Stress Down Friday - Summer Sounds Like This

Do you remember the summer? It happened one weekend in July , a few days after buying my summer titfer in fact. Ho Hum.

At the time this homemade mix of latiny loose grooves soundtracked those handful of sunny evenings. When the heat disappeared, so did this mix. But it's back again - for one week while I'm off - and then its gawn for good (the mix that is not the sun).

There's also a shiny new companion piece 'Lazy Sunday' on the other side if you fancy collecting the set.

See you in seven days(ish)

*offline*'Summer Sounds Like This'*offline*

Variety Lab - London In The Rain
Big Muff – My Funny Valentine
Physics – Leaving Monte Carlo
Scubba (featuring Moana) - Fool To Cry
Rouge Rouge – L'amour
Ohm G & Bruno – One
Grandadbob - Hide Me (Al Usher Dance Mix)
The Streamers – Zwing Ting
311 Porter - Surround Me With Your Love (Mental Overdrive Mix)
Stigmato Inc. - Reality Check
Nouvelle Vague – Ever Fallen In Love
Patricia Marx and 4 Hero – Menino
Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band – L.I.P.S.T.I.C.K
Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band - Think Twice
Parov Stelar - Kiss Me Twice
Nouvelle Vague – Dancing With Myself
Pink Martini - Sympathique

Sunflower photo by Chocolate Girl 64

Day Tripper Tips

Well I'm here for a week, then off again next week - but, with no particular place to go. I'm hoping to manage a few trots out but seem to have run out of puff for places to visit - possibles on the itinerary are....

Knowle Park - done the park, but not the house.

Winchelsea Beach - always worth finding this hideaway nugget.

So any hints, tips and suggestions for sights to see and venues to visit around the south and south east would be welcome.

I won't be hoofing any further north than Suffolk, further south than Sussex or more westerly than perhaps Chelsea way.

Day tripping on previous 'at home' holidays has included outings to .....

Kenwood House, Hampstead and Highgate cemetry all doable as a day trip.

Chislelhurst Caves - chilling. Terrifying. Never again.

Aldburgh - it's got the the best chippie in Britain.

'Day Tripper' from The Beatles cartoon series


Sergio Mendes remake/remodel of 'Day Tripper'

Stress Down Friday - Fresh Ayers

Well I'm off to the country for a week then, and Kevin Ayers always hits the spot when stretching out in the Cotswold's green and spacey acres.

Kevin Ayers - 'Cold Shoulder'



'Cold Shoulder' is taken from his 2007 album 'Unfairground' - which is a holiday perma-play and just as full and fruity as any of Kev's vintage lazy summer shufflers like 'Shouting In A Bucket Blues', Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes' and...

'May I'

Polite Riot

I had a very similar zip up to matey's on the right, but in cream with black and red stripes - made by Lord Anthony, also a blue 'velvet look' one with a red "27" on the front, from M & S...

If disco or dayglo weren't your thing - and a quick scan of the chart rundown for week ending 6th August '77 shows for most record buyers they weren't - a diet of light bites and polite pop was the alternative, so how about a handful of songs from the softer side of '77, including a couple of nuggets from the mighty 'Disco fever' ...

Meri Wilson 'Telephone Man'



Meri updated 'Telephone Man' to 'Internet Man' in 1999.



Mike Nesmith 'Rio'



There's a video for 'Rio' too.


Joy Sarney - 'Naughty Naughty Naughty'

Stick with this this clip as The Jacksons make a TOTP appearance once Joy wraps up - she's a sunny Southender you know, one of my mates was a neighbour of Joy's. (And her intonation on "Oh no you don't" still gives me little ripples.)


If you fancy filling your vintage boots with more sounds of the seventies this is a retro belter

Back in Black

I'm really not tempted or taken by the Dark Knight trailers. I should be. I'm a lifelong (since the age of three anyway) Batmaniac - more than a fan, but not quite a geek - a fanorak I suppose.

But I've been put off by sequential superhero cinematic letdowns, the all black outfit which makes the Dark Knight Detective look like Robobat, and the Joker seemingly styled on Wurzel Gummidge meets Leigh Bowery and not the clipped, edgy deadly dandy he actually is.

What I hope to see at some point is an adaptation of Batman's equivalent of Elvis's 68 Special. A period when after spending most of the sixties lost in the wilderness of wackery and camp, the Caped Crusdaer became regenerated and revived by the dynamic duo of Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams.

Adams almost draughtsman like artwork, expressive cape and the make over of Batman's build (Adams felt that Batman and Superman shouldn't share the same body type - Batman should be athletic rather than powerful) and O'Neil's Gotham goes Hammer Horror stories - 'The Demon Of Gothos Mansion', 'The Secret of the waiting Graves' 'Night Of The Reaper' 'Daughter Of The Demon' - all late night tales of haunted mansions, ghostly lovers and freak show runaways, that created a magical arc of dark art and returned Batman to the spooky moonlight roots of his earliest appearances.

Now that would be something to tempt me out of the shadows and into the cinema.

Recommended Reading

www.nealadams.com/
Neal Adams Batman Cover Gallery
Dennis O'Neil - Wiki entry

Stress Down Friday - All The Way From Memphis

Forget the Vegas suits and capes, the 'Burger King' tribute acts, Teddy Boys (why are they always ginger?), the tackery, quackery and clunky iconography.

It's all about the music.

Elvis 'Any Day Now'



Davey H's long haul hunt for the Percy Sledge version 'Any Day Now' is over, and he's sharing it right here.

That Linking Feeling

During some recent cyberspace-hopping I've stumbled across a fistful of mighty sites, all of which are just too good to keep hush about - so, I'm logging them in the blog with one pic' from each, to give a taste and flavour of the treats instore..

The Cobwebbed Room
The best of British horror from compendium paperbacks and ghouly mags to Horror Bag crisps and Haunted House ice lollies - but no sign of the terrifying hardback, large format, New English Library Dracula/Vampirella style comic which I swapped for something silly years ago.

Peter Gray's Cartoons and Comics
If you were ever a Whizzer and Chips, Whoopee or Shiver and Shake fan this blogfull of comic covers, stories and features should be right up your Fleetway Street.

George & Lynne
Fancy getting your hands on a Sun loving swinger - there's original 'George and Lynne' artwork for sale right here.

My Rear In Sears
Retro a go-go - for him and her

Worst Bowie photosEven international superstars have mad hair days.

What Not To Knit
Don't say you weren't warned!

No Sir!

I've only got a handful of irritations, aggravations and annoyances that nudge the needles in the red, but the one that'll really do it every time and have me cringing my shoulders and bristling like a badger is being called "Sir" in shops.

What fancy Dan grandness was afoot last time I was on the wrong end of this instore display of over embellishment, fawning and foreluck tugging? Buying a £5 hat at T K Maxx, that's what! If I'd had a pound for every time it was used during this sale, I could've paid for the hat and still had change.

Five Earth pounds on a summer tifter (as seen in my facebook photos) and I'm treated and greeted like the King of China. It's not polite - it's a pantomime

I haven't called anybody Sir since leaving school, so why should anyone else* have to?

*The exception being Police Officers, Traffic Wardens and cold callers.

Moon Boots

Following on from the last post's theme of themes it seems appropriate to post this - a monster mashup of Space 1999/Destiny's Child/Stevie Wonder/The Flying Lizards - neatly clonked together by the King of cut and paste Pop Mark Vidler (Go Home Productions).

Go Home Productions - Destiny 1999



I've still got my original pair of Dinky Eagles and both are in great nick you know.* Snaps fingers and thinks - what a great name for a blog or mystery session musician 'Dinky Eagles'!!!*

This post is dedicated to Reg Varney who's 92 today.

Theme from 'On The Buses'

Where Have All Good Themes Gone?

Can you whistle or mentally cue up any recent TV theme tunes? I can do Eastenders and Have I Got News For You, but wouldn't know a post millenium motif or TV tune if I tripped over it (apart from QI, which is possibly the weediest opening anthem ever).

So what happened to big brassy small screen themes packed with action and splash - is it to do with budgets? It usually is. And where are the new names to replace Laurie Johnson, Ronnie Hazlehurst, John Barry or Barry Gray (the fun size John Barry). All of the above and and a handful of others wrote compositions so strong they were regularly released as singles or bundled up into budget compilations.

One often overlooked and underplayed obscurity is John Barry's theme to The Orson Welles Mysteries, which makes a perfect companion piece to his Persuaders theme.

You can download The Orson Welles Mysteries here

Or grab Geoff Love playing Your Top TV Themes here

But, if you fancy something cinematic why not try out this team up from Roman Empress and myself.

Stress Down Friday - 'what a waste of gunpowder and sky'

I haven't found this tune anywhere else (of course it's bound to be on the very next blog I read). So I'll fire it up here.

Aimee Mann -'4th Of July' (live version)


Aimee Mann -'4th Of July' (studio version)

Random Roulette - Stick or Twist.

In all the time I've been blogging (not quite a year yet) I haven't once loaded up a randomizer/shuffle post - mainly because my player will cough up chunks of clunk from the catalogue when it's under pressure. So this time I set myself some rules...

List the first five songs and get 1 point for every good song.

Then - either stick if it's a good hand, or twist for another 5 points and repeat if you dare.

However should a clunker come into play - that's it. Bust. Game Over - lose all your points.

So, how many hands could I do before going bust? Well I make this three twists without any howlers so decided to stick at 15 points...

Little Rose Little - 'You've Got The Love'(Talcum Soul, Vol. 3)
The Upsetters - Return Of Django(The Trojan Records Sampler 2002)
David Bowie - 'Beauty And The Beast'(Stage)
Small Faces - 'Tin Soldier'(The Darlings Of Wapping Wharf Launderette)
Toni Daley - 'Like The Big Man Said'(Take My Tip)


Dub Specialist - 'Bionic Dub'(Mojo Presents: Studio One Selector)
Sex Pistols - 'EMI Unlimited Edition'(Sex Pistols Box Set, Disc 1)
John Martyn - 'Solid Air'(Solid Air)
Azymuth - 'Tarde'(Aguia Nao Come Mosca)
Eno - 'I'll Come Running'(Vocal Box Set)


Corciolli - 'Ponta Da Praia'(Electro Bossa)
Sex Pistols - 'Anarchy In The UK'(Live at the 76 Club)
The Beatles - 'When I Get Home'(Something New)
Gladys Knight & The Pips - 'Gladys Knight & The Pips'(Motown Chartbusters, Vol. 2)
Jim Stafford - 'Spiders and snakes'(Spiders and Snakes)

How's Your Luck?

Are you a winner? I'm not really, but I once worked with the Queen of competions, who was always scooping up sackloads of prizes - cash, clothing, holidays, furniture. Her dead cert' technique was dead simple - have scattergun goes at any/every cut out competition. She was constantly collecting coupons, completing snappy captions and telling retailers why their treats where so tasty in twenty five words or less.

I've only ever won one 'answers on postcard' prezzie - it was in the eighties Bowie fanzine 'Starzone'. I can't remember the question but the prize was a promo poster for Eno's 'Apollo' album signed by the pop boffin himself and cover artist Russell Mills. I've got it framed somewhere.



These pic's (Lolly Pop and Jack Pott) are taken from the always excellent Fleetway Street.

Tattoo You

Marmite has a sizeable collection of them, Piley's is Betty Page shaped, Bleecher's is modelled on a Mexican motif, Jack Gestures (no blog) is a Joy Division tribute - what are they? Tattoos of course!

I always wobble between do I really want one? What design to go for and where should it be fused forever? Although I've been sitting on the tattoo fence for so long, it's unlikely I'll take a tumble now.

But what I have noticed this summer is a sudden surge in girls with foot tattoos - sprinklings of stars, floral motifs or crazy curls - but why the foot? And why suddenly so popular? And how do you keep still during a crazy combo of tickle and torture?

And why in the name of Darth Maul would anyone want a facial tattoo? - Doesn't that just mark your card as nutterpsychospacecadet straight away?

So how about some hard core tattooed rock monsters then?

Rose Tattoo - 'Bad Boy For Love'
Featuring Angry Anderson - singer of 'Suddenly' (The Wedding Theme From Neighbours)


Michael Monroe - 'Dead, Jail or Rock n' Roll'
Michael Monroe was the former frontman of Hanoi Rocks - a band that created a metal template later cloned and copied by bands like Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses.

Hello Sailor

I'm a long time browser of Axe Victim's rocking blog, and watched from an offstage observer's POV whenever AV has blogged about his band Magic Ship's influences, lyrics and how the group have been tweaking and tuning themselves into a ship shape rock group.

So I knew then, that the debut album 'Love Tel Motel' wouldn't let me down - what I didn't expect was a thunderous non stop rocker that rolls from Faces and Stones stompers like 'Fly' and 'Love Tel Motel' to Reef and Primal Scream strutters like 'Standing Taller' and 'Love and Glory' via Ronnie Lane-Floyd-CSN style stoner strummings of 'Monkeyphonic Alphabet' in one fully formed and funky bundle.

If you fancy cruising through guitar shaped soundscapes of two fisted classic rock with a catchy pop topping and tunes that leave a flaming trail of bourbon, diesel and desert dust in their wake - treat yourself with a trip to the 'Love Tel Motel' - this album is going to be the soundtrack to summer for me and I would guess anyone who hears the Magic Ship shaking their rocks off.

But don't just take my word for it blogging legend Rock Mother dedicated an entire Romo For Real Podcast to ver Ship's blistering debut album, and Ivstanki has a live bootleg of Magic Ship's maiden show available for download.

So rock and roll over to either of the Magic Ship sites for dates and details of the album, live shows, new songs and to meet my favourite new ship mates...

The magic ship Website

The magic ship on MySpace

Txt Pest

Who was the anonymous boffin that invented predictive text? In principle it's a neat and nifty idea, but in practice I usually want to smash the sodding phone to smoke and splinters. Here's a few examples that I've almost become bitextual at translating without any mental blinking..

What I Want - What I Get
Don't - Foot
Go - In
Home - Good
If - He

Other assorted oddities include..

Time - Vindaloo
Paragraph or Paracetmol - Parachuting

And in some farcical fingers 'n' thumbs fumble - I once signed off causing confusion and cringed shoulders for the textee "that's great news thief"

Eight From The Eighties Wasteland - Pts. 5 to 8

Part two of my list of bits and bobs that seemed to have dropped off of the eighties radar

Yes the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News was must see TV at the time. It's the comedic link between Python and the Young Ones, so why is it so consistently overlooked and underplayed - why don't we ever see any repeats? It's easily forgotten that scenes, sketches and songs were discussed and dissected in Senior Schools and Common Rooms all over the UK following the previous evening's show and that the records books and tapes all sold by the shedload (including Rowan Atkinson's 'Live in Belfast' album)- I saw a DVD of NTNOCN recently and could remember almost every line (including the exact intonation) and piece of incidental music having not seen any episodes for at least twenty years.

Eighties - Greyties
Those rotten grey sort of shapeless combat troos worn by Howard Jones or anyone over thirty with squashy white trainers and a pastel polo or checked shirt (a moustache was optional) - see also the opening titles of 'Who Dares Wins', Channel Four's criminally forgotten reply to the NTNOCN.

Dressing Up Can Be Fun
Boxing - JoBoxers, weren't the only Popstars that sparred with boxing clothing and imagery as a stylish icon - Spandau Ballet, Wham and even Bowie had a pop.

Jazz Club - Blue Rondo, Modern Romance, Animal Nightlife, Sade, Carmel all riffed on the theme of Jazz moods.

Kings Of The Wild Frontier - Davey Crocket tassle jackets and check shirts were must wears for one month in early 1983 - see also Theatre of Hate, Aztec Camera.

Splatter
Horror, Splatter and Slasher films became cultural currency in the early eighties, with teens and twenty somethings trying to out trump each other's video nasty badges of honour. Titles like 'Basket Case', 'Evil Dead', 'Last House On The Left', 'My Bloody Valentine', 'Cannibal Holocaust', 'Nightmares in a Damaged Brain' were all documented in full blooded detail in Fangoria - see also 'Thriller' and....

The Rolling Stones 'Too much Blood'

Eight From The Eighties Wasteland - Pts. 1 to 4

Whenever Cinema, TV and Radio recreate or rewind to the eighties it’s usually always set dressed with the same instamatic imagery and compounded clichés. So for balance here’s a handful of everyday items that seem to have dropped right off of the eighties radar (well from the pre Live Aid era anyway, before it all went soft, soppy and 'Johnny Hates Jazz').

Armageddon Time
Being prepared for the overhanging dangle of nuclear death and destruction - everyone I knew, well everyone my age really, almost expected to be atomised in an atomic blast by 1987. - see also Threads, Mad Max, 'Two Tribes' 'World Destruction'

Skeen-‘eads
Skinheads were everywhere and ever ready to bash, boot, beat up anyone who wasn't another braces and bleached jeans wearing skin.

Eighties - Gayties
It was just so gay - Marc Almond, Bronski Beat, Boy George, Marilyn, Dead Or Alive, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Morrisey,Divine, HI-NRG(which later became the signature sound of Stock Aitken and Waterman) the clone look ‘tache, and films like ‘Kiss Of The Spider Woman’ and ‘My Beautiful Launderette’.

Middle Aged Teenagers
Girls in their teens going for the mature sophisticated smoker and A-Line look of Angie from Eastenders (who was only thirty six when 'stenders was first broadcast), while teenage boys would regularly dress in Golf Club casual clobber - see also the expectation to be married and mortgaged by twenty four at the very latest.

I Don't Miss The Hiss

CDs MP3s and digital downloads may be as sexy as the highway code, but for all the cosy fireside crackle of analogue and super size artwork of album covers, there’s a fistful of things I don't miss about the old fangled ways of listening...

Systems
Housing a Hi-Fi the size of a paraffin heater.

Picking up phantom ham radio broadcasters through the speakers.

Know alls picking holes in your personal filing system 'you've got *** next too ***? - That's not right!'

Tapes

The mind melting madness of actual man hours invested in compiling a single 90 minute tape, or the trickery and tactics of trying to wrench in that last track without clipping it or leaving a large gap.

The ghostly notes of backwards backing vocals seeping through from the other side. IE
Andy Partridges home demo of 'Harvest Festival' - recorded onto cassette, which hasn't quite wiped the previous classical recording from the tape.



The mangled reels and reef knot ribbons in the tape head - dear God please not the car stereo.

Those 'been done left in the sun' wobbles.

RSI from rewinding with pencil

Vinyl

Knowing the hops, skips and jumps as initmatley as the lyrics.

That random dusty needle glide (hey hey hey what's a happening!)

Blu Tack and copper coinage (never silver) employed as a weighting device.

Set dressing the 'scene' with romantic mood music, only for the mood go into meltdown at the inevitable album turn over( or the passion killing clunk and fidget of auto reverse tape decks.)

Rolling Home Stoned

If you've ever had a peep at the other side you may have noticed that I'm a bugger for a bootleg remix. Mark Vidler is the big boss of booty remixes, and has just released new boxful of goodies titledSpliced Krispies

These are a couple of the Stones themed pieces where Mick 'n' Keef team up with Carly Simon and The Tempations (there's also a T.Rex/Stones one available here) ... Mark has been good enough to give me some exclusive chat on his choons - including reworks of the 'finger of fudge' ad', the 'Grandstand' theme meets The Supremes and his CC Peniston/Sex Pistols stormer here..

'Mick n' Carly'


Go Home Productions - 'Mick n' Carly'

Go Home Productions - 'Rolling Confusion'


Go Home Productions -'Rolling Confusion'