My health and personal
circumstances over the past few months haven’t been conducive to enjoying the
world and all its glory, though I’ve still done my best to keep abreast of
musical developments, by keeping my ears wide open. If I were to say to you that
my two of my favourite albums of this year have been by The Pop Group and the
Gang of Four, you may be entitled to wonder if the year in question is 1979; it
isn’t, it’s 2015 and the most vital, provocative and engaging release thus far
is Citizen Zombie by The Pop Group.
It is without question a clear and logical move on from the band’s work from 35
years ago, still replete with stuttering, brutal funk agitprop and screaming
vocals that tell of the heart of an immense darkness, served in a mix of heavy
bass, scorched vocal chords and pounding rhythm of a band who sound infuriated
and energised.
The mood continues on ‘Mad Truth’
which seems aimed squarely at the dancefloor. ‘S.O.P.H.I.A.’ is built around a bass
line that breaks only for breath and a dose of paranoia from Stewart. With its aggressively spoken words ‘Nations’
recalls the band’s earlier Amnesty Reports, while almost parodying the
‘Trainspotting’ mantra. ‘Age of Miracles’ is a joyous blend of bass and drum
thud, syncopated guitars, sun bleached piano breaks and upbeat, if still
fractious, vocals. Nick Cave observed that The Pop Group made 'violent,
paranoid music for a violent, paranoid time' and we still live in violent,
paranoid times, which is why Citizen
Zombie is as important today as For How
Much Longer Must We Tolerate Mass Murder? was in 1979.
As regular readers know, I adore
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and news that a new album, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, was ready for release in late
March had me in a high state of excitement, especially as it became clear that
the album would be the live piece ‘Behemoth’ that has so captivated audiences
over the last few years, even if they’ve not been anywhere near Newcastle since
2001. The opening track ‘Peasantry or Light Inside of Light’ was initially
streamed as a taster and ranks alongside the band’s best. The guitar line has
serious depth and sweeping portent. It and
the closing "Piss Crowns Are Trebled" are so intense and grandiose
they are not songs but movements, either side of the trademark drones of
‘Lambs’ Breath’ and ‘Asunder Sweet,’ where feedback, strings and found sounds
flesh out empty sonic spaces. Godspeed You! Black Emperor record and play
instrumental pieces that exist to move the listener, using only the force of
their deep, intense and important music. Trust them.
When I ordered the Gang of Four’s
What Happens Next from Rough Trade,
they actually sent me a copy of Entertainment,
which amused me no end. That 1979 release was perhaps the high water mark for
all post punk, agitprop music and it endures to this day, as does 1981’a follow
up, Solid Gold. Subsequent to that
album, original bassist Dave Allen left to be replaced by Sara Lee. Drummer
Hugo Burham bailed soon after 83’s dreadful Hard,
leaving vocalist Jon King and guitarist Andy Gill to keep the project going at
various levels of intensity until 2011, including a reformation of the original
line-up in 2005 that I tragically missed out on seeing. Now King has gone and
Gill has kept the name for this latest album, as well as recruiting a
replacement singer in John Sterry. He has a pleasant enough voice and it
complements Gill’s trademark scabrous guitar jitters that are as compelling now
as in 1979, but the irony is that other than the opener ‘Where The Nightingale
sings,’ it is the brace of tracks sung by Alison Mosshart from The Kills,
‘Broken Talk’ and the magnificent ‘England’s In My Bones’ that really stand out
on this album. It’s good, it’s intense, it’s vital and impassioned, but it’s up
against strong competition from The Pop Group and GY!BE in this year’s early
season highlight releases. Well worth a listen though and I hope they tour.
Somehow I never quite got Belle
and Sebastian, probably because they hit the scene during my itinerant years
99-02 and subsequent half decade of disengagement from music. That said, seeing
them at the Sage on their greatest hits tour in 2010 was a superb show. Not
owning any of their music, I was happy to accept a burned CD of their new album
Girls in Peacetime Want To Dance from
my mate Ginger Dave, especially as the opener ‘Nobody’s Empire’ is a superb,
old school, Glasgow indie guitar song; a truly uplifting, melodic number.
Strangely, other than the Stevie Jackson number ‘Ever Had A Little Faith?’
there is nothing else on this album that could be regarded as hewn from a
similar rock. Instead it is a baffling mixture of cheesy euro disco and sub Eurovision parodies, such as the
mischievously titled ‘Enter Sylvia Plath.’ This album seems to have more in
common with Abba and Brotherhood of Man than BMX Bandits and The Pastels and I
really dislike parts of it, which probably makes up my mind about their May 16th
City Hall show and Glasgow SEC the Friday after, when I hope to be on union
duties.
Other than Swans version of ‘Love
Will Tear Us Apart,’ I’ve never been a fan of Joy Division cover versions. The
absolute nadir has to be Paul Young’s version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart;’ I
even prefer Russ Abbott’s version of ‘Atmosphere’ (yes I know…). I’ve never
ever really been a fan of New Order, but I quite liked ‘Love Vigilantes’ and I
thought the Oyster Band’s cover of that song was great. Consequently, when
Topic Records announced that the March special offer was Oyster Band and June
Tabor’s version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ on 7” a quid, I jumped right in. I
really wish I hadn’t, as it’s a rather dull reading with bellowing vocals that
don’t suit the song at all; a deep female voice can work well, but not in this
instance. Strangely the Oyster Band and June Tabor cover versions album and
tour was greatly lauded and I remember being sad when I missed out on a ticket
at a sold out Sage 2, but hearing this I may have had a lucky escape.
The only gig I’ve been to
recently was Lee “Scratch” Perry at the Riverside (sic). A few words about the
venue first; it isn’t the Riverside as we remember it and it’s a dump. Not only
that, it’s one of the most disorganised places I’ve ever been to. The previous
time there was for The Fall back in November 2011, when good old MES turned up
about 45 minutes after he should have been on stage. Tonight, Lee Perry turned
up on time and played from 9.30 until 10.50, which was great for the 11.00pm
curfew. Sadly, the venue management were totally out of control at the end;
during the encore people were being prevented from either going upstairs, where
the only toilet is, or coming down. Punters were frustrated and in the end, the
bloke who was the apparent manager, who was totally out of control, ended up
assaulting at least 3 people for the “crime” of trying to leave the venue. The
man was crazy and I sincerely hope the place sorts itself out before my next
scheduled visit to see The Wedding Present on November 7th.
As regards the Godfather of Dub;
well, I hope I’m as active as he is at 79 years of age. I'd like scarlet hair like his too.Yes, he’s older and
possibly even madder than my mam. Blessed by a superb backing band who enabled
him to draw on elements from his entire back catalogue, switching effortlessly
from genres of reggae from sweet lovers rock to more stern Rastafarian
didacticism, sounding like a heavy rock
band at one minute and Van Morrison Moondance
era the next, he put in a tremendous show. Anyone who appears on stage with
a wheeled suitcase full of hats deserves your attention. The last encore was a
crowd pleasing cover of “Exodus,” but I enjoyed the selections from The
Upsetters’ Mighty Ape album best of
all. Certainly an enjoyable gig and an important tick for the list of greats we
all should see.
I’ve read a book as well you
know. As a Fairport devotee and a lover of Sandy Denny’s voice, though someone
who knew very little of her life after her departure following ‘Liege and
Lief,’ Fotheringay excepted, I was delighted to accept the new biography I’ve Always Kept A Unicorn by Mick
Houghton as an Easter present from Laura. It’s a detailed, exhaustive account,
but perhaps too distant from the central figure to be truly affectionate.
However, it certainly filled in gaps in my knowledge about her return to
Fairport for Rising For The Moon.
Sandy grew up in a nice house, in a nice street, with nice parents who
supported her choice of career, but despite her sociable nature and obvious
charisma, she was dogged by an insecurity that increased as her celebrity grew,
and, by the mid-Seventies, was fuelled by heavy drinking and cocaine use that
precipitated her death at the age of 31 after a series of falls.
Mick Houghton’s scrupulously
researched biography draws a detailed picture both of Denny’s increasingly
complex mental state and of the London folk scene of the time. If there are
times, in chronicling Denny’s early career, when Houghton gets bogged down in
detail, he nonetheless offers a revealing portrait of a close-knit and mutually
supportive scene. As well as drawing on archive interviews and Denny’s private
and previously unseen notebooks, Houghton has assembled an impressive roll call
of interviewees in a work that is part oral history, part critical reflection,
including interviews with the likes of Ralph McTell, Judy Collins, John Martyn,
Linda Thompson, and Martin Carthy, whose remark “there was a hooligan busting
to get out in Sandy” is particularly apt here. Later it was fame, followed by
marriage and motherhood (in 1977, she gave birth to her only child, Georgia),
that would prove suffocating. Thus, in her final years, the hooligan emerged.
As this authoritative and comprehensive biography underlines, it was Denny’s
combination of addiction, insecurity and self-doubt that caused her tragically
early demise.
On Election Day 2015, I will be
in hospital having an ultrasound scan to determine the precise nature of my
on-going health issues. On Election Day 2010, my dear friend David Peace went
to Easington Colliery in County Durham to interview veterans of the 1984/1985
miners’ strike to see how they felt about the legacy of that glorious, failed
fight. The resulting text acts as a prefatory chapter to a selection of
photographer Keith Pattison’s stunning visual account of the progress of the
strike, combined in volume entitled No
Redemption. It was the only one of David’s works I did not possess, until I
found it in Northumbria University’s bookshop. Flicking through the pages,
reading the memories of those brave men and women who fought so valiantly, I
feel not despair or anger, but pride and hope. These bastards in charge can’t
last forever; do what you need to on May 7th.
So, where next? Well there’s Record
Store Day next week, when I hope to pick up the Trembling Bells 7” and Wire’s eponymous
new release. Live, it’s Andy Irvine at the Irish Centre on April 16th
and Band of Holy Joy at The Cluny on May 8th. I’m sure I’ll write
about these in turn.
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