This is what they want!

I mentioned yesterday in my piece about Phil Collins that Genesis were once interrogated on Tiswas by Sally James in one of her Almost Legendary Pop Interviews. That's right, Tiswas - home of the custard pie, Spit the Dog, Compost Corner, and the (many, many) buckets of water. There was something quite satisfying in seeing earnest/smug/unsuspecting (often all three) musicians being, quite literally, blindsided by the Phantom Flan Flinger - with Chris Tarrant bellowing from the side-lines: ''This is what they want!''

In a classic case of role reversal here we see the tables turned on Ms. James - appearing as a somewhat nervous contestant on a skit they called Plastermind. See what they did there? Good times.

It's PC gone mad

I've noticed people are treading very carefully around Phil Collins at the moment. He's been through the wringer of late, that's for sure; last time I looked him up on Wikipedia he's still an 'is' and not a 'was'. Always a good sign. The Sunday Times brought him in from the cold this weekend by, seemingly, bestowing national treasure status upon him. Maybe they've all forgotten his pointless/overblown trip on Concorde in 1985 from London to Philadelphia just to sabotage the Led Zeppelin reunion. Or the time he divorced the latest Mrs. Collins via his fax machine - classy. What a twerp.

However, I do try and cut the fella some slack. In no particular order, I did like his autobiography - his spoken word on the audiobook rang true - as if he'd written it. Maybe he had? I loved Sally James' almost legendary pop interview on Tiswas she did with him and the other two gadgies in Genesis just after Peter Gabriel had jumped ship. And getting Mic Murphy and David Frank from The System to play on and produce Sussudio was a masterstroke. Oh, and I can remember buying I Missed Again on 12'' and couldn't stop playing it.

But it's his on/off jazz fusion pickup band Brand X that I keep coming back to. Maybe he should too...

Brand X - And so to F (1979)

 

Wicked

In 1989 when Chris Isaak unleashed Wicked Game into the big wide world it was described by one music critic as a brooding and sorrowfully conflicted song. In the nearly forty years since the reverb laden rockabilly revivalist released his seminal piece of work I don't think it's lost any of its brooding or indeed sorrow. And when Tenacious D covered it a couple of years ago they only piled on the brooding. And the sorrow; in fact, way more sorrow. It's to die for. 

Tenacious D - Wicked Game (2023)

 

Sweet FA

The witching hour - generally recognised as 3.00am - is linked with spiritual portals, visual tricks and sleep disruption. If you believe in this kind of folklore (some might say mumbo-jumbo) then you'd be ill-advised to stare into mirrors at nighttime. Doing so, it's said, invites spirits to trap your soul or even to step through into the physical world. Brian Connolly, for all his faults, never struck me as the type of individual who'd muck about with mirrors, portals, and the unseen realm; or indeed, encourage his fellow band mates to do so. But what do I know? Sweet FA, obviously.

The Sweet - Sweet FA (1974)

 

All the leaves are brown

The Beatles could never be accused of letting the grass grow beneath their feet; their sixth album was recorded in a four week window during October and November 1965 (less than three years since Please Please Me - their 1st.) and was released on 3 December. Talk about In Like Flynn. Rubber Soul's cover photograph was shot by Robert Freeman on 23 October in Lennon's back garden in Weybridge. It was also, you may or may not know, their first long player not to bare the group's name on the front.

Some albums just shout colours at me and this is one of them. The colour swatch above not only picks out the colours in Freeman's candid photo but also, for me (in a primitive, almost synesthetic, kind of way) are also the colours I hear whenever I play the album. I think it's a very autumnal* sounding collection of songs, even the obligatory Ringo track, What Goes On. George, however, steals the show (not for the first time).

The Beatles - If I Needed someone (1965)

* Maybe the next time I listen to RS I should be sitting under a tree as the leaves are starting to fall.