ANOTHER BRILLIANT DUET FEATURING THE BARD OF BARKING

This isn't a single that sits within the collection.  For some reason or other, I never did get round to buying it at the time.  Years later, thanks to their inclusion on compilations and box-sets, I got my hands on the two wonderful b-sides:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg - Wishing The Days Away (ballad version)
mp3 : Billy Bragg - Sin City

The former is a stripped back version of one of the tracks on Talking With The Taxman About Poetry....this version is just Billy on vocals and Cara Tivey on keyboards.

The latter is a track, that until I got Volume 1 of Billy's boxsets back in 2006, was one that I knew was a cover version....but it was one I thought was called 'The Lord's Burnin' Rain' and that it had originally been penned by Hank Wangford.  This was all down to me having this bit of footage on VHS tape courtesy of some late night programme on Channel 4:-



It was only decades later that I learned both men were paying tribute to Gram Parsons.

Incidentally, one of the many gigs I never got to but wished I'd seen was at Glasgow University back in 1984. Billy was headlining and the support was the Hank Wangford Band. There was a bomb scare phoned into the venue...but Billy being the ultimate pro followed hs audience out into the street and played an impromptu set on the steps...Click here for more details.

Happy Listening

PS : It's just struck me....and it is pure coincidence......that on the extra day in the leap year I've featured a song from a single with the word leap in it.

A THING OF BEAUTY

In which Billy Bragg, Wilco, Natalie Merchant and Eliza Carthy combine to make something truly wonderful....with the help of Woody Guthrie:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg & Wilco - Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key

In case anyone isn't familiar with the story. Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by Billy Bragg and the Wilco. The project was organized by Woody's daughter, Nora Guthrie. The LP was released in 1998 and a second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000. The projects are named after a song "Mermaid's Avenue" written by Woody. This was also the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York on which he lived.

It had been during the spring of 1995, that  Nora contacted Billy about writing music for a selection of completed lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of which had any music other than a vague stylistic notation.

Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Billy in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Billy in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.

Rather than recreating tunes in Woody Guthrie's style, Billy and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone; released in 1998 as Mermaid Avenue, the results were met with near universal acclaim.

Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key, is for many, the highlight of the two volumes of work the project realised. The full list of musicians are:-

Jay Bennett - Hammond B3, bouzuki
Billy Bragg - acoustic guitar, lead vocal
Eliza Carthy - violin
Ken Coomer - drums and percussion
Natalie Merchant - backing vocal
Elizabeth Steen - accordian
John Stirratt - electric bass
Peter Yanowitz - chorus drums

Here's the two otherwise unavailable tracks on the CD single:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg & Wilco - My Thirty Thousand
mp3 : Billy Bragg & Wilco - Bugeye Jim

Happy Listening.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 8 : IN WHICH JC MANAGES A FIRST AFTER 33 YEARS...

REVIEW OF BILL WELLS/AIDAN MOFFAT/MALCOLM MIDDLETON/ADAM STAFFORD - SATURDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2012

One of the very first pieces I wrote on TVV way back in 2006 was a moan about gigs on the same night competing for attention.  Back then it was Arab Strap, Billy Bragg and the Magic Numbers.

It's happened plenty of times since then and it's going to happen in the future as well - for instance on Friday 6 April 2012 there's Butcher Boy, The Monochrome Set and Martin Stephenson & The Daintees all in town the same night.....

It looked for a while as if last Saturday was going to be the same.  The chance to see the ex-Strap duo share a bill just can't be passed up, but there was also the huge attraction of Adam Stafford playing a gig on his 30th birthday.  A real dilemma.

The solution however came as a result of the weekend gig policy at The Arches.  It's always an early start and finish as it's the venue of one of Glasgow's best and longest-established clubs - as name-checked in The First Big Weekend, the 1996 debut from Arab Strap.  I'd worked out that if I got away sharp from the Arches I could leg it along the half-mile or so to the 13th Note and catch at least most of Adam's show.....and if I pulled if off it would the first ever time I'd made two separate shows at different venues on the same night.

GIG 1

I love going to the Arches.  I get on a train just 400 yards from my house. Six minutes later I get to Glasgow Central station and walk so seconds to the venue (it's actually underneath the station and you can sometimes hear the rumble of trains above you at quiet moments.

At 7.40pm, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat take to the stage.  Unlike the last time I saw them in Paisley in late 2011, they don't have a full band with them. Just Robert Henderson on trumpet.  For about 30 minutes they treat an ever-growing crowd (not everyone remembers that its always a very early start on Fridays & Saturdays at the Arches) to a selection of songs from Everything's Getting Older and one of the songs on the Cruel Summer EP.  It's pretty damn splendid from start to end....the sparse instrumentation giving ample room for Aidan's delivery, whether sung or spoken.  Totally different versions of Glasgow Jubilee and Keep Me In Your Heart are highlights.  But once again, it's the beauty of Copper Top that will linger most.  It's becoming increasingly difficult however not to hear the song and not picture in your head the stunning video:



Malcolm Middleton took to the stage around 8.35. Unlike a few weeks ago when he played solo with acoustic guitar at Brel, this was in the shape of Human Don't Be Angry, his new solo guise that now needs a band to perform the material.

Malky has repeatedly said that H.D.B.A. is the antidote to having to write another atypical solo record. The guitars come first and the words along way back in second.  It was 25 minutes or so before any of the songs being performed at this gig featured a lyric.  It was also the first time I'd been exposed to any of the material, although clearly I was in a minority in what was by now a fairly-packed venue.

Let's cut to the chase.  Fans of the Malcolm Middleton material in which he writes all sorts of great indie-pop style bitter-sweet songs about love, life and death will have difficulties adjusting. This was dark, expressive and moody guitar music. The sort best played on a very expensive sound system.  The H.D.B.A. debut studio LP is out in April on Chemikal Underground and the lazy comparison would be Mogwai.  But a friend who I bumped into at the gig came up with a very interesting comparison  - the 1988 LP Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk a record described widely as moody and experimental and of which it has been said is the kind which encourages marketing men to commit suicide.  It's also now regarded by a many people as one of the best albums they've ever heard....but it was panned widely on its initial release.

The H.D.B.A. album is likely to be met with some bemusement.  I certainly enjoyed about 70% of the performance on Saturday...there was just a wee bit too much noodling for my liking is some of the songs, and there was one in particular (sorry I don't have the titles to hand) that plain annoyed me. But a highlight was this, which has been made available as a free download from the lovely people at Chemikal Underground:-

mp3 : Human Don't Be Angry - H.B.D.A Theme

It was all over by around 9.45.  And after saying cheerio to a few folk I'd bumped into at the gig, I made my way along to the 13th Note

GIG 2

I got there just after 10pm.  Adam Stafford was already on stage....I was a wee bit surprised as I thought it'd be about half ten before he got going.  Luckily it was only about halfway through his opening number.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Adam support Butcher Boy last year.  But this was something that went way beyond that. As I mentioned earlier, this was a gig to coincide with his 30th birthday and he was wearing a badge to acknowledge that.  A badge that was about the size of a 10" single!!

The audience was a mixture of fans, family and friends.  We were treated to a mixture of new and unreleased tracks as well as a selection lifted taken from the 2011 LP Build A Harbour Immediately.  Adam gave everything of himself on stage and we responded with equal enthusiasm greeting every piece of music with sustained and heartfelt applause.

There really isn't another talent like Adam Stafford in Scotland right now.  His ability to make stunning music through looping his voice and/or his guitar at times looks and sounds like some sort of trick on yoour ears and eyes being performed by a member of the Magic Circle.  There's loads to take in and even more to admire and enjoy.  And with an audience that knows exactly what it's all about, there's no talking or shuffling around or walking out because it bores you or you just don't like it.  We are totally captivated and enthralled.

Adam is also really enjoying himself.  He continues to thank everyone for making the night so special, mentioning how surreal the day had been. Here he was playing a gig having come straight from a shift in his day job - which for those of you who don't know is the very stressful task of being a 999 operative (or 911 for our overseas readers).  His stepfather was bouncing round the venue taking photos all night as you would do at any special gathering of this nature.  It's not every day someone close turns 30....

A truly memorable night ends just before 11pm and and as the star performer says thank you and goodnight, the audience serenade him with a chorus of 'Happy Birthday'.  He seemed pleased and touched.

There was just enough time to grab a quick word with Adam and learn that much of the new material is going to be recorded later in the year with a likely release date in early 2013...which does seem ages away but will be well worth it.  In the meantime, Adam is going on the road for a very short tour next week as follows:-

Thursday 1 March - The Tunnels, Aberdeen
Friday 2 March - Portsound Rio Community Centre, Dundee
Saturday 3 March - Head Of Steam, Newcastle
Sunday 4 March - The Third Door, Edinburgh

I do recommend you go along and see something quite unlike anything else on the live scene right now.

mp3 : Adam Stafford - Shot-Down You Summer Wannabees

The above mp3 can be found on Build A Harbour Immediately.   As can see here, lot's of people loved it.

Buy it here.

Oh and in case anyone was wondering about the whereabouts of my usual sidekick at the gigs, Aldo was off with a group of mates to Cracow, Poland.  I did set him the challenge of taking in some live music while he was there....we'll have to wait and see.

JC, Monday 27 February 2012

DON'T PLAGIARIZE OR TAKE ON LOAN (Unless you are certain you have prior approval)

This is a post that I should have posted ages ago.  It was only a conversation with my wee brother the other day when he asked about the recent Big Country gig at the Barrowland that prompted me to go into someone else's blog and do a cut'n'paste.  I'm sure the original talent won't mind...

A quick bit of background.

About two months ago, a really nice email arrived in the Inbox.  It was a very polite request for my recommendations on half-decent shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh where you could buy vinyl, new and second-hand.  The writer explained that he was making a visit to Scotland to take in a gig to mark the 25th Anniversary of the release of The Crossing, the debut LP from Big Country.  Intrigued, I asked the writer where he was travelling from....expecting an answer like Manchester, London or maybe at a push a European destination with budget airline links to my home city.  So you could have knocked me over when the reply that came back was 'Seattle'..........

Such devotion to a gig almost halfway across the world demands total repect, which I paid by offering to meet the writer and his other half  to give them a personally conducted tour of Glasgow, including record shops, pubs and famous venues.  To my delight, he accepted, and so it was on Monday 4 February that I met up with Brian and Lora, originally from Chicago but now resident in Seattle. 

And I had a great time with two of the nicest people on the planet.

Brian is a very talented writer and there's much to admire at his blog Linear Track Lives!  As can be evidenced from his review of the Big Country gig:-

Big Country

Barrowland

Feb. 6, 2012

I had traveled quite a bit more than "400 miles!" (3,600, actually) and was about to see my favorite band from my youth at the one venue on the planet I had always dreamed of seeing them. So, why the rock in the pit of my stomach as I chanted "here we go!" before the show? Somewhere, deep in my subconscious, I think I had doubts about a lineup without Stuart Adamson.


What I quickly realized was the Alarm's Mike Peters wasn't replacing Adamson as frontman so much as he was paying homage to him. This show was a celebration of the 30th anninversary of 'The Crossing' at Big Country's spiritual home, and Peters got it. His admiration for Adamson and Big Country was palpable. Between songs, Peters shared stories and recited his favorite lyrics. It was obvious Adamson would not be forgotten, and it made my butterflies fly away. If there are any fans out there that fear this lineup is no different than J.D. Fortune as the ill-fated frontman for INXS, you can relax. Adamson and Peters are kindred spirits.


Peters didn't just bring fine vocals to the party. He brought enthusiasm and a stage presence, sans Adamson, Big Country sorely needed. Granted, the talents of Bruce Watson, Tony Butler and Mark Brzezicki are almost without peer. After Adamson's death, however, the shows they did together seemed like a struggle. With the addition of Peters and Watson's son, Jamie, they are, once again, a cohesive unit capable of performing the classics we love and producing new material worthy of the Big Country name.


If I could have created the setlist, it wouldn't have been much different than what they played. Like so many shows from their heyday, they opened with "Angle Park." I would have liked a little more 'Steeltown,' particularly "Where the Rose Is Sown," "Come Back to Me" and "Just a Shadow," but I was happy to hear "East of Eden." There are rumors of 'Steeltown' shows in 2014. Perhaps I need to be patient. If asked, I would have requested obscure B-side "Balcony," and I was shocked they played it. In hindsight, however, it didn't translate well live and slowed the momentum.

I had goosebumps when the opening drums to "In a Big Country" kicked in and Peters shouted, "This is 'The Crossing!'" This is as good a time as any to talk about the crowd. Barrowland was packed, and for many of this decidedly "older" crowd this was like taking a time machine to Big Country's famous Dec. 31, 1983, show there. From the very first "Shout!" the "kids" were bouncing. The songs of 'The Crossing' are anthems, and we all sang along to every word, much like we did to the album as lads in our bedrooms three decades ago. The highlight from 'The Crossing' portion of the show was "Chance." As you will see in the video below, Peters sang it from the middle of the room... not more than 10 feet from me. Don't laugh. That dot back there in the photo above really is me.


I teared up a bit during the encore, particularly during "Tracks of My Tears." Adamson loved playing that cover, and he crooned it to the Barrowland crowd at the New Year's Eve show all those years ago. I wondered if there were others around me thinking of him at that moment. Yes, this night belonged to Peters and the rest of Big Country, but Adamson was never far away.

Big Country - Harvest Home (mp3)  - Live from Barrowland, Dec. 31, 1983

Set List: Big Country from Barrowland, Feb. 6, 2012


Angle Park
East Of Eden
Another Country
Balcony
The Crossing
Restless Natives
In A Big Country
Inwards
Chance
1000 Stars
The Storm
Harvest Home
Lost Patrol
Close Action
Fields Of Fire
Porrohman
Tracks Of My Tears
Look Away
Wonderland

See ?  He is a bloody good writer...................

THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A SATURDAY SINGLE....IF I HAD IT IN THE COLLECTION

From wiki:-

Bill Drummond was born in Butterworth, South Africa, where his father was a minister for the Church of Scotland. His family moved back to Scotland when he was 18 months old, and his early years were spent in the town of Newton Stewart, moving on to Corby in Northamptonshire at the age of 11. It was here he first became involved in performing as a musician working initially with school friends including Gary Carson and Chris Ward. He attended Northampton and Liverpool Schools of Art from 1970 to 1973. Following this, he decided that "art should use everything, be everywhere" and that as an artist he would "use whatever medium is to hand". He then spent two years doing various jobs including being a milkman, gardener, steel worker, nursing assistant, theatre carpenter and scene painter.


Drummond's musical career began in 1977 with Big in Japan, a band whose membership also included future luminaries Holly Johnson, Budgie, Jayne Casey and Ian Broudie. After the band's demise, Drummond and another member David Balfe started Zoo Records, their first release being Big in Japan's posthumous EP, From Y To Z and Never Again. They went on to act as producers of the debut albums by Echo & the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, both of which Drummond would later manage somewhat idiosyncratically. With Zoo Music Ltd, Drummond and Balfe were also music publishers for Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction and The Proclaimers. The production team of Drummond and Balfe was christened The Chameleons, who recorded the single "Touch" together with a female singer as Lori and the Chameleons.


Drummond later took a job in the mainstream music business as an A&R consultant for the label WEA working with Strawberry Switchblade and Brilliant. In July 1986, on his 33 and a third birthday, Drummond repented his corporate involvement and resigned his job by way of a "ringingly quixotic press release": "I will be 33.5 (sic) years old in September, a time for a revolution in my life. There is a mountain to climb the hard way, and I want to see the world from the top...(In an interview in December 1990, Drummond recalled spending half a million pounds at WEA on the band Brilliant - for whom he envisioned massive worldwide success - only for them to completely flop. "At that point I thought 'What am I doing this for?' and I got out.")


Drummond was "obviously very sharp," said WEA chairman Rob Dickens, "and he knew the business. But he was too radical to be happy inside a corporate structure. He was better off working as an outsider."


Later in the year, Drummond issued a solo album, The Man, a country/folk music recording, backed by Australian rock group The Triffids. The album was released on Creation Recordsand was perhaps most notable for the sardonic "Julian Cope Is Dead", where he outlined his fantasy of shooting the Teardrop Explodes frontman in the head to ensure the band's early demise and subsequent legendary status. The song has commonly been seen as a reply to the Cope song "Bill Drummond Said". As a B-side, Drummond wrote and recorded "The Manager" in which he lamented the state of the music industry and offered his services to help fix it.


The Man received positive reviews - including 4 stars from Q Magazine; and 5 from Sounds Magazine who called the album a "touching if idiosyncratic biographical statement". Drummond intended to focus on writing books once The Man had been issued but, as he recalled in 1990, "That only lasted three months, until I had an[other] idea for a record and got dragged back into it all".

Then came his dance phase....but's a story for another time......

There was one single lifted from his solo album.

mp3 : Bill Drummond - The King Of Joy

It's two b-sides consisted of a re-working of one of the other LP tracks and the spoken word The Manager referred to above.  I'd post them if I had them.......over to you dear readers to help out.

In the meantime, here's another track from the LP...it's an instrumental.....very reminiscent of a film score,,,,and a track that shares it's name with the only football team in Scotland that is mentioned in the bible.

mp3 : Bill Drummond - Queen Of The South

Happy Listening

THE KIDS OF 96 AND 97 SHOULD HAVE PICKED UP ON THIS

Britpop didn't, in hindsight, produce too much in the way of brilliance. But this 1996 CD single remains close to my heart:-

mp3 : Kenickie - Punka
mp3 : Kenickie - Drag Race
mp3 : Kenickie - Walrus
mp3 : Kenickie - Cowboy

Kenickie made excellent pop records and in Lauren Laverne had a terrifically talented and charismatic frontwoman whose post-pop career has seen her become a very successful radio and tv presenter.

Although they did enjoy a couple of Top 30 hits in a career that spanned five years, I think there is a general consensus that Punka was their best ever moment.  The tracks featured today formed the first release of the single in late 1996 when it stalled at #43.  A year later the record label decided to re-release it on the back of other singles being minor hits, but despite it being issues as a 7" single plus 2xCDs with freshly recorded b-sides, it only reached #38.

Punka is one of the songs that John Butcher Boy is fond of playing at his Little League club nights and it inevitably fills the floor.

Happy Listening

I JUST DON'T GET IT......

There are certain songs that seemingly every rock critic deem to be above criticism. This, dating back to 1976, is one of them:-

mp3 : Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks

Written by Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell and openly about heroin addiction, it was first recorded by Hell's former band, The Heartbreakers, (released in 1977) and later by Dee Dee's band The Ramones (released in 1980).

This of course contradicts what many people think...myself included up until I read something in a magazine a few years back...that the song was composed by Johnny Thunders.

Wiki gives an explanation....

Hell and Dee Dee were in agreement that the song was mainly written by Dee Dee. "The reason I wrote that song was out of spite for Richard Hell, because he told me he was going to write a song better than Lou Reed's "Heroin", so I went home and wrote 'Chinese Rocks'," Dee Dee is quoted in Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk. "I wrote it by myself, in Debbie Harry's apartment on First Avenue and First Street."


According to Dee Dee, the song was "about Jerry Nolan, of The Heartbreakers calling me up to come over and go cop" heroin, a form of which was known in those days as Chinese Rocks. "The line 'My girlfriend's crying in the shower stall' was about Connie, and the shower was at Arturo Vega's loft," where Dee Dee, his girlfriend Connie and Joey Ramone all lived at one point.


Dee Dee wanted to record the song with the Ramones, but bandmate Johnny Ramone vetoed it, claiming that the song was too obviously drug-related. Dee Dee then took it to Richard Hell, also with The Heartbreakers at the time. "Dee Dee called me one day and said, 'I wrote a song that the Ramones won't do,'" Hell recalled. "He said, 'It's not finished. How about I come over and show it to you and we can finish it if you like it?'"


According to Hell, "What happened is really clear, and the songwriting credits can all be checked at BMI. The song is by me and Dee Dee, but Dee Dee did 75 percent of it. I mean, all I did was write two verses out of three. Dee Dee wrote the music, the concept was his. He's basically responsible for it. But he brought me the song; he didn't even know Johnny and Jerry, but we were friends and he thought the band was great. And when the Ramones didn't want to do the song he said, 'Look, I've written one verse of this song with the chorus and it's about heroin, how about you write the rest of it and it's yours?'" And that's what he did." Dee Dee similarly recalled, "Richard Hell put that line in, so I gave him some credit."

Richard Hell then goes on to explain that the song became one of the Heartbreakers' most popular songs, even after he left the band. They ended up recording it for their 1977 debut album L.A.M.F., and some band members added their names to the credits even though nothing had changed about the song

All vinyl pressings of L.A.M.F. including the 1984 L.A.M.F. Revisted album continued to credit the song to Thunders, Heartbreakers' drummer Jerry Nolan as well as Ramone and Hell. It was only after the deaths of Thunders and Nolan that the credit was changed. However, both the 1994 and 2002 CD reissues of L.A.M.F. now name the three Ramones as the writers Joey, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee -- but not Hell.

"The credits are false," Dee Dee wrote in 1997. "Johnny Thunders ranked on me for fourteen years, trying to make out like he wrote the song. What a low-life maneuver...."

If you look online and official databases for both ASCAP and BMI, the credits on Chinese Rocks are to just Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell.

It's a fascinating story...one that is, in my humble opinion, better than the song itself. Just doesn't anything for me. More pub-rock than anything else. But hey....what do I know?  My copy of the song comes from a compilation CD given away with a music magazine.

REVISITING AN OLD POST....45 45s AT 45 - NUMBER 2

Originally posted on Tuesday 17 June 2008

I’ve repeatedly said that I was never a punk, but just someone who loved an awful lot of the punk-sounding records. However, the early singles and debut LP by The Clash weren’t things that I was initially fond of – they were just too raw and raucous for my tastes, which at that time were still evolving.

As with most teenagers, I got some money from my mum and dad and aunties and uncles for my 15th birthday, and so I traipsed up the road to the record shop. I can’t actually remember everything that was bought…there’s every chance I bought a bundle of disco stuff as Saturday Night Fever was all the rage and all the girls wanted someone who danced like John Travolta.

I do distinctly remember buying my first ever single by The Clash with some of the money – it was on prominent display in the shop having just been released a couple of days previously. The reason I remember all this is down to a sort of hero-worship of a guy called Mick. Not only did he work in a record shop, he also had his own mobile disco with lights and everything....and Mick said that day that if I wanted to buy something special for my birthday then it should be this new single called (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.

When I told him that I didn’t really like The Clash, he asked me if I had ever really listened to them. I had to admit that I hadn’t other than what I had sometimes heard on the radio. He then offered to play the single for me there and then. Of course in order to retain any degree of coolness, I was always going to say it was fantastic.....

So I took the record home, but I was nowhere near convinced. This certainly was nothing like love at first sight. But like all new records, it continued to get spins on the turntable all the time, and within a week or so, after a number of listens, I realised, in a sort of Road To Damascus conversion moment, the song was something really different and special. And with that I felt I could classify myself as a Clash fan – one of the best decisions I ever made as the band and their music became a sort of secret password for getting on so well with people in the years to come.

The first example of this was a year later when I took on my first ever summer job, over a period of six weeks or so, at the age of 16. It was in a city-centre store that sold car accessories. I was easily the youngest member of staff – the rest of them were dead old being at least 19, while the store manager was ancient at the age of 25. I wasn’t able to do the sort of things they did, such as go out to the pub after work on a Friday night. But one other worker was interested in the fact I bought Melody Maker every week – although his own preference was for the NME.

That’s when I learned his taste was for punk/new wave, his favourite being The Clash. The fact that I liked the band was a big factor in me being accepted in the workplace.

A few years later, the time had come to move out of the family home and into a student flat. It was a case of trying to find folk you would be compatible with, and the deal with the two lads who I was eventually to move in beside was sealed when we all said that White Man…was our favourite Clash single. So much so in my case, that by this time (1983) I had learned to play it note-for-note on a Casio keyboard which I demonstrated one evening in a drunken stupor while another of the flat mates played bass and the other sang. The girls we had back that night were far from impressed.

I always thought I was in a minority with my love for this single over all others by The Clash. I was certain that White Riot, London Calling or even the cover of I Fought The Law would win out in any popularity contest. But no, there was some sort of poll a few years back which revealed that the most popular and enduring song was the one released in June 1978:-

mp3 : The Clash – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
mp3 : The Clash – The Prisoner

It was unusually slow and melodic for a punk/new wave band. You could even make out a whole lot of the words without the need for a lyric sheet. It was also a song that lended itself to the use of your badminton racquet masquerading as your guitar….and it’s a song that has aged magnificently, sounding every bit as fresh, exciting and vibrant today as it did 30 plus years ago.

It’s hard to recall that all those years ago, the release of White Man… caused a bit of an uproar among the hardcore fans of the band. It was a radical departure from the short, sharp, loud and angry songs that had symbolised everything punk/new wave was supposed to be. It was, looking back, the earliest indication (notwithstanding Police & Thieves) that The Clash were no one-trick pony but in fact a quite extraordinary band capable of producing top-quality songs influenced by all sorts of genres.

I no longer have this single in the collection – another victim of the Edinburgh debacle of 1986, but by then it wasn’t a bit of vinyl that could have safely gone on the record player.

It was a record that had been played to within an inch of its life – it was worn out, full of scratches and jumps courtesy of it being shoved on more than once in a drunken stupor in which I bumped against the turntable. And because I imagine that’s how everyone who ever owned the single behaved with it, I’ve never pursued a copy via e-bay as the vinyl will be in a far from pristine condition. Instead, I’ve relied on an antiseptically clean copy that I have within the 3-CD box-set of Clash on Broadway.

2012 update...

One of the greatest things about blogging is how generous many folk are.  Not long after this post appeared back in 2008, someone (and I'm annoyed I can't remember who it was) got in touch to ask if I had the alternative version of the song recorded especially for a Rock Against Racism LP in 1978. When I said I hadn't, it was promptly attached in an e-mail. And here it is...

mp3 : The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (alternative version)

Happy Listening

THE NUMBER ONE SINGLE WITH THE LONGEST TITLE (WITHOUT BRACKETS)

And before anyone grumbles, the picture on the sleeve is distorted as illustrated above.

I've never been a huge lover of the Manics. I've not much of their stuff in the collection.  And I've certainly got no time at all for this abomination of a cover single they recently released.



But there was a time they were riding the crest of a wave and deservedly so. They got to #1 in August 1998 with a song that was inspired by the Spanish Civil War and the part played by left-wing Welsh volunteers who joined the International Brigade in the ultimately doomed effort to prevent the rise of fascism under General Franco.  It's not often get pro-war songs from a left-wing perspective.

The song takes its name from a Republican poster of the time. A photograph of a young child killed by Nationalist bombs is shown under a sky of bombers with the stark warning "If you tolerate this, your children will be next" written at the bottom. An original of the poster can be seen at the Imperial War Museum, London, as well as at the Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection at the University of California.

According to the sticker on the front of my copy, I picked the CD single up for £2. Not bad for a hit as big as this and for the fact there's remixes to suit most folk's tastes:-

mp3 : Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
mp3 : Manic Street Precahers - Massive Attack Remix
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers - The Class Reunion of The Sunset Marquis Mix

The third track features work from uber-producer David Holmes.

Happy Listening

THE MONDAY CORRESPONDENT

From Hilltown to Tinseltown.

Hearing a track on my iPod whilst in the middle of the South China Sea inspired this posting.

The track I heard was Tragedy Girl by King L, a band band formed in 1995 by Gary Clark.

Clark had fronted Dundee band Danny Wilson, who were formed in the mid-eighties. Gary Clark and schoolmate Ged Grimes had been in a school band together. It was when they were joined by younger brother Kit Clark, they were signed to Virgin Records after being discovered busking.

Initially they were called Spencer Tracy, their first album was recorded, the artwork completed, when someone from Virgin Records in America feared that they may be sued by the Tracy family, and so a name change was needed.

Clark’s father was a big Frank Sinatra fan and his favourite Sinatra film was Meet Danny Wilson, about which Clark Snr was always complaining that the TV companies never showed often enough. It seemed to fit the bill.

The album Meet Danny Wilson was released in April 1987, and its first single Mary’s Prayer was released three times before becoming a hit in the UK. It only happened after it was championed by Jonathan King’s ‘youth’ TV show No Limits who kept playing the video as a song that ‘should have been a hit’. The song actually went to #32 in the US charts before it reached #3 in the UK charts, as I said earlier, at third time of asking.

mp3 : Danny Wilson - Mary's Prayer

The album was an eclectic mix, with two tales of leaving their hometown of Dundee - Davy and Aberdeen. Other tracks had a jazz feel to them and one song  - Nothing Ever Goes To Plan -  is even described as a Bosa Nova. But the strength of the album is the song writing of Gary Clark.

The follow up album Bebop Moptop produced a second hit single The Second Summer of Love, a song that I don’t really care for, while another single I Can’t Wait was backed by a wonderful live cover version of the famous Abba hit Knowing Me Knowing You which includes the immortal shout out ‘Jimmy Shand*’ before the instrumental break where they played an accordion instead of a guitar.

mp3 : Danny Wilson - Knowing Me, Knowing You (live)

*Sir Jimmy Shand from Auchtermucty, Fife was a Scottish musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the accordion. He was a favourite of the Queen.

The three members of Danny Wilson went their separate ways in early 1991, Gary Clark then released a single under the name of Eleven.

He then set about writing and recording a solo album, most of the songs were intended for a third Danny Wilson album but he had a free hand with his choice of songs without consulting anyone else.

Ten Short Stories of Love was released in 1993; it’s an album that shows Clark’s ability to write bitter/sweet pop songs. The album had a more soulful sound in places. Unfortunately the album didn’t sell in any great numbers.

mp3 : Gary Clark - This Is Why, J

It was on the back of this release that I saw Gary Clark, for the one and only time, play live in his hometown of Dundee, at the Whitehall Theatre on the 27th May 1993.

Being a sort of homecoming gig, the place was packed to the rafters and a surprise was that in his touring band was Boo Herwerdine, the founding member of The Bible.

During the evening both Ged Grimes and brother Kit joined Clark on stage. One of the highlights was when they played a tremendous version of the Isley Brothers’ Summer Breeze, which was quite appropriate for an early summer’s evening even in Dundee.

The collaboration with Hewerdine continued into Clark’s next project, the aforementioned King L album Great Day for Gravity.

The pair started writing songs and the album developed further when Clark met Eric Pressley on a trip to Los Angeles. Neil MacColl, also a former member of The Bible, joined in the writing and recording of the album.

The album once again failed to sell but received great critical acclaim, but it's one that I've found very enjoyable rediscovering recently.

mp3 : King L - Tragedy Girl

Clark and Pressley then formed a band Transister with Keely Hawkes, (sister of Chesney ‘the one and only’ Hawkes). They produced a six track EP and one album. Tracks from the album were used in six different Hollywood movies. Their sound is quite similar to Garbage.

mp3 : Transister - Dizzy Moon

Gary Clark then became ‘a gun for hire’ songwriter composing hit songs for the likes of Natalie Imbruglia for whom he co-wrote and produced her million selling album White Lilies Island.

So far he has worked with David McAlmont, Liz Phair, Skin (Skunk Anansie), Mark Owen and Lloyd Cole among others.

mp3 : Mark Owen - Kill With Your Smile

Working with Lloyd Cole seems on the whole to have been a very enjoyable experience, according to a recent interview with Gary:-

"I’d met Lloyd a few times in the process of gigging and doing promotional work, we shared the same publisher and he suggested that it would be good for us to write together. We met up in New York and we came up with a few songs. The interesting thing about Lloyd is that he is a brilliant songwriter….but he doesn’t want to write lyrics with anyone else.


I was used to being involved in the lyrics, so it was a weird dynamic trying to work with him, because I’d suggest things and could feel him pulling away. I’d suggest more and he’d just close the song down. So I left New York thinking we had a bunch of unfinished things and Lloyd would finish the lyrics once I’d gone.


‘That Boy’ is the one song of ours that saw the light of day and it has been released, on the original ‘The Negatives’ album, on a Greatest Hits compilation and on another release.


It really is the gift that keeps on giving!!!!"

mp3 : Lloyd Cole - That Boy
mp3 : Lloyd Cole & The Negatives - That Boy
mp3 : Lloyd Cole - That Boy (Langer & Winstanley Mix)

Gary Clark now lives in LA and is a highly sought after songwriter and producer.

If you are listening to a mainstream radio station chances are you are hearing a pop song written and produced by a man from Dundee.....from the Hilltown area of the city of Discovery.

Mr John Greer, Monday 20 February 2012

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 7 (Part 2) : IN WHICH YOUR REVIEWERS STRUGGLE TO FIND THE RIGHT WORDS

JC writes.......

A four band line-up at King Tut's on 16 February was originally intended to be the only gig of Week 7 but the late phone call from Drew for the Spector gig changed things a wee bit.

Regular correspondent Son of the Rock left behind a comment the other week that he was hoping the gigs would see me getting out of my comfort zone.  I'd like to think to some extent that going along to nights where I know nothing about the bands was taking me away from such a zone, but I take the point that jazz, metal, classical and boy-bands should be taken in to make this 'adventure' complete. Give it time....

The 16 February event was picked out at random.  Myself and Aldo thought that seven weeks in it was time we went along to said venue and that what we should do is find a night when none of the names of any of the bands meant anything to us.  Here's what we we made of it all....

REVIEW OF SWEET SWEET LIES/THE WELLGREEN/TEN GALLON BRATZ/THE BAD BAD MEN : KING TUT'S WAH WAH HUT, GLASGOW : THURSDAY 16 FEBRUARY

First impressions from the downstairs bar at King Tut's is that it's a very unusual crowd.  Lots of folk who we wouldn't imagine are regulars - a lot older than normal for one thing and quite boisterous for the most part.  We put it down perhaps to maybe the bands being local and that they've brought along a fair smattering of family members to support them on the big night.

We go upstairs at 8.45pm in time to take in the set from bottom of the bill The Bad Bad Men.  Just 15 seconds in and Aldo says they sound and look like a band you'd find in Irish bars.  JC nods in agreement.  Before long, it's clear that the five folk on stage are incredibly competent and accomplished musicians and singers.  But there's a feeling among us both that they are a band more akin to playing weddings and are getting the night off to do their own stuff which is, for the most part, upbeat folk-rock that is well received by the smallish audience.  But not exactly our musical cups of tea.

Next up is Ten Gallon Bratz.  They are a group of blokes in what we guess are mid-late 40s and possibly even 50s. Completely unlike any other line-up either of us have seen at King Tut's which, for the most part, is the venue through which up-and-coming wannabees pass through as they seek fame and fortune.  This looked like men who played music for a hobby...they could easily have passed for a group of teachers who had come together to make music. Their songs were very Americana - the sort of stuff you hear from Tom Petty or going back further in time, Creedence Clearwater Revival.  Again it's music that neither of us have much fondness for but again it's impossible to slag anything off.  These guys, just like the opening act, can play and sing. They get a fantastic reception at the end of every song.  Just before their final song, they take a photo of the crowd and thank everyone for coming along - especially those who came down on the bus from Greenock (a town some 20 plus miles west of Glasgow).

Before the next act come on, we muse over what we've seen so far.  Two bands who were good at what they do but it was stuff neither of us particularly liked.  But given we didn't know what we were getting into we couldn't grumble.  So we didn't and instead settled down to experience The Wellgreen.

Two young lads take to the stage and between them play, keys, acoustic guitars and drums. They're another local act who give us a pleasant enough set enjoyed more by Aldo than JC.  Lots of two-part harmonies and while there's still a fair bit of Americana about them, there's a variation in tempo amidst their set that was lacking with the earlier bands. Rather bizarrely, two members of the audience take to the stage to dance to one of their tunes - but not in any Bez type tribute - the song in question was slow in mood and feel.

We reckoned that with three local bands all having brought along their own fans tonight that the place would empty before the main act came on.  And yes, while some folk did take their leave, there were still maybe 120-150 in King Tuts at 11pm when Sweet Sweet Lies hit their first notes.

The crowd went mad for the entire 35 minutes - all sorts of dancing down the front and even some singing along to the tunes. Again, none of the music particularly struck a chord with either of us, but it was impossible not to enjoy witnessing such a vibrant and whole-hearted event, band and audience alike.  What did they sound like?  Was difficult to say....there were a whole load of influences on their sound.  At times they were as Irish-bar sounding as the opening act, at other times they evoked a far more European cabaret feeling.

We left King Tut's three and a half hours after entering acknowledging that we had a good night out but agreeing that with the exception of The Wellgreen, we'd probably not be all that fussed about seeing any of them again.  But quite clearly, all four bands have a load of fans and deservedly so.

Details on each of the acts can be found at these sites:-

http://somethingnothingrecords.co.uk/artists/sweetsweetlies

http://www.myspace.com/thewellgreen

http://www.tengallonbratz.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thebadbadmen

JC and Aldo, Sunday 19 February 2012

SATURDAY'S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 20)

From wiki:-

Bis are a Scottish indie pop band composed of Steven Clark (Sci-fi Steven), John Clark (John Disco), and Amanda MacKinnon (Manda Rin). Formed in 1994, the band broke up in 2003, but reformed briefly in 2007 for a series of concerts.


The three musicians formed Bis in 1994, when Rin and Disco were in secondary school and Steven had recently finished there. About a year later, they appeared on BBC Television's Top of the Pops performing "Kandy Pop" from their Secret Vampire Soundtrack EP ahead of its release: much being made at the time about them being the first 'unsigned' band to do so: in reality dozens of bands - especially in the late 1970s and 'novelty' acts - had appeared on the show with singles released on labels they had no formal contract with other than as a distributor or, like Bis, on a single by single basis.


Bis released a number of EPs, three of which entered the UK Singles Chart. In the late 1990s "Eurodisco", from their album Social Dancing, became a minor success for the band in Australia as well as the UK.


The band's name, rhyming with 'this', derives from "Black Iron Skyline", a lyric from the song Twilight of a Champion by The The.


The band's early releases were on Glasgow's Chemikal Underground label, run by The Delgados, before transferring to Wiiija where labelmates included Cornershop. In the United States, their records appeared on the underground label K Records, and on the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label. They toured extensively both in the UK and abroad— their diverse influences reflected in the kind of acts they appeared with: Pavement, Garbage, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters and Gary Numan amongst them.


The group became a favourite of the likes of Blur, John Peel and Green Day, despite a particularly hostile review by Steven Wells in the New Musical Express entitled "The Sinking of the Bis-Lark".


The U.S. first encountered the band during the closing credits of The Powerpuff Girls animated series. Their song "Detour" was also given some radio airplay in the U.S. They enjoyed a period of success in Japan, selling nearly 100,000 copies of their debut album in its first week of release, but future releases failed to be anywhere near as successful.


The band broke up in 2003, after playing a farewell show at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut. All remained active in the local music scene. Steven and John Disco played in Dirty Hospital and Rin acted as a DJ. Rin was also in a band called The Kitchen, whilst Disco joined the ska band, The Amphetameanies, which included members of Belle & Sebastian and Pink Kross.


In 2005, they announced on the official Bis website that together they had formed a new band, called Data Panik with Stuart Memo on bass and drummer Graham Christie. After releasing two 7" singles, however, the band split up.


Bis contributed an old song to the game Jet Set Radio Future called "Statement of Intent". In 2005, Bis performed in animated form on the CBBC children's cartoon BB3B.


As of 2006 Rin was working on solo material.  In 2007 she teamed up with the Scottish electro-pop outfit, Juno!, and has collaborated on their independently released singles, "Smoke & Mirrors" and "These Boys Are Athletes", as well as regularly appearing live with the band, most recently at the Rock Ness 2008 Festival.


To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the release of their debut album The New Transistor Heroes, Bis re-formed in April 2007 for three shows in Glasgow, Manchester, and London. A greatest hits compilation titled We Are Bis from Glasgow, Scotland was released on compact disc to coincide with these shows.


In August 2008, Rin released the solo single, "DNA", which she followed up with the release of her debut album, My DNA with "This Is Fake DIY" in September 2008.


In November 2009, Rin announced that the band would reform to play at the Primavera Festival in May 2010.


More recently, singer Manda Rin provided the artwork for an iPhone game called "All Fridges Are Psychotic" and (on 18 November 2010) made a short guest appearance on the BBC music quiz programme Never Mind the Buzzcocks. She also teamed up with Hyperbubble on a track for their 2011 album Drastic Cinematic.

And here's the one bit of plastic I have in the cupboard:-

mp3 : Bis - Kandy Pop
mp3 : Bis - Secret Vampires
mp3 : Bis - Teen-c Power
mp3 : Bis - Diska

A #25 hit in March 1996.   Next up.....Blood Uncles.

THINKING ABOUT GOLF-PLAYING POP STARS.....

Lloyd Cole's solo career hasn't brought a huge deal of success with just the one chart hit - Like Lovers Do back in 1995.  I'm not sure if it has been Lloyd himself or the record label but some of his better material has been left behind as LP tracks with the stuff released as singles being weak.

This, the second single lifted from Bad Vibes in 1993 is an example of what I'm referring to:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole - Morning Is Broken

Bad Vibes isn't a great album - it's certainly my least favourite of all the solo material.  But it does itself no favours by leading off with Morning Is Broken which is a rather dull song all round that still got issued as the second single from the LP.  Maybe Lloyd saw something in it that few of the rest of us did.

The start of it nowadays reminds of the hit single Dominoes by The Big Pink, but for years I couldn't get out of my head that it was the sort of nonsense we'd be subjected to by Kula Shaker.

The single was shoved out on two CDs and the four tracks were a bit of a mixed bag:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole - Radio City Music Hall
mp3 : Lloyd Cole - Eat Your Greens
mp3 : Lloyd Cole - The Slider
mp3 : Lloyd Cole - Mannish Girl

The best of them is The Slider which happens to be a cover of a Marc Bolan song.  The good thing is that a few years later, Lloyd did re-discover his mojo and nowadays his material and live shows are things of joy and often rare beauty.

Here's a TV performance from back in the day:-



Happy Listening

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 7 (Part 1) : THE LONDON MEEJA HYPE MACHINE

REVIEW OF SPECTOR/DAVID’S LYRE/FATHER SCULPTOR – KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT, GLASGOW – 15 FEBRUARY

Another late call, this time from Drew who is the brains behind the excellent Across the Kitchen Table blog, sees me setting off for the first of two consecutive nights at one of the world’s best places to see live music.

I wake up on the morning of the gig knowing nothing about any of the three bands. On the way to work, there’s a preview piece in the Metro newspaper which tells me the headline act are tipped to be massive and that in years to come all of us lucky to have been at the sold-out King Tut’s will be able to boast about seeing a really massive and popular band before they were famous. Later in the day, there’s a two-page spread in the Glasgow Evening Times bumming up Spector, again predicting great things and also pointing out they are supporting Florence & The Machine on an arena tour in the next few months. I’m intrigued enough to come home and do a quick on-line search where I learn that they’ve already been on telly via Later with Jools Holland at the back end of 2011, have released four singles with an album on the way and that the NME as well as the BBC, The Observer and The Guardian have all said very complimentary things about them. Oh and the lead singer Fred McPherson is a bit famous in certain circles for having had a relationship with Peaches Geldof, being a presenter on MTV 2 and having been involved previously with a couple more London-based wannabe indie bands.

But I deliberately don’t listen to anything to keep an open mind.

There’s three bands on the bill.

First up is Father Sculptor who get the night off to a very entertaining start with a short but varied five-song 20 minute set. It begins and ends with bog-standard 80s indie-pop enlivened by excellent playing – Drew thought the drummer was great, while I was impressed by the guitarist. But the second song of the night was one that caught my attention – very reminiscent of the Sire-era James...i.e the time when they were really struggling commercially but making great music. It’s after this song they announce it is their first ever gig which does make the performance all the more impressive. They’re worth keeping an eye on and hopefully I’ll come across them over the course of the next 12 months - it will be interesting to get Aldo’s take on them.

Before the second band come on, Drew casually says “You never know what you’re going to get with a 3-band line up at Tut’s. It can be a bit iffy.” Turns out he was Mystic Meg on this one....

David’s Lyre turns out to be a ten a penny bloke with guitar singing about his love life into two mics, one normal the other with an echo effect. There’s no doubt he can sing, but he doesn’t have a big enough presence nor are the songs strong enough to hold either or our attentions. So much so we almost find ourselves breaking the cardinal rule of gig-going of ‘Show respect and don’t talk loudly while the artists are on stage’. But we stop ourselves just in time...

It’s another short 20-minute set so he didn’t overstay his welcome and so by 9.45 the stage is clear for the headliners.

Except they didn’t come on until 10.35...to be fair they were listed as being 10.30 -11.15 but with the other acts finishing well ahead of their expected times they could have come on a bit sharper....

Drew comments that it’s the smallest crowd he’s ever seen at a sold-out gig at King Tut’s. This means either the capacity has been reduced (unlikely), the guest list numbers weren’t as big as anticipated (possible), ticket-holders have been turned away because they had no i.d., fake or otherwise, showing they were 18 years of age or over (almost certainly).

First song played makes me think it’s a Libertines tribute act but made up of five blokes who are chartered accountants or marketing execs. Drew points out that the guitarist could well be a slimmer and younger Boris Johnston. I’m staring at the singer trying to work it out who he is a ringer for.

Second and third songs make me think more pop than indie, full of ready made ‘sha la la la’ chant along choruses. It’s easy to see from this early juncture why they are liked, and with a frontman oozing confidence and talking at length inbetween the songs, there’s more than a fair degree of stage presence.

Songs four and five bring something home to me. I can’t ever remember in all my years of gigs at this hallowed venue of ever hearing such a crystal-clear vocal and backing vocals at the expense of the instruments. It’s almost as if the mix is trying to disguise a paucity of tunes......

Track six it hits me that Fred McPherson is a doppelganger for the character Brad in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And I’m sorry but after that I can’t take him seriously.



They close with two songs that bring the house down – Drew tells me these are the better known singles. After 37 minutes, they depart. The crowd for the most part are happy. But neither myself or Drew will be joining the whores, sorry I meant to say hordes of the London meeja proclaiming Fred and his boys as being the saviours of indie rock’n’roll.

But here's link to the highlight of the night.

SWING WHILE YOU'RE SINGING

I love golf. I love New York City. So I'm bound to love this promo from 1994:-



Not sure if they show this all that often nowadays on account of parts of NYC that appear in the promo are no longer there post 9/11.

The thing is....I owned a copy of this single year before I ever saw the video:-

mp3 : Dinosaur Jr - Feel The Pain
mp3 : Dinosaur Jr - Get Out Of This (No words just solo)
mp3 : Dinosaur Jr - Repulsion (acoustic live at CBGB's)

Indiegrungepoptastic stuff.

JUST FOR YOU.....HERE'S A LOVE SONG

Happy 15th February dear readers....remember L.O.V.E. isn't just for Valentine's Day.

mp3 : Orange Juice - L.O.V.E...love
mp3 : Orange Juice - Intuition Told Me
mp3 : Orange Juice - Moscow

As lifted from the 12" single.  And I will have no arguments........Intuition (Part 2) is the greatest b-side ever. Well, that's my view today at least.........

PS : The fun will begin immediately.  I've stopped my whining.  Temporarily.

HAPPY VALENTINES' DAY

They had a run of hit singles between 1977 and July 1979. Then it stopped.

Many folk blamed a disastrous UK tour in 79 when they were blown off-stage every single night by an up and coming band called Joy Division. Others said they just got fed up with the one-dimensional approach to song-writing and playing. The truth is that they probably just fell out of fashion as so many bands tend to do after a few years in the limelight....and besides, the third LP - A Different Kind Of Tension - had a near impossible task in following up the near perfection of Love Bites.

But 33 years on(!!!!).....this deserves a huge re-assessment. It's a classic pop song of having your heart broken. And denial.

mp3 : Buzzcocks - You Say You Don't Love Me
mp3 : Buzzcocks - Raison D'Etre

You say you don't love me
Well that's alright with me 'cos I'm in love with you
And I wouldn't want you doing things you don't want to do
Oh you know I've always wanted you to be in love with me
And it took so long to realize the way things have to be
I wanted to live in a dream that couldn't be real
And I'm starting to understand now the way that you feel
You say you don't
You say you don't


You say you don't love me
Well that's alright with me 'cos I have got the time
To wait in case someday you maybe change your mind
I've decided not to make the same mistakes this time around
As I'm tired of having heartaches I've been thinking and I've found
I don't want to live in a dream I want something real
And I think I understand now the way that you feel
You say you don't
You say you don't
You say you don't


You say you don't
You say you don't


You say you don't love me
Well that's alright with me I'm not in love with you
I just want us to do the things we both want to do
Though I've got this special feeling I'd be wrong to call it love
For the word entails a few things that I would be well rid of
I've no need to live in a dream it's finally real
And I hope you now understand this feeling I feel
You say you don't
You say you don't
You say you don't love me
You say you don't love me
You say you don't love me
Mmmmm....

It might be sixth-form poetry. But it's bloody good sixth-form poetry. Morrissey-esque....




Fucking brilliant......way better than most of the solo material in recent years!!!

As I say.......Happy Valentine's Day.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 6 (Part 2); JC GETS CAPTURED LOOKING ON IN AWE

REVIEW : BUTCHER BOY, BERKELEY SUITE, GLASGOW - FRIDAY 10 FEBRUARY

The thing is....I wasn't going to count this as a gig or review it.  But I just had to....

This was a performance rather than a gig.  It was part of the Glasgow Short Film Festival (GSFF) and offered a chance to hear Butcher Boy providing a live score to Ciné film of family life shot in and around Glasgow from the early 1960's to the mid 1970's. The score comprised new instrumental arrangements of their songs and pieces specially written for the performance to Chick's Day at the Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) a couple of years ago.

I was accompanied on the night by Doug, a golfing buddy and another long-term aficionado of the band.  In the pub beforehand (city centre prices - double that of the bar frequented 24 hours earlier pre-Twilight Sad gig) we mused over how well this would work.  The GFT event mentioned above had been a bit of a one-off with specially composed music for films and footage followed by a short gig in which the well-known songs were performed in full.  This Berkeley Suite event instead was to be existing songs, played as instrumentals, over super-8 films shot by Alexander Ogilvie Spark, father of the Butcher Boy bassist. When we learned that the band were still soundchecking just 15 minutes before the doors opened, our nerves were a little bit on edge.  Mine were anyway....Doug kept saying it would be great!!

I got talking to Cat and Maya  - the strings section - at the bar beforehand.  Cat told me it was going to be an incredible event and that it was the confines of the space that had in the main led to the soundcheck taking so long. Slightly more reassured, I settled down to take it all in.

By the time we had arrived, the 30 or so seats at tables had all been taken, so we had to stand at the bar.  This gave us a great view of the screen and most of the band - we could see  Alison on keyboards, Findlay on percussion, the two girls on strings and John on acoustic guitar, all to our right of the screen.  Basil, Robert and Fraser were to the left and out of our direct vision.

The performance lasted 55 minutes.  As promised, it was instrumental versions of Butcher Boy songs....some of which NEVER get played at regular gigs.  Some of the songs were slightly expended in length but it was the way the music had been arranged ....how all the instruments were given time and space to be at the forefront at different times....that made this unlike anything else I've ever seen involving Butcher Boy.

The night showed just how talented a set of musicians they are and just how incredibly good a writer John is.  Forget his poetic and wonderful lyrics, this was all about the sounds.  And they were gold soundz....

However......I am being a wee bit disingenuous.  There were times when I got so lost in the footage that I couldn't completely focus on the music.

I can't say this for sure....but the footage really brought home so much of my childhood and upbringing....and I  was wiping away tears every now and again as memories of people and places, rarely recalled for years if not decades, came flooding back.

It began with a few minutes footage from the early-mid 60s of the area in Glasgow where I now go to work every day.  It's an area that is undergoing a massive physical, social and economic transformation right now....and to see it when it was such a lively thriving place was thrilling. This was followed by scenes of a Christmas party being celebrated in a hall in the community - it looked so much as if my own family were in the footage (they weren't.....we lived not that far away from this particular area but in those days they'd have been at a similar type of party elsewhere - I've used the past tense as I would have been too young to be part of them).

There was footage of the early days of what was then a new housing scheme on the outskirts of the city (again an area I'm very familiar with), of family holidays on Loch Lomond and in Ayrshire (could have been the Clark family one more time!!) and then, after some incredible footage of Robert as an infant strumming a guitar (shades of things to come), it was back to the East End community and footage of kids playing in streets that have long been bulldozed out of existence before ending with footage of Robert, a wee bit older now, going off to school and playing on his bike in the streets of Irvine, the town that his family had relocated to from Glasgow.

All the while, the music fitted the footage perfectly.  The shots of Robert's sister tinkling on a toy keyboard were accompanied by Alison playing a lovely solo while Basil/Finlay/Robert/John all plucked their guitar strings at the time when baby Robert was showing off his talents to his dad holding the camera.

And then.....just when it couldn't possibly get any better.....

The film stopped. And a series of stills began to appear from what we had been looking at for the previous 50 minutes.  John stood up for the first time and put a microphone into a stand.  He said thank you to the organisers for letting the band be part of the festival and to everyone for coming along.  He than started to sing...

We dress our children in blue and grey
On Sundays, birthdays and holidays

The most beautiful rendition of Helping Hands closed the performance over the stills.......

The applause was sustained, heartfelt and fully merited.

Two nights in a row.....completely different types of shows....both will live with me forever.  It's days and nights like these that make me realise just how lucky I am to live in Glasgow. And to again wonder why a place with something like 600,000 residents has this much talent and genius....

Set-list

J is For Jamie
I Am The Butcher
Parliament Hill
The Eighteenth Emergency
Carve A Pattern
Why I Like Babies
The Day Our Voices Broke
Anything Other Than Kind
Every Other Saturday
I Could Be In Love With Anyone
I Know Who You Could Be
Days Like These Will Be The Death Of Me
Helping Hands

Some of the footage from the night (but not to the music played...)






mp3 : Butcher Boy - The Eighteenth Emergency

Finally.....click here for some photos from the night. I have to warn you though.....there's an overweight bloke in a red t-shirt caught unawares as he stares intently at the footage....keep the kids away.

JC, Monday 13 February 2012

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF GIGS : WEEK 6 : JC AND ALDO HEAD OUT TO THE WILD SOUTH-WEST

REVIEW OF THE TWILIGHT SAD : GRAND OLE OPRY, GLASGOW : THURSDAY 9 FEBRUARY

The latest stop on the year long adventure was the Grand Ole Opry, the largest country and western club in the UK. It's a fantastic but very rarely used venue for gigs in Glasgow and located in a part of the city over in the south-west which in places hasn't changed since the 60s or 70s. There's no better illustration of this than our rendezvous for the pre-gig drinks...a pub called The Old Toll Bar...a pub for which the word traditional may very well have been invented.

It's no surprise that the pub is such a popular spot with filmmakers seeking to recreate a period feel. The décor doesn’t appear to have changed a bit since 1900....if it wasn't for some hand-written signs advertising modern drinking concoctions such as Jagerbombs and that it has a giant video screen showing the live darts on satellite telly then it was exactly the sort of pub my late grandad would have frequented when he was a young man. And the prices were also of a bygone age - £1.40 a vodka, £2 a double vodka and £1.99 for any pint.

The one mistake we made was leaving at 8pm to catch the support act. I don't like to use the blog to say anything detrimental about new and emerging bands so I wont say what I really thought about Let's Wrestle. But I won’t be rushing out to buy anything or catching them live again. Aldo was in agreement about this....

As we paid so little attention to the band on the stage, we were able to take in our surroundings.

The Opry really is an astonishing place. A little bit of Americana transported lock, stock and barrel of Jack Daniels to south-west Glasgow. Four big flags hang above the stage - the Scottish Saltire and Lion Rampant along with the Stars & Stripes and Confederate banner. The walls are painted with enormous murals that have clearly been inspired by the cowboy and indian films that my dad grew up with and which were such a staple of British TV in the late 60s and 70s. The bar and the very orderly queue control was entirely staffed by members of the Opry....a fantastic old woman who was at least 70 years of age was in charge of the side of the bar where we waited.....I asked if she'd brought her ear plugs but she said she hadn't. She then asked if I thought the band was going to be loud.......I started to worry for her as it hit me that nobody who was an Opry regular was surely prepared for what was to come.

The Twilight Sad took to the stage at 9pm. They left the stage at 10.10pm. I know this as next to the stage is a digital clock with bright red LED numbers circa 1980. They played 13 songs, the majority of which were drawn from the newly released LP No One Can Ever Know.

Before long, I was texting Jacques the Kipper who was unable to come through from Edinburgh (but who had gone along to a free acoustic show put on by the band at a local independent record shop just 24 hours earlier). My text said "Three songs in. Gig Of The Year."

Ten minutes later I was texting "It's getting better. This is genuinely astonishing. Threatening to be a Top 5 gig of all time."

Later on....."The best 35 minutes at a gig in years. It hasn’t let up at all."

I think you get the picture.

They opened with two new tracks....played an oldie...a new track....an oldie....new track....oldie.....two new tracks.....oldie.....new track......and closed with two oldies. It meant that anyone not fully familiar with a record that only hit the shops 80 hours before the gig wouldn't have long to wait till they recognised the tune being played. Interestingly....the two new songs omitted from the set list were the two that I highlighted in my LP review the other day as being what I perceived to the weakest efforts....

All five of the band were on top form. But unsurprisingly, it was Andy MacFarlane on guitar and James Graham on vocals who grabbed most attention. The layers of noise that Andy coaxed from his instrument made you think that there were at least three of him on stage....and he made it look so effortless. Not a single rock star pose or shape was thrown.

James gave what may well have been the performance of his life....it was impossible to take your eyes off him as bellowed out word after word in his distinctive West of Scotland brogue. Sometimes his vocals were lost amidst the sheer wall of noise....but that just seemed to spur him on to greater efforts. He would step away from the mike and let out an almighty roar as if unleashing a demon within him, step forward and take over again. It was, and this is no exaggeration, like watching and listening to the ghost of Ian Curtis prowl the tiny stage. His controlled rage on I Became A Prostitute was the most powerful moment of the night....but his stunning near accapella opening to Cold Days From The Birdhouse will be the abiding memory of a night that was almost but not quite perfect.

The one small hiccup....James' mic packed in just as he began to sing the first words of what proved to be the closing track, At The Burnside. By packing in, I mean it gave the most awful and ear-piercing interference....but it was quickly rectified with a change and the band stopping and going back to the beginning of the song. I'm not sure if this setback led to the band deciding not to play an encore - there were still a number of songs that might have been expected to be aired, particularly the 2010 single The Room - and only the band and their crew will know if the ending was as planned or the set was cut short. But it did seem to catch a lot of the audience by surprise that 70 minutes was our lot.

Still....that gave us time to head back across the road for a couple more drinks in The Old Toll. And then a 30 minute walk home with the biggest grin on my face in a long long long time.

Set List

1 Kill It In The Morning
2 Don’t Move
3 That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
4 Dead City
5 Reflections of the Television
6 Alphabet
7 I Became A Prostitute
8 Sick
9 Another Bed
10 Cold Days From The Birdhouse
11 Nil
12 And She Would Darken The Memory
13 At The Burnside

Ladies and gentlemen. If you live in or near a town that The Twilight Sad will be visiting in the next few months....do yourself a huge favour and get along. You won't see many better in 2012.

mp3 : The Twilight Sad - Cold Days From The Birdhouse (live)



JC and Aldo, Sunday 12 February 2012

PS : Picture was nicked from here.  Hope the snapper, Euan Robertson, doesn't mind.  They're a great set of shots