Double whammy wallop - Howling Black Soul and Lo Chief *live* this Saturday in Southend

This Saturday - a roomful of loud sound as Lo Chief and Howling Black Soul ramp up the amps. Come on down for drums and decibels at The Railway Hotel Southend... Dates and details here abouts

Howling Black Soul's debut promo - Soul to Lay

If you've never been to a Howling Black Soul gig at Peggy Sue's - Carl Hawkins has distilled the essence and sweaty energy of our Saturday night shindigs there..

Huge salutes to Carl for the filming, editing and production - and to the assembled drinkers and dancers seen shaking their tail-feathers herein..


here:

Radio Podrophenia - Touched by the hand of Hendrix

'scuse us while we kiss the sky'

For our latest Podrophenia, we're joined by special guest Doug Kaye who worked at Mr Love on Brook Street, the restaurant below Jimi Hendrix's flat during the late 60s.. Turn on, tune in and buckle up as Doug relays tales of Hendrix favourite meal, sleb guests swinging though and which Beatle trod on a lodger's head..

Every track Doug picks is played from an album he lent to Jimi. Each album is literally touched by the hand of Hendrix - it's a scrolling roll-call of mod jazz, funk and soul.

All here plus a live acoustic mod soul set from Gary Bynorth.. Download here



Or via iTunes

Leo Bud Welch: when the Mississippi meets The Thames

Photo by Gary Franklin....

If you grabbed, downloaded or listened live to our recent U edition of Podrophenia, with Martin McNeill and West Weston - you may recall some talk about the sweaty, stomping performance by Leo Bud Welch at The Railway

You can browse my review of this gig in the new Blues Magazine, as well as spotting my fuzzy-mug peeping out of page 7 (part of the Blues Crew). And by coincidence, there's a live write-up on the same page as LBW, of West Weston at Ronnie Scott's with Mud Morganfield...

Although 220 words I didn't quite squeeze in the nugget about:  Leo making his way stage-wards, and stopping for a nifty-footed  shuffle and dance to a tune I'd just spun in - the Stones version of I'm a King Bee...

2014: Yesterday's tomorrow - today

Let's put the keys in the ignition - ZZ Top style, rev the engine, pump that pedal and head out on the wild and unknown highway of 2014 with a soundtrack on the stereo that's blazing and blasting a best of - errm, well 2012 *cue the furious squealing of brakes and burning rubber*

2012? - they chorused

Yes, somehow - I just plain forgot to post up my collection of fave finds from that year. But here it is, 23 tracks of  fresh-pressed tunes from vintage names (Hugh Cornwell, New York Dolls, Glen Matlock) Some international newbies (Hello Phones, François & the Atlas Mountains, Matsuki Ayumu) best of breed from that year (Eight Rounds Rapid, Thee Faction, Alfa 9, Fay Hallam) and as always rediscovered nuggets..

Scan the list below, then fill your booties, ipos and ears at the bottom. Salut!

Planet Mondo Annual 2012

Podrophenia: R is for Rock, Roll and radio

 

Steve Hooker and Wilko

Be-bop-a-lula-a-lop-bam-boom - it's the R edition of Radio Podrophenia,with live music from Steve Hooker and the Stripped Down Stomping Band recorded at the Ship Full of Bombs HQ

Six in the studio tunes from Southend's rockingest 'n' rollingest legend, who's veins pulse with crochets and quavers rather than corpuscles. Due to Piley being down with a lurg' we're also joined by Marmite Boy for hosting and music-choosing duties..

Musically we bring a pick 'n' mix playlist of the first rock 'n' roll record, reggae obscurities, New Orleans soul and Motown funk Radio Podrophenia - letter R with Steve Hooker live



Or if you're an Apple Bonker bag a copy via iTunes

Shoreline Sounds and Sunday Sessions

A triple whammy weekender of words and music is scheduled around Leigh and Southend over the next few days.  The Shorelines Festival - curated by Rachel Lichtenstein, sees authors Cathi Unsworth, Robert Macfarlane, Travis Elborough and glittering list of others winging into town for events, readings and talks on their text and publications at a cross-campus of Leigh on Sea locations.

Outside of the various venues, Syd Moore and Ray Morgan will be giving literary themed walks and tours around the area. The full index of events and artists appearing at Shorelines is here

Musically SFOB will be DJing throughout the festival with Piley and myself doing two Podrophenia sessions from 6 - 7 and 8:30 - 9 Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, I'll be back at Southend's most rock 'n' roll local The Railway Hotel for my first Sunday Session since the summer.

The always excellent Martin McNeill and Bottletop Blues band will be onboard for live music and I'll be pitching in a potful of new tunes before and after the band - running on 'til chucking out time.

It all starts from 4:30 ish - come on down and shake a Sunday leg  Couple of tunes that could make an appearance at either event are

Freddie King - Low Tide

What The Folk - Micheal Chapman returns to Southend tonight

From postcards from Pellicci's to postcards from Southend and Scarborough

Rewind backawhiles, to January 2010... and you'll find me getting into a wide eyed (boy from freecloud) froth over Michael Chapman and the proto Bowie-tone colouring the sound of his 1970 album Fully Qualified Survivor - a tone brought to the FQS sessions by the recording debut of Mick Ronson..

The result of some stealthy info-digging since first hearing FQS - reveals an entire web threading the Chapman-first/Bowie-later connection together, with a repertory of Chapman's accomplices and session men being absorbed into Bowie's orbit.  From 69 and Jon Kane covering Chapman's Soulful Lady (produced by Tony Visconti)  to Gus Dudgeon of Rainmaker and FQS (later of Space Oddity, MWSTW, Ziggy), Paul Buckmaster of Rainmaker and FQS ( also Space Oddity, unreleased Man Who Fell to Earth OST) to Chapman's drummer Richie Dharma later appearing on Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side - and of  course - Mick Ronson's The Rats (from Hull), becoming Bowie's Spiders (from Mars).

So what's the point of this see-saw style, name-spotting? Well, Chapman returns to Southend for an appearance as part of the 2013 Leigh Folk Festival, which I believe, is his first live outing in this area since playing two local gigs with Bowie in 1970...

The tickets are booked, the bikes have been readied for a cycle to the venue - and who knows I may even try and grab a quick natter with Pal Chapman to get his take on the push-me—pull-you tale.

If you haven't backtracked to the original Chappers/Ronson post - lend a quizical ear below

Click here for this year's full-folk breakdown

Sunday Sessions: music and movement

Snow stopped play for the last edition of the Sunday Sessions - but this weekend, we shall have.... a mix of blues, soul, boogaloo, funk, fatback and disco. A three course Sunday roast that includes...

Blues 'n' Boogie - Martin McNeill and the Bottletop Blues Band.

Decks 'n' discs - that's me.

A'drinking 'n' a'dancing - that's you.

So let's gather together at The Railway Hotel from four. Salut!

Lowell Fulson - Man of Motion

Rock and Roller Disco

It's the first Sunday session of the year at Southend's Railway Hotel - with an afternoon jam from Martin McNeill and the Bottletop Blues Band. I haven't heard the news of who's on board for the hullabaloo yet. But Jazz ledge Digby Fairweather turned up for a toot or two at the last bash...

As has become a Sunday standard I'll be nipping in the tunes around and between the bands. Surprisingly, tunes with a disco twist (AWB, KC and the Sunshine Band, Chic) have become the surprise hit floor shakers since the end of December.

Although this week, having picked up a spectacularly generous Chuck Berry Chess box (seventy five tracks for six english) I may be going heavy on the Berry to begin with....

Should you be round or about from four - come and stake a space on the The Railway dance floor - you could hear anything from Chuck Berry to disco boogie.

Chuck Berry - Rockin At The Philharmonic

Have a Fab Christmas

Well that's me done for the year - work is finished (and I'm not back til the 2nd). The shopping's shopped, the presents are wrapped, and the holiday handbrake has been firmly applied.

Although there will be one last blast before Santa's seasonal prowl-about - The Railway's Annual Charity Bash: The 2012 Beatles Convention - An all day event double-decking (the halls) across two floors

Upstairs: Southend's finest musicians will be putting their individual spins on the Beatles songbook 

Downstairs: Martian McNeill and his Bottletop Blues Band (With special guest West Weston and mystery jazzer TBA) - will be swinging through a Sunday afternoon session from 4

I'll be parked up in the downstairs bar spinning in Beatles themed covers, bootleg remixes, inspirations, and solo stompers

Ernie Garrett - Eleanor Rigby


And perhaps a handful of seasonal blues tunes

So until next year (or the 30th when West Weston brings his Bluesonics and Mud Morganfields guitarist to the The Railway) - have yourself a swinging little christmas

The Sunday Sessions: Flats and Fifths

Swinging at the Sunday Sessions - get me in the floral shirt!

Flats and fifths: those steps and semitones that give jazz and blues their particular modal moan. Jive along to The Railway this Sunday and you'll be for in an afternoon of flats, fifths, blues and boogaloo - live! As the always excellent (and one of my top ten favourite guitarists) Martin McNeill and his Bottletop Blues Band take the floor from four. 

The Bottletops are something of revolving repertory (excepting JJ Zarbo, who 'never misses a gig' on bass) - with a different musical mix each session - sometimes keys, sometimes sax, sometimes special guests: Wes Weston - harp, Wilko Johnson - guitar, Digby Fairweather - trumpet.

So if you're spinning anywhere around the SS postal code zone this sunday - why not ramble your way to The Railway from four and see who's sitting in for this Sunday's session

Dig'n' the Bottletop Blues Band 

I'll be operating the in-house stereogram, spinning in jump blues, New Orleans shufflers, funk work-outs, hammond happenings and reggae shakers 

A couple from the crates popped into the pot may well be...

Count Machuki - Pepper Pot






Thanks to Bluey for a borrow of the pics....

Mary Had a Little Jam

Back at The Railway tonight - with guitar in hand (and possibly bass too), for the Tuesday night fixture that is Bluesday Tuesday - an open mic jam, based around a catalogue of blues classics..

The pub's drums, Hammond, piano are all prepared and ready to go for anyone who fancies jumping on and joining in. Although I'll be trying to wing in my new Epiphone 339 for a test drive



On the subject of blues offs - behold Buddy Guy tearing it up with Jack Bruce on bass, Buddy Miles tub-thumping, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Chris Mercer of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers on horns. Fantastico...

 

 Buddy Guy - Mary Had A Little Lamb (studio version)

 

Blue Notes

I'm on something of a right roaring ol' blues-buzz at the moment. A couple of sweet inspirations have got me knocking on the pentatonic rock (with a few flattened fifths and sliding ninths thrown in). Taking delivery of series two of The Beat!!! 98 minutes of possibly the greatest music show ever committed to tape, weighing heavy with nuggets such as ....




I'm also going very heavy on the back catalogue of Lowell Fulson and his funky boogaloo blues



And as featured last Friday Magic Sam. Fret-frying tonight with Sam's Boogie, grabbable below as Lookin' Good.



Magic Sam - Lookin' Good

Funky Friday - Dial F for Funky

Picking up from Tuesday's funky run-out, today, I'm pitching in a 22 track, 70 minute mix whisking together all shades of soul, funk and groovy doings. Heavy-handed Hammond, New Orleans grinders, mod stompers, Jamaican moogie-woogie and Latin flavoured wig-outs. Mostly fitted around the letter 'F' wrapping up with two fast and furious and finishers. And a first in this neck of the blogs - funky country. Literally!
Dial in below to fill your fruity boots....
Dial F for Funky



Or to back track and catch up Tuesday's Radio Podrophenia (the letter F) dig in here..

Radio Podrophenia ~ Podrophonic Alphabet. The Letter F



 Track list can be found in the comments..



Same and Dave. Well overdue for a toot on the blog. And check out the swish~hipped horn section!

Guest Blogger: Psychic Nick's Picks

It's our first guest blogger of the year. Firing up a hand-picked playlist of his favourite soul, rock and stoner tones is Nick Saloman: main-brain and multi-instrumentalist behind psych-rockers Bevis Frond, star of TV's Countdown and compiler of Psychic Circle's albums including the excellent Instro Hipsters and UK Floor Fillers series, so let's tuck into this handful of musical, magical beans.

Barry St. John - Turn on Your Light: I only discovered Miss St.John relatively recently. A Glaswegian soul girl who cut a string of great 45s and one brilliant album called 'According To St. John'. This single is also on the album.



The Flies - I'm Not Your Stepping Stone: I bought this when it first appeared back in 1966 in National Radio in St. John's Wood High Street. An absolutely fantastic slice of raw fuzzed up freakbeat from Ilford!



Dave Crosby - Laughing: My favourite track off the amazing If I Could Only Remember My Name album. Stoned out bliss direct from the Laurel Canyon hot tub of your mind!



Patto - Loud Green Song: On which the incomparable Ollie Halsall plays some of the most incendiary guitar ever put on vinyl. Definitely to be played at my funeral!



Steve Miller Band - Your Old Lady: From the 'Revolution' movie soundtrack album. An absolutely superb hit of San Franciscan/Texan blues psych.


Steve Miller Band dans le film Revolution (1968)

There you go no Beatles or Jimi which I have to confess is sacrilege as they are my two favourite artists of all time. But I was trying to make it interesting.

A big psych-salute is due to Nick for his help with this. Coincidentally he'll be back on the blog via a Dear Diary entry later in the year. However - should you fancy catching him in action - he's backing Debbie Duveen and The Millbanks at the Hoxton Underbelly on January 26th - details here and here

He said 'Listen here ya punk'

The Sweet - 1974 

Sixties garage, The Who, Small Faces, Iggy Pop, Ian Dury and Dr Feelgood can all claim paternity rights to the Godfather of Punk title. True enough, each one's a conributor to the movements genetic heritage. But let's not forget the big brassy pantomime dame that is punk's glitzy older sister (or brother). Glam!

Anecdotally and historically, glitter-rock's smudged lipstick and sticky fingerprints are all over the frightwig hair and short, sharp, stomp of punk...

Sex Pistols: Rotten's Pistols auditioned was played out to Alice Cooper's I'm Eighteen. McLaren briefly managed the NY Dolls with Steve Jones bagging Sylvain's Les Paul. McLaren's original group idea was for subversive Bay City Rollers style boy band.
The Damned: toured with Bolan, and later covered the Sweet's Ballroom Blitz and borrowed Gary Glitter' Rock and Roll riff..
The Clash: Mick Jones was a Mott the Hoople avid.
Adam Ant:  make up a go-go and peacock wardrobe. Glitter Band double drums and guitar twang. Marco owns Dave Hill's Super Yob guitar
Ramones: Slade influenced (the Brothers Ramone aped Dave Hill's hair and the bands pile-driving pop).
The Undertones: Covered Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll

Factor in the Rocky Horror, Bowie, Roxy Music and Eno's louder output and the sound of the suburbs begins to take shape. For me one the greatest indicators of the punky shake-downs and bust-ups to come is The Sweet's Turn it Down.

A black leather 'n' studs pop-stomper for the angry brigade, the single kicks in with a honking two-fisted riff that wouldn't sound out of place on a Pistols single with Andy scott's squeal and feedback anti-solo being the sound of the Velvet Underground. Sweet's bubbleglam angst gets graffitied with references to 'degenerates' 'creeps' and gum-chewing sneers of' 'don't gimme no lip'. But the phrase that really pays is gobbed out...'listen hear, ya punk'.

Typically, Legs McNeil's New York fanzine - Punk, debuting in 76 is recognised as the earliest use of the word 'punk' with a musical association. But here we have lipstick-brickies Sweet (banned by the Mecca dancehall circuit for their 'overtly sexual stage act'), spitting and snarling the P word two years before Punk went to print ~ and on a single banned by UK radio for being 'unsuitable for family listening'.
Now if that isn't punk, I don't know what it is..

Look out for: the inverted hippy symbol on Andy Scott's guitar sticker.
Listen out for: the throaty rumble of Steve Priest's Rickenbacker bass. A model later played by Glen Matlock, Rick Buckler and Paul Gray of The Damned and Hot Rods



The Sweet - Turn It Down

Oi! Waddya mean Andy Scott's barnet looks a bit famil'?

Behold:The Holy Grail of Guitar Chords

It sounds like this........

The secret of The Beatles sound (well, Lennon's technique mostly) was revealed to me in a local pub, by an old boy known as Music John - 'He played Banjo chords on guitar' John whispered with lowered tones and knowing nods. If you've ever dabbled with guitar techniques and Beatles tunes, you'll know the Fab's catalogue is coloured with quirky chord shapes and unique sequences, unlike anything you'll find in other rocker's songbooks. It's these same singing, ringing chords and magical combo's that defines a demarcation line between disciples and disbelievers....

Roger McGuinn 'The chord changes really had magic in them'

Bob Dylan 'They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous'

Steve Jones 'The rest of us hate the Beatles. And it turned out he (Glen Matlock) loves them. He came up with all these Beatles influenced chords and melodies that I couldn't play.

From the moment it's first Cllaaaaaanggggg rang around the world, the opening chord to A Hard Day's Night has been the Holy Grail (and basis for raging debates and dissertations on the mechanics of the chord) for  guitar anoraks, plectrum analysers and Beatologists. George Harrison settled, but didn't solve the mystery in 2001.

George Harrison' It is F with a G on top (on the 12-string), but you'll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story'

The principles of the 'proper story' are:Fadd9  is the George chord, (you'll hear this being picked during the closing coda) but the recording is a composite of overdubbed instruments playing additional notes. Meaning,  the chord required for solo players is - G7sus4. The full theory and breakdown is here. My home made recreation of Fadd9 and extra instrumentation is here.......

But, getting back to Music John's revelation, Lennon was shown banjo shapes by his mother Julia. As his style developed he rounded out his chord library with more conventional shapes, but always coloured his compositions with these peculiar voicings. But it wasn't just the chords that were non-standard. Musicians of the early sixties typically favoured, shiny new Fenders in jet age shapes and Cadillac colours. Not The Beatles - their kit and instruments were a collection of oddities and eye-openers.

Lemmy on seeing The Beatles at The Cavern....

Music John's banjo chords theory, is only one component tone of The Beatles signature mix. Build in Lennon's love of descending bass lines, Ringo's left handed drummer/right handed kit arrangement Macca being the reluctant bass player reinventing the form, and the north-south divide of blues boomers versus country lovers (why the Stones honk out riffs and the Fabs chime with arpeggios) and inspiration and influences taken from an assortment of sources, soul imports, Little Richard squeals, Motown hits, music hall melodies - and the harmonics of the hit makers starts to take shape.

Zip to 00:48 of Chuck Berry's You Can't Catch Me - and you'll find a line mainly famous as Beatles refrain, or Bobby Parker's opening riff for Watch Your Step, which Lennon openly admits was recycled for handful of Fab anthems.

Chuck Berry - You Can't Catch Me

Bobby Parker - Watch Your Step

Piley and I set about our eleventh podcast later this week, with sound-a-likes being the motif of the moment. So expect to hear some more 'sounds familiar' acts and tracks at some point soon.

Shabby Road Studios - keyboard not pictured

In Blackest Night

How gutted and crushed must the Blue Magoos have been to hear the explosive opening bars of Deep Purple's Black Night ringing out from radio and record shops. Purp's fret-melter Ritchie Blackmore had plainly pop-lifted the nippy little lick underpinning the Magoos' 69 garage classic (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet, literally stealing their heavy metal thunder - buffing, bulking and bullworking it into Purple's mega-metal anthem and international hit.

Blues Magoos - (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet



King of the Germanic swingers shakes a heavy leg.

Hugo Strasser - Black Night





Piley and I should be recording a new podcast soon - along a similar riff of 'originals uncovered'

Funky Friday - Harmonic Generation

It's a playlist of perhaps rowdier sounds than we'd typically chow down on of a Friday. But, there is funkyness to be found amongst mix of heavy-level riffing and hi-amped attack. Killing Floor, Painter Man, Talkin' Woman, and Elephant Man are as hot-footed as any other number posted on previous FFs.
So what's it all about Alfie?

Markus Reeves, has organised Harmonic Generation: a live music event for local bands, which, opens it's doors for the first time tonight

If you're in the Leicester area - why not get down there, and lend an ear and some support to this all electric session. You may even catch a glimpse of this grit, garage and guitar a go-go mix spinning between bands..

You can get all the info on the acts...right here

Harmonic Generation



PS - to avoid being blog-whacked, the tracklist is in the first comment.