100 Seconds

Bank Holidays are great for human beings but meaningless to cats. The hope of a sleep in were dashed by a mewling mog who had decided that they wanted to get out of the house at 5.00am this morning. Despite our best efforts, said beast has resolutely refused to use the cat flap, unless it is permanently fixed in the 'open' position. So, it is usually down to me to get up, strap the flap up with an old Doc Marten boot lace and let them run free. No return to bed, of course, because after an all-too brief patrol, the furry fiend is back, demanding food. All of this of course runs parallel to my attempts not to wake the rest of the household. I am a cat lover, in spite of all this. 

One benefit of an early wake up call this Bank Holiday Monday was that I hadn't prepared a post for this morning. I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants blogger at the best of times, often making it up as I go along, but so far I've yet to hit that brick wall of not having any ideas for a post. You will be the judge of whether it's more a case of quantity over quality.

As the title suggests, today's selection is a brisk run through of songs that (according to Apple Music at least) have a running time of one minute forty aka one hundred seconds. It's not strictly true: the vagaries of CD mastering and vinyl rips mean that there are inevitably longer gaps at the start or end of some songs, but you get the gist. So, for this selection, I present a dozen songs in just under twenty minutes.

A thing I really enjoy about these themed selections with self-imposed constraints and criteria is that they almost inevitably cause me to unearth and listen to songs that I've not heard for a long, long time. For example, according to Apple Music, I've apparently not listened to either Airport Girl's album Honey, I'm An Artist or the Zoo label compilation To The Shores Of Lake Placid in their entirety since 2015. I last played Kill by Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias in 2017. Julian Cope's The Jehovahcoat Demos, a collection of songs recorded in 1993 and released in 2011, has been similarly neglected. 

 

It's been great to dust off some double A-sides, B-sides and forgotten EP tracks by The Lemonheads, The Maccabees and Kenickie, songs which I've fallen in love with all over again this morning. And the selection could only really end with Dr. Frank N. Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I saw live at The Bristol Hippodrome in the late 1980s.

 

The late August bank holiday always seems to foreshadow an ending: of school holidays, of longer daylight hours, of summer in general. Today, Clan K is off to Bristol Zoo, which is due to close for good on 3rd September. The Zoo itself has been gradually relocating to the Wild Place project, a couple of miles outside of Bristol, for some time so the conservation and education story will continue but, whatever your feelings about Zoos in general, it's the end of an era. 

 

Having been born and raised in and around Bristol, the Zoo has played a large part in my life, whether as a child, adult and subsequently a parent. For anyone growing up and watching TV in the 1960s, 1970s or early 1980s, Bristol Zoo was also a familiar sight thanks to Johnny Morris and Animal Magic. 

 

I've been ambivalent about the Zoo from an early age: I have childhood memories of being distressed by the polar bear enclosure and seeing these magnificent creatures pacing back and forth, visibly traumatised by their entrapment. The Zoo's contribution to conservation projects is significant, though. The new Zoo, fully opening in 2024, states that 80% of the species housed will be linked to conservation breeding and conservation programmes around the world, a higher percentage than any other UK zoo.

 

Opening in 1836, Bristol Zoo is the fifth oldest in the world. Yet, it was also constrained by it's location in Clifton, west of Bristol's city centre, limiting growth and modernisation of the facilities and environment. The sad reality is that, once the Zoo has vacated, the prime real estate will almost certainly be converted into a proverbial cash cow of unaffordable, eye-sore accommodation for those sailing well above the cost of living crisis that the rest of us are experiencing now and for years to come.

I digress. We'll pay our last respects and walk though a shared history today. I doubt very much the 100 Seconds selection will make it on the in-car playlist, but Traffic Light Rock by XTC has got to be a contender, surely?!

 

1) Bon Chic Bon Genre (Album Version): Campag Velocet (1999)

2) Kill: Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias (1977)

3) Being Around: The Lemonheads (1994)

4) Shine Like Stars: Airport Girl (2001)

5) Traffic Light Rock: XTC (1978)

6) El Sqwubbsy's Machu Picchu Revelation: Julian Cope (1993)

7) Snuff Movie (She's Gone): Guided By Voices (1995)

8) Iggy Pop's Jacket: Those Naughty Lumps (1979)

9) I Wonder U: Prince & The Revolution (1986)

10) The Real Thing: The Maccabees (2007)

11) Girl's Best Friend: Kenickie (1996)

12) Planet Schmanet Janet: Tim Curry (1975)

 

1977: Snuff Rock EP: 2

1978: White Music: 5 

1982: To The Shores Of Lake Placid: 8

1986: Parade: 9

1994: Mrs. Robinson/Being Around EP: 3

1995: Volume Fourteen: 7

1996: Millionaire Sweeper EP: 11

1999: Bon Chic Bon Genre: 1 

2001: Honey, I'm An Artist: 4

2007: Precious Time EP: 10

2011: The Jehovahcoat Demos: 6

2014: The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Absolute Treasures (40th Anniversary Edition): 12

100 Seconds (19:38)