Fades in Slowly

Last year’s blog post about the two Punishment of Luxury sessions proved one of my most popular, mainly because the links to the downloads died. Here they are again, finally.

thank you to Martin Wheatley at the John Peel radio show discussion group.

Here we are with the first show of the new year, courtesy of Kevin on the JP radio show discussion group.

‘This 2 hour show was composed exclusively of sessions recorded in 1977 by bands who made their debut on the show in that year. “Sessions” is used slightly loosely, as it includes a recording of the Stranglers at the Roundhouse.’

If, like me, you’re already foaming at the mouth in anticipation, get a load of the track list:

The ’77 Sessions – 21st December, 1977

Motors – Bring In The Morning Light
Wreckless Eric – Semaphore Signals
Tom Robinson Band – We Ain’t Gonna Take It
Sham 69 – Borstal Breakout
Stranglers – Something Better Change
Rich Kids – Bulletproof Lover
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Suburban Relapse
Buzzcocks – Pulsebeat
Generation X – Day By Day
Sham 69 – Rip Off
Wreckless Eric – Go The Whole Wide World
Stranglers - Goodbye Toulouse
Tom Robinson Band - Long Hot Summer
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Mirage
Rich Kids – Rich Kids
Sham 69 – Hey Little Rich Boy
Buzzcocks – Fast Cars
Generation X – Youth Youth Youth
Motors – Emergency
Siouxsie & The Banshees – Love In A Void
Wreckless Eric – Rags And Tatters
Sham 69 – Don’t Understand
Tom Robinson Band – Don’t Take No For An Answer
Stranglers – Hanging Around
Rich Kids – Young Girls
Buzzcocks – What Do I Get?

Here be some visual stimuli:

If you have any more info on this show, please add it here.

Christmas is a comin’ and it seems like as good a time as any for a bit of sacred cow slaughtering. Hendrix, without doubt, was an unparalleled talent. However, I agree with Peel’s opinion that he would have ended up making dreadful new age twaddle had he lived longer. Not that I’m advocating ridiculous-circumstanced early death, but it really was the making of the legend.

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Anyway, it’s Christmas and I’m in a chipper mood, so no more badmouthing of a rock great. What the hell is that picture on the right, I hear you not bother to ask? That, my dear friends, is the Troutbeck Hotel in Ilkley, the town I grew up in. In March of 1967, this poky little hotel on a backstreet of this small provincial Yorkshire town played host to the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the reason why lost forever in the mists of time. If you’re interested, here are more details of the strangest event in the history of the town.

Apparently, Hendrix, the picture of whom above was apparently taken in Ilkley, and the boys got over this and indeed returned to england frequently, putting in a decent shift at the BBC.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: December, 1967

-Day Tripper
-Spanish Castle Magic
-Radio One Jingle
-Wait Until Tomorrow

Line Up

Jimi Hendrix (Guitar, Vocals)
Mitch Mitchell (Drums)
Noel Redding (Bass, Vocals)

Listen now…

Read more about the Peel sessions.

Never one to shirk away from a request to stick something on the blog, especially from a Peely compatriot, here is a Christmas card from Mr. Obscure.

Even more importantly, here are his new goodies, which you can get by clicking here.

This was the band that made me start to feel like I was getting old. Long gone were the years when I opened the NME and knew every band that they were writing about. To be fair, I’d just moved abroad and my first little ‘un had just been born in 2001, but nevertheless it came as a bit of a shock when the album of the year was announced and it was by a band I hadn’t even heard of. Wake up calls are good once in a while, especially when they are as good as the Strokes.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="375" caption="Don't get your hair cut, that's an order"][/caption]

For me, the biggest crime any act can make is to consist of style over substance. A lot, well a few at least, aim this accusation at the band, and I can understand why.

They clearly have a style which they adhere to, knew exactly which bands they were mimicking and are probably under as strict a set of instructions about what clothes to wear and which poses to adopt in photo shoots as Marilyn Manson or anyone on these reality TV program contestants. That being said, they overcome this by really delivering on the substance side of the equation, as their first and indeed only Peel session shows.

Their 2001 opus ‘This is it’ has just been chosen as the NME album of the decade (my apologies on behalf of the publication to anyone who makes a great album in the next month or so) and I couldn’t be less surprised. The list of 50 albums makes for fairly uninspired reading, reflecting on the scope of the NME far more than on the quality of the music of the decade. None of that is the fault of the Strokes, so sit back and enjoy this belter of a session.

The Strokes session: June, 2001

Track list

The Modern Age
Hard To Explain
Barely Legal
Someday

Lineup

Nick Valensi (Guitar)
Nikolai Fraiture (Bass)
Julian Casablancas (Vocals)
Albert Hammond Jr (Guitar)
Fabrizio Moretti (Drums)

Listen now…

If you have any more info about this session, please add it here.

I haven’t even downloaded this one myself yet, but any excuse to get a picture of a BMX on the blog cannot be missed.

Another billfromnorthwales conversion, highlights of this show include a session by the Chameleons and full continuous playback of the first session by Altered Images.

Download here (I’ll get a ‘listen now’ thingy ready when I get the chance).

By the way, can anyone identify the extremely health conscious young lady on the cover of that month’s Rolling Stone? She looks very familiar.

Any interesting anecdotes you have about this date or show can be added here.

While not exactly unsung heroes, The Kinks nevertheless still don’t get the level of respect they deserve for being completely wonderful. English music at its absolute best.

This is their second (of three) BBC session, recorded on 1st July, 1968 and broadcast one week later. Listed as a Peel session in Ken Garner’s magnificent opus, this was clearly originally broadcast by Pete Drummond, not that that’s a bad thing.

The Kinks session: July, 1968

Track list

-Days
-Monica
-Love Me Till The Sun Shines
-Waterloo Sunset

Lineup

-Ray Davies (Guitar, Vocals)
-Dave Davies (Guitar, Vocals)
-Mick Avory (Drums)
-Peter Quaife (Bass)
-Nicky Hopkins (Organ, Piano)
-Unknown (Trumpet)

Listen now…

I look forward with great anticipation to your comments on this one…

Going to junior school (junior high to Americans among you) in the South of England in the late ’70s and early ’80s meant only one thing: you were a Madness fan. Failure to like this band could lead to a duffing up on the playground. Girls of course had the luxury of being able to like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, but such behaviour would never do among the boys. Nevertheless, I’d only just turned 6 when this was broadcast, as had my peers, so failure to stay up and listen to the Peel show wasn’t really a beating up offence.

Madness’ only Peel session, recorded 14th August, 1979:

Track list

The Prince
Bed And Breakfast Man
Land Of Hope And Glory
Stepping Into Line

Lineup

Mike Barson (Keyboards)
Suggs (Lead Vocals)
Mark Bedford (Bass)
Woody (Drums)
Chris Foreman (Guitar, Vocals)
Lee Thompson (Saxophone, Vocals)

Convenient ‘listen now’ option:

For me, the biggest indignity suffered by The Lurkers was being the centerpiece of Mick Wall’s abominable John Peel biography which appeared in time for Christmas, 2004, despite JP’s death only two months previously. That he met Peel and had a discussion about this band is considered Wall’s main qualification for having been handed the responsibility for churning out the dreadful, dreadful book in question.

The band themselves are worth far more of your time, however, having recorded four sessions at the legendary Maida Vale studio for John Peel between October, 1977 and January, 1979. Indeed, their debut single ‘Shadow’ was voted by John Peel as his twelfth best track of the year in the 1977 Festive Fifty (with “Love Story”, the B-side, at number 31).

Basically, this is one and a half minutes of good, pumping pub rock at its best. Here is a classic cover version from their first Peel session:

‘Then I kissed her’ by The Lurkers

Listen now…

As ever, if you want more, let me know.

First up, I’m ill, so it’s a short one…

Described as being ‘more inquisitive than The Sex Pistols, poppier than The Au Pairs and more experimental than Gang Of Four,’ Wire are often cited as one of the more important rock groups of the 1970s and 1980s. Personally, they never did much for me: another of those bands that you admire rather than love (for me the mention of British art school and band in the same sentence sends shivers down my spine). Certainly, their influence has outshone their relatively modest record sales, but that never factors into things here on FiS.

I do love this epic track though, this version coming from their first Peel session in January, 1978:

‘I am the fly’ by Wire

Listen now…

If you want to hear the rest of the session, let me know!