Electric Vandals

Last Thursday's 1985 Big Audio Dynamite song- Sony from the debut album This Is Big Audio Dynamite- sent me back to the rest of that album and to the extras that came with the singles, the 12" mixes and B- sides. I remembered that the 2009 double CD re- issue came with a studio outtake, a song that didn't make This Is Big Audio Dynamite's final cut, Electric Vandal...

Electric Vandal (Session Outtake)

Don Letts on vocals, some lovely African highlife guitar lines, clattering drums and percussion and a la la la la la chorus part. It could have easily sat beside the songs on side two- A Party, Sudden Impact!, Stone Thames and BAD- without any problem and without causing an issue with vinyl running times. Maybe Mick didn't like it or maybe it was held back for a B-side and then never used. Who knows. Anyway, four decades later, it's a BAD deep cut worth hearing.

In 1990 Aztec Camera released their single Good Morning Britain, Roddy Frame's state of the nation address looking at the four corners of the UK after ten years of Thatcherism. The song was so like a BAD song in style that he told Mick, 'you will either want to sing on it or sue me'. The pair wrote it together within three hours of a conversation they had in the canteen of a London recording studio. Mick sings backing vox, the response lines to Roddy's calls. They must have had a go the other way round to because this version, unreleased officially, exists...

Good Morning Britain (Mick Jones vocal)

The four verses give a snapshot of the UK in 1990, Scotland and the Scots need for devolution, ten years of an English government they never voted for, Northern Ireland and the Troubles, Wales and population decrease and holiday homes, and then England...

'From the Tyne to where to the Thames does flow

My English brothers and sisters know

It’s not a case of where you go

It’s race and creed and color

From the police cell to the deep dark grave

On the underground’s just a stop away

Don’t be too black, don’t be too gay

Just get a little duller'

The 1990s and beyond would see progress in many areas of life- improved attitudes towards minorities, greater equality, much wider acceptance of homosexuality and disability. The backlash we've been going through since 20XX (when? 2012? 2016?) is in full swing, people emboldened to say things they wouldn't have even a few years ago, overt racism and discrimination once again a feature of public life. Depressing. Roddy's words don't even need an update in some ways, it's still 'race and creed and colour'. And Roddy's message in the chorus rings still true too, that these things are still worth standing up for- 'The past is steeped in shame/ But tomorrow's fair game/ For a life that's fit for living/ Good morning Britain'. It's the optimism of 1990 that has taken a battering. 

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. 

Bands Performing In Places They Shouldn't Be

Three weeks ago I posted a clip of Echo And The Bunnymen promoting their then new single Bring On The Dancing Horses on early evening entertainment and chat show The Wogan Show. Ian, Will, Les and Pete got away with it with their customary cool and casual indifference to their surroundings. I said it might make a good idea for an irregular series, Bands Performing In Places They Shouldn't Be (or rather Bands Being Booked Onto Inappropriate TV Programmes By Their Record Companies To Sell Their Wares). There were quite a few suggestions on the comments and I've got a few of my own so we'll work our way through them over the summer. 

Firstly, and I've posted this before but it definitely stands up to repeat posting, before we leave Terry Wogan and his shiny studio environment we should recall that in 1986 Pete Wylie appeared on The Wogan Show to lip sync Sinful. 

It's magnificent stuff, Wylie in black leather, Josie Jones (also in black leather) on Paul Weller's pop art guitar and three dancers dressed as nuns/ three hot nuns dancing. Sinful is a superb record and one of this blog's theme tunes and signature songs. Miming on Wogan does not diminish it at all. 

In July 1987 Spear Of Destiny's press officer had the brilliant idea of booking them on a kids show called Get Fresh, live from Fistral Beach, Newquay, Cornwall. The single they were promoting was Never Take Me Alive, epic guitar rock from their Outlands album. The appearance on the beach at Newquay is bizarre and hilarious, something the band have cottoned on to. Kirk Brandon smirks and laughs his way through the brief interview and the performance. At one point they are surrounded and then joined by a group of Medieval knights, some of whom mime guitar with their swords. 

Trying to mime the words 'Mother I killed someone/ It wasn't that I hated him/ You see he was trying to stop me/ But he found out/ I've gone the whole way... They'll never take me alive' with any kind of post- punk menace under these circumstances is all but impossible. 

Pebble Mill At One was a long running BBC TV programme, early afternoon light entertainment broadcast from the foyer of the BBC's studios in Birmingham. In 1983 Aztec Camera had the privilege of performing Oblivious to the studio audience. Oblivious is wonderful obviously. Roddy is resplendent in fringed buckskin, Western shirt and 60s mop. They make the best of it.

Three weeks ago The Swede left a comment saying that Ian Dury made several appearances on Pebble Mill. Really Glad You Came was a 1983 single, sans Blockheads. Ian manages to style it out, making lunch time TV in the early 80s look like a good place to be. 

For A Life That's Fit For Living

Here's a song that never fails to lift the spirits. It came my way again yesterday morning while scrolling on my phone and avoiding getting out of bed, courtesy of a Big Audio Dynamite Facebook group I'm a member of. It was a clip of Aztec Camera and Mick Jones miming on what looks like Spanish TV in 1990. I can't find the clip on Youtube so can't post it but Roddy, Mick and the rest of Aztec Camera are giving it their all, miming enthusiastically and bouncing around, Mick in a BAD II bucket hat and white Stussy t- shirt and Roddy in a red Italia 90 Espana long sleeved t- shirt (there were a set of these available that summer- Brasil, South Korea, Espana and Italia. I got the Brasil one after seeing them in The Face and wore it to Glastonbury. As we walked to the Pyramid Stage from our tent on the Saturday morning to watch James a man started talking excitedly at me in Portuguese, assuming I was Brazilian. 'Sorry mate, I'm from Manchester'). 

Good Morning Britain is a cracking song, rattling along with a twangy guitar line, uptempo drumming and Mick and Roddy trading lines and firing off verses and choruses like it's the easiest thing in the world. The lyrics dissect the state of the UK after ten years of Thatcherism and an even longer period of England marginalising its neighbours and prods a finger at the relentless cheeriness of breakfast TV. Roddy manages to find some optimism in the chorus and in the last verse, 'Love is international/ And if you stand or if you fall/ Let them know you gave your all/ Worry about it later' 

Good Morning Britain (Julian Mendelsohn Mix)

The Julian Mendelsohn Mix is pretty much the same as the single version. Mendelsohn is best known for his work producing the Pet Shop Boys Actually and Disco albums and he gives Good Morning Britain a radio friendly sheen. There was also this remix courtesy of Norman Cook, at that point riding high with Beats International. In truth, this remix doesn't add much to the song.

Good Morning Britain (Morning Acid Remix)

Here's the promo video. Whenever I hear Good Morning Britain now it always makes me feel that Roddy should update it, rewrite the words to reflect the state of the UK all these years later- although reading them now maybe, sadly, they don't really need changing at all. 

For A Life That's Fit For Living

It never fails to amaze me how servile this country is- a thousand years of monarchy coupled with a political upper class who have managed to hoodwink enough of the voters that they know best, that they are born to govern, have done us in. That has led us to where we are today. There was a new item on the BBC last week focusing on a food bank in Grimsby. A couple who had been priced out of Margate had moved north and survived using the food bank.

The fact that we are accepting the use of food banks in 2019 tells its own story and shows how far people have accepted the fate the Conservatives have delivered to them. In the last five years the use of food banks has increased by 73%. By March 2019 over one and a half million people in the UK relied on them. A third of these people use food banks because their income doesn't cover the basics. A third of the rest are because of issues to do with Universal Credit, either changes to benefits or delayed payments. There are now more food banks in the UK than branches of McDonalds- how's late period capitalism working for you?

Back to Grimsby. This couple were interviewed by the reporter and asked who they were thinking of voting for. Forced out of their home, surviving on charity food handouts, at the back end of a decade of government by the Conservative Party, the man said 'I like what Boris is saying'.

Somewhere there's a complete disconnect between the impact of the three worst Prime Ministers this country has seen since 1945 and the effects of those Prime Ministers on people's lives. Each of the three has been engaged in a frantic race, in half the time of the previous one, to reach new lows. From Cameron's ideological cuts to public spending propped up by the Lib Dems and offer of a referendum through fear of the nutjobs and racists at UKIP to May's loss of an election that forced her to be propped up by the DUP to Boris Johnson- the only British Prime Minister to have been found guilty of illegally shutting down parliament to prevent it from discussing his key policy, we have been governed by the most incompetent and foul trio of leaders imaginable. And still people say 'I like what Boris is saying' and 'I know he's a liar but I trust him'.

This election campaign has been the most depressing few weeks, the faked news reports in the last few days about the little boy suffering from pneumonia on a hospital floor, the lies told by Matt Hancock to distract from this, the fabricated story about a Labour activist punching a Tory aide at Leeds hospital, the mass use of spambots to pump out lies about the original photograph, the failure of two of the top political journalists to do even basic fact checking- it is shameful and should make anyone who think the UK is modern, fully functioning democracy think again.

If you vote Tory you are voting for Boris Johnson, a leader who has illegally prorogued parliament, compared Muslim women to bankrobbers and letterboxes, called  homosexuals 'tank topped bum boys', called black people 'piccaninnies', suggested EU nationals should go home to their own countries, tried to politicise the murder of two people two weekends ago for his own benefit, has lied and cheated his way through life and politics, who has been kept away from both the public and TV interviewers the longer the campaign has gone on and who this week pocketed a journalists phone when confronted with the photo of the child on the hospital floor. You're voting for his cronies too: Priti Patel who suggested recently while being interviewed in Barrow that poverty wasn't the fault or responsibility of government; for Dominic Raab, the Brexit minister who didn't realise how much trade comes through Dover and hadn't read the Good Friday agreement; for Jacob Rees Mogg, a Tory so embarrassing and politically unsafe that they've hidden him away from the voters; Nicky Morgan insisting in the face of all rational evidence and basic that 50, 000 new nurses containing 50, 000 current nurses being retained is not 50, 000 new nurses; a party that doctored news footage of Keir Starmer and spread it via social media; a party whose manifesto has little in the way of actual detail other than that they will get Brexit done, as if the whole thing is finished once the UK leaves the EU when in reality that's when the business of Brexit actually begins. He, Johnson, and they, the Tories, are laughing at us- the hate us and they laugh at us because they know they can do what they like and people will still vote for them. It's almost as if with Boris Johnson they have decided to see what they can actually get away with in plain sight. 'Look, here, an actual total fucking bumbling poshboy idiot- vote for him'. The deference the Tories get stems from this bizarre British belief that they ar the natural party of government, that they are the safe pair of hands. Nothing they have done since 2010 or that Johnson has done since becoming Prime Minister in the summer justifies that deference, that servility, that doffing the forelock as the Eton boys go by.

It's looking like the best we can hope for is a hung parliament. We have to do the best we can to stop these people. Vote Labour, vote SNP, vote Lib Dem, vote Plaid Cymru, vote for the independents thrown out of the Tory party but vote anti- Tory. If they get a majority Johnson and the Tories will be laughing in our faces while they piss on our shoes for the next five years.

I'm not sure any of this helps but I feel a little better for typing it. It's difficult to feel positive or optimistic about things at the moment. Watching the TV or reading the paper makes me depressed, hopeless or angry. I guess anger is more useful than the other two and that's mainly what's fuelled this post.

This song by Aztec Camera and Mick Jones from 1990 has been picking away at the back of mind for the last few months. In the lyrics Roddy Frame takes the four countries that make up the UK in turn- Scotland ignored by the Conservative government despite never voting for it, Northern Ireland with it's Catholic population at the end of a gun and the butt of Paddy jokes, Wales suffering from population decrease a a result of incoming holiday home owners and England under the cosh of police brutality and illiberal attitudes.  Roddy and Mick's rat- a- tat delivery, trading song lines and guitar lines, and the sheer bounce of the tune carry it all along, totally upbeat and Roddy tries to end with some positivity-

'Love is international
And if you stand or if you fall
Just let them know you gave your all
Worry about it later

The past is steeped in shame
And tomorrow's fair game
For a life that's fit for living
Good morning Britain'

Good Morning Britain

Swear I'll Be There

We spent a very pleasant Sunday afternoon drinking beer and wine in the sun and listening to music at a friend's house. After a while the person in charge of Spotify started asking for requests and we ended up with a bunch of mid-to-late 80s songs, as you might expect given the age of the people present, and eventually a run of Aztec Camera songs. This one didn't get played but it should have if time and had permitted. Roddy Frame's bittersweet kiss off to punk (and a major inspiration on Johnny Marr, tuning in, a couple of hundred miles south). This is the single version, with production and horns that sound dated- but the song is divine.

Walk Out To Winter

Just Like Gold

In 1981 Aztec Camera released two 7" singles on Postcard Records- Just Like Gold and Mattress Of Wire. Roddy Frame has said since that they will never be re-released in any other format, no re-issues, no cd compilations, no boxed sets. I respect the purity of that, the sense of these are two time capsules locked into the when they were made and that the way to experience them is in the form they were put out. The downside of this is that they are somewhat expensive to buy second hand. The four songs across the four sides of vinyl are magical and even more so when you consider they were written by a teenager. To post an mp3 of them is defeating the purity of Roddy's vision but also a little inevitable.

Just Like Gold

And this is a live recording from 1983 Aztec Camera gig in Hamburg, Germany, a cover of The Clash's Garageland. Free download too. Loads more Aztec Camera rarities here.

For A Life That's Fit For Living

Good morning Britain.

This 1990 Aztec Camera single is a real favourite of mine. Roddy wrote this state of the union address and realised it sounded so much like a Big Audio Dynamite tune that it would be rude not to ask Mick Jones to join him. This mix from the single isn't too different from the original version, adding some strings.

Good Morning Britain (Julian Mendelsohn Mix)

Norman Cook did a mix which reconstructed it a little and added a touch of 808. It could be described as polite acid (but could have gone so much further).

Good Morning Britain (Morning Acid Mix)

The main message of the chorus, after four verses dissecting each of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, seems just as relevant today as it did twenty four years ago...

'The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow's fair game
For a life that's fit for living
Good morning Britain'

Say no to Farage and the small minded Little Englanders. Vote Frame and Jones.

The video is a real period piece.

The Spirit Shows

August 1981, a young Roddy Frame leads Aztec Camera to De Villes nightclub in Manchester, just off Albert Square. They play The Spirit Shows, Just Like Gold and Remember The Docks and someone has uploaded a recording to Soundcloud. De Villes was the first nightclub I ever went to (not this night I must add, I was only eleven in 1981). De Villes must have had a slack door policy back in the mid 80s as there's no way I looked 18, I barely looked 16. I drank a bit, danced (after a fashion) with my mates and got off with a girl in fishnets. It's funny, the things that stick with you.

I'm off on my youngest brother's stag do, a day and evening in Liverpool. Nothing too wild, a few beers, late train home. Someone's threatened a Beatles tribute band at The Cavern. Wish me luck.

I See You Crying And I Want To Kill Your Friends

There aren't many days that can't be immediately improved by a spinning of Aztec Camera's 1983 single Oblivious. Brilliant tune, sprightly guitar playing, cracking lyric, and written, recorded and released when Roddy Frame was twelve years old or something. When Rough Trade put this out it just missed out on the  top 40. When WEA re-released it was a hit. Bloody majors with their big budgets.

Oblivious

Killermont Street

A short ride on the top deck back to Tuesday's postee Mr Roddy Frame, who ditched the lovestruckness of many of his songs on Killermont Street, realism over romanticism. Killermont Street was on 1988's glossed up Love but this version is Roddy solo, live with acoustic guitar and piano.

'Whisky words tumble down in the street with the pain that they cure

Sentimentally yours from Killermont Street'

'We can get there by bus

From Killermont Street'

Killermont Street (Live )

Summer In The City Where the Air Is Still

Various bloggers have been rhapsodising about Roddy Frame's recent tour, full of Aztec Camera songs, which makes me wish I'd done something about going to the Manchester gig. But I didn't. So instead I've relistened to some Aztec Camera songs. Somewhere In My Heart is commercial 80s pop, radio friendly, unit shifting gold. It's easy to criticise- bad synth horns, big 80s drums, squeeling guitar solo, verging on corny/cliched lyrics and none-more 80s video. In 1988 I liked it secretly, despite myself. Roddy was one of the good guys but in '88 this just seemed much too pop. Still, it was part of the soundtrack of finishing 6th Form and going to University. And I've got a large soft spot for it.

Somewhere In My Heart

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