Can't Stop Now, Don't You Know

Happy birthday to Vincent John Martin. Who?! Vince Clarke, of course! Born 3rd July 1960.

Here's a rapid fire trawl through the video archives, with ten songs from a day job that's now in it's fifth decade. And a rare headline photo of Vince smiling! Just don't expect the same from the following videos...

This selection features of the greatest pop songs of all time, collaborations with Feargal Sharkey, Paul Quinn, Paul Hartnoll and a reunion with Martin Gore, plus stone cold classics from Yazoo and Erasure and a single from Songs Of Silence, Vince's solo album from last year. And, coming full circle, things start and end with Depeche Mode.

Have a good one, Vince!

1) Just Can't Get Enough (Swap Shop, BBC1 TV): Depeche Mode (1981)

2) Don't Go (uncredited TV performance): Yazoo (1982)

3) Never Never (Extended Version): The Assembly (1983)

4) One Day (Official Video): Vince Clarke / Paul Quinn (1985)

5) Ship Of Fools (Official Video): Erasure (1988)

6) Lowly (Official Video): VCMG (2012)

7) Better Have A Drink To Think (Official Video): Clarke : Hartnoll (2016)

8) White Rabbit (Official Video): Vince Clarke (2023)

9) Ship Of Fools (TopPop, Dutch TV): Erasure (1986)

10) Photographic (Something Else, BBC2 TV): Depeche Mode (1981) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right Now I Am Commanding You To Dance

It was perhaps inevitable that Steel Pulse were my first stop on the Glastonbury highlights tour via BBC iPlayer. 

A week or so previously, I watched a recent episode of Later...With Jools Holland, featuring former member Dr. Mykaell Riley, there to promote Beyond The Bassline: 500 Years Of Black British Music at the British Library in London and inevitably including an archive clip of Steel Pulse.

 

Mrs. K and I have also been catching up with This Town, the latest BBC series by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. Starting off in 1981, as with its predecessor, Birmingham and Coventry are as much characters in the narrative as the people and whilst it's taken a few episodes to bed in, the soundtrack is pretty great. But nothing from Steel Pulse, who formed in Erdington. A licensing issue, perhaps?

No matter, their 10-song, 50-odd minute Glastonbury set is a blaze of colour, energy and righteousness, spanning their 1978 debut album to their most recent release in 2019. Well worth a look whilst it's still available on iPlayer.

1) Ravers (True Democracy, 1982)
2) Rally Round (True Democracy, 1982)
3) Soldiers (Handsworth Revolution, 1980)
4) Chant A Psalm (True Democracy, 1982)
5) Drug Squad (Caught You, 1980)
6) Wild Goose Chase (Earth Crisis, 1984)
7) Don't Shoot (Mass Manipulation, 2019)
8) Babylon Makes The Rules (Tribute To The Martyrs, 1979)
9) Bodyguard (Earth Crisis, 1984)
10) Steppin' Out (Earth Crisis, 1984)

The only song that appears to be available more widely online is set closer Steppin' Out, available in versions galore on YouTube. Here's a performance from 1990, no idea where, in a set which flips the opening and closing songs, so you get Steppin' Out right up front. The version later appeared on the 2002 DVD Live From The Archives.

 

A notable omission from Steel Pulse's Glastonbury set this weekend is another song from their debut album Handsworth Revolution, which was my introduction to the band. 

 

Sitting in my brother's bedsit, sometime in the late 1980s, I pulled out an intriguing album called URGH! A Music War, which featured 27 songs and artists across four sides of vinyl. All live performances, some familiar names, some I'd never heard of, all great. 

Side Two ends with Steel Pulse and this version of Ku Klux Klan, recorded at The Rainbow Theatre in London on 18th September 1980. Things were never the same again.

Three Billy G.O.A.T.s

I've managed to go the whole weekend without watching a single complete set from the Glastonbury Festival. 

 

Admittedly, Lady K and I have caught a few moments whilst channel surfing but it tended to land on acts like Coldplay or Shania Twain, prompting a reflexive prod of the remote control to move swiftly on. 

Billy Nomates performed on the Leftfield stage on Saturday, though perhaps unsurprisingly after last year's appalling trolling and abuse, her set is not available to view on BBC iPlayer. A shame, as Tor Maries was easily one of 2023's highlights for this armchair festival goer and I've no doubt that she was brilliant this weekend too.

Billy Bragg joined Billy Nomates on stage for a version of the Bard of Barking's classic A New England. Sadly, no sign of this live rendition on YouTube either (yet), however Billy has shared her demo of the song, re-titled new ingland, with Billy Fuller (Beak>) on guitar. It's available as a name your price download on Bandcamp and suffice to say, it's rather special.

 

 

As a reminder or introduction, here's a selection from each of Tor's previous mixtapes/albums, tor tapes (2023), CACTI (2023) and Billy Nomates (2020), plus a new song wwid released in May.

I've reactivated the link to the Billy Nomates selection that I compiled in June 2023, which you can find here..

Tor's on tour, joining The Streets at Birmingham Centenary Square in August, then playing around the UK in November and December, culminating in a hometown gig at Strange Brew in Bristol on 5th December. I'll be there.