Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Clear The Decks - Rockadoodledoo


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 ...

T- list is in the comments

Rockadoodledoo *download is offline for now*

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Countdown To Christmas - That's All Four This Year....

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

Jingle Bells



The Holly And The Ivy



A merry medley from the most swingingest of soundtrackers....

Lalo Schifrin - Joy To The World




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 -

Friday, December 19, 2008

Funky Friday - Santastic Grab Bag

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 ....

Shaking Stevens, Jet and Jonah Lewie get bunged in the blender.
Bad Tattoo - Are You Gonna Stop The White Christmas



The Who, James Brown, Clarence Carter and Curtis Mayfield make
merry...

Mojochronic - Xmasploitation Santa



The bestest ever refit of Last Christmas - a real winter Whammer
DJ BC - Fettdog Last Christmas Twist




And GHP whisks Blondie and Macca into a Christmas confection as full and fruity as figgy pud'...
Go Home Productions - High Tides And Blocked Peace Pipes




All tracks are taken from five full albums worth of genuine geniusness available for free ....here A Very Bootie Christmas and here Santastic Four


Oh go on then, one more - as it's Christmas..

Sam Flanagan - Frosty DMC

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Birthday Blitz

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 T Marmite, 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 'brush '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

Motordamn - Ballroom Blitz



And another goth-gone-glam anthem that was guaranteed to get 'em flapping on the floor

Bauhaus - Telegram Sam



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..

Friday, December 12, 2008

Funky Friday - The Ghost Of Christmas Past

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....

A Mondo Funky Mixmas



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

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Countdown To Christmas - Never Mind The Baubles

(Or 'Oi To The World' to borrow a Five Centres phrase)

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...

The Damned's 'There Ain't No Sanity Clause'
XTC's 'Thanks For Christmas'
Stiff Little Fingers 'White Christmas'
The Stranglers Christmas EP

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

Another Rock And Roll Christmas



Stop The Cavalry



Little Drummer Boy



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)

Get your Gabba Gabbas on it right here...


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 T Marmite, 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

Motordamn - Ballroom Blitz



And another goth-gone-glam anthem that was guaranteed to get 'em flapping on the floor

Bauhaus - Telegram Sam



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..





Monday, December 8, 2008

Countdown To Christmas - Here Come Sandy Claws


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

Hadley Castille - Up on a Housetop




Hadley Castille - Blue Christmas




Justin Wilson (who he?) has the loose boozy bumble of a chap that's been necking the nog like a champ - zshingle bellsh indeed!

Justin Wilson - Jingle Bells



Justin Wilson - Here Comes Santa Claus



It Caimen 'pon a midnight clear

*Yes I'm aware I'm really pushing my luck with this, but please - take it with a pinch of 'Carry On Christmas'

Friday, December 5, 2008

Funky Friday - We Three Kings

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*


Albert King - Cold Sweat





Freddie King - Funky




Freddie King - 'Papa's Got A Brand New Bag'




B.B King - Long Gone Baby



*Yes I'm aware this is a stretch so tenuous it's almost transparent, but please - take it with a pinch of panto'

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Glam Rocks - No Sleep Til Chelmsford

Me in my Mad Max Factor/Southend R.O.C.K period
(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




Adam and The Ants - Fall In



And of course this - a show closer from the first gig to the last..

The Where Are They Now Epilogue....
(Well, the ones I know about anyway)

The Singer works in the entertainment industry

The Keyboard player is a Professor at Leicester University

Bass player number 4 - is a soundman and plays in Cult tribute band Pure Cult

Drummer number 2 - is a professional drummmer and in a T Rex tribute band Too Rex



Mark Ellen - reads part of my Zodiac Mindwarp Experience - right here at 6 mins 30 secs

Friday, November 28, 2008

Funky Friday - Apple Bonkers

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


GHP - All My Birds



GHP - Rich Girls And Boys




GHP - Daytrip To Never Never Land




Soundhog - Eleanor can't get enough




Go Home Productions - Paperback Believer


The download for Paperback Believer is available right here

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thumbs N' Roses


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)



DJ Jimmi James - Sgt. Pepper´s Paradise (long version)



And on a similar theme... The Cult and The Beatles in

Go home productions - She Sells Tax, Man



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.

Monday, November 24, 2008

An Offbeat Interlude


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

Bob Andy - Walk A Mile In My Shoes



Wild Billy Childish And The Blackhands - Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Funky Friday - Cocktail Shakers


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'




Peggy Lee 'Everyday People'



Brenda Lee - Walk A Mile In My Shoes




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

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Give it away give it away give it away now

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?

Friday, November 14, 2008

Funky Friday - What You Need You Have To Borrow

The King Of Cut And Paste Pop Culture

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...

The Astronettes - I Am Divine




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)..

Luther Vandross - Funky Music



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...

David Bowie - After Today



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

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Rock 'n' Rumble

What Exactly Is A 'Morry Thou'?*

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...

The Stranglers - Tank




Tank - with an intro from Peter Cook


Go Buddy Go - I'm no lip reader, but even I can see, the second word in this clip clearly isn't 'boogie' or 'woogie'


*Apparently a 'morry thou' as mentioned in The Stranglers '(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)' is, well - click here to find out or here - for a picture

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Polari Pop

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 ..



DJ Copycat - Does Your Homosapien Know



DJ Copycat website
well worth digging around for other winners while you're there


DJ Copycat Myspace

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Freaky Friday - Trilogy Of Terror

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..

Mondo Mania



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

And why not revisit last year's mini-monster-mixes
Tunes From The Crypt and Frighty Night Is Music Night

Or Bitter Andrew's Halloween countdown, Devil Dick's spooky tunes or a trip to The Dude's Ghost Town

Video Nicey
Live from the Prancing Pony-A-Go-Go it's Georgie Fame as Gandalf the groovy and his bopping hobbits, rocking 'em dead in the Shire

Seventh Son


Frying Tonight
Why not pop on over to the Whippit Inn for a Carry On Screaming grab bag of goodies. There's everything from Lobby Cards to Locations.



Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Never Mind The Bollock Brothers

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...

The Bollock Brothers Horror Movies

I really must get the BB's '83 rework of the Pistols NMTB album



Red Lipstique Drac's Back

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

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Glamour Ghouls

I found a load of old scraps and cuttings like this in the loft recently

There's a gallery of grotesques to choose from when you get to glam related rocky horrors...

Alice Cooper - The New York Dolls 'Frankenstein' - Iggy's 'Death Trip' and 'Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell' - Suzi Q's 'Devil Gate Drive'- Bolan's 'Mystic Lady', 'Demon Queen' (or his earlier John's Children tune ''Desdemona'' banned because of it's "lift up your skirt and fly" line)- Bowie's 'Width Of A Circle', 'Please Mr Gravedigger', 'Beauty And The Beast' - Roxy's 'Bogus Man' or Eno's 'Spirit's Drifting' and 'Everything Merges With The Night' are just a handful of the Halloween themed hits and howlers available from the spangle age..but I thought these few tunes could do with being reanimated as pre-season of the witch friendly..

David Bowie Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).

An overlooked, underplayed thumper that gets lost in the shadows of 'Ashes To Ashes' and 'Fashion'



Marc Bolan You Scare Me To Death




Hellraiser - a heavier-hitting side of The Sweet


Blockbuster -


Blockbuster could well have been inspired by the Batman bruiser Blockbuster(DC's answer to The Hulk)

Which brings us back to Bowie who referenced Batman in Uncle Arthur

"Uncle Arthur still reads comics
Uncle Arthur follows Batman"


And that's 'doing the loop'

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Grotbags A-Go-Go

So, the musical mysteron was .....Carol Lee Scott

Better know as 'Grotbags' from the Rod Hull and Emu show.

Carol was something of a cabaret legend before crossing over to TV, working with stars like Max Wall, Arthur Askey, Morecambe & Wise, Ella Fitzgerald and Tommy Cooper - there's an cabtastic interview with her here - on the Licorice Soul website. I first picked up on this tune via the mighty Licorice Soul Working Mans Soul album, a cracking comp' of classic cabaret turns.

The final rundown looks like this...

1) Kiki Dee - The Day Will Come Between Sunday And Monday

2) Brotherhood Of Man - Reach Out Your Hand

3) Carol Lee Scott - That Little Bit Of Love

As young Mr Grace used to say "You've all done very well" so here is the Tronik shredit of N.F.Porter's Keep On Keepin' On

Orig' version

Friday, October 24, 2008

Funky Friday - Who The Funk Are You?

It's Pop-O-Matic!

Well Pop pickers - it’s something a bit diff’ for this week’s Funky Friday..

Can you work out who’s who on this tricky trio of mystery tunes? Can You do it? Of course you can. The prize of an exclusive ‘Tronik Youth’ shredit of a Northern Soul Classic will go to first past the post(ish)

I ran these three nugg's past Marmite when I bumped into him on the Fenchurch Flyer earlier this week - he managed a healthy crack at it and was certainly in the right territory for all tracks...so I reckon it's doable, but will give one clue for starters.

All artists are British


Mystery Track 1



Mystery Track 2



Mystery Track 3



Now, you could go a’Googling for clues – but do you really want to live with the head-a'hanging shame of knowing you’ve had a dodgy ace up your internetty.