It's That Time Of Year Again

The first week of February is by so as has been the custom these past four years, this sad middle aged man's mind turns to the serious issue of whether to get involved in the nostalgia fest that is known as St Patrick's Night at the Barras. Some of you will be aware of what I am banging on about but for the others I will briefly fill you in.

For the past 19 years SLF have played the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow on St Patricks night. For the first couple of years my mate asked me if I wanted to go but I declined on the grounds that I wasn't going to see a band that by then,  I believed were a pale imitation of what they would have been circa 1978/79. So for fourteen years nothing more was said but 4 years ago Stiff ( no he is not called that due to his love of SLF) asked me again but this time persuaded me with the argument that it might possibly be the last chance to see them and if I said no then I would regret it,  maybe not that day or the next but soon and for the rest of my life. So I decided what the hell.

When I walked into the Barras my heart sank as I was confronted with a scene that would not have been out of place if Life On Mars had it been set in 1979 or 1980 instead of the early 70's and everybody was a punk  but the age that they would have been in the year 2007. The Clash tribute band lowered my expectations further but when SLF took to the stage everything changed and to cut a long story short, I had a ball and the band were absolutely electric, no parody of themselves what so ever.

Anyway I was happy that I had attended the night but decided that that would be it. So the following year I declined the invitation but on the night felt like I was missing out on something and  last year I went back. Virtually the same crowd, well,  exactly the same crowd where we were standing as two years previously, the same terrible support and then the same brilliant performance by SLF.

So this year sees the 20th anniversary and after writing the above I have decided that, yes I will be going if I can get a ticket. I am under no illusions about what I will witness, I could probably give you a 95 % accurate set list just now. There will be one difference however, the dodgy Clash tribute band are not the support,  that will be supplied by Spear of Destiny which will be interesting.

Here is an SLF track, that when it came out I thought was a bit too poppy and didn't buy but which over the years I have come to love. This version was recorded at the Barras in 2006, no need to ask when that year.

Stiff Little Fingers - Silver Lining.

Keeping It Peel, Number 6

Stiff Little Fingers have always been my favourite punk band, I will still play Inflammable Material and Nobody's Heroes on a regular basis. I still find the rawness of the first album quite exhilarating and tracks such as Barbed Wire Love and Wasted Life still sound alive and relevant these days to me in a way that other albums of that era sound dated now with the exception of The Clash.

It is not an exaggeration to state that if it wasn't for Peel, Stiff Little Fingers would probably never have been heard of outside of Belfast. When he received a copy of their first single Suspect Device, he played it continually on his show, leading to Geoff Travis of Rough Trade taking notice and offering the band a distribution deal. The band could not believe the support they were getting from Peel and on their next single Alternative Ulster acknowledged the debt they owed to the man by having printed on the back cover "For John Peel Who Made It Possible".

The band recorded 5 sessions for the show. The track posted is taken from the second and I think the best of those sessions.

Session recorded 12th September 1978 and aired on 18th September 1978.

Tracklisting: Johnny Was, Law and Order, Barbed Wire Love and Suspect Device.

SLF - Suspect Device

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

2 Days To Go

Well 2 days to go until JC and I force the dubious pleasure of our combined record collections on the unsuspecting patrons of The Flying Duck . I have to admit that I'm a little apprehensive about the whole thing now.

Last night the first thing I did when I got back from Belfast was check my singles box to see if there were any that should come out and I suspect that,  that will not be the last time I will do that before Saturday.

Due to the fact that I will be going into Glasgow by train and it is a fair old hike from Central Station to the Flying Duck, I have limited myself to one singles box (which holds around 200 7"s) and my Ninja Tunes Wax Sack which I can just about force 60 twelves into. My mate C, said to me earlier in  the week, "are you sure you've got enough tunes?" which got me fretting and trying to calculate exactly how much music I was taking with me, then trying to deduct the multiple singles by some artists and how much of certain genres there was until I realised that that way lay madness and to just lighten up and if I end up playing something twice or a couples of track by The Jesus and Mary Chain, or a few too many northern soul tracks then so be it.

There is one track which I know for a fact I will not play, although I would love to, to see if it garners the same reaction nearly thirty years after the last time I heard it out.

As I mentioned before when I first came to Lanark, the two guys I got in tow with Stiff and Span were punks,  I also liked punk but  had a love of Heavy Metal which neither of them could fathom.

Anyway, once a month, a disco was held in the Guide Hall which we would attend with all the other primary 7s, first and second years. One particular night stands out for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it was the night that the three of us went wearing ill fitting, by which I mean about 3 sizes to big for us, WWII British Army Battle Dress Jackets that stank and were as jaggy as hell.  We thought we were so cool. The reason that we had bought these, I think,  was that we had recently seen Julian Cope wearing this type of jacket on Top Of The Pops when Teardrop Explodes were on doing Reward, although I could be completely wrong about this.

I will get to the point of the post eventually.

The second reason that this night stands out in particular is because one of the older punks took along a copy of Hanx! the live album by SLF. The guy spent half the night haranguing the DJ (Turps) to put the album on and when the dj eventually capitulated, true to form Turps played the wrong track.  Instead of playing Alternative Ulster he put on Johnny Was.

Those of us who had studied this album were incredulous, if that is possible for an eleven year old,  because we knew that it was a long track and not the sort of tune that was likely to win over the unconverted. A few brave boys tried to pogo but even with the stamina of youth they all gave up about half way through leaving a deserted dance floor and half clearing the hall but give Turps his due, to our astonishment he played the whole thing, all ten minutes of it.

And there you have in a convoluted way, the point of the post, I will not be playing Johnny Was but would secretly love to, to see what kind of response it would get now.

So,  if your in the town on Saturday night why not come along and not hear me playing Johnny Was.

The version posted is not the version from Hanx but is still a live rendition, recorded some twenty six years later in 2006 at Glasgow Barrowlands.

SLF - Johnny Was

Where Do Kids Spend Their Pocket Money These Days?

I was just thinking yesterday, as I walked past the empty and rather dilapidated former Woolies, that I missed my Saturday visit with M and the tantrums that entailed when I refused to buy him the largest toy he could find in the store. I do not however miss the mad sugar rushes that used to ensue later on in the day when he loaded himself up on the crap that I capitulated on and bought much to the annoyance of his mother.

I also started wondering what all of the kids now did on a Saturday morning and how they spent their pocket money. Every weekend me and S would go up the street first thing and spend all of our pocket money on a single from either Woolies or Menzies

Woolies was always the best as it stocked the top 40 singles, whereas John Menzies only had the top 20. I remember one fraught Saturday, racing up to buy the UK Subs, Party In Paris on orange vinyl,  as on the Friday there had only been 2 copies in the store. When we got there  we found that one had been purchased.  Being the magnanimous sort, I let S buy it, if the truth be told I didn't really like the track. The UK Subs weren't my favourite band, I do however still like Warhead, which came on brown vinyl. I think that the rare UK Subs singles were the ones which were on black vinyl as I can't actually remember ever seeing any on black vinyl.

My earliest memory of Woolies was the one in Airdrie, where I remember getting plastic figures of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman, this was before I started to focus on small pieces of black plastic.

Here is one of the first singles I remember buying from Woolies.

SLF - At The Edge

and also Nanci Griffiths ode to Woolies

Nanci Griffiths - Love At The Five And Dime

Doesn't Make It Alright

My mate has once again talked me into going to SLF's annual St Patrick's Night pilgrimage to the Glasgow Barrowlands. The excuse he used this time was that it may be the last one and how would I feel if I missed it? As eluded to yesterday I have been wallowing in quite a bit of nostalgia of late, so I thought what the hell.

If past experience is anything to go by they will do a blistering cover of Doesn't Make It Alright, the original of which can be found on The Specials first album. It is very difficult to pick a stand out track from that album as even listening now every track still sounds great but if I had to pick just one, then it would be the one posted, I just love everything about it.

The SLF version can be found on the b-side to Just Fade Away, another track which still sounds great, or you could splash out and get All The Best, every one a classic, well apart from 3 or 4 which I never really got into.

Specials - Doesn't Make It Alright

Back To Belfast

I'm off to Belfast for a couple of days with work. So not a great deal going on here again this week.

Stiff Little Fingers - Doesn't Make It Alright

Hanx!

My love of Stiff Little Fingers goes back to 1979, when I bought the single Alternative Ulster from a stall at Wishaw market. I bought it as much for the cover, showing a boy shouting as he hung over a wall with a British soldier crouching below him, as I did for the music. I was aware of the track as my cousin Kevin ( I shit you not) played it all the time. By the time I bought it, the single would have been about a year old and was the second record I ever bought.

The following year we moved to the town where I still reside and started a new school. On the first day of term the boy in front asked me what music I liked. When I told him that I liked Motorhead he laughed but when I also said I was into SLF he smiled and we have been friends ever since not withstanding the odd fall out concerning a member of the fairer sex.

Over the years there have been many debates between the two of us over the merits of certain SLF releases, Listen and Silver Lining being prime examples. The main disagreement, however came when the band re-formed and did the "No Sleep 'til Belfast" tour. S wanted to, and indeed did go and see them but I refused saying that there was no way that I was going to see a "cabaret band".

For years on and off S would suggest going to see them at the Barrowlands on their annual St. Patricks night gig but I would always have a reason not to go until last year when I relented and said ok. It was to be their seventeenth year on the bounce.

I really didn't know what to expect but I had built up this picture in my mind of a band living on past glories and just going through the motions.

The sense of foreboding increased on entering the Barrowlands Ballroom and being confronted by the site of hundreds of forty plus year old punks in bondage trousers etc.

Pete Docherty once sang "there are fewer more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap", well there is Pete, a middle age Scots man with a mohican, a face covered in spiders web tattoos and a swastika t-shirt.

The support act were a Clash tribute band, the less said about the better.

By the time SLF came on I was ready to go home, the support had been shit and the air of malevolence in the hall was palpable. But from the opening chords of Tin Soldiers and simultaneous volley of pints fired from the back of the hall I was hooked and have to admit that it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to in my life. I'm not sure if I was caught up in the nostalgia of the whole thing but hearing singles Suspect Device and Nobody's Heroes live for the first time after all those years was quite special and there was more than one hair standing up on the back of my neck moment.

Did I have a good time? Yes.

Would I go back again? I have thought long and hard about this, no.

Would I recommend it to anyone else? Definitely.

So, happy St Patrick's night to all. SLF will be at the Barrowlands for the 18th year in a row.

The following tracks were recorded in 2006 at the Barras and can be purchased here.

SLF - Doesn't Make It Alright

SLF - Suspect Device

SLF - Silver Lining

A Break In Transmission

There will be no opinionated rubbish spouted from me for the next few days as I'm off across the water with work for one of my frequent visits to Belfast.

Normal service will resume on Friday.

Until then the finest export from Belfast with a live version recorded at the Glasgow Barrowlands (more of which in the next couple of weeks) of the second single I ever bought. Predictable but what the hell it is an amazing track

Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster

and even more obvious

Orbital - Belfast