Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2010

Special AKA - War Crimes

Stunningly good song from 1982 by the Specials which for some reason didn't manage to chart? Rhoda Dakar again on vocals.
The B side version is you'd expect a version of the A :)

01 War Crimes (The Crime Remains The Same)
02 Version

Fink Brothers - Mutants In Mega City One

The Fink Brothers (alias Suggs and Carl from Madness) released this gem in 1985, I have to admit I'd never heard of it when I picked it up in the 10p bargain bin of my local record shop but loved it as soon as I heard it.
The second dumb admission is that it was only when I picked up a Madness compilation a few years back did I know about the Madness connection.

01 Mutants In Mega City One
02 Mutant Blues

Urban Hype - A Trip To Trumpton

In a similar vein to the Smart E's record and indeed hitting the chart in the same month in 92 came Urban Hype's rave version of Trumpton, which is my favourite one of these type of releases which I've seen described as "toytown techno" along with the Prodigy's Charley.
Just realised I've posted all 3 of those so I must have liked this genre :)
Sorry Gobshyte I don't have the GSP version of Banana splits but it is on youtube if you need another listen.

01 A Trip To Trumpton
02 The Trumpton Remix (Edit)

Beats International - Dub Be Good To Me

Back in the days when Fat Boy Slim was known as Norman Cook from the Housemartins this excellent cover of the SOS Band song "Just Be Good To Me" took the UK charts by storm.
Featuring singer Lindy Layton this is so much better than the current cover version sung by Lily Allen.
The B side is an alternate instrumental version despite the title.

01 Dub Be Good To Me
02 Invasion Of The Estate Agents

Dr Feelgood - Roxette

The 1974 original mono studio version of Roxette, I think it lacks the feel of the live version posted previously but is still a great track and you can still imagine Wilko strutting backwards and forwards on this, the B side is a good version of the classic Route 66.

01 Roxette
02 (Get Your Kicks On) Route 66

Splodgenessabounds - Simon Templer

I originally bought this after hearing only Simon Templer (in the days when I would buy anything with an interesting title) before it became more famous for the third track which of course later spawned one of my favourite TV programmes.
This copy is a little bit tatty as I got it from a market because it had the picture sleeve, my first copy didn't have one.

01 Simon Templer
02 Michael Booth's Talking Bum
03 Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps Please

Boston - More Than A Feeling

Another of those classic songs that still sounds good today more than 30 years after release, like School's out this is again being used for a current TV advert keeping it alive for another generation.

01 More Than A Feeling
02 Smokin

Three Today

This blog is three years old today, I know I've been missing on and off during that period due to various computer problems, being cut off because I hadn't paid the bill and generally not having the time that I'd like to have to spend putting stuff on here but I'm still here :)
Sadly many of my favourite blogs during that period have gone for various reasons.

On a personal note I seemed to be cursed lately with bad luck, I told you about the computer problems but that followed on from my LCD telly I bought 3 years back dying the death for some unknown reason? I replaced it with my old telly which also died meaning I have gone from 37" widescreen to 26" standard to 14" portable in the last 6 weeks :(
My digital camera became the latest failure last night, it had been working fine but now I just get a blank screen if I try to take a pic, I can view previously taken photos so it's not the screen that's the problem??
My kettle went bang and even the toilet cistern broke so I worry about touching anything now .....

Back In Business

My son gave me his old computer and after a couple of weeks of running every type of anti-virus/spyware/adware/anti rootkit etc programmes I think it's safe to use.
I've stripped out all the best bits of 2 old computers and it seems to work and all those programs which make life easier seem to work with this one :)

Just looked at the description of this blog on Fuzzy and it seems people are used to me missing a few months so nothing has changed really :)


Hopefully something will be here by Tuesday which is the 3rd Birthday of this version of this blog, the original which was about a year older got deleted by me after getting in a mood after all my links were deleted.

Nothing Better To Do

Just putting a few thoughts into words ....
I probably have better stuff to do but I like the internet and listening to music and all other non productive ways of spending my non working hours so I'm on a bit of a downer at the moment.
To explain the computer has been living on borrowed time for a few months and might live on although I'm doubting it at the moment, after the last big crash I managed to bring it back to life and although not perfect has served it's purpose quite well until yesterday when the hard drive started making weird grinding noises and kept crashing, the ribbon cable change suggested seemed to have sorted the problem temporarily but the drive is definitely dying.
I managed an act of stupidity and short circuited my back up (slave) drive with a screw driver while the machine was still turned on (yeah I know ..) the blue flash and puff of smoke were a bit of a giveaway, so 320gb of music files are probably lost, I had some backed up elsewhere but non of the most recent ones :(
After stripping the computer down to the basics it finally came back to life very slowly so I have spent the last 12 hours copying what I can from my C Drive to a portable HD at a snails pace, I'm guessing it will crash again soon and might not return?

The current financial situation means a new computer is out if the question and even if I did manage to get one I'm not sure I'm clever enough or have the time and patience to transfer all those useful programs I've picked up in the last 7 years to a new machine and if they would work with Windows 7 (I'm on XP)?
My eldest son has offered me his old machine but that is older than this one and last time I fixed it for him it was full of every nasty you could possibly pick up :)

So at the moment this blog will be on hold, as everytime I've tried to upload stuff the PC has crashed so I'm not going to risk it for now.


On the upside I've just seen the traffic counter has reached 100,000 views since I added it, so thanks to all you people who have visited :)

Nazareth - Hot Tracks EP

And now a blast from one of the best of the Seventies bands.
This 1977 release showcased four of the best Nazareth tracks on one single.
Star billing for me is their version of Joni Mitchell's "This flight tonight" which still rates in my top 100 of all time.

01 Love Hurts
02 This Flight Tonight
03 Broken Down Angel
04 Hair Of The Dog

Smart E's - Sesame's Treet

One of those rave type versions of famous tunes that were popular in the early nineties, this one with a take on the Sesame street theme, which I think is one of the best.
The B side Magnificent reveals talent that was probably unfulfilled due to being lumbered with the novelty record tag.

01 Sesame's Treet
02 Magnificent

This Island Earth - Take Me To The Fire

Another of those bargain bin purchases from the eighties, for an outlay of only ten pence it was nearly always worth taking a chance on records you'd never actually heard of in the hope it was something good :) as this one is still in my collection I must have liked it.
Don't know much about the band and only recently came across anything else by them, but it's a good slice of mid eighties pop music and worth a listen.

01 Take Me To The Fire
02 Pearl Of Love

UB40 - Don't Slow Down

Yet another UB40 single, this one is from 1981 which I think is their best period and I like it so that's good enough for me :)
This is listed as a double A side, so you've probably heard both of them at some point in the past.

01 Don't Slow Down
02 Don't Let It Pass You By

Elvis Costello And The Attractions - I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

One of my favourite EC tracks, at just over 2 minutes it's short and sweet.
The B Side is Elvis's version of his own song which was a hit for Dave Edmunds the year before.

01 I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
02 Girl's Talk

B52's - Love Shack

This one hit number 2 in 1990 making it the B-52's biggest hit, much as I like this it's nowhere near as good as all the tracks on the debut album over 10 years before, two of those are included on the B side, both recorded at Cleveland Music Hall, Cleveland, Ohio on 2nd December 1989.

Another of those discs that has the wrong speed printed on the label, it says play both sides at 33 rpm but the A side is 45 rpm.

01 Love Shack
02 Planet Claire (Live)
03 Rock Lobster (Live)

Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

The Rats first number one from 1978.
Used to have the picture sleeve of this but it's gone with the others, this is the wife's non pic sleeve version.

This one is topical for me as the company I work for has a rat problem and the traps go off quite a lot, if it helps anyone with a rat infestation Tomatoes seem to be the rats favourite!! they're not keen on Cheese or processed meats from Somerfields :)

01 Rat Trap
02 So Strange

Comsat Angels - You Move Me

Another slice of jangly guitars from the eighties, the Comsat Angels came from Sheffield and like a lot of good bands from that era failed to achieve any chart success despite being as good if not better than most of the household names around at the time.
The B Side Land is a good moody instrumental.

01 You Move Me (One Good Reason)
02 Land

Bananarama And Fun Boy Three - Really Saying Something

The second Fun Boy Three / Bananarama joint effort from 1982, this one had the Banana's listed first which is fair as they do most of the singing.
The B Side instrumental starts off a bit crackly but gets better.

01 Really Saying Something
02 Give Us Back Our Cheap Fares

Screaming Blue Messiahs - I Wanna Be A Flintstone

Only hit record for the Screaming Blue Messiahs from the late 80's.
Personal feeling is that this track is not one of their best and I even prefer the B side on this record, but as it's been proved many times before it's a matter of personal taste :)

01 I Wanna Be A Flintstone
02 Jerry's Electric Church

808 State - Pacific

Loved this tune at the time and still love it, to me it was like the soundtrack to the whole Madchester rave scene of the early nineties, a short period of some of the most inventive tracks of the last 20 years.

01 Pacific 707
02 Pacific B

John Peel - For Virgin Record Stores

Let's get some credibility back to this blog, these are really good.
Picked these up from somewhere (big thanks to Mr Original uploader, whoever you were) about 3-4 years back and only recently gave them a good listen, brilliant stuff from John Peel. All tapes recorded for use in Virgin record stores in 79/80 each one contains about an hour of current (at the time) releases with some great fill-ins by JP.
Not 100% sure of some of the band names and titles just going on what it sounds like to me.

-----------------------
For Virgin Record Stores 16/10/79

First up is one listed as being recorded 16th October 79.
Good selection here with 3 Specials tracks and the brilliant "Turn to red" by Killing Joke as well as some good ones I didn't know before like the Capital Letters and Freshmen tracks.

Great lines from Peel in this one include -
On Killing Joke "it could be Public Image having a joke at our expense except I don't think Public image are as good as that"
On the Girl track "Here's your chance to bang your head against something solid and immovable, a member of the Virgin staff perhaps"

(Part One)
Specials - Stupid Marriage
Killing Joke - Turning Red
Sneak Preview - Slugweird
Capital Letters - Unemployed
Home Service - Wake Up
Girl - My Number
Cabaret Voltaire - Kirlian Photograph

(Part Two)
Specials - Dawning Of A New Era
Freshmen - You've Never Heard Anything Like It
Pink Military - Spellbound
Jackie Lee - Do The Duck
Killing Joke - Are You Receiving
Phillip Rambo - The Sound And The Fury
Secret Affair - Let Your Heart Dance
Specials - Too Much Too Young
-----------------------
For Virgin Record Stores 05/12/79

Second of three of these Virgin stores tapes, another excellent selection with a few well known names thrown in.
Best Peel comments on this one - On U2 "A Boomtown Rats for the 1980's", and "wait until you hear the other side of the tape .. absolute crap".

(Part One)
U2 - Out Of Control
Kid Thomas - Rocking This Joint Tonight
Clash - Rudy Can't Fail
Beat - Tears Of A Clown
Ruefrex - One By One
Michael Campbell - Dubwise?
Capital Punishment - Save Your Kisses For Me
Undertones - Baby It Hurts

(Part Two)
Beat - Ranking Full Stop
Delta Five - Mind Your Own Business
Mikey Dread - Saturday Night Style
Clash - Working For The Clampdown
Screaming Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
Mekons - Trevira Trousers
Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop
Rentals - New York
-----------------------
For Virgin Record Stores 19/02/80

Here's number three, another random selection of old and new from Peel.
This one had more tracks that I didn't know than the others but still worth listening to.
I guess these were done in one take as the Stunt Kites record gets stuck halfway through which isn't a good advert for a record shop.
The first track which sounds like it's from an early Jackie Chan movie is actually the 1979 German Eurovision song contest entry!! obviously Peel wasn't aware of this as he says it's "a wildly over the top record from Hong Kong".
Best Peel comment on this one - "buy, buy and then fuck off out of the shop"

(Part One)
Lamb - Dschinghis Khan
Clock DVA - Brigade
Derrick Morgan - Moon Hop
Bodies - Art Nouveaux
Selecter - Every Day
Cuff Links - Guided Missiles
Any Trouble - Yesterday's Love
Stunt Kites - Beautiful People
Burning Spear - Getting From Bad To Worse

(Part Two)
Jimmy Reid - Shucks Hush Your Mouth
Vice Versa - Genetic Warfare
Misfits - Horror Business
Paul Williams - House Rocking
Tiller Boys - Big Noise From The Jungle
Sugar Minott - Carry Me Gone To Jailhouse
Siouxsie And The Banshees - Happy House
I'm So Hollow - I Don't Know

Led Zeppelin - IV

The fourth of Led Zeppelin's untitled albums and one that most people will know even if they don't follow the band due to including the track that most people will associate with them "Stairway to Heaven", it also includes all time greats "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" and five other great tracks although I'm not a fan of "The Battle of Evermore".
I still have this on vinyl which I think I kept because it came on pink vinyl (see below) and I hoped it would be worth something one day :)

Useless info - I downloaded well over 100 different versions of Stairway to Heaven from the WMFU blog a few years back, and about 10 were really good :)

01 Black Dog
02 Rock And Roll
03 The Battle Of Evermore
04 Stairway To Heaven
05 Misty Mountain Hop
06 Four Sticks
07 Going To California
08 When The Levee Breaks

Boot Sale Tales

I went out Sunday morning to a boot sale for the first time in over a year determined to buy some more vinyl, always in the hope of coming across someone selling the stuff I sold about 20 years for a pittance.
It was looking like a waste of time for the first 2 hours as every stall I went to that had boxes of vinyl were asking stupid prices for some poor quality stuff :(
One stall had a load of 12" singles and after going through the lot found only 2 that I might have bought in amongst a pile of crap, "how much" I asked, "a pound" she replied, "each?" "pound each" "anything off I buy a few?" "pound each" she says giving me a dirty look, now probably 95% of what she was selling you'd find in any charity shop for 10p.
The next one had some singles all in tatty covers and mostly scratched, "how much" "from a pound" was the reply, I saw a copy of Dr Feelgood's milk and alcohol on brown vinyl I'd sold my copy many years back when I was broke, "is this a pound" I asked "no that one's 3 quid" I was told :(

The boot sale was close to ending and I saw a box of singles with no covers, I was told they were 50p each, I said in that state the box full was only worth a pound and to my surprise he accepted it :) now most of them are virtually unplayable but 4 T-Rex singles for a pound seemed reasonable to me.








As I was walking back to the car one last stall had a box of albums, I started looking through and saw a few good ones and was told they were 4 for a pound, while going through them he said I could have the lot for £3 :)
So £3 straight in his hand and I got 82 albums and a laserdisc!! which works out at about 4p each, about half of them are by artists I have liked so it was well worth it, mainly 80's bands like Tears for fears, Human league, OMD, Erasure, China Crisis, Christians etc, although if I hadn't spotted the Yachts album I might have walked on and missed out.

World Cup latest

It all seems a bit strange around here at the moment?
The England flags are disappearing one by one from houses and cars up our street, there aren't any kids outside playing football in their new England strips, there has only been a few sirens heard flying past on the nearby main road less than a normal Sunday for some reason?
Everyone appears to be in a state of shock or more likely have all gone to the local seafront to lap up the sunshine on one of the hottest days this year while getting completly plastered and planning tonight's riots.
I don't have a German car so it might still be in one piece tomorrow, an I'm far enough away from the pubs and supermarkets so my house windows will hopefully survive.

Oh well another World cup over.

Edit:
The rant and other opinions moved to an upcoming footie blog as I've calmed down now.

Various - England Songs 2010

Every World Cup we get a selection of England songs, some are good and lots are bad this year is no exception, Here are 20 I've found this time, the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
The Good - Skatoons, We are Scientists and maybe Rik Mayall and a few others.
The Bad - The Competition, The Squad and many others
The Ugly - Terry Venables murdering an Elvis classic.

There are a few that grow on you with a few listens, but chances are you'll only listen to them until England get knocked out anyway, hopefully I'll still be playing them after July 11th, enjoy it while it lasts.

01 Beach - We Are England (The Flames Of 66)
02 Dile - Skank For England
03 Rik Mayall - Noble England
04 Squad - Three Lions 2010
05 Dizzee Rascal And James Corden - Shout For England
06 Chris Martini - When England Rule The World
07 Mitch Benn - Win One Lose One
08 Skatoons - The World Cup's Waiting For You
09 Twenty Teners - Oh Mr Fabio Capello
10 We Are Scientists - Goal England
11 Swagga - The Victory Bus
12 Terry Venables - If I Can Dream
13 Scaredy Cats - England's Lion Hearted White Shirt Warriors
14 Competition - Fabio
15 Shuttleworth And Mark E Smith - England's Heartbeat
16 Three Brians - We Are Engerland
17 Young Stanley - Sing It For England
18 England United With Spike - Grab A Stella Nelson Mandela
19 Barker And Hartley - It's Time For England
20 Chenille Steele - Come On You Lions

Frank Sidebottom

Sadly another death from the big C today, comedy musical act Frank Sidebottom (alias Chris Sievey) died at the age of 54.
I'm not sure I really liked much of his stuff but seem to have a lot in my collection, so he had something.

New Order - (The Best Of) New Order

Titled the best of New Order but I don't agree, personally I would expect the originals of songs like Blue monday and true faith rather than the later remixes but that's my opinion.
Don't get me wrong this is an excellent compilation of New Order's back catalogue and includes most of the finest songs of their first 14 years.
I still have the vinyl version of this which was one of the last new vinyl albums I bought before finally going down the CD route.
Also it has the classic "world in motion" at track 16 as it's world cup time again.

01 - True Faith 94
02 - Bizarre Love Triangle 94
03 - 1963 94
04 - Regret
05 - Fine Time
06 - The Perfect Kiss
07 - Shell Shock
08 - Thieves Like Us
09 - Vanishing Point
10 - Run 2
11 - Round And Round 94
12 - World (Price Of Love)
13 - Ruined In A Day
14 - Touched By The Hand Of God
15 - Blue Monday 88
16 - World In Motion

Sounds Like ...

Many years ago I used to park in a car park with a large bit of graffiti on one of the walls saying "Angela Rippon's Bum", at the time it just made me laugh and I only found out that it was the name of a local punk/skinhead/Oi band later on! my only excuse being there were a hell of a lot of new bands around at the time and after leaving school I didn't spend much time in Tilbury.
I managed to find some of their stuff a while back and was listening to the track "Living in England" and the music reminds me a lot of the best bit of "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin.

Slade - Skweeze Me Pleeze Me

From the period when Slade were the chart kings, this was their fifth number one in under two years and if I remember correctly it had gone straight in at Number One which was rare in those days.
As with the Sweet record this is still in my collection because it was the second record I ever bought, another 47p worth :)

01 Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me
02 Kill 'Em At The Hot Club Tonite

Sweet - Hell Raiser

1973 hit for the Sweet, it was the follow up to their only number one "blockbuster", I would rate this as one of the Sweet's first serious singles after a long line of "novelty" hits like Wigwam Bam, Co-co, Little Willy etc and showed their heavier side the B-side Burning is more in the style of more serious acts of the time.
As for Hell Raiser it has a nice bit of punk style guitar in the first 25 seconds.

On a personal note this one is still in my collection because it was the first single I ever bought, 47p brand new from a local record shop after raising the money washing cars! people weren't as generous back then and I think the best me and my mate got was 20p for a car.
Who says nostalgia ain't what it used to be :)

01 Hell Raiser
02 Burning

Baddiel Skinner And The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions 98

The World cup is here again, and for some reason we don't have an official England song? so here's one of the best of the old ones includes the 98 version plus the original.
Have listened to this years efforts and haven't found any as good as these so here it is while we're still in the Cup (give Greeny a break, the other 10 should have scored more goals and it wouldn't have mattered).

Sad also as I had my England rant ready for all my American facebook "friends" and couldn't really post it :(
John Wayne, Neil Armstrong, Elvis Presley, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Mike Tyson, Marilyn Monroe, Barack Obama - can you hear me, Barack Obama Your boys took one hell of a beating! .... Your boys took one hell of a beating!!
If only....

01 Three Lions '98
02 Tout Est Possible
03 Three Lions (Original Version)
04 Three Lions '98 (Karaoke Version)

Ultravox - Passing Strangers

The follow up to Sleepwalk which surprisingly failed to chart? the follow up to this was the all time eighties classic Vienna.
Really liked this track so was suprised it wasn't a hit, love the little instrumental bit at 2.23, The B side Face to face was recorded live at that musical hotbed St Albans!

01 Passing Strangers
02 Face To Face

Psychedelic Furs - Heaven

Not really a fan of the Furs but this is a pleasant enough ditty, the first of only 2 chart hits for them reaching no.29 in the UK, I'm sure everyone knows their other hit :)

01 Heaven
02 Heartbeat (Remix)

Eurovision Final

Well that's over for another year and as usual I failed to pick the winner, my choice Rumania got regular votes from most countries but only finished third.
It was a tale of two nineteen year olds, Germany's Lena won the event for some reason? singing in English with a sort of Bjork / Kate Nash accent.
Whereas Britain's Josh Dubovie had a disasterous night and finished last with only ten points, although I didn't rate the song it certainly wasn't the worst.
Another embarrassment for the UK was that Welshman Jon Lilygreen finished above us representing Cyprus, as did London based Filipa Azavedo singing for Portugal.

Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me

Recorded live at the Budokan Japan in 1978 and sounding pretty good even now.
I think I had a problem with putting labels on bands around this time, anything that sounded good I'd call punk but as it turns out Cheap Trick were more of a "hair" band or soft rock but I've seen this on a punk compilation so maybe it's not just me.

The B side Clock strikes ten is also a live track although the label says it's from Cheap Tricks studio album "In Color"? I think it's another Budokan track, and just to be pedantic the label says it's 3.40 long but from the needle hitting the first groove till the last is only 3.30 so maybe they put the wrong version on?

01 I Want You To Want Me
02 Clock Strikes Ten

Elvis Costello And The Attractions - (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea

The second Elvis C track to hit the charts from 1978, taken from the excellent album "This Years Model" the B side was also on the album.

01 (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
02 You Belong To Me

I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea but some times you had to,
this was one of the more memorable occasions :)

Derek And The Dominos - Layla

Classic guitar riff from 1970 from Eric Clapton's band at the time.
I like this shortened single version at less than 3 minutes it has the best bit of the 7 minute album version.

01 Layla
02 Bell Bottom Blues

Boomtown Rats - Banana Republic

Excellent tune from Sir Bob and the Rats, last of their run of top 20 hits.
Another cheap market purchase replacing my long ago sold original, the cover is a bit tatty as well.
Still a great pair of songs though :)

01 Banana Republic
02 Man At The Top

Echo And The Bunnymen - Do It Clean

According to the info I've read these 2 tracks were left off the Binnymen's debut album Crocodiles originally because Warner Bros director Rob Dickins thought that they contained obscenities, the cassette version had them but the vinyl didn't?
Several months later the tracks were included as a limited edition single with the vinyl album, which is where I assume this came from.
Interesting when looking up the value of this "rarity", Musicstack in the US has it listed at a wide range of prices from $1.92 to $5120.87!!
I think it was well worth the 10p I paid for it at a boot sale last year :)
The B side gives a writing credit to Julian Cope as well as Ian McCulloch.

01 Do It Clean
02 Read It In Books

Slipknot

Another rock R.I.P sadly, Slipknot bass player Paul Gray found dead in his hotel room, only 38 years old :(

Eurovision

I have a confession ... I love Eurovision!!
Yeah I know it's tacky etc but it's good fun, a lot of the records are a pile of pants (usually the UK ones) and some of the acts are still stuck in the dark ages but in recent years there has been some reasonably good songs, not the winners as despite the voting rule changes the judging still tends to be biased with all the Balkan countries voting for each other and the many ex Russian states doing the same.
Possibly the reason I'm liking it more is the number of acts performing in English, nearly all of them in the last couple of years.
Here's my favourites from the last 3 contests, none of them won but I liked them so that's all that matters to me :) hope you agree?

2007 Sopho Khalvashi (Georgia) - Visionary Dream - (Video Deleted for some reason?)
2008 Sebastien Tellier (France) - Divine
2009 Yohanna (Iceland) - Is It True

 I haven't had time to listen to all this years entries but hopefully there are a few good ones again, it all starts again tonight with the first of 2 semi finals before Saturday's big event which is in Oslo this year.

Bjork - Telegram

I've been a fan of Bjork since the Sugarcubes days and discovered some of her earlier stuff later (if that makes sense), I have (or had) most of the commercial CD's and loved them all but put off buying this one for a while as it's a remix album.
One of the Bjork websites had a large collection of remixes available for free download and some were good and many weren't so good so I didn't know what to expect from this.
As it turned out I finally bought this and I'm so glad I did, I think it's superb.
Most of the tracks have been totally transformed with a variety of styles.
I was worried that one of my all time favourite tracks "Isobel" would be ruined but they've done a really great job of keeping the feel of the original while adding just enough to make it even better, some of the other tracks are unrecognisable until you hear the lyrics .. which isn't a bad thing.

01 - Possibly Maybe (Lucy Mix)
02 - Hyperballad (Brodsky Quartet Version)
03 - Enjoy (Further Over The Edge Mix)
04 - My Spine
05 - I Miss You (Dobie Rub Part One Sunshine Mix)
06 - Isobel (Deodato Mix)
07 - You've Been Flirting Again (Flirt Is A Promise Mix)
08 - Cover Me (Dilinja Mix)
09 - Army Of Me (Massey Mix)
10 - Headphones (Tricky Mix)

Pendulum

This one's been on repeat in the car for the last couple of weeks, high bass in a small tin box sounds brilliant.
Pendulum's new single Watercolour, a shining light in a sea of chart dross.

This is the best vid I could find on YouTube and it has an annoying advert at the start and is a short verion of the tune at only 3.33 compared to my 5 minute version but you'll get the feel of it :)

Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go

This 1996 album won awards although personally It's my least liked of their albums so far, but I can't blame them for going more commercial.
Luckily they returned to form with their next album.

01 - Elvis Impersonator Blackpool Pier
02 - A Design For Life
03 - Kevin Carter
04 - Enola Alone
05 - Everything Must Go
06 - Small Black Flowers That Grow In The Sky
07 - The Girl Who Wanted To Be God
08 - Removables
09 - Australia
10 - Interiors (Song For Willem De Kooning)
11 - Further Away
12 - No Surface All Feeling

Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

Album 3 released in 94 the last one as a four piece before Richie Edwards mysterious disappearance. This one took a while to grow on me although "Archives of pain" is still a big favourite of mine.

01 - Yes
02 - Ifwhiteamericatoldthetruthforonedayit'sworldwouldfallapart
03 - Of Walking Abortion
04 - She Is Suffering
05 - Archives Of Pain
06 - Revol
07 - 4st 7lb
08 - Mausoleum
09 - Faster
10 - This Is Yesterday
11 - Die In The Summertime
12 - The Intense Humming Of Evil
13 - P C P

Manic Street Preachers - Gold Against The Soul

The second album from 1993, just the ten tracks but another top class album.

01 - Sleepflower
02 - From Despair To Where
03 - La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)
04 - Yourself
05 - Life Becoming A Landslide
06 - Drug Drug Druggy
07 - Roses In The Hospital
08 - Nostalgic Pushead
09 - Symphony Of Tourette
10 - Gold Against The Soul

Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

After a couple of minor hits in the early nineties this 1992 album and the 6 singles taken from it brought the Manics to most people's attention.
Still one of their most famous tracks "motorcycle emptiness" is the star turn with others like "slash n burn" and "you love us" also familiar to most.
A great debut album.

01 - Slash N Burn
02 - Nat West Barclays Midlands Lloyds
03 - Born To End
04 - Motorcycle Emptiness
05 - You Love Us
06 - Love's Sweet Exile
07 - Little Baby Nothing
08 - Repeat (Stars And Stripes)
09 - Tennessee
10 - Another Invented Disease
11 - Stay Beautiful
12 - So Dead
13 - Repeat (UK)
14 - Spectators Of Suicide
15 - Damn Dog
16 - Crucifix Kiss
17 - Methadone Pretty
18 - Condemned To Rock N Roll

Creatures - A Bestiary Of

"A Bestiary of" is basically a CD compilation of the double single “Wild things” and the album “Feast” plus a few bonus B-sides and the single version of Right now.
For anyone who doesn’t know the Creatures were Siouxsie and drummer Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees, who decided that the vocal/drum only sound, worked well … I agree.
As well as the known singles there are some truly brilliant tracks here, Sky train and Festival of colours being my own favourites, although the track "Flesh" still sounds weird to me.

01 Mad Eyed Screamer
02 So Unreal
03 But Not Them
04 Wild Thing
05 Thumb
06 Morning Dawning
07 Inoa'ole
08 Ice House
09 Dancing On Glass
10 Gecko
11 Sky Train
12 Festival Of Colours
13 Miss The Girl
14 A Strutting Rooster
15 Flesh
16 Hot Springs In the Snow (B-Side Of Miss The Girl single)
17 Weathercade (B-Side Of Right Now single)
18 Right Now (Single Version)

Blondie - Blondie

The 1976 debut album plus a few bonus tracks on this 2001 Re-mastered CD version.
An interesting mix of styles with many of the tracks having an early Sixties feel right through to the more punky tracks like Rip her to shreds and Kung Fu Girls.

Blah blah … I picked up the “In the flesh” single in a cheapie box for 10p a few months before “Denis” hit the chart and many years later sold it on for £10 which is a 100 times what I paid for it!!
If only I could have done those sort of deals on everything I’d be a millionaire haha, and sadly with hindsight even this was a missed opportunity as that cheapie box had about another 20 copies of it and I bought only one :(

01 X Offender
02 Little Girl Lies
03 In The Flesh
04 Look Good In Blue
05 In The Sun
06 A Shark In Jets Clothing
07 Man Overboard
08 Rip Her To Shreds
09 Rifle Range
10 Kung Fu Girls
11 The Attack Of The Giant Ants
12 Out In The Streets (Original Instant Records Demo)
13 The Thin Line (Original Instant Records Demo)
14 Platinum Blonde (Original Instant Records Demo)
15 X Offender (Original Private Stock Single Version)
16 In The Sun (Original Private Stock Single Version)

Dr Feelgood - Oil City Confidential

For anyone who remembers my post about the Dr Feelgood documentary, you might like to know it's available on BBC I-player for the next week or so as it was shown on BBC4 on Friday night, I'm not sure if it's available outside the UK but I guess someone cleverer than me might have ripped it and it should be available somewhere soon.
Great stuff for any Feelgood fans, I really enjoyed it.
Some great archive footage of Canvey which is local to me, Wilko is nearly as mad now as he was then but with less hair, Julien Temples use of old movie clips to illustrate points adds a lot of humour to it and of course some great music.

Find it here - BBC Link

Blondie - Eat To The Beat

This is still my favourite Blondie album and sadly (in my opinion) it was all downhill after this.
3 great singles and tracks like Shayla and the title track would have made good singles as well.
Aaah makes me all nostalgic ... sob

01 - Dreaming
02 - The Hardest Part
03 - Union City Blue
04 - Shayla
05 - Eat To The Beat
06 - Accidents Never Happen
07 - Die Young Stay Pretty
08 - Slow Motion
09 - Atomic
10 - Sound A Sleep
11 - Victor
12 - Living In The Real World
13 - Die Young Stay Pretty (Live At BBC 1979)
14 - Seven Rooms Of Gloom (Live At BBC 1979)
15 - Heroes (Live At Hammersmith Odeon 1980)
16 - Ring Of Fire (Live) (From The Roadie OST)

Blondie - Parallel Lines

Possibly the biggest selling of the Blondie albums and most well known, 6 of the 12 tracks were released as singles with most of the rest ending up as B-sides.
Once again 4 bonus tracks to fill the CD.

01 - Hanging On The Telephone
02 - One Way Or Another
03 - Picture This
04 - Fade Away And Radiate
05 - Pretty Baby
06 - I Know But I Don't Know
07 - 11:59
08 - Will Anything Happen
09 - Sunday Girl
10 - Heart Of Glass
11 - I'm Gonna Love You Too
12 - Just Go Away
13 - Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song) (1978 Version)
14 - Bang A Gong (Get It On) (Live In Boston 1978)
15 - I Know But I Don't Know (Live In Philadelphia 1978)
16 - Hanging On The Telephone (Live In Dallas 1980)