I mentioned the other day about the appalling nature of the promo for Love Bomb, the one solo single in the career by Clare Grogan.
That got me thinking a wee bit more about promo videos and what was truly the worst that I'd ever seen by any of my favourite bands....and that in turn got me thinking of another way that I could be a lazy blogger.
I'm hoping that you will e-mail me your suggestions of great songs that have been let down by truly appalling promos and I'll then feature them here on TVV. The e-mail address is thevinylvillain@hotmail.co.uk
I'll kick things off with this.....
Now I know that Super Furry Animals weren't ever that bothered about their public image and being on Creation Records weren't given huge budgets for promos nor were they important in the bigger scheme of things. But dear god, surely they could have come up with something a bit more meaningful and appropriate to the song.
Indeed, it probably was a case of shooting themselves in the foot as the single, released in May 1999, reached #11 in the charts, the best showing they ever managed. If a decent promo had been made which could have been shown on mainstream telly on kiddies shows at the weekends for instance, then surely it would have gone at least Top 10. After all, there's no denying it's a belter of a tune:-
mp3 : Super Furry Animals - Northern Lites
mp3 : Super Furry Animals - Rabid Dog
mp3 : Super Furry Animals - This, That And The Other
The b-sides are well worth a listen......good examples of the pop and electronica and sides of the band. One could easily pass for Teenage Fanclub and the other reminds of some of the early stuff by Gorillaz......
Incidentally, here's an incredible live version of the single:-
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract. The first official bank holidays were the four days named in the Bank Holidays Act 1871, but today the term is colloquially used for public holidays which are not officially bank holidays, for example Good Friday and Christmas Day.
The very first Bank Holiday began in 1781 when banker Henry James Earl of Cambleseed, controversially decided to take the first Monday in May off work, closing his bank to the public. His local competitors then followed suit, taking days off over the traditional Easter period.
In 1871, the first legislation relating to bank holidays was passed when liberal politician and Banker,Sir John Lubbock introduced the Bank Holidays Act 1871 and which specified Good Friday (Scotland), Easter Monday (England, Wales & Ireland), Whit Monday (the first Monday in May), the first Monday in August, Christmas Day (Scotland) and Boxing Day (England, Wales & Ireland) as holidays. The act did not specify Good Friday and Christmas Day as bank holidays in England, Wales and Ireland because they were already recognised as common law holidays, and because of common observance, they became customary holidays since before records began.
Exactly a century after the 1871 Act, the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which currently regulates bank holidays in the UK, was passed. The majority of the current bank holidays were specified in the 1971 Act, but New Year's Day and May Day were introduced after 1971.
From 1965 the date of the August bank holiday was changed to the end of the month. Curiously, there were a few years (e.g. 1868) when this holiday fell in September, but this no longer occurs - presumably reflecting a change in the way of defining the relevant day. The Whit Monday bank holiday was replaced by the Late Spring Bank Holiday - fixed as the last Monday in May - in 1971,
Which explains why I and so many others are not at work today.
Hurrah for bankers.........and politicians.
mp3 : Blur - Bank Holiday
mp3 : The Jam - Monday
mp3 : Pulp - Monday Morning
Sorry about the boring words today. But at least it was al worth it for three great classic British bands.
....as he asked for this single to be featured when he left behind a comment the other day when I featured the LP Bite by Altered Images.
I'm actually quite happy about it as it allows me, by going back and giving you word-for-word an old post from way back in July 2008, a very lazy Sunday:-
See, the thing was that Altered Images were an amazingly good pop band, and Clare Crogan was not only really sexy but a singer with a distinctive voice that many of us loved. And the fella Davey Henderson was a great song writer when he was with both Fire Engines and Win.
So it is a complete and total mystery why this collaboration is such a crock of shit....
Altered Images called it a day in late 1983 after less than 3 years together, during which time there were ten singles (I have them all in 7" format) and three LPs. Of the singles, five made the Top 30, of which Happy Birthday was by far the biggest hit, reaching the giddy heights of #2 in the UK charts.
The third LP in 1983 was called Bite, and in my humble opinion it is one of the great lost LPs of the 80s. It was a real change of direction for the band, as they tried hard to make a more sophisticated and polished sound, and while it did spawn a major hit in Don't Talk To Me About Love, the subsequent (and equally as good) singles stalled/flopped. Clare decided that it was time, at the ripe old age of 21, to call time on the pop career and concentrate on being an actress.
In early 1987, having had only minor success as an actress, Clare decided to go back into the studio. She enlisted as her partner-in-crime the afore-mentioned Mr. Henderson, who was riding reasonably high at the time (critically at least, if not commercially) thanks to the release of the debut Win LP,which went under the hilarious name of Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon).
It seems in fact that a whole LPs worth of material was recorded by Clare and Davey....but the only thing that saw the light of day was the debut single which did absolutely nothing. It got next to no airplay, it got mauled in the record papers and hardly anyone bought it. And hardly anyone has heard it since.
mp3 : Clare Grogan - Love Bomb
I can really offer no positive words of support for this three-and-a-half minutes or so of completely disposable pap, but I should say that it is worth listening to just to see how spectacularly wrong these two icons went on this project.
And if you the a-side was bad, sneak a listen to the b-side:-
mp3 : Clare Grogan - I Love The Way You Beg
On the bright side, it ends before the clock has ticked round to two minutes.
I've no doubt that both parties did OK financially out of the deal with some sort of tidy advance. Before long, Davey went on to his next project, Nectarine No.9 (which, like Fire Engines and Win beforehand were well received but sold next to nowt), while Clare went back to the new day job, (at which she became highly successful, including an extended run in one of UK's longest-running and most popular soap operas on BBC-TV), while surfacing every now and again to do an occasional guest vocal with someone or other.
Happy (??!!!) Listening.
MAY 2011 UPDATE
If you thought the single was bad.....have a look at what must be one of the world's worst pop promos along with a squirm inducing appearance/interview on a kiddie's Saturday morning show....
The band’s 13th single, released in January 1987 and which climbed to #12 in the charts
mp3 : The Smiths – Shoplifters Of The World Unite
There’s loads of folk out there on this interwebby thing who are adamant that this is the most gay of many gay anthems written and recorded by The Smiths. This is based on the word shoplifter being awfully close to the word shirtlifter which is a rather crude and nasty slang word for a homosexual. There’s even some who has said ‘shoplifting is a misdemeanour crime…so is sodomy…..see the connection?’
This tendency of so many people, fans and otherwise, to concentrate on the lyrics and worry about their meaning is one of the few things that annoys me about the legacy of The Smiths. When this single was released (I nearly typed ‘came out’ just there but feared I might only be making a subconscious contribution to the debate!!), I didn’t think anything of the Morrissey lyrics. Instead, I was pleased to hear another great Johnny Marr tune that was a close cousin to How Soon Is Now?
This was a single that divided the fans of the band - certainly among the small number I knew at the time. Those who hated it, and there were many, were appalled by what was quite clearly a guitar solo.....the short burst at around 1 min 42 secs into the song really did upset at least one mate at the time. Others said it was impossible to dance to....a far cry from the joy and verve of the daffodil-swinging days. Me? I love it to bits. A stonking tune and yes.....while the lyrics aren't the be-all-and-end-all, there some of Moz's best work in here, and in particular:-
My only weakness is.........well never mind, never mind
I'm not sure what the hell it is about. I do know it's not about the physical crime of shoplifting....and I don't agree that its a metaphor for a gay love song. Morrissey has been very coy about it all when asked....all he's said its about shoplifting in a spiritual sense and about taking thins and using them to your own advantage. Does this mean it's a close cousin to Cemetry Gates when the great man had a go at his detractors about plagiarism?
Who the hell cares?? It's only a song. A great song mind you, and one that elicited this superb appearance on Top Of The Pops in which Morrissey helped me prove to the doubters that you could dance to it:-
But did he really have to dress like Shakin Stevens?????
I will get round, eventually, to Part 19 of the series that looks at five great LP tracks by a band or singer. But for today, I wanted to instead feature five songs by The Twilight Sad, one of the many great bands to come out of Scotland in the 21st Century.
And like so many of their peers, The Twilight Sad aren't ashamed to write and record songs that are about their immediate environment nor do they shy away from delivering the vocals in their own hugely distinctive accents.
In September 2005, the band sent a four-song demo to the Brighton-based indie label Fat Cat Records whose owner soon headed up to Glasgow to watch them play live in what was only their third ever gig and signed them straight afterwards. What happened next was probably unique for any UK indie band on a UK indie label.......the debut record was only released in the USA!!!
November 2006 was the date for the release of The Twilight Sad EP, a collection of five songs which were recorded in Glasgow and which built on the demos which had caught the attention of their record label bosses. But it would be another five months before anything was officially made available in the UK with a debut single and LP. As I said, quite unique.....
Three of the songs on the debut LP (or at least different mixes of them) would appear on the debut material made available at home, but the opening and closing tracks weren't available any other way. Thankfully, neither the band nor their label are the type to insist fans shell out fortunes for the difficult to track down material (not so far anyway!!) and the debut EP was made available in UK record stores:-
mp3 : The Twilight Sad - But When She Left, Gone Was The Glow
mp3 : The Twilight Sad - That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
mp3 : The Twilight Sad - Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard
mp3 : The Twilight Sad - And She Would Darken The Memory
mp3 : The Twilight Sad - Three Seconds Of Dead Air
As I've said before, I picked up on the band just as I was leaving to go and work in Canada for a few months back in 2007. I did take their debut LP along with me, but I didn't buy any of their actual singles until well after I came back which disqualified them from being included in my personal run-down of my all-time favourite 45s that featured on TVV in early-mid 2008. If I hadn't been the purist who insisted singles had to have been bought at the time of release for consideration on the chart, then the majesty of That Summer...... would have been gotten itself a very healthy entry.
I've read that the band themselves consider their sound is folk with layers of noise. That's a perfect description of the debut EP. It's 26 quite stunning minutes of sound.
It was my mate Jaques the Kipper who brought this to my attention via a compilation tape put together in the early 90s:-
mp3 : The Rockingbirds - Gradually Learning
They sound as if they should come from deep in the heart of Texas, but in fact The Rockingbirds were a London-based outfit who were formed in 1990.
They were first signed to Heavenly Records but no mainstream success came from any of their four singles/EPs or their 1992 self-titled debut LP. Some of the band left after this initial burst of activity, but a new line-up inked a deal with Cooking Vinyl and an LP was recorded with Edwyn Collins at the producers desk. But still The Rockingbirds remained too square-dance to be hip and by 1995, they called it a day.
However, there was a very brief reformation in 2008 to play a show celebrating the 18th birthday of their first label and then some more gigs in 2009 to support the re-release of a remastered and extended version of the debut LP.
One of the band members was Andy Hackett who has long been a sidekick of the afore-mentioned Edwyn playing on his records and being part of the various tour bands.
Here's the other tracks on the CD single:-
mp3 : The Rockingbirds - Where I Belong
mp3 : The Rockingbirds - Love Has Gone And Made A Mess Of Me
mp3 : The Rockingbirds - Gradually Learning (full version)
I was really surprised to read that Watusi, the 1994 LP by The Wedding Present, is currently out of print with no immediate plans for its re-release. The fact that it was the band's one and only recording for Island Records may have something to do with that state of affairs.
I will get round to posting the LP in its entirety for any TWP fans out there who may well be looking for it - it is a fine record in many ways with some cracking pop tunes on it notwithstanding the fact it is quite different from any other LP the band has ever released as evidenced by this piece of bio lifted from the band's official website:-
"WATUSI, produced by Steve Fisk (a prime mover in the celebrated avant-garde scene of Seattle), whisked the band off into another new area with its lo-fi pop, three-part a capella harmonies and Waikiki-ready surf strains. This “strong, multifaceted album” [Select], sprinkled with 60s and 70s pastiches, was described by critics as their most varied and dynamic to date. “Watusi is (their) ‘White Album’, a re-assessment of their sound that finds them doing what they do best” [Melody Maker]."
There were two singles lifted from the LP, the first of which was a #51 hit.
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Le Bikini
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Flame On
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Him Or Me (What's It Gonna Be)?
The fourth track is a cover of a 1967 song by Paul Revere & The Raiders which was a #5 hit on the Billboard chart.
The second CD for the single featured three tracks taken from a John Peel session in April 1994, and are versions of tracks found on Watusi:-
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Gazebo (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Wedding Present - So Long Baby (Peel Session)
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Spangle (Peel Session)
Oh and as one last wee treat, heres the Weddoes' promo for the single:-
I really really liked Dummy, the debut LP by Portishead released in 1994 but which really only got noticed in mid-1995 when the single Glory Box captured the attention of the record-buying public. It seemed so different in so many ways. I think I used the word 'captivating' when trying to describe it to someone who hadn't heard it. It's an album that I can still occasionally return to and find myself enjoying, despite being put off it for a while after a wholly underwhelming live performance by the band in Edinburgh around the time they had found commercial success.
There was a hiatus of some two years between the band releasing the last single off Dummy and the next new bit of material. I remember going into a record shop and seeing the new CD single on sale for the bargain price of £1.99 at a time when most went for around double that price. I took it home, played it and was disappointed. I tried again the next day, but still I was left cold.
But I must have been in a minority, for All Mine turned out to be the biggest chart success the band would enjoy, climbing to #8 in September 1997.
And with that, I suddenly found myself going all cold on Portishead. I've never paid much attention to anything they've done since and I certainly haven't bought anything else.
Just in case my original views and actions had been a bit extreme, I dug out the single again the other day and gave it a listen with the thought that I might, now that I'm that bit older and a bit more tolerant, change my mind.
mp3 : Portishead - All Mine
Nope, still don't like it.
Having said that, the b-side is reasonably listenable:-
The excellent debut LP Cake has already yielded two undeservedly flop singles in Obscurity Knocks and Only Tongue Can Tell. But still there was a feeling that the catchy and often radio-friendly nature of the tunes written and recorded by The Trash Can Sinatras would yield chart success.
And so in October 1990, Go! Discs made another effort with the release of Circling The Circumference. It was a remixed version of one of the songs featured on Cake, and while it does capture much of what brought the band to my attention (i.e. jangly guitars, clever lyrics and fine harmonies), it did strike me as a wee bit of a strange choice as a single with its difficult to decipher chorus and tune that was very reminiscent of some of those that The Smiths had specialised in turning into minor chart hits a few years earlier.
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras - Circling The Circumference
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras - My Mistake
mp3 : The Trash Can Sinatras - White Horses
But given it is a slightly different verion than that from the LP, I thought it worth digging out again and brightening up your Monday with. Oh and I make no apologies for again featuring the dreamy cover version of the 60s telly series that was on the b-side of the 12"
Oh and a reminder that one of the best fan sites out there is Five Hungry Joes and it is devoted to all things to do with Trashcan Sinatras (as they are now known!!!). Click here.
The rumours that James Murphy, the architect and brainchild behind New York collective LCD Soundsystem, (and cofounder of DFA Records) was due to retire the band had been circulating for a while and he had been laying the ground for an announcement for some time when finally it came…. on Feb 5th 2011.
There was to be one last LCD farewell gig on their home turf at Madison Square Garden on Sat 2nd of April and billed as the ‘long farewell’ it was to be a 3+ hour show with guests and all sorts of extras and unusual song inclusions.
In the time since Losing my Edge announced LCD to the world back in 2002 they have released three unmissable albums (four if you count 45.33) and numerous classic singles and remixes. No other band in the last 10 years has given me so much enjoyment and after having seen them live a number of times I absolutely had to be there for the final farewell on 02/04!
Tickets went on-sale on 11 Feb at 14.00 UK time which shouldn’t have been too much of a problem as MSG has a capacity of 15.000 and LCD had never played to a crowd of that size for one of their own shows prior to this (James Murphy subsequently admitted that he thought they would fill the venue but only perhaps with a few days to spare). So, 14.00 arrived and Ticketmaster US and the Bowery websites show sold out within 2 mins of going on sale…. WHAT??? How can that be???
The LCD web forum filled with fans complaining that they couldn’t get tickets and some of the band’s friends (not wishing to hassle them) can’t get any either WTF???? Within 5 mins the first scalper tickets appear on E-bay and StubHub with a face value of $80 selling for $1,000.
It’s all kicking off and within a few hours Murphy has posted a long tirade on the website entitled ‘Fuck You Scalpers, Terminal 5 shows added’. In order to screw the scalpers and suppress demand, he has added four extra shows at the 3,500 capacity Terminal Five venue on the 28/29/30/31st of March with details of ticket sale to be announced – Yay, back in with a shout of a ticket!!
Finally on 22 Feb at 14.03 UK time I secured two tickets for the show on 30 March with all four shows selling out quickly but far more of the fanbase had been satisfied and would be at one of the farewell shows.
Well done to James and LCD for adding the dates and listening to the fans (an almost Joe Strummeresque thing to do).
No tickets would be sent electronically or by hardcopy. The only way of collecting your ticket was on the night itself by showing photo ID and producing the credit card that you used for payment – a pretty good way of stopping scalpers in their tracks!
Fast-forward by a few weeks and the 30th of March had now arrived and here we were in NYC already having holiday fun and full of anticipation for the show at Terminal 5 that night. Reviews from the fans on the LCD forum for the previous two shows were absolutely raving and the setlist looked unbelievably mouth watering. After a perfectly executed ticket collection we entered the venue in enough time to catch a bit of Shit Robots support slot. The venue is on 3 floors with plentiful facilities and drinks can be had within a couple of minutes (nothing like Brixton Academy then!) and finding a good position was relatively easy from which to view this historic farewell.
At 9.05, to the walk on music of 10cc’s ‘I’m not in Love’, the final LCD Soundsystem show (for me anyway) was underway. Starting with Dance Yrself Clean the atmosphere was electric, more like a fiesta really with seemingly the whole 3,500 attendees ready to party and celebrate big time. Now, my friends, I have been to more gigs than had hot dinners with the count into the high hundreds and have tasted the atmosphere of many a fine venue including the legendary Glasgow Apollo. However, I have NEVER experienced such a strong sense of camaraderie and sense of purpose to simply have fun and support the band! For the next 3 hours and 20 minutes T5 was a full-blown rowdy, singing, dancing cacophony of noise and celebration for the finest band of the last 10 years. Playing many songs that hadn’t been heard live before or at least for a very long time and aided by additional singers and a very tasty brass section, the sound was fantastic and joyous. Comprising of two sets with a very brief break between them, the night flew by and soon it was the final farewell.
Set 1 Dance Yrself Clean Drunk Girls I Can Change Time To Get Away Get Innocuous! Daft Punk Is Playing At My House Too Much Love All My Friends Set 2 45:33 Part One 45:33 Part Two Sound of Silver 45:33 Part Four 45:33 Part Five 45:33 Part Six Freak Out/Starry Eyes Us v Them North American Scum You Wanted A Hit Tribulations Movement Yeah Encore: Someone Great Losing My Edge Home Encore 2: All I Want Jump Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson cover) New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
It’s difficult to pick out any one highlight, but the rendition of the full version of 45.33 was truly epic and so wonderful I can barely communicate how fabulous it was.
Now that the dust has settled and a few weeks have past I can reflect back on what was truly one of the top 5 gigs of the whole of my life and that’s really saying something!
So thanks for the memories James & Co and enjoy whatever you do next!
To quote from Losing my Edge ‘I was there!’
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Is Playing At My House
mp3 : LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
It's been a long while since this series was featured, so I thought I'd start with a reminder of what has come before:-
1. Nowhere Fast 2. This Night Has Opened My Eyes 3. William, It Was Really Nothing 4. The Queen Is Dead 5. Wonderful Woman 6. Golden Lights 7. These Things Take Time 8. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now 9. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side 10. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before 11. Barbarism Begins At Home 12. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want 13. Hand In Glove 14. I Don't Owe You Anything 15. Work Is A Four Letter Word 16. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me 17. Meat Is Murder 18. Oscillate Wildly 19. Shakespeare's Sister 20. I Want The One I Can't Have 21. Girl Afraid 22. Rubber Ring 23. Asleep 24. What She Said 25. Bigmouth Strikes Again 26. Girlfriend In A Coma 27. Paint A Vulgar Picture 28. Accept Yourself 29. The Draize Train 30. Pretty Girls Make Graves 31. The Headmaster Ritual 32. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby 33. Cemetery Gates 34. Unhappy Birthday 35. Back To The Old House 36. Never Had No One Ever 37. This Charming Man
This week celebrates the great world of internet friendships.
At the end of March, I re-posted some really early songs by James and made the request for a copy of a cover song The Smiths had released as a track on the cassette-version of the single I Started Something I Couldn't Finish.
Delighted to say that Steve Hodgkins from Dubai had the song over to me within hours (as indeed did another very kind reader but I'm ashamed to say I've accidentally deleted his/her e-mail...sorry)
mp3 : The Smiths - What's The World (live)
This was performed during the sets of a short Scottish tour in September 1985 and the version later released was from the Glasgow Barrowlands show on 25 September. It's a fairly faithful run-through but if truth be told, the original version by James is way superior. But I remember hearing it played at the gig in question and being excited at the time......
I thought I'd take a break this week from finding five great album tracks and start a new series. But it will be one that is occasional - monthly at most - and it might only get as far as five or six postings as let's face it, most LPs have at some point in time been released on CD.
I actually thought that the record I've picked out to open the series was available in the shiny metal disc format as I recall seeing it in the shops. A bit of research threw up that a CD version was issued in 2004 but that it turns out it was a bit of a dog's breakfast. It turns out that the some versions the songs on the CD do not match the versions released on the original LP - indeed one is a totally different version altogether lifted from a live recoding made for a b-side!!
Anyway, here's the story behind Bite, the third and final LP by Altered Images released originally in June 1983.
The band had enjoyed a fair bit of chart success in the early 80s but in doing so had become far more pop-orientated than their original sound which was akin to that of Siouxie & The Banshees who in fact were instrumental in giving Altered Images a leg-up in the music industry thanks to a support slot on an 1980 tour. Anyone who bought either of the first two LPs - Happy Birthday (1981) and Pinky Blue (1982) - would I'm sure readily admit that the band, while a great singles act, struggled to fill two sides of an LP with quality material. There's a particularly awful cover-version of Neil Diamond's Song Sung Blue on the latter LP....
Drummer Tich Anderson and guitarist Jim McNiven left the band not long after Pinky Blue and were replaced by Stephen Lironi whose influence helped bring a huge shift in how the band sounded, but I don;t think anyone was quite prepared for what emerged on Bite. (McNiven incidentally would be a big part of One Dove who were mentioned in passing in the posting the other day featuring Dot Allison)
The first hints of something quite radical and different was the fantastic single Don't Talk To Me About Love which was released in March 1983. With a production courtesy of Mike Chapman, who had also done so much to polish off some of the rougher edges of Blondie and take them to a wider audience, the 45 is a great bit of pop/funk that was well worthy of its #7 placing in the UK charts. Indeed, let's not beat about the bush....there's more than a hint of Heart Of Glass about this single.
It was interesting that Chapman, recognising that Clare Grogan had a distinctive singing style that was well suited to the post-punk stuff of early Altered Images but less so to what the band were now trying to deliver, added loads of backing vocals to the Don't Talk To Me About Love. In doing so, he was mimicking what was happening to a great many other Scottish acts of the era - Aztec Camera and Friends Again for two were given groups of backing singers to add to their live sound.
Next single was Bring Me Closer in May 1983 which was the work of another big name producer in Tony Visconti. Again, there were backing singers a-plenty, strings and saxophones but it sounded a bit rawer and less sophisticated than Don't Talk..... and it stalled at #29.
Then in June 1983, Bite was released.
The first thing that stunned most fans was that Clare Grogan was unrecognisable on the sleeve. Even now, if it wasn't for the fact that the name of the band appears on the sleeve, you'd be hard pushed to look at that sleeve and any of the others from previous LPs or singles and think it was the same person.
The second thing that stunned most fans was that it contained only 8 songs - four produced on late 1982 by Chapman and four in early 1983 by Visconti. And with two already out as singles, it showed there wasn't a huge amount of new songs out there.
July 1983 saw the release of Love To Stay, an edited version of one of the LP tracks, with its b-side being a live version of yet another track on Bite. It was a flop, stalling at #46.
This was obviously an LP that had cost a lot of money to make and when you add in the promo videos and the whole new wardrobe and look for the band, it was clear it was making a big loss in the grand scheme of things. The band did tour the LP but it was to far from filled-venues and what fans did turn up made it clear they preferred the old stuff.....
September 1983 saw the release of Change Of Heart, a fourth single from Bite. But this disappeared without trace. Within weeks, Altered Images had split up.......
mp3 : Altered Images - Bring Me Closer
mp3 : Altered Images - Another Lost Look
mp3 : Altered Images - Love To Stay
mp3 : Altered Images - Now That You're Here
mp3 : Altered Images - Don't Talk To Me About Love
mp3 : Altered Images - Stand So Quiet
mp3 : Altered Images - Change Of Heart
mp3 : Altered Images - Thinking About You
It's easy to mock Bite as an act of folly and a work by a band that was just too impatient to move away from what made them a success in the first place. It's way more sophisticated and stylish than anything they had done before of that there's no argument and while Don't Talk To Me About Love got them to a wider audience for a short while, there wasn't another big smash single to sustain it.
But.....listening to it all these years later. it is a record that has dated rather well. In particular, the two slower songs - Love To Stay and Thinking About You - are excellent records and aren't a million miles away from the sound that would make The Style Council so popular and successful. It is an album that was out of step with what folk expected of Altered Images and in particular, was given a real hard time by the critics. It is the finest of their three LPs and yet it is the one that sold the fewest. It's also one that I fell in love with back in 1983 and have always had a soft spot for.
Here's some promos and tv appearances to promote the LP:-
Yes.... it is the love interest from Gregory's Girl rekindled in the second vid!!
And finally for today, a demo bonus taken from compilation CD released a couple of years back:-
mp3 : Altered Images - Now That You're Here (demo)
One thing I rarely do is review current LPs. That way, I rarely feature newish songs that bands/singers are hoping folk will go out and buy, digitally or in physical form on vinyl/CD, to help them earn an honest crust. I'd rather wait a couple of years and perhaps re-stir some interest in the release or perhaps draw attention to something that might have passed TVV readers by.
And that is what this latest occasional series is going to be all about.....
Back in June 2009, a very fine self-titled debut by Lord Cut-Glass was released on Chemikal Underground records which are of course based right here in Glasgow. Lord Cut-Glass is none other than Alun Woodward, formerly one-part of the very fine combo The Delgados who were, and remain, hugely popular among the indie-scene cognoscenti.
Having watched fellow-Delgado Emma Pollock release solo records to a fair amount of critical release, many fans were realy eager to hear what Alun would come up with. It was known he was going to call himself Lord Cut-Glass (from a character in the play Under Milk Wood) thanks to a song apearing on the 2007 LP Ballad Of The Books in which various Scottish musicians and writers/poets combined to produce songs. Alun worked with Alisdair Gray who, in addition to being a novelist, is also a famed illustrator and painter to bring us this:-
mp3 : Lord Cut-Glass & Alisdair Gray - A Sentimental Song
All rather nice in a fol/pop sort of fashion and it whetted the appetite for more. But it was to be another two years before anything else was heard, and it was a fabulous and quirky single with a very fine b-side:-
mp3 : Lord Cut-Glass - Over It
It was just a week later that the debut LP was made available.
It's not a substantial body of work with its 11 tracks extending to just over 37 minutes. It's also rather different from what his old band had produced....acoustic in nature with a fair bit of strings, brass and piano. It's also an album that changes tempo a fair few times and still manages to ensure every song has a hook that ensures you will be singing or humming along forever more.
Here's a couple of examples:-
mp3 : Lord Cut-Glass - Monster Face
mp3 : Lord Cut-Glass - Big Time Teddy
It is an album well worth shelling out on if you havent done so already. It's available at bargain prices right here.
And here's a wee live clip to enjoy with Aidan Moffat on drums:-
As debut singles go, this April 1977 release isn't too bad:-
mp3 : The Jam - In The City
I'd love to say I picked up on it right away, but I didn't. I wasn't quite 14 years of age and football was still way way way more important than music although within a year that would all change, thanks in part to getting part-time work on a milk round which gave me some more disposable income that allowed me to start buying seven and twelve inch size pieces of plastic.
The Jam were the first band I really fell for in a meaningful way, but it was fourth single News Of The World that first grabbed my attention - and a few months later the release of the LP All Mod Cons cemented the relationship that was love forever until the band called it a day in late 1982.
I did of course go back and but the previous singles and LPs I had missed out on. Some of it was enjoyable while other songs seemed a bit dull. I think it's fair to say that they were a band who didn't really hit their peak until the third album.....which shows how much things have changed over the past 30 years. If they were to repeat things nowadays, they would probably have been dropped by the record label before the third LP came out....
In The City reached #40 when first released. I didn't know at the time, nor for more than 20 years, that it shared its title with an obscure song by The Who (a b-side of 1966 single I'm A Boy).
The single was re-released in 1980 when Polydor decided to cash-in on the band becoming the biggest and most popular in the UK and once again, it reached #40.
Then in 1983, just after the band had broken up and all singles were re-released, it peaked at #47.
Finally, in 2002, the label marked the 25th Anniversary of the foramtion of The Jam with a limited edition and inexpensive re-release of the debut single and this time round it reached #36 - the best chart performance of any of the four times it has been sold as a single.
Here's yer b-side:-
mp3 : The Jam - Takin' My Love
A song that actually dated from 1973 and written by a then 15-year old Paul Weller and Steve Brookes who was one-half of the original line-up (although Brookes has never received a writing credit at any point in time), it's the sort of song that was common to the first two LPs - decent enough but hardly earth-shattering,
And here's an early live recording of the single. It can be found on the 1982 live LP Dig The New Breed:-
mp3 : The Jam - In The City (live at the 100 Club, London - 11 September 1977)
A 1987 single that reached #57 in the UK charts. Here's yer b-sides from the 12".....and a warning to anyone who gets annoyed at Mark E Smith when he yepls his way through a song that if features some of his best....
mp3 : The Fall - Australians In Europe
mp3 : The Fall - Hit The North (Part 3)
mp3 : The Fall - Northerns In Europ
For anyone wondering what happened to Part 2 of Hit The North, I believe it can be found on the back of the 7".
She might not quite know where she is and whether or not she has company, but this is a nice little bit of ambient/pop music from the summer of '99.
mp3 : Dot Allison - Message Personnel
I can't admit to buying this single back in the day it appeared, but I did pick it up on one of my sojourns into a second hand shop.
Dot Allison first came to my attention as the vocalist with One Dove, a band that had a fair bit of success in the early 90s with a sound that led more than one journalist to call them the Scottish equivalent of St Etienne. But they and she weren't acts that I paid too much attention to although I have a couple of One Dove CD singles sitting in the collection.
I probably wouldn't have picked up Message Personnel other than the fact it was only £2 and the b-side had some promise as far as I was concerned:-
This, in my humble opinion, is a superior recording to the original. It really has got the feel of the Strap circa the Philophobia era (which is no surprise given it was around then that this single emerged). I listen to this and still think at some point the dulcet tones of Aidan Moffat will come in and give us a tale of sexual shenanigans and drug-taking in Falkirk.....
Oh and the guitar playing on this single is courtesy of Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine fame.....
Happy Listening
(This was the post written but pulled the day I closed down TVV last month.....so in a sense, this is hopefully things getting back to normal)
FiL over at pogo-a-gogo has posted a quite fabulous song by Memphis.
A little bit of research tells me that the band in question is an American/Canadian collaboration, formed in 2003 . Two critically-acclaimed albums have been released on the Good Fences label. Certainly if the track over at pogo-a-gogo is anything to go by, they're a band worth checking out.
But I want to bring to your attention another band called Memphis - one who released just one single back in 1985.
The eagle-eyed among you might recognise the image above which is on the back of the single. It's James Kirk, ex-Orange Juice, and the man who wrote what I consider to be the greatest single to ever have come out of Scotland - Felicity.
James left the band in 1983 after the release of the debut album. He formed Memphis shortly after, but quit the music business after the release of said single which came out on the Swamplands label.
This was one of the bits of vinyl that Mrs Villain picked up for me on e-bay at Xmas. It's well worth sharing with a wider audience.
mp3: Memphis - You Supply The Roses
I knew that James Kirk had come out of retirement in the early 90s as a leading member and songwriter with Paul Quinn & The Independent Group. (Now there was a band that should have been massive)
But what I learned just a couple of weeks ago when doing a bit of research for my eventual posting of the Memphis single was that James made a comeback of sorts just over three years ago with the release of a solo album entitled You Can Make It If You Boogie on Marina Records.
I have to confess that I missed this CD on its release in December 2003, but I have now managed to recently pick up a copy and will be sharing some stuff with you in the not too distant future. I'm sure you'll be as knocked out as I've been. Especially by a cover-version (of sorts).
Oh and one final thing to mention about the Memphis single from 1985. It's b-side is called Apres Ski. Which was also the name of the b-side of the 1984 debut single by Bourgie Bourgie, a band that featured many contemporaries of James Kirk...many of whom he worked alongside in The Independent Group a few years later. Same title, but different song. As you can hear for yourself:-
Oh and for the hell of it, here's the track that FiL posted up yesterday. It's damn fine splendid as well.....
mp3 : Memphis - In The Cinema Alone
As is the song that gave the title for this posting.........
mp3 : Colorblind James Experience - Considering A Move To Memphis
Do I spoil you my friends with 5 great songs??? But you're worth it......
Postscript........
Little did I know that within a few months of writing these words I would find myself working for a short while in Canada during which time I had the great fortune to meet FiL in the flesh in what turned out to be one of the greatest nights of my life.
Read my rather short account of it all here. And FiL's is available here. Happy happy memories......
And since the post was originally written, this truly fantastic site devoted to Paul Quinn has come into being.
Most of the records that sit in the cupboard are, as you would expect, of the 7" and 12" variety. But I do have a handful of singles that were released in 10" form (although I'm reliably informed that size is irrelevant.....)
This particular piece of vinyl dates from 1980, and it may well be the first thing I ever bought that didn't feature any guitars.
mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Messages
mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Taking Sides Again
mp3 : Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Waiting For The Man
OMD started out on Factory Records, but moved to another indie-label, DinDisc, after just one single. There was still a connection with Factory in that Peter Saville was a paid employee of their new label.
The quote I've put at the top of this posting comes from an interview given by Andy McCluskey to Paul Morley in late 1980 that first appeared in the NME and can now be found in Morley's excellent collection of writings compiled in book form : Piece by Piece - Writings About Joy Division.
OMD released two albums in 1980. The self-titled debut was almost pure electro-pop, and while the second, entitled Organisation, contained the group's breakthrough single in Enola Gay, it was far more moody, dark and serious than its predecessor. The Morley interview with OMD reveals that much of Organisation was influenced by Closer.
"I think Joy Division will be remembered longer than we will be remembered. That scares me to death. Whilst I like playing pop music, when it's all over and done with I would like to be remembered for something that has great shape to it, that changes the course of western civilisation or whatever - which Joy Division will be remembered for. They will leave their mark."
At the time of the interview, Andy McCluskey was just 21 years of age and I think its self-evident he was speaking as a music fan as much as anything else. And while he was right about who would be best remembered, there's a few records his own band released that were every bit as influential on how pop music developed in the 80s. Without OMD making the breakthrough, there would have been no Soft Cell or Pet Shop Boys, and the world would have been a far duller and less enjoyable place.
And here's a live version from back in the day:-
Happy Listening.
(Originally featured on TVV, Wednesday 3 September 2008)
Today's been the last day of the guest postings. I wanted to finish off with something that I know ctel will appreciate. One of his favourite bands of the late 80s and 90s. Mine too.
mp3 : Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman
mp3 : Carter USM - R.S.P.C.E.
mp3 : Carter USM - Twin Tub With Guitar
mp3 : Carter USM - Everybody's Happy Nowadays
First released in late 1989, it was eventually a hit 18 months later when Carter mania was gaining an incredible head of steam, peaking around 12 months later with the massive tour to promote 1992 - The Love Album. This CD single features the obligatory cover version.....one that seems apt right now!!
A band well worth finding out more about if you don't know too much. And there's no better place to go than this book written by one-half of the band. And while you're there, you will do a lot worse than also pick up a copy of Storage Stories, one of my favourite books of the past decade.
Thanks again folks for sticking by me. There's going to be a couple of repeat postings over the coming weekend and then on Monday, the TVV posts will start appearing at their regular slot of 6am (UK summer time). Oh and I'll be updating my links in due course as there's a few more friends I want to give a mention to.
That's it for the Sadness and Happiness theme and to hand this blog properly back to JC, as its rightful owner. It'll be a better place for his return and me skulking back to repetitive beats at Acid Ted.
But, in going, I wanted to offer my heartfelt thanks go to ALL of those that contributed with their posts and personal stories, and to Mrs Ctel for the use of her photos for the majority of these posts.
You've already read how important these posts were to JC. They felt like such a positive testament to him and to what he has been through and will go through in the coming months.
You exceeded my expectations and gave some glimmer of faith in a seemingly indifferent world.
Thank you and goodnight.
Ctel
PS: the tunes for this series will stay up until the end of the week and then disappear for ever.
She dropped a snowstorm. Smashed and broken on a cold stone floor.
Still, after all these years, one of my favourite opening couplets – so visual, so intoned with bitter-sweet sentiment (as, of course, is the rest of the song).
Hamish MacKintosh, who recorded this track under his Fuel moniker, is one of those obscure artists from from an equally obscure part of the world (hello Forfar) who never achieved the audience his textured, atmospheric confessions deserved. “Wildfire” was only ever released on the Volume series, a short-lived compilation CD + booklet thing that shifted minor units in the early'90's (and which I purchased solely on the back of a piano + vocal version of Suede's “My Insatiable One” – hmm). The Robin Guthrie production is unmistakable, but the track is far more than simple sub-Cocteau trickery...
It's a song that Hamish himself described as being “one night with somebody very special”, and with the evocative subject matter, sly wordplay and the soft lilt of the vocal that hangs in air, just the right side of twee, it's a song that's always made me happy, but also sad, in a wistful kind of way, depositing the listener back to other evenings now lost to posterity – with a tender smile.
Sometimes I hate the way I look, but I love the way I feel (I love the way you make me feel).
Some of you will know that my mate who died a few weeks ago was, for much of his life, a professional footballer. One who made 327 appearances in total for Raith Rovers, the team that I follow here in Scotland.
He was with the Rovers from 1988 - 1996 and he also did a lot to help the club and its supporters many years later at a time when both were in need. Those supporters have bestowed the word 'legend' on him. Indeed they did so before news of his illness became known. It wasn't a word my mate was ever comfortable with - he felt it is used far too often and loosely in sport to have real meaning - but as others have said to me over the past few weeks, it is a word that is just right for him. Anyone interested can click here and see a tribute paid to him by the club and its fans. The main photo of his was, quite unbelievably, taken just 16 days before his death. That shows how quickly and unexpectedly leukaemia can finish you off....
As these special series of postings from myself and others draw to a close, I wanted to find a song that was football related and which always brings a smile to my face. It just had to be this 1987 track:-
mp3 : Half Man Half Biscuit - I Was A Teenage Armchair Honved Fan
Woke up this morning, found myself in bed My knowledge of the blues is somewhat nil I’d dreamt about a love affair in far-off Budapest The sort of thing that sugars every pill I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I went dans la cuisine in a bilinguistic mood And Morphy Richards popped up with the goods I was feeling ‘Hungary’ both this morning and last night And with an appetite like that you see the woods I was a teenage armchair Honved fan Is this the bit where we’re supposed to make guitars collide And is this the bit where we release all that raw energy And is this the bit where we go crashing through those barriers Like what they do in music mags? I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage, wham bam thank you I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan I was a teenage armchair Honved fan
Bloody marvellous........a legendary piece of music if the truth be told. But not one my mate would have appreciated. We never saw eye to eye when it came to music.....and I'll miss those arguements we were always having.
I think it was the first time I'd gone to the funeral of somebody too young to die.
When you grow up Catholic, if you're lucky enough, you start to expect death to always play out the same way. You'll say the same prayers and you'll sing the same hymns. The coffin sits the same way, covered in flowers and envelopes containing Mass cards. The inhabitant is always old. And it's sad, of course, but you understand that after a certain amount of time you go to God, and that's a natural progression.
Ross changed that for me. Not just because we were teenagers, and these things aren't supposed to happen to teenagers. Not just because his heart stopped, and I hadn't seen him in a year and I was sitting there all in black, skinny and shivering and frightened. The thing that struck me most was the way the curtains closed so softly that I almost missed it, and I realised what it was they were doing. It seemed so final, in the way that a Catholic burial never really did.
I didn't want to listen to music after that.
The festival was that weekend, and I scuffed my heels around the field wanting desperately to be somewhere, anywhere else. Somewhere quiet, where I could miss him in peace. Until Feeder saved me with a triumphant chorus dedicated with love to their drummer who had hung himself, and a defiant reminder that the way we keep on living is the greatest tribute.
An absolutely wonderful bit of pop music with an indie bent, all the way from Sweden:-
mp3 : The Cardigans - Rise & Shine
The debut single by The Cardigans released in Sweden in 1994. But this is the more widely known re-recorded version from the following year that reached #29 in the UK charts. The CD single came backed with these two tracks:-
mp3 : The Cardigans - Pike Bubbles
mp3 : The Cardigans - Cocktail Party Bloody Cocktail Party
The latter is a very strange release. It is 15 minutes long and is a medley of songs written and recorded by the band. Except, as the title perhaps indicates, it is delivered exclusively via piano in the style you would associate with a cocktail bar. It sounds live as you get to hear the occasional background noise, including the clinking of wine glasses and ripples of applause as the pianist ends one tune and starts up another. But I'm sad to say the joke wears off all too quickly....
The title however, comes from this rather cute cover version:-
mp3 : The Cardigans - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
I don't own the original. I'm no fan of metal. But I do know it from it getting put on the turntable that was in the school common room which we got access to once we reached 5th and 6th year:-
And I can't let this posting go without a glance at the gorgeous Nina Persson. So here's the promo of the original and quite different version of Rise & Shine:-
I know a lot of people hate Editors. Is it because they got success? I don’t know. But whatever. They’ve got this song with lyrics that said it all when you know how it feels passing too much times on hospital corridors : “The saddest thing that I’d ever seen/Was smokers outside the hospital doors”.
Editors – Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors [video not mp3 to avoid dmca]
That's four weeks today since my mate passed away and exactly three weeks since his funeral. And again thanks to everyone who has contributed the postings over the period....you've all said something that has helped make better sense of the world.
While I'm still getting used to things, there's no doubt that the relatively mundane routine of everyday life is returning to the way it was a while back. But there are nights when I find I can't sleep for worrying about the future, especially what it holds for my mate's immediate family. So the title of today's track is for me:-
mp3 : Ballboy - Where Do The Nights Of Sleep Go To When They Do Not Come To Me
For those not aware, Ballboyare a wonderful band from Edinburgh who were much championed by the late John Peel. They've been kicking around since 2000 and over the years have released four excellent studio LPs and around eight EPs/singles. Today's offering was released as a single in late 2002 and the CD single also featured these two tracks:-
mp3 : Ballboy - A Night At The Ballet
mp3 : Ballboy - Leave The Earth Behind And Take A Walk Into The Sunshine (live)
The single can also be found on the debut LP A Guide For The Daylight Hours, as can this track which is another that made me smile one day this past few weeks when it came up on random play:-
I've long found that Andrew Weatherall's dub-techno project Sabres Of Paradise 1993 single is an emotional mirror, reflecting the listener's state of mind. The 12" had two versions, Entry and Exit, both ten minutes long with not a second wasted, live sounding machine music with house keys and dubby percussion. There's also the more well known, completely gorgeous 7" Beatless mix, with it's starburst twinkles and elegant keyboards. When you're feeling up, these tracks sound like aural ecstacy. On the flipside when you're down, blue, melancholy, bummed out, distraught or devasted Smokebelch sounds like the most mournful thing you've ever heard. But comforting with it. At ten minutes long (twenty if you play the two sides back to back, heck stick the Beatless mix on and go for a full twenty five minute wallow) it's a trip that completely immerses, but then leaves you feeling better and the world a better place when it's over- and what more can we ask for from our music?
There's a few ways you can do it. My suggestion for today is that you very loudly play any or indeed all versions of today's track and throw yourself into a frenzy as if you were on a hot and sweaty dancefloor or under a canvas tent at some truly detestable summer festival (copyright Mr Edwyn Collins). It really is a banging tune best played through a proper set of speakers and not the tunny things you have on the PC or laptop.
I don't know about the rest of you who remember this particular piece of music but I was stunned to realise that was released in the last century......November 1999 to be precise.....and it reached #22 in the singles chart - it just doesn't seem that long ago
It was the lead single from XTRMNTR, the LP that received an incredibly positive critical response on its release in January 2000. It's certainly my favourite work by the band - I came a wee bit too late to the party to fully appreciate Screamadelica. It was an album I really got to know from listening to sitting on a beach and by the pool....not the sort of thing to make you relax all that much but it was perfect for my mood and state of mind at the time. I was frustrated and angry at a few things going on at work at the time, but I got away for a break at just the right time to stop being doing anything really stupid that would have led to the sack. Listening repeatedly to the loud, repetitive and hypnotic nature of XTRMNTR helped a lot.......you could almost describe it as a bit of Primal Scream therapy.
Here's the promo....which I can't ever recall seeing on telly at the time
Music definitely does help us through the darkest times. And while there are many profound and brilliant songs addressing life and death, some of these postings have demonstrated that consolation in the event of actual bereavement and grief comes from songs you would never have expected.
My own contribution takes me right back to the time when I was about to enter my teens, and starting off on the journey of musical discovery that would help me through them, when I suddenly lost my father.
I would borrow LPs every fortnight from Walsall record library, and transfer them onto C90 cassettes. One such LP was Special Beat Service - and while I've never been of the opinion that this is a great album (I Confess is its standout track), its meaning to me is inestimable. Unable to put my loss into words, and with no one to speak them to anyway, I would sing every word of this album over and over again to myself. This song, named after a game played long ago in West Midlands school playgrounds, is the one that helped me to face the world then, and it still does now.
