You Meet Some Nice Folk Round These Parts ~ Circulus & Trimdon Grange Reviewed
August 14, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
As here previewed a week ago, I last night got my first encounter with Michael Tyack’s Circulus. I am happy to report that it was an utterly pleasurable experience.
As I have previously written, The Lexington is a great small venue with a capacity of maybe 200. It was perhaps three-quarters full by the time Circulus took the stage, or climbed aboard their spaceship (”There are no emergency exits!”), though significantly less full, alas, for Trimdon Grange’s set. This London-based quartet attracted my attention a short while ago on account of being named after the 1882 North-East pit disaster commemorated by the folk song The Trimdon Grange Explosion, although this was my first opportunity to see them. You may have read my eulogy to Alan Price’s fantastic 1969 orchestral pop version. The TG’s languidly paced take is more akin to the traditional version.
Pop Junkie Salutes The Greatest Instrumentals in Pop History
July 15, 2009 by Vic · 2 Comments
Before we start I dreamt last night that I had possibly contracted swine flu. However, I wasn’t in Blighty, I was somewhere out in the middle east with my hand nervously gripping a pistol ready to shoot the baddies that were surrounding me. However, they turned out to be good guys, medical experts of international repute who stated that it was their intention to bring this plague under control. As I’d just began to feel a little tickle in my throat I was inoculated on the spot. I woke up this morning cured!
Today I am going to salute the instrumental in pop. A much neglected genre these days that has been in and out of vogue since the beginning of time. Well, ye know what I mean. Popular during rock’n'roll, surf, beat, ska and Northern soul eras, to a lesser extent funk and disco, it was pretty much ignored by psychedelia, folk, punk, post-punk, indie and rap. I imagine it has lent itself to prog, house, trance and techno, but these are noises I know nothing about. The instrumental also came into its own in the world of easy listening and the world of the theme tune, both of which I shall examine on a future occasion. Today, we celebrate the instrumental in pop.
Pop Junkie Says Don’t Let the BBC Change Radio 2 or 6Music
The BBC is canvassing opinion on Radio 2 and 6Music because they have to keep the licence payers happy. The TV licence payers that is. We’ve got a telly, but Chez Bongo is very much a radio house. From the 6.45am alarm which brings Radio 4 into our lug ‘oles, through the delights of Test Match Special on longwave, the likes of Count Arthur Strong and Ed Reardon on Radio 4 and Danny Baker on BBC London, our gaff is very much radio-powered by the letters B, B and C.
So, what of Radio 2? Mark Lamarr’s God’s Jukebox, Reggae Show, Shake Rattle & Roll and Alternative 60s are great shows, as is Saturday morning’s delightful two hours with veteran Brain Matthew. This is the man who introduced sessions by The Kinks and The Beatles when they were first recorded, 51 years a broadcaster, and he’s still going strong. This is an oldies show par excellence. You might well hear The Searcher’s Needles and Pins, as played on every other ‘gold’ station on an hourly basis, but the commonplace is equally balanced by rarities and artists that you’ll never hear elsewhere. It is a great show for 60s r’n'r, r’n'b, pop, soul, bubblegum and psychedelia.
I have previoulsy given my opion on these pages on 6Music. Marc Riley’s evening show is as good as the Peel show ever was. And I mean that. It’s easy to forget that John Peel played a lot of unlistenable tosh among the diamonds, particularly once the post-punk era had become fragmented in a hundred different directions. The argument that someone had to is a good one, as no-one else played the Mighty Fall in those days (or Misty in Roots), but experimental music is not always easy on the ears, nor is it necessarily any good.
The young bands that Riley showcases are invariably listenable, if not really good. Bands like The Junipers, Django Django, The Race Horses, Poppy & the Jezebels… The standard really is very high, from all these kids in their twenties (plus old timers like Vic Godard, Graham Coxon and Billy Childish) brought up on their parents and grandparents record collections, discovering and being influenced by Brian Wilson, Arthur Lee, Bowie, The Pistols, Pentangle, Hendrix, Bunnymen, Buzzcocks and Joy Division. I am constantly surprised at the current state of indie music. And, aside from vintage Peel sessions, he’s likely to sprinkle the show with classic cuts from The Seeds, The Kinks, Banshees, Pavement and the like.
He opened a show a month ago with The Osmonds’ Crazy Horses. When did you last hear that track? (I’ll tell you my favourite Crazy Horses story one day). It’s an astonishing slab of metal pop, all the more stunning of course because it’s sung by an Osmond. Coming out of the radio it sounded bloody awesome and I conjured a vision which made me smile. I imagined three students hearing this for the first time, their jaws dropping and arguing among each other as to who could be responsible for this aural dynamite. After considering Hendrix, The Pistols, New York Dolls, The Jam, Prodigy, Spinal Tap and Motorhead, they eventually all agree that it’s by Iggy Pop. Made me chuckle, anyway.
We’re also very partial to Gideon Coe’s show and especially keen on Stuart Maconie’s Freakzone, a playground of folk, rock, pop, jazz, soundtrack and exotica where Can rub shoulders with Beefheart, Basil Kirchin, Jean-Claude Vannier, Moondog, Soft Machine and Scott Walker. It also showcases any new bands that fit the bill.
I’ve filled in the questionnaire. It took about 10 or 12 minutes. Please do the same if you care about the high standard of music on the BBC. If you don’t, we run the risk of Catatonic FM; Simply Red, Coldplay, Tina Turner, Will Young, Elton, Spandau Ballet and Queen. Is that what you want?
Forget Glastonbury (Slight Return) ~ Get on Down to Brighton’s Beachdown Festival
June 24, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
Ha ha, am I playing jokes on you today? No, I wouldn’t do that, it’s just the way it’s worked out. Like the proverbial buses along comes another festival in the same Sussex town. Seven weeks after the Wilkommen event, Brighton hosts the altogether bigger Beachdown Festival.
This has been put together by Adrian Gibson’s AGMP Concerts. Adrian ran Camden’s Jazz Cafe from 1992-2008, less a jazz venue than a hang out for twenty and thirty-something old mods, acid jazzers, groovers and Britpopers with a never-ending string of great headliners (Mother Earth, JTQ, Lee Perry, Ike Turner, Ian McLagan, off the top of my head).
The Beachdown runs over August Bank Holiday weekend from 28th to 31st and hosts The Fall, St Etienne, Super Furry Animals, The Zutons, JTQ, The Blockheads, Prince Buster, Grandmaster Flash, Grace Jones etc etc plus DJs, cinema, family area and, a nice touch, a ton of local groups.
Might just be an excuse to call up an old friend and see if the spare room or sofa is free for the weekend.
Life’s a Complicated Boogie ~ Jarvis Cocker’s Further Complications Reviewed
May 28, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
Having very much enjoyed hearing Jarvis’ new single Angela (which is included here) and its glam rock vibe I eagerly awaited the new album. Seeking to work in more of a band situation than he did on his eponymous solo debut, he laid down a couple of tracks in Chicago with Steve Albini whilst out there for the Pitchfork Festival.
“I wanted to record them in an environment where we could all play at the same time and hopefully capture something of the spirit of a band all working together, all aiming in the same direction….Plus, it was very cheap.”
That was last July, It went well so they flew back in January to knock out an album. And knocked out it sounds, which is no criticism. It rocks and as Jarvis said, with this band he discovered that he could, so he’d be a fool not to. Amen Cocker.
He rocks on the Batmanesque Homewrecker. What a bloody great racket, with dirty sax wailing all over it. Like early Roxy at their punkest. An angry Jarvis breathes “A homewrecker stalks the streets of the city. Avoiding the issue, still trying to believe he’s the biggest, the strongest, the fittest, the longest & his wife & his kids are asleep.” Dynamite.
Surprise Surprise ~ it’s Cilla’s Birthday
May 27, 2009 by Vic · 2 Comments
I would think it fairly uncontroversial to state, as I have in the past on these very pages, that Dusty is the Queen of Pop; a singer of pop, soul and ballads without equal. Sandie Shaw can lay claim to be a closeish second, but I am not the only Pop Junkie writer whose vote will always go to Cilla.
When I were a nipper we had proper light entertainment on a Saturday night. Variety shows hosted by a clean cut singer, Lulu, Cliff or Cilla, who would don their best clobber and sing a number (or a medley god forbid) accompanied by the energetic young Nigel Lythgoe Dancers and special guests such as comedian Les Dawson or Roger De Courcey or pop acts such as Paper Lace, Guys & Dolls or Gilbert O’Sullivan. That was the 70s. A few years earlier, however, and the guests were likely to be The Hollies, The Who or the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
That format and, it seemed, the careers of the hosts, appeared to have been washed away with punk rock, yet just as Elton, Rod, Floyd and the like emerged stronger than ever in the mid 1980s so did Cilla. Not as a singer, however, but as the UKs Queen of Light Entertainment via the phenomenally successful Blind Date & Surprise Surprise. That she emerged as a less scary version of Mrs Thatcher has not sullied my love of her 60s material.
It’s Monk Time ~ This Wednesday in Kensal Green
May 18, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
The Lexi Cinema in NW10 will be screening The Transatlantic Feedback this Wednesday (20th April) at 7.30pm. The film is a feature length documentary tracing the career of the legendary, for want of a better phrase, art rock 1960s quintet The Monks, and their back-to-zero approach to music.
The film includes rare archive footage and contemporary interviews with all the Monks. A huge influence on the Mighty Fall, Faust and countless other garage rock bands (such diverse chaps as Jon Spencer, Anton Newcomb, Jello Biafra, Jack White and Colin Greenwood are all fans) what I hadn’t realised was that they were a construct, a manufactured band, thus placing them alongside the Monkees as the only instances of such a notion producing music of credibility. Starting as US servicemen in Germany playing to local audiences in their downtime, as surf beat band The Torquays, they were moulded by two young advertising executives who had a vision for something different.
A nihilistic droning sound, a primal beat, repetition, feedback, banjo as a rhythm instrument, song structures that made no sense, the former GIs bought into the ‘anti-Beatles’ vision 100%. A monk was always a monk, on and off stage including tonsures. Such intense an approach could only flourish briefly and so it proved, but they left behind a legacy greater than a million other bands combined. The complete recordings have recently been issued in two lovingly-packaged volumes (available seperately) by Light in the Attic Records.
Wednesday’s screening will be introduced by the Radio 4 broadcaster and Monks mega-enthusiast Alan Dein. He’ll talk about the Monks time in Hamburg and play a bit of a programme he made about them. It could be the film’s only London screening. The film, howeve, is available on DVD with a whole bunch of extras including, poignantly, a track-by-track reappraisal by the late Dave Day, the Monks banjo player and genuinely sweet human being.
Dig this. Remember it was filmed 43 years ago. Before Revolver, before The Stooges, before psychedelia, before punk.
Manics, Buzzcocks, The Fall, Dinosaur Jr & Bert Jansch Play Mojo Honours Gigs
May 12, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
Tickets go on sale at 9am this morning (Tuesday May 12th) for four concerts to promote this year’s MOJO Honours List and the line up is pretty nifty.
Playing the HMV Forum on June 8th is the Manic Street Preachers (with unannounced special guests), June 9th Dinosaur Jr (ditto) and on June 10th The Fall, Buzzcocks and John Cooper Clarke (I saw him last November ~ He is still an hilarious dude) share the bill.
To round off, folk legend Bert Jansch plays the Jazz Cafe in Camden on June 8th. All act as a prelude to the awards bash on June 11th. On June 15th, Virgin reissue three albums that Bert recorded on Charisma back in the early 70s including L.A. Turnaround which contains the sublime Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning.
Nominees for the voting categories can be viewed here. Voters stand a chance to win a place at the table for the award ceremony.
Neil Hannon to Release a New Concept Album….And the Concept is Cricket
April 15, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
In a career move that could be seen as amiably eccentric or disasterously inept, Neil Hannon has recorded an album devoted to the religion that they call cricket. Yes, that Neil Hannon, the one from the Divine Comedy, who loves Scott Walker as much as we do.
As far as I’m concerned he was a fella who made a few reasonably jolly whimsical pop ditties about ten years ago. I now regard him as a kindred spirit, if not a demigod.
Linking up with his opening partner Thomas Walsh (aka Mr Duckworth), the pair call themselves The Duckworth Lewis Method, Hannon being Mr Lewis. Ostensibly aligning themselves with this summer’s Ashes series, a quick listen to the uploaded tracks and a gander at the rather spiffing artwork on the DLM myspace shows them rather to be saluting cricket’s chapness; a celebration of cricket in all its guises, providing one wears whites (as opposed to garish coloured jimjams), cableknit sweaters and smokes a pipe at the crease.
Whatever your views on cricket, with Hannon’s hand at the tiller, the game may get a few converts this summer. As Mr Lewis says; “I give you a kaleidoscopic musical adventure through the beautiful and rather silly world of cricket.” Amen.
We may even be able to complete a Pop Junkie Top 10 of Cricket songs, which currently stands thus:
1. Soul Limbo: Booker T & the MGs ~ Yes, you know the one. Surely everyone loves this track, don’t they? (couldn’t find the proper version on youtube - accept no substitutes in this instance).
2. When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease: Roy Harper ~ A song actually about cricket ~ Led Zep’s mate using the game as a metaphor for life. Requested by John Peel that this be played on air at the event of his death.
3. Howzat: Sherbert ~ Is it too controversial to say that this is Australia’s greatest ever contribution to pop music? Take a listen. This is a pop masterpiece. Not exactly about cricket, just uses the analogy of someone who’s time has come and gone.
4. Dreadlock Holiday: 10CC ~ “I don’t like cricket, oh no, I love it, yes”. After a string of monster hits through 1972 to 1977, this 1978 release went to number one and promptly ended their career.
5. Cricket Lovely Cricket ~ Traditional Caribbean Calypso from the 1950s by Lord Beginner.
6. Mambo Number Five: Lou Bega ~ Highly annoying and infectious tune adopted by Channel 4 when they wrestled terrestial cricket coverage away from the BBC. Ah, cricket on normal telly, those were the days my friend.
7. There is no number 7. Doubtless something will occur to me in my sleep tonight, but cricket has been rather undernourished by song down the years. Until now…
A rather wonderful piece of cricket/pop triv to finish off: David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd’s favourite band is The Mighty Fall, which I find astonishingly wonderful, but it does rather hinge on you knowing who Bumble is. He also loves Half Man, Half Biscuit. He’s younger than John Peel, but still, even so…
Bring on the Aussies, Mr Duckworth & Mr Lewis.
We’ve gone into Meltdown ~ Pop Junkie Select the Top 10 Who’ve yet to Curate the Festival
April 7, 2009 by Vic · Leave a Comment
With jazz giant Ornette Coleman revealled as this year’s Meltdown Festival curator, we at Pop Junkie nominate our Top 10 of those yet to be given the honour. PJ favourites Morrissey, Scott Walker, Jarvis Cocker, Bowie and John Peel have all had a go, as have the likes of Laurie Anderson, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt, Lee Perry, Nick Cave, Patti Smith and, last year’s hosts, Massive Attack.
1. Kate Bush: Perhaps she has previoulsy been asked and turned it down for she seems to have the ideal stature and pedigree for this role in which women have been rather disproportionally represented. A major artist with a prestigious back catalogue, slightly reclusive/mysterious, wide interest in the arts, artistic integrity beyond question. She ticks all the boxes. What would we get? Peter Gabriel, Dave Gilmour, Yes, Bowie, Ferry, Woody Allen, Truffaut, Python. Leftfield surprise: Collaboration with John Lydon and PiL.
2. John Cale: The only British member of the Velvet Underground, the Welshman again ticks all the boxes. What would we get? Esoteric leftfield classical and jazz hybrids. Leftfield Surprise: I think Cale could outdo any suggestion I could come up with.
