Son Of Mustang Ford - Swervedriver
You Got It (Keep It Outta My Face) - Mudhoney
Search And Destroy - Iggy And The Stooges
Radio - Teenage Fanclub
The Wagon - Dinosaur Jr
Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins
Prove It - Television
At Home He's A Tourist - Gang Of Four
Armalite Rifle - Gang Of Four
Where Were You - Mekons
Walk All Over You - AC/DC
In A Rut - Ruts
Holiday In Cambodia - Dead Kennedys
Seether - Veruca Salt
Suck - Wedding Present
Blue Eyes - Wedding Present
This Charming Man - Smiths
Reel Around The Fountain - Smiths
Cracked Actor - David Bowie
Safe European Home - Clash
Loose - Stooges
Rave Down - Swervedriver
Helter Skelter - Beatles
Summertime Blues - Who
I'm Not Down - Clash
There is an opinion that Walk All Over you is typical metal sexist shite, performed by trolls and bought by acrid armpitted adolescents who are “resting between girlfriends”. My opinion would be that it is a work of genius. It’s got a runaway train of a bass line and a slashing guitar sequence of 6 chords…..but relax, it’s only 2 chords in total. The best bit is the way Bon Scott’s voice goes up half through the “Wo….oagh “ bit of the “Wo….oagh baby I aint got much, resistance to your touch” (In itself a great metal lyric)
When Bon sings “Take off your high heels, Let down your hair, Paradise ain’t far from there” I’m a bit worried about his sense of direction. Is he heading north from the shoes or south from the hair? There’s a good Dave Lee Roth quote about his advice to contestants in a beauty contest, “lose the dress keep the shoes”. (I never really got the shoe thing. High heels don’t do much for me, they’re murder on my feet and anyway, I always preferred a woman to wear running shoes… to make certain that she’d catch me).
The guitar riff of In A Rut and Loose are both closely related (in an Deliverance/Appalachian way) but they’re both beautiful babies anyway. Lots of space between the guitar and rhythm. I love the sound of Cherub Rock as the guitar sound feels at once both monumentally loud, and unstoppable but also compressed. It’s one of those songs where I have never wondered what it means as any meaning cannot be greater than the power of the riff. Having said that though, for me personally, the song is most associated with ironing clothes on a night shift in a care home, which is when I first heard it. All songs cannot after all be linked with wide open spaces, primeval rage or skilful percy filth.
Indisputable fact number 1. The John Peel session version of This Charming Man (best found on either A Hatful Of Hollow or a muffled cassette) is better than the single version. It’s better because it’s bouncier. Reel Around The Fountain (again the session version is better, stripped down and rougher). At the time I loved it for it’s Taste Of Honey quotes and that great line “People said you were so easily lead, and they wee half right”. Soon after hearing it on Peel in the summer of 83 (with that session still in my head,) I went to see them at Blackburn, at a tiny upstairs club. Manchester to Blackburn on a Honda 70, in a yellow (maybe more of a honey colour) jumper and donkey jacket. They did play both This Charming Man and Reel Around The Fountain. The alternative people of Blackburn had turned out in with quiffs and loud shirts, but it was a restrained start to a career before the hysteria and devotion that later attached itself to the band and Morrissey. I saw them a few months later at the Hacienda at the height of the gladioli swinging season. They’d been on Top Of The Pops earlier, the gig was sold out, the audience keen. It felt like the confirmation of just how special this band were … and the rest of the world were just about to catch up. It was an accepted fact . Anyone you liked, liked the Smiths….and they’d only put out 2 singles. For a big swathe of NME reading, gig going Peel listeners they’d become instantly ubiquitous. I went to see loads of bands at the time and seemingly everyone I’d ever seen at any gig anywhere, was there. I remember the gig falling victim to the shocking acoustics of the majority of gigs at the Hacienda, Morrissey’s only words were “Hello you handsome devils”. The gig in the following year at the Free Trade Hall felt like a football match with the crowd chanting “Manchester”. Ironic really, because part of what Morrissey had sulked in his room about had now turned out to see him. What I remember most about that gig was the perversity because I’m sure they played Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now as the second song. At the time it was a new song…and it’s certainly no rabble rouser. I saw them twice in 85 at Stoke (How soon Is Now sounded particularly good) where Morrissey left the stage after someone threw a sausage at him and Birmingham Hippodrome at the end of last song Barbarism Begins At Home Marr threw his guitar across the stage and stormed off.
Summertime Blues is utterly preposterous. And utterly brilliant just for the way that the bass and guitars overhang each other on the Der Der Der der der der Der. By that I mean they’re overhanging each other like a particularly treacherous piece of rock. Just don’t stand under it and don’t try and climb it. Just give it a suitable name and walk on to the next ridge. And it’s a brontosaurus of a bass line.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
Southern Soul
I Feel Like Breaking Up Somebody's Home - Ann Peebles
99 Lbs - Ann Peebles
Talk To Me - Al Green
He Made A Woman Out Of Me - Betty Lavette
It Hurts To Want It So Bad - Arthur Alexander
Anna (Go To Him) - Arthur Alexander
Piece Of My Heart - Betty Lavette
Mr. And Mrs. Untrue - Candi Staton
Evidence - Candi Staton
Divorce Decree - Doris Duke
Love Man - Otis Redding
Do Your Duty - Betty Lavette
Stealing Love - Eddie Floyd
She Don't Have To See You - Tommie Young
Pouring Water On A Drowning Man - James Carr
She'll Never Be Your Wife - Irma Thomas
To Love Somebody - James Carr
Sure As Sin - Laura Lee
Making The Best Of A Bad Situation - Millie Jackson
You Don't Miss Your Water - Otis Redding
It Tears Me Up - Percy Sledge
Look At The Girl - Otis Redding
Behind Closed Doors - Percy Sledge
You Brought It All On Yourself - Tommie Young
Down The Back Roads - Arthur Alexander
I always liked the cheatin’ lyin’ and slippin’ around style of Southern soul. You’ve got the great mixture of quality singers, natural sounding arrangements with those warm brass and keyboard sounds and then that country tradition wherethe song title is either a literary gem or a rancid pun. Either way it almost tells the story of the song all by itself. Look no further than Pouring Water On A Drowning Man, or She Don't Have To See You (to see through you).
The Ann Peebles songs not only show what she’s got planned in the home wrecking department but also how she’s going to do it. Would that be “99 pounds of “Pure Cane Sugar” then Madam? And does that work with 168 pounds of Guinness and crisps? In terms of the number of songs about it, Otis Redding was probably the undisputed King Of Love By Weight. He had not only Lovin’ By The Pound, A Ton Of Joy but also on Love Man he sang “Six foot 1, weigh 210, fine hair, pretty fair skin, long legged and outta sight, hey girl I’m gonna take you out”.
Solomon Burke’s quote takes the (packet of) biscuits. “There’s 375 pounds of me. You can have any 5 pounds you need, baby”
I saw Ann Peebles in about 1990 at Manchester International and Birmingham Hummingbird, the band were really good and kept an authentic soul sound. Her voice still sounded great and it was just impressive to hear someone who could really sing, without seeming to find it too hard. How can something that sounds so good look so easy?
The Candi Staton tracks have, Mr and Mrs Untrue booking into a motel and Evidence has her going through his pockets to find “There’s some other woman taking my place”
The Bee Gees still fill me with alarm, but they did write but To Love Somebody, which is just a supremely well-written song that hits that “nobody understands” spot perfectly. “There’s a light, a certain kind of light, that never shines on me”. It’s virtually a Morrissey lyric. My 2 favourite versions are the James Carr and The Flying Burrito Brothers. James Carr edges it though. His voice is just so full of resignation and utter misery and after the final line of each chorus “You don’t know what it’s like, You just don’t know what it’s like to love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you”, there’s a 2 note keyboard whistle and the drums lead back in. And you know his pain is going to go on.
Look At That Girl is a bit of a throwaway Hang On Sloopy type song which sounds like nobody spent too long working on it, but there’s a great joyous feel to Otis’s vocal. And it’s good to look.
After all the heartache, adultery and lechery it’s a bit of a relief to get to Arthur Alexander’ s Down The Back Roads. It’s a beautiful Steve Cropper song, with a great guitar motif and warm electric piano. The song is a wistful getting away from it song, heading down the back roads, “Where the simple life is found, where I’ll lay my troubles down.” His vocals can sometimes sound a bit mannered and the arrangements and sound of his R and B hits (as covered by The Beatles and Stones) aren’t really to my taste, but he’s got one of my favourite male voices. His voice often carries the sound of real heartbreak. He had been early acid adopter, had mental health problems, and after being thoroughly skewered by the Music Industry he left it in disgust, only to die in 1993s (heart failure…how else should a Soul Man go?) on the brink of a comeback after the well received album Lonely Just Like Me.
99 Lbs - Ann Peebles
Talk To Me - Al Green
He Made A Woman Out Of Me - Betty Lavette
It Hurts To Want It So Bad - Arthur Alexander
Anna (Go To Him) - Arthur Alexander
Piece Of My Heart - Betty Lavette
Mr. And Mrs. Untrue - Candi Staton
Evidence - Candi Staton
Divorce Decree - Doris Duke
Love Man - Otis Redding
Do Your Duty - Betty Lavette
Stealing Love - Eddie Floyd
She Don't Have To See You - Tommie Young
Pouring Water On A Drowning Man - James Carr
She'll Never Be Your Wife - Irma Thomas
To Love Somebody - James Carr
Sure As Sin - Laura Lee
Making The Best Of A Bad Situation - Millie Jackson
You Don't Miss Your Water - Otis Redding
It Tears Me Up - Percy Sledge
Look At The Girl - Otis Redding
Behind Closed Doors - Percy Sledge
You Brought It All On Yourself - Tommie Young
Down The Back Roads - Arthur Alexander
I always liked the cheatin’ lyin’ and slippin’ around style of Southern soul. You’ve got the great mixture of quality singers, natural sounding arrangements with those warm brass and keyboard sounds and then that country tradition wherethe song title is either a literary gem or a rancid pun. Either way it almost tells the story of the song all by itself. Look no further than Pouring Water On A Drowning Man, or She Don't Have To See You (to see through you).
The Ann Peebles songs not only show what she’s got planned in the home wrecking department but also how she’s going to do it. Would that be “99 pounds of “Pure Cane Sugar” then Madam? And does that work with 168 pounds of Guinness and crisps? In terms of the number of songs about it, Otis Redding was probably the undisputed King Of Love By Weight. He had not only Lovin’ By The Pound, A Ton Of Joy but also on Love Man he sang “Six foot 1, weigh 210, fine hair, pretty fair skin, long legged and outta sight, hey girl I’m gonna take you out”.
Solomon Burke’s quote takes the (packet of) biscuits. “There’s 375 pounds of me. You can have any 5 pounds you need, baby”
I saw Ann Peebles in about 1990 at Manchester International and Birmingham Hummingbird, the band were really good and kept an authentic soul sound. Her voice still sounded great and it was just impressive to hear someone who could really sing, without seeming to find it too hard. How can something that sounds so good look so easy?
The Candi Staton tracks have, Mr and Mrs Untrue booking into a motel and Evidence has her going through his pockets to find “There’s some other woman taking my place”
The Bee Gees still fill me with alarm, but they did write but To Love Somebody, which is just a supremely well-written song that hits that “nobody understands” spot perfectly. “There’s a light, a certain kind of light, that never shines on me”. It’s virtually a Morrissey lyric. My 2 favourite versions are the James Carr and The Flying Burrito Brothers. James Carr edges it though. His voice is just so full of resignation and utter misery and after the final line of each chorus “You don’t know what it’s like, You just don’t know what it’s like to love somebody, to love somebody, the way I love you”, there’s a 2 note keyboard whistle and the drums lead back in. And you know his pain is going to go on.
Look At That Girl is a bit of a throwaway Hang On Sloopy type song which sounds like nobody spent too long working on it, but there’s a great joyous feel to Otis’s vocal. And it’s good to look.
After all the heartache, adultery and lechery it’s a bit of a relief to get to Arthur Alexander’ s Down The Back Roads. It’s a beautiful Steve Cropper song, with a great guitar motif and warm electric piano. The song is a wistful getting away from it song, heading down the back roads, “Where the simple life is found, where I’ll lay my troubles down.” His vocals can sometimes sound a bit mannered and the arrangements and sound of his R and B hits (as covered by The Beatles and Stones) aren’t really to my taste, but he’s got one of my favourite male voices. His voice often carries the sound of real heartbreak. He had been early acid adopter, had mental health problems, and after being thoroughly skewered by the Music Industry he left it in disgust, only to die in 1993s (heart failure…how else should a Soul Man go?) on the brink of a comeback after the well received album Lonely Just Like Me.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Lou Reed to Mink Deville - Handcrafted 'Podlist
Romeo Had Juliet - Lou Reed
Bodies - Pistols
Personality Crisis - New York Dolls
Koka Kola - Clash
Commandment Of Drugs - Prince Far I
To Be A Lover - George Faith
From A Whisper To A Scream - Esther Phillips
I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself - Tommy Hunt
One Woman - Al Green
Shout Bamalama - Detroit Cobras
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix
Finders Keepers - Chairman Of The Board
Pay To The Piper - Chairman Of The Board
Ball Of Confusion - Temptations
You Keep Tightening Up On Me - Box Tops
If I Could Only Be Sure - Nolan Porter
London - Smiths
You Can’t Have Me - Big Star
Jigsaw Puzzle - Rolling Stones
Pat Trip Dispenser - Fall
It's All Over Now Baby Blue - Thirteenth Floor Elevators
Fire Engine - Television
American Girl - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Bodies - Pistols
Personality Crisis - New York Dolls
Koka Kola - Clash
Commandment Of Drugs - Prince Far I
To Be A Lover - George Faith
From A Whisper To A Scream - Esther Phillips
I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself - Tommy Hunt
One Woman - Al Green
Shout Bamalama - Detroit Cobras
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
Manic Depression - Jimi Hendrix
Finders Keepers - Chairman Of The Board
Pay To The Piper - Chairman Of The Board
Ball Of Confusion - Temptations
You Keep Tightening Up On Me - Box Tops
If I Could Only Be Sure - Nolan Porter
London - Smiths
You Can’t Have Me - Big Star
Jigsaw Puzzle - Rolling Stones
Pat Trip Dispenser - Fall
It's All Over Now Baby Blue - Thirteenth Floor Elevators
Fire Engine - Television
American Girl - Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Hand Crafted 'Podlist
Raw Power - Iggy & The Stooges
New Rose - The Damned
Son Of Mustang Ford - Swervedriver
Bad Boy Boogie - AC/DC
She Bangs The Drum - The Stone Roses
Man On The Moon - Sugar
Goodbye Toulouse - Stranglers
Been Caught Stealing - Janes’s Addiction
Seven Days Too Long - Dexy’s Midnight Runners
It Looks Like You - Evan Dando
Older Guys - The Flying Burrito Brothers
No Feelings - Sex Pistols
In Between Tears - Irma Thomas
He made A Woman Out Of Me - Betty Lavette
If You Can Beat Me Rockin’ (you Can Have My Chair) - Laura Lee
Love Man - Otis Redding
Remedy - The Black Crowes
Every Picture Tells a Story - Rod Stewart
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Drive-In Saturday - David Bowie
Seen The Light - Supergrass
Golden Skin - Silversun
Big Boy - Minuteman
Winter - Teenage Fanclub
I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding
It’s an Iggy to Otis ‘Pod list. It was carefully hand crafted using my own skill and judgement rather than the Shuffle and the songs were chosen on the basis of their intros as well as their tip top quality. The Pistols and Irma Thomas intros both use a similar ascending chord sequence and that’s a good enough reason for me to squeeze them both into the same playlist. If I was ever kidnapped by fundamentalist list compilers, and forced to compile my top 10 favourite intros, then they would both be top 5.
Other things to love from the list….the one note piano on Raw Power (it worked on I Wanna Be Your Dog, so we’ll use it again ), the guitar break on She Bangs The Drum, where it just moves completely away from what went before it. Man In The Moon just sounds immense. Did the band leave the studio looking like cartoon characters flattened by steamrollers? Were they pinned to the studio wall by a rolling wall of sound? It’s a miracle they survived.
Goodbye Toulouse just sounds nasty. The bass is filthy, aggressive and then the guitar is scratchy and unpleasant. It’s a night in a hostel. It’s also one of my favourite tracks from one of my favourite lps by one the world’s least lovable bands. The SilverSun and Minuteman tracks use similar “great riff and Beach Boy vocal” tactics…as do TFC. There is something about the chords of Winter and the strained “Der der der der” backing vocals that just make’s me weep. The song aches of wistful nostalgia. A walking hand in hand lyric alone is not enough though (probably why my playlist is a bit light on the works of Manillow and Sedaka) but the song really does get to me and I’m not really sure why. I’d have it as a funeral song. Though there is a part of me that’s tempted by Banging The Door by Public Image…and that would be the part of me that can’t resist the bad gag.
New Rose - The Damned
Son Of Mustang Ford - Swervedriver
Bad Boy Boogie - AC/DC
She Bangs The Drum - The Stone Roses
Man On The Moon - Sugar
Goodbye Toulouse - Stranglers
Been Caught Stealing - Janes’s Addiction
Seven Days Too Long - Dexy’s Midnight Runners
It Looks Like You - Evan Dando
Older Guys - The Flying Burrito Brothers
No Feelings - Sex Pistols
In Between Tears - Irma Thomas
He made A Woman Out Of Me - Betty Lavette
If You Can Beat Me Rockin’ (you Can Have My Chair) - Laura Lee
Love Man - Otis Redding
Remedy - The Black Crowes
Every Picture Tells a Story - Rod Stewart
Suffragette City - David Bowie
Drive-In Saturday - David Bowie
Seen The Light - Supergrass
Golden Skin - Silversun
Big Boy - Minuteman
Winter - Teenage Fanclub
I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding
It’s an Iggy to Otis ‘Pod list. It was carefully hand crafted using my own skill and judgement rather than the Shuffle and the songs were chosen on the basis of their intros as well as their tip top quality. The Pistols and Irma Thomas intros both use a similar ascending chord sequence and that’s a good enough reason for me to squeeze them both into the same playlist. If I was ever kidnapped by fundamentalist list compilers, and forced to compile my top 10 favourite intros, then they would both be top 5.
Other things to love from the list….the one note piano on Raw Power (it worked on I Wanna Be Your Dog, so we’ll use it again ), the guitar break on She Bangs The Drum, where it just moves completely away from what went before it. Man In The Moon just sounds immense. Did the band leave the studio looking like cartoon characters flattened by steamrollers? Were they pinned to the studio wall by a rolling wall of sound? It’s a miracle they survived.
Goodbye Toulouse just sounds nasty. The bass is filthy, aggressive and then the guitar is scratchy and unpleasant. It’s a night in a hostel. It’s also one of my favourite tracks from one of my favourite lps by one the world’s least lovable bands. The SilverSun and Minuteman tracks use similar “great riff and Beach Boy vocal” tactics…as do TFC. There is something about the chords of Winter and the strained “Der der der der” backing vocals that just make’s me weep. The song aches of wistful nostalgia. A walking hand in hand lyric alone is not enough though (probably why my playlist is a bit light on the works of Manillow and Sedaka) but the song really does get to me and I’m not really sure why. I’d have it as a funeral song. Though there is a part of me that’s tempted by Banging The Door by Public Image…and that would be the part of me that can’t resist the bad gag.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Ash (and the ancient and noble art of the Yeah)
Watched Ash on Jools Holland (not literally on JH. It was footage of a great performance from last year rather than a pile on), which made me think how much fun it would be to be in that band. Tim can look out at an audience and think "All the girls love me and I write these great chunky pop songs and I 've got a Flying V. Charlotte can think "All the boys love me and I've got an SG." It must also be a comfot to her to know that I would. And indeed I would. Mark the bassist has got a Thunderbird and the Rick the Drummer no longer has a mohican. These are all good things.
Orpheus is a really good song with fine use of "Yeah Yeah Yeah". It is hard to go wrong with those 3 little words. The Yeah has been the English language's gift to pop with prime examples from the Beatles Group to Prince and Alphabet St. Obviously Mony Mony squeezes in more Yeahs and in fact I can't think of a more Yeahtastic song. (Theres about 12 of them between the lines "I said Yeah" and "You make me feel so". )
Ash though are skilled exponants of the Yeah and used it wisely in Oh Yeah (Oh yeah she was taking me over, Oh yeah it was the start of the summer) although if I build too much of a case for the line "Still in her school skirt and summer blouse" then I'm going to sound like a massive pervert....so I'll stick to the yeahs.
Orpheus is a really good song with fine use of "Yeah Yeah Yeah". It is hard to go wrong with those 3 little words. The Yeah has been the English language's gift to pop with prime examples from the Beatles Group to Prince and Alphabet St. Obviously Mony Mony squeezes in more Yeahs and in fact I can't think of a more Yeahtastic song. (Theres about 12 of them between the lines "I said Yeah" and "You make me feel so". )
Ash though are skilled exponants of the Yeah and used it wisely in Oh Yeah (Oh yeah she was taking me over, Oh yeah it was the start of the summer) although if I build too much of a case for the line "Still in her school skirt and summer blouse" then I'm going to sound like a massive pervert....so I'll stick to the yeahs.
Friday, July 01, 2005
We hold these truths to be self evident
My 5 year old was in the bath examining the contents of his scrotum. After a thorough investigation he looked up and asked "Are these my brains?". Well the answer is really both yes and no isn't it. The 50 % of the population who are baggage carriers are often accused of thinking with our dicks. I disagree. Don't think with it, but always get it's opinion and listen carefully to it's advice. Mind you George Melly said he was quite thankful when he lost his libido because he felt like he had spent his whole adult life chained to an idiot.
When my 9 year old was about 3, he once sat in front of the tv reciting over and over again "Cartoon animals talk, real animals don't talk"
I one heard a quote from Al Jorgenson along the lines of "A man with a great car does not need to be justified". I wouldn't quite go that far (but thanks to a car capable brother I do have a great car now) but I watched School Of Rock the other night, (didn't enjoy it quite as much as I expected to) and the line that really spoke to me was when he consoled one self doubting child with the lines ".....but you're in a rockin' band." Now the self belief and sheer righteousness of knowing that you're in a great band is a fine feeling. And I had it twice.
Last quote of the day is from Bootsy Collins when he was talking about Stevie Wonder. The reason why I like it is that it's simple and because you immediately understand the Bootsy world view. There can obviously (of course it's obvious) only be 2 kinds of people, funky and not funky. There is a however a sliding scale of funkiness. "Stevie Wonder?....Most funky."
When my 9 year old was about 3, he once sat in front of the tv reciting over and over again "Cartoon animals talk, real animals don't talk"
I one heard a quote from Al Jorgenson along the lines of "A man with a great car does not need to be justified". I wouldn't quite go that far (but thanks to a car capable brother I do have a great car now) but I watched School Of Rock the other night, (didn't enjoy it quite as much as I expected to) and the line that really spoke to me was when he consoled one self doubting child with the lines ".....but you're in a rockin' band." Now the self belief and sheer righteousness of knowing that you're in a great band is a fine feeling. And I had it twice.
Last quote of the day is from Bootsy Collins when he was talking about Stevie Wonder. The reason why I like it is that it's simple and because you immediately understand the Bootsy world view. There can obviously (of course it's obvious) only be 2 kinds of people, funky and not funky. There is a however a sliding scale of funkiness. "Stevie Wonder?....Most funky."
Friday, June 10, 2005
Slates - The Fall
My turntable didn’t survive the ravages of time and on off house moves. So once I’d finally accepted that I wasn’t going to fix it cheaply myself (and that took some time) I bought a Debut Project 3 in a funky shade of blue. After a lot of fiddling the previous evening, all right fine tuning for optimum sonic performance, it was ready to go.
I spent the next day at work mulling over which of all my too long since last heard vinyl would be the one to make the debut on the Debut. It was a beautiful afternoon, so I left work early, enjoying the ride back, the weather and the knowledge that I’d have the house to myself for an hour. Quality buffet time. It had to be Slates by The Fall. 10inch mini Lp with the guide price "£2 only u skinny rats" and the usual Fall mixture of murky photos and scrawled notes. In fact the sleeve looks like the record sounds. Leave The Capitol is warm and fuzzy sounding with the vocals mixed low and the guitars and bass weaving round each other. "Then you know in your brain, you must,leave the capitol, exit this Roman shell."
There a couple of lyrics on Fit and Working Again which I always listen out for. "I’m cranked up like a Wimpey crane" and "I feel like Alan Minter". Sometimes you just think you know what Mark E Smith means. Buffet Time ended before I could get through any more of my must play playlist. Still vinyl’s back on the menu…and it sounds bright blue.
I spent the next day at work mulling over which of all my too long since last heard vinyl would be the one to make the debut on the Debut. It was a beautiful afternoon, so I left work early, enjoying the ride back, the weather and the knowledge that I’d have the house to myself for an hour. Quality buffet time. It had to be Slates by The Fall. 10inch mini Lp with the guide price "£2 only u skinny rats" and the usual Fall mixture of murky photos and scrawled notes. In fact the sleeve looks like the record sounds. Leave The Capitol is warm and fuzzy sounding with the vocals mixed low and the guitars and bass weaving round each other. "Then you know in your brain, you must,leave the capitol, exit this Roman shell."
There a couple of lyrics on Fit and Working Again which I always listen out for. "I’m cranked up like a Wimpey crane" and "I feel like Alan Minter". Sometimes you just think you know what Mark E Smith means. Buffet Time ended before I could get through any more of my must play playlist. Still vinyl’s back on the menu…and it sounds bright blue.
Friday, February 25, 2005
'Pod list
Jennifer's Veil - The Birthday Party
Hold Me Back - AC/DC
Another Pearl - Badly Drawn Boy
AM 180 - Grandaddy
Simple Things - Belle & Sebastian
Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Almost Cut My Hair - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Dance, Dance, Dance (Alternate Take) - The Beach Boys
Julia - The Beatles
Good Day Sunshine - The Beatles
Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow) - The Birthday Party
You Can Only Do Wrong So Long - Tommie Young
Good To My Baby - The Beach Boys
No Hard Shoulder To Cry On - Julian Cope
More Alone With You - Alloy
I Know There's An Answer - The Beach Boys
Mod Lang - Big Star
Looking For A Friend - David Bowie
Blackbird - The Beatles
Live Wire - AC/DC
Blowing Up My Mind - The Exciters
Start Digging My Grave, Sugar - 1000 Violins
Nobody To Love - 13th Floor Elevators
409 - The Beach Boys
Frightened - The Fall
Ok so it's all random, (which is the only way the shocking Teach Your Children would ever show up on one of my playlists). Blowing Up My Mind is the killer track here. It's a northern soul classic wuith a sing song toytown keyboard sound, busy bass, and a great female vocalist who alternately rushes and then relaxes around the vocal line. Even though she's probably having to do it in an effort to squeeze all the words in, it's still a great performance and a great trick.
Frightened is one of my favourite Fall songs (from Live At The Witch Trials), it sounds claustrophobic but teenage defiant with lines like "I've got a fear of midnight when the films close" and "I've got shears pointing straight at my chest, I'm better than them and I think I'm the best".
Hold Me Back - AC/DC
Another Pearl - Badly Drawn Boy
AM 180 - Grandaddy
Simple Things - Belle & Sebastian
Teach Your Children - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Almost Cut My Hair - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Dance, Dance, Dance (Alternate Take) - The Beach Boys
Julia - The Beatles
Good Day Sunshine - The Beatles
Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow) - The Birthday Party
You Can Only Do Wrong So Long - Tommie Young
Good To My Baby - The Beach Boys
No Hard Shoulder To Cry On - Julian Cope
More Alone With You - Alloy
I Know There's An Answer - The Beach Boys
Mod Lang - Big Star
Looking For A Friend - David Bowie
Blackbird - The Beatles
Live Wire - AC/DC
Blowing Up My Mind - The Exciters
Start Digging My Grave, Sugar - 1000 Violins
Nobody To Love - 13th Floor Elevators
409 - The Beach Boys
Frightened - The Fall
Ok so it's all random, (which is the only way the shocking Teach Your Children would ever show up on one of my playlists). Blowing Up My Mind is the killer track here. It's a northern soul classic wuith a sing song toytown keyboard sound, busy bass, and a great female vocalist who alternately rushes and then relaxes around the vocal line. Even though she's probably having to do it in an effort to squeeze all the words in, it's still a great performance and a great trick.
Frightened is one of my favourite Fall songs (from Live At The Witch Trials), it sounds claustrophobic but teenage defiant with lines like "I've got a fear of midnight when the films close" and "I've got shears pointing straight at my chest, I'm better than them and I think I'm the best".
Monday, January 31, 2005
Julian Cope Wulfrun Hall
I saw Julian Cope at Wolverhampton Wulfrun hall on 22nd Jan, with the unexpected bonus of it being a freebie with 2 hours notice. Anticipation is good but free and a lift is better. Even with only 2 hours anticipation I was really looking forward to it. I last saw him doing his Modern Antiquarian speaking tour at Birmingham Glee Club (1998?) and very entertaining he was too. I’d also seen him with the Teardrops on the Wilder tour at Manchester Apollo and solo tours at The Hacienda (with the Woodentops), Manchester Carousel (leathers and mike-stand era) and Moseley Dance Centre (Peggy Suicide). Fair to say then I’m a bit of a fan, read the books and seen him in various stages of Shamanic and shambolic.
He was introduced as Julian Cope and his Ear Splitting Psychedelic Band. Great start. JC hurtled round the stage like an Iggy Pop possessed in a leather Stetson, shades and a Madonna radio mike to Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line from Peggy Suicide. Sounds good so far...except there were no vocals and neither he nor the crowd ever recovered. The technical problems lasted for a couple of songs, but, even when resolved he was still struggling to hit notes. I really don’t want to kick The Cope. I’d heard him on Mark Radcliffe late last year, playing Sitting In The Room Where They Found Saddam In” and I’d heard him on Radio 6, more recently. Both times he was witty, engaging and the songs mostly worked. At Wolves though the crowd seemed baffled and hostile to his between song chat. (“We need strong women.... so the wild men can be strong”). As he prepared to sing Promised Land from Peggy Suicide a voice from the crowd rang out “You’ll fuck it up.” He did. There was needless clapping along too, which prompted, “You know out of time clapping really fucks me off”. By now I think he knew he’d lost the night. There were attempts at crowd pleasing with World Shut Your Mouth (vocals suffered there), Bandy’s First Jump, Head hung low and an amazingly misjudged version of Spacehopper. As the last song of the night it was not only slower than the original but the drummer did the half time heavy metal drum trick making it sound even slower.
For all guitar fetishists and closet cock rockers (hands up) Copey played a Flying V, and I spotted a Les Paul bass. There was some great wiggy guitar playing throughout. Other highlights included the black lipstick wearing from the guitarist who swapped bass and guitar duties with Donald Ross Skinner. Subtle Energies Commission sounded good and looked even better as DRS was playing a double-necked guitar. The best new song was Give Me Head. I was at the bar then and missed out.
Copey had announced that “I’m entering my second psychedelic phase” and that his post gig plans involved some Mexican mushrooms. On the drive back I heard Boards Of Canada’s first lp and was staggered. I would normally run a mile from scary electronica but the analogue synth washes and jabbering filthy scratchy sounds that made up the rhythm just fitted in so well with the lights on the motorway. In fact it was more psychedelic than the gig.
He was introduced as Julian Cope and his Ear Splitting Psychedelic Band. Great start. JC hurtled round the stage like an Iggy Pop possessed in a leather Stetson, shades and a Madonna radio mike to Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line from Peggy Suicide. Sounds good so far...except there were no vocals and neither he nor the crowd ever recovered. The technical problems lasted for a couple of songs, but, even when resolved he was still struggling to hit notes. I really don’t want to kick The Cope. I’d heard him on Mark Radcliffe late last year, playing Sitting In The Room Where They Found Saddam In” and I’d heard him on Radio 6, more recently. Both times he was witty, engaging and the songs mostly worked. At Wolves though the crowd seemed baffled and hostile to his between song chat. (“We need strong women.... so the wild men can be strong”). As he prepared to sing Promised Land from Peggy Suicide a voice from the crowd rang out “You’ll fuck it up.” He did. There was needless clapping along too, which prompted, “You know out of time clapping really fucks me off”. By now I think he knew he’d lost the night. There were attempts at crowd pleasing with World Shut Your Mouth (vocals suffered there), Bandy’s First Jump, Head hung low and an amazingly misjudged version of Spacehopper. As the last song of the night it was not only slower than the original but the drummer did the half time heavy metal drum trick making it sound even slower.
For all guitar fetishists and closet cock rockers (hands up) Copey played a Flying V, and I spotted a Les Paul bass. There was some great wiggy guitar playing throughout. Other highlights included the black lipstick wearing from the guitarist who swapped bass and guitar duties with Donald Ross Skinner. Subtle Energies Commission sounded good and looked even better as DRS was playing a double-necked guitar. The best new song was Give Me Head. I was at the bar then and missed out.
Copey had announced that “I’m entering my second psychedelic phase” and that his post gig plans involved some Mexican mushrooms. On the drive back I heard Boards Of Canada’s first lp and was staggered. I would normally run a mile from scary electronica but the analogue synth washes and jabbering filthy scratchy sounds that made up the rhythm just fitted in so well with the lights on the motorway. In fact it was more psychedelic than the gig.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Radiohead
Recent random 'Pod plays
Go Ahead --Wire
Bones --Radiohead
Luxury- Rolling Stones
My Back Pages (Alternate version) - Byrds
Melon Farmer -Ash
Let’s get back Together -The Honeybees
Brothers On The Slide -Cymande
Congoman ( 12” mix) - The Congos
I’m Missing You - Loretta Williams
The Slide - Flamin’ Groovies
This Is Not My Crime - Gene
The Charm - Cosmic Rough Riders
Miles End - Gomez
My Life In England (Part 1) - Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Christine’s Tune - Flying Burrito Brothers
Don’t Let Me Down - Kim Weston
Who Loves The Sun - Velvet Underground
Prologue - Scott Walker
The key track for me on this random mix was Radiohead’s Bones from The Bends. They crept up on me as a band…as I didn’t like Creep, but I do like an alienated vocal yelp under layers of guitar. It also has a shimmering echoed guitar intro and it has the same Status Quo der DER der DER der DER DER riff that Teenage Fanclub could never resist on Bandwagonesque.
Mick Jagger’s “Poor boy working for the man” schtick wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny but the lazy chunky guitar riff does….so case dismissed.
On the Dexys’ track (one of the new songs from Let’s Make This Precious) there’s a great line about the boy Kev arriving in England and when children at school called him “Mate” he thought they said “Meat”. The song is bolted on top of a Grandmaster Flash White Lines bassline which doesn’t work that well. I’m not going to say that too loudly though, as I’m just glad Kevin Rowland’s still around.
Go Ahead --Wire
Bones --Radiohead
Luxury- Rolling Stones
My Back Pages (Alternate version) - Byrds
Melon Farmer -Ash
Let’s get back Together -The Honeybees
Brothers On The Slide -Cymande
Congoman ( 12” mix) - The Congos
I’m Missing You - Loretta Williams
The Slide - Flamin’ Groovies
This Is Not My Crime - Gene
The Charm - Cosmic Rough Riders
Miles End - Gomez
My Life In England (Part 1) - Dexy’s Midnight Runners
Christine’s Tune - Flying Burrito Brothers
Don’t Let Me Down - Kim Weston
Who Loves The Sun - Velvet Underground
Prologue - Scott Walker
The key track for me on this random mix was Radiohead’s Bones from The Bends. They crept up on me as a band…as I didn’t like Creep, but I do like an alienated vocal yelp under layers of guitar. It also has a shimmering echoed guitar intro and it has the same Status Quo der DER der DER der DER DER riff that Teenage Fanclub could never resist on Bandwagonesque.
Mick Jagger’s “Poor boy working for the man” schtick wouldn’t stand up to close scrutiny but the lazy chunky guitar riff does….so case dismissed.
On the Dexys’ track (one of the new songs from Let’s Make This Precious) there’s a great line about the boy Kev arriving in England and when children at school called him “Mate” he thought they said “Meat”. The song is bolted on top of a Grandmaster Flash White Lines bassline which doesn’t work that well. I’m not going to say that too loudly though, as I’m just glad Kevin Rowland’s still around.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Swervedriver/Kevin Rowland
Recently played on the ‘Pod …by accident , shuffle and design
The Letter Box Tops
Empty At The End Electric Soft parade
I Don’t Mind Buzzcocks
Amusement Parks USA Beach Boys
Halloween Ash
Within You Without You Beatles
Firesuite Doves
Rag Doll Kevin Rowland
Son Of Mustang Ford Swervedriver
Volcano Trash Swervedriver
Sandblasted Swervedriver
Ravedown Swervedriver
The first Swervedriver releases came out on Creation in 1990 as 3 four track cd singles in card sleeves, all with the same stencilled band logo and although there were a couple of duds, the 12 tracks just hung really well together. In fact it works better than their first album, Raise They were a really underrated band with lazy drawled vocals and a fantastic way of layering guitar sounds with (that old rockin’ standby) the Jews harp. They were produced by Angil Dutt. (who later produced Boo Radleys Giant Steps…another masterpiece of layering and invention)
They sported crusty, white dreads and found it easier to base their songs of restless travel around American badlands rather than their native Berkshire. “Been driving for days….but the radio still plays”. I found myself standing next to the singer once at the Camden Falcon (curiously at one of our own gigs, but I don’t think we were playing at the time….unless I was using a long lead and had mastered the art of walking, talking and playing at the same time. No chance of that then. It must have been a soundcheck.) and badgered him for details of what would be their first lp. He was less than forthcoming. I still thought they were great
I saw them twice, (Barrell organ Birmingham probably 1990 and Dudley JB’s ’93) and was a bit disappointed both times…but the sounds and possibilities of those first 3 releases are still hard to beat.
The Kevin Rowland track is from the cruelly and incorrectly derided album My Beauty. The album is his post therapy record and although some vocals are a bit karaoke, there are some fantastic moments. I love the vocal asides on this track. At one point the backing vocals are aah aaahing away and Kev says “You hear that beautiful choir…They’re singing for you….They’re singing the truth….It’s yours…Go on, take it”
The Letter Box Tops
Empty At The End Electric Soft parade
I Don’t Mind Buzzcocks
Amusement Parks USA Beach Boys
Halloween Ash
Within You Without You Beatles
Firesuite Doves
Rag Doll Kevin Rowland
Son Of Mustang Ford Swervedriver
Volcano Trash Swervedriver
Sandblasted Swervedriver
Ravedown Swervedriver
The first Swervedriver releases came out on Creation in 1990 as 3 four track cd singles in card sleeves, all with the same stencilled band logo and although there were a couple of duds, the 12 tracks just hung really well together. In fact it works better than their first album, Raise They were a really underrated band with lazy drawled vocals and a fantastic way of layering guitar sounds with (that old rockin’ standby) the Jews harp. They were produced by Angil Dutt. (who later produced Boo Radleys Giant Steps…another masterpiece of layering and invention)
They sported crusty, white dreads and found it easier to base their songs of restless travel around American badlands rather than their native Berkshire. “Been driving for days….but the radio still plays”. I found myself standing next to the singer once at the Camden Falcon (curiously at one of our own gigs, but I don’t think we were playing at the time….unless I was using a long lead and had mastered the art of walking, talking and playing at the same time. No chance of that then. It must have been a soundcheck.) and badgered him for details of what would be their first lp. He was less than forthcoming. I still thought they were great
I saw them twice, (Barrell organ Birmingham probably 1990 and Dudley JB’s ’93) and was a bit disappointed both times…but the sounds and possibilities of those first 3 releases are still hard to beat.
The Kevin Rowland track is from the cruelly and incorrectly derided album My Beauty. The album is his post therapy record and although some vocals are a bit karaoke, there are some fantastic moments. I love the vocal asides on this track. At one point the backing vocals are aah aaahing away and Kev says “You hear that beautiful choir…They’re singing for you….They’re singing the truth….It’s yours…Go on, take it”
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
'Podlist - Most Recently Played
The twenty most recently played songs from the Shuffle Menu of my part filled and partial I Pod.
The miracle of the shuffle meant I didn’t know what I’d hear next. The miracle of filing and loading my albums alphabetically means that it’s probably from artists A-E.
Everybody Needs Somebody James Carr
Winter Teenage Fanclub
Growin’Up David Bowie
Here There And Everywhere The Beatles
Never Learn Not To Love Beach Boys
Kung Fu Ash
Jocko Homo Devo
Girl From Mars Ash
Shes’s Alive Barracudas
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Beatles
Womens Realm Belle And Sebastian
Shake Your Money Black Grape
Detroit 442 (Live) Blondie
Soul Deep Box Tops
One Hundred Years Byrds
Sugar ‘n’ Spike Captain Beefheart
Andy Warhol David Bowie
To The Other Woman (I’m The Other Woman) Doris Duke
Self Service Eddie And Ernie
You Little Fool Elvis Costello
Growin’Up is Bowie’s previously unreleased cover of the Bruce Springsteen song from the 30th anniversary reissue of Diamond Dogs. It’s a winner, but doesn’t really count as surprise treat because I only bought it a couple of months ago and have been playing it regularly since.
One Hundred Years has most of the boxes ticked for being great. It scores highly for Gram Parson’s involvement alone.
The real pleasure of the shuffle though is the song that you haven’t heard or thought of for ages….and then it’s there for you. This time round that song was James Carr’s Everybody Needs Somebody. A song that starts with a simple guitar and horn riff that builds to majesty and ends in heartbreak. Southern Soul genius.
The miracle of the shuffle meant I didn’t know what I’d hear next. The miracle of filing and loading my albums alphabetically means that it’s probably from artists A-E.
Everybody Needs Somebody James Carr
Winter Teenage Fanclub
Growin’Up David Bowie
Here There And Everywhere The Beatles
Never Learn Not To Love Beach Boys
Kung Fu Ash
Jocko Homo Devo
Girl From Mars Ash
Shes’s Alive Barracudas
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Beatles
Womens Realm Belle And Sebastian
Shake Your Money Black Grape
Detroit 442 (Live) Blondie
Soul Deep Box Tops
One Hundred Years Byrds
Sugar ‘n’ Spike Captain Beefheart
Andy Warhol David Bowie
To The Other Woman (I’m The Other Woman) Doris Duke
Self Service Eddie And Ernie
You Little Fool Elvis Costello
Growin’Up is Bowie’s previously unreleased cover of the Bruce Springsteen song from the 30th anniversary reissue of Diamond Dogs. It’s a winner, but doesn’t really count as surprise treat because I only bought it a couple of months ago and have been playing it regularly since.
One Hundred Years has most of the boxes ticked for being great. It scores highly for Gram Parson’s involvement alone.
The real pleasure of the shuffle though is the song that you haven’t heard or thought of for ages….and then it’s there for you. This time round that song was James Carr’s Everybody Needs Somebody. A song that starts with a simple guitar and horn riff that builds to majesty and ends in heartbreak. Southern Soul genius.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
I Pod
There are few things that I’ve ever wanted (and most of them aren’t metal and plastic) quite as much as an I Pod. I’ve spent the last 2 years gradually removing the obstacles (cash and a pc in need of an upgrade) but it was my birthday that actually produced the goods. For the last 6 weeks I’ve been frantically loading tracks onto it. I’m up to 6500 now.
It’s also brought a Proud Dad moment. One night I was happily loading Lp’s and listening to the first track of each album. I’d said to my boys that they could each have their own playlist with any tracks that they had heard and liked.
“I like this one” said 5 year old Alex. And so this beautiful child with, his big trusting eyes and cheery nature took his first wobbly steps into the world of pop. And the track he chose for the start of this momentous journey? Obviously that would be Debaser by the Pixies.
It’s also brought a Proud Dad moment. One night I was happily loading Lp’s and listening to the first track of each album. I’d said to my boys that they could each have their own playlist with any tracks that they had heard and liked.
“I like this one” said 5 year old Alex. And so this beautiful child with, his big trusting eyes and cheery nature took his first wobbly steps into the world of pop. And the track he chose for the start of this momentous journey? Obviously that would be Debaser by the Pixies.
Monday, December 13, 2004
Undertones Birmingham Academy
Saw The Undertones 11/12/04 at Birmingham Academy 2. On principal I’m not a big fan of bands reforming, especially without the original singer and especially if they were one of my favourite bands whose first 2 albums seeped into my being, like balti on your Naan hand. However the last lp, Get What You Need, has some belting songs on it and the new singer has more than a touch of the Feargal tones.
In the moments before the band came on I was surprised at just how excited I was. It had been 21 years since I’d seen them and here I was in a smaller venue than I’d ever seen them before with an audience of old Punk Rock dads and their kids. It was an excellent gig. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun and seemed surprised at the bouncy enthusiasm and backing vocals of the audience. The guitar sounds were crunchy and it was great to see John and Dee O'Neil, still manhandling their guitars like they were slightly too big for them and Micky’s trademark move that consists of bouncing his knees because his boots are too heavy for him to move his feet and dipping his bass up and down slightly. Watch and learn Kiss. You too Steps. They were always a great live band and still are. Singer Paul’s special moves include gurning and wiggling with his back to the audience.
The old songs were drawn overwhelmingly from the first 2 lps, with 2 from Positive Touch, nothing at all from The Sin of Pride. The 4 songs from Get what You Need fitted in well with that sound and the 2 brand new songs they played were built round a Paper Back Writer style riff.
I’d seen them 7 times between 1981 and 83 and I enjoyed this gig as much as any of them and in fact, thinking about the set list, they played more of the songs that I liked. The band played really well, although Julie Ocean suffered when they band dropped down a gear (Remember seeing them play it at Manchester Apollo in 1981 before Positive Touch came out and loving it’s Velvet Underground fragility) …but they recovered and came back with chunky guitars, quivery vocals, hugely entertaining backing vocals and more of those funny, bittersweet songs about girls.
These are the songs I can remember. Some are even in order. It’s a fair night out!
Family entertainment, You’ve got my number, Girls don’t like it, I need your love (the way it used to be), Male Model, I’m recommending me, Girls that don’t talk, Tearproof, Rain’s gonna fall, My perfect cousin, Get over you, I know a girl, Ride the rough escalator, Joyland, Thrill me, Wednesday week, Jump boys, Here comes the summer, Julie ocean, Teenage kicks, When Saturday comes, True confessions, Mars Bar
In the moments before the band came on I was surprised at just how excited I was. It had been 21 years since I’d seen them and here I was in a smaller venue than I’d ever seen them before with an audience of old Punk Rock dads and their kids. It was an excellent gig. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun and seemed surprised at the bouncy enthusiasm and backing vocals of the audience. The guitar sounds were crunchy and it was great to see John and Dee O'Neil, still manhandling their guitars like they were slightly too big for them and Micky’s trademark move that consists of bouncing his knees because his boots are too heavy for him to move his feet and dipping his bass up and down slightly. Watch and learn Kiss. You too Steps. They were always a great live band and still are. Singer Paul’s special moves include gurning and wiggling with his back to the audience.
The old songs were drawn overwhelmingly from the first 2 lps, with 2 from Positive Touch, nothing at all from The Sin of Pride. The 4 songs from Get what You Need fitted in well with that sound and the 2 brand new songs they played were built round a Paper Back Writer style riff.
I’d seen them 7 times between 1981 and 83 and I enjoyed this gig as much as any of them and in fact, thinking about the set list, they played more of the songs that I liked. The band played really well, although Julie Ocean suffered when they band dropped down a gear (Remember seeing them play it at Manchester Apollo in 1981 before Positive Touch came out and loving it’s Velvet Underground fragility) …but they recovered and came back with chunky guitars, quivery vocals, hugely entertaining backing vocals and more of those funny, bittersweet songs about girls.
These are the songs I can remember. Some are even in order. It’s a fair night out!
Family entertainment, You’ve got my number, Girls don’t like it, I need your love (the way it used to be), Male Model, I’m recommending me, Girls that don’t talk, Tearproof, Rain’s gonna fall, My perfect cousin, Get over you, I know a girl, Ride the rough escalator, Joyland, Thrill me, Wednesday week, Jump boys, Here comes the summer, Julie ocean, Teenage kicks, When Saturday comes, True confessions, Mars Bar
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
John Peel
Really saddened by the news of John Peel’s death today. Most of the music that I like today can be traced back to his radio show and the attitude that he brought to music. He didn’t over analyse it in musical terms, but looked for and played the music that, interested and excited him and was preferably new…and preferably the B-side. And when there were records from his past or those that gave him an emotional response, then he’d tell the listener. Music is massively important and needs sharing, and people use it to reflect and make sense of their lives.
My musical education really started with his show. I was 13 in 1977 and I used to tape it on an old reel-to-reel tape, with a mic against the radio. I can remember hearing The Ramones Sheena is a Punk Rocker and the Clash Capitol radio for the first time on it and a Stranglers session with Hanging Around. My friends and I used to laugh when he played records at the wrong speed/wrong side or twice in a row. I stopped laughing eventually but he still did it.
When we released Electric Ladland, I sent a copy to him with a chatty letter about the Gang of Four, Blue Orchids and The Fall. One night in the Onionhead house Jules summoned me with the words “Sammy …it’s John Peel for you”. He’d phoned to say that he’d already got a copy of Ladland, didn’t think he liked it but he would listen to it again. Class. But the main reason for the call was to relay the information that the (superior) session versions of Fall songs that later turned up on Grotesque were not being released on Strange Fruit because Mark E Smith wasn’t happy with the recordings
A few days later he sent me a Peter Powell postcard (autographed by the Powellster) with the topical news that Sid James daughter had been one of the women on the cover of Hendrix’s original Electric Ladyland.
He also phoned Nick before he was Onionhead manager, and was in fact a celeb-pestering schoolboy on a day trip to London. Nick and his mates found Peelie sheltering from the rain in Covent Garden and told him they were in a band and on the up. A year later Peel phoned Nick to check their progress. As there had been neither band nor progress they talked about football instead.
You had to love him for making the effort really. Apparently he kept all the numbers he was given.
So many of the thing’s he played ended up as being amongst my favourites, Undertones, The Fall, (for me only up to mid 80’s) and even though I thought I’d found Country Soul for myself, he played it too.
I liked his phrasing and descriptions too. He described his love of Liverpool FC as being so intense that he’d “Take in washing for the club.”
I was listening to Nick Cave talking to Mark Lamarr last night and he was saying that with the passing of Joe Strummer, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash, the world was not only a poorer place but was it a place that could produce their like again?
Peel’s contribution had been to play awkward music and to challenge the listener. The sessions especially in the years before cheap recording technology were often the only way many bands would get in the studio.
I grew up with his show and musically…he made me.
My musical education really started with his show. I was 13 in 1977 and I used to tape it on an old reel-to-reel tape, with a mic against the radio. I can remember hearing The Ramones Sheena is a Punk Rocker and the Clash Capitol radio for the first time on it and a Stranglers session with Hanging Around. My friends and I used to laugh when he played records at the wrong speed/wrong side or twice in a row. I stopped laughing eventually but he still did it.
When we released Electric Ladland, I sent a copy to him with a chatty letter about the Gang of Four, Blue Orchids and The Fall. One night in the Onionhead house Jules summoned me with the words “Sammy …it’s John Peel for you”. He’d phoned to say that he’d already got a copy of Ladland, didn’t think he liked it but he would listen to it again. Class. But the main reason for the call was to relay the information that the (superior) session versions of Fall songs that later turned up on Grotesque were not being released on Strange Fruit because Mark E Smith wasn’t happy with the recordings
A few days later he sent me a Peter Powell postcard (autographed by the Powellster) with the topical news that Sid James daughter had been one of the women on the cover of Hendrix’s original Electric Ladyland.
He also phoned Nick before he was Onionhead manager, and was in fact a celeb-pestering schoolboy on a day trip to London. Nick and his mates found Peelie sheltering from the rain in Covent Garden and told him they were in a band and on the up. A year later Peel phoned Nick to check their progress. As there had been neither band nor progress they talked about football instead.
You had to love him for making the effort really. Apparently he kept all the numbers he was given.
So many of the thing’s he played ended up as being amongst my favourites, Undertones, The Fall, (for me only up to mid 80’s) and even though I thought I’d found Country Soul for myself, he played it too.
I liked his phrasing and descriptions too. He described his love of Liverpool FC as being so intense that he’d “Take in washing for the club.”
I was listening to Nick Cave talking to Mark Lamarr last night and he was saying that with the passing of Joe Strummer, Nina Simone and Johnny Cash, the world was not only a poorer place but was it a place that could produce their like again?
Peel’s contribution had been to play awkward music and to challenge the listener. The sessions especially in the years before cheap recording technology were often the only way many bands would get in the studio.
I grew up with his show and musically…he made me.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
Puncture repair nightmare puts me back on the bus, and the journey gets me half way through Eno’s Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy.
I like his pop glam albums best but always go for this one over Before And After Science or Here Come The Warm Jets. It’s the impeccable played but ramshackle quality of the arrangements that I really like. The song titles are fantastic cut up nonsense (My evidence for the prosecution includes Burning Airlines Give You So Much More, Mother Whale Eyeless and Put a Straw Under Baby). The vocal style is sly camp and the lyrics are obviously never going to connect with too many people as they break all the rules of Pop. I mean…where are the love songs?…What can the little girls understand?…Where is the cheatin’ lyin’ and slippin’ around?
It breaks the rules but still sounds warm and involving and indeed you do want to get involved. You want to hear the stories from this other world, even though you’re only catching snippets that maybe you’ll never understand. Back In Judy’s Jungle has treated guitars, rattley drums and a one-note bass with lots of space. It sounds like an Oompah band about to fall over
The guitar playing throughout is fantastic with scratchy, rattley rhythm playing. I’ve a horrible feeling the excellent drumming (It’s not just loose, it’s positively floppy) may be down to Phil Collins. If it is YOU’RE STILL NOT FORGIVEN.
I love the bass playing on Third Uncle. It starts with 1 bass note that gradually gets echoed as the manic scratch rhythm and clattering percussion take over. There’s an 8 note bass run that seems to come out of nowhere and goes straight back there. He only does it twice but to my (bass players) ears it just seems to crank up the song far more than seems possible. And then there’s the one note again …but dropped down lower and flatter. And the only vocal line that stands out is “I thought it was you”
Put A Straw Under Baby has an impossibly woozy feel, with scraped, discordant string arrangements (Vic Chestnutt or even Junco Pardner from Sandanista). In many ways it’s like a nursery rhyme or one very scary lullaby.
Much is made of Eno’s legendary non-musician status and call me sceptical but I bet he’s picked up a few tricks over the years. By the time he recorded this he’d done the first 2 Roxy Music and his own first 2 solo albums. He’d obviously surrounded himself with some top players but the best trick was to (lets use a soul cliché here, and we might as well because I don’t think there’s any musical clichés on the lp) to get it to sound so wrong but feel so right. This albums 30 years old and it still doesn’t sound like anything else. I’ve been going back to it for 22 years now, and it’s my all time favourite warped pop record ever.
I like his pop glam albums best but always go for this one over Before And After Science or Here Come The Warm Jets. It’s the impeccable played but ramshackle quality of the arrangements that I really like. The song titles are fantastic cut up nonsense (My evidence for the prosecution includes Burning Airlines Give You So Much More, Mother Whale Eyeless and Put a Straw Under Baby). The vocal style is sly camp and the lyrics are obviously never going to connect with too many people as they break all the rules of Pop. I mean…where are the love songs?…What can the little girls understand?…Where is the cheatin’ lyin’ and slippin’ around?
It breaks the rules but still sounds warm and involving and indeed you do want to get involved. You want to hear the stories from this other world, even though you’re only catching snippets that maybe you’ll never understand. Back In Judy’s Jungle has treated guitars, rattley drums and a one-note bass with lots of space. It sounds like an Oompah band about to fall over
The guitar playing throughout is fantastic with scratchy, rattley rhythm playing. I’ve a horrible feeling the excellent drumming (It’s not just loose, it’s positively floppy) may be down to Phil Collins. If it is YOU’RE STILL NOT FORGIVEN.
I love the bass playing on Third Uncle. It starts with 1 bass note that gradually gets echoed as the manic scratch rhythm and clattering percussion take over. There’s an 8 note bass run that seems to come out of nowhere and goes straight back there. He only does it twice but to my (bass players) ears it just seems to crank up the song far more than seems possible. And then there’s the one note again …but dropped down lower and flatter. And the only vocal line that stands out is “I thought it was you”
Put A Straw Under Baby has an impossibly woozy feel, with scraped, discordant string arrangements (Vic Chestnutt or even Junco Pardner from Sandanista). In many ways it’s like a nursery rhyme or one very scary lullaby.
Much is made of Eno’s legendary non-musician status and call me sceptical but I bet he’s picked up a few tricks over the years. By the time he recorded this he’d done the first 2 Roxy Music and his own first 2 solo albums. He’d obviously surrounded himself with some top players but the best trick was to (lets use a soul cliché here, and we might as well because I don’t think there’s any musical clichés on the lp) to get it to sound so wrong but feel so right. This albums 30 years old and it still doesn’t sound like anything else. I’ve been going back to it for 22 years now, and it’s my all time favourite warped pop record ever.
Monday, September 27, 2004
Detroit Cobras
It’s an album I’ve passed onto a few people but it’s not had the same effect on them as it has in me. It’s basically a Detroit garage band with a female vocalist doing rough covers of 60’s soul songs with a tendency to go for the obscure rather than the obvious. There that’s sold it to me all over again. Punk Rock Soul.
It includes covers of Stupidity (Solomon Burke)
Cry On (Irma Thomas and also the singer who vocalist Rachel Nagy’s style is closest to)
Shout Bama A Lama (I think Otis Redding wrote it for Arthur Conley)
Hey Say Lo Ney (I know a version by Micky Lee Lane…but there may be others)
Boss Lady (don’t know the original).
Shout Bama Lama and Boss Lady are my favourites. I always like records about dances, and Boss Lady itself manages to list the Watusi, The Dog, The Jerk, The Monkey and all in a song that owes a fair bit to Do You Love Me.
When singer Rachel Nagy says she’s the “Queen of the hot sauce”. I believe her. I also believe I would.
Shout Bamalama works because of the way the song repeatedly builds up and then breaks down again, a pause and then a rolling guitar bringing it back in. Again the nonsense lyric (sorry Otis) is given an urgency and an importance…. Yeah we all need to do it.
The album has a monochrome cover of a woman singing into old fashioned looking broadcast mike, wreathed in cigarette smoke and it’s on a great sounding label, Sympathy for the Record Industry.
Detoit Cobras also released 7 Easy pieces and Mink Rat or Rabbit (or as my mail order receipt called it Mink Rat or Rabbi…now that’s a better title). Similar formula but not as good. The far superior Life Love and Leaving though sounds like a band belting through some great songs which they obviously love, but aren’t afraid to shake up a bit. In my book, that makes for better performances than reverence and exact mimicry.
I’ve just looked round the net and there’s a new single Cha Cha Twist (Meg White apparently in the video), out in October and some UK dates. I fancy that…I don’t just listen to old music…I also like new bands doing old songs.
It includes covers of Stupidity (Solomon Burke)
Cry On (Irma Thomas and also the singer who vocalist Rachel Nagy’s style is closest to)
Shout Bama A Lama (I think Otis Redding wrote it for Arthur Conley)
Hey Say Lo Ney (I know a version by Micky Lee Lane…but there may be others)
Boss Lady (don’t know the original).
Shout Bama Lama and Boss Lady are my favourites. I always like records about dances, and Boss Lady itself manages to list the Watusi, The Dog, The Jerk, The Monkey and all in a song that owes a fair bit to Do You Love Me.
When singer Rachel Nagy says she’s the “Queen of the hot sauce”. I believe her. I also believe I would.
Shout Bamalama works because of the way the song repeatedly builds up and then breaks down again, a pause and then a rolling guitar bringing it back in. Again the nonsense lyric (sorry Otis) is given an urgency and an importance…. Yeah we all need to do it.
The album has a monochrome cover of a woman singing into old fashioned looking broadcast mike, wreathed in cigarette smoke and it’s on a great sounding label, Sympathy for the Record Industry.
Detoit Cobras also released 7 Easy pieces and Mink Rat or Rabbit (or as my mail order receipt called it Mink Rat or Rabbi…now that’s a better title). Similar formula but not as good. The far superior Life Love and Leaving though sounds like a band belting through some great songs which they obviously love, but aren’t afraid to shake up a bit. In my book, that makes for better performances than reverence and exact mimicry.
I’ve just looked round the net and there’s a new single Cha Cha Twist (Meg White apparently in the video), out in October and some UK dates. I fancy that…I don’t just listen to old music…I also like new bands doing old songs.
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
New York Dolls
Things came full circle after I watched the video of the New York Dolls at Manchester Move festival recorded over the summer.
It’s one of the most joyous, outrageously rock ‘n’n roll performances I can remember by a band who can’t believe they’re still alive and still playing. (Sadly Arthur Kane died shortly afterwards.)
Personality Crisis (and yes it is my favourite New York Dolls song, although I also find it hard to resist Pills with it’s line “The rock ‘n’roll nurse is making it worse”) was just inspirational. David Johanson seemed to be wearing some form of apron and Sylvain was wearing a denim suit with massive turn ups and a cap….lots of pointing, at each other, at the crowd, at stray seagulls, mouthing along to the words and frantic guitar rifferama. So far so Status Quo. What elevated it to genius though was the part where the other guitarist let go of his guitar to wolf whistle (as the song needed it) and then when everyone threw their hands up to go “woooh”. Again the song demanded it.
It was full circle for me though because it brought me right back to where I’d first seen them. Aged 17 around 1981 I used to lurk and loiter (and occasionally buy something) in the Record Peddler on Swan Street in Manchester. Videos were then the cutting edge of technology and the owner had amassed a stack of Bowie, Pistols and other live performances and promos. And that is when I first saw The Dolls (I think it was the Old Grey Whistle Test footage) doing Jet Boy. I was quite anti guitar heroics then, but forgot all principles at the sight of Sylvain wrestling with this semi acoustic that dwarfed him and yet still finding time to pull ridiculous poses. A risky business given the height of his heels….and with all that satin and nylon under the studio lights the band could have spontaneously combusted. The vision is so fresh though, and as that video got rewound several times that day, the story should really end with me searching out their records and turning into a Morrissey figure of Doll adulation. I didn’t though…I expect I just bought another single by The Fall.
It’s one of the most joyous, outrageously rock ‘n’n roll performances I can remember by a band who can’t believe they’re still alive and still playing. (Sadly Arthur Kane died shortly afterwards.)
Personality Crisis (and yes it is my favourite New York Dolls song, although I also find it hard to resist Pills with it’s line “The rock ‘n’roll nurse is making it worse”) was just inspirational. David Johanson seemed to be wearing some form of apron and Sylvain was wearing a denim suit with massive turn ups and a cap….lots of pointing, at each other, at the crowd, at stray seagulls, mouthing along to the words and frantic guitar rifferama. So far so Status Quo. What elevated it to genius though was the part where the other guitarist let go of his guitar to wolf whistle (as the song needed it) and then when everyone threw their hands up to go “woooh”. Again the song demanded it.
It was full circle for me though because it brought me right back to where I’d first seen them. Aged 17 around 1981 I used to lurk and loiter (and occasionally buy something) in the Record Peddler on Swan Street in Manchester. Videos were then the cutting edge of technology and the owner had amassed a stack of Bowie, Pistols and other live performances and promos. And that is when I first saw The Dolls (I think it was the Old Grey Whistle Test footage) doing Jet Boy. I was quite anti guitar heroics then, but forgot all principles at the sight of Sylvain wrestling with this semi acoustic that dwarfed him and yet still finding time to pull ridiculous poses. A risky business given the height of his heels….and with all that satin and nylon under the studio lights the band could have spontaneously combusted. The vision is so fresh though, and as that video got rewound several times that day, the story should really end with me searching out their records and turning into a Morrissey figure of Doll adulation. I didn’t though…I expect I just bought another single by The Fall.
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Mekons Where Were You
There has never been enough written about Mekons Where Were You. I bought it on the same day as Siouxsie and The Banshees Staircase mystery single (was that 79?) and remember showing my haul to a mate who I saw on the bus going home. He already knew it and loved it, but I don’t think I’d heard it before and I can’t remember why I bought it. I’ve played it hundreds of times since though and it’s still one of my favourite singles.
As a record it’s got everything. Smudgy cover, optimistic gold discs on the front and a great label (Fast). A love song stripped down to the absolute bone…but no sex.
“I wanna talk to you all night, do you like me
I wanna find out ‘bout your life, do you like me
Could you ever be my wife do you love me?”
“I was standing in the queue did you see me
I was standing in the queue did you see me
You had yellow hair did you see me”
What a fantastic, moronic line that is. Impress girls…tell them you love their yellow hair. Go on ….I bet you it works. Better still though it’s a pop song without a chorus. Well what it has got is …
“I was waiting at the bar where were you, I was buying you a drink where were you.”
…But the tune doesn’t change so it might not convince anyone outside the band or the wilfully obscure that it’s a chorus up there with Lennon and McCartney and The Cheeky Girls. Works for me though.
The vocals sit on top of the one chord backing, with a 1 note (it might even get up to a crazy 3 at times) guitar line and then the only change in melody is a 2 chord link back. It’s the 3 chord trick, the 8 bar blues. The records short. It begins with lone guitar and the worlds longest drum roll. Once the songs got going the bass and guitars don’t really change, so it’s the increasingly busy drums and the vocals that push the song to it’s climax and then it just finishes (exhausted) with the guitar hammering on a single note.
The B side is the (I’ll just have to) Dance then on my own. Much more complex, ringing guitars, and a predecessor to The Fire Engines, Big Flame, Josef K sound, with Beefheart as an ancestor. I’ve got to admit, it doesn’t get played very often. But then I never liked any other Mekons record as much as Where Where You.
Whenever I play Where Where You I always think of (and usually play) The Scars Adultery (also on Fast) and Blue Orchids Work. But that’s another story.
As a record it’s got everything. Smudgy cover, optimistic gold discs on the front and a great label (Fast). A love song stripped down to the absolute bone…but no sex.
“I wanna talk to you all night, do you like me
I wanna find out ‘bout your life, do you like me
Could you ever be my wife do you love me?”
“I was standing in the queue did you see me
I was standing in the queue did you see me
You had yellow hair did you see me”
What a fantastic, moronic line that is. Impress girls…tell them you love their yellow hair. Go on ….I bet you it works. Better still though it’s a pop song without a chorus. Well what it has got is …
“I was waiting at the bar where were you, I was buying you a drink where were you.”
…But the tune doesn’t change so it might not convince anyone outside the band or the wilfully obscure that it’s a chorus up there with Lennon and McCartney and The Cheeky Girls. Works for me though.
The vocals sit on top of the one chord backing, with a 1 note (it might even get up to a crazy 3 at times) guitar line and then the only change in melody is a 2 chord link back. It’s the 3 chord trick, the 8 bar blues. The records short. It begins with lone guitar and the worlds longest drum roll. Once the songs got going the bass and guitars don’t really change, so it’s the increasingly busy drums and the vocals that push the song to it’s climax and then it just finishes (exhausted) with the guitar hammering on a single note.
The B side is the (I’ll just have to) Dance then on my own. Much more complex, ringing guitars, and a predecessor to The Fire Engines, Big Flame, Josef K sound, with Beefheart as an ancestor. I’ve got to admit, it doesn’t get played very often. But then I never liked any other Mekons record as much as Where Where You.
Whenever I play Where Where You I always think of (and usually play) The Scars Adultery (also on Fast) and Blue Orchids Work. But that’s another story.
Friday, September 03, 2004
How I stopped worrying and learned to love Ocean Colour Scene
If you've followed the links back you'll have realised that I don't just spend all day thinking about pop music, but I also played bass in what AC/DC would have referred to as a "97 decibel rockin' band". We just called ourselves Onionhead though as it fitted on the posters better.
In the early days the paths of Ocean Colour Scene and Onionhead crossed frequently. After they became more successful than us, I suffered a medical condition commonly known as "jealous as Fuck". Pre becoming OCS they were called The Fanatics and specialised in Beatley,Velvety Undergoundy type songs. While the Velvet's Mo Tucker had shades,The Fanatics female drummer had a penchant for Mickey Mouse sweatshirts...and drumming. The guitarist was known to one and all (well, us mainly) as Moonfaced Paul Wilkes (on account of his Moon face andthe fact that he was called Paul Wilkes) and he'd got a few George Harrisontricks up his sleeve. Even at this stage Simon Fowler was obviously massively talented and a really engaging front man. Damian's appalling zippy boots also had stage presence of their own....but not in a good way. The only original members who would make it through to the OCS stages then were Simon and Damian.
The first time we played with them was summer 88 at Birmingham Irish Centre, where Steve Craddock was also playing guitarwith his band The Boys. In fact with me looking at it as an outsider it was probably Craddock that made the difference to OCS not just through his excellent playng but his persisitence. After a reviewer had said The Boyswere shit, Steve phoned him up to ask how they could be better. The usual answer to that is..."Don't be shit". He also persisted with Paul Weller, got paid and yet persisted some more with OCS. I thought that was admirable, as I'd always known that I'd do anything to keep my band going.
We played with them about 10 times in 1988. They put a single out which included Suburban Lovesongs and My Brother Sarah which I don't remember as being particuarly well recorded. We still lolloped enthusiasticly after them though as at that time they were the only other band we knew. The band made a huge leap when Steve Craddock joined. Jules (Onionhead's singer) saw them at Birmingham Poly 89ish shortly after Steve had joined and had raved about the new guitarist and the sounds he was teasing out. Later, while we were recording our own songs soon after, we listened to the tracks they'd recorded earlier at the same studio. OCS weren'thappy with them though and were coming back to redo it. Beatles Revolver era but sounded good to us.
They'd got caught up in the whole baggy Madchester sound though and through a mixture of disinterest and jealousy I stopped paying any attention. The first lp came out...I didn't listen to it. They played to packed venues and indeed our friends Karen and Kate went to more of their gigs than the band's van driver (so girls must have liked them) but the press were suspicious, the snidey reviews started and they were soon filed and tagged as dull jobsworths who were boringly good at playing their instruments. A label they're still living with. I didn't pay attention again until saw them twice in 94 in Brirmingham at the Jug of Ale and Edwards when they were fantastic. They had a really powerful chunky Small Faces sound and did a terrific version of If I Were A Carpenter with stop start powerchord guitar.
By now they'd been dropped bytheir label, the big tours had been toured. Ed (Onionhead's guitar wrestler) played football with them occasionally and Simon, althoughreguarly spotted out and about in Moseley, was incapable of speech but an expert at druggy incoherence.. At this point they were cooking up what would be Moseley Shoals with the money from Steve Craddocks paper round wthPaul Weller.
When they came back it was 86, I was working night shifts in a care home and doing a comedy walk in tracky bottoms after a plum pounding motorbike crash. My game plan had been for either Onionhead or Tenderloin to take me on a rock 'n' rollercoaster ride playing great music to an eager world. Care homes in Smethwick didn't come into it. I was hounded by theRiverboat Song (which I dislike today as much as I did then.....like an antichrist Hovis advert) but cheered by You've Got It Bad, The Day We Caught The Train and The Circle. It actually took me 7 years to buy Moseley Shoals despite liking so many of the songs and I didn't buy any of the subsequent ones or see them again after those gigs in 94. They were excellent at those two gigs....of course 10 years on I can't remember what they played, it was probably all the songs I didn't think I liked or wouldn't have liked if I 'd heard them on the radio. I played MoseleyShoals again last night and it's got some really good, well arranged and played songs on it. Last night it was Get Away that stood out. Ultimately though the band are too reverential about the music and it feels like the songs are assembled from the best bits of the best bands they like. Get Away has got a Who bit followed by a Led Zep bit.
So OCS were never going to challenge preconceptions or change the way people thought about music,but then how many bands do? I don't listen to Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu (and I don't go near blether and squawk free jazz) as often as I listen to Gram parsons or southern style country soul with aching brass parts, warm electric piano sound, and a twangy guitar. Sometimes you just want to hear music that's "right". That "rightness" is probably what OCS thought they were doing. So what...It ends up reverential. We did the same as Onionhead/Tenderloin.
And I'm not jealous as Fuck anymore.
In the early days the paths of Ocean Colour Scene and Onionhead crossed frequently. After they became more successful than us, I suffered a medical condition commonly known as "jealous as Fuck". Pre becoming OCS they were called The Fanatics and specialised in Beatley,Velvety Undergoundy type songs. While the Velvet's Mo Tucker had shades,The Fanatics female drummer had a penchant for Mickey Mouse sweatshirts...and drumming. The guitarist was known to one and all (well, us mainly) as Moonfaced Paul Wilkes (on account of his Moon face andthe fact that he was called Paul Wilkes) and he'd got a few George Harrisontricks up his sleeve. Even at this stage Simon Fowler was obviously massively talented and a really engaging front man. Damian's appalling zippy boots also had stage presence of their own....but not in a good way. The only original members who would make it through to the OCS stages then were Simon and Damian.
The first time we played with them was summer 88 at Birmingham Irish Centre, where Steve Craddock was also playing guitarwith his band The Boys. In fact with me looking at it as an outsider it was probably Craddock that made the difference to OCS not just through his excellent playng but his persisitence. After a reviewer had said The Boyswere shit, Steve phoned him up to ask how they could be better. The usual answer to that is..."Don't be shit". He also persisted with Paul Weller, got paid and yet persisted some more with OCS. I thought that was admirable, as I'd always known that I'd do anything to keep my band going.
We played with them about 10 times in 1988. They put a single out which included Suburban Lovesongs and My Brother Sarah which I don't remember as being particuarly well recorded. We still lolloped enthusiasticly after them though as at that time they were the only other band we knew. The band made a huge leap when Steve Craddock joined. Jules (Onionhead's singer) saw them at Birmingham Poly 89ish shortly after Steve had joined and had raved about the new guitarist and the sounds he was teasing out. Later, while we were recording our own songs soon after, we listened to the tracks they'd recorded earlier at the same studio. OCS weren'thappy with them though and were coming back to redo it. Beatles Revolver era but sounded good to us.
They'd got caught up in the whole baggy Madchester sound though and through a mixture of disinterest and jealousy I stopped paying any attention. The first lp came out...I didn't listen to it. They played to packed venues and indeed our friends Karen and Kate went to more of their gigs than the band's van driver (so girls must have liked them) but the press were suspicious, the snidey reviews started and they were soon filed and tagged as dull jobsworths who were boringly good at playing their instruments. A label they're still living with. I didn't pay attention again until saw them twice in 94 in Brirmingham at the Jug of Ale and Edwards when they were fantastic. They had a really powerful chunky Small Faces sound and did a terrific version of If I Were A Carpenter with stop start powerchord guitar.
By now they'd been dropped bytheir label, the big tours had been toured. Ed (Onionhead's guitar wrestler) played football with them occasionally and Simon, althoughreguarly spotted out and about in Moseley, was incapable of speech but an expert at druggy incoherence.. At this point they were cooking up what would be Moseley Shoals with the money from Steve Craddocks paper round wthPaul Weller.
When they came back it was 86, I was working night shifts in a care home and doing a comedy walk in tracky bottoms after a plum pounding motorbike crash. My game plan had been for either Onionhead or Tenderloin to take me on a rock 'n' rollercoaster ride playing great music to an eager world. Care homes in Smethwick didn't come into it. I was hounded by theRiverboat Song (which I dislike today as much as I did then.....like an antichrist Hovis advert) but cheered by You've Got It Bad, The Day We Caught The Train and The Circle. It actually took me 7 years to buy Moseley Shoals despite liking so many of the songs and I didn't buy any of the subsequent ones or see them again after those gigs in 94. They were excellent at those two gigs....of course 10 years on I can't remember what they played, it was probably all the songs I didn't think I liked or wouldn't have liked if I 'd heard them on the radio. I played MoseleyShoals again last night and it's got some really good, well arranged and played songs on it. Last night it was Get Away that stood out. Ultimately though the band are too reverential about the music and it feels like the songs are assembled from the best bits of the best bands they like. Get Away has got a Who bit followed by a Led Zep bit.
So OCS were never going to challenge preconceptions or change the way people thought about music,but then how many bands do? I don't listen to Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu (and I don't go near blether and squawk free jazz) as often as I listen to Gram parsons or southern style country soul with aching brass parts, warm electric piano sound, and a twangy guitar. Sometimes you just want to hear music that's "right". That "rightness" is probably what OCS thought they were doing. So what...It ends up reverential. We did the same as Onionhead/Tenderloin.
And I'm not jealous as Fuck anymore.
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