In 2023 Andy Bell and Masal released an album, called Tidal Love Numbers- four long ambient pieces that wandered into psyche, folk, jazz and blissed out noisy drones and back again, Andy's guitar and Masal's harp and synths all blurring into a greater whole. Andy and Masal have a new album out in October called Common Primitives and ahead of it this single, The Morning Of The Trip...
The Morning Of The Trip is the soundtrack to something- a slow film about the passage of time perhaps, time lapse photography of the start of a new day, a long descent from the heavens by balloon. A theme tune. Visual music. Shoegaze/ ambient and harp.
You can buy it and pre- order the album at Bandcamp
In a handy moment of coincidence this is the morning of my trip too- I'm off to Glasgow for a couple of days where I shall meet up with JC (The Vinyl Villain) and a few other like minded folk. When I booked my train a few weeks ago I wasn't really thinking about the World Cup and which teams might have made it to the semi- final stage. It has transpired that tonight I shall be in Glasgow when England play their semi- final against Argentina, a place where an Englishman supporting England is unlikely to be particularly popular.
I have been drawn in by the World Cup despite my misgivings about it- about Trump's USA being the hosts, about the advert/ hydration breaks, about Infantino and FIFA (and some of those misgivings have been very much realised such as Trump pressuring FIFA to rescind a US player's red card not to mention their treatment of the Iranian team and Omar Artan, the Somali referee who was barred from entering the country).
The sheer variety the World Cup brings- teams and fans from countries as far afield as Japan, Morocco, Belgium and Mexico, the collision of styles and cultures, the colour and the spectacle- is very much to be applauded and soaked up. The world in all its varieties.
I often have an unease about supporting England- the flag, the national anthem, the fans dressed as crusaders, the endless recycling of that song and of 'football coming home'. It's all so, as the kids say, cringe. But in the current climate, a multi- cultural team of young men from a variety of backgrounds doing well is a good thing (three examples- Bukayo Saka, Nigerian parents, born in Ealing; Jude Bellingham, Irish and Jamaican parents, born in Birmingham; Djed Spence Jamaican and Kenyan parents, born in London; this is England and the racists, the Reform voters and the lamppost flaggers are having to deal with it. It's the England most of us are actually happy to be part of and to live in). When Jude Bellingham scored against Norway in extra time late on on Saturday night I was leaping round the living room like a lunatic. Fingers crossed we find a pub in Glasgow where we can watch England go one step further.
I’m really
not a very patriotic person at all, it being as Oscar Wilde said, 'the last refuge of the scoundrel'. The markers of patriotism have always felt
like nonsense to me- the flag (either of them, the cross of St. George and the
Union flag), the national anthem, the monarchy, the Little England attitudes, the
English exceptionalism, all of it does nothing for me. It makes no sense at all
that someone who was born in Carlisle, Dover or Chester is in some way better
than someone born a few miles away in Wrexham, Calais or Dumfries. Pride in one's country and it's achievements is I suppose OK to an extent but that pride often tips over into nationalism and exceptionalism and has a habit of hiding or ignoring some parts of a nation's history too.
Supporting
the England football team has always been tainted with all of the nonsense too. It's not necessarily the team's fault, they're partly just the vehicle for it. Tabloid controversies about whether the players are singing the national anthem
with enough ‘passion’. Songs about winning two world wars, ten German bombers and no surrender to the I.R.A.
Grown men dressed as crusader knights. The England band (thankfully now missing). Car flags and cheap red cross on white background bunting sagging in the summer rain. The booing by their own fans of players taking the knee to protest against racism. The deluge of racist messages that Bukayo Saka,
Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho received after missing their penalties in the 2021
Euro final. This was almost the last straw as far as I was concerned, ‘fans’ who would
have been dancing in the streets if the penalty kicks had been a few inches one
way or the other, taking to social media to racially abuse the young men who
were taking part in a game was sickening and reflective of the wider culture-
of Reform and UKIP, of Tory Little England politics, of the immigration narrative
that Farage and Johnson and others fuelled by the tabloid press have spewed
into British politics and English culture, of the nationalist nonsense that is
only ever a sentence away from racism and the 'I'm not racist but...' brigade.
The football team have dragged
me back in over the last four weeks. I've tried to remain a bit arm's length from it, not get too invested. I boycotted the Qatar World Cup, hardly saw any of it, so it passed me by completely. But there was a sweet pleasure in watching the England penalties against
Switzerland last Saturday, as five black and mixed race young men calmly slotted
home their penalty kicks, the first and second generation descendants of immigrants putting England into a Euro
semi- final. Where, as someone asked on social media after the match, are the racists
now? Another of those children of immigrants, Ollie Watkins, scored the winner on Wednesday night, in the last second of the last minute of normal time.
Tonight, England
play Spain in the final of Euro ’24 in Berlin. This is a major achievement, the second consecutive Euros final. Those
of us who grew up watching England in the 80s and 90s have seen little but failure
from England teams. Sometimes they have been truly awful- the Euros in ’88, ’92 and 2016, the World Cup in 2014.
Sometimes they’ve been massively overinflated and departed meekly beaten by clearly
better sides- tournaments in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2012. Sometimes they’ve been engulfed by (in)glorious failure
with a sense of injustice- Mexico ’86, France ’98. Sometimes they’ve not even qualified
for tournaments- 1994, 2008. Very occasionally they’ve pulled it together and almost but
not quite got to the final- 1990 and 1996. But on the whole, even if you can ignore the nationalist bluster that surrounds them, they've been not very good.
Recently
they’ve been better and if nothing else Gareth Southgate has changed the story
around the England team, blocked out ‘the noise’ as he puts it. I’ve learned to
limit my expectations of England. Reaching Euro finals twice in three years is something
no other England manager or team has done. Hopefully, maybe, they can go one step
further tonight and put to bed the endless burden of 1966 and all that.
This is a thirty five minute mix of songs about England with a couple of England football songs. I'm sure some of you won't go anywhere near it but I like to think of it as the antithesis of Three Lions.
Shuttleworth ft. Mark E. Smith: England's Heartbeat (Brazilian Ambush)
The Vermin Poets: England's Poets
Big Audio Dynamite: Union, Jack
New Order: World In Motion (Call The Carabinieri Mix)
Billy Bragg's A New England is his 1983 calling card, a song about being twenty two and looking for a new girl, wishing on space hardware, and life in the early 80s. I probably should have included Kirsty McColl's cover which in some ways is the definitive version. In 2002 Billy addressed a load of the flag, nationalism, immigration, tabloid press, racism and England football shirts in his song Half- English- this only occurred to me while writing this part of the post.
Something About England is from The Clash's 1980 album Sandinista!, a song that opens with the more resonant than ever lines, 'They say the immigrants steal the hub caps of respected gentlemen/ They say it would be wine and roses/ if England were for Englishmen again...' It's a truly great song, one where ick and Joe sing in character, Mick a young man leaving a bar and Joe an old man huddled in rags in a shop doorway. They then give us a history of the 20th century, war, depression, class struggle, disaster, all set to Clash punk/ music hall. 'Old England was all alone', they conclude.
A few years later, Mick and Topper both sacked, Joe recorded the final Clash album, Cut The Crap. The only song you really need from it is This Is England, the last great Clash song, Joe giving a state of the nation address, five years into Thatcher's government, economic depression and unemployment, with drum machines, guitars and chanting football crowds.
Care was Paul Simpson (who will be back at this blog soon) and Ian Broudie. In 1983 Paul formed Care after The Wild Swans split for the first time. Sad Day For England was the B-side to the 12" My Boyish Days, one of only a handful of releases by the pair before they split in 1985.
Black Grape's England's Irie was an unofficial Euro '96 song, a song that brought together Shaun Ryder, bez and Kermit with Keith Allen and Joe Strummer (and Strummer's only Top Of The Pops appearance). Shaun delivers several memorable lines, not least 'I'm spectating my wife's lactating/ It's a football thing'. I'm not sure it's aged particularly well but I thought I should include it.
Shuttleworth were a one off band of Mark E. Smith, Ed Blaney and Jenny Shuttleworth who recorded this song for England's adventures at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Apparently the FA approached him to do it (!) but then decided against having an official song so Mark put it out anyway. Mark wrote a few football related songs- Theme For Sparta FC is a classic- and on one occasion read the full time results on the BBC.
In the 2010 World Cup England were dreadful in the group stage, finishing second behind the USA. They lost the next game in the knock out round to Germany, 4- 1.
The Vermin Poets were one of Billy Childish's many, many groups. Their album, Poets Of England, came out in 2010, garage rock/ psyche pop. I don't think it's among Billy's best work but anything by Billy is worth paying at least some attention to.
Union, Jack was on Big Audio Dynamite's 1989 album Megatop Phoenix, their fourth album and the last made by the original line up. 'Make a stand/ Before you fall/ You country needs you/ To play football', Mick sings, slipping in lines the empire, pints of beer, a green and pleasant land, and all for one. A Mick Jones late 80s football song that tries to re- imagine the football song after some terrible 80s ones sung by England squads with perms, mullets and in leisure wear. Mick would find himself trumped a year later though...
World In Motion needs no introduction really- New Order, Keith Allen, John Barnes, the summer of 1990, Italia 90, a dire group stage, wins against Belgium and Cameroon and then ultimately disappointment, penalties and Germany. This version is an Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley remix from the remix 12" that came out a week after the main one. New Order had wanted to reflect the zeitgeist of 1990 by calling the song E For England, a step too far for the FA. They had to settle for the chorus, 'love's got the world in motion'. The FA wanted it changed to 'we've got the world in motion' but New Order stood their ground and love it was.
Since the invention of the camera phone (how quaint that sounds) everyone is now a photographer and that's obviously good news which results in some great pictures and the sharing of them. But being a photographer, a professional one, is a special skill that comes down to a bit more than just pointing your iPhone at something funny/beautiful/brilliant and clicking the shutter. Paul Husband is a Mancunian photographer I'm in touch with via social media and very good he is too. On Saturday night he went to a big gig at Victoria Warehouse headlined by Primal Scream with support from Black Grape, Badly Drawn Boy and a whole host of smaller, local bands. I was at my brother's wedding on Saturday night but Paul went and asked me if I wanted to share some of his photos. I'm more than happy to oblige- this one above of Kermit caught my eye. And so did these...
Reviews of the performance have been good, Black Grape reportedly upstaging Bobby Gillespie's group. Here, have a song from their debut album with characteristically great Shaun Ryder lyrics.
Sleep deprivation on a bus traveling backwards through Europe (me travelling backwards, almost everyone else claimed they had to face forwards or they would be sick). It causes strange things to happen. I dozed off briefly and was woken with Shaun Ryder intoning two lines from Black Grape's Reverend Black Grape...
'You do nothing but socialise and become a menace
Put on your Reeboks man, go and play fucking tennis'
This rang around my head for a good while. Then, at about two thirty a.m. we stopped at a service station somewhere in The Netherlands. One of the kids emerged from the top deck, rubbing her eyes, and disappeared into the toilet. When she came out she said 'Sir, are we in Argentina?'
I'm not sure I liked Black Grape that much, although the first album had its moments. 1996 single Fat Neck was a tribute to Karl Power, who specialised in sneaking into major sporting events- he walked up to the crease padded up for England at cricket, got onto court at Wimbledon and lined up for United away in a Champions League tie (see above, far left. See also Roy Keane, far right, who has spotted him. Run, Karl, run). Did he play last night? Fat Neck also has Johnny Marr on guitar.
Tonight England play Italy in the quarter finals of Euro 2012. The team has already surpassed expectations by not being total shite. At 7.45 tonight they will either be outclassed or turn this into one of English football's great adventures. And then lose on penalties.
At Euro '96, the last time they made a semi-final, Shaun Ryder's Black Grape provided an unofficial anthem- England's Irie. It is notable for three things; one, it's pretty good; two, Shaun performs a verse which goes 'I'm spectating, my wife's lactating, it's a football thing'; three, this was Joe Strummer's only Top Of The Pops performance.
More big, stupid fun with Black Grape. I wasn't that fussed about Black Grape but the first album had it's moments, this being the best- Kelly's Heroes. It's got that mid 90s rhythm, a naggingly good funky guitar riff and some very funny Shaun Ryder lyrics, mainly about Jesus, 'handing out the fish, man, with his centre parted sun tan, then cured the lame'. The chorus is made-up-on-the-spot brilliance- 'Jesus was a black man, no Jesus was Batman, no, no, no, no, no, that was Bruce Wayne.'
