my life spins at 45 rpm......

When i was 7 I made the big step of buying my first record.I was pondering buying some obscure freakbeat 45 or maybe a super obscure northern soul rarity but in the end opted for the safer bet of buying the current number 1.I was lucky and my first record was blockbuster by Sweet and it now sits alongside a few thousand more and still gets played often.I love it as much today as I did approaching 40 years later.

That one record and that one decision changed my life.I used to sit and watch that record go round and round as it played and I used to drive me Ma mad by leaving the arm of the deck pulled back so it would just repeat each time going through a series of clicks and whirrs before the arm set off again to land on the record.Readers of a certain age will never know this kind of joy.

About a year after that first purchase and with my collection now approaching maybe 4 or 5 records came a day that I will never forget.My Grandma was a cleaner at a local college and it turned out that one of the students had left behind a pile of singles  and rather than them land in the bin she brought them home to me.That pile contained records by the Small Faces , Kinks , Stones , Animals and the like.I was hooked not only on the sounds coming off them but on the discs themselves.

From that day on I bought records.Every bit of pocket money went on more , my paper round money bought more , Christmas and birthdays lists always contained records for people to buy me and so it went.Today I still buy them and still have loads that i want  to buy when those six numbers finally come up.Wherever we go I try and find the charity shops or one of the few remaining record shops in the hope that there will be something  to feed my addiction.I take blind punts on records that 'look right' and are often not and I cherish finding stuff in the wild and online.I took a day out of my honeymoon to sit in one record shop and have been on record finding jaunts to Europe and the States.I get 'em home play them , file them and then it's onto to the next so maybe it's all in the chase?Maybe it's the hunter gatherer coming out in the form of a ludicrous amount of small black discs and I am loathe to get rid of any in case I'm missing something in a record that on first listen is utter cak.I have 45's that are big money that are easily available either on LP or reissue but I have to have the originals.

My kids are desperate to go to Disneyland (thanks to the current advertising blitz) and have even told me that there are the best record shops there so we have to go.And that brings me onto the record collectors connundrum.......what happens to them when I shuffle off this mortal coil?Will my kids love them anywhere near as much as I do?I sort of hope they do and sort of pray they don't!They could sell them and easily net a small fortune but I hope they hang onto at least some of them and not even the rare ones.

So why the 45?

Well when i was growing up pop music was brilliant and vital - I grew through the glam years which was all about the single no concept albums for us Slade fans!Next came punk and every week there would be a great single to buy often released by the bands themselves who probably couldnt afford (or maybe they didnt have enough songs?) to release a full LP.All my favourite bands are referred to as singles bands - Slade , The Jam , Madness , The Kinks and many many more.Perhaps the main reason goes back to that stash of 45's my Grandma brought home in that I love the music of the sixties and in particular the beat stuff and of course northern soul.If ever a scene rotated on 45's it's northern soul and I love it!

So the buying goes on and the collection is ever growing so I had to find a way to rationalise the whole thing other than the DJing which is at best sporadic.For me that comes in the form of doing some mixes up on the old mixcloud page where hopefully some people will hear something they enjoy.So far I've done a northern soul one , an American garage one and now the new one is up taking me back to some of those first singles that thankfully Kathryn Ogden left behind (having written her name on most of them in true 70's fashion).

Have a listen and if you enjoy 'em great if you don't blame Kathryn.......

http://www.mixcloud.com/groovywoovy/

Record Store Day – the plaster for the severed artery…..

Well this Saturday sees the third Record Store Day an annual event designed to make us all head back into the record shops we have so shamelessly turned our backs on. As an industry that so famously reacts rather than plans I can’t help but think the horse has bolted boys?

So how are they tempting us back into their beloved outlets? By releasing God knows how many ultra-limited edition instant rarities available only in the shops on Saturday. Simple really can’t think why they never thought of it earlier. Like about 10 years earlier when the writing first appeared on the wall maybe.

The problem I have with all this is it really is just a total reaction to shops closing but it is not stopping them closing throughout the year. Perhaps if the record companies had looked after these shops when they were still a viable proposition things might have panned out differently. But no a Faustian pact was made with the supermarkets and there was I’m afraid to say no going back on that one. I remember when we had our shop it was actually cheaper for us to buy cd’s from Tesco than to stock them direct from EMI or BMG so frankly a 7” limited edition of Layla is too little too late. If they want to help shops give them exclusives all year round and give them fair deals.

Now whilst I appreciate it must be nice for the shops to be guaranteed at least one bumper day a year we all know that most of these releases are gonna end up on e-bay like the Blur 45 did last year within an hour of the shops opening. The queues are gonna be full of dealers and their little cohorts getting all giddy ‘cos they bagged one of the Seeds 10” and though they know nothing of what the Seeds actually sound like they do know that they sell well and are collectable. Why don’t they just go and collect stamps or phone cards not music that actually means something to people and take their Thatcherite principles of first come first served with them?

Ultimately Record Store Day is a bit like Mother’s Day it’s nice to buy her a card and let her know she’s appreciated but would she not prefer it if you told her all year round? 

Phil

The next album you need to buy……

…..is Bananas Foster by The Jigsaw Seen.

Now I have to declare bias here as I was given my copy by the guitarist the top fella that is Jonathan Lea. That said if The Edge (apparently not his real name?) were to send me the latest world saving opus by Dublin’s finest on a bed of rare psych and beat singles in a container using the rarest original northern 45’s as ballast I reckon I’d still think it was shite. Probably. And if I didn’t I wouldn’t be going public on it that is for sure.

So back to the Jigsaw Seen then, these lads have been peddling their own take on psychedelic pop perfection for some years and if you’re new to their party I’m sure you’re more than welcome just the same.

As a reader of this blog I’m assuming a certain love of music so if your collection includes the likes of Love , Jellyfish , The Zombies , The Left Banke , Tom Petty , The Move  etc. (and let’s be honest it should) then this album sits well alongside them.

This album is all things to all men from the opening drone of Bertha Brilliance (which set our dog Louie off on a mystical search behind the settee) through David Hart’s Name Of Song onto my fave off the album which is Melancholy Morning. A truly spectacular pop record with heavenly strings and great vocals it is currently getting played by ‘whispering’ Bob Harris on his radio show. If you buy the album for this song alone your money isn’t wasted.

Another album track getting radio plays is Where The Action Isn’t a real belting fuzz rocker with a killer riff. This is getting spins from the legendary Rodney Bingenheimer on his famous Rodney on the ROQ show which should be more than enough to convince.

All in all not a duff track on the album so get yourselves to your local independent record shop and buy it there or do the download thing from i-tunes but be warned if you download you ain’t gonna get the special extras. This album is packaged in the most delightful way as Mary Poppins once said and includes a recipe card for the dish the album is named after  , sticker , poster but best of all a scent sheet which makes the whole thing smell of bananas. Your kids will love it like mine and you can while away the hours trying to decide what your other favourite albums should smell like.

So as Martha and Charlie say – “The Jigsaw Seen Bananas Foster…….get on it”. You know they’re right - it’s in the genes.

Phil

2010 exit stage right….

As the year draws to a close I see numerous top 50 album lists in various places and for the first time I can remember I can honestly say I don’t know any of the albums being touted as the finest of the past 12 months. It’s a strange feeling but it’s a feeling I can’t seem to shake.

As the year dawned I was no longer involved in the music retail business having worked for various companies and even had my own small indie shop which meant I was constantly hearing new albums good and (mainly) not my cup of char.Living in rural Ireland meant that a trip to the city 40 miles away was my only way to see and hear anything released and this was also the first year that Cork my nearest city had no indie shop of its own (Plugd was a great shop everything a small indie should be and the good news is that after nigh on a year they have recently re-opened).So that left me with the internet and the reviews sections of magazines like Mojo or Uncut. Now I have stopped buying these publications after years of getting them and Word magazine and the like for years for reasons mainly economical (at around 7 euro a pop I can’t justify it) and also as there are only so many times I can read about the Beatles or Pink Floyd or other such cover stalwarts.

Downloads I just don’t really get , I’m old school I want a tangible piece of art in my hand preferably on vinyl so this year has been all about re-discovering my collection whilst of course adding to it with stuff I already knew about if you get me.

Of course I haven’t ignored new releases completely as I made journeys to pick up albums by Weller, Neil Young and Gil Scott Heron so you can see I’m at the fore-front of the cutting edge?!!

So I’m left wondering why I simply couldn’t be arsed to dig out new music after all the internet is perfect for doing just that. Maybe as I grow a bit older and have two young kids running round all day making all manner of racket I just want to relax and have fallen into the ‘play something we know’ trap that used to annoy the hell out of me? Often I hear new stuff and think it sounds a bit like such and such so I might as well go and listen to them?  Maybe I just feel that bit older and have internally realised that most of the new music released is just not aimed at me and that’s fair enough I’d hate to be the drunk uncle at the wedding.

Or maybe the new fads were right……

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6-kdG-TFyA

Phil

Where’s the anger kids?

As the 80’s revival gathers pace with a right wing government , savage cuts in all areas of public spending high unemployment and the now a royal wedding to try and distract everyone away from whatever television show is sedating them at the moment I’m left wondering where are the righteous young men with guitars?

As the likes of Cameron insist that everyone is in it together (though with his millions in the bank I reckon he’s not quite in it like many others) and then some Lord Toff actually says “you’ve never had it so good” all I seem to see kids being bothered about is who gets voted off the pantomime that is X Factor and I fear the worst.

Now I’m aware as much as anyone that nostalgia’s not what it used to be but while I seethed at Thatcher and her cronies dismantling all around me at least I had my music to help me see I was not alone. “You’ve never had it so good – the favourite phrase of those who’ve always had it better “raged the Redskins on the classic 45 ‘bring it down’ and that single scarped into the top 40 when you had to sell more than 16 copies to do so.

We had Weller and The Jam/Style Council all tutoring us in the ways of righteousness with many politically charged tunes such as ‘little boy soldiers’, going underground’, walls come tumbling down’ and many more.

We had Billy Bragg whose whole purpose was seemingly political and we had many more bands all railing against the system. The Housemartins were Smash Hits regulars but their songs were all about sexism, racism and general socialist principles. Right through the 80’s there was a feeling that everything was political and even at the height of the whole Madchester shenanigans bands like The Stone Roses and The Farm were still singing about issues that affected us all.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that at that time it seemed like there was still some genuine anger about what was happening and I just don’t see that these days. Maybe The Housemartins were right in ‘think for a minute’ when they sang that apathy always wins without a fight?

So come on kids turn your tellies and your x stations off and get off your arses and make some noise!

Here’s Tom with the weather…..

Spunky Onions...

...great tune but you wouldn't want 'em on yer hot dogs hey?

Firstly I'd better introduce myself I'm Phil living in Ireland and passionate about music.Know Mark through working together years ago so he's asked me to put a few bits up so this is my first.

So spunky onions then.A rollicking rocking instrumental that guarantees either a full dance-floor in an R&B friendly room at a mod do or a room full of people looking at you wondering just why you were in fact asked to DJ in a small pub in rural Ireland.

This falls into the category of a Mad Mike sound and if that's new to you let me give you a bit of background.'Mad' Mike Metrovich was a DJ in Pittsburgh his heyday was 64-67 and he specialised in playing tunes that were on the wild and obscure side shall we say.His final broadcast was on Halloween 2000 which is as fitting as it suggests as he went home and passed away that night.Norton records have issued 3 volumes of the Mad Mike's monsters series and all are essential (the vinyls are things of true beauty).


So to spunky onions itself possibly my favourite 45 of the lot if this doesn't move you we need to check for vital signs :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgnwioXvgAg

Check it out.....