Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions Part Three

A third Sunday covers mix for October this time with an 80s indie edge and some repeat offenders from the last two weeks present and correct. Starts out all small hours and hushed, goes noisier, comes down again and finishes where it started with The Velvets, one of the most covered bands. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Cover Versions Part Three

• Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane
• Sonic Youth: Superstar
• Primal Scream: Carry Me Home
• The House Of Love: Who By Fire
• Ciccone Youth: Into The Groovey
• World Of Twist: This Too Shall Pass Away
• Red Snapper: Sound And Vision
• R.E.M.: Indian Summer
• Minutemen: Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
• Calexico: Corona
• Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins: Pale Blue Eyes (Western)

Cowboy Junkies covered Sweet Jane on their magical 1988 album The Trinity Session. The album was famously recorded in Toronto's Church of The Holy Trinity. Their cover was based on the version the Velvets played on their 1969 Live album rather than the one on Loaded. Lou Reed said the Cowboy Junkies take on the song was his favourite, the way the song was meant to be done. 

Sonic Youth featured twice last week and do this week too- their version of Superstar came out on a 1994 tribute to The Carpenters. Richard Carpenter didn't like it at all. Sonic Youth take a blow torch to the song, a huge amount of reverb, one massive piano note, some wobbly guitar sounds and surely nail something true about the song. The Carpenters released it in 1971 with LA session musicians The Wrecking Crew and a toned down, less suggestive lyric ('I can't wait to sleep with you again' was changed to 'be with you again'). The song was written by Bonnie Bramlett and Leon Russell and recorded first by Delaney and Bonnie in 1969, a song about the relationships between rock stars and groupies in the 60s.

Carry Me Home was on Primal Scream's Dixie- Narco EP, a bleak Dennis Wilson song made bleaker still by Primal Scream and Andrew Weatherall while recording at Ardent in Memphis in 1991. Weatherall's production and arrangement is superb, an extension of the Screamadelica sound into darker places. Dennis' song is sung from the point of view of a dying soldier in Vietnam.

Who By Fire is a Leonard Cohen song covered by The House Of Love on a 1991 tribute album, I'm Your Fan- there are loads of 80s/ 90s alt/ indie stars on the album including R.E.M., Pixies, The Lilac Time, Ian McCulloch, Lloyd Cole, Robert Forster, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, James and John Cale. I'm not sure any of them really improve on the original songs. 

Ciccone Youth were a Madonna inspired Sonic Youth side project with Minuteman Mike Watt on bass. Watt was in a bad way after D. Boon's death and what became The White Album was a way to get him playing again. Into The Groovey is a cover of Madonna (obvs) and samples her too. SY loved Madonna in the 80s, they loved Into The Groove. They also covered Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love. 

World Of Twist did a few covers- Kick Out The Jams, She's A Rainbow, Life And Death- and this one, This Too Shall Pass Away, which sits in the middle of side one on their sole album, 1991's Quality Street. Quality Street is a heady stew of psychedelic pop, Northern Soul and late 80s Mancunian indie. The original version of This Too... is a 1964 single by the Honeycombs.

Red Snapper's cover of Bowie's Sound And Vision is on Ban- Di- To, out earlier this year and thoroughly recommended. Red Snapper are a formidable live band and Sound And Vision is a live favourite- I saw them do it at The Golden Lion in 2023.

Indian Summer is a semi- legendary song by Beat Happening, lo fi indie pioneers from Olympia, Washington. The song is a slow burning tale of youth and lust, originally released in 1988. R.E.M.'s cover is from a 2008 single, Hollow Man. I have versions by Spectrum (Sonic Boom), Luna and The Jazz Butcher as well as this one. In fact Spectrum's may be the best version and should probably have been included here- R.E.M. find some late period magic and intensity here though.

Minutemen covered Have You Ever Seen The Rain? on their fourth and final album, 1985's Three Way Tie For Last, a cover of Watt and Boon's teenage heroes Creedence Clearwater Revival. AT two minute thirty seconds long it's an epic by Minutemen standards. D Boon died shortly after the album's release.

Calexico's cover of Minutemen's Corona was on their 2003 masterpiece Feast Of Wire. The original is from 1984's Double Nickels On the Dime, one of D Boon's best songs, a heartfelt protest song for the downtrodden people of mid- 80s Mexico. Calexico played it live and then covered it, adding mariachi horns. Let's forget the fact it became the theme tune to Jackass. 

Back to The Velvets. Paul Quinn and Edwyn Collins covered Lou Reed's Pale Blue Eyes for a one off single in 1984, done for the soundtrack of Alan Horne's Punk Rock Hotel. It's a much loved cover, Edwyn and Paul both sounding as good as they ever did. 

More Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be: A Vinyl Villain Guest Edition

I spent last Thursday evening in the company of JC, the man behind the long running, standard setting blog The Vinyl Villain. He'd travelled down from Glasgow overnight and we met for a few drinks and a catch up taking in two legendary Manchester pubs- The Briton's Protection (grade II listed, serving beer since 1806- the year not the time- with a mural of the Peterloo Massacre down one wall) and The City Arms (a pre- Hacienda haunt for many back in the day, situated just across the road from Fac51). Earlier this week JC sent this to me. A few weeks ago I started an irregular series of Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be including Echo And The Bunnymen on Wogan, Prefab Sprout at Alton Towers, Ice T on The Late Show and Aztec Camera on Pebble Mill. I've got a few ideas lined up for further editions in the series but in the meantime JC has stepped in with a Bands In Places They Shouldn't Be Scottish Edition. Without further ado, then, over to JC...

I was quite tickled by Adam’s previous posts in which he dug out some classic video clips of performances or appearances in the most unlikely of places.  So much so, that I’ve come up with a few more, all of which feature singers/bands from Scotland.

First up are Aztec Camera and a rendition of Walk Out ToWinter that was broadcast on Switch, a series aired on Channel 4 between March and September 1983.  It basically took over the Friday evening slot that had been occupied by The Tube, starting one week after the end of the first series and ending one week before the second series began.

Look closely and you’ll see that the normally immaculate Roddy Frame and his bandmates are wearing identical and hideous tracksuits.  That’s because the footage was from the afternoon rehearsals when they did their bit to help the camera operators and lighting technicians do their thing, returning later on for the actual performance that was broadcast.  Only thing is, the band decided not to perform the new single and thus leaving the record label a tad upset. Which is why, no doubt after much pleading with the producers of Switch, this footage was shown a few weeks later. 

Back in the days when the BBC actually were half-decent at putting out music shows, they came up with the idea of a 24-hour broadcast across BBC 2 and Radio 1, which was given the imaginary title of Rock Around The Clock.  I think there may actually have been a couple of these, with the shows being a blend of live performances from concert venues, studio performances, interviews, videos and specially commissioned film clips.   It also saw musicians dropping in for chats, as was the case when Edwyn Collins, Paul Quinn and Zeke Manyika were interviewed, from recollection around 1am, and it’s fair to say they were up for having a bit of fun.

I’ll divert for a few minutes, as the same show also had Billy Bragg and Echo & The Bunnymen in the studio at an even later hour.  They teamed up for an unforgettable cover of a Velvet Underground number.

Turning now to the first band ever to play at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, the cavernous venue on the banks of the River Clyde to which all the big names would flock after the legendary Glasgow Apollo was closed down and demolished.  History records that UB40 were the first to play in what became known as Hall 4 in 1985, but the truth of the matter is that a little-known local act called Snakes of Shake were the first as evidenced by this clip which went out on The Tube in 1984:-

OK….the building was still under construction, but let’s not split hairs.

That clip was part of a special on Scottish music that was broadcast by The Tube.  You’ll have to bear with me on the next one as I can’t find a segment where it’s just the song.  

It’s a seven-minute piece of film, in which presenter Leslie Ash turns up on a very wintry day in Dundee for a chat down in the dockside area with Billy Mackenzie.  The interview takes place on what appears to be a tug boat, while Billy then mimes outrageously to the Associates song ‘Waiting For The Loveboat’ on board the HMS Unicorn, a 200-year old frigate that operates as a museum/visitor attraction in Dundee.  The music begins around 4 mins and 24 seconds in.

You’ll have spotted by now that many of these clips are courtesy of the hard work of an individual who goes by the name of ScottishTeeVe who has taken hundreds of hours to take his VHS etc recordings and put them up on YouTube for our enjoyment.  All the clips thus far, I also have on dozens of different videotapes that are in boxes in a cupboard beneath the stairs, but I just don’t know how to now put them in places where they can be shared and enjoyed more widely.

I’ll finish off with a cheat.

It’s a clip that doesn’t feature anyone from Scotland, but it was filmed in Glasgow on 3 June 1990.

The location is Custom House Quay on the banks of the Clyde. It was part of ‘The Big Day’,  one of the centrepiece events in a year-long set of festivities to celebrate Glasgow being designated as the European City of Culture.  An all-day music festival that was free of charge across various locations, with the big-name acts performing on stages at the main civic square or in the largest of our inner-city parks.  Some more niche acts were put on at Custom House Quay, one of whom was Billy Bragg.  He didn’t let on that he was going to be joined for part of his set by some friends from America:-

You can see that the location is full to capacity, with maybe a couple of hundred folk sitting down and maybe as many again standing up at street level.  No mobile phones, so no way of letting anyone know that Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant were singing their hearts out.  I don’t have this clip on video, for the simple reason that I was out on the streets that day, among what was estimated to be a crowd of 250,000.  Nor did I see it on the day…..I was half-a-mile away enjoying the one stage where the music was quite eclectic, watching the likes of Aswad, Nanci Griffith and Les Negresses Vertes put on great shows.  It wasn’t until the next day, reading the newspapers, did I learn about the Custom House Quay happening.  The performance has become the Glasgow equivalent of the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1976 with thousands claiming to have been there.

Massive thanks to JC for this time capsule, a hugely enjoyable post. 

Linger On

'Sometimes I feel so happy/ Sometimes I feel so sad', Lou Reed croons softly at the start of Pale Blue Eyes, the most brokenly beautiful song on the most brokenly beautiful Velvet Underground album. Written and demoed with John Cale in May 1965 it wasn't released until 1969 by which point Cale had left the band. 'Thought of you as everything/ I had but couldn't keep', Lou goes on and in the final verse it becomes clear this isn't just about lost love but infidelity too- 'It was good what we did yesterday/ And I'd do it again/ The fact that you are married/ Only proves that you're my best friend/ But it's truly, truly a sin'. In his memoir, Lou Reed said he wrote it for his first love, Shelley Albin, a married woman (who had hazel eyes  but poetic license and making lines scan saw her eyes change to blue). 

Pale Blue Eyes

It's one of those songs that is so right, so perfect- the singing, the playing, the production, the tone of the guitar and the repeating riff, the tambourine rattle, the solo- that you wouldn't want to change a note or a second of it. But it also cries out to be covered. This cover came back to me recently while I was looking through my 10" singles (looking for something else but it caught my eye). I put it on and it jumped out of the speakers, simplicity of the song hurtled forwards from the late 60s to 2012 by The Kills, a raw version of the song. Alison Mosshart's husky, small hours vocal is spot on, the drums thump and shake and Jamie Hince's guitar snarls as the amp distorts. You can smell the practice room. The guitar break and the juddering effect between the second and third verses is electrifying and the way they cut back in for the 'skip a light completely/ Stuff it in a cup' verse is thrilling.

Pale Blue Eyes

In 1984 Edwyn Collins and Paul Quinn released a version as a single, taken from the soundtrack to the film Punk Rock Hotel. Edwyn croons, really croons, and the country and western guitar takes The Velvets to Nashville. The guitar solo is a joy and the song swells to the end, filled out and lush.

Edit: it is of course Paul Quinn crooning while Edwyn plays guitar. Thanks to JC for noting my error. 

Pale Blue Eyes

In the same year R.E.M. recorded a version that first saw the light of day as the B-side on the So. Central Rain 12" single and then later when it was compiled onto the Dead Letter Office album, a record that pulled together odds, ends, B-sides and drunken rehearsal room takes. Michael Stipe's voice was made for Pale Blue Eyes and Peter Buck's guitar is drenched in reverb. In the sleeve notes to Dead Letter Office Peter Buck says it was recorded live to two track and notes he added 'an exceedingly sloppy guitar solo'. Sloppy sounding just fine on this occasion. 

Pale Blue Eyes

Here R.E.M. play it live in New Jersey in 1984, the band caught brilliantly half a lifetime ago. 

Coffee

I'm a tea drinker. I drink multiple cups of tea a day- since giving up the cigs I think it's only the tea that keeps me going sometimes. But there aren't any songs about tea on my hard drive. Coffee on the other hand is well represented. Coffee is cooler than tea, more sophisticated- to us Brits coffee is the continent, pavement cafes, and frothy milk. Now the high street is littered with coffee shops selling a bewildering array of coffees all served by your expert barista who's happy to stamp your loyalty card. Our first cup is served by Lalo Shifrin, an unsettling instrumental from the film Bullitt (hence the picture of Steve McQueen at the top).

Just Coffee

The caffeine is kicking in now. The Bullitt soundtrack can be a bit jittery even without a shot of the black stuff. In 1994 James Lavelle put out a double vinyl ep called The Time Has Come, a bunch of remixes from Howie B, Portishead and Plaid. Plaid did this, breakbeat- jazz- trip hop that isn't a million miles from Lalo Shifrin..

Coffeehouse Conversation (Plaid Remix)

In 1989 Edwyn Collins released his Hope And Despair album, a lovely collection of songs. This one, drum machine led and with a lovely circular guitar riff, builds for nearly five minutes as Edwyn croons. Gorgeous.

Coffee Table Song

Blur's 1999 album 13 was a reaction to the Britpop thing. Graham Coxon sings and wrote it, describing his battle with alcohol over a chirpy indie-pop tune with a sqwarky, string-bending guitar solo. A bit of an ear worm.

Coffee And TV

To finish before the barista chucks us out for nursing one cup for an hour, here's Wild Billy Childish And The Musicians Of The British Empire, from the magnificent Thatcher's Children album, and a three chord rush tirade sung by Nurse Julie...

Coffee Date

1977

After Beth Orton looking back at 1973 today has Edwyn Collins looking back at 1977 via The Clash's Year Zero statement and that line they'd be measured against by music journalists for ever; 'No Beatles, Elvis or the Rolling Stones in 1977'. Edwyn tackles it with acoustic guitar, plenty of oomph and obvious love for the song.

1977

Just A Trick Of The Light

Orange Juice have such an embarrassment of riches in their back catalogue, all skewiff and untutored and out of kilter. It's their rough edges that make them so loveable I think. From their early days, this is the magnificent, frenetic Felicity (written by James Kirk). This version was from a flexi disc given away free with the first 1000 copies of Falling And Laughing, recorded live in Edinburgh in 1979.

Felicity (Flexi Version)

From the later days, the brilliant What Presence?!, shown here live on the Whistle Test in '84 with a squealing guitar solo (along with Out For The Count).

Linger On

Drew posted The Kills cover version of Pale Blue Eyes earlier this week, a song I've been listening to a lot recently- both The Kills version and the original. It is the best song of it's type that there is. A major chord or two, a couple of minors, some sparse backing and Lou Reed's lyrics of time, paper cups, feeling happy and feeling sad and infidelity. Wondrous thing really.

The fact is that it survives being covered often as well, not something that too many Velvets songs benefit from. There's a shaky 2-in-the-morning version by R.E.M. I like, The Kills blistering take and this beautifully played and sung one from Edwyn Collins and Paul Quinn.

Forsooth

Alright?
I got back from North Yorkshire a few hours ago- 5 minutes back in Manchester and it started raining. The photo above is of the Royal Yorkshire Yacht Club in Bridlington. Brid was great- the old town bit up the top of the town was lovely and for a seaside town it isn't too tatty. The RYYC was formerly The Ozone Hotel and was the home for several months in the 1930s to Lawrence (TE Lawrence, of Arabian fame, not him out of Felt and Denim). Lawrence rejoined the RAF under an assumed name (Shaw) and spent some time testing speed boats in and around Bridlington Harbour. While I'm here a very nice woman has opened a vintage clothing shop including seafaring inspired clothes she makes herself- Wayside Flower. Nice second hand bookshop a few doors down as well. I liked Bridlington. If you're really lucky you might get some more of my holiday snaps.

Anything happen while I was away? Oh yes, Thatcher died. I can't say I was sorry but the death party stuff seemed a bit, well, distasteful. Her government was a blight on us, many of us, and I loathed her and her policies but I'm not sure about the celebrations. The press have gone way over the top the other way and the funeral's a fucking joke (and an expensive one at that). I'm guessing Elvis Costello's Tramp The Dirt Down and Pete Wylie's The Day Margaret Thatcher Died have been doing the internet rounds. Internet signal, Wifi, 3G etc was very poor, I really don't know how people up there cope. I mean, I could hardly get on Twitter all week. Sheesh.

Re: Bandwidth - my bumper Weatherall birthday post has used up all my monthly Boxnet bandwidth before the middle of April (like spending all your monthly wage by the same date- done that too). Readers last month reported some problems using Mediafire so I'm going to revert to 4Shared I think. Let me know how it works out. I (legally) downloaded Edwin Collins new album Understated before we went away and spent sometime listening to it in the caravan. I like it, and you should too. Try this one, then go and buy it.

Forsooth

When He Spoke She Smiled In All The Right Places

It's a small skip and jump from Roddy's Aztec Camera to Edwyn Collins and Orange Juice. Their Postcard single Blue Boy is a hyper-excited rush of trebly guitars and fresh faced enthusiasm that sounds almost too good three decades later. They'd never make it to bootcamp. Tulisa would criticise Edwyn's singing. The whole thing could fall apart at any moment. Gary would do that smirk thing, shaking his head slowly. Louis would say he couldn't see the wow factor. They'd have to be re-styled to look exactly the same as everyone else. And to sound the same as everyone else. Lord help us.

Blue Boy

Edit; I've just remembered that Blue Boy was a B-side. A B-side!

Consolation Prize For The Vinyl Villain

The Vinyl Villain has had a well deserved break over the last month and is due back at the blogdesk today so various blogs are welcoming him back today and I'm happy to join in. I first discovered his standard setting blog looking for some Orange Juice many years ago so it seems appropriate to post what might be Edwyn Collins' finest moment, with its line about wearing his fringe like Roger McGuinn's and anti-macho coda- 'I'll never be man enough for you'. This one's for you JC.

Consolation Prize

Sten Guns In Knightsbridge

One more Clash cover? Oh go on then. Here Edwyn Collins tackles year zero manifesto 1977- Joe claiming no Elvis, Beatles or Rolling Stones while Mick recycles a Kinks riff. Edwyn takes his acoustic guitar to it and adds some hard won wisdom.

1977 (Edwyn Collins)

Stepping Out In Style

I've read a couple of references to this recently and have taken it as a sign it should be posted, and it follows on from the Friday night Mancabilly post. In 1997 Edwyn Collins recorded a super shimmering seventies disco tribute for his album I'm Not Following You and cajoled Mark E Smith into providing vocals. It is quite superb. Even Ctel might agree, despite liking neither disco nor Mark E Smith.

Seventies Night

Linger On

I think this day last year was Paul Haig Day, organised by JC at The Vinyl Villain. For whatever reason that's not happened this year, but I was reminded of it and thought I'd post this- Paul Haig and Edwyn Collins' cover version of The Velvet Underground's Pale Blue Eyes. This is really something, the guitar playing and vocals stunning. In fact it's not only the best cover of a Velvet's song by anyone I've heard but it might even be better than the original. Heresy, I know.

Edit- I'm talking/typing absolute nonsense as Davy just pointed out, getting my Paul's all confused. The Paul here is Paul Quinn not Paul Haig. *hangs head in shame*

Pale_Blue_Eyes.mp3#1#1

Just Keeping Going And Trying To Stay Free

Edwyn Collins has a new single out called Losing Sleep, laced with northern soul stylings. There's an album at the end of the month too (with appearances by Johnny Marr, Roddy Frame, Franz Ferdinand and a host of others), and then the Orange Juice boxset in November. Edwyn's interviewed by Sylvia Patterson in this week's Guardian Guide, and there was a line in it that really struck me. Edwyn's partner and manager Grace Maxwell is explaining that his career has never been commercially successful but that his whole life has been 'more a survival thing', to which Sylvia responds...

'Just keeping going and trying to stay free?'

I'm not a fan of mottos, mission statements, and greetings card/bumper sticker/office poster cod-philosophy but the phrase Just Keep Going And Try To Stay Free sounds like pretty good ideal for living. Similar to the old mod adage 'clean living under difficult circumstances'- a bit vague, a bit romantic, a bit daft maybe, but spot on as well.

This is One Is A Lonely Number, the opening track from Edwyn's last album Home Again, recorded before his illness, but finished and released afterwards. I've just noticed it's tag from the cd rip is One Is A Lonely Humber, which maybe isn't news to the people of Hull.

01 One Is a Lonely Humber.wma

How Can You Sleep On A Mattress Of Wire?

Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame is the indie hero who has kept this status despite recording some deeply slick and commercial music over the years, notably during his stay at WEA. At first though he was on Postcard where he released two singles before jumping to Rough Trade where he had the perfect 80s indie hit Oblivious. Roddy has said he will never have the Postcard singles released on CD, which appeals to the purist in me, if not the have-everything-on-one-disc collector in me. This is Mattress Of Wire, his second single on Postcard, which tends to go on ebay for about a tenner. Good value if you ask me. In a link to today's Rockingbirds post when Edwyn Collins toured following his recovery from three life threatening illnesses a few years ago, Roddy was on guitar. On the night Mrs Swiss and I saw them at Manchester Academy 2 Roddy was blistering, in a non-guitar hero kind of way, especially during the solo in A Girl Like You.
What's particularly stunning about this song, Mattress Of Wire, is that it was written, recorded and released by a teenager.

Mattress Of Wire.mp3

Camden Cowboys

Last week I posted Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner. Here is a tribute to the man from Camden cowboys The Rockingbirds. Signed to Heavenly Records The Rockingbirds released several fondly remembered singles (A Good Day For You Is A Good Day For Me, Gradually Learning, this one Jonathan Jonathan) and a couple of albums in the early 90s before splitting in 1995. Their second album was produced by Edwyn Collins and one of the guitarists has been part of Edwyn's recent touring band. The Rockingbirds missed the U.S. alt-country boat of the mid-to-late 90s by some distance. Too country-ish and not glum enough probably. They reformed last year following the inevitable two disc re-issue of their first album.

Jonathan_Jonathan.mp3

Orange Juice 'A Sad Lament'

My favourite pair of Levi's jeans are about to die. I'm fussy about jeans so it's a real wrench when they wear out. I've had this pair several years, bought them as dark indigo, the right cut, perfect length, and since then they've faded brilliantly, in all the right places. A while back they started to fray a little around the pockets, but I could live with it. Recently the left knee has thinned, and looking at them now I reckon the next time I kneel down they'll go through. Maybe I should give them a Viking burial, head down to the canal and send them burning on a pallet, floating towards town or Altrincham depending on the wind direction.

This is one of the best tracks from Orange Juice's 1984 e.p. Texas Fever. A sad lament indeed.

05 A Sad Lament.wma

Orange Juice 'Felicity'

We break up, we break up, we don't care if school blows up....

I've finished work for Easter which makes it a good day. But any day couldn't be entirely bad for hearing the sheer joy and exuberance of Felicity, my favourite Orange Juice song- from the opening 'woaaah woah, woaaah woah, woaaah woah!!', this song sums up the Chic meets The Velvets style, as Edwyn described it. Written by James Kirk, lovely ramshackle, chiming guitars, great all-over-the-shop singing, brilliant break- 'let's take it to the bridge now!'.

Apparently all OJ's albums are about to be re-issued and a box-set is coming too. 'Happiness, oh-oh-oh happiness, oh-oh-oh, happiness, this is the sound of happiness'.

And don't their fringes look great?

Felicity.mp3

Edwyn Collins 'Don't Shilly Shally' (Spotter's 86 Demo Version)

Edwyn Collins has been widely written about on various blogs, not least over at The Vinyl Villain, and I'm not sure I can add too much. Edwyn's partner Grace Maxwell wrote an excellent book, published last year, about Edwyn's stroke and subsequent recovery. It's well worth some of your time and money. When my son suffered a stroke (side effect of meningitis, and various other problems and complications he has, due to a very rare genetic disease) both Edwyn and Grace responded to me through myspace, which was very touching, and shows the decent folk they are. I saw Edwyn last year when he played Manchester, with Roddy Frame on fire on lead guitar. It was the most heart-warming and moving gigs I've been to. One of the musical highlights, alongside Blue Boy, was this- the encore of Don't Shilly Shally. You surely don't need me to tell you how good it is. This is the Spotters 86 Demo version, from the A Girl Like You single. Sometimes I think I prefer this to the proper single release. Anyway, enough from me, get downloading, don't shilly shally...

03 Don't Shilly Shally [Spotter's 86 Demo Version][Demo Version].wma