Dead Links...

New Year. As good a time as any to attend to the broken links, of which I'm sure there are many. If you find any dead links please let me know. I don't want disappointed visitors.
I'll keep you updated regarding the progress made in renewing the links.

The Milkshakes Sing and Play 20 Rock & Roll Hits of the 50's & 60's (1984)

A genius.

When I listen to a Billy Childish record I want to play my guitar.

When I see a Billy Childish painting I want to paint.

When I read a Billy childish poem I want to write poems.

When I see Billy Childish I want to grow a fine moustache

and ride an old bicycle. 

That's how much I like Billy Childish.

Camper Van Beethoven -Telephone Free Landslide Victory (1985)

This is the expanded 2004 reissue.
Quirky Indie rock interspersed with instrumental tracks that sound like Russian Ska Music. In fact one of the bands from which Camper Van Beethoven evolved was called Estonian Gauchos - if there were gauchos in Estonia I can imagine them producing the sort of music featured here. Remarkable.

David Lowery -lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Jonathan Segel - violin, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Chris Molla -guitar, backing vocals
Victor Krummenacher -bass, backing vocals
Anthony Guess -drums

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/NdH04R4/Camper Van Beethoven.rar

That's probably going to be it from me until after the holidays. Have a good time folks. Do your bit to promote freedom.

This Is Big Audio Dynamite (1985)

You can hear this coming if you listen to Combat Rock and Rat Patrol by The Clash. A sophisticated groovy sound laced  with soundtrack samples.
The first words heard on the LP are Get three coffins ready, spoken by Clint Eastwood in Per un pugno di dollari . I've often wondered if Mick was thinking of his former bandmates there...

The outstanding E=MC²   references the films of Nicholas Roeg, with soundbites from one of my all time favourite movies, Performance. 

 

United we stand, divided we're lumbered-Johnny Shannon as Harry Flowers

I like a bit of a cavort, I don't send 'em solicitor's letters. I apply a bit of pressure - James Fox as Chas

At the death, who is left holding the sodding baby?- James Fox as Chas

Don Letts - sound effects, vocals
Dan Donovan - keyboards, photos
Leo Williams - bass, vocals
Greg Roberts - drums, vocals
Mick Jones - vocals, guitar

Colin Ward Reader...

 Why do people consent to be governed? It isn't only fear: what have millions of people to fear from a small group of politicians? It is because they subscribe to the same values as their governors. Rulers and ruled alike believe in the principle of authority, of hierarchy, of power. These are the characteristics of the political principle. The anarchists, who have always distinguished between the state and society, adhere to the social principle, which can be seen wherever men link themselves in an association based on a common need or a common interest.

Colin Ward

Holidays coming up. Get a bit bored? Fancy a bit of reading, all for free?
A selection of works by Colin Ward.
Credit to the original poster.

The Housemartins- London 0 Hull 4 (1986)

 

I've been thinking a lot about the eighties recently.  Spent some time with my good friends Jim and Karl last week, first time, we reckon, since about 1988, that we'd all been together. That's what started it (or cranked it up, to be honest I'm always thinking about the eighties). And this LP has featured prominently in those recollections. Decency, virtue, honesty.  I was never a big fan of the acapella stuff. When I heard them first I thought they were going to be bigger than The Beatles...

I went to the shop and I bought a brass door knocker in the shape of Marcel Proust's nose.

P.d. Heaton – lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, melodica; Hugh Whitaker – drums, vocals; Stan Cullimore – guitar, vocals; Norman Cook - bass, vocals.

Miserable Old Bastard Speaks...

 Actually that title is well wide of the mark. I've never been happier in my life.
I was having a chat with Gruff from Secret Sound Machine the other day and he asked me what my album of the year so far was.
I told him without hesitation that I didn't listen to new music. I thought about this statement later on and realised how true it was, and that the only 2011 release I have is Dim Problem by Conductors.I didn't even get the last Scroobius Pip record that came out...
In fact I just looked at what I thought was the only vaguely recent stuff I have- it's all about 4 years old.
It really is a case of there being too much old stuff that I want to listen to. I just haven't got the time or energy to take on any new stuff. Have you noticed how many times I used the word stuff there?  Three times.
As I type this I'm listening to Rockabilly music from about 1959.
 Oscar Wilde died when he was my age. So did Baudelaire, Antonio Gramsci , Roscoe Arbuckle. Tony Hancock didn't even make it this far...
So, I wear old fashioned clothes and listen to old fashioned music, stuff from twenty or thirty years ago generally speaking.  I don't go to football because you can't stand up, I think that it stinks that you can't smoke in planes, trains, restaurants. I don't watch TV because I detest insincerity and I think that life is a shallow enactment.I don't know the first thing about most bands who debuted this century. I know there's a lot of soulless, boring dross around. You can't avoid it.
Some music I love. I love the raw energy of Punk and Rockabilly, I love the simplicity of delta blues. ( More pertinently at present  I love the joyful poppiness of Secret Sound Machine).
But most music I simply haven't got the time for.

Manchester, So Much To Answer For (1990)

The Fall Eat Yourself Fitter Buzzcocks What Do I Get

The Frantic Elevators  Hunchback Of Notre Dame The Chameleons Second Skin (Films) 

The Passage  Dark Times Blue Orchids The House That Faded Out

Tools You Can Trust Working And Shopping Twang Big Dry Out

A Witness I Love You Mr. Disposable Razors Big Flame All The Irish Must Go To Heaven 

The Smiths Handsome Devil Happy Mondays Mad Cyril Inspiral Carpets Directing Traffic 

The Railway Children Consider Dub Sex Swerve A Certain Ratio Do The Du 

A Guy Called Gerald Rockin' Ricki Ruthless Rap Assassins Three The Hard Way 

Kiss AMC Rawside New Fast Automatic Daffodils Big

I bet you've all been dying for a bit of Mick Hucknall on here?

A bit of a cash in on the (then) massive impact that Manchester was having on the popular music scene.
 Flaws? A Manchester comp covering roughly 1978-1990 with no Joy Division / New Order?

Stone Roses never played a Peel Session so they're not here either. Similarly absent and more of a loss - The Durutti Column and Frank Sidebottom . Anyway, what's here is, generally speaking, good. In places the sound quality is not great I'm afraid. (One of those 90's CDs that's turned a funny yellow colour...)

Secret Sound Machine

 If you're in the West Wales area on Wednesday 7th December you could do a lot worse than get down to the Parrot, King St, Carmarthen, give the man £3 and get to see a very exciting pop group. Secret Sound Machine
will be supporting Songdog on the night.

If you like mature literate pop, blonde bouffanted flautists or just good old baroque and roll  Secret Sound Machine should be just your cup of tea. We'll be seeing more of them at Burning Aquarium soon, meanwhile, catch 'em while they're fresh!

Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (1954- 2011)

Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar ! (1957)

They used to call me Rockabilly

all of us ran through

When Elvis opened up the door 

with a pup-and-pup-and-boo
I didn't ever play much rock and roll 

cause I got so much country in my soul

 Johnny Cash

This will ease us out of Rockabilly mode for a while. As Johnny himself said, he was never anything other than Country, but the Country and Rockabilly sounds got pretty close in Memphis back then.  

This was the first ever LP on Sun Records, and a lot of the characteristics of the early Rockabilly sound are strongly in evidence.
 

Johnny Cash - Guitar, Vocals

Luther Perkins - Electric Guitar

Marshall Grant - Bass