Friday Night Music Club

A little later than usual this week, not that I think anyone actually listens to these on a Friday Night.

My apologies for that, and for the lack of much preamble or sleeve-notes this week. I will explain why at some point over the weekend.

All I will say is that this week, it’s guitars all the way, with some 70s, 80s and 90s classics, a couple of jokes in the running order, and a few tunes you’ll either have never heard before or will have not heard for so long you’ve forgotten all about. With good reason, some might say.

And no need for my usual admin disclaimer about any mixing gaffes, since this week the cross-fader stayed resolutely here again:

(I’ll be honest, I’ve not had chance to listen to this one; if there’s loads of skips and jumps I’ll redo it, and remove this sentence).

So, we’ll dive straight in – here’s this week’s mix for you:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 16

Track-listing:

1. The Jam – Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
2. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Pump It Up
3. The Boomtown Rats – Rat Trap
4. The Beat – Mirror In The Bathroom
5. The Look – I Am The Beat
6. Idlewild – When I Argue I See Shapes
7. Symposium – Farewell To Twilight
8. Shed 7 – She Left Me On Friday
9. The Rezillos – Top Of The Pops
10. Buzzcocks – I Don’t Mind
11. The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin
12. King Kurt – Destination Zululand
13. Tenpole Tudor – Swords of a Thousand Men
14. Salad – Drink The Elixir
15. Shocking Blue – Send Me A Postcard Darling
16. Orange Juice – Felicity
17. My Life Story – Strumpet
18. Super Furry Animals – Play It Cool
19. Belly – Now They’ll Sleep

More soon.

1985 and All That

So whilst I was busy buying godawful records by members of The Quo, at the same time I was racking up some unintentional points with Britannia Music.

Long-term readers may remember that I mentioned this particular company once before. In the mid-1980s, anytime you opened a weekend newspaper, a leaflet would invariably fall out, advertising Britannia’s 3 for £20 introductory offer, which I have to admit this teenage brain fell for.

Having succumbed, they would send you a booklet every month, detailing all of their wares (of which you had to buy a certain amount within a certain amount of time or…well, actually, as these were the days where you paid for any postal purchases by cheque, I’m not sure what the “or..” was. They’d tell my parents??) and bigging up their Album of The Month.

And here’s where the real money-spinner was for them: they just assumed that you would want to buy the Album of the Month. If you didn’t, you had to tick a box on a form and post it back to them by a certain date. Miss that cut off point, and suddenly you were the proud owner of…well, you’ll see.

You know me by now. I ended up with some stuff that I would not have ordinarily bought. Like this:

Go West – Don’t Look Down

and this…

Spandau Ballet – Highly Strung

…which contains one of the most cringe-worthy lyrics ever:

“She used to be a diplomat, but now she’s down the laundromat”

Although I can’t really complain, as it did mean I owned this, which is an absolutely belting New Romantic classic:

Spandau Ballet – To Cut a Long Story Short

Both of these inadvertent purchases would, in the fullness of time, actually prove their worth. I’ll explain that later.

So that’s my excuse for owning those. I have no such excuse, nor do I think I need one, for owning this:

…which I intentionally bought, not so that I owned any of their guitars-as-bagpipes records (if you don’t know what I mean by that, then go YouTube “In a Big Country”), but so that I owned this, which I still adore to this day (and I don’t care what you think):

Big Country – Chance

I also bought this:

…a collection of tracks by bands who had played at Live Aid, mostly because, if memory serves, it was only £1.99, but also because it contained this (and again, I don’t care what you think about me liking this either):

The Boomtown Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays

Has there been a greater record written about a shooting spree at a school? I think not, and let’s face it, there’s been plenty of opportunities for somebody to have a go at writing one.

But wait. Here comes the good bit.

Yet again, I can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by giving you this brilliant piece of Japanese pop, which samples the piano bit at the start of “…Mondays” (and, whilst we’re at it, the German bit from the start of  “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” by The Offspring, which in turn was sampling Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages” which…heck, we could be here all day if I carry on). (By the way, you should watch the Def Leppard video, it is unintentionally, bum-wigglingly, hilarious. Spinal Tap was spot on.)

Anyway, if you only click one link on this blog, I urge you to make it this one. You won’t regret it:

Puffy AmiYumi – Call Me What You Like

See? Told you.

More soon.