Everything's Swirling

Just dug this one out: Back in the DHSS by Half Man Half Biscuit

Aug 242011

I bought Back in the DHSS in 1985, when it came out, because everyone said I should… I listened to it a bit, then filed it away and then spent a lot of the subsequent years trying to pretend I’d never heard it. I don’t get why I was supposed to like it and I don’t get why so many people do.

Half Man Half Biscuit are a comedy outfit (I think it’s insanely generous that their Wikipedia article describes them as satirical) and as such hold very little interest to me, I don’t mind laughing – and I don’t even mind laughing at song lyrics, but I prefer my humour to be a part of the song, not all there is of it. HMHB’s humour is front and centre and pretty much revolves around throwing out pop-culture references and… well that’s about it.

If they can get a laugh purely out of mentioning Una Stubbs or Stevie Nicks, Bob Todd or Dairylea triangles then that’s all they need to do – or perhaps make tiresome references to the TV of their born-in-the-60s audience and that’s pretty much HMHB. “Oh yes [snigger] we’ll sing about Camberwick Green and mention drugs… and swear a bit – that’ll be funny because all those people who watched it back then are probably smoking dope now… and swearing [giggle]“.

They are just the indie Barron Knights and I find it remarkable that they’ve managed to carve a 30+ year career out of it… but then The Barron Knights are still working so I perhaps shouldn’t really be surprised.

I listened to this with a fair amount of skipping because it really was unbearable, juvenile nonsense.

My top 6… London songs

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Aug 122011

It’s been a strange week for London so here are my top six London tracks.

First up Lily Allen’s LDN – maybe it is a hateful sneer at London but I don’t think so – I think it’s a realistic and in ways, affectionate painting of London. If you look hard at anything you start to see flaws, that doesn’t stop it being a great place. If you want a hateful sneer at London I guess Catatonia can provide that.

… the start of the Lily Allen video kind of ties in with this. Part Time Punks by The Television Personalities

… and obviously this is in my list – Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks

… this one’s London references are closer to home… Big Green Eyes – Brian

… and this is the sweetest of the lot… A Rainy Night in Soho – The Pogues

“ahh London, you’re my home” – Dirty Water – The Inmates

Just dug this one out: Piledriver by Status Quo

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Jul 292011

Piledriver by Status Quo

So John and I were Motorhead fans and Ju and Paul were Status Quo fans. They’d come and see Motorhead and we’d go see Quo… and Quo played a lot and so we saw them a lot… all over the country we traipsed seeing them… and you know what, I probably enjoyed them. But then the early 80s came, Quo released the laughable “Marguerita Time”, Alan Lancaster left and that was it. The last time I saw them live was supporting Queen at Wembley in ’86, they were rubbish.

The only album of theirs I was willing to admit liking was Piledriver, it was a rock album from when they were a rock band. I haven’t listened to it for years before this morning but it gave me such bizarre pangs of nostalgia for Quo the rock band.. Paper Plane is an undoubted gem, possibly their finest hour. Roadhouse Blues is epic, and was always a live treat… sometimes the album chugs just a little too much but I’m not ashamed to say that I still kind of like this.

I went on to listen to the rather excellent 1977 live album, maybe its only excellent because of nostalgia… those live shows were fun, on the drive we’d have guesses as to how long Forty Five Hundred Times would last… I think I remember a time it lasted 26 minutes.

Electrelane @ The Scala, London

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Jul 222011

I missed Electrelane pre-hiatus… I loved them, bought all their albums, but being in the same room as them just never happened for a variety of reasons… and there’d always be next time… and then suddenly it looked like there wouldn’t be. They called it a ‘hiatus’ rather than a split but it wasn’t looking good. But thankfully it was indeed a hiatus and last night at The Scala they came back to London. And a lot of London that had clearly missed them as much as I had.

The venue was too crowded and Hazel and I separated to try and find somewhere to see the band… we pretty much both failed. But it sort of didn’t matter for me because I close my eyes anyway… then I can be on my own (well almost – see whinging below). The show was great… it could have been longer, I was disappointed that the crowd didn’t try harder for a second encore, considering how enthusiastic they had been during the set I was pretty certain we could have got the band back, but no, they gave up after encore #1 and we all headed home.

I took a few crappy photos (and there are some MUCH better ones by annabelstaff on Flickr)… and there’s some great videos (by barryfromwales) from Manchester a couple of nights earlier, the venue sounds positively sparse compared to The Scala and I suspect the show was even better… at least Folly of Youth’s review makes me wish I’d been there instead!

photo by annabelstaff

This was my last trip to The Scala, I’ve been a number of times since it turned from a cinema into a venue and almost without exception I found the experience less than pleasurable. ‘Sold out’ at The Scala seems so much more crowded than ‘sold out’ anywhere else. And when it’s crowded it’s pretty much impossible to find a good viewing position, not really because of the venue, more because it’s so uncomfortably full that finding a place would be impossible even if there was one to find. While I’m whinging I’ll throw in the annoying bunch of folk I was stuck next to who talked loudly throughout the show and peed around with their smartphones taking silly pictures of each other, and the aircon that was blowing an icy chill onto my left side while my right side remained uncomfortably hot.

Happy Birthday Dad

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Jul 152011

Here's my dad's birthday "card"

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We shouldn’t be surprised at recent events… we were warned

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Jul 072011

Billy Bragg – It Says Here

It says here that the Unions will never learn
It says here that the economy is on the upturn
And it says here we should be proud
That we are free
And our free press reflects our democracy

Those braying voices on the right of the House
Are echoed down the Street of Shame
Where politics mix with bingo and tits
In a strictly money and numbers game

Where they offer you a feature
On stockings and suspenders
Next to a call for stiffer penalties for sex offenders

It says here that this year's prince is born
It says here do you ever wish
That you were better informed
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of Law and Order
And a touch of the short sharp shock

If this does not reflect your view you should understand
That those who own the papers also own this land
And they'd rather you believe
In Coronation Street capers
In the war of circulation, it sells newspapers
Could it be an infringement
Of the freedom of the press
To print pictures of women in states of undress

When you wake up to the fact
That your paper is Tory
Just remember, there are two sides to every story

Glastonbury 2011 from my sofa #5: Morrissey

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Jun 292011

The thing about Morrissey is that he wouldn’t be great if he wasn’t a bit of a prat. It was that aspect of his character (and that aspect of Smiths fans) that always makes me forget just how much I do actually like him. I haven’t seen Mozzer in a long, long time – probably this gig at the Brixton Academy in 1991. I remember going to that one with a little apprehension… I also remember coming out of it loving his swagger and his attitude – and all those great songs. Obviously not so much to make me a fan because that was 20 years ago and I’ve not bothered to see him since… but enough…

Morrissey’s Glastonbury set was all that I like about him – all that swagger and all that attitude, those songs and that delivery, and that prat-undercurrent.

OK – that’ll do for Glastonbury posts but if I were inclined I might have mentioned… The Go! Team, Noisettes, The Joy Formiddable…

Glastonbury 2011 from my sofa #4: Warpaint

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Jun 282011

Warpaint have been on my radar for a while but only their recent Later appearance and this lovely set at Glastonbury really hit home…

And I guess it’s the time to post this as tweeted by @salihughes because it was pretty spot-on

Glastonbury 2011 from my sofa #3: Janelle Monae

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Jun 282011

… me and everyone else in the country it seems was blown away by Janelle Monáe’s Glastonbury performance. My first exposure to Ms Monae was listening to this podcast while driving through France last August – Hazel bought the record on our return and it’s a gem… but even that wasn’t as great as this fun packed performance…

Glastonbury 2011 from my sofa #2: Jimmy Cliff

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Jun 272011

Jimmy Cliff is a legend and his set was pretty great – if you’re in a part of the world that allows you to use BBC iPlayer you can see highlights of the set – otherwise there’re a couple of clips and some pics on the BBC site – including this one…