The Planet Mondo Annual 2013

Boys, girls, inbetweeners and whatnots - here for your listening ears and grooving legs is the Planet Mondo Annual 2013, prepared for the festive Sadlads CD meetup of Piley, E F Rice, Jack Gestures, Paul Glasses and self. To recap on the rules....

1. Circulate to everyone a CD no longer than 80 minutes in length, containing tracks for new groups you have either got into for the first time this year or established artists you have perhaps picked up an old track/album for this year.

2. You may have more than one track for an artist on the CD (although 80 mins of Springsteen would be pushing it)

3. You supply all those taking part with a CD including a full track listing.

So what has 2013 pitched into my PM playlist?

Beard Rock - Kadaver

Nu Blues - The Strypes. Barrence Whitfield & the Savages

Local talent - Eight Rounds Rapid, David Woodcock. Plantman, The Glass Brides

Newly sifted Soul gems - Lonnie Lester, The Dells. The Precisons

The full list is below, rendered as a screen shot to avoid those pesky DMCA types... click on the pic for the complete t-list

Planet Mondo Annual 2013



During the 70-ish minute mix - listen out for appearances from Steve Lamacq, Edith Bowman and Courtney Taylor-Taylor. The PM Annual back issues can be collected hereabouts - except the 2012 edition, which will be wing-dinging its way to us soon-ish

So until then have yourselves a rocking New Year, and perhaps use this mix for prepping music should you be Hootanannying or Hogmanaying it up tonight...

PS one on the subs bench - a Breaking Bad related beauty

Christmas Sunday Sessions: Some blues-blasting, a Beatles convention and a sack-load of new tunes

Boys, girls, grinches and humbuggers, roll up, roll up to Southends Railway Hotel for the last Sunday Session of 2013. A three walloper that includes.....

Martin McNeill * Bottletop Blues Band in the bar, with guests Tim Huskisson on and Steve West Weston on harmonica

A grab bag of fruity newly discovered treats and tunes, with some seasonal Beatles and funky nuggets nipped in from me before during and after the band....



A Beatles convention upstairs, with a parade of Southend's finest playing their way through the Fabs songbook...

This is my last post for the year, back in 2013 - with the usual whatnot and waffling - so see you then and have yourself a jumping, jiving Christmas and new year yardbirds...

London Lives. Fact, fiction and photographs

Confession - I'm addicted. I haven't been this addicted for weeks. Since ploughing through all five series of Breaking Bad in a fast and furious few weeks recovering from a broken shoulder. So what's got itself lodged and circulating under my skin, spinning around like a runaway tube train? Barry Cain's  Wet Dreams Dry Lives

What a piece of work. A cat's cradle of closets and skeletons, secrets and affairs, families and fortunes. A 'just one more chapter' read (where one more chapter becomes another chapter - and repeat), looping through various levels of hell, heaven and dark heartbreaks. A perspective shifting, line blurring blast of a book - twinkling and teasing with sex, drugs and shock 'n' roll

A story about an infatuation that leads to madness. About a man murdering his father and his son before killing himself. About the joys and horrors of sex. About jealousy and hate and love and depravity. About the sadness of time and the hunger for survival. About gangsters and perverts and condos in Los Angeles. About the desire for fame eroded by the desire for drugs. About decapitation. About dreams coming true and schemes to untie them. Or is it…? '

Incredibly this is Barry's first novel, but, comes free of the Bambi-steps and unsteady treading typical of yer usual debut volumes. Instead it pings along with the upswing and spring of Gene Kelly (or Alex Droog) singing in the rain, and is written so exquisitely you're almost re-reading each line as you soak in every sentence .....

If you're a recovering Badaddict looking for something to fill the hole left by BB. Dig in here, It's yours for just £1.90.

Spotters badge awarded for pegging all the pop culture references contained within the WDDL pages

From the non-fiction section -  let the Gentle Author take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London, stopping off  to view parks, desire paths, people and byways, by way of the London Album..

Parked up and posting on a daily basis over at Spitalfields Life, the Gentle Authors has curated a compendium of the capital from 600 (mostly unseen and unpublished) pictures: Elizabethan graffiti in the Tower of London, Victorian Spitalfields nippers, Bob Mazzer's London Underground photographs - and hang on, who's this popping up amongst the Pellicci portraits...(full story here, along with a dandy Kevin Rowland portrait)

My family were all born and bred Londoners, and I may be an Essex boy now, but was actually born in Kentish Town, before migrating east with my parents. Both mum and dad have been gone for some years now,so it's an honour and a privilege to appear as one of the many lives in the London Album...

One Chord Wonders, Eight Rounds Rapid, Podrophonic double-decking and a visit from Wilko.

TV times, Smith and Johnson - photo by Paul Hughes

We really do get the best guests, bands, boozers, dancers, photographers and audiences at our Podrophenia bashes. Saturday the 7th, was another hat-popper of an evening with assorted Southenders coming together and mixing with London callers all collecting together for the Retroman, Southend Punk, Podrophenia team up of ...

Eight Rounds Rapid - photo by Simon Siggs

Eight Rounds Rapid: who powered through an atom-splitting set of fan faves and new tunes (Bully Boy, I Want a Drink) like an Estuary-fed rhythm 'n' new wave groove machine.



After run of dates playing to 3000 gig-goers at Koko and similar size venues around the UK, 8RR's presence and power has bulked up Bruce Banner/Hulk style to the point where there's almost not enough stage for the band's skittering, riffs and rapid fire attack. And what a way to encore - with limited edition single (Podrophenia Records) Writeabout...

It's also the first time we've seen a press pit of photographers at any Railway gig

Punk'd TV - photo by Paul Hughes

TV Smith's: third innings at The Railway was a crowd rousing reunion at one of his favourite UK venues. A pure and practised pro, TV kept the crowd onside while working through a string break, managed to wing in a Christmas song, finished his set backed by a Southenders stage invasion and pulled in soundman Duncan Leslie for a duet on his One Chord Wonders encore.



Downstairs, post TV, Piley and self span in a selection of Podophenic mixtures. disco, funk, garage, mash ups, covers and ska eventually wrapping up at 1am with an improve sing-along to Prince Buster's Enjoy Yourself by the Rail(way)-voice choir...

Song of a preacher man - Podro a go-go

A huge thank you is due to anyone who raised a glass, shook a leg, took a pic, played a note and generally joined in with the most spectacular of Saturday Night shakedowns....

Radio Podrophenia -Winter Mixtures

Fill your boots, fill your ears and gather in your winter fu-el with the latest Podrophenia - our last radio run-out of 2013. A selection of seasonal sounds fitted around the motif of winter

Sparking new music (Glass Brides, Plantman), 60s psych, rarities, out-takes, covers and a grabbed chat with Luke Mersea of the Glass Brides.. (Luke on the left, me in the mid, Kate Johnston to the right - upstairs in the Crows Nest at Shipful of Bombs)

It's all here - and all yours for free. Pop it on your pod via iTunes or load up below shipmates

Radio Podrophenia - Winter

Saturday Night TV Guide: TV Smith and Eight Rounds Rapid at Southend's Railway Hotel

What a team-up, what a tear-up, what a two way split of Saturday night flavours are due at Southend's Railway Hotel tomorrow night. Why?

Put together and promoted by Retro Man, Southend Punk and Podrophenia - the evening's bill of events opens with Eight Rounds Rapid's returning to Southend after a snatch of London gigs and a slot supporting Wilko Johnson at Koko.. 

8RR have had a glowing year, gathering nods and noises from reviewers, record shops, radio presenters, and - have been voted as one of the best bands of 2013 by David Quantick.

Any remaining copies of limited seven inch Writeabout/Steve (Podrophenia Records) will be baggable on the night

Returning for a third visit to one of his favourite UK venues - TV Smith. If  you’ve ever seen TV at one of his solo shows you’ll know you’re never left feeling short-changed by his performance. Every syllable is deployed at full trajectory, as is each wrenched sweat-bead and shred-throated vocal.

Confessions, observations, opinions and solutions are are delivered with sharp eyed acoustic analysis. As TV said in an interview this week with our local paper The Echo 'The industry rejected me, now I'm rejecting it, and I can tell a better story at the age of 57, than I could at 17'

Post bands Piley and I will be slinging in a mix of Podrophenia favourites and floor-fillers until 1. Come on down, it will be a belter... If your winging your way down sign up here

Radio Podrophenia Winter Draws On...

Shipmates -  Podrophenia docks at Ship Full of Bombs, 8pm Southend Central time tonight. The theme for this seasonal edition is Winter:  Ice Hockey, Cold Winds, Cold Games, Icicles & Snow related songs are all in the forecast.

We'll be playing a bagful of winter mixtures - indie, funk, local music, new tunes and old faves.. And asking  what would you include in a hardback Podrophenia annual..

Tune in at SFOB or chat along with us at our Podrophonic board

Southend's newest groovers , Glass Brides will be on tonight's playlist - you can check out the full haul of their deeply, darkly, delicious nu trip-hop hereabouts or buy the Nature of the Beats EP for a very reasonably priced outlay here

I think we may be dedicating tonight's edition to the memory of Lewis Collins - another legend lost RIP

The Sunday Sessions: Go West at Southend Central

Steve West Weston, recently voted one of the UK's top harmonic players by Bluesmatter mag, and the handpicked harpist of Muddy Waters son (see below on Jools) brings his Bluesonics to Southend for rare hometown gig this Sunday. 

It will be a red-ringed wing-ding of a Sunday with a whole lotta shaking going on at The Railway Hotel. I'll be taking care of DJ duties, spinning in swingers and stompers from before the first note (about 4:30) - to the last bell...



Come on down for anything from northern soul to west coast R 'n' R from Jackie Wilson to Jackie Mittoo and bouncers by Steve




And from my crates....

T V Smith returns to Southend - the spiritual home of punk...

The spiritual home of punk'... they chorused. How so?

Ian Dury: Essex boy and day tripper to Sunny Sarfend, where, he caught his polio dose, giving him a buckled bearing later aped on stage by Johnny Rotten. Following the High Roads era, Dury and The Blockheads signed to Stiff Records - see below.

Dr Feelgood: described by Joe Strummer as 'a machine' - The Feelgoods parenting of punk can't be over-estimated: snatching pub rock back from an infestation of denim-clad, pseudo Americana musos, then charging it with an amphetamine, booze fuelled, grubby-suited aggression, Anglicised angle and confrontational face-front stare... With a run of ram raiding residencies at key London venues delivering battering Estuary rhythms. Venues that would become the birthing pools of punk.

Clem Burke has gone on record saying the Feelgoods album Malpractice was a perma-play and source of sonic inspiration at New York loft parties among the gathering gutterati of the NY scene - Blondie, Talking Heads, Television.




Then there's the matter of a £400 loan from Lee Brilleaux used to setup Stiff Records - who, released the first punk single New Rose, and punk album Damned, Damned, Damned from - The Damned..

Eddie and The Hot Rods: a younger snarlier Feelgoods and Stiff label-mates to The Damned. Southender Paul Gray eventually left the Hot Rods to join The Damned. And has just recently reunited with Captain Sensible for The Sensible Gray Cells



TV Smith a Romford boy, whose Adverts One Chord Wonders single was released on Stiff (leading back to the Brilleaux loan) ..



So where does this windy theory wind it's way to - well, TV Smith is back for his third Southend visit on the 7th December. Support comes from Eight Rounds Rapid (with a Feelgood offspring hiding in the line up).. An evening of baton-handing from first generation punk to the nu-New Wave of 8RR

And there's an aftershow shindig from Piley and myself..

It's brought you by the Retro Man Blog, Southend Punk and Podrophenia - and takes place at The Railway Hotel - Wilko Johnson's favourite local, and the venue of choice for spiky tops on tour,. John Cooper Clarke, Glen Matlock and Clem Burke,

We had stage diving at the first TV gig, a stage invasion at the second - and as TV said, how are we gonna top it next time - let's found out on the 7th....

Podrophenia: R is for Rock, Roll and radio

 

Steve Hooker and Wilko

Be-bop-a-lula-a-lop-bam-boom - it's the R edition of Radio Podrophenia,with live music from Steve Hooker and the Stripped Down Stomping Band recorded at the Ship Full of Bombs HQ

Six in the studio tunes from Southend's rockingest 'n' rollingest legend, who's veins pulse with crochets and quavers rather than corpuscles. Due to Piley being down with a lurg' we're also joined by Marmite Boy for hosting and music-choosing duties..

Musically we bring a pick 'n' mix playlist of the first rock 'n' roll record, reggae obscurities, New Orleans soul and Motown funk Radio Podrophenia - letter R with Steve Hooker live



Or if you're an Apple Bonker bag a copy via iTunes

Shoreline Sounds and Sunday Sessions

A triple whammy weekender of words and music is scheduled around Leigh and Southend over the next few days.  The Shorelines Festival - curated by Rachel Lichtenstein, sees authors Cathi Unsworth, Robert Macfarlane, Travis Elborough and glittering list of others winging into town for events, readings and talks on their text and publications at a cross-campus of Leigh on Sea locations.

Outside of the various venues, Syd Moore and Ray Morgan will be giving literary themed walks and tours around the area. The full index of events and artists appearing at Shorelines is here

Musically SFOB will be DJing throughout the festival with Piley and myself doing two Podrophenia sessions from 6 - 7 and 8:30 - 9 Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, I'll be back at Southend's most rock 'n' roll local The Railway Hotel for my first Sunday Session since the summer.

The always excellent Martin McNeill and Bottletop Blues band will be onboard for live music and I'll be pitching in a potful of new tunes before and after the band - running on 'til chucking out time.

It all starts from 4:30 ish - come on down and shake a Sunday leg  Couple of tunes that could make an appearance at either event are

Freddie King - Low Tide

Radio Podrophenia - the letter R , with live rocking 'n' rolling....

Tonight's edition of Radio Podrophenia is sponsored by the letter R: Lou Reed. Rod Stewart, Little Richard and Rocket 88 are possibles for the playlist -

We'll also be asking for your recommended Rock and Roll reads, with live music winging your way from Estuary legend Steve Hooker ..



Being Halloween we'll have some horror related rollouts. Join us from 8pm live at Ship Full of Bombs - or chip in for a chatterbout at Chatwing

And for previous Podrophonic spook and spell, grab our ghoulish goings on here...

Podrophenia Halloween Special (open, then right click and save as)

Radio Podrophenia - with horror author Syd Moore

Vive Le Reviews

Forget the NME's 500 shades of Arse albums list - instead, grab the blockbusting new Vive Le Rock. 

Steve Marriott, Jesse  Hector, Small Wonder Records and Gary Numan are all featured within, as well four reissues reviewed by me: Alice Cooper, Dr Feelgood, Mickey Jupp, Status Quo. 

The Shuffled scores are 6/10, 4/10. 6/10, 8/10 - but who gets what? All is revealed in the reviews section.

Grab your copy here....

Keeping it Peel: Peel Band Name Generator and The Sessions of The Damned

Teenage Dream achieved - interviewing The Damned about their 35 year career

It's a double helping of Peel themed treats for this year's John Peel Day. Find your own unique Peel Band Name, and two Peel session exclusives  from The Damned...

The Peel Name Band Generator..

How does it work? Dead simples. Take...

A) a charity you support - National Trust 
B) a parents job - Newsagents

Bolt them together - and there's your Peel Band name - National Trust Newsagents
Examples submitted include....

Mind Cleaner
Leprosy Reps
Macmillan and Housewife
Guide Dog Librarian...

Either post your Peelers here. Or if you're a Twitterer - Tweet and tag your answers #keepingitpeel to @Foundpeelbands

Full @Foundpeelbands story here


Damned Doings

As a bonus what have we got for tricks and treats? Two cover versions never committed to vinyl, and only ever appearing during John Peel sessions from long haul faves of the PM blog - The Damned.

From 22nd October 1979: Cream's I'm So Glad - refitted as I'm So Bored, meddling together nods and nudges to Gary Numan, The Specials and John Du Cann

I'm So Bored - Peel Session



The complete 79 session is below.....



From the 7th July 1984: a clobbering version of the Stone Rollers...

We Love You - Peel Session



Back in the pre-digital dark ages I had both of these cuts rendered to hissing ol' tape, by some late night nifty fingered clicking on play/record.. possibly replaced by a booty from Kensington Market later

Further reading 

Dig back for these previous Peel releated run-outs



A Podrophenia special with Roman Jugg talking about, Bowie, the Sex Pistols, The Damned and Phantom Chords - the vid above comes from Podrophenia (with Piley and I doing the spoken word middle section) - download the show below

Podrophenia Roman Podcast

And the The Damned tell me all about 35 years of Anarchy Chaos and Destruction. A blog exclusive

Damned interviews...

Autumn interlude... part 4: Gone to Ground

Alfa 9 drifted onto my listening post around October last year, when a promo copy of their second album Gone to Ground landed on my Plectrum The Cultural Pick review pile. Originally scheduled for an autumn/winter release,  but, as album launches often do - the date slipped with GtG  dropping into the pop-o-sphere in early 2013. And splaining  the 2012 references in my review and Vive Le Rock end of year round-up..

There is a theory that in sixties Britain, a geographic divide developed between the song-writing of northern and southern musicians.

Groups below the Watford Gap were Thames based blues-beaters, reworking Mississippi and Chicago influences into the slab-handed riffing and pentatonic rolling of the Stones, The Who and The Yardbirds,
Whereas in the north - Country and Western albums, imported through the docks informed the niftily fingered arpeggios of The Beatles, The Hollies then later The Smiths, Stone Roses and The La's.

The source of Gone to Ground's ringing chordal peels are firmly rooted in the northern hemisphere, but warmed by a gulf stream of blue-sky, tie-dyed harmonies breezing across the Atlantic from Laurel Canyon.

Alfa 9 describe their sound as 'Dreamy psychedelia' and 'Spaghetti psychedelic country' - to these ears it's Syd Barret and The Byrds in nudie suits singing songs for swingers shoegazers. An album that would have David Crosby applying approving strokes to his walrus moustache, and wouldn't appear out of place alongside any of Island's (poppier) pink label era releases.

Winging in Myles Clarke (The Who/Pete Townsend) to oversee the mix brings an air of authentic hand-stitching to the project. With its union of two country styles: Nashville, and nature (repeat references to seeds, grass, rain and sunshine weave through the lyrics) I've no doubt, when 2012 closes out, Gone to Ground's joyous, jangling and ringing will be my album of the year, where every track is a pot of gold spilling rainbows in its trail

This review first appeared in PTCP issue 14

Autumn interlude... part 3: Gazing through the fog to the other side

The third serving in this seasonal selection comes from Blitzen Trapper - 'Blitzen who?'they chorused...

Geographically the Blitzen call Portland, Oregon home. Musically the Trappers are parked midway between Wilco and Teenage Fanclub - pitching out albums of country, power pop and almost bubbleglam on the glitzier bits of the back catalogue..

But today's BT taster comes from 2008's Furr - a country-noir tale of grim business and murderous jailbirds


 
Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer from Luke Norby on Vimeo.

 And from the latest album VII

 

Autumn interlude... part 2 : Whispering Trees

Should you be thinking of a'wandering through the woods this weekend, strolling around on a twig-snapping, bramble-edged ramble, or soothing your way around the mud 'n' mushroom, russet wonderland with a scenic drive through the leaf-littered countryside - remember the country code, a tin of travel sweets - and a copy of Plantman's Whispering trees.

Fifteen tracks of the finest Essexarcana, patch-working and weaving whispered drifts, lapping and lulling acoustic tunery, high grade harmonies and melt in your mind melodies that make for the perfect autumn almanac. 

Behold the Plantman magic by way of Away With the Sun, and see what the Guardian had to say about our green-fingered friends









As an alt.escape and if you fancy hibernating away with rations and a good read - let me recommend to you - Jeff Lemire's Sweet Tooth. A post apocalyptic tale of wasteland survivors and hybrid kids.. A cross between Bambi and Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Autumn Interlude... part 1: Martyn Guitars

A seasonal salute is due to Davy Ghost for twitter-shouting these volumes from the autumnal archives

Autumn Falls

Autumn Tales

I'm overdue for the mix the third, but when I get round to harvesting in the acoustic goodies and golden strummings... this will be on the list



And worra result this morning - thanks to twitter catching itself aflame in an Amazon price-fault frenzy.

Mega-bargain! John Martyn the Island Years: a 17 CD box of studio albums, live, rare and unreleased, which should retail at 150 English... Some silius sodus had priced the MP3 DL at £7.50 - for 300+ tracks.

Luckily I bought and bagged it before they wised up and pulled the page...

 

Radio Podrophenia: tonight Shipful of Bombs Blows Up

 

People of Podrophenia, tonight we bring you the October edition of Podrophenia, wherein we celebrate twenty years of Blow Up -  the club, the label and the bands. A club with it's roots in the Southend Scene  - starting at the Monkey House, Croc's. and The Periphery

Piley and I will be joined by Blow Up's Generalissimo Paul Tunkin for some, natter chatter and tunes covering the club's back catalogue, current releases and at some point, hope to reveal a world exclusive on a new tune...

Kick off's 8pm Southend Central Time at Ship Full of Bombs, swing by and join us - or park up at our all new chat room (holding up to 7000 chatterboxes) to chip in...

Spot the sample - what was Herbie's bassline borrowed for?

TMFTL - imaginary John Peel bands

There's a new Twitter account in town TMFTL - Found Peel Band Names. A scrapbook of spotted oddities and inspirations that sound like imaginary John Peel bands .

First up Fat Panda (found at 22 Words). Who, could possibly be a Moby Grape era outfit, or something from the Madchester scene...

If you've got, any TMFTL suggestions - posts  'em hereabouts

Readabout, Writeabout - and listenabout, live tonight in London

Following on from last week's record shop round-up, behold as Eight Rounds Rapid Writeabout spends a third week on Norman Records best seller chart - and goes on to Rough Trade's recommended listening list.

But don't just take the rubber stamped Rough Trade/Podrophenia seal of approval as indicator of what a slam-handed wall of sound of the single is. The collected web whispers and reviews are glowing,  and gathered together below - a recommended reading list of the Eight Rounders reviews.....

Eyeplug Magazine 'Not for years has complaint rock sounded this mean, this exciting, brimming over with anger. An absolutely perfect storm'

Sputnik Music 'The infectious energy is absorbing on every level' 

Gigslutz - 'Fantastically unique – an exciting cacophony of sound that should not pass you by'.

Eyeplug Magazine (so good they reviewed it twice) 'venomous slice of back to basics rock n roll, coupled with socially observant lyrics'

Ralph's Life 'coming at you full on with post-punk ferocity, just plain nasty!'

RW/FF review and Track of the Day: 'A tune that I genuinely can't get enough of, and a must-listen for indie and punk people'

Fruitbat Walton - Top Ten Track

Should you fancy a blast of Writeabout. tune into this weeks Punky! Radio - or download here


Friday night is music night: live tonight in Londinium - Eight Rounds Rapid at the Spice of Life, Soho

Eight Rounds Rapid 'Writeabout' - outselling singles by the Arctic Monkeys, The Strypes, Beady Eye and Biffy Clyro.

It's been just over a month since Eight Rounds Rapid Writeabout was launched, and the reviews and radio play for our first Podrophenia release keep on a'coming

Last week saw the single go Top Five on the 7" Bestsellers list at Norman Records, moving more copies than singles from  Beady Eye and Biffy Clyro that week.

And we're back on the list (Top Five again) this week, with 8RR outpacing The Strypes and the Arctic Monkeys (see above)

Repeat plays on local, national and international stations have had a radio cherry on the top with Steve Lamacq calling the single 'the angry, edgy sound of Essex...'

Should you fancy grabbing a copy before they're gone (remember it is a limited edition - and becoming more limited week by week).  Writeabout is available to order online, or via a visit at these notable emporiums...

Rough Trade - London

Norman Records - Leeds

Sister Ray - London

Borderline - Brighton

Adrian's - Wickford

Slipped Disc - Billericay

Fives Leigh Broadway

Pouch of Douglas - Westcliff (below)

Should you fancy a taste test of the Eight Rounds Sound try out new tune My Mate
 

Pirate Radio Podrophenia....

What was the tracklist for this outboard obscurity - all here

Just over a week ago Pouchy Paul, Kate Johnston and myself parked up at SFOB for the September edition of Radio Podrophenia..

Assembling a crew of tunes threading together secret bands, new music and funky covers ( Mae West doing John Lee Hooker!) fitted around the theme of ships, sailing and bombs.



Between these twelve tracks we had ourselves a run out on Fracking songs, 'made-up' nautical slang and bands you get confused.

Should you fancy the Listen Again experience fill your waders below..

Radio Podrophenia - Ships, Sailing and Bombs

Podcast Powered By Podbean

 Or via iTunes...

The Mutants are Coming: an MC5th, a Feelgood, a Blockhead, an Ant and a Rat - all on the same historic session

It's that photobomber again - 2nd from right

While I'm still in recovery from the broken shoulder - how about catching up on what's been sizzling away over the summer months - and backtracking to the evening of 27th June, when all of punk, pub and garage rock's historical planets came into alignment.for a due soon album The Rhythm and Punk Revue

At the nucleus of this cross-generational get-together was the re-teaming of Wayne Kramer and Wilko Johnson - a pairing reunited for the first time since sharing a bill together at The London Rock n Roll Show 1972. Where the Feelood's were backing Heinz - and a gig Wilko has repeatedly gone record as saying changed  his life. In fact, dig into the vid below for the King of Canvey in full flight - telling the tale himself.

Be warned - contains tales of mild peril and explosive effing and jeffing from the get-go...



This glittering gathering has come together under the banner of The Mutants working up new tunes written by Chris Constaninou and Paul Subsource and recorded with a roll-call of new wave, ska and punk legends. Dig about the latest issue of Vive Le Rock and in between a bulgiing edition covering the birth of New York Punk, Ian McCulloch interviewed - you'll find Chris giving the back story to these Mutant moments

Dig around the back pages and you'll find me reviewing Norman Watt-Roy's first solo album Faith and Grace - as well as Wilko's homecoming gig at Southend's Village Green festival...

Not him again - in the orange!

Here is the shipping forecast: Podrophenia drops anchor at Shipful of Bombs tonight..

From September onwards - your Podrophonic pals, Piley and the other one, will be moored up Southend's newest radio station and the lighthouse for all local and grockle talent.. Shipful of Bombs. Or SFOB to use its full title.

Our theme tonight - ships, sailing and bombs (it had to be). So pipe yourself aboard from 8 foir a haul of tunes, chat and natter

Questions we may be asking: which bands do you mix up/get confused about. 

Me?  It's Todd Rundgren/Nils Lofgren, Jim Jones Revue/Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jackson Browne/James Taylor - almost any band beginning with a K

Can posh people do The Rock - who is the poshest pop personality? And give us your pirate, bomb and sailing related songs or band names...

We'll be live from 8pm Southend standard time - why not come and join us at SFOB

Hey, that's me on the Lamacq Show.....(for 7 days only)

Good Day/ Bad Day caller - that's me that is!

Scuse the brevity of the blog-post pals, but it's one handed typing all the way at the mo..

How about this. After a nippy tweet from me to the Lamacq Show last week - they were looking for guests for the Good Day/ Bad Day feature - I was booked in for a spot yesterday's show.

Which way did I choose? Tune in below at 50 minutes in for the reveal...as well as first singles, gigs and album info.

Steve Lamacq - 6 Music 29th August

Do you know I can feel a Pop-Master revisit calling

The Quinn Martin style epilogue - Pal Lamacq gave me a 'callback' as they say - an unprompted shout and dedication on tonight's show.too at 2hr 34 mins...

Steve Lamacq - 6 Music 30th August

All will become clear

A temporary (shoulder) break in service...

 

Apologies for the sudden silence blog-pals, but I took a recent tumble while biking. Slam! Straight down, left shoulder-side.. which turned out be a broken humerus - and in several places.

The couple of weeks since have seen amazing technicolour shoulder to elbow bruising, a swollen arm - and hand inflamed like a cricket glove

.  

Hopefully back to all the usual soon, but until then - lend an ear to the flip of Eight Rounds Rapid new single...

 

 And if you like what you hear - bag a copy from Norman Records

How was last week's 'Writeabout' launch at Southend Central's most rocking assembly point - you ask?

Photos by Paul Hughes

Swishy, sweaty and spectacular - is the answer! And where we were joined by London based label bosses, journalists, DJs - and our surprise, special guest, watching from side-stage - Mr Wilko Johnson..

Round One... Swindle.
With fourteen songs, one set list to sequence and only two evenings for me to rehearse (at home, playing along to the records) - we set up our stall of seditious and subversive standards, opening with a triple-fisted slam of Bodies, I Fought the Law, and Neat Neat Neat - exiting stage left, one plectrum-snapping, sweat-heavy, sticky-steaming hour later. -  closing with a sing-a-long final lap of Pretty Vacant, Blitzkrieg Bop and Another Girl Another Planet (for the encore)

Round Two - Eight Rounds Rapid
The last time Eight Rounds stepped onto a Southend stage,  prior to Wilko's Farewell tour - was for our Podrophenia/8RR/Thee Faction team-up. During the course of a sixty minute set mixing known faves and new songs (Bully Boy) 8RR took The Railway apart track by track. Of course there are shadows of the Feelgoods in the sour expressions and ruffled 'n' dusty suits, but these boys are an all-new threat, with the heavy-level menace and cocksure manner of villains at a secret speakeasy planning an international blag.

 Lee Watkins jabs and batters his kit like a boxer at a sparring session. Bass player Juju prowls, grins and winks like a card sharp, while Simon Johnson is all fidgets and tics, hoovering around the stage crackling and overcharged as if he's been wired directly into to the national grid. By contrast Dave Alexander's static, crisp 'n' dry delivery, face-front manner and unblinking stare have the command and control of Michael Caine's performance in Get Carter. A game-raising display that saw the Eight Rounders literally drawing blood, sweat and tear-ups for the assembled home crowd and visiting London callers

Round Three - Podrophenia
For the after-show in bar from 11 onwards, Piley and I tag-teamed between nineties indie-bits and obscure popsters, to soul shakers, funky covers and something that's becoming a standard - passing the disco baton from K C (me) to Donna Summer (Piley).. And behold - as Mike Herbage, he of Department S, takes a breather from shaking a Podrophonic leg to our tunes… (stage right, glasses - holding a drink)

For the full glory and gallery of the evening (and until we re-group again in December) have a thumb threw Paul Hughes Flickr sets hereabouts

Launched today: Eight Rounds Rapid new single Writeabout - the first release on Podrophenia Records

Break out the hats and hooters! The night has finally arrived for the wrappers to be removed from Eight Rounds Rapids vinyl debut and Podrophenia Record's first release 'Writeabout/Steve' - where live, tonight at Southend's Railway Hotel  (a venue fanfared in a recent Sunday Time supplement) - we have a three way wing-ding arranged for you….

From 9 (ish) Swindle - Southend's premier ballroom-blitzkreig-bopping punk tribute band covering the sounds of the suburbs heard during the Punk Wars. And in the tradition of Podrophenia switcheroos - I'll be joing the band on bass for tonight!

From 10 (ish) Eight Rounds Rapid - estuary bred rock 'n' rollers returning their first home-town gig since….(see reason 1)

From 11 (ish) The Podrophenia Roadshow -a muti-coloured pop-swap of double-decking from Piley and the other one

Still unsure? Have a listen to 8RR's Writeabout as featured on Steve Lamacq's show last Tuesday at 47 mins in - ' I recognise that venom' says Lammo

And Eight Reasons Rapid why you should haul your boogie Railway-wards tonight

1) It's the Eight Rounders *first* hometown show since supporting Wilko on his Farewell Tour. A homecoming gig you could say...

2) Writeabout/Steve is the band's vinyl debut.

3) This limited edition single is the only place you will be able to get Writeabout. Hand-numbered copies will be on sale tonight

4) They sounded fab on Gideon Coe last week (5 mins in). They sounded fab on Steve Lamacq (see above)

5) Eight Rounds Rapid sound even more devastating live - come and check them out

6) The glowing single review by Kelly Buckley in The Echo

7) There's a hot-rocking support band (Swindle) before. There'll be a podrophonic shindig afterwards with tunes such as....



8) It's all free

So get there early and you may grab a low number edition. We'll be seeing you from 8 tonight then....?

All the info you need to know about writeabout, tonight-about is hereabouts

Podrophenia on BBC 6 Music!

That's right - Podrophenia Records in fact.

Our debut Pod-Rec release by Eight Rounds Rapid - Writeabout  (ltd edt) was given a spin last Wednesday on the Gideon Coe 6 Music show. And you know what - it sounds blooming fab blasting from a radiogram. You can poke a listening ear in here (at the five mins mark)

However, should you fancy lending both ears to both sides of the single - plus some back story, info and facts on the tracks by the band - simply help yourself to a free copy of the latest Podrophenia themed around the letter Q. It's all free and can be grabbed hereabouts. Or via iTunes.

How do you bag a copy of this limited edition single? Very simply, they're available from Friday 9th August, with a launch night at Southend's Railway Hotel. Come on down and get your hands on a seven incher