THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS

I've been going through hell trying to come up with a subject for my first Sunday posting.

Especially after last week's tour de force by Dick van Dyke. How can I entertain you like that?

Or how can I communicate even a fraction of the conviviality and passion that JC demonstrates daily?

I've been wracking my brain, recalling every fragment of my musical make-up, and trying to figure out exactly what this blogging business is all about. What do you folks come here for? Is it the music or the words? Or is it the good company?

Should I be true to the title at the top of the page, and delve into the metres of vinyl upstairs in the spare bedroom? Almost certainly yes... but what?

OK, here goes. The first band I ever saw, that's a good start.

Not including a couple of family outings to see the Spinners (the ones from Liverpool not Detroit), it was The Go-Betweens supporting Aztec Camera at Birmingham Odeon on October 10, 1984. I was 14.

I didn't know who the Go-Betweens were. On a large stage viewed from a seat high in a balcony, two men with guitars swapped the lead vocal. The songs were wistful and melodic. I remember Part Company and Bachelor Kisses, but the one that stayed in my head for years was Five Words. Maybe because of the interaction between the two voices. Bury them, don't keep 'em.

Overall, though, the night was underwhelming, lacking the excitement that I'd anticipated, a too-gentle introduction to live music.

Twenty years later, I was fortunate enough to meet Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, and I recalled my first concert. "Ah yes," said Robert Forster, like an absent-minded professor pulling a dusty tome from a high shelf, "I remember that one. Gary Glitter was there." Gary Glitter was there?! Gary Glitter was at my first concert??!! But that was all he said on the subject.

I remember it was difficult to get to the concert. I wasn't allowed to take the bus and my mother wasn't prepared to drive into the city in the evening. Luckily a friend of hers volunteered.

mp3 : Go-Betweens - Five Words (Peel Session)

Which brings us to the present, a quarter of a century and several hundred gigs later, and it's difficult all over again.

On Thursday night my wife and I had tickets to see Natalie Merchant in Glasgow. The children were in bed, our coats were on, but there was no sign of the babysitter. Cue much panic and despair, until a neighbour was kind enough to fill in. We just about got there, a couple of songs in.

Like being back at school, getting to a gig is once more an achievement, a major production. Something rare, to be cherished.

And what a great concert this was: surprising, moving, hilarious. The beauty of her voice, the emotion of the songs, offset by a wicked frivolity, as she insulted the audience, laughed uncontrollably and forced her musicians to play songs they'd never played before as she danced in rings around them.

mp3 : Natalie Merchant - Golden Boy

Earlier this week, I was flicking through the new edition of Uncut. I came across a review of the reissues of Galaxie 500 's three albums (on Domino, like the forthcoming reissues of Orange Juice's Polydor albums). These were records which meant a lot to me, but I haven't heard them in years. I settled down expecting to read the kind of breathless, rhapsodic prose that the band used to inspire in reviewers, but I was surprised to see only three stars for each album.

"You're never sure," writes David Cavanagh, "what you'll find when you revisit a band 20 years after you went in separate directions. Naive maps of the past, perhaps, or Proustian chills as Galaxie 500 walk across your grave. It's unfair to ask once-precious music to retain its life-or-death significance after two decades..."

Is it?

It's for an answer to this question that I regularly come to TVV. Can the music of my youth be as good as I remember? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

And can music - old and new - still inspire and unite?

Because, let's face it, we're all getting on.

Still, youth is just a state of mind. And Galaxie 500 still do it for me with this track...

mp3 : Galaxie 500 - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

which inevitably took me back to the original...

mp3 : The Modern Lovers - Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste

I hadn't imagined that I was going to post any of these tracks. None of them have exactly been constant fixtures in my life. But today they all sound great. Next month I'll plan it out in advance - and hopefully relax - but for now, did I get away with it?

Cullenskink, Sunday 31 January 2010

THE 11 SINGLES BY HIS OTHER LESSER-KNOWN BAND (Part 3)

Flop single #7 in a series of 11 released between 1998 and 2003.

I really dont know which of the many thousands of line that David Gedge has written in hius quite amazing career is my particular favourite. A lot depends on the sort of mood I'm in when listening to his singing and playing. But this, I'll argue, is a touch of genius:-

I know what this is all about
The wine goes in and the truth comes out

It's yet another song of a love gone badly wrong. This time the bloke in question can't quite work out how anyone can possibly make his other half happy. Not even the comic book hero.....

mp3 : Cinerama - Superman

Anyone familair with the work of The Wedding Present and/or Cinerama will know all too well how fond they have been of turning their hand to cover versions over the years. Well, one of the two songs made available on the CD single had a stab at a piece of supreme cheese-balladry from the 70s while the other is a track that deserved far more than a mere b-side:-

mp3 : Cinerama - Yesterday Once More
mp3 : Cinerama - Starry Eyed

Incidentally, having previously released songs sung in French, David decided to have a go in Spanish with a 7" single on green vinyl:-

mp3 : Cinerama - Superman (Spanish Version)

And as if that wasn't enough, there was a new recording of the hugely popular LP track Hard, Fast & Beautiful with a live English intro that soon transforms itself into something quite different:-

mp3 : Cinerama - Dura, Rapida Y Hermosa

Happy Listening.

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE....WITH GREAT SCOTTISH SINGLES (11)

Between calling themselves Captain America and ripping off the logo from a chain store, it cant come as too much of a surprise that all sorts of injunctions soon forced changes and led to this 1992 single being deleted very very quickly.

Captain America arose from the ashes of The Vaselines, a band that comprised the male duo of Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee and one that really did fit into the definition of 'cult but largely unknown'. That was until the day that Kurt Cobain started telling all and sundry that they were a huge influence on Nirvana. Indeed the famous MTV Unplugged appearance by Nirvana saw them perform cover versions of two songs originally written and recorded by The Vaselines.

Eugene Kelly performed with Nirvana on stage at the 1991 Reading Festival and then subsequently he was asked to bring his new band on the road as support to the rock superstars as they criss-crossed the globe.

The name Captain America, and the use of the red, white and blue colours, led to Marvel Comics making all sorts of threats against the band, and after just two EPs in November 1991 and April 1992 they decided to avoid further controversy by changing their name to Eugenius.

The Cobain endorsement however, didn't lead to any success, and after two LPs and three singles under the Eugenius moniker, none of which came near the charts, the band called it a day.

I reckon Flame On, which hit the shops for a short time in April 1992, is one of the great lost singles of the era. To my ears, it's the perfect offspring of a breeding exercise involving Seattle grunge and Bellshill harmonic pop. Nirvana meets Teenage Fanclub in other words.....

mp3 : Captain America - Flame On
mp3 : Captain America - Buttermilk
mp3 : Captain America - Indian Summer

This is another song that I first became aware of thanks to Jacques the Kipper shoving it on a compilation C90 cassette tape way back in the days. I never got round to actually buying the thing, but I did pick up a second-hand copy the other day specifically for inclusion in this series.

Happy Listening.

FROM THE ARCHIVES....

I'm conscious that more people have discovered TVV over the past 12 months or so than ever before, and it's a very fair bet that not many go back too far in the archives, especially as the mp3s attached to the writing have long been made unavailable.

There's a few of the early posts that I remain quite proud of for one reason or another - others make me squirm a little bit as I've gone out on a limb to make a bold prediction that subsequently turns out to be well wide of the mark, or else I go on at length about a song that within a few weeks I end up being bored with myself. I'm also amazed that I actually made so little music available....it was usually just one mp3 per feature in the earliest days.

But with your indulgence dear readers, I'm going to dig back into the archives every now and again and re-post something in its entirety, including the image that I used last time out. Today's blast from the past was just the 70th posting on TVV (the count is now well above 1,000).

THE NATION'S SAVING GRACE

Last week it was Morrissey who made a long-overdue debut on the blog. This week it is the band dominated by the mercurial, (isn’t that always the adjective that you have to apply?), talents of Mark E. Smith.

I’m referring of course to The Fall.

I’ll be honest – I wasn’t someone who loved this band from the outset. I did hear them on John Peel time after time, but I didn’t quite ‘get it.’ And things weren’t helped by my first live experience of the band back in late 1982 (it might have been early 83) at Night Moves in Glasgow.

I’d gone along to see the Cocteau Twins but stayed on to watch the main act, which turned out to be The Fall. It was a pretty poor gig – the sound was all over the place and the band were not even talking to one another far less having any communication with the audience. Thankfully, it turned out to be a short event (maybe 30 mins at the most), and then there was an hour or so of ‘indie-disco’ to send everyone home in a good mood.

So I more or less ignored them for a while. But a couple of years later, a move to a new record label – and a crucial change in personnel – led to the release of a run of records that were easier to listen to, and to the horror of the hip-priests, The Fall got radio-friendly with a broader appeal. I started paying attention again.

With a recording history going back almost 30 years, featuring dozens of singles, EPs and albums, there’s plenty to choose from. But I’m sticking with a song that has turned into something quite personal in recent years.

I’ve been lucky in that almost all of my close friends are still alive. But there is one who passed away a couple of years ago after a long illness, and I do think of him every now and again. Especially at this time of year.

This is for AGF. And while he would have abhorred The Fall – he was a classical music buff – he would have been very amused that there is a song out there that makes me think of him every time I hear it.

mp3 : The Fall – Edinburgh Man

It’s a 1991 release, originally on the LP Shift-Work. It’s also available on a multitude of compilations, but surprisingly not on 50,000 Fall Fans Can’t Be Wrong – 39 Golden Greats which is pretty much indispensable.

Click here for a comprehensive list of all recordings made by the band.

JC, FRIDAY 22 DECEMBER 2006

Oh and I also provide a link to the then active Video Villain blog where I had made this available:-

MARK E SMITH READS THE CLASSIFIED FOOTBALL RESULTS



Strange, but true

SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA LET THE RHYTHM TAKE CONTROL...

It was back in the Autumn of 1999 that I first came across Basement Jaxx, thanks to the single Red Alert being played in all the pubs and clubs I found myself traipsing into on the Costa Del Sol while on a golfing holiday with a crowd of mates.

Now I've never been someone who has dismissed dance music as 'not for me', but to be honest I don't have that much of the genre in the collection. But Red Alert had become such an integral part of the week that I set out to track it down on my return to Glasgow.

In the end, I bought the LP Remedy and found that there was an awful lot to like about the dance act Indeed, not long after they played a show at Glasgow Barrowlands and I dragged Mrs Villain along and we had a right good time despite being among the oldest folk in the venue, and that more than anything else convinced me that Felix and Simon were well worth keeping an eye on.

Since then, we've gone along to see them on three more occasions and never been disappointed, although it's fair to say that the shows at the Barowland outshone those at the Academy, mainly due to the sound at the latter venue often being problematic. They're an act that always get me off my seat and onto the dance floor - as can be testified by Sunday Correspondent John Greer who somewhere has video footage of myself and Mrs Villain dancing to Red Alert at his 40th Birthday party a number of years ago....the icing on the cake being it was a fancy dress bash and we were there as Austin Powers and Felicity Shagwell.

But of all their songs that I've liked over the years, the second single lifted from the album Rooty, released in 2000, is the one I reckon is most timeless. It's a near perfect mix of pop and dance with a really infectious hook all the way through which was well deserving of its #6 placing in the UK singles charts:-

mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Romeo (radio edit)
mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Bongoloid
mp3 : Basement Jaxx - Camberwell Skies

Happy Listening.

ANYONE GOT ANY FURTHER INFO ON THIS?

Yesterday's posting on Tindersticks leads to try and find out a bit more about a 10" EP that sits in the cupboard - something that I picked up on e-bay a few years ago when I acquired my first USB turntable and then set out to track down bits of long-lost vinyl as well as maybe a few other odds'n'sods.

I bought this EP simply as it had a track on it by Tindersticks that to the best of my knowledge wasn't available elsewhere. I didn't pay all that much for it - £5 including postage if memory serves me right - and in exchange I got something that is so mint it doesn't appear to have ever been played.

It turns out that the EP was something that came with a magazine called Purr, a short-lived venture that ran to just five editions in the early-mid 1990s. Crawling round the internet, I've established that , and I quote:-

Purr magazine was created and published by Simon Henwood in the early nineties. It was was distributed all over the world and became a small cult phenomena. The last issue appeared in 1995.

Henwood went on to publish Alice magazine and coordinate a series of exhibitions and conferences on the influences of childhood in art and the media.

Purr was the first magazine to attempt to combine art, comics , music and literature under one umbrella. Well known and up and coming Artists, Musicans and Writers were invited to collaborate with each other on projects for the magazine.

Each of the five issues feature in-depth interviews with as diverse subjects as Edward Gorey, James Ellroy and Russ Meyer.

Each issue of Purr was accompanied by (the now extremely rare) 10inch vinyl recordings.

Further digging tells me that Simon Henwood is nowadays a highly-rated and regarded director of pop promos, and his work with Kanye West on Love Lockdown in 2008 saw him nominated for all sorts of awards as well as leading to his appointment in 2009 as creative director for Rhianna.

The reverse of the sleeve for this EP makes for intriguing reading:-

CAPTURED HEREIN ARE FOUR CRIMES OF PASSION!

LOVE, LUST, REVENGE AND BETRAYAL. FOUR PERFECT BEDFELLOWS. WHILE THAT 'OLE BLUE MOON IS STILL UP IN THE SKY, THE STARS SHINE DOWN LIKE DIAMONDS AND THE WIND CALLS YOUR NAME...

ANGEL OR DEVIL. WHICH ARE YOU?

THE QUEEN OF HEARTS IS DANCING WITH THE ACE OF SPADES, WITCHCRAFT IS IN THE AIR. WHO WILL BE LUCKY TONIGHT? WHO WILL THE NEXT FOOL BE?

SHUFFLE THE PACK AND PRESS PLAY...

mp3 : Tindersticks - The Girl On Death Row
mp3 : Strangelove - Wolf's Story
mp3 : The God Machine - The Devil Song
mp3 : Breed - Diamonds Are Forever

It also seems that each edition of the record was limited to 1500 copies (mine is stamped as # 0589), but I'm not sure if that was the case for the magazine.

As I say at the outset....anyone else able to add to the story?

Thanks.

I'M HEADING INTO MY LOCAL INDIE RECORD STORE.....

.....where I hope to get my hands on Falling Down A Mountain, the 8th studio album by Tindersticks which is due for release today.

I've been a fan of this lot since I first heard them back in 1993, and I must have seen them play live on at least 15 occasions, including one memorable open-air event in the splendour of Somerset House in London. On that evening, Concorde could be spotted in the sky above the venue as it made its approach to Heathrow Airport....but it seemed as if it was making a special fly-by in honour of one of the UK's most innovative bands.

I'm not going to claim that I've entirely enjoyed every single thing they've ever released - some of the more jazzy and soulful tunes just leave me a little bit cold - but some of their songs, particularly those with orchestral and string arrangements, are among my all time favourites.

I'm really looking forward to the new record, as to all intent and purposes, it's going to be the first by Tindersticks MkII. The band more or less came to a halt as a collective not long after the tour to promote 2003's Waiting For The Moon and the only studio LP released since then, The Hungry Saw from 2008 featured just three of the original line-up. Crucially from this particular fan's perspective, the departure of Dickon Hinchcliffe, the violinist, occasional vocalist but the man who arranged the brass and string parts on the records, seemed like a blow Tindersticks couldn't really recover from as The Hungry Saw was lacking a certain spark. The remaining band members seem to have recognised this and have added some more permanent members, including the highly regarded Irish singer/songwriter David Kitt who has enjoyed considerable solo success in his homeland, in an effort to get more of a band feeling rather than say a Stuart Staples solo effort.

Many of the preview reviews have been quite positive, and while that doesn't necessarily count for anything in the grand scheme of things, it is heartening that so many are predicting a return to form.

And in celebration, here's tracks taken from two official bootleg CDs from gigs in 2001 that were made available at the merchandising stall at subsequent tours and a track from the new LP that has kindly been made widely available on-line by the band and their new Label 4AD:-

mp3 : Tindersticks - Tiny Tears (live : Brussels, May 2001)
mp3 : Tindersticks - Bathtime (live : Lisbon, October 2001)
mp3 : Tindersticks - Black Smoke

Tune in tomorrow for another Tindersticks rarity among other things.....

Happy Listening.

THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

IT'S NOT AS BAD AS 1947....

Whilst discussing this fearsome winter we’re having, my old mum was telling me of how bad the snow was in 1947, and how she had met my dad - who had dug for hours to rescue her from the cut-off Co-op in Cleckheaton. From Blitz to blizzards, you could say.

It got me thinking that thankfully, I too have personal romantic, quixotic wintry stories I can regale upon my descendants in the years to come:

1981/1982 – Leeds General Infirmary. Over New Year.

Chronic pilonidal sinus

*Pilonidal Sinus - an infected tract under the skin between the cleft of the buttocks. An abscess (ball of pus and surrounding infection) develops around the offending in-growing hair follicles.

The cheating pride I felt when the screens closed and the medical students gathered around my bed to be shown the scarlet, deep and open wound and the Consultant declared,

"Well ladies and gentlemen, it's certainly the biggest I've ever seen'. I bit my pillow and whimpered.

My fellow patients looked at me with renewed admiration after that. Except old Stan - who had died in his bed earlier that day – not long after the two of us had discussed Thatcher's Britain and the recent miserable Winter of Discontent.

“Not as miserable as this fucker,” he’d sagely proffered as he coughed his heart up.

As he was covered with a sheet and trundled away on a trolley; his insides evidently riddled with cancer, I remember Hospital Radio playing “The Land of Make Believe” by Bucks Fizz.

“Run for the sun, old lad” I remember thinking to myself, as heads bowed around the old Victorian ward. The lift bell pinged. Next stop - Basement Mortuary.

My two drinking mates came to visit me on New Years Eve. All Blue Stratos and disco trousers, they brought me a NME, Sounds and a Shoot (probably still incorporating Goal). They winced, glanced at each other and shuffled uncomfortably on the NHS blue plastic chairs. The smells, the sights, and the sounds became all too much as, after what could only have been 10 mins - all barely without speaking - they stood up to go.

They left with me a Coke bottle half full of a Bacardi mix and disappeared into the night en route to The Victoria Pub. This old acquaintance was quickly forgot as they stampeded to a session of hand pulled ale, kissing drunken women and puffing a King Edward cigar. I looked down at my blood stained pyjama bottoms and wished them a Happy New Year. Bastards!

Fortunately, to help in bringing my true tales of winters past to life, we now have the Internet to show evidence of the ravages of a deep arse-crack wound. Gory slideshows through Google and post-surgery YouTube videos are readily available for the less squeamish 21st century grandchild to enjoy whilst bouncing upon my knee.

9/10 Jan 1982 - Gate Guard Duty, RAF Hereford.

Against Doctor’s orders, I heroically/stupidly discharge myself from the Infirmary and return to work. Britain had been in the grip of a vice-like winter not seen since 1963 (or 1947). Snow and ice were squeezing the country’s bollocks tightly. My 150 mile return-to-duty journey can only be completed by train - with 4 changes between Yorkshire and Herefordshire. 4 cans of Tennents lager barely calm the pain. The journey is rounded off by a back-seat bounce in a military Land Rover for the last 10 miles back to camp. (Funnily ironic that Pilonidal Sinus is also known as ‘Jeep’s Disease’!) I walk a la John Wayne just crossed The Prairie to the snow-bound Medical Centre.

Even with an arse packed with a foot of gauze ribbon, saline and lint, plucky Dickie carries out his 12 hour night shift duty on the main gate in the depths of western England. Twas -26 degrees that night. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England no less and, on that particular day, colder than the North Pole. Ironically, the RAF Station prepares for the planned visit of the intrepid explorer Sir Chris Bonington. We were all jolly excited to welcome a hero of such distinction.

As a spotty trainee in the Air Force, I was tasked with escorting the heroic mountain climber in his car down to the Station Theatre, where he was to give a Presentation on his conquest of Mount Everest.

I recall that en route from Main Gate to Theatre, ‘Don’t You Want Me’ by The Human League came on his car radio.

“This ’synthypop’ is the future of music, dear boy” declared the bearded explorer Sir Chris. Barely had the song finished, when we became stuck in an almighty snowdrift. Stoic resilience and enduring fortitude stand for fuck all when you’re trapped in a 1977 Volvo Estate .. sans crampons and a rope. The 2 of us had to be rescued by 6 men and a snow plough.

Life’s fickle finger meant that although he’d recently conquered Kongur, ‘China's elusive summit’, we had somehow come a cropper outside the NAAFI in Credenhill!

His reputation as a pathfinder was shattered, although his balding-tyred Volvo should carry much of the blame. Tormented by the tundra, we recovered with a mulled cider and Cornish pastie.

Through it all, I’d like to think that Sir Chris’s opinion of new wave, avante-gard, electro-dance pop remains untarnished to this day. (Although I do accept that Chris may now have musically evolved - and moved on to Beatbox Hip-Hop and Gangsta Rap).

Bizarrely, all of the above is absolutely true.

And don't get me started on the winter of 1963 and the midwife’s snowbound Bubble Car!

mp3 : Bucks Fizz – Land Of Make Believe
mp3 : Human League - Don't You Want Me
mp3 : Manfred Mann – Mighty Quinn
mp3 : The Gentle Waves - Falling From Grace



Dick van Dyke, Sunday 24 January 2010


Editor's note......The main location for the video is a very well-known Glasgow landmark!

AH....BUT HOW MANY BOUGHT IT FOR THE B-SIDE????

Released in October 1985, See The Day by D.C. Lee sold more than 250,000 copies and climbed to #3 in the UK singles chart. This was at a time when The Style Council were at their most popular having enjoyed a run of hit singles and two top selling albums in Cafe Bleu and Our Favourite Shop.

D.C. Lee was an integral part of The Style Council, and indeed by 1985 was the partner and soon to be wife of Paul Weller - it was all a long way removed from her first brush with fame as a backing singer with Wham!

At the time, I wasn't all that impressed with See The Day. I thought then that it was a lumpen, messy and over-produced ballad, and so it wasn't a single that I set out to get a hold of. But I couldn't resist paying 99p for it in a second hand shop a few weeks back and giving it a spin almost 25 years on to see if I had changed my mind. I haven't.

mp3 : D.C. Lee - See The Day

As I hint in the title of this post, I've a feeling a lot of TSC fans bought this because of the b-side. It featured all the other members of the band performing one of their most popular tunes - a song that had previously featured vocals by Tracey Thorn on the Cafe Bleu LP and then by Weller himself on the b-side to Long Hot Summer - and now it was the turn of Diane Catherine Sealy:-

mp3 : D.C. Lee - The Paris Match

Musically, it's not far removed from the version that featured Weller on vocals, but overall, all it does is confirm for me that while she is a fine singer, she isn't truly instinctive enough to stand out from the crowd. I'm probably damning her with faint praise to say that if she was waiting to be discovered nowadays, she would probably get a fair way on the X-Factor.....but not be the winner.

Incidentally.....time to nail a wee bit of an urban myth. I've read in some places that Paul Weller played drum on See The Day. He didn't. Instead it was Paul Waller, who was a member of jazz-pop combo Animal Nightlife....

Happy Listening.

IT'S FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE....WITH GREAT SCOTTISH SINGLES (10)

Last week the series looked at the worldwide solo hit of Edwyn Collins and pondered on its significance in the grander scheme of thing of things. I just wish that this week I could look at a similarly successful effort by The Delgados, but they just never did make the commercial breakthrough their efforts over the years richly deserved.

The Delgados are probably the most important band to emerge from Scotland over the past two decades for the simple fact that without them we wouldn't have had the label Chemikal Underground without which we would never have been able to hear so many other great musical acts.

There is a very good and concise entry on the band over at wikipedia right here, and among other things, it provides an extensive discography of the LPs, EPs and singles across a career that lasted just over a decade.

You can still get your hands on a lot of their product from the excellent Chemikal Underground website, as well as all sorts of goodies by some of the other best acts to emerge from my neck of the woods in recent times. And later this month, the 15th Anniversary of the label is going to be celebrated with a special show at the Glasgow ABC, and if anyone fancies going along, tickets can be got hold of here.

There are plenty of excellent 45s by The Delgados that could easily find a place on this roll of honour, but in the end I've plumped for one that was released in 2000 and is a different version of a track that first appeared on the LP The Great Eastern, a body of work that most fans consider to be their finest.

mp3 : The Delgados - No Danger (Kids Choir)
mp3 : The Delgados - The Choices You've Made
mp3 : The Delgados - Don't Sleep

Oh and there was a truly memorable video made.



Happy Listening.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE??

According to wikipedia, The Cure have released 41 singles from Killing An Arab in 1978 to The Perfect Boy exactly 30 years later. But I would never have guessed that Lullaby was the one that performed the best in the UK singles chart when it crawled its way up to #5 in 1989.

I would have put a fair amount of money that The Lovecats was the holder of that title, but it only scratched its way to #7 in 1983, although I'm guessing that it in fact outsold Lullaby.

And even if you told me that the biggest success wasn't The Lovecats, I'd have then place whatever was left of my cash on Friday I'm In Love, but this only swooned its way to #6 in 1992.

So the best performing 45 turns out to be the one about the creepy and haunting tale of an eight-legged creature that frightened Robert Smith is in his nightmares as a youngster. Or, is in fact the song, as has been suggested in some places, really about drug addiction and dependency but written in such a way that it gets past the censors at the BBC for the all important airplay?

Either way, I think its one of the most inventive arrangements to feature on any record by The Cure, and I've dug out the 12" single from the cupboard for you all to enjoy once more along with two rather decent b-sides:-

mp3 : The Cure - Lullaby (extended mix)
mp3 : The Cure - Babble
mp3 : The Cure - Out Of Mind

And here's the very memorable promo:-

Happy Listening

RARE, LONG-DELETED 1991 CD ALBUM FEATURING EXCLUSIVE AND UNRELEASED RECORDINGS...

A wee cheat here......the sleeve above is that of the CD released in the USA. The UK version was red instead of green.....

Yup, despite there being a few Billy Bragg compilations over the years, not to mention 2 x Boxsets, most of the tracks that he recorded for various John Peel Sessions can only be found on this particular CD.

There's 19 songs in all, from six sessions recorded in between 1983 and 1988, and feature songs from each of his first four albums, cover versions and at least one song which I believe has only been made available on this CD. I also find that I enjoy some of these versions more than the more familiar ones released on studio albums....but I might be alone in that.

See what you make of these:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg - A New England (Peel Session - July 1983)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - Lovers Town (Peel Session - February 1984)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - Which Side Are You On? (Peel Session - September 1984)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - Jeanne (Peel Session - August 1985)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - Greetings To The New Brunette (Peel Session - September 1986)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - The Short Answer (Peel Session - August 1988)

And aren't the words 'Between Marx and Marzipan in the dictionary there was Mary' one of the most wonderful opening lines ever written? And isn't it from one of the most heart-breaking songs ever committed to record??

Well, I think so. Still has the ability to bring a lump to my throat.

Happy Listening.

LET'S RAAAAAWWWWWWKKK

Sometimes I fall for something that isn't quite what folk who know expect of me. Such was the case back in Y2K when the heavy rotation of some promo videos on MTV2 expanded my horizons. (I had only just got a satellite dish installed and was amazed that there was a music video channel that played non-chart fodder). There was also a great wee 45 minute show on Sunday nights that was presented by a little-known fella from New Zealand by the name of Zane Lowe......

Anyways, I ended picking up what seems now to be a hard-to-get-hold-of CD by Queens Of The Stone Age. It came, as the image indicates, with a bonus disc of 5 songs plus a CD-ROM video.

If the truth be told, it's not an album I play all that often nowadays, but I still think the two singles are fantastic, and I've also a very soft spot for one of the tracks on the bonus disc for the fact that it plays nicely on an old hippy hit by Carly Simon away back when I was just a child. And here they are:-

mp3 : Queens Of The Stone Age - Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret
mp3 : Queens Of The Stone Age - Feel Good Hit Of The Summer
mp3 : Queens Of The Stone Age - You're So Vague

More songs tomorrow from another CD that I'm led to believe is hard-to-get-hold-of.

Happy Listening.

I WON'T SAY NO....HOW COULD I?

It's kind of a lazy post, but three requests that emerged from last week's posting on The The are well worth it if you want my opinion.

Son Of The Rock mentioned that he had been surprised a few weeks back when one of my contributions to the Contrast Podcast had featured this :-

mp3 : The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - Television, The Drug Of The Nation

An utterly beguiling and amazing piece of music from 1992 with lyrics that if anything are even more relevant 18 years on. Incidentally, I only have the version that was released on the LP Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury. If anyone has the remix versions that were made available on the single, I'd love to hear from you.

SotR also mentioned that, and I quote, "it would be peachy" if I posted the 12" version of a song whose clarinet intro I had raved about. Glad to oblige:-

mp3 : Soft Cell - Say Hello Wave Goodbye (12 inch version)

Finally, Davis McArdle having enjoyed the 12" version of Perfect said he was going to renew his efforts to find the track that was on the b-side of the 12" of This Is The Day. You should have just asked amigo.....

mp3 : The The - I've Been Waitin' For Tomorrow (All Of My Life) (Special Mix)

This was another piece of vinyl that I picked up in Canada two and a bit years back. It was something I knew existed but had never seen. The price was $7.95 (the sticker is still on the sleeeve). I still reckon I got away with a bit of daylight robbery....

Happy Listening.

PS

Just after putting the above words together, someone by the name of djethell left a comment on a posting from way back in mid 2007 and asked if I wouldn't mind replaying this:-

mp3 : Scritti Politti - Faithless (Triple-Hep N' Blue)

Happy to be of service.

THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

Welcome to the second in the new series which features guest postings from a small team of correspondents. Today's words of wisdom come from The Sense Collective, a long-time acquaintance who unbeknown to me was leaving behind comments based on a name that is both a tribute to a wonderful collection of musicians and which reflect that TSC himself was born in the Kingdom of Fife.

"PAGE OF ASCENT"

If someone gives you free rein to “write an article that’s something to do with music”, where do you start? I would think that anyone who reads this blog will have a thousand stories to tell about music and what it means to them. However, it doesn’t feel right to dive straight in with a Head Of David, Crispy Ambulance or Sudden Sway track without doing a bit of scene setting.

I don’t get to as many gigs as I used to in my younger days, in fact, if truth be told, the fingers on one hand would be sufficient for the counting in a year. So that takes one of the parameters out of the equation. I’m not much of a devourer of music DVDs either, so the only musical influence I get from the box in the corner of the room is Later, the odd 4Music clip and the footage from the big summer festivals. (And I still haven’t caught up with all the Glastonbury and T In The Park stuff yet!)

Life with a young family is a lot more complicated than it used to be. So one way, and perhaps the simplest way to start this project, would be to base it on one of the following themes:

• First record
• Favourite record
• Most influential record

I don’t think I’ll answer any of these as it happens. The answer to the first one by the way is When by Showaddywaddy. Look, I was 9 when that came out ok! However, I don’t think any of you will thank me for talking about that.

The second one is tough, but if pushed, I’d go for Kennedy by The Wedding Present. Hmm, well maybe one day I’ll come back to that one.

So what do I consider the most influential record of my life?

Well, up to the point, I bought the record in question, pretty much all of my musical knowledge came from the charts. Indeed, luckily for me, this record itself made the charts, or things might have turned out very differently. So, the record which changed what I listened to from that moment on, was Blue Monday. That led me back to Joy Division and from that to The Velvet Underground, The Fall etc. etc.

So, Blue Monday it is then…?

Well no, actually, it’s just so overplayed and everybody knows all there is to know about it. Urban myths included. But I’m going to stick with New Order.

My adoration grew one night, while listening to Peel. “The next track” he said “is by New Order”. I dived for the record button on my mono clock/radio/tape recorder. Things are a little hazy now, but I still have the tape somewhere. At the end, Peel comes back in and says “New Order - The Circle Is Unbroken”. Then the recording stops.

For months, I looked for this New Order track. You can imagine how difficult this was given the lack of an internet and the famously taciturn approach of Factory records. When I had finally saved enough to pay full price for an LP, I bought New Order’s second album; Power, Corruption & Lies. I popped the vinyl on the turntable and lo and behold, the first track was the long lost “The Circle Is Unbroken”, or should I say Age Of Consent.

mp3 : New Order - Age Of Consent

So what was the track I’d mistaken for Age Of Consent all this while? I thought I’d solved the mystery a few years ago when I was convinced I heard a Johnny Cash track introduced by that title, however, a Google search has failed to turn up such a song. The item with most hits, is on an album of the same name by The Incredible String Band – a compilation of live and studio tracks between 1967 and 1972. It seems unlikely that that’s the missing track, but with John Peel you never know, I think he was into most things back then. So, if you can solve the mystery, I’d be only too pleased to hear from you.

Finally, the 2nd track I’ve picked, was one that Peel also played frequently on his programme. It was the one which told me that Power, Corruption & Lies was worth the investment. To this day I still recall what Peel said the first time I heard him play it. “It’s the twangy guitars that do it you know. First Duane Eddy knew it and now New Order know it.”

mp3 : New Order - Your Silent Face

Happy listening.

The Sense Collective. Sunday 17 January 2010

Editor's Note

When the piece was sent over to me, I mentioned to TSC that this wasn't in fact the first time Age Of Consent (which I happen to reckon is the greatest non-single New Order have ever recorded) had appeared on either this blog or the former video blog that I used to maintain. TSC kindly agreed that I could show this great piece of film from way way back in 1983:-



And back in November 2006, I shoved up a cover version and said "it takes a brilliant NO track and makes it sound like a completely different NO track - Your Silent Face anyone?"

Which makes it a nice way to round off today's guest posting.

mp3 : Neverending White Lights feat Nick Hexum - Age Of Consent

With thanks to Lisa from the much missed blog Copy,Right? for originally posting this track.

Oh and the track by Johnny Cash that mentions the circle being unbroken is Daddy Sang Bass, written by Carl Perkins and a huge hit in 1969......

SATURDAY'S KIDS

I'm not in the habit of giving plugs to up and coming singers or bands, but for two long-time blogging friends who reside in Edinburgh (but are originally not from the city), I'm prepared to make an exception.

(1) 17 Seconds Records

An offshoot of this long-established blog, 17 Seconds Records is the brainchild of Ed Jupp along with his business partner Laurent. Their first signing back in September 2008 was Aberfeldy, a wonderful indie-pop Scottish outfit who had previously released two LPs and a handful of singles on Rough Trade.

Since then, 17 Seconds has become the home of X-Lion Tamer, Escape Act, The Dirty Cuts, Chris Bradley, The Wildhouse and newest signing Factory Kids. So far, the label has released 12 bits of music/product, and in true Factory style, everything has a catalogue number:-

17SEC1 Aberfeldy 'Claire'/'Talk Me Round' 7" single/Download single October 2008

17SEC2 X-Lion Tamer 'Life Support Machine' Free Download December 2008

17SEC3 X-Lion Tamer 'Neon Hearts'/'Life Support Machine' Download Single March 2009

17SEC4 Escape Act 'God Says' EP download single June 2009

17SEC5 17 Seconds Records t-shirt July 2009

17SEC6A X-Lion Tamer 'Neon Hearts' CD EP September 2009

17SEC6B X-Lion Tamer 'I Said Stop' download single September 2009

17SEC7 Chris Bradley 'Bored Little Rosie'/'The Man I Love' download single October 2009

17SEC8 17 Seconds Records Night at the 13th Note, Glasgow on October 30, 2009. Poster designed by Chris Gillies (Dirty Cuts) October 2009

17SEC9 Escape Act 'Cabin Fever' download single November 2009

17SEC10 Chris Bradley 'At The Outpost' album to be released March 2010

17SEC11 The Wildhouse 'Precise Running Order -The Wildhouse Sampler' download November 2009

The next release is on 25th January and will be 2 Page Spread, the debut effort from The Dirty Cuts. And right behind that will be the 1 EP, the debut from Factory Kids, which you can get your hands on from 1st February and then the first full length, At The Outpost by Chris Bradley, LP will be out in March.

A number of the acts are also playing live gigs in Scotland and further afield on the coming months, and full details of everything that is going on can be found here.

mp3 : X-Lion Tamer - Life Support Machine
mp3 : The Wildhouse - Ficca
mp3 : Chris Bradley - The Man I Love

(2) Song, By Toad Records

If you ever do pop in to read the blog Song, By Toad, you'll know that Matthew Young spends an awful lot of time putting together great posts about all sorts of things musical, political, topical and farcical, most of which attract dozens of comments from a very loyal and highly articulate fanbase. All of that alone should, by rights, take up his time and energy, but on top of that, he holds down a full-time job, makes regular appearances on student radio stations, gives interviews to all sorts of media outlets AND he manages the aptly named Song, By Toad Records.

So far, Matthew has attracted has given us the chance to get a hold of product by six acts - eagleowl, Jesus H Foxx, Loch Lomond, Meursault, Nightjar, The Builders & The Butchers, and Uherskuy Brod. Some of the material has simply been demos, some are the UK releases of bands that are based in the states, while others are CDs and vinyl from some critically acclaimed Scottish acts. Again, all of the Song By Toad acts are regularly out on the road, and details of what's available and what's going on can be found at the blog and/or the website.

mp3 : eagleowl - Blackout
mp3 : Meursault - Salt Part 1
mp3 : Jesus H Foxx - I'm Half The Man You Were

I really am asking you not to just listen and leave it at that. If you like what you hear, please, please, please spend some money supporting these two great labels.

Thank You.

IT'S FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE....WITH GREAT SCOTTISH SINGLES (9)

Back in June 1995, Edwyn Collins enjoyed a huge hit in the UK with A Girl Like You. It climbed as high as #4, but it spent what seemed like the whole summer hanging around in the charts. More importantly, there was similar success in many European countries and further afield, not to mention a judicious use of the track on all sorts of compilation CDs for months and years to come.

The money Edwyn made, and indeed continues to make, from the song is more than the rest of his distinguished career put together. And its probably no exaggeration to claim that the use of these royalties helped, in a very big way, the recovery process Edwyn undertook in the wake of his life threatening illnesses. So for fans and admirers, this is probably one of the most important records ever made....

But what is often forgotten is that A Girl Like You was only a major hit second time around. It had initially been unleashed upon a largely uninterested public in October 1994 just a few weeks after the release of the LP Gorgeous George which was Edwyn's first new songs in four years. I say largely uninterested for it did in fact reach #42 in the singles chart which was higher than any other of the previous five singles released between 1987 and 1990...

I thought it would be worth digging out the original single, which was really an EP entitled Expressly, and featured the single, a remix version, a St Etienne remix of another of the LP tracks and an otherwise previously unavailable song.

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You (Macrame remix by Youth)
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Out Of This World (I Hear A New World) (St Etienne remix)
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Occupy Your Mind

Here's a wee clip from French TV:-



And yes, that is Paul Cook of Sex Pistols fame on the drums.

Happy Listening.

SO WHAT IF LUKE HAINES DOESN'T LIKE HIM....

I have to admit that I really cringed when I read the part in Luke Haines' supremely entertaining bio Bad Vibes... that dealt with a huge fall-out he had with Matt Johnson when The Auteurs were the support act for The The. It's brilliantly written but it leaves both protagonists looking like a pair of dickheads.

Now I know it's not essential that you necessarily have to like everything about your favourite musicians, authors, artists, sports stars and so on, but if they have very severe character defects it does make it all the harder. Reading what Haines felt about Johnson was quite uncomfortable, but hey....it's only one bloke's view and opinion and it doesn't detract from the fact that over a recording career that now stretches back some 30 years, a lot of the music written, recorded, produced and released by Matt Johnson is quite special (there's also been one or two follies along the way, but everyone is entitled to an error somewhere along the line).

I can never make up my mind which of the The The LPs is my particular favourite. Some days I rejoice in the glorious synth-pop of Soul Mining from 1983, while there are other days when the sheer beauty of some of the lyrics and guitar playing from Johnny Marr make me think that Dusk from a decade later is preferable. But then again, when I'm in one of my melancholy moods, I can be transported back to a time and a place when I wasn't entirely happy with my lot and the 1986 effort Infected was very much the soundtrack to my life. David Gedge may be the best songwriter about the pain from relationships, but Matt Johnson in 1986 perfectly captured fear, paranoia and isolation in a world that was far from secure and which right-wing zealots seemed keen to take to the brink of destruction.

But instead of looking at any of those, I've gone back even further in time, to the days of the early singles, different versions of which would ultimately appear on Soul Mining. And sitting in the cupboard is a 12" single that I found in a second-hand store in Toronto back in the summer of 2007 for the princely sum of $4. It doesn't have a picture sleeve (the illustration above is from the UK release). The bit of vinyl I have was released on Epic Records and brings together the full-length versions of two very early singles:-

mp3 : The The - Perfect
mp3 : The The - Uncertain Smile

Between them, the two songs run to a total of 19 minutes. Some of you might think that's just a bit self-indulgent, but they're never anything I get bored with. Indeed, have a listen to the first 45 seconds or so and see how much it reminds you of the fantastic clarinet work on the extended version of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye by Soft Cell.

And take this is as my contribution to the rest of the posts you'll find out there in blogworld moaning about the bloody cold weather. It is a chilly English winter and solitude is never easy to maintain.......

If you want to read a lot more about Matt Johnson and The The, then I can do no more than recommend a visit to one of the best official sites out there. It's called This Is The The Day and can be accessed by clicking here.

Happy Listening.

BOOK REVIEW : ROUTE 19 REVISITED - MARCUS GRAY

Being familiar with the work of Marcus Gray thanks to having bought and read his 1997 book It Crawled From The South : An R.E.M. Companion, I had an idea in advance that the 500+pages that comprised Route 19 Revisited : The Clash and London Calling would be packed with all sorts of facts, figures, information and trivia as well as some terrific insights into the making of an album that features in just about every critics list of greatest of all time.

Route 19 doesn't disappoint and believe me - it does a lot more than it simply says on the dustcover. Before analysing the 1979 LP, you can enjoy potted bios of the band members and some of the other key figures in their history as well as a look back at the albums and singles that appeared before they went into the studio to record London Calling. Afterwards there is an even better postscript - where even if you are very familiar with the post-Clash careers and lives of Mick, Joe, Paul and Topper you will come across sentences and paragraphs that give you a whole new insight.

Taking its title from a London bus route along which many of the songs were conceived, written and recorded (and a route name checked on the track Rudie Can't Fail), the heart of this excellent book lies with the 205 pages devoted to looking at every minute aspect of the songs that make up London Calling. Every lyric is dissected, every musical note and sound is analysed and all sorts of links and tangents are explored. Yes, sometimes you can get the feeling that some of the connections feel a touch contrived to make the song a better fit to some of the issues explored. And yes, being a non-musician I did get a bit bored now and again when the prose centres on the chord changes or the types of pedals/percussion used, but this has to be balanced against the opportunity afforded to learn about those who inspired many of the songs or who were responsible for writing the songs that The Clash covered. It also at times feels like a wonderful London travelogue....and made me want to jump on board the 19 bus.

In addition, Marcus Gray corrects a few long-held myths about some of the songs - and in particular highlights that some songs long attributed to Mick Jones were in fact largely the work of Joe Strummer. Stories of the the band's seemingly endless battles with their record label, both in the UK and USA, are explored in some detail - often within the context of a story on a particular song.

Oh and there's also a hugely entertaining sections about the design, artwork and photography which certainly made this particular reader appreciate just how important these things can be when it comes to the finished product of any record....

Route 19 Revisited is not a cheap buy - retailing at £20 - but if you shop around on the internet it can be obtained for a few quid less (and I'm guessing that many of the bigger bookstores will also have it at a discounted price). But if you're someone who likes London Calling, then you will soon appreciate that it is money well spent for this is a book that without any question adds to your listening experience.

mp3 : The Clash - Rudie Can't Fail
mp3 : The Clash - Clampdown

Happy Reading.

SOMETHING PROMPTED BY ONE OF YESTERDAY'S SONGS...

At the height of Britpop, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the Damon Albarn/Justinne Frischmann relationship. There are more than a few out there who think that her band Elastica would have been a bunch of nonentities if hadn't been for the connection (pardon the pun) with Blur. Personally, I think the run of four singles they had from 1993-1995, as well as the self-titled debut album from 1995 have dated quite well, and are well worth a listen every now and again even all these years on.

They ended up with three of their singles making the UK Top Twenty, the most successful of which was this:-

mp3 : Elastica - Waking Up

OK, the tune is a blatant rip-off of No More Heroes by The Stranglers, just as earlier hit Connection had an identical tune to that of Three Girl Rhumba by Wire. But they weren't the first band in the world to commit such an offence, nor would they be the last.

Waking Up got to #13 in early 1995, but was in many ways their last hurrah. The band were making the most of their success by constantly gigging in the UK, Europe and USA in 1995 and 1996. By the time they returned to the studio in late 96, they had lost one of their original members, had all fallen out with one another at one point or other and more or less stopped functioning as a group. It took the best part of four years for new material to emerge, by which time interest in all things Britpop had waned and their former fanbase had moved on.

Still, they were good in their heyday.

Here's yer b-sides:-

mp3 : Elastica - Gloria *
mp3 : Elastica - Car Wash
mp3 : Elastica - Brighton Rock

* taken from a John Peel show in 1994

Incidentally, did you know that Justine Frischmann was one of the co-writers of this chart hit a few years back:-

mp3 : M.I.A. - Galang

Happy Listening

MELLOW MONDAY

May 1994. Blur had just enjoyed their biggest chart hit to date with Girls & Boys. The song chosen as the follow-up single was a bit of surprise. Instead of taking the easy way out with another upbeat indie-pop number, the boys went for a very sad ballad, complete with lush orchestration and some lyrics that needed subtitles:-

mp3 : Blur - To The End

It climbed to #16 in the charts which was higher than most of the band's previous eight singles, but was probably something of a disappointment to all concerned at the time. The french vocal is provided by Latetitia Sadier from the wonderful Stereolab.

The single was released in 2xCD format, with one of the formats featuring a couple of non-album tracks:-

mp3 : Blur - Threadneedle Street
mp3 : Blur - Got Yer!

Both tracks are perhaps a little bit Blur by numbers, but that doesn't mean they are dull and boring. Got Yer! in fact must have been a candidate for inclusion on the LP Parklife as one of those odd little tracks that the band were fond of using to break up the pop songs.

Of much more interest was the fact that two versions of the Pet Shop Boys remix of Girls & Boys was made available on the other format:-

mp3 : Blur - Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 7" remix)
mp3 : Blur - Girls & Boys (Pet Shop Boys 12" remix)

Some 15 months later, an awful lot of people would find themselves owning a new, longer, lusher and more French version of To The End thanks to its inclusion as one of the tracks on the smash single Country House:-

mp3 : Blur - To The End (comedie)

This time the vocals were provided by the iconic chanteuse Francoise Hardy whose recording career stretches back to 1962. She was 50 years of age when she sang alongside Damon.

There was also a hugely atmospheric black and white promo made for this single. Mrs V thinks Damon looks quite fetching in it:-



Happy Listening. And Viewing.

THE SUNDAY CORRESPONDENTS

Welcome to the first in the new series which features guest postings from a small team of correspondents. Today's words of wisdom come from John Greer, currently residing in East Lothian in Scotland, but someone who was born and raised on the other side of the Forth Estuary in the Kingdom of Fife. And it focuses on someone never featured before on TVV......

“AN ARCHITECT OF SOUND...”

Paul Morley, writer, broadcaster, media icon and co-founder of ZTT Records has best described the contribution of Trevor Horn to the world of music:-

“If in the 60s, Phil Spector created a ‘wall of sound’, by the middle of the 80s Horn had already established his sound, a whole room of sound, the walls, floors, ceilings, doors, windows, decorated with absolute flourish. As an architect of sound, Horn is unashamedly an exhibitionist, an utter show off... He has proved time and time again that pop is an art form, and that he is the supreme pop artist.”

Trevor Horn began his professional career as a backing musician in the 1970s for chart star Tina Charles. One of the other members of her backing band was keyboard player Geoffrey Downes. Horn and Downes formed The Buggles in 1978 and their first single Video Killed the Radio Star went to number one throughout the world in 1979.

The same year, Horn added his production skills to The Jags hit single Back Of My Hand.

After a brief period as singer with progressive rock band Yes, Horn then had his first sustained run of production success with the pop band Dollar in 1981.

There was a run of Top 20 singles, all written by Trevor Horn. The four songs formed a love story : Hand Held in Black and White (the meeting), Mirror Mirror (the loving), Give Me Back My Heart (the break-up) and Videotheque (the postscript).

For me, Give Me Back My Heart is the perfect pop song, which shows off Horn’s production skills. Horn had used the super-cute cabaret pop duo Dollar to experiment and the result was a pop sound that was alluring. At this time, I was interested in music by Dexy’s Midnight Runners - but I found myself buying those Dollar singles and not caring about my street credibility.

Thankfully for my street cred, there were no headlines in the Fife Free Press local newspaper that read- "Man in Donkey Jacket buys Dollar single"

mp3 : Dollar - Give Me Back My Heart

This single reached #4 in the UK charts.

Following this run of success, Trevor Horn’s next big project was at the helm of ABC’s debut album The Lexicon of Love.

It was during the recording of this album that Horn first put together his key production team: Anne Dudley who provided the keyboards, orchestral arrangements and co-wrote some of the tracks while Gary Langan became chief engineer. There was also the use of the Fairlight CMI, the first digital music sampler that had been pioneered by Kraftwerk.

The Lexicon Of Love reached #1 in the UK charts and #24 in America. Four singles crashed into the UK Top Ten. while The Look of Love was also #1 in the American dance charts. The album remains a critical favourite and was recently acclaimed to be one of the 100 best albums of all time in the Q music magazine.

The Lexicon of Love is an album which I still listen to now and love. It is one of the finest albums from the ‘80’s with its Motown-ish white soul boy sounds and pop hooks. Horn’s production, aided by Anne Dudley’s arrangements of strings, horns and choirs and ABC’s clever song writing make it a classic.

mp3 : ABC - The Look Of Love

In the same year that he worked with ABC, Horn also produced and co-wrote two hit singles with Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch and Buffalo Gals. However, his greatest commercial success came with his next collaboration, Frankie Goes to Hollywood who he signed to his ZTT Record label after seeing a video of Relax on the Tube music programme.

Horn described the original version of Relax as more of a” jingle than a song”, but he worked his magic on it while Paul Morley implemented a marketing campaign that he described as a “strategic assault on pop” with an emphasis on the open homosexuality of band members Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford, including the sleeve of the single and promotional video.

Everything worked perfectly particularly after January 1984 when BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read publicly declared he would not play the single because of its record sleeve artwork and its lyrics.

Relax went to #1 in the UK and stayed there for 5 weeks.

Horn went on to win Brit Awards for Best Producer for 1983, 1985 and 1992, in America he won Rolling Stone’s Producer of the Year 1983.

Anne Dudley and Horn later started to produce their own musical output as Art of Noise, while he also wrote and produced the wonderful Slave to the Rhythm for Grace Jones. It is said that it took Horn six weeks to perfect the hi-hat sound on this epic.

mp3 : Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm

Over the years Trevor Horn has produced a wide variety of artists from all sorts of genres - Propaganda, Simple Minds, Pet Shop Boys, Tom Jones, Marc Almond, Seal, Belle & Sebastian and even Charlotte Church.

In 2002, he co-wrote and produced All the Things She Said for t.A.T.u. which became a worldwide hit.

In 2004, the Wembley Arena in London hosted an evening to celebrate Trevor Horn’s 25 years in music.

I started with a gushing quote from Paul Morley but it's probably not well-known that the writer wasn't always a fan. The first interview in 1979 at the time of The Buggles described Trevor Horn as:-

“A dustbin man of pop, picking up rubbish and redistributing it”

...and Morley concluded by recommending that Horn should listen to Public Image’s album Metal Box.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But 30 plus years on there can be no arguement that Trevor Horn is someone whose involvment with pop music has been influential, inventive and innovative. I'm proud to be a fan.

John Greer, Sunday 10 January 2009