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That Music List continues. Edition #242 includes music from Pigeon, Craven Faults, Mylène Farmer, Sugar, Zig Zag Band, La Casa Azul, Knitting Circle, Low, Landscape, Moon Duo, Bogshed, Lynks, Jimmy Cliff, Kraftwerk, Mitski, Beat Happening, K.I.D. and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I am going to see Kraftwerk at the Liverpool Empire in June, or what remains of them nowadays. The last time I saw them was back in 2017 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and they were brilliant, as ever.
It is the Philharmonic Hall next Thursday for (amongst other pieces) Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (the “Pastoral”) under the conducting of the excellent Ariane Matiakh.
And because I mentioned him on a different thread earlier, here is Mr Tom Lehrer’s finest two minutes:
That Music List continues. Edition #243 includes music from Ben Castle ft Matt Berry, The Lovely Eggs, David Westlake, Senser, Fosca, Would-Be-Goods, Mason Wheatley, Host Family, Gabrielles Wish, Four Tet, White Town, Gruff Rhys, Adventures In Stereo and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
It was good to escape into some music at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall last night.
The Tchaikovsky violin concerto was delivered with aplomb by the orchestra and the brilliant soloist Diana Tischenko. Oh to be that outrageously good at something.
Then the orchestra played Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony (The Pastoral) under the assured conduction of Ariane Matiakh. The final movement, the calm after the storm, felt rather fitting in the circumstances. Rather like an act of deliverance and a reassurance in the midst of our troubled times that all will be well.
That Music List continues. Edition #244 includes music from Blueboy, Shampoo, Deary, Family, Cornelius, Alt Blk Era, T99, Even As We Speak, William D Drake, Loop, Stuart Moxham, Belbury Poly, The Company She Keeps, Juana Molina, Antony Szmierek and more.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I see the name ‘Family’ in your latest list GC. Are they the 60s/70s ‘progressive’ band or a newer outfit?
I was never that ‘into’ them though singer Roger Chapman had a very distinctive voice and this is pretty good:
As an occasional visitor and poster on this forum I don’t know what possessed me to click on this thread this morning, but so thankful that I did. Having seen the names Blueboy and Even as we Speak amongst the roll call for the latest Music List I was intrigued enough to click on the link and was delighted to discover that Blueboy had released new material last year and a further hour or so delving into other lists finding the new vehicle for Bobby Wratten. Even seeing the link to a Desert Wolves track on the first list of 2026 was great. Their “Passion in the Afternoon” song from the late 80’s remains one of my favourite tunes to this day.
Thank You, Jeremy!I heard the song “Oh babe, what would say” by Hurricane Smith on Saturday. I hadn’t heard it for ages and now I can’t get it out of my head!
I must admit I didn’t know he worked as engineer on about a hundred songs by The Beatles and he was producer on three of the first four albums by Pink Floyd. He was also a glider pilot in WW2!
I like seeing old footage on YouTube. Who would have thought at the time that these sort of performances could be viewed with ease so many years later?
Salty,
It’s an absolute pleasure! Feedback such as yours makes the whole exercise of doing the blog so very worthwhile.
So much of my musical pleasure over the decades has been owed to the gift of serendipitous discovery, both of the music itself and of resources and services highlighting that music. It’s lovely to be able to give that gift as well as receive it.
Most of the names you’ve referenced would suggest a fellow Sarah Records fan. As such, are you likely to catch the also recently reactivated Heavenly on their current UK tour, or have you already? Assuming no hold-ups in picking up my wife from Manchester airport that afternoon, I’ll be at their Sheffield gig this Saturday.
The latest List, as released on Saturday morning just gone, features one more Sarah act of yore in the shape of The Sugargliders. It’s not a given that every List contains some Sarah or Sarah-adjacent act – it just keeps working out that way
Once again, many many thanks for your interest!
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hello Drone,
The Family in question here would be a Basque duo, active from 1989 to 1994 and seen as an influential act within the wider context of Spanish indiepop. Certainly it was them who first absorbed the musical influence of New Order into that particular idiom, as particularly evident in the track I shared the weekend before last.
No reason at all for the earlier Family not to appear in a future List if I can find a track I’m sufficiently enamoured with. There have been dips into that era of prog on occasion, and doubtless there will be more. I know I’ve got some Aphrodite’s Child cued up for inclusion at some point.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
I heard the song “Oh babe, what would say” by Hurricane Smith on Saturday. I hadn’t heard it for ages and now I can’t get it out of my head!
A good song and one that tends to linger, as you say
This is also good and could be said to be ‘ahead of its time’
Thursday night just gone saw the Manchester leg of Cardiacs’ emotional and triumphant return, with erstwhile Oceansizer Mike Vennart permanently installed in the live set-up now as well as on record.
The Albert Hall’s variable sound quality – partly the consequence, I’m given to understand, of its many windows, beautiful as they are – couldn’t prevent the magic of this strange, beautiful, sometimes manic music shining through, and it’s worth stressing that compiling and executing this near two-hour set so perfectly was no small undertaking, even for those who’d performed some of its contents for decades previously.
These are still earlyish days for longstanding drummer Bob Leith performing without any of the backing tracks which the late Tim Smith had introduced upon the band’s early-1990s conversion to a power quartet, and had kept in place as the live ensemble expanded and right up until the tragic events of 2008. Live keyboards hadn’t featured in Cardiacs’ live offer for at least 35 years, either, until Rhodri Marsden was brought on board; something else for Bob, Kavus Torabi and Jim Smith to all get used to.
Inevitably, though, it was Vennart who has carried the greatest responsibility to make things work on stage as the band’s de facto frontperson now, to all intents and purposes the Tim of the piece however much he has striven to play down that perception.
Has he succeeded? Kavus’s succinct summary on Facebook yesterday morning that, “Mike has excelled, taking on the almost impossible task of inhabiting these songs with authenticity and passion, not to mention extraordinary ability and talent”, tells you enough.
This was not the Mike Vennart show, neither was it Mike doing Tim Smith cabaret – no replication of any of Tim’s eccentric outbursts, nor any of the theatrical onstage humiliating of Jim (indeed, Jim got a cuddle or two from Mike and Kavus). Instead, generous tributes to his fellow players and audience during the set, culminating in the outro of The Whole World Window, which rounded off the main set. Flowers thrown from the stage (a nod to the Consultant, one assumes – IYKYK), and a respectful hug of a picture of Tim Smith himself.
The octet on stage looked absolutely spent by the time Is This The Life? drew the second and final encore to a close, Mike and Jim especially. The latter had, some will remember, been unable to complete the final Sing to Tim gig in late 2024 due to illness, but it was emotional investment rather than physical frailty at play here.
By the end of this week Cardiacs will have played four equally long gigs within five nights, and the time required to rest, recover and reflect will be well earned.
Jim has often mentioned that it felt as if Cardiacs were on the cusp of something approaching a crossover, relatively speaking, back in 2007 judged on the size and increasingly varying age profile of their audiences; and the evidence of the rapturous responses to these sell-out dates is that those people have not only waited and returned, but been appreciably added to in number.
The question for Jim Smith to consider, at leisure, will be what happens next.
There are supposedly further remnants of music and lyrics from Tim’s archives which could yet be spun into gold in the same way as the LSD album and ultimately performed live.
Equally, and even factoring in the performances of all three tracks on the Ditzy Scene single this week and/or in 2007-8, exactly half of LSD will have remained unplayed to a live audience by the end of this current tour. That includes such audacious tracks as Busty Beez and Skating – taking these on the road some day must have its appeal.
And, of course, there is a back catalogue of such depth that a staggering number of setlist permutations could still be drawn up for years to come, with or without contributions from LSD, and the faithful would likely still be more than satisfied with that.
All in good time.
More immediately, I know that Thursday night’s concert definitely finds a place among my all-time favourites.
I just need to decide where.
Here’s a phone recording of the concert in full. Not mine, but I’m delighted someone took the trouble. You might want to skip past the first three minutes of grinding noises, another one of the band’s little idiosyncracies from decades prior.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
That Music List continues. Edition #245 includes music from Cardiacs, Hemlocke Springs, Nena, Luke Slater, David Lyme, Toxic Two, Therapy?, The Sugargliders, The Radio Field, Kiss AMC, DJ Kaos, The Bernhardts, Flying Saucer Attack, Howling Bells and more.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Thanks for the lowdown on the Basque Family GC. I could have saved you the bother as I’ve only just discovered that your Music Lists have snippets from all those you mention.
Your website is ab fab, a true labour of love
Jeremy,
Thanks for your response to my earlier post. Good to hear the boost positive feedback gives you and your blog.
You are quite correct in surmising that the Sarah Records roster was generally favourable to my ears, though not all of them. I was never a great fan of Amelia’s vocals, though I liked the more recent stuff she did as The Catenary Wires. As a Belfast resident sadly many bands still give us a swerve and I tend to reserve visits to Dublin and across the Irish Sea to those must-see acts.
The Sugargliders are one of the Sarah bands that I have explored as they morphed into The Steinbecks (well worth getting to know). They in turn led to the introduction to a number of Aussie Indie bands through exposure to the Popboomerang and Lost & Lonesome labels, including, most notably the wonderful Lucksmiths.
Your latest blog will probably encourage me to give the Cardiacs another go. They sort of passed me by in the their heyday and my interest was piqued by a relatively recent feature in Uncut so thanks for the prompt.
Good listening!That Music List continues. Edition #246 includes music from Heavenly, Bis, Robert Wyatt, Cha Cha 2000, Voka Gentle, Suep, Aretha Franklin, Tulpa, Tom Vek, Tomora, Red Monkey, Air, Best Friends Forever, Cathode, Khaled, BMX Bandits, Solar 76 and more:
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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