#TenAlbumsInTenDays #7 - CSI Ambleside - Half Man Half Biscuit

Described by Andy Kershaw as England's greatest folk band and may John Peel said the describe the minutiae of everyday life every album holds gems to be discovered and this is no exception. If you want to sample to poetry of the lyrics check out the HMHB Lyric project here

The album opens with "Your Evening of Swing Has Been Cancelled" careering though incidents and accidents by way of detours and u-turns to hit the finale of "National Shite Day".

The cover feature the lovely Royal Oak in Ambleside who were unaware of their adornment of the sleeve when I first informed them of it. I'm am not sure if they were pleased about that, but both pub and album are wonderful artefacts of our times.

The thing is Half Man Half Biscuit have so many essential songs in their canon, anyone that you choose is something that you just never want it to finish. Lyrics like the following make you realise just how essential this band is:

And the christening party arsehole
Who hitherto had blurred
My conception of man as nature’s final word
Was fleeing from the lava
His satnav pleading thus:
“I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus”

So I will leave you with their opening salvo and get myself to bed.

 

In Loving Memory

This is difficult to write although in some ways it isn't . Today we all lost a wonderful personal friend who inspired us, loved us, made us laugh, made us feel included, made us feel wanted, fought injustice and was anything but average. Where he was Craig Puranen Wilson or she was Sheena Revolta we we always in wonderful company.

A fan of great music, grat films , great art, and well as a creator in most art genres. Most people have been far more eloquent than I but Craig and Sheena will always be with me, from the number of times I saw Women in Revolt to sharing coffee or a drink in town or watching trashy films you alway were part of the gang.

Craing and Sheena organised events that you wanted to go to and was instrumental in the resurrection of The Star And Shadow.

I'm sorry I can't speak but you will alway be an inspiration to us all on how life should be lived.

A BIG THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING CRAIG AND SHEENA.

We must keep all the thing that Sheen helped start such as Mondo Weirdo, the happenings , the gatherings keep going in the spirit of Sheena.

And this is my 100th Post this year, is that a coincidence.

Keep on keeping on

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #6 - Godbluff - Van Der Graaf Generator

When this album came out the NME reviewer said that there should be a way of playing it end to end without a break, the vinyl record had to be flipped half way through to continue listening. This was an understandable thought as that's how most classical pieces were concieved , to be played and listened to in their entirety.

This thing is at the time there were C90 cassettes and 8-Track tapes (the later just effectively played in an everlasting circle) so there was a way to listen to it. CD and Digital obviously made this a reality for the new format.

When they started although a rock group, guitars were way down the instrumentation list which was odd for such an aggressive sound but it was dominated by keyboards, brass , woodwind and bass pedals.

Godbluff is a very dark sounding album, almost threatening conjuring up images of dark threats in blasted landscapes and is still a regular listen for me. It is remakably coherent and often I get the songs mixed up as they are so similar in form without being boring, you just accept it for what it is.

I love most of their stuff but this along with "Pawn Hearts" are two of my most played of their albums. I found a live performance of the album so if you have forty or so minutes to spare you can see what I mean about the album.

More Words

This is my fourth blog post today. I did my first gig review of the year on Spoongig here for the Shambolic KO afternoon , plus two entries in the #TenAlbumsInTenDays that I am doing , which will stretching to twenty days as I have received a second invite, so today I have actually written, for me, a lot of words.

Luckily yesterday I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, so I have probably incurred the ire and wrath of my male neighbours who live within earshot, as it may be pointed out that their lawns need mowing too.

Yesterday was Record Store Day 2018 but I just ended up getting a Sha Na Na LP on vinyl, "Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay" from Beyond Vinyl, but the rest of the shops in Newcastle were queued out the door so I thought I would catch up at those shops next week, though thatks to Mark and Kirsty they put me on to a new Vinyl Shop in Newcastle Vinyl Guru on the West Road. I also dropped by Empire Records the new branding of Long Play Cafe's vinyl sales and discussed among other things the Vertigo Swirl.

So I will leave you with some Sha Na Na from the album I bought yesterday, mainly for it's brilliant cover and the fact it was on the Kama Sutra label.

Sleep well and have a wonderful Monday.
 

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #5 - The Race For Space - Public Service Broadcasting

This was the first coherently themed Public Service Broadcasting album, they had put out "The War Room" EP, and this was their second album. "Inform, Educate, Entertain" is a mission statement for the band and you will probably learn something by listening to enything by this band.

There pasting of dialogue from films, and documentaries is similar to what happened in Spirit's "Future Games" and early Big Audio Dynamite albums although without the dialogue the e songs are just driving instrumentals (and rather excellent at that).

"The Race For Space" revisits both the Russian and American sides of the race that started in the 1950s, with dialogue from John F Kennedy and The Apollo program.

The band are probably one of the finest live experirences you can see today, and I amazed at J. Willgoose Esq.'s ability to tee up the sound samples wile playing guitar. Even the crowd banter is done via keyboard.

I have seen this band three times though they now tend to sell out gigs immediately so I am not sure if I will see them in a live situation again, but you never know. I've included a live take of "Go" at one of the gigs I saw the at , the 6Music Festival at The Sage in 2015, and I am somewhere in that crowd mass. An absolutely brilliant gig and part of a brilliant festival.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - The Book of Invasions - Horslips

I'd got into Horslips through "The Tain" an album based on a story from Irish mythology which Michael Moorcock had lifted from for his Corum section of the Eternal Champion series (which I must attempt to re read).

"The Book of Invasions" got a five start NME review but I was at the record shop on it's day of release and got it home and put it on. This had never happened before but that album was the only thing that was on my record player for two weeks.

There were flashes onf Thin Lizzy (who also were lovers of Irish Mythology) in there, as well as the Irish folk tunes mixed in with the mythology, maybe it just hit me at the right time, but it is on the player as I am writing this, and maybe it's a little under produced but every song that comes on you love listening too and also can't wait for the next one.

Like a good book or film , you don't want it to end. Almost every song is like that and definitely the album makes you feel like that.

It's an album where every song flows into the next one , the same as say "Dark Side of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, you don't skip songs on this.

I found a slideshow for the album which clocks in at forty minutes but it is difficult to choose one song from this essential part of the music I love

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #3 - Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream) - Spirit

Before the internet and email and mobil phones the was CB , Citizen's Band Radio. I'm not exactly sure what the attraction of this was for the average person but I know a few people who had CB Radio set ups.I could see a use for it for long distance lorry drivers and this was documented in the CW McCall song "Convoy".

This album opens with a track called "CB Talk" with Randy California descring the Spirit album. I had been majorly impressed by  "Spirit of '76" but this album took things to another level for me. The songs are excellent but are spliced with soundbites from Star Trek (this was just pre Star Wars), Science Fiction "B" Movies and The Muppet Show. There are a lot of interjections from "Jack Bond" the drummer Ed Cassidy's creation (he was also Randy California's father in law!)

It was like a movie for the ears, carried along by the excellent songs. California was favouribly compared with Jimi Hendrix but he was definitely his own man, but they still tackle Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" and deliver a creditable take although no one has ever touched the Hendrix version.

The songs are California sun influenced as well as being touched by certain other substances. THis album is my favourite all time album and when I first got it I was working shifts so would often drift off listening to this during the day.

Like all good albums you listen to it as a whole and ideally it should just be continously played, non stop.

I'm not sure if this was the first album where not musical dialogue was used an intefral part of the album,a concept later embraced by, among others, Big Audio Dynamite and Public Service Broadcasting.