People of cyberspace, I have some very sad news to share; Reggae legend Gregory Isaacs passed away today aged just 59. He died at his London home after a long illness having been diagnosed with lung cancer a year ago. Many of you regular readers will know that I have always been a big reggae fan and Isaac’s wonderful “Night Nurse” remains a favourite of mine. Mick Hucknall off of Simply Red recorded a cover of the song in 1997 with Sly and Robbie. In my opinion it was just a formulaic cover of a classic and doesn’t hold a candle to the original. Strangely the original was never a UK or US hit although it garnered massive radio and club play in 1982. The ‘Night Nurse’ album reached number 32 in the UK album chart.
He recorded with many Reggae greats including Rupie Edwards, Byron Lee and Prince Buster. He also formed the African Museum record label and shop with Errol Dunkley in 1973. One of his first big solo songs was “My Only Lover” which many consider to be the first ever lovers rock tune. He was a regular at the Reggae Sunsplash Festival, appearing every year up to 1991. His last album was ‘Brand New Me’ in 2008.
Read about him here at the BBC and the NME. Then listen to (and watch in a couple of cases) some classic Gregory cuts below. “Slavemaster” is one of the best.
This post is just a collection of things I have found on the net recently or of things that have been sent to me during the past few weeks. Kicking off with a dance master class from the Godfather Of Funk Mr James Brown. Click here to see it. Check out his robot dance……… totally awesome! Then watch the video below to see him in action on the Shindig TV show in 1965 with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”
James thought to himself "Man that was some fart!"
Next up is an animated film that accompanied “Basketball Jones” from the mighty Cheech and Chong. I first saw this on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the mid 70s and I have loved it ever since. What do you folks think of it?
The new UK charts were revealed just a few hours ago and unsurprisingly the new Kings Of Leon album tops the album chart. There are also two entries in the top ten for the Beatles with the remastered reissues of the red and blue compilations from the 70s. Meanwhile the new UK number one single is what I probably have to describe as a guilty pleasure for me. It’s not something I would usually like it’s “Just The Way You Are (Amazing)” from Hawaiian singer Bruno Mars. The video does some really clever stuff with cassette tape.
Give me a 'P' please BOB
I would like to introduce an artist that is very new to me, her name is Clarita De Quiroz, (click here for her web site). I discovered thanks to a work colleague who has a friend who has recently written some songs for her. She is definitely worth checking out. She is very gorgeous and very talented….. a bit like me then 😉
Not many people realised that Carlita had started life as a showroom dummy
And finally a clip from the Mott The Hoople reunion gigs at Hammersmith last October. I so wanted to be there, but I couldn’t get tickets. This song is probably my favourite Hoople song, “Saturday Gigs“. It was their final single and the only one they released with the late, great Mick Ronson in the band.
Hello once again regular readers and welcome to any new readers, I would love to hear from you via the comments function and also feel free to utilise the ‘rate’ option for each post.
A blue plaque not a blue meanie
A few more bits of music related news for you today. Firstly the house that John and Yoko lived in during 1968 finally gets an English Heritage blue plaque. The Marylebone property (basement and ground floor) was purchased by Ringo Starr in 1965 and before the Lennon’s moved in it was rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. Read the story on the BBC.
Yoko thanked the builders for converting her former home into the leaning tower of Marylebone
To celebrate take a listen to “Yer Blues” from the Beatles ‘White Album’
Nick Clegg steals food from children as his contribution to the governments spending cuts
Now for some rather disappointing news, well in my opinion anyway. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Leader and Tory Party muppet appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs show this weekend and chose a book, a luxury item and 8 records (actually it’s 8 pieces of music. Why is that bad news? Well he’s only gone and chosen a David Bowie song hasn’t he. I just feel bad when people I don’t like happen to like people who I do like, does anyone else feel like that? The Bowie song he chose was “Life On Mars”, he also selected songs by Prince, Johnny Cash, Radiohead and Shakira. So begrudgingly I might have to credit him with some taste, I’d still never vote for him again though. Click here to read the report on the BBC. You can watch Mr Bowie performing the song below at the Yahoo Internet Life Music Awards in New York City in 2000, very ably supported by Mike Garson on piano.
Nick Clegg contemplates another luxury item to take to his desert island. Let's hope the cuts aren't too sharp eh Nick? Don't want any problems with inflation do we?
In another piece of Bowie related news Cheery Vanilla his one time squeeze from the 70’s has published her memoirs and the book is enticingly titled ‘Lick Me’, which is actually quite appropriate given her name. She is quoted as saying that if you’re given the chance to sleep with David Bowie you do it, even if you have giant carbuncles on your thighs. I’m not sure whether she did have those carbuncles though. Read about the book by clicking here.
Cherry Vanilla chooses a novel way of promoting her new book
A week or so back Take That revealed the cover to their new album, ‘Progress’. It is yet another take on the Ascent Of Man idea. The worrying thing about it for me is why Gary Barlow is looking up Mark Owen’s backside. Robbie is right in the middle and Jason Orange seems to have been given a real surprise. One which made him leap high. The Guardian analyses the picture here. What do you think of it?
It's a bit camp and a bit yellow isn't it?
Click here to read a list of 10 things that British Sea Power wished they hadn’t done from the drowned in sound website. My favourites are the fans dressed as 10 foot teddy bears and one of the band dressing as some kind of Geordie/ zebra hybrid to commemorate Kevin Keegan‘s appointment as Newcastle United manager.
The British Sea Power Teddy Bear was a bit grizzly that night!
Today saw the sad news that Ari Up of the Slits has died aged just 48 from a serious illness. The news was first announced on John Lydon‘s website, he is married to Ari’s mother Nora. Her real name was Arianna Forster and she started the Slits aged just 14 in 1976. The band released two albums; ‘Cut’ in 1979 (one of my favourite albums) and ‘Return Of The Giant Slits’ in 1981. The band split up shortly after that although they did recently reform. Their drummer has been playing with Lydon’s reformed Public Image Limited (aka PIL). Ari released a solo album in 2005, entitled ‘Dread More Dan Dread’. Read the NME report here. She will be sadly missed. Ari Up RIP.
In some less important news the current wave of public sector strikes in France have meant the cancellation of a series of gigs in the country by Lady Gaga. There were concerns that the trucks with all the equipment, instruments and costumes would not be able to get to their destinations owing to many roads being blockaded by strikers. Ticket holders are being offered refunds and Gaga has apologised to her fans. The BBC story is here.
Clearly the costume truck hadn't arrived!
Finally a rather strange bit of news, well I think so anyway, Liverpool FC flew to their Europa League match in Naples in a plane piloted by Bruce Dickinson off of Iron Maiden! Appropriately enough the scousers skill and talent has “Run To The Hills” this season. It didn’t bring the Reds a great deal of luck, they only managed a nil-nil draw. Read the story on the BBC.
Maybe they should have renamed it Red Force One for the flight
Insane Clown Posse post their appreciation of Batman! Bang! Pow! Boom!
So after 21 years of violent lyrics and posturing it turns out that Insane Clown Posse have been evangelical christians all along. Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope have revealed their religious views in a new song “Thy Unveiling” Apparently they have just been pretending to be violent, evil and wicked while all the while they were really just naughty choir boys! Some of the lyrics in the new song appear to be unequivocal evidence that they have come out of their christian closet. “Fuck it, we got to tell. All secrets will now be told. No more hidden messages …Truth is we follow GOD!!! We’ve always been behind him. The carnival is GOD. And may all juggalos find him. We’re not sorry if we tricked you.” But it would appear that many of their fans (aka juggalos) are feeling betrayed. Violent J is quoted as saying “You have to speak their language. You have to interest them, gain their trust, talk to them and show you’re one of them. You’re a person from the street and you speak of your experiences. Then at the end you can tell them: God has helped me.”
Personally I find it quite amusing and there must also be a whiff of hype about it all. Clearly this is the type of act who probably don’t have a great christian following, indeed they may have many anti-christian followers. So in a sense it was like Donna Summer‘s announcement a few years ago that AIDS was a plague sent by god to destroy homosexuals. A pretty stupid statement really. Firstly because it is totally wrong and secondly because much of her audience were gay men. So there must be a lesson for Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler (aka Insane Clown Posse) in how to alienate a large chunk of your audience. It’ll be interesting to see where their career goes from here. Click here to read the story on the Guardian website.
Newly converted fans rush to worship their new holy heroes!
BuzzFeed has a great list entitled ‘The 12 Most Ridiculous Insane Clown Posse Lyrics” Click here to check it out. My particular favourite is “Your son’s on crack and your daughter’s got nut stains on her back and they both fuckin’ smell like shit” which is taken from their song “Halls Of Illusion“. I bet these guys still secretly put ‘Kick Me’ labels on each others backs.
Earlier this week I finished reading the two volumes of Julian Cope‘s autobiography; ‘Head-On‘ and ‘Reposessed’ and I enjoyed them both immensely. I was no more than a casual fan of the Teardrop Explodes, although the fact that their name originated from a Marvel comic certainly sparked some interest in me. I always felt they were far better than some of the over-produced cack that the early 80s pumped out (Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran etc)
Julian cope struggles to find his guitar which opted for the hide in plain sight option
I got into Julian’s solo output in the early 90s, which is after the period that the two books cover. ‘Head-On’ runs up to 1982 and ‘Repossessed’ from 1983 to 1989. Both books are incredibly open and honest and Julian bares both his soul and his feelings regularly. I think he comes across as a great bloke, who stays loyal to his friends, know’s his enemies and is very, very much in love with his wife Dorian. Incidentally a friend of mine (thank you Mr Hayhurst) once met Dorian at a Black Crowes gig, he said she was lovely.
Clearly too much acid can leave your eyes fried!
I got a real sense from his writing that he really knows who he is, although perhaps he didn’t in the early days, and where he wants to go. I was also very pleasantly surprised to read about his interest in toy collecting, in particular toy cars. They say that all of us men revert to childhood as we get older and perhaps that’s why my comic collection appears to be growing at the same rate as Julian’s toy collection did!
The book includes some great pieces on many of the people involved in the Liverpool scene of the late 70s/ early 80s; Echo and the Bunnymen‘s Ian McCulloch and Pete DeFrietas, Pete Burns (eventually off of Dead Or Alive), Holly Johnson and Paul Rutherford (eventually off of Frankie Goes To Hollywood), Pete Wylie (off of various incarnations of Wah) and Bill Drummond (eventually off of one of my favourite 90s acts; the KLF)
When times were hard Julian would play anywhere with anyone!
The stories of touring America are on a par with Ian Hunter’s fabulous ‘Diary Of A Rock N Roll Star’ which is probably my favourite biographical rock book ever! As for the stories of Mr Cope’s solo tours in Japan, well they are just bloody hilarious. So if you like a good rock music book check these out! I am an even bigger fan after reading these books and finally in the words of Julian himself ‘Awlright!’
So before you take a look at the videos and sounds below check out Julian’s excellent Head Heritage site.
This is all that's left of the last person who did a bad cover version of one of my songs, so take heed Cowell!
Travesty hardly does it justice in my opinion, but frankly I am both saddened and angered that the X Factor Finalists charity single this year will be their version of David Bowie’s “Heroes”. OK I haven’t heard it yet, but I really can’t imagine it will be anything better than mediocre at best. The only redeeming feature is that it will be raising money for the Help For Heroes charity. Incidentally I do find it sad that the soldiers who get injured in pointless wars like the one in Iraq have to rely on our charity for a better life. I don’t begrudge them that at all, I just think that the government should do much more for them. By the way, just because I don’t support the war in Iraq and other places doesn’t mean I don’t support our soldiers that are out there risking their lives. Anyway rant over for now. read about this awful cover version at the NME and the BBC.
The Division Bell goes Lego
In some more encouraging news Nick Mason, sticksman for the Floyd has said that charity could lure the band back on stage together at some point in the future. Their last appearance on stage together was at Live 8 in 2005. But Roger Waters and David Gilmour did play together in Oxfordshire in July this year in aid of the Hoping Foundation which supports Palestinian children. Let’s hope Mr Mason is correct and that it happens soon. How about Pink Floyd at Glastonbury? Read all about it here on the BBC and NME.
Rob Dickins former boss of Warner Records for 15 years up to 1998 has claimed the way to save the industry and really hit back at piracy is to reduce album prices to just £1. Personally I totally agree with him. I believe that there is no greater reason for people to illegally download than the current price of music, particularly downloads which require no physical product to support them. Here is the story on the BBC. What do you folks think? What percentage of your downloads are illegal?
The Inbetweeners boys raid the NME
Finally for this post, this week’s NME was taken over and edited by the boys from superb British comedy the Inbetweeners. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? I also understand that the rights have been sold to the US, I really cannot imagine how the hell it will translate for a US audience. Click here for pictures of their takeover of the NME.
Last weekend I accompanied the beautiful Catwoman to a free preview of the new film ‘The Social Network‘ at City Screen in York courtesy of the Guardian. It is based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires‘ which recounts the story of the birth of Facebook.
The script is tight, pacey and at times very, very funny indeed. The film’s strap line is ‘You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies’ and this is the focus of much of the film, particularly all the legal wranglings about whose idea it was. This largely focuses on the relationship between Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and his former partner Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and his other battle with the Winklevoss brothers who he refers to rather amusingly as the Winklevi.
I never realised the part that Sean Parker, the guy who created Napster, played in the early days of Facebook. He is played incredibly well by none other than former Mickey Mouse Club star Justin Timberlake.
I suggest that you get yourself off of Facebook right now and go and see this movie, you won’t be disappointed! I can also confirm that JUSTWILLIAM1959, WITH JUST A HINT OF MAYHEM and CATWOMAN all ‘Like’ this movie.
As usual this is indeed a music blog so let’s mention some of that. The actual soundtrack was composed and performed by Trent Reznor (off of Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross and it works really well. There are some excellent songs used during the film and you can find a few of them below;
Earlier this evening I was watching with fascination and respect the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners. I have watched many amazing live TV events in my lifetime, with the 1969 moon landing being the most amazing (and to the conspiracy theorists, it happened OK, get over it! How do I know? Obviously I know it’s true cos I saw it on the TV! Anyway to celebrate this amazing rescue and excellent good news let’s take a look and listen to some freedom songs.
As I type this 26 of the 33 trapped miners are now free, let’s hope that the rest are on the surface very soon.
The songs are “I’m Free” by the Soup Dragons. Any band named after a character in the Clangers is more than cool with me. next up is a song with the same title by the Who and taken from the truly stupendous Tommy album, purportedly the world’s first rock opera, only don’t mention that to the Pretty Things whose ‘S.F. Sorrow’ was released a little earlier. The final song is “Freedom” from Wham, that one celebrates George Michael‘s recent release from prison.
Have any of you been following the news in the Paddlesworth Press? It’s an excellent story about the impending end of the world which utilises the internet really well, it reaches across Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and many other areas. It is so well put together that I am sure there are plenty of people out there that actually believe it! But hey, maybe it is true………..hmmmmmmmm! There is indeed a real Paddlesworth in the UK
They even have a number of fictitious (?) bands in Paddlesworth too, here are a couple, some even have some real music, check them out below;
