Tuesday 31 December 2019

Out With The Old . . .



Health and happiness to everyone of you for the coming year and beyond.

I will try and post more regularly and be less half arsed about what I post too.

Jimi Hendrix - Little Drummer Boy/Silent Night/Auld Lang Syne

Wednesday 25 December 2019

Merry Christmas



I hope you all received what you deserved from Santa this morning.

Have a great day.

The Housemartins - Caravan of Love

Monday 23 December 2019

Monday's Long Christmassy Song



A bit late today, didn't get round to producing this post last night as I was trying to watch all of the Star Wars films prior to seeing the final one today.

Swiss Adam has posted tracks by Lindstrom the Norwegian producer in the past but I don't think that he has featured his epic reinterpretation of Little Drummer Boy before. This is not the kind of thing that you will play on a regular basis but if you have had your fill of the all the standard Christmas musical fayre this just might fit the bill. Sit back with a glass of egg nog or a pot of tea and let this 42 minute marathon inveigle itself into your consciousness. Stick with it, it is worth it.

Lindstrom - Little Drummer Boy


Friday 20 December 2019

The Tracks Of My Year



It has been a very good, if somewhat expensive year on the music front. This year has seen me move even further towards psych and kraut influenced sounds of which there have been plenty. As ever a certain A.Weatherall makes an appearance and is the only person to have featured in every round up in the 10 years that this blog has been trying to force what in my arrogant opinion are the best tracks of the year,  however this is the first year that he has been responsible for the top tune. I must have played his remix of Edge of Wonder at least 50 times and it still never fails to make me smile. However, if the Sault track had been released as a 7" it would probably have taken the top spot as it would have been flogged to death, if there was a tune of 2019 that warranted a release in that form at it was Let Me Go. I was lucky enough to get the last copy of the Jarv Is 12" one Saturday in July on one of my regular visits to Monorail.

There have been loads of those songs that have grabbed me this year but at the time of writing these are the ones from the notebook where I jot down songs that really make an impression on me. There will be a couple of glaring omissions as usual but that's just life.

1. Silver Apples - Edge of Wonder (Andrew Weatherall mix)
2. Sault - Let Me Go
3. Unloved - Boy & Girl
4. Glok - Dissident
5. L'Epee - Une Lune Etrange
6. Kate Tempest - People's Faces
7. Mattiel - Keep The Change
8. Jarv is - Must I Evolve
9. Chemical Brothers - Out Of Control (21 minutes of madness)
10. Karen O & Dangermouse - Lux Prima (full version)
11. Utopia Strong - Brain Surgeons 3
12. Cowgirl In Sweden - Blood Runs Cold
13. Les Big Byrd - Sno Golum
14.[Retreat] - Come With Us
15. Lo-Five - Life Without Fear
16. W.H. Lung - Simpatico People
17. Dallas Acid - The Spiral Arm
18. Self Esteem - The Best
19. Dream Division - Quantum Rip
20. Moon Duo - Lost Heads
21. Kungens Man - Man Med Medel
22. Four Tet - Anna Painting
23. Jenny Lewis - Hollywood Lawn
24. The Regrettes - California Friends
25. Post Human - Over The Great Red Eye
26. K.H. - Only Human
27. [Retreat] - One One One
28. Sendelica - Windmill (Chocolate Orb dubbed mix)
29. Black Doldrums - T-W-R-T-N-D-H (Broken Light mix)
30. Nick Waterhouse - Song For Winners
31. Sunray - Music For The Dream Machine - phase II (original mix)
32.Scott Fraser - Together More
33. The Action - Follow Me
34. The Cult of Free Love -  Substance 2
35. Richard Fearless - Acid Angels
36. Moon Goose - The Mysterious Coffins of Arthur's Seat
37.Hannah Peel - The Moon In All It's Splendour
38. Psychic Lemon - Dark Matter
39. Meursault - Beaten
40.The Liminanas - Non, Non, Rien Na Change
















Thursday 19 December 2019

Don't Let Him Waste Your Time



All this talk of trying to get that Jarvis Cocker track to number one for Christmas, a sentiment and action that I heartily recommend even though I usually don't approve of this kind of thing, it's Christmas for fuck sake, lets try not be cynical for a wee while at least but what's the point of covering up or trying to hide the shit we are in at present. . . ,

Well it got me thinking of Nancy Sinatra and one of the songs that Jarvis wrote for her, Don't Let Him Waste Your Time  and was included in the self titled album from 2004, which is a great album even the song written by Bonzo is tolerable. Jarvis later included a version of the song on his own first solo album.

Nancy Sinatra - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time

Wednesday 18 December 2019

I Can't Stand It



This fine piece of 70's funk has been posted before but it was over five years ago and I feel it could do with another airing.

I know absolutely nothing about Brenda George other than what I have gleaned from Discogs and a couple of soul site and that doesn't amount to very much. Brenda released three singles between 1971 and the following year. I Can't Stand It was the flip side of the first of these 45s, What You See Is What You Get released on the Kent label in 1971 and for me is the strongest of the tracks. My copy is the re-release that came out on BGP in 2010.

Brenda George - I Can't Stand It (I Can't Take No More)

Tuesday 17 December 2019

Albums of the Year

I have bought far too many albums this year, quite a few if truth be told I will rarely play but at the time I believed were essential purchases. There were quite a few more that I was severely tempted by but resisted including all but two of the Stereolab reissues. While talking about reissues, one that I hummed and hawed about including in my top ten was I Trawl The Megahertz, an absolute treasure of an album that would have been high up the list.  But it is a re-release even though this time it is under the Prefab Sprout moniker and not as when originally released a Paddy McAloon record. Another couple of  records that would have been included I have no doubt if they had been released  and purchased earlier in the year would have been Chef by Kungens Man and the Spiral Arm by Dallas Acid which have not been played enough yet to push out any of the ones on the list.

So here we go



10. Unloved - Heartbreak

The second album from David Holmes' collaboration with Keefus Ciancia and Jade Vincent bring us more soulful cinemascope tunes that conjour up visions of 60s psychedelia, twisted girl group sounds and coolness. Both and Girl is a song that I have been unable to get out of my head ever since I first heard it, it is such a beautifully sad song that does feel really familiar.





9. Cowgirl In Sweden

Another album that harks back to the late 60s, taking it's name from  Lee Hazlewood's 1970 album Cowboys In Sweden and including a cover of a song by psychedelic folk band The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. This album led me to Manchester's Whyte Horses, a revelation to these ears who those in the know say made this record and from there to the Justin Velor album released back in 2012 and well worth checking out. The Cowgirl In Sweden album is one for lazy summer days or sitting on a dank December night dreaming of warm, lazy summer days.

Cowgirl In Sweden - Welcome Home




8. Lo-Five - Geography of The Abyss

A gorgeous album which is apparently an exploration of advanced states of consciousness and shifts in perception. It is something that is best listened to as a whole but also works as individual tracks. It reminds me of the work of Jon Hopkins. It is also beautifully packaged and can be purchased from one time blogger, Colin Morrison's excellent Castles In Space label.





7. L'eppe - Diabolique

Does Anton Newcombe ever sleep? What with touring, producing for other people and releasing albums every year as part of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, he still finds time to start up a side project with Emmanuelle Seigner and the Liminanas. More 60s psych influences here with added drone.





6. The Utopia Strong - The Utopia Strong

I never thought I would ever be listening to an album recorded by Steve Davis, yes that Steve Davis. I knew that after snooker he had turned to the decks and had become a techno dj which had been a surprise as I thought that he was a bit of a Northern Soul man. But part of a trio making modern kosmiche, nah,  no way. But yes and incredibly good experimental 70s German influenced music it is too and once again wonderfully packaged.



5. Nick Waterhouse - Nick Waterhouse

On album number four Nick Waterhouse gives us more music for men in sharp suits and women in minidresses grooving in smokey dim light after hours clubs. If it ain't broke. . . don't fuck about with it.







4. Glok - Dissident

Balearic, techno krautrock from the guitarist in Ride?  Fuck off!

No, listen, it is absolutely magic

About as likely as a 6 times snooker world champion playing modular synths.





3. [Retreat] - Retreat

Collaboration by Lyndon Scarfe from The Black Lamps and Sam Horton another resident off Barnsley who have teamed up to make an album that on listening to the first track you think is just going to be another of those ambient things that take bits of dialogue from space missions and drench them with synth sounds to create a "soundscape" but fuck me no, it twists and turns from "Yorkshire's answer to MES" ranting over a pounding beat through distorted brass, foreboding synths and culminating in a track to accompany some cataclysmic event. This is what Twitter is for, finding musicians that are making amazing music that would otherwise have passed me by. Well that and Momentum and fascist baiting.






2. Dream Division - Transcend

More music to soundtrack a nightmare. This time a John Carpenteresque Sci-Fi Horror. More analogue synths and psychedelic sounds from the Polyphonic Youth label.





1. Karen O & Danger Mouse - Lux Prima

I can't put my finger on just why I like this album more than anything else I have bought this year I just know that I do. The production is immaculate as you would expect, the album as a whole has a dreamy feel to it and flits from the almost symphonic title track through the disco like Turn The Light to the cinematic end title sounds of Nox Lumina, taking in hip hop beats here and four to the floor northern stomping there and garage guitars for good measure.




Tune in on Saturday for the Tracks of My Year, if you are remotely interested.

Monday 16 December 2019

Monday's Long Song



Back in 2007 Will Carruthers made two cds available by mail order that consisted of outtakes and rehearsals of early Spiritualized recordings. On the communication regarding the Blue and Blue compilation he stated

"This will be the last of these
I feel that it hurts nobody
It is very limited, and I guess, is of specific interest to a small, but loyal following, only a percentage of who will actually buy it.
You, presumably want to hear it, and I, finally make a little return on the 
work that I put into these songs all those years ago,
I really enjoyed listening to this cd and it brought back some of the good times that I had whilst being involved with thee making of this music
I hope you find something you like.
If you could bear not to make these freely available to share for a month or so, you might give me the opportunity to flee the country before i am crushed like a bug by some monolithic organisation
Thank You
Will Carruthers"

Here from the first Spiritualized rehersal is a version of Sometimes which appeared on the final Spacemen 3 album recurring

Spiritualized - Sometimes (rehearsal)

Thursday 12 December 2019

Tuesday 10 December 2019

Gold!Frankinsense!FR!



I absolutely adore this tune and always have since I first heard it, over a decade ago now. And it gives me a glow and a big grin comes across my coupon after I've dug the single out off the boxes in the cupboard on the half landing put it on the turntable and Leo wanders around the house singing this but it also causes an ache in my heart for obvious reasons.

Make tiny changes and hopefully a rather large one on Thursday. Here's hoping.

Frightened Rabbit - It's Christmas So We'll Stop (Choir)


Monday 9 December 2019

Monday's Long Song



Most probably the only song recorded to namecheck a Scottish referee, well until somebody records "Who's The Mason In The Black?" anyway but that doesn't actually put a name to one, although I know a few people who could list many that they suspect but I digress. Mogwai did not only record a song about a referee but a an official who it appeared to me had a great dislike for my team, a failing that he passed down to his first born, although I think the son is just pish and incompetent rather than having an agenda although I could be wrong. 

For the first two days of my honeymoon I was left to my own devices, Lynn having caught a pretty bad case of food poisoning from calamari on the evening of our arrival in Barcelona. The first day between running back to the hotel every couple of hours to check on her I spent most of my time and a wee bit of our money wandering about the record shops of the city of which at the time there were plenty. On the second day I decided to seek out and maker a pilgrimage to Camp Nou as I knew that Lynn would not be in the slightest bit interested in going there once she had recovered. When I eventually found it I discovered that on the Wednesday night there was a Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev. I thought that this would be a great introduction to football for Lynn, who at the time had never been to a football match and duly handed over about a third of our remaining holiday funds on two tickets for the game.

I wouldn't say Lynn was ecstatic at the prospect when I returned to the hotel and told her where we would be going on a couple of nights time but she didn't explode either which I took as a good sign although was probably due to the after effects of the recent food poisoning.

So on the Wednesday night we arrived at the stadium and climbed and climbed and climbed up to near the very top of the stadium behind one goal and sat down. When the announcer after listing the teams that night got to the officials I nearly chocked on my beer as we were informed that the referee for the evening was one Hugh Dallas from Scotland! Was there no hiding place from the man from Bonkle.

The score I hear you ask, what was the score? Sadly this was not a classic Barcelona line-up under the management of Louis van Gaal  and they were gubbed  0 - 4, with up and coming Andre Shevchenko netting a hattrick. 

Lynn has yet to attend another football match. Every time I suggest accompanying me and Leo to The Penny Cabs Stadium she just laughs for some reason.

Mogwai - Hugh Dallas 

Friday 6 December 2019

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Here's a repost of a repost. I really want to get the Friday posts back up and running but just haven't found the inspiration yet, so I thought I would post a selection of previous ones and see if that gets me going.

Today's posting is a re-post from the very early days of the blog April 2009 as I haven't had a chance to think of anything for today, Back then it  wasn't a It's Friday  . .  Let's Dance post .

Have a good weekend people.

By 1990 the acid house party was well and truly over what with the adverse publicity, the hounding of promoters and the fact that every single seemed to come with an acid house remix, stick a couple of wobbly 303 sounds on your record and you were sorted.

Dance music, however was going from strength to strength. It seemed to be fragmenting into dozens of sub genres,a new one created every week or so, this record responsible for one of those. Then there was indie dance, dance music that the NME and thousands of students could identify with as it still had guitars. Every white rock band seemed to name drop influential dance producers and state in interviews that there had always been a dance element to their music or some such shit.

I first heard Testone in the early hours one Sunday morning. When it was dropped, I remember that it stopped me in my tracks, one of those "what the fuck is that!" moments, as I hadn't heard anything quite like before. If my memory serves me right (which is debatable, as a lot of the details around this period are hazy) I wasn't the only one, I think that half of the club were motionless with a mixture of bafflement and awe on their faces, Bleep Techno had been born.

All of Sunday and for much of the next week I couldn't get the track out of my head and would go on and on about this amazing tune that I had heard to anyone that would listen, I really am quite a boring git. When I eventually got hold of the track and played it to a couple of friends all they could say is "is that it?". As I've said before some people just didn't get it.

Testone was released on the Sheffield based label Warp, in my view the most influential and innovative of all the UK techno labels. It was a collaboration between Richard H Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire and DJ Parrot and took their name from the title of a 70s Curtis Mayfield album.

Sweet Exorcist - Testone

I have also included the video for the track below which was directed by Jarvis Cocker, no less.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

First Date



This track from the American soul singer and actress from Havre De Grace, Maryland was included on the double Big City Soul compilation released on the excellent Goldmine Soul Supply label. A lovely mid tempo piece of sophisticated 60s soul. First date was pencilled in for inclusion in a subsequently unissued lp on Wand.

Nella Dodds - First Date 

Tuesday 3 December 2019

[Retreat]



There has been a lot of new music floating about recently that has grabbed not least from an old blogger's label, Castles In Space, more of which later in the week. But today we will have a look at a collaboration between Lydon Scarfe from The Black Lamps and his friend Sam Horton,  It has been described as an ambient album but it is oh so much more. I think that Memorial Device's quote on Twitter from Big Patty "from now on music has to sound like a building coming down or forget it" is pretty apt. You can buy the download of the album for three quid and the cd for £8 from here. A purchase you will not regret. I guarantee.


Monday 2 December 2019

Monday's Long Song



Today's track is a bit different from those that have graced this slot over the past few months. Will I Ever Be Inside You is the title track of the second album by Paul Quinn and The Independent Group and something of a lost classic. The band consisted of some of the great and the good of Scottish music, with members of Aztec Camera, The Commotions, The Bluebells, Del Amitri,  Postcard label boss Alan Horne and of course in Quinn himself the voice of Bourgie Bourgie. And what a voice it is, lush deep and hugely melancholic. Although Will I Ever does not quite reach the heights of Stupid Thing it is a song that should be known and recognised a lot more widely than it is. The whole album is ripe for re-release, in my opinion anyway.

Paul Quinn and The Independent Group - Will I Ever Be Inside You

Monday 25 November 2019

Monday's Long Song



I have posted this track a couple of times over the nearly 11 years that this blog has spluttered on. But I think that it's about time it was featured again. It will take a bit of commitment from anybody who is minded to listen to it as it lasts for 28 minutes. The track just builds and builds,  layering sounds upon sounds over an underlying drone. it's all fuzzy, blurry, sweet white noise which sucks you in and before you know it nearly half an hour has passed and there is nothing else to do but to press repeat.

I just wish that this had been released on a physical format although that would probably not fit in with the ethereal nature of the track.

Somfay - Fricative White (From A Whisper To A Scream)

Wednesday 20 November 2019

When It Comes To My Baby



You just know he means it when Ronnie sings " cause my love is so strong" , he certainly puts his heart and soul into his rendition of this Ashford and Simpson penned song released on Scepter in 1965. I love everything about this record, the backing vocals, the dramatic backing, the lot. Magic stuff.

Btw, Ronnie is actually a very well known Country and Western artist. Bet you would never have guessed that?

Off to Luton for a couple of days, which is nice.

Ronnie Milsap - When It Comes To My Baby 

Tuesday 19 November 2019

Thirty four years Ago Yesterday



And I don't care what Gary Mullholland says in "Fear of Music", for me it still sounds as good as it did when I was an angsty 16 year old looking for a band to call my own.

Never did do the backcombed hair though

The Jesus and Mary Chain - In A Hole

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Something's Wrong


Monday 18 November 2019

Monday's Long Song.



I'm not sure what it is about Austin, Texas, it could be something in the water or the proximity to Mexico but more than a few bands that are "out-there" or  experimental bands seem to hail from there, going back to the 13th Floor Elevators through to The Black Angels and Thousand Foot Whale Claw. Recently I have found a new one to add to the list, Dallas Acid, a trio who have just released there latest album, The Spiral Arm. The album started off as a live performance at the Planetarium in San Antonio as the soundtrack to a visual journey to the Cosmos, you don't get much more outthere than that.
Unfortunately the version of the title track is somewhat edited in the YouTube clip below as the album version is nine and a half minutes low and can be listened to in it's entirety and purchased here.


Wednesday 13 November 2019

Tuesday 12 November 2019

Hello In There



Digging out the John Prine track for yesterday's post inevitably led me to today's as it is a cover of a track from the Illinois singer's first album. This particular rendition comes from a gig that I have mentioned a couple of time before on the blog, the Big Day, June 3rd 1990 when between 250 000  and 400 000 revellers wandered about various venues in Glasgow and caught some of the largest pop and rock acts of the time at George Square, Glasgow Green, The People's Palace and Custom House Quay on the Broomielaw where some of us were lucky to if not wholly witness at least hear the coming together of a major rock,  star an indie heroine and the Big Nosed Bard from Barking covering Hello In There as well as earlier catching Aly Bain giving it big licks on his fiddle,



What a day that was!

Natalie Merchant had recorded Hello In There as a b-side to the 12" version of Eat For Two the previous year but I have always thought that the backing was way to jaunty for the song. See what you think.

10 000 Maniacs - Hello In There 

Monday 11 November 2019

Mondays Long Song



I'm not sure how good for the psyche on a Monday morning a song about a crumbling marriage and a double murder is but this has got to be one of the most upbeat tunes to go along with some of the darkest lyrics that I know. The original of Lake Marie can be found on Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings  released in 1995. I don't own as much by John Prine as I think I should do. I do have his eponymous first album, a copy of which every house should own I think.


Sunday 10 November 2019

Wednesday 6 November 2019

7 % Solution



I really wish that this tune would have fitted in with the Monday theme but it is two damned short, it should be at least three times as long as it is. All About Satellites and Spaceships is the opening title  track from the debut album by 7% Solution from Austin Texas. The rest of the album is typical of the shoegaze sound and not too bad but didn't grab me the way this does, although there is very little to it, I find that when I play it I tend to just stop what I'm doing and really listen for some reason

7% Solution -  All About Satellites and Spaceships

Monday 4 November 2019

Monday's Long Song



Like SA over at the Bagging Area, I also saw Moon Duo last week. Not in Manchester but at a new venue for me BAAD (Barras Art and Design) behind the famous Ballroom and across the road from ST Lukes. I had attended a couple of record fairs there but not a gig and it turned out to be a great we venue. I will not be giving you an in depth review of the night as I could not compete with Adam's excellent piece from last Wednesday, suffice to say it was fucking magic. Although I think it would have worked in a seated venue what with the lightshow and me getting on a bit but that's a personal preference and has hew haw to do with the performance.

High Over Blue was an unused track from the sessions for the Circles album which was released on a limited single sided 12" single for the Belgian label Sleeperhold Records and on a second disc on the Australian edition of Circles. It is for all intents and purposes a sprawling jam drenched in reverb, noodley guitar solos and undecipherable muffled vocals but we are not averse to long improvised jams hereabouts.

Not a bad way to spend twenty one and three quarter minutes on a Monday.

Moon Duo - High Over Blue

Friday 1 November 2019

By The Way Bawjaws...





. . . we're still in the EU, So get it right roon' yea!



Happy Anniversary Doll



At 15:00 twenty two years ago today I made possibly the best decision I have ever made. On that crisp November day I said yes and married Lynn. There have been loads of ups and downs since, some huff, shouting matches and more than one disagreement over the merits of the Fall and MES in particular but I haven't once regretted that decision,

The Proclaimers - Life With You 

Thursday 31 October 2019

Happy Birthday Boy



Number 1 son is sixteen today. I would post something that he likes but sadly his taste has turned to shit over the past couple of years. So here is a track that when he was younger about 10, he got really into after watching the Punk Britannia programme on YouTube and for about 6 months John Lydon was his hero. I will never forget the Saturday night when he poked his head round the door and asked "you got any dub?", apparently Lydon had been talking about it and he wanted to check it out. Stiff was right when he commented not long after that "he's going to run out of genres by the time he's twelve at this rate.

PIL - Rise

And here's the obligatory Hallowe'en song

Pogues - Haunted 

Wednesday 30 October 2019

"The Moon Is There In All It's Splendour"



This lovely piece of ambience created on vintage analogue Roland synths complete with authentic NASA transmission recording by Hannah Peel was given away as a beautiful white vinyl 7" single with the July edition of Electronic Sound to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the moon landing and the cultural impact since. The only thing wrong with it is that it is way too short. Imagine a 10/12 minute version.

Electronic Sound is for me the most interesting music magazine out there and well worth subscribing to.

Hannah Peel  -  The Moon Is There In All It's Splendour (parts 1&2)


Tuesday 29 October 2019

If It Don't Fit Don't Force It



A great bit of 70s Detroit Soul for you. A piano driven dancer with some forceful female backing vocals. I know nothing about Clarence Jackson but I do recognise a quality peace of vinyl when I hear it.

Clarence Jackson - If It Don't Fit, Don't Force This 

Monday 28 October 2019

Monday's Long Song



WARNING OVERINDULGENT PROG ALERT!

As I warned months ago Genesis would appear in this slot at some point and today is the day.  I have mentioned on quite a few occasions the older hippy types that I kicked about with when I was an early teen, one of them Lex was a big Genesis and Kate Bush fan and most of the time when you visited him it would be one of those two that would be playing although he had a pretty large record collection for an 18 yr old, Inevitably I succumbed to some of the music I heard when up at his bit, I never really got into Kate Bush but some of the early Genesis stuff I really liked, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and Selling England By The Pound are two albums that have remained in my head ever since, well bits of them anyway.

But it was Supper's Ready that made the biggest impression on me not least due to it's length, taking up the whole side of Foxtrot and clocking in at just short of 23 minutes. It was also bonkers, back then I had no idea what it was about but now there is a Wiki page dedicated to it and according to Peter Gabriel "is a personal journey which ends up walking through scenes from Revolution in the Bible"

The version posted is a live version from the Archive compilation 1967 - 75, recorded live at the Rainbow Theatre on 20th October 1973 and is slightly extended as the running time is 26:34.

Go on give it a listen, you might even like it.

Genesis - Supper's Ready

Friday 25 October 2019

Keeping It Peel



Fifteen years, fifteen fucking years!

Maryanne, Lauren, the rest of 6Music, not least John's son Tom have tried to fill the gap and have just about managed to do it but it is telling that it has taken a whole station to fill those boots and come up with a daily playlist as diverse as the late man's one show. I say nearly as no matter how good all those djs are they do not possess those dulcet tones, the deadpan delivery and very few ever play the record at the wrong speed. I wonder if Peel had still been around what his show would have been like after his beloved Liverpool won the European Cup for the 6th time.

I had a few Peel sessions vying for inclusion today but as I am off to see the Wedding Present tonight,  in what I have no doubt will be another brilliant ninety odd minutes, especially as Bizarro my second favourite Weddoes album will be played in full, it seemed fitting that I should pick them and  the  band's final session recorded on 22/07/2004 and broadcast 12/09/2004 which contained at the time brand new tracks from Take Fountain, my favourite Wedding Present album.

Peel once said "the boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock 'n' Roll era. You may dispute this, but I'm right and you're wrong!" His faith in Gedge can be attested by the fact that after M.E.S. Gedge clocked up the second most session appearances, 22 in total either with the Wedding Present, Cinerama or solo.



Blue Eyes

Ringway To Seatac

Shivers

Queen Anne 

White Horses

John Peel - The Fall

Wednesday 23 October 2019

Forget You Ever Met Me Baby



Barbara McNair is responsible for one of my favourite soul songs of all time, You're Gonna Love My Baby and although Forget You Ever Met Me Baby isn't quite in the same league it is still an extremely good piece of sophisticated soul. Although this track was never released as a single it was on the second album she recorded for Motown, The Real Barbara McNair, released in 1969.

Barbara McNair - Forget You Ever Met Me Baby

Monday 21 October 2019

Monday's Long Song



Not sure if Techno is the right thing for a Monday morning. It's not banging techno, Ripperton stretches and mellows out the Bristolian duo's 2011 release which may not have you pulling shapeson the floor but will have you nodding along. Ripperton does this kind of thing very well.

Emptyset feat Cornelius Harris - Altogether Lost (Ripperton's Underground Kingdom mix)

Wednesday 16 October 2019

The Closing Act Of An Imaginary Festival (Second Stage)



A few weeks ago I was flicking through an old notebook looking for a record that I had scribbled down after hearing somewhere but could not remember what it was, when I came across a title that stopped me in my tracks for a couple of minutes. The header on the page was "Setlist For Spiritualized Closing The Festival" and as you can probably guess the page then listed a load of Spiritualized songs, some scored through others with arrows showing where they should be moved to and then the final running order.

The reason that this stopped me in my tracks was it had me remembering a most enjoyable series of email correspondence with Tim Badger from the beginning of May last year

Tim had emailed a few of us bloggers as he and SWC had had a mad idea (not like them that) to put on an imaginary festival over the August Bank Holiday 2018, over three days and multiple blogs. There would be three stages, the Main Stage where the acts would be complied by Tim, SWC and their  partner in crime KT (C) over the Friday,  Saturday and Sunday nights. A Second Stage with Jez, JC and yours truly and Another Stage maned by Swiss Adam, Robster and Walter.

There were some ground rules, the festival had to have bands that could physically play, ie were in existence at the time of the August Bank Holiday. The bands/artists would play for around an hour but headliners could have two hours. It had also been stipulated by SWC that my headliner had to be Spiritualized.

I put a lot of thought into this at the time and decided that I would add my own rule that my sets would consist of live recordings of the bands which narrowed down the attendees I could pick as I also had to already have mp3s of these. A piece of pish in relation to the headliners as I have loads of live Spiritualized stuff but a little bit trickier when it came to the rest of the line-up and possibly why in the notebook I only have a setlist for Spiritualized and no other bands listed.

I can't quite remember why this did not come to pass but I thought that I would post my Spiritualized set in memory of Tim, as I have been thinking of him recently, and of how at the start of the year when I was feeling quite low a comment he left made me feel just that little bit better.

Anyway,  below is my setlist for the final act on  the Second Stage  on the Sunday of Blogfest. I know shite name. I am sure that if it had come to pass the festival would have a much better and funnier name.


Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space

Hey Jane

I Want You

Lay Back In The Sun

Soul On Fire

Shine A Light-All Of My Tears-Electric Mainline

I Think I'm In Love

She Kisssed Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)

Come Together

Medication

Cop Shoot Cop

So Long You Pretty Thing

Encore

Take Me To The Other Side

Oh Happy Day



Tuesday 15 October 2019

It's Amazing What You Find Food Shopping On A Sunday These Days



A few Sundays ago while doing the shopping in Sainsbury's Lynn was looking at the home ware and I stumbled across a rack of vinyl which was all very much mainstream fodder, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, ELO, you get the idea. One thing did catch my eye as it had the Red Bird logo, the red bird playing a guitar. It was called "Go Girls: The Women of Red Bird. I was pretty sure that I would have all the tracks on the excellent comprehensive double cd The Red Bird Story and a few things on 7" but thought I would have a look anyway. As I suspected I did have all the tracks but was beginning to justify the purchase in my head. AS Go Now was on this, I wouldn't have to play my previous Bessie Banks 7" and the version of Baby would undoubtedly be better than the boot single I had and after all it was only 14 quid. But then I noticed that Don't Think My Baby's Coming Back by Dee Dee Warwick was also included, a song that has been on my vinyl wants list for quite some time, and that was it. It could have been double the price and I would still have bought it as a vg+ copy of the single Standing By released on the Tiger subsidiary label in 1964 that had Don't Think on the flip would set me back over £50.

I don't actually mind food shopping, okay truthfully I really enjoy it (well until we are fighting in the isles over the last tin of Spam in a couple of weeks) but stumbling on this album made a pleasurable experience just that little bit better. Just one gripe, why did it have to be on fucking pink vinyl.

Dee Dee Warwick - Don't Think My Baby's Coming Back

Monday 14 October 2019

Monday's Long Song



In 1976 Brian Eno travelled to Forst in West Germany to collaborate with the Harmonia, the German supergroup that consisted of two members of Cluster, Hans Joachim Roedelius & Dieter Moebius and the guitarist from Neu! Michael Rother who had released two albums to limited sales. For 11 days in September Eno and the other three collaborated before he buggered off to work with David Bowie. The output of these sessions weren't released until 1997 as the tapes had been considered lost up until then. The album that was released Tracks and Traces is a mixed bag, the long contemplative piece, Sometime In Autumn being the pick of the bunch which was remixed by Shackleton and released on a 12" with an Appleblim and Komonasmuk remix of By The Riverside the other main track from the 1976 session.

Harmonia 76 - Sometime In Autumn

Wednesday 2 October 2019

Life In Mono,




I was listening to a rather good radio dramatization of the Ipcress File on Radio 4 Extra the other day which and I realised that although I have seen the film many times and read the follow-up, Funeral In Berlin I have never read The Ipcress File which when I think of it is rather strange. I went through a period in my middle teens when I was obsessed with all of this espionage type stuff and consumed all of the John Le Carre and the like I could find.

This particular radio adaptation used snippets of the excellent John Barry soundtrack throughout which had me scouring the cd shelves for the soundtrack which still cannot be found not sure where it's gotten to. So I dug out Life In Mono by Mono which was released in 1996 and samples BArry's soundtrack to great effect. This 12" single came out with a raft of remixes including 2 very good efforts by The Propellerheads who were very much mining the seams of spooks and espionage at the time. But for me the original is the best.

Interesting fact, in the original Len Deighton books the main protagonist is never named, apparently Michael Caine came up with the name Harry Palmer when having lunch those Christian name was adopted and the Palmer part came from a boy Caine knew from school who he thought to be the most boring person there.

Mono - Life In Mono


Tuesday 1 October 2019

Getting Mighty Crowded



Sometimes you forget just how good some songs are.  Either through being too familiar or just in the context that you tend to hear them, you don't really listen and appreciate them, then you hear them unexpectedly and you see the song in a whole different light.

This happened to me the other week, I had the iTunes on the computer while completing the excruciatingly tedious job of uploading and classifying site documents to our eTMF. I was just about to lose the will to live when the horns and the clip clop intro to Getting Mighty Crowded come out of the desk top speakers that I have in my home office.  Then the gorgeous tones of Betty Everett's lush velvety voice started to give me goosepimples the faintly echoey production just perfect. I am not sure that I have ever just sat and listened to this song before, I associate it with dancing (badly in my case). I played it three times on the bounce.

Getting Mighty Crowded was first released in 1964 on Vee Jay Records, the first American label that the Beatles signed for. It was picked up by the Twisted Wheel crowd and has been a staple on the northern scene ever since.  Elvis Costello recorded and released a particularly pish cover on the b-side of High Fidelity.

I suppose a track that is 55 years old and can still stop you in  your tracks can be considered a classic. Well it is to me anyway.

Betty Everett - Getting Mighty Crowded. 

Monday 30 September 2019

Monday's Long Song



I don't think that it is a coincidence that quite a few of the 10 minute plus tunes that I have also have the name Pete Kember/Sonic Boom in some way associated with them. Today's track is one such example. Ocean is a cover of a Velvet Underground track that was never released when the band were still going. This version by Sunray and was one of the tracks on their second and in my opinion best album, Tomorrow from 2007. Sonic Boom's not only contributes vocals, guitar, keyboards and Tambura but also produces the track as well. It's a great extended, blissed out, fuzzed-up version of the song not quite on a par with the Velvets take on the Matrix Tapes but then it was never ever going to be.

Sunray - Ocean