Searching For The Young Soul Tweeters

Tim Burgess is doing another of his listening parties tonight, this time it's Dexy's Midnight Runners' seminal album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels with guests including Kevin (Al) Archer, Pete Williams, Kevin Rowland and Big Jim Patterson...given the history of the band (ahem) that should be interesting! If nothing else it's a great excuse to crack out one of the best albums of all time.

Anyway it all kicks off (quite possibly literally) at 9pm and you'll find the instructions for how to participate here.

Mari Wilson - The Rhythm

dpmclain · Mari - The Rhythm (Club Mix)

Good grief, what's happened to the weather? I mean there's sun...and heat...in England...in May...for more than a day at a time. You'd almost think it was summer. It'd be three flavours of ironic if this summer turned out to be a cracker after every single event, festival and gathering seems to have been cancelled but there we go. Anyway, to celebrate the almost tropical conditions here's a little Mari Wilson for you. Enjoy.

The Wild Ones - McAlmont and Webb

I love David McAlmont's voice and delivery and this lockdown gem's well worth a listen. Harking back to his legendary pairing with Bernard Butler this is a cover of Suede's The Wild Ones that takes the original and jazzes the bejesus out of it. Apparently there's a whole album full of covers called The Last Bohemians which I'll have to investigate.

PS: Here's a little throwback track courtesy of McAlmont and Butler, bet you'd forgotten this one eh?

Altern-8 Activ-8

If you're of a certain age this track might stir a few memories. Mind you if you...er...got 'sorted' maybe it won't. Good to see that Altern-8 were fully masked up almost 30 years before Coronavirus too. Top one, nice one, sorted.

The Polyphonic Spree - Light and Day/Reach For The Sun

I'm not religious, fair play to those who are...I daresay it makes life a lot more bearable from time to time...but I have had the odd moment of fervour watching bands and few acts have come close to The Polyphonic Spree for sheer hands-in-the-air-praise-whoever-or-whatever-bought-us-here joy. And this track's the Spree at their absolute best.

Come on...they even manage to make Nirvana's Lithium seem joyful...

Matt Philip Hale...LIVE...in Romsley!

Sadly it looks as though the joys of sitting/standing/vogueing (voguing?) outside listening to live music in the sun (ah, alright then...rain and thunder) are going to be denied us this year. That sucks balls. Big sweaty hairy four days in a field with just a wet wipe or two balls. Thank goodness then for the latest missive from MPH in which our hero wanders the hills of Romsley in the sun, treating the wildlife to some of many new classics currently spilling from his endlessly creative gut. Enjoy!



PS: You can keep up with Matt's output via his You Tube channel.

Robbie Basho - Wine Song

Here's a new name to me (and you I'm guessing) but an old track that has a touch of the Buckleys (Jeff and Tim), John Martyn, John Fahey and Michael Chapman about it. Poor Basho got very little recognition when he was alive as well as suffering from mental and physical ill health and then, aged just 45, died after a visit to a chiropractor ruptured blood vessels in his neck leading to a stroke. Blimey. I've yet to investigate much of his work but this song's a folking beauty. Enjoy.

Loads of people RIP

Good grief, it's been difficult keeping up with music deaths over the past week...Dave Greenfield (The Stranglers), Millie Small, Sweet Pea Atkinson (Was Not Was), Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk), Little Richard, Ty and finally (for now) Betty Wright all passed away in just 6 days. RIP to each and every one of them. I figure we could all do with a little cheering up so here's Senor Coconut's cover version of Autobhan.



There, now isn't that better?

50 Not Out!

Well, tomorrow, providing I make it through the night I reach the grand old age of 50. Good grief. How did that happen? It's fair to say that a lot's changed in the past half century so I thought I'd look back at the 5 number ones on my various 10 year anniversaries from zero to 50...

1970 - My first birthday...awww bless...isn't he cute?



1980 - My tenth birthday...slightly less cute.



1990 - My twentieth birthday, now a student in Brighton and working at 7-Eleven to pay my way...that was fun...



2000 - My thirtieth birthday, married and with a mortgage, now working in training and development.



2010 - My fortieth...ouch...recently made redundant from the crazy world of advertising following the 'credit crunch' and working from home as a self employed copywriter...also a few years into this blog.



2020 - My fiftieth...double ouch...now living in Devon, just a brief hobble away from the beach...still married, still working from home (albeit a different home)...mind you aren't most of us working from home at the moment?



I'd never heard the 2010 track before and to be brutally honest I never want to hear it again, but the rest are pretty good. I'm particularly chuffed that Geno was number one on my 10th birthday. Lord knows what'll be number one in 2030 or if I (or anyone else for that matter) will be around to hear it but my money's on Captain Tom doing a cover version of Space Oddity. 

The Nightingales - Everything, Everywhere, All Of The Time

Now 41 years into their existence (granted there have been one or two...ahem...line up changes over the years) The Nightingales are back with a new track from forthcoming album Four Against Fate and it is, as you'd expect, a cracker. Enjoy!

PS: Here's another one from the new album to pogo round your house to...

Tony Allen RIP

Arguably one of the greatest drummers in history and a founding grandfather of Afrobeat Tony Allen joined Ginger Baker on that great drum stool in the sky yesterday. There's a lovely moment in this clip (around 4 minutes 38 seconds in) when Ginger looks across at Tony and smiles...not something Ginger seemed to do a great deal in his latter years...seemingly at the sheer  joy of playing with a fellow genius.