OUT WITH THE OLD......

As 2011 draws to an end, many bloggers - including most mt favourite places to visit as lsited over on the right hand side - will already be looking back over the past 12 months and highlighting some of their personal best ofs in terms of music, books and other entertainment.

I'm sorry for an readers who are fans of such items for it's no something going to feature at TVV.

2011 has not been a great year. Most of you will know why. I thought that 2010 was bad enough - and by gawd it was - but the past 12 months have been just horrible for the most part. Yes, there's been some memorable and happy times to recall but they've easily been outnumbered by the depressing and sad days. As such, I can't look back with much fondness and say why such a piece of music has been great....partly as I didn't find myself in the mood all that often to get out there and buy new things.

It's also why I wasn't able to contribute to the end of year round-up over at the Contrast Podcast. Tim looks for everyone to put forward their 50 favourite tracks, and based on this comes up with a short-list for further round of voting after which we are asked to record an introduction. I just didn't get involved and I feel bad about it....

I do urge you all to pay a visit to the Contrast Podcast in the coming weeks as Tim unveils what will be a hugely entertaining and diverse selection of songs - and all of the introductions will be fantastic as well.

For what it's worth, the three LPs I've listened most to this year have been, in alphabetical order:-

Adam Stafford - Build A Harbour Immediately
Butcher Boy - Helping Hands
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything's Getting Older

They might turn out to be my favourite records of 2011 but given that I've just received a whole bundle of CDs for Xmas, as well as there being about a dozen I've bought but never yet got round to listening to, that could yet change.

One thing I can say music-wise about 2011 - and I'm leaving myself open to all sorts of criticism given that everyone else out there seems to love it - and that's how bitterly disappointed I was with Let England Shake by PJ Harvey.

I've been a fan from the outset, all the way back to the early 90s when she first emerged with singles like Sheela-Na-Gig and Dress.  I'm not saying I've loved everything she has released - like everyone else with a career that spans two decades there will be the occasional recording that isn't as good as precious material.  It took me a while to buy Let England Shake as I had a few other things to occupy my foremost thoughts.  It would have been around the month of May that I got a hold of it - some three months after its release and by which time it had been labelled a masterpiece.

First listen did nothing for me.  But then again, that sometimes happens even with records that soon become part of my own list of all-time classics. Also, I might not have been in the right frame of to take it all in.

But it wasn't any better second or third time around.  Or the fourth.  And since then the fisth and sixth.  There might have been a seventh but I'm not sure.  In other words, I've given the LP every possible opportunity to grow on me but it hasn't.

It's not that I'm against the idea of protest songs - you only need to have a glance through the vinyl and CD collection to realise that.  But I just can't bring myself to agree with those who have said that this is a powerful,  inventive, profound and passionate album that captures the anger so many of us feel about the state of the world and mankind's awful ability to wage war on one another for no good reason.  Lyrically, it is all of that.  Musically, it is so dreary, dull and tedious.

Listening to it took me back to the mid-late 70s when so many friends made me sit for hours with them listening to Pink Floyd LPs and trying to convince me that they were all incredible works of art.  To some folk they were and still are.  I was bored rigid. Maybe I just din't 'get it'.  Today Pink Floyd still bore me rigid and I don't get their popularity.

Let England Shake is my 21st Century equivalent of Dark Side Of The Moon.  It's likely to always be high on the all-time lists.  Just don't expect me to fall in line.





JC, Tuesday 27 December 2011

I HOPE YOU'RE NOT HAVING A BLUE MONDAY

The day after Christmas can sometimes be a bit of an anti-climax. I hope it is not the case with you dear readers.

The folk I feel sorry for are those in the retail sector. They probably finished at 6pm on Saturday night after about three or four weeks in a row without a day off during which time they dealt with customers who were clueless and often rude. I certainly saw some supermarket check-out staff get a mouthful of abuse because the shop had the temerity to have run out of some foodstuffs and those who left it till the last minute were disappointed and in some cased angry.

Over here, 26th December is referred to as Boxing Day. Thought I'd find a track with a tenuous link to the theme of boxing for today...and that linked in with the day of the week. It was one of three on a belter of a CD single from 1990:-

mp3 : Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck (Vince Clarke mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays and Karl Denver - Lazyitis - one armed boxer

Enjoy.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS DEAR READERS (Part 4)

It's the tradition round these parts:-

mp3 : Sultans of Ping - Xmas Bubblegum Machine

Hope Santa has been great to you and your loved ones.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS DEAR READERS (Part 3)

This is for my brother and his family in Florida...and my mum and dad who are over there visiting the grandkids this festive period.



He was lying in the half light
Of Christmas and Glasgow
Thinking and talking
Talking to St Enoch about
Christmas and Glasgow
Drinking and talking


And the sweet smell
Of the Kelvin Hall Circus
And the sweet smell lingered
Of her perfume and kisses


He needed to take one step
He was taking one step back


She knows the only danger
Of Christmas And Glasgow
Is you love too much
And she's thinking of years
At Christmas and Glasgow
When it meant too much


And walking in frost
Down in Cowcaddens
And the sweet smell
As they were lost in the garden


She needed to take one step
She was taking one step back


They could hear choirs, those heavenly choirs
Choirs of angels, those heavenly choirs


They needed to take one step
They were taking one step back

Santa will be coming down the chimney with tunes for you tomorrow.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS DEAR READERS (Part 2)

This was a bugger to sort out for you as the a-side to this 12" single is a double-grooved record, which means you've got to muck about with it a bit to make sure you get both versions of the song as available on the vinyl:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes - Birthday (Christmas Eve)
mp3 : Sugarcubes - Birthday (Christmas Day)

Now these might very well be the wrong way round. I've never been sure which is which - I'm basing it on the fact that 'Eve' is listed before 'Day' and is the one the needle slips easiest into.

The b-side is a lot easier:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes - Birthday (Christmas Present)
mp3 : Sugracubes - Petrol (live)

Unsurprisingly, the sleeve gives a big thank you to Jim and William Reid.

And here's the promo of the single version:-



And finally.....the original and best version:-

mp3 : Sugarcubes - Birthday (Icelandic version)

One more posting before Santa arrives.......

HAPPY CHRISTMAS DEAR READERS (Part 1)

Released in 1981.  It's on Les Disques du Crepuscule.  Here's what it says on the back of the sleeve:-

Yet another Christmas album. This one comes from Belgium, a small country which has contracted debts from its partners all around the world.  In debt we are towards the artists who have written the featured selections collected under the title 'Chantons Noel'. Let's sing Christmas.


Some will enjoy it, some will dislike it, some will be surprised.


On this particular day where a smooth tender cloud seems to transform all virtualities into possibilities, our best wishes are to those who don't live up to their abilities.....

There's 13 tracks all told, many of them instrumentals.  Some of the acts are well known, others less so.  Here's a wee bit about each of them:-

mp3 : Aztec Camera - Hot Club Of Christ

If any readers don't know about Aztec Camera or Roddy Frame, then they've stumbled upon this blog by mistake.  Surely one of the strangest tracks the boy wonder ever recorded.  Throw some spare change into the collection box sir??

mp3 : The Names - Tokyo Twilight

Brussels new wave band originally active between 1979 and 1982, associated with Factory Records and Les Disques du Crepuscule. During this period the group worked extensively with producer Martin Hannett.

mp3 : Paul Haig - Christiana

See what I said about Aztec Camera??? Ditto for Paul Haig.......

mp3 : The Swinging Buildings - Praying For A Cheaper Christmas

Although unconfirmed, the mysterious Swinging Buildings are rumoured to be New Order in disguise…(have a listen...Hooky is in there somewhere surely....)

mp3 : Soft Verdict - For Christmas Only

Soft Verdict is the name under which Wim Mertens started his musical career. Soft verdict is not a band but more a collection of musicians under the direction of Mertens who performed with him. Oh and Wim Mertens is a Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist who in March 1998 Mertens became the Cultural Ambassador of Flanders.

mp3 : White Birds - Possessed By The Stars

aka Minny Pops, a Dutch electronicgroup who released four albums during the early 80's before disbanding in 1986.

mp3 : The Durutti Column - One Christmas For Your Thoughts

aka Vini Reilly. Stalwart of Factory Records who would later write and record with Morrissey as the Smiths frontman embarked on his solo career.

mp3 : Cabaret Voltaire - Invocation

Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement. Their earliest performances were dada-influenced performance art, but Cabaret Voltaire later developed into a group that blended pop with dance music, techno, dub house and experimental electronic music.

mp3 : Tuxedomoon - Weihnachtrap

Tuxedomoon is an avant-garde, electronic-oriented collective whose music ranges from new wave pop to jazz fusion to more experimental synthesizer soundscapes (usually including saxophone and violin), which were frequently married in concert to performance-art shows. Tuxedomoon was formed in San Francisco in 1977 and landed an opening slot for Devo in 1978 at around the same time they cut their first single.

mp3 : Simon Topping - Peep Show International

Another Factory stalwart, having once been part of A Certain Ratio and Quando Quango.

mp3 : Thick Pigeon - Silhouettes

A minimalist duo who operated on the fringes of synth music and art rock. Instrumentalist Carter Burwell has since gone on to provide soundtrack work for around 50 motion pictures whilst singer Stanton Miranda has worked with Durutti Column and Sonic Youth not to mention being a fully-fledged actress. A 1984 LP ny Thick Pigeon was recorded with Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order.

mp3 : Michael Nyman - Cream or Christians

Michael Nyman an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano. His operas include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Letters, Riddles and Writs, Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs, Facing Goya, Man and Boy: Dada, Love Counts, and Sparkie: Cage and Beyond, and he has written six concerti, four string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band, with and without whom he tours as a performing pianist.

mp3 : Magazzini Criminali - Honolulu 25 Dicembre 1990

In English the name means 'Criminal Stores'. They were (and indeed could well still be) an avant-garde theatre group from Florence.

 And of all the bits of music I've ever featured on TVV....Magazinni Criminal is just about the strangest.

As the sleeve notes say.....'Some will enjoy it, some will dislike it, some will be surprised.'  Most I reckon will be bemused.

ASK ME I WON'T SAY NO ( HOW COULD I?) (again.....)

As mentioned yesterday, I'm re-posting some old stuff in response to a request from a reader.  Here's something dating back to April 2009:-

RADIO FRIENDLY UNIT (NON) SHIFTER

All that talk the other day of Paul Haig (and again I'd like to thank everyone who lent their support) got me thinking of other great songs to come out of Edinburgh. And right away, this piece of magic from 1986 sprung to mind:-

mp3 : Goodbye Mr Mackenzie - The Rattler

Goodbye Mr Mackenzie actually formed in Bathgate, which is a small town some 15 miles or so west of the capital, and their first single in 1984 was recorded (as The Mackenzies) on the record label of a local further education college.

This follow up single was put out on the Glasgow-based Precious organisation, which was the home to the soon chart-conquering Wet Wet Wet, but despite a lot of support from local radio stations across central Scotland (with one of the lines changed to avoid references to eating beavers), it flopped. There continued to be a real buzz about Goodbye Mr Mackenzie - this was a time when Scottish acts like Deacon Blue, Hue & Cry and the afore mentioned Wets were hugely popular and GMM were lumped in with all of them - so it was hardly a surprise that they ended up signing to a major label, in this case Capitol Records, in early 1988.

The first couple of singles flopped, and so band and label decided to release a re-recorded version of The Rattler which hit #37 in the UK charts in 1989. Debut LP, Good Deeds And Dirty Rags, did make the Top 30 a few months later, but a fourth single from the album sold poorly.

While some of the songs were as radio-friendly and catchy as many of their Scottish contemporaries, GMM never quite took off as expected - this was probably down to the fact that live they were quite a different proposition.

For instance, the lead guitarist was a huge bear of a man who was once part of a local punk outfit (and still looked as if that's where he'd rather be) and there was a strange gothic-looking girl on keyboards and backing vocals, and you could never accuse them of being cuddly and photogenic...

With no real sustainable success, the record label lost interest, and while the band soldiered on for a few more years, they ended up as a mere footnote, albeit one that left us four LPs, about a dozen 45s/EPs and a couple of live recordings.

After they broke up, the gothic backing singer went onto find real fame and fortune :-

mp3 : Garbage - Queer

Yup, it was Shirley Manson who used to stand at the back of the stage with GMM, and before long she was a huge star the world over as lead singer in the band put together by Butch Vig, previously best-known as producer of Nevermind, the breakthrough album by Nirvana.....with whom Big John Duncan, the guitarist with GMM, occasionally played live.

It's a small world y'know....

My copy of the 1986 single is well worn out, and the mp3 of The Rattler is taken from a CD compilation that gathers up all sorts of indie songs from that year, but I have managed to salvage one of the b-sides:-

mp3 : Goodbye Mr Mackenzie - Candlestick Park

Happy Listening.

(And here's something since tracked down on you tube)




It still is a cracking tune..........

ASK ME I WON'T SAY NO ( HOW COULD I?)

A reader writes:-

Just went on to the website after getting home from my works xmas party at The Arches. A colleague recommended the vinyl villain after talking about music from the 80's and all the scottish bands we listened to.


Been trying to get hold of the Fruits of Passion and Goodbye Mr Mckenzie for ages. Saw your write-ups but couldn't download the tracks.


Is there any other way of downloading them ?


Cheers


Ian

It will be a while before they come round on the Scottish singles series, so as an early Xmas present to Ian (and other fans of the groups), here's a reminder of what I said back in May 2010 and how it all sounds:-

I know that long time reader Son Of The Rock is not the only fan of this mid-80s combo, who if memory serves me correctly were from a town called Coatbridge which is just 10 miles or so east of Glasgow, as I've had a couple of e-mails over the years asking for postings.

The thing is, they never made that much of an impact on me at the time, and having got my hands not all that long ago on a second-hand copy of their only LP, I think it is a sound that hasn't dated all that well, but hey, I'm happy to let others listen and make their own minds up.

1986 was the year you need to look at if you want to know more about Fruits Of Passion, who were Sharon Dunleavy (vocals), Glenn Gibbons (guitar), Davey Fullerton (rhythm guitar) and Stephen Alexander (bass). They released a 10-track album on Siren Records, which was a subsidiary of Virgin Records. Four of the tracks were released as singles, none of which troubled the charts:-

mp3 : Fruits Of Passion - Love's Glory
mp3 : Fruits Of Passion - Kiss Me Now
mp3 : Fruits Of Passion - Everything (I Ever Wanted)
mp3 : Fruits Of Passion - No More Tears

There's no denying that Sharon Dunleavy had a powerful voice - very reminscent at times of Maria McKee. But the tunes were a bit too polished and comfortable for my liking, although looking back maybe the band came along just a wee bit too soon to have made it. There's a fair bit of the sort of sounds that would propel Deacon Blue and Texas to fame and fortune just a couple of years later...

THE MONDAY CORRESPONDENT

FEED THE WORLD....

In a recent episode of Songwriters on Sky Arts channel, Midge Ure explained how the Band Aid single, Do They It’s Christmas? came about,

“I was up in Newcastle ready to go on The Tube music show with Ultravox. I was talking to Paula Yates, when Bob Geldof came on the phone ranting about the footage from Africa he’d just seen on the BBC news.

He asked to speak to me, he told me he’d found it upsetting and obscene and asked if I could help him come up an idea to raise £100,000 as he didn’t think he had the strength to do it alone.

We met a few days later at his house to come with ideas of what to do. The only thing we could do was record a song.

It was October.

So it had to be a Christmas song, we couldn’t record an old standard like White Christmas or anything like that, as half the money would straight to Irving Berlin’s or whoever’s estate.

Bob thought he had the bare bones of a song that had already been rejected by the rest of the Boomtown Rats, so that told how good it was!!!!

We decided to go our separate ways and met up later in the week to see what ideas we had.

I went home and switched on my small Casio toy keyboard that I kept in the kitchen. I started by switching on the Christmas bells chime and I very quickly came up with the melody.

We met up at my house later that week.

Bob arrived carrying a guitar that looked like he had just retrieved it from a nearby skip, no parts of this thing pointed in the right direction.

He played his idea two or three times, every time it sounded completely different.

Bob had the idea to get Trevor Horn, the hot producer of the time, to produce it, but because of his commitments, he said it would take six weeks to have it ready.

I then took both our ideas to my wee studio at the bottom of my garden; I had the job of trying to piece together these two totally incompatible ideas together.

Meanwhile, Bob got on the phone to round up the troops and bludgeoning people to turn up to sing at the recording.

It is a strange song, as it doesn’t have a chorus and we didn’t have the anthemic ‘Feed the World’ chant until the day of the recording.

Bob felt it needed something and we came up with that as an answer after remembering John Lennon’s Merry Xmas War Is Over.

We glued that on at the end”.

And so the charity single was born.



Mr John Greer, Monday 19 December 2011

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 15)

From wiki:-

The Bathers are a Scottish Chamber pop band.


Formed in Glasgow in 1985 after the band Friends Again split up, they are essentially the vehicle for singer-songwriter, Chris Thomson. They have released seven albums.


Thomson secured a deal with Go! Discs Records and released the debut album Unusual Places To Die in 1987. The album gained an enthusiastic reception, but label politics limited its success. Thomson went back to the drawing board and produced the follow-up Sweet Deceit. The album was released in 1990 by Island Records and was, again, critically acclaimed. A flirtation with two key members of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions followed in the form of the Bloomsday album Fortuny.


The Bathers then signed to the German label Marina Records and three albums were released – Lagoon Blues (1993), Sunpowder (1995) and Kelvingrove Baby (1997) – by a new band that now included string players and arrangers Mark Wilson and Iain White, keyboard player Carlo Scattini and percussionist Hazel Morrison. Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins recorded several tracks with the band on 1995's Sunpowder, and performed live with them in Glasgow.


Thomson enjoyed a good relationship with Marina, but felt that a label nearer home would be preferable. The Bathers' sixth album, Pandemonia appeared on Wrasse Records in 1999. The label also released Desire Regained in 2001, a compilation of twenty re-recordings of the band's best known work.


In 2005 The Scotsman put Sweet Deceit as one of their five lost Scottish classic albums. In 2003, the same newspaper listed Kelvingrove Baby at number 42 in its 100 Best Scottish Albums.

I've long intended to do a really lengthy feature on the genius of Chris Thomson, but never quite had the ability to pen the words to do justice to his voice and talents. The Bathers are indeed a national treasure, and while there's been seven albums ( the compilation seeing all the songs re-recorded means it is counted as well), there's just a couple of singles with today's offering dating back to 1987:-

mp3 : The Bathers - Fancy Dress
mp3 : The Bathers - Ju Ju Peach

Neither track it has to be said is atypical of most of the material that features on the LPs. If you can get your hands on the compilation LP mentioned above, it's a great way to begin to learn more about them. And while it is becoming increasingly difficult to get Bathers material, visit this page on a record label site and you'll find some LPs at a more than reasonable price.

Next up in this series is Belle & Sebastian.

I GREW TIRED OF THIS ONE QUITE QUICKLY

Following his departure from The Stone Roses in April 1996, guitarist John Squire quickly got back into the music industry with his new band The Seahorses with who he enjoyed a fair amount of commercial success.

All of their recorded output was released in 1997, beginning with #3 hit Love Is The Law in April, followed by three more Top 20 singles over the coming months (including one co-written with Liam Gallacher) as well as a Do It Yourself, a #2 hit on the album charts (it was stopped from reaching the top spot by a Gary Barlow LP).

I was never a huge fan of The Stone Roses, so wasn't all that bothered with the news of the formation of this new band.  But I did quite enjoy the debut single the first few times I heard it on the radio (in those pre-internet days it was the only way to hear new music other than hanging around record shops).

mp3 : The Seahorses - Love Is The Law
mp3 : The Seahorses - Dreamer
mp3 : The Seahorses - Sale Of The Century

I probably played it about three times and got bored with it.  It's one of those that you hear on a radio and sounds catchy.  Then you listen more carefully at home and realise that it's as dull as dishwater. And wholly unoriginal.  Plod-rock.

Indeed, I don't think I've actually played the CD in 14 years until just now.  None of the tracks had ever been transferred to mp3 and the PC hard drive until now (and they've immediately been removed to free up some space)

So why feature it if I hate it so much?  Turns out that the single edit is quite different from the more commonly available LP version - it clocks in some 4 minutes shorter as it doesn't feature the guitar solo (see how I'm doing you a favour).  And some of you may well be fans......

Enjoy the reunion folks.  It will be fine if the guitarist doesn't play solos.

IN PRAISE OF.....30 SOMETHING BY CARTER USM

While recently re-reading the excellent Goodnight Jim-Bob : On The Road with Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine (a highly recommended book available from its publishers here), I was struck by the following passage:-

On May the 10th backstage at the Carlisle Sands Centre we received a phone call to tell us that 1992 The Love Album had entered the charts at number 1.  That surely should have felt a lot better than it did. I was cock-a-hoop head over heels as happy as a sandboy's dog with two tails called Larry when 101 Damnations went into the Top 40 and even more so when 30 Something went to Number 8.  Straight in at Number 1 should have killed me. But for some reason it was a bit of an anti-climax. Maybe it was because we expected it. All the planning and marketing and not releasing it the same week as Iron Maiden's new album.  I don't know. We opened a couple of bottles of champagne on stage that night and sprayed them all over the audience like the Schumacher brothers but it should have meant a lot more. And yet that Sunday evening in Carlisle I was almost disappointed.

Maybe the unsaid thing from Jim Bob is that he knew the band's poorest LP to date had been the one to take them to the pinnacle and it left a bit of a sour taste.

The band had come a very very long way in a short period of time.  Late 1989 had seen the release of the critically acclaimed 101 Damnations on Big Cat Records.  An LP that wiki describes perfectly as a critical account of life south of the River Thames, full of black humour, cynicism, wordplay and puns - as indeed was so much of Carter USM's output over the years.

February 1991 saw the release of 30 Something on Rough Trade Records.  It was at this time that I got my first ever live experience of the band with an incredible performance in the tiny space at Glasgow Tech Students Union (Jacques the Kipper was with me that night).  I caught them live again later in 1991 and again was amazed by the show.  They were energetic, lively and hugely entertaining. And in 30 Something, they were promoting what I reckon is one of the best and most overlooked LPs in critics lists - one that has stood the test of time more than 20 years on.

It got them a move to a major label - to Chysalis Records - and 1992 was the year when the UK and much of Europe went bonkers for Jim Bob and Fruitbat, much of it lovingly recalled in the book.  There were headlining slots at festivals and just over a year after not selling out a student union, Glasgow was treated to two nights at the Barrowlands - they could just as easily have packed the 12,000 capacity SECC.  But the songs on 1992 The Love Album seemed for the most part a bit dull compared to what had appeared on the first two records.

Reputedly costing less than £4000 to record and produce, 30 Something is a masterpiece.  From the opening snatched and oh-so accurate dialogue lifted from an episode of Red Dwarf:-

"When You're younger you can eat what you like, drink what you like and still climb into your 26-inch trousers and zip them closed.  But then you reach that age....24, 25...your muscles give up, they wave a little white flag and without any warning at all you're suddenly a fat bastard"

....all the way through to the melancholy and sadness of the closing track The Final Comedown, there isn't a wasted moment across its entire 41 minutes

There's great passion, energy and humour in the lyrics even when they are dealing with really dark and serious issues such as alcoholism, racism, bullying, domestic violence and depression.  There's a great warning of the perils of consumerism which includes a great use of a sample of the voice of Joe Strummer and so many attacks on the state of UK society with the have and have-nots thanks to Thatcherism.  For me.....it is the most punk of albums with an electronic twist.  And as I say, one that today still hasn't lost its ability to have me jumping around the room like an idiot (even if nowadays I do it in my head rather than in reality....)

Enjoy it in its entirety.  But please, please, please......if its something new to you and you like it.....go track down a copy.

mp3 : Carter USM - Surfin' USM
mp3 : Carter USM - My Second To Last Will And Testament
mp3 : Carter USM - Anytime Anyplace Anywhere
mp3 : Carter USM - A Prince In A Paupers Grave
mp3 : Carter USM - Shoppers' Paradise
mp3 : Carter USM - Billy's Smart Circus
mp3 : Carter USM - Bloodsport For All
mp3 : Carter USM - Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss
mp3 : Carter USM - Say It With Flowers
mp3 : Carter USM - Falling On A Bruise
mp3 : Carter USM - The Final Comedown

Immense. At almost 50 something it still speaks to me.

THE WEDNESDAY CORRESPONDENT

PRODUCTION VALUES

I recently heard Steve Lillywhite telling how he got his break in the music industry, working as a tape operator at the Philips Studios.

Then while working for Polygram Records, he got the opportunity to produce some demo tapes for the first incarnation of Ultravox then called Tiger Lily with a lead singer named Dennis Leigh, who also changed his name to John Foxx.

He described their early sound as Roxy Music meets punk or arty punk. It was a sound he preferred to hardcore punk. Melody has always been important to Lillywhite.

He then moved to Island Records and assisted with the recording of this hit single:-

mp3 : Eddie & The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna Do

While producing Johnny Thunders’ album So Alone a visitor to the studio was Nils Stevenson, manager of Siouxsie and the Banshees. He loved the drum sound produced by Lillywhite and immediately wanted him to re-record the Banshees’ proposed first single Hong Kong Garden.

Back in the day 1978, the band felt it was uncool to have their single on their album, so when he went to record their debut The Scream, the single that reached number 7 in the UK charts did not feature, although it did on the reissue in 2005.

mp3 : Siouxsie and The Banshees - Hong Kong Garden

The album was released to great critical acclaim and even recently was voted inside the top 50 debut albums of all time by Uncut magazine.

That production made a highly sought after producer and he became Island Records ‘in house’ producer working with everyone from Steel Pulse, The Psychedelic Furs, Peter Gabriel, Toyah, Talking Heads and U2. Lillywhite remembers that during this period he was so prolific, he once recorded a Psychedelic Furs album in eleven days.

His relationship with U2 started with him producing their first three albums (1980-83) and in 2004 he returned to co-produce How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and in 2009 he also co-produced No Line on the Horizon.

Some of my favourite Lillywhite produced material is on XTC’s album’s Drums and Wires and Black Sea.

mp3 : XTC - Helicopter
mp3 : XTC - Respectable Street

He described them as a great band to work with, Andy Partridge as a musical genius and the group from Swindon, as being a bit like ‘country bumpkins’ who loved to go for a pint down the local pub. The BBC produced a one-hour documentary called XTC at the Manor which featured Steve Lillywhite and XTC recording the track Towers of London and the video for General and Majors filmed at Richard Branson’s mansion. On reflection, he says, it was more of an informational film for Virgin Records and Richard Branson.

The film is available on Youtube

(note from JC.....I was hoping to paste it on the blog, but it has been broken down into five parts so its best you just visit you tube to watch it

Part One here
Part Two here
Part Three here
Part Four here
Part Five here

In 1984, Lillywhite married Kirsty MacColl, he produced her albums Kite and Electric Landlady and she had featured on various sessions for albums he was producing for the likes of The Rolling Stones, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club and Big Country. He recalls, ‘It was Kirsty that introduced me to the music of Big Country and suggested that I should produce them’.

Lillywhite and MacColl had a recording studio attached to their house and this is where Kirstyl recorded her vocals for Fairy Tale of New York, but not where Shane MacGowan sung his.

Incidentally, Lillywhite had suggested Kirsty only after Cait O’Riorden had left the Pogues - it turned out to be a perfect combination.




During the nineties, Lillywhite produced albums for Morrissey and The La’s amongst others and more recently he produced Crowded House’s comeback album Time On Earth.

(another note from JC.....I got to choose the Moz track that Mr Lillywhite produced.  And I reckon it's one of THE greatest of his solo tracks....)

mp3 : Morrissey - Now My Heart Is Full

I've long been a fan of the work of Steve Lillywhite. And I don't think I'm alone.

Mr John Greer, Wednesday 14 December 2011

QUICK ROUND-UP.....

The above pictured cat is on the mend.  But it was looking bad for a bit.

He was taken to the vet last Friday afternoon by Mrs V after she spotted that he was having problems peeing.  Turns out he had a blockage which was also affecting his kidneys and liver.  Emergency surgery was undertaken - and quite a long operation it turned out to be.  He then spent three nights under the direct supervision of a team of vets in a hospital before being allowed back home late on yesterday where he continues his recovery, under my supervision today as I've used the last of my annual leave for 2011 to keep an eye on him.

Plan is to put together some blog pieces for the next few days and to also use those so thoughtfully put together by Mr John Greer, but thought I'd start with a round-up dealing with requests in comments left behind in recent weeks.

Robster was one of a number who liked the Telly Performances Series (so expect more of that in 2012!!). He was particularly taken with the Leonard Cohen appearance and performance of The Future on Later back in 1993 and asked if I could track down the second song he played that night.  Happy to oblige but the best copy I could find wouldn't allow embedding.  But click here for the link

mp3 : Leonard Cohen - Democracy (live on 'Later')

Garageland asked for a re-post from November 2010.  How could I day no??

mp3 : The Jam - Town Called Malice (live)
mp3 : The Jam - Precious (live)

Other requests will be dealt with in the next few weeks....honest!!

Happy Listening

GIG REVIEW : BUTCHER BOY & ADAM STAFFORD ; LANGSIDE HALL, GLASGOW - SATURDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2011

Post-holiday blues, Xmas nights out, scary weather and a seriously-ill cat have all been determining factors in my inability to get the blog back to normal these past few days.  And with the cat not yet completely out of the woods yet (that's three nights away in a vet's hospital with the costs ever-escalating), it might be that no sooner have I tried to get going again than I will come to a grinding halt.

But to matters in hand.

Saturday 19 November was one of the most enjoyable events of my whole life.  The night that I finally put something back into the world for all the times that musicians have enthralled and entertained me in a live environment this past 30 plus years.

60 folk bought tickets in advance.  A further 64 came along on the night and either paid in , were on the guest list or aged under 16 and nor charged anything.  Then there was me and Richard on the door and the two lads who did the sound and lights.  That made it an audience of 128 or thereabouts for a very fine show indeed.  A huge thanks to everyone who made it along.

It was a long day.  I was there at 4pm to help out where I could with the sound lads arriving as well as the band going through a soundcheck.  Langside Halls is a cracking old venue, but a real problem to get the sound spot-on without a lot of hard work and it took a fair bit of time to get there.  In among all this,. John from Butcher Boy also gave an interview to a student journalist to help out with her course and then Adam the support act turned up around 7pm advising that he was OK about a minimal sound-check.  The reason for his late arrival was that having played on the Friday night as support to The Twilight Sad he was required to do an 8-hour shift on Saturday at the job that helps pay his rent.....

Next task was to staff the merchandise stall as the first punters rolled in.  One of the earliest arrivals was Anna Docherty, the listings editor of The Skinny, who had given the event a great plug in the paper.  Anna was very kind - she turned down the offer of a place on the guest list preferring to come through from Edinburgh along with a friend and pay her own way as she was a fan of both acts on the bill.  Thanks again Anna...

The doors opened at 7.30 and Adam Stafford took to the stage at around 8.15pm.  I knew beforehand that he would divide opinion as his show is quite different to that of Butcher Boy but I reckoned he would go down well with most folk.  Personally, I thought he was sensational.  He played a lot of new material and shied away from the more commercial offerings from his 2011 LP Build A Harbour Immediately.  As I said just two sentences ago.....he was sensational.

Matthew from Song By Toad had caught Adam's support act to The Twilight Sad in Edinburgh just a couple of days earlier.  I hope he doesn't mind me just doing a cut'n'paste job from his review as he said it far better than I would ever be capable of:-

Before we get into that though, fucking hell, Adam Stafford! 

Now, I enjoyed his latest album Build a Harbour Immediately, but live was something else. And, without wishing to hurt anyone’s feelings, I can’t understand how it wasn’t utter shit.This is a man building up his songs with looped and layered beatboxing.  He adds just a little guitar here and there, but for the most part the actual substance of the music is built from layer upon layer of… and I am going to have to say it again here… beatboxing! 

To explain myself, beatboxing is a little like rapping, in the sense that the mere mention of it gives me the fucking twitches. I am sure that in the right environment, done by the right people in the right context, it can be awesome, but it is very much Not For Me.  I even get the cold shakes when Tom Waits mentions beatboxing, and he is a musical deity who can do exactly what he pleases, as far as I am concerned.

So if you had described a man in a shirt and tie layering (and I kid you not) bow-chkka-wow-wow and deedy-n-dee-diddy and stuff like that, there is nothing I can picture being made with those ingredients that isn’t utterly embarrassing, unlistenable shit.But he was brilliant.As I said, looking at the actual mechanics of what Stafford does, it shouldn’t be great, but it really was.  It helped that he played it absolutely straight, but more than anything, despite what they were assembled from, the songs themselves were absolutely great. The performance was fantastic too.  The whole thing was fucking awesome. 

I was grinning like an idiot by this point even though I knew by now that I was going to be about 20-25 punters short of what I needed to not lose any money on the venture (damn you Okkervil River for stealing some of my audience!!!). I knew from the soundcheck that Butcher Boy were going to be at the top of their game so the end result of a memorable gig was assured.

But nothing had prepared ne for just how good Butcher Boy were going to be.

From the first notes that Alison played on the accordian for set-opener When I'm Asleep to the resounding flourish to the encore that was Profit In Your Poetry, the band did not do anything that wasn't short of perfection.  Findlay, the band's drummer, afterwards told me that he felt it was a good a live show he had ever been part of which is good enough for me.

It was the first time Butcher Boy had played a proper home-town show since the slot supporting Belle & Sebastian at the Barrowlands a year ago - there's been a couple of sets that were 'unplugged' or low-key but this was the first fully-fledged performance and it was one worthy of a 5-star review from any critic.

The set extended to 14 songs over around 50 minutes with a fair amount of old material being aired as well as the best stuff from 2011 LP Helping Hands.  I've actually got a 15-track Butcher Boy compilation on the i-pod made up of my own personal  favourites.  Twelve of those fifteen were played at Langside Hall - it felt at times as if I'd handpicked the set-list:-

When I'm Asleep
The Day Our Voices Broke
Girls Make Me Sick
I Am The Butcher
This Kiss Will Marry Us
Carve A Pattern
Helping Hands
Anything Other Than Kind
I Know Who You Could Be
Sunday Bells
Imperial
I Could Be In Love With Anyone
There Is No-one Who Can Tell Where You've Been
Profit In Your Poetry

Far too many highlights to single anything specific out.  But I surely wasnt the only smiling when John sang the line 'From Langside to Kerelaw' during Helping Hands.....

The next Butcher Boy gig is in London in early January.  I'm going to make sure I'm there.  If you can, you should too......

Ticket details here.

mp3 : Butcher Boy - Anything Other Than Kind

Thanks also to Comrade Colin for the black and white photo and Kenny McColl for the colour snaps that are at the top of this post.  To Richard for being such a star on the door that night, to Lloyd from Peenko and Mike from Manic Pop Thrills  for all their help in advance and to Michael and co from EH Sound for being heroes on the night.

The biggest thanks however have to go to Alison, Basil, Cat, Findlay, Fraser, John, Maya and Robert for a memorable performance.  You'll need to go something to top that in London but I'm looking forward to seeing you try.

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 14)

From wiki:-

Ballboy are a four piece indie band from Edinburgh, Scotland. Formed in the late 1990s, the band have released five albums between 2001 and 2008.


Originally comprising Viv Strachan (vocals), Gordon McIntyre (guitar), Nick Reynolds (bass), and Alexis Beattie (drums), Ballboy played gigs around Edinburgh for a few years, and recorded tracks for the Edinburgh indie compilation it's a life sentence..., released by the newly formed SL Records label in 1997.


By 1999 Gordon McIntyre, the band's main songwriter, had taken over vocal duties. Katie Griffiths had joined on keyboards, and Gary Morgan had taken over the drums. The band signed to SL Records that year, and released a series of EPs. The tracks from these EPs were collected on 2001's Club Anthems. The band toured the United States in September / October 2002 and McIntyre's journal of the tour was published in The Scotsman newspaper.


Their "proper" debut album, A Guide for the Daylight Hours, was released in November 2002, featuring artwork by Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley. This album was followed in 2003 by the acoustic, and often melancholy, The Sash My Father Wore and Other Stories, virtually a solo record by McIntyre.


In 2004, Ballboy returned to full band mode, with a new keyboard player, Alexa Morrison, and their third album. The band continue to play live occasionally and released their fourth studio album I Worked on the Ships in August 2008. Gordon McIntyre has begun work on a side project, Money Can't Buy Music.


From their early releases, the band were popular with the late DJ John Peel, and had several tracks featured in the Festive Fifty charts. They recorded several sessions for his BBC Radio 1 show, including a Christmas special live from Peel Acres, where McIntyre recorded a duet with American country singer Laura Cantrell.


In Autumn 2008, McIntyre composed the soundtrack for the Traverse Theatre Company production of Midsummer [a play with songs] by David Greig. Midsummer performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, from 24 October to 15 November 2008.


The above doesn't really do justice to one of the most under-rated bands to emerge from my wee part of the planet over the past decade or so. They really are quite splendid and big thanks to Jacques the Kipper for introducing me to them. Here's a single from 2002:-

mp3 : Ballboy - All The Records On The Radio Are Shite
mp3 : Ballboy - Stars And Stripes
mp3 : Ballboy - Building For The Future
mp3 : Ballboy - Welcome To The New Year

Next up.....................The Bathers.

A RATHER OBVIOUS COUNTDOWN (Part 3)

Notwithstanding DVD's incredibly funny suggestion from yesterday, a frightening number of songs with this number made it impossible to choose a singular track.  Feel free to offer your own opinions dear readers and listeners, especially if the one (pardon the pun) that's your favourite isn't in this list of ten:-

mp3 : The Clash - Capital Radio One
mp3 : Everything But The Girl - Each And Every One
mp3 : Jack Nitzsche - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Closing Theme)
mp3 : Johnny Cash - One Piece At A Time
mp3 : The Nectarine No.9 - Don't Worry Babe, You're Not The Only One Awake
mp3 : Pop Will Eat Itself - Def Con One
mp3 : She's Hit - Part One
mp3 : The Smiths - I Want The One I Can't Have
mp3 : Suede - My Insatiable One (piano version)
mp3 : The Wedding Present - Always The Quiet One

The track taken from the film score still has the ability to make me cry.  Especially if I've just watched the film....

Oh and the past 24 hours were probably the windiest and scariest conditions I've ever experienced in my life. There was a gust in excess of 150 miles per hour not too far north of Glasgow........

A RATHER OBVIOUS COUNTDOWN (Part 2)

As promised yesterday.  I bet most of you can hardly wait......(no wonder the number of daily visitors to the blog are decreasing at an alarming rate compared to a couple of years back....)

mp3 : Northside - Take 5
mp3 : The Young Knives - Fit 4 U
mp3 : Beastie Boys - 3 The Hard Way
mp3 : Twang - Song 2

You have to tune in tomorrow for #1........

A RATHER OBVIOUS COUNTDOWN (Part 1)

While lying on the beach the other day listening to random stuff on the i-pod, it hit me that I've a lot of songs that are associated with numbers.  And that inspired another posting.  Kind of lazy I know......but I'm still jetlagged:-

mp3 : Cinerama  - 10 Denier
mp3 : Frightened Rabbit - Square 9
mp3 : R.E.M.- Driver 8
mp3 : Jens Lekman  - Tram #7 To Heaven
mp3 : Sneaker Pimps - Six Underground

The last of the above list was, as I'm sure many of you know, the last ever record ever played at The Hacienda.  Not that anyone knew it at the time......

Top 5 to follow tomorrow.

REVISITING AN OLD POST.....AGAIN (SORRY)

Back on 1 February 2007, I penned the following words:-


There's nothing wrong with wearing twee clothes or listening to what is disparagingly referred to as twee music.

But you never see any fat folk described as twee do you? Do they only make twee clothes in the smallest possible sizes? I only ask out of curiosity, but let me know if you have the answer.

Here's three songs that some might define as 'twee'. I prefer to use the word 'great':-

mp3 : Tallulah Gosh - Beatnik Boy
mp3 : The Colourfield - Thinking Of You
mp3 : Architecture In Helsinki - Scissor Paper Rock


The reason I'm going back to an old post is that it's just 48 hours since I got back from holiday and I'm still jetlagged.  There's also the fact that the suitcases had such a great time that they stayed on for a couple more days and have not long come home, so the process of washing and drying worn clothes (and indeed unworn clothes that have lain beside said worn and damp clothes for days now) is only just beginning.  Oh and it's freezing cold here with snow and ice and a dramatic drop in temperature so my system is in shock.


All in all, I'm just too tired to do anything other than revisit an old post.  Please indulge me.


Oh and nobody has satisfactorily answered the question from nearly 5 years back. Do they only make twee clothes in the smallest possible sizes?

FILLING A CD SIZED HOLE IN THE COLLECTION

It was only a couple of weeks back when someone asked if I could post the b-sides to this CD single released in 2002 did it hit me that I never actually got round to buying it.  Thankfully, the internet makes such things much easier nowadays:-

mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Johnny Teardrop (remixed and radio edited)
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - Never Felt Like This
mp3 : Edwyn Collins - The Popstar

Nobody could have envisaged it would be the last single for more than 5 years.  As I've said before, read this brilliantly and movingly written account of the story of those years.

And here's the rarely seen promo:-



Happy Listening and viewing.

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 13)

Formed in 1992 in the town of Stewarton by a group of school mates, Baby Chaos consisted of Chris Gordon (vocals/guitar), Grant McFarlane (guitar), Bobby Dunn (bass) and Davy Greenwood (drums).  They were discovered by former Happy Mondays turned A&R man, Nathan McGough and after an appearance on a BBC 2 music programme were signed to East West with debut single 'Sperm' being released in late 1993.

Three more singles and an LP followed over the course of 1994, a year which saw them play the inaugural 'T In The Park' as well as at the week-long Sound In The City event in Glasgow (which is where I saw them for the first and only time).

They were described by some as Scotland's answer to the sound of post-Seattle grunge and were compared by others to Manic Street Preachers.  They never quite got a distinctive enough sound of their own to stand out.  Perhaps the best indication that they wouldn't get much of a local following was when they were briefly championed by Kerrang magazine at a time when Glasgow really didn't have all that much of a hard rock scene.  Tell you what though, their hometown isn't all that far from where Biffy Clyro have their roots.  Perhaps Baby Choas were just a decade or so too early. Here's one of the 1994 singles:-

mp3 : Baby Choas - Hello Victim
mp3 ; Baby Choas - Rotten To The Core
mp3 : Baby Chaos - Skinny

Not the sort of stuff normally featured on TVV but it's a CD single that sites on the shelf.  One that I paid 25p for...

Next up is Ballboy....who are a bit more atypical of this blog.

MORE GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 5)

Sometimes it is not the actual performance which makes something special and memorable. Today's clip from 1993 illustrates what I mean:-



It's a bit of a run-of-the-mill rendition of a great song. But for those of us who have been fans for years, the fact that Jools Holland got to at long last to play live on Uncertain Smile in a live setting makes it worthwhile.

mp3 : The The - Uncertain Smile
mp3 : The The - Uncertain Smile (live on 'Later')

And here's the original, nine-minute version on 12" vinyl which didn't feature the afore-mentioned Mr Holland:-

mp3 : The The - Uncertain Smile

That's the end of this short series. Hope you've enjoyed it....

MORE GREAT TELLY PERFORMANCES WEEK (Part 4)

Sometimes it's not just one song that sticks in the memory from a TV appearance.  Which is precisely the case here when Echo & The Bunnymen unleashed three then unknown songs via a Friday evening music programme on Channel 4:-







This was genuinely stunning telly.  The show headliners choosing not to play any hits.  And the lead singer quite clearly out of his head.  Check how quickly the credits roll halfway during the third track as Bunnymac starts ranting about cutting off criminal's genders.

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Nocturnal Me
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Nocturnal Me (live on The Tube)

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Ocean Rain (live on The Tube)

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Thorn Of Crowns
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Thorn Of Crowns (live on The Tube)

Incidentally, the band kept playing long after the show had ended and thankfully the cameras kept rolling. This bit of footage was shown in a separate show months later:-



They were an exceptional live act back in the day.......