Underworld – A History of Dubious Taste

Friday Night Music Club Vol 50

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.

Let’s crack on, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 50

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.

And that’s your lot.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 49

Last time out was approximately 50% downbeat.

This time, we’re 100% upbeat.

Brad gets it:

So, yeh, hopefully you’ll be pleased to learn that I’ve gone all out happy-sounding bangers this week. You’ll have noted I describe them as happy-sounding because some of them do have a dark under-current – but hey! That’s the joy of pop records, right? The ability to convey sad themes juxtaposed with joyful tunes – right? RIGHT??

Good. Glad you’re on board with me and The Pittster, as Brad is known to his nearest and dearest. (Do NOT refer to him as Pittiful, he does not like that, phew-wee! I called him it once and he threw a half-eaten bagel at me for calling him that. Cream cheese filling, in case you’re interested.) [None of this really happened, did it? – Ed]

Shall we crack on? Here comes the DJ’ing Elvis icon, so you’d better be ready:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 49

And here’s your track-listing, with no sleeve notes, this time for a reason other than I didn’t have time/couldn’t be arsed. You’ll see.

Pulp – Do You Remember The First Time?
The Magic Numbers – Forever Lost
The Divine Comedy – Something for the Weekend
The Go! Team – Buy Nothing Day
Dexys Midnight Runners – There, There, My Dear
Hue & Cry – Labour Of Love
Hipsway – The Honeythief
Jamelia – Superstar
KC & The Sunshine Band – That’s The Way (I Like It)
Rui Da Silva feat. Cassandra – Touch Me
Duke Dumont – Need U (100%) feat. AME
HAIM – Falling (Duke Dumont Remix)
Scanty Sandwich – Because of You (Original Mix)
Underworld – Born Slippy .NUXX
All Saints – Pure Shores

Bloody marvellous stuff, even if I do say so myself.

I don’t know if you’re a numbers kinda guy or girl, but doubtless you’ll have noticed that’s the 49th in the series. Next in the sequence – and feel free to read this again if I’m going too fast – is number 50. And to mark the occasion, I’ve prepared a longer mix than the usual 60 minutes – with sleeve-notes (fuck, I’ve said it now, better get writing); it’s pretty much a Friday Night Music Club Greatest Hits package with a few extras lobbed in for good measure – by which I mean: just shy of two hours of some of my favourite records.

By which I also mean: much more soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 43

Great. Now I need to wee. Again.

Sorry, unintended glimpse into my internal monologue there.

Welcome one, welcome all, to the latest instalment of Friday Night Fun that is the Friday Night Music Club.

I’m short of time this week, so no sleeve-notes this time I’m afraid.

And I’m so short of time I’ll get straight down to business rather than waffling on for ages about what’s on the menu, except to say that this week we’ve an obligatory and brilliant Northern Soul track, two remixes by the previously obligatory (and brilliant) Soulwax, and two from artists who passed away this week; the obituary and brilliant, if you like.

One bit of admin first though: there are at least three songs in tonight’s mix with some effing & jeffing, so it gets a statutory one of these stamped on it:

Right, let’s crack on, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 43

Underworld – Jumbo
Little Dragon – Ritual Union
My Bloody Valentine – Soon (The Andrew Weatherall Remix)
Fontaines D.C. – A Hero’s Death (Soulwax Remix)
Blondie – Rapture
Sugababes – Round Round (Soulwax Remix)
Mylo – Drop The Pressure
Tony Clarke – Landslide
Jean Knight – Mr Big Stuff
eels – It’s A Motherfucker
Teenage Fanclub – December
All Saints – Never Ever
Dragonette – I Get Around
British Sea Power – Who’s In Control
The Pogues – The Body Of An American

I’ve no plans to post anything specific about Shane MacGowan’s passing, not because I don’t think he was an utter genius, frontman and poet (I do think that), but I’ve read so many beautiful tributes to him since he passed, I don’t think I have anything to add. So many have said it so much better than I ever could.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 25

After watching, and reminiscing about, the recent Fatboy Slim/Big Beach Boutique documentary on Sky/NOWTV, I was inspired to put together a mix all my own, so you can see how good Norm is and how not-quite as good I am.

Usual disclaimer applies: any poor mixes are down to me (although I think I’ve done alright this time), any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software or the uploading process; all song choices are mine.

Here you go:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 25

And here’s your track-listing, complete with some reminisces of my clubbing years, where some (but not all) names have been changed to protect the innocent:

Jip/John Simm – The Weekend Has Landed

Not a song, but a bit of dialogue from the greatest ever film about clubbing, Human Traffic. This is not just a clarion call to all those about to have it large, but, performed by John Simm, it also acts as a callback to that day in Brighton back in 2002. Simm was there as an ordinary punter, but was spotted (so he says) by host of E4‘s coverage Vernon Kaye, who hauled him in front of the cameras for a quick interview. There’s an amusing moment in the aforementioned documentary where Simm, one of several celebrity interviewees, is shown the interview, after which he sheepishly admits he has no recollection of it whatsoever.

2. Crazy Penis – There’s a Better Place

Ignore the dreadful name of the act: I bet you weren’t expecting a tune which samples Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, right?

Long before I started writing this blog, I had an idea to collate loads of clubbing related stories from my buddies, and weave them into some sort of a narrative. So, I contacted them, and asked for their memories, and a few of them came back to me. This, which has sat in my inbox for over ten years, is one of them, from a mate who was mostly known by a nickname; since he’s now a police officer, I figured it probably best I use neither his real nor his nickname, so for the purposes of this post he shall be referred to as Bully.

Both of his recollections (another will be along shortly) are set in Cardiff’s now defunct The Emporium, a club which I frequented frequently and mention here regularly. It was, quite simply, my favourite club in Cardiff; after it closed down and the regular nights had to find new venues, none of the nights were ever quite the same or anywhere near as good.

To come anywhere near understanding Bully’s reminisce, you first have to have a basic understanding of the layout of The Emporium; located at the top end of St Mary’s Street (the exterior is actually used in Human Traffic as the venue the clubbers are queuing up to get in to), and above a run of shops, after you’d climbed the stairs to the actual venue, gone past the cloakroom and the final line of bouncers (I knew and had worked with their boss many years earlier, so I was never searched for contraband, which was fortuitous for reasons which I imagine you can figure out for yourself), the first room you came into was a chill-out area, with seats and benches around the perimeter, a step to a raised area where a DJ played mostly relaxed beats, a bar, and a spiral staircase leading to The Attic (which may have actually been called The Loft, I forget which after all this years) which was either rammed when it played host to a reasonably well known DJ (as it was when I saw the excellent Plump DJs there) or, mostly, deserted: it was always one or the other, no middle ground. On the other side, was a wooden staircase, with a top step which was notoriously a little bit higher than all the rest: you would see someone trip up it at least two or three times every night. Then you were into the Main Room, complete with podiums which anyone could get on to (before you ask, no I never did).

Anyway, here’s Bully’s recollection about the tune in question: “…this tune seemed like it was always on in the first room as you enter the place – at first it was spinning me out because of the sample in it but is soo funky i just had to wait for it to finish before going into the Main Room.”

NB: Due to my (failed) attempts to keep this mix to 60 minutes length, I may have mixed this tune into the next a bit early for you to fully appreciate the funkiness to which Bully alludes. My apologies.)

3. Orbital – Chime

This doesn’t really need any introduction or explanation, does it? A ground-breaking classic.

4. Adamski – N.R.G.

I remember this from my days DJing at college, not because of the cover which had a bottle of Lucozade, only with Adamski’s name replacing that of the energy drink, on it, but because at the time I thought it was a bloody awful record, as I did most records from this genre at the time. I’m happy to announce I’ve subsequently changed my mind: it’s bloody marvellous.

5. Alison Limerick – Where Love Lives (Perfecto Remix)

This has featured on these pages before with a wee bon-mot about it’s relevance to me so, since my hands are already hurting from typing, you’ll forgive me for copy and pasting here what I wrote back then (with a couple of additions and amendments):

This got dropped at an Old Skool night; long-time buddy Hel had gone to visit the ladies’ room and managed to get back to us on the dance floor just as this ended and it mixed into the next banger.

This became a recurring theme. The tune didn’t get played that much, but just like you can be sure your team will score the moment you pop to the loo, so it was that you could guarantee that if it did get played, Hel would be otherwise engaged.

And so it became something of a running joke, to the point where, when at home playing tunes, I would often wait until she had just locked the bathroom door, estimated when she would be just taking up position, before skipping to play it. I’m nice like that.

This was particularly annoying for her, as it was one of her favourite tunes.

I don’t think we ever got to dance to it in a club environment together, although a few years ago, Limerick did appear at a mini-festival thing in Brockwell Park, Sarf London. Hel & I were there. Limerick did three songs: her other hit (which I didn’t recognise), a cover version (of something I don’t remember), and of course Where Love Lives – a stone-cold classic if ever I heard one.

6. Junior Jack – E Samba

Although I had it in my head that this was somehow linked to Jon Carter (I was always frequently wrong about this sort of thing, like my head was already too full of useless stuff like chart positions of Quo singles to be able to retain things like which DJ we had just seen, or who did which remix of what tune), but on researching/double-checking this I find that Junior Jack was actually the stage name of Italian DJ Vito Lucente, who was also responsible (under the moniker Room 5 and featuring disco artist Oliver Cheatham on vocals) for the 2003 UK #1 single Make Luv, which I’m sure you’d recognise if you heard it.

Whatever, it’s carnival time, and this is ace.

7. Atlantic Ocean – Waterfall

Another Old Skool classic. Nuff said.

8. Camisra – Let Me Show You

This one features in the Fatboy documentary, as it cropped up in his set; not all the songs did, but this one appeared due to a link to not one but two celebrities who were in attendance that day: Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, they of Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun on the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End) and Channel 4 slacker sitcom Spaced fame, all of which were directed by Edgar Wright.

There’s a famous (relatively speaking) episode of Spaced where the gang go clubbing, and this song features prominently:

Although my favourite scene is this, where courier/clubber/dealer Tyres (played by the ever brilliant Michael Smiley) visits Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Jessica Hynes)’s flat, where the slightest rhythmical sounds sets him off ‘on one’:

Anyway, in the Fatboy documentary, Pegg says that he was told the superstar DJ had included this in his set because it had featured in Spaced and because he knew Pegg and Frost were in the crowd that day. (NB: Norm does not verify this.)

9. Heavy Rock – [I Just Want to Be a] Drummer

Back in the early 2000’s (this came out in 2004, I think), there was a whole raft of these sort of tunes whipping up the crowds in clubland; tunes where the vocal was a deep voiced male who spoke the words rather than make any effort to sing. There’s one such tune which I’ve mentioned here before (so won’t bore you with the details again – suffice it to say, it’s a lot ruder than this example) that I’ve never managed to identify or track down. If you think you might be able to help, let me know via either the Comments or, if you’d prefer, at the email address hidden somewhere on this page. Thanks in advance.

In the meantime, one night, quite early on in my clubbing career, towards the end of the night, I found myself sitting on the step in the chill out area I described with tune 2 in tonight’s mix. There are three things I loved about clubbing: the music, the dancing, and, as Jip/John Simm put it in the opening monologue, “…talking cod-shit to strangers.” This should come as no surprise to you. On this occasion, however, I was sitting not with a stranger, but with Gaz, a friend who I remain in touch with to these days, as he’s in my group of London chums. This was, I think, maybe the second or third time I’d met Gaz, and I remember very little of what we talked about (bar some running jokes I had going with some of my mates – usually at their expense – this is not unusual: I remember snatches of conversation, but very rarely entire conversations or who they were with. Some of them will crop up in future posts, I’m sure). But I do remember this highly intellectual exchange:

Me: “You’re a drummer, aren’t you?” (I already knew this to be a fact)

Gaz (looking at me both blankly and confused): Yeh. How do you know that?

Me: Drummer’s arms. You’ve got drummer’s arms.

To this day, I have no idea what I meant by this, but I do think The Drummer’s Arms would be a fine name for a pub.

10. Green Velvet – Flash

Green Velvet has a history of making records which, at first blush, seem to be pro-recreational drug use, but aren’t (see also La La Land which featured in Volume 19 of Friday Night Music Club). This one, which I only ever heard played out once, is generally unsettling.

As I often do, when I can’t quite remember where I was when a tune got played, and/or who played it, I turn to my own personal clubbing history wikipedia, my old mate Dum Dum, who confirmed my suspicion that it got dropped at an outdoor event in Swansea’s Margam Country Park, an event called Escape to the Park (Escape being the name of a chain of clubs, one of of which was located in Swansea, which even professional Welshman Rhod Gilbert describes as “shit…a desperate dump…devoid of any hope…”):

Anyway, within the message I got from Dum Dum confirming the location was this extra bit of info: we were, apparently, in the “….Progressive Arena: Sasha, Steve Lawler, Jan Carbon, Ian Dungey, Darren Emerson, Hybrid and Richard Hitchell. Possible Lawler [dropped it] as he played it a lot.” (See what I mean about him being my own personal clubbing history wikipedia? It’s amazing to me, as he started clubbing and partaking in all the naughtiness the scene provides, many years before I did, so his brain cells should by all rights be fried.)

I remember hearing this tune that day because I also remember turning to Dum Dum and asking “What the fuck is this??”. “Haven’t you heard this before?” was his incerdulous reply. No, Dum Dum, I haven’t, that’s why I’m asking.

Anyhoo, Flash tells of Mr Velvet taking some older generation folks on a guided tour of a club, where he invites them to take photographs of the clubbers indulging in various banned substances. It’s great, if a little unsettling. But perhaps that’s just me, who, when approached by photographers, paid to snap happy dancing clubbers to promote the club night in question, would always tell them to fuck off and that they didn’t have my permission to photograph me. I’ve hated pretty much every photo taken of me, mostly because many of them look like I’m off my tits; the last thing I wanted was photos of me when I actually was out in the public arena.

11. Spektrum – Kinda New (We All Live & Die) (Tiefschwarz Vocal Mix)

As promised, back to a bit of Bully:

“In the main room, for me – the track was Spektrum – Kinda New (Tiefshwarz mix) – this track was the bomb, blew us away everytime. I remember just dancing to this and always peering to see where you are and seeing you grinning back to me when this track was on – I’m sure Lottie played it and it went off!”

12. Zombie Nation – Kernkraft 400

Since the only words spoken in this tune are “Zombie Nation”, many mistakenly think that’s the name of the tune, rather than the artiste performing it.

This tune has a very specific memory for me (I doubt you’ve gotten this far, but if you have: look away now, Mum and Dad): there used to be a bar on Park Place in Cardiff called Inncognitos that I often frequented. Within walking distance of the town centre, it was often used by those on the way into, or on the way home from, town, as a stopping off point. A watering hole, an oasis, if you will.

As well as the main bar, it had a beer garden and a conservatory, the latter of which doubled up as a dancefloor whenever they had a DJ playing. One Sunday, when Cardiff’s Big Weekend (a free-for-all three day event featuring local talent as well as established bands/artistes on the way up or down) was on, and I met with some friends (all of whom shall remain nameless for this bit, for reasons which will soon become apparent) at Inncognitos under the misapprehension that we were having a few beers there before heading to the festival, which was just across the way.

But no. At some point, one of them whispered to me that they were staying there because they had “some pills” and they wanted to dance. A DJ, Radio 1’s Fergie, was playing there later that night (Dum Dum wasn’t there, I remembered that all by myself).

I told them I wasn’t interested, but, a pint or two later and my barriers severely dropped, I asked if I might get in on the action.

The friend who had told me about the class-A’s approached the other two and broke the good news to them: “Jez is up for it!”

“That’s great,” I was subsequently told they replied, “but we’ve only got three. If he wants a cheeky half, who’s going to give it to him?”

I’m also told – apologetically – that the other two made it very clear they were not prepared to surrender half of their already small stash. It was decided that the friend who had told me about the pills, should share his with me (in a sort of “he-who-smelt-it-dealt-it kind of way”).

I remember very little of what happened after that other than: I recognised two girls that I worked with were also there that night, and that I spent much of the rest of the night avoiding them whilst standing to the side of the dancefloor, rubbing my head and taking deep, sharp breaths through a permanently O-shaped mouth.

This was one of the tunes I do remember being played that night.

13. Darude – Sandstorm

And this is another, hence my enormous affection to both.

But before I go any further, I should make it clear that I’m not condoning the use of ecstacy, nor would I wish to encourage the use of it, I’m merely relating what happened when I did,

I fucking loved it.

On later nights out I bumped into both of the girls who were there that first night, and since they both have fairly popular names, I can mention them without fear of any repercussions: Lisa and Rachel. Like an e’d up Tigger, Lisa came bouncing up to me one night to say hello on the dancefloor at The Emporium; Rachel was a little more demure, sliding up to me one night to say hi. We discussed that night in Inncognitos, and, bless her, she told me she didn’t remember seeing me there as she was also off her face, but she thought me rubbing my head etc was very funny and sweet. I met her and her fiance out many times over the next few years, and we often partied hard when I told her it was the occasion of the anniversary of my first drop.

As I said, this is a tune I associate with that first night, but just in case you find it unpalatable, have a watch of this:

14. Who Da Funk Feat. Jessica Eve – Shiny Disco Balls

Just a tune. That is all.

15. Underworld – Two Months Off [King Unique Sunspots Vocal Mix]

Ditto. I love Underworld, and the original mix of this, but this version knocks the [sun] spots off that.

16. The Streets – Weak Become Heroes (Ashley Beedle’s Love Bug Vocal)

To end things, the most perfect description of clubbing ever committed to record, including that ‘talking-cod-shit-to-strangers’ stuff I mentioned earlier.

For those of you not in the know, Ashley Beedle is one part of X-Press 2, who, without wishing to sound all ‘look-at-me-I-know-what-I’m-talking-about’, you will know from their Lazy single with Talking Heads’ David Byrne providing vocals.

The original version, which appears on The Streets’ Original Pirate Material album is already brilliant, but here it’s made even more brilliant here by Beedle.

That’s yer lot.

More soon.

Late Night Stargazing

Tonight, something unexpectedly mellow and reliably bleepy and wonderful from Underworld.

Lifted from Beaucoup Fish, their fifth studio album, and the first that I actually bought on its release (predictably late to the party as always), this was the third single of five to be released from the album, peaking at #21 in the UK Singles Chart:

Underworld – Jumbo

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

Well, we’ve got to the end of the week, and we’ve also got to the end of another segment from the FNMC vault, where we bring our weekly revisit to Vol 4 to an end.

And, as with the previous instalments, I’ve tweaked it a bit from when it first made an appearance as the last hour of Vol 4, y’know, just to keep you (ok, me) interested.

So what delights do we have waiting for us this week, I hear you ask?

Well we kick off with some Hot Chip, before opening the “Where Are They Now?” vault to let the Lo Fidelity Allstars out to play for a while, then a roller-coaster ride through a few “feats.”: The Chemical Brothers with (uncredited) Noel Gallagher and (very much credited) The Flaming Lips, 808 State with MC Tunes, along with killers from Duran Duran (yeh, you read that right), The Stone Roses, The Beatles, Underworld, and then just when you think it’s all over, up pop Blondie and Barry White to bring the whole damn thing to a close.

And ok, I have broken the golden rule of featuring the same act twice in the same mix (actually, I’ve kinda done it twice), but I think you’ll forgive me when you listen to this one.

Here comes the admin (all together now): any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record selections are, of course, mine.

Hold on to your hats then, pop-kids, here we go:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 4.5

And here’s your Friday Night track-listing:

Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor
Lo Fidelity Allstars – Tied to the Mast
Duran Duran – Girls on Film (Night Version)
The Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection
MC Tunes vs 808 State – Tunes Splits The Atom
The Stone Roses – I Am The Resurrection (reprise)
The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows
The Chemical Brothers – Let Forever Be
Underworld – Diamond Jigsaw
The Chemical Brothers feat. The Flaming Lips – The Golden Path (Ewan Pearson Extended Vocal)
The Beatles – Here Comes The Sun (Isolated Vocals)
Blondie – Heart Of Glass
Barry White – You’re The First, The Last, My Everything

And that’s yer lot from Vol 4.

See you back here next week for an all knew, never posted before box of delights.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

Evening all, and welcome aboard the latest instalment of Friday night fun and mixed playlists.

After I crammed 16 tunes into 58 1/2 minutes last time, we have the opposite in more than one way this week. Firstly, we’re in clubbing rather than indie disco territory, with a selection of what we used to call City Hall Classics (which I think I’ve explained before), and secondly there’s just 7 songs in this just-shy of 57 minutes.

That’s partly because some of these are very long and I thought they deserved to be heard in their full glory, but also because I didn’t think my limited mixing skills would do them justice (as is evidenced by their being at least one absolute clunker of a mix, one where I clearly start the incoming tune too loud, and one which, to be fair, comes off a lot better than I thought it had; I’ll let you listen and decide which is which for yourselves.)

None of these tunes should need any introduction, so we’ll crack straight on after the usual admin stuff: any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record selections are mine.

The first tune has a bit of effin’ and jeffin’ on it and so warrants one of these:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 1.4

Track list:

Flowered Up – Weekender
Happy Mondays – W.F.L. [Think About the Future]
The Stone Roses – Fools Gold
A Guy Called Gerald – Voodoo Ray (Original Mix)
Mory Kanté – Yeke Yeke (Hardfloor Mix)
Josh Wink – Higher State of Consciousness (Dex & Jonesey’s Higher Stated Mix)
Underworld – Cowgirl (Bedrock Mix)

I’m not generally a fan of remixes, but man alive I adore that Bedrock mix sooooo much…I’m getting nostalgic for those days when I wasn’t too old to go clubbing just typing this.

Anyway: more soon.

Friday Night Music Club

Well, folks, we made it: not just to another Friday, but to the final part of my six hour long(ish) Friday Night Mix.

This week, though, I’m not going to wang on with anecdotes about why I’ve picked certain tunes or what they remind me of. I’m simply going to slip my usual disclaimer in – any skips and jumps in the mix are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record choices are mine – and then add to it. A bit.

For there is one technical thing I would like to point out: all of the mixing on all of the playlists has been done without the aid of a set of headphones. And whilst that’s fine if you’re just fading from one song to the next (as I did on the predominantly Indie mix last time out), when you’re trying to beat match – as you have to with dance tunes as featured exclusively this week – that makes it really difficult.

See, the headphones are not just there so you can line up the beats, they’re also there so you can monitor the transition from one track to the next, make it as seamless as possible.

Not using headphones is not me deliberately trying to make things hard for myself, and I do own a pretty decent pair; if there’s a way that I could use headphones on the software I use I would. But as the mixes are done on my laptop as opposed to actual decks, and I haven’t managed to work out how to use headphones with the software I have, sans headphones it is.

Which also means I’m reliant on the cursor/mouse to cue, play and mix each track, as opposed to in real life where I would undoubtedly use both my hands rather than just one.

See, I’ve listened to this mix God knows how many times, and every time I have, I’ve heard one or two mixes where I think “Hmmm…I could have done that better”, have gone back and redone the whole thing, only to encounter a similar disappointment somewhere else in the mix.

I even dropped one tune from the mix entirely last night, substituting it for a different one, despite having listened to it a good three or four times in the week and deciding it all sounded, not perfect, but fine.

And I already know there’s one mix in this that I make a right hash of. You’ll spot it too, there’s no need to tell me about it.

What I’m trying to say is: be gentle with me. I don’t need to know if you think my mixing is dreadful. I’d love to know if you think it’s even…y’know…just alright.

But enough of my First World Problems: what have we got for you this week? An 80 minute mix of what we used to call ‘City Hall Classics’ back in the day, along with some Cool House End-of-Nighters (frequenters of the Cardiff clubbing scene from around twenty years ago should get both references) by way of a track which sounds like it samples voice of Shaggy from the Scooby Doo cartoons, host of American Top 40 (which used to air in the UK TVs at around 3am), and walking advert for fake tan and Just For Men hair dye, Casey Kellem, culminating in my attempt to mix “the hardest song to mix in or out of” that I mentioned last week, via one of the filthiest songs I own.

Which reminds me, I’d better slap one of these on it:

Here you go then, for the last time Volume 6 (although, as previously mentioned, I will be back next week with Volume 7):

Friday Night Music Club Vol 6.6

Donna Summer – I Feel Love
Drive Red 5 – Yours Sincerely, Lionel (Dirty Dream)
Dirty – Dirty (E-Dancer Remix)
Samantha Fu – Theme From Discotheque (Soulwax Remix)
Mylo – Destroy Rock & Roll
U.S.U.R.A. – Open Your Mind (Classic Mix)
Moby – Go (Vitalic Remix)
Underworld – Rez
Roger Sanchez – Another Chance
Daft Punk – Around The World [Radio Edit]
The Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar
Laurent Garnier – Man with the Red Face (original)
Felix da Housecat – Silver Screen Shower Scene (Thin White Duke Mix by Jacques Lu Cont)

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

I was beginning to think this mix was jinxed.

I’ll explain, with some back story.

Firstly, I wanted to do a mix unlike the Not Christmas one, which I thought strayed a bit too far into the territories of cheese or chart music. Whilst it served a purpose, it wasn’t really indicative of the sort of tunes which usually feature here.

This one, though is a corker, even if I do say so myself.

Regular readers may recall that way back in the late 1980s, I started DJ’ing at college because I was fed up with being able to guess what song the indie DJs would play next. So imagine my annoyance when my own brother told me that on a previous mix he’d been able to predict my next choice a couple of times. Grrr.

But this mix has proved to be such a pain to complete; when I came to do it today, it tells me that some of the tunes have been played 22 times, which gives you an idea of how many times I’ve tried to get this one right. Pretty much once a week, since Christmas.

What’s gone wrong all those times? Well, on more than one occasion professional pride kicked in: I’ve messed up a mix between tunes, so have elected to start again.

On more than one occasion, preoccupied with playing Solitaire or Candy Crush just to have something to do whilst recording the mix, there’s a sudden, irretrievable silence where the next record should be. Oops!

Once I forgot to stop recording until an hour later, and, triumphant at how the mixes had worked out, I couldn’t understand why the mix lasted over 5 hours, until I listened to it.

The other problem is booze. More than once, I’ve taken drink to such an extent that I’ve forgotten I was doing a mix until the silence after one record has finished hits home and startled me awake.

Last weekend, I got to the third record from the end, and suddenly woke up to silence and realised I’d messed up again. That’s not an indictment of the standard of the mix, by the way, more an example of how drunk I’d gotten.

Even last night, when I finally nailed it, it was my second attempt of the night, having got through most of the mix when I had a drink-spillage event, which I thought I’d sorted, until, four records from the end, suddenly the sound cut out whilst the tunes kept playing and I had no idea if it was still recording the sound or the sound of silence.

Anyway, we’ve got here, and this has been a real pain, so if you could take a listen, that would be great.

I will confess that I have broken the golden rule of not featuring the same act more than once in this mix; this wasn’t intentional, but as the various run-throughs progressed, I simply forgot said acts already appeared as “featuring” acts. One is deliberate. Sue me (Please don’t).

Time for the usual disclaimer: any glitches, skips or jumps are down to the software or the uploading/downloading process, and nothing to do with my limited mixing skills.

Oh, and the usual “effing and jeffing” warning applies; it seems I’m incapable of doing a mix which doesn’t include more than the occasional swear.

I’m not posting a link to download here, other than the one to Soundcloud, where you can either download or stream it.

I couldn’t be bothered with the last ones, but I’ve done it this time: you’ll see a list of all the acts featured in this mix at the bottom of the page, so you can check whether this one’s likely to be your cup of tea before going to the hassle of actually listening to it. If you’re particularly short of things to do, you can try to guess which song I’ve picked by which artist. There’s fun.

But by way of a description: pretty much all life is here, from indie rock to 60s California hippy-shtick, some Old Skool dance classics, some hip-hop and some soul classics via some Northern Soul belters via some TV show theme tunes (sort of); there’s some hoary old rock and some psychobilly, and a couple of tracks which should have featured in a New post by now, but the bands in question played the 6Music festival last weekend so you’ll probably know them intimately by now. And, of course, there’s The Fall.

Easy on the cheese this time, there’s even some poetry so we can all pretend we’re intellectual. You’ll have chance to dance, sit and recover for a few moments, before getting back on it again.

Available for a limited time (i.e. until I do the next one), you can download or stream this on Soundcloud here:

Friday Night Music Club (Volume 4)

I hope you have as much fun listening to this as much as I had putting it together. And I found it utterly frustrating, so you’d better.

Oh, and it ain’t over ’til the fat bloke sings.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to write a series here called Friday Night Music Club.

Here is what I wrote way back in March 2015 to explain:

“Friends of mine will tell you I love a themed mix tape or CD.

In my old flat, we used to have what we (ok, I) liked to call The Friday Night Music Club. This would involve us a) getting very drunk b) me shaving my head at some point c) listening to the latest CD mix I’d made (later, when I bought a sound system that allowed me to just plug my iPod in (other mp3 playing devices are available) these mixes got waaaay longer, and probably waaaaay more tedious for the listener) and d) ideally having a bit of a dance.

I’ve done mix tapes and CDs for friends and family all my life (but you already knew that, right?) but the idea here was to make a series of mix CDs which, when played in sequence, you could play at a house party and which would keep the night bubbling along nicely.

Actually, this is something I’d already tried a few years earlier. Friends of mine used to have the most excellent parties at their flat on Hilldrop Road, usually with a DJ playing, but on one occasion the DJ – and for that matter, their decks – couldn’t make it. In their absence I prepared a set of 11 CDs – about 15 hours – which, when played in sequence, took you from aperitifs and welcomers, to “go on have a bit of a dance”, through to off your nut party anthems, and then back down to sitting round talking nonsense about radishes until 6am.

Anyway, back to the Friday Night Music Club. Occasionally I’d make a theme out of the whole thing (hey, if Bob Dylan can do a radio show using the same format, I can do a mix CD, okay?) or do more than one CD and spread the theme out (there was once a 4 CD opus to a former flat mate which deserves a mention in passing) but more often than not the theme would occur to me in the middle of preparing it, and that’d be it…I’d be off….“

As an aside, I appear to have missed some fairly significant landmarks in the history of this place: my first ever post was in September 2013, and if you think my posts are sporadic now, bear in mind that my second post didn’t happen until a year later in 2014. Whatever, a belated 5th anniversary to me!

Anyway, it was when I became rather fixated on the theme rather than with just posting some songs which sound good when played together that I knocked the Friday Night Music Club series on the head.

Since there are now more of us are spending our Friday Nights at home, many of us getting drunk, I figured I would bring the series back for at least a one-off for you to use as your sountrack to your Zoom/Houseparty chats. There might be more, I’ve not decided yet.

Also, this, right here what you’re reading now, is my 1500th post, so I’d like to mark at least one of my landmark posts in a timely manner.

Ahem.

That’s better.

I figured we’d go back to where it all began, to the first few episodes of Friday Night Music Club, but now with fewer attempts to be clever/funny and just more songs to rock your end of the working (from home) week/kids are in bed celebrations.

Actually, I’d hoped to bring this to you last weekend, in time for the Bank Holiday, but time simply caught up with me, the bastard.

The initial intention was simply to repost those early “mixes”, with a few new songs thrown in here and there (and some brutally culled). But as I was working on it, it metemporphasised into something different, perhaps better described as a completely new mix of tunes, very loosely hung on the framework of the old ones, in an effort to reinvigorate them, poncey as that may sound.

If you’d prefer to just listen to this on Spotify, you can do here:

Friday Night Music Club Vol. 1

…although a word of warning: Spotify doesn’t have all of the songs in the playlist, so the only real way to enjoy this in it’s full…erm…glory is by ploughing through the links below.

Oh, and a second word of warning: there’s a fair bit of effin’ and jeffin’ on some of these, so perhaps not for those with young ears.

Hopefully, there will be something for everyone in here (there’s seventy tunes in just over five hours, so I bloody hope so!), so push back the sofa, get yourself a pint of White Russian (or whatever your weapon of choice is), dim the lights and turn up the volume. Let there be grooves. Let there be guitars. Let there be cheese. Let there be some surprises, some forgotten tunes and some old favourites. Let there be singing. Let there be dancing.

Tell you what: I’ll play a song or two by way of a little intro whilst you’re getting yourself sorted: