden with double-entendres or disguised with local slang. It’s an album that I never really could totally fathom as some of the music left me a tad cold – I knew the band had its roots in pub rock in the south-east of London and some of the songs certainly displayed that particular lineage which jarred with my love for faster, edgier new wave/post-punk songs.

Having said all that, the album also contained Up The Junction, the very reason I had gone out and made the purchase. It was, and remains, one of my favourite 45s of all-time, a tale of working-class bliss gone awry set to an ear-worm of a tune. This was the side of Squeeze that I was desperate for.

The band’s third album, Argybargy, released in 1980 delivered more of what I was after. There was still the occasional take on sex, with the imperious Pulling Mussels (From A Shell) being the best example, but with songs such as Another Nail In My Heart, I Think I’m Go Go, Here Comes That Feeling, and If I Didn’t Love You made this a more satisfying listen, albeit there were still a couple of pub-type tunes that had me reaching for the needle and moving it swiftly over.

I was quite pleased to learn that piano player Jools Holland had decided to leave the band after Argybargy as I had the view that it was his musical tastes, and style of playing that most jarred with me. I really did just want the pure pop of the singers/writers, Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook.

Having said that, I was a bit concerned that they had drafted in Paul Carrack as the replacement – someone I only knew as the singer with Ace who had enjoyed a massive hit with How Long, an MOR-ballad that I hated, back in 1975.

The first of the new songs came in the shape of a lead-off single, one that didn’t actually do all that well, stalling at #35 in early may 1981:-

mp3: Squeeze – Is That Love?

A fast-paced guitar-focused pop song that sounded like Squeeze but with some something added to the sound. A lot of critics at the time mentioned Beatles comparisons in terms of the tune and the use of the harmonies, but I thought there was more than a touch of Elvis Costello in the mix, which is no surprise given he was co-producer and occasional contributor of backing vocals.

It was two weeks later that the album arrived in the shops.  I was working as the Saturday Boy in Woolworths at the time and I used my staff discount to pick up a copy of the album when I got to work a few days after it had come out.  Robert, the store manager and an ancient bloke in his mid-20s from Belfast, told me that he had been listening to the album at least once a day and that in his view it was a really strange offering, packed with all sorts of different tunes, few of which sounded like the earlier hit singles.  I asked him if he liked it and he said he wasn’t sure.  Now, given that this bloke had fairly decent taste in music (he owned loads of punk and new wave records and was a huge fan of Joy Division), this was a bit of a concern.

I took the record home that night.  I don’t think I would have played it that night as I would have been round at the house of the new-found girlfriend and then the next day would have been devoted to playing football.  Sunday evenings was time set aside to listen to the new singles chart rundown, and so it would have been a couple more days before I’d have played the album in full – I wasn’t at school much at this point in time, only going in for exams but secure in the knowledge that I already had enough from the previous year’s diet to have secured a place at uni. Isn’t it funny how some long-forgotten memories from almost 40 years ago are dredged up when you look at the sleeve of an album and give it another listen?

I’ll be honest.  The first listen to East Side Story confused me.  I probably had given too much credence to Robert’s opinion and was failing to listen without prejudice.  There was an absence of hit singles as far as I was concerned, and horror of horrors, there was a straight-up country and western song. There were songs that sounded like the sort of stuff some my mates’ big brothers listened to (psychedelia); there were a couple of songs that still sounded as if Jools Holland was involved in the studio; there was at least one when Chris Difford sounded as if he was deliberately singing out of key above a tune that bordered on the painful to listen to;  and then there was this piece of white-soul, Doobie Brothers-style, on which Paul Carrack had taken lead vocal – it was too close a cousin to What A Fool Believes for my tastes.

And then, the summer arrived.  School’s Out for ever….and loads of time on my hands as most of my mates have gone into a job or an apprenticeship, failing which some sort of slave-wage scheme that the Thatcher government had insisted young folk signed up to or there would be no welfare benefits.  East Side Story found itself on heavy rotation  – I had this feeling at the back of my mind that if I could begin to get my head around it then it would be a sign of my tastes maturing, which I probably had to do if I was going to meet and get friendly with all sorts of new and clever folk at uni….

Slowly but surely, the tunes on the album began to resonate with me.  This was the sort of album that ‘grown-ups’ listened to.  Fourteen songs that covered all sorts of musical genres, never settling into any obvious pattern.

The great trick was to open with In Quintessence, the one track that could easily have passed for a Squeeze 45 as it reminded me of Another Nail…but after that it veered all over the place packed with amazing tunes, packed with  lyrics that were at times humorous, at times clever, at times poignant, at times moving and at times thought-provoking.  It was an album that was proving to be increasingly rewarding with each listen…..and I even found myself almost warming to the Paul Carrack vocal (on a song written by Difford/Tilbrook) on the basis that there wasn’t a second helping on the LP.

It’s an album that I can still happily listen to these days, more so than any of the other Squeeze records that I had purchased prior to this.  This was the album that Up The Junction had long-promised and was a million miles away from Touching Me, Touching You, which now sounded incredibly juvenile in my new found world where wandering through the students union into different bars and areas (including a Games Hall in which a group of hippies hogged the jukebox and provided, over a nine-month period, my long-overdue introduction to Neil Young).

East Side Story.   It’s the album in which I did my most growing up.

mp3: Squeeze – In Quintessence
mp3: Squeeze – Someone Else’s Heart
mp3: Squeeze – Woman’s World
mp3: Squeeze – F-Hole

It should be noted that F-Hole goes straight into Labelled With Love, a sequencing of tracks which always makes me smile.

JC

Verve

BURNING BADGERS VINYL (Part 7) : THE VERVE

Brilliant Songs, Brilliantly Remixed #1

# 1 Bittersweet Symphony – The Verve (Hut Records, 1997, HUTTR82)

Welcome to the Saturday night before my 22nd birthday. I have been to Camden Town, which at the time (1997) is Britpop central. In one night I have met three different blokes who all claim to be in Menswear (usually said to young girls in an attempt to impress them), one who claims to be the singer in long-forgotten indie-poppers Rialto (and to be fair he could have been) and another one who said he was ‘in Supergrass’ (he definitely wasn’t). I’ve also genuinely just spilled half a pint of lager onto the shoes of a lad who is definitely in the band Symposium. I know this because I have been drinking with Symposium all afternoon. I wonder what happened to Symposium?

(Well, to answer my own question, one of them is ‘sort of’ in Hot Chip, two of them are/were in Hell for Heroes and I’m unsure about the other two)

I am it has to be said, struggling to walk in a straight line, and I might have just tried to steal one of those boxes that contain copies of the Evening Standard from outside the Tube Station. It’s only half-past ten but Mrs SWC, who is nearly sober, despite drinking twice as much as me, has reminded me that we need to get back to Waterloo for half eleven. Sadly for Mrs SWC, I am demanding food and I am demanding that we enter Mehmet’s Mamaris Grill, which I am declaring to be, “the greatest restaurant in London” to get said food. It also appears that I have forgotten that I am a vegetarian because I have just ordered the world’s largest portion of sausage and chips. Mrs SWC calmly orders the veggie option and we will swap later in the tube station.

With one minute to spare we make it to the train which will take us back to the suburbs, and we flop into some seats as the train trundles away in the south London darkness. Just outside Deptford train station, the train comes to a shuddering and somewhat dramatic stop. I’m still quite drunk, and for a second I think I have fallen off the seat, I’ve certainly been half asleep. A guard comes running through the train and a few people (mostly drunk people) start to look a bit concerned. Mrs SWC, kicks me and tells me to ‘go and take a look’. Me being still quite drunk, decide that this is a great idea.

It turns out the train is on fire.

Something, which, fuelled by alcohol, I find hilarious and can barely stop laughing as I deliver the news to about fifteen people in the carriage. I’m not sure people believe me, despite my convincing delivery. That is until we see five young kids running for dear life down the handily placed ramp that leads to Deptford Train Station, chased by a couple of older guys.

Then the guard appears and tells us to get off the train, as its ‘ablaze’ not on fire.

‘Ablaze’.

He tells us to move quickly to the end carriage and go onto the platform, I immediately go the wrong way – and the guard looks at me as if I am simple and says ‘no the other end, son’. Mrs SWC sighs and grabs my hand; we make it home eventually in a shared cab which is playing reggae music so loudly that it makes my teeth rattle. This I am told is because I kept telling the driver to ‘turn up the bass.

All of which riddim and ting brings us to Britpop’s finest moment and a wonderful piece of vinyl from Badger’s Box.

mp3: The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (James Lavelle Remix)

The James Lavelle Mix of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ is a bleeding masterpiece. It first circulated I think, on the original 12” of the single (which came out on my 22nd birthday, hence why I am talking about the events two days prior to my 22nd birthday), but I have never seen a copy of the 12″ so can’t confirm that.

mp3: The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony (Original)

It definitely featured on the CD single of the next single ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’, as I remember playing the mix before I’d played the lead track.

mp3: The Verve – The Drugs Don’t Work

Badger’s version, however, is another promo. Honestly, I don’t know where he got all these from. It is a beautiful thing. A plain white sleeve, with a lime green sticker, on the top of it, which tells us what it is. The mix is fairly laid back, stretching out the sampled string section and replacing most of the guitars with thick old beats. James Lavelle has unsurprisingly made this look, sound, and feel, like an UNKLE record, and I think I love this more than the original.

SWC

Magazine

SOME SONGS ARE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 40)

Written and scheduled for publication before the USA election results are known.  Just seemed to be appropriate, no matter the outcome.

This man is at the door of Hell…somehow it seems to be his destination after a life of subtle stubbornness. He doesn’t expect to find himself waking up out of a dream…he doesn’t expect to pinch himself and wake up and that kind of thing…in fact, the thought of that happening makes him smile. He’s just mildly surprised to find himself there at the door of Hell.

To all accounts, the kindly old man who is the doorman (and who conceivably reminds him of his father) is sat reading a book…but he gets up smartly and without time for either of them to feel that they’re standing on ceremony says, “Hold my book for a minute, would you, while I get the door open!” (Presumably, you know, you need two hands to open the door.) For some reason, the old man doesn’t just put his book down on the chair.

It all happens quite quickly…he finds that he’s made a decision and is already holding the old man’s book…as just about anybody else would have, But it seems a bit curious because…in however small a way you like to consider it…it is as if he’s helping himself enter Hell…the path of least resistance. Of course, at the same time he suddenly thinks..Even as he finally grips the book…”This is my chance for a reprieve…the final test…the straw which will tip the good deeds over the bad.”

Next thing he knows, they have exchanged opinions on the book and he has handed it back to the old man and is being shown into Hell.

mp3: Magazine – The Book

A spoken number that was originally released in March 1980 as the b-side of Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), which itself was Magazine’s excellent, new-wave take on a Sly & The Family Stone number, which itself has an opening line referencing the Devil.

Oh, why not???

mp3: Magazine – Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)

JC

 

Heaven 17

AMERICA……DO YOUR DUTY TODAY!!!

(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)
(Everybody move to prove the groove)

Have you heard it on the news
About this fascist groove thang?
Evil men with racist views
Spreadin’ all across the land
Don’t just sit there on your ass
Unlock that funky chaindance
Brothers, sisters, shoot your best
We don’t need this fascist groove thang

Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang

History will repeat itself
Crisis point, we’re near the hour
Counterforce will do no good
Hot U.S. I feel your power
Hitler proves that funky stuff
It’s not for you and me, girl (no, no no)
Europe’s an unhappy land
They’ve had their fascist groove thang

Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang

Democrats are out of power
Across that great wide ocean
Reagan’s president elect
Fascist God in motion
Generals tell him what to do
Stop your good time dancing
Train their guns on me and you
Fascist thing advancing
Sisters, brothers lend a hand
Increase our population
Grab that groove thang by the throat
And throw it in the ocean
You’re real tonight, you move my soul
Let’s cruise out on the dance floor
Come out your house and dance your dance
Shake that fascist groove thang (shake it)

Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need that fascist groove thang
Brothers, sisters
We don’t need the fascist groove thang.

The song might be almost 40 years old now, but the general message is still relevant:-

mp3: Heaven 17 – (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang (12″ version)

Here’s yer instrumental and atmospheric track on the b-side.  But bear in mind, it has an explosive finish:-

mp3: Heaven 17 – The Decline of The West (12″ version)

Jonny, Goldie, SC, Echorich, Brian…..I know from talking extensively to each of you in the past that you’ll be on board with these sentiments.  I have no doubt that just about every other reader or visitor to these parts from across the pond feels the same.

Good luck my friends.

JC

Wedding Present

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part Seven : KENNEDY

Play loud and blow away those Monday morning cobwebs.

mp3: The Wedding Present – Kennedy

It entered the Top 40 at #34 on 7 October 1989.   One week later it had rocketed up to #33. It was the first time The Wedding Present cracked the higher(ish) end of the charts as the previous two singles, Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm and Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? had stalled in the 40s.

It was their first single on a major label and it probably did more than anything else up to this point in time to being the band to the attention of a wider audience.  It was certainly the first record of theirs that I ever bought.

In 2015, David Gedge, having been told by an on-line interviewer that Kennedy had been one of the defining songs of the decade, was asked if was dearth/death of the American Dream? Here’s his full answer:-

I’m not really one for explaining my lyrics. That’s usually because they’re so obvious but ‘Kennedy’ is different from my usual style. It’s a lot more vague, for one thing. I wrote it after reading about the Kennedy assassination and the theories about mafia and CIA involvement… so draw your own conclusions!

Three tracks on the b-side of the 12″ – these have also been ripped at 320kpbs.  The middle of them is particularly good, while the last of them is a cover, one of a substantial number that Gedge has recorded over the years, either with TWP or under the banner of Cinerama.

mp3: The Wedding Present – One Day This Will All Be Yours
mp3: The Wedding Present – Unfaithful
mp3: The Wedding Present – It’s Not Unusual

And remember, I’m more than happy to take requests and/or guest postings for this series.

JC

R.E.M.

THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF R.E.M. (Part 20)

The Robster writes…..

I’m going to come out right away and say it now. I cannot stand The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite. It is a bloody terrible song that should never have been allowed to see the light of day. There, I’ve said it.

‘Automatic For The People’ was undoubtedly a success beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. R.E.M. were now firmly entrenched in the mainstream. An obscure college indie band a decade before, they were now fast becoming an act that could (and would) sell out stadiums around the world. And what’s more, they were doing it on their own terms. But they still had the odd chink in their armour.

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite was an oddity on AFTP, as Peter Buck explained: “We included this song on Automatic in order to break the prevailing mood of the album. Given that lyrically the record dealt with mortality, the passage of time, suicide and family, we felt that a light spot was needed. In retrospect, the consensus among the band is that this might be a little too lightweight.” He’s not kidding. Whereas there is an argument that the execrable Shiny Happy People had a valid place on ‘Out Of Time’ owing to its upbeat nature, the same cannot be said of Sidewinder. It’s one of those novelty songs that always seemed to be released as singles. Sadly, it’s also the one awful commercial radio stations insist on playing several times a day every day. I know. I’ve had to endure it whenever I’ve been in the office. Which is why I’m so enjoying working from home now!

mp3: R.E.M. – The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite

The song was based on The Lion Sleeps Tonight, which for some reason, the band paid for the rights to use. Mike Mills told Melody Maker in 1992 that the song was about: “somebody that doesn’t have a place to stay. Part of it is also about what man can do that machines can’t. The rest of it – I don’t have any idea what it’s about.” He later said: “Half of the song is about somebody trying to get in touch with someone who can sleep on his floor. The other half – you’re on your own.”

Stipe laughs while singing “or a reading from Dr. Seuss” as he always pronounced Seuss as “Zeus” despite several attempts.

Some other facts for you:

1) In 2010, a survey in the UK named Sidewinder the number one most misheard lyric. The line “Call me when you try to wake her up” is heard as “Calling Jamaica”.

2) The song reached number one in Iceland. NUMBER 1! In Iceland, where they usually have such impeccable music taste!

3) R.E.M. never played Sidewinder live. Thank goodness for small mercies…

I’m done with the facts. The song really isn’t worth this amount of space on such an esteemed blog. So let’s move onto the b-sides. As with the previous singles from Automatic, the b-side of the UK 7” and cassette was a track from ‘Green’. This time it was Get Up, an equally upbeat number but 100,000 times better than the a-side.

mp3: R.E.M. – Get Up

Again there were two CD singles. As part of the deal the band brokered to obtain the rights to The Lion Sleeps Tonight was a clause that they had to record a cover of the song. I suppose this was because Sidewinder was attributed to Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe as writers, so the authors of Lion may have felt entitled to a cut. Which I suppose is fair enough and the band obliged and put it on CD1. It’s not the best cover you’ll ever hear, but then it was never the best song you’ll ever hear. But it’s OK for curiosity value.

mp3: R.E.M. – The Lion Sleeps Tonight

It’s the third track on CD1 that is the real gem though. I referred to Fretless in my piece on Drive a couple weeks ago. It’s one of the songs the band recorded for Out Of Time but jettisoned. You have to ask yourself ‘Why?’ I don’t know a single R.E.M. fan who would argue against it being on OoT in place of, say, Endgame or Shiny Happy People. Certainly the band has rued that decision over the years. It would also have been a good fit on Automatic, but it ended up on a soundtrack – Until The End Of The World – where it would have languished in obscurity were it not for this single. Hey, did I just say something positive about Sidewinder? Anyway, it’s a beautiful song, probably the saddest Kate Pierson ever sang on too. This song would always make it onto an R.E.M. mixtape. Sidewinder wouldn’t.

mp3: R.E.M. – Fretless

CD2 had the de rigeur disposable instrumental. Organ Song was one of many demos the band made but never pursued. It’s played on a church organ (or a keyboard with a convincing church organ sound) and goes absolutely nowhere throughout its overly long 3½ minutes. One of the most pointless b-sides in the band’s catalogue, and there have been a few! The final track was a demo of Star Me Kitten which, well, sounds like a demo. Not sure why this was included either, as it doesn’t have much to offer that the album track doesn’t do much better. The version with William S. Burroughs that appeared on an X-Files inspired compilation some years later beats this one hands- down. Not the best of “Collectors’ Edition” releases, it has to be said.

mp3: R.E.M. – Organ Song
mp3: R.E.M. – Star Me Kitten (demo)

Let’s take Fretless with us and forget the rest ever happened, OK?

JC writes….

I’m very conscious of the fact that my piece last week re Man on The Moon was overly long and so I’ll do my best to keep this brief.

I like The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite.  Peter Buck gives the reasons as to why it was recorded and included before backtracking by saying it was a little too lightweight.  I feel it comes in at just the right spot on the album. We’ve had the intensity of Drive and the sadness the deathbed song that was Try Not To Breathe.  Coming up next is Everybody Hurts, an intensely sad song that will be looked at further next week as it is the next single.  The album would have just been too much to take without breaking things up a bit, and given the various snippets we have offered up via the instrumental b-sides which in effect were demos that weren’t progressed, I think it’s fair to say that the tune for Sidewinder beats them all.

It’s been turned into a novelty song by the attitude of the band since the release of Automatic and the critical reaction.  Let’s not kid ourselves, right up to the days before it went to press, R.E.M. could have vetoed the inclusion of Sidewinder but stayed quiet on it, obviously wanting something upbeat at that juncture of the album.

There’s also the fact that the promo video for Sidewinder was filmed on 21 September 1992 – a full two weeks before Automatic was released in the UK and USA, which is a clear indication of an agreement with Warner Bros that is was a likely single at some point in the future.  The backtracking started when some reviewers not only wrote that it jarred but questioned why R.E.M. would lower themselves to cover something so lightweight and frivolous.  It strikes me that the band members decided that rather than take on such viewpoints and defend what they did, the best course of action was to disown it.

Sidewinder is no better and no worse than songs like Stand or Pop Song 89 or Shiny Happy People or Underneath The Bunker (a disposable and fun number on Life’s Rich Pageant), and was a continuation of R.E.M.’s efforts on almost all albums to include a song that was out of the norm and not to be taken too seriously – which was obviously OK to do until the serious journos questioned the motives.

Anyway, since you made it this far, how about a bonus song?   Here’s the William S. Boroughs collaboration for the X-Files soundtrack mentioned in passing by The Robster.

mp3: R.E.M – Star Me Kitten (feat. William S Burroughs)

PS: It’s me next week with a look at Everybody Hurts.  It’ll be a short piece, you’ll be relieved to hear!

PPS: Robster is bang-on with his thoughts on Fretless.  It’s a hidden gem.

The Robster and JC

Paolo Nutini

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #235: PAOLO NUTINI

You can blame Rachel for this one.

A few years ago, she was giving me a bit of stick for the amount of money I was spending on records, to which my retort was that it paled into insignificance in comparison to the numerous handbags and shoes that litter every nook and cranny of Villain Towers.  And I’d never dream of spending the cost of a designer bag or pair of shoes on one piece of vinyl…..actually, that’s a lie as I dream of it often – I just don’t follow through on said dreams.

Rachel is also a fan of Paolo Nutini, the singer, songwriter and musician from Paisley whose debut album, These Streets, went to #3 in the UK charts. The fourth and final single lifted from the album was New Shoes, a song much-played by Rachel after she bought herself the CD album, becoming something of a running joke everytime she brought a further purchase into the house (to be fair, her shoe fetish wasn’t just about designer labels – she’d spend minuscule amounts round at Asda or Tesco on anything that was a size 4 and was sparkly).

I was in Fopp Records in Glasgow when I spotted a copy of New Shoes on 7″ vinyl retailing for £2.99. I couldn’t resist buying it, along with a few other bits’n’bobs, just to have a bit of a laugh with Rachel. I hid the single away until the next time she came back from a shopping expedition, and before she could reach the CD player, I had fired up the turntable and presented her with her first piece of new vinyl in decades.

mp3: Paolo Nutini – New Shoes
mp3: Paolo Nutini – New Shoes (Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly remix)

Yup, the b-side was the work of the equally popular young troubadour from Southend, England.

The thing is, and Rachel doesn’t know it as yet, but I’ve taken back ownership of the single.

The reason being that I’ve been logging all the vinyl and trying to get a value on it, and was astonished to learn that a copy of New Shoes last sold on Discogs for £21 earlier this year and the one copy on offer just now has an asking price of £55 (incl postage) from a seller in Denmark. I need to protect such valuable artifacts, or else it would end up being given away to a charity shop….just like so many of the shoes and handbags over the years, just to make room for others…..

JC

PS: For the record, Paolo Nutini is an all-round good-bloke who does a lot to quietly support grassroots music in the local area.  His music might not be to my or your tastes, but he isn’t someone who lives the superstar lifestyle remotely away from the town he was born and raised.

These Animal Men

BURNING BADGERS VINYL (Part 6) : THESE ANIMAL MEN

Burning Badgers Vinyl 6: Too Sussed?  – These Animal Men (1994) (Virgin/Hut Records)

by JC

There’s always a risk when a friend asks you to pick a number….especially when it involves a lucky dip for a piece of vinyl.

I chose #4.  SWC came back and said it was a piece of vinyl called Too Sussed? by These Animal Men.  He also said it was a 5-track EP and would therefore fit in nicely to a run of pieces on EPs that were kept by Tim Badger when it was thought he had sold all of his vinyl.

As it turns out, Discogs has Too Sussed? as an LP and not an EP, albeit it only has five-tracks.  Wikipedia has it as an EP.   I turned to the UK Offical Charts where the piece of vinyl is down in history as coming in at #39, on 2 July 1994, in the album charts,  dropping down to #66 the following week before disappearing from view altogether. It had five tracks on it, and so while it might have been pitched and possibly priced as an EP, the rules of the day that restricted EPs to a maximum of four tracks, would be the reason it went into the albums chart and not the singles chart.

These Animal Men haven’t featured on the blog before for three reasons.  One being that I don’t have any of their stuff and the second being that I think they’re shit.  The third reason is that nobody has previously offered up a guest posting, and if they had done, then reasons one and two become redundant.

TAM, as they will now be referred to from here on in, were, (and the rest of this para is lifted from allmusic), quickly tossed into the “new wave of new wave” revolution, a music scene created mainly by the U.K. press to help publicize a number of young pop-punk revivalists in England circa 1994. Formed in 1993 in Brighton, England, TAM wasted no time in shocking the masses. The group’s first single, “Speeed King,” was a high-octane tribute to amphetamines; the cover even showed a bowl of suspicious white powder and a couple of straws. Comprised of Julian Hewings (vocals, guitar), Patrick Murray (bass), Alex Boag (guitar, vocals), and Stevie Hussey (drums), TAM capitalized on widespread tabloid rumors of the band consisting of drug-addicted bad boys. The banned “Speeed King” even landed them on the legendary Top of the Pops show (on 30 June 1995 as part of the promo efforts for the Too Sussed? EP/LP)

Back to all music….

However, when These Animal Men released their debut album, (Come on Join) The High Society, Oasis had just unleashed Definitely Maybe into a stagnant rock & roll market searching for the Next Big Thing after the death of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. Oasis brought guitar pop back onto the British charts and showed the world that England was worth listening to again. The “new wave of new wave” movement was left in the dust, taking These Animal Men and their sordid tales of drugs, booze, and masturbation with them. The group recorded another full-length, Accident & Emergency, and then split up quietly in 1997. Hewings and Boag reunited in Mo Solid Gold.

The TOTP clip is all you need to realise that TAM were all hype and no substance.

#4 was a bad call on my part. Tim Badger’s taste, it is comforting to learn, was far from impeccable.

mp3: These Animal Men – Too Sussed
mp3: These Animal Men – Speeed King
mp3: These Animal Men – Jobs For The Boys
mp3: These Animal Men – Who’s The Daddy Now?
mp3: These Animal Men – You’re Not My Babylon

Oh, and this should be a good test of the point made the other day by anonymous on how we, as a community, tend to react to a piece of music that splits opinion. There’s a PS today……..

JC

SWC adds…….

I have a theory about some of these records in Badgers Box. Some of them I think contain songs that the band Tim was in used to cover from time to time, which is why he might have owned this record. I know that they did a cover of ‘You’re Not My Babylon’ because he told me that once.

Then again, there is a pile of CDs as well and the eighth disc in that pile is the album ‘(Come on) Join The High Society’ by These Animal Men  I listened to that this morning in the car and it’s worse than this EP.

So Badger might have been a closet fan. If he was, he kept it very quiet because TAM were one of those bands that we used to purposely slag off on our old blog. In fact they were on the ‘banned bands list’ alongside such luminaries as Jesus Jones, Molly Half Head, and Knobheads. Bands that we promised to never post any music by, as they were so dreadful.

The exception to the ‘shit ruling’ is track five above, “You’re Not My Babylon”. That is an indie-pop gem. It’s a blistering few minutes of garage racket pop dedicated to John Dillinger. If all their tracks sounded like that, they would have been household names and we’d been on to our third ICA celebrating their work by now. Sadly the rest of their music is about as pleasing as walking on Lego in bare feet and finding a dog turd in the fridge.

TAM split in 1998, they formed various other bands after that, none of which really achieved much. I have no idea what they are doing now. I read somewhere that that chap who called himself ‘Hooligan’ was working as a geography teacher. I think that might be bollocks though.

The only other thing about this band that I think is worthy of raising is that one of the band was a child actor who appeared in Time Bandits, which I happen to think is a great film.

Close Lobsters, Fall, Matt Berninger

THE CRAP SOUND OF VINYL

There’s a lot wrong with the world just now, so this grumble somehow feels very insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but still……

It’s now seven months since I retired from full-time employment, and with COVID playing havoc with my plans to see the world, I’ve instead stayed at home and devoted time and money to music, all of which has led me to painfully admit my anorak tendencies do actually extend to me being described, accurately, with an awful word.

Collector.

I’ll admit to it if, for no other reason that a chunk of my redundancy payment has been utilised to go out and find vinyl copies of some of my most cherished CDs.  It’s not that I’ve gone really daft as there are some prices I simply won’t pay – the two Paul Quinn & The Independent Group albums being prime examples – but I have been tempted by a few sellers on Discogs to pay decent sums of money for original pressings of albums such as Seamonsters by The Wedding Present, which I only highlight as at £40, it’s the most I’ve ever spent on a second-hand album unseen, trusting the description of the seller – and it proved to be well worth it as it was in Near Mint condition and the sound was way superior to the CD that I’ve had for nearly 30 years.

Talking of TWP – and this where I will finally get to the point highlighted in the title of today’s posting – I’ve long wanted a copy of Bizarro on vinyl, but there’s never really been a copy on-line that fully caught my attention in terms of asking price and condition.  Instead, I ended up picking up a brand-new re-press that was issued for National Album Day on 20 October 2020 at a cost of £20.  It was like the old days as I returned back home from the record shop, the heart beating that little bit quicker and the anticipation levels increasing with every step.  One of my all-time favourite albums…..on vinyl….at last.

It came, like so many others nowadays, shrinkwrapped, which meant that it was only when I took the vinyl out of the inner sleeve did I discover it was a fairly light piece of plastic.  I knew beforehand it wasn’t a heavy 180-gram press but it was still a surprise to find myself holding something so flimsy.

I placed it down carefully on the turntable and lifted the needle into the groove. The opening notes of Brassneck came out of the speakers.  And they came out very quietly.

This couldn’t be right could it?   Vinyl is supposed to be much superior to CD but this was an occasion when I had to turn the volume button up to ensure it could be heard.  There was also a further sense of disappointment as the sounds coming out of the speaker were nothing special – there was certainly no discernable differences in the bass or the treble.  All in all, it felt really cheap, especially when compared to what I has experience from the second-hand copy of Seamonsters.

And it’s not just Bizarro that I’ve had a poor experience with vinyl in recent weeks. Debut by Bjork was another disappointing piece of vinyl that sounded as it had just been transferred straight from the CD rather than from the original masters.  Likewise, the copy of Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.  Oh, and just after typing all this up, I’ve come on to add that the album I’ve just listened to, Beautiful Ones 1992-2018, a newly released 2 x vinyl LP featuring twenty-one singles by Suede as another example of a record that is a shoddy cut/press requiring the volume button to be turned way up high.

Not every vinyl for CD replacement has turned out that way.  Paul’s Boutique by The Beasties Boys is a Rolls Royce of a cut with all sorts of things being experienced in a new way, and likewise the 3 x LP re-release of OK Computer in which Radiohead seemingly took direct control of the process and ensured the vinyl would benefit from being mastered and pressed to the highest standard.  It’s against the sound of those records that I judge any re-issued vinyl.

It’s not just the re-issues that are causing grief with a number of brand new albums also being poorly pressed, cut, or mastered.  One of my favourite albums of the year is The Prettiest Curse by Hinds but I’ve had to rely on the download copy to put on the i-pod as the vinyl version suffers from what feels like a very muffled sound, with few peaks or troughs when looked at through the Audacity programme which I use to convert vinyl to mp3 format for different purposes, including the blog.

There is, however, one different thing that’s even more annoying, and that’s taking a brand new record out of its shrink-wrap, knowing that this will be its first-ever play, and discovering it hisses, crackles or pops – or possibly even all three.  Such as this:-

mp3: Matt Berninger – Take Me Out Of Town

This is the second track on Side B of the new and very fine album by the frontman of The National.  It’s a beautifully produced record, with the deft touch of Booker T Jones bringing out a real richness in Matt’s voice.  It’s a slow-to-mid-paced album, one in which you get the feeling every single note matters, no matter how far back it has been put in the mix.  There were absolutely no issues when listening to Side A.  I didn’t initially pick anything up when listening to Side B but then again, its first track is one of the louder songs. I was horrified by the introductory crackles for song two, and more so from the fact they were louder at the end of the track.  And yup, they got increasingly worse through tracks 3-5.

I’ve had this happen quite a few times these past few months.  I do now give every brand new record a clean before but it doesn’t really help all that much.  One of the major bugbears is that I have tried to support independent record stores all across the UK in recent months and so a number of the purchases have been made online and delivered by post, meaning I can’t easily return them and so have to accept poorer quality than I wanted.

I did, however, buy the Matt Berninger album from a shop in Glasgow and I’ll be looking to return it for a replacement copy.  Wish me luck!

Incidentally, it’s not just albums I’m finding issues with.  My copy of the new and magnificent Arab Strap 7″ single isn’t all that great in terms of crackling all the way through,  but particularly at the end, and it was bought from what is regarded as Glasgow’s premier record store.  But I’m not taking it back as this particular store had a number of copies in which the sleeve was signed by Aidan and Malcolm – at least I’ve the consolation of it being one of those rare new pieces of vinyl which comes with a download.

I’ll stop there – there’s another post rattling around my head about how different sellers on Discogs choose to grade their vinyl.  I’ve had some very poor experiences on things that were supposed to be Very Good+ that turned out to be almost unplayable.  Having said that, the vast majority of transactions have been very satisfactory, with the occasional real gem landing in my lap from sellers who have been very conservative with their gradings.

Such as the two sides of this 7″:-

mp3: The Fall – Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul
mp3: The Fall – Fantastic Life

or this 12″:-

mp3: Close Lobsters – Let’s Make Some Plans
mp3: Close Lobsters – In Spite Of These Times
mp3: Close Lobsters – Get What They Deserve

Two pieces of vinyl which date from 1981 and 1987 respectively, with neither remotely showing their age in any shape or form, including the wonderfulness of the songs.

JC

Cure

YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS. YOUR FANS ARE GONNA HATE IT

I wasn’t sure whether or not to post anything today with the consideration being that it might be beneficial to have the thoughts from yesterday of our anonymous friend remaining to the fore.  In the end, I concluded that most folk who drop in on a regular but not daily basis are quite likely to scroll back a few days, so hopefully, everyone will get the chance to read it.

The title of today’s post is the alleged response of the folk at Fiction Records when Robert Smith presented them with an early rendition of Let’s Go To Bed, the song which really changed the direction of the band and, arguably, enabled them to get onto the path that ensured they would still be making music and selling-out arena/outdoor shows almost 40 years later.

The band’s fourth studio album, Pornography, had been released in May 1982. It was a difficult listen – my initial reaction was that it made the two Joy Division albums sound as upbeat as a Bucks Fizz record – with it later transpiring that the recording sessions had been dominated by in-fighting among the band members, heavy drug use and the frontman dealing with very serious depression that later saw him shutting himself away for an extended period of time among the splendour, beauty and fresh air of the Lake District in north-west England.

It was during this spell that Smith determined he would take the band in a slightly different direction, partly enabled by the fact that bassist Simon Gallup left the line-up, leaving things as just a duo alongside Lol Tolhurst. He set out to write a song that was far removed from the doom and gloom of goth-rock with which he was associated, but he later admitted many years later in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2004 that he was sure it was going to fail.

In the end, it proved only to be a minor hit in the UK, stalling at #44 in November 1982, but that was no bad outcome since, up to that point, none of their songs had gone Top 30 in the singles chart. It turned out, however, that the song became a decent-sized radio hit in the USA with a noticeable change in the type of audiences who were coming along to the live shows, all of which empowered Smith to decide to continue in a similar vein with the next two singles in the UK being The Walk and The Love Cats, which reached #13 and #7 respectively in the summer of 1983, a period which coincided with him moonlighting with The Banshees whose cover of Dear Prudence went to #3, all of which meant he was something of a regular on our TV screens via Top of The Pops etc.

Let’s Go To Bed is a fabulous pop single, complete with the do-do-do-do sing-along bit that must have caused the goths all sorts of nightmares at the time. It also comes with a fantastic b-side which kind of bridges the gap between the old and new of The Cure, with its introductory bass notes, tempo, and instrumentation harking back to A Forest.

And here, from an original piece of plastic dating back to 1983, are the two side of the 12″ single:-

mp3: The Cure – Let’s Go To Bed
mp3: The Cure – Just One Kiss

You can easily find cleaner copies of these tunes in many places but I make no apologies for the hissing and crackling all the way through…at least it doesn’t jump or skip anywhere.

Both of these take me back to the downstairs, alt-disco in the student union building at Strathclyde University – lots of hair-gel, black clothes, a raincoat and non-stop ecstatic dancing.

JC

Uncategorized

SAFETY NET

Life, like the video for The Shop Assistants Safety Net, can be a tad blurry around the edges. Now, you might be excused for thinking that this post would be a) about The Shop Assistants or b) about the fantastic pop song Safety Net. I think it fair to say both get but a cursory glance as I attempt, perhaps improbably, to argue TVV as my safety net or more accurately one of my safety nets.

It was many years ago a friend urged me to read TVV and I did. I did so sporadically as life then was more than a little tense. Every now and then I’d poke my nose in and be: transfixed by articles about bands/artists that I had thought most (including myself) had forgotten about; curious of band/artist I had never heard of but probably (based on the article) should have known and liked; and in admiration of numerous articles and ICAs crafted with such care they could have made a respected NME journalist blush with embarrassment.

I’m a clinically diagnosed depressive. Yes. That was an extremely clumsy admission but I just couldn’t find a less clumsy way of stating it. I’ve lived under the cloud since my pre-teen days and have survived the slalom of suicide attempts, suicidal ideation and self-harm; considerably longer than I ever expected … here I am, still. So, what in the name of the wee man has this to do with TVV? Good question.

At a particularly low ebb I began to delve into TVV on a more regular basis. The world, it felt, was falling out from under me and I needed something to tether me, something to offer the slightest chink of positivity on the darkest of days. The details of this issue I won’t go into but, suffice to say, someone attempting to kill you and your partner because you’re gay (as well as a long-standing campaign of other hateful, harmful acts) does, I would argue, have a tendency to put a dampener on things … hello, 21st century! During this time TVV was something of a lifeline. A wonderful distraction that informed and entertained in equal measure but, most importantly, distracted.

A previous foray (some years earlier) into the world of social media and forums (specifically to do with music) had left me despondent and on one infamous occasion, in tears, as my character (for reasons that I have never been able to determine) was mercilessly assassinated online, by a stranger. I wouldn’t ever describe myself as a fragile person but I guess, at times, we all can have our moments. Following this, I stopped using any form of social media. I still don’t use any … except TVV.

Most days I take a peek at TVV and remain in awe of the work that goes into the blog; the thought, the planning, the writing … it seems very much to this bystander to be a full-time job and a job that others too are appreciative of.

It’s a testament to JC, and others that contribute and use the blog, that differences of opinion (never, as far as I have read) descend into personalised diatribes or attacks. Of course, there are differences of opinion, but these seemed to be accepted or responded to through kind, often comedic, retorts.

It can be all too easy to criticize something that I don’t like but I do always try to balance any criticism with positive reinforcement, where appropriate. Sometimes it’s important to let someone know just what a splendid, positive impact they’re having and that’s the point of this comment. JC has provided me with a safety net, a little oasis of calm, and for as long as the blog is here, I’ll pop in, smile, nod approvingly, or, on occasion, disagree with a certain this or that. It’s also important to doff my cap to the friend (you know who you are) who has, through their recommendation, provided the best possible medicine for what ills me.

I have posted this article anonymously on TVV not because I’m in any way ashamed of my illness … I’m absolutely not and speak about it openly with those I know… but because I have no social media footprint and wish to keep it so.

mp3: Shop Assistants – Safety Net
mp3: The Hidden Cameras – Lollipop
mp3: Magnetic Fields – I Thought You Were My Boyfriend

anonymous

JC adds……

The above words came in via the TVV e-mail address, so I know who the author is. I was humbled by the contents of the e-mail and it led to an exchange of correspondence, the result of which brought the three tunes and the image at the head of the posting.

I’ve mentioned this before on numerous occasions. It’s the sense of community that keeps me going on those days when I wonder if I can be bothered after all these years when I feel I have not much left to say that hasn’t already been said. It’s an undeniable fact that this place is all the better from the guest contributions, whether it be from postings and/or the contributions via the ‘Comments’ section.

There was one occasion in the past when a group of us, at my behest, got it very wrong in terms of a response to a posting in connection with a band that wasn’t to my taste. It caused a bit of hurt as the intended humour behind the responses backfired badly – thankfully, the very heartfelt and sheepish apology later offered back was accepted, but I still cringe when I think about it. It was a lesson learned and never since forgotten, and very much a one-off mistake during the past 14 years.

It’s heartening to learn that TVV is doing some good for at least one person out there. That alone, I would say, is enough to inspire all of us.

Bourgie Bourgie

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part Six : BREAKING POINT

Repeat posting alert (in edited form) as I said it all when I included it as part of the 45 45s @ 45 rundown back in 2013.

Paul Quinn was initially the lead singer with the first line-up of Jazzateers, but was relegated to backing vocals while his role was taken on by Graeme Skinner (later to find success with Hipsway) when the material was recorded and released. Then in 1984 came Bourgie Bourgie, an act signed to a major label in the shape of MCA Records and of whom great things were anticipated. Sadly, it only amounted to a couple of majestic singles in Breaking Point and Careless.

Around the same time, Paul recorded some vocals for Orange Juice, and his efforts can be heard on Tongues Begin To Wag, a b-side to the single I Can’t Help Myself as well as Mud In Your Eye, a track on the LP Rip It Up. Oh and he also does some backing vocals (uncredited) on the hit single of that name…..

1985 was a bit of a prolific year for Paul.

There was a solo deal with Swamplands Records which produced two bits of magic. First, there was a duet with Edwyn Collins covering Pale Blue Eyes. Paul sang while Edwyn strummed and plucked his guitar. It’s a song that has been covered by many an artist, but the Quinn/Collins effort is, in my opinion, the definitive version, including that of The Velvet Underground. Then there was a solo single called Ain’t That Always The Way, a song that was also recorded and released as a b-side by Edwyn…

Neither Swamplands single made the charts.

He also recorded One Day, which was a single with Vince Clarke, which was in effect the follow-up to the Top 3 single Never Never by The Assembly (which had featured Fergal Sharkey on vocals). Sadly, it flopped.

Next came the formation of Paul Quinn & The Independent Group on the reincarnated Postcard Records at the beginning of the 1990s. This was a Glasgow super-group of sorts and there would be two ridiculously wonderful albums, accompanied by two ridiculously wonderful singles, but yet again, no commercial success.

Aside from an appearance (on backing vocals and with a writing credit) on the 2001 LP You Can Make It If You Boogie by James Kirk, nothing has been heard from Paul this century with his life seemingly becoming a constant battle against a particularly severe case of Multiple Sclerosis.

I’m not sure why Bourgie Bourgie imploded after just two great singles – whether it was a case of the record company losing faith in the band, or the band just decided they couldn’t continue, I really have no idea.

Breaking Point remains one of my favourite songs of all time, one that should be owned and cherished in millions of households the world over. And if you can’t get a physical copy of the vinyl, then feel free to grab a copy of this hi-res rip

mp3: Bourgie Bourgie – Breaking Point (Extended Version)

It’s not just the stunning vocal performance that makes this such an outstanding record – listen to the fantastic production that sees some great guitar and keyboards work beefed-up by a cello and strings that aren’t a million miles away from the sound that would appear years later on Monkey Gone To Heaven by Pixies. And wouldn’t you know that Breaking Point was a Kingbird Production…..one of the names used by the soon to be famous Ian Broudie……

Oh and finally (as I could go on all day and night about this song, band and singer) Breaking Point was almost the name I took for the blog back in 2006 before settling on The Vinyl Villain on the basis it sounded vaguely superhero-ish, in an anti-establishment sort of guise.

And while I’m here……

mp3: Bourgie Bourgie – Careless (extended version)

JC

Various

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #268 : PEEL SESSIONS

A GUEST POSTING by WEBBIE

of FOOTBALL AND MUSIC and KEEPING IT PEEL fame

JC writes…..

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of John Peel, someone who I don’t think needs any introduction.

Webbie, more than any other blogger, has used the anniversary to commemorate the great man, and he dropped me a note a few weeks back asking if I’d consider posting a guest ICA from him. It’s something I’m proud and honoured to do. Here he is to take you through things….

01. Positive Noise – Love Live Property (16th March 1981)

There are a few great lost bands out there, this Glasgow group being one of those. Formed in 1979, released a few singles and albums, a couple of Peel Sessions but they never quite broke through. This song is from their 2nd session, never released anywhere and should be heard everywhere.

02. Cinerama – Health And Efficiency (13th May 2001)

It is inevitible that I would include some of the obvious suspects in this compilation… When you think Peel Session the name of David Gedge would be one of those first that comes to mind. But as you can see not The Wedding Present but one of his side projects. Don’t know why this particular track, maybe just because when those guitars join in it is such a beautiful noise.

03. Nico – Frozen Warnings (11th February 1971)

Technically this was a Top Gear (the radio programme that was) appearance before it became the John Peel show. It is still a session recording though. There’s something about the pairing of the Harmonium and her voice which makes it more haunting.

04. Culture – Two Sevens Clash (22nd November 1988)

One of the many bands that were Peel favourites. Didn’t know this about the song until recently. From Wikipedia; “[the song]…was based on a prediction by Marcus Garvey, who said there would be chaos on July 7, 1977, when the “sevens” met. With its apocalyptic message, the song created a stir in his Caribbean homeland and many Jamaican businesses and schools shuttered their doors for the day.”

05. Pavement – The Classical (21st August 1997)

Forgot what Mark E. Smith said about the band now… This is a cover version that might be better than the original. Not just because it erases the unfortunate lyrics (there’s an article on The Quietus which addresses that: https://thequietus.com/articles/27427-hex-enduction-hour-the-classical-the-fall-racist – I still like to use the greeting “Hey there fuckface” though) But also because Pavement take that raw, slightly chaotic Fall track and make it into a West Coast-California indie sound, which in this case is no bad thing.

06. Cocteau Twins – Peep-Bo (29th August 1984)

Yes another Peel fave. This track has probably been mentioned quite a few times on T(n)VV. Song recorded for the session at the time as Peep-Bo but renamed later as Ivo.

07. The French – The Protons And The Neutrons (20th August 2003)

Included here because is it another that more people should hear. Couldn’t decide between this song or The English Head, another track on that session, Peelie made the decision with his comment after playing the tune.

The French was formed by Darren Hayman, an offshoot from the band Hefner. Like with Mr Gedge above, Haymen is one of the most prolific songwriters out there.

08. Box Of Toys – When Daylight Is Over (Sunset) (24th April 1983)

In the early 1980’s I lived in Liverpool. It was only a few years but what a time to be there. Nearly every pub, club and especially youth centre you walked past you could hear music from a band performing. A couple of years ago on the Keeping It Peel Website I’ve compiled some podcasts which in truth are actually mixtapes.

One of these pods/mixes was a labour of love. It looked at and tracked down some of those Liverpool bands played by Peel. https://keepingitpeel.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/keeping-it-peel-podcast-lost-liverpool-bands/ It was via this project that I rediscovered a band I saw all those years ago. Another lost band which should have had more attention.

09. PJ Harvey – Rid Of Me (1st May 1992)

Another obvious favourite with possibly an obvious song selection, but this one, not a Peel Session in the strictest sense but included because it was performed live. In front of Peel, in his Radio 1 studio in London.

10. Half Man Half Biscuit – Mars Ultras, You’ll Never Make The Station (2nd June 1992)

Couldn’t decide between this and 24 Hour Garage People. Flipped a coin and the song with power drill accompaniment won.

11. Sophisticated Boom Boom – Surrender To Me (28th October 1981)

Yet another lost band. Named after a song by The Shangri-las. This all-girl band from Glasgow were more prolific with Peel Sessions (three) than vinyl releases (none). After they split up formed a new band called His Latest Flame, named after a song by Del Shannon.

12. Melys – Chinese Whispers (20th December 2001)

John Peel, along with TheRobster and his blog Is This The Life? http://isthis-thelife.blogspot.com/ has educated me about Welsh music. There are the familiar names such as SFA, Gorkys, Manics, but there are many others which should get more air time.

Melys are another group that should be as well know as the above. The band recently peformed live at home via Facebook and I asked them which of their many Peel Sessions was their favourite. All of them said their live performance at Peel Acres, which yes, yet again not *technically* a Peel Session but…

13. The Fall – Blindness (7th October 2004)

Taken from the repeat airing of the session. Not the last time he played The Fall but the last time he played this track. As Peelie says at the end; “There’s never been anything like this and there never will be again.”

14. The Rudies – (Top Gear) Session – 23rd November 1970

(Moon Bug / You Make Me So Very Happy / Patches / Oh Me Oh My)

This is a session that it is impossible to select just one of the songs. The entire thing is just perfection, every track is perfection.

15. Shellac – The End Of Radio (Maida Vale 2nd December 2004)

In what was scheduled to be a session to be recorded for John Peel, instead performed live as a tribute.

WEBBIE

Painted Word

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #234: THE PAINTED WORD

Some of the music on the hard drive is a result of the recommendation of others whose tastes I admire. Most of the time, it works out well in that I give the recommendation a listen and finding that I like it, go out and find more of the singer or band’s output, inevitably giving the bank balance a bit of a hit.

The Painted Word, from Glasgow, I knew of from back in the day but I just never took to the music.  Back in 2010, Friends of Rachel Worth, from the Cathedrals of Sound blog, penned an article that led me to go back and re-visit:-

It’s been a while since I did a Bigger Than the Beatles post. This time it is the turn of the Painted Word, the recording name of Alan McCusker – Thompson. In 1986 on mother records (u2’s label) they released I Found Love Today a perfect bit of pop which along with Bourgie Bourgie’s Breaking Point is one of the lost great singles of the 80s. I was going to include it as a monday moment with its repeated refrain of “up the ladder to the roof” but thought I’d post a couple more tracks as well.

Over a 3 year period they released a number of singles/eps and one lp Lovelife which was full of smooth sophisticated pop music with a real classic feel (streets ahead of coffee table dinner party music that people like Simply Red were churning out). I had a couple of the singles but the joys of the Internet meant that I eventually years later managed to track down the lp. Then there was nothing and I just assumed they had been another one lp act lost to whims of a major label.

Then out of the blue in 1995 I stumbled across a newly released 2nd lp, “Universal”. It seemed to disappear as soon as it arrived and now goes for silly money on ebay. The songs are more melancholic and as a whole the LP reminds me a bit of Blue Nile cc Hats.

Since then silence again

So, I went looking for some things and found a place where I could download and listen again to the debut album, Lovelife, that had been released in 1989. Sadly, I found that it still didn’t offer up anything that I felt was essential listening, and indeed I felt it had dated terribly. But I never did delete the songs from the hard drive, and now I’ve come to that point in this alphabetical rundown where their name has been reached. Given that none of the album tracks did it for me, I’ve gone digging for the single so highly thought of by FoRW:-

mp3: The Painted Word – I Found Love Today

It’s better than anything on the debut album, but it still sounds like a cross between late 80s Spandau Ballet mixed in with the Love-era Aztec Camera, with a hint of the then-emerging Deacon Blue…..

It’s the sort of thing I might throw in early on at a Simply Thrilled night to see if it strikes a chord with some of the regulars as sometimes I get surprised by their requests!  But it’s still not quite my cup of Tetley,

JC

Snuff

BURNING BADGERS VINYL (Part 5) : SNUFF

Burning Badgers Vinyl 5:

Lost EPs : #1 – Do Do Do EP – Snuff (1996) (Deceptive Record BLUFF033)

by SWC

There used to be a pub in Maidstone called the Tut N Shive, which despite being a ridiculous name for a pub, was actually quite a good night out. I first discovered it when I left my usual Friday night haunt The Minstrel to get some chips. I was also looking for a lass I knew, Maya, who for some reason, hadn’t been in the pub that night, despite telling me that she definitely, without question would be. As I walked to the chip shop I heard the strains of ‘Today’ by Smashing Pumpkins blaring out of this pub. The pub used to be called ‘The Barrel’ and was always one of the townie pubs that people who can walk and clap at the same time avoided in case they were burnt at the stake for being a witch.

It turns out the pub had been given a makeover and a new name, the ridiculously named Tut N Shive as I mentioned before, I was drawn to it like a cartoon bear towards a picnic basket. I wandered in and had that strange feeling that I was cheating on a lover, because this was new, exciting and different but it felt wrong. All my friends were back in The Minstrel, and yet here I was sullying myself silly on a dancefloor surrounded by (beautiful) females who I had never ever seen before, listening to music that not only did I like, but was being played by an actual DJ, not just a tape that the landlord had shoved on and you couldn’t hear and people were dancing and having a great time.

About an hour or so later, I staggered back to The Minstrel, without chips, slightly sweatier than before, and a little bit more refreshed, but feeling ever so guilty. On the way home I confided in John, also known as The Love Monster (why? maybe next week). I told him all about the Tut N Shive, the dancefloor, the beautiful people, the music, the slightly cheaper, less watered-down beer that wasn’t Fosters but something called ‘Red Stripe’ from Jamaica. He looked at me, “But we always go to the Minstrel” he said. Silence. All the way home.

The next week, John very reluctantly agrees to come with me to ‘get some chips’ and as we walk down the hill, towards the Tut N Shive, we hear it, the opening strains of ‘Soul Limbo’ by Booker T and the MGs blaring out. John (a huge cricket fan)* looks and me and just grins and we tear into the Tut as we now call it. We never look back and ignore the strained calls from The Ministrel for us to return.

*JC adds….this is an important element of the story; Soul Limbo has, for as long as I can remember, been the theme tune for the coverage of cricket on the BBC

All of which bobbing about brings us to this weeks record pulled from Badger’s Box and like last week I have picked up five records that were released as EP’s and have in the last twenty-five years or so vanished from the public attention.

Badger loved an EP, he also loved cricket, and would tell everyone who was listening why Craig Kieswetter’s 98 not out at Taunton in the 2015 20/20 championship was the greatest single innings of cricket he had ever witnessed. It was pretty brilliant, taking Somerset from 16 for 3 to within two runs of an unlikely victory over West Country rivals Gloucestershire. Sadly the 11th batsmen threw his wicket away and hundreds of fans left disappointed for Kieswetter and he traipsed dejectedly from the crease back to the pavilion, cheered off as a hero but ultimately still a loser.

What Badger didn’t like what stupid dumb ass punk rock with shouty vocals, trombones and drums that sound like they were recorded at the same time as the drummer was being attacked by a hungry bear. Which brings us nicely to Snuff because the first EP I picked out of the box was their 1996 ‘Do Do Do’ EP and the only reason that Badger owned it was because it has a stupid dumb ass punk rock version of ‘Soul Limbo’ on it, complete with trombones, shouty vocals and drums that sound like they were recorded at the same time as the drummer was being attacked by a hungry bear.

Soul Limbo

This is track 3 of a four-track ‘Covers’ EP that was released on Deceptive Records but for obvious reasons its one that got all the radio play (edited of course). It’s a stunning version of a great song, but in this day and age of rock star cricketers like Ben Stokes, I think we should start a campaign for this to be the new theme for Test Match Special on the BBC. I don’t think of Booker T and the MGs anymore when I think of this song I think of Snuff and that is the measure of a great cover version.

(JC interjects….Craig Kieswetter, Ben Stokes, Test Match Special….I fear we may have lost some, if not all, of our German and American readers.  Indeed, many, if not all, of our Scottish readers too).

I love Snuff, I’ve been a big fan ever since the released an EP called Flibbiddydibbiddydob which consisted largely of TV themes and commercials. I love the fact that behind all of their shouty punk rock, they employ a bloke (admittedly the singer’s brother) to play a trombone in the background. They don’t just do the ‘comedy cover versions’ though, (although they are very good at them), their first album ‘Snuff Said…’ released in 1989 is a bonafide punk rock classic, although I accept I might be in a minority in thinking that.

Here are the other three tracks on the ‘Do Do Do’ EP

Standing In the Shadows Of Love – Originally by The Four Tops

This was the lead track and Snuff had a habit covering Four Tops songs, they famously (well in my life anyway) covered ‘Reach Out’ on the aforementioned ‘Flibbiddyibbiddybob’ EP. Again it’s a terrifically shouty couple of minutes with added trombone in all the right places.

I Will Survive – Originally by Gloria Gaynor

I had to do a lot of in depth research on the original, as I’d never heard it before. Gloria Gaynor it turns out was a street cleaner from Hebden Bridge who used to sing this song whilst sweeping the streets of her town on a Sunday morning. A passing music mogul happened to hear her warbling one morning as he did the walk of shame with his pants in his hands and thought it sounded like a good song. He gave it to Snuff to mangle beyond all sanity, with added trombone. Of course, you can’t believe everything that you read on Wikipedia.

It Must Be Boring Being in Snuff – Originally by Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler were another band in that punk rock scene in the early nineties. They got into trouble once or twice for taking the piss out of more famous bands. When Madonna released her ‘naughty coffee table book, ‘Sex’’, Wat Tyler released a similar one called ‘Sexless’ which featured the band in provocative poses, that were almost an exact replica of those in Madonnas book. Which when you consider that Wat Tyler were mostly fat blokes with beards in their late thirties, was a touch of genius (this is genuinely true).

Before that they released the ‘I’m forever blowing Bubbles’ EP. Which featured a hand-drawn cover of a certain dead singer giving oral relief to a chimp. Charming (but also 100% true).

It also contained a wonderful version of ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ that I must dig out sometime. I mean that genuinely, far far better than the original, and that one member of Snuff, and two members of Wat Tyler and (I think) one member of Leatherface later went on to form Guns N Wankers with middling commercial success.

SWC