"I’m not sure why Terry Hall’s death seems to have hit me harder than I would have anticipated. Something about his deadpan, detached, and melancholy vocals always struck a nerve with me, whether it was the Specials, Fun Boy Three, Colourfield or solo. Here’s a shoulda been a hit from his first solo LP Home."
Fun Boy Three - Well Fancy That (1983)
"I woke up this morning thinking about this song - it was honest, brave, and absolutely heartbreaking. "
There’s no excuse For child abuse And the scars that it leaves Where do you draw the line?
I agree with the sentiment above and I don’t think many fans were expecting how hard Terry’s death was to strike but its something about the damaged and the abused, the survivors of abuse have paid such dues to bring their songs to us we dearly wish them never to die
It don’t work that way sadly and we feel the loss of this highly sensitive soul and creative writer and singer all the more keenly . . . . . Rest easy now the pain is over
Friday, December 30, 2022
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
8th April 1941 - 29th December 2022
Icon, activist, post punk feminist thinker and fashion guru Vivienne Westwood has died at 81
Vivienne Westwood dancing on stage with The Sex Pistols
Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren opened their joint London boutique in the 1970s that went under several names such as SEX, Let It Rock, Too Fast To Live, To Young to Die, and Seditionaries
Never one to shy away from the issues of the day she retained a questioning activist mentality right until the end. We will miss her
"On this day in 1999, George Harrison and his wife Olivia were attacked by an intruder at Friar Park in Henley. At about 3.20am Olivia Harrison woke her husband to say she had heard smashing glass. While she phoned the police, George Harrison went down to the kitchen and found a window broken. He went back upstairs on to a gallery that overlooks the ground floor. Glancing down, he saw an intruder in the main hall. Harrison said: ‘He stopped in the centre of the room and looked towards me. He started shouting and screaming.’ The intruder advanced up the stairs. Harrison lunged at him. ‘We fell to the floor. I was fending off blows with my hands. He was on top of me and stabbing down at my upper body.’ Mrs Harrison began hitting the man with a brass poker. The intruder chased her and grabbed her by the throat. George said: ‘I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth..’ Mrs Harrison swung a heavy table-lamp at the attacker, who gripped the cord of the lamp and pulled it towards him. Olivia threw the lamp at him and ran downstairs to find that the police had arrived. Michael Abram, a 34-year-old man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, served just under two years in a secure psychiatric unit for the attack. "
Just because . . . . . this showed up in my algorithm! And quite right too, Billy Connolly ( And John Bonham!?!) introduce Rory Gallagher on ‘Alright Now’ . . ."a little bit of the green into the blues"!
Part of the beauty of punk rock was the idea that rather than just standing back in wonder at the spectacle of your favorite band, you could get up on stage and do what they did yourself...
...The only problem was that while it didn't seem all that hard to do what the Ramones were doing, hardly anyone was capable of doing it quite as well. Glasgow's the Rezillos, however, were that rare band who beat the odds, becoming quite simply the finest fake Ramones the world has ever known. Hyperactive tempos, raging guitar, abbreviated pop melodies, goofy and slightly off-kilter lyrics that display a fascination with junk culture and '60s pop -- it's all there on Can't Stand the Rezillos, the band's only studio album, and they were able to work the formula every bit as well as the Ramones did on Rocket to Russia. Of course, it helps that the Rezillos were able to put their own spin on the template; they were a bit poppier, willing to get a few notches sillier, and sounded just a touch smarter (it figures a bunch of former art students would come up with a tune like "[My Baby Does] Good Sculptures"). But the real key to this album is its simple, good-hearted joie de vivre; funny-punk was rarely executed with the degree of skill, finesse, and pure delirious glee as the Rezillos summoned up on Can't Stand the Rezillos. It makes me smile more than any U.K. punk album ever made me, and it has the greatest Dave Clark Five cover ever committed to tape -- what greater recommendation could you ask for? A triumph. - Review by Mark Deming
traxfromwax: 1 Flying Saucer Attack 2 No 3 Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight 4 Top Of The Pops 5 2000 A.D. 6 It Gets Me 7 I Can't Stand My Baby 8 Glad All Over 9 (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures 10 I Like It 11 Getting Me Down 12 Cold Wars 13 Bad Guy Reaction
...Though they became more accomplished in later albums, they never strayed from this template. What did change, however, was the group's consistency, largely because their fortunes were tied too closely to those of MacGowan. His talent burned intensely, but like a supernova, it flamed out quickly as the singer sank into an abyss of liquor and drugs. He could still turn out some great moments, but his unpredictability became a major liability for the group's very sanity and they had to let him go. Ironically, without Shane aboard, the Pogues started to drift and they only lasted through one more album before calling it a day, leaving behind a body of work that is very well summarized on the European-only compilation, The Very Best of the Pogues. This concentrates heavily on the group's first three albums, where MacGowan's writing was its sharpest and the band sounded best, but it also picks up highlights from erratic albums like Peace and Love and Hell's Ditch. That's not to say this is a perfect collection; it has a tendency to play toward their traditional folk inclinations, which means it overlooks such wonderful moments as their stomping Motown salute "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah," one of the very best singles of the late '80s and early '90s. Even so, this collection is as good a single-disc retrospective as it could be, and it comes very close to capturing the Pogues at their very best. - Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
1 Dirty Old Town 2 The Irish Rover 3 Sally MacLennane 4 Fiesta 5 A Pair Of Brown Eyes 6 Fairytale Of New York 7 The Body Of An American 8 Streams Of Whiskey 9 The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn 10 If I Should Fall From Grace With God 11 Misty Morning, Albert Bridge 12 Rain Street 13 White City 14 A Rainy Night In Soho 15 London Girl 16 Boys From The County Hell 17 The Sunnyside Of The Street 18 Summer In Siam 19 Hell's Ditch 20 The Old Main Drag 21 The Band Played Waltzing Matilda
"Misty Morning, Albert Bridge" 1989 - Mini CD
1 Misty Morning, Albert Bridge 2 Cotton Fields 3 Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version) 4 Train Of Love
David McComb - I’ve Heard Things Turn Out This Way (1991)
Nick Cave once stated the David McComb was “head and shoulders above the rest of us” If you don’t know him, David McComb was the brilliant singer and songwriter of the Triffids who sadly passed away at age 36 in 1996. Here a wonderful solo track that has a Christmas vibe.
Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed Come gather round, decorate the tree
So something obscure and really rather lovely for between the Christmas and New Year no-man’s land of exhaustion and ennui!
Wouldn’t be Christmas with Shane MacGowan and The Pogues from ten years ago (although we send this one out to Kirsty MacColl and her family . . . . . . )
we also lost Hinterwald (Major Gruber to his friends) and the guys at HQ: Silent Way and the boys heard from Manon, Hardy’s daughter that he had passed away. Blogger without equal a virtual friend and we shared a peculiar sense of humour and much musical taste.
Bunny Yeager wishes you all a Merry Christmas! (Poacher turned Gamekeeper she became the most prolific glamour photographer especially of her friend and model Bettie Page)
Well atheist I may well be but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the buildings where the Christians worship and the music of the carols and hymns, an interest I learned from my parents who’s faith was so shaken by the Second World War so here’s a folk legend and wonder in his own right!
CHRIS WOOD - While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night
So WOMEN IN ROCK is wrapped up with Volume 7 (count ‘em) by Kostas this morning and inevitably I guess this last was going to be pretty radical he having covered pretty much everyone of more mainstream voices previously but nothing wrong with that. (It’s actually why I like Kostas’ choice as he has kept it well balanced despite some glaring omissions (what no Bonnie Raitt, Martha Wainwright? Lily Allen? I would obviously break the rock pattern mould and included more folk based English gals like Katherine Williams, Thea Gilmore and antipodeans like Emily Barker but maybe they don’t fit the category of ‘rock’ although Bonnie must for sure but that’s MY stuff) but we can all do that and it’s his list of over 300 lasses! If you don’t like this ‘cos it leaves someone out when make your own and tell us about it!
01. Chandeen - Blood Red Skies 02. Jenny Hval - Lions (feat. Vivian Wang) 03. Miranda Sex Garden - Ardera Sempre 04. Frankie Rose - Night Swim 05. Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone 06. Ding An Sich (feat. Maria) - Fun 07. White Lung - Below 08. Chelsea Wolfe - The Warden 09. Ferver Ray (Karin Dreijer Anderson) - Triangle Walks 10. Zola Jesus - Seekir 11. Zen Garden - Zen Garden 12. The Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up 13. Courtney Barnett + Kurt Vile - Fear Is Like A Forest 14. Bikini Kill - New Radio 15. Nonmandol - Nonmandol 16. 7 Years Bitch - The Scratch 17. Be Your Own Pet - Damn Damn Leash 18. The Lunachicks - The Day Aquid's Gerbil Died 19. Red Aunts - The Things You See, The Things You Don't 20. The Donnas - I'm Gonna make Him Mine (Tonight) 21. The Muffs - Pollyanna 22. Viv Albertine - Becalmed (I Should Have Known) 23. Babys In Toyland - Middle Man 24. Sleater Kinney - High In The Grass 25. Bratmobile - I'm The Band 26. Thee Headcoatees - Davey Crockett 27. Jean And The Statesides - Putty In Your Hands 28. Jacqeline Taieb - 7.00 Am 29. Holly Golightly - Wherever You Are 30. The Gore Gore Girls - You Lie To Me Before 31. The Pandoras - You Don't Satisfy 32. Lisa Germano - Dig My Own Grave
Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile - Continental Breakfast
Carlos Santana & Jeff Beck Reunion - Prince Hotel Karuizawa, Japan June 1, 1986 Soundboard @flac
Playing Time: 63:38
Track Listing: Primera Invasion BMW Open Invitation Star Cycle Cause we’ve Ended as Lovers Wild Thing Freeway Jam Going Down Super Boogie/Lotus Blues People Get Ready Johnny B. Good
Line Up:
Carlos Santana - Guitars Jeff Beck - Guitars
Steve Lukather - guitar
Beck's band: Jan Hammer - Keyboards Simon Phillips - Drums Jimmy Hall Vocals & Sax Doug Wimbish - Bass
Santana's band: George Miles - Vocals Chester Thompson - Keyboards Armando Peraza - Congas Orestes Vilato - Timbales Tom Coster - Keyboards Graham Lear - Drums Paul Rekow - Percussion