My friend Holly Taymar is not only a fabulous musician (solo and as one half of the Bronze), but also - her actual day job - a tireless fundraiser for Mind. During this current incarceration Holly has been presenting her unique Lockdown Jukebox (read all about it here): for a modest donation to a vital and respected mental health charity, Holly will sing you a song - any song - and post it on her Youtube channel along with all the other jukebox selections which have ben pouring in over the last couple of weeks or so. I asked her if she'd curl her top lip and 'have a go at Billy Idol...'
Holly Taymar & Chris Bilton - White Wedding (2020)
I don't really know how best to describe life at the moment; to say 'it's a bit shit' doesn't quite cut it. Being holed up for the best part of 23 hours a day is tortuous at times, but, it's better than the alternative. This somewhat crude image shows in rather bleak terms the worst case scenario if you play fast and loose with your personal space. And, of course, other people's. Wooah! Back off! Who would have thought that just a handful of weeks ago a simple walk to the shop is now every bit as nerve-racking as traversing a Falklands minefield. What price that tin of beans? So, be careful out there. One minute you're cock of the north, the next you're in an ICU ward plugged in to a Dyson ventilator. Honestly, you couldn't make it up.
A friend of mine from Scotland emailed me this morning: a Corona catch-up, if you like. In my reply I rather ramblingly told her what my coping mechanisms were. I won't bore you with them here; anyway, regular readers could probably figure out most of them for themselves.
However, I forgot to tell her about Tim's Twitter Listening Party The idea is simple: every night during at 10pm during Lockdown the Twitter community listen to an album in its entirety. The sessions, overseen by Tim Burgess, are curated in real time by band members who provide intimate insights into the making of the albums and answer questions posed by those 'in the room'. I've done two so far - Jollification (Lightning Seeds) and Steve McQueen (Prefab Sprout) - and I found them totally uplifting. For what it's worth both these long players proved to be very poignant in my life around the time they came out - 1994 and 1985 respectively. Ten year cycles and all that.
A complete list all of future runners and riders can be found here and the link to Tim's Twitter feed is here. I can't recommend the project highly enough. And even if you don't own hard copies of the albums, just hook up your Bluetooth speaker to Spotify at 22:00 and you're good to go!
Prefab Sprout - Goodbye Lucille #1 (1985)
In 1985 I was still known as Johnny; this song followed me everywhere
With everyone's life currently on hold (parked up), and staying in becomes the new going out, we now have to embrace a whole new world of substitutes. Depending on how lavish your lifestyle was BC will dictate how adversely this new regime will affect you PC; if and when when normality (normalcy) ever returns it will of course all centre around freedom of movement - the taboo subject (elephant in the room) linking Coronavirus (Covid-19) with Brexit (the UK's slow and painful suicide). But that's a debate for another day; a debate which will be, I'm sure (be in no doubt), front and centre - pushing its way up both the political and cultural agenda for a long, long time to come. Substitute your lies for fact. Today's musical selection is not, as you may have been expecting, from the 'Oo. (They're no longer young, but still backdated.) No, it is instead a song written by Willie H. Nelson released nearly a decade on from the single Pete Townshend famously called 'our first number four.'
The Righteous Brothers - Substitute (1975)
A couple of years later it would go on to be a number one smash in South Africa for a female five piece from Johannesberg. However, I've substituted the lip gloss and spandex of Clout for a bunch of ageing London mods whose front man has got that don't fuck with me look about him. A look you often see in lead singers.
Quite by chance, at a recent vinyl evening (in those dim and distant pre-self isolating days when I quite really did get out more), two tracks were played back-to-back that both had exclamation marks in the title; a point (literally) not picked up at the time (why would it?). But as they were both from my collection it was only when I was putting them away that I clocked the fact.
As something of a musical pedant I'm pretty big on musical punctuation and generally getting song titles right - therefore, Sweet's 1973 Number 1 hit is not Blockbuster, it's Block Buster! And the song that followed it on the night in question was Mél Torme's Right Now! Although a B side, it's every bit as special as the lounge/mod classic you'll find when you flip it over.
Mel Tormé - Comin' Home Baby (1962)
A recent discovery of mine from a freakbeat collection titled Sugar Lumps comes courtesy of a band calling themselves Smashing Time. To my shame I know vey little about Smashing Time (an out of date Facebook page would lead you to believe they came from London and called it a day c.2015/16). It's a belter and although it doesn't have an exclamation mark it does have a question mark.
Smashing Time - Is it Her? (2005)
I'm playing it on heavy rotation here at Medd Towers; it's got under my skin well and truly. Not least, I think, as it tips the wink to Comin' Home Baby. Yes, no? Its other influence, IMHO, is this beauty written by Rod Argent. Again, see what you think.
