Fades in Slowly

Dead Beat Descendent

One of the great out there alternative assaults on the senses. Mark E Smith at his brutish antisocial best. This stuff is dangerous to the general social hierachy. Listen to experience, rock terrorism.

beetlebumjus

Bury

Can somebody please explain how Mark sounds exactly like he does on this as he does on Grotesque? Astounding how consistently amazing and alike this band is in all of their work.

Aniland

Big New Prinz

This may be the coolest tv appearance by a band ever.

menyc

Nirvana – Smells like teen spirit (live from ‘The Word’ 1991)

The middle of August, 1979 and I’d just turned 6. That’s me in the picture above, apparently. JP was on good form, although I was still a bit young to fully appreciate his genius. This was a shame really, as I was about to miss the one and only session by The Police. Not only did Sting and chums have a single in the top ten at the time, they also finally realised their dream of getting a Peel session, not that JP himself was terribly impressed by their effort. Other highlights of the mid August show included Dolly Mixtures first and only session. Full as possible details of the show have been lovingly cobbled together by my friends over at the Peel wiki, and you can download the little gem here.

Elsewhere, another band who, like the Police, had ‘pestered’ JP greatly to get on the show – U2 – were making their first big radio interview. Michael Jackson released his first breakthrough album Off the Wall, and on the telly we were treated to the very scary – I was 6 – Sapphire and Steel, among other things. Am I the only one who’d completely forgotten about Outer Spacers?

Here’s what magazines looked like back then.

If you want to look through the entire mid-August 1979 edition of Smash Hits, you can do so by clicking here (courtesy of the remarkable Like Punk Never Happened).

Blindness

I love the contrast. Robert plant et al poncing about on stage with hand claps and then this thundering genius of a racket performed by 3 guys who look like bouncers from a dingy pub with the barmaid on keyboards and the old alco hanging off the bar who fights with crisp packets on lead vocals..its fucking brilliant.

nerp23

Totally Wired

The Fall were to England what Sonic Youth were to America in the 80’s. They both picked up where the Velvet Underground left off after White Light/White Heat.

LomaxMcGee3

Formed in 1984 by ex-Clash guitarist and singer Mick Jones (after having been sacked over differences about the musical direction the band should follow), Big Audio Dynamite were noted for their mixture of varying musical styles, incorporating punk, dance, hip hop, reggae, and funk. BAD’s one constant throughout frequent lineup changes and meandering musical direction was the vocals provided by Jones. This recording is from their debut gig in London at The Kentish Town Forum on 28th November, 1985.

You know where to click.

I’ll be back on form soon, don’t worry. Meanwhile, get your ears around this little beauty…

May, 1979

* Gangsters
* Too Much Too Young
* Concrete Jungle
* Monkey Man

Lineup

* Jerry Dammers (Keyboards, Bakcking Vocals)
* Roddy Radiation (Lead Guitar)
* Terry Hall (Lead Vocals)
* Sir Horace Gentleman Panter (Bass)
* Lynval Golding (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals)
* John Bradbury (Drums, Percussion)
* Neville Staples (Vocals, Percussion)

Long time no blog. I know, I know. I’m out of the habit, having been very busy with the old day job. I’m hoping to be able to set asides some quality time for the blog over the course of the next few weeks, so thank you for bearing with me.

Here are a few tunes to keep you going in the meantime.

July Podcast

The Who – Can’t explain
Roxy Music – Mother of pearl
The Fall – Bury (parts 1 and 3)
James – Not so strong
Nate Wize – Rock the Casbah (feat Ammoye)
Bob and Marcia – Young gifted and black
Scars on Broadway – They say
Elisa Luu – DG
Abner Jay – Cocaine
Stereo MCs – Deep down and dirty
PJ Harvey – Water
The Melodians – Rivers of Babylon
Siouxsie and the Banshees – Metal postcard
Data Select Party – The white bear
Dave and Ansel Collins – Double barrel
Attic – Peel session (10th December, 1980)

Back soon.