RUTS DC - HARE & HOUNDS 6/10/2012

 

There is a long list of bands I wish I’d seen but probably at the top of the list were The Ruts. In an all too short career they released one of the finest run of punk singles ever and the epic ‘The Crack’ album and to this day I still wonder how many further great songs they would have been capable of producing. So when the Ruts DC played Rebellion festival in the summer, even though it was the band formed from the surviving members following tragic death of front man Malcolm Owen, it was a must see event. And they didn’t disappoint with their set being highlight of the festival. So when the chance came to see them again so soon we jumped at it. The Hare and Hounds in Kings Heath was the venue in the 250 capacity upstairs room. Even before the support band Cracked Actors came on the room had filled nicely and there was definitely an air of excited expectancy around - we had conversations with a couple of guys who had both seen them around 1979 in Digbeth supporting the Damned. The set was very similar to the Rebellion one. A few new songs (which having now heard them twice sound great) interspersed with older Ruts DC songs and then the Ruts tunes started appearing, Backbiter, It Was Cold, SUS was incorporated into one of the newer songs. Then we were on a roll, Staring at The Rudeboys, Love In Vein, Jah War all sounding amazing although the crowd was a little subdued. So for the finale we took the plunge and stormed the front. West One, Babylon’s Burning and an encore of In A Rut. Well impressed that someone of my years could stay the distance with young Sam and to be honest it could well have been 1979 again! If you were a fan of the Ruts and get the opportunity the Ruts DC are a must see. And as the ending refrain of In A Rut was still ringing in my ears you couldn’t help but wonder what if…..   

West One (Shine On Me)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s8k0GtLZ4o

That's A Two Pipe Question Sherlock

So it was another night out to see John Cooper Clarke. This time the venue was Birmingham Town Hall on a wet autumn night. The venue was up market compared to some of the dives we have seen him in and the performance reflected this with probably one of the most polished I have ever seen Johnny Clarke give. Too many highlights and I can’t remember most of them anyway. Some old classics, Beasley Street, Evidently Chicken Town and a whole host of soon to be classics including one about jail and the sometimes touching I Fell In Love With My Wife. He still looks every bit the rock star and his rock n roll references are always on the mark. His one liners are smart, limericks hilarious (There Once Was a Man With A Beard), the poems are never less than brilliant and when he goes off at a tangent he takes the audience with him into his wonderful offbeat world located somewhere just outside Cosham (There Once Was A Man From Cosham). To be honest he could read out the phone book and could make it entertaining. It was good to see some t-shirts on sale at one of his gigs and the Evidently Chicken Town one Sam got is probably the coolest T-shirt I have ever seen. What the world needs right now is a new album of Johnny Clarke material! Will we get one? That is a two pipe question Sherlock!

Evidently Chicken Town

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVmNn9HRFZo&feature=fvst



THE RUTS - STARING AT THE RUDE BOYS

Staring At The Rude Boys on Top of The Pops


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1LMtQ8t6hQ

WHAT DOES RECORD STORE DAY MEAN TO ME?

Although Record Store Day has been running for a few years, this is the first time I have actively participated.  Sam and I headed to ST Records in Dudley around 10.30 on the Saturday morning.  ST records is a great little record shop that mainly specialises in Metal and Rock so wasn't sure what to expect.  As we entered there was a sign on the door that stated they were open at 8.00 this morning specially for RSD2012.  The shop is quite compact and the RSD releases were in a number of boxes on the counter and there were a couple of people flicking through the boxes and waiting to pay so we had a little wait before we could access.  We finally got our turn and quickly flicked through the boxes to see what delights lay in store as there was already a small queue developing behind us.  Next year I have decided to go a little bit informed with more possible purchases in mind as the few I had targeting had long since sold out - Public Image Ltd - One Drop / The Clash - London Calling 2012 remix / The Fall -  Night Of The Humerons.  Sam quickly spotted a handful that he wanted and opted for Sugar - If I Can't Change Your Mind / The Beat - Mirror In The Bathroom / Marilyn Manson - No Reflection.  All 7" singles on assorted vinyl (I do love his eclectic music taste for someone so young!).  As I was handing over the cash (£18 for 3 singles is a bit excessive but it is only once a year) I heard one of the people serving say that apparently people were queueing outside at 5.00am! So maybe we need to come a bit earlier next year? 

After leaving ST we headed for a shop called That's Entertainment which is based in Merry Hill which is part of a chain offering discounted CDs and DVDs.  I was somewhat surprised to hear they were participating in RSD and sure enough they had the posters in the window confirming this but I wasn't overly surprised when we entered and asked the assistant where their RSD releases were to be told they weren't actually sent any - surely a case for false advertising?  We quickly left.

So what is my take on RSD?  Well first of all it was disappointing to see so many releases offered for sale on eBay so quickly and at vastly inflated prices - I saw several copies of The Beat and Marilyn Manson singles with asking prices approaching £30 a pop.  So it's fairly obvious that there is a not insignificant number of people who make these purchases with nothing else in mind but to sell quickly for a profit - probably most of them were outside ST at 5.00am.  In making these releases limited, a demand that outstrips supply is often created and in a sellers market the price naturally increases.  Can you really blame people for trying to cash in on this, and after all isn't this just what the participating shops are doing anyway, albeit to a  much lesser extent?

But I think this cynical approach perhaps takes away from what RSD really stands for.  It's a celebration of the independent record sector (remember where the word "indie" originated from?) and a chance for the likes of myself to rekindle the genuine excitement of actually visiting a record store, physically buying a piece of plastic and the resultant sonic aural rush when you get home.  And if it also means that someone like Sam can get a taste for vinyl at an early age and help satisfy his desire for listening to the unheard, both old and new.  At that can't be a bad thing. 

So I'll be visiting ST Records a little more frequently from now on - and remember go out and support your local independent record store day - they are for life, not just RSD.

GRINDERMAN - PALACES OF MONTEZUMA

PALACES OF MONTEZUMA

Psychedelic invocations
Of Mata Hari at the station
I give to you
A Java princess of Hindu Birth
A woman of flesh a child of earth
I give to you
The hanging gardens of Babylon
Miles Davis the black unicorn
I give to you
The Palaces of Montezuma
And the Gardens of Akbar's tomb
I give to you
The spider Goddess and the Needle Boy
The slave-dwarves they employ
I give to you
A custard-coloured super-dream
Of Ali McGraw and Steve McQueen
I give to you

C'mon baby, let's get out of the cold
And give me, give me, give me your precious love for me to hold

The epic of Gilgamesh
A pretty little black A-line dress
I give to you
The spinal cord of JFK
Wrapped in Marilyn Monroe's negligee
I give to you
I want nothing in return
Just the softest little breathless word
I ask of you
A word contained in a grain of sand
That can barely walk can't even stand
I ask of you

Oh c'mon baby, let's get out of the cold
And gimme gimme gimme your precious love for me to hold
C'mon baby come out of the cold
And gimme gimme gimme your precious love for me to hold

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30U1-5-k1P4

NEIL YOUNG - ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART

ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART

When you were young
and on your own
How did it feel
to be alone?
I was always thinking
of games that I was playing.
Trying to make
the best of my time.

But only love
can break your heart
Try to be sure
right from the start
Yes only love
can break your heart
What if your world
should fall apart?

I have a friend
I've never seen
He hides his head
inside a dream
Someone should call him
and see if he can come out.
Try to lose
the down that he's found.

But only love
can break your heart
Try to be sure
right from the start
Yes only love
can break your heart
What if your world
should fall apart?

I have a friend
I've never seen
He hides his head
inside a dream
Yes, only love
can break your heart
Yes, only love
can break your heart

ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOl01vKXv6I

DR FEELGOOD - ROXETTE

ROXETTE

I saw you out the other night
I saw somebody hold you tight
Roxette, I wonder who it could be
It was so dark I couldn't see
But I know it wasn't me
When I tell you it ain't right
I know you've got to agree

I followed you into a show
The band was playing rock'n'roll
Roxette, I didn't need to seek you out
The music played so loud
That I could hear you through the crowd
You was telling everyone
About a new guy you'd found

Roxette I gotta go away
And leave you for a couple of days
Roxette, I don't want no more of your tricks
I'm gonna get some concrete mix
And fill your back door up with bricks
And you better be there waiting
When I get my business fixed

DR FEELGOOD - ROXETTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU6AJNgP_mk&feature=related

Sam's Record Store Day 2012 purchases

MIRROR IN THE BATHROON - THE BEAT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_-7fqUMuyg

IF I CAN'T CHANGE YOUR MIND - SUGAR

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLu9Celu898&feature=fvst

NO RELECTION - MARILYN MANSON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuhgWXg4rw4

 

 

IGGY POP - SOME WEIRD SIN

SOME WEIRD SIN

Well, I never got my license to live
They won't give it up
So I stand at the world's edge

I'm trying to break in
Oh, I know it's not for me
And the sight of it all
Makes me sad and ill
That's when I want- Some Weird Sin

Things get too straight
I can't bear it
I feel stuck, stuck on a pin

I'm trying to break in
Oh, I know it's not for me
But the sight of it all
Makes me sad and ill
That's when I want- Some Weird Sin
That's when I want- Some Weird Sin
Just to relax with

Yeah, some dumb, weird sin
For a while anyway
With my head on the ledge
That's what you get out on the edge
Some Weird Sin

Things get too straight
I can't bear it
I feel stuck, stuck on a pin

I'm trying to break in
Oh, I know it's not for me
When the sight of it all
Makes me sad and ill
That's when I want- Some Weird Sin
That's when I want- Some Weird Sin
Just to relax with

That's some dumb weird sin
For a while anyway
With my head out on the ledge
That's what you get out on the edge
Some Weird sin

Some weird sin, Some weird sin, etc

SOME WEIRD SIN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_uF6ObhDks

THE BAND - THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN

It's always a sad day when we lose a musician and we seem to be losing a lot of them at the moment but I shed a tear for the death of Levon Helm, drummer and singer with The Band and here's a song my brother really turned me on to last year and I've been playing ever since.

THE BAND - THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OLD DIXIE DOWN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceRg_rxXQ_E

S*M*A*S*H - (I WANT TO) KILL SOMEBODY

(I WANT TO) KILL SOMEBODY

a statistician studies titian
the hand up his arse is a politician
red-headed women and a disraeli disposition
what lack of vision
i want to kill somebody

hold my hate like a knife to their throats
cut through every muscle
and breake every bone
i want to chop their fucking heads off
and stick them on a stake
that's the extent of my hate

its not that i want them dead
it's just this world would be a better place
if they had never existed
i want to kill somebody

a statistician studies titian
red-headed women and a disraeli dispoistion
what lack of vision
whoever's in power
i'll be the oppisition
i want to kill somebody

so i'm a hyprocrite
cos i don't believe in capital punishment
but here's my paradoxical quip
"the people who prescribe to it are
the people who should subscribe to it"
it's not that i want them dead
its just this world be be a better place
if they never existed
i want to kill somebody

margaret thatcher, jefferey archer,
michael heseltine, john major, virginia bottomeley
especially gill shepherd's got an appauling enemployment record
i want to kill somebody

i want to kill somebody
everbody knows somebody
i want to kill somebody
(don't you?)

i want to kill somebody
i want to kill somebody
i want to kill somebody

S*M*A*S*H - (I WANT TO) KILL SOMEBODY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIshse2x6Cc

JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALEROS - JOHNNY APPLESEED

Great line up announced for the Strummer of Love festival in August.  Check here for full details: http://www.strummeroflove.com/

JOHHNY APPLESEED

Lord, there goes Johnny Appleseed
He might pass by in the hour of need
There's a lot of souls
Ain't drinking from no well locked in a factory

Hey - look there goes
Hey - look there goes
If you're after getting the honey - hey
Then you don't go killing all the bees

Lord, there goes Martin Luther King
Notice how the door closes when the chimes of freedom ring
I hear what you're saying, I hear what he's saying
*Is what was true now no longer so

Hey - I hear what you're saying
Hey - I hear what he's saying
If you're after getting the honey - hey
Then you don't go killing all the bees

What the people are saying
And we know every road - go, go
What the people are saying
There ain't no berries on the trees

Let the summertime sun
Fall on the apple - fall on the apple

Lord, there goes a Buick forty-nine
Black sheep of the angels riding, riding down the line
We think there is a soul, we don't know
That soul is hard to find

Hey - down along the road
Hey - down along the road
If you're after getting the honey
Then you don't go killing all the bees

Hey - it's what the people are saying
It's what the people are saying
Hey - there ain't no berries on the trees
Hey - that's what the people are saying, no berries on the trees
You're checking out the honey, baby
You had to go killin' all the bees

JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALEROS - JOHNNY APPLESEED

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqEOOvoEi_w

CHEAP TRICK - HE'S A WHORE

HE'S A WHORE

Have you seen her face
She's got a face that would stop a clock
And with that face I surely won't stop
To look her in the eyes
But her money's green
She's a tease like a social disease
But she's still so close to my reach
If I call, if I call at all
Any time at all [Repeat x 4]

So the story goes
I think I'll take her for a ride
With this moneybag by my side
A gigolo is the only way to go
And so I show my face
And I can even fake a smile
But I'm laughing inside all the while
This little girl
She's a joke [Repeat x 3]
Any time at all [Repeat x 4]

He's a whore, (I'd do anything for money)
He's a whore, (Look at the things that I write)
He's a whore, (Ooo, the stories I can tell)
He's a whore (In the morning, in the night)
I'm a whore (He'll do anything for money)
I'm a whore (Look at the clothes that he wears)
I'm a whore (He'll do anything for money
I'm a whore

And so the story goes
I think I'll take her for a ride
With this moneybag by my side
A gigolo is the only way to go.

CHEAP TRICK - HE'S A WHORE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6M5mS1AAu4

JOHN COOPER CLARKE - THE DAY MY PAD WENT MAD

THE DAY MY PAD WENT MAD

I'm ankle deep in human waste
the toilet has been clogged
marrowbone jelly all over the place
I don't even have a dog
the man upstairs he grabs my arm
saying don't I know your dad
all I could hear were the fire alarms
the day my pad went MAD

all I could hear were the fire alarms
the day my pad went MAD

The kitchen has been ransacked
ski trails in the hall
a chicken has been dansacked
and thrown against the wall
in walks this dumb waiter
with a fountain pen and pad
saying how do you want this alligator
the day my pad went MAD

saying how do you want this alligator
the day my pad went MAD

The hamster had been slaugtered
the parrot bound and gagged
the guard dog had been sorted out
and absolutely shagged
the goldfish drowned, the cat was found
kicked around and stabbed
the radio did not make a sound
the day my pad went MAD

the radio did not make a sound
the day my pad went MAD

the pop-up toaster refused to pop
the chandelier was smashed
the starter motor would not stop
the tyres had been slashed
there was no way out of there
I was stuck with what I had
out of order, beyond repair
the day my pad went MAD

out of order, beyond repair
the day my pad went MAD

yesterday I had the place rewired
and slung out all of my junk
a tumble dryer and a two bar fire
and a telephone now defunct
I peeped through the venetian blinds
and the rain fell down so sad
on the broken home I left behind
the day my pad went MAD

on the broken home I left behind
the day my pad went MAD

JOHN COOPER CLARKE - THE DAY MY PAD WENT MAD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC0vAsT1mpg

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN - SEX PISTOLS

With the jubilee celebrations just around the corner a storm appears to be brewing and with the slightest sense of déjà vu it concerns the Sex Pistols and their God Save The Queen single. 

Back in 1977 the Sex Pistols were courting controversy left right and center and the release of their now infamous single, timed to coincide with the silver jubilee celebrations, did nothing to discourage the column inches.  The single reached number 2 on the official charts kept off the number 1 slot by Rod Stewart’s ‘I Don’t Want To Talk About It’.  It’s widely thought that the single sold enough copies to be number 1 and this led to accusations that the UK Singles Chart as used by the BBC, who in addition to the Independent Broadcasting Authority denied the single any airplay effectively banning it, had fixed the chart.

There have been suggestions in recent weeks that the single should be re-released to tie in with the diamond jubilee, prompting a call for all the ageing punkers (and no doubt their children, maybe even grandchildren) to get behind this movement and ensure the single gets to number one, thus righting 35 years of injustice.

It now looks as if Universal Records, who now own the rights to the Pistols back catalogue, are going to release God Save The Queen as a single in the last week of May. 

This in itself is causing a mini backlash with shouts of corporate sell out threatening to drown out the cries of No Future.

So what do I think? I think that most of us bow down to corporate pressure most of the time, sometimes because it's the only option, mostly because it's the easy option.  I agree with John Robb on his Louder Than War blog, God Save The Queen is truly one of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs of all time,  ands wouldn't it be wonderful just to stir things up a little bit once again, especially for the likes of Peter Whittle writing in the MailOnline who seems to be getting a little hot under the collar already.  Sorry Peter, just because you didnt like punk doesn't mean it went away.

So at a time when the charts are widely acknowledged as being insignificant I urge everyone to dig deep and spare a few pounds to ensure the jubilee is celebrated with a bang - and it is still a fantastic record.

And I'll tell you what I think - NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS - HERE'S THE SEX PISTOLS!

SEX PISTOLS - GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUH2YSFlVU&feature=related

Check out what John Robb had to say about the Pistols release as well as lots of info on new bands on his Louder Than War blog here:

http://louderthanwar.com/sex-pistols-to-re-release-god-save-the-queen/