One Year Old Today....

'Twas one year ago on Halloween 2010 that I done my first post on Spools Paradise and although I haven't posted as often as I would have hoped I have managed 127 posts so far which is not a bad effort for my first year. A large part of this was due to the fact that I have been spending in the region of 4 hours each day travelling to and from work but having got a position closer to home now hopefully that will change.

My first post was about the first band that I saw play live and seemed appropriate for the day that I started the blog. The Cramps are not a band I listen to that often at home but they will always command a special place as they remind me of a certain time in my life and of events and friendships never forgotten.

So this year I have opted once again to go for the band who fused their love of horror B-movies with rockabilly and surf rock, and whose influence can still be heard in many bands today. The Cramps' appeal was largely based on their pulverising live shows and I was fortunate enough to see them live on two occasions and both times they were a welcome reminder of what real rock'n'roll is all about.

Sadly, as we all know, the great Lux Interior is no longer with us and although they became a parody of themselves later on there is no doubting that they were all about keeping it pure, raw and minimal and live at least they stuck to their rockabilly roots and never diluted their impact.

Happy Halloween one and all.

The Cramps - You Got Good Taste

Keeping It Peel Day 2011

Today is Keeping It Peel Day, a day to honour the memory of the great man himself who tragically died 7 years ago today. Keeping It Peel has been organised by Webbie from the wonderful Football And Music blog and as I started Spools Paradise after Peel Day last year I thought that I would join in this year.

Like many fellow bloggers a large part of my musical tastes and knowledge came from Peel's weekday ten 'til midnight slot on BBC Radio 1. At one point I must have been helping to keep TDK in business with the amount of C90's I was buying to capture the latest weird and wonderful sounds that Peel shared with us. Sometimes I would throw caution to the wind and splash out on some C120's, record the whole show, primed for the Walkman on the way to school. I was a big fan of Kid Jensen and Janice Long's shows but it was the sheer diversity of what was on offer on Peel's show that made it the essential show on radio. That and the dry, sardonic humour between tunes.

I gave some thought as to what tracks to post today and couldn't decide whether to post bands that I had heard for the first time on his show or whether to post some obscure session tracks or simply just to post a few tracks that sum up what Peel's radio shows were all about to me. In the end I opted for three tracks that in their own way encompass all that made John Peel the single most important DJ that these isles have produced.

It was through Peel that I developed a lifelong love of Reggae and, for me, the session version of "Lion Rock" is the ultimate version of Culture's finest moment and one of my favourite session tracks ever recorded for Peel.

The "Gedge" must have done something right to have recorded 22 sessions for Peel over the years. I first saw The Wedding Present live at Glasgow Tech some time round about this session and it was also the first Peel session that I bought on Strange Fruit so track two is from 1986's Maida Vale masterpiece.

And my final choice was the Festive 50 winner in 2000. I went to see Neko Case in concert on the back of this track and was quite simply blown away by her live. Dramatic, gutsy, mysterious, powerful, Neko's voice is quite simply a force of nature. 2000 was the last year that I listened to the Festive 50 in it's entirety and seems like the right place to finish off my small contribution to Keeping It Peel 2011.

Culture - Lion Rock (Peel Session)
The Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait (Peel Session)
Neko Case and Her Boyfriends - Twist The Knife

Year Of The Roses....

All the stuff in the news over the last few about The Stone Roses cast my mind back to '89 with the release of their eponymous debut release and to what a great year it was for music.

I was having a look at the NME's Top 50 albums of the year last night and thinking back to the sounds that shaped my early days working in record stores. Notwithstanding Madchester's finest you also had the Daisy Age sounds of De La Soul, Lou Reed's best album for years, the masterpiece that is Doolittle and the heady mix of classic pop songs and guitar laden, dance tracks that constitute Technique. There is an element here of rose tinted glasses but there's no denying the amount of quality albums in '89.

1989 also saw the release of the most under rated JAMC album. Automatic was a touch rougher and more aggressive-sounding than Darklands and the mountains of screeching feedback from Psychocandy had been largely subdued but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, making the album as a whole more accessible than its predecessors. For me the album's not quite as strong as their first two albums, although it does contain some classic Mary Chain tracks such as Head On and Coast To Coast, but still deserves it's place as one of the best albums from a very strong year for album releases.

I didn't try and get tickets the other day for The Stones Roses and haven't really came to a decision as to whether I will if they announce any dates in Scotland. I was fortunate enough to see them at Glasgow Green and although it was certainly not the best gig I have been to the memory of the occasion is still highly vivid and I may prefer to keep it that way.

JAMC - Coast To Coast

Drink A Drink To Before....

If Roddy Frame had walked onto the stage at Glasgow's ABC the other night and just performed Killermont Street I would have felt like I had got my money's worth. Thankfully, however, he played many more including finishing the main set with the holy trinity of Oblivious, Walk Out To Winter and Pillar To Post.

This was the first time in over ten years that he has played live with a band having probably rediscovered the joys of playing with a band after touring over the last few years as Edwyn Collin's guitarist. The gig included tracks from the first Aztec Camera album right up to a brand new track, White Pony, with Frame declaring that he "might write another one next year" after the rapturous reception he received from an adoring audience. Never mind one new track, a new album would certainly be very welcome and long overdue.

The set was an embarrassment of riches with particular fave moments being Down The Dip, Western Skies, a terrific version of We Could Send Letters and the aforementioned Killermont Street which is easily one of the best songs ever written by one of Scotland's most talented musicians. Frame knows his audience well, and didn’t disappoint ending the show with a rousing Somewhere In My Heart which had a packed ABC transported back to '88 and fully in agreement that "the closet thing to heaven is to rock'n'roll".

I'm quite sure that Roddy and co could quite happily have played for another couple of hours and I'm sure there would have been no complaints from anyone present. As it was we got about one and a half hours from The Boy Wonder, delivering probably the best gig of 2011.

Save It For Later...

I don't get to as many gigs these days as I would like so it was good this week to have two bands to see live and after the debacle of The Bunnymen the other week I had high hopes for both. Last night I went along to the ABC in Glasgow to see Roddy Frame's first live outing in over 10 years with a full band and The Boy Wonder delivered and more. I will post a review over the next day or so but until then have a look at Drew's excellent review here that perfectly sums up what a truly outstanding gig this was.

The other gig was to a slightly smaller audience at Apollo 23 on Sunday night where we went along to see The Beat. Ok it wasn't really The Beat but Ranking Roger and some great musicians but obviously minus Dave Wakeling and others. When I say slightly smaller I really mean a lot smaller as sadly only about 150 hardy souls turned out to witness The Beat deliver a set of 2 Tone classics and a couple of covers including a lively version of Rock the Casbah in tribute to Joe Strummer.

From the off we knew we were in for a night of the Best Of The Beat which is exactly what we got. All the hits,one new track and the energy from Ranking Roger in particular was hugely infectious. It's a while since I have done much skanking but really you couldn't stop yourself even if you tried. It's sometimes easy to forget how many top tunes they had when they regularly troubled the top echelons of the charts in the late 70s/early 80's. Tracks such as Mirror In The Bathroom, Best Friend and Save It For Later are more than equals to the best tracks from their more successful contemporaries Madness and The Specials.

It's a shame that more people didn't come along on Sunday as we all had a good night and the band, which included former Dexy's keyboardist Mickey Billingham, were truly inspired. Which is more than can be said about the venue which does not add much to Glasgow's abundance of top class venues. A good gig could have been elevated to a great gig if the choice of venue had been more appropriate.

The Beat - Save It For Later

It's Just Begun....

Jimmy Castor's "It's Just Begun," was never released as a single but remains one of his best-known classics. The track turned up in Flashdance and in Beat Street in the film's big break dance battle scenes. It also can be found as a sample on Countless rap discs and is still a well played track on dance floors today.

It's Just Begun was probably too far ahead of its time to be a hit in 72 when it was issued. Today it sounds totally contemporary, with Castor's blaring sax figure riding over both fuzz-tone and wah-wah guitar sounds and a groove to end all grooves. "Just watch me now!" shouts Castor and you are instantly hooked.

For a guy who started out singing street-corner Doo-Wop, and recorded the self-penned I Promise To Remember with his group The Juniors for the Wing label in 1956 when he was all of 13 he certainly branched out in many directions and most definitely earned his reputation as the "Everything Man"

The Jimmy Castor Bunch - It's Just Begun

Hand It Over....

There's a lot of brilliant 60's/70's soul singers : Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, ZZ Hill and Jackie Wilson to name just a few....add the name of Chuck Jackson to the list.

Although Chuck Jackson may never have reached the fame of some of his contemporaries and remains one of the the greatest unknown soul singers there's no denying this guy could sing.

In 1957 he joined The Del-Vikings, one of rock and roll’s first interracial groups. He was with them until 1959 before starting a solo career. It was while he was performing as an opening act at the Apollo Theater that he was discovered by the headliner, Jackie Wilson. Scepter Records signed Jackson, and he had his first big hit with “I Don’t Want To Cry” in 1961. The following year “Any Day Now” was released on Wand, a Scepter subsidiary, and Jackson’s future was assured. Later in the ’60s he bought his contract from Scepter and moved to Motown Records where he had more hits.

He was lost in the shuffle during his four years at Motown, and he's barely been heard from since, although he remains a firm favorite on the Northern Soul scene.

Chuck Jackson - Hand It Over

Bunnymen Blues Continue....

I was having a look through some previous postings last night when I suddenly realised that one of my more recent ones had "disappeared". I then found it had changed to draft status. At first I thought that I had changed it by accident so I then re-posted the "offending article".

It was only this morning that when checking my email that I found out this was not the case. My bad luck with the Bunnymen seems to be continuing as, yes you've guessed, those lovely DMCA people have visited the blog. Not sure if it's because the track is on Warners or not - maybe someone with more experience of this can enlighten me.

I suppose there is a certain irony in the fact that I have been doing Spools Paradise for almost a year now and only put a disclaimer up last week. Perhaps they just didn't appreciate my Bunnymen review !!

I have re-posted the Bunnymen review with a video of one of the first times that we got to hear the majestic Ocean Rain live on The Tube.

The Redskins - Keep On Keeping On

Two For The Price Of One....

Just as the special offers end on alcohol at Scottish supermarkets so begins 2 For 1 offers on Spools Paradise.

Today's post features two new bands from Edinburgh who are creating a bit of a buzz at the moment and it's not hard to realise why.

I first heard Cancel The Astronauts new single a couple of days ago here and would have to back up Drew's advice to help them buy their plectrum shaped swimming pool and buy their new EP. The five piece from Edinburgh seem to hark back to the period when bands thought about the b-sides to their singles as all three tracks on the EP are excellent. Ed at 17 Seconds has been championing this band for a while and they seem to be getting better and gaining in confidence with every release.

Cancel The Astronauts - Funny For A Girl by Argos Barks

Bwani Junction first came to my attention this very morning with an article about them in today's Sunday Herald. As mentioned in the piece guitarist Dan Muir's father, Gordon, was at one time manager of The Bhundu Boys and was taught some guitar licks from Rise Kagona from Zimbabwe's finest. Given that their indie rock sound is heavily influenced by jit or afrobeat, they have already picked up inevitable and lazy comparisons with Vampire Weekend. I saw one description today that labelled them as ‘Tropical Punk Rock with Scottish Overtones’. Whatever the label is ultimately doesn't matter. What does matters is whether they make decent music and of that there is no doubt.