Woodwork Class

Whipping along with the speed of a seafront breeze, Southend's David Woodcock maintains the sort of sprightly, high-firing work rate you rarely find amongst contemporary singer/songwriters. One minty new tune gets posted on Soundcloud every week for free download. Aside from the weekly freebies, live-wise he's a consistent performer - slotting in solo shows,  pitching up with his signature tinkles, tickles and vocals ad-hoc at local shindigs or as the keyboard component of Southend legends The Seasiders.

Yet, on top of this bookings-busting schedule David has still found time to write and release a new album Splinters – rendered and recorded in his bathroom and the local pub (The Railway). It's a self-assembled construction, built around a rolling repertory of duets, team-ups and co-writes, pulling in players and contributors from Southend's bubbling and buoyant music scene: Dave Dulake, Fi Jacobs and Kelly Buckley (supplying lead vocals on Gentlemen To Lech}

Splinters songbook of choppy time changes, melancholy sketches and uptempo tear-ups has the loose-limbed vibe of a late-hours lock in. Something like eavesdropping on an end of evening session (with pint mugs on the piano) - while Ronnie Lane, Jarvis Cocker and Graham Coxon go heads together on boozy, crowd rousing choruses of heartbreak and hometowns. All clicked and captured with a Ray Davies take on everyday detail - topped off with the production touch of a new wave knees up.

If you're in town this weekend - get yourself to Denmark St to catch Dave in action with The Seasiders at their first Blow Up show...

David Woodcock and The Splinters - Open Secret




David Woodcock and The Splinters - Gentlemen To Lech

Recommended reading

David Woodcock on Zinng, Myspace, Twitter and Facebook
The Seasiders on Myspace

Pop Quiz: The Golden Hour with Simon Bates

Hello bloggers and browers. Simes here, you may remember my resonant rumbles and mahogany tones from features like...

The BBFC intro's on clunky old VHS tapes., The Golden Hour, Our Tune *reaches for a large onion and a box of mansize Kleenex* Look loves, can't hang around I've got a show going over on Smoove and a couple of voice overs to crack off during the ad' breaks - but while I'm here how about a quicky game of The Golden Hour...

This timeless poppet of a tune could come from almost any era - sixties or seventies, nineties or naughties. Of course it can only be one of them... But - which, was the year

Factory - Gone



You could do the Googledoodledoo - but you'd only be cheating yourselves/

So, please post your answers to PO box 247, Portishead, Bristol in the comments box




Yer actual Ken Bruce boombox as won by me last Bank Holiday Monday

Guest Blogger: Frying tonight with Fufu Stew

In 2008 Soul Chef, Vince from Fufu Stew rocked the PM blog to it's roots and boots with a thunderous mix of new wave nuggets (kindly re-upped here). Well, now just a shade over 3 years later, Vince is back and brought with him a sizzling griddle of wallopers and winners mixed from a recipe of garage, soul 'n' pysch.

You can taste test two of the included tunes at the bottom and tuck into the full fat menu below. A soul salute and tip of the chef's titfer is due to Vince for serving up this magnificently funky buffet.

Hello, kiddies.

My pal Mr. Mondo is good for giving me an outlet to play records too. It's been several years since we've shared mixes, but when he passed another invite for me to do a guest mix, I just couldn't pass it up... and because this wonderful blog is the epitome of freeform, I got the gumption to pull out these often underplayed gems from the corners of my crates and serve 'em up this way. I'm still a rookie when it comes to digging for the old rock and roll. I try to find garage 45's, psych and all the rest when digging in the field, but I usually come up with slim pickin's. I suppose that I don't put too much effort into it because the stuff I've heard on comps and from other blogs is about as easy to find as a hen's tooth. This mix represents some of the good stuff I was lucky to find, some of which were featured on Fufu Stew No. 9. All original grade 45's were used with the exception of the Portable Flower Factory track, which is a 7" played at 33.3 rpm... Minor restoration was performed on the records that were just a bit too hammered. Enjoy :)

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo... Again!

01 Come On Down To My Boat-Every Mother's Son (MGM)
02 Lose Your Money-The Moody Blues (London)
03 The Rub A Dub-The Fifth Estate (Jubilee)
04 Little Girl-Syndicate Of Sound (Bell)
05 Call Me Lightning-The Who (Decca)
06 From Home-The Troggs (Fontana)*
07 Shape Of Things To Come-Max Frost & The Troopers (Tower)
08 Fire-Five By Five (Paula)*
09 Gloria-Them (Parrot)
10 Let It All Hang Out-The Hombres (Verve Forecast)*
11 Soul Drippins-The Mauds (Mercury)
12 Runaway Child Running Wild-The 44th Street Portable Flower Factory
(Scholastic)*
13 Groovy Motions-The Fireballs (Atco)
14 Shoeshine Boy-The Lemon Pipers (Buddah)
15 Pictures Of Matchstick Men-The Status Quo (Cadet Concept)
16 The Real Thing Pt. 1-Russell Morris (Diamond)*
17 The Real Thing Pt. 2-Russell Morris (Diamond)*
18 Psychotic Reaction-The Count Five (Double Shot)
19 Smokes-? And The Mysterians (Cameo)*
20 Hide And Seek-The Sheep (Boom)
21 Apricot Brandy-Rhinoceros (Elektra)
22 From Way Out To Way Under-The Shadows Of Knight (Team)
23 Beggar Man-Southwest F.O.B (Hip)
24 I Put A Spell On You-The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (Track)
25 Hot Smoke And Sassafrass-The Bubble Puppy (International Artists)

Thanks again and again Mr. Mondo, it's always a pleasure. Til next time kids, have fun(k) and as always, please be safe.

Peace and blessings.

Marx Brothers and Sisters

Dig the New Breed R & B. That's Reds and Blues citizens, as Thee Faction return for round two in their War of Position

Following in the boot steps of red-blooded, blue-collared rock and prolers: MC5, the Feelgoods and The Ramones. The Factioneers kick out the jams going hammer and tongs on the attack through medium of supercharged blues, marching through eleven new tunes with the drilled efficiency of cartoon ants - come to steal Tom (Cameron) and Jerry's (Clegg) picnic - liberating it for the masses

It's the rawest, rockingest, revolutionary rhetoric heard on record since the New York Dolls draped themselves in hammers, sickles and red patent leather.

As track 6 says - do your bit! Get involved, lend The Guild a left ear and vote for change through your record collection

Vive Le Faction and Up The Workers

Join The Party



Customer



As a bonus you can tune in to Thee Faction newie 366 right here

Podrophenia 15 - Never Mind the Monarchs, Here's the Podcast

Right up the royal wedding

By real appointment Podrophenia the XVth brings you a barely regal parade of popular song with a royal variety of spongers, posh nobs and hangers on all making the playlist: from Kings to Queens to Dukes. Plus raise high your red berets - there's an exclusive tune from Socialist Rhythm and Bluesers Thee Faction to keep us dressing to the left

Natter-wise we spread out a finger buffet of band name confusement, right royale tack', a meaty new fast food fragrance for men and how flat is my head?

It's music for corgi kicking without a whisper of the W 'n' K words..

Podrophenia 15 - Never Mind the Monarchs



Or via  iTunes

I'm dedicating this post to the memory of one the of the original Queens of Punk - Poly Styrene:1957-2011

A happy couple that nearly got an invite to pitch up and play on the poddy.





Something I contributed to the  Patchwork of Flesh blog

Dear Diary:1980 - April

April 1980 comes with a handful of calendar conundrums.....

Which era did ITV's Hollywood series cover (finished on the 1st)? I seem to remember it being the just silent/Sennett/slapstick age - but this may be because of a tie-in Harold Lloyd poster still in the loft.

Pelican Tennis (5th) - rings an unanswered bell

But 'snake, pub, fair' (13th) ? Not a clue!

Sinclair (9th) was the local bobby on the beat. A 'Mr Nasty' cut of copper, famously quick with his clips and fists, who on this occasion took to throwing me around the rose gardens (mostly trees and holly bushes in reality) by the throat - simply because he thought I was 'smirking'. Perhaps my God Save the Queen tee rattled him, or that we'd sometimes sing the Batman theme as he went barreling by on his boneshaker bike with the wind catching and flapping his cape.

'Gillow hit on head by roll' (22nd) could be where some sparky type threw a jam roll out of the school changing room windows, bouncing off of Andrea Gillow's noggin, only for a second sarney to land squarely on the head of a passing PE teacher. Whoops..class detention for that one (at lunchtime too - grrrr)

And it must be spring as local temptress LOTR seems to to be presenting again (18th)!

Singles added to the collection are: Devo, the Cockney Rejects brand of boot-boy of Oi and The Undertones. As a variant I'll post a lesser heard versh of My Perfect Cousin

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin (demo)





Chartwise the top 75 is as Randomland as ever - 10 to 20  being a cross generational peppering of pop.And the albums *goes cross-eyed* John Cooper Clarke neighboring up with Martie Webb. And where did Bobby Vee come from!

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The Bruce Lee double bill, seen at The Classic, Westcliff was my third trip to an X certificate. Previous peeps were Saturday Night Fever (age 12) Carrie/Pirhana (age 13)

A bass in the country: rocking and rolling around The Wolds and Wales

Cotswold visit the tenth saw us revisiting a few old favourite paths and places and ticking off some new to-do locations: Oxford, Snowshill Manor, the Hook Norton Brewery

It really is the perfect place to spend a spring break - the space, the silence, the green lanes and lack of traffic, spotting frisky-legged lambs a'leaping and fidgeting themselves about the fields or having yourself a lazy bumble around the daffodil and limestone landscapes.

On a musical motif, two local-to-Stow ledge's include bass players - Alex James, whose farm is just a couple of villages up the road and John 'The Ox' Entwhistle, whose Quarwood Mansion can be seen here..



Although a pint in Keith Moon's pub that-was in Chipping Norton still remains on the next time tick-list. On the subject of pubs, if you ever find yourself in Stow The Queen's Head is a must visit - Donnington Brewery's BB is the fruitiest pint I've tasted since this.

Rounding off the run was a long weekend in sunny Shropshire, where spin-outs included a white-knuckle drive/crawl across The Long Mynd, nipping into Wales (Powis Castle and Rhayader). Getting back to bassics, our Shropshire accom' was pitched just a short hop from Fishpool Farm - Ronnie Lane's post Faces home.

Plonk Update: Even though the cottage I've snapped is signed 'Fishpool Farm' on the gate - digging about the net since, I think Ronnie's may have been the next one up. I'll clarify when we revisit 

Unusually we hadn't included any of Plonk's output in the albums packed, but fave tunes soundtracking the trip turned out to be some XTC outtakes from the Fuzzy Warbles volumes..

XTC - Spiral



And the entire Pugwash back catalogue (thanks to Piley Supplies ltd )

Splinters in your fingers...

Well boys, girls bloggers and blogettes we're away for a week and bit. Rolling round the Cotswolds and revisiting sunny Stow and its surrounding areas. Already I'm mentally stretching out at the very thought of doing a smart right into Burford 'Gateway to the Cotswolds' and leaving all the usual fuss and faffery over the hills far way.

Although, one event that could have kept me anchored back in Southend happens this coming Sunday, when, local keyboard whiz kid and compositional pixie David Woodcock unwraps his third album Splinters at The Railway Hotel..

Splinters will be showcased with an afternoon of live music where Dave will be joined by the album's collaborators for live run throughs of his 15 newly minted tunes. I'm unable to get Splinters in my mitts until we're back, but both of Dave's previous outings Homemade and kitchen Sink will be packed in the holiday napsack.

So while we're away from home and way out west - I'll leave you with you a song about our home town - a sort of Blur, Kinks and Madness stomper framed around an actual Southend street.

And yes all David Woodcock songs really are this good..

Yoko Eno

If you're not a Twitterer (yet), and even if you are - did you know the sunglasses fancying, pocket-sized, heavyweight-ledge that is Yoko Ono does a weekly Tweet-centric Q and A session?

Buzz your notes and queries here #yokoQandA and Yoko grabs a handful from the virtual bag(ism}.

Well, strike me down me with Pellici's hand-cut chip - I've only gone got a three out of three hit rate to date haven't I? Do you reckon they could be a bundled up and called an interview?

The Quinn Martin/Instant Karma epilogue: I told Pellici's about Yoko's reply. Turns out several interiors for Nowhere Boy were filmed at Pellici's, as vintage caffs like this just don't exist in Liverpool anymore.

Not a million miles from same-era Eno is it really...

Podrophenia 14 - April Fool's Day

Tomfoolery and Joker's Wild are a couple of vintage TV themes you'll find rattling around in the latest podcast from Piley and I, an April Fool's special - with a motif of comedy/novelty records. Contemporary comedians, retro radio stars and unlikely outings from cult rockers all get popped on the playlist..

Piley brings you an update on Malawi's cheek-clenching Windwatch situation, while I revisit Alternative 3, a Science Report spoof that backfired (unlike the good people of Malawi) causing East Anglia's own War of the Worlds style frightener.

Running to a budget-busting 12 tracks and 70+ minutes - you can grab our jamboree bag of tunes and chat right here..or iTunes if you prefer

Podrophenia 14 - April Fool's Day

One of my nearly, but not quite tracks...Billy Howard - King of the Cops