Decayed IV: 2007

Side 2 of a made up mixtape series, moving through the millennium's first decade.

My blogging days were numbered. Between January and August 2007, when I finally downed tools, until an abortive attempt to reignite in 2012, I managed fewer posts that I currently publish in a typical month.

So instead of reeling off lots of historical facts and figures and blog extracts, I'll keep the focus on the music today and especially my dozen picks for 2007.

Another spartan year, gig-wise, with only two of note, both in June. First, a spectacular show by Green Gartside at the Arnolfini in Bristol, billed as solo but in fact a full band Scritti Politti set. The gig holds a special place in my heart, not least because I was there with Mrs. K, but we also met up with my dear friend Dave, as passionate about music as me, and a great person to be with in any setting. It was the last gig we went to together: Dave sadly passed on 2nd January 2009. I miss him very much.

It was the first - and to date - last time I saw Green Gartside perform and it was magical. 

Less magical was Meat Loaf's appearance at Ashton Gate stadium, home of Bristol City football club, later that month. I'd originally bought tickets for the Birmingham concert as a birthday present for Mrs. K. However, when the Bristol date was added, we sold up and went for it. We lived close enough to Ashton Gate that we could generally sit in the garden and listen to a show. Or close the windows and batten the hatches when some boy band was playing there. We both wish we'd done the same with Meat Loaf, it was very far from his finest moment.

Manic Street Preachers could at least be relied upon to thrill, more than a decade and a half on from their blazing arrival. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough, featuring Nina Persson from Cardigans, is a wonderful single. It would have debuted at #1 in May 2007 had it not been for that pesky pair Beyonce and Shakira, with Beautiful Liar. Nina joined the lads on stage to perform the song at Glastonbury a few weeks later. 

In 2023, they performed the song at Glastonbury again, this time with The Anchoress aka Catherine Anne Davies. There isn't a clip of that online, but they performed a fest warm up show at the Forum in Bath the week before. I had a ticket but at the last minute couldn't go. Here's a clip of a wonderful performance of the song. Look carefully and you may even spot Dubhed guest writer Mike, who was able to make use of my ticket.

Redressing an unforgivable exclusion from Decadance, my previous series running through the 1990s, is Groove Armada. The pair are joined here by another returning artist, Mutya Buena, who featured in the second post of this series, with Sugababes' first #1 in 2002.

By 2005, Mutya became the second founding member to leave Sugababes; third and final founder Keisha was gone by 2009. As the recent Girlbands Forever series (essential viewing) demonstrated, the management and record label Sugababes brand was considered more important than the individual members and must carry on regardless. 

Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control) is a brilliant pop song that could be interpreted as a story about an ex. Frame the narrative as Mutya seeing the band she formed, continue on, almost unrecognisable from her original vision, and the song gains a whole new perspective.

I also love the fact that the naggingly catchy synth line reminds me of The Piranhas' version of Tom Hark. Genius.

Two for the price of one, with Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse delivering a brilliant future retro version of The Zutons' hit Valerie. I think I prefer Ronson's cover of The Smiths' Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before with Daniel Merriweather, and Amy had a run of superb singles in 2007 with You Know I'm No Good, Back To Black and Tears Dry On Their Own. 

So, this is a bit of a compromise, to get them both included in the fiercely competitive final dozen. I think the cover of Valerie is great, but I also love The Zutons' original recording so I won't go so far to say that this is the definitive version. But it is very, very good.

I can be an awful music snob and I dismissed Starz In Their Eyes by Just Jack aka Jack Allsopp as just another song by an artist that seemed to half sing, half rap and not do anything particularly exciting. Another example is, er, Example. Lovely guys, I'm sure, but I wouldn't want to buy their records.

Except Mrs. K did, and repeated listens to Just Jack's album Overtones got me listening more closely to the lyrics of Starz In Their Eyes and appreciating that it was a much darker narrative that I was expecting from the jaunty, funky song structure. Now, the singer/narrator comes across less as half-arsed, more as crushed by his experience of the music machine, and wanting to warn the bright-eyed young buck before him of the pitfalls that await. 

The real surprise of this collection was discovering that Reverend & The Makers got to #8 in June 2007 with Heavyweight Champion Of The World. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the charts, to be fair, and I only bought the CD single years later because Jagz Kooner produced the song (and album) and frankly, he's brilliant. 

Less surprising was that Kaiser Chiefs finally secured a place in the hearts of the nation - and the football terraces - with Ruby. It's a super #1 single, even if I struggle to name any songs or albums that they've released since. And Ricky Wilson seems on a singular mission to achieve National Treasure status by the time he's 50. Two years to go and I'll reckon he'll make it.

I think Calvin Harris (Adam Wiles to his loved ones) is less bothered about National Treasure status as he's possibly made enough moolah from his mega-successful music and DJ career to pay of the UK's national debt. 

Not that this was obvious from the start. Acceptable In The 80s is a great tune, even better when mashed up with Happy House by Siouxsie & The Banshees. This was first attempted in 2007 by mash-up pioneer IDC aka David McCarthy, but that's no longer available online, so here's a similar take from the appropriately named James' Mashups last May.

Also last year, I nominated Fantastic Playroom by New Young Pony Club as one of the greatest albums of the 2000s for a then-upcoming series by SWC over at No Badger Required. The album didn't make the final cut, but it did at least get an honorable mention in the 'Not Quite The Greatest Albums Of The 00s' prelude to the definitive countdown. I loved New Young Pony Club from the moment I heard the single Ice Cream, even if they couldn't follow up on the promise of that debut album.

The same goes for CSS aka Cansei De Ser Sexy aka "Tired Of Being Sexy" in translation. Such an exciting prospect when Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above and the self-titled debut, but somehow they just missed their moment and couldn't create that same spark again.

Klaxons are another good example, although they were also burdened with the music press' desparate creation of the horrible Nu-Rave label, and the fact that nothing on their album was quite as refreshingly wonderful as Golden Skans. 

Closing the selection, it's that James Murphy fellow again, with LCD Soundsystem. What can I say? Sound Of Silver is a perfect album and my pick, All My Friends, is a perfect song. And that because of and in spite of the fact that it's built upon one note played repeatedly, annoyingly, throughout. There is a 7" edit, but I've gone for the full seven minutes and forty seconds here because...well, you have to hear the whole thing from start to end. 

Besides, the full length version appeared on one of the two 7" singles released, featuring the edit and two rather special cover versions by Franz Ferdinand and John Cale. I bought them both and reviewed the single on my blog at the time. And why not own it in multiple formats?! As I said just now, All My Friends is a perfect song.

And this seems the perfect time to wrap things up, not least because I've taken far too long on this post and need to get on with household chores!

Please stick around for more nonsense through the week and then, next weekend, the final two years of the 2000s. If you've enjoyed the ride so far, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

1) 1234 (Album Version): Feist

2) Valerie (Album Version): Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse

3) Starz In Their Eyes (Radio Edit): Just Jack

4) Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above (Album Version): CSS

5) Heavyweight Champion Of The World (Album Version): Reverend & The Makers

6) Ruby (Album Version): Kaiser Chiefs

7) Golden Skans (Album Version): Klaxons

8) Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control) (Edit): Groove Armada ft. Mutya Buena

9) Acceptable In The 80s (Radio Edit): Calvin Harris

10) Your Love Alone Is Not Enough (Album Version): Manic Street Preachers ft. Nina Persson

11) Ice Cream (Extended Mix): New Young Pony Club

12) All My Friends (Album Version): LCD Soundsystem

21st January 2007: Overtones (#2): 3

28th January 2007: Myths Of The Near Future (#7): 7

25th February 2007: Yours Truly, Angry Mob (#1): 6

18th March 2007: I Created Disco (#10): 9

6th May 2007: Send Away The Tigers (#2): 10

20th May 2007: Cansei De Ser Sexy (#39): 4

3rd June 2007: Sound Of Silver (#41): 12

10th June 2007: The State Of Things (#8): 5

8th July 2007: Fantastic Playroom (#40): 11

29th July 2007: Soundboy Rock (#8): 8

7th October 2007: The Reminder (#8): 1

21st October 2007: Version (#2): 2

Side Two (46:10) (GD) (M)

If you want to compare and contrast with previous decades, you can dive into my selections for 1987 and 1997.

Decayed IV: 2006

Side 1 of a completely made up cassette compilation, stepping through the 2000s.

When approaching this post, 2006 didn't particularly stand out. I was half way though my first 3-year stint as a blogger, still with less than 100 posts by year end. 

However, it proved to be a helpful reminder of what I got up to in 2006, mostly going to comedy clubs and the theatre with Mrs. K, by the look of it. Little surprise, as the excellent Comedy Box at the Hen & Chicken pub was at the end of our street, and Bristol city centre was a short walk away.

Comedy shows in 2006 included Adam Hills, Mark Thomas, Matt Welcome, Omid Djalili, Richard Herring and, er, Russell Brand.

Theatre-wise, we experienced 

Air Guitar by Peter Kesterston

Nights At The Circus by Angela Carter, adapted by Tom Morris and Emma Rice

Present Laughter by Noël Coward, starring Simon Callow

Restoration by Edward Bond

The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter

The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare

Jesus Christ, It’s Christmas by Bristol-based theatre company Paper Aeroplane

and, er. Scrooge, based on the 1970 film musical by Leslie Bricusse and starring Shane Richie ...and yes, he did shout "Taxi for Walford!" at the end.

I also enjoyed reading a fair few books, such as 

American Ghosts & Old World Wonders by Angela Carter

Black Hole by Charles Burns

N.P. by Banana Yoshimoto

Feeding Frenzy by Will Self

Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earth by Chris Ware
Planet Karen by Karen Ellis

Whoa Nellie! by Jaime Hernandez

and The Fountain At The Centre Of The World by Robert Newman... actually, that one was shit, and the former star of The Mary Whitehouse Experience was a creepy sleazeball when we saw him perform stand-up around the same time.

As for TV, we were both obsessed with Lost and Dog The Bounty Hunter, Saxondale and Nathan Barley. To be honest, the latter two were me, Mrs. K wasn't at all bothered by them.

2006 was Clan K's first experience of Go Ape in the Forest of Dean; tree tops, rope walks and zip slides, it was a blast. 

Mrs. K and I also visited the Relaxation Centre in Bristol, sampling the outdoor and indoor hot tubs, steam room, sauna and floatation room and we both felt unbelievably great afterwards. I then blew it all the same evening as my oldest friend Stuart was in town and mandatory ale quaffing in The Three Sugar Loaves and The White Lion ensued, including pints of the prophetically named Doom. 

Gig-wise, 2006 was pitifully limited to Julian Cope in February and the Ashton Court Festival in July.

I've written about this previously, but 2006 was the year that Mrs. K and I experienced unexpected headliners Simple Minds. The once-free festival now charged entry, but £9.00 per day was pretty good, considering the range of music on offer.

What wasn't pretty good was Jim Kerr and co. In my blog review, I wrote that "Don’t You Forget About Me, a dire cover of Van Morrison’s Gloria and the closing third encore (!) of Alive And Kicking were little more than extended karaoke tracks, with Kerr preferring the audience to do the work on the choruses."

It wasn't all bad: I cited the "sole redeeming moment [as the] rendition of New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) seemingly inspired by Utah Saints’ rousing mid-1990s cover version." 

In closing, I ruefully reflected that "Perhaps the festival is still a rites of passage for some, but my feelings towards Ashton Court were aptly personified by Jim Kerr: over priced, over the hill, out of touch and with an inflated sense of self-importance." Oh dear!

On a happier note, we had a fun holiday in Bulgaria in October.

But what else was going on in 2006. Here's a non-exhaustive and entirely subjective run through of some events (and non-events, I might argue).

1st January

The first UK #1 single of the year was That's My Goal by Shayne Ward. 

21st March

Twitter launched. Five days later, Elon Musk's company SpaceX's first launch of the Falcon 1 rocket crashed to Earth shortly after liftoff. Sixteen years, Musk acquired Twitter, with similar results, culturally speaking.

6th May

Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens died of a heart attack at his home in Brisbane, Australia, aged just 48.

20th May

Finnish band Lordi won The Eurovision Song Contest with Hard Rock Hallelujah.

9th July

Italy beat France to win the FIFA World Cup.

24th August

The International Astronomical Union defines 'planet' at it's 26th General Assembly, consequently relegating Pluto to 'dwarf planet' status. Poor Pluto.

4th September

Steve Irwin, Australian TV legend and conservationist, is fatally stung in the heart by a stingray while filming underwater.

23rd November

Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian Federal Security Service officer and subsequent critic of the Putin administration, dies after being poisoned with Polonium-210. 

30th December

Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging for crimes against humanity.

31st December

The last UK #1 single of 2006 is A Moment Like This by Leona Lewis.

Yep, if we weren't facing the existential threat of talent shows like The X-Factor, music buying on physical formats was also under threat. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley became the first single to top the UK Singles Chart on download sales alone. Crazy remained at the top of the UK singles chart for nine weeks, the longest #1 spell for more than a decade. 

It's one of two #1's to appear in today's selection, albeit in a DIY extended version by DreamTime, whose music blog I was obsessed with at the time, even if the edits themselves were a bit hit and miss. Crazy definitely sits in the 'hit' camp for me.

The other #1 is by Arctic Monkeys, who also used the internet to their advantage, building up a groundswell of interest and support, which helped their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not become the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history at the time.

Aside from that, it's the usual eclectic mix of the well known and the wilfully obscure. And yes, although I committed the crime of not including The White Stripes, I have opted for Jack White's other band, The Raconteurs. Contrary sod, aren't I? Great song, though.

I missed The Go! Team at the Ashton Court Festival - they headlined the previous day - and I've still yet to see them live, but I love their gloriously joyful racket as much now as I did 20 years ago when I first heard them.

Muse and The Killers I'm less fussed by, but I do like the remixes featured here. Tahiti 80, Phoenix and Peter, Björn & John (with Victoria Bergsman) brings some European sunshine to proceedings. I finally got to see Peter at least live on stage, as the cornerstone of Robert Forster's Swedish Band in Cardiff last month.

I can’t promise the same level of diary diving tomorrow as I have done today, but 2007 will offer up another dozen examples of why the 2000s weren't so bad for music after all.

1) Big Day (Album Version): Tahiti 80

2) Young Folks (Album Version): Peter, Björn & John ft. Victoria Bergsman

3) Long Distance Call (25 Hours A Day Mix By Pierrick Devin): Phoenix

4) Cash Machine (Video Version 2): Hard-Fi

5) Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? (Album Version): The Zutons

6) Steady, As She Goes (Album Version): The Raconteurs

7) Crazy (DreamTime Mix): Gnarls Barkley

8) Ladyflash (Album Version): The Go! Team

9) Supermassive Black Hole (Team9 Remix By Neil Mason): Muse

10) Standing In The Way Of Control (Radio Edit): Gossip

11) When You Were Young (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Radio Edit By Stuart Price): The Killers

12) When The Sun Goes Down (Album Version): Arctic Monkeys

1st January 2006: Stars Of CCTV (#14): 4

22nd January 2006: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (#1): 12

5th February 2006: Thunder, Lightning, Strike (#26): 8

5th March 2006: Fosbury (# n/a): 1

26th March 2006: It's Never Been Like That (# n/a): 3

2nd April 2006: St. Elsewhere (#1): 7

9th April 2006: Tired Of Hanging Around (#9): 5

30th April 2006: Broken Boy Soldiers (#4): 6

25th June 2006: Black Holes & Revelations (#4): 9

13th August 2006: Writer's Block (#35): 2 *

24th September 2006: Sam's Town (#2): 11

5th November 2006: Standing In The Way Of Control (#64): 10 **

Side One (46:14) (GD) (M)

* Young Folks was subsequently re-released the following year and got to #13 in the week of 23rd September 2007

** Likewise, Standing In The Way Of Control got a second bite of the cherry when it returned to the charts the week of 4th March 2007 with a peak of #7

If you're hungry for more, why not sample my selections from 1986 and 1996?

I'd Rather Be A Free Man In My Grave Than Living As A Puppet Or A Slave

Celebrating James Chambers, better known to you and I as Jimmy Cliff, 30th July 1944 to 24th November 2025.

Hours after I posted a tribute on Monday to Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, news broke that Jimmy Cliff had passed. Life's a real kick in the shins sometimes, to put it mildly.

So many words have been written already about the impact that Jimmy Cliff had, not only on reggae, but music across the world, with an appeal that knew no boundaries or borders.

You can find whatever you need from Jiimmy's song: languid grooves, political commentary, and of course a voice that can provoke all kinds of emotional response. Jimmy has written, sung and produced so many classics that are embedded in our psyche that it's perhaps easy to overlook the blood, sweat and tears poured into every second, every beat, every utterance.

In looking to create a Dubhed selection, I also made the sobering discovery that Jimmy Cliff's music is woefully under represented in my collection. In fact, I don't own a single album of his and today's picks have been drawn from a variety of compilations (mostly Trojan) and blog samples, amassed over the years.

This I intend to rectify sooner, rather than later, starting with the soundtrack to The Harder They Come, proving that Jimmy was a formidable presence on celluloid too. I also need to get hold of Jimmy's 1969 self-titled album which, had I done so before now, would surely have been one of my nominations for The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time.

Today's 45 minute selection is limited by the pool of songs to pick from, but knows no limits as far as an illustration of why Jimmy Cliff was - and remains - such a vital musical force. 

The selection starts and ends with contributions to film soundtracks, and inevitably includes the title song from The Harder They Come, which also provides today's lyrical post title. Three tracks apiece from the Jimmy Cliff album and the 12" single of Treat The Youths Right and (I think) Jimmy's second single in the UK, 1962's delightful Miss Jamaica.

Rest in power, Jimmy.

1) You Don't Have To Cry (Album Version By Arthur Baker)

2) Miss Jamaica (Single Version By Leslie Kong)

3) Roots Radical (12" Version By François Kevorkian)

4) You Can Get It If You Really Want (Album Version By Jimmy Cliff)

5) Many Rivers To Cross (Album Version By Jimmy Cliff & Leslie Kong)

6) Peace Officer (Dub) (Remix By Chris Kimsey)

7) Wonderful World, Beautiful People (Album Version By Jimmy Cliff & Leslie Kong)

8) The Harder They Come (Album Version By Jimmy Cliff)

9) Treat The Youths Right (Special Mix By François Kevorkian) 

10) Vietnam (Album Version By Jimmy Cliff & Leslie Kong)

11) I Can See Clearly Now (Remix By Jimmy Bralower) (Cover of Johnny Nash)

1962: Miss Jamaica EP: 2

1969: Jimmy Cliff: 5, 7, 10

1972: The Harder They Come OST: 4, 8

1982: Treat The Youths Right EP: 3, 6, 9

1988: Something Wild OST: 1

1993: Cool Runnings OST: 11

Free Man (45:30) (GD) (M)

Upon A Mouse #12: Why Don't You Dance With Me?

When SWC at No Badger Required asked the NBR Musical Jury to nominate for The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, my immediate thought was The B-52's by The B-52's.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to think so, and The B-52's made it onto the voting shortlist. Again, there was no hesitation from me. It got the full twenty points, plus the "maximum three Grovel points please, because it’s deserves to be in the Top 10 at least, if not #1!"

Sadly, I may have been the only one to think so, as whilst The B-52's was my #1, in the final countdown, it was the ranked the 16th Greatest Eponymous Album Of All Time.

There's a compare-and-contrast table below, but no spoiler - and perhaps no surprise - that The Stone Roses' self-titled debut was #1 in the definitive NBR countdown. 

I have to admit that Ian, John, Mani and Reni didn't get a single point from me.

Wait! Before you write SWC / your local MP / Judge Rinder (or Judy) demanding that I be barred from any jury service in future, this was my confessional cover letter to SWC back in late August.

A bit of a struggle this time as I only realised when going through the shortlist 

that I haven’t heard many of these albums, 

even though I may have plenty of other stuff by said artist. 

And of those I do have in my collection, 

a fair few rarely get an airing, 

so I’ve had to listen to a few again more recently 

to remind myself how good (or bad) they really are. 

My other self-imposed rule was that, if a shortlisted album wasn't already in my collection at the time of casting votes, then it was automatically disqualified. I wasn't going to acquire an album just to shoehorn it into my final list, but it did mean that there were some glaring omissions from my final vote.

The Beatles, The Charlatans, The La's, Placebo, The Smiths, Suede and The Stone Roses all made the NBR Top 20 but with no help whatsoever from me. Sorry about that!

And whilst I'd heard all of the above, other self-titled albums that remain unheard include Alvvays, Fleet Foxes, The Libertines and Weezer.

I got hold of a copy of The Stone Roses following The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, some weeks before the tragic passing of Mani aka Gary Mounfield. As I commented in my tribute post on Monday,

My friend Stu had the album and I liked it, 

but not enough to buy anything more than the standalone single 

Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For, which I loved. 

Listening to The Stone Roses again, it's a worthy winner and even if I hadn't felt that way, Swiss Adam from Bagging Area wrote such a wonderfully compelling case that I suspect even diehard opponents would reconsider their position.  

That said, if The Stone Roses hadn't fallen foul of my self-imposed voting criteria, whilst it would likely have been in my Top 10, The B-52's would still have been my #1.

And it was all thanks to the necessary evil of record label plugging.

If Rock Lobster hadn’t been re-released in 1986, then The B-52’s 1979 album probably wouldn’t have been the first album of theirs that I bought, age 15. But what a debut.

 

From the opening outer space bleeps of Planet Claire to the closing party sounds on their cover of Downtown, and all points in between, this is a sound so quirky and retro, it defied the homogenised nostalgia of the mid-late 1980s.

 

Educational, too. I’m still prone to shouting out, “Why don’t you dance with me? I’m not no Limburger!” or, at every mention of Krakatoa on TV or in conversation, casually pointing out that it’s “East of Java”.

 

The B-52’s was also the album that I lent to my school friend Phil, as proof that there was more to music than his prized cassette rip of Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms (worse the ‘extended version’ released on CD). A few weeks later, I had to prise it out of his hands to get it back. 

You can read a little more about this in my post from 6th July 2021, 42 years to the day that The B-52's debut was released.

I never tire of listening to The B-52's and I have a love for each and every one of their albums. The world as a whole is a better place for having The B-52's in it. And their debut album made that clear from the start. 

Forty years later, The B-52's is - and will probably always be - The #1 Greatest Eponymous Album Of All Time for me.

Note: I've run out of time for today's post, but please come back on Friday and I will re-post links to previous Dubhed Selections featuring The B-52's. In the meantime., here a trio of fine videos.

Note (28th Nov): Thanks for your patience! Here also are a trio of Dubhed selections celebrating The B-52's ... and a belated happy birthday to Keith Strickland, 72 on Wednesday.

July 2022: This Is The Space Age

November 2023: Without Anything But The Love We Feel

July 2024: Fred The Cancerian From New Jersey 

 

 

Thanks for coming along with me for the past four weeks and especially to SWC, who keeps coming up with these brilliant ideas time and again, they're such fun. If you'd like to sign up for Musical Jury service, email SWC at Nobadgerrequired@googlemail.com. You won't regret it!

So, as promised, here's a recap of my list, alongside the official No Badger Required Top 20. 

Dubhed Top 20

1) The B-52’s

2) Portishead

3) Ramones

4) The Doors

5) Orbital

6) Franz Ferdinand

7) Elastica

8) Gorillaz

9) Blur

10) LCD Soundsystem

11) The xx

12) The Velvet Underground (which should have been The Velvet Underground & Nico!!)

13) The Clash

14) The Specials

15) The Coral

16) Roxy Music

17) Blondie

18) THe Stooges

19) Echo & The Bunnymen

20) Duran Duran (for Mrs. K)

The No Badger Required Top 20

1) The Stone Roses
2) Suede
3) The Smiths
4) The Specials
5) The Velvet Underground & Nico
6) The Clash
7) The La’s
8) LCD Soundsystem
9) Ramones
10) Portishead
11) Elastica
12) Franz Ferdinand
13) Blur
14) Orbital
15) The Charlatans
16) The B-52’s
17) The xx
18) Echo & The Bunnymen
19) The Beatles
20) Placebo

If you've made it all the way to the end, then thank you! I have to give a final nod to today's random cover star, Michelle Yeoh, whose acting talent is anything but random. Michelle is in a scene from 2022 film Everything Everywhere All At Once which, if you haven't seen, you really must. Like, now. Right now.

Upon A Mouse #11: Sticking It To "The Man"

Orbital's debut album is, depending on your personal preference, self-titled, untitled ot the 'green' album. 

 

Why the latter? Well, in the great tradition of artists like Peter Gabriel and, er, Red House Painters, Orbital released consecutive, eponymous albums. 

 

GIven that SWC, the person behind the fantastic music blog No Badger Required was asking for votes on The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, this clearly presented something of a dilemma.

 

Vote for Orbital's 'green' debut? Or the follow up 'brown' album? Or both? 

 

A lovely thing about being called up to the NBR Musical Jury is that there are rules, but only to inspire not influence. For example, we had the option to request additional 'grovel' points for a nominated album, but only if we could back it up with a reason why. I should say that we could also ask for 'grrr!' points to be deducted, but my options there will be left for another post, another time, if at all.

 

So, when it came to the twin dilemma of Orbital albums, we could basically go for either. I stuck with the ‘green’ debut. 

 

After a run of blisteringly brilliant 12" singles between December 1989 and August 1991 - Chime, Omen, the III EP (containing Satan and Belfast) and double A-side Midnight / Choice - brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll unleashed their debut album in September 1991.

The album more than delivered on the promise of those early singles. Such was the brother's confidence in their material that Omen, Satan and Choice didn't even make the final selection, and only Belfast is the same version as the previously released single. In the UK, at least. 

In the USA, a different version of the debut was released, with a resequenced running order and versions and all UK single sides, except the unfairly maligned Omen, present and correct. 

Thankfully, versions of Orbital on either side of the Atlantis include the 12-minute epic Desert Storm,  proof that you don’t need to be a protest singer to make a meaningful political point. 

Phil and Paul weren't not shy in having an opinion and sharing it. When Chime cracked the UK Top 40 in March 1990, they were invited to appear on Top of the Pops. What did they wear? Anti-Poll Tax sweatshirts, of course. 

Sticking it to "the man" - well, TOTP's then insistence on mimed not live performances - Orbital stood on stage and made no effort to mime, and even positioned the power plugs on top of their kit to nail the point. Despite subsequent single successes, Orbital were not invited back to Top Of The Pops for another six years.

The thing is, Orbital were/are a great live act, and the debut album also showcases this; the conjoined live versions of Chime and Midnight are stunning and sound every bit as good as the studio recordings on either side of them.

I love the 'brown' second album too, but without this incredible debut, the follow up may never have existed. Orbital - the album and the band - changed my life.

I requested an extra 'grovel' point for Orbital, for having the balls to kick off their debut album with a sample of Lt. Worf, the Klingon good guy from Star Trek: The Next Generation.

 

 

The random headline star for today's post, snapped off the small screen, is Barbra Streisand, from Peter's Bogdanovich's 1972 film What's Up Doc?, co-starring Ryan O'Neal and "introducing" Madeline Kahn. 

Barbra is seen here distracting a pizza chef played by Chuck Holison aka Chuck Hollom, whose only other listed credit on imdb is "store manager" in a 1976 episode of Starsky And Hutch. Barbra, on the other hand, is "one of the most successful personalities in show business". And then some.

Upon A Mouse #10: LCD And PTSD

LCD Soundsystem and Portishead take us into the fourth and final week of my personal votes for The 20 Greatest Eponymous Albums Of All Time, which originated with SWC at No Badger Required and were counted down in October.

In respect of placings, LCD Soundsystem came in at #10 on my voting sheet, whilst Portishead were the runners up at #2. But why?

Well... Sound Of Silver is my go-to LCD Soundsystem album., so I’d kind of forgotten how brilliant and fully formed their self-titled debut is. 

When SWC ran the (also excellent) series The Noughty Forty last year aka the 40 greatest albums of the 2000s, Sound Of Silver got my full points and came in at #6 overall, whilst LCD Soundsystem managed an admirable #6 and split opinion about whether the bonus CD should be included or excluded.

I deliberately based my vote on the 9-track ‘original’ vinyl album, ignoring the bonus disc that came with the 2CD version I bought, and therefore the singles Losing My Edge, Beat Connection and Yeah. 

In doing so, I acknowledged that if I’d added the latter, the eponymous debut would have been several places higher in Top 20. But hey, any reader of this blog will know that I love annoying myself with self-imposed rules. Sometimes it's the only way I can make a decision...!

But I digress. Back to LCD Soundsystem the album, it was watching On Repeat and Tribulations performed live at Glastonbury last year (on TV, I hasten to add) that brought it all back to me. 

And Daft Punk Is Playing At My House is not only one of the best album openers ever, but when James Murphy yells "solo!" at 2:49 and then launches into 30 seconds of cowbell, you know you're listening to something special.

 

 

Portishead by Portishead is a master class in the follow up album, when your debut defines not only a point in time but a whole musical genre. Given the weight of expectation, with their second album, Portishead understandably tried to distance themselves from both.

 

Okay, it took three years to get there - which is nothing compared to the eleven years between Portishead and Third – but every second and drop of sweat was worth it. 

The move from ‘borrowed’ samples to painstakingly created live recordings tilts the album in a different direction, but loses none of the momentum, pitching towards something terrifying yet bleakly optimistic.

Thankfully, Geoff Barrow, Adrian Utley and Beth Gibbons did come back for one more album - and the occasional reunion - and have continued to plough their own particular musical furrows to stunning effect. But if Portishead had only released one album - this - then they would still have left an indelible mark on the landscape.

Speaking of which, and in line with NBR rules, I also requested an extra Grovel point to be awarded to Portishead, for putting a North Somerset coastal town on the map.

 

 

 

The cover photo pinch from the TV is Alfred Molina as Joe Orton in the 1987 film Prick Up Your Ears. I haven't seen it for years and it's been recorded for several months, patiently awaiting it's moment to shine. Christmas family viewing at Casa K? Too much?

Mani Memories

Celebrating Mani aka Gary Mounfield, 16th November 1962 to 20th November 2025.

There have been so many wonderfully written and heartfelt tributes to Mani in the past few days that there's not a lot that I can add. Unlike many of my blogosphere peers, my life wasn't transformed by The Stone Roses. 

My friend Stu had the album and I liked it, but not enough to buy anything more than the standalone single Fools Gold / What The World Is Waiting For, which I loved. 

When The Stone Roses played at The Bierkeller in Bristol in the summer of 1989, I was either skint or otherwise occupied. My live picks for that year included Pixies, Inspiral Carpets and, er, The Monkees.

For all that, I thought they were great, and had a particular fondness for Mani, so when he joined Primal Scream following The Stone Roses' end, it was a very good thing.

In the tributes, there is an overwhelming sense of what a decent, down to earth person Mani was. Even from my ignorant distance, what stands out is his loyalty; Mani stuck with The Stone Roses., gave 15 years to Primal Scream and then heeded the call to get the old band back together.

There was also Freebass, the supergroup with Peter Hook and Andy Rourke, though other extra curricular activity was rare: a couple of songs on Bryan Ferry's 2010 album Olympia, two live rehearsal tracks with The Racketeers circa 2004, another couple with Aziz Ibrahim in 2000, and that's all I have.

What ties them all together is Mani's superlative bass. In compiling today's tribute, I found a 1983 demo by The Waterfront, a precursor to The Stone Roses, and Mani's talent shines through from the start.

At the end, I've pulled together a 10-song tribute to Mani, spanning all of the above. I won't pretend to be an expert, and my picks for The Stone Roses and Primal Scream may be obvious choices, but I hope the selection overall does Mani justice.

Man, could Mani play bass.

In preparing this post, I received an email from my friend Mike:

Hi Khayem,

sad news about Mani today. 

I'm not sure my 'review' is appropriate in its entirety but:

1) Its a reminder for me about how I felt 30 years ago and 

2) it does help me reflect on how good Mani was in a live setting.

Feel free to just read or take a bit of the essence

Regards,

Mike

I'm sharing Mike's entire item, unedited.

The Stone Roses – Great Hall Exeter University 5th December 1995

On a cold Tuesday night nigh on 30 years ago my mate Chris and I travelled down the M5 to see a band that many felt were the greatest of that era.

We both didn’t know Exeter at all and tried to find a car park that was ‘central’ before trudging off to find the University. Once entering the venue we realised it was packed to the rafters with students and blokes in their early 20’s hoping to have their ‘Spike Island’ moment. From memory it wasn’t long until the band took to the stage and a long intro started. The sound was good and the first thing you noticed was how good Reni and Mani sounded together. It didn’t take long until John Squires started to unleash his trademark riffs and all was good with the world. And then Ian Brown started singing…

I’ve often thought about this gig and looked at people reminiscing about going to see the Stone Roses in the late 1980’s-mid 1990’s. Were Reni and Mani the best rhythm section of our lifetime? A bold statement yes but I think one that could be argued. Was John Squire one of the best lead guitarists to come out of the UK? Again I think that is something that has good evidence behind it. However my issue always was the lead singer. I remember on the night trying to go to different parts of the Hall to see if it was a dodgy speaker or just where I was stood. The final track was ‘I am the Resurrection’ and I just thought at the time would I ever hear a better bassline played live in my lifetime and now that Mani has passed I think I can honestly say probably not.

We drove home through the snow agreeing on one thing – that when it was down to the musicians in the band they were faultless – Mani, Reni, John we salute you. If only you had let your lead singer go then they could have been one of the greatest live bands ever 

RIP Mani.

Many thanks, Mike, wonderfully expressed. And now for some music.

1) BF Bass (Ode To Olympia) (Album Version): Bryan Ferry (2010)

2) Breaking Into Heaven (Album Version): The Stone Roses (1994)

3) Can't Go Back (Album Version): Primal Scream (2008)

4) Nuts For You (Live Rehearsal Track): The Racketeers (Wayne Kramer & Brian James) (2004)

5) You Don't Know (This About Me) (EP Version): Freebass ft. Tim Burgess (2010)

6) Where The Wind Blows: The Waterfront (1983)

7) I Am The Resurrection (Album Version): The Stone Roses (1989)

8) If They Move, Kill 'Em (Album Version): Primal Scream (1997)

9) Middle Road (Aziz Album Mix): Aziz ft. Paul Weller (2000)

10) The Milky Way Is Our Playground (EP Version): Freebass ft. Pete Wylie (2010)

Mani Memories (51:43) (GD) (M)