Blockbuster, Sparman, T.E.S.C.O

It's an Anne Summers now you know! Gives Blue Plaque a different spin doesn't it

Are just a few of the 'shopping bands/songs' suggestions pitched into our first live Podrophonic run-out over at our all new Radio Novalujon lodgings.

What a fine ol' time was had last Wednesday, with Dave Jazzy Dawson working his multi-media magic - manning the desk, checking the levels, fading the mics and suchlike. And hurrah 'n' hats in the air to see the Pod Squad regulars regrouped for the first time since June..

There's even a Quinn Martin style epilogue - we've kindly been offered a monthly spot on Radio NJ. So from November - the last Thursday of every month will be Podrophenia night.

Should you fancy lending an ear to Radio Podrophenia - Shopping - bung it in your bagging area below...

Radio Podrophenia - Shopping

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Spooky doings at the Sunday Sessions...

It's that time again - every third week, when Martin McNeill's Bottletop Blues Band pitch up and play for a few hours of Sunday afternoon.

Marmite and myself will be warming up the bar with some funk and blues based bumpers 'n' thumpers. Athough being just a nudge away from Halloween, I may wing in a spooky tune or two, something like...

Darkness of evil - Laid Back Funk







We're on from four, the band strike up from four thirty. We'd love to see you shaking a Sunday leg, should you happen to be round and about The Railway way...

Wednesday night is Radio Podrophenia night - live via Radio Nova Lujon !!

Wednesday night is the new Tuesday night!

After a heavily extended summer break, Piley and the other one return for a one-off live Radio Podrophenia tomorrow. We'll be parked upstairs at The Railway from 9pm beaming and broadcasting our Podrophonic clatter around the interwaves via the medium of Radio Nova Lujon and Dave Jazzy Dawson's Wednesday night Soup Sessions.

The theme for this pop-up Podrophenia is 'shopping' - so, expect the usual grab-bag of - vintage and modern hits, bits and obscurities. And, possible run outs on themes that include: what have your ex-record outlets become. Shops on record sleeves. Any bits, bobs and banter you fancy bunging in your Podrophonic Basket would be massively appreciated

If you're about from nine this Wednesday, retune your listening ears below. If not, perhaps tell a pal to swing by and see what special offers Piley and I have got in store...

Radio Nova Lujon

Alan Hawkshaw - It's All at the Co-op Now 


And an expect an earful from our Eight Rounds Rapid pals...

Sunday Sessions: a funking about by the river special(s)

Sock it to 'em JB

Following a Sunday off - the boy Marmite and I are back and installed behind bar at Southend"s Railway Hotel ,  dabbing about with the newly patched in Radiogram.

Taking the floor from four thirty are Marc Cecil's three piece: The Band With No Name - a free-form funk outfit riding live and unaided by the safety net of setlist or rehearsal. What you hear on the day, happens, as it happens - without any prep or pre-production. Of course it can only help if the collective are a power trio of pro-players: Marc (drums), Julian Burdock (guitar, harp, vox) and Dan (bass)

Working around a sound that's perhaps more good footed than the usual Sunday shenanigans - Marmite and I may tweak this Sunday's setlist with a funkier flow than yer typical Sunday sesh...with these Specials themed groovers getting a run out


 

Squeezy does it - a (very) few words with Chris Difford...

Backawhiles in 2008 - Ian Peel (keeper of the ZTT archive), kindly put me in touch with Chris Difford for a natter about his then new volume The Last Temptation of Chris. With all the Squeeze heat happening at the moment it seems appropriate to finally log it in the blog. 

Light on lines, but a neat and nippy read -  in a way it scans like a pre-Twitter Twit-chat...similar to my twinterviews with Yoko Ono and Mary Hopkin

Chris Difford's second solo album The Last Temptation of Chris is as British as Light and Bitter and as London as Pie and Mash (with liqour). Each carefully crafted cracker is packed with more hooks than a velcro belt, more pop than a dropped bottle of Tizer and the nip of sensitively scripted lyrics that sit somewhere between Galton and Simpson, Clement and La Frenais, Andy Partridge and Lennon and McCartney

Chris is on tour at the moment, but managed to find time to help with my enquiries...

'The Last Temptation' was recorded at home, how techie are you when it comes to home recording , and is time spent twiddling , time that could be used tunesmithing?
I have a man who does this for me, it costs money but it's worth it.

What about gadgets like Auto-Tune, would you be comfortable using something like that.
Yes I would, it's very handy for an old chap like me.

There are several candid, confessional moments on the album. Does it work - getting subjects out of your head, off your chest and into a song?
It's a great way of saving money in the therapist's chair.

Are you ever tempted to write a book, fact or fiction?
Yes I have, if I had more time I would nail it.

Who is Jim the storyteller in 'Battersea Boys'?
He is a guy I met two years ago in a hospice, he is not very well, but he helped me write this great song.

It seems to be Londoners eye view of life, do you think geography and location have an influence on music and songwriting?
Almost everything to do with it.

As a guitarist are you self taught, and is there one artist, album or track that made you pick up and play?
I learnt to play by watching Glenn play, he is my teacher.

Are you are guitar collector, and if so what's your most cherished possesion?
I have a nice collection, my top guitar is a Jim Olson.

It's Robbie Williams on the phone, he wants to write together what do you say?
I'm coming right over.

So what can we expect at the live shows - how does it break down with new songs, old favourites and covers?
All of the above and some nice lights too.

You've done the album, you're on tour - what's next?
More of the same....and then more of the same again until I grow up.

Have you got favourite lyric or moment on 'The Last Tempatation'?
It's all great, but I think Reverso is fun.


Recommended Reading

Chris Difford's Myspace

Chris Difford's Website

Chris Difford - Fat As A Fiddle

I'll name that (out of) tune in three...

Is that Eno - back row, far right?

In the niche genre: songs with ear-cringing out of tune arrangements.. this, with it's 'clang, clang, clang went the trolley' horn riff has to be one of the finest..

 

 Behold: the Les Dawson of the mod scene. It couldn't be Rod could it? He was a Shotgun Expresser

Shotgun Express - Curtains



And oh Bow, who did you drag in for acoustic duties at 2:46

The Golden Hour with Podrophenia...

Modern gadgets re-imagined '77 style- full set here at Alt/1977

Tonight from nine, you'll find Piley and myself parked upstairs at The Railway recording a 'years' edition of Podrophenia. A theme suggested by long-haul listener/contributor - E F Rice

Not sure what vintage Piley's picked, but I'll be winging in six tracks from 1977, a year that in my book of Pop Britannica gets a red-ringed as one of the few genuinely seismic years with a run of albums, singles and films  impacting and exploding with as much cross-cultural fallout as 1956, 1963 or 1967..

One track that may or may not get nipped into the playlist - it's pop, it's punk, it's space-age glam! It's....

A genuine 1977 hi-fi ad'

Sunday Sessions: Roll out the Barrelhouse Woman and the Blue Coat Man..

A full afternoon of leg-kicking (literally), chair-standing (literally) PA-quaking (literally) rock 'n' roll 'n' soul - was had last Sunday as West Weston tore up the assembled Sunday Session jivers and dancers for another Sabbath shindig. The rhythm section of Orlando Shearer and Mike Thorne slinked with a Stray Cat strut, and Paul Garner's blues runs, riffs and sweat-fingered solos seemed to be pulled from his very boots.

Wrapping up from 7:30 -  Mo' Fingers  whipped and whistled along, blazing through a setlist of heavy-handed Hammond melters

This week, the Grand Master of jazz and blues guitar - Martin McNeill is back with his Bottletop Blues Band and Steve West Weston sitting in on harmonica. Come along and park yourself at The Railway Hotel from 4:30 for a full afternoon (and evening if you've got the stamina) of musical doings...

I'll be sharing DJ duties with the boy Marmite. A sneak preview of a couple likely rockers likely to be popped into my playlist are...

Champion Jack Dupree - Barrelhouse Woman



Eddie Boyd - Blue Coat Man





And it just wouldn't be Sunday without at least one Lowell Fulson tune..