The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 103

This 1958 rockabilly song by The Moonlighters is a real crying-into-your-beer tearjerker and none the worse for it.

Broken Heart

On the subject of moonlighting Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs department are under the impression that as well as working full time as a teacher I also spent the last tax year employed by Clear Cleaning Ltd. As a result they claim I owe them around £2500 on the £10, 000 plus they think I was paid. Obviously I do not and have not worked as a cleaner- I hate cleaning- and can't see how they think I'd fit it in. Googling Clear Cleaning Ltd shows a firm wound up by the High Court in Birmingham last year and another of the same name in London. One of which they say I worked for while I living in Manchester and working thirty miles north of here. Words fail me.

I have appealed in writing. Have a good bank holiday weekend.

Sky Edit

Following the somewhat kosmische theme we've had here recently I heard Can's Mothersky the other day (on BBC 6 I reckon, I can't think of another radio station I'd either listen to or would play it). A few years back French re-edit chap Pilooski re-worked it. Pilooski is a dab hand at the old re-editing game and this is a game effort. Whether Mothersky really needed re-editing is open to question.

Mothersky (Pilooski Re-edit)

Free Action

That Moon Duo remix album that came out for Record Shop Day is very good- eight remixes and only one that doesn't really do much for me. I haven't got the actual vinyl unfortunately- I found this somewhere on the internets. This song, remixed by Tom Furse of The Horrors, is a beaut.

Free Action (Tom Furse Remix)

Music's Not For Everyone

Andrew Weatherall's stint as artist in residence at Faber has paid off with this mixtape, entitled Music's Not For Everyone Volume 2 Episode 1. Includes King Tubby, Primal Scream, Lee Hazlewood and Ivor Cutler.

A Noisy Place

It's May- how did that happen? Seems like only a few weeks ago it was January and now 2013 is five months in. Maybe this extended winter we've had makes it seem that way. Maybe it's just time seems to speed up as we get older.

Do you like King Tubby?

A Noisy Place

Neu! Time

Krautrock (or kosmiche as it gets called now) has a reputation for being a bit difficult, a challenging listen, but much of Neu!'s output is like aural valium for me. I listened to Hallogallo the other day and felt considerably better for it- especially as at the moment the slightest thing has a tendency to make me feel like I'm about to lose it completely, swearing like a docker and stomping like a bull elephant. I've posted Hallogallo before so instead here's Isi instead- from Neu! '75, all piano and lovely warm analogue electronics with that good ole motorik drumming.

Isi

Amusingly years ago I had two of the three Neu! albums (Neu!, Neu!2 and Neu! '75) and found the one I didn't have on vinyl in HMV (which tells you it was a long time ago). I bought it, got it home and realised it was one I already had, so had to return to HMV and tell the man 'uh, um, I bought this. And I've already got it, can I change it for something else?' He looked at me like I was a total fuckwit- 'You bought it and you've already got it?' 'Yes. The sleeves are quite similar. And the song titles are all in German. And I couldn't remember which of their albums I'd got...' He did let me change it. Out of pity mainly. And my statutory rights.

Beatnik Time

Altrincham used to have a couple of record shops but in recent years has had none. Last Saturday, Record Shop Day, a new record shop opened- Beatnik Shop. I popped down yesterday with the wife and kids in tow. It's a cracking little shop, opposite the covered market and next door to the Belgian Bar (which could be handy). In their first week they've been in The Guardian and been visited by Mike Joyce. Not only does Beatnik Shop sell records (mainly second hand, a few RSD ones hanging around- mostly Aerosmith, unsold for some reason) but it also does coffee, tea and cakes, which bought me ten minutes rummaging time. There's a good amount of 80s indie and punk, 60s and 70s psych, folk and weirdness, pots of funk and soul, some wooden boxes with cds in and several boxes of 7" singles (Northern soul, indie etc). The range and quality shows it's stocked by people who know their stuff. They're promising in-shop performances and this Friday an evening in conversation with music journalist and writer Paul du Noyer. All in all a welcome addition to Altrincham, a town which has been on it's arse for a couple of years to be honest. I hope they manage to make it work. I will be back regularly I suspect. After a while I found a vinyl copy of John Betjeman's Banana Blush lp and scraped together the three quid required. The last song on it is this...

A Child Ill

Face Time

I used to love The Face. Between the late 80s and early 00s I bought almost every copy (and many of them are in the loft, awaiting a good sifting through). Yes, it was silly, pretentious, over-the-top, often very London-centric, and over-styled. But it was also done well, trend setting, at times laugh-out-loud funny, with some really good writers, totally hit the spot at times (and completely missed the target other times), covered issues as well as music and fashion, and its front cover felt like an event- in short essential monthly reading, a frippery but worth it.

Above, the Madchester issue, in which Nick Kent made up quotes various interviewees allegedly said... and below Tricky and Martina Topley Bird

I bought a copy in summer 1987, a double sized, special edition, 100th issue I think. It tried to review the 80s- 'whatever happens now' it said, 'the decade is shaped, nothing can alter the way it looks from here'. Arf. Over the next two years acid house swept the nation, the north rose again, the Berlin Wall came down, Communism collapsed.... 

The pleasure of reading old magazines is seeing where they got it right and where they got it very, very wrong; the bands, records, trends and styles they were sure were the next big thing and are now buried in the 'where are they now?' file. I mean, no disrespect to The Farm (who at times I quite like) and I know Groovy Train was a big hit but 'How to succeed in the music business'? 

Whatever it did though, The Face was rarely boring and for a while it did document our lives (or aspects of them). 

Raving, Aliens, Vodka, Discos, Ibiza... it's got the lot.

                                                                 Mmmmmmm, Kylie.


                                                     Sorry, lost myself there for a moment...

                                         Actually I don't remember this 90s Futures Issue one at all.

I more or less stopped buying it with this issue below- I was clearly too old for it, our time together had passed and besides I began to feel they were laughing at me.

This is The High Numbers (early Who as I'm sure you know). I was going to post the magnificent Face Up by New Order from Lowlife but it's not on my hard drive and I can't be arsed ripping it at the moment. Laziness. Sorry. This is good anyway.

I'm The Face

Monotony In Germany

It's great when you get a compilation album (Treasure Hunting in this case), put it on your portable device, and then one of the tracks you've not really paid attention to appears on the shuffle and it sounds good. This is bit of a thumping dance track from Spaniard Marc Pinol, with a sequenced bass line and a funky little guitar riff that appears after the breakdown and a Speak 'n' Spell voice intoning 'monotony in Germany', pronouncing monotony as 'mon-o-tone-e'. I thought Dirk and Walter might appreciate the sentiment at the least.

Monotony In Germany

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 102

A rockabilly revival act for Friday this week- Jack Rabbit Slim blasting it out with a Telecaster guitar sound that's straight from The Johnny Burnette Rock 'n' Roll Trio and a throat stripping vocal performance. Makes me want to go out to a rockabilly party and drink and dance til dawn. If I had any money. And if such a party existed in Sale. Maybe we should have it here- you're all invited.

Long Time Dead

And as a quiffy extra some live footage...

B Is For Black Affair

Steve Mason's 2009 side project Black Affair was an 80s electro inspired job, which was great in small doses but wore a bit over the course of an entire lp. Still, in a field of his own is Steve Mason- most people wouldn't record let alone release an album like this, so far removed from what he's known for. This was one of the highlights.

Sweet

In a slightly belated tribute to United's 20th league title our picture shows Bobby Charlton, presumably in the aftermath of the Munich air disaster or an early anniversary of, with a cracking quiff. Bobby was present as a player for United's 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th league titles and he's still there, although he doesn't make the netting bulge anymore. The Premier League is a million miles from this picture. Yesterday's post-Beta Band group The Aliens had a song called Bobby's Song which I should've posted instead really.

A Is For Aliens

Some of The Beta Band turned into The Aliens following their break-up. A million pounds owed to the record company and being pressured to accept advertising money to clear the debt, Steve Mason called time. Which caused some friction between the band's members. Steve Mason went off into various solo projects (King Biscuit Time, Black Affair, stuff under his own name). The other three, John MacLean, Gordon Anderson and Robin Jones, put out two albums of upbeat, psychedelic silliness (in a good way)- I've only got Luna from which I always liked this one.

Sunlamp Show

B Is For Beta

Listening to Steve Mason's recent solo album has led me back to The Beta Band. They were real one offs- maybe the only reason their second and third albums aren't given their dues is because they set their standards so high early on with the three e.p.s, later anthologised imaginatively as The Three E.P.s.

I drove to Leeds Irish Centre to see them play at some point in the late 90s, on a school night as well. We'd got free entry by claiming to be reviewing the gig for a Manchester music/arts magazine or something on those lines. It was hotter than hot inside- the sort of heat where you can feel beads of sweat running down the inside of your arm and the small of your back. This made moving difficult. And I was driving, so couldn't attack the heat with beer. Carl from Cud stood at the bar, his time long gone. The Beta Band were out of this world that night, versions of spooky trauma song Dr Baker and the trippy Needles In Your Eyes sticking in the memory for ages afterwards. And Dry The Rain of course.

Dry The Rain

Going Back To My Roots

Richie Havens, RIP.

I think we can all agree that this is one of those tunes. It was big round these parts.

Czech It Out

Julius Fucik was a Czech journalist and member of the Communist Party who was part of the resistance against the Nazis. He was imprisoned, tortured and killed by them in 1943. He has an untouchable national hero staus in the Czech Republic. And that is a really nice jacket he's wearing. I'm sure I shouldn't boil historical events and figures down to their dress but it is a really nice jacket.

British Sea Power are one of those bands who I like but who as someone said on Twitter recently have never completely lived up to their brilliant name. They look fantastic in their 30s mountaineering garb and with branches and stuffed animals on stage. It's good when bands make an effort and BSP have always made an effort even if the songs have occasionally underwhelmed a little. This single, which is lovely by the way, was a limited edition release in 2004 and put out only in the Czech Republic and available at some gigs. It was produced in a run of 1942 copies (this being the year Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by two Czech agents). The vocals are by Katerina Winterova of Czech band The Ecstacy Of Saint Theresa and the B-sides are both in Czech. Czech it out.

A Lovely Day Tomorrow

Marred

Last month Mrs Swiss and I went to see Johnny Marr at the Ritz (the Friday gig, first of two). We had a good night out, got out together (which doesn't happen very often), had a few drinks, saw a living legend. I later tweeted...

'Johnny Marr played the Ritz tonight. It was great. Crowd were a bit flat early on. Typical Mancs. Great encore. Cheers. Goodnight.'

Someone asked me recently if I enjoyed it and said I seemed a bit like I hadn't. I did enjoy it- Johnny and the band were really good- the songs off the new album worked really well live and he played several songs I've been waiting two and half decades to hear him play (I never saw The Smiths). Second song in was London, one of my  favourite Smiths songs, and it rocked. He did Forbidden City, one of my favourite Electronic songs. Bigmouth. The encore included a great garage-y version of Getting Away With It, How Soon Is Now and finished with There Is  A Light. Other than The Queen Is Dead and Get The Message what more could I want?

What spoilt it a bit, as I think my tweet hinted at was the crowd and looking at the photo above it seems like there was absolute mayhem. The Ritz is a great venue, smallish, sprung dancefloor, good sound, bars on both sides. The crowd wasn't all middle aged Smiths fans, but a mixture of those/us and younger folk. There is a problem at The Ritz that curfew is 10 pm because it turns into a nightclub afterwards, which means an early start, so less build up and expectation maybe. For the first few songs we stood two-thirds of the way back. In front of us were two couples. The two men talked to each other all the way through the songs, occasionally turning to look at the stage between songs and provide light applause. Their female partners watched the gig but these two youngish men (twenty something I guess) nattered all the way through. Between two songs I said (loudly) that there are good places for chattering, they're called pubs, but it made no difference. Why would you spend £20 on a gig ticket and pay no attention to the performance. After a while we moved further forward, much nearer the stage where it was much better. Behind me then stood the tallest man in Manchester (and I'm not exactly a short arse), who filmed almost very song on his mobile phone, straight over the top of my head. Now I have been known to look at this type of footage on Youtube and often it's a poor reminder of what a gig was like but sometimes it's worth watching. Equally I've taken the odd photo. But filming something at length with your phone instead of watching it happen seems as daft as talking all the way through. You're not in the moment. The Yeah Yeah Yeah's tried to put their feet down about this recently, Jarvis Cocker made the same point and Ian Brown admonished people at Warrington Parr Hall last year for 'making a film when you're missing making a memory'.

I guess as well as the above, several gigs I've been to recently have been utterly memorable with complete audience participation and attention throughout- The Roses at Warrington was crazy from front-to-back, people almost in tears, dancing and complete elation, Justice Tonight and Half Man Half Biscuit (both at The Ritz) were full on, Heaton Park as well (and that was 70, 000 people in a field although admittedly I don't know what it was like at the back). Sometimes Mancunian audiences can be a bit 'arms folded, come on then impress us' but Johnny Marr at a homecoming gig? So maybe I've been spoilt. I don't go to enough gigs anymore to know for sure, certainly I don't go to enough small gigs by up-and-coming bands. My brother-in-law says he won't attend anything bigger than a few hundred now, as the atmosphere at anything bigger always suffers. It can't be realistic to expect every show to be a life-changing spectacle, so maybe I should alter/lower my expectations. But audiences, and this is a familiar gripe I think, don't always contribute positively and mainly need to put their phones away and shut the fuck up when people are playing.

The Draize Train (Live 1985)

Linotype Works

Along with Stretford's Essoldo cinema this is another of my favourite buildings of south Manchester. The Linotype Machinery Works in Broadheath, Altrincham, built (you might just be able to make out) in 1897. The building manufactured machinery to produce text (basically the machines punched into linotype and then printed from it) and exported the machines all over the world. It's grade II listed and this front part is offices today, so it appears to be pretty safe. The redbrick front with it's inlayed lettering in terracotta is brilliant and the series of parapets hides the massive brick factory building that sits behind it. The factory part is used by various businesses and most of it seems to be occupied. Which is good. A working building, still working. I was dismayed to see while driving around there today that opposite the front they're building a housing development- ugly, featureless, little boxes which will have a great view while spoiling the setting of this building themselves.

The view towards the Linotype Works from the towpath of the Bridgewater Canal, taken on my phone last year.

Down the side there is this side entrance, again with the inlayed brick lettering. There's a matching one on the canal side too. I took this pic from the car in the rain today and am a bit concerned about the wooden buttresses holding this wall up.

Sorry if this is all coming across a bit Nikolaus Pevsner. You don't need any music with this post do you?

Down On My Knees In Suburbia, Down On Myself In Every Way

Ah- England's suburbs. One of those quintessential aspects of 20th century life- net curtains, garages, lawns and lamp posts, postmen and pillar boxes, commuters rushing for the train or bus, washing the car, walking the dog and boring, rainy Sunday afternoons. Alternatively celebrated as the heartbeat of England and the epitome of dreary conformity (and imagined as a hotbed of wife-swapping). Hanif Kureishi's book The Buddha Of Suburbia was televised by the BBC back in the early 90s and David Bowie provided an album length soundtrack of songs, with this title track- which sounds surprisingly good twenty years later. It has a little self-referential Ziggy riff towards the end as a knowing joke and nod of the head.

The Buddha Of Suburbia

Moon Trails

This sort of thing really floats my boat at the moment- Moon Duo (longhaired, boy-girl, guitar heavy, Wooden Shjips offshoot) remixed by White Rainbow as part of a whole album of remixes available exclusively for Record Shop Day along with versions by Sonic Boom and Tom Furse from The Horrors among others. As a taster this one is being given away as a free download and is worth every byte. White Rainbow strip away the guitars and send Moon Duo way off into the cosmos- trippy, far-out, wonked out,disco with some very wonky keyboard. Hmm... too many wonkys in that sentence.

As I said- free download.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 101

 Someone in Filey has these rocking gates. If only I had a drive...

Sun Records had a stable full of fine thoroughbreds in the 50s- like Ray Smith, who's here half a century later to liven up your Friday. I for one am gladder than glad that that week is over. Work's been shite, never mind all that stuff on the news...

Right Behind You Baby