Jensen,Long and Skinner....

Apart from all the great bloggers that I have mentioned previously my other main inspiration for starting this blog was the great man whose picture is to the right of this post. John Peel, more than any other person shaped my musical taste over the 10 years or so that I would almost religiously listen at 10 PM to his show on BBC Radio 1. I started the blog not long after last year's annual Peel Day and hopefully this October I can contribute something as opposed to sitting on the sideline as I have done in the past.

However there were 3 other DJ's that also played a large part in forming my musical taste namely Kid Jensen, Janice Long and Richard Skinner. All 3 of them produced shows that were very important in giving exposure to up and coming bands and between them had sessions from the likes of The Smiths, Orange Juice, The Woodentops, The Cocteau Twins and Bourgie Bourgie. Yes there shows were a lot more commercial than some of the output that Peel would would play but their importance in breaking new bands cannot be underestimated.

Jensen and Long were both in the time slot prior to Peel's show and both broke new ground with the music they played and quite often would cause interruption to my game of rounders so that I could go home and listen to the latest session from the likes of Orange Juice or Lloyd Cole and The Commotions.

Peel will always be the barometer and is easily the single most important radio DJ this country will ever have but I say hats off to Jensen, Long and Skinner who played their parts in introducing myself and many others to some great sounds over the years.

So Keep Your Eyes Wide Open....

Much as I enjoyed the early days of "Britpop" I found myself more drawn towards the groups who were making music that rejected the laddishness of Oasis and co and found their own niche in amongst the huge amount of guitar bands that saturated the scene in the mid 90's.

One such band were Geneva. Originally known as Sunfish and then briefly Garland they finally settled on the name of Geneva. Mostly because they were signed to Nude Records they were always unfairly compared to Suede and to a lesser extent Radiohead. I think it's fair to say that there were similarities but neither band featured the exquisite vocals of Andrew Montgomery. Boy, could this lad sing. Combined with some wonderful haunting melodies and terrific guitar work the band produced 4 Top 40 hits and a Top 20 album during a short period of chart success they had in the 90's.

Further is one of the best albums from that era that was sadly never bettered by the band. The band split in 2000 and Montgomery has continued to record with artists such as Ben Neill and Overseer but I am still holding out hope for a Geneva reunion, if only to witness live again the breathtaking vocals of Andrew Montgomery.

Hope you agree and enjoy.

33 Revolutions Per Minute....

Dorian Lynskey's new book 33 Revolutions Per Minute : A History of Protest Songs is an essential read for anyone who likes their music with a dash of politics spread on top.

Each chapter is named after a song starting with Billie Holiday's classic Strange Fruit and concluding with Green Day's American Idiot. Along the way there are chapters on the likes of Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, The Clash, Billy Bragg and Crass amongst others. All the music is placed in the context of a particular event in history such as opposition to the Vietnam War, black power, gay rights, the Falklands War and C.N.D.

Most of the musicians in the book, by their own admittance, have thought at one point they could change the world with their songs only to realise that they can't but most have also made some bloody decent music along the way.

At a time when protest songs appear to be in decline perhaps events over the next few years when government cuts start to kick in will ignite a new generation to follow in the footsteps of the artists in the book.

The other great thing about the book is that it makes you want to re-visit the tracks you already know or give a first listen to any you may not be acquainted with.

The book is mostly comprised of Western musicians, but does have pieces on the likes of Fela Kuti and is a fairly weighty coming in at over 800 pages and covers almost 70 years of history and sometimes you realize that a particular track can make a difference as was the case with The Special A.K.A.'s Free Nelson Mandela, which may not quite have got him released from prison but certainly helped the cause greatly.

Anyone with any interest in protest songs or just good ole rock 'n' roll in general will find plenty to enjoy in this intelligent, well written history of the protest song.

KEEP ON KEEPING ON !!

Fade Into You....

Hope Sandoval's dreamy, plaintive, seductive vocals are strangely beautiful and completely unforgettable. Once heard never forgotten. Her voice is full of sadness but is sweet as maple syrup and once combined with the supreme talent of David Roback it forms the core of Mazzy Star.

Mazzy Star's second album So Tonight That I Might See is their masterpiece. Similiar in style to The Cowboy Junkies it opens with the sublime Fade Into You and continues almost as one long piece of music that is intensely beautiful. Some criticism was tossed their way that all the tracks sounded the same. I don't see it, to me they are all variations on the same theme that deserves to be listened to in a full sitting rather than diving in and out as is often the case these days.

Whenever you've had a crap day this is the perfect album to drift off into that warrants repeated listens and always throws up something new each time you play it.

Can be bought here .

Biff Bang Pow....

Starting life as The Mark Four, The Creation were unfairly compared to both the Kinks and The Who. Yes in the early days they both had the same producer and yes there are similarities in the guitar sound they all made but there is enough clear water between them to have The Creation display their own distinctive sound.

There are many 60's guitar bands that are more well known than The Creation but not many as good. The Creation are one of the great unknown legends of RnR. Combining the sound of 60' garage with the best power pop aggression of the burgeoning Mod scene The Creation easily produced music as good as their more famous contemporaries.

Fans of the film Rushmore may know the following track as that is where a lot of people first came across the band.

I Saw The Telegram....

 

I've tried more often than not since starting the blog back in October 2010 to try and mostly post on bands that in my humble opinion should have been more successful than they were and to try and either introduce music fans to these bands or as a memory nudge to others who would know who these bands were but may have forgotten about them to a certain extent. It's debatable as to how this has panned out but if there are a few people out there who fall into one of those categories then hopefully it is serving a purpose.

Enough rambling for one day I think and onto today's post which completely flies in the face of the previous paragraph and is a small piece on a band that have achieved huge success over the last 30 years or so and would easily make it onto a shortlist of my favourite bands.

The first album that I bought by the mighty New Order is still my favourite album by them, Lowlife. As much as I like Movement and Power,Corruption And Lies this is the one, for me, in which they fully hit their stride and any album that starts with their very own modern day folk song replete with melodica solo, Love Vigilantes is staring at greatness from the off. Just when you think things can't get any better they follow that up with the lush, epic that is The Perfect Kiss which although a fantastic song you have to hear it in all it's 9 minute 12" version to hear the full glory of it.

This Time Of night is not a track that gets mentioned a lot but it contains one of those killer New Order choruses and one of Barney's finest lyrics, that he probably bashed off in 5 minutes in the studio.

Things then turn up a notch for the adrenaline rush that is Sunrise. This is always a highlight of the New Order live experience. This is then followed by the very beautiful and moving instrumental, Elegia.

Sooner Than You Think is a fairly decent New Order track but is not up to the standard of the rest of the album. The album closes with another single Sub-Culture, albeit in a slightly more restrained but superior version and then Face Up, which a lot of fans didn't take to but personally I think it's a great track to close my favourite New Order album and is another popular choice when played live, especially that moment when you have 2000+ fans singing "Oh, how I cannot bear the thought of you". at full volume. Glorious.

Lean Over On The Bookcase....

In my humble opinion Rattlesnakes is one of the truly great albums of the last 30 years or so. I still remember the first time I heard that wonderful guitar solo on Forest Fire and feeling one of those wow moments you get when you know you have heard something special. The music on the album is beautifully arranged with some outstanding melodies alongside Cole's unique literary style of songwriting. The album was not scared to wear its heart on its sleeve with the influence of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed throughout while still sounding contemporary alongside their musical peers such as The Smiths. There is always an element of self-mocking wit amongst Cole's smart, observational lyrics which elevate his songwriting to the top tier. Rattlesnakes represents the best of Lloyd Cole from the divine opener, Perfect Skin to the sublime album closer, Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? It is a masterpiece of clever, ironic lyrics with some tremendous interplay between a band that had barely been together for 2 years.

I once saw the album described as a companion piece to Blood On The Tracks and that is not too far from the mark. Lloyd Cole has released some wonderful music over the last 30 years but Rattlesnakes is still for me his finest hour and still sounds fresh and contains some of my favourite lyrical couplets.

She's got cheekbones like geometry and eyes like sin

And she's sexually enlightened by cosmopolitan

I believe in love, I'll believe in anything

that's gonna get me what I want and get me off my knees

then we'll burn your house down, don't it feel so good

there's a forest fire every time we get together

Oh must you tell me all your secrets,

When it's hard enough to love you knowing nothing?

Ivory Madonna....

I've finally just managed to watch some of the Reggae stuff on the iPlayer that was recently aired on BBC4 and after watching Ali Campbell it jogged my memory that at one time, albeit briefly,  UB40 were a bloody good band.

Of course I am referring to the first 2 albums both of which are remarkable in their songwriting and musicianship, all the more so considering the guys were barely out of shorts. I was listening to both albums recently but for me debut album, Signing Off has the edge.

I would have been about 11 when I first heard Signing Off and obviously at that age would not have been paying too much attention to the highly politicised lyrical content but fell in love instantly with the quality of the songs and Ali Campbell's unique vocal style.

Classic songs abound such as Tyler, Food For Thought and King, making this for me one of the essential early 80's albums and over the years I have come to appreciate the thought provoking lyrics with tracks about Martin Luther King, Britain's Imperialist past in Burden Of Shame and Madame Medusa's vivid description of Thatcher's rise to power.

Brilliant first album full of energy and sincerity that sadly was never bettered by the Brummie boys.

Just Close Your Eyes Again....

Following on from yesterday's post I had a listen to Side 2 of the first Indie City cassette and although not quite up to the standard of Side 1 there is sill a smorgasbord of musical treats to tempt the Indie tastebuds including The Cocteaus, The Redskins, Joy Division and East Kilbride's very own Boy Wonder Roddy Frame.


The word genius is thrown about too readily these days but there can be few more musicians worthy of the word than Roddy Frame.I've seen Roddy a few times live with Aztec Camera, solo and a couple of times when he was playing guitar with Edwyn Collins where you would catch Edwyn sitting and watching in sheer admiration at the guitar virtuosity of one of this country's most talented and gifted songwriters.

Still astonishing to this day that he was only 19 when he released one of the best debut albums of all time in High Land Hard Rain . An album literally bursting with youth, vitality, energy and just great songs. Very hard to single out best tracks from an almost perfect album but the track that is on the Indie City cassette, We Could Send Letters, is certainly one of them with one of Roddy's finest ever lyrics. If for any reason you have never seen Roddy Frame live you should try and catch him the next time he plays at a town near you.

Nag Nag Nag....

I managed to grab a bit of time today to sort through some old cassettes that I found a few months back in the loft and came across many that I had completely forgotten about amongst them a couple from the N.M.E. imaginatively called Indie City 1 and , yes I'm sure you can guess the title of the second one.

I hadn't listened to the tape for years and was very pleasantly surprised when I listened to Volume 1, Side 1 and came across the likes of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, Orange Juice and the electro, industrial sound of Sheffield's finest, Cabaret Voltaire.

As much influenced by writers William Burroughs and J.G. Ballard as by the music of Bowie, Roxy Music, The Velvets and NEU, Cabaret Voltaire appeared out of Sheffield in the early 70's, becoming one of the most important bands to blend experimental electronic music with pop, dance, dub and techno.

Often in the early days of live performance they would share a bill with Joy Division, quite often risking injury as a lot of the crowds just did not get them. That all changed with the arrival of punk however and they found a more accepting audience.

Also heavily influenced by the band Suicide in '78, signed to Rough Trade they released the classic single Nag Nag Nag which somehow managed to combine the sound of Suicide with a hint of the finest 60's surf bands and to this day is one of the most important of the post punk era.

In the mid 80's the band started producing a more commercial sound culminating in this great piece of music that was much loved by the Hacienda crowd.

If this doesn't make you want to get up and shake your tail feather then nothing will.

Favourite Cover Versions...Part 4

Originally by US garage band, The Other Half, another of my favourite covers is The Mighty Fall's version of Mr Pharmacist. The Fall have always done a good line in covers with the likes of Rollin' Danny, Victoria and There's A Ghost In My House to name a few but Mr Pharmacist is the one for me. Still a live favourite to this day and it's easy to hear why. Taken from the album that a lot of Fall fans consider to be at the peak of their most fertile creative period, Bend Sinister, the track is one of The Fall's most accessible songs and is no worse for it.

Buy Bend Sinister HERE .

As it is Mark E Smith's 54th birthday today here's an extra helping live from Glasgow's Renfrew Ferry.

At Their Peak....

I go uh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubh bubhuuh duh bubh ah uh bubh bubh bubh bubhdubha ohohoho....

Just a brilliant pop song. Only reached Number 47 in 1980. One single too early as next single Reward was their biggest hit reaching Number 6. Both tracks came from classic Teardrops album Kilimanjaro which last year received the 3 CD deluxe treatment and for once all the additional material is well worth having. For me this is always going to be the essential Cope purchase. Compared to a lot of albums of that era it doesn't sound dated. It's one of those albums that is hard to pick a stand out track as the marriage of late 60's psychedelia and the dazzling array of horns, synths and huge melodies make for one of the 80's finest albums with no filler material on it.

26 Dollars In My Hand....

There can be few artists still performing that have been as influential as birthday boy, Lou Reed who turns 69 today. Topics such as drug use, homosexuality and decadence had never been so explicitly explored in music before the arrival in the mid 60's of The Velvet Underground.

His back catalogue is extremely inconsistent but it would be hard to fault his most enduring accomplishments with the Velvets. Mostly unappreciated during their brief existence The Velvet Underground with Reed at the helm produced 4 albums worth of innovative and essential music. Sister Ray, What Goes On, Waiting For The Man, Lisa Says, Pale Blue Eyes, Sweet Jane...there is not much on these 4 albums that does not stand the test of time.

It was Reed's second solo album, Transformer, that eventually brought him into public consciousness giving him his only major hit with Walk On The Wild Side. Then to counter his newly accquired success, in the mid 70's Reed released one of the most unlistenable pieces of music"ever released in the shape of Metal Machine Music.

There were some half decent songs released over the next 15 years or so but it wasn't until 1989 that Reed released the album that many consider to his finest solo offering in New York where Reed's anger is directed at those responsible for the social malaise in his home city. Full of poignant and colourful imagery with a stripped back garage sound this is Lou Reed at his best with some of the best lyrics he ever penned taking in topics such as child abuse, the destruction of the enviroment and TV evangelism. You even get Mo Tucker playing on the Andy Warhol tribute, Dime Store Mystery.

Ultimately he will probably be remembered more for his groundbreaking work with The Velvet Underground but at 69 Lou Reed is still pushing himself to create work with meaning and hopefully will continue to do so for a while yet.