End Notes

 Another year comes to an end and with it, my personal lists of favourites. Record music was available all year long, but live stuff only came back to life in August. These lists are of recorded music I purchased this year and live performances I witnessed. The enormous volume of free CDs and downloads from the saintly TQ magazine haven’t been included, as I hope to return to a discussion of them at a later date.

2021 Albums:

1        Mogwai – As the Love Continues

2    Godspeed You! Black Emperor – God’s Pee at State’s End

3= Alex Rex – Paradise

3= Alex Rex – Memory, Speak

3= Wyndow – Wyndow

6   Teenage Fanclub – Endless Arcade

7   Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark

8   The Wedding Present – Locked Down & Stripped Back

1974-2020 Albums:

1    Green Ribbons – Green Ribbons (2020)

2        Mo Tucker – Playin’ Possum (1983)

3        Victor Herrero – Hermana (2018)

4        Mogwai - Zero Zero Zero (2019)

5        10CC – Sheet Music (1974)

Singles etc:

1 Hamilton Bohannon – Disco Stomp (1974)

2 Suicide – Cheree (1977)

3 Teenage Fanclub – Home (2021)

4 Wigan’s Chosen Few – Footsee (1975)

6        Eric Bell Band – Lonely Man (1980)

Live performances:

1.      Alex Rex – The Cumberland (October)

2.      Green Ribbons – The Cumberland (November)

3.      Band of Holy Joy – 3 Tanners Bank (August)

4.      Arab Strap – Boiler Shop (September)

5.      The Burning Hell – The Cumberland (November)

6.      Parastatic – Bobik’s (August)

7.      Emergency Librarian- Cobalt Studios (October)

However, it must be acknowledged that there are a few entries above that haven’t been discussed in previous 2021 cultural blogs which I’ll deal with now.

Books:

There are only two texts to mention here. Firstly, the astonishing anthology of the first five years of Falkirk’s fabulous Razur Cuts fanzine. Entitled Finest Cuts, it contains 300 pages of top quality outsider short fiction and poetry, only partially ruined by the inclusion of my piece Normally, which originally featured in issue #9. Next week’s blog will be an account of my most recent Scotch adventures.

I was pleased to be involved in the crowd-funding of Life’s A Ball, a lavishly laid out photobook by Zak Waters, with text by Ivor Baddiel and Mike Amos, concentrating on dozens of photos of lower league grounds in the early to mid-1990s, with many shots of glorious old Northern League clubs at the Easter groundhops of 1995 and 1996. No words needed; just check out the atmospheric images.

Music:

My mate Sam Whyte lost her dad earlier this year and has been disposing of his record collection in a piecemeal fashion. I’d already snaffled Footsee by Wigan’s Chosen Few when I spotted Hamilton Bohannon’s stellar Disco Stomp on her Discogs page.  One of the most downright dirty ass grooves of the whole decade, Disco Stomp is the go to bass and drum heavy funk workouts that Bootsy, Sly and JB weren’t involved in. There are more pheromones on this track than in a Spanish fly bottling plant. Adorable. I also bought 10CC’s Sheet Music, but sadly apart from the seminal Wall Street Shuffle, it’s a load of smug proto yacht rock.

North Shields Fish Quay has long been the go to destination of choice for discerning Coastal sorts. To expand its reach and appeal, 3 Tanners Bank and The Engine Room came together to host a record fair on Sunday December 5^th.  What a combination; rare vinyl, craft ales and fantastic visiting street food. It was enough to persuade me to las out on a super rare copy of Mo Tucker’s debut solo album, Playin’ Possum.  Recorded years before she became a bizarre mouthpiece for Pizzagate and Q-Anon conspiracy theorists, it isn’t lo-fi in the style of her excellent 1989 Life in Exile after Wartime album; this is no fi. Amateurism turned up to 9, at which point the dial fell off. Mo plays all instruments and clatters brilliantly through cuts by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Lou Reed among others. A tremendous, noisy treat.

 And finally, released in a limited run of 50 cassettes, Memory Speak is a live album by the full Alex Rex band recorded in summer 2019 at Cleeve House in Wiltshire. As Alex’s preoccupation moved from Vermillion to Otterburn, we get a set stuffed full of the finest Dylanophilic, Bobcatian superior folk rock outside of The Basement Tapes. From the opener Every Wall is a Wailing Wall to the closing Pass the Mask, it’s a performance of the highest quality. The absolute highlights are obviously the enduring macabre cynicism of I am Happy and simply unparalleled genius of Night Visiting Song. As ever, the emotion on listening to a new Alex Rex release is utter bafflement that this man is not selling out Wembley Stadium.