- This topic has 1,513 replies, 140 voices, and was last updated 7 hours, 12 minutes ago by
.
- Posts
That Music List continues. Edition #247 includes music from Prolapse, Ladytron, Wire, Yumi Yumi, Heavy Axe, Cootie Catcher, My Lo-Fi Heart, Gina Birch, The Montgolfier Brothers, Win, Delicate Vomit, Sock Puppets, ABC, Christy Moore, Mighty Mighty and more.
(Salty, Drone – my apologies, currently on holiday but a reply to you both will follow soon)
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.
Hi GC, very long time no speak. Great to see Win make the list. They were so unlucky. Still listen to their album from time to time, on top of the many remixes of You’ve Got The Power.
That Music List continues, even whilst I’m away on holiday with limited WiFi. Edition #248 includes music from The Just Joans, Cornershop, House Of All, Souad Massi, Holy ****, Gossip, The Real Tuesday Weld, Keith Seatman, Horsegirl, A Witness, Cocteau Twins, Robber Robber, Neko Case, Tompot Blenny 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.
That Music List continues. Edition #249 includes music from Lung Leg, Laetitia Sadier, Marie Davidson, Carla J Easton, Wesley Gonzalez, Monograph, Florence Adooni, Folk Implosion, The Siddeleys, Spratleys, The Last Poets, Marina Zispin, Colleen 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.
Hi GC, very long time no speak. Great to see Win make the list. They were so unlucky. Still listen to their album from time to time, on top of the many remixes of You’ve Got The Power.
A pleasure to read you, too, VtC! Trust all is well with you and yours. Life experience tells us not to take absolutely everything we see as gospel; and the charts of the 1980s and 1990s, replete as they were with real or imagined sharp practices, sales rigging and (in poor Win’s case) mistaken cases of regional hyping, are good examples of that.
I can quite believe that the north west of the first near quarter century of my existence would have been viewed with similar suspicion by Gallup chart compilers from time to time. Piccadilly Radio would have carried considerable clout in the 1980s and helped propel certain songs it got right behind to strong regional sales. I can only assume the rest of the nation failed to get similarly behind tracks by the likes of Floy Joy, Fra Lippo Lippi, The Bernhardts, etc., exposing that incongruity.
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.
Your website is ab fab, a true labour of love
You’re very kind, Drone, many thanks! Since reactivating the blog I’ve noticed that it’s requiring a lot more work and effort to secure a lot fewer visits these days; but other, far more gifted, music bloggers that I’m in touch with say the same thing also. They and I share the same pathological urge to write, write, write no matter the audience size, however, so I’m a long way off being sufficiently discouraged to retreat into another hiatus.
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.
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.
Yep, I don’t think too many Sarah acts toured Ireland back in the day, presumably with the exception of Dublin signing The Harvest Ministers. Also hailing from Dublin, Brian is the Sarah act that never was, depending on whether you believe the legend that frontman Ken Sweeney turned down a phone offer to record for Sarah on the assumption it was a prank call.
I have a few Steinbecks tracks but still prefer the plenty-from-little ingenuity of the Meadows brothers’ Sugargliders incarnation, to the tune of owning all six of their Sarah 7″s, the Marineville-released single which preceded those, and the International Pop 7″ EP to which they also contributed a track.
Plenty of Lucksmiths in this household, too, and my brother and I were in the audience for their last ever English gig (and penultimate UK one) back in July 2009. London Scala the venue, support from Allo, Darlin’ and Daniel Kitson, the last-named their most dedicated and obsessed fan. IIRC Daniel split the sets from the two musical acts with a stand-up set with more poop gags than you might expect from such a cerebral performer.
Tali White of the Lucksmiths is a cousin of Sugargliders/Steinbecks siblings Josh and Joel Meadows, I understand. Small world!
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.
Some super-duper names on your lists
I do hope Delicate Vomit and Prolapse go on tour together: an apt combo
That Music List continues. Edition #250 includes music from Adriano Celentano, Grand National, The Four Seasons, Dagmar Zuniga, Tic Tac Toe, Seazoo, Amsterdam, Twisted Teens, Malajube, Golden Starlet, Oracle Sisters, Ebo Taylor, The Golden Dawn 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.
That Music List continues. Edition #251 includes music from Boards of Canada, The Anchoress, Colour Me Wednesday, Spacemoth, The Fourth Act, Aberdeen, The Itch, Credit to the Nation, Lionrock, Studio Kosmische, Quadrophonia, Pictish Trail, Picasio 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.
That Music List continues. Edition #252 includes music from Raye, Antony Szmierek, Josie, Stevie Wonder, The School, No Peeling, Broken Chanter, Laura Cantrell, And One, Kit, The Male Nurse, Mumble Tide, LFO, Rachel’s, DAF, Chapterhouse, Gnac 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.
Oops, fallen a bit behind with music posts. That Music List continues. Edition #257 includes music from Patrick Wolf, Tim Smith, Les Rita Mitsouko, Lizzo, Prolapse, 14 Iced Bears, Mbongwana Star, The Garlands, DJ Carl Cox, Die Form, Velly Joonas, St Christopher, Lena, Growing, Die Sterne 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.
Released exactly 30 years ago today, following three trailer singles the year before.
Punky, progressive, poppy, beautiful, noisy and psychedelic, either by turns or sometimes all at once. Inventive, wide-eyed, restless, and the closest anyone has ever got to representing ADHD in music form.
Either ignored outright or absolutely slaughtered on initial release by a trade press still hopelessly in thrall to Britpop, but emphatically, glowingly reappraised in more enlightened times subsequently.
Almost 89 minutes long, and I know every last tick and movement of it.
Still in my top three all-time albums. I don’t see it leaving any time soon.
Happy birthday, Sing To God, you tower of mad beauty, you.
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 expect I will be hearing the greatest hits of Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet fame tonight, whether I like it or not. He is the headline act at a music festival in the village where I am currently residing.
The event started last night and I could hear some of the acts, so I expect I should be able to hear Mr Hadley. It is mostly local acts and tribute acts but the organisers try to book a big name nostalgia act as the headliner and this year it is Mr Hadley’s turn.
I have already observed a few ladies of a certain vintage in the village who seem to be besides themselves with excitement.
A greater sufferer by turns of record company interference, indifference or intransigence than most, Kirsty MacColl had to wait eight years between releasing albums one and two (the next two would follow in little over four years, albeit even then for two different labels, one of whom could hardly have promoted their artist less).
That alone could have helped fuel the mood so palpably evident in sophomore effort Kite, fundamentally a more angry, determined and strident record than its Kinks-covering breakout single might have led casual listeners to assume.
Angry, that is, but never screaming, as that was never Kirsty’s wont. It’s hard for me to recall another performer so capable of conveying so many emotions in just the one broadly consistent deadpan delivery. Kite’s lead single, not actually the cover of Days but the self-penned Free World, would have been artlessly, over-aggressively spat out by less disciplined practitioners, whereas Kirsty’s straight bat voice (and, for the greater part, straight face in the accompanying promo) handled the coruscating attack on the greediest and most unscrupulous amid the political classes most adroitly.
Disappointment, pity, boiling fury, wry amusement (and Kirsty was always far from humourless – everything from There’s A Guy Works Down the Chip Shop… to In These Shoes? via the television appearances with French & Saunders and Raw Sex tell you that much), despair, feistiness. Kite runs the gamut of these and more, with not the faintest recourse to jarring vocal cosplay.
Nobody’s fool, but on occasion up to that point marginalised as if regarded as one, Kite stands as a vital, defiant piece of work and significant personal accomplishment by Kirsty MacColl. I need hardly add that there is not a single track on it that she ought to be remembered for less than That Duet That’s Out Every Xmas.
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.
That Music List continues. Edition #258 includes music from Kirsty MacColl, Doublespeak, Genesis Owusu, Tamikrest, Faith Eliott, Sulk Rooms, Pink Breath of Heaven, Haute & Freddy, Sister Irene O’Connor, Fatoumata Diawara, Cyndi Lauper, Enderby’s Room 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.
Thank you for your post about “Kite” by the wonderful Kirsty Maccoll, Graysons. I agree with you entirely. It is a superb record. Defiant, feisty and utterly singular and unique, like Kirsty herself.
I became a fan of Kirsty when I saw her singing “A New England” when I was a mere teenager. Her cruel, tragic death left me saddened beyond words.
I still listen to her records but with a hint of sadness. I can’t help feeling that we have been robbed of what would have been her best work.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.