It’s taken me a while to love Beak. Being a huge Portishead fan, I’d really wanted to like them. So I’d listened to their earlier albums but couldn’t really get into them. I remember hearing one particular track that just sounded like an old school dial up modem.
Last summer when the third album came out, I heard them play an amazing session on Marc Riley’s show and all of a sudden I was hooked. I’ve probably listened to that CD more than any other over the last 6 months.
But before we get to them let me tell you about Usé, one of the most unusual support acts I’ve seen in 30+ years of gig-going.
I was right at the very front as we waited for the support act to come on so I got a good look at the set up. A minimal drum kit and lots of cymbals at the very front of the stage. That’s promising. It’s not going to be yer standard run-of-the-mill guitar band or even worse some bloke with just an acoustic guitar. A battered looking electric guitar laid horizontally on a keyboard stand. Curiouser and curiouser.
The poster advertised a different support act. Maybe Wiegedood is German for “weird dude”?
Then Usé enters the arena, presses something on his laptop to get some weird beats and discordant noise going, walks purposefully up to the front of the stage, hits the guitar strings with the drumsticks a couple of times before sitting down on the stage. Why’s he sitting down? To take off his trousers of course. Didn’t see that coming did you?
This naturally begs the question if he needed to take his trousers off right at the very start, why didn’t he take them off before he got onstage? I guess the only logical answer to that is because the removal of the trousers must be part of the show. And what a show it is.
Usé live at Gorilla Manchester February 2019
Now sporting a grubby pair of thermal long johns and a Disney t-shirt, our hero proceeds to knock 7 shades of shit out of the drumkit. Blimey, he’s a really good drummer. There’s a lot of drone and a lot of repetitive beats and it all sounds pretty fantastic. We’re a very long way from the acceptable background music for dinner parties that the first Portishead album briefly became in the mid 90s. There’s singing going on here too. I think it might be French but we can’t really hear any of it above the general glorious racket of it all.
Then about 4 songs in, an old-fashioned slow chanson style number starts up. The t-shirt is removed but wait a minute, what’s going on here? He’s getting down from the stage to walk around amongst us lucky few down the front. This could be interesting.
Next he’s affectionately tousling the hair of people in the crowd. He’s hitting himself hard in the chest with the mike. He’s drooling saliva onto his own nipple and then rubbing it in suggestively. He seems quite intense. People aren’t quite sure whether to laugh or slowly back away.
Any relief the audience might have felt when he eventually went back up on the stage was short-lived because he then put his hand inside the long johns and wobbled his cock about until its semi-tumescent state was all too unpleasantly obvious through the flimsy material.
Then he mimed wanking off the mike cord and aggressively fellated the mike. He’s still singing the croony number by the way.
All of this reminded me of seeing The Cramps as a teenager. I was right down the front and I talked how equally exhilarating and terrifying this was way back on podcast number 8. Parts of Usé’s act echoed Lux Interior’s. As an audience you weren’t quite sure if he wanted to fuck you or kill you. Possilbly both and not necessarily in that order!
Lux Interior
Full marks to Usé for the vigorous performance of that croony one but it has to be said that the actual song was crap. Thankfully he soon got back to shouting incomprehensibly and whacking the fuck out of the drums and the guitar with the drumsticks.
But not just with the drumsticks, oh no. He’s taken Roger Daltrey’s trick of swinging the mike around in a big loop to the next level. As it swung downwards he bashed the cymbals with it. In time as well! Your move Roger.
Next thing you know there was a song that sounded like Front 242 remixing the Inspector Gadget theme. Another one with a weird lop-sided beat-skipping time signature (that was my favourite! check it out in the video below) Then he was kicking and stamping on the guitar until suddenly Jacko’s “Billie Jean” started playing and our hero strutted proudly off the stage. In his underwear.
Later during their set, Beak joked that taking “the maddest fucking Frenchman we could find” out on tour was their response to Brexit. He may well be a few baguettes short of a boulangerie but there’s no doubt that anyone who saw Usé is not going to forget it. A committed performance from a performer who should possibly be committed.
Beak kicked off their set with the same 2 tracks that start the most recent album. First the proggy instrumental “The Brazilian” followed by the Neu!-like “Brean Down.” As they finished that, drummer Geoff Barrow joked with the crowd that they “can all fuck off now we’ve played the hit.”
Throughout the gig both Barrow and bassist Billy Fuller were very funny and self-deprecating between the songs which was an unexpected bonus. I particularly enjoyed Fuller asking if there were any Man United fans in and then taunting them about Bristol City beating them in the League Cup last season. Also Barrow’s comment about the number of bald men in tonight’s audience: “It looks like a boiled egg convention out there!”
But really it was all about the music. Around half of the songs were from the new album. The relentless triplet bassline of the aptly named “RSI” was fantastic. But my favourite song of the evening was “When We Fall.” This starts softly with beautiful dual vocal and a repetitive guitar figure. Imagine if Robert Wyatt and Nick Drake harmonised together. But then the end section where the drums kick in, the synth starts playing this alternating pattern and the song takes off into another realm like Stereolab mixed with Love’s “Forever Changes”
They thanked the crowd for their reaction after that song finished and said usually that song doesn’t go down well at all which was quite surprising.
Barrow then told us he really didn’t want to play the next song “Broken Window” because he said it sounds like “test card music.” OK so maybe it does contain a few Jarre-fuls of retro keyboard sounds but I like them. And anyway the melodic bass riff is irresistible and reminds me of the “Get Carter” theme music.
They finished up with another instrumental “Blagdon Lake” whose tom-tom dominated rhythm and ominous repetition harked back The Cure’s “Pornography” and Stephen Morris’ brilliant drumming in Joy Division and early New Order. Very appropriate seeing as I walked down Tony Wilson Way to get to the car park after the gig.
Seazoo @ Telfords Warehouse, Chester 31st January 2019
The Wave Pictures @ Telfords Warehouse, Chester 31st January 2019
Last week I went to see The Wave Pictures at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester. That was my 4th time seeing them at that venue and overall my 8th time seeing them in 3 and a bit years.
Why do I keep going back? One big reason is that no gig is ever the same. At last week’s gig they played a whole load of songs I’ve never heard them play live before. The setlist included songs from 2004’s CD-R release “The Hawaiian Open Mic Night” right up to their brilliant new album “Look Inside Your Heart.” Along the way they played some of my all-time favourites like “Frogs Sing Loudly In The Ditches” and “Just Like A Drummer” before finishing the night with a crowd singalong to “Never Go Home Again.”
As well as the ever-changing sets there is the bandmembers themselves who just seem to get better and better. Singer / guitarist David directs operations with an impromptu shout of “bass solo” or “drum solo” and his compadres Jonny and Franic just conjure up a stunning solo on the spot.
At Indietracks last summer, I got talking to another Wave Pictures fanatic called Tom, the creator of a great fanzine called Back of the Gig. One issue is dedicated to his favourite similes in Wave Pictures lyrics. I really enjoyed reading that so I said that in response I would write a blog post of the 10 favourite Wave Pictures guitar solos. It was too difficult to narrow it down to 10 so I’ve ended up with 30.
To make the task easier I’ve only included electric guitar solos so nothing from the acoustic albums here. Plus I’ve only considered the studio versions so no radio session tracks or live versions off YouTube. That’s a pity in some ways because there are some blisteringly great solos on some of those. For example, the original version of “Sleepy Eye” doesn’t have a particularly interesting guitar solo but when it’s played live, well just see for yourself.
On my first playlist of the year, I wanted to round up a bunch of songs that I really liked from 2018, but that I couldn’t squeeze into my Best of 2018 podcast.
the future looks bright
Some of these can be heard on Spotify…
and some of them can’t…
This is the order I think they work best in…
The Lovely Eggs – Friendship Is A Beautiful Thing
Madensuyu – Ill Timed
Amyl & The Sniffers – I’m Not A Loser
Heads Off – In My Head
Mush – Dopamine Loops
Idles – Danny Nedelko
Dust From 100 Yrs – Bad Shit
Go-Kart Mozart – When You’re Depressed
Bas Jan – King Of The Holloway Road
Courtney Barnett – City Looks Pretty
Guided By Voices – You Own The Night
of Arrowe Hill – The Darling Of The Demimonde
John MOuse – With These Hands (I’ll Rip Out Your Heart)
There’s something extraordinary going on in Lincolnshire next month.
Four musicians are heading to a remote cottage to record an album. They are going to record, produce and release a song every 2 hours on the hour. All the songs will be deleted forever at 9 a.m. on the Monday morning.
The disposable heroes behind this ingenious project are John MOuse and his long-time collaborator P.Pearce. These are the same pair responsible for one of 2018’s most idiosyncratic and intriguing albums “Replica Figures” [check out our review]
Initially MOuse challenged Pearce to record an album in a weekend, only for Pearce to add in some additional rules “in response to the disposability and instant gratification we now expect as music consumers.”
The songs will be uploaded to John Mouse Bandcamp page and be available for free download for the duration of the weekend.
10 songs in all, all recorded, mastered and published. 5 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday. (10am, midday, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm).
Limited instrumentation, 4 musicians (MOuse, Pearce, Faye Davies and John Hodges)
All captured live and broadcast via different social media platforms
When asked how much prior preparation was being done, MOuse told Trust the Wizards “I am writing a bunch of stories to use lyrics from, and I know that Phil is putting together some drum sequences and synth lines as guides that we may then use or just scrap.”
The 4 musicians will be alone in the house except for Rhiannon Davies and Julie Prance who will be filming, taking photos and streaming stuff live alongside creating artwork for each song.
Other than that MOuse explains “we will be armed with nothing more than the bones of previous working relationships and the crisp winter Fens air.”
It all takes place the weekend of 16th/17th February and you can follow this wonderfully creative project using the links below.
This weekend sees a little bit of 40 Watt Club, Athens GA coming to The Harlequin Theatre, Northwich Cheshire. Tribute band Stipe are playing a hometown gig. Tickets sold out weeks ago and I’m going with my mate Tom a.k.a Daysleeper.
Last weekend over a few drinks Tom and I talked about the passion we have for the band and discussed what songs we’d most like to hear Stipe play. Trying to narrow it down to 20 songs each was like pushing an elephant up the stairs so we ended up with 32 songs each.
My fellow wizard Kicker also loves a bit of listmaking so I got him involved as well.
We’re gonna DJ with these.
Tom a.k.a. Daysleeper
Kicker of Elves
Chorizo Garbanzo
5 songs chosen by all 3 of us
World Leader Pretend
Fall On Me
Perfect Circle
It’s The End Of The World
Losing My Religion
Can’t Get There From Here
Country Feedback
Driver 8
Can’t Get There From Here
Country Feedback
Driver 8
Electrolite
Daysleeper
I Believe
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Near Wild Heaven
Everybody Hurts
Electrolite
Daysleeper
I Believe
At My Most Beautiful
The Great Beyond
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
Near Wild Heaven
Everybody Hurts
Hairshirt
These Days
So. Central Rain
Talk About The Passion
Exhuming McCarthy
Sitting Still
Orange Crush
Cuyahoga
Hairshirt
These Days
So. Central Rain
Talk About The Passion
Exhuming McCarthy
Sitting Still
Orange Crush
Cuyahoga
Find the River
Nightswimming
I’ll Take The Rain
Half A World Away
What’s The Frequency Kenneth?
All The Way To Reno
Strange Currencies
Man On The Moon
So Fast So Numb
Shiny Happy People
Ignoreland
Imitation of Life
Tongue
Let Me In
Stand
The One I Love
King Of Birds
Superman
Radio Free Europe
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Turn You Inside-Out
Finest Worksong
Catapult
Oddfellows Local 151
Wolves, Lower
Carnival Of Sorts (Box Car)
Crazy (Pylon cover)
Begin The Begin
Gardening At Night
Pilgrimage
Swan Swan H
Leaving New York
Pretty Persuasion
Belong
Lightnin’ Hopkins
Laughing
You Are The Everything
Disturbance At The Heron House
Texarkana
Fretless
Leave
Get Up
What was that you said? Have you got this information in a Venn diagram? Well, since you ask. Click to see full-size version.
It has been said that we wizards are the ones who put the anal into analysis so we won’t go into too much detail on what the results of this survey show but here are a few headlines:
Tom’s highest scoring album is Automatic for the People with 6 songs.
Kicker has chosen 6 songs each from Murmur, Document and Life’s Rich Pageant.
My highest scoring album is Green with 5 songs.
The first time I saw R.E.M. live was on the Monster tour but despite that I’ve ended up with no songs from that album on my list.
Every single song on Kicker’s list was released in the 1980s.
Only 1 song on my list was released after 1999’s Up. That song is Leaving New York though and I think that’s R.E.M.’s most under-rated song.
Some well-known singles didn’t get chosen by any of us (e.g. Radio Song, Drive, E-Bow the Letter)
There’s a total of 66 different songs chosen there. If Stipe were going to play all those on Saturday, you’d definitely want to bring a flask.
Let us know what you think of our selections. Vote in our poll to tell us which of those is your favourite of the 5 songs that were chosen by all 3 of us.
Stipe are playing loads of gigs all over the UK in 2019, tour dates right here.
Meanwhile remind yourself of just how brilliant R.E.M. were with this playlist of all the songs we’ve chosen.
Here’s podcast 86, our 2nd and final end of year round-up for 2018. Chorizo Garbanzo has selected 25 tracks featuring musicians from Finland, Israel, USA, France, Uruguay and St Neots!
I went to 2 festivals this year and both were brilliant.
In May, I went to the Manchester leg of the Dot 2 Dot festival. 1 day, 150 bands, 20 venues across the city. I think I saw about 10 bands.
Highlights were Kyle Craft, Sports Team and Dude York.
Dude York Manchester May 2018
Kyle Craft Manchester May 2018
Sports Team Manchester May 2018
Then in July I went to Indietracks in Ripley, Derbyshire.
Highlights: Melenas, Sacred Paws, The Lovely Eggs, Anna Burch, French Boutik, Wolf Girl.
Anna Burch Indietracks 2018
French Boutik Indietracks 2018
Melenas Indietracks 2018
Sacred Paws Indietracks 2018
The Lovely Eggs Indietracks 2018
Wolf Girl Indietracks 2018
Favourite gigs of the year
Instead of trying choose favourites and put them in some kind of arbitrary order, here’s a chronological list of all the gigs I went to in 2018. I loved every one of them!
The Wedding Present @ The Leadmill, Sheffield (3rd February)
The Wind Up Birds @ The Old Town House, Warrington (9th February)
The Wave Pictures @ Telford’s Warehouse, Chester (8th March)
Jeffrey Lewis @ Leaf, Liverpool (4th April)
Manic Street Preachers Venue Cymru Llandudno May 2018
The Wave Pictures The Deaf Institute Manchester June 2018
Manic Street Preachers @ Venue Cymru Llandudno (1st May)
The 99 Degree, Circus Wolves, Paper Buoys @ The Gladstone Club, Northwich (18th May) [review here]
Billordo @ Cherry Dance, Brescia, Italy (30th May)
Ty Segall Band @ Gorilla, Manchester (5th June)
The Wave Pictures @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester (17th June)
Bodega @ Birkenhead Library (8th July)
The Burning Hell Manchester August 2018
The Wedding Present Chester July 2018
The Ty Segall Band Manchester June 2018
Lost Horizons @ Old Granada Studios, Manchester (21st July) [watch gig here]
The Wedding Present @ The Live Rooms, Chester (23rd July)
The Burning Hell @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (2nd August)
Grotbags + Crumbs + Cowtown @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (5th August)
Cowtown
Crumbs
Bodega
Electric Six @ The Live Rooms, Chester (6th September)
Peach Fuzz + The Vryll Society @ Soup Kitchen (16th October)
Ash + Death By Unga Bunga @ O2 Ritz, Manchester (23rd October)
Mik Artistik’s Ego Trip @ Pyramid Centre, Warrington (2nd November)
Jah 9 @ Band on the Wall, Manchester (20th November)
Of Arrowe Hill @ Dublin Castle, Camden, London (24th November)
Favourite films
Mandy (bizarre trippy horror film with Nicolas Cage and an amazing soundtrack, definitely not a date movie!)
Ghost Stories (brilliantly written and performed and as it says on the poster the best British horror for years.)
Didn’t come out this year but I also really liked Burn Burn Burn (2015).
Favourite films with Chorizo Jnr
Wreck It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet
new version of The Grinch
Favourite TV series
Godless
Also enjoyed American Vandal series 2 and documentaries Wiener, Tower and Atari Game Over (all Netflix)
I read a lot of musician biographies but this one really stood out. The book is especially good at portraying the friendship between Lol and Robert Smith which starts on the first day of school. Unlike many biographies, there is a lot of interesting detail about the making of the records and the thinking behind various changes in sound that the band went through. Lol comes across as a thoroughly likeable bloke and after he leaves the band and falls out with Smith you find yourself desperately rooting for a happy ending.
Favourite non-music book
Classic Scrapes by James Acaster
Also really enjoyed his trilogy of stand-up shows Repertoire
An unexpected (and, frankly, unwanted) guest kick-starts this podcast by unceremoniously interrupting Kicker’s filthy secret and encouraging him to play his favourite songs of the year.
As well as an aural smorgasbord of delight, we also get to hear one of Chorizo’s best ever musical anecdotes, and there’s a quiz! Yes, a quiz!!
sing along everyone
You can tune in by clicking on the thing below this sentence for a full 90 minutes (plus extra time) of end to end action.
Alternatively, you can just imagine the whole thing with, no doubt, improved witty chat between songs by reading through the tracklist here:
They Might Be Giants – The Greatest
Guided By Voices – Blink Blank
Firestations – Build A Building
Gruff Rhys – No Profit In Pain
The Moles – Moon In The Daytime
The Goon Sax – We Can’t Win
The Monochrome Set – I Feel Fine (Really)
Hi-Fi Sean & David McAlmont – Transparent (Part One)
Half Man Half Biscuit – Every Time A Bell Rings
The Astounds – New Eater Of Rainclouds
Benjamin Shaw – Hole
The Coke Dares – Came To Shit
Astral Swans – Blow Away
Interrobang – Curmudgeon
Amen Dunes – Miki Dora
Wurld Series – Indiana Buzzing
The Ocean Party – White Cockatoo
RVG – Vincent Van Gogh
The Breeders – All Nerve
Babybird – Alcoholic
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Talking Straight
Spare Snare – Grow
The Gentleman Losers – Night Falls In Nowhereland
Physicality
What all the cool kids are wearing…
What all the cool kids are listening to…
If you enjoyed this podcast, watch out for a quick sharp follow up with Chorizo’s Best of 2018 soon upon us, and if you didn’t enjoy this one, you’ll be relieved to know the next one is much better.
Guided By Voices released two 7″ EPs in November 2018, the second of these being the rather brilliantly entitled 100 Dougs.
more mr gillards than you can shake a stick at
This release meant that Robert Pollard has, at time of writing, released one hundred* 7″ records under various band names, starting with 1993’s The Grand Hour EP.
10 x 10 is…
Should Uncle Bob wish to put together a companion piece to last year’s coffee-table book of 100 album covers (front and back) – as discussed here – this, with a bit of imagination, is what it might look like:
The 100:
Guided By Voices – The Grand Hour (1993)
Guided By Voices – Static Airplane Jive (1993)
Guided By Voices – Get Out Of My Stations (1994)
Guided By Voices – Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (1994)
Guided By Voices – Clown Prince Menthol Trailer (1994)
Guided By Voices – The Official Ironmen Rally Song (1996)
Guided By Voices – Cut-Out Witch (1996)
Guided By Voices – Plantations Of Pale Pink (1996)
Nightwalker – Firehouse Mountain (1997)
Guided By Voices – Wish In One Hand… (1997)
Guided By Voices – Bulldog Skin (1997)
Guided By Voices – I Am A Tree (1997)
Guided By Voices – Surgical Focus (1999)
Guided By Voices – Teenage FBI (1999)
Guided By Voices – Hold On Hope (1999)
Guided By Voices – Dayton, Ohio-19 Something And 5 (2000)
Airport 5 – Total Exposure (2001)
Airport 5 – Stifled Man Casino (2001)
Guided By Voices – Chasing Heather Crazy (2001)
Guided By Voices – Universal Truths And Cycles (2002)
Guided By Voices – Cheyenne (2002)
Guided By Voices – Back To The Lake (2002)
Guided By Voices – Everywhere With Helicopter (2002)
Guided By Voices – My Kind Of Soldier (2003)
Robert Pollard – Zoom (2005)
Robert Pollard – Music For ‘Bubble’ (2005)
Robert Pollard – I’m A Strong Lion (2005)
Robert Pollard – Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft (2006)
Psycho And The Birds – Check Your Zoo (2006)
Robert Pollard – Rud Fins (2007)
Robert Pollard – Spider Eyes (2007)
Robert Pollard – Current Desperation (Angels Speak Of Nothing) (2007)
Robert Pollard – Pill Gone Girl (2007)
Robert Pollard – Shadow Port (2007)
Robert Pollard – Count Us In (2007)
Robert Pollard – Dumb Lady (2007)
Robert Pollard – Youth Leagues (2008)
The Takeovers – Little Green Onion Man (2008)
Robert Pollard – Folded Claws (2008)
Robert Pollard – When We Were Slaves (2008)
Robert Pollard – The Killers (2008)
Robert Pollard – Miles Under The Skin (2008)
Carbon Whales – South (2008)
Boston Spaceships – You Satisfy Me (2008)
Robert Pollard – The Butler Stands For All Of Us (2008)
Boston Spaceships – Headache Revolution (2008)
Robert Pollard – Silk Rotor (2010)
Boston Spaceships – Camera Found The Ray Gun (2010)
Lifeguards – Product Head (2010)
Guided By Voices – We Won’t Apologize For The Human Race (2011)
Guided By Voices – Doughnut For A Snowman (2011)
Guided By Voices – Chocolate Boy (2012)
Guided By Voices – Keep It In Motion (2012)
Guided By Voices – Jon The Croc (2012)
Guided By Voices – Class Clown Spots A UFO (2012)
Guided By Voices – White Flag (2012)
Guided By Voices – Hangover Child (2012)
Guided By Voices – Everywhere Is Miles From Everywhere (2012)
Guided By Voices – Down By The Racetrack (2013)
Guided By Voices – Flunky Minnows (2013)
Guided By Voices – Islands (She Talks In Rainbows) (2013)
Guided By Voices – Trash Can Full Of Nails (2013)
Guided By Voices – Xeno Pariah (2013)
Guided By Voices – Noble Insect (2013)
Robert Pollard – Tonight’s The Rodeo (2013)
Robert Pollard – Return Of The Drums (2013)
Guided By Voices – Vote For Me Dummy (2014)
Guided By Voices – The Littlest League Possible (2014)
Guided By Voices – Save The Company (2014)
Guided By Voices – Planet Score (2014)
Guided By Voices – Alex And The Omegas (2014)
Guided By Voices – Table At Fool’s Tooth (2014)
Guided By Voices – Males Of Wormwood Mars (2014)
Guided By Voices – Authoritarian Zoo (2014)
Guided By Voices – All American Boy (2014)
Guided By Voices – Motor Away (Live) (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Piss Face (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Mobility (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Death Metal Kid (2015)
Robert Pollard – Take Me To Yolita/Up Up And Up (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Tomfoole Terrific (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Jargon Of Clones (2015)
Ricked Wicky – Poor Substitute (2015)
Ricked Wicky – A Number I Can Trust (2015)
Circus Devils – Girl In Space (2015)
ESP Ohio – Royal Cyclopean (2016)
ESP Ohio – Lithuanian Bombshells (2016)
Cash Rivers – She Laughed I Left (2017)
Guided By Voices – Just To Show You (2017)
Guided By Voices – Space Gun (2017)
Guided By Voices – See My Field (2018)
Guided By Voices – That’s Good (2018)
Guided By Voices – You Own The Night (2018)
Guided By Voices – Winecork Stonehenge (2018)
Guided By Voices – 100 Dougs (2018)
A playlist with (most of) the songs from the 100 releases
* I made the executive decision not to include split singles other than those that only feature Robert Pollard-led bands e.g. Cruise/Nightwalker – the other fifteen 7″ records released, but not included in the video are:
Guided By Voices – Stabbing A Star: Out Of Cowtown Vol. III compilation (1993)
Guided By Voices – If We Wait: split single with Jenny Mae Leffel (1993)
Guided By Voices – Aim Correctly: split single with Cobra Verde (1997)
Guided By Voices – Pantherz: Rebound Magazine compilation (1998)
Nightwalker – One Track Record: Sponic Magazine compilation (1998)
Guided By Voices – Cheyenne (Live): split single with Sin Sin 77 (2002)
Richard Meltzer, Robert Pollard, Smegma & Antler split single (2002)
Robert Pollard – Drinker’s Peace: split single with Bobby Bare Jr on Bloodshot’s Six Pack To Go boxset (2015)
split the difference
Some of them can be heard here, on what I reckon is a pretty neat little playlist (featuring as it does at least two of my all-time favourite GBV songs):
A quick run down of all the things that most pleased me over the last 12 months (excluding a certain 63 year old Argentinian).
Starting with my favourite SONG OF THE YEAR (a full run down of all my favourite songs can be heard on a forthcoming podcast), and congratulations to Benjamin Shaw, whose mood may well be very slightly lightened with news of this great honour. Or not.
Top 25 Albums
1 Guided By Voices – Space Gun
a modern day classic
2 Spare Snare – ‘Sounds’
so good I bought it seven times
3 The Ocean Party – The Oddfellows’ Hall
a fitting tribute to the sadly departed Zac Denton
4 Benjamin Shaw – Megadead
the sound of man picking seeds from his skull
5 The Coke Dares – Fake Lake
jam-packed with hits
6 The Breeders – All Nerve
7 RVG – A Quality Of Mercy
8 Interrobang‽ – Interrobang‽
9 The Monochrome Set – Maiseworld
10 The Goon Sax – We’re Not Talking
11 Astral Swans – Strange Prison
12 Half Man Half Biscuit – No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut
13 The Astounds – Get Alright With The Astounds
14 The Moles — Code Word
15 The Gentleman Losers – Permanently Midnight
16 Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Hope Downs
17 Cash Rivers & The Sinners – Do Not Try To Adjust Your Set, I Am The Vertical & Horizontal
18 Schizo Fun Addict – El Shoegaze Bossa Nova
19 Rick Rude – Verb For Dreaming
20 Concretism – For Concrete And Country
21 Trace Mountains – Partner To Lean On
22 Bas Jan – Yes I Jan
23 JD Meatyard – The Batchain Pullers
24 Dust From 1000 Yrs – A Sweet Thing Turns Sour
25 of Arrowe Hill – Domestic Espionage
… and making up a top 50 albums, all of which you should own, are, in alphabetical order, 25 more:
The Advisory Circle – Ways of Seeing, Amen Dunes – Freedom, Babybird – You And Me Is Wrong / Selfies Inside The Coffin / Happy Face/Sad Face, The Charlemagnes – Three Chords And A Half-Truth, The Chills – Snow Bound, The Cleaners From Venus – Life In A Time Machine, The Declining Winter – Belmont Slope, epic45 – Through Broken Summer, Eureka California – Roadrunners , Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Tunguska Tydfil, Hello Whirled – Tear The Night Apart , Kristin Hersh – Possible Dust Clouds, Holy Tunics – Butter Dish, Les Big Byrd – Iran Iraq IKEA, Simon Love – “Sincerely, S. Love x”, The Lovely Eggs – Eggland , Low – Double Negative , The Lucid Dream – Actualisation, Madensuyu – Current, Ben Mason – Dogs N Yaaa, Mudhoney – Digital Garbage, Mythical Motors – Elevated Levels, Von Hayes – You Vape?, Wreckless Eric – Construction Time And Demolition, Yo La Tengo – There’s A Riot Going On
Best Compilations
1 Sarah Artists Compilation (Emotional Response)
2 The Bedroom Tapes (Minimal Wave)
3 The Beginning Of The End: The Existential Psychodrama In Country Music (1956-1974) (The Iron Mountain Analogue Research Facility)
4 Communion (Burning Witches Records)
5 Space Is The Plaice (Pussyfoot Records)
Top EPs
1 Wurld Series – Stately and Befrothed
2 The Ocean Party – I.B.O. EP
3 Guided By Voices – Winecork Stonehenge / 100 Dougs
4 Roger Gerressen – Yauch EP
5 Thee Mightees – Let’s Look At Thee Mightees
Top 5 Reissues / Re-pressings / Not Strictly Speaking New Stuff
1 Boyracer – Fling Yr Bonnet Over The Windmill
2 The Monochrome Set – 1979-1985: Complete Recordings
3 This Kind Of Punishment – This Kind Of Punishment / A Beard Of Bees
4 Robert Storey – Come Up And Hear My Etchings
5 Even As We Speak – Feral Pop Frenzy
Top Live Albums
1 Babybird – The St. Pancras Old Church Live Album
2 Guided By Voices – Ogre’s Trumpet
3 Mount Eerie – (after)
The Robert Pollard Annual Output Roundup
The remarkable and indispensable Guided By Voices Database (15 years old this year!!) details a dozen releases from the Pollard camp in 2018 with two albums (one a phenomenal double) from the Cash Rivers & The Sinners alter-ego: Blue Balls Lincoln and Do Not Try To Adjust Your Set I Am The Vertical And The Horizontal. There were three Guided By Voices singles: See My Field, That’s Good, and You Own The Night , two further EPs: Winecork Stonehenge and 100 Dougs and, two full LPs – Space Gun and the double live album Ogre’s Trumpet. The database lists Todd Tobias‘s Massabu Evening Entertainments, but he also released the album Amialluma with Chloë March and the self-titled Moonchy & Tobias with, er, Moonchy. Meanwhile Doug Gillard was all over the Neko Case album Hell-On, Tobin Sprout snuck out a digital only release of the song Supersonic Chairman, and Chris Slusarenko’s band, Eyelids, released their third LP, Maybe More. Robert Pollard also helpfully typed up a release schedule for next year that already includes a double LP, two single LPs, two more EPs, and a range of reissues. So that’s good.
The Bobby Pop Award For Prolificacy
Remarkably , we have the same top three as in 2017 and I have honestly lost count of the number of songs I now have squirrelled away from these artists.
Ben Spizuco: 267 (+22 live tracks) = 289 (Hello Whirled) – here are my two favourites:
2. Stephen Jones: 212 (+43) = 255 (Arthritis Kid, Babybird, Wayz2Die, Apple Android, Stephen Jones)
3. Robert Pollard: 125 + (25) = 150 (Cash Rivers & The Sinners, Guided By Voices)
Top 5 Music Related Books (Read This Year)
1 Closer You Are: The Story Of Robert Pollard & Guided By Voices – Matthew Cutter
2 It’s Lovely To Be Here: The Touring Diaries Of A Scottish Gent – James Yorkston
3 Long Shadows, High Hopes: The Life and Times of Matt Johnson & The The – Neil Fraser
4 Popkiss: The Life & Afterlife Of Sarah Records – Michael White
5 A Novel for Lazy Readers – An Antidote to the Headache of BBC Radio 4 – David R Edwards
Top Musical Film
The Slits – Here To Be Heard
Musical Discovery Of The Year
Dust From 1000 Years
Top 10 Gigs
1 Spare Snare – Leith Depot, Edinburgh, 18th August
2 Babybird – Deaf Institute, Manchester, 17 May & Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 30 November
3 They Might Be Giants – O2 Academy, Manchester, 4 October
4 Even As We Speak & Boyracer – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 21 July
5 Euroheedfest 8 – Stag’s Head Hoxton, London, 7 April
6 The Flight Of The Conchords – Echo Arena, Liverpool, 25 June
7 Jeffrey Lewis & JD Meatyard – The Leaf, Liverpool, 4 April
8 Chuck Prophet & Stephanie Finch – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 20 September
9 Belle & Sebastian – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 19 March
10 Shonen Knife – Shipping Forecast, Liverpool, 21 April
In a very pleasing development I attended five of my top ten gigs with my son (not to mention a number of Leeds United home matches). Good lad, Kicker Jr.
New Musical Source Of The Year
46-30 Podcast – James Yorkston & Stephen Marshall (Triassic Tusk Records)
Musical Quote Of The Year
Never mind quotes, I’m in a proper musician’s video….
Favourite Music Related Moment (Outside of Everything Above)
Playing the Papernut Cambridge – Outstairs Instairs LP side A from the centre out. Every time it makes me smile.
I’m a big fan of the podcast The Trap Set where Joe Wong interviews drummers. It’s far more interesting than it sounds and they don’t just discuss paradiddles and flams for an hour. If you’ve never listened then I’ve put links to some of my favourite episodes at the bottom of this.
Being a US-based podcast I thought it was unlikely they’d ever get around to interviewing one of my favourite drummers, Charlie Layton from the semi-legendary Wedding Present. So I thought I’d just ask him a load of questions myself.
What was the first instrument you learnt to play?
Drums! Ha… I begged my parents to buy me a guitar when I was 12 and they refused. I did tire of the idea when I realised that most of my mates were playing guitar, so when no one was playing drums and we were talking about forming bands I thought I’d give it a bash (literally!). It was that or vocals and being a shy kid, that was never going to happen.
Did you have lessons or self-taught?
I had my first kit (Premier Olympic) when I was 14 and there it sat for the first month, set-up (badly) and untouched. The threat was, ‘get lessons or it’s going!’ I found a guy called Scott who only taught a maximum of 3 students. He had a slot free and he was like a big brother to me. I had lessons with him for about 3 years until I started playing in bands and then they stopped completely when I moved to London at 18.
What bands did you play with before Wedding Present?
So very many! Though none that you would have ever heard of before.
I really liked your band The Dirty Fingernails who played the mini festival at Holmfirth Picturedome a few years ago, what’s happening with them these days?
Very kind of you to say! That was the 3rd band that I had been in with Sami. He’s like my Finnish brother. We met in London in 2001 and started a band called Librium together and I also loved his songs and him as a person, so ended up drumming with him all the time. The band ended in 2012, as I had moved to Berlin. He’s now back in Helsinki. Leon the bassist is now in band called All Flags Are Grey. They played At The Edge of The Sea this year.
How did you get the drum job with The Wedding Present?
Contacts. Terry de Castro was in a band called Goya Dress in the 90s. Their manager was a guy called Nick Moore. In 2005 he was managing my band Seeing Scarlet (said you wouldn’t know any of them). We had just finished watching Art Brut (my mate Eddie’s band from Bournemouth) headline Tin Pan Alley music fest in Denmark Street when his phone rang. It was Terry asking if he knew of a drummer that could stand in for a festival the following weekend. I said yes, it went well, I was asked back at the end of 2005 for a few Spanish dates and the rest is history.
You don’t look old enough to remember the early Wedding Present records. So how familiar were you with the band’s music when you first joined?
I knew the name and remember seeing the adverts for Watusi in Melody Maker & NME at the time. I started buying them weekly from the spring of 1994 and reading them religiously. Then I began taping John Peel’s shows in about 1997 and by then it was Cinerama, which at that time wasn’t up my street! My musical tastes have changed over time though and some of those Cinerama tracks are up there with my favs. I love strings in pop music!
You’re now one of the longest serving members the band have ever had. What’s the secret to your successful working relationship with David?
Being in a band is tough (oh boo hoo I hear you say! I’d kill to do it!). Don’t get me wrong, I love what I do, but as it is David’s vehicle, every member has to rely on other work to make it viable to be in the band. For years I was tour managing bands when I wasn’t on tour with TWP. However I didn’t see that being sustainable long term. Since 2015, I have been teaching at BIMM Berlin (a university specialising in the music industry). I’ve been fortunate to be able to juggle it all. David is easy-going and is happy to work things around my schedule as well which helps. We are both Taurus, not that I’m a massive one for the stars, but I can see the similarities. We are both driven individuals who work hard and I’d like to think there is an understanding there. Touring isn’t for everyone. I used to drink a lot on tour, heavily most nights, whereas today I rarely drink at all. Times change, you grow older and you want different things from life. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my personal life and within the group. Long may that continue!
When you’re recording new material, how fully formed are the song arrangements when David first presents them to you?
It’s actually generally the guitarist at the time that will present an idea to David. They may then work on it and develop it together, or that may start in the rehearsal room. We’ll knock it into some sort of shape and get a rough recording down. David will then leave it for a while and return to it with fresh ears in a month, maybe two or three later (depending on our touring schedule) and add bits, chop bits out, move things around and then send it out to us for thoughts. We then rehearse it again, record it and see whether it’s worth keeping. Sometimes songs might go through this process a few times, others might be really quick.
ALL THE SONGS SOUND THE SAME: Some questions about writing the setlists
The gigs when you do the whole albums, which of those albums is the most enjoyable? And which is the most difficult?
We played Going, Going… in its entirety last year (2017) at Cadogan Hall in London. Accompanied by strings and a choir. As that is an album that I was involved with from start to finish, that was a pretty special night.
I was there and you’re right, it was!
Most enjoyable: Tommy! I love the simplicity of everything. That and the pace of every song. Lots of fun to play.
Most difficult: There honestly isn’t one. George Best is a drum machine and straight-forward, albeit pacey like Tommy. Bizarro is Simon Smith’s debut album and with my style being similar to his, I love playing the parts he writes. He really thinks about the parts that he plays on each record, which makes it enjoyable to learn and play.
Are there any songs that you put on the setlist through gritted teeth because you don’t enjoy playing it? I have a theory that Lovenest doesn’t get played much because the drumming near the end sounds quite tiring.
Ha ha! No Lovenest is great! I had it in the set for our North America tour this year (2018). I think it’ll be back at some point later this year as well.
I’ve just mentioned Simon and our styles being similar. Graeme Ramsay (drummer from 2006 – 2009 & Guitarist until 2011) has a very different style to me. The song, ‘Soup’ on El Rey is one I really struggle with. He has this lovely light touch that I just can’t replicate!
Play Lovenest at the Stoke gig in December please!
Are there any songs you’d like to play more frequently but the other bandmembers don’t like playing?
I don’t think there are. Even the songs that you are most comfortable with need to be changed up at some point. When you start not having to concentrate on playing some thing, it’s time to rest it for a bit.
You change the setlists quite a bit and the fans really appreciate that. Does that also help to keep it interesting for the band or is it a pain having to learn and rehearse so many songs?
I have played most of the songs live at least once now, so learning the songs is a simple process for me. Head to the rehearsal room and run through them on my own a few times. I think it’s much harder for the guitarists and bassists than it is for David or I.
Can you do the “one from each” challenge for us please, choose 1 favourite song from each Wedding Present studio album.
When Elvis Costello was recruiting bandmembers for what became The Attractions, the advert promised “Fun Travel and Excitement.” What percentage of being on tour is that?
Well the one great thing about joining a band like TWP is that though the band isn’t huge, it’s known well enough to be able to play all over the world. As David runs the whole operation himself, it means that he’s able to keep costs to a minimum and make shows to 150 people in Bangkok financially viable.
So though you don’t get to spend much time in each city you do get a feel for a place and the people. Our recent Asian tour was amazing. The places we went to, including 3 firsts for the band and the fantastic people that we met along the way.
I do find touring fun. I think I’ve adapted to it. I’m sure David and Jessica have seen the changes in my behaviour on the road over the years! I’m like David in that regard, I love planning things. I use the time when I’m driving the van to process thoughts and then say to David, ‘Maybe we could do ‘this’ next year?’ We then chat about it and 9/10 it comes to fruition!
So what’s the best & worst thing about being on tour?
Best: Places, People (band / crew and audiences), Playing
Worst: Food. I’m a fussy eater, so anywhere outside of the UK can be hard for me. I need food in order to play and I become a misery if I’m hungry! That and waiting around. A friend of mine, Knox Chandler (awesome session guitarist) when asked, ‘What are you good at?’ He said, ‘ Waiting around.’ You have to know how to kill time. If you are sat in the van, at an airport, in a venue, in a dressing room, then you have to know how to amuse yourself.
Do you all travel together? If so what roles do different bandmembers have? (e.g. who’s driving? who’s navigating? who’s choosing the music?)
Yes, we all travel in a Splitter van. David, Jessica and I all drive. The co-pilot navigates when the sat nav goes wrong! Music: We have weird rules. As David is generally in the passenger seat, he’s always working, so there’s no music for the UK / European drives.
In North America it’s different. The drives are so long and so the rule is that the driver chooses the music.
I really enjoyed the recent Marc Riley session. “Getting Nowhere Fast” / “Felicity” sounded amazing. The new songs there were great too, so the big question is are there plans for a new album?
Thanks, it feels great to be working on new stuff again.
We’ve been so busy touring since Going, Going… came out, that there simply hasn’t been the time.
As things start to settle a bit more now, the plan is to get cracking on a bunch of new ideas. These (Panama & Jump In, The Waters Fine) were worked up over summer. We now have a couple of months before the next shows and files are being sent back and forth which is very exciting!
Whether it’ll be an album I don’t know. That’s for David to answer! But hopefully they’ll be some more new tracks being played at some point next year.
In your glamorous rock’n’roll lifestyle, have you got to meet many of your heroes? If so who was really lovely and who was a disappointment?
I’ve VERY briefly met Damon Albarn at the America Embassy. Blur were my favourite band as a teenager and of course David knows him! They had a little chat and that was that. I’m generally too ‘star’ struck to talk to people, however once you do, you soon realise that you have a lot in common, know the same people and well, you do the same job after all!
Now I’m not just wriggling out of the disappointment question. The fact is that I’ve not been.
You mentioned being friends with Art Brut before. Are you playing on their new stuff?
Yes we recorded the album together in London last September (2017) I’ve know Eddie since we were teenagers and our bands used to grace the same line-ups back in Bournemouth in the last 90’s. We both live out in Berlin, I love Art Brut and it seemed like a good fit!
Are you playing their live dates next year?
Yes I will be touring with Art Brut. With some forward planning it’s easy to make the schedules work for two bands.
If you could magic yourself into any band, past or present, which would you choose and why?
The Clash! Love them. So prolific. Great songs and great new look to accompany each album.
Four Horsemen
A few bonus questions from @Shinpad11 on Twitter….. What does Charlie pin to the back of David’s shirt to make him smile so much whilst playing?
Ha! Well the songs are a lot of fun to play. As I’ve said already, it’s a perfect fit for my style. Also the facial expressions are just part of my style. I don’t even realize that it’s happening and then I’ll see some photos afterwards and think, ‘Oh boy that looks terrible.’ I physically can’t do anything about it though!
Are Mr & Mrs Gedge surrogate Mum & Dad to the rest whilst on tour?
Nah. We look out for each other though. Jessica does always make a cracking brew as we get set-up for soundcheck. That’s always nice. She’s also great when you are feeling poorly. So maybe a little bit actually!
Will they ever get around to playing “Box Elder” live? (since we asked that question it’s actually been played quite a bit, including the Sheffield and Chester gigs I went to)
As you know, we played it live earlier this year. As David often says, ‘There are about 300 songs to chose from. We can’t play them all!’
Last 2 questions now, these are the ones we ask everybody we interview…..
You’re in a caff ordering a breakfast. You can have toast and your choice of tea or coffee and then you’re allowed 4 more items. Go.
Extra crispy bacon, fried eggs (over easy), sautéed potato (like in a Little Chef, Olympic Breakfast!) and beans.
The Breakfast of Olympic Champions
Cricket, is it any good or is it just bollocks?
It’s bloody amazing! I’ve played from the age of 10. Medium pace, right-arm over, swing bowler. Terrible with the bat unfortunately. The last side I played for was the Tower of Dudes in London. It was made up of musicians and writers. It was mainly about the drinks after though!
Catch The Wedding Present’s “Tommy 30th Anniversary Tour” in December in Portsmouth, Exeter, Bristol, Stoke (see you down the front!), Bradford, Galashiels, Carlisle, Leicester, London and Liverpool.
“Sleepers Wake” is a cantata written in 1731 by Johann Sebastian Bach. If you’re roughly my age, you might associate it with Maurice Mimer, one of Kenny Everett’s least funny characters, whose sketches were accompanied by an easy listening Moog version. It pops up here on the track “Teutonic” played on the keys by frontman Colin Howard alongside snippets of other Germanic hits “Ride of the Valkyries” and “Deutschland Uber Alles.” All of that is accompanied by mucho mucho surf guitar and repeated shouts of the song’s title. This is what “Tequila” would’ve sounded like had it been recorded by The Cramps rather than The Champs.
It’s also an appropriate title for the album because it’s been a while since we’ve heard from Yorkshire Super Heroes Percy. I first stumbled across them on a boozy pub crawl round Camden with a couple of mates. Late in the evening our attention was grabbed by the glorious racket from the 3 piece band in the corner. Closer inspection led to a Fred Titmus moment as we all simultaneously realised who was on drums. Fucking hell, it’s Hugh Whitaker!
A drunken conversation with the band after the gig led to them subsequently supporting one of the bands I was playing in. Hugh even drummed for us at a gig in Sheffield when our drummer was laid up in a hospital bed. The brilliant singles “Donny Rednecks” and “Caravan” got a few radio plays from John Peel / Steve Lamacq and that was the last I heard of them.
But now, like Rip Van Winkle waking from a 20 year snooze, they’re back, back, Bach!
Baby Got Bach
The album kicks off in furious style with Howard posing the question “Why Are You Still Here?” to some irritating political twerp on his TV screen. Someone “ministerial” with a “wayward nob” who’s “peddling lies” and “full of it.” Can’t you narrow it down a bit?
Bit of a Buzzcocks vibe here with Howard’s Devoto-like vocals. A different track “Going Off On One” somehow reminds me of “Something’s Gone Wrong Again” while simultaneously sounding nothing like it.
Another great Mancunian band are more directly referenced on “Hep!” In the aftermath of the great Mark E. Smith’s death, Howard rails against “people trying to reclaim [him] for their individual ends” and “freeloading bastards” who “last bought an album in 1985.”
Parts of “Gut of The Quantifier” are thrown in, along with the famous Beatles opening line (from a song The Fall covered) “I heard the news today” but with the “oh boy” appropriately changed to “oh brother.”
Mark E Smith mosaic, Short Street, Manchester
The Fall lyric mosaic, Short Street Manchester
The spirit of MES lives on with rockabilly feel of “Exploding Head” which sounds a bit like “Container Drivers” played by Dr Feelgood. The brilliant verses tell of the mind-numbing tedium of being stuck in traffic or in a pointless desk job followed by a catchy chorus of “why am I living a lie?”
The rhythm section of ever-present Andy Wiles on bass and relative new boy Jason Wilson on drums play a blinder throughout, but particularly on some of the wilder tracks. Throw The Stooges and “Trompe Le Monde” era Pixies into a stew, mix in some of Future Of The Left’s cynical humour and you’re somewhere near. The vocals even get a bit Jello Biafra in some of their more unhinged moments, the repeated “fear of a thousand arseholes” on “Streets of 1000” being a good example.
An even more menacing mood is created on “Alice Stone” where we hear a sinister and sneeringly delivered tale of “an ordinary girl” who “met a guy in corporate finance” and became a “stay at home mum.” Her fragile mental state is conveyed brilliantly through the woozy proto-reggae accompaniment which starts and ends fairly calmly but builds and almost collapses in on itself in the middle section. The Wobble-y bassline adds to the ominous mood and Paula Duck’s creepy chromatic Farfisa organ calls to mind masterpieces like “Friday Night and Saturday Morning”, “Grey Day” and “Watching The Detectives.”
Things get a bit more Half Man Half Biscuit with the brilliant and hilarious “Off The Meds” which starts off as a joyful celebration of being, well, off the meds. The second verse sees our protagonist walking to the market square and exposing himself (another use of the word “nob” here, very impressive.) By the end of the song he is SPOILER ALERT: somewhat unsurprisingly back on the meds.
Another song proclaims “Oh Lord forgive me for I know not what I am about to ingest” over a church organ backing. There’s some kind of unholy communion going on here. Two OAPs (and possibly their dog too?) neck some hallucinogens that broaden their minds and make them feel and appear younger. Suddenly it’s “no more Fray Bentos, Gala Bingo, Skegness in the rain” as they visualise each other as Liz Taylor and John Major. All of this over a jolly galloping beat making “Enlightened” my favourite song on the album, just ahead of “Exploding Head” and “Off The Meds.”
“Sleepers Wake” is released on Amazon, Google Play, Spotify and Itunes later this week on but you can buy it on CD or download from Bandcamp below.
Hugh may not be in the band anymore but I’ll take any excuse to re-post one of my all-time favourite videos.
J.S. Bach wasn’t averse to a bit of a rumble you know. If you’ve never heard the story about him nearly stabbing a bloke after accusing him of playing the bassoon like a goat then get a load of this.
The HMV Shop, Swan Lane, Guildford. Photo and window display by Gavin Atkinson.
Thirty years ago this month a naive 17 year old boy from a rural village in Sussex started his first full-time job among the bright lights big city of Guildford! I’d been working Saturdays and school holidays in Comet on the top floor of Debenhams. The bloke behind the nearby Virgin Records counter got fed up of me constantly asking him if there were any jobs going there and told me to try HMV. Some of my peers sneered as they boasted of A levels they’d actually passed and prepared for their new lives at university. But as far as I was concerned I’d landed myself a dream job surrounded by music every day, what could be better than that? I worked there for 4 happy years, during which my musical tastes and knowledge broadened exponentially. I gradually started to “listen without prejudice” and stopped being such an indie music snob.
Here is a Spotify playlist with a selection of songs that remind me of those days.
“Moondance” by Van Morrison
In my interview I was asked some questions to test my knowledge of where records should be filed alphabetically.
“Where would you find a Van Halen album?” Under V obviously.
Followed by “Where would you find a Van Morrison album?” Trick question. Fortunately the band I’d formed with my schoolmates did a cover of “Moondance” so whilst I didn’t know anything else about him, I knew enough to know that he was a solo artist, not a band, and therefore is filed under M for his surname.
“Doctorin’ The Tardis” by The Timelords
Another interview question: “what’s currently number 1 in the singles chart?” Nailed it.
“The Only Way Is Up” by Yazz and the Plastic Population
I thought this was number 1 on the day I started the job but I just Googled it and discovered it was either “I Owe You Nothing” by Bros or “Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You” by Glenn Medeiros and His Epic Mullet. But those 2 records are both dreadful so let’s say bollocks to historical accuracy and put Yazz on the playlist instead.
“The Battle of All Saints Road” by Big Audio Dynamite
I hero-worshipped The Clash back then. Still do if I’m honest. BAD’s album “Tighten Up Volume 88” was released on the day I started and this song had been a highlight when I’d seen them play at my first ever festival a couple of weeks previously. It was the Amnesty International Festival of Youth at the Milton Keynes Bowl and I’ve talked on our podcast previously about how the whole weekend was a badly organised shambles and also how much I’d bloody loved it.
“Wap Bam Boogie” by Matt Bianco
Saturday morning phone-in wankers Matt Bianco also released a new album that day. It wasn’t very good but this song was a bit of an instore favourite. An influence on future number 1 “Renegade Master” by Wildchild? Probably not.
“My Philosophy” by Boogie Down Productions
Starting at HMV that same day was a lad from Woking called Graham who remains one of my very best friends to this day. He was (and still is in fact) a couple of years younger than me but he looked and acted older. The established staff members quizzed us on our musical tastes and feeling they’d got the measure of us they dubbed us “Indie Chris” and “Hippy Hoppy Graham”
All credit to “Hippy Hoppy Graham” for getting me into Scott La Rock and KRS-One.
“Mistletoe and Wine” by Cliff Richard
In December the shop was open on Sundays and stayed open late every night. I didn’t really have any other commitments so I did all the long shifts that were offered to me. The downside was that we had to listen to Christmas music all the time. And I do mean all the time. The only music permitted to be played instore was the compilation “Now That’s What I Call Christmas” and Cliff’s latest mawkish festive discharge “Mistletoe and Wine” which was firmly entrenched at number 1 for the whole of December 1988. Repeated listening to those Christmas songs scarred me for life and the opening notes of some of them still make me bristle and go into full “bah humbug” mode.
Top 5 Christmas songs I hate:
“Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time” by Paul McCartney
“Last Christmas” by Wham!
“A Spaceman Came Travelling” by Chris De fucking Bergh
“Merry Christmas War Is Over” by John Lennon
“Little Saint fucking Nick” by The Beach Boys
Occasional respite from all this was offered in the form of the Phil Spector Christmas album which I never get tired of hearing so I’ll put a track from that on the playlist instead.
“Solitaire” by The Carpenters
I’d been given a record player for Christmas when I was about 6 and started off with albums by The Wombles, Smurfs and Pinky and Perky before I’d starting buying singles from the charts soon after. I’d also listened to most of my mum and dad’s records. I liked The Beatles and Motown LPs by Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. My other favourites were Buddy Holly, Elvis and the double album soundtrack to “That’ll Be The Day” which had a load of great 50s rock’n’roll on it.
Apart from that it was mostly music from the 1970s that I tried to like but just couldn’t get into. Wings, Simon and Garfunkel, Bread, ELO, Elton John, Don McLean etc.
Then there were 2 albums by The Carpenters. I already knew a couple of the songs because they’d been covered by Pinky and Perky! Some of it, the faster songs mainly, was really REALLY naff. But I was a big Smiths fan whose favourite song was “I Know It’s Over” so I really liked the slow songs with their gloomy lyrics and dramatic chord changes.
My parents took the mickey when they saw what I’d been listening to. A bit rich seeing as they were the ones who’d originally bought the albums but clearly times had changed and The Carpenters were now the uncoolest of the uncool. So from then on I kept my liking for The Carpenters a secret.
In 1990 Sonic Youth released “Tunic (Song for Karen)” and a new Carpenters “best of” called “Yesterday Once More” came out and sold very well. Quite a few of the older, cooler, more knowledgeable people in the shop liked it. So I went home and told my parents that they were wrong and I was right because The Carpenters were now really cool, so there.
* From here on, rather than typing “older, cooler, more knowledgeable people” I will abbreviate it to “o.c.m.k.”
“Buffalo” by Stump
I’d seen Stump on The Tube a while before and been confused, yet intrigued. Noticing a new single arriving on the racks I remember plucking up the courage to ask Mark (o.c.m.k.) to put it on. After that one play, it was decided that the good folk of Guildford weren’t ready to hear a weird man shouting about big bottoms and fish early on a Monday morning. But that one listen was enough for me to decide I was going to buy that single and both the bands albums too. Perhaps my tastes had already been prepared for such weirdness by my love of The Sugarcubes where Bjork’s unearthly beautiful voice was counterpointed by an insane bloke playing trumpet very badly and shouting about lobsters and custard.
“Anything For You” by Gloria Estefan
This album had loads of hit singles and stayed in the charts for ages. Exactly the kind of music an NME / Melody Maker reading indie kid like me was supposed to hate. Secretly I bloody loved the big soppy ballads “Can’t Stay Away From You” and especially this one. I think it’s the chord change on the 4th line of the verse that gets me. How strange the change from major to minor as Cole Porter put it.
“I Thank U” by Adeva
Didn’t think soulful house tracks were my cup of tea either but I loved this one.
“You Set The Scene” by Love
Not long after I started HMV released a set of 16 albums called “The Classic Collection” which were only available in HMV shops. These were limited edition LPs packaged in a box with a booklet, kind of like a Deluxe Edition before such things existed. Included in each box was a letter from Brian McLaughlin, the big kahuna at HMV. You can see the list of 16 albums at the bottom of the letter.
I already owned and loved the albums by Joni Mitchell, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix and both Elvises. Like everyone’s dad at that time, my dad owned Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” but I didn’t and still don’t like it. As already mentioned, he had quite a few Motown albums so I was already a big fan of Marvin and especially Stevie. My elder brother had a Who greatest hits double album which I also loved and the songs from “Who’s Next” were my favourites.
But being a good company man, I thought I’d better listen to all the ones I’d never heard. The Led Zeppelin and Neil Young ones were pretty good but I think both of them have made much better albums. Like every Doors album, “L.A. Woman” has some great songs and some shit songs. I have no recollection whatsoever of listening to the Jean Michel Jarre one. I didn’t like The Eagles.
I would’ve sworn that “Forever Changes” was one of the Classic Collection but I just checked and it wasn’t. However it was an album that the o.c.m.k. staff raved about and played instore quite a bit. I was a bit wary of it at first, the cover looked very hippy and my Ramones-loving little punk rock heart beat in strict 4/4 time. Hadn’t I been warned to never trust a hippy. They’re the enemy, aren’t they? But I knew the first song “Alone Again Or” from The Damned’s very faithful cover. If The Damned like it then surely it’s ok to give it a try? The strings, brass and psychedelic lyrics soon got their many hooks into me and I bought my own copy on tape, then later on CD, then later on CD again when the double CD version came out. In 2003 I was lucky enough to see Arthur Lee play the album in full.
“Vertigo” by Bernard Herrmann
This was the first film soundtrack I can remember buying.
We used to receive our pay every week in cash which is a very good way of ensuring the staff then give a large proportion of their wages back to the company buying up tapes, vinyl etc that had caught their ear during the week. I’m sure I would’ve spent the whole lot instore every week were it not for the “Loans” system. This was a brilliant perk of the job that meant that each evening when leaving work you were allowed to sign out 3 items of stock to be returned the next day (having taped them overnight of course). The shop had a large collection of films on VHS and my mates and me began having regular Saturday evening “film nights.” Manager Andy (o.c.m.k.) really knew his stuff about film and gave us some great recommendations. During these years we watched the entire back catalogue of favourite directors like David Cronenberg, Brian De Palma, Terry Gilliam, Woody Allen, John Waters, Coen Brothers, Sergio Leone, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock as well as countless daft exploitative horror films like “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and “Maniac Cop”
“2 Hype” by Kid n Play
Never actually heard any music by Kid n Play in my life. But I remember that Andy G (o.c.m.k.) and Rob (o.c.m.k.) would often stroll over to the K section, hold this album cover up in the air. Then we’d all giggle at the silly haircuts and the facial expression of the bloke on the left (Kid presumably)
“Nothing Compares 2 U” by Sinead O’Connor
The problem with very successful hit songs is that you hear them so much you get fed up of them. But I never ever tire of hearing this and I’m sure I never will. My favourite number 1 single of the 1990s.
“Doolittle” by Pixies
“Surfer Rosa” was the only record that every single one of my friends liked. We thought this new album wasn’t going to be as good. We were wrong about that. My favourite album released during my time at HMV.
A few weeks later they were the first band I saw at my first Glastonbury. I think so anyway. They might have been the second, can’t remember if they were before or after Throwing Muses that day.
“Abandon” “Hey Venus” “Sensitize” by That Petrol Emotion
This was a very popular album with the staff and we played it loads. Everyone seemed convinced that this was the album to finally make TPE into the big selling band they deserved to be. But despite a succession of great singles, some excellent remixes and a big promotional push by their label Virgin it just didn’t happen.
“I Am The Resurrection” by The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses album is now heralded as one of the classics of the era but it wasn’t that much of a big deal when it first came out. My colleague Billy (o.c.m.k.) had seen them live somewhere and returned wide-eyed and proclaiming them as the future. I’d heard the “Made of Stone” single. I liked it, maybe because I loved The Cult’s “Love” album and the guitars reminded me a bit of that. We put the album on in the shop as soon as it arrived that Monday morning and I remember enjoying it, particularly the guitar solos. But to me it didn’t sound particularly different from lots of other indie guitar bands of the day and I didn’t really understand why people seemed so excited about this one band. But then at the end of the album it got far more interesting and I can clearly remember clearly hearing the instrumental section at the end of “I Am The Resurrection” for the first time. This was something different. Still indie but it’s also psychedelic, it’s also funky! The Stone Roses made even better records when they took themselves further into funky town with “Fool’s Gold” and it’s equally brilliant b-side “What The World Is Waiting For” and even some tracks on the unfairly derided “Second Coming” album.
“My Name Is Not Susan” by Whitney Houston
Whitney’s beau calls out another woman’s name in his sleep.
Like Lisa Stansfield’s “I may not be a lady but I’m all woman” the lyrics are terrible but I still have a soft spot for it.
“Fisherman’s Blues” by The Waterboys
I have good friends who still haven’t got over the musical left-turn the Waterboys took with this album. They left behind the “Big music” of the brilliant “This Is The Sea” album for a new sound that that the music press, always keen to categorise and pigeonhole, dubbed “raggle taggle”
This album sent me off down various musical avenues. The cover of “Sweet Thing” prompted me into buying “Astral Weeks” and subsequently a load of other albums by the aforementioned Van Morrison. The song “Has Anybody Here Seen Hank?” and their cover of “Lost Highway” on the b-side of the “Fisherman’s Blues” single made me loan out a compilation “Hank Williams 40 Greatest Hits” which in turn led me to a whole load of discoveries in the previously uncharted waters of country music.
“She Makes My Day” by Robert Palmer
I really didn’t like Robert Palmer. I thought he was a ludicrous old man obsessed with singing about how sexy he was and that his horrendous watered down blues-rock records only sold because he put lots of attractive women in his videos. But annoyingly I really, really like this one song of his.
“The Short Answer” by Billy Bragg
Apart from Joe Strummer, my biggest idol in those days was Billy Bragg. I went to see his gigs whenever I could so when his album “Worker’s Playtime” came out, I’d already heard quite a few of the songs live. On the Monday morning it came out, I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard this song (in the corner by the tapes) with BB’s best opening line “between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary, there was Mary.” I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud at the rhyming of “spouses” with “trousers” too.
At a Bragg gig sometime around this period, I bought myself a t-shirt with the slogan “Capitalism is killing music” proudly emblazoned on it. Several of my colleagues pointed out to me how ridiculous it was to wear that while working in a high street record shop. They were quite right of course but I wasn’t about to let that stop me from continuing to wear it.
“I Wish U Heaven” by Prince
I already had Prince’s recent album “Lovesexy” on tape when I started at HMV and I still think it’s one of his best albums. The 10 minute remixed version of “I Wish U Heaven” was released as a single called “I Wish U Heaven (Part 1 2 3)” and it is just about my favourite Prince track of all time. Not available on Spotify unfortunately!
A while after that the video “Lovesexy Live” was released and upon entering our shop customers were treated to the sight of a lifesize naked cardboard cutout of Prince. Guess who took that home a few weeks later?
My bedroom, sometime around 1989
“Happiness” by The Beloved
The musical tastes of the staff at HMV were fairly diverse. There were goths, ravers, punks, folkies, soul boys, indie kids and various crossovers of those. Even so there seemed to be certain albums that everyone liked and The Beloved’s was definitely one of them.
Other albums I remember (perhaps inaccurately?) as being universally liked:
“Goodbye Jumbo” by World Party
“Seal” by Seal
“Club Classics Volume 1” by Soul to Soul
“Sunshine on Leith” by The Proclaimers
“Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty
“Raw Like Sushi” by Neneh Cherry
“Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars” by Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians
“Listen Without Prejudice” by George Michael
“Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe” by Lloyd Cole
“Foxbase Alpha” by Saint Etienne
“Bandwagonesque” by Teenage Fanclub
“Love and Life” by Definition of Sound
“Woodface” by Crowded House
“Def Dumb and Blonde” by Deborah Harry
“Electronic” by Electronic
“Ingenue” by k.d. lang
“A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy Parts 17-24” by Momus
“Doing It For The Kids” was a sampler album released by the Creation label. I bought it because it had a song by Razorcuts on it and I’d really liked their song “Sorry to Embarrass You” which I had on a Melody Maker “Indie Top 20” compilation. Also I bought it because at £1.99 it was very cheap. But even at that price I remember being fairly underwhelmed by most of it. There were tracks by soon-to-be big names Primal Scream and The House of Love but neither of them made much of an impression. One song completely blew me away though, a drum machine and synth based track with sardonic lyrics. Imagine the Pet Shop Boys if they made an album with a budget of a fiver. Seeking out the album it came from “Tender Pervert” I discovered even better, even weirder songs like “Love On Ice” and “The Homosexual”
I first discovered dozens of other great bands via other independent label compilations of the time from Blast First, Food, El, Fire, Zippo, Setanta and 4AD.
“Organ Grinder’s Swing” by Jimmy Smith
Another £1.99 label sampler that took me off down musical paths I might never have otherwise braved. “A Sample of Blue Notes” opened my ears to jazz or at least some of it. I still think that most jazz is self-indulgent pretentious twiddly-diddly showoff bollocks. But a small percentage of it is really good! The stuff you can dance to. Following on from this sampler, I bought a whole load of jazz stuff, particularly Jimmy Smith who I caught live a couple of times at the Jazz Café in Camden. I started going to acid jazz nights at the Africa Centre and Electric Ballroom as well as the indie discos I’d been going to for a while. It wasn’t always well received though. I remember once putting an Art Blakey tape on in my car once and one of my mates asked “why are you listening to the music from Snoopy?”
Check out Jimmy Smith’s “Root Down and Get It” as well, sampled for one of the Beastie Boys greatest ever songs.
“Kennedy” by The Wedding Present
For some reason, record sales only counted towards the charts in certain shops and ours was one of them. So we used to get a lot of sales reps from various record companies and distributors coming in to hype up their new releases. Sometimes they’d give us free tickets for gigs but a lot of the time they were for gigs at the nearby Civic Hall which didn’t really get anyone decent. I’d first heard The Wedding Present on the “Indie Top 20” cassette mentioned above and I’d taped their album “George Best” from my mate Ralphy. When their first album for a major label “Bizarro” was released, an RCA rep came in with free tickets for their gig that night at Kilburn National Ballroom. There was a pecking order for these freebies and I was very pleased that none of the more senior staff wanted to go. I rang up Ralphy and off we went to our first ever free gig! Living the dream.
“Trouble Me” by 10,000 Maniacs
When I’d started the vinyl shelves were in the centre of the shop and they were the first racks you saw on entering. Tapes were on a long wall nearby and CDs were tucked away around a corner.
Then one day word came from on high that we were to swap around the CDs and the vinyl. I think the general feeling among the staff was that this was a waste of time. These new-fangled CDs were never going to take off, they’re far too expensive. At the time a new release CD would be priced at £10.99 and the vinyl and tape versions would be around £5.99. The record companies had been saying for a long time that the prices would eventually be the same. I naively thought that meant that they’d start bringing down the prices of the CDs. But what they did instead was put up the prices of the tapes and albums. It wasn’t a very gradual increase either, all of a sudden they started charging the shops the same price for tapes and vinyl (around 8 quid) as they did for CDs. What was that again about capitalism killing music?
Around the same time, CD singles were beginning to be sold at the same price as the 7” version but usually with more tracks included.
I resisted buying a CD player for quite a while. I bought quite a lot of vinyl but I mainly bought tapes because they were the most portable format and could be listened to anywhere. I’d started to notice that some of my favourite bands were releasing songs on CD singles that you couldn’t get anywhere else. The 3” CD single version of “Trouble Me” by 10,000 Maniacs had a track called “Party of God” on it that wasn’t on either the 7” or 12” version. Not only that but the song was a collaboration with Billy Bragg. Plus it was packaged in a fancy case that was shaped like an elephant! This was the final straw so I bought the CD single. The flimsy elephant case fell apart soon after but the little CD is still going strong.
I also bought 6 CDs of my favourite albums that I already owned on other formats. Those were “London Calling” “Sign ‘o’ The Times” “Geno” “London 0 Hull 4” “Surfer Rosa / Come On Pilgrim” and “Substance.” The last 3 of those all came with loads of extra songs that weren’t on the versions I had on tape or record.
It took me a few months to save up to buy something to play it on so I had all these CDs for quite a while before I bought myself a fancy new Aiwa midi system. My dad helped me wallmount the speakers and whenever people came round I’d dazzle them with the crystal clear sound and the fancy stereo effects at the start of “Bizarre Love Triangle”
They’d probably have been more impressed if they hadn’t been distracted by the lifesize naked Prince lurking nearby.
“Disintegration” by The Cure
With big new releases like this, we’d get people queuing outside the door before the shop opened on a Monday morning. The problem with this was that the couriers who delivered the new releases quite often didn’t arrive until halfway through the morning. Sometimes they delivered to the Our Price shop down the road first so people would unfortunately go and spend their money there instead.
“Human Touch” / “Lucky Town” by Bruce Springsteen
To overcome the courier problem, if there was a really big release coming out one of the staff would go and pick it up in person. I remember someone getting up very early on a Monday morning to go and collect a load of Michael Jackson “Black or White” singles so we had them out on the racks when we opened up at 9 o’clock.
A few weeks later, Bruce Springsteen was releasing 2 albums on the same day. Being a big Bruce fan, I volunteered to go and collect the stock from the Sony warehouse. That was somewhere in Basingstoke, a place I had never been to before or had any reason to return to since. No satnav in them days kids so I’ve no idea how I found the place but somehow I did. Getting back in my car I excitedly put a cassette of the album into the stereo. How lucky was I, getting to hear this album before anybody else!
Oh hang on, it’s not very good is it.
The wider world agreed and quite a lot of that initial stock was still unshifted when I left!
“Abstain!” by Five Thirty
For the first half of my time at HMV I worked on the albums counter. Then I spent a couple of years at the singles counter which is where the shop’s stereo system was. So whoever was on the singles counter got to choose what was played instore! I used this power to play “Abstain!” several times a day.
The other thing about working in singles was that you got to meet the sales reps from the record companies. They would play you new singles before they came out and try and persuade you to pre-order lots of copies. I was notoriously awful at this and seemed to possess an almost supernatural inability to spot a hit.
I remember a rep coming in from a small independent distributor with this 12” promo of a song he assured me was “really big in the clubs.” He convinced me to put it on in the shop and about 30 seconds later I took it off, pretty much laughed in his face and told him “listen mate, nobody is EVER going to buy that crap but I’ll do you a favour and take 1 copy.”
“I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred went on to become a Gold single and was in the top 10 for nearly half a year!
Other notable hits I failed to see coming:
Number 1 for 16 weeks “Everything I Do I Do It For You” by Bryan Adams: “He hasn’t had a hit single in years, we’ll take 5 copies.”
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana: “We’ve had 3 copies of that Tad 12 inch on the rack for weeks, those Sub Pop bands just don’t sell in Guildford.”
“Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Bombalurina. “A cover of a children’s novelty song from the 1960s over a house beat you say? Sung by Timmy Mallett? [sarcastically] Oh yeah, I’m sure that’ll sell loads. Get out of our shop right now.“
“The Last Beat Of My Heart” by Siouxsie and The Banshees
I didn’t like the single “Peek-a-Boo” very much and that had been a hit. But I really loved “Peepshow” the album that it came from and I was convinced that the follow-up single was going to be a huge hit. I pre-ordered loads of copies and put it on display prominently at the front of the racks. It didn’t even make the top 40.
Here are a load more songs I thought were going to be massive hits but weren’t. Even despite frequent airplay in our shop!
“Sons of the Stage” by World of Twist
“She’s So Young” by The Pursuit of Happiness
“La Raza” by Kid Frost
“Heaven Sent An Angel” by Revolver
“Egg Rush / Doris Is A Little Bit Partial” by Flowered Up
“You’re History” by Shakespeare’s Sister
“Ship Ahoy” by Marxman
“Second Hand Clothes” by Moonshake
“Chlorine Dream” by Spirea X
“Read My Lips (Lights Out)” by The Katydids
“Never No More” by Blab Happy
“My Affair” by Kirsty MacColl
“Days in the Trees” by No Man
“You’re a Rose” by Fatima Mansions
“Spiritual High (State of Independence)” by Moodswings featuring Chrissie Hynde
“Francisca” and “Conquistador” by Espiritu
“Drive That Fast” by Kitchens of Distinction
Some photos of those from my 12″ single collection:
“Especially For You” by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue
We played this every day as the very last song before we closed. I think initially the idea was let’s play something really rubbish to get people out of the shop. But like Pavlov’s dog hearing the bell, repeatedly associating this with the end of the working day and freedom to go home or to the pub made us all really like it. Still makes me smile now.
This blog post dedicated to Graham, Andy A, Andy G, Sue, Ali, Mark, Billy, Rob, John, Kate, Jamie, Jason, Colin, Tim, Jenny, Nick, Duncan, Paul, Charlotte and anybody else I worked with who I forgot to mention in that list.
Well looky here, our Kicker has gone and put together a 90 minute playlist to soundtrack/block out your Championship match of choice this weekend (or any other).
So, upturn your blue bucket, make yerself comfortable and enjoy a flexible 3-3-1-3 formation of total music.
There aren’t many musical events that could have brought our Kicker out of a self-imposed podcast retirement, but the news that one of his favourite bands had not only re-recorded a selection of their back catalogue with a certain Steve Albini at the producer’s helm, but were also letting a select few hear these tracks ahead of official release has seen the cobwebs blown off this particular sleeping giant. Ahem.
And so it is that he joins forces with Rebel Rikkit to bring you a mini-podcast celebrating the wonderful Spare Snare featuring an exclusive play of the re-recorded classic, Super Slinky, from their forthcoming Sounds LP alongside a few of his other favourites .
Spare Snare – Sounds (recorded by Steve Albini) – released: Friday 20th July, 2018
Spare Snare, from Dundee, Scotland, celebrated 25 years of releasing records by asking Albini if he would co-host a Scottish Engineers’ Workshop with the band, and record Spare Snare for the rest of that week. A resounding ‘YES’ was returned and funding was secured from Creative Scotland to host the workshop and record the album.
The band chose to record 10 classic Snare tracks from the catalogue that have evolved with playing live, or would suit Albini’s sound. These Albini recordings have become one of the highlights for the band, sitting nicely next to their four John Peel Sessions.
Gideon Coe at BBC6 Music and Vic Galloway of BBC Scotland have been supporting the release and playing exclusives from the album.
Excitingly, the album will only be available on 180g vinyl and has been specifically mastered and cut with the word ‘audiophile’ (and the wizard, Kicker of Elves) in mind. It will also come with a download code for the likes of Chorizo Garbanzo.
Recorded on 2 inch tape, and mixed onto half inch tape by Albini, the album was then mastered and cut by mastering legend Pete Norman. It has been pressed at the mighty Optimal plant in Germany.
The vinyl will come, polylined, in a brown reverse card spined sleeve, with a one colour print.
The band wishes to support the shops they shop in themselves (and break the bank of Kicker of Elves), and have various coloured variants available. Collect ’em all!!
ORANGE Vinyl (75 copies) – Scottish Stores Exclusive (pre-order now from Monorail)
There is also another Scottish date being announced for October and in the New Year, the band will be playing this festival and hopefully elsewhere in England.
The last time they played Liverpool for us, they sounded like this:
Following on from our insightful interview with Jan Burnett from the Dundee band Spare Snare, our Kicker has spent time rummaging around the band’s back catalogue to come up with an introductory playlist for the less informed.
The fact that they have songs beginning with both X and Z in their locker meant a 26 song A to Z playlist was inevitable.
So, while you are waiting for the release of their new Steve Albini produced album (available on pre-order on different shades of vinyl here and here and here and here and, for Rebel Rikkit types, on download here), check this out…
And remember, if you want a hand-picked introduction to the band, S is for Spare Snare.
Also keep an eye out in the next few days for this. Oh, yes.
As you should all be aware by now, the wonderful Dundee band Spare Snare have a new album, Sounds, on its way (released on Friday 20 July and available on pre-order here and here and here and here) an album produced by the legendary Steve Albini. Over the next few weeks tracks from the album will be given exclusive plays on a chosen few radio shows and podcasts, and we are delighted that the band have asked us at TTW to be involved.
In advance of the release of our podcast, we took the chance to ask Jan Burnett of the band a few of our deep and meaningful philosophical questions, which we hoped wouldn’t put him off sending us a track to play. Here are his responses along with some from the rest of the band (Alan Cormack, Barry Gibson, Adam Lockhart and Graeme Ogston):
Hi Jan, how the hell are you?
Jan – I am doing rather ok, thank you.
We are very excited to hear the new album produced by Steve Albini. In your press release you talk about choosing songs that would suit the ‘Albini’ sound. Can you tell us what that is?
Jan – Our live sound can be rather boombastic compared to the original recordings, and songs mature with age too. Keeping that in mind we were looking for a choice of tracks covering most of our 25 years that would lend themselves to something Albini could do something with, that wasn’t a duplicate of the original versions.
Was the choice of tracks to record a unilateral decision or were the rest of the band involved? Was it difficult to get it down to just 10?
Jan – We actually had 8 definites, and 2 in reserve, which we were keen to sneak in. We didn’t expect to be doing any recording on the first Engineers’ Workshop day, but we recorded 3, and another 7 the next day. We then had a day for overdubs and 2 days mixing.
The first track we heard from the new album was one of Kicker’s live favourites, Action Hero, the first line of which he had never quite caught, but now he thinks he’s got it. Can you confirm it’s: “My traption’s hip again, bent isn’t breaking in” and, er, what’s that all about then?
Jan – Er, no idea. A lot of how I write is getting the sounds first, then putting words to those sounds, which often don’t make too much sense, but then eventually over time, I get it. I reckon I’m partly discussing a record, ‘the contraption’. It does name check my cat at the time, Abi (Abigail). There’s a lot of Dundee in that song.
The drums on the new recordings sound huge – was this a particular area Albini brought something new to the way you have previously recorded? What else was different?
Barry – Steve Albini turned up to the recording session with a couple of suitcases of microphones and a very set idea of how he likes to record drums, including the positioning of microphones around the kit and ambient microphones around the recording room. He also had microphones on both sides of the bass drum, which I hadn’t seen before. These all appear to have had a major impact on getting that big sound on the drums. He also suggested detuning the bass drum, which had a marked effect on the sound too. It was nice thinking that some of the microphones that were recording my kit were the same ones that had recorded The Breeders, Nirvana and Shellac amongst many others.
Jan – If there is one thing Steve is known for, it’s his drum recordings. I was chuffed to see he wasn’t shy to reveal his mike techniques to the workshop. Some would say radical, some would say common sense. He was pleased we were so rehearsed, and so there was no time wasting. I know a few folk have quizzed Paul Savage, who owns the studio (Chem19), and was, in effect Steve’s assistant for the week, about how we could record an album in 5 days. It’s all down to rehearsing and knowing what you want.
Adam – For me the drums was the biggest change, the way he recorded them was certainly a lesson: 13 separate mics and using the sound of the space to create ambience rather than recording them dry and adding reverb later, as is the norm with a lot of studios. The thing that impacted the most was hearing how huge the drums were in the control room compared to the actual sound of the drums in the live room. Working with analogue tape was quite refreshing, even the subtle delay on the vocals used a copycat tape reverb. There’s something quite honest about tape: it forces you to keep things simple and not to do any complex edits, that you can do with digital recording.
We have seen video footage from the Engineer’s Workshop that Albini was part of and he comes across as both hugely knowledgeable and genuinely approachable. What was your particular highlight of working with him?
Jan – I drove him everywhere, so outside the studio it was a pleasure to chat to the ‘non recording engineer’ Steve, if that makes sense. Listening back to the mixes as Steve was doing them was a clear highlight for me, as you don’t really know, when recording, listening through the headphones, what it’s really going to sound like.
Your debut album, ‘Live At Home’, is the only one you have released on vinyl (a gorgeous 10” package, ahem) before now.
As you can imagine, Kicker is very pleased the new record is being released on vinyl (he has lined up 3 of the 5 coloured variants already) – was the decision to move away from CD to vinyl for this album down to the, er, sound, of ‘Sounds’? Is it your preferred medium?
Jan – It’s all down to finance. The first album was financed from our publishing deal at the time. This (new) album was partly funded by Creative Scotland. The other albums have all been self financed. It made sense, this being a fully analogue recording, to go down that root. You get as close to the studio sound (particularly the bass) with this vinyl cut. I like both CD and Vinyl, I collect both. The type of music will sometimes nudge me towards what format I buy for the home.
Is the ‘Live’ in ‘Live At Home’ a verb or an adjective?
Jan – Ha! Do you have the 7” of Bugs? The insert will tell you.
how did I never see this?
You are, rightly, clearly very proud of the new record, but last year’s ‘Unicorn’ was another career highlight for us. It seemed to be a more overtly political record than previous recordings – do you think that’s a fair assessment? Is the state of the world/this country likely to be a major influence on future recordings?
Jan – Yes. I’m often more oblique with my politics on record, but Unicorn, for whatever reason made perfect sense in all ways. The biggest influence on me is having a near teenager daughter, and fighting for her corner in this world. Suffice to say her opportunities have shrunk dramatically in the past couple of years, and not because of Scottish voters.
Kicker tells us that he has all your 7” singles …
snared singles
..and has ‘As A Matter Of Fact’ as his favourite. This was flipped from the B-side of your debut single (Super Slinky) on the US (Prospective Records) release – why was this?
Jan – Nice trainspotting question. From memory, Prospective Records preferred ‘As A Matter Of Fact’, but it was my choice. I also think they are slightly different mixes, but don’t quote me on that. Prospective actually released a double CD of their 7” singles recently, we’re the only non U.S. act I believe. It’s been remastered and sounds great. Doing all the hand painted sleeves was a task, but worthwhile.
What is your favourite single you have released?
Jan – Both the debut 7” and Thorns would be my favourites, partly sentimental, partly, they are great songs, all four tracks.
Graeme – Sort It For Afterwards
Alan – Smile It’s Sugar. This is a song I really love playing live. It reminds me of some great times we had in the mid 90s when we did a co-headline UK tour with The Delgados and were a part of what the NME dubbed ‘The New Scottish Underground’ along with Urusei Yatsura, Bis & The Delgados. The title is a reaction against sugar free drinks like Diet Coke and synthetic stuff like Aspartame – at least you know where you are with sugar!
Barry – Hmm difficult, but maybe both versions of Smile It’s Sugar or maybe Bruising You, which is a bit of a forgotten tune these days.
Adam – My favourite single is Smile It’s Sugar.
From the very start you have self-released your music on the Chute Records label – was this borne out of necessity or a preferred way of getting your music out?
Jan – In terms of attitude and perseverance, we are rather punk. We have never had a label come to us and say, we’ll sign you. I did have a lunch with someone many years ago, on a rather cool, funded label, and they said ‘you know too much, just do it yourself’. That was either a lovely, ‘no thanks’ or a fair statement. He did ask me for lunch by the way. I maybe put people off by saying I will only licence. 20 odd years ago that was a weird thing to do. Now it’s common place.
Can you tell us a little about your other band, who also record on Chute, The Grand Gestures?
Jan – Shucks. Well, I’ve killed them off. The plan was 3 albums, a Christmas album and a Remix album. Done. However, I have been chatting to someone who loves the albums and is keen to do a track, so I am considering compiling an album from the previous 5, with this new track on it. I can’t tell you who it is, but they are not Scottish and it’s a male.
What about playing live (adj)? You have announced an August date in Edinburgh, but have also suggested more will follow. Will you be playing outside Scotland in the near future? Can you see the band playing in the US again?
Jan – No plans to play the States, unless someone wishes to pay for it, but yes, other live dates. A Glasgow date in October about to be announced, and an English date in January: we are just awaiting the green light to announce.
You’ve had a long career making music, have you got to meet some of your heroes?
Barry – We haven’t really met that many names over the years. Mr Albini was probably the biggest name we have had any interaction with and he was a decent down to earth guy to work with.
Alan – We met Joe Strummer before we played T In The Park in 1995.
Jan – I’d rather not, I don’t want to be disappointed.
What song would you choose to soundtrack your life aged 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50?
Alan – Aged 10: Tommy Gun – The Clash. Give ‘Em Enough Rope was the first album I ever bought. Still has a special place. In fact, Barry is known to replicate the drum intro to Tommy Gun at the end of Wired For Sound when we play it live.
Aged 20: Schizophrenia – Sonic Youth. Probably the band that made the most impression on me musically.
Aged 30: Peloton (album) – The Delgados. I toured Europe with them in 1998, selling their merch. They were promoting the album and hearing the same songs every night made me love it. Favourite song: Everything Goes Around The Water.
Aged 40: Far too many to choose from. I think turning 40 made me reevaluate my musical snobbery and open my ears to stuff I’d been resisting and dismissing as shite. Also with the birth of things like Napster it allowed me to explore and sample, opening my once closed ears to a whole new world of sounds.
Aged 50: Again, far too many to choose from. Current listing includes The Goon Sax, Alice Coltrane, Billordo… I also listen to a lot of early 80s hardcore punk when I’m out running!
Barry – Aged 10: The Beatles – Hard Days Night
Aged 20: Cocteau Twins – Pearly Due Drops Drop
Aged 30: Aphex Twin – Richard D James
Aged 40: Richard Hawley – Tonight the Streets Are Ours
Aged 50: Kamazi Washington – Harmony Of Difference
Adam – Aged 10: Call Me Al – Paul Simon
Aged 20: Man Called Aerodynamics – Guided by Voices
Aged 30: Hot Chip – No Fit State
Aged 40: Landmark – The Field Mice
Jan – Aged 10: Osmonds – Crazy Horses
Aged 20: New Order – Confusion
Aged 30: Pet Shop Boys – Being Boring
Aged 40: Flaming Lips – Waitin’ For A Superman
Aged 50: Taylor Swift – Shake it Off
What bands/artists should’ve been massive but weren’t?
Alan – I’ve always thought The Go-Betweens should have been bigger than they were.
Adam – Guided By Voices
Graeme – Hello Saferide and Judee Sill.
Barry – Urusei Yatsura, B.A.D. (should have been U2-sized), Clinic, especially after having tunes appearing on American T.V. shows.
What is your favourite song with a question in the title?
Adam – Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? – The Wedding Present
Jan – How Soon Is Now – reminding me of the first time I played it as a B side, hearing it at Club Feet, Dundee and being blown away by it.
Graeme – Must You Throw Dirt in My Face? by The Louvin Brothers
Alan – The Question Is How Fast? – Superchunk or Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now? – Wedding Present.
We are aware that we have taken up a lot of your time, but we are contractually obliged to ask one final question. You are in a café ordering breakfast. You are given toast and your choice of tea or coffee. You are then allowed 4 more items, what do you choose?
Barry – Fried egg, veg sausage, beans and potato scone (hash brown as acceptable alternative).
Adam – Poached Eggs, Black Pudding, Bacon, Beans.
Alan – After detesting eggs my whole life, I’ve recently have food rebirth, an “eggpiphany”, so it would have to be eggs four ways.
Jan – Sausage (link), Black Pudding, Potato Scone, Fried Egg. NO TOMATO or TINNED MUSHROOMS EVER.
yummy, apparently
And with that we will let you go. Thanks so much for answering our questions. What are you going to do now?
Jan – Listen to Disc three of the new Flaming Lips Warners Years compilation.
You have to look a long way down the list of famous musical towns before you get to Northwich. The town’s sole representatives in the annals of musical history are The Charlatans. Singer Tim Burgess is from nearby Moulton, the band initially met there in Omega record shop (Spinal Tap: “don’t look for it, it’s not there anymore”) and a photo of the cafe on Witton Street was used on the cover of the compilation Melting Pot.
They returned to CW9 for a week of gigs at Memorial Court, a building that hosted some legendary gigs in the distant past. The Beatles played here 6 times, but these days it is mainly used as a leisure centre (the water slides are ace!)
Along with their own gigs, the band put on a whole load of other events around the town creating a kind of mini Fringe. I live just a few miles from Northwich and whilst the town has a decent live music scene for covers bands and open mic nights, there are no venues whatsoever that put on “proper” gigs. In the 6 years I’ve lived round here there has not been a single gig I’ve wanted to go to. Until tonight when, like the metaphorical buses, 3 came along at the same time!
With people travelling from all over the world to be here, I decided not to even try to get tickets for The Charlatans gig. Better to let one of the band’s true devotees go to that than a casual fan like me. Indie legends The BMX Bandits were playing at The Salty Dog but I opted to get a ticket the Gladstone Club where a whole load of up-and-coming bands were playing.
The Gladstone Club is an old school Phoenix Nights-style club complete with silvery tinsel curtain at the back of the stage. I’ve played gigs here myself and also at the Wings ex-serviceman’s Club over the road and our covers of Buddy, Chuck, Elvis, The Big O etc went down very well with an audience old enough to remember those songs the first time around. Unsurprisingly none of that crowd were here tonight.
First up were The Delights. Most of their songs were propelled along very well by some great bass lines played high up on the neck. Peter Hook would approve, even if he might object to the bass being held high up on the chest, the very antithesis of Hook’s low-slung style. Really enjoyed the instrumental track, reminiscent of one of the funkier tracks from The Stone Roses’ unfairly derided Second Coming, an album these boys are definitely too young to remember. The rest of their songs made good use of distorted guitar sounds. They would’ve been even better with the vocals a bit louder in the mix but definitely ones to watch out for.
The Delights at The Gladstone Club Northwich 18th May 2018
Next up were Paper Buoys. Beards all round here, except for the drummer who possibly has the surname Beard. The singer played some abrasive trebly Black Francis style rhythm guitar on most tracks and their songs, especially the faster ones, are tuneful and memorable. They played a cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” which made me smile when I realised I’ve covered the same song on that same stage! The cutting guitars and energetic rhythm section were reminiscent of the brilliant Future of the Left at times, but they also have some more instantly accessible songs like “Headshot” and the anthemic set-closer “Wasted.”
Paper Buoys at The Gladstone Club Northwich 18th May 2018
Now on to the main reason I wanted to come to this gig. Duck, you suckers, here come The 99 Degree. We played their song “Dead or Alive” on our podcast number 67 back in 2016 and I’ve been keeping an eye on their social media channels ever since trying to find an opportunity to catch them live.
Not quite sure how a bunch of lads from Manchester end up writing songs about the good, the bad and the ugly Wild West but the fact that they do keeps this lovin’ brother happy. The songs are dominated by the twangy lead guitar lines played on guitarist Phil’s Gretsch that looks and sounds both big and beautiful. Ry Cooder in a Mexican standoff with Dick Dale and Ennio Morricone. Hawaiian shirted singer Joe has a touch of Shaun Ryder in his half-sung half-spoken delivery, occasionally a bit of Birthday Party era Nick Cave as well. They opened with “Losing My Mind” from their recent Boot Hill Surf Club EP, catchy with a brilliant guitar solo. Joe stepped off the stage and prowled the dancefloor giving the stories all the drama and menace they deserve.
The 99 Degree at The Gladstone Club Northwich 18th May 2018
The highlight for me was an as yet unrecorded song called “Bed of Bones” but the whole show was great, pity there weren’t more people here to see and hear them. Their “Boot Hill Surf Club” EP was being given out after the gig for free but I think it’s easily good enough to be sold for a few dollars more.
At this point my faithful compadre The Lancashire Toreador and I were in need of some food so unfortunately we missed the next couple of bands.
We returned as another band were setting up and noticing the singer’s choice of trouser we came to the conclusion that white jeans should only ever be worn if both the following conditions are met: a) it is 1977 b) you are Mick Jones.
But we felt bad for our mild piss-taking once we heard him sing. Fucking hell, what a voice. A powerful force with a great falsetto, a bit Tim Booth, a bit Morrissey, a bit Billy Mackenzie. William, this is really something. The band are called Circus Wolves and it’s by no means all about the vocals, the band are exceptional too. More good beardage and shirts on display here. Does anyone else remember mid-90s Suede labelmates Geneva? They’re like a louder and more aggressive version of that. Currently they have just 3 songs on Spotify but all 3 of them are excellent.
Circus Wolves at The Gladstone Club Northwich 18th May 2018
Last band of the night were Control of the Going. They looked great but sorry to say neither me or The Lancashire Toreador found them particularly engaging. A bit too Controlled, not enough to get us Going. Their songs just seemed to be a bit too predictable and indie-rock-by-numbers to our ears. Having said that, they got probably the best reception of all the bands on so what do we know?
Even so a great evening’s entertainment with 3 bands in particular (Paper Buoys, The 99 Degree, Circus Wolves) worth the price of admission by themselves.
Have a listen for yourself on this playlist.
The following morning I came back into town to go to the “Vinyl Adventures” record fair in the Plaza bingo hall. I’ve walked past here many times but never been inside. Don’t think this building is used for anything these days, not even bingo. This is a tragedy because it’s a beautiful art deco building with a big stage. Unfortunately I was here too late to catch Tony “Longfella” Walsh. His brilliant poetry was a highlight of the Bob Dylan 50th anniversary concert I went to a couple of years ago and since then his poem “This Is The Place” went viral in the wake of last year’s Ariana Grande bomb attack.
I don’t currently have a working record player so I’ve temporarily banned myself from buying any vinyl priced over a quid. CDs only for me today and nobody’s buying them these days, so I’m not going to end up paying silly money for anything. Picked up some bargains including a couple of CDs from the lovely folk from The Reckless Yes label.
I also saw a vinyl copy of “Johnny Cash At San Quentin” selling for 100 quid! Taking the piss, surely? When I was a kid, everyone’s dad had that album so how can that possibly be a rare record?
Next I walked down to see the Charlatans exhibition in Barons Quay. There were an interesting selection of old diaries, flyers, posters and even instruments on display there and just like at the record fair, lots of interesting people and fellow music obsessives to chat with.
Hats off to The Charlatans for organising an event like this.
There’s usually so little going on in Northwich that seeing the likes of Mark Radcliffe and Norman Blake around town is quite a shock. See the same faces at a gig in Manchester and you wouldn’t even bat an eyelid! We saw John Robb at the train station but then again that’s not that surprising because he seems to pop up at pretty much every gig I go to! Stop stalking me John!
Is it too optimistic to think that this might herald the start of a new era of live music for the town? Probably yes but although there were definitely many people visiting Northwich from far away places this week, the huge majority of people I spoke to were fairly local. I spoke to music fans from Crewe, Helsby, Middlewich, Tarvin, Macclesfield, Congleton, Warrington and Knutsford. I’m sure that, like me, these people regularly travel to Liverpool and Manchester to see gigs, sometimes also to Wrexham, Preston, Stoke, Leeds, Birmingham, Holmfirth etc.
We’ve seen this week that are several really good venues right here in Cheshire that aren’t being used for much. Now that people have seen what can be done with these venues maybe some promoters will start putting on more quality live music around here. There’s certainly an audience for it. If you build it, they will come.
P.S. since initially writing this, it has been pointed out to me that The Charlatans are not the only musicians of note to come from Northwich. It turns out that Rupert Holmes was also born in the town. What do you mean, who’s Rupert Holmes? He’s the man responsible for “Escape” a.k.a. “The Pina Colada Song.” That song is either the very worst or the very best lyric of in the entire history of popular music. I’ve never quite been able to decide which.
More of our gig reviews can be found here and here.
The album title comes from a line in “Strangers Care When You Burn” whose story takes place at a wake with the narrator reflecting on the funeral with words like “a life summarised by a stranger in 30 minutes.” It’s the kind of powerful observational poetry former Arab Strap man Aidan Moffat does very well but here it is the only non-instrumental track on the album. For the rest of the album, it’s down to the music alone to create the mood. The album is dedicated to “anyone who has ever been hungover, down-and-out, running from themselves, running for their life, trapped in prisons internal/external” and its creator has had a long struggle with depression and severe dyslexia. There are signs of struggle throughout, tension between the harmonious and the discordant and Stafford uses a dizzying sonic palette to achieve this atmosphere.
Most of the tracks are built around the 3 R’s as defined by The Fall: “repetition repetition and repetition.” Opening track “An Abacus Designed To Calculate Infinity” starts with a simple repeating figure music-box figure and a string quartet, soon joined by a buoyant piano line and a jaunty whistled melody. Two minutes into the album and I’m already hearing echoes of New York minimalism, classic film scores “Requiem for a Dream” and the carillon from “For a Few Dollars More”, Bjork’s “Vespertine” experiments with music-boxes and turn-of-the-millenium grab-bag anything-goes sample traders like Lemon Jelly and The Avalanches. By the time the track has concluded we’ve also heard distorted drum machines and sheets of MBV-like guitar noise.
Snaking guitar lines phasing and shifting over each other kick off “Zero Disruption” and are later joined by a choir reminiscent of Trio Bulgarka’s contributions to Kate Bush’s “The Sensual World” album or the fantastic all-female choir Bjork toured with a few years ago. Stafford took the track’s title from a self-help relaxation CD and says “the voices are meant to sound like alarms going off, and the track as a whole is based on panic and auditory hallucinations.” Conversely, I found it one of the most light-hearted calming pieces on the album. Have a listen for yourself here.
Another of the album’s more accessible tracks is “Sails Cutting Through An Autumn Night” which takes shape around a straightforward repetition of B and E and adds more and more overlapping layers of melodic invention and had me thinking of both The Durutti Column and Zbigniew Preisner’s brilliant and beautiful score for “The Secret Garden.”
The most straightforward “rock” and the only track to feature an actual 4/4 drumbeat is the charmingly titled “Museum of Grinding Dicks” which features a repeated bluesy riff. The combination of primal drums, bass guitar and saxophone calls to mind the much-missed Morphine and when the rest of the percussion kicks in it could be the Bad Seeds or Polly Harvey in full on talking-to-fish-about-her-drowned-daughter mode.
Far more challenging and disturbing music can be found on tracks like “Penshaw Monument” where effects-laden beatboxing and indistinguishable chanted words combine with animalistic shrieks, bird calls and weird distorted Exorcist-style incantations for nearly 11 minutes. Don’t have nightmares, do sleep well.
Oh dear, what has Maradona done now?
Equally unusual but probably my favourite track on the album is “Witch Hunt.” Clocking in at 9 minutes, it starts with a repeated triplet guitar figure similar to Portishead’s brilliant “The Rip” and features more beatboxing, strings, several electric guitars, a choir singing “la la la”s and some weird cuckoo noises. Following the quiet-loud-quiet formula very well, it is consistently interesting and like Steve Reich’s music that clearly influenced it, you hear new melodies and interactions between phrases on every listen.
A special mention is required for The Pumpkinseeds string quartet and in particular their cellist and arranger Pete Harvey. This album would be very good without the strings but it is these arrangements that make the album into something really special. From the light rhythmic pizzicato of “Rivers Searches Into The Night” to the sinister microtonal “Fanfare For The Mourning Tallow” the strings are never cliched or predictable. They often leave you feeling unsettled or at times plain fucking terrified. This is particularly the case with “Invade They Say Fire” which features grindingly repetitive motifs creating a nightmarish atmosphere, like Bernard Herrmann stuck in a tumble dryer. But then again if you’re trying to create an aural illustration of mental illness then this is exactly what you need. For what is depression if not a succession of grindingly repetitive motifs creating a nightmarish atmosphere?
“Fire Behind The Curtain” was released last Friday on Song By Toad records.
Stream and order the album below.
More of our album reviews can be found here and here.
To celebrate(?) the last day of the Championship, each of the wizards has chosen a song to sum up their team’s season.
Kicker of Elves (Leeds United)
“I dare not say the way I feel about your inability to suck it up and win the match”
Top of the league after 7 games and then we lost. To Millwall. And that, seemingly, was that. Our captain and self-styled hard man, Liam Cooper, announces just before the end of the season that “the Millwall defeat in September hit the players hard and they haven’t ever truly recovered from that.” Oh. Fucking. Grow. Up.
In a season where our best player was banned for 6 games for spitting. we got knocked out in the cup by a fourth division side from Wales, thought it was a good idea to prepare for our centenary year with a change of badge designed by someone who clearly had never been to West Yorkshire, but probably had had heartburn, our stand out performance was against Millwall again. And we lost. Again.
Of course, we changed manager and, of course, that made things worse and now we see fit to take our pathetic team to a war-torn country in the name of ‘selling the brand’. Haven’t those poor people suffered enough?
“Of course I’m not complaining, I’m simply dying…”
MOT
Chorizo Garbanzo (QPR)
As our League position illustrates it’s been a mixed season for QPR. We’ve never looked remotely like going up or down and that’s fine by me, especially considering the huge self-inflicted hangover the club now have to endure following the disastrous and idiotic over-spending during the Mark Hughes and Harry Redknapp eras.
Results at Fortress Loftus Road have been largely positive, only 5 teams have won more home games than us. Away matches have been dire with just 3 wins all season, worse than any other team in the division bar one (more details below). Seeing as these days I live 200 miles from Shepherds Bush and go to far more away games than home games, I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed one of those rare away wins (3-1 v Burton Albion)
The main positive of this season has been emergence of several youngsters who are beginning to establish themselves as first team regulars. Six players aged 21 or under have scored for the first team this season, more than any other team in the division. Maybe it’s still true that “you can’t win anything with kids” but you can attain mid-table mediocrity if the kids are alright!
Rebel Rikkit (Bolton Wanderers)
The exhilaration of promotion was not expected to last and so it was that after 10 games we propped up the table with no wins and only 2 points. Lets just recap that: after 17% of all the games had been played we had not won one. Imagine what that was like for a season ticket holder week after frustrating week.
Then the freewheeling, man mountain centre-forward is persuaded to go give up drinking alcohol and our form turns. All of a sudden the sniggering behind the hand at the chant “Gary Madine Goal Machine” didn’t seem such a good idea. The goals came not just from Gary’s usually unreliable head but tap-ins, pile-drivers and even free kicks bent round the wall from 30 yards. By the transfer window we were 6 points away from the relegation zone, the boardroom squabbles were settled, the wage bill was manageable and everything at the club seemed rosy. There was just a small matter of a £6 million loan to be paid at the end of the season if only we could find a way out of that. Oh that’s right we could sell Gary Madine!! What could possible go wrong?
We head to the last game second from bottom and face almost certain relegation. Only one song can sum this up…
Last month saw our founding wizard Kicker of Elves reach his half century. That left us other 2 wizards wondering what we could get him as a present.
As evidenced by the name of this very website and his chosen name, Kicker of Elves is obsessed with the band Guided By Voices. He also loves collecting rare vinyl. So we decided to combine these 2 passions and make him a Guided By Voices record that was truly unique because there’s only one copy of it in the world, thereby making Kicker of Elves the Martin Shkreli of GBV collectors!
Track 1: Subspace Biographies by The Malibu Storks
Over to The Malibu Storks a.k.a. Chorizo Garbanzo…
In the absence of an actual drummer I decided to programme the drums using Sonic Pi. This meant abandoning my original idea of covering “In a Circle” because its 6/8 time signature was messing with my head.
Then I remembered Kicker’s blog post in which he named “Subspace Biographies” as his favourite Robert Pollard song so I decided to do that instead. The drum beats and the rather un-GBV bassline were heavily influenced by “Neon Lights” by Kraftwerk, a favourite of mine when out running. I programmed that in about 600 lines of Sonic Pi code. That sounds more impressive than it is and I’m sure a more experienced and effective Sonic Pi user could do it in far less!
The twangy guitar bit is my homage to Glen Campbell who covered the Guided by Voices song “Hold On Hope” on one of his last albums. In the true spirit of Pollardian lo-fi, all of my vocal and guitar parts were done in one take.
Track 2: Teenage F.B.I. by Rebel Rikkit
Rebel Rikkit writes…
About a decade ago Kicker of Elves started bombarding me with GBV tracks initially on CD mixes. These evolved into shared drives and then onto Spotify playlists and blog posts. By this stage he was bombarding not just me, but the rest of the world. Lest we forget that every day in 2014 he published a blog post showcasing 2 GBV tracks each. It worked of course as a whole stack of GBV tunes are now amongst my firm favourites. But which to choose for the contribution to a Kicker dedicated vinyl record. Well, there must always be criteria so see below.
1. I must like the song
2. Kicker must like the song (could not be certain on this point, I assumed he likes them all)
3. I must be able to play and sing it with my limited musical ability
Fortunately there are a lot on online GBV resources to help you so I took to research some of my favourites. Echos Myron, Smothered in Hugs, Tractor Rape Chain, Glad Girls were all considered and dismissed as being too hard to sing. There were plenty more that fell into this bracket or where the guitar just didn’t sound right. Then the lightbulb moment of course, a simple “3 chords and the truth” rock and roll song that allowed a bit of vocal latitude where passion could mask a lack of ability. Or so I thought until I realised that there is what I imagine someone who knew a bit more about music than me would call a key change in the last verse. But too late, I was in too deep so I launched my vocal chords into action and hoped for the best to create a performance that has been called a cross between George Formby and Elvis Costello (esteemed company indeed).
A strange footnote was that Kicker liked my effort but didn’t like the original so the enterprise failed on criteria 2. That left me feeling like a Hot Freak with a Half Smile of The Decomposed to such and extent that I Did The Collapse.
If you want to get your own record pressed we heartily recommend you do it with www.cutsy.co.uk
Other Guided by Voices related posts on this website:
The opening track “The End of Mankind” starts with a retro-sounding drum machine and a catchy but somewhat off-kilter guitar/keyboard riff. The verses are spoken and describe a novel in which there’s “a writer writing about a writer writing about a writer.” MOuse’s soft Welsh tones immediately remind me of John Cale’s narration on The Velvet Underground’s “The Gift.” But the story MOuse retells is definitely not for the squeamish and it makes Cale’s story of Waldo Jeffers intra-parcel death sound like a child’s bedtime story! Punctuating the horrific scenes of the verses, the chorus cheerily poses the question “is this the end of mankind?”
This nifty trick of bizarre spoken word verses coupled with a catchy chorus is repeated on the track “The King And Jesus Ganged Up On Me” which starts with an unsettling exchange in a men’s urinal and concludes with a football match where the pitch is invaded by God himself. If you’ve enjoyed the spoken word tracks that have been the highlights of recent albums by I Ludicrous and Half Man Half Biscuit (see playlist below) then you definitely need to hear this album.
A recurring theme in the album’s lyrics is the past. Indeed in the song “Memory” MOuse asks his memory “why are you mean to me?” and begs it to “leave him alone!”
Specifically the way that we remember the distant past and how those formative memories may or may not correspond with reality is examined in “Magnetic Frames On The Boiler” and idyllic childhood seaside holidays are recalled on the “Bunk Beds and Broken Sleeps.”
“Six decades in and I’m still in my 40s” sings MOuse at one point, only possible if you were born in 1969 I suppose. That lyric comes in the middle of a Bullseye speedboat-load of 80s cultural references and another killer drum machine pattern sounding right off one of those Street Sounds Electro compilation cassettes.
The acoustic “Sue” is deliberately daft but endearing all the same. A kind-of follow up song to The Beautiful South’s “Song for Whoever” it could alternatively be titled “The Continuing Adventures of Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue” and includes additional nods to Pulp and Johnny Cash.
Whilst the humour is well executed here and on other aforementioned songs, my favourite songs on the album are the more serious ones.
Album closer “Gladiator / Contender” seems to be about being with a dying loved one whilst banal Saturday evening ITV plays in the background. A father and son maybe? It’s very possible I’m reading too much into it but the familiar words “Contender are you ready? Gladiator are you ready?” are re-contextualised here taking on a deeper meaning. To the son, the contender, are you ready to face up to responsibility, to be the head of the family? To the father, the gladiator, are you ready to face death? As if to emphasise the inter-generational theme, there seems to be a child singing with MOuse on these lines. A really clever song built out of such a simple idea.
The spirit of Felt can be er, felt on the album’s more uptempo tracks “The Fire Burns” and the aforementioned “Bunk Beds and Broken Sleeps” which reminds me particularly of their wonderful final album “Me And A Monkey On The Moon” and the keyboard playing of Martin Duffy. A different kind of a piano part dominates another album highlight “With These Hands I’ll Rip Out Your Heart.” Here a short Michael Nyman-like figure repeats throughout creating a dreamy atmosphere. The lyrics refer to the parent / child relationship again and back comes that theme of memory as MOuse yearns for the past with lines like “I long for the days when you fell asleep to the test card, I long for the days when you didn’t pay with a cash card.” This sense of melancholy and something having been lost forever resonates through the album in a similar vein to much of ex-Baby Bird man Stephen Jones‘ recent output.
The album is produced by Stephen Black a.k.a. Sweet Baboo who has produced some of Euros Childs’ albums and also plays bass with the brilliant Cate Le Bon. In fact “Replica Figures” has a similar feel to a more lo-fi version of those artists. Well worth investigating further. Click the link below to stream / buy the album.
Playlist of Half Man Half Biscuit / I Ludicrous spoken word songs:
Bus Route to your Heart by Milky Wimpshake (20th anniversary re-issue)
Purple Rain: Deluxe Edition by Prince
George Best 30 by The Wedding Present
Favourite festival
Indietracks in Derbyshire. Particular highlights this year were Chorusgirl, Crumbs, The Wedding Present, Charmpit, MJ Hibbett, Milky Wimpshake, Cola Jet Set, The Just Joans, The Wave Pictures, Model Village and The Tuts.
Lost Horizons @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (21st November)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Manchester Arena (25th September) [Listen to our podcast review]
The Moonlandingz / Goat Girl / Pink Kink @ Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool (25th March) [Listen to our podcast review]
Snapped Ankles @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (3rd October)
The Wedding Present / The Primitives / Thousand Yard Stare @ Manchester Academy (27th May) [Read our review]
Ash @ Central Station, Wrexham (17th August)
The Dream Syndicate @ Bitterzoet, Amsterdam (23rd October)
The Len Price 3 / Graham Day & The Gaolers @ 100 Club, London (4th March)
Elvis Costello @ Bridgwater Hall, Manchester (19th March) [Listen to our podcast review]
The Wedding Present @ Cadogan Hall, London (14th October)
Gavin Osborn @ The Golden Eagle, Chester (16th September)
The Burning Hell @ The Eagle Inn, Salford (22nd November)
The Breeders @ Manchester Academy (17th October)
Martha / ONSIND / Grotbags / Radiator Hospital @ Night & Day, Manchester (3rd January)
Chuck Prophet / Max Gomez @ Deaf Institute, Manchester (17th February)
Radiohead @ Old Trafford Cricket Ground (4th July)
The Handsome Family @ RNCM, Manchester (22nd February)
The Surfing Magazines @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester (1st September)
The Who @ Echo Arena, Liverpool (3rd April)
The Oh Sees / The Peacers @ Manchester Academy (14th June)
Here are some low quality photos I took at some of those gigs.
The Surfing Magazines
The Moonlandingz
Snapped Ankles
Goat Girl
The Len Price 3
The Wedding Present
Gavin Osborn
Ash
The Breeders
Martha
The Handsome Family
Proud wizard gig of the year
The gig by Billordo / Tremelo Ghosts that my fellow wizard Kicker O’Elves organised.
Favourite music books
Mostly not released in 2017 but I read them this year.
1. Lee, Myself and I: Inside The Very Special World of Lee Hazlewood by Wyndham Wallace
A tremendous account of a friendship between the great Lee Hazlewood and the author who was initially a fan, later a manager and collaborator. Highly recommended.
2. Keep On Running: The Unofficial Dexys Midnight Runners Fanzine
An anthology that brings together loads of fascinating interviews and anecdotes from fans and former bandmembers.
3. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
An in-depth and incredibly honest autobiography.
4. Triptych: Three Studies of Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible by Rhian E. Jones, Daniel Lukes and Larissa Wodtke
Like one of those 33 1/3 books but far more analytical, personal and thorough. For obsessed fans of the album only!
Favourite non-fiction books
Inglorious Empire: What The British Did To India by Sashi Tharoor
Shocking and horrific stuff which made me feel ashamed of how ignorant I was about this period of history.
The Special One: The Secret World of Jose Mourinho by Diego Torres
Inside details of his time at Real Madrid. Hats off to this book for making me dislike The Moaning One even more than I already did. What an absolute monumental bellend.
Favourite fiction book
A Congregation of Jackals by S. Craig Zahler
Compelling and very violent Western written by the director of the film “Bone Tomahawk”
Favourite films / TV
As with the books, these weren’t necessarily released in 2017 but these were my favourite things I watched this year.
Blade Runner 2049
Flowers (Channel 4)
Back (Channel 4)
American Vandal (Netflix)
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Favourite documentaries
The Barkley Marathons, The 13th, Man vs Snake, City 40, Meru, Virunga, Eddie: Strongman (all Netflix)
A man sits in his shed and retells the entire history of our nation. Far more entertaining than it sounds. Like a more laidback version of Dan Carlin’s much missed Hardcore History podcast.
Interviews with drummers. Thankfully they don’t just talk about drumming. I particularly enjoyed the episodes with Lol Tolhurst (The Cure), Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello & The Attractions) and Bernard Purdie.
Author and super-fan Joseph Fink interviews Mountain Goats main man John Darnielle. Each episode is centred around one of the songs from his 2002 album “All Hail West Texas”
Well, hello again, and welcome to the brave new world of 2018. What could possibly go wrong this time?
To help you enjoy your undoubtedly temporary state of (blind) optimism, our Kicker has burbled on for a couple of hours while playing a lot of his favourite records of 2017, which you can download here or soundcloud there:
A slight disclaimer: This show was originally recorded as a demo for Dandelion Radio, but it was simply too hot for them to handle. Can you take it listener?
The songs played are:
Circus Devils – Do The Nixon (Laughs Last)
Tremolo Ghosts – Order For The New Slave Trade (Same Place The Fly Got Smashed)
R. Ring – Cutter (Ignite The Rest)
Friends Of Cesar Romero – Strumpet Sounds (I + IV + V E.P.)
Flotation Toy Warning – King Of Foxgloves (The Machine That Made Us)
Manray – Falling Off The Face Of The Earth (Falling Off The Face Of The Earth)
Rob Rapp – Nitwit (unreleased)
Vital Idles – The Garden (single)
Deathcount In Silicon Valley – Voices (edit.) (Hex Void)
Hulaboy – (Feels Like) The End (Split LP)
LowMagic – Scarecrow (Keys To The Stranger’s Head Pt.1)
Girl One And The Grease Guns – She’s A Calculator (Night Of The Living Electrical Appliances)
Air-Sea Dolphin – Exploding (single)
Heads Off – Hey You (Ad Absurdum)
Little Whirls – For All Your Bebop Crimes (Rearrange The Comfort Zones)
Jones – Today I Am Not Heartbroken (single)
The World Of Dust – Tribal Memories (Golden Moon)
Nathan Hall & The Sinister Locals – Song For The Flowers (Effigies)
Graham Repulski – Bob For Uncles (I’m Even Younger Now)
Jim White – Plywood Superman (Far From Mississippi: Live 2004 – 2014)
Keith Seatman – Boxes With Rhythms In (All Hold Hands And Off We Go)
RT @rebelrikkit: #BRITs apparently the future is female noting to do with talent thanks for sorting that out 18 hours ago
RT @rebelrikkit: How brave were the 1975 for saying something completely incoherent sort of about how women are treated badly (obviously no… 18 hours ago
RT @rebelrikkit: Good to hear that the 1975 are playing again hopefully they are as good as their word and remove all the Male members of t… 18 hours ago
