WareHouse

Happy 69th birthday to Martyn Ware, born 19th May 1956.

Founder member of both The Human League, The British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.) and Heaven 17, Martyn has also had a hugely successful career as a production, working with the likes of Tina Turner, Erasure and Terence Trent D'Arby.

Today's selection pulls together some extended examples of Martyn's production prowess, which pretty much speak for themselves. 

Have a good one, Martyn!

1) Those First Impressions (Extended Version): Associates (1984)

2) Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Parts One And Two) (Uninterrupted Single Version): Heaven 17 (1983)

3) Medley: Rock 'n' Roll / Nightclubbing: The Human League (1980)

4) Wishing Well (Three Coins In The Fountain Mix): Terence Trent D'Arby (1987)

5) I Don't Depend On You (Extended Re-Edited Version By gkugno): The Men (1979/2011)

6) Brilliant Creatures (Album Version): Marc Almond (1996)

7) Party Fears Two (Album Version): B.E.F. ft. Glenn Gregory (2013)

1980: Holiday '80 EP: 3

1983: Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry EP: 2

1984: Those First Impressions EP: 1

1987: Wishing Well EP: 4

1996: Fantastic Star: 6

2011: I Don't Depend On You EP: 5

2013: Music Of Quality And Distinction Volume 3: Dark: 7

WareHouse (47:00) (KF) (Mega)

Tell Me Easter's On Sunday

It's Easter, it's Sunday, it's time for a themed Dubhed Selection that doesn't include Easter by Patti Smith Group.. 

Ten songs, three quarters of an hour. This one's dedicated to Jez over at the excellent A History Of Dubious Taste for championing Kris Kristofferson via his Sunday Morning Coming  Down series. Jez provided my proper introduction to Kris' music, without which I'd be missing the rather wonderful opening song for today's selection.

In one of those happy coincidences, the song's synth outro segues perfectly with the intro to Easter by Repeat, despite being separated by over twenty years and several genres. 

Repeat was a mid-90s collaboration between Dave 'Not the Slade guitar player' Hill, Mark Broom and Plaid aka Andy Turner and Ed Handley. They released a few 12" singles and an album. Easter was a one-off 12" in 2001 and judging credited solely to Dave Hill and Mark Broom.

An Easter compilation would be incomplete without Easter Song by A Man Called Adam, with some lovely flute by Eddie Parker, who gets a co-writing credit on the song.

Scotland is well represented, with four - count 'em, four - bands. The first pair are Simple Minds and The Blue Nile, both from the early 80s. Simple Minds were in that transitional phase between avant garde, angular pop and overblown anthemic rock. The Blue Nile had just released their debut album, and it would be another six years before the follow up. An eternity then, a blink in the eye these days.

Psychedelic pop has managed to sustain in each decade since the 1960s. Julian Cope makes an inevitable appearance with Easter Everywhere, named after the 13th Floor Elevators' second album. Later, XTC deliver another slice of end of the millennium gorgeousness from their Apple Venus Volume 1 album. 

Anderson (Matt to his friends and folks, Anderson (26) to Discogs) is new to me, but delivers a jolly slice of electronica that bounces along nicely. I must investigate further.

The final brace of Scottish legends are Eugenius and Associates. Eugenius were initially called Captain America, until Marvel Comics knocked on their door. A forced change of name had no impact whatsoever on the quality of their music.

Associates (sometime prefixed by 'The' sometimes not) faced a different set of challenges, internal and external, but the impact of the music that Alan Rankine and Billy MacKenzie produced in their brief time together has sustained.

After a glut of Easter today, something completely different on Monday. 

1) Easter Island: Kris Kristofferson (1978)

2) Easter: Repeat (2001)

3) Easter Song (Radio Edit): A Man Called Adam (1999)

4) East At Easter: Simple Minds (1984)

5) Easter Everywhere (Album Version): Julian Cope (1988)

6) Easter Eggs: Anderson (2020)

7) Easter Parade: The Blue Nile (1983)

8) Easter Theatre: XTC (1999)

9) Easter Bunny (Single Version w/ Reprise): Eugenius (1993)

10) Tell Me Easter's On Friday: Associates (1981)

1978: Easter Island: 1

1981: Tell Me Easter's On Friday EP: 10

1983: A Walk Across The Rooftops: 7

1984: Sparkle In The Rain: 4

1988: My Nation Underground: 5

1993: Easter Bunny EP: 9

1999: Apple Venus Volume 1: 8

1999: Easter Song EP: 3

2001: Easter EP: 2

2020: Easter Eggs EP: 6

Tell Me Easter's On Sunday (46:46) (KF) (Mega)

Decade II: 1982

Side 1 of a cassette compilation, recorded sometime in March 1990, lost sometime in the next two decades, reimagined and recreated 11th August 2024.

 

And the hits just keep on coming...

 

If you were here for last weekend's opening brace of 80s-themed mixtapes, you'll know that of the five cassettes I recorded in 1990, only three remain. 

 

The two lost volumes covered 1982 to 1985 and I've had a go at recreating the track listing and cover art (kind of) from scratch. Some songs I vaguely recall being on the original mixtapes, others I've no idea, but I've excluded any songs that I couldn't have owned or borrowed in spring 1990. Lots had to be left out, inevitably, but I think the end results are faithful reproductions that sit well with their contemporary cassettes.

 

1982 was another fantastic year for pop and I realise how lucky I was to grow up surrounded by all this diverse and exciting music troubling the Top 40. Synths were fully embedded in the mainstream by now but with all sorts of influences and flavours stirred in. 

 

Looking back, there's a marked shift towards heavy marketing and promo by this point: videos, double pack 7" and 12" picture discs with free posters, saturation on kids' TV shows, and so on. If a single wasn't a hit, it would be re-mixed, re-recorded and re-re-re-released until, damn it, it became a hit.

Kiss Me is a prime example of this. Stephen Duffy originally formed the band Tin Tin with a couple of guys from Fashion, a Dexys Midnight Runner and producer Bob Lamb. Kiss Me was their debut single in November 1982 and flopped. The single was remixed and released in the USA by François Kevorkian in 1983 and became a minor club hit. 

 

Taking notice, Duffy's label released the remix in the UK in 1984 and it scraped to #78. Undeterred, Kiss Me was remixed yet again, this time by J.J. Jeczalik (Art Of Noise) and Nicholas Froome, and given one last shot in early 1985. Fourth time lucky, as Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy reached the dizzy heights of #4 and enjoyed several other hits afterwards.

I've cheated a little here and gone for François Kevorkian's remix from 1983, partly because I didn't own the original Tin Tin single back in the day and partly because it's a much better version than the 1982 original.

I've also plumped for the 12" remix of Talk Talk's eponymous single to open proceedings. An early purchase from Plastic Wax Records in Bristol, back when it was in Old Market, opposite the Trinity. As with most Talk Talk extended mixes, there are fewer vocals than the single/album version and lots of none-more-80s bridges, bells and whistles.

I was tempted to drop in the 12" mix of Party Fears Two by Associates but it pops up quite frequently in my 80s mixtapes so I've stuck with the single version here instead. Hearing this for the first time on Top Of The Pops was an attention-grabbing moment and began a lifelong love of Billy MacKenzie. What a voice.

Making their debut here along with Talk Talk are Tears For Fears, Blancmange and Scritti Politti, who will all (probably) reappear in later volumes. Others, like Yazoo, ABC and Monsoon make one-time appearances in this series.

Squeeze wrapped up an incredible run of singles with Annie Get Your Gun, recorded to promote their essential compilation, 45s And Under. 

And should any 1982 collection be without Pete Wylie's epic The Story Of The Blues? No Wah!, sorry, no way!

 

No prizes for guessing the year in tomorrow's post...

1) Talk Talk (Extended Mix Long Version): Talk Talk

2) Don't Go (Album Version): Yazoo

3) Party Fears Two (Single Version): Associates

4) Living On The Ceiling (Single Remix): Blancmange

5) The Story Of The Blues Part One (Single Version): Wah!

6) Mad World (Album Version): Tears For Fears

7) Kiss Me (U.S. Remix) (7" Version): Tin Tin

8) Poison Arrow (Single Version): ABC

9) Windpower (Single Version): Thomas Dolby

10) Ever So Lonely (Single Version): Monsoon

11) Asylums In Jerusalem (Album Version): Scritti Politti

12) Annie Get Your Gun (Single Version): Squeeze

Side One (45:46) (KF) (Mega)

Our Children Shall Rise Up Against Us Because We Are The Ones To Blame

Don't worry, there hasn't been a revolt at Casa K. Instead, here's some agit from the late 1970s, embracing punk, post-punk, post-modern, post-Mott and stick-it-in-your-pipe-and-smoke-it sounds from 15 of the best.

British Lions formed from the ashes of Mott The Hoople (via Mott) with John Fiddler (Medicine Head) taking front of stage. One More Chance To Run was their debut single and the opening track of their eponymous first album.

Quite a few self-titled debut albums featured here, now that I think about it, taking in The Clash, Tubeway Army, Squeeze, The B-52's, The Pretenders and (almost) Public Image Ltd. and Talking Heads.

 

A first appearance here for Sham 69 with - what else? - Hersham Boys and inevitable returns from Siouxsie & The Banshees, Magazine, Associates and The Jam. 

The closing song - and inspiration for today's post title - is We Are All Prostitutes, the blistering debut single by Bristol's own The Pop Group. 

 

It's been nearly a year since Mark Stewart tragically left us, so much to say in 1979 and so much still to say when he passed on in 2023. This one's for Mark and anyone who has spoken up and called out wrong doing.

Even so, our children shall rise up against us because we are the ones to blame.

 

1) One More Chance To Run: British Lions (1977)

2) What's My Name: The Clash (1977)

3) Hersham Boys (Long Version By Jimmy Pursey & Peter Wilson): Sham 69 (1979)

4) Poppy Day (John Peel Session): Siouxsie & The Banshees (1979) 

5) My Shadow In Vain: Tubeway Army (1978)

6) Attack: Public Image Ltd. (1978)

7) The Light Pours Out Of Me (Album Version By John Leckie): Magazine (1978)

8) Boys Keep Swinging (Cover of David Bowie): Associates (1979)

9) Sex Master: Squeeze (1978)

10) Marooned: Wire (1978)

11) Don't Worry About The Government: Talking Heads (1977)

12) 6060-842: The B-52's (1979)

13) News Of The World: The Jam (1978)

14) Brass In Pocket: The Pretenders (1979)

15) We Are All Prostitutes (Single Version By Dennis Bovell): The Pop Group (1979) 

 

We Are The Ones To Blame (46:05) (KF) (Mega)

 

We Are All Prostitutes

We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
Everyone
 
And you too will learn to live the lie
And you too will learn to live the lie
And you too will learn to live the lie
Everyone has their price
 
Aggression
Competition
Ambition
Consumer fascism
Consumer fascism
 
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
We are all prostitutes
Everyone has their price
Everyone
 
Capitalism is the most barbaric of all religions
 
Department stores are our new cathedrals
Department stores are our new cathedrals
Our cars are martyrs to the cause
Our cars are martyrs to the cause
 
Our children shall rise up against us
Our children shall rise up against us
Because
Because we are the ones to blame
Because we are the ones to blame
Because
Because
They will give us a new name, we shall be
Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

Hypocrites

No Games

It feels like an age since I've posted an 80s 12" mixtape inspired selection on a Friday. I haven't checked, it's probably been a couple of weeks but what the heck, repetition celebrates and devalues!

I've kept my sights firmly on 1982 and 1983 for today's deadly eight, so expect some of the emerging 'big' sounds, stuttering edits and extended breaks that the 12" format was playing with at the time. 

The only two I owned at the time were the cassette version of the Talking Heads album Speaking In Tongues, which featured exclusive extended versions of several tracks including Slippery People, and the 12" of Our Lips Are Sealed by Fun Boy Three, the 'Special Remix Version' incorporating a spoken word second half that at the time was quite a surprise but which I quickly grew to love.

I also owned Seven Singles Deep, the mini-LP collection of extended A-sides by The Icicle Works, although the version of Birds Fly is a remix that featured on the 12" single in the USA. The version of Paper House by Associates featured on the re-release of The Affectionate Punch, which was remixed and repackaged in the wake of Party Fears Two and the album Sulk. Elvis Costello & The Attractions and The Beat were very belated acquisitions in the 21st century and worth the price of admission alone, in my opinion.

 

China was a B-side on the very first 12" single release of Dance Hall Days in 1982 back when Wang Chung were called Huang Chung. Sadly, Wang Chuang were cruelly denied a place in SWC's current Rock's Greatest W series over at the frankly essential No Badger Required. Should I have the privilege of participating in a future Rock's Greatest H, I am poised to nominate...

Rounding off today's selection is The Last Film by the wonderful Kissing The Pink, whose hugely enjoyable Anthology 5CD box set was propelled through the letter box at Casa K a couple of weeks ago. They were bonkers to say the least and the three 1980s albums included are markedly different in style and sound but all the better for it. To many, The Last Film is their 'one hit wonder', a reminder of a time when quite out there pop could also be a hit.

 

1) Let Them All Talk (Extended 12" Remix By Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley): Elvis Costello & The Attractions ft. The TKO Horns (1983)

2) China (American Extended Remix By Roger Bechirian): Huang Chung (1982)

3) Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly) (Extended Club Remix By Steve Thompson): The Icicle Works (1983)

4) Paper House (Remix By Associates & Mark Arthurworrey): Associates (1982)

5) Slippery People (Cassette Mix By Talking Heads & Alex Sadkin): Talking Heads (1983)

6) Save It For Later (Extended Remix By Bob Sargent): The Beat (1982)

7) Our Lips Are Sealed (Special Remix Version By Fun Boy Three & Jeremy Green): Fun Boy Three (1983) 

8) The Last Film (Hymn Version - Extended By Kissing The Pink, David King & Neil Richmond): Kissing The Pink (1983) 

 

No Games (44:10) (KF) (Mega)

Don't Sing

After the runaway success* of my Senza Voce post back in September 2022, it's only taken 532 days for me to produce a sequel. Yep, as the title suggests, today's selection is 45 minutes of instrumental versions of songs you might not have been familiar with in the first place.

Shorn of the distraction of vocal workouts from the likes of Russell Mael, Billy MacKenzie, Boy George, Jim Kerr and Liam Gallagher, the songs are allowed to breathe and find their own space in the listener's consciousness. 

 

Well, that or the record label needed to pad out a single release and what better than karaoke versions. I mean, I don't know about you but there's nothing better I enjoy of an evening than standing in front of a mirror, hairbrush in hand, belting out Thompson Twins' greatest hits, pretending I'm Tom Bailey.

Oh. 

Just me, then.

 

1) The Rhythm Thief (Instrumental): Sparks (2002)

2) Only One In Your Love (Instrumental Remix): Botany 5 (1991)

3) Breakfast Alone (Instrumental Version): Associates (1985)

4) Komputer Pop (Inst.): Komputer (1998)

5) (Long) Beach Culture (Instrumental): Thompson Twins (1982)

6) Jungleland (Instrumental): Simple Minds (1986)

7) Shine A Light (Instrumental): Beady Eye (2013)

8) Il Adore (Instrumental): Boy George (1995)

 

1982: Lies EP: 5

1984: Breakfast EP: 3 

1986: Ghostdancing EP: 6

1991: Only One In Your Love EP: 2 

1995: Il Adore EP: 8

1998: Terminus EP: 4

2004: Lil' Beethoven (Deluxe Edition): 1

2013: BE Instrumentals (bootleg): 7

 

Don't Sing (45:49) (KF) (Mega) 

You can find Senza Voce here

* Well, Charity Chic and Middle Aged Man seemed to like it, anyway.

Are You My Only Friend?

Celebrating Billy MacKenzie, born 27th March 1957. Twenty six years gone, never forgotten.

1) The Girl That Took Me: Associates (1985)

2) Green For Grief: Associates (1979)

3) Achieved In The Valley Of The Dolls: Barry Adamson ft. Billy Mackenzie (1996)

4) Strasbourg Square: Associates (1990)

5) Mona Property Girl (Single Version): Associates (1979)

6) International Loner: Associates (1993)

7) 3 Gypsies In A Restaurant: Billy MacKenzie (1996)

8) Kites (Full Length Version) (Cover of The Rooftop Singers): 39 Lyon Street (1981)

9) Feels Like The Richtergroove: Billy MacKenzie (1992)

10) Breakfast (David 'Kid' Jensen Session): Associates (1983)

 

1979: Boys Keep Swinging EP: 5

1980: Mona Property Girl 

1981: Kites EP: 8

1985: Take Me To The Girl EP: 1

1990: Wild And Lonely: 4 

1992: Colours Will Come EP: 9

1994: The Radio 1 Sessions: 10

1996: Oedipus Schmoedipus: 3 

1997: Beyond The Sun: 7

2000: Double Hipness: 2, 6

 

Are You My Only Friend? (44:29) (Box) (Mega)

Can You Believe Everything I See?

Celebrating Alan Rankine, 17th May 1958 to 3rd January 2023.

 

Another loss, another shock. I can't find the words* but I was struck by Alan Rankine from the first moment I saw Associates in the pages of Smash Hits and on TV with Top Of The Pops. I mean, Billy MacKenzie looked fabulous and had a voice unlike any I'd ever heard before, but I found Alan equally compelling. Those cheekbones, the black hair and widow's peak, that piercing stare. And the music was just astonishing. My starting point was Sulk, though I was drawn back to The Affectionate Punch and the Fourth Drawer Down compilation to discover more brilliance.

 

Whilst the combination of Alan and Billy was something unique and arguably neither could quite recreate that magic apart, Alan released three albums in the 1980s each containing some gems whilst also producing great music for other artists throughout the same decade, returning to the controls for Belle & Sebastian's debut album Tigermilk in 1996 (drummer Richard Colburn was on a Music Business course at Stow College in Glasgow, taught by Rankine).

 

There will be lots of tributes out there that attempt to capture how much Alan Rankine contributed, as a musician, a producer, a teacher and a passionate advocate for the wonder of making music. Ironically, during the tail end of lockdown I discovered some wonderful interviews with Alan by Grant McPhee, giving the backstory to the recording of the Associates' album. I've included a link to Grant's YouTube page, you won't be disappointed. I also want to give a nod to Post Punk Monk's tribute to Alan, one of the earliest to appear in the blogosphere but an excellent overview of the man and his music.

This is inevitably another hastily cobbled together selection. Thinking that there will be lots of focus elsewhere on Alan's work with Billy MacKenzie as Associates, I've tried to take a slightly broader view, taking in Alan's production and solo material. It's a dozen songs in a smidge over one hour, but I think it just about does Alan justice.

Rest easy, Alan.

 

1) Can You Believe Everything I See? (Part 3): Alan Rankine (1987)

2) Be Thankful For What You've Got (Single Version) (Cover of William DeVaughn): Sunset Gun (1984)

3) We Rule The School: Belle & Sebastian (1996)

4) The Sandman (Remix): Alan Rankine (1987)

5) Glory To The Take And The Killing: Alan Rankine (1989)

6) Mona Property Girl (Single Version): Associates (1979)

7) Hazel (Single Version): Cocteau Twins (1983)

8) Something Good (Extended Version): Paul Haig (1989)

9) Summer (Single Version): Anna Domino (1986)

10) Skipping (Album Version): Associates (1982)

11) Can You Believe Everything I See? (Parts 1 & 2): Alan Rankine (1987)

12) Love In Adversity: Alan Rankine (1986)

 

1979: Boys Keep Swinging EP: 6

1982: Sulk: 10

1983: Peppermint Pig EP: 7

1984: Be Thankful For What You've Got EP: 2

1986: Summer EP: 9 

1986: The World Begins To Look Her Age: 12 

1987: The Sandman EP: 1, 4

1987: The World Begins To Look Her Age EP: 11

1989: Something Good EP: 8

1989: The Big Picture Sucks: 5

1996: Tigermilk: 3

 

Can You Believe Everything I See? (1:00:02) (Box) (Mega)

* I appreciate the irony of saying that "I can't find the words" and then rambling on for several paragraphs...!

Hokey Karaoke

Volume 1 of a CD-R of cover versions recorded for my friend Stuart on 19th August 2008.

 

I love a cover version and my forays into cassette compilations included many made up of people singing other people's songs. Many of the songs featured here have cropped up on previous mixtapes but I quite like the flow of this CD-R that I made for my friend's birthday a decade and a half ago. Always one for overdoing things, this was the first of three volumes that I gifted him at the time.

My Bloody Valentine start off with their version of the key song from the sixth James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, originally recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1969. If you're expecting a typical MBV wall of noise, you'll be disappointed; unexpectedly, it's a faithful and rather lovely cover version.

A few cover versions go acoustic. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly deliver an urgent Northern take on Gallic dance duo Justice. Devine & Statton aka Ian Devine (nee Pinchcombe) from Ludus and Alison Statton from Young Marble Giants and Weekend team up for a beautifully stripped down version of a New Order classic. I remember hearing this on the John Peel show back in 1989. Australian band Frente! were clearly paying attention. Deacon Blue aren't particular favourites of mine but anyone willing to have a stab at a Julian Cope song gets a thumbs up from me. 

Several versions take the song in interesting directions. Whilst not surpassing the originals, they've come up with a different approach that makes the song their own. Primal Scream are the first in line, with an amped up, dirty version of The Clash's Know Your Rights. Tunng go all folky with club classic Naked In The Rain by Blue Pearl, whilst Locust offer up an almost jazz lounge duet on Depeche Mode's Master And Servant. 

 

I'm also a big fan of Mark Eitzel's uptempo but downbeat run through Move On Up by Curtis Mayfield. Associates' bold debut in 1979, covering Boys Keep Swinging weeks after the original was released, is every bit as good as David Bowie. If I had to choose between the two, Anita Lane's unique take on Sexual Healing, ably assisted by Mick Harvey and Barry Adamson, surpasses Marvin Gaye's original.

Ciccone Youth aka Sonic Youth take things to the natural and extreme end with a version of Robert Palmer recorded in a karaoke booth. The video - recorded in the same booth for $25 - is a striking send up of the overblown original, Kim Gordon's deadpan singing and lacklustre dancing against a backdrop of images from the Vietnam War. I vaguely recall watching this on a late night TV show and the studio guests ripping the song and video to shreds, but they were woefully missing the point.

Speaking of overblown, sometimes the only way to do a cover is go even bigger and louder. Stairway To Heaven is one of those songs indelibly etched in the memory of my childhood listening to music on the radio and has been covered countless times over the last half-century. I remember being subjected to a version during a school assembly in the 1980s by a 'supergroup' made up of my Biology, Geography and P.E. teachers. It wasn't pretty.

Like many, seeing Aki Kaurismäki's 1989 road movie Leningrad Cowboys Go America was my first introduction to the titular Finnish band. Leningrad Cowboys continued to release records up to 2013 but they appear to have disbanded some time after. Their version of the Led Zeppelin song came from a collaborative album with The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble aka The Alexandrov Ensemble aka The Red Army Choir, the official choir of the Russian armed forces. Tragically, on Christmas Day in 2016, 64 members of the Ensemble were killed when their plane crashed into the Black Sea.

The world has changed dramatically this year and collaborating with the official choir of the Russian armed forces is unlikely to be on anyone's wish list, now or any time in the foreseeable future. How different things were in 2008 when I compiled this collection.

 

1) We Have All The Time In The World: My Bloody Valentine sing Louis Armstrong (1993)

2) Know Your Rights (Full Length Version): Primal Scream sing The Clash (1994)

3) There's A Ghost In My House: The Fall sing R. Dean Taylor (1987)

4) Naked In The Rain (Rob Da Bank Session): Tunng sing Blue Pearl (2007)

5) D.A.N.C.E.: Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly sing Justice (2008)

6) Move On Up: Mark Eitzel sings Curtis Mayfield (2002)

7) Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime: Beck sings The Korgis (2004)

8) Bizarre Love Triangle: Devine & Statton sing New Order (1989)

9) Addicted To Love: Ciccone Youth sing Robert Palmer (1988)

10) Making Plans For Nigel: Datassette sing XTC (2006)

11) Boys Keep Swinging: Associates sing David Bowie (1979)

12) Master And Servant: Locust sing Depeche Mode (1998)

13) It's A Man's Man's Man's World: Natacha Atlas sings James Brown (2003)

14) Some Velvet Morning: Slowdive sing Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood (1993)

15) If You're Lookin' For A Way Out (Album Version): Tindersticks sing Odyssey (1999)

16) Sexual Healing: Anita Lane ft. Mick Harvey & Barry Adamson sings Marvin Gaye (1993)

17) Trampolene: Deacon Blue sing Julian Cope (1989)

18) Stairway To Heaven: The Leningrad Cowboys & The Alexandrov Red Army Ensemble sing Led Zeppelin (1994)

Volume One (1:19:43) (GD) (M)

Another Teenage Remix

Side 1 of a 1980s 12" mix cassette compilation, recorded 24th April 2000. According to my sleevenotes on the reverse, "these 12" singles kept me going even when my hairstyle just couldn't keep pace". It's fair to say that in the mid to late 1980s, I went through an environmentally unfriendly amount of hairspray and gel, rarely to impressive effect.

The selection starts off with Act, who featured here in their own right last year. A short-lived but oh-so-wonderful collaboration between Claudia Brücken and Thomas Leer. Unfortunately for them, Act was launched just as label ZTT experienced a dip in popularity, post-Frankie Goes to Hollywood and pre-808 State and Seal. A shame as Brücken and Leer looked and sounded great, with satirical lyrics and none-more-80s production. 

 

Snobbery & Decay was Act's opening statement and deserved a far better UK chart placing than #60, which would sadly prove to be their biggest 'hit'. As with most ZTT releases, there were multiple formats and remixes. As this mix title suggests, this limited edition 12" was housed in a beautiful sleeve with a photo of Quentin Crisp by Anton Corbijn on the reverse. What's less obvious is that the remix heavily samples Cybil Shepherd and Bruce Willis from US TV series Moonlighting, which was hugely popular at the time. In fact, the song proper doesn't kick in until five and a half minutes into a remix just shy of nine minutes. All good fun, but you had to buy the other formats to get more Claudia and Thomas.

Visage arguably made one good album (their debut) and it was all downhill from there. Personally, I also have a lot of love for second album The Anvil and, singles-wise, everything up to Pleasure Boys. Night Train is one of their best and the record-buying public seemed largely to agree as it proved to be their fourth UK Top 20 hit, pipping Mind Of A Toy by one place to peak at #12. I first got the dance mix of Night Train on vinyl courtesy of the Old Gold series, which would usually slap two extended mixes on a 12" single in a hideously generic sleeve for a bargain price. I tracked down the original 12" single years later in Replay Records in Bristol. I still love it.

 

What can I say about Associates? Well, other than whether to use the definite article in their name or not. Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine created some of the finest pop music of the 1980s, managing both perfect and off-kilter often in the same song. Club Country had a tough gig, being the follow up to Party Fears Two, but it managed #13 in the UK and matched it's predecessor's 10-week run in the charts. I love the song, whether the 7" single, slightly longer album cut or here in it's extended version. And, for my money, the best phrasing of the word 'pseudonym' in a song, ever. 

 

It's only occurred to me whilst writing this that there's a Scottish theme running though this selection: Thomas Leer, Midge Ure, Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine. Zeke Manyika was born in Zimbabwe, but moved to (and I think still lives in) Scotland, joining Orange Juice in 1982, so that's good enough for me. 

 

Runaway Freedom Train was released in 1989 as the follow up to Bible Belt and sadly also seems to have had little impact on the charts. It carries a similar political heft to Bible Belt, albeit with a slightly more oblique comment on apartheid in South Africa:

"No matter how hard you try
To break this motion,
It's a one way ticket,
Only one destination,
You can't break the wheels of history" 

 

I still have the 12" single of Runaway Freedom Train, but I haven't digitised the songs or currently have the means to do so. The original 12" version is about eight minutes long and a fairly straightforward extended mix by Keith Cohen. The only version available online is the "U.S.A. Extended Club Version", which appears to be a re-edit of the Cohen mix, initially by The Latin Rascals and re-edited in 2009 by Mixmaster DJ Heavy M aka Malik Jefferson. The tracks runs to nearly ten minutes and is a veritable frenzy of scratches and edits. I tried cutting it down for use in this selection, but it just sounded way out of place with the rest of the tracks. I also didn't want to use different mixes of any of the other tracks to maintain the original running time.

 

So, what you've got here is my own re-edit of the re-edit of the, er, re-edit. Largely the album version from Zeke's second album Mastercrime, I've spliced a chunk of edits a little way into the intro and dropped in a further slab of edits at the end. It still runs a little short at just over seven and a half minutes, but (I think) it just about works. As ever, you'll be the judge of that. The mix title says it all.

 

Grace Jones next, with Living My Life. I first heard the song in 1983 on The Master Tape, a freebie compilation with Record Mirror which I think was a sampler of forthcoming releases. The irony with Living My Life was that it didn't appear on either her album of the same name or as a single in the UK, although a limited 12" was released in Portugal. I could have used the Long Version from the latter to solve the issue with Runaway Freedom Train, but true to the original mixtape, I've stuck with the 1986 remix by Steven Stanley, which is much closer to the version that I originally heard on the Record Mirror compilation. Neither Grace Jones nor Steven Stanley were born in Scotland and regretfully, I can't find any evidence that either have lived there, so my Scottish theme ends there.

 

But only briefly, as Aberdeen's own Annie Lennox leaps to the rescue with, er, Sunderland native David A. Stewart as Eurythmics. Would I lie to you? No, siree. This was the lead mix (of two) from the 12" single, with Eric 'ET' Thorngren bringing his customary BIG drums in and pushing everything bar Annie's vocals back in the mix. He likes his drums, does ET. I did buy the accompanying album, Be Yourself Tonight, but this was pretty much the point that I started checking out on Eurythmics. I like this single but it was all getting a bit slick and aimed squarely at global domination for my liking. Fair play to Eurythmics, they achieved it, but it's the first three albums that I return to time and again.

 

And blowing the Scottish theme once and for all (well, it was good while it lasted), Side 1 ends with Scarlet Fantastic, who both hail from the West Midlands, and are remixed here by Australian Karen Hewitt. The wonderfully named Maggie De Monde and Rick Phylip-Jones were previously in Swans Way, who had a Top 20 hit with the avant-garde pop of Soul Train. Scarlet Fantastic were more out-and-out pop and No Memory is a fantastic example, although it sadly didn't quite find an audience, reaching #24 in 1987. The pick of the bunch is the Extra Sensory Mix but the Ecstacy Mix is also a corker. The version here was ripped several years ago from my copy of the limited edition 12" single in  - what else? - "scarlet fantastic" red vinyl.

 

Have a fun Saturday, everyone!

 

1) (The Naked Civil) Snobbery & Decay (Remix By Stephen Lipson): Act (1987)

2) Night Train (Dance Mix By Visage & John Luongo): Visage (1982)

3) Club Country (Extended Version By Associates & Mike Hedges): Associates (1982)

4) Runaway Freedom Train ('All This Scratching Is Making Me Itch' Re-Edit By Khayem): Zeke Manyika (1989/2022)

5) Living My Life (Remix By Steven Stanley): Grace Jones (1986)

6) Would I Lie To You? (An Eric 'ET' Thorngren Mix): Eurythmics (1985)

7) No Memory (Ecstacy Mix By Karen Hewitt): Scarlet Fantastic (1987)

 

Side One (45:49) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here