Good job I kept my turntable...

Choir Christmas concert today!

2011-12-11T09:16:00.001Z

Anybody with a couple of free hours this afternoon could do a lot worse than come to Gladesmore School, South Tottenham, between 4 and 6 for the TCC winter concert featuring Artcha, PanNation, and the Gladesmore choir. See http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/ for full details

Winter concert

2011-12-03T10:28:00.001Z

If you haven't already bought a ticket for our winter concert next Sunday (11th December), why not do so now?

It's at Gladesmore School, N15 6EB at 4.00 pm in aid of the Downhills Primary School playground fund, and features local Haringey guest artists Artcha and PanNation, as well as the school choirs from Gladesmore and Downhills primary schools - why not bring the whole family for an afternoon of musical festive fun?!!!

Tickets now on sale online from Eventbrite, or at our Tuesday rehearsals.

Erk Alors - el finito already?

2011-11-13T17:40:00.001Z

Nothin mp3 related, just another blatant plug for my choir. We have several performances coming up over the next few weeks in North London - see http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com for further details.

Maybe its time to retire this blog altogether. I have no more obscure vinyl albums to rip - or if I do, they are *so* obscure that even I have forgotten about them. So (unless I change my mind) TTFN.

RTFM

2011-06-29T18:30:00.001+01:00

Somebody requested Janis Ian's Uncle Wonderful album - I don't know how many times I have to say that *I don't post albums that you can legitimately buy*. In this case you can get the mp3 album from Amazon for a fiver - though I don't know why you"d want to because 85% of it stinks.

posted from Bloggeroid

Rikki Don't Lose the Eye Of The Lens

2011-06-22T08:53:00.002+01:00

Well now, what have we here? Two newly acquired bootlegs, that's what.
One is a bunch of tracks recorded for Dutch radio in 81/82 by the mighty Comsat Angels and converted to MP3 from the FLACs that a kindly person uploaded to DimeADozen - took me three days to download them and frankly mp3 is just as good for stuff that was recorded to cassette tape from FM radio. A mixed bag but some great stuff including Ju Ju Money, Total War and (of course) Indy Day.
The second is a real discovery for me. Having never heard any Steely Dan apart from the original 7 albums (which, of course, I have on vinyl and love), I downloaded this on impulse from another blog and was absolutely shaggered to hear how mighty they sounded live.
Link to the original Dan post and download for the Comsats are on my mp3 site http://www.witchseason.com.
PS: I can't believe I used that title for this post, it's probably my worst yet. I'll try to think of a better one.
BTW The Steely Dan recording really kicks the proverbial but suffers from the same problems that many soundboard recordings do - it's a bit flat, has no reverb, and is lacking some bottom end (particularly on the kick and bass guitar) that would be provided physically by the bass bins and so is underemphasised on the desk. Also the bass is probably DI'd so is a bit too 'clean', could do with some warmth and depth - ideally like you'd get from a big analogue amp & a stack of 4x12s.

Tottenham Community Choir (s)

2011-05-30T12:07:00.000+01:00

Yes, there appear to be two. In fact, there are indeed two. One is called Tottenham Community Choir and one is called the New Tottenham Singers. And yes, they (we) do both rehearse at the same time - 7.30 till 9.30 on a Tuesday night - and within 200 yards of each other.

Why are there two? What - if any - is the connection? Well, there used to be one (TCC). And some of the members of TCC split off, along with our ex-MD, and formed their own choir. Fair enough, I suppose.

What's the difference? Well, I'd refer you to the respective web sites - http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com and http://www.tottenhamsingers.com - where you can read what each has to say about themselves and judge for yourselves. And for those of you who are a bit tech-savvy, you could also take a peek at the source code for the index pages, where one choir is less than complementary about the other. Oh - and you could also look at http://www.choirwars.blogspot.com where I will tell a bit more about it all.

Bye for now. Oh - and the Melanie Harrold/Joanna Carlin albums are up at http://www.witchseason.com.

Please request any re-uploads

2011-04-18T09:13:00.000+01:00

I've been very lax and neglectful of this site recently, sorry about that. As I mention elsewhere I've almost run out of stuff to upload - but if you would like me to re-up anything that I've uploaded previously please let me know and I'll try to oblige. Any new uploads will be available for free from my new site http://www.witchseason.com - no more of this Rapidshare nonsense - at least until I run out of space.
Also, please forgive the plugs for the choir - and if you live in North London, "why not come along and sing along?"
http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com

Tottenham Community Choir site reorganised

2011-04-17T08:54:00.001+01:00

Nothing to do with MP3s today I'm afraid, instead a shameless plug for Tottenham Community Choir. Come along and have a sing, or chat to me and request an upload!

All about us http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/aboutus.htm

Our history http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/history.htm

All about our outstanding and fantastic new Musical Director http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/md.htm

Our constitution - how and why we exist http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/constitution.htm

About our committee and how it works http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/committee.htm

All the latest TCC news http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/news.htm

Our repertoire (constantly expanding - any suggestions?) http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/repertoire.htm

How to find us http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/howtofindus.htm

Press reports about Tottenham Community Choir http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/inthepress.htm

If you don't read music, don't panic - read http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/reading.htm

How to contact us http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com/pages/contactus.htm

Anyone feel like singing?

2011-04-11T07:08:00.000+01:00

Perhaps OTT but nevertheless - if you live in North London and enjoy singing, why not join our choir? Tottenham Community Choir meets every Tuesday from 7.30 to 8.30 in Downhills School, West Green Road N15. For further info see http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com - if you do come along, say hello to me!
(PS not meeting this week, 11th April, back on the 18th)

Rainy Day (without the Dream Away)

2011-04-04T12:23:00.001+01:00

The all star Paisley Underground album featuring assorted members of Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate, The Three O'Clock, Green On Red & The Bangles is up now at www.witchseason.com

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Here Come The Re-ups

2011-03-27T12:19:00.002+01:00

I won't bother making any further comments on the albums that I re-upload, if you want to hear what I've got to say you can leaf through the archives here.
All these reups will be directly available from witchseason.com, so bookmark that site rather than this one if it's reups you're after. This blog will have any new uploads, plus rants on other stuff that are too long to be tweeted.
First up are the two General Humbert albums, later today I'll put up the Dion session.
As always, if you can legitimately buy an album you won't find it here.
L7ers.

Witchseason - The Return

2011-03-25T10:24:00.001Z

Some time ago I had an email conversation with Joe Boyd about my using the Witchseason name (he was generally OK about it btw), and in the course of that I suggested he might register the domain name(s) - if only to prevent anyone else doing so. Well, he didn't - and so I have.
Http://www.witchseason.com will go live in the next few days and I'll be using it for general anonymous stuff that isn't right for the blog, including storing a whole bunch of re-up requests (I didn't renew my rapidshare account last time so the links are going to start to go dead if they haven't already).
So if you would like me to reupload something I uploaded before but has gone dead, just ask.
I'm coming back to blogland but it won't be exclusively musical any more. Watch out for a rant about my local choir(s)...
L7ers

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Say Hello to the Bear Faced Lady

2011-03-24T20:36:00.002Z

I am still here. I haven't given up, but I have almost run out of ripped vinyl. My friend Bear Faced Lady has just started a blog of her own - not music related but she has a cautionary tale of Internet nastiness to tell - pop by and say hello, say Witchseason sent you. I'll be back soon, maybe with some re-ups, but I no longer have a Rapidshare account so my posts may die quicker than they used to.

Y Viva Espana

2010-02-26T13:40:00.003Z

I've been looking for this album for flamin' yonks and yonks.

Barbara Mauritz has - or had - one of the most unique voices in rock, and the three Lamb albums (see a *big* thanks to Mike Gilbert...) are extraordinary (especially 'Cross Between', which is the only one I have on vinyl). So when I learned that *the voice of Lamb* had made a solo album it went right up high on my list of albums to find.

Never found it. Until today. Casual browsing, searched for it, found it. A Spanish blog, full to the gunwales of albums that should never have been released on vinyl, let alone on CD. Grassy Arse, senor.

It's just a pity that the album isn't really much cop - the voice is great but the material is nearly all by other people and that's really not where she shines. The best track - by far - is her own 'Winter In The Valley', and that's the only one that really gets anywhere near the Lamb material (although 'I'm Bound To Be is co-written by her lamb partner). Nevertheless I'm glad I found it.

Barbara Mauritz - Music Box (1972)

01 - Sit Yourself Down (Stephen Stills)
02 - Drop Down Daddy (Sleepy John Estes)
03 - He Knows What To Do For Me (Mac Rebbenack)
04 - All The Love Of My Life (Link Wray)
05 - I'm Bound To Be (Barbara Mauritz & Bob Swanson)
06 - I Will Be There (Van Morrison)
07 - Around And Around (Chuck Berry)
08 - Winter In The Valley (Barbara Mauritz)
09 - Say That You Love Me (Loudon Wainwright)
10 - Whale (Barbara Mauritz)
11 - Music Box (Barbara Mauritz)

Download Barbara Mauritz - Music Box

Bloody hell, where have you been?

2009-12-17T13:34:00.005Z

...a comment that could be levelled both at myself and at today's subject - Sally Oldfield. And yes, I have previously posted about her - see see here.

Older sister of the slightly-better-known Mike (and Terry), she made a number of excellent albums dring the 70s/80s/90s but vanished a few years ago and I've no idea where she was or what she was doing. There were a couple of rehashed compilation albums released 'as if' they were new but nothing else.

And now, today, I've discovered a Sally Oldfield MySpace page with info about a 'New' album - Cantadora - that claims to be "a new compilation of Sally's favourite tracks, recorded in her home studio over the years without any record company involvement". I'll try to find out a bit more about it before I buy it, though.

I've previously posted some of her albums - so here are those links again, plus a few more. The only albums that you can buy new - as far as I know - are Water Bearer and the new one, so here are the others. In my opinion the best ones (and they are *really* good) are Secret Songs, Playing In The Flame, Easy and Natasha, and the worst are Instincts (by a thousand miles) and Femme. In fact, these are so poor (at least in comparison to her other work) that I haven't even included all the tracks in the downloads. So sue me.

Sally Oldfield - Easy (1979)

Download Easy

Sally Oldfield - Celebration (1980)

Download Celebration

Sally Oldfield - Playing In The Flame (1981)

Download Playing In The Flame

Sally Oldfield - In Concert (1982)

Download Sally Oldfield In Concert

Sally Oldfield - Strange Day In Berlin (1983)

Download Strange Day In Berlin

Sally Oldfield - Femme (1987)

Download Femme

Sally Oldfield - Instincts (1988)

Download ItStinks

Sally Oldfield - Natasha (1990)

Download Natasha

Sally Oldfield - The Flame (1992)

Download The Flame

Sally Oldfield - Three Rings (1994)

Download Three Rings

Sally Oldfield - Secret Songs (1996)

Download Secret Songs

Sally Oldfield - Flaming Star (2001)

Download Flaming Star

Sally Oldfield - Assorted other tracks

I Sing For You (single, 1980)
Broken Mona Lisa (EXCELLENT single, 1982)
Share (single as 'The Roar Sound', 1985)
Fire And Ice (single as 'The Roar Sound', 1985)
Break Through The Rock remix (single, 1990)
The Man I Love (single, 1990)
Flaming Star (original version, from 'uncut private collection' CD, 2002)
Mystic Drum (original version, from 'uncut private collection' CD, 2002)

Download assorted other tracks

Oops – forgot

2009-10-08T12:11:00.001+01:00

I’m also listening to It’s Immaterial for the first time in years, can’t think why I’ve neglected them. File alongside Microdisnae.

No upload today (and no witty title either)

2009-10-08T07:14:00.001+01:00

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who bothers to send me comments. It’s nice to know that some people are willing to give something in return for the music (ie feedback).

Out of interest, my current listening preferences are AFP (and you ought to know who that is), The Church, Abigail Washburn (with or without the Sparrow Quartet), Kathleen Edwards, Comsat Angels (prior to the gig next week – yay!) and Spirogyra.

All available on CD – or as MP3 downloads from Amazon/iTunes. So no, I’m not going to post them here.

Answering a few requests & questions

2009-09-30T13:49:00.002+01:00

No, sorry, I don't have any Wes McGhee. Though I saw him and the band live a few times, and have a vague notion I might have stood in for their bass player at a gig at the Weavers Arms.

No Chris Rainbow, Paul Brett or Mick Fleetwood either.

I don't have "Previous Convictions" (Speedy Keen's 1st solo)

I don't have the Arrival album, either

I re-uploaded the Dion session a while ago - check out http://rapidshare.com/files/65816823/Dion.zip

Finally, an update on my various Web presences:

Web: http://www.jeremyb.co.uk
MySpace: http://myspace.com/witchseason
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/people/Jeremy-Browning/100000251004764
Twitter:@W1tchseason

Now - How do I get rid of all the Japanese spam?

My hands are shaking, don't you love me any more?

2009-09-30T09:38:00.005+01:00

@kristinhersh tweeted (tweeted? Twote? Twit? Twat) that it's been 25 years since 'The Letter'. What a heartbreaker *that* was.

As far as I know, all the Throwing Muses and Kristin Hersh stuff is available on CD apart from one track (the extended 'Soul Soldier') that was on the vinyl version of The Fat Skier but never made it to CD. I also have some live recordings from the radio of a 1993 show in Glasgow where KH did four songs solos and then the band did five.

So today is happy birthday Letter and here's some old songs from a long time back. And 'The Letter' for good measure, in case you don't know it.

By the way, if anyone wants to follow me on Twitter I'm @W1tchseason.

Kristin Hersh & Throwing Muses tracks...

...for the 25th Anniversary of 'The Letter'

Throwing Muses - Soul Soldier (extended version from The Fat Skier)
Kristin Hersh – The Letter (from Hips And Makers)
Kristin Hersh live in Glasgow 1993 - 01 - Sundrops
Kristin Hersh live in Glasgow 1993 - 02 - Houdini Blues
Kristin Hersh live in Glasgow 1993 - 03 - Me And My Charms
Kristin Hersh live in Glasgow 1993 - 04 - Your Ghost
Throwing Muses live in Glasgow 1993 - 01 - Furious
Throwing Muses live in Glasgow 1993 - 02 - Counting Backwards
Throwing Muses live in Glasgow 1993 - 03 - Mania
Throwing Muses live in Glasgow 1993 - 04 - Bea
Throwing Muses live in Glasgow 1993 - 05 - Pearl

Download from Rapidshare

Kerrumbs, ain’t nothing happening here

2009-09-15T16:10:00.001+01:00

Innit?

Please keep checking back – I *will* post something, sometime soon…

My Guitar Sometimes Plays Itself

2009-06-22T13:00:00.002+01:00

I'm sure you've realised by now, as I've ranted and opinionated quite a lot on this hyar blog, that I tend to champion the unknown artists over the famous ones. If you've read my Pink Floyd rant you'll also know that I'm more than capable of dumping a previously much-loved band if they put out a real dog of an album - especially if everyone else raves over it. That's why I hate all post-DSOTM Floyd, why I hate all post-Document REM, and why I hate all post-'the-album-that-made-them-rich' anyone and everybody. And I have to say that, most of the time, I feel completely justified in my loathing. But occasionally - just occasionally - it appears that I may have been a bit rash and (dare I say it) wrong.

Take The Church.

I loved the first album (or the English version of it), really liked the second, didn't care for the third, liked the fourth (2xep) a lot, and loved the fifth. And then they made Starfish (and, more siginicantly, the 'Under The Milky Way' single) - and I thought the album stank. And so I dumped them. I considered buying Gold Afternoon Fix and Priest=Aura when they came out but decided against it and went elsewhere.

A couple of months ago I read somewhere (musta been on that internet thingy) that they had a new album coing out. I was surprised to hear they were still going but thought I'd have a listen anyway - and was really surprised.

Truth is, I have to admit that The Church have been consistently prodcing magnificent semi-psychedelic albums throughout the past twenty years, and 'Starfish' was a bit of a one-off. In fact, I almost like it - but not quite. It's still too mainstream and 'Green'-y (hi majors!). But... Priest=Aura! Sometime Anywhere! The new one! I haven't digested all the Church albums I've bought in the past few weeks but I can say with some certainty that I'm going to put them back up where they belong.

Although I don't normally share stuff that can be bought, I think it's worth taking the risk here because I truly believe that more people should hear this band - and from what I can figure out the readers of this blog might just be the kind of people who would do that, and then go buy the albums.

I haven't included the hit singles (Under The Milky Way or The Unguarded Moment) 'cos I figure you may know them anyway, but the rest of these tracks are just the ones that have grabbed me over the past few weeks while I've had The Church on nearly continuously shuffling on my ipod. There's no real difference between the two compilations, they both span the whole career of the band so download one and have a listen. If you like it, download the other. And then decide for yourself what period of their work you like, and buy the albums. Me? I like 'em all.

Apart from Starfish.

JHB Church Anthology One

01 - Bel-Air (from Of Skins And Heart, 1981)
02 - In This Room (from Sing Songs e.p., 1982)
03 - Shadow Cabinet (from Remote Luxury, 1984)
04 - Tantalized (from Heyday, 1985)
05 - Anna Miranda (from Starfish (bonus disc), 1988)
06 - Transient (from Gold Afternoon Fix, 1990)
07 - Swan Lake (from Priest = Aura, 1992)
08 - Day Of The Dead (from Sometime Anywhere, 1994)
09 - No Certainty Attached (from Hologram Of Baal, 1998)
10 - Espionage (from Parallel Universe (disk two - Mixture), 2002)
11 - Pantechnicon (from Back With Two Beasts (Jammed 2), 2005)
12 - Pangaea (from Untitled #23, 2009)
13 - So Love May Find Us (from Pangaea EP, 2009)

Download JHB Church Anthology one

JHB Church Anthology Two

01 - She Never Said (from Of Skins And Heart, 1981)
02 - Constant in Opal (from Remote Luxury, 1984)
03 - Myrrh (from Heyday, 1985)
04 - Reptile (from Starfish, 1988)
05 - Metropolis (from Gold Afternoon Fix, 1990)
06 - Ripple (from Priest = Aura, 1992)
07 - Mistress (from Priest = Aura, 1992)
08 - Two Places At Once (from Sometime Anywhere, 1994)
09 - Another Earth (from Hologram Of Baal, 1998)
10 - The Theatre And Its Double (from Forget Yourself, 2003)
11 - Easy (from Uninvited, Like The Clouds, 2006)
12 - On Angel Street (from Untitled #23, 2009)

Download JHB Church Anthology two

LINKS:

For further information check out the Wikipedia article, The Church Band home page and this fan site, and to buy the albums go to the online store.

Nothing Changes, Soldier Blue

2009-06-22T12:02:00.002+01:00

Another long delay. What can I say? Sari.

Truth is, we moved house a few weeks ago and my turntable hasn't been out of its box since - and isn't likely to be any time soon. So I'm reduced to posting stuff that I've already ripped - or, in this case, ripped *off*.

I do have this album on vinyl, and when I finally get my deck up and running again I'll do my own rip (because this rip doesn't sound great to me), but for now you'll have to make do with this. I got it from http://baratomusical.blogspot.com/ - there's a lot of other good stuff there, although some of it is available for purchase so I can't be 100% in favour.

The early to mid 80s were an odd time, as I recall - loads of big hair, big guitars, guitars sounding like bagpipes, flanged basses - and most bands wanted to be U2 or Simple Minds. Or Springsteen. Pretty much sums up this lot - I bought this album from Steve Burgess in English Weather in Crouch End (might still have been Terrapin Trucking by then, can't remember). The fact that he recommended this to me shows how bleak the situation was - even Steve could be taken in by pomposity and bombast in place of real emotion or musical ability.

You might think that I'm not over fond of this album. You'd be right. I liked it at the time - but only in the gaps left when I wasn't listening to the Chameleons, Comsats, Cocteaus, Church, and other bands not beginning with C (Icicle Fukin Works - now *there* was a band who could do grandeur without grandiose - power without pomposity - and what a drummer... you ought to see me air-drumming to 'lovers day'... bloody hell...)

Where was I? Oh yeah, Silent Running. Someone asked for this, I have it but haven't ripped it yet, happened to find it at baratomusical. Updated the tags & uploaded. Enjoy it if you can. me - I'm off to 'lovers day' again before my current 80s trip subsides. But I *am* going to see the Comsats later this year for the first time since the mid-80s (Camden Palace with Way Of The West). Can't fukin wait.

Silent Running - Shades Of Liberty (198x)

01 - Home Is Where The Heart Is
02 - Emotional Warfare
03 - One In A Million Day
04 - Sticks And Stones
05 - That's Life (In The Real World)
06 - Young Hearts
07 - Crimson Days
08 - Shades Of Liberty
09 - Go For The Heart

Download Shades Of Liberty

He's Driving Her Stone Blind

2009-03-25T07:31:00.001Z

First, I want to apologise for the lack of updates recently. I haven't gone away, and I'm still paying the subs to keep the rapidshare account open so all the old links stay live. Fact is, I like having this blog and I like sharing this music (great and not so great) and I like the feedback I get.

But with two kids, a full-time job and all the other things I have to I don't have as much time as I'd like for things like blog maintenance - so don't be surprised if there's another huge gap before the next post.

The other thing is that I'm running out of vinyl to rip. Most of the rest of my albums are now available on CD (and so I won't post them) - but every so often I discover that an album that *was* available isn't any more. So I pounce. Oh, you may be able to buy it from ebay, or from Amazon in the 'used and new' section, but the *artist* doesn't get anything from that so I have no problems with giving it away instead. I'm not going to support second-hand dealers!

On a related note I recently found myself outsite an AFP (that's Amanda *Fucking* Palmer to you) gig in Camden with a spare ticket. Touts were walking up and down the queue buying and selling tickets, but I held on to mine and then, when I got to the front of the queue, I just *gave* it to a girl hoping for a return or affordable ticket. You should have seen the look I got from the touts! Made me feel good (even though the girl snatched the freebie and ran off without even thanking me... That's yoof for ya...)

And now, back to the records.

Here's an all time classic that has recently become unavailable to buy.

John Stewart, sadly, died last year and even though I hadn't bought a new album of his in thirty years I was saddened to hear about it. Back in the early seventies he was a great personal favourite of mine (along with other ZigZag & Dark Star US singer/songwriter greats like Papa Nes, Guy Clark, Gene Clark). This isn't his best album - the incomporable California Bloodlines romps away with that (hmm - must check whether Old No 1 and Wolfking of LA are available - there's a classic triad for you) - but it's a damn fine record of a great talent.

BTW I do have the original vinyl (double) album but this rip is from my CD copy. The last two tracks aren't on the vinyl.

Enjoy - and I'll be back before long.

L7ers

John Stewart - The Pheonix Concerts Live (1973)

Wheatfield Lady
Kansas Rain
You Can't Look Back
The Pirates Of Stone County Road
The Runaway Fool of Love
Roll Away The Stone
July, You're A Woman
The Last Campaign Trilogy
Oldest Living Son
Little Road And A Stone To Roll
Kansas
Cody
California Bloodlines
Mother Country
Cops
Never Goin' Back
Freeway Pleasure
Let the Big Horse Run

Download The Phoenix Concerts Live

Sorry, I wasn't listening...

2008-12-11T14:16:00.006Z

Keith Tippett has been around the fringes - and centre - of the jazz/rock crossover for decades. He has played with King Crimson and Keith Christmas (vive les KC!), married Julie Driscoll, and done loads more that I don't know about. Now I'm *not* a jazz fan, and what jazz I do like has often been approached via rock connections. So I arrived at keith Tippett from Blossom Toes, Crimso, Jools, Soft Machine, and others.

I've no idea what his more recent stuff sounds like but these are the first three solo albums that he made. I say 'solo', though the first two are credited to The Keith Tippett Group and the third to Centipede - a great lumbering behemoth of around a hundred members.

I have the vinyl of 'Septober Energy', one of only two or three that I have on the RCA Neon label (along with 'Tonton Macoute', another cracker), and I'm fairly certain that the gatefold photo has a key to all the people on the album and lists - and numbers - them. Elton Dean (sax), Mark Charig (trumpet & cornet), Nick Evans (trombone), Robert Wyatt (drums), Brians Godding and Belshaw (guitars), Roy Babbington (bass)...

Robert Fripp produced the Centipede album at about the same time that he was recording King Crimson's Lizard album, and there are crossovers and parallels musically and personnel-wise.

The first two albums are akin to Soft machine 5, and if you like that you'll probably like them.

Septober Energy is a magnificent sprawling mess.
I love it - but I don't play it very often 'cos there are too many aimless bits. A bit like the Dead live - but whereas you can forgive Garcia & co for wandering off too far in a live performance it's a bit more difficult to love the whole 90-minute beast. A bit of judicious editing - and I'm talking to *you*, Mr. Robert Fripp producer - might have tightened it up and got rid of some of the worst excesses while leaving a side or two free for some other stuff. On the other hand it is (or was) a brave experiment and deserves to be heard warts'n'all. Part four is basically an extension of "Green And Orange Night Park' from the second album, and '###' is 'Let It Be' if I'm not mistaken. Which I may be.

I haven't checked whether the following companion albums are still available on CD, if not I may well post them soon. If they are available, I should buy Jools' ones if I were you. I have the B B Blunder on vinyl but never liked it much. Not sure that I do now, either.

B B Blunder - Worker's Playtime (essentially the 3rd Blossom Toes album)
Julie Driscoll - 1969
Julie Tippetts - Sunset Glow

Keith Tippett Group – You Are Here, I Am There (1970)

01 - This Evening Was Like Last Year (to Sarah)
02 - I Wish There Was A Nowhere
03 - Thank You For The Smile (for Wendy and Roger)
04 - Three Minutes From An Afternoon In July (to Nick)
05 - View From Battery Point (to John and Pete)
06 - Violence
07 - Stately Dance For Miss Primm
08 - This Evening Was Like Last Year (short version)

Download You Are Here, I Am There

Keith Tippett Group – Dedicated To You (But You Weren’t Listening) (1971)

01 - This Is What Happens
02 - Thoughts To Geoff
03 - Green And Orange Night Park
04 - Gridal Suite
05 - Five After Dawn
06 - Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening
07 - Black Horse

Download Dedicated To You (But You Weren't Listening)

Centipede – Septober Energy (1971)

01 - Septober Energy part 1
02 - Septober Energy part 2
03 - Septober Energy part 3
04 - Septober Energy part 4

Download Septober Energy

Hey For A Life On The Road

2008-11-26T19:30:00.004Z

A request fluttered into my Inbox yesterday and, since I was feeling in a good mood and since it was a *good* request, I decided to grant it. Listen to me, granting favours and lording it over the blogosphere! BTW - if my prose reads stilted or unusual today it may well be because I've just finished reading Dandelion Wine for the first time in ten or more years. And I've no idea what the connection might be, so it equally may not be.

IMPORTANT: Until recently a lot of the tracks on these albums were available on compilation CDs - but now it seems they're not any more. If I'm wrong, or of they are re-released, I'll be taking them down pronto so you can buy them. Check out Andy's Web site for more info (and a fuller history of his career).

Andy 'Manley Footwear' Roberts made four-and-two-half really nice albums in the late 60s & early 70s, and only one of them (The Great Stampede) is available on CD (and even that filed under 'Folk' in Virgin!). Here are three-and-two-halves of them.

(Side tryp - sorry for the delay between posts these days. As I say, I'm working full time so don't have loads of time for blogging - also running out of albums that aren't available on CD.
Side side tryp, I see Lizardson has finally made the move - under threat from the blogmeister - to only unavailable stuffs. Good man).

So, anyway - Andy Roberts. Long-serving sideman of Roy Harper and Pink Floyd, member of the Hank Wangford Band, Grimms, and Plainsong, as well as being a founding member of the original Albion Country Band. I have often though that if I'd ever made an album it would sound like one of his. Good songs, some verging on the great and some just down-home pleasant, not always able to sort out the good from the not-so-good (all of his albums contain at least one song that, frankly, doesn't make the grade). Good, workmanlike professional playing that, though it uses the same core bunch of musos as Keith Christmas' Pygmy and Fable Of The Wings albums, never quite lifts off into that elusive 'groove'.

Andy Roberts - Home Grown (1969/70)

After leaving The Liverpool Scene, Andy Roberts made a solo album for RCA - Home Grown. It's good, better than the vast majority of similar albums that were being made at the time, but not brilliant. Three or four songs from it are very good, and a couple are great (one-armed boatman, queen of the moonlight world).

For some reason, he then switched labels and released a different version of Home Grown on B&C/Pegasus - ten or so of the same tracks but remixed, a couple of different takes of the same songs, and a couple of switcheroos. So, by my reckoning, that's one-and-a-half solo albums so far. The version of Home Grown posted here contains (in my opinion) the best versions of each of the songs, with the alternatives tacked on as bonuses.

01 - Home Grown
02 - Just For The Record
03 - Applecross
04 - The Praties Are Dug
05 - John The Revelator
06 - Autumn To May
07 - Moths And Lizards In Detroit
08 - Creepy John
09 - Jello
10 - Gig Song
11 - Queen Of The Moonlight World
12 - Where The Soul Of Man Never Dies
13 - Lonely In The Crowd
14 - The One-Armed Boatman And The Giant Squid
15 - Boris At The Organ
16 - Untitled Piece
17 - Moths And Lizards In Detroit (original version)
18 - Queen Of The Moonlight World (original version)
19 - The One-Armed Boatman And The Giant Squid (remixed version)

Download Home Grown

Andy Roberts - Nina And The Dream Tree (1971)

This, for me, is Andy's masterpiece. I love it. It would be on my list of top ten abums of all time if I ever had to make one - at least it would be on my shortlist (I think I have more than ten top abums ever). Only 'Good Time Charlie' and 'Breakdown' fail the magnificence test. This is the solo album *I* should have made.

01 - Keep My Children Warm
02 - I've Seen The Movie
03 - 25 Hours A Day & Breakdown & Welcome Home
04 - Good Time Charlie
05 - Dream Tree Sequence

Download Nina And The Dream Tree

Everyone - Everyone (1971)

After Nina, Andy formed a band with a guy called Bob Sargeant, but unfortunately the two styles of songwriting and playing bear no resemblance to each other and Andy's nice British guitar-based songs are squashed uncomortably between Bob's transatlantic jazz/soul-tinged organ-led numbers. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Andy contributes what is probably the least interesting song in his entire catalogue - 'Radio Lady'.

This isn't a rotten album, but it is an album of two halves - or two half-solo albums - the Andy Roberts half and the Bob Sargeant half (so that makes a total of three solo albums so far for Andy). In the early 70s you couldn't move for remaindered copies of this album (with its weird fold-out-drop-down front cover picture) in the remainders & bargain bins.

01 - Trouble At The Mill
02 - Sad
03 - Midnight Shift
04 - Don't Get Me Wrong
05 - Sitting On A Rock
06 - Too Much A Loser
07 - Radio Lady
08 - This Way Up

Download Everyone

Andy Roberts - Urban Cowboy (1973)

After Everyone, Andy switched labels again and made his second-best (and almost certainly his best-produced) album. Urban Cowboy was on Warners (then recently metamorphosed into one-third of Kinney, if I recall correctly - anyone got copies of Zep III with the original Atlantic catalogue number covered by a Kxxxxxx sticker?), and featured 'Poison Apple Lady' and 'New Karenski' (the first two of four or five songs about 'Karen', who inspired some of the best songs of his career), 'All Around My Grandmother's floor (which I think was intended for Plainsong), and his recording of 'Richmond' (a song about being young and seeing Jeff Beck's band in Southend) which had previously been recorded by Shelagh MacDonald (a live version by Andy was also on the '49 Greek Street' album).

01 - Charlie
02 - Big City Tension
03 - New Karenski
04 - Urban Cowboy
05 - Elaine
06 - Home At Last
07 - All Around My Grandmother's Floor
08 - Richmond
09 - Baby Baby
10 - Poison Apple Lady

Download Urban Cowboy

Andy's fifth (or fourth, officially, but depending on your point of view) solo album is available from Amazon, Virgin and HMV. Go buy it and contribute to the bank account of someone who's been a solid and significant figure in British music for forty years.

Apologies for any factual errors - I'm writing this on the train with no Internet access so have to rely on my memory. And it was nearly 35 years ago....

See you soon.

Humdrum Days Still Flying Out The Window

2008-10-15T22:05:00.006+01:00

Two more for you today. The first is a live concert from 1984 by Modern English, recorded for an American radio station and first made available on Wolfgang's Vault. This isn't my recording or rip, all I've done is separated the songs into individual files. I can't take any credit for anything else, except the picture below which I created from a photo of the band and my scan of the back cover of the Ricochet Days 12".

As a live gig it's OK, not hugely different from the released versions of the tracks but interesting enough - the 3 original albums are, of course, magnificent. I think I've posted them here somewhere, along with assorted 12" extras. I'm sure some will let me know if I haven't.

Modern English - Live In New York (1984)

00 - Intro
01 - Rainbow's End
02 - Spinning Me Round
03 - Someone's Calling
04 - After The Snow
05 - Hands Across The Sea
06 - Machines
07 - Ricochet Days
08 - Blue Waves
09 - Life In The Gladhouse
10 - I Melt With You
11 - Tables Turning
12 - Gathering Dust

http://rapidshare.com/files/155424164/ME_live.zip

The late Marian Montgomery had one of the most gorgeous voices in jazz, and it's a pity that her recorded output doesn't really do her justice. There are a couple of her early jazz albums available on CD, and some late live recordings, but this is from a rather middle-of-the-road and bland period in 1972. Her voice manages to transcend some of the material, while some of the other tracks are less great. Never mind. I used to like this album a lot.

The eagle-eared among you may notice that she apparently sings half of the same line twice - that's my fault. Despite my best efforts to clean up my vinyl there was one jump I couldn't get rid of - so I spliced a few words from another line in to the gap. Hope it doesn't spoil your enjoyment.

Marian Montgomery - Marian In The Morning (1972)

01 - Morning Of My Life
02 - Sweet Gingerbread Man
03 - Walk A Mile In My Shoes
04 - You've Got A Friend
05 - Love
06 - Should There Be A Next Time
07 - Maybe In The Morning
08 - Crying, Loving, Laughing
09 - Ask Yourself Why
10 - If You Could Read My Mind
11 - It Must Be Love
12 - Birds

http://rapidshare.com/files/154383046/MITM.zip

Ben Goldacre killed Amanda Palmer

2008-10-09T09:29:00.003+01:00

If you care about the world, buy this book.

If you care about music, buy this CD.

Really.

Do.

Call Out The Instigators

2008-10-07T15:30:00.006+01:00

Sorry it's so long between posts these days. It's partly because I'm working and partly because I'm running out of unreleased vinyl to rip.

I did a little experiment a while ago, one which showed I own more albums from 1972 than from any other year. As if to underline that, purely by chance, here are two albums I've had recent requests for, and both are from 1972. One I've not listened to for 20 years, probably, the other I've never played all the way through.

A few months ago I posted four tracks by Sandy Denny from the soundtrack to a rather dodgy soft-core 'adult' film from the mid-70s called 'Swedish Fly Girls'. I've now had a couple of requests for the whole album, so here you go.

I've no idea what it's like, I've only ever listened to the Sandy tracks (she sings Water Mother, What Will I Do With Tomorrow, Are the Judges Sane?, and I Need You). I've also listended to Beautiful People, but I'm quite a Melanie fan and would be amazed if it's her (even though she's credited with singing it). It *is* her song, though.

The other tracks are by Manfred Mann and/or Mose Henry (who he?), and almost all the backing tracks are by the Manfred Mann band.

Swedish Fly Girls - original film soundtrack album (1972)

01 - Queen Bee
02 - Where the Beauties Are
03 - Easy
04 - Beautiful People
05 - Outside of My Mind
06 - Water Mother
07 - The People Show
08 - Christa
09 - Broken-Glass Lives
10 - Love Is All I Need
11 - What Will I Do With Tomorrow
12 - On the Move
13 - Are the Judges Sane?
14 - Blot Jeg Meg En Mand Kan Faa (Love Is All I Need)
15 - I Need You
16 - Crystal Trumpet Smiles

Click here to download the Swedish Fly Girls album

Speedy Keen was Pete Townshend's chauffeur in the mid-60s, and was also a drummer and songwriter. Pete decided to bankroll and produce an album for him, and recruited Jimmy McCullough on guitar and Andy Newman on piano. With Pete playing bass (as 'Bijou Drains') they made an album, and released one track as a single. The result, Something In The Air by Thunderclap Newman, was one of the best - and most distinctive - English singles of the late 60s.

The band broke up, and Speedy made two solo albums. I haven't got the first one, but this is the second. You'll recognise the voice immediately (or at least you will if you're of that certain age)

Speedy Keen - Y'Know Wot I Mean? (1972)

01 - Crazy Love
02 - Almost Eighteen
03 - Nightmare
04 - Fighting In The Streets
05 - Bad Boys
06 - I Promise You
07 - Someone To Love
08 - My Love
09 - The Profit On Ecology

Click here to download Y'Know Wot I Mean

The Sand Gets In My Eyes Sometimes

2008-08-21T18:11:00.005+01:00

Someone asked if I could post the Comsats' '7 Day Weekend' album, and I thought 'what a spiffing idea'. So here it is, along with the previous album 'Land' and all the B-sides and extra tracks from the 12"s that accompanied those albums.

These albums are far from their best work - see the first 3 albums for that - but they still knock spots off most of the other rubbish that was around at the time. The band had moved away from their indie sound and were almost making a bit for the new wave/dance market.

Wikipedia has this to say about them: The Comsat Angels were a post-punk band from Sheffield, England, active from 1978 to 1995. Their music has been described as "abstract pop songs with spare instrumentation, many of which were bleak and filled with some form of heartache." They have been credited as being an influence to current post-punk revival bands, such as Editors and Interpol. The Comsat Angels toured heavily in their native UK and in western Europe (especially in The Netherlands where they were moderately popular), but only did a couple of tours in the United States. Their music has been extensively reissued and recompiled since 1995 by various record labels, but as of this date the band has not reformed.

And if you haven't heard the first three albums, buy them now - or better still, get the 'Time Considered' compilation (session nd live versions of many of the tracks)

The Comsat Angels – Land (1983)

01 - Will You Stay Tonight 02 - Alicia (Can You Hear Me) 03 - A World Away 04 - Independence Day 05 - Nature Trails 06 - Mister Memory 06 - Mr. Memory 07 - Island Heart 08 - I Know That Feeling 09 - As Above So Below

http://rapidshare.com/files/139054426/Land.zip

The Comsat Angels - Land 12"s (1983/84)

01 - Will You Stay Tonight 02 - A World Away (dub mix) 03 - Shining Hour 04 - Island Heart 05 - Island Heart (dub mix) 06 - Scissors And The Stone 07 - Independence Day (extended) 08 - Intelligence 09 - Mister Memory 10 - Total War 11 - After The Rain

http://rapidshare.com/files/139054763/Land_12s.zip

The Comsat Angels - 7 Day Weekend (1985)

01 - Believe It 02 - Forever Young 03 - You Move Me 04 - I'm Falling 05 - Close Your Eyes 06 - Day One 07 - You're The Heroine 08 - High Tide 09 - New Heart And Hand 10 - Still It's Not Enough 11 - Citadel (bonus track)

http://rapidshare.com/files/139056005/7day.zip

The Comsat Angels - 7 Day Weekend 12"s (1985/86)

01 - You Move Me (long version) 02 - Land 03 - Eye Of The Lens (live) 04 - Day One 05 - Will You Stay Tonight (live) 06 - Independence Day (live) 07 - I'm Falling (extended version) 08 - I'm Falling (7'' Version) 09 - New Heart And Hand 10 - Forever Young 11 - Still It's Not Enough 12 - S.I.N.E 13 - Citadel

http://rapidshare.com/files/139056088/7day_12s.zip

Oh - and by the way, I'm starting a new job next week. And right now I'm off to see Amanda Palmer at the ICA!!!

That Ball Needs A Re-Gun

2008-07-08T10:43:00.004+01:00

I had a request for some more Pete Atkin, and since I'm not sure what else to post I thought why not.

These aren't my rips, by the way - the only album of his that I own on vinyl is 'Master Of The Revels', which is a compilation (and which I've already posted - see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/04/master-of-revels.html). But a couple of blog readers were able to send me their rips from the CDs (no longer available from Pete's site, and exorbitant prices 2nd hand from Amazon), and here they are.

For more info on Pete, check his unofficial Web site or the Wikipedia article - or see my original post.

Pete Atkin - Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger (1970)

01 - The Master Of The Revels
02 - Sunrise
03 - Have You Got A Biro I Can Borrow
04 - Frangipanni Was Her Flower
05 - Touch Has A Memory
06 - The Rider To The World's End
07 - The Luck Of The Draw
08 - The Original Original Honky Tonk Night Train Blues
09 - Girl On The Train
10 - Tonight Your Love Is Over
11 - You Can't Expect To Be Remembered
12 - Laughing Boy
13 - Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger
14 - All I Ever Did

Download Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger

Pete Atkin - Driving Through Mythical America (1971)

01 - Sunlight Gate
02 - The Pearl-Driller
03 - No Dice
04 - The Flowers And The Wine
05 - Where Have They All Gone
06 - The Prince Of Aquitaine
07 - Thief In The Night
08 - Driving Through Mythical America
09 - The Faded Mansion On The Hill
10 - Practical Man
11 - Lady Of A Day

Download Driving Through Mythical America

Pete Atkin - A King At Nightfall (1973)

01 - Between Us There Is Nothing
02 - Carnations On The Roof
03 - All The Dead Were Strangers
04 - The Wristwatch For A Drummer
05 - A King At Nightfall
06 - The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley
07 - The Double Agent
08 - The Hypertension Kid
09 - Screen-Freak
10 - Apparition From Las Vegas
11 - Thirty Year Man

Download A King At Nightfall

Pete Atkin - The Road Of Silk (1974)

01 - Perfect Moments
02 - Shadow And The Widower
03 - The Hollow And The Fluted Night
04 - The Wall Of Death
05 - Senior Citizens
06 - The Man Who Walked Towards The Music
07 - Care-Charmer Sleep
08 - Our Lady Lowness
09 - My Egoist
10 - An Array Of Passionate Lovers
11 - The Road Of Silk
12 - Payday Evening
13 - I See The Joker (single version)
14 - Session Man's Blues (single version)

Download The Road Of Silk

Pete Atkin - The Secret Drinker (1974)

01 - Rain-Wheels
02 - Sessionman's Blues
03 - I See The Joker
04 - National Steel
05 - Nothing Left To Say
06 - Tenderfoot
07 - Time And Time Again
08 - Little Sammy Speedball
09 - Secret Drinker
10 - Tongue-Tied

Download The Secret Drinker

Pete Atkin and Clive James - Live Libel (1975)

01 - Song For Rita (featuring Griff Gostuffyerself)
02 - Black Funk Rex (featuring Marc Boloc)
03 - Errant Knight (by arrangement with Strongbow Spam)
04 - Ready For The Road (featuring Tesco Tex)
05 - Ballad Of An Upstairs Window
06 - Stranger In Town (featuring Ricky Fablon)
07 - Rattlesnake Rock (featuring Gladys Graveyard)
08 - Doom From A Room (featuring Leonard Conman)
09 - I've Got Better Things To Do (edited version)
10 - Lonesome Levis Lane
11 - Sheer Quivering Genius (featuring James Paler)
12 - Uncle Sea-Bird (in memorium Ralph J. Gleason)

Download Live Libel

Requested Re-Ups

2008-06-30T15:59:00.009+01:00

Laura Nyro

Update - both Seasons Of Lights and Mothers Spiritual are, or will soon be, available from http://www.iconoclassicrecords.com/ (along with Nested). I have therefore removed the links to these downloads.

I have, however, re-upped the Eg And Alice album (see ) - for further info see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/08/been-away-now-im-back.html. Download the album from http://rapidshare.com/files/126303729/EgAlice.zip.

And now, a re-up that I probably won't have to remove...

Midnight Well

http://rapidshare.com/files/125653753/MidnightWell.zip for further info see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/10/oooh-bumper-crop-today_3007.html

Witchseason Is Looking For Work

2008-06-24T09:58:00.006+01:00

Sorry there's been so little stuff uploaded recently, I've been working and haven't had time to rip and post. Now I'm unemployed again - not for long I hope! - so I'll try to be a bit more productive for a little bit. Oh - and if you know anyone who's looking for a writer/technical author (that's what I do), point them my way.

First, before I start - you may notice the revised masthead. A couple of weeks ago I emailed Joe Boyd to let him know that I'd 'borrowed' the Witchseason name and to ask whether he minded. I got a very nice message back from him in which he said that basically a) I'd done nothing wrong but b) he still felt very attached to the name and he'd rather I didn't use it - especially for creative work. I have a lot of respect for him, and I think that's an entirely reasonable and understandable response. Even though Witchseason Productions is long gone, it still has an excellent reputation and I don't want to risk that in any way. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult - or even impossible - to change the URL of a blog, so this is going to stay where it is. But I can give credit where credit is due - hence the text at the top.

And if you don't know who Joe Boyd is, you really should. Honest. You should.

SO. Anyway. Today, two albums that I've been meaning to post for yonks ('yonks'? How quaint!).

The first is the album that more or less started a genre... From what I remember, Sean O Riada just put a bunch of Irish musicians together to play the music that he had arranged for the soundtrack for a film 'The Playboy Of The Western World'. The musicians got on so well together, and the arrangements were so interesting, that the musicians decided to form a band, and they called themselves The Chieftains. They went professional in about 1965 I think, and they're still going. For some reason I'm not a massive fan - really no idea why - but I *do* like this album. In a way you could say it's 'Chieftains 0'. Oh - and please don't complain if my spelling is poor, I don't speak Gaelic.

The second is a 'sampler' album, of which there were many in the late 60s and early 70s. The famous ones were for labels like Island (Nice Enough To Eat, You Can All Join In, Bumpers, El Pea), CBS (Rock Machine I Love You, The Rock Machine Turns You On, Fill Your Head With Rock) or Harvest (Picnic - A Breath Of Fresh Air), but there were some pretty good ones for more obscure labels - in this case, Georgio Gomelsky's Marmalade label. I know very little about most of these tracks, but a few comments about the ones I do know about.

If you only know Julie Driscoll as the girl who sang 'Wheels On Fire', you're missing some great music. With Brian Auger she made three excellent albums, and the three tracks here (one Jools solo, one Auge solo, and one together - all from 'Streetnoise') are a pretty good example of what they sound like. You should also check out Jools' first two solo albums - '1969' (rocky, with Blossom Toes) and 'Sunset Glow' (jazzy, credited to Julie Tippetts). If you don't know Blossom Toes, 'Listen To The Silence' is one of the better (not the best) tracks from their second album 'If Only For A Moment', which is pretty damn good proggish heavyish rock. However their first album 'We Are Ever So Clean' is a British psych masterpiece. Chase it down and check it out. And Kevin Godley and Graham Gouldman were half of 10CC and both play on each other's tracks here, along with Lol Creme and Eric Stewart.

The Playboy Of The Western World - Sean O Riada (1962)

01 - Tuscheol - Teama, Mo Mhuirnin Ban
02 - Scanraionn Shawn Keogh Roimh Christy Agus Teann As Scaipeadh An Sceil
03 - Christy Ag Eachtrai Do Pegeen Ar Uaigneas A Shoil - Agus Ar Alltacht A Athar
04 - Cailini An Bhaile Chuige ''It's A Man!''
05 - Christy Ag Eachtrai Do Na Cailini Faoi Mar Mharaigh Se A Athar...''Cuire Uait Iadsan'' Adeir Pegeen - 'chrochfaidis Thu!''
06 - Teann Christy Ar Choimu Pegeen
07 - An Torramh
08 - Ceol Teama
09 - Comhchealg Na Baintri Le Shawn Keogh...Tig Old Mahon Isteach
10 - Christy Agus Pegeen...Teann Christy Go Pairc Na Luthcleas I Dteannta Na Gcailini
11 - Ar Phairc Ne Luthchleas...Tig Old Mahon Aris
12 - Ar Phairc Ne Luthchleas
13 - An Rince
14 - Christy Agus Pegeen
15 - An Gaiscioch...''An Marbh Ba Mharbh Gur Beodo Bhi''

UPDATE: Hmm, that'll teach me. Rapidshare deleted my original upload - I guess calling a file 'playboy.zip' is asking for trouble. New download link below (hopefully this one will stay there for more than a couple of hours!).

Download The Playboy Of The Western World

Marmalade 100 Proof (1969)

01 - Let The Sunshine In (Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity)
02 - Kiss Of Confusion (Blossom Toes)
03 - The Journey (Gordon Jackson)
04 - Bitterness Of Death (Ottilie Patterson)
05 - Battersea Rain Dance (Chris Barber)
06 - Tropic Of Capricorn (Brian Auger and The Trinity)
07 - Pete The Poet (John McLaughlin)
08 - A Word About Colour (Julie Driscoll)
09 - Dis-Toi-Bien (Le Lievre)
10 - The Late Mr Late (Graham Gouldham)
11 - To Fly Away (Kevin Godley)

Download Marmalade 100 Proof

Perhaps This Afternoon (rotten title!)

2008-05-30T10:25:00.002+01:00

I had a request for this.

There's been a lot of movement on the Sandy Denny front over the past year or two, with compilations, reissues and a radio documentary. So when someone emailed me to ask if I could post 'Sandy And The Strawbs' I thought "in your dweeems, busta" - but then I checked Amazon and was amazed to find it's not available.

I have the 'All Our Own Work' album on vinyl, and ripped it to MP3 several years ago. Since then I have replaced some of those MP3s with others that I have got from ripping anthologies & box sets, so I don't know which of these tracks are my vinyl rips and which are digital from CD. I suspect that all the tracks that *don't* have Sandy on them are my originals.

I also believe that there are two different versions of this album ('All Our Own Work' and 'Sandy And The Strawbs'), one is as it was recorded and one has some overdubs. I don't know which is which, and I don't know which tracks here are from which. And I don't really care, this is hardly Sandy's finest hour and I don't really need two versions of any of these songs.

Apart from WKWTTG, that is - both stringless and stringfull versions are here. (BTW this was the first time this song appeared anywhere on record - it's pre-Unhalfbricking - although an earlier demo version exists)

O - and the last 3 or 4 songs don't belong on this album but I'd already uploaded the zip before I realised & couldn't be *rsed to do it again. Think of them as a bonus.

If anyone knows where you *can* buy this album, let me know and I'll remove the share pronto.

Sandy Denny and The Strawbs - All Our Own Work (1967)

01 - On My Way
02 - Who Knows Where The Time Goes
03 - Tell Me What You See In Me
04 - Always On My Mind
05 - Stay Awhile
06 - Wild Strawberries
07 - All I Need Is You
08 - How Everyone But Sam Was A Hypocrite
09 - Sail Away To The Sea
10 - Sweetling
11 - Nothing Else Will Do
12 - And You Need Me
13 - Poor Jimmy Wilson
14 - I've Been My Own Worst Friend
15 - Two Weeks Last Summer
16 - Who Knows Where The Time Goes (With Strings)

Download 'All Our Own Work' aka 'Sandy And The Strawbs'

Vive La Revolution Qui Rit!!!

2008-05-14T14:37:00.004+01:00

UPDATED 18th May 2008

First let me say how chuffed I am to be at one of the centres of Globs activity (the Globs - that's Global Village Trucking Company for all you googlers out there). It's been a funny old few days, reawakening a part of my life that I'd almost forgotten about. It's a real privelige to be a conduit for such ongoing excellent vibes.

Although a bit younger than most of you (51 now) I was old enough to see them live on a few occasions - the first time was at the Windsor Free Festival in 1975, My band (Landslide) played earlier in the afternoon and Clive (the drummer) and I decided to stay for the rest of the festival. That evening was saw the Globs, Gong, Byzantium, and an African band that *might* have been Osibisa but I can't remember. Two things that I do remember are 1) singing along with 'Smiling Revolution' in the darkness and 2) standing by the side of the stage watching Pip Pyle in amazement.

The other time that I definitely remember was at Hampstead Town Hall with - and Jon O reminded me of this - George Melly on the same bill. I have a notion that I might also have played that night, either with Landslide or with my other band (Narcissus). Both of my school bands played there several times.

The Globs documentary is still available on the BBC Web site for download/viewing for another couple of days - click here to watch/download it.

Clarifying a couple of things from the programme:

1) They didn't make two albums. They were featured on one side of a double album - the second 'Greasy Truckers' album - recorded live at Dingwalls Dancehall and released in 1973, and then there was a posthumous release on the mid-price Caroline label that came out n 1976. Seven of those tracks were recorded in November 1974, one (Love Wil Find A Way) for the BBC in May 1975, and one (Watch Out..) live in June 1975. Pete Kirtley played guitar on those last two, Mike Medora having left the band.

2) There seemed to be a bit of confusion around James/Jeremy Lascelles - James was the keyboard player and Jeremy was the manager.

3) The bass player on all the recorded tracks - and in the reunited band - was/is John MacKenzie, who went on to play with the Man band. But he wasn't in the band when the documentary was made.

I realise that my original vinyl rips aren't that good quality, so I've re-ripped them for you all. I've also ver slightly re-EQd the 'Watch Out' track to add a bit more top and bottom.

So here are the one-and-a-half Globs albums at a lovely high bitrate and with all the artwork (front, back & lyric sheet) from the album proper. There isn't much Globs info on the Greasy Truckers album so I've added what there is into the tags. For the GVTC album, check the lyric sheet JPGs for lineups, lyrics, dates, etc. Also check out the (brief) sleeve notes.

Global Village Trucking Company - Live at Dingwalls Dancehall (1973, vbr 240kbps)

01 - Look Into Me
02 - Earl Stonham (The Gunslinger)
03 - You're A Floozy Madame Karma (But I Love Your Lowdown Ways)
04 - Everybody Needs A Good Friend

Click here to download the Globs tracks from the Greasy Truckers album

Global Village Trucking Company - Global Village Trucking Company (released 1976, recorded 1974/75, vbr 240kbps)

01 - On The Judgement Day
02 - Lasga's Farm
03 - Love Your Neighbour
04 - Short Change & Tall Story
05 - Smiling Revolution
06 - Love Will Find A Way
07 - If You Don't Mind (Me Saying)
08 - The Inevitable Fate Of Ms Danya Sox
09 - Watch Out, There's A Mind About

Click here to download the GVTC album

Click here to download the artwork & lyric sheet for the GVTC album

(original post)

I didn't know, when I did my original post - nearly two years ago (see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/06/smiling-revolution.html) - what the future held. I wish I'd said a bit more in my original post, must have been busy that day. Hopefully the documentary will have awakened more interest in these albums, and maybe even someone will release them.

Jon (for verily it is He, and He reads my blog) - is there any unreleased stuff in the vaults? If so I'd be more than happy - hell I'd love to - post them here. But then I guess if there was anything, you'd post it on YourSpace (see http://www.myspace.com/globalvillagetruckingcompany2008).

Reunions, eh? Now if we can get Byzantium back together as well (if Robin is busy I'll happily play bass... ah, dream on...)

Basically A Cretin

2008-05-14T10:06:00.004+01:00

..which was replaced, on the album version, by 'drowning in the bathroom' which is a lot less offensive but also a lot less funny.

Ah - you probably don't know what I'm on about. Hatfield And The North? Single 'Let's Eat (Real Soon)', had a B-side 'Fitter Stoke Has A Bath', which was re-recorded with different lyrics for the second album.

The Hatfields were one of Richard Sinclair's many finest hours. His dry English voice and gorgeous bass playing were key features of that band, features which were either lacking or different in the wonderful National Health - an incredible band with a hell of a gutsy sound and two really clouty albums though without some of the wry humour and subtlety of the Hatfields ones.

Going off on a bit of a weird tangent here, prose getting slightly bizzarre, never knowing where you're going, carry me with you?

Ulp.

Right - oh, but did you see the Globs on telly last night? Meant to post a bulletin here but forgot. Never mind, it being BBC4 there are three or four repeats over the next few nights. Great stuff. Not really a festerval-goer any more so won't be at Glasto, but if they do any Lunnun gigs I'll be there. Any chance of that, Mr. Owen?

Sorry. Back to today. (but didja notice I've got a MySpace place? Look at the links section, over on the right)

Richard Sinclair made two albums in the early 90s, neither of which are available any more so here they are. Very English, kinda jazzy, kinda proggy, kinda laid-back almost-MORy. Not going to compete with Caravan or Hatfields but probably better than RS-era Camel.

Richard Sinclair - Caravan Of Dreams (1992)

01 - Going For A Song
02 - Cruising
03 - Only The Brave
04 - Plan It Earth
05 - Heather
06 - Keep On Caring
07 - Emily
08 - Felafel Shuffle
09 - Halfway Between Heaven And Earth
10 - Five Go Wilde
11 - Flowered At Bracknell
12 - It Didn't Matter Anyway

Download Caravan Of Dreams

Richard Sinclair - RSVP (1993)

01 - 01 - What's Rattlin'
02 - My Sweet Darlin'
03 - Videos
04 - Barefoot
05 - Outback In Canterbury
06 - Over From Dover
07 - Out Of The Shadows
08 - Where Are They Now
09 - Bamboo
10 - What In The World

Download RSVP

We Know By The Ground That We Are...

2008-04-23T10:42:00.005+01:00

Hum.

I debated long and hard about this.

A number of people have contacted me, via comments here and via email, about whether I would post the Shirley Collins 'Within Sound' box set, and I was always non-committal - "I'll think about it". Basically, I paid a fortune for the bloody thing and I'm reluctant to give it away for free - especially when it isn't free (not to me, anyway, I have to pay for my Rapidshare space otherwise the files get deleted after a month).

However, this box set cannot be bought any more. Occasionally it crops up on Amazon or Ebay at a hundred pounds or so (that's what I paid for my copy) but I'm reluctant to support chancers who sell secondhand but otherwise unavailable goods at exorbitant prices.

I have contacted the manufacturers, who told me that the copyright and licensing was for a strictly limited time and quantity and they will *definitely* not be manufacturing any more. Which is a dreadful shame because a) there seem to be a lot of people who want to buy it and b) there is a heck of a lot of excellent music on it. And, while I'm on the subject, I'd suggest you grab the Sandy Denny 'Boxful Of Treasures' set (from the same company) before *that* runs out as well. Oh, and the Watersons one (though that's from Topic, and not likely to go out of print).

However, about half of the tracks on the SCollins box *can* be legally bought on other CDs, and in a way that will (hopefully) continue to benefit the wonderful lady herself - check Amazon or TheBeesKnees.

So what I've decided is that I'll post *some* of the tracks - basically, the ones that aren't on any other legally and currently available CD. Almost by definition these aren't the absolute best of Shirley's work, but they are pretty indispensable if you're a fan and do include some extraordinary gems - for example the beautiful 'Gilderoy', and 'Honour Bright' (a duet with the criminally under-rated Steve Ashley).

Shirley Collins - Within Sound (incomplete)

Part one - Dabbling In The Dew to Whitsun Dance

Part two - The Blacksmith to Never Again

Part three - Gilderoy to Lost In A Wood

Check out the Within Sound page of Reinhard's excellent and indispensible site for more details on the box set.

Oh - and if this is ever reissued you can bet I'll be removing the files pronto.

(Bought Robin Dransfield's reissued Tidewave yet?)

Dreamin' On For You, Baby

2008-04-15T13:17:00.001+01:00

First, a bit of a rant (well I haven't done this for a while) about some of the comments that I get for these posts. How would you react if someone said (quote): "Reeeee-Up! Dead link dude. :-)"? Well my reaction is to say "in a pig's ear I will", especially since the album in question (Illegal, Immoral And Fattening) is now available as a twofer from Amazon - as are the other Flo & Eddie albums. And as for "could you post something good by janis lan in lossless format(ape or flac), PLEASE. It is very important for me!!!" - nope. Don't think I will. I only post stuff you can't buy, and I only post MP3s. Don't like it? Go somewhere else.

News? Robin Dransfield's wonderful Tidewave album is now available from Hux records - go buy it and tell them I sent you. Also, Thom Moore (from the wonderful Pumpkinhead and Midnight Well) contacted me to say 1) he doesn't mind my posting his albums (so go get them from here) and 2) he's still producing music - see http://www.thommooremusic.com/home.html.

Now... I have all three of Andy Gibb's albums on vinyl, and also bought them on CD (several years ago now). I think they're great, all three of them. To my mind they encapsulate all that was good about the Bee Gees, without the horrible squeaky voices - in other words, damn good pop songs in-a-disco-stylee. I've been meaning to post these for ages - sorry I've been rather lax recently but I'm working fulltime & so don't get much time to prepare posts.

Hey - I just checked Amazon, and Flowing Rivers is going for £35 used or £68.55 new, Shadow Dancing is £66.35 used or £96.50 used, and After Dark is £101.76 used and £102.97 new. Over a hundred squids? "Five weeks? Blimey!", as you might say. A big pile of poo to that.

They're not available on CD any more, so here they are in all their digital glory - for free. Yar boo sucks to whoever is trying to charge such stupid prices.

BTW Shadow Dancing is a repost - see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/all-this-and-nothing-more.html

Andy Gibb - Flowing Rivers (1977)

Andy's first album, more poppy and less BeeGee-influenced than his later ones. Nice.

01 - I Just Want To Be Your Everything
02 - Words And Music
03 - Dance To The Light Of The Morning
04 - Too Many Looks In Your Eyes
05 - Starlight
06 - (Love Is) Thicker Than Water
07 - Flowing Rivers
08 - Come Home For The Winter
09 - Let It Be Me
10 - In The End

Download Flowing Rivers

Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing (1978)

The second album, a chart success and deservedly so.

01 - Shadow Dancing
02 - Why
03 - Fool For A Night
04 - An Everlasting Love
05 - (Our Love) Don't Throw It All Away
06 - One More Look At The Night
07 - Melody
08 - I Go For You
09 - Good Feeling
10 - Waiting For You

Download Shadow Dancing

Andy Gibb - After Dark (1980)

The third and last album. From what I hear he was already in a bad way when he made this, so the brothers' influence is stronger. The final track is a real tear-jerker.

01 - After Dark
02 - Desire
03 - Wherever You Are
04 - Warm Ride
05 - Rest Your Love On Me
06 - I Can't Help It
07 - One Love
08 - Someone I Ain't
10 - Dreamin' On

Download After Dark

Easter Treats

2008-03-11T06:31:00.006Z

First, some news.

I've been contacted by a guy at Hux records, who says that they are releasing Robin Dransfield's excellent 'Tidewave' album on CD shortly, along with a live performance from (he said) 1972. He may be right, but as far as I was aware Robin was mainly working as a duo with Barry in '72 - and this would predate 'Tidewave' by some seven years. Either way, I'm looking forward to this and I'll certainly buy it. So should you.

Hux are also planning to release the two Longdancer albums as well, though I've no dates for this & it could be a while off. No matter, I've ripped the vinyl and can wait for the CDs.

In the meantime, I've removed the relevant files from Rapidshare - if you wanted them, too bad. You'll have to buy them (or look elsewhere...)

Also, I got an email from Jon Owen of the Global Village Trucking Company:

Well hello again to you all.
The latest I hear is that the series that the show is in will begin in mid April but not confirmed yet. The other news is that emails are flying all over the world strongly hinting at some appearances during the summer months. Nothing definite but if you know your friendly local festival organiser then a little lobbying could be useful. I would love to play away in Southwold again!

Regards

Jon O

So we'll all look forward to that.

Now, on to today's albums. Five reposts and a new one - lets start with that.

Eire Apparent - Sunrise (1969)

Welcome to the Ernie Graham Appreciation Society.

Eire Apparent were a psych band from Belfast, featuring Ernie Graham and Henry McCullogh on guitar & vocals.

This album (for which, many thanks to two great friends of GJIKMT - Hi Nel & George) was made in 1969 and was produced by Jimi Hendrix, who also plays on a few tracks - not sure which ones but he's clearly there on some of them. Henry McCulloght went on to the GRease Band and Wings, Ernie Graham made a wonderful solo album, joined the fantastic Help Yourself, then joined Clancy - see below - and recorded a single for Stiff. Which stiffed.

01 - Yes I Need Someone
02 - Got To Get Away
03 - The Clown
04 - Mr - Guy Fawkes
05 - Someone Is Sure To (Want You)
06 - Rock 'N' Roll Band
07 - Morning Glory
08 - Magic Carpet
09 - Captive In The Sun
10 - Let Me Stay
11 - 1026

Download Eire Apparent - Eire Apparent

Clancy - Seriously Speaking (1975)

Clancy were a pub/college band in the 70s - sort of like the Average White Band without the hrons. I liked them.

01 - 01 - Back On Love
01 - 02 - Lose Me
01 - 03 - Body To Body
01 - 04 - Steal Away
01 - 05 - Sign Of The Times
01 - 06 - Southern Boogie
01 - 07 - Money
01 - 08 - Long Time Comin'
01 - 09 - Move On
01 - 10 - Eat Gook
BONUS TRACK - Mary Black - Anachie Gordon

Download Clancy - Seriously Speaking

Clancy - Every Day (1976)

02 - 01 - Working Together
02 - 02 - Time Taker
02 - 03 - Seconds Out
02 - 04 - You Have Made My Life So Sweet
02 - 05 - Jeka Jose
02 - 06 - You Don't Understand
02 - 07 - Good Judgement
02 - 08 - Jealousy
BONUS TRACK - The Sound - Golden Soldiers

Download Clancy - Every Day

Byzantium - Byzantium (1972)

(repost from original posting, June 2006)

OK - here goes. I've been really impressed by some of the old vinyl that has been ripped and posted on blogs around here so I've decided to add some of my own. To the best of my knowledge, none of this stuff is commercially available, so I don't think I'm breaking any laws. If the record companies (is that still what they're called?) decide to reissue any of this stuff it'd be a different matter - but frankly I can't see it. So here are the two officially released Byzantium albums from 72/73, plus the unreleased 3rd album. Chaz Jankel (gtr) went on to join the Blockheads, Robin Lamble (bass) played with Al Stewart (BTW he was the brother of Fairport's original drummer Martin), Mick Barakan changed his name to Shane Fontayne and is now with Marc Cohn, and as for Jamie Rubinstein and Stevie Corduner - no idea what happened to them.

BTW the title of the original post ('Byzantium Were Unable To Appear Owing To A Power Cut') refers to the fact that Byzantium were on the bill of the gig that was recorded and released as Greasy Truckers Party, with Man, Hawkwind and Brinsley Schwartz. If there hadn't been a pwer cut and they had appeared, and been on the album, their career might have gone a different way - they were a cracking live band as I remember (and I saw them *lots* of times).

01 - What Is Happening
02 - I Am A Stranger To My Life
03 - Come Fair One
04 - Baby I Can Hear You Calling Me
05 - Trade Wind
06 - Into The Country
07 - Lady Friend
08 - Why Or Maybe It's Because

Download Byzantium - Byzantium

Byzantium - Seasons Changing (1973)

01 - What A Coincidence
02 - My Season's Changing With The Sun
03 - Show Me The Way
04 - I'll Always Be Your Friend
05 - October Andy
06 - Something You Said - A Trilogy

Download Byzantium - Seasons Changing

Byzantium - Live And Studio (1974)

01 - I'll Just Take My Time
02 - Surely Peace Will Come To Those Who Try
03 - If You Wanna Be My Girl
04 - Oh Darling
05 - Move With My Time
06 - Flashing Silver Hope (live at the Nightingale)
07 - Cowboy Song (live at Borehamwood)
08 - Feel It (live at the Harlow Community Centre)

Download Byzantium - Live And Studio

Spining On Zair 'Ead In Ze Street

2008-03-10T15:55:00.007Z

I've had this wizard wheeze - every time I upload a zip from now on I'm going to include a 'bonus' track that's completely unrelated to the main album, but that appeared on my iPod recently (in shuffle mode) & I thought I'd like to share. These may be - probably are - available on CD so if you like the bonus track please but the album it came from. This idea only occurred to me yesterday so only one of these three albums has a bonus track - but they probably *all* will from now on. So here we go with today's threesome:

Doctor Calculus - Designer Beatnik (1986)

Doctor Calculus was Stephen 'Tintin' Duffy, although I didn't know it at the time. Should have, though - professor Calculus & Tintin...? Anyway, I just heard 'Programme 7' on the John Peel show and then went out and bought the album when I saw it cheap. Very good it is too - this was a time when there was a fair bit of semi-electro stuff with samples and wotever. I filed this (metaphorically) alongside Colourbox's 'Just Give 'Em Whiskey' (see a couple of posts ago). More info about it here.

01 - Blasted With Ecstasy
02 - Programme 7
03 - Moments Of Being (Interlude)
04 - Killed By Poetry
05 - Moments Of Being (Reprise)
06 - Man
07 - Dream Machine
08 - Candy Floss Pink
09 - Just Another Honey
10 - Designer Beatnik
11 - Perfume From Spain
12 - Perfume From Spain (inversion)
13 - Straight To Stereo (tokyo-london)
BONUS TRACK: Jake Thackray - The Brigadier

Download 'Designer Beatnik' by Doctor Calculus

Peter Sarstedt – Every Word You Say (1971)

I guess most everybody knows "Where Do You Go To, My Lovely", and it's a fair representation of Peter Sarstedt's style of singing and songwriting, but how many people know much more about him?

OK, you may know the follow-up 'Frozen Orange Juice' (which I thought was great, and better than WDYGTML), and *maybe* the (once-) infamous 'Take Off Your Clothes' (ooh that was *soo* rude when I was a teenager!), but have you heard anything else?

I have two of his albums, 'As Though It Were A Movie', which is pretty good (but available from Amazon), and this one, which I love. Not sure why, connections with and memories of something at school, whatever.

BTW I upped this before the wizard wheeze of bonus tracks occurred to me - so there isn't one.

01 - Every Word You Say
02 - Down On The Flesh
03 - You're A Lady
04 - Lay Down My Alibi
05 - Let The Music Flow
06 - Taxi Driver
07 - Nexus
08 - Mind Of Man
09 - What Makes One Man Feel
10 - Slow
11 - Stand Outside Ourselves
12 - Politics Is Showbusiness
13 - Rain

Download 'Every Word You Say' by Peter Sarstedt

Terry Reid – Rogue Waves (1979)

Terry Reid has one of *the* great rock voices - in fact, he was Jimmy Page's first choice for vocalist when forming Led Zeppelin.

His 'prime' period was late '60s, when he made 'Bang Bang You're Terry Reid' and 'Terry Reid' for Mickie Most, after which he made two glorious laid back albums for Warners - 'River' and 'Seed Of Memory'. This last was produced by Graham Nash and, in my opinion, is about the only decent thing Nash has ever done outside backing David Crosby. Buy that album and be stunned.

Then Terry Reid went rocky again and made this album. It's not his best - the voice is great, though the arrangements can be a bit OTT - but it still beats most of the other dross that was around at that time (post-punk, pre-anything much else).

BTW I also upped this before the wizard wheeze of bonus tracks occurred to me - so there isn't one here either.

01 - Ain't No Shadow
02 - Baby I Love You
03 - Stop And Think It Over
04 - Rogue Wave
05 - Walk Away Rene
06 - Believe In The Magic
07 - Then I Kissed Her
08 - Bowangi
09 - All I Have To Do Is Dream

Download 'Rogue Waves' by Terry Reid

I Say, What Are You People Listening To?

2008-02-27T21:10:00.005Z

First, a little quickie. When the Pistols 'Biggest Blow' single came out (the one with Ronnie Biggs), the first few 12 copies had a 'hidden' extra - a taped interview with the lads & the train robber tacked on to the end of side one. I happen to have a copy. Here's the interview.

I also have an original 'Spiral Scratch' - but I don't have any EMI or A&M pistols singles. Never mind, eh?

Anyway, I thort you mite be intersted to kno (sorry, seem to have been infected by the spirit of Nigel Molesworth there... on the other hand, maybe the spirit was this bottle of Bells next to me...) how the download chart stands at the moment.

According to Rapidshare, here are my top ten posts:

10) We Hate You South African Bastards - Microdisney (309 downloads)
09) Come Out Fighting, Ghengis Smith - Roy Harper (314)
08) Rocking Duck - Grimms (318)
07) Everybody Is Fantastic - Microdisney (345)
06) Grimms - Grimms (349)
05) Rutland Weekend Television - Neil Innes & Eric Idle (372)
04) Twiggy - Twiggy (378)
03) The Clock Comes Down The Stairs - Microdisney (389)
02) Bright Phoebus - Lal & Mike Waterson (420)
01) Skyboat - Mac Gayden (484)

Umm - no comment. Have you?

...still looking for eire apparent...

More quick re-ups...

2008-02-23T11:25:00.003Z

Daylight - Daylight (1971)

http://rapidshare.com/files/94198884/Daylight.zip

For more info see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/09/put-your-hands-against-my-wall.html

Lamb live (1971)

http://rapidshare.com/files/94202113/Lamb_live.zip

For more info see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/big-thanks-to-mike-gilbert.html

I'm Alive, But That's The Last Thing On My Mind

2008-02-20T15:29:00.002Z

MMMMMMellanieee... oh how we loved her...

There was a lot more to her than 'Brand New Key', of course, and a good half of the songs on the live 'Candles In The Rain' album always made me cry. Gorgeous. She's still going, of course, but she must be sixty now (at least) and I don't think I could stand to see her live.

When she managed to get free from her Buddha contract she formed Neighborhood Records and began to put out her choice of music rather than what the label had dictated. This was the first release, and it's a real corker - quite possibly her best album.

I guess it's never been released on CD because it simply isn't relevant in 2008 - pity. I'd love a decent digital copy - sorry for the poor vinyl rip but it's the best I can do.

Melanie - Stoneground Words (1972)

01 - Together Alone
02 - Between The Road Signs
03 - Summer Weaving
04 - My Rainbow Race
05 - Do You Believe
06 - I Am Not A Poet
07 - Stoneground Words
08 - Song Of The South
09 - Maybe I Was (A Golf Ball)
10 - Here I Am
11 - Bitter Bad

http://rapidshare.com/files/93439585/Stoneground.zip

Couple More Re-ups

2008-02-19T14:46:00.006Z

'Cos they've been requested & 'cos I'm in a good mood. But also, a request - has anyone got 'Sunrise' by Eire Apparent? If so, could you post it somewhere or send it to me? Thanks. And now, back to the uploads.

The Three O'Clock

First - the first album and E.P. by The Three O'Clock, one of the most perfect pop/rock bands *ever*. Just listen to 'Tomorrow' and try to think how it could possibly be improved?

Baroque Hoedown (ep) - http://rapidshare.com/files/91414250/hoedown.zip

Sixteen Tambourines (album) - http://rapidshare.com/files/91411268/tambourines.zip

Extra tracks - http://rapidshare.com/files/91410943/extras1.zip

For further info see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/remember-time-when-you-were-young_09.html.

Crannog

Second, the Crannog album. I didn't play on this, but I could have done and mates of mine did - see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/10/i-am-young-fellow-well-i-was.html.

Download the album from http://rapidshare.com/files/93161867/Crannog.zip.

Re-Ups & Reminders

2008-02-07T11:39:00.001Z

Several people have emailed me recently to ask if I can re-up things that have expired. If I feel like it, and if I can be bothered, I will - but sometimes I don't want to because either I don't have the original MP3s to hand, or I don't have the bandwidth to upload, or I don't feel in a generous mood, or I *have* re-upped them but the people haven't looked hard enough through my posts - or sometimes because the requests are so rudely worded that I say no way hoe zay.

But today I'm feeling OK so here is a re-up & reminders to some others:

The General Humbert album (see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/10/whos-fool-now.html) is now at http://rapidshare.com/files/89032257/Humbert.zip.

For Longdancer, Area Code 615, Bandoggs, Byzantium, Flo & Eddie, Global Village Trucking Company, Laura Nyro, Lamb, Mac Gayden and Way Of The West, see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/re-ups-daisy_1824.html.

For Joanna Carlin, Aerial FX, and Miracle Legion, see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/and-few-more-re-ups.html.

For Quicksilver and Sore Throat, see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/still-more-re-ups.html.

For Bowles Brothers, Robin Dransfield and Laura Nyro's 'Nested', see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/05/two-more-re-ups.html.

By the way, I'm going to a party this weekend where I'm hoping to meet up with assorted ex-members of Sore Throat and Way Of The West. Any messages I should pass on?

Being Half Awake

2008-02-07T09:31:00.000Z

In the eighties, a 'new' breed of sensitive young singer/songwriters and bands appeared alongside the noisier indies - mainly centred around the British Cherry Red label.

At the time I particularly liked Ben Watt, Tracey Thorne, Eyeless In Gaza, and In Embrace (though I've hated everything EBTG have ever done, their solo albums were crackers - and so was the Marine Girls ramshackle beauty). I also liked The Passage, but they'll have to wait for a later post 'cos they ain't that sensitive ;-)

In Embrace seem to have vanished completely, which is a pity. The first record, a 5-track 12" called The Initial Caress, was fragile & pretty, and the first full album (Passion Fruit/Pastels) developed that fragile prettiness into something more substantial and tangible. The next thing I heard from them was a couple of singles that (like Eyeless 'Welcome Now') should both have catapulted straight to numero uno - pure, perfect pop - and then, nothing. Mind you, I probably had my eyes on other things by then - I never have been able to tolerate fragile prettiness for too long.

You can read more about In Embrace on the Eyeless In Gaza pages at http://www.eyelessingaza.com/inembrace/hist1.html.

In Embrace - The Initial Caress, Your Heaven Scent (Plays Hell With Me) & This Brilliant Evening (plus B-sides)

01 - Clutching
02 - The Air Inbetween
03 - Precious
04 - Breathless With Passion Explicit
05 - For Lovers

01 - This Brilliant Evening
02 - The Darkest Horse
03 - Your Heaven Scent Plays Hell With Me
04 - This Brilliant Evening (Instrumental Mix)

http://rapidshare.com/files/89032277/InitialBrillHeaven.zip

In Embrace - Passion Fruit/Pastels

01 - Half Awake (Mountains)
02 - Our Star Drawn Through Panes
03 - We Fail Each Other
04 - The Ball Rolling
05 - Tears Turn Fresh
06 - Sun Brings Smiles
07 - At East
08 - (Sigh)
09 - Tickling The Ivories
10 - To Friends (An Open Letter)
02 - 11 - Caroline Beginning

http://rapidshare.com/files/89032736/PassionPastels.zip

Laminated With Clarifoil

2008-01-25T10:36:00.000Z

Remember that?

Used to be the proud boast on all those albums with glossy fronts and - normally - matt backs. And remember 'Red - Mono, Blue - Stereo'? On Decca albums with the little hole in the top right back cover so you could see the inner sleeve? Oh, my, how time flies...

Anyway I was reminded of both of these when I decided to rip my copy of the original Joseph album.

Make no mistake, this is a *good* album. Not a *great* album, like Jesus Christ Superstar is (no arguments, it's one of my top ten albums *ever*), but a very good album like the original Evita is once you edit out all the silly recitative-type bits.

I sang and played drums in a production of Joseph with the London Boy Singers under Jonathon Steele (any bells ringing anywhere, or am I off on my own here?). But not this one - though LBS did some vocals on the Superstar album, again without me :-(

Forget Philip Schofield and Jason Donovan, forget everything Rice & Lloyd Webber did afterwards (except the Scaffs album), just open your ears and listen to some nice pop from 1969. Um - the album is credited to 'The Joseph Consortium', the lead singer was David Daltrey (lead singer of a group called Tales Of Justine and *possibly* Roger's younger brother) and the backing group was 'The Mixed Bag'. No idea what happened to them. Probably nothing.

Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1969)

http://rapidshare.com/files/86463443/Joseph.zip

Yucky Dar & Sospan Fach to you too, boyo

2008-01-24T13:17:00.000Z

For someone who's half Welsh my knowledge of Welsh music is pitiful. Man, Harry Secombe, Shirley Bassey, and... err... Ar Log.

I bought this album the same day that I bought the Fiddlers Dram album, while researching music - well, OK, trying to find songs to steal - for my band 'Brahms And Liszt'. From what I understand the band is still going - in fact, Wikipedia has this to say about them:

Ar Log are a well-established folk band in Wales who have performed since the 1970s. They perform both instrumental music and songs in Welsh. Their name in Welsh means For Hire. Somebody once called them "Rent-a-Group" for reasons which are lost in the mists of time.
The original 1976 members were Dave Burns (guitar), Dafydd Roberts (triple harp, flute), Gwyndaf Roberts (knee harp and bass) and Iolo Jones (fiddle). The four individuals were brought together by the Welsh Tourist Board, who were eager that a Welsh traditional group should represent the nation at that year's Interceltique festival in Lorient. Here they met The Dubliners, who suggested that they should stay together and turn professional. During this period, the group released the first of several eponymous albums: Ar Log.

And so on.

AR LOG - AR LOG (1978)

01 - Rali Twm Sion & Ymdaith Gwyr Dyfnaint
02 - Y Blewyn Glas
03 - Difyrrwch Corbet O Ynys Maengwyn & Difyrrwch Gwyr Dolgellau & Ymdaith Caerfifili & Ty Coch Caerdydd
04 - Ar lan Y Mor
05 - Dainty Davey & Hoffedd Ap Hywel
06 - Y Gwcw Fach
07 - Hafoty Fraich Ddu & Y Gelynnen & Y Lili
08 - Y Harbwr Croc
09 - Breuddwyd Y Frenhines & Per Oslef
10 - Cerdd Y Gog Lwydlas
11 - Clychau Aberdyfi & Bugail Aberdyfi
12 - Ffidl FFadl & Y Delyn Newydd
13 - Tra Bo Dau
14 - Glan Bran & Ymgyrch-don Waenlwyd

http://rapidshare.com/files/86222775/Ar_Log.zip

Just Give Me Whiskey

2008-01-22T14:31:00.000Z

Oh, look, just *go away*, will you? Stop whingeing on about "Ooh, Time Has Told Me posts *loads* more than you do ner ner ner". Good for the Lizard - but:

a) lots of his stuff is readily available on CD - example, the Watersons box set which I paid fifty quid for.
b) lots of his stuf is uploaded by other people, he just posts the links.
c) he's had quite a few complaint from people asking him to take down stuff.

But he's also posted some great stuff that isn't available, and for that I thank him.

My philosophy is quite clear - if you can buy it legitimately from anywhere that the artist benefits from (and I don't mean second hand) then I won't post it. Also, the vast majority of my stuff is ripped from my original vinyl and never available on CD - and I'm running out of albums to rip. And, as I mentioned elsewhere, I have to work & don't always have loads of time to blog. But when I feel like it, I do.

So just feck off with your "this is not meant to criticize your blog, you post some nice stuff, just not often enough" - if it isn't meant to be a criticism, what's the point of saying it? Oh - and next time have the good grace to not post anonymously so that I can reply to you directly without forcing others to read it.

ANYWAY... I'm back again. For now. Got a few things lined up to post - the final gig by the reunited Airplane, some In Embrace, more obscure folk including the debut album by Ar Log, Speedy Keen's solo album, and a couple of bizarrenesses that I haven't ripped yet.

Today, though, the sole album from Colourbox.

In the 80s I thought 4ad could do no wrong (a bit like Island in the late 60s) and so I bought quite a lot of what they put out even if I wasn't sure about it. This is one of those. I heard 'Just Give 'Em Whiskey' on the Peel show and was expecting more of the same, but apart from 'Hot Doggie' on the Lonely Is An Eyesore album they didn't really do anything else like that. Instead, the album strayed into a number of different electro-synth-soul-pop-funk. Still not convinced that I like it, but according to the 4ad site it's a 'lost classic'. So here you go.

Colourbox - Colourbox (1985)

1. Sleepwalker
2. Just Give ‘em Whiskey
3. Say You
4. The Moon Is Blue
5. Inside Informer
6. Punch
7. Suspicion
8. Manic
9. You Keep Me Hanging On
10. Arena

http://rapidshare.com/files/85705237/Colourbox.zip.html

Can't Get Used To Just In One Day

2007-12-17T14:08:00.000Z

Bombast, doncha just love it? U2, Simple Minds, Silent Running (coming soon, folks!), Hambi & The Dance... Hambi & the who?

Hambi Charalambous (apparently) was - or is... oh who cares I can't be bothered again. The thing about this blogging stuff is that when you're in the mood it's fun but when you're not, but feel you *ought* to post something, it's a pain in the a***.

Bombastic Liverpudlian power pop. Wonderful stuff - turn it way up and wallow in the self-inportance.

Hambi And The Dance - Heartache (1982)

01 - Time After Time
02 - Living In A Heartache
03 - Madelaine
04 - L'Image Craquee
05 - Spirits
06 - The World
07 - Dancing Inside You
08 - Major Major
09 - Too Late To Fly The Flag
10 - Standing In The Rain

http://rapidshare.com/files/77197408/Hambi.zip

It's OK, I haven't gone away...

2007-11-15T06:54:00.000Z

...I'm just working in Cambridge for a while, a biggish commute that doesn't leave me much time for blogging. Sorry about that. There *will* be more posts, but maybe not that much until after Christmas.

Just two things today, the 3rd Modern English album (slightly poppier than the 2nd but still excellent and featuring the wonderful 'Heart') and a repost of the Dion Radio One session from a few years ago.

Modern English - Ricochet Days

http://rapidshare.com/files/64316231/ME3.zip

Dion - The Saturday Sequence

-see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/06/king-of-new-york-streets_28.html for full details

http://rapidshare.com/files/65816823/Dion.zip

Deleted??? QUOI???

2007-10-23T09:06:00.001+01:00

There are some albums that just should never, never be deleted (a la Nick Drake) - and here are at least two of them, plus another that is debatable and one that was barely released in the first place...

The Bothy Band - The Bothy Band (1975)

The Bothy Band were, quite simply, the best instrumental Irish traditional folk band ever - and that includes The Chieftains (I won't say the best Irish traditional band because their songs didn't always live up to the tunes and I'd have scores of Planxty people on my tail). Not content with three stunning lead instrumentalists (fiddle/pipes/flute), the rhythm section of guitar/bouzouki/harpsichord creates - when in full fling - the most incredible clattering racket this side of Jack Off Jill (I know, I said that about the Dresdens as well). Some of the climaxes to these sets of tunes are just mind-boggling.

I saw them in concert a couple of times and actually did a gig with them once, at the National ballroom in Kilburn some time around 1976, followed by a couple of hours jamming with them afterwards. I played a bit of bouzouki myself in those days, though it was probably a bit of a cheek to sit there playing it with Donal Lunny in the session as well...

I'm *staggered* that this is deleted. If there is a good response and demand I'll post the other two albums as well.

01 - The Kesh Jig & Give Us A Drink Of Water & The Flower Of The Flock & Famous Ballymote
02 - The Green Groves Of Erin & The Flowers Of Red Hill
03 - Do You Love An Apple
04 - Julia Delaney
05 - Patsy Geary's & Coleman's Cross
06 - Is Trua Nach Bhfuil Me In Eirinn
07 - The Navvy On The Line & The Rainy Day
08 - The Tar Road To Sligo & Paddy Clancy's
09 - Martin Wynne's & The Longford Tinker
10 - Pretty Peg & Craig's Pipes
11 - Hector The Hero & The Laird Of Drumblaire
12 - The Traveller & The Humors Of Lissadell
13 - The Butterfly
14 - The Salamanca & The Banshee & The Sailor's Bonnet

Post script: apparently this album *is* available, from the Mulligan Web site in Ireland - so no download, sorry. Link below goes to the Mulligan site instead.

Buy The Bothy Band first album

Modern English - After The Snow (1982)

Another CD that I'm staggered to find deleted is the second album from Modern English. I know that people generally say that their first is the classic (and it *is* very good) but this is the one I come back to time and time again. Of course, it features 'I Melt With You', which was a minor hit, but there are some other fantastic songs as well. For some reason I like to have 'Tables Turning' blaring out of my car as I drive up and down Green Lanes on my way to and from Sainsburys in Harringay. Truly great stuff, and not at all what you might expect from 4AD.

Again, if there's a good response I'll post the third album and some 12" mixes.

01 - Someone's Calling
02 - Life In The Gladhouse
03 - Face Of Wood
04 - Dawn Chorus
05 - I Melt With You
06 - After The Snow
07 - Carry Me Down
08 - Tables Turning

Download Modern English second album

Arlo Guthrie - Arlo (1968)

Something that I'm slightly less surprised to see unavailable is Arlo Guthrie's second album. After Alice's Restaurant I guess the label wanted something similar, so this live album has its share of stoned comedy raps alongside the more serious 'Meditation' and one of my favourite songs 'Wouldn't You Believe It'.

01 - The Motorcycle Song
02 - Wouldn't You Believe It
03 - Try Me One More Time
04 - John Looked Down
05 - Meditation (Wave Upon Wave)
06 - Standing At The Threshold
07 - The Pause Of Mr Claus

Download Arlo Guthrie second album

Le Cheile - Lord Mayo (1975)

Finally, an album that has almost certainly never been released on CD and almost certainly never will. While The Bothy Band were doing their thing in Ireland, a whole slew of pubs in North London were hosting small-time amateur bands of Irish ex-pats. One of these, The Favourite in Holloway, was the long-time haunt of the great Jimmy Power (ooh, the nights I spent there...), and I *think* this lot hung out there as well. Beware, though, this album has a *banjo* on it... and a *concertina*...

And I don't have their other album. Does anybody?

01 - Lord Mayo & The Green Groves Of Erin
02 - The Bucks Of Oranmore
03 - Grannies' Gravel Walks
04 - Oh Hag You Kill Me & The Drink Of Water
05 - Oliver Goldsmith's Lament
06 - The Broadway Hornipe & The Bunch Of Keys & The Boys Of Ballisodare
07 - Slievenamon & Colonel Fraser
08 - Swedish Jig
09 - Thatched Cabin Air And Reel & Master Crowley's Reel
10 - The Moyasta Reel & Trim The Velvet
11 - The Old Bush & The Galty Reel
12 - Connemara Jig & Over The Hills To America & Paddy Fahey's & Buckley's Fancy

Download Lord Mayo by Le Cheile

Oh - and lest you thought that Raymond Roland, John Roe, Kevin Boyle, Danny Meehan, Liam Farrel and P. J. Crotty were a bunch of goodfernuttin hippies...

Ooops - sorry

2007-10-18T07:54:00.000+01:00

The link under the Quicksilver post is to the wrong album - it goes to another bootleg, not as good and from a year earlier (1967 at the Fillmore). Worth grabbing if you're a fan though. The correct link to Maiden Of The Cancer Moon is here: http://rapidshare.com/files/32143808/Maiden.zip

Where, Are My Batting Gloves?

2007-10-16T08:20:00.000+01:00

Not much to say about these two. If you liked the Grimms albums you'll probably like these (they're basically the same people). Fresh Liver is the better of the two, Sold Out is a bit... 'sold out', really, although among the dross of 'Lord Of The Dance' and 'Hokey Cokey' there's also 'Julery Shop Lesley', which is super gosh crikey oh yarse. Oh - and 'Jennings' on 'Fishfirars' is none other than Tim Rice, who produced the album.

Scaffold - Fresh Liver (1973)

Song side
1) Knickers (McGear/McGough/Gorman)
2) Devon's Dead (McGear/McGough)
3) Plenty of Time (McGear/McGough)
4) Fagorf (Gorman/Megginson)
5) Fax 'n' Figgers (McGear/McGough)
6) Nuclear Band (McGear/McGough)
7) W.P.C. Hodges (Gorman)
8) Knickers (McGear/McGough/Gorman)

Words and Music Side
9) Aren't We All? (McGough/Megginson)
10) Twist (McGough)
11) Psychiatrist (McGough)
12) Deep North (McGough)
13) Fish (McGough/Roberts)
14) Fishfriars (McGough)
15) S.S. (McGough)
16) I Remember (McGough/Innes)

http://rapidshare.com/files/62885051/Liver.zip

Scaffold - Sold Out (1975)

1) Liverpool Lou (Behan) (produced by Paul McCartney)
2) Potato Clock (McGough-McGear)
3) Mingulay Boating Song (Trad. arr. Scaffold)
4) Ramsbottom (Fisher) (parody of Chicago [the song])
5) Beilins Boneyard (McGough)
6) Liverpool Girls (Trad. arr. Scaffold)
7) Cokey Cokey (Kennedy)
8) Pack of Cards (McGough-McGear)
9) Mummy Won't Be Home For Christmas (McGough-McGear)
10) Leaving of Liverpool (Trad. arr. Scaffold)
11) Julery Shop Lesley (Harvey)
12) Lord of the Dance (Carter)

http://rapidshare.com/files/62884525/Soldout.zip

This Here Next One's Rock And Roll

Thirty-odd years ago there was one music magazine that stood head and shoulders above all the others - the mighty Zigzag. As luck would have it, the first issue that I ever bought (no. 23, December 1971) featured the results of a readers' poll (and Rory Gallagher on the cover). So here, nearly 36 years on, I republish the results of the 'top albums of all time' part of that poll.

1) Forever Changes
2) Sgt Pepper
3) Blonde On Blonde
4) Notorious Byrd Brothers
5) Highway 61 Revisited
6) Hot Rats
7) Happy Trails
8) Doors 1st
9) Electric Ladyland
10) Live Dead
11) Liege And Lief
12) Sailor
13) After Bathing At Baxters
14) Abbey Road
15) Astral Weeks
16) The Band
17) Every Picture Tells A Story
18) American Beauty
19) After The Goldrush
20) The Velvet Underground & Nico
21) Tommy
22) White Light White Heat
23) Electric Music For The Mind And Body
24) Ummagumma
25) Court Of The Crimson King
26) Are You Experienced
27) What We Did On Our Holidays
28) Hangman's Beautiful Daughter
29) Wheels Of Fire
30) Déjà vu

Considering that this was over 35 years ago, and obviously *loads* of great albums hadn't been released or recorded - or dreamed of… or the artist wasn't even *born* yet… I think it's a pretty good list. There are only two albums that I'd definitely argue shouldn't be there - Ummagumma and Pepper. Oh, and maybe Sailor as well. I won't try to suggest replacements for them (though you're welcome to, in your comments).

I deliberately haven't listed the artists' names - it wasn't necessary in the original magazine and if you were on the same kinda wavelength as I was then it shouldn't be necessary now.

Of course, all of these albums are still available so I won't post any of them, but I will take the opportunity to repost the 'Maiden Of The Cancer Moon' QMS bootleg. It's *similar* to Happy Trails, but not the same. Recorded earlier, in 1967.

And if you haven't got Happy Trails, why the heck not???

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Maiden Of The Cancer Moon (1968)

1. Back Door Man
2. Codine
3. Mona / Maiden Of The Cancer Moon / Mona
4. Gold & Silver
5. Smokestack Lightning
6. Light Your Windows
7. Dino's Song
8. The Fool
9. Who Do You Love ?
10. Mona / Maiden Of The Cancer Moon / Mona

http://rapidshare.com/files/61178040/QMS67.zip

Oooh a bumper crop today...

2007-10-12T10:34:00.003+01:00

Oo-Chuck-A-Mao-Mao

I see that my old soulmate over at Time Has Told Me has upped 'Lucky Planet' by Neil Innes and The World. Excellent stuff and a big thanks to him.

In return I said I'd post these - the first two Grimms albums (the third and best, Sleepers, is available from Amazon).

Grimms was formed from the ashes of The Scaffold, The Bonzos, and The Liverpool Scene, and was a 'you had to see them live' mixture of music, poetry, clowning about and general lunacy.

The name of the band was taken from the surnames of the founding members:

Gorman (John, ex-Scaffs and later Tiswas and Cilla Black fame)
Roberts (Andy, ex-Liverpool Scene & fab solo albums, later 2nd guitarist for Pink Floyd and Roy Harper)
Innes (Neil, ex-Bonzo and later Rutles & Python)
McGough (Roger, ex-Scaffs & Liverpool poet, later - er, Liverpool poet)
McGear (Mike, ex-Scaffs & later to reclaim his McCartney surname)
Stanshall (Vivian, ex-Bonzo and later Rawlinson. Sadly missed - we won't see his like again. RIP Ginger Geezer)

Viv never made it onto a Grimms album, but other people who did included Adrian Henri, Brian Patten, Zoot Money, Ollie Halsall (wizzo guitar hero, also sadly missed), John Megginson, Dave Richards, and others.

So here are the first two Grimms albums. I was fully expecting to be bored, listening to them for the first time in 25 years or more, but I wasn't. They're not exactly rock classics, but they do have some fab musos - Roberts & Innes are both good songwriters (Innes is *very* good), McGear can sing, McGough is a good poet, Olly Hassle is wizzo - basically if you have (and like) some of these albums you won't go far wrong with the rest.

BTW - watch out for the final 2 Scaffold albums (Fresh Liver and Sold Out) - coming soon to this very blog, and perfect stablemates to the Grimms albums. Same people, basically.

Great stuff.

Grimms - Grimms (1973)

01 - Interruption At The Opera House Part 1 & Small Bird Theme
02 - Three Times Corner
03 - Sex Maniac
04 - Galactic Love Poem
05 - Chairman Shankly
06 - Italian Job
07 - Albatross Ramble
08 - Humanoid Boogie
09 - Short Blues
10 - Summer With The Monarch
11 - Twyfords Vitromat
12 - Following You
13 - Newly Pressed Suit
14 - 11th Hour
15 - Con. Gov. Fig.
16 - Brown Paper Carrier Bag
17 - Soul Song (Jellied Eels)
18 - Interruption At The Opera House Part 2

Download GRIMMS - The first album

Grimms - Rockin' Duck (1973)

01 - Rockin' Duck
02 - Songs Of The Stars
03 - The Right Mask
04 - A Policeman's Lot
05 - Question Of Habit
06 - Take It While You Can
07 - Poetic License
08 - The Masked Poet
09 - Hiss And Boo
10 - Gruesome
11 - Fx
12 - Blab Blab Blab & EEC
13 - Backwards Thro' Space
14 - The Prophet
15 - Oo-Chuck-A-Mao-Mao
16 - End Of The Record
17 - Forwards Thro' Space (bonus track)

Download GRIMMS - Rockin' Duck

Saw You Running From Where I Lay

When Donal Lunny formed his own record label in the mid-70s, the first album that he put out (LUN001) was the debut by a young group called Pumpkinhead (later releases would include his own Bothy Band - the subjects of an imminent posting here - and the fab 'Andy Irvine Paul Brady', as well as Midnight Well - see below).

Pumpkinhead was essentially Thom Moore (main songwriter, vocal, guitar), Kathy Moore (vocals & autoharp), Sandi Epping (vocals, mandolin & fiddle), and Rick Epping (Harmonica, Jew's Harp, Tin Whistle & Concertina). The album was - is - a pleasant mix of original songs, traditional songs, and Irish tunes. It isn't staggeringly good, but I liked it a lot at the time and enjoyed listening to it again last week while I was ripping it from vinyl.

A year or so later Thom made another album, this time with a different bunch of people (Gerry O'Beirne, Janie Cribbs, and Martin O'Connor), under the name Midnight Well. It's not hugely different from its predecessor, though probably a somewhat better album. There are distinct American (Appalichian?) elements to both of them, and I always filed them mentally alongside the Lamb and Spirogyra albums, Loosely psych folk I guess.

Thom Moore became a successful songwriter apparently, writing for Mary Black and others - see Thom Moore.

One final thing: a couple of weeks ago I went to see Joanna Newsom at the Albert Hall (she was *wonderful*), supported by Roy Harper (who was... well, he was Roy Harper, but he played Stormcock from beginning to end, which was about the best thing he could possibly have done in my eyes) and The Moore Brothers (who were dire - Simon & Garfunkel without the songs, the voices, the harmonies or the sex appeal...). But one of the Moore Brothers is called Thom, which is unusual I think - two musical Thom Moores? He was clearly too young to be the Pumpkinhead/Midnight Well Thom Moore, and apparently he's American (not Irish), but... any connection? They certainly *look* similar...

Here's the *original* Thom Moore:

Thom 'Pumkinhead/Midnight Well' Moore, circa 1978

And here's the *new* Thom Moore - Lazarus?

Thom 'Moore Brothers' Moore, circa 2007

Watch out for the Bothy Band albums - coming soon, folks.

Pumpkinhead - Pumpkinhead (1977)

01 - Here Comes A Man
02 - Jigs (Joe O'Dowd's & Maid Of The Spinning Wheel)
03 - Richland Woman Blues
04 - Crackbone Tune
05 - Nora's Dove
06 - Reels (Paddy Fahy's & Down The Strand)
07 - Wild West Show
08 - Wedding Dress
09 - Comfort You
10 - Reels (Corner House & Hand Me Down The Tackling)
11 - Miss You
12 - 'Se Fath Mo Bhuartha & Maid Behind The Bar & Earl's Chair
13 - Are You Ready For The Country
14 - Cedars Of Lebanon

http://rapidshare.com/files/60074176/pumpkinhead.zip

Midnight Well - Midnight Well (1978)

01 - Still Believing
02 - Saw You Running
03 - Make Yourself At Home (Lullabye For A Wayward Friend)
04 - Jesse's Friend
05 - Soldier On
06 - Wheel Of Fortune
07 - Rosy-Painted Barge
08 - Nicky's Song
09 - The Mighty Turk
10 - Low, Low Northern Moon

Post script: apparently this album *is* available, from the Mulligan Web site in Ireland - so no download, sorry. Link below goes to the Mulligan site instead.

Buy the Midnight Well album

Stay A While At The Blue Hotel

My recent Dresden Dolls discovery has led me down a few interesting alleys and into a world that I was only vaguely aware of. Suffice to say that if I were 20 years younger I might have wanted to be part of the 'Dark Cabaret' scene... or I might not.

Anyway, I bought both the DD DVDs - brilliant, marvellous stuff - and was intrigued to see that Lene Lovich sang 'Delilah' with them. Not very well, in my opinion, you see I *really* like Amanda's voice. In fact, Amanda Palmer, I think I love you... Ulp...

Hum.

Anyway, back to Lene Lovich.

In the late 70s I was quite a fan of a lot of the stuff that cropping up in the wake of punk, and of course that included lots of the Stiff stuff - though I still wanted Nick Lowe to get back with the Brinsleys (I've never been entirely convinced by his solo stuff... might post Ian Gomm's 1st solo here some time, waddya think?).

If you've never heard any of the early Lene Lovich albums I recommend that you do - she's a lot more than just the wierd voice on 'Lucky Number'. I don't think this is her best album but it's very good, and not out on CD (why not?). Enjoy.

Lene Lovich - No Man's Land (1982)

01 - It's You, Only You (Mein Schmerz)
02 - Blue Hotel
03 - Faces
04 - Walking Low
05 - Special Star
06 - Sister Video
07 - Maria
08 - Savages
09 - Rocky Road

Download Lene Lovich - No Man's Land

They Came In Countless Numbers

2007-10-01T10:23:00.000+01:00

One of the blogs that I regularly check out is Time Has Told Me - his taste mirrors mine in many ways, and more than once he's posted something that I had ripped and ready to go. Some of his posts are vinyl rips, some are CDs (and occasionally I send my high horse off for a feed and grab one or two things I haven't yet ripped from vinyl), and recently he's started posting some rather nice folky bootlegs. Check him out.

Last week he posted Neil Innes' "How Sweet To Be An Idiot", which I put up a few months ago - but his seems to be a CD rip so I suggest you go and get his rather than mine. He has some bonus tracks as well.

"Idiot" is Neil Innes' first (and I think best) solo album. The 2nd and 3rd are available from Amazon as a two-fer (only 8 quid, folks) but his 4th album has never been released as far as I can see, so here it is. And I might as well take the opportunity to repost the Rutland Weekend Television Songbook (co-credited to Eric Idle), one of my earliest posts and a very popular download.

If you're familiar with Neil Innes you'll know what to expect - witty punning lyrics & catchy melodies (Pete Atkin and Jake Thackray come to mind, though Neil is more pop/rock than acoustic guitar). And if you're not familiar with him (Bonzo Dog Band?) ...well, that's *still* what you should expect.

And if you don't like witty English singer-songwriters, how about deadly serious Finnish jazz-prog-rockers?

I picked up 'Lambertland' in Crouch End (yes, Harum Records) some time in the early 70s, attracted by a sticker on the sleeve that claimed Tasavallan Presidentii were "...like a tidied-up Traffic". Never could see the comparison, mind you.

The singer and lyrics are ludicrous, as only Scandinavian prog-rock can be ("there's room for doubt bigger than three, and rug enough... link step from the bottom up", anyone?) but Jukka Tolonen is a hell of a guitarist and over the years I've become extremely fond of this album. I don't have any of their albums (are they any good?) but I do have the solo "Tolonen!" album and "B The Magpie" (was Pekka Pohjola ever in TP?) and they're both pretty good as well.

The only other person I've ever met who'd heard of this lot was a Finnish user interface designer with Nokia when I was out in Tampere a few years ago. He made me a copy of a more recent Jukka Tolonen album but it's pretty grim guitar stuff a la Steve Vai (I think, only played it once and that was years ago).

Neil Innes & Eric Idle - The Rutland Weekend Songbook (1976)

01 - L'Amour Perdu
02 - Gibberish
03 - Front Loader
04 - Say Sorry Again
05 - I Must Be In Love
06 - 24 Hours In Tunbridge Wells
07 - The Fabulous Bingo Brothers
08 - Concrete Jungle Boy
09 - The Children of Rock And Roll
10 - Stoop Solo
11 - The Song O' The Insurance Men
12 - Testing
13 - I Give Myself To You
14 - Communist Cooking
15 - Johnny Cash
16 - Protest Song
17 - Accountancy Shanty
18 - Football
19 - Boring
20 - L'Amour Perdue Cha Cha Cha
21 - The Hard To Get
22 - The Song O' The Continuity Announcers

Download The Rutland Weekend Songbook

Neil Innes - Off The Record (1982)

01 - Libido
02 - City Of The Angels
03 - Them
04 - Time To Kill
05 - Rock Of Ages
06 - One Thing On your Mind
07 - The Worm And The Angel
08 - Not Getting Any Younger
09 - Take Away
10 - Happy Ending
11 - Stoned On Rock
12 - Knicker Elastic King
13 - Spaghetti Western
14 - Mr Eurovision
15 - Ungawa
16 - Godfrey Daniel
17 - Fortune Teller
18 - Mother
19 - Burlesque
20 - That Road

Download Off The Record

Tasavallan Presidentti - Lambertland (1972)

01 - Lounge
02 - Lambertland
03 - Celebration Of The Saved Nine
04 - The Bargain
05 - Dance
06 - Last Quarters

Download Lambertland

(a child is dying and...) There's Nothing I Can Do

2007-09-28T09:51:00.000+01:00

Hello!

Sorry it's been so long, truth is I had a catastrophic hard disk failure a few weeks ago and lost all my ripped vinyl. I hadn't bothered backing it up, thinking a) they're big WAV files before I clean them up and b) I can always rip them again. Well, yeah, but... it would (will) take me a long time.

I sent my disk off to a data recovery place but now, three weeks later, I still haven't heard anything other than a receipt for the hardware and so I have to assume they're all gone.

BOLLOCKS.

So, over the next few weeks/months, I'm going to get my turntable down from the loft and start re-ripping all the stuff Id intended to post - can't even remember what was there :-(

The only rips I still have are Pumpkinhead's debut album, Midnight Well's debut album (both featuring Thom Moore - is that the same guy that I'm going to see tonight at The Albert Hall with Joanna Newsom & Roy Harper?) and Lene Lovich's third album (No Man's Land). Watch out for them soon.

In the meantime, here's an album that I 'ripped' many years ago, before ripping came to mean what it means now.

I had a friend - Where are you now, Sarah Griffin? - who was a friend of Jimmy Cauty (KLF, JAMs, Timelords, etc.) and when she got married she held the wedding reception in the grounds of his house in Brixton. He was away at the time, but while I was mooching around the kitchen I came across a vinyl copy of the unreleased (and very rare) 1987 album lying on a table. I checked with Sarah wheter it would be OK to borrow it, then took it home and taped it (using my Walkman Pro, metal tape, and Dolby C NR) - then gave it back to Sarah.

It's become something of a cause celebre over the years, and I know that you can download the tracks individually from various places on the Web, but this is a rip from the original vinyl. And not just any vinyl, Jimmy Cauty's own copy - so ner ner ner.

I haven't split it into individual tracks, you can do that if you want. IMO it works just great as a whole album - or you can search and download the individual tracks.

The JAMs (aka KLF) - 1987 (What The Fuck's Going On?)

Side One:

01 - Hey Hey We Are Not The Monkees (100 BPM) - 6:00
02 - Mind the Gap - 1:02
03 - Don't Take Five (Take What You Want) (89 BPM) - 3:59
04 - Rockman Rock Parts 2 and 3 (105 BPM) - 6:29
05 - Why Did You Throw Away Your Giro? - 0:20

Side Two:

01 - Me Ru Con (0 BPM) - 2:23
02 - The Queen and I (99 BPM) - 4:43
03 - Top of the Pops - 2:51
04 - All You Need Is Love (106 BPM) - 4:55
05 - Next (100 BPM) - 7:15

http://rapidshare.com/files/58831756/The_KLF_-_1987__entire_album_-_vinyl_.zip

The Unrescuable Schizo

2007-09-07T12:59:00.000+01:00

(side tryp)

Normally I loathe and despise mainstream pop - es#pecially anything labelled 'pop' or ''aor' (is tht term still used?) but recently I've been listening a lot to.... gasp... Amy Winehouse.

I didn't mean to, honest, I mean all I knew about her was that she was the obnoxious, unpleasant drunken drug addict on Buzzcocks and I knew damn well I'd hate her crap pop music with a vengeance.

And then...

I turned on the telly the other night and the BBC Sessions programme was on, and - I was flabbergasted.

Obnoxious she may be, but Jesus, she can't half sing. And her songs are bloody great. She really is staggeringly good - and you''ve no idea how much it pains me to say that.

So I went to mp3stor, or mp3fiesta, or mp3million, or one of those - can't remember which - and grabbed a few tracks. And the next day I ordered both her albums from Amazon (honest, I download MP3s but I also buy the albums if I think they're good). And this despite the pleas to boycott her albums - sorry, I think she's very good and I want to buy her records. If she chooses to wreck her life with the royalties, that's not my business or fault. Just make another couple of albums first, eh?

If, like me, you've been avoiding Amy Winehouse because she's crap, just the latest in a long line of talentless pop singers, WAKE UP. AMY WINEHOUSE IS F*CKING STUPENDOUS.

On the other hand...

(/side tryp)

I've also been listening to the Dresden Dolls a lot recently, another bunch that I'd dismissed out of hand as being part of the modern day goth/industrial genre.

Wrong again. They're often labelled as 'dark cabaret' or 'the punk brecht/weill' but that don't do them no justice. They can be intense, but they can also be incredibly tender, or sad, or tragic, and they can make the most impressive racket this side of Jack Off Jill (especially considering they're a only a duo - vocal/piano and drums).

Wonderful.

Here's a little sampler - hope they don't mind me posting these tracks but my intention is to get you to GO BUY THEIR ALBUMS.

Like I did.

Oh - and thanks, Lydia ;-)

Dresden Dolls - a little sampler

1 - Coin Operated Boy (live) - from A Is For Accident (2001-2003)
2 - Christopher Lydon - from A Is For Accident (2001-2003)
3 - Jeep Song - from Dresden Dolls (2003)
4 - Half Jack - from Dresden Dolls (2003)
5 - Delilah - from Yes Virginia (2006)
6 - Dirty Business - from Yes Virginia (2006)

http://rapidshare.com/files/54005541/DresDolls.zip

Can't be *rsed today

2007-08-23T14:41:00.000+01:00

Someone asked me for a couple more Sally Oldfields, so here they are. Sorry, really not in the mood for writing anything at the moment.

The Flame

http://rapidshare.com/files/50279993/Flame.zip

Playing In The Flame

http://rapidshare.com/files/50279032/Playing.zip

See you in August...

2007-07-19T10:15:00.000+01:00

No posts for 3 or 4 weeks.

Going to Villa Pia.

Never Let It Fade Away

2007-07-19T10:01:00.000+01:00

It seems weird to think of it now, but for a while in the 70s my dad was one of the most famous men in England.

He was an actor, and had been around for a while doing TV things like Z Cars and The Avengers and films like Guns At Batasi and Cleopatra, when he landed the lead role in a new soap opera for the BBC called The Newcomers. He did well in that, and when he left he went across to the other side and joined the cast of Coronation Street as Elsie Tanner's latest bloke.

Well, things went their way and soon dad and Pat were a couple in real life. And whenever I was out with them they'd get stopped in the street and asked for autographs - and from time to time there'd be an article in the press about one or the other. I guess they were the Posh & Becks of their day.

After a while they left 'the street' and went into theatre, including touring Gaslight round the UK and New Zealand, and at some point during this he made an album. This one.

They split up eventually, of course, and then dad died - and Pat didn't come to the funeral even though they were still married. Pat later married Tony Booth, so in some strange way Cherie Blair is my 'sister-in-law-in-law'.

This album isn't bad at all. It isn't great, either. It's an actor who can sing, singing with some friends. He clearly wasn't making any great effort, and in some ways it even out-blands the Twiggy album (still my all-time most popular download, folks - maybe blandness is kewl? Maybe this will shift even more???), but it's pleasant enough.

Alan Browning - Whisky And Milk

01 - Dream A Little Dream Of Me
02 - What A Difference A Day Makes
03 - Misty
04 - Soon It's Gonna Rain
05 - Ruby
06 - Girl Talk
07 - A Prisoner Of Love
08 - Catch A Falling Star
09 - I've Got You Under My Skin
10 - And I Love Her

Download

A Few Quick Ones While I'm Away

2007-07-19T09:26:00.000+01:00

I'm going on holiday tomorrow, to Italy, for three weeks. So I thought I'd do a quick post before I go, with links to a few random albums I've uploaded recently.

Mike Heron's Reputation - Mike Heron's Reputation (1974)

Disclaimer: all this is personal opnion, unfettered by facts or research. It's just how I see things this morning.

When the Incredible String Band finally broke up in 1979, following a couple of rather sad & lacklustre albums, it soon became clear how much Robin and Mike needed each other in order to create top quality music.

Freed from Mike (Paul)'s mainstream sensibility, Robin (John) lurched off into celtic myths & legends while Mike rebounded back into MOR soft rock. Not that either lost their songwriting abilities, just that Mike became a bit dull & Robin went too far into wyrdness.

However, before we lost Mike altogether he made one final great - well, very good - album. Alongside Malcolm LeMaistre (who, it could be argued, heralded the downfall of ISB before Robin brought in Gerard Dott to seal the coffin), Graham Forbes and Stan Lee (not really), Mike Heron's Reputation made one more album (the rotten 'Diamond Of Dreams') before Mike went truly solo.

ISB reformed, of course, with Clive Palmer & then without Robin, but I haven't bothered listening to the recorded concerts because somehow middle-aged blokes singing songs from 5000 Spirits and Hangman's doesn't seem right to me. And the 1st album exists - for me - in a vacuum all of its own.

I saw the ISB a few times (anyone remember Friars Aylesbury?), also Reputation a couple of times at the Marquee - but LeMaistre was always going on about his braces and pissed me off.

I hadn't heard this album in 20 years when I ripped it, probably won't for another 20 but... it's not bad. Just not great.

01 - Down On My Knees (After Memphis)
02 - Easy Street
03 - Evie
04 - Residential Boy
05 - Without Love
06 - Born To Be Gone
07 - Angels In Disguise
08 - Wine Of His Song
09 - Meanwhile The Rain
10 - One Of The Finest
11 - Singing The Dolphin Through

Download

Martyn Bates - Letters To A Scattered Family (1990)

The other Martyn Bates post went down very well, so here's another.

01 - On The Day You Climb Down
02 - Snow Rages
03 - City, All Of Strangers
04 - Little Days
05 - Your Jewled Footsteps
06 - For Love, Waiting To Die
07 - Shuttered Nights
08 - First And Last February
09 - This One Refrain
10 - I'll Wrap Your Hopes

Download

Fiddler's Dram - To See The Play (1978)

Fiddler's Dram, of course, had the big hit with 'Day Trip To Bangor' but that was about it for them. Cathy Lesurf joined the Albions and the rest of them metamorphosed into The Oyster Band.

This is their first album, and very good it is too. It contains the *original* version of Bangor, not the poppy version they recorded and released as a single.

01 - Jack In London City
02 - Song Of Victory & Song Of The Blackbird
03 - Day Trip To Bangor
04 - Flash Lad
05 - Ythanside
06 - Keyhole In The Door
07 - Youankis & Skraperez & Guerz Ar Gechantez
08 - Wa'ney Island Cockfight
09 - The Two Brothers
10 - Peel the Tatties & The Pig In The Kitchen & The Barony
11 - False Knight On The Road
12 - Nottingham Goose Fair

Download

Barry Dransfield - Bowin' and Scrapin' (1984)

Here's an album that I ripped & uploaded a couple of weeks ago, and then before i had a chance to create this post i wuz beaten to it by Time-Has-Told-Me (go there when you've finished here - he's got similar tastes). I haven't compared my rip with his, it could be better or it could be worse.

01 - Rattling Roaring Willie & Metal Man
02 - Fiddler's Progress
03 - Who Knows Where The Time Goes & My Lagan Love
04 - Sheffield Hornpipe & Pet Of The Pipers
05 - Up The Aisle (Wedding March & Wedding Song & Bridi
06 - Sandy Bell's
07 - Obliged To Fiddle & Planxty Davy & Spanish Cloak
08 - Bushes And Briars & Swedish Air
09 - O'Carolan's Concerto
10 - Recitation Upon A Gentleman Sitting On A Cremona V
11 - Sally Gardens & Clonmel Races

Download

Reggae In My Jeggae

I know next to nothing about certain genres of music, for example soul & reggae. In fact, it's fair to say that I don't really like 'black' music in general - I've wondered whether this makes me racist in some way - I don't think so.

Anyway I was working in a record shop in Kilburn in the late 70s & we had a deal with a reggae label who used to give us their choice of albums on sale or return. Some of them I liked and bought for myself, including these.

I've no idea whether these are any good or not, but they're about al the reggae I've got apart from a bit of Dennis Brown and Gregory Isaacs. And no, I'm not a big fan of Bob Marley - though I do like Linton Kwesi Johnson and (soul-wise) The Meters.

Download

Tradition - Movin' On (1978)

01 - Every Little Beat Of My Heart
02 - Rastafaria
03 - You Walked On By
04 - We-Wah-To Go To Zion
05 - Prediction
06 - (Africa) Our Forefather's Land
07 - You Ran Off
08 - Movin On
09 - Jamaica Land Is Zion
10 - Rainy Day
11 - Six Million Dollar Baby

Download

The Simeons - Dub Conference In London (1978)

01 - Dub Conference In London
02 - Dub Under Contract
03 - Love Dub
04 - L T Time
05 - More Time
06 - Jah Rastafari
07 - Immortal Dub
08 - Cool Stepping
09 - Mark At The Control

Download

Black Beard - Strictly Dub Wize (1978)

Dennis Bovell was/is the producer behind a lot of the best reggae, or so I'm told. He certainly does the music for Linton Kwesi. This is the first of his 'solo' outings - creating dub versions of other tracks. It's good (I think).

01 - Cut After Cut
02 - Rebel Chase
03 - Ites Of Dub
04 - River To Bank Rocking
05 - Tell Yuh So
06 - Strictly Dub
07 - Mint Ah Music
08 - Surrey With The Fringe On Top (Ska Be Doo Za)
09 - Ah Weh

Download

Even Molluscs Have Weddings

2007-07-19T07:09:00.000+01:00

Until fairly recently I had not heard of Joanna Newsom, but over the last couple of weeks I've been listening to her more than anybody else.

The obvious comparisons - vocally, at least - are Bjork and Kate Bush, but vocal timbre is only one aspect of the story.

Joanna's first two EPs are interesting but ultimately forgettable, I wouldn't recommend starting with either of them because they don't even hint at what is to come. Her first album proper, 'The Milk Eyed Mender', dispels some of the Bjork/Bush comparisons but there's still not really enough meat to make it a stone classic.

Which is what Ys is. I don't know what to say about it, it's unique and marvellous. If I was pushed for a comparison I'd have to say that it reminds me, in some ways, of 'Don Juan's Reckless daughter' - not musically, but in terms of its ambition and scope. However, whereas DJRD was the album where - for me - Joni lost her way and never found it again, Ys is a much more cohesive and successful album and defines a whole new genre and class of music. Epic, almost Joycean in its tumbling maelstrom of ideas and themes.

This is a recording of a Dutch (?) radio broadcast from some time between the first two albums, featuring Joanna solo with just her harp. I found it on the Web - can't remember where so can't credit the original uploader - edited out the Dutch host and spliced all the interview segments together at the end.

I'm going to see her at the Albert Hall in September - should be good.

Joanna Newsom - live on the radio (2005)

01 - Swansea
02 - Sadie
03 - Inflammatory Writ
04 - Peach, Plum, Pear
05 - Clam, Crab, Cockle Cowrie
06 - Interview

http://rapidshare.com/files/28150357/Radio.zip

Poddy Royly

2007-06-29T14:50:00.001+01:00

I can't really be bothered to write very much right now so I'll just stick up the links.

Paddy Reilly is - or was, 30 years ago - pretty much the best of the Irish ballad singers. I saw him play live, once in Donegal Town and once somewhere else, when I was on tour in Ireland in 1977 - he was very good and I had a great respect for the man.

Later, he joined The Dubliners - haven't heard that lineup but I suspect it wasn't as good as these three little gems.

Paddy Reilly - The Life Of Paddy Reilly (1973)

The cover photo of this album was taken at the gates of Kilmainham gaol, which is where James Connelly was hanged. Funny (or not), when I was playing Irish music we weren't allowed to sing the words of that song. So we palyed it as an instrumental - we weren't alone in that.

01 - 01 - Spancil Hill
01 - 02 - Coming Of The Road
01 - 03 - Sam Hall
01 - 04 - Come To The Bower
01 - 05 - Deportees
01 - 06 - Dollymount Strand
01 - 07 - Irish Soldier Boy
01 - 08 - Matt Hyland
01 - 09 - Orange And The Green
01 - 10 - James Larkin
01 - 11 - James Connolly
01 - 12 - The Lark In The Morning

http://rapidshare.com/files/39897468/PR1.zip

Paddy Reilly - Paddy Reilly At Home (1974)

This isn't the original cover of this album - no idea why but they changed the photo just before I bought my copy.

02 - 01 - Come Out Ye Black And Tans
02 - 02 - Joe Hill
02 - 03 - The Limerick Rake
02 - 04 - Peggy Gordon
02 - 05 - The Foggy Dew
02 - 06 - Four Green Fields
02 - 07 - A Nation Once Again
02 - 08 - Blackwater Side
02 - 09 - Silver In The Stubble
02 - 10 - Kelly The Boy From Killane
02 - 11 - Annerchuain
02 - 12 - Salford Town

http://rapidshare.com/files/39897533/PR2.zip

Paddy Reilly - The Town I Loved So Well (1975)

Yes *that* song. Still the best version of it.

03 - 01 - The Flower Of Sweet Strabane
03 - 02 - The Cliffs Of Dooneen
03 - 03 - The Hills Of Kerry
03 - 04 - The Galway Races
03 - 05 - Rathcliff Highway
03 - 06 - Come Up The Stairs
03 - 07 - The Town I Loved So Well
03 - 08 - Arthur McBride
03 - 09 - Autumn Has Come
03 - 10 - I Once Loved A Lass
03 - 11 - Bold Tenant Farmer
03 - 12 - Sweet Carnlough Bay
03 - 13 - There Has To Be An End To It Someday
03 - 14 - The Movin' Along Song

http://rapidshare.com/files/39911066/PR3.zip

Oh, no, not more bloody folk music...

2007-06-21T12:38:00.000+01:00

Some requests before we start...

~~THE WATERSONS~~ - I've recently bought the reissued CDs and the huge box set but am missing one track from the original 'Yorkshire Garland' album that was omitted from the re-release, no idea why. Would therefore like to get hold of The Plains Of Mexico.

SPUD - I'd love to get hold of the two Spud albums with Dermot O'Connor - when I was in Poteen there was talk of myself and Joe O'Donnell teaming up with him to form a new band, but it never happened. Pity. Anyway, all I have is an old cassette of 'A Silk Purse' and 'A Sow's Ear', neither of which play any more. I recently found a download link ('Grown So Ugly' that had a vinyl rip of one - does the other even exist?)

BERT JANSCH - several people have asked if I have 'L A Turnaround' - no I don't, and I don't know anyone who does. It seems to have vanished forever - even Bert himself couldn't find a copy when compiling a recent anthology. Posted over at Time Has Told Me.

~~If anyone has got a copy of any of these, *please* rip it & post it somewhere. I'll happily post them here if you dont have a blog of your own (and give you all the credit, of course). Also~~:

SHIRLEY COLLINS - I've been trying to get hold of the 'Within Sound' box set, but Fledg'ling have sold out - they're not planning to press any more - and the only copy I can see is going for £100 on Amazon. If anyone has a copy they'd be willing to sell me for a reasonable sum, please drop me a line~~. Alternatively, if you can let me have it in MP3 format that would be fine as well - I know that's a bit naughty but I *will* pay for it if I can find it at a reasonable price~~. Got the MP3s, now I need the CDS...

"And now, back to the records"...

More folky stuff this time I'm afraid. I get like this from time to time - obsessed with a particular artist or genre.

I can honestly say that, right now, I would happily spend the rest of my life listening to The Watersons, Shirley Collins, Anne Briggs and Spirogyra to the exclusion of anything else. And it's all down to Bazza Dransfield and his recent emails. Of course I've known most of that stuff for 30 years or more, but it's equally true that, apart from the odd Fairport, Steeleye or Trees album, most of it has been unlistened-to since CD took over as my medium of choice.

So I now have a 'folk' playlist on my iPod that consists of the following albums:

A Bed Of Roses
A Yorkshire Garland
Angel Delight
Anne Briggs
Anthems In Eden
Bandoggs
Battle Of The Field
Bells, Boots & Shambles
Bright Phoebus
Cruel Sister
Folk Roots, New Routes
For Pence And Spicy Ale
Lark Rise To Candleford
Love, Death And The Lady
Morris On
No Roses
No-One Stands Alone
Old Boot Wine
On The Shore
Once In A Blue Moon
Please To See The King
St Radiguns
Summer Solstice
Tam-Lin (see below)
The Garden Of Jane Delawney
The Power Of The True Love Knot
The Time Has Come

I really have no desire to hear anything else for now.

Oh - and I'm off to see Waterson Carthy tomorrow night. Still quality stuff, though IMHO not in the same league without Mike (or Lal). Oh - and I'm probably going to Hastings on Saturday, so may pop in to see the Dransfield

If Bazza's emails hadn't been enough of a spur, by coincidence BBC Radio 4 broacast a documentary on Bright Phoebus a few weeks ago. The actual transmission date was before my personal reawakening, and by the time I went to listen to it the programme had been taken down from the Listen Again pages of the BBC Web site. Luckily I'm a long time Usenet user, and a post to uk.music.folk turned up a couple of people who had recorded it and they sent me MP3s - thanks to you both.

Look, I'm not sure about the legality of posting a recent BBC broadcast - actually, yes I am, I shouldn't do it - but for my regular visitors you can ~~download the programme here~~ (no you can't, it's gone now). I hope the original recording person doesn't mind. Note: I'm going to delete that in a few days - I don't want the wrath of Aunty Beeb on me. Funny, you know, Dave Bulmer is on there... he doesn't *sound* like the antichrist...

Of course, Bright Phoebus is one of the albums that I *have* continued to play throughout these years - my god if you don't know how good it is and have the remotest interest in classy music than you owe it to yourself to download it from my previous post and listen. Fer Chissakes it's *free* - but if it's ever released in a format that results in Mike, or Lal's family getting any money I will immediately delete that file and will personally buy half a dozen copies for people. As The Guvnor said, you have a *duty* to hear that album.

Which is not to ignore the rest of the Watersons recorded output, but most of that *is* available and - as I mentioned above - I recently bought the 4CD box set. And if you really can't cope with unaccompanied traditional music, Lal's albums with Oliver Knight are essential. Really.

Anyway - two more obscure folk albums from days gone by...

Alastair McDonald - Tam Lin (1971)

I know absolutely squat about Scottish music so I've no idea if this is a lost classic or a pile of poo - but I like it a lot. Trivial info - it's on the Youngblood label, which is the same label as my copy of Roy Harper's "Return Of The Sophostocated Beggar".

01 - Tam Lin
02 - The Twa Corbies
03 - Bratach Bana (The Shining White Banner)
04 - Chairlie O Chairlie
05 - Donald MacGillavray
06 - Johnny O'Breadislea
07 - Song Of Clandonald
08 - Normond Braes
09 - McPhersons Rant
10 - Andro And His Cutty Gun

Download from here.

Farmstead - The Sheep And The Hay (1977)

A local amateur group from the Western Yorkshire dales. Only 500 copies were made, I've got one - so where are the others? Trivial info: I used to sing 'Lord George' with my band Brahms & Liszt around the London pub circuit in the late 70s.

01 - The Sheep And The Hay
02 - Chickens In The Garden
03 - Three Airs
04 - Lord George
05 - Western Breeze
06 - The Three Peaks
07 - Sleeping Lion
08 - The Huntsman's Chorus
09 - Line O'er The Fell
10 - Turning Of The Year & Morris Jig
11 - The Roving Fiddler
12 - Song Of The Yorkshire Dales

Download from here.

Post script: Yesterday I received the CD of 'Shining Bright' that I bought last week over the web. I played it this morning.

Don't bother.

Sorry - I really wanted to like it, I really did. But apart from Dayteller (who he?), Eliza Carthy (no surprise there, she grew up with her auntie Elaine's incredible music) and Maddy Prior (jeez, she can't half still crack it vocally) the rest of it is pretty average. Not the songs, mind you, I mean the singers & performances. Oh, OK, a grudging approval for Christy Moore.

Christine Collister epitomises, for me, a bland & overproduced modern professional singer. Why is modern music so soulless? Why don't I like anything Richard Thompson has done since Pour Down Like Silver, or REM since Pageant, or Pink Floyd since Meddle (don't get me started on that) - is it to do with knowing what you're doing? When bass players learn what bass players are supposed to do they nearly always become uninteresting. And the same goes for singers & songwriters. And bands.

In my opinion.

L7ers...

Line Twine The Willow Dee

2007-06-18T14:57:00.000+01:00

Hmm - having said I was going to post all the Leader & Trailer stuff I could find, a trawl through my albums reveals that I don't have that many any more. But here are two that I do have - and soon there will be more folk oddities.

Here's an oddity though.

I bought this album because 'Alison Gross' was on it and I liked the Steeleye version on Parcel Of Rogues (although, with hindsight, it ain't that great - in fact I really don't rate Steeleye after the first 2 or 3 albums). I wasn't prepared for what I got, though - a pretty uncompromising and stark album with no attempt to pretty anything up, I found this album pretty hard going and I didn't play it much. I will though, now, maybe I underestimate it. Maybe not. Dave plays squeezebox on track 6, Kevin Burke plays fiddle on track 3, Packie Byrne plays whistle on track 4 and Nic Jones plays fiddle on tracks 5 & 8, but otherwise it's Dave & Toni singing unaccompanied, mostly in unison an octave apart (if that makes sense). Toni Arthur, of course, went on to present Play Away with the mighty Brian Cant.

BTW - no, I don't have any of the Nic Jones albums. Unfortunately I never really liked his solo stuff that much - my loss, I'm sure - and so all I have is the Bandoggs album on which he sings & plays. 'Penguin Eggs' is supposed to be his best album, and that *is* still available, along with some live & previously unreleased stuff on compilations, but despite listening again I'm afraid I'm still not a huge fan of his.

Dave & Toni Arthur - Hearken To The Witches Rune (1970)

01 - Alison Gross
02 - Tam Lin
03 - A Fairy Tale
04 - The Fairy Child
05 - Broomfield Hill
06 - The Standing Stones
07 - The Cruel Mother
08 - Alice Brand

http://rapidshare.com/files/37931070/rune.zip

Dick Gaughan - No More Forever (1972)

If you don't know Dick Gaughan, shame on you. This is his first solo album, the last of my great lost 'Bulmerised' Trailer albums for now.

01 - Rattlin' Roarin' Willie & The Friar's Britches
02 - MacCrimmon's Lament & Mistress Jamieson's favourite
03 - Jock O'Hazeldean
04 - Cam' Ye Ower Frae France
05 - The Bonnie Banks O' Fordie
06 - The Thatchers O' Glenrae
07 - The Fair Flower Of Northumberland
08 - The Teatotaller & Da Tushker
09 - The Three Healths
10 - The John MacLean March
11 - The Green Linnet

http://rapidshare.com/files/37925060/Nomore.zip

Cheap Red Wine In My Drunken Brain

2007-06-17T13:06:00.000+01:00

The other day I uploaded some albums by the Dransfield brothers and, since I used to know Barry quite well, emailed him to check that it was OK to do so.

His reply included the comment that "our stuff...is all mainly still in the hands of Dave Bulmer and he never pays us anything anyway". I thought nothing much of that but a few days later, on a whim, I googled "Dave Bulmer"... and what a can of worms I discovered.

I'm not going to say much more than that right now, because I don't know the truth, except that there is a heck of a lot of vitally important, and extremely good, folk music that is unlikely to see the light of day in the near future. Hence the uploading of this album. I'm going to post all the Leader and Trailer stuff I can and hope that somehow he's convinced to re-release them and let the artists have their just desserts. Sadly, for Tony Rose it's too late, and Nic Jones could probably have used some royalties... Read more here...

If you don't know this album, do yourself a favour and listen - then go and buy some other Watersons stuff. Norma you probably know about, the family band is almost all unaccompanied traditional folk song (though among the very best of its genre), and the two albums that Lal made with her son Oliver Knight (Once In A Blue Moon and A Bed Of Roses) are absolutely wonderful. Go buy them, ay least!!! Also, the songs on Bright Phoebus have been recorded by an array of folk stars for an album called 'Shining Bright' which I've ordered from Amazon but haven't heard yet.

Lal & Mike Waterson - Bright Phoebus (1972)

Interesting thing - somewhere down the line I seem to have obtained MP3s of Bright Phoebus. I *have* ripped my vinyl, and I thought I'd posted the mp3s somewhere, but these rips are definitely *not* from my vinyl. I know that because there's an irrepairable jump in 'Danny Rose' on the album, and it misses the words "...his original gun...", so it sounds like "...this is h*nn, never been shown...". If anyone has an MP3 of that track that skips there, it's *my* rip from *my* vinyl. The version posted below doesn't do that, so it ain't my rip. Thanks to wherever I got it from!

01 - Rubber Band
02 - The Scarecrow
03 - Fine Horsemen
04 - Winifer Odd
05 - Danny Rose
06 - Child Among The Weeds
07 - The Magical Man
08 - Never the Same
09 - To Make You Stay
10 - Shady Lady
11 - Red Wine And Promises
12 - Bright Phoebus

http://rapidshare.com/files/36658855/phoebus.zip

BTW a similar situation exists with Green Linnet - the label that released many of the best Irish albums on CD (including Andy Irvine Paul Brady) but never paid the artists any royalties...

Green On Red - Gravity Talks (1983)

Another album that has, inexplicably, never been released on CD as far as I'm aware.

01 - Gravity Talks
02 - Old Chief
03 - 5 Easy Pieces
04 - Deliverance
05 - Over My Head
06 - Snake Bit
07 - Blue Parade
08 - That's What You're Here For
09 - Brave Generation
10 - Abigail's Ghost
11 - Cheap Wine
12 - Narcolepsy

http://rapidshare.com/files/36658847/Green_On_Red.zip

Ghengis Smith, Lonesome Cowboy Burt, and more re-ups

2007-06-06T12:39:00.001+01:00

Somewhere on the Web, recently, I saw a post that mentioned somebody's two favourite albums weren't available on CD. I coulnda believe it, so I checked, and it's true!

So here, without further adon't, are said albums.

Also a few more requested re-ups.

Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith - Roy Harper (1967)

Apparently this is Roy Harper's least favourite of all his albums - don't know why, I think it's one of his best. Mind you, it was also one of the first of his that I owned (I saw it 2nd hand in a local WHSmith the day I bought Flat Baroque), around the same time that I bought Love Chronicles (and that *is* available).

Freak Sweet
You Don't Need Money
Ageing Raver
In a Beautiful Rambling Mess
All You Need Is
What You Have
Circle
Highgate Cemetery
Come Out Fighting Genghis Smith

http://rapidshare.com/files/34951782/ghengis.zip

200 Motels - Frank Zappa (1970)

Well you'll either like this or you won't I guess. For full info about it go here.

No idea why it's not available - it's *far* from his worst album. It's also far from his best, though.

01 - Semi-Fraudulent Direct-From-Hollywood Overture
02 - Mystery Roach
03 - Dance Of The Rock & Roll Interviewers
04 - This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Prologue)
05 - Tuna Fish Promenade
06 - Dance Of The Just Plain Folks
07 - This Town Is A Sealed Tuna Sandwich (Reprise)
08 - The Sealed Tuna Bolero
09 - Lonesome Cowboy Burt
10 - Touring Can Make You Crazy
11 - Would You Like A Snack
12 - Redneck Eats
13 - Centerville
14 - She Painted Up Her Face
15 - Janet's Big Dance Number
16 - Half A Dozen Provocative Squats
17 - Mysterioso
18 - Shove It Right In
19 - Lucy's Seduction Of A Bored Violinist & Postlude
20 - I'm Stealing The Towels
21 - Dental Hygiene Dilemma
22 - Does This Kind Of Life Look Interesting To You
23 - Daddy, Daddy, Daddy
24 - Penis Dimension
25 - What Will This Evening Bring Me This Morning
26 - A Nun Suit Painted On Some Old Boxes
27 - Magic Fingers
28 - Motorhead's Midnight Ranch
29 - Dew On The Newts We Got
30 - The Lad Searches The Night For His Newts
31 - The Girl Wants To Fix Him Some Broth
32 - The Girl's Dream
33 - Little Green Scratchy Sweaters & Corduroy Ponce
34 - Strictly Genteel (The Finale)

http://rapidshare.com/files/34954654/motels.zip

Re-ups

Clancy - Seriously Speaking & Every Day

First posted in Jeka Jose Da Da Oh (June 2006) - download HERE.

Miracle Legion - Live At The George Robey

First posted in Stay Where You Are, Little Man (June 2006) - download HERE.

Miracle Legion - Demos

First posted in Stay Where You Are, Little Man (June 2006) - download HERE.

Martyn Bates - Love Smashed On A Rock

First posted in I'll Wrap Your Hopes Up (Sept 2006) - download HERE.

Bandoggs - Bandoggs

First posted in When I Was A Freeport And You Were A Folk Supergroup (June 2006) - download HERE.

This is particularly relevant now - following an email conversation with Barry Dransfield and a subsequent Web trawl for Dave Bulmer I'm going to post all the Leader and Trailer stuff I can and hope that somehow he's convinced to re-release them and let the artists have their just desserts. Sadly, for Tony Rose it's too late, and Nic Jones could probably have used some royalties...

Three more re-ups

2007-05-25T15:10:00.000+01:00

I had a request to repost the excellent Bowles Brothers album and Laura Nyro's long-unavailable Nested, and since I've just posted three Dransfield-related albums I might as well repost Robin's solo album at the same time.

These are all excellent - you can take my word for it.

The Bowles Brothers - Roger Buys A Fridge

(Originally posted in August 2006 - see With His Brains On The Table You Could Say He Was Out Of His Head)

Download

Robin Dransfield - Tidewave

(Originally posted in July 2006 - see Milder To Mulder, Jack In The Can)

Download

Laura Nyro - Nested

(Originally posted in June 2006 - see When I Was A Freeport And You Were A Folk Supergroup)

Download

That's me done for today.

Neither Drunken Nor Sober

2007-05-25T13:49:00.000+01:00

When I was playing gigs on the London Irish/folk circuit, one of my tasks was to try to find new material for the band.

Well - I say 'new' but in fact it was 'stuff that's been around for a while but not many people know about'. So I bought quite a few folk albums on spec - some of them turned out to be good and some not so good.

One of the better ones was this one, on Trailer, by Tony Rose who would later go on to sing with Bandoggs among others. I haven't played it in 20 years or more but I just ripped it this morning, and looking at the sleeve notes I see that Robin & Barry Dransfield were the accompanists on it. Small world - only last week I ripped their two Trailer albums for upload.

This is really good, and I used to sing both The Bellringing and The Golden Vanitee - unaccompanied of course. Scroll down for the Dransfield albums.

Tony Rose - Young Hunting

01 - Robin Hood And The Bishop Of Hereford
02 - The Bellringing
03 - Young Hunting
04 - Golden Vanitee
05 - Up To The Rigs
06 - The Three Butchers
07 - The Royal Oak
08 - Blackwaterside
09 - The Parson And The Clerk
10 - Tavistock Goosey Fair

Download

I must email Bazza to check whether he minds my posting these albums, although they're not available any more, apart from a few tracks on the excellent 'Up To Now' compilation which you really should have.

Robin and Barry were one of the best acts on the folk circuit in the 70s, and Bazza was probably second only to Swarbrick (though he'd say it was the other way round) as a fiddler. Swarb was probably better known, but it was Bazza that got the great session gigs - Morris On, No Roses, North Sea Gasman, etc.

These two albums only really hint at what was to come - Fiddlers Dream and Popular To Contrary Belief were more mature & rounded albums. The vast majority of the tracks on those two albums - and some great outtakes - are on the compilation, and Bazza's first solo album, unavailable for so long, can now be bought from Spinney records - see Barry Dransfield. Which leaves Robin's only solo album, which I will repost later this afternoon.

Robin And Barry Dransfield - The Rout Of The Blues

01 - The Rout Of The Blues
02 - Scarborough Fair
03 - St Clement's Jig & Huntsman's Chorus & Nancy
04 - Water O' Tyne
05 - Earl Of Totnes
06 - Tapestry
07 - The Trees They Do Grow High
08 - A Week Before Easter
09 - A Fair Maid Walking All In Her Garden
10 - Who's The Fool Now

Download

Robin And Barry Dransfield - Lord Of All I Behold

01 - Faithful Johnny
02 - Bold Nelson's Favourite & Princess Royal & Saddle The Pony
03 - Who Liveth So Merry
04 - Adam And The Beasts
05 - Lord Of All I Behold
06 - Paddy Ryan's Favourite
07 - Still He Sings
08 - Bold William Taylor
09 - Just As The Tide Was Flowing
10 - The Wild Rover

Download

A big thanks to Mike Gilbert...

2007-05-25T08:39:00.000+01:00

...who ripped his own vinyl copies of the first and third Lamb albums and let me have them to share with you all.

So far, 19 people have downloaded 'Cross Between' since I reposted it (I can't get in to my old Rapidshare.de account so have no idea how many people got it the first time round).

Last time I only referenced the AllMusic biog, but here I'll quote the whole thing:

The minor San Francisco group Lamb tend to be remembered only for their appearance on the Fillmore: The Last Days concert album, where they were one of several non-star artists on a set dominated by bigger names like the Grateful Dead, Santana, and Boz Scaggs. The band did actually put out three albums in the early 1970s, however, and were quite an interesting group. Not only were they not readily comparable to other acts on the San Francisco rock circuit, but it's debatable whether they could be fairly categorized as a rock band at all. Their music blended jazz, folk, singer-songwriter pop, gospel, and even some classical and avant-garde influences. Certainly the dominant figure was singer Barbara Mauritz, whose bluesy and earthy vocals had considerable resonance, but which could also traverse the band's frequently mystical, poetic lyrics with much delicacy and nuance. Reminiscent in spots of such varied artists as Tim Buckley, Judy Collins (in her art-song phase), David Ackles, and Savage Rose (in that band's most gospel-soaked period), their records were ultimately idiosyncratic enough to defy ready comparison to anyone. And they were, too, ultimately too inaccessible to make much commercial impact, despite plenty of tracks of considerable power, beauty, and enigma.

Lamb were formed by the duo of Texan singer Mauritz and multi-instrumentalist (though primarily guitarist) Bob Swanson, who with Swanson (writing both separately and together) was responsible for the band's material. They attracted attention in San Francisco when they opened for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for a few nights at Winterland in November 1969. Impresario Bill Graham became their manager, and producer David Rubinson, who had worked with notable groups such as Santana and Moby Grape, acted in that capacity for their first record. Their debut album on the Fillmore label, A Sign of Change, was perhaps their most uncompromising and experimental, relying largely on jazz-folk acoustic arrangements and spotlighting Mauritz's impressive voice on impressionistic, dream-like lyrics. They moved over to Warner Brothers (while retaining Rubinson as executive producer) for the follow-up Cross Between, which moved toward slightly more mainstream rock arrangements and a more pronounced gospel feel on several tracks. Yet others were throwbacks to the first album in their obscure but enchanting poesy, sometimes owing more to a classical-influenced art song tradition than conventional pop music.

Lamb went yet further toward gospel-rockish material on their third and final album, Bring Out the Sun, which was their most mainstream outing, though hardly mainstream overall, with a couple of tracks again giving vent to their more experimental jazz-folk-classical side. The LP was co-billed to Lamb and Barbara Mauritz, though Swanson was still involved as a composer and instrumentalist on much of the material. Whether or not this co-billing was intended as a transition from Lamb to a solo career, Mauritz was soon recording as a solo, putting out Music Box for Columbia. Her solo career didn't take off, however, although she continued to perform and write (composing the music for many commercials). In the mid-1980s, Bob Swanson returned full-time to photography. [The Lamb founded by Swanson and Mauritz, incidentally, had no relation to either the Christian rock band Lamb that began to record later in the 1970s, or the drum'n'bass duo Lamb that began recording in the late 1990s.] ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

That's about all you need to know. I've had 'Cross Between' for years but never managed to track down the other two albums until now. Thanks again to Mike Gilbert.

I've also found a live recording from 1971, posted at http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com - I hope the owner of that site won't mind me sharing what he's already chosen to share.

And I hope that Barbara and Bob get some credit - and money - somehow. If their albums are ever re-released I will delete these links and buy them immediately, as I hope you will too after hearing them.

OK, here are the albums.

(Note: somehow I uploaded these without logging in to my premium account - that means the files will be deleted in 30 days! If I get time I'll re-upload them properly but I may not - so - Grab them now!)

Lamb - A Sign Of Change (1970)

01 - Traveler's Observation
02 - Adventures of the Incredible
03 - In My Dreams
04 - Barbara's Soul
05 - The Odyssey of Ehram Spickor
06 - Preacher's Holiday
07 - Where I'm Bound

Link here

Lamb - Cross Between (1971)

01 - Flying
02 - Now's Not The Time
03 - Cross Between
04 - Sleepwalkers
05 - Reach High
06 - Ku
07 - While Waiting
08 - Floatation
09 - Milo And The Travellers

Link here

Lamb - Bring Out The Sun (1971)

01 - Old Fashioned Remedy
02 - The Wish
03 - Rap With Rhyme
04 - River Boulevard
05 - How Am I Gonna Manage
06 - Visions of Blackbirds
07 - Salty
08 - The Vine
09 - Live to Your Heart

Link here

Lamb - Live at the Fillmore West, July 1st 1971

Picture taken from Robert Altman's site - hope he doesn't mind!

NB - this is exactly as I downloaded it, I haven't split the tracks so it's one long mp3

01 - Hello Old Friend
02 - Reach High With Your Life
03 - Want To Love
04 - Joshua
05 - Visions Of Blackbirds
06 - River Boulevard
(band introductions)
07 - Together
08 - Paper Aeroplanes
09 - I Need A Man To Be Good To
10 - Real Believers
11 - Old Fashioned Remedy

Link here

Eight Years Later I'm A Pervert

2007-05-25T08:01:00.000+01:00

...quote from my earlier post One Time, One Life:

OK. When I was at secondary school (William Ellis school, north London) there were three main bands there - Narcissus (my band), Landslide (slightly younger kids but better musicians, played at Windsor free festival with me on lead vocals) and Sore Throat.

Sore Throat was Matthew Flowers on keyboards, Danny Flowers on bass, Reid Savage on guitar, Greg Mason on sax, and Robin Knapp on drums. Soon Justin Ward joined on lead vocals and manic frontperson personality, then Robin was replaced by Clive Kirby from Landslide. They played a residency at the Stapleton in Stroud Green and also the Pindar Of Wakefield in Kings Cross. They were a great live band, and for me one of the highlights was Reid's guitar playing and onstage antics (he'd end up being strangled and 'dying' on stage while playing the most incredible solos).

When Sore Throat broke up, Reid joined Way Of The West...

...and the story continues over at my other post. The WOTW download is HERE.

Anyway, the other day I posted a link to what I thought was my re-upload of the collected Sore Throat but as it happened I had never posted them before. I only thought I had. So I reckoned that the old skool band deserved a post of their very own - so here it is.

PS: Some thieving toerag has halfinched my little biog of Sore Throat and posted it at http://www.discogs.com/artist/Sore+Throat - still I suppose I mustn't grumble.

Sore Throat – Sooner Than You Think

01 - 01 - Wonder Drug
01 - 02 - Seventh Heaven
01 - 03 - Flak Jacket
01 - 04 - Routine Patrol
01 - 05 - British Subject
01 - 06 - Mr Right
01 - 07 - Off The Hook
01 - 08 - Crackdown
01 - 09 - Sooner Than You Think

Sore Throat – the singles

00 - 01 - I Dunno
00 - 02 - Complex
00 - 03 - Zombie Rock
00 - 04 - I Don't Wanna Go Home
00 - 05 - Kamikaze Kid
00 - 06 - Crackdown (single version)

http://rapidshare.com/files/32143483/Throat.zip

Still more re-ups

2007-05-19T20:03:00.000+01:00

*Still* Twiggy is the most popular download, 212 so far. The next most popular are the Microdisneys, then Helen & The Horns, and then the Jesse Colin Youngs. Strange.

In the past couple of days I've had requests to repost the QMS vinyl boot, and one of the *many* Way Of The West fans asked about Sore Throat - so here we go.

Quicksilver Messenger Service - Maiden Of The Cancer Moon

Originally posted in October 2006 - see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/10/old-cherokee-up-saint-john-river.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/32143808/Maiden.zip

Sore Throat - collected singles & album

Can't remember when I posted these - or maybe I didn't?

http://rapidshare.com/files/32143483/Throat.zip

That Turtle Could Be A Rock In Disguise

2007-05-18T19:08:00.000+01:00

Any band with two bass players is fine by me, I thought, as I strolled home some time in 1988 with the CD of 'Drum' in my shopping bag. Not sure what I expected, but I seem to remember some reviewer of the time talking about being hit ever-so-gently with the largest, softest hammer ever.

Heavy, it ain't. But it is kinda dense, lush and... a bit like Hugo Largo really. Oh - and in addition to the two bass players there's a violin. And Mimi Goese singing, of course.

Hugo Largo - Drum (1988)

01 - 01 - Grow Wild
01 - 02 - Eskimo Song
01 - 03 - Fancy
01 - 04 - Harpers
01 - 05 - Scream Tall
01 - 06 - Country
01 - 07 - Eureka
01 - 08 - Second Skin
01 - 09 - My Favourite People

http://rapidshare.com/files/32039336/HL1.zip

Hugo Largo - Mettle (1989)

02 - 01 - Turtle Song
02 - 02 - Hot Day
02 - 03 - Martha
02 - 04 - Halfway Knowing
02 - 05 - 4 Brothers
02 - 06 - Ohio
02 - 07 - Jungle Jim
02 - 08 - Never Mind

http://rapidshare.com/files/32039337/HL2.zip

Now after Hugo Largo broke up I didn't buy any more of their albums, of course (there weren't any - stoopid) but then one day about ten years later I was reading The Grauniad and read an absolutely rave & stunning review of an album called Soak by 'Mimi' - who was, of course, Mimi Goese. Probably still is.

So having been a HL fan I bought Soak - and my goodness it really is a cracker.

As with so many great albums, all three of these are no longer available so I'm posting them for you. None of these changed the wrold, they might not even change *your* worls, but I don't think you'll regret hearing them.

Mimi - Soak (1998)

01 - Piece of Cake
02 - Fire and Roses
03 - Clues of You
04 - I Spy
05 - Thrilled to Pieces
06 - Believers
07 - The Watch
08 - Milky Way
09 - Black Hole Sun
10 - Love Is an Island
11 - Time to Go Home Now

http://rapidshare.com/files/32043152/Mimi.zip

Dipping My Brain In Joy

2007-05-17T17:37:00.000+01:00

Until recently you could buy a CD calle Recycled Vinyl Blues on Amazon, which contains Neil Innes' first solo album plus a few extra tracks. Of course, I kept putting off buying it and when I went there the other day I found that it's not available any more - apart from a 2nd hand copy at sixty-five quid or so.

So it was out with the deck again and rip rip rip.

This is Neil Innes' first solo album, and it predates the Rutland one by a year or so. It's got its fair share of comedy tracks - and the first recorded outing of the Franglias 'L'amour Perdu' - but also some touching & beautiful stuff as well such as the lovely 'Song For Yvonne' (in fact, the first 5 tracks on side two - that's 6-10 here)

Wizzo lead guitar, of course, by the sadly missed Ollie Halsall.

Neil Innes - How Sweet To Be An Idiot (1973)

01 - Prologue
02 - Momma Bee
03 - Immortal Invisible
04 - Topless A-Go-Go
05 - Feel No Shame
06 - How Sweet To Be An Idiot
07 - Dream On
08 - L'Amour Perdu
09 - Song For Yvonne
01 - 10 - This Love Of Ours
11 - Singing A Song Is Easy

http://rapidshare.com/files/30412199/Idiot.zip

And a few more re-ups

2007-05-17T16:37:00.000+01:00

Joanna Carlin (see The Sweet Alternative)

http://rapidshare.com/files/30769768/JoCarlin.zip

Melanie Harrold (see The Sweet Alternative)

http://rapidshare.com/files/30769770/MelHarrold.zip

Aerial FX (see Hold Me For Ever And Ever)

http://rapidshare.com/files/31794814/AerialFX.zip

Miracle Legion - The Backyard (see Stay Where You Are, Little Man)

http://rapidshare.com/files/30859721/Backyard.zip

Miracle Legion - Surprise Surprise Surprise (see Stay Where You Are, Little Man)

http://rapidshare.com/files/30859719/Surprise.zip

...but PLEASE don't keep asking me for stuff that's easily available on Amazon. Caravan 1st? After Bathing At Baxters? Al Stewart? Look I don't want to sound grumpy but *I* bought those CDs, so can you.

Tra for now.

Diddly Diddly dee

2007-05-17T16:27:00.000+01:00

Sorry I haven't got much time to write anything about this album, but just believe me - it's quite simply one of the best trad/folk/irish albums ever - just astonishing from beginning to end.

Although it was released on CD a few years ago I understand that neither artist got any royalties from it and so they stopped the distribution. I'm pretty certain it can't be bought from any legitimate source that would benefit any of the people involved, so here we go.

If you enjoy this, please go and buy some of the CDs that *are* available by Andy or Paul.

Andy Irvine & Paul Brady - Andy Irvine & Paul Brady

Post script: apparently this album *is* available, from the Mulligan Web site in Ireland - so no download, sorry. Link below goes to the Mulligan site instead.

Buy the Andy Irvine Paul Brady album

This Way You'll Soon Be... Oh, Sorry...

2007-05-09T19:52:00.000+01:00

A number of people have asked me to post the Keith Christmas albums 'Pigmy' and 'Fable Of The Wings'.

Although neither of these albums are available on CD, there is a compilation album called 'Timeless And Strange' that you can get from Amazon. It contains most of the tracks from those two albums, plus one (Metropolis) from the first album 'Stimulus', and I'd really recommend that you seek it out - I did, even though I have the originals on vinyl.

So here are the tracks that I have that are *not* on that compilation. They comprise the remaining tracks from 'Stimulus', a live version of 'Robin Head' from an old compilation called '69 Greek Street', three live tracks that I got from his own Web site a few years ago, 'Bednotch' from 'Fable Of The Wings', and 'Spanky' from 'Pigmy'.

Keith Christmas - Stimulus (plus and minus)

http://rapidshare.com/files/30372594/KC.zip

(re-)Ups-A-Daisy

2007-05-09T16:54:00.003+01:00

OK, I find myself with a free day and an Inbox full of requests for me to repost things that I uploaded to my old rapidshare.de account and which have now been deleted from there.

Some of the albums that I uploaded then have since been released on CD - the Dory Previn and Stackridge ones, for example - and so I won't be re-upping them, others are just too obscure and nobody downloaded them the first time round anyway.

But here are a few of the more often requested albums, along with some that *I* want to repost because they're fab. Go see the original posts for my comments and others' follow-ups.

Area Code 615 - Area Code 615 & Trip To The Country (1969 & 1970)

(Originally posted in October 2006 – see Better Than A Medicine For Healing)

Area Code 615 & Trip In The Country

Bandoggs - Bandoggs (1978)

(Originally posted in June 2006 - see When I Was A Freeport And You Were A Folk-Rock Supergroup)

Bandoggs

Byzantium - Byzantium, Seasons Changing & Live And Studio (1972 & 1973)

(Originally posted in June 2006 – see Byzantium Were Unable To Appear Owing To A Power Cut and OK, Here’s The Second And Third Albums)

Flo & Eddie - Illegal, Immoral And Fattening (1974)

(Originally posted in October 2006 – see Five Corpulent Porpoises)

Illegal, Immoral And Fattening

Global Village Trucking Company – Global Village Trucking Company & Live At Dingwalls (1973 & 1976)

(Originally posted in June 2009 – see The Smiling Revolution)

Global Village Trucking Company & Live At Dingwalls

Laura Nyro – Smile, Seasons Of Lights (complete) and Mothers Spiritual (1976, 1977, 1984)

(Originally posted in June 2006 - see When I Was A Freeport And You Were A Folk-Rock Supergroup)

Lamb - Cross Between (1971)

(Originally posted in June 2006 – see Sometimes I Feel I've Got To Slow My Head Down)

NB – I’m hoping to receive the other two albums from a very helpful guy in the States – when I do I’ll post them here.

Cross Between

Longdancer – If It Were So Simple & Trailer For A Good Life (1973 & 1974)

(Originally posted in June 2006 – see Take A Man Who Only Knows The Good Time Scene)

Mac Gayden - Skyboat & Hymn To The Seeker (1976)

(Originally posted in October 2006 – see Better Than A Medicine For Healing)

Way Of The West - The Complete Singles (1980-1984)

(Originally posted in September 2006 – see One Time, One Life)

Way Of The West

Remember A Time When You Were Young

2007-05-09T09:47:00.001+01:00

The 'Paisley Underground' scene of the mid-80s threw up quite a few good bands - Green On Red, Rain Parade, Dream Syndicate and The Long Ryders to name four of the best - but twenty years on only one band still features on my all-time greatest albums list.

There is a sheer joy and exuberance on these two albums that just makes me want to smile and shout along whenever I hear songs like 'Tomorrow', 'Stupid Einstein', 'And So We Run' - think Monkees crossed with Byrds on the best and most benevolent trip ever. OK, so 'As Real As Real' is 'Tomorrow Never Knows' near as dammit, but it's a knowing homage.

Simply two of the best power pop albums ever, and if you don't grin like a fool through most of thesetracks you've no heart.

Thy did make 3 more albums after these two but they just didn't cut it for me. Like so many other bands, once they learn how to play properly they become much less inventive, much more serious, much less fun.

Thanks to Anonymous for suggesting this post.

The Three O'Clock - Baroque Hoedown (1982)

01 - With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend
02 - I Go Wild
03 - Marjorie Tells Me
04 - Sorry
05 - As Real As Real
06 - Around The World

http://rapidshare.com/files/30312810/Baroque.zip

The Three O'Clock - Sixteen Tambourines (1983)

01 - Jet Fighter
02 - Stupid Einstein
03 - And So We Run
04 - Fall To The Ground
05 - A Day In Erotica
06 - Tomorrow
07 - In My Own Time
08 - On My Own
09 - When Lightning Starts
10 - Seeing Is Believing

http://rapidshare.com/files/30313637/Tambourines.zip

All This And Nothing More

2007-05-02T10:09:00.000+01:00

I'm amazed to find that you can't get this album any more, it's one of the best pop albums *ever*, in my opinion. And it was (I think) one of the best-selling albums of 1978. And yes, I *did* buy it then, and loved it, and played it in between my Pistols, Clash and Banshees albums. Nothing if not eclectic, that's me.

It's got all the best bits of the disco Bee Gees sound - the production, the musicians, etc. - but without the nauseous falsetto voices. And Andy Gibb, being the youngest, brings a naivety and honesty to the songwriting that's missing from many of the over-crafted Bee Gees songs. So sad that he succumbed to serious drug abuse and died so young.

This really is a great album, honest. And if it proves popular I'll upload the other two (Flowing Rivers and After Dark).

While I'm here, I'd like to respond to a few of the comments and requests I've had recently:

Comsat Angels: All the first three albums are available from Amazon UK, as is the incredible 'Time Considered'.

Richard Thompson's Henry the Human fly: Available from Amazon UK.

Pigmy by Keith Christmas: An anthology of the best tracks from Pigmy and Fable Of The Wings is available from Amazon UK. I may post the missing tracks though.

Guy Clark - Old No 1: Available from Amazon UK.

Amazing Rhythm Aces - Too stuffed to jump: Available from Amazon UK.

Early Chameleons: 'The Fan And The Bellows' is available from Amazon UK.

Julie Tippett's Sunset Glow: A fantastic album (she usedta be called Julie Driscoll), available from Amazon UK.

Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen: Another great album - the only one of theirs that I like - available from Amazon UK.

Three O'Clock - Sixteen Tambourines: *Not* available as far as I can see and so a prime candidate for uploading. Watch this space.

Sally Oldfield Water Bearer: Available from Amazon UK.

Joni Court & Spark: Available from virtually anywhere I'd have thunk.

Laura Nyro - I may re-up these if I get time.

Man - Greasy Truckers Party: Available from Amazon UK.

Stackridge Extravaganza: Available from Amazon UK.

Now, back to poor old Andy.

Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing

http://rapidshare.com/files/28150647/Shadow.zip

Though My Path Is Planned, It's Not Rehearsed

2007-04-27T13:19:00.000+01:00

Previous country-rock albums I've posted have gone down well (and believe me I'd love to post 'Too Stuffed To Jump' but it's available from Amazon - GO BUY...) so here's a bit of a rarity I think.

From the musicians behind the first 3 Mike Nesmith albums (go buy them as well please - for less than twenty quid you can get the first six albums on 3 CDs).

O.J. 'Red' Rhodes was one of the two or three *great* pedal steel players alongside Sneeky Pete, and - arguably - Garcia. And because of that he did a lot of sessions. Just take a look at some of the great albums that this guy played on - all the Nesmith albums up to The Prison (including the magnificent 'And The Hits Just Keep On Coming' which was just the two of them), Notorious Byrd Brothers, The Wolfking Of LA, Sweet Baby James, Valley Hi, L.A. Turnaround, Diamonds & Rust, the list goes on.

This is the only album of his that I have, though apparently there are others. I've no idea how representative this one is. It's real sweet, though. Lovely bass playing, too, right up in the mix where it oughta be (listen to Lunar Nova...sweet...)

Sorry about the crackles & surface noise, I've had this album a long time & used to play it a heck of a lot). Q: Does anyone have any of his other albums they'd be willing to rip for me?

Red Rhodes - Velvet Hammer In A Cowboy Band

1 - Crippled Lion
2 - Poinciana
3 - Lothario in A
4 - Jay's Tune
5 - Dana's Waltz
6 - Lunar Nova
7 - Three Songs in a Row (Lonesome/Great American Thunder Turkey/Steel Guitar Waltz)

http://rapidshare.com/files/28150109/Velvet.zip

Been In A Daze For Days

2007-04-23T13:52:00.000+01:00

According to the sleeve notes it's the soundtrack to a play bit I don't think that's true, I think it's just assorted demos, one-off tracks & singles by a bunch of artists who were 'signed' to Zoo in 1977-1981. I think I'm right in saying that Whopper is Julian Cope, and Big In Japan featured Holly Johnson.

To The Shores Of Lake Placid - Various Artists (1982)

01 - Society For Cutting Up Men (Big In Japan)
02 - Iggy Pop's Jacket (Those Naughty Lumps)
03 - When I Dream (The Teardrop Explodes)
04 - Pictures On My Wall (Echo And The Bunnymen)
05 - Read It In Books (Echo And The Bunnymen)
06 - Lonely Spy (Lori And The Chameleons)
07 - The Winds (The Turquoise Swimming Pools)
08 - Kwalo Klobinsky's Lullaby (Whopper)
09 - A Suicide (Dalek I Love You)
10 - Burst Balloons (The Turquoise Swimming Pools)
11 - Lonely Spy reprise (Lori And The Chameleons)
12 - Camera Camera (The Teardrop Explodes)
13 - Suicide A Go Go (Big In Japan)
14 - Villiers Terrace (Echo And The Bunnymen)
15 - Take A Chance (The Teardrop Explodes)

http://rapidshare.com/files/27484598/Placid.zip

Master Of The Revels

2007-04-17T07:55:00.000+01:00

Well, I've had some nice requests - Too Stuffed To Jump, Fiction, Pygmy, Old No 1, etc - all great albums, but all of them readily available. You can get the Guy Clark album for £3.97 from Amazon!!! I thought I'd made it clear that I don't post albums that can be easily bought. Sorry guys.

So, today, Pete Atkin.

A few weeks ago I asked if anyone could help me find some Pete Atkin CDs - thanks to some nice peeps I have now managed to get the full set.

Pete Atkin, in case anyone isn't aware, is a very *English* singer/songwriter whose lyrics are written by Clive James - not normally someone I particularly like but in this particular respect they are a fine partnership, on the whole

The original CDs seem to slip in and out of print so I won't post them here, instead I've cobbled together a bunch of tracks that were originally released on a 'Best Of' compilation some time in the mid 70s. I bought that album on cassette when I was on tour in Ireland - the local shop in Donegal Town had hardly anything I recognised apart from this and a Gordon Lightfoot cassette - and it was something I played to myself quite a lot during the tour.

This is the original track listing, and not every track is a gem - for every 'Flowers And The Wine' there's a 'Wristwatch For A Drummer' - a song that seems to exist purely to show off some clever word play. The subject matter and melody of the latter are banal, to say the least, I do wish he'd been a bit more critical.

If you like this, try to get the original albums - you might try his Web site first.

Pete Atkin - Master Of The Revels, The Essential Pete Atkin (1977)

01 - Thirty Year Man
02 - Master Of The Revels
03 - Sunlight Gate
04 - Between Us There Is Nothing
05 - Girl On The Train
06 - The Faded Mansion On The Hill
07 - The Wristwatch For A Drummer
08 - I See The Joker
09 - Perfect Moments
10 - Sessionman's Blues
11 - Thief In The Night
12 - Screen-Freak
13 - The Flowers And The Wine
14 - Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger

http://rapidshare.com/files/26430436/Atkin.zip

Who On Earth Is Downloading This Stuff?

2007-04-05T22:38:00.002+01:00

I posted my self-indulgent zip of mt music barely an hour ago, and already four people have downloaded it. Why? Who? I dunno. Thanks anyway. BTW - you want to know what is the most popular download from this blog? With all the stuff I've got here? For a long time it was Microdisney but now, with 183 downloads, the current champion is... Bleedin' *Twiggy*. Go figure, as I believe they say. I'm off to Dorset. l7ers.

Indulge Me Again

2007-04-05T11:55:00.000+01:00

It's the holiday season and I'm taking the family to Puncknowle, in Dorset, for a week - so there'll be nowt more from me until the middle of May. Many thanks to everyone who has posted complimenary comments recently - it's great to feel appreciated.

Before I go I thought I'd post some of my *own* music. I don't play much these days (kids...) but I used to gig regularly around London and, for a period in the mid-80s, did quite a bit of home recording on my Tascam 244. I do have Cubase on my PC, but hardly ever get a chance to use it :-(

Anyway, my iPod suddenly surprised me by playing two of *my* songs back to back this morning, and I took that as a sign from up above to inflict them on you. As luck would have it, the first of these features me old mate Robert Maelstrom on lead guitar - we programmed the drum machine and he recorded the flanged solo before flitting back to Scotland, so I filled in the gaps afterwards. This is one of the few things that were done using Cubase.

In alphabetical order, then:

A Legacy (Thompson/Browning), c. 2000
JHB: acoustic & electric guitars, bass guitar, drum programming
Emil Thompson: flanged lead guitar, drum programming

The next track is a song that I wrote and recorded on my own while I lived in a flat in Highgate and had all my gear set up all the time. I can't remember who it's about.

A Rhyme, A Time (Browning), April 1987
JHB: lead and backing vocals, lead & rhythm electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drum programming

Track three is a very early one, as evidenced by the fact that I'm using a TR909 drum machine (once I got into this properly I bought a Yamaha RX11). It's about a bloke who lives in a maze - I imagine that was supposed to be a clever metaphor but I can't remember what for.

Amazeman (Browning), August 1985
JHB: lead and backing vocals, electric lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic 12-string guitar, bass guitar, drum programming

Next, a track that I'm very fond of. In my opinion it's one of the nicest songs I've written, and I can even remember what it's about. Figure it out for yourself!

Blind (Browning), May 1984
JHB: lead and backing vocals, electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drum programming

I *really* like the feel of this next one - a pity the quality is so duff!

Eleanor Rigby (McCartney), December 1984
JHB: vocals, electric guitars, bass guitar

This next track was written about my boss, Teresa. I had a bit of a crush on her at the time, but she was leaving the company and going away. She had also recently starred in our company pantomime - hence the references to sheep bleating. The but about 'missing you now' was written a few years earlier for a different woman, and the 'boy and girl in shattered world' bit was ripped shamelessly from REM.

Face To The Ground (Browning, with acknowledgments to R.E.M.), December 1987
JHB: lead and backing vocals, lead & rhythm electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drum programming

The next track was recorded live, improvised, direct to tape. Max (later Emil, later Robert), Dougie and me sitting in a circle (triangle) with headphones on, with guitar/bass/drumbox/mike plugged straight into the four inputs of the 244. No overdubs, no rehearsals, no idea what we were going to do. Max made up the lyrics as he went along. More of his music at http://www.lessismore.co.uk/.

The History of Accapella Music (Thompson/Browning/Hopton) June 1988
Max Thompson: vocals, guitar
JHB: fretless bass guitar
Dougie Hopton: drum machine

I'm including this next one for two reasons - firstly because it features Sue Chewter, with whom I did quite a lot of writing & recording, and secondly because it took me bloody ages to program the drum machine and *somebody* ought to hear it.

The War Song (Chewter/Browning) October 1985
Sue Chewter: lead and backing vocals, acoustic guitar
JHB: vocal, Spanish guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drum programming

Finally, a bit of fun.

Orange Blossom Special (Trad. Arr. Wickens/Locker/Moseley/Browning) recorded live at the Queens, Crouch End, October 1978
Barry Wickens: violin
Pete Locker: mandolin
Simon Moseley: guitar
JHB: bass guitar

Just some stuff I did in the past...

http://rapidshare.com/files/24509069/JHB1.zip

Go On, Indulge Me

2007-04-03T17:26:00.000+01:00

No downloads today, just two long lists for your perusal. 400 cracking albums and 600 fabbo tracks.

If there's anything there that you think I should post, *and* if it's not available on vinyl, post me a comment & I'll think about it.

400 classic albums (well, 395 - five more to go...)

10000 Maniacs - The Wishing Chair
Al Stewart - Zero She Flies
Alice Cooper 3
Alice Cooper 4
Allman Brothers Fillmore
Amazing Rhythm Aces - Too Stuffed To Jump
America
Andy Gibb - Shadow Dancing
Andy Roberts - Nina And The Dream Tree
Arlo Guthrie - Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie - Hobo's Lullabye
Arlo Guthrie - Last Of The Brooklyn Cowboys
Barbra Streisand - Classical
Barbra Streisand - Gulity
Barbra Streisand - Lazy Afternoon
Barbra Streisand - My Name Is Barbra
Barbra Streisand - People
Barbra Streisand - The Broadway Album
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Beach Boys - Sunflower
Beatles - Abbey Road
Beatles - Hard Day's Night
Beatles - Revolver
Blind Faith
Blossom Toes - If Only For A Moment
Bonzo Dog band - The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse
Bothy Band - 1st album
Brinsley Schwartz - Silver Pistol
Byrds - 5th Dimension
Byrds - Notorious Byrd Brothers
Byrds - Younger Than Yesterday
Byzantium - 1st album
Byzantium - Live And Studio
Byzantium - Seasons Changing
Caravan - 1st album
Caravan - Fairfield Halls
Caravan - For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night
Caravan - If I Could
Chameleons - Strip
Chameleons - This Never Ending Now
Chameleons - Why Call It Anything
Chameleons 1
Chameleons 2
Chameleons 3
Church - Heyday
Church 1
Cocteau Twins - Garlands
Cocteau Twins - Tiny Dinamine/Echoes In A Shallow Bay
Cocteau Twins - Victorialand
Comsat Angels - Time Considered
Comsat Angels 1
Comsat Angels 2
Comsat Angels 3
Country Joe 1
Country Joe 2
Cream - Wheels Of Fire
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy And The Poor Boys
Crosby, Stills & Nash - 1st album
Curved Air - 2nd album
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - Striking It Rich
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Further Out
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
David Bowie - Hunky Dory
David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name
Deke Leonard - Iceberg
Dillards - Copperfields
Dillards - Wheatstraw Suite
Dion - Return of the Wanderer
Dion - Suite For Late Summer
Dion - Yo Frankie
Dire Straits - 1st album
Dire Straits - 2nd album
Donovan - A Gift From A Flower To A Garden
Donovan - Fairytale
Doors - American Prayer
Doors - Morrison Hotel
Dory Previn - Mythical Kings And Iguanas
Eagles - Desperado
East Of Eden - Mercator Projected
Eberhard Weber - Chorus
Eberhard Weber - Later That Evening
Eberhard Weber - Little Movements
Eberhard Weber - The Colours Of Chloe
Echo 1
Echo 2
Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
Emil Thompson - both albums so far
Ernie Graham
Eyeless In Gaza - Back From The Rains
Eyeless In Gaza - Rust Red September
Faces - A Nod's As Good As A Wink
Fairport - Angel Delight
Fairport - Full House
Fairport - House Full
Fairport - Liege
Fairport - Nine
Fairport - Unhalf
Fairport - WWDOOH
Family - A Song For Me
Family - Bandstand
Family - Family Entertainment
Fleetwood Mac - (white album)
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Flo & Eddie - Illegal, Immoral And Fattening
Fotheringay
Francoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu
Francoise Hardy - Decalages
Francoise Hardy - Entr'acte
Francoise Hardy - Message Personnel
Francoise Hardy - Quelqu’un Qui S’en va
Francoise Hardy - Soleil
Frank Sinatra - Greatest Hits
Frank Sinatra - Sinatra & Company
Frank Sinatra - Sinatra At The Sands
Frank Sinatra - Sings For Only The Lonely
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats
Fresh Maggots - 1st album
Gary Burton Quartet - Passengers
Gene Clark - No Other
Giant Sand - Valley Of Rain
Global Village Trucking Company - 1st album
Global Village Trucking Company - Live At Dingwalls
Gong - You
Grateful Dead - American Beauty
Grateful Dead - Europe 72
Grateful Dead - Hundred Year Hall
Grateful Dead - Live/Dead
Grateful Dead - Mars Hotel
Grateful Dead - Wake Of The Flood
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Guy Clark - Old No. 1
Hair OST
Hatfield And The North - 1st album
Hatfield And The North - The Rotters Club
Help Yourself 1
Help Yourself 2
Help Yourself 3
Home
Horace Silver - Song For My Father
Ian Dury - Do it Yourself
Ian Matthews - If You Saw Through My Eyes
Ian Matthews - Tigers Will Survice
Incredible String Band - Changing horses
Incredible String Band - Hangman's
Incredible String Band - U
Incredible String Band - Wee Tam And The Big Huge
Jack Bruce - Songs For A Tailor
Jack Off Jill - Clear Hearts Grey Flowers
Jake Thackray - On Again! On Again!
James Taylor - Mud Slide Slime And The Blue Horizon
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Jan Garbarek - Twelve Moons
Jan Garvarek - Legend Of The Seven Dreams
Janis Ian - Between The Lines
Janis Ian - Breaking Silence
Janis Ian - God and the FBI
Jeff Beck - There And Back
Jefferson Airplane - After Bathing at Baxters
Jefferson Airplane - Bless Its Pointed Little Head
Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation
Jefferson Airplane - Volunteers
Jerry Garcia - Garcia
Jesse Colin Young - Light Shine
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jethro Tull - Benefit
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix - Axis, Bold As Love
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends
John & Beverley Martyn - The Road To Ruin
John Denver - Rocky Mountain High
John Martyn - Bless The Weather
John Mayall - Bluesbreakers
John Mayall - The Turning Point
John Phillips - John The Wolf King Of LA
John Stewart - California Bloodlines
Jonathan Edwards - Jonathon Edwards
Joni Mitchell - Court And Spark
Joni Mitchell - Song To A Seagull
Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Jose Feliciano - Feliciano!
Julie Driscoll - 1969
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Steetnoise
Julie Tippetts - Sunset Glow
Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
Kate Bush - Red Shoes
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Keith Christmas - Fable Of The Wings
Keith Christmas - Pigmy
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Kevin Ayers - Shooting At The Moon
Kevin Ayers- Joy Of A Toy
King Crimson - Red
King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson Kong
KLF - 1987 (What The Fuck Is Going On)
KLF - The White Room
Kristin Hersh - Hips And Makers
Kristin Hersh - Murder, Misery and then Goodnight
Lamb - Lamb
Laura Nyro - Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat
Laura Nyro - Mothers Spiritual
Laura Nyro - Seasons Of Lights
Led Zep 2
Led Zep 3
Lindisfarne - Fog On The Tyne
Lindisfarne - Nicely Out Of Tune
Longdancer - If It Were So Simple
Longdancer - Trailer For A Good Life
Love - Forever Changes
Love Sculpture - Forms And Feelings
Madder Rose - Panic On
Madness - The Rise And Fall
Madonna - Like A Prayer
Madonna - True Blue
Man - Do You Like It Here
Man - Greasy Truckers Party
Man - Rhinos, Winos & Lunatics
Martyn Bates - Letters from a scattered family
Martyn Bates - Love Smashed On A Rock
Martyn Bates - The Return Of The Quiet
Melanie - Candles In The Rain
Mellow Candle
Michael Nesmith - And The Hits Keep On Coming
Michael Nesmith - Magnetic South
Michel Polnareff - Le Bal Des Laze
Michel Polnareff - Le Disque d'Or Des Disques d'Or
Michel Polnareff - Love Me Please Love Me
Michel Polnareff - Polnareff's
Microdisney - Everybody Is Fanrastic
Microdisney - The Clock Comes Down The Stairs
Miracle Legion - Surprise Surprise Surprise
Modern English 2
Modern English 3
Monkees - 1
Monkees - 2
Mothers Of Invention - Absolutely Free
Mothers Of Invention - Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Mothers Of Invention - We're Only In It For The Money
Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride
National Health 1
National Health 2
Neil Innes - How Sweet To Be An Idiot
Neil Young - After The Goldrush
Neil Young - Comes A Time
Neil Young - Ecerybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Nelly Furtado - 2nd album
Nice Enough To Eat
Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
Nick Drake - Five Leaves Left
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
Pat Metheny - American Garage
Pat Metheny - As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls
Pat Metheny - Offramp
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - East/West
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Original Lost Elektra Sessions
Paul Kantner & Grace Sick - Sunfighter
Paul McCartney - Ram
Pavlov's Dog - Pampered Menial
Pentangle - Basket Of Light
Peter Hamill - In Camera
Peter Hamill - Silent Corner
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi
Philip Glass - Photographer
Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets
Pink Floyd - Eclipsed
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Smoking Blues
Pink Floyd - Grosser Saal Musikhall, Hamburg
Plainsong - In Search Of Amelia Earhart
Planxty - 1st album
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Happy Trails
Quintessence - In Blissful Company
REM - Fables Of The Reconstruction
REM - Murmur
Renaissance - Ashes Are Burning
Renaissance - Prologue
Richard Harris - The Yard Went On Forever
Richard Thompson - Henry The Human Fly
Richard Thompson - Hokey Pokey
Richard Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
Ride - Carnival Of Light
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rolling Stones - Aftermath
Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street
Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed
Roy Harper - Bullinamingvase
Roy Harper - Come Out Fighting Ghengis Smith
Roy Harper - Flat Baroque And Berserk
Roy Harper - Stormcock
Sally Oldfield - Easy
Sally Oldfield - Natasha
Sally Oldfield - Playing In The Flame
Sally Oldfield - Secret Songs
Sally Oldfield - Water Bearer
Sandy Denny - Like An old Fashioned Waltz
Sandy Denny - The North Star Grassman And The Ravens
Santana - 2
Santana - 3
Santana - Caravanserai
Shelagh MacDonald - Album
Shelagh MacDonald - Stargazer
Shirley & Dolly Collins - Love, Death And The Lady
Shirley Collins & The Albion Country Band - No Roses
Siouxsie And The Banshees - A Kiss In The Dreamhouse
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Juju
Siouxsie And The Banshees - The Scream
Soft Machine 2
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Sound 2
Sound 3
Sound 4/5
Spirit 1
Spirit 2
Spirit 3
Spirit 4
Spirit 7 (Farther Along)
Spirogyra - 1
Spirogyra - 2
Spirogyra - 3
Spirogyra - demos
Stackridge - Friendliness
Stackridge - The Man In The Bowler Hat
Stan Tracey - Under Milk Wood
Steamhammer 1
Steamhammer 2
Steamhammer 3
Steeleye Span 1
Steeleye Span 2
Steeleye Span 3
Steely Dan 2
Steely Dan 3
Steely Dan 5
Steely Dan 6
Steely Dan 7
Stereolab - Dots And Loops
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
Stereolab - Peng
Stereolab - Switched On, Volume One
Stone The Crows - Stone The Crows
Strawbs - From The Witchwood
Swans - Children Of God
Swans - The Great Annihilator
Talking Heads - More Songs About Buildings And Food
Tasavallan Presidentii - Lambertland
Taste - On The Boards
Teardrops 1
Teardrops 2
Television - Marquee Moon
Ten Years After - Ssssh
Terry Reid - Seed Of Memory
Terry Reid - Terry Reid
The Lines - Ultramarine
This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears
Three O’Clock - Sixteen Tambourines
Throwing Muses - House Tornado
Throwing Muses - Red Heaven
Throwing Muses - The Fat Skier
Throwing Muses - University
Tim Buckley 1
Tim Buckley 2
Tim Buckley 3
Tim Hart & Maddy Prior - Summer Solstice
Tindersticks 2
Tonton Macoute
Traffic - Mr Fantasy
Trees - On The Shore
Trees - The Garden Of Jane Delawney
Tyrannosaurus Rex - A Beard Of Stars
U2 - Boy
U2 - October
Uriah Heep - Salisbury
Van Der Graaf - H to He
Van Der Graaf - Pawn Hearts
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
Van Morrison - Saint Dominic's Preview
Van Morrison - Wavelength
Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico
Vivian Stanshall - Teddy Boys Don't Knit
Watersons - Bright Phoebus
White Mansions
Who - Live At Leeds
Who - Tommy
Wishbone Ash - Argus
Wishbone Ash - Argus
Yes - Close To The Edge
Yes - Fragile
Yes - The Yes Album

607 great tracks - on my iPod permanent list

10,000 Maniacs - Can't Ignore The Train
Adverts - One Chord Wonders (1977)
Al Stewart - Electric Los Angeles Sunset (1969)
Al Stewart - Zero She Flies (1969)
Alice Cooper - Halo Of Flies (1971)
Alice Cooper - Killer (1971)
Allman Brothers Band - Dreams (1971)
Allman Brothers Band - In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (1971)
Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post (1971)
Amazing Rhythm Aces - A Little Italy Rag
Andy Gibb - Wherever You Are (1980)
Andy Roberts - 25 Hours A Day (1971)
Andy Roberts - All Around My Grandmother's Floor (1973)
Andy Roberts - Bluebird Morning (Grimms)
Andy Roberts - I've Seen The Movie
Andy Roberts - Moths And Lizards In Detroit
Andy Roberts - New Karenski
Andy Roberts - Poison Apple Lady
Andy Roberts - Queen Of The Moonlight World
Andy Roberts - Songs Of The Stars (Grimms) (1973)
Andy Roberts - The One-Armed Boatman And The Giant Squid
Apple - The Otherside
Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant Massacree (1967)
Arlo Guthrie - Wouldn't You Believe It (1968)
Arlo Guthrie - Ukelele Lady
Band - Arcadian Driftwood
Barbra Streisand - A Quiet Thing & There Won't Be Trumpets (1974)
Barbra Streisand - All that I want (1965)
Barbra Streisand - Emily (2003)
Barbra Streisand - I'm The Greatest Star (1968)
Barbra Streisand - It Must Have Been The Mistletoe (2001)
Barbra Streisand - Ordinary Miracles (1994)
Barbra Streisand - Punky's Dilemma (1969)
Barbra Streisand - Somewhere (1987)
Barbra Streisand - We Must Be Loving Right (1999)
Barbra Streisand - Don't Rain On My Parade
Bay City Rollers - Bye Bye Baby (1975)
Beach Boys - Friends (1968)
Beach Boys - God Only Knows (1966)
Beach Boys - Heroes And Villains (1967)
Beach Boys - I Went To Sleep
Beach Boys - I'm Waiting For The Day
Beach Boys - Surf's Up (1971)
Beatles - A Taste Of Honey
Beatles - All My Loving
Beatles - And I Love Her
Beatles - Blue Jay Way
Beatles - Don't Let Me Down
Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun (1968)
Beatles - Hello Goodbye
Beatles - I Feel Fine
Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand
Beatles - I'll Cry Instead (1964)
Beatles - Lady Madonna
Beatles - Long, Long, Long (1968)
Beatles - P. S. I Love You
Beatles - Paperback Writer
Beatles - Tell Me Why
Beatles - The Fool On The Hill
Beatles - Two Of Us
Beatles - Wait (1965)
Beatles - Your Mother Should Know
Beatles - You're Going To Lose That Girl
Bette Midler - The Vicki Eydie Show
Big Brother And The Holding Company - All Is Loneliness
Blind Faith - Sea Of Joy
Blodwyn Pig - Worry
Blossom Toes - Listen To The Silence (1969)
Bob Dylan - Motorpsycho Nitemare (1964)
Bonzo Dog Band - Keynsham (1969)
Boothill Foot Tappers - Jealousy (1984)
Brigitte Fontaine - Brigitte (1971)
Brigitte Fontaine - Dressing (1999)
Brigitte Fontaine - Le Nougat (1992)
Brigitte Fontaine - Maman, J'ai Peur (1966)
Brinsley Schwarz - Egypt (1971)
Brinsley Schwarz - Nightingale (1971)
Brinsley Schwarz - Old Jarrow (1970)
Brinsley Schwarz - Surrender To The Rhythm (1972)
Buckingham Nicks - Frozen Love (1973)
Byrds - Everybody's Been Burned (1967)
Byrds - Flight 713 (instrumental)
Byrds - Lady Friend (1967)
Byrds - Renaissance Fair (1967)
Captain Sensible - Wot
Caravan - Love Song With Flute (1968)
Caravan - Winter Wine (1971)
Caravan - With An Ear To The Ground - You Can Make It - Martinian - Only Cox (1970)
Chameleons - As High As You Can Go
Chameleons - Childhood (1986)
Chameleons - Home Is Where The Heart Is
Chameleons - On The Beach (1985)
Chameleons - Pleasure And Pain (1983)
Chameleons - Second Skin (1983)
Chameleons - Seriocity (1986)
Chameleons - Swamp Thing
Cher - Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves (1971)
Church - Constant In Opal (1984)
Church - For A Moment We're Strangers (1981)
Church - In This Room (1982)
Church - Shadow Cabinet (1984)
Church - She Never Said (1981)
Church - Tantalized (1985)
Clodagh Rodgers - Biljo (1969)
Cocteau Twins - Cicely
Cocteau Twins - Feet Like Fins (1995)
Cocteau Twins - Melonella (1985)
Cocteau Twins - Shallow Then Halo (1982)
Cocteau Twins - Wax And Wane (1982)
Colosseum - Elegy
Comsat Angels - Close Your Eyes (1985)
Comsat Angels - Island Heart (1984)
Comsat Angels - Ju Ju Money (1981)
Comsat Angels - Missing In Action (1979)
Comsat Angels - Our Secret
Country Joe & The Fish - Happiness Is A Porpoise Mouth (1967)
Country Joe & The Fish - Janis (1968)
Country Joe & The Fish - Pat's Song (1968)
Cream - As You Said (1968)
Cream - Crossroads (1968)
Cream - Doing That Scrapyard Thing (1968)
Cream - Swlabr (1967)
Cream - We're Going Wrong (1967)
Cream - What A Bringdown (1968)
Cream - White Room (1968)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Down On The Corner (1970)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lodi (1971)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin Out My Back Door (1970)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - The Midnight Special (1970)
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - 4 + 20 (1970)
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Déjà Vu (1970)
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Guinnevere ()
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - In My Dreams ()
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Just A Song Before I Go ()
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - The Lee Shore ()
Crosby, Stills & Nash (& Young) - Wooden Ships (1969)
Curved Air - Back Street Luv (1971)
David Crosby - The Wall Song (1972)
David McWilliams - The Days Of Pearly Spencer (1967)
Dead Can Dance - Song Of The Stars (1996)
Dead Can Dance - The Protagonist (1984)
Dean Friedman - The Letter
Deke Leonard - Razor Blade And Rattlesnake (1972)
Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
Dillards - Ozark Nights
Dion - 900 Miles (1963)
Dion - I Used To Be A Brooklyn Dodger (1978)
Dion - Midtown American Main Street Gang
Dion - My Love (1965)
Dion - New York City Song (1975)
Dion - One Too Many Mornings (1992)
Dion - Time In My Heart For You (1965)
Dion - Tomorrow Won't Bring The Rain (1965)
Dire Straits - Eastbound Train (1978)
Dire Straits - Single Handed Sailor (1979)
Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (1978)
Dolly Parton - Why'd You Come In Here Lookin Like That
Donovan - Someone Singing
Doors - Break On Through (1967)
Doors - Ghost Song (1978)
Doors - Indian Summer (1970)
Doors - Not To Touch The Earth (1968)
Doors - Peace Frog (1970)
Doors - Queen Of The Highway (1970)
Doors - The Crystal Ship (1967)
Doors - The End (1967)
Doors - Waiting For The Sun
Dory Previn - Lady With The Braid
Dr. Strangely Strange - Sign on My Mind (1971)
Eagles - Doolin' Dalton (inst) & Outlaw Man (1973)
East Of Eden - Communion (1969)
Eberhard Weber - Bali (1980)
Eberhard Weber - Death in the Carwash (1982)
Eberhard Weber - Seriously Deep (1977)
Eire Apparent - Yes I Need Someone
Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
Eyeless In Gaza - No Perfect Stranger (1983)
Eyeless In Gaza - Twilight (1986)
Eyeless In Gaza - Welcome Now (1986)
Faces - Stay With Me (1971)
Faces - You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (1974)
Fairport Convention - A Sailor's Life (1969)
Fairport Convention - Angel Delight (1971)
Fairport Convention - Autopsy (1969)
Fairport Convention - Meet On The Ledge (1968)
Fairport Convention - One More Chance (1975)
Fairport Convention - Tam Lin (1969)
Family - Larf & Sing
Family - Never Like This
Family - Ready To Go
Firm - Arfur Daley (1982)
Firm - Star Trekkin' (1987)
Fleetwood Mac - Brown Eyes (1979)
Fleetwood Mac - Everybody Finds Out
Fleetwood Mac - Isn't It Midnight (1987)
Fleetwood Mac - Murrow Turning Over In His Grave (2003)
Fleetwood Mac - Never Forget (1979)
Flo & Eddie - Kama Sutra Time
Fotheringay - Banks Of The Nile (1970)
Fotheringay - The Pond And The Stream (1970)
Fotheringay - The Sea (1970)
Four Pennies - Juliet (1964)
Fox - For Whatever it's Worth
Françoise Hardy - Bonjour, Bonsoir (1974)
Françoise Hardy - Ca M'suffit (1981)
Françoise Hardy - Chanson D'o (1971)
Françoise Hardy - Dame Souris Trotte (1970)
Francoise Hardy - Bonjour, Bonsoir
Françoise Hardy - La Sieste
Françoise Hardy - Les Madelaines (1996)
Françoise Hardy - Partir Quand Meme (1988)
Françoise Hardy - Si Mi Caballero (1971)
Françoise Hardy - Tip Tap T'entends Mes Pas (1977)
Françoise Hardy - Une Miss S'immisce (1988)
Free - Free Me (1969)
Free - Get Where I Belong (1971)
Free - Muddy Water (Alternative Vocal) (1973)
George Harrison - Apple Scruffs (1970)
George Harrison - Beware Of Darkness (1970)
Godley And Creme - An Englishman In New York (1979)
Gong - Sleepy (1978)
Grace Slick - Epic #38 (1974)
Grateful Dead - Brown-Eyed Woman (1972)
Grateful Dead - China Cat Sunflower (1969)
Grateful Dead - China Cat Sunflower (1972)
Grateful Dead - Dark Star (1970)
Grateful Dead - Easy Wind (1969)
Grateful Dead - Estimated Prophet (1977)
Grateful Dead - Eyes Of The World (1974)
Grateful Dead - Jack Straw (1972)
Grateful Dead - Mexicali Blues
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station (1977)
Grateful Dead - Unbroken Chain (1974)
Grateful Dead - Wharf Rat (1971)
Guy Clark - A Nickel For The Fiddler
Guy Clark - Desperados Waiting For A Train
Guy Clark - Let Him Roll
Handel - Thou Shalt Break Them
Happy Mondays - Kinky Afro
Hatfield And The North - Mumps (1974)
Help Yourself - Deborah (1971)
Help Yourself - Movie Star (1972)
Help Yourself - Street Songs (1971)
Hi-Fi - Heart Of Mine
Home - Rise Up (1972)
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - There Ain't Half Been Some Clever Bastards
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - This Is What We Find
Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy
Ian Matthews - Met Her On A Plane (1974)
Ian Matthews - Morgan The Pirate (1971)
Ian Matthews - The Fault (1974)
Illusion - Solo Flight (1977)
In Embrace - Your Heaven Scent Plays Hell With Me (1984)
Incredible String Band - Bridge Song (1970)
Incredible String Band - I Know You (1970)
Incredible String Band - Mr. & Mrs (1969)
Incredible String Band - The Iron Stone
Incredible String Band - Three Is A Green Crown (1968)
Jack Bruce - Escape To The Royal Wood (On Ice)
Jack Bruce - Smiles And Grins (1971)
Jack Off Jill - Nazi Halo
Jack Off Jill - Vivica (1992)
Jack Off Jill - When I Am Queen
Jack Off Jill - Clear Hearts Grey Flowers
Jake Thackray - On Again On Again
Jake Thackray - The Brigadier
Jake Thackray - One Eyed Isaac (1969)
Jake Thackray - The Blacksmith And The Toffee Maker (1969)
Jake Thackray - The Kiss (1977)
Jake Thackray - The Last Will And Testament Of Jake Thackray (1967)
Jake Thackray - The Poor Sod (1977)
James Taylor - Anywhere Like Heaven (1970)
James Taylor - Blossom (1970)
James Taylor - Long Ago And Far Away (1971)
James Taylor - Mud Slide Slim (1971)
James Taylor - Places In My Past (1971)
James Taylor - Something's Wrong (1969)
James Taylor - Suite For 20G (1970)
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James (1970)
James Taylor - You Can Close Your Eyes (1971)
Janis Ian - Do You Wanna Dance (1978)
Janis Ian - Murdering Stravinsky (2000)
Janis Ian - She Must Be Beautiful (2000)
Janis Ian - Sunset Of Your Life (1977)
Janis Ian - Too Old To Go 'way Little Girl (1967)
Janis Ian - Uncle Wonderful (1983)
Janis Ian - On The Other Side
Janis Ian - Why Can't You And I (1983)
Jefferson Airplane - Crazy Miranda (1971)
Jefferson Airplane - Fat Angel (1969)
Jefferson Airplane - Hey Fredrick (1969)
Jefferson Airplane - If You Feel (1968)
Jefferson Airplane - Rejoyce (1968)
Jethro Tull - Nothing To Say (1970)
Jimi Hendrix - Third Stone From The Sun (1967)
Joe Cocker - I Shall Be released
Joe Cocker - Lawdy Miss Clawdy
John & Beverley Martyn - Give Us A Ring (1970)
John Phillips - April Anne
John Phillips - Babies
John Stewart - The Pirates Of Stone County Road (1969)
Jonathan Edwards - The King (1971)
Joni Mitchell - Night In The City (1968)
Joni Mitchell - Song For Sharon (1976)
Joni Mitchell - Tin Angel (1969)
Judy Collins - Since You Asked
Judy Collins - Born To The Breed
Judy Collins - Pirate Jenny
Judy Collins - Grandaddy
Judy Collins - Marat Sade
Julie Driscoll - Break Out (1969)
Julie Driscoll - Leaving It All Behind (1969)
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity - Flesh Failures (Let The Sunshine In) (1969)
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity - Czechoslovakia (edit) (1969)
Kaleidoscope (US) - Keep Your Mind Open
Kaleidoscope (US) - Minnie The Moocher
Kaleidoscope (UK) - Sky Children
Kaleidoscope - Stand By Me
Kaleidoscope US - Bernice
Kaleidoscope UK - Epitaph/Angel
Kate Bush - All The Love (1982)
Kate Bush - Army Dreamers (1980)
Kate Bush - Cloudbusting (1985)
Kate Bush - December Will Be Magic Again (1990)
Kate Bush - Lily (1993)
Kate Bush - Moments Of Pleasure
Kate Bush - Oh To Be In Love (1978)
Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (1985)
Keith Christmas - Forest And The Shore (1971)
Keith Christmas - Lorri (1970)
Keith Christmas - Poem (1971)
Kevin Ayers - Song For Insane Times (1969)
Kim Wilde - View From A Bridge (1982)
Klaus Schulze - Bayreuth Return (1975)
Kristin Hersh - Teeth (1994)
Kristin Hersh - The Letter (1994)
Ladytron - Discotrax (2001)
Ladytron - Ladybird (2001)
Laura Nyro - Beads Of Sweat (1970)
Laura Nyro - Companion (1989)
Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand (1976)
Led Zeppelin - Gallows Pole (1970)
Led Zeppelin - Immigrant Song (1970)
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (1975)
Led Zeppelin - No Quarter (1973)
Leonard Cohen - Partisan (1969)
Lines - Fury (1982)
Look - I Am The Beat
Lothar & The Handpeople - Machines
Madness - Take It Or Leave It
Madonna - Frozen (1998)
Madonna - Ray Of Light
Madonna - Spanish Eyes (1989)
Madonna - Swim (1998)
Madonna - To Have And Not To Hold (1998)
Magna Carta - Elizabethan
Magna Carta - Father John
Maighread & Triona Ni Dhomhnaill - Spanish Lady (1999)
Mamas & Papas - Step Out
Man - All Good Clean Fun
Man - C'mon (1973)
Man - Spunk Rock (1972)
Man - We're Only Children (1971)
Martyn Bates - Flashes Of Sun (1990)
Martyn Bates - Snow Rages (1990)
Martyn Bates - This One Refrain (1990)
Mary Hopkin - Ocean Song
Mary Hopkin - Sparrow (1969)
Mary Hopkin - Sparrow (Vinyl) (1970)
Mary Hopkin - Temma Harbour (1969)
Mason Williams - Classical Gas (1968)
Melanie - Beautiful People (1970)
Melanie - Leftover Wine (1970)
Melanie - Lovin Baby Girl (1970)
Melanie - The Saddest Thing (1970)
Mellow Candle - Break Your Token
Mellow Candle - Buy or Beware
Mellow Candle - Boulders On My Grave
Michael Nesmith - The Crippled Lion (1970)
Michael Nesmith - Wax Minute (1972)
Michel Polnareff - Dans La Maison Vide
Michel Polnareff - Le Bal Des Laze
Michel Polnareff - Mes Regrets
Michel Polnareff - Sous Quelle étoile Suis-Je Né -
Michel Polnareff - Ta-Ta-Ta-Ta
Michel Polnareff - Tous Les Bateaux Tous Les Oiseaux
Microdisney - Dreaming Drains (1984)
Miracle Legion - Country Boy (1987)
Miracle Legion - Crooked Path (1987)
Miracle Legion - Little Man (1987)
Miracle Legion - The Backyard (1996)
Miranda Sex Garden - Bring Down The Sky (1993)
Modern English - Heart (1984)
Modern English - Rainbow End (1984)
Modern English - Ringing In The Change (1984)
Modern English - Tables Turning (1982)
Monkees - Early Morning Blues And Greens (1967)
Monkees - Papa Gene's Blues (1966)
Monkees - What Am I Doing Hanging Round (1968)
Mothers Of Invention - Absolutely Free (1967)
Mothers Of Invention - Let's Make The Water Turn Black (1968)
Mr Big - Romeo (1977)
Natasha - Iko Iko (1982)
National Health - Brujo (1978)
Nelly Furtado - Island of Wonder (2003)
Nelly Furtado - Shit On The Radio (2001)
Nice - My Back Pages
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For (1997)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Brompton Oratory (1997)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Do You Love Me (1994)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Carny (1986)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - There Is A Town (2003)
Nick Drake - Hazy Jane Ii (1970)
Nick Drake - Northern Sky (1970)
Nico - All That Is My Own
Nightnoise - Wiggy Wiggy A State Of Being (1988)
Original London Cast - 3-5-0-0 (1968)
Original London Cast - Aquarius (1968)
Original London Cast - Be-In (Hare Krishna) (1968)
Original London Cast - Easy To Be Hard (1968)
Original London Cast - Eyes Look Your Last + Ain't Got No (reprise) + Let The Sunshine In (1968)
Original London Cast - Hair (1968)
Original London Cast - Let The Sunshine In (1968)
Original London Cast - One Thousand Year Old Man (1968)
Original London Cast - Walking In Space (1968)
Original London Cast - Where Do I Go (1968)
Patto - Loud Green Song
Patto - You You Point Your Finger
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Ain't No Need To Go No Further
Paul Butterfield Blues Band - One More Heartache
Paul Kantner - Mountain Song
Paul Kantner & Grace Slick - Diana [part 2]
Paul Kantner & Grace Slick - Earth Mother (1971)
Paul McCartney - Letting Go (1974)
Paul McCartney - Monkberry Moon Delight (1971)
Pavlov`s Dog - Mersey
Pentangle - Hunting Song (1969)
Peter Hammill - Forsaken Gardens
Peter's Private Army - The Gaol Song (1984)
Pink Floyd - Echoes (1971)
Pink Floyd - Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (1968)
Pink Floyd - Cymbaline (from Smoking Blues)
Pink Floyd - One Of These Days (from 15th November 1972)
Pink Floyd - Careful With That Axe, Eugene (from Hamburg)
Pink Floyd - Embryo (from smoking blues) - it's freakin incredible and includes the middle section of echoes
Pink Floyd - Cymbaline (from More)
Pink Floyd - Main Theme
Pink Floyd - Dramatic Theme
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Pink Floyd - One Of These Days
Pink Floyd - Summer 68
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Who Do You Love (1969)
Quintessence - Body
R.E.M. - Driver 8
R.E.M. - Wolves, Lower (1981)
Renaissance - Trip To The Fair (1975)
Richard Harris - Interim
Richard Harris - MacArthur Park
Richard Harris - MacArthur Park (1968)
Richard Thompson - The Egypt Room
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod Stewart - Henry & Maggie May (1971)
Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown (1966)
Rolling Stones - Back Street Girl
Rolling Stones - Doncha Bother Me (1966)
Rolling Stones - It's Not Easy (1966)
Rolling Stones - Jiving Sister Fanny (1969)
Rolling Stones - Rocks Off (1972)
Rolling Stones - Sittin' On A Fence (1966)
Rolling Stones - Who's Been Sleeping Here (1967)
Rolling Stones - Yesterday's Papers (1967)
Roy Harper - I Hate The White Man (1970)
Roy Harper - The Same Old Rock (1971)
Sad Lovers And Giants - Far From The Sea
Sally Oldfield - Broken Mona Lisa (1982)
Sally Oldfield - Flaming Star (1996)
Sally Oldfield - Natasha (1990)
Sally Oldfield - Survival (1994)
Sally Oldfield - There's A Miracle Going On (1983)
Santana - Soul Sacrifice (1969)
Seekers - Georgy Girl (1966)
Seekers - The Carnival Is Over (1965)
Shelagh McDonald - Baby Go Slow (1971)
Shelagh McDonald - Lonely King (1971)
Shelagh McDonald - Mirage (1970)
Shelagh McDonald - Odyssey (1971)
Silly Wizard - Donald Mcgillavry (1980)
Simon And Garfunkel - Baby Driver (1970)
Simon And Garfunkel - I Am A Rock (1965)
Simon And Garfunkel - Scarborough Fair / Canticle (1966)
Simon And Garfunkel - The Dangling Conversation (1966)
Simon And Garfunkel - The Sound Of Silence (1965)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Israel (1981)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Lullaby (1987)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Melt (1982)
Siouxsie and the Banshees - Overground (1978)
Small Faces - Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire
Smiths - How Soon Is Now
Smiths - This Charming Man
Soft Machine - Dada Was Here (1967)
Soft Machine - Hibou Anemone And Bear
Sonic Youth - Tunic (1990)
Sound - Counting The Days (1984)
Sound - Golden Soldiers
Sound - Temperature Drop (1985)
Spirit - Ice (1969)
Spirogyra - A Canterbury Tale (1972)
Spirogyra - An Everyday Consumption Song (1972)
Spirogyra - Cogwheels Crutches And Cyanide (1971)
Spirogyra - Counting The Cars (1972)
Spirogyra - Dangerous Dave (1972)
Spirogyra - Don't Let It Get You (1972)
Spirogyra - In The Western World (1973)
Spirogyra - Jerusalem (1972)
Spirogyra - Mackerels And Fishes (1970)
Spirogyra - Magical Mary (1971)
Spirogyra - Runaway (1972)
Spirogyra - Sing it Simple (1970)
Spirogyra - The Duke Of Beafoot (1971)
Spirogyra - The Furthest Point (1972)
Spirogyra - The Sergeant Says (1973)
Spirogyra - Time Will Tell (1971)
Spirogyra - Turn Again Lane (1972)
Spirogyra - Van Allen's Belt (1972)
Spirogyra - We Were A Happy Crew (1971)
Spirogyra - Window (1972)
Spirogyra - Wings Of Thunder (1972)
Spirogyra - World's Eyes (1972)
Stackridge - Everyman (1972)
Stackridge - Hey Good Looking (1976)
Stackridge - The Road To Venezuela
Status Quo - Gerdundula (1975)
Steamhammer - Even The Clock (1969)
Steamhammer - Passing Through (1969)
Steamhammer - Supposed To Be Free (1969)
Steeleye Span - Boys Of Bedlam (1971)
Steeleye Span - Gower Wassail (1971)
Steeleye Span - Lovely On The Water (1971)
Steeleye Span - The Blacksmith (1970)
Steeleye Span - The Fisherman's Wife (1970)
Steely Dan - Aja (1977)
Steely Dan - Bodhisattva (1973)
Steely Dan - Josie (1977)
Steely Dan - Night By Night (1974)
Steely Dan - Sign In Stranger (1976)
Stephen Stills - Cherokee (1970)
Stereolab - Baby Lulu (2001)
Stereolab - Blips Drips and Strips (1999)
Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie (1996)
Stereolab - Double Rocker (2001)
Stereolab - Doubt (1991)
Stereolab - Doubt (1992)
Stereolab - Jenny Ondioline (1993)
Stereolab - Metronomic Underground (1996)
Stereolab - Monstre Sacre (1996)
Stereolab - Nihilist Assault Group (1994)
Stereolab - Nothing To Do With Me (2001)
Stereolab - Nothing to Do With Me (2001)
Stereolab - Pack Yr Romantic Mind (1993)
Stereolab - Rainbo Conversation (1997)
Stereolab - Slow Fast Hazel (1996)
Stone the Crows - I Saw America (1969)
Stranglers - Golden Brown
Swans - God Damn The Sun (1989)
Swans - In My Garden
Swans - Mind-Body-Light-Sound (1995)
Teardrop Explodes - Brave Boys Keep Their Promises (1980)
Teardrop Explodes - Passionate Friend
Teardrop Explodes - Second Head (1980)
Teardrop Explodes - Tiny Children (1981)
Ten Years After - The Stomp (1969)
Terry Reid - May Fly
Terry Reid - Rogue Wave
Terry Reid - Seed Of Memory
Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back In Town
Thin Lizzy - Whiskey In The Jar
Three O'Clock - As Real As Real (1982)
Three O'Clock - Tomorrow (1983)
Throwing Muses - Bea (1989)
Throwing Muses - Carnival Wig (1992)
Throwing Muses - Crabtown (1995)
Throwing Muses - River (1988)
Throwing Muses - Tar Moochers (1996)
Throwing Muses - That's All You Wanted (1995)
Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air (1968)
Tindersticks - Ballad Of Tindersticks (1997)
Touchstone - Invisible Wings - Faoileán (1984)
Traffic - Freedom Rider (1970)
Tyrannosaurus Rex - A Daye Laye
Tyrannosaurus Rex - The Travelling Tragition (1968)
Tyrannosaurus Rex - Elemental Child
Van Der Graaf Generator - Lost (1971)
Various Artists - Heaven On Their Minds (1970)
White Mansions - No-one Would Believe A Summer Could Be So Damn Cold
Who - The Seeker (1970)
Who - Won't Get Fooled Again (1971)
Wishbone Ash - Time Was (1971)
Wishbone Ash - Vas Dis (1972)
Wolfgang Press - Cut the Tree (1987)
Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
Yardbirds - Louise
Yardbirds - Too Much Monkey Business (live)
Yardbirds - White Summer
Yardbirds - You're A Better Man Than I (BBC)
Yes - Close To The Edge (1973)
Yes - Then (1970)

Waddy think???

I Should Have Known Better

2007-04-02T15:50:00.000+01:00

I just made the mistake of listening to the version of 'Echoes' from the 1974 Empire Pool gig that the BBC recorded.

After about ten minutes I had to turn it off and go listen to Stereolab instead.

It confirmed everything that I had ever thought about post-DSOTM Floyd, and I just had to come on here and rant for a few moments...

Listen, you lot: great rock music does not need sax solos or chick backing vocals. Especially when the chicks don't know the bloody words.

Bloody awful, lifeless, pile of poo.

Later...

Ha! Someone commented before I had finished! Hi Vincent.

I can't *quite* agree with you, I'm afraid. Certainly the first two albums are excellent, but I think that the 70-72 Floyd was also magnificent - though you wouldn't know it if you'd only ever heard their (extremely patchy) recorded output in that period. Search out the boots, though, and they were extraordinary.

The more I think about it the more I think they were the UK equivalent of the Grateful Dead, and the *real* story was the live shows. I saw them 4 or 5 times, and listening to the boots I'm reminded why. Maybe somebody should consider doing some official 'Dicks Picks' releases of the band during that period? Surely there must be some unreleased soundboard recordings that would stem the flow of ROIOs and earn the lads some (not-very-needed) money? Or would the Gilmour/Waters rift prevent this?

As for the Pompeii film, I recently bought the 'directors cut' edition. Why, for Bog's sake, why???, Why remove genuine live footage and replace it with 'goofing about in the studio three years later' footage? Why show us a fucking rocket taking off, can't we create our own visual metaphors for Echoes?

Singing And Dancing In Perfect Time

2007-03-29T09:15:00.000+01:00

At around about the same time that Kate Bush first appeared on the scene, a lovely little single called 'Mirrors' came out. It was by Mike Oldfield's sister Sally, and I bought it - although I was, by then, primarily an album buyer, every so often I'd buy a single because it just struck me as great. More often than not these were one-offs (for example, Romeo by Mr Big, or King Of Siam by Voyager) and I was fully expecting Mirrors to be another, but when I flipped the platter over I found I was mightily impressed with the B-side; 'Night Of The Hunter's Moon'. So the next time I was in Harum Records (the Muswell Hill branch this time) I asked the delumptious Ruth if she'd heard the Sally Oldfield album (Water Bearer). She said yes, she liked it, in her opinion it was more interesting, less affected, and better, than The Kick Inside.

Ruth's opinion was good enough for me - I bought it there and then. I still agree with her.

I bought, and enjoyed, the next 3 Sally Oldfield albums (Easy, Celebration, Playing In The Flame), though I worried that she was losing some of her originality and veering dangerously close to the mainstream.

It was a while before I saw another album, and when I did I bought it anyway. Big mistake. I should have been warned off by the cover. Bland pap, barely a single track that I wanted to hear again after the initial play. Bye bye Sally, hello Chameleons.

Years later and we're into the age of the Web. When MP3 was young there was a phenomenal little app called Audiogalaxy Satellite that could find, and download, *anything*. Forget Napster, forget iTunes, forget AllOfMP3, Audiogalaxy was da fukin *biz*.

In general, my principle has always been that I won't download anything that I would otherwise have bought, and that I will happily download anything that I've already paid for on vinyl. So I decided to get digital versions of the Sally Oldfield albums, and when I searched I found dozens of tracks I'd never heard of. So I grabbed a few, and within a few days was trawling Amazon, Ebay, Netsounds and GEMM looking for Sally Oldfiels CDs to buy. I bought as many as I could find, and before long had the complete set.

I discovered that, grim though Femme was, there was an even *worse* album, the execrable Instincts. BUT, having failed to become the next Jennifer Rush, she turned her back on trying to be rich and famous and went back to making bloody great records. Strange Day In Berlin, Natasha, The Flame, Three Rings, Secret Songs, Flaming Star, all of them at least 80% marvellous - and now that I'd gone digital it was easy to rip and reburn my CDs while skipping the duff tracks. And when Sally goes duff, she really goes duff. No matter because 4 out of 5 tracks are wonderful.

But then something went wrong. I don't know what. Her Web site went down, she released a 'new' album that comprised mainly truncated versions of old tracks (not re-recordings - Sally has always had a penchant for revisiting old songs and themes - but sections of the original recordings). Check out the archives of the Sally Oldfield mailing list if you're interested - though recently it has become hijacked by one 'Nuala Alexander' advertising penis extensions and fake doctorates.

Anyway, the point of all this is to - hopefully - interest some of you in the music of Sally Oldfield. I've decided to post Natasha, though not her best by a long way, for two reasons - firstly because it gives a fairly good overview of the kind of music she makes and secondly because some eejits are charging £60 or more on Amazon. Balls to them.

Following this album she changed her name to Natasha and released 'The Flame', a great album that she subsequently disowned for some reason after she'd changed her name back to Sally.

I may post more of her albums, but ideally I'd get you all to buy them - if you can.

One more thing - I don't for a nanosecond buy any of the New Age/Healing/Tolkein/Arthurian claptrap but I reckon she can believe what she likes if it inspires her to make great music.

Sally Oldfield - Natasha (1990)

01. Break Through The Rock
02. Natasha
03. Keep The Fire Burning
04. Clear Light
05. My Drumbeat Heart
06. Song Of The Mountain
07. Break Like A Wave
08. Maya
09. In The Presence Of The Spring
10. Guiding Star

http://rapidshare.com/files/23228126/Natasha.zip

Like A Tube Train Up Your Spine

2007-03-27T19:16:00.000+01:00

Three weeks ago I posted a Pink Floyd bootleg from 1972, and a few days later a guy called Mick posted one of the best comments I've read (see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2007/03/sun-is-eclipsed-by-moon.html#comments). He inspired me to go back and revisit some other Pink Floyd bootlegs - things I have (or had) on vinyl but haven't heard in thirty years or more.

Thank you, thank you, Mick.

In those days, of course, there was no WWW and we had to hunt for our boots, but now they'e easily available for free dowload. Another comment to the same post sent me off to http://thinkfloyd.free.fr/roio/roio.htm, where I found a whole bunch of links to Pink Floyd bootlegs. I grabbed a few, and followed a few links until I found a download link for my fave Floyd bootleg of all - a 1971 gig at the Grosser Saal Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany which I still have on vinyl.

Listening to these tracks set me off on a bit of a journey into the past and reminded me what a phenomenal band the Floyd were in their heyday - which for me is the period 1970-1972, when I saw them maybe half a dozen times live. That was *my* Floyd period - I was too young to see them with Syd and lost interest almost entirely the day that DSOTM was released.

That was a mistake, though. Not because the post-DSOTM albums are better than I gave them credit for - they're not, IMO - but because the flaccid overproduced mess that was DSOTM killed my interest in the band completely.

A few days later I was chatting to a couple of people and mentioned 'old Pink Floyd' and they said "you mean Dark Side Of The Moon?" I said no, earlier. "Wish You Were Here?" "Animals?" No, I said, *early* Floyd - like Atom Heart Mother.

More.

Saucerful Of Secrets.

Blank looks. I felt *old* then... but not for long. Walking home with my ipod on full volume and shuffle, I heard One Of These Days from Boblingen, Atom Heart Mother from Montreaux, and that incredible version of Eugene from Hamburg - Jesus I'd forgotten that...

So here are four tracks that illustrate what Pink Floyd were about before they made it huge. They're all bootlegs, some mono, some poor quality, and I haven't really spent much time choosing them, but they're all *great*. As another person put it, there are no synthesisers or samples here, just four blokes - guitar, organ, bass and drums - making one hell of a racket.

And if you think "Oh yeah, Pink Floyd live - Ummagumma, right?" WRONG. This version of 'Axe' pisses on Ummagumma - and as for the other live tracks on Ummagumma, all I can say is SMOKING BLUES. Go get it.

For a brooch and a spice.

Pink Floyd - Live in the early 1970s

01 - One of These Days, Boeblingen, 15th November 1972
02 - Careful With That Axe, Eugene, Hamburg, 25th February 1971
03 - Cymbaline, 26th August 1970
04 - Atom Heart Mother, Montreaux, 21st November 1970

http://rapidshare.com/files/23080790/PF_Live.zip

Say Hello To The Freedom Fighters

2007-03-23T11:00:00.000Z

Alan Gill and David Balfe were two members of the Liverpool scene (not 'The Liverpool Scene', that was a different band altogether – anyone got any of their albums to share?) that spawned The Teardrop Explodes and Echo And The Bunnymen (and Lori And The Chameleons – remember 'Touch'?), and in 1977 they got together under the name dalek I love you (no caps). According to Wikipedia, "the name came about as a result of a compromise between the two members: Balfe wanted to call the band Dalek (after the Doctor Who villains) and Gill wanted to call the band Darling, I Love You".

Over the next couple of years the band lineup expanded and decreased (and the name shortened to 'dalek i') until by 1980 it consisted of Alan Gill and Dave Hughes. These two made a single called – yep – dalek i love you, and then a quirky little album called compass kum'pas, which I bought in – yep – Midnight Music aka English Weather in Crouch End. Although the kum'pas bit is actually kum'p*s where the * is a sort of upside down e.

There was another album released under the name Dalek I Love You (with caps), but it was a lot more polished and a lot less fun. I didn't bother following their career after that.

So here's the first album and single. Sorta like a naïve OMD…? Oh – and on the original vinyl the sides were labelled 'Topsy' and 'Turvy' instead of A and B.

dalek i - compass kum'pas

01 - 01 - The World

01 - 02 - 8 Track

01 - 03 - Destiny (Dalek I Love You)

01 - 04 - A Suicide

01 - 05 - The Kiss

01 - 06 - Trapped

01 - 07 - Two Chameleons

01 - 08 - Freedom Fighters

01 - 09 - You Really Got Me

01 - 10 - Mad

01 - 11 - Good Times

01 - 12 - We're All Actors

01 - 13 - Heat

01 - 14 - Missing 15 Minutes

dalek I love you - Dalek I Love You (Destiny)

00 - 01 - Dalek I Love You (Destiny) (single mix)

00 - 02 - Happy

00 - 03 - This Is My Uniform

http://rapidshare.com/files/22513979/Dalek_I_Love_You.zip

Oh alright then, here you are

2007-03-23T09:04:00.000Z

I said I wouldn't re-up anything but I've had so many requests for this that I've relented - just the once. I haven't got much more to add to my previous comments about Way Of The West (see http://witchseason.blogspot.com/2006/09/one-time-one-life.html) except that they seem to have made a big impression on the few who heard them, if you believe the comments and emails I've had about them. So here, again, are the collected singles of Way Of The West. http://rapidshare.com/files/22282123/Way_Of_The_West.zip

Don't Put Those Houses There

2007-03-06T11:18:00.000Z

I know that Howe Gelb has a huge fanbase and has made countless albums under countless pseudonyms, but I haven't heard any of them apart from the very early ones. Don't know why - maybe it just seems like such a daunting task to plough through them all, or maybe I'm just no longer interested in hearing anything new. Hell, I doubt that I'll live long enough to hear all the albums I've already got again, without trying to get into new stuff.

Anyway, I first heard Giant Sand on the John Peel show some time around 1985 - he played 'October Anywhere' and it made enough of an impression on me to remember the artist name. A few nights later he played 'Artists' and that made me go out and buy the first album (Valley Of Rain). I liked it a lot, and then a few months later bought the second album (Ballad Of A Thin Line Man) and the Blacky Ranchette album that came out at the same time.

Listening to them again now, after gawd nose how many years, I still really like the GS albums and I don't know why I didn't stick with Howe after that - but presumably something else came up instead.

The Blacky Ranchette album (Heartland) is still available, but these two aren't.

Shame.

Oh - and if anyone thinks I *should* investigate more of the Gelbster, and can point me to a good starting point for the rest of his career, I'll go there.

Cheers m'dears

L7ers

Giant Sand - Valley Of Rain

01 - Down On Town & Love's No Answer
02 - Black Venetian Blind
03 - Curse Of A Thousand Flames
04 - Artists
05 - Man Of Want
06 - Valley Of Rain
07 - Tumble And Tear
08 - October Anywhere
09 - Barrio
10 - Death, Dying And Channel Five
11 - Torture Of Love

http://rapidshare.com/files/18758121/Valley.zip

Giant Sand - Ballad Of A Thin Line Man

01 - Thin Line Man
02 - All Along The Watchtower
03 - Graveyard
04 - Body Of Water
05 - Last Legs
06 - You Can't Put Your Arms Round A Memory
07 - A Hard Man To Get To Know
08 - Who Am I
09 - The Chill Outside
10 - Desperate Man

http://rapidshare.com/files/18758019/Thinline.zip

The Sun Is Eclipsed By The Moon...

2007-03-06T09:23:00.000Z

...and the album is eclipsed by the live early version.

The first proper 'gig' I ever went to was Country Joe And The Fish at the Albert Hall on 22 September 1969. A live album from that tour, released 30 years later, revealed a band long past its peak – but for an impressionable 12 year old it was pretty amazing at the time - and is it any coincidence that I later took up playing bass when the first band I ever saw had Jack Casady on bass?

Anyway, the reason I got to see The Fish was because I'd recently discovered that the father of a friend of mine could get free tickets to a box at the Albert Hall. Whoo hoo! So during 1969/1970 I managed to get tickets to see Ten Years After, John Mayall, Pentangle, Stone The Crows, Blodwyn Pig, Jethro Tull, Family, Steppenwolf, Albert King, Keef Hartley, Deep Purple (Supporting Canned Heat - also Renaissance were on the same bill), Fleetwood Mac, and…

At around about the same time a local school put on a production of 'Dark Of The Moon' and a set piece in the middle featured a bunch of teenagers in weird costumes cavorting about to the most incredible music I'd ever heard. I got a friend to find out what the music was and they told me it was Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun by Pink Floyd. So the next time the Floyd were at the Albert Hall I tried to get tickets - but they were sold out.

The next Floyd album was Ummagumma of course – and what a waste of vinyl *that* was. The second disk is a load of self indulgent noodling – the only decent bit is Waters' section and that pales pretty quickly – and the first disk is insipid versions of tracks that had already appeared elsewhere and that were soon available in far more poky versions (if lower quality) on bootlegs.

By the way – The Dead suffered from the same problem – although Live/Dead and Europe 72 are pretty damn good live albums it's clear that Warners didn't think that Joe Public could cope with the bum notes, fluffed lyrics and incredible tangents of the *real* live Dead as shown on 100 Year Hall and the Dicks Picks from the late 60s and early 70s.

Anyway, back to Pink Floyd. I don't remember for certain the first time I saw them live, but by early '72 I'd seen them a few times at the Empire Pool or Earls Court and so on. I used to hang around the Rainbow Theatre in London's Finsbury Park - some of the bouncers had got to know me a bit and would let me in free sometimes - so one night in 1972 I happened to be in the area and went along to see Pink Floyd on spec. They had a primitive quadrophonic PA system - a couple of bass bins & horns lashed to columns at the back of the old cinema hall - and a gantry of lights either side of the stage with flashing red light on top but the MUSIC... was incredible. The London premiere of Eclipse (later to be renamed Dark Side Of The Moon).

Next day I rang all my mates and said you've got to come and see Pink Floyd at the Rainbow (they were doing 4 nights and I'd turned up at the third, so this was the last night). I think Jon Seckl and Jon Blend came with me, I'm not sure who else. Anyway it was equally amazing.

Some weeks - or months - later I was in Kensington Market and saw an anonymous album called 'Best Of Tour 72' - I asked what it was and the guy selling it told me it was a bootleg of the next Pink Floyd album. So I bought it – it was excellent and I played it non-stop for weeks. Months even. And then the next legit Floyd album came out – but that was Obscured By Clouds and so didn’t really count.

And then – finally – a couple of years later, Dark Side Of The Moon came out and I bought it and… I thought it was crap. Sure, it’s incredibly well produced, but it’s sterile as f*ck in my opinion. I’ve never liked it, and that was the end of my Pink Floyd period. I haven’t liked anything they’ve done since.

I lent my original copy of the bootleg to my then-current girlfriend, split up with her a few weeks later, and haven’t seen it since. Didn't hear the album for 15 years or so until the Web let me track down a copy. This doesn't seem to be as good quality as the original vinyl I had, and is also missing a few bits that I edited in from a different bootleg, but as far as I'm concerned it's the last great Pink Floyd album. It's one long piece, not split into tracks (and neither was the original when they played it).

BTW I'm not sure about whether I should be posting bootlegs here - though it's probably the only one I will.

Apart from the QMS one that I posted a few months ago.

Pink Floyd - Best Of Tour 72

http://rapidshare.com/files/15663521/Eclipsed.zip

Flying Fish And Potatoes

2007-02-20T13:11:00.000Z

I may have mentioned Harum Records before. The shop was in Crouch End, North London, and I used to spend ages hanging around there - I bought (and sold) a lot of second hand albums and also listened to all kinds of stuff I hadn't heard before.

The shop was run by two brothers, and the younger brother (Gary) was into pretty much the same kind of stuff as me although he was a few years older. He introduced me to - among many, many others - Dion, Mike Nesmith and Jesse Colin Young.

Jesse Colin Young had been the lead singer with the Youngbloods, but went solo in the early 70s and released these two albums. I'm not quite sure how to categorise them - mainstream soft rock, loosely in the sort of Mac Gayden/Doobie Brothers mould - but JCY's voice and some of the arrangements lift them way above the average.

Great stuff.

Jesse Colin Young - Song For Juli (1973)

1. Morning Sun
2. Song For Juli
3. Ridgetop
4. Evenin'
5. Miss Hesitation
6. T-Bone Shuffle
7. Lafayette Waltz / Jambalaya
8. Country Home

http://rapidshare.com/files/16575361/Song4Juli.zip

Jesse Colin Young - Light Shine (1974)

1. California Suite - California Child
2. California Suite - Grey Day
3. California Suite - Light Shine
4. Pretty And The Fair
5. Barbados
6. Motorcycle Blues
7. The Cuckoo
8. Susan

http://rapidshare.com/files/16556291/Lightshine.zip