Derek And Clive (Live)

I remember copies of this being passed around at school where this blast of 70s' filth from Peter Cook and Dudley Moore was greatly appreciated.Probably due to the amount "Fucks" , "Cunts" , "Wanks" and general schoolboy level of humour contained within as two pissed up comedians make up bizarre stories and scenarios off the top of their heads. Many of it still makes me chuckle now, but the stand outs are "This bloke came up to me" ,"Blind" and "Top Rank". Oh and the track "Bo Dudley" was sampled by A Guy Called Gerald for the still awesome "Voodoo Ray". Wiki here. If easily offended stay away from HERE

Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers - 23 Great Recordings

Another tape from the box is this compilation from Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers released in 1990 covering his most commercially successful period on the Berkley label from 1974-1980. Many people probably know Jonathan Richman as the guy who pops up now and again singing to accompany the plot, once up a tree , in "There's Something About Mary".

A Velvet Underground influence is quite evident on the earlier tracks , this was a guy who left home at fifteen to go to New York to meet them and had John Cale produce many of their early demos which were eventually released as the classic album "Modern Lovers" ,from which many tracks make up the the first side of this compilation including "Roadrunner","She Cracked","Pablo Piccasso" and the anti hippy/stoner "I'm Straight" .

By the time Punk and New Wave were exploring and expanding on the territory laid down on these early recordings , Jonathan Richman had moved on to a more mellow sound accompanied with more whimsical lyrics with songs about Abominable Snowmen,Roller-coasters and Ice Cream Men which have a kind of laid back charm to them but unfortunately probably influenced a number of god awful fey indie type dross in the past but lets not hold that against him. Wiki Here. 23 Great Recordings Here .

John Peel Sessions - Radio Daze

Did have some vinyl lined up to record today but found out needle/cartridge is completely knackered . Nearest Hi Fi shop only gets them in on order so they've lost a sale there and ordered myself one online at a cost of £50 (Rega Bias 2 cartridge to go with Rega Planar 3 turntable if your interested ). Shame as I was looking for an excuse for a drive in the snow (it's a national disaster in the UK if all our media are to be believed ) and a visit to a Hi Fi shop which I haven't been to in years. Was sort of getting into Hi Fi a few years back and have had the same set up for the past 10 years which does me just fine and probably many years to come and won't ever feel the need to get some sleek looking and unnatural sounding box from a local washing machine/plasma telly/laptop/ipod docking station megastore . Having said all that I probably listen to most of my music through the computer or ipod now but every now and again its good to experience the warmth with a little crackle and pop of vinyl.

Anyway vinyl off limits so having a bit of a dig through the tape box and first out is a compilation of Peel session tunes given away with Vox magazine in May 92. Not much else to say apart from although this is made up the more popular end of artists featured on his show much like the much missed John Peel show itself you will probably love some of this( for me most of it) and hate the rest (for me Babes In Toyland who were probably flavour of the month at the time).

1 The Cure - 10:15 Saturday Night

2 Madness - The Prince

3 Happy Mondays - Mad Cyril

4 Babes In Toyland - Catatonic

5 Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?

6 Chicken Shack - I'd Rather Go Blind

7 The Undertones - Love Parade

8 Billy Bragg - A13

9 Syd Barrett - Love Parade

10 The Only Ones - The Beast

11 The Fall - Return

12 PJ Harvey - Water

13 The Inspiral Carpets - The Beast Inside

14 The Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trash Can

15 The Damned - Neat Neat Neat

Radio Daze here. Go here for a listen to some great Peel shows (festive 50s and more).

The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

A quickie today featuring The Gun Club's debut. Finding it incredible that this was released in 1981 , the year of Adam & The Ants , The Human League and other horribly dated 80s' acts many still going or reformed and playing Pontins this summer probably . The Specials an honorable exception of course . But this is something else , sounding as though it could have been released anytime in the past 30 years and showing how waaay ahead of their time they were. A perfect mix of blues, punk,garage,rockabilly ,sex ,drugs 'n' voodoo. A few Gun Club albums were reissued and expanded at the end of last year and "Fire Of Love" was frustratingly not amongst them . Try here . Wiki here.

Sun Dial - Other Way Out

Remembered reading glowing reviews in the music mags for this slice of psychedelia upon its release in 1990.Probably mentally put it on a list of "wants" , a lot harder in those days tracking down all that vinyl,Cd's and tapes you just had to have ,involving actually having to go outside and stepping foot in a shop if you couldn't get it on mail order, if you had the loot that is .Stumbled across a link for it earlier last year and finally got round to actually hearing it and realised I had made a BIG mistake in choosing to buy something like a Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine or a Lush album over this .Track names like "Exploding In Your Mind" and "Magic Flight" give a good indication of the sounds contained within . Although the whole album sounds as though it has been steeped in Hoffman's finest ,which is absolutely fine by me , it's still shot through with incredible guitar playing courtesy of Gary Ramon.Veering from a touch of the old fuzzbox to wah wah style wigouts to soothing reverby acoustic and to these ears I'm sure I can detect a bit of trash/garage thrown in too. A real gem this one and regret not making a note of the blog I got it from . Have also found out from Wiki here that they have a new album out later this year also coinciding with the reissue of previous releases , hope they tour as well . Microdots at the ready and Other Way Out here. And then buy the reissues or this or maybe this.