When Mekons Met Marc

Today's selection is the 12" version of This House Is A House Of Trouble! by Sally Timms and The Drifting Cowgirls.

What's not clear until you flip over to the back sleeve is that the lead song is a duet with Marc Almond, who also wrote the song. There was a 7" single too, but I've only ever heard the extended version, seven minutes of relationship breakdown, peppered with the sound of broken crockery and barbed insults passing back and forth between the lost lovers in the song's final moments.

I found a fan made video on You Tube, which prompted me to dig out the 12" vinyl I bought secondhand from Replay Records in Bristol sometime around 1991-92, after I had been seduced by the brilliant Mekons Rock 'n'  Roll album. It was £1.90 well spent.

Released in 1987, this was the second 'solo' single by Sally, produced by fellow Mekon Jon Langford. On this record, The Drifting Cowgirls were Jon with Brendan Croker, Emma Bolland, Rory Allam and Steve Goulding.

Two songs on the B-side. According to the sleeve, Chained To The Anchor Of Love is backed by My Little Pony...according to the label, however, the latter songs is Heaven's Gates. Which one is it? Discogs seems to defer to the latter, I can't find either on YouTube and it's late at night writing this, so I'm going to have to wait to find out until tomorrow, when I can give the record a spin.

Somebody's Rocking My Dreamboat, the sole album by Sally Timms & The Drifting Cowgirls, came out in 1988. The only song from this EP to make it is Chained To The Anchor Of Love.

This House Is A House Of Trouble! is worth tracking down, whether you're a Mekons or Marc fan, or both, a hidden gem in their respective back catalogues.

Happily, both Sally and Marc are still actively recording and performing, and Mekons are touring the UK in May.