Glastonbury Line-Up 2013

Glastonbury Line-Up 2013

So, after endless months of speculation, the line up for Glastonbury 2013 has been announced.

It came out Wednesday night (as I’m writing this it’s Friday, Good Friday actually, morning) so I’ve had a day or so to ponder upon it all and wonder what it’ll really be like.

Like many things in life, it is impossible for it to have lived up to (mine, or anyone else’s) expectations. It’s a bit like wondering about a big lottery win; what would you do with all that money? What would your dream line-up for Glastonbury be? What was I really expecting?

There were a few times in the past couple of years, since the last festival, that I’ve daydreamed about who might have been pulled out of the Eavis’ metaphorical magic hat. Could they have got Led Zeppelin to reform? What would have been the possibility of Pink Floyd half reforming and giving it a go? Would they go off the wall and pick a wholly unsuitable, but massive heavy metal band such as AC/DC? How about Kate Bush? Dylan? Could it be Prince?

Putting all such notions to one side, I’ve then thought about who I’d personally like to see-The Fall, of course, and the perennial favourites such as The Flaming Lips and Wilco. Then  there’s the possibility of artists who I’ve just got into or heard a little bit of but never seen live. The other side of the coin are artists who I really liked for a while, but who have slightly slipped off my radar.

Whichever way it was, upon seeing that line-up for the first time on Wednesday, I scanned it and speed read it for those artists who weren’t on there; The Fall, The National, Flips etc. A bit like a very spoilt child at Christmas, there was a certain level of disappointment. Where were all these great bands that should have been on there? How come Mumford & Sons were headlining? Was it the first sign of the Apocalypse? What are the four horsemen? Famine, death, pestilence and plague? Are a bunch of flat-capped posh boys bringing up the rear?

However, on reflection and having had a good nights’ sleep, I’ve looked at it all again and realised that it’s not half bad. Discounting the aforesaid Mumfords, there’s some pretty good stuff potentially. (Still not wholly convinced about the Rolling Stones.) Elvis Costello, Dinosaur Jr, Vampire Weekend, Portishead, The Strypes and Evan Dando will be worth a look see.

Anyway, as I keep reading and hearing about Glasto, it’s not about the music it’s so much more. And whilst I agree, it does kind of beg the question that if that’s the case, then why not just spend a few days in a random muddy field with your mates getting stoned and pissed? Wouldn’t it be cheaper?

Only joking.

Glastonbury is something so special and I can’t wait until June.

Off to get some new wellies.

december 7th extract

The Latin Playboys- Lemon N Ice

The Latin Playboys are a side project of David Hilgado and Louis Perez from Los Lobos along with Mitchell Froom, Los Lobos’ producer and keyboard player. This track is from their second of two albums they released, “Dose” in 1999. Their first self-titled album came out in 1994.Originally the majority of tracks on the first album were recorded by Hilgado simply as demos on an old 4 track recorder in his kitchen. On hearing them, Froom thought that they were too good to be left just as demos and too different to be recorded as Los Lobos songs. On his cajoling, Hilgado was persuaded to re-record them and thus the first Latin Playboys album came into existence.

I’m not a big fan of Los Lobos- in fact apart from a few tracks that are scattered on the iPod that  probably only ended up on there because I ripped them onto the pc from cover- mounted free cds that came with music magazines-I don’t think that I’ve got any of their music. I think that they backed up Dylan on some of the tracks on his “Christmas From the Heart” album, and that they may have even written one of the songs, but having them on there was more by accident than by design. I wouldn’t have bought-or not bought- the Dylan album because there was something to do with Los Lobos on it. (If the roles were reversed however, it may have caused me to buy a Los Lobos album. Even if Dylan had just turned up in the studio as Los Lobos were recording and made a brew for everyone (as if) that would have been enough for me. The Los Lobos album where Dylan made a pot of tea and walked round with an assortment of mugs on a tray. Can you imagine it? “Who wanted the one with three sugars? Who was the decaff? No, there aren’t any fucking Custard Creams. What do you think I am a bloody tea-lady? I’m a renowned rock star for goodness’ sake and here I am making cups of tea.” Yes-I would have definitely bought that Los Lobos album).

But the only Los Lobos albums that I have are these two by The Latin Playboys- and I don’t think that they really qualify as Los Lobos albums anyway. It’s hard to describe what they are exactly. They do sound like some sort of soundtrack album for a film that’s not been made. All the songs are short on both albums; I don’t think that there’s a track that lasts over five minutes on either of them and some are barely 90 seconds long. They sound like you’ve just tuned into some weird radio station where the signal keeps fading in and out-it’s really music for waking up to or being half asleep to or dreaming to. Something along those lines. Not the sort of rambunctious music I’d associate with Los Lobos- and so much better for that. 

Gram Parsons ..and how little we all really know about music

Gram Parsons-Streets of Baltimore          

It would be good to think that I’d been a Gram Parsons fan for a long time before I got this album but I hadn’t. It would be a name to drop in a sort of “I’ve always been into Gram Parsons” way before he became briefly fashionable; “Oh, Gram Parsons? Of course his early stuff was good. I’ve got all the original 1970 vinyl albums as imports somewhere around. But they are mixed up with all the Parsons bootlegs.” etc. But of course it wasn’t like that at all. I’m deeply suspicious whenever any music fan starts namedropping in such a manner-it’s the equivalent of the “Woody Allen early, funny stuff” translated into music. Of all the music that I’ve got and of all the music I really like and love, I don’t think that there are any artists at all-and this is out of thousands of CDs and tens of thousands of tracks on assorted iPods- that I can lay claim to having “discovered” off my own bat; that I heard merely on a whim and knew that they were going to be successful, either critically or commercially. In fact there are more than a few that I thought would be a shoe-in for fame and riches and that sunk without a trace. (A lifetime of listening to pop music would, you’d think, give me an ear for what would work but no, there are many more misses than hits cluttering up my shelves).

I think that there are only a few ways of discovering new music, or music that is new to you-either from reading about it and seeing it aligned to something you already like, someone personally recommending it to you or just stumbling across it at random either at a gig or clip on the TV or internet. We’d all be A & R people if there was some other way and that’s the reason why I’m sceptical about all the nonsense spouted by serious music fans-from whatever genre they are; jazz, classical, blues, rock-nobody has much of a clue and there’s a lot of one-upmanship and Emperor’s New Clothes-ism going on. It’s a bit like any hobby-train spotting, DIY or fishing-the more anyone is deeper into it ,then the greater the amount of sheer bollocks they come out with. There’s some sort of exponential formula to it all. (It’s all a male thing as well; women are much too sensible for all of this). The vast majority of music that I like has only come to my attention because I’ve read a good review of it, or that someone played me a record and badgered me about them, or that I heard some other artist raving about it as an influence. (Even The Fall, who I have loved nearly from their inception and for the past thirty odd years since, only crossed my radar because on one boring rainy Saturday afternoon, one of my friends pestered me into listening to their newly released first album. It was all by chance). I wouldn’t have got this Gram Parsons record if I hadn’t been into the Lemonheads in 1986 and heard Evan Dando going on about him. It’s as shallow as that. And any music fan who tries to convince you that being into anything with any hint of obscurity is fibbing. No-one really has a clue.                  

big in japan

Big In Japan-Match of the Day          

Big In Japan were a supergroup before their time. They only released one e.p. and one track on one side of one single. They did have a great line up though. Dave Balfe; later to found Zoo Records with Bill Drummond, play in the Teardrop Explodes (and manage them) and set up Food Records, as well as managing Blur. Budgie; later to drum for both the Slits and Siouxsie & the Banshees. Holly Johnson; lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood (massive hit singles etc). Jayne Casey; later to become driving force behind the superclub, Cream and an artistic director for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture thingy in 2008. Ian Broudie; formed The Lightning Seeds (big hit singles-Three Lions etc) and producer of lots of groups including the Pixies. Bill Drummond; founded Zoo Records, managed The Teardrop Explodes and Echo and the Bunnymen, formed the KLF, the JAMMS, also an artist, writer and maker of soup.

I never did see them live but apparently they played one song which was never recorded and to which the lyrics changed each week. It was a twenty minute noise/improv fest called “God Reads The Charts” over which Jayne Casey screamed that weeks’ top twenty at an ear-piercing volume. This still sounds like a fine concept to me. 

Two tracks of their seven recorded tracks were on a compilation album issued under the Zoo banner, “To The Shores of Lake Placid”. This was a lavishly manufactured gatefold album that probably cost a fortune to produce. No wonder that Zoo went bust shortly after it came out. It had rare and previously unreleased tracks from the Teardrop Explodes, Dave Balfe (as The Turquoise Swimming Pools and the only recording of Julian Cope as in his alter -ego of Kevin Stapleton. (This latter track was utterly bonkers and gives a very strong case as to why drugs are A Bad Thing.) The two Big in Japan tracks were from their John Peel session and hadn’t been released until then. I had the album for ages until it bit the dust in the great vinyl cull. It didn’t really matter though because a few years later everything that Zoo had ever released as well as this album was collated on one (bootleg) album. This goes to show that if you wait long enough for something to be released it will be. The days are long gone when I’ll pay over the odds for a supposedly rare track. I’ve had my fingers and wallet burnt too many times whilst falling for that scam.

This track though has never been re-released. I had it on a compilation of Liverpool post- punk bands called “Street to Street” that was issued by an art gallery/recording studio. It had early Bunnymen/Teardrop/OMD tracks, a terrible sleeve and good sleeve notes by John Peel. This track by Big in Japan was an instrumental and would have made a great theme tune for the football show of the same name. It still would do as well and I’m surprised the BBC has never used it. Like all things it’s bound to crop up somewhere. It’d be a bit ironic, though not wholly unexpected, if it turned up on Sky.

(This isn't MOTD though but still a good Big In Japan track.)

 

in praise of Radio 4

(a brief extract from the new book mid-editing)

It’s been a long, long time since I last listened to Radio 1, 2 or any commercial station. At least 25 years. Radio 4, and to some lesser extent, Radio 3 is my preferred listening these days. I had largely given up on Radio 1 much earlier than 25 years ago in any event and only listened to it for John Peel. Since the death of Peel I cannot recall putting Radio 1 on except by accident in the car and then I would have reached instinctively for the Radio 4 button. Radio 4 is probably one of the only things that could possibly make me proud to be British. I am not nationalistic or patriotic in any way at all and would (even in these straightened times) class myself as European rather than British. I wish that Britain had joined the Euro and that we were part of a United States of Europe rather than the United Kingdom. However, classing myself as European I would still be proud of the BBC and Radio 4 and it would still be my station of choice. Even if I lived in some remote corner of Europe I would still try to find a way to catch up with The Archers at 2.00 p.m. every day. My day anyway is bookended by Radio 4, Today (John Humphreys, Jim Naughtie et al) each morning at 6.30 and whatever is on late at night. At home if I am not listening to music then it’s Radio 4 on the airwaves. I some ways I could cope quite easily without television but not music and not radio. I will listen to even the most arcane stuff on Radio 4-including Gardeners Question Time, which is odd, as we don’t have a garden at all.