What's That All About?

Can't believe I've never posted this song before.

One of the most bombastic songs this side of The Story Of The Blues, You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve may not be the catchiest title in the world but it does make you stop wonder what the fuck they are going on about.

This was the second and as far as I know the last single by Johnny Boy and it is absolutely brilliant.

Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve.

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

From the outset the label title said it all "Soma Quality Recordings".

If anybody can find me another independant label as ground breaking and with such consistently high quality over the past twenty years (Warp is a given) I would like to know.

Prior to the release of SOMA-1, Slam were already know as the best dj double act this side of the border starting with their Black Market nights at Fury Murrys then their Atlantis nights at the Sub Club and one offs at the Barrowlands and Strathy Park. The year after they launched Soma records saw them take up occupation of  the Arches in Glasgow which produced some of the best nights that I have ever been to with guest spots from the cream of the world wide djing fraternity.

But coming back to the music, the term "classic" is bandied about far too much these days not least by me but I think that this is a bona fide classic. When thought of now through the haze of too many years, you think that it is very much of it's time but back in 1991 Slam were well ahead of the pack when they released Eterna.

Have a good weekend people.

Slam - Eterna

Duke Special

I don't really have a lot to say about Duke Special. I bought the album Songs From The Deep Forest out of curiosity. I had heard a bit about Peter Wilson's songwriting and unconventional orchestration, his percussionist uses cheese graters, egg whisks and the like but up until buying the cd I had never actually heard him.

So one day while wandering around Fopp and with nothing else catching my eye I decided to take a punt on the album and was quite happy with the result. Although to be honest after playing it quite a few times in the first couple of weeks, it was filed away and has rarely seen the tray of the cd player. However I have never had to fast forward any of the tracks when they have come up on random on the mobile jukebox.

Last Night I Nearly Died is the standout track from the album for me but from the first play I have always thought that it was vaguely familiar especially the start but have never been able to pinpoint what it reminds me of.

Duke Special - Last Night I Nearly Died

It Really Hurts Me Girl

One of the best northern tunes ever and one which helped usher in the new sounds and styles being championed by Ian Levine. When it was first aired at the Mecca in 1974 it was practically a current sound as it had been released and bombed in the US the following year.

There is a village about 6 miles from Lanark called Carstairs and have often wondered why a group would take it's name from a place know for having the State Mental Hospital/Penitentiary and a railway station where the train from London splits in two one half heading west to Glasgow the other half going to the east and the capital.

The Carstairs - It Really Hurts Me Girl

Brian Jonestown Massacre

I don't really know that much about the Brian Jonestown Massacre, other than Anton Newcombe seems to be a bit of a fuck wit and is probably second only to Liam Gallagher with his fixation of all things 60s.

I bought my first cd, the compilation Tepid Peppermint Wonderland on the strength of the band's name, I figured with a name that good they must be alright which for a change turned out to be true. Unlike when I applied the same criteria to Ten Benson, sorry guys good name bloody awful band. Anyway I have a few albums by the Brian Jonestown Massacre none of which are without merit  even though the band wear their influences on their sleeves as well as in their name.

Here is one of my favourite tracks from the band. If you like what you hear you would be as well starting with the Tepid Peppermint Wonderland compilation.

Nothing here until Wednesday as I'm down in Luton 'til then, joy of joys!

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Anenome

Once we get out of the eighties, the nineties are going to make the sixties look like the fifties

"It takes more than going down your local video store and renting Easy Rider to be a rebel" the words of Huey Walker as played by the legend that is Dennis Hopper in the 1989 film Flashback which I watched for the first time in many years last night. Shit, it was either that or the cack factor.

Thanks must be given to C who down loaded it from one of his snidey websites for me after hearing me complain once too often about the price of the DVD on Amazon and being out bid every time on ebay.

If you have never seen the film, find a snidey website and download it, it is well worth a watch. Dennis Hopper is great as the ageing hippy rebel and Keifer Sutherland is very good as an FBI agent that isn't Jack Bauer.  the film gently pokes fun at the hippie ideals of the 60s but also has something to say about American society in the late 80s.

I was smiling all the through remembering the last time I watched this film was with a group of great friends, one weekend  the summer of  about 1991 when G, the lounge lizard,  was house sitting for a friend. We had about half an ounce of good squidgy black and the house had rather a good wine cellar. We spent the weekend watching films like Flashback, Two-Lane Black Top and Easy Rider while ripped on good black and drunk on very good claret.

At the end of the weekend the house was in no worse a state than it had been at the start, however G was never asked to house sit again as the main reason he was there was so that no one burgled the wine cellar.  Unfortunately due to G knowing a bit about wine we had tanned quite a few of the good bottles and therefore the owners thought that they would run the risk in future of being robbed rather than have the house sitter reap the benefits of their cellar.

Here is a track not from Flashback, but a cover of a track from Easy Rider that whenever it comes on transports me back to that weekend and puts a huge grin on my coupon.

Kathryn Williams - The Ballad of Easy Rider.

Peel Sessions

While loitering with intent at the Bagging Area checking out the latest excellent instalment of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night I remembered that a good while ago I promised to post the Cramps Peel session if I ever got my hands on it.

To be honest it wasn't that difficult getting hold of the session but it was certainly worth while. Although the session versions of two of the tracks from  1986's  Big Beat release, A Date With Elvis aren't earth shatteringly different from the versions on the album they are great examples of a band who were unique and consistently on form. The session recorded on 23/12/1985 differs from most Peel sessions in that it was not recorded at Maida Vale but at Ocean Way Recording Studios, Hollywood. It was first broadcast on 10/02/1986.

The Cramps -What's Inside A Girl?

The Cramps - Cornfed Dames

The Cramps - Give Me A Woman

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

If I were asked to pick my favourite time period in modern dance music, it would be a tough decision but I think that the period from 1991 to the end of 1993 and the genre of Progressive House would win out.  The sounds emanating from labels like Guerilla, Cowboy and Hard Hands. and from producers David Holmes, Andrew Weatherall, William Orbit and a whole host of others who produced one of belters of tracks, were in my opinion the best things that ever happened in dance music.

One of the main factors which endeared this type of dance to me as opposed to the breakbeat or Rave stuff synonymous with this time was the length and depth of the tracks. Most progressive house tracks, like progressive rock I suppose clocked in at over seven minutes and for me the longer the better, ten to 11 minutes was just about the right time for me to get totally immersed in the sounds.

Journalist and musician Kris Needs was another who got caught up in the progressive house vibe producing some great 12" singles released on the Sabres of Paradise, Hard Hands and latterly Deconstruction label with vocalist Wonder Schneider under the monikers of Secret Knowledge and Delta Lady.

Posted is the first Delta Lady single released in 1993 on Hard Hands.

Have a good weekend people.

Delta Lady - Anything You Want (The Delta Belter Vocal Symphony)

7 Heures du Matin

Mr H over at The Ghost of Electricity has posted a lovely piece of 60s Gallic pop. Seeing as there is not enough of this genre of music floating around our small bit of the interweb here is my contribution.

I did have this in the French but it looks as though I have deleted it in one of my database purges so you will have to do with the English.

Jacqueline Taieb - 7 a.m.

Comin' Home Baby

When you think of girl groups, the eighties isn't the decade that would spring up in most people's minds but one of my favourites were active during the second half of that decade.

The Delmonas started off as the Milkboilers backing singers for Billy Childish's band the Milkshakes. The girls released a couple of ep's of mainly cover versions at the tail end of 1984 and their debut lp,  Dangerous Charms in 1985 which is well worth getting your hands on if possible, it also contains all of the tracks on the eps. A further 3 albums followed but nothing since 1989.

The track posted is the lead track from the first ep, a cracking cover version of a track which was first a hit for Mel Torme way back in 1962.

Apparently a Delmona is a decorative handbag favoured by the women of the Klaipeda region of Lithuania.

The Delmonas - I'm Comin' Home Baby

Straight Outta Africa

Continuing with the hip-hop.

Zimbabwe Legit were two brothers, Akin and Dumi from the land of Mugabe who went to study in the US who caught the attention of hip-hop visionary Dave Funkenklein with a demo that they had produced . Funkenklein took the brothers to Holloywood to record for the label he was running, Hollywood BASIC.

The resulting ep garnered a lot of positive reviews from the music press but due to a lack of promtional budget and stock not reaching stores the record flopped.

Zimbabwe Legit should have been huge what with their def rhymes, humour and extensive knowledge of rap history. Also at this time their was an Afrocentric focus in the rap world which should have embraced the rappers who were the real deal. But due to some bad breaks they never became widely known. Their champion, Funkenklein died of cancer in 1994 and other people were assigned to running the label who didn't have a clue about the music or how to market the brothers, leading to the demise of the label and the end
of their career.

The track posted was a retrospective single released in 2006 and was also a track found on the first ep released by the brothers. It can also be found on the album Brothers From The Mother which collects all of their recordings and is also memorable for having the first production by Josh Davis (aka DJ Shadow) on it.

Zimbabwe Legit - Rhymin' Wit The African Symphony.

Big Mama

I was thinking at the weekend and not fo the first time that very little rap and hip hop has been thown out across the kitchen table in the two and a half years I have been writing this drivel and coming across as a "typical scot". Which is quite strange as I like my hip hip, granted not a great deal from the late nineties onwards but the earlier stuff, the less gansta flows.

So to start to redress the balance a little, here is my favourite female MC and she is rather vexed with a few people. Not the sort of lady you would take home a burst pay packet to I suspect.

Roxanne Shante - Big Mama

Makes You Proud To Be Scottish, By The Way

From an article in the Sunday Herald.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan of the Vioence Reduction Unit, Strathclyde Police, when asked if the riots could happen in Glasgow:-

"We have all the same factors of deprivation and unemployment here and we have them in spades. But it seems to me that the gangs that Cameron described were criminal gangs with hierarchical structure and there was criminality in those gangs and guarding their turf. Our gangs are not like that. In Glasgow we coined the phrase 'recreational violence'. Fighting wasn't a means to an end, it was just recreational violence. Maybe our guys couldn't be bothered with rioting:they're happy to be having a drink and a fight. So I think the nature of the gangs is one of the key differences."

In other words up here we're too busy drinking tonic and chibbing each other to be arsed rioting. Makes you proud doesn't it?

Upsetters - No Peace dub

"If You're Gonna Play It Out Of Tune, Play It Out Of Tune Properly" pt 8

Right, I think that Ctel has had a long enough respite from the joyous racket that is The Fall, the greatest band in the world!

Time to get back to the series that introduces you to the delights of  Mark E Smith and the gruppe's interpretations of other peoples tunes. No Mr H, not Crawfish, to my knowledge the band have never covered this, sadly.

Today's post finds the Fall covering Beatle Bones 'N' Smokin' Stones,  a Captain Beefheart song for their twentieth Peel session broadcast 0n 18/08 96. The original was included on the 1968 album Strictly Blue.

Enjoy

The Fall - Beatle Bones 'N' Broken Stones

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Beatle Bones & Broken Stones.

Crawfish

When I was a kid and to this day I have taken a pretty dim view of my brother's choice in music, it's pish. He has a Boyzone cd for christ's sake!

As  a teenager I used to dream about going in and taking a 50 pence piece to his Chris De Burgh collection, If I had to to endure Patricia The Stripper or A (fucking) Spaceman Came Travelling through the Gyprock and Anaglypta once I must have heard them a thousand times. I never carried out the vandalism I thought about but the little git did do the very same thing to my Crass, Christ The Album which I only realised years later as it is not the sort of album that anybody in their right mind would play on a regular basis.

Anyway, another of my brother's favourites from a very young age was Elvis and as somebody trying to live up to the ideals of punk all I had was disdain for the man in rhinestones and sideboards that were a mile out. I remember every time an Elvis Presley film came on the telly we had to watch it.  It was usually a bank holiday weekend or Boxing day that these delights were shown on the telly in the 70s and there was always something better on STV, like Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger but we had to bloody watch Elvis. I fucking hated these films, even then I knew that the acting was crap, the stories were all the same,  Elvis sees girl, Elvis gets girl, Elvis pisses girl off but at the end always ends up with girl again, oh and Elvis sings a lot of shitty songs.

But there was one song from one film that always stuck in my mind as it wasn't shitty and Elvis didn't look like a twat when he sang it but looked like probably the coolest pesron I had ever seen in my life and was singing one of the most amazing, if brief songs that I had ever heard. Although being a self respecting punk and metal fan it was more than my life was worth to admit to liking this or anything by the King.

Years later, I realised just what I had been missing with my embargo in Presley's music when a friend gave me a loan of his copy of The Sun Sessions albums and I listened without prejudice to the boy from Tupelo.

However I still can not watch GI Blues and every time I hear Wooden Heart (my brother used to play it repeatedly) I want to set fire to wooden toys.

So here is mine and Joe Strummer's favourite Elvis tune, with more than a little help from Kitty White.

E P - Crawfish

And here is the scene from the film

Sturdy Girl Drinks Again

I think that we could all do with a couple of drinks after the events of the past week.

George Thorogood - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Well that was a bastard of a first week back at work! 

Although what I had to endure is nothing compaired to the people in those communities where all of that misplaced anger, aggression and down right fucking criminal behaviour came to the fore this week, I am still glad it's Friday and the weekend is nearly upon us.

I need something positve and upbeat to end the week and this track popped into my head during the week. Well actually while sitting at Aldergrove on Tuesday night waiting for another late plane and reading the Guardian the cover of London Hooligan Soul by the Ballistic Brothers came to mind and from there it wasn't much of a leap to this, which I think is the best thing that Rocky, Diesel and Ashley have ever recorded.

Have a peaceful weekend people.

The Ballistic Brothers - A Love Supreme

She Blew A Good Thing

I think that a little more soul is the order of the day and one of the songs responsible for my obsession with northern soul.

She Blew A Good Thing was released in 1966 on the Symbol label and very nearly troubled the US charts, it was released on Decca over here as The American Poets, as there was already a band called the Poets here.

To some this may just be another soul track about a boy losing his girl. But for me the track exudes class,  from the cool lead vocal from Ronnie Lewis, the immaculate harmonies to the unfussy subtle backing track.  One of those tracks that still give me goosebumps although I must have played it a thousand times, well a couple of hundred at least.

The Poets - She Blew A Good Thing

Candy And The Kisses

How about a bit of northern?

Sisters Candy and Suzanne Nelson along with Jeanette Johnson from Port Richmond NY are probably best remembered for the Cameo-Parkway released single The 81 in 1964 which has a typical upbeat girl-group sound of the times. They also produced a version of Mr Creator a track much loved in northern circles in the version cut by the Apollas.

Are You Trying To Get Rid of Me Baby has a more moody feel to it than their other releases and is probably my favourite track by the trio. Written by Ashford, Simpson & Armstead it was later released on 45 by the Crystals after their association with Phil Spector had ended.

Candy And The Kisses - Are You Trying To Get Rid Of Me Baby

New Music - Will Hanson

This popped into my in-box a few weeks ago when I was at Latitude and I have been meaning to post it ever since.

It is the new single by Will Hanson. It was actually released last Monday on Chemikal Underground as a taster for his album which will be released on the 22nd of August. Although released on the Glasgow label, Hanson was born and bred in London and that is about all I know about him.

This is the sort of music that words like gothic and brooding were meant to describe. I love this and not just because I'm in a very dark place at the moment as BA decided to cancel my flight home last night meaning that I had to kick about City Airport for a couple of more hours than should have been necessary.

  Deathbed Conversion by Will Hanson

Back To The Daily Grind

Well that's the holidays over for another year back to work with a bang today as I have to fly down to London for a meeting at The Royal Brompton. Why did I agree to this I asked myself yesterday and remembered that I wasn't given a choice in the matter.

Here is the first track from the pure dead brilliant first album from Kid Canaveral, Shouting At Wildlife which has just been re-released on glorious vinyl which comes with the cd as part of the deal on Fence records. Up your well-being/happiness index ten fold by buying the album here, you know it makes sense.

Posts may be a bit sporadic this week as I endevour to transcribe all my notes from working without a laptop for the week before going on holiday due to incompetent couriers who couldn't find their arses from their elbow.

Kid Canaveral - Good Morning

Smiles In The Sunshine And Tears In The Rain

Right! we're off for part three of our summer vacances. This time a bit closer to home, Machrihanish,  probably less than a hundred miles as the crowflies but 169 miles and four and a half hours by road and we won't be detouring across the isle of Arran this time.

The week will either be spent on the beach playing football and building sandcastles and being eaten alive at night by midges or sitting in the caravan playing Connect 4 and impersonating Kofi Annan while Max and Leo try to batter lumps out of each other due to extreme boredom. Still I have a Brookmyre to finish and then Karl Marlentes Matterhorn to try and tackle.

As I am a lazy git and have been away much of this last week,  I have had no chance to do any posts not even a Friday dance one you will be glad to read, so nothing to see or hear here until either next Saturday or Sunday. We will not be coming home early this time I hope!

I will leave you with a track from a track from a tour only ep by Frightend Rabbit which features the dulcet tones of Tracyanne Campbell. I have been meaning to post acouple of early Camera Obscura tracks for a while now but just haven't gotten round to it.

Frightened Rabbit - Fuck This Place

It's Friday . . . Let's Dance

Back to 1992 for a bit of Garage, House, Tribal House? Whatever you want to call it . The mix of the track posted is by Slam but not the kind of tune that you would naturally associate with the Glasgow producers, what with the gosple style vocals and the almost JBO baseline. If I didn't know better I would have said that this was a Farley/Heller mix from around this time.

The track was released on the Stress label with mixes by Brothers In Rhythm which are not bad but not nearly as good as the Slam one.

Have a good weekend people.

Voices of 6th Avenue - Call Him Up (Slam mix)

London Bridge/End Of An Era

Here is the first single from 2004 from the band Dogs much tipped by the Modfather himself but who alas never set the heather on fire.

The band have produced two very good albums which are certainly worth a listen. I have to admit that I prefer the debut which has more energy and is a steal at under two quid here. I first became aware of the band when they supported the Raveonettes at about the time of the first single. They are great live, very loud, full of energy and in Johnny Cook have a very charismatic frontman.

The band  are still going and have a mini album available for free download here. It's a pity that Dogs haven't came to the attention of more people in these days of pretty bland indie guitar bands. I think that this lot have a bit more to offer.

Dogs - London Bridge

Dogs - End Of An Era

Happy Birthday L

This one's for you doll.

The Killers - Mr Brightside

Because Of You

I don't know about you but I feel rather depressed at the moment.

It appears that humanity isn't in that great shape at the moment what with that fuck wit in Norway, famine in East Africa, the crisis in the world economy about to raise it's ugly head again, I could go on but the black dog in the room is getting closer as I type.

What I need and you possibly is some up beat soul music. I'm not being flippant, I know that a bit of northern ain't going to set the world to rights but it sure as hell can't make it any worse. So here, in my view is the finest piece of northern soul ever produced by another artist taken well before his time. This track never fails to make me smile, want to shimmy around the floor and indulge in some out of time handclaps ( Colin - you twee indie types don't have the monopoly on them).

So even if it's just for the three minutes nineteen seconds of this tune be happy and revel in the majesty that is Jackie Wilson.

Jackie Wilson - Because Of You

Catch The Breeze

Shall we get the week off to a nice, gentle soft focus kind of start with a gorgeous tune which was the third and final single for Creation records from the much maligned Slowdive who got the brunt of the backlash against what was derogatorily termed "shoegaze".

Although by this time, 1991 I had mostly turned my back on indie music made by bands with real instruments in favour of indie music made by producers and machines I still bought this single and Just For A Day the album from which it was lifted. It probably wasn't until the early noughties that I really listened to it in full and realised the the joys I had been missing.

Slowdive - Catch The Breeze

Amy Winehouse

So terribly sad and such a bloody waste!

Rest easy Amy.

Amy Winehouse - To Know Him IS To Love Him (link removed due to DMCA takedown)

Let Me Tell You About My Mother

I tried to watch Blade Runner last night but did the usual on a Friday night and fell a sleep ten minutes into it. I am not going to discuss the merits of the different versions but I still prefer the original with the voice over but that's by the by.

Last Monday after the disastrous weekend we decided to go up the West End to cheer us up and inevitably I ended up in Oxfam Music and came out with a rather good haul, admittedly, two were pieces of vinyl that I already had but I certainly wasn't going to knock back pristine copies of Dot Alison's first album and the Arab Strap remix of David Holmes' Don't Die Just Yet.  Also included in picks was a copy of F1-11 by Sigue Sigue Sputnik which contains loads of snippets of dialogue from Blade Runner.

I have to admit at the time I baulked at this single, thought that it was a load of pish and as for the band I couldn't stand either Generation X or Lords Of The New Church and what about the dress sense, fucking awful if you ask me.

But over the years I've grown to like the track, really like the energy of it and the samples and it's not a million miles away from what the Age of Chance were doing but AoC were miles better, of course. So when I got a chance of getting the 12" single for 50p there was no conundrum.

Still think that they looked bloody ridiculous though.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik - F1-11 Love Missile (Extended mix)

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

Let's have some early house courtesy of Boy's Own. I think that a few people will find this sound rather dated these days but it still sounds good to me.

How Do You See Me Now was first released in the US on A&R records in 1990 and then remixed and released on Easy Street Records the following year when the track was then again remixed by Joey Negro and released in the US as the eighth release on Boy's Own.

During the early nineties Joey Negro was rather prolific as a remixer, mixing everything from Adeva to DJ Jazzy Jeff. He also produced his own tracks under numerous aliases as Mistura, Headboys, Akuba and a myriad of others. But he is probably best known for his release American Dream as Jakatta.

Have a good weekend people.

Extortion  - How Do You See Me Now? (Joey Negro's remix)

Spells and Incantations

Here is a rather magical piece of soul from Johnny Otis'  Hawk Sounds label.

This was originally released in 1972 but was repressed as a split single with Vera Hamilton's But I Ain't No More on the flip to promote the Watts Funky compilation of stuff by Johnny Otis, son Shuggie and associates, well worth trying to get your hands on if you like funk and soul.

Debbie Lyndsey - Spells & Incantations

Little Girl

Enough of my moaning back to the music.

Here is a belter of a R&b track loved by Mods everywhere.

Sugar Boy Williams - Little Girl

It's Official, Drew Is A Wendy Pt3

. . . and then the rain fell!

It started just after 4 am and continued all day, well at least until 2 pm when we eventually got everything to the car and fucked off up the road.

As someone from the west of Scotland I am quite familiar with rain and it doesn't really bother me that much but the difference is that I don't tend to go out in it when it's lashing down in biblical proportions let alone intend to spend the day standing in a muddy field watching bands and getting soaked to the skin. So I made the executive decision to go home L reluctantly agreed but Max was more than a little pissed off.

I would like to tell you that the reason was because Max was still not 100%, although he wasn't that wasn't why we came home. To be honest I could not face the prospect of spending the next couple of days soaked to the skin and miserable and so I will admit that I am a wendy and like my creature comforts.  Being inexperienced in the festival lark we had not really packed suitable clothes as nobody had told us that Glasgow Fair weekend was also monsoon season in the South East of England. I also had concerns about getting the car out of a field after another couple of days.
 
The real pity is that Friday had been so good and we were all looking forward to the weekend. I think that we will give it another go next year depending on the line up.  When we will be better prepared but I still will not be wearing wellies, especially not those Hunter things that were in abundance not just on the Saturday but also in the glorious sunshine on the Friday, what the fuck is that all about?

Thom Yorke - And It Rained All Night (Burial mix)

No pictures of the rain as by the time I decided to take some the camera had gone on the blink as it had gotten soaked in my pocket.

It's Official, Drew Is A Wendy pt 2

I awoke early on the Friday morning, around 06:00 struggled out of the orange coloured condom described as a sleeping bag and opened the tent to glorious sunshine which immediately put me in a good mood. It was now time to check out the amenities so I went for a wander around our part of the site bought a couple of bacon rolls, a tea and a coffee,  nearly had a heart attack when the guy behind the counter asked for fourteen quid. I know, I have just reinforced another racial stereotype but fourteen quid is fucking steep and no bloody butter on the rolls!

After rallying the rest of the troops it was time to take a gander at the festival site itself, which is really quite impressive once you go down through the woods and across the lake. First stop was the children's area for fun on the helter skelter and carousel,  finding out all about bees and honey and chilling out with Leo in the toddlers chill out area which was magic and then it was time for lunch and a meander up to the Obelisk arena to catch another emotional set by the ever improving Edwyn Collins and a backing band that are absolutely brilliant.

It was decided that we would remain camped where we were for the remainder of the afternoon to witness a great performance by Wanda Jackson who still knows how to have a party, even after finding god. I was not so impressed by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan who I thought gave a rather lacklustre performance which could have had a lot to do with the fact they were on the main stage when their music really needs a more intimate venue. Although some banter with the crowd, well acknowledging that they exist for a start may help. When I went back to where L and Max were, Max said to me "that man (Lanegan) scares me dad"  and I suspect that Max isn't the first person to feel that when in Lanegan's presence.

L and Leo decided to stay where they were to take in KT Tunstall who was attracting quite a crowd. Max and I wandered over to catch Deerhunter at the Word Arena, who were on blistering form I thought and who in Max's opinion were "not bad". However I still don't get the Fall influence which is repeatedly mentioned in the music press.

Then it was time to re-group for some dinner after which L decided to take the boys back to the tent to get changed as by this time Leo was filthy and stripped down to his simmit.

This allowed me to watch Bright Eyes on my own.  Oberst and Co were very good but a good deal heavier than the last time that I caught them live, which granted was a few years ago and I was also surprised at how easily Conor Oberst has taken to rock star posturing. The version of Gillian Welch's Wreaking Ball was particularly note worthy especially with the guest vocals from Jenny & Jonny who were playing the Lake Stage later. By the time Bright Eyes had finished with a rousing version of Road to Joy the family were back and it was time to head over to the Word Arena yet again to see the most anticipated band of the weekend by half of the family at least.

"When are they on?" was the question Max interspersed the last 20 minutes of Lyle Lovett's set with at regular intervals and looking around he wasn't the only one waiting in anticipation as the tent quickly filled up with lots of teenagers and younger children with their parents, so much so that when The Vaccinnes eventually took to the stage they were not greeted with a roar so much as a high pitched scream. The band proceeded to play their whole album pretty much in order. Max had the time of his life.

Are the Vaccines the saviours of indie rock? Not especially. To me they are not that far away from the Pigeon Detectives with the sing along choruses and songs of teenage exploits, the Pigeon Detectives were also very entertaining live. But looking around the tent everybody and I do mean everybody seemed to be loving it. Even an old cynic like me at that moment didn't care how derivative they were or the fact that there are virtually no lyrics to their songs,  it was just life affirming to see so many people having so much fun listening to music with not a posturing scenster in sight or maybe I just had too many over priced pints of Magners.

We had one more stop to make on the way back to the campsite and that was to possibly the coolest stage at Latitude. Tucked away in the trees at the side of the lake was the Sunrise arena which due to the fact that the sun was down and the area was illuminated by over sized fairy lights took on a really intimate and quite magical feel.

We were there to witness for me what was the highlight of the day, Cat's Eyes. I was curious to see them live as I had bought the album on the strength of all the good reviews that it had received but had hardly given it a listen. From the first notes I just knew that they were going to be good, and not being that familiar with the album I cannot tell you what they played but they did cover an old psych song I had on a compilation tape years ago but which I can't remember the name of but has lyrics about black cat's and the like.As I watched the band L sat and relaxed, Max ran about the woods and Leo slept.

Once they had finished it was back up to the campsite passing those on there way back down for the late night revelry and thinking about what Saturday would bring as Friday had been so good.

Cat's Eyes - Over You

It's Official, Drew Is A Wendy pt 1

We went, saw and fucked off kinda sharpish.

Those of you who have been foolish enough to keep up with events at, around, across or miles away from the kitchen table will be well aware of the dramas that revolve around me and my family getting in the car and deciding to go away on anything that could be losely termed as a break.

The journey down to Suffolk was uneventful but on arriving at Latitude it didn't bode well that the road into the field where the cars were parked was deeply rutted and extremely slippery due to the eighteen hours of rain that the area had had up until this point.

After getting some of our gear out of the car it took us about an hour to find the Tangerine Fields where our fully assembled tent awaited us. We had a pizza, a couple of beers and then I went back to the car park to get the rest of our stuff. By this time quite a few (several hundred) other cars had arrived and it was dark.

So . . .

after about an hour's searching I eventually found my car got the rest of our shit and trapsed back the couple of miles to where our tent was to find two children still up to high doe (on cloud nine) and a remarkably chilled wife.

And so to bed and good thoughts of the weekend to come.

Bright Eyes -Nothing Gets Crossed Out

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

There is a distinct lack of dance music at Latitude, something that I hadn't really noticed until recently, so there's not really anything relevant to the festival to post, so how about a bit of Belgian Neu beat from 1989, courtesy of Frank De Wulf?

I remember the first time I heard this, it was when a local meat market (Foxes) decided it would have an acid house night,  on a bloody Sunday night. I hated the track but over the years I have come to quite like it which may be to do with nostalgia. I suspect I will be in the minority.

Have a good weekend people

Rhythm Device - Acid Rock

Latitiude, We're On Our Way

By the time you are reading this the car will have been packed, possibly a fair bit of niggling will have gone on and we will eventually be on our way down to deepest Suffolk, an eight hour drive at least, the joys!

We will be out of Lanark for,  at the most twenty minutes before Max first asks "Are We There Yet?" and probably another ten before he states "I'm burstin' you will need to stop so I can do a pee".

And so it will go for the duration. Still some good bands and artists await us over the weekend.

I am not the only person that has been derogatory about festivals in the past, here is Edwyn Collins with his take on festival going. I wonder if this will be on the set list for Friday?

Edwyn Collins - The Campaign For Real Rock

Latitude Is A Goer, Yipee

Max has been given the all clear and we are now definitely heading for Latitude tomorrow.

I am curious to see if the Queen of Rockabilly will be able to scream at the age of 73 as she did when she was 23 when Let's Have a Party was recorded.

Wanda Jackson - Let's Have A Party

Although she still sounds in good voice on this single from last year, however I not sure that Wanda will have a scooby what a Stella is.

Wanda Jackson - You Know I'm No Good

One Day To Go

So we will find out later on if we will be able to go to Latitude or not. I have been looking at the line-up again and there are so many things that I want to see that there is no way I will be able to see everything.

One act I will certainly not be missing is Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, I have had the pleasure of seeing them on quite a few occassion now and i have yet to be disappionted, so fingers crossed I will get to see and hear them again on Friday.

The track featured is from their first collaboration on Campbell's 2004 ep Time Is Just The Same.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Why Does My Head Hurt So?

Tune Of The Summer

I thought I had the tune to accompany my summer when I first heard Jamie xx's single Far Nearer released on the Glasgow based Numbers label earlier this year what with the steel drums and overall happy vibe it was almost perfect. That was until I heard Natalie's Song by Zomby.

It was released in May on 4AD as a single sided 10 inch single with no expense spared on the packaging as the single is laser etched on one side, housed within a weird 3-D inner sleeve and a matt black outer sleeve which is virtually impossible to open without damaging.

The track is just beautiful, it has a bit of a Burial feel about it and samples a Russian pop song by Irina Dubtzova, the winner of  Star Factory, Russia's equivalent of the X-Factor apparently. It is also present on Zomby's second album which was released last week and by all accounts is well worth purchasing.

Will be there or there abouts when it comes to tunes of the year.

Zomby - Natalie's Song

Two Days To Go

Not long now, although there is a better than 50% chance that we will no longer be able to go to Latitude for reasons I will not go into at the moment, we will find out for sure tomorrow.

A couple of months ago I heard this track on Radio 6 and went out and bought the single. I haven't made any attempt to hear anymore from them as I knew that they were playing Latitude and would catch them there.

The Naked And The Famous - Girls Like You

Three Days To Go

Since watching the Glastonbury coverage on the BBC the other week Max has been getting increasingly excited which has only been curbed slightly by the realisation that Tinie Tempah will not be in attendance.

His other favourite band of the moment, the Vaccines will be playing on the Friday night, so I reckon that he and his mother will be going to the Word arena to see a band that I have conflicting feelings about, I really like the album but the band just look a little bit too perfect for me.

The Vaccines - If You Wanna (Live From London)

Count Down To Latitude

On the drive home from a gig at the tail end of last year Stiff and I were discussing festivals as he has attended Belladrum for the past few years. "you'd hate festivals Drew, short sets people talking all the way through the performances and lack of decent toilet facilities". To which I agreed wholeheartedly as it had been years since I had gone to T In The Park and even then I never camped.

So why in March did I decide that we were all going to Latitude this year? I'm not sure and I have been asking myself this question frequently over the past couple of months. I hate camping but from Thursday to Monday next week I will be living under canvas using communal washing facilities and toilets which most people who know me find rather amusing.

Anyway, Max and L are right up for it and I'm sure the little one who regularly turns our living room and top hall into a scene reminiscent of those pictures you see of the Glastonbury campsite on the Monday after the weekend will have a ball.

I thought that I would feature some of the bands that L, Max and I are looking forward to catching next weekend.

First up is Paulo Nutini who L has been looking forward to ever since we booked the tickets and more so after she saw him on the BBC's coverage of Glastonbury. I have to admit that I hadn't given the 24 year old from Paisley much attention until recently but what I have heard isn't too offensive and the track posted is actually rather good.

Paolo Nutini - Coming Up Easy

Touched By The Hand of God X

I haven't posted anything by or remixed by Weatherall for a while and have been wanting to post this track but held off as Ctel over at Acid Ted had a week of his favourite Weatherall mixes a couple of weeks back and I thought that O Je Suis Seul may have featured.

I wish that I could say that I bought the single when it was first released in 1990 but it was a couple of years later that it came into my possession when I saw a copy of it Fopp on Byres Road. The only reason I noticed it to be honest was the words remixed by Andrew Weatherall on the cover, I had never heard it before but it was a no brainer as this was the time that Weatherall could do no wrong and hadn't with this it is a lovely throbbing track with the added bonus of a Natasha Kinski sample which he would use again on one of the tracks on Screamadelica.

I don't know much about The West India Company apart from Asha Bhosle, Neil Arthur and Vince Clarke were members.

The West India Company - O Je Suis Seul (Bagwan Boogie mix)

It's Friday . . Let's Dance part 2

Oh and by the way Zane Lowe, you are a cock.

The Honey Makin' The Money - Work It Out (Blow Your Horn dub)

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

I'm not sure how today's track will go down. The Weller purists will probably not like it but for me this is ten times better than his original and probably the Fire Island radio edit is how Weller imagined the track sounding.

Fire Island's cover of Shout To The Top featuring the immense vocal talents of the recently departed Loleatta Holloway was released on Junior Boys Own way back in 1998. It came with a myriad of remixes by Frankie Knuckles, Club 69 and Industry Standard but for me the as mentioned above Fire Island mix is the one that hits the spot best and sounded brilliant last evening as the sun was shining up here.

Have a good weekend people

Fire Island feat. Loleatta Holloway - Shout To The Top (Fire Island Radio edit)

New(ish) Music

I purchased this remix of a couple of Photek tracks a few weeks back and have been meaning to post one of the tracks from it.

A while ago I featured Rupert Parkes' absolutely brilliant 1995 single UFO. Here we have Addison Groove's bang up to date take on the track where he turns it into a banging piece of real techno which retains the feel of the original but is a different beast entirely.

Nice!

Photeck - UFO (Addison Groove's Almost Headhunter remix)

Twat

While sitting at Glasgow airport at stupid o'clock yesterday morning waiting to board the orange airline flight to Standsted I happened to overhear two corporate suits talking, I say overhear but I'm sure that they wanted everybody at the gate to hear their conversation. This bit of poetry popped into my head.

I'm not at my best in the middle of the night/first thing in the morning.

John Cooper Clarke - Twat

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Holiday over,  no major incidents to report. Back to 370 emails of which about 4 will contain vital information which I will be unaware of as I will have picked the wrong ones to read.

I need someone to give me a good boot up the arse and get me motivated.

This mash-up is so wrong it's right.

Dave Remix - Foundations Of War(head)


Oh, and SA yes us Scottish people do burn v easily. Two weeks in France last year over 35 degree heat every day, nothing. One day in Cornwall on beach bottom of legs burnt bright red!

It's Friday . . Let's Dance

A few weeks ago for the second time I posted the John Talabot remix of Shelter by The xx and moaned about the fact that it had only been released on a limited pressing of 300 in Japan! Well after a couple of weeks of checking Discogs and eBay to see if any copies would surface but alas to no avail so Friday night  couple of weeks back after just the right amount of gin I decided to contact the label in Japan and see if they had any copies left. They did and before I could talk myself out of it I bought a copy .

After just under a week the record arrived and has been a constant on the turntable ever since. Not only is the version of Shelter a belter but Greg Wilson's mix of Night Time is equally as good and is now taking over as my favourite mix of any xx tune.

Have a good weekend people.

The xx - Night Time