Hey Fellas Have You Heard The News?

Some thumping mod action from 1965 for the last day of July. The Birds, from West London, didn't release much in their time (four singles) but this footstomper still rings loud and true. Handy message to the chaps as well- treat the women well or they'll leave town.

Leaving Here

Dig It

I just found this by Bagging Area's guitar hero and haircut guru Johnny Marr- an instrumental from an Antonio Banderas film that went straight to video last year. This is both epic and trippy. You'll like it. Johnny is back in the studio recording either a solo album or a new Healers album. There's loads of Johnny stuff here.

The Big Bang Dig

Meanwhile I'm off to a pub quiz where we'll be hoping for a medal position. Apologies for breaking the run of pictures of vintage sports. Resumes tomorrow.

Yo La Remix

I found this recently and was going to wait for autumn but frankly that involves planning- Yo la Tengo put out a career spanning double disc about a decade ago. Limited quantities came with a third disc, the main highlight of which was this- Autumn Sweater remixed by MBV's Kevin Shields. Autumn Sweater is a beautiful, slow burning song of lost love, shyness, leaves turning brown and the need for an extra layer of clothing. Kevin Shields sidesteps that for a drum loop, a repeated organ part, an isolated and distorted vocal, an overloaded bass riff. Then he begins to add some other loops, all running on and on for just shy of nine minutes. Stunning.

Autumn Sweater (Kevin Shields Remix)

Rez

That women's road race was exciting wasn't it?

After Friday night's show I can't get this out of my head, that main squiggly riff circling round my mind.

No Time To Play

During the summer of 1993 (which was *shakes head* nineteen years ago) one of the most played records in my room was Guru's Jazzmatazz. The Jazzmatazz album was a different beast from Gang Starr (who I also loved) replacing two turntables and a microphone with live instruments, loads of guests, loved up vibe. This song is the sound of summer, perfect now that summer has finally arrived in north-west England (or it did, last couple of days have eased off a bit on the sunshine and heat), spot on for a Sunday morning too. Dusty drumbeat, vinyl crackle, Ronny Jordan's sprightly guitar, Guru's laid back rhyme and DC Lee exhorting us to not waste any time, do it now, get out there, seize the day 'cos life is short y'know, all that kind of stuff. Never no time to play.

I loved Jazzmatazz Volume 1. I bought Volume 2 and played it maybe once. Until I googled it just now I'm not sure I even knew there were a Volume 3 and a Volume 4. Guru died last April.

No Time To Play

I Heard Wonders

I can't decide what was most impressive and jawdropping about last night's opening ceremony- the wit, scale and verve of the historical section, including dancing Victorian industrialists, marching Suffragists, a pause for the First World War and the destruction of the English countryside by the erection of some giant chimneys.

The whistle stop tour through British music, including some of the actual good bits, played out through text messages between a boy, a girl and a lost mobile phone.

The tribute to the National Health Service (no political points being made there then) with hundreds of dancing doctors and nurses and patients in hospital beds.

Or the sudden and totally unexpected appearance of Arctic Monkeys playing I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor, then covering Come Together as giant cycling doves flew from the ground beneath them.

Or the sound of Underworld's tripped out acid house belter Rez blasting round the stadium as the teams of athletes began their entrance. I mean, Rez!

Or for that matter, the honour guard for the flame by the people who built the stadium, Danny Boyle pointing out that this should be, maybe, the peoples' Olympics. Followed by the six kids who took the flame for the last part of the journey. Not Becks, six unknown kids. Well done Danny Boyle- hats off to you sir. 


I Heard Wonders

Treasure Hunting

Those of you that come here for the dirty, dancier, electronic stuff will want to get a copy of this. Treasure Hunting, a compilation of three years of goodies from French label Astrolab, came out digitally last week with the cd to follow next week and a vinyl version in September. It's a beauty with not a bad track on it, making a good companion piece to Andrew Weatherall's Masterpiece compilation for Ministry of Sound. As well as Weatherall's remix of Timothy J Fairplay there's Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s, Daniel Avery, Scott Fraser (soon to be the number 2 release on Weatherall's very limited Bird Scarer label), Mugwump, Hardway Bros, Marc Pinol,  Ana Helder and others. This is the album opener from Toby Tobias. Caution; could cause dancing.

Sauna Fauna

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 69

The return of The Cramps to Friday evening. I've been playing a compilation of their early stuff, File Under Sacred Music 1978-81, a lot this week - the cd version not the box set of 7" singles, which costs an eye watering £70- and there really is nothing like early Cramps. Rockabilly mating with punk. Love it all (although this song isn't actually on File Under Sacred Music).

Tear It Up

The picture is from a series of photographs taken by a young Ken Russell of Teddy boys and girls in bomb sites in London in the 1950s. Stunning set of pictures. Which leads me onto... London 2012.

In a volte face that's quite surprised me, after months of detached cynicism, I'm looking forward to the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics tonight. The year-long build up has bugged me, the corporateness is revolting (people being warned not to wear branded clothing that will clash with official sponsors), the torch relay (showing the best inspirational people we have to offer; Jedward and Will.I.Am) but over the last few days I've begun to look forward to it. Just hope Danny Boyle's remembered to include a pound shop, an out of town retail park and a tanning salon in this evening's show.

It's Friday...Let's Pogo!

Brother John Robb and Goldblade make old school punk rock- breakneck guitars, pounding drums, shouty choruses, flashy punk/rockabilly threads, great for jumping up and down to. If you've not seen them live you should give them a go next time they play in your town. John Robb has opinions to go with the quiff and biceps (his Louder Than War blog is in the links down below), is a Manchester face and all round good guy. Unfortunately I have slurred my own opinions at him once or twice when slightly the worse for wear in some of Manchester's nightspots. He takes it all with good grace.

Psycho

Me And The Chief Got Slowly Stoned

I recently re-found the copy of Happy Mondays Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches that came free with The Guardian a few weeks ago. Looking down the tracklist of an album I probably haven't played in full for at least fifteen years some of these are very well known to me (Kinky Afro, Step On, Loose Fit, Bob's Yer Uncle) and some I could barely remember, especially this one and Donovan. As soon as it started to play I recalled all of it. God's Cop was about former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester James Anderton, a right wing nutter, about whom there were scores of unbelievable/totally believable stories. Shaun's lyrics here are great, drawled over a lolloping groove- 'me and the chief got Soul To Soul, me and the chief got slowly stoned'.

God's Cop

Topper Is A Little Bit Partial

To answer my own question from this morning, yes Topper Headon did have a connection with Flowered Up- he played congas and percussion with them at a gig in 89 or 90. Their It's On single also borrowed lyrics from Joe Strummer (the bit in Rude Boy where he plays something akin to Let the Good Times Roll on piano).



To tie in another Bagging Area repeat offender Andrew Weatherall provided two remixes of Flowered Up's epic 1992 Weekender single. Long and wobbly with loads of loops, vocal samples, time shifting parts, echo, acidic squiggles, Weekender getting bent all over the place. Here, have 'em both.

Weekender (Weatherall's Weekender A Audrey Is A Little Bit Partial Mix)

Weekender (Weatherall's Weekender B Audrey Is A Little Bit More Partial)

Topper

Time for some Topper, The Clash's spikey-haired human drum machine.
I was in Altrincham Oxfam Books and Records, nothing much of interest, flick flick flick... ah, what's this?
A Mercury Records compilation from 1986, a painting of a black clad beatnik girl dancing on the front and this piece of text: 'from a moaning wail of the blues to the impulsive beat of a bass drum... Curiosity Killed The Cat, Swing Out Sister, Brandon Cooke (with Roxanne Shante), Love And Money, Topper Headon, Tom Verlaine, Wet Wet Wet, Pete Shelley, Zerra One, Hipsway... theirs was a frenzied world of passion and excitement. Beat Runs Wild'.

Bit of a mixed bag, to put it mildly. 99p. Go on then, if only to see what the Topper song is like. Jazzy, big band, instrumental. S'alright. 


Hope For Donna

Further research brings us a video from Topper's only solo album.



Didn't he have some involvement with Flowered Up or am I imagining that?

Contact

We're off to France next Thursday (August 2nd), driving down to Dover and then hitting the Autoroute westwards to Brittany. Breton shirts all round. So here's some French pop from Brigitte Bardot (and as Davy proved last week, having a Bardot post is never a bad idea). This song is taken from David Holmes's essential Essential Mix from 1998 so may finish abruptly. Somewhat bizarrely when I inserted the cd into the pc, the computer thought the disc was Lost Soul by Doves. I renamed it but it might still claim to be Doves when you d/l it. It isn't. It's Bardot. Salut!

Contact

Holiday

Today is the first day of my summer holiday. Not done too much. My two kids are still at school (until Wednesday). Pottered about the house. Done some household chores. Played some records, including an acapella version of Bring the Noise by Public Enemy which I got at a record stall in Sale's Traders' Outlet on Saturday afternoon and briefly considered playing it over The Magnificent Dance version of The Clash's Magnificent Seven 12" which also happened to be lying around but then decided getting the twin decks out was too much bother. Cycled up to the village to buy pasties for Mrs Swiss and her co-workers at the nursery who were doing their end of year clean up and sort out. Sat on the grass eating pasties. Cycled home. Read about Bradley Wiggins in the paper. Etc etc. Nice to do nothing after all the madness of the last few weeks and the bad news our friends have had at the end of last week. Opened an email from my brother in Germany that I'd missed last week to find a link to a rather good interview from Granada Reports back in 1989 with The Stone Roses and some great rehearsal footage, which I thought I'd share with you to end this rather aimless and boring post. Off now to get the youngest from school.



Non- related picture- Lee Miller taken by Man Ray.

Alone Again Or

I sometimes think all I'm doing here is finding one thousand three hundred different ways of saying 'Hey, this is a good song'. I think blogging works best when there's a story attached to it, something to give it context, and not just some biographical details cobbled together from Wikipedia. In this song's case it's just me going 'Hey, this is a good song'.

I love this song and the album it comes with- Forever Changes. In the late 80s it was one of those legendary 60s lps that people talked about in awed tones. Hearing it for the first time was a revelation- they were right,  it was as good as they said though not necessarily what I expected, a million miles away from Byrds, Doors, Stones. This song, written by Brian MacLean, is awash with possibility, taking the 60s beat boom somewhere else entirely. But there's sadness in those horns and flamenco rhythms too.

Alone Again Or

Heaven Help Us All

There's some particularly bad shit going on in the lives of people we know at the moment. It's not my place to put this stuff in the public domain but things ain't good.

Heaven Help Us All

The picture shows American photographer, model and journalist Lee Miller who has popped up here before, looking both very 1930s and oddly contemporary. I've been reading a biography of her by Carolyn Burke, worth reading if you ever see a copy.

I Got A Girl From Kalamazoo

Ally left a comment after Wednesday's Joe Strummer post saying she hadn't got any Clash after Sandinista (wot, not even Combat Rock Ally?) and Simon left a reply saying that she should get Global-A-Go-Go which I wholeheartedly agree with. Here's another Joe song, from 1989, backed by Latino Rockabilly War who also played with Joe on the poorly produced Earthquake Weather. This song-Trash City- came from the soundtrack to Permanent Record, one of five songs Joe contributed. Joe and Latino Rockabilly War toured on Rock Against The Rich in 1988. Apparently protesters picketed various gigs Joe played at, complaining about Joe's own wealth. The protesters didn't know what Joe looked like, allowing him to agree with them, talk to them and then slip inside and play the gig. Sounds like a good Joe story. Trash City is a typical Strummer rocker with a crunching riff and oblique lyrics.

Trash City

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 68

Ronnie Self, big fool, rockabilly, Friday night. Go get yourself one.

Big Fool

Tour De France

It's about time a mod won the Tour De France isn't it?
And while trying to ignore Murdoch and Sky's role in all of this we could coo over the very lovely Bradley Wiggins X Fred Perry range of cycling/leisure shirts, available here, in pale blue, white and black. Pale blue for me I think.

With crushing inevitability, from their 2003 remake and remodel album, here come Kraftwerk.

Tour De France Etape 1

I'll Never Learn

My recent burst of listening inspired by The Who, Quadrophenia and mod sent me tumbling mid-sixtieswards ending up with the mono melodrama of the girl groups, something I've not done nearly enough of here. Here are The Shangri Las, the kind of girls who'd break you in two just for kicks.

I'll Never Learn

Time And The Tide

Since starting Bagging Area in January 2010 I've often had a rummage around the cupboard labelled After The Clash- The Solo Careers of Joe, Mick, Paul and Topper. Sadly the Topper shelf is bare but the Joe and Mick shelves contain a variety of hidden treasures, Paul's a fair few. Joe's wilderness years (somewhere between the collapse of The Clash Mk 2 in 1985 and his return with The Mescaleros in 1999) contain a load of good songs, some of them have been posted here before. To date, no-one has officially compiled these soundtrack songs, solo singles, bands projects like Latino Rockabilly War and other odds and ends. There's a fairly comprehensive 2 cd bootleg called Generations which is pretty easy to find on the net but Joe's musical life after The Clash needs some attention from a loving record company, Rhino or someone like that. Meanwhile, Bagging Area needs to remedy the Topper situation.

Time And The Tide was a B-side on the Yalla Yalla single/e.p., a lovely, rueful, acoustic song that didn't make the cut for the album Art, Rock And The X Ray Style (1999). Yalla Yalla signaled a corner had been turned in Joe's fortunes; Time And The Tide acknowledges the cost.

Time And The Tide

Under The Water

This is a picture of Andrew Weatherall (centre) with Luke (left. Or right) and Rusty (right. Or left). Luke and Rusty hold a radio show, Luke and Rusty's Rodeo, a beatnik, punk rock, rock 'n' roll, garage shindig with guests.

This is a two and a half minute excerpt from Andrew Weatherall's remix of Until You're Worth It by Mugwump. It looks like being another blinding Weatherall remix. I know I bang about him here a bit but he's in a very rich vein of form at the moment. This one has a dirty bassline, submerged vocals, that gas-powered drum machine and all kinds of bubbling noises. No idea on release dates or anything but I'm keeping my eyes peeled.

This is a Mugwump track, which I think I found at the excellent Just Press Play blog (link in the blogroll down to the right), a Manchester based blog with regular lashings of dirty, funky stuff.

Boutade (Miseridub)

Consolation Prize For The Vinyl Villain

The Vinyl Villain has had a well deserved break over the last month and is due back at the blogdesk today so various blogs are welcoming him back today and I'm happy to join in. I first discovered his standard setting blog looking for some Orange Juice many years ago so it seems appropriate to post what might be Edwyn Collins' finest moment, with its line about wearing his fringe like Roger McGuinn's and anti-macho coda- 'I'll never be man enough for you'. This one's for you JC.

Consolation Prize

Steady The Buffs

The Who mini-fest continues: first up this performance of My Generation from Germany's Beat Club in the mid 60s, mod smarts, windmills, guitar and mic stand abuse and pounding rhythm. It all started here.



I promised Billy Childish's cover of A Quick One the other day. There's a version on Billy's Christmas album but the superior one is this one from 2002's Steady the Buffs lp.

The Buffs were the Royal East Kent Regiment, one of the oldest regiments in the British army dating back to 1572. Wild Billy Childish and The Buff Medways (named after the regiment and a local variety of chicken) released Steady The Buffs on Graham Coxon's Transcopic label and it's got to be one of the best Childish albums- among the twelve songs there are career highlights Archive From 1959 and Troubled Mind, the trash mod rock of Sally Sensation and Dawn Said, the very great Strood Lights and the breakneck cover of The Kinks' Misty Water. It finishes with Ivor (the two minutes twenty two seconds cover of A Quick One, although it's only the final section to be fair). Steady The Buffs is highly, highly recommended as a Childish starter if you're a novice.

Ivor

Mr Childish modelling summer 2012's look. Pay attention now Gok Wan acolytes- this is the perfect look for beer gardens, festivals, summer barbecues and your two weeks off in the English sun.

It's The High Numbers Boys And Girls

This clip is from a film started in 1964 that was never completed. It shows The Who (who may or may not have been called the High Numbers at this point) playing US rhythm and blues live at The Railway, Keith Moon already steps ahead and Pete et al resplendent in mod threads.

But the crowd are the real stars here, some very well dressed, good looking boys and girls.

Post Everything

I've just finished reading the second volume of (former Auteur, former Black Box Recorder man) Luke Haines' memoirs. At the start of Post Everything Haines claims that since his first book Bad Vibes, set in the mid 90s against the backdrop of Britpop, he's calmed down a bit, mellowed out, and is not going round creating feuds with all and sundry. The 239 pages of Post Everything then detail mainly what he hates about the early 2000s- the music industry, his record companies, his record company bosses, one of his record company's boss's dog, Primal Scream (Must not end up like Bobby Gillespie he notes), The Verve, Richard Ashcroft, the mythologisation of The Clash, the mythologisation of the MC5, his own bands and the albums they make, band reunions, the New York Dolls reunion, the relationship between his bandmates (John Moore and Sarah Nixey), New Labour, Noel Gallagher and Alan McGee hobnobbing with New Labour, Glen Hoddle, Camden, Paul Morley, The Osbornes, digital recording, gigs, tours, Bono ('Two words... Massive twat'), several men called Graham at the National Theatre, Banksy ('the 21st century's worst man'), The Cellist.... the list goes on.


Things Luke Haines likes/tolerates- the National Pop Strike (his idea). New York Dolls (before they reformed). Mott The Hoople. Laudanum. His musical about Nicholas van Hoogstraten.


Things Luke Haines loves- his wife, who he woos when she is already courting the editor of a major music magazine, which ensures zero positive press from that magazine thereafter.


It's a festering, scabrous, entertaining read, shot through with brains and outsider wit, is utterly misanthropic, and very funny. 

Going Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 67

Off out tonight so it's a quick rockabilly post with Jimmy Murphy (not the one who was Matt Busby's assistant at United in the 50s and 60s, at least I don't think they're one and the same). Unfortunately the song maybe isn't as exciting as the title suggests.

Sixteen Tons Of Rock 'n' Roll

The picture shows actress Jean Arthur, looking suitably western and rocking.

Her Man's Been Gone For Nigh On A Year

In 1967 The Rolling Stones held their Rock 'n' Roll circus, a gig in a big top. Due to poor planning or Mick's ego or Keith's drugs they rather foolishly they went on last, in the early hours of the morning when band and audience were tired, and gave a somewhat below par performance. By that time they'd also been blown away by The Who, who stole the show with a performance of Pete Townshend's mini-opera (it's not really an opera, it just has different sections and tells a story. Maybe it is an opera then) A Quick One. It is one heck of a performance.



The version below was taped for the Beeb and first broadcast on Top Gear in 1967. Not that Top Gear.

A Quick One (While He's Away) (BBC Session)

It occurs to me I've got a Billy Childish and The Buff Medways cover of A Quick One. The Who need seven or eight minutes for it. Typically Billy gets through it around three. I'll try to find it for you if you like.

Ranking Full Stop

Howsabout some late 70s ska from The Beat for Friday morning? OK.

Ranking Full Stop

Edit- duh. This was supposed to be tomorrow morning's post.

A Taste Of Something Warm And Sweet

Sometimes, when I'm tired and frayed like I am right now, I just want some of the Jesus and Mary Chain's candy. I don't have their magnificent Some Candy Talking on the hard drive at the moment, and frankly I'm way too tired and frayed to be bothered ripping it so here's the video in all it's homemade mid 80s lo-fi glory.



And here's a different song, not so well known.

Terminal Beach

Bobby Gentry's Flipside

Bobby Gentry's 1967 number single Ode To Billie Joe is a country blues classic with a great, intriguing, homespun lyric. It was however originally the B-side and only became the lead song when radio djs began playing it in response to listeners requests. The A-side was this rather good piece of Southern country rock.

Mississippi Delta

Bobby Gentry failed to repeat the success of Ode To Billie Joe despite writing and recording a load of other songs. In the 70s she got caught between the TV show circuit and the country blues (although she did get another UK number 1 with I'll Never Fall In Love Again) and recorded at least one album with Glen Campbell, a copy of which I found in a charity shop in Beverley a while back. She retired from music in 1981.

HMI have gone. They were largely positive, surprisingly human and gave us some things to think about and act upon. But I am glad to see the back of them.

Fuzzy Crocodiles

San Diego's Crocodiles have a new album out, Endless Flowers, that threatens to blow their cover as feedback drenched JAMC copyists a bit. There's still plenty of fuzzed-up scuzz rock here but there's a summery, sing-song quality to some of the tracks and some of yer actual pop-melodies. I only got this the other day (Action Records in Preston, highly recommended for a good record rummage) but I like it a lot already. I had a cup of tea with Ally Queen of Dusty Sevens on Sunday afternoon at Stockport Vintage Village, who grew up visiting Action Records. Very nice it was too, to meet another blogger in real life.

Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9)

In other news the HMI fun continues... I'm still here. Just.

Delia's Theme

Today HMI arrive for a random single subject inspection. We shall repulse them with the quality of our provision, our tracking system and progress measuring and work sampling, our short, medium and long term plans, our intention to always strive to be outstanding. If that fails maybe I'll distract them with Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Delia's Theme

Meanwhile back at the underground studio/bunker complex, if you're into Astrolab Recordings and their chuggy chuggy sound (featuring Mr Weatherall, Mr Fairplay, Mr Avery, Mr Fraser, Mr Robertson and his Deadstock 33s and Mr Mugwump amongst others) then this compilation looks right up your alley.

You're Barmy You Are Staying Out All Hours

I've finally managed to catch up on the Quadrophenia stuff from BBC4 last weekend. Mrs Swiss and I watched the film last night- or most of it: the blank dvd we'd recorded it onto ran out five minutes before the end. I knew what happens obviously, but for Mrs Swiss Jimmy is permanently stuck mid-existential crisis outside the hotel where he sees Sting (that is not a mod haircut Sting) working, screaming 'Bellboy!' Quadrophenia was a rites of passage film when I was growing up and watching it now it's retained a lot of its power.

I can't quite believe that in two and a half years of Bagging Area I've never posted anything by The Who. Their run of singles in the 60s from I Can't Explain through to Magic Bus is peerless- the pop-art noise of Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, the boom-boom-boom of My Generation, the mod anthem The Kids Are Alright, the trebly attack of Substitute, Pictures Of Lily, I Can See For Miles... perfect all. Their blend of melody and noise, ugliness and beauty. They looked so good as well, for a while.

Substitute (US Single version)

I'll Keep It With Mine

Nico may have been one of the coolest looking girls of the 60s  (Exhibit A, the shots of her with The Velvets). Despite her looks and Teutonic cool she was shoe-horned into the group against their will by manager Andy Warhol. She was deaf in one ear and often struggled singing in key but her voice on the banana album works perfectly as a foil for Lou Reed's nasal drawl. Her solo albums can possibly be best described as an acquired taste. She got to know the big shots of the 60s scene too- Jim Morrison, Brian Jones and Bob Dylan all stepped out with her at some point, Dylan writing I'll Keep It With Mine for her, a lovely little song that you can find below.

Addicted to smack for fifteen years she lived with Salford's number one punk poet John Cooper Clarke, flitting between London and Didsbury, Manchester, walking distance from where I grew up (which seems a bit odd now I think about it. How did we all live near a member of the Velvet Underground?). Nico died in 1988, suffering a minor heart attack while cycling in Ibiza, cracking her head on the pavement. A life less ordinary, even if it was 'brushed by the wings of something dark' (to quote Nigel Blackwell).

I'll Keep It With Mine

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 66

John Buck And His Blazers provide a rocking instrumental for us to enjoy tonight.

Open something cold, pretend it's not raining, enjoy the simple pleasures of Friday night.

Forbidden City

P.I.G.S.

Holy Fuck is the name of a Canadian instrumental, krautrock, electronica band. And 'holy fuck' is one of the phrases that passed through my mind when I got told this week that Her Majesty's Inspectorate are coming to do a random single subject inspection of one of the subjects I am responsible for. Next Monday and Tuesday, the penultimate week of the term and year. Cheers HMI.

P.I.G.S

Nosferatu

More Weatherall- yawn. Wait though, there's other stuff here too.



In November 1998 I went to Manchester's Cornerhouse Cinema and Arts Space to see Andrew Weatherall play records as a soundtrack to FW Murnau's 1929 silent film Nosferatu. It was very, very good and very, very spooky. Mrs Swiss was heavily pregnant with our unborn firstborn and the scary soundtrack obviously affected pre-natal I.T. At one point he moved, a limb causing a shark's fin to arc visibly over Mrs Swiss's belly. Bizarre.


The Youtube poster of the entire film says this of Nosferatu-

1929 silent film by F.W. Murnau tells the story of a young man who leaves his bride and travels to see a mysterious count in order to sell a house. He finds that the creature he encounters is not of this world. This version of the"Dracula" tale remains one of the best and rightfully claims it place in cinematic history.



This Weatherall- Dracula event was pre-internet, pre-mobile phone recording. Neither Andrew Weatherall nor the Cornerhouse recorded it (unless they did and it's never been released). I think it was a one-off and there is almost nothing on the internet about it. A Weatherall event with no internet record- double bizarre. 

The song here, vampire link ahoy, is Destroy Yourself by Michael Dracula, remixed by JD Twitch from 2009. Michael Dracula are or were, I think, a band from Glasgow. Ms Dracula (above) sings

'Wake up 
Be happy 
Stay in
Save your money 
You'll be dead a long time honey'


 After that things go a bit mental in Optimo style.


Destroy Yourself (Twitch's Optimo Mix)

Weatherall Mix Round Up

Andrew Weatherall's done almost every promotional piece he could recently except for day time TV (unless I missed him explaining A Love From Outer Space to Philip Schofield). There are mixes and interviews all over the net. I thought I'd share a few with you in case you've missed them. Loads of goodies here for the Weatherall heads among you.

This one is available at Soundcloud for free download- Transitions 404, loads of slow-mo chuggers, very nice too.

Another one here at The Boiler Room, 50 mins with moving pictures too. Far fewer chuggers- opens with reggae, then accordions and treated guitars, spaced out sounds and general weirdo stuff. Splendid. There's a link to an iTunes download but I'm sure if you poke around the dark corners of the internet you can find an alternative.

An interview and fine song selection with a pair of lasses in Berlin here, free download. Have I posted this one before? Maybe. Possibly. News of the forthcoming Madness remix contained within.

This one at Factmag TV is an interview with the man in his studio, where you can marvel at his beard as well as his workplace.

There are several others out there including a radio phone interview with a dj from Stafford whose name escapes me. I got halfway through listening to it a week or two ago and then forgot about it. I suppose I could search my internet history for it. There's enough there to be going on with; it'll have to wait for the moment.

Let's Go Somewhere Quiet

'Let's go somewhere quiet' are pretty much the last words a parent wants to hear in hospital.

Ctel at Acid Ted has put together a compilation album with a variety of unsigned artists to raise awareness and resources for research into childhood brain tumours, a sadly too common cause of death among the under fives. Ctel lost his own son to this foul disease over four years ago and has written brilliantly and movingly on it many times. My own experience with our disabled son I.T. mirrors some of what Ctel has been through, especially long periods of hospitalisation, the strain of dealing with the diagnosis of serious diseases in children and the invasion of one's life by something dreadful and unasked for. When I.T. was diagnosed with Hurler's disease in the summer of 1999 we were ushered into an office at Manchester Childrens' Hospital. A nurse lowered the blinds as we were seated with a consultant. As the horror sunk in and the world swirled around us and the ground disappeared beneath our feet, we were dropped into a place where nothing would be the same again. Some friends of friends of ours are currently dealing with exactly what happened to Ctel. This is important and you can do something to help.

The album, Let's Go Somewhere Quiet, will be released digitally and physically this month. You can keep updated over at Acid Ted. On Monday he featured this song, Never Forget, as a free download. It's by Lena Katina (formerly of taTu) and remixed by Thee Paus3. You know what to do.

Dub Cooking

Two of the albums I've listened to most this year are releases that I didn't fully get with last year- The Kills Blood Pressures and Hollie Cook's debut. Hollie is Sex Pistol Paul's daughter and played with the reformed Slits. Her debut is a proper pop-reggae record, full of summery delights even if we ain't got no sunshine. In April Prince Fatty put out a dubbed out version of it. V good it is, go get a copy.

And The Beat Goes On Dub

The picture is the latest in an irregular series of 1920s and 30s aviators. Although this one is an aviatrix, a word sadly underused in the 21st century.

Velocity Girl

It's worth mentioning, now I've calmed down a bit, that Primal Scream put in a first rate shift as support act at Heaton Park on Friday night. Playing a short set at 8.45 in broad daylight maybe isn't ideal but they made the best of it. Their sound has shifted again with new bassist Debbie Googe (from My Bloody Valentine) adding something new. They opened with a new song, very Detroit '69 and very good, and followed with some hits- Swastika Eyes, Movin' On Up, a rockier than usual Loaded (dedicated to The Roses, without whom etc), Country Girl, Jailbird and Rocks (complete with wall of noise ending). The new song and the news that Andrew Weatherall and David Holmes are working on the new album makes me pretty hopeful for their next lp.

Velocity Girl is 80 seconds of breakneck jangle that pointed Squire and Brown in the direction of Made Of Stone.

Velocity Girl