Podrophenia Goes Plus Size

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...

Download

Stream

Via itunes

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:

Funky Friday - Hoeks van Holland

Have you ever gone Dutch and visited De Nederlandsh? Our first trip in '94 saw us rolling from the ferry (a Ceefax bargain) to theme of Eurotrash in our Renault 5 GTX for five days camping and nipping around and about Amsterdam, Edam and Volendam. Generally Holland was more micro-sized than expected with dinky, neat and tidy streets and suburbs. Clusters of flat-packed towns built from from Toytown blueprints. It may sound bizarre but Amsterdam aside, the lowlander lifestyle was so casually efficient, polite and polished that it felt like a nation populated, designed and governed by Toto fans.

A few weeks after our Dutch run I spotted a Toto live album - strangely, but not surprisingly, recorded at a gig in Holland. Perma-perms, soft rock and all-season sunglasses aren't on today's menu. Instead it’s a triple run of...

Bonnie St Claire (above) from her 69 soul-stomper era.

Brainbox (?)

A Shocking Blue tune that isn't Venus (Tom version here by the way)

Bonnie St Claire - I Surrender



Brainbox - Down Man



Shocking Blue - Hot Sand





Did you know George Baker and his total pop classic are as Dutch as Advocaat ? Smoke and pancake - the clues are all there..

Roxy Musician

Why aye man! It's me Paul Thompson from Roxy Music, you may remember us from songs like Virginia Plain, Love Is The Drug, All I want Is You. In fact, did ya knur, It was me what wrote the the B-side to All I Want Is You? A Roxy rocker called Your Application's Failed It's no'roften us drummers get the chance to chip in with a tune like, but the lads even le'rus speak a line as it's me urn compo'.

Roxy Music - Your Application's Failed



Right, I'm off for a couple of Broons and a paradiddle - H'way the Roxy, and I'll see yez when the beat comes in!

Funky Friday - 40 Years of Peace & Music

I know I'm a few days out of date with this, but had my own anniversary to do last week.

Two years ago, I had my brain fried, my mind altered and my doors of perception blown to smoke and splinters in one sitting How? By sitting through my first ever viewing of 'Woodstock'.

Partly - as I thought I'd brought home the DVD of that music fest' where Hendrix sets his Fender aflame. It took a few minutes viewing until realised that music fest was actually Monterey! Whoops.

But mainly - still ingrained with 'Never Trust a Hippy' hard-coded punk standards from my teenage days, viewed Woodstock with a sly eye and had it pegged as fuggy aired, fuzzy haired, hair-baring love-in. And a long weekend of Freak Brother freak-outs and whispy women twittering to polite applause from sky-eyed stoners and other-worldly arm wavers. Which in part it is.

However, what I hadn't expected, and left my head spinning like a shell-shocked owl were...

Sly Stone and his rip-roaring funk review
Santana's explosive Soul Sacrifice
Alvin Lee's giddy guitar work
Janis Joplin's ear-bleeding screeching
CSN's layered harmonies and shifting whisper melodies
The 'orrible Who booming in like boot boys (and Pete's white boiler suit and bovver boots look, surely inspired Kubricks Clockwork Orange droog designs)

Captured pitch perfectly with progressively edgy editing, split screen shots, triple screen shots, offstage observations from gig-goers, police, parents and much, much more, make 'Woodstock' the definitive time capsule of that heady weekend and it's place in social history.

If you haven't seen Woodstock yet, you really are doing yourself a disservice. The 'director's cut' DVD regularly sells for as little £3 in some entertainment retailers, so why not treat yourself on the 40th anniversary of the event - here's a couple of clips and cuts to tempt you..

The two tunes are studio takes not live - don't be alarmed by the names they really are lolloping chunks of funk.

Try (Just A Little Bit Harder) - Janis Joplin




Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Woodstock



If you can't swing watching the whole clip, skip to the seven minute mark for the tempo change and the way it bursts back into life with the hookiest of hooky horn riffs.



The drummer looks like he's just finished a paper round, the keyboard player looks like Elvis. There's guitar hero gurning and curly cables too - perfect! Watch out for the naked stranger dancing with a sheep, and the ginger stoner at the close - you have been warned

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'

Pyjamarama

Inspired by completing this today (where Ferry gets much more of a roasting than is strictly necessary) and tuning into this from Mick over at Raiding The Vinyl Archive - I'm on a right ol' Roxy buzz.

So how about the overlooked and underplayed great ' lost' single 'Pyjamarama' - apparantley the band never rated it and even Eno claimed ' Do The Strand' should have been released instead. Nonsense I say! 'Pyjamarama' is perfect pop - all fizz and glitter, like Motown gone glam, and conforms to Paul Morley's theory that all pop songs are truly great if...

"you can imagine them being sung by Elvis".

Roxy Music - Pyjamarama.mp3




And a Roxy refresher (like anyone who's read this far needs it!!)

How great they were...

Roxy Music - 'Ladytron'(1973)


And still are....

Roxy Music - 'Remake/Remodel'(2001)

Rolling Stoner

I read the Ron Wood biog' last week, which is pretty much 350ish pages of drunken stumbles, lucky breaks and bad investments. But it left me thinking what must it be like to be a Rolling Stone? Possibly not too dissimilar to this....

Waiting on a Friend.


*Stoner update - I've just found out (via searching Friends Reunited)that I used to go the same Youth Club as Ronnie's Sister in Law. I knew he'd made a few local appearances attended gigs, been spotted in pubs etc - all makes sense now.*

As an extra here's a tune I came up with a couple of years ago. Well, it's not really a tune - it's a 1 take piece of tat that took 10 minutes to crack out as an experiment in 'open G' tuning. Open G is a technique regularly employed by Keith Richards, it's the heart of the Stones sound and more importantly saves having to faff around remembering endless fancy chord shapes (nice and easy if your feeling a bit 'relaxed' of an evening). Tune the guitar to open G and one simple shape fits all frets. Please excuse any clunker notes and blame them on first take nerves.

Stoner.mp3

There's Good Rocking

Hurrah for the 8th of January. "Why the 8th of January?" they chorused.
It's the birthday Of Elvis Presley and David Bowie of course. But as well as sharing the same date of birth there are several other Elvis/Bowie connections, here are 8 of them....

1) Bowie is quoted as saying "Elvis was a major hero of mine. I was probably stupid enough to believe that having the same birthday as him actually meant something."

2) Both had tragedies with their brothers - Elvis' twin Jesse, died at childbirth. Bowie's half-brother Terry, was a schizophrenic who committed suicide in 1985.

3) They were both comic book fans - Elvis's hair and capes were inspired by Captain Marvel, and both used a 'Shazam' style lighting strike symbol - Elvis for the 'Taking care of Business' logo, Bowie for Aladdin Sane.


4) Bowie's manager Tony DeFries styled himself as a 1970s Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis's notorious cigar smoking Manager) a factor in Bowie signing to RCA also Elvis's label, and the DeFries Mainman Management logo being designed to look a cigar band.


5) The Kubrick Link - Elvis's seventies shows started with "Also Sprach Zarathustra" from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. During the Ziggy period Bowie used the 'Clockwork Orange' version of Beethoven's 'Ninth Symphony' for his intro' music.

6) Apparently Bowie wrote Golden Years for Elvis but recorded it himself after Presley turned it down.

7) The 1972 Thailand reissue of 'Space Oddity' featured as Elvis's 'Fool' as the B-side.


8) They've both recorded Beatles covers which are still in the vaults;

Elvis - Lady Madonna ( with Elvis seemingly 'effing and jeffing' around the 'make ends meet' line).

Bowie - Penny Lane (with an extremely flaky accent on 'customer').

And as if by magic....

Elvis Presley - Lady Madonna.mp3



David Bowie - Penny Lane.mp3

'Are We Really 65 In The Charts ?'

It was 31 years ago today that The Damned released 'New Rose'

Written by Brian James, a first class chap who was good enough to give up some of his Sunday to speak to me about the history of 'New Rose'.

"I'd had part of the song for a while, and even been jamming it with my earlier band Bastard, who were into The MC5, The Stooges and The Pretty Things, but it was when I played the riff with Rat(Scabies) - who drummed like no one else I'd ever played with, that the energy of Rat's drumming and his style fitted the riff so well that the song came together and was created out of that moment

Jake (Riveria) signed us after seeing the Damned at Mont De Marsan, on the strength of 'New Rose' and saw it as a single straight away even though Captain (Sensible) wanted 'I Fall' as the first single. There's no demo's for it we didn't really bother with things like it we just went straight in the studio and recorded it."

Is there a real life Rose? "No, it's not about a girl, it's really about what was happening at that time the speed and the energy of the movement - The Damned were always about the energy."

We also covered all sorts of other areas during our chat - guitars, previous bands, current gigs, and future projects all of which I'll be logging in the blog soon.

Certainly I see New Rose as one of the most important singles ever released, and being equal to anything Elvis , The Beatles or the Sex Pistols ever unleashed.

I love the Pistols and their two fisted filth and fury (even though they booted the The Damned off of the Anarchy tour). But New Rose snapshots the mood, the moment and the DIY ethic of early London/Brit punk more authentically than anything else from this explosive era.

Crash! Go the drums. Thrash! Goes the guitar. Rev up the riffing and they’re off like Bash Street brats out of hell and God help anyone who gets in the way. The Damned ram raided the UK charts by releasing the first punk single and album and even appeared at the first Punk Festival in Mont de Marsan (attended by a pre Joy Division Ian Curtis, and held a month before the 100 Club Punk Festival). But it was the impact of New Rose, and The Damned being the first UK Punk band to tour America that sent a Punk rocket to the epicenter of the States causing a sonic bang so explosive that the fallout is still being felt today.

The Sonics, The MC5, Iggy and The Ramones may have already been grinding out garage anthems and had some success in their home towns – but none of them raised more than a blip on the ‘punk-o-meter’ across the States. The Damned blew the bastard thing to smoke and shrapnel.

Consider this - what speed do the first wave of US Punk bands - The Dead Kennedys, The Dickies, Bad Brains or Black Flag - play at, Damned or Pistols tempo? From here you go to Hardcore to Thrash Metal to Metallica to Guns N Roses(who covered New Rose) and Nirvana (who ripped off Life Goes On for 'Come As You Are'). Not all this may be your type of tune, and not all of it’s my type of tune, but it’s undeniable that it all leads back to the Damned and New Rose.





"I thought the Damned caught the true spirit of Punk, as understood by Punks, better than their rivals. They devoted less time to striking attitudes & never forgot, as many historians have that Punk could be quite funny as well as exciting." John Peel - 29/05/02

New Rose - Peel Session
Recorded 30/11/76 and broadcast 10/12/76



Help - The B Side of New Rose



Brian is currently remixing The Lords Of The New Church back catalogue at Abbey Road (more on this soon). And will be playing the 100 Club on 31/11/07 with Lords Of The New Church for a Halloween Night Special - only 350 tickets are available for this special event so grab them while you can.


Recommended Reading
The Offical Brian James site
Brian James Gang myspace site
The Official Damned Site
One Way love - The Number One Damned fan site
Lords Of The New Church fan site


A special thank you goes to Brian James for his insights into New Rose, Punk and all things Damned, and also for allowing the use of Mp3's in this posting

Sex Pistols Are Coming !!!!!

So the Sex Pistols are back !

They could reform every year and roll round the world as far I’m concerned. How often do you get to see real life legends, who've turned the music, fashion, media, and design industries up side down. Whose look, sound and attitude is still referenced as undiluted source material today.

Walk down almost any high Street and you’ll see the shadow of the Sex Pistols somewhere.

I doubt I’ll get tickets.I don’t care. It's just a buzz to know they’re buzzing for it too.

I’m planning to upload a super rare bootleg next month Party Till You Puke – which is the complete and studio quality demo’s for the NMTB sessions including the only studio recording of Sid playing bass (on Submission).

So if you’ve got a Pistols buzz, treat yourself with some of these goodies


Ignore the ninnies who say the Sex Pistols can’t play, and blast this in their ears.

No Feelings – instrumental version.mp3



Sex Pistols poster - offline
A high Res version of the first ever Sex Pistols poster (as pictured above, but much larger), given away in the German music magazine Bravo.



Or why not have a peep at an earlier pistols blog of mine about at a Spanish Punk band's cover of NMTB

Then have a nosey at this Filth and the Fury trailer and see why the tickets will probably sell out in less time than it takes to watch this clip

The Cosmic Dancer and Cilla

Marc and Cilla

It seems appropriate to bookend this 30th anniversary weekend with another Marc Bolan moment, and only the seventies could bring you a moment like this.

Light Entertainment meets Glam Rock, as Marc Bolan and Cilla Black duet on Cosmic Dancer from the Cilla Show. Unfortunately the old spoilsport who uploaded this video hasn't allowed embedding so you'll gave to click on the "Marc and Cilla" link above to view it.

And if you've got time why not have a peep at this mini documentary. A six minute summary of Bolan and Glam with contributions from Sandie Shaw, Captain Sensible, Mick Rock, Johnny Marr and Marc Almond




One of the things I've noticed over the 3Oth anniversary of his death is how many blogs and bloggers with impeccable record collections, impossibly rare or tastefully trendy downloads haven't just written about Marc Bolan, but have written enthusically about Marc and his music without irony or Rock Snobbery, as Marc Bolan and T.Rex fans.

Two of the best pieces I've come across are below, and both are based around visits to the Memorial site yesterday.

Piley

The Ghost of Electricity


It seems even 30 Years after his death, Marc Bolan is still as cool as ever.

"Me I funk but I don't care
I ain't no square with my corkscrew hair " - Telegram Sam

It Was 30 Years Ago Today Pt. 2 - The Rex Factor

"Goodbye from all the boys in the band, David (Bowie),everybody,all the cats you know who they are" were his final words on TV.

I won't blab on about Marc Bolan, there'll be stacks of facts flying around this anniversary weekend. Instead I've picked 2 clips that show why, at just over five feet tall he towers above any of todays pop pretenders.

I've also popped a couple of T. Rextra bonus rarities/obscurities at the bottom for download. Slider or Tanx are my recommended Albums if you enjoyed these T.Rex treats and fancy digging deeper.


20th Century Boy - from Beat Club

This is the best version EVER!!!! of 20th Century Boy, where Marc swishes like a star,and struts like champ. Grinding his guitar all the way





Next To You - from The Marc Show

Bowie and Bolan (the Dynamic Duo of Glam) duetting on a some demolition riffery in Marc's final TV appearance. This is one of only 2 songs that Bowie and Bolan wrote togther. Bolan had to be stood on a box to get in shot with Bowie, but he takes a tumble at the end.

Look out for Herbie (who wrote the bass line for Walk on The Wild Side)Flowers on Bass he also played with Bowie and Lou Reed. Tony Newman on drums, who'll be on Funky Friday soon. And spot the Raleigh Stryker T Shirt.




T. Rextras - offline at the moment

Get It On
- rocking version, of a work in progress studio run through as Bolan gives directions to the band

Sunken Rags - an .alt version slightly punchier take of Sunken Rags

Raw Ramp - brilliant overlooked B side

Thunderwing - should've been a single.

Walmington.... Are You Ready To Rock?

Marvellous news.

My monthly subscription to Word wafted onto the mat yesterday, and scanning through the letters on page 66 who did I see? – ME!!!!.

They've printed my email about old rock n roll soldiers David Bowie, Van Morrison, Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, The Pet Shop Boys plus others who could all be specific Dad’s Army characters.

For Example Van Morrison would make a perfect captain Mainwaring. Now I’m not gonna tell you who’s who - you’ll have to check the mag for that. But It's even got a photo with my suggested line up. How cool is that??

This rock veterans idea was inspired after listening to the Word Podcasts and two spectacular Van Morrison stories. I’m not particularly a Van fan which shows you how good they must be. The Word team are becoming the Lennon and McCartney of podcasters. So get over to Itunes and get downloading - it's all free.

Les Paul - He's a Real Person and He's Still Alive

The phrase "Les Paul" is regularly bounced around like a brand name, but unless you're a guitar player, music anorak or Jazz fan - you may not have realised there is a real life Mr Les Paul.

This 2 minute mini clip is Les in action, and shows all you need to know about modern guitar playing in under 3 minutes - rocking riffs & rythms, cool chords, bouncing bass and shredding lead.



Les Paul is the Leonardo Da Vinci of modern music. He invented multi track recording, but most importantly designed and built the solid body electric guitar as we know it today. Guitars which, as Nik Cohn says in Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom "Came on like space age musical monsters and, immediately, wiped out all of the politeness that had gone before".

Les is a Jazzer rather than a Rocker, and if he'd have known that Jimmy Page's Gibson Les Paul would be wacked with a violin bow, Pete Townsend's would be smashed to smoke and splinters, or seen what Bowie would do to Mick Ronson's - he may well have burnt the blueprint.


Les Paul is 92 and still plays once a week at Iridium Jazz Club in New York.