Scared To Get Happy – Something For The Old Romantics

Victory on Fifteen to One wearing a Popguns t-shirt

Monday 24 June sees the release of an indiepop-tastic 5-CD compilation, Scared To Get Happy – A Story of Indie Pop 1980-1989, from Cherry Red Records celebrating a decade of all manner of underground indie schmindie from the 1980s. A Nuggets for the now generation, Scared To Get Happy will remind me (and you) of old favourites, as well as tracks by bands that somehow passed us by at the time. The bountiful British pop pick ‘n’mix promises to avoid the much-compiled tracks of certain bands, although its appropriate that seminal tracks like “Up The Hill and Down The Slope” and “Shine On” do make an appearance. Such a shame that Sony wouldn’t allow a different Primal Scream track, as short and sweet as Velocity Girl is.

John Reed of Cherry Red, whose idea the box set was, gave me an interview for my HND in Radio earlier this year. I only used a small part of it for the final 8-minute feature, which also included contributions from Wendy Pickles (nee Morgan) of Popguns and BMX Bandits crooner-in-chief Duglas T Stewart. The piece went out as part of a live Planet Pop magazine show featuring studio guests TeenCanteen, whose charming, honey-dripped pop harmonies would’ve fitted in well to this box set. I’ve posted a link below to the short Planet Pop pack as well as the full interview as I feel the latter provides a fascinating insight into the processes – physical and thought – that went into seeing Scared To Get Happy become a reality.

8’00″ Feature:

Here is the Full John Reed Interview.

Much of the music featured on the mammoth 134-track package soundtracked my teenage years and beyond, with many tracks remaining firm favourites to this day, especially the Scottish bands featured (and there are loads of them) and the jingly-jangly stylings of Popguns. As you can see from the opening photo (from October 1991) I held them in such esteem that I wore a long-sleeved Snog t-shirt on my ever quiz show appearance, Fifteen to One. This was in an age before dress code restrictions – no logos, no small checks, no red – on television game shows. Being fortunate enough to win said show I won nothing more than another go in the next series. My t-shirt of choice was supposed to be the Sarah Records cherry t-shirt but for reasons that are too dull to go into I ended up wearing a red Sultans of Ping Where’s Me Jumper? effort. I blame this for my subsequent defeat, as well as a man named Tom Jones but that’s a story for another time.

A launch gig for Scared To Get Happy takes place this Saturday, 22 June 2013, at 229 on Great Portland Street and should make for an interesting flashback to more innocent times. Some of the music was dismissed at the time by non-believers as twee but to me it’s always been the purest of unsullied pop.

I made the decision early on in the year that the launch gig would be a reward to myself for completing my HND, which I duly did. Train tickets, gig ticket (well, one of those annoying email type things) and accommodation is booked for what promises to be a nostalgia-fest. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how many men (and women) of a certain age will be squeezed into stripey t-shirts, cardigans and anoraks. I’m having my own wardrobe crisis as to what a cool, indie dad of a certain age should be wearing!

The other dilemma is which bands to go and see on the night. I’ve never been to this particular venue before. It’s split into two rooms, with five bands playing in each. My decision as to who I want to see early on in the evening is pretty much set in stone but it’s at 9.30 when the decisions need to be made. I haven’t seen Popguns live since 1995 at a sparsely attended King Tut’s gig (understandable as Morrissey was across town that night at the Barrowlands) and it’s an astonishing 25 years (seriously?) since I saw The Primitives support Echo and the Bunnymen at the Edinburgh Playhouse. I also have loyalty to Duglas T Stewart and his latest rolling incarnation of BMX Bandits, who I’ve seen about a dozen times since the late 80s. What to do, what to do… Here are the stage times, what would you do?

ROOM 1
7.00pm to 7.30pm – THE WOLFHOUNDS
7.45pm to 8.15pm – MIGHTY MIGHTY
8.30pm to 9.15pm – BRILLIANT CORNERS
9.30pm to 10.15pm – BMX BANDITS
10.30pm to 11.15pm – THE PRIMITIVES

ROOM 2
7.00pm to 7.45pm – YEAH YEAH NOH
8.00pm to 8.45pm – 14 ICED BEARS
9.00pm to 9.45pm – BLUE ORCHIDS
10.00pm to 10.45pm – POPGUNS
11.00pm to 11.45pm – JUNE BRIDES

It’s easy to complain about certain bands being missing from the box set and also the launch gig but there are good reasons in both cases, as detailed by John in the interview above. I mean, who could turn down a gig drumming for The Boomtown Rats? I heard that The Orchids had been invited and turned it down, which is disappointing. They’re still on the go and still gigging although they continue to be release records at Blue Nile pace. My only foray into gig promotion was with The Orchids in Edinburgh in 1993. The less said about that night, the better.

While I know a lot of the tracks featured on the collection, I’m as intrigued by the songs I haven’t heard or the output by the bands I don’t know. I’ve not been fortunate enough to get a preview of the final set but Andrew Collins has and as an NME journalist of the time he was closer than most to some of the scenes and sounds. His Velocity Rapture piece is an enjoyable trip down memory lane.

The Pooh Sticks, whose Indiepop Ain’t Noise Pollution inspired the title of this blog, were due to play but pulled out. Thankfully the song remains in the set. As do tracks by some of my favourite ever bands, not just of the 80s: The Room (who morphed into the equally marvellous Benny Profane), Prefab Sprout, Friends Again, The Woodentops, James, McCarthy and Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes (one of whom, like me, has appeared on Countdown). While classmates at high school were arguing the merits  or otherwise of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Wham!, I was listening to Postcard and Kitchenware bands. My first musical loves Aztec Camera are also represented but clearance for any of the Postcard tracks was not forthcoming so we’re left with debut hit Oblivious. I’m particularly pleased to see One Thousand Violins represented as they were the band I saw live more than any other, around 19 times. I was about to head off to Germany with them, where there were well thought of, only for them to split somewhat acrimoniously.

With such a huge task, there are bound to be casualties, with the tracklist changing on a regular basis. So there’s no place in the indiepop squad for The Vaselines, Avo-8, Yeah Jazz, The Golden Dawn, Korova Milk Bar, Nick Nicely and, still going strong, The Pastels. Maybe there will be Another Story of Indie Pop and those on the bench can make an appearance. We’ll just have to make do with this wonderful assortment of indiepop tracks to gladden the heart of any hopeless romantic of a particular age and maybe some new romantics too. To cut a long story short, you should buy it.

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Jocknroll Review of the Year 2012 – Live Music

2012 saw me fall in love with music again, both live and on record (and computer). I’d never fallen completely out of love with it but we’d had our differences and we weren’t really on speaking (listening) terms. New music hadn’t done much for me in 2011 – only “new” stuff from the distant past had made much impact – and I imagined this year would follow a similar pattern.

A combination of some of my favourite artists – BMX Bandits and Linden – returning with new albums, recommended newcomers and the influence of the listening of some of my HND Radio classmates reignited my passion for music this year.

Live music played a big part in my life in 2012 with a musical equivalent of the good, the bad and the ugly passing my eyes and ears. Since records began, and by records, I mean my Gigs spreadsheet, 1993 had been my busiest year for witnessing live music with 23 live shows. 2012 promised to run it close. I saw The Orchids twice in ’93 and were it not for a dispute with a ticket agency over fees I’d have seen then again, for the eighth time, some 19 years later. Sometimes you have to stand up for your principles and paying an extra £1 just to collect a ticket was £1 too far. I was already paying £14 to see them, plus booking fees, and they were only the support band. I don’t blame the band; I blame yet another fees-for-fees-sake ticket agency, who I won’t name (if they can’t be bothered to respond to my correspondence then fuck’em, no publicity, albeit negative, for them). I also saw BMX Bandits play the now defunct Venue in Edinburgh in October 1993 and while The Orchids took some time out in the 1990s (returning in 2004) the Bandits, under the stewardship of Duglas T Stewart, kept on going and they recently celebrated over 25 years in this business we call pop. 1993 also saw my only foray into rock promotion, involving The Orchids, but we’ll save that story for another day.

My 2012 gig-going got off to a great start with a trip to Glasgow, with classmate Scott, to see Babybird, a band I’d always wanted to see. I’m glad I did for a number of reasons not least because it seems that Stephen Jones has hung up his microphone for good. Fingers crossed he changes his mind. I’d actually won tickets in a competition to see Babybird back in 2000 at the Liquid Room in Edinburgh but the gig was cancelled for reasons unknown. If I’d paid for my ticket I’d have got a refund, as it was I missed out on the gig and the prize. Like an over-excited movie PR company proclaiming a new January release as “film of the year”, I did just that for Babybird’s visit to King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut and, despite stiff competition, it has stayed that way over the past 11 months. The gig also prompted a spat on Facebook with a member of one of the main support acts who had arrogantly suggested that somehow they were better than the headliners. I won’t name them. I also won’t hold my breath waiting for them to get eight Top 40 singles and 2 top 30 albums (like Babybird) with their derivative sound. As a result of the band (and their fans) taking umbrage at me daring to have an opinion on them and their music – I was actually quite diplomatic – I won’t be visiting a certain town in Scotland any time soon.

February saw me take in two Fife gigs. Another competition win – it’s a hobby and a blog post or two for another time – saw me and another college radio colleague Martyn take in Big Country at Dunfermline’s Alhambra Theatre from the back row of the Circle. I’m not going to compare Alarm frontman Mike Peters with local hero Stuart Adamson because he certainly won the crowd over with his passionate performance but there’s still an element of sub-Bono worthy posturing about him that irritates me somewhat, further compounded when he climbed up to the Circle for a bit of mid-song community singing. The band played their best-selling album The Crossing, which topped the Jocknroll Best Scottish Album poll in 2007, in full and it was, I have to say, magnificent. While never really being one of my favourite bands they were always a band I liked and I’m glad I saw them just this once. Less than a week later I caught The View at the Rothes Hall in Glenrothes and this was an altogether different crowd. If I wasn’t the oldest there I certainly wasn’t far off. It seems to be the thing around these parts to slag The View off but I like their energy and their tunes.

April was all about blasts from the past. Another band I had never got around to catching live the frist time was Secret Affair and I was delighted to see The Laynes support them at Ivory Black’s. I’d played The Laynes on my radio show and I thought their set was tight, energetic and full of crackin’ tunes. I have to say I was rather disappointed with the headline act. A number of songs seems to be overextended to accommodate brass solos and the wonderful sound afforded their support act seemed to disappear in a clumpy cloud of noise. 21 April was Record Store Day and Mono in Glasgow held a free gig, which featured an AED Records showcase as well as performances by Malcolm Middleton’s side project Human Don’t Be Angry (which just didn’t do it for me) and Snowgoose, Jim McCulloch’s band who doff more than a passing hat to folkies Pentangle. Not surprisingly Edwyn Collins headlined his own label’s showcase with great support from Linden, Joe McAlinden’s new band, and The Dead Flamingoes, featuring James Wolbourne and partner Kamila Thompson. The last gig of the month saw the welcome return of Close Lobsters, a Paisley band who lingered on the fringes of the C86 movement and in I’m Going To Heaven To See If It Rains produced one of the greatest Scottish singles ever.

Joe McAlinden was also present at what was arguably one of the most anticipated gigs/hottest tickets of the year which saw the return of the now-abridged Dexy’s. In what was more of a theatrical production than a traditional gig, Dexy’s played new album One Day I’m Going To Soar – their first in 27 years – in track order with a few extra treats from the past thrown in at the end for good measure including, much to my surprise, a reworking of party favourite Come On Eileen.  I caught Django Django and Discopolis at the National Museum of Scotland but wasn’t really taken by two bands vaunted as the next big things. In June I was looking forward to finally seeing Kid Canaveral, “my new favourite band”, but sadly a last-minute illness to lead singer Dave meant a late substitute in the shape of Fence Musketeer King Creosote, to complement the bill already featuring Withered Hand, The Pictish Trail and Randolph’s Leap, my other new favourite band. I would see all of these acts again before the year was out.

The summer brought a debut gig for my mate Dave’s band The Silver Birches, with the added delight of a song, Late Night Radio, inspired by yours truly (*blushes*). The country-tinged power pop was well-received and I saw them once more a month later. Sadly their third gig clashed with a gig across the country from one of my first musical loves. Dave understood and between the two Silver Birches performances he joined me on a trip to the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh – scene of my first “proper” gig in December 1983 – courtesy of free tickets from my friend Lisl. The venue played host to Withered Hand, Darren Hayman (late of Hefner), Gordon McIntyre from Ballboy (sporting the dodgiest moustache this side of Mo-vember) and all MC’d by Josie Long. August finally brought me face to face with Kid Canaveral, this time at the Electric Circus, a small but perfectly formed venue near Edinburgh’s Waverley Station. They rocked, mixing brand new songs with old favourites. I hadn’t seen Marc Almond since 1988 when he strutted his dark, soulful stuff at the Barrowlands in Glasgow with then backing band La Magia to promote his Stars We Are album and thanks in no small part to a competition run by the HMV Picture House I secured a pair of tickets to see him again. To be fair I think the venue were struggling to shift them because everyone I knew had entered and “won” tickets. Still, I’m glad I went although I was irked most of the night by a guy who thought I was there to hear him “sing” as he bawled every word into my right ear. Fine for the big singalong numbers but during If You Go Away it wasn’t welcomed. Support Baby Dee was a sight to behold and resembled a poor man’s Divine, for those who remember him. By the way, the picture at the top of this blog was taken by Marc Almond from the stage and posted online. I’m in it. Well, a bit of my head is.

It’s many years since I’d been to Paisley, almost certainly for a St. Mirren versus Hibernian match, and the good lady wife and I returned there in September to see first musical hero, Roddy Frame.  Hosted by Paisley Abbey as part of the Spree Festival the venue resembled an episode of Songs of Praise but it suited Roddy’s one man and a guitar show. There was even a meet and greet afterwards and a chance to finally shake the hand of one of the world’s great guitarists.

Another competition win in the shape of a pair of tickets to November’s Aberfeldy Music Festival gave me the ideal chance to combine work for my radio course with a trip to the sleepy Perthshire town. Now, I don’t know if it was just me, but I didn’t enjoy the weekend as much as I should have. Maybe it was being on my own or becoming easily bored with what Aberfeldy had to offer outside of gig time – it’s a one-horse town and it must’ve been the horse’s day off – or perhaps it was the inability to get an interview with the festival organiser because he had more pressing matters to attend to (like walking his dog) but I didn’t enjoy the weekend and couldn’t wait to get home. Friday night saw a line up of Star Wheel Press (led by the aforementioned organiser and featuring backing vocals from my hostel roommate), Withered Hand, Meursault, Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells and headliners Phantom Band, who I’d never heard before, let alone seen. They impressed me greatly. The same couldn’t be said of Meursault. Again, it might’ve been the mood I was in but I just didn’t get it. People I know had raved about them but, no, not tonight guys.  In the cantankerous mood I was in it didn’t help that lead singer Neil Pennycook kept his hood up throughout the set. Yup, that’s how miserable I was. A lack of money and overpriced food didn’t help.

Saturday night in Aberfeldy featured Gummi Bako, who I didn’t enjoy, The Pictish Trail (backed by Eigg metal band The Massacre Cave), Rozi Plain, FOUND and King Creosote. During a bitterly cold afternoon the town “square” played host to acoustic sets by some of the acts playing the main festival as well as Kid Canaveral. Such was my frame of mind I decided to skip town for a few hours and headed off to Angus to see my hometown team Bonnyrigg Rose play Brechin in the Scottish Cup. I met up with some old school friends and watched a decent game (ended 2-2 thanks to some calamitous Rose defending) before heading back to Aberfeldy. Sadly I didn’t feel any better and left before the end of the evening’s proceedings.

A week later I was in better fettle and travelled to Jim Lambie’s Poetry Club in Glasgow for Linden‘s live debut. Joe McAlinden, accompanied by Marco Rea and Stuart Kidd from excellent support act The Wellgreen, played brand new album Bleached Highlights from start to finish, which seems to be the theme of the year. You can’t ask for much more for a fiver. Edwyn Collins was also in attendance, along with members of The Pastels, The Orchids, The Vaselines and Belle and Sebastian (apologies if I’ve missed your top pop beat combo out). This was my second favourite gig of the year. Behind the early Babybird gig, it was also just ahead of the delightful pop double bill of Teen Canteen and Duglas T Stewart, the pied piper of pop. I can’t really add much more to the review I wrote last month.

My gigging year finished, quite rightly, with a party and the third instalment of the festive fun that is Kid Canaveral’s Christmas Baubles III. Sadly I missed comedians Elaine Malcolmson, Eleanor Morton and Josie Long and arrived just in time for the opening musical act, which was RM Hubbert. King Creosote vs FOUND was due up next but KC was replaced, for reasons unknown to me, by The Pictish Trail, the Edin Dzeko of Fence Records. He was followed by the ever-cheery Malcolm Middleton. After the welcome dinner break I had the opportunity to see Meursault again and while I did appreciate them better than their Aberfeldy set they’re still not my cup of tea. Sorry but I prefer the perky, quirky, folky pop of Randolph’s Leap. A raucous set of originals and Christmas covers delighted the packed crowd and hosts Kid Canaveral brought the curtains down on my musical year with a wonderful set mixing old favourites and soon-to-be new favourites from their forthcoming second album. Roll on March.

So a pretty good year all in all and 2013 is already shaping up to be a cracker with tickets and plans made already for The Pictish Trail/Adam Ross (Randolph’s Leap) and Teen Canteen in January and Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire (an unfortunate clash with The Beatstalkers that night), Randolph’s Leap/Snowgoose/Jo Mango and, possibly, I Am Kloot in February with Kid Canaveral‘s album launch gig in Glasgow pencilled in for the start of March. Bring it on.

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Album: Various – A Christmas Gift For You from Elefant Records

TRACKLIST:

01 Why Should Christmas Be So Hard? (Attic Lights) You can hear the song HERE
02 Holding Hands Around The World (Guille Milkyway And The Jelly Jamm Sound Orchestra)
03 Christmas Lights (The Magic Theatre)
04 La Luz Del Mundo (Single)
05 El Viaje Mágico De Santa Claus (Modular) You can hear the song HERE
06 X-mas Song (Edine Avec Lisle Mitnik Et Son Orchestre)
07 I Just Wanna Hold Your Hand (On Christmas Day) (The Yearning)
08 Let Me Be The Fairy On Your Christmas Tree Tonight (The School)
09 Los Anillos De Alcyone (21-12-2012) (La Casa Azul)
10 You Trashed My Christmas (The Primitives)
11 Te Espero En Navidad (Axolotes Mexicanos)
12 Bells To Ring And Jingle (YouDoMeToo)
13 Donde Todo Sigue Igual (Band À Part)
14 You’re Coming Home Tonight (The School)
15 Let’s Make Christmas Love (BMX Bandits)
16 Su Šventom Kalėdom (Fitness Forever)

A few words from Elefant: “Here at Elefant, we have always been huge fans of Christmas albums, so we finally decided to get our act together, and we’ve put a lot of energy and excitement into our first Christmas album. “A Christmas Gift For You From Elefant Records” is full of previously unreleased songs that look toward that luminous side of life, a fantastic excuse to feel optimistic, colorful, and, why not, irony and a sense of humor, to help us get through the hard times. And since we want nothing less than the best, it’s wrapped up in the marvelous design work of the great Duprez, always full of that unmistakable pop spirit that was already his in his own right. This is a gift from Elefant Records for all of our fans. 

The album opens with one of Elefant Records’ new groups, the Scottish group ATTIC LIGHTS, who already knocked our socks off with their incredible harmonies (up to 4 voices) on their debut album “Friday Night Lights”. And as you might expect, they remind us of the exciting sweetness of the Wilson sisters’ vocals, and small details of the sonic landscape evoke the bitterness that often end up associated with Christmas-time. The second track is one of the songs that Guille Milkyway made for the children’s TV show “Jelly Jamm”, and which was put out under the name GUILLE MILKYWAY AND THE JELLY JAMM SOUND ORCHESTRA, with the unmistakable mark of our beloved Guille, and a precious children’s choir giving a special color to “Holding Hands Around The World” – a total hit. THE MAGIC THEATRE is another of Elefant’s new groups; they are a duo formed by Dan Popplewell and Sophia Churney, who formed OOBERMAN at the end of the 90s. That group split up in 2003, and now, years later, they are beginning a new adventure – THE MAGIC THEATRE – together. Elefant Records will soon release their second album, after that fantastic orchestrated story that was “London Town”, and here they give us a precious and delicate “Christmas Lights”, somewhere between the theatrical and the sweetest side of Bobbie Gentry, Blossom Dearie or THE PARIS SISTERS.

The presence of a group like SINGLE on an album like this a must. They distance themselves from all Christmas clichés both sonically and lyrically in “La Luz Del Mundo”. Musically, they have some of that electronic pop with dub airs that Ibon likes so much, and lyrically, they put everything into an ambiguous view, so personal, like only they can do. MODULAR also does things their own way. On “El Viaje Mágico de Santa Claus”, they appeal to all those things that have made them such a special band: that cosmos that any fantastic persona that exists feels so at home in follows their gravitational pull, this time it’s Santa Claus himself, between tropical choruses, analogical synthesizers, and dazed vibes. With them, Christmas takes on a whole new dimension.

From Edine and Lisle Mitnik we were able to get a take from their marvelous new project EDINE AVEC LISLE MITNIK ET SON ORCHESTRE which they debuted with the latest release from New Adventures in Pop. The revisited “X-Mas Day” is a great example of the fantastic results: a playful and delicious sweetness that only they can achieve. Dreamy. THE YEARNING has been one of our biggest discoveries in 2012, and we just had to ask them to contribute to our Christmas album. On it, they once again show their wonderful taste for arrangements and melodies on their incredible “I Just Wanna Hold Your Hand (On Christmas Day)”, a song that, once again, makes us think of Phil Spector, who is definitely one of the strongest influences on the whole album, starting with the title of this Christmas album, which is a clear homage to that marvelous album he released in 1963.

THE SCHOOL’s “Let Me Be The Fairy on Your Christmas Tree Tonight” is the only previously released song on the album, and it bears all the marks of the group: fifties spirit and a really catchy, fascinating chorus. Either way, these guys from Wales make up for being the only previously released song with another song, this time previously unreleased, and just as wonderful as the other song: “You’re Not Coming Home Tonight”. LA CASA AZUL coincides with MODULAR to give a Christmas a touch of outer-space on “Los Anillos De Alcyone” (21-12-2012), a mid-tempo that shows so much compositional versatility. As he himself says, “a galactic catharsis”, a science fiction Christmas tale with an extraterrestrial visit and all, with the visitors bringing us light from the cosmos. THE PRIMITIVES once again give a good dose of electricity and disappointment with “You Trashed My Christmas”, one of those unforgettable punk-pop hymns, with their trademark incandescent riffs and a fantastic chorus, and an especially inspired Tracy Tracy.

 The AXOLETES MEXICANOS are one of the surprises we have ready for 2013, and here we have their first song for Elefant Records, before even their first single which will come in a few short weeks on the new release from our New Adventures in Pop collection. Four young Asturians, fresh and full of energy, who make their energetic, highly addictive pop, as this “Te Espero En Navidad” shows. The Brazilian duo YOUDOMETOO also gives us their own perspective within the parameters they showed on their fantastic debut for New Adventures in Pop: playful, slippery, almost low-fi, but full of energy and vitality, as they clearly show us on “Bells To Ring And Jingle”. BAND À PART show their passion for northern soul and sunshine pop on a fantastic “Donde Todo Sigue Igual”, probably one of their best songs so far, with really special and surprising arrangements. Another of our big groups this year, Duglas T Stewart and his BMX BANDITS, couldn’t be left out of the party, and they gave us the precious “Let’s Make Christmas Love”, showing us their great creative abilities with compositions and arrangements, a wonderfully delicious piece of work. And to pleasantly wrap up this album, FITNESS FOREVER leave their Italian behind and close with a beautiful, intimate instrumental piece, delicate and lovely with extraordinary arrangements.”

Formats:
Numbered and Limited Edition: LP [1000 copies, White Vinyl] ** (Available 20 December)
CD Digipak (Available 10 December )

**The vinyl format includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]

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Album: BMX Bandits in Space (Elefant Records) – out now

Under normal circumstances I would get a press release, crib off it, correct the spelling and bob’s your uncle, a Jocknroll blog entry. But the information put together by Elefant Records about the BMX Bandits in Space album, is, in itself, a thing of beauty and I shall – I’m sure they won’t mind – reproduce it here. I love the album but I couldn’t do it justice like those señor, señoras and señoritas (I’m covering all bases) at the wonderful Elefant Records. Here’s what they said:

“BMX BANDITS are putting out a new album on Elefant Records, this time a full-length with totally new material. The sixteenth release from Duglas T Stewart’s group comes surrounded by lots of big news. The first big news is that this new album includes the return of two of BMX BANDITS’ original members, neither of whom have worked with the group since its beginnings, sometime around 1985. Jim McCulloch (SNOWGOOSE, THE SOUP DRAGONS) is not only back in the line-up but also participated intensely in the song-writing process for many of the tracks, and Sean Dickson (THE SOUP DRAGONS) wrote the album’s opening and closing tracks. Second, another regular collaborator who has returned to the fold is the grandiose and ubiquitous Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), who plays several instruments and coproduces the captivating “Still”. Finally, what we have here is a kind of space-pop-opera – one of the most magnificent works of art from one of the most charismatic characters in the history of indie pop.

“BMX Bandits in Space” tells the story of a man travelling through time and space in search of forgiveness and a way back home. Throughout the trip there are small flashes – some are memories and some are figments of his imagination. “Every song, every flash of music is like a piece of a puzzle that helps our hero discover how he wound up lost and wandering infinitely around in space, and what his particular idea of love was.”

After that overture, “Still” tells us about the vehicle that will take us through the story, a fragile and broken-down space ship, which moves between space-like choruses and toy-like arpeggios that were made with the collaboration of Japan’s PLECTRUM. “The protagonist remembers how his friends used to tell him that everything was going to be alright, but now he’s not so sure”, Stewart himself explains. “Beautiful Friend” begins with a bit of northern-soul only to wrap up with a touch of synthesizers (along the lines of a more danceable PAPAS FRITAS) that give the song the necessary spark for remembering an exotic woman who visits our astronaut in Scotland, the attempt at a new beginning that quickly vanishes like a puff of smoke. Was it all just a dream?

“Look at You, Look at Me”, with the collaboration of Argentina’s CINEPLEXX, and its fifties echoes, tells the story of a girl who appears in a dream, lost and scared. “He dreams that they both find love. And the end of this dream is a fairytale in the style of Jacques Demy”. That’s where “Like the Morning Sun” comes in, a pop delicacy with a sixties structure and echoes of lounge and soul. “Listen to Some Music” reminds us of music’s ability to comfort us with the perfect pop song. The song has an amazing melody, sunshine-pop voices, and a collection of colorful wind arrangements.

“Elegant Love” reinterprets “Elegant Lines” (an old song from BMX BANDITS themselves, and another collaboration with CINEPLEXX) with synth-pop to create a solid, wonderful song that gives a new style-counterpoint, which is their trademark. This sets the scene for “And It’s You”, which tells a story, amidst acoustic embraces and a sassy Casiotone, of a love that has ended but has left so many wonderful and unforgettable moments, not to mention a delicious new chorus. “You Disappointed Me” has our astronaut, the same as in “Fucked Up”, remembering friendships that have failed because of distrust and betrayals, and it brings us the most dramatic and theatrical moment of the album. These are surprising pieces with incredible arrangements and a great visual capacity, showing off the funky groove of “Fucked Up”. But “Fireworks” (written by the very young Carla Easton, whom we will be hearing more about soon) gets its optimistic tone back, with fifties-styled melodies and arrangements, as if Perry Como were sailing around in search of the deserted island where THE SHIRELLES were stranded.

“All Around The World” is the essence of the album, starting with that wonderful line, “I believe in beauty, and where ever it leads me, that’s where I’ll go.” As if ABBA and THE BEATLES let Bacharach direct them, Duglas explains the idiosyncrasies of love and the endless search in the face of the hope that there’s something to search for. “While We’re Dancing” paints a picture of a couple falling in love to a waltz beat, in a church hall, before the man goes off to fight in WWII. The protagonist himself sees the same scene, many years later, with the same couple, much older now, surrounded by friends, in the same church hall. Tom Waits would have wanted to this song to be in his early repertoire, with that beautiful, velvety violin…

Finally, “The Unforgiven”, another piece with great theatrical power, somewhere between Henry Mancini and F.M. Corndog, tells the story how in the final moment, when it seemed like the trip was never going to end, “an angel baths our hero in the light of love and forgiveness, bringing his journey to a sudden close, and he finds himself in green, hilly pastures, on his way back home, where love is probably waiting for him to bring him back to life.” Can you imagine what the musical representation of this angel is? We aren’t saying a word, considering that this one of a kind work of art requires thousands of listens, starting with that first hurried and bewildered listen when the unique melodies, the elegance, and the arrangements all captivate you right away, to those last listens when you scrutinize every single sentence about the protagonist and every sound has a key role in the story, like supporting actors with indescribable importance.

An amazing album topped off with an incredible album cover by Duprez, who is able to bring a vintage design style together with a space theme (as he already did for Elefant’s complication, “Space Escapade”), and who even knows how to bring colorful pop spirit to a lonely, star-filled outer space background. This is probably Duglas T. Stewart’s best piece of work yet, which, when talking about one of pop music’s most important contemporary icons and the experience he brings with him, is saying quite a lot.  What is definitely clear is that we are talking about a special, wonderful album that we at Elefant Records are proud to share with the whole world. Enjoy!”

Okay, I feel kind of dirty using someone else’s words but it’s all in a good cause and they were wonderful. Star Wars was always my favourite BMX Bandits album but his new one is already running it close and it’s definitley a contender for my album of the year. And while I’m showing no shame I should point out that it would make a wonderful Christmas present for the discerning ear.

Formats:
Numbered and Limited Edition: LP [500 copies, Transparent Vinyl] **
CD Digipak [2000 copies]

**The vinyl format includes a free digital MP3 download [320 kbps]

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Review: TeenCanteen/Duglas T Stewart – The Glad Cafe, Glasgow 16 Nov 2012

TeenCanteen – (c) Jim Burns

While the hipsters were across town at Mono for Franz Ferdinand’s “secret” gig at Mono and those of a giving nature were being accosted by a one-eyed yellow bear at BBC Scotland’s Children in Need show at Pacific Quay (treated to a mixed bag of The View, Frightened Rabbit and Glasvegas), those ‘in the know’ were party to a wonderful double bill at The Glad Cafe on Pollockshaws Road.

The Bellshill Beach Boy Duglas T Stewart opened the show with a small but perfectly formed set, accompanied at various points by Adam Stearns, Randolph’s Leap‘s Gareth Perrie (he gets around!), Gabriel Telerman and headliners TeenCanteen.

Only a Duglas set could name check (or song check) Queen, The Rolling Stones, John Barrowman, The Krankies, Patrick Moore and Norman Blake. Classics like Girl at the Bus Stop and audience participation favourite Your Class sat nicely with brand new, unreleased track Children Song, which he co-wrote with Japanese singer miette-one on her recent visit to Scotland. Fireworks, which Duglas co-wrote with TeenCanteen’s Carla Easton, was the only track played from the new album BMX Bandits in Space and TeenCanteen joined Duglas for an ensemble performance. The set was wonderfully rounded off with the Lynsey DePaul-Ron Roker composition Storm in a Tea Cup.

Sadly I’d missed the last TeenCanteen gig due to a previous engagement with Mr Roddy Frame at Paisley Abbey so I was really excited to finally catch them live. And they didn’t disappoint. Not since Fanny or The Go-Gos has an all-girl group captured my imagination and these four girls, should the pop winds be blowing in the right direction, are destined for great things. Beautiful pop songs and wonderful harmonies made for a sweet  – but not sickly – and charming set. Think The Honeys meets C86 lightly tossed in Fanny with a Shangri-las dressing, seasoned with a soupcon of Riot Grrrl. A joyful performance which bodes well for the future of the band and pop music in general. Officially my new favourite band.

Duglas T Stewart: Girl at the Bus Stop, On Some Days, 4 minutes 22, So Many Colours, Your Class, Fireworks, Children Song, Storm in a Tea Cup.

TeenCanteen: Atlas, How We Met (Cherry Pie), One More Night, It Could Be Beautiful, Friends, You’re So Analogue, Under My Cover.

BMX Bandits in Space is out now on Elefant Records and available from them directly or your local record emporium.

TeenCanteen will be supporting Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield at SWG3 in Glasgow on Saturday 1 December.

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TeenCanteen play The Poetry Club

TeenCanteen play a gig at The Poetry Club, 100 Eastvale Place, Glasgow on Saturday 27 October to promote their imminent album “Say It All in a Kiss”. Special guests stars are Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits), Roy Møller (The Store Keys) and Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines). Support comes from Belle and Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson, with a DJ set from The Vaselines.

Tickets are £8 and available from www.teencanteen.brownpapertickets.com. They’re limited to 100 only but include a limited edition 3-song sampler CD of the new album.

This is a Neu! Reekie! Records promotion.

Soundcloud: TeenCanteen

TeenCanteen are: Carla Easton (lead vocals, keyboards), Sita Pieracinni (vocals, bass), Emma Kullander (vocals, guitar) and Deborah Smith (vocals, drums).

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Radio Days: Where The Action Is/Planet Pop/HNC Radio

There have now been 12 weekly episodes of Where The Action Is posted at its new home at Mixcloud. While I still enjoy putting these radio shows together and the positive feedback it generates I’m finding that the work involved in putting the shows together is taking up vital family time and there comes a time when you have to look at what’s important. On that basis, I’m taking a break from the show over the summer and when the show returns in August it’ll be a more compact one-hour show. Sadly some of the old features will be lost – Death Disco, one of the Connect 3s, Two of a Kind – but when needs must the devil drives.

There will be a couple of two-hour specials coming up. Around about 26 July I’m going to do an Olympic-themed show, which will be two hours, and at a date to be decided I’m going to a show of songs featuring hand claps. This will also be a two-hour special. I recently did a multi-decade version of the show on Adam Smith College Radio, in association with K-Town FM, and it was well received. That version was done under my Planet Pop title but this time it’ll be a 60s only version for Where The Action Is.

While Where The Action Is is taking a break I’m doing three live versions of my other show, Planet Pop, on K-Town FM, which is a community station based in Kinglassie. Like previous editions of Planet Pop it will be a themed show. What happens is that I take one song from the previous week’s themed show, play it again and build a brand new theme around it. For example, the very first edition of Planet Pop, which was broadcast on the launch day of Adam Smith College Radio back on 30 January, had a theme of Planets. During that show I played “Hello From Mars” by F.L.Y., the Latvian Eurovision entry from 2003. I took that song from the Planets show and played it in the next show and did a show of Eurovision tracks. Then I played Alexander Rybak’s “Fairytale” and used that for a Literature-themed show. The full list of themes used so far is Planets, Eurovision, Literature, Long songs (over 6 minutes), 80s Electronica, Countries, Transport and the most recent one, songs containing hand claps. I’ve already planned the next three so tune in to find out what they are.

I’ll be on K-Town FM on Thursday 5 July, 12 July and 26 July between 2 and 4 pm. Sadly there’s no Listen Again facility.

Finally, while Mixcloud, with its unlimited storage, hosts the longer Where The Action Is shows I’ve put some of my shorter works from my HNC Radio course up on Soundcloud, which offers limited space.

There are currently six pieces of work up on Soundcloud:

1. Local Heroes – My Creative Project from Semester 1. This was a 25-minute feature on different levels of fame within Dunfermline and features interviews with Michaela Tabb (international snooker and pool referee), Big Country guitarist Bruce Watson and Gillian Lee-Ireland, who won £11,000 on Deal or No Deal. Looking back I may have edited it a bit differently or indeed replaced one of the interviews with an interview I did with Dunfermline Athletic FC footballer John Potter but it was good enough to be shortlisted for the Creative Loop Radio Awards so I’m not going to be too critical on myself.

2. Doll By Doll – A Good Yarn- My Feature from Semester 2. We had to make a radio feature of up to 15 minutes in length and I decided to utilise what was around me so I interviewed my wife on knitting, specifically a number of dolls she’s made over the past 12 months! I also interviewed a number of ladies from the knitting group she attends but time constraints meant I went with a shortened feature. I intend to make a longer version of this piece including those extras interviews. A Director’s Cut, if you will! I can’t imagine there are many features out there that feature Horrible Histories, Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe and the singing of Bill Oddie.

3. 76 with a Bullet – The Rebirth of the Record Shop – My Graded Unit from Semester 2. Of all the work I did in the HNC year this is the piece of work I’m most proud of. It went through a number of changes in the process of making but ultimately I’m very happy with how it ended up. A big thanks to those who gave their time to be interviewed in the studio, on the phone or in person – Ally Gourlay, Ron Doo Ron (The Spooks), John Cavanagh, Graham Jones (Last Shop Standing), Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits) and Kevin Buckle (Avalanche Records). For the record, I got an A for it.

4. Advert for www.edinburgh247.com (20 seconds) – One of those pieces of work I was just happy to get a ‘pass’ on. Adverts aren’t my strong point and I decided on a very simple idea. Thanks for Darren Moore at Edinburgh 247 for agreeing to be my client.

5. Advert for www.edinburgh247.com (40 seconds) – The vox pops for both adverts were provided by fellow students and I got some children from my daughter’s Kids’ Club to help out at the end. Unfortunately their best take was done as I still preparing the Zoom to record! Still, their enthusiasm and contribution was greatly appreciated.

6. Planet Pop – John Carter special – This show was put together especially for the Creative Loop awards. While it was put forward by the College it didn’t make the final three. It showcases the work of singer-songwriter-producer John Carter who probably isn’t as well-known as he should be. As well as songs he wrote, performed and produced the show features a number of famous jingles he wrote and sang for products such as Rowntrees Tots, Vauxhall Chevette, British Caledonian and Birds Dream Topping.

Onwards and upwards to the HND year beginning in August.

“The Cat”
=^..^=

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Review: Nick Garrie – Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Leith 13 August 2011

Once again psychedelic folk troubadour Nick Garrie treated a sparse but appreciative crowd to a selection of tunes from his wonderful back catalogue. Most of the tracks played at the Leith on the Fringe venue were taken from his legendary debut “The Nightmare of JB Stanislas”, an album which wasn’t so much released as squeezed out into an unappreciative world in 1969. Some 40 years later he recorded an album, “49 Arlington Gardens”, with a who’s who of the Glasgow music scene, including co-producer Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits), Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Francis Macdonald and several of these tracks were aired too.

For the second time in three weeks one of the world’s best kept musical secrets visited Scotland to play an under-promoted gig in an unassuming venue to a handful of fans. To be fair the gig was very much organised at the last-minute but it’s disappointing that a performer of his stature, with a big following in France and Spain – he had a number 1 album there with “Suitcase Man” – should be treated so shoddily. A last-minute change of room (to one with poorer sound and no monitors), the shortest of soundchecks and a stroppy support band who outstayed their welcome and in the process cut into Nick’s stage time, which was now shortened to half an hour due to a Council-induced curfew, contributed to a night that could’ve been so much better.

The support act pleaded that they had “travelled from Brighton”. Nobody put them in their place by pointing out that the headline act had travelled from his home in France just for his performance to be truncated due to the jumped-up attitude of an uninspiring jazz trio. Thanks for that girls! This reviewer’s mood wasn’t helped when the audience were then “treated” to a five-minute set by an American “comedian” whose name I have deliberately erased from my memory. If I’d seen him at the Free Fringe I’d have felt overcharged.

Once Nick finally got started those present were treated to a wonderful set full of old classics and new favourites from the two albums he’s best known in the UK for. I first saw him last year playing at Celtic Connections (on the bill of the BMX Bandits’ 25th Anniversary gig) and I instantly fell in love with his music. Tonight’s gig was being streamed live on the internet and Nick dedicated certain songs to friends and family tuning in from various corners of the world. Some of those present, yours truly included, were also invited to form an imaginary backing band during “Bungle’s Tours” while the rest of the audience clapped along. Roy Møller was on “honky-tonk piano” while I was invited to play the invisible “soft brushes”!

Seven tracks from his debut album were followed by four from his last, with a closing “softer number” (to beat the curfew) of “Wine and Roses”, a song that didn’t make the cut for the “Stanislas” but is included on the deluxe 2-CD reissue by Elefant Records. He dedicated to his late mother. A touching finale to a beautiful set.

Nick loves Scotland and wants to play more here but let’s hope that next time he gets the promotion, audience and respect he so richly deserves.

Set:
Ink Pot Eyes**
Bungle’s Tours**
Stephanie City**
Wheel of Fortune**
Deeper Tones of Blue**
Can I Stay With You?**
Le Pont Mirabeau*
On a Wing and a Prayer*
In Every Nook and Cranny*
When The Child in You*
Wine and Roses***

* From “49 Arlington Gardens” (2009, Elefant Records)
** From “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas” (2005, Rev-ola)
*** From “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)” (2010, Elefant Records)

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Neu! Reekie! 7 – Friday 26/Saturday 27 August 2011

Michael Pedersen and Kevin Williamson bring you:

Neu! Reekie! – the best in avant-garde poetry, music and film fusions.

The night promises to shock and stun, playing host to the sinister and sanguine.

WE’RE DOING A FESTIVAL DOUBLE BILL

FRIDAY 26TH AUGUST  – 19:00 – 22:00

- Poetry by -

ROSS SUTHERLAND  – www.rosssutherland.co.uk

DES DILLON – www.desdillon.com

- Films by -

TORSTEN LAUCSHMANN – www.torstenlauschmann.com

CARLA EASTON – starring DUGLAS T. STEWART & NORMAN BLAKE – www.carlajennifereaston.com

- Music by -

BILLY PAGE – www.billypage.com

EMELLE – www.myspace.com/emellebros

SATURDAY 27TH AUGUST – 19:00 – 22:00

- Poetry by -

KEVIN CADWALLENDER – www.redsquirrelpress.com

MICHAEL PEDERSEN – www.michaelpedersen.co.uk

GRAHAM HARDIE – www.grahamhardie.co.uk

- Film by -

EWAN MORRISON- www.ewanmorrison.com

- Music by -

PAUL HAIG (EX JOSEF K) – www.rolinc.co.uk

ALAN MCKIM – www.alanmckim.com

VENUE

Scottish Book Trust Theatre, Trunk’s Close, 55 High Street, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, EH1 1SR

COST

One Show: £5 or £4 concession

Both Shows: £8 or £6 concession

ALL DRINKS £2 ALL NIGHT!!!!!

Email: Michael_eats_oranges@hotmail.com to reserve tickets NOW!

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