Bad Santa VI

You begged, you pleaded, you demanded, you litigated...and I ignored all of that and did it anyway. 

 

It's back...and it's bad...really bad...and that's just my slipshod sequencing and editing!

 

Yep, it's the sixth instalment of Bad Santa, in case you have just under an hour's gap in your festive playlist. It's the usual curate's egg of the brilliant (Du Blonde aka Beth Jeans Houghton, Hifi Sean & David McAlmont, Saint Etienne with Tim Burgess, Belle & Sebastian) and the not-so-brilliant (I'm looking at you, R.E.M.) but all delivered with love and best wishes for the weekend. I hope it's a good one, wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

 

1) The Beatles Seventh Christmas Record: The Beatles (1969)

2) Christmas Is For Lovers, Ghosts & Children: Billy Nomates (2021)

3) The Little Drummer Boy: Brave Combo (1992)

4) Holiday I.D. (Spanish): Apollonia (1988)

5) Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland: Grandaddy (2000)

6) The Other Side Of Christmas: The Boy Least Likely To (2022)

7) A Visit From Santa Claus! (Part 2): Santa Claus (????)

8) Slow Down At Christmas (Album Version): Billy Reeves (2022)

9) I Was Born On Christmas Day: Saint Etienne ft. Tim Burgess (1993)

10) I'm Gonna Be Warm This Winter: Connie Francis (1961)

11) Oh Holy Night: Bastille (2012)

12) The Twelve Days Of Christmas (Live @ The John Peel Christmas Party): Belle & Sebastian (2002)

13) Xmassy: Hifi Sean & David McAlmont (2023)

14) Christmas In Chicago: Leon Russell (1972)

15) Holiday I.D.: Peter Cetera (1988)

16) Satan's Little Helper: Pye Corner Audio (2018)

17) It's Christmas And I'm Crying: Du Blonde (2023)

18) Santa Claus Is Coming To Town: John Holt (2004)

19) Suzy Snowflake: Little Marcy (1967)

20) Silver Bells: R.E.M. (1993)

21) Little Saint Nick (Single Version): The Beach Boys (1964)

22) Blue Christmas: Danielle Dax (1988)

23) Soul Christmas (Single Version): Graham Parker ft. Nona Hendryx (1994)

24) Christmas Tree On Fire: Holly Golightly (2006)

25) Sleigh Me: Emmy The Great & Tim Wheeler (2011)

Bad Santa VI (56:55) (KF) (Mega)

And, if you are a glutton for punishment, here are the previous Bad Santa selections from 2022, 2021, 2020, 2017 and 2016.

 

You can continue to 'enjoy' daily doses of Dubhed over the next week, but I won't always be 'in' to check and respond to comments ("no change there then", I heard someone say).

A Heart Of Fool's Gold

Back with a selection of 1980s alternative/indie 12" versions to enliven your weekend.

Earlier this year, I included Peter Hook's original mix of Elephant Stone by The Stone Roses in the last of my Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon posts. Here's the more familiar 12" mix by John Leckie. Can it really be 35 years old?! I never got into The Stone Roses in a big way at the time, though with the benefit of hindsight it's hard to deny that their debut album and singles like Elephant Stone were pretty amazing.

And this is where my timeline memory gets very confused. As The Stone Roses were paving the way to the future, All About Eve were just about to make it big, presaged by the single Our Summer. Hard to imagine now that the two bands were contemporaneous. This 12" version was produced by their mates from The Mission, Wayne Hussey and Simon Hinkler, who were also enjoying a bit of commercial success - and Smash Hits interviews - themselves. 

 

Cat-House by Danielle Dax was a staple of the alternative clubs I frequented in the late 80s/early 90s. I didn't own the 12" single but I did have CD88: The Vinyl, one of the quality and reasonably priced Indie Top 20 series that were great for penniless students like me at the time. The album included Our Summer and Cat-House, albeit in their single versions. Extended mixes of the latter popped up on a US-only 12" in 1989.

Earlier this week, SWC at the ever-excellent No Badger Required wrote about the race to be the first person to be 'into a band' when growing up. Big Audio Dynamite were 'my' band when I was at secondary school. A few kids had The Clash scrawled on their school bags or jackets but, let's be honest, we were all a bit late for that and had only heard of them by nicking borrowing our older sibling's records. Nobody had heard of Big Audio Dynamite, though, so buying those early 12" singles and the debut album was a moment. It helped that they were bloody brilliant, not least Medicine Show with it's Sergio Morricone samples and dub-inflected extended version.

A.C. Marias was essentially a duo of Angela Conway and Wire's Bruce Gilbert. I first heard a song (Give Me) on a Mute compilation and bought the single One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing on 3" CD with a lengthy cover version of Vicious by Lou Reed as the B-side. There was no extended version of One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing on either the 12" or CD single but the album version is about a minute and a half longer, so that's good enough for me.

Love And Rockets were born from the ashes of Bauhaus in 1985 and arguably found greater commercial success in the USA than the UK. I liked their earlier singles, including Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man) featured here, which has a rockabilly vibe yet can still be traced back to their earlier goth/post-punk roots. 

I resisted The Blue Nile for too long. The constant music press gushing in the late 1980s, telling me that I must like The Blue Nile because they ploughed a similar furrow of organic musical exploration and experimentation as one of my favourite bands, Talk Talk, actually made me less not more inclined to check them out. I learned the error of my ways years later and whilst they've never quite hit the spot that Mark Hollis and co. achieved, I shouldn't have let the journos put me off all those years ago!

 

The first time I heard the 12" version of Soul Mining by The The was when I bought the 12" double pack of Infected in 1986. Labelled as a "previously unreleased" version, it also popped up on the cassette format of the Infected single, the CD single re-release of Sweet Bird Of Truth (1987) and on the limited edition 2nd CD single of The Beat(en) Generation (1989). The B-side of the Uncertain Smile 12" single in 1983 contains Soul Mining (Definitive Version) which to these amateur ears sounds identical to the "unreleased" version. Either way, it's a great version, as all The The's 12" singles were throughout the 1980s. No surprise then that the song provides the title for this selection and an apt closure.

Happy weekend everyone, wherever you find yourself and whatever you may be doing.

More nonsense here tomorrow, more or less same time.

 

1) Elephant Stone (12" Version By John Leckie): The Stone Roses (1988)

2) Our Summer (Extended Mix By Simon Hinkler & Wayne Hussey): All About Eve (1987)

3) Cat-House (Overnight Mix By Danielle Dax & Renny Hill): Danielle Dax (1989)

4) Medicine Show (12-Inch Remix By Paul 'Groucho' Smykle): Big Audio Dynamite (1985)

5) One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing (Album Version By Bruce Gilbert, Gareth Jones, John Fryer & Paul Kendall): A.C. Marias (1989)

6) Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man) (Remix By John A. Rivers): Love And Rockets (1986)

7) Tinseltown In The Rain (Album Version By Paul Buchanan & Robert Bell): The Blue Nile (1983)

8) Soul Mining (Definitive Version By Matt Johnson & Paul Hardiman): The The (1983) 

 

1983: A Walk Across The Rooftops: 7

1983: Uncertain Smile EP: 8

1985: Medicine Show EP: 4 

1986: Yin And Yang (The Flowerpot Man) EP: 6

1987: Our Summer EP: 2

1988: Elephant Stone EP: 1 

1989: Cat-House EP: 3

1989: One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing): 5

 

A Heart Of Fool's Gold (45:16) (KF) (Mega)

#45sUnder3

I wouldn't say I put 100% into maintaining a presence on Twitter (or X or whatever Ego Musk is calling it these days, but I have participated in a couple of themed series, inviting people to share music. 

The first was a month-long celebration of 12" mixes from the 1980s and it was a lot of fun, sharing some old favourites and criminally forgotten or underrated tunes. This month (July), the theme has been singles that come in at 3 minutes or less. I didn't have a particular plan and was pretty much selecting a song at random on a daily basis. This in turn frequently informed many of my posts this month, more often than not leading me to get carried away with my "research" and deviating significantly from the song that prompted it.

Again, it's been good fun to see what other people would come up with each day. Needless to say, some stone cold classics have been well represented through the month: Boys Don't Cry by The Cure, Destroy The Heart by The House Of Love, Outdoor Miner by Wire, Monkey Gone To Heaven by Pixies, Reward by The Teardrop Explodes, Town Called Malice by The Jam, pretty much everything by Buzzcocks. Most genres have also been served well: reggae, soul, pop, punk, dance; not much prog, but to be fair 3 mins would be barely enough for the intro.

So, the series ends today and I chopped and changed my mind about what to include, mindful that I'd not yet included anything by Pixies, Julian Cope and dozens of other favourites. In the end, the choice was obvious: a band that has informed my love of music ever since I was a toddler, was a highlight of this year's Glastonbury (on TV) experience and who have released yet another brilliant album, up there in my 2023 'best of'. Oh, and with a great video to boot. Yes, of course, it's Sparks.

Despite being a daunting 31 song selection, the #45sUnder3 theme means that the entire thing comes in at under an hour and a half. The opening track is a bit of a red herring, but then where else would you heard Nine Inch Nails followed by Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams?! The remaining selection is eclectic, jumping decades and genres with gleeful abandon and yet... I quite it. I hope you do too.

1) March Of The Pigs (Album Version): Nine Inch Nails (1994)

2) Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) (Original Edit): Sub Sub ft. Melanie Williams (1993)

3) Sign Of The Times (Album Version): The Belle Stars (1983)

4) Nothing To Worry About (Album Version): Peter, Björn & John (2009)

5) Bizarre Love Triangle (Cover of New Order): Devine & Statton (1989)

6) The Pictures On My Wall (Single Version): Echo & The Bunnymen (1979)

7) Hyper Lust (Album Version): MOTOR ft. Billie Ray Martin (2012)

8) You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It!): The Undertones (1979)

9) Dusk Till Dawn (Album Version): Ladyhawke (2008)

10) Souleater: Clouds (1991)

11) Simply Thrilled Honey (Single Version): Orange Juice (1980)

12) D-Days (Single Mix): Hazel O'Connor (1981)

13) The Ugly Bug Ball: Burl Ives (1963)

14) Heart It Races (Album Version): Architecture In Helsinki (2007)

15) Action Time Vision: Alternative TV (1978)

16) Blue Boot (Single Version): Eric Donaldson (1972)

17) Hot Fun In The Summertime (Single Version): Sly & The Family Stone (1969)

18) Cybele's Reverie (Single Version): Stereolab (1996)

19) White Knuckle Ride (Single Version): Danielle Dax (1988)

20) I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape (Album Version): The Times (1982)

21) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman: Aretha Franklin (1967)

22) The Music (Single Version): Hifi Sean ft. Celeda (2018)

23) Mellow Doubt (Album Version): Teenage Fanclub (1995)

24) I Want Everything: The Godfathers (1986)

25) Thinking 'Bout You (Album Version): Dua Lipa (2017)

26) Lava (Album Version): Silver Sun (1996)

27) She’s A Fighter: Robert Forster (2023)

28) Triple Trouble (Album Version): Beastie Boys (2004)

29) Beak: HANN (2019)

30) Backwards Dog (Single Version): The Soup Dragons (1989)

31) The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte: Sparks (2023)

 

#45sUnder3 (1:23:12) (KF) (Mega)

Musician, Artist, Urban Pantheist

I fell in love with Danielle Dax's music (and okay, I'll admit, Dax herself) after hearing Cat-House in 1988. 

 

Danielle initially started out with post-punk band The Lemon Kittens before going onto a solo career releasing multiple albums, EPs and singles from the early 1980s to mid-1990s.

 

Danielle has only appeared a couple of times previously in various artist selections so I will get to one in her own right at some point. In the meantime, here's a selection of videos, including White Knuckle Ride, a snappy tale of a serial killer and their soon-to-be victim and a fantastic leftfield pop song.

 

I first heard Cat-House played out in the indie/alternative clubs that I went to circa 1988 and it remained a staple for many years after. I would have seen the video a while later on The Chart Show. A hit on the indie chart but it didn't make the commercial crossover in the UK that it deserved.

 

Big Hollow Man from 1987 is another alt-pop favourite.

Here's Danielle in December 1987 on ITV's graveyard shift programme Night Network, reviewing singles with snooker legend Steve Davis. It's a partial clip, so their review of Eurythmics is lost but both Bruce Springsteen and Wally Jump Jr & The Criminal Element get fairly short shrift. 

Not limiting herself to being an incredible musician and performer, Danielle is also a dab hand as a designer. In 1997, she won Amateur Decorator of the Year on BBC2's Home Front. I've vivid memories of her signature use of kitchen foil as wallpaper and faux mirrors as my girlfriend at the time was similarly inspired (though being extremely amateur, we limited ourselves to the latter not the former in our rented home!)

Glen Robins, a kind soul and fellow Dax fan, has unearthed their VHS home recording of the broadcast episode and uploaded it to YouTube. I haven't seen it since 1997 and it's a stark reminder of how long ago it really was. One of the judges is Kevin McCloud, of Grand Designs infamy, rather more hirsute then than now!

 

She's My Groovy Good Luck Friend

Celebrating Janice Long, 5th April 1955 to 25th December 2021.

 

This is a later-than-usual post, for obvious reasons. I had something else lined up for today but after reading the sad news last night of Janice's passing on Christmas Day, I wanted to pay tribute instead.

 

I probably listened to Janice Long more than John Peel on Radio 1 as a teen, mainly because her evening show slot usually coincided with doing homework or otherwise avoiding my family in my bedroom. The sessions on her show were every bit as essential to my discovering new bands and artists, who have stuck with me for a lifetime. I haven't got as many Janice Long sessions in my collection as I thought, so there are some glaring anomalies (Primal Scream's Velocity Girl, for one) and this is another of those selections that doesn't begin to do justice to the breadth of Janice's shows and her passion for music.

Instead, this is quite alternative/indie-heavy and mainly focuses on 1984 to 1988, the period when I was a regular listener to her Radio 1 show. I've acquired a quite few songs retrospectively over the years, including quite a few that I didn't hear when originally broadcast (e.g. the Gold Blade track from the 1990s). I didn't follow Janice's move from Radio 1 and I've rarely listened to the radio from 2000 onwards, but it's clear from the tributes that her joy and enthusiasm for music remained undimmed. A genuine trailblazing DJ and presenter. Thank you, Janice.

 

1) Feminine Gender: Ranking Ann (4th August 1985)

2) Turkish Song Of The Damned: The Pogues (22nd October 1986)

3) Groovy Good Luck Friend: BMX Bandits (8th June 1986)

4) Christmas Mourning: Julian Cope (12th December 1984)

5) Home Is Where The Heart Is: The Chameleons (13th March 1985)

6) Ballad Of The Band: Felt (12th February 1986)

7) Winter Coat: The Bible (5th November 1986)

8) The Whole World Is Turning: Toots & The Maytals (19th August 1987)

9) Gave You My Love: Aswad (13th September 1984)

10) Ruthless: Cabaret Voltaire (10th October 1984)

11) Piece Of You: Soho (8th November 1987)

12) America: The Communards (13th October 1985)

13) Independence Day (Cover of Comsat Angels): Voice Of The Beehive (7th March 1988)

14) What Do You Mean?: The Blue Aeroplanes (15th February 1987)

15) Frenz: The Fall (13th May 1987)

16) Traumas Traumas Traumas: Marc Almond (16th January 1985)

17) Is This The Life: Cardiacs (29th November 1987)

18) The Word Around Town: David Westlake & The Go-Betweens (14th January 1987)

19) Ostrich: Danielle Dax (1st December 1985)

20) Football Hooligan: Tippa Irie (26th June 1985)

21) 5 True Believers: Gold Blade (17th March 1997)

22) Take Me To The Girl: Associates (8th September 1985)

She's My Groovy Good Luck Friend (1:22:01) (KF) (Mega)