House music...

Just in case you’ve been wondering where I’ve been for the past few days I’ve been on the move again. Ouch. When you’ve accumulated as much vinyl and CDs as I have (plus various other stuff from Bakelite plugs through to old school reports...why?) moving house is one massive ball ache. On the plus side we now have enough room to unpack everything and hopefully thin things out a little/lot on the negative side I’ll now have to wrestle with the thorny problem of whether to keep that entire collection of My Life Story CD singles or not. Oh bugger. Anyway, for no better reason other than the fact that it’s currently sitting in front of me here’s a track from Minor Threat entitled, appropriately enough given that every single one of them in this house needs redecorating, Screaming At A Wall.

Larry Steinbachek RIP

Kicking off 2017 the way 2016 ended (RIP George Michael) comes the sad news that Larry Steinbachek, keyboardist with Bronski Beat, lost his brief battle with cancer last week at just 56. Being the age I am (old) I'm pretty biased when it comes to the music of the 80s but come on, Smalltown Boy is a pretty incredible track right? Somerville left the group in '85 (going on to form The Communards) but Bronski Beat and Steinbachek carried on for a while, notching up another top 3 hit with a new vocalist and then teaming up with Earth Kitt for the fabulously OTT Cha Cha Heels. RIP Larry.

Ankathie Koi - Little Hell

It's rare that I stumble across something that I'm pretty much prepared to bet that you, dear reader, haven't heard before but here's an offering from Vienna's finest Ankathie Koi that I found trawling through You Tube. Coming across a little like La Roux's quirky Austrian cousin this is pretty much pop perfection. The best thing I've heard this year by a mile (okay so it's only January 12th but still). Enjoy!

Do you want JAMS on that...?

Will they, won’t they and will anyone really give a fucKLF either way? I’m guessing that few people under the age of 30 will know much about the KLF/JAMS/K Foundation (or any of the other names that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty briefly traded under) but for a year or two at the dawn of the 90s they were arguably one of the more interesting propositions in pop/dance/art. After selling millions of records they went out in a blaze of ‘gory’, firing machine guns over the Brits audience and then dumping dead sheep outside the event. Not content with this they then allegedly took all of the proceeds from their record sales, a million quid no less, and promptly burnt the lot. I say allegedly as there’s some doubt as to whether they really did but, having met Drummond and brought up the subject (yes I know but I just couldn’t help it) I’m pretty sure they did. Having done all that they then deleted their entire back catalogue and disappeared into the nether regions of the art world where they’ve remained ever since. But now, a mere 23 years after their last significant release, they (in their Justified Ancients of Mu Mu guise) may be about to return. Apparently they placed a self imposed moratorium on any activity 23 years ago (the number 23 may be significant...something to do with Discordianism, a self-declared religion based on the premise that discord and chaos are the building blocks of life and/or The Illuminatus! Trilogy) and now they’re free to return but to do what is, typically for a group that thrives on messing with heads, as yet unclear. One thing that’s certain is that music and art could well do with a bit of a K-ick up the arse right now. Here's a quick reminder of some of the KLF/JAMS's greatest moments. 

Jobriath A.D.

Happy New Year and all that jazz.

Finally got round to watching the Jobriath doc over Christmas and, as perhaps you'd expect, it's a pretty heartbreaking tale. To come out as GAY with a capital G A and Y back in the early 70s clearly limited Jobriath's mainstream appeal  and with manager Jerry Brandt hyping him as the greatest thing since...well...ever...the story was unlikely to end well. Perhaps the saddest thing of all though (okay not quite the saddest, that was Jobriath's death from AIDS at just 36) was the revelation that his father ordered all of his belongings, demo tapes, costumes, scores etc to be destroyed before his friends could rescue any of it. Who knows what gems were lost eh? Still at least we've got beauties like this, The Faces meets Queen meets Bowie. Genius.