Good afternoon to you, thought I’d add a wrinkle by loading a new post at a strange time of day. Its October and I feel reckless so things like this just might happen from time to time. I also have great confidence that Arsenal will win tomorrow at the bus stop in Fulham and thus not ruin my weekend, i.e. I may as well write in happy and optimistic mode. I watched that video from yesterday 3 times in the last 36 hours also and if that doesn’t make you feel a bit peppier about life then there’s something wrong with you. It also reminded me that the issues of 1980 are not significantly worse than they are today, if at all (disastrous economies dominating the world, Russians occupying Afghanistan, racism, unemployment and jingoistic fear of terrorism although the proponents then were from across the Irish Sea and not the back alleys of Luton or Riyadh). Which was sort of what I wanted to write about briefly today but first…that landmark I mentioned yesterday.

I was aware a few weeks ago that soon I’d be posting my 500th story on the blog and thought to myself “must make an event of that one” – which categorically failed as this Wednesday just gone did mark the 500th update. (*I’m sure none of you had noticed either, but there we have it) 500 posts strong or in the vicinity of  37,000 words written in anger or peace, laughter or fury about the only band that matters. If you’ve been with us since the earliest days thanks for the loyalty and if you are newer to the blog please keep coming back and better still get involved if you like. Always happy to hear from you via the comments section or email. The blog is a bit like brushing my teeth or brewing coffee now, part of my routine and a good outlet to write, research and communicate with some great people about some cool stuff. If I get around to it I’ll do some sort of summary of the most popular posts in that time…or I might not. What I will say is thanks for continuing to share it with others, in September we again had the most visits in a single month that the blog has ever seen, not unreasonably beating the marks respectively set in August and July. So thanks…I appreciate it!!

The original 'Woody'

So back to my original intention of this post….I hope that most of you have had some exposure to Manic Street Preachers. Somehow the Welsh band have now been going for over 20 years (yes it is that long) and quickly found a niche market for their strident, political, energetic but also brilliantly creative music. For many in the press (and for fans alike) they filled in some ways the exact same void that The Clash had left wide open and nobody had properly filled during the 1980′s. Don’t tell me U2…just don’t get me started. What the Manics have done is not only create some of the best albums of the last two decades but also worn that heart on the sleeve with the concerns of our society and the refusal to just sit down and shut up…in the best spirits of The Clash. They also overcame something that would probably see most bands implode and admittedly it caused them time to take stock about continuing when founder member Richey Edwards went missing on Feb 1, 1995. He was never found and has been presumed dead for most of that time since, its one of modern musics biggest mysteries and I think just as significant a loss as Kurt Cobain of Nirvana less than a year earlier. I realise that’s a very debatable opinion but Manic Street Preachers are by far the better band (for me) and the apparent death of Edwards (although never confirmed) was one of those strange pieces of news that became so protracted you just reluctantly accept he must have died. Unlike the band I mentioned previously the Manics regrouped and have continued in releasing one great album after another for all these years since, although not as frequently as I would have liked. If you are new to the band I would suggest you start with 1994′s ‘The Holy Bible’ and then work backwards or forwards, I’ve just read reviews of the newest release ‘Postcards From a Young Man’ which was released 10 days ago and they are universally stellar. You can find out more about them via their official site if you need to but I’m really writing about what Nicky Wire of the band said a few days ago in an interview when discussing current events:

“The middle of the greatest economic recession ever witnessed and no guitar bands whatsoever who seem able to engage with that”     Nicky Wire

That sentence echoes exactly what I’ve heard Don Letts saying in recent months too, Damon Albarn has said similar things and I’m sure if you believe that music has more value than being the backing track to American Idol or X Factor then surely you can relate. In fact you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog if your place for music was just something that was on in the background during your latest Julia Roberts romantic comedy. Think about what Nicky Wire is saying though…and I’m sure there are lots of smaller bands, unsigned bands, garage bands that would disagree with him entirely. However we’re not seeing them or hearing them. I know music with some bite still exists and that music and politics don’t have to be the angular bedfellows that the popular press would have us believe. 30 years ago we had The Clash, but not just The Clash looking at the state of the world and the state of our culture. But we also had The Specials, The Beat, R.E.M., The Jam, Talking Heads and so many others who not only were able to ‘engage with that’ but staked much of their careers on it. Have the bands changed or has the audience changed? Does a 16 year old not want to hear songs that look at the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan or the corruption of Wall Street, MPs or BP? Does massive immigration and poverty just breed anger and racism in 2010 rather than activism and ideas? Are we really that disengaged now – does music still have a part to play?

Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan and on to Joe Strummer and Billy Bragg all wanted a reaction but most importantly sought desperately to spread some form of awareness. Joe Strummer wasn’t always right, God knows nobody can be but he was trying…genuinely trying. When I was 16 I thought Joe Strummer would lead us to the doors of Downing Street and get the change we sought. Five years later I thought Billy Bragg was going to do the same, five years on Bragg reminded his audiences he wasn’t going to change the world – we were. Indifference and apathy are as dangerous as corporations and politicians he pointed out, it took me until my late 20′s to work that one out. But now…in 2010, does anyone of a certain age think things have ever been as overtly shit, immoral and corrupt as they are today? Do we really think that sending young men and women off to a desert to die is securing anyone against anything? Do we even vote to say we disagree anymore? I hope we are at the nadir of apathy, I really do, surely we must be? Or is the biggest con of all convincing us en masse that Simon Cowell and ‘House’, American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy are the most important things going on around us? That these sings say more to us about our lives. Every once in a while like a tortoise having a rock thrown at us we come out of our shell and say how tragic the Tsunami/9-11/Haiti is and then we go back to our downloaded movies,  I-pods and our ridiculous phones to watch a video of a dog that can talk.

Where are all the protest singers and will anyone still listen to their songs?

Good evening, I trust your week hasn’t been shipwrecked on the rocks of a rotten Monday as you read this although it may well be Tuesday when you get to it. I’ve had one of those Mondays that you always put them down to being a Monday rather than just accepting it wasn’t the best day in any guise. It was alright, there were moments that were quite pleasant but I really needed some loud music and fresh coffee to get me started before blogging and it definitely worked, this is my 4th blog today.

My CD collection is a bit (alright a lot) out of hand these days but I just chucked it on random this afternoon and out came The La’s who I haven’t listened to in quite some time. Probably because they’re on carousel number two (Letters F-L) and I tend to be stuck on carousel one recently (The Clash). They got me thinking about that very select group of bands that have a huge impact despite only releasing one album or perhaps one decent album. In fact I immediately concocted a short list of four such bands who would make a good list of one album wonders, this was done on the fly and at very short notice so I expect you’ll be able to add to the list quite rapidly. Luckily The Clash stuck around long enough to not only follow on from their first album but many will say they improved upon it at least once if not twice. There is also a good number of people who feel they never eclipsed that debut record, I’m not one of them though as while I love the first album was very much of its time – The Clash made a punk album because they came to the fore during the punk scene. I think the band would have probably imploded early if the recipe was to keep making the same record, thus I’m not sure they were really a punk band for more than the first 18 to 24 months. They then became the greatest rock band of the era by expanding and experimenting rather than doing a Coldplay (with apologies to Coldplay..actually no…no apologies, if you like Coldplay I’m sorry that you have no taste).

So my list, it’s a bit wobbly as only two of the four truly only made one record although I’ll hopefully make a strong case as to why the other two choices are on my list. As soon as I finish this I’m sure I’ll come up with others tonight but was trying to focus on bands that were the first ‘successful’ endeavour for the artists concerned rather than some malformed/hybrid supergroup which appeared later in the artists career. If that definition makes any sense? So, in no particular order and limited to my record buying years:

1 – The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks     1977 Virgin Records

It’s probably hard to beat this for an album with impact if you’re only going to ever release one. The Sex Pistols debut was also of course there only proper album and by proper I mean official. Strangely for an album that is completely synonymous with British punk it came out extremely late on, at the end of October 1977. The reasons for this are well documented with a combination of record company disputes and a band that were finding it hard to not only play live but in many instances to appear in public. A year earlier the Pistols were by far the head of the pack for the then embryonic punk scene, by the time the album eventually came out the reputation of the band (both created and real) had almost reached mythical status. It still managed to create unreasonable outrage due to the title although most of the tracks contained within were already completely familiar to any fan of the band. Everyone I knew growing up had a copy of this and I’m sure it still does decent business in downloads and as part of an essential collection. I’m no Sex Pistols expert but I’ve always been amazed at all the incantations of bootlegs and live albums that were to then follow the only studio recording made. I didn’t list it first on purpose but it probably deserves to be there anyway. As for why it was there only album…John Lydon / McLaren…. enemies, you know the rest.

2 – The La’s – The La’s           1990 Go! Discs

If I ever had a weakness for a record label and bands from a certain city this one would cover both for me. Hailing from Liverpool The La’s eventually became as well-known for only making one album as they did for the quality of the songs on the record. The album itself was one of those travesties that became so overdue that much of the niche market that the band had relied on had almost given up by the time it was eventually released in 1990. Famously the band worked with almost as many producers as there are songs on the album by the time it finally got completed. Ridiculously over two years had passed since the success of the early singles and the release of the debut album. Go! Discs patiently waited after signing the band initially in 1987 but by the time the album was pressed the passion for the band had moved on to other sounds and other bands such as the one coming up next. What a great label Go! Discs was though, a small but consistently brilliant roster including Billy Bragg, The Housemartins and Trash Can Sinatras it also sired (pun intended) Go! Beat records which became the stable for Portishead and Beats International.

3 – The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses          1989 Silvertone

The Stone Roses....not in court

What can I say about this record that hasn’t already been said? I was 21 when this album was released and it just blew me away, me and everyone I knew plus hundreds of thousands of others. Nothing captures the fag end of the 1980s and Manchester quite like the Stone Roses debut. When The Smiths split up it seemed in indie music was slowly marching to a grave of twee ineffectiveness but fortunately Manchester had another solution is store. Half a decade later Oasis would stimulate similar reactions but their debut doesn’t compare with the Stone Roses. I don’t think many albums compare with this one and I would be hard-pressed to not include it on any list of 20 recommended albums from the last 30 years, it might just even break my top 10. I know the Stone Roses made a second album but it was such a convoluted footnote of legal wrangling and interminable delays that by the time it was released in 1994 Second Coming was probably the most inappropriate album title ever conceived. I do believe if they had made an album even half as good as their debut they may have gone on to secure a long career but for some reason in the nearly 6 years between albums it seem they spent more time in court than writing new songs, Second Coming was simply abysmal

4 – Elastica – Elastica           1995 Deceptive

The story of Elastica reads a little bit like the story of the Stone Roses, although I wouldn’t say I quite the same level of accomplishment. At the beginning of 1995 in the Britpop shadow of Suede, Blur, Oasis and Pulp came the debut album from Elastica headed by former Suede member Justine Frischmann. The album was a huge success in the UK commercially reaching number one and also selling large quantities throughout the world. The spiky singles Connection and Line Up were on radios and jukeboxes wherever I went. It was a decent album, not brilliant but strong enough to deserve its place as one of the integral albums of the scene. What couldn’t be ignored was the intense similarity to some songs by Wire not in that lend us a riff way (which admittedly The Clash and so many others were guilty of) but just taken as if nobody would notice. It didn’t detract from an album which was good fun if a bit shaky as a live act. Then came the chasm of over five years which lets me include Elastica with an asterisk as the second album The Menace snuck out in a new era, in fact it was a new century and the scene had changed as had the interest in the band. Two members had left the band in the intervening time and Elastica had essentially wound up about two years before the second record quietly snuck out to little acclaim.

Admittedly I am limited in my list by bands that I really liked so I am sure you can bolster the contents with your own recollections and record collections. Sorry it wasn’t terribly Clashcentric tonight but I’ll get back on track with the next post. Have a good Tuesday – that’s my plan also! Tim

Yeah I’m back again and nice of you to back in as well. For some people it’s gambling or drinking, for others it might be drugs or sexual indiscretions, gardening or buying shoes. Almost everyone I know has one chronic addiction or another and in many cases more than one. My primary one for about 30 years has been music, listening to it, collecting it, thinking about it and more recently playing it (badly). Since I was old enough to have a bit of spare cash it seems that purchasing new or used records and cassettes and then compact discs has been something I’ve never really managed to stop myself from doing. The record companies depend on people like me, in the 1980s if a 12″ single was a remix I’d be tempted to get it in addition to the 7 inch. If the 12 inch had three B-Sides as to one on a 7 inch I’d be right there. When the 90s came along with CDs upstaging vinyl far too rapidly CD singles would often come as part one and part two featuring different tracks, yet again enough to make me open my wallet.

In the last decade the reissue market and the anniversary market have both been beefed up extensively to try and get what’s left of consumers (typically my age and above) to buy something we already own and again I confess that I do it more and more often. In recent years back catalogs by artists such as The Clash, Echo and the Bunnymen, Pulp and Billy Bragg have all been reissued with special packaging, bonus tracks and DVDs. Ridiculously I find myself (with the example of the Bunnymen or The Clash) doing the following; buying the vinyl album when it first came out, often adding a cassette for my tedious journeys on the London underground, replacing the vinyl with a CD at some point between 1990 and 2000 and then falling for the 20th, 25th etc. anniversary edition of said album. It doesn’t happen with every artist but it is definitely happened with the brands mentioned previously and a few more besides. Luckily nobody at Polydor or Rough Trade have given that special anniversary treatment to The Jam or The Smiths just yet, I’m sure they will and I’m equally sure that I’ll tell myself I really need a new copy of ‘Meat is Murder’ or ‘The Gift’ because of the artwork and demo sessions on the new disc.If you download all of your music you probably think I’m mad but then again I think downloading is like McDonald’s versus the proper nutrition of having a record (CD) collection.

Talking Heads, reissued but still impeccable

I’m writing this because today I popped into couple of record shops one of whom was having a special sale and temptation got the best of me, but you’ll be glad to know I found some things I really needed including some stuff I already owned but not with the concert DVD! If it doesn’t bore you to death I might once a week or so pick out a CD from my collection at random and let you know just why I like it and hopefully you might too. I’ve been waiting a few years and avoiding the $17-$20 price all of the Talking Heads special reissues that came out a few years ago, today was the day my patience paid off as I managed to get the special editions of each of the first three albums with the DVD used for just nine dollars each but with 20% off because of the anniversary sale. So now I need to sell my original CDs of those and recoup a few dollars but that’s all right. I also got Pulp – Peel sessions double CD, Kate Nash new CD, The Clash live at Shea Stadium (finally and after you had all told me I had to), Brett Anderson, XX new CD, two Elvis Costello reissues. The Clash was just $4.99 and in total I spent much less than I expected. Next I have to go to another town and another record shop because a couple of special orders I placed have arrived. I don’t watch TV (hardly) so I have my excuses all lined up.

I know it’s a bit mad but I hadn’t gone record shopping for a few months and I’m all set now until October except there is that new James album coming out next week. These Talking Heads reissues are really lovely so I know what I’m doing this weekend, but the ‘Fear of Music’ doesn’t have those little raised grooves to represent the diamond plate flooring like the original album cover. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you missed a great year in 1979….I think the best year for music ever.

Back soon ~ Tim