Days Of Miracle And Wonder

Twice recently I've had one of those periods of a couple of days where I become obsessed with a song from the past and play it endlessly. A few weeks ago it was Fine Young Cannibals' I'm Not The Man I Used To Be. Last weekend it was The Boy In The Bubble by The Blue Aeroplanes. 

The Boy In The Bubble (Album Version)

In 1991 Bristol's Blue Aeroplanes were signed to a major and were half expected to crossover. In 1989 they'd supported R.E.M. on the UK leg of their Green tour (I saw them in Liverpool at the Royal Court- they were outstanding and played a memorable supporting set to a full house, Gerald ending it at the lip of the stage arms outstretched. R.E.M. were next level. It was quite a month for gig going- I saw The Stone Roses on 4th May and R.E.M. on 21st). In 1990 they released Swagger and a year later Beatsongs.

The Boy In The Bubble is a cover of a Paul Simon song, the only one he wrote a lyric for while on his controversial, sanctions busting trip to South Africa that led to Gracelands in 1986. The line, 'The way the camera follows us in slow mo/ The way we look to us all', was written in South Africa. The rest was all done back in the USA. 

The Blue Aeroplanes cover, which I must have played twenty times last weekend, is a riot, a blast of early 90s indie guitar rock. The riff and the clang of the guitars make Paul Simon sound like The Clash (appropriately enough as Strummer was a big fan of Graceland). Vocalist/ poet Gerard Langley spits the words out, reveling in Simon's lines about bombs in baby carriages, distant constellations, long distance calls, how 'every generation throws a hero up the pop charts' and the chorus payoff, 'These are the days of miracle and wonder/ Don't cry baby/ Don't cry'.

The video is a lively affair, lots of movement and energy, various guitarists twirling and riffing, dancer Wojtek doing his things, action painting on a glass screen happening while the film is being shot and lots of black denim. 

Paul Simon's video is similarly, mid- 80s video FX- collage and colour to mirror the cross cultural nature of the song, African rhythms, accordion and Adrian Belew playing a synth guitar solo.

Like I say- obsessed. I'm still playing it a couple of times a day. The Blue Aeroplanes have recently released two career spanning albums- a best of called Magical Realism and an alternative best of titled Outsider Art. 

Today is the fourth anniversary of Isaac's funeral. For some reason this anniversary doesn't carry the same emotional weight and dread as the anniversaries in November do, his birthday on the 23rd and his death on the 30th. I can remember aspects of the funeral as if it was yesterday, events and conversations and emotions too. The sheer dread I had waiting to read the eulogy we'd written and the pause when I stood at the lectern to collect myself and try to get the first line out of my mouth. I remember thinking that if I got the first line out, I'd be able to read the rest but getting the line out seemed to take an age. Lou has told me that she and Eliza were sitting on the front row willing me on silently. The first line was, 'They say it takes a village to raise a child...' 

Heck, what a fucking day day that was.

We chose this Billy Collins poem for the celebrant to read at the graveside. I read it again last night while putting it into this post and it has lost none of its power in the last four years- if anything it means more now than it did then.  

'The dead are always looking down on us, they say,
While we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
They are looking down through the glass-bottom boats of heaven
As they row themselves slowly through eternity.

They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
And when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
Drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,
They think we are looking back at them,

Which makes them lift their oars and fall silent
And wait, like parents, for us to close our eyes'

Forty Five Minutes Of Talking Heads And Friends

Update Sunday 10.00 am. The original version of this post received a sensitive content warning and was put behind a warning message. I think this is because in my description of Azealia Banks' 212, the final track in the mix, I used a word that starts with the letter C and then sounds like honey lingers. I'm reposting the post here with the offending word removed- partly just to see if it now gets through Google's censors. 

I started a Talking Heads Sunday mix a year ago and couldn't get it to work. The early stuff, New York art- rock didn't seem to sit well with some of the later stuff or the remixes/ edits etc I was trying to fit in. Many of the songs I was attempting to segue started and ended very suddenly which was tricky and the whole thing made me quite frustrated so I shelved it. Seeing Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew play Remain In Light at The Ritz recently and the Leo Zero edit of Azealia Banks' 212 which splices Azealia's blinding debut single with Once In A Lifetime got me thinking I should try again. I've left out anything from their first three albums, much as I love all of them, and gone for a Talking Heads mix that is unashamedly dance music with some remixes, edits, side projects and solo works and covers- more an Inspired By Talking Heads mix than a strictly Talking Heads mix. I think it works now.

Forty Five Minutes Of Talking Heads And Friends Mix

• Jezebell: Swamp Shuffle
• David Byrne: My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks)
• Talking Heads: Burning Down The House (Pete Bones Remix)
• X- Press 2 and David Byrne: Lazy
• Rheinzand: Slippery People
• Tom Tom Club: Wordy Rappinghood
• Brian Eno and David Byrne: America Is Waiting
• Azealia Banks: 212 (Leo Zero Edit)

In August 2023 Jezebell released Jezebellearic Beats Vol. 1, the first full length album from Darren and Jesse, twenty tracks of 21st century pick and mix/ club culture dance music. It closed with Swamp Shuffle where David Byrne's 'high high high high high' chant (borrowed from Talking Heads song Swamp, off 1983 album Speaking In Tongues) surfaces and resurfaces. Speaking In Tongues doesn't get the respect it deserves I sometimes think- it's the last of the classic run of Talking Heads albums and has a very glossy commercial production, recorded (without Brian Eno unlike the previous three albums, a decision the rhythm section demanded) at Compass Point in the Bahamas, taking aim at the big charts with thumpers like Burning Down The House. It also has the sleeper song, the one that has over the decades seeped into wider popular culture, the wonderful This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) which should be on this mix but isn't.

In 1981 David Byrne released an album, The Catherine Wheel, a score for a Twyla Tharp dance project of the same name. My Big Hands is a sign of where Byrne might go under his own steam, shimmering, juddering art- funk. He'd go there with the other three Heads too but already in 81 he was exploring outside the band. 

Burning Down The House was their breakthrough chart hit (as mentioned above), a song inspired by Chris Frantz shouting the title phrase over a riff the group were playing, himself inspired by Funkadelic and Parliament. This Pete Bones remix, pretty unofficial I think, streamlines it for modern dancefloors. Could be wrong but it isn't, it turns out right. 

Lazy is from 2002- I can't believe this track is already that old, an X- Press 2 single which Byrne sang on after he approached the duo to be his backing band. They turned him down, feeling they were unable to provide him with what he wanted but they got this song out of it, a gloriously catchy housed up 21st century Byrne. David has since then recored a version with an orchestra and played it live- he did it in his American Utopia tour in 2018, a tour I was lucky to see at a very memorable night at the Apollo.

Rheinzand are a Balearic dance act from Belgium who I love. Their debut album came out in 2020, an album released just as the world went into lockdown and with this cover of Slippery People on it, Ghent's finest rejigging Talking Heads into super sleek modern Balearic house/ disco. 

Tom Tom Club were Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz's side project, formed in 1981 because they were pissed off Byrne had gone off to do other things. They recruited a load of players including Adrian Belew, Steve Scales and Wally Badarou and made an album that chimed perfectly with 1981 New York's collision of rap, art, dance, graffiti, and fashion- Genius Of Love and Wordy Rappinghood were both hits which irked Byrne- proving Weymouth and Frantz's point that he should be sticking with them. Wordy Rappinghood was their debut single, a joyous thing with Tina's sisters Lani and Laura on backing vocals and utilising a typewriter, a Moroccan children's song and some French language lyrics about words. 

Also released in 1981 was David Byrne and Brian Eno's truly groundbreaking, visionary sampledelic, worldbeat, Afro Beat, found sound opus. Eno described the album as a 'vision of a psychedelic Africa', something that Adrian Sherwood and African Head Charge were taking note of in the UK. The album opens with America Is Waiting, a track that still sounds like it comes from the future while also rooted in turn of the 80s Cold War, moral majority, advent of Reagan paranoia. The voice is Ray Taliaferro, a US radio show host, taped off the radio.

Leo Zero's edit of Azealia Banks' 212 is one of the most exhilarating things I've heard recently, Azealia's celebration of youth, Harlem, sexuality, and her own prowess riding on top of Once In A Lifetime, some sirens and a rattling drum machine. As the kids say, it slaps. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Talking Heads And Friends

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This Ain't No Fooling Around

Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew have been touring Remain In Light in Europe- they played Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Cologne, three dates in the Netherlands and then Brussels, Warsaw and Luxembourg and last week arrived in the UK with gigs in Manchester and Wolverhampton and then London. Harrison was a Talking Head, guitar and keys/ synths, and Belew played guitar on Remain In Light in 1980 and then as part of the touring band (documented on the second disc of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads and an incredible film of the band playing live in Rome in 1980).

The band that took to the stage at The Ritz last Thursday night is a dozen people strong, Harrison and Belew centre stage accompanied by two female singers, a man right in front of us who sings a lot of the David Byrne parts (and not afraid to bring his own take to some very well known songs) and plays a huge saxophone, several keys/ synth players, another guitarist, a drummer, a percussionist and a bassist. Most of them are also the support band, Cool Cool Cool, and they do a superb job of re- animating those Talking Heads songs. They have the necessary funkiness and can do the New York edge too. I've seen David Byrne perform many of these songs before- Harrison and Belew do them just as well but without the performance art that Byrne always brings to his shows (and I loved his American Utopia tour).  

The set isn't just Remain In Light. They dip into other parts of the Talking Heads back catalogue and beyond, kicking off with Psycho Killer (a crowd pleasing place to start) and hit us with four Remain In Light highpoints- the jerky, uptight but loose art- funk of Crosseyed And Painless, Harrison and Belew trading guitar licks, followed by House In Motion and a brilliantly slightly manic but very much on the button I Zimbra. From this they roll into Born Under Punches, the sax/ singer in front of us screaming the vocal lines, 'Take a look at these hands/ The hand speaks/ The hand of a government man'. The band are dancing around, the 76 year old Jerry Harrison is doing that thing where he closes his eyes and rocks back on his heals, his long curly locks framing a very contended smile. 

Cities from Fear Of Music follows and then Harrison plays Rev It Up from his 1987 solo album Casual Gods (I have Rev It Up on 12" and I'd be surprised if its been out of the sleeve since 1988). Slippery People sounds huge, Jerry's synth and keys solo a particular joy. Adrian Belew takes the spotlight for a King Crimson cover (Thela Hun Ginjeet according to SetlistFM- I'll have to take their word for it, a man's got to got o the toilet and the bar at some point) and then they launch into Once In A Lifetime, a refreshingly off kilter take on the song- the part three quarters of the way through where Harrison hits some huge synth chords is grin inducing. By this point we're right at the front. Everyone's dancing. There are a lot of younger people in the crowd as well as the usual middle aged audience and the feeling (I hesitate to use the word vibe but probably should) in The Ritz is amazing, evryone really enjoying hearing these songs so close up played by people having the time of their lies. A one point the two singers, the keys players and the sax/ singing man do a choreographed turning on the spot dance, a nod maybe to Stop Making Sense- it's a wonderful moment. 

More? They play Life During Wartime, easily one of Talking Heads' best songs, Byrne's endlessly quoteable lyrics reeling by as the band cook up a storm- 'We dress like students/ We dress like housewives/ Or in a suit and a tie/ I changed my hairstyle so many times now/ I don't know what I look like....'- and then they close with Take Me To The River. 

Life During Wartime

The encore is just two songs, the first Drugs (from Fear Of Music), a woozy, fractured, distorted song, and then they dive into The Great Curve, maybe the most dancey, most poly- rythmic, most Remain In Light of the Remain In Light songs, Belew providing the squeals of guitar and bursts of electricity, as the band bring the futuristic sound of 1980 into now. When it ends the players line up across the front of the stage for the ovation and it's clear that Jerry Harrison (plus Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) as well as additional players like Belew, brought a huge amount to these songs, both in the studio and live- Jerry Harrison is unflashy and un- rock starry, New York cool and an innovative guitar and keys player- and as the house lights come on its all smiles on the floor of The Ritz. 

The Great Curve

Barbed, Feathered, Reeled, Skinned, Snappered

Red Snapper have an exciting and busy 2025 ahead of them. The band Ali Friend and Rich Thair started with David Ayres in 1993 celebrate the 30th anniversary of their 1995 album Reeled And Skinned, an album that was one of '95's highlights from Beth Orton's voice on Snapper and the extended ten minute guitar freak out In Deep to the endless groove of Sabres Of Paradise remix of Hot Flush. The re- issue on vinyl and digital is on Warp and expands the album out to ten songs, with the extra track Area 51. The re- issue is out this Friday- find it at Warp's Bandcamp. 

Reeled And Skinned's fusion of electronics with live double bass, drums and percussion, guitar and keys/ synth saw them cross between smoked out trip hop, rocking jazz, funk, Afro, surf, dub, sci fi blues and all points in between. They head out on tour this week, starting in Swansea on Thursday and finishing in Glasgow on the 29th March. I saw them at The Golden Lion two summers ago, a venue they're playing again this time around, and they rocked the house, the full band sound bouncing round the pub, Ali's double bass and Rich's drums always leading the way. 

They also have a new album coming out in April, Barb And Feather. Last year they released an EP called Tight Chest, four tracks led by a collaboration with David Harrow, the superb dubbed out sounds of  Hold My Hand Up...

Those four tracks are going to be on the new album along with four other new ones, recorded by the rocking and raucous Red Snapper live outfit. The breadth and power of the four new songs shows a band not just trading on former glories but in the flow of a creative period, new songs to stand alongside the old ones. Opening track Ban- Di- To is a riot, the sound of 1940s jump blues welded to fuzz guitar, horns and Zoot suits a- go- go, punchy and funky, infectious, pounding rhythms. Tolminka slows things down, basement blues, a cinematic noir sound with echo, sax and spindly guitar. It's followed by Sirocco, the groove coming together slowly, clipped guitar and jazzy percussion and then a wonderful snaking, descending sax line. The EP closes with a cover they played live on the last tour, Bowie's Sound And Vision, the stand up double bass bubbling away, a stew of instruments providing the song's famous melody lines and Ali's vocals playing off against the horns. Lovely stuff. Hear Ban- Di- To and find Barb And Feather at Bandcamp. 

As a bonus here's The Thin White Duke, David Bowie himself, in Tokyo in 1990 playing Sound And Vision, teeth gleaming white and hair in a perfect quiff and Adrian Belew on guitar, for the enjoyment of a stadium of Japanese Bowie fans. 

Saturday Live

Last week's Saturday Live slot was Jane's Addiction in Milan in 1990. This week's travels ten years back in time and a few hundred miles south to another American band, although one cut from a very different cloth to Jane's L.A. rock- Talking Heads. 

Talking Heads have recently announced a re- issue package of their legendary 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense. Filmed across three nights, Stop Making Sense blurred the lines between gig and film, a high concept collaboration between David Byrne, Jonathan Demme and the band. The staging, starting out with just Byrne, an acoustic guitar and a ghettoblaster, then the stage being assembled as the group joins Byrne on stage, through to the big suit of the end, was as much part of the film as the music. 

In Rome in 1980 Talking Heads are playing a gig, no elaborate set or extras, just an extraordinary hour of music from the band, already expanded beyond Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison into a six piece band capable of reshaping the Talking Heads studio sounds into a live set. Adrian Belew is on guitar, not quite lead guitar but definitely more than a hired hand- his playing uses feedback, noise and texture as much as anything as ordinary as a solo. Bernie Worrell has joined on keyboards and percussion, bringing the space age Parliament/ Funkadelic groove. Buster Cherry Jones is on bass (along with Tina) and backing singer Dolette McDonald is one of several voices along with Byrne's own frenetic, anxious lead vox. It all looks like they're having enormous fun, writing the punk- funk rulebook and sending post- punk into a new place. Equally it's easy to see why Harrison and Weymouth began to feel like side players in their own band. 

The Rome crowd are enthusiastic from the start, a wired, guitar heavy run through Psycho Killer. They follow it with Stay Hungry, from 1978's More Songs About Buildings And Food, a short song in its recorded version stretched out with an extended instrumental section, Belew's guitar and Harrison's keyboards kicking up a storm. From there they play several songs from 1979's peerless Fear Of Music- Cities, an otherworldly I Zimbra, Drugs and the never-ending, breathless thrills of Life During Wartime. It's wired, intense, life affirming stuff, confident in itself and knowing this has not been done before. They play the hit, their cover of Al Green's Take Me To The River. But, the real treats in this gig are the songs from Remain In Light, songs from an album at that point only a few months old. Remain In Light saw the light of day in October. The Rome gig is December. They play Crosseyed And Painless,  Houses In Motion, Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) and The Great Curve. These songs- fully realised, extended grooves, multi- rhythmic Afro- funk crossed with New York art rock/ post- punk, the imaginations of Talking Heads and Brian Eno running wild- played live by a group at the peak of their powers. There's no touring fatigue, no boredom with playing the hits every night, no going though the motions. Belew adds a whole new palette of guitar sounds and the danceable grooves brought by the extended line up are irresistible. Everyone switches across mics and instruments, cowbells are picked up and hit, shakers are shaken. When the gig moves towards the finale, we get a double header punch. Born Under Punches has a long intro, Belew manipulating his amp's feedback as the band stoke the groove and then Byrne slides in, 'Take a look at these hands...', Dolette crooning with him, twin basses providing a huge low end wallop. After the slow burn, intense funk noir of Born Under Punches they launch into the joyous and ecstatic The Great Curve, a jerky, amped up stream of consciousness with heavily distorted guitar playing from Belew and Afro- funk rhythms. The Romans are appropriately appreciative. 

Bowie, Berlin And TV

Listening to the new Bowie album (pretty good I reckon, some very good songs, two songs too long maybe) has sent me spinning back to the Berlin albums and some clips of Bowie and his band playing various TV shows in the mid-to-late 70s.

Station To Station has always been my favourite Bowie album, sheer brilliance from start to finish- and there's this live performance where the Thin White Duke (or Thin Dark Green PVC Trousered Duke) stands back grinning to admire Adrian Belew nailing the riff to Stay in very funky fashion.



The video for be My Wife (from Low) is hilarious- Bowie's facial expressions throughout are a scream; looks like the video making process is akin to being offered a plate of steaming hot dogshit. Great, great song. Cool hair too.



Bowie appearing on US programme Soul Train playing Golden Years (my favourite Bowie song I think), bit of shimmying, coked to the gills.



And live in navy blue again with full band doing Five Years on the Dinah Shore Show.



Which is maybe not as good as the Whistle Test one from a few years earlier (five years earlier?).