Enjoyed a flying visit to my old home town of Brum over the weekend and managed to catch some great live music, including Vieira and the Silvers at The Night Owl and purveyors of Brum's national anthem, 'It's Brum Ting', Friendly Fire Band at the fabulous Bearwood Shuffle.
Sad to see that The Crown and Electric Cinema are still boarded up, with a little vision that little patch of Brum could be a huge attraction for visitors judging the the number of people flocking to the various Black Sabbath related artwork and the bench on Broad Street. The legendary Swordfish Records (Est. 1979!) may be looking for a new home soon too apparently. Brum's not unique ignoring (or even worse demolishing) its cultural gems (Liverpool famously allowed The Cavern to be bulldozed into a car park...doh!) but come on now, pull yer fingers out. Apparently The Crown is or was owned by a Japanese development company who bought it in 2014 and then promptly shut it. I suspect they own most of that block now and no doubt have plans to wipe it off the face of the earth, soulless motherfuckers.
On a more positive note, get yourselves down to RPM in Bearwood. Owned and operated by Pop Will Eat Itself and Bentley Rhythm Ace's Richard March it's an aladdin's cave of vintage analogue audio equipment on the ground floor with a record shop and cafe on the first floor and recording studio on the top floor.
Here's a bit of Richard (who's also a ruddy great bloke) giving his axe some welly in the Poppies...
...and here he is in the vid for the iconic Big Beat classic Bentley's Gonna Sort You Out.
Yet another old track that I've only recently discovered, this time it's Stephen Stills...with added guitar from a certain Jimi Hendrix. Suffice to say it rocks.
Watched the remake of The Running Man yesterday (not bad if you've got a couple of hours to spend) and thoroughly enjoyed hearing this cover over the end credits. Could it sound any more 60's if it tried? Austin Powers a go go.
Talk of a lost generation (or more likely generations) of young people in this country (and probably every country) who can't find work made me recall this unexpected but bizarrely brilliant hook up between Rick Astley and Blossoms from 2023's Glasto.
Like Rick and the boys I've been lucky enough to be gainfully employed for pretty much all of my life but heaven knows what the poor sods in their teens and 20s are going to do for a living in a future stuffed full of AI, driverless vehicles, drone deliveries, robots and a population that's too lazy or scared to ever go out again for fear of getting raped or stabbed in the head (and quite possibly both) by an 11 year old looking for Tik Tok content and who won't even get a slap on the fricking wrist if he's ever caught.
Been hearing this track a lot on 6 Music recently. It's a new one but it sounds like it's been around for decades, thanks to that Philly soul vibe in the background together with the odd nod to classic era Springsteen.
After a colder than average May in the UK it looks as though we might actually see a little sun over the bank holiday weekend. So what better tune to usher it in than Osibisa's classic Sunshine Day.
