Music reviews. Music downloads are here.
Hugh Cornwell | The Alex Harvey Band | The Krak | Summer top 30
Dark Messiah | Rory Mcleod | Pass into the night | Rock and Roll
I Jog and the Tracksuits | Tea Theives' tour diary
Whispers from the offing | Mizarolli Axe Phenomenon | Ducks Deluxe Reform|
Pressgang - Review by Barry
Battlekat - Review by Grae Jae
The Red Krayola in Berlin - Berlin gig in december 2006
Lost Jacobite Tour article by clive - 11/12/06 Photos from this gig on our photos page.
Home and Abroad - an introduction
What Ever Happened To The Hero?
Hugh Cornwell – Weymouth Pavilion 1st April 2008
A frail old man wearing a cheap but well-pressed black suit which looked as if it was a couple of sizes too big for him over a crumpled red shirt, shuffled on stage in front of a ¾ empty Weymouth Pavillion, clutching an acoustic guitar and; with all the confidence and panache of the senior partner of a provincial firm of Chartered Accountants addressing the staff at the Christmas lunch (and trust me, I do know what I’m talking about here!); hesitantly repeated the message that had already been broadcast over the PA only a minute or two earlier, asking us to make sure that we’d turned our mobile phones off and didn’t use any flash photography because it might distract him from his performance.
Really?
It’s hardly as if the material he was going to be playing was going to be particularly technically demanding or remotely unfamiliar – although the softened features and wispy hair were hardly a Dead Ringer for the man who was once the scourge of music journalists everywhere, a man who was once arrested for having helped to incite a riot, who went on stage at Battersea Park in 1978 with a bunch of strippers, and who did time in Pentonville for drug possession while Jake Burns, Phil Daniels, Ian Dury, Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, Steve Hillage, Richard Jobson, Wilko Johnson, Robert Smith, Nicky Tesco, Larry Wallis, Toyah Wilcox, and his own then-girlfriend Hazel O’Connor stood in for him at a high-profile benefit gig.
What An Old Codger!
Alternating Stranglers classics with unfamiliar and seemingly lacklustre numbers from what – I was astonished to calculate - has actually been an 18 year solo career since he quit The Stranglers in 1990 (meaning that he’s now been performing solo longer than he was with the band), Hugh Cornwell was evidently doing his best to keep us entertained – but sadly "Golden Brown" sounded as if it was being performed by a busker of limited ability; "Duchess" sounded as if it was being performed by a busker of limited ability who’d been given the sheet music but had never actually heard the original; and "Hanging Around" sounded as if it was being performed by Vic Reeves in the style of a pub singer. Only "Souls" actually seemed to survive the process reasonably intact.
I resisted the urge to yell out "Get A Grip On Yourself": it wouldn’t have been a song request.
"I really don’t know what to say
It’s gonna happen to us all one day
And when it does you could have me too
But until then I really don’t know what to do…."
The first time I saw The Stranglers was slightly more than 30 years ago, on 30th October 1977, at Reading Top Rank, on their No More Heroes tour, supported by The Dictators – which means I must have been going out with Carol at the time, although evidently her Mum wouldn’t let her go (I wonder who Elsie considered to be more of a threat to her daughter’s wellbeing at that time – me or Hugh Cornwell?)!
I remember that occasion distinctly (not the date, I had to do a bit of Googling to find that!) because it was probably the first time that I went to see a band that "ordinary" people had actually heard of, playing in a place that "ordinary" people might actually frequent.
Of course they weren’t the first band I saw that "ordinary" people would *eventually* hear about (including Adam & The Ants, The Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees and XTC) but that’s another story for another day.
The Stranglers were never exactly my favourite band but I liked them well enough and saw them a few more times after that – I specifically remember seeing them at The Rainbow in ’79 supported by The Skids (an occasion which was made especially memorable by the running battles with the police on the streets of Finsbury Park which followed) and at Reading Festival in ’83 - and I’m sure there were at least a couple of other occasions in between: in fact, now I come to think of it, we actually interviewed them for Grinding Halt some time in 1980.
Carol and I quietly walked out of last night’s performance during the interval – I can’t remember ever having walked out of a gig that I’ve paid money to get in to before – and I’m afraid we weren’t the only ones who did so either.
For me, the only positive thing that has come out of the occasion is an affirmation that at least I haven’t become so mired in misty-eyed nostalgia for "th’ good ol’ days" that I can no longer tell a good performance from a bad one: The Damned are still giving vital and captivating live gigs; Tim "TV" Smith tours the country using just an acoustic guitar - but *he* manages to wield it like a weapon of massed destruction; Knox of The Vibrators and Charlie Harper of the UK Subs both still perform with evident passion and fire in their veins, and they’re both 4 – 5 years older than Hugh; so what ever has happened to him?
Something Better Change.
Stewart Osborne (The Accountant Formerly Known As Eddie Snide)
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band at Islington Academy Dec. 2007.
Photos by Grae J Wall by way of a review but adds:
What a great show. Though not advertised as such, the band decided to play the whole of the Framed album from start to finish. They were obviously enjoying the gig themselves and it was a storming set, with Zal Cleminson in particular delivering an incendiary performance. Every track on Framed is a winner, so it was a a great singalong night, and being the festive season it was a real joy to hear "There's no lights on the Christmas tree mother, they're burning Big Louie tonight" - my favourite Christmas song of all time. After playing the album there were a few popular extras like Faith Healer and Delilah. Also met Hugh McKenna's wife after the show who is in my mate Suz's creative writing course - sweet!
@ The Bullet Bar, London
Lights!...Crank Up!....Action!....Are you ready for your close up Miss Claire?
XFM Factor...Check!
Classic rock (Sound) influences...Check!
Youthful swagger and NME friendly bounce...Check!
You will hear more of The Krak, it’s as inevitable as The Pope wearing a big hat sometime in the near future. For ones so seemingly young they seem impossibly fully formed – ready to appear on “Blast” next week complete with non-witty weak pun intro from the least watchable presenter in music TV history.
The recipe is deceptively simple, a large dose of Razorlight (including 2 shirtless, skinny trousered perm-head blokes), a handful of Long Blondes, a generous application of Zutons and a smattering of Chas and Dave – hey presto – a winter remedy that defies both standing still and straight faces.
They all seem to have a go on vocals which keeps the set fresh, and rock-chick personified Claire looks great bookended by the aforementioned Borrellalikes. Gemma holds the whole thing together with sturdy Ramones style thumping, as that rarest of animals the smiling drummer, and makes Meg White sound like the rabbit on the battery ads (note to White Stripes – Dan Sartain should sue!!).
Each catchy 3 minute gem gives way to an even catchier 3 minute gem eliciting stage invasions and dumb whooping at every turn. There are a clutch of singles in there, the best of which are the Russians-trying-to-play-ska thrills of Madame Riviere and the right-old-knees-up of You Know I Know Best.
The bubbliest teasers to emerge from Shoreditch since our Babs!
Grae J Wal
Summer top 30
An (note, not the) Untidy Summer Top 30, often tragically unhip and restricted to 1 Beach Boys track. Compiled by Barry, Clive, Darrell and Frank the Punk Gardener. Comments are from the respective authors.
Don't forget to leave your comments and suggestions in the forum, but keep it clean.
Augustus Pablo - Natural Way (from East Of The River Nile)
Barracudas I want my Woody Back (yeah yeah)
Bob Marley - Sun Is Shining (1971 version)
Beach Boys I Get Around
Bay City Rollers Summer Love Sensation oo wah be shooby
The Cascades Rythmn Of The Rain from 1963 For a rainy summer.
David Thomas & The Pedestrians - Sound Of The Sand (1981)
Edwin Hawkins Singers Oh Happy Day When I think of the summer of 1969 this is one of the songs I always think about.
First Class Beach Baby (cos summer is for pop music)
Fleetwood Mac Albatross
Gabby Pahinui Aloha Ka Manini sunshine in a vinyl groove
Richard Hawley - Tonight the Streets are Ours
The Hold Steady - Citrus
Isley Brothers Summer Breeze single version
Jerry Keller Here Comes Summer black and silver London American 7" the best type
Rilo Kiley - Portions for Foxes
Linda Lewis Rock A Doodle Doo (from the summer of 73)
Lovin Spoonful Summer in the City
Mike Batt Summertime City (like we were saying, summer is pop)
Mink DeVille - Spanish Stroll (ditto)
Modern Lovers - Roadrunner (summer of 77)
Van Morrison She Gives Me Religon from Beautifull Vision
Ramones - Rockaway Beach (a perfect way to start the day)
Ronnie Lane Harvest Home from One For the Road
(cos summer is about long sultry evenings too)
Ry Cooder School Is Out from Showtime "Aint got time to take my girl out on a date"
The Rubinoos I Think We're Alone Now
U Roy Natty Rebel with the Gladiators singing the Wailers Soul Rebel in the background
The Wailers Sun Is Shining.
Tom Waits Closing Time its a personal thing
Young Rascals Groovin from 1967 this record has a great melody line played on a harmonica.
Dark Messiah
What the band has to say;
We are a fairly new band who formed in October 2006 at our school, we have recently been in the semi finals of battle of the bands and have got through to the finals which we will be performing in later on in the year.
We have had two drummers Grace and Sophie, Sophie is our drummer at the moment. Paul plays the bass and back up vocals, Alex is lead Guitarist and back up vocals, Matty plays rhythm and Zoe plays rhythm and lead vocals.
The band have played 3 gigs together and have been approached to play another. Zoe and Paul have also done a Double Act On average the age for the band is roughly 12
Listen to one of their songs on our downloads page...
Every now and again, as someone once said, God just hands you one and here I am side stage watching Pressgang on their home coming gig ripping up the dance floor and rolling back the years and I’m stood beside 3 Chinese bar staff one of whom rattles into excited enthusiasm to her friends each time a song finishes and, to my right, there’s 2 burly Caribbean door staff one offering a spontaneous skank while the other repeatedly questions my assertion that NO Pressgang are not from Ireland. All the time Damian is singing about the Hard Times of Old England, Old England’s very hard times.
We can’t quite work out when and where we last shared each others company but my Pressgang memories seem to run out toward the bottom of page 3 of the 5 page gallery on their web site (and an almost youthful looking me is right there on page 2.)
So, its been a while, quite probably too long, and its also been a while since The After Dark rung out to Pressgangs raggle taggle brand of rogue folk or whatever you want you want to call it.
Quickly though the years roll away and hardened fans that have made it over from Belgium and Germany for the home coming gig are throwing themselves around with as much abandon as the local contingent.
The dervishes aren’t just in the audience though and the stage is a constant blur of movement and colour even if Damians waistcoat has faded a touch over the years.
Three songs in and a pleasant surprise as there’s some contemporary folk from the mighty pen of none other than our very own Darrell (Home & Abroad) Mitchell’s ‘Stain on Your Heart’ as George lays down an almost Baba O’Reilly vibe on the accordion.
Only drummer Tony Lyons is still “doing it for the East Reading Posse” and he steps forward as the band tackle an accapella song with ease and alacrity.
I’m surprised how many songs I still recognise and know, Donkey, of course, Head, Heart and the Hand and then Flanders takes me back to the Cap & Gown when the band celebrated their association with a then fledgling Cooking Vinyl and the excellent Clive Pig was headlining that night.
A hurdy gurdy?
DI through an FX pedal?
In a night club? That’s right although apparently the assembled body heat has an unfortunate effect on the instrument and it only makes one appearance.
George breaks out what is now known as an Irish Whistle (you just cant call it a penny whistle anymore) and Cliff puts his bass to one side to regale us with dark and foreboding tales before attacking the instrument once more as Pressgang are, once more, a rampaging swirl.
The 90 minutes fly past and we’re soon making plans for ‘next time’, let’s not make it so long we all agree.
Pressgang is touring again and you can find details including summer festivals at http://www.voxpop.demon.co.uk/pghome.htm
More p hotos of the gig at the Gallery
Forget that The Police are reforming, don't even get too excited that ‘The Jam’ are kinda resurfacing because the big summer news is that Ducks Deluxe are to celebrate their 35th anniversary with what for the moment if a one off gig at 100 Club on October 9th 2007.
The band line up for the gig as Sean Tyla, Martin Belmont, Micky Groome and the legend that is Billy Rankin on drums.
Support for the evening will be Willy Finlayson and The Hurters, Willy of course known to us down the pub for lending his sweet vocals to the likes of Bees Make Honey and Meal Ticket.
Tickets are on sale now at a mere £12 and it’s hoped that the event (for an event it truly is) will be recorded for future release in both CD and DVD formats.
There’s even a possibility of more gigs as the band are currently receiving offers and as they say “we’ll give them all due consideration – after all, we just love playing.”
As if this wasn’t enough Sean Tyla and the new Tyla Gang will be launching their own new studio album at the same club the following night, October 10th ensuring a “double dose of ass-kicking rock n roll”.
To get you all in the mood there’s even a new Ducks album release, The John Peel Sessions, on Hux Records, 12 tracks recorded over 3 sessions including 2 versions of the mighty ‘Fireball’.
“We got past Macon
Found we had the brake on
So we took it on off!!”
Rock n roll poetry.
As ever the message is – Play Loud.
Great gosh almighty I’m all a quiver – I’m going Coast to Coast.
Mizarolli Axe Phenomenon
Not obviously Untidy but Mizarolli Axe Phenomenon include ex Home & Abroad drummer Kenny Stone in their current touring line up and besides I know there are a few of you who like to spank the plank from time to time.
John Mizarollis musical background includes time with Ginger Baker, Atomic Rooster, Canned Heat and Jim Capaldi to name a few but he is also known as "Englands leading private guitar tutor" and promotes what he calls Zen Guitar Improvisation through his web site www.mizarolli.net where you can download guitar tutorials, buy DVDs and more.
The 'Nuclear Rock Blues Power' trio that is Mizarolli Axe Phenonon are currently playing their Music of the Spheres on their Hyperspace UK Tour and all the details are to be found at their web site.
You'll also find a whole heap of videos over at YouTube where none other than Pete Brown is praising Johns ability to find strange and unusual time signatures in his playing while keeping 'The Blues' firmly in his sights.
And if the words Jimi and Hendrix are starting to form somewherere in your recesses, well, lets just say, you'd not be the first.
Rory Mcleod
Voted the BEST LIVE ACT in the 2002 BBC RADIO 2 FOLK AWARDS and perhaps even more impressively the TEXAS HARMONICA CHAMPION of 1981 Rory Mcleod releases his new album 'sOngS fOR big LiTtLE pEoPle'on May 7th 2007.
Rory is also lining up a full diary of UK Tour Dates in support of the album release and currently due to run from MAY through to SEPTEMBER 2007
Featuring 21 songs and tunes sOngS fOR big LiTtLE pEoPle, Engineered, Recorded and produced by Rory, will be available at the gigs and also from www.rorymcleod.com
Some of the songs, tunes and monologues on the album are about wind and breath and became the narrative for a dance-theatre piece for kids called 'Huff Puff and Away' by Scottish Dance company 'Tabularasa.'
Rory plays and sings almost all of the parts, including Guitars, slide guitar, Vocal-percussion, Trombone, breath rhythms, breathing, harmonicas, (Bamboo-Harmonica-Kahn or Thai-Sheng) Percussion, spoons, Tap-dancing-shoes, bell, drums, shakers, Banjo, bass, organ, recorder.
Big Untidy and Rory McLeod go back a long way, all the way to Friday nights in the Abrook Arms no less and Rory never lets us down. The news of this release is a rare cause for celebration. Do yourself a favour and get on over to www.rorymcleod.com for Tour updates, road diaries, resource links, photos, and videos and loads more.
Whispers from the offing
Whispers From the Offing the Kevin Coyne tribute album is released and available to buy from Life and Living; the project it will also raise funds for.
With 22 tracks it’s outstandingly good value at £10 but the download version includes an additional 2 tracks from Mekon associates Sally Timms and Jon Langford.
20 of the tracks are lovingly performed versions of Kevin Coyne originals with Jackie Leven contributing his own Here Come the Urban Ravens and Stumble on the Valves offering their take on the white spiritual Lonesome Valley originally included on the Marjory razorblade album and a long time part of Kevin’s live set.
The full track listing is:
Black Cloud Nigel Burch
Talking to No One Big Mehr & Friend
Born Crazy Razz
Sand All Yellow Goldfish
Cycling Dog Latin
Marlene Nikki Sudden
Raindrops on the Window Kevin Hewick
Hello Judas Alternative TV
I only want to see you smile Veronique Acoustique
Blame it on the Night Grae J Wall
My Evils Island Home Jowe Head
Case History No 2 Pascal Regis
House on the Hill Leo O’Kelly
Mad Boy No2 Frank Bangay and almost real
Looking for the River Chris Connelly
Victoria Smiles Heinz Rudolph Kunze
Are we Dreaming? The Otters (ft mark Astronaut)
Strange Pictures Dave Russell
Weirdo Joey Stack
A Loving Hand Clive Product
Lonesome valley Stumble on the Valves
Here Come the Urban Ravens Jackie Leven
Extras
I’m Just a Man Sally Timms
Having a Party Jon Langford
As well as providing a, hopefully, fitting tribute to Kevin Coyne though Whipsers form the Offing will also raise funds for Life and Living, a project which aims to offer an audible outlet for people “who have experienced distress in their lives, are maybe there right now or who might still have that pleasure to come”. Among other projects Life and Living manifests itself each Tuesday at 6.30 PM on London’s excellent Resonance FM, with anew series of programmes coming soon. New York’s East Village Radio, “broadcast from a closet sized space on 1st Avenue Manhattan” also carries the programme and “augments” the project.
Having now made over 130 episodes Life and Living exists “on the peripheries of life” and is produced by a regular team of 25 including a number of psychiatric service users.
Kevin Coyne himself was a one time social therapist at Whittingham Psychiatric Hospital and experienced a nervous breakdown in the early 80s. As. Life and Living founder Mick Hobbs puts it “if you look at painting or music or poetry or any artistic discipline there has always been a history of the most influential works being produced by people who are one sandwich short of a picnic”.
Whispers from the Offing can be purchased online at www.lifandliving.net or by mail from 15 Graham Road
Chiswick
London
W4 5DR
Cheques payable to Life and Living Records
Pass into the night (listen to it here!)
It's about the last time I visited Kevin Coyne in Nuremburg (in 2004). He died on December 2nd of that year - he was suffering from lung fibrosis (a hardening of the lungs which makes breathing difficult). He wasn't able to walk great distances so I spent much time pushing him around in a wheelchair. Despite the obvious sadness - and the fact he needed to be connected to an oxygene cylinder for 16 hours a day - we found ourselves laughing and talking in silly voices (hence the line "we were Pete and Dud and maybe Tony Hancock..."). We walked by the river, stopping off to eat cake at a local cafe, before going into town to do some CD shopping. Later, back at his flat, we sat in his room and he played me some of his favourite tracks (King Oliver, Ramones, Talk Talk, some old doo wop stuff, etc). Pass Into The Night is a personal tribute to an old hero who became a dear friend.
Friday
As the planned 5 o clock rehearsal quickly became the 5 o clock chat and ‘nice cup of tea’ it didn’t seem to matter as neither Liam nor the microphones had returned home from the Estate Agents training DVD recoding session. Eventually Thee persuaded us that with 6 o clock looming we’d maybe better try and rehearse acoustically so at least we’d have some idea of how the songs went.
And so the guitar left its case at which time the microphones came home and within minutes The Tea Thieves were ‘at work’ on their first rehearsal which Thee was duly capturing on video.
Two hours later, fed, watered, costumed and rehearsed we’re on our way to our debut gig.
Clive reminisces about the last time he played the After Dark as support to loveable Scouse pop combo Pele. We squeeze in to a rare parking space and once the car is at least close to the kerb walk the final few hundred metres to the club where Liam has already transgressed the double yellows and is ferrying the PA inside.
There’s a small buzz of expectancy amongst the other bands appearing which we quickly put pay to.
‘Hello’s all round and The Tea Thieves make a suitable selection from the array of international beers available at the bar, settling for Singapore Tiger.
So minimal was the fuss that even Clive didn’t know we’d started our set but here we were, The Tea Thieves, from e-mail to ‘the stage’.
It was the first night of the After Dark Back Bar Sessions and we were honoured to be the first band to play and a generous and very hospitable crowd eased us through Wobble and 18, how would they take to the quieter Her Lips Kiss the Bottle?
As a bar room song it was right at home amid the chatter, laughter and clinking of bottle on glass and if I could have bottled the moment I would have.
For some reason Neil had asked for The Man in the Purple Dress, so of course he got it – or a good chunk of it. Ronnie on the Radio wrapped it up and what a nice audience they really were. The lady in the blue tutu, the one with the extraordinary cleavage, even the man in the cape and him with very think green paint on his face.
We quickly decide it was a nice but frankly daft idea to try and get out to see Damian play at Goring Unplugged (see you in April Damian) as Neil offers me a Red Stripe.
Mighty Man proved he was indeed a Mighty Man and by the time Hello Wembley came to the mike, winklepickers, unfeasibly tight jeans and all, a sardine would have had trouble getting to the bar.
A great launch evening for both The Tea Thieves and the Back Bar Sessions.
Rainy midnight around Readings ring road and Thee decides she would like a ‘proper English’ tuna sandwich. Unfortunately in these days of 24 hour supermarkets that’s all too feasible and minutes later we’re picking our way through the over night shelf stackers at Tesco and wondering whether we could get the instruments from the car and play a gig right here right now. Fortunately Clive gets distracted by a well priced Sun Records CD and Thee by the ridiculously low price of paracetamol in the UK.
Unfazed by the bootlace tie, the time of night or the post gig banter the check out girl is most helpful in explaining the law regarding the purchase of medication outside of a pharmacy and we leave with our very full allowance.
Back home we settle down to a video of Roy Orbisons Black & White Nights and a nice cup of tea.
Saturday
Put the Tea Thieves in charge of a recording session and what do you get? Lots of false starts and a spoken word album that didn’t get recorded, however, by the time we’re late leaving for the gig we’ve got 2 rough mixes and a present for the birthday girl.
Tonight’s gig is an 18th birthday party and not only did we want to write a song for the event but record it double quick, burn it and present the present that night. To Listen here.
All achieved.
The disco is already set up when we arrive, the lights dimmed and the scene set. There’s still time though for a sound check and while there’s a technical lull both Clive and I get mesmerised by the white circles of light spinning around the room. Being of a certain age these circles quickly suggest the same thing to each of us – This is the Voice of the Mysterons. We can’t quite hack the Captain Scarlet theme and working quickly through the options settle on Fireball XL5 and so the theme tune to a 40 year old puppet show finds its way into the set.
Just before we take the centre circle a frisson ripples round the room but its nothing to do with us, there’s a ‘gun scare’ caused, it eventually turns out, by a belt buckle of a pool player dressed to ‘impress’ – maybe not too bright or so the Police pointed out to the fashion victim. The story makes both local pres and radio the following week.
But the show goes on and I figure that by sitting down at the ‘drum kit’ I’m a smaller target than Clive if it does all kick off.
Perhaps surprisingly we build some sort of bridge to the revellers and further endear ourselves to each other.
Thee films away but the lighting is poor and as we pack the expansive Tea Leaves rig back into the boot of the car Liam produces a Black Forest gateau we seem to have acquired for our post gig cup of tea. Obviously this forces Thee to try and teach us the German name for the cake along with the correct pronunciation, a thankless task that falls short of its target.
The invitation to stop off at the After Dark for a swift post gig beer is tempting but there’s not much time left as we breeze through town and the kettle and Schwarz Wald Torte is calling so the Tea Thieves head home, 31 hours after the guitar first came out the case, 2 gigs, a recording session and a lot of fun later.
The Tea Thieves next gigs are planned for Hamburg and Berlin, watch this space. Thanks be to Thee, Liam, Neil and Happy Birthday to Julie
Remember to clean your teeth after cake.
Our man at the tables went out west to check out some cornerstones of the British rock scene and reports back:
Saw The Who and The Stones in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. Definitely thought The Who were better but will admit to being slightly biased.
There, so now you know, and we saved you all that airfare and a negative carbon footprint to boot.
1978, and as snow gripped the country The Tyger Label released their first single, TYG1, Red Box by I-Jog and the Tracksuits.
Produced by Piers Heavy Manners the single featured:
I-Jog vocals and guitar
Bob Morgan keyboards
Barry Tracksuit drums
Dave JO bass.
Formally let loose on the world by way of a launch party held at Dingwalls Dance Hall, Camden Lock, the single gained radio play from John Reel and was championed by record shop and soon to be record label, Small Wonder.
Recorded at the same sessions were 2 other tracks ‘Worrying Man’, which made the B side, and ‘I Like Working’ which later surfaced on a tape compilation.
Red Box made the NME Indie Top 10 and earned a second pressing, legend has it that it did quite well in Portugal and Cherry Red included it on their Labels Unlimited compilation album where it gained a second life.
Tyger had grown meanwhile and I Jog & The Tracksuits and done enough to secure a second release – TYG 6 Bedroom Tune / Optimists Song, this time produced by Bob Morgan, who also played keyboards, and engineered by Brian Snelling later to reside at world famous Foel Studios in Wales. The rest of the line up was:
I Jog vocals and guitar
Barry Tracksuit drums and percussion
No one can remember who played bass guitar
Bedroom Tune didn’t do quite as well as Red Box and by the time of the third single Jah Jah Jah / Tao Tao Tao the band had left Tyger and set up their own label, the single taking the matrix Jog 1.
I Jog had also moved on with Graham Tracksuit handling vocals guitar and bass while Piers was back this time on drums, guitars and keyboards as well as handling production. David Lion took the harangue on Tao Tao Tao.
Reviewed in the NME Jah Jah Jah was acknowledged as “really worth checking out .. although some sickly psychedelic guitar comes close to spoiling it.”
The Tracksuits then mutated into Catcherman and Tracksuit Records became Tracksuit Tapes with Graham and Barry Tracksuit heading up the empire that release album length tapes by the likes of The Attendants and Jason Smart among others. The duo also carried on gigging as The Optimists, including covers of Jim Reeves, Wreckless Eric, Ian Dury and Billy Bragg in their set along side originals; but throughout it all the first single, Red Box, still had a life of its own and in 2006 German lable Crippled included the track on their 7”up! Compilation of “Ultra rare post punk powerpop classics” available both as a CD and a 12 inch vinyl album. It took Crippled a while to track down The Tracksuits cos they said there wasn’t much about the legendary band on the internet – so Big Untidy thought we’d better do something about that.
Home and Abroad - an Introduction
Although born of an area west of Reading and south of Oxford, Home & Abroad found favour at all four points of the compass, not least in Spain where Luis Calvo was looking to form a record lable and invited Home & Abroad to be his first release.
The resultant 3 track single featured Smoky Town, Miserable Life and Christopher and launched Luis' lable, Elefant Records, on a very long and successful road.
Although the single [ER101] went to a re press it is long since deleted although still spoken of kindly by Elefant and Big Untidy is extremely proud to be able to make it available once again as a download.
Sad to say we dont currently have access to Christopher so we've slipped in, as a bonus, the long lost American single Slip Away, originally released through Somersault Records from Moreno Valley CA.
Elefant went on to release a 2nd Home & Abroad single, the lables 15th release, and that's also here for you to enjoy; again 3 tracks, Kennedy, Stumble and Ambition although we've replaced the BBC Session version of Ambition that was on the single with the no holds barred version from the never released album Up Against It.
If theres a good enough response to these "re-issues" there's every chance that the album could see the light of day - we have the masters !!!
A new studio band, Stumble on the Valves, is slowly rising form the Home & Abroad ashes and has their first track, Lonesome Valley, released on the Kevin Coyne tribute album, 3 New Suits.
The band are also writing and rehearsing for a new, debut, mini album, Death Alcohol and Cross Dressing, for release Summer 07.
There’s also a possibility of a short, one off, live set in Spring so keep in touch for details.
Some of our friends' websites
cliveproduct.com
kevincoynepage.tk
9-pmrecords.de
trashville.co.uk
lovelyrecovery.com
kioski.de
leookelly.com
