A Night On The Town

Mrs. K and I have been avidly following Married At First Sight Australia (MAFSAUS) on TV, which as ever has proved to be treasure trove of narcissism, mendacity, affectation and drama. 

With the exception of one couple, who genuinely seem to have developed strong feelings for each other - they use the 'L' word a lot, but let's see how things are at the 'weeks later' reunion - we're surprised that any other couple made it to the 'final vows' ceremony.

As the couples left their temporary home/bubble in Sydney in last night's episode, I thought of my stay in the city during my backpacking tour of Australia. As it happens, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th May 1991 coincided with the tail end of my time there, and a memorable night time tour of King's Cross.

Looking back from a distance of three and a half decades, I'd forgotten how wet behind the ears I still was at twenty years old...

Take it away, er, me....!

Saturday 11th May 1991

The day didn't start too well, weather-wise, so I chose to stay in and write. Talking with my room-mate Jonathan on the roof of the hostel, it transpired that he was also a writer, which led to some interesting conversation.

Later, there was a new arrival from Canberra in our room. My suspicions were aroused when he praised the city, the totally opposite reaction to everyone else I've met who's been there. He complained that he was lonely after a few months' travelling. I was unsympathetic; I mean, how hard is it to make friends here?! After our tedious small talk, he decided to go for a walk.

Jonathan reappeared with an American girl, called Michelle. They'd bumped into each other earlier: it was Michelle's last day in Sydney, she'd run out of money, so was it alright for her to crash in our room? No problem.

The hostel had largely been taken over by the Malaysian national Dragon Boat team, who were competing in the annual race in the harbour over the weekend. I don't remember quite how this happened but, as night drew in, Jonathan, Michelle and I, and four of the Malaysian team, decided to go on a tour of King's Cross, Sydney's notorious red light district.

The Malaysians didn't actually speak a lot with us, and I didn't catch any of their names, although they all appeared to work for Malaysia Airlines. They seemed affable, but they were not destined to be with us for very long.

Arriving in separate taxis, we disembarked and walked along the main street. It was unbelievable. Every second building, it seemed, was a strip joint, with three or four men outside, trying to entice people to enter.

Most of them looked stoned and didn't waste time on a person, quickly moving on to the next passerby. Prostitutes and pimps were intermingled with street salesmen and panhandlers, and numerous police paraded the area, pretty much turning a blind eye to all that was taking place around them.

I'd been walking with Michelle, when we realised that the others were no longer with us. Pausing next to a 'Gypsy Rose Lee' and watching her read tarot cards for a punter, Jonathan eventually caught up with us and explained that the Malaysian quartet had succumbed to temptation a few strip clubs back. They'd made some vague promise to meet us outside McDonalds at 10.30pm.

We wandered around some more, taking in the sights: the drunk being forcibly evicted from a club by a mean-looking bouncer; a fight breaking out between two rival 'gangs' of security staff; a prostitute calmly waiting in a café for her 'pickup', then stepping into a white Rolls Royce, and the cocaine scales and equipment on display in the window of a tobacconist.

There was a little boy, he must have been about eight years old, watching everything with disinterested eyes as he sucked Coca Cola through a straw [yes, he was accompanied by an adult - K]

I mean, parts of Bristol were full on, but this was something else entirely!

After a drink at McDonalds and no sign of our newfound (and lost) Malaysian friends, we carried on to the outer limits of the district. We saw another prostitute, wearing a bikini and an overcoat, climbing into an expensive car. I hate rich people.

Our taxi ride home was a nightmare. The cab driver was literally half asleep, and admitted as much. What he didn't admit to was his flatulence, which he generously expelled for the entirety of the interminable journey. Even the windows wound down couldn't shift the fug. 

Needless to say, we were surprised and relieved to get back to the hostel in one piece.

Post Script: Sunday 12th May 1991

We got up at 8.00am to get ready for the Dragon Boat races and, to be honest, we didn't make too much of an effort to be quiet. Our new room-mate stared at Michelle uncomprehendingly and said, "What brings you here?"

MIchelle replied (and I love her for this), "Oh, you know, these guys found me in King's Cross last night and I had nowhere to sleep, so they brought me back".

He said nothing, but the expression on his face was priceless.

In 2007, Tracy Thorn recorded a beautiful cover version of King's Cross. I've also picked four other theme-appropriate classics to accompany this sordid tale.

 

 

 

I'm Not Immune, I Love This Tune

Five Fathoms by Everything But The Girl appears on their 1999 album Temperamental and was the lead single, released a couple of weeks beforehand.

Tracey Thorn later reflected that recording Temperamental following the birth of their twin daughters, in some respects she "ended up being guest vocalist on someone else's album", 

And yet, the songwriting partnership is inextricably Tracey and Ben Watt, the combination of words, beats, voice and music that had continually evolved over many years and culminated in their tenth album. 

Temperamental often feels like an overlooked and under appreciated record and there was a near two-and-a-half decade gap between this and Everything But The Girl's unexpected and brilliant return in 2023 with Fuse.

I love Five Fathoms and this random shuffle is a reminder to go back to the source and give Temperamental a long overdue airing.

 

I walk the city late at night

Does everyone here do the same?

I want to be the things I see

Give every face and place my name

I cross the street, take a right

Pick up the pace, pass a fight

Did I grow up just to stay home?

I'm not immune, I love this tune

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

I just wanna love more

I drag the city late at night

It's in my mouth, it's in my hair

And the people fill the city

Because the city fills the people, oh yeah

I cross the street avoid the freeze

A city's warmer by a couple of degrees

The smell of food the smell of rain

I'm not immune, I love this tune

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I wanna love more

(There's a river in my head)

I just wanna love more

Only way out is down

Only way up is down

The day's roll by like thunder

Like a storm that's never breaking

All my time and space compressed

In the low pressure of proceedings

And they beat against the sides of my life

Like fist against inside, in my life

And the roads all lead behind me

So I wrap the wheel around me

And I go out

(There's a river in my head)

(There's a river in my head)

(There's a river in my head)

I'll take you home

(There's a river in my head)

And make it easy

(There's a river in my head)

I'll take you home

(There's a river in my head)

And make it easy

No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride

A very happy birthday to Tracey Thorn, born 26th September 1962.

It's impossible to describe how much Tracey's voice, words and music have had over the years. Her body of work with husband Ben Watt as Everything But The Girl is immense and, as this year's Fuse album proved, unsullied by time.

Tracey's five solo albums are little treasures in their own right, each one offering something new and unique to that release, from 1982's A Distant Shore to 2018's Record.

Tracey's also been a superlative collaborator and interpreter of others' songs. This selection includes both, from John Grant and Massive Attack to covers of Pet Shop Boys, The Marvelettes and Kate Bush, the last seemingly untouchable and yet Tracey completely inhabits the song.

I'd been thinking about this post and had started pulling together a potential selection. On Sunday, Swiss Adam posted a frankly brilliant 40-minute mix of Tracey Thorn songs at Bagging Area that included quite a few overlaps with mine. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I started again from scratch and came up with a 30-minute selection that I hope acts as a decent companion piece to Adam's and taken together shines a light on Tracey's magnificence. 

And I haven't even mentioned Tracey's books. Buy them, read them, love them.

 

1) By Piccadilly Station I Sat Down And Wept: Tracey Thorn (2007)

2) King's Cross (Hot Chip Remix) (Cover of Pet Shop Boys): Tracey Thorn (2007)

3) Disappointing: John Grant ft. Tracey Thorn (2015)

4) Oh, The Divorces!: Tracey Thorn (2010)

5) The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game (Cover of The Marvelettes): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1995)

6) Run A Red Light (Album Version): Everything But The Girl (2023)

7) Under The Ivy (Cover of Kate Bush): Tracey Thorn (2014)

8) Guitar (Album Version): Tracey Thorn (2018)

1995: Batman Forever OST: 5

2007: King's Cross EP: 2

2007: Out Of The Woods: 1

2010: Love And Its Opposite: 4

2015: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure: 3

2015: Solo: Songs And Collaborations 1982-2015: 7 

2018: Record: 8

2023: Fuse: 6

No One Gets Off Without Paying The Ride (30:18) (KF) (Mega)

Mad Dub

An hour (more or less) of Mad Professor aka Neil Fraser to dub up your Sunday. 

 

Fourteen collaborations with or dubs for other artists, spanning an incredible four decades and providing a perfect excuse to sit down and chill out. Just like this ring-tailed lemur, that seemed largely indifferent to the agog Clan K standing just a couple of feet away at Wild Place in Bristol a couple of weekends ago.

Sticking with Bristol, the earliest song in this selection is by Restriction from 1983. The band featured Rob Smith (of Smith & Mighty and RSD fame) and came to my attention via the excellent compilations issued by Bristol Archive Records. 

Another Bristol act who really need no introduction is Massive Attack and, to be honest, I could easily have stuck with a Mad Professor selection just focusing on the many top-notch dubs he's produced for them since the 1990s. I have plumped for a Protection-era version but one which didn't appear on the companion album, instead popping up on a compilation to raise money for the charity Shelter. As an added bonus, it's a dub of Better Things, featuring Tracey Thorn. 

Sticking with the more obscure is Mad Professor's dubby vocal mix of Chapterhouse's 1991 song Mesmerise. I think it was one of several remixes of early 1990s indie acts commissioned exclusively for the 1999 film Splendor. I bought the soundtrack CD, I've never seen the film.

 

Slick Sixty make their second appearance this week (a Justin Robertson remix appeared in Friday's selection), not bad for an act who only released three singles, two promos and one album in their lifetime. 

Rather more well known but possibly an unexpected choice are Depeche Mode. Slowblow was a B-side to 1997 single It's No Good but Mad Professor's dub remained unreleased until the Depeche Mode Remixes 81···04 in 2004 and even then only as a limited 'rare tracks' download companion available on their official website. 

The selection draws to a close with Mad Professor's inspired partnership with Xan Tyler on one of my favourite albums of 2022, Clarion Call. This is a dub of their version of Townes Van Zandt's 1969 song Be Here To Love Me and available as a bonus track on the digital edition of Clarion Call. Recommended.

 

1) Love Is Stronger Than Pride (Mad Professor Mix): Sade (1992)

2) Life's A Beach (Mad Professor Dub): Django Django (2022)

3) Restriction (Single Version By Restriction & Mad Professor): Restriction (1983)

4) Jamaica (Mad Professor Dub): Van She (2012)

5) Analógica Dub (Remix By Mad Professor): Frente Cumbiero (2010)

6) Dubbing Home: Bob Andy & Mad Professor (1989)

7) Guilt-Edged (Single Version By Tony McDermott & Mad Professor): Champion Doug Veitch & The Igbira Nation (1984)

8) Margo's B&B (Mad Professor's B&B): Slick Sixty (1998)

9) Slowblow (Mad Professor Mix): Depeche Mode (1997)

10) Marijuana Dub: Mad Professor & Prince Fatty ft. Earl Sixteen (2015)

11) Suck Me Up Dub (Remix By Mad Professor): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1995)

12) Mesmerise (The Mesmerising Vocal Mix By Mad Professor): Chapterhouse (1998)

13) Free South Africa (Dub) (Remix By Lindel Lewis & Mad Professor): Benjamin Zephaniah (1983)

14) Be Here To Dub Me (Cover of 'Be Here To Love Me' by Townes Van Zandt): Xan Tyler & Mad Professor (2021)

1984: Not The Heart EP: 7

1989: Bob Andy's Dub Book: As Revealed To Mad Professor: 6

1989: Rasta (bonus tracks) (Switzerland CD): 13

1992: Feel No Pain EP: 1

1997: Foundations: Coming Up From The Streets: 11

1998: The Wrestler EP: 8 

1999: Splendor OST: 12

2004: Depeche Mode Remixes 81···04 (Rare Tracks): 9

2010: Frente Cumbiero Meets Mad Professor: 5

2011: The Bristol Reggae Explosion 1978-1983: 3

2013: Modular Presents Modyssey: 4 

2015: Mad Professor Meets Prince Fatty In The Clone Theory: 10

2021: Clarion Call (bonus tracks): 14

2022: Django Django Meets Mad Professor: A Dub Rework: 2

Mad Dub (59:28) (Box) (Mega)

Forget The Morning

On Tuesday, Everything But The Girl released another single and video from their upcoming album, Fuse. Both are, quite frankly, stunning.

The skittering beats and oscillating bass of opening track Nothing Left To Lose are followed (literally) by the second song on the album, Run A Red Light. It's a complete volte-face, musically speaking, a downtempo tune built upon minimal piano chords and soaring backing vocals and synth lines. Sonically, it provides a neat juxtaposition to what has gone before, a bold move so early into the album.

Lyrically, it's a perfect follow on and a theme begins to emerge. Nothing Left To Lose's narrator reflects that they "need a thicker skin [as] this pain keeps getting in" and resignedly asks "Tell me what to do / Cause nothing works without you". 

 

In Run A Red Light, the character is more assertive, urging the person they're with to

"Forget the losers, forget the morning 

Put a tune on, and put your feet up 

It was my idea, I hope you know that 

We’re gonna have this, I’m the one now"

 

The third song on Fuse, Caution To The Window, is available as a lyric video and completes the thematic trilogy, the voice of the song "Coming home to be with you / Coming home to be near you", imploring "Let me in, let me in, let me in", a note that all is not as it seems.

The beauty of Tracey Thorn's lyrics and her skill as a writer is in creating narratives and characters that are open to multiple, layered interpretations which inevitably means that the songs appeal to and resonate with a much wider audience.

Ben Watt is a perfect foil for this, providing a musical environment that is both sympathetic to the words and vocals but also transports them to an unexpected and interesting place. 

If this is what the first three songs on Fuse are like, then the full album will be very, very special indeed.

 

1) Nothing Left To Lose

2) Run A Red Light

3) Caution To The Wind

4) When You Mess Up

5) Time And Time Again

6) No One Know We're Dancing

7) Lost

8) Forever

9) Interior Space

10) Karaoke

 

Fuse is available to pre-order now, ahead of a full release on 21st April.

Do You Want Me Back? Am I Coming Back?

Which, when applied to Everything But The Girl, can only result in a resounding Yes! and YES!!

 

I was over the moon when Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt announced on Twitter last November that they had made a new EBTG album, their first together in 24 years. Fuse will be out in April and the first single was teased yesterday.

 

Nothing Left To Lose is a spectacular comeback, a familiar fusion of heartache and hard beats. When Tracey comes in with the opening lines "I need a thicker skin / The pain keeps getting in", it's like meeting an old friend for the first time in a long while but feeling the hurt in that separation, as well as the joy of reuniting.

The video, directed by Charlie di Placido and choreographed by Miranda Chambers, is spectacular on an intimate level. No cameos from Tracey or Ben, but the five dancers in a cafe in the depth of night brilliantly captures the essence of the song.

I cannot wait to hear what the rest of Fuse sounds like. This promises to be no nostalgia trip but exactly how Everything But The Girl could and should sound in 2023. 

Today's selection is a nostalgia trip, however, taking you back to the late 1990s and when Tracey and Ben were deeply immersed in club culture. I've avoided the obvious Todd Terry remix of Missing (Chris & James do the honours there) and gone for his rework of Wrong. You also get a healthy dose of BPMs courtesy of Darren Emerson and Peter Rauhofer as well as some pre- and post-club remixes from Brad Wood and Trevor Jackson.

The closing track is an older song, Everything But The Girl's cover of I Don't Want To Talk About It, which they released as a single in 1988, spending 9 weeks in the UK chart and reaching #3. Housemeister 69 put out a bootleg remix of the song in 2005, the same year that Virgin released the Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes compilation. At that point, Tracey and Ben were doing their own thing - brilliantly, it has to be said - and six years on from the last EBTG album, even then the prospect of new music seemed remote.

 

It turns out the wait would be four times that but, if Nothing Left To Lose is anything to go by, boy is it worth it.

 

1) Single (Brad Wood Memphis Remix) (1996)

2) Missing (Chris & James Full On Club Mix) (1994)

3) Before Today (Darren Emerson Underwater Remix 2) (Full Length) (1997)

4) Five Fathoms (Club 69 Future Club Mix By Peter Rauhofer) (Full Length) (1999)

5) Wrong (Todd Terry Remix) (Full Length) (1996)

6) Driving (The Underdog Mix By Trevor Jackson) (1996)

7) I Don't Want To Talk About It (Housemeister 69 Mix) (Cover of Crazy Horse) (2005)

 

Coming Back (47:55) (Box) (Mega)

Things Lost That Might Have Been

Queen by Tracey Thorn has been floating around my playlist again recently but I didn't want to post it at the time to avoid it getting lost or misinterpreted in the days following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen is the opening song of Tracey's fifth - and, to date, most recent - album, 2018's Record. Produced by Ewan Pearson and with Warpaint's rhythm section, Jenny Lee Lindberg and Stella Mozgawa, it's a pulsing, driving pop song. The self-directed video references the lyrics, taking place in the "backseat of a blacked out car", cruising the streets of London, out of focus, mirroring the hazy reflections of what might have been and wondering what will be. 

 

Nothing flashy but then when it's Tracey Thorn singing to you, what else do you need? Both lyrically and visually, a masterclass in less is more.

 

Here I go again
Down that road again
I haven't solved it yet
What happened if we never met
If I'd just ignored
Those sliding doors
If I'd turned instead from your bed?
 

Am I queen?
Or something else I might have been?
A star?
Backseat of a blacked out car
Is that me?
Or someone else entirely?

 

And do I ever find love?
Do I ever find love?
Do I ever find love?
Or am I still waiting?
 

In the midst of sleep
Pictures come to me
Memories and dreams
Things lost that might have been
If you'd broke my heart
Very near the start
Do I sink alone like a stone?
 

Am I queen?
A magisterial has-been
I'm on fire
A head full of desire
This is me
I'm someone else entirely
 

And do I ever find love?

Do I ever find love?
Do I ever find love?
Or am I still waiting?
Or am I still waiting?
 

Am I queen?
Or something else I might have been?
A star?
Propping up the backstage bar
Is that me?
Or someone else entirely?
 

And do I ever find love?
Do I ever find love?
Do I ever find love?
Or am I still waiting?
Or am I still waiting?
 

Am I queen?
Or something else I might have been?
A star?
Backseat of a blacked out car
Is that me?
 

Or am I still waiting?
Or am I still waiting?
Or am I still waiting?
Am I still waiting?
Or am I still waiting?

Hep Hop Excursion

Side 2 of an arguably more 'chiller' than 'chill out' compilation tape, recorded circa July to September 1996.

 

This selection is weighted towards acts from or based in my birthplace Bristol - Massive Attack, Tricky, Carlton, Earthling - and recorded following (and possibly as a reaction to) the proliferation of trip hop compilations in 1994/1995. The term trip hop was apparently coined by Andy Pemberton in June 1994 and first appeared in Mixmag when he reviewed DJ Shadow & RPM's single In/Flux. However, it also became seemingly inextricably linked with "The Bristol Sound", even though many of the tagged artists either had already or would soon transcend such a label.  

 

Renegade Soundwave deliver a suitably spine-tingling take on Pop Will Eat Itself's Underbelly. I remember hearing this over the Virgin Megastore PA when PWEI's remix album Two Fingers My Friends! was released and it was enough for me to shell out for the limited edition 2CD there and then. 

 

Another album I bought on spec, having read about but not heard, was ISDN by The Future Sound Of London although I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for. ISDN is a 15-track album edited together from various live broadcasts that FSOL had transmitted during 1994 to radio stations all over the world using ISDN networking, then a relatively new technology. 

 

Hot Knives featured on the initial limited edition (of 10,000) "cruciform velcro-sealed embossed card case with separate card sleeve". What the Discogs description doesn't mention is that visually ISDN is also a dead ringer for Spinal Tap's Smell The Glove (or original motion picture soundtrack album, if you're a pedant). ISDN was reissued six months later with a more conventional sleeve design and jewel case and a slightly different tracklisting, swapping out three tracks from the original issue, including Hot Knives.

Scorn was formed in 1991 by Mick Harris and Nik Bullen, both ex-Napalm Death and quite far removed from the music of their former band. I only have two CDs by Scorn, the Deliverance EP and Ellipsis. Both are remix projects so possibly unrepresentative of Scorn’s output as a whole, but sphincter-troubling electronic music all the same. By the time of Ellipsis, Scorn had become a solo vehicle for Mick Harris, the album mostly remixing tracks from their last album as a duo, 1994's Evanescence. I have no idea what the original version of Night Tide sounds like but here Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud rebuilds the track around his trademark use of mobile phone and police radio scanners to disturbing effect.

Finally, an honourable mention for several of my favourite chanteuses, all featured here with standout tracks: Martina Topley-Bird, Róisín Murphy, Sarah Cracknell and Tracey Thorn.

 

If you're feeling the heat again today - a peak of 33°C is expected in my neck of the woods - then stick this on for 45 minutes and you may start to experience shivering and goosebumps, which may help.

1) Underbelly (Renegade Soundwave Blackout Mix): Pop Will Eat Itself (1995)

2) Aftermath (Version 1): Tricky ft. Martina Topley-Bird (1994)

3) 1 To 1 Religion (Skankapella Remix By Dobie): Bomb The Bass ft. Carlton (1994)

4) Dominoid (Radio Mix): Moloko (1996)

5) Hot Knives (Live ISDN Transmission, VPRO Radio, Netherlands): The Future Sound Of London (1994)

6) Night Tide (Scanner - "Flaneur Electronique" Mix): Scorn (1995)

7) Gone (Alter Ego Decoding Gone, Pt. 2): David Holmes ft. Sarah Cracknell (1995)

8) Protection (7" Edit): Massive Attack ft. Tracey Thorn (1994)

9) Nefisa (Faraway Moses) (Remix By Plunderphonics): Earthling (1995)

1994: 1 To 1 Religion EP: 3

1994: Aftermath EP: 2

1994: ISDN (limited edition first issue): 5 

1994: Protection EP: 8

1995: Ellipsis: 6 

1995: Gone EP: 7 

1995: Nefisa EP: 9

1995: Two Fingers My Friends!: 1

1996: Dominoid EP: 4

Side Two (45:13) (KF) (Mega)

I Don't Get Where You're Coming From

Everything But The Girl released their final album, Temperamental, in September 1999 and the title track was the fourth (of five) singles, in February 2000. The album managed #16 in the UK but, at 4 weeks, a fraction of the chart time of it's predecessor, Walking Wounded. The single bounced in at #72 for one week and promptly dropped out. It deserved better.

Tracey Thorn's excellent autobiography, Bedsit Disco Queen, describes how motherhood - she'd given birth to twins not long before work on the album started - significantly impacted on her contribution, literally and lyrically. Personally, I love the juxtaposition of the hedonistic, going-out-clubbing music with the detached and introspective in-character lyrics, mirroring the different experiences of Thorn and partner Ben Watt at the time. 

I'd not seen the video for Temperamental until recently. It's directed by Mike Mills (no, not that one), whose videos for Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars by Air and Party Hard by Pulp I'd greatly enjoyed. Admittedly, none of these particularly visualise the narrative of the song and go off on their own track but the video for Temperamental seems to be completely at odds with the song, jarring rather than juxtaposing.

I'd recommend sticking with a live performance of Temperamental in London, originally live streamed in November 1999. 

This temperamental side,
The one you say that you can't hide.
Do you ever see yourself,
The way it looks to someone else?
This temperamental trick,
The one you say you can't predict.
You're like an empty cup.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get where you're coming from,
What is real and what's put on,
What has stayed and what has gone.
How long will this thing go on and on?

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

You're like an empty cup,
But I can't fill you up.
What planet are you on?
Not the same one I am from.
Do I just waste my time?
You pour your heart on mine.
You say it screws you up.
Forgive me if I don't wait up.
I don't get what you're trying to say,
What is wrong and what's okay.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

I don't know what you want from me.
All this endless sympathy.
You beat yourself up one more time.
You trample on this fierce heart of mine.

I don't want you to love me.
I don't want you to love me.

Temperamental (Official Video): Everything But The Girl (2000)

Temperamental (Live @ The Kentish Town Forum, London, 18th November 1999): Everything But The Girl (1999)

Some Of Them Remember But Most Of Them Don't

Picking up on yesterday's theme of "gigs I got tickets for, but never made it to", John Grant is the artist that I've missed the most: 4 times in the last 10 years, three times with tickets purchased in advance.This is the sorry trail:

1) St, George's, Bristol, Monday 28th March 2011

At the time, I was working for Shelter, the national housing & homelessness charity, and based in central Birmingham. This involved a lengthy rail commute from my home on the Bristol/South Gloucestershire border and was frequently subject to delays and cancelled trains. On this occasion, I'd rashly not booked the day off for the gig and found myself delayed and stranded miles from home at the point John Grant would have been taking the stage.

 

2) The Forum, Bath, Wednesday 31st October 2018

Fast forward several years, I was a supported housing manager at a charity working with people with substance misuse issues. I was based at one of the supported houses in Bath that day, 15 minutes' walk from the venue - what could go wrong? The sleep-in shift worker called in sick, I couldn't get cover at short notice and ended up doing the shift myself. Whilst John Grant was performing on stage, I was checking in with the residents before a restless night in the office-cum-bedroom.

3) The Forum, Bath, Saturday 16th May 2020

I was thrilled to read in late 2019 that John Grant would be performing a stripped down set as part of the 2020 Bath Festival and duly bought tickets. You all know what happened in early 2020...This was the first time that I was able to get a refund for unused John Grant tickets.

4) The Forum, Bath, Saturday 2nd September 2021

As mentioned yesterday, I'd already bought tickets for Scritti Politti's gig at Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on 2nd September 2021, when it was announced that John Grant would be performing in Bath on the same night. As it turned out, I ended up missing both gigs. Gutted doesn't begin to describe it.

 

For all that, John Grant continues to be the gift that keeps on giving and this year's spectacular album Boy From Michigan has been played constantly at Casa K. It's an incredibly difficult task trying to do justice with a solo career-spanning selection. I've opted for a mix of remixes, alternative and live versions, sprinkled with possibly some of the less-obvious choices from the albums, closing with a beautiful version of my favourite song from his current album. 

Fingers crossed, I will get to see John Grant perform live on stage one day. Given my track record so far, I might have to choose a venue other than Bath Forum...

 

1) It's Easier (Strongroom Session) (2010)

2) Disappointing (Album Version ft. Tracey Thorn) (2015)

3) Your Portfolio (2021)

4) No More Tangles (Live @ The Sage, Gateshead, 28 November 2014) (ft. Royal Northern Sinfonia) (2014)

5) Leopard And Lamb (2010)

6) Glacier (Single Version ft. Sinéad O'Connor) (2013)

7) Pale Green Ghosts (No Ceremony/// Rmx) (2013)

8) Preppy Boy (2018)

9) Rhetorical Figure (2021)

10 GMF (Live @ KEX Hostel, Reykjavík, Iceland, 01 November 2013)

11) Drug (Cover of The Czars) (Live @ BBC Radio 6 Music, Media City, Salford, 03 October 2014) (ft. The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) (2014)

12) TC And Honeybear (Live @ Avast! Recording Co., Seattle, 18 December 2018)

13) The Rusty Bull (Live @ BBC 6 Music, 30 June 2021)

 

2010: Queen Of Denmark: 5

2010: Strongroom Sessions EP: 1

2013: Pale Green Ghosts (limited 2x CD): 7

2013: John Grant Gets Schooled EP: 6

2013: Recorded live for KEXP, Seattle: 10

2014: Live In Concert: 11

2015: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure: 2

2015: John Grant With Royal Northern Sinfonia EP: 4

2018: Love Is Magic: 8

2018: Recorded live for KEXP, Seattle: 12

2021: Boy From Michigan: 3, 9

2021: Recorded live for Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6 Music: 13

Some Of Them Remember But Most Of Them Don't (1:11:05) (KF) (Mega)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble

Listening to 4 Hero's remix of Nuyorican Soul sidestepped me into Photek's remix of 4 Hero and so to today's selection. Rupert Parkes began releasing music under numerous aliases in the early 1990s, Photek emerging in 1994 and being the most enduring of these, still in use today. Part of the hideously named genre, intelligent drum and bass, like his contemporaries Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Goldie, what really appealed to me was the complex rhythms and jazz inflections. As a nod to the latter, a track on Photek's debut album, KJZ, was an acronym for Kirk's Jazz. By the start of the 21st Century, Photek's sound had taken a turn into house and techno, though as this selection highlights, there is an identity and character linking all of Photek's music. I've lost track in the last few years, and I have read that Parkes has subsequently produced music for films, TV and games, his last album release being the soundtrack to EA Games' Need For Speed in 2016.

 

For this selection, I've focused solely on Photek's remixes for other artists. It's great to listen to these in one go, personal favourites being Loose by Therapy?, Destiny by Zero 7, I Miss You by Björk and the one that started this all, Star Chasers by 4 Hero. The remix of Paul Simon was a welcome return in 2018 and one of the few redeeming tracks on the otherwise questionable Graceland: The Remixes album. I hadn't heard Photek's remix of The Faint in 5 years and it struck how well it would sit in a mixtape next to songs from John Grant's latest album, Boy From Michigan, particularly The Rusty Bull or Your Portfolio. And how else to end but with Single by Everything But The Girl? The original version is sublime; Photek's remix provides a similar shiver down the spine. Twenty five years old and still sounding like it could be out right now.

1) The Lonely Night (Photek Remix): Moby ft. Mark Lanegan & Mindy Jones (2013)

2) Destiny (Photek Remix): Zero 7 ft. Sia & Sophie Barker (2001)

3) Alien (Photek Remix): Lamb (1999)

4) Total Job (Remixed By Photek): The Faint (2003)

5) Loose (Photek Remix): Therapy? (1995)

6) Ride (Photek B21 Edit): Lana Del Rey (2012)

7) Lie Down In Darkness (Photek Remix): Moby (2011)

8) All Around The World Or The Myth Of Fingerprints (Photek Remix): Paul Simon (2018)

9) I Miss You (Photek Mix): Björk (1996)

10) Star Chasers (Photek Remix): 4 Hero (1998)

11) Single (Photek Remix): Everything But The Girl (1996)

Been Tryin' Hard Not To Get Into Trouble (57:51)