Podrophenia - Post Punk Special with Barry Cain, Treatment and Russ Toothbrush

For our 7th anniversary edition of Podrophenia - we chat to Flexipop's Barry Cain about his tour of Japan with The Stranglers, a meeting with phlegmy-fan, painting a naked Hugh Cornwell black and white (including his little-Hugh) - and why Barry was forcibly removed from a Blondie interview ...

Russell Lee from The Pink Toothbrush (formerly Croc's) drops in for a chat about the history of the club (which band had the lowest ever attendance), talks Brushfest and shares some tunes. Southend post-punkers Treatment are in session.- and we've got a rare Adam and The Ants track

All here in our sweariest ever Podrophenia

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Radio Podrophenia: Dave Woodcock debut album special and live session tonight

What a furiously busy few days for the Boy Woodcock: open mic night and album released Monday, starring on Steve Lamacq yesterday as the Favourite New Band (listen again here) - and to top off the week an album launch gig at the Bussey Building this Saturday...

But, between his tour from one end of the Thames to the other, Dave is stopping (or having a comfort break you could say) from whipping around like a whirling dervish to join Piley and the other one for live session of tunes, chat and natter for tonight's Podrophenia.

We've a run of songs fitted around variations on 'Woodcock' - and a few live renditions of album tracks and getting the back-story on the tracklist....

And as a bonus - we've also managed to nip in an exclusive pop up appearance from Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions to talk us through a selection from his Spliced Krispies ..

Set your dials for 8pm Southend Central time tonight on Ship Full of Bombs

From Rushent with love (& dancing)

Achingly 80s - apparently this comp contains a super rare remix of Do or Die. Anyone have a copy..

Revisiting Martin Rushent's back catalogue following the sad news of his death, was something of a shock.  Aside from the League, I'd had no idea his fairy-dust was sprinkled so broadly over such a formative chunk of my building-block buys: The Rezillos, Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, Generation X,  XTC. Somehow I'd missed Martin's fingerprints across my collection, probably as these record were bought for the giddy rush of the song-and-the-sound rendered so perfectly together - not for studying the sleeve notes. Which, in it’s own way is a tribute to his skill as a producer - where the song, not the studio, is the star.

I'll leave the final words to Tronik who says everything so much better than I could ever hope to..

As a tribute, let's fire up a couple crafted from the Rushent back catalogue, where he applies gloss to new wave grit and acts as a home-grown Moroder to Sheffield electricians. Two tracks that are flip sides of similar styles: thudding back-beats, thunderous bass rumbles and heavy-level bleeps and squeaks

The Stranglers - Nice 'n' Sleazy



Human League - Hard Times (Love and Dancing version)



And some punky pop fun from the Buzzcocks..



The Martin Rushent discography is here

Dear Diary - October

Hormonal boys and bangers: a teenage rampage of fidgety trigger fingers and blue touch papers. So what were the targets on our pocket-size pyromania hit list? Old boys dozing in cars waiting to collect their wives from the WRVS (bangers under, not in the cars) Mr Whippy dollops of doggy doings and poor ol' Heidi Roxborough (30th) discreetly reading in the park, had her library book lifted and a fast-fizzing banger placed bookmark style between the pages. Cue offstage pops, puffs and ever-diminishing smoking scorch holes receding from cover to cover.

Punky trimmings are taking hold with two T-shirts leopard skin and Sid Vicious bought from Nasty in Southend (now the brilliantly named Threads Atomic Dustbin)

Picture courtesy of Southend Punk

The Pistols may have been the Pied Pipers of punk who reeled me in - but The Damned were the band that maintained my momentum (note Love Song scrawled at the heading of last month's entry and Smash It Up on this.)

Oh, and the tick system for sick days - I uncovered these decoding notes scribbled on a back page. You'll notice most calendar sick day ticks are downward...

All this and a new scarf (black and white Grimsby colours - but inspired by The Stranglers). October's chart for this week of '79 looked like this - and singles added to the collection included...

I haven't ripped the vinyl of Smash It Up, but a version that appears to be demo, found on this compilation

The Damned - Smash It Up



Possibly the only song to ever feature the word 'gerrymander'

The Stranglers - Nuclear Device



John Du Cann - Don't Be a Dummy

Give it away give it away give it away now

How do they do it? How (and why) do pedigree performers manage to give their goodies away on the the freemans? I wouldn't want to get wrapped up in the fuss, and faff of writing, recording, mixing and mastering - only to have knocked myself out for literally nothing! Well whatever my head-scratching take on it is - it happens.

The Wolfmen have come up with yet another new fruity tune, perhaps more muted and minor modal than the regular glam-garagerocking-pop but an absolute peachy treat that's almost Roxy Music meets Goldfrappish. Not only is it one of the strongest ear ticklers of the year - but it's available for free - that's right F.R.E.E - you can grab it by zipping over to the Wolfmen's HQ and just clicking on the Wolf's head

The Wolfmen - 'Nothing To Say To You'





Hugh Cornwell - 'Going To The City'



And, ex-Strangler Hugh Cornwell is offering one full album's worth of new tunes for a big fat nothing - yes, really! You can get your get hand's on Hugh's 'Hooverdam' and it will cost you not one Earth penny - s'available right here

How is it that long-serving proto-punks like these can have put in thirty years of songwriting service and still deliver top drawer tunes, while so many Indie kids and contemporary clangers fold or stick to a safe-bet formula after just a few samey albums?

Rock 'n' Rumble

What Exactly Is A 'Morry Thou'?*

The Stranglers are live in Southend tonight, and being one of the first handful of bands I actively collected (along with the Pistols and The Damned) there's no question of not trotting along. I know Hugh Cornwell's long gone from the line up - but it's still 75% original Strangulation. The other three are present and correct: Ol' Beardy, Ol' Pudding Basin and JJ Burnell, one of the coolest punk bass cadets (actually punk bass players were typically the snappiest member of the band) - all karate moves, monkey boots, motorbikes and that thunderous rumble underpinning the 'men in black's' signature sound. It's a 'greatest hits' gig, so hopefully these B-side babies may be somewhere in the setlist...

The Stranglers - Tank




Tank - with an intro from Peter Cook


Go Buddy Go - I'm no lip reader, but even I can see, the second word in this clip clearly isn't 'boogie' or 'woogie'


*Apparently a 'morry thou' as mentioned in The Stranglers '(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)' is, well - click here to find out or here - for a picture