Well I'm breaking my blog embargo to sling out something swinging for New Year's Eve - 'Rockadoodledoo' a bespoke mix brimming and bubbling with hipshakers, footstompers and knee tremblers. But, grab it while you can it's only up for a limited period only ...
So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...
A couple o' rooting tooting tunes from the ever-popular (according to the stats) Sound Of Brass,Torero Band
And this delicous downtempo DJ BC Beatleg remix...which gently folds The Jacksons and John Lennon into one luvverly bundle DJ BC - Imagine Santa There's a vid' for it too...
So chill your boots, fill your boots and see you in the space-age sounding 2009 playmates - x -
As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out?
Personally I really will pull this sort of a face, if get anywhere near another whiff of Phil Spector, 'Fairytale of New York' or East 17's 'Stay' and Frankie's 'Power Of Love' (and who in the name of Chris Chringle ever decided the last two had any sniff of Christmas spirit about them anways)..
So let me introduce to you ...a grab bag of goodies, a sackful of bootleg remixes and festive flavored funky nuggets that should get your jingle boots a'bopping and your cosy toes a'tapping. All have been masterfully mixed by the super heroes and heavy hitters of cut-and-paste-pop into fun size, mini-medleys of panto' season playfulness where ....
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
So another birthday rolls round like a bad penny, or to be specific - the 25th one since my 18th (ouch!). And, considering it's the Silver Jubilee of possibly my booziest of all birthdays - I've still got a fairly full recall of the day..
*Cue plucked harps, wobble vision and screen melts*
Which included getting my first Walkman (Saisho, not Sony), some 'as requested' LPs from the parents - 'Let's Stick Together' Bryan Ferry, and a glamtastic comp' 'Ballroom Blitz' were a couple. Hoovering up the Tennents Extra on the commute to art college, rounded off with a few 10 O'Clock vodkas in 'The Refractory' with Paul TMarmite, Bleech, Lil and Mrs-PM-To-Be (although we were just classmates at the time ) then hoofing along to the lipsmacking, non-stop, snog-a-longa-Christmas that was, the end of term Tech' tear up..
Following a quickie drop-in at my dull-as-dumplings former sixth form disco, I don't know why I went, how I got there or even got in (it was an over subscribed sellout, and I was totally ticketless), but Hanoi Rocks were playing at Crocs, just a short train hop away. Before the gig I only had swift shrift for H.Rocks - but Snakes Alive! The Rocksy rockers put on one of the most explosive shows ever seen at the venue, and I came reeling out a complete convert.
Hanoi Rock - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. Filmed at The Marquee 19/12/1983 - three days after Crocs.
Their albums are lightweight wishy-washy affairs, but live and in action they packed more wallop than a one inch punch, and for me, are still topped only by The Damned's Crocs show a few days later...
But as it's my birthday (and I'll sigh if I want to), and being on a micro glam-buzz at the mo', I'm treating myself to a couple of tunes from the crypt that fit the mood of the moment...
The Damned tag-teaming with Motorhead as Motordamn on The Sweet's '73 shuffler
Should you happen to be at Crocs reunited next week, and see someone wearing mostly this - give 'em a tap on the shoulder and let's raise a glass and shake a leg together..
This fantastico bespoke hand-made illustration was kindly created by Paul McDonald of Odd Sock Illustration
I don't know about you, but while I was sprouting up during the seventies, Christmas in our house was a typically traditional ritual that followed a similar tinsel-plated template from year to year.
The same medley of decorations were randomly scattered about the tree mixing classic seventies pieces - felt baubles in orange or pink, super-modern amber plastic hoops filled with some sort of shiny sci-fi tape loops that dangled alongside retro-deco's from the fifties - cough-candy style twisted aluminium strips (purple or red on one side, silver on the other), real glass baubles and Japanese lanterns. All finished of with Woolworths candyfloss-type-fibreglass to add some soft-focus embellishment to the lights.
The Martini (red) and the drinks cabinet would be cracked open on Nan's arrival, and when it came to lunch, stalagmite style red candles, the candlebra and 'special cutlery' from an embossed box had their annual day trip to the table. Which, was typically centred around a Christmas cake wrapped in fancy band of gold foil and frilled red paper, with, perhaps a snow scene on the icing.
If you're wondering what in the name of Jacob Marley is the point of this winterland ramble? Well, it's that, the cosy essence of Christmas was the familiar similarity of the occasion. And, in much the same that way we'd fire up this Frank album while Martini's were a'pouring - I feel it could become,perhaps a seasonal tradition, to repost my homemade winter mixture created for Christmas last year....
Marc Bolan - Christmas Message Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa Keith Mansfield - Snowman Stomp Jingle Bells - Booker T and the MG's Ramsey Lewis Trio - Here Comes Santa Claus Oscar Peterson - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Stu Hamm - Sleigh Ride Up With the People - Jingle Bell Beat Anita Kerr Singers - Jingle bell rock Soulfoul singers - Santa Claus is coming to town Soulful Strings - Sleigh Ride Edwin Starr - Snowflake Boogie The Rhodes Kids - Winter Wonderland
(Or 'Oi To The World' to borrow a Five Centresphrase)
Given punk's sloganeering and songbook of No Future, Boredom and Blank Generations there's possibly more punky seasonal sing-a-longs than you'd expect...
And of course the Sex Pistols played their final UK date, before hitting then splitting in the US, at a Huddersfield charity gig on December the 25th 1977
So good to see then that the tradition of Advent, Anarchy and God Save The Queen's Speech is being kept alive by the good people at Punk Christmas with an online advent calender that pops out one Christmas-chestnut-newly-reworked-as-punky-nugget per day (all for free too) - where you can grab crackers like these...
Bonus points are available if you can spot which punk/new wave classic has been adapted as the template for each tune
A special Santa salute to Agent Cooper for the tip off about this treat.
And if you know someone who's any sort of a Ramones (or punk) fan - here's just the thing to drop in their bovver boots for Christmas..Jenny Lens's photo-based eBook covering The Ramones first west coast tour of '76 - loaded with over 100 exclusive hi-res photo's sent straight to your inbox for just $15!!! (or 8 of your Queen's pounds)
Jenny Lens is the California 'punk scene' photographer, with a role call of spiky icons and heavy-hitters in her archives - Blondie, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and The Clash were all caught on film by Jenny during the seventies punk explosion. Her last book 'Punk Pioneers' is a must have if you're a nutter for punk like me - and at literally pocket money prices for this gallery of goodies, you really can't pass up the Ramones digi-book.
Did you know? - A major influence on The Ramones non-stop power punk (and haircuts) are the glam-anthems of our very own Christmas stompers Slade!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
So another birthday rolls round like a bad penny, or to be specific - the 25th one since my 18th (ouch!). And, considering it's the Silver Jubilee of possibly my booziest of all birthdays - I've still got a fairly full recall of the day..
*Cue plucked harps, wobble vision and screen melts*
Which included getting my first Walkman (Saisho, not Sony), some 'as requested' LPs from the parents - 'Let's Stick Together' Bryan Ferry, and a glamtastic comp' 'Ballroom Blitz' were a couple. Hoovering up the Tennents Extra on the commute to art college, rounded off with a few 10 O'Clock vodkas in 'The Refractory' with Paul TMarmite, Bleech, Lil and Mrs-PM-To-Be (although we were just classmates at the time ) then hoofing along to the lipsmacking, non-stop, snog-a-longa-Christmas that was, the end of term Tech' tear up..
Following a quickie drop-in at my dull-as-dumplings former sixth form disco, I don't know why I went, how I got there or even got in (it was an over subscribed sellout, and I was totally ticketless), but Hanoi Rocks were playing at Crocs, just a short train hop away. Before the gig I only had swift shrift for H.Rocks - but Snakes Alive! The Rocksy rockers put on one of the most explosive shows ever seen at the venue, and I came reeling out a complete convert.
Hanoi Rock - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. Filmed at The Marquee 19/12/1983 - three days after Crocs.
Their albums are lightweight wishy-washy affairs, but live and in action they packed more wallop than a one inch punch, and for me, are still topped only by The Damned's Crocs show a few days later...
The Damned come to Crocs - rammed to the max - where you stood was where you stayed
So how bizarre then that almost 25 years to the day, I'll be back at the same venue (now the Pink Toothbrush), on the 23rd next week, for a Crocs '80-85' reunion 'do', where a sure-fire floor-filler was always The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz', a track that featured in The Damned's set of the time (see above), and of course The Sweet who did the Rayleigh run sometime in '85 (see below), .
Brian Connolly at The Pink Toothbrush '85
But as it's my birthday (and I'll sigh if I want to), and being on a micro glam-buzz at the mo', I'm treating myself to a couple of tunes from the crypt that fit the mood of the moment...
The Damned tag-teaming with Motorhead as Motordamn on The Sweet's '73 shuffler
Should you happen to be at Crocs reunited next week, and see someone wearing mostly this - give 'em a tap on the shoulder and let's raise a glass and shake a leg together..
By gumbo it's getting close to Christmas, and in celebration of the international spirit of this festivo cajun* - O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Feliz Navidad (seen it for years, but not a clue what it means) - it's time to fire up the yule blog with a fistful of creole flavoured critters. So, Kick off your boots, put down that alligator, light your clay pipe, give your cousin a squeeze and your squeeze box a kiss (or is it the other way around?) and shake a festive leg to this fistful of swamp dweller stompers..
Hadley Castille the 'cajun swamp fiddler' (his phrase not mine), has a name uncannily close to one of my childhood haunts, and a sight still seen daily on my shuntings to London - Hadleigh Castle
It's just a touch too early to start dishing out the tinsel tunes (we'll save that for next week), but as a winter warm-up, how about a visit from three six string Kings that put some fatback on the fretboard and bring us Cold, Funking-sense and much, much more*
(note tasteful band logo on left arm - and missing tuner on guitar head)
In a past life I was once the guitarist for a glammy band called The Ladykillers (dreadful name, not my idea). I say glam, it was more of a post-goth, pre-grebo garagey rock 'n' racket affair really (a local paper once did a piece on us claiming ‘They’re Glam, They’re pop, They’re Punk’ – which sort of nails it I suppose). Based in Southend and on the scene at the same time as, and crossing paths with an early era My Life Story – we seemed to get the support slots for any visiting rocky horrors and lower league goth monsters that put a buckle booted foot into the Essex area - a few incidents from my rock date diaries include.....
Two encounters with Zodiac Mindwarp (which you can read about on page 43 of this month’s The Word)
Our second only live date, (with Mal from My Life Story helping out on bass), supporting Flesh For Lulu to a pre-health and safety elastic capacity Pink Toothbrush, where the icy tinkles and cinematic style keyboard intro was blitzed by the drum machine's improv' Drum and Bass meltdown.
The third gig at a local youth club on the night it was populated by German exchange students – the only ones that danced. In a moment of randomness we’d hired a dry ice machine for this gig, not a popular move with the Middle-Aged-Ladies that ran the club – the amount of puff pumped from this rent-a-gadget gave the effect of being smothered by a creeping indoor fog. Cue a stage invasion from the M-A-L’s with damp dishcloths to smother the smoke “it’s no good they can’t see a thing in the ping-pong room” or some such was the cry.
Having a gun pulled on us at Harlow. Someone fainting in Romford. And the gig where the above pic' was taken - supporting Ghostdance in Chelmsford (which must qualify as the least rock 'n' roll phrase in human history) an experience not dissimilar to playing to an audience of Autons, until the drums turned to shrapnel and went a’rolling around the stage mid-set. These were patched up gaffer tape and Meccano style, we carried on with the set and the crowd literally went wild - I've got a video of this gig and the audience go from musical statues to wild things in the space of two songs..
It just took a collapsing drum kit and couple of covers to defrost the good people of Chelmsford, two tunes that were regulars in our set and fairly reflective of our 'angle'... Iggy Pop - Funtime
31 Beatles tunes are buried in this illustration by Paul McDonald - how many can you spot?
Because a couple of the regular threads in my cyberspace scrapbook are The Beatles and Bootleg Remixes - it seems high time for the two to come together by digging out and polishing up a selection of the shiniest Beatle boots in my cellarful of noise for an FF post..
Including a fab four from Mark Vidler/Go Home Productions (the George Martin of mashups) where Annie Lennox, Jacko, The Monkees, and Blur all get bolted on to The Beatles, and Soundhog's (the George Harrison of hybrid-pop) uptempo edit of Eleanor Rigby and Soulsearcher's - 'Just Can't Get Enough'
So as the Hamburg audiences were given to shouting... "Mak Shau!,Mak Shau!"
And if you fancy grabbing a couple of mellow moptop mashups which blend The Beat's with The Beach Boys, Mogwai and Kid Loco - just click your Cuban heels
A couple of rock's heaviest hitters have both released new albums within the last few days:
McCartney (as The Fireman) with 'Electric Arguments' Axl Rose (as Guns N' Roses) with 'The Chinese Democracy'.
But what would the results have sounded like if they'd put their collective noggins together for a team-up (Maxl's Metal Hammer?) Perhaps something like...
DJ Jimmi James - Sgt. Pepper´s Paradise (short version)
So let me introduce to you - a couple of other G N' R connections to the bands appearing in these two metal based booties.....
Guns N' Roses covered McCartney's 'Live And Let Die' on their "The Spaghetti Incident?" album
Axl was married to Erin Everley, the daughter of one of Macca's musical heroes Don Everly.
Matt Sorum drummer for G N' R and Velvet Revolver is a former drummer of The Cult, who, had Guns N' Roses as their opening act on a US tour in the eighties.
If this post doesn't get me blog-whacked nothing will.
Can you believe it - the busiest day ever on the blog last Friday with double the daily hit rate and it's all down to Brenda Lee! Of all the tunes and tracks posted and popped on the blog it's Brenda's 'Walk A Mile In My Shoes' that got picked up by Hype Machine sending a stackload of extra traffic this way. Typically it's the Torero Brass Band and this Bardot picture that draws in the drifters and anonobods - so following on from the Brenda's (is anyone called Brenda anymore?) WAMIMS cover here's a Bob Andy's reggae flavoured rework and as bonus Billy Childish's moonstomping version of the Dads Army theme which you may have seen on some recent TV ads
As I may have mentioned before I'm a bugger for a cover version, and one area rich with glittering goodies and buried treasure is that period when traditional, torch or show style singers decided to get 'with it' and shake a well-tailored trouser leg or cocktail dress to the way out sounds of the In Crowd.
The finest selections are typically found around the tail-end of the sixties/early seventies, when, for the first time, themes of social awareness, cultural tolerance and polite political pop started to appear in the rock songbook and provided a platform for Vegas style cabaret and cocktail acts to appear hip, happening and doing old school cool with a twist of contemporary conscience ... Mel Torme - 'Games People Play'
Tom Jones & Engelbert Humperdinck (and Billy Preston)'Games People Play' - you have to wait one full minute for the tune to kick in, but it's well worth it
How do they do it? How (and why) do pedigree performers manage to give their goodies away on the the freemans? I wouldn't want to get wrapped up in the fuss, and faff of writing, recording, mixing and mastering - only to have knocked myself out for literally nothing! Well whatever my head-scratching take on it is - it happens.
The Wolfmen have come up with yet another new fruity tune, perhaps more muted and minor modal than the regular glam-garagerocking-pop but an absolute peachy treat that's almost Roxy Music meets Goldfrappish. Not only is it one of the strongest ear ticklers of the year - but it's available for free - that's right F.R.E.E - you can grab it by zipping over to the Wolfmen's HQ and just clicking on the Wolf's head
The Wolfmen - 'Nothing To Say To You'
Hugh Cornwell - 'Going To The City'
And, ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell is offering one full album's worth of new tunes for a big fat nothing - yes, really! You can get your get hand's on Hugh's 'Hooverdam' and it will cost you not one Earth penny - s'available right here
How is it that long-serving proto-punks like these can have put in thirty years of songwriting service and still deliver top drawer tunes, while so many Indie kids and contemporary clangers fold or stick to a safe-bet formula after just a few samey albums?
Popular opinion would have you believe 'Young Americans' was a calculated attempt by Bowie to attract the attention of, a so far, apathetic American audience by dropping the glam rags and reinventing himelf as a seventies soul boy. Realistically it was more of a revert to type. Ziggy only lasted 18 months, and snappily suited dance fan rather than outsider-outfits has been Bowie's default career setting (Mod, Young Americans, The Thin White Duke, Lets Dance, Tin Machine...).
Dig a little deeper and you'll also find he'd started dabbling with Disco a year earlier - alongside pet projects and helping hands for Lou Reed, Iggy and The Stooges, Mott The Hoople during 1973, Bowie had also found time to write and produce one full album 'People From Good Homes' (recognise that line from a later song) for his backing vocalists The Astronettes which was dressed in a disco trim...
During the Young Americans sessions, Luthor Vandross (in pink above and blue below) had become an almost honorary member of the Astronettes - joining them at recording sessions, and for an appearance on the Dick Cavett show
Bowie remodeled one of Vandross's tunes 'Funky Music' as 'Fascination' for inclusion on the Young Americans album (with Vandross getting a composer credit)..
During his Dick Cavett set, Bowie also covered The Flares 'Footstompin', which had been given a seventies style re-riffing by Carlos Alomar. A riff, which one month later became worked up into 'Fame' by Bowie and Lennon (with Alomar getting a composer credit for his contribution).
The Flares - Foot Stompin
As well as having a magpie's eye for bright ideas and what's hot - Bowie also clonked out some cracking compositions of his own - an unreleased original being...
I will get the Bowie-handbrake on soon, it's just that I've been ploughing through the Tony Visconti biog' this week, and have just hit the 'Young Americans' chapter you see.
However, if you fancy more Bowie business an excellent companion to his mid-seventies period is the excellent Golden Years website
The Stranglers are live in Southend tonight, and being one of the first handful of bands I actively collected (along with the Pistols and The Damned) there's no question of not trotting along. I know Hugh Cornwell's long gone from the line up - but it's still 75% original Strangulation. The other three are present and correct: Ol' Beardy, Ol' Pudding Basin and JJ Burnell, one of the coolest punk bass cadets (actually punk bass players were typically the snappiest member of the band) - all karate moves, monkey boots, motorbikes and that thunderous rumble underpinning the 'men in black's' signature sound. It's a 'greatest hits' gig, so hopefully these B-side babies may be somewhere in the setlist...
What better way to clear out the weekend cobwebs - than a sugary slice of cut and paste pop that mashes eighties electrickery with a seventies super-grouper - in combo that's camper than Christmas.
I always suspected there was some sonic crossover between Pete Shelley's 'Homosapien' and Abba's 'Does Your Mother Know' before it was 'outed' like this ..
Happy Halloween all you crypt kickers, freak-beaters and fangomaniacs. Hell comes to your house early this year with a three part posting for this week's Freaky Funky Friday including ...a seventy minute monster mix - Youtube treat - and a right ol' Carry On (plus some chilling tunes on C-Mondo too)
Mondo Mania This years collection of Halloween themed hits and howlers (in a good way) have been alchamixed into 'Mondo Mania'. Some of the ingredients may not seem immediately obvious witch-way winners but....
'Barabajagal's mutterings and mantras about Hammer Horror herbalism, seems to suit the mood of the moment
And 'Who Do You Love's imagery of "tombstone hands, graveyard mines, "cobra snake neckties" and "chimney, a-made out of human skull" qualifies it for dead-cert selection..
After getting blog-busted last week, I was almost tempted to put the this list in the comments - but nevermind that cobblers, here's the tracklisting..
The Playboys - Whatizit Ruth Copeland - Gimme Shelter The Preachers - Who Do You Love The Strangeloves - In The Nighttime Alder Ray - My Heart Is In Danger Carl Douglas - Sell My Soul To The Devil Tom Jones - Chills And Fever Tony Jackson Group - Fortune Teller Paul's Disciples - See that My Grave Is Kept Clean Zoot Money - The Mound Moves Affinity - Three Sisters Dusty Springfield - Spooky Tony Joe White - Stud-Spider Klaus Doldinger - Back In The Dark Cream - Strange Brew Donovan - Barabajagal The Rattles - The Witch Tom Jones - Witch Queen Of New Orleans Georgie Fame - Seventh Son The Coasters - Love Potion No9 The Exciters - Blowing Up My Mind John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - I'm Your Witchdoctor The N'Betweens - Evil Witchman Jimi Hendrix - Fire The Sonics- Psycho
If you were the age to be out, about and shaking a leg (or flapping an arm) in Southend's early 80s alt.clubs and shady places like Crocs, Chesters and The Monkey House - or whatever your regional variation was - these two tunes should be more time-trippy than test driving the TARDIS, take you right back to the dry ice-age, and have your phantom senses tasting the 'snakebites and black', smelling the 'Hard Rock' hairspray (or Boots green, gunky, 'Country Born' setting gel), and perhaps feeling the itch of a black mohair jumper if you were ever a proto goth-monster or grebo-warrior...
At the time, there were shifty whispers that Red Lipstique were actually the Bollock Brothers in disco disguise.
You can see more about the Southend scene (including my live pics of The Damned, The Sweet and Lords Of The New Church - and my punk top 50) at the always excellent Southend Punk site
So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...
As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out? 
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
This fantastico bespoke hand-made illustration was kindly created by Paul McDonald of Odd Sock Illustration
It Caimen 'pon a midnight clear
Me in my Mad Max Factor/Southend R.O.C.K period 
31 Beatles tunes are buried in this illustration by Paul McDonald - how many can you spot?
How do they do it? How (and why) do pedigree performers manage to give their goodies away on the the freemans? I wouldn't want to get wrapped up in the fuss, and faff of writing, recording, mixing and mastering - only to have knocked myself out for literally nothing! Well whatever my head-scratching take on it is - it happens.
The King Of Cut And Paste Pop Culture
Bowie remodeled one of Vandross's tunes 'Funky Music' as 'Fascination' for inclusion on the Young Americans album (with Vandross getting a composer credit)..
What Exactly Is A 'Morry Thou'?*
Happy Halloween all you crypt kickers, freak-beaters and fangomaniacs. Hell comes to your house early this year with a three part posting for this week's Freaky Funky Friday including ...a seventy minute monster mix - Youtube treat - and a right ol' Carry On (plus some chilling tunes on C-Mondo too) 
If you were the age to be out, about and shaking a leg (or flapping an arm) in Southend's early 80s alt.clubs and shady places like Crocs, Chesters and The Monkey House - or whatever your regional variation was - these two tunes should be more time-trippy than test driving the TARDIS, take you right back to the dry ice-age, and have your phantom senses tasting the 'snakebites and black', smelling the 'Hard Rock' hairspray (or Boots green, gunky, 'Country Born' setting gel), and perhaps feeling the itch of a black mohair jumper if you were ever a proto goth-monster or grebo-warrior...
