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Home , Arthur Lee (musician), Bertrand Burgalat, Bryan MacLean, Downliners Sect, Female of the Species, Michael Head (musician)

... your heart out

Of course I’m addicted, and I get twitchy if I Fishing A Different Kind of don’t get to make regular visits to my favourite blogspots. The sites come and go, naturally.

People more than ever seem more intent than I saw some headline the other day where the ever on closing down the blogs. They’re Tory leader was saying people who were strangling the industry, and all that. addicted to drugs and drink had made their So, the argument about killing new music? own lifestyle choices, so tough luck. Yeah, Well, if I ran a , and I’d invested right. It’s as easy as that. Well, we all have heavily in a new act, I would be pretty peeved our own addictions. Mine was records. I used if some toe rag had posted it free on some to buy stacks of them. CDs, old vinyl, brand shoddy site. But then if someone had posted new and second hand. I could justify it. They illicitly one Georgia Anne Muldrow song, and were cheap. They were for research. They someone recognised the name from the great were only one click away. new Erykah record and had a listen then went Well, life has a way of pulling the rug from out and bought Georgia’s stuff, well that’s got under you. Suddenly it wasn’t quite so to be a force for good. sensible to spend small fortunes on records. It’s happened to me with Irene Kral, one of my Nevertheless I needed my musical fill. So I current passions, whom I discovered at the gravitated towards the ‘net. The music blogs. excellent Saints and Sinners site. I’ve a bit of The ones where music obsessives post links a thing about Irene, and even sent off for her to files of the sort of sounds some of us hardly Better Than Anything CD, which has dared dream even existed. I got the hang of it, sleevenotes by Tommy Wolf, who co-wrote and I got hooked on downloading lost classics Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most shared by modern day saints. Saints who (and bless for introducing us to have changed my world, and made it possible Betty Carter singing this) and Ballad of the Sad to worship at the altar of the Louvin Bros, Young Men, and apparently worked on a Gaylads, Quarteto Em Cy, Jorge Ben, Jack musical of Nelson Algren’s A Walk On The Scott, Soulful Strings, Mark Murphy and any Wild Side. Wow! I need to hear that. vocalists from the late ‘50s with a tendency to the bleak, desolate and cerebral. So, there, you see, music posted on the web can prompt you to go out and buy the product. There used to be a campaign about home In fact, my copy of Mary Lou Williams Presents taping killing music. I could never get my head Black Christ of the Andes has just turned up. round that. If some guy in Glasgow wanted to I’d come across this incredibly beautiful record, fill a cassette with The Litter, Pleasure this jazz hymn, on the web, and just had to Seekers, Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin then have it. I didn’t even really know anything that was not going to bring the industry to its about Mary Lou Williams until I chanced upon knees. It might make me jealous or grateful, her name on a blog that’s been a particular but hey ho. So as it was then, so it is now. favourite, run by the type of erudite enthusiast The musical wonders I go fishing for on the you instinctively trust. But the blog opened my web are not available on CD. The original eyes, and ears. I needed that record. And vinyl would cost a ridiculous sum of money. anyway the package, courtesy of Smithsonian Anyway the money would hardly go to the Folkways, is so beautiful, so right. It feels so artists. And let’s face it the industry has had right. Now that’s something the web really enough money out of me over the years. So can’t begin to compete with. let’s therefore raise a glass to the saintly sharers.

It’s funny how even in this day and age where But not a lot more. Those were very different everything under the sun is dragged through times. Nostalgia and recycling wasn’t yet what the wringer that the mod revival circa 1979 is it would be. still seen as a negative rather than positive thing. Indeed the very phrase mod revival is A huge part of what made the kids in the used in the pejorative sense, when it should be Purple Hearts and The Chords, the kids into viewed in the same way as the folk revival of the Purple Hearts and The Chords, get into the the early ‘60s. That is, as a revival of interest. mod thing was a sense of the perverse. It’s still ridiculously easy to wind up punk snobs The last thing the mod revival could be called like Jon Savage with the mod thing. That was was an attempt at authentic recreation. That’s part of the appeal. A reaction against what a given. Yet what is rarely understood is how punk was seen to be. Leather jackets, boots, it was not about channelling memory. Think of spiky hair, Sid Lives, and straight ahead r’n’r. people like Jerry Dammers, Ian Curtis, Green Becoming a mod, initially, had a touch of Gartside, Julian Cope. They were using contrariness. The younger brothers bite back. memory as a shaping force. Ska, Iggy, , . They were also that bit It wasn’t that easy getting serious about the older than most of the people who got into the mod thing in 1979. But there were clues to mod thing. follow. Connections to be made. Not just via The Jam either. There were those There is no denying that a lot of interest in the covers for a start. There were other things, mod thing was generated by Paul Weller and like the Decca Rock Roots series. The Small his private obsession. In particular, the Faces, Them, Zombies. The Pye File Series. montage on the inner sleeve of All Mod Cons Kinks, Lovin’ Spoonful and some old soul. Old set a lot of imaginations racing. But there was Tighten Up compilations. Not much more. more. A reissue via the great Raw label of The Creation’s Making Time. Other things too. Look sharp! In terms of reading about the mod thing there melodies that haunt my reveries. I’m thinking were some options. George Melly’s Revolt about the Accidents, Cigarettes, Teenbeats, Into Style, Stanley Cohen’s Folk Devils and Substitute, Killermeters, Onlokers, Long Tall Moral Panics, the Generation X oral history. Shorty, Low Numbers, Small Hours, Small These could be had from jumble sales, World, Sema 4, Amber Squad, Les Elite, and libraries or charity shops. Most important I’m sure others who had great pop moments. perhaps was the NME cover story on the mod revival, which ran in April 1979 and turned What the culture vultures also miss is how many a head. This was particularly due to the mixed up everything was. I don’t think anyone Penny Reel fictional/factual account of the listened to the Purple Hearts or whoever in young mod’s forgotten story, which gave a isolation. You played your Frustration single glimpse into a secret world with lots of loving along with your Scars singles or your Teardrop detail. Later there would be the Richard Explodes or your Public Image. And yet the Barnes book on mods. Ah yes. official histories still home in on the likes of the Merton Parkas, Squire, Lambrettas, and other Naturally the true inheritors of the mod spirit cringe inducing clowns. As if there were not were the soul boys of the time, with their the equivalent of these chancers in any other designer clothes, wedges and flick fringes, and musical mode. Hey ho. their jazz funk. The mod revivalists had a harder time of it. It wasn’t easy dressing the The mod thing really did trigger all sorts of part. You couldn’t walk into the high street strange prejudices. A Manchester group like shops and get the gear. What you could do The Distractions were media darlings, with was raid an older relative’s wardrobe, mooch their Factory connections, but their sound and round charity shops and jumbles, old in particular their great single, Time Goes By fashioned menswear specialists, hoping to So Slow, was very mod. The Distractions unearth something. Something you might though weren’t a threat. They looked terrible, have seen in an old French film on BBC2. So and seemed to have been knocking around for with an old Fred Perry shirt, a v-neck jumper, years. The Purple Hearts though were bright, desert boots or Hush Puppies, a Harrington or articulate kids. Too sharp for some. Stranger old three-button hand-me-down, well, if you still, some of the very people who sneered at were lucky you might pass for a member of the the Purple Hearts who later fawn over the early Subway Sect. Stone Roses, a group that very cannily created a sound very similar to the Zola quoting Purple That early NME mod special specifically Hearts of the mid-‘80s. focused on the Purple Hearts and The Chords. And rightly so. They were among the earliest Ah the mid-‘80s. The mod thing had gone mod groups of that new wave, and were back underground. Scooter runs and small among the best. Their records still sound club nights in arcane function rooms. The cracking. Their performances if viewed now music drifting back to the source sounds. ‘60s on video still stir the soul. No one invented soul and r’n’b. Jazz. Real jazz. Modernist jazz. their sound for them. No svengali shaped Where it all started. The groups that were them. They were incredibly young when they around were better still. Like Makin’ Time, were thrust into the spotlight and then cruelly who happened to be blessed by having Fay rejected. Hallam singing and writing songs for them. The same Fay Hallam that journalist Dave They weren’t alone either. Via compilations or McCullough called god. Dave had once before blogspots it’s possible to discover how vital claimed that was god. He argued some of the mod noise of the time was. The that Makin’ Time were what mod was originally Purple Hearts and Back To Zero had the all about: staying ahead of the crowd, being fortune to be touched by the Chris Parry/Mike sharper than the rest. He went on to say that Hedges modern pop production at Fiction, perhaps Makin’ Time want to be different from while many of the other participants clanged the people, the hordes of them, who want .... and banged and growled and came up with To Be Different. Look sharp! I’ve always loved that line and the implications. The funny thing with the best of the mod And anyway even if ordinary joes did get up groups was that they set out to seem like and give it a go do you really think they’d be ordinary joes. Except that ordinary joes don’t singing about their street and their jobs. Nah, play in groups. So these young kids were they’d be like the pop idols with dollar signs in generally extraordinary singing about the their eyes. seemingly ordinary in an extraordinary way. There was something about the mod groups And they were performing these perfect which was very oh I don’t know. It’s like when pocket symphonies about supposedly you were at school and you knew all the everyday life seemingly uncertain whether to answers but couldn’t be bothered to keep celebrate or denigrate the common place. Do putting your hand up and getting it right. we stay here and fit in or do we try to escape Sometimes it was nice to just know. And not our roots? let on.

You see the thing is that ordinary joes don’t I think the mods were like that. Hiding their get up on a stage and perform pocket exceptionalness. Playing up the jack-the-lad symphonies like Maybe Tomorrow or thing and all that instead. Just as well really. Frustration which are cries from the heart and The media and the would never filled with clever lines and killer hooks. I have forgiven them. Luckily they never really mean, it’s too late to take the underground. realised what they were missing. Or was that really lucky? Perhaps simply cruel.

The Chords – below. “It’s too late to take the underground ...” Softly, The Almeida Sound ...

I love coincidences. I love connections. I love how things can fit together. The process that, appropriately, the DJs Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge used to call joining the dots.

Being a musical maven, a magpie or a mod, one seeks one’s pleasures here and there, swooping for this and that. Occasonally you come to realise that when you pluck pebbles from different ponds there are certain things in common. Certain names can recur. So it was with the name of Laurindo Almeida. One day I realised he was a named participant in at least three of the records by my bedside.

______

Just in case you are not familiar with the is something you realy need to hear. The name, Laurindo Almeida built a reputation for MJQ itself is a byword in sophistication, but himself as a guitarist of note when the musical with Almedia the whole thing works a treat. stock of his native Brazil was flying high in the Very stark. More minimal than Sketches of US. In the earlier part of the 1960s bossa Spain, but just as lovely. nova became synonymous with sophistication, and just about anyone who was anyone had a That same year, 1964, Almeida released an bit of a go at making a bossa style recording. LP of collaborations with pop singer Joanie Some were more successful than others. Sommers, who is perhaps best known for Johnny Get Angry. Everyone from Cliff There’s a great, if possibly apocraphyl, story Richard to the Hi-Los and Ella did a bossa set, about Dionne Warwick flying into Rio and but this is one of the best. Joanie was one of helpfully explaining how those great pop but not quite jazz singers who invented bossa nova. Ah Americans. Well, the seems to excel at just about anything but is creative dialogue between the US and Brazil not really appreciated fully. More’s the pity. had been going on for some time, and it’s well documented how, say, Barney Kessell’s Perhaps the best of the Almeida collaborations playing on Julie ’s Cry Me A River was in the ‘60s was with Sammy Davis Jr oddly a massive influenced on Joao Gilberto and the enough. Now I’ve never been a huge Sammy new sound. fan, the knockabout Rat Pack stuff, except for the soundtrack to A Man Called Adam, but this Anyway, Laurindo Almeida was from a slightly is just about perfect. different world than the bossa pioneers. He’d left Brazil in the early ‘50s to make his way in The record really is just Almeida’s guitar and the US, playing with Stan Kenton, getting Sammy’s voice performing standards. The known as a jazz man and a serious Spanish atmosphere is sort of smoke-filled and guitarist. The bossa revolution simply gave intimate, and for once Sammy seems not to be him an opening, and he benefited significantly trying too hard to impress as the consumate from opportunities to participate with some of song and dance man, so that it works a treat. the more open-minded performers of the day. The sense of a man singing purely for himself, with nothing left to prove. Lovely. Among these was the Modern Jazz Quartet, with whom Almeida was invited to tour in 1963, then going on to record together. Their Collabration set, released on Atlantic in 1964, The Fallen Leaves

“Black and white photographs in a broken frame ...”

The best new book I’ve read in a long time was written by a 77-year-old. So what? It was John Le Carré. And he’s still the best at the political thriller with added depth. No surprise there.

And yet the same insouciance might not ordinarily greet the fact that the best new record I’ve heard in a long time was by some guys who will never see 45 again. It’s a collection of grainy beat noise, and it stings like hell. Life is sometimes full of surprises.

I’m a terrible snob when it comes to political thrillers. I love Le Carré. I love Graham Greene. Some Eric Ambler. Alan Furst definitely. But not a lot else. I’m a bit like that with my beat found to my surprise that there was a CD out. It’s noise. You get like that when you’ve grown up Too Late Now. Oh no it’s not. appreciating the sounds of Subway Sect, The Creation, Purple Hearts and have dug around to It’s Too Late Now is one of those records that you find out about the Sorrows and the Remains. think aren’t made anymore. It’s actually one of those records that have rarely ever been made. If When I was growing up the earliest incarnation of you like the , Downliners Sect, the Subway Sect was the bee’s knees, the cat’s Sorrows, Gorillas, the Feelgoods with whiskers. The stuff of legend. The way they Wilko, Purple Hearts, Jasmine Minks, Wolfhounds, looked. The sound they made. The quality cast- then chances are you’ll love this record. And if you offs. Vic Godard’s presence and poetry. But in get all sniffy and sneer that all that sounds a bit old particular the guitar playing of Rob Simmons. Or hat, then you’re a fool. Symmons. The way he held his guitar. The irritant factor. The clangour. The first single. The first If I remember rightly the great playwright Arnold Peel session. The demos and live tapes that I Wesker in his deeply inspiring Trilogy used a line collected. Fantastic stuff. which went: “New! New! Everything has to be new! Contemporary. You could walk around on your Then Rob was sacked from the Sect. Vic went solo. hands all day - that’s new – but it wouldn’t be Rob disappeared. Became a librarian. Or achieving much would it?” something. Disappeared from view for the best part of 25 years. Then suddenly seemed to be back on So yes a huge part of the appeal of the Fallen the scene. Playing guitar again. In a garage band Leaves is the way Rob Symmons plays his guitar. called the Fallen Leaves. It didn’t seem quite right But there’s more than that. The reverend Rob somehow. I resisted. I stubbornly supposed my Green is a cool crooner. And the songs have romantic notions would be shattered. nerve, sinew, and there’s plenty of space for the songs to breathe. It’s quite an achievement for Then curiosity got the better of me. And I checked guys who won’t see 45 again. But what the heck. out the Fallen Leaves via a certain social Anyway, Arnold Wesker wrote his first novel when networking website. Not expecting very much. But he was in his 70s. And it’s a gem. oh how wrong I was. I was hooked instantly. Then “So you wanna be a jazz singer...”

SO sang Vic Godard on his strangely still lost Songs For Sale set from 1982.

It was indeed Vic and those songs of his I suggest that sowed the seeds of a current obsession with jazz singers of the ‘50s and ‘60s. Not that it was that easy back then. Options seemed limited.

Now perhaps we are spoilt for choice. I am real thing. I guess a special mention ought to sitting here listening to a digital mix I put go to Mike Alway and the extended él family together, showing the starker, darker side of chez Cherry Red. In recent years they’ve the female of the species. Ethel Ennis is been quietly collating collections from the singing about how someday her prince will vaults of the jazz singers. Ethel Ennis even. come. Just as she may be in the photo above. Anita O’Day too. Ah Anita. For some reason What more could you want? she makes me think of a passage from Kerouac, where he might have been But back in 1982 I wouldn’t have had a clue proselytising about a female jazz singer. It’s about who Ethel Ennis was. I would have the sort of thing I might have getting all het known about Ella, Billie, and Peggy Lee. I about back in 1982, back when Vic was might have known about Sarah Vaughan and singing his Songs For Sale. Nancy Wilson, but not a whole lot more. It was the idea of these jazz singers that appealed as There’s something about Anita. If you think much as anything. about the film, Jazz On A Summer’s Day. She’s standing there singing, in a black dress, Now. Well, the salvage industry is working a single row of pearls, that enormous hat. overtime. And the internet is served Fantastic. The smoky, husky day. All those particularly well by enthusiasts of all jazz hues records she made. Particular favourites of the unselfishly intent on sharing sounds they have blog posting fraternity. Ballad of the Sad sought long and hard for. I can’t speak with Young Men and so on. Wonderful conviction about their motivation for making collaborations. With the Three Sounds. With these frustratingly still out-of-print sounds Oscar Peterson. With Jimmy Giuffre. Cool available again. The milk of human kindness Heat. A particular favourite. flowing perhaps? Or some whatsit waving, as if to say: “Hey guys look what I’ve got!” Who I’m not an expert but with Anita there seems a cares? We get to hear these lost gems. That’s sense of tragedy. Demons tapping her on the what matters. shoulder. Haunting those darker moments. What you want from a jazz singer somehow. And if you’re a sensitive soul who cares about And it seems to come through in the music. doing the right thing, or perhaps haven’t got Particularly on those starker, darker numbers. time to go fishing around, then there are oodles of options out there now if you want the Chris Connor is another singer in the same far as possible. Her rendition of Ornette’s vein. So too have the good folks in the él Lonely Woman needs to be thrust down the family been kind in mining her early Bethlehem throat of those who think the way out wild stuff recordings. You need to hear these. I’ve was the sole preserve of people like ESP and become a huge Chris Connor fan. Some of her the free spirits. slightly later stuff too. There was, for example, a really lovely bossa nova set she made. It I could go on and on, and probably will at contains perhaps the best version of A Hard another opportunity about Betty Carter, Etta Day’s Night ever. Honest. Her voice is deep. Jones, Georgia Carr, Gloria Lynne. And about And it does funny things to my nervous Freda Payne. I heard a DJ play Band of Gold system. But it’s those earlier Bethlehem recently, and then ponder aloud about whether recordings on which her reputation rests. she did anything else, and I was screaming at the radio about the wonderful jazz set she Bethlehem was quite a label. A number of recorded for Impulse! One of the earliest female jazz singers made their home there en releases on the label, around 1963. After The passant. Marilyn Moore, with her wavering Lights Go Down Low. But then I thought what Karen Dalton type take on Billie’s . Ah have I got to be so smug about? I only the Japanese have issued an immaculate chanced upon it on a blog, where some kind facsimile of her immortal Moody set. Who soul felt the world needed to hear it. else? Audrey Morris of Bistro Ballads fame. Helen Carr, Betty Roché, Francis Faye, and Now if I had one minor gripe about the world of even Julie London. Ah yes. Julie London. blogs it’s the tendency to simply provide the Cry Me A River. What a performance. The link. I suppose that is enough. And when they epitome of torch singing and sophistication. quote from things like the All Music Guide, And there is no shortage of Julie London out whatever that is, it is tremendously irritating. there to be savoured. But oh sometimes I yearn for information, opinion, erudition. There are places to go So what else is on this digital mix of mine. though. There’s an old jazz cat who calls Hmm yes Sylvia Syms. Singing about being himself Dr Chilledair who runs a blog, and he down in the depths on the nineteenth floor. is a real scholar when it comes to female jazz Just to show I’m fallible too, I have to confess singers. He’s got real style too. Writes lots of that I avoided delving into the Sylvia Syms liner notes for specialist Japanese jazz labels. back catalogue, being convinced she was a Knows Pinky Winters, which in my book is an moonlighting Carry On actress. Not that that exceptionally cool thing to claim. He’s a real would necessarily be a bad thing, but you authority on Beverly Kenney too. Beverly know. But how wrong I was. A little knowledge seems a huge favourite in the world of blogs, can be a dangerous thing. Which is why I am and when you see her sleeves you realise slightly wary of saying that the Lewis Sisters words are not necessarily needed if you know have Motown connections, but what I do know what I mean. is that these ladies recorded one of the great LPs in Way Out Far, like a missing link Interestingly for those with roots like mine, who between the Paris Sisters and the Swingle grew up worshipping the Subway Sect, Singers, so you need to hear that. Beverly wrote a song called I Hate Rock ‘n’ Roll which went: “I'm growing weary of Then there’s the great Helen Merrill. Did she teenage hoods, motorbikes, blue jeans and ever put a foot wrong? From early recordings Natalie Woods. I'm tired of rebels without a in the mid-‘50s with Clifford Brown and Gil cause. Say, whatever happened to Santa Evans through immaculate sets like “... With Claus, rules of the road and Baby Ruth? I for Strings” and Dream of You through the ‘60s one must tell the truth. I don't care who knows and into the ‘70s with maybe more it. I hate ...” That’s where we adventurous sets like Sposin’ and Shade of came in ... Difference, where the hardcore fan will be hoping for the sound to be as stripped back as “So you wanna be a jazz singer...”

Ah yes.

Arthur Lee singing Bacharach and David’s on Love’s first LP.

Snarling sweetness.

The best of all possible worlds.

For a while there it seemed as if Wax Poetics demonstrate the incredible vision of Stepney was the best thing going. A fantastic and and his team. The throwing together of so stylish reminder about the possibility of the many strains. Beautiful melodic , printed magazine. There was an edition in ornate strings, classical. What more could you early 2007, paying tribute to James Brown want? rightly enough, but also featuring a lot of stuff related to . I love that edition. If there is one record that highlights the artistic audacity of Stepney and co. it has to be It was perfectly timed too. I was just getting a Ramsey Lewis’ Mother Nature’s Son. I guess good understanding and appreciation of the baroque is the most overused word around amazing achievements Charles Stepney and these days. It’s so popular a word you can get Richard Evans had made at Chess/Cadet in elected with it. But for once it is an the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. I’d been listening to a appropriate word for this particular recording of lot of Rotary Connection and Terry Callier, to Beatles White numbers. I really am not some Soulful Strings and Dorothy Ashby. a fan of , but this is a fantastic set That sort of thing. Music that seemed to be of interpretations. Quite beautiful, but way out. beamed in from another, better planet. It’s a bit of a lost art really. The almost The good people at Wax Poetics very helpfully contemporaneous covers. Though you would included a selected discography of works have thought the artistic and commercial touched by the godlike Stepney. Well, I’m success of Mark Ronson might make people sure I’m not the only one who has since then think again. I hope so. Anything to save us been plugging the gaps at every available from Elbow. In the ‘60s though it was quite the opportunity, augmenting the acquisitions with thing to put together a set of a popular anything Richard Evans has been involved in. ’s material. Jim Webb, Bacharach, Beatles, Jobim, Dylan. Just as earlier it had There’s so much good stuff in that been quite the thing to dip into the great discography. Marlena Shaw, , American Songbook. Sets of Porter, Minnie Ripperton, and so on. Recordings that Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart. And so on. Of course Stepney aficionados know that And yet. Oh when was it? Early 1980s. Julian Mother Nature’s Son was not the only Cadet Cope quoted in the NME or somewhere. set to focus on a particular person’s works. For Talking up the psychedelic relics. Referring to a few years later Stepney would oversee the and Love. I don’t know. I could be Dells’ renditions of Dionne Warwicke’s making this up. But I seem to remember him Greatest Hits. Interesting if not initially inviting. sneering at the sweeter side of Love, the Of course in the ‘60s everyone and their supposed softer Bryan Maclean Bacharach monkey was having a go at doing the songs inclined sound rather than the really wild Bacharach and David composed for Dionne. Arthur Lee “snot has caked against my Oh, off the top of my head I could come up pants...” stuff. Pah! with the Anita Kerr Singers and their set of Bacharach covers. Great record. But very Of course at the time this was a bit of a dig at 1960s. another Liverpool group called who were mad about all the Come 1972 the concept of an experienced Bacharach stuff, movie soundtracks, some soul vocal group putting out a collection of bossa nova, Simon and Garfunkel, the third Bacharach covers which have been Velvets LP, and in particular Love. They were immortalised by Dionne really cannot have set young kids at the time, and all this was new to the pulses racing. I have to confess it was way them. Just as it was to the young kids who down the list of Charles Stepney related works thought the Pale Fountains were a breath of I wanted to hear. My mistake. fresh air, and exceptionally cool with some serious hair cuts. I’d love to know Stepney’s motivation for making this record. Doubtless a tribute to A small no and a big yes. This was a reaction another master. But surely a chance to show to what was increasingly seen as increasingly he could take something practically perfect dull and superslicksterised new and add an extra dimension. The results are pop. I doubt if at that time I even had a clue simply stunning. Intricate vocal arrangements. who Charles Stepney was. I’m glad I didn’t in a Sumptious settings. Intriguing variations on way. It’s nice to work your way through the very familiar themes. Even an immaculate Say musical menu at your own speed. A Little Prayer. Now that’s brave. It’s funny how things change though. When There are plenty of highlights on this incredible the Pale Fountains stumbled into the spotlight, record. Walk On By. Close To You. A very clutching their copies of and funky workout on I Don’t Know What To Do Dionne Warwick’s Greatest Hits this was With Myself. Great guitar there too from I considered quite daring. Love were all but assume Phil Upchurch. Then the darkness of forgotten, though the late great Ray Moore Trains, Boats and Planes. Even Raindrops occasionally played And More Again on his Keep Falling On My Head. It’s great and Radio 2 show. Dionne was deemed a bit daring as hell. I wonder how well it sold. It middle of the road, but that’s where we wanted needs to be heard And yes it’s available to be. Things changed rapidly, and Love legitimately and reasonably cheaply, so there’s became hip again. In a strange twist of fate the no excuse. Pale Fountains’ singer got to perform with Love’s singer Arthur Lee. A lot I guess if you are going to pay tribute to had happened to us all by that time. anything it needs to be those recordings Dionne made of Bacharach and David songs. Appropriately they perform together a version In some ways there is a danger of those songs of the Bacharach and David number, My Little being almost over familiar, and thus taken for Red Book, which was on the first Love LP. It granted. Too much taken for granted so that sounds good too. More fragile than snarling we overlook how revolutionary they were. this time around. But still as sweet as candy. Time after time after time. “Hey, have you heard that

Janelle Monae?”

Funny the number of times that’s been asked of late.

Understandable though.

“You need to check out her MySpace page ...”

Ah yes.

Sound advice.

______

I’m not sure I understand the need for social The old earth earth favourites eh? Which is networking. I have never had the urge to sign where I came in with MySpace. People kept up or whatever you do on one of these sites. saying that there’s a Dexys page up, with And yet, yeah, I can totally understand the Kevin Rowland writing a bit of a blog, and value of a site like MySpace and the there’s a new track up which you really need opportunities it offers to dip in and out, to to hear. They were right. discover things you might not have heard before, and to a certain extent bypass the Since then, on my dippings in and out of the ordinary industry processes. MySpace world one or two things have particularly fascinated me. One is how old I love getting messages from friends and codgers like me are excavating their pasts. comrades that say you need to check this or Think of the most obscure punk progressives that out. On MySpace. Like the Janelle and the chances are they have a page up with Monae page. Or the Dan Lissvik page. a few of their old tracks chugging away. The Moonlighting from Studio. Or a Clientele other is the description thing. What’s that all video. Dancing in a cafe. Or Flesh for all your about? mutant disco needs. All on MySpace. Now. You just know if you see someone’s site and it Better still is discovering things for yourself on says something indie, C86 or perhaps even MySpace. By chance. New recordings by the singer/songwriter then you’re going to move Fay Hallam Trinity for example. As wonderful on pretty quickly. Others have more fun. as you’d dare hope. Or a series of Sudden Studio famously had its sound down as Sway pages which are so wonderful and so highlife. Nice one. Others maybe more brave entertaining in the way they too with the format and stick down experimental. Experimental in a way that’s so Sudden Sway you this or experimental that. I hate labels myself. remember that it was probably in their But I guess they can be a nice indicator of imaginations that MySpace was invented. where someone’s coming from. Now one of the purposes of the internet is to What we need to understand is that these keep track of the underground movements of guys are giving things a go. They need to try Georgia Anne Muldrow, her compadre Dudley things out. But on the edge there where Perkins, in their various guises. On their own, sweetness and sorcery mix, that’s where together. As Pattie Blingh, or Declaime, Or magic is made. Think of the greats. Oh I collaborating with like-minded soul dunno, like Charles Stepney or David Axelrod. adventurers. Anything will do. They are after They did these amazing balancing tricks with all the singularly most visionary people on the experimentation and memorable melodies. planet, and their influence rubbing off on More recently it’s why Massive Attack or others has to be a good thing. Timbaland ruled the roost. You can get as abstract as you like but if you can mix in some So, yeah, anything associated with Georgia or sweetness and light your mixture is going to Dudley is something to keep an eye or an ear be that bit more sinister and potent. Though out for. Which is how I happened across the maybe the bloggers might not like you as MySpace site of one Rahel, a London lady much. with Georgia-n leanings. The featured tracks had me hooked, and I followed the clues and Anyway, I’m exceptionally biased in favour of links until I stumbled across the site of Eric Eric Lau. He’s responsible for indirectly Lau, with whom Rahel had recently pointing me in the direction of Stacy Epps, participated in his New Territories project. And who’s the person behind my other non-Eric that I had to have. Lau record of the moment. It’s another one of those cosmic hip hop soul adventurers’ It’s funny isn’t it? I was vaguely aware of the sessions, with a definite touch of the Georgias, name Eric Lau, but I hadn’t made the which is the way we like our music at the connections before. Young London hip hop- moment. I hope it gets heard. I almost missed ish producer. Well, more than producer. Let’s out, and that would have made me mad. Very. stick with soul adventurer. For this guy has the guts to go the whole hog and put together I genuinely thought that the Erykah Badu ghostly soul music that really does sound like record being so brilliant everyone would be sounds seeping from the mobile phones of going; “Wow, who is that Georgia Anne kids at the back of the bus. The way Burial’s Muldrow? We need to hear more ...” Yeah supposed to. right. I mean if I say to you Pattie Blingh & the Akebulans to you, you’ll come right back at me What I should have been aware of was that and say: “Yeah, amazing record. Credit to Eric had previous working with Dudley Ramp Recordings for that one. And they’re Perkins, and even Georgia herself, which is putting out the amazing Declaime record too”. why they had in turn sprinkled some of their magic dust over Eric’s record. Oh well. Great You see that’s the beauty of MySpace again. record, anyway. It’s odd how often when You go to the Ramp Recordings page, and producers try to do the ‘putting real songs find out what else they’ve been up to. You find together’ thing they fall so flat on their face. out about Zomby Recordings. And wonder how you missed that one. Then you start to It’s a bit like the dubsteppers thinking oh yeah wonder whether maybe that dubstep-not- we’re really into Smith & Mighty and look at dubstep thing perhaps is not over and done what they did with song structures so let’s give yet. So you follow the clues again, and see it a go. Poor Pinch. Not to worry. Mercury where you get by joining the dots. Music Award winners don’t know their art from their Elbow either, and they sure as hell can’t Then again it might just be enough for you to mess with beats ‘n’ bass, so nah. go back and check out the High Five page on MySpace and put right some wrongs by Eric Lau is just the sort of chap you want to rewriting history and tapping into some special talk up when you hear the doom and gloom energy and purpose. There’s nothing wrong merchants saying we’re all doomed and with that. Sometimes the future can wait. there’s nothing new under the sun.

All these silver surfers catching up with the internet now. Great stuff. I overheard an old boy in the library booking some introductory lessons. He said he wanted to be able to use YouTube. His son had told him there were some old Miles Davis clips on there. And he wanted to be able to find these by himself. The lady running the class had never heard of Miles. Hey ho ...

Me. I had to resist the urge to put my arm spend your time. The interesting thing is that I around his shoulders and say: “Smart move. find that my fascination with YouTube takes You’ll like YouTube. Especially if you like your two quite distinct directions. As A Certain jazz. You never know what you’ll find on Ration once put it ... the old and the new. there”. And yet there’s some who see it still as anything but a force for good. Oh it’s full of I mentioned acr quite deliberately. One of my happy slapping hoodies torturing cats. The earliest YouTube pleasures was finding some sort of stuff you hear on the news. As if those old A Certain Ratio films on the site. An news broadcasters aren’t a malignant amazing one of them doing Shack Up and a influence. Hmm ... fantastically evocative film for I think Forced Laugh. Would that be right? Go and check. It’s simple. YouTube is somewhere you can Anyway from there you can imagine I was off go for free access to the pop group Laugh and running, raring to check out which other of performing. It’s not their greatest moment, but my youthful obsessions were being brought it’s still Laugh. And there’s still not enough back to life thanks to kindly souls sharing their Laugh in the world. They were one of the best prized possessions. pop groups of the 1980s. They were probably the coolest pop group of the time. They were Sure enough there they all were. Dexys on certainly the loudest and smartest. Way Something Else doing I Couldn’t Help It. The ahead of the rest. Now you can log on and Chords on Top of the Pops. The Pop Group’s watch their video for their Paul McCartney promo for She’s Beyond Good and Evil. The number. It’s worth seeing. Pale Fountains’ video for Jean’s Not Happening. Early Subway Sect. The Go- There are so many demands on our time. So I Betweens doing Cattle and Cane. Weekend try to steer clear of YouTube because it can be on the Old Grey Whistle Test. Even The curiously addictive. But on a rainy Sunday Bodines rehearsing. afternoon. Well, there are worse ways to While it’s reassuring having the specialness of stumble upon. This is particularly important one’s own youth confirmed it’s also a total joy when it comes to the soul underground. to have the opportunity to delve deeper into You’re not going to glean much information the past. And thanks to the goodwill of posters from the shelves in WH Smiths are you? on YouTube this is very possible to do. We are almost spoilt for choice. So, for example, you happen across the names Emily King or Sy Smith, and want to A click or two away you have the Lovin’ know more. Chances are that, one way or Spoonful asking if you believe in magic, and another, there is going to be a clip or two on Nancy Sinatra singing about this town. YouTube. This was certainly the case for me There’s Sharon Tandy on Beat Club and The with Jazmine Sullivan. I heard that track of Creation doing Making Time. There’s so much hers. Need You Bad. A nice twist on lovers soul stuff. Brenda Holloway and Kim Weston. rock. With Missy along for the ride. Marva Whitney. The Exciters. And so on. The Absolutely brilliant. I needed to know more sort of stuff you might have in the past badly. And YouTube provided enough imagined. Or perhaps seen once and carried perspective to persuade me I needed her around in your head. And heart. There is a Fearless LP. whole debate to be had just about that. Incidentally there’s one track on that LP that You do have to give credit where it’s due. A sounds so much like our Ny’s Willow that you lot of people have gone to a lot of trouble to begin to wonder, but who cares? There are share some of this history. Some of it is those of us of a certain age that remember obvious stuff. Some of it is just strange. The Felt’s Mexican Bandits and Who’d Have Scopitone stuff that’s been salvaged, for Thought by Hurrah! Anyway it’s more example. That really has to be seen. Surreal. important you check out the video of Ny and There’s a video of the great Kay Starr doing Purple singing about the streets being on fire. her Wheel of Fortune number with burlesque Just like the Last Words once did on their dancers doing their number. Very odd. Adrian Sherwood produced LP. Oh by the Reminds me I really need to download the way there’s a great clip of them doing that footage of Brenda Holloway doing Just Look earlier Rough Trade single of theirs, Animal What You’ve Done. Just in case it disappears. World ... Like that clip of the Mo-Dettes on Dutch TV.

One advantage of all this old footage is the shattering of preconceptions. Who after fishing around the films could honestly say that the UK and US had anything like a monopoly on great music in the ‘60s say. Check out all the footage from the San Remo Song Festivals for starters.

And personal preconceptions can go flying too. I had Davy Graham down as a dour folkie. But then one day I stumbled across a clip of him playing Cry Me A River, while the sweetest beat angel strolls city streets carrying a balloon, then sits herself down to listen to Davy play that song on what looks like a bombsite outside some flats. Sometimes you just don’t need words.

At the other extreme from such indulgences is the potential on YouTube to provide vital background perspectives on names you might Can you remember when you first came across The Creation doing Making Time?

There is a possibility that this will have been via a 7” single that Raw Records issued at the height of the punk explosion.

A record that appropriately in our local record shop was filed away with the latest punk releases.

Or then again it might have been on the inner sleeve of All Mod Cons?

If you fish around on the internet you might just Lee’s opportunity came with a local punk stumble across a couple of compilations group called The Users. He made it possible issued by Raw Records again at the height of for them to record and release a single via his the punk explosion. They’re filled with some of new Raw imprint. That single, Sick of You/I’m the nastiest noise, most manic energy and In Love With Today just happens to be one of irresistible tunes you’ll ever hear. I don’t know the best punk singles ever. It makes The if these are available legitimately. I’m aware Damned’s New Rose sound like the Archies. that the Damaged Goods label has the rights to the Raw back catalogue, but then life’s not It set the tone for the sort of stuff Wood would perfect. put out on Raw. You get a good sense of what was going on from the names of those Raw was an independent label active when involved. The Users. The Unwanted. The really mattered. It’s not exactly Killjoys. Some Chicken. The Now. Acme forgotten, but then again you don’t get the Sewage Company. The Psychos. The Sick punk inner circlists philosophising about its Things. Pure punk. And that’s what they put importance in the scheme of things. But then out. Surges of electricity. As absurd as it it came from Cambridge and maybe that seems even the first Soft Boys single sounds wouldn’t exactly fit in with the inner city like the Swell Maps covering . desolation rhetoric. The studio of choice for Raw was a place A guy called Lee Wood was behind Raw. Like called Spaceward in Cambridge where a lot of a number of other people active at the time he the provincial punks went to record their had a small record shop, got swept along by rackets. It’s funny but you’ll come across the new wave, used to lock people in the shop message boards and that where mature men and make them listen to the Hot Rods’ Live At will sit back like wine buffs and swear that the The Marquee EP until they gave in and bought greatest guitar sounds ever were captured at a copy. He loved punk. It was what he was Spaceward. It’s a valid point. The Killjoys waiting for. He wanted to get involved, start up went there to record Johnny Won’t Get To a small label, plug into some of the energy and Heaven, which would become Raw’s best excitement. A bit like Rough Trade, Small seller. The Killjoys were fronted by Kevin Wonder, and so on. Rowland. As you might imagine Kevin doing the punk thing was an intense experience. Wood swears he knew Rowland was destined way went on play with The Name, a very fine for great things. He seems to have had an eye mod group. for such things. While you can imagine McGuire enjoying the Wood also seems to have been something of challenge and concept of reinventing an a connoisseur of primitivism. One of his very imagined past, it was a little more surprising to earliest releases was a reissue of The find Vic Godard engaged in a similar exercise Creation’s Making Time. The best in mod recreating something close to a lost Subway noise. Another was a reissue of the Sect LP from 1978. I suspect some found the Hammersmith Gorillas’ take on You Really Got ensuing 1978 Now set somewhat subdued but Me. The Gorillas would go on to record their it worked for me. What the heck. It was Vic. Message To The World LP for the label. It was the Sect. It was those songs salvaged. Wood would also give the Downliners Sect The ones we’d listened to on muffled many- another go. Their Showbiz single from ’78 is a times-copied cassettes over and over again. A savage blast of rhythm ‘n’ blues which needs sense of wrongs if not songs rewritten. to be heard. Wood was also a huge fan of . Of course. There was a bit in Mark E Smith’s memoirs about Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and a One of the acts involved with Raw en passant Manchester promoter failing the grasp the was The Now from Peterborough. They’d significance of these legends flying in because already released the Why/Development as MES says these media types think life Corporations classic elsewhere, and Raw put started with New Order, The Smiths and the out Into The Eighties. Another classic. Almost Hacienda. They’ve no wider sense of history. sophisticated. In an odd twist of fate the And they sure as hell haven’t seen the young Damaged Goods label had The Now reform mod girls dancing as Jerry Lee does his thing and record an LP almost 30 years on. The on Ready Steady Go! That bit at the end of record was called Fuzztone Fizzadelic. A Whole Lotta Shakin’. Wow. That’s primitive phrase Jon Savage had used in a review. Ah enough to appeal to aficionados of the Raw. journalism.

The almost 30 years late record really shouldn’t work. But it works wonderfully. The songs are strong enough. They take pot shots at pretty much everything. The law. The town planners. Labour politicians. Women’s mags. Students. Office workers. Aliens. It’s a bit like an aural equivalent of a missing Jonathan Coe novel. The whole thing is approached a bit like conceptual art. But then maybe that’s not too surprising. The Now’s singer being one Mike McGuire. One of the most distinctive voices in pop. One of the most forward-thinking minds in the business.

After The Now were no more McGuire went on to do some exceptional things with arch conceptualists Sudden Sway. Ah Sudden Sway. One of the great groups. If that’s the right word. They played tricks with what pop could be and in many playful ways almost invented the absurdities of pop’s multi-format here and now. The Now’s drummer by the

The coolest thing ever?

Oh I don’t know ...

What about Anna Karina doing the Madison?

Remember the way she dances in Bande à Part?

The way she wears that hat and all that ...

Now here’s a funny thing. I’ve noticed a She told him: “What was great about The number of commentators kicking up a fuss, Scene was that it was very democratic. It was saying how cool that track is, the Robert Wyatt really cheap to get in. There was no alcohol, with Bertrand Burgalat one. Hmm. I don’t just coke, a lot of pills, and this great music. remember quite so many people saying the But later on when all these came along same thing when it was the other way round. to save the world, what did they do? They Bertrant Burgalat with Robert Wyatt. Oh well. started opening up The Speakeasy and places A nice twist on the old journalism maxim of where they didn’t let anyone in. It became man bites dog being news while dog bites man utterly elitist and all the good places died a is not news. Sort of. death. I thought it was middle class colonisation”. The genius and alchemist that is Bertrand Burgalat has previous with the Wyatts. Alfie Alfie has writing credits on my favourite Robert wrote the words for a number of the songs on Wyatt song. Old Europe. “Those days live on. his 2005 Portrait-Robot record. Great record. Safe here in my heart”. Particularly Spring Isn’t Fair. Quite, quite beautiful. Beautiful words. And a video based If anything cultural commentators are overly on Alfie’s artwork or Ruth Is Stranger Than reverential about Robert. But then, say along Richard. with Tony Benn, Michael Foot, Arnold Wesker and John Le Carré, he’s worth it. I used to Alfie. Perhaps the coolest person around. work with someone whose aunt was a Well, she was an original mod. What do you housekeeper for Michael Foot, and she always expect? Paolo Hewitt spoke to her for his Soul insisted he was a perfect gentleman. Those Stylists book. sort of things matter.

Anyway, I was just trying to remember when I involved early on with the extravagant first became aware of Robert Wyatt. The C81 aesthetic foppery which typified the él label n cassette. The Rough Trade singles. The the 1980s. The funny thing, or the bitter irony, cover of Chic’s At Last I Am Free. Oh yes, was that even when the party was over Louis and the collaboration with Ben Watt. 1981-ish. Philippe just kept on and on making these very The Summer Into Winter 12”. I loved that ornate, literate great pop records. Not that record. The track Walter and John. People many people noticed. Least of all me. sneered. But it was years ahead of the game. Good on you Ben. But it seems certain that at the very least Bertrand Burgalat and his close comrade I chanced upon another record blessed by Philippe Katerine were among those who did Robert Wyatt in a charity shop. Well, I doubt notice. Their early works are almost that Robert was actually in a charity shop amusingly the él aesthetic writ large as life. when he blessed it, but you know what I mean. You know, immaculately elegant like Dirk Lucky Scars. Fish Out Of Water. I wasn’t Bogarde in Modesty Blaise, swirling Michel even sure what was by whom. It looked Legrand strings, taking tea with Syd Barrett, intriguing. I bought it. Now it’s one of my sipping champagne with Anna Karina at a favourite records. Ever. Certainly not just boulevard cafe, on the razzle with Serge. But because Robert did some scat singing on a bang up to date. couple of songs and played a bit of piano. And urged people to buy it. I’m glad I took his Ah yes. Anna Karina. Katerine even got to advice. make a wonderfully warm record with Karina. Une Histoire D’Amour. It works. Her voice is I haven’t been able to find out much about Fish so husky. Brrr. She looks great on the cover Out Of Water. The songs are Genie Cosmas’, too. Funnily enough. I turned on the radio a London jazz musician. Her songs are deeply recently. Waiting for one of those valuable moving, very real, touching and observant. Mark Lamarr shows. A couple of DJs were One instrumental, MS Madness, perhaps prattling on about actors making records. provides the important context Robert refers Sniggering about William Shatner. Actually to. I could be wrong. It’s just a special record. being stupid enough to wonder aloud whether Like the Raincoats, when they were Moving, if any actors had made decent records. Oh they’d moved more towards the Abdullah come on. Trouble was I was lying awake for Ibrahim thing. Or the sort of ground Robert ages making lists. What about Cybille covers on Comicopera a dozen or so years Shepherd? Jeanne Moreau? Richard Harris? later. Why on earth someone gave this record Helene Noguerra!!! away I can’t begin to imagine, but we all have our moments of madness. What I really like about people like Burgalat and Katerine is that in some circles they would Robert’s roots, as is well documented, are in be condemned for being too clever for their the Canterbury music scene. Where a own good. Too arch. Too knowing. Which is collection of artistic types decided not to be a strange way of looking at things. I like the painter men, opting instead for art of a different idea that they are prepared to indulge in daring discipline. One of the most famous fans of the conceits. We need more of that sort of thing. Canterbury thing and its tributaries has to be Not less. author Jonathan Coe. Ahem, Coe-incidentally it was via Jonathan that I discovered Bertrand You know the sort of thing. Records Burgalat’s Tricatel label. conceived as song cycles. Records that are comic operas. With a dramatic storyline For Coe got to make a record for Tricatel, with flowing through. Spoken word parts. Different one of his musical heroes Louis Philippe. Very characters taking part. Fantastic follies. But strange and wonderful record it is too. Worth with individual songs being available for tracking down. The presence of Louis Philippe download, I may be whistling in the wind. Ah is pertinent. He was one of those people progress.

The coolest thing ever?

Well, there’s always that film of Elis Regina on Brazilian TV.

From, what was it, 1973?

Not just her singing. Just everything. The way she moves her head. The way she uses her facial expressions ...

There was a time when The Face was the also featured heavily, but to me they were the coolest pop read around. One of my many enemy. New pop? Old hat! regrets is parting with my collection of early editions of The Face. I have just a few left. Now what was really exciting about that Oh well. One of that salvaged few is The Face particular issue of The Face, and the reason I no.32 from December 1982. In what was then still have it, was an article on the new wave of a regular curmudgeonly column the late, great bossa nova, if that’s not a sort of tautology. Ray Lowry writes: Fiona Russell-Powell was the writer responsible. One half of the feature focused “No doubt this activity, this process of the on the two groups leading the new naturalism, amassing of vast wealth, the mechanics of namely Weekend and the Pale Fountains. being a business man is as vital to some Two groups with bossa nova tendencies. The people as being a writer or a film maker or other part of the piece tried to shed some light a painter or a song writer or a politician or on what exactly this bossa nova thing was. a pilot is to some others. As creative. Unfortunately their activities, and the This latter part (which was actually the first process of existence of governments and part, but not to worry) was written with the market forces and military groups, affect all assistance of Weekender Simon Booth and our lives forcefully and directly. What they others from the Mole Jazz shop. With the do can prevent the rest of us from pursuing benefit of hindsight, all these years on, with all our own interest and creativity.” the knowledge we’ve acquired, Fiona’s feature was pretty cool. The Face no.32 also features Malcolm MacLaren on his Buffalo Gals, Jon Savage A bit of background which I suspect I glossed doing the singles (including Manicured Noise’s over at the time. Well, you might as well have Steve Walsh’s solo Edge of Night), Robert done because as someone just leaving school Elms on Cristina as ‘the last of the great Ze you weren’t really in a position to go out on a eccentrics’ around the time of the release of bossa binge, and funnily enough the local Sleep It Off. ABC and the Human League are record shops weren’t exactly overstocked with Brazilian classics. I guess like many at the time bossa nova for And that strange cusp where sunshine pop me meant Gilberto. And not Joao. Oh no. met bossa nova. Jo and Bing. And so on. Astrud. Not that I need to apologise for that. I will never forget the delight at stumbling across Then I discovered the Loronix blogspot. At old Astrud vinyl in charity shops. First The just the right time. When I, ahem, really didn’t Shadow of My Smile. Then Beach Samba. have anything better to do. If you’ve not come Oh that piano bit at the start of Nao Bate O across it Loronix is almost the ultimate labour Carocao still sends me crazy. And the version of love. A resource where rare, forgotten and of Misty Roses. Aww. Some day I need to sit out-of-print Brazilian sounds are made down and put together a compilation of Tim available. And we’re talking about records far Hardin covers. Scott Walker. Free Design. from well known even in Brazil. The guy is And so on. definitely a latter day saint. And he unwittingly helped me through some dark days. I hope Looking back it’s nice to note that Fiona’s one day I can make it up to him. feature got it more right than I realised. Special mention, among the nods to Getz and As a direct consequence of the Loronix site I Jobim, is given to Astrud’s I Haven’t Got would say that half of what I listen to is Anything Better To Do. Now that’s pretty spot Brazilian related. Particularly bossa based. on. And it’s a bit of a giveaway. If Simon Particularly female singers. Joyce, Sylvia Booth was into that particular record, you can Telles, Claudette Soares, Doris Monteiro, see why he was so sure Alison Statton was Marilia Medalha, Maysa, Marcia, Elizeth the singer to work with. Cardoso, Nana Caymmi, Alayde Costa, Simone, Beth Carvalho, Clara Nunes, Norma What a record. What a cover. I Haven’t Got Bengell. Plus Nara. And Elis. I couldn’t live Anything Better To Do. It’s bleak like one of without these now. Mind you, Astrud’s I those great concept records. Haven’t Got Anything Better To Do is my Frank sings for only the lonely. Except Astrud special favourite. I got there in the end. sounds so so so sad. And that cover. Did I mention the cover? The close up. The tears. While I now know that the Brazilian music of Aw. She sings the most heartbreakingly the late ‘50s, the ‘60s, and early ‘70s outstrips intimate and desolate version of Trains, Boats the musics of the UK/US axis, it is telling that and Planes. Then there’s the rendition of Wee the best music-related books of recent times Small Hours. Grrr. Brrr. And that cover. also originate in Brazil. One is Caetano Veloso’s Tropical Truth. The story of the It would be many, many years before I heard tropicalia times. An incredible account of a the actual record of I Haven’t Anything Better cultural philosophy, and a stark contrast to the To Do. In the time between, I was getting run-of-the-mill tales of rock excess. The other ready for it. I was, as someone once put it, book is Ruy Castro’s book on bossa nova. gradually learning. I worked my way through reissues by the likes of Mr Bongo and Far Out. While the former is impressively erudite, the I read through the Slipcue pages online, latter is deliciously gossipy. It at least gives an brushing up on my Brazilian musical history. I invaluable insight into the bossa revolution, got seriously into the whole Elenco thing. and how its major players fit together in the Picking up reissues here and there, scheme of things. The character of Joao worshipping the cover art. I wolfed down Gilberto is particularly enigmatic in the way its articles in Wax Poetics on Marcos Valle and portrayed, and it’s easy to be consumed by the Joao Donato. deep feeling and deeper thoughts behind the development of the bossa sound. It was I stood up and applauded old comrades chez certainly enough to send me scuttling to hear él and Rev-ola when they salvaged rare gems these sensitive sounds in their original context. from the Brazilian vaults. Sylvia Telles, Elis An achievement. Normally when I read about Regina, Quarteto Em Cy, Nara Leao, Rita Lee. music it puts me off sounds I love madly.

The coolest thing ever? You mean, really, ever? Oh, it has to be Marina Van-Rooy ... dancing in the video for Jean’s Not Happening. Or Marina singing Sly One. Just about the coolest pop single - ever!

I looked on the internet for more on Marina. There it. You hear, say, Young Conservative, and you’d was very little information. Some great photos. swear Mark Stewart was somewhere there. Odd for Proves the web’s not the be-all and end-all. What 1986. There was a single too. The Coyle-y titled there was kept bringing me back to Peter Coyle. Fascist Scum. Anything but wet.

Now I was aware that Peter Coyle had a hand or The second set was better still. The snappily titled two in the creation of Sly One. But, hitherto, when I I’d Sacrifice Eight Orgasms With Shirley MacLaine thought about Peter Coyle I suppose I thought of Just To Be There. You couldn’t make this up. the Lotus Eaters. The First Picture of You and all Maybe I just did. Perhaps it’s all an elaborate hoax. that. Pleasant enough. If a bit wet. And anyway If you were going to create one that sounds like they stood accused of attempting to steal the Wild Prince getting it together with 23 Skidoo. Or one of Swans’ thunder. That is if you bought into the Davy Henderson’s most twisted moments. Made internecine Liverpool pop politics. But then Peter the Cabs’ Diskono sound like ... well, the Lotus Coyle was behind the slinky Sly One, so ... Eaters.

There is some fascinating stuff about Peter Coyle Whatever. Eight, as I affectionately call it, along scattered around the web. I confess I’d forgotten he with the fantastic Pink Industry New Beginnings set, was in the Jass Babies. Early Zoo connected makes strong links to the whole emerging contenders. I had no idea though that after the dance/house-y thing. Coyle was closely involved Lotus Eaters disintegrated he went on to do a with Liverpool club culture, and would go on to do couple of solo LPs. If you were perhaps to fish some special things with Eight Productions, leading around you might just happen to stumble across to, yes, Marina singing the slinky Sly One, which these. I did. And was astonished. was just about as cool as can be. I remember how good it sounded on the radio. And there were so The first. The aptly titled A Slap In The Face For many great pop records around at that time ... Public Taste. Whew. It has to be one of the darkest of dark night of the soul self-destructive Contact: [email protected] sets. At times shockingly so. And all the better for