Put Your Money In My Box

Acid Klaus played The Golden Lion, Todmorden, on Friday night, a launch party for a five track EP P.T.S.D. By Proxy that came out on Golden Lion Sounds last month, with a DJ set afterwards by Maxine Peake. Acid Klaus came on stage under the Lion's mirror ball and red lights to a busy and excitable crowd, the pub filled with people young and middle aged determined to have a party from the moment the first note was played. The recent EP was played in full, Adrian with hat pulled right down and collar of coat pulled right up and dark glasses too, on keys/ synth and vocoder, a poncho'd and behatted stand up drummer and twin vocalists who gave it all, Cat Rin stage left, singing in Welsh and English and Amelia Lace, centre stage, wearing a helmet. They powered their way through the songs from P.T.S.D. By Proxy, from the revved up synth pop call for revolution The Solution, to the Detroit techno sounds of Aerodromes, Amelia singing of cruising the council estates and having to get it right. Pour Some Wood On The Fire mixes Hi NRG and blurry acid house with Adrian on robotic vocals, and then abandoning the synth completely, leaving the stage and entering the heaving throng on the floor with microphone firmly clenched for Losing Our Way, his north Manchester vowels and the 303 ricocheting round the stone floor and walls. Adrian says the EP is 'dance music you can cry to', electronic sounds to frug around to while the world goes up in smoke. The last song is a riot, the twin vocalists chanting 'put your money in my box' while Adrian counters with the robotic 'heaven's for sale' and the crowd dance like no one's watching. Or cares about anyone who is. 

The EP is still available at Golden Lion Sounds, 10" on yellow vinyl. If you buy the vinyl you get a digital only remix of Aerodromes by David Holmes with a video filmed in the Golden Lion

Maxine Peake played records afterwards, the self described 'leftie luvvie' spinning Northern Soul 7" singles and floor fillers, psyche, indie, guitar bands, Motorhead and more. I had to run for the 11.36 train back to Manchester and found myself sitting on the train with a group of twenty- somethings who, on finding out I teach history for a living, asked me to tell them some history. There followed a long, rambling and probably incoherent monologue about the Spanish Civil War with multiple digressions. If you're reading this kids, thanks for humouring me/ looking after me. 

The Priest

You don't have to go very far at the moment in this country to see the impact of the social policies of the last Conservative government and the current one. Go into central Manchester (or any British town or city) and take a walk around and you'll be confronted by homelessness on a massive scale. It became unavoidable in Manchester city centre some time ago, people living on the streets in huge numbers. The public's reaction to it is appalling too at times- I saw three young men stop, point and laugh at a homeless man sitting on the street recently. Out here in Sale, a 15 minute tram ride from Piccadilly Gardens, 4 miles from the city centre, there are people sleeping in the precinct, on the steps of an electrical substation and in the doorways of Boots and Sainsburys.

Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake have collaborated on a track called The Priest, highlighting the problem of homelessness, based on the poetry of a Big Issue seller Joe Gallagher.



Johnny Marr is finishing a third solo album. In an interview about The Priest and the forthcoming solo album he said this-

'Because of what had happened with Brexit and Trump and everything, I came into this record really determined to not let those fuckwits impede on my creative life. But you’re living in this world and you can’t do anything about it. So much of the record is about dislocation.' The full interview is here. There's an internet meme that goes around which is 'Be more like so-and-so' and in this case it stands up- be more like Johnny. Be more like Maxine. 

Sweet

I heard this a few days ago for the first time and it's buzzing around my head quite a bit. The Moonlandingz started as a fictional band (created for an album by The Eccentronic Research Council who I do have an album by and members of Fat White family who I don't but probably should). They have now turned into a real band with a real album out. This song has a buzzing, nagging guitar riff, some spacey effects and a vocal by a singer repeatedly stating that he doesn't feel alright.

Sweet Saturn Mine

The wonderful Maxine Peake is in the video.

The A666

The A666, the Devil's Highway, is a road I know well- I use it everyday to get to work, picking it up on the southern edge of Bolton and following it across the Lancashire moors towards Darwen. The road goes on into the heart of Lancashire, having started miles earlier in Salford. The A666 has been celebrated as the opening song on The Eccentronic Research Council's album 1612 Underture which came out last year and which I got for Christmas. 2012 was the 400th anniversary of the trial and executions of the Pendle Witches. The ERC's album bills itself as A Folkloric Sonic Pilgrimage To the Home Of the Pendle Witches and it's a really interesting record. Andy Votel's Finders Keepers Records were involved, often a mark of quality. Maxine Peake narrates most of the tracks, telling the story of the Pendle Witches and drawing some modern parallels, dragging in William Blake, Dr Who, Holland and Barrett, Terry Duckworth, barm cakes, Crocs and flip flops, Top Of The Pops, city councils and Rabid Cameron, with the dialogue bouncing between 1612 and 2012, ending with a ouija board resurrection of Old Lizzie Southern. It is, it states in the liner notes, a concept record. The album has a real story telling flow, some cracking electronic music and sonically becomes quite disturbing two thirds of the way in. This is the opener....

Autobahn 666 (Travelogue #1)