Friday Night Music Club

After having stated numerous times over the past few weeks that I try not to make these mixes themed, saving those for the occasional airing over at JC’s place, a themed mix is exactly what tonight’s is, although it’s a very loose theme that you may not have even noticed had I not been stupid enough to mention it.

I was thinking the other day about how I often bang on about when I started DJ’ing when I was at college, taking over the fortnightly Indie Disco at the beginning of my second year, which was way back in 1989. And I thought it might be rather nice to do a playlist of the sort of things we used to play, until the Madchester scene exploded and changed 80% of our playlist (for the better; the night was dying on its arse until we were saved by the lads and lasses in hoodies and massive flares).

So that’s what tonight’s mix is: a load of tunes from around the time when I started, some from a little earlier, some I must admit, from a little later. Also, I’ve tried to avoid some of the big hitters – so no Smiths, Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen. But I’ve tried to recreate how an hour of our Indie nights generally sounded back way back when.

Also, in a change to normal, instead of just giving you a tracklisting, I’ve added some sleeve notes for you. Cos I’m nice like that. I might carry that on, we’ll see.

Anyway, chocks away, here we go:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 14

1. The Stone Roses -Bye Bye Badman
2. The Chesterfields – Two Girls and a Treehouse

I’ve kicked off with these two as a tip of the hat to the guy I first started DJ’ing with, a lad off my course named Danny Sweeney. He would always try to squeeze these in because “nobody else plays them”. Danny was sensible enough to stop DJing after a year so that he could focus on his course as it entered it’s final year; I was less sensible, stood for election for the post of Social Secretary, DJ’d loads more, and ended up having to retake my final year, adjudged to have failed the course because, although I passed all the exams and coursework, I hadn’t turned up to enough lectures. Not that I’m still bitter about it or anything, thirty years later, you understand.

3. The Darling Buds – Shame on You

Because of the size of the venue (400 capacity), we would often get little-at-the-time bands, on their way up. The Darling Buds played one Friday night; a day or so later I was talking to two blokes who were absolutely astounded that we’d had a band on who they saw on Going Live! (or whatever the Saturday morning live show on the BBC was called at the time) the next day.

The Darling Buds were one of a clutch of indie bands fronted by blonde female singers – see also The Primitives and Transvision Vamp. They were also the first band I ever met; my mate Keith and I being permitted access to the dressing room after the gig, where the band (and lead chanteuse Andrea in particular) studiously ignored us for about fifteen minutes until we sloped off with our tails between our legs.

4. The Wonder Stuff – Unbearable

Because the Indie night was not exactly the hottest ticket in town, you tended to notice and recognise most people there. And so it was that Keith and I took pity on one lad, who was always on his own. We invited him to join us, which he did. Soon afterwards, we realised why he was always alone: he was exceptionally dull. But now he thought we were his friends, so whenever we arrived he homed in on us like the world’s most boring missile. Burned into my memory is the time this tune, with lead Stuffie Miles Hunt at his sneering best, got played; we all danced, but Keith, unkindly in my opinion, kept singing the chorus in the lad’s general direction at first, and right in his face later. Fortunately, he just thought Keith really liked the song.

5. The Fall – Mr Pharmacist

Some big-hitters I just can’t leave out, and having mentioned Miles Hunt’s sneering, it seemed only right to post something by the late great Mark E. Smith, who seemed to have his upper lip permanently set to curl.

6. Sandkings – All’s Well With The World

Remember Babylon Zoo? Once upon a time, they had a few seconds of their record Spaceman used in a jeans advert, resulting in it being catapulted to the top of the charts, as was the way of the world back then. Problem was, the few seconds used in the ad were by far the best thing about the record, which swiftly descended into one of the dullest turgid drones ever to grace the charts at all, let alone the coveted #1 position. Well, this is the band that Babylon Zoo’s Jas Mann was in before he briefly found fame, and this is loads better than Spaceman. Around the time, many bands were trying to sound like either The Smiths or R.E.M.; this falls into the latter category.

7. Milltown Brothers – Never Come Down Again

Speaking of bands trying to sound like R.E.M., that was an allegation often levelled at this lot. I can kinda see what they meant, although it’s not a comparison I would have made myself. This is ace though, in an of-its-time way.

8. The Family Cat – Steamroller

Contains a really great loudQUIETloud section which is so good they repeat the trick later on, stretching out the elastic of the QUIET bit for so long that when it eventually twangs and the loud crashes back in again, the joyous rush it brings still gets me every time all these years later. Play it loud.

9. The Wedding Present – Don’t Laugh

Okay, okay, another from a big hitter, but this is one of the extra tracks from the Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm 12″, each of which is an absolute belter, detailing, as Wedding Present songs so often did, relationships on the cusp of breaking, or which have just gone over the edge. Gedge at his bitterest best.

10. Kingmaker – When Lucy’s Down

Because those few people who actually remember Kingmaker generally remember them for Ten Years Asleep, and not for this little beauty. Which is rather sad.

11. That Petrol Emotion – Hey Venus

Because many people think that the former Undertones only ever had one decent tune (Big Decision), and they’re wrong because this is pretty great, if a little poppier, too.

12. The Waltones – Bold

The Waltones should have been huge. But having tip-toed to the very verge of being popular, Madchester happened and suddenly their brand of jangly indie pop had fallen down the pecking order. Them’s the breaks.

13. James – How Was It For You?

The song which, along with Come Home, laid the foundation for their less-folky, more-stadium sound, before Sit Down was re-released for the umpteenth time and became the smasheroo we all know and love/hate (delete as applicable).

14. Inspiral Carpets – She Comes In The Fall

Still stands the test of time this one, in my book. Also in my book: the Inspirals were one the best singles bands of the late 80s/early 90s. Moo!

15. The Motorcycle Boy – Big Rock Candy Mountain

Just as C86 darlings The Shop Assistants had tickled the fancy of indie tweesters up and down the land, lead singer Alex jumped ship and formed The Motorcycle Boy. This is by far the best thing they ever did.

16. The Sundays – Can’t Be Sure

Oh, Harriet *sighs*.

17. World Of Twist – She’s A Rainbow

Long before The Verve, and around the same time as Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine felt the wrath of Jagger and Richards legal team, World of Twist released this rather wonderful cover of the Stones’ classic. They were sensible enough to dodge the lawsuits by remembering to credit the wrinkly wonders as songwriters though.

And that’s your lot, til next week.

More soon.

Name That Tune

I’m happy to acknowledge the source of inspiration for some of my posts. When I can remember them, that is.

This post was inspired by a post on one of those links in the Blog Roll over on the left hand side of the page. Actually, one which I’d been thinking about removing as it seemed inactive, but it has recently been revived, which I can identify with.

Beauty Above All is written by Héctor BalaClava in a language I don’t understand, but that doesn’t matter, as generally he just posts a single tune, an indie classic mostly.

The other day he posted a tune by The Verlaines, a band presumably named after Tom Verlaine, main man of Television, whose Marquee Moon album you will regularly find lingering around the top half of any half-way decent Best Albums Ever…! list.

And that got me thinking; not about Television, or about Marquee Moon, or for that matter Tom Verlaine itself.

But about The Family Cat.

The Family Cat were an indie band who rose to…well, let’s not say fame, let’s say prominence..in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

They were a band who, like bands like peers Inspiral Carpets and James, understood the financial importance of merchandise, specifically tee-shirts, producing a whole slew of them.

I may have mentioned this before, but I really hope that whoever it was within the Cat camp that was responsible for coming up with the tee-shirt designs had the foresight to trademark them. For, when embarking on a UK Tour around 1992-ish (if memory serves) the released a range of tees bearing the following logo: FCUK.

Originally produced presumably to invoke shock and outrage (Dad: “You’re not going out wearing a shirt with a swear word on it!” Child: “What swear word, Dad?”), the four letter logo was appropriated by a certain chain of UK fashion retailers.

I hope the Cat boys got their dollar.

Anyway, here’s the tune Héctor’s post made me think of, for perhaps the first time in twenty years or so:

The Family Cat – Tom Verlaine

More soon.

1990 – 1995 The Lost Indie Years?

A friend of mine, who is a much more successful writer than I (because he’s better at it than I am) recently wrote an article for the Huffington Post (see? Already you know he’s waaay more successful and better than lil ole me pottering away here on my lil ole blog) where he wrote about…well, as the title of this post suggests, songs from that post Madchester, pre-Britpop age, which, if you were to believe most writers, was a time that was awash with shoegazers and floppy fringes on this side of the pond, plaid shirts and grunge greaseball cuts on the other, and not much else.

As we all know, the British shoegaze movement was effectively brought down by the friendly-fire of grunge, which in turn, through a democratic process of negotiation and peaceful protest, was superseded, on these shores anyhow, by Britpop (sorry Brett, Damon, Jarvis: that’s what we’re all calling it.)

But whilst shoegaze and grunge were certainly the musical trends of choice for your self-respecting Indie kid at the time, there was other stuff knocking around which didn’t really fit into either category, which seem to have been lost in the midst of time and which, well, you need to know about. This is the thrust of his article.

Oh go on then, here’s his article: Ten Early 90s Indie Songs That Say It All

All of what I will post in this section would have cropped up anyway at some point, sooner or later, here, but this gives me a little focus.

So, in no particular order:

10. “Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello (Petrol)” – Something Happens!

I’m using the Chart Show circa 1990 definition of Indie here, which means I may be stretching the definition of “indie” with this one, but let’s face it, the definition of Indie has been somewhat woolly ever since PWL came on the scene. I’d even extend that to Mute Records too, who I used to begrudge occupying places in the Indie Chart and inevitably being played. Both those labels clogged up what we could have seen at lunchtime on a Saturday around this time, with their Kylie and Erasure pop hits respectively. Grrr.

Anyway, it was via The Chart Show that this song came to my attention, and I still think it’s rather fine. Pop, yes. Terrible haircuts, yes. But still a bloody fine pop tune that gets these old bones a-twitching whenever I hear it, which is of course, whenever I play it, because nobody else ever does.

Watch the video here.

9. “Honesty” – The Bridewell Taxis

Words cannot describe how much I love this song. When I went home from college, I would try to record or watch a show called “Intermission”. On ITV, at about 3am, and introduced by a news presenter who had clearly pissed somebody off so much that they made him stay up to link this show in, Intermission was a vital crib guide for me as the resident Indie DJ at my Student Union. There were several acts I found through this show, The Bridewell Taxis being one of them. For some reason I thought they were from Bristol, until someone pointed out to me that Bridewell is in Leeds. Ho hum. Geography is not a strong point.

Anyway, “Honesty” is a weird combination of slightly jangly guitars, over a brass band, with a skinhead singing. Sleaford Mods, eat your hearts out.

Actually, I do have some words that describe it: fucking glorious.

Watch the video here.

 8. “Tired” – BOB. A record so obscure, even the internet seems to deny it’s existence. Ok, it’s formulaic. Ok, it’s Madchester bandwagon-jumping. But it’s not that different to Mock Turtles “Can U Dig It”, now is it? And I bet you like that. Suck it up.

There is no video to watch here.

7. “Remember What It Is That You Love” – The Family Cat

Obviously, had it come out in the 90s I’d have picked their Tom Verlaine single, but since I’m prevented from picking from that, hoisted by my own petard, I offer you this little gem from 1990.

The Family Cat are truly one of the great lost indie bands, and also one of the unluckiest, financially. I saw them play in Cardiff Uni Great Hall around this time and their merchandise was their logo, a play on the fact it was a UK tour by the Family Cat, so the letters FCUK were prominent. Does that look familiar to anyone? Yes indeed: nobody thought to trademark that, so French Connection steamed in and stole it (sorry, I mean came up with the original concept of using it) for their FC:UK range. Bugger.

This song also has a special meaning for me, as we used to do a cover of it in the band I was in at college, but more of that at a later date.

Watch the video here.

6. “Which Way Should I Jump?” – The Milltown Brothers

If ever a band flirted with the idea of being properly famous, in a “sounds a bit like R.E.M.” kinda way, it was this lot. Live, they were a very tight prospect, and I won’t bang on too much about them here now because I have a couple of stories to tell in my normal thread. But suffice it to say, their “Slinky” album is an absolute blinder, and if you ever happen to be nosing through a second hand store and spot it, grab it. As you can tell from this track, it’s accomplished and fully rounded pop at its best.

Here’s the video.

5. “When Lucy’s Down” – Kingmaker

If ever a band flirted with the idea of being properly famous, in a “sounds a bit like The Wonder Stuff” kinda way, it was this lot. Probably not helped by the fact they had a lead singer called “Loz” who looked like just the kind of speccy twat student that Paul Calf was railing against at the time. Kingmaker were once touted as the next big thing, but it never really happened for them, although they had their 15 minutes of fame via their Top 20 hit “10 Years Asleep“, which you remember, right?

Watch the video here.

 4.”On The Ropes” – The Wonder Stuff

And since I’ve mentioned The Stuffies, here they are in person. By 1993, their 15 minutes were up. They were a much misconstrued bunch, the Stuffies. They found fame, finally, via “Size of a Cow” and that “Dizzy” allegiance with Vic & Bob, and as a result they were wrongly viewed as a novelty band, or a new Nutty Boys. Think the public perception of The Darkness, without the obviously innuendo-laden Christmas hit, and you get the idea. Miles’s choice of chequered suit probably didn’t help. Their post fame album, “Construction for the Modern Idiot” is a favourite of mine, intriguing in much the same way as Pulp’s “This is Hardcore” album does. This is the sound of a band enjoying the spotlight of fame, but recoiling from it at the same time.

And as with Pulp several years later, there’s a change in sound. Gone are the oh-so-clever titles, (almost) gone is the fiddly-folk feel, the violins now supplementing rather than driving their sound.  It seems that they had it all, and found that after all those years of trying, they didn’t want what they got. This is one angry band, who reached the heights of fame and fortune and found it distasteful, bitter to the touch.

Watch the video here.

 3. “Special One” – Ultra Vivid Scene

Let’s be honest, Kim Deal was every Indie Kid’s favourite four tissue fantasy. Much as we all loved the Pixies, there isn’t one guy who loved them that doesn’t wish her vocals featured just a little more than they did. So to have her pop up on this jingly-jangly left over from 1990 was manna from the heavens. Up until this, Ultra Vivid Scene were just another 4AD band ploughing a lonely furrow. But this totally gorgeous tune still gives me goose-bumps 25 years later (Jesus, I’m old….)

Watch the video here.

 2. “Wembley” – The Candyskins

If ever there was an example of a band not missing the boat, but turning up for the boat too early and then going home again because the boat wasn’t ready, it’s this. This came out in 1993; had they popped it out in 1996, when Euro 96 was gripping the country, then this would have been a sure-fire Top 10’er. As it is, they languish not so much in the “Where Are They Now?” pile, as the “Sorry, who??” pile.

Watch the video here.

 1. “Perfume (All on You)” – Paris Angels

Okay, so their name has an added significance after the events of the other week, and it could be argued that this record sits firmly in the Madchester camp, but it’s definitely a lost classic, and even though this list hasn’t been in any kind of order, if it was, then this would be Number 1.

I used to have an mp3 of John Peel announcing this in his Festive Fifty, explaining how his son would be very happy it had made it, and if I still had that mp3, I’d post it now. No greater sun shines into your life then when you hear Peelie espousing about a record. And knowing his son is 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft makes you feel that with all of the horrors going on in the world, everything will be okay, cos Peelie’s still watching over us.

Anyway, what can I say about this record that you don’t already know? Nothing: it’s the most perfect almalgamation of indie pop and indie dance ever committed to vinyl, and they should have had the commercial success that bands like, say, oh I don’t know, The Soup Dragons had.

But no. While The Soup Dragons hit the Top 2 with their godawful cover of what was a perfectly average Stones record in the first place, this wonderful, wonderful record only grazed the dizzy heights of number 55. Justice? Pah.

Here’s the more indie-sounding video.

More soon.