Vinyl Time

Picture the scene, it's Saturday just before noon, the breakfast dishes are done and the kitchen cleared up. Number one son is away with the better half fucking up packing some poor unfortunate's shopping in the aid of school funds. Leo is sitting at the "pooter" watching Remembrance Of The Daleks which will keep him engrossed for as long as I let him sit in front of the thing.

So,  I find myself at a loose end with nothing to do. Well there is the washing machine to load, the hoovering to be done and a few other things that I could be doing but nothing urgent.

During these rare occasions I retreat to the dinning room and put on something that I have not got round to listening to or something that I haven't listened to in ages.  It will always be on vinyl, as well,  it just feels right that when I've got the time I sit down and give an album the attention it deserves moving only the once to flip over the vinyl. After which I will go back to whatever mundane tasks need to be done happy in the knowledge that I have just listened to something the way it was intended to be listened to,  no skipping, shuffling or repeating.

On Saturday I found myself in a quandry. I had the urge to hear Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues but that would mean playing a cd and this was 'Vinyl Time'. I decided that as I could not think of anything else I wanted to hear more, I would break the rules this once. I did toy with the idea of playing All Creatures Will Make Merry as this was re-released on lovely red vinyl last year but no, Pissing On Bonfires it had to be.

And for the next thirty eight and a bit minutes I sat on my chair and immersed myself in what is still  an amazing listen even after being heard by these ears tons of times. It feels as fresh now as it did when I first purchased it on a whim and waited ages for it to come.

If there are any of you out there that don't own a copy of this absolute gem get yourself over to Song By Toad pronto and purchase it and as much of the label's back catalogue as you can afford. Then mibbe one day they will be able to afford to do for Meursault's debut what they did for the follow up and release it on vinyl which would spare me the dilema of breaking the rules of 'Vinyl Time'.

Meursault - a small stretch of land

Vinyl

Over at Davy's place last Friday we were all waxing lyrical, especially Swiss Adam and extolling the virtues of vinyl.

Now I love vinyl as much as the next man, that's probably not true, I probably love vinyl a lot more than the next man unless the next man is the kind of person who reads this rubbish then it will probably be a close run thing. But I do have a problem with the stuff or I should say L has a problem with the stuff and that is that it takes up so much space!

When we moved into the house we are in now we had to compromise. I wanted a record room, a haven where I could go shut myself off from the world, gaze lovingly at my collection and play my records.

L wanted a dining room!

Of course L won but conceded to giving me the far end of the room and the internal cupboard. So I then had to decide what records were to be stored in the 'dining room' and what would have to be squirrelled away in other places. Now here is what I don't understand about L's thinking and I suspect a lot of other people who don't have an affinity with records, it is alright to have five IKEA BENNO towers along the wall housing those little indestructible silver discs, that didn't offend her eye but the sight of  the spines of rows of vinyl is a different matter. ?

Anyway, I decided that the Dance 12" singles would be stacked in my office along with the 'various' Dance lps, the indie and mainstream 12" singles would be stored  with most of the 7" singles in the cupboard on the half landing and that only the albums and one box of singles would be on view in the 'dining room'.

Over the years the vinyl downstairs has increased and has virtually taken over the far end of the room, what with the introduction of flight case for the prized albums and 12" singles, a further box for 7" and also records stacked in rows along the bottom of the cd racks! Recently there have been mumblings and not so subtle hints that it is getting out of hand and a reclamation attempt on the whole room was imminent.

So,  yesterday spurned on by Mr H's posting I decided that I would need to do something. At the other side of the room is a cupboard that houses junk like, the wedding China, and the paraphernalia for table setting and the like. The cupboard also has a bit which would be perfect for storing vinyl but up until yesterday was full of boxes of the good crystal glasses and other non essential things. I then started thinking about how to pitch this to L because I had a feeling that I was on a hiding to nothing. However when I explained the idea to her, she said " as long as you find somewhere to put the other stuff, fine". I was rather surprised and decided to get to it forthwith before she changed her mind.

Most of the afternoon yesterday was spent, sorting out, filing and stacking vinyl with an air of contentment that I rarely achieve these days. By the time the boys and L were demanding dinner the room was transformed back to a dining room, no longer a mini maze constructed of piles of 12" vinyl. An afternoon well spent I'm sure you will agree. There is still a small stack of records, which I have not filed leaning against the cabinet that houses most of the albums but it will not offend L's eye for a while until it grows again

When I was sorting the vinyl out I found a northern soul single that I thought I had lost. It had somehow been filed in amongst the albums. It is a belter of a tune and it being missing had been bothering me on and off for sometime.

The Salvadores - Stick By Me Baby

The Boy Wonder Returns

There was reason to rejoice this week at the news that  Roddy Frame will be making a long awaited return north of the border this October. Not only that but he will be touring with a band , for the first time in over a decade. The starting up of all this nonsense was as a direct result of Mr Frame's last visit to Glasgow. So you know that momentous things come in the wake of a visit from the Boy Wonder.

This would have been reason enough to celebrate this weekend but it was also the 21st birthday of my oldest nephew, jesus, that makes me feel old,  who I think will have a rather sore head this morning.

Last night I really did morph into my father at D's party when I found myself saying " all this shit sounds the same" although my father would have been a bit more eloquent about it. What is it with the use of vocorders and "singers" on helium? I think that if  I ever met this David Guetta character I would resort to extreme violence. Still we did get two Stone Roses and one Strokes tune which I think was intended to placate the oldies. However note to any aspiring DJ's and young folk alike it is not ironic to like Shang A Lang, it is just a pish song by a dodgy 70s boy band, ok?

Oh,  and I also found out that one of my nephew's lecturers is a blogger familiar to a few of us. Small world isn't it!

Anyway here is a song from a bygone age when songs had real lyrics, real instruments and not a vocoder in sight.

Aztec Camera - Spanish Horses

Crazy, Mibbies Aye, Mibbies Naw!

I haven't mentioned the elections for the Scottish Parliament before as I haven't wanted to bore people to death and if you aren't from this part of the world it is totally irrelevant to you anyway but I am going to mention it briefly just to say that for the first time since I was able to vote, I am going to vote for a different party, a party I never thought I would ever vote for in a million years and the thing is I don't feel sad or troubled in any way I actually feel quite liberated as I no longer have to try and justify things like the war in Iraq, my party cosying up to Mr Murdoch, try to hide my total disgust in the hypocrite that is Dr John Reid or seethe that Trident is still based in my neighbourhood. My grandfather and my uncle Jimmy will probably be spinning in their graves as I type this, both being Red Clydesiders but times have changed and the colour of the flag is no longer red.

The first three lines of this song kind of sum up how I am feeling at the moment. However, no matter how crazy I finally end up I will never be seen reciting the words to that racist, dirge that is Flower Of Scotland.

Alice Russell - Crazy