BED - White Coats

George Formby yesterday and BED (Baxter Dury, Etienne de Crecy and Delilah Holliday) today, who says variety's dead eh? This track's been gradually growing on me over the past few weeks and now resistance is futile. Two minutes of utter wonky pop perfection.

If this floats yer boat then I can heartily recommend Baxter Dury's 2017 album Prince Of Tears. His old man (Ian Dury of 'and the Blockheads' fame) would be dead proud...

George Formby - My Plus Fours

As regular readers will know I've got pretty broad tastes but even so this has to be the first time I've stuck up a George Formby track. There's a good reason though, after several years of searching I finally found a proper vintage pair of tweed Plus Fours on Friday for the absolute bargain price of £1. Yes. £1. Okay so there's the odd hole here and there but what the hell do you expect for £1. I reckon even George would be impressed.

PS: Ever wanted to hear a dance remix of When I'm Cleaning Windows? Your wish is my command.

Army Of Lovers - Crucified

Caught the video for this on one of the squillions of music channels the other night and simply couldn't resist popping it up on the Aid once again. If you've never heard/seen it before pour yourself a cup of something alcoholic, shut the curtains, dim the lights and revel in three and a half minutes of pure musical gold.

Bowie at Glastonbury

We did 10 Glastonbury's back in the day, thankfully most of them before the whole thing became more corporate and 'trendy'. Yes, it really was possible to wander in to HMV in Brum a few weeks before the event and buy tickets over the counter. Now? Now you have to have 600 computers all set up to try to secure a ticket when they go on sale at 3am on a Sunday morning in October. OCTOBER! That's almost a ruddy year before the event. And don't get me started on the price. But still, we had some fine moments at Glasto and they don't get much finer than watching Bowie live back in 2000 in arguably one of his greatest performances. Apparently only a few tracks were shown on telly at the time but the whole shebang was recorded and it's being shown on BBC 4 this Friday night. I don't remember much of the gig so it'll be nice to see / hear it again but I do recall getting a little emotional over Heroes. Maybe it was the cider, the lack of sleep, the 'erb or just the feeling of being surrounded by lord knows how many thousands of people sharing an experience that you just knew would go down in musical history but watching this clip takes me right back to that moment 18 (18!!!!) years ago.

Win - You've Got The Power

Back to the 80s for this week's Friday banger and Win with You've Got The Power which, if you're as ancient as me you may remember from an ad for 'orrible lager.

PS: In the highly unlikely event that you're in Dawlish (South Devon) this weekend Lady Baron and I will be flogging some vintage loveliness at this:

Misty's Big Compilation

News reaches the Aid that a Misty's Big Adventure greatest hits (well they would have been hits in a better world) compilation is in the offing, hopefully it's at least 10 albums long...at the very least. Misty's were/are one of my absolute favourite bands of all time and the fact that the rest of the world doesn't feel the same way saddens me more than the sight of Theresa May at a disco dancing competition. Anyway, above this nonsense is a little heard Misty's gem from their Grumpier Fun album. Enjoy.

PS: And as a bonus here's a lovely vid for I Can't Bring The Time Back too.

"What, you been down Bearwood...?"

Somewhat unbelievably it's three years to the day that Lady Baron and I left Poplar Road in Bearwood, where we'd lived for a mere 21 years, and decamped to Devon. So that's a perfect excuse for another airing of possibly the only song in history to mention Bearwood, Dexy's seminal What's She Like. While we're at it here's a cracking track from ex Dexy's man and current Bearwood (or close by at least) resident Pete Williams. Ar bab, it was good in the 'wood.

The Good Water - Tell Me What To Do

It's been the week (well alright then two days...I've had man flu...) of the trippy vids here on The Aid, first off we had John Grant and now cop a load of this mind melting 60s psych a go go beauty from The Good Water. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooovy baby.

John Grant - He's Got His Mother's Hips

And the award for trippiest video of 2018 goes to...pause for dramatic effect...John Grant for his video for He's Got His Mother's Hips. It appears as though more than a dozen animators animated their asses off then everything got mashed up into this piece of twisted genius. I'm also guessing that a lorry load of LSD was involved too, either that or some folk need a bowl full of therapy.

Ram Jam - Black Betty

Okay so if you have ears you'll know this track. It's a stone cold classic Friday banger. But have you ever seen the vid? Nope, me neither. Man, they're some hairy assed dudes.

Of course they weren't responsible for the song, it's true origins are lost in the mists of time, but Leadbelly recorded one of the earliest versions without guitar, drums, bass...er anything apart from a hand and a knee by the sounds of it.

Crass - So What

It's heartening to see/hear a little of the punk spirit coming back into music these days (see Idles, Honeyblood, Savages, Sleaford Mods etc) but will there ever be a more 'punk' outfit than Crass eh? I'm sure there's a load of footage, docs, interviews etc on You Tube but for a potted history of a band that really should be better known the ever reliable (well, unless someone's hacked into the thing and rewritten history) Wikipedia's not a bad place to start.

Daniel 'PeeWeeToms' Thomas RIP

Not strictly music related this one (although Dan's bro Matt's the drummer for The Joy Formidable) but I couldn't let his passing over the weekend go unmarked and this track, from Anthony and the Johnsons, seemed appropriate.

If you've not heard of Daniel Thomas (aka PeeWeeToms) he was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer back in 2015 and began blogging/vlogging about it - with impressive honesty and as much good humour as he could wring out of the situation it has to be said - soon after. Despite chemo, countless surgeries and as much fight as he could muster he died on Saturday at just 32 years old.

Watching the videos and reading his blog posts over the past few weeks really put life's little problems into perspective (which I'm guessing was partly the point of it all) and it's clear from the comments on his various social media accounts that his 'Don't give in! Don't give up!' philosophy struck a particularly inspirational chord with a people from all walks of life and backgrounds across the world. As legacies go that's not a bad one to leave behind is it eh?

As Dan himself would put it "See you later, ta ta, bye bye".

KC and the Sunshine Band - Sound Your Funky Horn

Dug out a random box of vinyl last weekend and kicked off a session with a little funky horn courtesy of KC and the Sunshine Band, which seems as good a track as any for this week's Friday 'banger'. Enjoy!

Soft Cell - Mr Self Destruct

So this Sunday really does see 'This Last Night' for Soft Cell as the band plays it's last ever (honest guv) live gig. Finances (specifically a distinct lack of) prevent me from going but I was fortunate enough to see 'em a couple of times during their noughties reboot. No idea what the set list's going to be this weekend but it'd be nice to hear one or two of their more obscure tracks, like this sleazy beauty. If you're going have a good 'un...and try not to weep too much during Say Hello Wave Goodbye.

Mush - Gig Economy

Loving this track from Mush right now, kind of puts me in mind of a New Wave Sparks. Judging from this clip they can really cut the Mush-tard live too. Sorry...there was no need for that was there eh? 

Ray Smith - RIP

"Who?" you may ask. Well, if you're a fan of Heaven 17 you'll certainly know his artwork if not his name as he was responsible for several classic Heaven 17 covers including Penthouse and Pavement, The Luxury Gap and How Men Are (a bit of a forgotten classic in my humble opinion). RIP Ray.

And the winner is...

So, Mercury Music Award time again tonight. As ever it's a bit of a mixed bag and the best album's highly unlikely to win (just cast your minds back to 2016 when Bowie's Blackstar lost out to Skepta, what were the judges thinking...?) but there's some good stuff in the shortlist (and some not so good stuff too, but we'll gloss over that). Personally I'd like Everything Everything to win, followed by Nadine Shah and then Wolf Alice, but what do I know eh?

Boy George and Culture Club - Let Somebody Love You

I meant to post the new single from Boy George and Culture Club last week but, you know, life, work and everything in between. It's a neat little update of the Culture Club sound with George in particularly good form vocally. Hopefully the band can all get on with each other this time and health issues won't get in the way of tours and stuff as the world could really do with a little Culture Club right now...

Miles Hunt - On The Ropes

Beautifully stripped back version of The Stufffies' On The Ropes (taken from new solo album The Custodian) performed by its author Mr Miles Hunt, simply one of the most underrated songwriters around.

The Surfrajettes - Toxic

Hands up who wants to hear a surf version of Britney Spears' Toxic? You too eh. Okay, my wish is your command. The Hearing Aid...making dreams come true since 2006.