Call Me A Philistine, But ....

As arppegiated-jingle-jangle-paisley-'n'-polka-dot-wispy-wafto-pop-about-girls goes - I always prefered

The Dukes of Stratosphear - Vanishing Girl



And

The Pursuit of Happiness - She's So Young..


To this

Click here for the 'Vanishing' chords and lyrics, and if you don't already know the Dukes secret identity, but are keen to find out - click on the pic

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..

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

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.

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

Fur Den Untergang

Roman Empress and I have been putting our collective noggins together for a 'prog blogging' project. RE has thumbnailed nine key scenes for an imaginary film ‘Fur Den Untergang’ capturing the cultural claustrophobia, ‘Stasiland’ suspicous minds and shifty whispers of early eighties East Germany - while I've compiled a nine song soundtrack which hopefully matches the mood of each scene and the Totalitarianism and tower block greyscapes of the time..

You can read the script here, and download the soundtrack below...
(or stream it over at RE HQ)

'Fur Den Untergang' - O.S.T.

‘R.A.F’ – Brian Eno (& Snatch)
‘Big Dome Pt. 1’ – Phil Manzanera
‘48 Hour Drive’ – Baltic Fleet.
‘Warm Leatherette’ - Grace Jones.
‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ – Boards of Canada
‘Back To Nature’ – Fad Gadget.
‘Tom Baker’ – The Human League
‘Memories Can’t Wait’ – Talking Heads.
‘Small Hours’ – John Martyn.

But there's a couple of extras and outtakes too.

Gina X - 'No G.D.M.'
I had planned to use this for 'scene 4-the party scene', but 'G.D.M' seemed cult rather than club, and didn't have the new wave cocktail cool of Grace Jones


Brian Eno 'Mist/Rythm'
This had been 'final scene' for 90% of the time, but seemed soothing rather than sombre, whereas John Martyn's ghostly notes seemed pitch perfect for the lonely closing coda.

Something Old – Something New

Something New

Tronik and myself went to see Big Boss Man at Metro last week (unfortunately BBM didn't play due to the drummer’s Tonsillitis) but we did manage to catch Silvery’s high speed, high energy Victoriana vampings as well as shiny new Swedish band Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck’s debut UK gig - MWML seem to specialize in songs sketched in the neat clean lines of Scandanavian designs, blended with the muted toots of trumpets, trombones and the jolly melancholy of Nick Drake on a sunny day all finished off with a polite pop polish. But don’t just take my word for it - why not taste test one of their Scanda-pops below? Or check out their Myspace site

Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck - Let's Watch The Sunrise




Something Old

Bank holiday Sunday saw me shaking a leg and raising a glass at the Crocs 80-85 reunion along with assorted other ex Goths, Punks, Psychobillies and Blitz Kids (sort of fiends reunited - and on the Sabbath too!) How good was it to hear all the Crocs classics at club volume - as well as these period pieces I’d completely forgotten about...

Don Armando - I'm An Indian Too.



Don Armando - I'm An Indian Too.

Tuxedo Moon - No Tears



Tuxedo Moon - No Tears

And The Winner is.......

Mick with a stealthy 6 points who wins a trip back in time here..

Simon also deserves a shout for his healthy 4 score as well.

Perhaps it was a bit of a toughy in places - due to some 'local knowledge' tracks that were club hits at Crocs and few other South East/London venues. Hats not off, but tilted at a rakish eighties (over one eye)angle to everyone else who had a pop at this piece of pop puffery.

So, the final chart rundown then ..

All clips were from Standard 12" versions execept where in italics

80s 12" Teaser



Click on any of the answers for a full length youtube refresher...

Spandau Ballet - The Freeze

Visage - Night Train

Bow Wow Wow - Chihuahua

Simple Minds - I Travel

Divine - Love Reaction
No it wasn't Blue Monday but Divine and Bobby O's 'hi-NRG' rip off

ABC - The Look Of Love
From the semi offical club remix, as used in this vid'

Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator

Bollock Brothers - The Bunker

Yazoo - Situation
It does sound an awful lot like Axel F in places.

Gary Numan - Music For Chameleons

Japan - Quiet Life

Gina X - No GDM

And as an extra - probably my fave tune from this selection.
I'm not really a fan of SM, but this track is more Moroder/Cerrone than their usual proto U2 antheming.

Simple Minds - 'I Travel (Remix)'

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo

There's no Funky Friday this week, it being Easter weekend - but instead there's a bumper Bank Holiday special.

Vince the Soul Chef who dishes up those sizzling mixes and spectacular singles on Fufu Stew, has beamed across the Atlantic to cook up a mix of punk, electro and new wave nuggets that is the soundtrack to scouring Smash Hits and NME for new releases, home made tapes (on 'compact cassettes'), late night listens to Radio Luxembourg and John Peel, picture sleeves, 12 inch singles, button badges and trips to the Great Gear Market (or similar) for togs like these. So over to Vince......




Hello, kiddies.

It is my pleasure to be here on Planet Mondo for this special post. Most of you may know me for my many and varied mixes of Funk and Soul music, but let me assure you that that is only the half of it. When I was a teenager, I was one of the millions who saw the birth of MTV. Back then it was inconceivable to think that the music video would influence me, much less having a lasting effect on my musical education. Some twenty five years later I look at my closet full of LPs and I am reminded of just how much influence it truly had...

I can vividly recall that fateful day in August of 1981 when the infamous rocket first took off. It couldn't have happened at a better time too because I was serving a very severe punishment for getting caught doing something quite stupid. Imagine having all of your records and tapes taken away for eight months! Well, it happened to me. Luckily I was still able to watch television so I made sure to keep my eyes glued to the set waiting for my favourite videos to come on. While I waited, I discovered a totally new genre of music that would find its way into my heart and most important, into my record collection subsequently replacing the R&B of the day that I normally played. It also helped that I could go to my local public library and dig even deeper into this new sound. From Glam to New Wave and New Romantic all the way to full blown Goth, here is just a small sample of some of that music and what it means to me personally.

01 Capitol Radio-The Clash (NU-Disk).
Taken from the original 10" LP "Black Market Clash", and lyrically a very important statement that should be adopted by practically every blogger.
02 Friends-TheTubeway Army (Beggars Banquet).
My first introduction to the minimalist vision of Gary Numan was obviously enough the hit single "Cars" until I heard the debut recording from 1978... WOW!
03 Judas Sheep-Hunters And Collectors (Virgin). I found this one digging through dollar bins one day. Being from the US, it was a novelty to have British imports in my collection so I gave it a try. What a brutal assault on my brain, complete with the funky wah wah pedal. More of that to come...
04 Metal-Gary Numan (Beggars Banquet).
Here is the flip side of the US pressing of the "Cars" 45, which I tend to dig a lot more than the A side.
05 Saturday Week-Katrina And The Waves (Aftermath).
Here's another dollar bin find that pretty much sat dormant in my crates until now. Of course I know their signature hit "Walking On Sunshine", but curiosity got the better of me. I had to pick a cut from this 1982 release just to see if it worked.
06 Big Shot-The Beat (Fame).
I don't mind a good dose of British Ska once in a while, and this tune certainly fed the need along with the next tune...
07 Nightboat To Cairo-Madness (Stiff).
MTV played lots (and LOTS) of Madness back in the day.
08 Belief-The Danse Society (Society).
Here's one that I didn't discover until years later when I was babysitting records for a friend during my heavy Gothic period. Another tune that made me go WOW!
09 Malpaso Man-Visage (Polydor).
And another classic MTV moment featuring the talents of John McGeoch, who in my opinion was the best of the many guitarists to play for Siouxsie & the Banshees.
10 Press Darlings-Adam And The Ants (CBS).
Mr. Mondo was pleased that I chose this tune to play. Kings of the Wild Frontier in my opinion is THE quintessential New Wave album.
11 Baby Oh No-Bow Wow Wow (RCA).
Yet another classic MTV moment. Being 14 at the time made it easy to have it bad for the very provocative Anabelle. Those of you who are around my age would certainly have to agree.
12 Armalite Rifle-Gang Of Four (Warner).
From the infamous Yellow EP, enough said.
13 Anti Pope-The Damned (Chiswick).
No need to say anything here...
14 Assassination K - Kanserous-The Wolfgang Press (4AD).
There was a time when 4AD could do no wrong. Even if the music was terrible, I still put my hard earned money on the counter, sometimes paying up to 30 bucks for a CD. This one is the remix from the "Bird Wood Cage" LP. Dig that funky wah wah once again!
15 Supernatural Thing-Siouxsie & The Banshees (Polydor).
Here's another one from that huge pile of records I got to babysit. Of all the tunes that Siouxsie covered over her illustrious career, this one was the most unlikely along with being the funkiest.
16 Telegram Sam-T. Rex (EMI) .
It's a known fact that Glam heavily influenced Goth. Being a huge Bauhaus fan, I loved the way they treated this one. When I found the original at long last, I was quite happy with myself.
17 It's Going To Happen-The Undertones (EMI).
MTV even had the video for this tune...
18 Madness-The Belle Stars (Stiff).
I discovered this band during a bout of insomnia one night. Suffice it to say when I saw all those hot women freaking that New Wave funk, I had to rush right out and find a record. This is the B side of the US 12" for "Sign Of The Times". I wonder whatever happened to them.
19 Chicken Outlaw-Wide Boy Awake (RCA).
Does anyone know anything about this band? All I can tell you is that I picked up the record in a dollar bin over 25 years ago because it looked New Wave...
20 Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)-Spandau Ballet (Chrysalis).
Another classic MTV moment, and quite frankly the first song of its kind that led me to realise that Funk can be found in the most unlikely of places.
21 Resurrection Joe-The Cult (Beggars Banquet).
I close with this tune from the proverbial turning point of this band's career, between the brilliant yet sadly out of print debut and their slow descent into crossover oblivion.

Please download and enjoy Fufu Stew Goes MONDO!

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo - 71 MB mp3 file
Fufu Stew Goes Mondo - 70 MB zip file

Thank you Mr. Mondo for giving me an outlet to share some of these treasures that I was afraid to share on my own blog. Not that I dig the tunes any less than my funk and soul 45s, but there's a time and place for everything. I would love to come back soon and do it again because I have many more tunes just waiting to get the patented Fufu Stew treatment. Here's hoping that you all enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane with me. As my British blogging colleagues would say, all the best!

Peace and blessings.

Favourite Shirts - Blackmail Boy

Inspired by some recent rummage related posings from Davey H (vintage cassettes) and Ally (Postcard Records brochure), here's my contibution to lovelies from the loft - the BOY mail order catalogue 'Blackmail'.



When Seditionaries closed in 1980 to be refitted and restyled as swishy, squiggly World's End, BOY at 153 King's Road sold off any remaining Seditionaries stock and continued production of a few selected Westwood and McClarens designs along side it's own BOY and Kitsch 22 togs . These are a few of the items from the 1981 2nd edition catalogue - with titles, prices and (designs by in brackets). Check out the long sleeve muslins for £8.50!! - how much do they go for on ebay now?? I had two and binned them. Whoops!

Nigel Shirt (BOY) - £18.50
Stringy Pullover(BOY) - £15
Long Sleeved Muslin (Seditionaries) - £8.50

Adam and the Ants T shirt (BOY)- £4.50

Striped Jeans and Leopard Jeans (Modzart)- £17.50

Crazy Colour - £3.50 - Wraparound shades (BOY) - £3.95

And to continue the theme of New Wave nuggets here's.....

Sex Pistols - Black Leather.mp3

A post Pistols/pre Professionals period Cook and Jones track recorded but rejected for 'The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle'.

Adam and The Ants - Ligotage.mp3

An almost XTC'ish 'Dirk' era Ants track, only ever recorded as part of a John Peel Session.

X-ray Spex - The Day the World Turned Dayglo (Rough Mix).mp3

Very similar riffing to 'Black Leather'

Funky Friday - Keyboard Wizards and 80's Electrickery

Every Friday is Funky Friday on Planet Mondo, and this week brings you the youtube choices and a super rare remix from guest blogger, international DJ and in demand remixer Tronik Youth.

Tronik's remixes include;

The Gossip - Standing The Way Of Control, Listen Up.
The Rakes - The World Was A Mess But His Hair Was Perfect.
New Young Pony Club - Descend (out soon).
And his own single - We Are Tronik Youth (out now).

Not only has Mr T come up with two pieces of 80's electro a go go, but his rare and unreleased remix/shredit of Joy Division's She's Lost Control is available at the bottom of the page.

Vorsprung durch Tronik

Let's plug in and power up a synthy fizzfest and Moogaphonic medley of stars including;

Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Thomas Dolby, and ummm Howard Jones!
All riffing on each other's hits (you scratch my track and I'll scratch your's).




kraftwerk's Tuetonic squeaks, bleeps and beats are perfect for practicing your robot moves, like - the floppy forearm, folding the newspaper under the armpit, checking the wristwatch with a 'no,no,no' finger waggle.

Eins.Zwei.Drei.Vier. Let's robot rock!



The Joy Division remix is here....
Joy Division - She's Lost Control(Tronik Youth Remix).mp3




And the Tronik Youth, Myspace site has all the details of live dates, remixes and the new single release.

How did I manage to get hold of this new wave nugget? - Well it does help if your brother is an international DJ and superstar remixer.

Randomizer number 1 - A Track Could Get Lost

Following on from the random ramble in my last post, (which was prompted by the track below suddenly being dusted off, cued up and cranked by my Creative Zen player while in shuffle mode) I’ve decided that every time an unexpected winner, a long lost favourite or previously unheard nugget shuffles it’s way into play on my mp3 player. I’m going to log it in the blog.

The first one up is

Soft Cell - A Man Could Get Lost (Instrumental version)




I hadn’t heard this track for at least 20 years, had completely forgotten about it , and didn’t even know it was 1 of the 10,000 tracks on my player until shuffle threw this non stop nugget into the spotlight yesterday

What a winner!! It’s packed full of fat analogue 80’s synths and drums, fizzing, whizzing and clapping away, there's thumping riffs and glossy pop hooks, wrapped in a shadowy, sleazy darkness that Soft Cell did so well. But, the most amazing thing is how clubby and contemporary it sounds. I can’t believe it’s over 25 years old, it’s got such a trendy sparkle that it could be a Tronik Youth
or Mylo remix

How come bootleg remixers, and TV advertisers have let this elctro cracker of track slip through the net

If you’ve got A Man Could Get Lost somewhere spin it up today, if you haven’t treat yourself and download it.

A Man Could Get Lost is available on Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing here

And there’s great feature on the recording of Non Stop Ecstatic Dancing by Mike Thorne here