Saturday Theme Eight

Back in 1991 Acid Jazz collective Young Disciples released a killer single- Apparently Nothin'- and an actually very good album called Road To Freedom. Marco Nelson and Femi Williams married 'real' instruments and samples to Carleen Anderson's voice to create something that drew on soul, hip hop, funk and jazz but was very British. The album concluded with Young Disciples Theme, a two minute version of this longer take (which came out in 1990 on the Get Yourself Together 12"). Ex- Style Councillor Mick Talbot plays some very cool organ, the thumping bassline kicks in and there's a lovely jazzy flute part. Young Disciples cleverly sampled Prince from Sign Of The Times for the vocal hook- 'get down with', the vocal goes before the Prince sample 'gang called the Disciples' finishes the line off and Battersea rapper MC Mell'O steps up to the mic. It's something I haven't listened to for years and thirty one years later sounds very good indeed. 

Young Disciples Theme

Under The April Sky

It seems that bloggers are contractually obliged to post April Skies during the fourth month of the year but I thought I'd mess with the programme a bit and post it and the end of the month rather than the beginning. 

April Skies

A lot of Jesus And Mary Chain purists look down on Darklands. It gets cast as a bit dull and polished compared to Psychocandy (mind you, almost anything looks polished compared to Psychocandy). But there's no doubt in my mind April Skies is a thrilling and electrified slice of mid- 80s indie- rock, the sound of 1987 (and days in 6th form) as much as any other song I can think of- the crashing drum machine intro and bassline, Jim's lower register vocal, all self loathing and unrequited love, and William's guitars ringing out. 

When Sidewalking came out in 1988, a hip hop boom box inspired non- album single, eight minutes of snarly Mary Chain swagger about missing the last bus home, a live version of April Skies was on the B-side of the 12", on tour in Detroit. 

April Skies (Live In Detroit)

We Don't Talk About Love

Watching the Top Of The Pops programme about 1996 recently I was struck by how much of an impact A Design For Life had on me. I was never a huge fan of the Manic Street Preachers- I own a few odds and ends, Generation Terrorists on vinyl, a CD compilation with a bonus disc of remixes and a handful of singles. A Design For Life is the peak for me, a song where everything comes together- their lives and backgrounds, the loss of Richey Edwards, Nicky Wire's lyrics, the power of their music and the addition of the string quartet. They said at the time the song rescued them from the despair they all felt after Richey went missing. If nothing else, it was a heck of a way to return, from the famous opening line about libraries giving us power to the many memorable lines that follow- 'I wish I had a bottle', 'a shallow piece of dignity', 'we don't talk about love/ we only want to get drunk/ and we are not allowed to spend/ as we are told that this is the end'- Nicky Wire found a way to be concise and powerful and moving, writing about class, identity, work, socialism, rejection and pride. James' guitar part and slightly strangled vocals add to the drama as do the strings and the swell into the chorus is huge and moving. 

A Design For Life

It's a world away from what other British guitar bands were doing in 1996, none of the flag waving, shallow, arch, nod and a wink patriotism of a lot of the Britpop songs. This remix strips things back, a violin part leading the tune, Nicky's bass pumping away and James' vocal isolated. Slower and less anthemic but still hitting the mark. Stealth Sonic Orchestra were otherwise known as Apollo 440, formed in Liverpool in 1990 and responsible for a slew of Manic's remixes. 

A Design For Life (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)

His Definition Of Funk

Richard Sen, an old school graffiti writer turned DJ/ producer, has recently released a three track 12" led by a nine minute electro- funk A-side titled My Definition Of Funk. Built on a pulsing sequencer line, kick drum and synth stabs, the rhythms build getting chunkier and tougher. At one minute thirty a huge descending/ ascending bassline bounces in and vibrates round your speakers. Break beat and wonky synths come in with squealing topnotes. At five minutes there's a breakdown and Richard adds some Plastic Dreams style organ and then brings that rubbery bassline back, more sirens, breakbeat, rinse and repeat. It's a massively exhilarating piece of music, the sort of thing that leads to drinks being spilt and floors being ruined at parties.

Richard Sen's past includes music made as Hackney Vandal Patrol and Padded Cell and numerous one off singles for a variety of labels. In 2015 his Songs Of Pressure was remixed by Andrew Weatherall- one for another day perhaps. Back even further, in 2008, he remixed a track called Toys by Hedford Vachal, a crunchy piece of day- glo 00s acid house/ dark disco, a choppy guitar riff and bleepy synthline over looped bass and drum machine. A distorted vocal sings 'I remember a time/ when we were young/ so unsophisticated/ now everything has changed'. The synths go all wonked out and the vocal returns, warning about girls and boys hurting each other. The breakdown comes and is all filtered FX, handclaps and buzzing synths, before it all goes off again as the bass and drums come back in.

Toys (Richard Sen Remix)

Anyone Who Ever Had A Heart

The last week has been soundtracked much of the time by this hour long mix from Jesse Fahnestock, a promotional mix for Brighton's Higher Love who have released Jesse's recent single Kissed Again (in his 10:40 guise). You can find Higher Love 059 at the Balearic Ultras Mixcloud  page and it's an absolute beaut, a meandering shuffle round some blissed out chugginess, some dub tinged delights, some indie- dance and some loose and lovely Balearica with half the tracks in the mix Jesse's own work as 10: 40. It drifts in with Rich Lane's Coyote, atmospherics, ambience and slide guitar and then Margo Timmins voice appears just below the surface, singing Sweet Jane from The Trinity Sessions back in the late 80s- quite the pairing. Matt Gunn, Kusht and Coco Rosie follow and then a run of unreleased 10:40 tracks before a euphoric section running from Cosmikuro into a re- edited Charlatans song from 1994, then into Kissed Again and then Jesse's re-edit of Hugh Masakela's Strawberries, all multi-coloured, dreamy splendour. Highly recommended.

Tracklist

• Rich Lane/Cowboy Junkies: Coyote Tan/Sweet Jane
• Matt Gunn: Lost in the Drohne
• Kusht: Trippin’ Out Back
• CocoRosie: Good Friday
• 10:40: Coat Check
• 10:40: [Unreleased]
• 10:40: [Unreleased]
• MAKS: North (Yarni Remix)
• Cosmikuro: Gum
• The Charlatans: Come in Number 21 (10:40’s Number 21 with a Bullet Edit)
• 10:40: Kissed Again
• Hugh Masakela: Strawberries (10:40’s Cream Edit)
• Florence & The Scream Machine: Don’t Fight The Love (10:40’s Machine Mash)
• 10:40: See Me Through

As an addition I thought I'd post two songs that provided Jesse with some of his source material. Back in 1988 Canada's Cowboy Junkies recorded an album that seemed to appear out of nowhere and crossed all kinds of boundaries over here. The album pulled together their own songs and some covers with the spectral presence of the church they were recorded in- the natural reverb of Toronto's Holy Trinity church is as important as any of the wood and metal instruments played by the group. The recording was made using a single microphone to pick up all the players and Margo's voice. On Sweet Jane they chose to cover the version from The Velvet Underground's 1969 Live album rather than the one from Loaded. Apparently even professional curmudgeon Lou Reed loved the Cowboy Junkies cover. 

Sweet Jane

By 1994 The Charlatans were a looking a little lost and out of time and their third album Up To Our Hips didn't set the world alight- the next big things of Britpop were already stirring and The Charlatans looked a bit like yesterday's men (many of their contemporaries had already run out of road). The album, produced by Steve Hillage, has endured though, has a groove and feel to it and some of the songs are real fan favourites, songs like Can't Get Out Of Bed, Jesus Hairdo and I Never Want An Easy Life If Me And He Were Ever To Get There. It opens with Come In Number 21, a song that sounds like they've just arrived, plugged in and turned all the switches on, a rehearsal where suddenly things come together on the spot. The guitars are lower in the mix, the drums less obviously based around the 1990 beat, Tim's singing surrounded by the swampy bass, organ and guitars. Time definitely not up. 

Come In Number 21

Monday's Long Song

A Stretford (Manchester)- Stravanger (Norway) remix crossover to start the week with Chris Massey reworking Lindstrom's Blinded By The LEDs. Massey gets straight to business with a kick drum and hi- hats, wobbly synth topline and then some increasingly intense buzzing and fizzing sounds. Seven minutes of rising and falling synths, drop outs and re- entries and enough energy to send you flying into Monday. At the very least you might turn up at work pretending you want to be there. 

Blinded By The LEDs (Chris Massey's Club Mix)

If you go to Bandcamp there's a second shorter remix (the Balearic Trance Rework) available too, both free. Blinded BY The LEDs was released in 2019, Massey's reworks were a product of lockdown- the pair DJed together only a few weeks before the world shut down in March 2020- and came out last year. 

Half An Hour Of Disco Poco Loco Pub

Out in Mallorca, straddling the Palma Nova/ Magaluf border, sits Disco Poco Loco Pub. Sadly, it wasn't open when we were there two weeks ago but every time we passed it I enjoyed the sign and the thought of Disco Poco Loco Pub. For this week's half hour mix I'm putting together thirty four minutes of music that the DJ at Poco Loco might have played. I'm guessing that the tracks I've stitched together below aren't what will be coming out of the speakers and filling the floor once the season is well under way in Magaluf so the mix below is more of a Poco Loco mix of the mind or of my imagination, some piano house and Balearic remixes, spanning the mid 80s to this year. 

Disco Poco Loco Pub Mix

• Voice Of Africa: Hoomba Hoomba
• Piano Fantasia: Song For Denise
• Coyote: As The Crow Flies
• Saint Etienne: Speedwell (Flying Mix)
• The Aloof: Never Get Out Of The Boat (Gosh Mix)
• Audio Trip: Dreamatic

If the mix is a bit clunky in places, that's all part of the appeal. The DJ at Poco Loco isn't too fussed about mixing, it's all about the vibe and the song selection. Plus it's difficult to see with those sunglasses on indoors. While smoking. It was even more random when he/I was trying to shoehorn Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the theme from Hill Street Blues into it. Maybe we'll have to return to Disco Poco Loco Pub another time. 

Underneath Disco Poco Loco Pub  there is a shop selling tat for tourists. Being both a tourist and someone who is partial to a bit of tat, I had a look inside. All three of us agreed that Isaac would have loved the mug you can see below. He would have laughed long and hard at being offered his juice in it. So we bought one for him. It now sits on the bookshelf near by records and stereo, in between a replica Lewis chessman and a knitted Andrew Weatherall doll. I did think about putting it on his grave but we felt that was a step too far. 

Saturday Theme Seven

Today's theme from Saturday is from 1969 and from Delia Derbyshire, the woman at the heart of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Delia's Theme is a little under one and a half minutes of Delia, a vintage synth and some oscillators. It was originally released on an album called Standard Music Library, sound effects and short pieces of music for radio and tv. If you ever see a copy in a  charity shop, snap it up for me please. 

Delia's Theme

Delia is much better known for this theme, a groundbreaking piece of tv music, built round that famous two note bassline with tons of reverb and some whooshing siren noises. Despite being very well known and instantly recognisable it's still a startling piece of music. 

Dr Who (End Theme)

Dreams

A grief update if you'll bear with me. Things don't get any easier but they do change- people talk about stages of grief/ bereavement and that seems to be very much the case. Last week we saw a lot of people, friends and family, some of whom we haven't seen since Isaac's funeral just before Christmas. With some of them it was the main thing we talked about, with others it was in and out of conversation and with others it was there, hanging around in the air between us. All of this is fine, sometimes you want to talk about it and other people want to or are comfortable taking about it, and other times you want to talk about other things. It never goes away- and it never will- but you do seem to start to reach a point where it veers between being still crushing, physically painful and unbelievably raw and then times when it can be something else.

We've both had face- to- face appointments with a counsellor this week with the promise of counselling, eight sessions, one a week over eight weeks, starting soon. This seems to be the right time, an opportunity to unload some of this on someone neutral and trained and maybe try to unpick some parts of it and to go through things again. My physical symptoms are still present- tinnitus, jaw clenching and teeth grinding, some unpleasant flashbacks occasionally- but do seem to have lessened slightly. 

We've both dreamt about Isaac recently, the first time either of us has since he died (or at least the first time we're aware that we've dreamt about him). It's very unsettling. I woke up suddenly in the early hours, hyper aware that I'd been talking to him in my dream (he was at college in the dream and I was with him there for a reason I can't remember) and I was very disturbed by it, lying awake with the dawning realisation it hadn't happened. In my dream, briefly, he was still alive. Lou dreamt about him a few nights later. In her dream he was crossing the road outside our house in the rain, wearing his green hooded coat, carrying a cream cheese sandwich wrapped in tin foil which he dropped. He was walking with purpose, like he was going to meet somebody. She was then in the car, going to pick him up but he wasn't there, which when she told me made me cry. 

At the session on Tuesday with the counsellor we briefly talked about other people and their reactions. If occasionally other people don't always get it right or want to avoid us, it's to be expected. They don't know what to say or don't want to upset you. It's frightening for people too. 'You are living through their worst nightmare' she said. 

This song came out recently from the Belgian duo Reinhard Vanbergen and Charlotte Caluwaerts, a single ahead of an album in June. It has a very dreamlike quality- soft, wobbling synth sounds and bird chatter, ringing sounds and drones fading in and out and then slowly Reinhard's violin appears. Waves of ahhhs as backing vocals and that pulsing synth. It finishes with discord and shrieks from the violin feeding back. Lovely stuff but a bit unsettling too. And please do not for a moment read anything into the title of the song and the subject of this post, they are not connected.

Meanwhile, In Frestonia

The Clash's re- issue programme continues with a forthcoming special edition of Combat Rock released for the album's fortieth anniversary. Combat Rock, the last album by Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon, is the definition of uneven. Mick was holding out for another double, a sixteen song whopper/ double album. Everyone else wanted something more concise that might push them to another level in the USA. They tried mixing it while on tour in Australia and the Far East and eventually Glyn Johns was brought in to mix it, shorten some of the songs and cut the number of songs. This did nothing to repair the fracturing relationship of Mick and Joe. Mick was already smarting from the return of Bernie Rhodes. Topper was sacked by the time they took Combat Rock on tour. The end.

Combat Rock is still full of golden moments though wildly uneven as I said above- two enormous singles (one written by the soon to be ex- drummer), some funk and rap, some agit- prop, some spoken word stuff, a few killer album songs, Allen Ginsberg, Sean Flynn and the weird, stunning modern jazz/ soundtrack finale of Death Is A Star. It's all along way from Janie Jones and White Riot. The re- issue is coupled with a bonus disc (two CDs, three vinyl although only five sides of the vinyl contain music) called The People's Hall, an attempt to entice the collector with extra/ new material. The bonus material is pulled together from a variety of sources, much released elsewhere in previous re- issue campaigns. It's named after the venue the group rehearsed in Frestonia, a heavily squatted part of West London that tried to secede from the UK in the late 70s and form a breakaway republic. It's a strange collection of songs, some that aren't even from that period (Outside Bonds and Radio Clash date from prior to the Combat Rock sessions when The Clash took over New York, played Bonds and recorded Sandinista!), some from B-sides from Combat Rock singles (First Night Back In London, Long Time Jerk- both intended for Mick's double that never happened that he wanted to call Rat Patrol From Fort Bragg), previously unreleased alternative versions of Sean Flynn and Know Your Rights, an unreleased instrumental called He Who Dares or Is Tired, The Fulham Connection (which seems to be The Beautiful People Are Ugly Too outtake renamed), Midnight To Stevens (a tribute to Guy Stevens which was first released on the Clash On Broadway box set) and Radio One with Mickey Dread (B-side, previously released). There is a booklet and a poster. The CD is fourteen quid. The vinyl is just shy of fifty. 

*shrugs*

Two pieces of Clash related music for you today. The first is an edit of The Magnificent Seven (The Magnificent Dub actually) by Leo Zero, dating back to either 2012 or 1981 depending on how you look at it. Leo has cut the song up in fine style, looping Norman Watt Roy's bass riff, adding some sound from a gig along with sections of Joe's vocal and new drum loops. Nine minutes of fun. 

The Magnificent Dub (Leo Zero Edit)

Much more recently, Jezebell (rapidly becoming a weekly fixture at these pages) released a new EP called Dancing (Not Fighting), built around a sample of Mick Jones berating the bouncers at a gig, it's a riot of drums and bass and horns, acid punk funk, with remixes from Matt Gunn and Markus Cooper. All proceeds to assist the victims of Putin's war in Ukraine. get it at Bandcamp. 

Space Station

My Easter weekend gig bonanza ended on Sunday night with Andy Bell's Space Station, upstairs at Gulliver's on Oldham Street. The venue is a first floor room above a pub, small stage at one end and at 9pm Andy Bell with his Telecaster, pedal board and twin decks for drums and other sounds (one of the decks fails throughout the hour but it really doesn't matter too much). Andy's recent records as himself and as GLOK are full of psychedelic, trippy electronics and guitars. The idea of Space Station is Andy plays for an hour, no gaps between the songs, a seamless mix of solo songs and GLOK tracks. Late 80s/ early 90s indie dance with the progressive sounds of the cosmische and the motorik and dance music influences underpinning it (especially the GLOK material), sometimes picking up where the trippier Stone Roses songs (Don't Stop say) left off but if John Squire had been a massive fan of Michael Rother rather than Jimi Hendrix or Spacemen 3 but if they'd been into acid house instead of heavy opiates. Andy flits between the decks, setting the drum tracks off and triggering other sounds including vocals and then playing guitar over the top, various pedals getting stomped on and off and at times on his knees twiddling the knobs on the pedals, distorting and stretching the guitar. Debut solo album highlight Skywalker is played, the vocals coming through the PA while Andy's guitar spirals on top and the set finishes with two GLOK tracks, the 1970s West German sounds coming through loud, filling the small room above a pub on Easter Sunday night, the music both intimate and expansive. It's a lovely way to spend an hour.

Back when the GLOK album was repeatedly delayed by the queue at the pressing plant and then an unsatisfactory pressing Andy gave this track away to those who had bought the album, six minutes of the Space Station sounds. 

Somaside

I Wanna Be Your Vacuum Cleaner

I went to see John Cooper Clarke at the rarefied environs of the Bridgewater Hall on Thursday night, an evening of poetry compered by legendary former- Clash road manager Johnny Green, resplendent in suit and thick rimmed glasses. Johnny kicked us off with the first poet, Luke Wright. Luke has published upteen poems and performed up and down the country and on radio. His poem These Boots Aren’t Made For Walking is funny, the Cooper Clarke influence evident in the rapid fire rhymes. He talks about being a parent and the sneering condescension of his ten year old son towards him (‘it’s like living with Stewart Lee’ he quipped) and counters this with the joys of watching children learning to read. He is funny and sharp and in Dad Reins, moving. He explains the background to and then recites his poem inspired by French situationists The Oulipo who demanded restrictions and constraints be placed on artforms rather than absolute free expression. His poem, Ron’s Knock Off Shop, written using only one vowel, O, a tale of London and Bolton is funny and clever (but not too clever). Luke was inspired by JCC aged 17 and his influence is evident but Luke Wright has a style and tone of his own too, honed from a young age from his home in Colchester, Essex.

Manchester’s own Mike Garry performs a poetic tour de force, an emotive set with tributes to his Mum, to the primary school teacher who taught him to read and to dream, and his famous, tearjerking tribute to Tony Wilson, St Anthony. I’ve seen Mike Garry twice before but here, on the big stage with the perfect acoustics of a chamber orchestra’s home, he is in a class of his own. Very much a home town hero, he reads God Is A Manc and breaks off with asides and comments, then dropping straight back into the poem. 

Garry often wanders away from the mic, singing lines of poetry and songs as preludes to the next poem and he gazes upwards, as if seeking inspiration from on high. His poems are honest, real and heartfelt, written from experience of growing up in south Manchester in the 70s and 80s, littered with references to this town and its people (‘Gorton girls know all the words to songs by Chaka Khan’), occasionally sentimental and always affecting. I always find St Anthony moving, especially when listening to the Weatherall remix where Andrew Weatheralll, 80s New Order, Factory and Manchester’s cultural history get bound together in rhyme- it often moves me. In my current emotional state, hearing and seeing Mike perform the poem leaves me wiping my eyes. 

John Cooper Clarke appears after the interval, big cap, long hair, shades and the tightest jeans in the building and launches into his familiar rapid fire, motoric performance poetry, from the streets of Salford (Higher Broughton to be exact) in the late 70s to his recent elevation to national treasure status. The between poem asides, jokes and commentary are as much part of the act as the poems and he doesn’t disappoint- it's a well honed act, clinging to the microphone with his knock kneed stance, firing straight into Hire Car and then Get Back On Drugs You Fat Fuck. He veers between newer stuff and his classics, (I Married) A Monster From Outer Space followed by Bedblocker Blues- age is clearly on his mind as he plays the nations venues after two years of gigs delayed by Covid aged 73.

Beasley Street is rattled out and then followed by the updated Beasley Boulevard, the late 70s slum life contrasted with 2020s gentrification. He reads poems about cars and pies and slows down the pace slightly with I’ve Fallen In Love With My Wife. Throughout the show he frequently flips into a New Yoik accent, this inspired by the films of his youth and the huge tip of the that that came his way when The Sopranos came calling and used his poetry over the end of one of the episodes of the box set, binge TV proto-series. 

The poem in question, Evidently Chicken Town closes the set,

‘The fucking pies are fucking old
The fucking chips are fucking cold
The fucking beer is fucking flat
The fucking flats have fucking rats
The fucking clocks are fucking wrong
The fucking days are fucking long
It fucking gets you fucking down
Evidently chicken town’

There is an encore, which occurs after the briefest of exits- ‘I was gonna milk it’, he says, ‘but there were stairs off the stage’- and gives us Twat, the laugh out loud funny stream of bile, line after line of invective building to the one word finale before finishing with the flipside of Twat, the Yin to Twat’s Yang, I Wanna Be Yours. 

I Wanna Be Yours

Handily, Jezebell (Jesse Fahnestock and Darren Bell) have just done an edit of Evidently Chicken Town, a murky, thumping acid stew poured onto and around John Cooper Clarke. You can get it from Paisley Dark here. 

Bank Holiday Monday's Long Songs Guest Post

Dr. Rob's blog Ban Ban Ton Ton has been the standard setter for all things electronic and Balearic. The Ban Ban Ton Ton and Bagging Area tie in continues today with a post that follows on from Dr. Rob's bumper Andrew Weatherall funk, soul and jazz post I hosted last week. 

Dr. Rob writes...

Late one night, early one morning, in 1993, Andrew Weatherall played The Chi-Lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life on London’s Kiss FM. A sad, strung-out soul symphony, from 1972, smothered not only in strings, but otherworldly reverb and field recorded tides and seabirds. Due to the hour, and the station being a pirate, I’m assuming that he was a little drunk, and / or a tad stoned. I know I was. Weatherall said that The Chi-Lites` orchestral oddity reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil Et La Mer, which was what he span next. A piece of brand new IDM - “Intelligent Dance Music” - “ambient techno”, produced by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton - a duo perhaps better known as Global Communications - and released on Creation Records` short-lived electronic off-shoot, Infonet. A label run by the Abbott brothers, Tim and Chris, who went on to work super closely with Oasis. 

I suspect it was the synths, mimicking wave after wave of crashing surf, and the soaring minor key melody, that brought about Andrew`s comparison. Probably not the broken breakbeats. The track is a classic of its genre, coolly managing to convey the rush, life’s urgency made plain, intensified, of a high head speeding while standing, or laying, perfectly still. 

Le Soleil Et Le Mer

Taken from Tom and Mark’s long-player, A Collection Of Short Stories, the tune later picked up a remix by The Black Dog. The triumvirate of Andy Turner, Ed Handley, and Ken Downie, turn the track into a bustle of busy bleeps and circuitry, clipped electric current. They shoot the strings into outer space, but keep the introspective, melancholic undertow. If anything it`s now even more of a mirror of a mind blown on Ecstasy, so that listening, flat on my back, I`m staring at the stars. It`s a thing of beauty created from seemingly random collisions. Sublime sonic serendipity. 

 Le Soleil Et Le Mer (Black Dog Remix)

Half An Hour Of Weller Remixed And Live At The Apollo

Paul Weller played The Apollo on Friday night, I was there courtesy of a ticket from a friend (who also took the photo in the middle, capturing the curving sweep of the Apollo's balcony rather beautifully). Weller and his band took the stage at eight thirty and played a two hour set, long standing guitarist Steve Craddock present and at the front and two drummers. The first few songs were largely drawn from recent albums, White Sky and Long Time from Saturn's Pattern from 2015, Cosmic Fringes from last year's Fat Pop, sounding tough and very Seventies, lots of guitar and rhythms. From The Floorboards Up, with its Wilco Johnson inspired riff, kept the tempo up. From there Weller dipped in and out of his back catalogue: a slightly ragged Headstart For Happiness; a lovely, low key Have You Ever Had It Blue?; the 90s single Hung Up; recent songs like Fat Pop and Village set against older solo ones like Stanley Road; a dip into the later period Style Council with It's A Very Deep Sea, a song which has aged unexpectedly well. The crowd, many of whom seem to have been out all day in the warmth of some Good Friday sunshine seem a little subdued at times- maybe some are just waiting for the hits or maybe too many beers have sapped the energy (not the two blokes near us who were ejected by the bouncers following a couple of scuffles with people around them).  

The run in towards the end of the set- a trippy version of Above The Clouds, the circling psychedelia of Into Tomorrow, a raspy Shout To The Top, the quickfire blast of Start! followed by full on guitar heroics of Peacock Suit and Brushed- demonstrate the riches in his cupboards, songs from different decades and different parts of his life all sounding like the work of one person, a lineage despite the stylistic differences each one had when first released. When they band return to the stage for the first encore Paul sits at the piano, the fluid, rolling Broken Stones followed by You Do Something To Me (not a favourite of mine I should add), a crowd pleasing That's Entertainment (a definite favourite of mine I should add) and then the slowed down, folk tinged shuffle of Wild Wood. The second encore is the two song punch of The Changing Man and A Town Called Malice, the Apollo's crowd now dancing and singing along in full voice. Weller's reputation as a prickly character and as a traditionalist (the Dadrock tag of the 90s sticks to him) is undeserved- his albums over the last ten years have been full of detours into krautrock, psychedelia, drones and noise and whatever The Style Council were, the weren't unadventurous. His band tonight are young (mainly) and give the songs a thumping (two drummers should do that) but they're delicate when required too. Paul Weller himself doesn't seem to have any less desire in his sixties than he had in his twenties, a man who just wants to get the songs out, get them written, recorded and played. 

For today's thirty minute mix I've pulled together some of the remixes of Weller's songs, drawn from the range of his solo career and taking in trip hop of Portishead, the crashing noise and thumping beats of Richard Hawley's take on Andromeda, some lovely widescreen Balearica courtesy of Leo Zero and Drop Out Orchestra (on Weller's own mid 2010's Balearic groove Starlite), some psychedelic adventures with Amorphous Androgynous and Brendan Lynch's still stunning psyched out/ dubbed out version of Kosmos from 1993 (a record Weatherall used to play as a set closer to fried minds at Sabresonic). 

Thirty Minute Paul Weller Remix Mix

• Wildwood (Portishead Remix)
• Andromeda (Richard Hawley Remix)
• No Tears To Cry (Leo Zero Remix)
• Aim High (The Higher Aim) (Amorphous Androgynous Remix)
• Starlite (Drop Out Orchestra Remix)
• Kosmos (Lynch Mob Bonus Beats)

This blistering Two Lone Swordsmen remix from 2000 didn't seem to fit in the mix, Weller sent to some place where Killing Joke and krauty- techno co- exist, but I though I should share it again anyway. It's never had an official digital release and when it came out in 2000 it was a white label 12" limited to just 75 copies worldwide. One of which sits is downstairs from where I type this. 

Heliocentric (Swordsmen 4UR Mix)

Saturday Theme Six

Saint Etienne's 1991 debut Foxbase Alpha is an album that perfectly summarises time and place (autumn 1991 to be specific), a cohesive record from start to finish taking from pop, the 1960s, wider British popular culture, the purity of the 7" single, house music and club culture, couple of cover versions that show the breadth of their influences (Neil Young and The Field Mice), samples from TV and radio and more besides. It concludes with a song named after Melody Maker photographer and drummer Joe Dilworth, a short piece of 60s influenced pop, fading in on a shimmer of synths, a ton of reverb on Sarah's voice and some lovelorn lyrics- 'Oh babe/ I know you've gone/ I won't be sad alone/ Cos the song you left me/ Has the sweetest refrain'. Piano and swelling synths drift on, then suddenly replaced by traffic noise and voices talking about the 90s, the decade ahead and finishing with the two word phrase- waffle cardigans. After the dreampop and feedback of the previous song, Like The Swallow, an intense trip that borrows from the spirit and sound of The Stone Roses backwards songs and AR Kane, it's a classic Saint Etienne nod and wink. 

Dilworth's Theme

Joe Dilworth played/ plays drums in Stereolab, Th' Faith Healers and Cavern Of Anti- Matter. This song, Void Beat, was on Cavern Of Anti- Matter's 2016 album Void Beat/ Invocation Trex. Cavern Of Anti- Matter were formed by Dilworth and fellow former Stereolabber Tim Gane, based in Berlin and is very pleasant way to spend the best part of ten minutes, cosmische to the max. 

Void Beat

When You Led Me To The Water I Drank It

I'd be happy to see the back of the monarchy, it's an anachronism and has no place in a modern democracy- not that this particular country looks much like a democracy at the moment what with the sitting Prime Minister having been found guilty of breaking the law but refusing to resign and his party refusing to remove him. By doing this Johnson and his colleagues further trash standards in public life, erode trust in politics and politicians, and embody the entitled attitude that they, the ruling class, can do as they please and can ignore laws and lie about them with no consequence. Those who support him, who enable and excuse him are just as bad. The Constitution and the Ministerial code mean nothing if a Prime Minister with an 80 seat majority and a self serving Tory Party can ignore them and do as they please- the phrase I believe is elected dictatorship. All of this entitlement, inequality and subservience is endemic throughout the UK's political system, from the top down, and that includes the monarchy and the unelected House of Lords. But, if we must live in a kingdom, then a Kingdom of T- shirts is one I can get behind. 

Following on from the soul and funk of Dr. Rob's post on Wednesday I went back to The Chi- Lites, a group I discovered in the early 90s via this song...

Stoned Out Of My Mind

Stoned Out Of Mind was a 1973 single for The Chi- Lites, a Chicago soul group. It's one of those songs that exists completely in its own space, a lighter- than- air, horn led swooping song with a soaring falsetto vocal and some glorious backing vocal harmonies. A song of heartbreak you can dance to. 

John Holt covered it in the same year on his 1000 Volts Of Holt album, an uptown reggae take on the song, Holt's voice an octave or two lower than the original and the horns replaced by the skank. 1000 Volts Of Holt is apparently the best selling album on the Trojan label ever.

Stoned Out Of My Mind (Jamaican Mix)

In 1982 The Jam released their final single, Weller's triumphant goodbye to the group, Beat Surrender. On the 7" double pack Weller dropped some hints about the direction he intended to travel in next, a cover of Stoned Out Of My Mind sitting alongside Jam versions of Curtis Mayfield's Movin' On Up and Edwin Starr's War. On Stoned Out Of My Mind Weller pushes the horns upfront and sings in a softer voice while Rick and Bruce gamely find the groove.

Stoned Out Of My Mind

I'm going to see Paul Weller at the Apollo tonight, courtesy of a ticket from a friend to whom I am very grateful (after seeing John Cooper Clarke last night). Full gig reviews will follow.

Happy House

More from the seafront in Mallorca. In terms of photographs and blogposts I just can't let these things pass. 

Happy House

Happy House was a March 1980 single for Siouxsie And The Banshees, a single that saw the birth of 'Banshees Mark 2' in Siouxsie's own words. The arrival of Budgie on drums and John McGeoch on guitar underpinned Siouxsie's vocals with tribal rhythms and reggae influenced grooves from the new drummer, and edgy, paranoid guitars from the new guitarist. On Happy House McGeoch came up with a superb riff that the entire song is built around, circling, haunting and utterly distinctive. 

Dr Rob, Andrew Weatherall And A Bucketful Of Jazz, Funk And Soul

Last week in honour of what would have been Andrew Weatherall's 59th birthday Dr Rob posted a series of mixes at Ban Ban Ton Ton, lovingly researched and put together mixes delving into Andrew Weatherall's record bag, focussing on the soul, funk and jazz records that Andrew played at various times and in various places. If you missed them and need to catch up the links are here-

Weatherall's Funk/Summertime

Weatherall's Funk/ Karnaval

Weatherall's Funk/ Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow

Weatherall's Jazz/ African Waltz

Weatherall's Funk/ Darkest Light

Rob asked me if I wanted to host the sixth part of this series here at Bagging Area. Obviously I said yes. It also gives me a chance to wish Andrew Weatherall a very happy belated birthday, wherever he is currently residing. 

Rob writes...

Last week on Ban Ban Ton Ton we were paying tribute to, and celebrating the birthday of, Andrew Weatherall. In 2021 we collected a ton of reggae and dub tunes that the legendary DJ / producer was known to spin, but this year we attempted to do the same with some soul, jazz, and funk. We posted a total of 5 mixes, but here are a few more songs that I didn’t quite manage to squeeze in….starting off with some strung out soul…

The Chi-lites` The Coldest Days Of My Life comes from the group’s A Lonely Man long-player, released in 1972. It`s not really typical of the band`s output, well it`s not really typical for a soul tune at all. Full of recordings of ocean surf and seabirds, heart-tugging violin strings and smothered in truly spaced-out reverb. The vocals leaving vapour trails,  while otherworldly winds whip the cryptic lyrics, that hint at childhood hardship and poverty. Mr. Weatherall played this tune late one night in 1993, on Kiss FM. Andrew said that it reminded him of Reload`s Le Soleil et La Mer, which he played immediately after. The intro of the Chi-lites song was later sampled and looped for the Quiet Village track, Victoria’s Secret. 

 The Coldest Days Of My Life

The Persuaders` It`s A Thin Line Between Love & Hate also came out in 1972. It is one of the 90-odd songs featured in Andrew`s Black Notebooks - a “pan-genre” collection of Youtube clips, created for his close friends, that shine a spotlight on musical moments of extreme emotion, often concerned with heartbreak and loss. Everything in there is a wonder, and well worth tracking down. This song was famously covered by The Pretenders. Chrissy Hynde apparently used to sing it when she was still knocking about with the Sex Pistols and working in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood`s Worlds End shop. 

 It's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Maceo & All The Kings Men`s I Remember Mr. Banks, I guess is more jazz than soul, while the playing feels deeply connected to the blues. Saxophonist Maceo Parker is best known as a member of James Brown`s band, but all The King`s Men were a short-lived project, formed in 1970, when the musicians in said band, having had enough of Brown, all quit. They toured and recorded two albums, the first of which was Doing Their Own Thing. This is the closer from that LP, and something, again, that Andrew aired on Kiss. 

 I Remember Mr Banks

 Dudley Moore`s Bedazzled, is jazz, for sure. The title track from his score for the 1967 movie of the same name, that he also starred in alongside Peter Cook - as the Devil - and Raquel Welch as “Lilian Lust”. It was Chris “Soft Rocks” Galloway who hipped me to this, when he put it on his own tribute mix, One Horse Shy In A One Horse Town - a sublime selection of songs that Weatherall turned him on to. The terrific Johnny Trunk reissued the soundtrack in 2016.

 Bedazzled

Sibusile Xaba`s Wampona is the sole slice of of African soul / jazz / funk here. This is something that featured in Andrew`s now sorely missed NTS radio shows, Music`s Not For Everyone - essential monthly bulletins of “outsider”, well, everything musically. I was super chuffed when he played this, as I`d just posted a typically “wordy” review of the album on Ban Ban Ton Ton. Sad, I know, but this fanboy felt momentarily qualified. 

 Wampona

Shuggie Otis` Aht Uh Mi Hed is a song synonymous with Weatherall, a big “backroom” favourite, that probably became a constant around the early days of The Heavenly Social, at The Albany on Great Portland Street, and later Turnmills, before they opened the bar off of Oxford Street. A slice of sweet, stoner introspection, a little weary, and wasted, with some pioneering Sly Stone-esque use of a drum machine. I`m not sure, but it was probably the original Maestro Rhythm King. Absolutely essential, and every home should have one. The record, not the drum machine that is. 

 Aht Uh Mi Head

The next three tunes are all lifted from NTS shows, and shaped, cut, from very similar sonic cloth as Shuggie`s seminal offering. 

Mandre`s Isle De Joie is taken from Mandre 4, a “lost” early `80s album from the artist behind synth-y disco Loft classics, such as Light Years and Solar Flight, which was rescued and reissued by Rush Hour in 2010. 

 Isle De Joie

Jean Pierre Decerf`s sleazy Touch As Much dates from 1977, and could originally only be found on a highly sought after Library Music LP that he released under the alias, Magical Ring. It`s since been included in a brilliant retrospective of Jean Pierre’s work - Space Oddities 1975-1979 - put together by Alexis Le Tan, DJ Jess, and Born Bad Records. 

 Touch As Much

Doug Hream Blunt`s Fly Guy is privately-pressed soul, lo-fi garage gangster boogie, which got reactivated in 2011, and was later picked up by David Byrne`s label, Luaka Bop. If you’re into this sort of stuff, try to locate a copy of the Personal Space compilation on Chocolate Industries.

 Fly Guy

A straight up funk track to follow. The Memphis Horns` Soul Bowl is pinched from a promo CD, entitled The Chairman’s Choice, complied to celebrate the opening of Heavenly Recordings` bar / club, The Social on Little Portland Street, back in June 2001.

Soul Bowl

Eugene Record`s Overdose Of Joy and Tyrone Davis` Is It Something You’ve Got? are both shining examples of the old soul sides that were revived by Andrew and Terry Farley when they manned the “alternative” room at Shoom - first at Busby`s, on Charing Cross Road, and then at The Park, on Kensington High Street. The pair revisited these two tunes on a wonderful BBC 6Music show in 2012, which lead to the Eugene Record tune being licensed and repressed on a 45 by London’s Love Vinyl label / shop. Eugene Record was, coincidently the lead vocalist of, and main songwriter for, The Chi-Lites.

Overdose Of Joy

 Is It Something You've Got?

Representing the Weird & Funky World of library music, I’ve cued up James Asher`s bonkers Vertigo, taken from his 1981 Studio G LP, Abstracts. This is piano-led jazz really, but James goes to town on the twisting and phasing, and the track finally hits a mad Orb-like breakdown. 

Vertigo

As a Balearic aside, Oscar Falanga, who once famously staffed the counter at fabled Soho record store, Trax, later remixed James Asher, in the guise of this prog house nom de plume, Aetherius. 

 Lastly, there’s the sitar-driven hippie exotica love-in, freak-out of Tally Man, composed and performed by Jimmy “Little Jim” Page`s main `60s guitar-slinging rival, Big Jim Sullivan. A tune taken from Big Jim’s 1967 album, Sitar Beat, which also features his cover of Donovan`s Sunshine Superman, another firm Andrew Weatherall favourite. 

Tally Man

 

Heaven

Heaven, it turns out, is situated on a side street in Magaluf. This may be news to the major religions of the world. The entrance seems to be more of a roller shutter too than the promised pearly gates but it's nice to have these things cleared up. There are loads of heavens in music- according to Belinda Carlisle it's a place on earth and standing in front of this venue last week I was inclined to agree. Back in 1987 I'd rather have poked my eyes out with forks than admitted liking this song but thankfully now I'm older I can come clean....

Heaven according to David Byrne, is a place where nothing ever happens, where the band play your favourite song, all night long and where 'it's hard to imagine/ that nothing at all/ could be so exciting/ could so much fun'. Talking Heads sound effortlessly sublime on this song, the sweetest moment their most bewilderingly brilliant album, a record that doesn't have any kind of weak spot, has some seriously deranged moments and sounds like the feverish work of a group of musicians at their absolute peak. 

Heaven

In 1981, two years after Talking Heads released Fear Of Music, Echo And The Bunnymen released arguably their best album, Heaven Up Here. The title track is a dark, frenetic, urgent piece of post- punk, the band flailing around and moving rapidly, all scratchy guitar and thumping drums. Ian sings of empty pockets and being unable to afford beer. 'The apple cart upset my head's little brain', he complains before settling on giving up the whiskey for tequila. The centre section, 'groovy groovy people' he sings, 'we're all groovy groovy people' is exhilarating, a rush, and then it's back to the main riff and Ian's found somewhere for the Bunnymen- 'it may be hell down there/ But it's heaven up here'. There's more rapid fire words, more drums and then a sudden dead stop.

Heaven Up Here

Monday's Long Songs

David Holmes' It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love is right up there in terms of single releases of 2022. The remix package came out two weeks ago, six reworkings of the original from Lovefingers and Heidi Lawden, Working Men's Club, Darren Emerson and Hardway Bros. All push it onwards and outwards. 

Darren Emerson's Huffa Remix is nine minutes long, a pulsing, building, thundering, epic early 90s Underworld style remix with Raven Violet's vocal intact. The breakdown and re- entry at the six minute mark, whooshing noises and enormous kickdrum with the synths and bassline well into the red, is thrilling stuff. For the last three minutes we're then riding the midnight train from Romford/ Belfast/ wherever you are. 

Hardway Bros Live At The SSL Dub picks out a distorted synthline and crunching drums and builds a full head of steam, threatening to turn into Man 2 Man and Man Parish's Male Stripper, a glam/ chug stomp. 

Lovefingers and Heidi Lawden offer two remixes, Low Tide and High Tide versions. The Low Tide one echoes mid- 80s New Order, shades of Bizarre Love Triangle and The Perfect Kiss, Holmes and Raven sent onto the dancefloor circa 1986 with cowbell and lasers.

Working Men's Club's remix is the shortest (under seven minutes) and the furthest from the original, a darkly frenetic, stripped down, acidic banger- close your eyes and the strobe will be flashing. 

Half An Hour Of Liz Fraser

Liz Fraser's voice, whether with The Cocteau Twins or guest appearances with other artists, is a unique, almost miraculous thing. Trying to describe it is fairly pointless. It swoops and soars and has a magical, otherworldly quality. Sometimes it's gossamer thin, distant and a part of the shimmering, hazy swirl of the Cocteau Twins records, the lyrics difficult to work out and impressionistic. Sometimes it's much bolder and in the foreground, clear and insistent. Here's this week's half hour mix (actually thirty eight minutes) of Liz Fraser's voice, variously with Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Ian McCulloch, Massive Attack, Harold Budd and Felt. 

Half An Hour Of Liz Fraser

• Cocteau Twins: Pearly Dewdrops' Drop
• Cocteau Twins: The Spangle Maker
• Ian McCulloch: Candleland
• Massive Attack: Teardrop (Mad Professor Mazaruni Vocal Remix)
• This Mortal Coil: Song To The Siren
• This Mortal Coil: Edit To The Siren (In The Valley Re- edit)
• Cocteau Twins: Cherry- coloured Funk
• Felt: Primitive Painters
• Harold Budd, Simon Raymonde, Robin Guthrie, Liz Fraser: Ooze Out And Away, Onehow

Saturday Theme Five

We got back from Mallorca yesterday afternoon, Manchester welcoming us back with some biting April cold. Funnily, when we arrived in Mallorca on Monday morning and got to our hotel at Palma Nova it was both cold and windy, the palm trees being blown around all over the place by the strong wind coming in off the sea. The weather got better as the week went on and on Thursday we all got sunburnt sitting/ lying by the pool and on the beach. The break was just what the three of us needed, some time away from here and away from everything that has been going on since Isaac died last November. Not that we didn't take it with us- one of the rules of travel is wherever you go, you're still you- but we were able to unwind and relax. Some of the physical symptoms of grief lessened while we were away, a fact brought home to me when we were in the taxi from Manchester airport yesterday, driving up one of the main roads back to Sale, and some of those physical symptoms suddenly re- appeared. 'Hello darkness my old friend', as Paul Simon put it.

It was very good to be away though and Mallorca has got a lot going for it- a beautiful island, with beaches and mountains, that magical Balearic feel, and a wonderful capital city in Palma. It also has some superb 1960s concrete modernism in its hotels, constructed for the arrival of mass tourism in the 1960s. They pepper the coastline all the way from Palma down the coast to Palma Nova and Magaluf. The bars, restaurants and hotels were only just re- opening after the winter, the season not fully started yet with plenty of places still closed or in the process of getting ready for the summer. We haven't been anywhere since summer 2019 and I'm sure we'd have been happy to be anywhere but Palma Nova and its surrounding areas were very much exactly where we needed to be for a few days. 

The beach at Magaluf has this view, the uninhabited Isla de Sa Porrassa sitting in the bay, stunningly photogenic at dusk and during the heat of the day. 

This is the theme from Top Boy, the inner London crime drama that started on Channel 4 and was then reprised by Netflix. Brian Eno's theme works just as well as a piece of semi- ambient, instrumental music as the theme to a gritty crime drama. 

Theme From Top Boy