Posts in category "music"

As part of the ongoing vinyl replacement program, I finally bought Unknown Pleasures, Closer and Still today.

25 years on - 'New Dawn Fades', 'She's Lost Control' et al still sound absolutely fantastic.

Doug Burns has a new job and is spending some time in Canada, hugging his new colleagues. Like most roving consultants holed up in lonely, bland, nondescript hotel rooms with only an ironing board, TV and mini-bar for company (oh sorry that's me not Doug), Doug's thoughts inevitably starts to turn to loved ones back at home (including his cuddly toys and music collection).

Fed up with the banality of Radio Ottawa, Doug recently pleaded for suggestions and recommendations for new music. Unfortunately this desperate plea met with a deathly silence from Oracle types purely interested in his detailed investigations into the optimal degree of parallelism.

More recently, it would appear that homesickness coupled with the extreme cold is affecting his brain. He is now listening to 'The Proclaimers' and viewing questionable videos on YouTube.

So, to preserve poor Doug's sanity and seed some new ideas, I have painstakingly recorded full details of my vinyl record collection which was sold to a second hand record shop last January for £20.

Obviously, this eclectic collection merely reflects my antique collection of vinyl so I also resurrected my last.fm account in an effort to reflect more recent musical tastes.

Stay tuned for a complete listing of all my bootleg tapes in the next exciting edition.

Yawn.

Dave Grohls tribute to Kurt.

Over Christmas, I was drying dishes, desperately trying to avoid conversation or being dragged into a impromptu board game. From upstairs, I heard a strange sound; the (discordant) opening chords to Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple. Repeatedly.

Nothing too surprising there as my 12 year old nephew had been given an electric guitar for Christmas.

I asked him who had taught him the three chords and he answered 'Norman Junior'. It transpired my son has been learning to play guitar with a mate and they are progressing through 'Monsters of Rock' classics.

Sensing a chance for some Father-Son bonding, a chance to obtain a guitar and share a common interest, I asked Norman Junior III: 'Would you like a guitar for your birthday ?'

'No thanks, Dad. I like messing around but I simply haven't got the motivation.'

I interpreted this as 'Mum will force me to have lessons and I'd rather play football.'

Another chance to play 'She's Lost Control' on YouTube evaporates.

Absolutely nobody writes in to ask: Norman - what fabulous, chart topping, pop-tastic long playing records are on your Christmas list this Yuletide ?

1. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open

   Pleasant enough. Why change a winning formula ? (see also R.E.M). Minor obsession with open and shut (Eyes Open, Open Your Eyes, Hands Open, Shut Your Eyes) and a nice contribution from ~~Kate Bush~~ Martha Wainwright on 'Set The Fire To The Third Bar'.

2. The Killers - Sam's Town

   An unbelievable disappointment. The warning signs were all there but I chose to ignore them; PH's disparaging comments, Brandon referring to this as The Killers 'concept album', the facial hair, the best music reviewer in the world likening 'When You Were Young' to Meatloaf.

   Even diehard fans advocate giving it time and a few listens. But with the possible exception of the title track, I can't. What had the potential ('All The Pretty Faces') to be absolutely superb is simply tedious beyond belief and irritating.

3. Nirvana - In Utero. More then 10 years old but still sounds fresh and is vastly underrated. Required listening to cleanse oneself after the above torture. 'Serve The Servants, Heart Shaped Box, Rape Me, Radio Friendly Unit Shifter, Frances Farmer, Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea'. Click 'Repeat'. Turn volume up.

   I must own up and admit that I only recently discovered there are hidden tracks in the minutes of silence in the run off. Oh the shame.

Here is a series of email exchanges I had with Mark Burgess in late 1998. I converted the original text to HTML and corrected a couple of minor typos.

I'm a great fan of The Chameleons and recently was sad enough to transcribe a few quotes from bootlegs and put them on the Web.

Interesting, I'll check it out next time I'm online.

Were you a big fan of The Fall ? I just love the bit where you sing 'Rowche Rumble' in 'Splitting in Two'.

Yes I've always been a big fan of The Fall, since 1976 through all their many incarnations, my favourite being Mark Smith, Marc Riley, Una Baines, Karl Burns and Martin Bramah.

Was the dig about 'Bleak and industrial we're not and never will be' aimed at anyone in particular ? A Certain Ratio, Joy Division ? Those stupid bands from Sheffield who used to bang oil drums ?

No not really, it was something that was being said about us in reviews.

What was 'Paradiso' about ? It's one of my favourites together with Soul in Isolation (heard about the Jack London book) and 'Splitting'.

At the time I did Paradiso I wasn't sure, I just thought, shit, that's a weird one, where did that come from But later I realised that it focused on my experiences of Amsterdam and it kind of paints a Sodom and Gomorrah picture of it.

God, it really was you.

Please don't call me God, plain Mark will do...

Yeah - since I mailed you I read an interview on 'Home is Where The Heart Is' where you list all your musical influences.

What's 'Home Is Where The Heart Is'?

I saw The Fall many times and have got tons of their bootlegs. Haven't seen them in years though.

No me neither, actually Karen Latham, who WAS to be our Bass player in 'Invincible' has decided to join The Fall instead, funny how things turn out isn't it?

Were you a fan of The Smiths ? Used to go and see them a lot too.

Yeah, I've been going through a phase recently of playing all those records again, they still sound great.

I going to *have* to get the tape with the cover of Buzzcocks' 'Breakdown' now.

Yeah you know someone asked me about that once and I was saying "nah, we never covered that" and then he pulled the cassette out and played it. I have no memory of it what so ever.

Also we used to have drunken rows about whether 'Paper Tigers' was written about 'Killing Joke' - I don't remember where it originated - any truth to that one ?

Yeah a little bit, we were down to support them once in Leicester, they turned up 4 hours late for their sound check so when it came to our turn their crew jerked us around, a two minute job, and the band were all standing at the side of the stage when we started shouting about it, so me and Dave ran at them with our guitars and they legged it back to their dressing room. We pulled out of the gig. They came and said sorry later and wanted us to do the rest of the tour but we told them to f**k off.

I think all this obsession with lyrics and what bands thought of each other was interlinked with the MUFC/Liverpool scouse football rivalry (violence) and the fact the Mark E. Smith kept slagging the Bunnymen and the Crucial Three off in interviews. Also The Passage wrote 'A Certain Way To Go' which was definitely about ACR.

Ah The Passage, another of my all time favourite bands.

I guess you probably find people still obsessed by The Chameleons as irritating as requests for 'In Shreds' but still...

No I'm not the slightest bit irritated, the only time it bugs me is when the media go on about Chameleons when you're trying to get something new across, in interviews or on the radio or something. But generally I'm very proud of all the stuff I've done.

Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply.

No problem, bye for now.

I once saw a gig in Camden once where your voice was f**ked and some lads from the audience got up for their 5 minutes of fame but the show was abandoned.

Yeah I remember that gig, it was really bad 'cause a Geffen Rep had flown in specially to check out the band and I was miffed 'cause Johnny Marr had come down to see us....

It happened again years later with The Sun And The Moon, a gig for Children In Need. Again I invited someone up from the audience and this lad got up and not only did he know all the words but he sounded so like me it was SPOOKY...

I've also got bootlegs where you refer to problems with 'my voice going again'.

Yeah and it was ages before I sussed out what the problem was, it turned out to be air conditioning, whenever I shared a room or a car with AC my throat would dry up and my voice would go.

Did Dave/Reg/anyone else ever do vocals ?

Dave used to do backing vocals, but it got so that he'd have moods, either too much whizz or not enough hash, and then between songs he'd start really laying into the audience, slagging them off. Then when I'd start the song they'd all be looking at me through red mists, in the end I took the mike away from him :-)

Did you explicitly change your vocal style ?

Well it did change, I know 'cause when I listen to the early stuff I think f**k But I didn't do it consciously.

BBC2 Friday night. A repeat but memorable for some great footage, interviews and these two quotes from Mark E. Smith

John Walters wrote me a letter and said, you know, 'you are the worst group I've ever seen in the [laughs] in the history of mankind' [laughs]. He was good like that, John Walters was. You ever meet him? No, he was f**king fantastic. He said, 'you were the worst, tuneless, rubbish I've ever heard', you know, 'even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees'. This is what he wrote 'you're even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees. I didn't believe it was possible.' You know what I mean? [laughs] He was a gem, what a gem. He said, 'please do a session' [laughs].

All the group stayed up to watch the Old Grey Whistle Test. Not that I would, personally but you couldn't see the group, that was the funniest bit. They stayed up to watch it with all their parents [cackles]. And all you could see was like Michael Clark baring his arse on the f**king screen, you know. F**king great. It was dead funny.

Thoroughly enjoying Margave of the Marshes and pleased to see The Chameleons get a mention:

For David Fielding of The Chameleons, that meant loitering outside Broadcasting House in order to press their tape directly into John's paw. In the case of The Chameleons, John thought he was the victim of a practical joke after listening to their demo: the recording was so accomplished that he suspected he had been given a cassette of an established band.

...although this slightly contradicts the note that John Peel sent back to the band where Peel describes the tape as 'Very muffled'.

A few years, when Mark Burgess got married, I made a paltry contribution to a wedding present. A few weeks later, I was staggered to receive an email from Mark Burgess thanking me together with a draft chapter of his (still unpublished) autobiography. Mark also describes travelling down to London and hanging around outside Broadcasting House with a tape.

The Killers are in the UK to promote Sams Town and their new facial hair. The band made an appearance on Jonathan Ross show playing the single 'When You Were Young' and 'All These Things I've Done'. Radio 1 also had a 2 hour feature including interviews and a concert from Blackpool Empress Ballroom recorded on Friday 8 September. Irritatingly, the BBC haven't grasped podcasts yet and the concert includes some of the following songs but not necessarily in this order. The concert starts at 1 hr 20 min.

• Sam's Town
• Enterlude
• When You Were Young
• Somebody Told Me
• Smile Like You Mean It
• Bones
• Bling
• Read My Mind
• Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
• Midnight Show
• All These Things
• Uncle Johnny
• My List
• Mr. Brightside

Last night the book club met again after the summer recess. Rosemary Barnstormworth suggested an interesting tome titled 'Margrave of the Marshes'.

This is John Peel's partly completed autobiography which was completed by his family after his untimely death. I really think I am going to enjoy this one. For example, in the foreword, his children describe a list of potential titles

• How's Your Flow ?
• Wet Echo
• Flying Cream Shoes
• Goatman Codds
• If He Ever Hits Puberty
• Buckskins and Buggery
• The Wotters Won The Race
• A History of the Iodine Trade 1847-1902
• An ABC of High-Jumping
• The Questing of Stempel Garamond: How He Overcame The Gelks and Punished The Dwellers with the Well
• Jesus Wasn't Made of Fish

I have already laughed out loud more then once although I find some of the sentences long and rambling. Then it struck me. This was exactly how John Peel was. You can almost hear him saying the words.

Sadly, though, this is one talking book that will never be made.