Never Hurt Nobody

On 8th August 1980, The Clash released the single Bankrobber. It was a standalone release bridging the albums London Calling and Sandanista! and their second biggest UK chart single (peaking at #12), after the title track of the former which got one place higher in 1979.

 

The above is Don Letts' official video for Bankrobber, mainly showing Joe, Mick, Paul, Topper and Mikey Dread in the studio and on stage and intercut with a loose narrative of a bank job. The heist was filmed in Lewisham and stars Clash roadies Barry 'The Baker' Auguste and Johnny Green. Both were reportedly stopped and questioned by police during filming, who clearly thought they were genuinely up to no good!

 

In 1996, Audioweb's self-titled debut album contained their own version of Bankrobber. It too was released as a single (featuring Half Pint aka Lindon Roberts) and provided their biggest hit and sole UK Top 20 in February 1997. Directors GobTV provide some interesting background to the making of the video to accompany the YouTube clip.

 

The CD single that I bought at the time additionally contains a live version and a couple of remixes, which you can also find in it's entirety on YouTube. 

 

Mikey Dread was at the controls for the original recording of Bankrobber. He also delivered an alternative version, Rockers Galore...U.K. Tour, which appeared on the B-side of the 7" single and subsequently on 1993's Super Black Market Clash compilation. Here's Mikey performing a cover of Bankrobber as a tribute to Joe Strummer at Glastonbury in 2004.

Fast forward to 2005 and Chumbawamba included a short and sweet a capella version of Bankrobber on their album A Singsong And A Scrap. I've not heard this before and I like it a lot.

 

A decade later Combat Cancer, a fundraising tribute to The Clash featured a couple of versions of Bankrobber, closing with this 'live 'n' loose' take by Nick Welsh and Susan Cadogan. A good cause and lovely to hear the latter, but not a version that I'm likely to return to repeatedly.

In July 2020, Dub Pistols - perhaps unsurprisingly - took on the challenge, with vocals by head man Barry Ashworth and guest Seanie T. It was released on 7" vinyl with the King Yoof Dub version on the flip side, which is equally pleasing.

 

Speaking of dubs, back in 1980 Mikey Dread produced a version of Bankrobber intended for the single. Inexplicably, the record label decided not to release a 12" single of Bankrobber but it did pop up later that year as a combined edit on Black Market Clash, a 10" compilation available in the USA and Canada only. To bring things full circle and to a fitting close, here's Bankrobber/Robber Dub in it's full glory.

 

This post is dedicated as an early happy birthday to Joe Strummer, who would have turned 71 on 21st August.

Enough Is Enough

Primal Scream and Dexys have teamed up to create a fund raiser for the RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers). Enough Is Enough is named after the RMT campaign and features a guest appearance from general secretary Mick Lynch.

 

The song itself fits more obviously into the Dexys canon but features strong vocal performances from both Kevin Rowland and Bobby Gillespie. Enough Is Enough is accompanied by a video from Douglas Hart, former bandmate of Bobby in The Jesus & Mary Chain and now an acclaimed director.

 

You can buy Enough Is Enough via Bandcamp for £1.00 and all proceeds will go to the RMT dispute fund. The politically charged lyrics and potty mouth language mean it's unlikely to disrupt the flow of the Radio 2 drivetime slot, but it's a good song, a good cause and worth five minutes of your time and 100 of your pennies (or equivalent currency).

 

Inevitably, it called to mind another song called Enough Is Enough, released in 1993 as a collaboration between Chumbawamba and Credit To The Nation. An anti-fascist anthem, it reached #56 in the UK singles chart and is currently available digitally on Chumbawamba's 1994 album Anarchy.

 

In 2000, a remix of the song, Enough Is Enough (Kick It Over), a remix of the song with updated lyrics, was released as a response to the formation of a coalition government in Austria. The coalition included the Freedom Party of Austria, led at the time by Nazi apologist Jörg Haider. Later that year Haider was forced to relinquish direct control of the FPO due to international pressure. The remix of Enough Is Enough is still available as a free MP3 download on Chumbawamba's website

Sadly, a look around and both songs resonate with the situation that we currently find ourselves in, here in the UK and overseas. Enough Is Enough.

Oh iPod I Love You

A slightly different blast from the past today as I take another dip into the dusty archives of my previous blog. This selection was posted on 7th April 2007 as individual MP3s. Originally an iPod Top 20 most played selection, I've re-sequenced and re-created the playlist as two 'sides' which flow more naturally, to these ears at least. As you'll see, I was deep into an obsession with mash-ups at the time, which accounted for half of the Top 20.

Over to my former 30-something self...

I finally got around to upgrading from my much loved Panasonic portable cassette player to an iPod Nano last month. Even though I'm making very slow progress with uploading stuff from my record collection (about 500 songs so far, barely half the 4GB space), I've been giving my iPod a good run for it's money. It's been great to hear songs that I haven't listened to in a while, as well as discovering a whole load of stuff on the internet. The shuffle option has proved to be highly addictive when it comes to unusual playlists. I quit smoking (again) on Tuesday and (honest, guv) the moment I lit up my last fag, Chumbawamba's Give The Anarchist A Cigarette kicked into my headphones. Thankfully, so far my iPod's skipped John Lennon's Cold Turkey, which is also lurking in there somewhere...

To pick up the story, 15 years on, apart from the cliché of a celebratory cigar when Lady K was born, I've not smoked since and I have never been tempted to try vaping.

 

I've been through 5 iPod Nanos since that initial purchase (the green one in the picture, if you're wondering); I worked them very hard. The subsequent iPods were all cheap secondhand purchases from eBay and for varying reasons all eventually gave up. I think my iPods were less forgiving than SWC's over at No Badger Required... 

You'll note that only 4 Nanos are pictured. The fifth - also pink and always the least wanted on eBay, it seems - fell from my pocket as I was racing to platform 12 at Leeds Railway Station to catch a train home. I saw it slide effortlessly across the platform before gliding briefly above the tracks then dropping down into the path of an incoming train. I'd like to say that either Dylan's Blood On The Tracks or Mylo's Destroy Rock & Roll was playing in that fateful moment but, to be honest, I don't remember and I was probably swearing too loudly to notice as I continued running for my train, my suddenly orphaned headphone cable trailing behind me... 

 

I retired my last Nano a couple of years ago and sold the 4 defunct iPods as parts on eBay. These days, my headphone and in-car music listening is all on my phone, with a never-ending variation of playlists.

 

As for mash-ups, I still love them, but my frankly ridiculous habit of downloading and collecting hundreds of them had significantly dropped by the end of the 2000s. The artists that I followed now seem to have mostly retired from mash-ups and are focused on other music-related pursuits.

 

IDC aka David McCarthy has released two albums, Overthrow The Boss Class (2008) and The Sun is Always Shining Above The Clouds (2011) and, according to his website, album #3 is currently in production.

 

McSleazy seems to have been retired around 2010-2011 and Grant J. Robson has since worked as a soundtrack composer and solo artist. His 4th album, Lit By The Dark, was released in 2021 and features The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly on The Burden, which is rather wonderful.

Team9 also ceased some years ago by all accounts and I've struggled to find any current website for Neil Mason. Info suggests that Neil is still based in Perth and working as a soundtrack composer and music producer.

Go Home Productions last released a couple of mash-ups in 2020, but Mark Vidler has more recently been involved with Graham Daniels as Addictive TV, including the incredible Orchestra Of Samples project. Mark was recently pictured with Devo and John Lydon at the Cruel World Fest in Pasadena, California.

 

Loo & Placido aka Laurent Lupidi & Jeremy Johnson are still going strong, celebrating over 20 years of mash-ups, more recent beneficiaries being XXXTentacion, Billie Eilish, Chvrches and Post Malone. 

Suffice to say, my digital music collection has grown exponentially since 2007 and my Top 20 most played list has significantly changed, skewed in part by school runs and Lady K's brief obsessions with Queen and, way out in front, Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man which was curtailed only by the lockdown in 2020. Of today's selection, only Lou Reed comes anywhere close, coming in at #84...

Anyway, enough of my yakking, without further ado here's today's selection for your listening pleasure.

Side One

1) Pain Killer (Album Version): Turin Brakes (2003)

2) Toop Toop Groove (Cassius vs. Madonna): Loo & Placido (2006)

3) In The Morning (Album Version By Geoff Barrow & Adrian Utley): The Coral (2005)

4) 7 Nation Rocker (Alter Ego vs. The White Stripes): IDC (2004)

5) Don't Call Me Song 2 (Madison Avenue vs. Blur): McSleazy (2000)

6) Satellite Of Love (Album Version By David Bowie & Mick Ronson): Lou Reed (1972)

7) Get I.D. (Kelis vs. Kasabian): McSleazy (2004)

8) Sheltered Life (Radio Edit): Erlend Øye (2003)

9) Since You Love Me (Kelly Clarkson vs. David Guetta vs. The Egg): Loo & Placido (2006)

10) Uptight Maggie (Re-Vision) (Stevie Wonder vs. Rod Stewart): Go Home Productions (2004) 

 

Side Two

1) Oblivious (Remix By Felix Chamberlain & Ted Templeman) (7" Version): Aztec Camera (1983)

2) Oops I'm Loaded (Original Version) (Tweet vs. Primal Scream): Team9 (2006) 

3) The Doorbell Encore (Jay-Z vs. The White Stripes): Team9 (2005)

4) Lost In Music (Album Version) (Cover of Sister Sledge): The Fall (1993)

5) Naive Hustler (Mirwais vs. Simian Mobile Disco): IDC (2006)

6) I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have (Cover of Primal Scream): Idha (1994)

7) Give The Anarchist A Cigarette (Edit): Chumbawamba (1994)

8) Insatiable Love (Darilyn Mansun) (Darren Hayes vs. Marilyn Manson): McSleazy (2002)

9) Sometimes Always (Album Version): The Jesus & Mary Chain ft. Hope Sandoval (1994)

10) Tulsa Telephone Book (Live @ Roskilde Festival, Denmark) (Cover of Tom T. Hall): Calexico (2000) 

 

Side One (35:30)

Side Two (37:35)