Friday night is upon us again, and that can only mean one thing: a new mix of tip-top tunes from yours truly. (Well, actually, it can mean a lot of things: a Friday night takeaway, a couple of post-work pints, you get the gist. What I’m saying is: there’s room in your hectic playboy/girl lifestyle for this too).
This week’s mix has been picked from the debris of the one I mentioned having jetisoned last time out, but don’t let that put you off. I’ve over-run the usual 60 minutes mark, mostly because I was enjoying this one so much I kept lobbing in extra tracks until I decided to rest back, fully satisfied and fit to burst.
What we have this week, is a load of songs which mostly fall into the following categories: quiet build up; wicked bassline; who are these/I’ve forgotten about these/where are they now?; absolute stone cold classic. I’ll let you decide which falls into which box.
So welcome one and all, to this week’s mix for which I’ve done some sleeve notes, and included links so you can stream the individual song or album it comes from (don’t get used to this level of customer service, by the way), so I won’t waste any more time with my attempts to fashion a new introduction, let’s crack straight on shall we?
This is from 1989, but ignore the ever-so-slightly egotostical grandeur of the mention of Orchestra in the title. This is good old fashioned acoustic-driven folk/rock, like Mumford & Sons could have been if they weren’t insistent on being awful.
2. World Party – Ship Of Fools
I was very sad to hear of the passing of World Party main man, and ex-Waterboy, Karl Wallinger recently. I’ve been meaning to write something about how much I love their first album, Private Revolution, from which this is lifted, for a while, as a kind of eulogy, but time pressures blahblahblah. Maybe I’ll do something for SWC’s continually excellent Nearly Perfect Albums series over at No Badger Required. We’ll see.
3. The Charlatans – Forever
If you’ve ever been to see The Charlatans play live – and if you haven’t that’s something you should rectify as soon as possible – you’ll know that often – not always – they kick things off with this. It’s a near-perfect intro tune, the opening track on their 1999 Us and Us Only album, one of their finest in my opinion, and lawd knows they’ve been around for a goodly while, so it’s up against some stiff competition.
4. We Have Band – Hear It In The Cans
This lot should have been huge. I mean, listen to this: bouncy bass, spiky guitars, boy/girl shared vocals – I’m probably doing them a dis-service here, but I can imagine early B-52’s doing this, and I totally mean that as a compliment. This is from their debut album from 2010, WHB, a moniker under which they released further stuff, but, according to their wiki page, nothing since 2014, which is disappointing, because this is, well, just ace.
5. Metronomy – The Bay (Erol Alkan’s Extended Rework)
More boy/girl vocals and harmonies, more bouncing basslines, stretched out by DJ hero of mine, Erol Alkan. The original can be found on their 2011 album The English Riviera.
All these irresistable basslines mean I can’t resist, and nor can Alan…
Smooth.
6. Saint Etienne – Sylvie
Classic kitsch from Sarah, Bob and Pete. You don’t need me to tell you how ace they are/this is. It’s Saint Etienne, therefore….From their 1998 Good Humor album.
7. EMF – I Believe
It always struck me as amusing that their follow-up to the massive was Unbelieveable was a song called I Believe. If only they’d called the next one Now You Mention It, That’s a Thinker. From 1991’s Schubert Dip album.
8. Jesus Jones – Bring It On Down
Look, I know that time and history may not look favourably upon the likes of Jesus Jones. But what I think is often over-looked is how, with their blend of guitars and samples, bands like this very much laid the groundwork for devoted guitar obsessed indie kids, as I was back in 1989 (on their Liquidizer album) to like dance music. This was precursor for what was to follow: baggy, Madchester, indie/dance crossover, Screamadelica. It may have taken hold eventually, but it was because of the stuff that Jones’ and their likes released that blinkered idiots like me we were more receptive.
9. Pop Will Eat Itself – Def Con One
Ditto.
I bought this on 7″ single at college. with the specific intention of dropping it at the Indie Night I was DJ’ing at. Imagine my disappointment, and embarrasment having not listened to it before I played it out, that I’d bought the BBC-friendly version, where the integral “Big Mac” line had been changed to “Milk Shake”. How I ever managed to recover any credibility I’ll never know. You’ll find this of-it’s-time belter on 16 Different Flavours of Hell.
10. The Wonder Stuff – Don’t Let Me Down, Gently
Since we’re in the Black Country, an absolute banger from popular rhyming slang Miles Hunt and the boys, this, the first single from their 1989 second album Hup!, reached #19 in the UK charts, and deserved to have got a lot higher.
11. Crazyhead – What Gives You the Idea That You’re so Amazing Baby?
I’m not going to pretend this is a fine moment, let alone this Leicester band’s finest moment, but it does have one of the greatest titles of a single ever. This lot played the Students Union in my first year, before I was involved in the Ents side of things. I went to see them, liked them, but recall a conversation in the gents afterwards with a random which went pretty much like this:
Random: What did you think of them that, mate?
Me: Thought they were alright. Not sure about some of the song titles, though. I mean “I Don’t Want That Pint of Blood”? C’mon….
The song in question is actually I Don’t Want That Kind of Love and I was an idiot. Listen to their Desert Orchid album and tell me I’m a fool to have misheard.
John Moore was, briefly, in The Jesus & Mary Chain. He took over from Bobby Gillespie on his very taxing drum duties, later moving to guitar, but left the band in 1988. He’s probably better know now for his involvement in Black Box Recorder, but this is what he did in between.
Whenever I hear this record, I immediately think of my old mate Tony, sadly no longer with us. Back in 2016, on what would have been his 50th birthday, I wrote this:
He sidled up to me once in the Sixth Form Common Room; a mixtape I had made was playing, and suddenly I was aware that Tony was standing by my side.
“This should be number one, shouldn’t it, mate?” he whispered to me.
In an ideal world, Tony, yes, it should have been. (It got to Number 11.)
And he was right, it should have been Number One because it’s bloody great, far better than most of the old tosh that was cluttering up the UK Singles Charts at the time. Who cares that they released nothing else of any note? That is a great record. Westworld were The Ting Tings of the 80s, only without the number one hit record.
I stand by that.
On a related note: I’m going to see The Wedding Present play in Cambridge in a couple of weeks (May 3rd). Tony would have loved to have been there, but for fairly obvious reasons, can’t be. As it happens, a mate who was supposed to be joining me and my old mate Richie has dropped out, so if you know anyone in the area who fancies joining us, let them know I have a spare, and to contact me via the Comments or by email.
A Northern Soul-esque version of what is probably one of my favourite Beatles songs.
16. The Webb Brothers – I Can’t Believe You’re Gone
One of the tunes salvaged from the wreckage of that mix I mentioned last week. The Webb Brothers are the sons of Jimmy Webb, and that discarded mix ended with a run of Webb-related songs; this (from 2000’s wonderful Maroon album), the next song in this mix, and, sandwiched in-between, actor Richard Harris’ version of the Jimmy Webb MacArthur Park, which, much as I love it, I decided you probably don’t need to hear.
So, here we are, Volume 50. I’m not sure I believe I’ve done so many of these, especially when you take into account the Christmas, Easter and Halloween editions which haven’t gone towards the total, and that I split the first six playlists (apart from Vol 3, which has been forever wiped from the annals of history, unless any of you downloaded it) into 22 more palatable hour-long chunks.
What follows is, as I mentioned previously, essentially a Friday Night Music Club Greatest Hits compilation, with a few others thrown in just to keep it…well, interesting, I hope. In reality, it’s just a load of my favourite records, many of which just happen to have featured in this series before. And no, not all of them are in anyway cool, but then neither am I. They do, however, make grear sin-a-long records should you elect to take drink when listening to this (which is recommended). Anyway, if I just featured the achingly-hip here, I’d be betraying the No Such Thing as a Guilty Pleasure tagline I cling to.
My thanks to my old buddy Richie, who I bombarded with the first and second goes at this, to seek his opinion and feedback. His response? “Genuinely, really good…even the dance stuff I’d never heard before”. I’m sticking that on the promo posters.
I should add that I’ve had at least another two goes at it since then. New songs added, some dismissed. The thing is, I kept haring songs and thinking: “Well, that should be on there!” I’ve had to just stop, and add those that I’ve missed to future volumes.
Here’s your track-listing with, as promised/threatened (delete as applicable), sleeve notes:
1, Saint Etienne – Join Our Club
No, I don’t know how I’ve managed to avoid including this appropriate little beauty for so long either!
2. The Cardigans – My Favourite Game
Just to hammer home the favourite records theme, here’s a couple of tunes with Favourite in the title.
I will always remember a conversation with an old mate, following the release of the Manic Street Preachers’ Your Love Alone is Not Enough, which featured lead Cardigan Nina Persson, when they revealed they hated that single becaue they hated Nina’s voice. Now, I totally get that some people’s voices just grate (see Ed Sheeran as a good example of someone who can make me turn the radio off whenever one of his dreary yet bafflingly succesful tunes is aired). But Nina Persson’s????? I haven’t spoken to this old mate in at least 20 years, and proximity is only part of the reason for that.
3. The Wedding Present – My Favourite Dress
Favourite tune #2. You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Mr Gedge making an appearance, did you?
4. PJ Harvey – Dress
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t post anywhere near enough Peej on here. Consider that partially rectified.
5. Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?
Back at college, I was in a band. Not a very good band, but a band nonethless. We mostly did covers of punk and new wave records: they were short, recognisable to the masses who flocked to our gigs (sense the tone), and most importantly, with barely more than three chords between them, piss-easy to learn. This was one of them: I even persuaded our lead singer to shout “Tricky guitar solo!” just as I’d seen Pete Shelley do on some old footage of the Buzzers (the Cocks?) do as that instrumental break hoved into view.
6. Super Furry Animals – God! Show Me Magic
You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Gruff and the boys making an appearance, did you? If this isn’t the greatest record ever to mention the lead singer’s hamster, then it has to be in the Top Ten at least.
7. Manic Street Preachers – Motown Junk
Just an absolute belter, with what would become standard Manic’s sloganeering (standard until Richie went missing. Did I ever mention I shared a cheese salad with him…? Yes I did.)
8. Half Man Half Biscuit – Joy Division Oven Gloves
Thanks to my brother, I own a pair. Best Christmas present ever. Apart from maybe the fake NME Brat Award he gave me for one of these mixes (true story).
9. Generation X – Dancing With Myself
Unlike the debunked theory that The Vapors’ Turning Japanese is about the joys of ononism, this probably is about exactly that. When I was in the aforementioned band, I wrote a song which referenced it – less subtly, it was called The Lonely Dance – and we used to dedicate it to someone we knew was in attendance whenever we played it. They felt cool because we’d name-checked them, everyone else would know we’d just called them a wanker.
10. Underworld – Cowgirl (Bedrock Mix)
You’ll have guessed from previous posts that I adore Underwold, so it’s a rare event when I hammer my flag to the mast and say: this is Underword’s finest moment and this is the finest mix of it.
11. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
Some years ago, my friend Matt and I were invited to provide the music for a mate’s 40th birthday, held in a little basement bar somewhere in That London. I went down the traditional route of preparing a mix, burning it on to a CD (I know? Imagine that!! So old fashioned…!) and handing it to the bar staff to play; Matt, who is much cooler than I am (I’m sure you’ll find that hard to believe) simply paired his phone to the speakers and DJ’d as he chatted, ate, drank and danced. He dropped this one, and the dancefloor emptied, leaving just me and him looking quizzically at each other as we continued to cut a mean rug between us. Where had everyone gone? Why weren’t they dancing?
Then someone approached Matt and, pointing upwards as if the speakers were in the sky, asked “What’s this? It’s ace!” (or words to that effect). And so, whilst we were baffled as to how nobody knew this absolute banger, we came to the conclusion: people around the 40 mark don’t like to dance in public to things they don’t know.
It is ace, mind.
12. Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris – Dance Wiv Me
I wish I could recall what Matt played next, but whatever it was it got everybody back on the dancefloor. I’ll say it was this. If not, Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart (not featured here) is my go-to floorfiller.
13. Double Trouble & Rebel MC – Street Tuff (Scar Mix)
I’ve dropped this bon mot before I think, but many years ago I attended a house party in North London. Music was supposed to be provided by some DJ friends, but they had to drop out when they got an actual paid gig on the same night, the selfish sods. I was asked to help out and so I prepared 13 CDs, each an hour-or-so-long, numbered and to be played in numerical order, left them in a stack next to the CD player, so that if you were closest to the music box when one ended, you could just pop the next in the sequence in. They went from intro/welcome tunes to indie bangers to the-pills-should-be-kicking-in-by-now to comedown chillout tunes. This one featured somewhere in the middle, and a bloke I’d never met before or since approached me, hugged me, and thanked me for including it in my musical selection, before treating me to his break-dancing efforts, Which I really appreciated, obviously.
14. Lizzo – Juice
Shush! A rarity: something released in the last 10 years!
15. Girls Aloud – Love Machine
You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Sarah (RIP) and the girls making an appearance, did you? A song which will forever remind me of Llŷr, from when we played it in our guest DJ spot at a friend’s wedding, those attending went wild. Miss you bro, always.
16. Le Tigre – Hot Topic
At work team meetings, we now have a Hot Topic to discuss each month. I’ve suggested this as the theme tune to announce the start of the discussion. My suggestion has not yet been agreed.
17. Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!
Had any of them actually been Welsh, as opposed to having merely met and formed in Cardiff, then this would’ve featured in last week’s St David’s Day mix. But they aren’t, so it didn’t.
One of the many things I love about this record, is that bit towards the end, about it being a good idea to go paddling in a fountain on the way home from a night out. I know exactly which fountain they mean, and, as it was on my way home, the thought crossed my mind many times as I wobbled my way back home at 3am. And that’s because it really is a good idea. I was never brave/drunk/off my tits enough though. I feel like I’ve missed out, somehow.
18. Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Just wonderful. A piece to accompany the Dizzie Rascal tune which featured earlier, only with more Shakespeare references and much more sardonic intent.
19. Status Quo – Mystery Song
You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Francis and the boys making an appearance, did you?
This, from way back in 1976, just before they tipped over into cliche and parody of themselves, is unquestionably my favourite Quo song. It’s (RIP) Parfitt’s ode to a sex worker, set to a literally amphetimine-fuelled background. There’s a notorious story about how, one day in the studio, Rossi put a spoonful of speed into Parfitt’s tea, not expecting (he now says) him to drink it. But he did, and they left him in the studio, messing around with a riff – dink-dink-dink, dink-dink-de-dur-de-dink – and returned the next day to find Parfitt sitting exactly where they left him, playing the same riff – dink-dink-dink, dink-dink-de-dur-de-dink. Phew, rock’n’roll, eh?
20. Milltown Brothers – Janice Is Gone
An under-rated and generally unknown classic. The Janice in question is the much-missed DJ Janice Long, and you can read what I wrote when she passed away here, and here’s a post about an adventure I had with the band themselves, way back when (the download links are all dead on that one, let me know via the Comments if you want anything uploading again).
The only thing to add to that is a year or so later, the Milltown Brothers came round on the college circuit again. I said hello to them all post-gig, and one of them asked if we’d met before. I recounted the story about our last meeting, and, memories jogged, they plied me with booze and suspiciously constructed rollies. I passed out in the toilets, waking up after everyone had left the building, staggered home through the Welsh snow. I think I missed my train back home as a result; lawd knows what excuse I gave my parents (doubtless they will remind me if they’ve read this far).
21. Linda Rondstadt/The Stone Poneys – Different Drum
There are so many versions of this classic written by former Monkee Mike Nesmith out there – many of which have featured on these pages – but for my money this is the best, the absolute beauty, peerless.
22. Clout – Substitute
If ever there was one record that explained the “No Such Thing as a Guilty Pleasure” moniker under which this blog sits, it’s this one. I bought a compilation album called Guilty Pleasures Rides Again; this was on it and I couldn’t understand why anyone would feel guilty about liking it. I mean, it’s a stone cold banger, right? (Right!)
23. Billy Bragg – The Saturday Boy
In one of the first goes I had at doing this mix, Billy featured, but it wasn’t this tune, it was Sexuality, because it was much poppier than this. But that didn’t feel right, so I swapped it for this, Billy’s finest moment in my book. I’ve often said that, whilst his politics broadly chime with mine, it’s his love songs – or in this case, his unrequited love songs – which mostly hit the mark with me. I can never thank my old buddy Richie enough for pointing me in the direction of these songs from Billy’s back catalogue – albeit he played me The Man in the Iron Mask, and I was smitten – and since then, when I’ve wanted to persuade a mate of Billy’s relevance, this is my go-to song, because everyone has experienced the adolescent amourous rejection this song highlights.
24. The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: quite possibly the greatest pop song ever written…
25. The Waltones – She Looks Right Through Me
…although this pushes it pretty close. Pretty much the happiest night of my life was when, a few years ago, Richie and I saw The Waltones support The Chesterfields at the 100 Club in That London. After they’d played, I found myself standing next to lead singer James Knox; we discussed our ever burgeoning waistlines and our choice of t-shirt to either disguise or embrace it. He was wearing a shape-concealing black tee, I was wearing this:
…which, for the uninitiated is a reference to one of these bad boys:
26. The Chesterfields – Kiss Me Stupid
Since I’ve mentioned them, it seems somewhat churlish of me to not include something by them.
27. The Soup Dragons – Hang Ten!
Indie Banger. That is all.
28. The Smiths – William, It Was Really Nothing
Remember way back when we didn’t know Morrissey was a racist twat and could just enjoy the beauty of The Smiths’ records without feeling any guilt? Forget the current, live in the past for a few moments.
29. Kirsty MacColl – Free World
This is from 1989. You’d think things might have improved since then, wouldn’t you? But, nope: just as relevant now as it was 35 (yikes) years ago.
30. Johnny Boy – You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
Possibly the greatest song title ever. And the song’s not far off being one of the greatest anti-capitalist records ever.
31. Denim – Middle Of The Road
For my money, the song that properly kick-started the Britpop scene, and probably never bettered by any Union Jack wafting indie-kid underling. Surely, when it comes to unrecognised musical geniuses, Lawrence has to be at the front of the queue, right…?
32. Belinda Carlisle – Leave A Light On
Turns out the title of that Denim tune was an indicator to how we wrap things up here.
Apart from Johnny Marr (who I think appears on the Kirsty tune), Belinda is the only one to feature twice on this one. She was, of course, lead singer of The Go-Go’s, but it wasn’t until the band split and she went solo that Belinda became succesful on this side of the pond. I bloody love this song.
33. Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker
Written by the Bee Gee boys, this seemingly effortless beauty is just one of the finest records ever.
34. Chas’n’Dave – Ain’t No Pleasing You
And to bring things to a close, this beauty.
Given their close association with Tottenham, I feel sorry for Arsenal fans, joyless vagrants that they are, for they can never admit to liking this.
This is the series where I feature The Guardian’s idea of the 100 best UK #1s ever, and we see what I have to say about them(which usually isn’t much, to be honest).
So, here’s what The Grauniad had to say about the record they placed at #86:
“The product of producer Joe Meek’s twin obsessions – space travel and the recording studio as an instrument in itself – Telstar is otherworldly and breathlessly exciting, piling on layer after layer of sounds so dense with effects it is impossible to work out what instrument is making them. It’s like nothing else, before or since.”
NB: You will note the presence of a rogue ‘e’ in the spelling, a prime example, I believe, of the difference between UK English and US English. I imagine our American friends would have pronounced it Tor-nay-dos (as in Uno! Dos! Tres!) were it not for that addition. I make no comment about this.
Anyway, surprise surprise, I don’t have much to add to The Guardian’s description, other than to concur that when this came out, back in 1962, it must have sounded like nothing else, which was of course precisely what Joe Meek was aiming for.
Some other Telstar/Meek facts for you:
As well as spending five weeks at #1 in the UK singles chart, Telstar became the first record by a British ‘rock’ group to reach number one in the US Hot 100. The use of the word ‘rock’ there is entirely Wikipedia’s, by the way.
Meek used to live at 304 Holloway Road in North London, where he built his own studio. It is approximately a five minute drive from where I used to live on Hornsey Road. Yeh, you’re right that’s not the greatest claim to fame, is it? Doesn’t even deserve a CLANG! to mark it.
Meek and I never bumped into each other, probably due to him having been dead for about 40 years when I moved in to the area.
He died on 3 February 1967, when, after shooting his landlady, Violet Shenton, with a single-barrelled shotgun after they clashed over a) the noise levels emanating from his studio/room (is this where the term ‘studio flat’ comes from?) and the rent that he owed her. Meek had confiscated the shotgun from former Tornados bassist Heinz Burt, and shot Shenton, as they say in the newspapers, “before turning the gun upon himself.”
Telstar is the name of a number of communications satellites launched in the early 1960s. Telstar 1 was part of a multi-national agreement between the UK, the USA and France, and it relayed the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images through space, also providing the first live transatlantic television feed. Both Telstar 1 and Telstar 2 still orbit the Earth, doing nothing, examples of how, not content with covering our own world in crap, we’re doing our darnedest to fill space up with it too.
The 2009 film Telstar: The Joe Meek Story is very good, despite it being directed by Nick Moran, so I’m told. I have no idea if that’s true or not, as I’ve never seen it. I’m good at this, aren’t I?
Con O’Neill is in it, which is usually a good sign in my book. He plays Meek.
Finally, not so much a Telstar fact as a Telstar opinion: I’ve always thought that this little beauty contained at the very least a homage to, if not an actual sample, of Telstar, but I can find nothing on t’internet to support my view, so I’m probably wrong as usual:
8) Saint Etienne are highly unlikely to feature again in this series, as they’ve never had a UK #1, which they would have done if the British record-buying public had any sense, for they (Saint Etienne, not the British record-buying public) are ace.
Your reward for bothering to visit my little corner of t’internet is yet another playlisty-mixy-thing I threw together last weekend, and which I rather like so it has been bumped up the queue in the ones I’ve previously prepared.
I shan’t bang on for too long now, but there are two things to note here: firstly, this mix picks up on an orchestral/strings theme, so that it sits well with the ending of last week’s mix, and secondly, there’s a tune by Peaches in this one, so, predictably we need one of these:
And here’s your tracklisting and – gosh! – I’ve actually bothered to do sleeve notes this time.
The Jam – Smithers-Jones
Picking up where I left off last week, this is the orchestral/strings version which appears on the Setting Sons album. (I don’t just throw these together, you know!) This is a good marker of anyone who claims to be a Jam fan: ask them which version they prefer and if they flounder, then you know.
2. Elton John – I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues
OK, so now the dust has settled on his Sunday night Glastonbury appearance, here’s what I thought:
Firstly: I was relieved that he didn’t sound like this (for most of the set):
…although Twitter was most amusing when he played I’m Still Standing which was met by a resounding chorus of tweets along the lines of “Dill Danding!! I love this one!!”
Secondly: whilst his desire to promote new artists is admirable, his guests were disappointing to say the least.
Elton: “My next guest: Stephen Sanchez!!!”
The UK:
WHERE WAS BRITNEY???
Thirdly: not one mention of Bernie Taupin, the man who wrote the lyrics to most of his succesful songs, and without whom Elton would still be Reg the session musician. You ungrateful bastard.
All that said, I had a whale of a time watching him from the comfort of my sofa, engaged in text/WhatsApp messages with friends about what was unfolding in front of us, much of which is unrepeatable here (as a base level to the filthy jokes made: when he came onto the stage, hobbling in his gold suit, one friend (who shall remain nameless) said he looked: “…like he’s either just shat himself or he’s just been bummed.” “Or both,” I added to my shame.)
Anyway, I was delighted that he played this one, which is probably my favouite tune by Reg. As I was throughout his set: loved it, wished I was there.
3. She & Him – This Is Not a Test
Well, it’s not. We’re doing this right here right now baybee, and who better to confirm it than the Zooey Deschanel, lead actor from rubbish American sit-com New Girl, the Summer from 500 Days of Summer and all round US indie-schmindie pin-up? Nobody, that’s who.
4. Metronomy – Everything Goes My Way
I wish I could say something more intelligent or cool than this: it just sounded right in between the two records it finds itself sandwiched between. And it’s a great record, of course.
5. Happy Mondays – Kinky Afro
Oh, here they are, a week late. Thanks guys, nice of you to show up.
6. Kelis – Fish Fry
Well, it is Friday after all, although I suspect this may not be about a fish supper. It certainly sounds filthier than a cod, chips and mushy peas usually does.
I adore Kelis. If you’ve not yet watched her Glastonbury set on the BBC iPlayer, I’d recommend you do whilst you still can. Although, for most of it, I found myself thinking: if that rumour is true, Jamie Theakston is a lucky, lucky man.
7. Two Wounded Birds – My Lonesome
I needed something with that twangy surf-guitar sound. This fits and, crucially, it isn’t Chris Isaak. This is magnificent, though.
8. Saint Etienne – You’re In A Bad Way
Dated, but when you’re already being kitsch, that’s just fine and dandy. Late to the parade as always, this was the first Etienne single I bought, I think inspired by an appearance on The Word.
9. S’Express – Hey Music Lover
Look! I can post an S’Express record that isn’t Theme from S’Express!
Weirdly, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I look like Mark Moore, the driving force behind S’Express. I don’t. S’all in the eyes, apparently. I’ll let you Google Image search him on your own time. Not that you know what I look like, so it will be an utter waste of your time.
10. Cola Boy – 7 Ways To Love (Original Mix)
During Cat Stevens/Yusuf’s performance in the Legends slot at Glastonbury on the Sunday afternoon, I texted my old mate Richie to tell him that Peterborough’s finest was doing well. This caused some confusion, as Richie didn’t know Cat/Yusuf used to live in Peterborough, but he did, around the time he changed his name from Cat Stevens to Yusuf: The Artist Formerly Known as Cat Stevens, and also started saying that the fatwa on Salman Rushdie’s head was justified.
Anyway: had I said: “Used to work in the passport office in Peterborough”, which was the national conversation at the time, then there could be no other candidate than Cola Boy. I hope he didn’t give up the day job.
11. De’Lacy – Hideaway (Deep Dish Radio Edit)
A banger. That is all.
12. Jenny Wilson – Let My Shoes Lead Me Forward (The Knife Remix)
You can tell this is a Knife remix just by listening to it. It’s magnificent.
13. Tiga – You Gonna Want Me
Tiga’s records, whether he has enticed someone famous to perform vocals or not (I’m looking at you, Jake Shears) are reliably brilliant, this being a case in point.
14. Peaches – Shake Yer Dix (Tiga’s Where Were You In ’92 Remix)
Ooopsies, Tiga has associations here. I live for the day when a politician, desperate for the youth vote, pretends to like Peaches (the artist, not The Stranglers tune or the fruit) in the same way that Gordon Brown loved Artic Monkeys, and David Cameron claimed to love The Smiths (and if he did (which he didn’t), then you kinda missed the point, Davey). So should Rishi Sunak sign off from a speech with the words “I bloody love drill!”? Of course not, because he doesn’t know what it is. Unless it’s the same as fracking. We should neither expect nor desire our politicians to be down with the kids, so stop pretending to like something your SPADs have told you is cool, because literally nobody believes you.
14. Futureshock – Late At Night (Tomcraft Mix)
A rather fine way to call tonight’s proceedings to a close, even if I may say so myself. An absolute choon my old mate Dum Dum gave me on a CD he’d burned off at some point. Trust me, trust Dum Dum, this is a belter.
Well done to you all, you completed another level in this game that we call life, and got through the week relatively unscathed (I hope).
Your reward this week is yet another all-new mix courtesy of yours truly. I know, I know, I’m too ruddy kind for my own good.
What have we got for you this week? Well, we kick off with John Lydon taking a break from advertising butter, waxing lyrical about Donald Trump and generally being a living, breathing caricature of himself, by popping by to say “Hello!” (although he practically scowls it, rather than saying it), followed by the second best record I own which samples the late great Bill Hicks, then a track by a guy I once saw about 15 years ago supporting Los Campesinos! (he was incredible, all guitar effects pedal, looped beats and other electronic gizmo-ness I can only explain like this: imagine if Ed Sheeran was entertaining and had something to say), then we’re off on a bit of a vegetable tip with Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip and Kate Nash, followed by a side-swipe at the vacuous world of celebrity, topped off with a couple of classic old garage rock numbers which have been covered with much more success than they managed, a tune by one of the groups who recorded the more famous version of one of them, then a song responsible for probably my most favourite appearance on Top of the Pops ever, then a bit of Julian Cope and his bendy microphone stand, an overlooked rave-era classic before we’re back safely ensconced in the arms of Mr Lydon again.
There’s a modicum of swears on this one, so best I wheel out the ‘Effing and Jeffing Warning Sign’ for an airing:
Admin time: any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record selections are mine, all mine, and you can’t take them away from me, okay?
You can, happily, download or just stream this though:
A couple of weeks ago, I had the dubious distinction of co-hosting this year’s Christmas Party at work.
This involved me and three others planning and then hosting the event, which got moved to an online virtual party a little more than a week before it was scheduled for, due to the latest Covid strain and the advice to avoid face-to-face meetings unless they were absolutely necessary. This meant a lot of frantic rewriting, but it all went well in the end, with remarkably few technical issues. I’ll maybe write some more about this later.
You won’t be surprised to learn that my main contribution with regards to content was a pop quiz, in the form of a Spot the Intro round. The organisers last year had done one about Christmas Number Ones, so I had planned to do one about Christmas Number Twos, mostly so that I could make a particularly lavatorial joke.
However, you’d be surprised how many records which were #2 in the UK charts on Christmas Day are not particularly Christmassy at all, so it got changed to The NotThe Christmas Number One Quiz, which isn’t a particularly snappy title, I must confess.
I prepared 20 intros of Christmas records and invited the attendees to name the song, the artist, the year it was originally a hit, and what was actually #1 that Christmas.
This allowed we to slip in a few gags when delivering the answers: “That was Coldplay with Christmas Lights, setting the template for the soundtrack to every M&S advert since” and, my favourite, “From 2008, that’s It’s Christmas Time by Status Quo, which was kept off the #1 slot by Alexandra Burke’s Hallelujah. That, and 38 other records.”
Anyway, that put me in the mood for doing a Christmas mix, remembering that this time last year Christmas was cancelled and I posted a very long and defiantly un-Christmassy mix.
My brother is picking me up to go to be with our parents later today, so this mix is intended to be played on the journey over there (you’ve been warned, bruv!), and then when we arrive too. As such it’s geared towards Christmas Eve, travelling home, Santa visiting (and what the randy old dog gets up to when he does) and the hope that this Christmas is better than last year. It’s full of slightly obscure tunes and the occasional cover of a Christmas favourite. And you’ll be relieved to hear that, unlike most of my mixes, it’s only about an hour and a quarter long. There’s only so many jingling bells one can take.
The length doesn’t seem to have effected the occasional skip or jump (my usual disclaimer) but having listened to it through that shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment too much.
And yes, of course The Wedding Present and Status Quo (R.I.P. Rick) make appearances.
I’m having fun guessing at which song my father will try to work out how to turn the volume down a little, and when exactly my mother will ask just what on earth we’re listening to. I reckon if it’s not when Helen Love is covering Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight) then it will certainly be when Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo makes his annual appearance. And so we’re back to Christmas #2s.
Helen Love – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Wanna Fight)
The Housemartins – Caravan of Love
Cocteau Twins – Frosty The Snowman
South Park – Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo
The Wedding Present – Step into Christmas
Fountains Of Wayne – I Want An Alien For Christmas
Shonen Knife – Space Christmas
Ash – I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday
Julian Casablancas – I Wish It Was Christmas Today
Status Quo – It’s Christmas Time
Darlene Love – Marshmallow World
Weezer – We Wish You A Merry Christmas
I haven’t had time to prepare anything else to post over the Christmas weekend, but I’ll probably be back before the New Year, so for now I’ll just wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
Regular readers may recall that a while ago I mentioned that a couple of my friends have had some mental health issues -as have I, in the past (hopefully) – and that I was happy that both felt they could talk about their issues with me.
Shortly after that, one of them contacted me to say that they had been reading *gestures with an air of futility around me* this thing that I do, and had been taking the time to listen to the songs I post. One had particularly impressed them, by Teenage Fanclub, and they confessed to me that they had always been baffled by my allegiance to them, but thought that they may have got them mixed up with The Boo Radleys, who they really didn’t like.
There are many differences between The Boo Radleys and Teenage Fanclub; not least, the worst thing that can happen to you whilst wearing a Boo Radleys T-Shirt is someone might mistakenly think you a fan of Harper Lee’s works; wearing a Teenage Fanclub T-Shirt, on the other hand, can get you banned from various parks and playgrounds.
Anyway, I tried to explain to them that they had the wrong opinion of The Boos, thinking that it might be based on their Britpoptastic breakfast show staple Wake Up Boo! This was not, I said, in the slightest bit indicative of their early work, and I promised I would post something more in keeping soon.
And so here we are, with a single from their magnificent Giant Steps album; like several others in this series, rather than being quiet, introspective, acoustic or bleepy, this falls just about in the “great cacophany of noise” bracket:
Firstly, Caroline Flack. I’ve never watched Love Island, which she hosted (so I’m told), but I was aware of her. I knew she was a TV presenter, I always thought she seemed like a good laugh when I saw her on the box, I was vaguely aware that the red tops thought it controversial that she was dating a man several year her junior a few years ago. Had the roles been reversed, doubtless the man would have been treated like a legend. The manner of her death was a shock, the scramble to point fingers in different directions to appoint the blame no surprise though.
And then the news of Andrew Weatherall’s sudden passing, brought into sharp focus to me because he died due to a pulmonary embolsim – the very thing I was admitted to hospital for, back in 2018. I survived, he didn’t and, without wishing to sound overly dramatic or morose, I can’t help but think that the world would be a lot less poorer off had it been the other way round.
I met him once. I say “met”, what I actually mean is ‘was in the proximity of’. I was at London’s Liverpool Street station, and suddenly there he was, walking towards me through the crowds.
I say “towards me”, what I actually mean is ‘coincidentally in the direction of where I was standing’. I stood there, mouth open, partly at being this close to a genuine music legend, but also in shock that absolutely nobody else seemed to have recognised him.
He noticed me though, stood there staring at him with my mouth wide open, and as he passed he gave me a nod, safe in the knowledge that I was too dumbstruck to be able to respond/bother him.
Anyway, where do you start when you want to summarise the body of work that Weatherall created? Well, in my case, you don’t even try – you simply doff your cap at the genius of the man, and then point you in the direction of someone who can articulate the loss better than anyone I know.
For as long as I’ve followed music blogs, and certainly for a lot longer than I’ve actually written one, my go-to place for all things Weatherall was Swiss Adam’s place Bagging Area. There’s no finer place to discover the mind-boggling breadth of Weatherall’s musical creativity. Go see.
And in the meantime, this slice of bass-heavy beauty, a mix which still, after all these years stops me in my tracks, awestruck, everytime I hear it:
There aren’t many Christmas tunes about getting a train back to your family, so, since that is my preferred method of transport today (with a replacement bus or two tossed in for good measure) I’ll have to make do with this, glorious and kitsch as one would expect:
Oh, Come All Ye Faithful, Joyful and Triumphant, come to the Festive edition of The Chain!
I’ve been beset by technical issues this week, not just those which have delayed this by a day, but also the issues with several contributions mysteriously being marked as Spam and disappearing from the Comments section.
But, nevertheless here we are, with another mixed bag of your suggestions, linked to last week’s final record, “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake.
As usual, the suggestions can be split down into various categories – namely songs or artists which include the words or some derivative thereof, of “Nick”, “Drake, “Pink” or “Moon”. Surprisingly, almost none of you suggested anything which contained more than one link, so here’s one to get us started.
From “The Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd (who have a band member called Nick), here’s:
I set you all an additional challenge last week: since this week’s post would be available in Christmas week, I asked you to see if you could provide suggestions of a festive nature where possible, and some of you duly obliged.
Surprisingly, though, none of you suggested this, a song by a band so un-Christmassy I’ve always found this to be a slightly odd addition to their canon of work, let alone the fact that they released a whole album worth of this stuff:
So, over to you, but where to start? I suppose really, given that he has made more contributions this week than our most regular of readers have made since we started doing this, we should probably hear something from Rol of My Top Ten, right? Agreed.
“Another Nick busy at this time of year is St Nicholas better known as Santa Claus. When another Nick shuffles of this mortal coil he will almost certainly be canonized. Can we have The Man That I’ve Become from Dig My Mood an album by St Nick of Lowe please?”
Is it just me, or does the picture on that sleeve have more than a passing resemblance to a certain orange President-Elect?
CC wasn’t the only person to suggest this particular Nick this week. Here’s Walter from A few good times in my life:
“Taking his first name it is a short step to Nick Lowe. Probably one of the best songwriters in the early 80’s and blessed with a great voice. So what about the first Stiff single ever ‘So It Goes’?”
Regular visitors will know that generally, each week, after I’ve received several suggestions, I get a comment from Alyson from What’s It All About, Alfie? bemoaning the fact that all of the songs she was going to suggest had already been made by co-Chain Gangers. It’s a bit like when the person on the third podium on ‘Pointless’ says that the person on the second podium had just taken their answer. Anyway, so imagine my delight when the very first comment I got this week was from Alyson:
“Time for sleep now, then work tomorrow, so will no doubt be late again with my suggestion…but before CC trumps me, it might involve Lily the Pink.”
Several hours passed. Article 50 was activated and nobody noticed. Civilizations rose and fell. And then, finally, this:
“Well, sleep, work and xmas shopping got in the way so 18 hours after my first comment, I have decided against Lily The Pink by The Scaffold…”
Oh no you don’t. You’re having it, whether you like it or not, young lady:
And since we seem to have stumbled into Pink territory, back to Walter:
“Pink leads me to Pink Flag, Wire’s first record. Three Girl Rhumba was one of these little masterpieces in this era. Groundbreaking and always worth to listen to.”
A few years ago, when I still shared a flat, I did my usual Friday night routine of doing a playlist to get drunk with my flatmates to; it included that Wire rune, followed by the next record. I had neglected to tell my new flatmates that it was a playlist they were listening to; they thought my iPod was incredible for knowing to play these two records together (along with a whole host of other songs which sounded like/had been ripped off (allegedly) from each other. Hmm…maybe there’s a new topic for me there….). What I mean to say is *ahem* *clears throat* *offers a cheeky wink to the audience*…Well, if you’re going to suggest that, then I’m going to suggest this:
Right. I suppose we’d better make some in-roads into this mountain sized pile of suggestions by Rol. Oh hang on, Alyson’s back:
“I have always thought that the multi-talented American singer Pink, and Sharon Watts from Eastenders, were dopplegangers and who did Sharon date for a while on that show – Yes it was “Nick” Berry who had a big hit with Every Loser Wins. (They don’t, every loser generally loses, but it worked well for him). A tenuous double link.”
Much as I’d love to post that, it has featured here before and the rule is that the only records we can feature twice are a) “Back on the Chain Gang” by The Pretenders, and b) records which turn out to be the next record in The Official Chain which we’ve already had. Have another go.
“…perhaps Lily The Pink it will have to be, although just remembered that the brother of Mike McGear of The Scaffold was Paul McCartney whom I also seem to remember recorded a theme for the teatime soap “Crossroads” which Nick Drake’s sister, aforementioned Gabrielle, appeared in. Don’t know if theme tunes count as a suggestion but another double link.”
Well, we’ve featured the theme tune to Bergerac and Space:1999 here before, so I don’t see why not, especially when The Great Gog made reference to the same theme tune via a different link in his suggestion:
“There is Nick’s sister, Gabrielle, who starred in Crossroads at one time. The theme tune to Crossroads was written by Tony Hatch…”
I have had that firmly lodged in my brain ever since I listened to it. It should come with some sort of Government health warning. As should have the programme it book-ended.
“Things hatch from eggs,” continues The Great Gog, “which to me at least is as good an excuse as any for “Egg Shaped Fred” from Mansun.”
Catchphrase alert! Well, if you’re going to suggest that, then I’m going to suggest this, from the magnificent “The Mysterious Production of Eggs” by Andrew Bird:
Right, where were we? Ah yes, Alyson, back to you:
“Final pink suggestion is simply ‘Pink Cadillac’ by Natalie Cole simply because she is yet someone else from that long list of artists who have left us since this time last year.”
It’s probably about time put a dent into Rol’s suggestions. No, really this time.
“I’m resisting the obvious Springsteen link from Alyson’s last suggestion as it’s Christmas and I don’t want to upset George” This would be most admirable, were it not for the fact that Springsteen wrote Pink Cadillac, but I’m sure George appreciates the sentiment.
“However, since no one else will dare suggest a song by the best damned pop star of the last 20 years, can I suggest ‘So What’ by Pink?”
The Chain would like to make it very clear that the views of Rol re: the best pop star of the last 20 years are not necessarily shared by the publishers of The Chain.
There’s something rather wonderful about hearing a seventy-year old Welsh woman proclaiming: “I’m comin’ up so you better you better get this party started”, isn’t there? Bear that in mind when your grannies farting herself to sleep in front of the television on Christmas Day.
Which reminds me: Christmas records, anyone?
Ah, here’s Julian from Music From Magazines, he seems the sort of cheery fellow bound to supply us with something festive. Which he will, but first, he’ll expand a little on the whole Gabrielle Drake thing. She rather seems to have set racing the hearts of several of the men of a certain age who contribute here:
“Nick Drake’s sister was Gabrielle Drake who was in the TV show UFO (any picture would be a Christmas gift for any man of a certain age [See? I told you so]), the heavy metal band UFO is not a gift.”
It’s okay, we’re not having anything by UFO. Although, had you actually suggested something by them, I would have been honour bound to post it. Oh and by the way, I am not posting a picture of Gabrielle Drake. If you’re reading this, you’re already connected to the internet, so you can find one yourself, you mucky sod. ()
Before you all go cranking open a spare browser to do exactly that, stick around folks, because if you piece together this little bit of connected thinking out loud, you get a rather fine example of Comment Showboating.
“On the other hand ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft” by The Carpenters is a fine song written by the Canadian group Klaatu, a bunch of session musicians, who some folk thought were The Beatles.”
I’ve always thought that was a pretty odd, uncharacteristic record for The Carpenters to have recorded, had assumed it was a cover version, but had never actually thought about finding out for sure. Consequently, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard it.
By the way, many years ago, I was drafted into what turned out to be the winning team in a pub quiz. (There was a music round, and without wishing to sound immodest, I was often asked to join teams for pub quizzes which featured a music round). The prize was “A Tribute to The Carpenters”, which I had assumed was going to be a night of people performing cover versions of their many hits, but which actually turned out to be a selection of middle aged men displaying a rather fine range of bureaus and occasional tables they had made.
I digress. Back to Julian:
“A slight detour to the movies for the classic sci fi ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ starring Michel Rennie as the alien called ….Klaatu. A still from the film was used (with some editing) for the cover of Ringo Starr’s LP ‘Goodnight Vienna’.”
It’s okay, he’s going somewhere with this. Trust me.
And he’s not wrong you know. The original:
and the “Peace and Love! Peace and Love! No autographs! Peace and Love” rip off:
“Which of course leads on to Dora Bryan and ‘All I Want for Christmas is a Beatle'”
At last, a Christmas record! And am I alone in being reminded of a certain other iconic performer from the North West of England when I hear that? No? You know who I mean, surely?
Julian’s not quite done yet, and we’re most definitely not done with the Gabrielle Drake links just yet. Here’s Julian, ruining all that excellent Comment Showboating by suggesting the Worst Record of the Week:
“Back to Gabrielle Drake. The organisation that [Spoiler alert!! – Considerate Ed] will save the world in UFO is the Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organization or SHADO which is only a short step, (or a W) to a truly crap Christmas song”:
“All this talk of Gabrielle Drake being in Crossroads but am I the only one who mainly remembers her from that 1970s Sunday Night drama set in the exciting world of haulage – ‘The Brothers’?” chips in Alyson. “So many links to bands/duos with Brothers in their name so won’t overload you and was really just looking for one that might have done a seasonal ditty but all I could find in my library was Count Basie & The Mills Brothers with ‘December’! (Goodness knows where that came from as can’t remember ever noticing it before.)”
Okay, let’s wrap up the rest of the Drake related suggestions, and we’ll go back to The Great Gog:
“A contender for worst record of the week [Too late, even though you did suggest this first. It is nowhere near as bad as Sir Cliff – Cut’n’Paste Ed]”:
More Drake-related shenanigans from The Beard now:
“Drake is a popular Canadian rapper. Another, much better, Canadian rapper is Abdominal. He is best known for his collaborations with DJ Format. When not hip-hopping Format makes spaced out funk as part of The Simonsound. ‘Tour De Mars’, their cover of Kraftwerk’s Tour De France, is almost as good as the original.”
And the Drake links just keep on coming. Here’s Swiss Adam from Bagging Area:
“Nick Drake was related to Elizabethan sailor, privateer and adventurer, Francis Drake.[Has anyone checked this? – Ed] Francis Drake was a thorn in the side of the ‘King of Spain’, which is a song by Galaxie 500.”
“A drake is a male duck. Chuck Berry was famous for his ‘duck walk’ and he had a song called Havana Moon, first released in 1957, later re-recorded for the 1979 album Rock It. Interestingly, that was the last studio album Chuck released, but he has a new one lined up for 2017, the year he turns 91. Yes – 91. I wonder if he can still do the duck walk?”
I imagine if he can, it would be The Duck Walk sponsored by Stannah Stairlifts and Sanatogen Vital 50+.
Props for the Duck/Drake/Moon double-linker by the way, Rob.
A quick additional duck-link from Walter:
“I don’t think he can’t do the duck walk any more but I’m surprised that he will us give a new record at the age of 91 and I ask myself if Keith Richards will still be on the stage at this age. So Ducks Deluxe came to my mind with Who’s put the bump”
By which I think you mean this (and apologies, I could only find a live version, but it doesn’t sound like there’s many people in the audience, so it’s practically a live studio version):
Whilst we’re on ducks, a song which I remember from my childhood, which I haven’t been able to find a decent copy of, but did find this clip from TOTP2, which means it is top-and-tailed by Steve Wright, which makes it even worse than it already is:
It was around this point that the Comments went all wonky and some got deleted. As far as I can tell, this affected Charity Chic, who compensated by reposting his links over and over again until they worked, and SWC and Badger’s. If anyone else’s got lost, my apologies.
One that didn’t get lost, was this from Kay. In the interest of full disclosure, I should let you all know that Kay is not just a friend of mine, but also my boss, so you’ll forgive me for allowing her suggestions, irrespective of how terrible the record or tenuous the link she suggests. I can say this without fear of retribution because by the time she reads this, she’ll be at least halfway through the bottle of Chocolate Orange liqueur we bought her today. Delicious on Coco Pops, I’m…er…told.
“Nick Drake links to Drake, same name but then realised I didn’t really know any of Drake’s stuff. [I have just Googled him,and I’m none the wiser] So went the same way as The Robster and linked drake to male ducks, then realised I knew no songs that are linked to ducks [It’s going well this, isn’t it?] …. but [I sense a Eureka! moment is imminent] ducks live in ponds and frogs do too…so my choice is Paul McCartney & The Frog Chorus’ ‘We All Stand Together’, which was the first record my sister brought.”
Or, as he is forever known Chez Jez: Fab Macca Wacky Thumbs Aloft. Some of you will understand the reference.
I’m going to avoid the lazy joke about that being Nigel Farage’s least favourite record since it contains a bunch of frogs suggesting unity. Although I appear to have just made it anyway.
By George, it’s George!
“Worst song of the week contender [Nuh-huh]. From Nick Drake to Ted Drake (the footballer) who played for Southampton (and Arsenal)., and was manager of Chelsea when they won their first league title in 1954/55. And born in Southampton, in 1955 (double chain link there!) was Howard Jones. Now, I could it leave it to Charity Chic to pick a Howard Jones track from his record shelves But I’m going for…”
“…which had that bloke in chains prancing around on Top of the Pops. Who was he, anyone know?”
As I said in the Comments, I do. His name was Jed, a name I have been mistakenly called many times, and as such one which is indelibly edged into my brain.
And in case you don’t know who George is on about, here’s Howard and Jed, singing and prancing around on Top of the Pops:
I’m having a flashback, I swear…
Let’s move on to wrapping up the Pink links, and I’ll hand you over to George again:
“Pink Moon to Pink Industry and their single ‘What I Wouldn’t Give’. (The cover of the single featured a picture of Morrissey).”
It does indeed, which is precisely the reason I have a copy of it, poor obsessed fool that I was:
By the way, as I’ve uploaded that I’ve realised that there’s about three minutes of silence at the end of it. Time constraints prevent me from editing it, but I may come back and do it later on, if anyone’s that fussed. What I mean is, when the song sounds like it has ended at around the 3:30 mark, it has: don’t sit around in silence on the off-chance something interesting might be about to happen, as it isn’t.
As I mentioned earlier, the glitches that meant some comments went AWOL seem to have affected Charity Chic, SWC and Badger’s. I think we got there in the end though, although what with SWC and Badger both posting from their excellent When You Can’t Remember Anything blog I’m not 100% sure that I’ve attributed the right song to the right chap this week. So, more apologies if I’ve messed it up.
So, I think this is SWC taking us, as he puts it, “down the pink route” now he’s “finished watching Gabrielle Drake’s finest moment ‘Commuter Husbands’ “
“The obvious link from here is to ‘Snooker Loopy’ by Chas ‘n’ Dave and The Matchroom Mob” which has featured before, so I can’t allow, I’m afraid, “But another song that features pink would be ‘Pink Glove’ by Pulp.”
From vomit to Martini. I don’t just throw this together you know.
Here’s babylotti with a hat-trick, starting with a pink connection, and ending with something festive:
“First of all, I can think of Fuzzbox (had they dropped the ‘We’ve Got a …& We Know How to Use It’ by then?) [Yes and no, is the answer: officially they were now just Fuzzbox, but as this was the first single they released under that moniker, the “We’ve Got…” part was snuck onto the record sleeve just in case there was any doubt as to who was responsible for it. There’d been quite a make over in between the ‘Bostin’ Steve Austin’ album and this, so you can’t really blame them – Ed]) and Pink Sunshine. Bostin’”
“From there that leads me to another one introduced to me by Peel, Fuzzbox’ label mate Ted Chippington. I’d love to go for his version of ‘D.I.S.C.O.’, but I will settle for ‘Rockin with Rita’…”
That’s fortuitous, I haven’t been able to find ‘D.I.S.C.O.’, but ‘Rockin’ with Rita’, no problem:
“Finally from ‘Rockin’ with Rita’, I’m going for a festive link to Mel & Kim’s [no, not those ones, but it’s only a matter of time before they turn up here] ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’.”
“Moon River is from the excellent 1961 movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s, starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Ten years earlier, one of Audrey’s first ever screen roles was as a “Cigarette Girl” in the movie Laughter In Paradise in which she appeared alongside another famous George… George Cole. That George would go on to become immortalised as Arfur Daley in the TV show Minder, and in 1983, he would release a Christmas single with his co-star Dennis (“write the theme tune, sing the theme tune”) Waterman.”
I wish I could say I didn’t actually already own this. I think this may over-take Sir Cliff in the Worst Record of the Week stakes:
“Their Top of the Pops performance is worth a watch.” It is, just so you can see the dictionary definition of the words “excrutiating” and “embarrassing” acted out:
It is at this point in the Comments section, that Julian and Rol had a bit of a chat, coming up with more suggestions. Nice to see you boys getting along!
Julian: “Back to the movies, in the film ‘New York New York’ Blue Moon is destroyed by Robert De Niro who costarred in ‘What Happened Next’ (2008) with Bruce Willis……..”
Which leads us to what has been argued to be the greatest Christmas movie ever: Die Hard. (It’s not. It’s pretty much Home Alone for grown-ups.)
The end credits have this festive number playing over them:
And since we’ve landed on some Christmas songs again, here’s another suggestion from Rol:
“Can I add ‘Run With The Fox’ by Chris Squire & Alan White (roughly a quarter of Yes) because it contains a Christmas Moon, which isn’t pink but probably has fairy lights hanging from it. It might keep old proggies like The Swede happy… or not. “
Which I think just leaves us with Badger. Since his comment was one that was lost, I received a summary of both his and SWC’s suggestions. We’ve had SWC’s, here’s Badger’s:
“Nick Drake also recorded ‘Road’ which was covered by scouse punk band Drive on their ‘Out Freakage’ album…”
And this is where it gets complicated. For at the end of their summary of the lost comments, posted by which of our fine friends I know not, was this:
“He also said something about Malcolm McLaren but I true to form can’t remember what.”
Later, this, again, author unconfirmed: “It was to do with ‘Duck Rock’.”
I sought clarification: “Was there a song from ‘Duck Rock’ you had in mind? If not, it’s going to be ‘Double Dutch’…”
The response, again author unconfirmed: “Well most of it is rubbish to be honest [Fair point]. I only thought of it because I saw a copy in a charity shop. Double Dutch is fine.”
But I felt a bit bad about…erm…badgering them into letting me play the track I like the most, so I persevered:
“Yeh, it’s that or ‘Buffalo Girls’ really isn’t? Your call, I have them both lined up ready to go. Which did you suggest in your original lost comment? We should go with that one, really.. “
No response, but to be fair, the boys have probably been swamped with comments and nice things being said about their frankly phenomenal final post (for now…?) over at When You Can’t Remember Anything. If you haven’t read it yet, do your self a favour: click that link and read something incredible. Advanced warning: you will undoubtedly shed a tear.
The reason I was trying to check whether or not one of them had suggested ‘Buffalo Gals’ (as I have subsequenty realised it’s actually called) was this. I never look at what the next record in the Official Chain is until I’ve finished sourcing all the tunes you suggested and thought of a few myself. Seems only fair that we have an even playing field, where I don’t know what the next record in The Chain is any more than you do. Besides, it’d just look plain fishy if I “guessed” right every week.
But when I did look to see what the next record in The Official Chain was, this is what I found:
“From Nick Drake to the following (which is on the ‘Duck Rock’ album)..”:
So, SWC, Badger, jointly as I have no idea which of you suggested Malcolm McLaren, and in honour of your bloody marvellous (please keep going, you’re too good at this to stop) blog, have some bonus points. Merry Christmas.
Okay. So. This is the last edition of The Chain for 2016. I’ll be taking next week off, bar a couple of pre-planned posts I have lined up. Due to the nature of it, I can’t really write The Chain in advance, obviously.
So, you have two weeks to get your suggestions to me, via the Comments section below, for songs which link to “Buffalo Gals” by Malcom McLaren, along with the usual explanation about how you got from record A to record B.
Oh and one more thing. I love doing this, and I’ve said it before and I really mean it – I just host it, the majority of the work is down to you lot and your quite brilliant suggestions. I’ve followed blogs for over ten years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever come across a blog that does what we do here at The Chain. Not me, we.
I cannot think of a single other blog where requests are invited and all are posted; where all is good-natured, pleasant and friendly and everyone accepts they may get a bit of a ribbing every now and then, and nobody objects, nobody trolls, nobody flounces off in a strop because I’ve said their record choice was terrible; where I’ve been introduced to God knows how many songs and artists that I would probably never have heard were we not doing this (and where I hope I’ve returned the favour a few times); and where we get the most incredibly diverse range of artists – just look at that Tag list underneath this!! 46 songs!! Where else would you get that?
What I’m trying to say is this: if you’ve ever made a suggestion here, thank you. You have helped make this place what it is.
Have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.
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A History of Dubious Taste 