Tag: Kirsty MacColl

Friday Night Music Club Vol 97

*Checks title* Yup, got it right this week. *Checks Schedule Time” Yup, 9pm not 9am.

Well, it’s Friday Night and that can only mean one thing – lay-in tomorrow! And one other thing: it’s time for the latest mixed playlist for you to get your lug holes around.

This week brings us a themed playlist, and the theme this week is cover versions, and there are some absolute doozies in here, not least the final track, which I don’t believe has been made available for commercial release. Yet. It’s so good, so absolutely perfect for the act covering it, that it can only be a matter of time…

The plan was to have one artist covering a song, followed by the original artist of that song covering something, followed by the original artist of that song…etc, etc, you get the idea. You’ll see that this is a territory I strayed into a couple of times, but I found that too prescriptive for the whole mix, and meant the inclusion of covers that I don’t actually like, so I nixed that idea. Trust me, you’ll thank me for it.

You’ll have noticed I’ve not named any of the artists in this week’s mix; fear not, the track listing is down below, as usual. But as usual, it’s much more fun if you just give it a listen and check back afterwards to see who you’ve just listened to.

Right, off we go then:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 97

Track listing:

  1. Richard Hawley – Some Candy Talking
  2. Johnny Cash – Personal Jesus
  3. Cornershop – Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
  4. Olli & The Bollywood Orchestra – A Forest
  5. David Dondero – (Is Anybody Going To) San Antone
  6. David Kitt – Teenage Riot
  7. Sonic Youth – Superstar
  8. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – What Do I Do Now?
  9. Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone
  10. Dinosaur Jr. – Just Like Heaven
  11. The Lemonheads – Different Drum
  12. Kirsty MacColl – You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby
  13. Erasure – Take A Chance On Me
  14. Wheatus – A Little Respect
  15. Ben Folds – Get Your Hands Off My Woman
  16. William Shatner – Common People
  17. Pulp – The Day Before You Came

That’s yer lot, til next time (although I will be moving into my new place next week, so I’m super-busy packing, so apologies in advance if there is no new mix next week).

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 96

*Checks title* Yup, got it right this week. (With apologies to those who received last Friday’s blog via email who may have been slightly confused by the series mangling title. I was tired and rushing.)

Anyway, hello, welcome back to another edition of Friday Night fun. This weeks’ mix is, frankly, all over the place, But in a good way. I mean, it still sounds great to these ears, but subject and genre-wise, we veer from anti-war vitriol (one of which was briefly used by Trump on the campaign trail, until, presumably, someone pointed out that it’s about rich kids being able to avoid the draft, something Ol’ Bone Spurs would probably be better off not highlighting) to banging dance/pop tunes, and one by Kirsty MacColl (with guitar-for-hire Johnny Marr in tow) which always makes me think of Blondie’s Rapture (which I resisted the temptation to include).

Regulars to this series will know that there are two things I like to do in these playlists: i) chuck in a gear-changer, by which I generally mean stick two songs together which shouldn’t be played next to each other, but somehow work (again, to these ears) when you do, and ii) include something utterly cheesy, the songs most would describe as a ‘guilty pleasure’, a term, as you know, I kick back against.

That said, that handbrake turn this week leads us from the sublime to the ridiculous, and very deeply into the world of cheese, so deep that it may as well be sealed in a casket of camembert, lined with Stilton, and buried under a shallow quicksand grave of hot bubbling mozzarella, marked with signposts which read “Danger! Cheese!”. It’s cheesy, is what I’m trying to say. I’m just warning you, that’s all, in a way I didn’t when I previously included songs by The Nolans and The Dooleys.

The rest of it, however, is not cheesy. The whole thing is ace, he says, humbly. There’s still plenty of indie guitar belters, including one from Stiff Records which should have at least one reader squeal with delight. You know who you are (hello!).

My now regular suggestion: there is a track-listing, however it’s much more fun if you ignore that and just listen to the mix, but check back to establish what certain songs are, or to rub your eyes to check that yes, I have really included that right after that, and then topped it off with THAT.

Trust me. S’all.

Let’s crack on, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 96

Track-listing:

  1. Billy Bragg – A Lover Sings
  2. R.E.M. – Begin the Begin
  3. Barry McGuire – Eve of Destruction
  4. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Fortunate Son
  5. Kenny Rogers & The First Edition – Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town
  6. The House Of Love – Destroy the Heart
  7. The Vaccines – Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)
  8. Miley Cyrus – Wreking Ball
  9. Public Image Limited – Rise (Bob Clearmountain Remix)
  10. Tight Fit – Fantasy Island
  11. Wham! – Bad Boys
  12. Rachel Sweet – B-A-B-Y
  13. Love Affair – Everlasting Love
  14. Ce Ce Peniston – Finally
  15. Tim Deluxe (Feat. Sam Obernik) – It Just Won’t Do [Radio Edit]
  16. Madison Avenue – Don’t Call Me Baby
  17. Kirsty MacColl – Walking Down Madison (7″ Mix)
  18. Pixies – Gouge Away

That’s yer lot for this week.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 94

You didn’t really think I’d be ditching this so close to hitting a century, did you…?

No, course not.

So, hello, here’s Volume 94 of the usual “something-for-everyone-but-still-ace-(hopefully)” schtick. No spoilers, but there’s a particularly fab Kirsty MacColl song in this one where she warns us that her current beau will smash your face in if you don’t leave her alone, a sentiment I’m sure we’d all extend to whoever was driving the speedboat that killed her.

Anyway, usual remit – just a bunch of songs which sound good together (to these ears) – and, as usual, there’s a track-listing, but (and I don’t think I’ve explicitly said this before) it would be much better if you just listened to it and then checked back to identify any tunes you don’t recognise or can’t remember the name of:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 94

Track-listing:

  1. Neil Diamond – Beautiful Noise
  2. Micachu – Golden Phone
  3. Stereolab – French Disko
  4. Kylie Minogue – Some Kind of Bliss
  5. Natalie Imbruglia – Big Mistake
  6. Fangs – S.I.C.K.O.
  7. Super Furry Animals – The International Language of Screaming
  8. Kirsty MacColl – Terry
  9. The Chiffons – Sweet Talkin’ Guy
  10. Belle & Sebastian – Dirty Dream Number Two
  11. R.E.M. – Gardening At Night
  12. The Shins – So Says I
  13. Jarvis Cocker – From Auschwitz to Ipswich
  14. Electronic – Forbidden City
  15. The Box Tops – The Letter
  16. Al Wilson – The Snake
  17. Father John Misty – I’m Writing A Novel
  18. The Bluetones – If….

More soon.

Friday Night Birthday Club

Yeh, I know. Bit too close to Birthday Suit, that title, isn’t it?

Anyway, today is my birthday. *Pause* Thank you.

To mark this anniversary of not being dead yet, I’ve knocked together a playlist of, as it stands, at this moment in time, my favourite songs by, as it stands, at this moment in time, my favourite musical acts. Not that anyone asked me to do it this time, but if you asked me to do this next week, same criteria, then the result would doubtless be different.

There are no real surprises in here, I don’t think. Maybe some of the songs, definitely not the acts. Apart from the absence of the mighty Quo, of course:

Friday Night Birthday Club

Track-listing:

  1. The Sugarcubes – Birthday
  2. Super Furry Animals – Slow Life
  3. Teenage Fanclub – Did I Say
  4. R.E.M. – (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
  5. Kirsty MacColl – There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis
  6. The Wonder Stuff – Don’t Let Me Down, Gently
  7. Ash – Kung Fu
  8. The Soup Dragons – Head Gone Astray
  9. The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry
  10. The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed
  11. The Smiths – You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby
  12. The Wedding Present – My Favourite Dress
  13. Pet Shop Boys feat. Dusty Springfield – What Have I Done To Deserve This?
  14. New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle
  15. Underworld – Cowgirl (Bedrock Mix)

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 91

Right then. Let’s get this show back on the road, shall we?

I’ll explain the reason for my long absence shortly, but for now, a new, slightly longer than usual, mix for you to enjoy/hate/completely ignore (delete as applicable).

There were nearly sleeve-notes for this one, but having decided to come out of hibernation, time still managed to catch up with me. What I will say is this: Purists, fear not about Paul Oakenfold getting his grubby hands on The Cure at Track 1; it’s magnificent.

Oh, and of course, a song each from two of our recently fallen heroes appear.

Let’s crack on, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 91

And here’s your track listing:

  1. The Cure – I Can Never Say Goodbye (Paul Oakenfold “Cinematic” Remix)
  2. eels – Novocaine for the Soul
  3. Pulp – Spike Island
  4. The Stone Roses – What the World is Waiting For
  5. Northside – My Rising Star
  6. Muse – Starlight
  7. Jethro Tull – Living in the Past
  8. T. Rex – Jeepster
  9. Slade – Gudbuy T’Jane
  10. Squeeze – Take Me I’m Yours
  11. Sugababes – Overload
  12. Everything But The Girl – Missing
  13. Betty Boo – Where Are You Baby
  14. Go Home Productions – Making Plans for Vinyl
  15. The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
  16. Black Sabbath – Paranoid
  17. Supergrass – Richard III
  18. Teenage Fanclub – God Knows It’s True (Peel Session version)
  19. Robbie Williams & Kylie Minogue – Kids
  20. The Ting Tings – Great DJ
  21. Kirsty MacColl – They Don’t Know
  22. Camera Obscura – Super Trouper
  23. The Flaming Lips – Waitin’ for a Superman
  24. The Beach Boys – God Only Knows

More soon? You betcha there will be more soon.

The Chain #52

They said it would never happen, that it couldn’t or maybe shouldn’t ever come back.

But here we are. Back. The return of The Chain.

I’ll not beat around the bush and explain the rules again, I think pretty much everyone either remembers or gets it. If not, you soon will.

So, I have a pocketful of songs suggested by you, a video clip or two, some terrible jokes (I say that, I haven’t written them yet, but they will be terrible), an urge to mock some choices (please don’t be offended) balanced with a desire to award meaningless points, which I intend to staunchly resist first time out.

But it seems only right that, as it makes it’s first proper appearance in almost exactly four years, we kick things off with the song we once adopted as our theme:

The Pretenders – Back on the Chain Gang

And we’re off. And here, as a reminder, is the root record this week, the song from which all of our suggestions spring:

Matthews Southern Comfort – Woodstock

As you can imagine, suggestions basically fell into one of three categories: links to Matthew, links to Woodstock, and links to Southern Comfort or a.n.other liquor. I figured we may as well take them in that order.

And looky here, who’d have thunk it, the first suggestion is one of mine, which, knowing the sort of contributions this place used to get, I was genuinely suprised nobody came up with:

Tonight Matthew, I’m Going To Be With Jesus

Clip incoming!

More Matthew-based shenanigans, and a warm welcome back to Alyson from What’s It All About? who is currently doing a fine job of making my output here look prolific. Hope all is well with you Aly.

“I’ll keep it simple,” says Alyson, and blimey she’s a woman of her word, as that’s all she says, other then proffering her offering:

Cat Stevens – Matthew & Son

I always thought it was dogs that cocked their legs to mark their territory, but seems I was wrong. Ol’ Cat up there is right at it. dirty beggar.

Onwards to more returning Chain Gangers, and here’s SWC from No Badger Required with another short and to the point suggestion; doubtless SWC was in such an ecstatic delirium at the return of The Chain, he did an “all the right words, just not necessarily in the right order” suggestion, which I’ve rephrased so he doesn’t look stoopid:

“If the link isn’t Hey Matthew by Karel Fialka then it should be. A minor hit in the late eighties.”

Karel Fialka – Hey Matthew

Dear readers, Karel never bothered the UK charts again. Can’t think why.

But wait! SWC has mentioned “the link”. For those new to this, I will pause to explain. For several years now, The Chain has been an audience participation point on BBC 6Music’s Radcliffe & Maconie show. A long time ago, they played The Chain by Fleetwood Mac, and asked listeners to get in touch with their suggestions as to what record to play next in The Chain, which linked to the previous record (The Chain), and to provide their explanation as to how the two songs are linked. They picked one out of all the suggestions, played that, then repeated the process.

We do something similar in that we shadow The Chain, albeit from quite some distance, invite your suggestions, then post every song in an effort to prove we could have done better than them. So, no sneaking off to find out what the next record is in The Official Chain, that kind of ruins the “fun”.

Right, where we?

Ah yes: disappointingly short submissions so far…but all of that is about to change as we hear from The Robster, once of still-alive-but-barely-breathing Is This The Life? blog, and current holder of the Sunday morning slot at The Blogfather JC’s The Vinyl Villian, where he’s hosting SUPER FURRY SUNDAYS (aka The Singular Adventures of Super Furry Animals) and going through every SFA single ever released.

The Robster bursts to the front of the crowd, gasping for breath, and says:

“…my first offering is a three-fer: Southern Comfort is an alcoholic beverage. Someone who liked a drink or two at one time was Cerys Matthews.

The original Woodstock festival was held in Bethel, New York. Therefore, ‘Streets Of New York’ by Cerys Matthews is my nomination.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the way to do it:

Cerys Matthews – Streets of New York

Since we seem to have almost accidentally stumbled into the next phase, that of drink, or as it should always be referred:

..then here’s Rol from My Top Ten:

“Back in my drinking days (25 years ago, not that I’m counting)…”

I’m just going to leave a pause there, for the spontaneous round of applause such an achievement undoubtedly deserves.

Nope?

No-one??

Jeez, Bowie was right when he said This is Not America.

Sorry, Rol. On you go. And nice one, mate, well done.

“Back in my drinking days (25 years ago, not that I’m counting) I always found Southern Comfort a little too sweet for my tastes. I always preferred this fella…”

Eric Church – Jack Daniels

Me too, Rol. Me too. (I’m assuming you mean Jack rather than Eric)

Jack Daniels often gets called a bourbon whiskey by mistake. It’s not, it’s a Tennessee whiskey. But something that is a bourbon is a biscuit, but I doubt anyone will come up with a biscuit-related link.

So, instead here’s Martin from New Amusements:

“Sorry to go down the obvious alcohol route but could I have “Whiskey in the Jar”, Thin Lizzy’s version please?”

Well, yes, you can, but rather than the standard version we all know by them, here they are from a John Peel session back in 1972, which I have on a 4-disc compilation of tunes recorded for Peel called Kats Karavan – The History Of John Peel On The Radio which I can heartily recommend:

Thin Lizzy – Whiskey In The Jar (Peel Session 14.11.1972)

Cheers Martin. Hope you got your Gene tickets!

Where were we? Oh yes. Booze.

Withnail – I demand to have some booze!

Well, since we’ve swapped from Southern Comfort to Jack Daniels to whiskey, we may as well have another one…

The Pogues – Streams of Whiskey

Right, time to knock off the booze. If we’re not careful, I’ll be posting Sinatra’s “One for my Baby (and One More for the Road)”, followed by Stevie Wonder’s “Don’t Drive Drunk” and then Paul Evans’ “Hello, This Is Joannie (The Telephone Answering Machine Song)” and we’ll all be depressed which is not what we want on a Saturday morning.

Except, hold on, here’s two stragglers, in just before the bell chimes, both with suggestions by acts which have featured recently on these pages before.

First up, this from Stevie at Charity Chic:

Whiskeytown – Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight

…and here’s Walter from A Few Good Times in my Life:

“I don’t want to go the Woodstock or alcohol road and suggest County Comfort, an old song by Elton John, which was covered by Rod Stewart.”

Yeh, but we’re not playing him. We’ll play some Reg though:

Elton John – County Comfort

Look out. Here comes George. George is a long-time friend of the blog, and indeed to many of the bloggers who feature here; he used to write the excellent Jim McLean’s Rabbit blog, was a regular contributer to The Chain way-back-when, and he aims to travel the world and work with children. His vital statistics are 38-24-58, he dislikes both Bruce Springsteen and The Clash, and often his suggestions were show-boating on the border of being convaluted, though often quite breath-taking. They would often start the same way: “X in the source band has the same surname as insert obscure football player here, which leads me to…which leads me to…etc etc” until he had found a way to nominate the song he wanted.

Let’s see if the past four years have changed his approach:

“There’s not enough prog. on these pages [There’s a reason for that – Ed]. Ian Matthews of Matthews Southern Comfort was originally called Ian MacDonald, but changed his name so he would not be confused with Ian McDonald of King Crimson. Ian McDonald co-wrote The Court of the Crimson King.”

King Crimson – The Court Of The Crimson King

I swear sometimes things get nominated just so I have to own a copy.

Anyway, that was a relatively straight-forward link by George, but worry not, he’ll be back…

Time for a first time contributer (as far as I can recall, my apologies if this saggy old brain has let another thing slip it shouldn’t have), and it’s a big warm Chain Gang welcome to Justin Mackenzie, who proves you don’t have to write a blog to join in:

“Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile replaced Woodstock at the top of the UK singles chart,” he informs us, and he’s only ruddy right! FACTOID!

So here’s the 05:14 Slight Return version from Electric Ladyland rather than 15:02 version which, genius that he was is just a tad too self-indulgent fret-wankery for these ears:

Jimi Hendrix – Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)

Something for the Dad’s there…

Anyway, look, it’s in no way related to the source song, but if we’re going to have something from Electric Ladyland, then it only seems right we should also have something from Electric Landlady, the late great Kirsty McColl’s 1991 album:

Kirsty MacColl – All I Ever Wanted

S’my game. I’ll do what I like.

Who’s next? Another first timer, that’s who, and can we have another warm Chain Gang welcome for [sk] who says:

“I suggest Conversation Joni Mitchell. Mitchell composed Woodstock and also received an invitation to perform at the festival.”

Joni Mitchell – Conversation

No prizes for guessing where we’re going next, and I was genuinely suprised there were no other suggestions for the great man, until Adam from the legendary Bagging Area snuck this under the wire:

“I’ll go with some Bob Dylan recorded in Woodstock after the motorbike crash with the Band, something from the basement at Big Pink. I’m Not There, maybe the ultimate Dylan Basement Tapes song.”

Bob Dylan – I’m Not There

You’ll remember quite a long time ago now, SWC promised to be back with another suggestion, and he’s a man true to his word:

“Woodstock is the yellow buddy of Snoopy. Snoopy is dog of Charlie Brown. Which allows us to ask for Good Grief Charlie Brown by Carter USM. Which almost certainly isn’t the right answer.”

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine – Good Grief, Charlie Brown

“Also Charlie Brown is a douche,” he adds for good measure.

Two things: firstly, I’m genunely surprised that this was the only nomination we had linking to Peanuts/Charlie Brown Snoopy; secondly, The Coasters think he’s a clown, not a douche:

The Coasters – Charlie Brown

And here’s another in the same vein:

The Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy vs The Red Baron

And so, to wrap things up, here’s George with his second suggestion:

“One of the band members of Matthews Southern Comfort was Gordon Huntley. Huntley and Palmer was a company that made biscuits in Reading. Also from Reading are Mike and Sally Oldfield, which leads me to what I think will be the worst song in The Chain, namely Moonlight Shadow.”

Each to his own George, I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for that one, as it goes:

Mike Oldfield – Moonlight Shadow

And I know I’m not alone in that, for George’s request was backed up by SWC, but mostly because he was hankering for a bit of Dave Angel, Eco Warrior:

And so to the record chosen by Radcliffe & Maconie on 6music to follow on from Woodstock by Matthews Southern Comfort; was it one that any of our guests chose?

Was it heck – although a couple of you strayed quite close. Here’s the explanation:

‘Southern Comfort: an alcoholic beverage. As is….’

The Champs – Tequila!

So, your nominations please for songs – maximum of two per person – which link to Tequila! by The Champs. Submissions via the Comments section below, or if you’d prefer, by email to dubioustaste26@gmail.com. Closing date is midnight UK time on 11/04/25.

Immediate minus points to anyone suggesting Terrorvision.

This may never happen again, so don’t get used to it, but if you fancy listening to all of today’s songs in sequence, then I’ve put them all together for you, here: The Chain #52.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 75

Here we go again, it’s that time of the week where I come up with some words for you to pretend to read rather than just skipping to the playlist or, more likely, the download link.

So what do we have this week? Well, in light of their recent return, blinking into the light, with new material for the first time in I-have-no-idea-how-long, we kick off with some very early Cure, before we go very 1980s indie pop, interlaced with some US indie rock and skater punk dudes; there’s some 1960s moustachioed California MOR, there’s what is perhaps the second least surprising segue in playlist history (the least suprising would be if I picked a different song by the same band for the second in the segue); some relatively new (to these pages, rather than in terms of actual time, unless we’re calling 2015 recent); a cover version, once described, by a young chap who sang his version at Indieoke (a live band performing the music for wannabe indie singers in the North London area, a night that I used to be sporadically involved in) thus: “I’m going to cover the cover version because it’s better than the original!” and he may have a point; before I wrap things up with the most majestic and angriest break-up record ever which will either have you reeling at just how majestic and angry it is, or will absolutely bum you out and ruin the rest of your night. You decide.

Oh, and somewhere in there is Kirsty MacColl, because, y’know, it’s Kirsty. She should be on every playlist everywhere. I should add that this mix was compiled long before I knew the BBC were going to be showing a couple of Kirsty-based shows last weekend (which I recommend you watch on the iPlayer if you are able to).

And finally, there’s some swears in what follows, but if you look at the tracklisting, that should be perfectly obvious, so I’m not putting up the Parental Guidance sign this time.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 75

Here’s not just what to expect, but what’s actually in it:

  1. The Cure – Jumping Someone Else’s Train
  2. The Wonder Stuff – A Wish Away
  3. Birdland – Sleep With Me
  4. The Byrds – So You Want To Be a Rock’n’ Roll Star
  5. Weezer – Hash Pipe
  6. Good Charlotte – Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous
  7. Sum 41 – Fat Lip
  8. Green Day – Basket Case
  9. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It – Rules and Regulations (7” Version)
  10. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – This Love Is Fucking Right
  11. Wire – Three Girl Rhumba
  12. Elastica – Line Up
  13. Hooton Tennis Club – Kathleen Sat On The Arm Of Her Favourite Chair
  14. Kirsty MacColl – There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis
  15. The Wombats – Backfire At The Disco
  16. The Soup Dragons – Head Gone Astray
  17. The Weather Prophets – Almost Prayed
  18. The Jam – Beat Surrender
  19. William Shatner – Common People
  20. Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip – You Will See Me

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 65

It’s a mix of two halves this week, and with good reason.

When listening back to the original mix I’d lovingly prepared for you, it struck me that a couple of songs on there could at best be seen as my condoning some things which have happened in the UK this week, or at worst be misconstrued as me inciting and demanding more. Most of you know that’s not how I roll, but I decided to make some changes, just in case any right-wing knuckle-draggers happened to pass by these pages. It’s happened a few times recently and I really couldn’t be arsed with engaging with them, as I have done before; I merely marked their comments as Junk and left them shouting into the void at nobody.

That will make more sense soon, I promise.

Anyway, what started off as being a full mix of punk(ish) and new wave(ish) tunes, now has the first half remaining exactly that (with the obligatory MOR tune that kicks things off getting deliciously crashed into by tune two – you’ll see what I mean), but what to do with the other half?

At the same time, it’s been warm hasn’t it? I like it warm, but this is too warm etc etc.

I love putting together summer-time mixes; when Hel and I shared a flat, her and her mate Cat were going overseas for a holiday of sunbathing somewhere hot that she probably named but I either wasn’t listening or can’t remember now (you decide which is more likely), and she asked me to do a summer playlist for her (Yes, people used to ask me to do these for them!). I, of course, happily obliged, knocked together a three-or-four-hour-long mix of cool holiday tunes, but, for “a laugh” slipped in MC Miker G & DJ Sven’s godawful Holiday Rap halfway through (you know the one, samples Madonna’s Holiday and has a deep, meaningful lyric of “We gonna ring-rang-a-dong for a holiday”). I chuckled away to myself for the first week they were away, until I got a text from Hel: “Holiday Rap! Brilliant!”. On her return, she assured me it was the highlight of the mix, which didn’t annoy me at all. Honest. Over ten years later I’m still not sure if she meant it or was just yanking my chain and had skipped past it. I’m not sure which is better of the two options.

But I haven’t done a summer mix (I don’t think) since the one I generously donated to JC over at the ever brilliant The Vinyl Villain back in July 2022. You can read what I wrote back then here, if you’re so inclined, but the link has expired so you can’t listen to it there. But you can here.

You can see where I’m going with this, right? The second half of tonight’s mix is a more summery affair altogether. I was mightily relieved to see, when I checked back to JC’s site (yup, that was me, JC!), that only two songs from that mix feature in tonight’s mix.

See, once the offending items had been removed, nothing else seemed to fit as suitable replacements. so drastic changes were needed. Hopefully the one segues nicely into the other.

And anyway, I can always say the first half was meant to evoke 1976, the drought, the punk scene, but doubtless someone would pop up and tell me which of my selections here weren’t released that year.

But nobody really cares about the thought I put into these mixes, you just wanna hear the tunes, which is fair enough, I guess.

So, without further ado, here it is:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 65

Here’s your game-of-two-halves tracklisting:

  1. The Carpenters – There’s A Kind Of Hush (All Over The World)
  2. X-Ray Spex – Oh Bondage Up Yours!
  3. The Rezillos – Top Of The Pops
  4. The Damned – New Rose
  5. Blondie – Living in the Real World
  6. The Jim Jones Revue – Stop The People
  7. Echo & The Bunnymen – Never Stop
  8. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Deanna
  9. Public Image Limited – Don’t Ask Me
  10. The Stranglers – Peaches
  11. Martha & The Muffins – Echo Beach
  12. Ramones – Rockaway Beach
  13. The Go-Go’s – Beatnik Beach
  14. Kirsty MacColl – He’s On The Beach
  15. Girls Aloud – Long Hot Summer
  16. The Wedding Present – At The Edge Of The Sea (Locked Down And Stripped Back Version)
  17. Lucky Soul – One Kiss Don’t Make A Summer
  18. Belle & Sebastian – Ease Your Feet In The Sea
  19. The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing
  20. The Jesus & Mary Chain – Surfin’ USA

There you go, not just a mix of two halves, but two mixes in the same post. No, you’re welcome.

More soon.

Friday Night Music Club Vol 50

So, here we are, Volume 50. I’m not sure I believe I’ve done so many of these, especially when you take into account the Christmas, Easter and Halloween editions which haven’t gone towards the total, and that I split the first six playlists (apart from Vol 3, which has been forever wiped from the annals of history, unless any of you downloaded it) into 22 more palatable hour-long chunks.

What follows is, as I mentioned previously, essentially a Friday Night Music Club Greatest Hits compilation, with a few others thrown in just to keep it…well, interesting, I hope. In reality, it’s just a load of my favourite records, many of which just happen to have featured in this series before. And no, not all of them are in anyway cool, but then neither am I. They do, however, make grear sin-a-long records should you elect to take drink when listening to this (which is recommended). Anyway, if I just featured the achingly-hip here, I’d be betraying the No Such Thing as a Guilty Pleasure tagline I cling to.

My thanks to my old buddy Richie, who I bombarded with the first and second goes at this, to seek his opinion and feedback. His response? “Genuinely, really good…even the dance stuff I’d never heard before”. I’m sticking that on the promo posters.

I should add that I’ve had at least another two goes at it since then. New songs added, some dismissed. The thing is, I kept haring songs and thinking: “Well, that should be on there!” I’ve had to just stop, and add those that I’ve missed to future volumes.

Let’s crack on, shall we?

Friday Night Music Club Vol 50

Here’s your track-listing with, as promised/threatened (delete as applicable), sleeve notes:

1, Saint Etienne – Join Our Club

No, I don’t know how I’ve managed to avoid including this appropriate little beauty for so long either!

2. The Cardigans – My Favourite Game

Just to hammer home the favourite records theme, here’s a couple of tunes with Favourite in the title.

I will always remember a conversation with an old mate, following the release of the Manic Street Preachers’ Your Love Alone is Not Enough, which featured lead Cardigan Nina Persson, when they revealed they hated that single becaue they hated Nina’s voice. Now, I totally get that some people’s voices just grate (see Ed Sheeran as a good example of someone who can make me turn the radio off whenever one of his dreary yet bafflingly succesful tunes is aired). But Nina Persson’s????? I haven’t spoken to this old mate in at least 20 years, and proximity is only part of the reason for that.

3. The Wedding Present – My Favourite Dress

Favourite tune #2. You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Mr Gedge making an appearance, did you?

4. PJ Harvey – Dress

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t post anywhere near enough Peej on here. Consider that partially rectified.

5. Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?

Back at college, I was in a band. Not a very good band, but a band nonethless. We mostly did covers of punk and new wave records: they were short, recognisable to the masses who flocked to our gigs (sense the tone), and most importantly, with barely more than three chords between them, piss-easy to learn. This was one of them: I even persuaded our lead singer to shout “Tricky guitar solo!” just as I’d seen Pete Shelley do on some old footage of the Buzzers (the Cocks?) do as that instrumental break hoved into view.

6. Super Furry Animals – God! Show Me Magic

You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Gruff and the boys making an appearance, did you? If this isn’t the greatest record ever to mention the lead singer’s hamster, then it has to be in the Top Ten at least.

7. Manic Street Preachers – Motown Junk

Just an absolute belter, with what would become standard Manic’s sloganeering (standard until Richie went missing. Did I ever mention I shared a cheese salad with him…? Yes I did.)

8. Half Man Half Biscuit – Joy Division Oven Gloves

Thanks to my brother, I own a pair. Best Christmas present ever. Apart from maybe the fake NME Brat Award he gave me for one of these mixes (true story).

9. Generation X – Dancing With Myself

Unlike the debunked theory that The Vapors’ Turning Japanese is about the joys of ononism, this probably is about exactly that. When I was in the aforementioned band, I wrote a song which referenced it – less subtly, it was called The Lonely Dance – and we used to dedicate it to someone we knew was in attendance whenever we played it. They felt cool because we’d name-checked them, everyone else would know we’d just called them a wanker.

10. Underworld – Cowgirl (Bedrock Mix)

You’ll have guessed from previous posts that I adore Underwold, so it’s a rare event when I hammer my flag to the mast and say: this is Underword’s finest moment and this is the finest mix of it.

11. LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends

Some years ago, my friend Matt and I were invited to provide the music for a mate’s 40th birthday, held in a little basement bar somewhere in That London. I went down the traditional route of preparing a mix, burning it on to a CD (I know? Imagine that!! So old fashioned…!) and handing it to the bar staff to play; Matt, who is much cooler than I am (I’m sure you’ll find that hard to believe) simply paired his phone to the speakers and DJ’d as he chatted, ate, drank and danced. He dropped this one, and the dancefloor emptied, leaving just me and him looking quizzically at each other as we continued to cut a mean rug between us. Where had everyone gone? Why weren’t they dancing?

Then someone approached Matt and, pointing upwards as if the speakers were in the sky, asked “What’s this? It’s ace!” (or words to that effect). And so, whilst we were baffled as to how nobody knew this absolute banger, we came to the conclusion: people around the 40 mark don’t like to dance in public to things they don’t know.

It is ace, mind.

12. Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris – Dance Wiv Me

I wish I could recall what Matt played next, but whatever it was it got everybody back on the dancefloor. I’ll say it was this. If not, Deee-Lite’s Groove is in the Heart (not featured here) is my go-to floorfiller.

13. Double Trouble & Rebel MC – Street Tuff (Scar Mix)

I’ve dropped this bon mot before I think, but many years ago I attended a house party in North London. Music was supposed to be provided by some DJ friends, but they had to drop out when they got an actual paid gig on the same night, the selfish sods. I was asked to help out and so I prepared 13 CDs, each an hour-or-so-long, numbered and to be played in numerical order, left them in a stack next to the CD player, so that if you were closest to the music box when one ended, you could just pop the next in the sequence in. They went from intro/welcome tunes to indie bangers to the-pills-should-be-kicking-in-by-now to comedown chillout tunes. This one featured somewhere in the middle, and a bloke I’d never met before or since approached me, hugged me, and thanked me for including it in my musical selection, before treating me to his break-dancing efforts, Which I really appreciated, obviously.

14. Lizzo – Juice

Shush! A rarity: something released in the last 10 years!

15. Girls Aloud – Love Machine

You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Sarah (RIP) and the girls making an appearance, did you? A song which will forever remind me of Llŷr, from when we played it in our guest DJ spot at a friend’s wedding, those attending went wild. Miss you bro, always.

16. Le Tigre – Hot Topic

At work team meetings, we now have a Hot Topic to discuss each month. I’ve suggested this as the theme tune to announce the start of the discussion. My suggestion has not yet been agreed.

17. Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing!

Had any of them actually been Welsh, as opposed to having merely met and formed in Cardiff, then this would’ve featured in last week’s St David’s Day mix. But they aren’t, so it didn’t.

One of the many things I love about this record, is that bit towards the end, about it being a good idea to go paddling in a fountain on the way home from a night out. I know exactly which fountain they mean, and, as it was on my way home, the thought crossed my mind many times as I wobbled my way back home at 3am. And that’s because it really is a good idea. I was never brave/drunk/off my tits enough though. I feel like I’ve missed out, somehow.

18. Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

Just wonderful. A piece to accompany the Dizzie Rascal tune which featured earlier, only with more Shakespeare references and much more sardonic intent.

19. Status Quo – Mystery Song

You didn’t really think I’d get through this without Francis and the boys making an appearance, did you?

This, from way back in 1976, just before they tipped over into cliche and parody of themselves, is unquestionably my favourite Quo song. It’s (RIP) Parfitt’s ode to a sex worker, set to a literally amphetimine-fuelled background. There’s a notorious story about how, one day in the studio, Rossi put a spoonful of speed into Parfitt’s tea, not expecting (he now says) him to drink it. But he did, and they left him in the studio, messing around with a riff – dink-dink-dink, dink-dink-de-dur-de-dink – and returned the next day to find Parfitt sitting exactly where they left him, playing the same riff – dink-dink-dink, dink-dink-de-dur-de-dink. Phew, rock’n’roll, eh?

20. Milltown Brothers – Janice Is Gone

An under-rated and generally unknown classic. The Janice in question is the much-missed DJ Janice Long, and you can read what I wrote when she passed away here, and here’s a post about an adventure I had with the band themselves, way back when (the download links are all dead on that one, let me know via the Comments if you want anything uploading again).

The only thing to add to that is a year or so later, the Milltown Brothers came round on the college circuit again. I said hello to them all post-gig, and one of them asked if we’d met before. I recounted the story about our last meeting, and, memories jogged, they plied me with booze and suspiciously constructed rollies. I passed out in the toilets, waking up after everyone had left the building, staggered home through the Welsh snow. I think I missed my train back home as a result; lawd knows what excuse I gave my parents (doubtless they will remind me if they’ve read this far).

21. Linda Rondstadt/The Stone Poneys – Different Drum

There are so many versions of this classic written by former Monkee Mike Nesmith out there – many of which have featured on these pages – but for my money this is the best, the absolute beauty, peerless.

22. Clout – Substitute

If ever there was one record that explained the “No Such Thing as a Guilty Pleasure” moniker under which this blog sits, it’s this one. I bought a compilation album called Guilty Pleasures Rides Again; this was on it and I couldn’t understand why anyone would feel guilty about liking it. I mean, it’s a stone cold banger, right? (Right!)

23. Billy Bragg – The Saturday Boy

In one of the first goes I had at doing this mix, Billy featured, but it wasn’t this tune, it was Sexuality, because it was much poppier than this. But that didn’t feel right, so I swapped it for this, Billy’s finest moment in my book. I’ve often said that, whilst his politics broadly chime with mine, it’s his love songs – or in this case, his unrequited love songs – which mostly hit the mark with me. I can never thank my old buddy Richie enough for pointing me in the direction of these songs from Billy’s back catalogue – albeit he played me The Man in the Iron Mask, and I was smitten – and since then, when I’ve wanted to persuade a mate of Billy’s relevance, this is my go-to song, because everyone has experienced the adolescent amourous rejection this song highlights.

24. The Go-Go’s – Our Lips Are Sealed

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: quite possibly the greatest pop song ever written…

25. The Waltones – She Looks Right Through Me

…although this pushes it pretty close. Pretty much the happiest night of my life was when, a few years ago, Richie and I saw The Waltones support The Chesterfields at the 100 Club in That London. After they’d played, I found myself standing next to lead singer James Knox; we discussed our ever burgeoning waistlines and our choice of t-shirt to either disguise or embrace it. He was wearing a shape-concealing black tee, I was wearing this:

…which, for the uninitiated is a reference to one of these bad boys:

26. The Chesterfields – Kiss Me Stupid

Since I’ve mentioned them, it seems somewhat churlish of me to not include something by them.

27. The Soup Dragons – Hang Ten!

Indie Banger. That is all.

28. The Smiths – William, It Was Really Nothing

Remember way back when we didn’t know Morrissey was a racist twat and could just enjoy the beauty of The Smiths’ records without feeling any guilt? Forget the current, live in the past for a few moments.

29. Kirsty MacColl – Free World

This is from 1989. You’d think things might have improved since then, wouldn’t you? But, nope: just as relevant now as it was 35 (yikes) years ago.

30. Johnny Boy – You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve

Possibly the greatest song title ever. And the song’s not far off being one of the greatest anti-capitalist records ever.

31. Denim – Middle Of The Road

For my money, the song that properly kick-started the Britpop scene, and probably never bettered by any Union Jack wafting indie-kid underling. Surely, when it comes to unrecognised musical geniuses, Lawrence has to be at the front of the queue, right…?

32. Belinda Carlisle – Leave A Light On

Turns out the title of that Denim tune was an indicator to how we wrap things up here.

Apart from Johnny Marr (who I think appears on the Kirsty tune), Belinda is the only one to feature twice on this one. She was, of course, lead singer of The Go-Go’s, but it wasn’t until the band split and she went solo that Belinda became succesful on this side of the pond. I bloody love this song.

33. Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker

Written by the Bee Gee boys, this seemingly effortless beauty is just one of the finest records ever.

34. Chas’n’Dave – Ain’t No Pleasing You

And to bring things to a close, this beauty.

Given their close association with Tottenham, I feel sorry for Arsenal fans, joyless vagrants that they are, for they can never admit to liking this.

And that’s your lot.

More soon.

Such Treachery

So let me start of by apologising, to those that care, for the absence of a Friday Night Music Club last night. The mix is done, but at the end of another gruelling week, I just couldn’t muster up the energy to write it up, especially when, having watched both series of the UK version along with the first season of the Australian version, I was nearly at the end of the second series of the antipodean version of The Traitors.

No spoilers for any of them here, I promise.

I didn’t watch the first series of the UK version at the time of transmission, and having seen it plastered all over social media at the time, I had taken against it, assuming it was just another reality show that I wouldn’t like (see also Love Island – I just don’t get the appeal). But when a friend (Hel, of course) got in touch after S1 had concluded to ask if I’d watched it, and seemed genuinely surprised to find when I answered in the negative, telling me that it was something I’d absolutely love, I determined to watch it sometime.

And then S2 came around, and although I hadn’t got round to watching S1, I thought I’d give it a go. And to say I bloody loved it is an understatement. The thing is, and don’t ever tell her I said this, but Hel is always right, as I’m sure her husband has found out since they got together.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of months and haven’t watched it and/or, more importantly, haven’t seen who the winner(s) were, then let me explain the concept: it’s The Apprentice meets Big Brother meets a Murder Mystery Weekend (70s Jon Pertwee-hosted gameshow Whodunnit? is a solid point of reference, for those old enough, and with a memory that isn’t addled by drink, drugs, or a delicious combination of the two, to remember it), Twenty-odd cash-hungry egotist twats go to (in the UK version) a castle in Scotland where an unspecified number of them are secretly selected by host, the perma-orange fringed goddess Claudia Winkleman to be Traitors, the rest are the Faithful. The Traitors get to ‘murder’ one of the Faithful every night, the Faithful have to work out who is a Traitor, and get to vote to banish one contestant every episode, usually, accidentally , a Faithful (“Ooops! Aren’t we stooopid?”). If any of the Traitors are left standing at the end, then they win all of the prize pot, which is added to every day by way of a daily task.

It’s absolutely fascinating stuff, watching the Faithful try and sniff out the Traitors, generally getting it wrong, and watching the gameplan of the Traitors play out. I lost count of the amount of times, over the four series I’ve now watched, I found myself thinking just how utterly stupid some people are (perhaps to be expected in the Aussie version – JOKE before I get swamped by angry messages) but then, the viewer knows who is a Traitor from the off, but that doesn’t dampen the emotions.

A tune (the only one I own with the word Traitor in the title):

The Sugarcubes – Traitor

Unless you count this too (any excuse to post some Kirsty!):

Kirsty MacColl – Treachery

Anyway: Friday Night Music Club will be back next week. Honest.

All of this treacherous talk leads me neatly on to the question of why things are so gruelling for me at the moment. Well, it links to a somewhat oblique reference I left here recently about having some news which I couldn’t divulge just yet. But the cat’s out of the bag at work now, so there’s no longer any issue with me writing about it here, as long as I’m not dumb enough to mention who my current employers are.

As many of you will know, I work for one of the London Borough councils. I lived in said Borough for approaching 10 years. A couple of years ago, when my landlord decided to sell the flat I lived in, the new owners swiftly served me with an eviction notice, as they wanted to completely refurbish the flat so they could charge loads more than the rent I was paying (at least, that’s what I’ve convinced myself was the reason…who knows…?), which had almost doubled in the time I lived there.

Unwilling to go back to flat-sharing with complete strangers, and unable to pay the amount it would cost me to rent a place on my own anywhere in London at the short-notice I was given, I moved north to Peterborough, the area where I grew up. I got management’s (verbal) approval to work from home, as I and all my colleagues had done during lockdown, on the condition that I came into the office for monthly team and any other important meetings I needed to attend, and on the understanding that the situation may change at any time.

Last year, the situation changed; we were asked to come into the office twice a month. This was for those of us who did not live locally; everyone else had to go in more frequently. But twice a month? No problem. It’d be nice to see everyone every now and again.

But I could see trouble on the horizon, so stuck my CV on a couple of those Get-a-New-Job apps. The problem was that were I to take a job locally, I’d lose out on London-weighting with my salary. Consequently, nothing I saw or was contacted about tickled my fancy or indeed my wallet, for that matter.

Then in January, the goal posts got moved again. We received an email advising us that: “…the required number of days in the office as per the ‘Smart Working Policy’ are to be strictly applied.

This is 2 days per week in the office for staff and 3 days per week for managers.

The 2/3 days per week rule is to apply regardless of whether people have children, people live a long way away, people have mobility issues, and “everyone else”.”

You’ll note that two of those ‘regardless’ stipulations – mobility and proximity – apply to me. To quote Kris Kristofferson: it’s nice to learn that everybody’s so concerned about my health, .

Whilst I can legally drive, I haven’t done so for over 20 years, and in any event, my current medical condition makes it unwise for me to be in charge of a car. So, when I travel into the office, I have to use public transport, namely the UK’s glorious and notoriously cost-effective railway network.

Sheena Easton – Morning Train (9 to 5)

On the days when I have to go to the office, I catch the 6:05 train from Peterborough. I get home at around 19:30, if I’m lucky and there’s been no delays.

It’s exhausting.

And: it costs me just shy of £60 each time I go into work. Do the maths: 8 trips per month at £60 a pop works out at around £480.00 per month.

Just shy of £500 a month, just to go to work.

Ian Dury & The Blockheads – What a Waste

The decision had been made for me. Suddenly, it no longer made economic sense for me to stay in my current job; London-weighting no longer played a part in my decision making.

The Band – The Weight

This week, I was contacted by a firm who had spotted my CV online, who will offer me a salary comparable with my current one, who are happy for me to work from home 100% of the time, and if I’m succesful, will include that as a clause in my contract.

I spoke with them on Wednesday, and passed the initial screening interview. I now have a full interview with them this Friday.

I can tell you all of this now as I spoke with my line managers earlier this week to tell them where I’m at. Admittedly, this was prompted by someone within our ranks telling them that I “wasn’t happy”. To be fair, they’ve been remarkably understanding; it wasn’t them who brought in the new rules, they can’t change what has been set up by those further up the food-chain than them, but they can see why I have to leave.

Marvin Gaye – Got to Give It Up (Part 1)

Wish me luck, folks.

More soon.