COMPILATION CDs (5)

Back in the days when we had a number of music weeklies in the UK, it was something of an accolade for a band if their latest recording was nominated as ‘Single Of The Week’ in either Melody Maker, NME or Sounds. Indeed, it wasn’t uncommon for some of the major labels to subsequently take out adverts in the general press boasting of such an achievement.

And such was the interest in records awarded the status, that for a short while, one major record label, RCA, thought it worthwhile to take out a license and produce an end of the year compilation entitled NME Singles of the Week. And plucked from the shelf for inspection under the TVV microscope is the offering from 1993.

I reckon this particular effort is a pretty fair reflection of the year, containing 18 songs across different musical genres, and not just a collection of indie-guitar bands that have been the staple fayre of the paper for many years.

Arrested Development : Tennessee
Belly : Gepetto (remix)
Senser : The Key
Madder Rose : Madder Rose
One Dove : White Love
Tindersticks : Marbles
Credit To The Nation : Call It What You Want
Utah Saints : Believe In Me
Swervedriver : Duel
Bjork : Venus As A Boy (edit)
Elastica : Stutter
Spiritualised : Good Times
Smashin Pumpkins : Cherub Rock
Apache Indian : Movin’ On Special
PJ Harvey : 50ft Queenie
Sugar : Tilted
Grant Lee Buffalo : America Snoring
Leftfield/Lydon : Open Up (vocal edit)

This is actually a compilation CD that even after all these years, I’m more than happy to put on and listen to all the way through. I remember when I bought this in early 1994. I was 30 years of age, and thinking to myself that my days of trying to keep up with the changing scenes in music were drawing to an end, and before long I would be drifting off to Radio 2 and live concerts where I would be insisting on a seat throughout. No more sweaty nights at the Barrowlands, no more mosh-pits, no more seeking out bands before they were famous….and no more vinyl records. Wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong again.

The changes in how we all consume music over the past thirteen and a bit years has quite a lot to do with it. The fact that I can sit at a PC and get tickets for gigs in demand rather than queue up in the cold, the growth of the internet, mp3s and downloading, the amount of video music channels on satellite TV and, above all else, the i-pod, means I have easy access to music more than ever before. Oh, and it helps that for whatever reason, I’ve a gene in my system that will not let me sit back and say ‘new music is crap and not as good as in my day’ . In other words, I’m refusing to turn into my dad……

Will I still be like that when I turn 50 in 2013? I can but hope. I have noticed however, that whereas a while back I could happily go along to three or four concerts in quick succession, I’m now knackered after two nights out in a row. So I’m reckoning I might need to be a bit more choosy in times ahead in respect of live gigs.

But I digress…..

Returning back to NME Singles of The Week 1993, I think there’s something for everyone in the compilation. The one thing I will be eternally grateful for is that it was my introduction to Tindersticks, a band that I have been slavishly devoted to ever since, and one of the few that I have specifically gone down to London for a gig…..twice in fact

And there’s a few other long-term favourites in there as well.

I’m almost tempted to make the whole CD available for downloads, but I need to try and be sensible about things. So on the basis that a normal LP plays at 33 1/3 rpm, I’ll go for 6 songs as one-third of the CD:-

mp3 : Senser - The Key
mp3 : One Dove - White Love
mp3 : Tindersticks - Marbles
mp3 : Credit To The Nation - Call It What You Want
mp3 : Grant Lee Buffalo - America Snoring
mp3 : Leftfield/Lydon - Open Up

And this will be the last posting on TVV for a couple of days. I’m off with Mrs Villain to catch The Young Knives in Glasgow this evening, and then we’re visiting some friends in Yorkshire over the weekend. The plan had been to take in a gig by The Wedding Present tomorrow night, but by the time we went to buy tickets some four weeks ago, it was sold out. And it was silly money on e-bay…..

Still, musn’t grumble……

See you all again next week.

Late Breaking News

Jacques the Kipper is over in Madrid with some of his mates for the weekend. He's just sent a text saying, and I quote, 'just met Take That.' Isn't he the lucky one......

Oh, and I've also listed another blog that's quite interesting..go visit Dusty 7s.

COMPILATION CDS (4)

Some of my favourite performers have been the subject of tribute albums, the results of which have, to put it mildly, been mixed. There was a great 1991 effort – I’m Your Fan : The Songs Of Leonard Cohen in which the likes of REM, Ian McCulloch, James, The Pixies, Nick Cave, Lloyd Cole and John Cale delivered some really special versions. But there was also Fire and Skill, the shambolic, lumpy and frankly, quite awful tribute album to The Jam that came out in 1999.

But while these drew on a whole career of recordings for the cover-version treatment, there’s not too many times when a particular album, and the album only, has been given the treatment.

Which was the case back in 1996, when to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of The Queen Is Dead, an LP that many would argue was the best of the 2oth century, a small French label, Les Inrockuptibles, brought together ten diverse independent artistes to record cover versions of each of the songs. The result was The Smiths Is Dead.

Those who took part were:-

The Queen Is Dead : The Boo Radleys
Frankly Mr Shankly : The High Llamas
I Know It’s Over : The Trash Can Sinatras
Never Had No One Ever : Billy Bragg
Cemetry Gates : The Frank & Walters
Bigmouth Strikes Again : Placebo
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side : Bis
Vicar In A Tutu : Therapy?
There Is A Light That Never Goes Out : The Divine Comedy
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others : Supergrass

On paper, it’s quite an impressive line-up as a number of them were established chart-acts at the time of the CD’s release. But I’m sad to say, that it’s something that doesn’t quite work.

One major problem is, whether you’re a Smiths fan or not, it has to be admitted that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to improve on the original versions, and the tribute album as a whole will be judged in that way. Secondly, there’s a bit of evidence that the bands themselves struggled to cope with what was perhaps expected of them, as 8 out of the 10 tracks were self-produced efforts - the exceptions were Billy Bragg who used his trusted sidekick Grant Showbiz, and Placebo who used Phil Vinall. I think that’s an indication that most of the bands were a bit apprehensive about having a second opinion, or perhaps being steered towards a sound that they didn’t like.

Some of the versions did make their way onto various b-sides, while others only saw the light of day on this CD. Some versions are quite different – for instance there is no way that a Rock/Metal like Therapy? could do a straight copy of a Smiths song, while others, such as Bis and The Divine Comedy, tried hard to turn it into a song that sounds like most of their own output rather than a Smiths song.

Overall, it was a disappointing effort, and I’ll confess that I haven’t listened to it right through all that often since buying it nearly 11 years ago. But I’m still happy enough to have it in the CD collection, even if it is purely for this one rather stunning and unique cover:-

mp3 : The Boo Radleys – The Queen Is Dead

It’s pretty much unrecognisable from the original, and it’s far from a typical song by the band. But I’m sure even that will upset diehard fans of Morrissey/Marr/Rourke/Joyce.

And given I mentioned the album earlier, here’s one from the Leonard Cohen tribute record:-

mp3 : David McComb & Adam Peters - Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On

I did think about posting the 33 minutes version of Tower Of Song as recorded in a drink/drugs fuelled frenzy by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, but the bandwith use would have gone through the roof.

One thing I was amazed to find was the price you would have to pay to pick up a copy of The Smiths Is Dead. I couldn't find it on e-bay, but there were some second-hand copies for ssale at amazon. The lowest priced was $88. Maybe I will make it open to offers after all...

The last word, for now, on compilation CDs comes your way tomorrow.

I FEEL LIKE A PROPER BLOGGER NOW...

Hi

I am emailing in relation to the download of Brett Anderson's – Love Is Dead mp3 you have on your site here:

http://thevinylvillain.blogspot.com/2007/03/fantastic-plastic-2.html

Please could you remove it as you are not the copyright owner of the recording.

If you could let me know when that's been done that would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Tom

Drowned in Sound Recordings Ltd.

And I have.....just exactly as I say I will do on the sidebar if anyone gets in touch.

It was a nicer e-mail than I expected mind you.

COMPILATION CDS (3)

Having already looked at a couple of 90s compilations this week, I thought I would take the advice of the wonderful Kylie Minogue and Step Back In Time. So here’s some thoughts on Generation 80s : Classics from the 80s Alternative Scene.

This particular CD came out as recently as 2002, and is probably still available in a few record shops. It’s one of my favourite compilations, although the marketing men have gone a bit OTT with the title as some of it is very much mainstream rather than alternative.

There’s a couple of songs that made it to No.1 in the national charts sitting alongside some stuff that barely dented the indie charts. There’s a great mix of stuff that would have you up on the dance floor and others that you will just want to sit back and listen to in your own good time. And I’d like to think that having been enticed to buy the CD because of the big acts, some folk might have sought out recordings by those bands they previously were unaware of.

Jane : It’s A Fine Day
Frankie Goes To Hollywood : Relax
New Order : Everything’s Gone Green
XTC : Sgt. Rock (Is Going To Help Me)
B-52s : Rock Lobster
The Teardrop Explodes : Reward
Art of Noise : Beat Box (Diversion 1)
Propaganda : Dr. Mabuse
Sugarcubes : Birthday
Associates : Party Fears Two
Felt : Penelope Tree
Aztec Camera : Oblivious
Prefab Sprout : Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)
Everything But The Girl : Night And Day
Monochrome Set : Jet Set Junta
Redskins : Lean On Me
Blondie : Atomic
Scritti Politti : Wood Beez
Yazoo : Don’t Go
Cabaret Voltaire : Nag Nag Nag

As I mentioned in an earlier post, part of the trick in a successful compilation is marrying the well-known with the obscure in order to maximize its appeal. The inclusion of the Frankie, Aztec Camera, XTC, Associates, Blondie and Yazoo tracks should more than do the trick in this instance. If a compilation was to be sold purely on the likes of Felt and Monochrome Set, the sales would be negligible. And yet, those two particular songs are among those that I enjoy hearing most when I shove on this CD.

But it’s the Prefab Sprout song that I love most of all. It’s an incredible piece of poetry penned by Paddy McAloon in the wake of his girlfriend going off to Limoges in France (thus the seemingly strange song title…), leaving him heartbroken and alone in Newcastle and unable to get to her in the days before cheap flights.

It’s a fairly decent selection on the CD, and here, from it, are three genuine alternative classics :-

Mp3 : Felt – Penelope Tree
Mp3 : Monochrome Set – Jet Set Junta *
Mp3 : Prefab Sprout – Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone)

And did you know that one of the earliest Morrissey songs efforts was based on a similar tale of a friend escaping Manchester to become a male model in Italy? The unreleased song, Mother (I’m Lonely And Needy), lies in a vault somewhere waiting for release.

On a similar theme, I am composing a song for our favourite blogland lovebirds now that they have decided on Finland as the honeymoon destination. The working title is Happy Elizabeth Loves Simon (It’s Now Known Internationally).

NB : Some of what I’ve just written above may not be 100% truthful…..

*But I can honestly say that the video for Jet Set Junta can be viewed here.

COMPILATION CDS (2)

This is all about a compilation entitled Happy Daze :Volume 1, and I will simply transcribe what it says in the sleeve notes:-

This album has been compiled to reflect the events/music of 1990. Fifteen tracks in all, but it could easily have been a double album – who knows, maybe next time. Without waxing lyrical, we tried to pick and mix the grooviest music. Most reached the nation’s ears, some didn’t – but it’s not about chart success/sales figures, it’s about good music. We feel it sums up the year that Indie Guitar Pop finally left the bedroom, hooked up with some strident dance grooves and had one hell of a bender/night out! It’s a unique album for the discerning eardrum. I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed compiling it.

I’m afraid to say that the tone of the previous paragraph was just a bit too smug and self-congratulatory. While it is indeed a fine collection, the absence of The Stone Roses means it can never be described as definitive. It also failed to include New Order who, having got to No.1 with their World Cup song, World In Motion, were probably the best example of an indie-band making the crossover. And it didn’t know that just around the corner was the release of Nevermind and the resulting juggernaut of grunge which basically wiped away most of the bands that the British music press were championing. And some of the tracks have not aged well. Others however, have proven to be timeless classics. A right mixed-bunch you could accurately say:-

Primal Scream : Loaded
Jesus Jones : Real, Real, Real
James : Come Home
New Fast Automatic Daffodils : Big 5
Soho : Hippychick
The Pixies : Velouria
Ride : Taste
Inspiral Carpets : She Comes In The Fall
The Farm : Groovy Train
The Charlatans : The Only One I Know
The Wonder Stuff : Circle Square
Carter USM : Sheriff Fatman
The Shamen : ProGen
Happy Mondays : Wrote For Luck (Oakenfold mix)
Soup Dragons : I’m Free

I have no idea just how The Pixies came to be lumped in with 14 British acts. And listening to it again earlier today, I have no idea what people saw in Jesus Jones. As for an mp3, I thought it best to throw on the track that is probably the least known of them:-

Mp3 : New Fast Automatic Daffodils – Big 5

And I thought that I’d also offer up what I think is a different and superior remix (althoough in saying that, nothing beats the original version found on Bummed:-

Mp3 : Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck (Vince Clark remix)

Incidentally, there was a Volume 2 issued in 1991 which I have on vinyl that I picked up in a bargain bin for £2. It featured only 13 songs, of which maybe 2 were chart hits (proof that the movement was already beginning to die off), and a whole range of bands that had jumped on the bandwagon who came and were immediately forgotten (The Dylans, Chapterhouse, Top, The Real People, Five Thirty and The High). The inclusion of Dinosaur Jr was perhaps an acknowledgement of what most indie kids had now turned their attention to. £2 was about the right price to pay….

And here's a little PS for those of you who posted comments yesterday:-

mp3 : The Shamen - Possible Worlds (Peel Session)

Broadcast on 12th February 1991, and dedicated to Will (greatly missed).

COMPILATION CDs (1)

As long as I can remember, compilation records have been the mainstay of many a collection. When I was a mere child, there were two types of compilation LPs. One was called Top Of The Pops and it comprised session musicians performing the chart hits of the day. The attraction of TOTP was that you would get 12 songs on an album for the price of a couple of singles. The downside was that none of the songs ever sounded like the originals, especially the sort of glam-rock stuff that I loved as a 10 year old.

The expensive alternative was K-Tel Records which had the attraction of having the original artiste and recording, but for contractual reasons, the song had to be a shorter version than that you heard on the radio. From memory, all songs on K-Tel records had to be around two and a half minutes in length, so it was either a very premature fade-out (which was acceptable) or a large chunk of the song – usually a middle verse – would be missing (which was unacceptable).

I was spoiled in as much that my mum and dad would buy me a TOTP every couple of months, and I’d get a K-Tel record for birthdays and every Xmas. And so I can trace my love of compilations, whether on vinyl, tape or CD back to those innocent days. And no doubt some therapist would say that such a happy childhood is the reason why it’s my view that the i-pod, with its huge storage capacity and ability to shuffle in a random manner, is the greatest ever invention in the history of mankind.

All of this is a way of introducing this week’s theme at TVV. Compilation CDs of a slightly unusual variety.

I thought it would be useful to start off with A Historical Debt, released in 1991. In one sense, this was a charity record. It was put together to try and raise money for those affected by the collapse a few months earlier of Rough Trade Distribution.

To try and sum up the situation succinctly, the main distribution arm for hundreds of small, independent labels in the UK had gone bankrupt as a result of poor financial management. Loads of folk who worked in all aspects of the record industry lost their livelihoods; artists and record shops were left out of pocket; labels, including Rough Trade itself, disappeared overnight. All in all, it was a very bleak time to have any sort of love for indie music, however you chose to define it.

A small number of indie labels did manage to survive the carnage, largely as a consequence of having a different distributor. Bit-by-bit, the whole scene came together again over a period of time, including the resurrection of the Rough Trade label in the late 90s, and now it is probably thriving like it hasn’t done since the halcyon days of punk and the DIY-ethos.

But back to the release of A Historical Debt.

All the tracks were donated royalty free, and all money raised helped pay back some of the debt owed to labels and artists affected by the collapse. Indeed, such was the fantastic response of many artists and labels that all of the tracks offered for the project couldn’t be accommodated on a single CD.

The finished product was a good balance between tracks from established chart acts who had moved on to the major labels (thus catching the eye of non-indie fans) and the acts that gave the CD a hip degree of credibility (thus catching the eye of the music snobs who wouldn’t go anywhere near an act to be found in the Top 40). The final running order was:-

Aztec Camera : Oblivious
Erasure : Push Me Shove Me (Live)
Depeche Mode : Halo
The Shamen : Possible Worlds
MARRS : Pump Up The Volume
Scritti Politti : (The) Sweetest Girl
Sugarcubes : Birthday
Flowered Up : Phobia
The Charlatans : The Only One I Know
Inspiral Carpets : Sleep Well Tonight
The Woodentops : Well Well Well
The Dylans : Godlike
Television Personalities : All My Dreams Are Dead
Sandie Shaw : Jeane
Robert Wyatt : Shipbuilding
Bradford : Skin Storm
The Field Mice : Let’s Kiss And Make Up
The Heart Throbs : I Wonder Why
Loop : Arc-Lite
Death Cult : God’s Zoo

I’m not sure how many copies of the CD were sold or how much money was raised through it or the video of the same name that was released at the same time. But it is a rather splendid way to pass the best part of 80 minutes. So here, with not a session musician or premature fade-out to be found anywhere, are two of the tracks for your enjoyment:-

mp3 : The Shamen – Possible Worlds
mp3 : The Field Mice – Let’s Kiss And Make Up

The latter track is also the name of a favourite old blog of mine, and one that was a big influence, inspiration and help when I started up TVV.

Oh, and so that I can kiss and make-up with any Morrissey fans distressed by last week’s posting at Plastic Fantastic (5), here’s his version of the Bradford single that can be found on the b-side of Pregnant For The Last Time:-

mp3 : Morrissey – Skin Storm

Try e-bay for a copy of A Historical Debt.

MY NAME IS JC....AND I AM A BLOGAHOLIC

I said I was taking a few days off. But the PC has looked a bit sad and lonely in its corner. So here I am just 40 hours after promising myself I'd take a break.

The Malcolm Middleton gig last night was awesome. He played 17 tracks, of around half of which were taken from his new LP A Brighter Beat, along with a handful from the 2005 classic Into The Woods, three songs from his debut 5:14 Fluoxytine Seagull Alcohol John Nicotine that appeared in 2003 and a brand-new unreleased song.

His backing band were excellent - particularly the drummer and bass player who kept things going at a cracking pace. The few times Malcolm spoke to the audience his remarks were laced with dry wit, often self-depracting. The venue, a former soft-core pornographic cinema in Glasgow, was packed.

The gig wasn't flawless. The sound over the first three or four songs was a bit muddied, something that Malcolm quickly spotted and got rectified. And the age-old problem of ignorant fucking bastards talking during the set rather than listening to the songs threatened to spoil it, especially during the quieter numbers. Luckily, myself and Mike from Manic Pop Thrills (whose own review can be read here) were down near the front where maybe 99.9% of the audience were engrossed only in what was happening in front of them on ths stage. The problems were further back.

One thing I learned last night was that Malcolm has his eyes closed as he sings. Whether its attributable to nerves or just his way of concentrating/focussing fully on what he's doing, I really don't know. He's also far from the miserable sod that lazy journalists like to portray, and his guitar playing is as good as can be heard anywhere on the indie-rock circuit. The gig was a genuinely happy event that certainly had me dancing on the spot when I could, and listening intently when the mood and ambience was slowed down.

And so that's the UK tour to promote the release of A Brighter Beat over and done with. But if promoters have got any inkling of sense, they should be adding Malcolm to the endless summer festivals and bringing him to the attention of wider audiences. And with a bit of luck, the sales of the album will gradually grow, and Malcolm will come back out on the road again later in the year.

Now I know I always ask readers to go out and buy if they download the mp3s and discover that they like the stuff. I'll ask nicely this time.

Please Please Please buy all three Malcolm Middleton albums if you don't already own them.

They're widely available including here, here and here.

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - The King Of Bring
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - Break My Heart
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - Stay Close Sit Tight

FANTASTIC PLASTIC (5)

Someone said to me that the postings and mp3s this past few days have been eclectic. I'm taking that as a compliment, for one thing I that I try to provide is a little something for everyone.....albeit jingly-jangly pop music from Glasgow singers and bands tends to be bit more predominant than most.

And here's a handful of tunes to round off the short spell of everything being on vinyl.

The starting point is another new single bought the other day from a band whose debut album and associated live shows caused much excitement here in Villain Towers.

mp3 : Maximo Park - Our Velocity

While not as immediately as infectious/catchy as most of their previous offerings, I'm still quite taken by this 7" of white vinyl, and I think it bodes reasonably well for one of the school of new bands to at long last release a half-decent second album, unlike the disappointing efforts of Kasabian, The Killers, Futureheads and Bloc Party.

The latest offering for you courtesy of e-bay is a 1983 record from a band that were the subject of one of the first postings on TVV back on 2nd October 2006 (have a look at the archives and see for yourself).

mp3 : Hey! Elastica - Suck A Little Honey (12" version)

For anyone not aware, Hey! Elastica was a great little pop band from Edinburgh who recorded just the one LP on Virgin Records. It was real radio-friendly stuff, and I found it a bit of a surprise that they never managed to enjoy commercial success. Oh and they all had great hair as Jacques the Kipper reminded me in his comments from last year.

And now to the records dusted down from the back of the cupboard, and there's three of them on offer this time round.

First up is a single from 1986.

The strange thing about this particular 12" release is that the a-side features the album version of the song while the b-side features the track described as 'single version.' I'm not sure which version it was that John Lydon really wanted folk to listen to, but I've gone for the b-side single version, primarily as it's not the one you'll find on the Greatest Hits album. I hope you're following me.....

mp3 : Public Image Ltd - Home (single version)

The only way to follow that up is with a proper b-side, and preferably something obscure. And so here from 1990 is a song that was recorded and mixed in Kilmarnock, Scotland and which was engineered by Frank Read, the lead singer of the fabulous Trash Can Sinatras:-

mp3 : Half Man Half Biscuit - Our Tune

Now I know HMHB aren't everyone's cup of tea, but for more than 20 years, they've released loads of records that have made me smile. This particular track was one of the songs that backed the 12" release of Let's Not.

And talking of records that make me smile, let's move, without any further delay, on to today's cover star pictured above.

Yes, it's an image of a young and be-quiffed Morrissey.

But it's not a record by him - although he does have a spoken intro and outro on it.

Hell, it's not even a record that's a tribute to him. In fact, it's a record that, as big fan of the great man, I shouldn't admit to liking far less owning, but it is funny. Especially if, like me, other people swearing out loud makes you laugh. I slso enjoy thinking about all the Morrissey ultras getting awfully upset about it and issuing their equivalent of a fatwa.

mp3 : Warlock Pinchers - Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse

All I can tell you about this is what it says on the record sleeve. It was released in 1989 by the San Francisco based Tupelo Recording Company, and there was a PO Box in Denver for the band.

What I was amazed to find was that this record is going for £10 on e-bay.

And that, dear friends (and foes - for I am sure there will be some who have come in here having typed 'Morrissey' into a search engine and found something rather nasty and distasteful instead) completes five days worth of vinyl postings that have seen 18 songs made available to you.

I feel after all this activity that I need to recharge the brain cells, so there will be no more postings for a couple of days. Instead, I'm going to use the time to get round all my favourite blogs and properly read all that they have to say.

For instance, it's been six days since I spent any meaningful time over at Song, By Toad, and the most prolific man in western civilisation has made an incredible 14 posts in that time. It will be my equivalent of sitting down and enjoying a good read of the Sunday papers. And yes, Toad will be the News of The World....

See you in a few days.

FANTASTIC PLASTIC (4)

Was it a fact or a myth that the quality of sound on a picture disc was poorer than that on a normal vinyl record?

I genuinely don't know...

I picked up a copy of a favourite old picture disc on e-bay a month or so back - the double A side of Asylums In Jerusalem/Jacques Derrida by Scritti Politti that came out back in 1982.

That's a picture of the picture disc that I've thrown on, and you'll see the whole thing was done as a pastiche of Courvoisier Napoleon Brandy.

mp3 : Scritti Politti - Jacques Derrida (single version)

It's quite a different version from that found on Songs To Remember (it's also a couple of minutes shorter in length).

The second pic disc track that I got via e-bay was from a job lot of Altered Images singles that Mrs Villain sorted out as part of a Xmas present. It was the first single taken from Bite their final, and in my view, much underrated final LP from 1983:-

mp3 : Altered Images - Bring Me Closer

This was such a good picture of Clare Grogan that it was also used as the the sleeve for Change Of Heart, the very final Altered Images single.

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be at a quite incredible gig by Kirsten Hersh, along with Mike from Manic Pop Thrills whose review can be found here. Most of you will know that Kirsten first found fame in the 80s and 90s with Throwing Muses. Well, her Glasgow set contained just two songs from that band's extensive back catalogue, including this, a difficult to track down b-side from the 12" version of Counting Backwards, a 1991 single:-

mp3 : Throwing Muses - Cottonmouth

And making up the fab four today is another b-side.

A couple of weeks ago, I got chatting with Malcolm Middleton after his in-store appearance and acoustic set at Fopp Records in Glasgow. I told him how much I loved the flip side to A Brighter Beat and how I was surprised it had been left off the album. To my astonishment, Malcolm dismissed said song as 'just too similar to Keane'. I'm guessing his tongue was firmly in his cheek for this track is one of my favourites so far in 2007. And I hate Keane. No really, I have no time at all for that band.

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - Point Of Light

I'm hoping Malcolm will give this song a rare live outing when I go to see him tomorrow.

CALLING ALL GLASGOW-BASED JAMES FANS

There’s a couple of spare tickets going for the James gig at the Carling Academy, Glasgow on Saturday 21st April.

It had originally been planned that myself, Mrs Villain, Jacques the Kipper and Mrs Kipper would make a grand night of it, reliving days of yore while watching one of the bands that all four of us actually enjoy and wondering how Tim Booth can do what he does on stage without giving himself a double hernia.

But it now turns out that due to work commitments (whisper it, but the bugger is off to Jamaica for two weeks), JtK can’t make it.

Now if we were unscrupulous sods, we would be putting the briefs on e-bay where they’re already going for something in the region of £90-£100 a pair. But instead, we’d like to offer them at face value to readers of TVV. It’s not a case of first-come, first-served, but we do appreciate that folk would like to know sooner rather than later. So if you’re prepared to pay £64 (which covers the ticket +booking fee), please send an e-mail, with your name, address and a contact number, right here no later than 6pm on Sunday 25th March. If we get more than one person asking, Mrs Villain will draw the name from a hat.

If no-one gets in touch, then early next week the tickets will put on e-bay on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hope you’re interested.

Oh, and I've added another blog of interest. You may not understand what's been said, cos it's all in Turkish. But the author, Tacim (who lives in Istanbul) has got great taste in music. Go pay a visit. Click here.

Keep scrolling down if you're here for today's musical offerings.

FANTASTIC PLASTIC (3)

What were you all doing in 1979? I know that some, indeed, many of you probably weren’t born. I imagine that others would be running around dressed in nappies and looking for a feed from a nipple (but what you did, and do, in the privacy of your own home is no business of mine).

1979 was a momentous year in my life. I was 16 years of age and I had passed a whole bundle of exams that would let me go back to school to take more exams that would let me get to university. Over the summer months, I got a full-time job for six weeks which gave me, for the first time, a degree of financial independency. I was able to buy loads of singles and albums, but more importantly, tickets for gigs at the Glasgow Apollo to see loads of new wave/post-punk bands.

1979 was also the year that I fell in love for the first time. But the problem was that me, and hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of others, were in love with the same person. And she didn’t really love us back. Not when she was shagging the guitarist in her band.

Debbie Harry. The voice and look of Blondie. Sigh.

So when the news came through that Blondie were to play a UK tour at the tail-end of 1979, including a gig on 31st December at the Glasgow Apollo, it was all systems go to obtain a ticket. And that meant getting out of bed at 5am and getting my dad to run me into town where I joined the queue of those who were sleeping out overnight outside the front door of the box office at the venue. It was a long drawn-out five hours with only a small radio, and a mate from school to keep me company. But we got our tickets. And from memory they were £5 which was way way more than I had ever paid for a concert ticket in my life up to that point (bear in mind, my wages in the summer job had seen me take home £26 a week…)

A couple of weeks later, the BBC announced that the Glasgow gig was to be broadcast live on television and radio as part of the special programmes for Hogmanay. I took a fair bit of stick at school, and at home, for seemingly wasting my money on something I could now be watching on the telly….but nobody seemed to understand just how important it was to actually be in the audience gawping at the love/lust of my life.

The gig was all that I looked forward to for months on end, and I played and wore out all of my Blondie singles and albums, learning every note and every word so that I could fully sing-a-long.
The night itself started off brilliantly, as I ended up speaking on Radio 1, for about 5 seconds. Millions of listeners would have heard a squeaky-voiced adolescent say he was ‘Jim from Sandyhills who wanted to wish his mum, dad, his brothers and all his mates a Happy New Year’. I’ve no idea what record was played as I was shaking with excitement at the fact I had just been live on the biggest radio station in Europe. I thought I was a star….

That turned out to be the highlight of the night, for the gig itself was a huge disappointment. The sound was poor – it was incredibly loud which I think was to try and disguise the fact that Blondie were an appalling live act. Debbie’s vocals were lost amidst all this, and the gig wasn’t helped by the fact that part of the way through the set, there was a lengthy pause to allow the TV network to come in on cue.

But until now, I never admitted any of that to anyone. To the world and its auntie, the Blondie gig was the ‘best I’d ever been to’. Thinking back on all this, it’s hardly a surprise that I have spent part of my working life in the dark and unsavoury world of political spin….

So here, all the way from 1979, and courtesy of a winning bid on e-bay last week, are two tracks from a 12” single, the cover of which was sellotaped to my bedroom wall.

Was it really almost 28 years ago????

mp3 : Blondie - Heart Of Glass (12" version)
mp3 : Blondie - Rifle Range

Incidentally, if I was 16 today (instead of 43 and three-quarters) I would probably be fawning over a band that I mentioned in a posting a few months back, The Pierces. Just the other day, I bought their new single, on vinyl. I like it. A lot.

mp3 : The Pierces - Sticks and Stones

Watch this space later on if you're a fan of James. Especially if you live in or around Glasgow...

FANTASTIC PLASTIC (2)

I feel a bit of a fraud describing at least one of today's offering as 'fantastic'.

The fact that new releases coming out on vinyl retail for as little as 99p means I'm prepared to take a risk on something. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And I guess, even if I don't like it, but I post it here at TVV and someone appreciates it, then it hasn't been a waste of money. And so dear readers.....over to you. Cos this is something I bought without ever hearing, and don't think I'll ever play again:-

mp3 : Brett Anderson - Love Is Dead *

*mp3 removed at the request of the copyright holder

It's the new single from the former lead singer of Suede. If you had asked me to take a guess without listening, I might have gone for Robbie Williams in one of his more reflective moments. But then that might just be your thing.

The posting yesterday of of the extended version of I Can't Help Myself was so well received, that I thought I'd play the popular card and go for another Orange Juice song as today's offering from the cupboard:-

mp3 : Orange Juice - A Place In My Heart (Dub Version)

It's the b-side from one of the band's last singles, What Presence?!, and is a quite different recording of the song that first appeared on the LP Texas Fever.

And finally, I mentioned that I had picked up some stuff recently on e-bay. One of the items was the 1983 release of Oblivious by Aztec Camera, and I've been lucky enough to get a copy of the limited edition double-pack which offered live versions of two of their best earliest songs:-

mp3 : Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera - Back On Board (live)

Both were recorded on 11th July 1983 for a Canadian radio broadcast. It's incredible to think that Roddy Frame was just 19 years of age at that time. He really was an incredible talent for one so young...especially as a lyricist.

Have fun. And if anyone likes Mr Anderson's offering, please let me know.

FANTASTIC PLASTIC (1)

For the next few days at least, I'm going to make sure that all the mps3 come from vinyl, as opposed to CDs. I've just bought a handful of new 7" singles as well as picked up a bundle of stuff from e-bay, but to begin with, it's a rare 12" Orange Juice record that I've dug out from the back of the cupboard again.

I say again, because it was the b-side that I posted back on 18 December 2006 when I was waxing lyrically about Paul Quinn whose vocal talents feature on said b-side. But here's the reason 99.9% of folk (including myself) bought the record:-

mp3 : Orange Juice - I Can't Help Myself (extended version)

Oh and since I'm a nice guy and in case any of you missed it, here's the track with the Mighty Quinn...

mp3 : Orange Juice - Tongues Begin To Wag

POST SCRIPT TO AN EARLIER POSTING

I thought regular and occasional readers would be interested in the following comment which I received today in response to the posting that commemorated the 10th anniversary of the death of Billy Mackenzie.

Rather late this, I know (I've only just come across this), but thank you for this blog.

For those interested in Alan Rankine, he is doing just fine, currently teaching in Glasgow, and was present at the Tribute Night to commemorate the 10th anniversary on January 20th at the Classic Grand - a great night, which seemed to be enjoyed by all there. I know I enjoyed it, anyway. I've never heard a singer who's moved me more than Billy does.

To those who don't get it, I'd say, perhaps you're not listening hard enough. Ha ha. ;-)

For anyone who's interested, there's a whole bunch of live tracks - plus "Triple Hipness" available at my own Blogspot (sorry for the plug, but hey, I'm not making owt from it. ;-) )

I also distribute a 3 1/2 hour DVD of promo videos, TV appearances etc. on a non-profit making basis (£2 incl. P and P). Most of the footage on it is derived from the master tapes, so the quality is high. Well, somebody has to, since Warners and EMI aren't going to bother...

Regards, - Susan.

Susan's blog is over here. Susan also has a superb myspace site - Exiled In Dream World - right here.

And if any of you do want to order the DVD, you can do so with PayPal - but do the decent thing and add a little on top to pay for the time and effort that Susan will take to send you out such a priceless artifact.

HELP REQUIRED - APPLY WITHIN

Dear Reader,

Among my CD collection is a compilation, released in 1995, that I picked-up second-hand. It's called A Flavour of the Label 4, and it seems to be a promo for acts who recorded, at that time, for Capitol Records and EMI Records.

I've heard of most of the acts on the CD, which include Supergrass, Foo Fighters, Blur, Radiohead and EMF. However, the 14th and final track is a total mystery:-

mp3 : P - Michael Stipe

Now to make it quite clear, its someone called P singing a song called Michael Stipe. Not the other way around. The scant information for the track says:-

Composer : P
Publisher : Mr Cigar Publishing
Producer : Andrew Weiss

Can anyone supply anything more?

Kind regards

Yours sincerely


JC
aka The Vinyl Villain

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN (3)

The picture is of a Glasgow band who enjoyed some moderate chart success in the 90s - The Supernaturals.

I think it's a bit of a shame that the band aren't more fondly remembered. Up until I was doing a wee bit of research for this, I thought they had broken-up after their second album in 1998, but I learned that a further release had come out in 2001 on a small independent label in Germany.

If you want to know anything about the band, I suggest you take a look at this brilliantly maintained website here. You'll also learn, as I did, that James McColl, the singer and lead songwriter with the band is now with another Glasgow band called The Hussys.

The Supernaturals made pop music, and very good pop music at that. They weren't flashy, they weren't hellraisers and they weren't desperate to get their faces in the papers every day. In fact, none of the covers of the nine singles and two albums that I have in my CD collection contain a single photo of the band. They were a smashing live act, and gained some of their fan base through being the support band to a number of major 90s acts, including The Bluetones, Ash, Kula Shaker, Boo Radleys and Gene. They also at other times were on the bill at outdoor/arena gigs topped by Tina Turner and Robbie Williams.

Some of their songs were so infectiously catchy that they were used on TV adverts in the UK - the prime example being Smile which was used to promote internet banking (and that's not a typo you sad perverts).

The debut LP, It Doesn't Matter Anymore, is a tremendous piece of work. 5 out of the 12 tracks were released as singles, each one as perfect for radio-play as the next. They were also a band that recorded some interesting and unusual b-sides. And so here's a bunch of mp3s to illustrate what I mean:-

mp3 : The Supernaturals - Smile (1997 single)
mp3 : The Supernaturals - Please Be Gentle With Me (1997 album track)
mp3 : The Supernaturals - High Tension At Boghead (1997 b-side)
mp3 : The Supernaturals - I Wasn't Built To Get Up (1998 single and my theme song)

The b-side that I've posted is about a visit to a football match at Boghead Park, Dumbarton in Scotland. While Dumbarton FC are one of the country's oldest clubs, located some 15 miles west of Glasgow on the banks of the River Clyde, they have long struggled in the lower divisions. Boghead Park, I'm sad to say, is no more as the club sold the site for housing and moved to a new location about a mile or so away, but still in the town of Dumbarton.

If you don't own any product by The Supernaturals, then I suggest you do something about it. The two albums they recorded on Food Records (part of EMI) can be found here at amazon.

Thank You.

A CELEBRATION OF SOME THINGS IRISH

Top O The Morning To Ya.

So the 17th March has come round again, and those fellahs/colleens in the world who claim to have some sort of Irish ancestry will be out drinking/partying/parading in acknowledgement of the man who ridded their Emerald Isle of snakes.

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that the face of TVV up in the right hand corner is no stranger to the St Paddy's Day madness that seems to affect something like 90% of the world's population. It's my young nephew - Liam - and it's a photo taken this time last year when he decided, along his sister Hannah, that they wanted to dress up like leprechauns.

Now that's fine and dandy over in the sunshine of Orlando. But spare a thought for the kids who actually live in Ireland. There will be tens of thousands of them waking up this morning raring to take part in their village/town parades, and the weather is absolutely appalling. There's driving rain battering down, and gale-force winds blowing as well. Still, it could be worse, the forecast for tomorrow is a switch of direction for the wind from westerly to northerly and with it, some heavy snow falls and plunging temperatures. So much for Spring having sprung.

For what it's worth, here's my contribution to the madness.

It started last night, coincidentally I should add, when Mrs Villain and myself went along to see comedian Sean Hughes. It's been a long time since we've takien in a show by Sean, but he still made both of us laugh.

He's now 41 years of age - which was probably the approximate age of around half of the 800 or so in the audience - and like truly great observational comedians, much of what he said hit home and had us laughing and nodding in agreement at the same time. Your relationships with your parents as both you and they get older, the fact that the pills you take are no longer Ecstasy, how 25 year old girls think you are now an old sex pest if you talk to them and how you get the piss ripped out of you in HMV when you try and buy music that's in the charts. He also cracked some brilliant one-liners that bordered on the verge of bad-taste, but didn't quite cross the line. In all, a real fun night out.

But the gig showed how quickly things can change for folk. Maybe 15 or so years ago, Sean did a massive tour of the UK, and if you were lucky enough to get a ticket what with the huge demand, you could go along, buy a souvenir t-shirt, a tour programme, a copy of his book of poetry and probably a VHS of his telly shows. It was a massive money-making event. Last night in contrast, a reasonably pricked ticket was all that you had to shell out for, and in return you got a hugely enjoyable 90 minutes.

But hey...this is a music blog, so let's quit with the banter and get back to the sounds.

Before I do however, I beg your indulgence to mention a couple of things. First to Anne over at I Like for describing TVV as a top quality mp3 site. I was pretty astounded when I read that. I just wanted to say thanks for it.

Secondly, there was a really good debate both in here at over at Song, By Toad on the merits of R.E.M. and in particular, the new stuff vs the old stuff. A similar debate is about to begin over at Your Moment of Zen, and I reckon it's worth popping over and shoving in your tuppence's worth. As I was saying, the sounds.

mp3 : Morrissey - Irish Blood, English Heart
mp3 : Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
mp3 : Boomtown Rats - Like Clockwork
mp3 : David Kitt - One Clear Way
mp3 : Luka Bloom - No Surprises

Enjoy. Go easy on the Guinness and the green-coloured cocktails.

Oh, and if you have been in an actual parade in Ireland, I hope you don't catch your death from the cold.

E.C. IS GOD

I like to roam around hundreds of music blogs – sometimes looking for good ideas to steal and call my own – but mostly to read what other people have to say and occasionally listen to the mp3s they put up with the postings.

Many bloggers have a section that details the names of their favourite singers and bands, and I've come to discover that there is a name of a great singer/songwriter that doesn’t crop up all that often, and yet if you asked music-lovers the world over whether or not they like him, you would get an awful lot more folk shouting ‘AYE’ than you would those that would whisper ‘NAY’. I’m talking about Declan Patrick McManus aka Elvis Costello.

Have a think about this man’s recording career which now spans 30 years, and how many different styles and genres he’s had a go at. There’s been New Wave, Stax/Motown, Country & Western, Easy Listening, Classical, Jazz/Swing, Folk, Cover Versions, Protest Songs, Soundtracks, Pop and Rock.

I wouldn’t even begin to try and count how many labels he’s recorded for far less calculate just how many singles and LPs he has released in various guises. And there must must have been at least eight Best Of compilations over the years.

He’s also been involved in high-profile recordings with folk of the stature of Paul McCartney and Burt Bacharach (and they have stature whether you’re fans or not). He’s produced umpteen bands over the years, not least The Specials and The Pogues, the latter of whom he helped turn from a cult act into a chart act. And he’s been in numerous TV and film productions, often appearing as himself. He’s written songs and whole albums for other artistes.

So quite clearly the man is a living legend.But as I said his name rarely appears in the list of favourites that you find on many blogs.

I suppose part of the difficulty in anyone automatically reeling-off EC as one of the all-time greats is the fact that he has turned his hand to so many different things, some more successfully than others, and I don’t think there can be too many who can claim to own every bit of music he’s recorded and released over the past three decades. And given how long he has been going, there will naturally have been the occasional duff LP put out, and perhaps one or two of the projects were a bit too vain, and possibly even pretentious, rather than of top-drawer quality. I don’t think even EC would say that writing for, recording with and producing Wendy James in her thankfully brief post-Transvision Vamp solo efforts would be a high point of his career.

Some bloggers might have been embarrassed by some of the daft things he has said or done over the years, such as the drunken racist comments he uttered about James Brown & Ray Charles in the late 70s. Or the fact that he has been less than flatteringly portrayed in a number of rock biographies, not least that written by Bruce Thomas the long-time bassist with The Attractions.

But overall, there can be surely no argument that as a composer and lyricist, there are few who can hold a candle to the talents of Elvis Costello in the latter part of the 20th Century, particularly in his prime of the late 70s and throughout the 80s. I could probably post any of maybe 100 songs to illustrate my point, but instead I’ve gone for this handful including some lesser known stuff:-

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Watching The Detectives

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Man Out Of Time

mp3 : Elvis Costello - Brilliant Mistake

mp3 : Elvis Costello - Little Palaces

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Battered Old Bird

The first two were singles. Tracks 3 & 4 are on King of America. Track 5 is one of many outstanding tracks on Blood & Chocolate.

And here’s a cover version of a Nick Lowe song that he did as a b-side in 1991

mp3 : Elvis Costello - The Ugly Things

Go to amazon here, click on Elvis Costello and be prepared to spend hours going through everything.

AAAAARRRRRRGH......

Work/Life balance is all to pot just now. Hopefully it's only temporary.

But while it is, postings need to be of the short and not so sweet kind.

Here's four songs for grumpy gits.

mp3 : Eels - It's A Motherfucker
(from the LP Daisies Of The Galaxy)

mp3 : Tindersticks - Dying Slowly
(from the official bootleg CD Coilseau Dos Recreios Lisboa)

mp3 : Tim Booth : Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
(from the BBC production Manchester Passion)

mp3 : Arab Strap :If There's No Hope For Us (Rogue Version)
(from the LP Ten Years of Tears)

Find them yourselves you lazy sods.

HAPPY TOGETHER

To make sense of this posting, you have to first of all read over here.

So now, especially for Simon and Elizabeth, here is what I think is the most romantic love song ever written.

mp3 : Ballboy - Kiss Me, Hold Me & Eat Me

My keyboard is wet with the tears that fall from my eyes.

FROM UNDER THE COVERS (14)

Really tired and an early start tomorrow. So the Wednesday posting is going out on Tuesday night.

No need to say anything either. Great song. Great version of the song. And a great photo that I found over at flickr.com - Billy is reading an Edinburgh community newspaper - The Craigmillar Festival News - and I would reckon it was taken sometime around 83/84.

mp3 : Billy Bragg - That's Entertainment

From Volume 2 of the Billy Bragg boxset. It's on the Bonus CD that comes with Worker's Playtime. Buy a signed edition of the boxset over at the official Billy Bragg site here.

'ACTUALLY....THEY WEREN'T BAD...'(1)

The small group of us who were together at Arcade Fire last night got talking about 80s and 90s pop bands - inspired by having just seen support act Patrick Wolf who certainly took everyone back in time with his songs and performance.

I'm more than happy to say that there's a few bands whose songs are largely derided nowadays who I'll stand up for, including Blancmange, one of a number of synth-driven bands that emerged in the wake of the overnight success of Soft Cell. But while Marc Almond always had something sinister and shady about his persona, Neil Arthur & Stephen Luscombe were always seemingly clean-cut and good-living.

For a brief period in 1982/83, they were vaguely famous in that they had something like four singles that reached the Top 20. They must also have been briefly trendy, for in doing a little bit of research on them, I learned they recorded a session for John Peel that was broadcast in February 1982.

There were a lot of chart bands from that era who did some fabulous songs without leaving behind a body of work that could be called seminal - I'm thinking of the likes of OMD, Heaven 17 and Yazoo - while those who made less commercial stuff that never charted - I'm thinking for example of Cabaret Voltaire - have many who still hold a torch for their work. So now and again, when I'm feeling all nostalgic for a bit of disposable 80s synthy-pop, I might just shove something here for you. But sorry if you're a Howard Jones or Nik Kershaw fan.....they won't be showing up on TVV.

mp3 : Blancmange - Feel Me
mp3 : Blancmange - Waves

The former was the breakthrough hit. The latter is what I regard as their one true moment of genius. Both were on the LP Happy Families , but can be bought on a 'Best Of' compilation here.

THE FAULT IS...I CAN FIND NO FAULT IN YOU

There's going to be a slight difference of opinion on tonight's gig by Arcade Fire at the Barrowlands.

I thought it was up there as one of the most incredible nights I've ever had at the famous old venue - Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills is, I suspect, going to be a bit more critical.

And it's going to focus on the fact that Mike thinks the gig dipped in quality and intensity in the middle-section, which coincided with the band playing some of the allegedly weaker tracks from Neon Bible. I think he is being far too harsh.

Now, I will say that I have some reservations about some of the songs on Neon Bible. To my ears, there's a couple that wouldn't be out of place on a Bruce Springsteen album, while the revamp of No Cars Go sounds like Prefab Sprout. I also feel that two tracks - Black Wave/BadVibrations and the song Neon Bible itself are disappointing in comparison to anything on Funeral. The question is whether they detracted from the live experience....and I think the answer is a resounding no.

A hugely energetic opening of Keep The Car Running and No Cars Go from the new record, followed by Haiti from Funeral, got the place bouncing, hot and very sweaty. It was quite honestly going to be impossible to keep that level of intensity, and the band did what most would do in their situation - they played a couple of lesser-known tracks and then threw in a crowd pleaser before going back to the newer stuff.

But apart from the aforementioned BlackWave/Bad Vibrations, I thought it the new songs worked pretty well - certainly you couldn't take your eyes off the band for a fleeting moment as there was always something going on. Yes, the songs from Funeral were better received, but then again, they are incredibly well known against those that only officially were released 7 days ago.

Some might point to the fact that during the quieter moments, quite a bit of the audience was talking among itself rather than listening, but I don't think that would have been any different if the soft songs from Funeral such as 7 Kettles or Un Anee Sans Lumiere had been aired. This was an audience that had just too many folk there for the big songs....sadly, the type of thing you'll get at any gig at any standing venue nowadays, as documented in the past on this and other blogs.....

Those folk however, really got what they were after as the gig careered towards an astonishing close, when Power Out eased effortlessly into Rebellion (Lies). I honestly don't have the vocabulary to do justice to the atmosphere in the place at this time....but the cheers at the end of that particular 10 minutes or so were loud and prolonged and on a par with any sort of reception I've ever heard in 25 years of going to gigs at the Barrowlands, including acts like Morrissey who have an incredibly devoted and loud following.

And don't get me started on the final song of the encore- which was clearly the crowd favourite of the night - Wake Up. The opening bars had the hairs on the back of my neck at full salute, but that was nothing compared to the closing couple of minutes when Win Butler dived into the audience and made his way, without microphone, through the throng to the back of the venue as the band hammered away at their instruments and sang at the top of their voices. Truly breathtaking.

That was my first Arcade Fire live experience. I don't think they'll ever play a venue in Glasgow as small as the Barrowlands again - it's going to be the SECC and outdoor festivals from now on methinks - so I know how lucky and privileged I was to be there tonight. And Mrs Villain was in fantastic form as well tonight, cheering, clapping and dancing along. It was almost as if she was at her beloved Blink-182 (R.I.P.)!!!

It was a show that was 100% inspiration and 100% perspiration, and you don't get too many of them nowadays.

There were too many great songs to choose form, so for the first ever time, it's going to be a concert posting without an mp3. I hope you'll understand.

I'll finish by saying thanks to my friend John Greer for helping out with the tickets for tonight, and also to Kev Boyle who took the photo at the top of the blog at the previous night's gig (Sunday) at the same venue and posted it at http://www.flickr.com/. I hope he doesn't mind that I've used it.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN (2)

I've wanted to post today's song up for quite a while. And as I'm feeling lazy this morning, the next few paragraphs are all ripped from the band's entry at wikipedia.

Jonathan Fire*Eater was an indie rock band from Washington DC but based in New York City. The line-up was Stewart Lupton (vocals), Tom Frank (bass), Paul Maroon (guitar and slide), Matt Barrick (drums) and Walter Martin (organs, keyboards)

In 1995, they released their debut LP and a further EP.

In 1996, a five-song mini-album Tremble Under Boomlights was released to considerable media and industry attention. They were courted by Calvin Klein to model and opened for Pulp and Blur.

In 1997, the band signed with a major label. It was a million dollar contract with unusual clauses including full creative control for the band and a generous dental plan for their nearly toothless manager Walter Durkacz.

Behind the scenes, howver, drug use of lead singer Lupton was causing a rift between him and the other members. Their major label debut, Wolf Songs For Lambs, received a tepid critical response, and not long after, tensions between Lupton and the other members and a general wariness of mainstream success led to the bands breakup.

Jonathan Fire*Eater was called the most hyped band you never heard, but like that old story about the Velvet Underground many of the few people that did hear them started a band, including The Strokes, who have identified them as a major influence.

Maroon, Barrick, and Martin later went on to form The Walkmen and Lupton has pursued his music career through his band The Child Ballads.

mp3 : Jonathan Fire*Eater - The Search For Cherry Red

From Tremble Under Boomlights. Buy it here

And here's a quick PS.

I accompanied Mike from Manic Pop Thrills to the Kirsten Hersh gig at Glasgow Oran Mor last night. I've a couple of Throwing Muses tracks on compilation CDs and I also know a handful of her solo songs/stuff with 50ft Wave, so almost all of the material she played wasn't familiar.

However, it didn't stop it turning into a hugely enjoyable evening, helped greatly by a very unusual support act in The McCarricks . I'll try and write more about it later this week.

It's the eagerly-awaited gig by The Arcade Fire tonight......

AND THE PUBLIC GETS WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS (2)

Prior to me getting the USB Turntable which kick-started TVV, I was someone who spent a great deal of time going round sites hoovering up mp3s of songs that I had on vinyl but hadn't been able to play for years. There was one time that I plucked up the nerve to drop an e-mail to the person running the site and ask for particular song. 24 hours later, there it was. (If anyone's interested it was This Girl, Black Girl by The Go-Betweens, and it was Colin over at one of his past sites - the sadly missed Let's Kiss & Make-Up).

So my philosophy is that if anyone drops me an e-mail, and I've got the song to hand, then it will appear here.

I was actually surprised that today's offering, requested by Dave Coverley, wasn't to be found anywhere in the vaults of TVV. Regular readers will know that I'm a sucker for all things related to Paul Quinn, so I've no idea why the second and last single from Bourgie Bourgie has taken so long to surface.

This was released in 1984 as the follow-up to the majestic Breaking Point. It's quite a different type of song, far more pop-orientated with something of a catchy chorus, but the mighty Quinn's vocal talents are still there to be appreciated. I've also included the b-side which is quite different in style and approach from the single.

mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Careless
mp3 : Bourgie Bourgie - Change of Attitude

I know that there was a 12" version of this single released that features a slightly longer version, so if anyone has an mp3 of that, I'd love to hear from you.

Incidentally, I've added another blog to the small list of those I visit on a regular basis. It's one very much in its infancy, but one that promises much. Its called Raiding The Vinyl Archive. And in a similar way to how I got TVV started up, it's mostly going to be old records converted via a USB Turntable. Pop in and say hello to Mick.

And there's another non-music blog been added in the shape of Imitation Of Life (as recommended by Colin over at And Before The First Kiss)

Happy surfing.

STILL ILL....BUT IMPROVING SLOWLY

There’s been a few of us who have mentioned Edwyn Collins on our blogs in recent weeks and months, and how, given as he’s now seemingly back in the studio (going by the postings on his page at myspace) he would appear to be making a recovery from his tragic illness.

Friday 9th March saw something of a world exclusive in the review pages of The Scotsman newspaper, with journalist (and self-confessed Edwyn fanatic) Mike Gilson managing to get the first telephone interview with Edwyn since he has hospitalized just over two years ago.

Sadly, the web pages of The Scotsman don’t allow just anyone to go and read any pieces that appear in any of their supplements, so I can’t provide a link to the article. Nor would I be so crass to photocopy the article, which covers two full tabloid-sizes pages, and post it out to anyone who asks for it via an e-mail. Nor will I run the risk of the copyright lawyers coming down hard on me. But I will try and give you a flavour of what appeared.

The first half of the article was a bit of a scene-setter, presumably on the assumption that most of the newspaper’s regular readers wouldn’t know too much about Edwyn, Postcard Records or Orange Juice. And it was actually an excellent overview and assessment of his career from 1982 to 1997. Then the truly harrowing and at times heart-breaking stuff begins from the point that Edwyn fell ill in February 2005. What follows is not for the squeamish…..

He was struck by two major cerebral haemorrahages at home and a stroke that left him paralysed down the right side. Rushed to hospital, doctors had to perform emergency brain surgery to save his life. While recuperating, Edwyn contracted the often deadly MRSA bug and needed further emergency surgery in which part of his cranium was removed.

The result of all this was that Edwyn developed aphasia, a neurological disorder that damages the part of the brain concerned with language. To put it bluntly, he couldn’t speak, read or write; he couldn’t understand speech and he lost his thought processes.

Furthermore, the right hand side of his body had no feeling in it. His right arm was useless. It took until August 2005 before he could even get out of bed at the hospital.

Much of the interview that Mike Gilson obtained was was with Grace Maxwell, Edwyn’s wife (and manager) of many years, who explained, often in graphic detail, but with incredible wit and humour, the process of gradual recovery. Edwyn had to start everything in his life again from scratch – walking, talking, understanding and writing. Sometimes his memory seems fine, other days it’s a complete blank. He’s still got no use in his right arm, so now if he gets an urge to try the guitar, Grace and Edwyn sit side-by-side - she strums and he plays the chords. Edwyn’s son Will – who I poignantly remember being present at the last gig that I saw Edwyn play back in August 2004 (The Venue, Edinburgh as part of T on The Fringe) – has also played a huge part in the recovery process, by introducing his old man to computers and the afore-mentioned myspace site.

The handful of paragraphs that cover Mike Gilson’s actual conversation with Edwyn left me with mixed emotions . Edwyn sings the praises of Grace and Will and mentions some of the things that have happened in his career. But the description is of a man who speaks in short sentences who repeats himself a lot.

I’ve a young godson who suffered brain damage and was left blind at the age of 5 and also had to start all over again. Ten years on from that accident, my godson is a lot better, but he too speaks in short sentences and often repeats himself and I couldn’t help but draw comparisons, and there were tears in my eyes as I got towards the end of the piece. It's clear that Edwyn's health is improving, but we can't kid ourselves that he's soon going to be back to the way he was before he was struck down.

Having said all that, there was confirmation that a new Edwyn album could very well be imminent. Just before he fell ill, Edwyn had more or less finished the follow-up to Dr Syntax, his 2002 release. In recent months, he has gone into his own studio and re-visited the project with his friend and collaborator of many years, Seb Lewsley.

The tapes have now been mastered, and the feelers put out for a new record deal and it is possible that the work will come out in the summer of 2007. It’s quite clear that Edwyn won’t be able to promote it in any meaningful way, so my biggest wish for 2007 that he would soon be well enough to go back on the road has been dashed. Indeed, no-one is looking beyond just getting the new record out and into the shops and seeing what happens then.

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - If You Could Love Me

From the 1994 LP Gorgeous George. Buy it here.

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - A Means Towards An End

From the 1990 LP Hellbent On Compromise. Buy it here.

A Means Towards An End was co-written with Paul Quinn, who later re-recorded it - twice.

mp3 : Paul Quinn & The Independent Group - Passing Thought (version 1)
mp3 : Paul Quinn & The Independent Group - Passing Thought (version 2)

Version 1 is on the Stupid Thing EP, released in 1992 and was produced by Edwyn Collins.

Version 2 is on the Will I Ever Be Inside Of You LP released in 1994.

I can never make up my mind which version I prefer. More Paul Quinn related stuff tomorrow.