Podrophenia the Love and Pride edition is up for download with special guest Dan Turpin talking Southend Pride - plus we've a playlist of Kings, Queens, Sisters, Cells and Phoenemenal Women.
And Piley brings us a book of bizarre love stories
Flexipop one of the greatest pop mag's ever - you can catch an interview with its inventor Barry Cain here..
Following on from Friday's guest blog-spot, I've picked a few tunes from Matt Rudd's Q the 80s playlist for scanning with a wily eye. The full rundown and reveal of Matt's Sunday evening show can be found by tuning in here.
The Ginger/Beard Theory: much like beards are now the musical shorthand for alt, edge and earthy honesty - ginger glints (or Caribbean Sunset as I believe it's currently called) were used as a similar indicator of non-production line pop during the 80s.. thumb through this selection and you'll see what I mean.
When someone invents Grange Hill - The Musical *copyrights idea* This Nutty Boys anthem would have to be the end of show spectacular - it's like a fun size Willy Russel's Our Day Out expressed through the medium of Blockheads influenced North London Ska..
Kajagoogoo - Ooh To Be Ah
Harmless but hopeless weren't they - a Happy Shopper Duran Duran you could say. Nick Beggs (bass) was like Orville the Duck meets Mark King. And don't get me started on the sacrilegous use of Lord Harold of Lloyd for this sleeve. Spot the ginge: a double whammy - ye olde perma-grinner on drums and ermm that other one
Bronski Beat - Tell Me why
It is the taste of snakebites and the smell of dry ice and poppers (what was the variety that didn't give you a raging micro-headache though), with horns that sound re-purposed from Heaven 17's Height of the Fighting. Although The liveliest version of Why is the 12" and can be found on the Hundreds and Thousands album. I spotted Mr Bronski snooping around Forbidden Planet 2 in the summer of 84 you know. Spot the ginge: wee Jimmy somerville
Duran Duran - Save A Prayer
Pre-dating the 90s Pan Pipe buzz - Prayer is the sound of a jacuzzi/infinity pool scored for glossy 80s fop-music. Has this been sampled by a rap or chill type remixer - it should be. Better yet, Le Bon has reigned in his signature honk for this bubbling tooty-fluter. Pop Quiz: do you know what the Sex Pistols/Duran link is ? Spot the ginge: vacuum packed cheeks and pouting like a champ - it's Nick Rhodes. Although several Duranies did strawberry blonde variations
Sputnik were the New York Dolls of the 80s: clockwork rockers in fright-wigs and high heels doing video game glam, double drums and Rollerball bass with rockabilly riffing - what's not to like? The most exciting thing since the Pistols - if you were there at the time (and liked the Pistols and Sputnik at the time). The explosivest Love Missile Remix can be found on the rare Video Edition 12" (see below). The $ci-Fi $ex $tars scarcity is also worth a squint. Did you know Bowie covered Love Missile - grab at the bottom of this post.. Spot the ginge: Degville's Clockwork Orange outsize syrups
Wham! - Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do)
Got this on 12" (Inner Vision label) - bought Sept 82, after a holiday in the south of France, camping with two mates..Dave Wright (you'll spot his name on the Dear Diary entries) and Kurt (now the headmaster of a local private school). Some joker had apparently nicked most of the campsite's record collection, meaning the DJ in residence was restricted to playing the exact same set every night - 'You set could your watch by it' I remember someone saying. For those who haven't heard - I experienced the most spectacular moment of hi concentrated-campness in the summer of 83, while meeting George Michael, Paul Gambacinni, Leee John and Limahl in the cocktail bar of the Camden Palace. Leee John and Limahl were furiously trying to out swish each other, George Michael sulked at the bar and Boy George and Marc Almond were downstairs. Rusty Egan DJ'd and Steve Strange MC'd - Now that's what I call the 80s
OMD - Messages
Much better than I remembered atually, but I can't forgive Andy McWhatnot for that dire dancing - it's woeful. Like a new born deer trying to steady it's creasing knees. Only out-skittered by the those two guitar twits from the fine young cannibals. Electricity for me remains their finest moment
Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger
Is it me, or does she really sing 'so it's circumcision' - and why is Professor Wilf Lunn moonlighting as a chauffer? Spot the ginge: Annie Lennox reworking Bowie's Man Who Fell to Earth wardrobe
AC/DC - Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution
R.O.C.K. The riffs have been lifted by bootleg remixers and hip-hoppers, the songs now soundtrack almost every action film - you literally can't argue with that. Surely they're due for a Bond theme soon (or perhaps Goldfrapp)? It's the sound of a Ray Harryhausen Dino-fight re-rendered as hi-volume wallop and flat capped throat shredding..
The SFW vid..
Lead off single from Undercover - the album that gets an unjust kicking in the catalogue (Dirty Work is the deepest the Stones ever dipped) - Undercover of the Night is all hoodlum guitar, voodoo rhythms, pulse pumping drums and a banned Julian Temple vid - still keeping naughty into their fourties. Good work Stoners..
A new monthly feature starts on the blog today 12 by 12. Twelve 12" singles posted by 2012. You'll know most of them - not that I'm entirely sure what 'most of them' will be yet. But it's a playlist that's sure to shape up with a few extended rarities, oddities and possibly, in some cases - classics..
We'll kick off with a 1979 double A-sider bagged just a few months back - Patrick Duvet, who, until last week I thought was Patrick 'I Love America' Juvet: the whispy-pitched, dungaree lovin' Friso-Disco star. Apparently not though...so any info on this Patrick (Duvet) please shout!
My guess - he's French: Disques Clouseau label and sleeve notes en francais.. and is it me or would these two tracks make a perfect fit for some Scissor Sisters style swishery...
It's Mrs Mond's birthday today - she's loves a bit of disco and a little spot of Dolly. So what say we fuse the two in one camp and funky bundle topped with a big blonde bow. Take your partners for some 12" disco-jiggery and a special dedi' to my endlessly patient, ever-glowin' birthday lovely...
1 husband and wife 2 bottles of wine 7" singles (a crateful) 6 lucky dips apiece
Stir in 12 tunes including ABC, Mae West and Gina X - and in less than an hour, you'll have a his 'n' hers, pick 'n' mix podcast ready to serve. The Joy of Six
Any guesses on the opening theme? Extra points for the tune's official title rather than the prog name.
If I sound a bit, well, muffled and muddy - it's due to raging toothache. Which, rapidly remedied itself after reading the Dentist's estimate to extract and make good.
PS - Piley and I should be recording a new Podrophenia this week
Following in the tradition of festive specials Piley and I bring you a bumper edition for the Christmas Podrophenia : 10 tinsel tunes, 8 celebrity messages (can you spot them all) and 2 special guests as Marmite Boy and Coops join us for a sleigh ride through cyberspace..
Brian Setzer, Sufjan Stevens, Shonen Knife and Barbara Streisand are a few of the tunes hand-picked for the playlist. While in other news there's a cracker consumer test, possibly the most miserable Christmas song ever, retromania with Burley aftershave, Ronco adverts and Avon Boosters. A Wood Watch update and find out which one of us has, ermm, 'fiddler's fingers' ~ I say!
It's perhaps rowdier than our usual poddies as assorted other halves, 2 Mini-Mondo's and 1 Tiny Piley add some background clatter to the goings on ..
Serving suggestion - play it while you're writing or delivering cards, wrapping prezzies, enjoying a glass of egg nog (what is egg nog?) or trimming the tree. Whatever you're doing fill your boots and raise a glass ~ or is it fill a glass and raise your boots? ~ for Christmas.
Did you have a favourite firework? I'm wobbling between the Roman Candle and Traffic Light. Not the Catherine Wheel though, which for all it's hi-propulsion promise, typically stopped-started, spluttered about-a-bit at random angles, eventually fizzling out for a flat tyre finale.
And What's your preference for bonfire fun?
The organised outdoor event, with it's inevitable delays (concerned silhouettes with tabards and torches, a'pointing and a'poking), that oohing-aahing collective of cold feet, dayglo do-dahs, and mob-scale shuffling and shivering. Soundtracked, God forbid, by the local radio OB unit counting down to blast off.
Or, an ad hoc back garden affair? Although home based high jinks with high explosives has the potential to end in a blackened bugle or fingers flying freestyle over the fence with match still clenched between thumb and forefinger.
Whatever you're doing, wrap up warm and why not try these three regroovings of a popular classic.
For continental readers who may not be aware of the event - 'The Eurovision Song Contest' takes place in Moscow this weekend. It's an annual jamboree of performers and composers from most European nations (including Russia and Israel!?) competing to win this annual pageant of popular song - where highlights traditionally include..
Norway scoring 'Nil Points'
Britain's entry being harmless but hopeless
Someone with a moustache (male or female) pulling a pained face for the duration of some gabbled ballad
It's an occasion with a history of hammy-camp and candyfloss, that's become diluted down to a parade of same-sounding, over-glossed production line pop. It wasn't always this way. Abba are probably Eurovision's most perfect-pop offspring.
So what's the point of my ramblings? Well simply - they don't write Eurovision winners like they used to (and if we're honest the didn't write many of them back then either), however here's a handful of songs that to these ears would have made pitch perfect 'A Song For Europe' entries (circa sometime in the seventies).
Sharon Tandy - Two Can Make It Together Sounding like the sort of song accompanied by a Young Generation style duo vamping a hand-holding, wide-eyed, heavy-headed nodding routine - think: the blonde half of Guys and Dolls.
The Playthings - Stop What You're Doing A Cheeky soul shuffler that would have to be sung by a girl with auburn Farah Fawcett flicks, wearing some sort of ripply-chiffon evening dress (perhaps red), and holding one of those mic's that looked like silver sponge finger - think:Tina Charles meets Baccara.
Barbara Jean English - I'm Living A Lie Uptempo, pacy and anthemic - isn't that the template for a successful Eurovish sound. Should be sung by someone with a souly-but-sober look - think:Helen Shapiro meets Helen Reddy.
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 ..
Forget low calorie, size zero personality, wibbly wobbly warblers, shreaking squealers and puffed up preeners who put all the goods on the barrow with nothing left in the loft. Cold hearted Harpies, hard faced halfwits and know-nothings exploding in giddy ninny tizzes over some silly business.
No. No. No. Peggy Lee and Mae West are where its at dad, those slinky superstar supervixens as full, fruity and saucy as knickerbocker glories and peach melbas. Swishing from the hip, shooting for the heart and getting pulses pumping like Thumper with the raise of an eyebrow, the flick of a fringe or the drop of hankie, who have giants and gentlemen reaching for their lighters while blowing smoke rings round all wannabe waifs and WAGS.
Some hi tech clever clogs has made a vid' for the Mae West track - well worth a peep
And, speaking of wonder women have you checked out the mighty Rock Mothers podcasts 'Romo For Real'? Armed with a box of tunes and a bottle plonk, it's fourty minutes of wall to wall wonder tunes and chirpy chat - get on over and fill your Biba boots here.
PS - One track from this posting will be appearing in a new mix going live this Friday "will you woo this wildcat?” - Taming Of The Shrew
Forget low calorie, size zero personality, wibbly wobbly warblers, shreaking squealers and puffed up preeners who put all the goods on the barrow with nothing left in the loft. Cold hearted Harpies, hard faced halfwits and know-nothings exploding in giddy ninny tizzes over some silly business.
