Frankosonic

John Lurie

2009-08-18T15:07:00.003Z

Having the new Acoustic Ladyland album on repeat (punk-jazz album of the year so far?) has reminded me of my very great affection for the work of John Lurie and I realised that I've been meaning to post something on here since the very beginning of time itself.

My first visit to Derby's (now defunct) art house cinema was circa 1986/87 to see Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise. Not that I knew the first thing about it, I was told by my friend John Pyle that we should go because it was meant to be good and there might be girls there who would be impressed by our apparent intellect.

I don't think there were girls but it was great (one of those US indie films where nothing much happens..in monochrome..for ninety minutes) and not only did Lurie play the leading man, but he also scored the haunting string quartet soundtrack.

I picked up a copy of the soundtrack CD in Way Ahead a couple of years later and thus my love affair with Lurie's music officially began.

John Lurie - A Woman Can Take You To Another Universe; Sometimes She Just Leaves You There (from the Stranger Than Paradise soundtrack)

Although that first CD was mainly strings, there was a second piece on the end of the CD called "The Resurrection Of Albert Ayler" which, as you'd imagine, was a more honking jazz-based concoction.

From there I picked up a few more of his soundtracks and also delved into his earlier work with the Lounge Lizards (the original punk jazz group).

The Lounge Lizards - Big Heart (from the LP Big Heart - Live In Tokyo)

Of his film work, the score to "Mystery Train" is a particular favourite, it also veers from the jazz format (this time towards a sort of desolate closing-time minor key blues) and includes some choice tracks from other artists too.

John Lurie - Tuesday Night In Memphis (from the Mystery Train soundtrack)

Lurie's profile seemed to peak in the early 1990's with his own TV Show, the brilliant "Fishing With John" a sort of travelog, celebrity fishing documentary series where John travelled the globe..erm...fishing with people like Dennis Hopper and Tom Waits. Definitely pick up a copy on DVD should you come across one. From there he continued to perform and release records with the Lounge Lizards and most notably provided the soundtrack to the mainstream John Travolta flick Get Shorty in 1995.

John Lurie - Nose Punch (from the Get Shorty soundtrack)

His last original music project was the spoof blues album "The Legendary Marvin Pontiac". Not my favourite by a long stretch but it did raise a smile to see it being taken seriously by some areas of the media, apparently unaware that Marvin Pontiac was a fictional creation.

And then it all went quiet on the music front. I knew from Lurie's own website that he was doing a lot more painting (see it here) but it wasn't until I started researching stuff for this blog that I discovered two things

1) His painting "Bear Surprise" (see above) is at the centre of some bizarre Russian-speaking viral internet phenomenon called "Preved" which I can't even begin to explain. Luckily this page does it for me.

2) He has effectively retired from music due to ill health (Advanced Lyme Disease). The saddest part of the story is that he says even if his health permitted him he would be unlikely to consider making music again due to a life-time of bad experiences with the business side of things that I'm sure plenty of people can sympathise with. I suspect that when his memoir "What Do You Know About Music, You're Not a Lawyer" is eventually published, it will be a fascinating read.

There is an excellent (reasonably recent) two part interview here and here, which is essential reading if you've got this far.

I'll leave the last word to Mr Lurie himself. I think there is a case for this being written into some people's record contracts...

To make it make any sense the music has to be breath taking. It doesn't make sense otherwise. The world needs so much, but the last thing it needs is another record or concert, unless it is stunning and moving.

Head! - Tiger, Tiger

2009-08-16T10:48:00.003Z

This is a song I've known since the 1995 version by Paul Quinn & The Nectarine No. 9 but I didn't even know who the original was performed by until recently.

Head! were one of those late 80's bands that passed me by completely. A non-descript name, not championed by Peel, not even an *Evening Session* band..but weirdly they were signed to Virgin so the one place you DID see their records was in the racks. Unsold at a guess.

The sleeve was certainly very familiar to me, and even now I picked up a copy of their "Tales Of Ordinary Madness" for a couple of quid from GEMM - specifically to hear the original version. The rest of the album is in a similar vein with a couple of the songs verging on the plain daft, but this is definitely the best track by a long way.

Head! - Tiger, Tiger

PS
The Paul Quinn & The Nectarine No. 9 version can be heard over at The Vinyl Villain

Close Lobsters Peel Session

2009-08-13T16:26:00.005Z

I used to have this Peel Session on cassette - recorded one evening in 1988 when the reception was particularly bad (at the time my parents lived next door to a morse-code hobbyist who had some sort of Jodrell Bank going on in his garden that used to mess with my stereo in a big way), and it's upset me for 20 years that I never had a decent copy of it.

Forever linked with the C86 movement their debut album "Foxheads Stalk This Land" was a fine collection of songs but suffered from some failry horrendous 80's production values - particularly the drums.

This session featured three songs from the follow-up EP - "What Is There To Smile About" (probably my favourite Lobsters record) and a cover of "Mirror Breaks" by The Mob (about whom I know nothing but they have a Wikipedia page if you're interested.)

I was happy to see that 6music were re-broadcasting the session in its entirety last week so I dutifully grabbed the audio and here it is:

Close Lobsters - John Peel Session BBC Radio 1 (4th Jan 1988)

Session Details here

The following year they released their final album "Headache Rhetoric" and we saw them play a fantastic typically shambolic gig at Trent Polytechic. Talking to the band afterwards it was clear that they were all absolutely pissed beyond words and having a great time. They remain heroes in my house.

Bobby Womack

2009-07-20T20:26:00.002Z

Sometimes when you see an artist you really love mention a song in an interview, you can't help but want to go straight out and find a copy. Back in the day this was obviously a real treasure hunt, but now it's little more than a couple of minutes tickling Lord Google and gently rubbing Lady Soulseek's milky white feet...nowhere near as much fun but when the song at the end of the digital rainbow is as nuts as this then it still makes it just as worthwhile.

I don't know any more about Bobby Womack than that which you can read at Wikipedia. Lots of typical music biz weirdness...he married Sam Cooke's widow 3 months after he died, on the premise that he was worried she might top herself(yeah right we've ALL used that one..), and then his younger brother married Sam Cooke's daughter. Keeping it in the family and all that.

So the song in question dates from 1976, when Bobby was not generally thought to be at the top of his game, but initially the title intrigued me - "Just A Little Bit Salty".

If I wondered what it was about then...well I'm still not entirely sure but despite my confusion it definitely sounds like good advice, and probably one of those lyrics you can interpret at will, just to fit the metaphor you're searching for. I'd be interested to hear what other people make of it..

Itt starts out brilliantly with an apology, Bobby basically admitting that they knocked this one off at the end of a recording session. A brave intro and one that makes it even more poignant.

Bobby Womack - Just A Little Bit Salty

"Things got to get just a little bit salty to let you know what's going down..."

I hear you Bobby...

The BNP Can Suck My Fat One

2009-06-12T15:29:00.006Z

Strange times in the wake of last week's elections. I never thought I'd see far-right parties winning seats in my lifetime, and that xenophobia was the hallmark of my grandparents generation.

People talk about the 1970's as being the decade of casual racism (Alf Garnett, Black & White Minstrels, It Ain't Half Hot Mum & Mind Your Language - can anyone look back at those without feeling a twinge of embarassment?) and I remembered listening to one of my parents records when I was a little kid...

On the face of it - a story about a lady complaining to her Indian Doctor that she couldn't work out why her heart was fluttering and her pulse was racing. Of course it turns out that her secret love for the Doctor in question is the CAUSE of her heart problems...beautiful and funny. Except I didn't realise at the time that the Doctor wasn't really Indian...the ten year old me just thought it was a touching story of inter-racial love. And CHRIST Sophia Loren sounded sexy...

Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren - Goodness Gracious Me

Then bizarrely another record that I thought was about inter-racial love actually wasn't. I thought he was in love with a "little white girl" - turns out that he was singing "Little White Dove" and she was just from another tribe, so I suppose I wasn't a million miles away.

Did I really grow up in such a cauldron of multi-culturalism and tolerance? Maybe I did..I certainly never understood why my Grandma would grip her handbag like vice whenever she saw anyone even vaguely afro-carribbean in the street (which wasn't often in Matlock)

Anyway this one was a favourite of my Dad's Running Bear by Johnny Preston. I absolutely loved it - although I don't think I ever quite got the whole death pact thing at the end. I probably imagined that when he sang "Now they'll always be together.." that they swam off into the sunset. My favourite bit though was always the tempo-changes on the chorus that still see me bobbing my head 30 years later..

Johnny Preston - Running Bear

So yeah - let's just embrace our differences and love each other because...

Guest Post

2009-06-10T09:12:00.002Z

My long-promised guest posting of the Bourgie Bourgie Peel Session on The Vinyl Villain blog is finally upon us

The Vinyl Villain

Please check it out and bookmark Jim's blog if you haven't already as it's always top notch

I've a few more new posts in the pipeline here too, so watch this space

The Fall - Masquerade remixes

2009-03-16T19:54:00.002Z

I swore I'd never be a Fall completist - if only for the sake of my bank balance, but it kind of happened by stealth. One day I was happy with just the studio albums and then the next day, the Postman called, and I found myself buried under a pile of "Live From The Vaults" live CDs Volumes 1 through to whoops there goes my overdraft.

Yet despite this manic obsession with the world's greatest ever band (really) this was one record I'd never heard until today. Hidden away on the 10" vinyl edition of the Masquerade single from 1998 were two obscure remixes, unavailable elsewhere.

I'd be surprised if any serious Fall fan listed Levitate as their favourite album by the band, but Masquerade was certainly the stand-out track for me and as it looks like the one album that ISN'T going to get re-issued any time soon (complete with this sort of contemporary ephemera) I splashed out on the record and here are the results.

If nothing else, 10" vinyl is ALWAYS cool, but these are actually pretty good...in a late 90's kind of way. Whilst the original album version of Masquerade is hardly lacking in electronica (certainly a million miles from the garage punk that MES deals almost exclusively in at the moment) these mixes just pile on the beats. The Mr Natural Mix in particular has a great out of tune slap bass riff running all the way through it that serves to irritate and amuse.

There's not much info as to who the remixes were done by but they were recorded at Edwyn Collin's West Heath studio in London and Pete "The Hit Man (and her)" Waterman's PWL studio in Manchester. I'm sure someone can correct me.

The Fall - Masquerade (Mr Natural Mix)
The Fall - Masquerade (PWL Mix)

As ever, enjoy.

Bourgie Bourgie

2009-03-11T21:04:00.005Z

It's a while off yet, but I've got a guest spot coming up on The Vinyl Villain blog, currently scheduled for Sunday June 7th where I'll be liberating a rare and seldom heard John Peel session from Bourgie Bourgie.

Seems like Paul Quinn and Bourgie Bourgie get blanket coverage in the blogs I frequent and quite right too! As a teaser, here is the one Bourgie Bourgie track that I've never seen bloggerised.

Featured on the NME's "Department Of Enjoyment" cassette in 1984 (more widely known for the rare Smiths live version of "Girl Afraid") this is their somewhat unexpected cover of the blues standard "Little Red Rooster". Not a patch on their two sublime singles but with a voice like his, this proves that Quinn could make anything sound good..

Bourgie Bourgie - Little Red Rooster

Nico 1974 Peel Session

2009-02-25T21:08:00.003Z

I seem to only do requests these days, and here's another. The first Nico Peel Session was released on Strange Fruit in the late 1980's and was the first time I heard any of her solo stuff. Astonishingly dark with wheezing harmonium and elongated vowels. I probably heard the word "teutonic" for the first time when I saw it reviewed. Or maybe that was a Michael Schenker Group review in Kerrang circa 1984?

Her second session was never released, so here it is. I remember reading on Henry Rollins blog that he wanted to hear a copy so I emailed him but he never replied. I guess he was probably busy lifting weights or frowning.

Three of the tracks came from the 1974 album "The End" but are just performed by just Nico, none of the Eno / Cale mucking about over the top. The 9 minute version of The Doors song is a masterclass in bleakness.

This is for Starman015

1. We've Got The Gold
2. Janitor Of Lunacy
3. The End
4. You Forgot To Answer

Recorded 3rd December 1974

Here

Reggae Christmas

2008-12-24T19:59:00.009Z

Quick song for christmas. If this doesn't get you feeling festive then NOTHING will.

Eek-A-Mouse - Christmas A Come

Particularly like the lyrics around the 40-50 second mark

I, Ludicrous Peel Session

2008-12-10T14:58:00.002Z

Unsurprisingly another Peel Session request fulfillment post..this time for Steve at Teenage Kicks

It's the one and only Peel Session that I, Ludicrous recorded - 21 fun filled years ago..

Since their classic debut flexi release "Preposterous Tales" the band have continued to record albums & gig sporadically, in fact I saw them for the first time supporting The Fall in Sheffield earlier this year and they were, indeed, fabulous

The two highlights of this session for me are "Quite Extraordinary" - the tribute to ex-BBC sports commentator and "A Question Of Sport" host David Coleman (who I have to admit I thought was dead, but apparently not) and "A Pop Fan's Dream (Sunday Lunch With The Geldofs)" wherein the narrator wins a competition to have a meal with Bob Geldof, his lovely wife Paula (Yates - now she IS dead) and their daughter Fifi Trixibelle (Peaches and Pixie weren't even born at this point). A story told with such a perfect level of sincerity that you can't quite tell how serious they are being until the final line delivers the pay-off.

The band had an excellent new EP out this year called "Dirty Washing" which I heartily recommend and you can buy it from their website

I, Ludicrous - Peel Session 1987

Edwyn Collins Radio Session & Interview 1992

2008-10-31T18:34:00.004Z

Over on the Rip It Up mailing list, the guitar player from The Siddeleys asked for an alternate version of the Orange Juice track "Consolation Prize" from the 1st album.

In quite possibly the the twee-est moment of my life, I'm only too happy to oblige. Here is an Edwyn Collins acoustic session and radio interview from 1992 featuring Consolation Prize, Felicity & My Dying Day (the interview was promoting the Ostrich Churchyard release) and Graciously from his second solo album.

Here he is

The Family Cat 3rd Peel Session 1992

2008-09-18T14:57:00.002Z

As requested on the posting of the first two Family Cat Peel Sessions at The Perfumed Garden today. Here is the third excellent session featuring stuff from their second and (probably best) album "Furthest From The Sun".

As always the Peel Session versions have an energy lacking in the officially released versions.

1. Furthest From The Sun
2. Too Many Late Nights
3. River Of Diamonds
4. Prog One

Download

This Poison

2008-08-06T13:34:00.002Z

This is another John Peel Session request from the new forum just started by the excellent Perfumed Garden blog, which you can join here

This Poison released a couple of singles on The Wedding Present's Reception label, before disappearing again, only to resurface as a distant memory 17 years later when Egg Records released an excellent anthology of their studio output. There isn't a lot more to say that isn't already said on the Egg Records biog page for the band and I thoroughly recommend you buy a copy of the CD. Cos it's ACE.

The Peel Session doesn't feature on the CD and I remember taping it off the radio a month after George Best came out, purely because "the Wedding Present release their records so they must be good". I wasn't wrong.

This Poison! Peel Session November 1987

Billy Bragg At The BBC

2008-08-01T13:01:00.004Z

Seeing Billy Bragg play "Between The Wars" on Top Of The Pops was a bit of a life-changing moment for me, and I've been a fan ever since - none more so than during his Worker's Playtime era (which I still consider to be his best/my favourite LP). I recently saw him play a solo gig in Lincoln and it reminded me how awe-inspiring he can be.

There is a great (although now quite rare) CD on Strange Fruit of Billy Bragg's John Peel Sessions recorded through the years, but I found a couple of tapes of non-Peel BBC sessions/interviews from the aforesaid era, which I now offer up to all fellow fans who may not have heard them before. VOILA

November 1988 Nicky Campbell Live Session (FM off-air recording)
1. She's Got A New Spell
2. The Short Answer
3. Ideology
Plus 10 minute interview

Sometime in 1987 Janice Long Session (AM off-air recording)
1. The Only One
plus 5 minute interview

As a special bonus - I've also included the BBC Radio Derby interview done in the queue for the toilets at the 1993 Phoenix Festival. This interview is the one referred to by Billy on-stage later that day, and captured for posterity on the Red Stars Official Bootleg available from the BillyBragg.co.uk shop. I don't suppose many people heard the actual interview so here it is..

Best Gig I Ever Done See #5 - Will Oldham Palace Bonnie Prince Bullshit Whatever

2008-07-16T17:13:00.004Z

I somehow missed the very first Palace Brothers gig when they came to Nottingham in 1993 and did all the stuff from the first album, so I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't miss them the next time. Except when the next time came it wasn't a "them" it was a "him".

The second album hadn't been released when he played at The Narrowboat in (early summer) 1994 so I didn't realise it was just Will Oldham and a guitar, and at first felt a little short-changed when I realised that was the format for the gig too. At this point in my life I'd probably never even seen someone play acoustic guitar to so many attentive people in such a small room, but it was dictionary-definition spine-tingling (this was way before anti-folk and alt.country made this sort of thing commonplace.)

Will sat down and my first thoughts were "jesus he's ugly". Sadly he hasn't improved with age either..

Next he introduced a song with the words - this is called "I am a cinematographer" and when, at first, the lyrics seemed to be that phrase repeated over and over, there were people around me stifling giggles like they'd just turned up to a concert at the special school.

The evening progressed and the audience settled in as Will did a few tracks from the first album, then the giggles started again when he introduced "a song by Prince" - of course he was joking we thought...but no it was a gorgeous sparse rendition of "The Cross" from Sign O' The Times, which sat perfectly within the context of the religious imagery in Will's other songs. Was he joking? Part of me wonders if everything Will Oldham does is a joke I just don't get. That beard even?

When I got home the first thing I did was get my flatmate to play the Prince version (as I didn't own any Prince records - I was still scarred from my mate refusing to lend me the Purple Rain soundtrack when we were at school so I could offend my parents with the track about the girl wanking herself off with a copy of Cosmo). Anyway - I listened to it a lot for the next few weeks and it's still a big favourite.

So here is NOT the Prince version but the 2nd Palace Brothers Peel Session recorded on this visit to the UK, including aforesaid reading of "The Cross"

Will Oldham Peel Session 29 July 1994

The Sundays Peel Session

2008-05-26T18:28:00.003Z

As requested on the John Peel Yahoogroups mailing list - The Sundays Peel Session from March 1989...back when they were the next big thing. Ripped this from my old cassette copy this afternoon - the sound is pretty good for a nearly 20 year old tape.

The Sundays - Peel Session 06 March 1989

*UPLOAD LINK FIXED - NOW HOSTED WITH MEDIAFIRE SO CLICK THROUGH**

Barbel

2008-05-03T20:42:00.004Z

An obscure band from Liverpool, Barbel released one mini-album and a 12" single, recorded two excellent Peel Sessions and then disappeared.

I reckon it was about 19 years ago that I first heard this song (on John Peel of course) and it still sounds as good today as it did back then. The first track on their mini-album "One Horse Planet" on Pink Moon Records which I bought in Crash Records (Merrion Centre Branch) in Leeds and promptly fell in love with.

"House By The Airport" is a kitchen-sink love story that just gets sadder and sadder, but the tune is relentlessly up beat and has some great lines - "he had a foot in every pie and a finger in every door". I love everything about this song from the great one-finger organ line to the bum notes they weren't afraid to edit out.

Aside from my gushing admiration I must admit that part of the reason for blogging this is because there is virtually no information on the web about them (or maybe there is if you're prepared to wade through page after page of Anglers Weekly content?) and I reckon they deserve to be saved from aforesaid obscurity. They remain to this day one of my favourite bands.

According to Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions" book, the line up of Greg Milton, Alison Williams, Roger Sinek and David Morgan was augmented on their second session by Simon Breed (who I assume to be the same Simon Breed from..erm.. Breed who did 4 Peel Sessions of their own). I also know that Greg Milton went on to be in a band called Dead Cowboys with members of Benny Profane releasing two albums (the last being in 2004).

I recently pestered Andy at Pink Moon records about re-releasing the One Horse Planet album on CD as quite frankly my vinyl copy is knackered (as you can hear on the vinyl rip below) and got a nice reply that was more of a "maybe" than a "piss off you have to be joking" so we live in hope.

Oh and they did a cracking version of "Winchester Cathedral" on one of those Imaginary Records 60's covers compilations - but I'll save that for another time.

Barbel - House By The Airport

"he became mesmerised by the sadness of life, incapable of action....too bad"

New York, New York

2008-03-10T18:57:00.002Z

A quick blog for my chum Steve at Domino Rally who is off to New York soon, making me insanely jealous in the process. As a coping mechanism I decided I could do worse than posting a couple of my favourite New York Songs..

Lloyd Cole - New York City Sunshine

One from his last album and probably up there with the best of anything he's written post Commotions. There are a couple of obligatory Cole-isms, cheesy lines about junkies and being "turned on" but the sentiment is pure - if you're in love and in New York you really don't mind the fact it is freezing cold and you can no longer feel your face

Craig Armstrong - Wake Up In New York

I was going to use the word cinematic but that applies to almost everything Craig Armstrong does. This one though is made all the more special by Evan Dando, the man who could sing the theme tune to Postman Pat and make it sound achingly cool. And when Evan sings about meeting you at the drugstore you can imagine he's there to pick up his methadone script standing in line behind Lloyd Cole who is buying Preparation H.

I'm off to Lisbon myself at Easter and I was slightly surprised to not find a single song about Lisbon in 160gb of mp3's on my hard drive...are there any out there or is Lisbon just not worthy of a song? The closest I got was Portugal by The Fall, but that's not even a good Fall song.

Better Beatles - The Mercy Beat

2008-01-19T09:45:00.000Z

I mentioned back in May last year that I'd been contacted by the original singer from Omaha's the Better Beatles to say that they were hoping to release the whole of the bands work on record, and it was with much excitement that I took delivery this morning of "The Mercy Beat" on Hook Or Crook Records of Oakland Ca.

Only released on 12" vinyl it can be ordered online from here for only $10 and you can pay with Paypal - the shipping to the UK was $14 but definitely worth it!

They've made a great job of remastering the 10 tracks, and everyone of them is superb, particularly Eleanor Rigby (given a jaunty nursery rhyme feel) and With A Little Help From My Friends (which they give a, really quite deserved, drawn out and painful death to).

I was surprised and flattered to receive a thanks on the back of the sleeve too - something I really wasn't expecting, and having given it a few listens this morning I know this is a piece of vinyl I will treasure.

I was in two minds about whether to upload another track (the two original tracks are still available on the earlier post) as I think my time would be better spent trying to lobby parliament to pass a law making purchase of this record mandatory.

Failing that - a happy compromise - here is the shortest track on the album, now yougobuy.

Better Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love

Chuck Berry

2007-12-24T18:14:00.000Z

Not a christmas song, shock. For I'm sure, dear listener you are struggling to find ANY christmas-related mp3 blog fayre...

Instead, a song to cheer up even the most humbuggy of yuletide-deniers (of which I am one I'm said to report) - I found this stunning instrumental track in my parents old stash of 7" singles (which believe me, is NOT the treasure trove I wish it was).
It's the b-side to Chuck's big hit "No Particular Place To Go", but it's definitely the proverbial hidden gem.

Essentially just a standard boogie, but Chuck lets loose and sounds like..well..like he doesn't know what he's going to be playing in the next bar. There are endless flubs and missed notes, but play it nice and loud and you can picture the beaming (and probably a little bit merry on magic booze) smiles. It's the sound of people enjoying themselves.

About 1:18 Chuck accidentally writes Rocket From The Crypt's "On A Rope" and from about 1:40 until about 2:05 he plays pretty much the same note for 16 bars. That they ever make it through 2:50 to the end is a little christmas miracle in itself.

And of course Liverpool is where the second messiah was born yeah?

Chuck Berry - Liverpool Drive

Captain Beefheart

2007-10-08T18:22:00.001Z

Ha...and they said that Captain Beefheart had no sense of timing.

Found in a random folder on Soulseek, I can't decide if I love or loathe this. At least there's some humour to it.

Captain Beefheart - Well [remix].mp3

Eight Things...frankosonically speaking

2007-09-01T08:19:00.000Z

OK, because Mr Hibbett didn't think I would respond, I decided I would do the honourable thing and have a go at "Eight Things You Didn't Know About Me". I appreciate it's taken me a couple of weeks but it's SO HARD! And also as this is meant to be the music blog I need to try and keep it music related and finish with a tenuous link to a choice mp3. SO here goes…

1) The first band I ever became obsessed with was Kiss, when at the age of 10 a lad at school gave me a copy of the "What Makes The World Go Round" 7" single signed by Paul Stanley. I still have it and it is blatantly not signed by Paul Stanley - he just did some scribble on the front and lied to me.

2) As a result of this pre-pubescent love for Heavy Metal I got a subscription to Kerrang for my birthday. Following on from that I was thrilled to learn that my sister's friend Colin was related to Rocky "Wrekkless" Shades of Wrathchild. Things took an even weirder turn when, on holiday with my parents in Menorca in 1984, it transpired that Rocky "Wrekkless" Shades was staying in the same hotel as us. My mum told him I was a fan and he was very nice to me. His hair was massive!

3) Round at my mate Benny's house in the mid-1980's we used to play on the ZX Spectrum, drink Soda Stream (which was state of the art drink-making at the time) and listen to records. Most popular choices were New Order's "The Beach" on the b-side of the Blue Monday 12" and Billy Idol's first solo album. I recently bought the remaster on CD and despite the fact they left off Congo Man for some insane reason - it's still a fucking great album - shut up!

4) My mum once played football on the park with Billy Fury and his band when they were playing at Matlock Pavilion. These days she is in a Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Society and they have won international competitions. I like the bit about Billy Fury better.

5) I still get occasional performance royalties for the tracks I played guitar on the White Town album that EMI released in 1997. The last one was £8.07 for radio plays in Switzerland. I don't think I've ever got into double figures.

6) With the event of tracking tools like LastFM it's fascinating to look back over my listening habits for the past 18 months or so. Then I got to wondering as to which record I have probably listened to the most over the course of my entire life. My internal LastFM mind memory churned the calculation for a few days and I have come to the conclusion that it is almost certainly "Misplaced Childhood" by Marillion. I don't think I could be any less cool at this precise moment in time, but bear with me.

Prog Rock has never been cool, and especially not the kind of second-hand early-Genesis prog that Marillion dished up in the early 1980's. Yet Misplaced Childhood is still a fantastic concept album and one I have come back to time and again from the first time I heard it in 1985, through every phase of my musical awakening. It's a lyrical tour-de-force and musically astonishing, managing to contain two top 10 singles in amongst the more intricate pieces, transient passages and recurring motifs.

I lost all interest in the band after the follow-up album didn't grab me, but I've recently discovered that Fish has been regularly blogging for years and the archive is available via his website. Boy has he had his fair share of relationship & business problems - the poor bloke has been through the mill but he's still so optimistic about life it's a joy to read sometimes (at the moment he is about to release a new album having been jilted a couple of weeks before his wedding day!).

So yeah, number 6 - I like bad prog.

7) I never had guitar lessons but learned via a square flexidisc called "Play In A Day The Billy Bragg Way". In all honesty it took me a little bit longer than a day.

8) Fittingly at number 8 - I once rented Eminem's film Eight Mile on DVD from Blockbuster, got home, put it in the player and then made some dinner. An hour or so later switched the TV on settled down with a plate of food to watch the film - then got confused when it finished after half an hour. Turns out that it was an autoplay disc rather than one that continuously loops the title menu and I managed to skip the first hour without even noticing. It really didn't make ANY difference to the plot, or my enjoyment of the film. They could have just made it a 30 minute TV show and saved themselves millions.

So that's my eight things - and the tenuous mp3 link is going to be a live version of Marillion's Sugar Mice (In The Rain), which isn't fom Misplaced Childhood but is my favourite song from Clutching At Straws. This live version comes from the Curtain Call boxset and benefits from a less polished sound than the studio take (plus the audience clapping somewhat out of time). Fish really sounds like he means every word of this "stuck in a hotel miles away from your loved ones" ballad. Anyone brave enough to download this, I warn you in advance there is a VERY 80's guitar solo at 2:12 but keep listening as the post-song monologue is one that puts Bono to shame...

Marillion - Sugar Mice (In The Rain) - Live In Milan 1988

Tony Wilson RIP

2007-08-11T10:53:00.000Z

The web is slowly filling with obits for Tony Wilson so I won't wax lyrical. Suffice to say that I grew up listening to Factory Records and thinking that Tony Wilson was the lord of absolutely everything.

The temptation to post something miserable was quite considerable, but instead here are the original 12" & 7" mixes of New Order's Temptation - possibly one of the most joyous songs ever recorded, and a particular favourite of mine since the day my late friend Mr Pyle lent me his copy and sent me home telling me that if I listened to it, it would change my life. Not sure it changed my life but it certainly taught me to dance like a twat.

Apparently the 12" and 7" versions are extracts from the same REALLY long version rather than edits of the same piece, so to experience the whole thing you queue the 12" version and then the 7" version.

I suggest you play it nice and loud right now and do le dance du twat pour Tony Wilson.

New Order - Temptation [Original 12" Mix] FAC63
New Order - Temptation [Original 7" Mix] FAC63

Plans And Apologies

2007-06-28T17:09:00.001Z

Yup I know that blogging youtube videos is lazy and not MAN'S blogging but sometimes we have to make exceptions.

I'm like everyone else - when you see an embedded clip with someone telling you that you simply MUST see it ROFL LMAO etc, you hesitate, you sigh, you begrudgingly click and 99% of the time it's a cat falling off a handbag and you end up hating yourself.

But my friends - I'm here to tell you that this is different. You may not ROFL, you may not LMAO, you may only vaguely LOL, but it's not idle speculation when I say Plans & Apologies are the best band you will see this week (OK...when I say that, I'm kind of hoping you watched a lot of the shit on at Glastonbury at the weekend and that might stack the odds in P&A's favour..)

They could be and should be MASSIVE - but they're wise beyond their years when it comes to the current state of the "industry" and continue to plough their own, deeply sexy, furrow. To get an idea read the increasingly bizarre bloggings at PlansandApologies.com. If you like the songs behind the videos below, then they have quite literally LOADS of mp3's to download from the same website.

Anyway they have employed two amazing young film makers to put together a video for each side of their upcoming single on Exercise 1 Recordings (released jointly on their own Pandaz Pop Records)

MeeToo is directed by Darius Powell. Animation by Darius Powell and Glenn Millington.

And if that animation has left you frustrated to know what these handsome young boys look like then they are revealed in all their butch glory in the next one - probably one of the few political songs that doesn't make me wince & manages to be pure pop at the same time.

Mel Gibson's...Iraq! is directed by
James Sharpe

I promise to get back to old-bloke reminiscing about late 80's indie soon...