Bonsoir.
Here is the first of our album review mini-podcasts. David Bowie’s The Next Day goes head to head with John Grant’s Pale Green Ghosts.
But which is best. There’s only one way to find out…..
Here we are back again with podcast number 7.
Listen in wonder as the Wizards bring their unique views to bear on an eclectic range of music. Also we unveil not only the all new Trust The Wizards anthem but also the Official Rock Songs for Edinburgh and Essex and still find time to consider why mermaids have never been subjects of racial abuse and why maybe they should be.
Guten tag.
Another couple of corking videos here just for you. Can you spot the connection between them?
Kicker of Elves, Rebel Rikkit (and Captain Skiffle) attend the Eels gig in Manchester on 18th March and deliver their verdict in a mini pod for your delectation.
There were some very poor photos taken which are here, but the good stuff is in the mini pod. Do listen!
A good 10 minutes of chat was lost in the technical process but perhaps just as well as an overexcited couple of wizards cant say enough about this gig. Right click here to download or click through to listen online. HERE
Here is Nicole Atkins
And then Eels themselves. Btw we did get the cover versions which were Itchycoo Park (Small Faces) and Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac).
“Regrets, I’ve had a few. But then again too many to mention.” So sings Morrissey at the start of his live DVD “Who Put The M In Manchester?”
We received an email from listener Huw asking us about what were our biggest gig regrets, gigs we’ve missed for whatever reason. He told us of gigs he’d missed out on by that man Morrissey as well as Sparklehorse, The Pogues and a Beastie Boys / Henry Rollins double bill. Prompted by that and by this article (about a gig that Chorizo Garbanzo was at but did not hear a single note of), the wizards got to talking about this on podcast number 6. Therein lie tales of gigs missed through drunkenness, unfortunate diary clashes, drunkennes, lack of finances, drunkenness, friends who didn’t want to go and drunkennness.
Here are a few of the artists whose gigs we’ve missed, quite a roll call! Listen to the podcast to find out the reasons why. As Jim Bowen would say, here’s what you could’ve won! (click on each one for a video)
- The Smiths at Kilburn National Ballroom, 1986 (the gig they recorded for the Rank album)
- The Redskins at Manchester Poly
- REM, Portsmouth Guidhall, Green tour, 1989
- Wreckless Eric, unidentified pub venue somewhere in north London
- Crowded House, Manchester Apollo on Neil Finn’s birthday, 2010
- Morrissey first solo gig, Wolverhampton Town Hall
- Manic Street Preachers, Aldershot Buzz Club, 1991 (by the way you should vote in our Manics poll)
- Pop Will Eat Itself, Guildford, 1989
- Joe Strummer, HMV shop, London, 2001
- Eels, Manchester Academy, March 2013
- Chuck Prophet solo gig, The Radcliffe Centre, Buckingham
- Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Glastonbury 1985
- Damien Dempsey, Manchester, 2012
- Guided by Voices, various gigs
So let’s hear from you then, send us your stories of missed gigs and we’ll discuss them on the next podcast.
In the meantime, make sure you take the plunge and buy that gig ticket you’re procrastinating over. Otherwise one day that gig might be on your regret list!
One last thing: the other wizards would probably like me to include Nick Cave’s gig at the Manchester Apollo on this list because I was supposed to buy us all tickets for that one and I screwed up! They gave me some fully deserved grief for that on the last podcast but I’m not going to include it on the list of regrets for the simple reason that it hasn’t happened yet. Unlike me, neither of them have seen him live before but if Kicker and Rebel are so desperate to go, then they should stop bleating about it and spend the next 7 months saving their pennies so they can turn up on the night and buy one from a tout.
Anyway, here especially for my fellow wizards is some fantastic footage from one of the many, many Nick Cave gigs I’ve seen.
Every County In The Country Will Have Its Own Rock Song
Our interest at Wizard Central was piqued by a correspondent who pointed out that Hang On Sloopy by the McCoys is the official rock song of the state of Ohio. This got us thinking… surely everyone wants a song that is special to a geographical community, that reflects their culture and values and holds within its sounds and rhythms the aspiration and destiny of the people? Of course they should! And in the absence of a popular movement to bring this vision to fruition, it must be the job of the Wizards to act as a revolutionary vanguard force to make this happen.
So in anticipation of popular demand we have started the process. However in the true spirit of democracy and openness that befits our great nation, we open this up to the world. We have a created a register of Official Rock Songs for every county in the United Kingdom and will fill this list over the coming weeks and months.
There are many reasons to have an official rock song. It’s an opportunity to recognise the contribution of citizens of the area, it’s something that can be played at county gatherings and even for children of the county to sing as they put their hands on their heart and imagine the glory of the county. Why, oh why, has this taken so long?
But which song should it be? Well, that’s up to you! We have provided an application form for anyone to nominate a song to be the official rock song for every county in the UK.
There doesn’t have to be a reason, but it may be that a member of the citizenry wrote the song or that it’s sung in the county or its describes the area. However, let’s not let reason get in the way!
Of course, this important exercise cannot just wait for the public… if you fail the nation, the Wizards will step in. So the official songs will be chosen by us only if you fail in your historic duty.
Now that is perhaps the most important reason to choose an official rock song for your county because if you don’t – we will!!
Get the applications in!
Dont worry if you can fill out the application form, a response, Tweet, FB Message etc.. will do all the same.
Listen to Podcast 6 to hear the Official Launch of the Campaign. There are also further updates on podcast 7 podcast 11 and podcast 20.
Click on the map to see the songs that have been chosen so far.
Here we go, here we go, here we go.
2 magnificent videos for you this week, if these don’t stir you up then you are probably beyond help! We think the connection is quite an easy one this week, drop us a line when you’ve got it.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, here is our latest podcast.
Trust The Wizards Podcast 6 on Mixcloud
The Wizards launch their campaign to give every county in the UK an Official Rock Song as well as discussing the merits of missing concerts even when you have tickets and then giving fashion tips to Unbunny. The Listener is continually courted and then puzzled by Kicker’s questions and much else in 1 hour 55 minutes of Hoopla!
Please be warned that Kicker of Elves gets a bit after the watershed on this one!
If you think you can deal with his potty mouth, then right-click and download this filth.
Alright there.
Here we are again with 2 more music videos to perk you up. Guess the connection and get in touch.
A very special birthday cake here for Kicker of Elves’ birthday yesterday.
and let Jimi take over!
Back in podcast 4, a song by the mighty Chuck Prophet sparked a conversation between the wizards about the best “calls to arms” in music.
Before we go any further, I think we need to define what exactly is a call to arms. It’s one of those moments in a song where a bandmember (usually the singer) says something to alert the listener that something big’s about to happen. Very often this will be something simple like the “mmmm” just before the guitar solo on I Feel Fine or the “oh yeah” on pretty much every record by Pulp.
Our own Rebel Rikkit has gone further and come up with some rules.
A true call to arms should:
- introduce an instrumental solo
- signal a change from a slow bit to a quick bit or a quiet to loud or a loud to quiet etc.
- sound entirely spontaneous and a product of raw enthusiasm
It should not:
- be rhythmic filler to the song (e.g. much of James Brown’s contributions)
- be a repetitive feature in the same form over and over again (e.g. much of James Brown’s contributions)
- have nothing change as a result of it
If you’re still not quite sure what we’re talking about then here is an outstanding example.
In the song “Fire”, Jimi precedes the guitar solo with several choice phrases, including the classic “move over Rover and let Jimi take over!”
You can jump straight to that moment here or watch the video below.
That’s probably the best and most famous example. Rebel Rikkit kind of mentioned this in our discussion in podcast 4 but he used the phrase “move over Rover and let Mr Huckleberry take over!”. That may sound like a line from The Cosby Show but he assures us that it’s actually from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ version of “Fire”.
Another example mentioned on podcast 4 is “Complete Control” by The Clash, in which Joe makes a confession to his bandmate Mick: “You’re my guitar hero!”. Aww, isn’t that sweet.
It’s at 1:08 on the video below. Listen to the whole song if you can because it’s great. But if you’re short on time just click here to go straight to the key moment.
This song was held up by Chorizo as the ultimate example of a call to arms. However, an eagle-eared listener has pointed out that he is probably mistaken because most of the guitar solo has been and gone by the time of Joe’s exhortation. Fair point I suppose.
Another artist well versed in the art of the call to arms is Dick Valentine, the rather marvellous leader of Detroit funsters Electric Six. He likes to get his kicks by calling out “SOLO!” just before the band go into a solo. Here he is doing just that on the wonderfully titled Naked Pictures of Your Mother. The video below does not actually contain any such pictures but I’ve heard talk of other places on the internet where your mother is displaying her wares.
Having started this “SOLO!” thing on this song and quite a few others on the excellent debut album Fire, Mr Valentine cranks it up a notch on their 4th album “I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being the Master”. (Now there’s an album title!!) On the song “Riding on the White Train” he does the trademark “SOLO!” in the usual place but then repeats it over the top of the solo, thereby making it a solo of “SOLO!”s. Fine work there.
Another band who have turned this into quite an artform are national treasures Half Man Half Biscuit. They’ve done so many of these little asides before the solo that on podcast 5 Chorizo did a Fluff Freeman-esque Top 5 countdown. Not ‘arf!
Number 1 on the list was the song Moody Chops with its holler of the unforgettable phrase “alright boys fill the skip!” Check out the link here or video just below.
And whilst we’re on the subject, can I just point you in the direction of Chris Rand’s fantastic website , an absolute goldmine of HMHB information.
This particular subject got quite a large response from the listener and we are very grateful to all those who got in touch with their suggestions.
A good example came from listener Will Learmonth who made a claim for “I Heard Her Call My Name” by The Velvet Underground. Just ahead of each of the guitar solos, cheeky chappie Lou says “and then my mind split open” which, as Will himself says, is exactly how the guitar solo sounds/feels.
Listener Jimmy Dawson also got in touch with 3 great suggestions. Well, 4 actually but one of them was ruled out. Jimmy pointed us in the direction of a fabulous live version of “What Do I Get?” by The Buzzcocks where Pete Shelley sarcastically announces “tricky guitar solo”.
Jimmy’s next song was another great one. An impassioned cry of “guitar guitar guitar guitar” just before, yes you’ve guessed it, a guitar solo.
His 3rd suggestion was another punk classic, The Stranglers’ version of Bacharach and David’s Walk On By. Just go for a stroll in the trees, folks! Or if you prefer you could follow Rebel Rikkit’s advice when he misquoted that song on podcast 5: “Just go for a walk in the clouds.”
Huw Bevan also got in touch with a few songs. He put forward a couple of early Dexys songs but the wizards aren’t sure whether this one qualifies. Is that a call to arms or is that just Kevin rambling on in that way he does? (and we love him for it!) The bit in question starts at around 2:17 but I urge you to watch it from the start to see Kevin’s very interesting marching / dancing. How did that not catch on? The other Dexys one Huw mentioned was Kevin’s shout of “JIMMY!” on Plan B which definitely qualifies.
Now that’s a debatable one because usually someone just saying the name of the soloist would not qualify as a call to arms (see Rebel’s rules back up there). But because Kevin Rowland says Jimmy’s name with such force and passion, it sounds more like an order than an introduction and that’s why it makes the list. Introducing bandmembers is an altogether different thing and something that’s never been done (and never will be done) better than on the Bonzos’ “The Intro and the Outro.”
Back to Huw though, he was busy though because he also sent us this one. Rock me Joe!
The wizards themselves had thought of a few more when they revisited this topic in podcast 5.
Kicker came up with a top quality example from psychedelic blues nutjob genius Captain Beefheart. In his brilliant “Bug Eyed Beans From Venus” song, he gives his guitarist the instruction “Mr Zoot Horn Rollo, play that long lunar note and let it float!” before Mr Zoot Horn Rollo does just as he has been told.
That particular call to arms became quite a famous line, so much so that when Mr Zoot Horn Rollo (real name Bill Harkleroad) came to write his memoirs he called it “Lunar Notes” (available here if you’ve got plenty of another kind of notes)
Rather different from Captain Beefheart, Chorizo Garbanzo came up with a great one from Graham Fellows a.k.a. Jilted John a.k.a. versatile singer/songwriter from Sheffield South Yorkshire John Shuttleworth. A simple “here we go 2-3-4” does the job very nicely here on the song that ruined the life of every person named Gordon. What a song it is though.
On arguably his most famous song, podcast favourite Bruce Springsteen makes a curious “uh uh mm ah” noise, a bit like a man lifting a piano. Later in the same song, he lets out a percussive “HUH!” as the band end the glorious instrumental section. Sometimes an artist covering a song might tinker with the call to arms (see Red Hot Chilli Peppers above) or just might give it a little nudge of their own. When Frankie Goes To Hollywood covered “Born to Run”, they may have got a little over-excited by the thought of wrapping legs round velvet rims (or indeed the boys trying to look so hard) because they managed the impossible and outdid The Boss for manliness by replacing his “HUH!” with what sounded like (in both senses of the phrase) a massive ejaculation.
We’re going to finish off with the oldest song on our list (so far anyway, maybe you know an older one?) The great Gene Vincent impels his Blue Caps “let’s rock” and then later in the song “let’s rock again!” in his jukebox classic “Be Bop A Lula”.
But wait, don’t go, this doesn’t have to end like this. We could still carry this on. Maybe you know some other good calls to arms? If you do, add a comment below or just send us a message.
At some point in the modern era forming, joining or being a hanger on of a local band was almost obligatory. At school or in your locale the tales of who was in whose band was a constantly evolving tapestry of relationships and musical effort with mixed results. But what trace exists of all those remnants and echoes of musical greatness. In all of these enterprises lay at least one person’s personal vision, their hopes and dreams. So much so that many kept going long after any hope of any degree of success had left the building. However, the digital age being what it is any member or fan of any of these millions of groups can ensure that a trace can be left somewhere on the Internet for posterity or to act as rallying point to get together old friends.
After all, it’s not just the likes of Blur or The Damned who can get the old band back together. That joy could equally go to The Twisted Nerve, the hard rocking 4 piece from a district of Halifax that played 15 gigs and recorded a demo tape of 3 original tunes and a cover of Born to be Wild between 1985 and 1987. What a heady trip they had!
So that begs the question how loved or unloved were your band? If there is no memento of you anywhere on the whole of the Internet it probably indicates that either you were rubbish or that your crowd were not technically gifted.
So we can all play this game, Go back, back in digital time, and search for remnants of a past glory and find your echoes in digital history. Surely someone was interested enough to make a reference to the glory days in relation to some discussion or perhaps were so moved that they set up a web page dedicated to the era or maybe even to the band themselves. So, first go for the band name. OK, my first band was called Future Ltd (I am not going to apologize for that in case someone rates it). First web search – inevitably nothing comes up that specific. Let’s try adding music and location – nothing. Ok, let’s add Song Titles, Names and Music Type… nothing.
Gee… no-one gave a shit.
But hold on. We played gigs, people came to see us, sometimes people danced (OK that was fairly rare). Surely there is something that one person in the last 20 years has bothered to share in this time. There must be one “and then we went to see Future play at St Dominic’s Youth Club…” comment somewhere… nothing.
So 2 years of slogging around the north west of England, cramming gear in a Reliant Robin (I kid you not), blagging gigs in youth clubs (what a crap idea), weekly band meetings, bi-weekly practices, bitching about everyone else’s band, while they bitched about yours and occasionally telling people what you really thought and the inevitable altercation that followed, convincing people that “it’s not out of tune its psychedelic!”, recording demo tapes and endlessly flogging them and tickets for concerts at places like the YMCA, church halls and local pubs… What was it all for? Well, we might as well not have bothered for all the world cared.
But then it appeared… a long forgotten staple of the Bolton music scene – The Town Hall Steps Fanzine. THS provided a commentary on the red hot music scene in early eighties Bolton chronicling the rise and fall of the greats of that medium sized urban conurbation. Look! There they all are, lovingly preserved on the Internet forever for music historians to discover and use as evidence of a seminal scene that may have shaped popular culture for many decades. However, after scanning perhaps every issue it appears we didn’t feature. Hold on. There is a search option in the web site and incredibly there we are in issue 4 – on pages 4 and 5. The excitement was palpable. The link revealed not only a mention, not a mere listing, but a fully fledged review of our demo tape and the verdict was…….it was alright, dodgy in places but a few good bits….YESSSS! We live on!
Then… Then… there we are again in issue 5. We are there again. What now? A live review? An interview? No. The simple declaration… Future Have Split!
Oh how the very foundations of the Town Halls Steps must have shaken. How Croalbeat lived on is beyond me.
Many thanks to Marc Gibbons who wrote the Fanzine and put the site up. Much respect.
There is an option to put the music of the band onto this site, but erm… I think I’ll give that a miss. Why ruin everything?
Come on reader how loved or unloved was your band?
Hello to you.
Here’s 2 more videos to make you sit up and pay attention.
Get in touch or add a comment below if you work out what the connection is.
Buon giorno.
2 more great videos for you this week, both of them covers. We think the connection between these videos is a tricky one this week so we’re going to give you a little clue. The link is between the 2 songwriters, not the performers. Hmmmm.
In around 1979 the band Wire released one of my favourite songs called I Am The Fly, which as you may guess is from the perspective of a fly. Then XTC released Fly On The Wall, which is a song from the perspective, etc. and is also top quality. Forward wind 30 years and both these songs are on my jogging playlist and this got me thinking that there must be many more songs from the perspecti…… etc. Is there enough for a mix tape?
The mix tape is a well established cultural phenomena dating back to the days when you could get tape cassettes at 30, 60 and 90 minutes and mixes could be put on any, but usually on the 90 minute ones. This led seamlessly onto the mix cd delivering 80 to 90 minutes of music. This is not written in stone anywhere that I am aware of, but I would say that a mix tape should be no shorter than 8 songs and no more than 22 songs. Of course allowances have to be made for long tracks, but the modern practice of creating 100 song digital mixes is to be discouraged.After we get the mix tape we inevitably move to themeing the mix and there are no boundaries here. A collection of the themes I have shared include political, summer and all other seasons, genres, locations, styles, containing the word red, cover versions, female artists and on and on. It’s very democratic and has no boundaries.So with a solid start of 2 songs from the fly’s point of view, I just need at least 6 more for a bona fide mix. Although we cannot miss the point that as well as fulfilling the criteria they must be good songs or at least good from the point of view of the mixer.So to the search. After quickly exhausting the contents of my brain I hotfooted over to the iTunes library and theInternet. Here are a few that were considered and rejected:
The Fly, U2 – don’t like U2 and it’s about the effect big sunglasses have on some humans, not a real fly.
Superfly, Curtis Mayfield – a recurring problem here, the word ‘fly’ is being used to say someone is flighty or semi criminal, but certainly not an actual insect.
Fly, Nicki Minaj – again, don’t like Nicki and the use of the word here is to describe the soul soaring through the air. A worthy sentiment, but of no use for our purposes.
Fly, Nick Drake – probably about depression (that prevents him from flying).
However,…
Johnny and The Hurricanes, Beatnik Fly – has no lyrics, so difficult to say, but has a weird buzzing in the background at times so I am guessing that’s the fly and thus it’s in because it’s great as well.
The Cramps, Human Fly – the jury is out on this one; lots of buzzing going on, but he clearly states that he is a ‘human fly’ not an actual ‘fly’.
So thus far, despite 2 dropping into my lap over a few months in the late seventies, I can only find one more song (that is any good) written from a fly’s perspective. So dear reader my quest continues and I have taken the monumental decision to ask for help in this quest. Now I know it’s not going to cure any of life’s ills or make the word a better place for the majority of human beings but just think you could contribute to possibly the most obscure mix tape known to mankind. That’s got to be worth something hasn’t it. Send your suggestions to the usual inlets.
EXCITING UPDATE!! We thought that The Handsome Family’s magnificent song “Darling My Darling” might be a song from a fly’s viewpoint so we contacted them to find out. Rennie emailed us back and confirmed that it was and then mysteriously revealed that “all our songs are from the perspective of a fly.”
Curiouser and curiouser.
More Exciting News
Not only have we found another song from the perspective etc etc.. but it comes with a Fly Perspective Video. But best of all its great. Enter if you will Modest Mouse with Fly Trapped in a Jar
Thats 5 songs by my reckoning. Keep Going People we will get there!
Yes, it’s that time again, podcast number 5! Whoop whoop it’s the sound of the Wizards!
No great over-arching concept this time around, it’s just a free-for-all that’s free for all to download right here.
Boomshanka!
Just so that Rebel knows what Mr Jones was really up to last year. Time to catch up, methinks.
http://themouthmagazine.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/stephen-jones/
Greetings.
Us wizards have noticed that nobody worked out the connection between the 2 videos we posted last week. Same for the week before. So this week, we think the link between these 2 is a bit more obvious.
Our 2 videos this week are indie shoulda-been-megastars Stump and a blistering live track by that bloke from Noo Joisey. Hope you like em.
Get in touch or add a comment below if you work out the link.
Hello again. It’s Monday so that means 2 more video selections from the wizards.
The connection between the 2 videos is a bit easier this week so if you know what it is, get in touch or add a comment below.
Each week the Wizards are going to bring you 2 videos that will enrich your worthless life.
Leave a comment below the video if you can work out the connection.
Hello, it’s us again. We are back with something to warm your heart, liver and lungs in these chilly winter times. It’s podcast number 4 and this time it’s Rebel Rikkit’s turn to present his favourite music of 2012. Direct your pointing device here to download and prepare to have your thermal socks blasted off!
This podcast is the last of our “Best of 2012” shows. We’ll be back next month. Until then, keep on rocking in the freezing world.
TRUST THE WIZARDS 