Don't you just love it when...

... One of your favourite bands comes out of a 12-year recording hiatus with a fantastic new album!

I've followed A Certain Ratio's career since stumbling into a dingy basement in Brighton at one of their very earliest gigs (A Sussex University venue in Brighton). In those days they were very much a post-industrial band with a funky drummer, searching for a way to shrug off their long overcoats.

Over the years, the highs of; Sextet (especially Knife Slits Water), Life's a Scream/Sounds like something dirty, the WOMAD festival gig, Brazil shirts, samba whistles, madness in the streets of Kings Cross, The Wag Club (complete with Tilly onstage), ACR:MCR, 27 forever, Up in Downsville, through to the fantastic 40th anniversary gig in Islington in 2019 (complete with a chat with sorely missed Andrew Weatherall), ACR:BOX with their version of Houses in Motion (originally planned to be with Grace Jones) have all added up to being one of my most rewarding and long lasting musical experiences. 

In addition there are very few lows (with the most notable being the sad loss earlier this year of the lovely Denise Johnson - She would light up every show with her fantastic vocals and infectious interactions with the ACR Barmy Army - she is sorely missed).

So, the arrival of the fabulous new album ACR:Loco (released on 25th September) has been greeted with much fanfare and celebration round our way. Do yourself a favour - get this album now! 

Bouncy Bouncy! 

Another 40 gigs...

The rules. Following on from the first 50 gigs post. Time to follow up with a further 40 gigs that spring into my head - in no order specific order of brilliance - although...

1) The CTMF - Koko (AKA Music Machine) - 2018. As part of a gig to celebrate 30 years of Damaged Goods records. Wild Billy Childish, Nurse Julie & Wolf Howard played a truly uplifting and suitably spirited set that brought the house down. Highlight - A cover of Hendrix's Fire...

2) Paul Weller - Sydney Opera House - 2017. The first of three nights was a truly joyous experience, don't think I've ever seen Weller quite so happy and comfortable on stage. Highlight - Have you ever had it blue...

3) Graham Day and The Gaolers - Lexington - 2018. I've managed to see Mr Day in a few different guises, first time with the Gaolers and suitably pugnacious. Highlight - Seeing the whisky bottle being passed around...

4) The Galileo 7 - Garage Islington - 2016. Punchy psych garage guitar pop (or variations thereof). Supporting Ebbot Lundberg and the Indigo Children and quite frankly, stealing the show. Highlight - The bouncing bassist...

5) The Pop Group - Komedia. Messrs Stewart and Sager delivering a blistering evening of dub, funk/punk. Happy night in the darkest of days. Highlight - Being passed the microphone to sing 'Where there's a will, there has got be a way"...

The Specials - Enmore Theatre
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Sydney Entertainment Centre
The Chords - Richmond Pub
Chalk Horse Music - Towner Art Gallery
The The - Sydney Opera House
Johnny Marr - Enmore Theatre
Billy Bragg - Manning Bar
A Certain Ratio - Islington
Blur - Hyde Park
Richard Hawley - De La Warr Pavilion
Nick Heyward - Concorde 2
The Style Council - Southampton
Stormzy - Enmore Theatre
Ben Watt - The Basement
Purple Hearts - The Lyceum
Wire - Sydney Arts Theatre
French Boutik - 100 Club
The Fallen Leaves - Hope and Anchor
Martin Stephenson and the Daintees - Town and Country Club
The Fall - Garage Islington
The Jesus and the Mary Chain - Sydney Opera House
Echo and the Bunnymen - Top Rank
Arctic Monkeys - Homebush
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleroes - The Astoria
Robyn Hitchcock - Social Club
Run DMC/Public Enemy - Brighton Conference Centre
The fReds - Sydney Opera House
Massive Attack - Steps of the Sydney Opera House
Martin and Eliza Carthy - Hailsham
Animal Nightlife - Ace Cinema Brixton
PIL - Enmore Theatre
Dexy's - Enmore Theatre
Morrissey - Paris
The Damned - Enmore Theatre
Linton Kwesi Johnson - CND March

Bands I wish I'd been in #6 - The Pop Group

Born out of the debris of The Avon Soul Army and the catalytic impact of seeing The Clash and Sex Pistols early on in the nascent punk scene. The Pop Group swiftly took the punk rule book and ripped it up. Incorporating funk, free jazz, dub and punk soundscapes. The original band featured Mark Stewart, John Waddington, Simon Underwood, Gareth Sager and Bruce Smith. Their heady combination of James Brown, Albert Ayler, Funkadelic and King Tubby mixed with radical lyrics was a complete headfunk for a teenage suburban punk like myself. 

Their debut single 'She is Beyond Good and Evil' was the most searing combination of potent punk/funk and poetic imagery I'd ever heard. These boys were different to anybody else on the scene. This was followed by their debut album 'Y', which covered all the bases (and basses). The relentlessly funky chaos of 'We are time' & 'Thief of Fire' interspersed with dub piano melancholy of 'Savage Sea' - the album beautifully underpinned by Dennis Bovell's production work.


Then came 'We are all Prostitutes' the song that sold thousands and the (bootlegged) t-shirt that sold millions....

They then followed up with a second album 'For show much longer do we tolerate mass murder', an album that was even more political and featured The Last Poets and Mark Springer. An album that was pilloried by the likes of the IPC owned NME but still stands up as a fine piece of work - albeit not quite as remarkable as 'Y'. In amongst all this activity was a formal bootleg LP 'We are Time'... And then came the most joyous slab of Funk to come out of the UK in the 1980's - 'Where there's a will' b/w 'In the beginning there was rhythm' but the equally unconventional and fabulous The Slits.

The first incarnation of The Pop Group played their last gig at the CND march in Trafalgar Square in 1980 in front of half a million people. The gig featured old and new versions of the band and they finished with a version of 'Jerusalem', which to those of us present took on almost magical properties (We having sprinted through traffic whilst 'We are Time' ricocheted around the heart of London). It was a remarkable/shambolic day...

So, why do I wish I'd been in The Pop Group? Well apart from the songs, the free form mindset, the lyrics, the amazing iconography, the willingness to challenge the musical 4/4 status quo of punk (which very quickly simply reverted to rebel posturing, boring guitar solos and appropriating the language of tired old cock rockers), the courage to wear their politics on their (LP) sleeve and the desire to SEEK - they were the most dynamic live act I'd ever seen! 

Postscript.
I was initially concerned that their return in 2011 would tarnish their name. I had no need to fear - live they are still an astonishing proposition and I did finally get to fulfil my ambition at Komedia in Brighton a couple of years ago. Mark Stewart thrust the mic forward for me to sing... 

"Where there's a will, there has got to be a way..."

Excelsior!

Albums no self-respecting gentlemen should own #2 - U2 'The Joshua Tree'

A more lumpen collection of pompous music is quite hard to find. Camouflaged under faux 'rock' stylings, the limited lyrical and musical imagination of Paul Hewson, David Evans, Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton has long been held up as some kind of classic. The arguments in support of this are very lightweight but nevertheless it is still common currency. But with the exception of the first three tracks (Where the streets have no name, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, With or without you) most fans and critics alike would be hard pressed to name any other 'tracks'.

The reason for that is simple, they aren't any good. Most vaguely decent albums of any era can easily muster as many if not more standout tracks - The Joshua Tree simply does not stand the test of time. It is music for students, management graduates and footballers. An album that is devoid of any emotional depth, lyrical sidesteps or political substance (on either a micro or macro level), the only saving grace (and boy am I clutching at straws) is some of Steve Lillywhite's production. The aspects of which are too dull to convey.

U2's rise to prominence is still a thing of genuine mystery. The real pretenders to the post-punk/psychedelic/straight rock world were Liverpool's 2nd best band of the 80's Echo & the Bunnymen (the first being The Teardrop Explodes, who were genuinely psychedelically enhanced and prepared to challenge the normsoc rock that bumped along in the lower reaches of the charts). The Bunnymen looked and sounded the part with Messrs McCulloch, Seargent, De Freitas & Pattinson creating a cohesive and dynamic sound that out stripped the Dublin wannabes easily in the early/mid years. If New Order were Champions League contenders, The Bunnymen were upper reaches of the Premiership then U2 were strictly div 2. (NB On this ranking, The 'mighty' Fall were runaway winner of the World Club Championship).

There is much to detest about The Joshua Tree but the thing that tops it off is the 'iconic' cover... Da boyz all standing nicely huddled in... a... wait for it... desert.... where Gram Parsons' alcohol engorged body was torched and the... Grateful Dead peddled super strength Acid - How very rock 'n roll! They could have only topped it by standing round Jim Morrisons grave in Pere Lachaise or doing an accapella version of Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis' final resting place.

Anyway, enough of this.

There are only two types of music - good & bad. The Joshua Tree fits firmly into one of these types and you know exactly which one.

I was looking for a job and then... #3

And so... the online job market goes a bit odd on a Friday. Nothing happening.

So, I spent the day reading another one of the very fine 33 ⅓ series. This one was on Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants. A beautiful album and a lovely book too. Reading about how Stuart, Alison & Phillip created one of the most wonderful records of all time. They relate to various different ambient musical/childhood experiences and it immediately evoked sounds (and visions) of my childhood that I hadn't heard (or seen) for decades.

The album's clicks, melodies and melancholy still allow me to drift beyond the first time I heard it to a hearth, a beach and a garden...

It's the weekend tomorrow, no jobs for the wicked, no blogs for the weekend*.



*Now there's a subtle link to a future post....

Bands I wish I'd been in #6 - Aztec Camera

It's been a while...

Things have changed, you have changed, so have I and yet. We can't ignore the past. 

I suspect that I've already mentioned this but... way back, in the way back. There was a band from East Kilbride named Aztec Camera (partly after 'Camera camera' by Teardrop Explodes). They aimed to blend The Fall, The Clash, Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, Wes Montgomery, The Flying Burrito Brothers and possibly Love into one rather joyous cheeky little melange of jazz chords, intelligent lyrics, checked shirts and raucous gigs. 

Aztec Camera first appeared on a Glasgow cassette-only compilation of local unsigned bands on the Pungent Records label. The band's first UKsingle release was sold as a 7" by Postcard Records—a Glasgow-based independent record label co-founded by Mr Edwyn Collins and Dame Alan Horne in 1981. The single featured the song "Mattress Of Wire" and a rather beautiful b-side entitled "Lost Outside The Tunnel". They also released in  "Just Like Gold" and "We Could Send Letters" in the same year. An acoustic version of the latter song appeared on a compilation album, entitled C81. Following the two 7" releases with Postcard, the group signed with Rough Trade Records in the UK and Sire Records in the US for their debut album. 

At this point, the band was officially a quartet: Roddy Frame (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Bernie Clark (piano, organ), Campbell Owens (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums, percussion). Their debut album was produced by John Brand and Bernie Clarke at ICC Studios in Eastbourne. The stand out single was "Oblivious", which Roddy unashamedly admitted was an attempt to get the band on TOTP, which didn't make him a bad person!

During the recording process for the album, Frame apparently used a different guitar for every song. For the song "Orchid Girl", Frame explained in 2013 — during the 30th anniversary tour — he was attempting to merge the influences of his favorite guitarist at the time, Wes Montgomery, and punk rock icon Joe Strummer. I was actually in the studio the day that Roddy recorded "Orchid Girl" and it is still one of the most remarkable moments in music of my life. (Apologies for the 'drop).

Allegedly, in a late 1990s television interview, Frame explained that a "boy" image was associated with him during this era, and that he was annoyed by it at the time, as he was taking his music very seriously—"you don't want to be called 'boy'; especially when you're listening to Joy Division"—but he eventually stopped caring about it. - Seriously Wiki, is that in any way relevant?

Anyway, throughout the whole High Land, Hard Rain tour/time I followed the Aztecs around the UK and loved every single minute. We were collectively the Boy Wonders!

The Boy Wonders

I brought you some francs from my travelling chest
You'll spare me the thanks 'til you know I'm the best
So come Hogmonay when love comes in slurs
Resolutions I'll make and you can label them 'Hers'
We threw our hands up high we, nearly touched the sky,
We clicked our heels and spat and swore
We'd never let it die

All those boy wonders
Sold their medals when they saw this train
Now this boy wonders
When he'll feel the fall of honest rain
I came from high land where the hopefuls have to hesitate
Now this boy wonders
Why the words were never worth the wait

I'm waiting, waiting.In pastel paper pink over grey

We wrap, wrap, wrap and chuck, chuck away
The poor excuse they peddle as their prose.

Dry your tears, tie your tongue and you're never sixteen
And I'll give you a glimpse of the hard and the clean
And my travelling chest will be open to you
And boy will you learn that you haven't a clue

I even asked my best friend but he could not explain
It hit me when I left him
I felt the rain and called it genius,
Called it genius.

All those boy wonders
Sold their medals when they saw this train
Now this boy wonders
When he'll feel the fall of honest rain
I came from high land where the hopefuls have to hesitate
Now this boy wonders
Why the words were never worth the wait

I'm waiting, waiting.
In pastel paper pink over grey
We wrap, wrap, wrap and chuck, chuck away
The poor excuse they peddle as their prose.