Wednesday 29 August 2007

Gay Mountaineers, Terry Scott and other 'Snuff'.

I still sometimes wake in the night in a cold sweat, mildly traumatized by a night with the two bastions of late eighties/early nineties British hardcore that were Snuff and Leatherface. As a loose collective of music, (but not necessarily street) wise eighteen year olds, two brothers (lets call them the "Pycrafts", for that - put simply - was their surname) and I decided to promote a gig with these chirpy south Londoners (Snuff) and dour Mackems (Leatherface) in Godalming, Surrey. Later, I will try and explain the logic that preceded this hideous miscalculation of judgements.

The gig took place in a prefabricated hut that rested itself uncomfortably upon t
he shoulder of a municipal car-park. The hut was more familiar to hosting playgroups, alcoholic anonoymous meetings and (I must add) as an eight year old, I once saw TV's Matthew Kelly open a Jumble sale there on a Saturday morning. I missed Swap-Shop for that - it was worth it though as I saw Terry Scott haggling with an old lady over the price of a worn pair of brown brogues. I still think he had failed to see the "AA meet cancelled" sign. The "Wilfred Noyce Centre", as the prefabricated tin rathole, that definitely did not have any asbestos in the roof, was monikered was christened after a gay British mountaineer. It was no gesture of a 1980's local authority promotion of alternate lifestyles that the centre was christened after a gay mountaineer. This was Godalming, borough of Waverley, County of Surrey. Liberalism was not permitted. There were no copies of "Jenny lives with Eric and Martin" in Waverley's school libraries. There wasn't even a 'Nelson Mandela Walk' in the Godalmings A-Z . It was pegged the "Wilfed Noyce" as the town could not bear anything else named after it's most famous son, the disgraced ("forget the women and children stuff..."), then rechampioned ("Phillips worked tirelessly to send messages to other ships on the wireless to enlist their assistance with the rescue...") chief radio operator of the Titanic, Jack Philips. There were simply no other deceased yet celebrated figures the town could offer up to lend their name to a prefabricated lean-to on the edge of a municipal car park, so a gay mountaineer it had to be. If Terry Scott had already passed away, this would of course been an entirely different matter, and the "Noyce" would have undoubtedly been known as the "Scott".

So, after failing to land pop-punk troubadours the Senseless Things and negotiations had hit a hiatus over the Charlatans (Ian Brown had said they were his favourite band so suddenly they wanted £375 AND 75% of the door - outrageous) the Pycraft brothers and I settled on an opening night at the Noyce with Snuff and Leatherface supported by my own band Sleeper. At this point, I must add just in case you didn't know, that I wasn't in the Sleeper that had a modicum of success during the glory days of Brit-Pop. However, after promoting this very gig in the Neals Yard Rough Trade shop ("which is the nearest tube to Godalming?... "you could try Collier's Wood, mate") I would still swear that Louise Wener nipped in to check out the new releases, saw our poster and decided to nick the band name Sleeper. She has never denied this.

Financially the night was an outrageous success. Although, in almost every other way, it can only be catergorised as an unmitigated disaster. Trouble began after booking, what the singer of Snuff described as a "Polish" PA. After leafing through the 'Public Address Systems" section of the Yellow Pages I had settled on the aforementioned 'eastern european' system from a company called "Show Sound". I had negotiated a good price for what was described by Mr. Show Sound as a '5K rig'. Unfortunately semantics had tainted my choice of PA. It became apparent that the "show" in his organisations handle referred to the agricultural variety rather than the musical type to which I equated it. The system had arrived in the back of a flatbed land rover, and once the two tin cans had been connected by pieces of string to the amplifier, one could barely hear oneself think. The bands refused to play. I pleaded with them to play. They cancelled the gig. They cancelled it again, then said they would play. Snuff and the less than pleased Frankie Stubbs of Leatherface asked me for the fifteenth time how long it took to ship "that heap of shite here from Gdansk" and "can you ask Lech Walesa to give us a bit more in these monitors?". They refused to play again. Then they saw the amount of people waiting in the car park to see them, hundreds, and I think pity got the better of them and they said they'd go ahead with the gig.

The doors opened about two hours late. This thankfully, gave us the chance to cancel Sleepers set. The guitarist had done to much acid and put simply, just wasn't really up for it. I remember nothing about the gig itself, aside from the look of pure evil that Frankie Stubbs reserved for me from the stage. What I do remember is having what amounted to a grand in cash stuffed inside my leather jacket all through the gig.

When it ended and, the time came to pay the bands, the crowd disappeared and so did my co-promoters, the Pycraft brothers. I was left with two pissed off bands their assorted co-horts and a shedload of cash hidden inside a coat. They wanted more money than we had promised them. I sat in a corner of the Noyce, surrounded by them. They said they had seen how much we had taken - I gave them some more money. Where were the fucking Pycrafts? They said we had taken more money than that, they wanted more. I gave them more. I said I was cleaned out. I'd paid them as much as the Charlatans had wanted. They still wanted more as the night had been such an ordeal. I didn't really have any choice but to give them more cash - apart from gettting kicked around the centres dressing room (I bet Matthew Kelly never acted like this, he left happy with a pair of green trousers and a copy of the board game 'Operation'(some pieces missing)'). I gave them more money. Eventually they left. I breathed a sigh of relief and found a pretty decent whack of cash inside the lining of my jacket.

I've never been able to think of Snuff or particularly Frankie Stubbs Leatherface in quite the same way since. I was slightly suprised to see that the latters 'Mush' has just been re-released. And also that it sounded quite good. Not that I would go as far as to say that it was a British Zen Arcade, like some have. Snuff were always a pretty good laugh, bran flakes, kwik fit fitter and assorted pop hits (Tiffany's "I think we're alone now" played at hypeer fast speeds) although there was really only one joke there. However, musically, they had a couple of inspired punk moments - I still like the track below. And if you ever see either band, that extra whack of cash went a long time ago.







Friday 24 August 2007

late august podcast parts i and ii






Two forty five minute mixes here that feature, mainly new(ish) tracks. There are some exceptions, such as the proto stoner-krautrock of Just We and the suprisingly undated dark-intelli-pop of the Jazz Butcher (it's from 1984). I don't know that much about Just We, however the break and intro of 'Something Like It' are pleading to be sampled and I'm certain I'm not the first person to realise this... Anyone know any tracks they feature on? The No Age record that is coming out on fatcat groups together the best of their e.p.s. I've heard them likened to the 'Du. They have 'Mouldy' fuzzed out guitar - but thats where the similarity ends. It's more like Panda Bear producing a Built to Spill album. It must be summer now, cos I have been listening to a lot of Dub. The best of the batch of new tracks is from Michael Rose's new album, the first half of which is pretty much untouchable. Aside from these there is the usual smattering of Sonar Kollektiv and Ninja releases, some folktronica and Terry Edwards turning his vehicle of interest away from the Fall, down the M1 and over to the fatter, less abrasive and generally more mascara-clad southern Smith, Fat-Bob (who is nothing to do with the subjest of the Jazz Butcher track).

emusic
amazon

download: pottacast part I

1. Waking Up Drunk - Spider Bags - 3:26

2 . No Memory Of Time - Eva Be feat. Joe Dukie (Soulphiction Remix) - 6:28

3 . Something Like It - Just We - 3:26

4. Dowie Dens Of Yarrow – Scatter - 4:49

5. The Parakeet Beat - Sunburned hand Of The Man - 4:57

6. Move Me - Trickski & Hans Blitz - 3:52

7 . Last One - Aril Brikha - 8:04

8. Freedom Dub - Michael Rose - 3:45

9. Woman, You Don't Have To Go - Luther Snakeboy Johnson - 6:05

10. Every Artist Needs A Tragedy - No Age - 3:38

download: pottacast part II

1. Cool Kids Keep - American Analog Set - 3:45

2. Southern Mark Smith (Big Return) - The Jazz Butcher - 5:17

3. In Between Days - Terry Edwards - 2:47

4. I Won't Hurt You – Anja Garbarek - 2:37

5. This Is The Thing (Album Version) – Fink - 4:35

6. Glussi - Stafraenn Hakon - 4:31

7. Roll River Roll - Richard Hawley - 5:11

8. White Stone Door – Mekons - 3:58

9. Lonely Woman - Basquiat Strings - 2:51

10. Cold Leaves For The Violent Ground - Library Tapes - 3:05

11. Song2 - Tesla Girls - 2:05

12. The End of an American Dream - Lee Scratch Perry - 5:39

Tuesday 14 August 2007

Hit The North - Part I - Happy Birthday Rich

Click here to download: Hit the North

Happy Birthday Rich.

  1. Hit The North II - The Fall 4:01
  2. I'm From Further North Than You - The Wedding Present 3:29
  3. Girl from the North Country - Howard Tate 3:44
  4. North Pole – The Walkmen 3:48
  5. Ost’rich’ & Chirping- Elliott Smith 0:34
  6. The Steppes to the North - Thomas Nöla et son Orchestre feat. Douglas P. of Death in June 2:54
  7. Cock of the North/Farewell to the Creeks - Massed Pipe Band 3:21
  8. Rich - Yeah Yeah Yeahs 3:36
  9. Merry Christmas From The Great White North - Lash & Podo 3:16<
  10. Cock O’ The North - Live Performance - Abbots Bromely Horn Dance Society 1:46

Songs In The Key Of Dan

Click here to dowload: Songs In The Key Of Dan

I put this together for Dancin' Dan Aulds birthday this year. And then forgot to give him the CD.

Apologies Dan. Have a listen to it on the plane to Chicago instead.

Dan The Banana Man - Nettles Brothers String Band 3:08

Danny's Dream – Jeane Newman 1:57

Danny Carlisle - Vic Chesnutt 2:56

Danny Says - Tom Waits 3:05

Hustlin' Dan - Bessie Smith 3:20

ichi dan - Hofuku Sochi 8:31

Midnight Dan – Julia Moody 3:36

Nasty Dan – Johnny Cash 2:07

Danny Boy – Johnny Cash 3:19

Red Hot Dan - Fats Waller 3:21

Rollin' Danny – The Fall 2:25


August/July "PottaCast"


Side A (right click, "save as...")
Side B (right click, "save as...")

A delayed missive, one from 'up the flue' as it were, dug out and sieved from my summer listening. It includes some traditional 'summer faves' like carnival choices Royal Rasses and Tempo 70, less traditionally summery old faves like Rapeman's cover of ZZ Tops "Just Got Paid" , the House of Love and a lot of new stuff as well, M.I.A, Hull's Thief, the slinky girl funk of Belleruche, Stars, Bullion's 'dillaed' take on pet sounds and Department of Eagles amongst them.

The Department of Eagles record is a particularly 'odd' record. I love the first three tracks and then was completely ambivalent towards the rest. "Noam Chomsky Spring Break: 2002" is though, one of the best song titles I have stumbled across in the last few years. I can never believe Thief are from Hull. They sound nothing like a band from Hull, in my ears at any rate, should sound like. Thankfully though, they are nothing like the Beautiful South. Or The Housemartins. There are two tracks from Caribou included (and Robin Guthrie musters two as well): Caribou 'cos one is a Four Tet re-work and Robin Guthrie just because I have really been enjoying his 'old-gaze' through our miserable, rainy July and August...


The Day Star – Robin Guthrie

God Only Knows - Bullion

Down Down - Thief

Lazy Eye (Adam Freeland Mix) - Silversun Pickups

Night Starts Here - Stars

Electric Worm - The Beastie Boys

The Overly Dramatic Truth (Main) - El-P

Homage To New York - Organic Grooves

Melody Day (Fout Tet Remix Featuring Luke Lalonde, Adem & On) - Caribou

Noam Chomsky Spring Break 2002 - Department of Eagles

Tonight I Have To Leave It - Shout Out Louds

Northern Girls - Belleruche

El Galleton - Tempo 70

Scorpion – The Budos Band

Unconventional People - The Royal Rasses


Paper Planes - M.I.A.

Used - Soulphiction

Para de Fazer Besteira (4hero Remix) - Marcos Valle

Oh Patrick - The Awkwards

Pretty Voice - Cloud Cult

Soon - Delorean

Savannah Smiles - Okkervil River

Old & Early Numbers - The Cape May

Bees - Caribou

Just Got Paid - Rapeman

Road – The House Of Love

Black Starliner Must Come - Culture

The Prince – The Black Seeds

The Red Queen theme ( aka Country song ) - Pink Floyd

Turn Off the Sun - Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd