This second #HappyMusic selection, gathering 15 songs I picked for Griff's music challenge on BlueSky, ending today. If you missed yesterday's post, songs were eligible if they:
-- make you happy
-- include the word "happy"
-- contain any variation of "happy" in the title, lyrics or band name
-- feature a synonym of "happy"
-- remind you of happiness
As with yesterday's selection, today's featured songs - with the exception of the closer - are not in the order that I posted them, as I was making it up as I went along. I'm pretty happy with how the two mixtapes worked out.
Pussycat by Mulu provided the inspiration for the album artwork for the two volumes, whilst the super final song by Al MacKenzie - one half of D:Ream - has the perfect lyrical sentiment:
"You only get one chance at life, try not to fuck it up"
I can certainly get with that.
September beckons tomorrow. What challenge will the month bring?
1) All The Daughters (Of Her Father's House) (Long Version): The Icicle Works (1985)
2) That Great Love Sound (Album Version): The Raveonettes (2003)
3) Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) (Cover of Edison Lighthouse): The Siddeleys (1990)
4) It's Going To Happen! (Album Version): The Undertones (1981)
5) Jump For Joy: U-Roy (1976)
6) Mellow Yellow: Donovan (1967)
7) Francisca (Album Version): Espiritu (1992)
8) Up, Up And Away (Happy Sexy Mix By Danny Rampling): The Beloved (1990)
#HappyMusic is one of two BlueSky music challenges I've been taking part in August, this one set by Griff, with a inclusive brief to post any music that:
-- makes you happy
-- includes the word "happy"
-- contains any variation of "happy" in the title, lyrics or band name
-- features a synonym of "happy"
-- reminds you of happiness
I started with a song by bdrmm and have been pretty much making it up as I go along ever since. I have tomorrow's final contribution picked and ready to go, so it seems as good as time as any to post my selections here over the next two days.
Goodness knows we could all do with a bit of happy right now!
Rather than create selections in the order I posted them, I've compiled two hour-long mixtapes, pulling my picks from here, there and everywhere to create what I think is a better "in one go" listening experience.
A six song selection for Saturday, some strange bedfellows, but all committed to the groove.
Fortran 5 were formed from the ashes of I Start Counting, record label Mute perhaps hoping for a smidge of commercial success, given the proliferation of sample-heavy dance music in the popular charts.
It didn't happen, and Fortran 5 remain an under appreciated gemstone compared to the diamond brightness of Orbital or The Prodigy. Crazy Earth was Fortran 5's debut single, one of many songs inspired by Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, specifically The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The sample here is from The Gnome. Isn't it good?
The Men was an experiment by The Human League Mk. I, aka Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, to see if they could have a hit single. The disco-inspired 7" single I Don't Depend On You featured Phil backed by Katie Kissoon and Lisa Strike, wasn't heavily promoted and failed to dent the charts, but remains an ear-pleasing curio.
In 2011, gkugno from Italy addressed the three-decade lack of a 12" version of I Don't Depend On You by creating an edit from the A-side and instrumental B-side aka Cruel, then posting it on YouTube. I think he did a pretty good job.
The mysterious mind behind MATDMixes has a similar M.O. What is less of a mystery is who their favourite artist is, as the YouTube page is dedicated to re-edits and remixes of music by Marina Diamandis aka Marina & The Diamonds aka Marina.
I've featured their 2020 extended mix of Living Dead in a Marina-themed Dubhed selection, but it stands just as well in this mixed crowd. I'd recommend checking out the many, many MATDMixes available online.
Circuit, Lap 2 is the sole EP in my collection by Paris-based David Rubato, though he only seems to have released a handful of singles in the late Noughties and these days practices as a music teacher.
Circuit, Lap 2 is a companion piece to 2008 single Circuit, this one containing remixes by DJ Mehdi, Steve Moore, Siriusimo and - featured here - Aeroplane.
Personal Jesus has become one of Depeche Mode's best known songs. Even back in 1989, it marked a change of direction for the Basildon boys, and a precursor to their global smash album Violator.
François Kevorkian was their go-to for remixes at this point in time and as Depeche Mode singles came in two 12" vinyl varieties by default, there were multiple FK versions of this song, including the Holier Than Thou Approach and Telephone Stomp Mix. I've gone for the Pump Mix on the limited edition remix 12", the longest of the three and stretching out that pulsing electronic groove and dropping in a TV evangelist sample here and there. Great stuff.
Betty Boo may be an unexpected choice to close this selection. However - and with apologies to the fabulous Alison Clarkson - this remix by David Morales doesn't feature her voice at all....
Catch Me was a single from second album Grrr! It's Betty Boo in 1992, which couldn't match the chart success of her debut, but was a decent attempt to expand her songwriting and performance. Happily, albums #3 and #4 arrived thirty years later and the world is a brighter place for having Betty Boo back in it.
I will endeavour to keep the happiness going tomorrow....
1) Crazy Earth (Full Greenhouse Effect Mix By Edson Arantes Di Nascimento): Fortran 5 (1990)
2) I Don't Depend On You (Extended Re-Edited Version By gkugno): The Men (2011)
3) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes): Marina & The Diamonds (2020)
4) Circuit (Aeroplane Remix By Stephen Fasano & Vito De Luca): David Rubato (2008)
5) Personal Jesus (Pump Mix By François Kevorkian): Depeche Mode (1989)
6) Catch Me (Def Version By David Morales): Betty Boo (1992)
1989: Personal Jesus EP: 5
1990: Crazy Earth EP: 1
1992: Catch Me EP: 6
2008: Circuit, Lap Two EP: 4
2011: I Don't Depend On You EP: 2
2020: Living Dead EP: 3
Four Hundred And Seventy Times Six (46:39) (GD) (M)
I loved Friendly Fires' debut album in 2008, kind of missed their follow up Pala in 2011 and was completely oblivious to their third album Inflorescent in 2019. To be honest, in 2026 I thought that Friendly Fires were no longer a going concern.
So, the arrival on Wednesday of new single Lose All Your Friends was as unexpected as it was welcome.
Co-founder Jack Savidge has departed, leaving Ed Macfarlane and Edd Gibson to continue, but this is a promising return. Rather than recreating their original sound from 2008, they've arguably gone back another twenty years, with a sound that's reminiscent of the sunset / Balearic / comedown sounds of 1988.
I'm also going to track down Pala and Inflorescent, and reacquaint myself with their self-titled debut. The latter got off to a rousing start with this single, which I misheard as "Jump In The Poo" and have been stuck with ever since...
No, Elmo, today’s post is brought to you by the letter S and the number 3! Hello, Spacemen 3!
In July, the wonderful No Badger Required blog ran a series counting down Rock's Greatest Number, that is, bands or artists with a number in their name.
I had the privilege of making nominations and casting votes as a member of the Musical Jury. That said, the role doesn't presume any expertise, knowledge or skill or that I have the faintest idea what I'm talking about. Even a casual visitor to this blog will pick up that I've spent a lifetime being out of step with musical trends and popular opinion.
Rock's Greatest Number may be considered a prime example of this, as I placed Spacemen 3 at number 15 in my Top 20 of the shortlisted candidates, which contributed to their final placement at #6 in the official countdown.
"Sixth? Sixth? What were the musical jury thinking" NBR mastermind SWC wondered at the time. "Spacemen 3 should be, oooh, five places higher, at least. They are clearly rocks greatest band to have a number in their names. Whose stupid idea was it to involve the thoughts of other people anyway….?"
It's reasonable to say that SWC's love of Spacemen 3 is well documented.
My relationship with the music of Spacemen 3 has been different and, well, complicated.
To be honest, I got annoyed with Spacemen 3 before I even heard a single note, thanks to hipster music journos in the late 1980s and early 1990s who banged on that you needed to be on drugs to really ‘get’ their music.
Although to be fair, Spacemen 3’s album titles - The Perfect Prescription (1987) and especially Taking Drugs To Make Music To Take Drugs To (1990) - didn’t exactly help provide an opposing view.
I didn’t like being told what music I should listen to and what drugs I should take to listen to it. So, I did my usual teen thing of going the opposite way.
Therefore, I skirted Spacemen 3 during their lifetime and I only found my way back to them in the mid-1990s after first falling in love with Spiritualized, the band that Jason Pierce formed immediately following.
Ironic really as, if anything, Spiritualized took the drug references to their logical and ludicrous conclusion, but I appeared to have no problem with that whatsoever.
It also took a few more years before I explored and appreciated Pete Kember's aural excursions as Sonic Boom. Which just goes to show what a hypocrite I am.
Anyway, taking to long way round to Jason and Pete's band of course revealed that Spacemen 3 made beautiful music all along. I've shared some examples below.
Today's post is also dedicated with thanks - and apologies - to SWC. Spacemen 3 should have been higher.
I'm constantly fascinated by and drawn to Daniel Avery's music, whether his own creations or his reworkings of other artists. Daniel is experiencing a particularly productive period with the latter of late, so much so that it's hard to keep track of it all.
Last week's release of Out Of My Reach by Jehnny Beth was the latest addition to a dizzying and varied collection of Daniel Avery remixes.
So, as a post-cum-shopping list, here are twelve remixes from the last couple of years, and mostly from the last 12 months. Many of them are available to buy in digital format, but I've also included links to the artist's own store or Bandcamp page so you can have a rummage around their catalogue whilst you're there.
1) Out Of My Reach (Daniel Avery Remix): Jehnny Beth
2) Atom Bomb (Daniel Avery Nuclear Summer Remix Edit): Fluke
3) The World’s Biggest Paving Slab (Daniel Avery Remix): English Teacher
Someone wisely advised not to rely on the first line of a song as the inspiration for blog post titles. However, when the above is the opening line of the opening song of Robyn HItchcock's new album, The Confuser, it would be remiss of me not to!
The Confuser actually came out a month ago yesterday and it was Monday's posting of the video for Wasted, the album's closing song and fifth single, that grabbed my attention.
So, for my benefit as much as yours, here are all five videos in tracklist order, with links to buy the album from the official website or Robyn’s Bandcamp site
Robyn's on tour, including UK dates in September and October.
Time to paws and relax with some sunny Sunday sounds from the last half-century.
A mix of familiar and unfamiliar, old and new, borrowed and blue, the common theme is that this top notch dub, perfect for soundtracking a day of doing as little or as much as you like.
Notably fewer complaints from the neighbours when this is booming from the Casa K sound system, too...
1) Rock In Dub: The Roots Radics ft. Gladstone Anderson (1982)
2) Dub Spring: Alien Dread (2017)
3) Secours Dub: Muflon Dub Sound System (2013)
4) Heart Beat Dub: Sly, Robbie & The Revolutionaries (1975)
5) Dub Of Correction: Jonah Dan / Alpha & Omega (2003)
6) Ariwacumbé ShaunVox Dub (Remix By Mad Professor): Frente Cumbiero (2010)
7) Iron Bar Dub (Album Version): Linton Kwesi Johnson (1980)
8) Go On Dub (Adrian Sherwood 'Reset In Dub’ Version): Panda Bear & Sonic Boom (2023)
9) Step It Up in Dub: King Tubby & Friends (1979)
10) Rasta Dub: Horace Andy (1977)
11) Harmoniser Dub: Dennis Bovell (1976)
12) Dub Of CCTV (Wolsey White Dub) (Remix By Gran Tourismo): Hard-Fi (2006)
1975: Hardcore Dub: 4
1977: In The Light Dub: 10
1980: LKJ In Dub: 7
1982: Radical Dub Session: 1
1994: Dub Gone Crazy: The Evolution Of Dub At King Tubby's 1975-1979: 9
But It Is by The Proclaimers nails it, a blistering, brilliant, un-tinted unstinting critique of the global shitshow that we're all bit part participants in.
The video is also excellent, revisiting the world that John Lennon Yoko Ono dreamed of in their song and video Imagine, back in 1971.
"The spirit of 85-year-old John returns to find the hypocrisy of Western countries and the tragic and sad world it is politically now."
Only director Douglas Mackinnon achieves this through the art of puppetry, adding another layer to the song's meaning.
Forty years on from their debut, a single by The Proclaimers arguably shouldn't be this good. But it is.
Today's post is dedicated to Stuart, for a friendship that's lasted even longer.
I dip into the Beat-Club channel on YT often for it's archive gems, but it's served up a treat this week, with half a dozen songs performed by Billy Preston from 1972, the final year of the German TV show's transmission.
These may be completely out of sequence from the original broadcast, but none of that detracts from the soul power emanating from the screen and speakers. Billy is on top form, with a super fit band (including the Brothers Johnson as rhythm section) and the set choices are spot on. And that's before I pay tribute to Billy and co's inestimably cool hair and wardrobe.
Just sit back and admire and wonder.
1) I Wrote A Simple Song
2) Summertime
3) Outa Space
4) My Sweet Lord
5) Hey Brother
6) Improvisation
It's two decades since Billy Preston passed in June 2006, but his reputation and influence are as strong now as ever. A CV that includes recording and performing with Little Richard, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones and, of course, The Beatles.
I Wrote A Simple Song is the title track of Billy's 1971 album, an uplifting blend of soul, gospel, funk and R&B built around that instantly recognisable keyboard style. Simple it ain't.
Summertime is the oft-covered George Gershwin song from Porgy and Bess, and appeared on the Music Is My Life album in 1972. Billy opts for an instrumental interpretation, groovy as hell, and with a mid-song break to "imagine how Bach would play it...Bach, or Beethoven." Billy puts the 'class' into 'classical'.
Outa Space is another tune from the I Wrote A Simple Song album, the title giving a hint to the journey he takes the band on. A wonder to behold.
I had no idea that George Harrison initially gifted My Sweet Lord to Billy, and his recording appeared first, on his 1970 album Encouraging Words. Harrison's own version is so embedded in my psyche that it remains the definitive take, but I love this uplifting, gospel infused predecessor. And wait til you get to 2:30...
Hey Brother takes the tempo down a tad, but dials up the funk and soul. Again, a nod to the whole band here, it's a joy to watch these pros weaving in and out of the groove.
Lastly, an untitled improvised, just over a minute, but as satisifying as a hearty meal. Jools Holland was taking note.
Wee Papa Girl Rappers were London-based hip hop duo and sisters Sandra Lawrence aka Total S, and Samantha Lawrence aka TY Tim.
The group name was inspired by their father, originally from the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia and prone to using the French Creole expression "Oui Papa", which the sisters phonetically adapted into their stage identity.
Following an early break as backing singers for Feargal Sharkey, Zeke Manyika and Brilliant, the siblings formed Wee Papa Girl Rappers in 1987. Signed to Jive Records, their debut single Rock The Clock didn't make a signficant impression, but 1988 saw an upturn in their fortunes. Second single Faith got to #60 in March and Heat It Up (with 2 Men & A Drum Machine but no trumpet) peaked at #21 in June.
And then there was Wee Rule. By their own admission more "in a dancehall style" than hip hop, it struck a chord with the record buying public and reached #6 in October 1988, as well as wider Top 20 success across Europe.
It was a great time for female rap artists, Wee Papa Girl Rappers alongside the Cookie Crew and Monie Love. Their debut album, The Beat The Rhyme And The Noise, cracked the Top 40 in November 1988.
Unfortunately, December's follow up single Soulmate stalled at #45, and Blow The House Down in March 1989 was their lowest (and final) charting UK single, at #65.
Second album Be Aware arrived in 1990, along with a slew of singles in the next few years, but chart success eluded them. A brief break and reformation as The Wee Papas in 1992 sadly didn't revive their commercial fortunes and the sisters called time on the group in 1994.
Tragically, Samantha passed away in December 2024, at the age of 55.
The legacy Samantha created with older sister Sandra as Wee Papa Girl Rappers, perfectly encapsulated in Wee Rule, lives on, a joyous, celebratory three and a half minutes that gets me moving every time.
Dipping into my blog archives for a review of the 1998 Grace Jones compilation, Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions, which I reviewed on 14th August 2005 and rejigged and expanded slightly on 18th August 2026.
Private Life: The Compass Point Sessions is a 26-track 2CD collection, covering Jones’ work with Chris Blackwell, Alex Sadkin and Sly & Robbie between 1980 and 1982, with the addition of 1985’s Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson produced Slave To The Rhythm, plus rarities and previously unreleased songs from the Living My Life album sessions in 1982.
The majority of these tracks and versions are previously unavailable on CD, and provide a fascinating overview of Grace Jones’ incredibly strong body of work. Opening with vocal and dub versions of Private Life, written by Chrissie Hynde, Jones’ ability to reinterpret (and ultimately own) other people’s songs continues with Roxy Music’s Love Is The Drug, Bill Withers’ Use Me and Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control, taking in diverse acts such as The Police, Iggy Pop, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and The Normal along the way, and including an unearthed demo of Ring Of Fire, originally recorded by Anita Carter in 1962, but turned into a global hit the following year by brother-in-law Johnny Cash.
As good as these cover versions are, Grace's own songs, such as Pull Up To The Bumper, Nipple To The Bottle, My Jamaican Guy and Living My Life more than hold their own. It'll be of little surprise to note that Sly & Robbie’s drum and bass lead an incredibly tight band and it’s hard to imagine how this album could sound better.
One small gripe about the inclusion of Slave To The Rhythm, though. Although a great song in it’s own right, it’s mid-80s, characteristically Trevor Horn/ZTT sound make it an incongruous, glossy add-on to an otherwise dub-inflected set, even if the version is (ever so slightly) different from the original 12" version and therefore unique to this compilation.
Matching the quality of the music within, the gorgeously illustrated CD booklet includes an engrossing piece by music writer Brian Chin. If you’re a Grace Jones fan, you should already have bought this on release in 1998. For anyone else, get it now, you won’t be disappointed.
This started off with Ever So Lonely by Monsoon shuffling into play the other day, and became a bit more of a deep dive into other appearances by Sheila Chandra on YouTube.
Ever So Lonely was a key song for me in the early 1980s, like Living On The Ceiling by Blancmange, introducing this curious kid to Indian instruments in pop music, Monsoon having the advantage of Sheila as frontperson, a mesmerising presence.
The subsequent singles did not match the success of Ever So Lonely, to the extent that the record label asked Monsoon to drop the "Indian elements" of their music, like it was just a passing phase or interest, rather than theit core reason for being.
Unsurprisingly, Sheila and founder Steve Coe called time on Monsoon and returned to his IndiPop label to focus on solo releases.
I discovered Sheila - and specifically Speaking In Tongues - on a mid-90s compilation, but the seeds of this playful accapella music were planted in her earlier solo releases, as can be seen in a Swedish TV appearance in 1984.
Monsoon was a studio band, so Sheila didn't really start performing live until several albums into her solo career. At which point, she was unlike anything audiences may have experienced before, even those who were fans of other music on her then-label Real World.
Here's an example of Sheila's incredible performance of Speaking In Tongues II in 1992.
A good decade before The One Show, BBC1's staple magazine show was Pebble Mill, hosted in 1994 by Alan 'Titch' Titchmarsh (still plugging his brand of amiable bland today, albeit on ITV).
Thankfully this clip spares us the preceding interview with wildfire absurdist Ian 'Beefy' Botham, and sees Sheila patiently explaining her music to Titch before performing Speaking In Tongues III.
It is well documented that Sheila was subsequently afflicted with burning mouth syndrome, which ended her career as a singer and actress in 2009. Her husband Steve Coe also passed in 2013.
Sheila found her voice through writing and mentoring and I've just discovered this 50 minute interview with Sheila from the end of last year, which covers key moments in her life and the challenges that she has overcome. An inspirational woman.
In September, Real World releases Echo, billed as Sheila's final album, a collection of live performances of songs from her career, trailed with a stunning rendition of Ever So Lonely, Eyes and Ocean.
Last month, I travelled to London to see Scritti Politti at the Southbank Centre in London.
It almost didn't happen. Again. Long-time readers may recall my heartbroken post on Saturday 2nd October 2021, when I had to pass up the opportunity to see Scritti Politti perform Cupid & Psyche 85 in its entirety at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.
As in 2021, I'd bought multiple tickets, planning this as a Clan K excursion to The Big Smoke, maybe an overnight, taking in some other sights and sounds whilst we were there.
What helped was that Green Gartside's crew were playing two shows that day as part of a wider celebration of Rough Trade's 50th birthday. So, going for the matinee show was a no-brainer. A leisurely train journey to London, check in at a hotel, a spot of lunch, the show, then the evening as we pleased.
Of course it was never going to be that straightforward. In a real-life comedy of errors, obstacles began to converge, culminating in having to reschedule Mama K-in-Law's stay at Casa K so that it overlapped with our planned London excursion.
The upshot is that the family trip became a solo there-and-back-in-a-day journey. Even then, the fates seemed to be conspiring to prevent me getting to London at all.
I'd booked a return journey from Chippenham to Paddington but even allowing extra travel time, a horrendous succession of obstacles en route, from heavily laden tractors, to a motorist who can only have been moving their car by sticking their feet through the bottom, a la Fred Flintstone, meant that I arrived at the platform just in time to see my booked train departing on time. That last bit is important.
No problem, I thought, I'll just hop on the next one. Except the arrival time came and went with no update. And then it delayed by 5 minutes. Then 10 minutes. Then 15 minutes. Then just 'delayed'.
When the train eventually arrived, we all crammed on, standing room only. And then nothing. And then an announcement that the train was being held so that the police could attend a serious incident on board. And then a police officer walking determinedly though the train, checking to toilets next to us on the way. And then a few minutes later, a different police officer coming in the opposite direction, doing exactly the same thing.
Eventually, the train got on the move... only for an announcement that the service was now terminating at Reading and we'd all have to get off and hop on another London-bound service. At this point, I realised that I'd left my will to live back at Chippenham.
That was the worst of it, though. I made it to Reading, made it to Paddington and, a relatively short while later, I found myself exiting Waterloo tube station and a short walk from the Southbank Centre. Hallelujah!
Unfortunately, no time for the pre-gig lunch and leisurely amble that I had envisaged, it was a light jog to the Southbank Centre to get there in time for the start of the show.
My first visit to Queen Elizabeth Hall and I found my 'rear stalls' seats a few rows down from the back of a steep, tiered theatre set up. One advantage of not being able to flog the unused Clan K tickets was that I now had three seats to myself and a pretty decent view of the stage.
The support was billed as "Tyler Ballgame Sings Rough Trade". I'd heard a little about Tyler, but not enough to have much of an opinion. That all changed with the opening moments of the opening song, The Beatles' Long, Long, Long accompanied by piano and (as it happened, for this song only) Tyler on acoustic guitar, and the voice of an angel.
From there, a sublime and spine-tingling cover of Fade Into You by Mazzy Star, followed by River Man, Tyler recounting that a shared love of Nick Drake at his first meeting with Geoff Travis and Jeanette Lee was the sign that Rough Trade was the label for him. (The Beatles was Jeanette's pick BTW).
Another Rough Trade classic, with Arthur Russell's Words Of Love, then a new song Lucky Ones and, to close, perhaps inevitably, with The Smiths' Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want.
Einschmarrnhalt has kindly posted the latter on YT. It was ten times better in the moment.
Suffice to say, I am now a full convert to Tyler Ballgame's musical magnificence. It was a fantastically wonderful start to the concert.
There wasn't long to wait before the main event at just after 4.00pm. Knowing that ‘doors open’ for the evening show was at 6.00pm, I'd come in expecting that Scritti Politti's set would be little more than an hour. When the back catalogue is full to bursting with bona fide classics, then how could I or anyone be disappointed with the setlist, whatever it turned out to be?
Even so, there was a tangible thrill when Green and the band took to the stage and the intro of The 'Sweetest Girl' kicked in. I was sufficiently far away that the band were a bit of a blur, but when Green started singing there is no way that this was a man who had celebrated his 71st birthday the previous month. It was like being a kid, hearing this song for the first time, all over again.
Apart from a relatively brief technical hitch with Green's guitar (and a "FFS!") and another moment when he was struggling to find the right key to start a song, until the keyboard player pointed out that he needed to swap guitars, all of Scritti Politti were super tight, especially given that this was their first gig in four years.
Personally, I enjoy the occasional fluffs and fudges in a gig, it's what makes them unique and the outpouring of love from the audience to stage - frequent cries of "We love you, Green!" - mean that even a calamitous show would have been forgiven. No worries here though, the songs weren't just faithful reproductions of the studio versions - how could they be? - but they really came alive on stage.
As such, placing Skank Bloc Bologna between The Word Girl and Perfect Way didn't seem jarring at all. There was no attempt to smooth out the edges of the spiky 1978 single and yet it also sounded oddly contemporary, thanks to the skill of the band.
Green's introductory 'sleeve notes' for several songs also made entertaining insight into Scritti's early years, the quantum leap with Cupid & Psyche 85 and Green's frequently documented love of hip hop. This paved the way to the inclusion of the as-yet unreleased song, Trentavious White, the birth name of rapper Bankroll Fresh, shot dead in 2016 aged 28.
A slightly more reserved response to this song perhaps, compared to the others. Personally, I hope it sees the light of day on an official release.
Cupid & Psyche 85 is heavily represented, with Small Talk, Wood Beez and set closer Absolute joining the aforementioned The Word Girl and Perfect Way. All four studio albums were covered, sadly just the one from Anhomie & Bonhomie, but selecting Brushed With Oil Dusted With Powder was spot on.
Likewise, it was great to hear Asylums In Jerusalem, Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy) and The Boom Boom Bap, though the very best was saved to last.
Coming back on stage for a single encore, and a second song from White Bread Black Beer, Petrococadollar is one of the finest songs Green has ever written and by this time I was an emotional mess. The cheers and applause continued long after the band had left the stage.
The journey home was a doddle by comparison, helped by the fact that I was positively levitating with happiness pretty much all the way back. I'm sad that Mrs. K and Lady K weren't able to share the experience with me, but I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to see Scritti Politti live in concert a second time, and Tyler Ballgame the first.
On paper, at nearly £100 for the three tickets, plus train fare, this is one of the most expensive gigs I've been to. I don't regret a single penny and I would do it all over again, if I had to. Even the nightmare journey to get there.
One of those very special moments that will stay with me for a long, long, long time.
1) The 'Sweetest Girl' (Single Version ft. Robert Wyatt) (1981)
2) Small Talk (Album Version) (1985)
3) The Word Girl / Flesh & Blood (12" Version By Julian Mendelsohn ft. Ranking Ann) (1985)
4) Skank Bloc Bologna (Single Version) (1978)
5) Perfect Way (Single Version) (1985)
6) The Boom Boom Bap (Album Version) (2006)
7) Asylums In Jerusalem (Album Version) (1982)
8) Oh Patti (Don't Feel Sorry For Loverboy) (Album Version ft. Miles Davis) (1988)
9) Trentavious White (unreleased; not included in this selection)
10) Brushed With Oil Dusted With Powder (Album Version) (1999)
11) Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) (Single Version) (1985)
