Saturday 31 July 2010

Pandamonium



L is away up north for a hen weekend. A weekend which I'm told will be full of fun and adventure, knowing quite a few of the girlies that are going what that really means is eating far too much, drinking copious amounts of alcohol into the small hours, listening to sentimental guff and rubbishing the superior sex. I heard talk of kayaking on the Tay but knowing my wife, she will be on the bank drink in hand offering not very helpful tips.

Meanwhile the boys and I have turned a fairly tidy house into the scene from some post apocalyptic movie in less than 24 hours! How has this happened? I have no idea, it seems that every time I turn my back the youngest one turns into Taz and before I can turn round again has emptied the entire contents of the kitchen cabinets, or the drawers on the console table in the living room, what the fuck is a console table anyway?

Number one son is so tired out by all this effort that he protested violently to having a bath and is now in the land of nod far too early for my liking. Number 2 son is rather too quiet, busy customising (ruining) his Lego figures on the instructions of some precocious American child on YouTube.

I have resigned myself to spending the rest of the night tidying up, not much on the telly anyway.

This song has been in my head all day, not sure why as it is not a particular favourite of mine, however on listening to it again tonight it is rather good.

SLF - Silver Lining

Friday 30 July 2010

Just Because



This is absolutely fucking brilliant.

Barcelona DJ John Talabot, takes one of my favourite moody tracks from the XX and turn it into a blissed out track to soundtrack the summer.

I hope that this will be released on vinyl.

The XX - Shelter (John Talabot Feel It Too mix)

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Today's track comes courtesy of a remix project being performed on the material of Mount Kimbie. The track is lifted from the second remix 12" and is a rather lovely techno mix of Vertical which actually compliments last week's posting rather well.

Mount Kimbie, recently released their first album which is well worth picking up. They have been branded as dubstep in the music press, however their music has a lot more to it than what that tag brings to mind.

Give it a go, you'll like it, trust me.

Mount Kimbie - Vertical (SCB edit)

Thursday 29 July 2010

Wasted Little DJ's



Sometimes music doesn't have to be groundbreaking or upfront. Sometimes all you need is a bunch of teenagers in thrall so much to their heroes that they do a great impression of them.

I first came across The View, one lunch time when I was still office based. The office was in Cannonmills not far from Edinburgh City centre so two or three times a week I used to go up town and spend more than my allotted lunch break in Fopp on Rose Street, or Fopp and Avalanche on  Cockburn Street.

This particular day I was just about to leave Rose Street when these unfeasibly young guys got out of a white transit band and started to set up their instruments in Fopp. I decided that the database cleaning could wait and so I hung about until they decided to perform. By which time the shop was quite mobbed with teenagers who all knew about the band already.

They played a few numbers, can't remember how many exactly but the song posted was amongst them. They were not the most original band in the world and by no means the most accomplished musicians, what they did have was energy and they were enjoying what they were doing.

Consequently I bought the singles and the first album. As I said above,  not the most original band in the world but the album is good,  not classic but by listening to so called classic albums all the time  you are in real danger of turning into a music snob and bore. Sometimes it's good just to listen to something basic made by young inexperienced guys who sound like they were having a ball recording it.

I've heard a lot of detractors of the View and their music but these are mostly middle aged guys who think that they have heard it all before and therefore believe there views to be the only ones that matter. They are also the kind of guys who can no longer spell F-U-N. A sweeping generalisation I know but I quite like generalisations.

The View - Wasted Little DJs

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Belfast Again



I'll be over the water for a couple of days.

I will leave you with a track from a guy whose legendary grumpiness is what I aspire to. I won't name him or the track as it would be a stick on for a take down notice.

Some grumpy Irish singer - a track from one of his many albums

Monday 26 July 2010

Happy Birthday




It's L's birthday today.

So here is her favourite northern soul track which was also much loved by the Lanarkshire scootering fraternity.

Happy Birthday auld yin

Al Wilson - The Snake

The Foundry Field Recordings



After yesterday's little diatribe and last weeks moanings about the weather and the state of my automobile it is back to the music this week.

The Foundry Field Recordings are another band who I first heard courtesy of KEXP and the Jon In The Morning Show.

The band hail from Columbia, Missouri and unapologetically describe their music as shoegaze and I suppose it can be categorised as that, it's not a term that I like as it has all of those negative connotations and conjures up images of earnest teenage boys with lank greasy hair,  faces exploding with zits and an array of effect pedals which run the length of the stage.

The track posted comes from their first and I think only lp, Prompts/Miscues which was released in 2006 and is worth tracking down, if you like the Pixies, I can also hear the influence of Pavement and Wheat in the album.

I'm not sure if the band are still in existence as the last thing I have from them is the Fallout Stations ep which was released in 2007.

The Foundry Field Recordings - Warning Raids Over Kiev

Sunday 25 July 2010

Proud To Be Scottish, By The Way



Like Tom Sheilds, this week I have had cause to feel proud of being Scottish. I am not a Nationalist, never have been and am certainly no fan of our First Minister or his Party, however the way that they have handled the bullyboy rhetoric from Secretary of State Clinton and the US Senate and complete lack of support from the Bullingdon Boy, I felt a pang of pride.

If I believed that Kenny MacAskill had freed al-Megrahi for any other reason other than compassionate grounds then I would feel different. If he and the SNP administration  had bowed to pressure from either the UK government or a particular oil company then I would indeed be furious. But if the US think that Mr Salmond would do the bidding of  Gordon Brown/Tony Blair and the UK government, they really don't know the man well and need to get some advisors who actually know how their allies operate let alone their enemies throughout the world.

Irrespective of whether you think that al-Megrahi was guilty or not, personally I'm with the likes of Dr Jim Swire and think that the Libyan had absolutely nothing to do with the bombing and was a scapegoat, what right does the US have in telling another nation how their law should be carried out and to summon their public figures to testify to a Senate hearing which has absolutely no power in Scotland. Neither the Scots or anyone else questioned the American judgement to award combat ribbons to the crew of the USS Vincennes
or the Navy Commendation Medal or later the Legion of Merit to the Air Warfare Coordinator of said ship after they had shot down an Iranian passenger jet killing 290 people. An act which some say the Lockerbie bombing was in reprisal to. Maybe we should have done so.

So this weekend I feel a little proud to be a citizen of a nation that allows a terminally ill man out of prison, home to his family to die. Rather than to be part of a nation that murders it own people regularly by lethal injection, some of whom are mentally handicapped and more of whom have been convicted by dubious means.

KLF - America No More

Friday 23 July 2010

The Outsider



I've had to reappraise this album recently.

When I first heard it, I thought that it was ok, not being what I was expecting from Josh Davies. I played it a couple of times and duly forgot about it.

However, recently I couldn't get This Time out of my head and so decided to stick the album on again and give it another listen. What I thought was an okay listen actually turns out to be a brilliant album which sounds incredibly fresh to these ears.

DJ Shadow - This Time (I'm Gonna Try It My Way)

DJ Shadow - Broken Levee Blues

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



I've not been back up to speed this week as far as the blogging has been concerned only 2 posts since I got back, hopefully I will have gotten my shit together by the end of the weekend and will be a little more productive next week.

I don't know how much longer the dance thing on a Friday is going to last, I'm beginning to get bored with it which means that most folk must be totally sick and tired of it by now, however I haven't thought of anything to replace it with yet. I was toying with the idea of doing something on the Fall but I'm not sure.

Anyway, today's track is quite an up to date piece of minimal techno from Frankfurt Germany. I've been listening to a lot of this kind of stuff recently and find it equally as good through my headphones as it would have once sounded in a clubbing environment.

I don't know anything about Xenia Beliayeva apart from the fact that she is German and has released a few rather good techno singles since 2006. To be honest with you I'm not really that interested in finding out that much about the people behind these slabs of dance music, it's all just "faceless techno bollocks" as Rising High Records were fond of stating back in the day.

Ever Since was released on the German Shitkatapult label in March this year and included remixes by the Detroit Grand Pubhas, Ezequial Sanchez and the posted version by Andre Winter who turns it into a bit of class minimal tech-house which is right up my street at the moment.

Xenia Beliayeva - Ever Since (Andre Winter remix)

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Nothing to Say Really




I hate the first week back after the holidays, I've only been back two days and already I am thinking about the September weekend.

On holiday I got the chance to read a few books due to the unbearable heat and the temperature being in the 24 -29 degree range during the night.

I'm not going to review any of the books, that's not my thing but I will tell you of one which really disappointed me.

I've been a big fan of Iain Banks, ever since I read The Wasp Factory about 25 years ago and count Complicity and The Crow Road amongst my favourite novels. His latest offering Transition bored me, the idea behind the book, that of a multiverse, of humans who are able to flit between these worlds and change things is an interesting idea, however a lot of the threads are never tied up, maybe this is deliberate but it is a bit annoying. At the beginning the credit crunch and the terrorist attacks on America are mentioned and you get the idea that these events are going to be relevant to the story but they are never mentioned again.

But the most annoying aspect of the whole book is the gratuitous sex which adds absolutely nothing to the story. I am beginning to think that Banks is turning into a dirty old man who has decided to put all of his fantasies into print.

The book was engaging in parts and some of Banks' wit and story telling of old is still present, however as a whole it ranks as one of his lesser works, not as dull as Song Of Stone but nowhere near Espidair Street and the others mentioned above.

I also listened to a hell of a lot of music over the fortnight I was away and can't believe that I had forgotten all about the song posted as it is an absolute belter of a soul song. It comes from Vol 2 of Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures. If you have any interest in soul music at all, the four volumes in this series are worth their weight in gold.

Nat Phillips - I'm Sorry I Hurt You.

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Car and Near Nervous Breakdowns



It all started off so well, the car was loaded early in the morning,  although the addition of a top box to my beloved Saab was offending my eye and forcing me to realise that I am a middle aged family man.

We left the house on time and were making great progress, across the border in just over an hour and M hadn't even asked to go to the toilet or utter that immortal phrase, "are we there yet". We stopped for lunch at Knutsford service station where M decided to take a header off a chair and cut his nose.

Back on the M6 and I decided to take the toll just to keep up the good time we had made. I turned to L and said "at this rate we will be in Canterbury for around 7 pm" and in time to catch the repeat of the final episode of Dr Who we had missed the previous weekend and then just as we rejoined the M6 we encountered a traffic jam, M6 at a standstill due to a breakdown. At this point I was still in good spirits as we had made good time, a short delay wasn't going to make that much of a difference.

After being stationary for half an hour my outlook was beginning to get slightly less rosy and I was starting to get a bit concerned about the kids being cooped up for so long.

And then it happened . . .

a loud POP, followed by everything flashing on the dash, a reading saying engine malfunction and then nothing, the Saab was no more. Fucking Great! I think were the words I muttered under my breath at the time.

So there we were stuck on the outside lane of the M6 and just as luck would have it the traffic started to move, cars behind us started pressing horns and gesticulating.

At this point I was still reasonably calm and decided to phone the AA, who would come to our rescue, right? Wrong. I was informed by a very pleasant operator that they could not assist us until we were out of the traffic and on the hard shoulder. I would need to contact the police and get them to tow me to the side and then phone back!

After around half an hour, the traffic officers turned up and with the assistance of one of them I managed to push the car across the 3 lanes and onto the hard shoulder. At which point I called the AA back to be informed that all of their operatives in the area were busy and it would be an hour or two before they would be able to get a contractor to come and tow us off the motorway.

By now my mood was beginning to darken, the boys were starting to get restless and L was trying to put a positive slant on things which made my mood even worse. I was beginning to wish that I still smoked.

I am in a company scheme due to the amount of driving I do which is supposed to help in these sort of circumstances and so I called fleet services to inform them of the situation so they could make arrangements for a hire car as I had a feeling that the car was not going to be repaired that day and the next being Saturday not then either. I was then told in possibly the most condescending voice that I have ever heard that it wasn't that simple, I would have to wait for the mechanic to do a diagnostic and they would take it from there.

After an hour an a half the mechanic found us and stated "your not going to France in that, mate" which I had already surmised. So I phoned the unhelpful helpline to inform them of the prognosis for the vehicle to be informed that it was after 5:30 on a Friday and it would not be possible to get a hire car as all of the offices were now closed and I could phone the Barcelona office who may be able to help me get a car from Birmingham airport.

I don't have the vocabulary to describe how this information made me feel but if you follow this link you will get the gist of it.

To cut a long story short, after a further couple of hours of phone calls, being towed to the HQ of the recovery firm, arranging for a taxi big enough to transport the four of us and all or our gear, well all the gear that we would be able to fit in a Peugeot 207 SW, as that is the largest vehicle that the hire company had which had an E103, essential for driving on the continent, we found ourselves at Birmingham Airport trying to cram everything in the car and carry on with our journey.

We eventually made Canterbury at 01:45 hrs.

The rest of the journey was completed without any further drama, however we were a little cramped but the car did have mp3 connectivity which was a bonus.

Some day I may be able to look back at this and laugh but I don't expect it to be anytime soon.

I'm sorry to bore you with all of that crap but I did, indeed find it rather cathartic.

One Dove - Breakdown (William Orbit Stereo Odyssey)

Monday 19 July 2010

il pleut




There's no place like home, well no place like the west of Scotland on Fair Monday. From 40 degree sunshine to bucketing down with rain, magic.

I will bore you with my travails on getting to the south west of France later. Now I have to go to Edinburgh to pick up my car which only made it as far as Birmingham!

Here is a song which the iPod decided it rather liked during nous vacances, as it came on when in shuffle mode 5 times over the course of  the fortnight.

Otis Redding - Down In The Valley

Sunday 18 July 2010

One Goodbye In Ten



Shara Nelson is best known for her vocal on one of my top 5 favorite tracks, Unfinished Sympathy. Before this she had released a single as a solo artist and also worked with Jah Wobble and Adrian Sherwood.Unfinished Sympathy wasn't here first collaboration with Daddy Gee, Mushroom and 3-D, she had previously supplied the vocals for their cover of the Bacharach & David's classic The Look Of Love when they were still the Wild Bunch.

The track posted, One Goodbye In Ten was the third single from her first solo album, What Silence Knows and was co-written by Pete Wiggs and Bob Stanley (Saint Etienne). As with Unfinished Sympathy, there are lush strings and a huge sound to the track. It also reminds me of the track Waking With A Stranger which featured here earlier this year.

Shara Nelson - One Goodbye In Ten

Friday 16 July 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance



Today's number comes courtesy of Amsterdam in the early 1990's.

Get Down Tonight is by Fierce Ruling Diva and is basically a techno track built round a KC and the Sunshine Band sample. The track is tucked away on side c of the double pack 12" Anarchic Adjustments by the duo.

For the life of me I cannot understand what possessed me to buy this 12" as after pulling it out and listening to it last night, this track is the only redeeming feature on an otherwise piss poor, in my opinion, couple of records. The music is not the sort of thing that I was listening to back then, it is the sort of thing that a lot of people I knew were listening to but I couldn't stand. The tunes that the Clubscene label up here in Scotland tried to emulate and which were very popular in the Central Belt and the North East of England.

Fierce Ruling Diva are probably best remembered for the track You Gotta Believe, which I also possess for some reason. I'm not sure that the drugs were ever good enough to make me want these singles.

A few years later, I do remember an add for crap American beer using another track built around the same sample.

Fierce Ruling Diva - Get Down Tonight

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Lazy Line Painter Jane



First posted 13/05/2009

The sun has been shining here for 3 whole days. It is amazing the difference a little sunshine has on people. Everybody seems a little less tense, a little more relaxed. Long may it continue.

I haven't been able to get this song out of my head all day. It's my favorite Belle and Sebastian tune. It was the 2nd ep by the band, was released in 1997 and got to number 41 in the charts. The female vocal is by Monica Queen once of the band Thrum and now a solo artist.

Belle & Sebastian - Lazy Line Painter Jane

The video below is from the day when the band and others including Camera Obscura and V Twin took over the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow during the West End festival. It was a gorgeous sunny Saturday in June 2004 and it just happened to be M's first concert, aged 8 months

Monday 12 July 2010

Monday, then it's the Mudd Club



We're back in student disco land, 22 years ago (christ almighty, is it really that long ago) with this post.

As I've mentioned before my time of penury and starvation, better known as student life started in Aberdeen in 1987 where I spent my first year, running up a debt that the bosses of HBOS or RBS would have been proud of, dancing and drinking the week away and attending the odd lecture or even more infrequently a tutorial or two.

Monday night was one of the best nights out in the city, well for students at least. The Mudd club held in the local Ritzy was where you went to hear all the latest indie stuff, have a good dance, meet and try to cop off and drink increadibly cheap Furstenberg, which for some reason was always on promotion. As a result the Tuesday was more often than not written off as a bad idea, happy days.

Here are two tracks I remember hearing a lot at the Mudd Club and subsequently purchasing from One Up records in it's original location on Diamond Street.

That Petrol Emotion - Big Decision

Pop Will Eat Itself - Beaver Patrol

Sunday 11 July 2010

Sunday Morning



First posted 08/02/2010

 It has been quite a few years since I have been in the position of the protagonists in the 2 songs posted below, thank god!

We've all been there, coming to and trying to open your eyes only to find that the lids seem to have been superglued together and with a head that feels like somebody has split it in two with an axe. When you eventually prise the lids apart and in soft focus scan the surroundings, you realize that you are a) not alone in your bed or b) not even in your bedroom. Furthermore you have no recollection of the previous evening's festivities and no idea who the person is who is either lying still asleep or looking at you waiting for an acknowledgement.

All you want is a bottle of Irn Bru to try to get rid of the sawdust that somebody has poured down your throat and a cigarette to make your head and stomach feel even worse. But now you have to try to piece together the previous evenings campaign from that first beer to getting either back home or where you now find yourself, all in a split second. Not the easiest thing in the world at the best of times but made a thousand times more difficult by the mass murder of brain cells which you managed to achieve in the name of having a good time.

Anyway after much embarrassment, scrambling around for clothes and telling of barefaced lies, "i'll call you later", you are on your own again with nothing but your guilt for company. A feeling which is with you until at least the fourth hair of the dog at around which time you are making arrangements with your mates, who have been more than happy to fill you in on your exploits the previous evening, to do it all over again next Saturday.

The life of a single man, you can't beat it.

The Aloof - One Night Stand (The Long Night and the Samba)

The Tyrell Corporation - Waking With A Stranger

Apologies for the crackles in the Tyrell Corp, however it was well played back in the day

Friday 9 July 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance




First posted 06/03/2009

As I mentioned before during the late 80's I had a few scooters and was part of a scooter club. At that time there were 5 or six clubs within a twenty mile radius of where we lived with numbers ranging from 7 to 8 (our club) to some with more than 20 members.

Every so often clubs would organise dances if they could find a venue willing to host one of these nights. Not as easy as you would think , as these functions fuelled by testosterone and beer frequently ended up in violence between rival clubs, NF skins or more often than not locals looking for a rammy to end the night and scooterists being what they were, only too happy to oblige.

I was in Aberdeen at the time when a friend called and asked if I fancied coming down for the weekend as our club was organising a dance, oh and could I bring some records as I would be djing.

I had been to a few scooterist nights and knew enough of their tastes to know that I had the soul, punk and 80's indie records covered but would have to borrow some psychobilly to keep the nutters happy.

The night was going well I had dropped the relevant northern stompers, punk classics and a couple of Meteors and Cramps tunes. I decided it was time to delve into the box of the latest things I had been buying, which I had been played at the Pelican Club in Aberdeen and educate the scooterists. Bad move. Within a minute of the song that I am posting today starting I had cleared the dance floor and was being pinned against the wall by a particularly upset Globetrotter (an infamous scooter club from Glasgow who prided themselves on their thuggish reputation) who told me in no uncertain terms what would happen to me if I didn't get "that gay pish" off.

Needless to say no more House music was played that night or at any other scooter nights I attended until about 18 months later when the Madchester hype began and the nights were full of baggy anthems and selected House tracks.

Marshall Jefferson - Move Your Body (House Music Anthem)

Thursday 8 July 2010

Dad, did Elvis die on the toilet?



First posted on 20/01/2009

"Dad, did Elvis die on the toilet?", this is how I was greeted by my 5 year old when picking him up from school the other week. "J said that he did and it was because he took drugs and ate too many cheeseburgers, her dad told her that!" he explained.

What do you do? So I told him that it was true and that Elvis was a very troubled man at the time, to which he replied "maybe he shouldn't have gone to MicDonals (sic) as much." I now believe that my son is much less likely to become a maccy dees junkie, which can only be a good thing.

Elvis - Crawfish (Pilooski edit)

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Good Thing




The Woodentops were a band from Northampton formed in the early 80's who mixed acoustic guitars with driving beats to create indie dance a good few years before that term became fashionable with the NME. Their first album Giant, is an absolute gem and every self respecting 80's indie fan should own a copy, they went on to produce another more leftfield/experimental album Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway which is not without its moments but not a patch on the debut. They later found a following amongst the Balearic crowd after Why from the second album was picked up by the djs in Ibiza.

The band were famed for their frenetic live performances an example of which can be found on the Live Hypno Beat album. I eventually got a chance to see them in 2007 when they reformed and fulfilled a long standing promise (20 years) to perform in Glasgow after the original gig was cancelled in 1987 due to in fighting within the band. I attended the gig with my mate and his 2 older brothers, who had tickets for that cancelled gig. The band were absolutely electric with Rolo McGinity giving it his all to a depressingly less than half full King Tut's.

The track posted here is the 12" mix of Good Thing which I picked up in Barcelona on my honeymoon, another story for another day maybe.

The Woodentops - Good Thing (12" mix

Monday 5 July 2010

Brenda Fassie



First posted on 28/01/2009

Sticking with the downtempo tunes, here is one that I found on one of the better "chillout" compilations Punta del Est Sunset.

Brenda Fassie was famously described as "the Madonna of the townships" by Time Magazine, although I don't think Madonna even at the height of her success had the fanatical following that Fassie achieved . She was outspoken, controversial and had repeated visits to drug rehab during her short life (sound familiar?). She died on 9th May 2004 after 2 weeks in a coma brought on by a cocaine overdose.

I have no idea what the title means or the lyrics to the track are and it doesn't really matter.

Brenda Fassie - Vuli n' Delia ( A Man Called Adam mix)

Sunday 4 July 2010

Lazy Sundays, What Happened To Them?


#

First posted 01/03/2009


Sundays used to be so simple BC (before children), we would lie in bed late if we wished. Eventually I would get up, go get the papers, make breakfast and spend the next couple of hours perusing the sundays. Then at an acceptable hour it would be down the pub to meet the mates have a few pints and if very lucky on to my mum's for a Sunday roast.

Now it consists of getting up the back of six! Making breakfast for number one son who has an unnatural need for very little sleep and making a bottle for number 2 son after which there is no point getting back in bed as the eldest has now taken up squatters rights on my side of the bed, so I tidy the kitchen make some green tea and wait for the garage to open in order to get the papers which will be mostly unread by the following weekend. The rest of the day goes by in a blur. Then before I know it it is bath time for M and the weekend is just about over only The Westminster Hour on radio 4 while making the pieces (packed lunch) for the following day and polishing shoes left to do. . . Still, wouldn't have it any other way.

Abba - The Day Before You Came

The Streets - Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way

Friday 2 July 2010

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance





The first every Friday post on 09/01/2009

Foolishly I decided to yet again put myself through the torture of abstaining from alcohol for the duration of January, or "I'm aff it" as we say in these parts, so Friday does not have the allure of the G&T or pint of Guinness once I have logged off the company laptop and drawn a veil over the weekly grind.

In order to lift my spirits I have turned my attention to the healing power of soul music and Northern Soul in particular. For those of you unacquainted with this sub sect of soul I am not going to attempt a definition as it would take too long to explain what constitutes a "northern" tune and my explanation would not satisfy the fanatics, suffice to say they are usually rare, mid/uptempo 60s soul records in the Motown style. Northern soul aficionados can be very passionate about their tunes, making your average indie music snob look like the epitome of fair mindedness. When I was a lot younger I once foolishly asked a northern dj what the tune he was playing was to which he retorted "If you don't know that then you don't deserve to be in here", I kid you not.

I will return frequently on this blog to a bit of northern as it is one of my great loves. Most of my northern collection is on cd and compilation lps (which will horrify all those serious collectors out there) as the original singles can cost thousands and I can't really justify anything over 20 quid for a single, I have tried but have not been able to convince myself let alone the good lady. Of the 7" in my possession most of them are either re-pressings as with the tune selected today or dodgy bootleg pressings.

Today's tune is by the late, great Jackie Wilson, corny I know but true. This tune will always remind me of the Togetherness Weekenders in Fleetwood, seeing a good few hundred people shuffling, spinning and clapping in time to this tune is a sight to behold.

So pull back the carpet, sprinkle the talcum powder on the floor or the lino in the kitchen and have a little shimmy

Jackie Wilson - Because of You

Thursday 1 July 2010

First Post, Last Post?





This was the first ever post, posted on the 08th January last year and I wasn't sure at the time if I would even get into double figures

So there I was watching Roddy Frame when JC,  (the Vinyl Villain) said "why don't you write your own blog?"

I had thought about it but had decided that it would be just vanity assuming that anybody would be interested in what I had to say so put the idea to the back of my mind. But recently, while jumping about the internet reading the blogs listed down the side I thought fuck it I'll give it a go, post some tunes that mean something to me and hope they are of interest to someone.

The next problem was thinking of a title for the blog, however yesterday the ipod selected ". . . From Across The Kitchen Table" by the Pale Fountains and it kind of made sense as it is an example of how I can get obsessed about a song and is also the location where most of the thought for this blog will be done.

I first heard this song in 1987 when a student, two years after its release. My girlfriend at the time introduced it to me (and to whom I am eternally grateful). The song just stopped me in my tracks, the hair on the back of my neck stood up and when the backing singer sang the line "you saved my life, I fought you" I nearly wept. I fell in love with the track so much so that I asked D to make me up a C90 of just that one song and it became the main track of the soundtrack to my first year at Uni .

I became totally obsessed with the song and bought the vinyl album, however the version on the album was different and inferior to the that on the tape and the hunt began.

In those pre-internet days finding out of print vinyl consisted of searching charity, second hand record shops and the occasional record fair. Through this process I ended up with the song on 2 other formats, the 7" double pack and cd album, neither of which was the correct version. It took about another ten years and the internet for me to get the 12" extended mix on a cdr of Pale Fountains and Shack rarities and not until 2006 did I manage to get a copy of the 12".

The Pale Fountains were a band from Liverpool formed in 1980, 2 of whose members were Michael Head, who went on to form Shack and Andy Diagram who joined James. They produced 6 singles and 3 albums and in From Across The Kitchen Table an epic to match any penned by Pete Wylie's or Ian McCulloch.

Pale Fountains - from across the kitchen table