Forty Minutes Of Pop Will Eat Itself

This goose lives at Portland basin in Ashton- under-  Lyne, East Manchester. When we were there a couple of weeks ago they warned us that the geese were nesting and could be aggressive if disturbed. They didn't mention this one though, who has necked two cans of Stella and now wants a fight. 

Pop Will Eat Itself are touring this autumn. I'm quite tempted. Back in autumn 1988 I saw them at Liverpool University. In my head they were one of the first gigs I attended in Liverpool, close to the start of the academic year, maybe just after Fresher's Week- but false memory syndrome has had me here because according to PWEI's own On Patrol gig history at their website they didn't play the Mountford Hall until 2nd December 1988. There is a live recording of the gig on Mixcloud, probably one I bought at some point on cassette from the bootleg tape sellers in the student's union. 

The gig was great, PWEI hitting the stage and giving us an hour of their mash up of rock, rap, dance music and samples. The room was a real gathering of the late 80s tribes, grebos, indie kids, and goths all standing around waiting. I was wearing Levi's, Converse, a black t- shirt and dark green waistcoat (with Watchmen smiley face badge) combo with, for some reason, a bandanna tied round my head. This sticks in the memory for reasons I cannot fully ascertain- as does my conversation with Tracey, a hippy girl who was on my course. We had a chat, all going well, but at some point I referred to Poppie Clint as Clive and Tracey was withering in her look and response. 'Clint, Adam, he's called Clint'. They came on stage to rescue me from my embarrassment (Tracey later came with us to see The House Of Love in Widnes though that could have been because Al had a car). 

Stourbridge's finest were huge fun, a riot of sounds, samples, buzzsaw guitars and shouting. B.A.D. may have got their before them but they were fairly ground-breaking in their approach and records. The mix below reflects that I hope, forty minutes of late 80s and early 90s collisions of styles, pop culture references all over the place, focussing mainly on singles and finishing with a song released for Italia 90, an unlikely music- football- politics crossover.

Forty Minutes Of Pop Will Eat Itself

• The Incredible PWEI v Dirty Harry
• Can U Dig It (7" Mix)
• Dance Of The Mad
• Eat Me, Drink Me, Love Me, Kill Me
• Karmadrome
• Wise Up Sucker
• Def. Con. One.
• Orgone Accumulator
• Inject Me
• Touched By The Hand Of Cicciolina

The Incredible PWEI v Dirty Harry is from the 92 Degrees single from 1991, a superb acid house/ film sample fest. 

Can U Dig It was a single in 1989, from their second album, This Is The Day.. This Is The Hour... This Is This!, a list of influences and references from TV, film, comics, records and that sounds like what life felt like in 87/ 88 from The Twilight Zone to Alan Moore (knows the score), V For Vendetta and Into The Groovy, Run DMC and Renegade Soundwave, Marvel and DC. Wise Up Sucker is from the same album, a single too as is Def. Con. One., the lead single from 1988's This Is This!, the archetypal grebo rock song, a collision of punk, hip hop, rock, indie and samples. Inject Me was on the album too. 

Dance Of The Mad is from 1990, a single that lost the word Bastards from the end of the title to make it more acceptable for TV and radio play. Produced by Flood and taken from the third PWEI album, Cure For Sanity, and recorded at Paul Weller's Black Barn studio in Surrey. It's Weller's studio now, I'm not sure if he owned it then. I can't imagine much common ground in 1990 between Weller and the Poppies but who knows.

Eat, Me, Drink Me, Love Me, Kill Me and Karmadrome are from 1992, a double A- side single. You need both sides. 

Orgone Accumulator is a cover of the Hawkwind song from a 1987 covers EP along with Sigue Sigue Sputnik's Love Missile F1- 11.

Touched by The Hand Of Cicciolina is from Cure For Sanity and a summer 1990 single, one of the songs of the summer (a summer that wasn't short of memorable songs). It features/ pays tribute to Hungarian- Italian porn star Ilona Staller who was elected into the Italian parliament in 1987. A couple of years later she offered to have sex with Saddam Hussein in exchange for peace. The piano riff, Gary Linekar sample and chant of 'Cicicolina/ Ciciolina/ This time for I- tal- ya', are all PWEI gold. 

Monday's Long Songs/ Keith Levene And Nik Turner

Keith Levene's death was announced on Saturday. He died the day before peacefully at home, aged sixty five. He started in The Clash, was instrumental in spotting Strummer while he was with the 101ers and getting him into The Clash, and has a co- writing credit on What's My Name but parted company with them early on. Recruited by John Lydon following the Sex Pistols break up, Keith's guitar playing with Public Image Ltd, from 1978 to the early 80s, is the real deal, an extraordinary style and technique that sounded unique, not- punk but not rock either, shards of clear, sharp metal fired through the amp outwards. The debut single, Public Image, with Lydon, Jah Wobble and Jim Walker would on it's own be enough, with the thrilling rumble of Wobble's bass, Lydon's 'hello, hello' and then Levene's two chord slashing guitar part, wire shredded and tangled, the six string version of Lydon's voice. 

On 1979's Metal Box Levene's metallic guitar is a sharp, otherworldly presence, the definition of post- punk dread. Levene's Prophet synth is all over the album too, on Careering especially to the fore. No Birds has Levene's guitar part split in two, one as played, the other duplicated and fed through a harmoniser. On Radio 4, the startling semi- ambient piece that closes the album, Leven plays bass as imagining he was Wobble and layered up synth strings from a Yamaha synth. The spooked, paranoid, dub influenced post punk dance of Metal Box is in no way just Lydon's work, it is an album written, improvised and recorded by Lydon, Leven and Wobble plus the several drummers, all pushing and pulling to create a stunning piece of work. 

In December 1979 PiL appeared in session for John Peel, recording versions of Careering, Poptones and Chant. Careering is a thrilling, a breathtaking, intense seven minute cacophony. 

R.I.P Keith Levene. 

Careering (Peel Session)

The day before it was reported that Hawkwind's Nik Turner, the man who put the space jazz sax and flute into psychedelic space rock, had died aged eighty four. This song, from 1971's In Search Of Space, is nearly sixteen minutes long and is as good a send off as anyone could wish for, the sax twisting, turning, warbling and freaking out into all eternity. 

You Shouldn't Do That 

I Just Took A Ride

If you want a short, sharp blast of early 70s space rock to lift the spirits and provide a shot of energy and adrenaline you can't go far wrong with Hawkwind's Silver Machine. It opens with a wobble of synth, some oscillations to draw you into the space age, and then the three note bassline and rackety drums drive in, before guitars and vocals provide lift off. 

'It flies/ sideways through time/ It's an electric line/ To your zodiac sign'

When the group recorded the song in 1972 Robert Calvert's original vocal wasn't cutting it, it sounded said new bass recruit Lemmy, 'like Captain Kirk reading Blowing In The Wind', so he sang it instead, the only one present who could hit all the notes. Calvert was hospitalised not long after. As the song increases in intensity, everyone bashing away at their chosen instrument, the fur flying and the backing vocals screaming, it sounds like the most exhilarating, most exciting ride through space and time imaginable. Guitarist Dave Brock wrote the song about his new silver racing bike, inspired by a short story about cosmic time travel machine. Brock's joke was that the song was about a bicycle and not a sci fi epic. Sax player Nik Turner has said the song could be about a bike but it could be about 'a spaceship or a hypodermic needle, anything that gives you freedom'. I think I like it being about a bike best. 

'It flies/ out of a dream/ it' antiseptically clean/ you're gonna know where I've been'

Silver Machine reached number three in the UK (back when these things mattered), a hit single played by a group of mad, long haired, drug using, counter- culture, anti- authoritarian outsiders who played every free festival they could and who had no interest at all in being pop stars or superstars. 

Silver Machine

Three Johnnies

Tuesday brings three Johnny songs, none of which I own in any format and all suggested by friends in the comments boxes. Simon went for Lucille #1 by Prefab Sprout and Echorich concurred. It's from that moment in the mid 80s when some of the indie heroes went all sophisticated and adult. This performance is from the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1985.



Very nice. I had the Steve McQueen album on cassette but never replaced it after the tape died out.

Johnny #2 is from Drew and his almost annual pilgrimage to see Stiff Little Fingers at this time of year. Simon loves this one too. SLF do a rip-roaring cover of Bob Marley's Johnny Was. This version from a 1999 tour is seven minutes long and causes punk pandemonium.



Thirdly, Ctel, chronicler of all things dance music related at Acid Ted, requested Motorhead or Hawkwind doing Lost Johnny. The internet is sharply divided into those who favour Motorhead's fast and angry version and those who go for the earlier, trippier and heavier Hawkwind one. Out of the two I prefer Hawkwind's stoner rock, distorted bass and reverb-laden vocals. Lemmy it should be noted played bass and sang on both.

Hidden Library

Someone over at Ripped In Glasgow Basefook page has been looking for the Hidden Library 7" singles that Andrew Weatherall released via the Rotters Golf Club website back in 2002. I posted all four sides two years ago but the links have long expired so I'll stick these up again. Limited to 500 copies of each these two records were mail order only. As far as I know Hidden Library 001 doesn't exist (or only existed in a very small run) and was perhaps played on a Two Lone Swordsmen radio show. Hidden Library 002 was two sides of Weatherall/Tenniswood hip-hop influenced electronica, good if inessential.

Hidden Library 2a
Hidden Library 2b

Hidden Library 003 was credited to Jnr Poon. Exactly whose alias this was I've never been entirely sure. Buzzy, electric, snarly, catchy; Lord Of The Hornets is a personal favourite, a record I've inflicted on paying customers when djing to support a band. It is a cover of a Robert Calvert song, a man barking even by Hawkwind standards. The B-side I don't really like at all.

Lord Of The Hornets
My Backwards Cousin Mark

Just What I Need

After several days away, two family Christmas events, a few hundred miles on the road, way too much food and drink, and a soundtrack mainly consisting of Toy Story 3, the tunes a Wii plays, Phil Spector's Christmas album, a recent Weatherall homemade compilation cd and a Northern Soul best of (both in the car) it's a bit of a relief to get home and put this on. Someone mentioned this elsewhere the other day- Hawkwind's Motorhead, Lemmy's song for speedfreaks everywhere. It is highly unfestive and a total blast.

07 Motorhead.wma

Robert Calvert 'Lord Of The Hornets'

Odd but good- Hawkwind offshoot Robert Calvert's Lord Of The Hornets.

'Asleep in a hive in the base of a hollow tree
Behind a shed in a garden in Norbury
And when he whispers commands in his megaphone
They swarm to his call and he knows that he's not alone

He's lord of the hornets'



Lord Of The Hornets.mp3