Exploding In Society's Eye

Spectators Of Suicide- how's that for a typically early Manic Street Preachers song title?- was on the You Love Us EP in 1991, the last thing the band released on Heavenly before they moved to Columbia. The EP's sleeve is also typically Manics with Beatrice Dalle as Betty Blue, Karl Marx, Robert Johnson and Travis Bickle all jostling for attention among brightly coloured cut and paste newspaper headline lettering. The title track is Manics punk, huge anthemic choruses, massive guitars and an arrogance that outweighed their then sales. 

Spectators Of Suicide could be by a completely different band- slowed down, ringing guitars, a sample of  Black Panther Bobby Seale saying he's gonna go down 'to the whole damn government and say ''stick em up motherfuckers we've come for what's ours''. The rippling guitar chords and notes and restrained vocals shimmer rather than slash and burn, the drums are in the room, the production is all about feel and tone. They sound like they're feeling their way into something.

Spectators Of Suicide  

Richie's lyrics take in democracy as a lie, obedience, choice (or lack of it), smoking as a lifestyle choice, advertising... concluding with James singing over the coda, 'You gonna shoot us dead/ With decadence'. 

The band re- recorded it for Generation Terrorists, an amped up, glam rock version in line with the rest of the album (although you can hear some of Motorcycle Emptiness's wasted beauty in the original version I think). In 2020 they did it again with Gwenno sharing the vocals, two versions (one sung in English and one in Welsh) in aid of two charities, Missing People and the Trussell Trust. You can get both of those here. Bigger, older and wiser- but I still prefer the first version and its demo quality. 

Keith And Sonny

In July Keith McIvor (JD Twitch) announced that he had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and an appeal was started to raise money for his care. On Friday news of Keith's death came out via his DJ partner Jonnie Wilkes. Keith was just 57. He grew up in Edinburgh but moved to Glasgow in 1986 to go to university and became part of the city's dance music underground- at the legendary Pure and then with Wilkes as Optimo with a freewheeling musical policy that took in acid house and electronic dance music, post- punk, electroclash, punk and whatever they fancied playing. The pair continued to DJ as Optimo (named after Liquid Liquid's classic track). Keith as Twitch was also a producer and remixer. I have a load of Optimo productions, remixes and DJ sets. This one of Cold Cave from 2010 is always somewhere near the top of their pile...

Life Magazine (An Optimo Espacio Flexi Pop Mix)

The previous year they were one of the remix teams who took tracks from Journal For Plague Lovers, the Manics album from that year, into new places...

Journal For Plague Lovers (Optimo Espacio Remix)

In 2021 a JD Twitch DJ set was released on tape and then in 2023 onto Bandcamp (free/ pay what you want), two forty five minute sets to raise money for the Glasgow North West food bank. Let There Be Drums is a masterclass in track selection and sequencing, all manner of human and machine operated rums and percussion, hand drums, tribal freak outs, early 90s UK hardcore breakbeats and meditative German forest music. Find it here. 

The outpouring of tributes on social media since Friday by Keith's friends and the wider music/ DJ community is testament to the man and how much he was loved. 

RIP Keith. 

Sonny Curtis died on Friday too, aged 88. Sonny was a member of The Crickets and wrote I Fought The Law, as performed and recorded by The Bobby Fuller Four. Imagine a world without I Fought The Law in it. 

I Fought The Law

In 1979 The Clash released their Cost Of Living EP with their cover of the song as the lead track, an incendiary and career defining song for The Clash, a band with three front men all bellowing the song's title and refrain into their mics...

I Fought The Law (Live At The Lyceum)

On The Cost Of Living EP the song took pole position and was followed by two Clash deep cuts, Groovy Times and The Gates Of the West and the re- recorded version of Capital Radio. The EP then had a brief reprisal of the Sonny Curtis song with Mikey Dread's vocal advertising the EP. Not that this jingle was ever going to be played on the radio (as the band noted in the previous song).

I Fought The Law (Reprise)

RIP Sonny Curtis. 

The Future Teaches You To Be Alone

I got a very late offer of a ticket to see Manic Street Preachers at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester last Friday night- not the sort of offer to turn down. I missed Suede unfortunately, arriving at the gates to the venue at the exact moment Brett was on the lip of the stage,saying, 'thank you Manchester'. The Manics took to the stage at 9.15pm, the lights and projections in stark contrast to Manchester's slate grey skies, and powered into their calling card, You Love Us (a little affected by a few sound issues for the first few songs, 60% of it being James' Les Paul guitar solos and the bottom end a dull thud). Everything Must Go and Motorcycle Emptiness followed, a strong opening 1- 2- 3, the latter with the young Manics from the song's video projected behind them. James introduces their cover of Suicide Is Painless (Theme From Mash) with the remark that 'this is one of the most depressing cover versions of all time', but the mood is jubilant, the crowd and band reflecting a celebration of the music back at each other.  

The Anchoress joins them on stage on vocals for Little Baby Nothing, a song with the some of the 'best lyrics Richie wrote', Nicky Wire tells us. The sound issues have been sorted, and the set thunders along- Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, Elvis Impersonator: Blackpool Pier and Walk Me To The Bridge all stand out. In the middle of the set they play A Design For Life, a song that never loses its power or appeal. James' voice is a roar, the projections play loops of footage from the 80s- England fans and striking miners- and the communal melancholy of the lyrics, 'We don't talk about love/ We only wanna get drunk', still glorious all these years later. 

A Design For Life 

It's followed by La Tristessa Durera (Scream To A Sigh), the guitars sounding huge, a wall of mid- 90s indie- metal. Kevin Carter is as good as anything played tonight, the staccato guitar riff and harrowing subject matter of the lyrics a strange fit in some ways for an outdoor, mini- stadium gig. The Manics never wrote about fluff. When the words Culture, Alienation, Boredom and Despair appear on the screen behind them in letters ten feet high, there's another wonderful moment of dissonance- a band so loved by their audience and so warm towards their fans, playing to thousands. This isn't alienation and despair, it's community and love. They finish with If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, another outsider anthem, another heart on sleeve song, anti- fascism, Spanish bombs and A Homage To Catalonia all wrapped up in the Manic's widescreen indie- rock. 

La Tristesse Durera

At the end of May it will be eighteen month since Isaac died. I noticed recently that I've largely stopped noticing the days and dates- at first, every Tuesday was significant, each one marking the number of weeks since he died and the 30th of every month was loaded with importance. After the first anniversary of his death in November last year, the 30th of each month has been less marked for me. That, I suppose, is just the passing of time. Sometimes I think I've reached some sort of equilibrium with the loss, that in some way we are 'doing ok' and 'getting on with things' but it doesn't take much to be whacked without warning and plunged right back into the worst feelings of grief and loss. A couple of incidents recently have shown me just how close to the surface those feelings are and how easily they resurface. 

There are days where I think I've been ok but I realise I've been on the verge of tears all day, and there's a crushing feeling that overwhelms me as I set off to drive home. A few days ago, I had a day spent back in the pits of grief but able to be distracted by work/stuff but I think that just pushed it a bit further down the road, to be dealt with later on. Last weekend, there was an unexpected incident (I won't go into the details here) that triggered the absolute worst feelings again, leaving me surprised and a little frightened by the strength of the emotions that were dredged up. 

We all had a difficult time over the Easter holiday in April, feeling very out of sorts in different ways and at different times. At times, I can be fine and enjoy things- the AW60 weekend, the ACR gig, a few other social occasions, have been great and in many ways a break from the almost ever present, just below the surface sadness. 

At the end of last week an envelope dropped through the letterbox, addressed to Isaac. It contained his college certificates, details of the courses and units he'd done while at college in 2019/ 2020. Someone must have been emptying a filing cabinet and posting uncollected certificates dating back to pre- Covid. Arriving completely out of the blue, it threw us off balance a bit. 

On Saturday morning I pulled out my Manic Street Preachers compilation CD while pottering around in the kitchen and making breakfast. I think I wanted to play Repeat in honour of King Charles III. In the end I just put the disc in to the CD player and pressed play. Forever Delayed starts with a run of four songs- A Design For Life, Motorcycle Emptiness, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next and La Tristesse Durera- that got to me in both sad and happy ways, the emotion laden, 90s guitar heroics of the Manics hitting all me in all the spots, and that mix of feelings that the Manics could pull off in song, elation and despair, often at the same time. This song did me in a bit, 'The sadness will never go/ Will never go away/ Baby it's here to stay'. 

La Tristesse Durera (Scream To A Sigh)

It made me love James Dean Bradfield's massively overblown guitar solo too, which I don't think has been the case before. The fifth song on Forever Delayed is You Love Us. By that point that was playing I was laughing at the absurdity of it all, James, Nicky, Richey and Sean's 1991 glam- punk howl of self- adoration giving me a lift exactly when I needed it. 

There's No Real Truth With My Fury

Back to the Manic Street Preachers, so soon after last week's post- while looking for the Stealth Sonic Orchestra remix of A Design For Life I came across some other remixes which are worth revisiting, two by David Holmes and one by Mogwai. The David Holmes remix of If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next, a gorgeous, languid nine minute affair, was posted at The Vinyl Villain recently and I'm sure it's still there. Holmes also remixed You Stole The Sun From My Heart, a 1999 single from the album that came out the years before (This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours). The song describes Nicky Wire's dislike of touring- not playing live, which he loves but the deadening routine of hotels, soundchecks, busses and so forth. Hearing pop stars moan about touring never sits that well with me but I can understand the feeling, the dislocation and the homesickness. The song also doesn't sound like a pop star moaning, more like an existential crisis set to music. 

You Stole The Sun From My Heart (David Holmes A Joyful Racket Remix)

Holmes doesn't do anything too radical with it but it's a lovely version, spacious and lilting with less of James' crunchy rock guitar playing. The name of the remix, A Joyful Racket, sits pretty well and the melody lines he picks out would go just as well on the songs he recorded for his own Let's Get Killed album from 1997 or his Bow Down To The Exit Sign album of 2000.

Mogwai start out with just James' vocal and some guitar parts providing atmospherics, but begin to ratchet up the unease and distortion with static, feedback, rain and loops. It's doesn't ever go full on Mogwai wall of noise but it's none the worse and no less unsettling for it. 

You Stole The Sun From My Heart (Mogwai Remix) 

The line that gives this post its title was Nicky's nod to and steal from Welsh poet R.S. Thomas.

We Don't Talk About Love

Watching the Top Of The Pops programme about 1996 recently I was struck by how much of an impact A Design For Life had on me. I was never a huge fan of the Manic Street Preachers- I own a few odds and ends, Generation Terrorists on vinyl, a CD compilation with a bonus disc of remixes and a handful of singles. A Design For Life is the peak for me, a song where everything comes together- their lives and backgrounds, the loss of Richey Edwards, Nicky Wire's lyrics, the power of their music and the addition of the string quartet. They said at the time the song rescued them from the despair they all felt after Richey went missing. If nothing else, it was a heck of a way to return, from the famous opening line about libraries giving us power to the many memorable lines that follow- 'I wish I had a bottle', 'a shallow piece of dignity', 'we don't talk about love/ we only want to get drunk/ and we are not allowed to spend/ as we are told that this is the end'- Nicky Wire found a way to be concise and powerful and moving, writing about class, identity, work, socialism, rejection and pride. James' guitar part and slightly strangled vocals add to the drama as do the strings and the swell into the chorus is huge and moving. 

A Design For Life

It's a world away from what other British guitar bands were doing in 1996, none of the flag waving, shallow, arch, nod and a wink patriotism of a lot of the Britpop songs. This remix strips things back, a violin part leading the tune, Nicky's bass pumping away and James' vocal isolated. Slower and less anthemic but still hitting the mark. Stealth Sonic Orchestra were otherwise known as Apollo 440, formed in Liverpool in 1990 and responsible for a slew of Manic's remixes. 

A Design For Life (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Remix)

I Can't Stand It

This fine piece of political discourse is painted on the railway bridge behind my place of work (a school in a former mill town in the north west of England that has seen its fair share of post- industrial decline and the problems associated with it and yet inexplicably is represented by a Tory MP). I like to think a student or former student is responsible. 

Back in February 1985 Verve records released a ten song compilation of rescued Velvet Underground recordings. Back in 1969 the band had recorded an album's worth of songs for what was intended to be their fourth album. A new broom came in at Verve/ MGM, an executive called Mike Curb and he took the decision to drop all the unprofitable groups from their roster. The Velvets were among those and were released from their contract. On the shelf they left behind the tapes containing five songs from the John Cale- era Velvets and fourteen for the unreleased album. These recordings were re- discovered in the 80s and the 'best' were released as VU. Most of the songs were in the master tape, multi- track format so some of Verve's top engineers were able to 'clean up' and remix the songs. VU is a treasure trove, a record that was partly responsible for the indie boom in the UK in the mid- 80s. As an album it hangs together and sounds coherent despite two of the songs being Cale period songs and the rest Doug Yule period songs. Some of the songs were re- recorded for Loaded and some were already known to Lou Reeds' audience due to him recycling them on various 1970s solo albums but these were the source material, the songs as recorded by Lou, John or Doug, Sterling and Mo (with some typically 80s gated reverb on the drums added by Verve to make the recordings more contemporary). In many ways VU is as vital a Velvet Underground release as any of their four official studio albums and when exploring the group as we all were in the mid- to- late 80s, VU was an essential purchase. In 1986 the rest of the songs were released as Another VU, a marginally less essential nine song album that rounded the set off. 

In 2014 when the Velvet's record company were celebrating the forty- fifth anniversary of their self- titled third album with a super deluxe box set they went back to the songs that made up VU/ the unreleased 1969 album and remixed them again, this time much more sympathetically. The 2014 version of I Can't Stand It especially was a revelation- the drums especially- and the restored Lou Reed vocal countdown, backwards from eight to one starting at two minutes twelve seconds, just after the vicious guitar solo and before the choppy rhythm guitar parts come back in, is ridiculously good. This is as good a song as any they recorded. 

I Can't Stand It (2014 Mix)

There are many things I cannot stand at the moment, things that easily top living with thirteen dead cats and the purple dog that wears spats in Lou's lyrics, but listing them will only irritate me more. As it is I'll just echo what the Manic Street Preachers said in their 1992 song Repeat, 'Useless generations/ dumb flag scum/ repeat after me/ fuck Queen and country'. Scum is admittedly a strong word but the rest I can't find any fault with. 

Tristessa

On Saturday night while The Chemical Brothers were block rocking the Other Stage at Glastonbury talk on Twitter turned to the then Dust Brothers 1994 Xmas Dust Up, a cassette given away free with the NME in December 1994. The tape was mixed by Ed and Tom, a window rattling, volume- all-the-way-up, seven song mixtape.

Side 1
The Dust Brothers- Leave Home
Bonus Beats Orchestra- Bonus Beats
The Prodigy- Voodoo People (Dust Brothers Remix)
Depth Charge- Shaolin Buddha Finger

Side 2
Renegade Soundwave- Renegade Soundwave (Leftfield remix)
Strange Brew- One Summer ('Lektrik Dawn Dub)
Manic Street Preachers- La Tristessa Durera



Just looking at the sleeve and reading the tracklist transports me back to this cassette causing difficulties for the speakers in a red Nissan Micra back in 94/95- it used to get played a lot for a while.

Bonus Beats Orchestra was Tom and Ed Dust/Chemical under another name. Depth Charge were ace, the 9 Deadly Venoms album was trip hop and big beat before either really got going, and chock full of samples from martial arts films and horror movies. I've posted Renegade Soundwave before and the Leftfield remix is particularly good. Strange Brew were a duo from Manchester, one half of whom, Jake Purdy, lived down our street when we were kids. We'd long lost touch by the mid 90s but used to knock around in a gang all the time in the mid 80s. Funny to have a little childhood, local connection with a free NME cassette. Helpfully someone has transferred their copy of the tape digitally and uploaded it to Youtube. The beats sound quite timelocked but as a whole this still sounds fairly fresh I think.





The Dust Brothers would become The Chemical Brothers not long afterwards. Their remix of La Tristessa Durera was done while still Dust and isn't subtle-  squealing noises from the start, various samples from Ed and Tom's pile of odds and ends, lots of sirens and James' vocal. La Tristessa Durera- the sadness endures forever- was written by Richie taking the point of view of a war veteran wheeled out once a year on Poppy Day as a 'cenotaph souvenir', poverty causing him to sell his medal. It is one of the best early Manics songs, showing behind the eyeliner, shock quotes and bluster there was some genuine talent.

La Tristessa Durera (From A Scream To A Sigh) (Chemical [Dust] Brothers Remix)

Apple

Food for Friday again today. Following on from honey, sugar, wine and lemons today I give you apples, a rich source of song titles.

Milltown Brothers were/are a five piece from Colne, Lancashire (not Burnley as was often said of them although apparently they were regulars at Turf Moor). They had bowl haircuts and an organ led sound that got them drawn into the fringes of the late 80s Manchester scene. They had some coverage from the NME including a single of the week (a much coveted award at that time), a near hit with Which Way Should I Jump? and then a major label deal with A&M in 1990. But what we're here for today are apples, specifically Milltown Brothers' 1990 song Apple Green which at this distance sounds pretty fresh, infectious 60s inspired pop, the work of a band who maybe got missed, chewed up and spat out back in the early 90s. They re-united in 2004 and have released an album as recently as 2015.

Apple Green

A Man Called Adam came through at the same time but from a different part of the country (Middlesborough, Teeside) and from a different background (dance music, 60s soundtracks, acid jazz and a Balearic epiphany). Their 1991 album The Apple is a Bagging Area favourite with several songs that are often palyed round here, Barefoot In the Head, The Chrono Psionic Interface and Righteous Life for starters. And the album's opener...

The Apple

Also from 1990 (but here in a re-edited version from 2016 by Rhythm Scholar) A Tribe Called Quest  were part of hip hop's second wave, part of the Native Tongues collective and had a real way with both tunes and words. Bonita Applebum was about a girl from high school who clearly stuck in the memory...

Bonita Applebum (Rhythm Scholar All Nite Excursion)

Manic Street Preachers burst out of South Wales in the early 90s, in a riot of mascara, feather boas and heavy rock. In 2009 they released an album called Journal For Plague Lovers which contained a song called Peeled Apples (a song I don't think I've ever heard in its original form). They commissioned some remixes and Andrew Weatherall peeled the Manic's apples further, a heavily percussive stomper with some guitar parts echoing through.

Peel Apples (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Lastly, a Joe Strummer's song from his Mescalero years, a top ten Strummer solo song for sure. Johnny Appleseed is a joy, with a rollicking rhythm on acoustic guitars, a full throttle vocal and lyrics about bees, Martin Luther King, a Buick 49 and Johnny Appleseed (a character from the early years of the USA, a pioneer who scattered apple seeds wherever he went). This song makes me really miss Joe Strummer.



Rene Magritte's 1964 painting says 'This is not an apple'. It isn't- it's a picture of an apple. That, I suppose, is the joke.

!No Pasaran!

I started May by wittering on about a Spanish Civil War themed mix tape and which songs might go onto it. Thanks to everyone who made suggestions about other songs- Drew, Davy H, Helen and Suggestedformaturereaders. Thus, I can start June with a better, more expansive Spanish Civil War mixtape.

Durutti Column- Sketch For Summer
Manic Street Preachers- If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next
The Clash- Spanish Bombs
The Pogues- Lorca's Noveno
Billy Bragg- Jarama Valley (available here from The International Brigades website)
Leonard Cohen- Take This Waltz (based on Lorca's words)
O'Luge and Kornertrone Allstars- Spanish Bombs (cover of The Clash song)
Christy Moore- Viva La Quinta Brigada
The Stone Roses- Guernica
Maxine Peake and Urban Roots- speech by Dolores Ibarruri (aka La Pasionaria, from the Billy Bragg cd linked above)

Can we make a case for Jonathan Richman's Pablo Picasso on the grounds that Picasso painted Guernica? Reckon so.

Viva La Quinta Brigada

The photo of the militiawoman in heels with a pistol was taken by Gerda Taro, Robert Capo's partner. Between them they covered the war and helped invent photo journalism. Gerda was killed during the war, run over by a tank accidentally. Stunning picture isn't?

They Shall Not Pass

I was thinking, following Sunday's post, about whether I could put together a Spanish Civil War themed mixtape. Stick with me, these are the things that sometimes occupy my mind when driving. I've got this far-

1. Durutti Column- Sketch For Summer (it could be any Durutti track really, but this one's my favourite unless anyone can think of a more appropriate one. Durutti was an anarchist-syndicalist leader during the war, as I'm sure you knew)
2. Manic Street Preachers- If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next (see Sunday's post)
3. The Clash- Spanish Bombs (obviously)
4. The Pogues- Lorca's Noveno (posted here a long while back, the song tells of the murder of poet Federico Garcia Lorca by the Francoist Falange)

And that's it. A fairly short mixtape unless anyone's got any other suggestions.
I wondered about ABBA's Fernando but I'm not convinced it's about Spain.

This could go on actually if we don't have a rule about the same song featuring in different versions- a dub cover of The Clash's Spanish Bombs by O' Luge and Kornerstrone Allstars from a dub tribute album to The Clash called Shatter The Hotel (a line from Spanish Bombs).

Spanish Bombs

If I Can Shoot Rabbits

There aren't very many number one songs about the Spanish Civil War.

There's a copy of this poster in the Manchester Peoples' History Museum, worth a visit if you're kicking your heels this weekend and in the North West of England.

I've never shot a rabbit incidentally.

If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Manic Street Preachers 'Motorcycle Emptiness'

We're off to Wales for a few days, to live in a cabin. I've set up a couple of posts for while I'm away, including Friday's rockabilly action but there won't be daily ones. See you on Monday.

I was never an all out, all the records, gigs and t-shirts Manics fan but this is one of the most sublime pieces of guitar rock from the 90s.

Motorcycle_Emptiness.mp3