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I for one won’t be sniffing in the direction of that box o’delights

Something that I’d been working on has been released today, and I think a number of you would been interested. The debut solo album by Max Décharné is released today, and it’s a good’un indeed.

For the uninitiated, here’s Max’s bio...


The album, which sports artwork designed by me, is available digitally via Bandcamp...


The aim is for a proper vinyl lp release, through monies raised via the digital purchases.

Thanks Mark, I’ll give that a spin.

I’ll also be listening to this, if I remember how to read the currently-redundant timepieces and dial up.

Plays only songs available on CD and vinyl. What a good fellow.

Sounds good David


Cherry Red Records founder and chairman Iain McNay delves into the independent label’s sizeable vaults to bring you 2 hours of music inspired by one of the most eclectic and prolific labels in the world.

Hear a mixture of Cherry Red and non-Cherry Red acts, both old and new, including songs from compilation box sets and every genre under the sun.

Iain and Cherry Red are staunch supporters of buying music in physical form and only plays music that can be bought on CD or vinyl.

Let Cherry Red Records ease you back into the working week.

RIP Little Richard


A true pioneer

Yes, very sad. “That ole screaming nutcase�� as my man Graham Parker described him before ripping up Kansas City on the Marble Arch ‘bootleg��.

Jerry Lee Lewis still hangs on, the last of the pioneers, as I see it.

I was impressed by Max’s Bandcamp sounds, Mark (I hear Mose Allison in there), so I have bought the full download, and look forward to its accompanying my skip around the banlieu on my government-sanctioned daily exercise.

I was also impressed though have yet to splash the cash


David, I loved your pleasing phraseology...

...accompanying my skip around the banlieu on my government-sanctioned daily exercise

Not at all sure why I’m no longer receiving emails alerting me to new posts here, but that’d explain me being late to every party here these days.

Really pleased to hear that you gents have been digging Max’s album. David, if you’ve never heard his band The Flaming Stars, let me know, and I can upload a batch of my favourite tracks of theirs. When I first stumbled upon them in the mid-1990s, there was definitely the feeling that they were the band I’d been waiting my entire adult life for. I still hold onto that belief.

Any old road, here’s a bit of my latest obsession, the one and only Bloodshot Bill. His vocals slay me every time. I reckon this clip would be vastly improved by the removal of about twenty people from the stage, but don’t despair -- he almost always operates as a one-man band, and the excess of musicians in this clip are just the houseband from the television show hosting him.

If this don’t turn you on, you ain’t got no switch. Without further ado, here’s presenting Bloodshot Bill. Turn it up, way up...

I like Bloodshot Bill - never heard of him til you posted that link

I thought he’d hit all the right spots for you! His vocals are wild, but with remarkable control, and I really like his guitar playing.

He seems to be in stiff competition with Billy Childish when it come to discographies -- he’s released heaps of stuff.

Yes indeed. I was particularly struck by his vocals. As you say controlled but free and expressive too

I my smug, self-satisfied state of retirement, the concept of ‘weekend�� barely exists. The next two days�� passing, however, will seem swifter than Gorse’s sleight of hand deception as I gorge on July’s Strong Words mag to the accompaniment of all 71 (SEVENTY ONE) tracks of the Cherry Red Records pub rock retrospective, both of which our cheery postal delivery operative bore as gifts today.

Then I was informed that Mo Fidelity Records, owned by my friend Neil, had sourced me a copy of a Rory Gallagher radio broadcast from 1979, officially released last week. He’s survived on mail order for the duration of lockdown, which we’ve tried to support as much as possible.

You are living the dream David

By the way David, once you have finished gorging on all 71 pub rock classics please could you report back. I am still mulling about whether to flash the cash for that particular motherlode

I surely will. The booklet giving gen on each track is terrific. Beautiful grainy pics from the time too.

Cherry Red’s usual failure to engage with Gracenotes (previous recent form with Humblebums, Gerry Rafferty and SBQ boxes - all blagged for RNR review) meant manually entering details of all three discs, no hardship really as it meant I was able to ooh and aah over, for example, Sean Tyla, Stray, and Supercharge offerings as I transferred sleeve listing to laptop.

No Kokomo though, as the box’s review in the brand new RNR states this week.

I always assume that Gracenote relies on user input. Once you've lovingly input the album details you can then send the info up to Gracenote so the next lucky person who inserts their disc into the computer gets your tracklisting. I could be wrong though. Whenever I encounter a disc on Gracenote that does not have the tracks I send them over to Gracenote HQ.

Thanks for the info about the box set. One of the joys of these things is reading the booklet as you listen to each song.

I'm currently giving the new Jarvis Cocker a listen

He now trades under the name JARV IS... which is actually a six piece group. All sounding rather groovy for those who like his particular schtick, and I am one of that number

CD1 consumed.

Among the familiar (the Brinsleys�� title track, Roogalator’s proto-funk ‘Ride With The Roogalator��, ‘Rock n Roll Runaway�� from Ace’s erm...ace debut Five-A-Side), there are platinum-edged gems new to me such as GT Moore and the Reggae Guitars�� ‘Madman��.

Lots of lovely country rock, National Flag’s boogie ‘Nervous��, Dave Edmunds’s surf take on ‘You Kept Me Waiting�� from the Stardust soundtrack, Bees Make Honey mellowing down on Rodgers and Hart’s ‘My Funny Valentine��, and a whole lot more exemplifying the turn up-set up-tune up-rock out vibe of simpler times.

Mine’s a pint of mild.

More to follow.

Simpler times indeed - sounds as though your revelling in it

“If you thought Soft Cell’s glamour/squalour brand flowed exclusively from Mark Almond’s hairspray-as-aftershave dreams of waking up one day as Dusty Springfield, the other fifty percent of the band, Dave Ball, would care to put the record straight. His sixties Blackpool is magnificent in its austere innocence: the walk to infant school acquires a parental bodyguard when the answer to his question “Mummy, what’s a Moors Murderer?�� brings on nightmares, and a classmate who is taken into care when her mother is convicted of being a prostitute causes bewilderment as “we were all Protestants and didn’t know it was illegal.�� School discos lead to prog, Northern Soul, T Rex and Kraftwerk, providing fertile musical readiness for the crossing of paths with Almond amidst the ashtrays and pint pots of seventies Leeds Poly. Synth stardom follows, and as with his childhood, drama rarely takes a day off, here described with a charm and thoughtfulness not readily associated with those who wear a glitter tie to work.��
Thus runs Strong Words�� review of Electronic Boy by Dave Ball (Omnibus, £20).

Thanks David


Electronic Boy: My Life In and Out of Soft Cell by Dave Ball sounds like my cup of tea

I often wondered about Dave Ball.

What was his contribution to Soft Cell, The Grid etc? Presumably at least 50% if not more

His childhood sounds worth the price of admission on its own

Hopefully he also addresses the key question....

Why did he persevere with that awful 'tash?

Thanks as always David. I'll be reading Electronic Boy: My Life In and Out of Soft Cell

I figured that you’d be keen to Say Hello to what looks like a very interesting volume. I’ll add it to my want list too.

CD2 of Surrender To The Rhythm now (more or less) devoured and it's more familar territory with the Feelgoods, Stray, Elvis Costello as Flip City, The Count Bishops, the Hot Rods, Kursaal Flyers (complete recording remasters imminent, Canvey fans), Strummer's 101'ers, and Chas and Dave with 'One Fing 'n' Annuver' (I saw them tour this album as 10cc's support in 1976). Loads of churning rockers and even a chart hit in Stretch's marvellous funk 'Why Did You Do It?' shredding Mick Fleetwood and Clive Davis for putting the embryonic Stretch out on the US's highways as a bogus Fleetwood Mac (RIP Peter Green, you legend) when there was no meaningful Mac version to fulfil contractual obligations.

Some nice surprises too. S-s-singing in front of a smooth jazz-soul band, Noosha Fox has yet to develop the knowing coquettishness that oozed from S-S-Single Bed around 1978, and the UK's great lost soul man Jess Roden parks his powerful version of Randy Newman's 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' in his personal parking space on track 18.

It's a gift that will keep on giving, and Disc 3 yet to come.

Tomorrow's return drive from Glasgow will have a sublime soundtrack.

That's a wonderful review David. Sounds nigh on essential.


Enjoy the drive tomorrow with disc 3

There goes disc 3, and the 'genre's' evolution into chart teritory, as Chris Rea's Fool If You Think It's Over, Darts' Daddy Cool/The Girl Can't Help It, Sniff N The Tears' Driver's Seat, and Squeeze's Goodbye Girl feature.

Smooth but passionate country soul from Huey Lewis fronting Clover (I have a slapstick story from Clover's support to Graham Parker and the Rumour in Aberdeen), GP himself with Back To Schooldays, which sounds like the Marble Arch bootleg version, and Noel McAlla doing his Brit-soul bit out front for Moon are early highlights.

Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, Ian Gomm check in, alongside my old band's erstwhile onstage guest Billy Bremner, who is terrific on The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

The then young pretenders are represented by The Jam (Slow Down), Streetband (Paul Young on vocals) with Loud Music, The Merton Parkas with future Dexy Mick Talbot chivvying the Hammomd along in You Need Wheels, The Inmates' appreciation for the Thames in Dirty Water and a superb Fabulous Poodles' rock-out on Mirror Star.

It's a compilation full of wonderful playing, with utter unknowns crowbarred into position beside more easily-recognised names, and acts with members who would go on to far more successful but not necessarily greater things.

It's summed up for me, five tracks from the close, where little-known Meal Ticket tackle The Band's The Shape I'm In with affectionate enthusiasm, encapsulating what I always thought was the ethos of pub rock, everybody wanting to be The Band.

I hadn't realised it got sporadically mainstream during the final disc. Thanks so much for your thoughts David. That does indeed sound a trove of eclectic tunes and a wide ranging journey through the rock that was pub. Everybody wants to be The Band indeed.

The trailer for the forthcoming Martin Newell documentary film has just gone up on YouTube, and it looks mighty fine to me...



Like everything else these days, it's a Kickstarter effort.

Thanks Mark - off to investigate and enjoy

What a wonderful little vid

Looks good, right? Call me old fashioned, but I still can’t get my head round things like this -- you pay up, yet only get streaming rights, no proper dvd [or blue ray or vhs or whatever].

How can it be that a materialistic society -- and we are a materialistic society -- shuns material items?

I know what you mean - though there are tote bags and pin badges on offer too. Actually I don't mind not having an artefact and, as a society, we probably need to consume less stuff.

In my case, the DVD will only ever get watched once, twice at the outside, and then sits on the shelf gathering dust. Then I have the problem of disposing of it one day. Do I try and sell it? Give it to a charity shop?

Fair points, all, but if I truly love something -- a book, an album, a film -- I want to know that I have the option of carrying them with me through life, to have the satisfaction of knowing that they’re always right there, within easy reach, on my shelf. Or even in a box buried at the back of a closet, even if I can’t quite remember which box, or which closet. It's a comfort thing, I suppose.

Mind you, I do the occasional purge-n-cull routine -- living in a Manhattan apartment demands that.

By the way, I can’t remember if I shouted about it on here yet, but if you haven’t seen the new[ish] Trojan Records documentary, you need to. One of the best music docs I’ve seen in ages.

All fair points Mark


Mark wrote: "I can’t remember if I shouted about it on here yet, but if you haven’t seen the new[ish] Trojan Records documentary, you need to. One of the best music docs I’ve seen in ages. "

I don't believe you have mentioned it before - how did you view it?

Well now there then... you’ve caught me out as a hypocrite... I streamed it!

But in my defense, m'Lud, it’s not been released on disc, so that was my only option.

I’ve got no SVOD accounts, so I bought a digital copy from Amazon Prime, which came to like ten bucks. And it's there, somewhere, in cyber space, for me to watch again whenever I like [providing, of course, that somebody doesn’t yank it offline for whatever reasons].

Any old road, it's a brilliant mix of reenacted scenes with actors, archival footage, and new interviews with plenty of the key players. Absolutely superb. You can watch the trailer here...



Recommended with supreme confidence. It won’t disappoint.

Thanks Mark - I look forward to it

Well, this one looks like an essential purchase if your friends and family know you as "Mark" or "Nigel"...




Boasting a 40-page booklet featuring track-by-track annotation, quotes, anecdotes and numerous rare illustrations, Bubblerock Is Here To Stay! celebrates the uncelebrated to provide another essential installment in Grapefruit’s much-acclaimed series of genre boxes.

But while their older brothers were getting it off on that revolution stuff, young teens in the UK were glued to pop radio (which, prior to commercial stations opening in 1973, effectively meant Radio One and Luxembourg) as the backroom boys of the traditional pop industry assumed total control of the airwaves.

Shining a searchlight on the lost and often murky world of early Seventies British pop, the 3-CD set Bubblerock Is Here To Stay! crams 85 sub-three minute nuggets into four hours of innocent, hook-laden fun as we focus on the faceless studio creations, ubiquitous session musicians and carefully nurtured pop idols as they battled for the hearts, minds and pocket money of the nation’s pop kids.

The Chinnichap writing team collaborated with producer Phil Wainman on The Sweet’s early hits before hooking up with Mickie Most, who’d just started RAK Records. Machiavellian media maven Jonathan King launched the hit-or-bust UK Records, while Sixties stalwart John Carter adopted a different pseudonym every month in his search for continued single success. Aliases also masked the identity of studio-bound production/songwriting teams, including the pre-10cc Strawberry gang and Teenage Opera auteur Mark Wirtz.

All are featured herein, together with numerous doe-eyed youths that were being groomed by the men in suits for teen pop pin-up status: some of them made it (David Essex, The Bay City Rollers), and some of them didn’t (Simon Turner, Gary Warren, Ricky Wilde).

More than a dozen major hits of the era (none of which you’ll hear on the many Classic Rock/Pop radio stations of 2020) are joined by a huge number of bizarre one-offs: Vivian Stanshall’s idiosyncratic remake of Elvis hit ‘Suspicion�� (promoted by Stanshall and producer Keith Moon dressing up as Nazi SS officers), The Sad’s terrace anthem chant of rampant bisexual promiscuity, ‘My Boy Lollipop�� star Millie giving Nick Drake a ska-pop pasting, Bill Fay making an unlikely stab at pop stardom (with the previously unissued ‘I Can’t Hide��) and Jon Pertwee eyeing a Dr. Who-related novelty hit single.

Boasting a 40-page booklet featuring track-by-track annotation, quotes, anecdotes and numerous rare illustrations, Bubblerock Is Here To Stay! celebrates the uncelebrated to provide another essential instalment in Grapefruit’s much-acclaimed series of genre boxes. Oh, and we promise not to stick stickers on your paper knickers��

Yes! Yes! Yes!


Thanks Mark - first I've heard of this one and, you know me so well, it's right up my strasse

Really looking forward to this one, especially as 98-99% of it will be brand new to my ears. Seems a dead cert to be a fun box to spend time with. And at that price, it’s no gamble at all.

You and me both Mark. Thanks for alerting me to it

Another great one has gone. Sleep well, Walter Lure.

Oh no. RIP Walter

Just announced, and it looks like some releases -- erm, a lot of releases -- to look forward to...

That’s a treasure trove and then some.

Right?! I’m sure that Cherry Red will do it right, which should translate to much worth looking forward to.

Motherlode

Cherry Red will more than do it justice. The label’s Grapefruit release arm has been responsible for some inspiring multi-disc offerings of late.

Indeed - every one of those looks alluring

Somewhere David inspired me to purchase Pete Wylie's Pete Sounds LP. I just wanted to belatedly say thank you David. I loves it. I've been having something of a Wylie session of late and therefore getting more appreciative of all things PW.

By the by, Heart As Big As Liverpool is a wonderful anthem - it would make me proud to be a Scouser had life turned out differently. Julian Cope had a parody version on his 2017 Drunken Songs LP called Liver Big As Hartlepool

I’m glad it’s found your favour, Nigey. Pete and Wah! are never far from the actual or virtual turntable in my life.

Every time I consider listing a Five for Friday (your choices are always interesting and varied), the marvellous ‘Weekends�� from A Word To The Wise Guy invariably flexes my melody muscle. I’d love to have heard Scott Walker slow it down and nail it.

Oh yes David.


Weekends.

How have I not put that in a five yet?