I was a bit of a loner as a kid. Awkward and shy, i was definitely not the athletic type. I had no interest in sport (i still don't), and i was marked out for a fair bit of bullying. I did have a couple of on/off friends, but most of the time i retreated into my bedroom, and into the family record collection - i had commandeered my Dads chunky headphones as well, so i was in my own little world - and lost myself in the music. I've always been able to appreciate music from bygone eras, something that - before the music industry realised the potential of nostalgia and started raiding the back catalogues of anyone who had ever recorded a note - was unheard of in the early 80's. And certainly unusual for someone in primary school.Of course, i listened to the Top 40 and watched Top of The Pops like any kid would, and liked what i heard. But then, as now, the notion that any music that wasn't current was somehow rubbish or irrelevant was alien to me. I loved the big, colourful glam rock sound with its thumping drums, loud but melodic guitars and terrace chants. Some of it harked back to the rock'n'roll era - simple but catchy songs, delivered with the stomp of a platform boot. There were a lot of Slade 7"s in the house - all the big hits. Some T.Rex, Suzi Quatro, Sweet, The Glitter Band. A couple of Bowies. And stuff like The Rubettes and Cockney Rebel, acts who were loosely associated with the scene. But the band that caught my young ears were Mud. Whenever there are any articles or documentaries about the Glam scene of the early 70's now, Les Gray and his cohorts are usually just a footnote, and you'd be lucky to hear anything other than their No.1 hit "Tiger Feet" or their Elvis-aping moody festive smash "Lonely This Christmas". But in their day they were a huge act, 14 top 20 hits - including 3 Number Ones - between 1973 and 1976. Part of the Chinnichap stable - writers and producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman - along with Suzi Quatro and Sweet, they'd been kicking around since the mid-60's but remained hitless until Chinnichap took them under their wing, and in 1973 they had their first 3 Top 20 hits: the pop glam of "Hypnosis" and "Crazy", and the more Rock'n'Roll influenced "Dynamite". Most of their hits on the RAK label were in the house, and i thought they were great. I learned to appreciate Slade, T.Rex, and Bowie as i got older. But Mud were probably my first favourite band. The idea of them being seen as naff never occurred to me. I've always held the belief that a good song is a good song, regardless of genre, age, or whether it's seen as the in thing to listen to. Rob Davis is a songwriter now, having written Number 1 hits such as Kylies' "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", Spiller "Groovejet", and Fragma "Tocas Miracle". Not bad for a bloke in flares and daft earrings.
During the last great age of alternative pop and indie (1990 - 2010), loads of great little bands popped up who, despite much acclaim from the music weeklies, never quite achieved the success of some of their contemporaries. One such band was The Long Blondes. A five piece formed in Sheffield in 2003, they traded in a brand of catchy, literate alt indie-pop, or to put it in singer Kate Jackson's words: " Nico , Nancy Sinatra , Diana Dors and Barbara Windsor . Sexy and literate, flippant and heartbreaking all at once." Blondie were also an influence on their sound and style. They also peppered their lyrics with references from film and tv. They claimed to have all chosen an instrument and learned how to play it, lending their first few independent singles a rawer feel. The then unsigned band - Kate Jackson (vocals), Kathryn "Reenie" Hollis (bass/backing vocals), Dorian Cox (lead guitar/keyboards/principal songwriter), Emma Chapl...
It's not often i love a new album enough to play it on repeat - not since my late twenties any rate - but that's what happened when i put my Eco-vinyl copy of IDLES Crawler on the turntable. After the deliberate self parody of last year's Ultra Mono Joe Talbot and co. have taken a bold step forward: Crawler largely dispenses with the political sloganeering and post-punk moshpit anthems and reaches within for inspiration. Talbots' well documented 14 year struggle with alcohol and drug abuse, and his long road to recovery are the dominant themes here, in all their ugly details, but with a life affirming sense of redemption. The music is largely quieter and more measured too. Opener "MTT 420 RR" is a slow burning electronic textured track which represents the crash that saw him at his lowest point, the spare and eerie atmosphere over which Talbot recites the details in gruesome honesty. "Car Crash" sounds exactly like just that: a minimalist dubby, g...
For as long as there has been recorded music and a music industry there have been musical artists who, despite hype and promotion, have underperformed or sank without trace. Since i began reading the (now sadly defunct) music weeklies in the early nineties there was barely a week without a new band or solo artist being excitedly talked about as "the next big thing" . Before, during a and after Britpop this went into overdrive as record companies fought to sign the next Oasis/Blur/Pulp/Stone Roses etc, acts coming and going, sometimes without a sniff of chart success. On rare occasions bands would be declared "your new favourite band" before they'd even recorded a note! (Menswe@r spring immediately to mind.) Too often, a promising new act would be signed on the strength of a couple of raved about independent singles only for their new paymasters to demand changes to their musical style to make them more marketable to a mass audience: edges smoothed off, more expe...
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