"In 78 Everyone Born In 45 will be 33⅓" was a very clever tagline for a Stiff Records compilation "A Bunch of Stiffs" . For those who need an explanation singles play at 45 rpm and LPs play at 33⅓ rpm and the album was a compilation of singles released in 1978. That got me thinking again about numbers and measures, how inconsistent they are in certain areas . Imperial weight you have 16 ounces to a pound , 14 pounds in a stone, a hundredweight is 8 stone (112 pounds) , then a ton is twenty hundredweight.
For vinyl playing speeds we have 16 (usually for spoken word), 33⅓ for long playing albums , 45 rpm for singles and 78 rpm for singles prior to the seven inch and made out of shellac rather than the more durable vinyl.
I know it's #33 but I am choosing "33⅓" by Jesus and Mary Chain because every time I get the chance to include one of my favourite bands I will take the opportunity, and it gives you more decent music to listen to.
Well the view count on the blog at this moment is 99,988, which means this post will probably hit 100K . I suppose I need to start thinking Christmas presents, luckily I have everything so no one needs to but me anything.
I'm going to leave this post short, very short , just to suggest don't let this weather get you down ,
look for a reason to get together with friends and have a wonderful time.
What song should I choose for this? Beer and Cigarettes by Terraplane from Stiff's Akron Compilation Not available digitally still but you can get the scratch and sniff vinyl copy here.
In 1976 Andy Marshall had a gig to fulfil with his band Marshall Law. Unfortunately the band left before the gig took place so after a a phone call or two The Bok (singular of Box) was formed . Simon Clinic (aka Tony Eyre) original vocalist left before the first rehearsal, but in true punk fashion we wrote songs for the gig as well as a few covers to spread out the set. All gigs were in and around Preston in carious clubs , pubs and halls. The band consisted:
Andy Marshall - Guitar - Vox - Songs
Mike Singleton - Guitar - Vox - Songs
The Hippy Mark Lester - Bass
any drummer we could find but mainly Dave Topping
Songs were chosen for lack of chords and ease of playing and obvious influences were Velvet Underground , The Damned , Jonathan Richman. Covers we did included:
Waiting For The Man
Psycho Killer
Rue Courier (Roadrunner - in French)
Shot By Both Sides
The Passenger
Gloria
Egyptian Reggae
Songs titles I remember apart for the demo list were:
Sick of Beer
Tennis
Rant and Rave
Accident
Magic Eye
We had a gig in the basement of a pub in Preston. I had been using Ollie Halsall's trick of practising with heavy guage strings and playing with light gauge strings. This meant you could play very bendy sols and chords , but also in the hot sweaty confines of the pub basement the guitar needed continuous retuning as I played . Guy came up to me at the end and send he loved my inplay tuning , didnt have the heart to tell him it wasnt planned. The DJ didnt like us and when we launched into Magazine's "Shot By Both Sides" he started playing the record as loud as he could, The crowd took umbrage and trashed his decks - nice show of appreciation! Anyway .......
........Basically the idea was to choose some songs record them and despatch to people who mattered in music. John Peel tahanked us but said we were too primitive! Stiff Records apologised that they sent us a pre printed rejection letter , but Rabid Records of Manchester wanted to record us and put out a double "A" side single of "Mystery Band" / "Happy Birthday" , with an accompanying video involving pies , bikes and aqualungs!! . We went to Rabid's headquarters in Manchester but everyone had buggered ogff to the CBS launch of John Cooper-Clarke's Disguise In Love. Graham Fellows aka Jilted John aka John Shuttleworth dropped for rehearsals for the Jilted John album . He reckoned we looked like students. Also Martin Hannett did a lot of work with Rabid artists!!
An unexpected side effect was that a lot of girls stopped talking to me because they thought we were going to be on Top of the Pops!! Never could work that one out , the only time being in a band had an adverse social effect!!
After cups of tea and making plans the guy asked us what studio we had used . Studio? We hadn't a clue but the reason for John Peel's dismissal may have become apparent. Anyway Rabid records went bust fairly quickly after that and the band sort of didnt go any further though things could have been different.....
