Two weeks into a new weekly blog, I make the rookie error of going on holiday without preparing anything to publish remotely. I’m back on the case this week. Enjoy!
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So Good To Be Back Home Again – The Tourists (1980)
As the plane taxied towards the terminal at Edinburgh, I flipped my data back on and saw I had been notified of a post on the wide ranging and excellent New Vinyl Villain blog under their Saturday’s Scottish Song thread. Song #346 was this top ten single by The Tourists from 1980. It seemed appropriate for returning from being away, albeit I was on holiday enjoying myself making the ‘good’ part questionable! I have a copy of this single which was the band’s follow up to their hit cover of Dusty’s I Only Want To Be With You. The NVV blog post argued it was a Scottish song due the nationality of the lead singer and eagle-eyed readers will spot a young Annie Lennox in the corner of the sleeve. The guy above is her boyfriend at the time, an equally young looking Dave Stewart, and you don’t need me to tell you they went on to 80s fame and fortune as The Eurythmics. This song was written by main Tourists songwriter Peet Coombes (in the centre) and, like their Dusty cover, it bounces along with a guitar driven, power pop sensibility very unlike Annie and Dave’s future output. I was taken by the cheesy organ stabs, the harmonies and the ooh-oohs in that incredibly catchy chorus.
Winter Kills – Yazoo (1982)
Spending a week in the snow of the Dolomites at this time of year is usually contrasted by a return to spring-like weather at home but this year more snow had fallen in Scotland than in northern Italy. Among the mountain music conversations with F & G last week, the brilliance of Alison Moyet’s voice was discussed based on their experience of seeing her live. I have never had that pleasure but this seasonally appropriate track, which was the b-side of the second Yazoo single Don’t Go, illustrates her impressive voice at the start of her career. Unlike the a-side which was written by Vince Clarke after he left Depeche Mode, this haunting song was written by Alison. I love how she phrases her vocal over the flowing piano motif set against the doom-laden drum synth. And those barely audible off-mic spoken words add to the drama of the whole thing – what is she saying? Another brilliant 1982 Moyet b-side (is there a theme here?) was the equally sparse and atmospheric Ode To Boy which is also worth checking out. Apparently she wrote it about the writer of the a-sides…
l Don’t Mind – Buzzcocks (1978)
Another Music In A Different Kitchen, the debut LP by Buzzcocks, was released 45 years ago this week. After inviting the Sex Pistols to play their legendary gig at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976, Buzzcocks were one of first of the ‘punk’ bands to release a single on their own label – the Spiral Scratch EP on New Hormones in January 1977. Like the Pistols and others in their cohort, they were signed by a major label that year (United Artists) and Buzzcocks then began releasing what was to be a series of six killer singles during 1978, all packaged in distinctive sleeves with graphics by Malcolm Garrett. He also did the sleeve for the LP and early copies came with an unsustainable but beautifully designed matching silver and orange plastic bag for you to take the record to parties. This track from side 2 was also the third UA single and is instantly recognisable – those glorious guitars, the late Pete Shelley’s distinctive vocal, the backing harmonies, the two note solo and that euphoric key change up into the last verse. And all over in 2 minutes 19 seconds! Special mention for the clattering drums of John Maher who joined the group as a 16 year old Manchester schoolboy and now lives and works on the Isle of Harris as a landscape photographer – his images are well worth a look here.
Run A Red Light – Everything But The Girl (2023)
So-called ‘lockdown records’ have been appearing all over the place for the last 18 months. So I shouldn’t have been surprised at the announcement in January that Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn were releasing their first Everything But The Girl album in 24 years, inspired by their enforced time together. Fuse will appear next month but has been trailed by three singles, the third being this great track released on Tuesday, alongside some media promotion. I’ve followed them both since those early Cherry Red days through all the genres and styles they have adopted and on their occasional solo releases in the last ten years – and I’ve read Tracey’s books too. I got a bit ‘completist’ back in the 80s, seeking out 12″ singles to get the extra tracks and at one point had a non-album chronological compilation C90 tape which I rather pretentiously titled EBTG: Despair & Desire 1982-1988. If I am honest, I found their move into drum’ n’ bass in the 90s the most challenging to follow but the strength of their songwriting always shone through. The first two singles from Fuse follow that groove but this latest song seems to have one foot back in the days of my angst-ridden compilation tape. I love how Tracey’s voice has filled out and deepened with time and Ben’s production is crisp and sounds very ‘now’. Welcome back, guys.
Harder Than You Think – Public Enemy (2007)
I smiled when I saw that Public Enemy founding member Flavour Flav was 64 this week – I suppose even rappers get old. I recall the Long Island group bursting onto the scene in 1987 with the release of their amusingly titled debut album Yo! Bum Rush The Show on DefJam which was much feted by the writers at the NME at the time. Flav was the guy who inexplicably thought it was cool to wear an enormous clock on a chain round his neck when performing on stage doing the fills between his partner Chuck D’s impressive rapping. At the time, I was into the daisy chain samples and tomfoolery of De La Soul and found the more raw and confrontational approach of Public Enemy a harder listen. But that was the direction rap was going and after the first few singles grazed the UK chart, I left them to it. However, this track from their 2007 record How You Sell Soul To A Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul brought them back to prominence when Channel Four adopted it as the theme tune to their coverage of the 2012 London Paralympics. It’s a fantastic tune sampling heavily from Shirley Bassey’s cover of a track called Jezahel, originally written and released by the Italian prog-rock band Delirium in 1972 – the links show I’m not making this up! Public Enemy finally got a top five hit in the UK and it provided a suitably uplifting theme to the feats of the paralympians.
The Cure – Just Like Heaven [Live] (2019)
With streaming platforms like Spotify paying artists so little for their recorded work, live performances have become an important income stream for musicians. Ticket prices have risen significantly over recent years as has the influence of the global ticketing agencies. It was great to see Robert Smith of The Cure setting a wide range of ticket prices for their 2023 US tour with the cheapest seat being set at an affordable $20. However, when online “service fees and facility charges” doubled the price of these tickets, Smith called out the faceless Ticketbastard corporation this week and today they have been shamed into offering a refund. A small victory and a good excuse to include a live version of one of the band’s many great singles which was recorded at their 40th Anniversary show at Hyde Park in 2018. Smith is the only surviving member of the group which has sold over 30 million records worldwide and has come a long way since their contentious debut single Killing An Arab in 1978. The song’s title and lyrics reference French philosopher Albert Camus’s novel The Stranger but drew controversy for promoting violence against arabs. The book has no racist agenda whatsoever and Smith has since acknowledged that he should have called the song Standing on the Beach, a title he used for their first singles compilation LP in 1986.
Last Word
Despite my blank week rookie error, I’m grateful for the feedback that’s still coming to me. It would be great to see your comments posted directly on the site in the reply box below as it might start a conversation among others that leads to everyone discovering more good music to listen to.
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