Here goes with the second instalment of the bands A-Z. More sorting through old albums, more jotting down indecipherable lists and more time spent listening to obscure indie bands from the early 80s.
G
To begin with, a record I’d forgotten about from the late 80s by Australian band The Go-Betweens:
H
2009 sees the 30th anniversary of The Specials, with the ageing rude boys back on tour. Terry Hall has appeared under a number of different guises since they first split in 1981, including Fun Boy Three and this lot, The Colourfield. This is a one of his shorter lived combos dating from 1985. Later still, I saw Terry Hall live at the Shepherds Bush Empire in 1994, supporting The Lightning Seeds. His solo album from the same year was a big favourite at the time. Usually dubbed as a misery guts, this is an upbeat track that debunks the image.
I
Okay, I was a tricky one. Especially as I detest INXS and don’t really care much for The Inkspots. What else is there to choose? But then I remembered Janis Ian and this song from the mid seventies which I’ve always had a soft spot for.
J
Joy Division were near the top of my list before I’d even started sorting my alphabet. This is a band I’ve listened to through vinyl, CD and digital music. As a very young lad I listened to John Peel’s radio show in the early 1980s under the duvet cover. Literally, with tinny radio and earpiece. I hope my mother isn’t reading this. Those ten to midnight midweek slots were a revelation for me, opening a world of strange and brilliant music quite different and quite superior to the usual chart mush. Best of all was Joy Division.
K
A few years ago I bought the deluxe 3-CD set of Village Green Preservation Society for a Christmas present to myself. Call me an anorak, or more kindly a Kinks completist, but I love the album in any version. Ten or so years ago I saw Ray Davies in concert, still on top form.
L
I have a theory that John Lennon went completely mad in about 1968 and never really recovered from the loony world he fell into. This is one of my all time favourite clips, the only time he appeared as a solo artist on Top of the Pops singing Instant Karma. It’s brilliant, but crazy. Look into his eyes, not around the eyes, but into the eyes. He is mad.
M
To conclude here’s Magazine, featuring the very eerie Howard Devoto. Until next time enjoy this forgotten gem of a band…
Inspired by Chartroose, an alphabatical trawl through my favourite music. When considering this exercise I first thought about consulting my vinyl collection. Ah… my poor vinyl collection, yellowing sleeves squeezed together and gathering dust in the corner of the spare room. But I just didn’t have the courage to face those long neglected records. So instead, I turned to my iTunes library, with a flippant if it’s not on there, it’s not a favourite approach.
However. My iTunes collection was a touch uninspiring. And as I’ve written about it quite a lot recently, I was faced with no option other than guiltily climbing the stairs to face the music…
Here goes then. Artists beginning with…
A
The Associates enjoyed some success in the early 80s. Despite being touted as the band to be scaling great musical heights unfortunately this never happened, and they faded into obscurity. A shame, but I think this clip of them performing 18 Carat Love Affair reveals their couldn’t-care-less attitude towards that serious thing called the music business. They had quite a lot of charm, perhaps not needed for success in a climate where the Durans and Spandaus triumphed.
Alas, they threw all their money away on chocolate and never had another hit after this.
B
I wanted to avoid The Beatles in this listing but it’s difficult to find anything else warranting a “B”, even my obscure Easy Listening album Beatles Bach and Bacharach Go Bossa has a Fab Four connection. So here’s my Beatly anecdote, a transcript of my short meeting and exchange with Paul McCartney as I remember it:
the scene is just before a recording of Top of the Pops
Me: could you sign this please?
McCartney: sure
he begins to sign his name but has difficulty because the ink has run dry. He turns to somebody in the shadows and asks to borrow their pen. He signs the autograph and hands it back to me along with my faulty pen.
Me: thanks. Sorry about that
McCartney: it always happens
Now I suppose that was something of a wasted opportunity, and I could have quizzed him about his days in Hamburg, the cruel side of John Lennon or even the hidden meanings behind the songs on The White Album, but hasn’t he had all that a million times before? And when you come face to face with a surviving Beatle you do just tend to crumble a little.
For an alternative “B” how about an artist that isn’t, unlike most of my choices, actually alternative. John Barry is famous for co-writing the best of the Bond themes but also wrote countless other music for movies and tv including The Ipcress File, Born Free and The Quiller Memorandum. In many ways Barry appeared to effortlessly create the soundtrack to an entire era.
Somehow Persuaders episodes never lived up to their great opening titles and music.
C
Back to my more recent collection for this one from Graham Coxon. I kept changing the clip below in a bid to sell Mr Coxon to the uninitiated, showing him in the best possible light, but he probably wouldn’t thank me for such a marketing scam. So here he is in all his nerdy glory.
The real brains behind Blur, and no mistake.
D
Today I rediscovered New Boots and Panties by Ian Dury and the Blockheads in my vinyl collection. I was lucky to see the late Mr Dury twice in concert, once at the Brixton Academy in 1990 and then again a couple of years later supporting Madness and Morrissey at the notorious Finsbury Park concert. Here’s a clip from the very odd Revolver, introduced by Peter Cook:
The Lionel Bart of the 70s!
E
In the early 1980s Ian McCulloch earned himself the nickname Mac the mouth. The music papers loved any band frontman who spoke an endless stream of bollocks, and the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen fitted the bill perfectly. He was eventually surpassed by Morrissey, who spoke an equal amount of, although a different kind of, bollocks.
F
During my delve I uncovered a couple of records by the Cocteau Twins. I remembered this Cocteau Twins/Felt collaboration Primitive Painters which I found on YouTube. I’m listening to Felt right now and they’re great. Sadly forgotten.
Look at that hat!
More episodes of this series will follow, but I’m waiting for Chartroose to take the lead. Keep watching though, as I have a really good Z!
This week I’ve given myself an intensive course of the BBC’s Being Human, watching the first five episodes in quick succession. Being Human takes three archetypes from the supernatural and horror genre to create a rather wonderful and original series. A vampire and a werewolf move into a house in Bristol, where they meet a ghost. It might sound a tired idea for a series. It isn’t.
Being Human unfolds neatly to introduce its leads. Mitchell (Aidan Turner) is frozen in time, never growing old and forever resisting the allure of fresh blood since becoming a vampire as a WW1 soldier. This is a member of the undead who doesn’t fit the archetype of sleeping in a coffin by day and creeping round in a large cape at night; instead he resembles a typical young man, slightly studenty in appearance, who make up probably 99% of the Bristol population (living there, I speak from experience). Mitchell is on the wagon, meaning he is trying to give up biting the necks of young virgins, although has a tough time resisting the charms of a thirsty ex-lover (who he’s turned into a fellow vampire) and the creepy Herrick (Jason Watkins). Herrick is a kind of head vampire, disturbingly comfortable in the role of the local constabulary, who’s keen to recruit new vampires and take over the world with blood suckers.
In his man-who-cannot-die role, Mitchell is similar to Captain Jack in Torchwood, although Being Human easily beats Torchwood in the humour stakes. It can be very amusing, and is equally clever because it appears not to take the horror genre too seriously, although I find it does treat it with the respect it deserves. And, sorry to say it, Aidan Turner is a much better actor than John Barrowman. But, at least so far, Mitchell’s immortality hasn’t been played on thoroughly and we only see a hint of his different personas over the decades, although in one episode he does run into an old flame from the 1960s. It would be interesting to explore Mitchell’s history if the series is allowed to continue next year.
Our second character Annie (Lenora Crichlow) is a ghost, who we learn has previously died in the house. Annie meets another ghost, a young man who died in the 1980s. He still owns a Walkman and attempts to pass around those long forgotten things called “tapes”, intent on sharing his love of The Smiths and Echo and the Bunnymen with everyone else. Annie’s main focus, however, becomes the haunting of her ex-boyfriend after she learns that he was responsible for her death. For me, Annie is the weakest of the three leads, although it may just be my unfortunate indifference to Crichlow as, again, Being Human deals rather well with this supernatural element of the story. Episode five ends with the hint that Annie’s time may be up, and it may be worth the series exploring other ghosts, or other horror archetypes, if – again – it is allowed to continue.
Our third character is George, a werewolf played by the excellent Russell Tovey, who gives a very good comic touch to things. I believe that Tovey was in the running for Doctor Who, and after seeing him in this it is interesting to imagine what his take on Tardis duty would have been like. Anyway, George is a natural worrier, and provides a steady balance to the quietly wayward Mitchell. George also has a complex love life (it being difficult to explain to your girlfriend exactly why you tend to go wildest in the bedroom when it’s a full moon). George also has some very good one-liners. When him and Mitchell are besieged upon by angry neighbours after a vampire-porn DVD has accidentally fallen into the hands of a twelve year old boy, they find themselves watching the 1931 film of Frankenstein, where an angry mob pursue the monster to his inevitable doom. George observes:
I used to think this sort of thing was a load of bollocks. Now it’s like watching Ken Loach.
Being Human is an excellent combination of horror and humour, the two “aitches” that tend to make the best television. The script is above average, as are the performances (even though I’m not crazy on Lenora Crichlow). The soundtrack is very good (especially during the 80s themed episode) although not intrusive and it’s refreshing to find a series that doesn’t immediately remind me of any particular film or author (for example I found the recent Demons attempting to be a little too Neil Gaiman-ish). I can’t wait for episode six, where the undead appear to be becoming a wee bit restless. Long live Being Human.
