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