Glory be: the religion edition of Podrophenia is up for download with M G Boulter on his Clifftown album and podcast. Local tales of fractured jazzers, Southend werewolves - and two quizzes -plus new music from Vix20Bob Collum and a playlist of heavenly sounds
Acousticus Maximus is the theme of our latest outing as we take a bank holiday trip to the wolds and wild places. where salty rockers switch heavy electrics for mellow tones and tunings, nestled in green nowhere for a campfire session - and a rock 'n' roll ramble around footpaths, falls and fells Dig in for unplugged outings from Led Zep, Free, Humble Pie, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood with rarities, out takes and home demos from John Lennon, John Martyn and more
If you're wondering what the bed is 'neath the natter - behold..
Bag a bargain - the latest Podrophenia is up for download.
A charity shop special - loaded with upcycled songs: a medley that hops from Georgie Fame to Led Zep, Anthony Newley's version of Goldfinger, the funkiest fizzy-pop song ever, Mud getting on the good foot (rather than the Tiger Foot) and a track from the fifth most expensive record sold on Discogs (value is no indicator of quality)...
All here and all free..
Back of the net: If you weren't able to catch The Podrophenia World Cup Special live - the action replay is now available here with special guest John Devlin of True Colours Kits author of 'International Football Kits : The Illustrated Guide' talking international kits, Admiral inventiveness and strange sponsors and fabric patterns. In the closing stages of the game John spins in some musical faves.. in between we play tributes to George Best, football based tunes local talent from Bavard and Michael Giller - and a World Cup anthem by Piley Senior..
Our February Podrophenia brings you a hypnotic session from Mark Schubert and Dave Livings with a live El-Rey set of acoustic weavings and voodoo tunings ..
Mark also picked and played some fave albums from his own El-Rey crates...
While Piley and I bring you a batch of odd bedfellows: mashups, covers and unexpected Partnerships including - Loretta Lyn, Steve Jones, Star Wars, Jimmy Pursey, Axl Rose, The Stranglers and Peter Gabriel but who's in bed with who? Find out here...
Podpals: we're not boasting when we say this is the biggest Podrophenia ever.. Piley and Mondo bring you Jordan and Kyiah from Big Jacket live in the studio, who also pick some cherished tunes. A live Jingle from Phil Hubbs, an extended run of big songs, long songs and tall tunes as well school and size puns... All here for your listening ears...
The latest Podrophenia is an acoustical special with Whom by Fire live and special guest Micky D, frontman with Grand Reunion (Lee brilleaux''s favourite Southend band) and entertainment correspondent for the Southend Standard through the sixties,. Micky joins us with tales of from his spell on the paper - meeting The Beatles and Stones at the Southend Odeon. a frisky and flirty meeting with Shirley Bassey at The Queens Hotel.
We spin in a playlist of acoustic tunes including: an early versh of Maggie May with Rod busking random lyrics, two acoustic pop quizzes, a Bowie Ziggy demo and acoustic Chas and Dave.
All here for your listening ears...
What a Podophronic blast was had by all at SFOB HQ last night: two hours wherein Piley and I bring you a Matthew Boulter live session with a gorgeous set of new tunes and first play of an exclusive. Rounded up with Matt spinning in some hand-picked plays from his own record collection
Paul Collier artistic director of the Leigh Folk Festival talks us through the history and this year’s story of the 25th Anniversary special. and revealing which band top the Fantasy Folk Tick List for LFF
And Lee Terrell of the Laughter Academy splains about the local and national comedy scene. With a mention of special guest we can't mention playing at one of his live events..
Fill your ears with all of this for free right here .
Buckle up rockers and rollers - Issue 27 of the UK's boomiest music mag Vive Le Rock has just hist the shelves. Featuring, The Who at 50, Brian James on his new band and life after The Damned, gig, new music and reissue reviews - including a a critical ear from me on Suzi Quatro's Greatest Hits...
One review that didn't make ish 27, is The Payroll Union's new album.. but nothing goes to waste so dig in and taste test below...
Paris in America - The Payroll Union
Philadelphia freedom. Virtue, liberty and independence - from South Yorkshire!
From ‘Sgt. Pepper’ to SHAM’s ‘That’s Life’ to Beck’s Grammy winning ‘Morning Phase’ – the appeal of the concept album is format that’s never faded – certainly not for frowny-browed song-scribblers . Although Payroll Union take an unusual spin on the medium of story-arcs-expressed-through-music, aligning themselves more with Jeff Wayne’s ‘War of the Worlds’ than your usual long-form haul.
An album produced in collaboration with University of Sheffield, where folk ‘n’ roll meets battle re-enactment. ‘Paris in America’ takes as its source – ‘a narrative of Philadelphia in the 1840s and '50s, based on the antebellum with its tales of violence and conflict’, for an authentically academic take covering a specific time-slice of American history (with annotated sleeve notes), which could act as a metaphor for today’s current political climate.
Sonically it’s a Philadelphia experiment shifting between shades of Handsome Family meet Fleet foxes and Divine Comedy communing with Arcade Fire
Staying with this week's rhythm of celebrations, shindigs and leg-shakings, the Leigh Folk Festival reaches it's peak this weekend, with a bulging menu of music and events.
Saturday is nicely polite, Think: Pimm's, picnic blankets and hampers in the Library Gardens. A micro-festival with side-stalls selling real vinyl records and second hand book bargains, a finger-licking veggie barbecue and live bands folking about in the background - all this and a sea view through the trees. Perhaps this year, I'll try Piley's tip and stick to the Festival Strength Cider to avoid a replay of last festival's alcoholic wobbles and cycling home sideways.
Sunday it's all going on down Old Leigh way, and a the perfect day to wander around the wharfs, pubs and cockle sheds for more music from new bands and old hands. But, if you can't make the Folk-Fest, why not pick up one of the three official Leigh Folk Festival Cd's for a taste test of the event.
If you are coming to town, don't forget - Canvey is literally skimming distance from Leigh, if you fancy some Oil City sight seeing
Today's titbits are taken from the Island Folk Box - a triple CD set that seems to suit the mood of any season. If you only listen to ANY two tracks from this ol' blog - starring the athletic banjo of Bryn Haworth and Bronco's slow-shifting arpeggios.
On January the 1st 1970 Yorkshire folkie Michael Chapman released his second album Fully Qualified Survivor, a record that passed with few fanfares or fireworks (apart from John Peel crowning it 'Album of the Year'). Forty years on, the album pooling all the elements for the post sixties Bowie tone remains an overlooked obscurity.The Velvets, Iggy and Dylan may get the knowing nods for the rise of Ziggy Stardust but the core components are much closer to home.
Produced by Gus Dudgeon, with string arrangements by Paul Buckmaster, both having worked on Chapman's debut Rainmaker - and Bowie's Space Oddity in between - it's Chapman's choice of fretman for 'Fully Qualified Survivor' that's the key ingredient here. Handpicked from Hull, and making his recording debut is - Mick Ronson.
Ronno's glittering riffs and runs electrify the album's open aired fuggyness of acoustic shuffles, lumpen drums and sparkling guitar work. Effectively it's a style that informs The Man Who Sold The World through to Ziggy Stardust. In the the same way Anthony Newley and this chap (no it's not Bowie singing honest!) were borrowed for Bowie's vocal coat of many colours, Chapman's chewed 'S's, fey waywardness and louche-lipped, gin-soaked vocals seem to have been appropriated as the voice of choice for DB's heavy hippy moonage daydreaming.
We've already documented, Bowie's magpie eye for talent, so it's no surprise that shortly after Fully Qualified Survivor's release, Ronson and Hull-based band mates Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey were recruited for Bowie's new band The Hype eventually evolving into The Spiders From Mars until Ziggy broke up the band.
If you're familiar with the Dame's pre-Pinups discography (Pin ups drummer Ansley Dunbar also appears on Rainmaker) Fully Qualified Survivor will get you spotting a references from the off. Build in the space-age mod clobber of a Droog suit, top it off with Vivienne Westwood's feather cut, and all the pieces fall into place.
Happy New Year bloggers, blogettes and browsers. Hope you had a goody without overindulging too much. How are you naming new year? Personally I can't bring myself to say twenty ten, so it'll be the large format two thousand and ten for me..
We had The Elms Annual CD Swap last week, where a few music loving ol' gits ( Coops, Piley and I, plus others) got together for a few scoops and to swap CDs of our handpicked highlights from 2009. My selection box was probably too heavy on the vintage vibes rather than new finds, but one name that cropped up across comps was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz, an album that's had regular run outs on my trusty ol' Creative Zen last year..
If you haven't heard It's Blitz yet, there's a taste test here..If you have, you may want to lend an ear to to this stripped down alt.take.
So the Annual Leigh Folk Festival rolls round again this weekend, and really, who needs Glastonbury - when last year's LFF (my first visit) was such a joy and a gem. Please leave any ideas of fuzzy folkies a'wailing and a'wauling about shipwrecks, smugglers and sweethearts long gone, at the gatepost please - this free, two day event of live musical doings is coloured with all shades and styles from solo strummers to ska bands and young folkies to old rockers..
Saturday sees fun for all the family in the Library Gardens with live bands on rotation, perhaps circus skills for the kiddies and dusty ol' vinyl stalls for the dusty ol' dads. Why not bring some plonk and perhaps bagels (from the Leigh Bagel Bar). While Sunday is bands amongst the boats down Old Leigh way with it's wharfs, seafood stalls and those fishermen's pubs...
So, if you're at a loose end this weekend, why not take the C2C to Leigh On Sea, where you may hear funky folk along the lines of..
Heather Jones - Penrhyn Gwyn If any continental viewers are wondering what's the crazy talk on this track - It's Welsh! Claimed to be Britain's oldest language and still spoken by over half a million people in Wales..
I won't be posting anything on Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett, I'll leave it to otherswho'll do them more justice than I ever could - but will spin this up in memory ...
The Leigh Folk Festival is taking place, just round the corner from me this weekend. Criminally, considering it's only a twenty minute hoof - this year will be the first time I've actually wandered along. I'm not entirely sure to what to expect, but yelling, yodelling and some polite humored a hootin' and a howlin' are sure to feature on the fixtures list - let's hope some of it's as groovy as these green fingered funky folkies....
Donovan was discovered in Westcliff (about two miles, or two train stops ) down the line from the Leigh Folk Festival by Tin Pan Alley legend Peter Eden who until fairly recently ran an excellent second hand record and book shop in Leigh - 'Barabajagal' features The Jeff Beck Group doing the backing duties - you can smell the Zep' in this track. John Martyn - 'Dreams By The Sea'
I've always felt there's a touch of 'The Sweeney' style stake out texture about JM's snake hips shake down.
Like Bowie, Bolan and Rod Stewart - Robert Plant followed the same hop, skip and jump from Mod to Folk to Hippie before joining the rock aristocracy - you've got to love Zep for tempering their testosterock with both funk and folk.
If you do end up taking a trip to the Leigh Folk Festival( perhaps via the Fenchurch flyer) - keep an eye out for someone in a straw pork pie hat (yes, really!) sitting and sipping down by The 'Billet. ......To Rock God
